FEATURE: Like a Fine Wine: The Agelessness of Kate Bush’s Voice

FEATURE:

 

 

Like a Fine Wine

PHOTO CREDIT: Steve Rapport/Photoshot/Getty Images 

The Agelessness of Kate Bush’s Voice

_________

THERE are a couple of reasons…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 2011 for 50 Words for Snow/PHOTO CREDIT: John Carder Bush

why I wanted to spend some time speaking about Kate Bush’s voice. I have explored it many times before but, as a singer, I think few in history have had the same dexterity and versatility. One reason why I have been compelled is because Rolling Stone recently published a feature about the greatest singers ever. Listing the best two-hundred Bush came in at sixty. She came ahead of George Michael, but she was beating by the likes of Lady Gaga. These polls always provoke discussion and division. I would objectively state Bush should be placed much higher. I would put her in the top forty without question. You never look at the artists below (lower positions) her do you? It is always those who are deemed ‘better’. The fact that Ariana Grande and others are seen as better is a bit perplexing. I am not sure what they are baseing things on! This is what Rolling Stone wrote about Kate Bush:

“Kate Bush was only 15 when she recorded a demo tape that made its way to Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour, who helped her get her first record deal. “I definitely thought she was a true original and a great talent,” he said. With no traditional label expectations tethering her, she performed acrobatic feats with her voice in the explosive ardor of “Wuthering Heights,” the determination of “Cloudbusting,” and the sense of feminine humanity of “This Woman’s Work” and “Running Up That Hill.” Even on “Wild Man,” a song she recorded in her 50s, after her voice deepened, she pushed herself into brilliant contortions in the chorus. “You have to break your back before you even start to speak the emotion,” she once said. —K.G.”.

I suppose there are a number of factors considered when deciding on the best singer ever. Contemporary popularity, emotional range, power etc. The Rolling Stone publication is subjective of course, but I think the fact Bush is still not properly understood in America results in a lower placing. They still know her for Hounds of Love and a certain vocal range. I do think, if you look at her albums, her voice is vastly different on each. From the ghostly and beguiling Wuthering Heights in 1978, through to the deeper register of 2011’s 50 Words for Snow, she has this ageless vocal brilliance. Listen to albums like 1980’s Never for Ever, and she captures so many moods. Her voice has grown and expanded by then, and there is the ethereal beauty of Blow Away (For Bill) paired to something more guttural and dramatic in Breathing. Her Irish accent on Army Dreamers, and the superb acting performance through The Wedding List. The Dreaming – which followed Never for Ever in 1982 – is her most extreme set of vocals to that point. Inhabiting so many characters and shades, there is almost a different artist on Sat in Your Lap compared to Get Out of My House. That latter song is one of Bush’s most fierce and dramatic readings ever. Listen to the nuance in her voice on Pull Out the Pin. She does accents in The Dreaming (Australian) and There Goes a Tenner (cockney). Hounds of Love (1985) is almost her tour de force in terms of the pure power and expanse of her voice. There is determination and passion on Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God); joy and jubilation on The Big Sky, and something chilling on Mother Stands for Comfort. We then have the suite, The Ninth Wave, which runs an emotional gamut from surrender, fear, hope and salvation. It is so full of wonderful moments, all held together, elevated and made spellbinding by Bush’s voice!

If her voice matured and was more controlled on subsequent albums, it did not lose its power and brilliance. Heartbreaking on The Sensual World’s This Woman’s Work, and huskier on Aerial’s King of the Mountain in 2005, each performance and album has their own skin. Look at the most recent album, 2011’s 50 Words for Snow, and it is a deeper register. With longer songs, Bush is given more space to explore and let her voice work like an instrument or character. From the teen who made songs like Moving (The Kick Inside) so intoxicating, to the woman in her fifties epic and stunning through Snowed in at Wheeler Street (50 Words for Snow), this is an artist whose voice has aged sublimely. I think there are few who match her flexibility and range. Able to go from a whisper and gentle call to something almost deranged and frantic, her gift for accents and different vocal tones is a big reason why she is such a beloved and groundbreaking artist. I cannot be mad Rolling Stone placed her at sixty in their recent poll. That is a high position, but I feel thew American publication still has a lot of work to do when it comes to recognising Kate Bush. Whether you see or hear her live performance on The Tour of Life (1979) and Before the Dawn (2014) or listen to her studio albums, I think it is her voice that defines everything! Her lyrics and production are magnificent, but it is the way Bush inhabits songs and puts so much soul, passion and commitment into the material that marks her out as an all-time great singer. In my mind, she is up there with the absolute best! We may well get to hear her voice on an album again. I do think a lack of deep diving and proper explorotion means many do not understand what a brilliant singer Kate Bush is. Go and listen to her back catalogue…

AND see for yourself.

FEATURE: Make Dreams a Reality: Can Margot Robbie’s Comments About Playing Stevie Nicks Lead to a Fleetwood Mac Biopic?

FEATURE:

 

 

Make Dreams a Reality

IN THIS PHOTO: Fleetwood Mac’s Stevie Nicks in Rotterdam in 1977/PHOTO CREDIT: Barry Schultz

Can Margot Robbie’s Comments About Playing Stevie Nicks Lead to a Fleetwood Mac Biopic?

__________

I am on a bit of…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Margot Robbie/PHOTO CREDIT: Mario Sorrenti for Vanity Fair

a music biopic kick at the moment! I have written about Michael Jackson, and Amy Winehouse recently. Both sadly-missed artists have biopics about them coming soon. I have also, as I often, been musing as to whether we will ever get a Blondie biopic. This is a drum I like to beat quite a lot! I am not sure what other music biopics are planned this year, but there are not too many big ones on the horizon. I guess more will come to light but, as I say when writing about music biopics, it is not as easy as writing a script, casting your lead(s) and off you go. Whether that artist is alive or not, you need to get permission and approval. I do know there is a Carole King biopic coming where the lead, Daisy Edgar-Jones, seems like an interesting choice. I am sure she will be fantastic but, as a non-Jewish actress, there is a bit of criticism towards the makers of Beautiful in terms of their casting. I have mentioned this before, so I shall not cover old ground. What I mean is casting and getting the tone right is tricky. Also, in terms of the artists you bring to the screen. It can be unpredictable when it comes to box office and whether that film will make a lot of money. Some biopics, such as Bohemian Rhapsody fly, whilst others, such as the recent biopic, Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody, struggle.

 IN THIS PHOTO: Fleetwood Mac circa 1977/PHOTO CREDIT: Mick Hutson/Getty Images (via Rolling Stone)

Everyone has their dreams of biopics that do not exist (or have done in the past but need to be redone). For me, I would say Blondie, Jeff Buckley, Public Enemy, and Beyoncé would be in the top places. One biopic I have talked about relates to Fleetwood Mac. Seeing as one of their members, Christine McVie, recently died, it would be a remarkable tribute to have a biopic where she features! Such a pivotal member and exceptional songwriter, I think there would be desire and demands for a Fleetwood Mac biopic. With such a long career (and line-up changes), it is hard knowing where to start or focus on. I do feel the period leading up to and after Rumours (1976-1978) would be fascinating. Such a time of turbulence, genius and change, a well-balanced biopic could be a massive hit. Fleetwood Mac are a band with a wide and loyal fanbase, so it would make a lot at the box office. I also feel the reviews could be really good if they cast well. My favourite member of Fleetwood Mac is Stevie Nicks. There are a few potential choices when it comes to who should play her. An actress I keep suggesting should play Debbie Harry in a Blondie biopic has inadvertently put her name in the frame to play Stevie Nicks (who is soon embarking on a solo tour). Margot Robbie would be a wonderful choice. Even though she is taller than Stevie Nicks and is not a dead ringer, they are similar in looks. Robbie is such a versatile actress, she could portray Nicks with nuance, warmth and remarkable skill.

Far Out Magazine are among those who documented recent news. Robbie talked about playing Nicks in a potential biopic about Fleetwood Mac – and she also suggested another fascinating music biopic idea that should come to life:

“Margot Robbie is interested in playing Fleetwood Mac singer Stevie Nicks in a biopic.

The actor, whose big break came in Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street alongside Leonardo DiCaprio, has recently been promoting her newest film, Babylon. Directed by La La Land’s Damien Chazelle, the movie is an epic period comedy-drama which charts the rise and fall of an ensemble cast of characters during Hollywood’s transition from silent to sound cinema.

Robbie plays aspiring actor Nellie LaRoy alongside Brad Pitt, Diego Calva, Jean Smart, Li Jun Li, and Tobey Maguire. So far, the film has received mixed reviews, criticised for being overstuffed and excessive.

During a recent interview with NME, the star, also known for her roles in I, Tonya and Suicide Squad, was asked which musician she’d most like to play in a musical biopic. With the success of recent films such as Elvis, Bohemian Rhapsody and Rocketman, it seems likely that Hollywood will churn out another big-budget biopic soon, and who better to play the leading role than one of the industry’s current biggest stars?

Robbie responded: “Stevie Nicks would be fun. I think everyone has been trying to do a Janis Joplin [biopic] for a long time too.” Fleetwood Mac have not been portrayed in a biopic before, although there were rumours in 2011 that Lindsey Lohan would be playing the singer, which Nicks later denied.

In the same interview, Robbie’s co-star Calva suggested the creation of a Frank Zappa biopic: “Can you imagine a biopic of Frank Zappa? I don’t know if I’m the guy, but that would be a cool movie. I’d have to grow the ‘tache”.

I like the fact Robbie also mentioned a Janis Joplin biopic. That would be a really great project and, as someone who I think has her heart in the late-1960s/early-1970s, you can see Robbie embodying Joplin and turning in a stunning performance! I am piqued by the idea of Robbie as Nicks. I am not sure who would play Mick Fleetwood, Christine McVie, John McVie, and Lindsey Buckingham. Maybe Paul Mescal (with a wig and facial hair) could play Buckingham? I think that dynamic between Nicks and Buckingham is important, as they were splitting and very tense recording Rumours. So too were Christine and John McVie. Mick Fleetwood was also experiencing relationship troubles, so it was a very boiling and tense camp to be part of. To me, Nicks’ Dreams is the standout of Rumours. I can picture Margot Robbie as Nicks writing that song and then nervously taking it to Buckingham. It is a beautiful song that has compassion and positivity at its heart – whereas Buckingham’s songs about Nicks were a lot crueller and spiteful. I love Nick’s compassion and incredible talent! She was also quite troubled and struggled with addiction to cocaine. The entire band were doing a lot of it during Rumours, but it seemed to impact Nicks more. A complex, compelling and one-of-a-kind human, the fact that she is still with us and recording music (she will appear on Dolly Parton’s forthcoming album). I am not sure whether rumours and any speculation will result in a Fleetwood Mac biopic (or one featuring just Stevie Nicks), but it has lit a bit of a spark. I can well see it coming together, with Margot Robbie playing Nicks. With that timeless and remarkable soundtrack backing the action, I think a biopic would be…

A huge success.

FEATURE: Celebrating a Modern-Day Music Queen… The Brilliant Arlo Parks, and Why My Soft Machine Will Be Another Award-Nominated Album

FEATURE:

 

 

Celebrating a Modern-Day Music Queen…

PHOTO CREDIT: Alex Kurunis

The Brilliant Arlo Parks, and Why My Soft Machine Will Be Another Award-Nominated Album

_________

I remember when Arlo Parks…

won the Mercury Prize back in 2021. Her debut album, Collapsed in Sunbeams, was released in January of that year. In fact, on 29th, it will be two years since that album came out. It is no wonder it won such a coveted prize. With shortlisted artists including Laura Mvula, Parks triumphed over some seriously amazing talent that night! I will come to an interview with Parks from last year where she discussed the moment her name was read out at the Mercury ceremony. I wanted to celebrate and highlight one of our great artists. The London-born twenty-two-year-old is still early in her career, but I feel she is already a sensational and icon-in-the-making. With lyrics that are personal and yet seem to speak for and to so many people, her music has been taken to heart by so many people. A record both versatile and vulnerable, Collapsed in Sunbeams announced an artist who is going to be on the scene for years to come. I wanted to tie this feature into the fact that her second studio album, My Soft Machine, arrives in May. Here are some more details about the album – and you can also pre-order your copy today:

“Twice Grammy-nominated, Mercury Prize and Brit Award-winning artist Arlo Parks is returning with her second album, My Soft Machine on Transgressive Records. My Soft Machine is a deeply personal body of work; a narration of Parks’ experiences as she navigates her 20’s and the growth intertwined. Explained ever-articulately in her own words below...

“The world/our view of it is peppered by the biggest things we experience - our traumas, upbringing, vulnerabilities almost like visual snow. This record is life through my lens, through my body - the mid 20s anxiety, the substance abuse of friends around me, the viscera of being in love for the first time, navigating PTSD and grief and self sabotage and joy, moving through worlds with wonder and sensitivity - what it’s like to be trapped in this particular body. There is a quote from a Joanna Hogg film called the Souvenir, it’s an A24 semi-autobiographical film with Tilda Swinton - it recounts a young film student falling in love with an older, charismatic man as a young film student then being drawn into his addiction - in an early scene he’s explaining why people watch films - “we don’t want to see life as it is played out we want to see life as it is experienced in this soft machine.” So there we have it, the record is called....My Soft Machine.” - Arlo Parks”.

I am going to wrap up in a bit, but there is an interview with THE FACE from last year that I think adds some context. Arlo Parks was among many artists last year who announced they would take a break from touring because of exhaustion. Sam Fender, and Wet Leg were also among those who needed time to concentrate on their mental and physical well-being. Parks, understandably, needed a break after such extensive touring. After a fun yet grueling time on the road, she announced that things had to change. Parks discussed this with THE FACE, but she also mentioned what the Mercury win for Collapsed in Sunbeams means to her:

“So Arlo Parks toured, and toured some more, and did that all over the world. By summer this year she was back home(ish), supporting Billie Eilish and Harry Styles (“uhhhhh im playing a stadium tomorrow…” she tweeted, ​“the last time i played in Dublin it was in a pub…thank you Mr Harry Styles”). And she was smashing it at Glastonbury – amongst other appearances at the festival’s own glorious, post-pandemic comeback, she and Clairo joined Lorde for the New Zealander’s Pyramid Stage performance of Stoned at the Nail Salon.

Then, on 16th September 2022, one year and one week since we’d published her tour diary and she’d sung the praises of her first ever tour bus, the wheels fell off. ​“I am broken,” Arlo said in a lengthy post on Twitter and Instagram.

PHOTO CREDIT: Ásgeir Helgi

“I’ve been on the road on and off for the last 18 months,” she wrote, ​“filling every spare second in between and working myself to the bone. It was exciting and I was eager to grind and show everyone what I was capable of, how grateful I was to be where I am today. The people around me started to get worried but I was anxious to deliver and afraid to disappoint my fans and myself.

“I pushed myself unhealthily, further and harder than I should’ve. I find myself now in a very dark place, exhausted and dangerously low. It’s painful to admit that my mental health has deteriorated to a debilitating place, that I’m not OK, that I’m a human being with limits.

“I don’t take decisions like this lightly but I am broken and I really need to step out, go home and take care of myself.”

Her team (who call her Isa, a tangential nod to her birth name, Anaïs Oluwatoyin Estelle Marinho) cancelled gigs in Boston, Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Denver and Salt Lake City, giving her a week’s respite, with the tour resuming at The Crystal Ballroom in Portland, Oregon on 26th September.

“Touring can be beautiful and restorative as much as it can be spiritually and physically taxing. Conversations with friends about the energy touring saps, and the headspace it can drive you into, has made me feel like something has to change in terms of the pacing of shows, mental health support and general pressure cooker culture around touring.

“My hope for the future is that we, as artists, find balance, that people are protected from burnout, that health is put first before all else. I think a gentler, more empathetic approach to artists and their limits would re-infuse touring with the joy it so naturally contains.”

You inspire intense devotion from the fans because of your lyrics – there’s a fundamental relatability to what you do. Has that been nourishing for you, seeing how much fans get from what you’ve written about?

Mmm, definitely. That’s honestly been my happiest thing. It’s my favourite thing about doing shows: seeing people, especially young people, their faces light up, and the community-building aspect of music. Getting messages from young kids who I’ve given the courage to start writing poetry. Or they’re young black kids who love the Pixies but they were like: ​“OK, I didn’t think I was allowed to enjoy this [music]. But I want to make indie-rock music, and I see you, and you inspire me.”

That chain of inspiration is why I do all of this. It truly feels like my purpose is to make music that feels true to me, but then is also a gift that I can pass on to younger people.

Your first album was based on thoughts from your bedroom, at home in West London, and on teenage experiences, school experiences. Now you’ve had, literally and figuratively, a world of experiences. Will that sense of travel and exploration and interaction with fans all around the world feed into the songs you write for the second record?

There’s no way it couldn’t. The context leads into what I write. Especially going to countries and cities that I’ve never been to before, [for example] spending time in Tokyo. When I visit a country, I dig into the subcultures a little bit. That also opens my musical horizons.

And having conversations with fans, spending more time in the States, talking to people within my peer group and making new friends [there] – all those experiences do subconsciously feed into the music that I make.

The Mercury Music Prize win: how meaningful and impactful was that?

I remember doing Christmas carol services at the church where we did the press [for the award] when I was seven. I did some reading that I probably completely butchered because I was nervous. I cycled past that church on the way to school every day for years!

The Mercury Prize especially has always represented and celebrated just how eclectic and profoundly good British music is. That’s why it was always a prize I followed super-religiously. I would check out the longlist and download it and listen to everything.

For that reason, I would say that has been the highlight of my career. Now it’s sat in my parents’ house, and I still walk past it slightly disbelieving that it happened to me”.

There is no doubt that Arlo Parks is a truly phenomenal artist who will release many more albums. I know that she is feeling a bit more reinvigorated and energised than she did last year – following such a long run of live shows. Her latest single, Weightless, is the first real taster of what we can expect from My Soft Machine (which is a great title!). I think it will be quite similar in lyrical tone compared to Collapsed in Sunbeams, but there are signs that there will be an expansion in terms of Parks vocals and compositions. Of course, the album will have a huge amount of love thrown its way! Parks will doubtless tour the album around the world, and there are going to be awards coming her way. I do think that My Soft Machine will get another Mercury nod. I also feel it will be even bigger. Her debut is a remarkable and rich release, but I feel Parks’ second studio album will be a step up in terms of its revelations, insight and visionary scope. I am excited to hear what is to come from the amazing Parks. She has a voice that has this natural warmth, yet it is so deep in terms of its emotional spectrum. The songwriting reflects that. One of the best lyricists in music today, I think that My Soft Machine is going to be a revelation. Go and pre-order a copy. Arlo Parks is a treasure and phenomenal musician who is going to be a legend in the future. I think we should all…

HAIL her brilliance.

