Unknown Mortal Orchestra released their fifth album, V, in March 2023. Band leader Ruban Neilson worked on the record with his long-time companions, brother and multi-instrumentalist Kody Neilson and bass player Jacob Portrait. V, the band’s first official LP since 2018’s Sex & Food, also features contributions from the Neilsons’ father, Chris Nielson, who plays trumpet, trombone and saxophone on a number of tracks.

UMO spent the bulk of 2023 on the road, playing shows all over Europe and the Americas. They’re back in Australia in January and February 2024 for a slot on the Laneway festival tour and headline dates in Sydney, Hobart and Melbourne. Ahead of the visit, Music Feeds spoke to Ruban Neilson about travel, his writing and recording methods, and the sprawling nature of V.

Unknown Mortal Orchestra – ‘That Life’

Music Feeds: You were recently in South America. Had you played many shows there before?

Ruban Nielson: This was our second time there ever. In Brazil we’ve done three shows. This was our second in Buenos Aires and our second in Santiago in Chile. We’ve been to Mexico quite a bit though. We played Corona Capital [in November] and I think it’s the third time we’ve played it.

MF: Do you enjoy spending time in Mexico?

Ruban: Oh yeah, I love Mexico. It’s real chaotic, especially Mexico City and Guadalajara, the two biggest cities. [Mexico City] is like New York but even more chaotic.

The longest time I’ve ever stayed there, I stayed there for a couple of weeks and did some work on my recording and writing. I don’t know if it was just the neighbourhood I was in, but there’s just extremely loud motorbikes hooning up and down the street at any time of night and there’s always people yelling, and that part of it actually I really like, even though it disturbs my sleep.

I think it’s like, growing up in New Zealand, one of the things that always creeped me out about New Zealand was it’s just so quiet and isolated. The whole reason I went out into the world was to be in those places that are actually always alive. And Mexico City, I don’t really know the difference between the day and the night.

MF: It’s become a habit of yours to travel to far-flung places to work on your albums.

Ruban: I think I started doing that just because I was so addicted to being in my basement all time. And then as the band started to get a bit more successful, I would always hear about, you know, everybody was recording in some crazy place or recording in these really nice surroundings.

I’ve never been interested in recording in a studio really – I haven’t done that much recording in studios even though I’ve been putting out records for 20 years. But I thought I should get out of my basement, if nothing else just for fresh air and so I’m not breathing in mould my entire recording career.

At the end of the day, I still save incredible amounts of money when I record, so I can kind of spend my recording budget on just going somewhere and hanging out. So, I ended up doing that a bit more.

MF: Are you over the addiction to the basement? Or do you still long for the basement?

Ruban: I think in general, if I get set up in a place at home then my tendency is just to work and work and work. I think the other thing is my kids are now teenagers. When they were little, I could do 14 hours in the basement and get tonnes of work done and it wouldn’t feel like 14 hours. And now, with them being older and they have all their activities that they’re doing, I can’t lose myself in the recording process like I used to because there’s kids skateboarding in the house.

MF: When you travel, are you still getting lost in the recording process for 14 hours at a time?

Ruban: Yeah, that’s my preference. It just feels like a normal amount of work but then you look at the watch and you’re like, “Oh wow.” I think the other part of it is I get really focused in on particular details that maybe take longer than they need to. But it’s just the way I like to do it. It’s just a natural thing that makes it fun for me.

MF: Are the demoing, recording and mixing processes all entwined for you?

Ruban: Yeah, it’s not until I got older that I started to see any differentiation between any of the writing or recording and demoing and stuff. I think the thing is that I just demo. That’s all I do all day, is just demo, and then I release the demo.

I’m definitely one of those people that when I hear the demo version of a famous song, I’m always just like, “Man, this is so much better.” I’ve always been of that mind and I think you just have to be willing to pay the price, which is I think that only certain musical sickos find that rawness more important than polish and finish.

To be honest, I’m always surprised that as many people like my music as they do. I feel like I’ve been lucky. So I haven’t strayed very far from that [process.] I don’t write the draft version and then go, and now for the big single, it’s going to really hit. I just release the charming little demo.

MF: There is a bit of polish on V, your latest record. You must have been working on this album for several years given ‘Weekend Run’ and ‘That Life’ were released as singles in 2021. Was this a more drawn-out process?

Ruban: Yeah, I think it was just because of the pandemic. It just kept going. I’d always had, like, a lot of the releasing and writing and recording was all based around my tour schedule. There was always that constraint that was quite useful because it was a way of just getting me to hurry up and added a bit of urgency, got me out of bed in the morning.

And then when the pandemic hit, I really just needed to get off the road because I think I was just killing myself. And so I think the idea was that I was going to go have a big break and maybe try and learn about what it’s like to try and be healthy.

MF: How’d that go?

Ruban: Um. I think it was just basically not successful. But because the pandemic kept going, I just kept fooling around. I bought a new place in Palm Springs and the point of that was to – well the original point was I was envisioning my kids having memories of growing up partly in a place like that, and then the justification for it was, “Oh, this is my new studio.”

I was like, I’ll go there and I’ll hang out, but then when the pandemic hit, I found myself stuck there for three months at a time, just by myself and just fooling around. But it was good for me. I didn’t have all my gear that I’d set up in Portland so I was buying the bare basics and returning back to my early days when I didn’t have that much equipment. So that was good.

I think being trapped in a little house and then having to pare right back to the bare essentials was good for me. But just the amount of time made the project sprawl and sprawl.

Unknown Mortal Orchestra 2024 Australian Tour

• Tuesday, 30th January – Sydney Opera House, Sydney NSW
• Thursday, 1st February – Odeon Theatre, Hobart TAS
• Friday, 9th February – Forum, Melbourne VIC

Tickets

Further Reading

Laneway Festival Announces 2024 Set Times And Last-Minute Line-up Additions

AJ Tracey, RAYE, Faye Webster + More Announce Laneway 2024 Sideshows

Steve Lacy, Unknown Mortal Orchestra Announce Laneway Sideshows at the Sydney Opera House

The post Unknown Mortal Orchestra: “I Needed to Get Off the Road Because I Was Killing Myself” appeared first on Music Feeds.

La Femme is the most commercially successful band to emerge from Biarritz, a small city in French Basque Country. The surf-influenced psych rock band formed in Paris around the turn of the 2010s, with Biarritz locals Sacha Got and Marlon Magnée at its core. The group’s self-titled debut EP came out in 2011, giving rise to the breakout single ‘Sur la planche’.

‘Sur la planche’ was later included on La Femme’s debut album, Psycho Tropical Berlin, released in 2013. A handful of albums have followed, including 2022’s Spanish-language Teatro Lúcido and last year’s Hawaiian-indebted Paris-Hawaï. But the group’s debut EP has largely been lost to history.

Eager to rectify this, Got and Magnée have remixed and remastered the four track EP, which will be reissued under the name La Femme Ressort on Friday, 19th January. The group is in Australia for So Frenchy So Chic and we caught up with Sacha Got to talk about life in Biarritz, the inspiration for Paris-Hawaï, and revisiting La Femme’s debut EP.

Music Feeds: You’re originally from Biarritz. Has La Femme also been based in Paris? Or always in Biarritz?

Sacha: Kind of both. Most of the band is in Paris and we started the band in Paris but me and Marlon, who started the band, we are from Biarritz. And me, since three years, I moved back here and set up my little studio.

MF: Did you grow up speaking multiple languages in Biarritz?

Sacha: No. We are very close to Spain but I always was bad in [Spanish].

MF: You released Teatro Lúcido in 2022. Do you now speak Spanish?

Sacha: Yes – now yes, but after a long time.

MF: What do the people of Biarritz think of La Femme? Are you seen as local heroes?

Sacha: It’s funny because when I was at high school, people was like, “You’re dressed like a hippy.” I was coming to school, dressing like 60s and playing harmonica, you know? They liked me but they didn’t take me seriously and they made fun of me.

But I still like to see all those people. Biarritz is like a little village. It is very chill, I go out, I say hello to everybody, but nobody bothers me too, you know? I think so many people, they don’t even understand what I’m doing but they just saw me on the TV, so they’re like, “Oh, okay, he’s doing this, it’s cool.”

MF: What it’s been like revisiting the songs from your first EP? Have your writing and recording methods changed a lot since then?

Sacha: I don’t think the way that we write was very much different, but the way we’re producing music, yes, because we didn’t know nothing back in the day. We didn’t know what was a good synth, what was the sound of the drum, what was a microphone. We just recorded on GarageBand with a small interface, so it was a very minimal set-up.

Now, for sure, we’ve got way more experience of the recording process. But I think the writing… I would say most of the songs now, we are maybe more classic in the writing. If you listen to the last record, there is a lot of songs like chorus, verse, chorus, like traditional kind of songwriting.

Maybe when you listen to those first songs, it was very weird. If you listen to a song like ‘Télégraphe’ or even ‘Sur la planche’, it was more like weird structure and it was more like surrealistic lyrics. I would say now we’re doing more – I don’t know how to find the word – but maybe more adult [songwriting].

But if you listen to a song like ‘Fugue Italienne’ on Teatro Lúcido, it’s very crazy too, the construction of the song and stuff. So we’re still doing this kind of stuff, but it’s an evolution.

MF: You’ve now released three versions of ‘Sur la planche’ – the original, the one on Psycho Tropical Berlin and the new mix for the La Femme Ressort reissue. What compels you to keep returning to this song?

Sacha: I still like this song, I still think it’s a great song, but there was a few reasons to make this reissue. This first EP was never released on Spotify and stuff, so we thought it was good. Even for the song ‘Télégraphe’, that wasn’t even on [Psycho Tropical Berlin], so it never was released. Also, ‘Sur la planche’, we always thought we could have a better version and a better sound and now it was the occasion to do it better, so it’s cool.

MF: Who sings the lead vocals on ‘Sur la planche’?

Sacha: There is Clémence [Quélennec], who was our old, original singer, and another singer called Marilou [Chollet].

MF: Clémence and Marilou aren’t in the band anymore, right?

Sacha: Clémence used to be our main singer for many years. She left the band but she comes back sometimes. Now we have two singers: we have a new singer called Fanny Luzignant and Ysé Grospiron, who’s been here for three years.

MF: Your latest album is Paris-Hawaï. What’s your connection to Hawai’i?

