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Bobbysix.com had a couple of roving reporters at The Great Escape Festival in Brighton last weekend. Here's their review:
The Great Escape this year was fortunate to be gifted with some unexpectedly decent weather and this surely made everyone’s weekend a great deal more enjoyable, especially as, from the look of it, many people spent a lot of their time queuing. For any of the hyped bands at the festival this year, like Mystery Jets, Django Django, The Black Belles and Grimes, there was almost no chance of getting near the venue without being there enormously early and most people were stuck outside with a “one in, one out” door policy.
This was probably not the main experience for everyone as there was so much on offer and the best part of the festival was the opportunity to meander around Brighton’s bustling and sunny (this weekend) streets, browsing the many venues and stumbling across new acts. My favourite example was wandering into a half-empty Green Door Store on a whim to find IO Echo starting their set. I had never heard of them before yet I’m really excited by their music now. They have a new-wave influence with an electronic twist and the two guitarists have a loud, almost metal style beefing up the sound. The enigmatic singer (below) reminded me a lot of Siouxsie Sioux crossed with Florence Welch (in a good way) and her graceful movement was complemented by some cool Geisha projections behind them (briefly blocked by my head).
The Great Escape is an uplifting experience, especially for slightly jaded people like me who are concerned with the future (and present) of music. Simon Cowell’s slow assassination of the medium and the fear of illegal downloads seemed to be absent in Brighton this weekend, with hundreds of young and promising bands playing - and loving - music. You could see thirty bands and still feel like you had barely scratched the surface of what was on offer. It’s even more difficult to find your way to gigs you have planned to go to as you are more than likely to get distracted by something happening on the way, like Saturday night when we were sidetracked on the way to Michachu and The Shapes by a Rockabilly gathering at the Dorset.
We just managed to make to Micachu and The Shapes, who had packed The Haunt out, but luckily there was no queue outside and we saw one of the best sets of the weekend. There is always something so impressive about their almost DIY approach, with obscure percussion instruments, glitchy beats and rhythms and odd melodies that somehow all come together to make something far more approachable and enjoyable than my description would have you believe. It has also been a long time since I last saw them live and they have definitely matured as a band. They sounded amazing, playing newer material with more ambient and discordant moments suggesting the new album, expected at the end of July, is something to look forward to.
The Great Escape was far more civilised than spending four days in a field and offers more chance of escaping the rain, not to mention that bands always sound better indoors than at a festival where a lot of the sound escapes in the air. So be sure to check out next year's event and find some new bands and inspiration.
There is a glint in Hero Fisher's eye as she sips red wine in a Sydney bar. Blonde hair tumbles onto her shoulders and a cheeky smile exudes an instantly beguiling impishness and engaging charisma. It is little wonder she is feeling particularly ebullient today as, a couple of nights previously, she had wowed the same room with the launch of her debut EP; her solo set of live songs receiving a rapturous reception. It's not just the Sydney public that are paying attention either. Last November, Andrew Wyatt invited her to record one of her songs, Break My Heart And Mend It, in Prague with an orchestra he was working with to record his own solo album. Soon, she would head to the UK to perform at the Royal Opera House alongside the likes of Boy George, Jonathan Pierce and Alison Mosshart in a dance production written by Wyatt and Mark Ronson and orchestrated by Rufus Wainwright. "I am so excited about the show," she exclaims. "It's such an amazing mix of worlds, and I feel so lucky to be involved." With her star clearly ascending at pace, it's safe to say that you'll be hearing a lot more from this Sydneysider in 2012.
A perfect English accent suggests that she was not born-and-bred in Australia, yet it also belies her French upbringing. “I ended up in Australia about two years ago because I needed to get away from Paris, which is where I grew up for most of my life. I have got Australian parents and I guess I initially just wanted to see what they had run away from.”
And so she ended up in the Harbour City, where she instantly fell in with a creative bunch of like-minded musicians, such as Bobbysix favourites, The Preachers. Friendships were formed. Music was made.
While Hero (which is her real name, incidentally) was happy to nestle in the bosom of Sydney's musical family, initially she found working with others to be a strange experience. “I'd been playing solo all my life, so then I had huge fear of collaborating with anyone and just this fear of having to look someone in the eyes and say, 'This is the reality of the song. It's not that good but we can work it out,' rather than 'Hello everybody, this is me in my perfect state,' which never happens. Having a producer was new to me as well. That was full-on. But it was great and a really good learning experience and I'm so glad that I did it.”
The eventual result of such collaborating is a stunning debut EP. “At this point, what I like about songwriting is that I don't feel convinced about anything,” she says of her creative processes. “I'm really enjoying it. I like that I'll come up with some brilliant idea and think 'This is genius,' and then a week later I'll be like, 'No. It's shit.' The songs are at a point where the subject is about letting things flow past you rather than being up against them, being aware that you'll always change your mind and that it's fine to do so.”
Her folk musings are born from a love of some of the all-time greats. As talk turns to her influences, one name continues to crop up. “Bob Dylan is my number one hero. He's my god. He has influenced me so much and I just love how naughty he is. He is a totally mystery. It's impossible to understand the man. I also love Billie Holiday. She's one of my favourite singers and I love how she sings everything right after the beat. There are loads of others... Neil Young, Jeff Buckley, Joni Mitchell.” Mitchell is certainly a good reference point, as would be Laura Marling. Wise yet yearningly poetic lyrics over acoustic guitars and flourishes of strings make for an achingly beautiful listen and one which you would be foolish not to embrace.
You can catch Hero at the Royal Opera House throughout April. For ticket information, and to purchase her wonderful EP, head to http://www.herofisher.com/.
We were lucky enough to be present at the preview of Analogue Brighton's photo exhibition the other day, where we were beguiled by work from a talented group of like-minded enthusiasts of analogue photography, all of whom are still using vintage and lomography cameras.
