watchmepivot magazine issue 4

92
Featuring Eli & Fur Dr. Banana Marc Jacques WhyNot Collective 2013 ISSUE

Upload: watchmepivot-magazine

Post on 06-Mar-2016

223 views

Category:

Documents


1 download

DESCRIPTION

We are very proud to announce the release of our fourth magazine issue, it features work from up ‘n’ coming talents Matt Jacques and Dr Banana featured in our fresh faces section. An Interview with rising stars in the UK House scene Eli & Fur. A day spent with the guys behind ‘Why Not Collective’ and we take a closer look at this year’s winners of 2013 D&AD student photography awards; plus a plenitude of fashion editorials to keep the eyes more than satisfied!

TRANSCRIPT

Page 1: WatchMePivot Magazine Issue 4

FeaturingEli & FurDr. BananaMarc JacquesWhyNot Collective

2013 ISSUE

Page 2: WatchMePivot Magazine Issue 4

WatchMePivot Magazine 2013 © All Rights Reserved

Page 3: WatchMePivot Magazine Issue 4

3 WatchMePivot

Contact

The TeamDavid Hinga

Founder / Creative Director [email protected]

Javier Canaval-SaavedraCulture Editor

[email protected]

Keanoush Fontes Da Rosa ZarghamFashion Editor

[email protected]

Cherish SadombaJunior Fashion Editor

[email protected]

Gray BrameMusic Editor

[email protected]

Harvey JamesJunior Music Editor

[email protected]

Info / General enquiries : [email protected]: [email protected]

Twitter/Instagram: @WatchMePivot

Facebook.com/watchmepivotWatchmepivot.tumblr.com

ContributorsJamie Kendrick

Freddie NockoldsJoshua Dean

Matthew Cameron

Page 4: WatchMePivot Magazine Issue 4

Features

48 Interview: Why Not Collective

88 Review: D&AD Photography

10 Fresh Faces: Dr Bananna

08 Fresh Faces: Matt Jacques

Fashion

64 Bored as Fuck

56 Focus

76 Hoods Up Hats Down

38 Talk is Tender

26 Heads & Shoulders

14 Interview: Eli & Fur

36 Man & The Machine

74 Broken Beats

Music

54 Elephant In The Room

Culture

4 WatchMePivot

08

14

10

26

In This Issue

Page 5: WatchMePivot Magazine Issue 4

5 WatchMePivot

48

88

36

6438

54

76

56

Man &

The Machine

Page 6: WatchMePivot Magazine Issue 4

Fresh Faces

Page 7: WatchMePivot Magazine Issue 4

Introducing a few people worth knowing about that you might not already know about.

~

~

MATT JACQUES

Illustrator

DR BANANA

Clothing Label

Page 8: WatchMePivot Magazine Issue 4
Page 9: WatchMePivot Magazine Issue 4

Matt is a Midlands born illustrator who now works from London. He applied for Chelsea College of Art, got in to study textile design, and atW 22 has been in London for the past 3 years getting down to work.

“Whilst I’ve been doing that I’ve been working free lance for a company called Atom Design in new cross, who have sold my work to people like Armani exchange, Tommy Hilfiger and PacSun. I’ve also done a few internships including working for H&M for the whole of last summer.”

Matt has been very busy and is putting in the work that is demanded by the capitals hungry fashion industry, When it gets down to the patterns and the prints matt is builing up quite a protfolio alongside the ‘Night Terrors’ Project his Alcemy project is also turning out some cutting edge designs.

“All my work starts off with hand drawing images, I normally do these with inks. I like to build up a large body of imagery to use before I start putting them into prints. Then I scan them into the computer and engineer the images around how the garment is going to be cut. Although I use screen printing a lot for samples, all my work is digitally printed for the final pieces.”

“I try to produce work that isn’t too gender specific because sometimes I feel when I think too much about who is going to wear the prints, I am less adventurous when I am drawing them out.” We are looking forward to seeing much more from Matt in the next few years. Watch him.

Night Terrors

“Common in children aged three to eight years old. A child who experiences night terrors may scream, shout and thrash around in extreme panic, and may even jump out of bed. Their eyes are open, but they are not fully awake.”

A collection of hand drawn prints, which explore night terrors from personal experiences as a child. Illustrating the confusion and panic that occurs during these episodes, a long with the imagery that transpired as these nightmarish experiences played out in my head.