FEATURE: Spotlight: Elanor Moss

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

Elanor Moss

_________

WITH the fantastic…

Cosmic E.P. out in the world, it is a perfect time to focus on the tremendous Elanor Moss. There is a beauty, power and atmosphere about Moss’ music that draws you in. It creates and inhibits its own world. New single, Catholic, is from Cosmic. It was co-written with The Howl & The Hum’s Sam Griffiths. It is a gorgeous and potent song that lingers in the mind. As DORK documented:

“On the track, Elanor explained: “’Catholic’ isn’t truly a song about being Catholic, or leaving the Catholic church… not really. It’s a song about grappling with your identity and realising you’ve relied on validation from others most of your life, whether that’s friends, family, or romantic partners. It’s also about realising you have the power to change and doing that.”

“It’s cathartic to play and sing live, and I felt like I was tapping into something new in my writing. We tried recording it a bunch of different ways; acoustically, more lounge-y, slower… it didn’t feel right until it was big and loud. It was an interesting moment for me in my writing and sound. I wanted to be loud for once and see what it was like to be in an indie-rock band. I love it”.

I would urge everyone to go and get the new E.P. from the wonderful Elanor Moss. She has not given too many interviews over the past year, but there are a couple that I wanted to bring in, so that we can find out more about her. I think that Moss is someone who is going to have big success through this year.

Early last year, ourculture spotlighted and spoke with the wonderful Elanor Moss. They asked her about the pandemic and whether it had changed the way she writes and approaches music. I was interested in Moss’ response when she was asked when she started writing songs. I do think that she is one of our very best artists. One that you need to watch very closely:

“Elanor Moss, a singer-songwriter originally from Lincolnshire, started crafting her first body of work while living between York and Leeds as an undergraduate in Medieval Literature. Although she grew up in a musical household, it wasn’t until university that she began writing and performing her own songs as well as collaborating with artists including Benjamin Francis Leftwich, The Howl & the Hum, and Rosie Carney. Ahead of the release of her debut EP, Citrus, last Friday, she had only shared one song, ‘Soundings’, a devastating track that showcased her ability to evoke powerful emotions against spare acoustic instrumentation. As a whole, the 5-track collection, which was co-produced by Brooklyn producer Oli Deakin, further highlights Moss’ knack for intricate, resonant storytelling, dealing with themes of depression, substance abuse, and violence that are offset by lush arrangements and delicate melodies. As dark as her songs can be, Moss always seems aware of achieving that balance – not just in an effort to make them lighter, but also to carve out space for hope and catharsis.

Have the past couple of months changed your perspective on the songs you’ve written or making music in general?

The past year since making the EP, I’ve focused on writing. I haven’t had much time to write recently, I wrote a little bit while I was in isolation but the COVID brain fog is so thick you can barely string sentences together. But the past year, really, was all about craft. The Citrus EP, a lot of it was stream-of-consciousness-y, they’re some of my earliest bits of writing. At that point, it was entirely what I would call instinctual songwriting. But the focus over the past year has been on the craft of it. I think the songwriting that’s on the next record is a little bit more finessed, and trying to find that balance between that instinctive sort of writing that is entirely feeling and the more crafted writing that is a little bit more intentional. I think that’s probably the main difference. I’ve collaborated with a bunch of people, I work a lot with my friend Sam Griffiths of the Howl & the Hum. He helped me write some of the songs that are coming out on the next record. I just feel like I’ve been learning a lot about writing.

Was there a specific moment that made you realize you were interested in writing songs?

I don’t think there was ever like an aha moment. I think that music has always been a form of play, and it’s always been playful in its nature to me. It was always so natural that it never felt like a big reveal. I wrote my first full song when I was in university, I actually came to it some might say relatively late. I started writing songs when I was 18 whilst I was studying English. Before that, I performed a lot and I played guitar a bit and sang. And I’d written – I’d written short stories and scraps of poetry and things like that.

Why do you think songwriting specifically came later on?

That’s a really good question. I’m not sure. I think that songwriting is a very different discipline to short stories and any other kind of writing. And I think that the musical element means that you can communicate something beyond words. For me, that’s the magic of it. As a tool for storytelling, it’s kind of unmatched. There’s a level of, you don’t necessarily need to be explicit to effectively tell a story with a song. And I think that for the sort of confessional vignettes that I was doing at the time, it helped me communicate things that were almost too difficult to say completely explicitly, perhaps. I think it came when I needed it. I don’t know if that sounds weird, but like I said, it’s always been a form of play that is quite natural, the musical aspect of it. Writing songs themselves came a bit later but I think it was necessary at the time, and it was something that had captured my imagination. I was doing it because it was new and exciting, but also a tool for expressing myself at a time when I needed it.

What appeals to you about making music that’s intimate and vulnerable while also focusing on the female gaze?

I think that in the kind of music that I make, the way I’ve described it before, as a woman you don’t often control how men look at you. How you are gazed at determines an awful lot, and there isn’t a lot that you can do about that. But a form of subversion is inviting people to look at you, and inviting people to look at you on your terms, and in a certain way, and in your own words, as it were. And I feel like the kind of music that I make invites you in to look at me in a certain way. And I think that being vulnerable and trying to tell the truth in some ways is a quiet act of resistance and quietly telling your story. Sometimes a whisper is just as effective as a shout, but I think that you need both things. We need Self Esteem to be doing what she’s doing,  we need other women who are doing it brashly and loudly – and brash is a word that I’m using in a reclaimed sense. But I also think that there’s room for whispering your truth as well”.

I hope to see Elanor Moss perform live this year. She is playing St Pancras Old Church on 13th February, so that is going to be a wonderful date. In March, For the Rabbits interviewed Moss and asked her about live performances. I can only imagine how magical and evocative her performances are:

“FTR: What can you remember about your first show?

Uhhh… I think it was really terrible. I can’t remember it that well because I was drinking wine out of a plastic bottle backstage to fight the nerves! This must’ve been about five years ago now. I only had about three original songs and I was shaking like a leaf. But, y’know, it’s how you learn! I’m grateful people were willing to take a chance on me to help me get more experience and grow in confidence.

FTR: Why do you make music? Why not another art form?

I’ve always been a storyteller; when I was a kid I loved painting and drawing, and I’ve loved to sing my whole life. I used to write whole-ass short stories as a kid, too, and get my Dad to edit them. For me, though, songwriting, and putting chords together, and creating sounds feels impulsive. Personally, as a storyteller, songwriting is the easiest channel to the “other side”: it’s the easiest way to lift the veil and connect with something bigger than myself. As far as I understand it, every art form offers a way to connect with the commonality of human experience, and in that common experience I think we experience something larger than all of us together, too. If dancing, or painting, or sculpting came to me as naturally as singing and composing and writing did, then I’d do that! But it doesn’t. The combination of writing and music composition together creates something that both forms can’t achieve in isolation of one another. For me, it’s the most effective storytelling tool.

FTR: What can people expect from the Elanor Moss live show?

At the moment, they can expect just me and a guitar, my songs, and some stories from my life that I hope speak to something we have all experienced. Between songs I talk a lot of rubbish and crack a lot of bad jokes. It’s still really early days for me, and in the future I’m looking forward to workshopping a bigger live set-up with some band members”.

As the Citrus E.P. proved, Elanor Moss writes songs that invite you in. Her voice has this ability to buckle the senses. Although her sound has changed slightly since that E.P. was released, many of the elements that made Citrus so wonderful are in Cosmic. On her Bandcamp page, we learn more about the background to the new E.P. from one of our finest voices:

“A follow up in the truest sense of the word, ‘Cosmic’ picks up where ‘Citrus’ left off - finding Moss in a more secure place amidst the aftermath of the events ‘Citrus’ documented. Here the candid autobiographical writer charts her movements through the world, recovering, healing and interrogating some uncomfortable truths.

Decamping to Brooklyn to record the EP with frequent collaborator Oli Deakin (Lowpines, CMAT), with ‘Cosmic’, Moss has delivered a second astounding collection of songs. More assured and complex both musically and lyrically the songs & production are more ambitious as Moss not only explores more musical space but widens the scope of emotions present in the music. Humour & joy sitting just as much at the heart of this EP as introspection and melancholy”.

I am excited to see where Elanor Moss’ career takes her. I think we will get an album maybe later this year, and there is going to be touring demand. A stunning songwriter and artist, here is someone primed for a very long and fruitful career. Go and listen to Cosmic and discover why Elanor Moss is an artist…

WITH very few equals.

______________

Follow Elanor Moss

Official:

https://www.elanormoss.com/

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/elanor.moss/

Twitter:

https://twitter.com/elanor_moss

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/artist/0zyFWHrZsZXBupeqrDkLtz

YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXYpDe5EvUdrmGeRt5BE6gA

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/elanor.moss

FEATURE: Spotlight: Meet Me @ The Altar

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

Meet Me @ The Altar

_________

I feel like I am…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Meet Me @ The Altar in Orlando, November 2020/PHOTO CREDIT: Lindsey Byrnes for Rolling Stone

late to the party. Or should that be late to the wedding?! Maybe not as well-known in the U.K. as their native U.S., that is going to change very soon. The inspiring and wonderful Meet Me @ The Altar are a Pop-Punk band who formed back in 2015. I think that they have really broken through the past year or so. I wanted to spotlight them, as they are going to be a mighty force through this year. The trio consists of Edith Victoria, Téa Campbell, Ada Juare, with their members hailing from Florida, Georgia and New Jersey. Go and pre-order their album, Past // Present // Future. It is out on 10th March, and it will confirm that Meet Me @ The Altar are one of the most important and exciting groups around. I love a trio. I am not sure what it is but, whether it Meet Me @ The Altar or HAIM, there is something about the chemistry and configuration that makes the music that much stronger! I am going to bring in a few interviews with the trio. I will start by going back to 2021. It must have been hard for artists to make a name and headway during the pandemic. Whilst Meet Me @ The Altar have been on the scene for a few years now, I think that 2020 and 2021 were years when they were especially busy. They were definitely being noticed but, unable to tour much, it must have been frustrating! Rolling Stone spoke with them in 2021. Revising and updating a genre that was at its peak in the ‘90s and early-’00s, it is no surprise that they have captured a large and loving audience:

“SINCE POP PUNK broke through in the Nineties, the genre’s most prominent faces have been largely white (not unlike dozens of other scenes). But as the music industry begins waking up to its history of race and gender inequality, one band is ready to rewrite that unspoken rule: Meet Me @ the Altar, one of 2021’s most exciting new rock acts.

Guitarist-bassist Téa Campbell, 20, and drummer Ada Juarez, 22, met online in 2015 after Campbell stumbled upon Juarez’s drum cover of a Twenty One Pilots song. Despite living in different states (Florida and New Jersey, respectively), the two became fast friends and decided to start a band. They held online auditions, where Edith Johnson, 20, tried out by singing Paramore’s “All I Wanted”; the Georgia native wasn’t chosen at first, but she was persistent.  “Edith supported us throughout the two years that she wasn’t in the band,” Campbell says. “She was literally texting me every day [asking]: ‘Are you guys looking for another singer?’” In 2017, Johnson got the gig.

Last year, the trio signed with Fueled by Ramen, the Warner Music-backed label responsible for launching some of the band members’ biggest influences — including both Paramore and Twenty One Pilots, as well as A Day To Remember and Fall Out Boy —  and re-released the single “Garden.” An exhilarating blast of sticky-sweet vocals, fluttery electric riffs, and a dangerously catchy chorus (“Your flowers will finally grow!”), it’s all but guaranteed to have you longing for the days of black eyeliner and studded belts. “I don’t think any of us have fully wrapped our heads around [the record deal] yet,” Campbell says. “We grew up idolizing these people our whole lives, and now we’re on the same label as them.”

The band first caught the attention of Elektra Music Group vp of A&R Johnny Minardi after some supportive tweets from All-Time Low’s Alex Gaskarth and The Wonder Years’ Dan Campbell (“I remember screaming when I saw all the notifications,” Johnson says). The members have also benefited from Halsey’s Black Creators Fund, which offers financial support and resources for black artists in need.

Still, their rise to success hasn’t been without challenges. On many occasions, they recall feeling like they had to prove themselves worthy while booking small gigs. “We would have to play with the local bands, but they’re all white dudes who didn’t really want us there,” Campbell recalls. “They were never explicit about it, but you can just tell. So it isn’t fun. But at the same time, we had to go through it for it to pay off the way that it did.”

When it hit in May 2020, “Garden” and its uplifting spirit provided many pop-punk fans with some much-needed comfort during quarantine’s peak. “It’s OK to not be OK, and you have people who are there for you,” Campbell says. “We wanted to get that message across to everyone. We didn’t know coronavirus and protests were going to happen, but it was a message that the world really needed to hear throughout all of that.”

The band members weren’t too fazed by the new ways of communication that quarantine required: In MM@TA’s early stages, the Gen Z musicians created songs over voice notes. “We grew up with technology,” Johnson says. “So it’s just like texting normally, but having the idea, recording it, and being like, ‘What do you think about this?’”

One of their biggest hopes for 2021 is to continue shattering boundaries so that more artists of color get a platform. “When shows come back, venues need to book diverse bands,” Johnson says. “Pay attention to your scene — and make sure your show lineup is not just all white, straight cis men”.

Even though I have said Meet Ne @ The Altar are largely known in the U.S., they are actually getting a lot of taction in the U.K. For that reason, I do hope that they come and play here throughout 2023. There is definitely going to be demand for them. DIY featured the tremendous trio back in December. Completing a successful and awesome year for Meet Me @ The Altar, there is that excitement and anticipation around an album. It is clear that the group are not planning on applying the brakes anytime soon:

“Having packed in their day jobs to take the band full time, and with global tours and festival appearances under their belt, Meet Me @ The Altar have no plans to slow it down. In fact, their frustration at a current limbo between touring and the release of their debut album - due in the spring - is palpable. “We want to be a household name!” Téa exclaims with infectious ambition. “We want to be one of the greats. We fully believe with our entire being that we’re going to get to that place we want to be. We know we are going to get exactly what we want.”

That their moment has come seven years after forming doesn’t deter them either. “If anything, we’re stronger than ever before,” Edith says, mirroring Téa’s self-belief. “Once you get a little taste of something, you want a lot more. It’s definitely stronger, and very much here. You want to keep going and going and going.” “That’s literally the secret,” Téa laughs. “That’s how we got here. You have to be delusional as fuck and you have to do the work.”

PHOTO CREDIT: Ben Bentley

Their new music looks to continue that trajectory, and finds Meet Me @ The Altar still working very much on their own terms. Self-described as in the world of rock but a softer step away from easy-core, it’s set to propel them onto new stages in front of diverse audiences. They’ve recently completed shows with queer alt-pop powerhouse MUNA and are heavily inspired by Taylor Swift’s recently announced shows with Paramore, Phoebe Bridgers, HAIM, Beabadoobee and more - breaking boundaries and celebrating women in music, regardless of genre.

“I feel like artists and bands confine themselves too much in a certain box sometimes because it’s comfortable and that’s what they’re used to,” Téa expands. “I feel like you can only grow so much if you are stuck with the same thing. It’s cool to branch out.”

It’s all part of the band’s subtle mission to change the face of rock, and to show the world that music can stretch beyond and embrace all. “There’s a lot of beauty in thinking about when people will just see any band like how they see a bunch of white dudes up there,” Edith concludes. “A lot of our fans that really ride or die for us, they just see a band and we just happen to be who we are. The act of just being us is really enough”.

 PHOTO CREDIT: Jonathan Weiner

I am going to end with a very recent interview from NME. They mentioned how the debut album, Past // Present // Future, marries upbeat tunes with deep messages about empowerment, representation and a brighter tomorrow. It is the kind of music that I think that we all need to hear and learn from. There is no doubt that, when Meet Me @ The Altar on embark on their headline U.S. tour in March, they will receive so much adulation and electricity from the crowds. They, in turn, deliver absolutely incredible live performances:

“Meet Me @ The Altar’s history goes back to 2015, when Campbell commented on bandmate Ada Juarez’s Twenty One Pilots drum cover on YouTube. The two started talking, eventually coming to the decision to form a band, and they held auditions on YouTube for a singer. Lead vocalist Edith Victoria submitted a cover of Paramore’s ‘All I Wanted’ and ended up joining the band in 2017. With all three of them spread across the East Coast of the US – Campbell in Florida, Juarez in New Jersey and Victoria in Georgia – the band wrote songs remotely, meeting up to play shows whenever they could.

After years of grafting across their local touring circuits, the band went viral over the summer of 2020. After Halsey named them recipients of their Black Creators Fund, Meet Me @ The Altar’s streams skyrocketed, as audiences sought to diversify their listening following the Black Lives Matter protests in response to the murder of George Floyd. “It’s been great, but it’s also really bittersweet and a little sad that it happened this way,” Victoria told NME previously.

Simultaneously, pop punk was experiencing a revival at the time, and Meet Me @ The Altar became part of a cohort of artists, including Pinkshift, KennyHoopla and De’Wayne, that formed a newer, more diverse, incarnation of the traditionally white and male genre. Meet Me @ The Altar have since worked tirelessly to create space for women and people of colour in alternative music. “It’s really important for us to be able to make people feel comfortable in a space that they normally wouldn’t have and to be able to actually see the diversity in the crowd,” Campbell says today. “When we went to [rock] shows [as teenagers], we never experienced that. So for us to be bringing these people together is so cool. It just drives us to keep going.”

They hope to encourage future generations of alternative musicians to pursue their dreams  as well. “We are running so other people can walk,” Juarez says. “We wanted to show all of these little girls that they can do [music] too. There’s so many different ways to get to where we are today – and I feel like it’s just so inspiring”.

A trio that I cannot recommend highly enough, I think that this year is going to be the biggest year for them. Go and follow them on social media, and ensure that you pre-order your copy of Past // Present // Future. As you can hear from the songs I have included in this video, they are a monumental talented group that are going to conquer the music world! Edith Victoria, Téa Campbell, Ada Juare are truly wonderful musicians and songwriters. If you have a few moments today, check out their music and make sure that you…

SHOW them some love.

