British-American documentarian, journalist, broadcaster, and author
Louis Theroux sat face to face a week ago for an in-depth interview
with living songsmith legend Nick Cave.
One word: LISTEN!
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NICK CAVE: Instagram – Facebook
9 June 2023
British psych rockers IT’S KARMA IT’S COOL released their third longplayer titled,
THRIFT STORE TROUBADOURS last week. Following their 2020 debut Woke Up In Hollywood and Homesick For Our Future Destinations (2021) they come up with another colourful and varied psych pop opus.
They know how to construct, what many artists/bands can’t or just ignore, sticky
tunes and infectious melodies. Always welcome on my ears’ stereo. Their combination
of electric-powered jingly jangly guitars, lively vocals/harmonies, inspiring stories and their greatly layered and orchestrated musicality makes this new LP a must-hear one. I’m sure you’ll join The Karma Army afterward.
Enough said. I’ll let frontman Jim Styring do the talking now. But as usual,
we start an interview with a slice of music. Here’s one of the album’s
highlights Old Bones.
Hello Jim
Welcome
Did you have a game plan for the writing/recording
of THRIFT STORE TROUBADOURS, Jim?
“Not really, we just wanted to write a bunch of strong songs and put them out.
We always try not to repeat ourselves, so as our previous album ‘Homesick For
Our Future Destinations’ was kind of a concept album, we wanted these songs to
be able to stand on their own.
I guess if there is any recurring theme with ‘Thrift Store Troubadours’ it’s believing
in yourself and knowing you’re going to get through whatever life throws at you.
Sometimes themes jump out at me once the songs are finished, I don’t always
see it at the time.”
Was the whole band involved in the writing/production?
“The whole band is always involved in the writing process. Martyn or Mikey
will send over guitar ideas, I’ll write my words and melodies to the ones that
grab me. We take them into the rehearsal room and work on the arrangements
together.
Martyn produces all our records, so he always has
a clear vision of how he wants the songs to sound.
What’s the story behind the album’s title?
“It’s a comment on how everyone seems to be struggling at the moment, either
with money, or should I say without it, or just life in general. Every time you turn
the TV on or read the news, things seem to be getting worse.
But we’re all in it together, and we’ll all get through it together.
We always have and we always will. People Power. As long as we
have each other, we’ll be ok.”
Are all songs connected in some way, or
are they each standing on their own?
“Like I mentioned, we wanted the 12 songs to be able to stand on their own,
each a potential single, each telling its own story. People don’t listen to albums
as they used to, a beginning, middle and end, songs are listened to at random,
out of context, so they have to be self-contained and able to survive on their own.”
Who designed the LP’s artwork. Does it express
something specific related to the record?
“A talented designer I know, Sophie Adams, did the artwork for us, I think she did
a great job. We wanted something that looked like you’d found it in the thrift store,
or a charity shop.
An old, dog-eared album that you’d just discovered on the shelf. The coffee cup stain on the cover is a deliberate reference to our song ‘Coffee Cup Circles’ from our ‘Homesick For Our Future Destinations‘ album, for those who spotted it.”
60s psych pop harmonies are a big part of the band’s sound.
Any influences from giants such as The Beatles and Beach Boys
or other bands?
“I can’t deny there’s probably some Beatles influence in there, but a lot of it is just experimenting in the studio. We just bounce ideas around and try different things,
until the song sounds as we want it. Quite often it’s knowing when to stop layering
them up, you could literally go on forever.
But yes, there’s some 60’s psych pop influences in there, for sure.”
The cool and catchy lead-single A GENTLE REMINDER
already came out last summer. What‘s the song about?
“It’s a IKIC ten-point plan to live a happier and more contented life. It’s a list of instructions to follow if you want to find your own personal salvation. It also mentions an XTC track, ‘Making Plans For Nigel‘ so perhaps it’s not too serious and just a catchy pop song after all.
It features Peter Holsapple on keyboards, adding a real alternative/punk rock vibe.
Which one/ones are your favourite track(s), Jim?
“Great question, but it changes every time I listen to the record. We put as much time and effort into each song, so it would be unfair to pick out just one. At the time of writing this, I’m really enjoying ‘How Be You Be Blue?‘ but it’ll be something different tomorrow. ‘Jenni, We’re All Fighting Wars‘ is another favourite.”
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Was there any particular music/artists you were listening
to for inspiration during the creative process?
“Not consciously, we always try and do our own thing, but I guess a band is the sum
of its influences. We all listen to different things, and bring all that to the IKIC sound, whatever that is. We kind of like the fact that we’re hard to label, we don’t fall easy into
any particular category. But you always know it’s us when you hear it.”
Which movie would be ideal to have the new album as its soundtrack?
“Another great question! I don’t know a movie as such, but the closing track,
‘City Kids’ is pretty cinematic, so maybe they could write a movie around that?
Having said that, if Spielberg wants to use the album for any upcoming projects,
please give us a call.”
[Xinhua/Reuters]
Peter Holsapple, the main-songwriter of 70s jangly guitar pop legends The dB’s plays on three tracks. How did you get in touch and what made the collaboration happen?
“I’ve been a fan of Peter‘s for a long time, it really was just a case of asking him.
I sent him some of our songs and he said he’d like to be involved. It was as
simple as that, really. He brought the three songs to life, ‘A Gentle Reminder,’
‘Winter Coats’ and ‘City Kids’.
To have someone on our record who played on REM’s huge album ‘Out Of Time‘ is
a dream for me. And the doors are always open to work with him again in the future.”
Are you touring the album? If so, which big name would
you go on the road with, if you had the chance to pick one?
