All posts by Olivia Mayumi Moss

ECLECTICA preview event: DELOOZE, THE WITCH HUNT, FACTORY ACTS, CHERIE BEBE

On Wednesday 9 April 2014, two brilliant British bands DELOOZE and THE WITCH HUNT took to the stage to co-headline a special show at the legendary Castle Hotel venue in Manchester, to preview the upcoming ECLECTICA PROJECT designed to showcase female talent and leadership in the industries which is set to hit Kraak Manchester on 2-3 August. Continue reading ECLECTICA preview event: DELOOZE, THE WITCH HUNT, FACTORY ACTS, CHERIE BEBE

MOLOTOV JUKEBOX get Liverpool hot and sweaty

It’s a fact: London-based MOLOTOV JUKEBOX are one of the best live bands in the UK. Led by singer-songwriter-accordionist and actress NATALIA TENA (Nymphadora Tonks in the Harry Potter film series, Osha in Game of Thrones), this six-piece bundle of instrumental energy never cease to draw a crowd and get them dancing – and this time with a full-size pineapple. Continue reading MOLOTOV JUKEBOX get Liverpool hot and sweaty

THE PRETTY RECKLESS: Going to hell in the UK

Taylor Momsen is in town. The 20 year-old American actress (Gossip Girl) and lead singer of THE PRETTY RECKLESS is promoting her storming new album Going To Hell, and tonight she’s opening for FALL OUT BOY. While TPR are renowned for delivering stellar live performances, with Momsen often letting rip with her eye-opening outfits and brilliant vocals, occasionally bringing members of the audience onstage for some music-backed gyrating, FOB are notorious for not delivering live, and so it’s with much noted irony and personal frustration that TPR are not headlining tonight. Continue reading THE PRETTY RECKLESS: Going to hell in the UK

THE WITCH HUNT burn intensity at Leeds Brudenell

Louisa Osborn and Chris Mulligan make up THE WITCH HUNT, what we believe to be one of the most exciting new bands to emerge from the UK in recent years. Now having acquired drummer Ste Anderson, the band’s sound is bursting at the seams, allowing singer Louisa to be unleashed as the front lady whose haunting vocals are piercing to the soul and whose words won’t let you leave the venue without feeling just a little bit rattled. Continue reading THE WITCH HUNT burn intensity at Leeds Brudenell

THE JEZABELS INTERVIEW

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THE JEZABELS are back in town. They’ve been back and forth to the UK the past few years, gently nurturing their fanbase, supporting massive names including Garbage, Depeche Mode and The Pixies, and we always love catching up with them.

Electric on stage, they have been unfairly snubbed by the mainstream UK media who struggled to latch on to the fact that this is not only a cool band to see live, but that the loyalty in their fanbase is fierce whether its back at home in Australia or here in Manchester – and they have worked hard to earn that loyalty. While certain media types continue to play catch-up, the band have just brought out second album The Brink to follow their 2011 award-winner Prisoner.

Off the back of their LANEWAY FESTIVAL slots, they’re soaking up the new set list as they now perform to fans across the UK and Europe.

Here at Manchester’s Gorilla, there’s already a buzz in the air as Jezabels fans gather to embrace the new tracks and celebrate the classic ones too. The new London-recorded album is certainly of a different vibe to the first one – in Hayley Mary’s own words: “we think it’s a bit more of a positive, warm record” than their acclaimed debut.

Backstage, I get right down to brass tacks with lead singer Hayley Mary and guitarist Sam Lockwood, while drummer Nik Kaloper sound checks next door and keyboardist Heather gets ready for the show ahead. It’s nice to see them again, and as always they’re focused and friendly, with feet firmly on the ground.

* For report and photos of 25 February Manchester show, click HERE >>

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Hello again! One album further on…

SAM: One album into the future!

You got to the UK not that long ago and you’ve just done Nottingham…

SAM: Yeah, we were in Australia for Laneway Festival and we came over a couple weeks ago. This is basically the start of our album tour.

How did it go?

HAYLEY: Last night was good! It was a really great crowd for some reason – we weren’t expecting it because it’s Monday, beginning of the week…

SAM: The show was really fun, it went really well.

And how are you feeling about the new album? It has a different feel to the first one…

HAYLEY: Yeah, we’re definitely feeling good about it. The main thing we’ve been saying about it is we think it’s a bit more of a positive, warm record, it’s probably a little bit more upbeat – we wrote it purposely to make it easier to play live, so we’re looking forward to seeing if we’ve succeeded. And so far, it sounds good…

SAM: Yeah, last night went really well – we can play seven songs off the album now. With Prisoner, it took us many, many months to even get a couple of songs.

Are you going to be changing your set as you move through the tour?

