2020 was the first year Imperfect Fifth was accepted as an official press outlet for SXSW. Though two members of our team have been listed as press in the past — and we have attended and done extensive coverage even when we aren’t listed — this was a huge feat for Imperfect Fifth as a bootstraps music publication. But our reach is larger than we know. We are bringing new music to the forefront as best we can, especially in these times when people are turning to the arts for an escape, or peace of mind.
Though we can’t make things physically better at the moment, we did decide to move forward with our in-person interview format… but from our couches. Elizabeth Schneider — music journalist, writer, and DIY queen — came up with the name, and we’re sticking to it! So relax for a few minutes, and delve into the first episode of our quick-hitting third season of our podcast, The Sofa Sessions.
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Stephen Clair is doing everything he can to stay involved in the music community during quarantine. During our first interview of what would have been our SXSW series, he talks Al Franken, social distancing, and Beacon Music Factory!
In March of 2017, we were in a different place. Financially, emotionally, career-wise… but the biggest difference? We were covering SXSW as official press (for a different publication). Imperfect Fifth has thrived on what we learned within that community, learning tenfold about the industry in one week over what we had in the previous five years combined working within it. Because we are all feeling a sense of lack of community right now — and almost none of us are out enjoying ourselves in the streets of Austin — I wanted to share some video interviews from that first, fated SXSW. You know, when social distancing didn’t exist and we all did yoga in bars together.
For official SXSW coverage and takeovers all week, head to our Instagram!
Rising Taiwanese act The Fur. enjoyed galavanting around SXSW 2019. We know this because they shared a brief glimpse of the experience with us. Check out the view from their lens below, then head over to take a listen to their debut album Town.
“Yes, we are so happy to play at SXSW.”
We got hair done at artist lounge and felt cool and ready to be on stage.
Edit.
Ren made a new friend.
Zero is at Walmart.
We saw someone wearing the same shirt as Ren’s, so took a secret photo with him. Nobody noticed.
It’s challenging to finish a stage setting within a short period of time at B.D. Riley’s. We yelled at each other in Mandarin and moved so quickly to get the change-over done as fast as possible. It’s so much fun to recall how we did the show.
We shopped at a toy store. How we wish to bring all the Rick and Morty toys back to Taiwan but we can’t.
Music week at SXSW 2019 has descended upon Austin, TX, and we are experiencing major bouts of missing out. It’s the first year in a hot second that we don’t get to come down and cover all of the insane music first-hand. But we are also insanely lucky. This year, as in years past, we have found a host of incredible musicians to give their point-of-view a shot on our Instagram page all week! Check @imperfectfifth for the lineup and updates all week long!
Between Instagram updates, I’d test out some of the up-and-comers on the playlist below. This happens to be a host of our favorite SXSW 2019 artists, all compiled in one place so you can stay up-to-date with the industry’s fresh faces. We will be updating the playlist all week, so stay plugged in to hear new things every day!
When you think you’ve read all the end of year lists you can take, we’re still stringing our (very important) short ones out, to make sure there’s plenty of new music discovery at your fingertips throughout the month! 2018 was a year of insane amounts of music coverage, a bevy of incredible artists to choose from, and a really incredible list of new faces to dive into. While we don’t keep track of new artists vs. veterans, we would like to highlight some of our favorite vocalists of the moment with you. Trust us — this was a really hard decision process, which is why it took us a little longer to get it to post. We wanted to highlight people that both entertain like the most insane, and who we believe truly deserve the spotlight for it as well. You might not agree, but this may lead you on a tangent of music discovery, and we’re all for that. Without further ado, check out our Top 7 Male Vocalists of 2018 below!
by meredith schneider
Holy White Hounds is a group of guys we have been following for a while. Hailing from Des Moines, IA, the foursome emerges more triumphant and in-your-face with each new track, paving the way for their most recent full-length release – Say It With Your Mouth – which will make its debut on December 22nd. And don’t let their gritty attitudes and rough exterior fool you. Ambrose, Brent, James, and Seth are full of heart, a force in motion when they’re together, and really know how to relate to their audience. (While also making fun of them. But it’s charming, and we’re totally into it.) That, coupled with those edgy vocals, and we’ve got a rock band that just won’t quit! (Thankfully. Please don’t? We need you.)
