What's in your bag?

What’s in your bag? is a recurring feature where we ask people to tell us a bit more about their everyday gadgets by opening their bags and hearts to us. This week, we’re featuring instrumental electronic, hip-hop, and jazz duo Big Gigantic.

It’s an unusually humid day in Chicago when The Verge meets saxophonist / producer Dom Lalli and drummer Jeremy Salken, otherwise known as Big Gigantic. This would normally be a boring detail, but we’re backstage at a festival, the pair is about to go onstage, and this weather means Dom is being extra cautious about his saxophone’s reed. The reed is a small strip of wood attached to the sax’s mouthpiece, and, like all wooden things, it absorbs moisture. So if you’re constantly touring, hopping from plane to plane and climate to climate, it can be a touchy thing. “It’s the worst part about playing saxophone,” Dom laughs as he inspects a fresh pack of reeds. Jeremy, meanwhile, appears to be in his own world, intently drumming on a nearby table at a brisk pace using practice sticks topped with rubber.

What’s in your bag? is a recurring feature where we ask people to tell us a bit more about their everyday gadgets by opening their bags and hearts to us. This week, we’re featuring music producer and record label owner 3lau.

Justin Blau, otherwise known as 3lau, is sitting with The Verge on the floor of a green room trailer at a festival. We’re directly behind the main stage, and the trailer’s wood-paneled walls are vibrating from the act currently playing. Blau himself is about to step on stage, but is letting us rummage through his briefcase beforehand, which contains all the things he needs to perform live.

What’s in your bag? is a recurring feature where we ask people to tell us a bit more about their everyday gadgets by opening their bags and hearts to us. This week, we’re featuring vocalist, producer, filmmaker, and professional scooter rider Oliver Tree.

When Oliver Tree walks into The Verge office, everyone snaps their head. It’s impossible to not notice his ostentatious presence: massively wide JNCO pants, a violet and fuchsia ’90s ski jacket, Gucci suitcase, and... a bowl haircut. Oh, and he’s got a Razor scooter with him too. It’s not unfair to say that Oliver Tree is a walking, talking meme. The visual schtick, along with accompanying deadpan humor persona, were deliberately crafted by Oliver Tree to appeal to a meme-friendly generation. And through that lens he serves up catchy, hip-hop infused pop with an electronic kick. Come for the memes, stay for the music.

What’s in your bag? is a recurring feature where we ask people to tell us a bit more about their everyday gadgets by opening their bags and hearts to us. This week, we’re featuring alternative dance group RÜFÜS DU SOL.

Australian trio RÜFÜS DU SOL makes the kind of music that slowly picks away at your heart. Comprised of Tyrone Lindqvist, Jon George, and James Hunt, the group’s songs build in layers, with each otherworldly, wistful element creeping in and guiding you, transforming the three from a band into temporary shamans.

What’s in your bag? is a recurring feature where we ask people to tell us a bit more about their everyday gadgets by opening their bags and hearts to us. This week, we’re featuring English singer and songwriter Anne-Marie.

Anne-Marie has an impressive musical resume, with heaps of nominations and wins at awards shows around the world (including a recent nom as Best British Female Solo Artist at the 2019 Brit Awards), a long list of charting songs that float between the worlds of tropical pop and dance, like “2002,” and is just off a jaunt where she shared the stage with Ed Sheeran on his Divide Tour. Now, without a pause, she’s on her own headlining Speak Your Mind Tour. It’s quite a lot, but everything Anne-Marie does in life, she does with obsessive acceleration. Consider, for example, that before she was a singer touring around the globe, she was a karate world champion.

What’s in your bag? is a recurring feature where we ask people to tell us a bit more about their everyday gadgets by opening their bags and hearts to us. This week, we’re featuring tropical house and pop producer Matoma.

Norwegian artist Matoma, born Tom Lagergren, walks into The Verge offices with a bright, bouncy disposition that matches the music he crafts. Known for uplifting productions that blend together genres and dance across everything from hip-hop to funk to house, Lagergren’s not only seen commercial success with his original works, like recently released single “Sunday Morning,” but is often sought after to collaborate with heavy hitters such as Jennifer Lopez, Noah Cyrus, and Enrique Iglesias.

