music news – Page 6

September 3, 2020

September 3, 2020September 3, 2020 Mike change

In Conversation with London future-soul outfit Goldrain

Goldrain are Barbara Dudek, Harrison Moore and Owen Smalley, the fresh future-soul duo out of London formed in March 2019. Having studied together at the London College of Creative Media, the three creative minds banded together and have recently made a trip to Impression Recordings in Berlin to record the six songs that make up their forthcoming EP Mysteries.

Their latest single, ‘Atlantis’, is available for streaming over at The AU Review ahead of its official release.

Get to know the band better below!

Looking back, what were some of your earliest entries into music appreciation? And music production?

Harry Moore (drummer): Well I was introduced to music as soon as I was born really, so I had no choice but to appreciate it! My earliest appreciation of music had to be from my grandad. He used to sit all day long playing old ragtime tunes on the piano, which has always been one of my fondest memories of him. My dad also played the guitar regularly around the house and in his band, where I would watch him perform in old smoked out pubs in North West England. With music production, my dad used to have this very old digital recording machine which could only record one track at a time. My older brother used it to record his first album, and I drew inspiration from him as he was the first person I saw recording music and really going for that ‘DIY’ production.

How did your latest single, ‘Atlantis’, come together? What feeling were you trying to capture or communicate?

Barbs Dudek (vocals/keys): ‘Atlantis’ came out of many things, like frustration from watching adverts for girls cosmetics, objectifying femininity, and a deeper need to find some answers on my own. What does it really mean to me personally? You know, to be a woman? It’s got so many lights and shades to it. I thought using Atlantis, the mystical land, as a metaphor would be perfect to tell a story about discovering something new within yourself — something not really tangible but very powerful. When it comes down to communicating, my hopes are always for the person listening to jump on the journey with me and reflect on those things later on for themselves. The last verse (“turn the tide”) is encouragement for change and hope for further liberation.

Why did you decide to travel to Berlin to record your upcoming Mysteries EP?

H.M: So, it all came full circle for me in a way. My older brother, who recorded his first album with that old digital recorder, relocated from London to Berlin several years ago and has managed to build his own amazing studio called Impression Recordings in central Berlin. I initially thought it would be a great idea for all of us to go there to record/film a live performance of some of our songs, as the live room in the studio is such an amazing space. Then Barbs thought, ‘why not record our EP there’, so we did! For all of us, I believe it was nice to get away from London for a short period of time to try and be creative elsewhere. As I’m sure you’d understand, being in one space for so long can be draining sometimes — especially creatively, which we’re still required to be in the studio despite having the structure and instrumentation of the songs finalised prior to recording.

Do you have any particularly good memories from these recording sessions you’d be willing to share with us?

Owen Smalley (guitars): There’s a guitar part in one of the songs where we wanted to have the overdrive on my pedal steadily increase over the period of about 2 minutes — and since I had my hands full playing the part, Harry sat down cross-legged at my feet and did the most precise pedal-twiddling I’ve ever seen for those two whole minutes. Barbs, Robbie, and Sam were all in the control room cheering us on which only added to the intimacy. Talk about your pals having your back, or in this case your feet. We also broke a new personal best during our time there by eating pizza every day for 6 days straight.

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

O.S: Such different kettles of fish, so I wouldn’t be able to say that I actually have a preference. But what I would say is that it’s usually a case of the old adage, “absence makes the heart grow fonder”. Like so many other artists, we haven’t been able to play for people in such a long time — so we’re all craving that pretty intensely at the moment. However, we’re also really raring to get back into the studio as soon as we can to start working on new tunes. We want it all!!

B.D: Music creation is a fairly different process to me, as it comes out with living an experience or a thought and materialising it. Building the body of a song takes very different pains and moulding procedures, while performing happens in the moment and its challenge is to stay vulnerable and authentic to yourself in front of other people. It’s hard not to go and hide under the turtle shell or that belting sound, especially when you sing about some deep stuff and your voice is cracking because it’s still painful (and then you realise that you actually have no place to hide). But that’s also the beauty of connection, and the power which lies in that place is almost sacred.