Sacha: There is not really a connection. Maybe [being] from Biarritz, because it’s kind of the main surf town in Europe, and always, since I’m a kid, people told me about Hawai’i. Like the “Spirit of Hawai’i,” you know?

I remember they did a surf festival here, called the Biarritz surf festival. It was all the longboard guys from all around the world, like Joel Tudor, all those guys. And they used to do this kind of Hawaiian ceremony, with the Hawaiian flower.

So, I heard a lot about Hawai’i and then I begin to listen to some Hawaiian music too and I really love some of the guitar, the steel guitar. And it’s come from that, but I’ve never been in Hawai’i in all my life. It’s the magic of music, right?

La Femme Ressort is out on Friday, 19th January – find it here.

So Frenchy So Chic 2024

• La Femme
• Laure Briard
• Kill The Pain
• Malo’

Dates & Venues

• Sunday, 14th January – Werribee Park Mansion, Melbourne/Naarm VIC
• Saturday, 20th January – Centennial Park, Sydney/Gadigal Land NSW

Tickets on sale now

Further Reading

Romy: “I Just Want People to Feel Free and Safe and Have a Great Time”

La Femme, Laure Briard to Headline So Frenchy So Chic 2024

Nabihah Iqbal: “I’m Confident in Myself Because I Know People Appreciate What I Do”

The post La Femme: “We Didn’t Know Nothing Back in the Day” appeared first on Music Feeds.

London-based musician Nabihah Iqbal released her second album, Dreamer, via Ninja Tune in April 2023. It’s a work of sometimes meditative, sometimes dancefloor-oriented dream pop and post-punk. Iqbal has put together a live band to tour the album around the world. She is playing her first Australian live shows in January 2024.

Born and raised in London, Iqbal is a British-Pakistani songwriter, producer, poet and DJ. She’s been hosting a fortnightly radio show on NTS for the last ten years, originally under her former stage name Throwing Shade. Iqbal spoke to Music Feeds in the wake of Dreamer‘s release.

Nabihah Iqbal – ‘Sunflower’

Music Feeds: Congratulations on Dreamer. You must be thrilled to have it out after everything that’s happened since Weighing of the Heart came out in 2017.

Nabihah Iqbal: I am, yeah. It’s been really hard to make this album, so now that it’s actually done and out in the world, it’s a really good feeling. I’m really happy.

MF: It was an especially topsy turvy few years for you, going to back to before the pandemic when your studio got burgled. Then you were in Pakistan visiting a sick grandparent when the pandemic broke out, which forced you to stay much longer than you’d planned.

Nabihah: The day I was supposed to fly back from Pakistan is the day that they announced a really strict lockdown out there. So, they stopped all the flights and everything. But even when I flew out, nothing was officially locked down but Heathrow Airport was empty. It was quite weird.

MF: Were there some positives that came of getting stranded in Pakistan, in terms of spending more time with your family, taking a breath, rejuvenating?

Nabihah: 100%. It wasn’t a negative thing that I ended up being in Pakistan for two months. It was actually a blessing in disguise because it’s rare for us to be able to spend that amount of time with our grandparents. And also I was there with my mum, and I haven’t spent two months straight with my mum either for a long time.

I had really bad burnout, actually, at the end of 2019 and the beginning of 2020. No one knew what was wrong with me but it was just from too much touring and everything. And being out in Pakistan just fixed me, because all I needed was proper rest and sun and good food and being healthy. That was amazing.

Music Feeds: Is your mum or are your grandparents musical?

Nabihah: No. Literally no one in my family is musical. I have some aunts that can sing really nicely, but no one’s that musical, no one does music. It’s just me and then now my younger brother, who’s like following in the footsteps kind of vibe.

But my parents weren’t particularly musical growing up. They didn’t have records or things they played in the house. But they just really pushed us to do everything. So they made us do loads of music lessons and enrolled us in all the different music schools and orchestras and things like that. So, yeah, that’s probably how I got into it.

MF: As a fan of your NTS show, I’ve always been impressed by your wide-ranging tastes and the curiosity you have for different kinds of music, but also how you’re not too proud to indulge in a bit of nostalgia and play Deftones or At the Drive-In, that sort of thing.

Nabihah: I feel like if you’re truly into music then that love and appreciation is across the board. And if music’s good – like with Deftones, who are literally one of the best bands ever – then you shouldn’t think twice about it.

With DJs and music people who get all high and mighty, sometimes that’s not coming from the right place. I don’t really like that way of thinking. Obviously I get that people specialise in certain genres or they want to stick to a particular sound or they use their DJ opportunities to focus on music that they think is rare enough, or whatever. But for me, I feel confident in myself because I know that people appreciate what I do.

I play a mixture of music that can go from really esoteric and rare and things that people aren’t familiar with at all to stuff like Deftones or Outkast and all of it fits together and all of it’s amazing and it’s reflective of my listening habits and my tastes.

I remember last time I played in Australia, it was at Inner Varnika and I played a Drake song at the end of my DJ set and it got this, like, online outrage. They were like, “I can’t believe she played Drake,” and then it was this whole massive debate on Facebook. It sparked a good conversation.

MF: The beauty of a great DJ set is putting music in new contexts and allowing different kinds of songs to reflect onto each other in a way that changes your experience or interpretation of the music.

Nabihah: Exactly. And surprising the audience and throwing in some curve balls and mixing things together that you wouldn’t normally think go together but they really do. That’s just what I love doing. That’s the most fun thing about DJing.

And then you see how the crowd reacts and it’s amazing because you’re really taking people on a journey. The main thing is we just want to make them feel good and dance, but then if you keep their interest that whole time and make them really get deep into the music, then you’re doing a good job.

MF: Are there any DJs who you respect who have a similar kind of attitude to you?

Nabihah: I remember watching Moodymann quite a while ago at South By Southwest. People from that sort of generation of DJs, like even Theo Parrish and Gilles Peterson, they’re way deeper in the music than any of us lot are because they’ve just been at it way longer. And when you watch them, they’re really masters of their craft.

I remember watching Moodymann and he was just like playing Black Sabbath but then coming in and out of techno, and it just worked. There’s confidence in that and he knows that the crowd’s going to appreciate it, and it was amazing.

Nabihah Iqbal 2024 Australian Tour

• Thursday, 4th January – Stranded, Brisbane QLD
• Friday, 5th January – The Night Cat, Melbourne VIC
• Thursday, 11th January – Phoenix Central Park, Sydney NSW
• Saturday, 13th January – Sydney Festival @ The Thirsty Mile, Sydney NSW
• Tuesday, 16th January – Meow, Wellington NZ
• Wednesday, 17th January – Neck Of The Woods, Auckland NZ

Tickets on sale now

Further Reading

Yaeji Takes a Hammer to Her Anger at the Sydney Opera House

Beverly Glenn-Copeland Announces New Album, His First in 19 Years

New Arthur Russell Album ‘Picture of Bunny Rabbit’ to Be Released in June

The post Nabihah Iqbal: “I’m Confident in Myself Because I Know People Appreciate What I Do” appeared first on Music Feeds.

Singer, songwriter, DJ and producer Romy Madley Croft is bringing her Club Mid Air tour to Australia in late December and early January. The tour follows Madley Croft’s debut solo album, Mid Air, which came out in September 2023 under the mononym Romy. The Australian tour includes club shows in Sydney and Melbourne and appearances at the Beyond the Valley and Wildlands festivals.

Romy worked on Mid Air with co-writer and producer Fred Gibson, aka Fred again.., and Madonna collaborator Stuart Price. The album was preceded by the singles ‘Strong’ and ‘Enjoy Your Life’, the latter of which revolves around a hook from ‘La Vita’, a song written by avant-garde musician Beverly Glenn-Copeland and released in 2004 under the pseudonym Phynix.

Romy – ‘Enjoy Your Life’

Ahead of the Australian tour, Music Feeds talks to Romy about hanging out with Robyn, being awed by Beverly Glenn-Copeland, and making her live shows safe spaces for people to let go.

Music Feeds: I’m interested to talk to you about Beverly Glenn-Copeland. A refrain from ‘La Vita’ is central to the songs ‘Mid Air’ and ‘Enjoy Your Life’ on your album. When did you discover Beverly Glenn-Copeland’s work?

Romy: I was introduced to Beverly Glenn-Copeland through Robyn, the artist Robyn, who I’m a huge fan of. I was in Stockholm with Robyn, just hanging out with her, and she said, “Do you want to go to a gig?” And I said, “I’d love to but I don’t know who Beverly Glenn-Copeland is.” But I obviously trust Robyn so I just went along for the ride really.

The gig was one of the most amazing things I’ve ever been to. It was such an incredible show. It was an amazing gift that Robyn gave me, not only to bring me along on a night out but also to share all of this incredible music with me.

When I heard Glenn’s song ‘La Vita’, there’s the lyrics, “My mother says to me, ‘Enjoy your life.'” I found that so moving. That stayed with me and I kept thinking about that lyric. I was so grateful that Glenn was happy for me to include it in my song, and not only that, but to allow us to sample his voice. It was important to me to be able to share his voice in the album and really show that that’s where the inspiration is from and that’s his lyrics.

MF: Why do you think that line resonated with you so strongly?

Romy: It makes me think of my mum who died when I was 11. It makes me think about that time and about other experiences of grief I’ve had in my life where I’ve found this moment of extreme clarity. Everything goes into perspective in these sad and shocking moments. It’s like you realise that life is short and, like, I really wanted to make the best of things, but that clarity doesn’t last forever and life goes on and things become challenging.

The lyrics, “My mother says to me, ‘Enjoy your life,'” kind of served me as a check-in with myself and a reminder of my intention to try and see the best in things because life is short. It’s not always easy to remember that so I’m so grateful to Glenn that he encapsulated that quite complicated emotion and feeling that I felt in such a simple and concise sentence.

Beverly Glenn-Copeland – ‘La Vita’

MF: What did you hope to express by adapting that line for your song?

Romy: I try to live positively and the song I’ve written is trying to say, I try, and it’s good to try, but it’s not always possible – but it’s the intention that keeps me going. But I didn’t want it to be a song like, “Yeah, everything’s great, enjoy your life.” So, just trying to find the nuance in that was a little bit of a challenge.

MF: Do you think that sentiment – having the intention to enjoy your life but understanding that’s not always easy – is a through line on Mid Air?

