Katie May Ruscoe

YEN Issue 33

2008-05-19T23:24:00.001-07:00

Framed: Mexican Emos
A profile piece on the recent "Emo Wars" in Mexico

YEN Magazine Issue 33

2008-05-13T16:39:00.000-07:00

Miller Chill advertorial.
Miller Chill is a recent addition to the Australian beer market and is based on the traditional Mexican Chelada.
The aim of this advertorial was to make Miller Chill relevent to YEN readers. We achieved this by tying the history of Mexico's chelada with the country's current new wave of creativity .

YEN magazine

2008-05-05T19:57:00.000-07:00

Advertorial for Microsoft Office for Mac

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Yen Issue 32

2008-04-06T22:48:00.000-07:00

The Happiness issue

Meet&Greet: Ruby Rose
A profile on MTV's newest recruit - Ruby Rose Langenheim

Advertorial for yenmag.net

Yenmag.net

2008-04-06T21:39:00.001-07:00

A new post from the YEN website

Russh Magazine Issue 21

2008-03-31T01:44:00.000-07:00

March/April 2008

The Spring Press
An arts feature on Independent publisher, Jeff Burch.

Pagesonline, March 2008

2008-03-24T23:10:00.000-07:00

Issue 48: Androgyne

High Art
In this issue I have contributed a piece on "High Art"; a collective art project that took place in Melbourne as part of the L'Oreal Melbourne Fashion Festival.

YEN Issue 32

2008-03-24T16:28:00.000-07:00

Meet and Greet: Sophie Howarth.
A feature on Sophie Howarth; Long time Big Day Out photographer and author of "Peace, Love and Brown Rice"

YEN Magazine Issue 32

2008-03-17T22:19:00.000-07:00

A series of short profiles on the designers participating in the YEN/ L'Oreal runway show at LMFF

YEN Magazine Issue 32

2008-03-17T21:59:00.000-07:00

My Story: Being Koori
A feature on aboriginal rights campaigner, Jirra Lulla harvey.

Yenmag.net

2008-03-17T19:28:00.000-07:00

In August 2007 I began as Web editor yenmag.net - the website of YEN magazine. It bascially just involves me writing daily posts about cool things and good people and also overseeing the other contributors that write for the site.

Here's a post from the past:

Ipso-Facto are another band coming straight out of Southend/ London to play all the right parties and woo all the right people. Not that that doesn’t make them genuinely good. The band is four friends with Louise Brooks haircuts and heavy eyeliner – the kind of ladies who probably only drink red wine and use really big words in conversation. They make self-described “melodramatic pop”: music that sounds like how haunted houses and creepy 19th century photographs look – all sepia toned and rich and mysterious. I think Ipso-Facto are very good indeed and so do the record labels that began falling all over themselves after they had only performed about three shows. Above is the video for their first single “Harmonise”. Close the curtains, fill your goblets and enjoy.

Pages Online, November 2007

2008-03-17T19:09:00.000-07:00

Issue 44, Jail Bait

The Independents
In this issue is a story I did on four fantastic independent magazines coming out of Sydney; Get This!, Duke, Kite and Virgo.

Oyster Issue 74

2008-03-17T18:57:00.000-07:00

Feature on Feist. November 2007

1,2,3,4 Feist

While she was propelled into mainstream consciousness through that iPod ad, singer Feist has actually been bubbling beneath underground music scenes for years. Katie May Ruscoe talks to the accomplished artist.

Until recently, the name Feist was one that many music fans recognised instantly but required a quick Google search to place. The results would introduce you to Lesley Feist; solo artist, member of cult Canadian super group Broken Social Scene and sometime collaborator with the likes of Peaches and Kings of Convenience; all in all a pop doyenne of a largely alternative scene. That underground status changed however, with the near nursery-rhyme melody of a song called “1234” and an accompanying video that - thanks to its inclusion in an advertisement for the new Apple iPod - made its way into the living rooms and hearts of new fans across the world.

“Whenever we see it, Patrick (Daughters, the clip’s director) and I just sit there giggling like naughty kids on the back of the school bus like, how did this happen?”
Laughs the Canadian singer from her occasional home of Paris. With a heavy and somewhat sleepy drawl (although it’s currently noon she’s only just woken up; an occurrence owing less to rock and roll decadence than air travel) Feist explains, “We’ve been in Europe for three weeks now but I’ve been living this nocturnal life because I can’t seem to shake the jetlag.” She adds; “I mean (the film clip) was kind of personal. All of us who were involved were at this same point where we’d been doing what we do for such a long time and we basically just boiled down those experiences into this really innocent and childlike video.”