____________

Follow Meet Me @ The Altar

PHOTO CREDIT: Ben Bentley

Official:

https://www.meetmeatthealtar.com/

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/mmataband/

TikTok:

https://www.tiktok.com/@mmataband

Twitter:

https://twitter.com/MMATAband

YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCYxOnijuzQJARRDGg1B7bQ

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/artist/4bzfsZhaLW6VWHLh1sqcrK?si=CCYN1l_WRiapE1SfEY_D1w

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/MMATAband/

FEATURE: Ready to Go: Celebrating the Great Cat Burns

FEATURE:

 

 

Ready to Go

PHOTO CREDIT: Melanie Lehmann 

Celebrating the Great Cat Burns

_________

I have featured Cat Burns…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Adama Jalloh

a couple of times on my blog before. I put her in the Spotlight feature last year, and I recently include her among other great artists as part of the BRITs’ award shortlists. I am compelled to feature her again, as I think that she is going to define this year. Burns has already been placed fourth on Radio 1’s Sound of 2023 poll. She is also set to perform at the BRITs next month. I am going to come onto a couple of other interviews. First, I want to look back to earlier this month, when the BBC spoke with Burns about her career and the success of her best-known song, go:

“From busking on the streets of London, to becoming a platinum-selling songwriter and supporting Ed Sheeran on his stadium tour, Cat Burns had a pretty incredible 2022.

It was all thanks to Go, a defiant break-up song she first released three years ago, but which found a second life on TikTok,

A slow-burning smash, it entered the chart at number 57 last January, gradually moving upwards until it peaked at number two in June.

By that point, Sam Smith had added a guest verse to the song and whisked 22-year-old Burns over to the US to play the song on James Corden's The Late Late Show.

She ended the year with a nomination for the Brits Critics' Choice award; and now she's come fourth in BBC Radio 1's Sound Of 2023 - which tips acts for even bigger success next year.

"I always thought Go would be the song that introduced me to people, but not in the magnitude that it has," says the singer, who's still coming to terms with the success.

Family and music have always been intertwined. Burns grew up on her mum's record collection - falling in love with the gospel songs of Donnie McClurkin, Kim Burrell and Kirk Franklin, alongside the classic soul sounds of Stevie Wonder and Michael Jackson.

Her mum sang in choirs, and encouraged her daughter to join up, too. She remembers after-school clubs and summer camps in Wales where she'd holler the songs from Disney's High School Musical at the top of her voice.

Music wasn't her only talent. Burns was a promising basketball player, whose coach told her she had the potential to play professionally.

"And that was what made me realise I didn't want to do it," she laughs. "Because if you want to pursue it, it becomes your whole life... although I guess to an extent that happens with music, too."

By that point, she'd started writing her own songs, orchestrating everything in her head, as she hadn't yet learned to play an instrument.

"They were rubbish," she laughs, but Burns had enough raw talent to win a place at the Brit School, passing her audition with a rendition of Jimi Hendrix's All Along The Watchtower.

Many graduates are reluctant to discuss their time at the academy, fearful that its "fame academy" image undermines any semblance of cool or credibility - but Burns has no such concerns.

"The Brit School gave me the confidence to know that I can pursue a career in the arts and achieve it," she enthuses”.

Having risen to prominence and featured on shows like Later… with Jools Holland, and Graham Norton’s chat show, here is an artist primed for incredible things. Make sure that you follow Burns on Twitter and Instagram. I would suggest people check out Burns’ 2022 E.P., emotionally unavailable. It is a supreme work from one of the best artists in the country. The London-based Pop/R&B artist is going to keep rising through this year. I want to bring in sections from a Music Week interview from earlier this month. Burns talked about the success of go, TikTok, and navigating the music industry:

“We saw that it was growing on TikTok, so I want to say that I posted loads more TikToks but in reality I didn’t. I highlighted on my posts that it was growing within the algorithm and that helped push it even more. We kept talking about it on other platforms as well. TikTok can really do wonders and when the song picks up, the work gets done for you. We did loads of interviews and shoots. We wanted to make sure people knew the face behind the song.

“Luckily, I think this song lent itself to different genres. Goddard did a bootleg version, the drum & bass one. Someone took a screenshot and sent it to me and said, ‘Oh my gosh, this guy’s done a drum & bass version of your song and it sounds really cool.’ I showed my manager and he was like, ‘Wow, we should put this out.’

“There are eight official reworks. Sam Smith, Goddard, Loski and Russ Millions on the drill one, Sam Fischer’s one and then the Lower & Slower and Higher & Faster versions, the Piano Version and the Nervous Freaks house remix.

“The Sam Smith one came about quite randomly. We asked Sam if they wanted to do it then my manager messaged me and said, ‘Hey, Sam’s going to do a version of Go,’ and I was like, ‘What?!’ I finally met Sam and it was a perfect pairing because we genuinely get on and that has shown through when we’ve performed together. There have also been other bootleg versions, I know there’s an Amapiano one. I’m really lucky we were able to do the number we did and people didn’t get sick of it.

“The trick was not really letting the song die and creating different versions of it to live in different places. I’m really happy that the original has the most streams, because that’s just me by myself and it shows that people like the song full stop.

“Luckily, people didn’t really have an image of me as someone who just created a song that blew up on TikTok, because I did a good mix of teasing originals as well as posting covers, so people knew that I sang my own songs, and those went viral too.

“Labels want to create a name for the people behind the songs so that artists don’t keep having just one hit. Go is quite slow for radio, so their steering was more like, ‘Let’s create a version for radio that doesn’t have to live on DSPs.’

“That was nice because my music is acoustic pop and it is slow. There’s some that are a bit faster, but generally the songs I love are acoustic. The label hasn’t steered me anywhere bad because the song that has changed my life is the music that I want to make. So there’s no butting heads or intensity because the song has done well.

“The industry is new for me and I’m not a very trusting person, especially in the business. I always remind myself that I am the product, I have to make people money in order for them to be happy with me. I’m not under any false pretences about getting comfortable in the industry”.

One of my favourite songs from Cat Burns is free. Burns identifies as Queer. In an interview with Gay Times, she stated how she initially struggled to reconcile her sexuality with her ethnicity, stating that, as a Black woman, she wants to be seen and heard. There is a vulnerability that comes with a lot of different and complex emotions. Being Queer adds a layer to that. I want to skip to this Refinery29 interview from last year. Burns discussed authenticity and why it is important that Black Queer people talk about their experiences:

“Your new EP is out and sounding beautiful. Why did you choose ‘emotionally unavailable’ as the title track?

CB: “I came up with the name ‘emotionally unavailable’ back in 2020 because that was where I was at in my life, I was extremely closed off to love of any kind and had so much to work through. I chose it as the title track because I felt like it summed up our generation so well. We’re not just emotionally unavailable for no reason; there’s a lot we go through on a daily basis.”

You’re such a profound writer. Have you always found it easy to be vulnerable through music? When did you start writing?

CB: “Music is the one place I’ve never struggled being vulnerable. I struggle to say how I’m feeling normally and get overwhelmed when trying to express it. Music is a safe space for me to sing what I’ve always wanted to say. I started writing back when I was about twelve. The songs were awful then but I learnt so much about how I wanted to write.”

I read that you want to help “Black queer people tell their stories” — why is this so important to you?

CB: “Because I am a Black queer person and feeling seen, heard and represented means everything to me.”

How important is it to be just as authentic on your social platforms as you are in your music?

CB: “It is extremely important. I’m quite private about personal things but I still want people to feel a part of my journey because they are.”

How would you advise your generation — particularly young, Black, queer people — to show up as their authentic selves in their lives?

CB: “Don’t put too much pressure on yourself to be anything or do anything. Just take things at your own pace”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Melanie Lehmann

I think we are going to see a lot more from Cat Burns this year. Her new singles,  people pleaser and sleep at night, were released in October. It would be wonderful if there was a debut album this year. So many eyes are on the terrific Cat Burns. I want to finish with an interview from DAZED. In July, they featured an artist who went from busking to becoming one of the most promising artists in the country. Cat Burns’ stunning E.P., emotionally unavailable, is someone who has a huge and bright feature ahead of her:

“Burns’s EP emotionally unavailable has solidified her position as a rising artist who can effortlessly capture our collective, generational struggles with loneliness and finding community. The six-track project grapples with the feelings of living in the modern world, including “anxiety”, “we’re not kids anymore” (which reminisces over the end of a friendship) and “ghosting”. “All the things on emotionally unavailable are taken from personal stories, I’ve definitely felt lonely and anxious,” she says.

Vulnerability is at the heart of everything Burns does. Last year, she released one of her most personal tracks to date “Free”. “There’s no way you can tell me who I’m supposed to be / See now I’m free”, she sings triumphantly on the track which recalls her experience when coming out to her family. She hopes her supporters can benefit from connecting with each other, in the same way connection has helped her. “[Having a chosen family] means a lot. Just having people who chose to be in your life is important and they help you feel less alone, especially if you’re feeling the same kind of things they are.”

Burns wants her legacy to be one that unites people and reconnects people in a time when most of us are disconnected. “There’s lots of pressure that young people have on them,” says Burns, “which makes sense with the society we live in. I think [rates of] depression and anxiety are the highest they’ve ever been and it’s our job as musicians to just help people feel something. Music is therapy. So having a song, or a couple of songs that are out there that make you feel like it's been written for you, is always good. I want people to feel heard and listened to whenever they hear my music. I just want them to feel less alone.”

It’s been a busy year for Burns with a Late Late Show performance under her belt, an upcoming headline show at London’s KOKO and for the summer, Burns is travelling across Europe supporting Ed Sheeran on tour, performing to the largest audiences in her career so far. It’s a far cry from busking and TikTok and Burns is ready for it. “It will be my first time in pretty much all of these places and it feels good. These are the things I’ve wanted to do and I didn’t think it would happen this quickly,” she says. “When I started posting on TikTok, it was genuinely for fun and out of boredom – I wasn’t expecting anything from it. All of this is a bonus... ”.

I wanted to write about Cat Burns, as she is someone who is going from strength to strength. She is performing at the BRITs next month, and I am sure that there will be more music soon. Tipped for success through 2023, I would encourage everyone to follow her. It has been a busy and successful past year for the amazing Cat Burns. I do think that this year will be her most memorable to date. It is going to be richly deserved. That is why I wanted to salute…

A remarkable artist.

FEATURE: Spotlight: EFÉ

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

PHOTO CREDIT: Patrick Gunning 

EFÉ

_________

IN a scene…

where there are a lot of boring artists and those who seem to be constructing songs based on algorithms, EFÉ is a brief of fresh air! The Dublin-born artist has supported JPEGMAFIA and Still Woozy, and her music is getting a lot of acclaim and buzz. Tipped as one of the artists to watch this year, you can see why she is so beloved. Her VITAMIN – C E.P. came out in August, and it showcases her incredible talent. Songs where the beats are at their peak and the vocals are supreme, there is so much care and attention paid to ensuring the sound and production are at the absolute peak. A fabulous artists who is armed and ready to take over the music world, you all need to get involved with the music of the artist born Anita Ikharo. Filled of energy, personality and colour, her music matches her personality. It is so compelling and physically uplifting. It is what everyone needs in their lives! I want to bring in a few interviews from last year where EFÉ is in the spotlight. Apologies if the exerts seem disconnected or there isn’t a flow. These are passages that I like and wanted to highlight. DORK featured EFÉ back in August. They underlined the fact that she has more star power than pretty much everyone else on the block:

“EFÉ is one of those brilliant pop magpies who take sounds, influences and inspirations from all manner of different places, collating them in exciting collages of sound, visuals and creativity. Born Anita Ikharo, EFÉ is 22 and based in Dublin. She’s already released one EP, the dreamy bedroom pop stylings of 2020’s ‘What Should We Do This Summer?’, but this year she’s firmly taking things to the next level and ramping up her boundless creativity with her second EP ‘VITAMIN – C’. Going right back to her childhood and formative musical memories, it was clear that EFÉ was destined to be more than just a singer singing her songs. “I love the idea of music videos,” she says excitedly. “That’s what drove me to want to make music, so I can have my own music video. I was watching 90s and 00s music videos last week, and I was like, woah, the standard back then was insane. I was watching a Black Eyed Peas video, and I was like, oh my gosh. It was ‘Let’s Get It Started’. How is that even possible?”

That’s the level she’s aiming for with her creativity, but naturally, it’s a winding journey to fully realise that for an emerging artist. If you watch the evolution of her music videos on this EP – from the sweet story of falling in love with Coco the bear on the gorgeous single ‘Kiwi’, to the melodrama of the reality-aping talent show caper of ‘Lime’ – it’s clear that we’re dealing with a singular talent with a flair for the unexpected.

“I just want to be seen as a super creative person,” she explains. “Not only having the music to just back me up. The whole vision is what’s important to me. Music and artistry is bigger than just the music for me personally. Fortunately, music allows me to do so many other things and express myself in so many different ways.”

One of her biggest influences is an artist who perhaps best represents blasting out of your own supposed lane and realising your own vision. In typically off-beat EFÉ style, though, it came with a twist. “I feel like my biggest influence was Beyoncé,” she begins before laughing. “I remember there was a time when I was like, Oh my gosh, the Illuminati is real, so I’m not going to listen to Beyoncé. I stopped listening to Beyoncé, and I stopped listening to music.

 I had huge confidence when I was younger that if I made music, I’d be famous, and the Illuminati would come and find me. It was insane. I was so scared.” Fortunately, she’s still here, and the Illuminati are still out there. Wherever they are. Another big influence for her is Tyler, the Creator. He’s someone who has a shared aesthetic for invention. “I love the cultural influence that he’s had in music,” she says. “He’s built an empire that’s so inspiring.”

‘VITAMIN – C’ is a step up and a subtle evolution of the world that she is creating. Everything is linked and woven together, from the music to the super bright and colourful imagery and artwork to the iconic music videos. “Through knowing myself more and having more experiences, I’ve definitely been able to develop my writing,” she says. “’What Should We Do This Summer?’ overall had a theme of nostalgia, but it was kind of spread out in the writing, whereas this EP is more close-knit. What’s also really cool is the producer who.killed.romeo, as well as Adam Kelleher, who directed my videos; we work all together, so we’ve all developed together as we go on to this new project. I’m growing and developing in sound, but so are they, and we elevate each other together”.

EFÉ has played internationally, and I know there will be a lot of demand this year off the back of the VITAMIN – C E.P. In every interview and feature, the effusiveness and energy that comes from the Irish queen is clear. She is someone who cannot be moulded, watered down or directed to fit a Pop market or commercial niche. This free spirit and huge burst of serotonin is what marks her out as a legend of the future. NME were suitably blown away and stunned by her when they sat down in August. Well, they interviewed her by Zoom. Even so, they were still moved and captivated by her remote presence:

“Spend five minutes in the presence of EFÉ, and you’ll see that behind her playful pop, there’s a personality just as vibrant. Even over Zoom, battling to be heard over the background builders, the Dublin-based artist (real name Anita Ikharo) is larger-than-life – full of bubbly Gen Z humour and references, plus an unbelievable amount of hilarious anecdotes; she has energy in droves.

Having just released her second EP, ‘VITAMIN-C,’ the 22-year-old’s journey up until this point has been filled with surprises. For EFÉ though, it’s something that she has known would happen all her life. That being said, the inevitable prospect of that career path for EFÉ was daunting for unexpected reasons. “I was into Beyoncé heavily but then I found out she was in the Illuminati!” gasps EFÉ, jokingly referencing the debunked online conspiracy theory. “I thought, ‘Oh no, if I continue to make music it’s a given that I’ll make it. Then the Illuminati are going to find me and I’m going to have to join!’ There’s always been that confidence from a young age, but it’s something I’ve always wanted.” Thankfully the evil overlords haven’t come calling just yet, so, for now, she’s ours.

Her first self-released EP, ‘What Should We Do This Summer?’ launched her headfirst into the industry back in 2020. And despite arriving in the blustery winds of autumn, the EP combined voice memos of EFÉ’s friends and family with idyllic, wistful vocals and hazy soundscapes; she reeled in a host of listeners much in need of a blast of summer heat.

2022, though, has proved the craziest year of them all. In April, she supported Baltimore rapper JPEGMAFIA, in spite of her concerns about their fit; she then landed two shows at this summer’s Glastonbury Festival. “I was correcting my thesis in the green room before opening for JPEG. I had to go to America the next day and I submitted it at the airport. It was the most stressful thing ever!” EFÉ recalls.

It may have been a chaotic, intense time, but it’s been an opportunity for EFÉ to learn and grow, both personally and artistically. On an EP which often focuses on ideas of codependency – within both relationships or in the music industry – EFÉ took her first steps into the world of production. With ‘Loving Girl’, she makes a statement about an industry that places doubts on young women’s technical capabilities: “I had to make sure that no matter what, I made something that I at least made myself or was heavily involved in”.

This month, The Line of Best Fit wrote about an artist they were seeing on the rise. I am fascinated to imagine what might be in store this year for EFÉ. I think there will be an album at some point. There is definitely going to be touring demand. After a year where she has got into the hearts and minds of so many people, that need to see her in the flesh is worldwide. I am quite new to her music, but it takes only a moment before you are fully invested and want to hear everything she has done. EFÉ shows what incredible talent is coming from Ireland – a nation that is renowned for its phenomenal music:

“She’s recently returned from her tour with California-based artist Still Woozy, something she’d dreamed of after the release of her sunkissed debut EP What Should We Do This Summer in 2020. Now, the Irish-born artist is brimming with plenty of creative endeavors for the future – if she can ever find the time for them.

Using What Should We Do This Summer as an intimate vessel for self-reflection, each chapter of life was gently recorded, carefully packaged, and released into a world outside her own. Nostalgic, crackly clips of children’s voices and bird chirps lull each stormy thought to an end. The children’s stories reverberate within a bubble of acoustic guitar strums and cicadas as they speak of their dreams for the future. Wind chimes and echoing, soulful piano chords provide a nostalgic backdrop for Ikharo to stumble through freshly blooming fields and share her summer wishes.

She’s reaching into the depths of simple, easygoing indie pop to uncover sharp, unwavering proclamations of her newly defined independence. VITAMIN - C, a follow-up to her 2020 release, wraps the journey of codependency and industry success in a warm, sugar-coated glaze. “All I need is my success and my ideas, that’s what it’s about, and a good team!” she explains, noting that it hasn’t always been easy to determine what’s best for her career.

The indie-pop artist is set to headlining Best Fit’s Five-Day Forecast alongside Jessica Winter and Edie Bens, next week. Ikharo racks her brain to remember what day she’ll be performing (it's Monday), counting the days one-by-one in her head. It’s been a busy year for her: “The Still Woozy tour has trained me to just go with it. So, we’ll see how that goes.” Ikharo tells me she’s excited to be able to perform – something she’s had no choice but to get pretty good at”.

I am going to wrap it up there. Many people will feel overwhelmed by the sheer volume of new music coming through. It can be hard deciphering which to stick with and commit to. EFÉ is someone who I can recommend with conviction. You need to start exploring her incredible music. It is essential and life-enhancing sounds that are rich and satisfying. EFÉ, as a human and artist, is overflowing…

WITH life and love.

