Photography Justin Leveritt
Styling Katarina Silva
All fashion, shoes and accessories from CELINE HOMME and CELINE by Hedi Slimane Spring/Summer 2023 Collection
TOWA BIRD
TikTok phenom Towa Bird got hooked on playing (and eventually producing) after her dad turned her on to Jimi Hendrix, but says that her light-hearted, energetic, and also quite vulnerable sound is informed as much by classic rock as it is by her girlfriend, friends, and family. “The people around me and the people I love are always a source of massive inspiration.”
How has your style changed since the beginning of your career?
“It hasn’t much. The one thing that has always been consistent in my life is that I’ve always dressed like a boy.”
JAPANESE BREAKFAST
Michelle Zauner, the singer and guitarist of Japanese Breakfast, is currently adapting her 2021 best-selling memoir “Crying in H Mart” into a screenplay, but confesses that if she weren’t a musician (or a famous author), she’d be running a Korean restaurant.
What’s your pre-show ritual?
“I do my hair and makeup, which is usually a nice zen, mildly creative moment. Right before we go on, the band usually huddles up for a shot of tequila, then wrap our arms around each other in a huddle, stomp our feet and yell, ‘don’t fuck it up!’”
FOUSHEÉ
As a singer, songwriter and performer, Brittany Fousheé (aka Fousheé), has created space for women to make crazy, angry music. 2023 finds her in a more upbeat, though no less defiant mood: “Last year I was wearing a lot of colors and my favorite color was chartreuse so I was really channeling all quirkiness and vibrancy. But now I feel a little more rebellious- I’m wearing a lot of leather and black and white.”
How do you psyche yourself up before going on stage?
“I really feel like whatever you do pre-show, you come out on stage with. So I try to create the environment I’m tryna create on stage. For this most recent tour where I was performing ‘soft core’, my band would get together and mash and scream. Anything to pick up the energy.”
MUNA
Muna is Kate Gavin (lead vocals), Josette Maskin (lead guitar) and Namoi McPherson (everything else), who met up at USC where they bonded over growing up queer in the era of Y2K. Even as they’re signed to Phoebe Bridgers’s label and have toured with Harry Styles, they remain resolutely low-key, describing their sound simply as “better than most.”
Greatest moment so far?
“I’d say right now baby. Every moment is perfect. We’re in the present. If you haven’t read ‘The Power of Now’ what are you doing?”
WEYES BLOOD
Natalie Laura Mering, who performs under the name Weyes Blood, is a flower child for the age of climate change and social breakdown. She describes her sound as “Mournful apocalypse twinkle.”
If you weren’t a musician, what would you be?
“I would 100% be a marine biologist. I would be free diving and saving the clams and the oysters and all the little creatures of the sea. Just trying to prevent the acidification of the oceans...which I’ll try to do with music anyway.”
THE LINDA LINDAS
How do sisters Lucia and Mila de la Garza, their cousin Eloise Wong, and pal Bela Salazar—aka teen punk band The Linda Lindas—sum up their quasi-experimental, vintage-inflected look and ferociously joyful riot grrrl sound? “Whatever. We. Want.”
First concert you ever attended?
“Paramore at the Forum.” —Bela
“The Go-Go’s at the Orange County fair.” —Mila
“I don’t know, but the first one I have memory of is the Dum Dum Girls.” —Lucia
“The first one I vividly remember was CH3 and the Adolescents. There were trash cans being tossed around the crowd.” —Eloise
Makeup Sara Tagaloa, Laramie
Hair Tiago Goya
Casting Greg Krelenstein
Production Starkman & Associates