Crystal Murray has Gone Bad

How has your music taste shaped your growing up?

It came to me at a very young age. My parents are musicians. I grew up with my dad who is a saxophonist and jazzman from San Fransico. So I grew up with a lot of jazz, a lot of soul, Marvin Gaye was playing, John Coltrane, you know? So I was in this very like Afro-American music scene. Music in my family comes from gospel, it comes from the church, it comes from the Afro-Americans coming to the "land of the free" and finding a voice for themselves. So I feel like this part of my family really built the way I listen to music now.

I know I was inspired by Kelis, Macy Gray, and Betty Davis just for the way they sing their emotions. Um, I could say that I'm inspired by Erykah Badu, but I'm not even inspired by her because she's just so chill and I'm like all about screaming and emotions. I want to do what Betty Davis didn't have the time to do. It's like my goal in life to be able to be as free as a song like "They Say I'm Different" from Betty Davis. I think that I built my music from these women, and then I started going out. Going to techno parties, and discovering like this black culture in Paris that I didn't know about. For me, techno was always like super white.

In prior projects, do you feel like you were creating your voice to fit into a box, and now you're kind of creating your own sound that is made for your voice in a way?

Yeah. I think the first EP, I wrote it at 14, 15, 16. It was really when I was discovering how to do music. So I wasn't really thinking about fitting into boxes. I was just thinking about how it sounded cool. The EP came in March and I'm already like done with it. Because for me, like "Princess," I wrote it like four years ago, it's like so far away from me. I'm not connected to it like at all anymore. This is just because I started really working on music and really seeing and thinking about music and not just being like this "cool Black girl who sang like Erykah Badu." I was really trying to like get out of the box that I put myself in, in a way, cause I did not think. I was just like 'music out, music out. Like, yeah, I'm a musician, blah, blah, blah.'

So you were talking about how some of your inspirations were from your parents. But what was one of the first records that you ever bought for yourself or loved front to back?

'I am Sasha Fierce' by Beyonce, 2008. I was seven, I was like all over the place, all over the place. This was like the album I was singing in the car. I was like, 'This voice is for me, this is the voice.' And also an album that my father did with Macy Gray. He did the song called "Related To A Psychopath." It's just like the craziest song ever. And then I saw her live and I was just like, 'You are so crazy.' She was like so big and with her rings and she was like pulling her rings out and like giving it to the people, and like people would get hit in the face. I was like, 'You're so not jazz. You're so rock and punk.'

So with "Good Girl Gone Bad" you're turning over into a new era and there's definitely some more rock and trap influences. What inspired this?

"Good Girl Gone Bad," It's like the first episode of this series called "Hotel Room Drama" that I want to start. And it's really like a platform where I want to have fun. It's like the project where I just want to do a song in like five minutes, put it out there and do a video clip. I want to use it as like a fun way to create. And like even the video kits, I don't want to think about them too much. I really want it to be like super like—you know, being on a label, it takes time for songs to go out.

And I feel like this platform for "Hotel Room Drama" is going to show more of myself. Not especially with the sound of the EP, but I really want it to be like a project—like there's the EP and 'Hotel Room Drama.' And with the videos you're going to see, you're going to have fun listening to it. And it's just going to be like really young. And I want to be working with people I love. I don't want to be like, 'What is the label going to think?' Um, they didn't give me no money to do it, I just did it myself.

I started to get so irritated by like waiting and validations, blah, blah, blah. So it's going to be like more in rap/trap—like I'm a huge Lil' Kim fan. I'm not a rapper, but I love doing rap freestyles made by singers. You know what I mean? It's like in this trappy and fab vibe, but I'm not a rapper, so it's always going to be like very classy and me. I'm already working on the second one with this artist from London that I love so much. I want to use this platform as a free soul. I want to be this Freebird. And if I want to do a trap song, if I want to do a classical song, I'm going to do it on there. I was really scared to put out "Good Girl Gone Bad" because I was supposed to put out "Princess," and now I'm like " I want you gone, nigga!" But people really got the sense of it. And Dian is the feature on it. So I just started my label called "Spin Desire" and yeah, she's my first artist there. So it was really important for me to like put her on. So it was like a combination of plenty of stuff that I wanted to do.

Yeah, she really added to the song. When I first listened to the song I was surprised by how much I liked it. And then I realized that it was you. And then I was like, 'Oh my God, she used to have such a soft tone.' And then that made me think of age. And I feel like with age we start to prioritize different things in our lives at different times. And like I said in the past, your music was just like a lot more—not that it's not now, but you said you're being more free, but it was a lot more—

I think it was easier.

