by Jai'Tyria Hatton | Feb 8, 2018 | singles, wolf tracks
Denmark-based Rainbrother – comprised of Bjarke Bendtsen, Aske Fuglsang, Lars Hvelplund, Simon Minke, and Kristian Sejerskilde – is set to release a new album sometime in 2018. While we wait for that gem, they released their new song “Black Chemicals”, which is about the emotions that you feel when you fall in love. The “Black Chemicals” that are addressed in the song are the feelings associated with falling in love or wanting to be loved. The song is saying that love takes on a mind of its own. The black chemicals are like a loose animal that cannot be contained. The strong composition allows the listener to feel all of the emotions that the singer is feeling.
Rainbrother’s “Black Chemicals” is a great song that really sets the tone for what the group is really about and what they stand for.
Rainbrother’s album is set to release later this year. Keep up with them here.
by Jai'Tyria Hatton | Feb 7, 2018 | 5 to 7
Ships Have Sailed is an alternative pop-rock duo hailing from Los Angeles. Today, they released a new single titled “Let’s Just Dance”. Ships Have Sailed also plans on working on more music as 2018, so this is their year for creativity, a fact we found out when we got a chance to speak with them briefly. So check out the new track below, and read on for a little Q&A fun!
After releasing your new single “Let’s Just Dance” what are your next plans music-wise?
2018 is going to be a year of creativity! We’ve spent the last couple years pretty much out on the road, and so this year we’re going to be writing a lot and working in the studio…while we don’t have specific plans on whether that will result in an EP, an Album or more Singles, we do know we’re ready to make some more music.
How has your music evolved since your first EP Someday?
Well I think everything is an evolution, that’s just how life, experiences and time work together, so definitely our music has seen evolution. I would say we’ve become more attuned to our sound and creativity, and definitely my production chops get better and better every year, so while ‘Someday’ is near and dear to my heart, I would say it’s a little rough around the edges…which is great – it gives it its own character, but these days I’m much better at accomplishing exactly what I want sound-wise. With that said, I don’t like to hold us back creatively, so definitely we’re excited to continue to evolve as we continue to create!
Your new single “Let’s Just Dance” digs a little deeper when it comes to exploring human emotions. What do you think causes people to act upon their emotions rather than instincts?
That’s an interesting question…honestly I don’t think emotions and instincts are entirely separate from each other…just kinda different flavors of the same inner mechanism. But as far as leaning towards emotions or instincts, I think emotions often take the reigns because you can actually feel them, whereas instincts can be a bit more subtle, so you really have to pay attention to them.
Why do you think often times as humans we want more than what we already have?
This is something I ponder almost constantly! The honest truth is that I couldn’t dream of knowing the answer to why, but I often wonder if it started out as kind of a survival mechanism back in the very early stages of humanity. Think about it…we were not the top of the food chain, we didn’t have fire, tools, art, language, and over the course of time we developed all of those things…why? I think the progression of civilization (both the good and bad aspects) and technology can stem back to this gut feeling of wanting something ‘better’ …call it motivation or curiosity…regardless of whether this is really how or why this feeling originated, it’s a pretty fascinating topic to think about!
What was the influence behind “Let’s Just Dance” and what inspired it?
Well the idea itself just popped into my head at 2am one night and wouldn’t leave me alone until I sketched it out…it was just the main part of the chorus that kept repeating itself and wouldn’t quit, so I sketched it out really quick so I could get some peace and went to bed. The next day, I listened back and thought it was really good…but I didn’t want it just to be a shallow vapid love song, so I thought I would tie in the “Let’s just dance all night” theme into this fascinating topic of always wanting more that you asked about in your previous question. Through several collaborations including with co-writer Robert Gillies, co-producer Wally Gagel and the extremely talented team (Talkboy TV) who helped create the music video, these themes really developed themselves thoroughly, and the music morphed from something that started out to be a very circular, repetitive idea, to something that goes to all sorts of different places, sometimes unexpectedly…it was really amazing to watch it all come together!
