This story was originally published on Feb. 5, 2014

Musicians are intimidating. They are talented, spontaneous, often very good-looking, and sometimes a little temperamental. Whether you’re a fan, a groupie, or a journalist (like me), it’s not unusual to get a funny feeling in your stomach when you’re about to talk to a musician because you never really know what you are going to get. Talking to Lydia for the first time was no exception.

Leighton Antelman performing at the Fonda Theater. (Photo by: Rosemary Vega)

The indie rock band from Arizona got together in 2003. They’ve released four studio albums, all with a strong fan following. They’ve played at the Vans Warped tour, Bamboozle and the Zumiez Couch Tour. One could say they’ve accomplished a lot in the last decade, but Lydia has also dealt with its fair share of drama. In 2010 they went on a year long hiatus due to creative differences between the two original band members, Leighton Antelman and Steve McGraw. If you look a their Wiki page it seems like they’ve had a revolving door of band members. A search in Google images will produce photos with six band members and others with three. It’s all a little confusing and — needless to say — I didn’t know which iteration of Lydia I was about to meet. But, since the band had just come off a successful tour with the Maine and Anberlin, I was interested in finding out what they had up their sleeves next.

Justin Camacho, the band’s guitarist, met us at the entrance to the Fonda Theater. He had a big goofy grin on his face and seemed full of excitement as he led us to the backstage area. We walked through a hallway crowded with other musicians and after a few minutes arrived at the band’s dressing room. Leighton and Matt Keller (one of the newer band members) greeted us with handshakes and offered up bottled waters. Each band member pops open a beer. I realized fairly quickly that this encounter was going to be more hangout than interview.

“How has it been, touring with Anberlin and getting to tour with The Maine again?” I ask while looking for a place to set down my microphone/phone.

“Great,” Leighton says as he helps pull out a stool to put the phone on.

“Yeah, it’s been awesome,” Justin says.

Matt gives a thumbs-up and then laughs. “I put my thumb up, but the phone can’t hear me put my thumb up. It’s been a really good time. We get to play to a whole bunch of new people every night. Anberlin are super cool guys. And The Maine- we’re all good friends with The Maine, so it’s good to hang out with those guys too. It’s been a good time.”

“The tour has been over for a month maybe, and this is just a make up show, of course. But the tour was great. It’s fun to see these guys randomly,” Justin says.

“It was like a reunion, a little bit,” Leighton concludes.

“Was there a specific show on tour that you remember that was just really awesome?” I ask.

Matt stops to think for a minute. “I remember Salt Lake City being a really good time.”

“We had a great time in Salt Lake. Santa Ana …at the Observatory. I don’t know if you guys were at that one- it was probably one of the biggest shows of the tour. It was crazy how many people were there, and it was very exciting,” Justin says.

“It gets hard to answer that, because you’re out there for a month and a half… And something like, the venue you played in Idaho, in your mind is the venue you played in Seattle, and everything gets confused. You never know where you are, or what day it is,” Matt adds.

“We love them all,” Justin says, not wanting to leave any shows out.

“There hasn’t been a terrible one, let’s put it that way,” Leighton says.

After a couple of introduction questions, we start talking about the infamous hiatus. In May of 2010 the band announced that their summer tour would be their last. The tour was titled “The Lydia Finale: A Goodbye & Farewell Tour.” Leighton reported in several interviews that him and original guitarist, Steve McGraw, just didn’t get along anymore. McGraw was scheduled to play with Lydia in the farewell tour, but backed out a week before the shows started. Lydia drummer, Craig Taylor eventually convinced Leighton to find new band members and continue releasing music under the Lydia name.

Lydia goofing around backstage a the Fonda Theater. (Photo by: Rosemary Vega)

“When you guys went on your hiatus, there was some drama about why you guys broke up, especially with Steve. How are you guys now, do you have any kind of relationship at all?” I ask Leighton.

“Yeah, absolutely. Um, we just played a festival in Colorado- he lives in Colorado. So he comes out to all of our shows in Denver- that’s where he lives. So there’s no beef there.”