Analogue (organised by Collate Presents - who are a curatorial team based in Brighton) features the talents of Tom Welland Lomokev Adam Bronkhorst 25ThC (of Bobbysix fame!) and Captainbonobo and brings together many images - largely of Brighton - in a variety of ingenious and interesting ways. Cross processing slide film, multiple exposures and film swaps are some of the techniques which present iconic shots of the grand old city through different eyes. What is especially refreshing about the exhibition, in an age when everyone thinks they are a photographer and can take a shot 100 times in order to get it right, is the sheer inventiveness of the photographers and the laborious lengths to which they go to create an out-of-the-ordinary image. And, of course, without the immediacy of digital technology, sometimes they have to wait weeks just to see if their efforts have been fruitful.
The exhibition is definitely worth your time and runs from now until the 27th April 12pm-5pm. You can find Analogue at Artist Residence Gallery, 33 Regency Square, Brighton, East Sussex, BN1 2GG
Here's a couple of snaps from the launch, attended by Bobbysix's Alice, Bobby and, of course, 25ThC (below):
As well as being a palindrome, E Volo Love is the latest long-player from Domino's first ever French signing. The album's eleven songs were created by French born-and-raised (but UK-based) songwriter François Marry while he cycled and wandered the French countryside. They were then laid down in a church in Saintes, the town in south-west France from which he hails.
The record references a range of influences, all the way from Aphex Twin to the African and Middle Eastern sounds that start and end the album with Les Plus Beaux and Do You Want To Dance. The French lyrics and tasty Afrobeat lilt of the former kick proceedings off with a dreamy vibe that continues throughout. Elsewhere, Edge of Town belies its winter imagery (“Sitting by the fire/Drinking alcohol”) with perky-yet-soft, summery electronica and delightful harmonising. Muddy Heart takes the album in a guitar-led, European indie/folk direction. An interesting tale of Marry literally burying his heart until he is reunited with his lover, the song sounds remarkably like something Shout Out Louds would come up with in one of their more pensive moments. Changing direction again, Cherchant Des Ponts offers classic French chanson. With female vocals over delicate percussion and strings, it is reminiscent of Carla Bruni and is really rather lovely in its elegance.
E Volo Love is not an album that demands your attention by slapping you around the face, rather it gently woos you with its unfussy yet inventive tunes and its whimsy. While the record offers lyrics in both French and English, the language of a romance that François & The Atlas Mountains bring is universally evident.
Review by Bobby Townsend. It first appeared in Sydney's Drum Media.
Bobbysix's newest contributor, Victoria Gottschalk, makes her debut by interviewing Tiger Lilly:
Meet Tiger Lilly, the chick who has been gracing my speakers with her Alanis Morissette-cum-Jewel like vocal tones for the past couple of months.
As feisty as Morissette (although not so much “would she go down on you in a theatre?” and more “you live, you learn”) and with lyrics as hauntingly beautiful as Tori Amos, Tiger Lilly combines everything us music fans love about the women dominating the music industry these days.
Grab a mixing bowl, throw in a tablespoon of “hell hath no fury like a woman scorned”, a dash of pop princess, a handful of individuality, a big helping of ambition & kindness and a huge sprinkling of talent and you’ve pretty much got the perfect recipe for Tiger Lilly, the lady I spent some time getting to know.
"Let me paint a picture, show you who I am today. Let me make it clear, I've got no regrets or confusion cause I am who I am today and I am what I want to be."
“I’ve been writing music for years – it’s my therapy. I was bullied at school and the only way I could cope was by writing. I know that sounds cliché, but it was the only thing that helped. Eventually, my writing just turned into lyrics and it all suddenly began to make sense,” explains Tiger Lilly, when I ask her what inspired her to approach the music industry. A simple answer, an honest answer in fact and an answer that makes me believe music is instilled in Tiger Lilly. “When I was 26, I read a book called The Secret by Rhonda Byrne. It’s all about the laws of attraction and that’s what encouraged me to turn my coping mechanism into a career.”
Her album, Reflections, was released in 2009 and, having just released a video to her song Promises, it is obvious music is a huge passion of Tiger Lilly’s. Not only being a means to cope for her, music has always inspired and captured Tiger Lilly’s attention. “When I was younger, Perfect by Alanis Morissette completely summed up how I felt about life. Now I’m much more positive and would say that I’ve used past experiences to help others and my own song New Life sums up my journey, so to speak.”
With an album, an EP and two singles all available on iTunes, three music videos under her belt and an upcoming album due for release in March 2012, it’s hard to imagine this rock chick being as driven about anything else, career wise. But with television shows like The X Factor and Britain’s Got Talent on the scene, I questioned Tiger Lilly as to whether she would ever consider taking part in a show of the same format. It must be hard being an independent artist especially in this day and age of ‘internet superstars’ (think Justin Beiber) and reality TV shows, like the ones mentioned above, that have been accused of ruining the industry. “I respect everybody who takes part in those kind of shows, but it’s not for me. I love watching them, regardless of what anybody says there’s no denying that they’re entertaining.” What about those artists that are a bit like Marmite, you either love them or hate them? “In all honesty, I think everyone has their own place and someone’s lark is another man’s crow so I do have a lot of respect for all artists. It’s hard to make it in this industry and if you make it, than good for you.”
Along with Tiger’s influences (Alanis Morissette, P!nk, Jewel etc), she’s made it pretty clear that her ideal collaboration would be with either Ed Sheeran, Jessie J or Kal Lavelle. “I love every single song on Jewel’s Spirit album and Blower’s Daughter by Damien Rice is one of my favourite songs.”
“You have to be ready to step on board an emotional rollercoaster and you also have to be prepared to hear the word no,” says Tiger Lilly on the negatives of the music industry. Her advice to young people wanting to step on board the music scene train is to “keep going and keep loving it.”
And there you have it: simple, yet powerful, instructions from one of the UK’s hottest independent artists.
Surely with so much under her belt already, there can’t be much more for Tiger Lilly to do? “In three years time, I would like to have released at least 3 albums, received a few prestigious awards and formulated a plan that allows me to tour the world with my band and schmooze as best as I possibly can.”
You heard it here first, ladies and gentlemen, so I advise you to keep your eyes and ears peeled for Tiger Lilly in the future. Just like the greats that have strutted their stuff and sung about heartbreak in a fashionable manner, she is definitely not one to be missed.
