Wednesday, 14 September 2016

Feature: Young Vincent (14/09/16)


Young Vincent (Tom, Josh, and Ryan) have been putting on shows around Melbourne since 2014. Built on the members' existing solid friendships and arose naturally from playing music with an ambition to raise money for a local homeless charity. After touring with Woodlock (previously featured on Music In Time), and selling out their single launch in 2015, Young Vincent's upcoming Australian tour will be a 2016 date not to miss... 

General Questions:

1. How old were you when you started getting involved in music and how?
We were all quite young when we started playing. Between the ages of about 8 and 10 we all got our first instruments from our parents. All three of our parents have always been big music listeners and players so we were exposed to it a lot.

2. What is the most inspiring musical performance you’ve ever seen?
I think there’s different types of inspiration that we’ve had from so many different performances. Last year we saw Hiatus Kaiyote and they blew our minds in a songwriting sense and by being able to convert their insanely technical production on their album into a perfectly executed live performance was so impressive. In the past few years we’ve seen bands like #1 Dads and Half Moon Run absolutely mesmerise their crowds and play with such professionalism and showmanship which was incredibly inspiring. As well as seeing Tame Impala do their thing in one of the biggest and most epic psychedelic rock shows on the planet. That was a very inspiring experience.

3. Who have you been listening to lately?
 I’ve had the new Big Scary album on repeat and it blows my mind every time i hear it. Such a great blend of Alt/Rock production and sweet hip/hop beats. Cannot fault!

3 Qs for Young Vincent:

1. You’re heading out on a tour of Australia this year, but which three countries would you most like to tour and why?
We’d love to get over the UK soon. A few friends of ours are in bands over there and it sounds like such a fun place to play and tour. North America would be another classic choice. It’s such a great place for bands and music in general, i’m sure the shows over there would be a crazy amount of fun. If i had to single out a smaller country on it’s own i’d choose Portugal. Beautiful country with amazing people, art, culture. I went to see a few local and touring bands while i was there a few years ago and the nightlife is really band-focussed and so lively.

2. Who are your biggest influences and where do you tend to look for inspiration?
Our biggest influences are bands that we value their unique songwriting styles and musicianship. Bands like Half Moon Run, Fleet Foxes and Angus Stone of current contemporary music, as well as legends of their genres like Neil Young and Bob Dylan. We look to a lot of different things for inspiration but it usually comes from personal experience or at least stories that are based off some kind of personal experience. You can usually hear the idea or origin within the lyrics to our songs.

3. What process did you go through creating ‘Run’ and how much did it differ to your previous singles?
‘Run’ was written whilst we were putting the finishing touches on a heap of demos before we went into the studio to record them. It was written by Josh in his living room over the course of a few weeks and whilst dwelling on an idea for a story about a stale relationship that neither the boy or girl have any idea what they’re doing. Through this idea came the feelings of confusion and boredom and it turned into the sarcastic love story that it is with a message of relief at the end.

Random Q:

1. If you could create a specialty pizza, what would you call it and what would the toppings be?
I’d call it copsdoopmanadd and it would have garlic and cheese.

'Run' Review:
This is a stunning track, the acoustic guitar offers a softness that compliments the layered vocals holding a beautiful tone and creating a sleepy and comforting feel. The track slowly builds with drums and strings and backs the warm and honest lyrics throughout. This has been added to my autumn playlist and it will probably make it's way in to every other playlist I create in the near future. 

Run - Young Vincent (link)

Young Vincent's Links:
'Run' (iTunes): https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/run-single/id1120436785
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/youngvincentmusic
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQ5V3x0EzDZ4mXTgIr54Bog/videos

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Monday, 12 September 2016

Feature: Mainland (12/09/16)


Mainland are a pop/rock group comprised of Jordan Topf (vocals/guitar), Corey Mullee (guitar/synth), and Alex Pitta (bass). They arrived in 2013 with their 'Girls Unknown' EP and followed soon after with their second independent release 'Shiner EP' in 2014. They've opened for Catfish and the Bottlemen, The Colourist, Drowners, Strange Talk (and many more), and have shared festival stages with the likes of The War On Drugs and Of Montreal. After signing to 300 Entertainment they headed to California and released their EP 'Outcast'; now they're back with 'Beggars', the first single from their debut album 'Night Trials', due out later this year... 