“He got me into the band,” Matt chimes in.

“He’s a good dude, it was just kind of wrong time and the wrong place for both of us. So we kind of had to part ways. We just wanted to do two different things. It wasn’t anything personal. It was just musical, I guess, I don’t know what you want to call it,” Leighton says.

“There was a fork in the road,” Matt says.

“Yeah. That’s really all it was, it wasn’t anything like, I punched him in the face, you know,” Leighton says with a laugh.

A punch in the face would have been more exciting from a storytelling perspective, but the break up was actually pretty tame according to the group.

“That would have been an awesome story,” I say.

“Yeah, that would have been a way better story for sure,” Leighton agrees.

“You should just start telling people that,” Matt says.

“Absolutely should. But no, we still talk, for sure. He’s a good guy. He’s crazy, but he’s a good guy.”

“He is crazy…” Matt says, his voice trailing off.

When you have the Grammys and Valentine’s Day happening on the same weekend, it is always best to celebrate with good music and a chic ambiance.

Musician Josh Stevens and America’s Next Top Model contestant Naima Mora delivered exactly that with their pre-Grammy Gala at the Redbury in Hollywood. Steven’s and Mora created an intimate and trendy rooftop party to help celebrate music’s biggest night.

Stevens, a record producer, songwriter, engineer and singer recently released his very own EP, “Story of Summer.” Mora, who is also a singer when she’s not modeling, has been touring with Stevens. The two performed their latest singles and Mora debuted her clothing line Naima X Hitoma.

Check out what they had to say about their sound, the Grammys and their love of music.

As graduation season comes into full bloom, high school seniors are finding out who won their class favorites. The “Most Likely to Succeed,” superlative probably went to the valedictorian, while “Class Clown” went to the next Amy Schumer. But, we wanted to know who would be deemed “Most Likely to End Up With A Cat At Age 50″ within our favorite bands.

So, we asked The Maine who among Kennedy Brock, Pat Kirch, Jard Monaco, Garrett Nickelsen, and John O’Callaghan would win such a title. The answer may surprise you. Even in rock bands, there has to be a “Best To Take Home To Mom and Dad,” right? After quite a pause, Pat and Kennedy revealed their pick.

Watch the video below to find out who would be best at karaoke, and would sing a Backstreet Boys song to prove it.

Troy Lowney, Brennan Smiley and Mike (Nico) Nicolette. Photo by Rosemary Vega.

At the beginning of April, the Technicolors released a brand new EP, “Ultraviolet Disguise,” their first with 8123. “It’s just sneaky, you can’t really pull that apart. It kinda makes you want to be sneaky,” Brennan Smiley, vocalist and guitarist, described of their sound.

The band has been touring with fellow Arizona natives, The Maine on their American Candy tour, which began around the time of the EP’s release. The tour’s last date is tonight in Florida, but we had the chance to talk with The Technicolors just days into the tour. See what Brennan, Mike “Nico” Nicolette (Bass), and Troy Lowney (Bass) had to say about their music and touring in the video below.

The Maine‘s latest album, American Candy is a far departure from their previous record, Forever Halloween. With a little less than two years in between albums, American Candy has a more uptempo and carefree vibe than their previous installment. The fifth album did a complete turnaround from the “darker” sound they experimented with in Forever Halloween, as guitarist Kennedy Brock described to us. “It’s always kind of our goal to go into the studio and do something that feels fresh and new,” Brock said about the change.

We sat down with drummer Pat Kirch and Kennedy just at their start of their “American Candy Tour” in April and talked about their social media black out during the recording of “American Candy,” 90s influences in their music, and much more. Check it out below.

The New Year is in full swing and many of us are setting our sights on making our New Year’s resolutions a reality. Of course, being everyday folk, our resolutions usually range from “keep my room clean” to “shed a couple of pounds.” What if your resolution was “I’m going to try not to die?” It sounds dramatic, but that is the life of a musician. At least that’s what Pat and Garrett from The Maine told us their goal was when we caught up with them in December to talk about the upcoming year. We’re not completely convinced that “staying alive” counts as a yearlong goal, but the two did give us a lot of insight into what the band has planned over the next few months and what they like to do when they’re not working.

