'SINKING' / SHALLOW POOLS: SINGLE REVIEW

August 24, 2018

BY EMMA SCHOORS

In almost every present-day philosophy book, you’ll find a page or more of the author promoting pursuing a passion in order to deal with, overcome, or beat a bad situation. What these pages don’t detail is that often times, writing (or in this case, singing) about the not-so-great things happening can not only document them for later reflecting, but help others along the way. This is where the great music comes in.

Shallow Pools’ new single “Sinking” is the perfect mix of this raw goodness and the ever present notion that the more you tell a story, the less power it holds over you. With vocals comparable to Paramore’s Hayley Williams, the track holds a special kind of powerhouse effect. It keeps constant this sound throughout the entire song, which makes for a unique listening experience. The song’s lyrics make for an almost B-side to songs like “Falling” by HAIM, keeping an overall upbeat tone while detailing a sadder yet grander scheme of things.

At first listen, most listeners might pick up on the powerful vocals, and how they work well with the powerful instrumentals. However, by listening once more, you might find how both of these aspects actually make for a complimentary sound. While lots of bands have the desire to sacrifice the intensity of one or more instruments for the vocals, Shallow Pools doesn’t hold back with anything, and that’s part of what sets them apart from others.

Check out their new single below!

Sinking, an album by shallow pools on Spotify

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FLEURIE: INTERVIEW

August 22, 2018

INTRO BY KAT VISTI

INTERVIEW BY CAMI LIBERTY

Nashville, Tennessee based musician Fleurie, is up and coming with new music that recently released. We sat down with Fleurie to get more information on her latest album entitled Portals. Songs off of Fleurie's previous album, Love and War, have been featured on TV shows like Pretty Little Liars, Shadowhunters, Reign, The Originals, and 24. She was featured on Ruelle's song "Carry You" and was a featured singer on NF's "Mansion."

When was the moment that you knew you definitely wanted to be a musician?

FLEURIE: "Hmm...! I’ve always loved music. I think I started to see it as a potential career in college when I was writing a lot of music and finding my love for music was even bigger than genre or style! And that’s the time frame that I decided to move to Nashville after graduation."

For those who have not yet heard your music, how would you describe it to them?

FLEURIE: "Dreamy, ethereal, raw, cinematic, emotional."

You recently released your latest single “Chasing Stars.” Can you tell us a little about the song and the inspiration behind it?

FLEURIE: "Chasing Stars was the first “pop song” I ever tried writing. I wrote it a couple of years ago with two friends, Sam Tinnesz and Matt Bronleewe, and we just had fun dreaming up the “pop” version of Fleurie. The song is about forgetting everything that’s weighing on your mind and for just one night jumping in the car and taking off with your friends to the middle of nowhere, blasting your favorite music and getting a bit lost. The song just never left me, I had to include it on this record!"

How would you compare “Chasing Stars” to your previously released single “Constellate”?

FLEURIE: "They’re both pretty fun mid/up-tempo songs that come across dreamy and magical. Constellate is about a Love that brought me back to life and Chasing Stars is more about friendship and perspective."

On August 17th you released your album Portals. What can we expect from the album?

FLEURIE: "Yessss! So excited. You can expect a lot of space references and metaphors, a lot of hopeful songs with twinges of melancholy and longing sprinkled throughout. You can expect honesty and poetic imagery and interstellar soundscapes."

Of the songs on the album, which one would you say came easiest to you when writing?

FLEURIE: "I wrote Nomad in just a few minutes, alone at home. It was hard to write emotionally but in a sense it was shooting through my mind and into the air so quickly."

Which song was the hardest?

FLEURIE: "A World Beyond was a stretching song to write. It took me outside of my comfort zone in a lot of ways!"

What do you hope people take from your music when listening?

FLEURIE: "I hope they look at life the way I do for a second, and challenge themselves to dream and believe and hope again. I hope they feel safe to feel difficult emotions but don’t get stuck there! I hope they are full of vision and creativity of their own and inspiration to write and live their own stories. :)"

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'LAMP LIT PROSE' / DIRTY PROJECTORS: ALBUM REVIEW

August 15, 2018

BY SARA SANTORA

Jangling, twinkling and bright, Dirty Projectors’ Lamp Lit Prose is a vibrant feel-good album. The song’s opening track “Right Now” is a slow start, opening with “The sky has darkened, Earth turned to hell.” But, as singer David Longstreth continues, singing “I don’t know how I’m going to reach the promised land, I don’t know how I’m gonna get you to reach my hand, but I’m gonna try and I know when/ right now,” the energy becomes light. And, as the keys and trumpet make their entrance, we are quickly launched into “Break-Thru:” a song built on infatuation, reminiscent of Bleachers and Vampire Weekend.

