Tom Everhart

Artist Tom Everhart at his studio with Surfing with Franz and Willem from Waves of Influence

TOM EVERHART

At Everhart Studio
Abbot Kinney Blvd., Venice

“I’ve been here on Abbot Kinney for 18 years, and it’s been like sitting in a time machine, watching everything around you change,” says artist Tom Everhart. “Even in the past few months, it’s been on such a roll. It’s amazing.” 

As the only fine artist authorized to paint Peanuts comic strip characters, Tom is mostly known for his Charles Schulz-influenced paintings, which decorate the walls of his studio located on bustling Abbot Kinney Boulevard. He discusses Schulz, his upcoming exhibit at Mouche Gallery of Beverly Hills and the constant evolution of his Venice Beach neighborhood after taking me on a tour of his home base.

Tom incorporates media like acrylic paint and varnish on canvas and paper, but he also utilizes raw wood, medium-density fiber panels, plastic cups and polyester pom-pom balls to create the visually stunning Chop Chop Chop, Performance Art and Medal of Free Dumb pieces that line the main showroom of his studio space. While he’s widely known for these brightly colored works, it’s his black-and-white Schulz-influenced pieces from the past 13 years – as well as 15 exclusive new works – that are being featured in Raw: Black and White Works From 1998-2016 at Mouche Gallery from Feb. 27 through March 16.

“There are about 50 different reasons why it’s titled Raw,” he explains. “The moment when it’s black and white on that rack being drawn – that’s raw right there. In that raw state there’s a whole other beauty to it than there is with all the color that’s even sometimes more meaningful because the original approach doesn’t get lost.”

Chop Chop Chop hanging in Everhart Studio

Appreciating the black-and-white rawness of a drawing is something Tom has done since his childhood in Washington, D.C. and San Francisco.

“I always had coloring books, but sometimes I didn’t even color in them. I would just carry the black-and-white pages around because I thought they were strong enough without the crayons,” he shares. “That’s how the black-and-white work happens now. I start everything in black and white, and if I think it stands up strong by itself – which is rare, it happens a few times a year – then I keep it. It’s almost the same as with the coloring books where I felt there were certain things that just didn’t need color.”

In his downstairs workroom, where he normally works on small paper drawings and paintings, a beautiful black-and-white painting on raw wood and a massive plastic-cup sculpture that have been retrieved from other locations for the Mouche Gallery show fill the area. Tom instructs me to look at the sculpture from a certain angle to see how it resembles a piano, and I wonder how much time the artist has spent staring at work of his own as well as others over the course of his life.

“When I was a little kid, I spent a lot of time in art museums. I saw so much art, all these different movements, especially in Washington where my grandparents lived,” he recalls. “There was everything from the oldest of American art to the newest of contemporary art in those museums.”

Young Tom eventually studied art and architecture at Yale University, performance independent study under Earl Hofmann at St. Mary’s College and did post-graduate work at Musée de l’Orangerie in Paris. He began exploring artistic anatomy, doing muscle and skeleton paintings, and as he was finishing school in the early 1980s, the art world was taking a turn.

“At that point in time, most of the art world had declared painting dead for many reasons: conceptualism, minimalism, photography, the list goes on and on of why painting couldn’t go forward anymore because everything had been done. The group of people that I was playing, partying and painting with in East Village refused to believe it. We had conversations constantly about what we could do to save it before it was buried and came up with all these painting constructions that were slightly offensive and completely uncomfortable for most people in the art world. We thought that was the only way to get the art world to take painting back as a living thing was to make them uncomfortable with painting because it would make them stop and look at it,” he remembers. “Keith Haring was doing multiple paintings of penises everywhere, and I did some with him in the subways. There were paintings about racism – all sorts of subject matter. I was heading in the direction of doing a whole body of work of skeletons as religious people.” 

Then Tom met Charles M. Schulz.

The main showroom of Everhart Studio

“I was trying to draw his stuff for a project, and I couldn’t get it. I just didn’t understand the language, the cartooning to it. It was so abbreviated compared to the kind of drawings that I was used to doing that I couldn’t get past it – until I put his drawing in a projector, blew it up on a huge wall and saw the lines as paintbrush strokes. I went, ‘Oh my god, this looks just like the abstract paintings in black and white that I studied in school,’” he says. “I was expecting to meet a cartoonist, but because I got to know him as an artist, I got to know him in a completely different way. How does a cartoon strip get published every single day for 50 years and not have something else to it than just cartoon strip with cute characters? There’s got to be something much deeper in it, and that’s what I saw in his work when I was studying it. 

“From that first meeting on, he and I became friends and had lots of discussions over the next 20 years about pictorial problems simplified in black and white. Thats what we talked about for 20 years. As we got to know each other, he started telling me all these things: ‘I use this line to represent this,’ ‘If you draw three lines together they never look the same because each line is seen at a different time,’” Tom continues. “One of Schulz’s quotes hangs in his museum: ‘A cartoonist’s job is doing the same thing every day without repeating themselves.’ It’s got to be the familiar done in an unfamiliar angle for it to be art. To me, that wasn’t like a cartoonist at all. That’s a complete painter’s way of looking at the world. That caught me. It was so raw, and I was completely innocent, visually open and ready to be changed.”

After a couple of years, Tom could draw Schulz’ line just like him – not copying him but drawing an object the way he would draw it – and began creating authentic Schulz-style drawings for magazines such as Time and Good Housekeeping, in art for the White House and the majority of the MetLife campaign. Knowing Tom could draw his line exactly like he would draw it in these marketing pieces allowed Schulz to continue dedicating himself completely to the comic strip.

Simultaneously, Tom’s discussions with Schulz were influencing him so much that his skeleton paintings were becoming a bit boring to him, but after eight years of these talks he wasn’t ready to take the plunge and incorporate these techniques and theories into pieces of his own.

“I knew I could somehow work in his visual subject matter but didn’t know how without just doing Peanuts paintings because neither of us wanted that. It couldn’t be a painterly version of what he did, it had to be something that came from me, with a direction that came from me,” he says.

“In 1988 I got sick and was told I had two years to live. I was able to break through mentally and start working like he influenced me to do on paintings. This was my one chance to do it. I had to get back to the studio and do as much as I could as fast as I could. That’s what happened, and I just kept living.”

Psycho Cyclone

It took death staring him in the face as a cancer patient to give Tom the epiphany he needed to incorporate Schulz’s characters into his own work but never in a literal way. 

“It wasn’t like we ever sat down, and he said, ‘This is how you draw Snoopy.’ We would just be drawing, and he would say, ‘Look at this line. Doesn’t that express a sad feeling to you? Here’s why: It starts thin and then gets very heavy – almost like an opera would.’ He had this encyclopedic range of human emotions in his lines and that caught my eye intensely. It was never his storyline that caught my eye, it was his line,” Tom tells. “A lot of times people mistake my paintings as paintings about Peanuts when – this sounds very odd people have a hard time with it at first – they really have very little to do with the Peanuts comic strip. They have a whole lot to do with the line construction of Charles Schulz the way he breaks down line and express emotion with line. They have nothing to do with character development. I don’t follow any character relationships, I don’t pick the character because they’re the character. They always represent something else. It’s another way of seeing the world in the way he saw it but with using the influence of the visual subject matter that I learned from him.”

He made sure that the work upheld Schulz’s idea of the familiar done in an unfamiliar way, as well as infusing life into each piece as much as possible.

“It’s a line that’s gone from drawing to painting – fused it into one thing,” he describes. “The work is influenced by my relationship and the things that I’ve learned from Charles Schulz from that 20-year period, but what makes it happen, what pushes it to happen is being alive. That came from almost dying and realizing that the world only could be about being alive, and it’s been about that ever since. Every piece is about being alive and not taking it for granted.” 

