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.

Content Warning: The following article discusses sexual assault and rape.

Justin Sane, the long-time vocalist and guitarist in political punk band Anti-Flag, has been sued for allegedly raping a fan, Kristina Sarhadi, in 2010. The allegations against Sane – real name Justin Geever – led to the band’s break-up in July this year. Sarhadi has now taken legal action, filing a lawsuit in New York just prior to the expiry of the state’s Adult Survivors Act, which waived time limits for civil legal claims related to sexual assaults for one year.

In a statement to social media, Sarhadi claimed she is not the only woman who was abused by the Anti-Flag frontman. “Justin Geever used his platform as a celebrated, self-proclaimed ‘punk rockstar’ to groom and lure vulnerable girls into feeling safe in his presence,” Sarhadi said. According to Pitchfork, the lawsuit names Hardwork Distribution Inc., who distributed Anti-Flag’s records, and another unnamed defendant in addition to Sane.

Sarhadi says she’s received “accounts of abuse and assault from at least 60 women”

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A post shared by Kingston Reiki + Holistic Therapy (@kingstonreiki)

Sarhadi continued to emphasise that she is not the only person who was allegedly abused by Geever: “Since I first came forward about my assault this July, I have been contacted by an overwhelming number of women who were also assaulted and irreparably harmed by Justin Geever throughout his 34-year career as a touring musician.”

Sarhadi originally spoke about being assaulted by a singer in a political punk band on an episode of the podcast, Enough, but she did not identify Geever by name. “However, within hours it became clear that I was not his only victim,” she wrote.

Sarhadi continued, “The scores of messages I have received from around the world since then, including accounts of abuse and assault from at least 60 women – most of whom reportedly were children and teens when they encountered Geever, who is now 50 years old – made it impossible from me to stay silent.”

Anti-Flag broke up within days of the podcast episode coming out. “Anti-Flag has disbanded,” the band wrote on its Patreon page. “The Patreon has been switched into a mode where it will no longer charge the monthly fee. I will begin to process refunds to all patrons in the coming weeks. Once all refunds are processed the Patreon page will also be removed.”

The band’s three other members, Pat Thetic, Chris Head and Chris Barker, released a statement about the sudden decision to break up. “A core tenet of the band Anti-Flag is to listen to and believe all survivors of sexual violence and abuse,” they said. “The recent allegations about Justin are in direct contradiction to that tenet. Therefore, we felt the only immediate option was to disband.”

Posting on Instagram, Geever denied all of the accusations. “Recently, there have been claims of sexual assault made against me and I can tell you that these stories are categorically false,” he wrote. “I have never engaged in a sexual relationship that was not consensual, nor have I ever been approached by a woman after a sexual encounter and been told I had in any way acted without her consent or violated her in any way.”

If you need assistance, 1800 RESPECT – the National Sexual Assault, Domestic and Family Violence Counselling Service — can be reached on 1800 737 732.

For help or information regarding mental health, contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Beyond Blue on 1300 224 636.

Further Reading

Axl Rose Is Being Sued for Sexual Assault

Anti-Flag Release Statement on Breakup and Assault Allegation

Kesha Omits Diddy’s Name from ‘TiK ToK’ Lyrics Amid Cassie Abuse Lawsuit

The post Justin Sane, Formerly of Anti-Flag, Sued for Rape 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.

Touring nostalgia fest Fridayz Live is coming to Melbourne, Perth, Adelaide, Brisbane, Sydney and Auckland in November 2023. The lineup features American pop and R&B artist Jason Derulo – who’s currently facing allegations of quid pro quo sexual harassment and aggressive behaviour (which he denies) – as well as Boyz II Men, Destiny’s Child member Kelly Rowland and pop artist JoJo.

There’ll be a DJ set celebrating hip hop’s 50th birthday from Naughty By Nature’s Vinn Rock and DJ Kay Gee. Flo Rida is also on the lineup, alongside R&B group 112, early-00s rapper Baby Bash, Gym Class Heroes’ Travie McCoy and local artist/DJ Havana Brown. Find the set times for each city below.