As a Child from about 5 until 7 I used to suffer from night terrors which made going to sleep a traumatic experience as I was never sure when they would occur. The images used on the ponchos take inspiration from a combination of things I told my mum I could see at the time of these episodes, also the play armour I woulddress up in before I went to sleep to fight the monsters in my dreams and I also have kept a dream log for the last half a year so I used images from dreams I had when I was little and ones I have currently”

- Matt Jacques

~

9 WatchMePivot

Page 10: WatchMePivot Magazine Issue 4
Page 11: WatchMePivot Magazine Issue 4

Sandy lets just kick off by asking you about Dr B how you came about with the idea for the name, the clothing and the brand as a whole, what’s is all about? Dr. Banana was born in a very bored and pretty grimy university room in Greenwich, where I unfortunately spent a year and a half trying to get down with some Marketing and Advertising communications studies. Being a country boy moving up to the big smoke I was exposed to lots of trendy cats I hadn’t seen before. It was right in the heart of the snap back revival and I saw a few people sticking it to the man and rocking 5 panels, and I liked it. I knew they were going to blow up and I wanted to get my dirty little paws on some of the action; so I did. The name actually derives from an anonymous drunken in Slovenia who saw me chowing down on a banana and asked if it had been recommended by Doctor Banana. One fine day on a bus into Central London, this moment popped back into my head and Doctor Banana came to be.

How important is social media to you? Social media is such a massively important and powerful tool for small business start ups like myself. I don’t have near enough cash money to be doing any formal types of marketing in magazines or online, but social media (in my opinion facebook especially) is an easy way to get yourself into the public eye for free. My twitter game is still pretty weak because frankly I don’t quite understand what it is all about. I was about to throw the towel in but then I bumped into Seth Troxler on the train in London; I offered him some of the Doc’s homemade pizza, tweeted about it and got a tweet back from Seth himself, which was good fun.

The materials you use and the branding of Dr banana is fresh, it seems to bring you a lot of attention & recognition though word of mouth, how did you and do you come up with the design and what to include on your products? The street wear market is highly saturated, with new clothing companies popping up every week. This is why it is so important to stand out, and the reason I chose the fabrics I did for the early drops. I wanted Dr Banana to be something that people could spot from a mile off; without making it too outrageous so it could be something you could rock everyday, not just at festivals. In terms of standing out from the crowd I also think product choice is very important. Street wear companies are making a lot of the same items, so with Dr Banana I tried to do something a little different by finding niches in the market. I spotted the serious lack of fashionable bum bags available and thought something needed to be done. So, I sourced some hair-raising fabrics, decided on a fresh shape and then started talking business with Gina at the factory. This is what I plan to continue doing with future drops. Keep them eyes peeled for the end of summer release.

Where can people get their Doc Banana from? The easiest place for people to get a piece of the doc is at www.drbanana.co.uk my newly revamped website. They are also available in a number of shops including Seven Store in Bristol and Masons in Hitchin. They will soon be available in a number of independent retailers throughout Brighton, Leeds and Manchester. For Londoners I will be manning a stall at Brick lane’s Sunday Up Market a few Sundays of August and September,

Check the face book for dates:https://www.facebook.com/drbananana.

~

11 WatchMePivot

Page 12: WatchMePivot Magazine Issue 4

12 WatchMePivot

Page 13: WatchMePivot Magazine Issue 4

I know you & Dr. B are also in collaboration with Banofee Pies, would you like to tell the people what this is all about? Yes, Yes. Banoffee Pies is a Bristol based music blog/event company/straight thuggin’ organisation that I run with ma boy Elliot Western (the brains in the operation) in association with Dr. Banana. We have been up and running for around four and half months, releasing a weekly exclusive mix, ‘banana podcast’, and also dropping exclusive tracks, ‘banoffee slices’. We have already generated a lot of interest from some pretty heavy hitters in the game and have got big plans for the coming year. We will be putting on our first event in Bristol late September; we have a few big names floating around as possible headliners. Keep your eyes on the facebook page for details.

facebook.com/wearebanoffeepies

Any last words or anything you want to get out to the readers? All I would say is thanks for giving me the time of day and reading this interview. Go have a look at the website and facebook and expect big things from both Dr. Banana and Banoffee Pies in the future . Regards,The Doc

facebook.com/wearebanoffeepies

facebook.com/drbvananana . drbanana.co.uk soundcloud.com/banoffee-pies

13 WatchMePivot

Page 14: WatchMePivot Magazine Issue 4
Page 15: WatchMePivot Magazine Issue 4

David Hinga meets and photographs upcoming dance duoEli & Fur and talks music, work and the future.

~

Photography by David HingaHair & Makeup: Bridie Tyler

Page 16: WatchMePivot Magazine Issue 4

D: So how did you two meet?

F: We meet at school when we were 16

D: Have both of you always been musical?

F: Eli was, she’s been doing music since she was like…how old?

E: Ten or eleven. Then I was doing music tech at the college we were at and you were doing art, then we became friends, started to like go out together and listen to the same music, then it kind of went from there. It was quite cool how it happen, it was quite natural.

D: So how did it go from just being friend and enjoying music to you two working together and djing?

E: It actually started as fun.

F: I think we just liked to play music, like if we were at a friend’s house party or something like that. Then we were like ah this is really fun, let’s do this more! And then we just started that way, I think…trying to get gigs.

E: Yeah we just got really into it, we were like ‘yeah let’s go for this, let’s do it properly! We actually started djing before we started making music. I mean I was doing music but it was a totally different style, much more guitar based but then we both started producing.