This principle is certainly felt when viewing Tom’s latest group of paintings, entitled Waves of Influence, which he’s working on in the upstairs area of his studio. As I examine, the black-and-white piece for the Raw exhibition, Surfing with Franz and Willem – as in Franz Kline and Willem de Kooning – Tom explains that not only is the tiny Snoopy in the painting influenced by Schulz but so is the giant wave.

“The wave came from a Peanuts strip published on April 21, 1991 that I think Schulz did from when he was playing golf at Pebble Beach. I cut that wave out in ’91 and said, ‘One day I have to do something with it,’ and this is it,” he says. “The initial visual articulation of the wave came from that strip, but since then I’ve been spending the last two weeks at the Venice Pier just watching the breaks going out for a good hour each day, and of course in Tahiti I’m always watching. It is a combination of the rhythms in Tahiti and the rhythms of the waves here in Venice put together. That’s what I mean by being alive: I’m taking things from life that I’ve experienced, that have made differences in my life and putting them into these waves, so it still feels like it’s something alive.”

After having lived in D.C., San Francisco, Paris, New York, Baltimore and London, Tom and his wife, Jennifer, decided to make Venice their home. The couple also spends part of the year on the island of Taha’a, Tahiti. Tom says he fell in love with Venice Beach at first sight.

“The first time I ever saw Venice was in 1982 when I came with my neighbor and friend, Jean Basquiat, who was getting ready to have a show with Gagosian Gallery. He had a studio on Market Street, between Pacific and Speedway. There were one or two other studios and a hip restaurant [72 Market Street Oyster Bar and Grill]. The area was deadly with heroin addicts and gangs, but we loved that. We were from the East Village in New York and thought this was cool because you could see the violence here. In our neighborhood guys were hiding under and in between cars to hit you over the head, but out here you could see them coming for you,” Tom laughs. “I fell in love with it instantly and always had a part-time place here from that mid-‘80s period until 1997 when we moved here full time. I was just dying to move here for the weather, the not-New-York feeling. There was an art community, but it wasn’t like the one in New York where it was so amped up and on full time. Here you could just hide in your studio. Ed Ruscha had a studio right across the street up until a year or two ago, Sam Francis had a place around the corner. This felt like a sanctuary to me.”

“For every single reason possible to love L.A., I love it. I’ve always liked to be by the water. I love the rhythm out there on the bike path. I ride from here to the Palisades and back – that rhythm of the bike, the wind that goes with you, the blank peaceful water on one side and the thrusting cliffs on the other side when you’re on PCH in between those two forces,” he continues. “Even more than inspiration, it’s a key that opens a door because you’re no longer hung up on the things you get hung up on in daily life. It’s a blank canvas, and you’re in the middle of it. I do most of my effective thinking work out there.”

It’s obvious why Tom has kept Eberhart Studios in the same location for almost 20 years, even through all the ups and downs the area has experienced.

“I watched that bar across the way go from a serious biker bar where you could watch some fights at 2 a.m. to a cool hipster-like bar [The Brig]. There was a guy camped out in the middle of the parking lot, bathing himself as everyone was parking, dressed all nice going to Gjelina – we still have a balance. That’s why when people start yelling about regentrification, I say come over, spend some time at my place and watch,” he laughs. “I love it having all this new stuff grow like this, it makes the street feel alive. How can you ask an artist to be upset about growth and change because that’s what we’re supposed to do, we’re supposed to see things in a different way all the time, continuously growing and changin. That’s what Schulz and I talked about: The work had to keep feeling like it was growing. If it wasn’t growing, it wouldn’t feel alive.”

Raw: Black and White Works From 1998-2016 debuts with a premiere party from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. Feb. 27 at Moche Gallery (340 N. Beverly Drive, Beverly Hills 90210). The exhibit is open to the public from Feb. 28 through March 16. For more information, visit mouchegallery.com and everhartstudio.com. 

Guerin Swing

Guerin Swing at his studio in North Hollywood

GUERIN SWING

At Guerin Design & Development
7527 Ethel Ave. B, North Hollywood

“I’ve been doing art my whole life, since I was a little kid, and street art for 20-plus years. I grew up with people like RISK [Kelly Graval] and Estevan [Oriol]. I did art with Skate, who died when he was hit by a train, and other friends who were more into graffiti while I would take cans of paint and splash them onto walls in an alley like abstract paintings,” says artist Guerin Swing. “For me, I’ve always kind of been in the street art community, but I never really even considered myself a street artist. I just do fun stuff.” 

“I’ve had over 100 employees that are artists work for me over the years, and they would say, ‘You have to see Exit Through the Gift Shop, but I only just recently watched it. The funniest thing of all is I actually know Theirry [Guetta, “Mr. Brainwash”] from when I was 18 in Hollywood. He worked down the street; we used to party together,” he continues. “I’ve done shows with Shepard Fairey, gone over to Retna’s studio – I’m pretty involved in the street art community without realizing it. ”

The L.A. native has worked hard to be at a place where he can create street art pieces for fun while balancing orders for commissioned art pieces and jobs for his incredibly successful interior design business. It’s no wonder that when I arrive at his studio, which is housed in the headquarters for Guerin Design & Development in North Hollywood, Guerin is sipping on an energy drink. Aside from fulfilling design jobs, he is also preparing for an upcoming solo art show at Lab Art, but takes some time to give me a tour of the studio, explain some of his pieces and share some insight into his artistic beginnings.

“When I was in junior high, I wanted to be an animator. My uncle was an animator, doing cool things like the Pillsbury Doughboy, so I was really into claymation and stop motion. I won all kinds of awards at student film festivals and had a great time doing it, so that was the direction I was going,” he recalls. “When you’re young, your career counselor isn’t asking, ‘Would you like to be an artist?’ It just wasn’t put out there. So if I was going to be an artist, I guess my ‘career’ would be graphic artist.”

While Guerin had dropped out of school to pursue his dream of being an Olympic cyclist, he eventually ended up going to commercial art school when he was 17. Shortly after, he got his first job at Screamer Magazine, based on the Sunset Strip, and Guerin moved from his hometown in the San Fernando Valley to Hollywood. When computers became the main tool for graphic designers, Guerin again had to switch gears into something more fulfilling and lucrative.

“My mother, father, brother, grandmother are all in the interior design business. My dad suggested I go into decorative painting, so I did. That eventually put me into the movie business, commercials, music videos and celebrity homes. Then I started doing commissioned paintings for people like Tommy Lee and Slash, and I’ve been doing commissioned pieces for the last 20 years.”

Most design firms have at least one vision board dotting desks in their offices, but Guerin’s is actually an entire wall covered in press clippings and photos of past art pieces he has done for clients such as Halle Berry, Tommy Lee, Britney Spears, Nikki Sixx, Paul Stanley and Slash. His design work can also be seen at L.A. hot spots like Palmilla, Katana, Javier’s Cantina, Estrella, the Roxbury and Red O as well as on various E!, MTV and HGTV shows.

After I stare at this wall for a few minutes, Guerin leads me back to the lobby where one of his gorgeous Ganesh paintings is propped up on the couch.

“Back around 1995 I did these Ganesh pieces for Brent Bolthouse’s Opium Den, which had this whole Eastern vibe. I started doing these Ganeshes around town because it was a fun thing to wheatpaste and stencil them all over, and then everyone loved them, had a great response to them,” he says. “I’ve had Aerosmith hire me to put them on their road boxes, and a friend in the TV/film business had me put them on his equipment boxes, too.”