Boyz II Men – ‘End of the Road’

Melbourne

Friday, 10th November – Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne

Perth

Saturday, 11th November ​– RAC Arena

Adelaide

Sunday, 12th November ​– AEC Arena

Auckland

Thursday, 16th November ​– Spark Arena

Brisbane

Friday, 17th November ​– Brisbane Showgrounds

Sydney

Saturday, 18th November ​– GIANTS Stadium

Tickets on sale now

Further Reading

Fridayz Live Announces 2023 Lineup: Boyz II Men, Jason Derulo, Kelly Rowland + More

Abbie Chatfield Leaves Fridayz Live Tour in Response to Jason Derulo Allegations

Jason Derulo Accused of Aggressive Behaviour, Sexual Harassment

The post Here are the Set Times for Fridayz Live 2023 appeared first on Music Feeds.

Just weeks ago, hip hop festival Rolling Loud announced its first Australian events since 2019. The plan was to bring the festival to Sydney’s Giants Stadium and Melbourne’s Flemington Racecourse in January 2024.

However, the lineup didn’t materialise as scheduled on Wednesday, 25th October, despite tickets going on sale. The organisers have now confirmed the event is being postponed to an unspecified date.

Rolling Loud won’t be coming back to Australia in 2024

“We appreciate the love from all of our fans who are looking forward to Rolling Loud’s return to Australia,” the organisers said in a statement. “We were hyped to bring the full Rolling Loud experience to our Aussie fans. Sadly, due to circumstances beyond our control, we’re unable to give you a show that lives up to the Rolling Loud standard, so we are left with no choice but to postpone the festival to a later date.

“To those of you who have already bought tickets, we appreciate you. All ticket holders will receive an automatic, full refund. If your details have changed, or you have any refund enquiries, please contact your point of purchase.

“Australian fans, we still got you: Rolling Loud will still be hosting a variety of smaller arena shows in early 2024. More info on that coming soon.”

Further Reading

Hip Hop Festival Rolling Loud Adds Final Acts To Inaugural Australian Lineup

DaBaby Removes Apology For Homophobic Comments From Instagram

Fridayz Live Announces 2023 Lineup: Boyz II Men, Jason Derulo, Kelly Rowland + More

The post Hip Hop Festival Rolling Loud Abandons Plans to Return to Australia in 2024 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.

Sydney electronic maven upsidedownhead has returned after a long absence with the new single ‘make it right’ – a track that toes the line between upbeat and melodic dance music and composed, introspective headphone listening. ‘Make it right’ features vocals from Mansionair’s Jack Froggatt, who appears under his Elmar alias.

Upsidedownhead – aka Ross James – previously worked with Froggatt and Mansionair on the 2020 single ‘twice as tough’, which is upsidedownhead’s most successful release to date. ‘Make it right’ is the producer’s first release since 2021’s 2-step foray ‘everybody talk about’.

upsidedownhead – ‘make it right’ ft. Elmar

It’s been close to five years since James released complex, his debut EP as upsidedownhead. The lush EP followed in mid-2021, with guest appearances from Isabella Manfredi, Clea, Fractures and more. Upsidedownhead has also collaborated with the likes of E^ST, Ric Rufio and Vallis Alps’ Parissa Tosif.

There’s more to come from upsidedownhead, who’s newly independent following a stint working with Liberation Records. The artist’s new era is off to an auspicious start, with ‘make it right’ landing a triple j premiere courtesy of Good Nights’ Latifa Tee.

Follow upsidedownhead here and chase down ‘make it right’ here.

Further Reading

triple j’s Like A Version in 2022

Mansionair Release New Live Film and EP, ‘The Sahā Sessions’

Kobie Dee Shares Video for New Single ‘Father’s Eyes’ feat. Stan Walker

The post Sydney Producer upsidedownhead Returns With New Single ‘make it right’ 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.