__________

Follow EFÉ

PHOTO CREDIT: Paula Trojner 

Official:

https://efebaby.bigcartel.com/

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/kawaii.mom/

Twitter:

https://twitter.com/efebabyyy

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/artist/2v0XtEw3w12NCC0J20ke6C

YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgnABahRO74J-Autwi24KOA

FEATURE: Fight the Power: How Hip Hop Changed the World: Hip-Hop at Fifty: A Selection of Groundbreaking New and Classic Cuts

FEATURE:

 

 

Fight the Power: How Hip Hop Changed the World

IN THIS PHOTO: Queen Latifah in New York in 1990/PHOTO CREDIT: Janette Beckman/Getty Images

Hip-Hop at Fifty: A Selection of Groundbreaking New and Classic Cuts

_________

BECAUSE the BBC…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Charlie Ahearn, Grandmaster Flash, Debbie Harry, Fab 5 Freddy, Chris Stein of Blondie and friend in 1981/PHOTO CREDIT: Fotografiska New York

have a documentary series marking fifty years of Hip-Hop, I wanted to talk about it briefly. The actual fiftieth anniversary occurs in August, but you can appreciate there is a build-up and lots of events. From exhibitions in the U.S., to this three-year pledge by Showtime to bring together Hip-Hop films, T.V. shows, documentaries and podcasts, there is a lot of activity this year! Most of it will happen in the U.S. as I guess the nation gave us the movement. From its fashions and sub-genres through to its classic cuts and new artists, Hip-Hop is an empire that has given the world some of the most important music ever. It is great that we can date the birth of Hip-Hop. In this 2021 article, Christie’s looked back at an important date in music history. They spoke with Hip-Hop’s founder, DJ Kool Herc, who discussed musical evolutions and the origin of a billion-dollar business:

“It was 11 August 1973 and Cindy Campbell was throwing a back to school party. She had asked her brother to DJ the event, which would be held in the recreation room of their building at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue in the Bronx. Cindy planned to charge admission at the door — a quarter for girls, 50 cents for the boys. She wanted to use the proceeds to buy new clothes for the upcoming school year.

Cindy's brother was known by most as DJ Kool Herc — a name that alluded to the Greek God of strength, Hercules. An up-and-coming DJ looking to make a name for himself, Herc understood that a party lived and died on the dancefloor, and so he found what set it off. As Herc’s hands worked across two parallel turntables, he unknowingly ushered in a new era of musical culture, laying the foundation for what we now call hip-hop.

Introducing a technique he called ‘The Merry-Go-Round,’ Herc pioneered a way to strip down the music by isolating the percussive nature of the ‘breakbeat,’ the instrumental section that is considered a ‘break’ from the main musical pattern. It was during the ‘breaks,’ he noticed, that the crowds would hit the dancefloor. Using two copies of the same record, Herc was able to shift quickly from break to break by allowing a second back-cued record to continue the beat as the first record reached its end.

With ‘The Merry-Go-Round,’ Herc turned a seconds-long moment into prolonged minutes of dancefloor action, allowing the break boys, or ‘b-boys’ as he dubbed them, to take over the floor and battle with their bodies in rhythm to the music.

The technique he introduced that August evening became the cornerstone of hip-hop, cementing Herc as the genre’s universally recognized founder. From 4-18 August, Christie’s will present DJ Kool Herc & The Birth of Hip-Hop, an online auction of his and Cindy’s private collection that charts the early stages and ultimate rise of a now ubiquitous culture.

Beyond his turntable stylings, Herc’s influence on hip-hop was far-reaching. Known for playing music and listening to records that weren’t mainstream, Herc introduced partygoers to artists and songs they had never heard before. His own musical indoctrination began at home with his father, Keith Campbell, an avid record collector. Keith exposed his children to genres that ranged from American jazz to gospel and country. As Herc’s musical tastes evolved, he developed an interest in soul, and artists like James Brown would prove to be major influences on his DJing techniques.

IN THIS PHOTO: DJ Kool Herc/PHOTO CREDIT: Desiree Navarro/Getty Images

In items from DJ Kool Herc & The Birth of Hip-Hop, the depth and breadth of his vinyl collection is clear. Records by Jimmy Castor, Baby Huey and the Jackson Five mingle with those of Joan Baez, Cream and Curtis Mayfield. There are even some, like Rare Earth’s Get Ready or Ohio Players Pleasure, that Herc tagged himself, colouring his name in black marker across the album covers.

Another crucial element of Herc’s influence was his sound system, especially his speakers, ‘The Herculoids.’ Having grown up in Kingston, Jamaica before immigrating to the US in 1967, Herc was inspired by the loud, innovative set-ups he saw there. In the Bronx, he distinguished himself by bringing a Jamaican edge to his DJing style, hooking up microphones to a Space Echo box and making sure his speakers were the loudest around.

Several sound systems — emblems of hip-hop history and in of themselves — are part of the upcoming sale, including the original mixer and speakers used at the legendary 1973 back-to-school party.

At its core, the genesis of hip-hop is simple: it derived from a desire by young people to bring everyone together. Without pretension and open to all, this growing movement of the ‘70s and ‘80s drew crowds of all kinds from across the city’s five boroughs. ‘To me, hip-hop says, “Come as you are,”’ Herc wrote in the introduction to Jeff Chang and Dave Cook’s book, Can't Stop Won't Stop. ‘It’s about you and me, connecting one-to-one. That’s why it has universal appeal.’

Though hip-hop has gone through dramatic changes over the decades, it’s clear through early flyers, event posters and other materials from Herc’s collection that its beginnings were homespun and humble. Herc was not only channelling his creativity into music, but also through hand-drawn advertisements and customised clothing.

In examples of early street style from the collection, including bejewelled belt buckles, sneakers, necklaces and the iconic outfit Herc wore in Beat Street, Herc’s holistic vision is on full display. Completely on his own, Herc was branding himself — and hip-hop — before the idea of a personal brand even existed.

Through these homemade elements and other items from Herc’s collection, the five pillars of hip-hop — DJing, rapping or MCing, graffiti art, breakdancing and fashion — are found. They mark where hip-hop began and how it has evolved into an international, multi-billion-dollar business”.

Nearer to the fiftieth anniversary, I am going to focus on specific areas. I wanted to use this opportunity put together some of the best classic Hip-Hop cuts, together with some modern Hip-Hop, so that we can see how the genre has evolved through the decades. Few would have though that, on 11th August, 1973, we would be looking back at this date as landmark and a seismic shift. I think that, if you have an interest in Hip-Hop, go and invest in a few books. Go and listen to as many podcasts and read as many books as you can. In terms of literature, check out websites such as Waterstones and Amazon, and there will be guidance when it comes to the essential books to read. I have dropped a couple of podcasts in here, but I would urge people to look deeper and find out as much as they can. In August of 1973, something modest but magical happened that would light a fuse. It is a big and multi-layered world to immerse yourself in, but you can start with the new BBC series, as that provides a great grounding, where we hear form some of the pioneers and important artists who have help shape Hip-Hop. A genre that has taken over the world, you know there will be new books and documentaries in the lead-up to August. I will talk about the best Hip-Hop albums ever, the artists who have defined the movement, and how Hip-Hop has evolved through the years. Now, I want to start off with a  playlist of classic Hip-Hop cuts, plus some great songs from the modern time. Even if Hip-Hop has changed since 1973, the genre has remained…

TRULY phenomenal and innovative.

FEATURE: Get it Covered! Adding New Dimensions to Kate Bush Songs

FEATURE:

 

 

Get it Covered!

PHOTO CREDIT: Guido Harari

Adding New Dimensions to Kate Bush Songs

_________

I think…

 PHOTO CREDIT: John Carder Bush

we all heard enough covers of Kate Bush’s Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) last year. It is no wonder artists wanted to celebrate a song that got back in the charts and reached new fans and younger listeners. As a result, various artists gave their take on the classic Bush single. There were some dreadful attempts (the less said about Rita Ora’s mauling the better!), and some good ones. I don’t think there were that many that strayed too far from the original in terms of the vocal performance. Many gave the song a harder edge or more of a modern Pop sound, but most who were singing it did not really change the pace of the song or the delivery. I have included one below that is actually pretty good! Featuring Sweet Megg on vocals, it is a PostmodernJukebox take on the 1985 song. It has a Jazz feel to it. Maybe like it was being performed at a New York club in the 1950s or 1960s. Something that could be played loud at Ronnie Scott’s in London today. I really like the direction and take! I have been a bit down on the covers of Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) as there were so MANY of them! It seemed cynical for artists to cover the song, in the hope they might get some residual success and popularity. Few really gave it much of a stamp or new personality. I do like the most recent one I have found. They brand it as a Western style. It has that U.S. heart, but I also hear U.K. elements and other genres in there.

I hope we can put Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) to bed! It did its thing in 2022 and it meant Kate Bush has been back in focus and in the ears of people who might not have heard her before. Everyone from Halsey to The Wombats did their take of the Hounds of Love song. It is not the case there has only been one decent Kate Bush cover last year. It is hard to keep on top of all of them, but I have heard some interesting takes. If you look for Kate Bush covers from last year, most do relate to Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God). Through the years, there have been some great ones, and my favourite might be a live version of Moments of Pleasure (from The Red Shoes) performed live. A lot of the covers are of the better-known tracks, but there is opportunity to repurpose those and bring them to new fans. Maybe a fresh angle on Never for Ever’s Babooshka? An artist doing something fresh with Wuthering Heights. Even a song from an album as popular as Hounds of Love, The Big Sky, has been relatively untouched. I have said before how no Kate Bush cover surpasses the originals, but that is not to say artists shouldn’t cover and interpret on her songs. I think certain songs have been saturated. Nobody is going to do anything radical with Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) now. There are so many other options and rarer songs.

It is nice to be surprised and find a cover that takes a Kate Bush song in a new direction. As a unique and innovative artist, it is challenging doing something bold with her music! I have mooted the possibility of Kate Bush tribute and cover albums. I do think, especially as there needs to be a new documentary about Bush, having new covers would definitely add to that. I have a list of Kate Bush songs that I would love to see covered. One of my favourites, Them Heavy People (from The Kick Inside) is up there, but there are even tracks from Hounds of Love’s The Ninth Wave that would benefit new interpretation. Lesser-known songs like The Sensual World’s The Fog, and Get Out of My House from The Dreaming are in my thoughts. Artists can definitely bring magic from Kate Bush’s songs that were not there before. What the plethora of Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) covers last year showed is that artists are connecting with Kate Bush. She inspires artists of all ages and across all genres! Every cover brings the original to someone else - so one cannot complain. It also proves how relevant Bush is today. I am keen to see which songs are covered this year and, indeed, whether we get another Stranger Things moment. This could be yet another massive year for Kate Bush and her music. We cross our fingers, but let’s hope all this new love of her work compels Bush to gift us…

WITH some new music.

FEATURE: RENAISSANCE: Should Artists Commit to Not Playing Countries Who Do Not Recognise L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ and Women’s Rights?

FEATURE:

 

 

RENAISSANCE

IN THIS PHOTO: Beyoncé shot for British Vogue in 2022/PHOTO CREDIT: Rafael Pavarotti

Should Artists Commit to Not Playing Countries Who Do Not Recognise L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ and Women’s Rights?

_________

THERE was division and controversy…

 IN THIS PHOTO: West Bay, Doha, Qatar/PHOTO CREDIT: Masarath Alkhaili/Unsplash

last year when the World Cup took place in Qatar. A nation that has abhorrent laws when it comes to same-sex relationships, their idea of morals and decency essentially wipes out and victimised the L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ community. I guess, if we are talking about the L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ spectrum and rainbow, then this feature is predominantly aimed at lesbian, gay and bi-sexual people – but the entire community and spectrum does not to be represented. To be fair, I think that anyone who does not identify as heterosexual and remains very prim and proper is subjected to the vilest and most inhumane repercussions. Artists did boycott the World Cup last year. To be fair, so should have the England football team. That is a debate and rant for another day! It can be a tricky issue when musicians are asked to perform in nations that have terrible human rights records. Countries where great sects of their society are imprisoned and sometimes killed for their sexual orientation. I was pretty much black-and-white when it came to Qatar. My feeling was then and always will be that no artist with any shred of decency and respect for the L.G.B.T.Q.I.A+ community should have gone there. The nation also has an abysmal record when it comes to women’s rights. I am, not going to blanket the Middle East as being restrictive, regressive and inhuman. Not all nations here have such repellent and Stone Age attitudes. That said, it is a part of the globe I don’t think any artist needs to perform in. It is a shame for fans there but, as I have discussed when it comes to Israel – artists have cancelled performing here because of the nation’s occupation of Palestine -, going to these places can make things worse. Artists want to please fans but, politically and morally, they need to think about the wider population and their ethics. The World Cup is an occasion where I think no artists should have gone.

 IN THIS PHOTO: Dua Lipa/PHOTO CREDIT: Getty Images

Dua Lipa was accused of playing in Qatar but, as she is someone who has these morals and has a lot of L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ and female fans, it would have been a hugely controversial and risky thing to do. In a lot of cases, it is labels that put pressure on their artists to go to these places. Look at the L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ rights in the U.A.E. Or the lack thereof! It is another nation that, whether too bound by religion or a diseased vision of human decency and what makes someone immoral and prehensive, should be a no-go zone for artists. Does money dictate and direct artists too much? Even if you are represented your country, I feel the best way to honour them is to boycott nations that treat certain people so evilly. Someone who has a legion of L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ fans is Beyoncé. Where footballer David Beckham recently received a barrage of criticism for helping the Qatari government advertise and promote the World Cup, Beyoncé has not received the same backlash. At the weekend, she performed in the city of Dubai. Again, this is a part of the world where gay rights are not on the agenda. If you are a westerner who is able to use their economic advantage to form communities out of danger, then things are not as bad. For everyone else, they risk their lives and liberty! The fact that Beyoncé came back to the stage after five years and performed for fans (albeit a select group) is fantastic. She always delivers an incredible set and, even though songs from RENAISSANCE (her latest album) were not played, it sounded like a great performance.

Though nothing can ever match her headlining Coachella back in 2018, I do think that she is one of the greatest artists of her generation. An inspiration to millions, there has been division around Beyoncé’s performance in Dubai. The reason for her performance is explained by the BBC in this article:

“Beyoncé has returned to the stage for her first live performance in five years - but not everyone's excited.

The US megastar headlined the private concert in Dubai to mark the opening of luxury hotel Atlantis The Royal.

Despite a strict no-phones policy at the exclusive, 1,500-seat gig, footage of the show flooded the internet.

Many fans were thrilled to see the return of Queen B, but others weren't happy because Dubai has strict laws against same-sex relationships.

Renaissance, her latest album, has been celebrated for "honouring black queer culture" and taking inspiration from LGBT icons.

It pays tribute to dance music that emerged out of the gay community and also references 1800s drag ballrooms in Harlem, New York.

So it's left some fans uncomfortable that the singer would make her live return in a nation which doesn't recognise LGBT rights.

'One rule for one'

Dubai is part of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), a Middle Eastern country made up of seven regions that follow strict laws and have rules against homosexuality.

Nearby Qatar, which hosted the 2022 World Cup, has similar rules.

It was criticised for its attitude to LGBT people, its human rights record and its treatment of migrant workers.

David Beckham faced backlash - most famously from comedian Joe Lycett - for signing a big-money deal with the Qatari government to advertise the event.

Like Beyoncé, he has been celebrated within the LGBT community and posed on the cover of best-selling gay magazine Attitude in 2002.

But so far the criticism of the singer hasn't been as fierce.

Drag Race UK star Kitty Scott-Claus asked whether there was "one rule for one and one rule for another", referring to the backlash against Beckham.

But not all fans have been critical - some have said the UAE and surrounding countries aren't alone in their stance on LGBT rights and shouldn't be singled out.

And others have pointed out differences, such as Beyoncé being paid by a business for a private event, while Beckham was paid by the government to actively promote the country”.

 IN THIS PHOTO: Comedian Joe Lycett was among those who criticised David Beckham’s decision to act as an ambassador in Qatar/PHOTO CREDIT: Rob Parfitt/Channel 4

I have boundless respect for Beyoncé. In this instance, opening a fancy hotel seems like a misguided reason to perform in Dubai. It is hard to see any real reason why it would outweigh the massive downsides of the country when it comes to the nation. It once again raises questions as to why artists – with or without as large L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ fanbase – perform in countries that have such horrendous laws. Beyoncé is not the only artists in recent years who has caused a stir when it comes to appearing in countries with terrible human rights records. It does make me think what the point is. Something as gaudy, crass and ridiculous and needlessly decedent as a luxury hotel. It is hard to see what the angle or motivation was beyond money. Whether Beyoncé decided to do it, or whether her label and management insisted she do, the whole situation seems very weird, random and tone-deaf. It is sad that loving and accepting fans in these countries will miss out, but surely every artist should boycott places like Dubai and Qatar without question?! If you want to protest and show your dismay and anger at their savage and disgusting attitudes and laws, then you can do so from your own country. A big artist like Beyoncé can play a huge show in the U.S. and highlight the injustices in these places! There is no doubt that she is against the stringent laws in Dubai, but she couldn’t well voice that at this corporate and high-profile event where she was very much expected to perform and nothing more.

 PHOTO CREDIT: Teddy O/Unsplash

What motivation is there for any artist to perform in countries and places that have no respect for women or the L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ community?! I know that Dubai is a lot better when it comes to women’s rights - gender equality is of paramount importance in the UAE -, but there is still the issue around L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ rights. Nobody is forcing them too and, if buckets of cash is the reason you are doing this, then that pretty horrifying! None of these major artists are in any dire needs of financial support, so is greed outweighing moral obligations? I know it more complex than that, but there does need to be change. I can imagine artists performing in the U.A.E. or Qatar or wherever are always conscious about what they say and what they wear. They do not have the freedom and reins to perform as comfortably and confidently as they otherwise would. Do these gigs raise artists’ profiles and send out a positive message? I don’t think so on both fronts. There should be moves towards positivity, inclusiveness and affecting change. Performing in nations dominated by medieval laws and barbarism seems like a massive step back! Unless I am missing something obvious? Sadly, I think we will see a lot more occasions where artists either perform one-off gigs in ‘red zone’ areas, or they include it as a leg of their tours. There are ramifications about deliberately excluding countries. Fans will suffer and lose out. That is unfair, I admit. Artists do not need to go to areas of the world that seemingly have no respect for human life. It baffles me. I hope that the debate and split in opinion following Beyoncé’s Dubai gig focuses attention to an issue that has been ongoing for decades. Why do artists feel the need to make seemingly ill-judged decisions like this?! A blanket refusal by all musicians to play in places like Qatar and across the U.A.E. sends out a message that all good people in music understand. And that is that we will not accept or tolerate any forms of human rights abuse. Whether that is against women or L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ people, there needs to be a united stand and solidarity. That is the only way…

THINGS will ever change.