“We’re currently working out some live dates, we’re mixing it up, some full electric,
some stripped down acoustic. We like to keep things interesting for our followers,
recently christened ‘The Karma Army’ and ourselves.
Most of the songs lend themselves to the acoustic treatment, and it’s always fun to do something a little different. Regarding a big name to go on the road with….we’re open to offers and can be packed, ready to roll as soon as the invite comes in!”
One more for the road…
Thank you very much, Jim, for this interview.
May the road rise with ‘It’s Karma It’s Cool’.
STREAM/BUY
‘Thrift Store Troubadours’
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Band
Jim – Vocals / Backing Vocals
Martyn – Guitar / Backing Vocals / Additional Instrumentation
Mikey – Bass
Danny – Drums
Special Guests:
Peter Holsapple – Mandolin on ‘ Winter Coats’
– Keyboards on ‘ A Gentle Reminder’ and ‘City Kids’
Gabby Porter – Additional Backing Vocals on ‘Winter Coats’
Recorded, Produced, Mixed & Mastered by Martyn
@ Playing Aloud Studios, Lincoln UK.
IT’S KARMA IT’COOL: Facebook – Linktree
10 May 2023
FILIBUSTER are four music maniacs from Belgium. They produce a melting pot of grunge (think, of course, Nirvana), slacker rock (think Dinosaur Jr.) and anything post-punk edged.
They released their second longplayer, baptized Quit Part Out Loud last March. Both sonically and lyrically a mood-swings record. You can rock out to it, take a breather now and then, and go quiet/loud all the way through. Sounds cool right? You betcha. That’s why Turn Up The Volume invited frontman Karl, who’s a creepy starer at times, to tell you and me some more about the band and their new impassioned album.
Hello Karl,
thanks for taking
time for this chat
When and how came the band together?
“About 5 or 6 years ago I (Karl, vocals/guitars) had been wanting to start a new project
with the vague idea of combining noise, post-punk and shoegaze. I was obsessed with the sound of guitars dissonantly battling each other I heard in Interpol’s PDA or Goo-era Sonic Youth.
Pieter-Jan (guitar) was my roommate at the time and a fellow student of classical guitar
in Antwerp. He had been specializing in 20th-century avant-garde stuff and fit the mold perfectly. Timo (bass) was a former bandmate and musical soul mate let’s say, and he turned out to be an infinite source of emo-riffs.
We made some DIY demos to try out some ideas, under the name Sultan of Sentiment,
and sent them to Humo’s Rock Rally for laughs. We accidentally got selected and had to train a drummer in a few months to play and understand our impossible music. Jonas
was a willing victim. Berbel’s Helena Van Hoolst joined to do keys and backing vocals.
We played a god awful set during the pre-selections, the p.a. guy didn’t know what to do with us, but we kept the band going. Helena left but our other roommate Nathaniel, prog and death metal genius for Winterblind, stepped in for a few years. We recorded some new demos with Koenraad Foesters and then approached Bert Vliegen to record a first album. Etc etc!”
What’s the story behind the band’s name?
“Filibuster was just a word we thought sounded cool and snappy and political and
it had a certain post-punk vibe I guess. I still like that it’s kind of an ode to a huge
political dick-move. Although we had some issues with people confusing us with
a Californian ska-band with the same name. Oops.”
You have your debut album out. It’s titled QUIET PART OUT LOUD.
What did you want to express with it?
“It’s hard for us/me not to make music that’s extremely personal. You tend to cut out
the overly emotional bits during the writing process, but somehow it just always turns
out sentimental and angsty.
Most of these songs were written during a tumultuous time in my/our personal life and while grieving a family member. So the title reflects this I guess. We don’t mean to say the quiet parts out loud, we just wanna have fun and rock out, you know, but we can’t really help it.”
Who designed the album’s cover and what
did you want to visualise with that drawing?
“Wannes Cools had so many great ideas, but this one drawing he made stuck. I can’t speak for him artistically, but for me, this little grotesque dude seems to be trying to hide behind his hand but struggling to contain himself.
I think it really fits the themes of the album. Our first LP was so beautiful and lush but this drawing and the font, it’s so simple and effective and it oozes punk-rock too. We will never get sick of seeing this little fella on a vinyl cover.”
One of the highlights is the single CAN’T UNFRIEND YOURSELF.
What’s the song about?
“Can’t Unfriend Yourself is about our online persona. The digital veil that should hide or embellish who we are, but betrays more about ourselves than we would like. About not being able to escape this conundrum and neurotically ego-looping to infinity.”
Is the LP the work of the whole band? Who writes the songs?
“The first concepts are usually riffs from Timo or me, then I try to make them into something resembling a song. We get together to flesh them out, which somehow
we succeeded at in like… 5 rehearsing sessions. Props to Pieter-Jan for improvising
and composing some of my favourite guitar leads on the album and the beautiful
synth section on Lo-Fi Insane.”
Suppose the album would be the soundtrack
for a movie, which one would it be?
“Hmm, something moody with insane bursts of frantic energy.
Maybe Psycho. But starring Nicolas Cage as the girl in the shower.”
Suppose the band was an animal, which one would it be and why?
“Ostriches when feeling anxious or scared they will express it by screaming or running away, or if any of these doesn’t work, awkwardly try to blend with the environment.”
What’s a FILIBUSTER gig like?
“Loud and unforgiving but also intimate? At least that’s how we’d like to think it is.
We loooove to see people bounce around to our songs, so bring your earplugs and dancing shoes!”
Which band would you love to tour with and why?
“Pardoner (note: 4 indie rockers from San Francisco) because we think
it’d be a great laugh to hang out with and because I wanna tell them
how much I dig their music.
