New Beats Media» Interviews

Liz Lawrence Interview

Kate Walker — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 12:54:12 +0000

Last week saw NBM review the fantastic single Oo Song by the young and talented Liz Lawrence. Tonight (26–11-12 3pm EST) she will be performing a rare live acoustic set that is sure to captivate the audience with her sweet vocals and tender guitar-playing. NBM caught up with Liz to ask a few questions before the airing of the House Show Event.

How are you feeling about your music at the moment?

Absolutely and totally fine thanks.

What do you look for to be happy with your own music?

I know that for someone to say I’m “ok” or I’m “fine” can sometimes feel like a bit of a cop-out, but in this industry to be fine I think is pretty amazing, it’s such a hard business and so many hearts are involved. I am happy with my own music when I am willing to defend it.

You’re music is refreshing and vibrant, but how would you define your own music style in a single word?

Words

If you were given the opportunity to duet with anyone in the world (music icon or otherwise) who would you chose and why?

If I could duet with anyone I think I’d love to play with Paul Simon.

What and where was the best gig you’ve ever played so far? What made it so memorable?

It changes by the week, it’s hard to recall, I’ve played lots of amazing shows and some not so amazing. The last one being last weekend at the Great Hall in Dartington, amazing venue, great show. I’m hoping that will fade in to memory after tonight’s show in my flat.

The one album you can’t live without?

Chopin– composed by Frederic Chopin

Where do you take your inspiration from / what makes you want to write songs?

I don’t really know what makes me want to write songs, I guess it’s an urge to communicate myself, and also singing makes you feel good, so I always want to sing. My inspiration comes for some expected places (books, music, TV, lovers, friends, cafe gazing etc.) and some unexpected (Cows, dust, chemical explosives etc.)

You’ve said before that you’re not really into twitter — any particular reason/s?

I feel sometimes that twitter represents a new age of being. I always think, what would Bob Dylan have done if he had to tweet to become successful. I find it hard to throw statements out there and sit and hope someone’s listening. I prefer conversation.

You have roots in punk and ska, do you feel that influences your style now — if so, how so?

I guess, right now I’m listening to a Misty in Roots vinyl, classic reggae, I have always loved the songs, the tone, the guitars, it makes me feel like I’m the kind of person I always wanted to be. And the punk still lies in my blood, R.I.P Joe Strummer. All this kind of thing informs ones decisions about how they want to create work and be seen by the world.

Where do you see yourself in 5 years’ time?

I’d like to have lived in San Francisco, be dating a marvellous writer, be making my best work ever, something like the 3rd album at this point, I’d like to be able to speak German pretty well after having lived and written in Berlin. Maybe I’ll have a bicycle in Amsterdam. I’d like to have an important and well informed voice and be invited to speak on certain issues on radio 4.

You’re gigging online on the 26th, it’s a little bit different to your conventional gig – how are you feeling about it? Was there anything specific that made you want to do it online?

This is tonight and I’m so excited. My friends are coming round. I’ve put a glitter ball up. I’m really excited. I guess you never know how things are going to go, whether or not people are going to tune in… This is when twitter does become useful!

Streaming live online creates an interesting dynamic setting — do you think you’ll feel any different when performing from a location of your choice when a viewer is in theirs also?

I’ve never done it before so I’m really intrigued. I wonder if the anonymity of the audience will make me braver or whether I will find it all a bit weird and modern. I’ve put lots of nice things up in my flat to keep my nerves straight… here goes.

So don’t miss the stream of Liz Lawrences’ first ever streamed acoustic gig. You can follow the event on her Official Liz Lawrence Live Stream Website. The show starts Tonight (26–11-12) at 3pm EST, make sure you check it out.

How do they get the talent?

Chris — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 23:36:15 +0000

Have you ever wondered how fashion stylists find models for their fashion shows or how independent film directors and producers bring their story to life and bring you that piece of multimedia art known as film? If we take film as the example, there is so many people to recruit, you will need Actors, Actresses, Film Crews and not to mention the stylists and costume designers. Even after you have got all them in place you still need to present it to the world and promote the feature. The whole process from start to finish is an exciting process and it starts with placing the right talent to an idea. This process fascinates New Beats Media and we have tracked down Raj the Creative Consultant at iStarNext to tell us all about the new, slicker way to recruit talent.

For people who are not aware of iStarNext, could you briefly explain what you do?

We provide a platform for upcoming young stars to reach professional companies who are on the search for the next big talent.

Who uses iStarNext? Who does it appeal to?

The audience is widespread, basically anyone who has a talent or looking to recruit a person with the talent.

So your looking for talent, how easy is it to place an advert on iStarNext?

It’s a very easy step, simply place your talent call on the dedicated Talent Call website, but we are stringent with who we approve, we only work with the real players.

With this being such a great resource for the advertisers surely it costs?

Not a dime for the advertisers.

What makes iStarNext different? Why should they use you?

It a social talent network, so gives people the ability share their talent with others. Our customers know we only use credible advertisers and we ensure to help talent progress.

What makes iStarNext tick? What inspires you to succeed?

Seeing young fresh talent being given an opportunity to show their talents. This is something that is very important for us and strives us to keep on improving iStarNext.

From your answers it is clear to see you value honesty and helping people succeed very highly, you strengthen this idea with your ambitions to help fund worthy projects with your own money. This very commendable and sometimes what an exciting project needs. Can you tell us more about this?

We can see the British film industry needs more support, and this is our way of showing that support. If funding from iStarNext can generate new opportunities for the youth, then that’s valuable.

You have 20+ years experience in fashion, film and entertainment, how did you end up with building istarnext?

We felt our passion to help and our experience was a perfect match. We got thinking creatively and thought, social media is big, and theres a big demand for fame, so we put the two together along with our passion and ambition to improve the opportunities in the industry and came up with what you see today.

So it’s a new year, what has 2012 have in store for iStarNext?

We are focused on growing istarNext’s into Europe’s leading social talent platform improving opportunities for young talents and making a real refreshing difference in this industry. Other plans include expanding into Indias huge market to hopefully become a leading supplier of talent to the Bollywood film industry.

Sum up iStarNext in 3 words.

Its all in our strapline “your talent shared”.

So we know about the company now for the man that gives iStarNext the creative edge.

How would you describe your sartorial style?

I’m suits man, think Ozwald Boateng and Jasper Littman.

Who do you consider the most stylish actor?

It’s got to be Steve McQueen with his tailor cut suits, watch the The Thomas Crown Affair and you’ll know what I mean.

Whats on your ipod?

Coldplay, 50cent and Jay Sean.

Who is your favourite actor?

Johnny Depp, Al Pacino, Robert Carlyle, I also think Cameron Diaz is great actress.

So there you have it. To get quality talent it is as easy as placing a free advert on iStarNext. So if you are shooting a new video and need dancers or backing singers or if you are shooting a film and need actors then get over to iStarnext.info to place your free advert now.

Join the forum discussion on this post

Chatting to Exit Ten

Gena Hollyoake — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 20:50:55 +0000

Releasing an album after a good 3 year gap must be both an exciting but nerve-wracking process for any band. Moving forward with your sound and keeping hardcore fans happy is by no means an easy feat but Reading’s own Exit Ten prove that with hard work, determination and a major dose of musical talent, you can blow everyone out of the water. As the boys were on tour with their super new album Give Me Infinity, New Beats Media thought we would catch up with Ryan Redman and Joe Ward to talk tour, egos and Joe uses the word ‘groovy’…!

How has the tour being going so far?

Joe: Yeah, it has been really good and it is obviously very fun to play our new songs. That’s the point of the tour and we like playing the new songs.

Ryan: Yes, I concur. It has been awesome.

How are you getting on with the Fei Comodo and Never Means Maybe boys?

Ryan: Yeah, we love each other to be honest. I really want to say something mean but they are just really safe. We always knew it would be alright to tour with them.

Joe: We kind of always wanted to tour with the Fei Comodo boys.

Ryan: It is the same with their band and ours, and the Never Means Maybe boys. There are no egos, no one thinks they are rock Gods.

Joe: Even though we obviously know we are rock Gods (laughs).

Have you had the reaction you wanted to new album Give Me Infinity? Especially live?

Ryan: I just wanted people to like it to be honest, I wasn’t hoping for a massive reaction.

Joe: It isn’t stuff that people can go really mental to or anything like that. It’s more like listening and appreciating it, I think. We obviously didn’t write it just so people like it.

Ryan: Yeah, we haven’t got any – not that I am saying we have never done this before – but we haven’t got any like ‘woah woah’ sections, things that bands put in to make people sing along. People have been singing the choruses and the string sections though.

Joe: Yeah people have been singing the string sections and doing the classic lad thing, like fist pumping and singing along. That’s pretty cool!

Do you have a favourite track from the new album?

Joe: We did start playing this live on tour but it is quite down tempo, but probably Eyes Never Lie. Along with Lion, it is one of the more emotional tracks and has a good journey within the song.

Ryan: I quite like Drama but we haven’t been playing that live. Maybe that is why we like these tracks more, because we don’t play them live.

Your sound has changed a little with this new album. There are less harsher vocals and things appear to be slightly tamer. Are you trying to stay away from the metal genre?

Ryan: It is sort of interesting you say that because I screamed in like one song from the old album. If anything I would say the vocals are cleaner on the old album. It is sort of a weird thing as I would say this album is heavier and darker, the only thing has changed is we aren’t doing thrash anymore.

Joe: Yeah there are no beat down bits.

Ryan: I completely agree that it has changed but… We are definitely doing the metalcore sound but we have never been a metalcore band. It has always felt like the new album in its entirety has existed in a small part of everything we have done. Like even the first little EP we did, then when won a battle of the bands and did a demo after that. We also feel like Perish In Flames and Something To Say would fit in with this album. It is not much of a departure, it has always been a part of what we are and it’s just that after 3 years since the last album, this is what felt right.

Joe: If you find an old track called Deny, we recorded that and you can hear so many things in that, it is so melodic. I sort of feel like it is almost cool to sing again now, whereas we have always carried on doing it. Then it was tough for us because we were always the lightest band on the bill and we were always thrown on these metal shows. Now we have carried on and have changed our sound a little bit, but we still don’t fit in with any other bands, which is kind of cool in a way but in other ways it can work against you.

You released Curtain Call as a teaser before you released Give Me Infinity. Why did you choose that track? Does it best represent the album?

Ryan: It was meant to come out earlier but nothing goes to plan. It was meant to be more of an introduction, whereas the other tracks were the ones that would really epitomise the album.

Joe: We couldn’t release Suggest A Path straight away as people may have got scared a bit. Some of our old school, core fans may have been scared so we thought keep it groovy and we thought Curtain Call was quite a groovy track.

A lot of bands seem to be teaming up with other people at the moment, for example You Me At Six feature Oli Sykes on their new album and Deaf Havana have Portia Conn on theirs. Have you ever thought about teaming up with someone?

Ryan: The thing is You Me At Six and Bring Me The Horizon are big bands and I feel that their teaming up is for industry reasons rather than creative reasons. With Deaf Havana, you said they were doing something with an up and coming artist, so you can be less sceptical about that.

Joe: I think that if we were to team up with some people it would be an orchestra or something like that.

Ryan: Yeah, it would be more artistic based. It’s also difficult though because at the end of the day, the limelight is mine (laughs).

As you said, you are quite unique and do not fit in a specific genre. Who are your major influences?

Ryan: It is a real big mix as we have come from being quite big metal fans, as a band but more recently we like Elbow as a whole band. We have always really liked Tool and Radiohead.

Joe: I think because our taste is so different, we have totally different styles in music and that is why our sound is so different.

Ryan: We are all aiming for the same place though. We could do, you know, all over the place music but that wouldn’t suit us. We aspire to guys like Elbow as they write honest music and yes it is pop music but it didn’t come from ‘let’s write a pop song’, it came from working for over 15 years and finally writing that album. All that experience lead to them writing to those songs.

What does the rest of 2011 hold for Exit Ten? Do you have any resolutions?

Ryan: Europe and festivals. We want to do as many festivals as possible. As for resolutions, just get massive with the band and have a good time.

Joe: Stay positive, I guess. It is hard sometimes but I always try to stay positive.

So there you have it! It turns out Ryan and Joe from Exit Ten are down to earth, honest and incredibly ambitious guys, with a genuine passion for what they do. Why shouldn’t they though? With an amazing album under their belts, they have plenty of ammo ready to take 2012 by storm. They say ‘we won’t move mountains any time soon’, well we betcha they do!

