Eight questions with Sylva Kay

(c) Ian Wallman

1. Who is Sylva Kay? (a short introduction)

English, self-taught multi-instrumentalist, living in Oxford. Named Sylva Megan Hermione Rose Kay. Plays Experimental pop. Lingers around folk music. Moves into blues rock sometimes. Has been much more ‘Alt/Indie rock in the past. Is recording her second album with Grammy Winning record producer Jimmy Hogarth.

2. When was the Heart Of Stone 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.

At the end of 2015 in a shed on wheels in my garden and in Jimmy Hogarth’s former studio in Kilburn.

I had written a live set, which I was gigging with other musicians in London. I’d also recorded a demo in my final year at LIPA which was getting the attention of A&R at several major labels. I also snuck into a seminar iD Magazine were doing for students at Brighton University because I heard Turin Brakes manager was part of the Q&A panel. I approached him after the talk to give him my demo, luckily for me he liked my CD and called me back - from out of a combination of these things I was introduced to producer Jimmy Hogarth. Jimmy's studio and approach was different to all the other producers I also met in and around that time. We’ve kept in touch over the years and now we’re writing and recording my second album together at his new studio in West London.

3. Your website tells us that photography and art were early passions. How do you manage to maintain these alongside your music? The metallic wrapper for the EP is quite unique and eye-catching, how did you come up with that idea?

Having art skills as an independent artist comes in handy. It’s quite easy to maintain because it’s something i’ve always been drawn to, but it is also a necessity. I did the cover art and packaging design for the ‘Heart of Stone EP’ as well as collaborated with another artist Matt Hunt from Spillage Fete Records on the cover and inlay art for Undercut, my first record. I guess it acts as a silent partner beneath the music, and chips in when I’m writing lyrics. I’m very grateful to have it. I do flyers and posters too. 

I wanted to have something that looked strong like metal, iron, rock, earth - to balance my feelings of vulnerability. The environment I perform in most days has had quite an impact on my life. Busking is really hard work. Everyone expects you to be shit so I’ve tried to turn this negativity that I feel people have towards it, and that I sometimes have towards it, into a strength. I could just put a CD in plastic sleeve bought from W H Smiths and print it out on my printer at home, but then that’s what everyone expects. I would rather try and let it reflect my story and make use of my current situation. ‘Yes I work outside, yes I get rained on, yes I’m climbing a mountain everyday. Here’s the work that’s about that in every way’. It makes it good and makes it work for me. It turns what could be seen as a weakness into a strength.

4. How has your solo music developed through your experience playing in bands in the past?

When the songs you write and the mark you make is a collective one, the challenges are very different. The challenge is how be most effective in your small way. How to communicate your ideas and not give in to the impulses to chuck in the towel every week. But I learnt more than I can say. The process taught me everything I’ve needed to now work solo. It’s revealed what’s possible. Working solo after working with a band becomes an exciting opportunity, rather than a daunting, lonely one.

5. Who is your audience and how do you connect with your fans?

With magnets and promises.

6. We see that you busk a lot… where do you enjoy playing particularly and how do people usually respond to it? How does the experience differ from playing a gig?

Somewhere works for a bit. Then one day you go back and it’s changed and it no longer works. So It’s not really specific places I enjoy, but finding somewhere and if it’s good, just enjoying it while it lasts. I like playing small towns. Places where there isn’t too much noise but in truth people tend to respond better when the music acts in contrast to the surroundings. I can handle the cities and have lived in the busiest out there but to me music is an escape. It’s another place in itself and it takes concentration to open up the channels. So anywhere that lets me do that is a good place to me. 

Yeah, the gig is all about efficiency. Meeting expectation and hitting the ground running. If you land well at the beginning, the gig can ripple on and out for days afterwards. Whereas the busking sets feel like they often get lost to the buildings and the air a great many more times. But one needs the other. I get lots of my ideas from playing on the street and lose a lot of my fear and inhibitions because of it.

7. How do you prepare for a show? Any warm-ups you can’t play a show without? How will you be preparing for the upcoming tour with Felix M-B?

A bit like going to bed. Eat. Do everything slowly and methodically to keep myself relaxed. Then brush my teeth. 

For the Felix M-B tour, press ups - slowly.

8. What does your dream gig look like?

I don’t know. I’m not sure I can say, or that I’ve decided. I’m still making my mind up about where I want to be artistically in the future. It could go many different ways at this point. All I would hope for right now is that the show has some swag as well as depth.