Like softer and introspective. So what are you prioritizing now that you're conveying through music?

I'm prioritizing people saying, "I don't like the song" on my YouTube channel. Like I want those people to be like—I just got so irritated by this first EP because it was me in a way, but you know, as a teenager, I grew up so fast that in two months I get tired of stuff. So, this first EP got me really like in a phase with myself where people were like, "So, you sound like Jorja Smith." Like, I could like literally kill myself if I hear that again.

But it's really put me in a phase of rebellion. And like in the studio, I was just like the contrary of that. Um, and now I think I'm becoming like this real artist who thinks about the sound. I do piano now, I'm all about kicks. I think I became more like precise on stuff. So I really can't wait for the EP to come out and 'Good Girl Gone Bad' was for me a way to like put a slap to everyone and be like 'Okay, this is rap. And you guys are not ready for the EP because I'm going to bring you rock.' And the whole time of next year, I want to do like rock, show trap music and show every facet of me for them to not put me in no fucking box.

And you think you found your sound in a way? Are you still experimenting with that?

I'm still experimenting, but with the next EP, I worked on it for a year and I think that's it. I have a precise sound, which I didn't have before. And it's the first time in my life where I'm like, 'Okay, the EP rocks.'

So you talked about how "Hotel Room Drama" is a personal intimate space and like your personal utopia in a way. But let's just say there were no limits and no budget to your personal utopia, what can you describe that as?

Yeah. I think, uh, it's not this one. I think it's the next one. I think it's the next world. I think my community and my generation is a generation that I love. And that I respect so much because of how people my age are so into changing the word. They're all anarchists, we're all anarchists. You know, just being this Black girl in Paris is being an anarchist. I think my generation is fighting for a different world, where with all this crisis we saw how the world could turn so bad in like a minute and how they don't think about the young people. And they don't listen to young people because they're so like into Instagrams and all that.

But I think we're like the most intelligent people right now because we have seen what happened with them telling us what to do. And it's like not working and not making a better world. So I think at some point my utopia is us ruling the word and not being dictated by white supremacists. I'm trying to be really positive on the situation right now, and just seeing how much innovation reacts to it by creating, by more music—you know, what's happening in Paris with all the migrants and all that. Like literally young people in the streets giving roof to the migrants. I think my generation is one where we want people to be together.

So in the music video, it seems like you're feeling yourself and as you should. But, it kind of reminds me of right before I go out with my friends and we're feeling our best and looking at our best. Is that when you feel most confident, or when do you feel most sexy?

I felt most confident the moment I have my glass of wine, dress up to go out, listen to music, and smoke my weed. When I'm like "Oo, I'm going out tonight!" It's the vibe I want to have, that's actually why the first episode is the beginning of the whole hotel room drama.

So let's just say, you're talking to your higher self. What are some questions you have for yourself right now?

I think I really want my career to be like an evolution of music. Like I don't want to be famous now. I would like to be famous in 10 years for people to be like, "Oh, I love this evolution of this girl!" So I'm wondering how I'm going to do that. There's a career that I really love, it's the career of Tyler, the Creator. I was a big fan 10 years ago and I'm still a big fan, and it's crazy. Every project he did makes sense with the next project he did. And like the fact that he did IGOR and it was like incredible pop music makes so much sense because in all his albums, there was like a little door that we needed to open to see the next one. And that for me, it's like a real evolution. And that's how I'm asking myself, like, 'Crystal, how are you going to do the same with your albums? How're you going to have a door at every little end of the songs, you know? How're people going to understand the album that I'm going to do in 10 years?'

What are some of the answers and advice you would give to your younger self?

I have a super great mom, so I think I would say listen to your mom, Crystal. And follow your instincts, but ask your mom first.

Music

Jesse Jo Stark Is in a Genre of Her Own

April 19, 2024

In the midst of a total solar eclipse, I got the chance to talk about music and style with Jesse Jo Stark.

As I’m on the phone with her from New York, Stark is on a tour bus with The Veronicas, driving through the Colorado mountains to enjoy some time off in between shows. The Veronicas have just started their Gothic Summer North American Tour, and Stark is opening the show. What’s special about this tour for the lifelong music obsessive is the sense of powerful feminine energy encapsulating the tour. “We just started [tour], but it’s been really lovely. I’m obsessed with the fact that we’re all women — it feels like a very powerful crew. The Veronicas are lovely, the crowds have been so fun, and the venues are beautiful. It’s gonna be a good month.”

