By: Justin Druckenmiller

IT’S HARD TO GAUGE HOW LONG you’ll be out of work in the event of a job loss, so it’s always safe to prepare for at least six months of unemployment. Come up with a financial plan for unemployment and design it with some flexibility to allow for adjustments if your situation changes.

PREPARE A SURVIVAL BUDGET

A vital piece of your unemployment plan is a budget. Start with a list of all of your income and expenses. You might already have a budget you can use as a base, but your survival budget should be a bare-bones version of your regular budget. Include only expenses that are necessities. Your plan should also include an emergency fund that’s equal to at least six months of living expenses, which will help supplement your other sources of income.

IF YOU LOSE YOUR JOB, FIND ANOTHER SOURCE OF INCOME

Start by checking with your former employer. Are you eligible for severance pay? This will depend on your employer’s policy, but if you’re offered severance pay, you may have the option of taking it in a lump sum or as a continuation of your salary for a fixed period of time. Taking severance in a lump sum gives you control over your money, but you may lose some employee benefits such as group health insurance.

REDUCE YOUR CURRENT EXPENSES

If you’re unemployed, you may soon find that your income won’t support your current expenses. Aside from reducing your debt by selling big-ticket items like your car or house, you can do several things to minimize your living expenses. First, identify and discontinue discretionary expenses. Items such as magazine subscriptions, health club memberships, extra phone services, credit cards you don’t use that have annual fees, dining out regularly and cable television are examples of some expenses you can trim from your budget, if they currently exist.

TALK WITH YOUR CREDITORS

Another way to cut your expenses is to negotiate with your creditors to lower interest rates on your credit cards, defer a payment or two on your car loan or temporarily reduce your monthly payments. You may be able to lower your monthly home mortgage payments by refinancing to a lower rate (if you can qualify in spite of your job loss), or by negotiating a longer repayment period. You’ll have to admit that you’re facing some financial difficulty due to your job loss, but if your credit is good, now’s the time to make the calls—not when you fall behind in your payments.

INCREASE YOUR CURRENT INCOME

Consider a part-time or temporary job. This will provide another source of supplementary income while you search for your next full-time job. And your part-time job could turn out to be your next full-time job, or at least lead to another opportunity with a potential employer.

THE LAST RESORT

Your home is another source of savings that you may be able to tap into. If you have enough equity in your home, sometimes you can obtain a home equity line of credit even if you’ve lost your job. You’ll only pay interest on the portion you use. But you’ll still have to make a monthly payment, so make sure you’re able to afford the new loan payments before you put your house on the line. If you’re still strapped for cash, consider withdrawing from your retirement accounts, such as your IRA or employer-sponsored retirement plan. But be aware that this course of action does have drawbacks. Any money you withdraw from these types of accounts will likely be taxed as ordinary income for the year in which you make the withdrawal. ✪

Note: If  you’re considering taking funds from your IRA or retirement plan, you should consult a tax advisor regarding the specific tax treatment of  your withdrawal. This article is meant to be general in nature and should not be construed as investment or financial advice related to your personal situation. Please consult your financial advisor prior to making financial decisions. Justin Druckenmiller is a Financial Advisor with Waddell & Reed, Inc. and can be reached at jdruckenmiller@wradvisors or

615-399-0128. Waddell and Reed, Inc. Member SIPC.

Santa Cruz. Monterey. hollister. Pebble beach. Seaside. Soledad. Grab your board and head to any one of these legendary left-coast beaches near John-Paul Bruno’s hometown of Carmel, and it’s a virtual guarantee that it’ll be chock-full of muscle-bound, blonde-haired, blue-eyed, Anglo-Saxon-archetype males who look like they’ve just stepped out of the volleyball game in Top Gun. So how, exactly, did Bruno—a dark-complexioned, self-described “Italian-looking” hopeful from a rustic mountain town—break into a modeling scene that’s famous for cranking out models that look way more like Zack Morris than A.C. Slater?

Ironically enough, it was Bruno’s work on the other side of the camera lens that opened his eyes to the world of modeling. “I kind of got bored shooting landscapes and that kind of stuff,” he recounts. And as his photography brought him through the back door of the fashion business, it didn’t take long for him to head into the world of modeling the old-fashioned way—knocking on the door. Literally.

“I walked into an agency called Look Models in San Francisco, and at the time it was the top agency, I’d say, and I just walked—not knowing—in with a regular picture book full of snapshots, kind of hokey, and they actually liked me,” he says with a chuckle. “I was going down the elevator and got a call, and they were like, ‘Hey, we liked you. Come back up.’ And I got signed and had my first photo shoot with a professional photographer that same day.”

After cutting his teeth under the wing of renowned agencies like Elite Model Management and Ford Models, Bruno followed his newfound career on a whirlwind journey across the country, working with diverse clients from Banana Republic and Armani Exchange to runway stints with Neiman Marcus and the legendary LA Fashion Week ’09 that saw him calling Miami, New York and San Francisco “home.”

But as the economy progressively lightened his many employers’ pockets toward the end of 2008 and work became harder to come by, Bruno packed his bags again in 2009 for LA, where a chance trip to San Diego connected him with publicist Evee McFarland. “We became friends first,” Bruno says. “And she liked my photography, so she hired me for a few jobs out in Nashville. So that was the plan.” A scant few months later, Bruno moved to Nashville and barely set his bags down before immersing himself in Music City’s creative community.