D: How do you produce your tracks, using logic ?

F: Yeah, we use logic then we also use Ableton.

D: Ok nice, do you re-wire them together?

E: Actually we don’t.

D: You use them separately?

F: We kind of do different things; we record on logic and then we do a lot of other stuff like

E: On Ableton we kind of import stuff from Logic into Ableton just because we both prefer to produce on (it). But we’re kind of like moving onto AbletonW

F: We started on logic.

E: But we were djing with Ableton.

D: Oh I see, trying to make the switch over.

E: Yeah so when we’re djing we can do live vocals.

16 WatchMePivot

Page 17: WatchMePivot Magazine Issue 4

D: So when you’re putting a track together, what comes first…do put drums down first or do one of you come up with an idea first?

F: It really depends, sometimes we’ll literally be like chilling and Eli will be like playing guitar and we’ll just come up with a melody and be like ok cool then we’ll just start. It really depends sometimes we’ll start with a melody or…

E: Sometimes we’ll start with a beat.

F: Or play a beat we really like and we’ll work around that but it really changes all the time.

D: Interesting.

E: Actually sometimes creating a track from something like just a vocal.

F: Just an acapella.

D: Oh like a sample?

E: Or just one of our vocals that maybe we’ve written on the guitar, just building it up from there. Sometimes you just get those musical ideas because you’ve got the melody then it’s nice to build up around that, I think sometimes it brings out better ideas.

D: That’s an interesting way to work. Do you feel like going from djing to producing affects the tracks you play now or the way you create music?

F: I think it definitely all sort of affects each thing, like if you’re out playing a track and you’re getting a good reaction, everyone’s going mental, you’re like “gotta remember this” so when you’re producing you want to get that across.

E: We always wanted to create tracks we could play out and I guess with the EP we just released there’s more chilled stuff that we wouldn’t necessarily play out but it’s nice to get that mix, to kind of get that balance, something you can play out and listen to whenever.

17 WatchMePivot

Page 18: WatchMePivot Magazine Issue 4

18 WatchMePivot

Page 19: WatchMePivot Magazine Issue 4

19 WatchMePivot

Page 20: WatchMePivot Magazine Issue 4

D: Can you tell us a little bit about your EP ‘Illusions’ and what you have coming up on the horizon?

E: So Illusions is like obviously like the first EP that with done with different; we released tracks before but we wanted to show a broader side of us, we got like one track ‘the game’ which is more clubby, tougher. Then we got the lead track which is ‘you’re so high’ which is more melodic, more vocal based, lastly ‘free your mind’ which is like more chilled out, more summery.

D: To show a variety of what you can do?

E&F: Yeah.

E: Yeah and I think with the next EP we want to do that as well and maybe even get some tougher clubber stuff on there then also some songs but I don’t know we just want to keep it interesting

D: So who or what really inspires your music?

F: Lots of different things.

E: Yeah we listen to tons of different music, I don’t think there’s specific music, I think subconsciously we’ve been influenced by the music we love. I think the music we love to make is music you can dance to, we love house music, we love going out.

F: Seeing djs playing.

D: Is there anyone who you really look up to or is it all about the feeling, the experience and putting it back into your music

E: We’ve always loved that old skool house, the first kind of house records.

F: Frankie Knuckles.

E: Marshall Jefferson; all that old slool stuff, Chicago house, we love like acid house but I guess that inspires everyone who’s making this kind of music but that’s still very important to us.

D: What do you two get up to when you’re not making music? Obviously you two spend a lot of time together.

F: (laughs) Yeah we hang out a lot!

20 WatchMePivot

Page 21: WatchMePivot Magazine Issue 4

D: Is the main thing just hanging out or do you hang out with other djs and produce with them?

E: Yeah that’s always fun, producing with friends and trying new stuff out but obviously a lot of it is based around music but then with anyone else around our age we do go out, having fun, going out with friends to eat.

F: We like painting (laughs).

D: (laughs) cool

E: (laughs) Yeah we do!

D: Like abstract or...

F: Like whatever, some of them are pretty weird!

E: Morden art (laughs).

D: How did that happen? Were you both like ‘should we paint as well’? (laughs).

F: I’ve always loved art, I studied art

E: Your art iss really good, you should do more with your art!

F: Thanks.

E: I’m just like, I just have a canvas and I’m like ‘yeaaeeeee’ (laughs). Anything creative we like to do together, going out, seeing other djs, festivals, good nights.

D: It’s good sharing everything together, then you have that link…you completely understand each other.

E: We’ve always had the best fun going out, partying. You always used to say ‘we could always ring each other up and be like ‘let’s go out’ and we’d always both be up for going out! (laughs)

F: Yeah (laughs) even if it was really late, anyone else would’ve been like no, I’m in bed.

E: So that works really well, we’re like best friends which is really fun and then to be able to dj together as well so we’re like playing the music; I mean like that’s like the best thing.

