Bonnie’s sweet ethereal vocals sail over the polyrhythmic backgrounds created between her mandolin, percussion and vocalloops. Her imaginative lyrics tell stories of treehouses, mice, birds, flying and video games.
Described as “dreamy experimental indie folk” and compared to artists such as Bjork and Joanna Newsom, Bonniesongs is creating a unique sound in the Sydney songwriting scene.
Art-folk virtuoso Bonniesongs, aka Bonnie Stewart, released her debut album Energetic Mind in September 2019 via Small Pond and Art As Catharsis.
The album has been proclaimed as one of the top albums of 2019 by Nialler 9, Gold Flake Paint, Low End Theorists, and many more. While previously described as “dreamy experimental indie folk”, Energetic Mind sees Bonniesongs exploring heavier and darker material while also retaining the charm of her earlier releases. Bonnie explains “I think the album is a balance of this ethereal soft sound but also a lot of darker grungy undertones have crept in”.
“Energetic Mind Live” EP is a selection of special live recordings featuring all the tracks from the album. Hearing how Bonniesongs adapts these songs in a live setting shows the depth of the material and the quality of musicianship in both solo and band formations.
Energetic Mind singles ‘Coo Coo’, ‘Ice Cream’, ‘Barbara’, and ‘Frank’ have garnered international radio plays from BBC Radio 6, Triple J, FBi Radio, and RTRFM, as well as press coverage from Paste Magazine, London In Stereo, The Line of Best Fit, CLASH, Tone Deaf, Everything Is Noise, Overdrive Magazine, and a host more.
Australian producer/songwriter Maurice Santiago, who performs under the alias Hearteyes, is heralding a more genreless future with his latest release, even headbangers get the blues. The project, which dropped last month, is deeply introspective and marks Hearteyes‘ second release. Previously, Santiago performed house music as George Michelle and was a member of the post-punk outfit, Death Bells.
On Hearteyes’ new album, which incorporates everything from acoustic fingerpicking to dark, electronic sounds and trap-inspired beats, Santiago is explicitly interested in challenging conventions of how music should be made. “Genre is no longer a boundary, but a malleable, cross-pollinating tool in helping to further articulate an artist’s story,” he says of wanting to make varied music. “Growing up I loved hardcore, nu-metal and punk. I got into so many different genres of music and artists. I wanted to make a project that was reflective of all my tastes.”
On his vulnerable third record “Rock Album” marks a turning point for Santiago where his transition from producer to artist is made clear. On tracks like the avant-garde opener ‘baby, i’m an angel’ to track six, ‘ny superstar’ where his rebellion against formulaic progressions is made clear, does away with genres and rails against norms – hence the ironic album title.
“Everything I write about is deeply personal; with the past two project I tried to dilute a lot of the storytelling with formulaic pop writing tropes, like repeating phrases and creating hooks, but I still felt so dissatisfied,” said Hearteyes. “Rock Album is where I have finally mustered the courage to put everything out there and felt comfortable doing so.”
Having previously served as a member of Death Bells, fans knew what Hearteyes was capable of when he shared his first mixtape last year. Now, with Rock Album serving as his latest record, it’s well within the realm of possibility to believe it might be his most accomplished work yet. Luscious melodies, intricate production, and heartfelt song writing combine to create this visceral document of music in the year 2020.
Rock Album breaks all the rules. Hearteyes’ record is a tour de force in unceasing, boundary-pushing creativity. The Sydney producer has transcended seamlessly to a bona-fide artist. Extreme, chaotic and heartbreaking in equal measures — it cements Hearteyes as one of the most gripping, uncompromising artists in Australia’s pop music canon.
Hearteyes has found a growing fanbase within the last year, though if Maurice Santiago wasn’t a household name beforehand, Rock Album might help achieve that. A dizzying fusion of genres, the record if often disorientating, but its self-awareness and powerful song writing show that this is an album that needs to be listened to a few times before you truly understand everything going on.
