WHO is she? “My name is HARMONY BYRNE and I have no idea who I am. I think the older I get the less I know myself which is a really nice feeling actually. I have played music since I was a tiny little thing. I think I started playing music because my mum really encouraged it. Neither of my parents are musical but saw the benefits of having it in their home, just as important as having food on the table. Having a creative outlet not only helped me and my 6 siblings navigate life but navigate each other. Playing with each other taught us so much more than notes on a page: it taught us to listen, to communicate, to be respectful, to accept mistakes and to help each other out.”
WHAT is the inspiration behind her songs? “All I write about is my life experience, whether that’s personal or observational. I’m just a conduit for stories and contemplations. I discover new meanings in my songs all the time. I write them down, but who knows where they actually come from. I’m happy to take the credit for their mysterious appearance, though.”
Photo: Jess Brohier
WHERE did she grow up? “I grew up in Melbourne, Australia, which has made me a very capable artist I think. We do almost everything ourselves, which we take a lot of pride in, and the quality of music that exists in Australia is world class. It’s a wonderful scene that holds you, but also can hold you a little too tightly. It’s far away from the rest of the world, which has it’s charm. But once I left Australia, I realised that our industry is smaller than I thought and that if I wanted to really get my music out there, as I think it deserves, then I needed to make a sacrifice and leave my little island home.”
WHY are people drawn to her music? “Because it is honest.”
WHO is she? “I’m ELIZA SHADDAD. A Sudanese/Scottish musician based in London. I sung pretty much from birth apparently and I studied piano at school. I wrote my first song aged 8 and I got my first guitar at 16. I learned about music at folk festivals, which I used to work at during summer holidays, and then after studying Philosophy at Uni I went to a conservatoire to study Jazz.”
Eliza’s debut album Future is out on 28th October on Beatnik Creative.
WHAT is the inspiration behind her songs? “I think the lyrics are pretty straightforward really. I’m mostly inspired by emotions and personal relationships, though I strive to widen that view. Musically I guess my forthcoming album has shades of folk storytelling combined with 90s grunge and trip hop and East Coast surf pop.”
Photo: Melanie Tjeong
WHERE did she grow up? “My mum worked abroad so me and my brother grew up in Spain, Nigeria, Poland, Slovakia and Russia. I loved it, and I think I love escaping because of it. And that informs my relationships, which in turn informs my music. I guess I’ve been exposed to a lot of different sounds and musical structures which has influenced the way I write too.”
“I live in London now so the music scene is pretty epic.”
WHY the title Future for her debut album? “Because it was time to move on.”
WHEN can I see her live? “I’m on tour with BETH ROWLEY this month, TURIN BRAKES next month, and then we have headline UK dates in November and in Europe in December. Come :)”. Tickets here.
WHO are they? BILKare SOL ABRAHAMS(vocals and guitar), LUKE HARE (bass) and HARRY GRAY (drums).
“The band has been going for about three years now, playing with different members and writing the tunes. Just slugging it around Chelmsford, Essex playing dead venues and trying to get people to listen to the demos” says BILK‘s lead singer. “The final line up came about a year a go when LUKE joined, we met through Instagram and everything just clicked.”
WHAT is the inspiration behind their songs? “The songs are just about life in general and some of the experiences I’ve gone through and also the things that surround me growing up where I live. I’m not trying to make a statement with the lyrics, it’s simply just commenting on the, sometimes bleak, reality of things and being honest.”
“Musically, inspiration is drawn from THE JAM, ARCTIC MONKEYS, JAMIE T, THE STREETS and THE SEX PISTOLS.”
Debut single Give Up, produced by RICH TURVEY (BLOSSOMS, THE CORAL) at Parr Street Studios in Liverpool, is about “the idea of not giving up your aim when you’ve got your surroundings and other things going on in life distracting you. Hence the ‘trying not to flop my college course and then get employed’ bit.”
WHERE are they from? “We grew up and spent our teenage years in Chelmsford, Essex. Chelmsford has influenced some of the lyrics that have been put into the songs as it’s a boring place and not much is ever really happening. The music scene in Essex is proper dead as there’s no (or not many) interesting bands. It’s more DJs and rappers.”
“This has shaped us a band as it’s taught us to keep grinding and working hard for it as it’s difficult getting gigs round where we live and it makes it hard for bands to gain a following.”
WHY are they called Bilk? The name BILK was inspired by SOL’s dad who is a London cabbie. “Getting ‘bilked’ is slang for when a cabbie has a customer that runs off without paying the fare…”.
