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Yahoo
7 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
5 Songs With ‘Forever' Music Supervisor Kier Lehman
Music supervisor is a job that is part professional music nerd, part aural detective and part crate-digging business affairs exec. 5 Songs is a Deadline series that highlights the work of these below the line workers through songs and stories. Forever is an adaptation of the 1975 Judy Blume novel, but set in Los Angeles rather than New Jersey. It tells the story of two young athletes, played by Justin Edwards and Keisha Clark, who reunite, after going to grade school together, and fall in love but face the pressure of sports, academics and college prep. More from Deadline 'Nobody Wants This' Creator Erin Foster Talks Season 2 Timeline; Leighton Meester And Adam Brody Together On Screen 'Big Mouth' Creator Nick Kroll On Animating Puberty & Destigmatizing The Experience: "It's All Weird And It's All Normal" 'Mindhunter's Holt McCallany Teases "A Chance" David Fincher Will Revive Series As Film Trilogy From Mara Brock Akil, the series, which has already been renewed for a second season, features a of music, particularly songs from L.A.-based artists that were on the scene in 2018. 'We're making sure that we're representing the key moments and key artists from that time period that really tell the story of that time and bring people back to the nostalgia of that time with songs people remember,' music supervisor Kier Lehman told Deadline. Lehman has worked with Brock Akil before on series such as OWN's Love Is_ and BET's Being Mary Jane and said that all of her shows have a ton of songs in them. 'That's something that she's always really thinking about and conceiving as a part of how she's telling the story,' he added. He noted that some songs such as 'Within' by Daft Punk were in the script. 'She has a pretty clear vision of the general style of music and probably a handful of artists and songs. Then I get to really build off of that and bring her new ideas, things that maybe she didn't know and delve deeper into research, especially with a period piece,' he said. WHAT WAS THE FIRST SONG YOU LICENSED FOR 'FOREVER'? The first song we licensed that actually ended up in the show, finally, was the Daft Punk song 'Within' because that was scripted. It's not that they say any lyrics or anything from it in the scene, but it was just really important that we knew we could have that song from the beginning. We're talking pre-production. I'm probably one of the early people that they hire on the show. We're talking from the beginning about ideas and sending music back and forth, reading early versions of the scripts. I knew what this was going to entail, a lot of music. Those are exciting projects, because it means that the music is going to be a really important character in the show, and it's going to be highlighted and upfront and featured. That's exciting for me. THE MOST SIGNIFICANT SONG IN 'FOREVER'? That's a tough one to answer because there's so many songs in there. There are so many moments that where the songs really drive and help tell the story of the show. If I had to pick one, I'd have to go with 'Blessed' by Daniel Caesar, which plays in episode five, when they finally kind of realized that they're coming together. She's searching for him on Martha's Vineyard, and they finally connect and have that moment together. It continues to play through them connecting as a couple. From the reaction that I've seen from fans, that seems like one that really people are connecting with. Daniel Caesar became kind of a theme for them and that's a really big moment for them. I thought it might be Daniel Caesar or Frank Ocean' 'Moon River', which plays at the end of the season. That was the second one on my list. It's the end credit. People have been responding to that one a lot too. THE MOST UNEXPECTED CUE IN 'FOREVER'? We have a little bit of a range of genres in the show. It's definitely heavily R&B and hip hop from that time but there were a couple of scenes, where it was important to include the parents' music. I don't how completely unexpected it is, but one song that I wouldn't necessarily expect to hear in any kind of TV show was Charles Earland's 'Brown Eyes', which was this great jazz piece that played as the parents are in Martha's Vineyard hanging in the house, and it follows them as they walk through the house, looking for Justin while he's making beats. That was one where I was really proud that we were able to use a piece of music like that. In a lot of cases, jazz music doesn't get that kind of placement, doesn't get featured that way, and it usually gets replaced by a cheaper version of something like that, so we really wanted to honor that music of the parents and make sure that we used the real, best, authentic version of what those people would be playing. Is jazz any more of a challenge for you to license? For the most part, it's been pretty good. We worked on the show The Changeling, which is an Apple show, where we used Alice Coltrane, and that was a tricky clearance. At first, she didn't want to approve the use and we had to work through that a little bit to explain the context and the way that it was used in the show and how meaningful that use was. We did eventually get the clearance, and the song is in the show. Sometimes there's a little bit more gathering of information to make sure that the music is being presented in the best light. I think a lot of times people, especially jazz musicians, they're excited. How many artists need to know exactly how their song is going to be used? I'd say it's a pretty small number these days. When we approach, we explain what the show is about, generally, and tell them the scene and how the song is used. There's some information that everybody gets, but I'd say it's maybe 10% to 15% of artists that want to dig deeper and maybe want to see a clip of the use, or have a conversation to know a little bit deeper