As an early proponent of MP3s and music download, Sam Rosenthal, the man behind goth/folk/neofolk label Projekt Records and founder/songwriter of the legendary goth formation, Black Tape For A Blue Girl reflects on issues that not only concern musicians, but concern every creative.

by Sam Rosenthal

Ah, so what is to be done about this new Digital Dilemma? I’ve run Projekt Records (www.projekt.com) since the early 80s, we have 266 releases out. This is an immediate disclaimer to address one of the memes hurled my way. It goes, “You have to get with the times. Making money off recorded music is yesterday’s business. That’s over. Find a different way to monetize your music.” You know, I understand change; I’ve seen a lot of change over the last 28 years. A lot! In order to stay in business, I keep up.

However, what those CEOs and “fans” who live by this meme are really saying is, “I want to listen to your music, but I don’t want to pay for it. I am going to pass the responsibility for compensation down the road to some other customer. You need to find some new way to make a living off THAT person’s enjoyment of your art. Oh, but keep making music, because I want it for free.” We’ve got a problem here. FREE has become the price point that many people want to pay for music. However, free is not a price point that works for creative endeavors. There are costs to making art. Equipment. Studio time. Paying musicians… And what about the hours we spend creating? Time taken away from “a real job” earning a real income. My rent still needs to be paid, my utilities, my son’s sneakers. For some reason, some people think that artists (and musicians in particular) should work for free. Where’s the logic to this? Well, there is no logic. This is a justification for wanting something for themselves, without considering the results of their action. Do you think people can create your favorite TV show for free? Your favorite movie? Your favorite Thai meal? Will the supermarket give you a box of cereal when you are hungry but don’t have the money to pay? Sure, we’d all kinda love a free meal or movie, but we are realistic that one can’t just walk off with the things you want… and yet… with music people feel it’s different.

read the full editorial in the December/January 2011/2012 Issue

photo : Zach Rose
interview : Zach Rose

Auxiliary Magazine’s regular contributor, the infamous Vanity Kills, is one that matches sharp wit and insight with a varied background in fashion, cosmetics, and music to bring readers content that is not only informative, but also highly entertaining.  Vanity Kills has plenty of experience writing on topics she enjoys and embodies, currently she has an online column on Lip Service’s webzine entitled, Lethal Style.  Contributing beauty articles and a multitude of in depth interviews with designers from around the world to each issue, she brings a unique and fun persona to Auxiliary Magazine.

What do you do at Auxiliary Magazine?

Instruct and inform the masses in all manners related to the fine art of warpaint application, interview people that don’t suck, and formerly provided comic relief with some 100% fictional ridiculous goth drama. Also I allegedly partied with the copy editor in at least five different states.

As an independent writer working with multiple companies including Lip Service and Auxiliary, what is it about writing that is most appealing to you? How did you get started?

As frustrating as it is at times, it’s the air I breathe. As much as writing the perfect paragraph which conveys my thoughts on Hello Kitty corsets in the exact matter I want it to keeps me up at night, I cannot picture ever NOT doing it. Being physically rewarded for my efforts with money and merchandise is nice, since I put a lot of effort into the written word, but it’s never been my motivation. The greatest reward is the immense sense of accomplishment derived from bringing to completion a finished piece that I would have loved to stumble upon, in either a book or a blog, and find myself. When I feel like I’ve written something equally informative and pleasurable to read.

I’ve always loved fashion magazines. As long as I can remember, I’ve read every woman’s magazine I could get my hands on and mentally devoured all the vignettes that accompanied the fashion spreads. My brain absorbed them like a sponge. It didn’t matter if the outfits themselves were hideous or exquisite. You can’t mount a painting on the wall without a frame. Words are that frame. In time, I found myself ‘styling’ things in my head. Constantly thinking of what shoes would go with what skirt and what earrings would complement the ensemble as a whole. Fleshing out these thoughts into full fledged fashion and beauty articles was just a natural extension of all that internal style obsessed dialogue.

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photo : Luke Copping
hair : Erin Moser
makeup : Leane Steck
interview : Jennifer Link

Mike Kieffer is the head music editor for Auxiliary Magazine.  Mike oversees the music content for each issue and is constantly seeking out new, fresh, and quality music.  He also writes music reviews, interviews, and the occasional blog on Auxiliary’s website.  With a background as a DJ and event promoter and organizer, under the names Darago and netwerk23 respectively, Mike has a good experience base to draw on and also works to promote and market Auxiliary.

What do you do at Auxiliary Magazine?

I handle everything music related, from gathering promotional materials, coordinating reviews, arranging interviews, etc. Also I help with the brainstorming for the rest of the features and sometimes I rip apart photo editorials only to be put in my place by the other editors who think the work is brilliant.