WHEN can I see them live? “We have got a load of shows down south that are being booked at the moment including local shows in Essex and also London shows.” Find all dates here.
WHO are they?
“We are BORN RUFFIANS. We began playing together in high school, around 15 or 16. LUKE LALONDE and I (STEVE HAMELIN) became friends because he was the only person I met with similar musical interests and he was a nice guy. MITCH DEROSIER is LUKE’s cousin and started learning bass in high school too, so he was a natural fit. He’s a jerk.”
BORN RUFFIANS’ new album, Uncle, Duke & The Chief, produced by RICHARD SWIFT, will be released on February 16th via Paper Bag Records.
WHAT is the inspiration behind their songs?
“I do not want to speak for LUKE, but lyrically I would say he is often working through whatever he is thinking about in his life at that time. Sometimes he is writing from the point of view of a character, but often that character is someone he has recently encountered or is dealing with something that he is also thinking about. I would say his lyrics can be quite personal (even if they don’t always appear so).”
“Musically we cast a wide net for inspiration. We have a lot of common ground between the three of us, but the most obvious would be growing up listening to THE BEATLES, which is obviously not a very unique answer, but it’s an honest one.”
WHERE are they from? “We all grew up in a small town called Midland, Ontario. Now MITCH and I live in Toronto and LUKE bounces between Brooklyn and Toronto. Midland and Toronto have both shaped us as a band.”
“If there was any kind of scene in Midland when we were in our teens it was a “punk” scene, and I use punk in heavy quotes. It was a very weak, mainstream, mall punk scene. The irony was, those of us who weren’t into that music were teased at shows for playing different shit. So, in some roundabout way we had a more punk rock mentality of “fuck em, we’ll play what we like” and all the other bands were just playing the same cheesy genre as each other.”
WHY are they called Born Ruffians? “At this point, I don’t even remember, so I guess the best (or worst) answer is why not? Sorry ’bout that.”
WHEN can I see them live? Check tour dates and buy tickets here.
WHO are they? Fast Romantics are Matthew Angus (lead singer, guitar), Jeffrey Lewis (bass), Kirty (vocals, acoustic guitar, synth), Kevin Black (guitars), Lisa Lorenz (keyboards) and Nick McKinlay (drums). Their new single Why We Fight is produced by the dynamic duo of Gus Van Go and Werner F (Arkells, Wintersleep, Whitehorse) and is taken from forthcoming album released via Light Organ/Postwar Records in Spring 2017.
Matthew tells us how the Toronto 6-piece came together. “We’ve all been playing music since we were kids. I guess we play music together because we have to. Because we wouldn’t know what else to do if we didn’t play music. I’ve heard other artists say that and it always seemed like a cop-out, but lately I think I get what they mean. It’s not the easiest thing in the world to do, but there’s a pull to music that we couldn’t escape if we wanted to.”
“I reformed our band like a billion times, until we found the right group of people. I’ve been telling people we’re pretty much a new band, there’s only a couple members (myself and our bass player Jeff) from the original crew. But we’re the tightest friends ever now, all that exploring was worth it.”
WHAT is the inspiration behind their songs? “I’ve realized since finishing the record that these all started as love songs, but the world and its weirdnesses quickly snuck its way in. A lot of the songs have their roots in romance and relationship stories, but are littered with experiences and perspectives that came from touring and recording in the USA.”
“The election was going on and every time we hit a new town you’d hear one group of people freaking out about Trump, or another group of people really excited about Trump. It was fascinating, and emotional, and hard to process, and in a way, impacts your perspective on even trying to be a normal person having a normal relationship.”
Their new single Why We Fight “started out as a song about myself, about what it is that drives me to even be in a band in the first place. But it quickly evolved into an ode to anyone who finds themselves hungry for something that might seem out of reach.”
“So the music has its roots in love songs, but the new album is as much about bizarre politics, the impact of the media on the way people think, and everybody’s modern obsession with technology. All of these themes found their way into the songs.”
“Musically, we’re mutts. So many different influences came into the making of this thing. We love older music like Springsteen, Bowie, pretty much all Motown, Paul Simon, Fleetwood Mac, Neil Young. But people like Jarvis Cocker have really influenced me as a writer and frontman. And we’re pretty much obsessed with modern music of all kinds. There’s no one inspiration in this band.”
WHERE are they from? “The band has its roots in a town in western Canada called Calgary around 2009, but we quickly moved to the music mecca of Toronto”.