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.

The Rubens are gathering a bunch of their friends and peers, including Ball Park Music and Grinspoon, and taking them back to their hometown of Camden in the Macarthur region of Greater Sydney’s south-west. The band’s 2024 ValleyWays festival is happening on Saturday, 17th February at Onslow Oval. The festival announcement coincides with the releases of the band’s new single, ‘Good Mood’, and the confirmation of a run of summer headline shows.

The Rubens held the first ValleyWays festival in February 2022. The event was conceived as a way of saying thank you to the town that raised them and celebrating ten years as a band for Sam Margin, Elliott Margin, Izaac Margin, Scott Baldwin and William Zeglis.

The Rubens – ‘Good Mood’

The Rubens will perform at the 2024 ValleyWays festival alongside Grinspoon, Ball Park Music, Ruby Fields, Coterie, Srirachi and a to-be-determined local opener. “After the success of the first year and the sheer volume of support we received from everyone, there’s no way we wouldn’t be doing another edition of ValleyWays,” The Rubens said in a statement.

“Our community in Camden has been one of, if not the biggest supporters of our band since day one, so bringing the festival back to our hometown was a no-brainer. It’s our small way of saying thank you.”

The band’s new single, ‘Good Mood’, is their first official release since ‘Pets and Drugs’, which came out May 2023 via Ivy League Records. They’ll be hitting the road in January 2024 on the ‘Good Mood’ tour, playing headline shows in a range of appropriately summery locations, including the Sunshine Coast, Gold Coast, Yamba, Coffs Harbour, Shoal Bay, Dee Why, Merimbula, Lorne, Torquay and more. Find all the dates below.

ValleyWays 2024

Saturday, 17th February – Onslow Oval, Camden NSW

• The Rubens
• Grinspoon
• Ball Park Music
• Ruby Fields
• Coterie
• Srirachi
• + local opener TBA

Tickets on sale via the event website

The Rubens 2024 Headline Tour

• Thursday 4th January – Kings Beach Tavern, Sunshine Coast, QLD
• Friday 5th January – Miami Marketta, Gold Coast, QLD
• Saturday 6th January – Yamba Bowls Beach, Yamba, NSW
• Sunday 7th January – Hoey Moey, Coffs Harbour, NSW
• Wednesday 10th January – Shoal Bay Country Club, Shoal Bay, NSW
• Thursday 11th January – Drifters Wharf, Gosford, NSW
• Friday 12th January – Dee Why RSL, Dee Why, NSW
• Wednesday 17th January – Shoalhaven Heads Bowling & Recreation Club, Shoalhaven Heads, NSW
• Thursday 18th January – Moruya Waterfront Hotel Motel, Moruya, NSW
• Friday 19th January Club – Sapphire Merimbula, Merimbula, NSW
• Thursday 25th January – Waterwheel Beach Tavern, Lake Tyers Beach, VIC
• Saturday 27th January – Lorne Hotel, Lorne, VIC
• Sunday 28th January – Torquay Hotel, Torquay, VIC

Tickets on sale via The Rubens

Further Reading

Lineup Announced for Mushroom 50 Live: Hunters & Collectors, Christine Anu, DMA’S + More

triple j’s Like A Version in 2016

The post The Rubens Announce the Return of Hometown Festival ValleyWays, Confirm Summer Tour Dates appeared first on Music Feeds.

Indigenous hip hop is nothing new, and nor does the term constitute a cohesive and culturally predetermined genre of music. But in the first few years of the 2020s, First Nations hip hop artists have been among the most significant voices shaping contemporary Australian pop culture.

Spotify Wrapped has given rise to a couple of new traditions in recent years. One involves the rife posting of listeners’ top played songs and artists on social media, and the other involves artists re-sharing the various lists they’re tagged in.

When Melbourne-based rapper and proud Butchulla man, Birdz, engaged in the latter tradition in December 2021, there was one re-post that stood out. Along with Birdz, this fan’s top played artists were all either Indigenous or African Australian hip hop performers, which led Spotify to deem their favourite genre “Australian hip hop”.

