Interviews
Mark Hole: The best advice I’ve been given is to “Always follow your heart”. If you follow your heart you can do no wrong. I don’t remember who gave me this advice, but it will stay with me for the rest of my life. Read full interview.
Baddies: If you are a band with a decent and loyal fanbase, I honestly cant see why you would sign your record away to a label to lend you the money to make the record…. The fans will buy your record anyway, so this allows them to pay for it in advance and you keep your rights to the record…. simple. Read full interview.
The Autumn Isles: There had been a level of personal tragedy during the writing and recording of this album, with the death of my father due to cancer and the sudden passing of our producer Shaun O’Callaghan towards the end of the production. All of these things came as a great shock and did take some wind out of our sales so to speak. Read full interview.
Ali E: In each band I play in I have a different method. For Ali E it all begins with the music, then the lyrics happen afterwards. It’s helpful having a loop pedal in the song-writing process as it helps me imagine the possibilities of the direction of the song. I’m trying to write the other way around, though – lyric first, music second – so I can say I write like Bob Dylan and Patti Smith! But that’s just silly. Read full interview.
Being There: Usually I write the song first and then fit the lyrics to it. For me the music is the frame and the lyrics are the photo. Read full interview.
Christa Vi: The lead singer, Guy Connelly, said that whenever they perform they are trying to win over the audience – like a new kid in the class making friends. I agree that you should never assume that people will like your music, rather you should try to ‘win them over’ – it’s important keep this kind of respect for your audience. Read full interview.
Otherness: Otherness is a 100% independent and DIY band at this very moment. When the band is not making music and playing music the boys work on-line and with their mobiles in order to arrange gigs and tours and every little thing that may help them to improve their music career. The music biz is going thru a crisis and crisis means “opportunities” for people like OTHERNESS. Anyway, they are not happy at dealing with the management duties. Read full interview.
Roller Genoa: Oh, playing live is definitely the best thing ever, because of the people who come to your show. It’s damn exciting to see how they act and react to your music, you know. I don’t like when some bands say “this gig was bad, shitty crowd, shitty sound”, every single show is something special to everyone of us. It’s like a little discovery every single time. Well, it so probably ’cause we’re young now, but it is definitely true. Read full interview.
Stuart Newman: My process is varied at the moment. The songs can come from anywhere. A lyric, or set of words, or a chord structure… some are songs written to fulfil an idea, others just appear from playing and sitting with my guitar. Read full interview.
Monument Valley: Best: Everyone passes through London, you’ll never miss anyone you’re desperate to see, and the general standard of shows put on by good promoters (like Rockfeedback, Upset the Rhythm, EYOE) is ridiculously high at all levels of the bill. Read full interview.
Frank Bell: Cellist, Yo-Yo Ma once told me to remember that the music I create is bigger than “myself”. I think I was 16 at the time when he shared that with me among other words of wisdom… I’ll never forget that. Read full interview.
Kevin McWha Steele: Jeff Buckley’s mom came up to me after I played at his tribute at the Knitting Factory in March this year. She told me that I did some nice versions of Jeff’s tunes. That meant a lot. I think he went much too soon. Read full interview.
Black Vendetta: My first musical memories were kinda based on trips we used to take to Italy every summer. My grandad has an olive farm there and an old house so we always used to go there during the school holidays and we used to drive down there. My first musical memories were basically of whatever cassettes my grandma put on during said journeys. There was a weird mix of all kinds of suff! Bowie, Queen, Lennon and even Cher! Read full interview.
Matt Finney (Heinali and Matt Finney): don’t know about history but everyone should check out our friend Slow Head. his album Night Glitters is one of the best to come out in a long time. Read full interview.
The Mad Pride: Lost in mindful sounds, Emancipating myself, From the world around. Read full interview.
Ryan Calder Band: I find that inspiration usually comes at the most inconvenient times, when you’re not near a pen and paper. For me it’s usually sitting in traffic, looking at other people in their cars and thinking about life in general. Read full interview.