Interview : Memphis May Fire

Gena Hollyoake — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 13:48:11 +0000

To see Memphis May Fire’s Matty Mullins on stage, one could assume he has a certain persona.

He comes across as passionate, confident and fierce as his deep roar fills the room but then changes things up as his beautiful, clean vocals break in to reveal a softer, more emotional side. This so called ‘persona’ is exactly what he is like in person. The enthusiasm and belief he has in Memphis May Fire, together with his genuine interest in their fans, is astounding. Through stopping the interview, to chat to fans and taking the time to ask their names, he proved himself to be a real rarity within the music industry and someone who deserves New Beats Media’s utmost respect.

We caught up with Matty to find out how their European tour has been going and ask why Memphis May Fire’s sound has changed so dramatically over the years.

How’s the tour going so far? Are you pleased with the reception from the UK?

Yeah, it has been really good. The past couple of days have been awesome –London was amazing and yesterday in Glasgow was unbelievable. We didn’t really know what to expect as it is our first time over here, so the crowds have been amazing, the kids have been really cool, it’s been nice.

Had you met / heard of The Colour Morale and Dream on Dreamer before the start of this tour?

Yeah, we toured with The Colour Morale, last year with The Chariot, and Dream On Dreamer are a fairly new band from Australia so, we knew of them but we hadn’t met them until we got here. They are cool.

The tour is pretty epic in length. Do you not get fed up of each other?

Oh no. Well, Memphis May Fire have their own van, whereas the other two bands have to ride together in the other van. So we have our own van and we have our own hotel rooms every night, but even if we had to be together all the time, they are really cool dudes, nobody causes any trouble and everyone is really respectful. That is like the main thing that we always want when we are on tour, we just want to be on tour with bands that are respectful because we don’t really party that hard.

Within the band we have been touring together for years so we all know how to not p*ss each other off, I guess.

Your EP ‘Sleepwalking’ had a sort of southern rock feel to it but your latest release ‘The Hollow’ definitely has a more mature post-hardcore sound. Was it a natural progression or did you guys make a conscious decision to change things up a bit?

It was definitely natural and I think progression is definitely the word that you are looking for. Basically what happened was the band was kind of doing the southern rock thing, like 4 years ago. They tracked the EP Sleepwalking in Seattle, where I am from, and then their singer quit. They went through a bunch of auditions, I think like over 180 auditions, and they didn’t really find the person that they wanted. Then they finally contacted me and we hit it off, right off the bat. I moved to Texas and I had about two weeks to write all the lyrics and record everything for Sleepwalking, so I guess when I jumped in with the band, I was somewhat influenced by what they had already been doing, kind of the southern rock thing. But over time, touring and what with me being from Washington (like I’m not from the South I don’t have any southern roots at all), together with being in the band for a while and feeling like I could express myself more and that I could be me, I started to play more of a part in the writing process, as me and not just as someone in Memphis May Fire. The music got heavier, my vocals became more like something that I wanted to do and naturally we got better. We wrote an album that we are really proud of. Sleepwalking, we were happy with but it was really rushed and the EP we did by ourselves, whereas The Hollow is definitely the album that we have always wanted to do and from now on we are going to continue to progress and it is going to sound like that.

Were you nervous about changing your sound?

Yeah I mean, I guess it wasn’t even really a conscious decision. It was like ‘this is what we wrote, this is how it sounds and if some of our fans don’t like it, then they don’t like us because this is us now’. This is Memphis May Fire 2.0, I guess you could call it, and this is how we are always going to be.

Do you have a favourite track from ‘The Hollow’?

Oh Jeez… I don’t know, it’s my favourite record that I have ever done in my life and I am pretty happy with every song. That’s what is cool about the record, we get tweets and Facebook messages from fans all the time, saying ‘play this song’ and nobody has one favourite song. I can’t pick a favourite song.

Who came up with all the track names on ‘The Hollow’ and do they relate to the song?

The lyrical content on The Hollow is something different for me as I wrote it in a different way to what I have done before. From track 1 all the way to track 10, it’s like each song tells a story from the perspective of somebody different, not me and something that they went through, whether it’s divorce or being cheated on or war. One song is from our guitarist’s perspective on our previous interactions with the music industry. I wanted to write songs for other people, and songs that they could relate to because if I just wrote about myself, I didn’t feel like everyone could always relate. So I wrote this record for the fans and I think everybody has a favourite track. The song The Abandoned is about growing up without a Father, but I grew up with a really great Dad and my Dad and I have a great relationship, but I have seen so many of my friends grow up without a Father, and I have seen how it affected their life, so I wrote that song for them and it turned out really well.

What does the rest of 2011 hold for Memphis May Fire?

We have been on tour non-stop and we will have done 9 months in total this year. We finish this tour and then fly back to the States on October 9th. Then we basically get off the plane, into our van and start another tour. It is called the Rock Yourself To Sleep Tour and it is sponsored by Motel 6, so they give us a free hotel every night, which is really cool. It is us, Attila, A Skylit Drive, Sleeping With Sirens and Alesana. It will be a good tour, we are really happy about it.

For people who are foolish enough not to have seen Memphis May Fire live, what can someone expect from your set?

Our live show is what defines us as a band and it always has been. We will never write a record that we cannot pull off live. It’s funny ‘cos once a week we get questions from Alternative Press Magazine and we send answers over to them. One time they asked us ‘Do you think that bands are in it more for the music or in it more for the fame?’ and honestly, in 2011, I have seen more bands that will just play to back tracks, lip-sync and do it for the fame. That is not what we are all about, we always write a record that we can pull off, and we do. With our live shows, we always put in 100%, whether there are 10 kids in the room or 1,000 kids in the room, it doesn’t matter to us so I guess you could always say it is always worth the ticket price!

Interview : Dream on Dreamer

Gena Hollyoake — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 12:05:47 +0000

Melbourne Post-Hardcore six-piece Dream On Dreamer recently embarked on their first ever European tour, in support of their latest release Heartbound. After mixed reviews and some sites even going as far as labelling the band ‘generic’, New Beats Media decided to get to know them a little better and hopefully silence these critics.

We caught up with front man Marcel Gadacz for a quick chat and after he had finished brushing his teeth, we were ready to go!

How is the tour going so far? Are you pleased with the reception from the UK?

Yeah, it has been really good. It has been a great experience for us and all of the shows have been fun.

Have you been out partying after the shows? Where did you go?

Not so much really. We always, you know, just hang out together. In Glasgow we went out to a few pubs and chilled but there have been no major parties yet.

Do you have a particular favourite city on the tour so far? Obviously after tonight it will be Leicester!

Ha, yeah of course! Well, my favourite city so far was London because the show was really good at The Underworld. Germany will be good and Paris because the gig is on a boat, which should be pretty cool! A lot of bands who have played there have said really good things about it, so we’re really stoked and I think it will be a lot of fun.

You guys have quite a mix of nationalities amongst you, what with you being German and Aaron an American. As you are based in Australia, do you miss your folks back home?

Yeah I do. I have just been to see them for two weeks before this European tour so I got to spend two weeks with my family, which was cool. You always miss your family and stuff but I have been living in Australia for four years now, because of the band. We Skype every weekend but I can’t just go and over and see them for that often because it’s a 25 hour flight to Germany from Australia so it makes things really hard.

There are some great post-hardcore bands coming over from Australia at the moment. You have the likes of The Amity Affliction, Hands Like Houses and of course you guys. Has the metal scene always been pretty strong in Australia or do you think it has recently flourished?

I think it has changed from being like a metal-core scene, with the likes of Parkway Drive, to something that is more modern, I guess. The music has always been around but it’s just that not many bands do it right or they don’t do it professionally, instead they just do it for fun. Some bands don’t really have the opportunity to step it up to the next level but there’s some cool bands coming out of Australia.

Your sound has been compared to the likes of Saosin and a more melodic Parkway Drive but who are your main influences?

It’s really weird because we all bring different influences to the band, we don’t agree on one band. My influences are Modern Life Is War, like all the hardcore bands and stuff. But then I get influenced by bands like Tool, I love Tool. I also get influence from a lot of bands who actually have something to say, I don’t listen to any of the scene bands because it’s just not my thing, but a few of us obviously do. I mean, I listen to it and I respect it but I just can’t get into it really. We even get influence from hip hop and stuff, but to name a few bands and to sum it up, it would probably be Thrice because everyone agrees on them, Poison The Well, As Cities Burn, Architects and probably Thursday or something like that.

Your band name is Dream On Dreamer. What’s the weirdest dream you have had? It can’t be too rude.

It can’t be rude? Well, when I dream, I dream sexual dreams. That’s all I ever dream about.

Okay, I am going to ask these questions to see how Australian you are…

I’m not Australian!

Yeah but you live there! So can you surf?

No, I can’t surf for sh*t.

Do you love a good barbeque?

Yes, in the summer. Even when I was living in Germany I did.

Do you own a wobble board or a boomerang?

I got a boomerang as an accessory kind of thing at my house in Germany, so I guess I have that. I don’t have one in Australia though.

For anyone who hasn’t had the honour of seeing you guys play live, what can we expect from a typical Dream On Dreamer set?

I think like a really energetic and passionate set, not just music. We are not like a rubbish brutal band who are just all gorey and stuff. We don’t act tough and sh*t, we are just passionate and do our own thing. It doesn’t matter if it is like 50 people or 500 or 5000, we always thrash out. It is just us expressing ourselves and doing what we love.

Your new album ‘Heartbound’ is out now. Would you like to describe it in 3 words?

I’m going to use the same word again and say passionate. Is lyrically a word? It is really lyric dependent maybe and I guess… Wow, 3 words. Help me out with that?

Good? Amazing? Unique?

I hope it is unique! I hope. You can’t really be unique. Well, you can be but it’s really hard. I’d say yeah, maybe unique.

So there you have it! It is plain to see that Dream On Dreamer are passionate, with the drive and determination to plough on and make something of themselves, despite the critics. It was really refreshing to see that Marcel was completely down to earth and spent forever talking to us after the interview had finished. Here at New Beats Media, we are confident that after this European tour, Dream On Dreamer will be a well-known and respected name on the circuit.

Their latest album ‘Heartbound’ is available now!

Interview with Haydn from The Stow

Stephen Almond — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 16:53:57 +0000

After impressing us with their energetic single, Give A Damn, when we reviewed the track back in June, The Stow have been featured by several well-respected music websites including: MTV’s ‘The Wrap Up’ and NME. While Give A Damn captured the imagination of music fans across the country and received airplay on music televisions channels, local radio stations throughout the UK and was even featured on Sky Sports’ popular Saturday morning programme, Soccer AM.

We recently caught up with The Stow’s frontman, Haydn, to find out more about the five-piece band from Walthamstow, who are growing in popularity daily.

Hi Haydn! Thanks for taking the time to speak to us today. Could you start by telling us a bit about The Stow?

We’re made up of five members: myself vocals/songwriter, Shi vocals/songwriter, Dave on bass, Gus on drums and Matt on guitar. The band came together because I used to be a solo artist rapper called, Esteem. I was a cliché rapper, who would talk about the usual stuff like girls and bling, and it wasn’t me. I loved live music and I was working alongside a saxophonist called, Yolanda Brown, and our former drummer, Will, when the idea to create a band came about.

How would you describe The Stow’s sound?

For me, personally, I think we make pop music because we fuse together so many different genres. Other people say there is no such thing as pop music, so we often get described as indie hip-hop. We’ve been called, ‘the British N.E.R.D’, quite a lot of times, so I’m happy to go with that.

‘Give A Damn’ is the lead single from your excellent ‘The Covers EP.’ Tell me about the track…

Give A Damn comes from people asking us what we’re actually all about. We’ve just got to the stage where we just want to make good music, still enjoy what we are doing and for people to enjoy our music. The track is just our way of saying, ‘This is who we are, this what we do and if you enjoy it, then come along.’ I write about 95% of our tracks and everything we say in them is normally based on real things that have happened to us. At one point, someone who was trying to manage us told me that I was the worst singer in the band, so I was thinking, ‘Wow! Thanks for that.’ I don’t mind things like that because you can always take positives and negatives from things. Most of what he said I disagreed with, but there were parts that made me think, ‘Well, yeah, I can take that on-board and learn from it.’ You can always learn from everything, so that’s what the track is based on.

I know the video for ‘Give A Damn’ was recently premiered on the television channel, Flava. What was it like seeing your video on tv for the first time?

