As an up-and-coming alternative pop musician in South East London, Little Pale has her work cut out for her. But she seems to be taking it all in stride, having just released a re-imagined version The Stone Roses’ “I Wanna Be Adored”. In this particular track, she has taken the rock perspective out almost completely, and replaced it with an ambient, gorgeous kaleidoscope of sounds that perfectly cradle her effervescent vocals.
Says Little Pale of choosing this particular song to cover: “I came to this song quite late and found its lyrics to be especially poignant, more so now than ever, in the context of social media and its influence/rs”.
Los Angeles-based alt-pop duo Rainne – comprised of Annie Dingwall and
Justin Klunk – recently released their dark and brooding new track “Psycho Killer”, which will make anyone feel like they have an edge. Not only are the instrumentals heavy – a tinny sound layered in to make it all the more eery – but the practiced vocals add a feeling of insanity to it all. One thing is for sure: Annie’s vocal range is off the charts.
Explains Annie of the track, “‘Psycho Killer’ is based on our passion for psychological thrillers and true crime. The song’s story is set during a passionate moment between two lovers, when one realizes that the desire that’s taking over may be too intense to handle.”
The Head and The Heart have announced their new album Living Mirage will be out May 17th, and leading up to this release that have debuted a new track titled “Missed Connection”. Containing a smooth bass line, heavenly vocals and harmonies, “Missed Connection” holds a little bit of a different sound from the rest of what The Head and The Heart has had to offer, according to drummer Tyler Williams. “A lot of the beats on that song are quicker, and there are high hats that were never in our music before”.
With that being said, “Missed Connection” still has that feel that we have grown accustomed to experiencing from TheHead and The Heart. This means a perfect combination of alternative, pop, and indie-folk, creating another hit for the six musicians. This upcoming album suggests that this will beThe Head and The Heart’s best work to date. Member Jon Russell has stated proudly that, “this is literally the most work we’ve ever done on an album,” and it definitely shows in “Missed Connection”. Let’s hope for more of the same when “Living Mirage” releases on May 17th.
On March 8th, Matt Shapiro released a 6-track EP that is absolutely thrilling from start to finish. You can see why, too, as Matt admits he approaches his music-making a lot like film. “I approach making a record like I’m making a movie,” he admits. “My last album Metaphysical was very layered and wide-angle and made to sound kind of epic. With this new EP FADE IN, I made the conscious decision to go the other way. This one’s more disciplined, and really stripped down to essentials…more like a scrappy little indie. And it has more bite.”
If you think for a moment that he doesn’t mean the phrase “scrappy little indie,” then you’re in for a treat. “Rockaway Girl” is very theatric, throwing you into this one-man performance that is equal parts modern indie rock and 80’s pop fury. “The Addict” darkens the soundscape a bit, but the collection doesn’t forget the attitude that came with the first track, as it weaves into the slow burner “Is There Something Going On”. “Johnny” is for the human who feels like walking on the wild side, while “Water’s Edge” is much slower, simple and soft in its disposition. Shapiro’s vocals feel like water as they glide amidst the instrumentals. This tranquil feeling is put to an abrupt halt with the first staccato notes of “Genievieve”. It seems as though the pace and volume change might have to do with the way a significant other disrupts your life, and makes things ten times louder. We’re fond of the impact it has on the EP’s trajectory, and couldn’t have placed a more defining last song.
Darkness, waves of bass and intense drums, and mysterious sounds lace the ominous single from Mey titled “Spiky Love”. This is the first single off of the upcoming EP With the Lights Off, and to say it sets the tone is an understatement. The song, and its accompanying music video, embodies a special kind of darkness that has both pop and rock influences. The rage and angst expressed by Mey in the lyrics are further supported by what almost seems like drums and heartbeat rhythm. I personally found the plucking of the guitar both sonically pleasing and unique to the landscape of the track.
Says Mey of the video:
SpikyLove » is about desire. It is about the most common human tension : between need and desire. And about having a strong desire for something that you know is wrong for you and destructive. Still, being aware of it and pointing out this paradox, while accepting it. In this song I’m trying to explore my own destructive impulsions, to let them out, and to make something beautiful out of it.
Leonard Heliot and I worked on the video for « SpikyLove » with the artwork of the EP as the starting point.
The idea (and challenge!) was to keep it all in the dark, while creating a sense of intimacy. We wanted to suggest rather than expose, and keep the dark, unhealthy atmosphere of the song as well.
Mey seems to have a lot up her sleeve for this EP, and if “Spiky Love” is any indication of what is to come, then we should all be on the edge of our seats in anticipation for the rest. You can check out Mey on her socials posted below.