Romy: I guess so. I think the reaching for euphoria and joy and these moments to sort of feel a release, but also acknowledging the lows as well, is definitely something that I’m feeling a lot and felt a lot in this album process. I think even subconsciously it’s probably woven into everything as well. I think, for me, dance music and connecting with people helps me to mentally work through stuff.

MF: I imagine it’s liberating to perform these songs live too, even if they explore complex emotions. What’s your vision for the ideal atmosphere at a Romy show?

Romy: Any DJ set or show I do, it’s an invitation to feel that release that the album encourages, but also feel safe to be in your emotions and to really feel it. I would hope that it would feel like a safe space for people, physically and emotionally. That’s definitely what I would like to cultivate.

I think, having found a home and a community in queer clubs in my life, and understanding the power of that, the reason I called my tour “Club Mid Air” is I’d like to find a way to incorporate some of those feelings, those values, into this tour. I just want people to feel free and safe and have a great time.

Romy 2023/24 Australian Tour

• Saturday, 30th December – Beyond the Valley @ Barunah Plains, Hesse VIC
• Sunday, 31st December – Wildlands @ Brisbane Showgrounds, Brisbane QLD
• Wednesday, 3rd January – Mary’s Underground, Sydney NSW
• Thursday, 4th January – Max Watt’s, Melbourne VIC
• Saturday, 6th January – Wildlands @ Claremont Showgrounds, Perth WA

Tickets via Untitled

Further Reading

The xx’s Romy Announces 2024 Australian Headline Shows

Beverly Glenn-Copeland Announces New Album, His First in 19 Years

Here Are the Set Times for Beyond The Valley 2023/24

The post Romy: “I Just Want People to Feel Free and Safe and Have a Great Time” appeared first on Music Feeds.

Former Dillinger Escape Plan frontperson Greg Puciato is heading to Australia for a run of solo headline shows in January 2024. The tour will visit Brisbane, Sydney, Adelaide, Melbourne and Perth over five consecutive nights. Puciato will be supported at all shows by Trace Amount, the industrial-noise project of Brooklyn artist Brandon Gallagher, while American trap-metal artist King Yosef is on board for all shows except Perth.

Puciato has released two solo records since Dillinger broke up in 2017: 2020’s Child Soldier: Creator of God and last year’s Mirrorcell. He also released the pandemic-era livestream Fuck Content a few months after Child Soldier. Puciato will be performing material from these albums on the upcoming tour, for which he’ll be joined by a full band.

Ahead of the visit, Puciato tells Music Feeds about his five favourite songs to perform live, emphasising the difference between the studio and the stage.

Greg Puciato’s favourite songs to perform live

1. Deep Set

Greg Puciato: There’s a song called ‘Deep Set’ on my first record that I really like because it’s the song I can put the most personality into vocally. It’s not as delineated, there’s not as much, Here’s a really strict melody that I have to sing or here’s a really strict phrasing that I have to stick with. There’s a lot of leeway for me to sort of lean into it as a character.

That song, to me, feels like an elastic kind of morphing. It’s almost like improv. I can get a lot of improv with it, but the lyrics stay the same, and the song structure is the same. It just feels like there’s a lot more room for expression for me vocally in that song. It’s really fun, and it’s also a little sinister. I always like leaning into that vibe live.

2. Lowered (feat. Reba Meyers of Code Orange)

Greg: I like playing ‘Lowered’ when Reba Meyers can be around. It’s fun. I’ve never done a duet before like that onstage, and having that back and forth with another singer is really cool. And she’s been able to be there a decent amount so far, so that’s been a real highlight every night.

3. A Pair of Questions

Greg: ‘A Pair of Questions’ from Child Soldier: Creator of God is a song that I really like. It’s almost romantic, it’s like a pop song. It’s completely electronic on the record but we do a live band version of it that is a lot more jammy, almost with some funk.

Playing songs with a band live that were electronic on a record is always a different thing. The first time I ever saw that, I was in London when Justin Timberlake was doing his first ever tour. And I remember someone being like, “Hey, if you want to go see this Justin Timberlake show, we can get you and whoever else in.” Me and a couple of the other Dillinger guys went, and I’d never been to a show like that. I’d never seen a pop artist ever. Since then I’ve seen a bunch and a lot of them are just singing in front of their tracks. But some of them have a whole band on stage and they’re doing live band versions of these pop songs. And that’s what Justin did.

I think he had The Roots as his backing band at that point, so it was really full on. It was like, “Holy shit!” They were doing these longer versions of the songs and jamming and it was a really cool thing. I never took pop music that seriously before then. And then when I saw that, I realised what you can do to differentiate those kinds of songs live.

So, when it came time to do ‘A Pair of Questions’, it was like, Okay, I can either do this really sort of boring version of it where I just play, everyone walks off stage and I just sing in front of tracks – which fucking sucks – or we can reinterpret it as a band and make it more kind of earthy and organic. That changes the way I sing it – I can sing it with a little bit more power and push and it just changes the feel of the song. So, that’s become a highlight of the set.

When we last played in LA, Jerry Cantrell was there, he’s our buddy. He had never seen me play solo before, he doesn’t know all of the songs and shit, he’s not sitting around listening to all of my stuff. And after the show, he was like, “Hey, what was that one song called?” And he started humming it and I was like, “Oh, that’s ‘A Pair of Questions’.” And he was like, “Yeah, that one was really cool.” And I was like, Damn, that’s the song that I would expect Jerry Cantrell to relate to the least, this kind of romantic pop song. But it’s cool that he even detected that we were having fun with it.

4. Don’t Wanna Deal

Greg: Fuck Content was this livestream I did over COVID. I put four new songs on that livestream and one of them, to me, felt like a single, but it just got buried on the record and didn’t really get much attention, we didn’t really push it. It’s called ‘Don’t Wanna Deal.’ We decided to play that song live, even though it wasn’t a streaming hit or anything like that. And when we played it live, it just gave it this whole new energy, and it became a highlight of the set every night. That’s a really fun one.

5. Evacuation

Greg: ‘Evacuation’ is another fun song. Like I mentioned earlier, things become a different thing live than when they’re in the studio. I liked ‘Evacuation’ in the studio and I thought it was a good song, otherwise I wouldn’t have put it on the record, but definitely when you start playing things live, they hit a little harder – or not.

Some songs I love on record, but it would not have enough energy. Or maybe it just doesn’t translate live the way it does on the record and that’s totally fine. You don’t have to write everything to be this really fucking high octane live song.

But for whatever reason, ‘Evacuation’ has taken off more live. And even when we did some live recordings, I liked the live recordings of that song better than the studio recording because I can hear that there’s an energy to it live that really wasn’t quite captured on the studio version.

There’s a lyric in there that’s like a Dillinger throwback lyric that I think people kind of catch onto. It’s also got a good mix of The Black Queen vibes in it too, which comes from the atmospherics and electronics. It touches on a lot of other stuff that I do in a way that still makes sense as a solo song.

Greg Puciato 2024 Australian Tour

• Wednesday, 17th January – The Brightside, Brisbane QLD
• Thursday, 18th January – Crowbar, Sydney NSW
• Friday, 19th January – Lion Arts, Adelaide SA
• Saturday, 20th January – Max Watt’s, Melbourne VIC
• Sunday, 21st January – Amplifier Bar, Perth WA

Tickets on sale now

Further Reading 

Greg Puciato Is Touring Australia in Early 2024

Watch Greg Puciato Join Jerry Cantrell To Perform Alice In Chains Songs

The Dillinger Escape Plan Set for 2024 Reunion Show

The post Greg Puciato Names His Five Favourite Songs to Perform Live Ahead of 2024 Australian Tour appeared first on Music Feeds.

Hobart/nipaluna post-punk act The Native Cats released their fifth album, The Way On Is the Way Off, in November 2023. It’s the duo’s first LP through Melbourne/Naarm indie label Chapter Music, though band members Julian Teakle (bass) and Chloe Alison Escott (vocals, synths) have both worked with Chapter on separate projects in the past.

The Native Cats have been active since the late 2000s. Their first album, Always On, landed in 2009, followed by Process Praise in 2011, Dallas in 2013, and the singles ‘Catspaw’ and ‘Transportation’ in 2010 and 2012 respectively.The Way On Is the Way Off is their first LP since 2018’s John Sharp Toro.

The band’s five-album discography is an idiosyncratic body of work, distinguished by Escott’s speak-singing lead vocals and Teakle’s always-urgent bass playing. Ahead of a national album launch tour, Music Feeds speaks to Escott about The Way On Is the Way Off and the pair’s creative bond.

The Native Cats – ‘My Risks Is Art’

Music Feeds: Your solo album, Stars Under Contract, was one of my favourites during 2020-2021, a great companion during Melbourne lockdowns.

Chloe Alison Escott: Oh, thank you so much. That was made in late February 2020, so it was right before everything.

MF: You also released The Native Cats seven-inch, Two Creation Myths, in 2020.

Chloe: We recorded that in 2019, but we were just starting our launch tour for that in the middle of March. We had an Adelaide show and a Melbourne show booked for one weekend and it was the last weekend of Australian live music basically.

MF: When did you and Julian start thinking about making another The Native Cats album?

Chloe: We knew that we wanted to do another album after those couple of seven inches. We hadn’t written anything new for a little while, but there was this kind of regular local show here in Hobart called PRISM. It was a nice regular thing, people would do experimental projects and works in progress and so on.

We got asked to do it and we just decided, let’s do the show but since it’s a really small, local, low-stakes show, let’s write an entirely new set and perform it at the show. And the songs ‘Bass Clef’ and ‘My Risks Is Art’ came out of that. We played both of those and both have been pretty much unchanged since then. That was essentially the beginning of the album.

MF: Was that a novel strategy for The Native Cats – to come up with a whole set of new songs before a show?

Chloe: A whole set, yeah. There have been a bunch of times we have written a song right before a show we’ve had booked. ‘Olivia’ and ‘Mètre des Archives’ from Spiro Scratch, I think both of those we wrote literally the day of or the day before a show.

It’s interesting – sometimes I really like to fuss over things for a while to get everything exactly right and sometimes it’s just really exciting to have that very short space of time to work in, even just for the fun of it.

MF: There’s always a temptation to tidy things up and make it more sophisticated, but when you’re working at a pace that doesn’t allow you to reflect, you can generate some pretty excellent stuff. I’m intrigued to learn more about the finer details of yours and Julian’s writing process.