“Places are sometimes all a song is. As Canadians, you’re always subject to the whims of the giant noisy country just south of you, and like I said earlier, touring America had a massive impact on these songs. But growing up in Canada leaves a permanent imprint on you.”
“My young days in Alberta played a role in a lot of the songs (there’s a song called Alberta on the record), and various imagery from our life in Toronto finds its way into a lot of these songs. I don’t think you can write songs without accepting that they are, generally, reflections of where they were written. But a lot of them were written in America too, and you definitely hear the perspective of this foreigner travelling through America, trying to understand what the hell is going on.”
WHY are they called Fast Romantics? “Why Not? It doesn’t mean anything really. And it definitely doesn’t mean what you’re thinking it means.”
WHEN can I see them live? “We’re cooking up something special for our UK and European friends. It’s gonna get announced really, really soon via our Facebook page.”
WHO are they? “The initial incarnation of the band comprised of myself, Sean, Hamish and a couple of our other friends. We started out – like many young bands – doing covers, gigging, but soon we got the itch to write our own songs and include them in our set. Callum joined around that point, when we first started recording our own stuff, and a year or two later we settled on the line up we have today. We went by another name for those first few years, but in late 2015 we made the change to Ocean Flaws, to coincide with the start of the run-up to our ‘Dancing To The Fear – EP’ which dropped about a year ago. It seemed like the right time to change name as – with that EP – we felt like we’d finally found our sound.”– Alex Pattle, drummer
WHAT is the inspiration behind their new single 20:22? “20:22 is based on a spontaneous weekend in Manchester with a girl I met not long before. The whole trip was just crazy in nature and it seemed fitting to write a song about the experience. In general, we always aim to express our love or hate for things slightly out of the ordinary and then create a memorable instrumental to make it shine overall.”– Callum Quirk, singer/bassist
WHERE did they grow up? “We all grew up in Brentwood, Essex area (UK). Sean and I actually went through secondary school together before jamming in Sixth Form for the music department’s parents evening. It must’ve gone down a treat because we kept it up. I was later introduced to Alex and Callum and it went from there really.”
“There’s a strong music scene in Brentwood. A lot of top bands, offering all kinds of music; from Brit Pop to Psychedelia to Jazz Blues. The hub of it all is the Essex Arm’s ‘Seaxe Room’ where you can go down and watch live music most days of the week. We all influence each other.”- Hamish Monk, guitarist
WHY are they called Ocean Flaws? “When we first started out, we were called The Shermans, after my guitar teacher. But due to frequent reminders of its association with an unfortunate Cockney rhyming slang, it had to go! Our band had seen a few members come in and out and we had reached a final line up with a fresh new sound. So, it made sense to give ourselves a new name which captured this. After much deliberation we went with Ocean Flaws. It was the flag pole which marked new ground for us.”- Hamish Monk, guitarist
WHEN can I see them live? “Sadly, we won’t be playing any full live shows until the summer. Our drummer, Alex, is currently studying abroad in Germany and won’t be back until July at the earliest. In the meanwhile, the rest of us are planning to play acoustic shows around Essex and London. So make sure to look at our social media accounts for dates. When Alex is back, we’re expecting a big summer of shows, hopefully ranging from festivals to headline shows in London. We’ll make sure to keep the masses informed.”– Sean Heaney, guitarist
WHO are they? “Honey Lung is a group of impatient, bored, musicians who want to make some cool sounds. Essentially we started the band out of the want to create some music that excited us, to create our own little world in which we could write whatever we wanted or felt like. An escape you could say.”
“The formation of the band isn’t clear, I guess you could say when Omri Covo (drums) and Jamie Batten (vocals, guitar) started playing together, which would be 2 years ago. But we generally say a year as that’s when Charlie Gardener (guitar) joined the mix.” And then, in December 2016, it was Kerstin Resander’s turn to join Honey Lung as their bass player.
WHAT is the inspiration behind their songs? “Lyrically our songs are quite stupid, I (Jamie) tend to write lyrics very spontaneously and will get attached to short phrases or words. Because of this I tend to change lyrics around all the time. Each song means something to me, it has a story – but won’t be obvious to other people. It’s a personal thing, it’s about creating your own world, your own little daydream. Musically what inspires is everything we listen to.”
Photo by Deimante Sprainaityte
WHERE did they grow up? “So me (Jamie) and Omri have always lived in London, whereas Charlie grew up in Devon and moved to London for Uni. I find that London is such a weird place, having grown up in the suburbs it can be a very monotonous, continuous drag, but at the same time London has the capacity to surprise you and harbour very small interesting little corners. You have to scratch beneath the surface a little.”
