Black is the New AP Style

There isn’t a specific moment that Annie O’Malley chose to pursue music professionally, but it might be found on one of the many videos sitting in her family home.

In every video, she’s performing in some capacity and belting out every genre possible; her dad showed her alternative, rock and indie while her mom shared her love for EDM, disco, funk and pop.

She spent her spare time (and times she should have been doing her homework - sorry mom!) watching music videos on repeat until she had the dance moves memorized. Once she perfected that, she made her own versions. She stayed up until morning writing her own songs, as well as practicing guitar and piano. She begged her dad to take her to a recording studio, and when he said yes, she immediately shared the good news with all her friends. Her family clearly agreed; she was born to sing.

“I used to sing when I was in public in case someone in the industry was listening and every time we went out to dinner and there was a live band I would ask to sing,” O’Malley said.

Her teachers also recognized her passion, and gave her that extra push to go after her dreams. Her first live performance was when she was only 9 years old, singing an original song written for her choir’s Christmas show.

“I sat on a stool with my little guitar that I stuck pink heart stickers to and wrapped a best friend bracelet I had with my friend around my wrist for good luck,” she said. “I loved it and I never stopped.”

Her manager introduced her to Chicago-based producer Johnny K, who has worked with artists such as Disturbed, 3 Doors Down and Plain White T’s. As a Chicago native herself, O’Malley was able to work alongside a knowledgeable and passionate creator.

Her debut EP is set to release in the near future and is a great blend of all the music she grew up listening to.

“Some songs are about love; I have some that are just very poetic and calming, and some that have little questions about understanding life and feelings,” she said. “These songs have been a part of me in so many different moments in my life.”

As she gears up for the release of her debut EP, Annie O’Malley brings that passion to life through each lyric and melody. Whether she’s singing on a home video or singing in front of a sold-out crowd, she knows that her true passion lies within her music.

Let me just be straight … it is honestly the TIMES that I’ve cried at Wilco shows if you include the number of occasions I have also seen Jeff Tweedy play solo throughout the years. The man is a national treasure and it’s appropriate given what an absolute sucker I am for his song, “Sunken Treasure”, which just so happens to be the tune that set me off on November 6, 2004 at the Fillmore in Denver.

I remember it well because it was shortly after the 2004 elections, when George W. had won reelection against John Kerry and that was sort of the tone that everything was set against. It was my very first election I voted in but I wasn’t really a fan of either candidate, so everyone was either bummed about the wet blanket of an opposition nominee or the bleak realization that we were stuck both in that administration and the first major war that I had witnessed in my adult life. I can remember Tweedy saying something offhand like, “Thank you all for not killing yourselves tonight and coming out anyways.”

Nonetheless, I was a huge fan of the band, obsessively so since Yankee Hotel Foxtrot had come out and I was excited to be there. I had driven out from Boulder that night with my good friend and former bandmate, Adam Weiss (and now of Truest, in NYC). We had recorded a demo of about six songs and burned them to a CD to assist in our foolproof plan to deliver the disc to Tweedy, who would then take us home with him and let us live and record in his loft in Chicago. Our band, which had gone through several name incarnations, including such clear winners as Free Lemmings (so subtle and deep) and Arch Anemone, but at the time I think we were simply calling ourselves Yowza! - it was the sound of the future and Jeff Tweedy was our ticket to the stars.

Anyway, for those who don’t know “Sunken Treasure”, it sort of has two different personalities depending on if they’re playing it as a band or Jeff is performing solo. The band version includes their notorious noise and amps feedback of that era, while the solo version is stripped down, folksy and tender. Musically, it would hit you in different ways, but it is the lyrics that unite the visions:

“But there is no sunken treasure rumored to be

Closure is complicated. We often seek it not knowing what we’ll find – sometimes it hurts us, sometimes it provides us with clarity, and either outcome helps us move on. Songwriting has always been my greatest form of finding closure, and when I began writing “Someday” I knew that I wanted this song to embody the feeling of finding closure in your own happiness.

