Cape Town‘s THE MEDICINE DOLLS are the kind of sonic misfits who do it their own way no matter what. Anything that the recalcitrant duo of Greg Allan (singer/guitar) and Bex Nicholas (vocals/bass) have released so far has an authentic DIY stamp on it. Their messy hullabaloo fits their way of life, their reality, their state of fucked-up confusion. The rowdy pair produces garage rock havoc that hits you straight in the face and they look like The Cramps‘ evil children. Utterly cool indeed! They are natural born outsiders doing what they do best: creating scissored punk mayhem. Frontman Greg Allan will tell you more about their troubled souls, but let’s start the acquaintance with a loud and clear video clip…
1. What sparked you to start the band? “I guess the spark came when my previous band broke up. Bex and I were living together in Johannesburg, Scraping by and dealing with a lot of what you might call ‘Bad life choices’. Instead of trying to breath new life into that project, I decided we ought to change our entire life situation. She had never played a note, so I thought she would be the perfect bass player. We used all the money we had left, and flew to Cape Town with nothing but the idea of this band.”
2. What’s the story behind the group’s name? “In our favorite film, ‘Withnail and I‘ there is a character called Danny, who is the drug dealer of these two struggling actors who live in a grotty flat together. He keeps his gear, which he refers to as ‘Medicine‘ in the head of a little doll. We thought it was appropriate.”
3. What triggered the new EP’s title ‘COMPULSION TO RUIN’ and its destructive tone? “I think it has a lot to do with the current emotional climate of the world, things are fucked, and people are feeling that fucked-ness… but it really goes full circle, people fuck themselves up to deal with fucked-ness, and that leads inevitably to more fucked-ness.
4. Which track would you pick as THE MEDICINE DOLLS signature song so far? “I think ‘Covered in Filth‘ sums us up quite well.”
. 5. What is ‘COVERED IN FILTH’ about? “Fucked-up-ness.”
6. So far the band only released a series of EPs, not a full-length album yet. Is that a conscious choice or can we expect an LP soon? “Certainly looking at releasing an LP soon.”
7. Which movie would you pick to visualize your music on a big screen while playing a gig? “Withnail and I.”
8. Number one band on your list to go on tour with? “I would say certainly Death Valley Girls, they have us so hooked at the minute… incredible band!”
9. If you could go back into the past on whose famous door would you knock and ask to have a selfie together? “Certainly Lux and Ivy of The Cramps… We are in love with what they did, the art, the attitude, they were the perfect rock ‘n’ roll band.”
10. Any chance THE MEDICINE DOLLS will play outside of South-Africa someday? “We have just returned from our first international trip, we played the Rock A La Buse Festival on the French island of La Reunion. We are looking at putting together our first European tour beginning of 2020.”
Thank you for this interview, Greg. May the road rise with THE MEDICINE DOLLS!
Learn all & more about up & coming bands in 10 questions…
23 January 2019
London DREAM NAILS are four strong-willed, outspoken, confident and highly committed feminist DIY punk witches standing up, fighting hard, and singing and shouting loud & clear in support of women’s and non-binaries’ universal rights and unconditional respect and equal treatment for all the oppressed. Being a bit fed up with playing boozy venues with lousy sound equipment and where not just everybody can get in, the band decided to play an acoustic gig in a… bookshop! The special unplugged event was recorded and is out now, titled TAKE UP SPACE. It’s an amazing document of a frisky and spirited performance. At times it sounds like an all for one, one for all gospel-punk gathering with everybody present participating. Dream Nails are real, their songs and beliefs are real, their space is real and their unplugged adventure is an inspiring example of what the DIY ethos is all about. A truly striking ‘anything is possible’ statement. Before we pull the plug and talk with the ladies let’s have this one electrical chant as a warm-up. Move over macho creeps, here’s the vagina police…
Hello Dream Nails,
Hello Mimi, Janey, Lucy and Anya…
1. You describe yourselves as ‘DIY punk witches’.
What do you exactly mean by that characterization? Mimi: “Women were branded as ‘witches’ basically when they intimidated men,
weren’t ‘pure’ or weren’t ‘as a woman should be’. This is a part of every woman’s
history of oppression, which has been erased, and we need to acknowledge it
and reclaim our heritage.” Janey: “Being a witch is about challenging traditional power structures, listening
to your intuition and self-knowledge, and sharing your energy with fellow witches. Lucy: “To be a witch is to follow in a tradition of women denied legitimacy, credibility
or meaningful power who persevered despite the violence and oppression of their
times. They invented and shared their spoils and creations.” Anya: “We can predict and control the future. Most of the good things that have
happened to the band so far – from headlining a stage at Glastonbury Festival to
touring all over Europe – first started on Janey’s vision board.
2. When and why did the idea pop up to play an acoustic gig? Mimi: “We have never done anything like this before. Our gig was at Housmans,
which is a radical bookshop in London, and the perfect place for us to play an
acoustic gig. It was magical being surrounded by radical babes and radical books! Janey: ” We’re really keen to challenge the limitations set by punk venues. This show
had more under-18, Muslim and disabled fans than our regular shows, which shows
how inaccessible – both physically and culturally – typical boozy venues are. Playing
in a bookshop is more punk than playing in a dark, beer-stained basement.” Anya: “Most of our songs are written on an acoustic guitar so we wanted to take them back to their roots, strip them bare and let the lyrics be heard. It felt more like standup comedy in some parts cause everyone could hear the punchlines in the tunes!” Lucy: “It was a new challenge for us. We wanted to show ourselves and our fans that our songs aren’t just made of raw punk energy. We are proud of our musicianship and the quality of our songwriting and chemistry as a group. Hopefully, we proved this and retained the raucousness too!”
