Imagine that aliens have invaded; they’re taking control, except instead of ruling the planet, what they really want is to jam in your garage. What you’ve got then is The Intelligence, an LA-based post-punk band that grows more and more with each new album (and they’ve had eight great ones, it’s hard to keep up). Just a week or so after the release of their latest LP Vintage Future, I got to speak with founding member, lead singer, and resident genius Lars Finberg via e-mail.
“I think maybe we have tried to have a foot in the future and one in the past?” says Finberg, in terms of where exactly this extraterrestrial sound comes from. “I am a fan of antiquated rickety presentations of the future like Buck Rogers or Joe Meek.”
The influence is clear – it’s like Meek’s I Hear a New World got a bit of a modern upgrade on Vintage Future. The album’s title track especially emphasizes this imagery, starting with an other-worldly ringing and ending with a robotic voice whining, “But I was just learning how to love.” A tragedy indeed.
The fantastic production value of this record makes for a clear vision of what exactly a vintage future might be. Says Finberg, “I think our engineer/producer/recordist Chris Woodhouse improves from greatness with each record he makes.”
A clean and cohesive lo-fi sound coupled with simple, catchy lyrics capitalize the band’s thematic lyrical poignancy, as well as their ability to be unforgivingly and cohesively strange. These lyrics and themes have a way of creeping into your brain, and it’s brilliant to see Finberg keep coming up with more and more, seemingly never running out of new ideas.
“I X-ray what’s inside me and try to read the blueprints as clearly as I can,” he says. “If it sounds like someone else’s X-ray I’m not afraid to use white out or tape or glue to make it newer to me.”
A standout for me is “Dieu Merci Pour La Fixation De La Machine a Coudre,” which is a near-translation of a track on 2009’s Fake Surfers record, “Thank You God For Fixing The Tape Machine.”
While the original track fits right in with their garage rock sound, the latter is a slower serenade. Lyrics like “In the moonlight/Out of the cruel light/I’ve been mesmerized/I think I almost feel right” backed by a swoon-worthy guitar make you want to go for a tango in Paris. Though the songs sound worlds apart, Finberg calls the connection between the two “a secret puzzle.”
“Cool you noticed that,” he says. “The Fake Surfers song was related to a tape machine and love. The Vintage Future update was inspired in France at a club called ‘Machine a Coudre’ or sewing machine, and love. Or some kind of version of it in either case.”
And it all seems strange to us from the outside, but that’s part of the magic in listening to The Intelligence – wanting to understand just what’s going on in Finberg’s brain. “To quote Mitch Hedberg,” he says, “‘Come inside my head and tell me that doesn’t make sense.'”
Catch The Intelligence supporting Franz Ferdinand + Sparks at Terminal 5 on October 6.
It’s a grey Thursday, but something new is shining through the clouds. The femmes are here to premiere Brooklyn-based singer/songwriter Sam Geller, known as Samson The Truest‘s new video for “Afterall” the day before his new album Come Back Shane is released. The video opens with a dichotomy of a grainy image of a bee emerging from a flower contrasting Samson‘s forthright vocals that calmly tell a tale of raging jealousy. With his long hair and relaxed Jesus sex appeal, we watch him linger in the park with a lady friend (Aerial East, who also contributes vocals to the song). Xan Aird joins them sonically on guitar. It’s shot like a family video, spliced with footage of waterfalls, delightfully freaky performers, and spooky drifting balloons. The video feels like a fragmented dream, waking up in a haze of memories and emotions.
To celebrate, join Samson at his album release show this Sunday night, October 4th at Against Nature at 159 Chrystie St in the Lower East Side. It’s also a lovely suit shop. See you then and watch “Afterall” below.
Vancouver singer-songwriter Lindsay Kupser recently released her new record Quiet Songs. A Berklee College of Music graduate, Kupser created five tracks that walk the line between poetry and lullaby, with a fitting description “quiet singer-songwriter” from the artist herself. While at Berklee, she studied jazz composition and performance. The album begins with the raw lyrics of “All of my Bones Broke on Thursday Evening,” a song composed of brutally honest and direct observations on love and heartbreak paired with calm and relaxing guitars. Immiedetely the listener understands why Kupser’s style has been compared to idols such as Sufjan Stevens, Joni Mitchell, and John Mayer. It is stripped down, and while still developing, strives for an exploration of turning one’s anguish and demons into relatable and lovely folk lyrics.
The stripped down soundscape continues into “Couldn’t Move to Brooklyn” where Kupser waxes poetic about her current backyard and decision not to follow suit of so many young artists and make the trek to Brooklyn. While the 23-year-old singer-songwriter may not see Brooklyn as a fitting home, we’re sure that her album will find its way into the ears of many Brooklyn residents. Brooklyn is a noisy and busy city, with sirens blaring and the hubub of bar conversation continuously spilling into the streets. If the landscape of her current location of Vancouver works for Kupser, the romantic artist might as well stick with her current locational muse.
“I’m not afraid of the light or the pain” sings Kupser on “It Is My Turn,” a mournful yet elegant track and our favorite of Quiet Songs. On “Tough Country” we get a peak into Kupser’s childhood memories, as she describes sitting on a floor of the home she grew up in unpacking and observing old photographs.
At times, the rough simplicity of the tracks leave the listener wanting more, and wondering what will come next. She is a skilled poetic writer with a lovely voice and an ear for a calm melody. Such a young artist, the women of AudioFemme look forward to keeping our eyes on her and what the future holds for Lindsay, even if she never does move to Brooklyn. The five-track Quiet Songs concludes with “Everything Feels So Hard Always,” an elegant and simplistic musing into the difficulties of big life decisions all young adults, in particular artists, grapple with.
The minimalist recordings of Quiet Songs feature Alec Watson of Absolute Paradise and Ethan T. Parcell of Vesper Chimes. Previously, Kupser released “The Boston EP.” Quiet Songs was released on March 14, 2015 and self produced and mastered by Alan Douches. Listen to “It Is My Turn” below. For more Lindsay Kupser, find her on Facebook, Twitter, and visit her website.
Any fans of The Strokes can recognize early on that Albert Hammond, Jr.‘s rhythm guitar was a heavy influence on driving the band’s distinct garage rock sound, so it’s great to see him have room to shine on his own. Since he last performed in New York City two years ago at Webster Hall, he’s back with another fantastic full album under his belt that showcase his evolved sound and personal growth.
After flawlessly belting “Cooker Ship” towards the beginning of the set, some sound issues with the bass allowed for a toned down, impromptu performance of “Blue Skies,” just Albert with his guitar (which wasn’t on the setlist).