Bruno says he’s been busy since he got here, and busy on both sides of the camera, nonetheless. After arriving in Nashville in November of 2009, he dove headfirst into everything from shooting country artists like Sammy Kershaw and Gretchen Wilson in a military awareness campaign to the Sprint 500 race and music video shoots, all the while building his word-of-mouth publicity to keep the work flowing in. And even though he’s spent the past few years making tracks in just aboute-very other fashion metropolis in the country, Bruno says he’s ready to put down some roots in Nashville for the time being.

“I’m hoping this will be a permanent thing for me,” he says. “I’ve been moving around for five years, and I’m at the point now where I need to settle down and start preparing for the future.” Nashville’s laid-back, urban culture strikes a chord with Bruno’s ideal lifestyle.

“I got into modeling for the lifestyle—working out, staying fit, going surfing, doing things to keep yourself healthy and looking good,” he says.

Never one to let grass grow under his feet, Bruno’s already parlaying his talents into even more diverse projects, from acting to fueling his love for writing country music. And his key to success? A mantra from a childhood friend’s mother, former model Jackie Carr: “’Never give up.  Always give 100 percent Always give 100 percent. Always make it clear that you want to work.’ If you keep pushing the envelope and keep bugging everybody, you’ll beat out the lazy guys—I’ve never stopped,” Bruno says.

And at the rate he has managed to keep himself busy with anything and everything in fashion, it’s safe to say that this Cali-raised new kid in town still has a long road ahead of him. ✪

http://jon-paulphotography.com/

By: Mark A. Campbell MS, LMT, ATC, Performance Coach

I recently spoke at a graduation in Florida, and I began by presenting the graduates with two questions: “What do you want to happen now?” and “What are you doing to make it happen?” These questions accurately sum up the heart of this four-part series on G.O.A.L. Setting. The students that day had the same looks on their faces that these questions usually elicit. A few of them nodded along, revealing that they had some sort of plan in motion, but the majority looked at me like I had written a trigonometry question on the board and asked each of them to solve it in front of the class. And who can blame them? Working to achieve a dream is a scary prospect, especially if you have never done it before.

To combat the overwhelming fear that often accompanies such tasks, we broke down this series into several achievable steps. The first step was “Get it on paper.” I challenged you to find your inner 8-year-old and allow childlike dreaming to occur. We used every crayon in the box to make these dreams as real and as vivid as possible. Michelangelo said, “The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim to low, and achieving our mark.”

If you haven’t been following our series, you can begin this process now. What have you always wanted to do but were too afraid to try? Take the chance, decide what you want and put it on paper. Do not limit your thinking or the scale of your dream. Just go for it! Minister and entrepreneur Dr. Robert H. Schuller put it best when he said, “Cut the word impossible out of your life. The only place where your dream becomes impossible is in your own thinking.” The hardest part about putting a dream on paper is having it stare back at you, realizing that you have begun this process. Remember the words of legendary motivator Zig Ziglar who said, “In 100 percent of the cases, people who don’t take step 1 will never take step 2.”

The second step of this process was “Organize a plan of action.” This is the meat of the process, which allows you to plan your journey. I also talked about making a daily to-do list, enabling you to prioritize what is most impor- tant in your life, and allowing you to create the necessary steps to achieve your goal. Building a strong “mastermind group”—your own personal support system—is also essential to this step. Author and management expert Ken Blanchard once said, “None of us is as smart as all of us.”

“Accept” was the third step of this process. This included accepting failures, successes and only the best from yourself. Every “mistake” we experience in life is only as significant as we allow it to be. It is our choice to interpret something as a success or a failure, and this belief will have a big influence on our self- image. These feelings of victory or loss will determine what level of confidence we bring to future events. See your failures as temporary, see your successes as the norm and learn from each experience. When you begin to witness your goals taking shape and you taste the smallest bit of your achievement, you will work harder to get more. Accept only your best. After all, this is YOUR dream. What is it worth to make it come to life?

Now for the final step: “Live it daily.” In my opinion, committing yourself is the hardest part of pursuing any goal because of two words: life happens. Life never stops. It does not slow down. It will not wait on us. This can prove to be tricky when trying to live a dream, but it can be managed.

Each of us has had the good intentions to achieve a goal but lacked the staying power to make it happen. I refer to this little phenomenon as “January 3rd Syndrome.” Early in my career, I managed a gym in Florida. On January 1, we would sell more memberships than in the next three months combined. New customers would come in, charged up by their New Year’s resolutions and ready to make some serious life changes. The gym would become overcrowded with no parking and long lines forming at every piece of equipment. The regular patrons would get upset and complain about the inconvenience. My advice was always, “Wait for the 3rd. It’ll be back to normal.”

I myself have been inflicted with this “J3 Syndrome” in the past, so I can comfortably speak about the cycle. The first day is great—it’s full of energy, hope and visions of the end result. “I can’t wait to look like Brad Pitt in Fight Club,” I tell myself. I’m up at 6 a.m. and ready to go. Day two comes way too early. When I’m able to stand and hobble to the bathroom, I realize how sore I am. Then I remember that I should pace myself, that over-doing it early can’t be good. “I mean, even Brad Pitt has to take a day off once in a while,” I assure myself. “I’ll get it tomorrow.” Day three is a bleary-eyed push of the snooze button. “I didn’t even like Brad Pitt’s last movie.”