3. The overall feel of the unplugged record is highly lively, funnily spontaneous and most of all ‘real’. Like a sort of gospel-punk gathering. What atmosphere did you have in mind before doing this special project? Mimi: “Thanks! We didn’t know what to expect, but it turned out to be a really beautiful experience. There was no stage, lots of people were sitting on the floor around us, it was totally different to a usual gig setting. We are lively performers and our songs are the same, that’s something that can’t be lost in an acoustic setting. It definitely was intimate, and real! Janey: “We’ve already got a lot of onstage chemistry and energy, so adding audience questions into that mix just made it even more fun. Anya: “Definitely conversational, between each other and the audience. Lucy doesn’t normally get a mic to speak onstage from behind the drums, so I was especially appreciating her witticisms and wisdom that night.” Lucy: “Ah yes, finally it was my time to show the world the jokes they have been hitherto denied. To be honest, we didn’t really intend to create any specific ‘atmosphere’, that’s genuinely what we are like all the time. Except when we’re hungry. Then you don’t wanna know us. There are so many dry bands wafting around that musicians with a personality unfortunately seem unusual.”
4. What’s the story behind the album’s title ‘TAKE UP SPACE’? Mimi: “It actually came to me in a dream! The act of taking up space in your everyday life is empowering. Women are always trying to make themselves seem smaller, out of the way, not stick out, because it’s unsafe for us to be seen. It’s about taking up physical space for ourselves, showing ourselves we deserve the space we occupy in this world.” Anya:“Yes! It started as a dream, then the ideas and images became a T-shirt we really wanted to make with astronauts and spaceships. Then we named the album ‘Take Up Space‘. We’d taken up space by invading a bookshop for the live show.” Janey: “And it’s weird Mimi had the dream, because Anya and I once drafted a song
called ‘Take Up Space‘ but it never quite made it to the live show, maybe it’s a sign we should revive it…” Anya: “We should!”
5. The unplugged album ‘TAKE UP SPACE’ is announced as a playful soundtrack to being a twenty-something woman in London today. So how does it actually feel to be a twenty-something woman in London these days? Mimi: “Sometimes I walk around London feeling fabulous, like I’m in my own movie, and sometimes I want to cry because it seems like all I do is commute! London can definitely
be unforgiving. It’s hard to afford anything, it’s hard to date, it’s hard to get a job. Basically, everything is hard. Janey: It feels like your friends and the ways they make you laugh is so essential to survival, because otherwise it’s all just too bleak.” Anya: “It feels like the world politics bears down with a palpable weight on everything.
You say Brexit, we say hex it.” Lucy: “I promised myself I would not spend my twenties in my hometown worrying about money. Granted, I have spent the last 5 years doing this, but this unforgiving place makes us restless and aware – the perfect ecosystem for the punk band of your dreams, don’t you think?”
6. The cover of the record looks like if the sky is the limit for DREAM NAILS.
What or who inspired the artwork and who’s the author? Janey: “Sumena Owen! She’s an amazing London-based illustrator who we adore.” Anya:”She truly made Mimi’s dream a reality.” Lucy: “Click on her Instagram account and buy her beautiful wears!”
7. Tell us about the new songs on the album? Mimi: “We’ve slowly been adding new songs to our set, and it’s been very useful to workshop them live, see which ones work and which ones don’t. The new song I’m really excited about is ‘Jillian’. It’s about Jillian Michaels who’s a fitness personality. I used to do her workout DVD ‘30 Day Shred’ all of the time. I actually memorized her chat throughout the entire thing! And yes if you do it for 30 days, it really does work. You can hear some of her quotes throughout the song.” Janey: “Ok, I’m really hyped for ‘Jillian’ too, but I’ll talk about ‘Time Ain’t No Healer’. It’s about trauma healing, and the fact that running away from your problems or trying to bury them never works, and unless you face it all head on, you’re going to be overwhelmed by the painful memories.” Anya: “‘Swimming Pool’ is really fun on this record. It’s about coming out in your mid-twenties. And its got surf punk swagger and sweet harmonies.” Lucy: “‘Landlady’ is also a new one which contains maybe my favourite lyric which I believe Janey came up with: ‘be ruthless with your preservation, love yourself without hesitation.’ YES!!
A fitness punk song…
. 8. ‘Deep Heat’ is a song about that idiotic ‘President Of The Divided States Of America’. Tell us more about it. Dream Nails: “We believe that joy and rage are not mutually exclusive emotions, and this song combines them in three-part-harmony. It’s about right-wing politicians more than just orange Donald, but we first released it around the time when he was running for president, as it seemed to capture a lot of the emotions people felt at that time.”
Anti-right wing manifesto…
. 9. Suppose MTV asked you to do an unplugged session for them would you do it or refuse as DIY punks don’t want to be related with the corporate music industry? Mimi: “Interesting question. There are some companies that really make the music industry hopeless, those that basically have a monopoly on the industry, and back artists into a corner so they have no choice but to use their platforms. Although MTV is owned by a giant corporation, I don’t count MTV as one of those evil companies. Yes they’re a music channel, but they’re in the TV business. If they asked a band like us to play, I would commend them for being ‘risky’, by giving a political, all-women punk band that kind of platform. I would totally be down to play it.” Janey: Our goal is to make all the women and nonbinary people of this world feel powerful as fuck, so if we can reach them via MTV, fuck yeah. Anya: “All the band are obsessed with ‘Nirvana’s MTV Unplugged in New York’, in fact it was a real inspiration for this album, so yeh!’
Inspiration for ‘Take Up Space’…
10. Will this be a one-off or will DREAM NAILS undertake an unplugged tour? Mimi: “This is something we’ve seriously been talking about. An unplugged tour would give us an opportunity to play for people who usually can’t make it to our shows. It would allow us to hold all-ages shows as well, which is usually impossible for us as most venues are bars!” Janey: “There’s nothing in the diary right now, but we’re 99% going to do it!” Anya: “Calling all radical and independent bookshops. Page us!”
Thank you Mimi, Janey, Lucy and Anya!
May the road rise with DREAM NAILS!
‘TAKE UP SPACE‘ in full
Stream/purchase right here…
The most schizophrenic band you heard all year, I hear you ask. Must be Belgian three-headed bolide called PINK ROOM, because every time you hear or see this crushing trio you think that the singer’s head will explode with a big bang. His voice’s range is beyond human normality. Add his bouncing bass, and two other ear-crashing noisemakers, one torturing his guitar and one smashing his drums and what you get is something you can electrocute your brains with. Something very LOUD ranging between Future Of The Left‘s blazing insanity and Nirvana‘s tortured soul. They’re totally into punk’s 70s credo doing-it-yourself-is-better and are planning to mess up 2019 with some new sonic shit and tons-of-decibels gigs. You wanna know more? Read on, after this loud and clear introduction…
Hello Bart (Vocals/Bass), Jelle (Drums) and Glenn (Guitar)
Let’s roll…
1. What sparked all of you, guys, to start a band? Bart: “I published an advertisement with like a 100 band names in July 2016.
