INTERVIEW: Marina Laurendi

INTERVIEW:

  

Marina Laurendi

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FOR this interview…

I have been finding out more about the sensational and hugely talented Marina Laurendi. She brilliantly mixes elements of Indie Rock, vintage Pop, and singer-songwriter Folk that fits around lyrics that are both honestly personal yet accessible. With a dreamy soundscape blended with something edgier, her music is an intoxicating and compelling blend! A Western New York native, Laurendi relocated to N.Y.C. after college, where she initially worked as an actress Off-Broadway and the East Coast. Her music is heavily inspired by the rush and stories of the city, but I think her heart and soul pulls towards home. Laurendi finds inspiration from the music of the 1960s and artists such as Lana Del Rey, Hozier, and Phoebe Bridgers. I have been speaking to her about the video for her sensational track, Stay Mine, and the E.P. of the same name. Laurendi discusses her musical influences, how New York and Buffalo impact her music, what she has planned for 2023, and whether she might come to the U.K. and play soon. It has been a pleasure spending time with…

A truly superb artist.

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Hi Marina. How are you? How has your week been?

Hello! I’m doing well. This week has been busy. We’re going into the studio this weekend to record some new tracks - so it’s been a lot of rehearsing and planning on top of rehearsals for live shows.

Talk to me about your track, Stay Mine. There is a mix of desire and yearning together with something dreamy and vintage. What inspired you to write the track? Was it inspired by a real-life relationship, or was it more based around a more fictional wanderlust?

Well firstly, I really appreciate you picking up on all those things, because I think that was something I really wanted to get across in the production of the song. I have always had this sense of wanderlust and a curiosity for the world and different experiences. I’ve always been interested in traveling and it’s something I’m starting to do more but I’ve only scratched the surface so I find myself daydreaming about the places I want to go and the possibilities of what’s out there.

“It’s all about what could be”.

At the time I wrote the song, I was having these really interesting, deep intellectual conversations with someone who was really stimulating that part of my brain that just wanted to go live life and be free.  We never dated, but I think those talks sparked the realization in me of wanting a big life that’s full of new traditions. I want to find my way with someone who shares the same values and spirit as me. A lot of the times when I’m writing I’m using my life experience as a springboard for my imagination to go crazy and tell a story. I like things that are rooted in truth and reality but have a sense of freedom and fantasy. It’s all about what could be.

I love the video for the song! What was it like working alongside director Luke Haag on the shoot? How involved were you in the storyline of the video?

Thank you so much. Working with Luke was so great. I had looked really carefully and for a really long time for the right person to shoot this, and I had seen a video Luke shot for Fernway, another Buffalo band, and I immediately thought the way it was shot was so aesthetically beautiful and perfect for this project. I always wanted the story to focus on this couple and this '“can’t live without each other” kind of love, and we both really liked the idea of performing the song in certain moments, so we landed on this concept of snapshots of a relationship, intercut with performance moments.

We talked about having that element of nostalgia and restlessness, so choosing locations like the perfect dive bar, an old motel exterior, and tiny campfires gave it an intimate feel like these two people are living in their own world. Luke used this special lens to warm and soften the shots to give everything that subtle old-fashioned feel. It was one of the best collaborative experiences I’ve had, between Luke and the rest of our little team. We all just clicked and had so much fun which is why I think it turned out how it did.

Your music has been linked to artists like Lana Del Rey and Phoebe Bridgers. Are these artists that you would say are influences? What kind of sounds and music did you grow up listening to?

I’m a big fan of both Phoebe and Lana. What I’ve always loved about Lana’s music is that it’s dark, feminine, and unfiltered. She’s got this sad, romantic sort of “stand by your man” theme across her music, and a lot of music today is more “independent woman”, you know, you don’t need a man. Which you don’t. But it’s innately feminine to be in your feelings and to be emotional, and I love leaning into that softness and vulnerability in music. And really taking a lens to masculinity and romanticizing the good parts that feed your feminine power - I love that, and I lean into that when I write.

I grew up listening to all kinds of music: The Beatles, Queen, Britney Spears, Taylor Swift, show tunes; so I had a lot of wildly different genres to impact my musical taste.

“I’ve spent the greater parts of my life in Buffalo and then New York, so they couldn’t help but find their way into my music in some form”.

I feel New York and specifically Buffalo are a big part of your direction. How important is the dichotomy of New York rush and the quieter Buffalo pace to your songwriting?

I think every place I go has an impact on my music. I just think of every place I’ve visited, and in the quiet moments there I would feel inspired not by my surroundings exactly. But I think it was the peace and calm of being somewhere new, where there were no expectations other than to show up, do my thing and not worry about the future or external stuff. I’ve spent the greater parts of my life in Buffalo and then New York, so they couldn’t help but find their way into my music in some form.

I really love the Stay Mine E.P. and have a new favourite song and moment each time I listen. Is there a particular track that stands out or you rank as your personal favourite?

I want to say Stay Mine, but I really have a soft spot for Upper East Side. It’s probably the most personal song I’ve ever written. I’m most proud of that song, because it felt like the end of a chapter for me and really letting go of something.

As amazing as you are as a solo artist, are there any artists that are on your dream collaboration list that you’d love to work with?

Hozier, The 1975, Phoebe Bridgers, Jack Antonoff, Lana, Lady Gaga - the list is endless.

The reaction to the Stay Mine E.P. has been very positive, and you have had a busy 2022. What do you hope to achieve in 2023?

I really want to travel more and fuel my life and music with energy and purpose. I want it to be the most intentional year, so I want to get clear about my intentions and get specific.

You are playing New Year’s Eve at Nietzsche’s in Buffalo. How does it feel to be playing to live audiences after the pandemic and lockdowns? What is it like seeing that immediate reaction to your songs?

It’s so cool. Someone told me recently that they didn’t know how songwriters got up there and performed their material, because if people hated it they’d be mortified. And I guess I just don’t think of it, because I’m having too much fun to care when I’m playing live. Watching someone have fun and be wild onstage makes you have a good time. I get to go up there and dance and throw my body around and jump and release all this pent up energy, and I love it.

I know there are people who would love to see you and venues that would house you in the U.K. Have you any future plans to come and play over here?

I would love to come play in the U.K. I don’t have an international tour planned yet, but one day.

This year has been an extraordinary one for music. I think that women have been dominating and leading the way. What has been your standout album of 2022?

I’ve been loving Taylor Swift’s Midnights honestly.

Finally, you can pick any song you like to finish. It can be an old favourite or a new song. What should we play?

Play So Much Wine by Phoebe Bridgers! It’s what I am listening to at this very moment, so no time like the present…

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Follow Marina Laurendi

FEATURE: Looking Ahead… Songs from Albums Turning Fifty-Five in 2023

FEATURE:

 

 

Looking Ahead…

  

Songs from Albums Turning Fifty-Five in 2023

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KEEPING this run going…

I am spotlighting awesome albums celebrating big anniversaries. Now, I have arrived at albums turning fifty-five this year. 1968 was a huge year for music, and there is more than enough golden music to be heard below. I am looking forward to covering 1973 next, but let us continue here with a selection of simply brilliant albums turning fifty-five next year. Such a massive anniversary, these songs below are sublime! If you are not sure which great albums came out in 1968, then the playlist below gives you an idea of how awesome…

THE year was.

FEATURE: Looking Ahead… Songs from Albums Turning Sixty in 2023

FEATURE:

 

 

Looking Ahead…

  

Songs from Albums Turning Sixty in 2023

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KICKING off this run of features…

I am marking great albums celebrating big anniversaries. I am starting off with a playlist of songs from amazing albums turning sixty this year. 1963 was an important year for music, and there is more than enough wonder to be heard below. I am looking forward to covering 1968 next, but let us start with sensational albums turning sixty next year. Such a big anniversary, these songs below are wonderful. If you are not sure which great albums came out in 1963, then the playlist below gives you an idea of how stunning…

THE year was.

FEATURE: Spotlight: Abbie Ozard

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

PHOTO CREDIT: Charlotte Rudd

Abbie Ozard

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HAVING completed…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Tom Preece

a tour to promote her excellent E.P., Water Based Lullabies, Abbie Ozard can settle back and celebrate a very successful year. The Manchester artist has been courting acclaim since 2019/2020, but I think this year has been one where she is on many people’s radar. A sensational talent who is creating amazing and timeless music, I think 2023 will be her biggest and most successful year. I am going to end with a review of her amazing new E.P. I want to drop some interviews in and sort of go chronologically. As was the case with so many artists, 2020 was a rotten year. As a rising talent and relatively new artist, it was hard for Ozard to make as big an impact as she’d hoped. The year after her Growing Pains EP was unleashed, she would have been looking forward to solid touring and getting out there – though that wasn’t to be unfortunately. Since then, Ozard has released some amazing singles and E.P.s including 2021’s let’s play pretend. One of the country’s brightest young artists, I want to explore her career more. I think Ozard’s sound and direction has changed slightly since 2019 and 2020, but I want to start with a 2020 interview from Yuck Magazine, where she talks about her parents’ musical tastes and her how lockdown affected her songwriting:

“Manchester’s Abbie Ozard catapults us into the opening scene of a 70s coming of age flick, through her self-proclaimed collection of ‘sad bangers.’ Developing an interest in music from a young age, she has since been thrown into the public consciousness after being signed to Modern Sky Entertainment UK and recently releasing the lo-fi pop track ‘TV Kween.’

The song puts a spin on the classic feel-good after school special vibe, and Ozard pulls no punches when commenting on 2020’s influencer culture. There’s a real honesty in her songwriting, offering an unapologetic, shoulders-back attitude to femininity. “When you’re laying on your bed and you’re scrolling through your phone, you see all of these sick people on Instagram,” Ozard begins, “you think to yourself ‘fuck sake, I’m still at home,’ or you look at yourself in the mirror of a bar thinking ‘who the fuck even am I?’ It’s inspired by that, the pressures of influencer culture now.”

Commenting on the lyric: ‘everybody wants to be famous, I play it cool, but I’ve not got the patience,’ she says: “I don’t really want to be famous, it just sounded like a cool little line, but I think everyone is fighting for attention all the time. It’s all very fake and boring.”

The zeitgeist of our times isn’t the only inspiration Ozard draws on. She winds back the clock looking to 20th-Century music and cinema, which has almost certainly rubbed off from her parents’ admiration for them. “My Mum loves The Breakfast Club and my Dad is a big Blondie fan,” she explains. “I think it all got in my head a bit. I love films like Juno and all those coming of age type films, so I guess that’s my favourite kind of style.”

Cutting her teeth on a songwriting course at Manchester’s BIMM, Ozard found inspiration more outside of the classroom than in. “I don’t think you can really teach songwriting, it’s more of a subjective thing,” she begins. “I was going out and getting pissed, and wasn’t writing as much as I would have liked to, but the personal experiences I had at university influenced my writing a lot more than the course.” Not alone in a sea of discontent towards higher studies, she was still able to express her creativity elsewhere, “all the people in my band are from BIMM, and my housemates studied music, so we’d all just chill downstairs and jam. So it was better for the people you met, you know?”

After a spur of confidence from her Bowie-loving Father persuading her to take the songs out of the bedroom, Ozard decided to take the leap of faith with her music and accept an offer to be signed with Modern Sky Entertainment UK. “I released the single and from that Dave [Pichilingi] approached me and was like ‘I wanna fuckin’ sign you!’ [heavy Scouse accent impersonation],” she begins. “I thought I could stay independent and do it all myself, but I’m a dosy bitch, I’ve got no idea about money or anything. I’d rather just concentrate on writing my songs.”

Forced apart by lockdown restrictions, the usual songwriting process had to take a new turn, as Ozard and co-producer Rich Turvey [Blossoms, Vistas] took to facetime to squeeze in those crucial creative hours. “We wrote the song over Facetime during lockdown,” she says, “it was our first facetime writing sesh, it was so weird. We both have our guitars, he can hear me and I can hear him, so we just crack on.”

Despite the struggles of the pandemic, the creative process is not halted and ‘sad bangers’ continue to be written: “they eventually develop and you then realise that you’ve actually written a song that’s very personal, without specifically saying how you feel. ‘On A Low’ was on my own, so it’s a bit more sad and slow. It’s always good to mix it up though.”

Ozard has rightfully garnered interest from tastemakers at BBC Introducing and Radio 6Music, playing a number of festivals before lockdown hit and is certain to appear on more line-ups when (if) the time comes again. The growing pains are surely over for Ozard now with an impressive collection of tracks under her belt. Watch this space”.

I love the fact that Abbie Ozard was surrounded by his great and eclectic music in her family house. As DORK discovered in 2021, her musical beginnings were quite different to what they are now. If she is a Folk artists with Pop sensibilities now, there was a time when something more choral and classical was in her life:

“Surrounded by the sounds of the 80s, David Bowie and The Cure growing up in a family home in love with music, Abbie’s first steps to stardom involved stepping into… a cathedral? “Yeah, like a cathedral choir,” she laughs. “It was classical music at the start but then as I got older, when I was 13, I was like fuck it, don’t want to do any of this classical stuff anymore. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind whacking a bit of it on now, but I started kinda listening to folk-y music and that, and it went from there.” A love of artists including Bon Iver and, in particular, Bombay Bicycle Club soon followed and it became the base for Abbie’s early forays into songwriting.

That “base of folk” as Abbie puts it poured together in no time. “I’ve realised that when I’m dead happy, I find it really hard to write, like it’s so frustrating. PLEASE someone have a go at me, get me out of this happiness!” Songs began to flourish from the emo poems she’d write down after school. “I was 17 and had my first breakup, and I didn’t know what to do,” Abbie remembers. “I wrote and wrote, and it helped me make this product out of me just being a mess.”

2019’s ‘Growing Pains’ EP was a bubbling introduction to a songwriter having fun with the world around her. Combining lo-fi bliss with pure pop sensibilities, it was an early sign that Abbie was a voice bound to make a mark. Last year’s standout croon ‘TV Kween’ is the track Abbie points to as a perfect snapshot of where she is now. “Before, the whole genre wasn’t really solidified. With ‘Growing Pains’, it was like right okay – I’m going to make a little EP that’s a chapter on everything’s that happened in that year and the pains of growing up basically. It was a little experiment really, compared to what I was doing before. With this next EP, it’s basically that on steroids”.

“Like ‘TV Kween’ was done over Zoom, and that’s been my favourite one so far. After that I was like, right, I love this vibe. I wanna stick with this for a bit and see where it goes. Like it feels like I’ve found my sound, though saying that I’ll probably end up getting bored and trying something different in the future, which is fine. That’s the fun of music, you can do what you want.”

While those live moments that the ‘Let’s Play Pretend’ EP scream out for may be on pause, there’s no doubt that Abbie’s future seems destined for those grand occasions. Early nights supporting whenyoung are ones Abbie can directly point to as inspiring her to write songs that “absolutely slap live”, but with a wealth of material that also pulls from those early folk routes – predict what comes next from Abbie at your peril. “I have this SoundCloud playlist of all these sad demos that I just haven’t released,” cracks Abbie. “I keep thinking that nobody can ever hear these, just so sad and no laffs at all, but I may slip a few of these in next time…

“I just want to get to a place where every day can be music, and things to do. To play a show, eat some pizza and then get back on it again. I want to meet people who love music and chat to them. I want to make people feel better with whatever people are going through. That’s the aim really, to make people feel better.”

Abbie breaks out another smile. “I don’t think I’ll ever stop… don’t really have a choice! Might as well have a listen, eh?!”.

By the start of this year, Ozard had confirmed herself as one of the most arresting and consistent artists around. I am looking forward to seeing her career grow and expand even more. Water Based Lullabies is another amazing release from the Manchester artist. I guess sit begs the question as to whether a debut album is the next step for her. The Line of Best Fit chatted with Ozard earlier in the year. One of the most interesting segments talked about the fact Ozard has not been able to tour much to date:

“Mentions of family and growing up as the youngest child are peppered throughout Water Based Lullabies. It was with her family in Manchester where Ozard’s mish-mash of influences from McFly to Mazzy Star spawned, and today, she can still be seen lending a hand at the family café on a Friday. “I haven’t had any fans pop in yet!” Ozard laughs. Yet, despite not having fully flown from the clutches of the café, Ozard is on her way to achieving her ambition of making music a full-time career – and so too are many of her Manchester contemporaries.

So, what’s the secret behind the city’s musical talent? “Probably just being northern!” Ozard suggests. “I think everything is more rough and ready, which is quite a good thing. I’m not shitting on people from down south at all, but everyone here is so focused on what they’re doing and there’s a sense of community surrounding it all as well. You don’t have to move to London to do music anymore, which is exciting.”

To achieve the authentic vision Ozard strived for in her Water Based Lullabies, she had to overcome self-imposed barriers. Apprehensive that “nobody would listen” to tracks such as “Grown”, a tender ballad on a broken relationship, or her favourite Coldplay-esque track “Norway”, confidence was required for Ozard to hone in on the sadness that characterises her artistry – and the artists she loves most.

“Most of the time, I tend to listen to sad, depressing music from people like Phoebe Bridgers, but I was almost too scared to release those kinds of songs,” Ozard reveals. However, with its contrasting dynamics from pop banger “Pisces” to the dreamy “Rose Tinted”, Ozard has conquered her fears. And with it, there’s a newfound maturity evident in her songwriting. “With Water Based Lullabies, lyrically, everything is quite deep – but it comes in peaks and troughs,” she says. “I’ve tried to be as honest as I can with the lyrics and I think it tells listeners more personal details about me than they’ll have heard before. It’s quite open, which is scary too.”

Recently, Ozard spoke about the treatment of some record labels encouraging artists to upload excessively to TikTok. It’s a problem plaguing many up and coming artists such as Ozard today with the changing landscape of the music industry. Ozard admits that her own relationship with social media “isn’t great”, but has mixed opinions on the impact it’s having on artists today.

“Personally, there’s no pressure coming from my label for me to make TikToks and things like that, which is why I like working with indie labels,” Ozard explains. “However, on my days off, I find that I spend so much time making TikToks, which means less time for writing. I feel like artists getting signed from 10-15 second clips on TikTok could pose problems for the music industry. I think I go on it too much and I compare myself to other artists a lot too. Everyone does it, you know? There’s a lot of pressure from that end, but a lot of the time though, I do find it fun. It’s just hard not to become obsessed with it.”

