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April 3, 2020 Interview with singer/songwriter MACKandgold

Interview with singer/songwriter MACKandgold

Singer MACKandgold has proven the dedication she has to her career as she navigates every curveball life throws her way, turning those ups and downs into stories and songs we can all relate to. 

MACKandgold has always been careful with her music. She finds ways to explore her sound with different producers at her side all while keeping the vibes consistent. As her work continues to trickle out into the world, she walks us along an honest path of self-discovery and experimentation.

What are some of your earliest memories of music?

My mom singing me lullabies. My wind upbears that would play slower and slower and slower till I fell asleep. The Wizard of Oz.

Take us through your songwriting process. Are there any particular steps you take when putting music together?

The steps that seem to work over and over is finding the emotion first. Then the subject follows.  What’s the story. From there its just beautiful chaos and hopefully freedom to explore. I don’t do so well in sessions with time limits.

Studio work and music creation or performing and interacting with a live audience, which do you prefer?

The studio work is fun and special in its own way, like creating a recipe. But performing and interacting with an audience is the whole cake.

What is the most memorable response you have had to your music?

Someone told me that watching me made them feel freer to be themselves, and love themselves…like I inspired that in them. That’s the coolest. I want to do that. And often Iv’e heard “you’re my spirit animal”, an animal I’m proud to be.

If you could put together a radio show, what kind of music would you play?

Everything that’s ever made an impact on me. The songs and artists that I feel like are part of my soul and can cover all my moods.

Name five artists and their albums who would appear on your radio show

Chet Baker – Chet Baker sings, David Bowie – The rise and fall of ziggy stardust and the spiders from mars, daft punk – Discovery, Pink Floyd – Dark Side of the moon (+ have a cigar cuz it’s my favourite), LCD Soundsystem – this is happening (+someone great)

What would you like to achieve with your music? What does success look like to you?

Connecting people. Success looks like being able to do this as much as possible. I know it can change the world. That woman who I can inspire to self-love, she’s gonna spread that around. It’s really infectious.

One last thought to leave your fans with?

Wash your hands

Follow MACKandgold online 

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March 26, 2020 Join Firewoodisland for weekly online concerts from their living room

Join Firewoodisland for weekly online concerts from their living room

Indiepop duo Firewoodisland have released their self-titled EP, just in time to comfort their concerned fans. Despite the unusual circumstances in the world at the time of the release, the pair have chosen to make the best of things by hosting weekly online concerts from their living room.

“We have entered weird times, with all this self-isolating and fear spreading about Coronavirus. Between news articles and opinions crowding our social media news feeds, it’s hard to escape the panic and confusion. However, social media is an amazing tool and we want to grasp the incredible power of it and use it to spread hope and joy.”

Each show will feature “friends of Firewoodisland” and will be announced with prelinks on Facebook and Youtube.

 

Follow Firewoodisland: 

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March 25, 2020 Q&A with music producer Christian Garcia-Gaucher

Q&A with music producer Christian Garcia-Gaucher

Musician and composer Christian Garcia-Gaucher has a music teaching degree and wrote a thesis around improvisation in the world of classical music and music education.

Christian Garcia-Gaucher also composed for various dance, theatre and performance productions by Elodie Pong and Robert Pacitti, Denis Maillefer and Fabienne Berger. He also writes music for films, in Switzerland for, among others, Jean-Stéphane Bron, as well as for Vincent Pluss, in Germany for Sonja Heiss, and in England for Andrew Kötting.

What are some of your earliest memories of music?

My 5 years older brother and family playing music at home.

Take us through your songwriting process. Are there any particular steps you take when putting music together?

First music, then lyrics, then I very often change the music again.

Studio work and music creation or performing and interacting with a live audience, which do you prefer?

Both are part of this activity, but personally I spend more time on creation and studio.. unfortunately maybe.

What is the most memorable response you have had to your music?

A sound technician in Paris, taking off our drum set while playing the end of the concert and saying: shitty band, shitty music…

If you could put together a radio show, what kind of music would you play?

Eclectic, lo-fi, alternative, repetitive, contemporary music, for sure something free and cool … but Radio Campus in Brussels is totally great in this sense.

Name five artists and their albums who would appear on your radio show

– Brainticket, Cottonwoodhill

– Programme, l’enfer tiède

– Charlemagne Palestine, Jamaica Heinekens in Brooklyn

– King Kong, Trouble again

– Circle, Miljard

What would you like to achieve with your music? What does success look like to you?

Just stay free and be able to continue to make research on sounds, structures, styles, etc.. If success means having the possibility to continue what’s described higher, that’s ok. If it means to start to be locked up by a system, that sucks.

One last thought to leave your fans with?

From Heidegger: To the extent that each thing has its place, its moment and its duration, there are never two similar things.

Follow Christian Garcia-Gaucher online 

Spotify 

Q&A with singer/songwriter Emilie Zoé

Lausanne-based singer/songwriter has always done things by herself. She writes, records, and manages her work only following her precise feeling of what’s correct and what’s not.

In 2019, Emilie Zoé got a Swiss Music Award and was invited to play major festivals such as The Great Escape Brighton (UK), Fusion Festival (DE), Bad Bonn Kilbi (CH), Paléo Festival Nyon (CH), Winterthur Musikfestwochen (CH), and opened for Shannon Wright (Le Trianon, Paris) or Jay-Jay Johanson (La Gaité Lyrique, Paris). In 2020, Emilie Zoé played Eurosonic Noorderslaag.

See our exclusive interview with her below:

What are some of your earliest memories of music?

Listening to the same Tom Wait’s record over and over at my parent’s and imagining the music was really played live every time I pressed “play”. I remember imagining the musicians were in a small shack in the forest using weird objects to make those sounds. I couldn’t distinguish any instrument though at that time and didn’t think about the way this music could come to my ears.

Take us through your songwriting process. Are there any particular steps you take when putting music together?

I have to play on an instrument, and the instrument helps to find notes that sound good on it and good to my ears. Then come melodies and words with them, and it makes a verse or a chorus. Then I dig into the sense of it and find the story I want to tell with that song by writing other parts of the song, little by little, like an archaeologist digging up an old object.

Studio work and music creation or performing and interacting with a live audience, which do you prefer?

For me at the moment playing live is the most important, and what I’ve done most. The skeleton of a song is written at home but then I try it on stage and it evolves by being played live. And in the studio, I’ve always recorded songs playing “live” guitar and vocals. Both are highly connected.

What is the most memorable response you have had to your music?

Last year’s whole tour, playing an album called “The Very Start” (Hummus Records, 2018). We played 120 shows in Europe and it was crazy how people always came to talk to us enthusiastically after every show.

If you could put together a radio show, what kind of music would you play?

Rough and simple music that touches me directly. Sometimes lo-fi home recordings.

Name five artists and their albums who would appear on your radio show

The White Stripes – Elephant

Two Gallants – The Bloom and the Blight

Louis Jucker – Eight Orphan Songs

Great Black Waters – Songs for a Bath

Lhasa – The Living Road

What would you like to achieve with your music? What does success look like to you?

I’d like to be able to continue writing, playing and recording music as long as possible. For me it’s a kind of social activity: I make music with my friends, we release our records on a self-managed label and it would be great if it could inspire and motivate people to do their own activities together with the people they like. We will need to create resilient structures and strong social ties for the years to come.

One last thought to leave your fans with?

Let’s try to learn as much as possible, be enthusiastic and curious about the world and the universe. With this knowledge, we’ll be able to decide how to live in the best possible way.

Follow Emilie Zoé online 

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