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We may have been a little late to the game on this one, but pop/r&b singer/songwriter Dermot Kennedy is the Dubliner of everyone’s dreams. We were wandering SXSW this year when our friends at PlaylistPlay coerced us into popping into a church to listen to one of their favorite musicians. Honestly, we can’t think of a better way to first experience the insanely beautiful vocals Kennedy provides. His soundscapes are freeing, intense and wonderful in their disposition. If you don’t trust us, take a listen to his debut EP Doves & Ravens, or his most recent single “Power Over Me”, which was released in October.
by meredith schneider
Atlanta, Georgia-based Algiers absolutely astonished us at Sasquatch Music Festival this year. Lead singer Franklin James Fisher approached the stage with a Jimi Hendrix flare, and vocals that just do not quit. There is an enticing, soulful energy to their sound, with just a hint of reverb and incredible vintage influence that keeps us coming back for more. We can’t wait to hear their follow-up to 2017’s The Underside of Power, but are totally keen on waiting patiently for their next stunner full-length.
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You’ve heard of him. We’re not introducing this powerhouse to anyone, and we feel pretty darn good about that fact. Childish Gambino – aka the triple threat of everyone’s dreams – hits our list this year, if not only for his wildly eye-opening video for “This Is America“. We’ve been super into all of his work over the years, and our hearts swoon with each new line he spins, opening our eyes to an array of important – and often overlooked – issues. The man is an absolute enigma, and perhaps that’s what keeps us coming back for more time and time again.
by meredith schneider
We know we’ve harped on how incredible Judah & The Lion is, and now is not the time to stop. On December 12th, the (now) trio – who is joined by a rotating cast of instrumentalists and backup vocalists for their performances – released two singles, titled “Pep Talk” and “Quarter-Life Crisis”, landing themselves back on our radar. Check it out, and then dive into their catalogue if you haven’t already. Their music will throw you into that good mood you’ve been craving.
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Lionman – who we first experienced in May when he released the visual for his single “Don’t You Dare”. His vocals are directly associated with the term “smooth as honey”, and we’re drawn in from the first line. His hair is absolutely divine, His latest single “In My Letter” has a softer sound to it, and a rhythm that reminds us of some of our favorite OG Usher songs. This artist is definitely one to watch.
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If you’re into soulful, robust vocals that establish a mood, and somehow manage to get everyone in their vicinity to “feel the same way,” then Michael Kight is the way to go. In May, we had some thoughts on his track “Clear“, and still maintain that he was impressive on every level of musicianship. We count him as one of our favorite discoveries of the year, and look forward to more from him in the future!
On March 16th, The Jacks came strolling into our lives like old, familiar friends on the street. We were set to meet them at 6th and San Jacinto in downtown Austin, right outside of San Jac Saloon. We knew we were looking for four musicians – Johnny Stanback, Thomas Hunter, Scott Stone, and Josh Roossin make up this collaborative indie quartet – but we didn’t realize just HOW rock n’ roll the experience would be.
For example, Scott made it to the corner several minutes before the rest of them came meandering up, but every single one of them was donning dark wash jeans and black shirts, often layered with a black jacket. But let me put this into context for you: It was 88 degrees outside.
But that’s just how these guys handle it. They deal with the heat. They’re comfortable in tight spaces together, and they’re excited about expanding their reach and their audience, bringing their music to the masses. So let me leave you with a sweet little ditty by them, and the transcription of our time together in interview form!
Introduce yourselves please. Tell me your name and what you do with the band.
Johnny: We’re The Jack’s. I’m Johnny, and I sing and play guitar, rhythm.
Tom: I’m Tom Hunter and I play lead guitar.
Josh: I’m Josh and I play drums.
Scott: I’m Scott Stone and I play lead bass guitar.
And mother. We hear you’re mother of the band.
Scott: Yes, Momager.
I guess that is because of the fact that he was on time and we were already late.
He’s like ‘hey it’s me – the band’. So guys, how’s South By been for you? Is it your first South By?
Yeah. We got in Monday night… So we’ve been here for three full days now, three and a half. We’re headed off to Dallas tonight… Very excited. That will be a great crowd. We played two [shows] at South By and we’re playing one in Dallas, then heading back.
Awesome. That’s good – pace it a little bit. What have you guys seen here that you liked?
Lots of awesome fans. Lots of great food too. We just had breakfast at Moonshine and it was unreal. You learn not to use Yelp, you ask people. All our local Austin friends gave us good food suggestions.
What was your favorite aspect of South by Southwest as a band?
Both shows we played were really awesome, we had a great time. Obviously, it’s just hanging out, we have a lot of friends here performing, bands that we’ve played with before. It’s so good to see them and see how well they do and spend time. It’s just an amazing environment – it’s all artists and a great time. It’s like adult summer camp!
I like that! That metaphor makes sense! What’s coming up next that you want to tell people about?
Our next show is March 27th at the Peppermint Club in L.A. We’re excited about that one. Then we booked a Pacific Northwest tour for the end of May we’re really excited about. What else… We play Brick and Mortar in San Francisco on the 23rd of May… All the way up to Portland and Seattle so far. That’s what we have in store for the next month or two. And obviously a bunch of great new music hopefully coming.