UPDATE: Bidding has now closed on the Gentleman's box.
Certain members of Bobbysix.com have shared a stage and a tourbus with English singer/songwriter, David Ford, from time to time. The man is family to us. However, even were he not, we still firmly believe him to be one of the best live performers of his generation.
If you are a fan of the Ford, then you will certainly be interested in The Gentleman's Box. Essentially, it is an all-encompassing collection of David Ford products, releases and
memorabilia from 2004 until, well, right now. From the original hat and suit, through Ford’s notebooks and promo & demo versions of recordings and
albums, the ‘001’ copy of the Let The Hard Times Roll special edition
album, to the originals of Ford’s album art work ideas, album ‘mastering
– red book’ CDs and a copy of the original, pre I Sincerely
Apologise, home demos CDr, it's all in one fuck-off great big suitcase. If it’s not in there then it no longer exists, or maybe never did.
The Gentleman’s Box is currently being auctioned here and you can bid for this until 7.30pm (UK time) on 30th November 2011. If the winning bidder is UK-based, Ford will personally deliver it and might even take you for a beer as well. Depending on the winning bid, that offer may even extend to Mainland Europe and North America. You can bid here now.
Produced by Paul Epworth, Ceremonials follows Florence Welch's double-platinum debut, Lungs, and was recorded with her full band over five weeks in the English summer at Abbey Road's legendary Studio 3.
The most striking thing about Ceremonials is that, in feeling like a natural progression from the eclectic first long-player, it is also clearly more cohesive and is massive in its ambition. After opener, Only If For A Night, combines harps, big beats and layered synths with her deliciously gothic lyrics, second song, Shake It Out – which has been getting heavy radio-play – sees Welch let loose her epic vocal. The classic Florence & The Machine quiet verse/abso-bloody-lutely massive chorus dynamic is something that, just like on Lungs, is evident throughout Ceremonials. Indeed, the gospel of Lover to Lover demonstrates Welch's trademark howl at its most lung-busting and is perhaps the best example of why the singer has described this album as her “incorrigible maximalism.”
This is a huge-sounding record.
Even when things are moderately pared back, it is only a matter of time before they build into something much bigger. The piano-led opening of Never Let Me Go, for example, soon makes way for an unabashed power-ballad and is perhaps the song that is most reminiscent of her first album. Meanwhile, No Light, No Light sees Florence and her machine throw everything, including some In The Air Tonight-style drums, at the listener.
Taking the best elements of her debut and striding forward, this is a very strong sophomore record indeed. The expansive art-pop of Ceremonials exudes impressive confidence from a woman on top of her game, while retaining enough of a dark edge to keep it interesting.
Review by Bobby Townsend. It first appeared in Sydney's Drum Media.
“There have been so many bizarre moments,” flame-haired songstress Florence Welch laughs as she recalls the whirlwind that has been the last couple of years of her life. To illustrate this, she recounts her appearance at this year's Met Ball in New York. “Coming out of the Temple of Dendur with bleached eyebrows dressed as David Bowie, doing some sort of strange jig with Paul McCartney and then spinning around next to Madonna was one of those moments where it was like, 'My life has become irrevocably weird and I doubt it will ever get back to normal.'”
Indeed, from winning the Critics' Choice Award at the 2009 Brits before she had released an album, to her debut record Lungs receiving worldwide acclaim and selling by the bucket-load, to recently having been cited as an influence by none other than Beyonce, it's fair to say that things have been pretty surreal for Florence Welch since she burst onto the scene. Forever in the media spotlight and with an army of fans hungry for new material, one might think that the English singer/songwriter would have been under a huge amount of pressure to deliver the goods with her new long-player, Ceremonials. In fact, compared to her first album, the opposite was true.
“I didn't really think about it. I was just happy to be writing,” the charmingly polite and well-spoken 25-year-old explains. “The pressure I was under, writing the first record after winning that Critics' Choice Award and still being at such a raw stage, was so intense. I'd say it was almost a negative thing because it really put me under a microscope before I had anything to be protected by. People really went for how I looked or my personality because that was the only thing that was there. There was no album, and to be picked apart like that before you have any music to stand by is terrifying. It was a baptism of fire. I'm really grateful for having got that award; it was a great opportunity and it really helped me in the long-run, but at that point it was pretty hard to see the benefits because I was just freaking out the whole time. This time round, with a clearer idea of what I was doing, it was almost easier.”
Working once again with award-winning producer Paul Epworth (who also co-wrote and produced Lungs) and Isabella 'Machine' Summers (songwriter and member of the band), Welch recorded Ceremonials with her group over five weeks in the English summertime at Abbey Road's legendary Studio Three. The result certainly doesn't sound like something that was created under an especially heavy weight of expectation. “I was really lucky because I was working with some amazing people. Working with Paul and Isa, we have such such a musical connection. They had all these amazing drum patterns that I could get excited by and Paul would have these great chords. They made it easy to get back into the swing of things. We'd been speaking about it for a year and I had a really clear idea of what I wanted: big drum sounds, big bass sounds, big choral sweeps. When we got back into the studio, everyone was just excited to be there.”
To call the record 'big' is an understatement. This album is unapologetically huge. Massive. With layered instrumentation and Welch's trademark howl, it is an impressively bold and expansive second-coming. “I think you can't help being incorrigibly yourself,” she explains. “I've always been interested in big drum sounds and I'm drawn to big orchestral sounds. I'm obsessed with this choral thing. I'm interested in hymnal music and Georgian choirs. It's like heaven and hell in one.”
Aside from its enormity, the other noticeable thing about the new album is that it is much more cohesive than her debut offering. “I'm really glad you said that,” Welch beams when Drum brings up the notion that, if the excellent Lungs was an eclectic collection of songs, Ceremonials is a progression in that it sounds very well-rounded. “That's what I was aiming for. It was really important to me that it had a cohesive, overarching sound and it didn't fluctuate from one song to the next. For better or for worse, the first album was always going to be an experiment. I'd been through a lot of musical phases from the age of 17 and 22, so it was an overview of that period. This one, because it was a shorter period of time, with one producer [Paul Epworth] and one place, was more just a body of work. A story, I guess, rather than a scrapbook.”