That was amazing. At the moment, it is on Flava, AKA, NME, Virgin On Demand and Starz. When AKA was Channel U I sent three videos into them that didn’t get played, so it was a nice feeling when the Give A Damn video was played. We’re just hoping that it can get more airplay and then more people will see it and we can build some momentum. I can’t wait to hear it on radio that would blow my mind. To be listening to the radio and to then hear your track come on, when you haven’t been intentionally trying to find it that would just be crazy. We’ve had some good feedback from radio stations. I contacted some the other day and I’ve already had ten replies from them saying they are going to playlist the track and they really like it. To hear positive stuff like that is great because the only reason we make music is for people to like it, so when you are hearing positive things like that all the negative stuff can go and jump.

People probably expect ‘The Covers EP’ to be full of cover versions of other tracks, when in fact all four tracks on the ep are original songs. Why did you decided to call the ep, ‘The Covers EP?’

Initially the cover versions we were doing online were getting a lot more love than our own stuff, so we structured a way to do our new songs around the arrangements of the covers we did online. The original plan was to put our online covers on the ep, but because our own material came out better than we could ever have envisaged we decided to just use our own material. We felt that using the cover versions would have devalued the ep. We also had to keep costs down and to use the full-scale productions of the cover versions would have been too expensive. We kept The Covers EP title because it was inspired by the online cover versions. Tinie Tempah’s Written In The Stars inspired Lifeline, Love Goes was inspired by Katy Perry’s Firework, Angels is the only song which is a traditional cover. It was originally a House Of The Rising Sun song, which was an old school folk/rock song, and we made it into our own.

Which of the cover versions you uploaded on YouTube was your favourite?

My personal favourite is the Kanye West Runaway one. We did one of Pink’s F****n’ Perfect, which should be online within the next couple of weeks. I really like that one and think it will go down pretty well with people.

How important do you think social media sites are for up-and-coming artists to showcase their work and increase their fanbase?

Online is as important as mainstream media, especially for up-and-coming artists. It is where your fanbase is going to be. People just need to type ‘The Stow’ into Google and they can find out whatever they need to know. Nowadays people are less likely to go to a shop and buy a magazine or newspaper to find out about artists. Having a strong online presence is crucial, but it is hard because the market is saturated now. Trying to get that right connection and buzz is hard because there are so many people trying to get their music heard, but you just have to keep pushing. Some people get lucky and get a million views right away, but for us we’ve just got to keep trying. I remember on the night we uploaded the video for Give A Damn we got 1000 views in the first night and we were so delighted because we’d never had anything like that before. It is just little things like that and knowing that people like your music that makes it all worthwhile.

You write your own music, but do you produce your own tracks as well?

Yeah. Our band is funny because we can’t beg, steal or borrow anyone to come in and do anything for us, so I do pretty much everything: producing, writing, promoting us and other stuff. We’ve been unable to find anyone to produce for us, so we do everything. I’m very strict, though. I want everything to be live. 99% of Give A Damn is live. We haven’t been able to find anyone who wants to get involved with the project. People only want to work with you when they think you’re at a movement rather than wanting to build a movement to breakthrough, which is sad. Indie hip-hop bands all need to work together to create a movement that is so powerful that record labels wouldn’t be able to reject us. Unfortunately, not everyone wants to work like that and they just want to do their own thing, which is fair enough and you can’t knock them for that, but sometimes they need to look at the bigger picture.

You have already had the opportunity to support VV Brown on her UK tour in 2009. How did that come about?

Basically the Metro newspaper were running a competition for unsigned artists. We had to submit some music online and get our fans to vote for us, then we had to perform in front of the Metro judges and a couple of other industry people, so we did that, and it went down really well, and we won and got to go on tour with VV.

What was the experience like?

At the time it was great because we had a lot of exposure in the Metro. Literally every Friday we were in the Metro up and down the country, stuff like that I’d kill for now. Back then we were at the start of our career and we didn’t really know what was going on, so we just took it all in and enjoyed it, it was amazing. It also showed us that this is what we could be doing in life and it has pushed us on the most. We just thought, ‘Wow! We could be performing night in night out to 400 or 500 people showing us love.’ We get a lot of love in London, so that’s okay, but outside of London gig wise the crowds are more receptive and you don’t have to be some major superstar for a crowd to show you their appreciation and that’s what we seen on tour, people actually like what we’re doing — young, old, black, white, green whatever. That’s when we really realised that we can actually do this for a living.

Did you manage to meet VV Brown?

Yeah, she’s sound. VV’s cool. I still speak to her little sister, Jade, who is a singer/songwriter. She’s really good and I speak to her all the time. She’s a lot different to VV; her music is more of that Bob Dylan kinda stuff. VV is obviously up and down the country and all around the world, so we don’t hear from her as much as her sister. We actually saw her at a gig the other day and she showed us love and was as nice to us, as always. She’s really cool. During the tour, she always went out of her way to get us to go and chill with her and her band.

Do you have any live shows coming up in the near future?

Unfortunately, Shi has ripped her Achilles tendon, so we’ve had to cancel a few gigs. So far, this year, we’ve done about sixty gigs. Before Shi got injured, the guys had a break from gigs for a month, while I sorted the video out and talked to radio and stuff like that. We’ve got our own night coming up October 6, similar to the thing we did at Cargo, at Camden Monarch. We’ll have a few guests on the bill with us and it’ll be a good night.

What can people expect when they attend a show by The Stow?

That’s our thing! That’s where we come to life. Live is our passion. We’re here to entertain, so we want to try and make people have fun, we want people to dance and enjoy the show. We want people to come away from our shows and say, ‘They gave us a great performance. They were dope.’ We really work on that. We’re working on our acoustic set. We want that to stand out just as much as our full set and I think we’ve almost got it, so I’m looking forward to that. I’ve been watching Ed Sheeran, so I hope our set can be as good as his. With me being a rapper, I’m used to moving around on stage and with an acoustic set I sort of feel restrained just sitting down, so we’ve been working on making it more fun and exciting. On BBC Introducing, we did a piano version of Love Goes and it sounded really nice, so we’re trying to get that into our set now. A lot of our songs are quite high energy and people can dance to them, so we’ve got a couple of slow songs now to make the show more intimate, and you can just feel the love from the delivery of the song and the words. All of those things don’t come naturally though, you have to work at them.

Who have been your biggest musical influences?

I’m a weirdo. I’m eclectic in my music. I listen to everything and anything from Arctic Monkeys to Jay-Z. I went to see the London Symphony Orchestra one time because my friend asked me to go and see the orchestra, so I said, ‘I’d go’, but I didn’t think I’d enjoy it and I was blown away by the cacophony of sound — I could have stayed there all night, happily. I just love music and the way it can draw feelings and emotions out of you. You can be at a wedding, funeral, birth or any event and music can take you anywhere. There’s a sound you can play whatever your emotion that can take you anywhere.

Which current artists do you rate highly?

I love Ed Sheeran. I’m more for the smaller artists, though. There’s a guy called, Big Ben, who is a rapper, who I love. There’s also Lyracis — who is going to be crazy and I’ve heard some of his stuff and it’s beyond a joke — I think he’s going to be huge. He’s got a great team around him too. Wretch 32 is my hero. I’m loving his stuff and I’m looking forward to hearing his album. Rizzle Kicks came from nowhere and I’m loving their vibe. There’s a lot of UK talent and there’s enough artists around to hold it together for a long time.

Clearly you are passionate about making good music and doing it your own way. How important is fame and fortune to you?

Fame, I couldn’t give a flying monkey’s about. I have no desire to be famous. On stage, I am not nervous, but I am really kinda shy and introverted off-stage. Going into crowds after I have performed I hate that because I just cringe. I’m always unsure what to talk about with people. I was talking about this with my friend the other day and he was saying, ‘But you have to go into the crowd and do stuff like that.’ It’s not that I don’t appreciate their support, but after a show I always feel really on edge and kind of embarrassed that people might think I’m showing off when I go into the crowd. The adrenaline you get from performing live and seeing people reciting your songs is amazing. I remember we did a show at Cargo in Shoreditch in the winter, when the weather was really bad and it was snowing like crazy. All of the trains were off and we were travelling to the venue and I was saying to the other guys, ‘It’s going to be empty, no one is going to come’, and we arrived at the venue and we’d packed out the main hall. I couldn’t believe it and it was an amazing feeling to see that people love what we do and made the effort to come and support us. The adrenaline from things like that, you just can’t beat it.

You are the rapper in the group. Could any of the other group members give you a run for your money?

I’m alright in that department, thank you. I’ve got that one on lock. That’s my domain. Haha. Everyone else in the group can play a musical instrument and I’m the only one who can’t, which is embarrassing. Dave likes to try rapping now and again. When we were on tour we had a video of him, which was really funny, but we lost the video. He’s really clichéd. Think Ali G and that’s him.

Finally, what can we expect from The Stow for the rest of this year?

The idea is to release another two videos. There’ll definitely be another one before the end of the year. Hopefully there’ll be a couple of remixes of the songs. I’ve already done one of Angels and I’m doing one of Lifeline with Big Ben and hopefully Rodney P. We’re also working on new material because we want to put out a new ep in January. Once Shi is back we’ll be back on the gig scene and hopefully we’ll be going on a support tour by the end of the year. Hopefully we’ll get ourselves a manager sorted out too. We’re just going to keep working and keep things moving.

The Italian Misfit : Giacinto Palmieri

Aga Mytkowska — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 10:50:27 +0000

“Italian misfit” as he calls himself, Giacinto Palmieri is one of a few foreign comedians and non-native speakers performing stand up comedy in London and other British cities. As Aga Mytkowska found out, his shows led him to a big success and having many English and foreign fans in the country.

Giacinto, why did you leave sunny Puglia in Italy and come to England?

I moved in March 2001. I just wanted to do an experience abroad and I had always liked London, so I gave it a try. I came here without a job, arrived on a Monday and got a very good job offer on the Friday of the same weak. It felt great.

When and how did your journey as a comedian start?

Three years ago. One evening I discovered one of those comedy clubs in the function room of pubs and I was mesmerized. I was simply amazed by the level of energy and creativity. But at first I really struggled to understand the jokes, even if I had been living in the UK already for six years back then. Comedy is full of topical and cultural references, puns and exaggerated accents. So I started going to comedy clubs as a challenge and as a way to improve my English comprehension skills. With time I started to understand more and more and so to enjoy it more and more. Meanwhile I wrote a short satirical piece, a mock anthropological study on the British tradition of the corporate Christmas party. I wanted to send it to a friend called Adrian but by mistake I sent it to the MD of the company I was working for, called Adrien. He liked it very much so, instead of firing me, he read it in front of everybody during the actual Christmas party, getting big laughs in response. He said that he had received it from an employee, but he thought it was better not to say who that employee was. I was flattered by the response but I also felt deprived of the rightful recognition. So I thought: why not start writing this kind of stuff as a stand-up material set and perform it myself? I put two and two together, the discovery of the comedy clubs scene and the discovery of my comic writing instincts. The only thing I needed was the confidence to perform, so I joined a stand-up comedy course, after which I started doing my first open spots.

What is your profession and how do you manage to find time for your hobby?

When I started I had a permanent job as a software developer. Now I have moved into contracting and one of the reasons is that I hope it will offer me more flexibility. Fortunately comedy is an evening activity and you don’t really sit down and write. Ideas can come at any moment, even at work.

Where do you perform and how often?

Outside festivals I perform short sets at comedy clubs. The frequency is very irregular. The biggest chance to perform longer sets in a regular way, however, is offered by festivals such as the Edinburgh Fringe.

What was your first performance and what memories of it you have?

It was the showcase of the course I attended. It was at the Poetry Cafe in Covent Garden and the MC was some sort of very camp drag queen. A weird evening, but the audience were of course made mostly of friends and it went well. It’s from the second gig onwards that things start to become tough.

How many times did you participate in Fringe Festival?

This year was my third year. For a non-professional like myself, it’s a unique opportunity to perform every day for almost a month and to learn from the other comedians. And it’s also good fun, although the competition is very tough and you have to work very hard on promotion.

Do you perform in Italian too?

It’s an interesting question. I performed in Italy only once but in English, as part of an international conference on translation. Now I have two invitations to perform comedy in Italy in Italian but I’m quite scared, to be honest. Not only is all my material in English, but after living for ten years in the UK I’m afraid of having lost the common ground of experience with those who live in Italy. I could try Italian material in front of my Italian friends in London, but their frame of reference is different from that of an Italian audience in Italy. And I think in Italy people are more used to character and sketch comedy than proper stand-up. So, I don’t exclude I’ll do it, but I see it as a very difficult challenge and this, of course, is a bit of a paradox.

Do you always perform on your own?