Chloe: We’ve had an interesting working relationship. I guess there are some exceptions, but for the most part Julian writes his bass parts – he writes a lot of them and he sends me a lot of instrumental demos of bass and drum machine or whatever. And whichever ones of those seem like something I could write to and sing to and affix other synth parts and things to, that’s what we move ahead with.

We tend to work very separately to each other. He writes his things and I write my words. I’ll hear his demo and just walk around listening to it and write on my own. So, in one sense, it’s kind of like we’re like two people with two separate projects, but in the other sense, you can’t always quantify these things. There is just a real overlap between our sensibilities and our interests. It all comes together in a really interesting way that’s kind of hard to boil down to a specific process.

MF: Do you really trust each other’s instincts? Like, do you ever have to offer feedback on the demos Julian sends you?

Chloe: Yeah. There will often be something that’s just like one repeated line and I’ll ask him to come up with something else to shift into for a little bit. Like with ‘Dallas’ for instance, you can kind of hear a few subtle variations on it. Like, it stays in the same key the whole way through but I guess ‘Dallas’ is one of the most structurally complex songs that we’ve done. We really had to work out some variations on that simple bass line because I wanted to shift the mood and shift the sense of drama a little bit more subtly than we usually do.

MF: ‘Dallas’ is one of a few sort of epics on the new record. You’ve done drawn-out songs in the past, but there is a contrast on the new album between songs like ‘Dallas’ and ‘Tanned Rested and Dead’ and the likes of ‘My Risks Is Art’ and ‘Small Town Cop Override’.

Chloe: We just kind of follow our instincts on it. Like ‘Small Town Cop Override’ was a little unusual. That’s one of the few songs that we’ve had where it’s started with the words. I wrote all the words to it before we had a bass line for it. I knew that I just wanted it to be this minute-long thing.

It’s interesting to consider – I say that we go on instinct and intuition but it’s interesting to consider where that instinct and intuition comes from. Sometimes it’s just that there’s a particular thing that Julian plays that reminds me in some kind of oblique way of a song that I’ve heard and loved somewhere and so it’s like, OK, that settles it, I want this to be really powerful and explosive and done in a minute, or I want this to be a real long motorcycle ride kind of thing.

Get your hands on The Native Cats’ new album, The Way On Is the Way Off, here

The Native Cats 2024 Australian Tour

• Friday, 12th January – Polish Club, nipaluna/Hobart TAS (w/ Baltimore Charlot & 208L Containers)
• Friday, 2nd February – The Metro, Kaurna Country/Adelaide SA (w/ Aumbudsmen & False Colours)
• Saturday, 3rd February – The Curtin, Naarm/Melbourne VIC (w/ Parsnip & Ov Pain)
• Saturday, 9th March – Gaelic Club, Eora/Sydney NSW (w/ Bed Wettin’ Bad Boys & more)
• Saturday, 23rd March – Jerkfest @ The Barwon Club, Djilang/Geelong VIC

Tickets on sale now

Further Reading

Amyl and the Sniffers: “We Might Never Play Again Until We’re at the John Farnham Point”

Angie McMahon: “You Have to Experience All of the Things That the Chapters Hold for You”

Miss Kaninna: “It’s a Privilege to Listen to Black People’s Stories”

The post The Native Cats: “There Is a Real Overlap in Our Sensibilities and Interests” appeared first on Music Feeds.

Sløtface – the project of Norwegian musician Haley Shea – linked up with Sydney/Eora garage pop outfit The Buoys on the recent single ‘Fight Back Time’. The two acts bonded over an appreciation of Maggie Rogers’ 2022 LP, Surrender, and the deft pop songwriting of HAIM, which shines through in the song’s taut rhythms and earworm of a chorus.

Sløtface had already demoed the song with producers Michael Champion and Paul Whalley before making an online friend in The Buoys’ vocalist and guitarist Zoe Catterall. The collaboration developed from there, with Catterall and the rest of The Buoys sharing ideas with Shea over Zoom.

Lyrically, ‘Fight Back Time’ is concerned with self-destructive behaviour and a general aversion to sleep. “Midnights keep coming / I can outrun them / I’ll try to fight back time,” goes the chorus. It’s a tendency that Sløtface and The Buoys would prefer to overcome. And to this end, Shea tells Music Feeds about the merits of taking a breath, celebrating your wins, and getting a good night’s sleep.

Sløtface & The Buoys – ‘Fight Back Time’

Try to make time to celebrate the wins and enjoy the good stuff

Sløtface: I can get so wrapped up in whatever the next thing I’m doing is or rushing onto the next task as soon as I’ve completed something. But these past years I’ve been trying to remember to get excited about the good stuff when it happens, and take the time to celebrate the wins, big and small. Our bass player Marie is a great inspiration here – she can always find something to celebrate.

Just go to bed

Sløtface: A big part of ‘Fight Back Time’ is me reminding myself to do just this. I can absolutely bedtime revenge procrastinate, which usually means staying up late watching endless episodes of whatever I’m hooked on to feel like I can claw back some free time. But I’m almost always better off just going to bed and getting some extra sleep.

The hard thing will feel easier in the morning – you don’t have to deal with everything right now

Sløtface: I can get so overwhelmed thinking of all the things that need to be done or that I’m stressed about that I forget to break things down into smaller tasks. I get easily overwhelmed at the end of a long day. Sometimes it works best for me to just call it, and deal with things with fresh eyes. I’m usually way less stressed and overwhelmed if I can get a good night’s sleep.

Scary hour – where you commit to working on everything you don’t want to do for 60 minutes – has been a game changer for me in terms of breaking big things into smaller chunks.

You’ll know when it’s worth it to stay up

Sløtface: ‘Fight Back Time’ is also about the other side of the coin. Sometimes it’s worth it to stay out too late, have one drink too many, make memories you’ll have forever with your friends and loved ones and eat the unhealthy thing. Everything in moderation is so cliche, but I truly believe it is key. If you pay attention, you’ll know which nights are worth being hung over and tired after, and which nights sleep should be more important.

Ask for help, or ask to vent

Sløtface: Sometimes advice is helpful. My manager, bandmates or partner can be instrumental in helping me solve problems I’m stressing about. But sometimes having people try to solve my problems when I just want to complain a bit pisses me off. So, I’ve started trying to tell people which one I want, and I try to ask the people around me which they prefer: advice or vent. It leads to a lot less confusion and fighting when communicating. Sometimes I even set a timer for five or 10 minutes to vent, and when the timer rings, I try to stop.

It’s OK to do nothing sometimes

Sløtface: I don’t really struggle with doing nothing but sometimes I do still feel bad about it. It’s OK to do nothing sometimes and I try to remind myself of this, especially in stressful periods. Usually, I am more creative, more patient and more well-rested if I make time to do nothing for a day. So, even though it doesn’t feel productive, it is in the long run.

Further Reading

Track By Track: Haley Shea of Sløtface Takes Us Through Her New EP ‘AWAKE/ASLEEP’

Listen to ‘I Want You’, The Buoys’ New Song “For Anyone That’s Been in a Situationship”

Amyl and the Sniffers: “We Might Never Play Again Until We’re at the John Farnham Point”

The post Sløtface Unpacks the Themes of ‘Fight Back Time’, Her Collaboration with The Buoys appeared first on Music Feeds.

Amyl and the Sniffers will tie a bow on their Comfort to Me album cycle with a bunch of regional Victorian shows in late November and early December. The Melbourne-based band will head to Meeniyan, Frankston, Ballarat, Torquay, Warrnambool and Wodonga, before wrapping up with an under-18s show at Thornbury Theatre in Melbourne. They’ll also swing by Castlemaine to help Cosmic Psychos celebrate their 40th anniversary.

The regional tour brings an end to a mammoth couple of years for Amyl and the Sniffers, whose ARIA-winning second album came out in September 2021. Since that time, they’ve comprehensively covered the UK, Europe and the USA, and played their first shows in Mexico and Japan.

They’ve sold out increasingly larger venues across Australia, headlined the Off the Rails festival and supported the likes of Foo Fighters and The Smashing Pumpkins. We spoke to guitarist Declan Martens and drummer Bryce Wilson ahead of the regional tour, which is presented by ALWAYS LIVE.

Amyl and the Sniffers – ‘Comfort to Me’ (live)

Music Feeds: Are you all still living in Melbourne?

Declan Martens: Yep.

MF: Did any of you grow up in Melbourne?

Declan: Nope.

MF: In Victoria?

Bryce Wilson: No one’s even from Victoria.

MF: Where are you all from?

Bryce: Me and Amy are from New South Wales, north coast, and then Dec’s from Perth and Gus is from Hobart.

MF: Have you done many regional shows on this album cycle?

Bryce: Nah, like fuck all really. Nothing comes to mind.

Declan: We did Frankston last year on the album tour and that’s it.

MF: This regional tour is a send-off to this phase of your career. And then we don’t when you’ll be playing in Australia again.

Declan: Onto bigger and better things. Yeah, probably never again. I don’t know – that’s what our managers are telling us.

MF: Never again in Australia, or just never play again?

Declan: Never again until we’re at the John Farnham point.

MF: Right. So then what?

Declan: I’m sure we’ll be back at it again one day but we haven’t got anything booked.

MF: Does that mean you’re focusing elsewhere in the world? Or making an album and then seeing what happens?

Declan: Just making an album, yeah.

MF: Have you been writing?

Declan: We haven’t written in a while. We started writing earlier this year, but that’s been put on pause because we’ve been so busy.

MF: Do either of you have any big ideas?

Declan: Not really.

Bryce: We’re getting there. We’re formulating something. We don’t know what yet, but something’s gonna happen – are you drinking milk [Declan]?

MF: Yeah, what’s that?

Declan: I made a smoothie.

MF: What’s in the smoothie?

Declan: I’ve got banana, peanut butter, milk, chocolate-flavoured protein powder, oats – and I forgot to put the chia seeds in.

MF: Is the protein for overall nutritional balance or because you’re working out?

Declan: I’m working out, and overall nutritional balance.

MF: Do you work out as well Bryce?

Bryce: I haven’t for a while. We’ve all got gym memberships except for Gus now. They’ve been calling me.

MF: In between tours, do you try to correct your bodies and get fit?

Bryce: Yeah. We try and get back to some kind of normality.

