There are plenty of bubble gum teen pop acts out there today which make those who are real music lovers cringe, roll their eyes and are generally ill at ease when they hear the music of those precocious and spoiled teen machines. Picture Me Broken is not one of those teen acts. While they may fit into the age range of the Jonas brothers and Miley Cyrus; Picture Me Broken not only makes a statement with music that is written by themselves, but where they hold all the cards in the decisions of what they want the music to feel and sound like. The music blends melodic rock with awe inspiring lyrics and screamo plugged in at all the right moments that may just be the anti-teen band and carries wide appeal. Superbly talented, introspective and full of raw vision, the soul begins with the skilled song writing by the band's lead vocalist and screamo diva Layla Allman (the Rock N’ Roll Hall of Fame’s Gregg Allman’s daughter) and continues with band mates Nick Loiacono on guitars, Austin Dunn playing bass and the newest mate ADHD inclined Connor Lung on drums. At only 16 years old each they have done what bands from New York to California dream of doing-winning a VMA award-an utterly pleasant surprise to all those who rock out in their orbit. While the hours of recording and dealing with what all teenagers must such as homework and chores, their first EP “Dearest’ I’m So Sorry” is not to be missed. As they enter an exciting and busy period in their rising careers I had a chance to talk to them about everything that was going on in their lives. This is a band who has enough energy and wise ass remarks to make anyone realize these are some sharp and talented kids who are out to rock the Rock World their way.
AAM (Christi): Congratulations on your recent successes with winning a VMA and being #1 on Pure Volume this week. How did the nomination for the VMA award come up? And MTV2 promoted it on TV is that correct?
Layla: Thank you. We’ve been involved with a website called Ourstage.com for the preceding six months and immediately became popular among its users. Our music video won a huge category scoring us a thousand dollars and a good amount of exposure, but that was nothing compared to the contest that MTV2 held through Ourstage.com for the VMA title of Best Bay Area Breakout Band. The prelims were held on Ourstage.com in which we were voted into the Top 20 to then be judged by MTV themselves to earn a spot in the Top 3. The Top 3 were aired on MTV2 and MTV for a couple of weeks and viewers would then go on an MTV2 site and vote for winner of the VMA title. We had an incredible response even aside from the fact that we received the most votes. It was amazing to see the response on our networking sites like MySpace and YouTube.
Connor: It was through a website called ourstage.com. And it also came up through a lot of hard work and very helpful voters. And yes MTV did promote the contest.
AMM: How surprised are you that you won? What do your friends and peers think of all your recent success?
Layla: I usually have a very strong instinct indicating a win or loss with this type of thing, but this time I honestly thought it could go either way. My reaction was explosive when we popped up on the screen as the winners!
Nick: I wasn’t as much surprised, but more relieved I guess. I never get my hopes up for these kinds of things, in case the outcome isn’t friendly. But all of our friends were stoked, and they all think I’m famous now. But I’m just like, "no I’m still just a dude, jeez!"
AAM: You have known each other for a long time. When did you meet and what made you all think forming a hard rock band would be a good idea?
Layla: We met at North Star Academy, our elementary and middle school, as 8 year olds. The idea of the band arose in 7th grade when Austin, Nick and our former drummer Eric had started jamming to Green Day covers. I was an avid choir and musical theatre geek with less-than-mediocre vocal chords at the time, but that coupled with my AFI and Green Day obsession was enough to spark my interest in singing in a rock band. I remember playing every song off of American Idiot, the most inspirational album of the last decade, for the beginning months. Those sloppy cover band days seem like a lifetime ago and remind me of how far we’ve come.
Nick: well, we met in third grade and at the time we never ever had any intentions of forming a band. We actually didn’t know each other too well at that point, but I was best friends with Austin and he went a separate way around the 5th or 6th grade; but when I picked up the guitar he and Eric approached me and asked to jam, so we did. Than we realized we needed a singer and Layla asked if she could do it so that was our original lineup. After Eric left this summer, we looked for another drummer. Connor is someone I’ve known since preschool, but had no contact with him again until high school when I played in a second band with him for about a year. I knew he was a great drummer but wasn’t sure if he would blend with us. So I told him to learn 'Dearest' and we jammed to it, and it was perfect. So I encouraged the rest of the band to consider him, and when we all jammed with him, our decision was made almost instantly.