With this project I always try to promote self-worth and empowerment, and I wanted the lyrics of this song to tie into those themes. So many of us have been hurt, and often times we’re left questioning our worth as a result. “Someday” is meant to be an anthem for those who have found the strength to leave a relationship that made them feel unworthy. It’s about recognizing the love you deserve, and knowing someday that person will have deep regrets for letting you go. It could have very easily been a sad song, but I didn’t want that. Realizing your worth is freeing, and I wanted to translate that emotion as powerfully as I could into music.

I worked on this song with the incredibly talented producers Robbie Townsend and Randor Lin, and they truly brought this song to life. I originally recorded a scratch take of this song on the ukulele (an instrument I wouldn't typically use for this project) and Robbie had a great suggestion to keep the ukulele for production. From there, the song took off in the best direction possible. We ended up spending a day in the studio recording percussion noises on an array of children’s instruments, and I was fortunate enough to bring in a couple of my extremely talented friends to record the group vocals as well. This was the most fun I’ve ever had recording a song, and I really believe you can feel that translate into the final product.

“Someday” is one of the most vulnerable songs I’ve written, but music is about vulnerability. It’s about being honest with ourselves and forming connections with others who have had similar experiences. It’s about sharing experiences, and I wanted to share mine with the world to let you know it gets better. You are strong, you will find that happiness. You deserve it.

I am so proud of “Someday” and all of the hard work that went into creating it, and I hope that these words and melodies resonate with you the same way they resonate with me.

Riley Clemmons may be just 19 years old, but she has a solid grasp on two important aspects of her music career: a reliable support system and how to release honest music.

The Nashville native was constantly around music and by the time she was 16, she had signed a publishing and record deal with Capitol Records. From the very beginning of her career, she’s had defining moments that really shaped her into the songwriter she is today.

“Learning to write as a really young person, it was this process of figuring out what my voice was and figuring out what it meant to be a young woman who was a writer and wanting to put something real on the line,” she said.

There was a moment during one of her earlier songwriting sessions that really clicked for her in terms of making sure she stayed honest in her music. It involved a huge argument with her mother, a tearful walk into the studio and 30 minutes of getting it all out. The outcome was one of her first singles, “I’ll Stay”. To this day, it’s still one of her favorites.

Like other musicians, it’s not always easy for Clemmons to share raw, honest thoughts in the form of a song. It goes back to that support system, however, that makes a huge difference when it comes to keeping things honest.

“I think it all comes down to making the best music that you know how to make that feels genuine and real and fresh,” she said. “I'm learning more and more every day; it's about the team that's around you and the people that believe in you and that's made a massive difference in having that extra level of confidence.”

Her most recent single, “Fighting For Me”, also comes from a stand-out writing session. Clemmons remembers sitting in the studio with co-writers and having a discussion on division among humanity versus desire of the heart. Through that conversation came an anthem that was both something she really needed to hear and something others need to hear.

“It's so easy to walk into a room and only see differences,” she said. “We really wanted to focus on what unites people and what brings people together more than tear us apart. It comes down to this desire that's within all people and wanting to be loved unconditionally.”

With honesty comes recognition, and Riley Clemmons has already made a name for herself within the music industry and amongst her peers. Her new Christmas album and winter tour dates are just a few of the things up her sleeve for the next year, and what’s to come is worth the wait.

It’s always the inadvertently different tastes in music that create the ultimate genre-bending artists, and The Retinas are no exception.

For drummer Anthony Fulginitti, his earliest love for music began with Wu Tang Clan and A Tribe Called Quest. Bassist Andy Silverman preferred metal than hip-hop, with classics like Black Sabbath. Vocalist/guitarist Thomas McHugh grew up on The Doors and The Rolling Stones.

“We all kind of met in the middle around Led Zeppelin,” McHugh said.