Declan: My body’s breaking apart after these tours so I’ve been working on the back.

MF: Are you getting better at staying healthy on tour?

Declan: Slowly. I was really good before the last Europe run that we did. I had a routine and shit and I was eating so many veggies and so much fruit. And then tour starts and I can’t even look a veggie in the eye.

MF: Does anyone in the band have restrictive dietary requirements?

Declan: I’m pescatarian, so there’s no pig, cow or chicken on my plate.

MF: And yet, you still can’t look a vegetable in the eye.

Declan: Yeah. That just goes to show how weird it gets on tour. I’ll eat the veggie but I just don’t look it in the eye before I eat it.

MF: Oh because of the shame – because the vegetable knows you.

Declan: They taste so bad when you’re hungover. I’ll only eat like a few veggies for the day – like, one meal a day – and then come home [after the gig] and eat lots of pizzas.

MF: Ah yes, the million-o’clock pizza stop. What about you Bryce, are you struggling to stay healthy on tour?

Bryce: I don’t know, I go all right usually. I try to eat a banana once a day maybe, if I can. But yeah, it kind of just depends on what the catering is.

MF: It can be tempting to eat it all, right?

Bryce: Oh yeah, I usually do.

Declan: He does.

MF: There’s always a risk there’ll never be food again.

Bryce: Exactly. I don’t know when I’m going to eat next.

Amyl and the Sniffers 2023 Regional Tour

w/ Dumb Punts

• Friday, 24th November – Meeniyan Town Hall, Meeniyan VIC
• Saturday, 25th November – Pier Hotel, Frankston VIC
• Sunday, 26th November – Volta, Ballarat VIC
• Friday, 1st December – Torquay Hotel, Torquay VIC
• Saturday, 2nd December – Theatre Royal, Castlemaine, VIC
• Sunday, 3rd December – Dart & Marlin, Warrnambool VIC)
• Tuesday, 5th December – The Cube, Wodonga VIC
• Friday, 8th December – Thornbury Theatre, Melbourne VIC (U18s)

Tickets via the band’s website

Further Reading

The Complete ALWAYS LIVE 2023 Program: Christina Aguilera, Jessie Ware, Amyl and the Sniffers + More

Cosmic Psychos Announce 40th Anniversary Australian Tour

Angie McMahon: “You Have to Experience All of the Things That the Chapters Hold for You”

The post Amyl and the Sniffers: “We Might Never Play Again Until We’re at the John Farnham Point” appeared first on Music Feeds.

Angie McMahon has been slowing down, searching for equilibrium. The Naarm/Melbourne songwriter’s debut album, Salt, came out in mid-2019. It was one of the year’s breakout releases and a moment of self-actualisation for McMahon, who’d dedicated years of effort towards the goal of turning songwriting and performing into a stimulating career.

But then life came along. Covid, loss, change, depression, Fred again.. – McMahon has seen and felt a lot in the four-plus years since Salt came out. She attempts to parse a good portion of these experiences on album two, Light, Dark, Light Again, which is out now. But more significantly, McMahon has been able to cultivate a sense of self-possession and inner harmony away from her work as a popular musician.

The album is better for it, and so is McMahon’s mental health. In the lead-up to the release of Light, Dark, Light Again – which includes tracks with such illustrative titles as ‘Making It Through’, ‘Exploding’ and ‘Letting Go’ – Music Feeds spoke to McMahon about time, turmoil, and making it through.

Angie McMahon: Light, Dark, Light Again

Music Feeds: How are you feeling? Have you been impatient for the album to come out?

Angie McMahon: I need my brain and my body to slow down a bit, so I think I’m not feeling impatient. I’m ready for it, for sure, but I’ve been moving around a lot and it’s nice just when time moves as it should, you know?

MF: Yeah. Our perception of time – for all of us – is different, but it’s so affected by what we’re going through. I was just thinking about how Salt came out four-and-a-bit years ago. It feels like a different time period.

Angie: Yeah – I will clarify that I have been very impatient over the course of that time. But now, finally, I have self-control.

MF: You’ve got to go through a lot of turmoil and strife to generate things that are meaningful to you – well, I don’t know if that’s a rule.

Angie: That’s it. You have to experience all of the things that the chapters hold for you. I have had some big moments of loss and change over the last few years, and every time I’m feeling like I’m in a hard thing, my distraction is to wish the record was coming out. Because you’re just like, “All I care about is putting out a record and I wish it was happening right now.”

But, in fact, all of the things had to happen to me and I have become – not every day, but some days, on a good day when I’m practising it – a more accepting human in the sense of, you are where you need to be. That mindset has been helping me a lot more than the anxious, urgent one.

‘Exploding’

MF: It’s hard, though, to keep believing that you are where you need to be, but also to keep that composure in your brain. It’s not as simple as just telling yourself something like that and then the feeling goes on forever.

Angie: No. I find when I write it down or when I say it, I believe it again, so I need to practise it. But maybe that comes from the moments when it has felt so true – like if you’ve seen supernatural beings and now you will always believe in supernatural beings, or something.

It’s like, I have had moments where the universe proved to me that I am where I need to be and I have felt, on a deep level, like I can recognise the evidence or the patterns happening in front of me that give me faith in that idea. And then I totally forget the idea and it’s the same as forgetting that I should meditate every day and it’s got to be mindful and in the present. But then when that particular thing comes back into focus in front of me, I am like, “Oh yeah, I believe that.”

MF: I think it’s a sign of a lot of growth to be anchored by that sort of thing.

Angie: When I remember to be.

MF: Well, you know, every day is full of confusion. There are many things to distract you. You were saying that whenever you’ve been going through difficult times, your crutch would be to look forward to the record coming out. Do you think of writing songs – and writing songs that are intended to be shared with the public – as central to your understanding of yourself?

Angie: I think it used to be more that. There’s obviously an element of external validation that comes with this role and I realised that I was relying on it a lot and not validating myself, or [not] validating myself outside of songs and music. Growing that practice and working on basic mental health as an adult – separate from being a musician and my identity as a songwriter – has been so important.

I never really had that before. This was always the one thing: this one-track-minded ambition that drove me. That’s obviously pretty risky. Like, I would feel such deep, deep failure if that wasn’t happening the way that I thought it should happen. For example, having a record come out 18 months after the first record and developing in a clean and linear way as an artist.

When it all gets messy and you’re relying on it to validate you, I just realised that wasn’t going to work anymore.

‘Making It Through’

Angie McMahon’s new album, Light, Dark, Light Again, is out now via Gracie Music/AWAL. Stream it here and purchase it here.

Further Reading

Angie McMahon Details New Album and Announces Australian Headline Shows

Jess Ribeiro Releases New Single ‘Summer of Love’ via Poison City Records

ZK king 劉: “This Record Felt Nostalgic Even Before I Had Finished Making It”

The post Angie McMahon: “You Have to Experience All of the Things That the Chapters Hold for You” appeared first on Music Feeds.

ZK king 劉‘s debut album, Heart throbs, is out now through exemplars of the Naarm underground, CONTENT.NET.AU. Heart throbs is a work of textural, melodic pop music that sits amid a haze of electronic noise and field recordings. ZK king’s songwriting corresponds to the chronically online era, while also brimming with nostalgia. As a result, Heart throbs generates a feeling that’s intimate, familiar and a bit uncanny.

The project’s creator, Jamie Marina Lau, is also a celebrated author, responsible for the novels Pink Mountain on Locust Island and Gunk Baby. To coincide with the release of Heart throbs, we spoke to ZK king 劉 about her background in music, tapping into nostalgia, and working with co-producer Kuya Neil.

ZK king 劉: ‘princesspeachlovesong’

Music Feeds: You made this album a couple of years ago, right? Do these songs transport you to that time?

ZK king 劉: Yes. I had the first demo early 2022. I actually produced and recorded most of it in the backseat of my car, between traveling and going out a lot and and right before I went to the US. I was messing around with new sounds, new processes, just being silly with it. But the songs prefaced a really transitional time for me so it’ll always feel really special listening back to it. There’s this big feeling of, like, a deep breath about the songs.

MF: You’ve featured on releases by Teether, Kuya Neil, Bayang, and various others. What made you decide to launch your solo project only recently? 

ZK: I had a lot of support from my community since the very beginning – from my friends, everyone you listed – and I was playing shows in a band with PERALTA and dreamrat who I’d met on SoundCloud, and my brother Chef Chung a few years ago too.

The musician friends around me, both online and IRL, have played a huge part in me finding my sound and being comfortable enough to share it in a bigger way. I’ve been posting songs on SoundCloud for a minute now but those projects just happened when they did, and they were like therapy, more for myself.

This is the first project where I’ve challenged that process. Kuya Neil was a big part of that. He came in after the first couple of demos to help me co-produce, manage the release as a full project, and he overall just made it shinier. Our conversations and our time spent on the music helped me grow confidence with it, and ultimately made me feel like this project was something to be proud of and something people would be able to resonate with.

MF: Heart throbs is an evocative title – it makes me think of a throbbing heart, a heart in pain, but also heartthrobs, like perceived hotties, pop stars, film stars etc. Does the title encapsulate the record for you? 

ZK: Wow yes — I love that you mentioned the pop star thing. Titles are important to me. I think a title is something you can look at in so many different ways and because of that, the artist gets to explore all the dimensions of that.

The name Heart throbs came before any of the songs. I wanted to find all the feelings that that phrase gives, like you said — heart throbs… like crushes to deep romances, lust, puppy love, that candied feeling. The whole record feels like uncanny pop star music. The songs have this plasticky element to them but also that sincerely emotional sentiment behind them.

MF: ‘Princesspeachlovesong’ was the first single you released from the album. It’s a bit too hazy and downtempo to be a smash hit but it does set a mood. Were you thinking about world building when you were putting the album together? 

ZK: ‘princesspeachlovesong’ was a fun and fitting way to set the atmosphere for the record. The song is made up of voice memos and audio from videos I took at the beach, particularly this one where I’m holding a stone with pink coralline algae and moss on it and my nails have these baby pink tips on it that match.

So, when the rest of the project came, it already had these very subtle colour associations, an environment, a mood and an attitude about it, I guess. I think the fun part about world building with music, which is different to writing, is that it can happen more unconsciously.