Many of the new songs from Momentary Masters are far more energetic than his other work, so it was fun to see Albert and his band get into the groove of songs like “Touché” and “Caught By My Shadow.” It being my second time seeing him perform, I was happy to hear old favorites, like“Everyone Gets A Star” sounding just as beautiful as ever, and “Rocket,” a surprise at the end. And witnessing the entire crowd sing along, not missing a beat, to “In Transit” shows just how loyal his fans are.
As he’s known primarily for his guitar prowess, it’s easy to overlook that his voice packs some real power behind it as well. With the backup band doing most of the guitar work, his vocals take center stage, and he impresses the crowd with a great range and the facial expressions to match.
That isn’t to say, however, that his guitar skills don’t shine as well. The crowd stilled for the instrumental “Spooky Couch,” an old favorite from his second album, which highlighted his incredible showmanship and attention to detail. Another detail important to note was the fantastic light design, red to counter the band’s all black outfits, which is all done by his wife, Justyna.
And he couldn’t have thought of a better way to close out the show: after the encore, he takes a letter from a fan in the front row. When it doesn’t fit in his vest pocket, he shoves it right down the front of his pants, and walks off the stage like nothing happened.
Little is known about the enigmatic pop singer Allie X.
When she comes on the stage at Baby’s All Right, I find it hard to believe that, even after speaking with her one-on-one only days ago,she’s standing before me in the flesh, donning an ecru tulle number, mod sunglasses, and a mile-long curtain of straight brown hair falling down her back.
Before adopting the stage name Allie X, she was Allie Hughes, a classically trained musician from Toronto — but that’s all you’ll get to know about her.“Respectfully, Ysabella, I don’t talk about my past in interviews,” she says, and I’m not offended; by driving the attention away from her past life, she allows the focus to remain on who she is now, and what that means for her music.
She opens her show with “Hello,” waving at the crowd almost robotically.It’s mesmerizing to watch her contort her arms into a pretzel or kneel on a bench to play her instrument, the “X-a-chord,” which resembles an organ.
The way that Allie X interacts with her crowd is unlike many pop singers, who might try to hold back-and-forth conversations with the audience or lead into songs with anecdotes.Instead, her phenomenal vocals are what make the show memorable, and she says little other than the occasional “thank you,” mimicking the way she likes to carry herself as an artist.
“I think I can still have life as an artist and create work that has an intimate relationship with the world, where they feel like they’re being let into something without actually revealing details of my private life,” she says.“In this day and age, it’s difficult when half of the success of an artist has to do with social media, which has to do with the details of one’s personal life, so it’s something I’m figuring out.”
And it seems that she’s figuring that balance out much quicker than she gives herself credit for.
The driving force of her fan following is the power of “X,” which she describes as “the unknown variable…a blank slate to start from.Believing in X is believing in the possibility of anything.”
“I have a small, but very devoted following of X’s and a big part of the project is exploring ‘X’ together,” says Allie.“I’m always trying to think of new ways we can do that.One of them is part of my Tumblr, it’s a gallery for various ‘X art’ that they’ve made, and we update it usually every couple of days.So if you make anything and you hashtag it ‘Feeling X,’ it’s going to be up in the gallery.”
And among her go-to poses during the show are the crossing of her arms to form an X, or holding up her crossed fingers.She even spins around onstage, much like the reblog-ready spinning gifs she has on Tumblr.She gives fans these recognizable things to latch onto, and while adopting X into one’s life has a different meaning for each individual, it brings her and the fans together.
These symbols of Allie X are only part of the cohesive image she’s cultivated.It’s a distinct visual style that makes her instantly recognizable, and she credits the aesthetic to adopting X into her life.That’s a part of what ‘X’ might mean for her, but that’s not what “X” is meant to be for everyone.As she describes it to me, “If you were to become ‘Ysabella X,’ you don’t have to share the aesthetic that I show.You don’t even necessarily have to have aesthetic — that’s not really what it’s about.”
And while I might not be sure of my ‘X’ or my aesthetic, Allie X exudes a strong sense of self-awareness and artistic identity.On delving into other aspects of the art world, she says, “I would love to make a musical.I would love to make a film, animate a film.Books, all of that.But that all needs to stem from me being a successful music artist so that’s what I’m focusing on right now.”
It’s fun to watch her pull at her roots and prance in a cutesy and child-like manner while she sings, “Steal my blood and steal my heart/Whatever it takes to get you off/I’m your bitch, you’re my bitch/Boom boom.”The stage was a bit small for her presence, and it would be lovely to see what she would do with an even bigger one.Naked bodies — “a huge pile of naked bodies to travel with me around the world” — if she had it her way.
Presently, she has only performed about ten shows as Allie X, so there is certainly room for her shows and her catalog of songs to grow.
She has co-written a song with YouTube celebrity Troye Sivan, whom she describes as “a truly lovely human being.”Generally, she likes working with people who “bring a different skill set to the table.”For example, people who are “good at working quickly or with technicalities of engineering.”And she describes herself as a “slow” and “abstract” lyricist, preferring to work with “more straight-ahead, quick lyricists,” and “people who have some interesting analog sounds.”
One thing that surely will not change is her flawless delivery, with some of her vocal curls actually inducing chills.And hopefully she stays a bit cryptic and elusive, too.She only took her sunglasses off for the song “Good,” but even then, asked for the lights to be turned down.
She works her way through CollXtion I from top to bottom, and when she closes with “Sanctuary,” she holds out her mic and the crowd sings all the words without missing a beat, as if we all know her and have been a part of this “X” project for our whole lives.And when she prances off stage, shades back on, you’re left with even more questions about her than you had at the start.
There is no epic heartbreak suffered by Kurt Vile on his latest album b’lieve i’m goindown, no great struggle he has to overcome. There’s just everyday malaise punctuated by moments of deeper sadness as well as happier feelings. This is why b’lieve i’m goin down is so relatable – these feelings could happen to anyone, except they happened to the Philadelphia singer-songwriter, who is also a former member of The War On Drugs.
He sounds tired and jaded, frustrated that even the life of a recording, touring musician eventually lends itself to its own brand of monotony.On “All In A Daze Work,” he sings that he’s “Strummin’ unsuccessfully, but moresojust pressing keys.” You may not write songs for a living, but you can empathize when something you’re good at – something you love – seems so far away from what you can and want to do at the moment. On both “Pretty Pimpin” and “That’s Life tho,” he sings about the disconnect he feels with his own image: Not recognizing himself in the mirror and therefore brushing a stranger’s teeth, and coming across as a “certified badass” when he goes out, though he admits to us that he took pills beforehand to take the edge off.