about the context, and are they going to be presented in a negative light. Sometimes there may be a scene where a character reacts to the music, and then you might have to explain the context of a scene. I had a film, Los Frikis, where we used Barry Manilow, and there was a moment where a character reacts negatively to Barry Manilow's music, but then by the end, there's an arc where Barry Manilow's music comes back, and everybody appreciates it and talks about how cool he was. THE HARDEST SONG TO LICENSE FOR FOREVER? The hardest one in Forever was Travis Scott's 'Butterfly Effect'. It wasn't that he didn't want to approve the song or had any questions of how it was used, but really more he's hard to get to, and he was hard to nail down the approval and get the response from his label. I was trying for weeks, months, probably. Through a mutual friend, I had to get to his manager, who still took a while to respond, and then they were very gracious about it. He was in the middle of doing a huge project and preparing for something, and didn't have the time to focus on something like this, so we just kept at it and pushed the episode delivery as late as we could, so that we could give as much time to do this. Fortunately, with my friend's help, we were able to finally get the approval for the use of that song, and it was really important to have his music in the show. It was important to Mara and important for these characters, because of how his music really resonated with the angst of young black boys. That's something that our character was going through a really tough moment and feeling really bad and wanting to be angry and lash out., Travis Scott's music really carries that emotion for a lot of young kids. I imagine one of the challenges with a soundtrack like this is there's quite a lot of samples and different rights. It's definitely better than it was. I've been doing this for a while and worked on shows that used a lot of hip hop over the years, so I've dealt with a lot of those kind of situations with agreements not being finished, songs being brand new, and having those negotiations worked out. Depending on who's making the show, some people are a little bit more willing to wait and get approvals, as long as those things get figured out. Some people a little bit more strict about that. Those things can go on for a very long time, into the future, after the show gets released. Some of those emails will pop up in my inbox every once in a while, but usually they get resolved over time. One of the benefits of this show being set in 2018 is that like the music has been around for a few years, at least by now, some of these songs have been licensed already, so a lot of that had already been worked out. When I was working on Insecure, we were getting brand new music, fresh out of the studio, people creating for us, or wanting to get us their music immediately, because they wanted to be on the show and have it part of their release, and that was a huge amount of work dealing through clearing songs. [With samples], the labels are really cautious of that but they also know that they have catalogs, and they want to be able to monetize those catalogs, and if something is held up by a tiny little sample that they may or may not know about, they have to weigh the risk of granting that approval or not. They're obviously trying to work through how they can either fix those things, replace them, get them cleared, have somebody redo the tracks. Sometimes they just don't want to know, because they would rather be able to license it and keep things moving as they have throughout the years. Music from the '80s and '90s, there was so much sampling, and there was like ten songs within one song so it's just impossible to parse through all of that. People are obviously way more aware of that now. Newer things don't have that going on, which makes things a little bit easier for us. But, of course, that's always going to be something with hip hop and producers try to sneak things in and get it past everybody. FAVORITE SONG ON 'FOREVER'? This was also very hard to choose because a lot of this music, I personally love. I think my favorite is 'Do 4 Love' by Snoh Aalegra. It's a cover of one of my favorite songs, Bobby Caldwell's 'What You Won't Do For Love'. I love that song and her version is incredible. She's just got an incredible voice and incredible style as an artist that I love, so I think I have to pick that one out of all of them. The way that it's used in the show is also really significant. It plays twice in two different episodes, and kind of helps finish their relationship when they kind of decide, spoiler alert, that they're going to separate at the end of the show. Episode 1: ReunionProne by MasegoPainted on Canvas by Gregory PorterBad and Boujee by MigosWithin by Daft PunkMight Be by Anderson .PaakTime Moves Slow by BadBadNotGood feat. Sam HerringLight and Soul by Foam CollectivePretty Ugly by Tierra Whack Episode 2: GhostedSee You Again by Tyler, The Creator feat. Kali UchisFree (Re-Record) by Deniece WilliamsCall Me by NeikeDrowning by A Boogie Wit A Hoodie (feat. Kodak Black) Love Scars 3 by Trippie ReddJuice by Lady LeshurrNew Love by Victoria MonetButterfly Effect by Travis Scott Episode 3: Fourth QuarterImperfections by Starrah & Diplo Grinding All my Life by Nipsey Hussle Can't by NaazFocus by Tour Llif3 by Lil Uzi VertPlain Jane by A$AP FergWhile We're Young by Jhene Aiko Gangsta by Kehlani Episode 4: Run It BackPrivate Parts by J*DaveyNormal Girl by SZAMoney Longer by Lil Uzi VertGirls Need Love by Summer WalkerTomorrow's Interlude by Until Tomorrow Episode 5: The VineyardThis Feeling by Alabama ShakesMake Me Feel by Janelle MonaeBrown Eyes by Charles EarlandDo 4 Love by Snoh AalegraInto The Ether by Leif VollebekkBurn Rubber On Me (Why You Wanna Hurt Me) by The Gap BandBlessed by Daniel CaesarMoonlight by XXXTentacion Episode 6: The HoneymoonJapanese Denim by Daniel CaesarNew Whip, Who Dis by Daz Rinko8TEEN by KhalidRiver by Leon BridgesBITTA by Eskeerdo Episode 7: Deep EndTadow by Masego, FKJHey Mr DJ by ZhanéOne Wish (For Christmas) by Whitney HoustonHave Yourself A Merry Little Christmas by Leslie Odom Like Summer by Childish Gambino Episode 8: Forever…Cutie Pie by One WayYou're the One by Kaytranada, SydI'm The One by DJ Khaled (feat. Justin Bieber, Quavo)My Type (Remix) by Saweetie (feat. City Girls & Jhene Aiko)Every Kind Of Way by Ain't Gonna Work Out by Mayer HawthorneI Don't Mean To by Sabrina ClaudioDo 4 Love by Snoh AalegraYou're The Only Thing I've Got Going For Me by Bill WrightMoon River by Frank Ocean Best of Deadline 'Stick' Soundtrack: All The Songs You'll Hear In The Apple TV+ Golf Series 'Stick' Release Guide: When Do New Episodes Come Out? 'The Buccaneers' Season 2 Soundtrack: From Griff To Sabrina Carpenter