D: Sharing that with your best friend aswell...

E: Exactly, it’s awesome, yeah it works really well.

21 WatchMePivot

Page 22: WatchMePivot Magazine Issue 4

22 WatchMePivot

Page 23: WatchMePivot Magazine Issue 4

23 WatchMePivot

Page 24: WatchMePivot Magazine Issue 4

D: So last questions what are the plans for the future, what do you want to accomplish, what do you have coming out?

F: I think just keep going with it, keep making music, keep djing!

E: Making an EP that’s better than the EP we just released.

D: What about playing abroad?

E: Yeah we love to travel, we love to play everywhere.

F: Seeing new places.

E: Yeah, so like djing abroad is amazing; we’re going to…

F: Istanbul

E: Istanbul in a couple of weeks, we’ve never been there before so it’s going to be exciting.

D: Hopefully the weather will be better.

E&F: Yeah (laughs)

E: Keep going, more and more gigs, more music, we’ve got a collaboration with Jimmy Edgar that’s coming out at the end of the year. So that will be cool, just keep collaborating, making music!

~

24 WatchMePivot

www.eliandfur.com

www.soundcloud.com/eliandfur

Page 25: WatchMePivot Magazine Issue 4

25 WatchMePivot

Page 26: WatchMePivot Magazine Issue 4

Heads, Shoulders

Photography by Jamie Kendrick

~

Page 27: WatchMePivot Magazine Issue 4
Page 28: WatchMePivot Magazine Issue 4

above Harry wears cap by The Quiet Life.

right sweater by Humor.

28 WatchMePivot

Page 29: WatchMePivot Magazine Issue 4
Page 30: WatchMePivot Magazine Issue 4
Page 31: WatchMePivot Magazine Issue 4

Chuck wears crewneck by Humor, cap by Polo Ralph Lauren.

31 WatchMePivot

Page 32: WatchMePivot Magazine Issue 4

32 WatchMePivot

Page 33: WatchMePivot Magazine Issue 4
Page 34: WatchMePivot Magazine Issue 4
Page 35: WatchMePivot Magazine Issue 4

Boyd wears jacket by Humor.

35 WatchMePivot

Page 36: WatchMePivot Magazine Issue 4

Man &

The Machine

Page 37: WatchMePivot Magazine Issue 4

Electronic Dance Music has swept the young minds of our country into infatuation with every one of us becoming a part-time DJ, producing in our spare time and mixing when we should be working on our dissertation. Our complete technological proficiency is also allowing us to design our own logos, our own EP sleeves and artwork making us totally self-sufficient. An incredible feat of musical and human advance. As such this has borne a generation of musical DIY on a whole new scale, thus allowing more and more talented DJs and producers to filter through to the masses. Nothing highlights this better than the sheer number and size of dance festivals in England and right the way across the EU.

However, with the electronic domination of our musical palate this highlights a contrast between music created organically through the human and music created through the machine. Will we drown ourselves in a sea of over-produced and under-written music, whilst original song craft dies? I don’t want to fall into the pitfall of an over zealous music journalist and suggest that this is a new and extraordinary event in the history of music, intending to claim the title ‘first to say so’. Ever since man introduced the machine to music in the late 70s there has been a gleaming distinction between the two.

Seemingly in a reaction against this electronic music-scape we have seen a popularization of folk through some seriously talented artists of late. Ben Howard stole 2 Brit Awards and his debut album ‘Every Kingdom’ reached platinum in 2013, proving the popular appetite for calming acoustic finger picked guitar and melodies capable of charming Sirens. Also impossible to ignore is the huge success Bon Iver has had with ‘For Emma, Forever Ago’ in 2008 and his presence in the music industry even seeing him collaborate with Kanye West. Other folk solo artists such as Laura Marling are infecting the impressionable ears of 14 year old girls with her swooning lovesick lyrics, giving them the belief to create their own awkward love songs. Michael Kiwanuka’s beautiful, catchy and soulful take on acoustic folk with ‘Home Again‘ has racked up a very telling 7,157,630 listens on Spotify. There are so many other folk/folk influenced artists in the limelight: Frank Turner, Paolo Nutini, Johnny Flynn, Jake Bugg, Lucy Rose and Josh Record. On top of acoustic

artists, folk bands such as Mumford & Sons, Of Monsters and Men, Kodaline, The Lumineers, Daughter and Noah and the Whale have captured the people’s imaginations on a large scale, with Mumford & Sons a lowly folk band even selling out the O2 arena, which has a capacity of 20,000.

Folk has always retained an integral piece of the young people musical fabric. From its anti-establishment roots in the eighteen hundreds as a form of music that any smelly peasant could play, it was used as a suitable platform for anti-government demonstrations in America in the sixties and following that came the folk revival movement of the sixties and seventies, the height of folk influence. Since then, folk has simply filled in the gaps of other genres, without getting much distinct popular success outside the confines of its own supporters. Up until now that is.