General Questions:

1. How old were you when you started getting involved in music and how?
We all started front a young age. I started at age 8 listen to Michael Jackson and playing the guitar. Corey started in high school playing the blues and Alex was in marching band and a trained pianist from a young age before joining punk bands in San Diego. Then New York happened.

2. What is the most inspiring musical performance you’ve ever seen? 
Two really stand out this year. The first was seeing X Ambassadors at SXSW after they had gotten of touring stadiums with Muse. They just blew me away. Also caught Courtney Barnett for free at Rough Trade in NYC after her set at Governors ball got rained out. She was so talented and her bass played crowd surfed like five milliontimes. 

3. Who have you been listening to lately?
The Cars, Orange Juice, The Smiths, and a band from our label family Coast Modern.

3 Qs for Mainland:

1. What has been the biggest difference for you as a band between your forthcoming debut album ‘Night Trials’ and your debut EP ‘Girls Unknown’? 
We went through a tremendous musical evolution as performers and as songwriters. Our pallets and musical tastes just diversified over the last few years in part to being in new studios and all the touring we've done has just made us a stronger unit. We recorded girls unknown in a basement with zero touring experience. I think the touring and time spent strictly on songwriting just made us grown as people.

2. You’ve shared stages with the likes of Catfish & The Bottlemen and The War On Drugs; but who is your dream act to share the stage with and why? 
I think it'd be cool to tour with Lana Del Rey. She doesn't tour all that much and has created her own little world we all want to live inside. She's her own thing and no one can take that away from her. I like what Catfish and the Bottlemen are doing right now too. Rock and roll no frills.

3. What process did you go through creating ‘Beggars’, was it a collective effort or did you all have specific roles within the band? 
It went through maybe ten iterations. I worked on it in LA, New York, etc. We recently went back to Austin, Texas to recut vocals and the whole band sang on the track. It was super raw and fun to finish the song. It's our baby.

Random Q:

1. If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be and why? 
The south of France would be magic. It's mysterious coastline would bring some vibey inspiration for the next LP.

'Beggars' Review:
'Beggars' has been on repeat since the moment I received it in my inbox, it's a genius track. A memorable chorus that I've found myself humming along to many times and a punchy tune throughout. It's reminiscent of Twenty One Pilot's latest material but still holds a unique Mainland touch. I can imagine this being the song that everyone shouts along to at their live shows and gets stuck in their head for weeks after. Lyrically empowering and musically powerful it's a brilliant pick me up song - enjoy! 


Mainland's Links:

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Friday, 9 September 2016

Feature: Tom Martin (09/09/16)


Tom Martin is a 21 year old singer/songwriter and musician from Romsey, near Southampton, currently splitting his time between home and his university city of Swansea. He began gigging as a soloist in early 2014, but the financial burden of student life prohibited Tom from recording any music of releasable quality until this summer. His debut EP 'Next Plane Out' was recently released and launched with a sold-out show at Winchester's Railway Inn... 

General Questions:

1. How old were you when you started getting involved in music and how?
I’ve been singing for as long as I can remember – mostly wailing over the top of whatever my dad had on in the car and then sitting with sheets of lyrics learning every song the latest band or singer I was into. When I was about 12, there was a songwriting competition at school for which I teamed up with a friend of mine; he literally got me in to do the singing, that was the extent of my involvement, but we won it and after that I started writing (terrible) lyrics. Two years later, the natural progression seemed to be to pick up the guitar and eventually I played in a couple of bands, not gigging a great deal, before striking out alone just over 2 years ago.