Live shows have been a bit of an inconsistent fixture in Ozard’s musical career to date (through no fault of her own, though). Plans for her first UK headline tour have been side-lined on numerous occasions due to the pandemic. But off the back of a stellar Glastonbury performance, this December marks the end of Ozard’s wait for a headline tour. “I feel like the tour is coming at a good time,” says Ozard. “It’s been pushed back for two years but I’d rather it be perfect than rushing into doing it. I’m looking forward to Manchester the most, and London. I’d also say Glasgow as well. We played at St Luke’s a few months ago and we had the nicest promoter there. We even got fed, which was great!”

With three distinct EPs in the bag, can Ozard now begin to set her sights on a debut album? “I’ve got it laid out in my head, but I want to start thinking about where I want to go with it,” she ponders. “I think Water Based Lullabies is a really good direction of where I’m heading next. When I’m ready, in my head, it’ll be there!”.

Before ending on a review for Water Based Lullabies, there is a great feature from Atwood Magazine from this year. Maybe her most Pop-driven offering yet (?), the sheer quality and confidence finds her stepping up a gear and cementing her brilliance:

“Captivating and charismatic, anxious and unfiltered, Abbie Ozard’s third EP is an utter thrill: A radiant outpouring of dynamic passion and stirring emotion all wrapped up in fuzzy indie pop fever dream. From angst-ridden upheavals and stirring inner reckonings to resonant anthems of empowerment, the Manchester singer/songwriter soars high and true with seven tracks that inspire the mind and invigorate the soul. As charged as it is charming, Water Based Lullabies captures Ozard’s raw energy and irresistible allure, cementing her place as one of the UK’s most exciting up-and-comers.

What’s the point in growing up

When each day you give less of a f-

Meditate they say

It’ll take the pain away

while you suffocate (I’d rather medicate)

Now I’m trying my best to translate

The emotional cocktail pouring out of my brain

And I’m trying my best to keep it at bay

Put it on the shelf for a rainy day

But I can’t, and it feeds my anxiety,

Takes the best of me

Hoovers up my fun

Leaves me feeling like a liability

Listen to my favourite song

And now everything is rose tinted…

Everything is rosey everything is great

I love my life I love my dog

So wrapped up in a bubble for a moment I forgot

– “Rose Tinted,” Abbie Ozard

Released July 1, 2022. via House Anxiety, Water Based Lullabies is an inspiring, energizing aquatic-themed reverie. Following her 2019 debut Growing Pains EP and 2021’s follow-up, let’s play pretend, Abbie Ozard’s roaring and resounding new seven-track EP sees her embracing a vast range of stories, sounds, and styles: From the explosive indie rocker “Candy Blue” to the post-punk strut of “Rose Tinted” and the churning, cathartic, and contemplative rush of “Grown,” Water Based Lullabies is an achingly intimate and unapologetically expressive eruption from the artist’s innermost depths.

Deeply vulnerable lyrics and hard-hitting sonics ensure a spellbinding journey throughout this tight, triumphant 20-minute experiece. Ozard cites artists like Phoebe Bridgers and Wolf Alice, Lorde and Colouring as some of her current influences – and just like all of the above, she truly holds nothing back in her songwriting. “I love that no two of my singles are sounding the same in this era,” she shares. “The last thing I want to be is predictable. I feel like genre isn’t really a thing anymore and when I remind myself of that I feel like I can express myself creatively and have the freedom to make whatever music I want”.

I will finish up with a review from Clunk Mag. Water Based Lullabies has quite rightly received so many glowing reviews. Albums get preference when it comes to attention and the end-of-year lists. I think E.P.s are very important, and Water Based Lullabies ranks alongside the absolute finest of 2022:

“From the first dreamy strains of ‘Pisces’, Abbie Ozard‘s latest EP ‘Water Based Lullabies’ sweeps in, picks you up and transports you to somewhere beautiful. The wavy synth and bouncing bass line create the flowing river that Abbie Ozard‘ sweet, vulnerable sounding vocals ride along on with lyrics like “I’m a Pisces so I’m not sure your energy’s for me” lending further lightness to an already breezy song.

When ‘Candy Blue’ comes bursting in with a flurry of drums, it grabs your attention in an instant before Abbie Ozard‘s special blend of dream pop sweeps through and carries the rest of the song. Songs like ‘Comfy’ and ‘Grown’ slow the pace but are no less charming and special. ‘Comfy’ with its wonky guitar sounding like it’s being played through a warped vinyl complimenting Abbie’s vocals wonderfully and ‘Grown’ leaning a little to the left with a harmoniser on the vocals and various instruments drifting in and out creating a cinematic quality to the song.

‘Fizzy’ plays almost like a sweeter Pale Waves with scuzzy guitars in the chorus creating a huge chorus that can’t help but satisfy a live crowd. With each song having its own unique identity, ‘Water Based Lullabies’ is sown together by Abbie Ozard’s gorgeously sweet and raw voice and flawless knack for writing indie pop gems.

Much like Lauran Hibberd, there is something about Abbie Ozard’s music that is not only dripping with cool but feels totally unique to her. All hail the future of dreamy indie pop”.

With so many great songs under her belt, I feel Abbie Ozard will tour quite extensively last year. She has just completed some U.K. dates, but I think there is a possibility of international dates in 2023. I am going to wrap up soon. Go and check out Abbie Ozard, as she is a stunning talent and someone who is being talked about as a huge artist of the future. I would not be surprised to see her feature heavily during festival season next year. I am sure she is not getting ahead of herself, but Ozard should prepare herself for an explosion. If you do not have Ozard’s music in your life, then that is something that you need to correct! Someone bound for huge glory next year, here is someone that…

WE all should all follow.

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Follow Abbie Ozard

FEATURE: Wouldn’t It Be Nice… Innovative and Fascinating New Music Videos for Classic Songs

FEATURE:

 

 

Wouldn’t It Be Nice…

IN THIS PHOTO: The Beach Boys in an outtake for the Pet Sounds shoot at San Diego Zoo in February 1966/PHOTO CREDIT: George Jerman

 

Innovative and Fascinating New Music Videos for Classic Songs

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MAYBE it is not a new phenomenon…

IN THIS PHOTO: The Beatles in 1966/PHOTO CREDIT: Robert Whitaker

but I have been stunned recently but music videos scoring classic songs. I think there is still a generational divide where certain people are not aware of songs from the 1960s and 1970s that the likes of me and my parents are fully conscious of. Radio does play these songs but, as stations have demographics and they may not feature these songs, I do wonder what the best way is to bring these masterpieces to the younger listeners. For me, music videos have been a great and effective way of making songs stick. Original videos for classic songs might be a bit poor in terms of the picture quality, or the concept might be basic. I think this is especially true of songs from the 1960s. Of course, it is costly creating new videos for songs that are not going to make money or have any modern design and desire! There is a particular reason I bring this up. Two bands have been back in my mind for different reasons. In fact, these bands competed with each other in the 1960s and created some of the finest music ever released. The Beatles recently saw their 1966 album, Revolver, given the deluxe treatment. Reissued and added with extras, there were new promotional videos for some of the songs – including songs that were not originally released as singles. One especially effective and stunning video was for I’m Only Sleeping. A song led by John Lennon, I don’t think there would have been the same animation technology in the 1960s to equal what has come out in 2022!

An animation video that is trippy and is almost like a painting melting, Em Cooper directs this wonderfully realised vision of the song. To me, it is what The Beatles would have been thinking if they were to release a video in 1966. Not only have I got a renewed interest in I’m Only Sleeping, but I would love to see each song on the album given a new video. That would be costly but, considering Here, There and Everywhere and Taxman also have videos, it is not such a stretch. There is no danger of legendary and iconic bands ands artists fading from view or being overlooked by young generations. I do feel the way music is passed down between parent and child is different and maybe less frequent than it was decades back. There are so many wonderful songs from the 1960s and 1970s (and before and after obviously) that are ubiquitous or at least very well-known by a certain generation, but they may be fresh or undiscovered by others. Are they going to stumble upon them by themselves? As I mentioned, there are cost and logistical issues with dipping into the decades and randomly making videos for classic songs. The Beatles’ Revolver has a special edition released, so there was call for promotion and these amazing videos. Looking at comments online and on YouTube, many have stumbled upon songs like I’m Only Sleeping and Taxman because of these new videos.

The power of the visuals against the timeless song is a potent and intoxicating combination. If not a sure-fire way to recruit new minds to these older songs, the videos for The Beatles’ gems are a great way of visualising them in a new way. The Beatles’ videos of the mid-‘60s were actually quite advanced and filmic. Given the relative technological limitations of the time, their videos are as impressive and forward-thinking as their music. As Magical Mystery Tour has not been reissued, I am not sure whether we will get videos for I Am the Walrus, Penny Lane, Strawberry Fields Forever or The Fool on the Hill. Whether you mark the U.S. or U.K. double E.P., it is fifty-five. It is a good time to celebrate this work! In terms of the videos for The Beatles’ reissues, they have been largely animated if memory serves. With only two surviving band member left (Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr), you’d have to find other actors anyway to ‘represent’ the band. I think the animation styles and choices made to represent these songs has been spot on. It has given us the chance to see the great work of talented directors and see these songs in a very different way. I was so blown away by I’m Only Sleeping’s new video, that it made me think about how it has brought hidden layers and visions from the original! By seeing the video, I am sure that many – who were not aware of the song – would have looked for Revolver and discovered that.

Another band that have released a series of videos for some of their best-known songs are The Beach Boys. I will embed a couple here. The first three in a four-video mini-series. Unlike The Beatles’ animated approach, The Beach Boys’ Barbara Ann, Don’t Worry Baby, Wouldn’t It Be Nice and God Only Knows are used to soundtrack this story arc of two young sweethearts. I first saw the new video for Don’t Worry Baby, and I was not sure what it was being used for. Again, I was blown away by the direction and new interpretation. Here are some more details about the exciting project:

“Four classic Beach Boys songs are the soundtrack of a new, unprecedented four-part video series that builds into one long dramatic narrative. Each film can also be enjoyed individually. The series begins today with a new video for “Barbara Ann,” available to view on the Beach Boys official YouTube channel.

The cinematic story is directed by Andrew Litten, whose credits include Anderson .Paak, Pusha T, and Earth, Wind & Fire, and was filmed in South Africa with a local cast of actors. In the spirit of the timeless songs they illustrate, the narrative of the films captures young love, tracing a high school romance between the surfing-obsessed Helena (played by Zoe Manoek) and aspiring photographer and new kid in town Lucas (Toby De Goede). It addresses the difficult decisions each must make as graduation day approaches and their futures beckon.

“Barbara Ann” introduces Helena, a young teen who spends her days daydreaming about surfing and escaping from her small town. The story of Lucas, who moves to town with his father, will be told in the next video, “Don’t Worry Baby,” which follows tomorrow (10) at 9am PT.

The following videos in the series are “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” (premiering next Friday, September 16 at 9am PT), which portrays the relationship between Helena and Lucas; and “God Only Knows” (September 17 at 9am PT), in which their young love reaches a crossroads as the end of high school comes near.

Each of the episodes focuses on an element of the escapism sought by the protagonists as they stand at the intersection of innocence and adulthood. They mirror the sentiments of indelible songs written when the Beach Boys were teenagers and young adults themselves.

Says Listen: “A recurring theme throughout the Beach Boys’ music is the feeling of being young and in love. Their most iconic songs were written when they were between the ages of 15 to 21, so there’s this exciting view on life that’s immortalized in their lyrics. I wanted to do the same with the music videos by capturing the spontaneity and playfulness of being a teenager, fantasizing about the future, pursuing new passions, and falling in love.

“I wanted to capture the feeling after your first kiss or how it felt leaving home for college,” the director continues.”Each video builds on itself to become one long narrative but it was also very important that each video could stand on its own. If you’re watching chronologically, you become more invested in the characters.” The videos also contain several hidden “Easter eggs” that further salute the legacy of the Beach Boys”.

Normally, the way one might see classic tracks visualised for the screen is through film and T.V. This is an invaluable way to showcase these songs to a new audience. I am interested in the four songs that were chosen for this Beach Boys project. They flow together nicely, and each of the videos push the story forward. Two groups that share similarities have seen their work given a new spin in very different ways. It is not only music of the ‘60s that could be included in any future plans. I just like the way songs I am very familiar with have dug deep and surprised me because of the videos. I am sure there are people who have never heard the songs that are discovering them now. I do wonder if you have a different relationship with the track depending on whether you hear it on the radio or see the video. We could all rattle off these beautiful older songs that would benefit from new videos. Bands or artists who could have their own four-song cycle/project. Maybe you’d have to wait for an album reissue or an anniversary, but a new spin and lick of paint can do wonders for tracks some take for granted and think they know everything about – and some people do not even know about them to begin with! The Beatles and The Beach Boys’ videos are astonishing, so I am fascinated to see whether anything similar happens in 2023 for another act. By the end of the Beach Boys’ video series, I was transfixed! Check out the video for God Only Knows too, as it is a wonderful tribute to…

THIS genius track.

FEATURE: For the New Generation of Kate Bush Fans… Why You Need to Explore Her Whole Discography

FEATURE:

 

 

For the New Generation of Kate Bush Fans…

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1989

Why You Need to Explore Her Whole Discography

__________

HEADING through December…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1985/PHOTO CREDIT: Guido Harari

I am going to do one or two Christmas-themed features around Kate Bush. There will be a gift-buying guide, a piece about a track, Home for Christmas. I will also look back on her 2022 and everything she has achieved. I will also do one or two more deep cut dives – where I look at great songs that do not get much attention -, and I will also start features around the forty-fifth anniversary of The Kick Inside (on 20th January). I don’t think it is possible or the full story if fans stick with one album or they are too beholden to a particular period. As I have said numerous times this year, Bush’s music has found a whole new generation because of the Netflix series, Stranger Things. Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) is a well-known song that is played regularly on radio. It does seem that many people did not know about the track, so the show has put it in their lives. Because of this, Hounds of Love (the song the album is from) has regained a giant amount of popularity and focus. It is no surprise that The Guardian recently recommended 1985’s Hounds of Love as the gateway Kate Bush aolbum – the one that fans should start with:

“With a catalogue as rich and deep as Kate Bush’s, it feels almost too easy to recommend her best-known and biggest-selling album as a first point of contact. But her most famous album is also her best. It has all the strangeness, density and boldness of 1982’s The Dreaming – it variously involves Tennyson, Wilhelm Reich, Gregorian chant, Irish jigs and a song about maternal love written from the point of view of a murderer – but allied to more directly appealing music.

Running Up That Hill didn’t become a No 1 single earlier this year just because it was featured in Stranger Things, but because it combines a stunning melody with a curious atmosphere that buries itself under your skin. To make commercially successful music this complex and fascinating takes unique skill; so does making music that exists so apart from anything else happening at the time that it inhabits its own space: Kate Bush’s genius in miniature. AP”.

I do think that this album is a masterpiece, but I still think there is too much weight on it. Other albums get overlooked. For instance, if you want an album that introduces her music and provides a good starting place, I will say 1978’s The Kick Inside. There are so many brilliant albums that paint the full picture of Bush’s talent and songwriting. I know that, by looking at streaming figures, songs from a few of her album have boosted their numbers. I am curious whether many of the new fans (mainly Gen Z) even know about 1978’s Lionheart, 1980’s Never for Ever, and 1982’s The Dreaming? Those albums are each unique and steppingstones to Hounds of Love. They are very strong and varied, offering treats and new layers of her music. It is all well having a gateway album but, as I have also mentioned before, if it the most acclaimed and popular album, then does that mean people peak too soon? Also, if you have the best album, are you going to explore beyond that? Not to say that everyone who is new to Kate Bush will stick with Hounds of Love, but there are distinct early and later periods either side of that album that are remarkable. The fortieth anniversary of The Dreaming this year was a reminder of how underrated and important it is. Influencing so many artists, I think that it would resonate and connect with young listeners. The same could be said of later albums like Aerial (2005) and 50 Words for Snow (2011).

In the same way many critics and people defined Kate Bush in 1978 on the strength of her debut album, many now might have a very limited and misleading perspective if they remain on Hounds of Love. Rarities and B-sides provide eccentric gems and lost classics. It may be harder for young listeners to afford the vinyl copies of Bush’s albums. They may well buy one, and that is likely to be Hounds of Love. Streaming means there is access to pretty much everything! A few of the B-sides are not on Spotify, but you can get them on YouTube and other sites. I will do a Christmas feature recommending books and albums to buy, but I would say to be bold and adventurous. I can listen to Never for Ever or Hounds of Love and get one experience. I then spin The Sensual World (1989) and The Red Shoes (1993) and there is something else. A new experience. Each album charts that stage in Kate Bush’s career, and gives you that broader impression. Many not diving right into whole albums and doing them all in a single day, I would say to start at the beginning and then spend time with each album going forward. Find out about Bush’s B-sides, because I feel knowing one song or clinging to Hounds of Love denies you of so much treasure and context. Start exploring today because you will find that there is…

SO much wonder to discover.

FEATURE: Spotlight: Carrie Baxter

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

  


Carrie Baxter

__________

DETERMINED to feature…

as many great rising artists in this feature as I can before the end of the year, I think that Carrie Baxter is someone who should be known and heard by more people. An amazing artist with such an incredible voice, I am going to come to an interview from this year. Before coming to an interview from last year, here is a feature from Tileyard. Baxter talks about her background, in addition to how important the Tileyard Education experience was for her:

“Tell us about your background, your upbringing, and your introduction into the world of music.

I’m from Waterford City in Southern Ireland. My hometown is very special to me despite me not being based there anymore. I think firstly it’s impossible to be from Ireland and not inherently pick up some form of love for music. The country is very rhythmical and built on storytelling which is why I love writing lyrics so much. My family were and still are very musical. A lot of my family either play or sing and I have to say they have great taste in music. You will rarely be in my house without some form of music on.

