Let’s be fair, ticket touting is one of the most frustrating aspects of being a music fan. You could spend hours in front of your computer, getting ready to buy tickets to an upcoming gig, only to see that touts have beaten you to the punch, and have listed those same tickets for three times the price on resale sites.
One of the most recent artists to come out against this holy unfair practice is Vance Joy. As reported a couple of days ago, Vance Joy has partnered up with ticket resale service Twickets to ensure that those who wish to purchase or sell tickets to his upcoming concerts don’t get ripped off, or manage to rip anyone else off. It is a much-needed approach to ticket sales in Australia and definitely should be practised here in the UK, and here’s hoping that VanceJoy’s involvement in the service leads to most, if not all, musicians supporting a platform like this, crushing those awful scalpers in the process.
I’ve always loved making music videos and if I could I would make one for every song. I especially wanted to make a video for ‘All That Fear’ and came up with the idea to film a video where the only thing that changed in each shot was the placement of natural light.
My husband Will Morris filmed this in our hotel room in Brisbane using the light coming in from our one window. It was our first night in Australia, I was pretty jetlagged, had no makeup on, unwashed hair and I had nothing to hide. I wanted to show you a side of me that for so long I wouldn’t have shown anyone and a side of me I’ve grown to love. The natural me, the real me.
I think music can show so many different sides of a person and I wanted this video to reflect that. Once we had filmed it we sent the files from Australia to England and my friend George Cotterhill (who filmed my video for ‘Is This Called Home’) edited together the footage for us and here’s the end result. Lucy Rose
Christopher Paul Stelling is a songwriter based in New York City.
Having been building a reputation as a formidable and passionate performer, his debutalbum, “Songs of PraiseandScorn” saw its release way back in February 2012 to much acclaim. Christopher has played well over 150 shows in 2012, and continued touring through the beginning of 2013. After an upcoming european tour, his followup record False Cities was released May 21st 2013.
Stelling’s official debut album was self released on February 21st, 2012.Songs of Praise and Scorn was recorded with friends over a 5-day period in August 2011 in a 200-year-old, actively working funeral home in Kentucky. Fifteen songs were recorded, but only 10 made the cut for the actual album. The album was met with very favorable reviews, prompting The Village Voice to say, “Every song on his debut album Songs of Praise and Scorn cooks with both down-home comfort and avant-garde brio, Stelling building earthy folk troubadour stories over a fluster of wild arpeggios.”American Songwriter noted, “Stelling is an artist who can leave one shaking one’s head in bewilderment over how somebody can play difficult guitar parts and sing a completely disparate melody line at the same time. But he also hasn’t forgotten how to just play simple chords when that’s what a song calls for.
In the process of writing and recording her new album, Richmond, Va.-based singer-songwriter Natalie Prass ran into what has become a familiar artistic roadblock nowadays: the 2016 U.S presedential election.
Prass had her album written, her band assembled, her studio booked … and had to change course completely after you-know-who somehow came out on top. The result was The Future and The Past, due out on June 1st via ATORecords, the follow-up to Prass’ breakthrough, self-titled debut and her covers EP Side by Side, both released in 2015. the press release for the new album “finds Prass tapping into deep, dancey grooves that glisten with ‘80s pop and ‘90s R&B, nestled alongside quivering, lushly orchestrated ballads.” The first of those is “Short CourtStyle,” the video for which debuts here.
Directed by Prass herself and Erica Price, with Jethro Waters (Angel Olsen) as Director of Photography, the “Short Court Style” visual features a colorfully dressed Prass bringing jubilation to an otherwise-dreary park in her home state. She spins on a merry-go-round, performs with ribbon dancers and generally delights. “Short Court Style” itself is equally joyous: Prass offers figurative revolutions to match the video’s literal ones, singing, “Oh you spin me round / Round and round / Had ups and downs / No but I can’t be without / My love that I have found.” The song’s irresistible groove makes for a slick and spirited showcase of Prass’ exquisite vocals, emphasizing her R&B leanings in irresistible fashion.
Prass recalls the rocky road that led to her uplifting new album:
The record was ready to go, and then the election happened. I was devastated. It made me question what it means to be a woman in America, whether any of the things I thought were getting better were actually improving, who I am and what I believe in. I knew I would be so upset with myself if I didn’t take the opportunity to say some of the things that meant so much to me, so I decided to rewrite the record. I needed to make an album that was going to get me out of my funk, one that would hopefully lift other people out of theirs, too, because that’s what music is all about.
Prass recorded The Future and The Past in Richmond with long-time collaborator Matthew E. White at his Spacebomb Studios, teaming up with artists including Blue (Solange’s A Seat At The Table, Blood Orange, Carly Rae Jepsen) and Michael Brauer (Elle King and James Bay).