When talk turns to the way in which the songs on Ceremonials were pieced together, Welch finds it hard to put her finger on exactly how she created them. “There's no methodical process. I'm not a technical songwriter so everything has to be quite instinctive. I don't write in a linear way. Paul would come up with chords and I would sing any random phrase that came into my head. That's often how I write melodies. It's like a séance. You just have to let whatever is in your head come out. It's almost as if you have to stop thinking. You can't be afraid.” As with melodies, Welch likes to allow lyrics to flow naturally from her, garnering inspiration from words she has chanced upon in books, art installations and everyday life. “Sometimes the words come easily and sometimes you have to work on them for a while. Images come and go and thoughts go on a tangent. I think it's nice to have mixes of random phrases. It creates this new kind of poetry and you don't really know what sense to make of it until it's finished. ”
A lengthy worldwide tour is scheduled to promote the record and, when she takes to the stage each night, there are bound to be plenty of fans drooling almost as much at her chosen outfit as they are her music. It's fair to say that Florence Welch is nearly as well-known for being a fashion icon as she is for her incredible voice, and can be seen within the pages of the monthly glossies as much as in the music press. “As a performer, what you wear is such a huge tool. It affects the way you feel and the way you move. It's like thinking of it in terms of an art piece or a dance piece.” However, her image isn't a contrivance, created by some record company executive. She has enjoyed dressing up since she was a child and, even before fashion designers were swooning over her, she put a huge amount of thought and effort into her onstage attire. “When we first started playing, we'd be given ten pounds for food and I'd spend it in a charity shop or a vintage shop and create these Frankenstein outfits: bits of feathers, lace, a red riding hood cape and glitter all over my face. So to be embraced by the world of high-fashion, for a girl who loved dressing up and was constantly in the fancy dress box, is an absolute dream.”
With her aesthetic sensibilities an extension of her natural desire to constantly be creative, Florence Welch is not the kind of person to let the dust settle and, even though her new album has only just hit the shelves, it inevitably won't be long until she begins to think about the shape that record number three will take. Feeling that she has honed her distinctive sound with Ceremonials, the question now is, where does she go next, sonically? She ponders for a moment. “I'm thinking either more orchestral or minimal... Take it as big as I can, or go small. I don't know.” She pauses, before joking, “Maybe minimal orchestral.”
Whichever musical direction Florence Welch takes in the future, if she walks the road with the confidence and gusto that she has displayed on the fantastic Ceremonials, then the world will surely remain her oyster.
Interview and live photo by Bobby Townsend. An extended version first appeared in Sydney's Drum Media. Edited by Heidi Pett.
Whenever we post a story about Wally de Backer - or Gotye to you and me - Bobbysix.com almost goes into meltdown with the traffic we receive. You guys just can't get enough of him, so it seems. Therefore the Western Australians amongst you will be pleased to know that he has announced a third show at the Belvoir Theatre, Perth on Monday 12 December. It will feature his ten-piece orchestra and be the last date announced on his acclaimed, sold-out string of Aussie dates this year. Rising Melbourne outfit Husky will be the support on all three Perth dates.
Having performed at CMJ, Gotye is currently playing sold-out shows across in the UK and Europe. You might have to beg for a ticket, sneak in, buy one off a shifty bloke in a shellsuit top and Reebok Classics or get your ebay on, but, if you can get access to the venues, Gotye will be doing his thing in these places:
Monday October 31 – Communion, London UK (SOLD OUT)
Tuesday November 1 - Kings College, London UK (SOLD OUT)
Friday November 4 – Melkweg, Amsterdam Holland (SOLD OUT)
Saturday November 5 – Franzz Club, Berlin Germany (SOLD OUT)
Sunday November 6 – Gebaude 9, Cologne Germany (SOLD OUT)
Tuesday November 8 - La Maroquinerie, Paris France
Saturday 26th November – Foreshore Festival Canberra (Tickets onsale now)
Saturday, 3rd December – Homebake Festival, The Domain, Sydney
Friday, 9th December – Belvoir Theatre, Perth (SOLD OUT)
Saturday, 10th December – Belvoir Theatre, Perth (SOLD OUT)
Monday, 12th December – Belvoir Theatre, Perth (NEW SHOW ) (Tickets on sale Friday 4th November from Ticketmaster)
Sunday, 18th December - Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens (Tickets onsale now)
With acclaimed singles and shows having set tongues wagging in both the US and their native UK, Veronica Falls unleash their first long-player to a certain air of anticipation. So it is just as well that, with it, they don't disappoint in the slightest.
The instant appeal of Veronica Falls is how they manage to counterbalance dark, sinister subject-matter with really catchy melodies. For instance, on Fountain, the lyrics,“I lost my baby to the winter/And I couldn't bear to hold you near/When everything I fear is haunting me,” are juxtaposed by an infectious-as-hell chorus, with pretty boy/girl harmonising and guitars dripping in reverb. Similarly, Found Love In A Graveyard has guitarist/vocalist Roxanne Clifford's voice soaring dreamily over backing vocals as she tells a tale of falling for a ghost.
The album certainly leans quite heavily towards indie of the mid-to-late 80s with a few earlier reference points too. There is something of The Wedding Present here, a bit of The Jesus and Mary Chain there and healthy dollops of 60s pop elsewhere. However, Veronica Falls' songs have such charm and verve that they don't feel remotely tired or derivative. Quite the opposite, in fact. And there are a few interesting diversions too, like Beachy Head, in which the story of a death-leap into the sea from a notorious UK suicide spot is delivered to the tune of fuzzy, B-movie surf-rock. Elsewhere, the lovely indie-pop of Come On Over ends proceedings on a high.
The weirdly upbeat gloom of Veronica Falls is a beguiling, intriguing coming together of dark and light and is really rather wonderful. Melancholy never seemed so much fun.
Review by Bobby Townsend. It first appeared in Sydney's Drum Media.
When I first spoke to an 18-year-old Laura Marling in early 2008, she talked of her disinterest in stardom and of how creating great art meant more to her than fame ever would. She absolutely had no desire to be the Next Big Thing.
