Category: New Music

As psych-surfers Leeches release their singles collection Easy, we had a chat about musical influences, how they’re coping with lockdown and painting along with Bob Ross. At times like these it’s important to hold very serious conversations, and it’s highly likely that someone, somewhere is doing exactly that.

Leeches are Jack Pearce (bass/vocals), Ben Lowe (guitar/vocals) and Frank Waloszek (drums) and that much at least is true – probably. Here goes…

Hey, how are things with all of you – where have you been spending lockdown?

Jack: I’ve been in a shed in my parents garden keeping myself busy with my Only Fans account.

Ben: As I have not been able to drive my Porsche around the south of France lately, I have not been in the best mood.

Frank: I stay as far away from Jack and Ben as humanely possible, filthy cretins, they definitely have Coronavirus.

Your singles collection Easy was released last week, tell us about it…

Frank: Well actually… as far as I was concerned, it was supposed to be a Jazz Fusion album called Pints as an Act of Persistence but due to pressure from the record label, our manager, and Jack/Ben we had to scrap that idea and it became a heavy rock singles collection instead, but it’s still pretty good to be honest.

Jack: It was originally meant to be a pure Jazz Fusion piece but Frank insisted on making it more accessible, and kept threatening to leave the band so we settled on this.

Ben: It was always our (mine and Jack’s) dream to be the biggest band on Clarendon Road. Then Frank was enrolled as percussion I remember, and we moved on to Ascham Road. We progressed to barking on both these roads riff by delightful riff, singing and whistling as we strode. Alfie Tyson-Brown, a butcher by trade, took us under his meaty wings and turned our gaze to larger streets, upon which he showed us not only how to rock, but how to roll upon these new avenues, the likes of which we had never seen the like of which. Christian and Alex, the knights of Bristol at the time, the striders ahead,  knew of even brighter pastures. We now want to bark on these roads when Boris says “Yeah alright”.

How difficult is it releasing music when you can’t get out to promote it?

Jack: It is hard to know how it will land and would be nice to tour it, but it means we can work on stuff like the music video and go through old unfinished tracks. Every artist is in the same boat though, it’s been amazing seeing how people have worked around it.

Frank: About as difficult as it was playing to a venue full of debauched wasters who had no recollection of the gig the following morning.

There’s a track called Bob Ross, have you ever tried to paint along with him?

Frank: Of course.

Jack: Wouldn’t dream of it.

Ben: Due to an ongoing court case, I’ve been advised to answer no comment to this question.

You’ve been with Leisure Records for a while now, how did you first start working with them?

Frank: It all happened so fast. I was auditioned for the band, and when we were certain it was going to work the next thing we were travelling up to Bristol and London, just all over the place really, networking with all these real characters, you know… and somehow they were making it all happen. It was greatly uplifting to discover such a conglomerate of proactive, cultured folk. Jack and Ben had already done most of the hard work when I joined the band. I was quite literally the leech.

Ben: Christian and Alex from Leisured Recordings threw big money on the table and my accountant told me this was my only option after what happened with the last label.

Jack: Please see Frank’s answer.

Musical influences – what are your earliest memories of listening to music as kids and which artists do you count as long term favourites?

Jack: When I was little, my folks would listen to Euphoria compilations and REM while we drove around, I think that had a big influence on me. That and getting into all forms of dance and psych-rock, Sabbath’s first two albums and early Chemical Brothers got a proper rinsing.

Frank: Anything that was on cassette cause it got played in the car. Devo was the first band I ever really ‘got into’. After that it was Weather Report.

Is 2020 the weirdest year ever and can you pick out some good bits amongst all the mayhem?

Frank: Yeah, it is the weirdest year. On the bright side – I think the impact of this Coronavirus has overtly exposed a lot of serious inadequacies and hypocrisy in politics and the economy on a global scale, to say the least. There’s nowhere to hide it; we have to pay up and counter-weigh all the broken aspects of the system to make things work and it shows. Hopefully it’ll ignite a change for the better. Because I think people everywhere are beyond fed up with all the horseshit – we all share that in common, albeit with different agendas.

Jack: Frank put it really nicely. It’s definitely a catalyst of a year, I just hope things pick up in the right direction.