The new album from Natalie Prass, The Future and the Past, out June 1st
Spring is a time of rebirth and renewal—both for the individual and, obviously, the environment. Winter releases its grasp, the trees turn green, and flowerbeds come back to colorful life. But before flowers can bloom or those vegetables can sprout, there are a million little things that need to be done: there are bulbs to be planted, earth to till, seeds to be watered. So it’s fitting that Haley Heynderickx is releasing her debut record, the gentle and gorgeous I Need to Start a Garden, as the new season starts to peek around the corner. Throughout the album, Heynderickx focuses on the small moments in life—those necessary moments of toil and work that, ultimately, cause a person to grow. And though the album’s title refers to a literal garden, it should be noted that it’s aspirational.
“I grew up with some really wonderful gardeners,” she says. “My mother, for example, has really good intuition of what to plant and how. I was always bad at science in school. I want to get to know nature better.”
On I Need to Start a Garden, it often feels like Heynderickx has been getting to know herself better, too. “Show You a Body” is a stark, striking number where piano flutters between gently-strummed guitar and Heynderickx’s bell-clear voice. “I am humbled by breaking down,” she sings. On “The Bug Collector,” Heynderickx reconciles herself with her desire for perfection, and on “Oom Sha La La,” she sounds as though she’s working through her own insecurities in real time. “I’m tired of my mind getting heavy with mold / I need to start a garden,” she sings, building up to a shout as she repeats the lyric that gives the record its title.
Despite the songs’ effortless beauty—classic folk and Appalachia built around Heynderickx’s equally old-timey voice—the record didn’t come easily: it took three tries with three different producers for I Need to Start a Garden to bear fruit. Most of the issues came down to bad timing, but Heynderickx nevertheless found herself repeatedly wondering whether or not she wanted to keep going.“I felt like an onion, just so many layers of insecurity and weeping over not knowing how to do it right,” she says. “I found the right people with the right intentions, and it kind of became a labor of love, which is what I wanted it to be all along.”
The record isn’t Heynderickx’s only passion project—she also works as a teacher in an after-school music program helping middle-school students form rock bands. As they learn their instruments and write songs with a mentor’s guidance, the students learn about communication, self-actualization, and collaboration with each other. That, too, has found its way into Heyndrickx’s work. “It humbles me, getting to see them through different phases of feeling embarrassed and feeling empowered, and trying new things,” she says. “It makes music more human to me.”
Heynderickx has a keen eye and ear for those tender moments of humanity, and those observations turn up most explicitly in “Untitled God Song.” The track is a poignant take on spirituality: God doesn’t have to be some omnipotent force; rather, it’s possible to find tethers to something bigger than yourself through unconventional forces. Heynderickx sings that maybe her god has thick hips, a knockoff designer bag, and “a trot in her walk.”
At the time that she wrote it, Heynderickx says that she was struggling to find emotional support in her life. But she found unexpected strength through the advice of older women—most of them strangers, like customers at the bakery where Heynderickx once worked—who somehow happened to show up and say the right thing at exactly the right time.
“And then you’re crying at your customer service job because this older lady just saw the root of what you’re going through,” she says with a laugh. “It’s a really wonderful experience. Kind of embarrassing, but it’s kind of cool when someone older can see through you for a second. Recognizing those people in our lives that feel sacred—that was my way of saying thank you to that force, whatever it was.”
Though Heynderickx has her first record behind her and a long stretch of U.S. touring ahead of her, she says she’s still unsure what she’ll do next, artistically. “I have a lot of groundwork to do again, finding that safe space in myself to create again. I just want to write songs that feel honest and feel good to share, she says. “I hope I get to just do this again.” In the meantime, though, there’s always that garden to tend to.
Anna Burch is an anxious person,. the former Frontier Ruckus and Failed Flowers member sounds overwhelmed by everything that goes into releasing a solo album. Aside from writing every song on Quit the Curse, the singer/songwriter also handles the business side of the project.
“Every time I open my socials I’m so overwhelmed by how many notifications there are,” she says with a nervous laugh. “It’s been a little source of anxiety, for sure.” When it comes to the record itself, though, Burch was not by herself. With the help of producer Paul Cherry and engineer Collin Dupuis, along with numerous studio musicians, she was backed by a strong team. But the album is still hers, and for a woman who’s used to putting out records with bands, it’s a little intimidating.
“I’m feeling more vulnerable,” she admits. “[Quit the Curse is] under my name and my words and choices are being scrutinized—even though, of course, it was a collaborative effort. Other people helped make the record and played on the record, but it’s still under my name and any criticism is going to be completely directed at me.”
Fortunately, the album’s initial responses have been nothing but positive, and for that Burch is thankful. “I’m really overwhelmed by all the positive responses,” she says humbly. “It’s more than I expected—it feels great.”