SAM: Yeah. It’s just testing set lists and what works, because with new songs, you don’t know how they fit in with everything else…

It’s an exciting period though, because you can experiment and you’re probably very conscious of the audience reaction…

SAM: Well, putting six or seven new songs into the set list makes everything new – they make old songs seem new, so it’s just really nice. We got rid of songs we maybe played too much…

HAYLEY: Yeah, and every time we don’t do songs, people are like, “Why don’t you play that one?” And it’s like, “Well, we have a new record…”

Are you happy with the response to the new set so far?

SAM: Yeah! It’s awesome, we’re stoked. Even last night with the show – it was a really great crowd. The last time we played Nottingham we were in a really small room. Last night it was a bigger venue, The Rescue Rooms, and the room was full It just felt like people were really psyched about everything. We’re a very malleable band with our emotions, so if people are excited, we get really excited – it’s kind of an exchange.

HAYLEY: Yeah, if they’re not excited, we get sad…

Aw no! What do you do on stage if you ever feel the crowd’s not getting into it?

SAM: You just have to try to get through it, but it’s so much easier if they’re into it.

Well, I’m looking forward to seeing the new set.

SAM: Yeah, it should be interesting!

HAYLEY: We’ll see how it goes! I just don’t know what’s going to happen out there…

And, what would you say you’d hope to happen with the album and the tour?

SAM: I hope it goes well.

HAYLEY: Nothing in particular, but I just hope that it goes well and that people like it. I hope we don’t lose money, but other than that I just really would like to make people happy!

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You recorded The Brink in London – I found it quite funny when I discovered you chose London, considering last time I met you, you were quite frustrated with how the UK press were receiving you here…

HAYLEY: Oh, we still are!

SAM: Yeah, we kind of thought about that, like, “Why aren’t we going somewhere like Germany or Canada where they love us?” Yeah, maybe we’re masochists…

HAYLEY: I think we like to be berated and put down… We like being the underdog. You don’t want to be somewhere where they love you and think you’re great, because you’d just get complacent…

But, what if everything just switched with this tour – if the UK critics now suddenly embraced you, would that feel a bit odd?

HAYLEY: We’d probably be like, “Oh yeah, now you like us…!”

SAM: After we did a Depeche Mode and a Pixies tour, we felt that it kind of repositioned us in a way. With a band, people need to put you somewhere to fit you into the landscape. With us, it’s kind of weird because our music is not generally pop – it’s not generally anything. In Australia, we’re Australian so everyone’s generally supportive, but when you go somewhere else, you feel you need to have a story…

HAYLEY: We’ve got a lot of things which make us really unmarketable to the London market. But one thing we noticed is London is separate to the rest of the country – we really like touring the rest of the country. I love London too, but it’s just that the music critics there seem to have a war against optimism.

You’re too happy?!

HAYLEY: But, we’re not, even! We just wrote happy music…

SAM: We’re not even that happy…

Maybe it’s a bit cliquey in London – it can be tough, because there’s quite a lot of bandwagoning among the mainstream music media there…

SAM: Exactly. Especially if you’re making music that doesn’t have a genre or a trend…

HAYLEY: … or if it’s not in the movement that they think is cool at the moment…

So, you say you repositioned yourself – did you go into the new album conscious of wanting to achieve that?

HAYLEY: I don’t think it was conscious…

SAM: I mean we wanted to do certain things like make things better for live play, but that’s all, really. I mean, choosing your producer is really instrumental, and with Dan’s (Dan Grech-Marguerat) work with The Kooks, The Vaccines and Scissor Sisters, you can sort of get a general picture of what he’s going to do, so I guess that’s one thing we could have understood. That’s a big thing that made the album sound like it is.

HAYLEY: But a lot of it is circumstance. We didn’t move to London because the critics hate us there or anything – we went there because we had personal relationships that meant it was easier to be there than anywhere else at that time.

So, did you develop an affection for the city?

SAM: I love London – it’s amazing.

HAYLEY: Totally! It’s London! You can’t really top the experience of living there.

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The last time we met was your memorable show with GARBAGE at the Manchester Academy almost 2 years back. Since then, we’ve seen Pussy Riot jailed, which brought together a lot of female musicians and promoted female visibility in music, politics… Things do seem to be evolving in the industry a bit…

HAYLEY: Well, the biggest example we’ve experienced was Laneway Festival actually – it was all headlined by female-fronted acts: Lorde, Haim, us, Chvrches, Cloud Control, Daughter, lots of bands not just with female members but female-fronted, or all-female bands like Savages. The biggest thing that struck me wasn’t that they were ‘allowed’ to be on there, but that the festival didn’t mind heaps of female-fronted bands in a row headlining the festival.