When Jamaican novelist Marlon James walks into a room, you know it. It’s not that he’s particularly dominating or otherwise physically intimidating — although he is more than six feet tall — it’s that he has the thing casting agents call “presence.” He’s there there. That translates to his books, too: his novel A Brief History of Seven Killings was released in 2014 to rapturous reviews, and it won the prestigious Man Booker prize. His latest book Black Leopard, Red Wolf is out this month. It’s the first entry in James’ Dark Star trilogy, which he’s described as an “African Game of Thrones,” an epic populated with characters who aren’t usually seen in more European books.

“It was really very simple!” James says. “I was trying to write a fantasy epic based on African mythology. African mythology, African history, African religion, something that was just not European,” he continues. “I’ve read those books since I was a kid. And I’ve always wished somebody like me were in them. And it’s not like I’m trying to score points of representation or anything, but sometimes you just want to see somebody like yourself kick ass.”

What’s in your bag? is a recurring feature where we ask people to tell us a bit more about their everyday gadgets by opening their bags and hearts to us. This week, we’re featuring synth-pop artist Allie X.

It’s fair to call Allie X both a musical artist as well as a performance artist. Her sophomore EP, Super Sunset, was accompanied by three distinct personas to represent different parts of her artistic journey: the nun, the Hollywood starlet, and sci-fi girl. Today at The Verge, it’s sci-fi girl who sits in front of us. Sporting a severe bowl haircut and tiny sunglasses that barely cover Allie X’s slate-colored eyes, this is the final form of Allie X’s journey through Super Sunset. It’s the persona she feels is truest to her actual self because of the “emotional disconnect and the weirdness and the quirks” that come along with it.

What’s in your bag? is a recurring feature where we ask people to tell us a bit more about their everyday gadgets by opening their bags and hearts to us. This week, we’re featuring synthpop band HONNE.

In Japanese, HONNE (本音) means “true feelings.” It’s a perfect phrase to describe the British future retro synthpop group, who have been delivering smooth romantic vibes since their debut in 2014. Since then, James Hatcher (producer) and Andy Clutterbuck (singer, producer) have released several EPs and two full-length albums, the most recent being 2018’s Love Me / Love Me Not. HONNE also has several world tours under their belt with landmark festivals like Lollapalooza and Coachella, and they have worked with some of the globe’s biggest stars in music. Last year, they co-wrote and produced “Seoul” by RM, a member of Korea’s mega boy band BTS.

What’s in your bag? is a recurring feature where we ask people to tell us a bit more about their everyday gadgets by opening their bags and hearts to us. This week, we’re featuring tech YouTuber MKBHD.

Marques Brownlee’s tech videos are known for their sharp and polished look, and that extends to Brownlee and his studio, too. When we arrive, he’s already waiting to take us up to his studio, a spacious room with an array of neatly organized equipment. He even offers our video team some lights as they set up.

What’s in your bag? is a recurring feature where we ask people to tell us a bit more about their everyday gadgets by opening their bags and hearts to us. This week, we’re featuring rock and electropop band A R I Z O N A.

Zachary Charles, Nate Esquite, and David Labuguen technically have the day off, but that only means from touring. The three, known collectively as A R I Z O N A, are spending the afternoon at New York’s Quad Recording Studios working on a mixdown when The Verge arrives to shuffle through their things. A New Jersey-based band, Zach, Nate, and David started A R I Z O N A in 2015, as a last-ditch effort after years of trying to make it in music. “Fuck this, fuck music, fuck everybody, fuck the industry, everybody sucks, everybody’s terrible,” Zach says about his mentality at the time of the band’s creation. “But,” he proposed, “real quick before we go, do you guys want to make some songs just for fun?”

What’s in your bag? is a recurring feature where we ask people to tell us a bit more about their everyday gadgets by opening their bags and hearts to us. This week, we’re featuring producer, DJ, and record label owner Claude VonStroke.

