KBPS Interview: Paige Monroe

Paige Monroe is an exciting new pop singer hailing from Portsmouth who has released her debut EP which includes the single ‘Call It Love’, a track she describes as “really pumpy and energetic” with a Kelly Clarkson vibe.

“After we figured out a sound,” she said on the Clarkson comparison, “She was a good person to compare to.”

Putting the single together was a fun experience for Monroe. “I was in the studio for a couple of weeks and doing the EP at the same time. My producer Julian was lovely; he’s really talented and helped with the EP so much.”

Talking about the EP, Monroe selected the closing piano-based track ‘Don’t Break My Fall’ as her favourite on the release. “I like to think it will surprise people as it doesn’t sound like the other songs on the record. The other songs are quite pumpy, and that one’s quite slow.”

The music video for ‘Call It Love’ which is also out now, and you can see it below.

“Everyone on set was really lovely,” Monroe revealed to us. “It was really exciting at first but wasn’t nerve-wracking. It was really cool as it was my first music video. It was a little overwhelming at first but once I got into it it went really professionally.”

Paige Monroe has recently done some support sets for acts, and she has two distinct styles of sound, whether she’s going acoustic or not, with a balance between the big band sound “which gets everyone going” and the more intimate stripped back sessions.

“I’ve just done a gig with James TW, who’s a really good musician. His fans are amazing and they really loved my set. They’ve gone crazy all over my Twitter.”

Last year Paige Monroe did a series of acoustic videos called the Monroe Sessions and she’s expanded on that concept in 2016. “Right now I’m doing little ones in my bathroom just to give people the opportunity to hear my voice instead of music as well so they can get to hear my voice.

“In the near future we’re going to do a different type of session as well but I won’t tell you too much!”

We asked Paige how she picks the songs for covers, and she says it’s for either ones that are currently popular or ones her fans have requested.

Delving into her past, Paige has always had a passion for music since she was very young but has recently expanded into song-writing. “I was thrown into a writing session by my manager just to test me, and it turns out I can write songs and it just went from there.”

Since then Paige Monroe has been writing with a range of exciting writers, including James Birt, Jamie Sellers, Paul Burton and Sam McCarthy. “It’s great working with so many interesting people; if you work too much by yourself everything is just from one opinion or one sound, so when you work with other people it’s a good chance to merge the two brains and you can create a new flavour!”

Looking to the future, Paige has a few festivals lined up, with further writing sessions planned. “I like keeping a constant flow; always keeping myself busy and releasing new music for people, and just keep doing it!”

Ambitions for the year include playing more headline gigs and starting on a new record by the new year.

Finally, Paige Monroe is very active on social media, particularly recently when following Eurovision. “I love it! Every year me and my grandma sit down to watch it and commentate on it!

“I really wanted Australia to win as the singer and song were amazing,” she told us, responding to the controversy of their inclusion, “But my Eurovision fan side was angry because having Eurovision including Australia doesn’t work, which is a shame as they’re really good.”

Though a fan of the show, Paige was less keen about maybe singing in the competition in the future. “No, it’s not for me. I’m better at watching it!”

Find more about Paige on Facebook and Twitter.

KBPS Interview: whenyoung

whenyoung are a London-based band who have just released their debut single ‘See How They Run’, a track Andrew from the band describes their two-minute long debut as “short and punchy.”

“We wanted to start our debut single with a bang; it’s quite loud and brash and that’s how we want to start out! We’ve got a bunch of songs with different styles and melodies but [See How They Run] is what we’re going for with this.”

But how does this single, which has been receiving a great reaction online, compare to their catalogue. “It’s a good taster of what we’re about. I wouldn’t say you could categorise us with one song but it’s a taste of what we’re about and what’s to come.”

There is also a video for the song which you can see below. “We didn’t really have a budget so it was a case of seeing what we could do, calling up some friends and having some fun with it. We wanted to take certain elements of the song and recreate them in an interesting video format that keeps you entertained.”

Whenyoung are playing their first show next month and are building up to that now. “We’ve had interested blogs, lots of interviews. General feedback has been really good about it. It’s rare that a band starts off and is determined to release a song that’s two minutes long and in your face.

“I think bands are too nice these days!”

Working on their live show, Andrew says their sound will be intense. “We want to justify the songs live and even make them even better live, and we’re working hard on that.”

The band are set to play Brighton’s The Great Escape later this month and then a show in London on the final day of May. And what are their plans for after that?

“In the last six months we’ve been working hard at the actual recordings so we’ve got a lot of songs under our belt. As soon as we get this one out there and people start hearing it and we do some live shows it’s straight onto the next one.

“You’ll be definitely hearing more of us!”, promising a release of more songs. “If we get a couple of our live dates done and dusted we’ll know more about where we’re standing!”

Looking even further ahead Andrew would love the band to be on a support tour “to get out there and play a lot of live shows and really get to show people what we can do.

“As a musician it’s great to be able to play, record and rehearse your own music but when people take it on board and enjoy it it really makes the difference and that’s what it’s all about.”

Find whenyoung on Facebook and Twitter.

KBPS Interview: Eddie Prové

Eddie Prové is a musician from Reading and he’s just released his ‘Silent Love’ EP and I spoke to him about the release, the new single ‘Never Cared’ which he describes as a ‘soulful, pop song’.