And assuming things revert to normal at some stage, what’s next for Leeches?

Frank: Who knows… I mean, beyond getting around to making that Jazz Fusion album we never completed… I don’t know.

Jack: We will be going under the new name of Scalping.

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Easy is out now via Leisure Records, you can buy it here and watch the video for All of the People below.

 

Catch up with LEECHES here

Interview by Siobhan
Band photo © Rowan Allen

8th July 2020

Making waves on the Manchester music scene and beyond, The Red Stains bring a fresh blast of energy with their spiky tunes and brusque, incisive lyrics. Get to know them better here, then keep them on your radar when live music kicks off again…

Give us a quick intro to The Red Stains, who’s involved & where did it all begin?

The Red Stains are a Manchester based contemporary post-punk band. We started playing together last year. Our names are Natalie Emslie, singer, Sterling Kelly, bass, Ella Powell, synths and guitar, Ben Dutton, drums.

How’s lockdown been treating you, are you all ok?

Thanks for asking, nobody ever asks us if we are okay in interviews! We miss the pub and we are looking forward to being able to play together soon for the first time in ages.

Tell us about your recent single Mannequin

It’s a song about objectification and more specifically the objectification that you experience when you are a woman. It takes the piss out of the way that women are judged solely by their appearance.

Ella: The synths are fun to play cause it’s not following traditional chord structures.
Sterling: This is the fastest bass line out of all the Red Stains songs in our set. It’s kind of gritty and I see it as controlled anger.
Ben: For me it’s opposite to Sterling. It’s probably the simplest song in our set. It’s constantly keeping time, being the metronome for the band.
Natalie: It’s a protest against all the arseholes that have done me wrong in life. It’s a very powerful and personal song to me. When I play it I feel bloody untouchable and reminded how strong we are. We are nobody’s mannequins, nobody’s toys!

There are lots of venues struggling to keep afloat right now, are there any local to you that you want to give a shout out to?

Yes, our local favourite is The Peer Hat in Manchester’s Northern Quarter. It’s basically our second home. There is also the Night & Day Cafe, which is where we are going to play our postponed single launch, hopefully in October. We can’t wait!

And where else do you like to spend your time around Manchester?

We like the Greggs at Piccadilly Gardens.

Mannequin reminds me of The Slits, who else have you been likened to – any surprises?

We have been likened to The Fall, but that is not a surprise. We have heard it said that Natalie has an Ian Curtis stare and Sterling’s bass playing has been compared to JJ Burnel.

Last album/playlist any of you listened to?

Ben: The Professionals – I Didn’t See It Coming
Sterling: Nova Twins – Nova Twins EP
Ella: Kelly Lee Owens – Kelly Lee Owens
Nat: Felt – Let The Snakes Crinkle Their Heads To Death

As well as the music, you’re also putting together a zine called JAM TARTS, what’s that all about?

We wanted our friends and wider community to be involved in making art with The Red Stains. It’s fun and care-free with the goal of making art accessible to everyone, contributors and readers alike.

I guess future plans depend a bit on how things progress with the easing of lockdown but what are you hoping the rest of the year holds for The Red Stains?

We hope to record another single, to play our postponed single launch and generally just go back to gigging and being a band.

Catch up with The Red Stains here and listen to Mannequin below

Interview by Siobhan
Photo © Andi Callen 

18th June 2020

Introducing Doomshakalaka, maybe better known to some of you as Paul Rafferty, previously of Hot Club de Paris, the indie rock outfit once described in The Guardian as ’abstruse and charming in equal measure’. With his debut self-titled album set for release, we asked what’s gone into its 10 years in the making and got some top tips for a trip to Liverpool…

You’ve been involved in the music industry for a while now, how was the idea of Doomshakalaka as a new project born?

The idea for Doomshakalaka came about around 2011. I’d been writing bits of music here and there that wasn’t suitable for my band at the time (Hot Club de Paris) and once that folded, I wanted to make music without the compromises that you might encounter in a band. When you’re writing as a group you’re attempting to satisfy all the member’s creative visions. The reason the Doomshakalaka record took so long was because it turns out that those series of compromises is what makes writing quicker and easier.

Your album is out tomorrow, it feels like you’ve put a lot of yourself into its making – how personal is it and who else has helped you make it happen?