As an artist, it becomes apparent that there is a huge difference between the art and the business. If you could, what one thing about the music scene would you personally change?

B.D: We’re just starting here, and for us, it’s getting to know the industry so we can actually have an opinion of our own. From my experience, maybe artists could genuinely support each other a bit more. We’re not really competing. Each one of us has such a different story and life to live. I’d like to see more representation of minorities, equal racial treatments and access to opportunities based on work ethic and talent — not skin colour, gender or general looks. The industry can do better in these areas.

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

O.S: Although it may sound oversimplified, ultimately we’d like our music to make a connection with people. If our tunes are making people feel things on any point in the emotional spectrum, whether that be through our recorded music or gigs, then we know we’re doing something right. Success to me looks like being able to continue to do that for as long as is humanly possible.

Breakdown the news for us: what can we expect from you in the near future?

B.D: We’re building a community around Goldrain — so we’re working to engage with people, fans and fellow musicians as much as possible. Expect collaborations, remix competitions and more original music to come, including lyrics and performance video. We have another single planned for release at the beginning of October as well. Also, PLEASE LET US GIG!!!

Follow Goldrain

Facebook – SoundCloud – Spotify – Instagram

September 2, 2020

September 2, 2020September 2, 2020 Mike change

obylx ‘Climb'(s) back into our hearts with his latest song

obylx, one of our favourite musicians to keep track of, has provided another of his monthly releases. ‘Climb’ (released like clockwork on the 1st) displays yet another layer of the producer’s diversity. Compared to old-school names such as Supertramp, The Beatles and the modern stylings of Tame Impala, the single once again provides a little glimmer of hope for its listeners.

“When self-imposed rules and expectations actually hold you back in a situation where you could be flourishing without them.” – obylx shares the inspiration behind the single.

Of course, we won’t publicly admit that we’re planning our Christmas playlist just yet but let’s just say, this single is just made for cheerful scenes. Family, egg nog and twinkling fairy lights spring to mind immediately. Santa, is that you?

Follow obylx:

Web – Facebook – Twitter – Soundcloud – Instagram – Youtube – Spotify

Image Credit: Wide Eyed Studios

August 28, 2020

August 28, 2020August 28, 2020 Mike change

House music duo Gioli & Assia announce new EP Moon Faces

Duo Giolì & Assia have released their new track ‘For You‘, the first single off their highly anticipated upcoming EP, MOON FACES, to be released on Ultra Records. ‘For You‘ showcases a high octane explosion with elements of techno and indie-pop energy that solidifies their status as pioneers in the live indie-electronic space.

This track follows the success of their latest singles ‘Habibi‘ and ‘Darling‘, which have seen over a million streams to date and drops more hints towards their forthcoming EP in this next exciting era of their career as producers, multi-instrumentalists, singers, songwriters, and performers.

“This record has elements of our sound that our fans love, but this time we wanted to slow it down and focus on the lyrics. It’s a love song, but at the same time it’s intense and decisive. When the pitch of the vocals change, it suggests a move to strength, as the love can be gentle but also protective and passionate. We realize there is a lot going on in the world, and we hope that our music can help bring some positivity into it.”

Follow Gioli & Assia:

Website | Facebook | Instagram | Soundcloud | Youtube

August 21, 2020

August 21, 2020August 31, 2020 Mike change

Bad Seeds guitarist George Vjestica shares new Bandate song

Photo Credit: Michael Dent

When not performing with the Bad Seeds, George Vjestica is the driving force behind Bandante, a moveable feast of a band, recording and performing George’s music for which other musicians, artists and film makers, are brought in to contribute. It is the experimental nature of Bandante and in particular his work with Tim – the overlapping of lenses through a collaborative process – that allows George to develop new, interesting and unexpected creative dynamics and outcomes.

Bandante’s debut limited edition vinyl single (Bang Bang b/w My Friend) earned critical acclaim – a vinyl of the year at Rough Trade and a UK Official Vinyl Singles Chart entry.