But one of the album’s best moments comes at the very end, on “Wild Imagination,” when he aims his frustration and sadness at the disconnect created by our lives online. It’s summed up neatly in the easy, folk-y song’s first verse: “I’m looking at you, but it’s only a picture so I take that back/But it ain’t really a picture/It’s just an image on a screen.” We live in an age where pictures are no longer cherished, personal memories to flip through. Now they’re social currency, and their worth is based on the reactions of others. So he goes on to ask, “You can imagine if I was though, right? Just like I can imagine you can imagine it. Can’t ya?” This is a scene that’s played out on iPhones everywhere, when we click the little heart next to a friend’s Instagram photo because we know it signals to them that we see them, we like them, they are valued.
Getting trapped in this world is just as depressing as being removed from it, but knowing it exists. Vile is definitely living in his own world, and while it’s one that isn’t perfect, it’s one that he made himself, offline. These days, doing that can be a little terrifying. But like he says on “Wheelhouse,” “You gotta be alone to figure things out.”
Though there’s no link specifically for “Wild Imagination,” you can stream b’lieve i’m goindown here and watch the video for “Pretty Pimpin” below.
Seven years since his last full-length release, Albert Hammond, Jr. has returned with more introspective lyrics, not lacking in memorable guitar riffs he might be best known for in both his solo efforts and his work with The Strokes. As the band takes the back burner, Momentary Masters brings a sense of familiarity – a clean, focused project that’s remarkably different from his first few, but where the changes in The Strokes’ sound might have been more confusing or frustrating, Albert’s done it in a way that shows different levels of personal growth. You’re rooting for him. We’re all rooting for him.
AF: So you’ve said that Momentary Masters is more of like a new debut for you, which makes a lot of sense, since it’s been a while – AHJ was a hugely different sound, so how do you think the change in your sound reflects what you’ve undergone in your life in the last few years?
AHJ: There’s parts of it that reflect that, it’s inevitable. You are a piece of whatever you’re creating, but I feel like it more was affected by my surroundings to the point where I could achieve things I wanted to do, you know. After touring the EP, or while touring, a band formed, so I was able to record in a new way which is very exciting, which is the way I always wanted to or always heard it. It’s hard to find the right people. I feel like I owe that to years of life that I’ve been living, but there’s so many small baby steps, I don’t know that I could say that that was that. I even grew during the making of the album. I felt one way by the end that was a more confident person. It’s too hard to say, but yeah, being sober, it’s changed my life. I wouldn’t be doing any of this if that wasn’t the case.
AF: I know that the title came from Carl Sagan, I feel that a lot of his themes resonate in your lyrics. The lyrics in songs like “Power Hungry,” you kind of talk about futility of actions or the things we worry about, or “Don’t Think Twice” — do you feel like that shows in the music?
AHJ: “Don’t Think Twice” is Dylan – it’s a Dylan cover, so maybe I relate too. Yeah, the Carl Sagan thing was this clip on YouTube that I would use to meditate to. It was something that would always put me at ease in an interesting way. The album title is like that feeling that would last.
Lyrically, “Power Hungry,” that song is a little different from the rest that I’ve written, each part might have different things to it, even in the same song, that kinda happens. It’s so hard to talk about songs; you feel like you spend so much time to find the right words and then you talk about them in the wrong way [fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”][laughs]. I feel like this album is entertaining different layers of ideas, thoughts, or worries.
AF: Right, I think one of my favorite songs lyrically on this album would be “Touché.”
AHJ: Ah yeah, that one, I like that one a lot too.
AF: Yeah, I love that bit, “I forgave you long before I met you for the things that you were bound to do” — it sums up what I was getting a lot of from the album.
AHJ: I’m so happy you like that, because that’s actually, the girl I dedicated the record to, I took one of her poems — that verse was her poem. I thought it just said so much. I like finding those words that can mean different things to people depending on where they’re at. Even that line, “Now that we’re not perfect, we have to be good,” all these different lines mean different things to people. It happened to me — I was listening to the record, I wrote it, and I was thinking, “Oh, is that what I meant?” I was feeling a different way, and it connected in a different way. That’s what’s fun about making music.
AF: Who was the poet you were speaking of?
AHJ: Sarah Jones, she was just a friend of mine. She passed away, and I dedicated the record to her. She was never really published, but I wanted to leave a mark of her work on the album, so I took that line and I dedicated the record to her. She had shown me a lot of different people that ended up being helpful in teaching me how to phrase things in a different way.
AF: And is it cool if we talk about Justyna for a second?
AHJ: Sure!
AF: I saw you back in 2013, and I remember thinking, “Albert’s such a lucky guy.” It’s like you haven’t looked happier. How was it having her direct a music video?
AHJ: Yeah! She’s amazing. She’s actually sitting right next to me, and I’ll still say the same things I was going to anyways. She gets an idea and gets excited about it and goes with it. What’s good is that we kind of pull the best parts for each other out on that, you know. We can kind of tell, we’re pretty honest — we’ll go back and forth, which can always lead to some intensity, but at the end, it always gets a great result. It’s awesome. She also helps so much with photos or we were just finishing a video, she just did all this behind the scenes stuff and edited. She’s on tour with me now cause she’s doing lights, the light directing, so she helps create a mood on stage. It’s really cool.
I know, I see photos too, and I’ve never seen myself happier, it’s almost weird. I almost can’t tell, it’s so natural that I can’t tell until I see a photo and I’m like, “Wow, I look so happy there!”
AF: That’s really great to hear.
AHJ: It’s really nice.
AF: I wanna make this really quick — I did notice that a few Reddit users were feeling betrayed that you cancelled your AMA (says Albert, “That wasn’t my call…we really wanted to do it”). I did pick up a few questions from some users if you wouldn’t mind answering a few of those.
AHJ: Of course, I’d love to!
AF: Reddit user Walksonthree had a few questions. Firstly, do you miss your afro?
AHJ: Do I miss it? No, it’s not something that can cry for me, so I don’t cry for it.
AF: And what do you think is the most difficult song to perform from Momentary Masters?
AHJ: There’s a lot of them. I’m happy that I don’t have to play that much guitar on it, because it’s f-cking hard. “Power Hungry” is pretty hard, we’re trying to figure out which set to play it in. “Touché” — we play it and it sounds great, but it’s definitely a hard one to play. But I mean hard in a good way, I mean, they’re new songs. “Coming to Getcha” is one that was hard, but it ended up being a really great change to the record.
AF: Love that one too. And his last one, why’d you lower your guitar strap? He says, “It’s like seeing a totally different dude perform.”
AHJ: [laughs] They notice such nuances.
AF: [laughs] They do.