Photography Sophia-Liv Maguire
Styling Marc Eram
Interview Angelina Hazzouri
Talent Jesse Jo Stark
Hair Antoine Martinez with PARADIS using Roz Hair
Makeup Sydney Szramowski
Photo Assistants Mia O’Neal, Rashaun Richardson
BTS Ms Josephine
Creative Producer Olivia Roper-Caldbeck

This is Stark’s second time touring since the release of her full-length debut album DOOMED in late 2022, which was very well received and led to Stark’s first sold-out international headlining tour on behalf of the album. Previous to her solo tour, she’s opened for various notable acts, such as Guns N’ Roses and Jane’s Addiction. I asked Stark, who’s been writing and playing music since age 11, what it was like to prepare for her first sold-out headlining tour. Unsurprisingly, before any tour, Stark goes into what she describes as “bootcamp mode” — dancing every day, vocal training, rehearsing with her band, and of course, working on her outfits. “That’s the sort of homework I love,” she says, smiling. (Even though we’re on the phone, I can tell she’s smiling when she talks about the outfit part. I’d smile too if I had her tour closet.)

What’s unique about Stark as a musician is that she has ultimately created her own universe by embracing every aspect of her creative upbringing, her raw talent, her fascinating influences, and her unwavering beliefs in not needing to fit into a certain box when it comes to her art. She creative-directs and styles all her own looks, referencing an ever-evolving list of influences that range from Vegas showgirls to Halloween to old films to her parents in the 90s. “I think when I was younger, I had this rebellion against what I was made from,” she tells me, “but now it’s just my blood. I constantly reflect on my childhood and everything I was taught and everything I saw. My brother and sister and I are constantly pulling influences from our parents from the past. I think, more than ever, I’m heavily influenced by them.”

Stark, the daughter of founders and owners of the self-made American fashion brand Chrome Hearts, and now its creative director and designer, is someone who always knew what she liked, but as she describes it, had to ‘go through the motions’ that come with growing up and knowing one’s identity. Today, her self-efficacy is palpable — and it’s inspiring.

...when I was younger, I had this rebellion against what I was made from, but now it’s just my blood.

When she’s on tour, Stark is growing with herself and with her art — she’s not afraid to take life as it comes and learn through the process. With every show, regardless of whether it was on her DOOMED tour or this tour with The Veronicas, Stark understands the importance of human connection through music. Seeing faces of music lovers like herself, meeting those who have traveled to see her, and visiting familiar and unfamiliar cities has reminded her that she loves being on the road. “The growth that happens on tour is so important to me as an artist.” Sometimes we have to leave behind what’s familiar in order to rediscover what’s important, and Stark is a proponent of this growth mindset.

Growth doesn’t just happen on tour with Stark — this evolution of herself happens within genre as well, and for Stark there’s no such thing. Since her first release Driftwood in 2017, the artist’s sound has shifted year after year, but in a harmonious way that still feels central to her gothic Americana roots. When asked if she’ll experiment with genre in the future, Stark confidently answers, “I think I’ve only experimented with genre. I don’t think anyone knows what genre I am.” (She calls herself a “horrific hillbilly” — a perfect descriptor.) Steadfast in her belief that we as humans can constantly evolve in our work, Stark thinks it’s antiquated to fit yourself into a certain box and focus on one specific trade in order to succeed. “If you look at us as people, we’re seasoned. We change all the time. I want to experience different things.”

Since Driftwood, a two-song EP rooted in rock and country, Stark has experimented with more robust beats and 808s on DOOMED, and her most recent single “skeleton” features a softer, grungier punk sound. Without fitting into a specific genre, Stark’s music is undoubtedly and wholeheartedly her own, transcending the boundaries of what many artists struggle with when finding their sound. “I don’t think we should have to label ourselves in any way, shape, or form; so I’m not going to. I will continue to make all types of different music.” Fuck yeah.

If you look at us as people, we’re seasoned. We change all the time.