We move into a hallway where two more Ganesh pieces hang.

“Then I started doing things with tar. These are all tar, silver leaf and gold leaf – no paint’s involved. I live in Malibu and with all the things happening with the environment and the beach, and then tar is also natural element from the earth. You have tar, and you think about the dinosaurs and mammoths. It’s a natural resource that now fuels our entire world,” he explains. “I’ve done these masks in tar and worked with different kinds of tar for 25 years. It all goes back to when movie studios would use tar in nicotine wash on set walls to age them and make them look old.”

Guerin moves on to two pieces that are in his show happening Feb. 24 from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. at Lab Art: a customized makeup chair finished using live metal and upholstered with real Louis Vuitton leather, and a bicycle that he welded and customized with the same Louis Vuitton material.

“The name of the show is Gold Digger since I’ve been working with gold and silver leaf and have been doing this fun Louis Vuitton thing. I use all this couture stuff (Hermès, Chanel, Yves Saint Laurent) and other brands like Aston Martin (who are sponsoring the show) and Coca-Cola,” he tells. “I’m taking ‘Men at Work’ traffic signs, turn turn the man into a woman, affix gold foil to the end of her shovel, and now she’s a gold digger. I did one in Beverly Hills and am going to put one up on PCH in Santa Monica near the California Incline construction.” 

In addition, Guerin is turning a female mannequin into a well-dressed construction worker – complete with a copper Hermès helmet – holding a shovel with its handle wrapped in the Louis Vuitton leather for an installation to be placed in front of a luxury boutique in the city alongside some faux broken-up concrete with gold and fake jewels in the center and a pile of dirt next to it. If she doesn’t get stolen, you’ll be able to see her at the Gold Digger show next week.

Once I walk into Guerin’s studio area, I see more of his paintings that are part of the exhibit before he shows off two huge Snap-on tool chests that he has completely transformed.

“Snap-on is like the Rolls-Royce of tool boxes, so I wrapped one in Louis Vuitton and put an ebony top on it. I did one for Slash and Steven Tyler, and this one will be in the show with another one all wrapped in real python. The handles are chrome femur bones,” he describes.  

A painting of the Little Green Guy that Guerin is using in some of his street art pieces catches my eye, and Guerin shares that he’s testing out a process to patina the copper he has painted onto the canvas of the piece. He also offers some background on the little figure.

“That’s a new one that I’ve been playing with. It reminds me of my childhood. My grandma used to live in Venice, right where the Venice Pier is, and I remember being in fourth grade and finding these Little Green Guy stickers in a surf shop. I thought they were so cool,” he smiles. “They really remind me of West Coast, lowbrow culture.”

At this point in his career, what it all comes down to for Guerin is eliciting some kind of response from those who see his art. Whether it’s inside a chic Hollywood restaurant, on a cement wall in a Downtown alley or hanging in Lab Art during his Gold Digger show, it’s about what the art represents to the viewer. 

“I’ve worked really hard to get where I’m at as an artist. I want to show my art, and if I can sell it, god bless me and the person that buys it. That’s the cherry on top. If I can put my stuff on display, people come to see it and I get a good response, I’m happy.”

Gold Digger/Aston Martin Presents: The Art Show Featuring the Works of Guerin Swing is from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. at Lab Art (217 S. La Brea Ave., Los Angeles). For more information, visit guerindesign.com. 

Crown Jwlz

Crown Jwlz at Hollywood Forever Cemetery

CROWN JWLZ

At Hollywood Forever Cemetery
6000 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood

If you’ve never visited Hollywood Forever, you probably find it a bit strange that singer-songwriter Crown Jwlz calls the cemetery her favorite place in Los Angeles. After spending even a little time at the Hollywood landmark, you might feel exactly the same way.

“This is the perfect place to come and reboot,” says the L.A.-based rock artist. “Hollywood Forever has that dark energy, but it really depends on how you look at death. Death to me is not a finite ending, so I don’t see it as a negative.”

It’s hard to be very negative when you’re surrounded by lush, green grass, tall palm trees, a serene lake and gorgeous monuments to people’s family members and celebrities like Mickey Rooney, Douglas Fairbanks, Rudolph Valentino and even the dog that played Toto in The Wizard of Oz. As we take a seat across from a statue of Johnny Ramone, Jwlz tells me that she grew up loving punk music, especially the Ramones, in her native Dallas, Texas. This transitions into a conversation that touches on her musical upbringing, influences and debut EP, California King, which is set to be released next month.

“I remember being about 6 when I started to notice that I was musical. My friend Amanda and I wrote this cheesy song about being best friends on a little keyboard. It reminds me of that Zack Attack song, ‘Friends Forever,’ from ‘Saved by the Bell’ – on that kind of level,” she laughs. “I would always write stories and was strong in English in school. I had a knack for words, rhyming and rhythm since I danced from when I was 2 – ballet, tap, jazz, modern – until I was 19. Tap was always my favorite because it was so rhythmic.”

Throughout our interview, Jwlz is quick to smile and laugh, even at her own expense. She recalls being a step behind the rest of her class on old recital videos since she was a year younger than everyone else and eventually using that dance background to her advantage as her cheerleading squad competed against other schools.

“I went to an all-girls Catholic private school, so we cheered for the girl volleyball and basketball players. It was athletic, we were serious and it wasn’t a joke,” she remembers, before adding, “We were the punk rock cheerleading squad, thought, getting in trouble for dyeing our hair and getting piercings!”

While her mother was responsible for pushing Jwlz into dance at a young age, her father was the one who provided her early musical education.

“The first concert I ever went to was Bon Jovi after that ‘Shot through the heart’ [‘You Give Love a Bad Name’] phase because of my dad. He took me and my sisters to see ZZ Top and Carlos Santana at the Texas State Fair. We were going on rides, then and he said, ‘OK, girls, we’re going to pause the rides now because you have to see these musicians.’ We were so annoyed with him, but it ended up being amazing. ZZ Top are from Texas. [Their drummer, Frank Beard] went to Irving High and was one of the first people to get kicked out for having long hair,” she proudly informs. “My dad has amazing music taste. He may not be a rock star, but he’s such a rock star. He gave me roots in classic rock, which definitely feeds into what I’m doing now.”

As she began to form her own likes and dislikes, a few artists stood out from the others.

“Thom Yorke from Radiohead, for his songwriting ability and his innate sense of musicality, David Bowie and Freddie Mercury for the same reasons and also their level of theatrics, presentation, showmanship – I connect to all three of them a lot,” she shares. “I also remember Gwen Stefani when I was younger, seeing her in her sports bra and track pants in the ‘Just A Girl’ video and thinking, ‘This is the first girl I’ve seen in a long time – other than  Pat Benatar, Blondie, Joan Jett, Janis Joplin who are amazing examples of strong women in rock – who was not over sexualizing herself. There’s nothing wrong with that, everybody has their own way of presenting their art, but as a rock musician, a tough punk rocker and somewhat of a tomboy at the time (Especially with a very traditional South African mother of four daughters, who made me wear everything pink. It was very much: Be a girl. I’m girly, but I’m a tough girl.). Seeing Gwen rocking out, not giving an F about anything I was like, ‘Whoa, I haven’t seen a girl do this in a while with this level of strength, commanding the stage in front of these men and owning it in such a masculine yet feminine way. I respected it so much.”

While her sisters took piano lessons, Jwlz never did. Yet her desire to play music was evident at an early age.

“We had a grand piano growing up, and when I was 7 or 8, I would sit in front of it at Christmastime and teach myself songs like ‘Silent Night’ and ‘Jingle Bells’ by ear,” she says. “I’ve always had a really spot-on ear, which made it easier once I began studying music theory.” 