Both folk/acoustic music and EDM have together experienced natural growth in popularity over recent years. This is because they are both accessible, folk requiring just a guitar and better DJ software programs has made DJing far easier and more intuitive. With the rise of EDM, the equal rise in status of folk was absolutely inevitable as folk provides what EDM doesn’t, a human face. You can go out until the dying hours of the night wired on MDMA, but when the morning comes and you have got yourself into difficulty, EDM won’t provide the soothing soundtrack and meaningful lyrics. Folk gives us the blissful, sun tinted Sunday afternoons and the soothing morning after. So whilst Benga or Alesso provide us with the height and ecstasy of the night, it is necessary for our sanity and health that we have Bombay Bicycle Club there to soothe us through the tinkering of an acoustic guitar and a soft lulling voice.

~

37 WatchMePivot

Words by Harvey James

Page 38: WatchMePivot Magazine Issue 4

Talk Is TenderPhotography by David Hinga

Model: Philippa Bywater @ Established Models

Hair & Makeup: Brenda Angeles Lupianez

Page 39: WatchMePivot Magazine Issue 4
Page 40: WatchMePivot Magazine Issue 4

Jacket by Evisu

Page 41: WatchMePivot Magazine Issue 4
Page 42: WatchMePivot Magazine Issue 4
Page 43: WatchMePivot Magazine Issue 4
Page 44: WatchMePivot Magazine Issue 4
Page 45: WatchMePivot Magazine Issue 4

Trainers by Adidas

Page 46: WatchMePivot Magazine Issue 4

Shorts by Bench

Page 47: WatchMePivot Magazine Issue 4
Page 48: WatchMePivot Magazine Issue 4

An afternoon at the Heygate estate with the WhyNot collective.

Whilst walking past the Southbank skate park one afternoon after an extremely early start assisting on location, something managed to catch my attention that didn’t involve the quickest way I could get home to bed. Pasted up on the mass of graffiti on the pillars was a poster advertising the why not collective I’m not quite sure why but it seem to stick in my head so they are definitely doing something right, so I then

decided to contact them.

After contacting them I found that they were two guys that met at university and decided to staWrt this clothing brand on the pure basis if you couldn’t already tell by the name, why not? To me I thought this was straight up honest and a good example of young creative’s collaborating and focusing time and

energy into tangible brands and businesses, their shared love for graffiti, design, music, fashion and their hometown the city of London being key motivation and inspiration. They encourage despite logical or

illogical elements that being productive, supportive and sacking off lousy and negative attitudes is the key to moving forward and being successful which I strongly admired.

For this reason I was very intrigued to meet these guys in person for one to check their clothing first hand and to do a feature on them and their brand. After contacting them and chatting to Ryan, the main

man behind the ‘Whynot’ brand we decided to meet up for a chat and a little shoot for the website. He had mentioned the Heygate as a possible location to meet up and do the shoot, I was only aware of it previously after seeing it many a time either going in or coming out of Corsica studios often one eyed throwing out drunken theories about squatters living in there, throwing raves or how mass murderers would hide their victims in there. After meeting up with Ryan and the other half behind the why not

brand who is also called Ryan we headed in through the entrance a the top of the Old Kent road.

A Day With WhyNot Collective

~

48 WatchMePivot

Page 49: WatchMePivot Magazine Issue 4

49 WatchMePivot

Page 50: WatchMePivot Magazine Issue 4

First impressions as we entered the estate on what was a scorching day was we had just entered a dystopian filmmakers dream, the eeriness and emptiness of the place and the vast size of it made it feel like we had stepped into a very high production film set for some not to distant future dystopia themed blockbuster. I was not at all surprised to hear that films such as Harry brown, Attack the Block and World War Z had all filmed here. The guys who design the maps for the Call of Duty would have a field day here. We also whilst walking around chatted about how this would probably be, if

health and safety knocked itself down a peg or two in this country, the best paintballing experience in the world!

It was once home to over 3000 people now there was the odd group of people hanging around the outskirts and once you progressed deeper the only people you will be likely to find are graffiti artists and people who are snap happy hungry to photograph the mass of graffiti and the area itself.

50 WatchMePivot

Page 51: WatchMePivot Magazine Issue 4

Exploring the area and managing to avoid most of the anti climb paint the was viscously spread everywhere we found a shrine that one resident who still lived there had outside there flat, which explained a lot about the controversy about how thousands of people were evicted from there homes and sticking and clippings from numerous articles

and collections. The Heygate now would be primarily known for it to be a graffiti haven, almost every inch of it being covered in paint and infinite amount of graffiti writers who had been there and painted kind of cloaked the gloomy history and masked it into a large, gritty urban canvas however a sanctuary for graffiti in itself.