Almost daily I speak to people who say things like, “I could try that but…” or, “I’ve always wanted to travel there but…” or even, “I would have followed my dream but….” When I’m older I do not want to look behind myself and only see a big BUT. The key is to make what you want a part of what you do. As you develop your actions, make sure they line up with your life as much as possible. Put your goals where you can see them. When actor Jim Carrey was starting out as a “starving artist,” he wrote himself a check for $1 million and carried it in his wallet. Every time he got discouraged or sidetracked from his goal, he would look at it. This reminded him of the big dream he was working toward.

I can honestly say that no one understands this concept better than David Kiggins, who I have known for several years. As the owner and editor-in-chief of the Fringe, David has pursued his dream of breathing life into this magazine. I know he is always consistent to the same vision he has carried along the way.

Find what works best for you and start living your dream today. The value of a big dream is that it is supposed to make you work for it. I agree with Mary Kay Ash, founder of Mary Kay Cosmetics, who said, “A good goal is like a strenuous exercise—it makes you stretch.” Find things that inspire you, keep you motivated and make you want to stretch toward your dream.

OK, so now what? The best advice I can give you is to do something today. As soon as you finish reading this magazine, put it down and begin dreaming big. Once you have your dream, develop a plan and start living it. You deserve only the best, but it’s your choice. Work hard, have fun and always live your dreams! ✪

By: Kami L. Rice

LIVING IN THE PLACE WITH UNLIMITED INSPIRATION is important when your livelihood depends on being inspired. Creative Spillage’s Laura Amstutz found that place when she moved across the Cumberland River to East Nashville in 2005.

“My entire life revolves around East Nashville now,” she smiles from her seat at Ugly Mugs, one of her favorite East Nashville haunts. “I moved to East Nashville because it represents the way I think life should be lived. Most everyone in East Nashville is pursuing some sort of dream.”

Though she’s been selling her artwork since 2005, 25-year-old Amstutz didn’t officially create her business until 2008. Now Creative Spillage is the umbrella for four different streams of work: sales of her paintings, commissioned artwork, creativity workshops and live performance painting.

Before it happened, Amstutz never expected to work full-time as an artist. Instead, she says, “Art was purely a way for me to express myself.” But people started noticing her paintings and connecting with them. And she started to believe she might be able to support herself through art.

After graduating from her Indiana high school, Amstutz began college as a studio art major, but she wasn’t painting then. Instead, she was doing pen and ink drawings and printmaking. Her work was realistic rather than abstract. Two years later, in 2004, she left Ball State University and moved to Nashville, where she has since completed a degree in ministry at Belmont University.

Amstutz says she moved to Nashville for healing. “Art school took a bit of my soul. It slowly whittled away at my creative soul and turned me into a technicality. I lost my artistic voice in art school.” In the process of finding it again, she traded her black and white, two-dimensional creative experience for the colorful, inspired, textured world that makes her paintings so distinctive.

“Her art is special in that her style is very unique,” says Molly Watson of Lululemon Athletica in Green Hills. A company that sells athletic apparel for yoga, as well as running, dancing and other sports, Lululemon has a Nashville showroom that hosts a rotating exhibit of Amstutz’s work. Watson says patrons regularly comment on the showroom’s warmth, which the paintings help create. The art fits right in with the showroom’s yoga themes because it is “whimsical and fun, but at the same time has an earthy feel to it,” Watson says.

For Amstutz art is about participation, not just observation. “The first thing I say to anyone who’s looking at a piece of my art is, ‘Feel free to touch it.’ In fact, I encourage [them to touch it],” she says, because that closes the gap between the person and the art.

Amstutz attributes part of her own healing to a shift from surviving life to really living it, being an active participant. She seeks to use her art to help others do the same thing. This is perhaps best embodied in her creativity workshops where she acknowledges that she basically does art therapy, though she doesn’t have specialized training in it. And that’s on purpose. She wants people to know that she found healing through art, so they can too.

One appreciative participant of Amstutz’s workshop is Nashville resident Lisa Davis, who works for Belmont’s College of Visual and Performing Arts. “The thing I loved most was that, for the first time since I was a child, I created something with no preconceived ideas, without thinking about where it would hang or what colors it matched,” Davis says, describing her workshop experience.

“There’s a freedom that’s felt. It’s such a safe environment where there’s no judgment. You can bare your soul on the canvas.” Amstutz holds the workshops in the studio of her beloved East Nashville rental home with its multi-acre yard. Davis says the workshops work because of who Amstutz is. “She’s wise beyond her years. She’s a very strong woman. And this will sound cheesy, but she radiates love and acceptance.”

From the workshops to the live performance painting Amstutz began doing this year, her work is permeated by a connection to people.

“My passion is people living life authentically,” she says, “but my language is art.”

In addition to helping people look inward, she also encourages them to look outward. “To me art is an invitation to see life from a different viewpoint than your own. It should inspire people to act and to have more authentic interaction with themselves and their community,” she says.

Amstutz recently began a new series of paintings inspired by the documentary Beyond Belief, which tells the story of two September 11 widows who started the charitable foundation Beyond the 11th to help widows in Afghanistan provide for their families. She’s now partnering with the nonprofit’s founders, exploring ways to raise funds for Afghani widows who have lost their shade, the protection their husbands provided.