2. What is the most inspiring musical performance you’ve ever seen?
Tough question; I’ve everything from huge bands at festivals and in arenas to solo acts in pubs, so there’s a huge stylistic chasm…I have a friend called Scott Freeman who just goes ballistic wherever he plays, just him and an acoustic guitar jumping around and screaming and totally going for it. I think there’s something quite wonderful about that will to just be the most excitable man in the room, even if there’s an audience of less than 10 people.

3. Who have you been listening to lately?
What haven’t I been listening to? An August birthday gave me a chance to get a lot of albums I’d been after for a while. Before that, I got Micheal Kiwanuka’s ‘Love and Hate’, which is without a doubt my album of the decade so far, it’s simply unbelievable. It’s like Pink Floyd doing Motown, and Kiwanuka is one of the finest songwriters around.
I could be brief but that’s not like me at all, so I suppose standouts would include the latest effort from Bears’ Den, which isn’t spectacular in its complexity but sounds incredibly warm and full, kind of an 80s-radio-rock feel. Jamie T’s latest album is a strong one too, love his lyric work and his willingness to be a rock artist while rock is so unfashionable. Tom Odell’s second album had some of the best songwriting I’ve heard in ages alongside some of the worst lyricism and production. Catfish and the Bottlemen’s Van McCann has a great way of wording stuff and a certain way with a melody that always makes them a bit of a guilty pleasure.
I’ve been loving Kanye West’s 808s & Heartbreak; I’m a recent convert to Kanye but that’s an album I’ve been meaning to get for ages, he puts across an incredible amount of emotion. I’m completely dying with anticipation for Bon Iver’s next record, his last album was the best thing I’d heard in a long time. The Last Shadow Puppets’ latest release has convinced me that maybe Alex Turner should just invite Miles Kane into Arctic Monkeys and just make that kind of music forever; some of ‘Everything You’ve Come To Expect’ was just astonishing.

3 Qs for Tom:

1. You’ve played a string of live dates across the summer, but where would you most like to perform and alongside whom?
I think the Union Chapel in London always looks like an incredible venue to play in, I love those sorts of places where it’s intimate and you can really connect with an audience. Maybe the Royal Albert Hall as well, which I really, really want to go see someone play at some time in the future. As for playing alongside someone, I think maybe if Alex Turner did another acoustic album we could team up for a gig somewhere like that, or perhaps the aforementioned Micheal Kiwanuka, who I’m just a huge, huge fan of.

2. What inspires you lyrically and who influences you musically?
It honestly depends on what I’ve been listening to at the time. I’ve taken a real love of writing soul tunes over the last year or so, just because you can be so versatile with chord use and texture. I think people like Paolo Nutini and Kiwanuka have influenced that, but there’s a night at Sin City (a club in Swansea) where they play just soul, funk, disco and R&B all night and honestly, going and getting drunk there with my uni mates every week has been as much of an influence as anything, which I know is a shockingly childish way to be influenced. Lyrically, I just love to be a big old show off; I love Alex Turner’s lyrics, I love Jamie T’s lyrics, I’m always wanting to write like them, the latter particularly. I think it shows in the EP that my influences are in that direction, certainly from the lyrics, but I’m always trying to push my work towards that AT level of poeticism; I’m not there yet though.

3. Which track from your debut EP ‘Next Plane Out’ is your favourite and why does it stand out to you?
'When She Holds You', and by a distance. I think the lyrics are a bit clumsy here and there but they really put across a lot of emotion, and I think the strength is in the arrangement of it. It’s such a BIG sound for a guy who normally performs on his own. I’m chuffed with the solo in it and just the lead guitar work in general, which isn’t my strongest suit, and I like to think that people get a lump in their throat at some point in the song the way I did when I knew we’d got the right mix for it; it’s got that big, synth-based 80s-rock sound that I like without really sounding like anything you’d hear on a day-to-day basis. It’s my proudest piece of work as a musician to date; I have to thank my mate Dino, who arranged it with me, and my recording engineer Kevin, who did such a great job putting it together.