Courier-Mail
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Courier-Mail
Longboarder and filmmaker, Lucy Small on the fight for gender equality in sport
After calling out the unequal prize money of the Curly Maljam surfing competition in 2021, the long-boarder and filmmaker reflects on life on the pro tour and finding the courage to speak up. You were raised in Denmark, on the Western Australian coastline. Growing up in such a remote town, when did you decide you wanted to pursue a professional career in surfing? Denmark is remote, that's how I always describe it. The surf community there was pretty small. There are some really good surfers from Denmark and there are starting to be more, but growing up there were definitely surfers around but there was also not a whole lot to do there. Going to the beach was one of the main activities you could do. When I was a kid, I would always see the surfers out there and want to try but it was all these men and I was too scared to go out and even try when I was really young. When I became a teenager, I got the courage and finally took the step and did it. I just got hooked and couldn't stop. There weren't many women surfing then, though. There were girls around my age who were my friends and we surfed together, but there weren't older women who surfed all the time - no-one competing that we could look at for guidance. The Denmark coastline is really rugged and wild and there's some big wave surf spots which is like towing in with the jetski. There's lots of people around here who do that so when I was young, I thought that was just what you did. Thankfully, there were a couple of longboarders at Ocean Beach, my home beach, so I started to longboard and then one of Western Australia's state championship events came to Denmark one year. The event was on and I was free surfing nearby but I could just see the contest running and they had the perfect peak, the best waves coming through, Daft Punk was playing on the beach and there was a beam of sunlight shining down on that spot and I felt like I was on the outside of a shop window just thinking, 'Oh my god, I want that.' That was the year I entered and how I started competing. You began competing on the WSL Longboard Tour at the age of 17. What were some of the challenges you faced on your way to becoming a professional surfer? Longboarding is the poor cousin of shortboarding. It's the discipline no-one's heard of, despite it being the original type of surfing with a heritage behind it. It's a really special sport; there's so much deep history and culture associated with longboarding, it has a really amazing global community and story but it doesn't have the same publicity that shortboarding has. Even in surfing, it's so difficult to get recognition for longboarding. Even to get the governing body to recognise the achievements of longboarders over shortboarders is a big challenge. So, it's not just for me but everyone involved and in Australia it's particularly bad that it's so hard to get any support to do the sport. I have spent every dollar I've ever earned on travelling to compete and that is through all kinds of jobs, like working in cafes. Everything is self-funded, even when I represented Australia at the World Championships in 2023 at El Salvador, that was completely self-funded. Surfing Australia has started putting some money behind the longboard team but it typically doesn't get much support or funding. I'm one of the few that made the jump from being a junior to actually keep competing because all of the younger people go through this threshold where they are travelling with their parents who help them pay for things, then they leave school or move out of home and there's no sponsorship support or any pathway to help people make the jump into actually pursuing a professional career. It's been so bad in the past. Chelsea Williams is Australia's only female longboard world champion that we've ever had and she did it without one sponsor. She self-funded the entire thing; she's never been put into the hall of fame or anything like that. Her achievement is barely even acknowledged or recognised. Longboarding to me is, in a lot of ways, where shortboarding was in the '90s - for women, anyway. So, that's a big challenge trying to find the money. You have to work in a job to fund your travel and you're competing, but because you're spending all this time working, you don't have the time to dedicate to the sport. It's always been worse for women, in longboarding it's quite bad for everyone, but that's still a challenge now and was an even bigger challenge when I was 17 and trying to pursue that pathway. The thing people miss is that shortboarding might get this huge platform and all the hype, but the majority of people who surf, the average joe out there, they ride longboards. Image: @saltwaterpilgrim on Instagram In terms of sponsorship and funding, where should that money be coming from? Is it on sponsors to get behind longboarding or Surfing Australia? I think it's a combination of both. In some places there are longboarders who get a lot more sponsorship support. Here in France there are longboarders who