But this fan was displeased with the summary, and not because they disputed the artists’ claim to Australian nationality. Rather, while the history of Australian-made hip hop has been driven by diverse identities and political provocation, the genre tag “Aussie hip hop” still conjures images of white guys in cargo shorts spitting clunky double entendres and boasting of their capacious appetite for ice-cold lager.

By contrast, a lot of the most powerful, thought-provoking and generally excellent hip hop to ever come out of Australia is being made, right now, by artists like Birdz and his First Nations comrades, JK-47, Briggs, Barkaa, DRMNGNOW, Tasman Keith, Lady Lash and Kobie Dee.

Baker Boy – ‘Survive’ ft. Uncle Jack Charles

The Sydney-born pop/hip hop artist The Kid LAROI – whose stage name is a nod to his maternal Kamilaroi heritage – topped the US Billboard Hot 100 for four consecutive weeks in 2021. Gela, the long-awaited debut album from Baker Boy, fuses the artist’s native Yolŋu Matha with English, building on the immense potential of his first two singles, ‘Cloud 9’ and ‘Marryuna’, which made the triple j Hottest 100 in 2018.

Yorta Yorta MC Briggs is a veteran of politically-minded First Nations hip hop. Briggs’ single ‘Shadows’, released in October 2021, is one of the most explicit condemnations of the colonial project from an artist who’s never hidden his disdain for the racist establishment.

“They don’t wanna speak about the first battles,” raps Briggs, referring to white Australia’s continued failure to adequately acknowledge Australia’s Blak history. “Who the fuck are you to civilise?” he asks, eyeing off the perpetrators of brutal and sustained discrimination.

The song’s hook is performed by Troy Cassar-Daley, a Bundjalung and Gumbaynggirr man who’s one of Australia’s great country musicians. Briggs’ collab with a country artist is not a sign he’s softening up. In fact, Cassar-Daley delivers some of the song’s most painful lyrics: “Where my people were killed, I see shadows on the hill,” he sings.

The dynamism of ‘Shadows’ is nothing new for Briggs – he’s previously collaborated with everyone from Dr G. Yunupingu to Paul Kelly and Tim Minchin. In fact, Briggs’ resistance to commercial pigeonholing is an attribute shared by many of his contemporaries.

Briggs – ‘Shadows’ ft. Troy Cassar-Daley

Briggs runs the label Bad Apples Music, the roster of which includes Indigenous hip hop artists A.B. Original, Barkaa, Birdz, Kobie Dee and Nooky. Birdz released his second LP, Legacy, in November 2021, led by the politically salient singles ‘Bagi-la-m Bargan’ (feat. Fred Leone) and ‘Fly’ (feat. Ngaiire).

The album’s catchiest song, ‘Aussie Aussie’, is a merciless riposte to the concept of “Aussie” pride. “We just want our fucking land back,” goes the chorus. “We still living, they can’t stand that.” In a recent Twitter thread, Birdz described ‘Aussie Aussie’ as a comment on “Blak deaths in custody, police brutality, forced child removal” and the general erasure of “Blak voices.”

Barkaa, a Malyangapa Barkindji woman, is one of the country’s most direct and undeniable new voices. Her debut EP, Blak Matriarchy, is as unflinching as anything released by her First Nations peers and predecessors. Meanwhile, Barkaa’s audacious, teeth-baring flow is an effective instrument of protest in itself.

The EP’s standout track, ‘Bow Down’, opens with the disclaimer, “I ain’t come to beat around about the dispossession.” Later, Barkaa sheds light on the practices of the white dispossessors: “They used to beat ’em and then rape ’em and they took they kids.”

The song is suffused with respect for Barkaa’s matriarchal Elders, while also voicing solidarity with her First Nations sisters. “Salute to all my tiddas who is handling biz,” Barkaa raps. “We ain’t backing down to no patriarchal shit.”