Sydney band The Buoys have one last little treat for fans before the release of their new EP All This Talking Gets Us Nowhere, on July 10th. The band have now shared some brand new visuals for their latest single ‘Linda’, which is an anthem for anyone who has ever had a gutful of their boss.
The Buoys deliver no-frills rock with ‘Linda’, pairing relatable songwriting with powerful, blistering guitars and thundering drums to get straight down to business. They aren’t messing around, and they have no time for your bullshit. Keeping things simple dressed entirely in white with a sparse background, the band do what they do best in this clip and simply perform the hell out of their song. Letting their music do the talking for them, they hold nothing back and just let ‘er rip, allowing the viewer to experience all that The Buoys have to offer. Considering they were nominated for Best Live Act at this year’s FBi SMAC Awards, they certainly live up to this hype here.
Speaking about the single, Zoe Catterall (guitar and vocals) said of the song, “Linda is for anyone who’s had a shit boss. After being yelled at and begrudgingly working somewhere just so I could afford rent, I wrote Linda and quit.” All This Talking Gets Us Nowhere is the second EP from The Buoys, following 2017’s self-released Soft Boy.
In making the EP, Zoe stresses the importance of working with a diverse crew of people. “There are so many talented women/non-binary/trans people in the arts and we really wanted to do our best to showcase this,” she says. “We recorded the body of work with Antonia Gauci, a music mastermind, and continue to work with an amazing photographer April Josie who even pieces together the clip for ‘WAH’. Speaking of clips we‘ve worked extensively with Director Clover Ryan who always puts together a diverse team, she worked on ‘Inside Outside’ and ‘Gold’. The glue that keeps it all together is our amazing manager Nat Day.”
The four piece have gone from strength to strength lately, with pre-COVID support slots for the likes of Violent Soho and Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever, as well as sets at Farmer & The Owl and Grampians Festival. Now, with All This Talking Gets Us Nowhere about to be released into the world, the band are making waves for all the right reasons and we cannot get enough. Let’s hear it for The Buoys!
“All This Talk Is Getting Us Nowhere” is out July 10th Released Through Spunk Records.
There’s a loveable charm about Sydney psych outfit The Lazy Eyes. In a video documenting their debut EP, vocalist Itay Shacar anxiously floats an idea over the phone, “Hi Mum, think I’m gonna buy a bass on Saturday… and it’s $2000”. These Aussie teens are blazing a fresh path for psych-pop with a mesmeric throwback sound – and as that dialogue might suggest, they’re not cutting any corners.
Despite having only dropped their first single ‘Cheesy Love Song’ earlier this year, the high school formed band have quickly established themselves as one of Australia’s most promising names. Their blend of vintage instrumentation and explorative feel-good rhythms has lead to comparisons in Tame Impala and King Gizzard. Sure, these names are flung at every new group in their field, The Lazy Eyes debut EP does encapsulate the magic of such heavyweights, packing all signs of another psych giant.
A vast amount of ground is covered in this swirling and sharp three-track release. Opener ‘Tangerine’ brings an instant summer vibrancy with off-kilter pacey basslines and snappy abstract lyricism in lines like, “Tangerine quarantine / My breakfast club’s waiting for me / They’ll do it without me / Marmalade Kool-Aid grade” – you wonder what they’ve been taking and how quickly they can get you some. At the half-way mark, the track breaks down with slowing drums and lurches deep into sludgy stoner-rock territory. It’s an elegant gear shift from dazed-out pop into gritty old school rock’n’roll.
‘The Seaside’ prefers a more reclined groove. There’s cosmic traits and deep production at play here – be it the distant sound of waves crashing against the shore or silky guitar effects. At six-minutes-long, the track lends itself nicely to a meandering and delicate jam, with a crunchy guitar squall to liven things up.
‘Cheesy Love Song’ – fittingly titled – closes as a bells-and-whistles piano ballad. The song flits between pastiche and sincerity, building on the outlandish playfulness of seventies revivalists The Lemon Twigs. Such dizzying romance also bears stark similarity to the sweetened Lennon imitations of Tobias Jesso Jr – it’s all in the execution though. There’s a maturity that suggests this band have been working hard on building on those influences, not solely depending on them.