Barclay Crenshaw, known to the world as Claude VonStroke, is an ultimate multihyphenate in the world of dance music. Not only does this illustrious house and tech house artist tour and DJ under the VonStroke name, he also tours with fellow artist Green Velvet under the alias Get Real. In fact, the two are on tour this December.

What’s in your bag? is a recurring feature where we ask people to tell us a bit more about their everyday gadgets by opening their bags and hearts to us. This week, we’re featuring digital artist Simon Stålenhag.

Simon Stålenhag has had a busy couple of years. His nostalgic artwork depicting a vivid, alternate Sweden in which dinosaurs and robots roamed the countryside has garnered him legions of fans. He’s since released those images in a trio of fantastic art books — Tales from the Loop, Things from the Flood, and most recently, Electric State.

What’s in your bag? is a recurring feature where we ask people to tell us a bit more about their everyday gadgets by opening their bags and hearts to us. This week, we’re featuring Los Angeles punk rock band The Regrettes.

The Regrettes describe themselves as “perfectly imperfect.” The band, comprised of front woman Lydia Night, drummer Drew Thomsen, and guitarist Genessa Gariano, carries audio hallmarks from the likes Karen O, married with splashes of throwback rock a la Buddy Holly. It all comes wrapped in a pop punk-driven package that’s brash and unapologetic with lyrics like, “You’re talking to me like a child, I got news I’m not a little girl” and “I heard that girl Lydia is such a fucking bitch / Well I heard that she’s a feminist so she must not shave her pits.”

What’s in your bag? is a recurring feature where we ask people to tell us a bit more about their everyday gadgets by opening their bags and hearts to us. This week, we’re featuring British singer and songwriter Jess Glynne.

Jess Glynne oozes cool. The chart-topping artist rolls into The Verge with a casual vibe, despite being accompanied by a deep entourage and styled not with a look, but a lewk. Sporting head to toe pastel athleisure with a bright green Gucci crossbody bag that pops against her signature orange curls, one can’t help but notice Glynne as she walks into the room. You know she’s an artist. There is an intangible radiance that comes from her.

What’s in your bag? is a recurring feature where we ask people to tell us a bit more about their everyday gadgets by opening their bags and hearts to us. This week, we’re featuring music producer and DJ R3hab.

R3hab, real name Fadil El Ghoul, strides into The Verge with a bubbling energy that ekes into every corner. “Who’s the sound man?” El Ghoul says to the room as he plunks down for his interview. “Make me sound really cool! It’s crazy what a little bit of compression does. Sometimes I listen to myself on the radio and my voice sounds deep!” Everyone cracks a smile. El Ghoul simply can’t help but talk about engineering audio wherever he goes.

What’s in your bag? is a recurring feature where we ask people to tell us a bit more about their everyday gadgets by opening their bags and hearts to us. This week, we’re featuring actor Tyler Alvarez.

The second season of American Vandal premieres today on Netflix, and if the trailer is any guide, it promises to be a real shitstorm. High off the newfound (in-universe and real-life) viral fame they’ve earned through the show’s first season, in which they solved the mystery of who drew the dicks, the fresh-faced journalists / detectives Sam Ecklund (Griffin Gluck) and Peter Maldonado (Tyler Alvarez) have found themselves with a slew of pleas from vandal victims around the country.

What’s in your bag? is a recurring feature where we ask people to tell us a bit more about their everyday gadgets by opening their bags and hearts to us. This week, we’re featuring TV star, cosplayer, and maker Adam Savage.

Adam Savage doesn’t really sit still. When I met him in his hotel suite at San Diego Comic-Con earlier this summer, he was bouncing around his room, reminiscing about past conventions that he’s attended, checking his phone, and playing with the bag that he was eager to show off to me. That’s not surprising if you’re familiar with him from his 14-year stint as co-host of MythBusters, the Discovery Channel show that launched him into the forefront of the nerd public. He’s animated and energetic, the polar opposite of his reserved co-host Jamie Hyneman. Since his run on MythBusters ended in 2016 — it’s since been rebooted with a new pair of hosts — he’s kept busy, co-hosting a live stage show called Brain Candy Live! and regularly appearing on Tested.com where he builds props, visits film studios, and more.