How did you get into music production, songwriting, and performance?

I’ve been writing lyrics / poems for as long as I can remember. They only turned into songs when someone bought me a guitar for Christmas one year and I sort of taught myself some chords and started piecing structures together. That lasted a few years, then I found electronic music and started top-lining over various beats – that’s when I really found my flow. Performance came from my childhood; I trained in acting and musical theatre so I’ve been on stage for a long time.

What were some of the barriers you experienced, or still do experience, as a ‘female producer/performer’?

I think I’ve entered the industry at a really exciting and supportive time for women as there is a lot of brilliant people doing fantastic things to push the needle forward and shine light where there previously was none. I can only comment on myself as a writer in the room and as an artist showing up in a male dominant workplace and say that it’s very important to be able to stand your ground and say what you think. Having confidence in your own ideas and abilities is imperative.

How was your experience of Tileyard Education, and how did this teach you the knowledge and life skills needed to be in the industry?

It’s not an understatement when I say studying at Tileyard Education changed my life. When I started at Tileyard my songwriting and understanding of the craft really went up a level. Having people around all the time that I could ask for advice or guidance was invaluable and getting constant feedback from my peers was priceless.

What can we look forward to hearing from you in the next few months / year from your creativity?

I’m not even sure what to expect from my creativity next. I’m hoping to continue working on the multiple different projects that I’ve got going on. Dance music, R&B, Bassline etc. I’m thankfully playing a lot of live shows and just figuring out what I want to do next!”.

 PHOTO CREDIT: Meara Kallista Morse

Carrie Baxter has released a series of wonderful singles this year. Last year, the incredible mixtape/long E.P., What Now. Differing from her previous E.P., Placebo, it was a step up from the Waterford artist. I am looking forward to next year to see if there is an album or another E.P. coming. WONDERLAND. chatted with Baxter about What Now. Residing in London, it is clear that the city has had an impact on her sound, production and direction:

“With everything that happened last year, how was your creativity affected?

My creativity had its ups and downs like everyone I guess. One day I would write loads and the next I was freaking out that I had lost my “spark” lol I did feel a bit nuts in lockdown.

How did you first get into music, what sparked the interest?

Well I guess firstly there is no denying the presence and history of music, storytelling & rhythm in Ireland, it feels natural to love music, almost an inherited love for it. I grew up in a very musical family, there was always decent music on in my house growing up and a lot of my family were/ are musicians and I was encouraged to play from a young age. I don’t think I realised how much I loved music until I hit my teenage years when I found Hip-Hop.

And you’re from Ireland but moved to London, do you think this change impacted your sound in anyway?

Yeah 100%. I’ve lived in London for around 12 years now so the city is part of me as much as my home is. I didn’t start writing music until I came to London and so I would say my taste in sounds has been completely shaped here in comparison to perhaps the narratives I reflect on which is across the board from growing up in Ireland to living in the fast lane in London.

You’ve just dropped your EP “What Now”, talk us through your mindset approaching the project?

I co-wrote this whole project with my friend GRAMM. It’s been so close to us for so many years I guess I have to jog my memory back to when we started it a couple of years ago because finishing it was an almighty stress in the middle of another lockdown and him not being in the same country as me. We just wanted it to be a total amalgamation of how we hear music together.

Who would you say inspires you?

Lots of people in different ways. Some inspire me to keep swimming, some inspire me to write music. I guess the most obvious answer is people who are already achieving what I want but more so everyone in my inner circle. They all share similar qualities that I like to keep around me.

What are you most excited for? What’s next for you?

Most of the work I have put out over the last 2 years has been written about the past or were made in the past and released quite a bit later on. I feel like I’m starting with a blank canvas in 2022 – like damn, I have to get to know myself again, what sounds do I like now, what do I have to say now, do I want to work with more people, less people – who knows- all of these questions – it feels daunting and exciting all at the same time. Hopefully some more live opportunities too – that would be nice – I miss singing live”.

I will wrap things up with an interview from this year. ReVamp spoke with Baxter about a successful year. Since her debut single arrived in October 2019, she has built her fanbase and established herself as an incredible artist with a big future. She is someone that people need to be aware of:

“Thanks for talking to ReVamp Carrie, when you were growing up, who are you inspired by in the music world?

A lot of different people really. Like most young girls at that time I was in love with the Spice girls, then as I hit teenage hood I really went heavy into hip hop & R&B. My house was a hub of music really, my family were the ones who gave me Norah Jones, Fleetwood Mac, Anita Baker & Van Morrison.

You are a fan favourite thanks to your ‘Honesty' and the ‘Straightforwardness’.. was this always something you wanted to achieve when creating your songs?

I didn't really set out to achieve anything, its just how I am as a person so I guess it translates quiet naturally into my writing. I enjoy writing made up stories too but writing is healing for me so I don't have an option not to be.

You have a live version of your single ‘You’, what made you decide to perform this single completely unfiltered?

It's just something I've always wanted to do. Me and a piano, one take, simple and classic. I had to write a song that I felt warranted this treatment haha and I love the lyrics on You so it was an easy choice to finally do it with this track. I'm a huge fan of space in music so I enjoyed being able to sing it with no distractions.

What is the song about and when people listen to it, what do you want them to feel?

The song was written for my friends wife actually, he wrote the chord progression and brought it to me asking me to write a song for her - from his perspective (he's not a singer lol ) and this came out. Unconditional love, soul mates. I'd like to think people feel peace for 3 mins.

On the day of writing and recording, can you talk me through the process?

We pretty much wrote that song is 1 go. We went back and forth on the chorus melody for MONTHS ! I'm not one to change my mind on my first idea a lot of the time so we eventually landed back on the original. We got Alex Tierney on board to add BVS to the hook and he subsequently ended up writing the final outro/bridge section. Recording is a pretty similar process for me - I don't usually do many takes - I didn't on the original and also the live version was pretty much the same. Nathan - my friend who plays the keys in the video literally turned up a few hours before we sang through it and then hit record.

What is next for you?

A very busy 6 months ahead, lots of festivals, an irish tour, a london show anddd perhaps a surprise release (or 2)”.

I know Carrie Baxter is going to have a fantastic 2023. Recent singles like Selfish are among the best of this year. Having said how she’d like people to get a sense of her personality when they play the music, I think that does come through. You get so many different emotions and shades. Growing bigger and more assured with everything she releases, Carrie Baxter is an artist who will be reaching a huge audience…

NEXT year.

______________

Follow Carrie Baxter

FEATURE: The Headline Stays the Same: Get Your Acts Together! Is Gender Inequality at Festivals Going to Pervade in 2023?

FEATURE:

 

 

The Headline Stays the Same: Get Your Acts Together!

 

Is Gender Inequality at Festivals Going to Pervade in 2023?

__________

I don’t think…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Billie Eilish/PHOTO CREDIT: Kelia Anne MacCluskey

there are many festivals in the world that are going to struggle to find women to perform at. Few that are so restricted in terms of availability that they are going to be male-heavy. Even Metal festivals – which have been accused of gender inequality in the past – have a stock of female talent to select from. I know there are Hip-Hop festivals that are struggling to balance the line-ups. Given the number of amazing women coming through and established in that genre, one wonders what the excuse is. There were festivals last year that fulfilled the fifty-fifty gender split. There was a pledge a while back that festivals would commit to ensuring their bills were equal when it comes to gender. Whilst there were festivals last year that hit that target, there are many more that have not! I say it every year, but it seems staggering that there is still this inequality at festivals! What excuses can there be?! No organiser can say female artists are unavailable, as they are no busier than male artists. You cannot defend the statement that punters are used to men at festivals and want to keep it that way. Change and progression is not happening, so how can they be spoken for?! Regardless as to whether they would be aggrieved at more women playing, that would show there is something pretty toxic at the heart of festivals. I don’t think there is this active resistance to equality. The same tired acts are being trotted out at festivals at a time when women are dominating music and adding something incredible to every genre. From Folk to Pop, right through to Hip-Hop, Electronica and Metal, there is no huge shortage of women that could ensure festivals hit that target.

 IN THIS PHOTO: Halsey (even though she was a bill-topper last year at Reading & Leeds alongside Megan Thee Stallion, women were still in the minority)/PHOTO CREDIT: Getty Images

Some moan about this fifty-fifty pledge and say it is political, woke or not based on quality or demand. They say that festivals have always been male-heavy, so that shows that this is what people want. Maybe women are not festival-ready and including them would weaken the line-up. These arguments are moronic, not based on any fact, and are lazy at best. I do worry that music festivals are going to repeat the same patterns next year as they have always done. Aside from bigger festivals like Glastonbury pledging actively to make their line-up gender-equal, many other large festivals are not. One glaring and repeated offender is Reading & Leeds. NME reported on the line-up announced. Even though not all names are confirmed, around a third of the artists listed are women.

“After 2022’s edition of the iconic twin-site festival saw Arctic Monkeys, Megan Thee Stallion, The 1975, Dave, Bring Me The Horizon and Halsey all top the bill, the August Bank Holiday bash will return next summer with more big names.

After festival boss Melvin Benn teased to NME that two of the top acts booked had topped the bill before, returning headliners The Killers and Foals will be back at R+L, while Fender, Eilish, Capaldi and Imagine Dragons will be making their Reading & Leeds headline debuts.

Other acts on the line-up include Wet Leg, Slowthai, Bicep, Becky Hill, Steve Lacy, Central Cee, MUNA, The Snuts, Tion Wayne and more.

R+L boss and Festival Republic MD Melvin Benn said: “We are delighted to return to Reading’s Richfield Avenue and Leeds’ Bramham Park in 2023 with another epic six headline artists, and an incredible, genre-defying line-up that features some of the very best in modern music. Once again Reading & Leeds is set to be the ultimate bank holiday festival weekend – we can’t wait to be back!.

IN THIS PHOTO: Nessa Barrett 

The full line-up for Reading & Leeds 2023 so far is:

BILLIE EILISH

SAM FENDER

FOALS

THE KILLERS

IMAGINE DRAGONS

LEWIS CAPALDI

ANDY C

BABY QUEEN

BECKY HILL

BICEP LIVE

CENTRAL CEE

CHASE ATLANTIC

DECLAN MCKENNA

DON BROCO

ELIZA ROSE

GEORGIA

INHALER

LF SYSTEM

LIL TJAY

LOVEJOY

LOYLE CARNER

MEEKZ

MK

MUNA

NESSA BARRETT

NOTHING BUT THIEVES

SHY FX

SLOWTHAI

SONGER

STEVE LACY

THE SNUTS

TION WAYNE

TRIPPIE REDD

WET LEG

YOU ME AT SIX

YUNG LEAN”.

 IN THIS PHOTO: Wet Leg/PHOTO CREDIT: Elizabeth Weinberg for The New York Times

Other festivals will announce their 2023 line-ups soon. I feel it is insane that women are being denied or ignored when they are producing the best music. I am not picking on Reading & Leeds specifically. Whilst Billie Eilish is headlining, very few women are high up the bill. There are more than enough female acts to ensure greater gender parity. Maybe Nova Twins will be announced, but where are they?! They are Mercury-nominated and not even on the bill yet! Self Esteem would have been an awesome headliner. How about Laura Mvula, FKA twigs and Charli XCX? I am glad Wet Leg are featured, but there are so many female-led groups and solo artists (or duos/trios etc.) that could replace male artists that, to be fair, are far inferior! There is not even a commercial bias, in the sense the male acts hold more influence, have more pulling power and will bring in more people. The only male artists I am excited about in that line-up above is Loyle Carner, Sam Fender, and Declan McKenna. Not a huge amount to recommend. As you can see from the artists announced, they are not restricted in terms of gender. Reading & Leeds used to be Indie/Rock-heavy, but they have diversified their ethos. That has not translated into offering a great deal more women slots. You could easily name a dozen more women/female-led bands who would be eligible for inclusion and bring in so many new faces! I fear 2023 is going to be no better than last when it comes to including women. There is not a lot of outcry and demand from male artists for festivals to get their acts together, as they are denying a valuable platform for so many incredible musicians. One hopes things do eventually improve, but there is no reason why tiny steps happen. This is something that can change right away without any delay. Why do festivals continue to show such ignorance and short-sightedness?! I think Reading & Leeds’ line-up is a sad harbinger of things to come. Let’s hope I am wrong! Line-ups that largely disregard women and put them lower down the bill – despite there being one female headliner – is so angering…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Sam Fender live at Reading 2021/PHOTO CREDIT: Emma Viola Lilja for NME

AND depressing to see.

FEATURE: Crank the Bass… Girls Aloud’s Sound of the Underground at Twenty

FEATURE:

 

 

Crak the Bass…


 

Girls Aloud’s Sound of the Underground at Twenty

__________

I don’t think it is an exaggeration to say…

British Pop music might not have been at its peak in 2002. I think American artists were dominating but, here, maybe there needed to be a kick and revolution! I don’t think that too many artists who have appeared on reality T.V. shows have made a huge impact on the course of music or changed a genre. Girls Aloud were created during Popstars: The Rivals in 2002, and comprised Cheryl, Nadine Coyle, Sarah Harding, Nicola Roberts and Kimberley Walsh. We lost Harding last year from cancer. I will come to that in a minute. The amazing debut single, Sound of the Underground, smashed Pop upon its released on 16th December, 2002. As it is twenty soon, I wanted to celebrate a huge song. The single later featured on the album of the same name. If the album itself did not positive reviews across the board, one cannot deny the impact and importance of the first single from it. Written by Miranda Cooper, Brian Higgins, and Niara Scarlett, and produced by Higgins and his production team Xenomania, it is Pop music, but it is edgy and not what one might associate with a girl group. More in common with U.S. girl groups, it is a catchy and confident song that still sounds so fresh and captivating to this day! It became the year's Christmas number one in the U.K., spending four consecutive weeks atop of the charts in total. I will come to some critical reviews of the amazing Sound of the Underground. I think that the song did reshape British Pop at the start of the 2000s. It was such a breath of fresh air compared to the rather commercial and uninspired Pop that was around prior!

There is a special release of Sound of the Underground coming as CLASH reported. Given the fact Girls Aloud lost one of their members, it is fitting that an anniversary vinyl of their breakthrough debut sees proceeds going to charity to honour her memory and help fund important research:

“Girls Aloud are giving their iconic debut single ‘Sound Of The Underground’ a seven inch vinyl pressing for the very first time.

The song emerged from their Pop Idols roots, and went on to claim the coveted Christmas No. 1 spot. Remaining a central part of Girls Aloud mythology, ‘Sound Of The Underground’ is set to receive a seven inch vinyl pressing for the first time ever.

The no-doubt highly collective release is kept to just 5000 copies globally, accompanied by a never-before-released alternative vocal version of the song from the archives. In a neat touch, you’ll also get a sheet of “Buy Girls, Bye Boys” stickers.

Girls Aloud have joined with their record company Polydor to donate 100% of the profits from this vinyl release to The Sarah Harding Breast Cancer Appeal. The weekend just passed saw Cheryl, Kimberley, Nadine and Nicola hold The Primrose Ball, a charity gala event for The Christie NHS Foundation Trust and Cancer Research UK.

Pre-order the vinyl release online now” .

I want to end up by sourcing from Wikipedia in terms of the success and reaction to Sound of the Underground. Undoubtably one of the best debut singles from a girl group, I think the song took a lot of people by surprise in December 2002. Twenty years after its release, and I do think that Girls Aloud created this explosion on their debut single:

“Critical response

"Sound of the Underground" received a positive response from most music critics. It "proved a first: it was a reality pop record that didn't make you want to do physical harm to everyone involved in its manufacture." A review for Girls Aloud's debut album stated that the song has "become a pulsating pop classic with a modern, metallic beat, catchy chorus and just the right amount of sleaze." The song was further described as "an enticing blend of spiky guitars and Fatboy Slim beats topped off with an irresistibly catchy chorus." Michael Osborn said that "Sound of the Underground" offers "a fresh tune that has no intentions of following the road to seasonal schmaltzville." An article from The Guardian called the song "an icy confection very different from the normal run of girl-band things."

"Sound of the Underground" and another Xenomania production, Sugababes' "Round Round", have been called "two huge groundbreaking hits", credited with reshaping British pop music for the 2000s. Peter Robinson wrote, "Instead of what would become the predictable 'victory lap' ballad, here was an upbeat attitude-soaked celebration of life, partying, and being young." In 2003, "Sound of the Underground" was voted Best Single at the Disney Channel Kids Awards. The Telegraph placed the song at number 15 on a list of 100 songs that defined the 2000s, while NME included it at number 39. Spinner.com named "Sound of the Underground" the eighth best British song of the 2000s.

Chart performance

"Sound of the Underground" debuted at number one on the UK Singles Chart on 22 December 2002. Girls Aloud sold just over 213,000 copies, while One True Voice's "Sacred Trust" sold only 147,000. Girls Aloud stayed at number one for a second and third week, the final chart of 2002 and the first chart of 2003. The single spent another week at number one, bringing "Sound of the Underground" to a total of four consecutive weeks at number one in the UK. It spent two weeks in the top five at numbers three and five respectively, before slipping to number nine. The single spent fourteen further weeks inside the UK's top 75. It was certified platinum by the British Phonographic Industry in March 2003 for shipments of over 600,000 and sold over 653,000 copies. In December 2015, the Official Charts Company stated that "Sound of the Underground" had a chart sales tally of 679,770. In August 2017, the Official Charts Company updated the single's total sales figures to approximately 715,000. Following Sarah Harding's death in September 2021, the song had a resurgence in popularity with sales rising over 125%.

The song had similar success on the Irish Singles Chart. "Sound of the Underground" debuted at number two behind Eminem's "Lose Yourself", while One True Voice only managed to chart at number nine. They held on at number two for a second and thirdweek. In the song's fourth week on the Irish chart, "Sound of the Underground" managed to rise to number one, finally dethroning Eminem. It spent two weeks at the pole position. The song peaked inside the top twenty on Belgium's Ultratop Flanders chart and the Netherlands' Single Top 100 chart. The song also charted in Australia and various European countries”.