51 WatchMePivot

Page 52: WatchMePivot Magazine Issue 4

We then managed to find a way inside one of the tower blocks and managed to tackle the stairs and some greasy ladder but found ourselves on the roof of the very building I had seen every time leaving Corsica, landscapes and views aren’t usually particularly my thing a lot of the time but walking over that roof and seeing all of the estate and the views of all over London that surrounded it was a great feeling and a good rush. We then took some more shots with the boys and some of their clothing with some of the views from the roof in the background, and after a good while we decided to wander on back down to ground level. As we were leaving I thought we had bumped into another graffiti writer going into his bag with is hood up with his back to us, as we walked past we all realized it was actually some guy clutching a

lighter caressing it under a bubbly spoon of casual heroin. We stopped I’m not that sure why, one of the boys decided he would give it a brief go and maybe giving this guy a bit of help amateur counseling but he responded by looking up and smiling with ‘Crack on’. I couldn’t help but laugh a bit at the irony and the shape of his sense of humor in his situation, however it was a bizarre and slightly disturbing end to a very interesting day.

52 WatchMePivot

Page 53: WatchMePivot Magazine Issue 4

whynotcollective.com

53 WatchMePivot

Page 54: WatchMePivot Magazine Issue 4

Elephant In The Room

The first thing you notice when enter Heygate is the eerie silence that surrounds you as you step into one of Londons most beautiful ugly council estates. Carpets of grass and dead leaves blanket empty roads and neglected walkways, while the concrete walls invite graffiti from writers all over the world. One of the many contradictions of Heygate is how somewhere bereft of life still shows signs of activity, whether its the saplings growing in the middle of the road or the constantly updated graffs outside the grey behemoths. You would think its easy to work out how Heygate become this desolate place, it just looks seedy with too many nooks and crannies for prostitution, drug deals and gangland killings. The environment within is alienating, making people who live there feel small and worthless, making them feel crime was the only way out. And as one broken window led to broken lifts and broken homes, the vicious circle was complete where the only solution left is to destroy, rebuild and start again.

Or at least that’s what the popular narrative of Heygate would have you believe. The powers that be would rather you think a natural chain of cause and effect starting with badly designed buildings, indifferent residents and vicious criminality led to Heygate’s downfall. But like any good magic trick, the key lies in what you can’t see rather than what you can. The first Heygate myth is why it was built in the first place. Popular accounts say that the area Heygate stood upon was hugely damaged by bombing during WW2, forcing the GLC to create new homes fit for the 20th century rather than the 19th. This is a lie. The victorian tenement homes around the area were affected by bomb damage, but not so extensively that they required demolition. But when you’re a GLC councilor in the 50’s and you hear of this new fangled brutalist architecture that will solve all of your social problems in one fell swoop, it’s easy to just cast those people aside. Especially when you’ll have a pet project under your watch that will make people feel like that progress is down to

you. To be fair to the GLC, London had just come out of a devastating war so a forward looking big scale project would’ve have made people feel better about their lives, but whitewashing history to make it seem that there was no choice but to demolish is wrong and only serves to support those who want to demolish Heygate today. All of which goes to the second myth of Heygate; its design.

Supporters of regeneration (AKA politicians and developers) want you to think that Heygate failed as a sustainable and positive place to live. That its design lacked an organic quality that was exchanged for an underlying sense of unease that came with the huge constructions. This cold logic of brutalist architecture can be seen in Corbusier’s ‘The City Of Tomorrow and Its Planning’, where he carefully breaks down the needs and demands of an urban populace through careful design ratios and the systematic allocation of resources. You can see this philosophy at Heygate, in the raised walkways in particular which were designed to make pedestrian journeys easier and less dangerous. However, walk down the same walkways on a dark evening and you feel the opposite of safe as you’re forced to pass by shady people you would otherwise cross the street to avoid.

The Issue of semi-abandoned Heygate Estate next to the ever more re-gentrified Elephant & Castle is a looming one, but what’s going to happen?

~

54 WatchMePivot

Page 55: WatchMePivot Magazine Issue 4

Which goes to one last final myth of Heygate, that it was an “infamous” den of iniquity and crime. Like many places in inner city London, Heygate had crime, but were the levels of crime so high it was essentially a “muggers paradise”? Short answer; no. The past decade or so has seen a massive yet subliminal rebranding of Heygate as a hell hole. Every TV or film shot there, despite its depictions of beauty in urban decay, reinforced the notion that Heygate was a place only for criminality. Added to this every press release and article that denigrates the area and you create the illusion of a problem that doesn’t exist, or at least a problem magnified out of proportion. Crime in Heygate since 1998 has been 45% lower than the rest of Southwark, making it, relatively speaking, pretty safe despite its appearances.

Heygate stands today as a testament to a history of undemocratic, unethical and unfair policies that favour those with power rather those without. What started out as a forward looking utopia has become an awkward and expensive embarrassment for Southwark council and the logic of regeneration. Looking west from the roofs of the estate, you see Strada Tower, an ivory

tower of gentrification and social cleansing. Its eco windmills at the top never seen spinning and only there to justify the construction of the building in the first place. This is the type of regeneration that is going to happen to Heygate and Elephant & Castle in the coming years.