The first two persons who reacted where Glenn and Jonas. They stayed. Well,
actually, Jonas left for a trip around the world a year and a half later, but that’s
just something that drummers do.” Glenn: “I was looking for a band, just started living in Ghent. Had no other options.” Jelle: “Their previous drummer left to make a world trip. Now I’m their drummer.”
2. What’s the story behind the group’s name? Bart: “I was listening a lot to the cover album of the Twin Peaks soundtrack by Xiu Xiu.
We were looking for a band name and Pink Room is the soundtrack for the Red Room in Twin Peaks. Also: Pink Moon is the best album by Nick Drake. Also: you can interpret it as
a pseudonym for vagina.”
Twin Peaks’ red room had a pink soundtrack…
3. Bart, is the clamorous intensity of your voice entirely natural, or do
you use some sort of chemicals to make it sound like a war siren? Bart: “Camel Blue cigarettes + cheap beer.”
Pink Room’s smoking secret revealed…
4. ‘LOVE’, one of two singles you released this year sounds actually like a total nervous breakdown. Is this PINK ROOM’s way of writing a love song? Glenn: “I think it’s Bart’s interpretation of love: work sucks, but the girl makes it better?
I don’t really know.” Bart: “I met this girl last year and she fucked pretty much my whole life up. For the better.” Jelle: “I didn’t write the song.”
. 5. When punk started in the mid-70s it was all about DIY, including organizing your own gigs. That is what PINK ROOM lately did: staging their own gigs. How and why? Bart: “We just started playing and had some offers, but not that much. I noticed a lot of great bands didn’t get enough gigs so we started to organize them ourselves. I believe highly in the ‘support your local scene’ idea. We’re already working on some shows with even more bands for 2019.” Glenn: “It was a pure necessity. We wanted to keep going forward. And most of all, we wanted to play some shows with our friends. It’s very comfortable to see how Bart is a genius in social networking; after a week or two of going to gigs of local bands he usually scores some gigs for ourselves.”
6. Which movie would you pick to visualize your
music on a big screen while playing a gig? Jelle: “Fargo.” Glenn: “Jaws or C’est arrivé près de chez vous.” Bart: “Evil Dead 2. Or just a loop of the scene in Ace Ventura where he gets out of the rhino’s ass.”
Think twice before going to a Pink Room gig, folks…
7. Number one band/artist on PINK ROOM’ list to go on tour with? Bart: “Future Of The Left or Mclusky: huge influence and they look like
they would be fun to hang around with.” Jelle: “Ty Segall or Fuzz!.” Glenn: “Metz, Acid Mothers Temple, Fatso Jetson or Girl Band.”
It’s quite clear why Pink Room wants to tour with Welsh noiseniks Future Of The Left…
8. If you could go back into the past on whose famous door
would you knock and ask to have a selfie together? Glenn: “Cleopatra VII” Bart: “I would like to hang out with Frank Black before he formed Pixies. Just to see what kinda guy he was. Wouldn’t ask for a selfie though, but I would show him a picture of himself in 2018. Love to see that reaction.” Jelle: “John Bonham, just to brag about meeting him. Wouldn’t even talk about drumming.”
9. 2018 is almost over. Which LP and track will top your end-of-the-year lists? Bart: “Killing Time by the GØGGS. Great album opener, great album. There’s also this
great Mama Mia cover by this guy on YouTube standing in a river in Japan. I also like the song ‘You’ by Muscle Barbie. The EP ‘Really Nice Guys’ by Ron Gallo is really nice! Oh, and ‘Coolness of a fool’ by Bront. Great fucking guy!” Jelle: “The Now Now by Gorillaz. I was in dire need of some Damon Albarn vocals since Humanz, big disappointment. Closer to home, the album by Dirk., pop songs disguised
as no-nonsense rock.” Glenn: “The Other by King Tuff.”
Big in Japan…
10. Plans and wishes for 2019? Bart: “More touring! We will release our new album ‘Zum Kotzen’ on 22nd of March with a show in Ghent, so we’re putting a lot energy and time in video clips and vinyl and planning the tour and stuff! And hopefully at the end of the year a new album. Anyway, I wish that everybody reading this has a nice time. Don’t go out if you don’t want to, don’t stay in if you don’t want to, be where you wanna be! I don’t know, just do your thing.”
Thanks for the chat. May the road rise with Pink Room!
Let’s end this Q &A with some merry Xmas carols
that will scare the shit out of all drunk Santa’s…
London’s jangling SOMEDAYS are five young eager gunslingers with a great eclectic appetite for yesterday’s and today’s music and a determined intention to make their
very own special mark with buzzing electricity. The band’s rad debut EP ‘Knockout’
is a first impressive effort showing their immense sonic potential. There’s definitely something in the air and Turn Up The Volume is heavily curious to know more about
this hungry newcomers. Let’s start the acquaintance with a knockout…
. Hello and welcome Vittorio Jacobacci (Vocals), Eugenio Jacobacci (Guitar),
Jerome Rupf (Guitar), Matt Miller (Bass) and Eliseo Provezza (Drums).
Let’s roll…
1. What sparked all of you, guys, to start a band? Jerome: “Gege, Vitto and Eli put together some demos last year. At some point or another, Matt and I heard them while staying over at their place and everything just flowed from there.” Vitto: “Music always fascinated me, but I never felt like I had anything worthwhile to say. Then, I found myself in LA, 19 and with a very different feeling. It had to be a band because it’s just no fun without friends.” Eli: “I had been hanging out with Vitto for a long time but we never worked on music together until he asked me to help record some demos he’d spent a long time on… I’d been in bands before but there was something different about those sessions and for me that was it. I was in for the ride.” Gege: “Please get me out of here. I’ve been their prisoner for God knows how long and nobody helps me because they think I’m being ironic.” Matt: “I was playing around London as a solo act and hanging out with the guys just made me want to be a part of it. I’m not a very outgoing but I felt at ease whenever they were around and the songs they were writing really spoke to me.”