I guess all ‘solo’ records are pretty personal affairs but this feels particularly so as I recorded all of the material as well as writing and performing it. I mixed it and then designed all of the artwork so I’ve probably put more of myself into this record than a lot of people would. It’s certainly more input than I’m used to so there was a steep learning curve with regard to figuring out how to manage my expectations as a creative person, in line with a lot of technical stuff I was learning about how to record music. My friend Tom English played the drums and provided a much needed voice of reason / encouragement / enthusiasm, without which I might still be recording it now.

Is there a track that stands out for you and what’s it about?

At this point on a good day I love all of the songs in equal measure and on a bad day I hate all of the songs in equal measure. I’ll choose the song Black Balloons. I like the linear arrangement and organic space in it. It feels like I was writing in quite an unabashed, unconstrained way that I feel is a tough zone to get into. I think a lot of writers feel like they’re playing full-contact sport for Team Zeitgeist and it’s sometimes difficult to remember to make whatever the fuck you want. The lyric started as a joke; my girlfriend finds it amusing that I often mention people’s birthdays or birthday parties in songs, and I wanted to write something that might make her laugh. It all went a bit dramatic though and started to be about gunshots and dreaming about your house burning down.

Has lockdown affected your release plans at all?

There were no plans to play this record live as I don’t have a band as yet, so we’re just pressing on regardless of lockdown. It’s kind of tough to make videos for the singles in this situation but restriction often presents better ideas so I’m not too bothered.

Tell us about the video for lead track One Last Saturday Night which features you walking with your dog – is it right that it was shot by your girlfriend on an iPhone?

Yeah, we made it during the initial stages of lockdown. I was recovering from a particularly unpleasant surgery where I’d had a scarred nerve removed from the ball of my foot which is why I’m on crutches in the video. We needed to make something near the house, preferably whilst we walked our dog and not too strenuous, so it was the best we could muster in the circumstances. Turns out she has a very steady hand, plus we’re isolated together so she was the perfect choice for DOP.

And how’s your foot now, will we see you undertaking a series of increasingly difficult sports activities on subsequent videos?

There is 0% risk of me doing anything strenuous on camera.

Liverpool’s normally a pretty busy city – outside of quarantine where are favourite places to go?

Most of my favourite places to go tend to involve food or coffee or both. I really like eating at The Bagelry and most recently Meatless. I like the coffee at Belzan and it’s only a 30 second walk from my studio. I walk my dog everyday in Sefton Park which is beautiful at any point of the day. My favourite gallery is probably The Walker, so I’ve been missing going there during lockdown. If I’m in that part of town I love going to Lovelocks which has brilliant coffee and insane cake. Defend Vinyl is a great record shop in the south of the city and I often spend a couple of hours chatting with the owner about the second hand records he’s acquired. Venue-wise, everywhere I used to go when I was more into going out has been turned into flats, plus I barely drink now so I’m not particularly connected to any bars / pubs / venues. I have quite bad tinnitus these days, so I choose the gigs I attend quite carefully.

Once restrictions are lifted, what’s next for Doomshakalaka?

I’ve been writing a new Doomshakala record! I’m planning a different process this time; simpler songs, quicker bouts of writing and to record the material live with a band. I’ve got some excellent musicians lined up to populate my band and help me record the record so I’m very excited about it. We’re looking at recording it in October. I’m hoping the restrictions will be lifted without reinstatement by then, but you can never be too sure considering our government’s harrowing approach to protecting people’s health. Other than that, I’m thinking about getting a haircut.

Doomshakalaka is released tomorrow, 5th June, on Moshi Moshi Records. You can pre-order the album here and watch the video for One Last Saturday Night below.

Interview by Siobhan
Header photo © Nick Duckett via One Beat PR

4th June 2020

 

A trance-like treat for your ears, Winter’s new psych-pop album Endless Space (Between You & I)  looks set to be a perfect summer backdrop. We chatted about music, quarantine and influences ranging from My Bloody Valentine to Marisa Monte…

Tell us a little about yourself and how you got into making music…

I am a Los Angeles based artist and make bilingual dream pop. I started writing songs when I was 12 and have been doing it ever since. My project Winter is the culmination of beautiful melodies, fluttering guitars and an other-worldly sensibility. Music is the air I breathe and everything I see. It’s been a part of me my whole life. 