Sylva supports Felix M-B on his upcoming Tigmus tour in Bristol, Oxford, London, Brighton, Winchester and Stroud, alongside Lorkin O'Reilly. Info and tickets through our site here.

Eight questions with The Balkan Wanderers

(c) Kristina Kobe

1. Who are The Balkan Wanderers? (a short introduction)

The Balkan Wanderers are a 5­-piece band from Oxford, who formed in 2014. We play gypsy­-indie- punk­-ska music inspired by traditional Balkan artists (e.g. Amira Medunjanin, Šaban Bajramović) and punk and ska bands (e.g. Madness, Rancid). The band consists of Antica Culina (Croatian) on lead vocals and piano, Stu Wigby (British) on vocals and guitar, Clare Heaviside (British) on clarinet and saxophone, Marc Witte (German) on bass and Emma Coombs (British) on drums.

2. When was the band formed and where? If there is an interesting story behind how you guys met and started playing together (it was initially Stu and Antica, right?), please do share.

The band started as the duo of Antica and Stu who met while working in Oxford. Initially we played open mics and friend’s parties: Antica singing covers of traditional Balkan songs with Stu accompanying on guitar, and later also with Clare adding clarinet parts. During this initial period Stu discovered a love of Balkan music. We started to write our own material and the idea of forming a full band, adding bass and drums, seemed as the next logical step. At that point Antica and Stu found themselves performing alongside Marc, and our first drummer Rene, in a friend’s musical­-dance show and we asked them to join the band. Thus, The Balkan Wanderers were formed!

3. There's a very distinctive and even prevalent Balkan sound in your band's music, yet some traditional indie and punk motives are present as well. How do you find the balance between the two?

This balance between different styles seems to be a natural outcome of the differences each person brings to the band – we don’t force a blend of genres on the songs. Also we don’t always set out to write in a certain style. Rather, songs can start with one sound, to which layers of different styles are added, while trying to retain the original feeling.

4. Some of the lyrics are a mix between English and Croatian. What is the idea behind it?

Every language has its own cadence, and Slavic languages seem the natural way to sing Balkan melodies. Antica (who is Croatian) has thus instinctively found singing these melodies in Croatian more natural and we realised how this can actually be combined with English lyrics to produce an interesting mix of languages within the same song. Some of our songs use this bi-­lingual background to add structure to the stories, for example by exploring the same situations from two distinct points of view (e.g. Cairo from our first EP, and Clouds from our forthcoming record)

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

One of the best feelings is when the audience is new to us, and they are not familiar with our style, but they all end up dancing – which is ultimately one of the main points of the music. So, although our audience might be composed of a number of different nationalities and musical tribes, they tend to be united by a susceptibility to infectious Balkan rhythms and melodies.

6. You have recently composed and performed music for William Blake's poems. Could you describe your experience of working on this type of a project? Is this something you are interested in doing in the future?

In the case of working on a song based on existing lyrics, one needs to first try to interpret the meaning of the songs, and the feelings (and the atmosphere) the poem brings. Thus, the melodic outcome of this process is a strange mix between personal experience and the experience of a person who originally wrote the words. It was a quite different process to that which we’re used to, but still very rewarding – we’d definitely be up for similar projects in the future.

7. Are you planning to experiment with the sound?

We don’t have specific plans to deliberately create a new sound – but we do have fairly short attention spans, so inevitably our style is already evolving to some extent. For example, some of the new songs we’re currently working on use chord progressions and rhythms that you wouldn’t tend to find in traditional Balkan music. However, like biological evolution, if our sound changes over time it will be a natural process, not with any grand overarching design.

8. What does your dream gig look like?

A big crowd of different ages, dancing, emotions...
These translated lyrics – from a famous band formed in Sarajevo (Bosnia and Herzegovina) in 1980’s called Plavi orkestar (Blue orchestra)– describe the feeling:

Come on my friends,

Like we used to do on Saturdays

And when we hated Sunday because of Monday

My friends, lets be honest,

Our twenties are on the doorstep

And we need to live and sing

Lets dance like it is a prom night!

The Balkan Wanderers follow up the packed out EP launch we put on for them last year with a show at The Jericho Tavern in Oxford on 19th November, tickets here.

Tig Digs: Lucy Leave 'Fighter Pilot' EP

We're really excited to have booked another show for Lucy Leave at The Cellar on 23rd September (booking info at the bottom of the post!) following on from their EP launch last weekend at Modern Art Oxford. They were joined by a superb line-up of WOLFS, 31hours and Slate Hearts, and the show was to celebrate the launch of their brilliant new Fighter Pilot EP. You can listen to the entire EP on Youtube below, or support the band by buying it digitally or on CD through Bandcamp here.