2. What’s the story behind the group’s name? Vitto: “Everyone thinks it comes from that Strokes song, but that’s not it. I spent a really long time in London hanging out with other artists and trying to develop a songwriting method that satisfied me and made me feel like what I did was unique. It was a fairly abstract process, so whenever someone asked me to show them a finished song I’d just reply “Someday”.
3. Your jingle-jangle sound, with The Strokes echoes, cuts big time. Any other artists that influenced your sonic identity so far? Eli: “Our music is informed by lots of classical elements, which gives it that Strokes feeling at times. What we’re trying to do is to marry modality to psychedelia within the pop song, so time will hopefully tell us apart. Important influences to us are Kraftwerk, The Beach Boys, Talking Heads, The Feelies as well as Debussy and Nujabes.”
4. Storming debut single ‘WHEN WE LEFT’ got our attention instantly.
What’s the song about and how came it all together when recorded? Vitto: ” ‘When We Left‘ is about the bittersweet melancholy of leaving something good behind. I can’t really tell you what it was cause I don’t want it finding me again. It’s the
very first song I wrote and we used to play it at the various open mic nights around London back when it was just Eli, Gege and me. It came together with a layering process rather than jamming one, and it kept evolving as Jerome and Matt joined. We wanted to maintain its live feel so it was recorded without any frills, just the way we played it.”
. 5. How easy/difficult is it to shine in a crowdy, classic rock and pop city as London where a band is formed every 24 hours and what’s your masterplan to succeed? Jerome: “Having many musicians around is good for us. We’re doing our thing and London is full of opportunities to play and sharpen your performance so we’re grateful if anything. There’s people streaming our songs on every continent now and our priority number one is to reach many more.” Gege: We’re about trying to travel as much as possible and playing in small venues or festivals rather than obsessing over some magical mega-hit. It really isn’t much of a
party if we’re standing five feet above the crowd anyway.”
6. Which movie would you pick to visualize your
music on a big screen while playing a gig?
“Koyaanisqatsi. We like it trippy.”
7. If you could go back into the past on whose door
would you knock and ask to have a selfie together?
“Only Matt takes selfies but he’s terrified of time travel.”
8. Number one band/artist on SOMEDAYS’
list to go on tour with?
“Neon Indian. Class act.”
Someday touring with Neon Indian…
9. 2018 is almost over. What album and what track
will end up at the top of your end-of-the-year lists?
“Album: Singularity by Jon Hopkins.
Track: Luminous Beings from that album.”
10. Plans and wishes for 2019?
“Travelling and playing music is all we wanna do so that’s what we wish for. The plan?
We have been holding onto all of our favourite songs and we can’t wait to release them.
2019 is going to be the year.”
Thanks all of you for this chat.
May the road rise with SOMEDAYS!
They are young, they are outspoken, they are ambitious, they rap, they roll, they are alive and kicking. They are DOLORES HAZE doing everything hard. Led by striking frontwoman Groovy Nickz having the looks and the hittin’ and spittin’ dynamics of a young Courtney Love this whimsical trio embodies what blooming glam pop is all about entirely. They combine a great sense of humor with a sharp-edged view on what happens around and with them in daily life. Oh yes, there’s so much more to Dolores Haze than only your eyes can see and only your ears can hear. Find out what exactly right here, after having a banana first…
Hello ladies, let’s roll…
1. What motivated all of you to start a band back in 2015
and did you achieve your goals so far?
“Our band actually formed in 2012, we were 14 and 16 back then. Our goals
were to play in Japan and own a Cadillac and we haven’t done any of that stuff
so I guess we didn’t achieve our goals yet.”
2. True or false: Russian-American writer VLADIMIR NABOKOV’s
novel LOLITA inspired the band’s name?
“True, but actually it was the ‘Lolita‘ movie from 1997 that inspired it.
We read the book after we named the band.”
3. Which song do you consider as your signature one after two albums?
” ‘Touch Me‘ and ‘Play Hard Fuck Hard Love Hard‘ cause they are so sad.”
4. What and/or who inspired the new album’s title, theme
and front cover ‘PLAY HARD FUCK HARD LOVE HARD’?
“Our friend Cilia Wagén who is an artist did a painting called ”Love Hard Forever”. She was broken-hearted at the time and Groovy Nickz was inspired by that (and her own broken heart) when she wrote the lyrics.”
5. Sonically the new album moved more to hip-hop and R&B whereas your debut LP was mostly in pop & rock’s area. A conscious step or a natural change influenced by today’s dominating music scene?
“Probably a natural influence by the things we currently listen to. Lucky loves Kanye, Groovy loves Cardi B and Foxy loves Lil Peep. Rock is where all our hearts lie, we all grew up with rock and emo music and are always influenced by it, but we don’t like the idea of being held back by boundaries or genres. We make music we think is good.
6. I really love the album’s romantic, reflective closer ‘WATCH IT BURN’. It feels like this song’s soul and resonance is entirely different from all the other tracks. What is this beauty actually about?
“Thank you. ‘Watch It Burn’ is about that desperate feel you have after you’ve lost someone. You know it’s over and that it’s never coming back still you desperately want to turn back time and make it alright again. It’s sad and it’s handling breakup and we hope people can find comfort in it.”
. 7. Although it’s 2018 lots of women, worldwide, still need to defend themselves and their identity on this macho male dominated planet. Do you share those same inequality sentiments too?
“Yes, certainly. We’re still far from reaching equality between all genders and until then we have to keep defending ourselves and each other and educating the less-educated. We’re fighting.”
8. Which movie would you pick to visualize the band’s new album on a big screen while playing it in full live?
“200 Cigarettes.”
9. 2018 is almost over. What album and what track will end up at
the top of your end-of-the-year list?
“Album: Midnight Boom by The Kills (although it’s from 2008) and track: Sömnpiller by Duschpalatset.”
10. Plans and wishes for 2019?
“Play in Japan, buy a Cadillac and release more tracks.”
Thank you, ladies, for talking to us.
May the road rise with Dolores Haze!