Barkaa – ‘Blak Matriarchy’

The revolutionary potential of First Nations hip hop is on display in each of these releases from Barkaa, Birdz, Briggs and Baker Boy. The same applies to Kobie Dee’s EP, Gratitude Over Pity, and JK-47’s debut album, Made For This, which won Album of the Year at the National Indigenous Music Awards 2021.

After winning Best Hip Hop Act at the 2021 Music Victoria Awards, Yorta Yorta man DRMNGNOW wrote at length about hip hop’s intrinsic qualities.

“I dedicate this [award] to hip hop for being a vessel to inspire, to share story,” he wrote. “From a long way back, when me and my brothers and cousins watched rage back in the day here in [Shepparton] … to when I found NWA, Public Enemy, A Tribe Called Quest, then to Wu-Tang Clan listening sessions … that inspired me to write my first rhymes at age 13.”

He signed off by saying, “To even create songs is a gift.” Long may the gift of Indigenous hip hop continue to not just entertain, but also to promote community empowerment, anti-racism, Indigenous rights and wealth re-distribution.

Further Reading

A.B. Original Release ‘Yes’ Video: “The Alternative to Voting Yes Just Reinforces Racism”

Barkaa Withdraws From Sydney Festival Over Israeli Embassy Funding Partnership

Listen To Briggs’ New Track ‘Shadows’ With Troy Cassar-Daley

The post The Indigenous Hip Hop Takeover: Barkaa, Kobie Dee, Briggs, JK-47 + More appeared first on Music Feeds.

Animal Collective waited six years between the release of their tenth album, Painting With, and their eleventh, last year’s Time Skiffs. The latter album was recorded remotely while the band’s four members – Dave Portner (Avey Tare), Noah Lennox (Panda Bear), Josh Dibb (Deakin) and Brian Weitz (Geologist) – waited out the Covid pandemic in various cities across North America and Europe.

The material on Time Skiffs was written and arranged during a three-and-a-half-week session in late 2019. The band members had convened in rural Tennessee, where they rediscovered the joys of playing live together again. The sessions were so fruitful, in fact, that post-Time Skiffs, Animal Collective had enough remaining material to throw together their twelfth studio album.

That album, titled Isn’t It Now?, is out now via Domino. Created alongside D’Angelo engineer Russell Elevado, Isn’t It Now? features some of Animal Collective’s most spontaneous and lively recordings in more than a decade. To coincide with its release, Music Feeds caught up with keys player and guitarist Deakin, the only Animal Collective member who currently resides in the band’s hometown of Baltimore.

Animal Collective – ‘Gem & I’

Music Feeds: You haven’t lived in Baltimore the whole time, have you?

Deakin: No. I moved away from Baltimore in ’97, went to Boston for a few years. Noah and I both went to Boston. We were one year ahead in school from Dave and Brian, but we took a year off after high school and stayed in Baltimore and then went to different schools in the Boston area for a year and a half, two years, and then we both dropped out the same semester and moved to New York.

I lived in New York from 2000 to 2010 basically and then moved back to Baltimore in 2011 and I’ve mostly been here since then. I lived in New Orleans for a brief moment and I loved it a lot, but I didn’t stay there.

MF: Is your family in Baltimore?

Deakin: Yeah, my mother lives in Baltimore. Brian and I are the only ones that still have our family rooted in Baltimore. Noah’s mum doesn’t live here anymore, and Dave’s parents left the Baltimore area a number of years ago.

There’s a lot of things about [Baltimore] I love from the past and from the current reality, but it is strange to be living in a place where I’m at times on the same block that I was on when I was three years old.

MF: Were you in Baltimore all through the Covid lockdowns?

Deakin: Yeah. We had written and arranged pretty much everything that ended up on Time Skiffs and Isn’t It Now? by January 2020 and we had gotten together to jam one last time and were making plans to record with Russell [Elevado] that spring. We were looking at studios and trying to book time for April, May, or even early June of 2020.