What skills and experience from your background as a promoter, event organizer, and DJ do you use as a music editor for Auxiliary?

Being a techno and EBM event organizer/promoter and a DJ has taught me many lessons about what music is great and what music the masses love. I try to balance popular with original in the magazine.

You have the chance to play a DJ set at any event/venue, where and what do you play?

Where is irrelevant as long as there are over a million people chanting my name. Since the DJ set would be a 24 hour marathon set I am sure I would get to play everything, I would start out with minimal techno sliding into electo-industrial then into industrial hardcore to hardcore techno to booty house then tech-house to tech trance to minimal tech, and I would end the night with an obnoxious song that will make all the people regret that they stayed to the end. Mostly because I will want to go home and if everyone leaves then I can.

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photo : Luke Copping
hair : Erin Moser
makeup : Leane Steck
interview : Zach Rose and Meagan Hendrickson

Jennifer Link is the founding member of Auxiliary Magazine and one of the driving forces behind it. With a background in fashion and fine art photography, Jennifer has held various positions such as art director, photographer with several prominent alternative designers as clients, and lately, entrepreneur. Jennifer is the editor in chief of Auxiliary but also contributes to the magazine as a photographer and occasionally a writer.

What do you do at Auxiliary Magazine?

I am the Editor in Chief and Publisher.  I also contribute as a photographer and writer having shot some of Auxiliary’s fashion and beauty editorials and having written a few articles and interviews.

How did Auxiliary get started and how has the magazine evolved since its inception?

Well the idea and desire to start a magazine came to me while I was living in New York City.  I was looking for outlets for alternative fashion editorials as a photographer, and found there weren’t many and there were hardly any that fit exactly what I wanted to do.  I also noticed many people around me where complaining about the state of the goth/industrial/alternative/whathaveyou scene while at the same time there were so many great designer, musicians, photographers, and creatives out there, struggling.  So I decided I wanted to start a magazine for alternative fashion, music, and lifestyle that would highlight all the great artists out there and provide an outlet.  I took this idea back to Buffalo with me, as I had a few close friends there that I wanted to work with and I would need way less money to work and live in Buffalo while building up the magazine.  The core group of editors, Luke, Meagan, and Mike formed and we put together the first issue with the help of some friends and contacts we had in nearby cities, Toronto and NYC.  The magazine has evolved so much since that first issue.  Each issue is better than the last, in my opinion, and with each issue I think we tune and tweak the magazine closer to what we envision it to be.  We’ve brought on many different contributors and expanded our core team.  We’ve developed the magazine in so many different ways since then, I can’t even start to get into it!

As a photographer yourself, your more recent published work has been geared more towards fashion, your start was with fine art photography, how did this change come about?

I went to school for a Bachelor of Fine Arts.  I had thought I wanted to focus on video, but after taking a photo class realized I was more interested in my photo work than my video work.  My last year of college my work was highly focused on fashion and how one uses personal style, so after college it seemed an obvious transition into editorial fashion work. I do want to put together a new series of ’fine art’ photos at some point, but they would most defiantly feature alternative fashion/style in them.  At this point I know that’s the main subject for my photography, whether it’s fine art or professional fashion work would be mostly determined by the output, a gallery or a magazine.  I’ve had the idea for a while for a series that would be shot in a way very similar to shooting editorial fashion but the final display would be large format prints.  I love viewing large format photography, so that will probably be what eventually draws me back to making a new art series.

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photo : Jennifer Link
hair : Erin Moser
makeup : Leane Steck
interview : Zach Rose

As an original member of Auxiliary Magazine, Luke Copping’s background in photography, marketing, and popular culture helps Auxiliary achieve the success that it enjoys. Luke’s unique approach to beauty, style, and character photography lends an aesthetic of quirk and dynamism that is entirely his own. An internationally recognized photographer, Luke’s style continues to evolve and his contributions to Auxiliary continue to lend content that is both exciting in nature and provocative in its styling.

What do you do at Auxiliary Magazine?

What don’t I do? As the Associate Editor I work on all aspects of the magazine. On top of writing and photographing several articles each issue, I work on design, marketing, editing, and advertising issues, I also work in article and shoot production, and I work closely with the rest of the editorial staff on the direction of each issue. I also manage a lot of the blog content. I’m sort of the jack of all trades, I go where the work needs to be done and tend to fill a lot of different spots on the magazine’s roster, as well as providing content as needed to fill holes in our issue layouts.

As an individual utilizing several different roles with Auxiliary, which do you find to be the most rewarding and why?