Warpaint because I have a fantasy where I play in a Korean drama and creepily
stare at the bass player from around various corners and somehow it ends up
with us getting into a totally non-toxic relationship.”
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What’s your Top 3 of Belgian bands?
The Hickey Underworld
We were insane fanboys and very hyped
about them touring again.
Evil Superstars (1994-199)
Mauro Pawlowski and Tim Vanhamel in one band!
Gorki
Luc De Vos is our spirit animal.
What’s the band ultimate goal
“Honestly we just want to keep making records, so I guess getting to a point where we don’t have to drain our personal bank accounts for it? Also, I personally get a kick out of just one person saying they’ve been listening to our album over and over.
Really anytime anyone has some kind of physical reaction to our music whether it’s laughing or crying or just feeling the need to jump up and down, I feel like I can die peacefully.”
Thank you, Karl, for this interview.
May the road rise with Filibuster.
BUY/STREAM
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FILIBUSTER: Facebook – Instagram
14 April 2023
THE MYSTERY PLAN is a 5-piece groovy-moody pop band from
Charlotte, North Carolina conducted by Jason Herring and fronted
by sensual voice Amy Herring.
They started working together back in 2010 and now, 13 years later they already
released their 7th album named Haunted Organic Machines. A breezy, trippy, and
synth-scintillating record of relaxing pop vibes and candlelight musings. Subtly orchestrated and an ideal companion for reflective moments.
Thanks to main man Jason Herring we can learn more about
the band, their music, and their pretty cool collaborations.
Hello Jason,
Thank you for taking
time for this chat,
How/when was THE MYSTERY PLAN conceived?
“The Mystery Plan came about back in 2010. I had some songs
written but needed help with a good arrangement and recording.
So, I went to long time co-writer/producer Paul Jensen (the Interstellars,
Fetchin’ Bones) at his place, Satellite Recording Studios.
There we put together our first album, The Future Isn’t What It Used To Be.”
Is there a mysterious story behind the band’s name?
“The name of the band comes from a late-night murder show I was watching.
The narrator of the show said something like,”…and the two set out on their
mystery plan…”. I thought that was great, so I used it.”
You may pick three tracks to introduce the band to music
fans who have never heard of you. Which ones would it be?
“Three good introductory songs: “Midnight Trail Ride” (2014),
“Those Stars” (2020), and “What A Day (disco)” (2023).”
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Is every member involved in the songwriting process?
“The songwriting process in our group starts with me coming up with a song idea,
playing it for Amy so she can start with the lyrics, Otis coming up with his bass lines,
then Jeff throws a beat on it, and Patty puts the finishing touches on it with backing
vocals or sometimes flute.
A song or two on every record is just me in the studio, and the band
figures out together how we are going to perform that song live.”
The new – 7th – album is named HAUNTED ORGANIC MACHINES.
What did you want to say/express with it?
“We started writing Haunted Organic Machine‘ during the Covid lockdown, so there are songs on it expressing sadness and frustration. Then, toward the end, and everyone was starting to loosen up a bit, we decided to write something a little more happy, “what a day” came from that.”
Is the album’s artwork related to its title?
What did you want to visualize with it?
“The album art is from a very dear friend and collaborator, Anthony Smith (That Guy Smitty/Muchacho). He did a series of polaroids last year that were pretty amazing.
He let me use a couple of my favorites: HOM cover, and the cover for ‘What A Day EP‘.
Side note, Smitty also made the beats for “What a day (disco).”
The single WHAT A DAY (disco) attracted me to the band. It feels like a bird is flying high in the sky on a Spring morning (actually the whole album feels that way). Did you think of a sort of ‘perfect’ Lou Reed ‘day’ when the song was written?
“What a day” started as something fun a danceable. When I sat down to write the lyrics, I just thought about things I could be happy about. I looked around the studio, out the window, inward, and those lyrics came out.”
The other single BIG BLISS isn’t a happy song and the video doesn’t
look blissful either. What was the idea behind the song and the video?
“Big bliss” is sort of the opposite of “What a day”. Amy was having a hard time with the lockdown, and all of the heartbreaking things she was seeing on the news. But you can
still hear her trying to focus on the things that made her happy, even through all the darkness.”
Suppose the album was the soundtrack
of a movie which one would it be and why?
“Hmmmm…if ‘Haunted Organic Machines’ were a film soundtrack…
that’s a tough one…Blade Runner maybe?…or Breathless(1960 Godard)?
I don’t know.”
Name 2 artists THE MYSTERY PLAN would love to tour with or work with?
“One of the really cool things about the Mystery Plan is that we’ve been able to work with some of our heroes. John Fryer (4AD/This Mortal Coil/ Cocteau Twins/ Love & Rockets/ NIN/ Depeche Mode…), Peter Anderson (the Ocean Blue), Steve Cobby(Fila Brazillia), Ian Masters(Pale Saints/ Isolated Gate), Neil Conte(Prefab Sprout), Micah Gaugh(the Veldt), Jah Freedom, Simon Mills(Bent). But I would really love to work with Robin Guthrie (Cocteau Twins), and Kruder and Dorfmeister. ”
Does the band play live? If so what’s a MP gig like?
“We play live a lot. Our sets are dreamy, moody, and sometimes a little groovy.”
To me TRUMP (and his party and their fanatic followers) divided the country dangerously. How do you perceive the present chaos following his indictment?
“Fuck Trump. He needs to held accountable for the damage he has done to our country.”
I suppose, as THE MYSTERY PLAN being so prolific for several years,
future musical plans are already on the table. Right?