Even though Girls Aloud split in 2013, their music has endured and they remain a group that have this admiring fanbase. It was very sad when Sarah Harding died in 2021, as it would have been great to see them reform for a gig. I wanted to pay tribute to a remarkable song on its twentieth anniversary. This was a salute to Sound of the Underground. It is such an important single…

IN British Pop history.

FEATURE: Vinyl Corner: Small Faces - Ogdens' Nut Gone Flake

FEATURE:

 

 

Vinyl Corner

 

 

Small Faces - Ogdens' Nut Gone Flake

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I have not done a Vinyl Corner…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Small Faces in 1968/PHOTO CREDIT: Gered Mankowitz

for a while now, so I thought it was time to return! One of the best albums of the 1960s, Small Faces’ Ogdens' Nut Gone Flake is a Psychedelic classic. Released on 24th May, 1968, it is one of the defining albums of that era. Not that The Beatles dominated the 1960s, but I often look at albums released around the time of Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (May 1967) as the most influential Psychedelic album of the period. Small Faces, like The Beatles, were an English band. I do think there was a difference in style and scope between English and American bands when it came to Pop and Psychedelia in the 1960s. Led by the late great Steve Marriott, Small Faces’ third studio album is often seen as their very best. Consisting of two distinct sides, the first is a selection of songs of different styles. The second is called Happiness Stan, and it is a concept suite. The boy in the concept is Happiness Stan, and there are six songs interlinked with narration provided by comic monologuist and performer Stanley Unwin in his unique, nonsensical private language of ‘Unwinese’. I am going to come to a review for the magnificent Ogdens' Nut Gone Flake. The song the album is best known for is Lazy Sunday. One of the finest songs ever, that is not the only pearl to be found! Go and own this album on vinyl, as it is a remarkable thing to listen to! Before coming to a review, Louder Sound told the story of Ogdens' Nut Gone Flake in a great and insightful feature from last year. I love how Ogdens' Nut Gone Flake is distinctly English. With more groove and attitude than American brands, this was Mod and Psychedelia blended together:

“In 1966 The Small Faces were the ultimate embodiment of the metropolitan mod ideal. Four diminutive Jack-the-lads perpetually decked out in razor-sharp threads fresh from Carnaby Street. Rail-thin, hyperactive, mischievous; it was blatantly obvious to every ticket on the street that you didn’t get cheekbones like that from early nights and All-Bran.

Mum-friendly pop stars or not, The Small Faces were clearly quaffing large on whatever chemical indulgences Swinging London swung their way. To alleviate the boredom of a heavy provincial touring schedule, The Small Faces invariably took to the road with as many stimulants as were necessary to render rain-lashed Manchester club dates bearable: at first a little grass or hash; on occasion something a little speedier.

Then, shortly after Steve Marriott (guitar/vocals), Ronnie Lane (bass/vocals) and Ian McLagan (keyboards/vocals) moved into a shared Westminster apartment, a new drug entered their orbit that expanded their artistic remit almost beyond all recognition: LSD.

“We took our first trip in Westmoreland Terrace in early ’66,” remembers Ian McLagan. “And almost immediately started experimenting, using Chinese instruments and all sorts of sounds, to try and recreate a trip.”

By the following year the band’s singles output painted them as full-blown, unashamed drug evangelists. Though interestingly, July ’67’s lyrically blatant Here Comes The Nice concerned scoring speed rather than acid; yet another weapon in the Faces’ extensive pharmaceutical armoury.

“It was weird that they allowed Here Comes The Nice to come out at all,” smiles McLagan. “We were dabbling in all kinds of chemicals and Methedrine was one of them. We were wrong to have written about a speed dealer. They weren’t the nicest people. The guy you bought your hash from was usually just a head, but a speed dealer – like a coke or heroin dealer – was only interested in getting your money. It was quite different. They weren’t your friends.”

Just two months down the line from Here Comes The Nice, The Small Faces delivered one of the Summer Of Love’s defining statements, a psychedelically-inclined slice of quintessentially English whimsicality, characterised by a phasing effect courtesy of Olympic Studios engineer George Chkiantz. With a melody Marriott lifted straight from the hymn God Be In My Head, it concerned a nettle-swathed, rail-side bombsite in Ilford called Itchycoo Park.

Having delivered the East End Good Vibrations, The Small Faces prepared to record the Cockney Sgt. Pepper. But first there was the small matter of an Australian package tour (alongside The Who and Paul Jones) to take care of.

“[The Australian press] gave me hell from the very beginning, because I’d just been busted,” Mac continues, “I was on my way to Athens for a holiday but never got further than Heathrow. As I was showing my passport they smelt the hash on me, searched and busted me. As soon as we landed in Australia we had a press conference, so we’re all lined up in front of the television cameras and the first guy goes: ‘Steve Marriott, Ronnie Lane, Kenney Jones, Ian McLagan… you’re the drug addict right?’”

Controversy continued to plague the tour to its conclusion. “On our way to New Zealand we had to stop off in Sydney. You couldn’t drink on internal flights back then, but one of Paul Jones’ Australian backing band passed a bottle around and the police were called. We weren’t even drinking but they arrested and held us in the first-class lounge where a waitress came straight up to us and said: ‘What would you like to drink?’

"So we drank. The police arrested us as soon as we arrived in New Zealand, but we ended up having a great time. Steve had his 21st birthday party; Keith [Moon] wrecked his room; it was business as usual.”

Some of the material eventually included on their seminal Ogdens’ Nut Gone Flake was already in the can by this point, but not enough for an entire album. So in the spring of ’68 The Small Faces hired cabin cruisers and took to the River Thames to write some more.

“We found a camaraderie we hadn’t had before; I was even allowed to be involved in the writing. Long Agos And Worlds Apart was only my second song. It was all about being high. My first song was Up The Wooden Hills To Bedfordshire and that was all about… being high. I think I only had two modes at the time, one was being high and being awake, and the other was being high and being asleep.”

So what, other than the very liberal usage of a cocktail of psychoactive substances, was driving this period of unprecedented creativity? According to McLagan, not the influence of the then blossoming American West Coast psych scene, that’s for sure.

“Most of the music that came out of San Francisco at that time gave me a bad trip,” asserts McLagan. “I thought it was wet; hopeless frankly. It seemed like they’d forgotten the groove, the soul. It was totally boring; we had nothing in common with those guys apart from the drugs.”

There’s no escaping the fact that Ogdens’ Nut Gone Flake defines a uniquely Small Faces brand of psychedelia. Above all, it’s very mod, and very English. The cover (a round tobacco tin mock-up), lyrical imagery and subject matter are all symptomatic of the Edwardian nostalgia so prevalent in London as mod went psychedelic. While iconic boutique Granny Takes A Trip dressed the era, Ogdens’… provided its soundtrack: a seamless collage of hallucinogenic blues shouting, pop-art ingenuity, agrarian folk whimsy and music hall chirpiness”.

I am going to wrap up with a review for Ogdens' Nut Gone Flake. I am aware that many people might not have heard the album or know about Small Faces. This is what AllMusic noted about the 1968 album in their review:

“There was no shortage of good psychedelic albums emerging from England in 1967-1968, but Ogdens' Nut Gone Flake is special even within their ranks. The Small Faces had already shown a surprising adaptability to psychedelia with the single "Itchycoo Park" and much of their other 1967 output, but Ogdens' Nut Gone Flake pretty much ripped the envelope. British bands had an unusual approach to psychedelia from the get-go, often preferring to assume different musical "personae" on their albums, either feigning actual "roles" in the context of a variety show (as on the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album), or simply as storytellers in the manner of the Pretty Things on S.F. Sorrow, or actor/performers as on the Who's Tommy. The Small Faces tried a little bit of all of these approaches on Ogdens' Nut Gone Flake, but they never softened their sound. Side one's material, in particular, would not have been out of place on any other Small Faces release -- "Afterglow (Of Your Love)" and "Rene" both have a pounding beat from Kenny Jones, and Ian McLagan's surging organ drives the former while his economical piano accompaniment embellishes the latter; and Steve Marriott's crunching guitar highlights "Song of a Baker."

Marriott singing has him assuming two distinct "roles," neither unfamiliar -- the Cockney upstart on "Rene" and "Lazy Sunday," and the diminutive soul shouter on "Afterglow (Of Your Love)" and "Song of a Baker." Some of side two's production is more elaborate, with overdubbed harps and light orchestration here and there, and an array of more ambitious songs, all linked by a narration by comic dialect expert Stanley Unwin, about a character called "Happiness Stan." The core of the sound, however, is found in the pounding "Rollin' Over," which became a highlight of the group's stage act during its final days -- the song seems lean and mean with a mix in which Ronnie Lane's bass is louder than the overdubbed horns. Even "Mad John," which derives from folk influences, has a refreshingly muscular sound on its acoustic instruments. Overall, this was the ballsiest-sounding piece of full-length psychedelia to come out of England, and it rode the number one spot on the U.K. charts for six weeks in 1968, though not without some controversy surrounding advertisements by Immediate Records that parodied the Lord's Prayer. Still, Ogdens' was the group's crowning achievement -- it had even been Marriott's hope to do a stage presentation of Ogdens' Nut Gone Flake, though a television special might've been more in order”.

Although it did not do too well in the U.S., Ogdens' Nut Gone Flake did get to number one on the UK Record Retailer LPs Chart. Still a unique and extraordinary album to this day, I would advise anyone to go and get this on vinyl. As I always say, if you cannot afford to, then stream the album and enjoy it that way. I wanted to show my appreciation and fondness for an album that…

TURNS fifty-five next year.

FEATURE: Kate Bush: The Deep Cuts: Oh to Be in Love

FEATURE:

 

 

Kate Bush: The Deep Cuts

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1978/PHOTO CREDIT: Patrick Harbron 

 Oh to Be in Love

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PERHAPS I will wrap this feature up…

but, as there has been a general insistence for magazines, radio stations and people in general to gravitate to the best-known and most-played Kate Bush songs, it means that there is a whole raft of Bush songs that are either overlooked or not known about. That is a real shame! As I say all the time, some of her best songs are the deep cuts. Because of that, I want to highlight another one. I am going to plump for a B-side or rarity in the next instalment. Today, and as I am thinking about her 1978 debut album, The Kick Inside, I wanted to come back to one of its best songs. The album is forty-five in February, so I will write a slew of features around that closer to the time. I do not think I have written exclusively about the majestic Oh to Be in Love. I think that The Kick Inside is talked about because of its two U.K. singles, Wuthering Heights and The Man with the Child in His Eyes. Recorded first as a demo in 1976, this amazing song does not have a lot of information around it. I cannot find any interviews where Bush has spoken about the song or discussed its origins and story. That might be another reason why it is not known by many people outside of the Kate Bush fandom. There are several love songs on The Kick Inside that are quite intense, adult (considering Bush was a teenager when she recorded the songs) and incredibly original.

Not copying what her peers were doing or discussing love as tragic or necessarily heartbreaking, there is a lot of curiosity, lust, awakening and searching from the bold and wonderful Kate Bush. Not that the love songs are particularly explicit or graphic, but I think there is a suggestiveness and playfulness where you can picture Bush as the heroine in very erotic and sensual situations! Bush talks about attraction like no other lyricists I have encountered! The way she sings Oh to Be in Love is amazing too. Her voice to reach very high notes in the chorus, yet there is a control and tremulous sense of anticipation in the verses. Before getting to the lyrics and its place on The Kick Inside, there are a couple of interesting distinctions when it comes to Oh to Be in Love. The studio version is the only officially released version. A demo version is available, and it appeared on the bootleg 7" single, Cathy Demos Volume Two, in addition to various bootleg CDs. Whereas Bush performed the tracks from The Kick Inside and Lionheart (1978) in her 1979 The Tour of Life, Oh to Be in Love was not included. Bush premiered new tracks like Violin and Egypt, so why did this song from The Kick Inside lose out? Maybe there was literally no more room, or perhaps there was something about the song that would not translate to the stage too well? I think Oh to Be in Love has another distinction, in the fact it is finding a modern audience. It is definitely a deep cut one will very rarely hear on the radio or talked about by Kate Bush fans. I definitely think this is one of the stronger tracks on The Kick Inside.

In terms of the most-streamed songs from The Kick Inside, obviously, there is the obvious one-two of Wuthering Heights and The Man with the Child in His Eyes. The former is ahead by miles, and it is one of Bush’s most-streamed songs. In terms of the other tracks, Oh to Be in Love outranks nearly everything else. Even Moving, the better-known opening track, has fewer streams. The third-most-streamed song on The Kick Inside, that is amazing! I am not sure why this particular track has been boosted and gathered new attention in 2022. Of course, because of Stranger Things propelling Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) up the charts and making its sister album, Hounds of Love, a success all over again, other songs and albums have been discovered. People are going back to The Kick Inside, by what is it about Oh to Be in Love? So far as I can tell, there has not been a slew of cover versions. The song has not appeared on any shows or films, so is there something else that people gravitate towards? I shall get to the lyrics next, as maybe there is something in there that resonates. Oh to Be in Love was included in a four-track E.P. called 4 Sucessos, released in Brazil. It is sad there is not wider exposure of Oh to Be in Love because, clearly, there is this curiosity and magnetism that means it is one of the most-streamed songs from The Kick Inside.

A wonderful vocal from Kate Bush, her lyrics also have that blend of vague and direct. This is some of Bush’s best early lyric writing: “I could have been anyone/You could have been anyone's dream/Why did you have to choose our moment?/Why did you have to make me feel that?/Why did you make it so unreal?”. With Paddy Bush (her brother) supplying mandolin, and Ian Bairson doing backing vocals in the chorus alongside David Paton, it is such a beautiful song! Producer Andrew Powell provides some synthesiser too. A remarkable track that is worthy of a lot more love than it gets, Oh to Be in Love is a real treasure! Here is another of my favourite lyrical sections: “All the colours look brighter now/Everything they say seems to sound new/Slipping into tomorrow too quick/Yesterday always too good to forget/Stop the swing of the pendulum! Let us through!”. Delightful, delirious and distinctly the work of Kate Bush, I hope that the increased streaming figures means that Oh to Be in Love gets more airplay and exposure! The Kick Inside’s thirteen tracks are beautiful, but not too much is known about most of them. When it is forty-five in February, I hope songs such as Oh to Be in Love get more acclaim and spotlight. If you have not heard this magnificent song, then go and listen to it…

RIGHT now!

FEATURE: Revisiting... Santigold - Spirituals

FEATURE:

 

 

Revisiting...

  

Santigold - Spirituals

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FOR the last Revisiting…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Frank W. Ockenfels III

features of 2022, I am looking back at albums from this year that didn’t get the complete positivity and love that they deserved. One is Santigold’s exceptional fourth studio album, Spirituals. The album was recorded largely throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, between 2020 and 2021 with lyrics inspired in part by the present time in the U.S. Santigold described the writing as a cathartic process, as she was creating light so that she could move forward. An album about human resilience, it moves through various genres stunningly. One of the best releases from the Philadelphia-born artist, Spirituals is an album that warranted more spotlight and respect than it got I think. There are a couple of Spirituals reviews I want to get to, as it is a magnificent album that is among the best from this year. I will get into some interviews first. Santigold gave a selection of interviews to promote Spirituals. In this one from W Magazine, they revisit her 2008 debut album, Santigold, and put focus on the brilliant Spirituals:

“The musician Santi White, known by her artist moniker, Santigold, was sitting on a deck in Jamaica when her phone started blowing up. Beyoncé had just released “Break My Soul (The Queens Remix),” which revamps the verse full of name drops from “Vogue,” replacing Madonna’s creative heroes with her own. Instead of “Greta Garbo and Monroe/ Dietrich and DiMaggio,” Beyoncé opens with “Rosetta Tharpe, Santigold/ Bessie Smith, Nina Simone.” In the following lines, Santigold is revealed to be in the company of other legends, including Aretha Franklin, Diana Ross and Grace Jones. I asked White how it feels to win the pop cultural equivalent of a Lifetime Achievement Award. “I was obviously honored to be among those names!” she told me over the phone earlier this month. “The coolest thing about it to me is that Beyoncé is using her platform to educate people. Often, Black musicians—particularly Black women musicians—never get the recognition they deserve.”

Conversations about White’s icon status have been building for the last year. Thanks, in part, to the launch of the Instagram account @Indiesleaze, the internet has been brewing with nostalgia for the "alt" sounds and styles of the mid-to-late aughts—many of which were cultivated in New York’s Lower East Side and Brooklyn. While there is a great deal of silliness (think: shutter shades) and smuttiness (American Apparel) associated with this chapter in history, among the most meaningful and impactful cultural products of this era is Santigold’s music.

In 2008, the Philadelphia native’s debut album, the critically acclaimed Santigold, hit the indie music scene like a meteor. In a recent podcast for The Fader, Mark Ronson described himself as “gobsmacked” after listening to the record. “It felt as if she had dropped down to earth a fully formed, genre-spanning superstar,” he said. Building off of her foundations as a punk musician, White’s solo work fused the best of new wave and post-punk with dancehall, Tropicália and trip-hop. She engineered an edgy new sound, punctuated by sassy lyrics and enhanced by the flexibility of her piercing, inimitable vocals.

While White’s earliest music chronicles her coming of age in a creative utopia, her most recent body of work narrates the harrowing realities of life in a political dystopia, with the same gripping lucidity. On September 9th, Santigold will release her fourth studio album, Spirituals—the title of which references the genre of Christian music sung by enslaved people in America. Created mostly during the lockdown periods of the pandemic, the production of Spirituals allowed Santigold to find “transcendental freedom” in the absence of physical freedom. Sonically speaking, the record is a strong nod back to her first—it's uplifting, danceable and ferocious in a good way. Lyrically, it's moving. White is grappling with the most pressing issues of our time, with the intimacy and nuance she's well known for. “California was on fire, we were hiding from a plague, the social justice protests were unfolding. I’d never written lyrics faster in my life,” White shared.

The record is attuned to a new zeitgeist, one largely shaped by Black Lives Matter. The empowering messaging in tracks about the Black experience, such as “High Priestess,” “No Paradise,” and “Ain’t Ready” bring to mind Maya Angelou’s poem, “Still I Rise.” In a short video promoting the single “Shake,” White plays the tambourine while being sprayed with a water hose, referencing the Birmingham riot of 1963. “I talk a lot about personal power on the record,” she said. “It’s about being able to create change by going inward, and then upward.”