Its all good, and all an outlet for what I do. Whether I’m creating imagery or writing for the magazine, or launching a new marketing idea or plan. I think too many artists have a poor concept of business. I like to pride myself on having the skills to do both. You can’t run a successful venture like this without being both creative and business savvy. That’s why I enjoy working with the team here so much, they take it as seriously as I do, and truly want this venture to succeed.

How does Auxiliary Magazine influence local fashion markets? Non-local?

I’m not concerned with us influencing markets as a whole. I think that Auxiliary, at least in terms of my perception, is much more about pushing people to create their own styles, rather than being mere slaves to the fashions we show. I dread us ever becoming a magazine like Gothic Beauty, one which I feel simply regurgitates the latest pseudo alternative trends and uniforms that you see influence the club scene. I think our readers are more intelligent than that, have a wider range of interests and don’t need to be told what to wear, merely shown what is out there so they can make up their own minds. I try to introduce elements of fashion and style from a variety of backgrounds that other magazines either tend to deride or ignore simply because these aesthetics and ideas do not fit into what I feel are the small and narrowly defined categories that it seems these magazines adhere to. High fashion runway shows, vintage and thrift, DIY, street fashion, and elements of the South American, Eastern European, and Asian fashion scenes are all present throughout our editorials and blog entries. I think the most important element in developing an alternative fashion magazine is to absolutely NOT play to the stereotypes. These are bad trends and poorly thought out fashion ideas that propagate within the mob mentality of several alternative countercultures. I have no time for elitist tribes that espouse individuality while only allowing social creativity within a limited scope. We owe our readers more than that.

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photo : Luke Copping
hair : Erin Moser
makeup : Leane Steck
interview : Jennifer Link and Zach Rose

What do you do at Auxiliary Magazine?

I am the fashion editor and one of the fashion stylists.

What overall vision do you aim to uphold when working as a fashion stylist and fashion editor for Auxiliary?

I like keep an attainable style in mind with regards to Auxiliary Magazine. I like to ask the question, ‘Would someone actually wear this and is it something that inspires?’ I like to style the magazine’s fashion as edgy, yet still being relatable in everyday life.

As a women with varied talents and skills, what past experiences do you draw on for your work with Auxiliary?

I have been going to clubs, raves (the 90s!), and art events since the age of 13. I’ve made a lot of bad fashion choices and have the photos to prove it! I like to keep those memories around to see my personal progress of style and influences. I think of it as a ‘look book’ into my own taste and fashion choices that I have today. These style lessons have helped me to see a large range in fashion styling that I infuse into Auxiliary’s voice about fashion, personal taste, and styling. I like to believe that you have to take risks sometimes to see an outcome that may be greater than what you expected.

What are your creative influences?

What doesn’t influence me?! [laughs] I watch a lot of Victorian Era mini dramas, watch a lot of music videos, and I love fashion magazines. I get very inspired by all forms of photography and now that I’ve started painting again, I feel more excited about color! I enjoy the spooky ookiness of the goth aesthetic yet, infuse it the with by-gone eras of the 40s and 50s.

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photo : Luke Copping
interview : Zach Rose

What do you do at Auxiliary Magazine?

I am a fashion stylist, working mainly in editorial.

What are some of the challenges facing a fashion consultant/stylist such as yourself?

The challenges of being a stylist are having to plan on never having enough of anything: time, people, clothes, whatever it may be. You absolutely have to be prepared to improvise, and always over prepare because once you are on set you have what you have. By the same token, improvising can be the best part. Some of the coolest stuff happens when things don’t go according to plan. You have to trust in your vision, just like any other art form.

Do you think style reflects one’s inner individuality? Or is it merely a means of following a trend?

I believe personal style is a reflection of the individual by its very nature. Not everyone is entirely confident in who he or she is or who he or she wishes to be, or in the expression of that. Therefore, some like to play it very safe outwardly and don’t like to be as creative as others in their dress. I think that fashion has become a part of society where, if you choose to participate, it will embrace you. For some, following trends is a way to feel like a part of the accessible cultural evolution in fashion, which can be easily made personal as well. Whatever it is you need to do or feel to participate in the expression of yourself, fashion offers it. Whether it is your own creativity or a reflection of another influence, it is a personal choice as to how deeply you would like to immerse yourself in it. Fashion is a decision about the kind of person you want to show the world, whether that comes from within or without is up to the individual.

Describe a bit of your background and how it has led you to where you are today?

I have a background in marketing and creative media production that I was specifically applying to the music industry for quite some time in both Atlanta, and New York City. I took a turn toward fashion as a result of my dissatisfaction with several corporate American structures that I kept running into. I specifically fell into working with a vintage designer showroom during my time living in Williamsburg. This was a turning point in my life.