Hailing from Tennessee, pop duo Cooper & Gatlin – comprised of Cooper Green (Guitar/Vocals) and Gatlin Kate James (Vocals) – releases a catchy, lighthearted new acoustic version of their single”Like You” today along with its bright and fun new visual. Believe it or not, we’re lucky enough to be hosting the exclusive premiere. This version of the song is absolutely incredible, putting a crisp spin on something already mellifluous and wonderful. Although the song is bittersweet with more melancholic lyrical content, it’s an absolute earworm that will have you tapping your toes all day.
Admits the duo of the project: “The acoustic video was such a blast to make! We already had an amazing set to work with from the main video, so it was super fun to rearrange it, and make everything work in one take! Everyone had worked so hard shooting the videos for both versions of the song, so it was so awesome to have them all dancing with us at the end of the acoustic video.”
Cole Guerra has crafted a sound that balances on the edge between progressive rock and pop with latest project I Am Casting, a musical entity we have been captivated by since premiering “Clay” last year. Amidst the release of the project’s debut album, we got a few minutes to sit down and dig in with Guerra on everything music. Check it out below!
There was a time when you were studying and performing, were there any points where the focus of your studies intermingled with your song writing?
That period was well before writing any of the songs on Carnival Barkers. The overlap would have occurred primarily during the writing of an album called Scarves & Knives, which I put out under my own name years ago. I don’t believe that the focus of my studies really made its way into contemporaneous songwriting material, though I can look back and recognize that I was, at times, working some psychological stuff out (about myself) through my lyric writing.
On the other hand, my exposure during grad school and beyond to issues central to clinical psychology and social psychology has pretty clearly influenced my lyrics over the past couple years, while writing the tunes on Carnival Barkers.
Does your background in psychology help when writing lyrics?
In general, I’m sure that the psych background funnels me towards certain subject matter, even if I’m not altogether deliberate or conscious about this, and that it then informs the perspective I have on the chosen subjects. The psych background definitely influenced how I approached the material on Carnival Barkers. It was 2016 when I began working on the album, and from the start of lyric-writing I knew my framework was to write a collection of tunes that would observe, from various angles, something about the psychology of the political moment. Most of the songs offer a take on toxic influencers and/or their impact, both on those who ‘buy in’ to the message and those who do not. For example, I think of ‘Wolf’, ‘Charmer’, and ‘Lullaby’ as Pied Piper-like riffs, thematically. I view ‘Helpless’, ‘Muggers’, and ‘Seams’ as fragments of possible responses by those upended and left feeling powerless in the wake of a malignant carnival barker. ‘Flood’ and ‘Window’ are songs about the political exploitation of fear and prejudice.
Carnival Barkers will soon be released, “Flood” was the first single released from your new album. What is the background behind “Flood”?
‘Flood’ was one of the first songs written for Carnival Barkers – it was penned in mid-2016. During the run-up to the election, I was disgusted, like many, by how often Trump negatively framed non-white and non-European populations and made racial and ethnic distinctions increasingly salient. He was explicitly signalling to his political base that they should care about race and ethnicity differences, and that those outside their racial and ethnic ingroups (here’s the social psychology influence I referenced above) were clear threats. In essence, he seemed to have a strategy of stoking and then exploiting people’s fears about those in outgroups. We’ve seen this play out over the past couple years – in, for example, the alarmism about the “Caravan” or with the just-declared “national emergency”. ‘Flood’ tries to get at aspects of this, as does the song ‘Window’.
The video for “Flood” used footage of historical events that ties into the song, of the footage you used which part sums up “Flood” the most?
The juxtaposition of (a) clips from a 1957 promo piece by Redbook magazine that depicted tranquil white suburbia with (b) clips depicting the aggression and hostility of white women and men towards the Little Rock Nine during that same year.
After Scarves & Knives you kind of disappeared, what were you doing in that time?
At the time of releasing Scarves & Knives, and then touring in support of it, I was ‘on leave’ from my clinical psychology program. I had a decision to make after touring – do I finish the degree or commit full-time to music? I was invested in both possible paths and knew I wanted to wrap up the doctoral degree and keep the door open to becoming a practicing psychologist. I re-engaged in the grad program, which was a pretty immersive thing involving dissertation writing and clinical work, followed by an internship and subsequent ‘post-doc’ experience. After that, I jumped into developing my clinical psychology practice. During that stretch, whenever I tried to write music, it just felt kind of painful – like if I couldn’t do it full-on, why bother? Hard to explain, really. I somehow ended up going years without doing anything music-related. Most of that time, I didn’t even touch a guitar or keyboard. It wasn’t until 2016 that I began writing again.
Is there any overall advantage from working primarily from your home studio?
Yes, absolutely, especially as I’ve come to view tracking itself as an important part of my songwriting process – things are pretty iterative at this point, so I benefit from having the ability to easily go in and adjust, rinse, repeat, etc. I guess I could just call what I end up with a ‘demo’ and then go to a full-fledged studio, but the home studio is sufficient for me to obtain most of what I’m after – there are exceptions, and I did leave the home space to record some stuff.