Connor: I have known the rest of the band for awhile and have played in bands with Nick before. I knew we would all end up together sooner or later.
AAM: If you had to describe one another in a sentence, how you would sum up your band-mates in a few words?
Layla: Nick towers over everyone, is skinny has a rail, his hair eats his entire face and he wears pants that probably wouldn’t fit over my butt, so can you see this dude doing anything else but shredding in a rock band?
I feel like calling Austin ‘Sir’ sometimes, he makes up for all the crap we give him about how no one cares about bass players by stepping up and leading our practices. He’s a good leader, I’ll give him that.
Austin: Connor is like a box of chocolates. Nick is like an apple pie. Layla is like the icing on a cake. And yes, I am very hungry.
Connor: Nick is a tall skinny puppy. Austin is a babe (laughs heard in the background)
Nick: I would define Connor as: attention-deficit-hyperactive-disorder on drums
AAM: No band is free from arguing at times. When you have an issue to discuss, is it a bit like siblings arguing since you have known each other most of your lives?
Austin: I would say that we argue like family. A lot of it is more fighting about nothing than fighting about a specific subject. But, we love each other and it all works out.
AAM: A couple of you were in the school orchestra together. That doesn’t sound like the coolest thing to admit to but it seems to have worked out well; who met there and what is it you were playing at the time?
Layla: Orchestra? What Orchestra? You mean like those band geeks? Oh no, that wasn’t me!
Austin: Layla and I were in the orchestra back in elementary school. She played the saxophone and I played the trumpet. It never really clicked with either of us, though, and we quit as soon as we could. I'd have to say, I'm much happier being in a rock band.
AAM: Do you all consider yourselves regular teens or a bit more controlled and disciplined than the average teenager?
Layla: I don’t consider myself a normal teen. My life is far more diverse than school, soccer practice, homework, bed and friends on the weekends. I think I would shoot myself if I lived a cookie-cutter life like that. I don’t necessarily think that what I do requires more discipline, I mean I could argue that the kids I go to school with are infinitely more disciplined than I am in the sense that they have their shit together for the real world and I don’t. I am without a doubt less controlled as I’m more concerned with how tight our breakdowns are going to sound at our next show rather than my upcoming Calculus test which I couldn’t care less about. Is my life more exciting-absolutely-it is?
Nick: I think we tend to be a little more on the controlled side. We're somewhat mature for our age, I guess.
Connor: We are more normal than people think. Kids come up to me at school and go Oh my god! You’re famous! And I just say; I’m just a kid trying to get through high school like you.
AAM: What training do each of you have with your instruments/or vocal training?
Layla: I don’t believe in vocal training, I feel like it takes away from my personal vocal style… however, I had the opportunity to work with vocal coach Ron Anderson while recording our EP.
Austin: I picked up the bass at the very beginnings of the band. My step father played the bass, among other instruments, and I had one at my house. He gave me my first lessons, and then I moved to professional instructors. I also used online bass tabs extensively, learning popular songs. That helped me a lot and shaped my playing style significantly. As for the screaming, I found out I could do it at a Behemoth concert, and just did it over and over in practice until I got the hang of it.
Nick: I've been taking lessons for about 5 years now. I'm actually trained more as a blues guitar player haha, but you can’t really see any of it in my style, I’ve sort of developed my own thing. I also play in my high school's jazz band, and I use a lot of jazz chords in some of our songs, like "Live Forever."
Connor: I learned how to read music and technique and stuff like that, and then I took it home to my drum set. I never really took “DRUM” lessons.
AAM: Please tell the readers of All Access Magazine about the lyrics of Picture Me Broken and the sound and atmosphere for the music you’re trying to achieve, because your music is a unique blend of heavy metal/screamo and melodic rock.
Layla: My lyrics are a manifestation of the chaos that takes place in my life. It’s all applicable to my personal experiences. The EP [Dearest (I’m So Sorry)] is a story of a year long struggle I’ve been going through with a character whom I named Dearest; he was actually two different people who had a very similar effect on my life so both could be applied to the story that the EP tells.
Connor: We are basically trying to be mainstream but still unique, goofy, but serious.