Born in Brazil, living in LA, you must have an interesting mix of musical influences – who are some of your favourite artists past and present?

Yes! There’s such a spectrum of music and artists that I enjoy. I would say I’m greatly inspired by Cocteau Twins, My Bloody Valentine, Starflyer 59, Lilys and bands from Sarah Records but I also love Brazilian artists such as Boogarins, Marisa Monte, Caetano, Gal Costa… It’s a big list but I would say my taste ranges from Brazilian MPB to east coast indie rock to ambient and noise music and I’ve been recently really getting into electronic music.

Your album Endless Space (Between You and I) is now set for release at the end of July, how has quarantine affected your plans and how does it feel to be launching new music in the current environment?

It’s strange but I think there are some pros and cons to it. I think a big part of releasing music right now is coming to terms with it being a whole new playing field. The old formula of putting out a record and touring it isn’t a possibility, so it’s an exciting and experimental time to figure out what are new things you can do. Letting go and being okay with change is going to be really important. I see it as an exciting time but I’m also a total optimist, haha. My record title seems to fit perfectly with the quarantine themes so I think this context will actually benefit the music and the whole other-worldly escapism that this record can provide.

You’ve just shared the title track, what’s the reaction been like?

It’s been great! We’ve actually released three singles so far and it feels exciting to put each song out month by month. It’s a darker, more magical aesthetic for Winter. Both music videos so far I’m playing different characters and alluding to fairy tales or archetypes so it’s been cool to tell those stories through my music. I’m always making a different type of record so I don’t expect old Winter fans to all like it. I think if you like ambient, psych, dream pop this record will be a treat for you!

And how are things with you, where are you and are you able to see friends or family?

I’m in Los Angeles. I feel pretty lucky because I live in a neighborhood that has two parks and a lot of sunshine and space so I’m able to walk around and even talk with neighbours and friends from a distance when I’m in the outdoors. My family lives in different places so I definitely miss them a lot. I’ve gone through so many different emotional states during this quarantine but I finally feel like I’m comfortable in my own skin and accepting that I just have to take things day by day.

Talk us through a few of the album tracks – what’s the story behind them?

Well, a lot of the songs are inspired by nature, poetry and the tarot. The themes of this record are very expansive and I would say Healing is probably the only song that feels more like a nowadays sort of topic – it’s basically being ‘ghosted’. All the other songs have more grandiose timeless stories. In The Z Plane, Bem No Fundo and Constellation all talk about a Utopian dream world. Pure Magician was inspired by the tarot card of the magician. Here I Am Existing was inspired by a poem by Mary J Oliver. I’m curious once the record is out to hear people’s connection to the songs because I did intentionally leave room for interpretation. 

One album, one film, one book – what would you choose?

I’m so bad with this type of question because I’m always going through different phases, haha, but here goes!
Yo La Tengo – I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One
Amélie Poulain
Bluets by Maggie Nelson

And what are your plans for whenever things get back to normal?

I don’t really have any! Play shows? See my family? Eat a delicious dinner at my favourite restaurant…

Endless Space (Between You & I) will be released on 24th July via Bar/None Records. You can pre-order the album here. In the meantime, catch up with Winter and watch the video for the title track below.

Interview by Siobhan
Photos via One Beat PR

28th May 2020

Whatever your favoured genre, you’re likely to find something that pleases you in amidst the 38 tracks that make up Nuclear Tapes, the eclectic new album from Charlie’s Hand Movements. Intrigued by the mix of musical styles and amused by their bio citing them as a ‘deeply unsuccessful Ayrshire & Essex based alternative pop band’, we felt compelled to catch up with them to find out more…

Give us an introduction to Charlie’s Hand Movements…

Lance: Charlie’s Hand Movements are Adam Gardner and Lance Keeble; an alt pop duo from Essex, now split between Essex and Ayrshire. Met in art college, bonded over mutual taste in music, discovered we were each making weird bedroom pop on the sly, started making even weirder bedroom pop together, released our first record in 2013, a couple of others and here we are now.