FEATURE: Revisiting… Ari Lennox - age/sex/location

FEATURE:

 

 

Revisiting…

Ari Lennox - age/sex/location

_________

AN artist that I have…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Gizelle Hernandez

a huge amount of respect and love for, Ari Lennox is a Washington-born R&B/Neo Soul sensational whose 2019 debut album, Shea Butter Baby, is one of the best of the past decade. Even though it gained positive reviews, I wanted to revisit her much-desired follow-up age/sex/location. Released in September, I think that some people might have missed it. Lennox is definitely one of the finest artists in the world, and age/sex/location is an album that should be heard by as many people as possible. Perhaps not as well-known in the U.K. as she is in the U.S., I hope that Ari Lennox’s music gets played more on stations in this country. It is a shame that Lennox has had to encounter some disrespectful interviewers. In January last year, Lennox swore off doing any more interviews following an inappropriate comment and question by a male D.J. The Guardian explain more as they spotlighted her in September:

“In January, the outspoken American R&B singer-songwriter Ari Lennox tweeted that she’d never do another interview after being quizzed disrespectfully about her sex life by a smirking male radio DJ. Lennox’s lyrics about good sex with untrustworthy, broke or otherwise unmoored men feel so unmediated and authentic that some people confuse the Ari in the songs with the real person – born Courtney Shanade Salter in Washington DC in 1991 – who sings them.

It’s still depressingly common, it seems, for women – especially black women – who write honestly about relationships, Tinder traumas and “regretful mornings” to be reduced to sexually voracious caricatures. That demeans Lennox and her work, which drifts unhurriedly across the past four musical decades, infusing neo-soul and progressive R&B with a hip-hop attitude. The intoxicating Shea Butter Baby is her signature song, but recent drops Pressure and Queen Space, a duet with Summer Walker about the power of self-worth, are equally strong.

Before signing to J Cole’s Dreamville label, Lennox spent years working in retail, driving Ubers and posting covers online, even on her dating profile. Like Cole, her songs display a lively sense of humour, a sharp eye for a strong image and an ear for an intriguing beat. Despite the tiresome sexism, she has vowed to “continue to sing about dick when I want”. New album age/sex/location is another enlightening tour around her quirky mind”.

There are quite a few video interviews that I would recommend people check out. I have dropped a couple in here. There is no doubt that Ari Lennox’s second studio album, age/sex/location, is a masterful work that ranks alongside the very best of last year. It is one that might have been missed by some people. Rolling Stone were among those who have huge praise to an album by an artist who everybody should know about and embrace:

“WHEN YOU HEAR the hip-hop-styled piano rhythm of “POF,” the opening cut on Ari Lennox’s second album age/sex/location, the first thing you’ll notice is her voice, flowing full and wry like Erykah Badu circa “On & On.” Yes, this is a real, honest-to-God soul singer: no autotune effects, no flattening croon that approximates laptop software, no double-time rhythm meant to approximate a rapper’s inflections. Lennox isn’t a traditionalist, though, and her music feels utterly modern. Much like Summer Walker, Chlöe Bailey — both of whom guest on age/sex/location — Jazmine Sullivan and others, Lennox represents a thriving R&B community, even as the increasingly tired “R&B Is Dead” meme continues to circulate, no thanks to a recent claim by Sean “Puffy” Combs (which he later amended).

Such comments have less to do with the quality of the music than the sense that rap has permanently eclipsed R&B in popularity, leaving musicians and fans to recalibrate their relationship with a beloved and necessary Black artform. Indeed, a subtext of age/sex/location is that none of the Dreamville rappers, particularly label co-founder J Cole, appear on it. Lennox hasn’t always seemed comfortable being a part of the Dreamville boys’ club in the past, and last year she publicly requested to be released from her contract. But give Cole credit for not pulling a, uh, Puffy, and demanding airtime on her latest project. And with age/sex/location, Lennox has delivered her best work to date, one that mostly leaps past her patchy but inspired Shea Butter Baby debut in quality. “Ari Lennox album phenomenal,” wrote Cole on Twitter.

Kicking off with “POF,” which bemoans a dearth of quality men, Lennox settles into a vibe and refuses to relinquish it. “Hoodie” is all supple bass and conga percussion as she switches to seductress: “Tangled up on your waist/Dreaming about how you taste/Underneath your North Face.” She ladles the end of the track with vocal runs and exhortations. The theme continues with “Waste My Time,” but the backing track is brighter, a full-on thumper with shimmering melodies. Then there’s “Pressure,” a 2021 song that became Lennox’s first Billboard Hot 100 hit. It finds her swinging like the Pointer Sisters over a guitar-inflected track that sounds like skipping jump rope.

Lennox has called age/sex/location her version of Elizabeth Gilbert’s memoir Eat Pray Love, emphasis on the love part. The journey is mostly spiritual – no jaunts to Italy and Southeast Asia – but she imbues her tracks with emotional commitment and raw, frank language. (A few minutes of levity arrive with “Boy Bye,” where she playfully pushes back against Lucky Daye’s flirtations. “Those lines belong in 1995,” she lilts.) Yes, it’s drenched in sex – hey, it’s an R&B album – but the tone is remarkably consistent, and only flags in quality with the uneven track “Outside.” Ironically, it’s a number where she diverts from her babymaker formula for a statement of female pride, delivered over a wonky and insistent bounce rhythm. “Make that money honey however it goes/Working hard paying off them student loans,” she sings.

Time will tell whether age/sex/location wins over a mainstream audience or turns into one of those under-appreciated R&B albums that fans hoard decades later, like Amel Larrieux’s Infinite Possibilities and Adriana Evans. Unless TikTok users decide otherwise, there doesn’t seem to be a viral hit on par with the platinum-certified single “Shea Butter Baby,” even as Lennox builds a case for herself as an enthralling artist. No matter: age/sex/location deserves to be more than an overpriced Discogs collectable. She needs her flowers now”.

I am interested wondering what comes next for Ari Lennox. Maybe we will not get another album so soon after age/sex/location, but there will be singles and live dates. It is thrilling to watch Lennox take those steps. I will end with a review from AllMusic. This is what they had to say regarding the brilliant age/sex/location. If you have not heard the album, then spend some time today checking it out:

“Ari Lennox notched some personal firsts when she and fellow Dreamville affiliate Elite connected with R&B legends Jermaine Dupri, Bryan-Michael Cox, and Johntá Austin, and newcomer Jai'Len Josey, to make the lead single off her second album. The singer and songwriter's most cross-generational collaboration, "Pressure" went Top 20 R&B/hip-hop and Top Ten R&B, topped the Adult R&B chart, and crossed into the Hot 100, all milestones. Appealing as it is, teaching, teasing, and inquiring with acerbic wit and sly audacity, "Pressure" is inessential to the excellence of Age/Sex/Location. That's a testament to the strength of what surrounds the hit in the sequence. ASL begins with "POF," an indication of the creative way Lennox consistently stirs together themes of independence, sexual agency, and bullshit detection. It's Badu-ist philosophy with a lithe, neck-swaying groove to match. (The only cut co-produced by Dreamville operator J. Cole, it's one of few not involving Elite, who was key to the preceding Shea Butter Baby.) The Badu influence on Lennox hasn't been clearer, but the song is also a showcase for some of Lennox's most striking vocals and her strongest, pithiest writing -- singular qualities that remain throughout the album.

Most illuminating are the slow jams that, like a few songs off the debut, either repurpose or evoke mellow R&B and jazz grooves from the late '70s. In "Mean Mug," finished off with a gentle trumpet solo, Lennox is enraptured and vulnerable, observing "There's a magic in your eyes," then isn't above being petty or possessive, advising with "Blockin' you, baby, if I can't have you to myself." The burrowing bassline on "Hoodie" neatly complements the way Lennox seeks permission to get closer to her man, yet she makes it known her guard isn't all the way down, issuing a challenge of her own. "Boy Bye," built on a sample of the Crusaders' classic "A Ballad for Joe (Louis)," brings Lennox and Lucky Daye back together again to spar with even greater chemistry than they displayed on "Access Denied." Duet-wise, it's a very close second to the Summer Walker-assisted "Queen Space," a steady-knocking finale so authoritative that the titular appellation can't be disputed”.

Among the absolute best albums of last year, Ari Lennox’s age/sex/location is not exposed and discussed enough. Definitely this is the case in the U.K. It is a remarkable work that I absolutely love! I guarantee that you will play this album and get so much from it. It shows that Lennox is one of the finest voices of her generation. Going forward, who knows what the future holds. Whatever she does and whatever music she releases, you just know that it is going…

TO be world-class.

FEATURE: High in the Mix: Tracklib’s Growth, and the Importance of Sampling in Music

FEATURE:

 

 

High in the Mix

IN THIS PHOTO: Kadhja Bonet has been sampled by Kendrick Lamar (Die Hard samples Bonet’s Remember the Rain) via the TrackLib platform/PHOTO CREDIT: Nathaniel Wood for Loud and Quiet

Tracklib’s Growth, and the Importance of Sampling in Music

_________

THERE was some news recently…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Florencia Viadana/Unsplash

that excited me and made me think about sampling in music. In decades past, sampling was a much bigger deal. I associate it with classic Hip-Hop and the most inventive albums from that genre. A lot of the songs sampled were not cleared, so there were big legal issues. I have written about this before but, often, artists would either use a sample without permission, or there would be legal battles – where the artist or label would be sued. It has mean that, in years since, artists have sampled less and less. I don’t think it is possible to replicate the sort of kaleidoscopic albums we got in the past from the likes of De La Soul, Beastie Boys, Public Enemy or any number of groundbreaking and timeless albums. It has made its way into modern classics, but there is always that huge cost of clearing a song. It is a shame that there is not wider access to songs. I think it would revitalise and inspire genres like Pop ad Hip-Hop. As it stands, there is a platform that catalogues pre-approved songs for sampling. News broke recently that Tracklib are building and growing. Music Week report how Tracklib give options to artists and D.J.s when it comes to sampling without legal troubles or high costs:

“Tracklib has made key appointments to build on its growth in the past year.

The platform has a catalogue of pre-cleared music for sampling, which is available for artists, producers and creators to discover, license and use in their work.

According to the announcement, over the past year Tracklib has seen a “significant increase” in the number of music creators curious about sampling as an element in their creative process. Sampling has become a component in nearly 20% of hit songs on the US Hot 100 chart.

Targeting further growth opportunities, Tracklib has recruited new talent to be part of their expanding team.

IN THIS PHOTO: Mary J. Blige is an artist who has  used a sample from Tracklib/PHOTO CREDIT: Bethany Mollenkof for Los Angeles Times

Andreas Liffgarden has joined the Tracklib board as an advisor. Liffgarden is the founder of Soundtrack Your Brand and former global head of telecom business development at Spotify.

Michael Cassidy has been appointed chief product and technology officer. Cassidy is a former chief innovation officer at Fuga and was a consultant on strategy and technology for Downtown Music Holdings.

“Curiosity and innovation drive me,” said Andreas Liffgarden. “Through my past work, I realised the opportunity in building a platform that could support the music industry in scaling and monetising the B2B music space.”

Michael Cassidy said there are opportunities for building and monetising new verticals.

“Tracklib, with its impressive brand, producer network and YouTube following, is the perfect starting point for how original recordings can be used in music,” he said.

“We are delighted that Tracklib has been able to attract Andreas and Michael at a time when we are accelerating [in] many areas,” says Per Aspemar, CEO of Tracklib. “Producers and artists turn to Tracklib for discovery and innovation – this will only grow stronger over the next year and beyond.”

Trackib’s catalogue consists of 100,000 original recordings from over 400 record labels and publishers around the world. It includes music ranging from Isaac Hayes and Mozart to jazz artist Bob James. Samples from Tracklib have been used by artists including Kendrick Lamar, J Cole, Nas, Phantogram, Mary J. Blige, DJ Khaled and Brockhampton”.

Not that there is going to be a revival and return to the glory days where sampling ruled and was such a pivotal part of huge albums. I do think sampling not only enhances albums and provides new layers. What it also does is introduces people to artists from the past that they may have not otherwise discovered and heard. I have found new loves and fascination by hearing some big albums. The song itself hits me but, as the samples come out, that sends me searching for the artists who created those sounds! It is a great way of uniting listeners with a whole world of music. It is such a pity sampling has diminished and is not as widespread as it used to be. The fact that major artists such as Kendrick Lamar have used Tracklib shows that it is such an important platform! Rather than promote the platform too much, it has given me a chance to think about music more widely. Does this news mean that sampling will become more prevalent? If the Pop market is taking advantage of a library of music to sample, I do wonder whether other genres will follow suit. Not that Hip-Hop and Rap are weak, but I don’t think there is the same innovation and memorability that we associated with the genres. That may be something to do with the quality of artists from the past, but I feel sampling was a big part of the success and legacy of so many artists and albums. By opening doors and allowing access to pre-approved sounds and music, it does give that opportunity to fresh possibilities! As this article from December highlights, 2022 was quite a big year when it came to sampling:

“Sampling, which involves taking a segment of a recording and reusing it in a song, is becoming more common in music that appears on the Billboard Hot 100, according to a report recently released by Tracklib. Tracklib is a Swedish music service that lets music producers clear samples for legal use, according to their website. They released an annual report titled The State of Sampling, which looks at music sampling trends in the Billboard Hot 100 list, says the report.

1 in 5 songs contains samples

17% of Billboard's hits contained samples this year, whereas last year, 14% of Billboard hits contained samples, says the report. According to the report, there has been a 31% increase in sample use compared to the three previous years.

The most sampled decade is the 2000s, says the report. The report attributes this to a younger generation of producers who are starting to gain popularity.

The most sampled genre is R&B, according to the report. Last year, R&B was behind Hip Hop as the most sampled genre.

First sample-based world cup song

2022 also marked the first year that an official World Cup song was sample-based, says the report. The World Is Yours to Take by Lil Baby samples Everybody Wants to Rule the World by the pop band Tears for Fears.

However, the 2010 World Cup anthem Waka Waka (This Time for Africa) by Shakira and Freshly Ground contains an interpolation of Zamina Mina (Zangalewa) by Golden Sounds. An interpolation is when a portion of a song is used in another song, but instead of directly using the original recording, the portion is re-recorded.

Other hits that also used samples in 2022 include Wait for You by Future, which samples Higher (Live) by Tems. Die Hard by Kendrick Lamar samples Remember the Rain by Kadhja Bonet. Doja by Central Cee also samples Let Me Blow Ya Mind by Eve and Gwen Stefani.

A true art form

"The ever-changing music industry gets more fascinating by the day, and so does the world of sampling. For the last three years, sampling has increasingly become more popular," says the Tracklib report. "Ever since changing the face of genres like hip-hop and house music, the impact of sampling is present in many genres," the report says.

"Sampling has definitely played a very important part in the evolution of music and given birth to many new genres through the years," says Pär Almqvist, co-founder & CCO of Tracklib.

"Taking elements of an existing recording and crafting it into something new is a beautiful art form that needs to be highlighted and celebrated," Almqvist tells News24. "Some believe that sampling is exclusive to hip-hop and used to be much more common in the past. But our report shows that almost a fifth of today's hits contains samples, so it's beyond doubt alive and kicking," Almqvist says.

"...There are definitely some people that still don't take sample-based producers seriously, thinking they are not 'real' musicians and should 'learn how to play an instrument'," Almqvist adds. "Sampling is a true art form, and to claim that musical geniuses such as J. Dilla, Madlib or Daft Punk are not real musicians is nonsensical”.

I am glad that there is this growth in sampling. Once a real foundation for innovation and music discovery, it has been very hard for artists to sample too much, due to legal ramifications and unrealistic clearance costs. Thanks to platforms like Tracklib, there is this access and option that is leading to some awesome mixes. It means that young listeners might hear a song by Kendrick Lamar and then find Kadhja Bonet because of the sample. That then opens up branches to other music and genres. It is this mind and sense-opening thing! Sampling, quite obviously, is so important and…

SUCH a vital source of inspiration.

FEATURE: Spotlight: Lola Brooke

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

PHOTO CREDIT: Felicia Abbam

Lola Brooke

_________

AN incredible artist…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Braylen Dion

who is one of the greatest Hip-Hop names of the moment, I wanted to highlight the stunningly amazing Lola Brooke. I am a new convert to her music, but I am enjoying reading about her and how she has got to where she is now. An extremely powerful artist, this is someone that everyone needs to be aware of. I am going to source some interviews so that we have some background and useful information about an artist who is going to be among the leading pack this year. NOTION chatted with Lola Brooke in September. Someone who wanted to be a rapper since she was a child, it is so rewarding to see her on the edge of glory and a huge breakthrough:

“Brooklyn-based rapper Lola Brooke has known she wanted to become a rapper since she was a child – and though finding her voice and power has been a journey, it’s one that’s made her the uncompromising artist she is today.

Lola has spent the past few years perfecting her flow and crafting her sound in the city, inspired by the culture around her and rap icons from Missy Elliott to Eve, Busta Rhymes to 50 Cent. With praise from the likes of Foxy Brown and Meek Mill, she’s already taken over her local scene, and is poised to skyrocket in the rap world – and not just in New York.

Following her latest energy charged track “Gator Season” and ahead of her performance at NY festival Rolling Loud this weekend, we caught up with the rapper to chat about her influences and journey so far, as well as what she loves about performing live and what’s next.

Hey Lola! For anyone who doesn’t yet know, can you tell us a bit about yourself and how you got into music?

What’s up y’all. I’m Lola Brooke, your new favorite rapper coming out of Brooklyn, New York! I’ve been making my presence known in music for quite a while. Some may know me from my track “Don’t Play With It,” but a few more of y’all will know me for this takeover that I’m about to make… it’s about time [laughs].

As far as the beginning, I remember knowing at eight years old that I wanted to be a rapper. I remember one summer that I spent in Birmingham [Alabama] at my grandmother’s house, and a music video from the group Kris Kross came on (she had on one of those throwback music channels)— from that point, I told my grandmother I wanted to be a rapper, and the rest is history…

What artists did you listen to growing up and how have they inspired you?

Sheesh, there’s so many people to name… I listened to Lil Wayne, 50 Cent, Meek Mill, Eve, Busta Rhymes, Missy Elliot, and DMX. I’m missing a few more, but they all inspired me because they all came into the game unapologetically and dared to be different. That’s how I’m coming, so they all are huge inspirations.

What makes your sound different?

My sound is different and familiar at the same time. I’m from New York, so I still have that Brooklyn-grounded, well-rounded Bed-Stuy aura. Of course I put my own twist on my delivery, but once you hear me speak, nine times out of ten, you’ll pick up on where I’m from.

How has your journey been breaking onto the scene?