After graduating high school, Jwlz studied music and business (“because I have a crazy smart Italian businessman father who always ingrained the importance of balancing both sides in my head, and I love that he gave me that influence”) at the University of North Texas. At that point, she was already planning on making the move to Los Angeles to pursue her musical career.

“Having really big voice and coming from a classical and somewhat of a jazz background, a lot of the vocal coaches and teachers that I had been studying with were pushing for me to go to New York, so I was always planning for that. Then I backup sang in a punk band in high school once at a show and once for a recording they did in their garage, and that kind of changed everything for me. I decided that since wanted to write my own words as opposed to singing somebody else’s words, I was going to L.A.”

After arriving in Los Angeles, she knew it was the right move for her.

“When I got to California, it was like everything makes sense now. It’s so liberal, free, diverse, with so much going on culturally with art. I was lucky when I got out here to meet a lot of visual artists. I went to museums and found out about different visual and street artists, fashion, and those things started to feed into and influence my music. All art feeds other art. Anytime I’m feeling stuck in my own art, I look to other mediums to break any block I have,” she reveals. “The more you practice your creative muscle, the more your juices will flow. People who are having a block should force themselves to write, draw, paint literally anything they see. Work that creative muscle, and eventually something is going to be good. Look at rap artists, they create so much content, cut 20 songs and 17 aren’t even used. The three that are, are amazing.”

Jwlz went on to graduate from the Musicians Institute in Hollywood and eventually assembled a group of support musicians that she dubbed “The Royal Court.”

“I wouldn’t call myself a pianist or guitarist by any means. I can play chords on guitar and piano to write my music and come up with melodies, but I work with musicians who do their jobs very well,” she says. “There may come a time I play rhythm on stage – a little piano or synth here and there – but I work with Nick Annis, my guitarist and music director. He’s incredible and also plays with Scavenger Hunt and Kesha. My drummer Zak St. John (Stevie Wonder, the B52s) is amazing. Gabe Rudner plays keys and synth, Eliot Lorango is on bass, the girls that sing backup are Nikki Wilkins and Lorelei Sinco – they are all incredible.”

Crown Jwlz is backed by the sextet on her upcoming EP, which also has a royally themed name: California King, and was produced by Max Coane (Jack’s Mannequin), Maxwell Moon (Macy Gray) and Erik Belz (will.i.am, Juicy J), mixed by Noah Georgsson (The Strokes, Little Joy) and mastered by Ted Jensen (Muse, Florence + The Machine). The moniker pokes at the idea that only a man can be supreme ruler and is a hint to the powerful and fiery sentiments found within songs like the release’s first single, “Without You” and “Party Past the Sunrise.”

“My last band had this crazy house where we all lived, and ‘Party Past the Sunrise’ was literally written about that house. My friends and I will be out somewhere until 1:30 a.m. then head to one of the multiple after-hours in Los Angeles or a house party in the Hills to watch the sunrise while in a hot tub with a glass of champagne. It’s L.A., so that stuff happens,” she grins. “‘Party Past the Sunrise’ was written about those moments when the sun rises, and you say, ‘Wait, we’re having too much fun. We should go to Venice, spend the day at the beach, have a Bloody Mary and keep going.” 

Jwlz is all about being independent and female empowerment, but she is also about having fun. She loves to travel to the homeland of her paternal side of the family and recently spent a month in the Philippines. 

“My best friend from high school, Nicole, is an intuitive body worker and healer and studies with a teacher in the Philippines that she had met on a trek in Nepal. He had a vision while doing a reading on her, and in the reading, I came up. A year later she visited him again, and he said, ‘This girl is popping up again like a bouncy ball. I have to meet this amazing energy,” she relays. “So I went for six weeks. I meditated did yoga, surfed and ate super healthy every day. Doing all these fun things and working with this spiritual healer, I wrote the majority of the EP there. It was healing, cleansing, inspiring, invigorating – exactly what I needed.”

Sometimes we all need to have our cup refilled, to refresh our creativity. Jwlz feels like living in Los Angeles and going to places like Hollywood Forever definitely refuels her creative fire. The city has definitely become her home.

“I love Los Angeles. It’s a place where you’re allowed to express yourself and take it as far as you want. I’m not trying to talk trash about Texas, but it’s not exactly the pinnacle of individuality. I’m lucky to live in a place that’s diverse, accepting and with so much going on. Whatever you want to discover on any given night – if you want to go to this type of show with this type of artist, a fashion show or even just a movie – it’s amazing what you can do here,” she concludes. “I don’t think people who grew up here understand how incredible it is coming from somewhere that’s completely flat to where you know that you can go to the mountains and the beach in the same day. Los Angeles is a breath of fresh air; it just feels like peace and home.”

California King releases in February. Crown Jwlz performs Jan. 21 at the Viper Room. For more information, visit crownjwlz.com.

Rilan

Rilan on Melrose Avenue

RILAN 

At Flasher Melrose
7609 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles

“Growing up in the South people didn’t throw out names like the Viper Room or the Roxy, so when I came here I wondered, ‘Are they really a thing?’ Then I played them and realized, ‘Wow, look at who has played here before.’ I got it,” admits New Orleans transplant Rilan Roppolo. “I’m obsessed with the new season of ‘American Horror Story,’ and there was a flashback of Lady Gaga’s character in 1984 saying, ‘Let’s put on some makeup and go to the Roxy,’ and I was like, ‘The Roxy!’ People understand what it is, and now that I’ve done it, I can say that I’ve really played my hometown. L.A. is where I launched my career, so it is my hometown.”

To say that the 20-year-old singer-songwriter, dancer and actor is on the rise would be no exaggeration. Rilan has not only played venues like the Sayers Club, Viper Room and Roxy, he just released his debut EP, Chemicals, produced by Dallas Austin who has worked with everyone from Lady Gaga and Pink to Grace Jones and Madonna.

“A co-writer on all of my stuff, Naz Tokio, was Dallas’ writing partner for several years, so she would talk about him, thought we would work well together and he came to two of my shows in 2013. I did a cover of David Bowie’s ‘Starman,’ and Dallas loved it,” Rilan remembers. “Three days later, we went into the studio and did our first song, ‘Abandon My Angels’ (the first track on the EP), and to be honest, it was magical. That sounds cheesy and cliché, but it’s true. Like Michael Jackson and Quincy Jones, who just clicked and ended up developing a sound together. Not that I’m anything like them, forgive me for using that as a reference! [Dallas and I] just made sense. The best part about it was he just completely understood what I wanted. The fact that someone of his caliber and success responded to what I naturally do is encouraging.”

Rilan at Flasher Melrose

Ever since childhood, Rilan has been a natural performer. He began acting and singing in musical theater at age 6. Though his dad played in a garage band in high school, his family isn’t particularly musical. However, it was the music that Rilan’s mom had playing in her walkman that ended up being his biggest influence.

“I grew up with my mom’s walkman as opposed to a CD player or iPod. On it was Madonna, David Bowie – that’s who I listened to. I was a decade or two behind, but I thought it was cool. I would walk around and pretend I could dance. The coffee table was my stage,” he laughs, before explaining how watching performances from the two artists was a catalyst for him deciding to pursue a career in music. “It was a combination of Madonna and David Bowie, seeing people who were so unapologetically themselves on stage where they could be free and exploit everything that was taboo: Bowie with his androgyny and Madonna with ‘I have sex all the time.’ They were people who took a risk, and it paid off; that really resonated with me.” 

The city of New Orleans also had an impact on Rilan’s musical development.