Dusting off such well-loved old-school sounds can be risky for any band but The Lazy Eyes don’t dwell on imitating the past for too long at any point here. Perhaps it’s their youthful drive – but with an array of psychedelic soundscapes, they seamlessly find fresh joy in old methods. This vibrant introduction easily lives up to some of those heroes they’ve been compared to against – though they’re rightfully too busy having good time to worry about such expectations.
The Lazy Eyes are a 4 piece psychedelic rock band based in Sydney.
The band are Harvey Geraghty (vocals, guitar, keyboard), Itay Shachar (vocals, guitar), Noah Martin (drum kit) and Blake Wise (bass guitar).
Losing someone close to you creates an almost phantom limb-like effect. Often, it feels like they’re a phone call away. But that instant between when you reach for the phone and when your brain delivers the new reality to you is a strange, momentary eternity. It’s both an uncompromising void and maybe as close as you’ll ever come to communing with that loved one again.
Gordi wrote Sandwiches as a tribute to the matriarch of her family. Her late grandmother was, in Gordi’s words, “a great feeder of people.” So when she fell ill, Gordi and her mother took it upon themselves to nourish the visitors gathered around her hospital bed. As they passed around sandwiches, “someone called out that she was gone.”
Sydney-based singer-songwriter Gordi announced her sophomore album with a brand-new single, ‘Aeroplane Bathroom’, which has arrived with a music video.
Gordi – real name Sophie Payten – told NME Australia that the music video is “the visual centrepiece” of her upcoming album, ‘Our Two Skins’, due for release on June 19th on Liberation Records.
“Aeroplane Bathroom” by Gordi, the new song off ‘Our Two Skins,’ out June 26 on Jagjaguwar Records.
A new nineteen-minute journey that continues on from their debut track, ‘Helios Hyperion’, written and recorded in 2014. A regular feature of their live shows, ‘Sun of Hyperion’ was recorded at the same time as their last album, ‘Mydriasis’ and therefore sees them operating as a four-piece once again. This track will take you exactly where you need to go, this time in the comfort of your own home – perfect for the current climate!
Side A
01. SUN OF HYPERION – COMACOZER (19:03) Side B
01. HEX IV: CASSINI’S LAST BREATH – VINNUM SABBATHI (06:50)
02. HEX V: X-15 RESEARCH PROJECT – VINNUM SABBATHI (09:55)
Instrumental heavy psych space rock with a slither of doom from Sydney, Australia.. The Band
Rick – Guitars
Rich – Bass
Andrew – Percussion
Jabs – Synth/Keys
Pacing around the stern of an Etihad flight from Sydney to Europe – at a point in her life where everything was ending, Sophie Payten – the folk-pop singer and producer known as Gordi – chose to begin her new record, ‘Our Two Skins’. Payten had recently completed her medical exams after years of studying to be a doctor, and began the process of ending her “nice, safe, but stagnant” long-term relationship. Coming to terms with a new truth in her identity – which played out against the backdrop of the same-sex marriage vote in Australia – led to an isolated internal state, further fuelled by distance, trying communication and lost love ones.
Written in 20 anxious minutes on that lonely plane to an isolated six weeks in Europe, Payten penned album opener “Aeroplane Bathroom”. “It’s like all the adrenaline of the last two months just dropped away and I had a little nervous breakdown, “says Payten, “thinking about all these big changes. I was seeing my life that I thought was evolving in one direction is now evolving in this other direction.” The song and record open with a question: “Do you see yourself unravelling?”