Man, it’s been a challenge, and sometimes…honestly—depressing. But overall, the results and the outpour of love I’ve received along the way always overshadow anything I’m going through. It’s all about the process. I wake up every day knowing it’s a reason for everything”.

BROOKLYN spotlighted the amazing Lola Brooke in November. Saluting an aspiring queen of Kings county Rap, her Brooklyn pride and determined ambition comes with rugged flow and savage bars. This is someone whose music is going to cause shockwaves and influence so many others coming into Hip-Hop. She is a startling talent who is all set for icon status. If you are not familiar with her work, I would definitely encourage you to check it out. Brooke is someone whose rapping voice is so commanding and holds this incredible passion, confidence and electricity:

“Your rapping voice is so different from your talking voice. Which one is most like you?

I talk how I rap, but when I rap, I have a little pitch to it — similar to if I’m arguing with somebody. That’s how my rap voice came about. It’s my argumentative tone. So, don’t piss me off! But now, I don’t have to be mad to sound like that; I can just be on tracks and do my thing.

How did “Don’t Play With It” come about?

I was tired of people playing with me, for real. That’s really what it was.

The lyric that everyone loves is the line “I don’t even got me a hundred bands, I’m still gonna make me a hundred Ms with a hundred plans.” Talk about that.

Girl, I’m broke. I’m always going to make it. I still pay my bills, nobody takes care of me. I make sure I get up to cater to whatever I need to cater to pursuing this career.

Did something specific happen that inspired you to make this song?

Nothing ever bothers me, but I do take notice of a lot of things. I was in the house, [producer] Dizzy Banko was playing me some beats over the phone, and I think I was just like “This is the beat! Send that to me right now!” I went straight into it. I was listening to that and I was like “Don’t play with it, don’t play with it, don’t play with it!”

Was it originally a freestyle?

It was a freestyle. I didn’t have a pen, paper, or my phone. I was walking back and forth in the house, and I was like, “Don’t play with it, don’t play with it” and I just kept going. When I finally got to the studio, I probably switched some things up, and that’s how it came about.

Is that how most of your songwriting process goes — pacing around the house, letting the lyrics come to you?

Yeah, I’ll be at home and listen to a beat, get familiar with the beat, and then I go to the studio. I’ve already created the energy, so when I get to the studio, it’s time to go crazy. It’s like a K.O. moment.

What inspires your lyrics?

I just want to be heard, like, “Hello, I’m here! It’s me, Lola!” I’m so small and I feel like I’m in such a big world. I know they can’t see me, but they’re going to hear me at least.

Do you feel seen now?

I kind of do now. It feels good because it’s not the idea of being seen, it’s to be understood.

It sounds metaphorical. Is there any real-life danger reflected in any of your music?

I’ve been through situations where I felt unsafe. But there was something already embedded in me to figure it out and hold it down when you can’t get to people that most likely will always be there for you. I always say that Black women are the least protected and Black men are the least respected. So we have to have each other.

How much of your music comes from lived experience?

I’ve been around domestic violence, I’ve seen crimes, I’ve seen a lot. But the only thing I love about it is what it taught me and it didn’t fully traumatize me to where I feel disabled. It made me stronger, it made me aware of things. So now I’m always on point.

Having gotten popular recently, do you feel more or less vulnerable?

I feel a little more vulnerable because everything is so crazy. I enjoy being alone, I enjoy having my own space. But I have a lot of brothers and they always have my back. There’s some people out here willing to hurt you just because of the success you’re reaching; they want to reach it too. You have to be aware of everything.

When did rap become a passion for you?

When I saw 50 Cent’s “Wanksta” video, that’s when I fell in love with rap. It was so New York. It was the visuals. I was like, “Wow, I want to do that too.”

Do you think you’re starting to get there now?

Yeah, I’m starting to get there. That’s why I have to pay homage to 50 Cent as much as I can. “Gator Season” is a homage to 50 Cent as well. Even if I didn’t want to tap, I just knew I wanted to be a hip-hop dancer or something dealing with hip-hop–just due to him. He made it feel so fun and free”.

There is one more interview that I want to get to before concluding this feature. In a year where so many incredible artists will change and evolve the scene and add their mark, Lola Brooke is going to be right there in the mix. Gaining success on TikTok with Don’t Play With It, HNHH shone a light on a someone who is among the most eclectic and flexible artists. In the sense Broke can switch sounds and persona pretty easily. It is hard to define her music and whether it is Drill, Rap or something else. She is so fresh and versatile. That means her music is always surprising and nuanced. It never gets boring or predictable – as can be an issue with so many other artists:

“You emerged as a fierce rapper with strong lyricism but you’ve shown a more versatile sound with “On My Mind.” Why is it important to showcase your versatility at this point?

It’s important to showcase it because it’s me. I want the people to know who I am, I want them to know me. Not 100%, of course, because it’s impossible for the world to know me 100%. They don’t hang out with me or know the things that I deal with daily by my side. They just get to see what I go through.

But, I do feel that is very important as an artist to get the people to know who you are so that when they out there defending you – ‘cause your fans, they gonna go out there and make sure you get whatever you need. Whatever you deserve. You need to make sure that when they go out there, they know how to represent you.

So that’s why it’s so important for me to just tap into different genres of music because, at the end of the day, this is really how I feel. And I never want my fans to be confused about something because I don’t do it enough and I don’t want them to feel like I’m just trying things. I’m not just trying it. This is actually who I am.

PHOTO CREDIT: Felicia Abbam

What drives you to be that creatively unapologetic and fearless?

I would say my upbringing. My mom was so very solid and strong and she always told me, “if someone was to tell you something, you go research it. You don’t ever believe it.” Or she’d say, “Don’t ever take no for an answer.”

She would send me out to the store and I would be like, “they said they didn’t have anymore,” and she’d be like, “so why you ain’t tell them to go in the back and see if they have some in stock in the back?” I’d be like, “I don’t know” and she’d be like “don’t ever let no one tell you no unless you know for sure.” So now, when I do my music, it’s like, I don’t care what you think or what you say, because at the end of the day, what I’m saying is accurate because my mom always made sure that I went and researched if it was or not. And even if I am wrong, I’m still human and I make mistakes. So I shouldn’t be so apologetic to everything because we’re here to make mistakes. Before you walk, you gotta crawl.

You come from a place that obviously has such a strong hip-hop history, so I wanted to know for yourself, who are the artists in your area that inspired you?

I could say Kim, Foxy, Jay-Z, Biggie. Top four right there. I mean, it sounds biased I know but that’s what it is really.

For sure. You’ve been described as the new face of New York. I wanted to know, what kind of pressure comes with that title?

There’s no pressure at all because I’m so Brooklyn, that It’s just my demeanor. It’s just in my aura. It’s just in me. I don’t know who else to be but Brooklyn. I don’t know. It’s just so in me to the point where I forget that it’s so much in me. People remind me and are like, “yo, you sound like the most average Brooklyn girl that I could have ever in my life imagined, like, you’re so Brooklyn.” And I’m like “for real?” And then I get home and I’m like, “yeah, for real. I’m Brooklyn, for real.” It’s no pressure, just be yourself. Brooklyn raised me so it’s no pressure. Like I said, even if I make mistakes, I know they gonna have my back because they know I’m fighting for them. So they gonna make sure I correct it on the next go around.

As someone from Brooklyn, how would you differentiate Brooklyn drill compared to music coming from other boroughs of New York?

Ok so… the difference really is the tempo. That might be about it. It might just be the tempo. It’s just that – Brooklyn drill is like a New York swag on UK beats. And then you got Chicago drill, and that’s just Chicago drill. Like, that’s their lane. They have their own little beat selection like you know when it’s Chief Keef. You know when it’s a G Herbo beat. You just know. That’s their thing over there. But with Brooklyn, it’s mixed in with UK. It’s a UK beat with Brooklyn swag. That’s it. And then, the Bronx drill is a different tempo. Now, I should say that. The Bronx has the different tempo. No matter how the beat is, it’s how they cadence is on the beat. [Starts mimicking the Bronx drill flow]. It’s just a different cadence.

Outside of rap music what else would you like to do with your career in the future?

I wanna get into acting. I wanna be an actress, for sure. Like, I wanna be on a movie screen for sure.

I think I heard you discuss that you tried to land a role on Power. Am I far off with that?

No, I was telling them, ‘what’s up? Lemme get an audition or something’ [laughs]. Nah, I never applied or did shit for any part of Power but, if I get the chance to – yes, I will be there. I’m just letting them know like, “Hey look, I’m here. If you need me call me”.

Someone who will continue to put out great music and also appear in acting roles (I am pretty sure), it is going to be an exciting year for Lola Brooke. She is such a phenomenal artist, I can confidently recommend to everyone, knowing full well they will love her music and want to follow her going forward. You might not have heard about her until now or know too much about her, but you sure will do…

SOON enough.

____________

Follow Lola Brooke

 Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/lola.brooke/

TikTok:

https://www.tiktok.com/@lolabrooke5

Twitter:

https://twitter.com/lolabrooke718

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/artist/2Ggj5XNlIb4Lnbqe307FyB

YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCA7OkZ7g4QQenRfWZQnsDQg

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/LolaBrooke718/

FEATURE: Shine a Light, Back to Black… The Upcoming Amy Winehouse Biopic

FEATURE:

 

 

Shine a Light, Back to Black…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Amy Winehouse in 2006/PHOTO CREDIT: Dean Chalkley

The Upcoming Amy Winehouse Biopic

_________

I think that this year…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Marisa Abela will play the late Amy Winehouse in an upcoming biopic, Back to Black/PHOTO CREDIT: Lia Toby/Getty Images

is one where we will get a fair few music biopics. I have already written about the Michael Jackson biopic, Michael, and a possible one that might come relating to Fleetwood Mac. There is a Madonna biopic coming and, whilst no date for that has been announced, the fact she has announced as worldwide tour to celebrate forty years of Holiday and her debut album, maybe it will arrive in the summer. There is a definite appetite to learn more about very important artists. They do not come more important and inspiring than Amy Winehouse. It is tragic to realise that, in October, it will be twenty years since she released her magnificent debut album, Frank. We lost Winehouse in July 2011. So tragic that she will not get to celebrate two decades of a stunning debut album. She also would have turned forty in September. Maybe the new biopic about her, Back to Black, may come out around the time of her fortieth birthday, or the twentieth anniversary of Frank. Many know her best for the 2006 work of genius, Back to Black. Her defining work, this was the anticipated follow-up to Frank. Bolder, more R&B-based and bigger in terms of production and songwriting ambition, Back to Black goes down as one of the all-time great albums! Whilst Winehouse toured and recorded after that album, we never got a third studio album. It is one of music’s great losses. Imagine what a follow-up to Back to Black could have been! I think there was an immense pressure on her.

Award-winning and right in the media gaze, how could Amy Winehouse have a normal life, relax and find inspiration for a third album?! It was an impossible task. Sadly, with the press intrusion into her personal life, she was hounded and scandalised for the remainder of her life. As she suffered from addiction issues, this was almost too good for the tabloid press. Rather than allowing Winehouse alone, there was this obsessive and sick bullying and harassment. Also, with her loyal and loving fans wondering whether there would be another album, there was this impossible weight on her shoulders. Supported by her friends and family, it was still a hugely upsetting and hard time. At the age of twenty-seven, one of Britain’s greatest ever artists died. Camden’s proud daughter, we have not seen anyone like Amy Winehouse since she died – and it is clear that we never will! She has inspired so many other artists and, as we mark some big anniversaries this year, we do get to see her story played out through a biopic. Rather than it being about her decline and struggles with addiction, there is more of a focus on the rise to stardom and the path of a promising young woman to this global phenomenon. NME explains more in their recent feature:

“Footage showing Marisa Abela filming for the upcoming Amy Winehouse biopic has emerged online – check it out below.

The Industry actor will play the late singer in Back To Black from director Sam Taylor-Johnson, who is best known for directing the John Lennon biopic Nowhere Boy and Fifty Shades Of Grey.

Filming on the biopic began on Monday (January 16) in London, with footage being shared on social media.

As reported by Deadline, Jack O’Connell, Eddie Marsan and Lesley Manville have all been added to the cast. O’Connell is set to play Winehouse’s ex-husband Blake Fielder-Civil, who she divorced in 2009 two years prior to her death in July 2011.

Marsan will play her father, Mitch Winehouse, while Manville is set to play her maternal grandmother.

Matt Greenhalgh, who previously collaborated with Taylor-Johnson on Nowhere Boy, has written the script for the biopic. Alison Owen, Debra Hayward and Nicky Kentish-Barnes will serve as producers.

The film, which has the approval of the Amy Winehouse estate, will feature songs by the singer. “We are thrilled that Studiocanal, Focus Features and Monumental are making this movie celebrating our daughter Amy’s extraordinary music legacy and showcasing her talent in the way that it deserves,” read a statement from her estate.

According to a press release, Back To Black will “focus on Amy’s extraordinary genius, creativity and honesty that infused everything she did. A journey that took her from the craziness and colour of 90’s Camden High Street to global adoration – and back again, Back To Black crashes through the looking glass of celebrity to watch this journey from behind the mirror, to see what Amy saw, to feel what she felt.”

Abela is best known for playing Yasmin Kara-Hanani in HBO series Industry. She’s also set to star in Greta Gerwig’s upcoming live-action film adaptation of Barbie, opposite Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling.

Winehouse’s life was the subject of the 2021 BBC documentary Reclaiming Amy, released to coincide with the 10th anniversary of the singer’s death. Her father Mitch appeared in the film, after he was openly critical of 2015 documentary Amy, directed by Asif Kapadia”.

More details are coming to light in terms of cast and locations, but the proof is going to come when we see the teaser and trailer for Back to Black. It is an important project that has been a long time coming. There have been aborted attempts at an Amy Winehouse biopic but, with the backing of Winehouse’s family, this is going to be fantastic. It might be a shame that there will not be more of her troubles and the way the press hounded her. Maybe there will be, but I think the family want a more positive representation of Winehouse. Focusing more on her raw talent and loving personality, rather than the way she was attacked and made the front page so often. I think that is what lingers in people’s mind. This incredible artist who, when you hear interviews, was so grounded and real. That authenticity came through in the music and how she lived her life. The biopic is going to not only give people a chance to celebrate a once-in-a-generation artist. There is going to be this window into her life and career. People will discover her music for the first time. Although there is a lot on the shoulders of Marisa Abela – in terms of portraying Winehouse right and striking the right tone -, she is an exceptional actor who will do Winehouse’s family proud. I also hope that the biopic will bring renewed interest in her work. Even if she released just two studio albums, there is a lot to discover! Back to Black is going to be a chance for us to say goodbye to Amy Winehouse, but also see her come to life. It is a remarkable likeness between Winehouse and Abela. That extraordinary music will be at the heart of things! Amy Winehouse is no longer with us, but her genius and captivating music…

WILL never fade.

FEATURE: We Just Can’t Stop Loving You? Will the Upcoming Biopic Help Rebuild Michael Jackson’s Legacy?

FEATURE:

 

 

We Just Can’t Stop Loving You?

IN THIS PHOTO: Michael Jackson in 1989/PHOTO CREDIT: DMI/The Picture Collection Inc

Will the Upcoming Biopic Help Rebuild Michael Jackson’s Legacy?

_________

I wrote about this recently…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Michael Jackson in 1992/PHOTO CREDIT: Paul Bergen/Redferns

but, as there were rumours last year a Michael Jackson biopic was planned, it has now been realised – which makes me want to revisit it. It seems that, alongside a possible Madonna biopic this year, another Pop legend will be brought to the big screen. Called Michael, the King of Pop is going to be portrayed for cinema-going audiences. The Guardian reports more about a long-awaited project:

“A long-gestating movie about the life of Michael Jackson is set to start production this year.

The film, called Michael, will be directed by Antoine Fuqua, whose credits include Training Day, The Equalizer and, most recently, slavery thriller Emancipation. The screenplay will come from three-time Oscar nominee John Logan, who wrote the scripts for Gladiator and Skyfall.

Michael will also be made in conjunction with the singer’s estate with co-executors John Branca and John McClain producing alongside Graham King, who has previously been involved with bringing Bohemian Rhapsody to the screen.

“The first films of my career were music videos, and I still feel that combining film and music are a deep part of who I am,” said Fuqua in a statement. “For me, there is no artist with the power, the charisma, and the sheer musical genius of Michael Jackson. I was influenced to make music videos by watching his work – the first Black artist to play in heavy rotation on MTV. His music and those images are part of my worldview, and the chance to tell his story on the screen alongside his music was irresistible.”

According to the Hollywood Reporter, studio Lionsgate has claimed the film will address “all aspects of Jackson’s life” and Deadline has stated that it will “deal squarely” with more difficult issues. After the release of HBO’s two-part docuseries Leaving Neverland in 2019, which contained allegations of sexual abuse towards children by Jackson, his estate condemned it as “tabloid character assassination” and insisted his innocence.

Michael follows on from Broadway musical MJ which was a box office hit making over $83m but received mixed reviews. The Guardian’s Adrian Horton called it “mesmerising” yet “ultimately discomforting”.

Queen drama Bohemian Rhapsody was a major hit upon release making $910m worldwide and while Elvis made $287m in 2022, Whitney Houston biopic I Wanna Dance with Somebody recently struggled with less than $50m since release last month. Upcoming music biopics focused on Amy Winehouse and Leonard Bernstein are set for release later this year”.

Given the fact Jackson’s legacy and names has been blackened in recent years by allegations of child abuse, you do wonder whether the biopic will help rebuild his name – or whether many would argue it is still as strong as ever. There is the box office risk but, as this is Michael Jackson, the fanbase is large and loyal enough to see a huge profit. I wonder how critics will react to it. We do not really know what form Michael will take, and what period of Jackson’s life is focused on. I suspect that, in terms of personal revelation, it is not going to dig too deep. Even though it is said the film will address difficult issues, how far will that go?! One of the criticisms aimed at music biopics is that they whitewash over the truth and there is this sense of watering things down. I know they cannot be too revealing and explicit, but you wonder how many biopics actually get to the heart of the artist. I suspect the upcoming Amy Winehouse biopic will not linger too much on her substance abuse issues and how she was hounded by the press. Maybe it will. What I suspect is that it will concentrate on her peerless talent and incredible voice. The same might be true when it comes to Michael Jackson. I doubt there will be much on the way the press inserted their way into his life, or anything around allegations of sexual abuse. I guess the estate has a lot of say in regards what is on the screen and how much is said. It will be a shame if things were all rosy and there was no acknowledgement of the more troubled side of Michael Jackson. It does like there will be some effort to show the darker and more controversial sides of a Pop icon.

