Bending Brains

Megan Myrie (Domeríe) is a creative entrepreneur from Chicago. She likes to use her creative abilities to support and shine light on other people’s creative abilities. This is especially true for her design company MGD LLC, in which she creates brands for creators. Her pursuit of music and modeling is more personal, however, she hopes to be a source of inspiration for people with an interest in creative careers. She believes that creators should be able to be successful doing what they love to do.

Aspen Noah may be a mental health technician from the north suburbs of Chicago but when he is done working long exhausting 16 hours shifts he transforms into a well talented, extremely creative music artist/songwriter. Aspen began writing music at the tender young age of 12, performing with the likes of Soulja Boy, Yung Jeezy, Young Money, Mike Posner, and more even garnering the attention of multiple major record labels but after an exciting run he decided to a break from music and started focusing on art and fashion. After a couple of years of recuperation Aspen picked back up the mic returning to the music world with a new flare and sound inspired by the art and fashion world. In search of a new music team to create with Aspen was introduced to to his good friend Gerald Lebinitz, as well as Greazy Wil an engineer who notably worked on Frank Oceans “Channel Orange”, together they all put their minds together to create the catchy lead single “Cocoa Bean” from Aspen’s debut EP PASTEL DREAMS. Noah’s debut project “PASTEL DREAMS” is releasing July 2022.

Mexican-American/ Puerto Rican singer-songwriter Mariah Colon was raised in Cicero, IL. and started her music career with just a keyboard and ukulele in her room. With diverse music inspiration from talented musicians in her family, Mariah incorporates the love of R&B and pop in expressing her day to day thoughts. Her first single "Roots" released in July of 2019. Since then, has released her debut EP "Roots by Propagation" in March of 2020 and continues to explore and experiment the expression within her sound.

Summer has spent the last decade as a Brand Strategist and Marketer, working in a variety of roles in some of the world’s best ad agencies and Fortune 100 companies. She currently works for an AI-based software company that is modernizing the construction industry. When she’s not working her 9-5 or running DIY GRRL you can find Summer spearheading The Monarch Club - East Humboldt Park’s Small Business Block Club, gardening, antique-ing, or grabbing a slice of pie from Spinning J. Summer lives in Humboldt Park with her husband and two dogs.

Niia is an American singer, pianist, and songwriter. She submerges herself in deep extremes on her 2022 project, Mouthful of Salt. As if born again in the wake of a tsunami’s destruction, the Los Angeles-based jazz/R&B artist slips in and out of oceanic calm like waking from a delicate afternoon dream. She carefully assembles thirteen tracks buoyed by cinematic ambience, airy piano, and vocal echoes. This album is a turning point for Niia - she made the record mostly alone with her engineer in her LA apartment, an old church converted into a haunting living space. Since trading New York for Los Angeles in 2015, she has quietly enchanted audiences, tastemakers, and peers with albums—I [2017] and II: La Bella Vita [2020]—and the If I Should Die EP [2021]. Beyond acclaim from American Songwriter, WORDPLAY, NOCTIS, and more, Rolling Stone hailed If I Should Die as “some of Niia’s stickiest work,” and Clash declared, “her musical influences span across various countries and cultures to form a sensuous style that’s evocatively smooth.” Along the way, she collaborated with the likes of Jazmine Sullivan, Gallant, Boogie, and Girl Ultra, just to name a few. Following her 2021 project If I Should Die, she evolved once again. “It’s the closest I’ll get to a religious experiment,” she smiles.

"Nez" is a Chicago-based Latina artist that specializes in painting, mural artwork and illustration. She studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and is now a freelance artist that enjoys making art that is nothing short of cute. She is best known for her cereal cartoon characters "Fruits and Stars" depicted in many of her recent works. She has worked on numerous community projects throughout the years, from her involvement with the Berwyn Public Art Initiative, as well as the Oak Park Arts Council's mural projects. Lately, she has been keeping busy with art shows, pop-ups, and has recently opened an art gallery "Studio Nez" located in Oak Park, IL, where you can view her recent pieces in person, as well as works of artists in the Chicagoland area and beyond.

Steve Albini is an American musician, record producer, audio engineer and music journalist. He was a member of Big Black, Rapeman and Flour, and is a member of Shellac. He is the founder, owner and principal engineer of Electrical Audio, a recording studio complex in Chicago. In 2018, Albini estimated that he had worked on several thousand albums over his career. He has worked with acts such as Nirvana, Pixies, the Breeders, PJ Harvey, and former Led Zeppelin members Jimmy Page and Robert Plant. Albini is also known for his outspoken views on the music industry, having stated repeatedly that it financially exploits artists and homogenizes their sound. Nearly alone among well-known producers and musicians, Albini refuses to take ongoing royalties from album sales, feeling that a producer's job is to record the music to the band's desires, and that paying producers as if they had contributed artistically to an album is unethical.

Stella Got is a Tel-Aviv based musician, producer & sound engineer. Graduate of the Music-Technology department at Bar-Ilan University and was the first woman in the plugins department at Waves Audio. Today she's the house mixing/recording engineer at Assaf Amdursky's studio and an independent producer and sound engineer working with artists from various genres. Stella has released two solo albums, two side project albums (Nexus, Bill & Murray) and collaborated with top musicians in Israel on stage and in the studio.

Grant Milliren is a Midwest touring indie singer-songwriter from the suburbs of Chicago, Illinois.

Ayden Reda is a Chicago model, photographer, actor, and artist.