People often romanticize artistic careers, says Amstutz. “My life isn’t glamorous, but it’s 100 percent authentically mine. It’s who I am at the core. But I don’t paint all day. I don’t sleep all day. I have a regimen. Sometimes I spend all day looking at finances. But I wouldn’t trade it for the world.”

To others considering careers as artists, Amstutz says that taking care of yourself—spirit, mind and body—is essential because being an artist requires so much giving of self. She also recommends picking the brains of others who have done this before, pointing to fellow artists and others who have guided her as an artist, a businesswoman and a person.

For Amstutz, part of maintaining health comes in staying connected to others and to her East Nashville community. “If all I did was paint and be creative, I would be in my head all day and be removed from humanity,” she says.

This connection to the world outside her head is reflected in her paintings. As Judi Winfield-Ferri, executive director of the Margaret Maddox YMCA in East Nashville, says of Amstutz’s rotating exhibit in the lobby, “People are always drawn into Laura’s work.” Winfield-Ferri adds that it’s been wonderful to work with Amstutz. “We really like what she has to offer because it’s diverse and it represents East Nashville.”

And somehow it seems like that’s just how an artist’s relationship with her community should be: the community that provides her creative fuel is enriched by the fruit of the energy it offered her, creating a beautiful circle. ✪

www.creativespillage.com

“Check out Laura’s art at Ugly Mugs, Lululemon Athletica and the East Nashville YMCA.”

By: Jamie McCormick

A KETTLE BEGINS TO WHISTLE, plaintively at first, then slowly growing more insistent, so Scot Cheng turns from his boiling pot of tapioca balls to pour up the tea. The winter rain pounding the pavement outside enhances the inviting atmosphere of repose inside Cheng’s Edgehill Village bubble tea shop, Fat Straw, as a few regular customers gather at the small, round tables for an afternoon drink.

Cheng uncaps the milk, sniffing it to check for freshness, and, counting out the exact brew time, removes the tea bag with his other hand. With the attentive precision of care and experience, he scoops in the tapioca balls, and then pours milk, tea and flavoring over them. Turning to the counter, he hands the cup to a young man. At the other end of the counter, a young girl scans the handwritten chalk menu and, with an inquisitively confused look, turns to him and asks, “Peanut butter and jelly! Is that a real flavor?” Cheng, the owner of Fat Straw, chuckles and replies, “It’s like you’re drinking the sandwich!”

Once upon a time, Scot Cheng was an aircraft engineer living in LA, unsatisfied with his job. Coming from a line of entrepreneurs—his parents owned several restaurants—he had always wanted to start a business himself. He just didn’t know what kind of business.

“I always wanted to own a business that’s really cool, something that fits me, something that I would enjoy doing,” Cheng says. And it must be mentioned that bubble tea is in his family as well. His uncle helped make bubble tea into the international phenomenon it is today, with a shop in Taiwan on the ground-floor of the industry 20-some-odd years ago. So owning a bubble tea shop seems to have been in Cheng’s stars. And once he recognized his destiny, Fat Straw was born.

Much like the Taiwanese tea cart owner of three decades ago who began putting tapioca balls into regular tea in an effort to make drinking tea more fun, Scot Cheng wanted to break into a market. He wanted to supply an interesting new product to a routine-driven clientele. A while back, the bubble tea craze proliferated throughout the West Coast, spreading from city to city through Asian popula-tions, then found its way to the large eastern cities with a similarly large Asian populace. It spread quickly, but had yet to catch on in Nashville, making our city the perfect locale from which Cheng could launch his dream. He looked around for real estate and settled on the current location in Edgehill Village, a spot surrounded by exactly the type of Nashvillians—“youngsters and hipsters”—Cheng hoped would embrace bubble tea .

Much of his clientele comes to Fat Straw to relax after classes at the many universities and high schools in the area, but the signed photos that cover the wall (you have to buy 20 drinks to be immor- talized here) span across all age groups.

So what brings people back to Fat Straw to fill up frequent-drinker punch cards and vie for a place in the photo collages? Bubble tea itself is simply unlike any other drink. As Cheng puts it, “It’s the only drink in the world that lets you sip and chew at the same time.” Plus three different styles—tea and milk, tea and fruit juice, and smoothie— and dozens of flavors, allow you to mix-and-match until you find your perfect drink. But perhaps what keeps them in the shop is the smiling face of the owner behind the counter nearly every day, serving each person his or her own personal concoction in his self-pro-claimed “old school” style.

Many vendors of bubble tea flavorings, Cheng explains, simplify the ingredients and add a tea extract to them so that the bubble tea shop only has to add hot water to the mix. But Cheng, getting a little heated, says, “To us, to the Fat Straw establishment, it’s unethical. That’s something that we just don’t do. You cannot have a bubble tea shop—a tea shop—without having tea in your store, or making tea. That’s just not right. You’re cheating the consumer.”

Not only does he brew his tea in kettles and cook the tapioca balls himself, Cheng does everything from the very first steps to the finishing touches behind an open counter so his customers can see exactly what is going into their drink. He even offers condensed milk for a richer experience and soy milk “for people who don’t do the dairy thing.” Cheng knows that the success of his shop relies on word-of-mouth advertising and that his loyalty to his customers earns their loyalty in return. And return is exactly what they do, day after day.