“New Orleans is a metropolitan city, so we got big acts all the time; I saw Lady Gaga twice. House of Blues had their smaller Foundation Room where they brought a lot of indie artists, so that’s where I would go a lot. I saw Lights there, and I loved her,” he gushes. “If you walk around the French Quarter or Downtown, there are people tap dancing and playing music all the time. It’s totally different than what I do – jazz, blues and a fusion of African-influenced music – but it was really cool to be surrounded by different styles. Being surrounded by people’s different inspirations is inspiring. That creative energy is a positive atmosphere that makes everything better.”

Rilan shows off all the different sides of himself as an artist in a five-part video series to promote Chemicals entitled "iAm." Every video represents a different word that begins with each letter of his name: Rebel, Idealist, Lover, Alchemist, Necromancer. 

You can tell from the clips that fashion is a big part of Rilan’s persona, so we meet each other on Melrose Avenue to do some shopping at one of his favorite clothing stores, Flasher.

“I’m now friends with the owner of Flasher because I think I pay their rent with all of the stuff that I buy,” he jokes. 

Scott, the shop’s Creative Director and Manager, greets us warmly at the door and immediately has several items to show Rilan. Flasher is full of cutting-edge streetwear and outfits that are perfect for a red-carpet event or concert performance from designers like L.A.-based David Giampiccolo, a contestant on the latest season of “Project Runway.” Rilan tries on one of Giampiccolo’s pieces, a long quilted puffy coat in white.

“I went to a private prep school from Pre-K all the way to 12th grade. In elementary school we had a uniform, in middle school we could wear what we wanted but under certain guidelines that seemed to suit the preppy kids’ style so much it made me rebel. I discovered Hot Topic and was a total emo kid. I would straighten my hair, wear eyeliner,” he recalls. “I didn’t understand why everyone wanted to fit in a mold and look like everybody else, that’s so boring. I found ways to make that collared school shirt interesting! It was not easy, but it developed into the crazy stuff I like now.”

Some of the clothes at Flasher are indeed outlandish, but promote the idea of fashion as wearable art. There are also several bold art pieces that adorn the boutique’s walls, which makes the shop fit right in with the overall vibe of Melrose Avenue.

“I live about five minutes away, and Melrose is where I hang out. It has all these little boutiques that you don’t find everywhere. Each store has its own personality,” Rilan tells. “Melrose looks like what the ‘80s would have been to me with album posters at the corner all overlaid on top of each other. I feel like I’m where I always wanted to be, surrounded by creativity.”

Rilan has always been in touch with his own creative side.

“I took piano lessons when I was 8, but I hated it and only lasted two years. When I was 13 I played around on a keyboard we had at home and ended up loving it. I taught myself chords, scales and attempted to write. I was 15 when I went into the studio for the first time and recorded some terrible songs,” he laughs. “I sounded like I was singing musical theater because that’s all I knew how to sing. It was definitely a process, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. I tried to look at who I admired and emulate without copying. That’s where I developed this whole ‘80s synth-pop dark sound.”

Around the time that he found his way back to piano and writing songs, Rilan discovered what would be his other great passion in life.

“As I progressed into community theater from school theater, I was surrounded by classically trained dancers. One of my friends was in musical theater dance class and asked me to come because they needed more boys. I went and thought it was amazing. I started with jazz and broadway, then tap, ballet, contemporary and hip hop,” he says. “I found dance later than most, but it became the most important part of my life. You don’t have to speak a language to understand what someone is trying to say, dance is so universal.”

Eventually, Rilan attended a convention where choreographers from the commercial music industry taught workshops, and he discovered that he could take his theatrical background and apply it to a career in commercial pop music. He enrolled in a songwriting program at Belmont University in Nashville, Tenn., but after half a semester he decided to take up an offer from a dance agency and make the move to Los Angeles.

His musical theater training was definitely key in nabbing a role as a Dalton Academy Warbler in the final season of “Glee.”

“‘Glee’ was a funny thing because that was the fourth time I auditioned for the job. While I was in high school, I had a theatrical agent and tried out for roles three times, but it never happened. Then I ended up going to audition as a dancer, but my agency sent me on the wrong audition. Instead of the dance call, they sent me on the acting audition. I showed up ready to dance and move, and everyone else was in suits with their hair all slicked back. I thought,’This is the worst audition yet! It’s not going to happen,’ but I ended up booking it. It was cool to do something so all-encompassing of what I do. Plus everything Ryan Murphy does – that whole world of ‘Nip/Tuck,’ ‘American Horror Story,’ ‘Glee’ – is all uber-stylized, and I find it inspiring because it fits a niche in pop culture. You see an image and know that’s ‘Scream Queens’ or that’s ‘American Horror Story’ because it’s so specific with the styling and the themes. I would love to do anything that involves music and dance in something like ‘American Horror Story’ with a dark aesthetic. Mixing media is how you impact culture, say what you need to say in a way that people actually listen because it’s in a creative outlet.”

Before we part ways, Rilan tells me about his recent trip to do three shows in London and falling in love with the city, specifically Camden Town. Punk rock and alternative culture thrive in the neighborhood where the Sex Pistols and Vivienne Westwood once haunted the streets.

“There are people there who are still completely goth, mohawks, guys with eyeliner and very specific, stylized stores – a Lolita store, a new rock store with new rock boots. It’s almost like Melrose,” he concludes. “Home is always home. When you go back, it’s the familiarity that makes you feel comfortable. When I go back to New Orleans it feels familiar, but Los Angeles is definitely home because of the memories I’ve made. There are certain scenes that people fall into, but I haven’t found one that I fit into. I think that’s why like it better, I can just do me.”

Rilan’s Chemicals EP is currently available. For more information, visit iamrilan.com.

Halo Circus

Halo Circus' Brian Stead, Veronica Bellino, Allison Iraheta and Matthew Hager at Chado Tea Room in Pasadena

HALO CIRCUS 

At Chado Tea Room 79 N. Raymond Ave., Pasadena (626) 431-2832

One of the most interesting aspects of interviewing music groups is finding out how the experiences of each member’s past informs the band’s sound and development as a cohesive unit. Every band has a unique origin story, and the Los Angeles foursome of Halo Circus is no exception.

“Allison has her background, and I have mine. Veronica has played with everyone from Jeff Beck to DMC of Run-DMC. Brian is a really good guitarist; it’s very difficult to find musicians of his caliber. What makes this band unique is that there’s a certain level of professionalism. Other rock bands have a much looser vibe; our vibe is that this band is extremely important to each of us,” begins bassist and producer Matthew Hager. “Starting this project, we knew the impossible odds of doing music professionally. There’s no big misunderstandings. If people like what we do, we’re here to do it.”

“We love what we do, and we do what we love. It just works,” adds guitarist Brian Stead.

The other half of Halo Circus – vocalist Allison Iraheta and drummer Veronica Bellino – are also on hand at one of Allison and Matthew’s favorite spots, Chado Tea Room in Pasadena, to talk about their  debut album, which is set to be unveiled next year, and their Dec. 14 show at the Troubadour that they’ve dubbed “Say It Loud! A Night of Cultural Disruption.”

“This is the first time we’re putting an entire event together; it’s been the hardest, scariest experience. It’s been a gift, but no joke, it’s hard because we don’t want it to be another ‘industry night.’ That’s why we’re having KC Porter and Project N-Fidelikah on the bill,” shares Allison. “We want it to be weird and have a multicultural angle, too. You won’t find that in Hollywood: a night with different sounds, colors and cultural backgrounds united by one thing, music.”