That feeling is more than deserved; Burch’s musical journey has been a long one. From becoming a touring musician at the age of eighteen to getting burnt out and quitting music altogether to focus on grad school, her adult life has been a whirlwind. She’s dealt with toxic relationships, family drama, and substance abuse, and moved forward from it all. And despite being relatively new to the world of writing her own music, the Detroiter is pretty damn good at creating what she likes to call “bummer pop”—music that juxtaposes buoyant instrumentation with heavy subject matter.
“Thinking about writing those songs in a very melancholic, singer/songwriter way doesn’t seem cathartic or helpful to me,” she explains. “I wanted to make music that made me happy and that I would want to listen to.”
Seeing Alvvays for the first time, without knowing anything about the band, also helped Burch realize the direction she wanted to take her music. “I was pretty blown away,” she gushes. “And I think seeing that kind of band—electric guitars, drums, vocals—it struck me very deeply. So I was kind of like, ‘Yeah, I think I want a pop rock band backing up [my] songs.’ It was so elating, but also very emotional.”
Writing about hard times is also a therapeutic exercise for Burch. “I try to dig back into what I was feeling, and it kind of feels like there’s this weird split mentally,” she recalls. “It’s hard to tap back into that stuff in some ways, and critically think about the emotions and writing process.” And when she hits the stage, she feels that release even more. “It’s still fun performing [the songs],” she says. “I feel like I’m able to emote properly onstage without getting lost in this reverie of being overwhelmed by emotions. I think writing the songs really did the work of helping step back and be able to look in from almost an outsider’s perspective.”
Since the move to Detroit, Burch has put the past behind her. After a “messy” adjustment period, her life has slowed down a bit. “I stay in a lot—I have a steady partner that I’ve been with for three years,” she says, with a sense of peace. “Things are very different.”
So what will the future bring for Anna Burch? “I’m hoping to tour this record really hard and then get to a point where I can make the best record I can the next time around,”she says—and it’s easy to cheer her on.
Liza Anne is a singer-songwriter from Georgia now operating out of Nashville. Her melodies are obscenely catchy and her lyrics bite with honesty, yet her music brims with finesse even when it rocks out, as on the song “Paranoia,” which was the lead single from her upcoming Arts & Crafts debut Fine But Dying. Today she follows that up with the closing song on the debut “I’m Tired, You’re Lonely.”
Specifically, look out for Fine But Dying, the Nashville singer-songwriter’s forthcoming debut album. She’s showed off her range with three advance singles: the sneakily explosive pop-rocker “Paranoia“; the tearful, country-tinged lament “Closest To Me“; and the hard-charging “Small Talks,” and now we get a fourth flavor via sparse, emotionally charged album closer “I’m Tired, You’re Lonely.” She tweeted that it’s her favorite song on the album:
Chloe Foy is a singer-songwriter based out of Gloucester, England with a natural songwriting ability that calls to mind the beauty folk talents of Laura Marling. The reason why is pretty obvious on her staggering lovely “Flaws,” a track taken from her 2017 EP “Are We There Yet?”
She will make the trip to Austin this year for SXSW but as we all can relate, the trip is very expensive. So Foy has taken to PledgeMusic to try and raise some funds and offer some nice rewards in exchange. You can find the campaign here and if you can spare the money, help her get to SXSW.
You can grab a taste of “Flaws” below and find the whole EP available to stream or buy at Bandcamp.
Sara Renberg is a songwriter hailing from Portland and now based out of Pittsburgh. Having recently released her second album, Night Sands, on the excellent Antiquated Future Records, Sara has this week shared the album’s second single, and stand-out track, Elderly Lesbians.
Discussing Night Sands, Sara has suggested it’s a record about being, “thirty-two, gay and single”,the album muses on the theme of simultaneously fearing and craving intimacy. Jangly lackadaisical guitars drift atop lo-fi, cymbal heavy drum beats, all topped with Sara’s conversational vocal style. Lyrically it really shines, Sara walking the similarly mundane-surreal tight-rope perfected by the likes of Frankie Cosmos and The Mountain Goats as she comically recalls googling, “elderly lesbians to cheer myself up but all the results were porn”, before hitting straight to the emotional core with the repeated line, “I’m still not sure exactly what it means to be living in exile from old dreams”. A wry observer of the minutiae that make life both crushing and beautiful, Sara Renberg and her elderly lesbians are wonderful.
The second single from Sara Renberg’s sophomore album “Night Sands.” Out February 2nd, 2018 on Antiquated Future Records.
There’s nothing quite like watching an old flame depart for the final time — the inevitable, sparkling rush of memories, the way shared experiences suddenly rise and flicker through the veins. It’s a setting Freya Ridings captures beautifully in “Lost Without You,” an exquisitely crafted pop ballad that cuts straight to a tender place. Between delicately sprinkled piano chords, the UK songstress repurposes heartbreak into soaring yet pained clarity, each billowy confession taking on deeper resonance until a final, cloying reminder that her own decision started it all.
The Fat Angel Sings 