Whereas the recent Whitney Houston biopic was a chance to set the record straight and focus less on her troubles and more on her talent, there will be those who want to see some form of balance when it comes to Michael Jackson. With such a varied career (from the Jackson 5 to his solo work), there will be a lot to choose from. At the moment, there are national radio stations who do not play Michael Jackson’s music. Perhaps fearful there will be complaints, I don’t think his reputation will ever be what it was early in his career. Similarly, there will be those who attack Michael because it fails to address certain elements of his life. Whilst I do not think Jackson’s legacy is destroyed, it has definitely been damaged. He has been seen in a new (if not unexpected) light. A film might not be able to rectify that, but it will certainly prove what a musical force he was. Someone who was among the greatest artists ever, Jackson has influenced so many other artists. Last year, Thriller turned forty. A superb album where the King of Pop as near his peak, it is works like this that show what a talent he was. It is good a biopic is being made, but it needs to be handled right. There is going to be something of an effort to see Jackson more as a musical innovator and much-loved artist, rather than someone remembered for the wrong reasons. Exciting for fans of Michael Jackson, Michael will be one of the most discussed biopics of recent years. I wonder whether it will help to slightly reconfigure his legacy. There are plenty of people out there who…

CAN’T stop loving him.

FEATURE: This Is How She Moves: The Wonderful Billie Marten, and the Upcoming Drop Cherries

FEATURE:

 

 

This Is How She Moves

The Wonderful Billie Marten, and the Upcoming Drop Cherries

_________

THIS is going to be a feature…

about an artist who is very important to me. I have written many times how Billie Marten’s debut album, Writing of Blues and Yellows, is one of my favourite ever. Definitely my favourite album of the 2010s (it was released in 2016), the Ripon-born, London-based artist is someone whose music transports you somewhere else. One reason why I loved her debut is that it had that intimacy. It was like you were in her house or garden with her as these songs played. Even if it was intimate, there were grand and sweeping moments that take your breath (Emily and Heavy Weather stand out in that regard). 2019’s Feeding Seahorses by Hand and 2021’s Flora Fauna saw her songwriting evolve slightly. Perhaps her debut was more Folk-based, inspired by a lot of her music heroes. Mainly acoustic guitar-based songs with piano and some percussion, listen to songs like Human Replacement (from Flora Fauna) and there is something bigger and leaning a little towards Pop. At the heart of all Marten’s songs is that incredible voice. If Feeding Seahorses by Hand had more political tones and Flora Fauna expanded the sonic palette, the first single from her new album, Drop Cherries, seems to nod back to Writing of Blues and Yellows. It may just be a red herring in that sense but, as Rough Trade write, there is a stripped-back and personal:

“Billie Marten releases her fourth record Drop Cherries via Fiction Records. Recorded entirely on tape in Somerset and Wales late last summer, Drop Cherries marks the very first time that Billie Marten has both written and co-produced (with Dom Monks) one of her records; following critically-lauded 2021 album Flora Fauna, Feeding Seahorses by Hand (2019) and Writing of Blues and Yellows (2016).

The title is taken from a tale she heard from a friend just before she was starting to create songs for the album, and the title track came soon after. It’s a metaphor where the gift of cherries stands for offering someone your love; doing anything you can to make them happy. “Dropping cherries,” she begins, “is such a strong, visceral image that I tried to channel throughout recording in Somerset and Wales, to capture the vibrancy, unpredictability, and occasional chaos one experiences within a relationship”.

I am not sure whether a lot of the album is influenced by her experiences in relationships and what she has learned and lost, but I think this could be Billie Marten’s most affecting and memorable album. Writing of Blues and Yellows will always hold the most special place in my heart, but Drop Cherries is going to be a remarkable album everyone needs to investigate. I can’t include them all in here, but visit Marten’s YouTube page and see her videos. Like her songs, they have a way of drawing you in. I love the fact that she has found a worldwide audience. America holds a lot of affection for one of the finest songwriters of her generation. Sunlight Magazine spoke with Marten last year after she had embarked on her tour of the U.S. Following the worst of the pandemic, it was this moment when Marten could bring her new songs to a wide audience across some very memorable states and cities:

“What’s your favorite part of live shows?

Usually the 'any requests' line brings a lot of happiness, you get to play songs that maybe aren't in your usual set, and some people go way back with your catalogue, so I enjoy re-playing and re-learning obscure songs on the spot. It brings a lot of interest to a potentially repetitive style of job.

How did you approach writing your latest release, Flora Fauna, vs your earlier albums?

This time around I'd been dropped by my previous label, and wasn't in a very good headspace, so I took up the task of learning a completely new instrument - bass, which really flipped writing around for me. I've by no means perfected bass, but it was a relief to know the painter can sometimes pick up a new brush and something good can come out.

Do you think this change impacted your audience and your performances?

There's a general shift in sound, which is bound to happen on your third album, it can almost be a cry out for stability, to let people know you aren't a one-faceted writer I guess, and it felt great live to be able to make a lot of sound vs me and the acoustic. As uncomfortable as I am with that type of performance, it's still within my musical realm, and I'll always revert back to the core of songwriting, so a departure doesn't seem too dramatic. In terms of audience, I hope it didn't put too many fans off, because I'm usually that fan when an artist changes their direction, but as I said it's not too extreme.

What are your favorite things to write about? What’s your writing process like?

It's very much an automatic, spur of the moment process for me, so mostly it's a time of reflection to pinpoint a section of life down in history, or to clear that nook in your brain that maybe needs a little dusting. Sometimes writing comes from boredom, or from listening, being an open ear to society, always a voyeur, never the other side of the camera, which is where I find the most peace.

Do you have any new releases brewing?

I've just released a cover of Roxy Music's More Than This, which was actually the first thing I trial recorded in my studio last year (to begin the process of another album), so you can listen to that for now.

Who are some musicians that inspire your music?

I'm such an enormous fan of music, which sounds silly to say, but I often meet people that work in the industry that have actually stopped listening, or lose interest in finding new and old music. It's my main hobby and I'm always listening, all hours of the day, which brings a lot of inspiration. For now it's a lot of Mark Koselek's stuff, his album Ghosts of The Great Highway is really something. My support artist for a couple of shows on this tour has been Marina Allen, who I think is glorious. Her song 'Original Goodness' blows me away.

What was it like getting so much attention from your music at such a young age?

Luckily it was left field enough to be able to avoid the immediate mainstream lane of music, but there was quite a lot of pressure put on me then. I remember very clearly once finishing a radio session in London, after one of my first headlines, then putting my school uniform back on, getting the train back home and sitting in a physics lesson pretending nothing had happened. It was certainly an emotionally confusing time when all you're trying to do is discover the world and grow up, but in a way I'm thankful that I got to do that so soon, because without music I'd probably be flailing around at life currently, having not figured out that elusive thing”.

This year, I feel, is going to be one of the biggest for Billie Marten. She has an album coming out in April, there are going to be gigs around the world, and there are also going to be a fair few festivals. As she prepares to release her fourth studio album, she can start to look back on a remarkable career. It is almost seven years since she put Writing of Blues and Yellows into the world, and I knew then that she would be a major name. There are so many years ahead of her, and it will be excited to see what comes. If you have never heard of Billie Marten, I would urge you to check her out and buy her music. I can definitely recommend you pre-order Drop Cherries, as it sounds like it will be a phenomenal and beautiful album. Here is an artist who deserves awards and the chance to play the biggest stages. I can also see her music used on T.V. and film. It has that powerful quality where listeners close their eyes and let the song take them. Her three albums so far show variation in terms of sound and lyrics. I can see more evolution as the years go by but, as I said, it does seem like Drop Cherries will share some D.N.A. with Writing of Blues and Yellows. I wanted to draw people towards Billie Marten’s forthcoming album, but I also wanted to show my praise and affection for her music. I have been spellbound and fascinated by her music even before Writing of Blues and Yellows was released. It has helped me through some difficult times and been a source of strength and comfort. It is the very best music from…

SUCH a stunning artist.

FEATURE: Spotlight: Alex Vaughn

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

Alex Vaughn

_________

BACK in October…

I came across The Hurtbook and, with it, the incredible Alex Vaughn. I have instantly fallen for her music! That debut project followed the amazing E.P., Voice Notes (recorded using the voice notes app on her phone). Vaughn honed her skills as a background singer for artists such as Goapele, Cece Peniston, and MuMu Fresh. She released her debut E.P., The 4pm Mix, in 2017, followed by the full-length, Shift, in 2018. Even though she has been on the scene for a few years now, Vaughn is being tipped now as one of the emerging faces and voices of R&B. She has this incredible catalogue behind her already. The Los Angeles-based artist, producer and musician surely has a plan up her sleeve for this year. Such a prolific and passionate artist, she follows a hugely accomplished 2022. I do hope that Vaughn is able to tour the U.K. soon, as there are people over here that would love to see her. I am going to get to a couple of recent interviews with her. First, I want to flip it back to 2017. You Know I Got Soul focused on the emergence of a new generation R&B artist. Someone whose music was already connecting and standing on its own:

“YouKnowIGotSoul: What first got you interested in pursuing a career in music?

Alex Vaughn: I’ve always been into music. When I was a child, I would also crawl to my grandmother’s piano, I would hum when I chewed my food, I was involved in choirs from elementary, middle, and high school where I was classically trained. I think when I was going to college, I was on a full scholarship for classical music, it hit me that I couldn’t really be here putting my energy into classic musical. But more so into being an artist and making music off of the vibrations and how I felt. I think that was the ah ha moment for me.

YouKnowIGotSoul: What do you take forward with you from learning classical music that you use when you create music now?

Alex Vaughn: Breathing techniques, even getting into character when performing, learning the origins of songs. It definitely helped a whole lot.

YouKnowIGotSoul: Tell us about your biggest influences.

Alex Vaughn: They vary. My biggest two are Alicia Keys and Kanye West. Also, it depended on whose car I was riding in. If it was in my mom’s car, I would hear India Arie, Jill Scott, Lauryn Hill, Mary J. Blige. My dad’s car, it would be Stevie Wonder, The Whispers, and then Biggie. So it’s like I’m a musical mutt when it comes to influences.

YouKnowIGotSoul: You are a true triple threat as a singer, songwriter and performer. Unfortunately these days r&b artists like that don’t always get the attention they deserve. How do you overcome that as you begin to develop your career?

Alex Vaughn: It doesn’t discourage me. This is just what I love to do. I’m just true to the music and I feel like people just like what’s true. They can tell. If it’s true then it will shine through. I love playing the piano and singing. I will never not be a musician. Even if people didn’t like it. That’s just the type of artist I am.

YouKnowIGotSoul: What’s the overall goal for you? Are you looking to get signed to a major label? Would you like to continue as an independent artist?

Alex Vaughn: I think if the right opportunity presents itself I’d like to be signed to a label.

YouKnowIGotSoul: Anything else you’d like to add?

Alex Vaughn: There’s a lot of music coming. I have a project dropping in November, which is also my birthday month. Be sure to check it out. You can also follow me on all social media platforms at @WhoIsAlexVaughn. I’m on all music streaming services”.

New Wave Magazine spoke to Alex Vaughn when she was promoting The Hurtbook. After such a whirlwind last few years, I don’t think she is going to let up. There is this huge amount of love and support behind her. She is going to be a major name very soon, as she has this peerless talent. It does seem that an album is next on her agenda. I think most of her fans would love to hear that:

“If you’re not sure who Alex Vaughn is by now, then I don't know where you’ve been, the R’n’B powerhouse who has lived and breathed music for as long as she can remember is now being recognised as the new face of R’n’B. The last few years for the singer-songwriter have been a whirlwind from working the Grammy award winning producer Dark Child to performing at the BET Soul Train Awards via their infamous Soul Cypher segment.  ‘As a young child I always had dreams of attending and performing at award shows, so actually being in this space is such a beautiful moment’.

‘Due to my Dad being in the military, I had the brief desire to become a train conductor as a kid, however music is something I’ve always been drawn to, my Grandmother had a piano in her house and I remember journeys to school where my parents would play a lot of soul music in the car’. As she further explored her talent as a singer, Alex would often performed her own renditions of the artists that inspired her, following this the songstress was granted a college scholarship in classical music,  ‘Although I was given this amazing opportunity, Classical music was never a genre of music I was truly passionate about, but for the sake of my parents I did complete the scholarship which pushed me further into focussing on R’n’B’.

Alex cites the likes of Indie Arie, Mary J Blidge, Jill Scott and Stevie Wonder as major influences, however the list doesn’t stop there as Alicia Keys, Amy Winehouse, Kanye West and Missy Elliott also played a huge part in Alex’s life, ‘They always had soul, but with a funk to it. These artists had cool ways to express their pain, via their lyrics and music videos’. From having strong remnants of the artists who have come before her, Alex Vaughn has gone from being inspired by her idols to collaborating with them on her nostalgic R’n’B infused EP ‘The Hurtbook’. The songstress worked alongside infamous producer Dark Child for the project (Destiny’s Child, Brandy, Monica), ‘Working with Darkchild was such a surreal experience, when creating the track I’m leaving, we were trying to figure out the production for it, so we reached out to him and he was instantly feeling it, I just couldn’t believe it because it was actually one of my older tracks. Once we met we connected straight away, we now have so much music we have worked on together’.

Describing her music as 'Feel good, life music' Alex Vaughn's sound resembles an early 2000’s heartbreak anthem, the latest single taken from The Hurtbook is So Be It, which encapsulates the loss of someone in your life whether a friend or lover it can be hard to let go at times, Alex sums that up perfectly. ‘The Hurtbook was very personal for me, all of those songs were based off true stories and experiences, initially the EP was based on one specific person but as time went on during the pandemic I got to explore a variety of emotions and situations’. Alex Vaughn manages to capture love, loss and heartbreak all in just 8 tracks, at first making music was just a form of expression, but now it’s a needed form of selfcare. ‘I’m inspired by so much, from constantly searching for more knowledge, to the love my fans and close ones show, I could literally see a bird and be inspired by it, the possibilities are truly endless’. Whether it’s a personal topic, a conversation or something Alex has seen she is an individual who often sees the beauty in everything and feels the constant need to be creative. ‘Even if it’s just having a conversation with another songwriter, I can’t go a day without creating something that will further inspire me’”.

I am going to finish off by sourcing from Mixtape Madness. They were stunned by The Hurtbook, and the visuals for So Be It. Observing the way Alex Vaughn blends Classic training and background with this raw talent, she has a sound and electricity that is infectious, intoxicating and hugely moving. This is a supernova of an artist that everybody should get into their life:

“A mark of Alex’s heat levels in the scene, legendary super producers are laced across the project – incl. Rodney Jerkins, Camper and GRAMMY-nominated DJ Money. Vaughn opens the project with, “So Be It”, a powerful ballad that breaks down the emotions surrounding a breakup between friends; “I ignore my intuition once again, all for me to say you’re still my friend,” Vaughn sings. She then follows up with the upbeat, feel-good “Keep That Energy (One More Chance)” sampled from the late Notorious B.I.G., capturing the original’s nostalgia whilst adding her unique touch.

An unquenchable thirst for growth is what’s powered the Maryland singer/songwriter with her release of “Mirage” earlier this Feb – her first release since signing with LVRN/Interscope in 2021. The Hurtbook, seamlessly blends her natural musicianship with the raw expression she’s developed as she’s digged deeper. With her parents enrolling her in classical and jazz piano lessons from a young age, Vaughn’s heart was nevertheless always set on R&B: 2017 saw her begin posting covers to Instagram and Twitter, which led to performances at The Kennedy Center and The Fillmore, as well as opening on national tours for the likes of K. Michelle and Eric Bellinger. During the pandemic, Vaughn joined LVRN’s Instagram Live talent show, catching the label’s attention and the following year they formalized their belief in her.

Now, with The Hurtbook, Vaughn is using her platform to show her fans how far self- belief can go: “My fans will always know that I am a human being, so I’m scared just like you are,” she says. “I’m nervous like you are. I’m excited. I feel what you feel. I’m doing the best that I can with what I got”.

I am completely in awe of Alex Vaughn, and I am going to watch her progress closely this year. Such a wonderful artist who is going to be delivering absolutely remarkable music for decades more, I am buckled and braced to see what Vaughn delivers throughout 2023. Even though I only recently discovered her wonderful music, I am now a dedicated fan…

FOR life.

____________

Spotlight Alex Vaughn

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/alexvaughn/

Twitter:

https://twitter.com/alexvaughn

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/artist/24S5IyzXICyGscL4vYshdq

YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSthmugd_aOZgZMDhxr9KXg

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/whoisalexvaughn/

FEATURE: Borderlines: Ageism and Misogyny Aimed at Madonna: Why Do Women Always Have to Answer to This Kind of Toxicity?!

FEATURE:

 

 

Borderlines

 PHOTO CREDIT: Vanity Fair/Luigi & Iango

Ageism and Misogyny Aimed at Madonna: Why Do Women Always Have to Answer to This Kind of Toxicity?!

_________

I wish I didn’t have to keep writing about this…

 IMAGE CREDIT: Madonna

because there is no valid excuse or rationale that can justify the tweets in this feed. Madonna recently announced that she is going back on tour. She normally tours after releasing albums and, as the last was in 2019 (Madame X), it has been a while since we have seen her on the road. This year is seeing one especially big anniversary. Her eponymous debut album is forty in July. It is an iconic and remarkable debut from an artist who would soon be the Queen of Pop. This 1983 gem is forty soon, so it is a perfect excuse to take her music around the world. Also, one of Madonna’s best single, Holiday, is forty in September. The demand for tickets for this celebratory tour have predictably sold out in record time! No wonder fans around the globe want a chance to see Madonna play. Of course, there are issues around tickets appearing in the hands of touts and facing this incredible mark-up. There are V.I.P. tickets going for a lot, but a lot of regular-priced tickets have been bought and on auction sites and elsewhere for extortionate amounts! By and large, there is this anticipation and excitement around a Pop icon hitting the road. Madonna is excited for people to join the party and celebrate. I think, to clear the decks and focus on posting about the tour, her Instagram feed has been cleared of photos from prior to the announcement.

I can’t put into words what Madonna means to me and so many others! Someone who opened the doors of Pop music and created some of my favourite music ever, you would hope that someone of her importance and stature should receive nothing but love and respect. Sure, she has said some misjudged things in the past. Apart from that, there has not been a lot to judge her for. She is human and, because of that, of course she will make mistakes! Largely, there is someone who is very real and herself. This big world tour announcement should get all positive vibes?! As you can tell from the tweet replies to that BBC article, there is a shocking amount of hatred, misogyny, sexism, ageism and downright toxicity and abuse! Sadly, it is not surprising that I am publishing the second feature in a very short amount of time reacting to the ageism and misogyny aimed at Madonna. Closer to the anniversaries and tour, I am going to go into depth about her material, legacy and importance. In August, the great Madonna celebrates her sixty-fifth birthday. It will be a wonderful reason to salute her and look back on all the years she has given us the greatest Pop music. Maybe it is not my fight to fight, but I am always disgusted that women have to face ageism. Everyone from Piers Morgan to The Times have said similar things. Madonna is merely sixty-four. She is a vibrant, beautiful and phenomenal woman who is not old or in an enfeebled state!