“It’s cold out there, that’s nothing new, but she keeps it 100 in the shade, she’s a break-thru,” sings Longstreth on “Break-Thru.” While the tone on this song is one of playful wonderment, the album’s lyrical content takes a more serious turn, and brings us to feelings of love. “Ask now, I’m in love for the first time,” sings Longstreth on “I found It In U.” “And all the painful dreams I failed to extinguish were the foot lights down dark aisles I’ve taken, now they’ve led me to you.” While “Break-Thru” was playful, “I Found It In U” is poetic and beautiful, being home to some of Longstreth’s most powerful lyrics. Of course, just because it’s meaningful doesn’t mean it can’t be upbeat. Like the songs before it, “I Found It In U” is indie-rock fun.

But while the album’s first nine tracks are experimental and danceable, Lamp Lit Prose takes a harsh turn and ends on a very simple note. Jazzy and slow, the album’s final track “(I Wanna) Feel It All” calms listeners down from this energetic high they might have been feeling throughout the duration of the album. “I wanna feel everything,” sings Longstreth. “Sweetness of youth and old age’s sting, I open my eyes wide and unblinking—I wanna feel everything.” On its surface, the song feels like such n odd place to end, but with this song Longstreth is doing exactly what he wants: he’s feeling it all. We’ve enjoyed the highs, so it’s okay to enjoy something mellow.

Everything about this album feels both bright yet strangely out of place for today’s musical landscape. Combining elements from a variety of genres, it’s hard to pigeonhole this album into one genre or category. While “Break-Thru” finds its energy from a pop-esque composition, “That’s A Lifestyle,” with its heavy use of acoustic guitar, feels like it belongs on an indie-folk album. Meanwhile the guitar on “You’re The One” sounds reminiscent of The Who, placing the song in a different decade entirely. However, when listened to from top to bottom, the album works as one cohesive unit. With acoustic guitar, horn and twinkling keys throughout, this album is a fun and experimental collection of stories, strung together by love and fascination.

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HATCHETS FOR HANDS: INTERVIEW

July 27, 2018

INTRO BY KAT VISTI

INTERVIEW BY CAMI LIBERTY

Hatchets For Hands formed in a makeshift studio in San Francisco's Tenderloin District. In 2017 the band released their first singles "Mistress Death" and "Venom Streets." Following the release of their debut EP, entitled Convulsions of a Dying Empire, we sat down with Cullen Poythress of the band (drums/vocals) to talk about the new EP, how they became a band, and more!

How did you guys first come together to start the band?

CULLEN: "Brian and I have been playing in bands together since we were kids. Sometime around 2007 we were both living and working in San Francisco and decided to start making music together again. It started as just a simple side project that we had no real serious plans for, but as we started getting deeper into it things started taking shape. Little by little we started carving out songs, started buying studio time and really focused on sharpening our skills as players. Today we have a full-blown project in Hatchets For Hands and we’re busier than ever with writing and recording."

You recently released your EP “Convulsions of a Dying Empire”. Can you tell us a little about what the process was like creating it?

CULLEN: "It took a really long time to get this record out. As a young band there is a massive growth curve we experienced with our skills as musicians and with our proficiency working in the studio. We wrote so many songs and each one we wrote was better than the previous one which made it really hard to settle on a group of songs to put out on a record like Convulsions. Eventually though we knew we had to get something out so we landed on the tracks that you’ll find on the record. Two of the tracks were singles we released as sort of demo singles that we reworked and produced up to match the other songs on the album. We feel like the tracks we showcased on this record were the best representation of our style and sound as a band."

Do you find that you always have the same process when creating songs or does it change often?

CULLEN: "Our process also took some time to dial in. As a two man band functioning as a five piece, our process is much different than a full band. In a way it makes things easier, but there are definitely aspects of it that are also challenging. The process begins with us sharing ideas and concepts for songs and building on that. Sometimes it’ll start with just a single riff or hook and once we have that foundation established we build around it. The songs often evolve a good bit too. Sitting on them and thinking about them allows us to analyze them on a deeper level and upgrade them as needed. Nothing we put out comes straight out of the studio—these tracks are aged and refined over time."

Of the songs on the EP, which would you say you’re most proud of?

CULLEN: "That’s a hard one because they’re all so different and they all hold a certain significance in different ways. If I had to choose one, I’d say it would be Warpath. Warpath was one of those songs we wrote in the early years and it had this staying power about it that spared from the studio floor with so many other tracks that we threw away. It’s certainly evolved from its initial iterations, but the skeleton of the song remained intact from its original form. Warpath today has emerged as the stand out single from the record and has gotten the most attention from fans and critics. We feel like we definitely made the right decision to keep evolving it and pushing it to the track it’s become today."

Where do you find most inspiration when creating music?

CULLEN: "We get inspired from all types of things in and outside of music. There’s inspiration all over if you’re open to it. We’re both fans of visual art, film and history and often get inspired by certain themes, images and characters—those types of things can inform concepts or ideas that become songs. In a musical sense, we take inspiration from all types of music as well—mostly metal, but we also take cues from other genres and styles."

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

CULLEN: "We’re planning on getting back in the studio this summer to start work on our second album. Continually releasing music is our biggest priority. We’ve gotten some great momentum off this first record and continuing that momentum is what we intend to do with our writing and our releases."

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KRIS ANGELIS: INTERVIEW

July 25, 2018

INTRO BY KAT VISTI

INTERVIEW BY CAMI LIBERTY

No matter how many different styles Kris Angelis played around with in her music, she always would go back to her roots and who she is, a storyteller. Her latest single Photobooth displays her storytelling because you get some of her real life moments with a melody behind it that listeners will fall in love with. Her songwriting has earned her numerous awards such as the 13th International Acoustic Music Award for Best Female Artist, LA Music Critics Award for Best Female EP, and she was named a finalist at the 2016 International Songwriting Competition. We sat down with Kris to get the deets about her songwriting process, her single Photobooth, and what's next in store for her.

When was the moment that you realized you wanted to be a musician?

KRIS: "There were two moments. The first was when I discovered Hanson and loved their positive sound with meaningful songs and harmonies and that they played their own instruments. The fact that they were so young made me think that I could do that too and I started learning to harmonize with my twin sister. The follow up moment to that was when I saw Brandi Carlile coincidentally (or not…) opening for Hanson and was so drawn in and moved by her raw emotional voice and songs. I really connected to that and immediately finally picked up a guitar and started writing my own songs again with the intention to play them for people."

How would you describe your music for those who have not heard it yet?

KRIS: "My music is folk/pop. It has elements of both with some story telling, melodic influences from both genres and a foundation of organic, acoustic instruments with some electronic flavoring."

Who are some of your musical influences?

KRIS: "I’m sure I’ll forget some but Ingrid Michaelson, The Head and the Heart, Brandi Carlile, Gregory Alan Isakov, Taylor Swift, The Lumineers, Ray Lamontagne, Regina Spektor, Jeff Hahn, Racheal Yamagata, Katie Herzig, Rachel Platten, Elton John. There are more."

You recently released your single “Photobooth”. Can you tell us a little about the song and the inspiration behind it?

KRIS: "I wrote Photobooth about those things in life that we thought were going to go one way and they ended up another way and the sometimes bittersweet nostalgia of looking back on those moments. It’s based on a real specific experience I had one night at a party with a guy and I thought it would finally be the beginning of a real relationship and it turned out to be the end but the night was wonderful and the joy and hope and laughter that we captured in the photobooth was real but those photos are all that is left. I’ve always thought photo booths were romantic because they’re old-fashioned and spontaneous and I thought it would be a fun thing to write about and a way to release those memories without letting them be tainted."

Do you find that you always have the same process when creating songs or does it change often?

KRIS: "I have a process that is generally the same for a lot of my songs but of course every one is different in the details. I usually have something running around in my head and heart and I’ll write down my thoughts about it and snippets of lyric ideas as I go about my day and then I’ll sit down at some point with a guitar and form those into a song. Sometimes it takes an hour, sometimes it takes years! I also enjoy co-writing which usually is a faster process because there is more than one creative mind working on it and it’s fun to get the different ideas, viewpoints, melodies, and chords that we can bounce off each other and come up with something cool that we wouldn’t have separately. Usually for co-writes, I come in the room with an idea of something I want to write like I do when I’m alone (often just a title or one line that ends up being a hook) or sometimes we’ll just say “what do you feel like writing about” or we have some sort of prompt and I can still scroll through the epic Note on my phone for tidbits that would fit in that feeling or concept."

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

KRIS: "Yes! Photobooth was the first single from an EP that I’m finishing up and will be coming out in August. The music video for it was just released that my sister directed and has some fun effects in it. I also put out another single this month called Stained Glass.

I’m touring all over Germany in September and then the US in the Fall.

Anyone who’s interested in the EP can pre-order it along with some cool packages including one-of-a-kind vinyl singles that I’ll be recording live in a studio in NYC this week! The pre-orders will help me finish, promote, and get it to radio! https://krisangelis.bandzoogle.com/album-fund-pre-order-now

I’m also on Patreon which allows people to support an independent musician on a consistent basis while getting access to exclusive and early content, private chats, and fun stuff.

http://www.patreon.com/krisangelis

All my socials, Spotify, Bandcamp, etc can be found at http://www.krisangelis.com

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