What’s in your bag? is a recurring feature where we ask people to tell us a bit more about their everyday gadgets by opening their bags and hearts to us. This week, we’re featuring music producer, singer, and DJ Alison Wonderland.

Musician Alison Wonderland opens up the door to her hotel room with bombastic energy. “Oh my gosh! Hello!” she shouts, falling in for a hug. This is how Alison (real name Alexandra Sholler) always is. She’s a human bouncy ball, both in the literal sense (when she climbs all over the stage during performances) and in the emotional sense (expressive about her range of emotions, both on the way up and the way down). Part of how she’s built her massive fan base has been through this heart-on-sleeve mentality, where she openly discusses anxiety and depression to erase the taboo surrounding them.

What’s in your bag? is a recurring feature where we ask people to tell us a bit more about their everyday gadgets by opening their bags and hearts to us. This week, we’re featuring electronic music producer and DJ NGHTMRE.

When NGHTMRE is onstage headlining any manner of festival, he’s a spectacle. The trap and bass-driven artist is never still, climbing and jumping off every surface while the stage spits fire, confetti, or blasts of CO2. By the end, he’s drenched, sweat whipping off with every headbang. This mammoth-sized stage persona is markedly different from what The Verge encounters when we meet the DJ and producer to rummage through his bag. Here, on the rooftop of Hotel Americano in New York, NGHTMRE is simply Tyler Marenyi, a soft-spoken 27-year-old with a gentle smile.

What’s in your bag? is a recurring feature where we ask people to tell us a bit more about their everyday gadgets by opening their bags and hearts to us. This week, we’re featuring electronic music duo Peking Duk.

Canberra-bred duo Peking Duk are a riot. Adam Hyde and Reuben Styles performatively parade through The Verge offices taking selfies and adding nonsensical commentary that has everyone in tears with laughter. At one point, while digging through their belongings, a silica packet falls out and Adam immediately takes the opportunity to be absurd. “They say do not eat it,” he says with mocking seriousness. “Reuben actually once ate a packet of silica gel and that’s why he’s dry on the inside, wet on the outside.”

What’s in your bag? is a recurring feature where we ask people to tell us a bit more about their everyday gadgets by opening their bags and hearts to us. This week, we’re featuring Montreal electronic music trio Black Tiger Sex Machine.

We have to get rid of some of these bags, guys.”

What’s in your bag? is a recurring feature where we ask people to tell us a bit more about their everyday gadgets by opening their bags and hearts to us. This week, we’re featuring Haitian artist and musician Michael Brun.

Haitian-born artist Michael Brun has always had a singular goal in life — to let the world know about where he comes from through the rich, global tapestry of Haitian sounds. He does this through a unique fusion of electronic music and traditional influence, which borrows from African, European, and Caribbean cadences.

What’s in your bag? is a recurring feature where we ask people to tell us a bit more about their everyday gadgets by opening their bags and hearts to us. This week, we’re featuring the actor and rapper Lakeith Stanfield.

By now, you’ve probably heard the name Lakeith Stanfield, the magnetic 26-year-old actor whose biggest credits are last January’s Oscar-winning feature Get Out — in a role that taught America the meaning of the sunken place — and Atlanta, Donald Glover’s critically acclaimed series on FX. This summer, Stanfield plays lead in Boots Riley’s brilliant Sorry To Bother You, opposite the equally enthralling Tessa Thompson. The movie is a blast: One part anti-capitalist screed, one part race treatise, one part love story, and one part sci-fi body horror. (Yes, you read that right. The twist in the movie’s third act is unmissable.) The racial politics of Riley’s script are fascinating; the whole film revolves around a telemarketing firm, where Stanfield’s Cassius Green is schooled by an elder (played by Danny Glover) to use his “white voice” in order to log more sales. It works. Naturally, Green’s white voice comes out as an overdubbed David Cross.