How is “Let’s Just Dance” different from previous songs that you have released?
So, every song is different, but specifically I wanted this one to maintain the indie pop vibe that we’ve become known for, but to add a little edginess and also a bit of a classic vibe as well. People have compared the production to Walk the Moon (who I love, so that’s a huge compliment) but if you listen, you’ll hear a lot of classic influences in there as well…they’re just nicely blended, so I feel like there’s a little more depth to this track than some of our other singles.
What message do you hope people get from “Let’s Just Dance”?
Live your life…be happy, don’t be afraid to stay up a little too late, or have that extra glass of wine. Laugh with the people you love and enjoy every moment…I feel like we’re all distracted by the past and the future, regrets and anxiety and we generally don’t spend enough time in the present. It’s definitely something I personally try to do a little better at each day, month, year…and so, yeah, I think that’s the message behind this one. We’re human, imperfect, and beautiful…we were made to enjoy life moment by moment.
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Keep up with Ships Have Sailed here.
by ImperfectFifth | Feb 5, 2018 | singles, Uncategorized, wolf tracks
2018 is set to be a big year for rising London-based singer/songwriter Freja Frances. With her new single “Papercuts”, Freja Frances displays her effortless vocal talents. The inspiration behind the track is very deep. “Papercuts” is about feeling isolated and being distant from the real world.
Sonically, the song seems like a fairytale dream. Freja pulls at the listener’s emotions with her raw and real vocals alongside a beautiful piano melody. The song is very relatable. “Papercut” is not only captivating, but it is authentic as well.
Keep up with Freja Frances here.
by Jai'Tyria Hatton | Jan 29, 2018 | singles, wolf tracks
The unforgettable Mt. Joy is set to release their self-titled debut album March 2nd. A reunited high school band that consists of Matt Quinn, Sam Cooper, Michael Byrnes, Sotiris Eliopoulous, Jackie Miclau, Mt. Joy’s latest single “Jenny Jenkins” is a song that has its lead vocalist singing with desire in his heart. The song talks about love but is not a rendition of the folk song that has the same name.
In “Jenny Jenkins” the lead vocalist shows his love and appreciation for whoever “Jenny Jenkins” is. The song shows the tenderness and raw emotions of love for his loved one. And it’s built to be a classic, really good down from its acoustic sound to the singer’s soulful voice. “Jenny Jenkins” shows what it is like to truly love and appreciate someone.
Mt. Joy’s album features thirteen original songs that are about many different serious topics. Mt. Joy’s self-titled debut album Mt. Joy will be available March 2nd. Keep up with the band here.
by Jai'Tyria Hatton | Jan 24, 2018 | videos, wolf tracks
New York band The Nectars released the video for their debut single for their upcoming debut album coming out this summer. The single, entitled “Heaven” is The Nectars’ debut. A song about getting rid of all of the negativity of your life, it encourages you to find power and strength within yourself.
The video, which was released January 12th, shows the rawness of the band and is not your typical music video. It is a live performance visual in a room, intimate and fun. The video being recorded like this is a good thing because it shows the band up close and personal. It gives the viewers an opportunity to connect with the music without having a flashy plot line distracting the viewer from what really matters: the music.
“Heaven” music video is shot with a yellow tint to it. The yellow tint is a good thing because it gets the viewer to feel the raw emotions of the video. Throughout the video, you can feel the band’s energy through the screen.
The Nectars are currently working on their debut album which will be released sometime this summer. Keep up with them here.
by Meredith Schneider | Jan 5, 2018 | singles, wolf tracks
Los Angeles-based self-proclaimed “spooky/tribal/blues” artist SPELLES released her first track of 2018 mere hours ago, and we’re big, big fans already. “Light Me On Fire” feels just the way you’d expect, like an old western meets the deepest, darkest emotions you could feel, all wrapped together with these gorgeous, deep, vocals that – at times – are reminiscent of Christina Aguilera.