From South London here are post punk influenced noisemakers THE FABRICATORS. A raw, energetic, confident, committed, 4-headed gang making rambunctious noise about our paranoid world. A couple of weeks ago they launched their dynamic debut longplayer, entitled NEW BAD NEWS. A direct, outspoken and LOUD record that grows on you with every listen. Turn Up The Volume got in touch with this ear-popping team to find out all about their Muhammed Ali connection, their Dracula appetite and many other weird secrets. Join us for the answers to the questions, after this musical introduction…
. 1. What’s the story behind the band’s name and how would you describe your sonic identity? “On NYE of ‘16/’17 Muhammad Ali visited us from beyond the grave in a collective hallucinative vision. He said, “Just you listen here Joey, Jimmy, Marco and Marky – if you guys also wanna be the greatest there ever was, you need to drop this ‘European Sun’ shit [our band name at the time] immediately and become ‘The Fabricators’.” And so, at the strike of 12 midnight, we did. We’re also called The Fabricators because we tell lies sometimes. Our songs are schizophrenic in structure with macabre undertones and usually end up sounding like Halloween, including the darkness and twisted humour. Some tracks are like EPs within themselves and we rarely have a proper chorus, which makes them very hard for people to sing-along to. This is exactly what we set out to do.”
The Fabricators’ mentor…
2. The title of the debut album doesn’t sound hopeful. What’s NEW BAD NEWS actually about? James: “I wanted a phrase that captured the current paranoid, cataclysmic sociopolitical climate and reflected the foreboding sound of the album. I saw a comedian on TV talking about the news and he said he calls it the ‘Bad News’ because every story is so depressing. I liked that but thought the phrase needed something more to be an interesting title. My girlfriend’s twin sister suggested ‘New Bad News’ and I snapped it up like the piranha I am.” Joe: “I just like the “Ooo Ahh Ooo” sound of it.”
3. Tell us more about the album’s front cover image Marcus: “As the visual artist of the band, I spent a month manipulating and creating different imagery options to present to the band for us to choose on. Unanimously we decided on this one, which I actually stole from an old Vogue magazine. The imagery had a feeling of an entrance which I thought was appropriate seeing as this is our first album. I also really liked the idea of flipping this fresh, cheerful imagery on its head to create something with a bit more grain and darkness that I felt represented our message on the album and echoed the title.”
4. Which song do you consider as the band’s signature track so far? James:” ‘Maureen’ is the opening song on our album and it’s probably already our best known. It was Marcus’ first songwriting contribution and, annoyingly, it turned out to be better than anything me or Mark have done. We all worked on the arrangement together and it came together really quickly in the studio. It’s an archetypical Fabricators track. Vicious riffs and vocals, driving bass, unhinged drums, then a weird middle bit, then a riotous guitar string and drumstick snapping ending.” Marcus: ” Since we released the song it’s become a staple track for us to either open or finish our gigs on. The song’s about my partner’s nan, of whom a few of our core fans know. Some have started chanting “Maureen, MAUREEN” at our shows – maybe we’ll get her on stage one day… she’d hate it.”
. 5. Any rituals before going on stage for a show? “Just the usual stuff. Few beers, listen to music, count the people in the crowd, sacrifice a meerkat, call up all of our exes to gloat about our success.”
6. Brexit: A pain in the ass or a blessing? “We hadn’t heard about this Brexit thing? Just googled it, seems like a great idea with no potential downsides.”
7. If you would go back in time on which artist’s front door would you knock and ask to have a selfie together? James: “xxxTenacious. He seemed lovely.” Marcus: “We don’t really do selfies anymore, ever since James got in trouble for posting the naked picture of him and Alfonso Ribeiro (Carlton from “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air) at an orgy in Mexico a few years back… you probably won’t be able to find it now as we’ve worked tirelessly to remove it from the web as its been bringing both of their careers and lives down since.”
8. Which movie would you pick to visualize the band’s music on a big screen while playing a concert? “Dracula (1958) with Christopher Lee intercut with ‘Blue Planet’, ‘Inception’ and Alejandro Jodorowsky’s ‘Holy Mountain’.”
For all the Draculator fans out there…
9. Your number one artist/band to go on a world tour with? “The 1975, because they’re excruciatingly bad but they play big venues so we think people would prefer us.”
10. Next step for THE FABRICATORS? “Submit these answers to Turn Up The Volume and find a meerkat for the weekend. Thanks.”
Thanks to all of you, guys, for this interview. May the road rise with THE FABRICATORS!
Sometimes I wonder if the greater part of people in Australia is in a band. There’s really a tsunami of exciting, sonic Aussies the past few years. So, I guess it must be hard to stand out as a musical artist/group if you’re living down under, yet one of them drew my hungry ears’ attention on first hearing. Brisbane‘s TERRA PINES hit my speakers some weeks ago with mighty force and tons of energy, Subtle melodies drenched in a fervid commotion of scorching guitars and a head-on pumping bass/drums tandem. This mettlesome combo is a staggering powerhouse trio with a refined nose for sticky tunefulness. Vocalist/guitarist Kelly will tell you why, how and more. But let’s start the acquaintance first with a stirring track from the band’s debut longplayer…
Hello Kelly!
Welcome…
1. What’s the story behind the band’s name and
how would you describe your sonic identity? KELLY: “We were originally called Tall Pines but we received a cease and desist letter
from another band of the same name a few months before we were planning on putting out our debut record. We probably didn’t have any legal imperative to change our name but we thought it better to distance ourselves from the other band and carve our own path far away from them in our own little pocket of bliss. Terra Pines was the only name
suggested that we all agreed on. I think it worked out well in the wash though. I much prefer Terra Pines. I would describe our sonic identity as loud, genre-bending
big mood music.”
2. Which song do you consider as the band’s signature track so far? KELLY: “For me it’s Extreme Handshakes. We didn’t really know what we were doing
when we started this project and had no clear idea of what we wanted to do sonically (other than loudness). Extreme Handshakes was the first song we wrote together
and it really solidified our conceptual plans. After that the songwriting just became
real effortless. Sonically, Handshakes is the perfect confluence of influences for us
i.e. shoegaze, grunge, post-punk and sludge pop and it was all a bit of an accident.
It was almost like we tripped over the song or something hahaha.”