have actual careers out of sponsorship. France also has a government scholarship program with longboarders on that program who get assistance for their travel. That's at the very top level, but from the government body perspective, there could definitely be support for those pathways like training programs that can come from the government. And then sponsorship companies can get behind longboarding and see there are opportunities. The thing people miss is that shortboarding might get this huge platform and all the hype, but the majority of people who surf, the average joe out there, they ride longboards. Not everyone is able to go and shred like Molly Picklum on this little board. The accessible form of surfing is longboarding, and to me that's a huge marketer and huge opportunity for people. It would be cool to see more companies get behind it and grow the sport. In 2021, you called out the unequal prize money after winning the Curly Maljam surfing competition where you were awarded $1,500 to the men's prize of $4,000. What gave you the courage to speak up and how did you protect your own mental space as the story went viral? I don't know where the courage came from, I was shitting myself. I was shaking, I was very nervous. I think it just came from a place of all the years, all the hard slog of trying to get to these events and be committed to the sport, so much goes into it and I was like, 'I've been going to these events since I was 17 years old and here I am at 28 and you're trying to tell me my contribution is not even worth half of what a man has received.' I think it was the straw that broke the camel's back. I thought, 'everyone's probably going to hate me at this moment, but I just don't care.' All I had was this hope that if I do this now, then maybe next year they will fix it and that was all I thought. It's so funny, when I think about it now I just had no idea what I was doing in the sense that anyone would care. I went home, caught up with a friend and told her what happened, and she said, 'Do you think you'll get any media out of this?' And I went, 'Oh nah, no-one cares about this sort of stuff.' I just didn't think people would find it interesting because that was the response I'd had for so many years in trying to talk about this stuff. I just thought people know this happens and no-one cares, so for this to blow-up and get all this media attention, it was surreal. I just rolled with it. I have been talking about this stuff for so long, talking about it, complaining about it, trying to bring it up with people, and it never felt like I got anywhere. It just felt that people were going, 'Well, that's just the way it is.' Discrimination against women in surfing, whether it's equal prize money, resources, entry places in competition - it's always been worse for women and everyone is so used to it that it feels so normal and it's only when you have that perspective from outside of surfing that people are able to go, 'No, that's really wrong. It's gender discrimination.' The three attitudes I always knew was: 'We know it's wrong and there's nothing we can do', 'we know it's wrong and we don't care', or 'It's not wrong.' Suddenly I had this huge national platform and I didn't want to talk about this little competition I had won that had done the wrong thing. I wanted to talk about the fact that this was a symptom of a huge industry-wide issue that women all over the world of surfing and all over the world of sport are dealing with, and it's so bad that competitions think they can just hand out novelty checks with unequal prize money on them and nothing will happen to them because it never has in the past. They ran that even with unequal prize money for 11 years before I called them out and when I did they were so shocked. Following the event, you launched the groundbreaking Equal Pay for Equal Play campaign, calling for gender equality in sport. What has been the biggest highlight since launching this campaign? In 2023, we secured some changes to NSW Government policy that meant that for sporting peak bodies all across NSW to apply for funding from the NSW Government under a particular funding scheme, they had to show that they have equal prize money and equal gender representation on their board. That came in on July 1 last year, which was a really big step forward. It made me really appreciate just what activists and advocates do. That was a huge victory for us but when you say it, it sounds so small but change is so hard to make happen. Those moments that you see of activists and advocates that have secured some kind of victory, you see the glory moments but don't see the years and years of nitty gritty behind the scenes. You have a Masters in Peace and Conflict Studies from University of Sydney. How did that degree help inform your activism? It actually helped so much and I'm so glad I had that behind me when I went viral and launched the campaign and everything. I did my masters dissertation on women on the frontlines in revolution movements, so it was a pretty heavy topic but I learnt so much about gender and it gave me a really different and useful lens to apply to sport and how gender works in that context. In that course, you also do learn a lot about activism and how change can happen so that was also really useful. When I called out Curly, at that time I was planning to do a PhD on women in surfing and had already done a research proposal already. So, I had a really useful academic underpinning for what I was saying, I wasn't just making it up. I combined that with the experience of existing in the world and being discriminated against, and that was a handy combination for sure. Your entry to the 2025 Noosa Festival of Surfing was denied due to your previous comments about equal pay. How do you overcome the personal challenges that go along with advocacy and stay connected to joy in a sport you love? When Noosa Festival told me that I was not eligible to enter and the reason was due to something