When it comes to musical experience, Feist has far more than her rapid rise to household name status would suggest. Her current album The Reminder is the fourth from an artist who has been touring for almost a third of her life. Beginning her career in high-school with punk band Placebo (with whom she once supported The Ramones), Feist went on to play in Calgary indie band By Devine Right before releasing her first solo album Monarch in late 1999. The following year brought what is perhaps the Canadian native’s most talked about association; that of flatmate to musician Merrill Nisker, who at the time was finding her feet as electro-punk act Peaches.

“At that point her music was really crystal clear,” says Feist of Peaches’ early days. “But the gig side of things had still not really been formed. It was just kind of open and up for grabs”. So what did Leslie Feist grab? A sock puppet, touring as a back-up act with Nisker, under the moniker “Bitch Lap Lap”. Feist later relocated from Toronto to Paris, quietly lending her vocal talent to a number of other artists before releasing the breakthrough solo album Let It Die in 2004. An eclectic blend of jazz, bossa nova and indie rock. Let It Die earned the singer international attention as well as a multitude of awards and ‘album of the year’ proclamations in Canada.

Despite its success, Feist admits that Let It Die was not as organic a production as she would have liked. This coupled with months spent on the road promoting the album formed a desire in the singer to record the next album in a more relaxed and homely environment: “I just had this dream - and I had heard of people doing this - where you record in the same place as you sleep, just move into a big old house and make an album.” She set about a search on the internet but it wasn’t until recording with another artist on the outskirts of Paris that Feist found her dream location; “It was in this tiny village, surrounded by walls and garden and it was springtime and just absolutely beautiful.”

Bringing her band (plus long time collaborator Chilly Gonzales and renowned musicians Mocky and Jamie Lidell) with her, Feist set up home in the 200 year old manor, the group rigging its rooms with recording equipment and laying down tracks in their pyjamas; “The whole point was to just live a stationary life and make a record differently than what we had in the past. The songs (for Reminder) were really written in this live context so when it came to recording it made sense for everyone to be in the room together listening to each other - and for the song to be in the room at that time too and not overdubbed three weeks later.”

The result is an album full of musical nooks and crannies that with each listen uncover new, unexpected sounds - instruments you may have missed, chirping birds, hollow footsteps and the crunching of apples. However, above the din, Feist’s unmistakable voice (one that can only be described as delicious) remains the album’s drawcard, conveying an emotiveness that makes it clear why advertising executives are clamouring for sound bites. What is less clear is why an artist so steeped in the alternative music scene would choose to join forces with the ever-evil advertising world? Feist answers with an assuredness that suggests she’s spent a fair chunk of interview time previously defending this charge; “You know, I say no to about 99% of offers. Amongst myself and all my friends in bands it’s just a new thing we’re dealing with and sometimes it’s just a decision you make to keep your life going the way you need it to.”

In most cases this means paying for tours, funding new albums or simply surviving.
“A lot of my musician friends in Canada are saying yes to these ads because they need to pay their rent!” Feist continues. “I know I agreed (to the use of her single ‘Mushaboom’ in a Lacoste ad) because it was right after Let It Die first came out and it simply came down to saying yes or getting a job in a café. I had won all these awards but I was so broke that I literally had to choose one or the other.”
And when it comes to the mainstream success she’s enjoying these days thanks to the infamous iPod ad, Feist isn’t about to become a martyr amongst the indie scene;
“The iPod ad really was an artistic choice. To me a song makes the most sense when you see its video, so as an artist - independent or otherwise - you hope that music channels like MTV will play it. I see the ad as no different. It’s just this clean pure visual, no voice-over, just this video that I had so much fun making with my friends. To think that other people are seeing it is just incredible!”

Pages Online, September 2007

2008-03-17T04:14:00.000-07:00

Issue 43, Performance

This Is Not Art
Here's a link of online fashion/culture magazine, Pagesonline.
Issue 43 contains a feature on "This is Not Art"; an annual art festival held in Newcastle

Oyster Magazine Issue 67

2008-03-17T03:56:00.000-07:00

November/December 2006

Coverage of New Zealand Fashion Week

Oyster Magazine Issue 66

2008-03-17T03:43:00.000-07:00

August/September 2006

Feature on Coco Solid

Feature on Cut Off Your Hands (nee, Shaky Hands)

Tearaway Magazine 2005

2008-03-17T03:07:00.000-07:00

Interview with The Shocking Pinks

Monthly Fashion column

The Checks