. 3. The front cover’s artwork of your self-titled debut album is quite fascinating. What is the image about and what’s the connection with the music? KELLY: “The amazing album artwork was painted by our friend Benjamin Hale. I think the second we saw it we all could easily imagine it as our cover. I love the duality of the image, the skull often represents death and mortality in pop culture symbolism, so couple that with the hot pink background (which is the least goth colour in the history of the spectrum) and you get a nice symbiosis of light and dark, which is what we try to do with our music as well.”
4. Are all songs on the album connected in some way or
are they all different stories/experiences? KELLY: “The songs were written individually as separate entities and in no way written
to be consumed as a whole, luckily it works as one though. The songwriting process was instinctual and I wouldn’t say that a whole lot of thought went into the processes. We just did the thing, recorded the thing and put out the thing. I would definitely like to be more intentional for the next record and spend a bit more time on fully realising the concept and experimenting more with song structure.”
5. ‘Lately’ is my favorite track. The wall-of-multi-layered-guitar-sound is quite stunning. How did the song came together production-wise? KELLY: “Aww thanks 😊 in my opinion Lately is the roughest and rawest on the record sonically speaking. but probably the sweetest lyrically so there’s a nice dynamic there. At the time it was written I was listening to lots of Metz and wanted to do something brash, atonal and noisy. The song came together real quick and was recorded in an afternoon after a few takes. We recorded the song live so there aren’t any over-dubs or layers, it’s just the 2 guitars, drums and some bass organ for extra low-end.”
. 6. Which movie would you pick to visualize the LP’s music
on a big screen while playing a gig? KELLY: “The 1996 Bill Paxton/Helen Hunt Classic Twister or Dante’s Peak haha. All jokes aside I think ‘Whatever Happened To Baby Jane’ could be cool or some kind of psychological horror of that ilk. I can just imagine Bette Davis overacting in her garish pancaked makeup and looking creepy/funny to Dream Big. Man, I love that film!”
Looking through Bette Davis’ eyes…
7. In my daily search for new exciting music I notice tremendous action in
Australia. A new scene or just a fertile generation of young musicians? KELLY: “Maybe I’m biased but I feel like there’s always been exciting stuff happening across the arts here in Australia, particularly in Brisbane where we are from. At least
in my time there have always been local bands that I am frothing about and it’s an
exciting, inspiring and supportive scene to be a part of.”
8. If you could go back in time on which artist’s front door would
you knock and ask to have a selfie together? KELLY: “If I had the power to travel back in time I would probably go back and try and save everyone in the 27 club who died too soon. Janis Joplin, Amy Winehouse, Kurt Cobain, Jimi Hendrix and Mama Cass etc… Maybe I could be some kind of time traveling, life counseling Marty McFly type.
Lots of selfies to make…
9. Your number one band/artist to go on a world tour with? KELLY: “Right now, it’s Beach House. I’m still listening to their new record 7 every day so
I would love to see/hear how they pull it all off live. I go into a weird altered state when I listen to them so I would love to talk to them. I suspect they are modern day mesmerists and I really want to harness their power.”
7/7
10. Next step for the band in the near future? KELLY: “We’ve had a nice little break so we’ll be getting back into the studio soon to start working on record number 2. I think we are going to do things a little differently this time. We aren’t going to record live, instead we’ll be tracking individually and I think we are going to do a lot more pre-production work this time around. I’m very keen, onwards and upwards!”
Thank you Kelly for this fun interview.
May the road rise with TERRA PINES!
Let’s have some big mood turmoil now!
Here’s TERRA PINES’ debut album in full…
FALLING MAN is a boisterous 4-headed groove machine turning the inflammable combination of intoxicating riffs, kick-ass licks, battering drums and a riveting vox into absorbing songs with a lasting impact. Slow/fast, loud/quiet, haunting/ecstatic. Different paces, different moods. But always sound-exploring and highly fascinating. Last year’s second album GHOST showed/shows a tight band at the peak of its rousing game. A captivating work of mixed emotions, gripping sentiments and electrical reflections about life’s daily struggle. A record for bluesy hearts & troubled souls. Enough reasons to learn more about this blustery quartet. But let’s start the sonic acquaintance with one of the highlights of the new LP. Here’s ‘Beach Blues’…
Hello Falling Man, Welcome at Turn Up The Volume!…
1/ What’s the story behind the band’s name and the group’s sonic identity?
“Is there a story? Our guitarist Paul came up with the name after reading Don DeLillo’s novel ‘Falling Man’, written shortly after the 9/11-attacks. People often ask us whether the name of the band refers to the man falling down, like a contorted modern dancer, from one of the WTC-buildings. But it doesn’t. It’s a reference to a character in DeLillo’s book: a street performer in Manhattan who lets himself fall from the sky, over and over again. As to the sonic identity: we play sharp, angular and edgy guitar music, echoing sixty years of rock noise and pop music. It is often loud, harsh and ugly, it can be delicate and melodic,
it always has a groove going on.”
2/ Lou Reed said in his final interview back in 2013 that the bass is
a crucial instrument in pop, rock and classic music. I suppose you don’t
agree as FALLING MAN has no bass player. Why is that?
“Falling Man has no bass player because there’s no need. Not more than five people
in 10 years time have told us they were missing a bass player during the live-shows.
A couple of bass players have asked us whether we needed one, because they were
keen on joining the band. But we never felt the need. Influenced by bands such as Jon Spencer Blues Explosion and also Dÿse – they use an octaver-pedal, which lowers the
guitar tone with an octave – we tried the set-up with 2 guitars and it worked right away. Both our guitarists Paulie and Lode both wanted to get rid of their bassplayer-history
and focus on the guitar. In fact, we both have a style of playing guitar that mixes
bass loops and guitar chords or noisy stuff. We also get deep bass-sounds out of
a foot-triggered sample unit.”
Six strings band…
3/ Which song do you consider as the band’s signature track so far?
“The band has been through some changes recently; I think that the signature track
before the release of our second album – Ghost’ – was ‘Stripper’, a song that we don’t play any longer. Ever since vocalist Sander joined Falling Man, our sound has slightly changed, has become a little more ‘poppy’; someone once called it ‘industrial blues’ of ‘Ruhr Area Rock’. A song that fits that description perfectly, would be ‘Robot Kaput’, as it combines both the poppy aspect and Falling Man’s love for noise and tearing guitars.”