Check out the interview below to see what they had to say.

HTS: Since you guys finished the tour not that long ago, how did it go? How has the reception been?

Pat: It was awesome. We kinda weren’t sure what to expect cause, you know, us and Anberlin, I think, like have different fan bases and things like that. So we weren’t sure how the mix was going to be, but um. It was good. Can’t complain about that.
Garrett: Yeah. It was awesome. It was pretty short, so it went by pretty quick. But you know, all the bands are awesome so it was good hangs and stuff. Really fun.

HTS: So when I was talking to Lydia, I heard that you guys have a little backstage ritual you guys do. What is that ritual exactly?
Garrett: We do this little chant thing before we go on. Uh, it’s just like a clap/chant thing, but.
Pat: Besides that, we kinda just hang out and get in the mood to do a show I guess.
Garrett: Yeah, not too crazy.
Pat: We don’t have like set things that we have to do everyday or anything like that.

HTS: No one wears the same underwear for like a week type thing?
Garrett: Well, I do that, not on purpose.

HTS: Sanitary.
Garrett: Yeah, just cause I don’t shower. But I showered yesterday, so I feel good.

HTS: You guys just came out with an acoustic EP, yesterday. So why did you decide to release an acoustic EP?
Garrett: Um, it was something we’ve talked about for a long time. But our fans kind of always would say that we should do one. And then, we had a little bit of time off before the Anberlin tour, or the tour we just did. So we built a little studio in the back of our manager’s office. And we just recorded it, in like 5 or 6 days on our own. It was just us five, which we’ve never done. And it was a lot of fun, you know. Just kind of something we threw together pretty quick.
Pat: Just trying to explore a different dynamic of what we do as a band, try something else, and push what we do. Having a restriction on a set of songs kind of helps makes you think of things in a different way than you would if you knew you could make it sound big and whatever. So, I think it just made us think outside the box a little bit.

HTS: And you guys are doing an acoustic tour for that. Is your set going to be dramatically different with what you do?
Both: Yeah.
Garrett: We’ve sort of done something like that before. When our record “Pioneer” came out, we played that record full band, and then split it in half and came out and did an acoustic set of like 5 or 6 songs. But this will be the full set. So we’re going to re-work everything and make it work so it’s not loud, in your face, and its more, you know … calm.
Pat: And it’s a good chance to play tunes that don’t normally make it into the set. So we’re planning some small shows. It’s going to be like the hardcore fans that have been there forever so we’re going to play some things we haven’t played yet before, or haven’t played in years.

HTS: So which one do you prefer, acoustic or regular?
Pat: Full band shows…
Garrett: That’s what we love doing. But it’s going to be fun to do something different.

Young girls of the current generation may not know who she is, but Kathleen Hanna literally started a movement. As the former front woman for feminist punk bands Bikini Kill and Le Tigre, Hanna sang about misogyny, domestic violence and finding your own voice. She helped create the Riot Grrrl movement and was an integral part of third wave feminism. Young women in the 90s saw Hanna as a heroine, but in 2003 she mysteriously left the spotlight and stopped performing.

Nearly a decade passed before we would hear from Hanna again, but this past November a documentary called “The Punk Singer” emerged onto the scene and brought Hanna back to the stage. The film, directed by Sini Anderson, follows Hanna from her beginnings in Olympia, Washington all the way through her decision to leave Le Tigre (she stopped performing because of her struggle with late-stage Lyme disease) and now her new project, The Julie Ruin.

Hollywood Times Square caught up with Hanna to chat about her diagnosis, getting back into performing, and where the feminist movement is today.

The film alludes to the fact that your illness is something of a mystery to people. Was this something that you were purposely keeping to yourself? If so, why was that?

