“Treat People With Kindness” is not just a song off of Styles’ latest album, an ode about how he lives his life, navigates fame 

Harry Styles released the music video for his latest single “Watermelon Sugar” on May 18. The opening title card explained that the video was “dedicated to touching,” then follows Styles at a wonderfully vintage beach party, eating and fondling a watermelon. 

“The ‘Watermelon Sugar’ video is an ode to the summer we deserved,” writes Zoe Haylock in Vulture. 

Directed by Bradley & Pablo, the video features a diverse cast of female models who, despite the sexual nature of the song, are not objectified or overtly sexualized in the video. 

Styles, however, is earning even more praise for his behavior off screen. Models Aalany McMahan and Ephrata, who were featured in the video, spoke of how respectful Styles was on set. 

“The people were telling him to touch my hair and play with it, and he was like: ‘Wait, wait, wait, pause — can I even touch your hair? Is that even OK?'” Ephrata said. 

“He was very huge on the consent,” McMahan said. 

Fans of Styles know that this behavior is simply the norm for the rockstar. There have been several times where co-workers of other stars have complimented Styles’ charming and mannerful ways. From a past One Direction bodyguard speaking of Harry’s quiet sensitivity to legendary star Stevie Nicks’ endless praise of him, it seems that Styles leaves a mark on everyone around him. 

Styles first rose to fame on the “X Factor” as a member of the band One Direction. Only 16 at the time, Styles’ charm led him to become increasingly popular with the band’s predominantly female fans. 

This also, however, caused the media to perceive Styles as the womanizer of the band, a label which stuck with him throughout his career. Styles has been fighting this image from his early years in the band. When interviewers would ask questions about the women he had been with, Styles was frequently shown refusing to answer or asking that they not objectify women through those types of questions. Despite being linked with several high-profile celebrities, Styles refuses to give in to the rumors or speak ill of any relationship gone south. 

“He has managed to grow up in public with all his boyish enthusiasm intact, not to mention his manners,” writes Rob Scheffield in Rolling Stone. “He’s dated a string of high-profile women — but he never gets caught uttering any of their names in public, much less shading any of them.”

As a solo artist, Styles has only become more outspoken about his true self and pushed even harder to be seen as anything other than a sex symbol. His music as a solo artist, though sometimes about sex, seems to elude any of the labels that followed Styles in the band. He has songs that explore sexual fluidity and his persona as a whole have moved towards denying gender roles completely. 

This attitude is also the reason why Styles has become such a style icon in recent years. After years of being told what to wear in the band, Styles’ flair for the extravagant began to come out. He has also been known for bending gender norms when it comes to fashion. 

“What women wear. What men wear. For me it’s not a question of that,” Styles said in an interview with The Guardian. “If I see a nice shirt and get told, ‘But it’s for ladies.’ I think: ‘Okaaaay? Doesn’t make me want to wear it less though.’ I think the moment you feel more comfortable with yourself, it all becomes a lot easier.”

Styles’ unapologetic individuality has extended its reach to his fans as well. His concerts, especially, seem to have become a safe place for people to be themselves — even his merchandise encourages fans to “treat people with kindness.” He frequently holds up Pride flags and even helped a fan come out to her mom in the middle of a concert. 

“If you are black, if you are white, if you are gay, if you are straight, if you are transgender — whoever you are, whoever you want to be, I support you. I love every single one of you,” Styles said at one of his first solo shows. 

Styles is easily one of the biggest stars of our time. He has earned the respect of legends like Stevie Nicks and Mick Jagger, and he seems to be on his way to becoming a bonafide rockstar. From selling out stadiums for his solo tours to starring in a high-profile movie, it would be easy for him to forget about his roots and where his career first began. However, that simply isn’t who he is. 

Even years after the band’s hiatus, Styles refuses to say a single bad thing about One Direction. Though admitting that the tireless work and growing up in the limelight was difficult, Styles is proud of his time in the band and eternally grateful for the fans who got him to where he is now. 

“I just think it’s a little naive to just write off younger female fans, in particular, in the way people do,” Styles said in an interview with The New York Times. “Like I’ve said, young girls were massive fans of the Beatles. It’s crazy to think they’re not intelligent.”

Written by: Alyssa Ilsley — arts@theaggie.org

How Telles found a passion for art, tigers 

What began as a simple love for slap stickers in middle school blossomed into a small business in college. Thomas Telles, a third-year design major, finds that expressing his love for tigers and art is shown best through his work. He started his small business earlier this year in April, selling original paintings and stickers online through his website. 

Soon after Telles found his love for slap stickers, he traded it in for a degree in the STEM field. 

“I got really into this whole subgenre of art making ‘slap stickers,’” Telles said via email. “I used to trade these hand-drawn stickers with people all over the world. However, I gave all of that up very suddenly during my sophomore year of high school as I felt pressured from my community to find a career in STEM since I started thinking about college.” 

He pursued a degree in animal biology for two years but eventually decided for a change in pace and went back to his love of art — finally deciding to stick with design.

“I did a complete 180 from majoring in Animal Biology to then going into design,” Telles said. “It was such an amazing feeling and haven’t looked back since.” 