I'd said in the past, I felt really isolated. I felt like all the people who have benefits from the changes that have happened through my advocacy, where are they right now to stand with me? So many people say, 'we're supporting you from the background' which I appreciate, but sometimes I wish it was from the foreground. I've definitely had to have some lessons in realising that you can't make every single change right now and if I'm going to have some longevity in what I'm doing, I need to be able to have my own time and my own space and be able to focus on my surfing. Advocating added an element of pressure. I started to not get good results in my surfing for a while because I had this added pressure at every contest that I showed up to that I had something to prove because I felt like my voice was only valid the better I was at my sport. If you're a world champion calling out something, then no-one can argue with you. So, I had this pressure that I needed to perform for my voice to stay valid. If I'm losing first-round in every contest, then people are going to say, 'Well, who is she to say anything?' And that is a criticism that did get levelled at me a lot from random people, but they'd say, 'You're not even good'. It affected my mindset going into competing. Surfing is like going out onto a tennis court but every time you go onto the tennis court, the tennis court is different. And not only is it different when you get out there, it changes while you're out there. That's what it's like, you've got this changing playing field and with longboarding which is about style and control and timing, it all comes from a calm mindset. And that's hard when you've got pressure and voices in the back of your head saying you're not good enough to be out here. So, I've just had to go, 'Ok, you're a surfer first' and focus on that. And just create some space between myself and that world where there's lots of emotions involved. That's been a big journey in learning how to deal with that. Surfing has long been dominated by men, with women's surfing at Pipeline only becoming an official part of the WSL Championship Tour in 2022 after long being seen as 'too dangerous'. What would a truly equal, inclusive surf culture look like to you - and how far are we from it? We're definitely getting a lot closer at the very top level. The most exciting surfers in the world right now are women - in a media sense and a brand sense. But to me it's pretty simple what we need: equal prize money, equal opportunity, equal support, equal resources. That would be amazing. We have so much coverage of surfing beyond the pro-circuit which is still very male-dominated. There are so many stories within this global surfing community from all over the world, but there's only a select few of people from particular places - mainly Australia, Hawaii, and the US - who get any attention or coverage of what they're doing. To me it would be so cool to see the big narrative and big story of surfing have more of those people who are relegated to the sidelines brought to the foreground, and not for that to be the exception but the norm. There's never been an Asian-born woman on the championship tour, and there's never been a Black African woman on the championship tour. That says a lot about the accessibility of surfing, and I'd love to see all that change. I honestly don't think it's that far away. Surfing in the Olympics, it's changed a lot because there's more resources available and a concerted effort to include people from everywhere to give them an opportunity to surf. As you said, you are a surfer first. Are you able to compartmentalise that part of surfing that needs to change in order to see equal pay and opportunities, or is every surf one that sees it come to the surface? There have definitely been times where surfing has felt like a source of stress rather than the release it normally is. But the beautiful thing about surfing that's different from other sports is that it's in nature. So, even when you're in your worst state and even if it's around surfing itself, you can't help but have your little chemical releases in your brain when you're out there. Surfing is really a place where I can process everything without the stress that, if I was home thinking about it, I'd be stressed thinking about stuff. But being out in the water, I'm able to get a fresh perspective on it. I've started making films and always have these beautiful opportunities to travel and meet people and over time doing that, it makes all the negative stuff disappear. I've been touring for our Ceibo film recently where somebody asked about the Noose Surf Festival and how they tried to ban me in the Q+A. I just totally forgot about that. I don't know, the good just pushed all that bad out of the way. I think my relationship with surfing has changed a lot in that it's this source of joy I hold onto now in this world where things feel so crazy on the shore. I can go out there and finally get some peace and find community. There are the negative parts for sure, but as someone said to me, for every one negative comment there are five hundred people who support me. There are so many people out there who are so supportive; women and men paddle up to me in the surf to say 'thank you' for the work that I'm doing, and that happens all the time, all over the world. I'm just so glad that that's how people feel about what I'm doing because it's just wanting to be the voice that I wish I had speaking when I was young. Your work as a surf journalist has seen you cover everything from Saudi Arabia's fledgling surf scene to India's first female surfer. Is there an event or moment you've covered that stands out as the most memorable? Why? In the last year I've done so many amazing interviews. The very first article I got published was with Chelsea Williams, the 2014 Longboard World Champion which was the first commission I received. That was amazing because she'd been trying to win a world title and had