‘Our Two Skins’ chronicles the intense and impossible time Payten spent renegotiating who she is and how she fits in the world. Payten was eager to bottle the isolation and emptiness she felt during this period of rediscovery of her identity, and the remoteness of Canowindra, the tiny town where Payten’s family has lived for over a century, proved the right location. Here, her internal state – one she describes as being alone and fearful, and with “a galaxy of space” around her – could be seen, felt and recorded. She called upon her friends Chris Messina and Zach Hanson – the producers and engineers responsible for much of the music that comes out of Bon Iver’s April Base studio amongst other things – to help her achieve this sonic goal. No phone reception, no wi-fi, and an outhouse located in a nearby shearing shed. “It was very removed, very isolated,” Payten says. Payten, Hanson and Messina each selected their favourite few instruments and studio tools, and restricted themselves to just those resources while making ‘Our Two Skins’. “We cut ourselves off from all things, including choice, forcing us to be a lot more minimalist in the way that we can create stuff. I find I’m much more creative when I’m surrounded by nothing than when I’m surrounded by lots.”
Gordi shares her new single, “Sandwiches”, a soaring, post-new wave anthem. “Sandwiches” is Gordi’s first new recordingsince her 2017 debut album, Reservoir. Since then, Gordi has collaborated with Troye Sivan, toured with Sam Smith, Julien Baker and more, performed at Eaux Claires alongside The National, Bon Iver and Big Red Machine, and finished her medical degree to become a qualified doctor.
‘Volcanic’, my new track from ‘Our Two Skins’ is now available in all your favourite places. At the heart of the record sit a pair of songs, Volcanic and Radiator. The twin ballads fizzle with the urge to be close to a person – a bittersweet truth knowing Payten was far from her partner and reckoning with the love of her family as she made them. “I wrote Volcanic that night. It was a kind of exorcism.” Radiator is similarly loaded with stakes, a resignation and a great letting go: of course I have to love you.
At a piano in a warehouse on a river in Berlin beside the old East Germany broadcast centre, I finished writing ‘Volcanic’. I had written the lyrics while I was in Stockholm about the warring states I sometimes find myself in; shutting down and exploding. I thought of a volcano – sitting dormant, appearing as though all is calm while ferociously bubbling to the surface and spilling over before you have time to process what has happened.
I recorded this song with Chris Messina and Zach Hanson in a small cottage built in the 1860s on my parents’ farm outside of Canowindra, along with the rest of the record. The video for ‘Volcanic’ was made in Canowinda, too. My talented friend Madeleine Purdy directed it on a 43-degree-celsius day. Go check it out to see me diving in a pool repeatedly as a dust storm rolls in.
“A big theme of the record is: there’s nothing to hide behind. We didn’t have all the bells and whistles. You’re just standing there, with your hands in your pockets going: this is me. This is it. This is all I have.”
Tom Compagnoni’s film The Forgotten Sydney Of AC/DC is launched online – features archive footage and interview clips with band’s early members,
A new documentary exploring AC/DC’s early days in Sydney has been launched online. The project was helmed by Tom Compagnoni and features archive footage along with interviews with early band members Dave Evans, Mark Evans, Noel Taylor, Rob Bailey and Tony Currenti. The Forgotten Sydney of AC/DC sees them sharing their recollections from the mid-70s, including rehearsals, filming their first video at Cronulla’s The Last Picture Show, and the moment Angus Young first appeared in his famous schoolboy uniform at Victoria Park Pool.
A statement on the film reads: “AC/DC was indisputably born and bred in Sydney but there aren’t the statues, plaques and laneways that other cities have to show the origins of one of the biggest rock bands of all time.
“Take a high-voltage trip through Sydney and learn about the forgotten haunts and the story that shaped AC/DC.”
The film also has footage from after Malcolm Young’s funeral in the city, while the guys lament the decline of Sydney’s live music scene.
The story of AC/DC’s formative years in Sydney is told through the recollections of early members Mark Evans (bass player 1975-77), Noel Taylor (drummer 1974) and Rob Bailey (bass player 1975-75). They recall band rehearsals and social events at the Young family home in Burwood, seeing Angus first don his schoolboy outfit at Victoria Park Pool, filming the first video clip in The Last Picture Show in Cronulla and recording their first album at Albert Studios on King St in the heart of Sydney.