When you perform in comedy clubs you always share the bill with other comedians. I performed solo only during the festivals. This year, however, I shared the Edinburgh Fringe slot with other two comedians, actually comediennes, and really enjoyed it. I think there is a lot to learn from working with other people.

How do your ideas come to the light and what influences your comedy?

I found my first source of inspiration in the experience of being an Italian in Britain. Being a foreigner helps you to see things with fresh eyes and that is a very good source of humour. Regarding my influences, my comedy education consisted in watching people on the London live scene, trying to learn from comedians who were just two or three steps above me and who were playing the same type of room as me. It’s only recently that I have started watching the DVDs of the great masters and to go to proper theatres to see the big names.

What are your performances about?

At the beginning there was a lot of material about cultural identity but now they are more and more about language. There are very few comics who are non-native English speakers, so they can see many things with fresh eyes but not the English language itself. So I decided to focus more and more on how surprising, wonderful and weird the English language can be for those who have to learn it as their second language.

How long do you prepare for a performance, new and old one?

The only way to prepare for a performance is to do more performances. You have gigs where you know that you need to give your bests shots and gigs where you know that you can experiment a bit, for instance with trying new material, so you use the latter gigs to prepare for the former.

What is your best and the worst memory of a show you did?

My best memory is performing in front a packed Hackney Empire in the final for the New Act of the Year 2010 competition. It’s such an amazing theatre with a great place in comedy history, performing there was a great experience. My worst memory is reading a very bad review of my show at the Fringe two years ago. When performers say that they don’t care about reviews they are lying.

What do you think about the English humour?

I love it, it tends to be more based on language and puns than other national humours and I think that plays well with my interests and my mindset.

Who is your favourite comedian?

It depends on the moment. Probably at the moment it’s Dylan Moran.

What do you like so much about performing?

Of course being at the centre of other peoples attention and making them laugh is very exciting. Seeing that something that was born in your brain can produce such a pleasurable effect on other people makes you think you’re connected, it’s a great sensation.

How do you deal with the stress before performances?

I tend to cultivate it, for instance by drinking coffee or a Coke instead of more “relaxing” alcoholic drinks. You need to feel a bit stressed to do your best, but it’s a difficult balance, if it’s too much it can harm your performance.

What are your plans for the future as a comedian?

I’m going to do a new solo show at the Adelaide Fringe Festival in Australia. I’m very excited about it!

Introducing : I Spy Strangers

Katherine Bayly — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 12:20:08 +0000

I Spy Strangers is an indie rock band from Birmingham that has been together for four years. Seeking success for much longer, they have finally begun to get the recognition they deserve. I caught up with the singer, Mikey, to find out a little more about the band and their music.

So how did you come together as a band?

Mine and Smith’s former band parted ways with three members so we found Adam though MySpace who knew Alex and Ben from school. The rest is history as they say.

Who are the band’s influences?

We’re influenced by a lot of different types of music but a few of our favourites are Queen, The Foo Fighters, Every Time I Die and Limp Bizkit.

Has it been hard to get recognition in a competitive industry?

It is hard to get your name out there. People are so spoilt for choice these days with music you have to try and stand out as much as you can. We released an EP and toured for three years before the ball really started to roll.

I saw on your website that you’re writing album number two, how’s that going and what should your fans expect?

We’ve written about 18 songs so far but we want at least another 20 before we start whittling them down to the final 15 or so. We will hopefully be recording next year. What we have so far is sounding awesome. It’s definitely a progression from The Kind Of Dirty You Can’t Wash Off but it doesn’t stray too far from our sound.

When you’re not performing or recording music, what do you each like to get up to?

The band can take up a lot of my time so I personally try to just spend as much time as I can with my friends and family.

If you had to describe the band and its music in three words, what would they be?

Rock and Roll.

I Spy Strangers are currently touring the UK and have dates up until December across the UK and you can find out more by visiting their website. Their début album The Kind Of Dirty You Can’t Wash Off is available to buy from their online store.

Chrome Chats to NBM

Stephen Almond — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 16:44:14 +0000

London singer/songwriter Chrome has already featured on two UK number one records with Dizzee Rascal. In 2008 Dance Wiv Me topped the charts and that was followed up in 2009 with Holiday. Since topping the charts, Chrome has been busy preparing his first album and honing his skills. On August 28th Chrome unleashes his debut single as a solo artist, Wake Up. In an exclusive interview with NewBeatsMedia, Chrome explains what it was like working with Dizzee Rascal, the story behind Wake Up, how he feels about being compared to Taio Cruz and John Legend, and much, much more…

First of all, for the benefit of those who don’t know, can you explain who you are?

My name is Chrome and I am a musician. I’ve featured on two Dizzee Rascal tracks. The first one was Dance Wiv Me and it featured Calvin Harris too. The second one was Holiday. I’m just a musician. I really love music. I would do any sort of music that I can do. I just see myself as an artist.

What was it like working with Dizzee Rascal on two UK number ones?

It was an honour just to work to with him. Being there and to tour the world with him was a blessing. He’s so cool and he’s so talented. I learned a lot from him, definitely.

What did you learn from working with Dizzee Rascal?

To work hard because he is one of the most hardworking artists out there. Also to master the craft a bit more and to pay attention to it as there is always room for improvement.

Your new single ‘Wake Up’ is released on August 28th. How is the promotion for it going?

The video is out now. I’ve got a positive feeling about it. I really like the video, it is real. I think when people see it they will get the whole vision and get behind it and support it. That’s what I’m praying for anyway.

Have you had any radio play?

Yeah. I’ve got to give a big shout out to Sarah Jane Crawford. Also CJ Beatz, Ronnie Herel and The Wideboys have been playing it. It is getting mad, mad love and I just want it to grab the attention of more djs. It should just happen naturally anyway. Once it starts getting picked up I think people will start to get involved.

What is the story behind the track?

The whole song is real. It is how I am feeling right now. It’s an emotional thing. I didn’t really focus on it as a pop song, I just thought, ‘You know what? It’s a good song.’ The hook is uplifting and that’s kind of my philosophy right now — anything is possible as long as I wake up in the morning. I think people will like it and I hope they get it and understand it. The music has got a bit of hip-hop, drum and bass and dubstep, it has got all kinds of vibes. It has got the lot and that’s what I love about it. I wanted it to have a message and not be a typical song about clubs and drinking. I’m happy with it and I hope all the people out there will love it. It’s not directly for the pop market, it’s just a good song. I hope it will be like Pass Out [by Tinie Tempah] in that everyone will love it. I just wanted to do something totally different to what people expect because there are so many concepts that are the same. That’s why I am really happy with it. I think that in this music business it is important for you to believe in yourself before you expect anyone else out there to believe in you.

How well do you think the track will do commercially?

I’ve got the faith. I’m always giving my best and everything I put out there is the best I could have given, so hopefully people will like it.

You have already been compared to Taio Cruz and John Legend. Do you think you are similar to those two artists?

No. I’d never compare myself to those two. People from the outside will always compare you to someone and say, ‘You remind me of such and such’, that’s cool and I’m honoured that people would put me in that category, but I never, ever see myself like that. I respect music. I’m a big fan of music. A lot of the time when I listen to those guys, I don’t listen to them as an artist, I listen to them as just a normal person. It means a lot when people give me compliments, but within myself I’m just trying to do my best and to master the craft and to make people feel good with my music.

Photo by Danny Hall

Was there a single defining moment in your life when you realised that you wanted to have a career within the music industry?

Music got serious when I started to tour with the Dirtee Skank family. Back then I was working 9 to 5 and doing music at the same time. At that time I didn’t think I could get an income from music, but the talent was there, and people noticed it and worked with it. It was a blessing that this thing happened. I started rapping first and that led to me singing. I just think I was destined to do what I’m doing now. Big up to Craig David for the album title, Born To Do It, that just says what I’m trying to say. He just did so much for the UK scene, he opened so many doors. He made America start to pay attention to us. That’s a tradition we need to keep. If we do then this scene is going to blow.

Who were your musical influences when you were growing up?

Michael Jackson is my all-time biggest influence. Also Kool And The Gang played a major role. There are so many artists who I listened to and loved that they made me love music.

How impressed with the whole UK scene are you right now?

There’s a lot of artists who are representing for the UK right now. We’re coming out of America’s shadow and we’re trying to establish what we have right now. I think it’s really good right now. We’ve got the likes of Chipmunk, Tinchy Stryder, Wretch 32 and Giggs. We’ve got all these people out there representing the UK at full force and I’ve got respect for every single one of them. They are going to be opening doors for everyone, so it’s a good thing. I’m very happy to be part of the UK scene because everything is just so amazing.

Which current artists do you rate highly?

That’s a hard one because I kind of rate everyone. I’m not really one of those people that has a favourite artist or a favourite song. I’m more like if I love a song, I love it and I will pump it all the way. Right now everyone is doing it. Wretch 32 is currently number one and he’s smacking it out to bits right now. I’m rating everyone who is putting in the work. The whole UK scene I rate highly.

Finally, what are your plans for the rest of this year?

Working, working, working. There’s no rest. The album is near enough finished and should be released in the middle of next year. I just want to work on good products. I love doing music and I’ve never seen music as a job. I actually love doing music – pop, rock, R&B, Soul, whatever the music is I love doing it and if I can’t do it, it is a challenge and I won’t stop until I figure it out and understand it a bit more. Music just motivates me in general, in life. I love it.

Keep Up To Date With Everything Chrome

Follow Chrome on Twitter
Watch The Wake Up Official Video
Official Website

Interview with Dan from You Me At Six

Gena Hollyoake — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 13:37:17 +0000

You Me At Six are everywhere at the moment and most definitely on their way to world domination. Having just finished a European tour, they are now back in the UK, gracing many a stage at various festivals over the summer. New Beats Media decided to catch up with Dan from the band to talk festivals, Kerrang! Awards and collaborations… Here’s what he had to say:

I have been a fan of the band for years but have never found out the meaning behind ‘You Me At Six’! So first question, what inspired the band name?

It was back when the band were 15, playing their first show and we needed a name for the flyer. The saying “you me at [whatever time you wanted to meet up]” had been thrown around the friendship group for a few months. So we decided to stick You Me At Six on the flyer and change it at a later date… alas it never got changed.

You guys have been all over Europe for the past couple of weeks, touring and appearing at festivals. Are you pleased with the reception you are getting over there? Any particular highlights so far?

Yeah we have been blown away by it. We have done some Euro festivals in the past and a few people came to watch us but didn’t really know what was going on. This year we have been filling tents with crowds that know the words and they go nuts, which makes it a lot of fun. Definitely the German Hurricane and Southside festivals were highlights.

You were joined onstage by the awesome Parkway Drive when playing Germany’s Hurricane Festival, how did that come about?

We spent a few months with those guys on Warped Tour and became friends as we played football with them most days. Winston [McCall] has come out a few times to do that part and even features on our new album.

You are appearing at V Festival and T in the Park this summer– both attract a slightly different crowd to the likes of Download and Leeds & Reading. Are you excited / nervous about playing to a different crowd?

We have played T In The Park before and it was great, Scotland is always an amazing place to play shows. We have done heavier festivals and pop festivals before so either way we just go out there, do our thing and enjoy it.

You are also making your debut at Sonisphere this summer. Which bands will you be checking out whilst you are there?

We will definitely be watching our friends in Architects and I’m excited to see Biffy headline.

You have recently won ‘Best British Band’ at the Kerrang! Awards. Was there a fair bit of banter between yourselves and good friends The Blackout as you both were nominated?

Well we are friends with every band that was nominated as we have toured with all of them apart from Bullet For My Valentine. There was a little bit of banter but honestly all of those bands would have deserved the award, so I think everyone was just happy to be in the running for it.

In the past you have collaborated with Chiddy and Aled Phillips. Do you have any more future collaborations in the pipeline? Is there anyone you would like to work with?

Yeah Oli Sykes from Bring Me The Horizon and Winston from Parkway Drive have made guest appearances on our new record, which is awesome. Haven’t really thought about any more collaborations but it usually just comes from us being friends with the person first, so we will have to see who we make friends with in the future.

What does the rest of 2011 hold for You Me At Six? When will you be back in the UK?

We have an album coming out later in the year. We will also be touring Australia, UK, America and more of Europe again before Christmas, so it’s all systems go.

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Interview with Ronnie Winter from The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus

Gena Hollyoake — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 16:28:32 +0000

The prospect of interviewing Ronnie Winter of The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus was both exciting and nerve-wracking. I mean, I have been a fan for years and therefore built up an image of the man who is the voice behind Your Guardian Angel and Cat and Mouse both of which are written with such purity and soul. I was worried that if I finally met this talented, inspirational person, he may not live up to my high expectations and I have to say he didn’t… He absolutely excelled them and here’s why:

The last time I saw Red Jumpsuit in the UK, I was at Slam Dunk Festival 2008. Where have you guys been? We have missed you.