“We already have a new EP in the works, and many tour dates.”
Thank you Jason for this interview.
May the road rise with The Mystery Plan.
Stream/buy the album here.
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THE MYSTERY PLAN: Facebook – Instagram – Spotify
Band photos by (photo: Daniel Coston)
4 April 2023
EYEMOUTH is a Swedish musical project that started in 2014 as a quartet
and evolved in the two-man orchestra of Marcus Lilja and Joakim Åberg.
For Turn Up The Volume they’re not a proper band, they’re a sort of spiritual
experience, floating from the past to the present with an eye on the future.
Their new grand opus, entitled A Headlong Fall Into The Vast Ocean Of Anxiety
is an explorative voyage through their mythical world with atmospheric synth-scapes
soundtracks of sci-fi movies, mellow prog-rock echoes, dark-electro-wave surrealism
and an overall symphonic sonority.
Intriguing right? Therefore we invited Marcus and Joakim
to tell us more about the past and the present.
Hello, welcome
and thank you for taking
time for this chat,
When and how did EYEMOUTH start its musical journey?
“Back in the day, we were in a band together as members of Estrange,
putting out some records. But as musical tastes and styles evolved, we
decided to start a new project in 2014, Eyemouth, a band that carried on
alongside Estrange.
Over time, the lineup changed and morphed, until only we, Marcus and
Joakim remained to continue creating and reflecting our mental landscapes.”
Which track would you pick from your work to introduce
EYEMOUTH to people who never have heard of you?
“That’s hard to say, but some songs come to mind. Maybe Elements and Entropy (Marcus) or On Black Wings and Lowlands (Joakim). If the number of plays on Spotify has something to say about this, Black Breath, Altered and To Carry The Spark are some of our most played songs over the years. So maybe it’s better to trust the listeners’ taste over our own here.”
There’s a 6-year gap between debut LP A NEWLY PLANTED GRAIN and this year’s second one A HEADLONG FALL INTO THE VAST OCEAN OF ANXIETY. What happened in between?
“We don’t really think of albums as the only thing. There have been three EPs
that we value as real releases. It was a trilogy and also a sort of concept series.
We have also worked with a band called Beneath the Woods, and have established
two albums that haven’t come out yet. But hopefully, it will happen soon. It’s with
Tommy Carlsson, who also played clarinet on one of our EPs mentioned above, Spiral.
He’s a true artist and an innovator, a genuine creative spirit.
He has a hand in some impressive undertakings, such as Ljudandelandskap, dayoftheorganicblackbirds Little White Wedding Chapel. And, alongside Plike,
we have also contributed on her stunning album Soteria, with a song called
The Real Plot.”
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What do you want to express with the new album’s title?
“Life can be seen as a reflection – a journey from the beginning to the end,
and sometimes, we find ourselves caught in a downward spiral, unable to
find or create a purpose that provides stability.
Recent years have been filled with pandemics, wars, and devastating personal losses.
For me, the passing of my father has left me feeling lost and uncertain. It’s difficult
to find one’s bearings when confronted with such a profound shift in life.”
Are all tracks connected or does each one stands on its own?
“I (Marcus) would say that there is a connection between them all, but the sequence
of events and time progression isn’t entirely linear in my perspective. However, there
is a sense of coherence in some way. Joakim on the other hand, thinks that most of
them can still function as standalone pieces and can be appreciated independently.”
Was the writing/recording/producing a DIY process
or are others involved in ‘the making of’?
“It’s always a do-it-yourself project for us, as most of the elements in the productions
are played and made by us. Nonetheless, there are moments when we need to step beyond our abilities, and that’s when we ask for outside help.
We are not experts in any instruments, so when we require anything beyond our means, we turn to other people. Inviting outsiders is an effective approach to introduce fresh perspectives and new energy to our creative process.
This time, our good friend Esben Willems from Monolord and Studio Berzerk Sweden aided us on drums on our song For The Bold. His contribution added an amazing lift and energy to the track. We are so grateful that he made time for this project.
Additionally, we record and mix all our songs in our studio,
All Harmonics Studio, which is located within Musikens hus
in Gothenburg.”
At times it sounds like a whole orchestra is playing.
How do you actually create that sound?
“Utilizing a variety of techniques involving synths, modulars, and a fusion of diverse instruments, we have produced a collection of past recordings. Recently, I, Marcus, experimented with a combination of trumpet and flute, while Joakim amplified
the sound with guitar and mandolin riffs along with bass grooves.
When we blended these components with our older instrument tracks, the result was
a pleasing composition that, we felt, accurately captured the essence of our music.”
Is the image on the album’s cover from a real place. If so,
which one and is it that you wanted to visualize with it?
“As we delved into crafting the album, we couldn’t help but notice its occasional folkish undertones. A fusion of Celtic and Nordic customs that lent an intriguing air to the music. Given this, we aimed to channel its essence into the album cover. To achieve this, we opted for a brooding, melancholic theme.
To create the desired effect, we merged two evocative photographs – one captured
near Howth, the scenic coastal town located outside Dublin in Ireland, and another of a breathtakingly frozen landscape not far from Gothenburg. We’re really satisfied with the result.”
Howth, Dublin, Ireland
Which movie would be perfect to have the album as the soundtrack?
“I (Marcus) was blown away by Maurice Jarre‘s music in the 1990 Jakob’s Inferno, but it got me thinking about the potential fit of our own music in the movie. Perhaps certain tracks could be considered for movies like Under the Skin. Specifically, some of the more ‘epic’ pieces like To Part and The Endless Call would lend well to a sci-fi or similar genre (Joakim).”