Well I didn’t tell my wider circle of friends for a really long time. I think my core group of friends and my family new something was wrong, but they didn’t know what it was. I also didn’t know what it was so it was really hard to tell people besides my family. My current band mates in The Julie Ruin, we were writing the record and I still didn’t have a diagnosis. I was constantly going to specialists and coming in with a different diagnosis every week. Saying, hey you know someone told me I have Chron’s disease, oh someone told me I have degenerative arthritis or whatever.  It wasn’t a conscious decision not to tell anybody. It’s not like, I’m not like Miley Cyrus and everybody’s not banging down my door to found out every last thing that’s going on with me, you know what I mean? I told my friends at my birthday when I had a birthday cake shaped like a tick and when I cut into it like fake blood squirted everywhere. And that’s how my friends found out, they asked why I had that cake. I told everybody I had Lyme disease and it was a really bad idea because then I spent my birthday talking about Lyme disease. Happy birthday to me!

Photo courtesy of IFC Films

I read an article recently that quoted Miley Cyrus as saying I’m one of the biggest feminists and I was wondering if you could just comment on that?

I just… you know when the word feminist gets brought up by somebody who everyone is watching, it means that people are going on the interest and they’retyping ‘what does feminism mean?’ And that makes me happy because I think about you know, if I was nine years old and I was a Miley Cyrus fan – I am actually a Miley Cyrus fan, of two songs, I really like Party in the USA and I like The Climb — um and my friend actually did a whole show based on Miley Cyrus. She’s a performance artist so she should really be the one being asked this question, but you know I just imagine being nine years old and loving the songs or loving Hannah Montana and being like ‘whoa what’s feminism?’ And then ending up reading something about domestic violence and being like ‘that happens in other people’s houses because that’s happening in my house. I can get help for that?’ There’s got to be at least one person that that happens for because she’s using that word so whether I like her other art or not, or whether I agree with every artistic decision she makes is beyond the point. I think the fact that she said that word and has such a large platform is only going to do good. I can’t say if she’s a feminist or not because that’s up to her.

I know that you and Sini are friends, why did you decide to have her tell this story about you now? 

Ummm… three things… bullet points. One, I knew Sini for 15 years and we were part of the same scene. Two, I was really sick and didn’t think I’d ever be able to have a movie made about me again and there wasn’t a lot of video footage of me talking that existed in the world and three, one of the reasons that I didn’t want to do it [before] was that I realized I internalized sexism. That I felt like it was stepping forward and taking credit for my accomplishments and somehow I thought that was bad and I wanted to get over that hurtle, so I said yes.

In the documentary you mentioned that there was a point in your life when you were really media averse and now you’re doing interviews. What changed in you in terms of that and being able to talk to the media?

I think all of us would say we don’t trust the media to a certain extent depending on what media is, like if it’s Fox News of course I don’t trust it, but I realized things are more permeable and you know writers need to make money and a lot of them are really fucking cool. I have friends who are journalists now, so I’m kind of like ‘look it’s not this universal thing where they’re all assholes.’ And when I was really young and I didn’t know what a publicist was or a manager or any of that stuff, it was just too much for us to handle and too much for us to manage. And because we didn’t step forward with our own footage or own story or whatever, you know we were writing our own stories in our fanzines and that was enough for us. We didn’t need to be in glossy magazines. That wasn’t really the goal, the goal was to change things on the underground for the better, the underground music scene, we weren’t really that interested in the main stream. I feel like in Le Tigre I was more interested in the mainstream and also we had help and so it was so much easier to deal with the media when there was a buffer and when it’s not just too much work you know what I mean? Part of it was just that it was too much work for four totally dysfunctional fuck ups to be perfectly honest. In the movie it was like ‘oh that was just our decision’ and yeah there’s a part of like mythology around it, cause that’s what it is, but you know truth be told we were a bunch of fuck ups that didn’t know what we were doing. And now that I look back on it the fact that we got in any magazines at all is totally weird and incredible and that’s what brought a lot of people into the feminist punk rock scene, is like an article in Spin that they read. So at the time maybe I hated it but it’s like I hated Girl Power when Spice Girls stole it but then I’d rather have six year olds dancing around to that than Blurred Lines or something.

Have you seen any kind of change in the way that you’re talked about ever since you put your own voice out there?