The night of multicultural music includes Halo Circus, Grammy-winning producer/songwriter Porter and his Cruzanderos, Heliotrope (featuring members of Ozomatli and WAR), David Garza and Project N-Fidelikah with Angelo Moore of Fishbone, George Lynch, Chris Moore and Pancho Tomaselli. The night before our interview, Matthew and Allison visited a Project N-Fidelikah videoshoot in North Hollywood.

“Angelo was on fire, taking over the whole club,” says Allison. “It’s fun to see someone like him, who has been doing this for a long time and has been in front of millions of people, go to a place like Skinny’s and have the enthusiasm of someone who was playing for the first time.” 

“You’re not going to get a bigger Fishbone fan than me. I’ve worked with a lot of singers in my career, and there’s an energetic similarity with all of the ones that have made a profound impact, like Angelo,” Matthew remarks. “[With Project N-Fidelikah,] they’ve created this anti-supergroup that’s punk, funk and consciousness-centric. They’re a bunch of people who have worked for a very long time, taking a look at the current landscape of the music industry similar to what we did and saying, ‘Let’s see if we can start something a little different, shake it up a bit. That’s what’s so appealing about them.” 

Before we delve into Halo Circus’ history, our waiter arrives to help us navigate the enormous menu of teas to be had at Chado.

“They have pretty nice-sized teapots, so we can get a few and try different flavors,” informs Allison. “I like this place because you won’t find this in South Central!” 

“You just had some dusty Lipton tea bags growing up in South Central,” jokes Matthew.

“This is so different for me, and I’m obsessed with this place because I like tea,” she adds.

Matthew is also a fan of tea and opts for Chado’s best-selling Mauritius Black Tea from Africa and their signature Chicken Salad. Brian tries the Gyokuro Supreme Japanese green tea and a Souchong Chicken Sandwich. Allison loves brown rice tea, so she gets the Organic Japanese Genmaicha with Matcha powder and her favorite Smoked Salmon Salad, which Veronica also orders. For tea, Veronica and I both want to taste the Coconut Chai.

A whole wall of the room is covered with tins of different tea varietals and adorable teapots for sale. The atmosphere is quite cozy, especially decorated for the holidays.

After ordering, Matthew sums up the concept for Say It Loud.

“What we wanted to do with Say It Loud was to create a night that was forward-thinking, gave artists an opportunity to do what they would do if no one was watching,” he says, “to just blow it out like we’re all 15 years old, playing at a house party with all of our friends – where art was the intention, not commerce.”

The Troubadour was the site of Halo Circus’ first show three years ago, so Say It Loud! is a homecoming of sorts for the band. To commemorate the experience, they’re releasing special “Countdown to Troubadour” videos on their YouTube channel. The first video is Allison singing “Mi Ranchito” on Olvera Street with Brian masked as Donald Trump.

Ranchera songs were a staple in Allison’s home growing up in South Central Los Angeles, yet they are just a tiny sliver in the plethora of music that surrounded her.

“I had Rancheras around me because of my parents and grandma. Growing up with an older sister and brother, as they went through their high school and college years I was going through that with them musically. I would be the little girl in the backseat with all my sister’s friends listening to Biggie. My brother picked up guitar in high school, and when I saw him do that I wanted to, too. He would teach me how to play, listening to Sublime and Metallica. It’s rare to be in a family like that growing up in a place like South Central because my neighbors were listening to banda, that’s it,” she says. “It was very rare for me to have those kind of musical differences. They all became a part of me. I never became one thing growing up, I was many things.” 

Although Allison fondly remembers attending her first concert, a Super Estrella radio festival at the Hollywood Bowl with Julieta Venegas and other Spanish pop/rock groups, she didn’t go to many shows at all. Ever since she was a little girl, Allison literally sang for her supper, performing at a furniture store each week before joining a wedding band at age 10.

“Because I sang, my mom loved taking me to modeling, acting, theater, dance, piano and flamenco lessons. Those were my outlets,” she confesses. “I wasn’t allowed to go outside and play with friends or go to a friend’s house. I couldn’t even sleep over at my cousin’s house. My adventures were when the wedding band did weird gigs.”

When she was 15, Allison moved to Mexico for three months to compete in Telemundo’s “Quinceanera: Mama Quiero Ser Artista” singing competition series, which she went on to win. The following year, she burst onto the world’s radar as a contestant on the eighth season of “American Idol,” eventually coming in fourth place. This led to the release of her debut album, Just Like You, in 2009.

Meanwhile, her future husband and collaborator, Matthew, grew up in Texas – in a house where “Miles Davis was just as important as Fishbone, Billy Joel and Billie Holiday.” He played the piano and violin, which later enabled him to pick up guitar and bass without lessons, and after graduating from Berklee College of Music had to make the choice of where to move next.

“It was a choice between New York and L.A., and at the time there was a very different sound and scene to each one. New York was a lot more aggressive, L.A. was more laid back. I like really aggressive music but I like really nice weather, so I decided to come out here and do really aggressive music,” he declares with a smile. 

His classical education and interest in diverse musical styles proved to be key in his successful career as a songwriter and music producer for the likes of Duran Duran, Scott Weiland, Simply Red, Mandy Moore and Mindi Abair.

When Brian decided to move from his native Michigan to pursue music, he also chose between two cities: Chicago and Los Angeles.

“I’m from Michigan, a little town called Haslett, and had never even been west of Chicago,” he admits. “Driving out here was the greatest experience of my life.”

As a child, Brian remembers his dad playing a lot of Tom Petty and Neil Young, while his mom was really into the Police. In middle school, he started teaching himself guitar to Metallica and Nirvana songs.

“It engulfed me and was all I did,” he says. “When Sugar Ray had that huge song ‘Fly,’ I had their album, Floored. There are actually some really heavy songs on it, and I remember having my headphones on, listening to the guitar and saying, ‘Yeah, I could do that.’ I went to school the next day and told my friends that we should start a band. Everyone laughed because none of us played instruments, but my next door neighbor, Jim, bought a drum set and I bought an electric guitar, and we just went for it.”

Veronica – whose earliest musical memory is singing along to every track on the Meet the Beatles! album with her parents when she was 4 or 5 – also remembers going through a distinct period when she realized she wanted to become a professional musician.

“I learned guitar and drums around age 11. I used to go to Ozzfest, to see Nine Inch Nails and to a lot of local hardcore shows in Long Island where I grew up. At around 13, I would watch those local bands and wish I could play in one,” she recalls. “I was always a little shy because it was a very new thing to have a female playing drums. I always wondered if people would judge me or really analyze me more. My first real band played a show when I was 16, and I actually had my drum set turned to the side so I was looking at the wall and not the crowd. I was so nervous.”

“To go from that to Jeff Beck, I mean, nobody deserves to have her own band more than Veronica,” Matthew gushes.

“Yeah, that was pretty fun, too,” she replies about playing with Jeff Beck.

Five years ago Veronica moved to Los Angeles and eventually joined Halo Circus.

Our pots of tea arrive, adorned with precious stoppers that are porcelain kittens. I nibble on a fresh-from-the oven blueberry scone and sip the aromatic Coconut Chai, as Matthew and Allison describe their initial meeting and formation of the band in 2013. 

“I had just come off of a period when I was pretty disillusioned with music. I had done everything I wanted to do in jazz, rock, pop, and the music business was falling apart so I was debating doing something else with my life. Then Allison walked into my studio. She started singing, and within two notes I knew,” he begins. “As a musician, the amount of time and energy it takes to start something new is crazy. So when I first heard her sing, it was a combination of oh my god and uh oh.” 