For White, music and social commentary have always gone hand in hand. “Growing up, the music I was exposed to at home was all topical music. Everyone that my Dad was listening to was singing about change.” She rattled off a list of household favorites (Burning Spear, Joni Mitchell, Public Enemy) before revealing that she wrote her first song, “City Streets," at age nine. Between belly laughs, she recited her first-ever lyric: “People need our help out there/ and there’s no one to listen!” In the wake of Trump, the pandemic and BLM, White lamented that popular music nowadays is overwhelmingly apolitical. “I think of the job of an artist as being a bridge to the future, to progress. Maybe by being a mirror to society and allowing people to take a real look at themselves, we help find a way forward”.

A tremendously innovative artists who has undoubtably inspired so many others, I am looking forward to seeing what the future holds for Santigold. Rolling Stone asked Santigold about releasing Spirituals on her own label, and what the future held for her and her music:

“Spirituals is the first release from your own label, Little Jerk Records. What’s the story behind the title

Santigold: Spirituals is a nod to the traditional Negro spirituals. These contained songs that when sung and performed got Black people through the “un-get-through-able”. That’s what this record did for me. I wrote it in survival mode in LA and produced it in a little studio in the middle of the forest in western Canada during Covid. Social justice protests were unfolding, fires were burning up California, and people were being shot by the police. I had little kids and had to be a mom, wife, human and artist. There wasn’t time to feel. It wasn’t until I made the space to create that I realised these songs were a lifeline and a way to connect to a higher version of myself and go deeper. I’ve never written lyrics faster in my life; they were pouring out of me.

Is there a track that stands out over the rest?

Santigold: This album is a celebration of human resilience. Each song holds a similar place in my heart. ‘Ain’t Ready’ is my battle cry. It’s about internal struggle, picking yourself up when you get knocked down, and trusting that you’re going to get to where you need to get too. It’s about perseverance and stepping into your own power. When I first sang the lyrics, I was alone in that studio in the woods and started crying. I collaborated with Canadian producer Illangelo, and I wanted the production to sound tough and mirror the grit of the battle many of us were going through.

You’ve continually blazed your own path in the world of pop music and beyond for others to follow. Have you seen change for the better in the industry, and what still needs to evolve?

Santigold: I started out in the 90s. I worked as an A&R at Epic Records in 2000. Business and technology-wise, the music world is 100 per cent different. But honestly, if you ask me whats changed for the better as a female in this industry, my answer would be, still not nearly enough. I don’t think we’ve made that much progress on that tip. There’s this tiny little box, that if you want to be a pop star you have to fit into. Lazy comparisons like myself and M.I.A., or Lauryn and Erykah or Jill Scott, are still being made.

As far as major players in the studio, I know that technology has made it so much more accessible for women to hone their skills and become producers and engineers at home. But I’m looking forward to when those up and coming women step forward and come into the limelight. Because at the moment it’s still not on the scale that it should be.

Throughout your career, you’ve been fiercely innovative. Your music has appeared on car commercials with Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, you sang background vocals for Tyler, the Creator’s IGOR and you’ve acted on The Office. What does the future hold?

Santigold: I’m really excited to let my music take me to new places. I want to continue branching out into all forms of art. I created Spirituals as a multi-sensory experience. I have a small batch of natural skincare products and a tea collection coming out bearing the same name. I’m writing a book tracing back four generations of phenomenal women in my family in Mississippi as well as my own journey. I’m working on a film. I’m releasing a new podcast series interviewing other artists and brilliant thinkers. Currently, in London, I’m also in a video installation as part of the exhibition, In the Black Fantastic, at the Hayward Gallery.

When I was making Spirituals, there was so much that I wanted to express. When you put out a new project, sometimes your message gets condensed to “Santigold is finding her power”, but for me, it’s so much deeper than that. I’m only getting started”.

An album that was not necessarily overlooked, I do think that it was underrated. A phenomenal album that moves through genres and sounds expertly and charts rage, loneliness and triumph, Spirituals is a revelation that definitely proudly stands alongside the finest of this year. Santigold is someone who is in a league of her own. This is what AllMusic said of a staggering album:

“Motherhood, writer's block, and the COVID-19 global pandemic all contributed to Santi White taking a longer hiatus from music than she expected. Spirituals, her fourth album as Santigold, also upends expectations. Instead of the playful cultural critique of 99 Cents or the sunny vibes of I Don't Want: The Gold Fire Sessions, this time Santigold offers music made in and for difficult times. She brings her focus inward, crafting hypnotic, often moody songs about building and showing resilience; as always, they're expertly crafted, with ear-catching production choices aplenty. With its warping, metallic synth tones, "Witness" is equally melancholy and mechanical, while the tantalizingly brief SBTRKT collaboration "Shake" provides Spirituals' clearest connection to its namesake with a nervy, soulful pulse that feels like a 21st century update on the galvanizing traditional songs of the Black community. Santigold also excels at bridging the past, present, and future of her own music. "High Priestess" taps into the searching, hard-to-pin-down energy that made Santogold songs like "L.E.S. Artistes" and "Creator," but on this track and the rest of the album, there's a world-weary undercurrent that adds depth and urgency. White delivers a bona fide anthem in "No Paradise," a lilting command to seize the moment that culminates in an empowering chant, and steels herself for whatever her comes her way on "Ain't Ready," which features assists from SBTRKT and Illangelo. On songs like this and "Fall First," a punky collaboration with Rostam Batmanglij, she sounds indomitable, but more importantly, she lets listeners know what it's like when she doesn't feel that way. She shares her worries as freely on Spirituals as she shared her joy on her earlier albums, and it's just as compelling. "My Horror," a deceptively sweet lullaby of stasis that unleashes its dread slowly, is one of the album's greatest creative achievements, as is the haunting desperation of "The Lasty." Spirituals pushes Santigold's music forward while shoring up its strengths -- and for perhaps the first time since her debut, it feels like art that she had to make for herself”.

I will wrap it up with a review form CLASH. They gave a positive review to an album with so many highlights and songs that linger in the memory. A hypnotising listen (as some reviewers have noted), this is what CLASH observed in their review:  

“It’s been far too long since we got an album proper from Santigold. While 2018’s warmly received ‘I Don’t Want’ mixtape gave fans some energetic bangers to tide us over, it’s been a whole six years since ’99¢’ lit up stereos. In her absence, the genre-mashing of indie and rock with dub, reggae, dancehall, and everything in between has almost become the norm. In this pick and mixafaction age of streaming, it’s sometimes hard to remember what impact the arrival of the likes of Santigold and M.I.A made. Now fourteen years from her debut, Santigold stands in a (thankfully) more inclusive and exciting music scene, filled with many artists who owe her and her peers a debt of gratitude. So what does this restorative lockdown album have to say?

We can happily report that the same level of energy and urgency that Santigold always brings to her work remains shining bright. ‘Spirituals’ is a bold and sometimes brooding beast, crammed full of first-class beats and sonic textures. Ever the collaborator queen, this fourth full-length sees old hands Rostam, and Nick Zimmer get involved in the fun, in addition to Doc McKinney, SBTRK, and P2J, to name just a few. The result is a slick and modern-sounding record that still keeps some of the grit of old. It’s as perfect sounding a Santigold record as you could want for 2022.

Openers such as ‘My Horror’ see Rostam bring that old Vampire Weekend whimsical energy to Santogold’s claustrophobic tale of pandemic anxiety. It’s a classic contrast of dark lyrics and bouncing beats to create something danceable yet memorable. ‘High Priestess’ can comfortably join ‘Disparate Youth’ and ‘L.E.S Artistes’ as a certified BADASS tune, all swagger, and spiritual empowerment layered over electro synths and pissed-off drums. Exploring the other end of the spectrum is the joyous ‘Shake.’ With the album’s title referring to the use of song to help the black community get through unimaginable hardships, the song drips with an almost manic joy while still containing a palpable sense of resilience.

While ‘Spirituals’ boasts many bold flavours over its ten tracks, it still feels slight. At just thirty minutes in length, the album is the shortest of Santigold’s career, and while it’d be a push to describe any of the songwriting as lightweight, it does feel as if too much fat was trimmed. Half of the album’s numbers don’t even hit the three-minute mark, often pulling the plug just as you’re ready for more. Digesting the album in one setting is like repeatedly snacking on something sweet but not substantial. Pleasurable, sure, but you never feel full. In this day and age of short attention spans and TikTok-friendly runtimes, these succinct snapshots might be good business sense but seem slightly scattershot when presented as a whole.

Still, wanting more of something is hardly the worst criticism to be leveled at an album. With this long-awaited release, Santigold has once more shown the world she’s one of the game’s most unique, imaginative, and fun creators. It’s good to have her back.

7/10”.

Go and listen to the wonderful Spirituals. Always sensational and different, Santigold is an artist I have respected and followed for a long time. I hope that she gets to put a tour together next year to promote Spirituals. Go and listen to an album from an artist that is…

SIMPLY amazing.

FEATURE: Spotlight: Anna B Savage

FEATURE:

 

 

Spolight

 

 

Anna B Savage

__________

HERE is an exceptional artist…

who is releasing the in|FLUX album on 17th February. Although not brand-new on the scene, I think she is an artist that some might not know about. The upcoming album will definitely take her music to a new audience. I am looking forward to it coming out, because the songs from it that have been released so far are remarkable! You can pre-order in|FLUX. Anna B Savage is someone who everyone should know about and listen to. I will come to a couple of interviews with Savage in a bit. First, here is some brief biography:

“Anna B Savage studies our MA course in Popular Music Practice. She’s a London-born, Dublin-based singer-songwriter who has toured with Father John Misty after her debut 2015 EP caught his attention. She later toured with Jenny Hval and received praise from press internationally, including NPR and The Guardian.

In January 2021, Anna released her debut album A Common Turn via City Slang records. The album caught Rolling Stone Magazine’s attention, and Anna was subsequently named in their ‘Artists to Watch’ list 2021.

Apart from being named one of Rolling Stone’s ‘Artists to Watch’, Anna has been extremely busy. Not only has she released a short film to coincide with the album, but she also embarked on a UK and European tour at the end of 2021”.

I can’t find any print/online interviews from Savage from this year – I am sure that will change closer to the album release -, so I am forced to go back a little further. In any case, there are some great past interviews that chart the career and growth of the sensational Anna B Savage. Prior to her 2021 debut album, A Common Turn, Savage was interviewed by Loud and Quiet. In fact, this interview is from 2020. There is an interesting ‘angle’ to the interview which you will discover from the opening lines:

“It’s the next step from Anna’s breakthrough EP, that came out in 2015 followed by an abrupt silence. “Yeah I kind of disappeared,” she says. “I wasn’t having the best time in my own brain – that was the first thing that happened. People were nice about my first EP and I just wasn’t expecting it. I just thought I am never going to be able to write anything as good as that ever again. It’s quite funny as I released a single yesterday and people have been saying this is so great but my brain is already saying, ‘you’re never going to write anything as good as that again’, so I am like, ‘oh no not you again, shut up!’. I am better at batting my brain away today – that’s the difference between now and then.”

Back in 2015, Anna’s fragility echoed throughout her frank and honest debut; listening back now, it’s a startling collection of songs that earned her tour slots with the likes of Father John Misty and Jenny Hval before cataclysmic life changes halted her progress. “After the EP I broke up with someone and moved back to London. How can I put this, I was small and timid and just so uncomfortable in my own skin so I had to build everything back up. There were building blocks put in place right from the bottom, I had loads of different jobs and I was just following things that I love. I was always desperately trying to write music, but I was thinking everything I am writing is shit, it felt like pulling teeth, it was so painful. I was just thinking, why can’t I do this anymore?”

As if Anna’s new single, ‘Chelsea Hotel #3’, wasn’t shocking enough in its scream for female autonomy and pleasure, it ends with a glorious lyric about Tim Curry in lingerie. Anna smiles in recognition.

“I think it was the first time that I ever felt something downstairs and thought, ooooh what is going on? I was watching Rocky Horror Show for a first time when I was 10 or 11 and I remember that being the moment where I thought what is happening down there!” Anna gleefully namechecks influences like these throughout every song she’s written, almost as if she can’t help it.

“These are the things peppered through my album – there is Spice by the Spice Girls, Funeral by Arcade Fire, films like Y Tu Mama Tambien; I literally namecheck all of them. I don’t know if I do it on purpose so much, but I know that it’s very important to me that there are streams and rivers and to know what stuff is flowing in from where. I spent so long when I couldn’t write, and when I was finding it so hard to create anything I was struggling with the idea of people plucking this amazing stuff from out of thin air and they were just able to do it, wake up one day and just do it.”

PHOTO CREDIT: Sophie Barloc

It’s clear Anna takes pride in her body of work – the first EP in 2015 was a solo labour of love; for the album she enlisted the help of William Doyle, an artist in his own right who was looking to develop his production skills. “It was a dream,” she says. “I had spent nearly 3 years up until he got involved, where I had tried different things but ran out of money, but he put out a thing on social media saying I am looking to produce things and if anyone is interested please get in touch. Within twenty seconds I was typing away to him. I knew the kind of audio world that I wanted it to be in – really intricate and with tiny metallic audio things going on – I didn’t know how to do it. He understood the world that I was trying to create – it was perfect.”

I ask what it was like to suddenly find yourself in a room with another headstrong musician. “William is such a joy,” says Anna. “I tend to go off on red herrings – oh shiny things. He is very good at not doing that, saying, you know, maybe we should do a bit more work now. Just spending 2 or 3 days with him for over 6 months was great. I was embarrassed though, not knowing all the terms. I would say I want it to be earth and mud with sparkles, so he was very patient.” The pair finished the album before sending it to City Slang, a much-admired label who quickly signed Anna to their roster. After years of toil it was a moment to cherish.

“Yes, it’s totally cemented the hard work, but having done the album before I was signed, with just Will and then presenting the album, that was where the pride comes from. I have spent years honing this. So, City Slang saying yes was also very nice”.

I think I first heard about Anna B Savage when she released A Common Turn. A simply magnificent album, it rightly garnered a lot of praise and attention. As The Skinny observed in their interview from 2021, Savage distanced herself from recognising and embracing the praise that was levied at the album:

“The only person involved with A Common Turn who is still unaware of the praise that has been lavished upon it is its creator, Anna B Savage. The London singer-songwriter’s debut album has rightly been hailed as a provocative, grandiose and authentic first statement, but Savage herself refuses to engage with people’s reactions to it.

“I think it’s very unhealthy to be able to read what people think of you all the time,” she says. “My curiosity doesn’t dominate my self-protection. If people don’t like my album, it’s like, 'OK, you don’t like me as a person.' As a perpetual people pleaser, the worst thing in the world is for people not to like me.”

It is a policy that dates back to her debut EP in 2015. That release also got more than its fair share of positive feedback, including from the likes of Jenny Hval and Father John Misty, but Savage struggled to process the compliments. “The main thing was just having incredibly low self-esteem at that point in my life,” she reflects. “And then people having a positive reaction to it, it was a split between thinking, ‘they do not understand how shit I am’ and also, ‘well if they think it’s good, then I’m a piece of shit and I’m never going to be able to write something as good as that ever again’.”

Savage entered a period of radio silence as an artist for five full years following that EP. It was a difficult period of introspection, but after periods of therapy and “working really fucking hard” to like herself again, she found herself working on the set of songs that would become A Common Turn. Looking back, she accepts that she could never have given up making music for good, but at the same time, she never dared to expect that the album would be the success that it has been.

“There’s a difference between wanting it to happen, expecting it to happen and hoping it will happen. I was definitely in the want and hope categories, but I just didn’t see a way that it would. My main thing was getting the album done just for me.”

It is not altogether surprising that Savage would be so affected by outside opinions of her work, given the amount of her true self that is buried into the tracks. Her songs tell refreshingly honest tales of growth, self-doubt and sexuality, always striking a treacherous balance between fragility and defiance, all the while maintaining a wry, darkly comic worldview. Take Chelsea Hotel #3, an eye-wateringly frank account of a sexual encounter that finds her resorting to mental images of 'Tim Curry in lingerie' or Y Tu Mama Tambien for satisfaction.

With the album having been out since January, Savage recently completed her first run of live dates in over five years and is now gearing up to play at The Great Eastern Festival in Edinburgh on 27 November. “They were fucking amazing!” she says about her return shows. “I was quite nervous about it, but I feel like it really went incredibly well”.

I will round off with an interview from Atwood Magazine. As the incredible Anna B Savage prepares to release her second studio album, with new songs garnering a lot of love and support, I want to spend a bit more time nodding back to A Common Turn:

“ATWOOD MAGAZINE: THIS ALBUM IS SO VIVID, AND THERE IS SO MUCH OF YOU IN IT. SO MANY ARTISTS ARE PERSONAL WITHOUT GIVING YOU THAT CONFIRMATION THAT THEY’RE THE SPEAKER – BUT YOUR NAME IS RIGHT THERE IN THE LYRICS. WHAT IS YOUR WRITING PROCESS AND WHY IS IT SO IMPORTANT TO YOU TO HAVE YOUR TRUE VOICE THERE?

Anna B Savage: My writing process is a little bit painful. I find it really hard to write generally, I think because I’d seen it so much in popular culture that songs just appear and that you don’t have to work for them. That is absolute bullshit. It’s such hard work. I don’t think enough people talk about the intense craft that goes into it. For me, I feel like one of the reasons my [experiences] are so front and center is because it’s one of the only things that I feel qualified to talk about. I don’t know if qualified is the right word. But I’m always amazed when artists come out with something that’s super political and very broad. I’m like, how do you feel confident enough to talk about that? I don’t even trust my own feelings [laughs]. And that’s what I’m trying to talk about. No one’s gonna tell me that I fucked up because I’m just trying to express myself as best I can.

“BABY GRAND” SEEMS TO BE VERY MUCH ABOUT THAT FEELING.