That’s quite a shift isn’t it, when you look at festival trends…

HAYLEY: Yeah, because normally festivals avoid it…

SAM: Yeah, and it was the most successful festival in Australia over summer for that genre. So, I think times are changing. I guess there was never a problem with doing that anyway, but it was great to see that it occurred and nobody even talked about it, really. They were just like, “This is great!”

HAYLEY: Well, people said it was a good thing, but no one was like “Ah!” I guess people used to be afraid that if you have that many female acts in a row, the audience would be like, “Oh, enough, enough!” or something. We’ve even been worried about that before – I remember worrying that if we get two female-fronted support bands, people might get sick of the female vocals. But then I’m like, “No they don’t! What are you talking about?” It’s just this old fear that people have.

Maybe audiences are adjusting now to seeing a band as a band. I mean HAIM are loved by a lot of people, they’re not restricted to only female fans or male fans…

SAM: You know, they’re just a good rock band. Gender is a secondary thing with them.

HAYLEY: And the fact is that a lot of female-fronted bands are the cool bands at the moment and are doing a lot of cool stuff.

And SAVAGES – a London band. Your impression of them?

SAM: I really, really like them, they’re an amazing band.

HAYLEY: They’re really good. It’s very cool in London for a reason. I find it a little bit elitist for my liking, but I think they’re amazing at what they do. There’s a kind of genius to having a really set vision and knowing what you’re about. It’s really coherent.

SAM: They’re really good musicians. It’s really arty and really serious. I just find the music a bit too angular – but it’s just a music thing. I like folky country stuff…

Things do seem to be changing a bit for female-led bands. It’s great timing maybe in terms of you bringing out an album now and seeing how the UK receives you in that sense. Also, the industry seems to be having to focus less on the nationality of bands…

HAYLEY: I think that’s true. I think there’s still a little bit of a stigma in London about being Australian, and particularly about being big in Australia, but that’s just a certain kind of press. Everywhere else, they’re just like, “Ah, you’re Australian” or they don’t even comment.

SAM: It’s a bit like the female thing…

HAYLEY: Yeah, it’s like, “Why would you even think about it…?”

SAM: Yeah, there are so many bands. Australian bands including small ones are playing around the world. It seems flights are cheaper and labels are really keen to interact with international bands. Back before the age of the Internet, labels wouldn’t invest in a band from overseas, because they were worried how they can get them into the UK and do tours, play and do press. But now you can be in Australia and do interviews. It’s great…

The Internet has been a real game-changer…

SAM: Yeah, it’s just totally opened everything up…

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KODO: bringing Japan’s Sado Island culture to Manchester

It’s a special night in Manchester – in fact, it’s a special month as KODO returns to the UK after a far too lengthy 4-year gap. The world-famous Japanese drumming circle is touring Europe with what many have touted as its most ambitious show to date: Kodo One Earth Tour 2014: Legend. Their new artistic director, the Kabuki icon and Living National Treasure TAMASABURO BANDO, is taking the troupe in a new direction, and the feedback so far has been positive despite concerns within the camp about the reinvention. Continue reading KODO: bringing Japan’s Sado Island culture to Manchester

SHAWN COLVIN shines at Transatlantic Sessions in Manchester

Three-time Grammy-award winning singer-songwriter SHAWN COLVIN is back in the UK. Born in South Dakota, the American Lilith Fair icon released her eighth studio album All Fall Down in 2012, and has now joined the ranks of TRANSATLANTIC SESSIONS musicians for their latest tour. I’m here today to savour the 17-strong lineup on their final date at Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall. Continue reading SHAWN COLVIN shines at Transatlantic Sessions in Manchester

RACHEL SERMANNI reminds us that Everything Changes

Hot off the back of her Celtic Connections show in Glasgow, Scotland’s RACHEL SERMANNI is back in the north of England and has a new EP out. Recorded in New York, but developed originally in her hometown of Carrbridge up in the Highlands, the record is a suitable extension to must-own debut album Under Mountains in 2012, and title track Everything Changes is a striking addition to the Sermanni collection. Things are moving surely and steadily for the busy 22-year old. Continue reading RACHEL SERMANNI reminds us that Everything Changes

SUZANNE VEGA: Delivering more tales across the UK

SUZANNE VEGA is back with a new album and a new tour. Kicking off the Never Wear White Tour in Manchester, she’s also heading to five other cities across the UK to promote Tales From The Realm Of The Queen Of Pentacles (out now on her own label Amanuensis Productions), marking her first studio album of new material in seven years, described as “a collection of ten songs, each telling a story on how the material world and spiritual world both intersect.” Continue reading SUZANNE VEGA: Delivering more tales across the UK