Your third album Nuclear Tapes is out today. Not content with just being an album though or even a double album, it’s a triple album with a whopping 38 tracks. Where did it all begin?

Lance: The desire to make a long record was in part inspired by the excesses of 70s’ prog double albums, but equally a nod of reverence to recent hip hop records like Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly and Frank Ocean’s Blonde. Hip hop seems to really be paving the way for concept-style albums with an emphasis on overarching narrative told through diverse arrangements and production styles. Their willingness to throw in short skits to break up more complex tracks is something we’re fascinated by. We became pretty obsessed with 90s’ alternative rock band Mansun’s Six, with its spasmodic shifts in tone. I think we’ve always been interested in how humour and irreverence can lend a sort of relief to heavier themes too, and we’re not afraid to explore that, sometimes within the same song.

Tell us about the mix of genres involved and who or what has influenced you along the way?

Lance: I’ve always loved ambient music but for me it becomes particularly powerful when thrown into unexpected contexts. We use our quieter, atmospheric pieces as a tool to pull back the focus. They’re like little breathers I guess, little digestive aids for the more angular songs. There’s a silliness, a goofiness to a number of the songs, usually betraying a darker theme underneath. New Age Nuclear (which finds itself as an unfinished, truncated mix due to some kind of artistic mis-step in which we couldn’t capture its original energy) for example, was a kind of a Philly soul jam for an imagined evangelist church broadcast, set in the 1980s, complete with caustic gated drums and soggy synthesizers. We loved what The Flaming Lips were doing on Embryonic, throwing down some noisy jams and pulling songs out of the wreckage.

Adam: We were quite sure at the beginning that it was going to be some kind of ridiculously overblown concept album that, really, we had absolutely no right to make. Songs sprawling out and going wherever they wanted to, sometimes morphing into something else or just cutting out abruptly. Fleet Foxes put out Crack-Up around the time we were making this too – another big one for us – as they were really changing up what they were doing with song structures and the audience’s expectations for what a Fleet Foxes record should sound like. Not that we have ever come close to having an audience of course.

Some bands don’t stay together for as long as this project has taken, what’s your secret?

Lance: For us I think it’s always been about the thrill of recording, not knowing what’s going to transpire. Could be regrettable, could be beautiful. Some tracks like Suddenly…Fog! and Departures and Nowhere Near are instrumentally one-take improvisations. These moments have always acted as some kind of therapy for Adam and I; we just stop talking to each other, set-up a few instruments and just play whatever. Like actual musicians or something. Speaking of which – the brilliant Mick Gawthorp provided a number of saxophone performances, each illuminating and often steering the songs into new territories. 80% Bad Boy, for example, originally was a scuzzy stoner rock pastiche befitting of its title, but Mick’s sax left us no choice but to transform it into the haphazard slice of cosmic jazz you hear now.

So how will you celebrate the release – where will you both be?

Adam: Each time that we put something out into the real world we usually just message each other back and forth saying things like, ‘Is it crap?’ I mean, we barely have any followers and don’t shift many units so to speak, so it’s more just that anticipation and hope that somebody will connect with it. This is a project that has a lot of emotional baggage for us, I think more than each of us understood until very recently, so I’ll definitely be checking my phone. Knowing Lance, he’ll be in the woods looking at slugs or counting birds.

And how has lockdown impacted on you, in terms of making music and personally, have you found any positives?

Lance: In some ways the lockdown may have been the catalyst for us to release Nuclear Tapes, a project we had somewhat given up on due to the perhaps over-ambitious nature of it. These times of fear and uncertainty maybe forced us to reflect on the project and see its merits as a work of spirited self-indulgence. There are mistakes, scratch vocals, rough mixes, strong ideas which fell apart, but there’s some heart there I think.

Adam: My wife and I have a one-year-old boy so it’s kind of like two months (and counting) of being held to ransom in our own home by a teething, unreasonable dictator if I’m honest. Days are long and nights are usually longer, but it does have its moments too. Ha. In terms of music, Lance and I are about to start swapping files remotely for the next project, so I think we’re in a good place.

To Zoom or not to Zoom?

Lance: I’m a zoom, I think Adam is a no-zoom. He sees the bigger picture better than me. I’m a details man, but I get lost in it more often than not and Adam has to pull me out.