Hmmm… that’s interesting. I don’t know I mean I try really hard not to read the press. I read stuff when it’s in the New York Times because I know my mom’s going to see it, but I try not to read too much, but maybe go to the next question because I really don’t know how I’m perceived at all. I have no idea. Is that really bad?

No not at all. If I were you I would think it’s better not to know what people are saying about me. I think you have the right idea.  Back then you talked a lot about feminism and where feminism was, where do you think it is now because it’s not really something you hear people talk about as much, so how do you think it’s doing now? 

I feel like with this recent spat of pop stars who are debating if they’re feminists or not or whatever – Miley Cyrus and Lady Gaga and Taylor Swift – I think that there’s a national conversation about that, there’s a national conversation about Pussy Riot, which is sort of fading from view now, but still there in the distant. And then what’s going on in Texas is mobilizing a lot of women and a lot of people in general, so I think that there’s some exciting stuff happening. From what I see when I do lectures and stuff, or like I just did a q & a for the film the other night and there were five teenagers in the front row who are starting a feminist club at their school and I was just really moved by that. And I get letters all the time from other teenage girls that are like I’m starting a feminist club and I’m just like how awesome is that? It’s really great.

The AFI Film Festival has a lot to offer in the way of gala films and seasoned actors, but while the big event on Friday was the premiere of “August Osage County” at the Chinese Theater, other more fun things were happening in the theater next door. Hollywood’s up-and-coming actors gathered to discuss success, their craft, and Internet stalking for AFI’s Young Hollywood Roundtable.

The panel brought Brie Larson (“Short Term 12″), Miles Teller (“The Spectacular Now”), Michael B. Jordan (“Fruitvale Station”), Dane DeHaan (“Kill Your Darlings”), and Greta Gerwig (“Frances Ha”) together, with Los Angeles Times’ entertainment reporter Amy Kaufman moderating, to discuss a number of topics that ranged from inspirational, to awkward, to just plain hilarious. Check out the highlights:

On their first big Hollywood moment:

Kaufman started off the night by asking the group when they experienced their first Hollywood moment. Dane DeHaan, who co-starred in the 2012 film “Lawless” before landing roles in “Kill Your Darlings” and “The Place Beyond the Pines,” said he first felt like he had made it when his agent bought him a plane ticket to Cannes for the film’s premiere.

“When Lawless was going to Cannes, they were going to take everyone except for me because everyone else was a lot more famous than I was,” DeHann said. “So my agent bought me a plane ticket and the first night I was there I slept on a line producer’s futon, but I had this really cool tux and then I did the red carpet. That night [after the premiere] Jessica Chastain had to go back to finish shooting “Zero Dark Thirty” so she gave me her hotel room for the night and it was like… um… palatial and that was my first big Hollywood moment.”

Brie Larson said she had her first Hollywood moment at the tender age of seven. “My first job… I was seven years old and I was doing a fake Barbie commercial for Jay Leno,” Larson said. “It was Malibu Mudslide Barbie –this is real– and I was so excited about the opportunity to work, and they put your name on the door and it was my first time ever seeing Brie Larson– because that’s not my real name– so it was like this fake name on the door in Los Angeles. And they had like wardrobe which was like – a t-shirt—and it was really exciting and I remember thinking ‘I made it.’ And I had no idea I wasn’t even close.”

On using/resisting social media:

All three men on the panel use Twitter, but both Gerwig and Larson have decided to opt out. Gerwig described herself as a bit of a social media stalker. “I’m like an old woman,” she said. “I read people’s Twitters, but I don’t get their feeds. I just read all of them. I like that. I like Jessica Chastain’s Facebook page very much. She’s so nice, and she’s so happy. I stalk people all the time via their things, but I feel like maybe if I was on it then they would know. I just want to be behind a shield.”

On the difference between acting in independent films and blockbusters:

Every actor on the panel has experienced working on both indie films and big blockbusters and they said there are some noticeable differences between them.

DeHaan, who will appear in “The Amazing Spider-Man 2″ this coming May, said the biggest difference to him is time. “I think that’s the main difference [with big budget films]. It buys you time. You have six months to make a movie instead of 24 days so you can spend an entire day working on two pages. You can explore everything, rather than having to do it two or three times and then move on, hoping that you got it.”