AHJ: People always ask me, “Why is your guitar strap so high?” and I’d be like, “I just wear it where I feel comfortable.” And so for a few shows, it was high and it was bothering me, so I lowered it a bit and it just felt more comfortable, so I kept it there. It’s kind of fluctuated. My muscles got too big, how about that one? That’s what happened, I engorged too much.
AF: Sounds like it.
AHJ: Yeah, I don’t know, people just hate change, don’t they? It’s inevitable, my friends, everything changes!
AF: I’ll tell ya, all of their questions revolve so much around The Strokes, that’s all they wanna talk about.
AHJ: It’s okay, I always try to answer them sometimes, I understand. They just wanna know, but they don’t understand that I wanna know more than they wanna know.
AF: Yeah, yeah, it’s all been up in the air for a while, so no pressure for answers.
AHJ: Yeah.
AF: Notjacobpeterson and I both wanna know why Yours to Keep isn’t on iTunes or Spotify anymore.
AHJ: I licensed it. I own the masters, so when I got signed, I licensed it to the label. They licensed it for seven years or whatever, so then I got it back, and when you get it back it takes it off of Spotify and iTunes. Then we were going to make the vinyl for the first time ever, so when we do that, we will re-release it on iTunes and Spotify and vinyl. It just seemed weird to do it at the same time as we were releasing a new record. It’ll come back, it’ll come back in a better way.
AF: Perfect. Yeah, “Everyone Gets A Star” is still a favorite of mine.
AHJ: Yeah, it’s one of my favorites too. And we also have recorded a live record, so we even thought of bringing that out at the same time as that. So you get Yours to Keep and you get a live album, all these things happen for a reason and I know why they’re happening. My hands are on most strings. Obviously, you have people that you trust to deal with stuff because if I wear myself too thin, I wouldn’t be good at doing music [laughs].
AF: So much more to look forward to! And YOitzODELLE asks what your favorite song is to perform from the first record — I’d like to know what your favorite songs are to perform from each of your records.
AHJ: Oh man, probably what’s on my setlist right now… “In Transit” is fun just ‘cause everyone sings along. I tried “Call An Ambulance” and “Blue Skies” by myself and that’s been fun. “Rocket” and “Lisa” are really fun. I really wanna play “You Won’t Be Fooled by This.” We’ve been doing “Spooky Couch” and that’s good, “Cooker Ship” on the EP and “St. Justice,” and then the new songs, “Coming to Getcha,” “Caught by my Shadow,” and “Side Boob”.
AF: Perfect, yeah, I can’t wait to hear the new setlist. And Bowery Ballroom is one of my favorite venues here so that’s gonna be really exciting.
AHJ: I know, me too. Soon!
Albert will be performing two back to back shows at Bowery Ballroom, September 21 and 22.
Another glorious mold, another captivating remix. BECOME has turned NoMBe‘s “Miss Mirage” into a chillwave sound. Recently released, it has been transformed into a repeat-friendly track. I’ll hold on to the last few moments of summer with this. In between the chorus blocks, it’s not hard to find yourself lost in the chanting, “She can be my broad” with peppers of static. LA’s Noah McBeth (NoMBe) created the perfect baby to be played with. “Call her Miss Mirage cause it’s over, there’s not way to hold her. Pinch me in my shoulder. Wake me when it’s over.” Some of us don’t want it to be over.
While most of New York fled the city for Labor Day 2015, Wolkoff, aka Joanie Wolkoff formerly of Her Habits, performed at the venue famous for those lights, Baby’s All Right. She covered the entirety of her EP “Talismans” and finished with a few new tunes. She started the show covered in a cape – removed to reveal a shiny jaw-dropping black mini-dress, a look completed with her signature white Reeboks and tube socks. She was joined by two talented and flexible modern dancers, complementing Wolkoff’s moody pop with sweat on muscles and even a samarai sword. Her EP “Talismans,” which you can stream here, shows Wolkoff’s lyrical emotional depth and alt-pop writing chops, but seeing her live truly takes the experience to the next level. Sure, she’s blonde and pretty – but far from appearing traditional or boring. Joanie Wolkoff is just one of those goddesses who is on to something and found a way to exist in this world that is wholly unique to herself, yet captivating to all. Those attributes shine through in her stage presence, performance, aesthetic and of course, music, to create quite the enchanting package.
If you missed this show, come see Wolkoff at Atypical Beasts and AudoFemme’s CMJ takeover show Friday, October 16th at The Delancey. Until then, watch Wolkoff’s video for “Too Quiet” below:
Chic Gamine are a revamped, French-Canadian version of a classic girl-group: Three voices that sing in harmony, adding layer upon layer to one unwavering line, breaking off in separate tendrils before twisting together again. On their upcoming album, Light A Match, they’re taking the concept to a whole new level. Though they took a five year break between releases, it was spent evolving their sound, and finding a new collaborator in the Montreal producer Sébastien Blais-Montpetit. The band describes how the title track reflects this crucial point in their career: “’Light A Match’ is about that moment when you’re forced to decide what to do with the spark that is your life. Do you snuff it out or do you blow it into proportions undreamt of?”
Chic Gamine’s answer to that question is clear: turn that spark into a blaze. After a gentle intro, the song becomes intense, and a driving bass and marching snare build as the chorus dares listeners to play with fire: “You found hell looking for paradise/Light a match and watch it burn.”
Light A Match will be available on October 23rd. Check out Chic Gamine’s music video for “Light A Match,” where two cowboys play a high stakes game with memories instead of cards.
Dig the new dirt on Swiss psych-rocker’s Ajay Mathur latest album, 9 to 3. Released this Spring, on May 1st 2015, 9 to 3 is a heady take on Americana, blending psychedelic rock with an international take on folk, for fans of everything from Dead Meadow to George Harrison. Mathur has an eclectic background, which sets the stage for the tone of his music.
Born in India, Mathur’s roots dig deepest with the inclusion of the sitar bleeding with guitars and straightforward vocals. Each one of his songs is autiobiographical in nature and written from the heart. He’s an artist for fans of Tom Petty who have been looking for a new voice with an edge. 9 to 3 is a 15-track cohesive album that’s the perfect introduction to the artist. 9 to 3 follows Ajay Mathur’s previous releases of A Matter of Time (2011) and Come See Conquer (2013). The title track “9 to 3” demonstrates Mathur’s heartfelt and relatable lyrics, perfect to go with the after work drink you need when getting home from a long day, ready to transition into the relaxation of evening. Sitars make for a meditative opener on “I Song,” that leads into whirling vocals and more elaborate guitars. “All up to Vanity” shows Mathur’s comedic writing chops and dabbles in jazz, and things get political with “My World (SOS to the Universe).” The album exhibits an impressive range of emotions and style while never straying from it’s cohesive mood of alt-Americana. The one you’ll want to slow dance to is “Tell Me Why,” where Mathur gets romantic with a song fit for a wedding and lyrics of yearning. We see his take on the classic rock anthem with “View from the Top.” The album shines brightest as it comes to a close as use of harp and sitar truly step up Mathur’s game on the fore-mentioned “I Song,” one stop before the grand finale. Perhaps the track most evocative of the energy of Mathur is the closing number “I Mantra,” an enchanting and comforting song that appropriately closes out the album. In its entirety, 9 to 3 is immersive, relaxing, and comfortable – all the while remaining unique and wholly Mathur. As artists continually try to out weird one another, or make waves by being different, 9 to 3 is a solid listen for a road trip, dinner music, or best for unwinding when you want to tap into the space that Jackson Browne left behind and expand your view on what Americana music means.