Lucy Leave at MAO, photo by Ebyan Rezgui.

The recording process involved living room sessions and lots of emailing back and forth, resulting in just over 19 minutes of music, a diverse and superb collection of tracks that remind us why the band are one of our favourites on the scene in Oxford at the moment. A particular highlight is the loud and lively Carry (loving this live video of the track) but the whole thing is pretty great - take a listen below and buy tickets to the Cellar gig!

Lucy Leave play a hometown headline show at The Cellar in Oxford on 23rd September, and you can grab early bird tickets for just £4 here.

Tig Digs: Neverlnd 'Neighbours'

Oxford's Neverlnd have just released Neighbours, the fourth of their monthly tracks (and we love it.) True to form, it's daring and catchy, and signals a slight departure from what we've come to expect of the band - releasing a track a month allows them to constantly develop their sound. All four tracks are free to download through Soundcloud here and well worth a listen!

We love working with the band in Oxford and beyond, and following a superb show at the O2 Academy 2 at the end of last year (Ocelot Mag's gig of the year, no less..) they've played for us a few times this year already, at our Oxford Independent Venue Week show in January, last month at our Alternative Escape showcase in Brighton and a brilliant and intimate headline show at the Jacqueline du Pré Music Building back in April.

After a summer including performances at both Common People and Truck Festival, we're very excited to be putting on their next headline show at Oxford's biggest independent venue, The Bullingdon. The show is on 3rd September and you can grab early bird tickets for just £6 here. Share the show with your friends through the Facebook event here!

Tig Digs: Harry Pane 'Changing' EP

London based singer-songwriter Harry Pane, originally from Northamptonshire, released his new EP Changing last week. We're excited to be working with Harry on a couple of upcoming shows in London and Brackley (details at the bottom of the post), following a sold at show at quirky space God's Own Junkyard last month. 2016 is already proving to be a great year for Harry, winning an award for 'Best Original Artist' through PRS Music, winning #roadtothe100club with Meet & Jam and scoring a slot at this year's Glastonbury - as well as a securing a development fund through Island Records.

A few years since his last release, Harry set up a Pledge Music campaign to gather fan funding to record the new EP, offering exclusive incentives such as signed CDs and house concerts to fans. The EP was recorded in Valencia, Spain with producer Dani Castelar (Paolo Nutini, Snow Patrol) before being mastered back in London with Mandy Parnell (The XX, LCD Soundsystem). 

You can listen to the EP below on Soundcloud, and buy a copy from iTunes here.

It's an intimate and strong collection of tracks, well written, well performed and well produced, showcasing Harry's talent as a musician and storyteller, letting us into his mind for 15 minutes. Opening with the title track Changing, the tone for the EP is well and truly set, with some beautiful guitar play and humming vocals creating an intimate and almost haunting atmosphere. The strength of the EP continues through Ghosts and Karma's Prey, finishing off on a high with the bold and foot stomping Cold Light Of Day. All in all well worth a listen and guaranteed to impress the crowds at the upcoming shows - and definitely worth getting along to see Harry while he's still playing to these small crowds, as his success will bring bigger and bigger shows!

Harry Pane plays EP launch shows for us in London at Sebright Arms on 30th June and his hometown Brackley on 1st July. The Brackley show has been sold out for a while but you can still grab tickets for the London gig! Check out his other upcoming shows near you on his site here.

Eight questions with Vidar Norheim

(c) Mark McNulty

1. Who is Vidar Norheim? (a short introduction) 

I grew up in Molde, Norway. I went to university in Liverpool and fell in love with the place and stayed. I joined Wave Machines and that kept me busy for a few years whilst also working with Lizzie Nunnery on albums and music for theatre. This project includes everything I love about music - playing live, producing, songwriting, playing vibes, singing…

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. 

All the songs on the EP started as home demos. I bumped into Tord Overland Knutsen on a flight back to Norway before Christmas where he asked what Wave Machines were up to. The band were in hiatus mode so I asked if he was up for working on some of my tunes and kick them into shape. Tord is mega busy with other projects such as the Wombats and we met up whenever he had a chance in their studio. We only ever grabbed a day or two but we used them really efficiently. I asked Daniel Woodward in Whitewood studios to mix the tracks. He mixed live soundsfor Wave Machines and worked on an album and EP with Lizzie Nunnery and I. After Tord moved to Norway I wanted to try another producer in Liverpool so I asked Dave Berger of Outfit if he would produce a track for me which became 10 More Miles. Working with him in his studio was brilliant as well. There aren’t many session musicians on the EP but Laura J Martin is guesting on flute on Blind Carbon Copy and Crystalised. We met during Bright Phoenix a play we performed in the Liverpool Everyman and I’ve since played in her band.