Once they began making music together they found influence in bands like Pixies, The Replacements and The Strokes.

“Each of them possesses something we all look for in music,” McHugh said. “Pixies and [The] Doors have that insanity, the weird places you can go with art. [Black] Sabbath and [The] Replacements have a raw unadulterated soul to their approach, and [The] Strokes and Wu Tang [Clan] have a perfect catchiness and beat to them.”

From the first time they collaborated in the studio together, those influences stood out - especially while creating their recently-released debut self-titled album. They have the luxury of having their own studio, which gave them as much time as they needed to perfect their sound.

It also gave them the opportunity to learn how to best work alongside each other. They make the most out of their demos by taking them home to work on individually, practicing them live as much as possible and recording another demo before fully committing to an official recording.

“In the studio I think the most valuable thing we've learned is to leave everyone with optimizing space,” McHugh said. “If we need to run the song 50 times to get the take, if we need to do it by ourselves all together, take it home, whatever we need to do to get the take is fine. The science is never exact, but it’s important to leave to however it may come.”

The Retinas have really been able to take their greatest influences and create music that they are fully involved in and proud of. Their self-titled album is available now and can be seen live on tour this fall.

Erin Coburn is a force to be reckoned with. Since a young age, she's captivated her audiences with her prowess on guitar, powerful vocals and a unique blend of rock and blues, bringing it all into the 21st century.

Her latest single, "Fast Paced & Freakish", explores the theme of growth that is apparent throughout her upcoming album, Out From Under.

"I was MAD.. I was CONFUSED… I was ANXIOUS!" she said. "I began to question myself – Had I grown up too fast? I was at a point in my life where it felt like all of these adult obligations were rushing in and I was watching my childhood slip away. It felt like my life was on fast forward and I had only listened to what everyone else wanted me to be, which made me feel like I could have been someone else. All these conflicting emotions made me write this fast paced and aggressive anthem."

Stream "Fast Paced & Freakish" exclusively on Black is the New AP Style!

Donatello, the genius of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, has a surprisingly calm personality behind the purple mask. In the 1987 animated series, he’s the brains behind their revolutionary gadgets, from the Turtle Van to the portable portal. The man behind the voice, Barry Gordon, is just as fascinating.

Gordon began performing at age three, and recorded his first single, “Nuttin’ for Christmas”,at age six. At Wizard World Chicago this past summer, he said that his craziest fan encounter was when someone came up to his table with an ad for that record.

“They had an ad from 1955 with a picture on it that I had not seen in probably 60 years,” he said.

He was cast on a multitude of shows during his childhood and well into his adulthood before making the move into voice acting. His time on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles lasted for nearly a decade, and has remained at the top of his list of favorite projects. The comradery and friendships created during the show was something he was never quite able to duplicate.

However, Gordon was the last of his castmates to join the comic convention circuit. He remembers getting a phone call out of the blue and the first time they all met up at a convention in Calgary. Other than getting together for dinner once, they original four Turtles hadn’t seen each other in about 30 years. This year alone, they’ve been to six different conventions.

“It really has revived our friendship,” Gordon said. “Now we’re like brothers.”

Going to these conventions also gives Gordon the opportunity to geek out. He’s a major fan of sci-fi and fantasy, and got the ultimate opportunity at Wizard World Chicago to see stars from shows like Heroes and Supernatural as well as legends like Ken Page and Henry Winkler.

“When there’s people here from my favorite shows it’s really cool, so I can understand if it affects me it really affects others,” he said. “I’m starting to understand why people come and what they do.”

Since retiring from acting, Gordon has been a professor at his alma mater, California State University Los Angeles. He teaches film acting in their MFA program, and said the ability to teach and give back to a new generation is what he’s most proud of.

Donatello has meant a lot to many generations, and the man behind that voice - and the men behind the voices of Raphael, Michaelangelo and Leonardo - have been able to bring those childhood dreams to life, one convention at a time.