MF: I like your album synopsis – describing Heart throbs as dedications to digital love, IMVU, partners in matching outfits, meeting a soulmate on tumblr. Weirdly, all that stuff sounds kind of outmoded and nostalgic now. Does the feeling of nostalgia inspire you? 

ZK: Nostalgia is most definitely a driving force in anything I create. It was one of the first sensations I remember feeling, listening to music or reading as a kid. I sometimes think maybe it’s because I’m late getting to music or books so by the time I do, it already has that nostalgia factor?

For real though, I do really like work that feels nostalgic but then again I think that any work has the ability to be nostalgic. Like, nostalgia in music is an artist/listener collaboration – it depends on when the listener finds it.

But in reference to the synopsis, I think this record felt nostalgic even before I had finished making it, and when I feel that feeling while creating, it always means something significant to me.

MF: Are there many parallels between your songwriting/producing and the process of writing novels? Like, similarities in terms of what you seek to communicate or how the process makes you feel etc? 

ZK: I’ll forever be asking this question to myself. There is that universal feeling — that flow state feeling that definitely happens in a similar way between them. But I’m finding the more I work on each practice, the more distinct they become. As in, they fit differently into my life. I need both practices but at different points in my life, and that does depend on what I’m curious about, what I want to research, what my life looks like.

“Right now, music feels right. I’m still working on writing, but right now music feels like the creative iteration of how I’m living.”

MF: Your Gunk Baby companion playlist on Spotify is a good insight into your curiosity as a music fan. How do you tend to discover music? And are you constantly listening? 

ZK: Yes constantly listening, especially just during shifts at my odd jobs like when I was working at the Asian grocer all night – I would devour albums or find mixes. I vary how I find music. Sometimes Spotify is the go because I don’t have as much time, but most consistently, the selects I’m proud of come via YouTube, internet radio and SoundCloud.

MF: Does the music you listen to directly inform the music you make? As in, are you referencing things when you’re working on songs? Or is it more subconscious? 

ZK: I’m lucky to work in two mediums because the music I listen to can be split up into music I listen to that directly impacts the writing I do, or the music I listen to just when I’m living my life. Both, in ways, end up being reflected in the music I make.

At times where I’ve felt pressure to create a certain way, my music ends up being more referential, but less true to myself. So I think the best way for me to make music is when it happens more subconsciously, which can maybe only happen when I’m listening widely like that.

MF: Your brother is a musician, Chef Chung. Are you two competitive? Was music a shared interest growing up? 

ZK: I don’t think it’s competitive just because we make different music and for different ears and moods, but I think watching him level up constantly is inspiring to me. Like he goes hard, and he’s so good at what he does, but always pushes himself to do better. His attitude is unmatched; it’s a good energy to be around. Music also just comes so naturally to him.

I remember back in 2014, I got my first sampler and keyboard and he would just come into my room and start adding to the beat. Before that, he’d play the drums and I’d play keys and we’d do that for hours. It’s always been huge to us. My brother showed me my first favourite song, really. Listening to the music we make side by side you can probably hear all the shifting influences we had growing up. I think music is something we’ll always share, even if we do it separately, you know?

MF: Kuya Neil co-produced Heart throbs. How much influence did he have on the finished product — were you mainly calling the shots, or did you let his ideas take over on occasion? 

ZK: By the time we actually began to rework my original demos, we’d both been sitting with them for a while and so much in our lives had changed in that time too. I was scared to get into it because I’m pretty stubborn with my work. Neil was such a good mentor, friend and co-producer. He really cared about the project, and he brought his skills and talent in a way that complemented my intentions and the original blueprints.

He literally broke down every single sound and the feelings we wanted each of them to convey. It wasn’t about the finished product, which artists generally hate thinking about. Because Neil is an artist himself, he got this, and it was such a detailed and delicate process.

Neil ended up having a lot of creative input to the project, from the mix to the arrangement. He’d also pretty much done a full makeover of the two lead singles ‘4ever’ and ‘Heart throbs’, giving it that extra edge and taking my sound more forward. Then when Voidhood came in with the mix and master, it was the same. I feel like the project was so nurtured by my collaborators.

MF: Do you plan to keep making, releasing, and performing music?

ZK: Definitely. I think collaboration is really exciting to me right now and I was working on something while I was overseas that I’m excited to share. More coming soon for sure.

ZK king 劉’s debut album, Heart throbs, is out now. Listen to it here and purchase it here. You can see ZK king 劉 at 24 Moons in Melbourne on Saturday, 28th October as part of The Eighty-Six festival’s Super Saturday.

Further Reading

Miss Kaninna: “It’s a Privilege to Listen to Black People’s Stories”

Tex Crick on the Experiences, Places and Objects that Influenced His New Album ‘Sweet Dreamin”

Nabihah Iqbal: “I’m Confident in Myself Because I Know People Appreciate What I Do”

The post ZK king 劉: “This Record Felt Nostalgic Even Before I Had Finished Making It” appeared first on Music Feeds.

Miss Kaninna’s ‘Blak Britney’ is one of the essential singles of 2023. The fired-up moment of political hip hop has shades of The Neptunes and Rage Against the Machine, but is distinguished by Kaninna’s unapologetic vocal performance.

“Government said I would fail,” she raps in the song’s first verse. “But still I prevail.” This opening salvo resonates as the 20-something Yorta Yorta, Djadja Wurrung, Kalkadoon and Yirendali woman goes on to voice her disgust at Australia’s ongoing colonial violence. “I’m a pig hater / Death to invader,” she raps. “And all the land takers / And all the treaty breakers.”

Miss Kaninna – ‘Blak Britney’

Just reading the lyrics is enough to give you goosebumps – hearing Kaninna spit them out with complete conviction is nothing short of a call to arms. Miss Kaninna’s second single, ‘Pinnacle Bitch’, picks up where ‘Blak Britney’ left off. It’s party music with fury at its core; anger rooted in dispossession and microaggressions.

Ahead of appearances at a slew of summer festivals, including Meredith, Beyond the Valley and HAYDAYS, Music Feeds chats to Miss Kaninna about her career beginnings and insistence on speaking uncomfortable truths.

Stream and purchase ‘Pinnacle Bitch’ right here

Music Feeds: What were you doing before you released ‘Blak Britney’?

Miss Kaninna: I was touring the country for a year.

MF: As Miss Kaninna?

Miss Kaninna: No, I was touring the country in The Sapphires. It was a terrible, terrible time.

MF: What character were you playing?

Miss Kaninna: I played Cynthia.

MF: Do you do any other musical theatre?

Miss Kaninna: No. I didn’t really want to be in musicals but Uncle Tony [Briggs], he heard that I was doing music because I was starting my singing career and I had videos on Facebook and stuff, so he asked me to audition for it.

MF: Had you already started writing your own songs at that stage?

Miss Kaninna: I think I’d been doing music for maybe like a year. I’d played a couple of shows here and there and had maybe four or five songs.

“I’m reminding white people that it’s a privilege to listen to Black people’s stories … you live on stolen land and you’re hearing trauma from us.”

MF: What were your earliest songs like?

Miss Kaninna: Like, you’re never going to hear them. They’re so far evolved [now], it’s not even funny. I was on my phone the other day and I was like, “Oh my god, this is the first song I ever wrote.” It’s just so, like, pop, love story – and I was so unhappy in my relationship, but I was pretending like I was [happy].

MF: So, with pop melody and structure?

Miss Kaninna: Yeah, just like intro, verse, pre-chorus, chorus, verse, pre-chorus, chorus.

MF: Were you a singer-songwriter?

Miss Kaninna: Not really. I’ve always written poems and I wrote songs by myself but this was the first time that I wrote something from start to finish. And the people I was working with at the time had a very big control over the project, which freaked me out a little bit. And so, it was just about, “How do I find people around me that will let me be creative in my own way?” rather than, “You should sing it like this.”

MF: That would strip away the love from it pretty quickly.

Miss Kaninna: Yeah, but I was just so excited that I was making songs. So I didn’t really care. I was like, “OK, sure, you can have more than fifty percent on my song. That’s totally fine.” And my mum was like, “I don’t think that’s right.” And I was like, “Yeah, yeah yeah.” And then she was like, “…no.” And I was like, “Yeah, actually, maybe this is really hectic.”

MF: When did you become Miss Kaninna?

Miss Kaninna: My name is Kaninna, but I added “Miss” on the front of it just before the summer shows – so maybe like December last year. I have an interesting relationship with my name because Kaninna is my birth name but people only know me as “Kinny” because Kaninna is too hard to say – especially in a Tasmanian town.

MF: What’s the origin of the name?

Miss Kaninna: Kaninna means little possum. It’s Aboriginal, and it was really hard for people to say. But then as I grew more into my identity after coming back from The Sapphires, I wanted my stage name to be Kaninna. You know, Zendaya has one name, Rihanna has one name; it’s such a statement.

And then I realised, being a Black girl, I really wanted to keep my identity my own as well. That’s why I don’t have my hair natural on stage. It was too personal – people think they know me. So, having a “Miss” in front of it, it makes it seem a little bit more like a character. An extreme version of the most confident version of myself. I can put the wig on and I can put that stuff on and go onstage and feel like a more exaggerated version of myself.

I’ll have my hair natural for all the mob stuff. If I ever do community work or any gigs for community, I want them to be seeing me as the most natural version of myself.

“I realised, being a Black girl, I really wanted to keep my identity my own. That’s why I don’t have my hair natural on stage. It was too personal – people think they know me.”

MF: Do you feel like that when you’re writing as well – that you’re able to access a more confident and assertive version of yourself?

Miss Kaninna: Yeah, 100%. I’m trying to build a brand about confidence and having confidence, especially Black girls having confidence. So when I do write my songs – especially doing more rap songs – I feel like I’m more creative that way when I write music.

MF: You’re such a good rapper. Your repertoire includes a bunch of neo-soul songs and a bit of a pop-rock moment, all of which feature you singing, not rapping. But ‘Blak Britney’ and ‘Pinnacle Bitch’ are really powerful hip hop songs.

Miss Kaninna: ‘Blak Britney’ was the first rap song that I wrote. And that was really interesting because I come from a singing background, and then when I wrote ‘Blak Britney’ people were like, “What the fuck?” And I was like, OK, cool, so this song is getting more attention than all my other songs.