Capra: The story of Capra is like the nativity story. A couple of camels, a few goats, a virgin who somehow got pregnant, and a group of dudes who like to hang around and carry gold in their pockets. But that’s neither here nor there. Read full interview.
Alin: I’ve grown up with every kind of music: thanks to my parents, I’ve known old hits of 60-70 years and classical music; thanks to my brothers, I’ve known memorable rock and grunge bands; thanks to Hungary, I’ve known the folk music and 80s hits; thanks to friends, I’ve known pop-rock-disco and electronic music. Read full interview.
Abbe May: what I have learnt is that listening to other peoples opinions is not always the best way to go. i have a few collaborators whom i trust to have my interests at heart. Read full interview.
My Fiction: The song Every June was written during this break from the studio and in many ways was a cathartic experience for me. Obviously Every June is close to our heart and so it’s a great privilege to see how many people in Australia and overseas have connected with it. Read full interview.
The Optimen: 2011, even though there may not be a new release on shelves, strictly speaking, is sort of one of the most exciting periods for us so far. Now that it’s been a year since our ‘The Out of Money Experience’ album has been out, the ripples have sort of been sent out and are now reaching us again on their return: we’re still getting lots of live show requests (even overseas). Read full interview.
Carry Nation: Performing is such an intense thing for me. I love being able to have the ability to transform on stage but almost every time I play a show 95% of me wants to run in the opposite direction, the other 5% is willing to go out there and hope for the best. Read full interview.
Young Beautiful in a Hurry: Young Beautiful in a Hurry has a lot of meaning crammed into a very small space, and means very different things to a lot of different people. For me, it is representative of how myself and my band mates feel. We’re all young, hungry, passionate, and eager to make our mark in the world with our art. Read full interview.
All Mankind: Break the spell was recorded in Liverpool UK with the producer of our upcoming album Mike Crossey. The album is going to be released in 2011. We hope people really enjoy it, as we love the songs on there & worked extremely hard to produce what we think is a great album. Read full interview.
Al Lewis: I never did music academically whilst in school. I never took any exams or anything but I was in bands in school and whilst at University, then after I left University my first two releases were two EPs on my own label in the Welsh language! Read full interview.
Two Spot Gobi: We are very grateful for being fortunate to play with successful artists as Jason Mraz and Bruno Mars, those guys are really doing it and watching them inspires you to go on and get better and better. California had a huge influence on the new record, everything about the place, the beauty, the sun, the people, it all seeped into the album, it was a very important time for us as musicians and as friends. Read full interview.
Ghostlight: As a band our tastes are incredibly diverse so I won’t try to vouch for the others. I love all types of music. There’s not really any genre that doesn’t have something to give but some of my very favourite bands are Sparklehorse, The Notwist, Loney Dear, Wheat, Johnny Foreigner, Coldplay.. Read full interview.
Sertari: The key is to think of your self and your own business and take it as far as you can, saying that, i find it fun and exciting to have a passion in life and more then happy to work my musical behind off to achieve this. Read full interview.
French Wives: The most important thing to tell is that it is out nationwide on 21st February. By that I mean on all your normal download sites. The physical copies are limited edition and outside of a few independent record shops in Scotland they’ll only really be available at gigs, so come see us too. Read full interview.
Roman Holiday: We all listen to and enjoy different kinds of music. To list just a few of our favorites: The Beatles, Band of Skulls, M. Ward, The Strokes, Radiohead, Johnny Cash, Arcade Fire, The Black Keys, Kathleen Edwards, Coldplay, Bob Dylan, David Bazan, AC/DC, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Bon Iver, and Jay-Z. Read full interview.
Early Ghost: When we began college, a few of us who had already played a bit together in the past decided to actually start writing together. We were just a three-piece, but we kind of just kept adding members in as more instruments ended up on the recordings! We’ve since become a six-piece. Read full interview.