come second four years in a row. She was so undervalued as a surfer and as a person in the world of surfing. I wrote a 10-page feature on her and she won her title that year and it was so amazing to witness. More recently, a person I loved building a relationship with and writing an article about is a woman called Amber Hamer who is the founder of Naru Surf Gathering and an Aboriginal surfer, one of the first female Aboriginal surfers on the Australian East Coast. She started Naru Surf Gathering in 2017 with her brother in commemoration of their dad who was one of Australia's first Aboriginal surfers and he unfortunately died by suicide in the '90s, so they started this surf festial that brings Aboriginal surfers from all over Australia together to compete. I learnt so much from chatting with her. For your recent film Ceibo, you travelled to Ecuador where you shone a spotlight on women in leadership and environmental protection. How does your connection to the ocean influence the way you approach climate action? I always wanted to make films. I'm a writer and a storyteller and always wanted to make surf films but didn't know how to start. I got the opportunity to make a short film back in 2022 called Yama where I went to Ghana and filmed with female surfers and skaters over there, and Ceibo is the new one set in Ecuador. Equal Pay for Equal Play and me calling stuff out is me trying to shatter the status quo that exists now. The filmmaking is trying to nurture something new. It's one thing to be talking about the issue and another thing to be doing what's missing, so I'm trying to do both in that way. If I had the chance to make films, I wanted to tell stories that weren't being told enough because that's what I felt like when I was young. I always wanted to watch surf films with women in them and one of them was Blue Crush, which I loved and watched a lot. But I was reading magazines and there were rarely women in them, and rarely represented in a way that made sense to me. So, as soon as I had an opportunity to start writing, I wanted to start writing articles for magazines on women's surf stories and when I had the opportunity to make films, I hadn't seen anything on women surfers in Africa. To me, I feel that being a surfer means you automatically have to be an environmentalist because in a completely self-serving way, your sport relies on a healthy environment and not enough surfers understand the gravity of that. I wanted to do something more environmental that focused on women. I had heard the statement that 'women are disproportionately affected by the climate crisis but they also hold the key to its solutions,' and thought, 'What does that even mean? What's a story we can find that explores that?' I teamed up with Ecuadorian Australian surfer Pacha Light who was really stoked about sharing some stories from Ecuador and it all came together really well, learning about women's rights and the climate crisis and how it's all inter-linked. We tackle that in a surf film that's quite an ambitious move to make within that kind of genre because typically surf films usually see you go to a foreign place, surf, and leave. That's the opposite of what we've done. We bring everyone into a cinema to watch a surf film but it goes way further than that. To me, I've learnt a lot about finding out what my power is to make change in the last four years. I wanted to create something that inspires people to find that in themselves, too and that's what Ceibo is. It's five different stories of activism and leadership in Ecuador and how it can take many different forms and mean many different things to people depending on who you are and what your contest is. It's wanting people to do that search in their own lives and find out what they can influence, and hopefully to start doing it. Lucy will be touring her film, Ceibo, across Australia with screenings nation-wide. For updates and ticket details, check out the website. You've recently moved to Southwest France. What do you miss most about home? The surf at home is a bit more consistent, and I miss the cafe culture a bit. In Australia, cafes are quite standardised in that they always have fresh sandwich options, some yummy treats, and really good coffee. Here, it's a bit harder to find that. It's more like, stand up and drink an espresso. Obviously, I miss my friends. Originally published as Longboarder and filmmaker, Lucy Small on the fight for gender equality in sport
Irish Times
13-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
Róis: ‘Moving away from Ireland shook me. Going away is essential'
I always knew I wanted to do music. Growing up in Fermanagh , I was lucky to have older siblings who said, 'Don't do the thing your careers teacher tells you to do, just do the thing you love.' I had a good ear. I could pick up instruments and pick up tunes. If I was going through anything, I'd have to sit down and bash at the piano. There's an inner confidence there. I liked what came out; what I made. I believed in myself and believed I could make this a career. I'm 25. I have three older siblings and we all grew up with traditional Irish music. My grandfather played the bagpipes and was an amazing singer. He died a month ago and he told me as he was dying that The Clancy Brothers asked him to go on tour with them and he turned it down because he was raising a family. My father used to play the accordion and would have pushed us to learn Irish music. We would all have competed in Fleadh competitions. My mother brought us all over the country – her job was bringing us to lessons and competitions. My older brothers were very influential because they started to get into alternative music and electronic music and they introduced me to Daft Punk when I was six or seven. At 15 I became obsessed with Nirvana and Kurt Cobain . It was all I could listen to. At 18 I studied composition in the Royal Irish Academy of Music and moved to The Hague at 20 for the third and fourth years of that