Fast-forward three years and she has managed to gain critical acclaim, winning Best British Female Solo Artist at the Brit Awards and Best Solo Artist at the NME Awards while also capturing the hearts of the record-buying public. Although there is no doubting she has stuck to her guns – her beautifully-crafted folk music still bursts with the same honesty and integrity that has been so important to her since the very beginning – there is also little denying that, in 2011, Laura Marling is a big deal.
“It doesn't feel that way, from where I sit in a café in London,” she chuckles. “It's very lovely to hear...” She pauses, half-starts another couple of sentences which try to make sense of her career trajectory, before settling with, “I try not to think about it too much.” Regardless of the awards and big-selling records, it's very apparent that we are talking to the same polite, gently-spoken and completely unassuming young lady that we were three years ago.
As, according to Marling, England “crawled to the end of what has been a miserable summer,” her third long-player, A Creature I Don't Know, was released to the general acceptance that it was her finest work to date. Considering the plaudits she had already received, that's quite the achievement. While the album deals with the themes that Marling is best known for – strength, weakness, love, womanhood, desire, yearning – the most noticeable difference between this and her previous offering, I Speak Because I Can, is that there is a touch more levity this time around. “When I made I Speak Because I Can, I felt like I had to do myself a service and make a point, for my own sake,” she says of her incredibly solemn second record. “This album felt like it was just going to be a lot of fun to make. Some of the lines I came up with for The Muse and All My Rage make me chuckle when I sing them now. Yeah, it's not so serious.”
While A Creature I Don't Know, which Marling demoed at home before giving the full band treatment, is her most expansive sounding album, lyrically, it is still weighty, intelligent and challenging. Happy to let the listener decide which parts are autobiographical and which are fiction, her inspirations are far-reaching. “It comes from a lot of different places now. Maybe more so than before. I'm not more of a magpie, but I'm more willing to accept that I'm a magpie now. I take a lot from books and from conversations that I overhear.” For instance, lead-single Sophia was inspired by Rebel Angels: Robertson Davies' novel about God's female counterpart. Meanwhile, the song Salinas refers to an “obsession” Marling had with John Steinbeck's wife which manifested itself after reading the biography she penned about her husband. Yet the refrain of the song (“I am from Salinas, where the women go forever,”) refers indirectly to a friend's girlfriend who died when their baby was a year old. The song perhaps acts as a microcosmic example of how, rather than handing straightforward lyrics to the listener on a plate and delivering a tale from start to finish, the album as a whole uses themes and ideas to create a story. “When I was putting the songs together, there seemed to me to be a narrative. I think when I got to writing The Beast, I'd already written half of the album and it became apparent that the themes in it had cropped up in other songs. So, it's organic to a point, until I become aware. Then I know there are things that I want to deal with.”
Just as the themes develop naturally, so does the music. “I have a guitar wherever I go and if I've got a spare moment I pick it up. Sometimes a song comes and sometimes it doesn't. I don't tend to write things down. An idea or an emotion will crop somewhere and it will plague me for a while until I've written a song about it. As I pick up a guitar, I'll tinkle around and put it in a different tuning until I find the tone that I feel is appropriate for the mood I'm in, and then they just kind of form, I suppose,” she says of her technique almost dismissively, as though she were talking about some half-baked ditties rather than the beautifully constructed folk music that has critics clambering for superlatives. “I wasn't taught guitar professionally – I was taught by my Dad – so I've never really known what key I'm in or what chords I'm playing. I think that's been the biggest bonus, because I don't tend to think about chord structure or song structure. So many of my songs don't have middle-eights.”
A new album, of course, means a tour, and after playing around the UK and the US she'll be taking her band to Australia in the new year for a series of dates that includes a slot at the Laneway Festival. After a debut visit over four days in 2008 which saw her “completely insane with jet lag,” she returned with her band in 2010. “I remember playing at The Famous Spiegeltent [in Hyde Park] and I was amazed by how different the audience was to other audiences I had played for. They were really attentive in a different way than I'd come across before. It was really good.”
When talk turns to the longer-term future, unsurprisingly there seems to be no big master-plan. Already so lauded and with such an impressive back catalogue at just 21 years of age, there's the genuine prospect that Laura Marling could go on to become one of the all-time greats, yet, of course, she plays the idea down. “I think I'll do it as long as I have stuff to write about and then at some point I hope somebody will tell me to stop, if needs be,” she laughs.
“For the moment though, I can't think of anything I'd rather be doing.”
Interview by Bobby Townsend. It first appeared in Sydney's Drum Media.
Frankie & The Heartstrings hail from from Sunderland in England's north east. Since being discovered by the founder of legendary indie label Witchita Recordings, the five-piece's reputation has continued to grow and tours with The Futureheads, Florence & The Machine and The Vaccines have turned them into one of Britain's most talked about bands. Subsequently, Hunger has sold like hot cakes in their homeland and the future certainly seems bright for this likeable bunch of Northerners.
If the idea of yet another new indie hope coming out of England makes you yawn (they do seem to appear every five minutes), then the news that their quiff-sporting frontman goes by the name of Frankie Francis might send an ominous whiff of style over substance up your nostrils. However, Hunger's retro-leaning, jangly guitar-ridden songs of friendship and futile romance certainly do enough to dispel such snobbish preconceptions. And if you want some full-on indie cred brought to the table, then the record was produced by Edwyn Collins.
Because of where it originated, and of who their choice of producer was, reference points to Maximo Park, The Futureheads and Orange Juice might be lazy, but they are also pretty accurate. Here, you'll find intelligent yet emotive lyricism, a penchant for some whoa-ing and simple, short, catchy-as-hell indie aplenty.
While there is nothing especially new going on, its infectious energy and believable romance makes Hunger a success. Basically, it is absolutely 100 per cent as you would imagine a guitar-based record overseen by Edwyn Collins that comes out of the North East of England to sound. And that can't be a bad thing.
Review By Bobby Townsend. It originally appeared in Drum Media
When a teenage Laura Marling released her debut record, her depth and maturity was lauded. A even better second album followed and this year she won Best British Female Solo Artist prize at the Brit Awards and best solo artist at the NME awards. So it is with high expectations that her third long-player arrives.