Like her pseudonym, SPELLES captures you with an almost magical intuition for what will work and make the listener feel like they can absolutely destroy the world. We can’t wait to hear what’s next from this up-and-comer, and what feelings we have yet to experience with her.
SPELLES EP is out now. Keep up with SPELLES here.
by Meredith Schneider | Nov 28, 2017 | 5 to 7
Winston-Salem-bred indie rock/alternative collective Foxture – comprised of Marlon Blackmon (Piano/Keyboard, Vocals), Eddie J Reynolds (Guitar), Andrew Irving (Drums), and Ross Barnes (Bass) – is showing us some pretty incredible chops with the release of their E D E N EP, a sparkling, six track collection that seems to bounce right out of the speakers with its energy. From the very beginning, there is no other way to describe what E D E N does better than to call it “groove-inducing,” as your hips are immediately swaying from the time you push “play.” Smooth percussion blends perfectly with Marlon’s ethereal vocals, and you’re transported to another place entirely.
In honor of the release of E D E N, we got a few words with Marlon, and a couple with Eddie. Check it out below, and let us know what you think of the EP!
What is the first song or album you ever remember hearing, and who introduced it to you?
Marlon: The first album I remember hearing was a Greatest hits compilation by the Temptations. I was very very very young, but they were my dad’s favorite artists collectively. I have always lived at least 25 to 30 minutes away from.
I guess there wasn’t really a striking moment beyond the first impression but after listening to those songs over and over, I began to learn the lyrics and their song “My girl” was the first song I learned lyrics to. From that point on I realized that I liked music, and became curious of what else was out there.
Eddie: Outkast’s song “Roses” from their The Love Below album was the first song I remember hearing. I heard that piano drop and 3 stacks yell out “CAROLINE” , and it changed my view on music with how it’s made and how versatile and unique it can be. My brother actually introduced be to it when I was nothing but a few years old. He pulled out a book of CDs, his full collection and asked me to select one of them, and that album stuck out to me. The second I heard it, my eyes lit up.
What is the Foxture origin story like? Was it a meet-cute?
Marlon: Well, Ross (bass) Eddie (guitar) and Andrew (drums) had already known each other from being in a band called Oceans Apart. I (Marlon, vocals and keyboard/synth) had been posting songs that I had recorded in my bedroom on bandcamp and Soundcloud, and people started contacting me for shows. I was just not interested due to stage fright and more specifically, the fear of not being able to replicate the layering of various parts and sounds from the recordings to a live setting influenced my interest on playing shows. So a few days after I released a solo version of our song “Surrealism” a friend of mine, who had been keeping up with what I had been working on, asked if I would be interested in playing her benefit concert for Louder Than Words, which is a benefit to help kids follow their music related dreams no matter their financial status. I thought about it, said yes, and took to a Facebook group for musicians in the area, and made a post asking if anyone wanted to help me out with full versions of songs that I already have (about 4 or 5 songs at this point). Eddie immediately responded and said, “Yo I have a bassist and a drummer” and we met up for practice and have been a band ever since.
Fast forwarding through the month that we had to prepare and learn all 5 songs, the show itself was the most awkward I have ever felt LOL. It was in this gorgeous concert hall at UNCG, under bright, bright, bright fluorescent lights. This was my first ever show, so I was super awkward and uncomfortable and we messed up pretty bad. But I remember walking fast backstage after that performance, sitting on the floor, and saying, “We need to book more shows.” I refused to let THAT performance define us and wanted to overshadow it so badly.
Your EP Eden dropped recently. If this collection of songs were a Thanksgiving meal item – whether it be an app like fancy cheese, the stuffing or cranberry sauce or turkey, or dessert – what would it be and why?
Marlon: Hmmm, I would have to say, red velvet cake. The icing would be reminiscent to the effects that we put into the album, and when you cut into the, soft, fluffy textures that seemingly melt in your mouth, its very satisfying.
Eddie: Mac & Cheese. Get lost in the gooey and cheesy goodness.