“I was going through the same thing, except I hadn’t done everything I wanted to do. I didn’t know it was possible to do what I wanted to do because 1) I didn’t know what the hell I wanted to do and 2) everything I had gone through before was so technical, and I’m not a very technical person, so it just didn’t work. I was pretty pessimistic about music; there were times when I didn’t want to sing anymore,” reveals Allison. “David Immerman, the guitarist on my Just Like You Tour had written a song with Matthew, and I came in to do a vocal demo. There was freedom, love for music and a foundation I felt. I had never been giving a starting point before. To start from scratch was a challenge to do what felt right to me. It was great.”

“I didn’t watch ‘Idol’ but had heard her name, knew of her album and that she was the ’red-haired rocker chick.’ When I first heard her sing, I was confused because I didn’t hear that. I heard ranchera, soul, Etta James like a motherfucker. It was so loud and pronounced, like smoke or spirits coming from the ground,” Matthew exclaims. “After we talked for five minutes, it was apparent that she was intelligent, thoughtful and knew a lot about music. It was really about either evolving into her second record or starting a band, letting her artistry dictate where she wanted to go and just follow it. Her musical interests were so broad that it needed to be a band, a bunch of musicians with different input and perspectives – a big pot of gumbo.”

Taking Allison’s cultural identity – as well as Matthew, Veronica and Brian’s diverse musical backgrounds – into account, Halo Circus evolved into the bilingual alternative rock band it is today. They are set to release their debut album that was mixed by Craig Bauer (Kanye West, Ed Sheeran, Smashing Pumpkins) in 2016, and Matthew wonders why anyone who has heard of the concept behind it would not want to give it a listen.

“The album lyrically is a concept album from Allison’s perspective,” he says. “The more you get to know her past  – that she grew up in South Central with parents from El Salvador (one legal and one not), made a living as a singer in second/third grade, lived in Mexico for three months and won a television show, did really good on another talent contest show and went on to have a solo album that sold 35,000 units in the first week – how could you not want to hear her perspective, the dichotomy of her existence? 

The band just released a music video for one track from the album, a cover of Duran Duran’s “Do You Believe in Shame?” A stuffed bunny and its menacing alter ego appear frequently in the clip. A bunny is also the Halo Circus logo, so I ask them, What’s so special about bunnies?”

“The explanation will make me sound like I do a lot of drugs, but I don’t – anymore,” Allison jokes. “Early on when we started writing, I started seeing bunnies everywhere. Real ones, fake ones – I noticed them everywhere: when I was driving in the ‘hood to my parents’ house, on pictures in bathrooms. So I looked up what a bunny represents online, and it had a lot in common with our writing, what I was feeling and how I was viewing the world. Bunnies are these cute little creatures, yet they are prey to be eaten. They have these tails which are targets for hawks to see, and that’s who we are. The prettier, the more out there we are, the more we are a target.” 

“You can’t help but smile when you see a bunny’s tail. The fact is, that tail was designed in order for giant hawks to see them; the cutest part of the animal is the part that ultimately poses the most danger. The duality of that seemed like a no-brainer,” adds Matthew.

“It all ties in with the name Halo Circus,” agrees Brian, “the yin and yang, the beauty and the chaos.”

Allison concludes, “That’s exactly it.”

Halo Circus perform Dec. 14 at the Troubadour. For more information, visit facebook.com/HaloCircus.

Flights Over Phoenix

Mark McKee, Keith Longo and Chris Santillo of Flights Over Phoenix at Basin 141 in Montrose

FLIGHTS OVER PHOENIX 

At Basin 141
2265 Honolulu Ave., Montrose (818) 236-4810

I hadn’t met a music group who initially came together through Craigslist and possessed the talent, natural chemistry and genuine affinity for one another to actually form a lasting partnership. That changed after meeting Los Angeles-based trio Flights Over Phoenix.

“I was in a different band when I met Keith [Longo, singer-songwriter] via Craigslist. We jammed, and the music he was doing fit what I like and what I wanted to do better, so I quit the other band and went full force with him,” shares guitarist Chris Santillo. “Everything just felt right, and that was two years ago.” 

“I moved here in 2013 as a freelance musician/producer and spent the first year working with lots of different artists. Keith and I first connected via Craigslist then played phone tag for a long time. Three or four months had gone by, his music had stuck in my head and I wondered if he was still looking for another band member, so I hit him up,” recalls keyboardist Mark McKee. “Their keyboard player had just quit, so that’s how it all started.”

“I remember thinking about my favorite bands, how they all started as high school friends. They had this relationship already, grew as musicians together, and I felt that translated to their sound. I always wanted that but when I moved out here I was 26, so it was pretty late for that to happen. But it’s funny because when Chris started to come over to jam, we became pretty quick friends. Then when we finally started jamming with Mark, it all happened so organically. We would jam and write, and I don’t think we even said, ‘OK, we’re a band. So maybe technically we’re not even a band yet,” laughs Keith, who moved to Los Angeles from Boston on a whim three years ago.

“Maybe this interview is the official document. Are you a notary public?” Mark asks me, and I realize I’m in for a fun evening.

We’re gathered at one of Chris’ neighborhood haunts, Basin 141, a busy gastropub along Montrose’s quaint main street, Honolulu Avenue, offering standard bar fare but with a modern edge. There’s Fish & Chips, Fried Chicken & Waffles and Steak Frites but also Braised Short Rib Tacos, Truffle Mac N’ Cheese and a Pan-Seared Shrimp Wrap on the menu. Brews from Craftsman, Angel City, Smog City and Modern Times are on tap, and specialty cocktails range from the Olvera (Grey Goose Pear, cranberry, lime and simple syrup) and the East Los (209 Gin, cucumber, mint, lime, simple syrup and soda) to twists on a mint julep and margarita.

I order a Strawberry Fields (Nolet’s Dry Gin, house-made strawberry cordial, lemon and sparkling wine), while Keith gets an Old Fashioned, and it’s vodka-sodas for Mark and Chris.

“I usually get a vodka-soda or whiskey neat. I live within walking distance, so this is my go-to place,” says Chris, an L.A. native who grew up in the area. “I’m lame because I don’t like driving anywhere else because of traffic and having to find parking, so I just walk here. In The Wedding Singer there are some bar scenes, and Avignone’s, which is down the street, is where they filmed them. It’s a dive bar, and I probably go there more than I should.”

He is happy to add that he is moving to Keith’s area, Eagle Rock, soon. Mark, who lives in the Valley, admits to being an avid craft beer lover and frequent patron of Golden Road.

“I live in the Valley, but I’m out this way a lot,” he says. “I love Golden Road – where I’m from, North Carolina, beer culture is so healthy there. Before I moved here, there would be a new brewery opening up every month. We’d go and try all the new beers.”

We sip our drinks as the three members of Flights Over Phoenix talk about their unique backgrounds and eventually coming together to create their debut EP, Runaway California.

“None of my family or friends are musical or really into music, I was the only one, so I never went to shows,” replies Chris when I ask if he went to many concerts growing up. “I don’t really go to shows that much now, either. We played the Whisky a while ago, and it was the first time I’d ever been there.”

“I probably know Hollywood better than he does,” adds Keith.

“Guitar is my first and one and only instrument. In sixth grade every guy was taking guitar lessons, so I wanted to, too, but I stopped two years later. When I graduated high school, I wanted to be a firefighter. I was a Fire Explorer for two years, and before that I was a Sheriff’s Explorer. I went to the academy, visited jail and realized how much that would not be fun at all. I didn’t go to four-year college and party, but I somehow wanted to still have fun,” Chris says with a grin. “I ended up getting back into guitar. It was fun again, and I just wanted to try and fulfill my dreams. I thought I would be doing myself a disservice if I didn’t try and do something I was really passionate about.”

Everyone laughs as Keith deadpans, “You picked the stable job of being a guitar player.”