If you could collaborate on a new record with
a big-name artist, who would it be and why?
“Now that’s a tough one! The musical tastes of our band are quite eclectic, ranging from
the haunting melodies of Anna von Hausswolff, to the gritty tunes of Nick Cave, to the iconic sounds of The Cure and Swans, just to name a few.
We’re always looking for new and exciting collaborations to explore, like teaming up
with David Tibet for some creative synergy, or having Warren Ellis lend his masterful violin playing to a few tracks. And if Coil were still with us, we can only imagine the invaluable knowledge they could have imparted on us about creating truly authentic music.
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What’s the next step for EYEMOUTH?
Our focus is currently centered on creating fresh, innovative music. As we have no upcoming live performances lined up, exploring new creative avenues is our sole priority. We aim to broaden our horizons by partnering with other artists and connecting with diverse listeners, opening up exciting opportunities for growth and exploration.”
Thank you for this interview.
May the road rise with Eyemouth.
Buy/stream new album here.
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EYEMOUTH: Linktree
20 March 2023
London‘s synth-dream-pop FERAL FIVE – Kat and Drew Five – released
their long-awaited debut LP TRUTH IS THE NEW GOLD last month.
They introduced it with this message: “It’s an evocative voyage through a Feraltropolis style future city, and an offering of sonic elixir for heart, feet and mind. Leading us through secret spaces, changing skies, personal truths and revelations, the Ferals glide seamlessly between bold alt-pop, experimental electronica, and cinematic landscapes.”
What can I add? Turn Up The Volume‘s ears are FF fans for several years now and
this debut longplayer spoiled them again and again with a series of spins and many
more to come. Kat and Drew took their time to come up with a first full-length, and
they hit all the right buttons with this golden trance-dance-pop accomplishment.
Kat and Drew will tell us all about it in this Q&A.
Hello FF,
welcome and thanks
for taking the time
to do this interview
This July it will be 10 years since you released your debut single SKIN.
Since then several swirling singles followed. Why did it take so long
to have an album out?
“We wanted the album to be all killer no filler! Skin was a cracking single, we still love playing it live, and we’ve evolved a lot since, both as musicians and producers. We didn’t just want to put an album out because we could. We’ve released 4 EPs and a load of singles, plus we’ve been producing and remixing for other artists. We’ve been busy.”
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Now that it’s here how does it feel to have that CD and vinyl in your hands?
“Awesome. It’s a culmination of recent ideas, sonic explorations and experimental pop tendencies. It’s also a story and a journey. To have it literally in our hands and not just as
a DL is pretty cool, and it’s been great working with ethical record label Reckless Yes for
this release.”
Which artists and or music was your biggest inspiration along the way?
“We’ve a huge melting pot of musical loves from Siouxsie Sioux to Killing Joke,
Goldfrapp to Hot Chip, Billy Nomates to Billie Eilish, Daniel Avery to Kelly Lee Owens,
Hans Zimmer to Hildur Guðnadóttir. There are many.”
What’s the story behind the album’s title ‘TRUTH IS THE NEW GOLD’?
“It sums up exactly what we think, and our values right now. It came from our
song of that name, Truth Is The New Gold. We’ve experienced so many devastating
shifts in the world and people manipulating truth and reality. We wanted the title
to be purposeful, clear, and give hope.”
All songs are no older than about 2 years, besides PET SHOW
released in 2018? Does that track mean something special to you?
“We wanted the album songs to be ultra new as we were heading
in fresh lyrical and sonic directions, and most of them are.
Pet Show was our first exploration of the world of Artificial Intelligence, a playful song
about AI robo-companions. It spawned our idea of the journey for the album, which explores different kinds of truth and trust, and includes some AI sonics.”
I miss that 2019 dancefloor banger SHAKE IT. Did you
ever thought of including this one on the album?
“We had a vision for our album, and it had to be a cohesive and inspiring
piece of new work. Shake It still finds its way into our live set though.”
All the artwork for your music used to be glossy, glamorous and flashy. The cover sleeve of the album is different. It’s the title that dominates the look. A conscious choice?
“The album is high concept and thought-provoking. We wanted to make a statement. It was very exciting working with cover art legend Malcolm Garrett (Buzzcocks, Duran Duran, Simple Minds) on all our artwork and band merch, and we had many meetings to discuss ideas.
We took a very bold step in not putting our band name on the front cover – but letting
the statement speak for itself, and there’s gold on the cover! Plus wearable glamour, we collaborated with cult UK jewelers Tatty Devine on a gold mirror necklace based on the album artwork, and we’ve gold t-shirts.”
Visit FF’s shop
You recently launched a video clip for the LP’s title track.
How did the content came about? What’s the idea behind
the visuals?
“The Truth Is The New Gold music video is all about the search for truth in melting worlds. Set in beautiful landscapes it’s also unsettling as we stride across the narrows, caped in gold and morphing into new shapes ourselves.
It was entirely shot using drones, and the drones became characters too, like surveillance machines. Kat directed it, along with David Morris from Flying Film Labs who did the amazing filming.”
Any memorable anecdotes of the ‘making of’ in the studio?
“No trashed TVs just trashed hard drives! A lot of the sounds on the album were
taken from field recordings that we made and interesting objects. We were doing
lots of experimental sound making, using things that would disintegrate and never
sound the same again.
For example, never use crystals as percussion instruments!
Listen carefully and you can hear the sound of crystals
splintering.
In Feral Five we have our studio language. When one of us says ‘can
we make it sound more silver’ we know exactly what that means.”
I suppose you got this question already a million times. What about
the Artificial Intelligence vocals? What does that mean? How does
that work?