Produced by Ethan Johns (Kings Of Leon, Ryan Adams, Ray LaMontagne, Emmylou Harris), the album isn't quite an unknown creature but, while the overall tone is similar to her stunningly serious and brooding sophomore record, it certainly reaches in more directions and has more levity. For instance, country rock opener The Muse is as jaunty a musical offering as we have heard from the English songwriter, The Beast builds to an unexpected rock-out and All My Rage is a frantic sea shanty.
In keeping with the record's ambition, Marling's vocal range continues to grow as well. In the more upbeat moments, she hits some high notes with near gay abandon, while her rich, almost spoken, tones perfectly fit the darker songs. Crucially, her lyrics remain typically stunning. As well as weaving through her music beautifully, her emotive, weighty words read like poetry. “He longs for the woman who will conquer his lust/ He screams in the night/ I scream in the day/ We weep in the evening and lie naked and pray,” she sings forlornly on the desperately beautiful, finger-picked Night After Night.
A Creature I Don't Know manages to be Marling's most expansive record and also her most accessible, and proves her to be one of the most honest, intelligent and breathtakingly talented artists in music today.
Review By Bobby Townsend. It originally appeared in Sydney's Drum Media.
I remember seeing Reef in about 1995. At a festival in Brighton. They were the first band on and I recall the singer swinging from the rafters. My only other abiding memory of them is of every drunk person in my local nightclub going nuts when the DJ dropped that song about putting your hands on something or other. Anyhoo, as is the trend nowadays, they've reformed, and will headline this Friday at Ivy Live, a festival in England's stunning South-Devon countryside.
Now in its 4th year, Ivy Live is growing larger all of the time. The vibrant and eclectic three-day festival (9th-11th Sept) features a variety of genres from Alternative rock to Reggae, Punk, Indie, Hip hop and Folk and encompasses international artists as well as the hottest talent from around the South West. Other headliners will be the rather excellent King Blues and Bluesy Pop songstress Sandi Thom.
Elsewhere Ben Howard, Futures, Cosmos Jarvis, The Computers, Ruarri Joseph, Wille and the Bandits, Mad Dog Mcrea and South London Alternative Hip Hop collective Clement Marfo and the Frontline spice things up.
The rest of the line up features:
Hyper / Monkey / Backbeat Soundsystem Crazy Arm / The Skints / Freeze The Atlantic Josh Bray Band / Dead Poets / The Deering / Crowns / Willie and the Bandits / Unleashed / Auction for the Promise Club Land of the Giants / Head Of Programmes / Kate McGill / The Scribes / Numb / Spree The Patrick James Pearson Band / The Iconyx / Amy Wallace / Morning Rush / The Vics / Richard James Emma Lauran / Ellie Campbell / Ten Zero One / 7 Year Itch / George & the Islanders / John Thorpe Silent Disco sessions: Battle Stations / Origin Breaks / DJ Pandamonium / Dom J / Leishman / Phat Chex / Wotsawonder / PMC / Dread / Definition / Ad The Lad / D-struct and Ember / Tuskan / Joe Panic
A while a go, we here at Bobbysix.com told you to get your ass to the second annual Playgroup Festival. If you chose to ignore our sage advice, quite frankly, you're a fool. Envisage a smaller, stranger, more child friendly Secret Garden Party with a fantastical and beautifully manifested theme: 'Woodland Animals.'
Set halfway between Brighton and London in England's oldest deer park, Eridge Park, two miles south of Tunbridge Wells, Playgroup 2011 offered three days of freedom, relaxation and madness. With Big Lemon buses going back and forth from Brighton and London, Playgroup also earned points in the green department. The quiet, idyllic, green English countryside setting allowed festival-goers to fully immerse themselves in the theme of the event. And while most embraced the theme with immaculately crafted costumes and brilliant makeup, others chose to ignore it altogether. In addition to the stylish army of woodland animals, there were those who dressed as frogs, aliens, lizards, leopards; pretty much any brightly coloured creature you could imagine, all of which added to the strange...err...beauty of the festival.
The real joy of Playgroup was that there was something in it for everyone. And we mean absolutely everyone. The folks at Harvest Brighton taught listeners about growing and eating local produce, while Hannah the Mer-made shared her love of the magical sea creatures to an enamoured crowd. Two comfy cushion-filled cinema tents offering classics like Groundhog Day allowed for a temporary escape from the madness of the festival, while the alcohol-free relaxation tent also allowed for rest and recuperation. The wonderful people at SuckMyRock.com offered a fantasy forest photo stage, where professional photographers documented the brilliant array of badgers, owls, foxes and other woodland animals. Videopia offered one of the festival's most experimental and involving attractions in the form of a mobile movie studio that casts and films festival goers in mini tributes to Hollywood classics.
The children's tent offered a variety of engaging activities for tots including face painting, magic shows, drawing classes, interactive science workshops and boardgames. The poker and blackjack tent, Apokerlypse Now, which deserves a mention for its name alone, ran well into each night as serious punters and jokers alike came together to flirt with lady luck.
Between all the attractions and working out how to smuggle as much moonshine in as possible, it's sometimes easy to forget that a festival starts with the music. Best described by the Playgroup people themselves, the line up offered a 'tapas menu of the best music you've possibly never heard of.' Saturday night 7-piece Quantic y su Combo Barbaro set the pace with their fresh brand of Cuban and Latin beats that got the crowd dancing on perhaps the liveliest night of the festival.
With such an eclectic mix of genres, it was sometimes hard to fit it all in. Hiding away from the rain in the Burrow, possibly the world's most comfortable festival tent, decked out in lush cushions, couches and carpets, punters saw, among others, Rory Mulligan and the Imaginary Band, whose Tom Waits-esque cover of the White Stripes' Seven Nation Army left them hanging on even after the rain died.
Skinny Lister's familiar brand of classic folk, fusing more imaginary words than Ned Flanders with typical folk classics had the crowd jiving away in the gorgeous Sunday afternoon sun. In contrast to the familiarity,The Correspondents played to the Sunday sunset to a crowd that didn't know what to expect when lead singer, Mr Bruce first arrived on stage, decked out in a futuristic black and white ensemble and a cracking pair of reading glasses. But when their remix of I Wanna Be Like You from Disney's The Jungle Book (yes, you know the one) began, the crowd was ecstatic. Mr Bruce's crowdsurfing antics were embraced as he simultaneously screamed along to the band's unique brand of vintage swing and jazz and perfectly contrasted modern drum 'n' bass.
Immediately following were Tel Aviv 9-piece The Apples, the last main stage act of the festival, who washed over the festival with their unique fusing of North American jazz, funk and hip-hop traditions with North African and Middle Eastern tribal styles. Within minutes of the end of their set, the sky erupted with the heaviest downpour of the entire weekend, literally marking a sad end to the festival. Punters frantically rushed to the Watering Hole, eager to continue their escape from reality, only to be told, much to everyone's dismay, that the bar shut at 10pm.
No doubt Playgroup Festival will continue to delight festival lovers in years to come with more explorations of themes, artistic expression and family friendly fun...we only hope it stays as intimate and magical as Playgroup 2011.
Review by Celeste Macdonald. Here are a few more photos...
So well connected are our team of intrepid writers, you may not even have noticed how BobbySix.com's headquarters have temporarily relocated from Sydney to England over the last few months.
While some of our team kept their figures on the pulse over in Australia, the hub of the operation headed over to Blighty and had fun building snowmen, reviewing The Great Escape, getting hot under the collar at Brighton Fashion Week and checking out plenty of UK artists and gigs. Now though, it's time to swing closed the gates of our English castle, pull up the draw-bridge and rejoin our friends at BobbySix Towers in Sydney.
The point of all this seemingly superfluous information... well, there might not be any posts for a coupla days, as we'll either be:
1. Waiting around at some anonymous-looking airport terminal.
2. Squeezed between two drunk Irish backpackers in Qantas economy seats, watching our eighth film in a row (we find it impossible to sleep on planes).
3. Recovering from our jet lag.
So, forgive us our lapse in bringing you all the usual shit. We'll be back soon.
We still have some excellent writers taking care of business over in England, so if you're a Brit and want your gig/album reviewed, then please let us know at the email address on the contact page.Similarly, if you are in Sydney and want Bobbysix at your show, wanna be interviewed, want us to hear your demo, or fancy making a video or something, then let us know.
This week, England has been ripping itself to shreds, burning itself to the ground. Riots and looting have been breaking out across London and spreading through the country. You already know the back-story. It all started in Tottenham, following the police shooting of Mark Duggan and has since escalated. Images of burning cars and buildings are on a loop on news channels, while police sirens soundtrack city streets. Bobbysix.com reader Nicholas Jerzembeck, who lives in Wood Green, a mile and a half-from Saturday's original Tottenham riots, told us, "Sunday morning was absolute bedlam. The high street had been decimated, shops had been smashed and looted, cars were set on fire and the street was cordoned off. At 5.30pm that night people were being arrested still in the process of trying to loot. It was absolutely fucking terrifying. I didn't even want to put a light on in my lounge."
Few people would question there were genuine motives behind the original protests, but it is the subsequent days' events that have polarised opinion. Commentators on both sides of the fence have tried to rationalise, to understand, to explain what has been happening. Are the rioters selfish, brain-dead morons, hellbent on destroying their own neighbourhoods while looting for new ipads and Nike socks, or is it the natural reaction to years of cuts, unemployment, discrimination and a feeling of being completely disenfranchised?
Our eye-witness continues, "I can kind of understand Saturday's demonstrations. Living in the area, it's apparent there's a lot of question marks over the way the police behaved. The following nights of violence have been organised by opportunist parasites though. I've never known a collective fear like it."
As the riots continued, The Guardian was one of the few media outlets to speak with a level-head. They said, "Decades of individualism, competition and state-encouraged selfishness - combined with a systematic crushing of unions and the ever-increasing criminalisation of dissent - have made Britain one of the most unequal countries in the developed world. Images of burning buildings, cars aflame and stripped-out shops may provide spectacular fodder for a restless media, ever hungry for new stories and fresh groups to demonise, but we will understand nothing of these events if we ignore the history and the context in which they occur."
This is a well argued point and, of course, society is at the core of all this. Rioters were not born to riot, but if society is responsible, then isn't it also responsible for the majority of people - who went to the same schools and were brought up in the same areas as the rioters - not smashing things up and stealing? Finding the source of the problem is surely impossible. There is no single starting-point. Capitalism, inner-city deprivation, parenting, the global recession, the aggressiveness of certain role models, the boredom of unemployment, the relentless insistence of advertising... where do you even begin?
Politics.co.uk's crime researcher at Civitas, Nick Cowen, suggests that simply witnessing people getting away with looting can be reason enough for others to get involved. "Cyclically, an outbreak of aggression makes potential offenders realise they are unlikely, as individuals, to get caught while the police are swamped. So they join in the looting and vandalism - thus making yet more potential offenders confident enough to have a go. Frighteningly, given the right context, a riot can almost become its own cause."
So, a genuine protest in North London turned ugly, wasn't quashed and has since been ambushed by the kind of opportunistic criminality which perfectly illustrates a time where actions and consequences do not marry. Take what you want, hurt who you choose. The individual rules. I defy anyone to justify burning your neighbourhood to the ground, looting and, for instance, trashing the place of business of an 89-year-old barber. Even if it is the result of being disenfranchised, downtrodden or simply the natural end-point of years of being told that being self-centred is okay, does it make it right to smash up a charity shop in Coventry or to pretend to help an injured person and then mug them? Absolutely not. I understand that any notion of a stable and supportive society is increasingly diminishing, but what statement are these people actually making by stealing a flatscreen telly before planning their next riot by tweeting from their Blackberry? And what about everyone else who lives in the areas they are destroying? Why should they suffer?
I hope that the rubber bullets and the deployment of tanks that some people are demanding are unnecessary. It is, in my opinion, a terrible idea. If you give aggressive people - who already, according to the interviews on BBC Radio 5 Live today, feel invincible - a faceless, stronger target to fight against then they will rise to the challenge and perhaps even perhaps gain unwarranted sympathy in the process.