Ocasan: I love performing when there’s a fantastic audience. I get that overwhelming “I was born to do this” feeling when I’m up there. We’ve played some incredible gigs. Once we played a show in the channel islands. It was in a huge marquee that during the gig filled up entirely with water. Read full interview.
The Lounge Crusade: We’ve all been performing and writing music for the last decade, since leaving school. There are plenty of examples of past work from all of us available online if you search hard enough The genres and styles vary greatly from Dance music to Comedy Songs. Read full interview.
Low-Fi: Before realeasing our first EP We have took part in 2 compilation about Peppino Impastato(a political activist who opposed the Mafia that ordered his murder) & Syd Barrett with important artists from Italy and all over the world. Read full interview.
Saint: SA!NT is me, Sean Timothy Brown(ST=SA!NT). It’s everything, musically, I have in me. I have a lot of talented friends that I wanted to collaborate with but never really had the chance when I was playing in bands so I wanted to create an outlet that had no boundaries and could showcase what “the desert” is capable of. Read full interview.
Emma Dean: My family and my boyfriend who are all very musical, the performers I work with, Tim Burton, Danny Elfman, Zen Zen Zo Physical Theatre, circus and burlesque performers, “Cabaret”, “Wicked”, “Chicago”, Tori Amos, Taylor Mac, The Dresden Dolls and Amanda Palmer, Queen, Edward Elgar, Anette Askvik (a Norwegian singer/songwriter), life, death, little observations, imagination, dreams and nightmares. Read full interview.
The Eleven 37s: We formed way back when we were drinking milk from cows at a young age on a dairy farm. We’ve been raised by farm animals for 21 years, each by a different breed of swan or sheep, we decided to form a band when we kept getting laughed at for always having dip dabs for Christmas dinner instead of turkey, this was around 3 years ago. Read full interview.
Escape Directors: Fan relationships is a priority for us. Without them, we wouldn’t have the encouragement to keep going. It’s important to nurture those relationships, listen to them, see what they think, and take them on this journey of breaking through the noise together. Read full interview.
Tyrannosaurus Grace: Each member of Tyrannosaurus Grace plays an important and unique role in creating the overall sound. Initially when Tim and Justin were working on their solo projects, and even working together without the other members of the band, they were able to tackle the parts that they were adept at and sort of faked the others. Read full interview.
Mark Marshall: I take the job of getting my stuff out on the web really seriously, so chances are, it was in doing research for that. But I’m very grateful that you’re there – as of this writing, I’m #1 in both best new unsigned artist and best new song. I’m incredibly touched by that… that people voted me there. Just awesome. Read full interview.
Mike Lord (Stars and Sons): Well we’ve just got back from tour so I’m just doing a few things to squeeze myself back into a semi-normal state of existence. Tidying my room for starters. Read full interview.
Stylusboy: I am inspired by people who really believe in what they are doing and go all out to work at it, people who put others first. I’m inspired by alot of my friends because of the way they live their lives. Read full interview.
Cosmo Jarvis: I guess i have conditional impatience, I can’t wait for the world to do things which leads me to accomplish things I feel i need to accomplish without the time, tools or development required to make the piece as perfect as it could be; I tend to bodge sometimes but i’m growing out of it. That, and strange woman. Read full interview.
Illustrial: I’m also a huge 80′s fan so I have a soft spot for bands like Duran Duran and the Bangles. More recently I’ve been hugely influenced by bands like The Birthday Massacre, Paramore, Otep and Kill Hannah. I just love the individual sounds and beats. Read full interview.
Shadow Thieves: get to the party, get to the party, get to the party, get to the party
parcel to parcel, parcel to parcel, parcel to parcel, parcel to parcel
when you seize…..you’ll protest. work work work…. quack quack quack…. Read full interview.
Kris Searle: The musical journey has been incredible.. I must say I didn’t know I was going to make this much happen in my life when I used to think about it in my home town in Kent, UK. Read full interview.