The music you make has always had a lightweight feel to it, but Eden has this almost translucent, otherworldly feel to it. Was this a noticeable and purposeful step in your sound, or did it just kind of happen organically?
Marlon: So, this is the sound that we have been trying to hone in on from the beginning. Emotions and feeling can be very abstract things, therefore we want our music to be as dreamlike as possible. We want people to have no choice but to fall into a lucid, hypnotic sense of thinking, and experiencing our music in general.
Any fun anecdotes from the recording process?
Marlon: We often laugh at the fact that I wrote “Understanding pt. 2” before I met the guys, and way before I wrote “understanding pt. 1”. Before I decided to change the name to Foxture, I recorded solo projects under the name “Lock & Key” and after realizing that a million bands and artists had that same name, I wanted something that was my own, that didn’t exist anywhere else. I liked the way foxes carry themselves in the wilderness, so because “Fox posture” didn’t roll off the tongue how I wanted it to, I merged the 2 words into “Foxture”, and “understanding pt. 2” was the first thing that I posted under that name.
What are you most looking forward to about this release?
Marlon: I felt like whatever the understanding series was going to be, THAT would be the second part of it. There was also a creative challenge of looking back at previous instances that inspired “understanding pt. 2” and trying to connect them for my own development as a person. We tend to understand (HAH) things better in hindsight anyway and, at that time, I was experiencing some serious writer’s block and that was a perfect way to open up and articulate the series more accurately.
With this release, we are looking forward to being able to communicate our vision more effectively and accurately. We are more than happy with this record and we had a lot of fun making it as well. I would say this ep is a perfect setup for a full length album, which we are currently working on.
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And we can’t wait to hear it! E D E N is available now. Keep up with Foxture here.
by Meredith Schneider | Nov 21, 2017 | wolf tracks
Earlier this month, Kentucky-based alternative/indie group Father Mountain – comprised of Travis Cox, Jesse French, Austin Hohiemer, and Zane Martin – released ten track full-length debut Apartment Living. With that title alone, I don’t know a single person who wouldn’t be intrigued to find out if there are shared experiences in the plane of living in actual apartments. Of course, we expected topics to bounce around a little more than that. What we didn’t expect was that the album would make us feel so good.
With vocals laced so thickly with sincerity, Father Mountain completely pulls you into the emotions of every song. “Grey” teaches us not to assume too much about the mood of the track based on its title, while “Sobriety” saunters along in a melancholic sound space. (Slightly as expected.) “Friends” picks up with more of an alt-pop vibe, something that distracts from the self-assessing narrative about the importance of timing and friendship – or otherwise – hitting you when you least expect it. “Grace” exists at just over one minute, discussing the struggle of decision making in relationships, and giving us a line with the word “grey” that feels much more melancholic than the first track. “Hallelujah” has a very distinct Death Cab For Cutie feel to it, winding a narrative about angels and the afterlife, really packing in the religious verbiage and allowing those who attended private school a bit of a leg up when deciphering it.
Keep up with Father Mountain here.
by ImperfectFifth | Nov 8, 2017 | 5 to 7
On December 1st, the debut full-length from
Sunset Neon – the nostalgia pop music project from multi-genre musician and producer Bret Autrey – will be released. His intention with this project was to hone in on 80’s inspired pop sound, a far cry from his work as Blue Stahli. In honor of the release of his new lyric video for “You Are The Sun” – which makes us wish it were about to be summer instead of winter – we spent a few minutes with the artist to get the low down on his process and the eighties.
What is the first song or album you ever remember hearing, and who introduced it to you?
There’s two that stick out. Once was the small window of time that my mom had a record player and would put the soundtrack to Top Gun on. I’d get so amped up on stuff like Dangerzone, I’d just bounce around the entire living room. The other was visiting family on a farm in Oregon and I was running around in a Max Headroom mask. My cousin had just started driving, so she would drive me into town and play Front 242 extremely loud. I’ve been in love with drum machines, synths and samplers ever since.