Random Q:

1. If you could open a venue, what would you call it, where would it be and what would the opening event be?
I’d probably open it in my hometown, Romsey, because there’s no dedicated venue here, and call it The Teorstan, after the Saxon name for the river that runs through our town (and also the name of a cracking honeycomb ice-cream my Mum makes, I think she’d have to do the food there). I’d love to have a big room for bands and a smaller area for acoustic acts and more chilled stuff, and then for the opening event I’d have a big old party with all the best musicians from Romsey, Southampton, Winchester and the surrounding area; I love the local scene in the south of England so you could really put on a hell of a night.

'Next Plane Out' EP Review:
The EP opens with title track 'Next Plane Out', it's a soulful track, with Tom's wonderful vocals presenting his beautifully written lyrics alongside some fantastic guitar. This is currently my favourite track from the release, as the layers of instrumental tracks and vocals are brought together perfectly. 'Super Magnet' follows on smoothly and is a little more stripped back, it's catchy and yet another brilliantly written song, both musically and lyrically. The EP finishes with 'When She Holds You', it's got a solid punch to it, and it's an incredibly powerful song. With a steady rhythm, dark bass line, and gentle guitar piecing it together along with Tom's emotively sung lyrics, it's another highlight from the EP. Tom's added two non-explicit versions of 'Super Magnet' and 'When She Holds You' to the release, but I feel like the explicit tracks add to the rawness of Tom's music. Overall, a truly fantastic EP that will be on repeat a fair few times I'm sure - if you like Charlie Simpson's original material, Paolo Nutini and Jamie T, you're bound to love Tom and his music! 

Super Magnet - Tom Martin (link)

Tom Martin's Links:
'Next Plane Out EP' (iTunes): https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/next-plane-out-ep/id1143665433
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TomMartinMusic/
Twitter: www.twitter.com/TomMartinMusic
YouTube: www.youtube.com/TomMartinMusic

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Wednesday, 7 September 2016

Check It Out #26 (07/09/16)

1. Underwater - Foxtrax
Long Island natives Ben (vocals, guitar), John (drums), and Jared (bass) began making their own brand of indie rock together in early 2015 after graduating from college. By the end of that yea, Foxtrax relocated to Los Angeles where they began honing their live show. Now they're sharing their once demos turned fantastically produced and mastered tracks, like their debut video for 'Underwater'... 

2. Mystery - Sol x Auralponic
Eclectic pop artist, Sol, is best known for her intimate approach to music. Raised in the suburbs of Southern California, Sol radiates the influence of her surroundings. 'Mystery' is her debut single, produced by Los Angeles' Connor Irias (Auralponic) and is representative of the rudimentary foundation of her music. It's a stunning, sultry track full of mystery...


3. Waterslide - Adam Harpaz
Adam Harpaz is a multi-instrumentalist and indie-folk musician, busking during the day and performing at venues during the night, whilst surfing in between. Born and raised on Sydney shores, the 21 year old singer-songwriter from Bondi has performed extensively over the past few years. Now he's releasing 'Waterslide' and also touring Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney and Western Australia over September and October, so if you're about, be sure to check him out! 


4. Fallback - Truitt
Comprised of brother and sister, Brett and Brigetta Truitt, the pop duo recently released their debut self-titled EP which features this track as the lead single. Having spent about two and a half years making an EP, they scrapped the project, soon after they took their music in a new direction and now here they are with a fantastic pop sound, enjoy! 


5. Nothing In The Desert ft. Jamie Lawson - Paul Mosley & The Red Meat Orchestra
After an exceptional reception to Paul Mosley's last album, he now returns with his seventh solo record. It features 20 songs, with 20 plus musicians from six different countries, 'The Butcher', is an epic ghost story told in songs. It's an incredible release and this is a wonderful single taken from the album, he's also got a fair few shows confirmed for the rest of this year, so make sure you don't miss out on those... 


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