So This Is Now is the latest offering from Bandante where music and imagery are seamlessly combined in a video piece made by the artist, Timothy Shepard.

Work on So This Is Now began at Vale Studios with the recording of an instrumental piece written by George. Joining him were musicians, Ian Matthews (Kasabian) on drums, Nikolaj Torp (The Specials) on Hammond and Mellotron, and Tim Hutton (Dub Pistols, Prodigy) on horns. From this session came an intense 5-minute blast of killer riff-driven music, inspired by 60’s American psychedelia, Arthur Lee’s ‘Love’ and the Haight-Ashbury/Monterey scene – a soundtrack that George had always imagined being set to film.

“I wanted the chorus to feel like a call to arms, to hear a cacophonous fanfare of blaring trumpets – a massive release, with a verse I wrote to be full of tension and suspense.” George explains.

Timothy Shepard is an American contemporary fine artist based in London who uses collage (in a very broad sense of the term) working in 2d, film making and music composition. He has been a regular collaborator with Bandante, creating videos for Bang Bang/My Friend as well as super 8 films projected at Bandante’s immersive shows. He has previously worked with other musicians including Paul Weller (a series of country walks which resulted in the cover for 22 Dreams), the quite possibly deceased enigmatic film maker CS Leigh, and a very close collaboration with Kevin Ayers on the making of his swan song album The Unfairground.

George continues the story. “After the Vale Studio sessions, I got very busy with the Bad Seeds whilst the track I had recorded kind of went in the drawer. One morning in mid-June, during lockdown, while going through some playlists on my laptop, I found a file labelled, ‘Protest/Revolt into Style/Vale Studio‘. I put it on and was blown away. It sounded and felt like what was going on outside at the time when it seemed that an unstoppable momentum was building for a summer of protest.”

“I’ve known Tim for a while – he lives up the road from me in Notting Hill and we’d often meet for a coffee. Our conversations always ended up trying to figure out what the fuck was going on around all the talk of Trump, Brexit and the rest of it. This continued during lockdown over the phone. I asked Tim if he would make a short film set to this piece of music I’d recorded in Vale Studios, “it’s all the stuff we’ve been talking about.” I said. He chewed on it, I heard him draw hard on his E cigarette, pause and say to me in his laconic Bostonian drawl, ‘Let’s see’.”

“He came back with what was, to me, a stunning piece of art. The music had the soul and the film, a ‘visual lyric’, had the mind and the conscience. It’s a hopeful, sad yet defiant, audio/visual collaboration that, in some visceral way, reflects the times we are living in right now.”

For the project, Tim made a film comprised of hundreds of sequenced cut-up and collaged images, in which we are shown a world through a dystopic like window of now, teetering on collapse and chaos with a message of only-hope that, “the power of the people is greater than the people in power”.

“We are at a moment of choice,” Tim explains. “George and I would talk about this a lot, and in great part the collaborative process with George and what informed the making of the film were these conversations – about how this point in human history is so pivotal – when we either have global social, economic, and climate collapse or we don’t.”

Tim continues: “It is by no means impossible that we can achieve an understanding whereby we can live sustainably and flourish. There is this idea of decentralizing the power which is very interesting – whether it’s the media or politicians or whatever force that is enacted in order for us to behave in a certain way or impart some ‘truth’ – and in place of all that we could bring about a more collaborative sense making approach. We’ve all “had enough of reading things by neurotic-psychotic pig-headed politicians”.

“To get ourselves to a good place we’ve got to take an honest and positive look at ourselves – realise and empower ourselves. But because we’re all guilty of something, if not the same faults we point out in others. Change must start with ourselves and be enacted upon even more urgently than the call for others to change.”

So This Is Now is currently available to watch on YouTube – it’s something that’s just out there.

Meanwhile during Lockdown George has been busy in his studio, there are plans with Tim for a sound and vision installation and whilst touring and performing remain on hold we can expect the two of them to bring a whole bunch more of overlapping lenses.