Anna B Savage: I basically wrote that song after a specific night that happened. And I mean that it’s literally laid out almost exactly as it happened. I think one of the reasons why it’s so precise, and why I decided to include so many very specific things like the Edwyn Collins owl mug, or the specific albums that we listened to, was because I wasn’t able to understand what I was feeling in the moment. I thought that at least if I have these touchstones that are real, then I have something to move between – I can ricochet off of them inside my head, if that makes sense.

The guy who directed the video for “Baby Grand” is the guy [Jem Talbot] who I’m talking about in the song. And there is footage from that night in the video. He was my first boyfriend, and we’ve made a film together. The video basically acts as kind of a trailer for this film that we’ve spent the last three years making. The album and the film have had similar timelines, so the two projects are kind of in constant conversation with each other, even though they’re completely separate. “Baby Grand” was written about one of the first nights that me and Jem had been filming together. It feels difficult to explain, because there was so much uncertainty. There were so many question marks and so much not wanting to be presumptuous. As a way of not being presumptuous, I was like, “Okay, I’ll just calcify this into a song.”

PHOTO CREDIT: Ebru Yildiz

“I SAW A DAVID LYNCH QUOTE WHILE I WAS PREPARING FOR THIS INTERVIEW WHERE HE SAID “WHEN YOU FINISH ANYTHING, PEOPLE WANT YOU TO THEN TALK ABOUT IT...A FILM OR A PAINTING – EACH THING IS ITS OWN SORT OF LANGUAGE AND IT’S NOT RIGHT TO TRY TO SAY THE SAME THING IN WORDS. THE WORDS ARE NOT THERE.” WHAT’S YOUR TAKE ON THAT? DO YOU FEEL LIKE TALKING ABOUT THIS ALBUM IS REDUNDANT IN SOME SENSE?

Anna B Savage: It’s fucking weird, I’m not gonna lie. Especially feeling like I worked so hard lyrically to make it feel complete and to feel like it was doing all of the things that I needed it to do. Talking about the album has put me in a really weird headspace. I’m already really self-reflexive, as you can probably tell, and adding that extra layer on top is kind of bizarre. I think this is where I always got stuck when I spent five years trying to write this album. I felt like every interview that I read where a musician was talking about their craft, it was kind of like, “Oh, it’s a slightly magical thing that just kind of happens.” Yeah, that can be true sometimes. But it’s only true if you’ve spent the six weeks before that working on a song every single fucking day and thinking about it just before you go to sleep and thinking about it when you first wake up in the morning.

Every time I write a song, I think, “I’ll never write a song ever again. Like that was a completely bizarre experience. How did that happen?” So to go back into my kind of memory bank and try to articulate like, “What was I thinking about? Why did I put those next to each other?” Maybe my subconscious was kind of explaining it to me more than I knew. I totally agree and completely disagree with that quote, because yeah, it’s really weird to talk about stuff when it’s all there. But equally, [talking about] it does afford something else.

DO YOU THINK THINKING ABOUT THINGS RETROACTIVELY LIKE THIS HELPS YOU TO UNDERSTAND YOUR OWN WORK MORE IN A WAY? OR IS IT MORE FOR OTHER PEOPLE'S BENEFIT THAT YOU’RE CONNECTING THESE THINGS?

Anna B Savage: I think it helps me a bit. I also think it’s quite fun to just run with what other people say. If people are like, “Oh, birds are symbolic of your emotions,” it’s like, “Yeah, yes they are!” [laughs] I’m going to try and work out a way to make that true for both you and me. If that’s what someone’s getting from it, then that’s fucking great. These [songs] are now living a life that’s outside of my own brain. Someone else can put their own stuff on it and that is so joyous to me that, yeah, I’ll run with it.

IN THIS GENRE, THERE IS THIS VERY COMMON DECISION TO MAKE A SINGER’S VOICE FEEL ALMOST BURIED IN THE MIX WITH A LOT OF REVERB. FOR MOST OF THIS ALBUM, YOUR VOICE IS SO PRESENT AND SO DRY. CAN YOU TALK ABOUT THIS PRODUCTION CHOICE?

Anna B Savage: I would say it was definitely a conscious choice. William Doyle, who also did my first EP, produced it and I remember him saying to me at some point, “You don’t need reverb on your voice at all. That’s ridiculous.” He is one of my favorite musicians in the world, so I was like, “Okay, I will never use reverb.” [laughs] I actually don’t love reverb because I do think that a lot of the time it hides and dampens stuff, and it makes everything a bit washy. Lyrically, I like things to be as clear as possible and vocally, I feel the same way. [William] was so sensitive to how he thought my stories and my voice would be best presented. I’m so grateful to him for fighting me on the couple of things that he did.

WHAT DO YOU WANT PEOPLE TO TAKE AWAY FROM THIS RECORD?

Anna B Savage: I did this therapy course where you had to boil down what you hoped that you gave to the world. Mine was in relation to other people; I want to create and facilitate things that feel like they could be companions for feelings that are often difficult to express, but that I, for some reason, feel more comfortable expressing. I want my art to be a companion for people.

Looking ahead to the release of in|FLUX on 17th February, I was keen to highlight Anna B Savage. An artist I have loved for a long time, tracks like The Ghost and in|FLUX are among my favourite from the year. A breathtaking talent, next year is going to be a really exciting one for her. For anyone who has not discovered her music yet, make sure that you get on it…

RIGHT now.

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Follow Anna B Savage

FEATURE: A Mighty Wave of Talent… BBC Radio 1’s Sound of 2023 Longlist Playlist

FEATURE:

 

 

A Mighty Wave of Talent…

IN THIS PHOTO: Rachel Chinouriri  

BBC Radio 1’s Sound of 2023 Longlist Playlist

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IT is the time of year…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Dylan

when there are lists of the names to watch in 2023. FLO just won the BRITs Rising Star award, and the BBC will publish their list of the artists to look out for next year. I wanted to put together a playlist of incredible artists, because BBC Radio 1 have confirmed their longlist for 2023. The artists they feel are going to dominate and define the year ahead. I am going to end with a playlist of songs from the ten artists listed. It is an incredibly strong field or diverse artists. I am a particular fan of Rachel Chinouriri, and the three artists listed as the BRITs Rising Star (FLO, Nia Archives and Cat Burns) are in the field. Here are more details:

“The longlist for BBC Radio 1’s Sound of 2023 has been unveiled, tipping ten new artists for success next year.

This year’s longlist has been chosen by a panel of over 130 industry experts and artists, including Elton John, Dua Lipa, Sam Smith, Celeste and more.

The acts are (in alphabetical order):

Asake

Biig Piig

Cat Burns

Dylan

FLO

Fred again..

Gabriels

Nia Archives

piri & tommy

Rachel Chinouriri

IN THIS PHOTO: piri & tommy/PHOTO CREDIT: Patrick Gunning

Last year PinkPantheress was crowned the winner ahead of a strong longlist featuring the likes of Wet Leg, Central Cee and Tems. Artists named on the list over the years include Stormzy, Adele, Jorja Smith, Billie Eilish and Lewis Capaldi.

The countdown of the Top 3 will kick off across Radio 1 on Tuesday 3 January 2023. The winner will be revealed on Thursday 5 January 2023 on Radio 1.

Chris Price, Head of Music for Radio 1, says: “This year’s Sound Of longlist is one of the strongest and most diverse we’ve ever published. The most striking thing about it is the breadth of genres represented. Every single artist on the list has been incubated on Radio 1’s playlist and specialist output; whoever wins, we can be sure that 2023 will be a vintage year for new Pop, Dance, R&B, Soul, Drum & Bass, Afrobeats and Indie.”

The list was compiled using recommendations from 136 influential music experts, including artists, DJs, radio and TV producers, journalists, streaming experts and festival bookers. All were asked to name their favourite three new acts, who could be performers from any country and any musical genre, whether or not they are signed. They cannot have been the lead artist on a UK top five album or three UK top ten singles before 31 October 2022. They also must not already be widely known by the UK general public (for example, a member of a hit band going solo or a TV star) or have appeared on the Sound Of… list before.

Further details of the panel and how the list was compiled are available on BBC Radio 1’s Sound Of 2023 website”.

I think that BBC Radio 1 remains one of the most important sources when it comes to discovering the best new talent. We shall find out in January who is crowned the winner but, to be honest, the longlist is so strong that it is impossible to call! If you need an idea of the artists who are going to be big next year, then the ten including in the playlist…

 IN THIS PHOTO: FLO

GIVE you a good idea!

FEATURE: Present and Modern Love: Kate Bush and David Bowie

FEATURE:

 

 

Present and Modern Love

 IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1979/PHOTO CREDIT: Gered Mankowitz

Kate Bush and David Bowie

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I think I have written about…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Mick Rock

Kate Bush and her relationship with David Bowie - and the effect he had on her music. Sadly, Bush and Bowie never worked together on any songs. It would have been magnificent to hear them come together for a piece of music! I have recently written about Kate Bush and Paul McCartney and how, through the years, the two have met. I hope that they get opportunity to collaborate before too long. One reason why I wanted to come back to David Bowie is because he was so important to her. Bush grew up around a lot of different music, and she had a wide array of tastes. When Bowie died in 2016, Bush paid brief but loving tribute to an artist that definitely impacted her music:

“David Bowie had everything. He was intelligent, imaginative, brave, charismatic, cool, sexy and truly inspirational both visually and musically. He created such staggeringly brilliant work, yes, but so much of it and it was so good. There are great people who make great work but who else has left a mark like his? No one like him”.

I have a few more features to come that take from Tom Doyle’s new book, Running Up That Hill: 50 Visions of Kate Bush. It is a fascinating new biography of the wonderful Kate Bush. I am going to write about early songs, Wuthering Heights, and a couple of other things before putting the book to bed. It is such a revealing read. There are a couple of chapters where Bowie is mentioned.

At an age where Bush wrote the magnificent The Man with the Child in His Eyes (that appeared on her 1978 debut album, The Kick Inside), a then-thirteen-year-old in 1972 was lying in the bath listening to Bowie. His latest song, Starman was playing. Bowie, in 1972, was seen as a bit of a flop and one-hit wonder (for Space Oddity). Little did people know that he would soon become an icon and one of the most innovative and loved artists of his generation! For Bush, there was an instant appeal. As I have said before, David Bowie does not really get a lot of credit when it comes to Kate Bush and her music. Of course, Bush is an original and does not wear too many of her influences too heavily. I think that Bowie and his early music was hugely influential when it comes to a young Kate Bush (or Cathy as she was then) and her fearlessness and exploration. She would write about love, but there was something more ambitious, unusual and Bowie-esque in many of her songs. As it is just over fifty years since Bush saw Bowie on Top of the Pops – performing Starman on 6th July, 1972 -, I wanted to return to him. Of course, in January, we mark two sad occasions. On 8th January, it would have been Bowie’s seventy-sixth birthday. On 10th, it will be seven years since he died. Bowie’s influence is still being felt today. As Tom Doyle writes in his book, and as Bush wrote for a Bowie MOJO special in 2002, Bowie struck her as so theatrical and unusual. What was he wearing? Was it a dress?! “His picture found itself on my bedroom wall next to the sacred space reserved solely for my greatest love, Elton John”. I think seeing Bowie on her wall as a pin-up and icon was motivational.

I can imagine early songs and material on The Kick Inside being affected by Bowie and his career. By then (1977), Bowie was on a different plain and one of the most recognisable artists in the world. It is interesting that her two idols, John and Bowie, would not get along and have this odd relationship. It was the subject of space travel that caused friction. Bowie felt John’s 1972 song, Rocket Man (which Kate Bush covered), was a pale pastiche of 1969’s Space Oddity. John and Bowie did meet in Los Angeles, but not having much in common, it was a tense affair! If Bush was more influenced by Elton John’s music than David Bowie’s (maybe John’s affiliation and love of piano was a deciding factor), I feel she took a lot from Bowie in terms of his dress, stage manner and songwriting diversity and originality. Maybe a teenage Kate Bush was not engaged in the music rivalry and fall-out. An odd cold war between two very different artists, she could love them independently without choosing sides. A pivotal moment occurred on 3rd July, 1973. This was the final gig for one of one Bowie’s alter egos, Ziggy Stardust. Many might have assumed this was Bowie retiring from music, but it was him retiring this incarnation. A few weeks short of her fifteenth birthday, Bush was in attendance (with Del Palmer, her future boyfriend, band members and engineer). That gig was at the Hammersmith Odeon. I don’t think it is a coincidence that this was the venue Bush performed the final dates of her run of shows, The Tour of Life in 1979. It is also the place where she held her 2014 residency, Before the Dawn (which had been renamed the Eventim Apollo by that time).

A member of the Sex Pistols, Steve Jones, stole some of Bowie and his band’s equipment earlier than morning - no doubt encouraged and emboldened by alcohol. Nobody in the audience on 3rd July, 1973 were aware of the announcement Bowie would make regarding the death of Ziggy Stardust. This must have hit Bush hard, as I can see parallels in terms of the way both were seen as unusual. Even if you cannot compare them too heavily, Bowie was undeniably an important role model and artists for the teenage Bush. Unaware of what was the come next, she would have been crestfallen and deeply saddened to think that a musician she looked up to might not play again! Bowie was crying when he delivered the news – so too was Cathy Bush, not sure of what was happening. So many of Bush’s early songs and creative bursts were propelled by David Bowie. A song which made it into the studio in 1975 but was not released on an album, Humming, started in 1973. The year she fell for David Bowie and was at a historic gig, she opened the song with the words “Oh, Davy”. That song started life as Maybe. It was professionally recorded in ’75, yet Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour – who helped to discover Kate Bush and introduced her to producer Andrew Powell (who produced her first two album -, recorded it at East Wickham Farm, Bush’s family home, two years prior.

From here, Bush would work with Gilmour and he would help ensure that she was brought into the studio to record her debut album (one cannot forget the fact that Ricky Hopper tipped Gilmour off to Bush’s abilities and emerging talent). By the time Humming/Maybe got rid of the ‘Davy’ reference in 1975, it is clear that she was speaking about David Bowie. He compelled her to write, even if he was not necessarily at its heart. In terms of the sound and overall vibe, Tom Doyle notes that it is probably closer to Elton John than Bowie. Regardless, Bowie’s genius and unconventional look and music impinged on Bush’s own creativity and ambitions. The 1975 Bowie-nodding song was played on Radio 1 in 1979 but, aside from that, it is not widely known. Bush included it on The Other Sides, and it is one of the great ‘lost’ tracks. There were a couple of times where Bush and Bowie. Although they sadly never got to the studio, there were encounters. Although the date is not known for sure, when recording at Abbey Road Studios in the 1980s – possible whilst working on Never for Ever (1980) -, Bush saw Bowie in another room and said a shy ‘hello’. Having to leave the room and collect her breath, it shows the magnetism and importance he played! Such a huge artist as Bush was by then, she was humbled and awed by Bowie. I think, right through the 1980s, she was looking at his past and present work for guidance. There were aspects of Bowie that definitely resonated and were absorbed into her consciousness. Even if the two are very different artists, Bowie’s reinventions, the fact he made every album different, and explored uncharted territory and subjects is something you can detect in Bush’s work.

 PHOTO CREDIT: Gered Mankowitz

In 1994, at the Flowers East gallery in Hackney, the two crossed paths again. It is unclear how this meeting went and whether there was much interaction, but I can imagine Bush was still struck by Bowie, even if they were both at different points of her career. This was a year after she released The Red Shoes (and would not release another studio album until 2005); Bowie  put out the patchy The Buddha of Suburbia in November 1993. This private event at the gallery saw celebrities contribute their own artwork, of which Bush offered two sea-themed works. The following morning from the event, Bowie and Brian Eno appeared at the gallery and were interviewed for GMTV. Bowie actually loved Bush’s pieces. He intended to make a bid, but something happened and he didn’t. Bush’s artwork sort of referenced her 1985 masterpiece, The Ninth Wave. From Hounds of Love, perhaps Bowie got the connection or was a fan of someone being lost at sea. In 1976, Bowie starred in the film, The Man Who Fell to Earth. In it, Thomas Jerome Newton (David Bowie) is an alien who has come to Earth in search of water to save his home planet. Aided by lawyer Oliver Farnsworth (Buck Henry), Thomas uses his knowledge of advanced technology to create profitable inventions. Was Buh influenced by that film when thinking of The Ninth Wave (where a heroine is adrift in the ocean and is rescued after a turbulent night struggling to stay afloat)? Bowie and Bush met several times in the years after, and she had become more accustomed and could compose herself enough to chat! Finding Bowie pleasant and friendly, you can see why she was moved and shocked by his death in 2016.

Bush and Bowie had a few connections. Bowie collaborated with the late great Lindsay Kemp. Undoubtedly someone who brought something out of Bowie when it came to his personas and artistic direction, he has a similar impact on Bush years later. In a 1982 interview with Electronics & Music Maker, she said this about Kemp: “Once I'd left school I tried to get into a dance school full-time, but no one would accept me as I had no qualifications in ballet. I had almost given up the idea of using dance as an extension of my music, until I met Lindsay Kemp, and that really did change so many of my ideas. He was the first person to actually give me some lessons in movement. I realized there was so much potential with using movement in songs, and I wanted to get a basic technique in order to be able to express myself fully. Lindsay has his own style - it's more like mime - and although he studied in many ballet schools and is technically qualified as a dancer, his classes and style are much more to do with letting go what's inside and expressing that. It doesn't matter if you haven't perfect technique”. I have probably missed a few other Bush-Bowie connections, but I was struck when reading Tom Doyle’s Running Up That Hill: 50 Visions of Kate Bush and the Bowie sections. From her eyes being opened by Space Oddity and Ziggy Stardust, through to their meetings and the fact he clearly moved, I wanted to write about…

A much-missed master and innovator.