“Playing with reality in sound, we collaborated with Berlin technologists Birds on Mars who created an ‘AI Kat’ for us. Kat had to record her voice, and they trained their AI on it to give us AI vocal synthesis that we could use to make new and unique otherworldly vocals on four of the tracks.
It became a character too, an instigator, an oracle. In Silver Sky it almost sounds like an AI child, retorting to Kat’s human vocals telling her: “it’s not the end, it’s not the end.”
GOLDEN RULE is one of my favourite pieces. It’s about what we need to survive: togetherness. Should we be hopeful that this can actually happen in these troubled times?
“It’s great to hear that Golden Rule resonates with you. That was the reason it’s the final track on the album. Togetherness is key, and yes that can happen. The more chaos there
is in the world, the more people respond to each other as humans, and that is a superpower.”
Will you go out and play THE TRUTH IS THE NEW GOLD on the road?
“Yes for sure. We are working with a leading audiovisual artist on a new show that will bring the album to life, make it grow, and create a unique performance in each location.”
Is this the end of a FERAL FIVE era, a continuation or
the harbinger of a new beginning?
“We’re all about newness and new beginnings. Feral Five is on a continuum.
Anything can happen in Feral land. This is just the start.”
Thank you very much for this interview.
May the road rise with Feral Five!
STREAM/BUY
‘Truth Is The New Gold’
.
FERAL FIVE: Facebook – Website – Instagram – Spotify
18 January 2023
📷: Danny Remon
BURN THE LOUVRE is the musical moniker of Canadian
singer-songwriter-guitarist Jordan Speare and his sidekick
Sean Cooper.
After releasing 11 songs – one per month – last year, they assembled them into their
debut album, baptized Silhouettes (stream/buy below). A collection of electrifying pop sparks, catching tunes, and self-reflective musings. Spicy stuff to feed your hungry ears.
Turn Up The Volume advices you strongly to discover these inspiring musicians. We’ll
help you with this chat with mastermind Jordan Speare who does everything himself,
who doesn’t really want to burn down the world-famous French Louvre Museum,
about Twitter billionaire Elon Musk, about a girl and about 2023.
Hello Jordan
Welcome
When and how did BURN THE LOUVRE start its musical journey?
“Okay, I will try to make this long story as short as possible [laughs]. I started
Burn The Louvre as an indie rock band with my brother Dylan about 10 years ago.
He had his songs, and I had mine so we decided to combine our ideas, edit each other’s work and do this properly. We went through a few different bandmates during the 5 years we were active and released 2 EPs together: Post-Romance EP in 2014 and We’ll Be Just Fine in 2017.
However, shortly after we released that 2nd EP, my brother decided that he didn’t want to do this anymore. So that was difficult for sure. I basically had to start all over again from scratch. Fast forward through a couple more line-up changes that didn’t work out and I found myself without a band for the first time at 28 years old.
I really didn’t know how to be a solo artist, but I had these 11 songs all finished and ready to go that would end up becoming Silhouettes, I knew I had to record them. I enlisted help from my friend Andrew Billone of indie rock band Silvertone Hills to play lead guitar and bass for me on all 11 songs on the album and asked my friend & fellow singer/songwriter Stephanie Deshane if she would sing with me on “Alison”.
My friend Mickey Ellsworth recorded, mixed, mastered & produced the entire record himself and was instrumental in the sound and the finished product. We finished wrapping up the recording of Silhouettes late 2018, shortly afterwards I received an
email from my current guitarist Sean Cooper. He was answering a “Musicians Wanted”
ad I had put up on Kijiji, I had forgotten to take it down.
So we ended up getting together for a beer, we hit it off, we got together to jam the following week and we’ve been getting together an average of once a week ever since.
So now we’re an indie rock duo, if you will. I’m sorry, I know that wasn’t exactly a short answer [laughs].”
Who came up with the band’s name and is there a story behind it?
“So I came up with the name when my brother & I first started the band about 10 years ago or so? The name Burn The Louvre actually came from a Fight Club quote! It’s not in the movie, but it’s a line in the book. I just loved how many different ways a name like that can be interpreted, which is fitting as to how many different ways our music can be interpreted. Lots of genre-mashing in there.
But just to clarify, we are definitely just an indie rock band and not a terrorist group [laughs]. Fight Club is definitely my favourite movie and I really loved the book as well. It just made sense to me, right? The thing that I love the most about our band name is that there are a couple different connotations surrounding it depending on how you interpret it.
The two extremes I see are either: A) “Down with the upper echelon! Let’s burn The Louvre!”, which is pretty self-explanatory: rise up and revolt, right? Or as I like to interpret our band name: B) “People don’t care about art anymore. If art is so undervalued, then let’s just burn The Louvre down and see if anyone misses it. Mankind doesn’t deserve The Louvre anyways.”
You’re an indie DIY duo. What does that really mean in reality?
“Well, when you’re an independent musician, DIY really means DEY as in “Do Everything Yourself”. It’s an enormous amount of work, especially when you’re working a full-time job on top of trying to carve out a music career.
So releasing 11 songs in 11 months this past year when I was handling every aspect of the release by myself, song registration + tracking, social media, promotion, marketing, PR, bookings etc.
Let’s just say I did not have a whole lot of fun in 2022 [laughs].”
Which of your songs would you pick to introduce yourself as an artist to people who never heard of BTL?
“I would probably pick “Lost With You”. It’s our most popular song according to Spotify with over 15,000 plays since it was released on 05/31/2022. It’s a fun, upbeat indie pop song and clocking in at only 2:35, I feel like it’s the perfect introduction to our music for the modern music fan’s attention span [laughs].”