This goes beyond just music — in terms of her personal style, the same mentality applies. We discuss the idea that clothing and dressing is a sort of playground, and personal style comes from within. Stark isn’t about following trends, but rather, she thinks it’s important to tap into different stylistic elements that amplify who we are at our cores. On her DOOMED tour, Stark wore a lot of leather and stuck to a fairly dark color palette. Right now, she’s into more bourgeois satin and lace, experimenting with different textures and wearing things that feel slightly daintier and more delicate. On this current tour with the Veronicas, Stark is making it more of a point to take everything in — absorbing inspiration from every city, writing songs on the road, recording video on a friend’s super 8 camera, styling and wearing new outfits, learning and performing new covers — ultimately growing through the whole experience.

It’s endearing and inspiring how well Stark knows herself. A Los Angeles native, she proudly tells me that the tour finishes on May 5 in her hometown, a show that she’s especially excited for. While we can’t predict what thoughtfully-curated outfit she’ll wear or what songs will be performed, with new music already underway, one thing is clear: Jesse Jo Stark is just getting started.

Music

9lives' Latest Single Continues to Push Sigilkore

April 19, 2024

The versatile artist, producer, and pioneer of the sigilkore genre, 9lives, has recently unveiled his latest single "CANADA" featuring jnhygs. In less than two years since his emergence onto the music scene, 9lives has carved out an impressive niche for himself as a prominent figure within the digitally-driven sigilkore movement. "CANADA" sees him teaming up once again with experimental dance artist jnhygs, following their successful collaboration on "XTAYALIVE".

With aspirations to establish himself within the mainstream arena of experimental music production and artistry, 9lives is blending his distinct dark production style with collaborations with a diverse array of influential artists who trust him to create innovative sonic landscapes. "CANADA" marks his second release of 2024, as 9lives continues to champion the burgeoning sigilkore movement, pushing the boundaries of genre, evolving into a multifaceted artist, and solidifying his status as a rising star with an expanding audience.

Image by Connor Pritchard

Reflecting on their latest project, 9lives shares, “In early 2023 jnhygs found my music and we started chatting through TikTok, releasing our first song together called "XTAYALIVE"." He adds, We’ve been friends since this song had a viral moment, and fans have been heavily requesting for us to work together again all over our videos.” Describing their creative process, he explains, “I sent a bunch of new ideas to jnhygs via Discord and she sent back vocals to “CANADA”, which I then used to create melodic layers and extra percussion to complete the song.

Music

Eclipsed at Vampire Weekend

April 16, 2024

It had been about a week since the goosebump-inducing communal howls at the moon, as it covered the sun through a cloudy Austin, Texas sky, left me needing to take a seat—suspended in awe of the totality of the event and the synergistic break from routine. I overheard someone say, “I mean, it feels like we’re all going to die, but in a way that’s okay, you know?" under the shadow of the eclipse's peak, ceremoniously brought in as the band performed “Jonathan Low,” (in Vampire Weekend's familiar ironic hue) a track they wrote for the third movie in the Twilight series, Eclipse.

It had been five years since the band had released an album. In celebration of their latest album, "Only God Was Above Us," ticket holders wrapped the streets in blocks outside the venue for the band’s first Stateside show in about two years. Event managers searched to replenish the venue’s stock of eclipse glasses, while the band prepped a show reminiscent of 'getting the boys back together again'.

Words and photography by Rianne Akindele

In between newly released songs like “Classical” and “Capricorn”, the boys filled the almost two-hour-long show with old favorites like “Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa”, “Diane Young” and a genre evolved rendition of “Sunflower” as the crowd danced barefoot feeling the Earth’s energy intertwined with their own and the vibrations from the amps on stage. People stole glances at the imminently darkening sky, artists doodled, friends grabbed onto each other to scream the lyrics in each other’s faces, and onlookers from the highest level of the parking garage across the street cheered on in a symphony of nostalgia and anticipation.

Adding to the layers of the celestial afternoon, the band invited to the stage the likes of Thomas Mars from Phoenix, Dave 1 from Chromeo, and guitarist Brian Robert Jones, inducing further levels of indie revival euphoria.

As the show drew to its close, and the zydeco/country-rock “Cocaine Cowboys” medley fiddled through the air, a conversation could be picked up between two sisters in search of their Lyft driver through closed-off streets,

“I wish this happened more often.”
“Eclipses or shows like this?”
“Both.”

It’s moments like these that remind us of our shared humanity and the power of collective experiences; a gathering of souls under the same sky, sharing the joy of music and a wonder of the stars above. Perhaps it’s the rarity that allowed such transcendence, reverence, and gratitude to be felt. Either way, what a beautiful moment in time it was.

Here are a few shots from the Monday afternoon: