Tuesday 24 May 2016

Eight questions with Lucy Leave

(c) Lucy Leave

1. Who is Lucy Leave? (a short introduction)

Lucy Leave is a band with three lead singers, all with lots of different ideas and their own noisy instruments which they are still deciding how to play.

2. When was the EP recorded and where? If there is an interesting story behind how you and any producers & session players met and started playing together, please do share.

The EP was recorded in our front room. Last time out we did go to a very good studio in The North, but we got too excited and played everything too fast basically. Recording it ourselves gives us the time we need to change things when we like, and we are pretty whimsical. Besides, a Professional Studio would never hand over a product as noisy and messy as ours to their client. We don’t always want our things to sound pleasant.

3. So, how much Syd Barrett do you actually listen to - is it a breakfast soundtrack, are we talking about a record collection which only contains albums whose cover art is insect catalogues (there are some great ones - see q7)… and would you ever play a cover of his song Wolfpack at a gig? How do you find the balance between composing original material and being so clearly & strongly inspired by one of rock’s heroes?

Well you know we all love him very much but I don’t think any of us listens to him more than we listen to Deerhoof or Neil Young or Grimes for example. I suppose you could say he’s one of the artists that are ‘our Beatles’ you know - but does anyone really listen to The Beatles all the time? I think that we’re just as likely to rip off Robert Wyatt or Fugazi or The Fall as we are to rip off Syd. Stealing is fine, because we don’t worry about originality, that’s the least of our problems - the way we play each other’s songs, the way we mess them up and rearrange them, the way that we don’t always defer too much to the parts that the other members are playing when it comes to writing our own, means that what comes out of all of that is never likely to sound like one thing in particular.

4. How did you come across the Modern Art Oxford venue, have you seen gigs there before, are you excited to be hitting the basement in the heat of summer? What venues in Oxford or further afield are next on the horizon for Lucy Leave?

Well we’ve seen some pretty ace groups there - Flights Of Helios, Islet and After The Thought a few years ago was sweaty and trippy and LOUD and so we hope it’ll be like that. It’s a great space, something a bit different, and we’re very much looking forward to launching our EP there. We’re playing some festivals this summer, including Riverside, which will be fun, (we’re also on the shortlist to play Truck! Vote for us!) and then in September we’re doing a bit of a tour culminating in a gig at The Cellar in Oxford. It’s all very exciting.

5. Who is your audience and how do you connect with your fans? Any crazy, fun, exciting stories are very welcome…

Our audience is mainly hardened Oxford scenesters at this point. I think that people can be a bit wary of us to start with - they worry that we don’t know what we’re doing. And I’m not saying that we do but… once they’ve seen us a few times they get the general idea, and they can enjoy it a bit more. We feel so lucky to have started out in Oxford which has a brilliant and varied audience for live music - they’re very trusting and patient and give you the space to experiment a bit, on the understanding that it will come to something in the long run, and I think it’s very helpful for us to have that motivation, to deliver something that will be worth their while.

6. Could you describe your backgrounds in Oxford life, are you students or specialists in any non-musical activities - did we hear it was Physics? Could music ever pry you away from these and become a career? But mainly, have you ever listened to the album “110: Superstring Theory Refuted” by Bull of Heaven?

No we haven’t… *boots up Spotify* oh it’s not on there. I’ll try Youtube… the first thing of theirs on there seems to be part one of four of a 24 hour long song - sounds amazing. Well I’m glad that you thought one of us was good at Physics, anyway, because Bull of Heaven sound great. One of the great things about being in a band and playing to different audiences is the new bands that you play alongside, and the new bands that people tell you about. Someone compared us to Sebadoh a few months ago, and we’d never heard of them, and they are absolutely brilliant, so thanks for the recommendation and the compliment! But none of us are good at Physics I’m afraid. In terms of Oxford, and Other Lives, well who knows what will happen in the future...

7. Are you planning to experiment with a quieter acoustic sound (as we’ve glimpsed in the closing moments of the “Jesus Walks Funny” EP, an orchestral sound, any time soon? We love your approach to tape and lo-fi-ness, and we’re curious to know how that’ll grow/change or what aspects you’re expecting to keep as they are.

That’s a good question. But the truth is we have no idea. That recording is Pete’s original home-demo of the song Foam, the full band version of which is on that tape somewhere. Mike wanted to put it on the tape because a) it’s beautiful, and b) it’s different from the other stuff, and we think that things should have some kind of arc… we’re always experimenting with different kinds of sounds, and actually we have been toying with acoustic versions of things, but it’s not necessarily a direction we’re going in… and wow, we’d love to play with an orchestra, like Sinatra or Guillemots or Field Music. Although the lo-fi thing is here to stay I think - a lo-fi orchestra would be pretty cool.

8. What does your dream gig look like?

In the sweaty basement of an art gallery with some of our absolute favourite bands. Is June 11th free?

Lucy Leave play Modern Art Oxford for us on 11th June to launch their upcoming EP, with support from Slate Hearts plus two more acts to be announced. Tickets are available through our site HERE and you'll also get a copy of the EP if you grab a ticket, and join the Facebook event to keep up to date with info about the show. 

Saturday 21 May 2016

Eight questions with Lewis Barfoot

(c) Patrick Dodds
1. Who is Lewis Barfoot (a short introduction)

Lewis Barfoot is a female nu-folk singer songwriter. She’s half Irish, half english & currently living in Brockley. She released her 5 track debut EP “Catch Me” this January and is working toward her debut album.

2. When was the recent EP ‘Catch Me’ recorded, and where? If there is an interesting story behind how you and any producers & session players met and started playing together, please do share.

My debut EP “Catch Me” was recorded last summer at Alex Forster’s Studio in Wimbledon, London. I met Alex at the Asylum (Peckham) in 2013, an awesome crumbling old chapel that opens its doors to performance. My boyfriend was performing a solo dance theatre show which Alex had composed the music for (with Jamie Catto), and he was also the sound engineer. I met Alex before the show and we totally clicked, we nattered away about the acoustics of the asylum and how awesome it would be to sing in the space. Two years later I recorded title track of “Catch Me” in the Asylum with Alex.

That night was a special night - not only did I meet Alex, I got engaged! Not to alex! At the end of the performance my boyfriend said there was going to be an “extra scene” in the show, he invited me onto the stage and took me for a little walk around the “set” whereupon he found a little box which had been hanging under a helium ballon for the whole performance. It contained an engagement ring, he proposed in front of everyone and I said yes! Alex recorded the whole thing and was part of the whole set up.

3. How was the EP launch show at St Pancras Old Church earlier this year, how did the EP go down with the audience? Whenever we're helping artists play there, we bring candles and velvet cushions - what did you bring to make the show a special experience for fans?

The launch was a delight - we packed the venue out, I had a superb team of friends who made the place look stunning. Nao Nagai - a live artist and lighting designer friend of mine was in charge of set and lights: she arranged Fresh Ivy (cut from my neighbour's garden) around the mic stands, stage & the keyboard. There were candles everywhere and it felt like a sacred medieval folk celebration with a twist of Game of Thrones - partly due to the faux furs as it was pretty chilly inside! The ambience was magical. I’ve worked for 10 years as an actress and theatre maker so staging and setting is an integral part of any performance I make - when I have bigger budgets to play with I can't wait to introduce more theatricality to my gigs. I saw Antony from Antony and the Johnsons at the Opera house a few years back and his use of light and space was stunning, opening up more and more of the space as the concert progressed, and I think Boy George appeared for a duet. I didn't have Boy George but we created a cracking night with great sound and an audience to die for who, as well as brilliant support from 'I Am Moon'.

4. Who is your audience and how do you connect with your fans? Any crazy, fun, exciting stories are very welcome…

My audience is primarily those who have seen me live and fans and artists I've met through social media. I find Twitter is the best way to engage and a great forum to connect with people directly. I send out a monthly message to my mailing list, telling people what gigs are coming up and trying to inspire them to do and be what they want to be and to create their own magic and artistry in their own lives.

For my EP recording I crowdfunded with Fundrazr. There was such a positive response and it was really exciting to engage with people. I had some lovely feedback about how my pursuit of my own artistic journey was an inspiration for other people to follow their own dreams - I love to inspire people like that.

Oh - one really cute thing- a friend send a video of her 5 year old daughter dressed up as a princess, painting pictures and singing her own rendition of “Taranaki” that was priceless. It made my heart so happy. And another thing, I have sung directly one-on-one for people, in exploration and workshop space, whereby I either improvise what I see energetically in the person or sing a prewritten song for them whilst bearing witness to what is energetically happening to them at that time. Like a sound bath or a vibrational healing session. It has been positively & powerfully received in the past and I look to explore this more in my creativity in the future.

5. Tell us about where you get inspiration from. How has your time singing with Gaelic a capella ensemble Rún influenced your solo work? Likewise, how have your Irish roots had an influence?

PLACES
My inspiration comes from a pool of unpredictable places. In 2013 I toured the world visiting 21 countries and writing a song for each. Sometimes I was totally inspired by the place or the people I met - for example “Taranaki” was written as a response to attending a Powhiri, a traditional Maori welcome to a community. I was in New Zealand in a town called New Plymouth and the local community held a Powhiri for us, involving singing, dancing, touching noses and breathing in the same spirit - it was breathtaking and magical. Ben and Mary was written in Columbus, Ohio, America - a vibrant university town in early spring, where sunshine, blue skies and pink cherry blossoms filled the air with possibility. I was performing at the Wexner Arts and was excited because there was a film tribute to Brazilian Bossanova legend Carlos Jobim, (“The Girl from Ipanema”) There was a post film discussion led by director Nelson Periera dos Santos & I had complimentary tickets. I missed the film but the Bossanova had got into my blood & there was no stopping me - Ben and Mary was born. I’d just met Ben Folds so I named it after him!

LIFE EVENTS
Sometimes I write a song because of what needs to be heard in that moment - what is whirling around in my heart or my spirit- so in the last year after the death of my Mum the songs have been about the journey of grief, or bereavement. So I’ve 3 new songs “Sweet Dreams” “Hecate” and “Wise Owl” which fly around those subjects.

COMMISSIONS
I’m currently adapting The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald for stage for YMT, so I’m writing song lyrics and that is great fun, I’ve written blues and a very tip top charleston number which I’ll have the pleasure of hearing 36 young singers perform this August. Somedays I sit down and I write the whole thing, like catching a passing breeze of air. I’ve heard about the songs lines in Aboriginal cultures that the songs are there waiting to be heard or picked up by humans, it is like that, I tune in and they appear. Sometimes I commit to write something and the process needs more crafting, shaping. My commitment to songwriting is to show up on the page, sit down, take the guitar, get present and let the songs appear - writing is, with performing live, the best part of the process for me.

Rún
I sang 5 part harmonies with this ensemble for 3 years, leaving them to focus on my own material. At the time my only instrument was my voice so my songs were all vocal loops with multilayered harmonies and vocal percussion at first. After 18months looping and gigging I picked up a guitar and then piano and now I mainly use them, adding a good few harmonies where I can. Folk music tells stories and a large number of my songs are story based.

6. Have you been working on new material and will you be sharing any on the run of Summer Sundays, to see what audiences make of it? Sometimes we have artists who've written all their songs while holed up for winter, only to find that playing them under the sunshine brings out new unexpected qualities that they'd not intended when putting in the focussed writing.


I’ve written 3 new songs since the EP recording “Sweet Dreams” “Hecate” and “Wise Owl”, all exploring aspects of death and therefore life. I’ll be playing these on tour. Half of the tour I’m playing solo, half with my cellist Maria Rodriguez Reins and a couple of gigs with Clarinetist Matt Dibble. My two guitarists are not coming on tour!

My biggest challenge is that I’ve written some songs on keys and I‘ve had to learn them on guitar or as is the case for "Taranaki" I’ve had an awesome guitarist Josh Flowers write a fingerlicking guitar arrangement and I’ve had to learn their line - which is really challenging!

7. How do you usually prepare for a show... Any tips about warmups or meditations? What have you been doing to specifically prepare for the Summer Sundays apart from making sure you've packed sunglasses & parasol? Can you tell we are excited about the warm weather?


I always set an intention about what I want for the show, for the night, for the audience and then I focus on that intention. I drink lots of water, I never drink alcohol before a performance, I rest well, and I try and feel into the audience as much as possible. There is no point me going on an awesome journey if I’m going alone. I transport the audience with me on a vocal voyage - if they're up for it!

For warm up’s I love a bit of yoga, breathe work, and some lip trills, sirening. I judge it from night to night, what my body and voice need. I used to warm up so much I’d be tired going on stage.

8. What does your dream gig look like? Which kind of venues create the best atmosphere for you? Will there be a big event this Autumn building on the success of your sold out show in St Pancras?


This Autumn I plan to return to the studio so unless something extraordinary appears the next big one will be new year 2017!

I want to play at the Union Chapel where I sang with Rún back in the day. I really want to do a tour of old churches around the world, and when I was in Armenia there were some stunning old buildings with exquisite acoustics where I'd love to return to and sing! The open stage at The New Plymouth botanical gardens in New Zealand is a dream stage set behind a lake with a backdrop of the mountains and tropical plants.


Lewis starts her Summer Sundays Tour next Sunday, 29th May, in Stroud at the Prince Albert (free entry!) The rest of the dates are on the poster above (including a show for us in Winchester on 5th June and a show in Oxford next month.) Keep up to date with her live dates through her Facebook page here!

Wednesday 18 May 2016

Eight questions with GLASS

(c) Sonny McCartney
1. Who are GLASS? (a short introduction)

GLASS are Jessica Winter and Scott Rimington.  Jessica: 5ft7 green eyed, slick back haired singer and synth player.  Scott, 6ft6 blue eyed, skin-head guitarist. 

2. When were your songs recorded and where? If there is an interesting story behind how you and any producers & session players met and started playing together, please do share...

Our songs have been recorded very sporadically over the past year or two with different producers because we have no money.  It’s quite interesting recording every song individually rather than fitting it into an album sound. We have a studio in the garden shed where we spend lots of time working out exactly how we want the songs to sound before we go into a proper studio so they don’t all sound too different to each other.  There is, however, a noticeably different production on each song.  When it comes to releasing an album, it’ll be more like a scrap book of songs, a piece of art in itself, reflecting the music industry and the lack of money in it, for us anyway!

3. Having GLASS in your headphones is a bit like entering a dream, something approaching the flight sequences from The Never Ending Story, or even Goldenaxe on SEGA Megadrive. There are clearly some retro power-harmonies going on, played on a combination of vintage & ultra-modern synths which take us back & into the future at the same time. How do you find the balance between the past & future in your soundscapes, and do you ever turn to fantasy films or novels for lyrics inspiration?

Thank you very much, I’m glad you have referenced those things.  We often discuss this past and present point as it’s so easy to fall into the past with music.  We have obvious inspirations from the 80s / 90s but what’s the point in being totally pastiche… I’d rather go and put an amazing record from that era on than try to replicate it.  It’s important to embrace what’s going on now, sonically and lyrically but also nice to include elements of music we are inspired from.  My lyrical inspiration is nearly always autobiographical.  Scott is used to the amount of drama and situations I end up in now, not a day goes past without something I can use for a song. Scott is also a very emotional being and he often writes dramatic stories in his lyrics which I can tell you is very much autobiographical too.  It all comes from the heart from both of us.  Things we can’t say in real life are said in our songs…

4. There's a haunting, surrealist photo banner across your tigmus.com profile: a shot of Jessica leaning impossibly back while a wrapt audience looks on. Which venue are you in: a church or warehouse of some kind? 

Ah yes, that was in a gallery on Crucifix Lane, London Bridge. We played with one of our favourite bands, La Shark.  It’s a great venue and the crowd were really cool too.

5. This surrealist composition of your photos & videos is extremely appealing to us... we were inspired by a recent London exhibition of Lee Miller's photography (including showcase of her involvement with the Surrealists) and, listening to GLASS at the time (Tipping Point had just reviewed "Broken Bones"), we were struck by a stylistic overlap. Are the Surrealist painters a movement you've studied at all, in connection with the recent visuals you've been putting out?

Speaking on behalf of GLASS and our video directors, Mint&Lime Films: whilst not directly referencing surrealism with this film, there are many elements to the movement that influence our work. We admire the combination of humour with darkness and a feeling of unease. The same goes for the songs themselves, for instance an upbeat groove but with melancholic undertones and lyrics.

We were especially interested in The Swimmer (1968) - A superficially glamorous facade of hollywood hiding an underlying psychological trauma. 

After informing Mint&Lime Films by the content of the song, my brother having an overdose, they felt that a still, almost dreamlike mood with a lot of long pauses and distance between the characters would be a powerful accompaniment to the subject - whilst not being too literal.

As our music video directors, they try to enhance and compliment the song by creating a bold visual moment that does not overshadow or confuse from our original message. We mainly stay away from a traditional narrative method to concentrate on an overall feel and emotion.

6. Who is your audience and how do you connect with your fans? Any crazy, fun, exciting stories are very welcome. We know you’re still relatively new to the giging circuit (which is why your rapid rise to busy-ness with gigs at both the Official and Alternative Great Escapes, and Blissfields later in the summer, has been all the more brilliant to behold)!

At the moment we have been picking up fans from doing support shows, I wouldn't be able to say we had a specific type of fan yet but the amount is growing...! Our shows are getting us a lot of press at the moment which is needed as we are in our element playing live! We are proving ourselves at the moment and doing all we can to keep peoples attention, from songwriting to performance.

Our performance is very energetic; we like to keep people on their toes… I love getting in the crowd, breaking the boundary between stage and audience.  Recently I fell into a PA and it flew across the room, I thought it was attached to the floor but it wasn’t and Scott managed to get underneath the stage whilst playing guitar, you could only see his boots sticking out of the side.  I’m covered in bruises from gigs.  We love letting go and losing it in front of a group of people, something very magical about that. I’m bored of boring gigs and I think everyone else is too. Taking that out of the equation, I hope the philharmonic orchestra have some free time in 2017 for GLASS………..  We are actually involving more people for our Daylight Music show at Union Chapel on 18th June - Scott will be playing the real church organ and we are getting live bass synth and drums… I’m really excited to do this show! I can’t wait to sing with a church organ!

7. Are you planning to experiment with a bigger live band sound with orchestral acoustic layers, any time soon? We love the arrangements you’ve already got, and we’re curious to know how they’ll grow as you gig, or what aspects you’re expecting to keep as they are. We were genuinely enamored by a previous project called Hall of Mirrors, with which we believe you were involved before GLASS was born… we’re enjoying the evolution of the soundscape.

Thank you very much!  

In an ideal world the live sound would have live drums mixed with electronic, and rather than backing tracks, it would be nice to have enough people to be able to play all parts live. Having sad that, I'm really enjoying just having two of us on stage, it looks great and the audience won't miss anything with only two of us to watch. Our movements are almost like a choreographed dance sometimes so it's nice to have everything focused on that. Also my laptop is very much part of me, I spend more time on it than with another human being at the moment. We created and recorded all backing tracks so it's probably the truest form to us as there is no one else playing their version of what we want!


8. What does your dream gig look like? Is there an artist you'd love to support? Will you be hoping to tour later in the year, and where would you most love to play... Though about God's Own Junkyard?

Wow, God’s Own Junkyard looks amazing.  Yes we would love to play there.  We are always on the hunt for new places to play.  Our support shows have been in normal venues and the sound is good but the atmosphere is quite stale sometimes.  Whenever we do a headline show, I’d like to avoid those places.  I’ve found a place I’m really excited about for our next main show, I can’t wait to get it all confirmed.  I’d love to support Kyary Pamyu Pamyu on one of her Japanese tours.  We’re a little bit obsessed with her at the moment, we’ll be going to see her play in KoKo in June, so I’ll somehow get that message to her!  She’s so cool.  

Thanks for these questions, they are the best yet!!


Glass will play this Saturday at our showcase with BN1 Mag, in Brighton. Subscribe to this blog for more interviews with our favourite Tigmus artists. And sign up to the mailing list here for playlists & gig announcements.

Wednesday 11 May 2016

Eight questions with Harry Pane


1. Who is Harry Pane? (a short introduction)

Harry Pane is a Singer-Songwriter now based in East London.  Generally enjoying gigging and appreciating music.


2. When was the EP recorded and where? If there is an interesting story behind how you and any producers & session players met and started playing together, please do share.


It was recorded in April at Studio Barxeta in Valencia, with an awesome producer Dani Castelar.  I raised funds by crowdfunding with Pledge Music and then approached Dani to see if he ever worked with unsigned artists, luckily he said yes.


3. We detect a very distinctive and even prevalent Blues sound in your music, yet some modern indie and pop motifs are present as well. How do you find the balance between the two?


It’s just general love for various genres of music & having many influences.  


4. How did you come across the God’s Own Junkyard venue, and the Brackley Fire Station venue? These spaces are exactly the kind that Tigmus is trying to breathe life into, and help fill with music. Will you be planning gigs in more alternative locations, and forests/caves/castles or others you’d love to see host some music?


The story with Gods Own Junkyard is the fact that they have been kind enough to allow me to host there first ever gig there since I’m now local to Walthamstow, there’s a real community spirit here. Brackley is my hometown and the Old Firestation has just had a reverb and we thought it’d be a great place to host a gig.  To answer your other question, I would love to find other interesting venues to perform and maybe host music nights. 

5. Who is your audience and how do you connect with your fans? Any crazy, fun, exciting stories are very welcome.


It’s hard to say exactly, it can range from teenagers to grandparents, it’s just down to personal preference.  I once had someone send a photo to me with my lyrics tattooed on their back!


6. You have recently been through a successful Pledgemusic-funded campaign. Could you describe your experience of working on this type of a project? Is this something you are interested in doing in the future and what would you recommend about it, to other artists?


It took a while, we began setting it up last summer.  It was fairly nerve-wracking to await the conclusion.  It’s a great way to discover new music and for unsigned artists to spread their music and make their music debt free.  I wouldn’t say I wanted to do it this way repeatedly, as much as my fans seem to have enjoyed being part of it, I wouldn’t want to ask any more of them.  


7. Are you planning to experiment with a bigger band sound, an electric sound, an orchestral sound, any time soon? We love the stripped Harry Pane approach and we’re curious to know how that’ll grow or what aspects you’re expecting to keep as they are. 


I always love working with other musicians & would love to get a project set up in the near future, I can sense some of my new music getting slightly heavier in places.  I also love performing with pianists and cellists so therefore an orchestral accompaniment in my live performances would be my idea of heaven.


8. What does your dream gig look like?


My dream gig would be anywhere with great acoustics, where people are comfortable and enjoying themselves.


Harry plays a sold-out show tomorrow night at God's Own Junkyard. He also has another pair of concert in 6 weeks' time, at the Old Fire Station in Brackley (already sold out) and the Sebright Arms in London (some tickets remain via Tigmus and via a Time Out competition - see if you can get your hands on them!). Subscribe to this blog for more interviews with our favourite Tigmus artists. Grab his EP using thiiTunes pre-order link - https://itun.es/gb/cQ7Hcb! And sign up to the mailing list here for playlists & gig announcements.