Meanwhile in Penshurst, Tony Currenti, an Italian immigrant and owner of Tonino’s Penshurst Pizzeria, tells the story of how he unexpectedly became the drummer on AC/DC’s debut album, High Voltage. After completing work on the album, Tony declined an offer to formally join the band – and then watched as they became one of the biggest groups in the world. Tony still works in the pizza shop, its walls lovingly adorned with AC/DC posters, records and photos from his brief time in the band.
All members reflect on Sydney’s role in shaping AC/DC and more generally on the decline of Sydney as a live music hub.
Earlier this month, Vocalist Brian Johnson sent a message to AC/DC fans during the online Bonfest celebrations.
There’s been much speculation about his return to the fold after he was forced to stop touring with AC/DC back in 2016.
He appeared to confirm his return to the band back in January last year after being spotted outside a Vancouver studio with drummer Phil Rudd in August 2018.
“Born out of magic and hopelessly romantic. A message from the fire. The flames are burning higher and ever so brightly, softly, sweet scars & beauty, death like, so lovely. Ghosts and Gods sing Pharaoh melodies”. Natalie De Silver founder of The Dandelion describes her band. This four-piece group take 60s psych influences and ghostly sounds into modern world. We had a lovely chat with Natalie, while the flute and the organ ring out in the night…My studio is my home and I mostly record music in my lounge room. Sometimes I write songs in my kitchen or bedroom. I like composing songs on either guitar, organ or drums first, then I just make the rest up. I have an old cassette recorder I like to record on. However, the next Dandelion record we’re going into a proper studio which is really exciting!. for independent artists like us who sell our own music through sites like Bandcamp or at our own shows and mange our own social media platforms it’s very personal. The Dandelion originally began as a solo recording project for Daniel Poulter (1981-2015) who recorded Strange Case of The Dandelion.
During the recording of The Dandelion’s 2nd album “Seeds Flowers & Magical Powers of The Dandelion” 2014/2015, Daniel gracefully handed over all creative duties to Natalie de Silver who can be heard subtlety coming through the album’s mix and main themes. Natalie is currently working on a third album to be released very soon!
True spirituality is also taking responsibility for your role within the creation process and once you find a positive rhythm within in it then you will begin to truly understand what God is. I strongly recommend to anyone who is even remotely spiritual, that you find a disciplinary belief system or religion to subscribe to Otherwise you’ll have no spiritual structure or grounding and what often happens to the “spiritual but not religious” is a false self justification of being on the “right path” and this often leads to spiritual gluttony, substance abuse and self indulgence which will ultimately disconnect you from reality and God.
Sure, so the first step is to discern what is good for you and what is bad for you and how it might affect other people. This is not an overnight process, however, if you have the ability to feel remorse and empathy towards anything other than yourself, then discernment should come quite easily, It’s much more beneficial to see how your bad habits might be negatively affecting others as opposed to just yourself as bad habits are often strangely enjoyable and, if you give up a bad habit just for yourself, then you’ll most likely just trade it for another bad habit to meet your own needs.Last year, The Dandelion joined the Gizzfest, curated by Ozzie favorites King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard.
“Sometimes I feel like we’re just sleepwalking through our lives. We’re not really present.” Hazel English wants us to open our eyes. Through her shimmering, daydream-pop, the California based singer-songwriter is on a mission to rattle the cages of our very existence, asking us to dig deep and ask challenging questions of ourselves. “Wake UP!”, her debut album, is a call to arms: an attempt to “make people become more aware and mindful,” she says.
Since debuting with bittersweet single ‘Never Going Home’ in 2016, the Sydney-born artist has felt the urge to connect with her listeners in a meaningful way. Blending wistful, candid lyricism with jangling psych and beach-pop sounds, English’s compelling song-writing has earned her over 25 million streams, airplay on BBC Radio 1, 6Music and Beats, praise from Lauren Laverne and Annie Mac, and press acclaim with double EP Just Give In/Never Going Home labelled by The 405 as “one of the strongest records of the year”. 2019 saw her gain an even wider audience after touring with Lord Huron and Death Cab For Cutie.