“I wanted to be a piano tuner,” interjects Mark.

“That’s thrilling,” replies Keith sarcastically.

“I know, that’s why it only lasted a month,” laughs Mark, before adding, “Both of my parents are music teachers, and my brother is a drummer in a band so we grew up playing music together. I took violin for eight years, but I always played piano. I kind of dropped off for a while, played guitar for a lot of years, moved back to keyboards then did both. I sang a little bit. I was the frontperson for a band for a little while, but I never felt like a singer. I’ve always been a multi-instrumentalist, but when I moved out here I started playing keyboards. I have more of an intimate relationship with that instrument than I did before. 

“I grew up playing in bands and going to shows – that was my whole life. Even out here, 90 percent of my friends are musicians,” he continues. “Growing up, all of my friends in the neighborhood and I were terrible at sports, so we started bands. It was like the movie The Sandlot but with bands. Our house was the central house, everyone would come over, and my poor parents had to listen to this racket for years – terrible Green Day covers!”

“They loved it,” interrupts Keith.

“Yeah, my mom always laughs about it now. She could always see the future better than I could, my brother and I doing music full time. That’s what all that racket ended up becoming. I’m definitely indebted to my parents for having that background. They forced me to practice. It was a little rigorous, but at the end of the day I was still in love with music. I owe a lot of my musical work ethic to that,” admits Mark. “Both my parents are classical musicians, so it was always on in the house. My dad was a big Beatles fan as well, so I learned about the Beatles from him. Keith and I both have an older brother, so we always wanted to listen to what they listened to.”

“I’ve always loved music and singing – I sang Disney songs when I was a kid – but I didn’t come from a musical background. My older brother played piano and was into music, but I grew up playing sports. Then in fifth grade you had to pick an instrument, and I picked drums. I had a couple of friends who were drummers, and we got into rock and my brother’s music – Nirvana, REM, ‘90s bands – I would drum along to those, but it was just a hobby for me. I played hockey, and that was my whole life until my early 20s,” Keith reveals. “In college all of my friends would be in the hockey house partying, and I would be out in my car singing along, doing vocal exercises. I didn’t know why, but I remember hearing this quote: ‘You should do what you wake up feeling you have to do every day.’ I had this drive to sing and write, but I wasn’t very good at it to be honest, so I would just do it on the side. Then I reached a point where hockey had come to an end, and I wasn’t ready to get a normal job, so I threw myself into music. It was something I always wanted to do, but I never owned it. I wouldn’t hang out with music kids because I would feel inferior. They played music, and I kind of played music. But I definitely feel like what I missed in musical education I made up for in what I learned in hockey, which was work ethic, drive. Things I consider my strengths actually came through life experiences and not music lessons.”

“It took me a while to get right in the head with, ‘You’re good enough to hit these people up with your music. I would respond to ads online just to see if they would get back to me, not because I actually wanted to form a band. I just wanted to see if people that weren’t my friends thought I was good. After some time I joined some cover bands back in Boston,” he remembers. “Those experiences of having people that don’t know me say, ‘You’re good enough to play with,’ then getting that playing experience gave me the confidence to move out here and try it. Chris was in a similar spot where he was like, ‘I do this, but I don’t really do this,’ and I think Mark just liked the material I showed him. He was probably like, ‘You guys are rough around the edges, but there’s something there.’”

“The North Star for me with anything is: It’s already really good, but I want to help make it better, be a part of it,” agrees Mark. “Producing, my job was taking something that wasn’t very good at all and making it presentable, but if something was pretty good I could make it really good. When I heard this music, I knew immediately where I could fit in, where my strengths fit.”

“I write songs, but I knew couldn’t do it on my own,” adds Keith. “Everyone brings something to the table that makes Flights Over Phoenix what it is.”

“Keith was a captain without a ship, and I was a ship without a captain,” says Mark. “I had these resources and abilities, but no ‘hey, here’s what we’re doing’ – I’m not an artist in that regard. In a band situation, that’s where it thrives.” 

Although it took a bit for Keith to grow the confidence to sing at the front of Flights Over Phoenix, listening to the band’s Runaway California EP there’s no doubt that he has an incredible set of pipes. In fact, Disney selected him to record vocals for “Live the Magic,” the theme for Disneyland’s 60th Anniversary that plays every night in the park.

“It’s funny that those were the songs I would sing when I was little – ‘A Whole New World,’ ‘I Just Can’t Wait To Be King’ – and here I am singing for Disney,” he reflects. “I just went down to the park for the first time to listen to it, and it was surreal.”

Escaping the mundane monotony of his old life in Boston is what originally lured Keith to pack up his car and move to Los Angeles, and it seems like all three musicians eventually found a place where their talent could flourish together in the City of Angels. 

“Keith was talking about how he was like, ‘I don’t know if I’m good enough. Oh, I am!’ For me, it was, ‘I thought I was good enough then I moved here and got my ass whooped.’ In North Carolina I played with everybody, had tons of gigs and felt like I could hang in L.A. Moving out here, going to shows and seeing the stuff other musicians would do so effortlessly, it was a big rude awakening – in a good way. Being around greatness creates new ways of challenging yourself,” begins Mark. “Living in a big city where there’s a lot going on, you get to see excellence in every way. I love being around innovation, but there’s also a weird, ambiguous side when it comes to the entertainment industry. I love people from California not in the entertainment industry because you get to live in a really great place with amazing weather and don’t have to deal with all of this nonsense. My relationship with L.A. is like a marriage. In any relationship at first it’s amazing, full of fire, then it’s like, ‘What you want to do tonight, watch Netflix?’ I still love the mystery of the city. I’m obsessed with Hollywood lore from the 1920s, when show business was first starting. I still love the city wholeheartedly, and I’m never going to leave”

“When I go on vacation, I just look forward to getting back to L.A. You can go to the beach in 40 minutes and the mountains in 40 minutes, and there’s a whole different vibe in L.A. I’m a homebody, I guess,” says Chris. “I’m not in the thick of the hustle and bustle in Montrose, hanging out in lonely dive bars. I’m sure if I lived in Hollywood I would be over it.”

“Hollywood is so overrated,” interjects Mark. “At first I wanted to move to Hollywood, but when I actually hung out in Hollywood I was so glad I didn’t live there.”

“It’s sad when people move to Hollywood thinking it’s so glamorous and wind up having horror stories of how dirty it is,” agrees Chris. “Everyone has this idea of what Hollywood is.”

“I definitely see the underbelly of Hollywood, but at the same time I love it. I wouldn’t want to live in the heart of Hollywood, but there’s an energy there, being around other artistic people who are pursuing their dreams. Someone could be 48 and say, ‘I’m an aspiring actor.’ You just don’t get that everywhere,” argues Keith. “I’ve always been a dreamer. I love my family and friends in Boston, but when I come back from visiting, I feel like I’m home.”

“It happens after a couple of years,” says Mark, “you go home to visit, and when you’re flying back in, you realize, ‘Oh, I live in L.A. This is pretty sweet!’”

“I was at the gym that Keith works at in West Hollywood,” tells Chris, “There’s a huge window, and up on the hills are these beautiful houses where some of his clients live. It’s inspiring to me to see that.”

“It’s more attainable because you see those houses on the hill, you see an actor from TV at Starbucks, and you feel like dreams are more attainable,” replies Keith. “Before you move here you put those people on a pedestal, they’re untouchable. Then you move here and realize they’re just people doing their jobs. You say, ‘Oh, that could be me.’”

The Runaway California EP is currently available. Flights Over Phoenix perform Dec. 8 at the Hotel Café. For more information, visit flightsoverphoenixband.com.