While the shift was an immense change from what he was used to in Davis, he found comfort in knowing that art was something he was meant to do while he took his first design class: Design 15 with Melissa Chandon.

“In this class, we had to make a piece which was only in black and white and

played with positive and negative space,” Telles said. “I remember making my piece last-minute and turning it in after rushing to class, not sure if I really even liked the piece so much. When I handed the piece to Melissa, she really enjoyed it. She liked it enough to choose me as one of five students to enter a gallery show in Davis which featured student artists from around the state. Since this happened in my first-ever design class when I made my change of major, I took it as a sign that I was exactly where I was supposed to be.”

A quick browse on his website shows that each tiger has its own look, but all have the very Telles-style vibrant color splashes. The tigers, however, are not there solely because they are majestic creatures, they’re there to help Telles build his technique. 

“Tigers have always been my favorite animal, so I wanted to try a ‘draw every day’ type of challenge inspired by tigers,” Telles said. “I will say, as a student, it’s hard to really follow a ‘draw every day’ challenge. Although they are my favorite animal, I just wanted to use tigers as a method to explore different styles and techniques to open myself up to. This helps me in seeing where I want to go with my art.”

Telles finds his inspiration in an everyday act: daydreaming.

“I have a very active imagination and am always daydreaming,” Telles said. “My art oftentimes is a snapshot of these daydreams. I try to put these snapshots on paper and make something of it. Depending on how inspired I am, I may just do a little sketch or get the urge to bust out a whole canvas and start a new project.”

His current favorite work is one that’s neither on his store nor on his Instagram. 

“My favorite piece is a two-part painting on 16- by 18-inch wood panels titled “MotherF” and “ucker,”” Telles said. “They portray two tigers facing each other in a tense standoff. One of them is ready to snap, ucker, while the other, MotherF, looks like it’s planning every single move it’s going to make. The colors and detail on these pieces are incredible and I wish I could get that through a screen so my followers could see it and hopefully admire it as much as I do.”

Although this was his favorite piece to make, it’s also been his hardest. 

“The two-part piece has been the most difficult as I took a lot of time to prepare the wood panels by taking probably a solid day or two just to prepare,” Telles said. “I also am a fan of the idea of mixing my own paints so that also took quite some time to do. I went through a lot of second guessing when making the piece as it’s hard to know what a tiger would look like when you see it without its stripes. Even when coming up with a title for this piece was hard to do, so I just gave up and decided to title it as it is.”

Telles said that while his friends and family have been immensely supportive in his small business, he is his own biggest supporter. 

“I know exactly what I have been through over the years and know what it took to get to where I am now,” Telles said. “In my deepest moments of imposter syndrome, I have been able to push myself to see all the work and hard times I went through in order to be where I am now. This continues to inspire me to keep moving forward for the sake of a bigger and better future.”

Just like any other student-run business, Telles is forced to learn how to manage his time efficiently in order to keep up with his artwork and the strict demands of school work.  

“It’s very time consuming but with both aspects, I am doing what I love so it really doesn’t feel like work,” Telles said. “There are times where I am caught up in class work and all I can think about is painting or keeping my Instagram updated. Then, there are times where I am spending a bit too much time on my art and not enough on my schoolwork. So, this is definitely a learning process of balancing school and work!”

Telles said he doesn’t know what the future holds for himself or his small business, but he hopes that he could in some way inspire other artists and build a community. 

“Whatever you do, do not give up,” he tells other artists. “There will be days, weeks, maybe even months where you will question yourself and fall victim to the woes of imposter syndrome but just keep going! You will find your place again. Also, be sure to prioritize your mental health so even if you do have to take a break from creating, allow yourself that time and come back whenever/if ever you’re ready.” 

Written by: Itzelth Gamboa — arts@theaggie.org

Arts writer Caroline Rutten Zooms with Lillian Frances, talks debut album

It has been a year since I last interviewed Lillian Frances, the brightly-colored synth-pop Davis artist. At the time, we met up at the Starbucks at University Mall: She was a force of energy from the moment she entered the coffee shop. Dressed in a blue velvet collared top, a stand-out Davis local by all accounts, she even knew the barista’s name and ordered tea to fill her reusable mug. 

Now, under different circumstances, we Zoomed from our bedrooms. Lillian’s genuine and eager energy transferred easily over video. As an independent artist, her bedroom doubles as her recording studio — as well as her managing office, production hub and sewing station (she makes stuffed animal fanny packs which she posts to her Instagram). The various paraphernalia used for her role is scattered across her bedroom. After discussing the mundane perils of “quar quar,” Lillian’s name for the California shelter-in-place order, we picked up where we left off.

The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.

The California Aggie: What’s been going on since we last talked? What have you been up to?

Lillian Frances: In September, I realized I have enough music for an album. I dropped my last album two years ago, and so began the process of releasing this album. I’ve put off songwriting for the last eight months, and I dove into finishing my tracks and getting all the arrangements down for all of them. 