undergrad. READ MORE Moving away from Ireland shook me. I think going away from home for a little bit is essential. Everything started happening. My teachers said, 'You have this very rich culture and you're very connected to it. You should explore it, because that's who you are, and to be a musician you have to know who you are.' They brought me back to trad in a way, incorporating traditional melodies with my contemporary, modernist influences in music. Keening for me is a catharsis; it helps me. It's a guttural, visceral, intuitive way to voice your emotions I have a love-hate relationship with trad. I love trad and I sing in a traditional way, but my live performances are inspired by my own modern contemporary understanding of music. Dad's a traditional beef farmer. I'll put my dad's cattle calls into a techno track: 'Suck, suck, suck, suck.' Róis: 'I think keening is a release of negative thought patterns, of bad life experiences' When I started to get into keening, I'd never had a loved one to grieve over. But every human goes through trauma. I think keening is a release of negative thought patterns, of bad life experiences. Meditation helps people. Getting a hug replenishes people. Keening for me is a catharsis; it helps me. It's a guttural, visceral, intuitive way to voice your emotions. In pre-Christian times, keening would have been a very natural part of the wake. It was the practice for a woman to sit beside a coffin and keen. I really like to scream in the car whenever I'm going through anything, and make weird vocal noises. No one can hear me. The car is probably the only place where you can do that – even in your house if you did it, the person next door would probably ring the police. Then it became the right thing to do musically, to express myself. [ RTÉ Folk Awards 2025: The freewheeling spirit at the heart of Ireland's trad resurgence Opens in new window ] I was very close to my grandfather. After he died, I just screamed. I lost my voice after three days, going around in the car, having to do a few big journeys. By the time the funeral was over, I felt at peace with it. [ Emma Rawicz: 'I think jazz is made for people who don't necessarily fit into life's prescribed boxes' Opens in new window ] Keening communally is something I haven't done, but understanding something that's bigger than yourself like grief needs to be done communally. I'm sure that's what keening used to be. Everything is so individuated now. You have to have a brave face and cry by yourself. I think going back to this more pagan and less Christian and sterile way of dealing with the world would be so helpful for people. Róis is my stage name. I don't want to be a tyrant about it, but I prefer to remain anonymous. I have lots of different reasons for it. I don't like to be recognised. I'm very introverted. I never thought I would be a [front person] performer, I thought I would be in the background in a band. That's always what I wanted to do. But it never happened and I thought, 'Ah, just do it yourself.' I like to do a gig and however many people are there, it's easy to finish the gig, take the mask off, and then no one knows who you are. In conversation with Nadine O'Regan. This interview is part of a series talking to well-known people about their lives and relationship with Ireland, and was edited for clarity and length. Róis plays the National Concert Hall with Crash Ensemble on Tuesday June 17th as part of the MusicTown 2025 concert series. Tickets €22 from
Yahoo
12-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
They've been going to Bonnaroo for more than 10 years. Why these 'roo veterans keep going back: 'It'll change you'
On June 12-15, tens of thousands of people from all corners of the Earth will once again convene on a 700-acre farm in Coffee County, Tennessee for four days of non-stop music and a grand celebration of art and culture. Since its inception in 2002, the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival has welcomed some of the biggest names in music to the small town of Manchester. In 2025, the festival will feature one of music's most influential young artists, three-time Grammy Award winner Olivia Rodrigo and CMA Award winner, Luke Combs — Bonnaroo's first ever country music headliner. For many festival goers, the annual lineup of artists alone is reason enough to camp out for four days and endure the often-unpredictable Tennessee weather. But for seasoned Bonnaroovians, the appeal behind the festival extends far beyond the music and centers around the connections made at the festival — connections which exceed a vibrant weekend filled with dancing and running from stage to stage. What to pack? What should you wear to Bonnaroo? Three veterans weigh in ahead of the 2025 festival "Bonnaroo is gonna present to you a lot of people that are gonna become friends and loved ones for the rest of your life," said Matt Chapman, a 13-year Bonnaroo veteran from Atlanta, Georgia. "It brings together people who share the same interests and the same positive energy." Chapman met his best friend at the festival in 2014 and four years later the two were able to meet and interview electro-funk duo, Chromeo. A few years later he met his current long-distance partner, Shaina Bradley, an 8-year Bonnaroo veteran from Chicago, Illinois. The two first locked eyes when their "groop" camps were neighbors during the brutal heat wave of 2022. That same year, Steven Stedry — a Manchester local and 17-year veteran — along with a friend, was able to bring joy and a reignited sense of community to other attendees by posing for photos wearing chrome replica Daft Punk helmets after two cancelled festival years due to the COVID-19 pandemic and flooding. "I think it set a vibe going forward like, 'Hey, we survived this, we made it through this, and we're all going to be okay,'" he said. Together, these three festival goers have nearly four decades of Bonnaroo experience, dating back to the early years of the festival — earning