AAM: Layla, when did you first learn you could scream like that and is there anything special you do to preserve your voice?
Layla: I really learned to scream while recording the EP; I did this fake wimpy scream for a while and realized that wasn’t going to fly when we were trying to kick up our whole sound a couple notches with the EP. I remember really having to push my vocal boundaries to get the sound that I use in screaming today and on the EP, it feels dangerous at times but I feel like as I get more experience I will start doing it in a way that isn’t as straining on the [vocal] chords. I never scream anywhere but live shows and recordings, when we practice I just sing the parts.
AAM: What is the heart of the music/where do you get your inspiration for it?
Layla: Our music is all about high energy and creating sounds ahead of our time. We are adamant about avoiding clichés.
Nick: Life experiences, emotion, and what mood I’m in.
AAM: There are a lot of teen acts out right now. What sets you apart from the hundreds of other teen bands out there? (Each replies)
Austin: I think what sets us apart is that we don't fall under any one category. We're not screamo, metal, indie, alternative, pop-rock, or anything specifically. We are influenced by many kinds of music and our songs reflect that. We try to keep it real and not write cute packaged songs ready to air on Radio Disney, but we make sure not to delve too deeply into the screamo or metal genres, not because we aren't able to, but because we choose not to.
Connor: We have a maturity in our music that other teen bands don’t have.
AAM: What is the ultimate goal of the band in terms of gaining success and becoming a band that is still around 20+ years from now?
Layla: We want to be able to establish ourselves as a band that plays harder music without being bound to the heap of Warped Tour screamo bands. We’re hoping to break that ground which will hopefully offer our career much more longevity.
Connor: You never know where you’re going to end up in the music industry; we just want to love what we have while we have it.
AAM: As you are becoming more and more public, what is each of you learning about the industry? What is the most daunting and most exciting part of the industry to each of you?
Layla: The industry is highly oversaturated with a lot of bands in the genre we listen to. I’m finding that you need to work extra hard to set yourself apart with the music you write and the image you portray because there is so much out there you need to be noticed somehow.
Austin: I still have a lot to learn about the industry, as does everyone in it. It is constantly changing. I am learning how to deal with legal documents, and how to carry myself around influential industry professionals. The most daunting part of the industry is the absolute uncertainty that comes with the territory. Nothing is certain. An amazing album can never sell more than a few copies, while a horrible one can top the charts. What excites me the most; however, is the opportunity for huge exposure; the ability to have our music heard by thousands and thousands of people.
Nick: In the past years, we've learned a lot about the industry. It's an interesting business. I'm interested to see if we'll be completely screwed over in the future… it’s kinda one of my fears.
Connor: I am definitely more of a public person now. I am learning that the music industry is a dangerous and exciting place.
AAM: What have you learned so far about how the music industry is run today?
Nick: It's competitive.
Connor: Not much yet.
AAM: On October 16, you will be doing a showcase in Los Angeles. Who will be there and do you think you will walk away signed by a major or indie label? (NOTE:BY PRINT THIS EVENT WILL HAVE HAPPENED)
Layla: I can only hope. I’m going to put on the show of my life though. I feel like Eminem in 8 mile before walking on stage for his final rap battle.
Nick: I'm not exactly sure who will be there. And again, I don't want to get my hopes up, but I’m still being optimistic!
AAM: You are busy people. What is your usual schedule like and how much and when do you get together to practice?
Layla: We practice for hours and hours over the weekend and try to get in as much as we can during the week.
Nick: On my free time, I do homework and make samples on garage band haha. We practice about 3-4 times a week, but more if we have any big shows coming up. It gets busy.
Connor: We are very busy! It is hard to balance schoolwork and practice. We practice at least 5 times a week.
AAM: I saw from the Brent Albert charity that you do some charity work. Can you tell the magazine’s readers a bit more about that?
Nick: Brent Albert was one of the nicest people our band ever knew. He had a project called the 'Soulshine Project' which was dedicated to collecting money to buy I Pods for kids with cancer. Unfortunately, Brent passed away somewhat recently, and left us in charge of the project. We recently did a benefit and raised about $1000 dollars. We are honored to be involved with this cause.
Connor: We like giving the beautiful gift of music to people with hardships because music helps.
AAM: Anything else you would like to add?
Connor: We like to have fun!