But what is the answer? Another Bobbysix.com reader, Robert Kelly, says: "I do strongly believe that until we teach parents to start behaving like parents, until we lose this idea in society that unless you have a brilliant job, a flash car and the latest phone, you're some kind of pariah and until we ditch the sort of political rhetoric from the past year that has pitted everyone at all levels of society against each other (hate bankers, hate public sector workers, hate anyone out of work whether it's their fault or not) while still claiming to work 'in the national interest' then it's hard to see how we're going to make much progress."
So what now? Well, surely this is the perfect time for every single decent person to act. I'm not talking about going into the street Harry Brown-style and starting an us-against-them war. Rather, I suggest that - like the beautiful human beings who have been taking to cities with brooms and bin bags - we do the little things to help make lives better for the people around us, regardless of whether we live in an area affected by the riots. Visit an elderly neighbour for a cup of tea. Pick up litter rather than walking past it. Be extra polite to the person who serves you in the supermarket - indeed, say please and thank you to everyone. Give a bag of clothes to charity. Phone a friend that you haven't spoken to for a while. Buy a coffee for the person behind you in the queue at the cafe. Talk to someone at the bus stop - a conversation might brighten their day. If you receive good service in a shop - take the person's name and send an email to the company to express your gratitude. It's the little things that make a difference, don't you think?
Maybe all this sounds like a pathetic, hippy-dippy response to the violence that has occurred - fighting petrol bombs with flowers - but without access to the corridors of power and if all you have in your arsenal is a kind heart, then what else can you do? Making people feel wanted, happy, at ease and part of a functioning and pleasant society is surely the best place to begin rebuilding England, brick by brick.
I realise that most of us probably do kind things everyday anyway, but let's all go the extra yard to make our world a happier place. Now is a time for heroes. And heroism can come in the most unexpected places.
Words by Bobby Townsend. Email info@bobbysix.com
I have no time for sensationalism. I don't give a damn what colour Cheryl Cole's hair is or whether she is back with that knobhead footballer. I don't know or care if Lyndsay Lohan is in jail or not. So, to me, Amy Winehouse will always be the woman with the great voice rather than the caricature that appeared in the tabloids. The way that the media and the public in general take such joy in building people up and then knocking them down depresses me, especially when you consider that many of the people who are now mourning her are the same idiots who laughed at pictures of her in the magazines that contributed to this circus. When you take away the sickeningly gleeful and smug reaction to Winehouse's passing, what you are left with is simply another tragic and pointless death of a young person.
The saddest thing about her death at 27 was its inevitability. This was always going to happen - this year, next year, whenever - and yet, despite this knowledge, nobody was able to prevent it. I don't know whether she had an especially dark past or if her descent into drink and drugs was simply down to an addictive and destructive personality, but as her body was carried from her London home yesterday, I couldn't help wondering what shape her life would have taken had she remained clean. Would she have been more successful and more productive, or did her creativity go hand in hand with her unhinged nature?
Whatever, because she allowed herself to become tabloid fodder - the trashed bag of bones that everyone could laugh at in the gossip magazines - it is easy to forget that, back in the day, she was a strangely beautiful, exciting and edgy character with an incredible set of pipes. And that's how I choose to remember her.
Sadly though, if ever there was an example of literally wasted talent, it's Amy Winehouse.
We make no secret of the fact that we love the shit out of England's Kitty, Daisy & Lewis here at Bobbysix.com. When we reviewed their debut album in 2008, we concluded that if their brand of rockabilly jump-blues failed to excite you then it was probably time you gave up listening to music altogether. Then, when we wrote about their gig in Sydney in 2009, we did so in such gushing terms that the delightfully polite Kitty even wrote to us to say thank you.
So you can imagine our excitement at the discovery that their sophomore offering bursts with the same joie-de-vivre and displays the same level of passion for the music they create. This time round, things are a little more polished, but while the erratic sound levels from their eponymous debut have been left behind, the working practices remain impressively authentic. The album was recorded straight to eight track one-inch tape in a home studio modelled on the one at Sun Records and, because of this, sounds like a proper long-player in the old-fashioned sense.
Perhaps the main difference between Smoking in Heaven and their debut is that all of the tracks here were penned by the siblings (along with a couple written by their parents, who - as if all this weren't lovely enough already - are also in the band). If their first record may have seemed like a novelty - a trio of teens playing covers of tunes written decades before they were born - then this collection of songs shows beyond any doubt that Kitty, Daisy & Lewis really are absolutely the real deal.
The record opens excitingly with the brilliant ska of Tomorrow, featuring the effervescent Eddie ‘Tan Tan’ Thornton on trumpet, and sets the upbeat tone of the album perfectly. Meanwhile, Messing With My Life is perhaps the closest that the trio will ever come to a regular pop tune and shows that they are capable of giving a contemporary edge to their sound, while Going Back is swinging rockabilly at its most fun.
All of which results in a triumphant return for a band whose oldest member, remarkably, is still only twenty. If the auto-tuned, plastic rubbish that currently litters commercial radio station playlists had one-hundredth of the energy, honesty, heart and soul that this record does, the music world would be a much more satisfying place.
This Thursday to Saturday, the Great Escape Festival takes over Brighton, in the South of England. Tickets are still available so do yourself a favour and grab one today to enable yourself to whizz from from cool venue to cool venue to check the fuck out of amazing acts from all over the world.
As you will know, we are quite Aussie-focused here at BobbySix.com, so are excited to see The Jezebels, The Holidays, Cloud Control, Little Red and PVT. Meanwhile, big names from elsewhere like Friendly Fires and Sufjan Stevens are also getting our pulses racing.
The very best thing about TGE though, aside from the beautiful punters and the amazing atmosphere that it brings to the city, is that it affords music fans the opportunity to stumble upon bands of whom they have little knowledge. You never know, you might just discover your new favourite group there this year. Like, for instance, Dutch indiefolk act I Am Oak (pictured above), who play on Thursday at 9pm at the Unitarian Church. Check their sweet sounds below:
