BELLE MT: INTERVIEW

January 19, 2018

INTRO BY MELISSA TUCKER

INTERVIEW BY CAMI LIBERTY

In a world filled with great talent, it can be hard to stand out from the crowd. One way to make an impression is by making music that is authentic. The lead singer of Belle Mt does just that with his latest song “Loving You.” Matt Belmont found his angelic sound in a friend’s unfinished family home in the French Alps. After collaborating with award winning Nashville-based producer Femke Weidema, the London born indie artist began releasing awesome tracks like “Hollow” and “Let Me” in 2017. As Belle Mt enters 2018, fans can expect more captivating lyrics and beautiful vocals to echo deep in their hearts and minds.

When was the moment that you first realized that you wanted to pursue music?

"I’ve always worked towards making music my career, for as long as I can remember I’ve been convincing people that I would make it happen. I don’t know where that internal self-belief comes from but I’m so grateful to have it. I guess part of it is trying to prove doubters wrong, everyone has those early on and it’s something you have to get used to because it seems that the more doubters you convince and get onside as you pick up momentum, the more you seem to pick up along the way!"

In your own words, how would you describe your music?

"I’ve thought about this one a lot and currently I’d say it's atmospheric, cinematic, lyrical indie folk-pop... when I use the term ‘pop’ it's such a wide genre encompassing everything from the Beatles (Rock Pop), to Marvin Gaye (Soul pop), Bob Marley (Reggae pop) that it without a doubt encompasses what I do. If you’re writing music that connects with enough people, you’re writing some form of pop. It’s not a dirty word it just means ‘Popular'."

At one point when you first started this project, you retreated to your friend’s unfinished family home in the foothills of the French Alps to experiment with your music. How do you think this environment helped you as an artist?

"It gave me a distraction-free space where I could be simultaneously inspired and bored enough to find that spark. I wrote there at the end of an 18-month period where I'd banned myself from writing songs for my own projects until I was overflowing with ideas. After a while the ideas started to come out in my dreams... daydreams and night dreams. At this point I drove a car full of recording stuff to this house in the south of France in Autumn and locked myself away in one of the least finished rooms known as ’The Batcave’ ...because of the bats. In 7 days, I came up with new songs, the basis of a sound and the name of the project - Belle Mt [Beautiful Mountain]. It was a total relief after all of that time."

You recently released your song Loving You. Can you tell us a little about the song and the inspiration behind it?

"It happened in the middle of the night after an argument, a pretty heated one. My girlfriend slammed the bedroom door and went to sleep and I sat in our living room wide awake, eventually picking up my guitar and playing around some chords I had, just to get out of my own head a bit. The lyrics that came were based around what I wanted her to know at the point when I’d calmed down and escaped the heat of the moment, but now it was 4am and she had work the next day so all I could do was to write them in that song. I didn’t ever think it’d get released at that point, it just felt like therapy but then my producer Femke heard the song and loved it, we edited it together and added the falsetto bit at the end of the chorus and suddenly it was a real song."

What lyric of yours would you say you are most proud of/has stuck with you the most?

"I love the line "Lonely is her favorite place to be" from 'Hollow'. It somehow manages to be melancholic and dramatic and to paint an all too familiar picture in just 7 words. Those types of lines seem to just be delivered up by your conscience and because of that they’re certainly the purest. I also like “…oh I can’t even help myself, so how do I handle someone else?” from 'Loving You'… complete vulnerable desperation."

What do you hope people take from your music?

"I hope they connect with it and feel something. Sometimes that should be elation, sometimes reflection and sometimes sadness, those are all healthy emotions! I don’t really think about other people and what they may think when writing but I’m so grateful when the music connects."

Is there anything else that we can expect from you in the near future?

"There are two tracks coming in January and many, many more in the rest of 2018. Also, LIVE, we can’t wait to bring this music to you live!"

FIND BELLE MT ONLINE

WEBSITE TWITTER INSTAGRAM FACEBOOK

THE BAD BEES: INTERVIEW

January 17, 2018

INTRO BY MIKAYLA LAWLESS

INTERVIEW BY CAMI LIBERTY

The Bad Bees, an indie rock band from Philadelphia, has recently dusted off some older songs previously created and has revamped them with harmonizing vocals and raw emotion. The EP, titled “Big Pretty,” reflects the spirit and liveliness of each band member. In this interview, we ask the band about fun behind the scenes and what brought them all together to create this once in a lifetime journey. Enjoy!

How did you guys first come together as a band?

"After college we all would get together and have jam sessions in Jake's grandma's cold, dirty, and slimy basement. It wasn't until a few months later that we began to get more serious with our playing and formed what is now known as The Bad Bees."

How would you describe your music in three words?

"Fast Paced Space."

You recently released your EP titled Big Pretty. What was the process like creating it?

"Writing music together is always a blast. We all try to be as open minded as possible. So wIth Big Pretty a lot of the songs were created a while back, but we kind of revived them, shook some dust off, and made them into something that we thought related to the sound we are aiming for."

Out of the songs on the EP, which are you most proud of and why?

"The Canyon is the one we are most proud of. It has so much energy, and emotion which relates back to when we wrote it and where our mindsets were at the time."

Before the EP was released, you released a music video for the lead single BooWho. Do you have any favorite memories from filming that video?

"During the weekend of the music video we stayed at Antonio Esposito’s place who is our photographer and the person who made the music video. He also has two cats in which Jt is very allergic to, so every night when we were trying to sleep we heard Jt slowly dying due to his throat closing up. Boy do we love a good ole Jt almost dying story."

Is there anything else that we can expect from you in the near future?

"New music, more shows, and nice sounds."

FIND THE BAD BEES ONLINE

WEBSITE TWITTER INSTAGRAM FACEBOOK YOUTUBE

THE ALTERNATE ROUTES: INTERVIEW

January 16, 2018

INTRO BY KAT VISTI

INTERVIEW BY ANDREW PINTADO

The Alternate Routes is an alternative/roots band that recently released new singles entitled "Safe Haven" and "Stronger." The bands impressive resume includes their song "Nothing More" used during the 2014 Winter Olympics, as well as their song "Somewhere In America" earning them a 2016 Independent Music Award. The band's goal is to mix words and melody in order to evoke emotions in the heart of every listener. We interviewed them to learn more about their experiences touring, their music, the music industry and more!

How did you guys come up with the name for the band?

Eric: "The name came from Tim. He was in Martha’s Vineyard and he was driving and this was right around the time we started doing what we’re doing, and we didn’t have a band name yet. We were trying to think of one and he came up to a sign and it said 'Seek Alternate Routes.' And it didn’t tell him where to go, it wasn’t a detour, didn’t say go left or right, it just said 'Seek Alternate Routes.' I remember the day he called me saying 'I think I’ve got the band name!' and I said 'I don’t know, we’ll see.' And all these years later it’s the band name."

What do you guys enjoy most about touring?

Tim: "Well, I think the greatest thing about tour; let me make a Calisthenics comparison -- it’s like you’re stretching every day and by the end of the week you’re stretched a lot further than the beginning and there’s no substitute for a band. You have to get out, it’s a different muscle being used when you’re touring, or playing or performing. You can practice all the time; it’s a different gear and you get in that gear and you can hit it every night…and it’s fun to see how far you can go…getting that muscle in shape."

What is your favorite city to perform in or what famous cities have you performed in?

Tim: "That’s a great question. We did a tour with Ingrid Michaelson a couple of years ago where we played a show in Seattle… there was thirty-five hundred people there, we were just a duo and in the middle of one of the songs we were having so much fun because they were such good listeners that we would just drop everything and it would be completely silent. So to be in a room with that many people and have it be that quiet, it just felt like they were there with us like we were having a quiet conversation with a lot of people and I’ll never forget that; I give credit to her and to her fans…it’s inspiring what people have done to present music."

Eric: "I’m going to take the opposite approach and say we’re Connecticut guys so we play there quite often, New York, the tri-state area and it’s so much fun to leave and go out and play the rest of the country which allows you to play all over the world but you really do realize how this [tri-state] area supports us and allows us to go do other things. We come home and we play to larger crowds than we do when we’re out on the road and that really does support everything we do. We wouldn’t be able to go out in the van and drive to Atlanta or Kansas City or Texas or Canada if we didn’t have the support that we have at home so whenever you get an opportunity to play in front of those people, you become more grateful and that revitalizes you in so many different ways."

What do you like to listen to when you’re on the road; who are some of your favorite artists?

Tim: "*Referring to song playing in the background* It’s funny cause I was just about to say, I don’t know if this is an old playlist our sound engineer put in but this is one of my favorite albums from Derek and the Dominos, Jason Isbell, Blake Mills, and Fiona Apple."

Eric: "Gillian Welch; Jimi Hendrix guitar recordings."

What was it like to have your song “Nothing More” featured in the Winter Olympics?

Tim: "It was surprising; we didn’t know that it was going to happen… at the end of one of our shows, everyone’s phone had 25 voicemails and we had made a contract with the network to use the song but they didn’t tell us they were going to use it… so it was amazing. The song has changed the way we think about our music in a way."

Being a band that has been around for a while, how has the music industry changed?

Eric: "I think it has changed a lot and I guess I am talking more about the nuts and bolts side of things, less like the actual music. It’s a very different world than when we started, I’m in my late 30’s now and when I started I was in my early 20’s and the way people listened to music was much different. And then when I was in my teens, I remember how people used to get music through major distributions like MTV or the radio was the way we all kind of collectively got music. If you want to spin off from there, there was a lot of cool things you could do but now with the internet and with streaming it’s such a different world; you have to learn how to adjust and realize people don’t buy music the way they used to, they don’t buy CD’s the way they used to. Then you’re stuck in this world where a lot of our fans are our age or older who still want that but the younger generation doesn’t so you’re torn between asking, 'Do we even print CD’s anymore?' And you try to be hip and cool and say, 'No more CD’s,' but get 15 emails from people saying, 'I just want to buy a CD so I can put it in my car!' You can’t win so I don’t know but it's interesting cause I do feel like there are several lines where things change dramatically and particularly the way people consume and share music. I don’t think any of it is good or bad; we’re just in an interesting generation because we’re right in the middle."

What are your plans for the future?

Tim: "We’re going to keep going. We’ve got the start of a busy year planned, I think. We’re making our own music finally! Not in a way that it’s like a footnote, like, 'Oh, they record their own music.' I think we’re finally recording music that is viable in any tier of the music business. So we’re going to try and hone that. We’re not a band that’s going to just stop, and I think we’ve proven that. I think it’s fun when you get into a phase of your life and your career where you know a little bit more about who you are and you can put that forward more without wondering as much."

What do you want your audience to take away from your music and your shows?

Tim: "My answer would be that I think music can be used for other things occasionally than maybe 'Taking a bunch of drugs!' or 'Feeling like you’re in church.' I think we’ve made our music flexible to a point where we can cover more ground than you might expect at one show."

Eric: "I would say something similar to that and I was talking about it this morning, I think the theme of our music over the last few years has kind of been this topic about how we’re all connected. Sometimes I feel like we explore that subject in an a really upbeat and fun manner and sometimes we explore that in darker or more difficult situations. But that idea that we’re all connected and then when it comes to what we do and the show that we put on despite not having the largest fan base in the world, we still have a community of people that feel connected to us and we feel connected to them. I think that’s something that we’re really lucky for and grateful for."

FIND THE ALTERNATE ROUTES ONLINE

WEBSITE TWITTER INSTAGRAM FACEBOOK YOUTUBE

GIGI ROWE: INTERVIEW

January 15, 2018

INTRO BY MELISSA TUCKER

INTERVIEW BY CAMI LIBERTY

Meet an artist who is bringing the ‘80s back in style. A time of neon colors and lots of glitter, Gigi Rowe embodies it heart and soul. The songstress is delivering a whole new level of dance pop to this generation. Her latest EP “Stardust Motel” has four powerhouse songs, including “Got That” and “Bright Lights Baby.” After partnering with music producer ill Factor, who has worked with big names like Sia and Gwen Stefani, Gigi Rowe has brought new creative life to her already epic beats. From her hit song being on the latest version of Just Dance to more new music being released, 2018 is bound to be a year that will radiate with Gigi’s gloriously electric energy.

In your own words, how would you describe your music style?

GIGI: "Nouveau ‘80s Miami dance pop catchy glamourous fun."

In October you released your EP, Stardust Motel. What was the process like creating the EP?

GIGI: "It was a great process working with my producer ill Factor in the studio in Miami. There was a certain effortlessness and the songs just flowed. I came up with the title for the EP while road tripping in my little red mustang from Miami to NYC and saw an exit with a retro-looking sign for the Stardust Motel."

Of the songs on the EP which would you say you are most proud of?

GIGI: "Really proud of 'Got That.' I love the music video that this song inspired - it’s playful, bright and colorful - and I’m thrilled that the song is featured on Just Dance 2018. It was a really fun project to be a part of."

Your song Got That off the EP is featured on the video game Just Dance 2018. This is your second time being featured on the game, the first being your debut single Run the Night on the 2017 version of the game. What was it like when you found out you would be featured on the game again?

GIGI: "It was such an exciting moment! It was right in the middle of celebrating the holidays, around New Year’s Day (in 2017). Made the festivities that much more fun, and it was amazing to know that my song was going to be a part of the game and would reach such a global audience!"

Where do you find most inspiration for your music?

GIGI: "The greatest part about inspiration is that it can come from absolutely anywhere. Feels sort of like a treasure hunt. I particularly love it when I’m in the studio, listening to beats or rhythms and I immediately come up with melodies and lyrics that seem to match the vibe of the track."

Would you say your process of creating songs is the same every time or does it change often?

GIGI: "It’s different! Sometimes I’ll pick up my guitar or sit at the piano to come up with ideas. Or, I’ll come up with random melodies and lyrics or just titles to work off. Songs can start in many different ways, and it’s refreshing to be able to change it up depending on my mood or the vibe that I’m going for."

Is there anything else that we can expect from you in the near future?

GIGI: "Lots more music. I already have some exciting projects in the works for 2018, and I can’t wait to unleash them!"

FIND GIGI ONLINE

WEBSITE TWITTER INSTAGRAM FACEBOOK YOUTUBE

PECHE: INTERVIEW

January 13, 2018

INTRO BY SERA SNYDER

INTERVIEW BY CAMI LIBERTY

PHOTO BY ANDREKZA VASQUEZ / LOTUS VISUAL ARTS

Multi-talented musician Reinaldo Zavarce, better known as “PECHE,” has just recently released his first single as a solo artist. His single “FOOL” is a leaving note from his musical group of ISA TKM and has two new singles expected to be out early 2018. Best known for his starring role as Alex in the hit Nickelodeon Latin America/Sony Pictures/MTV Tr3s drama series ISA TKM, PECHE has decided to strike up a career in the music industry and he has big things lying ahead for him! Check out more about PECHE in the interview below.

What first inspired you to pursue music?

"Michael Jackson all the way! I remember when I was a little kid and I would listen to his albums and prepare performances for my family at the family reunions. I think it was his passion for music, performance and vocal accuracy that inspired me to pursue music."

What would you say is the biggest difference between being a solo artist and being in a group?

"Decisions are made faster because it's just me, but at the same time, it's only me making the right or wrong decision. It's on me whatever the outcome is. Especially because I'm doing the whole project on my own.

I created my own record label, publishing company, production house and partnered with a couple of different producers to be able to be self-sufficient. Just like a label is with their artist.

So, it's more work but the satisfaction is great!"

You recently released your first single as a solo artist, FOOL. How did you choose that to be your first single?

"After listening to all of my songs 100 times, I thought this one captured a perfect transition from who I was and to who I am now, without being too aggressive. FOOL is a song that talks about love in an adult way. With real problems, fear, but in the end, it's a love song."

Can you tell us a little about the inspiration behind FOOL?

"FOOL talks about a girl that is afraid to fall in love with me because she thinks I will break her heart. And at the time that I wrote the song, I didn't really have anyone in mind that I could picture this situation with, so I projected what would happen if that situation happened with a friend of mine, and then the lyrics started to appear on the paper. Funny enough, months after I wrote the song...the situation is happening to me right now!"

Do you prefer the writing or recording process more?

"I love both. I love writing because I usually do it on my own, when I'm inspired, so it's a great time, period. But I also love recording because recording itself is inspiring! So... there you go :)"

What would you say is your number one future goal as an artist?

"I don't have an artist that is a goal for me to follow. I think I have a very particular path, but I really like blackbear because he makes music because he wants to. He doesn't follow rules, and his heart and vision is in his songs. I'm doing that and I wanna keep doing it no matter at what level I'm at, because I think we have to be mainstream if we wanna feed our pockets but real if we wanna feed our heart. And I think it's possible to find that balance."

You also are looking to release two other new singles early this year. What can you tell us about those songs?

"I'm gonna release a song with a really known Indonesian artist, I can't say her name right now but she's blowing up over there and we created a very magical song that I can't wait to share.

I also have a song I did with a rapper from California! His name is Mike Slice and the song has Spanish and English! Can't say the name of the song yet either, but I can tell you this is my favorite song so far!"

Aside from the two new singles, is there anything else that we can expect from you in the near future?

"Lots of music! I'm preparing my album and my way to The Grammys! Fingers crossed!"

FIND PECHE ONLINE

TWITTER INSTAGRAM