Adam: I think Lance has fundamentally misunderstood this question. He knows surprisingly little about what’s happening in the wider world at any given time. I think we’re in the minority that haven’t Zoomed yet though, although we did video call over Messenger a few weeks ago with mixed results. I’m open to Zoom, but we haven’t even discovered Snapchat yet, so we might Zoom by 2030.

Fingers crossed that all our favourite venues survive, where would you love to play when things open up and who’d be on the line-up – you & anyone else you want?

Adam: I’m sure there are plenty of people far more qualified than us to talk about this, but it seems independent venues had things hard enough as it was before the pandemic hit, so it’s an especially cruel blow. We haven’t played to a room full of people for a few years now though, so in that respect the lockdown hasn’t changed much for us, but there are some great small venues we’d love to play. In Southend on Sea – which is where we’re from – there’s a really vibrant scene based around a really cool venue called The Railway Hotel. I moved to Scotland in January though, so I’m looking forward to seeing what’s about once/if we come out of the other side of this. As for other people, Cool Thing Records have some really interesting stuff going on in Essex, and we’re big fans of a guy named MG Boulter who’s well worth checking out (he’s also got a new record out soon!)

And what’s next for Charlie’s Hand Movements, how do you follow Nuclear Tapes?

Lance: Now we live far apart, we’ll be working in a different way; sending skeletal song ideas back and forth, adding and subtracting remotely from our home set-ups. It’ll be exciting to see how this moves our sound forward. In the meantime we’re looking to release a much leaner, more compact album later this year.

Adam: It’s exciting though… and in the same way that this project was kind of a reaction to stuff we’d done before, we now have no choice but to approach things differently again. Definitely something more concise too – Nuclear Tapes was our attempt at making a maximalist blowout that followed every idea, even the questionable ones (of which there are many) and it got way out of hand. I mean, it’s long, pretentious, and completely self-indulgent at times, but we’re not Radiohead (as much as we’d love to be) so we’ve got to at least please ourselves. I like that we don’t have any idea of what the next thing will end up being though… I think that’s how it should be. Having said all that, there is another, more palatable, 10-track album that we made alongside this one that might see light of day soon in some form too. I guess we just want to make stuff that we think is good, and that keeps going to places we haven’t been before.

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Find Charlie’s Hand Movements on Twitter and Instagram

You can listen to and purchase Nuclear Tapes now:
Bandcamp

Interview by Siobhan
Photos via Charlie’s Hand Movements

22nd May 2020

Released on Friday, Genie Genie’s debut single Lust Over You is a majestic hybrid of glam punk with eastern influence – find out more here as we chat about the making of the track and plans for the future…

Give us an introduction to Genie Genie…

Genie Genie is a new project I have been working on over the past year, I’ve been involved in the music scene for about five years with a previous band and I felt now was the time to launch my solo project! It’s a weird and wonderful mash up of everything that’s inspired me over the past few years really. I wanted to be as expressive and creative as possible.

How long has the project been in the making and who has helped you to get things off the ground?

Genie Genie sprouted as an idea in my head probably about a year ago but that was literally just messing around with some shitty ideas, it more or less became a reality when I took my demos to Olympic Hall Studios in London. I worked with James Grant who runs the studio on the recording of the tracks and he was the most helpful guy I could have had, he was a huge part in this process, it wouldn’t be the final product without him! He woke me up from the studio floor every morning too so that was lovely…

Your debut single Lust Over You was released on Friday, what’s the story behind it?

The tune is one of the first things I ever got down as a demo, as cliché as it sounds I was just trying to write about how I felt, writing lyrics at this point was quite new to me so I needed to base it off some sort of experience. It’s sort of a story of affection. It focuses on how a lustful experience can affect you and how complex such emotion can be I guess.

Lust Over You feels like it has a mix of musical influences ranging across different eras, which artists have made a big impact in your life and who else are you listening to currently?

Yea, it’s definitely got a large range of influences has this one. Artists like T-Rex, Transglobal Underground and Jamouriquai inspire me and have a big impact on me, they are so different to each other so it’s cool to be inspired in different ways. Currently I’m listening to a weird range of stuff, really into Faux Real, Virgin Prunes and a load of Indian and middle eastern stuff too.