I find it important to live with sensitivity in understanding where people are coming from and what they are trying to express. I find this mentality important to styling, as it is all about creating a vision for everyone involved, expressing an effective story, and being able to step outside of yourself and personal opinions to do so. My favorite part of creating visual solutions is telling a story or concept through the participation in collective creative endeavors. When you get a group of highly intelligent and creative people together creating a mind-full concept visually, it is highly rewarding

What is your opinion on the state of subculture and more specifically, how does Auxiliary cater to the demands of the alternative?

I think that subculture is a beautiful thing. It allows people to pull from one or many areas in order to find inspirations based on small groups of people brought together by similar mentalities and taste in music, art, and lifestyle decisions. I do not believe that any one subculture is completely pure and free of influence any more, in that we have become so infused with image and media references that everyone seems to be drawing from each others subcultures. Sub or counter cultures that may still truly exist purely are those that have still yet to make it into the mainstream influence. Auxiliary is important to the fashion scene in that it offers the opportunity of creating alternative high-fashion inspirations that are also accessible. When we commercialize these subcultures the mainstream becomes comfortable with them, and therefore are aware of how to apply them to day-to-day life.

What does creativity mean to you and why is it important?

Creativity is an ability to think and feel openly. You either have it or you don’t, but that’s a choice we make every day. We choose in every moment how we are looking at, interacting with, and giving back to the world around us.

photo and interview : Luke Copping

Zach Rose is one of the newest additions to the Auxiliary Magazine team. Zach is the lead copy editor for Auxiliary and balances that out by providing photographic and written content to the magazine. Zach is an emerging photographer who is starting to make waves both with his photography as well as his writing.

What do you do at Auxiliary Magazine?

Zach Rose : I do umbriel finite, I do writing, but I primarily do copy editing, copy editing, and more copy editing. I’m one of the last people that looks over writer submissions and checks them for your mistakes, your grammar, and any other weird stuff you may do (yes you).

Do you think that the written word is just as important as an image?

ZR : Both are equally as important and usually outlive the producer. Some people get killed for what they say, or write (or blog these days). While an image can speak a thousand words a word can have a thousand-fold impact with the result dependant on the context of the situation (such as political).

What is your opinion on the state of fetish fashion and how it is intertwining with mainstream fashion?

ZR : I think there has always been some level of fetish in mainstream fashion. But fetish is an ambiguous term in my opinion and can apply to anything that flaunts the body in a unique and provocative way. To me fetish wear is not so much about how good it looks as how quickly it can be removed.

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photo and interview : Luke Copping

Adam Rosina is a blogger and film critic for Auxiliary Magazine. Quickly gaining a reputation as Western New York’s most misanthropic and angry film critic, Rosina joined the team at Auxiliary just a short while ago and has already made quite a name for himself by calling out Tim Burton as a prostitute for his role in Alice, postulating on his own strange obsession with Paul Verhoeven films, and espousing his fandom of Dennis Hopper. Adam is a critic in the old-school, purist sense of the word. Able to dissect a film without concern for studio opinion, manners, or preconceived opinions held by rabid fans or other condescending critics.

What do you do at Auxiliary?

Write film reviews, and write a blog on cult movies, “Unaussprechlichen Kulten”, for Auxiliary’s website. That’s right, nerds, it’s a Lovecraft reference. Drink it in. Now go get some fresh air.

How did you join the magazine?

Luke Copping saw that his friend, who happened to be an out-of-work writer, was in need of a way to vent his near-Busey levels of psychotic rage. Torching hobos with a gas can being socially unacceptable, he went against all logic and gave a writing gig to a guy that shouldn’t be allowed to speak in polite company, let alone given a forum where his insane rants would be published… and read… by people. Hooray for bad ideas!

Who are your favorite directors?

Too numerous to mention, but a rundown of the top ten (in no particular order) goes something like: Shinya Tsukamoto, Paul Verhoeven, Hayao Miyazaki, David Cronenberg, John Waters, John Carpenter, Robert Rodriguez, Takeshi Miike, Ralph Bakshi, Martin Scorsese.

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by Grant Wigmore, B.S. in Urban and Regional Analysis and Planning

In most North American metropolitan areas city living is unfortunately no longer as commonplace as suburban living.  The obvious exceptions to this being New York City, Chicago, and Toronto.  In the decades following WWII, the shift from the urban core to the suburbs and now exurbs has increased dramatically.  People fled the inner city for new single family homes and a plot of land to call their own.  They left due to congestion, pollution, poverty and perceived high crime.  Soon, retail and other employers followed the people causing the core of many urban areas to become a shell of their former selves.

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