Listen to “I MANTRA” below. To stream the album in its entirety, head over to Soundcloud. For even more Mathur check out his Facebook, Bandcamp page, and website.
The first half of my conversation with Natasha Beste of moody electro-pop duo Odd Hours is instantly dedicated to playing six degrees of separation between the two of us until we are able to piece our social puzzle together, realizing that we run in the same circles and are friends with the same people and both conclude that Detroit is a lot like high school.
“In Detroit, it’s really easy to make things happen if you are really motivated and dedicated. If you are snotty or mean or not serious about what you’re doing, it will get around fast,” Beste says. “I’m lucky to have met and become friends with people that make doing this fun, it never feels like work.”
This non-work-work Beste is referring to is Odd Hours latest EP noreprinphrine + dopamine, an assertive and pouty collection of songs that are as glittery as they are confrontational. Beste’s attention to duality, both in her personal life and in her Odd Hours world (she is also a teacher and video artist) resonates as a playful game of tug-of-war sonically. Beste describes the toggling of themes as a “constant up and down.” From asking for what you want and ending up bored by the instant gratification to feeling left out or misunderstood yet worthy enough to exert power, Odd Hours challenges themselves by provoking a polarizing experience. As it turns out, this very balancing act of various selves and influences resulted in what Beste considers to be the truest version of what they’ve been trying to accomplish since they formed. “I think with artists there are things that come out of you naturally. And for me things were coming out of me that weren’t matching what I was listening to, or what we were making,” Beste explains. “We’ve been morphing and changing our sound and we finally feel comfortable in our skin. We want to keep going with how we sound now.”
Odd Hours have been making noise around the city for five years. Beste and her collaborator and Hours guitarist, Timothy Jagielo, assembled after exhausting previous projects, wanting to expand beyond their old work and Detroit city limits. “I was in a lot of different bands before I met Tim but after a while I really wanted to do something that would allow me to be loud and raunchy,” Beste says “We were both in a place where we wanted to start something new.” With additions bassist, Clint Stuart, and drummer Randy Hanley Jr, each track on noreprinphrine + dopamine is a banger in its own right, successfullyandcollectivelyfulfilling Beste’s aforementioned desires of sounding loud and raunchy while remaining a compelling and polished production. When asked about the possibility of a full length release, Beste is uncertain, but unwavering in her convictions towards quality vs. quantity. “It’s the way that my brain works. My whole life of music I’ve really stuck with EPs. I’m not saying we would never release an LP. Everything that needed to be said was said within these songs.” she explains. “It could be the next thing we do, but it has to feel right.”
The accompanying video for their first single “SWTS” is a true testament to Odd Hours theatrics; a great introduction to their provocative landscape, their lust filled, odd world. Full of if-David Lynch-cast-Lindsey Lohan-in-a-music-video vibes (Beste laughs excitedly at this comparison) aligns with the estranged bossiness of the song where Beste howls: “I thought someone told me / Like Christmas / I would get to make a wish list,” a vulnerable plea paralleled with warbled rock vocals, a sensibility carried throughout the EP.
By the end of our chat we realize we share a friend in noreprinphrine + dopamine producer Jon Zott and that we were both on set for Tunde Olaniran’s video earlier this year and it is with this strange connectivity that we are able to commiserate over the special brand of small world-ness Detroit offers. I finish by apologizing for referring to her music as bratty, though meant as a compliment as it’s a trait I regard as honest and unapologetic, to which she assures me is a perfectly apt description. “It’s funny because my boyfriend Kevin (and partner in Gold House Media) as well as my guitarist Tim and Tunde all call me a brat because I get what I want. But I have a vision,” Beste explains. “I am always three steps ahead.”
Coming from Seattle, Hibou is Peter Michel. The debut album will be released September 18, but for this #newmusicMonday we’re sharing one of our favorite tracks – “In The Sun.” It’s a heady song evocative of happiness, that mysterious emotion evading any music lover who relates to High Fidelity – yet holds the cheese. Hazy guitars and nostalgic vocals create a perfumey track for anyone who has had to Google the symptoms of a smile to figure out what’s going on.
Our girl Jojee is back with a sultry track “Unravel Me” and we get to share it with you first. The moody number invokes the same sensuality as a candle-lit stoned shower, smoke and steam obscurring skin on skin. The “future soul” artist has a kaleidoscope of sounds that all zoom into the same focal point claimed by R&B in the 2015 musical landscape. Relax and allow yourself to come undone with the latest – “Unravel Me” slows things down to the tempo you want to bath in every beat.
Indulge in the heady high of “Unravel Me” below. The song is produced by Mickey Valen.
It’s Labor Day. The end of summer, time for last call and make outs with the friend you’ve been eyeing all these hot months. Our Track of the Week “Midnight Man” is the new single from NYC-based Controller. With layers of synths and resulting smile upon smile, this song is all about having a good time and enjoying the moment. It’s the third single from Controller’s sophomore release, the No Future EP.
Jon Bellinger (Controller‘s frontman) says the song is: “A shameless club banger, but sung from the perspective of someone you would never ever, ever, ever, ever, ever even consider going home with. Like, he thinks he’s really smooth but he’s the only one not in on how ridiculous he is, and it’s getting closer and closer to last call.” With that, take a listen and go forth.
After an abundance of changes, Widowspeak is now two. Molly Hamilton and Rob Earl Thomas did what all Brooklyn artists dream of doing, and rambled on to the Catskills where they live with a pup dog. They took their time in creating All Yours, an album appropriately about “moving on.” While they’ve moved on, they’ve kept what’s gold, working with tried and true Jarvis Taveniere, who produced their self-titled debut in 2011, and drummer Aaron Neveu.