4/ Your new album is called ‘GHOST’. Who is he/she?
“No one in particular. It was Paul’s 10-year old daughter who came up with the name, and it kinda stuck. Throughout the recording process we noticed that many songs dealt with the theme of loss, people disappearing, leaving loved-ones behind. The ones who leave become ghosts or the ones who are left behind become a half the person they were. Hence, the name.”
5/ The LP’s artwork looks mystifying in accordance with its title.
Who or what inspired the image?
“It was Paul’s idea, coming from his great love for geometrical design and figures. The photographer is Kaat, guitarist Lode’s sister. Thing is that this picture almost never existed: we took it in October, and the sun almost did not cast any shadow. We took this picture in a parking garage; it’s Paul’s shadow, combined with a ventilation grid.”
6/ Any rituals before going on stage for a show?
“Not really. The drummers tend to get on everyone’s nerves while practicing rudiments
on any object he can find. There’s a lot of bantering too, taking pictures, laughter and
the occasional beer. Well, we try to keep stay focused on stage. When we first started
we played a drunk show once. It got the girls dancing, which was nice.”
Trying to make the girls dance…
7/ Which movie would you pick to visualize FALLING MAN’s
music on a big screen while playing a concert?
“Well, actually: none.”
8/ If the band were an animal, which one would it be?
“A wolf, maybe? Or a hyena? Once we get the attention of the audience, we don’t let go. Or even cats? Cats do what they want, they’re unpredictable. And when they’re horny, they make noise. We are horny cats?”
Horny noisemakers…
9/ If you could go back in time on which artist’s front
door would you knock and ask to have a selfie together?
“Oscar Wilde, while writing ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’.
That could be fun.”
Gotcha!
10/ Next step for FALLING MAN?
“The idea is to keep on playing, cause that’s what it’s all about. We don’t plan, we play. There’s no outline, no direction, no strategy. Playing brings us to places we could never plan on going. It makes things happen.”
New frontman Sander…
Thank you for the chat, guys.
May the road rise with FALLING MAN!
Canadian electro pop duo CUBS REFRAIN released their full length debut TELL ME YOU LOVE ME last month. A rapturous work of vivid passion, heartfelt intensity and vehement romanticism. A gratifying record that pleases your senses all the way through. A sparkling collection of emotions-loaded compositions. Turn Up The Volume hears echoes of Chvrches, Florence and the Machine and St. Vincent. But most of all I hear two towering voices and I experience high-quality songwriting intensified by sky-high orchestrations and burning eagerness. Enough reasons to have a chat with the authors, Erin and Jordan. Let’s start the acquaintance with a highlight of that stirring longplayer. Here’s ALL NEW LIVES…
I guess we’re all in the right mood now, let’s talk…
1 / What’s the story behind the band’s name ? CUBS: “We settled on the name Cubs Refrain after a lot of consideration. The names of our previous groups were somewhat goofy and lighthearted, which was great, but we realized we wanted this name to have some more personal meaning for us both. We landed on a combined phrase that to us holds both nostalgia and growth. That being said, we really hope to keep it open to interpretation and will refrain from disclosing specifics. We started working together over correspondence while Jordan was working in BC and Erin was living in Spain in early 2015. At that point we only had the concept for the band and Jordan was starting to demo a bunch of new synth sounds. We had never worked seriously together before then but had played shows together in our respective bands back in our university days. We had always admired each other’s skills and approach to music, so we both kind of jumped at the opportunity, officially starting Cubs Refrain in August of 2015.”
2/ What was the initial sound, songs and themes you had in mind when starting up? CUBS: “Jordan initially had the vision to change gears from our prior genres and try out synth-driven music. We originally really wanted our sound to be much more pared back, really similar to Oh Wonder. Their first few singles (and album) was hugely influential for us, especially vocally. As we developed things further and started accumulating our synths, we evolved into the heavier synth textures that you hear on the album. A lot of that came from our love of CHVRCHES and M83, both of which have some incredible synth arrangements. We gradually found our own way to emulate our indie rock and blues styles with our synthesizers. We weren’t really interested in making your sort of classic EDM beats with these synths, but really wanted to tell the same stories as we had with our guitar and piano. Our approach to arranging songs remained very similar to how we had written in the past, with the main difference being that almost all of the instruments used were synthesizers.”
3 / Your debut album’s front artwork is a beauty. What inspired the image? Jordan: The art was actually a collaboration of a number of people, but the idea for it came to me in the spring of 2016 after a major house fire consumed my family home. We had this beautiful grand piano that we lost in the fire, so I wanted to capture that in some way visually. I actually took some sound recordings of us ‘disassembling’ it, which can be heard at the end of the instrumental track ‘Death of the Grand Piano’. hat’s the most literal sense of it, but we also felt that it represented our artistic vision of moving past tradition and embracing change.”
4/ Your brand new debut LP is titled ‘TELL ME YOU LOVE ME’. Who are the lovers? CUBS: “The album tells the story of a fictional pair. We naturally put a lot of our own emotions and experiences into the songs we wrote for this album, but we wanted to portray it as a cohesive story and found that telling our fragmented pasts through the vessel of one couple was the perfect way to do it. We spent a lot of time developing each of their personalities, storyboarding their relationship, which takes the listener from the time they met to their eventual heartbreak and reflection. The title of the album, Tell Me You Love Me, we feel is an all-encapsulating phrase that can be expressed through changing times, from feelings of passion to desperation.”
5/ Which track is CUBS REFRAIN signature one so far and why? CUBS: “‘Breathe’ is probably the quintessential Cubs track. From the vocals to the synth melodies to the dynamics, it’s really representative of who we are as artists. We feel that we have a really diverse sound, and ‘Breathe’ does a great job of showcasing that. It’s also one of the songs that marked the peak of our collaboration through the writing of the album, where we really felt we hit our stride.”