Oh my goodness, it has been forever hasn’t it! We had a bunch of stuff we needed to sort out with our label and we wanted to focus on writing. We never properly put a record out here, neither one of our records actually came out here, they stocked some of the stores with imports instead. We just thought ‘oh well, it’s gonna be a while before we get back over there’. It took longer than we anticipated because we needed to get some stuff figured out with the band and the label and everything but now we are good to go. Our single is coming out this week, so this is our first tour promoting our new record and we made it our priority to come here first.

And you have managed to sell out nearly every venue!

Almost, I think there were only two that didn’t sell out so it has been amazing and we are already booking a second tour here.

How has the tour been going so far? Are you pleased with the reception?

I have been pretty much blown away. I didn’t think people would remember us, like I said it has been a long time. We put our EP out recently but we haven’t really put a lot of new music out so I was definitely shocked.

It is also a really great line up. LYU are awesome, they are from here (Birmingham) actually and Yashin, I think they are gonna blow up, so it has been a really sweet tour. We are even talking about doing the same package when we come back to Europe. It has gone really well.

Can you understand Yashin? They do have strong Scottish accents…

Some of them! Some of them I definitely can’t and they have to slow down for me, I’m like ‘dude, I’m from America’, you know.

Ronnie, you have recently donated your hair to Locks of Love, do you like your new short hair?

It’s cool. I can feel my neck again so that’s good! This is how my hair used to be when we were very first signed and I just grew it out and it kept getting longer and longer. My wife actually donated before me– she did it when she was like 10 years old and when she told me about it, I was like ‘I definitely want to do this’. It took about two years for it to be long enough so that when they cut it I still had some sort of length but I have wanted to do it for a long time and I have finally done it.

I think there is a noticeable difference between your album ‘Don’t You Fake It’ and your new EP ‘The Hell Or High Water’ when compared to ‘Lonely Road’. Was this something that you were conscious of? Were you trying something new?

The first album was basically written by us in our trailer in Middleburg and the new EP was written there too, so we were writing back home. A lot of Lonely Road was written on the road and in California too. I don’t know, we tried to make a pop record basically, well not a pop record but something a bit poppier on the sound and a little less heavy, mainly just because for a little while, we were kind of getting lumped in to a weird category of hardcore bands and we have never been a hardcore band ever. We have always had a lot of pop-punk but we just have had screaming too, with a lot of rock and roll and a little bit of metal, but not a whole lot. I think we got a little bit scared by that when we were making the record.

Plus there were a lot of weird contributing factors to Lonely Road, I still like all the songs on the record but it is definitely poppier sounding. We used the pop producer Howard Benson, who is Kelly Clarkson’s producer, so I mean you get a bunch of people trying to sway you away from heavier songs, then put with a pop producer and put in LA, that is just what’s gonna happen. It was kind of natural.

With the new EP, it was just us, no producer. I produced it technically but really the band produced it and there were no rules. It was kind of like ‘get out what you need to get out and let’s just go back and be a band again with no worries about expectations’. We left our label in February, which was before the EP so there just weren’t any restraints musically or lyrically.

How come you have resorted to a heavier sound again? Is this the sound that you are more comfortable with?

Oh yeah, definitely. It was a weird time though because for us, the most popular song of ours is Your Guardian Angel. It was the most downloaded, the most viewed, it was the most everything. When you think about that, we were trying to give the fans what we thought they wanted and we were wrong — I don’t mind saying that we were wrong. I guess we just over thought it and we were like ‘okay we will write more songs like Guardian Angel ‘cos that is what everyone likes’ and through that we lost our edge, our identity, or whatever you wanted to call it. So, with the EP instead of trying to write what we thought people wanted, we thought ‘let’s just rock out, let’s just have a good time, let’s just jam’ and I really like it.

‘Your Guardian Angel’ is definitely a popular track with your fans. Do you ever get fed up of playing it?

No absolutely not, I love all of our music. We play it every night and the only time we haven’t played it was at Warped Tour because we didn’t win the extended set. You only have 30 minutes and it’s hard to pull out the acoustic, plug it in and unplug it during the craziness that is going on at Warped Tour. Other than that we play it every night.

Do you have a favourite track that you perform?

Probably Your Guardian Angel just because it is our song. We wrote it, well we write all of our songs except a couple were co-writes on the new record, but I just feel that it’s the probably best song we are ever gonna write, I don’t think we are ever going to top it. So I’m glad that it’s ours and I’m glad that we were the ones that did it– if that makes any sense.

What does the rest of the year hold for Red Jumpsuit? Any festivals?

We are not doing any festivals that I am aware of. Again, this tour was to test the water and see if people still remembered who we are, which probably sounds funny if you are a fan of the band and you have been waiting forever but as far as we are concerned that’s so awesome if people even still remember us. We just needed to see what was going on first, so we needed to come over here, meet the people, speak to the people, see if the reaction was real or not real and if it wasn’t real then we would know that we would have to do some work over here, take it slow and continually try to build, but from what we have seen it has been amazing.

So for the year we have a new single coming out, which is called Reap and I think it is going to launch this week. Like I say this is the first touring that we have done ‘cos we wanted to make up for all the time that we have missed. We also have our new album coming out which is called Am I The Enemy and it is coming out later this year, probably a couple of months before we come back over here. We did it with John Feldmann (lead singer of Goldfinger) who is a hero to the band, he produced the record and wrote four or five songs with us. It’s pretty killer, it’s definitely a rock and roll record.

We will then tour with that for the rest of the year and do a couple of videos. We will also keep writing and we are going to tour the rest of the world too. We will be going to Japan, the Philippines, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand as well as the US, Canada and maybe South America too.

So when can we expect you back in the UK?

I don’t know too much about the markets and how it works here but we were thinking maybe around sometime in November. Hopefully, the record will have been out for a little while and we will have a bit more music to tour with so we aren’t only playing our older songs. We are still playing a lot of older stuff because a lot of people didn’t get to come and see us on our last tour or they found out about us until years later so we wanted to do something for the old school fans this time.

Never before have I been so fascinated by one person and I literally could have talked to him for hours, but unfortunately he had a show to do. He was humble, honest and truly passionate about the band and what he believed in. It was an honour to have interviewed him and I cannot wait until they are back in November.

If you want to find out more about this amazing band, please see their official page: redjumpsuitalliance.ning.com/

Interview : Penguins Kill Polar Bears

Lauren — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 17:04:09 +0000

Scottish post-rock band, Penguins Kill Polar Bears’ latest EP, Vessels & Veins, will be out in USA and Canada from March 22 and the band are currently finishing up a UK tour promoting the release. We at New Beats Media have asked the boys to enlighten us on the origins and influences of their band, life on tour and more.

How and when did you form the band?

We formed around 2 and a half years ago, Ben, Gav and Kieran all went to school together in Linlithgow and played in different bands. Some years after leaving school the three of us starting writing songs together and started gigging around central Scotland. We welcomed Fraser to the band in August 2010 from the now defunct Lions.Chase.Tigers.

What bands or musicians are your biggest influences?

Our influences are fairly varied, three of our biggest influences would probably be The Smashing Pumpkins, Brand New and The Appleseed Cast.

As a band, can you agree on an album that you would consider to be the best of the last five years?

It has to be There Will Be Fireworks self titled album which was released two years ago. The album has a great sound which the lyrics complementing the music perfectly. Definitely worth a listen!

Do you tend to write songs as a whole band or individually?

Our song writing process is fairly natural, we all tend to get together in the studio and jam out ideas until we’re happy with what we’re doing. We then work out a structure and the song tends to take form around that.

Some bands seem to thrive on the road, whereas others prefer the writing and recording; how do you feel about time you’ve spent on the road recently? Any good stories?

We’ve had a great time on the road over the past week. We’ve met some awesome people from around the country and we’re hoping for our good luck to continue. We played at a venue in London once where the sound engineer was high as f#@k and decided to play his flute along with us during the final song of the set. He didn’t have a clue what was going on but i think we all appreciated his fine playing of the jazz flute.

What is the your favourite of the band’s songs to play live?

Lungs, the song has a lot of energy which is great to get out on stage.

If you could, hypothetically, play on a bill with any band, whether still together or not, who would it be?

It would have to be Kiss because they are f#@king awesome.

Are there any points that you have considered to be highlights of your musical careers so far?

Our latest EP launch in Edinburgh was totally sold out and it was an incredible night for all of us. We saw a lot of new faces there which was great and we had a blast playing the show.

Your new EP, Vessels & Veins, was released recently. Do you feel you’ve progressed since your first release? And, if so, how?

Since Fraser joined our sound has started to take a different direction. The songs on the new EP definitely feel like a big step forward for us as we’re doing things we wouldn’t have necessarily done before.

What’s your favourite track on the new record and why?

Between The Tide- It was the first song we wrote with Fraser in the band and it came into existence after a jam we had a practise. It feels like a bit of a melting pot of all our ideas and we feel it defines our sound well.

Have you got any big plans for the year ahead?

We’re aiming to get out on the road and tour as much as possible as well as getting into the studio and working on some new songs. It would be nice to play a few festivals over the summer months as well.

Penguins Kill Polar Bears’ latest EP, Vessels & Veins will be available in USA and Canada from March 22.

The Outshine Family – Interview

Rob Hurst — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 11:40:58 +0000

Photo by Tim Ferguson (http:encosion.com/)

Lead by Australian composer and producer Matthew Nicholson, The Outshine Family (previously known as Function) have just released their third album. We caught up with Nicholson to find out where his music comes from and where it is headed.

How did you get in to creating music?

I’m having to think about this. I was taught piano in a relatively dull conventional way when I was quite young, despite the fact that I always wanted to play guitar, and basically just mess around with musical sounds and find my way. My dear folks had somewhat more bourgeois plans for me that were never to be. From a young age I always made mix tapes from the radio (FM, MW/AM, SW1, SW2 – reflecting on that now when I tuned into shortwave it got pretty interesting), at some point near the beginning of my teens my tapes got progressively more twisted, involving all kinds of crude tape & sound manipulations mixed with music samples from various genres, some of which I didn’t recognise at all, and sometimes even radio-esque bizarre commentaries etc. This must have been late eighties, early 90s, around the time I finally had worked in some fast food dump enough to buy my first guitar and immediately start a band.

By the time I was 14 I was playing in pubs, venues etc, later touring Australia now and again. My teens were a strange mix of rock lifestyle and highschool. Fortunately I was alongside some great friends to grow up and do all this with. This all happened based in Geelong, Australia – about an hour southwest of Melbourne. A small city known for its gritty, ballsy rock. The Detroit of Australia, it has been said. There was a lot of pretty awesome music happening in Australia in the 80s and 90s, quite a lot going on, a lot to get involved in. I was fortunate to emerge into a pretty vibrant small town music scene with peers, elders & help to get on the way…

 Your music seems to span the continents. Where do you draw your influences from?

A tricky question to answer in any summary way without sounding trite or highfalutin’. I’ll try… Many friends, musicians, poets, writers, artists, revolutionaries, ordinary people, spiritual figures, animals, natural processes and wonders from all around the world inspire me. The intrinsic unknowability of the universe, countless great works of art and humanity that transcend the time and place of their action. Inevitably, the universal themes of love and death cannot help but influence the writing of anyone really contemplating reality as it is. I’m not religious, but I do engage a spiritual life, a primary wellspring of profundity in my living.

Photo by Tim Ferguson (http:encosion.com/)

Any particular musical artists that your fans might like to check out?

Definitely, a formidable list of faves that will have to be abridged, so I’ll keep it to some of the less obvious ones / first ones I think of / what I resonate most with today – Australian highlights first — The Necks, Pascal Babare, The Drones, Small World Experience, Minimum Chips, Chris Smith, Joel Silbersher, Panel Of Judges, Lost Animal, Machine Translations.

Then the rest of the world…. Robert Wyatt, Autistic Daughters, Scott Walker, The Wipers, Richard Youngs, Magnetic Fields, The Replacements, Tim Hecker, Skeletons, Stars of the Lid, Mountains, Talk Talk, William Basinski, Fennesz, Elephant Micah, Bark Psychosis, Beach Boys, David Hykes, Popul Vuh, Oval, Richard Skelton, Crooked Fingers, James Blackshaw, Benoit Pioulard, The Dagar Family (Indian Dhrupad music), Ustad Bismillah Khan, Ram Narayan, The Trees Community, This Heat, Don Cherry, Come, Alice Coltrane, Susanna & The Magical Orchestra, Reich, Bartok, Stravinsky, Stockhausen, Ravel, Debussy, Keith Fullerton Whitman, Neil Young, Jon Hassell, Charlemagne Palestine… I could go on for a long time.…

Is there an overall theme to any of your albums or do you write the songs as they come?