.
You released your debut album SILHOUETTES last month. It features all 11 tracks you released this year, one per month. What/who triggered the idea to do it this way?
“Well I had these 11 songs ready to go and I knew they belonged on an album together before I went into record with our producer extraordinaire Mickey Ellsworth. I also knew that it makes very little sense in 2022 for an independent artist to release a full-length album all at once without any kind of label support. Streaming services like Spotify are set up to reward artists for releasing material consistently. They recommend a new single every 4-6 weeks or so to fully benefit from the algorithmic bonuses you’d receive, so in order to appease these Spotify algorithm gods [rolls eyes], I was kind of forced to treat each song as its own individual release in an attempt to capitalize on the potential for more playlist adds.
The fact that you can only pitch one song per release to the Spotify Editorial Playlists
also influenced my decision. So what that means is, say I released Silhouettes all at once as one album, I would only be able to pick ONE song off of the record to pitch for Editorial Playlist consideration…whereas by releasing the songs individually as singles first, I was able to pitch each of them for consideration instead. That’s its own slippery slope and it is extremely difficult to get placed on one of those Spotify Editorial Playlists, but the potential pay-off was too great for me not to at least try my luck and give each song a fair opportunity to make the cut.
So the decision was kind of made for me as to how I was going to be releasing this album and because there were 11 songs to release, the only way I could release them all in the same year, so that it would qualify as an album, was to release the first single in January, which would mean that the last single “Honolulu”, would be released in November.
At which point I re-released everything as one full album. The waterfall strategy of releasing the singles individually before the album is out, if you will. The timeline
worked out perfectly, as I know that it’s typically not very effective releasing anything
new in December, as people are so preoccupied with Christmas and the holiday season, nobody’s really paying attention to anything else, so this gave me ample time to release everything before Christmas.”
Is the album’s title in any way related to the whole of the record?
“So, after my brother left the band back in late 2017, I had these 11 songs that had kind
of been sitting on the sidelines for a little while; I had written them all from age 24-27 and they all just so happened to be about ex-girlfriends and women that I used to know [laughs], total coincidence.
So after spending time on these 11 songs, I realized that they actually fit really well together and kind of told a bit of a story about a young man’s growth from moving on from a short-term relationship where maybe he wasn’t as good as he should have been to re-discovering life as a single man, to finding new love, to then losing that love as well and by the end of the album he’s stuck reminiscing about what went wrong and he’s left longing for the girl he lost in the first place.
I decided to put these 11 songs together on an LP called Silhouettes, named after the title track. Silhouettes is a bit of a nod to the fact that the women who inspired these songs are silhouettes of my past. I think there’s a certain beauty in the idea that people who were once a big part of your life become nothing more than shadows after the relationship ends. This LP is my way of paying tribute to these women who impacted my life in some way.”
Who created the LP’s artwork and what did you want to visualize with it?
“Isn’t it beautiful?? My friend Billy Pozeg created the album artwork for this record and I could not be happier with how it turned out. Billy is a graphic designer and he used to run one of the biggest independent live music venues in Hamilton called Club Absinthe; we would play there all the time.
He actually created the artwork for Silhouettes as a show poster for our first EP Release show back in November 2014. I loved the poster so much I asked him if I could use it for
an album cover one day. He was gracious enough to just give me the design, we altered it very slightly and what we are left with is one of the most beautiful album covers I’ve ever seen.
The fact that the design of The Louvre on fire is inside of a silhouette of a woman, whereas all of the songs on this record are about different women in some regard, it just made too much sense. We’ve definitely gotten a ton of compliments on the album art, so if you’re reading this Billy, you are the man!”
DUMB is definitely one of my fav tracks? What’s the song about?
“I am so glad you like that one! Thanks again for including it on your 30 Best Tracks Of 2022! Honestly, that one really humbled me. So “Dumb” is one of three songs on the album that is about my on-again/off-again ex-girlfriend Maya . “Achilles’ Heel” & “Easy” are the other two. They are tracks # 6, 7 and 8 on the album and they kind of play out together like a trilogy whereas: “Achilles’ Heel” is about when we first got together when everything was wonderful.
“Easy” is about the first time we broke up (“nothing’s ever easy”) and “Dumb” is about the aftermath of said on-again/off-again relationship, where I find myself desperately missing her, but I’m too proud or in this case “too smart” to give in and go back to her. The ironic thing about that is that we’ve gotten back together again at least twice since I wrote and recorded that song, so I obviously am just “as dumb as I thought I was”.
This was a really fun song to write though. I was listening to a lot of The Dirty Nil at the time, so this one (along with a couple other tracks on this LP) is heavily punk-influenced. This song is me attempting to write a Dirty Nil song, so I was basically just doing a terrible Luke Bentham impression the entire time. The general message of “Dumb” is to stay strong, be proud and whatever you do, don’t be dumb enough to go back to the person who hurt you; and then I decided to sneak a bunch of lines in there joking about killing
her [laughs].
.
I made sure to add some lines in later that cemented the fact that the whole thing is meant to be an obvious joke. She had heard this song long before I recorded it and actually really liked it, appreciated the humour in it and completely signed off on it.
Just so everybody knows.
I thought it’d be funny to write a song from the perspective of the person who was left where you’re basically fantasizing about killing your ex throughout the entirety of the song (“I’ll give your best to your new boyfriend and let him know that he won’t ever see your face again”), before reiterating (over & over again) that you’re not “dumb” enough to ever actually act on it. I really had a strong feeling that the cowbell would really work really well in this song and I am so glad it did. The cherry on top of this stupid fucking song [laughs].”