Was there a moment that it struck you and you realized you were going to pursue music, or did it kind of slowly evolve?
This is really the only thing I know how to do. I’m just lucky enough that I can make a living doing it. The first recording I ever made was when I got ahold of a tape player and blank tape and recorded myself humming the theme to the A-Team. We had a piano in the house that was saved from being taken to the dump by some church. I would plink around and work out melodies on that beat up old thing. Later on I discovered programming music and sequencing chopped up one-shot samples in DOS in the glorious mono 8bit of Scream Tracker. After getting better sound quality in Impulse Tracker I started sampling that old piano, and loading in synth loops I sequenced on a Roland keyboard to warp and twist in weird ways. I absolutely lived for the times I could be messing with programming music in hexadecimal in a DOS tracker or chopping out atmospheres and sound FX recorded in from VHS movies. It’s what I lived for then, and what I have to do now.
Historically, you’ve been a rock musician. When you chose to go into this 80s music project, did you already have an idea for what you were doing or did it kind of develop organically?
With my main project, Blue Stahli, I genre-hop all the way from upbeat funky breakbeat stuff to purely electronic sound design to riff-heavy electronic rock. While doing all this genre-flailing, I would kick out a few nu disco-esque tracks or start leaning towards a more indie pop type of sound. Once the itch for this started lining up even more, it became clear that a lot of these tracks that didn’t really have a home before could all exist under a dedicated project for exploring all the more colorful lo-fi 80s influenced stuff. So I’d say it all reached a point where Sunset Neon *had* to exist.
You were quoted saying “I’m freakishly excited to create some weirdo VHS music.” Could you elaborate on what “weirdo VHS music” is, at least in your opinion?
Some of my favorite things are lost movies or straight to video fare on VHS. The memories of a room lit only by the small screen (in this case, I was watching everything on one of those small portable TV’s hooked up to a clunker of a VCR), and the feeling of the synth scores and lesser known songs that would accompany some of these movies just washed over me. I see the “weirdo VHS music” as Sunset Neonbeing part of the soundtrack to a strange forgotten VHS from 1986 who’s music you love so much you record it to cassette and listen to it until the tape snaps. You’ll hear bits of these songs warp and glitch, sometimes like you’re hearing the process of them being sampled from VHS to an old sampler while the power is flickering.
How was the writing/production process different this time around, creating this “weirdo VHS music?”
This was really all about going back to my roots with tracker music. So just destroying the audio and one shot synth sounds (some of which were made by stacking single cycle waveforms on top of each other and getting all wonky with the layers and filters) and exploring warping stuff with the effects you have to enter in hexadecimal and revel in the fact that all those little bits of information are coming together to form a beat that makes you want to move and evokes emotions. It’s a more stripped down approach, while somehow also being a bit more complicated in other ways.
Everything we’ve heard from your debut album feels like it could be used in a kitchy 80s “throwback” movie (a la Hot Rod) or a fun musical. If you could create anything with this music, what would it be and who would you collaborate with?
Oh hell yes, that is absolutely the intent. It *should* feel like a pure fun jolt of video haze from a guilty pleasure movie you’ve seen 87 times. I would love for this to show up in a movie or tv show (even something animated!) built on the same love for that glow. Stranger Things, Ready Player One, anything that is fully in love with this atmosphere. I have a feeling there are some astounding people who will be creating in this realm that we still have yet to see, and I can’t wait for all of it.
If you could be any character in an 80s movie, who would you choose and why?
A cross between Wolff from Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone for the way he always seemed to know what to do, and Fletch or Axel Foley for always having the perfect string of jokes to accompany getting out of situations in the most hilariously badass way possible.
What are you most looking forward to about this release?
I’m really just excited for this to be out there and connect with people. I do this because I adore it and try to create songs that have an atmosphere you can get lost in, so I hope that these songs serve their emotional purpose for someone out there whether they’re connecting with the more dance-oriented fun material, or the dreamy lo-fi love songs.
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Starlight is available for preorder
now. Keep up with Sunset Neon
here.