Retrospectively I can look back and say that there is some kind of vaguely definable theme to the albums, just in terms of the period of my life in which they were created, but it’s not intentional. The songs and pieces evolve with their own pace and energy, so I guess it’s fair to say it’s all a fairly spontaneous affair, even with regard to the composition – I tend to do things fast and by feeling. Patience is not one of my strong points.

Your latest album Galeria De La Luz has a certain maturity to it. How has your music changed since your Function Ensemble days?

Thanks. I don’t see that there has been any great jumping off point, any particular divide in moments of my methodology, to me it seems like a continuum of progression in living response to the trials, tribulations, travels, wonders, beauty, instruments, people, technology and opportunities I’ve happened upon. I can’t really answer that question with any degree of objective observance! The first Function album was strewn with the same intentions; instrumentals, improvisations built upon, sound pieces, sometimes woven into more structured rock and pop songwriting. I guess these days I have just become a bit more accomplished in how to do that and have access to more resources both human, musical and technological to expand ideas. I know a lot more about what I don’t want to do now, which balances with being able to do more than I could before because I’ve learnt more. That being said, working with Patrick Liddell in Chicago on much of Galeria.. I’m sure lent maturity to the sound, as he’s a wonderful arranger and co-pilot.

You have many different musicians and instruments on the album. What is your creative process for writing and recording?

There are a lot of starting points for me. Navigating inspiration is an artful matter. Sometimes I start with the idea or recording of a friend and sample it or warp it into something else. Sometimes I improvise, either alone or with others. Sometimes I call in some musicians to flesh out some ideas. Sometimes I just write a song and layer it up from there. Sometimes things happen really quickly; sometimes they take years to be birthed. I am most attracted to the art of recording and production, even as the very form of composing – which again can have many starting points from lyrics to a field recording – but most of my playing is first-take, haphazard. So, the possibilities are vast really. I’m actually really enjoying working on developing our live set at the moment; I can see it going in a really interesting direction. There are songs written by Patrick and Milo and Clare on Galeria – the original idea with Function aka Outshine Family was that it is a document of the creative music of friends, and myself which in the course of my life has spanned a lot of places and people. I see it as something that I curate and well as create.

How different is your sound when performing live compared to your records?

Quite different in terms of arrangement (Galeria de la Luz has almost 80 musicians), but the essence of the song or piece can often be communicated even more directly. Part of the ethos of what I do is never to have a standard version. There needs to be some looseness and room to move and keep it interesting. I’ve done many years and many gigs in many places in standard format bands and while that can be wonderful at times, it has its limitations too. When I start to get bored with my music it’s a terrible feeling, so it has to move on and always be living. At the moment we are continuing to develop a range of material that can on one hand be more hushed and songsy, and on the other hand, more vast and sound-based, psychedelic. It’s tricky bringing such dynamics & sound ranges into a live set. I also do a solo thing occasionally with guitar, voice, synths, electronics etc.

Who do you perform with? Do you have a regular band or do you keep changing it up?

Outshine Family live 2011 is myself, John Chantler & Carina Thoren at the core, with other musicians coming through. The band has naturally been quite different when based in different places, i.e. Melbourne, Chicago, California, and London… The website and album sleeve notes list the primary contributing members.

How can people get hold of your music?

Most of the usual outlets, itunes, emusic, Amazon etc. The new one Galeria de la Luz should be more widely available from indie stores and smaller outlets which I would prefer to support, such as boomkat. Easy to find with a quick google search. Anyone interested would do well to chase up from the larger online outlets 2006’s The Secret Miracle Fountain, and 2003’s The Zillionaire-Retarded Speeds Of Ordinary Measured Light — which spans more or less a decade of some of my work, previous to this new release. Like us on facebook and we’ll keep you posted.

What is next in store for your fans?

February 28th sees the long awaited release of Galeria de la Luz on cd and digital, on our great new label Blackmaps. The unique vinyl edition will be out a little later. We will be performing throughout the year in support of the album. Come see us!

I am working on a few album projects slowly but surely in the midst of my insanely busy life — a purely instrumental record that I’m quite excited about right now, the next Outshine Family record, which is slowly evolving, and a few collaborations.

Outshine Family Resources

Check the band website for gigs;

www.outshinefamily.com
www.facebook.com/outshinefamily
www.matthewliamnicholson.com
www.blackmaps.org

Stream the new album — Galeria De La Luz

Interview : The Award Winning Pandora's Box

Amie — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 15:36:44 +0000

Proving that age knows no boundaries 4 teens from Bishops Stortford have been causing a storm in the music world with their Number 1 Project and their debut folk-pop EP. Pandora’s Box consists of sisters Chloe and Tabitha Tingey, Ben Cork and Ash Howarth. Despite being under 18’s they were picked by Rob Da Bank as the winners of the BRIT Class Act Camp Bestival award, features in the Metro and First TV. Recently they have just won a youtube award for their inspiring and different Number 1 project, where they add their own twists and turns to the current UK number 1 Single. Describing themselves as quirky, meaningful and original, they capture the creative hearts of their audience with the colourful use of keyboards, double bass, drums, and an accordion, just to name a few.

A quick fire question round with front girl Chloe, revealed the formation and future plans for the quirky quartet.

How long have you been together and how did you meet?

About two and a half years. Tabby & I are sisters so have been singing together for life! Ash was a good friend of ours and that musical relationship grew organically. We met Ben about a year later when he and Tabby were up against each other in a singing competition. He really stood out and we loved his style so we asked him to join.

What made you start a band?

I had been writing songs for ages and one day I realised they were ready to be performed. I’ve always found that watching the dynamics between a really tight band is far more engaging than watching a solo artist so I immediately got the others involved. It’s much more fun that way too, because everyone brings their own ideas to the songs. I think it’s the chemistry we create together that makes us special.

Who are your greatest influences?

We all come from different musical backgrounds, so have very different influences. A representative mixture would include the likes of
Bonobo, Tori Amos, Placebo, Joanna Newsom, Kate Walsh, Laura Marling, Mount Kimbie, Adele, Foals, Florence and the Machine, Kate Bush, Queens of the Stone Age, Mumford & Sons, Debussy, Beirut, Trifonic, and Fleetwood Mac.

What is it like being such young musicians? Is the music industry daunting?

I’d say being young makes the industry a little less daunting! It means we’re still adaptable and not set in our ways. This allows us to
cross genre boundaries as demonstrated in the Number 1 project. I think this is an important quality, especially seeing as the industry is changing so rapidly at the moment.

What are your greatest achievements?

Being picked by Rob Da Bank as the winners of the BRIT Class Act Camp Bestival award. And it also led to us being featured in Metro and First TV which was probably our proudest moment as a band.

What was it like recording your EP? Had you spent long planning it?

It was great recording Medusa’s Lullaby. We had done other recordings of original material before, but there was something extra special about selecting three songs to go together as a concept. It was also exciting to record two news songs alongside an older one. We didn’t spend too long planning it … it was quite an impulsive decision!

Did you have to fund it all yourselves?

Unfortunately yes! But at least that gave us all the artistic freedom we wanted.

Whats it been like touring?

It was fantastic. It gave us all valuable experiences of performing in a whole spectrum of different situations, from playing in a rowdy pub to busking on the street to performing on a huge out-door festival stage and to entertaining in a church!

Where has been your favourite place to play?

I’m torn between two! We played Hoxton Bar and Kitchen last September with Ben Sommers as part of his amazing conceptual project (Avocado Chip). The audience were incredibly attentive and really went mad for it, which felt great! The other favourite was Camp Bestival, because it gave us such a high hearing our music traveling so far around us! The atmosphere was magical and the stage was totally immense. Saying this, nothing compares to playing in the comfort of our Local Acoustic Club at the Half Moon.

Do you write the music together?

Usually I bring a song idea to a rehearsal, but then everyone contributes ideas which sometimes completely reshape the song! We basically all write our own parts. Everyone in the band writes their own music, so we’re always creating something, be it together or individually.

Do you have any summer festivals lined up already?

Not many this year, because we are all going travelling at different times this summer. We are hopefully playing Stortford Music Festival at the end of April and Cazfest in July. Festivals we would realy want to play again include the Strawberry Fair, Westmill Farm, Secret Garden Party and most of all Camp Bestival!

And lastly, where do you see yourselves going in the future?

Because we’re all at a very transitional stage of our lives, it’s hard to say what the future brings! I think we’d all like to extent our musical boundaries by doing stuff like playing with other people and experimenting with different styles, but for now we’ll just keep writing, keep gigging, and keep trying as hard as we can to get our music heard.

You can view the award winning and impressive Number 1 Project via Pandora’s Box Official youtube channel

Layne Harper Interview

Stephen Almond — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 14:26:06 +0000

Layne Harper is a Memphis-born rapper who recently secured a record deal with the legendary, Def Jam, record label. Big things are expected from Layne this year, and he took time out to talk to NewBeatsMedia about: his hopes for 2011, what it is like to have had tracks produced by Kanye West and Q-tip, how he will accomplish any goal he sets himself, plus what inspired his latest track, Cafe Con Leche.

Most of our readers will be unfamiliar with you, Layne, could you tell us a bit about yourself?

First and foremost, I thank you all for even reading this interview and wanting to know more about me, not just as an artist, but as a person as well. My name is, Layne Harper, and I’m originally from Memphis, Tennessee and currently reside in Tampa, Florida. I spent the majority of my childhood years in Darmstadt and Manheim — Germany, Ft. Lewis — Washington, Brooklyn and Bronx – New York, and Baltimore – Maryland, due to being an army brat. My parents served in the United States Army. I am a proud father of two sons named Xavier and Jaydon and I thrive to be the best father for them as well as a role model in their eyes.

Congratulations on signing the deal with Def Jam. The Def Jam name and status are iconic throughout the music industry. How did the deal come about?

My manager Chris Ford with Starr Scream Entertainment has been under the umbrella of Def Jam/Universal Records for some years now. I’ve known him for some years now through a mutual friend, Omar “Animal Steele” Barnes, so we’ve always been working together. It was just recently in August of 2010 when Chris called me up and spoke with me about going over to Def Jam/Universal Records since they seeked interest in me.

Was it the best moment of your career, so far?

The best moment of my career, thus far, is just on a day to day basis finding out I have new fans and connecting with them directly. I love the fact how last year I wasn’t even considering doing music anymore and my manager Chris just texted me out of nowhere and said “It’s time to go back to the studio and knock out these hits.”

You have already had tracks produced by Q-Tip and Kanye West. What was it like working with those guys?

The track I have produced by Q-Tip is entitled City Lights and that record was an eye opener for the music industry because the topic that was spoken upon was a topic that others were afraid to voice their opinions on. The video for the record was reflected around the Sean Bell Case from 2006. Honestly, I’m honoured to have production from Q-Tip and Kanye West because those are artists who I respect as musicians and producers.

Layne Harper Links

Official Website

Twitter Address | @LAYNEHARPER

City Lights produced by Q-Tip:Video

Don’t Hate Me produced by Kanye West:Video

Cafe Con Leche, new single: Video

Kanye West has won critical acclaim for the music he has created. He has been hailed as a pioneer and genius. Is it fair to say that Kanye is a genius?

I feel as if Q-Tip and Kanye West are both musical geniuses. In my opinion, Kanye West’s album, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy reminded me of a movie that you didn’t want to end. He is a perfectionist in everything he does, so you can tell from the first record where his creative thought process was, he wanted the album to be exceptional and I feel as if that is an album the recording industry needed at that moment.

Your latest single is called “Cafe Con Leche” and despite only being in the public domain for a couple of days, it has already been well-received. What message are you trying to portray in the track?

The record Café Con Leche came about after I went to a coffee machine and it was out of order, so I went to a different machine and saw Café Con Leche and I was talking on the phone with my fiancée, Jennifer, and I told her, “I never had this flavour before I’m going to try it.” Later on that evening I received an instrumental from a producer out of Illinois named, Johnny Justice, and once I heard it I was like, “This is going to be that record that separates me from the other artists out there.” I’ve received a vast amount of support off of this record and feel overwhelmed on how the public, Internet, and media loves this record. I received messages from fans saying that their boyfriend/girlfriend dedicated that record to them. I love knowing that my music is being well-received.