The album opens with the title track that sounds exactly as my fantasy of fleeing the city for nature with a lover should. Their slow-paced blend of folk and shoegaze creates a sensation of nostalgia and rooted observation. On “Stoned” Molly exhales the drug that is love “…and I felt stoned…” Things pick up and crawl a little deeper to your heart on “Borrowed World” when Rob laments, “I know that I should pay attention, but I never paid any mind.” Rob rarely shares his voice; the addition of his vocals round up the listening experience. “Living in a borrowed world – with you.” On All Yours the two let us into their world via a cohesive and comforting album that’s as delightfully irreverent as it is insightful.
Introducing a new column that takes us inside the Detroit music scene – AF
[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”]Cover photo for Some Kind of Distortion courtesy of Christina Anderson
A lot can happen in five years. Sean Lynch of Milford-based dream pop, post-punk trio, 800beloved, agrees with me. Five years ago I met Lynch, per my request as both a fan and as a writer, to chat about Everything Purple, the band’s dreamy follow-up to 2009’s Jesus and Mary Chain-esque debut Bouquet just before dissolving their relationship with their label, which lead to a three year hiatus. At the time, Lynch was still posing as a funeral director with a focus on restorative cosmetology, a profession that occupied over a decade of his life, and one that infiltrated 800beloved’s subject matter and undoubtedly crafted their signature staticky-concrete-macabre aesthetic.
Fast forward to today. I find myself at Bronx Bar in Detroit sitting across from Lynch, considered now to be one of my best friends and most faithful musical allies, to discuss a different type of undertaking, the release of 800beloved’s long awaited third record, Some Kind of Distortion. “We Beyonce’d that shit,” Lynch says in reference to the unannounced, overnight drop of the album on August 3rd. “I guess this is us going back to true left of the dial punk rock D.I.Y. We didn’t promote this record even though it was finished a year ago. It just felt like the season perfectly lined up and there was a storm that night.” This speaks true to Lynch’s creative sensibility, to trust intuition as means of honing in on emotive moments rather than popular opportunity, which explains 800’s quiet notoriety. “800beloved has become very niche-y, which is good,” Lynch explains. “We are truly comfortable narrowing the scope and not being a solicitation or a buzz band.”
For a three piece (currently composed of Anastasiya Metesheva on bass, Ben Collins on drums, and Lynch on vocals, guitar and production, respectively) 800beloved’s sound achieves a shimmering fullness that is as methodical as it is nostalgic. Some Kind of Distortion abandons traditional verse, chorus, verse, and is almost entirely devoid of hooks, a distortion in its own right. Distortion is a record with a pulse of throbbing warped sounds, and although difficult to identify, it still manages convulse with familiarity – from the warbled, zombie surf rock tones in “Die Slow,” to the droning, buzzy vocals on “Cicadas” that lends itself to sounding like an aural illusion to the soft and swelling opening instrumental track “0930131103.” “This is our attempt at psychedelic dream pop. We are playing back to our roots while exploring things we’ve never introduced to our audience through our particular filter,” says Lynch. “It’s a record that is sort of introverted and juvenile. It’s almost concept-less, in a way.”
I tell Lynch that the latest record is much less “death-y” than his previous, a statement he agrees with. “Enduring Black” (appropriately inspired by a CoverGirl cosmetic name found in the embalming room at his last funeral gig) is the shortest song on the album, clocking in just under three minutes. Even so, Lynch manages to write what feels like an obituary to his direct involvement with death work by means of his simplistic and clever lyrical prowess: ‘When I lose this black suit/I hope I forget/ what this all looks like in the end/I’d rather get distracted/by the liner ’round your eyes/Enduring Black/after all this time.’ “The song is sort of my sign off as a funeral director, an admission that I wanted more. It was my attempt to part with it, intellectually,” Lynch says. The album’s title track opens with a haunted crooning, “Time why are you so cruel/when I had all these ideas for you” and paints the glimmering sense of teenage suburbia while the song plays out like an invitation to a dystopian after party. “It’s addressing modern day distractions, but the jam seems like it’s out of a John Hughes film,” Lynch details. He is reminded, excitedly, of his inspiration behind tracking the song in post. “When you and our friends threw my birthday party at the roller rink, I just kept thinking of the stoner-y Dazed and Confused vibe of rollerskating. End of summer, stale burnt grass. That’s what I’ve tried to capture with this record.”
800beloved (which, if you haven’t figured it out by now is in fact a phone number) are not strangers to strong visual imageries that require, for those curious enough, further explanation though never deviating from disarming the audience. “The cover art is a lift from our friend’s Instagram. When I saw the photo I immediately sensed the vibe of the album which leaves this stained cafeteria feeling.” Lynch is wistful when he says this, and it is with this very passion in which he describes the synchronistic way in which the photo encapsulates the album and the band’s willingness to artfully displace themselves by releasing Distortion completely independently, that I am reminded of his affinity for detail both visually and sonically (and the palpable electricity he exudes when the two are perfectly wed). “When you work with a label and they tell you one thing and it doesn’t happen, it feels like a hula dance. A hula hoop doesn’t belong in a tree. I love the connotation of displacement of an object.”
So, yes. We were right. A lot can change in five years. Although 800beloved has remained uncompromising in vision, they continue to evolve. They’re still the band you have to seek to find or will possibly trip over. We conclude our interview (during which I’m not sure I ever even posed a question, a stark contrast to my pages of meticulous, shaky fangirl notes from five years ago) and venture out for a late night dinner where we take turns laughing, commiserating, and stealing french fries and onion rings off of each other’s respective plates. We eventually part ways at the gig van, aptly named “the space station” where Sean lends me an Alesis processor and the road worn, black electric Epiphone used on Bouquet, their first album and my summer soundtrack for heartbreak the year of its release. It’s a poetic transfer between friends; words for words, music for music, fried food for fried food. It isn’t until after I’m nestled into my apartment later that night with these symbolic musical tools far too advanced for my two- month- old fascination that Sean texts me, “I can’t wait to hear your distortions.” A perfectly apropos end to the night. I put my phone down and make some ugly, screechy guitar sounds and am suddenly warmed and buzzed by my own contortions as I dreamt of roller skates, longing for a summer that may or may not have happened yet.
There’s an over-used quote on Tumblr that goes something like: “She looked like art, and art wasn’t supposed to look nice; it was supposed to make you feel something.” With River Tiber‘s (aka Tommy Paxton-Beesley) latest track “Let You Go,” the Canadian producer created a piece of art that defies this statement. It’s a beautiful song filled with tried and true R&B sensibilities, yet manages to still make you think with unexpected beats popping like bubbles. The way he bluntly sings, “I only love you when I let you go” will resonate with anyone who has been that asshole in a breakup, which is, all of us.