“London’s non stop throughout the day, but as it slowly grinds to a halt throughout the evening it becomes a very thoughtful, introspective inducing place, it can be very beautiful. I guess that’s how you could describe our sound, relentless, driving, exciting but thoughtful, introspective and with emotion.”
“The music scene is coming together nicely, there seems to be a surge of new bands that are now coming together to create the next Art Riot. Band’s such as Little Green Men, Lazy Pilgrims, Lady Pocket, Couples and Inevitable Daydream.”
WHY are they called Honey Lung?
“Because why not!”
WHEN can I see them live? Catch the band play The Green Door Store in Brighton on January 4th. Event.
WHO is he? “Andy George Jackson; one of the left-leaning liberal intelligentsia bubble babblers, with a penchant for the absurd and a skull-full of lightning.”
WHAT is he singing about? “Now then, let’s not get too agitated about understanding the artist, it’s a slippery slope in modern times and one we can only slope slippery downwards on; let’s leave the therapist’s couch in the studio.”
WHY the name Et Cetera? “The above answers give way to alluding towards a partial explanation at least.”
WHERE can I download his music? “My two debut songs are available for pay-what-you-want download from here. 50% of all money is going to the Migraine Trust. I was struck down last year with vestibular migraines and labyrinthitis, which I still suffer from, so am very much aware that much more research is needed to be done to better understand the conditions.”
WHEN can I see him live? “No plans to perform as of yet.”
WHO are they? “Four of us – Tim Monaghan, Danny Thorpe, Simon John and Matt Welch – have been playing music together for ages. Racing Glaciers was the first time we started writing and releasing things, in 2012. Matt (Scheepers) joined us on drums about three years ago.”
Racing Glaciers’ debut album Caught In The Strange is out through Killing Moon on August 5th.
WHAT is the inspiration behind their debut album? “It ended up being quite a heady album, there’s a few darker tracks and we got more experimental with sounds and arrangements. Inspiration comes from our own experiences as a band or individuals really. In the end it’s down to whoever’s listening to take it in their own way.”
WHERE did they grow up? “We grew up in Macclesfield, it’s near the hills and you can easily get out in the forest, or Manchester if you want – it’s just a town like anywhere else. Matt (drums) grew up down South. I think touring and travelling has shaped us more than anything, especially gigging round Europe.”
WHY are they called Racing Glaciers? “No idea, it fits what we do so we’re happy.”
WHO are they? “Hello, we are four boys from Melbourne, Australia who like 90’s sad folk/pop and rock so we started playing music together. I originally started Tiny Little Houses as a solo project but it expanded as we added more friends. I started writing songs for TLH in 2012 but we didn’t really get anything together until 2014.”
WHAT is the inspiration behind their songs? “Our EP You tore out my heart was mostly about relationships, but our up-coming album has been more focussed on the realities of this world and growing up, with the complication of love thrown in the mix. I read a lot of poetry and books so there is always inspiration from those, especially obscure poetry books I find in op shops which I try to give new life. In terms of our favourite bands we love everything from Elliott Smith to My Bloody Valentine, too opposite ends of the indie music spectrum yet somehow always felt like they evoke similar feelings in me. We’d love to be a mix somewhere in between.”
WHERE did they grow up? “I grew up in small country towns in South Australia and Western Australia until I moved to Melbourne a few years ago, Sean is from Melbourne, Clancy is from a small town in Victoria called Inverloch and Al is from Newcastle in New South Wales. I’m not sure those places influenced our music all that much. Melbourne has been the biggest influence and I guess that’s because I moved here during those years when you solidify your taste in music. The music scene in Melbourne and Australia in general is really thriving at the moment. There are too many good bands to mention, but you should check out these locals who are destined for big things, Wedding Ring Bells, Good Morning, Crepes, Hollow Everdaze, Gabriella Cohen, IV League to name a few.”
WHY are they called Tiny Little Houses? “Never have a good answer for this one. I just chose it when I put some songs on Soundcloud years ago and it stuck. Was heavily listening to Erics Trip and the line ‘Little Tiny Rooms that our friend calls a home’ from Sand always stuck out to me so go listen to that song.”
WHEN can I see them live? “We are going on tour on Friday, (our biggest one to date) we are playing Sydney on the 22nd, Brisbane on the 23rd, Adelaide 27th, and Melbourne on the 28th at the Northcote Social Club.”
The Five Ws of 