SCOT CHENG’S DREAM BEGAN WITH THE CONCLUSION OF ONE LIFESTYLE and a cross-country move to fashion a new lifestyle by hand. What started as a small shop with less than adequate shelving space and a small menu has blossomed into an enterprise poised to spread itself across Nashville, starting with Murfreesboro and hopefully moving to East Nashville. Fat Straw already has customers coming from these two areas who beg Cheng to bring his authentic Taiwanese treat a little bit closer to them. And Cheng, who sees the expansion as another way to satisfy his customers, intends to do just that.

He says he owes the most unique part of his business—the fact that he does everything “old school”—to his uncle, who instilled in him the value of the authenticity that brings people through the front door of Fat Straw, praising its bubble tea as the best in the country. For Cheng, nothing could be better to hear. He explains, “Yes, you’re in the business to make money, but ultimately, you’re satisfied because your customer can tell you, ‘Hey, you have the best.’ And I appreciate that. It’s worth a lot. It’s the most satisfying part.” To Scot Cheng, “Aircraft mechanic was a job,” but making people happy, even in the most simple of ways, is a life, and one worth living. ✪

www.myspace.com/fatstrawnashville

By: Erin Thompson

Small-town Iowa isn’t exactly the music capital of the world, but that’s where the story starts for young singer-songwriter Tyler James. Growing up, James did everything from cleaning hog barns to running his own paper route to bagging groceries, but spent his free time taking piano lessons and learning as much about music as possible. When he discovered a cassette tape of The Free-wheelin’ Bob Dylan in his sister’s pickup truck, James’s dreams of music began to come alive, leading him from his Iowa home all the way to Nashville.

Inspired by musical greats such as Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Joni Mitchell, The Band, The Beatles, Neil Young, Randy Newman and old soul artists like Billy Preston, Shuggie Otis, Al Green and Bill Withers, James enrolled at Belmont and made the move to Nashville right after high school. For the first few years, James says he just kind of sat back and observed while figuring out how to get his fingerprint on the music scene. He spent most every Monday night hanging out at 12th & Porter, waiting anxiously for his chance to take the stage. “Eventually, I started playing bigger shows, and a couple of demos I did led to some folks taking me under their wing,” James says. “I did an EP in 2005 with Jason Lehning and hit the road from there.”

Most recently, James finished up the Ten Out of Tenn Tour with fellow creatives Trent Dabbs, Jeremy Lister, Butterfly Boucher, Griffin House, Andy Davis, Matthew Perryman Jones, Katie Herzig, k.s. Rhoads and Erin McCarley.

“Nashville has the best music scene in the world, and Ten Out of Tenn is an effort to get our community together to spread the Tennessee love,” James says.

While on tour, James was also busy recording his upcoming album, It Took The Fire, which will be released on February 2, 2010. The album features 12 soul-filled songs, all written by James himself.

“I know everyone is co-writing these days, but I still love wrestling with a song on my own,” he says. “I won’t always have the luxury of time, but for now I like waking up and messing with a song morning after morning until it feels good.” James co-produced his album with musician and producer Neilson Hubbard and says he couldn’t be more proud of it because he really took the time to portray the sounds he heard in his head.

“Having the right tunes and vocal conviction is king, but you can never underestimate the importance of good engineering,” James says. “I don’t like any fluff or effects, so we limited ourselves on what we could add after the fact, since overdubs can often hurt more than they help. I’m happy to say that, for the most part, the record sounds like five guys just playing music together.”

While it’s true that James’s career is taking off, he’s quick to say, “I’ve done enough bad jobs to never in a million years take for granted doing what I do now.” For him, the most difficult part about being a musician is uncertainty, but he says it’s also what keeps him driven. “Seeing my music connect with people will always feel good, but creating something out of nothing is what will keep me in it until the end,” he says.

With a successful major tour under his belt and a new CD due out soon, James has much to be excited about. Some of his new music has recently been featured on ABC’s hit TV show Brothers & Sisters, as well as on MTV’s popular drama The Hills. His song “Call My Name” was added to BBC’s Radio 1 and topped Billboard’s Heatseekers chart.

And while James continues to gain popularity in an age of Auto-Tune, he is staying faithful to the raw, unaltered style that caught his ear and his attention in a pickup truck years ago. ✪

www.tylerjames.com

By: Megan Pacella

Hailing from North Carolina, Kimberly, Reid and Neil Perry have been singing harmonies and arranging foot-tapping melodies for more than a decade. Having spent their childhood summer nights on the porch crooning Hank Williams tunes in three-part harmony, making music is old hat for this trio of siblings. But when it comes to Nashville’s country music scene, the Perrys’ latest project—The Band Perry—is one of the newest acts to hit Music Row.

“We started 10 years ago in Mobile, Alabama,” says Kimberly Perry, who, as the oldest of the three, handles lead vocals and guitar for the band. “I was 15 at the time and fronted a band of high school boys … It was hilarious. Reid was 10 and Neil was eight. They were our roadies, but before long, changing my guitar strings and polishing cymbals got old. Next thing I knew, they started a band of their own and my little brothers were my band’s opening act.”