What element of Carnival Barkers are you most proud of and why?
Probably that it feels like an album. There are thematic threads that connect the tunes, as I was describing earlier, and I think there are musical threads that do the same (arrangement choices, tonally coherent). Hopefully, if a listener takes in the full LP in a single gulp, there is a “whole is greater than the sum of its parts” type impact.
You studied piano as a child, how did this set you up musically for your future musical endeavors?
I’m sure that early exposure to an instrument was one of the things that contributed to a love of music, along with extensive music-listening as a young kid. I’m also pretty sure that playing the piano made it easier to learn and play the guitar, which I picked up just after high school. This is conjecture, but maybe the most significant impact of playing an instrument as a young kid was that it introduced me very early on to the idea that one’s experience with music can be that of an active participant.
What was it about Richard Buckner’s Since that captivated you so much?
Just about everything, really. Chord progressions and melodies that grabbed me immediately and then somehow continued to grow on me after a ridiculous amount of spins. The sound itself – dry vocal upfront, immersive + emotional musical beds. The tunes cohere as an album, and yet there is a great amount of variability in song tempos, tone, structure, and length. I usually don’t weigh lyrical content that greatly in my music preferences, but Buckner’s lyrics on Since are just incredible. And lastly, the tunes seemed so specifically him – I didn’t have a clear sense of ‘influences’.
Since also introduced me to the work of producer and bassist JD Foster, who had produced the LP as well as Bucker’s preceding album, Devotion & Doubt. A few years after the release of Since, I invited JD to a show I was playing in NYC – the conversation with JD after that gig eventually led to the making of Scarves & Knives.
Why did it take a text from Ian Schreier to get you making music again, had you not thought of your music before that point?
There was something motivating about re-engaging with people I’d worked on music with in the past – Ian had mixed Scarves & Knives and been involved in some of the recording as well. Also, quite frankly, it was probably that the messages from Ian over a couple months, along with some other input from musicians I respect a lot, helped to build up some lost confidence. The initial communication from Ian led to a couple meetings at the studio where he typically works, and to me taking a plunge on buying some home recording software/hardware – I’d never had any recording gear previously.
When creating music for Carnival Barkers it was the lyrics that came second, what is your usual creative process of writing?
Lyrics have always come relatively late in the process for me. Frankly, as a listener, the music (the chord progression, the melody, the texture/sound/feel, etc.) speaks to me far more than does any lyric. A bad lyric can put me off, but I’ll listen to a great-sounding tune with middling lyrics. A good lyric is like a bonus of sorts, icing on the cake.
Though I’ve always written music before lyrics, the creative process did change quite a bit for Carnival Barkers. Prior to CB, I’d write the progression + melody + lyric while sitting with a guitar or at the piano, and think about arrangement and texture after the song was, in essence, ‘done’. With CB, the home recording setup and software enabled me to write and record percussion (and other) parts in tandem with the keys or guitar, and the rhythm and ‘texture’ tracks ended up influencing my progressions and melodies to a degree I never would have predicted – I really prefer this newer approach. As I start playing with a vocal melody over a progression I’ve already written and recorded, a lyrical idea or theme will sort of emerge – usually a phrase or two grab me and then I shape the remaining lyric accordingly.
Thank you for giving Imperfect Fifth this interview, is there anything you would like to add?
No, other than thanks for expressing interest in the album!
Alt-pop artist Ships Have Sailed have a new single “Escape”, and it will make you feel what the title suggests. The LA based duo has been diligently working since their debut EP in 2013, releasing a slew of projects over the years. Indie rock, pop, and alternative sounds ring out in all of their works, and those genres are put on full display in their new single “Escape”.
“Escape” kicks off a series of singles coming from Ships Have sailed that “promise to express a deeper level of sentiment than ever before”. The single is accompanied by a video that is all about escaping ones problems, doubts, and struggles. Sometimes all you can do is scream out and try to escape your reality through other activities, and even this new single from Ships Have Sailed can help one do this.
You can keep up with Ships Have Sailed through their socials listed below. Don’t be surprised when this alt-pop collective has a massive 2019.
Fashion-conscious artist Daniel Donskoy’s debut single “Cry by the River” is here and it is making waves. With the release of the accompanying music video, the singer/songwriter and TV star has broke through the music industry with a chart topping alternative hit.
Daniel Donskoy, artist name DONSKOY, infuses the feeling of alternative-pop with experimental sounds. He utilizes a very interesting auto-tune in portions of the track that are reminiscent of Kanye West from the “808s and Heartbreak” era, or that of Justin Vernon from Bon Iver. The song makes you want to cry and dance at the same time. Pair those feelings with a very profound and artistic music video, and you have “Cry by the River”.
You can stream or purchase the song here. Keep up with DONSKOY here.
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