6/ Both your voices are amazing. The result of training or a natural gift? “Jordan: “I’m glad you like our voices! I don’t consider myself much of a singer, so most of my vocal ability I’ve worked to develop. Erin on the other hand seems to be able to make anything sound incredible with ease, so it’s always a big relief when she’s able to sing on a track.” Erin: “Wow, thanks. Besides being part of choirs growing up, I never had any real training. I’ve always been extremely shy with my voice so it’s been a slow progression to getting it where it is now. Working on this album has shown the most drastic progression, and I definitely owe a lot of that growth to Jordan for pushing my limits. I’m pretty excited with my improvement up to now, but I know there’s definitely farther that I can go.”
7/ Closing track ‘WE ALMOST FAILED, BRIAN (Epilogue II’ is my favorite. What’s the song about and how did you created the wall-of-synths sound in the studio? CUBS: “‘Brian’ is about moving on and being ok with where you are. We felt it was the perfect track to play out the album, almost as a reflection of the story itself. It wraps things up in a sort of bittersweet way. It’s like looking back on a hardship fondly, knowing that you’ve grown because of it. The wall of synth sound was mostly about fitting all of the pieces around one another. There are lots of unison and octave layers that reinforce each other. We used entirely analog synths for the track, which really added to the harmonic richness of all the instrumentation.”
. 8/ Which movie would you pick to visualize your music on a big screen behind you when playing a show? Jordan: “The first movie that always comes to mind is ‘Drive’. I think maybe because the soundtrack is so similar stylistically, but I do think that they have similar aesthetics.” Erin: “I think the feel of our stuff would fit pretty well over ‘Perks of Being a Wallflower’, a fantastic movie about the confusions of adolescence and first loves.”
The perks of being Cubs Refrain…
9/ If you could go back in time on which artist’s front door would you knock and ask to have a selfie together? Jordan: “David Bowie. I feel like out of most famous musicians, he’d be down for a fan selfie.” Erin: I’m gonna go with Michael Jackson. I make a solid effort at the moonwalk.”
10/ Future plans for CUBS REFRAIN? CUBS: “We’re hoping to just keep on playing bigger and bigger shows and take our music to new places! Jordan loves recording and producing, so it’s going to be difficult to keep him out of the studio. I wouldn’t read into that too much though, another album is a ways out from now.”
Thank you Erin, thank you Jordan for this interview. May the road rise with CUBS REFRAIN!
Together Samuel Buss and Brittany West are KOBAN. A highly intriguing darksome tandem describing themselves as a ‘drifter satanic murder couple‘. Don’t get scared, it’s just that as artists they love to explore the nightmarish side of humankind. For this pair, making music about the saturnine side of daily life works like therapy. They design twilight soundscapes pushed by obscure bass lines, ongoing electric-powered guitar waves and rhythmic synth beats while dusky vocals intensify the overall gloomy picture perfectly. Last month they played Turn Up The Volume‘s hometown Ghent (Belgium). An ideal opportunity for a Q & A. Let’s get in the right frame of mind first with ‘The Instinct Of Ego, a doom-loaded track from their latest album ‘Abject Obsessions‘…
.
Hello Britt & Sam, hello KOBAN
Welcome at Turn Up The Volume!
1/ What’s the story behind the band’s name?
“It’s not a very good story…we got the name when we were teens traveling in Japan. We kept on seeing these signs everywhere that said ‘KOBAN’ and we liked the aesthetic look, and the neutral tone that came with it. Turns out they were community help boxes? Who knew!”
2/ What does the term/label ‘Goth Music’ really means to you?
“We never really wanted a label for our music, as we didn’t want to be confined into a box and stifle any creativity. However, our music is often an expression of the harder emotions to show in everyday life, so a darkness does come forward. It’s a release. Therapy. I guess that darkness is why people connect us with Goth music.”
3/ The band’s artwork/image by Colin Cey is really fascinating.
What is its signification?
“Colin is an amazing tattoo artist, and a dear friend, who often draws femme figures,
and deals with concepts of death, time and space, literature and nature. We asked him
to create a T-shirt design based on one of the femme figures, and that is what he gave us! Interpretation is up to the wear-er…”
Fascinating…
4/ Which track is KOBAN’s signature one so far and why?
“‘We Run Red Lights’ epitomizes us pretty clearly. It encompasses all the elements of
our music. Sam and my vocals simultaneously playing off each other, repetitive drums, punchy bass and washed out guitar. We don’t play this one live, but after reflecting on it…we probably should!”
5/ Why is your latest EP titled ‘Part Time Punk Sessions’?
“Part Time Punks is a weekly night hosted in Los Angeles where they play Punk, Post-Punk, Minimal Synth, Industrial and a whole range of other types of music. When we opened
for Crash Course in Science there in April 2017, they recorded the session afterwards in a studio. We really enjoyed the tracks and wanted to get them out ASAP and we didn’t want to wait for a label to pick them up so… voila! Digital “Part Time Punks Sessions” released!”
. 6/ If KOBAN would be an animal, which one would it be and why?
“I think we would be lions because we are ferocious and strong
on the outside, and cuddly babies on the inside.”
Koban’s alter ego…
7/ Any rituals before going on stage?
“Drinking profusely (to cut the nerves)
“Pacing back and forth (to cut the nerves)
“Doing push ups/stretches (to cut the nerves
and get STRONG.)”
Live Action (Ghent, Belgium – 20 March 2018)…
8/ Which movie would you pick to visualize your music on
a big screen at when playing a concert?
“Eraserhead. Because it is so eerie and beautiful at the same time, and
I can’t get enough of that gross, weird alien baby thing… forcing people
to look at it for a whole set would please me.”
9/ If you could go back in time on which artist’s front door
would you knock and ask to have a selfie together?
“We would go back in time to visit the Neanderthals who created the Red Disk and hand stencils in the El Castillo cave. We would do this in order to see what the early man was like, and what they were thinking at the time. We would ask them to explain to us why
they drew these stencils, and if they would take a traditional selfie: a handprint on the
cave wall!”
10/ Future plans for KOBAN?
“We’re taking a break now from writing and will be working on a new
electronic project called “SIGSALY”. Check it out here on Bandcamp”
Thanks, Britt and Sam for the chat.
May the road rise with KOBAN!
Here’s KOBAN‘s latest full length
‘ABJECT OBSESSIONS‘ right here…