How has the whole quarantine situation affected the release of the single, were you tempted to wait or does this feel like a good time to get creative?

I was very tempted to wait but then thought if not now, when. I think after this is over so many artists are going to be releasing stuff so there will be a whole load of stuff flying around and it will be hard to make an impact. In terms of creativity it’s been wonderful. I’ve been writing a lot over the past few weeks for sure.

And when restrictions are lifted do you have plans to get out onto the live circuit?

Yes! I have plans for a show once this is all over, I’m so excited to get weird on stage again! Big Genie Genie party when we’re all back out…

Favourite venue and/or one that you’d love to play in one day?

My favourite venue would of course have to be The Brudenell Social Club, I’ve played and been to some crazy gigs at that place! I’d love to play Moth Club sometime soon, that venue is class.

Aside from music, what’s keeping you going through lockdown and what’s the one thing you miss the most?

I think music is the ONLY thing that is keeping me going through this. The thought of being able to go to the pub after it’s all over is definitely a helping hand too… I miss going to gigs massively, I need some live music asap!

And where can people find you and follow your progress?

Over on Instagram and Facebook…

Follow Genie Genie on the links above and listen to Lust Over You here

 

Interview by Siobhan

4th May 2020

Using the intensity of depression and loneliness to create a beautifully hypnotic song, In Earnest release their new single Put Me Under into the world today. We chatted to Sarah to find out more about what makes the band tick and their plans for new music and ice cream…

Introduce us to In Earnest – who’s involved and how did you get together as a band?

In Earnest consists of guitarist/vocalist Thomas, violinist/guitarist Toby and myself, Sarah, on keys/vocals, based in sunny Southend-on-Sea, Essex. Thomas and I are the songwriters, bringing our individual songs into the rehearsal room to work on as a group. We were all in a band beforehand, but our new outfit focuses on writing about mental health and encouraging conversations around the topic.

Your debut single Put Me Under is released today. It’s a very personal track addressing coping with depression – how hard is it to express this openly?

Having suffered with mental illness for 10 years now, I’ve got used to speaking openly about it over the years. I started a blog about 5 years ago on the subject and have written a lot of songs about mental health, but it is still a little daunting. My brain constantly steers towards negative thoughts all the time, so I naturally think no-one will like what I create!

Do you have a message for anyone struggling with their mental health under isolation?

I think, lockdown or not, it’s so important to look after your mental health, so now is a great time to sit back and evaluate. There are a lot of self-care guides out there, but what has helped me the most is doing a little bit of yoga each day and eating well. It has pretty much taken me 10 years of struggling and a month of isolation to make me realise this!

And how are you all doing – are you finding ways to still make music either together or separately?

Thomas and I live together, so luckily we get to play a lot of music with each other at home. We are currently working on a collaboration with Toby, remotely of course!

Put Me Under is the first track from your upcoming EP – can you tell us more about what to expect?

Our next single will be a song called Come Upstairs, which follows on nicely from Put Me Under. It is from Tom’s perspective and is the story of how he copes with me and my mental illness. The entire 6-track EP is due in the latter stages of 2020 – you can expect to hear deep lyrics, keys solos and most definitely our producer (Peter Waterman) singing backing vocals.

What were your musical influences growing up and which other artists have you been listening to lately?

I mostly grew up listening to The Beatles and McFly, so pop music was where I began. My Dad has been a drummer on the local music scene since before I was born, so I really looked up to him as I found my feet in the music world (between being dragged to soundchecks and being deafened by tuning drums!) Lately I admire the sombre tones of Phoebe Bridgers, Dodie and Elliot Smith.

Are you planning live dates when things start to open up again?

Absolutely! A few of our gigs have been rescheduled to later in the year, but we are so excited to get back into rehearsals and just being a band again.

And when lockdown is over, what are you most looking forward to?

Above all else, going down to Southend seafront and getting ice creams…

You can find more from In Earnest here and listen to Put Me Under below. If you’re staying in tonight and, let’s face it we all are, join the band for their single launch party on Instagram and Facebook at 8pm 

Interview by Siobhan
Promo photos by Soundcastle Media, single artwork by Thomas Eatherton

17th April 2020