This is the elephant in the room, the reality that countless councils, politicians and developers never really cared about the residents in the first place, but held a thinly veiled pretence of that the people of Heygate were forced to accept. Heygate now is nothing but a sad list of statistics, like the fact that the estate could potentially rehouse all the homeless of London. The fact that southwark council sold the place for £50 Million, even though it cost the council £44 Million to move everyone out. And the fact that the new homes are being sold to international property speculators in Asia. Heygate represents the depressing marketisation of the public good and the diminished voice of the ordinary person in the face of an increasingly privatized world.

But for all its failings, Heygate is culturally important because the buildings embody the spirit of the postwar social contract, the idea that the state has a responsibility to its citizens to ensure a minimum standard of living. When Heygate was completed, residents would be in awe at the place, knowing that it was fresh and new, built not only for ‘a’ future but their future. In news media circles today its very fashionable to attack the welfare state and Heygate is merely an extension of this. Regardless f its design, the place embodies all the ideals that the present Government is gutting out the national conversation. Like Heygate, they try to argue that welfare is unfit for purpose and that only a complete foundational restructuring is needed to “save” it. To understand

why the place looks dilapidated, you have to go back to the 80’s where the real problems began. Cuts in maintenance made the estate less efficient and look dilapidated. Added to this the effects of Thatcher’s policies on the estates working poor and you have the perfect cocktail for inner city social deprivation. Ideologically speaking, Heygate embodies socialist ideals, something that the neoliberal government of the 80’s tried hard to destroy. How better to prove socialism wrong than scupper one of its greatest experiments? Make no mistake, the failure of Heygate is a failure of social policy rather than a failure of design or people.

~

55 WatchMePivot

Page 56: WatchMePivot Magazine Issue 4

FocusPhotography by David Hinga

Model: Diego Barrueco @ Established Models

Page 57: WatchMePivot Magazine Issue 4
Page 58: WatchMePivot Magazine Issue 4

Windbreaker by Puma

Page 59: WatchMePivot Magazine Issue 4
Page 60: WatchMePivot Magazine Issue 4
Page 61: WatchMePivot Magazine Issue 4

T-shirt & trousers by Puma

Page 62: WatchMePivot Magazine Issue 4

Jeans by Evisu

Trainers & jacket by Puma

Page 63: WatchMePivot Magazine Issue 4
Page 64: WatchMePivot Magazine Issue 4

Bored as

Fuck.Photography by Jamie Kendrick

~

Page 65: WatchMePivot Magazine Issue 4

Rory wears jacket by Schott, sunglasses

by Schwood, cap by Supreme.

Page 66: WatchMePivot Magazine Issue 4
Page 67: WatchMePivot Magazine Issue 4

67 WatchMePivot

Page 68: WatchMePivot Magazine Issue 4
Page 69: WatchMePivot Magazine Issue 4
Page 70: WatchMePivot Magazine Issue 4
Page 71: WatchMePivot Magazine Issue 4

71 WatchMePivot

Page 72: WatchMePivot Magazine Issue 4
Page 73: WatchMePivot Magazine Issue 4

73 WatchMePivot

Page 74: WatchMePivot Magazine Issue 4

B r o k e n Beats

Page 75: WatchMePivot Magazine Issue 4

From my experience, dance floors across the nation tend to move fairly cohesively in time with the popular genres of the day. Fans of electronic music seem to have identified the cyclical nature of the trends and patterns within the production of

synthesised beats, allowing creators and consumers alike to share in the innovation and reconstitution of what has come before, to the end of achieving a new sound for the kids to get waved to.

In the past couple of years it’s been difficult to ignore the massive resurgence house music has undergone, flooding our clubs with heads beneath hats rhythmically and communally giving a nod to the sounds of Detroit and Miami in bygone decades. Now it

would be a fallacy to try and diminish the influence or relevance of an artist as seminal as say, Theo Parish. The pertinence of the point lies in how the clubbers relate to the evolution of the scene, how the environment changes our behaviours; and to my great disappointment, I truly believe that this barrage of beats looped and beat matched at 126 bpm is malignantly sucking the vibrancy

from our capital’s dance floors.

To put it more bluntly, I find there to be something painfully monotonous about dancing all night to drum patterns, robotically loyal to the 4x4 beat. Call me a heathen but I’d even go as far as to say that it genuinely limits your capacity for movement and

bodily expression. So what’s the solution? I hear you ask.

Well once upon a time in a club culture supposedly not so far distant from our current one, broken up beats related directly to broken jagged styles of movement, bringing a markedly more carefree atmosphere to proceedings.

Prodigy -Hyperspeed (G- Force)

As can be heard from The Prodigy’s debut album, the injection of the broken beat juts and staggers its way throughout the central nervous system of the listener, which when combined with MDMA or liquor, results in hyper energetic, capoeira like

move busting. Call me classless but this sounds like the perfect antidote to yet another “east London warehouse”, full to bursting point with profoundly bored-looking, ketamine addled shufflers.