I moved back down to [Los Angeles] in January for six weeks, and I went back to the music production school where I originally studied music production. I went there to take classes on mixing and mastering. I learned how to mix all my songs, because that’s something that really holds me back in terms of my actual creation of music. Now, I feel super confident with mixing all my own sh*t, which I’m really stoked on. And then [I] came back to Davis and spent January through March of this year finishing up the songs.

TCA: I’m so glad to hear things have been busy, and the album release is exciting. Can you give me a glimpse into the “Moonrise Queendom” album?

LF: I released “Timeism” two years ago, so May of 2018. Immediately, like a month after, I went and I walked the Camino de Santiago, which was this beautiful walk across Spain. And the purpose of that was to restore all my creative juices. I had pushed so hard on the album, we worked so hard to release it. I needed to just do something fun, get inspired. So that’s where it started, that’s kind of the impetus for [the album] in some ways. 

I’m also obsessed with the moon and tracking the moon. I’m always thinking, where’s the moon rising? Where’s it even setting? But especially on the full moon, wherever I am, I will go and make a date with myself or whoever I’m with to watch the full moon rise. And after making all these songs, I realized that “Moonrise Queendom” and all these songs are the links to that full moon rise. The full moon rise, for me, is a place to sit and meditate and think about where I was last month and then think about where I’m going the next month. One month is such a great little period of time to reflect on yourself. All of these songs [are] the stories that I told myself and I worked through while I was watching the moon rise. “Moonrise Queendom” for me is a place of utter creativity. Whatever you want to make, you can. The album starts with an intro, the sound of me walking while whistling, and then it blends into “Raincheck Summer” and then it goes from there. At the very end, it’s me, walking out of this space [while] whistling, so you’re literally entering this queendom.

CR: That’s fantastic. What does it mean for you to now have a full album under your belt? Are you one step closer to your goals as an artist?

LF: It’s similar to walking Camino: It’s about how I am taking time to my destination. I am moving toward them one step at a time, and I’m climbing to my goals. My goal has been Coachella, but I want to go very slowly so that every time I’m granted a new opportunity, I’m ready for it. I don’t want to be catapulted, I don’t want to go viral. I don’t want any shit that I’m going to get there before I’m prepared. The album really is about taking your time to get there and really enjoying the experience and knowing that it’s going to all work out.

TCA: Let’s break down your song “Raincheck Summer,” since you just released a music video for it. 

LF: It is funny now because the song is a little bit counterintuitive to how I initially imagined it. I was making fun of people hanging out together but not being emotionally attached to each other. And now [because of coronavirus] we’re on this totally opposite spectrum where everyone’s dying for personal connection and emotional connection, but we’re physically separate. It’s this whole new question of how are we finding connection and like authenticity in our relationships during this time of isolation?

TCA: The music video is so whimsical, almost cartoonish. Was that what you were going for?

LF: My entire aesthetic is very colorful and cartoony and that kind of goes back to my appreciation for childhood and the creative nature of children. I f****** love SpongeBob. I love animation. I love that playfulness and that curiosity that children have. That’s something that I try to do during my day-to-day and my songwriting. So the visual just blends into it.

TCA: I also saw that NPR Tiny Desk Contest tweeted your submission video for this year. Tell me more about that.

LF: I was on a Zoom call with my family when I found out, so I couldn’t really react right away. It took me a second when I looked at the tweet and I saw their name and then my name. I was trying to put it together in my head why they were placed together.

Unfortunately, I think that if they featured me on Twitter, I’m not going to win. That’s just what I’m assuming. But Bob Boilen and the Tiny Desk crew saw my sh*t. This is also my fourth time [submitting for the contest], so I know that they had to have listened to me. 

The revelation is that I’m literally not gonna stop. I was like, “Girl, you were doing this five years ago. That’s wild and you’re still doing it today.” l am just going to keep going in that direction. I can’t back out from this kind of thing, I will keep moving forward. But it’s funny, the first one I submitted — and they’re all on my YouTube — was me playing my guitar and one of my roommates filmed in Spain. Then a couple years later, I submitted ‘Phone Keys Wallet,’ which is the first time that I caught Sacramento traction with Capital Radio.

CR: What should we expect from you next?

LF: Next summer is going to be the festival circuit. With quar quar, I had three festivals signed up this summer, which I was super stoked on. But I know next summer I can have way more. Especially with all the groundwork I’ve been doing and an album that’s coming out, I can get traction and get more followers. Then, next summer, I can really get on the festival scene.

TCA: I have to ask, what is up with the fanny pack stuffed animals?

LF: I originally wanted to make bananagrams bag into a fanny pack. Then I was like, “What else can I make into fanny packs?” And then I guess it was stuffed animals. So I did this thing where, anytime I’m near a thrift store, I will go in and I will look for cool stuffed animals. Then I come home and I sew them. This is my “Raincheck Summer” one [writer’s note: the fanny pack was made out of a cute brachiosaurus stuffed animal]. Every song on the album has its own unique fanny pack.

“Moonrise Queendom” was released on Spotify on June 5. For old time’s sake, check out Lillian’s Couch Concert she did with us last year here. 

Written by: Caroline Rutten — arts@theaggie.org