Entering the music business at such a young age might be unusual in most social circles, but not in the Perry family. From traveling around the Southeast in a motorhome with their parents to making a name for themselves on the “New Faces of Country” Tour, music is all the Perry family knows.

“This is all we’ve ever done,” says Reid, the second oldest and the band’s bass player. “I remember getting my first bass for my birthday when I was nine years old. I had to take it off to tune it, because I couldn’t reach it on my shoulder. That’s how long I’ve been playing music. This is all I can remember wanting to do.”

Even though they have been singing and picking on their back porch for years, it took a while for the siblings to hit their stride as one musical act. But once they did, there was no turning back.

“We had been playing in the basement and on the porch together for years,” Kimberly says. “But four years ago the boys needed a real singer, and I was it. We became The Band Perry. We were hired for a spot on the ‘New Faces of Country’ Tour, and after hanging with country musicians and fans, we knew that we belonged in country music.”

Shortly after the tour, The Band Perry started recording songs to send to record labels in Nashville. And what happened in June of 2009 was the big break they had been desiring: The Band Perry signed with Republic Nashville, the latest project in the hopper for Scott Borchetta, one of the city’s most savvy country music businessmen (think Taylor Swift, Justin Moore and Jimmy Wayne).

“We walked into the label without explaining our vision or saying who we were,” Kimberly says. “We laid a CD on the counter, and the next thing we knew, the executives at Republic Nashville wanted to hear us play. We started brainstorming what we were going to play, figuring we had a few weeks to prepare.”

A few weeks became two days when the label called the band in early to showcase their sound. Not ones to lose their cool, the Perrys sat down for the “mother of all cram sessions,” as Reid puts it, and worked on new arrangements for their best songs.

“That was the worst freak out I’ve ever had in my life,” says Neil, who plays the mandolin and recently picked up the accordion as well. “I thought I had two weeks to learn my new stuff, so when I found out the time frame changed to less than 48 hours, I just thought, ‘Oh well, here we go.’”

In the end, a decade of hard work paid off. Only a few hours after The Band Perry finished their session at Republic Nashville, they received the call every struggling artist waits to hear.

“It’s funny how you put all of your blood, sweat and tears into a dream like this, but when the time comes for it to pay off, everything happens so quickly,” Kimberly says. “We were on our way back east when I got the call that they wanted to sign us. It was so exciting, but it was a really humbling moment for us, too.”

The months following June have been a whirlwind for The Band Perry. From doing photo shoots to traveling on a countrywide radio tour to cutting their single, “Hip to My Heart,” for radio play, the Perrys have hardly had time to breathe.

“It’s just so cool to be this young and have this opportunity,” Kimberly says. “But every time we hear more good news about our music, or we gain popularity, we remember how many people have worked hard for us to get here. It literally has taken an army of people who believe in us.”

Still, the band doesn’t have much time to take in their success. They’ve booked studio time for the next few months to record their first album, which is on track to hit stores this spring. Until then, the Perrys plan to do what they do best—work hard at making music.

“We know there are thousands of bands just like us out there,”

Kimberly says. “But we strongly believe that you have to work harder than everyone else. None of this could have happened if we hadn’t put in those years of hard work.”

Despite their success, the Perry siblings make one thing clear: The best part of making it big in Nashville is that they did it together.

“There’s nobody else we’d rather be doing this with,” Reid says. “Making music together is all we’ve ever known.” ✪

www.thebandperry.com

Kyle Ryan stood out among the various creative types typically found in frequented East Nashville coffee shops. Something about Diaz’s seemingly effortless allure and Ryan’s youthful face made them easy to spot. Both seemed comfortable in their own skin and excited about things to come.

Originally from Lancaster, Pa., Diaz moved to Philadelphia to attend The Paul Green School of Rock. The documentary Rock School was filmed while Diaz was studying there, and she became a featured student in it. After graduating, Diaz received a scholarship to Berklee College of Music in Boston, where she met her Nebraska-born partner in crime, guitarist Kyle Ryan.

The singer-songwriter duo adopted Diaz’s name and moved to Nashville in July of 2008. “We originally came down to visit friends and really fell in love with the area,” Diaz says. The two have pitched their musical tent in the neighborhood of East Nashville and seem to enjoy the creative vibe the area supplies.

“We didn’t know a lot about the city, but when we asked people where to live, East Nashville seemed to be the best option, financially,” Ryan explains. “Now when we meet people and become friends with them, there’s a good chance that we live maybe a block away from them.”

Diaz and Ryan say they have enjoyed the constant entertainment that Nashville brings to the table. They frequent The Basement and Mercy Lounge for music, Crema for coffee, La Hacienda on Nolensville for nourishment, Lonnie’s for karaoke and the Stadium Inn for … amateur wrestling night? “It’s a crowd from 20 to 30 people, and they only charge you $7 to watch these people wrestle WWF style with masks, spandex and everything,” Diaz gushes.

As for music, Madi Diaz released a debut album, Skin and Bone, in April of 2007 and an EP, Ten Gun Salute, in December of 2008. Not only have they recently participated in “Next Big Nashville” with dozens of other up-and-coming artists, but they’ve also been touring with the all-star Nashville musical team, Ten Out of Tenn, with members like Trent Dabbs, Erin McCarley and Butterfly Boucher.