Will it be given an official release?

Every record that myself, management or the label release is an official release from Layne Harper. Every Friday I will be releasing a new record as part of my, Life In The Fast Layne Fridays series, as well as, a video with the new record from time to time, just to keep the fans engaged in my music. Café Con Leche will appear on my upcoming album entitled HATE is the new LOVE and it will be released Spring 2011.

Are there any plans to come to the UK to showcase your music?

Most definitely, I am not just focusing on being known in the United States. I want to connect with all countries, so the UK is definitely on my list when it comes to touring. We need to set something up right after this interview by the way. (Laughing.)

Will you be doing any live shows in the future?

Absolutely. Currently my manager, Chris Ford, is in talks with Mos Def’s manager and we’re planning a college tour in early March of this year to perform at ten colleges or more, so far, we have Temple University in North Philadelphia and Villanova University in Pennsylvania. Joell Ortiz is set to be on board as well, so we’re just talking with different sponsors for the show and getting all the kinks worked out before putting up the actual dates for the world to see.

It is becoming increasingly popular for established artists to leak their music to the world via mixtapes on the Internet. What is your opinion on this?

I don’t see a problem with leaking your music to the world at all. It’s actually more beneficial for the artist to leak out records from time to time just to increase their buzz even more.

Is it something you would consider doing?

Every Friday I leak my records to give the world something new to add to their iPod play list.

XXL magazine rated Wiz Khalifa’s “Kush and Orange Juice” mixtape as the best of 2010. Do you agree with their choice?

My hats off to Wiz Khalia and all of his accomplishments thus far. He was just on the ‘Freshmen’ cover of XXL Magazine at the beginning of 2010 and received the title of Best Mixtape of 2010, you can’t go wrong with that. I actually have not heard his mixtape but I did hear about the buzz surrounded by the mixtape, so I take it that he did a great job.

What were your favourite mixtapes of last year?

To be honest with you, I was not listening to many mixtapes in 2010 because I was working on my solo projects. I released a free mixtape entitled, Layne Harper Vs. The World, and started the Life In The Fast Layne series, so I was pretty busy on my end to make sure that in 2011 Layne Harper is a household name.

Who have been your biggest musical influences?

I don’t have any musical influences, not to discredit other artists or nothing, but my two sons Xavier and Jaydon influence me to keep pursuing with my music career. I am doing this for them and other music lovers who have been seeking a new refreshing sound.

Which artist would you most like to collaborate on a track with?

That’s a good question. I have already made records with major artists, but if I was to say working with an artist I have not worked with yet, my choices would be: Jill Scott, Goapele, Chrisette Michelle, Maxwell and Nas. All of those artists have a unique style, and I can only imagine, that with working with them what type of record would be created. It would be an epic record, hands down!

What songs are given heavy rotation on your iPod?

Currently I’m listening to an artist by the name of, Layne Harper (laughing). I’m still playing Tony! Toni! Toné! Sons of Soul album right now. Their songs, Anniversary and Lay Your Head On My Pillow are on repeat, that’s me and my wifey’s baby making music (laughing).

What can we expect from you in 2011?

Expect for any goal that I set for myself to be accomplished. I won’t settle for less, others might, but I won’t. That means touring the world and performing in countries I can’t even pronounce, receiving endorsements from clothing lines, having a best-selling album, and most of all like I said not too long ago, being a household name.

Join the forum discussion on this post

Chatting to The Last Men

Luke Tregunna — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 10:38:41 +0000

The Last Men are a 5 piece Indie electro band that hail from from down Essex/Herts way. After reviewing a selection of their tracks I decided to catch up with this exciting new band and find out a bit more about them and see what makes The Last Men tick.

So, you’ve got a new EP out now, did you enjoy making it and are you pleased with the end product?

Having produced it ourselves we feel pretty proud of the end product. It has got us radio play as well, which has been great. However, we think now it is definitely worth investing in a professional recording. The music scene is completely saturated at the moment with a lot of great bands trying to make it, so having the best representation of yourself out there is important.

I can see from your website you’re doing pretty well for yourself with radio play on various stations and recognition from BBC introducing. I’m assuming you’re doing all this without a manager or any record company — which I think is awesome. Do you think this is how bands need to work nowadays, doing as much as they can themselves?

Yeah, we haven’t got a manager or a record company backing us as yet, so it’s still very much a DIY affair at the moment. It would be nice to have someone else helping out, but DIY can work and can be sustainable to a point if you’re a good band. We heard These New Puritans mention that they just aim to be able survive off their music which is a good ethic to have, but to have a lasting impact it would be beneficial to have a major label behind you with a big marketing budget.

How did you go about getting the EP recorded off your own backs? Like, did you book out a studio or are you doing it another way?

Well, Alex has a 1st class degree in Music so he is pretty handy when it comes to production. As a result the majority of the tracks were recorded and produced in his bedroom using a Mac Book and Logic. The exception to this is Cretin. This one was produced by Ian Button of Death in Vegas. However, we are looking at getting some professional recordings done in the New Year.

How are you doing on the live circuit? Do you have many gigs lined up?

Our live shows are normally very well received. Every gig we’ve played so far has led to us being offered another gig, which is ideal really. A lot of people can’t believe we’ve only been together a matter of months when they hear us live, which is nice. We’ve got a few shows lined up over the next few months and we’re in the process of booking more.

I suppose now’s the time to be getting booked for the summer festivals do you have anything planned for festival season?

Yeah, we’re planning on playing as many festivals as we can over the summer, big or small. It’s probably one of the best ways that you can get your live show to the largest audience really!

Do you have anything exciting lined up for the future?

New recording next year is the most exciting thing really. We’re really looking forward to writing some new stuff and gigging hard. We think 2011 will be a big year for us, just playing to some decent crowds. Often it’s one man and his dog at the moment, but as long as someone is listening we’ll keep playing.

I can see you’re doing the whole self promotion thing really well, being on MySpace, facebook, band camp etc. do you think it’s an effective way of promoting yourself? Is it easier now for bands to promote themselves?

Cheers! We’re trying our best anyway. That’s a really good question actually. There’s no denying the power that the internet gives you for reaching a mass audience and currently it seems that people can’t go for a second without checking into some sort of social networking site, so it would seem this would be the most effective way of promoting yourself. However, when you take into account the vast amount of other bands and artists all using the same method of promotion, it kind of loses its impact a bit. We’re probably subscribed to every major social networking site available, we have an official website and even have a YouTube channel, and all of these are interlinked. Our drummer, Gez, does most our online promotion. All of the online stuff has been done by him or together. In answer to the second question, it is very easy for bands to promote themselves at this point in time. As we’ve mentioned before, because the music scene is so saturated at the moment, the hard bit is getting people to sit up and listen, but hopefully if the music is good enough then this will happen automatically.

In my first review I compared you to bands such as bloc party and singer/songwriters like Bruce Springsteen (I don’t know if you agree with that at all haha) who would you say are your major influences and do you draw influence from some unusual places?

We’ll take being compared to Bruce and Bloc Party any day! We take influence from quite a lot of places but bands we like at the moment include Bombay Bicycle Club, Everything Everything, Warpaint, Yeasayer and Grizzly Bear. Alex also really likes progressive hip hop off the Warp label, such as Flying Lotus, Prefuse 73, Boards of Canada and obviously Aphex. He tries to apply to our synth parts and, if possible, some of the rhythmical elements from the latter. Bella, our synth player, is really into Eric Whitacre and The Roots, and Charles constantly listens to QOTSA. But you’re right, the indie dance element is definitely there and also, we always try to get a catchy chorus in there. It’s important to maintain some pop music sensibility. You can’t be out and out experimental, it’s a bit shit and you’ll normally alienate people. Alex has learned that the hard with other bands and projects…

How do you go about writing new songs?

I guess we do it the same way as most bands. Normally Alex or Lee will bring an idea, or sometimes a completed song to rehearsals and then we all add our various parts. We often suggest parts for each other as well. It’s quite an organic process in that way. This will probably sound quite big headed, but it’s handy having multi-talented musicians in the same band as it contributes more to the finished product.

And last of all, where would you like the last men to be this time next year?

Haha…On tour with some major artists, all over NME, on Never mind the Buzzcocks, doing a Jools Holland show and playing some big stages at major festivals! Realistically though, we’d like to have a decent fan base and be playing some bigger and better shows. I’d also like to have some figures made of us like Star Wars, that would be ace!

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Questions for The Amity Affliction

Gena Hollyoake — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 22:24:47 +0000

Saturday 11th December was a day of many firsts. It was the first Saturday I have had off work for a while, it was the first time I have ever interviewed an Australian band and it was the first time I have ever conducted an interview in the back of a van. But hey, if that is how The Amity wants to roll, that is fine by me. I first saw this band last year when they were supporting We Are The Ocean and, I don’t say this about many bands, but they literally had me at hello. From the first song they played, I was hooked. So when I discovered they were heading back to the UK in support of Asking Alexandria, I couldn’t resist catching up with Joel (vocals) and Ahren (clean vocals / bass) to see what they have been up to.

How is the tour going so far? Are you getting a good reception? Are you adapting to the weather?

Ahren: I love the weather so I’m psyched about it. It is definitely a lot colder than it is in Australia. As for the shows, they have been insane. The kids have been moshing and singing along, we didn’t expect that to happen at all.
Joel: We got snow when we arrived. We loved it though, everyone else was moaning and we were having snowball fights.

This is your second time touring the UK. Did you find out anything first time round that you are not going to do this time round?

Joel: Yep, we are not going to stay in Penge.
Ahren: We stayed in Penge for like two weeks ‘cos we had time off. We just didn’t know what to do with ourselves. We were so bored and cold. We were penniless and just played monopoly all day and got drunk.

Where is Penge? Why did you go there?

Joel: Exactly! It’s like half an hour on the train from London. It felt like the middle of no-where. We got offered a few Sliverstein shows after the tour was over and we ended up just waiting around for them instead of just going home.

Do you have a favourite song to perform? Is there a particular one that gets the crowd going?

Ahren: I hate Hartley is always a really good crowd mover. It is a good sing-a-long.
Joel: Hartley and Anchors.

You have songs I heart Throsby, I hate Hartley, I heart Roberts’. Who are these people and what have they done to deserve a song named after them?

Ahren: Basically, Throbsy was just a guy that was in a mate’s band and he had just joined. He was new and young and everyone called him a heart throb so he was nicknamed Throbsy. We just thought it would be funny to say “I heart Throbsy.” From then on, the songs just became a tradition.
Joel: The next one was for the Roberts brothers, who are just good friends of ours and with Hartley, you can’t really heart Hartley, so we wrote hate.

Available Now

Do you think your sound has changed much on the new album Youngbloods? How do you think it compares to Severed Ties?

Joel: I don’t think it has really changed…
Ahren: I don’t think it has changed dramatically, it has just got better. With Clint joining the band, he has written a lot of songs for it. On this album we have all written our own songs instead of all writing together, which worked out a lot better ‘cos no one can argue with it. It is just like ‘no, this is my song’.

Your latest album Youngbloods is out now, can you describe it in 3 words?

Joel: F****d and cool. 3 words.

Ahren and Trad have a side project Lovecats, what are the plans for this band? Will there be any tours? Albums? Or is it just a bit of fun?

Ahren: Well, to be honest we kind of just wanted to…
Joel: Make some money!
Ahren: We had a couple of major labels interested in it but it kinda fell through and now we are just so busy with the band, we don’t know what we are doing with it yet.

As you guys are Aussies, we have a few questions to suss how Australian you are in the eyes of an English person:
a) Can you surf?

Joel: I can and do.
Ahren: I can’t but I try to body board sometimes and I pretend to skate.

b) Do you barbeque all year round?

Joel: I don’t eat meat so there is not much barbequing to be done with vegetables, unfortunately.
Ahren: Yeah, we don’t barbeque as much as people would like to think. Whenever there is a chance to, it is always a good time.

c) Do you own a wobble board or a boomerang?

Joel: What’s a wobble board?
Ahren: Rolf Harris…
Joel: Oh f*** no! The only time I have ever owned a boomerang was when I was a kid and I threw it and it killed a bird. I felt so bad! I blamed it on the cat and cried– no more boomerangs for me.

What are your New Year Resolutions? And what will the New Year hold for The Amity Affliction?

Joel: I don’t have any resolutions and the New Year will be touring, touring and more touring. We will also be missing almost the entire summer which is pretty cool for him (Ahren), not really for me.
Ahren: I don’t like the sunshine at all. The rain and the snow are my poison.