It’s not up to us anymore, but we get to release it, hopefully in October… We recorded a new single, got a new music video for that.. Hopefully tour on that in the fall.
Fingers crossed it all pans out! Alright, you guys have really committed to the dark jeans, the boots, how are you faring today, although the weather has changed slightly and it’s at least breezy?
We took them off…the day was a little long…yeah…
Here’s a question I have – aesthetically, you guys tend to go toward the black and the jeans, how’s that going to happen when you’re in Florida? (laughter)
We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it .. We haven’t had that issue…Maybe Mexico? The Jack’s booty shorts… Make that our summer line.
How do you guys calm down or pump up before a show? Do you get nervous or do you have to rev yourself up?
It depends on the show. Like the Troubadour, the one we did that sold out – that was obviously a big one for us. It’s just kind of like we’re just so comfortable with each other, we’ve grown up together and we’re all best friends. When you get on stage, you kind of just into that element, you don’t really think about those things I guess.
We usually have one or two beers before a show, but that’s about it. OK. Eighteen. Maybe eight hundred.
We have a fancy palate. Actually, there’s this new beer coming out called Tower Park that they just opened in Anaheim, California. Really, really good.
SXSW 2018 was absolutely insane. We only got to head down for a couple of days, but we packed in so much culture and new music discovery, our heads are still spinning. Below, peep a selection of “out and about” photos along the streets of Austin in March!
Pierre Marie-Maulini is a man for all seasons. His previous musical experience includes post-rock project A Red Season Change and touring with M83, but he formed STAL in 2011. STAL has put out We Are Two EP and Young Hearts LP. Their upcoming new EP, Fresh Blood, will be released this summer, and follows Maulini’s 2017 decision to move to Los Angeles from his native France. Maulini is not always a one man show; Renaud Rodier has been playing drums for STAL since its formation and Jeff Di Rienzo brings his guitar skills to form the trio. While previous records were full of spontaneity, Fresh Blood is the result of meticulous production (thanks to producer Eric Palmquist) and is Maulini’s creativity at its finest.
Today, STAL has just come off of an exciting time at SXSW, and are thrilled for their forthcoming EP. Their brand new single, “Magic”, is just a taste of what is to come. Lucky for us, STAL was able to answer a few of our questions about music, must-haves, and their upcoming EP.
Sum up your new single, “Magic ”? Magic is about what we can do for each other as human beings. You can count on me, I can count on you. Be yourself, there’s no judge here.
What’s the best part of being a musical artist today?
Thanks to the internet, you can easily share your music with millions of people. The other great part is touring. Touring has become more and more important. STAL is definitely a “stage” band, so I love that!
Biggest influence for your upcoming EP? My life these past 3 years.
What is a must-have when recording? An amazing producer, some great guitars and a brain that works.
Dream collaboration? The National
What do you want new listeners to know about your music? I want them to feel that STAL is true and sincere and hopefully this EP makes htem wanna come to our shows.
Biggest takeaway from your time at SXSW? The Paradigm showcase with Pale Waves was great. Otherwise, we totally fell in love with Austin and this Salt Lick BBQ!
David Rosales was waiting for me on a street corner in Austin when I meandered up to him for the second time that day. In fact, he had been waiting patiently as some of my other interviews ran late, his back certainly weighing heavy with his luggage and guitar strapped on him and sitting next to him. Despite the 88 degree weather – and what should have been the most aggravating conditions – he brought with him a sense of ease and a feeling of calm that I hadn’t felt yet on 6th Street during SXSW 2018. He was kind, and ready to chat freely about his SX experience, his musical journey, and everything in between.
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Let’s do this. I know – get your stuff situated, or hold it on your back the whole time, that’s fine too.
David: I’m sweating. I’m not used to this. I’m used to California.
Right? OK, so speaking of, how long have you been out here for South By? When did you get in town?
David: A couple days ago I got in on a Greyhound from Dallas. I flew to Dallas and then took a Greyhound down here with like my guitar on my lap, you know, because I didn’t want it to sit underneath with luggage and didn’t want it to sit in the overhead. Cause it’s not like a plane, you know, it’s a bus…
That’s scary.
David: So I’m sitting there with like a book in one hand and a guitar in the other, cramped up, you know, I’m six foot one so it’s uncomfortable. Those Greyhounds are kind of small. But, yeah, I know, it sounds like the beginning of a song. I think it’s got a song in there somewhere. I got into Austin on a Greyhound. And it was late, it was like three hours late, so…
Meredith: So everything was going correctly?
David: You just need to be mellow when you’re touring. You’ve just to realize that, you know, you just got to flex and flow. You get what you get and you don’t throw a fit.