The word ‘embarrass’ come out a lot. Piers Morgan described Madonna as a hot mess. A term for someone that is a bit of state and is out of sorts. This image, perhaps cultivated from her Instagram feed, is of someone who is not growing old gracefully. Two points. For a start, Madonna can do what she wants! This idea that she has to be all prim, proper and age-appropriate (whatever that means!). Yes, she has posted some provocative images. Some have maybe been a little too explicit, but this is someone who does not have to explain herself and is showing that a woman in her sixties can be confident, vibrant, sexy and not have to live to any ideals, expectations from society. As much as anything, why do women like Madonna have to be modest and not show their bodies?! Almost like the Virgin Madonna, why does the Pop icon have to deal with abuse and people attacking her?! Many say she should act her age. Why do women in their sixties need to act a certain way?! Why are only young women allowed to be provacative, bold, inspiring, revealing, brave and sexy?! If she is seen as eccentric at times and a little bit wild, then that is her business! It is disgusting that, if any women of a ‘certain age’ – sorry to use that term, but I mean over forty I guess – is provocative and risqué, then they are seen as embarrassing or tragic. Men do not have to answer this abuse or have these same judgments aimed at them! Also, why do people think that a woman in her sixties is unable to handle an ambitious tour?

This assumption she will fall over, get tired, hurt herself or, as I suspect, people think she will look ridiculous trying to recapture the past. Madonna is not using The Celebration Tour to replicate her Blond Ambition World Tour of 1990 or be who she was. I doubt the tour will see the same sort of sets and costumes as she wore in the 1980s, 1990s and even the early-2000s. I am sure, for certain numbers, there are going to be some provocative and sexy outfits. A lot of the abuse and ageism comes when people imagine Madonna, at sixty-four, on stage in a skimpy outfit or trying to be sexy. She is still sexy, and it is empowering and inspiring if she does do what she was doing in her twenties and thirties in her sixties. I am going to round up in a bit, in the coming days, Madonna will make history by appearing on the cover of three different editions of Vanity Fair. This article gives a preview of what Madonna is talking about.

“Madonna is used to making history, but in a first, the singer adorns the cover of three different editions of Vanity Fair in Italy, Spain and France this month in the kick-off to the new annual “Icon Issue” project celebrating legends who “contribute[s] to shape the modern culture.”

The massive project includes a sprawling portfolio of pictures created by photographers Luigi & Iango that expresses the “values Madonna has defended throughout her artistic path and iconography,” beginning with a provocative cover image of the singer as a weeping Virgin Mary, complete with a sword-pierced heart on the outside of her chest and another in which she plays a Jesus at an all-female Last Supper.

In a preview, the magazine said the two-day shoot for the piece involved more than 80 collaborators, noting that it will also spin off a future exhibition, a short movie and an urban art performance. In keeping with her haute history, Madonna was dressed for the shoot in designs by John Galliano for Maison Margiela, Gucci, Dolce & Gabbana, Jean Paul Gaultier and others under the direction of her regular collaborator, Swedish stylist B. Åkerlund.

IMAGE CREDIT: Vanity Fair/Luigi & Iango

In an exclusive interview for the piece, Madonna talks about feminism, sexuality, religion and diversity, with a focus on her career-long battle against the patriarchy and the price she’s had to pay for sticking to her guns over the past four decades in the public eye.

The day after announcing the dates for her upcoming 40th anniversary “Celebration Tour,” the singer discusses her return to the stage and the plans for her long in-the-works biopic. “I’m about to create another show, and I’ve been working for several years on the screenplay about my life,” the singer told the magazine. “This is a good time for me — I’m gathering ideas, getting inspired, hanging out with creative people, watching films, seeing art, listening to music.”

The 35-city Live Nation-produced tour will kick off in North America on July 15 at Rogers Arena in Vancouver, BC and hit Detroit, Chicago, New York, Miami, Los Angeles, Dallas and San Francisco before wrapping up in Las Vegas on Oct. 7. The outing will then move on to Europe, starting with a date in London at the O2 Arena on Oct. 14 and winding down in Amsterdam on Dec. 1 at the Ziggo Dome. No release date or title has been announced so far for the biopic”.

Madonna always fights back and stands up to ageism and misogyny. She shouldn’t have to! For years, she has discussed ageist attitudes and being sidelined by some radio stations. It seems, even when she was in her forties, she was not being as played widely. Maybe this expectation that women in music are only vital, relevant and appealing/commercial when they are in their teens, twenties and thirties. Men do not have these problems. Although there is some mocking of bands like The Rolling Stones touring in old age, it is normally around the fact that they keep saying their stop. Maybe some jibe about their frailty. As they have shown, they are still more than capable of bossing the stage! There is never the same sort of vile and disrespectful wave of comments that the likes of Madonna have to face. So many other women have to face ageist remarks. I would recommend people reading this 2015 article, this 2020 read, in addition to this 2021 feature. The latter mentions Madonna, but it also talks about Christina Aguilera, and how she was seen as too old to talk about sex at her age (she wasn’t even thirty when that 2010 album came out). I know there is ageism against younger artists but for women, when they pass forty (or even thirty), they are given fewer opportunities and less respect. Labels still market women sexually, so they have this short shelf life for their artists. It is a disgrace that we shouldn’t have to talk about in 2023!

Artists such as Kylie Minogue and Sheryl Crow have discussed their experiences with ageism and how they are seen as too old. Madonna seems to face an endless barrage of sexist, ageist and misogynistic people and their stupid and insulting opinions. I hope that things change very soon. It is hard for women to get as much acceptance and acclaim as male artists. In terms of opportunities, there are fewer when it comes to labels, festivals and radioplay. Many labels do not know how to market women so, even though it is tough enough breaking through, finding out they will be insulted and seen as irrelevant after a short time is shocking! It will discourage women from coming into music- and it sets a horrible example to the young generation. That idea that an older male musician is cool and can act a bit disgracefully. That seems fashionable and acceptable. If someone like Madonna merely does her job or, God forbid, posts a photo of her in lingerie (or less), then she is subjected to the most abusive and callous things you have heard! She is taking her tour on the road very soon. A celebration of four decades of great music, at least the fans who are there will show her the love and appreciation she deserves! I hope that attitudes change, but I fear this same conversation will keep coming up every year. From Borderline and Material Girl to Holiday, through to Like a Prayer, Vogue, Music and far beyond, the Queen of Pop has changed music and inspired millions. She shouldn’t have to face ageism and misogyny from everyone – even if she is someone who will always strike back. Ageism is a very real and evident discrimination that…

NO woman should face.

FEATURE: Second Spin: Nina Persson – Animal Heart

FEATURE:

 

 

Second Spin

Nina Persson – Animal Heart

_________

THERE are a few reasons…

why I want to feature the brilliant Nina Persson. Aside from her being a legend, she has featured alongside James Yorkston, and The Second Hand Orchestra on the beautiful new album, The Great White Sea Eagle. Her voice is so gorgeous and full of expression and passion. I have never heard Persson sing like this before. Such a rich and soulful vocal, the album is more Folk-based than anything she has done before. Persson has always had an amazing voice, but I think this album brings out layers and textures that were undiscovered until now. I also wanted to feature Persson, because I have been thinking about her band, The Cardigans. The Swedish group were one of my favourites growing up, and one of their best albums, Gran Turismo, was released in 1998. It turns twenty-five in October. 2005’s Super Extra Gravity is their latest album, and I am not sure whether they will record together again. That would be a shame if true, as she is such a captivating lead. What would be more tragic if Nina Persson did not release a second solo album. Her only to date, Animal Heart, was released on 29th January, 2014. Ahead of its ninth anniversary, I wanted to spin it in a new light. I would recommend this interview, where Persson spoke about creating Animal Heart. Not all reviews were positive, and I think it deserves a lot better than it was afforded. With songs written by Eric D. Johnson, Nathan Larson and Nina Persson, Animal Heart has plenty to love about it!

Maybe there was expectation that Persson’s solo album would resemble early Cardigans or something like that. Stepping out on her own, what we have is an often dazzling solo album with many highlights. I will bring in a couple of positive reviews before I wrap things up. I guess there was an inevitability that Nina Persson would record a solo album after such a gap following The Cardigans’ final (?) album. This is what AllMusic observed in their review:

“On Animal Heart, Nina Persson does everything an artist with a career as lengthy and varied as hers could, and should, do on a solo debut album. Arriving five years after the last A Camp album and nine years after the last Cardigans album, these songs blend the countrified reflection of her former project and the sparkling pop of the latter, presenting it all with a much more overtly personal outlook than Persson has ever presented before. That her voice has an endearingly weathered quality here, with a rasp and vibrato that humanize the almost too-perfectly crystalline tone she had in the '90s and 2000s, only adds to Animal Heart's confessional bent and gives much-needed grit to vulnerable yet strong songs like "Catch Me Crying" and "Burning Bridges for Fuel." However, she saves the traditional singer/songwriter piano balladry for last, closing the album with the beautifully intimate "This Is Heavy Metal," where she muses, "Still a little shaken/From pieces that were taken/I wonder if they ever were mine." Instead, she ponders the fine line between domestic bliss and claustrophobia on the deceptively mellow "Dreaming of Houses" and "Clip Your Wings," and delivers emotionally ambivalent electro-pop on the title track and "Food for the Beast," one of the most urgent-sounding songs Persson has recorded with any of her projects. Sometimes the mood threatens to become a little too navel-gazing, but Persson's light touch -- exemplified by the charming meditation on loss "Forgot to Tell You" and "The Grand Destruction Game," a playfully philosophical look at a long list of star-crossed love affairs -- ultimately makes these songs winning. Neither a denial nor a rehash of Persson's past, Animal Heart is a welcome reflection of her changing life and art”.

When it came to mixed reviews, some said the songs are samey and take no risks. Maybe too accessible and predictable. For such a major and clear talent, maybe there was a feeling that more could have come from Animal Heart. Perhaps it is too wistful and slight so that it does not linger in the mind. This is what Pitchfork wrote in their review:

“Even discounting Nina Persson’s scattered covers and one-offs, the Cardigans’ move toward singer-songwriterly maturity on Long Gone Before Daylight was a solo effort in spirit if not in personnel. And Persson’s two albums as A Camp—the first with the late Mark Linkous of Sparklehorse and the second with husband Nathan Larson—were solo in everything but the name. While the Cardigans were never all about Persson, she was the major draw; she got pegged as a heroine of coldhearted warm pop: summery melodies whose sun rays just might skewer anyone who basks. She's won countless devotees, from the wordy-sweet Swedish indie acts for whom the Cardigans are canon to those who knew the band from soft-rock radio and Romeo + Juliet. Entire swaths of music are cut from Persson’s cloth; she is a known quantity.

For better or worse, this lets Persson get away with an album like Animal Heart, one that isn’t much of a statement. She has so many strengths to coast on. Her voice still frays so beguilingly well at the end of a phrase. She still has a way with production filigrees, with letting a bridge dissolve into dreamy guitar licks or tucking a watch-this sparkle beneath a verse and then a cruel barb beneath the line. And she still knows how to write a great chorus. The title track here stands among her best, a gorgeous continuous springtime melt of an indie-pop song with a subtle, urgent energy. It’s the most straightforward pleasure on an album more concerned with Persson’s tricksy songwriting. “Catch Me Crying” is like a torch song illuminated by firefly lights and surprisingly busy: over-keeled melodies, over-anxious percussion and synths, over-ragged vocals, and far too much repetition for “you’ll never catch me crying for you—again” to read as anything but ironic. “Forgot to Tell You” is the same tack from the opposite approach: a Sunday kind of breakup song, pleasant like an afternoon on the porch; everything’s so nice-nice, you hardly notice she’s shrugged the poor guy off with “so I might just forget about you now” then slunk away with a smile”.

I do think that Persson should record another solo album. Maybe more similar to what she has released with James Yorkston, I think she could come back with a triumphant album that is more acclaimed that her first (though, technically, I guess it is not her debut solo album). Many missed the brilliance that does come from Animal Heart. Whilst some songs do sound similar, and there is a bit of an issue with tracks being sequenced in the wrong order, it is a consistent listen that showcased Persson’s very obvious vocal and songwriting strengths. This is what Goldmine said about the brilliant Animal Heart:

“Featuring Persson’s smooth-as-silk vocals front and center at the top of the mix, Animal Heart is a tour de force that concentrates on relationships both good and bad. It’s a very personal album but also highly accessible. It’s not power-pop oriented, like a lot of The Cardigans’ best songs are. Animal Heart is a bit of a grower, and it might take more than one listen for the album to get under your skin. But when it does, it stays there.

Persson wrote the album with her husband Nathan Larson (her partner in the side project A Camp) and Eric D. Johnson of The Shins. (Joan Wasser collaborated on the track “Food For The Beast.”)

Kicking off with the title track, the album gets off to a rousing start. “Animal Heart,” the album’s first single, is a fantastic keyboard-and-bass-driven track that features Persson’s vocals prominently. It is a very visual song that paints a vivid picture of a relationship, of looking for a place where she and her partner can be happy.

All of the tracks on the album seem to be very well thought out. There isn’t one track on the album that can be considered filler. “Burning Bridges For Fuel” is a beautiful, evocative song that seems to float along. “Dreaming Of Houses” features Persson going over the end of a relationship and trying to make sense of where it went wrong. In “Clip Your Wings,” Persson tells her partner “You can go if you want to go” while also saying that she’s not looking to crush his ambition just that she wants more of a say in their future plans. On the terrific “Food For The Beast,” Persson mulls over an on-and-off relationship to a dance beat. “Forgot To Tell You” is an ethereal song about being unhappy in a relationship and deciding to leave. “Catch Me Crying” deals with being let down repeatedly and coming to the realization that your partner is not suited for you. “Silver” is an upbeat song about picking your partner up when they are down.

The album concludes with the stunning track “This Is Heavy Metal,” a spare and beautiful song that features piano and Persson’s perfect vocals.

With Animal Heart, Persson has managed to carve out an identity that is distinct and different from her persona as the lead vocalist of The Cardigans. The album overall is about a journey of self-discovery. And one of the things that the listener discovers along the way is that Persson is a massive talent as a solo act. I look forward to hearing her future solo endeavors”.

I am a massive fan of Nina Persson, and I think that people should spend some quality time with Animal Heart. I think we will hear more music from Persson, but what form that takes is anyone’s guess. Maybe the ship has sailed on The Cardigans, but perhaps there will be anniversary gigs or special releases. What I do know is that there is a demand for more solo material from the Swedish goddess. Let’s hope that this is fulfilled…

THIS year.  

FEATURE: The Digital Mixtape: The Great Nicola Benedetti

FEATURE:

 

 

The Digital Mixtape

PHOTO CREDIT: Andy Gotts 

The Great Nicola Benedetti

_________

WHAT I wanted to do…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Craig Gibson for the Evening Standard

for this Digital Mixtape is to compile music featuring the brilliant Nicola Benedetti. I have not featured her on my blog before, and that is an oversight on my part. A Classical innovator and phenomenal violinist, she is someone who is doubtless inspiring other musicians, particularly young women and girls. I think, like artists such as Anna Calvi and Thom Yorke, Benedetti could score a soundtrack to a tense psychological drama or horror. Maybe something more romantic. She would excel leading an orchestra or composing just for violin. It is exciting to see where else she can go in her career. I am going to end with some recordings featuring the huge talent of Nicola Benedetti. Prior to that, AllMusic provide some background for one of the greatest Classical musicians of her generation:

“Violinist Nicola Benedetti followed in a line of British Isles teenagers hailed as revitalizers of classical music. In advance of making any recordings whatsoever, she was signed to a six-album contract by the Universal label in 2005 and assigned to its prestigious Deutsche Grammophon imprint, with a paycheck reportedly in excess of one million pounds.

Born July 20, 1987, in West Kilbride, Ayrshire, Scotland, Benedetti was the daughter of a prosperous manufacturer of plastic cases for first-aid kits. At four, she tagged along with her eight-years-older sister Stephanie to a violin lesson and then took up the instrument herself (Stephanie has been active as an orchestral musician). Nicola attended the Yehudi Menuhin School. She gave performances at several top British concert halls, later moving to London to study with violinist Maciej Rakowski. When Benedetti was 14, she won a Prodigy of the Year contest on England's Carlton Television network. A hint of her potential crossover appeal came when she drew a crowd of 10,000 at the rock-oriented Glastonbury Festival's "Classical Extravaganza" in the summer of 2003. However, she told London's Independent newspaper that "I have not ruled out different types of music, but I was trained as a classical musician. I don't want to compromise what I do and what I love." At another stratum of British journalism, she told the Mirror that "I'm not really into clubbing and I've never smoked or drunk much -- and I won't wear anything tarty".

Benedetti took a big step toward mainstream classical stardom when she won the BBC's Young Musician of the Year award in 2004, performing Szymanowski's virtuoso concerto and becoming the first Scot to take home the prize. The Times of London noted that her youthful passion in performance is balanced offstage by a healthy streak of that quintessential Scottish trait -- prudence." This led her to eventually slow down her performance schedule so that she could further her musical studies. By the following decade, Benedetti’s schedule was as full as ever, taking in a 2010 debut at the BBC Proms, chamber music recitals with her trio (Leonard Elschenbroich, cello; Alexei Grynyuk, piano), chamber and concerto performances in North America and Europe, and visits to schools in the United Kingdom to encourage new talent. Released to coincide with a trio of performances at the 2012 BBC Proms, The Silver Violin -- a collection of music made famous in films -- consolidated Benedetti’s position as one of the most popular British violinists of her generation. She moved to the Decca label in 2011 for the album Italia, in which she ventured into Baroque music, but mostly she has played standard Romantic repertory. Another new facet of her skills was revealed in 2019 when she recorded the Violin Concerto and Fiddle Dance Suite of jazz composer Wynton Marsalis, for which she won a 2020 Grammy Award for Best Classical Instrumental Solo.

In 2017, Benedetti received the Queen's Medal for Music, becoming the youngest honoree up to that time, and in 2019 she was made Commander of the Order of the British Empire”.

To celebrate and highlight the spectacular talent of Nicola Benedetti, I have selected some recordings for this Digital Mixtape. I would urge people to fully explore her recordings and check out as many interviews as you can. A hugely inspiring musician, she is most certainly one of the pioneers of the Classical world. That becomes apparent when you hear her beautiful, emotional and phenomenally skilled…

PERFORMANCES below.