We’re seeing all these amazing Black artists coming up, doing hip hop, and I was like, I really want to be a part of that because I can say what I’m saying in a way that people are going to dance but listen at the same time. I feel like rapping and hip hop is really good for that because you’re talking about serious issues while also people are dancing. You can’t really be like, [sings] “Fuck the government”, in a cute little neo-soul way.

MF: Has your taste changed as well? Have you become more of a hip hop fan?

Miss Kaninna: I definitely have loved women in rap for my whole life but I also listen to a lot of men in rap as well. And I suppose since actually doing rap, I don’t listen to men in rap anymore. I can’t be fucked with it. There’s nothing about it that I really enjoy – apart from, obviously, people from here and Blackfullas.

Mali Jo$e, fantastic rapper. He’s crazy, I love everything about him, he’s amazing. Teether, also. They’re all people from Melbourne/Naarm. But in regards to the bigger spectrum of hip hop, I wouldn’t say that my music taste is really men. I prefer rap with substance.

“I wouldn’t say that my music taste is really men. I prefer rap with substance.”

MF: That is evident in your work. Are you determined to get people to pay attention to what you’re saying in your songs?

Miss Kaninna: Yeah. I’ve been pretty surprised by the amount of attention ‘Blak Britney’ got because where I’m from, people don’t value Aboriginal people’s voices. So, you’ll say something, you’re sticking up for your rights, and people will be like, “Pfft. Don’t say that. You’re just being emotional, you’re being too fragile.”

It’s so interesting because I’m saying the exact same thing but I put a fucking 808 in it and they’re singing the words. So I’m kind of annoyed at that as well – I’m like, you only want to sing about it because it’s cool.

So that’s why at the live shows I’m trying to encourage Black people to come up the front and talking about privilege and reminding white people that it’s a privilege to listen to Black people’s stories, because you’re learning and you live on stolen land and you’re hearing trauma from us. You just need to two-step and enjoy it, but at the same time, you should be taking it in.

Further Reading

Miss Kaninna Shares Thumping New Single, ‘Pinnacle Bitch’

Nominees, Hall of Fame Inductees Announced for 2023 Music Victoria Awards

Christina Aguilera Headlines Program for Victoria’s ALWAYS LIVE 2023

The post Miss Kaninna: “It’s a Privilege to Listen to Black People’s Stories” appeared first on Music Feeds.

screensaver make muscular and rhythmic synth-punk in the mould of Siouxsie & the Banshees and The Cure. The Naarm-based band’s second album, Decent Shapes, is rooted in the band members’ experiences living in an affluent country in a time of rampant, alienating neoliberalism.

screensaver will take Decent Shapes on tour throughout November, playing shows in Canberra, Port Kembla, Sydney, Ballarat, Castlemaine, Nambour, Brisbane, Eudlo, Warrnambool and Adelaide. To coincide with its release, guitarist and synth player Chris Stephenson tells us about the daily tasks and random objects that influenced the record.

screensaver: Decent Shapes

Day Jobs

Chris Stephenson: They sure eat up a fair chunk of life. The repetition of a life spent working underpins a lot of our lyrical themes. The act of making music is in big part a remedy to the monotony of full time jobs.

Tama Swingstar Drums

Chris: An absolute tank of a thing James scored just before tracking. The record’s sonic foundation with a sweet, sweet mirror finish on the kick drum resonator head.

The FUNK.COM Van

Chris: We had the opportunity to hit the road in the states for a couple weeks before completely finishing the record, which gave us a chance to really get to know the songs in a live setting and make some adjustments when we got back. The van was borrowed from a generous friend’s band. They’d got it second hand from some real estate company that had FUNK.COM emblazoned in very large lettering on the sides and across the roof. Very comical vehicle to show up to gigs in.

Buttonpusher

Chris: The spot in Preston we did the majority of tracking with the fine wooden walls. Julian Cue did a great job situating his mobile rig in the space and also providing his home studio for overdubs and mixdown glory.

Bag of Coins

Chris: Though it didn’t make it onto the record, our original bassist Giles contributed greatly to the sound of the band as well as the LP. There was a memorable moment at the end of a tracking day where we mic’d up a large bag of change Giles was holding and then shaking with delirious enthusiasm. In the age of software with infinite track capability, it’s good to be unafraid to try anything that comes to mind.

‘Assassin with Son’ from Shogun Assassin

Chris: The bassline here is the inspiration for what ended up on ‘Signals.’ It’s one of those pieces of music that’s stuck with me since I saw the film years ago. A rolling bass line in a minor key always delivers a great mood.

screensaver’s new album Decent Shapes is out now via Poison City Records & Upset the Rhythm

screensaver Decent Shapes Tour

• Thursday 2nd November – Sideway Bar, Canberra ACT
• Friday 3rd November – The Servo, Port Kembla NSW
• Saturday 4th November – The Enmore, Sydney NSW
• Sunday 5th November – A secret location, Sydney NSW
• Friday 10th November – The Eastern, Ballarat VIC
• Saturday 11th November – The Bridge Hotel, Castlemaine VIC
• Friday 17th November – Black Box Theatre, Nambour QLD
• Saturday 18th November – The Bearded Lady, Brisbane QLD
• Sunday 19th November – A secret location, Eudlo QLD
• Friday 24th November – The Dart and Marlin, Warrnambool VIC
• Saturday 25th November – The Metro, Adelaide SA

Tickets on sale now

Further Reading

screensaver Seek Relief from Energy Vampires on New Single ‘Drainer’

Melbourne Post-Punks screensaver Release New Single ‘The Guilt’, Announce New Album

Efficient Space’s Michael Kucyk on the Independent Music Exchange – “We’re Doing Things for the Sake of Music”

The post screensaver on the Daily Tasks and Random Phenomena that Influenced Their New Album ‘Decent Shapes’ appeared first on Music Feeds.

Tex Crick‘s new album is the thoughtful, playful and sentimental Sweet Dreamin’. It’s Crick’s second full-length album and the second release to come out via Mac DeMarco’s homespun imprint, Mac’s Record Label, following Crick’s 2021 debut, Live In… New York City.

Crick, who grew up in the Illawarra region of New South Wales, wrote and recorded much of the LP in his modest home studio in Tokyo. The songs on Sweet Dreamin’ revolve around Crick’s earnest and inviting baritone and unflashy piano playing.

Tex Crick: Sweet Dreamin’

To coincide with the album’s release, Crick tells us about the experiences, places, objects and phenomena that influenced its creation.

Dreams

Tex Crick: The record references dreaming all throughout – night dreams, daydreams, lifelong dreams. I’m a dreamer. There isn’t much more to it. Keep on dreaming.

Singing

Tex: I really got comfortable with singing on this record. Before Live In… New York City, I had never tried singing over my own music. That record was sort of an experiment to see if I could do it.
It made me realise you don’t need an amazing singing voice, you just have to mean what you’re singing about and people will recognise that. So, me being more confident in the way I use my voice helped this record to be what it turned out to be.

Cinema Programs

Tex: For some reason there are heaps of these cinema program booklets for sale everywhere in Japan. Each maybe has about 10 pages of nice stills from all different old movies. I like to look at pictures while I write music, so I buy these and I stare at my favourite scene from whatever movie fits my mood. I can’t read sheet music, so it’s nice to look at something.

The Attic

Tex: I’ve got my little studio setup in the roof of our Tokyo house. This is where I pen my songs and record the most. The sun beams in around 4pm and lights up the room with gold. I love it.

Hindenburg Piano

Tex: I think about this piano a lot.

Tex Crick’s new album Sweet Dreamin’ is out now through Mac’s Record Label

Tex Crick Sweet Dreamin’ Tour

• Wednesday 6th December – Mapleton Pub, Sunshine Coast QLD
• Thursday 7th December – The Bearded Lady, Brisbane QLD
• Friday 8th December – Harvest Newrybar, Northern Rivers NSW
• Saturday 9th December – Bangalow Bowlo [Natural bridge #004], Bangalow NSW
• Tuesday 12th December – The Curtin, Melbourne VIC
• Thursday 14th December – The House Of Music And Booze, Sydney NSW
• Friday 15th December – 16 Bellambi Lane, Wollongong NSW

Tickets on sale now

Further Reading

Tex Crick Tinkers with Japanese Hawaiian Music on ‘Barefoot Blues’

Tex Crick Announces New Album, Shares Video for ‘Easy Keepers’

Popular Music’s Zac Pennington and Prudence Rees-Lee Provide a Reference List for Their Debut LP, ‘Minor Works’

The post Tex Crick on the Experiences, Places and Objects that Influenced His New Album ‘Sweet Dreamin” appeared first on Music Feeds.

Melbourne/Naarm garage-pop and roots rock outfit The Grogans have released their fourth album, Find Me A Cloud. It follows last year’s Which Way Is Out, and is again released via local indie label Cousin Will Records. Band members Quin Grunden, Jordan Lewis and Angus Vasic worked on the album with engineer Jasper Jolley at Big Fridge Recordings on Victoria’s Bellarine Peninsula.

The Grogans will launch Find Me A Cloud with a comprehensive UK and European tour throughout October and November – learn more here. To coincide with its release, The Grogans tell Music Feeds about the album’s creation and why it’s their favourite release to date.

The Grogans: Find Me A Cloud

The Grogans: Find Me A Cloud is an album that has felt a little different to other albums we’ve written in the sense that we had an idea of where we wanted to take it. Other times it has been whatever tracks we had ready to go. No concepts or themes but more of an auditive aesthetic that we dive into headfirst. It feels a little truer to ourselves and nostalgic than previous albums. We wanted to draw inspiration from the past whilst never trying to recreate it.

We decided to go and record all the drums and guitars live down with our great friend Jasper at Big Fridge Recordings. I think this is where we really found the sound for the album. Big Fridge is a beautiful one-room, rustic studio, which has been converted from an old coolroom on an apple farm in Ocean Grove. It really felt like home for us. We then took the tracks back to our studio to build upon the foundations.

The album is filled with honest and relatable lyrics, although some may come across as cryptic. Some tracks are heavier rock’n’roll and others slow and perpetual. Hopefully something for everyone.

1. Hey Ma’am

The Grogans: This track came about really naturally and we pretty much had the structure after the first time mucking around with it. We tried getting a couple of classic guitar tones and just making it a bit of an old school rock-n-roll track. Short and sweet.