At the risk of stating the obvious I’d say its a fair assumption that people like to look the best they can on nights out, (ignoring the runny nose). However when this self consciousness is teamed with the overarching preoccupation with streetwear, too many

nights out seem to consist of the same old djs playing a background theme while dudes in the same brightly coloured trainers suspiciously scrutinise one another.

Although I’ve painted a picture of a scene a little bit saturated by house, as any well researched listener will know, we’re not lacking in variety. Drum and bass maintains its unrelenting popularity, while house and garage based beats around 130 bpm have

seen some excellent regeneration in the last year or so. For example....

Tessela Hackney Parrot

This reinvigorated working of breaks, reminiscent of the hardcore sound of the early 90s literally forces you to jump to your feet and acknowledge the sounds that you are hearing, rather than the aforementioned gormless nodding that has become so

prevalent.

Realistically, it’s difficult to dispute that nightlife has slowly become more routine and predictable, in spite of the fact that more innovative music is being created at a greater rate than ever before. It would be unhelpful to try and find a scapegoat in large

promoters, as clearly deep house nights fill venues and consistently bring in the revenue. My intention rather, is to politely draw your attention to the way that your movement moderates your mood, and how great an effect it has upon how you spend a night

on the town. As far as I can tell people always get more loose when the beats are broken, whatever the tempo.....

Conquering Lion - Code Red (98 Remix)

When the dance floor gets static, beats become broken

Words by Matthew Cameron

~

~

75 WatchMePivot

Page 76: WatchMePivot Magazine Issue 4

Photography by David Hinga

Model: Ola G @ Established Models

Hair & Makeup: Bridie Tyler

Hoods Up Hats Down

Page 77: WatchMePivot Magazine Issue 4
Page 78: WatchMePivot Magazine Issue 4

78 WatchMePivot

Page 79: WatchMePivot Magazine Issue 4
Page 80: WatchMePivot Magazine Issue 4

Bomber Jacket by Schott

Page 81: WatchMePivot Magazine Issue 4
Page 82: WatchMePivot Magazine Issue 4

Cap by HUF

Page 83: WatchMePivot Magazine Issue 4

Vest by New Love Club

Page 84: WatchMePivot Magazine Issue 4

Cap by INDCSN

Page 85: WatchMePivot Magazine Issue 4

Gilet by Humor

Snapback by indcsn

Page 86: WatchMePivot Magazine Issue 4

Leggings by Champion

Page 87: WatchMePivot Magazine Issue 4
Page 88: WatchMePivot Magazine Issue 4

D&AD Photography 2013 Student Awards Spotlight. Featuring Luke Evans, Anastasia Koroveselva, Sara Naim. Dazed and Confuzed asked the students to depict contempory youth culture.

D&AD STUDENT AWARDS

Every young creative craves the opportunity to work on a live brief that will give them the exposure that they will need, D&AD, an educational Charity have been doing just that for the last 30 years. With industry leading companies setting intriguing briefs the students are able to test their creativity in a professional environment.

D&AD’s members and collaborators represent the creative community of advertisers, art directors,designers and many more creative fields, The aim of the D&AD foundation is to celebrate creative communication and raise standards within their industry. The founding members of Terrance Donovan, David Bailey and Alan Fletcher set out to ‘inform, educate and inspire those who work in and around the creative industries.’

This year Dazed &Confused stepped up to offer the photography competition a challenge to ‘depict contemporary youth culture’. This year the Judging panel included Art Director of Rankin Photography, Vicky Lawton, and Head of Art Buying at McCann-Erikson London, Sophie Chapman-Andrews, as well as members of the Dazed & Confused team and leading photographers.

The Judges sorted through thousands of entries from 321 collages in 41 countries.

This Year the Photography competition was one of the strongest competitions within the Student Awards with three Yellow Pencils being awarded to Luke Evans, William Lakin and Anthony Cassell. Amongst the Students Nominated and winners of the Best of Year category we caught up with Yellow Pencil winner Luke Evans, Best of year Annastasia Korosteleva and Nominee Sara Naim.

~

88 WatchMePivot

Page 89: WatchMePivot Magazine Issue 4

Best Of YearTuli-Gal Litvak

Best Of YearGeorgie Taylor

Best Of YearAnastasia Korosteleva

Best Of YearEllie Dowse

89 WatchMePivot

Page 90: WatchMePivot Magazine Issue 4

Yellow PencilLuke Evans

Best Of YearAnastasia Korosteleva

Best Of YearMichelle Amosu

NominationAnastasia Chelishcheva

90 WatchMePivot

Page 91: WatchMePivot Magazine Issue 4

Yellow PencilWilliam Lakin

Yellow PencilAnthony Cassel

NominationAnnie Tobin

NominationIan Robert Slater

91 WatchMePivot

Page 92: WatchMePivot Magazine Issue 4