them the title of veterans. Here's what's kept them coming back year after year and the lessons they've learned along the way. Stedry remembers the long lines and Wal-Mart parking lot waiting periods of 2007, when all of Manchester would be brought to a halt due to the debilitating traffic caused by the festival. Having hundreds of thousands of people in his hometown was unlike anything he had ever seen before. Stepping into the festival grounds was a whole different beast; blacktop roads, paved paths, and gravel spots were nowhere to be found. "Back then it definitely looked like you were on a farm in a sense, it was so new. But the collection of people is something that has held true from year one to now," said Stedry. "You can look at all these people that have come together and they all coincidentally come to this for the love of music and the pure thrill of entertainment. "I think that's what's made it such a magical place." Growing up as a music lover in the South, Chapman had never experienced anything quite as "insane" as Bonnaroo. His first time on the farm in 2008 was mind-blowing, he said. "The first day was overwhelming but it quickly turned into something really exciting and fun," he added. "That overwhelmed feeling went away thanks to how awesome everyone around me and the crowds were." The 10-year anniversary of Bonnaroo in 2011 was a highly anticipated event with rap icon Eminem set to take the stage. As the crowd eagerly prepared for the show, an intense thunderstorm rolled in sending festival goers scrambling for cover, diving under tents and seeking shelter wherever they could. With unreliable cell service at the time, many were left unaware of the storm's severity, heightening the sense of panic as it seemed like all of Manchester would be drenched throughout Eminem's entire set, said Stedry. The storm hit hardest between 10:20 and 10:45, just moments before Eminem was scheduled to perform at 11. Then almost miraculously, the downpour ceased right on cue. As the skies cleared, waves of people sprinted toward the main stage. In the rush, Stedry's friend lost his flip-flops. Determined to reach the stage together, Stedry scooped him up and carried him through the frenzied surge of fans. When Eminem and his crew finally appeared, the crowd erupted, surging forward in a wave of energy. "You don't see a lot of rap artists live up to their name, and that show truly did," said Stedry. "Just seeing the whole crowd interaction was truly a magical moment." During her first Bonnaroo in 2016, Bradley found herself unexpectedly separated from her group, leaving her to navigate the festival alone. However, fate had other plans. In the crowded, buzzing energy of the farm, Bradley crossed paths with four strangers who, by sheer coincidence, were attending all the same sets. What began as a chance encounter quickly turned into an impromptu friendship, as the group navigated the festival together — helping each other refill CamelBaks, grabbing food and soaking in the experience. Later that evening, Bradley was reunited with her original group. As the Chainsmokers took the stage at 1 a.m., she spotted them just five feet ahead. Despite Bonnaroo being a once-a-year event, the experiences had on the farm and the connections made extend far beyond a single weekend in June, often transcending into life lessons carried for years to come. Chapman said the inclusive space has transformed him into a better, more positive person and has allowed him to find happiness among like-minded individuals. 'Let the farm in, let the festival in," said Chapman. "Let the place and the people there change you, because it'll change you for the better, so long as you focus on the right things.' For Bradley, the annual festival provides an escape from the chaos of the outside world and has instilled in her a deep sense of gratitude. Similarly, the festival has allowed Stedry to develop a deeper appreciation for life and its fleeting nature. "Enjoy it, love it and live in that moment in its full entirety because you never know when that time is up," said Stedry. Diana Leyva covers trending news and service journalism for The Tennessean. Contact her at Dleyva@ or follow her on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, at @_leyvadiana This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Bonnaroo: Why they keep going to the farm, 'it'll change you'
New York Times
11-06-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Tom Hiddleston Dances Up a Storm: ‘I Just Wanted It to Fly'
A creeping sense of dread washed over Tom Hiddleston as he read the script for 'The Life of Chuck.' He knew that its director, Mike Flanagan, wanted him to play Chuck Krantz, or, as the actor put it, 'a harbinger of the apocalypse.' But as he read on, there came excitement, a thrill. Chuck has a secret: He loves to dance. Hiddleston, 44, loves to dance, too, a discovery he made when he was a teenager. 'It was instinctive,' he said in a recent interview via video. 'But it was only for me. I didn't train, I wasn't in dance classes.' He went out dancing with friends. The 1990s were his time. 'My love for Daft Punk,' he said of the electronic music duo, 'is enduring and real.' While he is foremost an actor, Hiddleston has become something of a dance ambassador. Lean and elegant, he has the air of Fred Astaire. His limbs are long, but they don't slow him down; his feet are fast and accurate. Known for his spontaneous eruptions of dance joy — on talk shows and the red carpet — Hiddleston is a natural with rhythmic acuity and, at times, riveting attack. His dancing, whether smooth or sharp, is instinctive and shaped by coordinated fluency. What's apparent is the pleasure he gets from it: Certainly, there is Hiddleston the man, but also discernible is the boy within. There is innocence and fearlessness in his love of motion. An avid runner, Hiddleston said, 'I've always thought of running as dancing forward.' Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