His EP When The Time Is Right comes out September 16. Listen to “Let You Go” below.
It’s Monday, which means despite the dismal sounds of alarms, we have new music to be celebrated. Brooklyn electro – pop duo, Astronaughty, recently released their debut single “Try Much Harder.” I was sold at the beautiful long-haired men gazing at me through a purple sheen, but their appeal goes beyond the superficial. The track is a mega-fun burst of surprises, dips and dives, and unexpected tempo changes. There’s room for introspection, mellow smiles, and booty shaking.
Of “Try Much Harder,” Astronaughty says, “We wanted the track to sound like the beginning of something new that takes you back to something familiar.” Like so many late-night Brooklyn epiphanies, this one came to Sam and Charlie while riding the L train. “The melody came out of nowhere when we were taking the L train together late one night. We like to hum ideas back and forth when we are out and about and this one was very pop-y for us at the time. We remember it gave us the image of a declining pop star on the dark side of the moon, trying to make one last hit.” With a debut like this, expect plenty more from these guys before they reach their own rock ‘n’ roll suicide.
Named as one of Rolling Stone Magazine’s “Artists to Watch” this month just a week after his wildly anticipated sophomore album Transgressor (Quite Scientific Records)dropped to an outpour of local and national praise, Flint, Michigan native Tunde Olaniran is making seismic waves with no end in sight.
Much like Olaniran himself, Transgressor is ambitious. The album treads on territory once explored by pop/hip hop/rock greats, but through his own vocal ferocity and audaciously layered beats. Olaniran manages to pave a path all his own (and in doing so, has reset the bar for breakout artists and seasoned vets, alike.) Transgressor achieves a rare feat: each track stands confidently on it’s own. Although the album is bound by a consistent textural experimentation, this allows each track to resonate with a unique reference point. Freddie Mercury vocals here. Early Missy Elliott vibes there. With Antony and the Johnsons meets Yeezus with a kiss of Squarepusher scattered throughout.
Trangressor is theatrical and strange, but never boring. The track “KYBM” incorporates pulsating tribal drum rhythms and chanting, yet there are moments that feel like a Baz Luhrmann film as heard on “Don’t Cry,” and others transport you to church like the standout breakup track, “Let Me Go.” These influences make Transgressor hard to categorize but help keep the album consistently curious. “Experimental pop/hip hop is the simplest way to categorize my sound,” Olaniran explained to me on the set of his music video for “KYBM” this past February. “I’m always trying new sounds, new ways to use my voice. But I like how it’s a little crude at the same time. With Transgressor I try to limit myself because I don’t want it to sound super polished.”
My favorite example of this methodology is the album’s alternative-broke-baller anthem “Diamonds” featuring iRAWniQ and Passalacqua. With lines like “I’m a fiend for a discount/ while I dream of a penthouse” and “Ima keep it real/nothing in my pocket but a $5 bill/guess I’ll go to Taco Bell and get a combo meal” (even including a line referencing the mass water shutoff controversy in Detroit) Olaniran makes even the downtrodden and relevant, funny. “At my core, I’m a ridiculous person.” He explained. “I don’t want to denigrate other artists or music but it can seem a little heavy handed when you’re trying to get a message across. I don’t want there to be a barrier. I want you to have music you can enjoy.”
In an industry where countless musicians toil night and day to develop a specific sound, that thing that will set them apart from the pack and place them in a category all their own floats up Angel Deradoorian, the self-identified lepidopteran vocalist, songwriter and multi-instrumental artist.
Deradoorian, as she’s mononymouslyknown, was a longtime member of the indie-rock cult darlings Dirty Projectors. And her vocals have such a unique quality that immediately evoke the ethereal memory of that infamous project. Only here on her debut solo LP, The Expanding Flower Planet, there is an intimacy breathed into the tracks that promises sincerity, genuine hope and connection. Deradoorian has poured herself into the album in such a way that her being is indistinguishable from the music. Listening to the album all the way through is an exciting and spiritually-laced journey you take with her guiding you down the path of her creation.
We reviewed her debut albumat length earlier this week, and on the heels of it’s release I caught up with her to pick her brain on a bit about her story in music.
AF: What prompted your move to a solo project?
D: I’ve had a solo project since I was about 17 years old, but didn’t deeply focus on it. It was either doing another album cycle with Dirty Projectors or hunkering down to work on my own stuff. The timing seemed right for me to take a break from the band to explore my own work.
AF: What experiences in your career to date are you bringing to The ExpandingFlower Planet?
D: All my musical experience since childhood.
AF: Where else did you draw inspiration for the album?
D: I draw inspiration from everywhere. Visual art, nature, music, my friends.
AF: Can you describe a bit your process in the creation and evolution of a song.
D: Each song is created in its own way. Written on different instruments and pieced together, some are written on just one instrument.
AF: Does the album read as one compelling piece or is it a series of vignettes?
D: I’d see it more as vignettes, but with a thread binding them together.
AF: What aspect of the album release are you most excited for?
D: For the music to be public and to be heard.
AF: How would you define the music mood of the moment?
D: I live in Los Angeles right now. The mood of music seems pretty broad to me right now. I feel there is a lot of crossover in genres and between independent and major sounding music. Seems like a time of fusion.
AF: Are there any other projects that you are really digging right now?
D: I’ve been enjoying the Badbadnotgood/Ghostface album.
AF: What’s your current jam?
D: Allen Toussaint, “From A Whisper To A Scream”.
AF: What else can we expect from you in the months to come?
D: Tour tour tour.
https://soundcloud.com/anticon/deradoorian-komodo
Deradoorian Tour Dates
Aug 28 – Queens, NY – Trans Pecos (Record Release Show)
Sep 11 – Brooklyn, NY – Baby’s All Right #
Sep 12 – Richmond, VA – The Camel #
Sep 13 – Carrboro, NC – Cat’s Cradle Back Room #
Sep 14 – Atlanta, GA – Drunken Unicorn #
Sep 15 – Tallahassee, FL – Club Downunder #
Sep 17 – Austin, TX – Holy Mountain #
Sep 18 – Dallas, TX – Three Links #
Sep 20 – Albuquerque, NM – Sister #
Sep 21 – Phoenix, AZ – Crescent Ballroom #%
Sep 22 – Los Angeles, CA – The Echo #
Sep 23 – San Francisco, CA – Brick & Mortar Music Hall #
Sep 25 – Portland, OR – Doug Fir Lounge #
Sep 26 – Seattle, WA – The Vera Project #
Sep 29 – Minneapolis, MN – Icehouse #
Sep 30 – Chicago, IL – Schuba’s #
Oct 01 – Detroit, MI – Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit #
As summer comes to a close and the sun sets a little sooner on us all Julia Holter is preparing to release her fourth studio album Have You In My Wilderness. The timing I’d love to believe is one of those serendipitous things, her classic and timeless brand of Americana folk settling onto my shoulders like the sweaters I’ll soon need. A perfect pairing of creation and created. Though I know it’s planned, the machine’s behind it, but I’m comforted by the knowledge that they got it right. She got it right. A first listen through the album and nary a disappointing number among the bunch. It’s a languid tale, a lazy river of emotionally wrought but not fussed over music.