3. Under what genre/s do you see yourself as operating? Do you combine multiple sources of rhythmic inspiration when composing your loops or is there a core influence? How does your previous project with Ms Nunnery enter into the latest solo work and how do you find the balance between the two? 

I usually call it alt-pop. It’s hard to be specific about inspiration but generally I love loops that sound home-made and have something organic and unusual about them. I love how brave Sufjan Stevens can be with his beats and how organic The Notwist loops can sound. I include improvisations in my live sets too and I invite guest musicians as much as possible. The project with Lizzie is ongoing and she helps me out lyrically when I’m running on empty.

4. How did you come across the Buyers Club venue in Liverpool? When we discussed shows, you were also looking at some more alternative spaces in Liverpool... Will you be planning gigs in any particularly strange spaces like forests/caves/castles, or the Norwegian churches we see in several locations around the UK?  

I did my first gig with this project in the Buyers Club earlier this year for a refugee benefit. The room has great history as it used to be The Picket, an iconic left wing music venue. Liverpool has some amazing spaces and one I’m currently interested in is the High Park Street Reservoir in Toxteth which is a massive decommissioned Victorian water reservoir. I’ve also always pictured a festival in St James Park - the grounds of the Anglican Cathedral in Liverpool. A tour of Norwegian Seaman’s churches is not a bad idea! The Nordic church in Liverpool is great and gets used quite a lot for gigs these days. I played in the one in New Orleans a few years ago and I’ve got friends who have played most of them across the world…

5. What will 2017 hold for Vidar Norheim: an album perhaps or are we being too eager? 

I’m definitely gonna work hard to follow this EP with an album hopefully in the second half of 2017. I’m currently writing music for a feature film called A World After which should see the light of day in 2017 too. And then there are two theatre projects I’m involved with. Play with songs Narvik by Lizzie Nunnery (produced by Box of Tricks) opened in Liverpool last year and will do a national tour in Feb/March 2017 to theatres in Manchester, Keswick, Shrewsbury, Liverpool, Canterbury, Harrogate and more. There’ll also be another exciting theatre project with dates to be announced soon.

6. Could you describe your experience of working on such a large & complex instrument as the vibraphone? What are the practicalities when it comes to transport and finding spare parts if anything is damaged? We recently worked with Luke Daniels who revived one of the original Polyphon instruments into a gig-worthy state, with funding help from PRS For Music, so we’re fascinated by ancient & complicated instruments and the ways in which they can be regenerated & even enhanced using tech. 

I was drawn to the vibraphone at my music college in Norway. At the time I mostly played classical and jazz pieces so it’s taken me a while to finding a place where I can use it outside those genres. I’ve got an old Trixon set which apparently is from the 50s. The original owner was really sweet and said he used to play it in a dance band in the London area. It is amazingly durable and packs up and down easily. It isn’t much more gear than a drummer or bass player would bring to a gig. There’s a place in Liverpool called Jam Percussion that have helped me out with some spare parts and then there’s always eBay. I’ve heard of people adding pickups to the vibes but I use it acoustically or with effects on the mics, sometimes hitting it with a mic like on the 10540 track. I also have a MalletKat which is a midi vibraphone so I’ll be adding that to the setup soon as well. That will free me up to play any sound and to move between the two instruments easily.

7. Are you planning to experiment with a bigger band sound, an electric sound, an orchestral sound, any time soon? We love the looping you employ - it’s a joy to see one person deftly handle the roles of drumming, vibing, singing and looping - and we’re curious to know how that’ll grow or be replaced by additional performers on stage (or what aspects you’re expecting to keep as they are).  

I’ve got a few musicians in mind that I want to work with when the time is right. At the moment I’m enjoying how uncomplicated it is to organise a rehearsal and to go on tour. But the ambition is definitely to play with more people, either as collaborators or session musicians. I’m also keen to include visuals in the live set and have been talking to artist Scott Spencer about possibilities.

8. What does your dream gig look like?  

Taking over a space with brilliant acts, mini festival, great sound, great visuals. Wave Machines did some brilliant shows called Wave If You’re Really There in collaboration with arts organisation Mercy and it would be fun to be part of something like that again.

Vidar Norheim plays shows for us in July and August, including an EP launch show at Liverpool's Buyers Club on 25th August. Tickets for that show are available here for just £4, and you can see the other dates here!