Mark Emmins: The music side of me is a machine and it moves in a forward direction everyday. I feel many emotions from day to day life past and present and I tend to put all those feelings into what i create musically. Read full interview.
Strobegirl: Actually I re-listened to some of my early demos the other day which were just recorded on a 4 track tape.
Although the sound quality was pretty terrible I realised that the way I put my songs together is pretty much the same now as it was then. Read full interview.
Isaac’s Aircraft: A lot of our latest material has come out of jamming sessions where we come up with the ideas from scratch. We’ll all contribute to each other’s parts and we’re always reworking songs to improve them. Read full interview.
Lu Rolli (Kee Lime): My dad then purchased my first guitar when I was 11 years young, I must say that I’ve been on an insanely wonderful musical journey ever since… Read full interview.
Quebec Antique: We come from both classical and rock backgrounds. Blake played guitar in bands, listened mostly to other rock bands; Andy learned classical piano, played in orchestras. Read full interview.
Haunting Heather: Q: What are your plans now? A: Well, we want to be down to earth with our expectations, so… world domination, billions of fans, and maybe buy a llama farm. Read full interview.
Audioalysis: I ‘d like to think that it’s the honesty in the songs. Everything i write is all true story’s based on my own individual experiences and feelings about certain situations or people who have had an emotional effect on me. Read full interview.
Spacehip Days: From the lyrics, to arrangement, to production, to chord structure and nuance, we are exactly what we want to be. Read full interview.
Shaun C Bryant: My biggest career highlight so far was playing live on the BBC. I was fortunate enough to be on the Sue Marchant Show on BBC Radio Cambridge on 16 April 2010. Read full interview.
5 Cent Theatre: Our writing style is pretty open – we generally get together and work on our ideas and styles range completely. I guess our music is expansive and filmic but as soon as you become pigeonholed in one particular style you can become lazy and the music becomes tired. Read full interview.
The Zone: I often get something in my head and try to get a rough recording of it so I can introduce it in a jam session with JC and JP. Sometimes it’s just a lyric or riff but at times it’s a large part of a song. The main thing is get to a guitar before it disappears. Read full interview.
Skybox: This particular record most of the lyrics reflected my feelings of coming out of a chaotic situation in my life and into a more stable place, I try to look back and figure out how I got where I am so sometimes it gets a bit ambiguous and strange. Read full interview.
Boy & Bear: I couldn’t sit here and say I didn’t get into that wonderful Fleet foxes record that came out last year and hence their influence is strong and possibly right now the biggest. I must all say that James Taylor got fairly ingrained into my system as it was definitely the soundtrack to my child hood! Read full interview.
The Gadsdens: Our music is slightly moody with pop sensibilities… It definitely has a Rufus Wainwright/piano/orchestral vibe. Lyrically I write from the heart about what I’m feeling or thinking, or if my heart is feeling particualrly vacuous I’ll write about other people and their hearts. Read full interview.
Fictionist: Usually starts with an emotion, then some notes, then some kind of rehearsal and then some kind of performance. I can’t figure it out exactly, but I know it starts with emotion and some kind of meaning. Read full interview.
Drawn From Bees: Our favourite venues are all in Brisbane! We are really spoilt here with The Zoo and The Troubadour. Both of these venues have such awesome staff and are really supportive of musicians, who could ask for better than that? Read full interview.
La Shark: our manager is a cat-walk model and the 6th member of the ‘collective’ , he doesn’t take any shit and punches people (us) which is a very important part of our music…’violence’ booking agents are the biggest ARSEHOLES you’ll ever meet. oh “HI ED, sorry man , i didn’t mean it….. Love you! “ Read full interview.
Soar: We play regularly in SecondLife. Usually between 6 – 10 one hour gigs a week. Unfortunately due to the time differences in Australia and America/Europe we do our gigs when half the world is sleeping! But for Aussies and the UK we can be heard at reasonable hours! Read full interview.