Did you come into the industry with that thought process or did it take a while for you?
David: I don’t know, I guess I’ve been in the “industry” for a long time. I was in a hard rock band for like ten years. I was in garage bands before that through high school, junior high and stuff. Just growing up in L.A., it’s a big market. So I did the whole Sunset thing and touring around the country on an indie label. Then at about thirty, my band kind of dissolved at that time and I had written this EP that was just because I had a baby coming and I went from writing songs about death, and just rock themes, dark and stuff like that. I went in the studio and started writing some about love and stuff I wasn’t really comfortable with before. And when my band dissolved, I was like “well might as well follow this because it is the only thing I have”.
It wasn’t meant for anybody and it was this first EP that I released called Smile. I just went with it because it was the only thing I had. I didn’t have my band anymore and I just had these songs and I just started playing them, people were digging them, buying them. I sing with a girl named Olivia and we kind of did our thing and then we came out with an EP, the duet EP. We were Dave and Olivia for a bit. I did another solo EP called Along the Way that came out in ’14. I’ve just kind of been playing a ton of gigs and stuff since then, writing this new material, recording it, and getting the cash flow up to come out and do something proper with it.
This album we have coming up called Brave Ones is the culmination of all that. It’s eleven songs of love, loss, despair, triumph, you know, everything that’s kind of like the human experience. It’s a lot of relatable stuff. It’s crazy looking at myself as this thirteen year old skateboarder that would jump off rooftops into pools and stuff like that with my garage band and go to like, where I am now. Music’s always been there for me, but it’s changed and it’s grown as humans do. We’re not the same people we were when we were thirteen…
What?!
David: Or even eighteen…
Yeah we are!! (laughs)
David: (laughs) So it’s like, that’s the beauty of life, is kind of accepting those changes and stuff, and just kind of walking kind of gracefully. Fortunately for me, this kind of step that happened six years ago just kind of came at the right time and you just kind of flex and flow with it.
So with your new work, how can you imagine someone listening to it in its’ entirety? With a glass of Scotch sitting by a fire Anchorman style, out with their friends, is there an atmosphere you want to create with this?
David: It’s crazy to picture anybody listening to a complete album anymore…
I know, but I do it. I still do it!
David: That’s why we write these albums and that’s why I am, like, going over and over and over sequencing the songs, because I believe in it. I believe in the story that I’m telling. I believe in a whole vibe of an album. My album’s very round. It has a beginning and it has an end. It has arcs and stuff of a story and it kind of follows this path. I’m a student of songwriting completely so I love the whole story telling. I read Stephen King “On Writing”. I read great writers, I’m a student of it so what do I picture?
I picture somebody driving. It’s kind of like driving music. I think it’s somebody who could be cruising. Maybe like on the 101 in California, or just a long distance where they have…they can just kind of…Did you ever start a drive and you, “OK, I got to my location but I don’t really remember too much of the in between. I was vibing on it, but I just got here.” I want to take people away. I want to have them kind of look at – and relate to – what I’m writing. I think that I’m writing about relatable human experiences.
That’s the great thing about songwriters. Songwriters are, we’re just like you or somebody else that maybe doesn’t play music or something like that, but we just kind of recognize these mundane human experiences. These day to day things and we kind of put them in a song so that you go “Oh I had that same experience” or “I can relate to that” or “I can vibe on that”.
Absolutely. Here’s a quick, off the cuff, question: What’s been your favorite food at South By?
David: I’m staying with my cousins, so my cousin’s chorizo. She makes it like my mom where it’s not too greasy.
Dammit. Makes us all jealous. I’m going to tell people his favorite thing in Austin is this, but you can’t have it, sorry.
David: I really haven’t eaten too much food – I’ve been drinking a ton here. I’ve been kind of hydrating, that’s what I’m doing. Hydrating. So I haven’t been eating a ton of food when I’m playing gigs. It’s tough to eat and play and talk to people, so it kind of gets lost. I’m one of those people where I forget to eat, just in general. I run a lot and I’m almost forced to eat, so that kind of keeps me eating. I forget because I’m just so busy. It’s tough. So being a dad, running, my wife, just everything, I think about myself last in a way because everybody else comes before me.
Meredith: You’ve performed already at South By clearly, you’ve been here a little bit…
David: I’ve done three shows and done some interviews and press and stuff like that and I have two more shows tomorrow. We’re playing at the Westin Rooftop on the 20th floor for Chive TV at 1pm, and then an hour later at 87 Rainey Street.
Meredith: That’s a quick turnaround! You sound fancy!
David: I don’t know if I’m fancy. But I love it!
Keep up with the wonderful David Rosales and his intricate and beautiful musical path here.