“Madi’s cutting vocals and melodic arrangements demand attention, and Kyle is one of the most talented players I’ve ever seen,” Dabbs says. “They compliment each other beautifully.”

The duo have been told that they sound like legendary musical group Fleetwood Mac (which they take as a welcomed compliment), but they glean musical inspiration from somewhere a bit closer to home. “I feel like we listen to people that we already know,” Diaz says. “Kyle Andrews and David Mead are two of my favorites. I also love Dr. Dog and Mindy Smith.”

In addition to collaborating with TOT, Madi Diaz is currently working on a second album. “This is our first official organized recording. We had our debut album, but it was all over the place, and we also released an EP but it was almost accidental,” Ryan says. “This time, we’re deciding which songs mean the most to go on the album and narrowing it down.” The two plan to continue recording their album and are hoping to release it in early 2010. ✪

www.madidiaz.com

Attending a small high school in South Africa, friends Richard Wouters and Andrew McKellar did what so many young, aspiring musicians do—they formed a garage band. A mix of musical aspirations and grand ambition set the course for this emerging rock band. Noble as their initial pursuit may have been, however, Wouters and McKellar soon came to the cold realization that they both played guitar, leaving a void that called for a drummer at the least.

Without losing any time, Wouters decided to learn how to play the drums and fill the gap himself. Shortly after, he began drum lessons, and soon he and McKellar were writing songs together. It wasn’t long before McKellar’s younger brother, Steven, tagged along to practice and was honored with an official band position as the lead singer.

The band’s first show—opening for a local band—came only a few weeks after their first practice. “It was really bad,” Wouters says. “We only had guitar and drums with Steven singing. No bass.” But, in true Civil Twilight style, it wasn’t long before Steven found himself with a bass in hand. “We were like, we don’t have a bass player, so we should probably get one. [Steven] is not doing anything with his hands—he’s just singing,” Wouters relays with a laugh. “So we gave him the bass, and he turned out to be pretty good. We were lucky.” Steven also became the band’s pianist.

Thus, Civil Twilight came to be. They continued to play around the city of Cape Town for the next nine years. Though they were not touring, they were consistently playing the local club circuit and establishing a solid following. “We were doing it because we loved it. We never really thought about it being a career,” Wouters says. “As we got better and saw people responding, we thought that it could go somewhere.” After years of being a local favorite, the band left their homes and familiar lives in hopes of doing something big.

In 2005, with their dreams in sight, the members of Civil Twilight departed from South Africa and arrived in Los Angeles with nothing more than grounded self-assurance. The first few years were tirelessly spent playing shows, making new friends and sharing their lives in a way the band say they had never imagined. “We were definitely poor. Our currency was weaker here in the US, and we couldn’t work for a while. We ended up meeting some friends at a church and rented a garage from some of the guys, doing some odd jobs to pay for rent,” Wouters says.

Now, an old van, one cell phone and many bean and cheese burritos later, the South-African outfit finds themselves on the brink of national success. With the recent release of their self-titled debut and three songs featured on the television shows House, One Tree Hill, Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles and Without A Trace, Civil Twilight know that passion is key. Wouters admits, “It was pretty rough at first. There were moments that we wanted to go home, but we knew it would just be for a while and it would get better. So, we had to push through it. We didn’t want to go home. That would be like admitting defeat.”

And Civil Twilight never left. Trying their hand in the indie circle, they garnered a quick fan base in LA. But it wasn’t long before they felt the need to take on a new territory. For adventure’s sake, they packed their bags and trekked across the country to South Carolina, where they recorded their recent self-titled debut album and signed with Wind-up Records. Then, in September of 2008, they relocated to Nashville and released their album online in July of 2009. They say they have found their home both creatively and personally. “I haven’t seen the kind of community that we have found in Nashville,” Wouters says. “People are patient and friendly while musicians work together to help each other out.”

This communal approach is what Civil Twilight take to songwriting. Although Andrew focuses on the lyrics, each member of the trio contributes a significant element to each song. “The best songs are usually written quickly and at the same time, when melody, arrangement and lyrics come together,” Andrew says. “For me, it’s as if each song has a soul and you have to work out what it’s saying.” Wouters agrees, saying, “Andrew may come in with a guitar riff while Steven has a melody. We all start playing off of each other and create a mood. We like to get a feel or a vibe and work from there.”

It’s this same experience the band likes to offer their audiences during live performances. “We try to connect emotionally with people. For us, that’s what music is all about—taking people on a journey when they come to watch our show,” Wouters says. Steven adds, “I would love to get people to dance, laugh, cry and sing all at the same time, to get a song that incorporates all of those things—that’s our goal.” Yet, the journey doesn’t end in the realm of feelings. “We hope to inspire people to create,” Wouters says. “We hope that our music moves people to think about truth and what life is about. Hopefully, it can give people hope in some way.”

Listeners will be enthused to know that a live album is planned for release in January, while the self-titled debut, which is currently available online, will hit store shelves in the spring. The band is also looking forward to a major tour to be announced for the spring of this year.

The passion that permeates Civil Twilight’s music is still driving their quest for everyone to hear it. The band admits that the success has been good, but it has not altered their optimism, nor has it fueled their collective ego.