The lyrics are describing a bad relationship where the man is expecting his partner to do things for him that he’s perfectly capable of doing himself. And although the lyrics don’t get that far, the story goes that she boots him out the door and lives her best life without him.

2. Overheat

The Grogans: This is a track about our cars and driving them on really hot days. We started out with the music before the lyrics. We were just sitting on the chords and went through a few different variations before we liked the sound and changes. “Summer heat” were the first lyrics that came out and we stopped and said we should write it about our Kingswoods.

The rest of the lyrics came pretty naturally as they were just drawn from memories of driving the old thing through 40-plus degree days. I like how the music complements the vocals and vice versa. They are both pretty drivey and punchy through the verses then quite melodic and drawn out through the chorus.

3. I Cannot Read Your Mind

The Grogans: This track started as an instrumental jam and the lyrics slowly developed over time whilst playing it live. It felt so high-powered and I guess that’s where the line, “I cannot read your mind,” came from – that pure frustration in not being able to understand someone when they aren’t communicating with you in an argument or in general life.

4. Layback

The Grogans: Sometimes the best thing about a weekend is sitting back, chucking on a record and having a few drinks. I can picture the person in this song getting swallowed by their couch with eyes barely open and bottle in hand. We all need to lay back and take it in once in a while.

5. Heads In The Sand

The Grogans: This track has the best of both worlds with its fuzz-heavy, riff-based choruses and its tremolo-rich and open verses. We’d been sitting on the melody for a while before we sat down together and figured out the track as a whole and added a little bridge and some outro vocals. The track is essentially about being fed up with people you don’t necessarily need, who have a negative impact on you and knowing that you’ll be better off without them.

6. Can’t Stand

The Grogans: I went down a little bit more of a personal route with this track lyrically. I sometimes find myself being the person I want to be in my head but when it comes to a situation or conversation, I’m not able to convey the side of myself that I want to show. It also dives into the pressures that can be put on a person’s shoulders purely just for existing. Musically, it feels a lot more mature for us and we really enjoyed trying out new sounds for this one.

7. I Need You

The Grogans: This whole track was based around a time when my partner was away for about six months and we spent a fair bit of time talking on the phone rather than texting. I was on a night out seeing some music in Melbourne and ended up in an alley way fairly intoxicated and waiting for a mate. I ended up chatting to my partner, beer in hand and having a ball. It’s basically a song about missing someone but they are still just right there.

8. Nowhere To Be

The Grogans: Ever had nothing to do but still have endless tasks to achieve? Ever had nowhere to be and yet you’re still late for something? Ever been cut in front of in a line or snaked out in the surf? You couldn’t decide to leave or to stay? ‘Nowhere To Be’ is a track rooted in the frustration of day-to-day nothingness and the associated agitation and mental and physical restlessness.

9. Stay High

The Grogans: This song steps into a bit of a fresh genre for us. I really like how raw it came out. We didn’t try to do anything too fancy. The overall feel comes from the music and vocals as a whole rather than a fancy guitar line or drum fills.

Recording at Big Fridge felt really nice on this one. We asked our good friend Jasper to play some pedal steel guitar and I think it adds a really special sound to the track. Lyrically, this song is about getting back in touch and reconnecting with an old friend after being too busy. It’s also about wanting to make a conscious effort to maintain that friendship.

10. I’m Not Sure

The Grogans: This is a simple track about some common struggles surrounding everyday life that I believe all age groups and all people feel. Uncertainty is okay and in some cases, it leads to great things. You just have to step back and let it happen.

11. Day Dreamed

The Grogans: This was the last song we wrote for the album. We were looking for another track with nothing in particular in mind. After sitting down with the guitars and going through a bunch of ideas, we started playing the chord progression for this and got stuck playing it for ages.

We wanted to do something a bit different and just drag it out and experiment with layers to add on throughout the track. Jasper played some more pedal steel on this and we added some organs and synths to sit in the background.

Writing the lyrics for this was pretty cool. Quin and Gus had a verse each and neither knew what the other had written about. Turns out we wrote about similar things and it fit together really nicely. It’s about being away a lot of the time and missing your loved ones back home.

The Grogans’ new album Find Me A Cloud is out now via Cousin Will Records

Further Reading

Track By Track: Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers on their Debut LP ‘I Love You’

Love Letter to a Record: The Grogans on The Brian Jonestown Massacre’s ‘Revelation’

Teen Jesus & The Jean Teasers Team Up with The Grogans on New Single ‘Salt’

The post Track By Track: The Grogans on Their Favourite Album to Date ‘Find Me A Cloud’ appeared first on Music Feeds.

This month’s Independent Music Exchange (IME) was conceived by Efficient Space label head Michael Kucyk and Sleep D’s Maryos Syawish and Corey Kikos. When they’re not making scene-defining techno and deep house, Syawish and Kikos run the Butter Sessions label, and Syawish works with Alessandra Peach on the equally excellent Research Records.

IME is a two-day indie record label market happening in conjunction with the inaugural The Eighty-Six festival in Melbourne’s inner north. IME will set up at Masaya Reception on Stott St, Thornbury, for two days, bringing together nearly 60 independent and predominantly local labels in a free, all-ages environment.

Independent Music Exchange: Saturday, 28th & Sunday, 29th October

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A post shared by IME (@independent_music_exchange)

Small, grassroots labels such as Music In Exile, Dinosaur City, Altered States Tapes, Cool Death and Spoilsport will be represented alongside more established indies like Domino, Remote Control and Cooking Vinyl Australia.

Efficient Space, whose catalogue includes reissues of Karen Marks and Waak Waak Djungi and contemporary releases by YL Hooi and Wilson Tanner, will be there too, and so will Butter Sessions and Research Records.

Ahead of the inuagural event – which gives local music fans the chance to pick up a wide variety of vinyl, cassettes, zines, test pressings, posters, warehouse finds, signed items and exclusive merch – Music Feeds spoke to Michael Kucyk about what distinguishes an indie label from a major, and how the IME is bringing together a community of music enthusiasts and indie diehards.

Music Feeds: When did you figure out independent labels were something you could trust?

Michael Kucyk: I think since discovering Triple R in high school, which is some twenty-plus years ago. That connected me with a whole constellation of independent music that I was just never aware of.

Then I actually worked for Mushroom Music [Publishing] for eight years, straight out of university – or halfway through uni. So I had a pretty fortunate insight into a company that was independent from all perspectives. Merchandise, publishing, multiple record labels, booking agencies, all done with a pretty independent spirit.

Then I did A&R for Modular, which was quasi-independent. Like, I worked for the owner [of Modular], but it had major label ownership. I think through that experience – no shade on Modular – but by the time I got spat out of that, it was just like, “I don’t really want to be part of anything that has a foot in the major world.”

I was like, this is my lane, and I’ve learned all these things – this is what I want to do now and these are the people I want to be around.

MF: What was the big turnoff about working for a major?

Michael: Being made coldly redundant. And feeling like you were a pawn in a large legal battle. Basically, feeling totally dispensable and of no value whatsoever by people who might as well be bankers.

MF: Efficient Space is a relatively new label – is it ten years?

Michael: Eight years old this year. We work from this 11-bedroom house in Carlton. So, Butter Sessions are downstairs. I share my office with the couple who do Research Records. They did the first records for Mildlife, they do Big Yawn, they do Glass Beams. So, I guess we kind of have this unstructured co-op. I distribute both of those labels and we trade a lot of experiences, manufacturing details, dos and don’ts.

We also do a seasonal garage sale pop-up shop. IME is basically trying to magnify that on a scale that we haven’t seen before, band together a whole bunch of labels that probably don’t get industry support.

There’s the SXSWs and Indie-Cons and BIGSOUNDs, but I still feel like there’s a whole microcosm of labels that never get the call-up for those things. So we’re trying to facilitate an event that’s by us, for us, because god knows we’ve all got a lot of crossover fanbases.

I’m excited. A lot of these labels are one-, two-bit operations, really taking a lot of risk, don’t have a lot of financial backing. So it’s nice to get everyone under one roof and just start talking.

MF: So, in contrast to working at a major label where the focus is on nothing but commerce, is running an indie label – for you – about working with artists you love, releasing good music and building a community?

Michael: Yeah – I did a document where I was just writing all the key artists on each label and it was actually amazing to see how many artists had simultaneous-released on multiple labels. I feel like there’s a certain comradery, there’s a certain level of non-competition that doesn’t exist in the other end of the spectrum.

Major labels will sign an artist for a multiple album deal for an unknown term and they’re solely at the mercy of that label. We’re doing things for the sake of art, for the sake of music. It’s not that restrictive.

Independent Music Exchange 2023

Saturday, 28th & Sunday, 29th October – Masaya Reception, Thornbury VIC

• Albert’s Basement
• Altered States Tapes
• Animals Dancing
• Anti Fade
• Bedroom Suck
• Blossom Rot
• Butter Sessions
• Chapter Music
• Cheersquad
• College Of Knowledge
• Companion
• Cooking Vinyl Australia
• Cool Death
• Dinosaur City
• Domestic La La
• Domino
• Dot Dash
• Efficient Space
• Elations
• Equinox
• Feral Media
• Finders Keepers
• Fresh Hold
• Good Company
• Good Morning Tapes
• Holiday Maker
• Hopestreet
• Hospital Hill
• It
• KGLW [King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard]
• La Sape
• Left Ear
• Lost and Lonesome
• Love Above
• Love Police
• Lulus Sonic Disc Club
• Music In Exile
• N&J Blueberries [HTRK]
• Northside
• ONO
• Our Golden Friend
• Pointer
• Poison City
• Ramble
• Remote Control
• Research
• Rice Is Nice
• Sorcerer
• Southern Exposure
• Spoilsport
• The Roundtable
• Tiny Town
• UNFD
• Vessel
• Wax’o Paradiso
• Wax Museum

The Independent Music Exchange runs from 10am-5pm on Saturday, 28th October as part of The Eighty-Six’s Saturday Saturday program (ticket allocation exhausted) and Sunday, 29th October (no ticket required).

Further Reading

All of the Events Happening as Part of The Eighty-Six’s Super Saturday

Theo Parrish, Unknown T & More Added To Melbourne Fest The Eighty-Six

King Stingray and Genesis Owusu Win Big at 2023 AIR Awards

The post Efficient Space’s Michael Kucyk on the Independent Music Exchange – “We’re Doing Things for the Sake of Music” appeared first on Music Feeds.