And then, with Covid, I didn’t leave Baltimore and we didn’t see each other in the flesh for 18 months. We got together in August of 2021 in Nashville for a month, and in the meantime we had made the Bridge to Quiet EP remotely, we made Time Skiffs remotely, had worked on a soundtrack remotely, and then got together August of 2021.

MF: And that was the first time you’d left Baltimore since pre-Covid?

Deakin: I think the first time I left Baltimore was the spring of 2021. Dave and his sister and a couple of other people were going backpacking down in Tennessee. I had been working as a carpenter for most of the pandemic along with working on the record. The winter had been really tough for me because we had finished working on Time Skiffs – it was done –so from January to March, or even April, of 2021, I was just in the trenches.

I enjoy carpentry. I care about it a lot. But it was an especially brutal job that just had me very focused on nothing but waking up at 5am every day and driving in the cold to get to a job site.

And then Dave was like, “Hey man, we’re actually going backpacking this weekend,” and my whole being lit up. I was like, “Oh my god,” and I just threw my tent in the truck and drove nine hours the same day to meet them. Everything started to feel like it was finally shifting.

MF: Did that experience teach you that you wouldn’t want to do carpentry as your full-time gig?

Deakin: I’m in a constant state of schizophrenia about it. I love it quite a bit. What I always want to have my life be is a really good balance. I would rather an existence where it was almost simultaneously, like working on a piece of furniture or someone’s kitchen while I’m also going to the studio in the evenings or something.

It’s very hard to find that balance and I oftentimes end up doing nothing but music for a year and then having to do a lot of carpentry for six months or something. I like it, but when I’m not doing any carpentry, I miss it and when I’m not doing any music I start to feel really nutty.

MF: Two albums in two years is a great gift to Animal Collective fans, and also a bit unexpected. Was it just by chance that you ended up with two records, or was it the plan from the outset?

Deakin: It was totally chance. For the sessions where most of it came together – which was this month we spent in Leiper’s Fork outside of Nashville in 2019 – I showed up with two or three songs, Noah had probably at least a dozen songs in a demo folder and Dave had a bunch too.

I think we were just really psyched to play together again. That was the first time all four of us were jamming in that way since Centipede Hz, so it was a pretty long break for me. I think for everybody, it had been a minute since we had been working in that way.

MF: What was the set-up in the jam space?

Deakin: Noah showed up having written melodies with chord structures and he wanted to just play drums and sing. He didn’t want to be responsible for any actual musical element other than the idea and the structure. And Dave similarly, except all he was doing was playing bass, and I really committed to not playing guitars and just focusing on keyboard work.

And I think that, combined with what Brian does, it just felt much easier to be like, “What about this song?” and people would learn it really quickly and jam on it and the sounds would start to make themselves really clear. Things just fell together really naturally.

Animal Collective – ‘Defeat’

Further Reading

Animal Collective Release 22-Minute Track, ‘Defeat’

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

Lonnie Holley Urges Us to Go Deeper – “We Should Appreciate the Lives We Have and Not Treat Those Lives So Foolishly”

The post Animal Collective on ‘Isn’t It Now?’, Their Second Album in Two Years – “We Were Just Really Psyched to Play Together Again” appeared first on Music Feeds.

Lonnie Holley played his first Australian shows in 2019, appearing at the Melbourne International Jazz Festival, Sydney’s Vivid LIVE and Dark Mofo in Hobart. Holley’s profile was rapidly growing following the 2018 release of his Jagjaguwar debut, MITH – an album that wasn’t just critically acclaimed but resonated with listeners on a deeper level. In the words of Pitchfork‘s Allison Hussey, MITH encouraged listeners to “look beyond pervasive doom and gloom and summon the spirit needed for another day.”

Lonnie Holley – ‘Oh Me Oh My’

Holley is now 73 years old and touring the planet in support of MITH‘s successor, Oh Me Oh My. The Atlanta-based, Alabama musician spent every moment of his time onstage at the Art Gallery of New South Wales’ inaugural Volume festival summoning hope for another day, a better day.