Even Andrew jokes that the band is “clueless” about what is going on. “We are passionate about music and performing but still feel a sense of not knowing what we’re doing. We’re trying to work things out and continue to understand why we’re doing this,” he says. Wouters adds, “When you’re younger you look at bands and you see the glamour, the award shows and hear them on the radio; it seems like another world. There are moments of that for us, but the majority of it is working, driving, touring—a lot of work.”

The guys of Civil Twilight say they’ve learned that the journey is their story—three friends making music. “It’s the music that brought us together and the music that has kept us together,” Wouters concludes. “The reason why we keep going is kind of a weird thing, but it’s about the story we’re creating.” ✪

www.civiltwilightband.com

By: Brittany Joy Cooper

Andrew Belle says he was always the least musical member of his family. Trailed by three younger sisters who played the piano and sang in church, Belle left the music lessons to the women and instead poured his energy into sports.

But despite his athletic childhood affections, Belle began to be enticed by music in junior high. When his parents suggested that he listen to Christian radio, he would tape record hours of the top-40 mainstream station on his boom box and listen to the tapes on his Walkman in bed after everyone was asleep. During these years, serenaded by Counting Crows’ “Omaha” and “Mr. Jones,” along with the best of ‘90s rock, Belle’s relationship with music went from intrigued to hooked.

His fixation only deepened when he learned to strum a guitar during his early high school years. Then came the band years. Then college hit, and Belle continued to play in bands at Taylor University. In 2003, during his sophomore year of college, he saw Brand New in concert and says he was invigorated with a new energy to write his own songs.

“I started listening to the record, and I was so inspired by the way that guy wrote songs that I just thought I would try my hand at it,” Belle says. At first, he wrote for his own college band.

“We actually didn’t have a name,” he remembers. “The band consisted more or less of just me writing songs and getting together with a couple people. That was just kind of the early days of me songwriting.”

Belle graduated in 2006 with a business degree, began working at a restaurant and playing out as much as he could and made a name for himself living near and playing in Chicago. “I was just trying to get gigs everywhere I could,” he says. After about nine months, Belle was able to quit waiting tables and solely pursue music. “I was really by myself at that point,” he says. “I didn’t have the manager. I didn’t really know what I was doing.”

Still, Belle continued to work toward his career, teaming up with producer Matt Opal and releasing his debut EP, All Those Pretty Lights, in September of 2008. Within a few months, Belle’s songs were getting TV placements and gaining attention on the Internet.

Only a month after the release of his EP, Belle began working on his first full-length album, The Ladder. He says he wasn’t initially planning on creating his album so soon, but was spurred on by the purchase of a keyboard.

That same year, Belle’s friend, photographer Laura Dart, took him to a Ten out of Tenn show in Chicago, when the group was on their first tour. Belle says he hadn’t heard of any of the artists before the show but was floored by the performance.

“I just, I loved it. I just thought it was the most amazing thing, and all 10 of them were unbelievable,” he says. “It was one of the few shows where, when it was done, I was disappointed—not disappointed with the show, disappointed that it was over.”

When TOT returned to Chicago in 2008 for their Christmas tour, Dart contacted Trent Dabbs about doing a photo shoot with him, and she invited Belle to come along. Belle did, and he gave Dabbs a copy of his EP. Though he wasn’t sure Dabbs would like the record, the transaction fared beautifully for him. After the show, Dabbs e-mailed Belle, telling him they should write if Belle was ever in Nashville, beginning a relationship that swung a door wide open for Belle and eventually landed him a spot in the ten piece collective he so admired.

While in Nashville for a few months recording The Ladder with producer Thomas Doeve, Belle took Dabbs up on his offer, and the two co-wrote the song “Add It Up,” which became the fourth track on Belle’s album. Dabbs later saw Belle perform at the 2009 South by Southwest Festival in Austin, where TOT were also performing. Taken by this ambitious 25-year-old with a bright and enduring sound that’s all his own, Dabbs offered Belle a spot on the fall TOT Tour, provided he was interested in moving to Nashville.

“I was kind of on the fence about moving here at that point,” Belle says. “So that was kind of like the tipping point. I was like, ‘You know, I would love to be a part of this, and I’ve wanted to be a part of this, so I think I’m going to take the gamble and move here.”

Belle relocated in June of 2009, toured with the third installment of TOT and then filled in for Griffin House during the TOT Christmas Tour. Belle was also recently honored with the MTV VMA title as “2009 Chicago Breakout Artist of the Year.” With an impressive award to his name and songs appearing on television shows including 90210, The Real World, Ghost Whisperer and Keeping Up with the Kar- dashians, Andrew Belle still seems most thrilled about his place in Ten out of Tenn.

“What’s so exciting is that it’s such a fun story,” he says. “I was literally just a kid in the crowd, like, ‘Man I would love to be a part of this.’ And of all the people who would probably love to be a part of it, it’s just so funny that I ended up practically willing my way into it.”

Belle’s manager, Seth Cassel of 1L Music, says Belle contributes “energy and youthful exuberance” to TOT. He also says he believes Belle has something novel to offer this city.

“Andrew could potentially act as a ladder, to elevate the thriving Nashville world of which he is a part and extend its reach to the larger, mainstream pop music universe,” Cassel explains.

Speaking of ladders, Belle’s album with the same name will be officially released on February 23. To hold you over until then, download a free version of All Those Pretty Lights at andrewbelle.bandcamp.com (Belle does encourage this). ✪

www.myspace.com/andrewbelle