Julia and I caught up over the phone recently to talk a bit about the album, her art and what she has planned for the future.
AudioFemme: How do you think you’ve changed and grown as an artist and how are you showcasing that on Have You In My Wilderness?
Julia Holter: I don’t know, I’m never able to say how I’ve grown. Obviously you learn things with experience, so that is true. With every new record I’m trying to do something different and so I never am really conscious of what the progression is. One thing that I learned over the past two years is how to work with people. I was recording all alone for several years before I started working with other people. It took a lot of courage for me to try to have other people play my music. It’s really fun, it’s different. I mean I like playing my own music solo, but it’s been really nice working with other people.
AF: Can you tell us a little about your own particular process of song creation?
JH: I tend to write, especially these songs for this record, very quickly. They just kind of came out of me while I would be at the piano playing. I would say almost all of them were written to piano with the exception of “Vasquez”. It would happen really fast, it just comes out of my mouth and my hands at the same time, these fragments of a phrase along with a musical phrase. And then what happens is you have to develop it, that’s the tricky part. Developing these ideas, but staying true to the initial creation of your subconscious that happened in those seconds where you came up with it. Revisiting it, repeating or creating a new section that’s similar is the hardest part.
AF: Is the album meant to be consumed as a book or vignettes?
JH: I was imagining this was like a collection of ballads. It’s a bunch of songs, some of them are love songs, but there’s these themes of power struggles in relationships. Other than that they’re all independent. But I think that that’s a nice way to look at it – like they’re a bunch of short stories.
AF: What was it like to record in your hometown LA?
JH: The process was similar for this record and the previous one, where I would make demos and then I’d arrange them for musicians to play and we’d record them with Cole (M. Greif-Neill) at the computer as a producer, rather than myself. And I think it was really nice to see people do what they do really well with what I was presenting them. It’s teamwork in that way. Once I realized that the world isn’t against me and people are interested in playing my music because they are interested in new experiences I calmed down and was able to enjoy the process. I’m always defensive and thinking everyone would much rather do anything else than play my music, which is silly because musicians are interested in doing new things. I love being in the studio so much because you it’s like a playground of sound.
AF: Do you like drawing comparisons to other artists?
JH: I don’t know if most people like that at all. It’s just because it makes it hard to see yourself if you’re being compared to someone else, but obviously that’s what people do. That’s what journalists and music critics or anybody analyzing music is going to compare it to other music because that makes sense. But for an artist it’s hard to think that way, because obviously there’s music that I love and music that I’ve probably been inspired by, but I’m usually not. I tend to not make music inspired by other music directly. Usually if I’m inspired by something it’s something that’s not music, like a story or a movie or something.
AF: Do you enjoy touring?
JH: Yes and no. I love performing and I love being able to see other places I’ve never been to. There’s no denying that. It’s very cool, and I’m very lucky that I get to do that. I don’t ever say no, but I definitely hate flying so much and I hate being uncomfortable and traveling, like the process of traveling, it’s really rough on your body. Getting sick on tour is so terrible and you get sick a lot because of the lack of sleep. There’s good sides and bad sides, but on the whole basically what I’m doing is my dream and I’m so happy.
AF: Are there any cities or places that you just love?
JH: For whatever reason I’ve played a lot of shows and had a good time in different cities in Poland. There’s always a really great audience there. People are really into music and enthusiastic pretty much everywhere I’ve played there. Europe in general is just very receptive to a lot of different music more so than my own country, so it’s nice to go there as a musician and be welcomed and I like that. I really can’t say there’s a place I’ve had terrible experiences yet. I like everywhere I’ve been.
AF: If it hadn’t been music what else strikes a chord?
JH: Oh I don’t know. I would probably be a teacher or something. I could teach music theory or something. But outside of music? I could be an English teacher maybe. But that’s hard, I know it’s not easy either. I don’t know. To be honest I think about it a lot, how lucky I am to do this, I don’t know what else I can do.
AF: With the impending album release (9/25) what comes next for you?
JH: I’m doing a film score right now for a boxing movie. And I’m working on collaborations with a few friends.I really want to do more scoring.
AF: Can you talk more about the film score and how you fell into that position?
JH: The director heard my music on the radio and I think he very bravely asked me to do it, against the will of the people probably. There’s a lot of professional film scorers out there, and I’m not. I haven’t done it. I mean I have, but not professionally. So he’s just been really supportive and it’s been really really great experience so far. It’s kind of a mellow score, simple with bluesy piano.
AF: What’s your current jam?
JH: I’m listening to the score for Inherent Vice. I like it. It’s Jonny Greenwood. I never listen to scores. It’s such a new thing for me, but it’s such an obvious thing for me to enjoy. I think it’s funny I’ve never done it.
Doe Paoro recently released a new single titled “The Wind” – and it is beautiful. The song was written during Hurricane Sandy – which for any New Yorker will invoke memories of fear, the dark, of rain coming down and uncertainty, but hopefully, if you were hiding out with someone you love, also a deep sense of intimacy. Shelter from the storm, if you will. “The Wind” was produced by Bon Iver (Justin Vernon) and features an enchanting beat created by the Chicago duo Supreme Cuts that rains down in deep, sharp beats as soaring interlaced vocals dance the song of calmness that only true intimacy can provide.
It’s Monday, which for many, means an earlier and violently annoying alarm clock, and perhaps engaging in tasks below us in order to bring home the bacon. Yet it’s also an empty row on a calendar of possibilities. Maybe you’ll get to pet an extraordinarily lovely dog. Maybe you’ll kiss someone like the stock market depended on it. And maybe…you’ll hear some delightful new music.
Coming from Sydney, today we have for you the debut track “Home” from Little May. Little May is Liz Drummond, Hannah Field, and Annie Hamilton. Their debut album, For The Company, comes out October 9 via Dew Process / Capitol Records. The 13-track LP was produced by The National’s Aaron Brooking Dessner. The track is delicate and haunted, like a fragile yet enchanting ballerina, or the dried roses kept by your bedside table, given by a lover gone yet not forgotten. It’s a lovely song to add a sprinkle of spooky fairy dust on what could be just another Monday.