Where the double EP was very much a lo-fi, bedroom-produced record, English left her home setup behind in favour of roomy recording studios and tapped up session players for her debut album. Bigger, lusher, and more live-sounding, the LP shows a new side to English: one that conveys the joy and excitement of collaboration. Drawing from a more grandiose sonic palette while pulling on the same sun-kissed thread of her previous work, half of the record was made in LA with super-producer Justin Raisen (Sky Ferreira, Charli XCX, Angel Olsen), while English flew to Atlanta to work with Ben H. Allen (Deerhunter, M.I.A, Animal Collective) on the other half.
Listening to the record, it should come as no surprise that ‘Revolver’-era Beatles, The Mamas & The Papas, The Zombies and Jefferson Airplane were all at the forefront of her mind while recording. “Radical messages need a raw and vibrant backdrop to pop,” she says, and she’s kept her trademark sunshine-filled sound that fits her Los Angeles dwelling, but with bigger, stirring choruses. It’s a testament to English’s writing style and ear for a hook that she won’t make anything that she couldn’t play stripped back to its bones, refusing to rely on production to carry a song. Standouts like the infectious ‘Off My Mind’ and ‘Like A Drug’, with its swirling hypnosis, find English’s songcraft at its most accomplished.
Lead single ‘Shaking’ wears its ‘60s psych influences on its paisley patterned sleeve. Written by Hazel and frequent collaborator Blake Stranathan (Lana Del Rey), it was a painstaking effort: “I just couldn’t rest until I had gotten it to a place where it felt like I could sleep at night. And I’m really glad I did,” she says. Tackling themes of power, lust, manipulation, pleasure, and control, its Erin S. Murray-directed video strikes right at the heart of this idea, finding English as the charismatic ringleader of her own Manson-esque cult, manipulating her subjects in a baby doll dress and beehive hairstyle. “It presents the promise of a spiritual awakening as a kind of seduction,” she says.
An open sufferer of anxiety, English wrote the record following something of an existential crisis. Stuck and isolated, she felt like life was becoming a series of mundane objectives. She began asking herself: “am I happy? Do I like the direction I’m going in life? Am I engaged with my community? Do I feel connected to others?” English realised that the answers to all these questions were, for her, resounding nos. The album’s title became a kind of personal mantra to her – “a reminder to wake up and be present in a time where we are used to switching off and looking for constant entertainment,” she says. “[‘Wake UP!] will mean something different to everyone. Like, oh yeah, I’ve been sleeping on this goal of mine, or I need to spend more time with my kids. It’s for whatever people need to confront.”
Obsessing over old movies and vintage clothing since the age of 15, English took cues from surrealism, dadaism and the writings of sci-fi novelist Philip K. Dick for the record. She wrote words before she became a musician – before a student exchange programme prompted her San Francisco move, English was studying creative writing in Melbourne and writing poetry prolifically. After reading Guy Debord’s 1967 book The Society of the Spectacle, English began pondering our obsession with self-image. In it, Debord considers how we get caught up in the ‘spectacle’: How am I perceived by others? How can I make it seem like I’m successful? English draws parallels from the ‘60s text with our social media-crazed present as “essentially creating a fabricated version of yourself and making sure it seems like you’re living this amazing life. It’s not a true experience. That just makes us unhappy, I think.”
Confronting issues with the rampant, consumerist nature of capitalism and “our human propensity for dissatisfaction,” Wake UP! also explores power struggles, with English looking at how shifting dynamics affect relationships, be it in the music industry or in romantic life. The record dives into unbalanced power dynamics, be it “feeling stuck in a one-sided relationship where the other person cares less,” “needing space in order to seek power within myself, or feeling like I’m the one holding all the cards in a relationship.”
Wake UP! is a rallying call to our 2020 selves; a reminder of what our core values are, packaged up in a glorious, sparkling record. “I hope I can inspire others to also search for their inner truths and find their own inner strength in the process,” English says. “I wanted to create something really dynamic, and kinda wild.”
The Fat Angel Sings 