Holley is touring the country with the Afrofuturist jazz ensemble Mourning [A] BLKstar, whose bio describes them as a “gender, genre non-conforming amalgam of Black culture”. The performances have been largely improvised, with Holley finding inspiration in his surroundings in the hours leading up to the show.

The sounds and words that poured out of Holley onstage in Melbourne and Sydney tended to be as richly emotive and musically elemental as anything on the artist’s acclaimed recordings. In between songs, Holley was every bit the raconteur, recalling details of his destitute upbringing in Jim Crow-era Alabama and the journey that’s allowed him to feel hope and optimism for the future.

Holley will perform at Wanderer festival in the coastal NSW town of Pambula Beach this Saturday, 30th September. Ahead of his Australian send-off, Music Feeds spoke to Holley about going deeper, spreading hope, and continuing to educate oneself.

Music Feeds: Do you enjoy all of the travelling that comes with the job? Did the idea of coming back to Australia excite you?

Lonnie Holley: Yeah, it’s so great to be able to come back and continue to spread hope for a better existence on the planet.

MF: You’ve been touring a lot since Oh Me Oh My came out. When you witness the reactions of the audiences at your shows, do you feel like you’re spreading hope and understanding?

Lonnie: Yes. A lot of people come to the merch and say how grateful they are to be touched by my thoughtsmithing. I call it thoughtsmithing, but actually it’s seeing deeper or ahead of a lot of what our current situations are to help people be aware. I see it as a motivation tool and also a preparating tool – cos we as a people, we have to be preparated.

For a situation that is now occurring, we need to not only be alert but be ready when they occur so we can handle them. At any time – at any time – we have to be ready to act and get ourselves together and put our situation back together just for living’s sake.

MF: Do you ever struggle to find hope yourself, to remain hopeful for the future?

Lonnie: Well, being in the ocean of thought or being in the ocean of current events, you are seeing why we should be alert and why we should be ready, and how we should appreciate the lives that we have as individuals and not treat those lives so foolishly.

MF: You mentioned “seeing deeper”, and you sing about going “a little deeper” in the lyrics of ‘Oh Me Oh My’. Can you explain what you mean by going deeper – deeper into what, in what way?

Lonnie: We, as the humanity that is moving forward with the universal occurrence, with the current of universal activity, we must be able to make ourselves aware, and we have a better chance now to become aware by what we use as our tools to study with. And we have those tools and they are called monitors and they are called computers. We can buy a cellphone now that gives us the capability to pretty well study the whole universe, not only the planet.

MF: Are you trying to continually educate yourself?

Lonnie: I think all of us are. I think all of us should learn to appreciate being these people. It’s almost like we are looking for any other bodies out in the universe to learn from. We should learn from ourselves and our own experiences and what we have grown to learn, and think about all of that learning that is left behind as evidence of learning by our ancestors, and respect it.

Then we could easily plant a seed and appreciate the growth of the seed and the time that it takes to grow. We are the ones that have a better way of measuring anything now and then let it be written to help the newcomers of the humanity.

The babies is what I’m talking about – they’re going to be technically aware because of digitalisation. They’re going to have a better opportunity to become global communicators.

MF: Lonnie, your life has been really difficult. You were born in Alabama during a horrible, violent era of American history. I’m sure you still live with some of the pain from your childhood. Did you have to learn how to appreciate the life you have?

Lonnie: It was something that I had to learn and respect. I had to really understand, and I’m still understanding, that I don’t know as much as I wish that I could know. But when we all get together and everybody say what they know and put all of what we know together, we can start spreading a situation of what they call a mass amount of matter.

Now we are challenged with the digital and with the growth of the digital, and if we’re coming online or if we are using the online as a tool, let’s not do it unwisely. Let’s use it to help others.

Lonnie Holley – ‘I Am a Part of the Wonder’

MF: Are there many parallels between your artistic practice and the music you record and perform?