If you are interested in checking out The Amity Affliction, they will be on tour with Deez Nuts in January. Please see their Myspace for dates and ticket information:

myspace.com/theamityaffliction

Chatting to Set Your Goals

Gena Hollyoake — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 13:11:45 +0000

Set Your Goals are an American pop-punk band, hailing from the San Francisco Bay Area. They have graced the UK with their melodic, catchy songs many times in their 6 years of existence, playing both headline tours and festivals such as Slam Dunk and Leeds Festival. I caught up with Mike and Dan from the band at the Wolverhampton Civic on the first night of their tour with You Me At Six. Here’s how the interview went:

As the gigs in Edinburgh have been cancelled, what have you guys been doing to fill the time for the past couple of days?

Dan : We jumped on a couple of Young Guns shows in Brighton and Cardiff, it was fun. Our friends The Swellers were supporting them too so it was fun hanging out with them, everyone was very welcoming.
Mike: We met everyone and partied both nights. The first night in Brighton, the club turned into an 80’s– 90’s dance night, we stayed up until 4am dancing, it was the best.

Have you met the guys from You Me At Six and The Blackout before?

Dan: We have toured with You Me At Six before. I think this is like the third tour with them.
Mike: Yeah, they were on the whole of Warped Tour and then we did the AP Tour and Soundwave Tour in Australia.

So it is your first night tonight, do you get nervous before the first show on the tour?

Dan: No, I don’t get nervous.
Mike: This is a big room and I think it is easier to play huge rooms like this than more intimate clubs, at least for me ‘cos I sit at the back. When we play smaller clubs, I can see everybody and that is more nerve-wracking than just being on an enormous stage kind of in your own world.

What can someone, who has never seen Set Your Goals perform before, expect from one of your shows?

Dan: Fun…
Mike: High energy. We jump around the entire set, have a party on stage and get people excited. We are sometimes a bit sloppy but we are always having fun.
Dan: Fun is the key. Fun is priority.

Do you find that a UK crowd differs from a US crowd when you perform?

Dan: Overall we usually get a really good reaction here. There are certain parts in the States that are better than others but here we generally get a good reception everywhere.
Mike: We love coming to England, it is good fun every time.

How do you come up with the names of your songs? For example “flawed methods of persecution & punishment” and “with Hoffman lenses we will see the truth”?

Mike: (Laughs)
Dan: I think that is just what the song is basically about. With songs like that, they tie in the theme of the lyrics and that is basically what the title is. Some songs like Look Closer they are lyrics. Summer Jam was like a working title.
Mike: Yeah, that was how we referred to it before we had a title, it was just the music. It was a summer jam type of feel and when we were naming the songs we thought let’s just keep it as that.

On Punk Goes Crunk you did “Put Yo Hood Up” do you ever perform that?

Dan: Ha, I wish!
Mike: I think it would be impossible… Seriously, the way that that thing came together was incredible. We procrastinated until the day before it was due and scrambled to put it together. There is a studio in our home town that’s real small time, we had never used it before but we knew the guy that ran it. He let us go in for the day and we got our friend in ‘cos he knew how to work the board. He came down, we invited all of our friends and pretty much winged it on the spot. I don’t think we could ever pull it off as well.
Dan: It would be weird.

You worked with Hayley Williams on “the few that remain” how did that collaboration come around and what was it like working with her?

Mike: We are friends with her and we have done a tour with Paramore. She is also dating Chad (Gilbert, of New Found Glory) so we have a lot of mutual friends and we just asked her if she wanted to sing on the song. We sent her the song, she recorded it in Nashville and sent it back. Yeah, she rules.

You have worked with Hayley, is there anyone else you would love to team up with?

Mike: We did a lot of collaborations on the last record, we haven’t really discussed collaborations for this up-coming one.

Christmas is soon upon us, what are your plans? Will you have some time off?

Dan: No, not this year.
Mike: We always try to make a point of being home for the holidays. We missed Thanksgiving two years ago and it was weird. We all have pretty good family relationships and since we are touring the rest of the year, there is no better time to say ‘okay, let’s go home’. We don’t like touring in the winter a lot at home. We had a bad accident a few years ago so we use that time to either be working on stuff at home or have a bit of time off.

So what does the New Year hold for Set Your Goals?

Dan: New record.
Mike: Yeah, new record. It will be out spring time/ early summer. We will head out to Baltimore to finish it during Christmas and it should be done by mid January.
Dan: After that there will be non-stop touring. We will be here of course and anywhere else we can go.
Mike: We just want to stay on the road and keep on going.

It's Time for Dancing

Dizz — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 19:39:26 +0000

‘Don’t think I won’t do it. I will come out there and get you dancing.’ The audience looks slightly dumbfounded at this proclamation coming from the Eleven 37’s stage. ‘I’ve got a megaphone and I am prepared to use it.’

Though unsure of a how a megaphone would have assisted Jamie Topp, lead vocalist of the band, with this particular challenge, the determination on his face is undeniable. This crowd is about to start dancing, whether they want to or not.

The nice thing in this case, is that the Eleven 37’s are a band who are going to make you want to dance. They create an incredibly big sound with a beat that surrounds you, gets inside your feet and gets you moving. Singe-handedly recreating the glory days of funk, the Eleven 37’s are bringing some vivacity back to a musical stage dominated with well, normally a bit more of the ‘depressing stuff’. This band is fun, and more than that, funny, dotting their set with some free strawberries, lots of jumping around, and a bit of silly string for good measure. Though the crowd in the pit was small at the beginning of their live set, it slowly grew, as the hesitant became more comfortable and wanted to be close to these guys, wanted to be in the funk for those minutes instead of out in the cold, bar-side and boring.

The super-group that is the combination of Jamie Topp, Luke Tomlinson, Nick Bentley, Ben Dempster, and Sam Dudley, have been together for a few years, discovering their sound and sharpening it into a cohesive funk message in their latest EP. The band name stems from a quick decision, of needing a name, checking a phone, and deciding the contenders were either 11:37 (the time) or Sony Erickson. The time won this tough battle, and the eleven 37’s were born, a band name that does indeed ‘roll off the tongue’ as Jamie suggests.

Wanting to do something different, the band sought to break against a music industry mold, providing a Red Hot Chili Peppers sound that brings to mind a mixture of a smoothed-out Black Keys and a roughed-up version of recent Minus the Bear, all whisked together with the singular flair and humour of these up-and-comer’s.

‘It’s music to make you feel good.’ Says Jamie. Music, as declared in the lyrics to great tune Here Comes the Storm, that makes you happy to be alive. And the band seek to do that at their shows as well as in their records; on a recent six-gig tour they played everything from pubs to venues, even delighting some Chinese tourists with a bridge-top show. They are happy to play, and completely unhesitant to connect with the crowd. It would be hard for most lead singers to get away with getting as up close and personal as Jamie did with the Proud Camden audience, and yet he somehow pulled it off, no one close to flinching as he was in their faces, still jamming, determined to get the atmosphere buzzing.

And buzz it did, aided by the steady beats of Sam Dudley and Luke Tomlinson, who added a layer of depth and soul to the sound of the band, adding that genuine kick to a difficult undertaking, creating honest funk.

The Eleven 37’s make music to make you happy. Music to make you dance. Music to make you mattress surf, get in some sleeping bags and jump around a bit. (Watch the video.) Above all, they make music that from the first guitar grind will have you ready to get funked.

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Frank Chat:

Hannah Hassack — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 00:37:51 +0000

A snapshot into the mind and musings of Frank Turner

He’s got 3 solo albums behind him, has a new EP on the way, is soon to kick-off another UK tour and plans to be back in the studio before you can say ‘2011’.

He’s got 56,441 “likes” on Facebook, has had absolutely no help from Simon Cowell and is not afraid to say “f*** you!”

So what makes this folky punk-rock singer songwriter and guitar player from Winchester tick? From Cowell to Christmas carols, I cover the basics (and more) of Frank Turner.

You’re currently supporting punk rock band Social Distortion in America – how is it going and how is it different to when you tour solo over here?

We’re the opening act, which is a challenge – not necessarily in a bad way. I have to work hard to make people pay attention, but if I succeed it’s very rewarding. I grew up listening to Social Distortion, and I’m old friends with Lucero, the other band on tour, so it’s a blast being out here. That said, I’m looking forward to the UK tour. A lot!

Your punk/folk rock musical style and political lyrics have often left you compared to Billy Bragg. If you could select someone for yourself to be compared to, who would it be?

Uh, I guess my three guiding lights in life are Henry Rollins, Bruce Springsteen and Loudon Wainwright III. I’m not sure how much I want to be compared to anyone though; I’d like to stand on my own.

Who do you admire of your contemporaries?

There are many people. Chuck Ragan, Tim Barry, Chris TT, Ben Marwoo, Emily Baker, I could go on….

I recently read of you, “his tunes divide the world into Us and Them, (i.e. politicians and fat cats); his advice to Them is simply, as in Sons of Liberty, ‘go f**k yourself.’”

Do you think this is a reasonable summation of what you’re saying to the world in your songs? And if not, how would you put this epitaph straight?

Uh, maybe. I do like to think of what I do as folk music in the literal sense, music for everyone. But there are people in this world who need to be told to get f**ked…Namely those who would impose on our freedom in any way, in my opinion. I’d like as many as people as possible to be in the ‘Us’ pile I guess.

Do you ever think the strength of the political voice in your songs could alienate your listeners who listen purely for the music?

Possibly, though I’d point out I don’t sing about politics all that often, and when I do a lot of people misinterpret my views, ha! But then I have strong opinions and I have a platform to share them from, so I will use it from time to time. My primary audience is myself when I make music (anything else would be dishonest), so I don’t think too much about whether or not I’m alienating anyone, I just try to make good songs.

Frank Turner : XFM radio, London

You don’t seem to be short of an opinion, but what really bothers you apparently is Simon Cowell’s dodgy hair – is it inappropriate to ask if you will write a song about SiCo’s hair? I would buy it! And then use it to audition on the X Factor…

Hahaha! OK, it’s a plan. (Watch this space)

It’s already 5 years since your group Million Dead disbanded – how has your music changed in this time?

It’s changed a lot. I’ve learned a lot about songcraft I think.

Do you miss being the front man of a punk band?

There are days when I miss the physicality of it, but overall I’m happy with what I’m doing right now.

What motivates your song-writing and performance – the urge to sing or a need to express feelings about the world and politics?

I kind of find it hard to answer this question, because I’ve been doing this for so long, it’s just kind of second nature to me to write, play and so on. It’s basically who I am. Sorry, lame answer.

On your Twitter account you describe yourself as a “skinny, half-arsed country singer” – do you stand by that summation?

Ha ha, yeah sure!

Your career to date suggests you’re anything other than ‘half-arsed’ – what has been the one thing that gets you out of bed and standing in front of your audiences when all you want to do is have a pint?

The memory of the last full time job I had before I was lucky enough to jack it in. I was doing telesales, selling phones over the phone…It was horrible and retarded, and I’m thankful every day that I don’t have to do that any more.

You were the last person ever to perform on Steve Lamacq’s influential Radio 1 show Lamacq Live – do you think that has been significant to your success, as your name would have stuck in people’s minds?

Uh yeah I suppose, I’ve not really thought of it in those terms before. Steve has been a great supporter and friend for a long time now.

Do you want to have mainstream success?

I wouldn’t say no. But then I wouldn’t alter what I do to get it. So who knows.

I once saw you live at a fairly small venue in Sheffield and it was vibrant, but you’ve played massive events like Glastonbury, Reading and Leeds amongst other big festivals – do you prefer these huge crowds or the ones where the person at the back of the room is still only a few feet away from you?

I don’t have hard and fast rules about what type of shows I like to play. Good shows are about atmosphere and energy, and you can get that with shows with five people at them sometimes.

You recently released your record Poetry of the Deed, making that your 3rd solo album in 5 years of going it alone – that’s a lot of work Frank! Are you tired?

On occasion, depends how late I stayed out last night, haha! I also did a record of rarities, I have a new EP on the way, and I’ll be in the studio in January for the next record. And I’m working on a book. I like to stay busy!

It’s Christmas soon. What is your favourite carol to sing?

O Come Emmanuel. I like it because it’s actually a traditional folk tune, and very haunting to boot.

Frank kicks off his UK tour on Wednesday 1st of December at The Lemon Tree in Aberdeen. For more information or tickets visit frank-turner.com

You can also Follow Frank on Twitter or you can support Frank on Facebook or you can read his latest news and stories on Frank’s Blog