DAVID BYRNE

Byrne is an esteemed musician, founding member of the Talking Heads, creator of the highly regarded record label Luaka Bop, and a writer, photographer, and filmmaker. More recent works include Love This Giant, Byrne’s collaboration with St. Vincent, the non-fiction book How Music Works, and the theatrical production of Here Lies Love, which recently enjoyed successful runs at The Public Theater in New York, and a U.K. National Theatre production at the Dorfman Theatre in London.  Here Lies Love will debut in Sydney in 2015. Byrne has received Obie, Drama Desk, and Lortel awards for Here Lies Love, and an Academy Award for his contribution to the soundtrack for The Last Emperor in 1998.

NELLY FURTADO

Furtado is a Canadian singer and songwriter. Furtado first gained fame with her debut album Whoa, Nelly!, which earned her a Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance in 2002. Since then, she’s released four studio albums and earned numerous awards and accolades, including a Latin Grammy Award, ten Juno Awards, three MuchMusic Video Awards and a star on Canada's Walk of Fame. 

HOW TO DRESS WELL

Since the release of his debut album Love Remains in 2010, Tom Krell—aka How to Dress Well—has crafted a reputation as one of America’s most original, focused, and beguiling young songwriters. Merging ever surprising production choices and aesthetic detail with a sensual but sincere R&B influence and a deep, grounded emotionality, Krell has steadily established himself as one of the most influential figures in contemporary experimental pop music. His most recent album, What Is This Heart? was released in June 2014.

DEVONTÉ HYNES

Hynes is a producer, songwriter, and artist currently based in New York City. He has written and produced songs for a wide range of artists including Solange Knowles, The Chemical Brothers, Florence and the Machine, and Sky Ferreira. Hynes also writes music under the moniker of Blood Orange, and has released two albums, Coastal Grooves and Cupid Deluxe, on Domino Recording Co. Most recently, he composed the score for the Gia Coppola the film Palo Alto, directed by Gia Coppola, and was a speaker at the 2014 TED conference held in Vancouver.

ZOLA JESUS

Zola Jesus is the stage name of Nika Roza Danilova, an American born singer-songwriter and producer. Since 2009, she has released two EPs and four full-length albums on Sacred Bones and Mute Records, which combine electronic, industrial, classical and experimental influences. The LA Times describes her as, “a focused, serious creator with a solid aesthetic, breathtaking musical vocabulary and a confident vision.” Nika previously worked with David Byrne at an event curated by Jherek Bischoff at Saint Anne’s Warehouse in 2014. She has also collaborated with a diverse range of modern composers and directors, including: David Lynch, Jean Claude Vannier, Run the Jewels, JG Thirlwell and Jim Jarmusch.  For her most recent album, Taiga, Nika relocated from central Los Angeles to Vashon Island in the Puget Sound to immerse herself in the natural world; her creative process reflected this shift and she wrote the album’s songs a cappella before adding her trademark beats and synthesizers. For her Contemporary Color contribution she will be performing a composition originally written for the project by Kelis.

LUCIUS

Lucius, dubbed by Rolling Stone as "the best band you may not have heard yet," are a five-piece indie-pop band from Brooklyn.  The quintet pairs the synchronous and powerful vocals of Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig, who also play synth and keyboards, with guitars and percussion from Dan Molad, Peter Lalish and Andrew Burri.  Together, they make music that evokes classic girl-group pop and iconic rock 'n' roll with a modern twist, that belongs solely to Lucius.  The band's debut album WILDEWOMAN (Mom + Pop, 2013) is lauded by The New York Times as "an art school take on girl group soul" and admired by NPR as "perfect, magnetic pop music."

MONEY MARK + Ad-ROCK

Adam Horovitz (also known as ADROCK) was born in New York City on Halloween day, 1966. He joined the illustrious and luminous musical group, Beastie Boys, in 1983. Having sold like, I don't know, millions of records internationally, he has received numerous accolades, such as Grammy awards, MTV awards, as well as the highly coveted Brass Money award. Adam, as a member of the Beastie Boys, was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2012. His star sign in Scorpio. Hobbies include nothing. His spirit animal is the worm, and he REALLY likes pizza. Adam is currently working on a project that, hopefully, you'll be writing about in your periodical, blog, tweet or restaurant bathroom wall.

Mark Ramos Nishita, AKA Money Mark, is a musician, composer and producer. 20 years ago, Mark released his first album, Mark's Keyboard Repair (NME recently ranks it #17 best of 1995) and has gone on to release 6 more studio albums. He has collaborated on recordings with the likes of George Clinton, Rolling Stones, Yoko Ono, Beck, Jack Johnson, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Blind Boys of Alabama, to name a few, as well as scored films (years spanning from 2001 Blow to 2012 Horrible Bosses including IBM's centennial film, THINK in 2011) and television shows (HBO's first primetime documentary series, Family Bonds) . His 1998 'Push The Button' album was included in the first version of iTunes built into every iMac computer. Mark became number one sideman for Beastie Boys 1992's epochal 'Check Your Head', and went on to write, collaborate and perform on every Beastie Boys release to follow. He recently composed for Karen O's psycho opera, Stop the Virgens. Mark currently owns a recording studio in Silverlake and is releasing his new album and back catalog through his website.  

NICO MUHLY + IRA GLASS

Muhly is a composer of chamber music, orchestral music, sacred music, opera, ballet, and music for collaborators across a variety of fields. The Metropolitan Opera commissioned his first opera, Two Boys, an English National Opera co-production. Muhly has scored ballets for choreographer Benjamin Millepied and films including The Reader and Kill Your Darlings, in addition to arranging music by Antony & the Johnsons, Grizzly Bear, and the National. Glass is the host and executive producer of This American Life, which premiered in 1995 and today is broadcast on more than 555 public radio stations and is also one of the most popular podcasts in America. Over three million people listen to the show every week. 

ST. VINCENT

Annie Clark, better known by her stage name St. Vincent, is an American musician, singer-songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. She began her music career as a member of The Polyphonic Spree and was also part of Sufjan Stevens' touring band before forming her own band in 2006. Her debut album was Marry Me (2007), followed by Actor (2009), and Strange Mercy (2011). She released a collaborative album with David Byrne in 2012 titled Love This Giant. Her fourth solo album, self-titled St. Vincent, was released in February 2014 and was named album of the year by NME, Entertainment Weekly, The Guardian, and The Sunday Times. It has also received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Alternative Album.

tUnE-yArDs

Merrill Garbus has performed as tUnE-yArDs since 2009, first gaining notice with the debut BiRd-BrAiNs, which The New York Times called “a confident do-it-yourselfer's opening salvo: a staticky, low-fi, abrasive attention-getter.” In 2011, tUnE-yArDs released its second album, w h o k i l l, a startling and sonically adventurous statement that led to a whirlwind period where Garbus and bassist Nate Brenner accrued accolades from critics (including the #1 spot on the Village Voice 2011 Pazz and Jop poll), performed in front of increasing numbers of rapturous crowds around the world, and collaborated with the likes of Yoko Ono and Questlove. tUnE-y-ArDs third full-length release, Nikki Nack, came out in May 2014.