Lonnie: I’m working with what they call the trash, garbage and the debris, all the way down to the particle-ations of it, to be evidented as my visual art. But my music allows me to sing about that. That’s all – the music just allows me to get it on a radio or on a computer or on a digital program that people just can pick up on it a lot quicker.

MF: Your live shows are more immediate than both your recordings and your visual art – do you agree?

Lonnie: I think the live show that I’m doing with music is a lot quicker for peoples to access because there is more ways to going live. Even after you do go on live, you still have a spreading situation of that liveness by somebody being there in that crowd. It may be a thousand people, but a few hundred of those people is going to pull out their cellphones and they’re going to record you and they’re going to share that online, via Instagram or whether it be some other form.

Lonnie Holley 2023 Australian Tour

• Saturday, 23rd September – Max Watt’s, Melbourne VIC
• Tuesday, 26th September – Volume @ AGNSW, Sydney NSW
• Saturday, 30th September – Wanderer, Pambula Beach NSW
• Monday, 2nd October – Thumbs Up for Mother Universe @ The Wheeler Centre, Melbourne VIC

Tickets to Wanderer available here and Thumbs Up for Mother Universe here

Further Reading

Set Times Announced for Wanderer Festival 2023

Solange Locked In To Headline Volume, a New Festival at the Art Gallery of NSW

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

The post Lonnie Holley Urges Us to Go Deeper – “We Should Appreciate the Lives We Have and Not Treat Those Lives So Foolishly” appeared first on Music Feeds.

The lineup is here for Let Them Eat Cake 2024. The Melbourne/Naarm dance music festival will again take place on the grounds of the Werribee Mansion on New Year’s Day. The lineup is loaded with local and international dance music, including German techno DJ Ben Klock and Austrian producer salute.

Let Them Eat Cake will welcome UK acts ABSOLUTE., LF System, Mella Dee and Irish-born, UK-based DJ and producer Saoirse. Barry Can’t Swim and BICEP will both be performing DJ sets, while the Australian contingent includes C.FRIM, Caitlin Medcalf, Yarra, S4FD and Valerie. More details below.

salute – ‘Wait For It’

The other Australian acts on Let Them Eat Cake’s 2024 lineup are AK Sports, Bella Claxton, Club Angel, DAWS, Gumm, Laura King, Lisa May, North Barton, Ollie Lishman, Oots, Rob Anthony, Sam Alfred and SWIM. See the full lineup below.

You can register for pre-sale tickets here, with the tickets going on sale at 12pm on Tuesday, 19th September. General tickets go on sale at 12pm on Wednesday, 20th September

Let Them Eat Cake celebrated its tenth anniversary in 2023, presenting a lineup featuring DJ Koze, Bonobo, Moxie, Shanti Celeste, Skin on Skin and loads more.

Let Them Eat Cake 2024

• ABSOLUTE.
• AK Sports
• Barry Can’t Swim (DJ)
• Bella Claxton
• Ben Klock
• BICEP (DJ)
• C.FRIM
• Caitlin Medcalf
• Club Angel
• DAWS
• Gumm
• Laura King
• Lisa May
• LF SYSTEM
• Mella Dee
• North Barton
• OLLIE LISHMAN
• Oots
• Rob Anthony
• S4FD + Valerie (Club Saffron)
• salute
• Sam Alfred
• Saoirse
• SWIM
• Yarra
• Yung Singh

Date & Venue

• Monday, 1st January – Werribee Mansion Grounds, Melbourne VIC

Tickets on sale Wednesday, 20th September

Further Reading

Strawberry Fields Announces 2023 Festival Lineup

Boiler Room Announces Sydney/Eora Event: DJ Seinfeld, Soju Gang + More

New Tassie Festival HAYDAYS Announces 2023 Lineup: Foals, SBTRKT, Genesis Owusu + More

The post Lineup Announced for Let Them Eat Cake 2024: BICEP, salute, Yung Singh, C.FRIM + More appeared first on Music Feeds.