FEATURE: New Beginnings… An Amazing Year for Shaun Keaveny and Community Garden Radio

FEATURE:

 

 

New Beginnings…

An Amazing Year for Shaun Keaveny and Community Garden Radio

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IT was epically emotional last year…

when Shaun Keaveny departed the airwaves at BBC Radio 6 Music. He was one major reason why I discovered the station and have been devoted to it for years. In fact, I got a tattoo of the station’s logo a few years back. Now, it sort of seems like a tattoo of your ex-wife when you are with your new girlfriend! Even though Keaveny was definitely not given the respect and opportunity he deserved after so many loyal years (fourteen!) at BBC Radio 6 Music, it has sort of been a mixed blessing. The final song he played as he bade an emotional farewell to his listeners was Carpenters’ We've Only Just Begun. It was a song that was devastating in its beauty and raw emotion. Reaching deep into our hearts and tear ducts at such a raw and upsetting moment. In fact, there was wisdom and truth in the song. The lines “Before the risin' sun, we fly/So many roads to choose/We'll start out walkin' and learn to run/(And yes, we've just begun)” seemed not to suggest this was something morbid or a full stop. In fact, there was this opportunity for new horizons. I must admit that it is not the same without Shaun Keaveny on BBC Radio 6 Music weekday afternoons. He was a definite and unmatched highlight! I will explore more of Keaveny’s 2022 and why he has made such a difference in the lives of so many people.

It was quite a hard transition moving from an established and high-profile afternoon show to essentially being in the wilderness for a bit. Unsure of what the next venture would be, Community Garden Radio was sparked. Beginning (I think) a radio revolution, it is a station backed by Patreon supporters (or ‘gardeners’). Rather than languishing and dwelling on a deep loss, Keaveny did begin this revolution. As we can hear from this interview from The Guardian from April, there were modest beginnings. Although the weekly show (that starts at 1 p.m. with a mix prior to that) now comes from a space in Fitzrovia, Keaveny was broadcasting from his top room in his North London home at the start:

“Once a leading light at the BBC with his much-loved 6 Music show, Shaun Keaveny is now presenting from a cramped studio to a much smaller audience. But he wouldn’t have it any other way…

Shaun Keaveny is broadcasting to a couple of thousand people from a forgotten back room in a shabby Soho office that’s all glass and no insulation. The ambience is more knackered 1970s comp than radio studio.

“If I was me 18 months ago looking at what I’m doing now, I’d be thinking, ‘Ah, that’s a shame, isn’t it? He used to have this massive platform and now look at what he’s doing,’” says Keaveny who, until September last year, was used to six-figure audiences and the BBC Radio 6 Music studios where things, you know, worked.

PHOTO CREDIT: Dean Chalkley/The Observer 

“It’s taken me ages to get my head round, but when you drill down into what we’re doing here it’s phenomenal,” he says. And what he’s doing is of interest because it may possibly be the future of radio in the same way that YouTube was once the future (now the present) of video: a live, independent radio show broadcast via Patreon, the digital platform that lets supporters subscribe to projects and give creators a steady income. In this case, £4 a month to access Shaun Keaveny’s Creative Cul de Sac, a weekly Friday radio show, a podcast and daily written and recorded missives.

It adds up to quite a lot of Keaveny (“To be honest, I’m knackered, I took on a lot when I left 6 Music because I thought half of it was going to fail. But things started working straight away.”)

But before we get to the future, we have to deal with the past, and the reason why the 49-year-old has been forced into DIY radio rather than remaining a beloved 6 Music presence. In June last year, after a 14-year run, first on breakfast and then afternoons, he announced he was leaving. “Things change, places change, people change and it’s time for a change,” he said at the time”.

On 20th December, 2021, the first tests and sounds from that top room were broadcast. Almost a year later, you can get some CGR merchandise, and join the growing and loving base of gardeners. In the space of a year, the exciting-yet-tentative venture has flourished and blossomed into  something wonderful. I shall wrap up talking about the recent Christmas special that came from the 100 Club in Oxford Street, London. There are so many reasons why I am featuring various broadcasters before the year is through. Radio has been such a continuing and powerful source of comfort and company that bonds people around the world. Having met many of the ‘gardeners’ on Monday, they come from all walks of lives and backgrounds. It is a community that has so much love and commitment the Community Garden radio. I may be repeating myself and may miss a few things out, but I was keen to pay thanks to Shaun Keaveny on a remarkable 2022. Not only has Community Garden Radio delivered some excellent live broadcasts from around London, but the man himself has been very busy on other networks. In addition to covering from Liza Tarbuck, he has stood in for Robert Elms on BBC Radio London, done a series of shows for Greatest Hits Radio, and he is standing in for Johnnie Walker on BBC Radio 2 from 6th January. It is clear that there is a lot of demand for someone who can transition and adapt with ease. Keaveny is such a flexible and excellent broadcaster that he can make any station his home!

I think, in years to come, there will be a genuine offer from a station like BBC Radio 2 for a permanent show. Maybe feeling freer and happier with Community Garden Radio, it would not be a shock if he was made a regular face back at the BBC. I forgot to mention the fact Keaveny has appeared on podcasts through 2022, in addition to continuing The Line-Up. As a ‘festival genie’, he grants guests the chance to chooser their own festival line-up and name it. It is a great series that will run for years. He also hosts Your Place or Mine with Shaun Keaveny on BBC Radio 4. There is a new series planned I understand. It is a wonder Keaveny has any time to rest or breathe, but I am glad that he has been offered so much and made so many opportunities for himself! It is clear how much he loves broadcasting and how much it means connecting with listeners. I think that we might see more of him on the small screen in 2023. More associated with his broadcasting, I would love to see some documentaries and T.V. shows featuring Keaveny (surely one on Dire Straits is overdue?!). On 20th December, it will be quite impressive looking back on the last year! From the nervous first tests and runs to this burgeoning and extraordinary station, it has been one hell of a year! Thanks must also go to Community Garden Radio producer, Ben Tulloh. Keaveny’s much-trusted and remarkable friend and colleague has been as instrumental in making Community Garden Radio what it is. Also props to Clive Tulloh and Kitty and everyone on the team, but there is this strong bond and chemistry between Keaveny and Tulloh. Their closeness has helped to turn Community Garden Radio into such a success.

I was at the Christmas live show from the 100 Club on Monday. It was the first time I had seen CGR live (they have held some at Spiritland before), and it was one of the highlights of my year. Not only did I laugh so hard and feel surrounded by my tribe and people who wanted to show their love to Shaun Keaveny, but it felt amazing seeing this acorn of a radio station explode into a tall and proud tree (or, as it is a garden, maybe some beautiful flowers)! Community Garden Radio will definitely inspire others to start their own station. Those who want some independence and are not sure whether they can reach a really large audience. I am not sure whether even someone as established as Shaun Keaveny thought, almost a year ago, that those test sounds and first broadcast would lead to what he has now! He has humbly said how he is in awe of legends like Johnnie Walker and Liza Tarbuck. I would place him alongside them. At the age of fifty, we are going to hear decades more from the Leigh-born legend! It has been an even more challenging year than the past couple in many ways, and there has been little in the way of light or positivity. Community Garden Radio has been a beacon for thousands of people! In addition to CGR work, Keaveny has interviewed Joe Lycett (who has been a fan of Keaveny’s for a long time), presented on BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio London, BBC Radio 4 and Greatest Hits Radio, and has also shown BBC Radio 6 Music what an enormous asset he was – and what a loss to the station his departure was! At the end of a tough 2022, I think Shaun Keaveny can be very proud of all that he has achieved. He is most certainly…

ONE of the all-time great broadcasters.

FEATURE: Don’t Worry Baby: Imagining a Florence Pugh Album

FEATURE:

 

 

Don’t Worry Baby

 

 

Imagining a Florence Pugh Album

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I cannot say enough great things…

about the wonderful Florence Pugh. Alongside some end-of-year pieces, Spotlight features, Kate Bush stuff and some Christmas bits, I want to put in some more ‘random’ articles. Pugh is, without doubt, one of the greatest actors of her generation. I would go as far to say that she is the very best! Stealing every scene she is in from Don’t Worry Darling, The Wonder and Lady Macbeth, her range is phenomenal! With one of the most wide-ranging filmography under her belt, Pugh is an absolute sensation! At only twenty-six, she will be owning the screen for decades more. In addition to picking up Oscars and maybe directing films herself, I think Pugh will be compared to screen icons from the 1940s and 1950s. Undeniably one of the world’s most beautiful women and someone who always gives such compelling and intelligent interviews, she is one of the world’s great treasures! The best thing in every film she acts in, it is fascinating to see where her career will head. At the moment, The Oxford-born actor divides her time between the U.K. and U.S. I can imagine she will make a permanent move to the U.S. and lay roots down there as her career explodes. Pugh did perform With You All the Time in the Olivia Wilde-directed film, Don’t Worry Darling. Pugh has an amazing voice, and I think that her deeper speaking voice means that, as a singer, she would produce such an intoxicating, smoky and remarkable solo album. I titled the feature ‘Don’t Worry Baby’ because, not only is it a play on Don’t Worry Darling, but I think Pugh would cover that Beach Boys song exceptionally. It seems ready-made for her. I am going to go on a brief tangent before coming to my main point. I don’t think Florence Pugh has been in any music videos yet. She has also not directed, but I think she is so naturally gifted that she would make for a remarkable and hugely innovative director.

Pugh has revealed before some of her favourite music. As an actor capable of nailing any accent she needs to and inhabiting this vast array of very different characters so beautifully, I think that she would make an awesome and hugely respected artist. She has filmed cover versions as Flossie Rose a way back now, so she has that experience. I am not sure whether Pugh would write songs herself but, when it comes to actors crossing into music, there have been plenty of success stories. Suki Waterhouse and Maya Hawke are just two examples of actors who are equally talented as artists. From Jazz and Folk classics through to Rock anthems and Pop, I don’t think there is anything Pugh could not sing. Whilst it may be easier to see her more as a Jazz singer, I actually feel Pugh’s natural vocal range means she could dominate any genre. It seems that, in 2023, we may well see a Florence Pugh album. Digital Spy explain more:

“Don't Worry Darling and Marvel Cinematic Universe star Florence Pugh has revealed plans to record and release her debut album.

The actress performed cover songs on YouTube under the name Flossie Rose before finding fame for her performance in Lady Macbeth.

Appearing on BBC Radio 4's This Cultural Life, the actress talked about how she's let music fall by the wayside a bit, but intends to dive back into it big time.

She has written a few songs for an upcoming film project, former boyfriend Zach Braff's A Good Person, and intends to use that momentum going forward.

"A few songs I'll release first [and] I intend to continue that relationship with the producers and I intend to release music," she told host John Wilson.

"It's something that I have been so conscious of ever since my acting career kind of [took off]. I do miss it and I do miss performing. I've lost confidence in it because I haven't been doing it. And I know that if I don't do it, the lack of confidence will only get worse and I just need to give it a go."

Pugh added that she would have actually "put money on being a singer-songwriter way before being an actor", before adding: "To me being an actor was so far away. I knew that I could do it, but I didn't know how to get there.

"Whereas me with my guitar being recorded and going on YouTube, and performing on stage and doing gigs was way more accessible. That was always the thing that I thought I was going to do and then I did this leaflet audition and it just completely went 180 [degrees]."

Coming up, Pugh will be appearing in Dune: Part Two, Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer and an adaptation of East of Eden”.

Someone who could also go into musical theatre and belt out these amazing and moving songs, there are so many possibilities ahead of Florence Pugh. I am excited to think that she will release an album, as her voice is so beautiful. Such expression, depth and soul, so many people will be interested to see how that extends to music. Maybe it will be covers or original songs, but a mixture of the two would be interesting. Pugh clearly has an eclectic mix of tastes, and she has mentioned Wonderwall as an important track (and she has covered it previously). I would love to see what she would do with the Oasis classic! From what we have heard so far of her singing, people are in for a treat! Someone who had desires to be a singer-songwriter before acting, she could genuinely make a very successful career of it. As she is very much in demand, I wonder whether she could balance the two. As I say, actors like Maya Hawke manage to do it, and you know Florence Pugh would put her heart into something she is deeply passionate about. Whether putting her stamp on songs like Wonderwall or Don’t Worry Baby, doing originals or hopping between genres, I am so excited to picture this first Pugh solo album! As it is at least eight years since Pugh released videos to YouTube as Flossie Rose, her voice has developed and she has that acting experience under her belt. Phenomenal at everything she does, I think a Florence Pugh album would be…

SIMPLY wonderful.

FEATURE: With the Mice at East Wickham Farm… Kate Bush and Her Earliest Songs

FEATURE:

 

 

With the Mice at East Wickham Farm…

PHOTO CREDIT: John Carder Bush (taken from his book, Cathy) 

Kate Bush and Her Earliest Songs

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I realise I am sort of serialising…

Tom Doyle’s new book, Running Up That Hill: 50 Visions of Kate Bush. It is such a fascinating read, I have been compelled to write another piece. I am going to come back to the book once more when writing about Wuthering Heights. Kate Bush’s debut single is forty-five in January. Doyle writes beautifully about the song, and there are some observations and angles I want to incorporate in a feature or two. One I want to do now literally takes us back to the start of Bush’s music fascination and bond with the piano. I am particularly interested in the earliest songs from Bush. Dating as far back as 1969 – when she would have been ten or eleven -, the remarkably prolific and prodigious Cathy had this key moment in the bran at East Wickham Farm. An old and slightly discarded harmonium was housed in the barn. Tom Doyle opens a chapter about Bush’s early songs by asking whether Bush could play and bond with the harmonium before its bellows had been gnawed by mice! There is something romantic and rustic about this barn having mice running around it chewing at this and that! One would almost imagine Bush would write a song about it! In any case, this old Mustel pump organ (which was one of five-hundred Victor Mustel had made before his death in 1890). The young Cathy would spend hours figuring out chord patterns until “her ankles ached”.

I know her father, Dr. (Robert) Bush, would play piano and she would have watched him in wonder as a young child. I wonder what compelled her to venture into the barn and tackle the harmonium! Quite an unconventional instrument, maybe she was attracted to its age or the fact it was quite lonely. Perhaps the unique sound or the fact that it was being eroded by mice and a spot in the barn at East Wickham Farm that could have seen much light or heat! I almost get these visions of Bush animated like she is in The Snowman. Waking up and running to the barn and shutting the door behind her. Instruments offer no instruction or voice, so everyone who approaches them has to figure them out and almost unlock a puzzle. As Doyle writes, Bush “learned that she moved one finger in a three-note cluster to another key, it opened up doors leading to other doors”. I imagine the young Bush smiling as these amazing sounds came out because of her! She told Doyle that the chord was the most exciting thing in her life. Able to change and defining a song, I think these very early experiences with the harmonium directly feeds through her music to now. If there is anything animated to Kate Bush’s music, I hope we go right back and to her childhood where she was in the barn and had this solace and quiet.

One of the most important moments in her life, Bush couldn’t read or write music (and had no interest in learning), so she was doing this all by feel and instinct. Sadly, the mice did defeat the Mutsel. She then had to go back into the farmhouse and resume piano. I do feel that a lot of her early songs and demos can be traced back to what she learned in the barn. The size and shape of the harmonium itself directed and influenced the notes she played and her fascination. The piano has a different timbre and personality, and yet both played their parts. Even if she was writing songs as early as eleven, by her own admission, they were not brilliant. By thirteen or fourteen, Bush took songwriting to the next level. Taking a poetic approach to her lyrics, she would spend hours at the piano in search of that perfect sound or a score to words she had written. Let us not forget that Bush was thirteen when she wrote The Man with the Child in His Eyes – which appeared on The Kick Inside in 1978 -, so you could see how much she’d developed and honed her remarkable talent. If the young Bush’s vocal style was acrobatic and very high-pitched on some of her very early songs, you can hear more depth, control, and range on many of the songs through The Kick Inside. Those short-sighted and ignorant critics who defined Bush as witch or banshee-like after her debut came out clearly were not listening to songs like The Saxophone Song and The Man with the Child in His Eyes! An early hero of hers, Elton John, put out Your Song in 1971. That thing about subdued intensity changed everything for Bush!

Elton John was particularly important and motivational regarding Bush’s voice and the piano. Her family provided a lot of support. Her brother Paddy would accompany her at various times (probably on mandolin), and the Bush family were agog at how the youngest sibling could summon up stanzas, verses, and whole songs just like that! Her rate of progress was astonishing! Even though Bush was this emerging songwriter with a clear desire and passion, she did not have ambitions to go on stage and perform at school. Family friend (and someone who played with Bush on her albums) Brian Bath recalled in 1972 how he heard a then-thirteen-year-old sounding really incredible. By 1972, Bush had fifty original compositions. She would be in a great position when her name and music was being passed closer towards David Gilmour and EMI not long after. One of the great tragedies is that there are some wonderful early songs that were either recorded in demo form or made it to the studio but were never released. I think the earliest recordings that exist and can be heard online date back to 1973. Tom Doyle wrote in Running Up That Hill: 50 Visions of Kate Bush about his favourite five songs from the many early offerings. There have been bootlegs and unofficial releases of these early songs, but no official release or compilation from Bush and EMI. It is a shame, because we can hear this fast-developing talent who was blossoming. Two songs that Doyle picks out, Something Like a Song and You Were the Star, are also among my favourite of the earliest songs.

Bush would have been keen to keep her earliest recordings private, but they did make their way into the Internet in the 1990s. Perhaps anything pre-debut album was her personal recordings and cannot be considered cannon or for anyone else to hear. You can hear so many Cathy Bush songs on various websites, so there would be a demand to have a selection included on an album. I am not sure whether Bush, now sixty-four, would be too fond for people to hear songs that she recorded as a child. I realise there is a quality control issue. Maybe feeling these songs do not represent her best work, it is one of those sad things. But fans will understand! I am endlessly intrigued by her recordings from 1972 and before and what she was writing about. That chapter where Tom Doyle writes about some of those songs is brilliant. But he also discussed the harmonium in the barn where Bush used to play. That is so vivid and wonderful to imagine! To think of Bush playing the harmonium and piano at such a young age and her mind and horizons being widened. The way he eyes would have widened and she would have had this huge smile! Although some of the early songs are patchy or do not warrant repeated listens, so many of them are brilliant. So talented and assured at such a young age, this would only heighten and solidify by the time Wuthering Heights came out in January 1978. I will write about that song closer to its forty-fifth anniversary but, for now, another dip back into Tom Doyle’s essential Running Up That Hill: A Deal with God. Every time I pass through the book, I learn something new about…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush poses at East Wickham Farm in September 1978/PHOTO CREDIT: Chris Moorhouse/Evening Standard/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

THE beguiling Kate Bush.