Do you have another 11 singles ready to make us happy in 2023?
“So that’s a hard no [laughs]. This LP was a long time coming. I was working on it
since my brother quit the band back in late 2017. I overcame a lot of adversity putting these 11 songs together and had to deal with countless roadblocks on the way to
release these.
Obviously, the recording/mixing/mastering process for an 11-song LP is a very long one and definitely not something I’m eager to do again, although Mickey did an INCREDIBLE job on this record. I only want to release singles and EPs from now on. Being a DIY artist means I did 100% of the PR and promotion for this album by myself.
So sending out thousands of emails every month for 11 months just absolutely drained my mental health. As soon as I’ve wrapped up promotion on this record, I’m going to spend most of 2023 taking a long break from social media & email and mainly focus the majority of my time on gigging, practicing & improving instead of promoting/marketing, which I really hate.”
“Having said that, we have a LOT of new material. I have at least 10-15 songs that I feel deserve to be recorded and Sean has at least 5 of his own as well. So we are definitely going to spend the majority of 2023 demoing these new songs and trying to perfect them before we head back into the studio to record; hopefully with the great Mickey Ellsworth again! I can’t say enough good things about him as a producer. But from now on, 4-6 songs per year is my new threshold. Releasing 11 songs in one year was far too much work for one person to do all by themselves.”
Suppose your album was a movie, which one would it be?
“I am so glad you asked this question because I actually have a GREAT answer for it [laughs]. So, as I had mentioned earlier, my decision to release Silhouettes as 11 singles was mainly to appease the Spotify & streaming service algorithm gods [rolls eyes again], but I figured that if I was going to release this album in 11 parts, why not release the songs all out of order?
That way it gives people an extra reason to go back and listen to the entire album in the correct order once it’s released, right? The inspiration for my release strategy came from the movie (500) Days Of Summer, where the movie tells the story of the relationship between Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s & Zooey Deschanel’s characters entirely out of order.
The movie keeps flipping back and forth between various moments throughout their 500 days as a couple and as it does this, the picture gradually becomes clearer and clearer. I felt that seeing as this LP dealt with similar themes of love and loss, it made sense to me to draw inspiration from this cool indie rom-com. Silhouettes essentially is an indie rom-com [laughs].”
THE event of 2022?
“Honestly, probably Elon Musk buying Twitter. That man rocks so many boats that nobody asked him to, I absolutely love it. Leaking the “Twitter Files” where there is likely nothing for him to personally gain from it, just shining some extra light on all of the political corruption we’re living through. I can’t wait to see what he does in 2023.”
Now that 2022 is over, what’s the best track and album you heard this past year?
“I love these questions! Best track is a very tough one. I don’t know if I could narrow it down to 1 song specifically. But if I had to pick my favourite album of 2022, I couldn’t do that either! [laughs] The best I could do would be to narrow it down, in which case it would be a 3-way tie between Cool It Down by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Formentera by Metric. and Blue Rev by Alvvays. Just three spectacular records by three spectacular bands that in my opinion, each deserve consideration for Album Of The Year.”
Name 3 things you really want to happen for BURN THE LOUVRE in 2023
“1. Personal growth as musicians and songwriters. I feel these new songs we’re working
on are excellent and very different from these ones, so I am very excited to get these down and just become better at what we’re doing. We’re looking into adding some new members, so I’m excited for what that does in terms of our sound.
2. Another recording session. While I know it’s unrealistic to say we’re going to release
new music next year when I know how long the entire process takes, it would be great if we could be at least ready to head into the studio by the end of 2023 to record another 6 songs.”
3. More radio play. We’ve already gotten a great response from radio for these songs so far! So that’s been extremely encouraging, but I still have a fair amount of pitching to radio still to do for the first month or two of 2023, so I am hopeful we’ll continue to get accepted and get our music out there into the world.”
Thank you, Jordan, for this interview.
May the road rise with Burn The Louvre in 2023.
Do not hesitate.
Buy/stream SILHOUTTES
here via Bandcamp
.
BTL: Facebook – Website
Recently former Pink Floyd conducter ROGER WATERS went on American TV Show
‘The Joe Rogan Experience’ and talked emotionally by the late troubled co-founder
Syd Barrett.
SYD BARRETT: Bio – Discography
The eternal Stooge-punk-father released his 19th LP Every Loser last week.
But today we return into the past, to the year 1982, when the passenger stopped
at the legendary American TV Show with David letterman and talked about his unusual upbringing, why he likes to hurt himself on stage and working with David Bowie.
Lust for Iggy? Watch/listen here.
EVERY LOSER
27 December 2022
Eternal working class hero JOHN LENNON was killed on 8 December 1980.
More than 40 years later his songwriting Beatle brother PAUL McCARTNEY remembers the sad event in an interview with SiriusXM’s The Beatles Channel: “It was difficult for everyone in the world cause he was such a loved character and such a crazy guy, you know, that he was so special. And so it had hit me so much so that I couldn’t really talk about it. I remember getting home from the studio on the day that we’d heard the news he died and turning the TV on and seeing people say, ‘Well, John Lennon was this,’ and ‘What he was, was this,’ and ‘I remember meeting him’.
And it was like, I don’t know, I can’t be one of those people. I can’t just go on TV and say what John meant to me. It was just too deep. It’s just too much. I couldn’t put it into words. I was in a building that would become my recording studio, and there were just a couple of little empty rooms upstairs,” he explained. “So I found a room and just sat on the wooden floor in a corner with my guitar and just started to play the opening chords to ‘Here Today.’”
You can listen here to the audio clip.
MACCA: Facebook – Instagram