Teller, who just finished shooting the highly anticipated “Divergent” with “The Spectacular Now” co-star Shailene Woodley, said he likes how much say he gets as an actor in independent films. “[Shooting smaller films], to me, it feels more like a student film. Obviously I’m not trying to take away from the quality of work they’re doing. The directors that I’ve worked with on smaller films are much more collaborative from my experience. You really feel like a big part of it. On the bigger films that I’ve worked on, for certain things it’s more of a visual presentation. I like staying active. I like being on the go. I think it builds an energy to it…I like the feeling that you and everybody else are making this thing together.”

 On auditioning for roles:

When talking about auditions, Teller recalled talking to his agent about why he wasn’t getting work. “I remember when I was first auditioning for stuff, I wasn’t booking anything and my agent said, ‘Well, you gotta start working out. Or you gotta start doing your hair.'”

After giggling over the idea of someone telling Teller to “do his hair,” Larson recalled receiving similar feedback from casting directors. “For so many auditions, I get, ‘It’s great. It’s really great, but could you come back in a mini skirt… Could you come back in a jean mini skirt?”

Then she said to Gerwig, “Do you get that?”

“No,” Gerwig deadpanned. “They don’t want to see me in a mini skirt. I always get like after an audition – so are you funny?”

 On disastrous auditions:

Though the panel wasn’t really willing to discuss their worst auditions Gerwig did seem upset over never booking a role on Law & Order. “I’m like the only actor in New York who’s never ever been on any Law & Order and I’ve auditioned for so many of them. And the sad thing is I love Law & Order. I love it, I see it all the time, I’m into all the detectives and all the different iterations. I’m really obsessed with it. And they always say to me, ‘like you seem like you’re making fun of the material’ … and I’m like I take this shit so seriously.”

 On watching themselves on screen:

“Miles doesn’t watch his own movies ever,” Jordan said to break a lull in the conversation. While he wasn’t totally serious, Teller did say watching himself on screen is odd. “I mean you watch it, it’s just you don’t see the movie, at least I don’t see the movie at all. You work on a movie for however long, you have all these memories associated with it and then for that to be condensed down to like an hour and half or two hours is just so weird,” Teller said. “And I hate it, I think I’m terrible, and I think everyone else is fantastic.”

Jordan agreed for the most part. He said he’s seen “Fruitvale Station” four times to date, but he found himself thinking “that’s annoying” when he first saw it.

Gerwig recounted a job where she sat naked in a bathtub playing a trumpet, “I just remember the last shot of the movie in the bathtub … and it was sort of like, well, kill your vanity now. But like you really understand why Orson Welles ate so much because it’s so traumatic. Like after you see yourself you sort of want to go eat a whole roast by yourself.”

If I asked you to name famous musical siblings you’d probably think of Hanson or the Jonas Brothers. Echosmith is not likely to be on your radar yet, but this young alternative pop band consisting of four siblings, has a far more mature sound than any of the former groups did at their age.

The foursome (Syndey, Graham, Jamie, and Noah) just released their debut album “Talking Dreams” and they’ve gotten a ton of buzz from iTunes and YouTube. They already played at Warped Tour and the youngest member is only 14.

Echosmith sat down with HTS to discuss the release of their new album and their hopes for the future. Watch the video below.

Filmmaker Dan Mazer may be known for his credits as a writer, but he jumps into directing seamlessly. “I Give it a Year” isn’t just Mazer’s directorial debut, it’s also a complete re-imagining of the rom com genre.

Mazer, who is known for writing “Bruno” and “Borat,” delivered a comedic indie film, which in his words, just happens to be about romance. We sat down with Mazer for a short talk about the film, his directorial debut, as well as the characters of the film. “I Give it a Year”, now out in select theaters and on DVD/Blu-ray, centers around newlyweds, Nat and Josh. Although their family and friends believe from the start their relationship is doomed to fail, the two are determined to make things work-at least for the first year.