FEATURE: Revisiting… Joss Stone – Never Forget My Love

FEATURE:

 

 

Revisiting…

Joss Stone – Never Forget My Love

__________

INCLUDED in the final Revisiting…

features of 2022, I am focusing on albums from this year that either passed some by or deserve a fresh look before we wrap up. I will also look further back at great albums from the past five years that are strong but are deserving of bigger love. One album that is particularly good and some might not have heard is Joss Stone’s Never Forget My Love. Released on 11th February – a few days before an appropriate holiday -, her eighth studio album is among her very best. Not that she ever lost form, but many liked a return to the more powerful R&B sounds of her third studio album Introducing... Joss Stone. That gem was released in 2007. I will bring in a couple of reviews for Never Forget My Love. I thought that it should have got more reviews and coverage. Stone was involved in quite a few interviews and talked about motherhood and her personal life, but I am not including that. I am more concerned about her album and all things musical. Before getting to a couple of reviews – one that is a bit mixed and the other positive -, Smashing Interviews chatted with Joss Stone. I will include one bit about COVID-19, as Stone was affected and struck by it. For someone synonymous for her solid and incredible voice, she must have been worried that it would be damaged by the virus:  

“Smashing Interviews Magazine: Yes, indeed. Are you completely recovered from COVID?

Joss Stone: Not really. You know, I don’t have COVID anymore, so that’s good. We tested the other day. But I still feel like absolute shit (laughs). M cough is still there. I was told it lasts about three weeks afterwards, so I’m trying to be patient. But I want my voice to come back now.

Smashing Interviews Magazine: So the virus affected your singing voice?

Joss Stone: Oh, yes. That’s how I knew I had it. I was on stage in Savannah, Georgia, and my voice just completely refused to work. I’ve never had that before. I was so confused. I was going to the side of the stage and saying to Chris, my sound engineer, “I don’t know what to do. It’s just gone.” I had to tell the audience, “I’m so sorry. My voice is just not doing it.” I was so embarrassed, you know. Oh, it was the worst. The worst. Oh well, shit happens. We move on. I have to reschedule that gig and go back and redeem myself (laughs).

Smashing Interviews Magazine: Since you couldn’t resume the tour, what have you been doing at home?

Joss Stone: I’ve just been home cuddling my baby and watching British Bake Off. I’m obsessed with that show. It’s a baking competition, and I think I’ve watched every episode now.

Smashing Interviews Magazine: The new album is wonderful. Wow, it’s been over five years since Water for Your Soul was released.

Joss Stone: Has it? Oh, gosh. It’s such a long time, isn’t it? It didn’t feel like that, I think, because I was so busy that I didn’t really notice it. But, yeah, it’s been a while. I’m really glad that I had time to do it.

Smashing Interviews Magazine: Before you got together with Dave Stewart, what kind of sounds and songs were you thinking about for Never Forget My Love?

Joss Stone: I had this experience with Burt Bacharach. He had come to the United Kingdom to play some shows, and he asked if I would sing some songs for him. I guess there were about seven or eight. I’m in awe of him because I’ve been listening to his music since I was a kid. There are some really special ones that I have been influenced by without even knowing it was Burt, to be honest. But then later on, I learned who created those songs.

Then when I was asked to sing with him, I felt very nervous. So I wanted to really, really do a good job. I practiced them and practiced them, and whilst I was practicing them, I realized how beautifully they were put together and how deliberate they are and well composed and just classy, you know. So I don’t know. From that moment, I thought, “I want to make a record like that.” I was talking to Dave Stewart about that. I was just telling him what I’m telling you now. I said, “I love Burt’s style, and I don’t know where to begin with that. I’ve been trying to write songs like that, but I don’t know how to achieve it.” Dave said, “I know how. Let’s do it.” And he picked up his guitar and started to play something. I was like, “Oh, my God. Okay. Are we doing this?” He said, “Yeah. Let’s write the album right now. We can do it.”

So we started writing, and we came up with amazing ideas. And I was like, “I think this is it.” Then we went into the studio, and it all just came together. When the strings came on, that is when I knew we had achieved the goal. I just feel really weirdly proud of it more than normal. I was proud of it in a weird way because I felt like I couldn’t do it. Now, I’m just like, “Oh, my God. I made a really adult record.” (laughs) Without Dave, I couldn’t have done it. I just tried, and I couldn’t. He’s great.

Smashing Interviews Magazine: Is the title track, “Never Forget My Love,” based on a true story?

Joss Stone: You know what? I suppose when I do sing it, I think sometimes of individual moments. But really I was thinking about unfortunately, I’m one of those people that didn’t find the love of my life when I was in high school. I had to kiss a few frogs, shall we say, before I found my prince. I have had moments in those relationships that passed that have been lovely. That’s why you get in the relationships. But in the end, you end up hating each other, making each other cry, making each other feel like shit and just disrespecting each other. That is how a relationship ends. In order for them to end in a clean way, it’s probably best you don’t talk anymore. That can be really sad, and you can end up grieving that person as though they died, and they haven’t. They’ve only died to you. It’s sad. In order to get over that grieving, we just think of the bad stuff because the second you think of the good stuff, you’re going to grieve again. So you just keep that bad stuff in the front of your mind, and that’s how you walk on. I think that’s a terrible shame.

When I think of how my past boyfriends think of me, I don’t want them to have a bad feeling. I want them to think of the love because it was real. It’s just so sad to hold that up there. So that’s what I’m really trying to say. Like, I know we shouldn’t have broken up, and we shouldn’t have been together, but think of me because I think of you. It is what it is, and that’s just the truth. It’s not the truth that my partner now likes to hear, but it is what it is. It’s the truth. We must try and think of the good.

Smashing Interviews Magazine: Many of us find our true loves later in life. It happens more than you think, so there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that.

Joss Stone: Oh, really? Oh, that’s good. So we’re not alone. I don’t think we’re alone. When I got to 30, and I definitely wasn’t with the right guy then, I started to think, “Oh, God. Am I ever going to find the right one?” You start to lose hope a bit. Then one day, they just turn up, and it’s so beautiful.

Smashing Interviews Magazine: Absolutely. What’s your favorite song on the new album?

Joss Stone: My favorite one, I think, is “Love You Till the Very End.” That one just gives me goosebumps when I hear it. I just feel like crying every time I hear it. It’s a similar concept as “Never Forget My Love,” but it’s a very specific one because I’m just a deep, deep feeler, and I don’t let things go easy (laughs). So yeah. “Love You Till the Very End.” That one was heavy for me, but I love it. I’m glad how it turned out.

Smashing Interviews Magazine: You have been compared to Adele and Amy Winehouse, and that’s a great compliment. But do you ever think that comparisons to other artists maybe lessens your own standing as an artist?

Joss Stone: I know what you mean. I think it’s a good question because it’s natural to imagine if you were compared to somebody you don’t think is any good. That would be really worrying (laughs). But luckily, the people they compare me to, I actually think are really great. I take that as very lucky. Thank God they still think that I’m worth mentioning in the same sentence as Amy Winehouse or Adele because that makes me feel like it’s a good thing. But in the same kind of vein, we are not the same people. So of course, we’re going to have different thoughts and ideas and different ways of approaching a song. So I think it’s just a way of being able to discuss music. As long as the standards of comparison are good, I think I can always take it as a compliment”.

With incredible and consistently good songwriting from Joss Stone and David A. Stewart, Never Forget My Love is a satisfying album that pleased existing Stone fans and is accessible and will draw in new followers. I have known about her work since her debut album, and I think Never Forget My Love ranks alongside her very best work. Reaching number one on the UK R&B Albums (OCC) chart, I would recommend people to listen to a superb album. I am going to get to a pretty impassioned review. First, this is what AllMusic observed about Joss Stone’s eighth studio album:

“Strange as it seems, Never Forget My Love is Joss Stone's most R&B-oriented set of original material since Introducing Joss Stone (actually her third album), released 15 years earlier. Stone works again with Dave Stewart, her producer and writing partner on the rock and soul hybrid LP1 (actually her fifth album). As with that 2011 full-length, these songs come across as deliberately crafted in a way that differentiates them from the much greater volume of comparatively off-the-cuff material in Stone's catalog. The singer sounds more comfortable than she has in some time, whether she's referencing prime Burt Bacharach (with whom Stone performed in 2019), classic Memphis soul, or the Staple Singers, or bringing to mind a cross between Betty Wright and Bill Withers (specifically on the title song, a highlight). For the most part, this is full-tilt Stone -- a delight for those who want to hear her let it all out, even when the song doesn't necessarily call for it. She eases up only to tango on "The Greatest Secret" and jubilate on "When You're in Love," a sweet finale with all the elegance and casual grooving energy of an early-'80s Ashford & Simpson or Luther Vandross production”.

Old Grey Cat were impressed by Never Forget My Love. They noted how the songs are authentic Soul and R&B. A collection of ten amazing songs that will keep you coming back. I wonder whether she and David A. Stewart will collaborate again on Stone’s next album, as they have a writing partnership that yields big results:

“All the mistakes I’ve made/I wish they would all go away/It’s as if they/were tailor made for me.” Thus opens Joss Stone’s eighth album, Never Forget My Love. Though she’s singing about love and broken hearts, in some respects she could well be singing about her career to date, which—though she’s sold, according to Wikipedia, 14 millions albums worldwide—has never lived up to the promise of her stellar 2003 debut, The Soul Sessions.

Until now, that is.

Partnering with Dave Stewart for the first time since their 2011 collaboration on the flawed but worthwhile LP1, she’s crafted an album that’s accented by one sublime song after another. As a whole, as I tweeted yesterday, it channels Dusty Springfield circa her classic mid-‘60s period, though the production flourishes sometimes conjure Isaac Hayes and Minnie Riperton (“la, la, la, la”), too. “Breaking Each Other’s Heart,” the lead track, is a good example of the Dusty vibe. Strings support a seductive groove that sounds plucked from the past, though it’s not, while Stone emotes with the finesse of a veteran prizefighter who knows when to jab and when to throw a knockout blow. Like the album as a whole, a larger-than-life, timeless quality emanates throughout; it’s a fabulous song.

“No Regrets,” another highlight, both echoes and confirms that sentiment. It sounds like a long-lost Bacharach-David composition, just about, though—like the other songs here—it’s a Stone-Stewart cowrite. In short, it balances old-school pop with old-school soul, with the former coming by way of the Herb Alpert-like horns and the latter coming from Stone’s vocals. It also sports a subject, of casting out a negative force from one’s life, that’s as old as time yet, sadly, always timely. As with the other tracks, if you squint your ears you’ll almost hear Dionne Warwick, the 5th Dimension and Duffy singing backup beside Dusty. It’s the type of tune that takes up residence in the brain long after the music has faded.

The same’s true for the other tracks, which also take their stylistic cues from the songs of long ago. “You’re My Girl,” a catchy ode to friendship, could well be an Allen Toussaint-penned Irma Thomas outtake, while I wouldn’t be surprised if “Does It Have to Be Today,” about longing for one more day with a departing lover, was borrowed lock, stock and barrel from a previously unknown Stax/Volt collection unearthed in a used-record shop in Memphis; about the only thing missing from the track is the pops and clicks that are part and parcel of dusty vinyl. The same is true for “You Couldn’t Kill Me,” a dramatic tour de force about escaping an abusive relationship.

Nothing quite beats the addictive and joyous “Oh to Be Loved by You,” however, which at this stage is my favorite track. Accented by an infectious melody that’s equalled by Stone’s light-filled vocals, it’s a surefire mood-turner. It’s guaranteed to take that frown and turn it upside down, in other words.

The mention of Duffy up above came for a reason, I should add. Never Forget My Love is very much a stylistic throwback akin to Duffy’s timeless (to my ears, at least) 2008 debut, aka the “bag of songs” known as Rockferry. Unlike her past albums, in which Stone tried to meld her influences with a more modern sound, here she’s fully embracing the old—and, in so doing, is actually making it new again. (Or something like that.) Which is all to say, as I’ve noted above, echoes of the past can be discerned throughout, but that’s all they are—echoes. The 10 tracks aren’t pastiches, homages or appropriations, but the real deal. These are soulful and dramatic wonders sure to pull you—or, at least, me—back time and again”.

A fantastic album from Joss Stone, Never Forget My Love is well worth a spin. There have been so many albums released this year, it is hard to keep track of them all! If you have some time free, then I would recommend that you…

REVISIT this one.

FEATURE: Inspired By… Part Ninety: Pretenders

FEATURE:

 

 

Inspired By…

Part Ninety: Pretenders

__________

FOR this outing…

I want to include the mighty Pretenders in Inspired By… Led by the phenomenal Chrissie Hynde, the American band have released some of the best albums ever. Their first two eponymous albums are among the best of the late-1970s and early-1980s. The band have a new album, Relentless, out next year. I am going to end with a playlist of songs from artists influenced by the incredible band. First, AllMusic provide this biography of Pretenders:

“Over the years, the Pretenders became a vehicle for guitarist/vocalist Chrissie Hynde's songwriting, yet they were a full-fledged band when they formed in the late '70s. With their initial records, the group crossed the bridge between punk/new wave and Top 40 pop more than any other band, recording a series of hard, spiky singles that were also melodic and immediately accessible. Hynde was an invigorating singer who bent the traditional male roles of rock & roll to her own liking, while guitarist James Honeyman-Scott created a sonic palette filled with suspended chords, effects pedals, and syncopated rhythms that proved remarkably influential over the next two decades. After Honeyman-Scott's death, the Pretenders became a straightforward rock band, yet Hynde's semi-autobiographical songwriting and bracing determination meant that the group never became just another rock band, even when their music became smoo9ther and Pop-orinesdtated

Originally from Akron, Ohio, Hynde moved to England in the early '70s, when she was in her twenties. British rock journalist Nick Kent helped her begin writing for New Musical Express; she wrote for the newspaper during the mid-'70s. She also worked in Malcolm McLaren's SEX boutique before she began performing. After playing with Chris Spedding, she joined Jack Rabbit; she quickly left the band and formed the Berk Brothers.

In 1978, Hynde formed the Pretenders, which eventually consisted of Honeyman-Scott, bassist Pete Farndon, and drummer Martin Chambers. Later in the year, they recorded a version of Ray Davies' "Stop Your Sobbing," produced by Nick Lowe. The single made it into the British Top 40 in early 1979. "Kid" and "Brass in Pocket," the group's next two singles, were also successful. Their debut album, Pretenders, was released in early 1980 and eventually climbed to number one in the U.K. The band was nearly as successful in America, with the album reaching the Top Ten and "Brass in Pocket" reaching number 14.

During an American tour in 1980, Hynde met Ray Davies and the two fell in love. Following a spring 1981 EP, Extended Play, the group released their second album, Pretenders II. Although it fared well on the charts, it repeated the musical ideas of their debut. In June of 1982, Pete Farndon was kicked out of the band due to his drug abuse. A mere two days later, on June 16, James Honeyman-Scott was found dead of an overdose of heroin and cocaine. Pregnant with Davies' child, Hynde went into seclusion following Honeyman-Scott's death. In 1983, two months after Hynde gave birth, Farndon also died of a drug overdose.

Hynde regrouped the Pretenders in 1983, adding former Manfred Mann's Earth Band guitarist Robbie McIntosh and bassist Malcolm Foster; the reconstituted band released "2000 Miles" in time for Christmas. The new Pretenders released Learning to Crawl early in 1984 to positive reviews and commercial success. Ending her romance with Ray Davies, Hynde married Jim Kerr, the lead vocalist of Simple Minds, in May of 1984.

Apart from a performance at Live Aid, the only musical activity from the Pretenders in 1985 was Hynde's appearance on UB40's version of "I Got You Babe." Hynde assembled another version of the Pretenders for 1986's Get Close. Only she and McIntosh remained from Learning to Crawl; the rest of the album was recorded with session musicians. Get Close showed the Pretenders moving closer to MOR territory, with the bouncy single "Don't Get Me Wrong" making its way into the American Top Ten in 1987. Hynde recorded another duet with UB40 in 1988, a cover of Dusty Springfield's "Breakfast in Bed."

Hynde's marriage to Kerr fell apart in 1990, the same year Packed! was released, although it failed to ignite the charts in either America or Britain. Hynde was relatively quiet for the next few years, re-emerging in 1994 with Last of the Independents, which was hailed as a comeback by some quarters of the press. The album did return the Pretenders to the Top 40, with the ballad "I'll Stand by You." In the fall of 1995, the live album Isle of View was released, then the group remained silent for a few years. Hynde finally returned in 1999 with an album of new material, Viva el Amor. Three years later, the Pretenders left their longtime label for Artemis. The reggae-tinged Loose Screw appeared in November and a tour followed in January 2003. In March 2006, the band released their first-ever box set, Pirate Radio, via Rhino. The four-disc package included over five hours of music and a DVD of rare performances. Two years later, the Pretenders released Break Up the Concrete, their first album in six years; it debuted at 32 on the Billboard charts and 35 in the U.K.

Following the release of Break Up the Concrete, the Pretenders spent the next few years touring, but after 2012, Hynde put the band on hiatus. In 2014, she released Stockholm, her first-ever solo album, which was followed in 2015 by her memoir Reckless: My Life as a Pretender. In 2016, Hynde revived the Pretenders to record a new album with Black Keys guitarist Dan Auerbach as producer. Alone emerged in October 2016. 2019 saw the belated release of The Pretenders with Friends, a CD, DVD, and Blu-ray package that documented both sound and images from a 2006 concert in which Hynde and her bandmates were joined on-stage by Iggy Pop, Shirley Manson of Garbage, and members of Incubus and Kings of Leon. The Pretenders reunited with producer Stephen Street for 2020's Hate for Sale, which also was the first album since Loose Screw to feature Chambers on drums”.

To show the influence of Pretenders, below are artists who have definitely taken a page from their book. Whether it is a sonic influence or something else, there are some tremendous artists who have found influence from Pretenders. Here is a playlist of songs from…

SOME truly amazing artists.