“I tried to keep it quite simple structurally, to really put the lyrics across for that song. It’s very piano based, focus on the piano and vocals”.

Alongside this song Prové has also created a video for song ‘Love For A Day’ which will be out in a few weeks having been teased last week online. He has also been on the live circuit including a recent performance at Live at Leeds, a show he described as excellent.

“I’ve never been to Leeds or played live there either. A great crowd came along as it was a mixture between local bands and artists from around the country. It was a great kind of festival, a good turnout and everyone was in a great mood and it went really well.”

Eddie Prové is currently planning further dates after an upcoming one in Brighton and will be revealing more information soon online.

When he’s not playing music, Eddie is a keen golfer. “I like to get out on the course if I get a free moment. It’s a nice way to relax and get out into the sun. I’m not very good but I guess that’s why I keep playing, I just need to get better!”

Keen on social media promotion, Eddie loves interacting with his fans, and he’s also busy planning his next steps and promoting his EP through his social media. “We’re hoping to release a second EP by the end of the year.”

Looking ahead to the future, Eddie will be concentrating on this new extended play once the dust has settled on his latest release. “I’ve already got a lot of the songs that I’m thinking for the second EP, writing and recording them at the moment, trying to get ahead of ourselves. And also get some nice summer live shows going and making an impact with them and keeping the momentum going into the next year.”

Find Eddie Prové on Facebook and on Twitter.

One (Euro)vision

Record Store Day. What a washout. I had intended to write this month’s piece on it. Well, I queued for 2 hours to get into the store and found that the pieces I had intended to buy (Christopher Lee’s albums) weren’t even due to arrive until the following week – defeating the point of Record Store Day surely.

Still, there’s one big topic to talk about this month; the grand final comes too late but the palaver around it and the semi-finals are still entertainment enough, and ripe ground for mockery. It is of course the national joke that is Eurovision; the place where I got to know the later Sir Terry Wogan for his merciless barbs, a trend that Graham Norton has thankfully continued. 

And really, how can you not mock something that this year has had Australia continuing to enter, and getting into a dispute with the rules over whether facetime is an acceptable song lyric (it is as it turns out) and saw the British entry fight tooth and nail to be able to fly the Welsh flag (being from Wales) as the red dragon was seen as being a political statement and featured alongside the ISIS flag on the banned list.

So, the first semi-final; opened up with last year’s winner supported by a band of oompa-loompas throwing dance moves right out of 2005; no more really needs be said about how ridiculous it looked, and that’s not even the actual show underway – that began with Sweden welcoming Europe, for the intro of Final Countdown to start playing (and how we all wish it was the final countdown already on the songs with enough cheese in them to keep Wallace busy for the next few years).

As for the first semi-final: 
Finland were supposed to have a suede moose costume. I didn’t notice it first time, but the fact that I went back to watch again says a lot about how ridiculous they were. Greece sang about a rising sun and a utopian land, which just sounds like the Golden Dawn have abandoned running for parliament on a neo-Nazi ticket to just pen some sort of catchy tunes. Moldova were only notable for their failed Daft Punk hopeful – it’s robots not astronauts, read the memo next time.

Hungary and Holland put in professional performances with little spectacle; do they not know what this is about? At least Croatia understood, dressing their act in what appeared to be tinfoil and some feather rugs under a curtain while San Marino entered a background character from the Godfather and some leftovers from Star Trek to take the can’t be arsed award. 
Cyprus, decent song aside, seemed confused as to where they are: Eurovision isn’t a place for serious rock bands, and the amount of cages seemed more suited to an S&M dungeon than on a stage – somewhere Estonia’s entry seemed to want to take you judging by their appearance; there’s a line where come hither eyes become the stare of a creep with a windowless van and burlap sack outside. They crossed it and then some.
And the yearly surprise early elimination – that goes to Iceland. Possibly because of the Lovecraftian nightmare of ghostly hands, shadow monsters, Slenderman and Alfred Hitchcock’s Birds shadow play going on behind her; I wouldn’t vote to see that again. 
The second semi-final topped the first for the ridiculousness of the intro; a forced, hackneyed series of references that just made me think of an old radio show: And Be Done With It (Just the intro tune before the ed. changes anything).

There were more interesting costumes to come – Switzerlands flaming arm-pits and blind for a skirt (still the best thing about their act) and Polands Sargent Pepper knock-off with the supply teacher goatee – for such a brightly coloured jacket it shocks me that the colour of his life was a very grey beige judging by the tedium of the song. 

Worse still was the Israeli act – glittery fingerless gloves and a haircut that made it look like A Flock of Seagulls had been chucked through the American shop Hot Topic, with a complete misunderstanding of the vetruvian man works. It made the Belarussian CGI wolf guitarist, and the brief duet between Benjen Stark and Dr Manhattan look normal, and that’s not something I ever expected to say (although given he was supposed to be naked with real wolves, I think we still dodged a bullet).
It’s easy to poke fun at the rubbish acts, but Ireland definitely deserve it – like they tried to convince westlife to come back but couldn’t, so just threw together some lookalikes from down the pub, as opposed to the Macedonia act, who had clearly just come from the pub, screaming as she was for a doner, doner, doner (kebab).

While I could ask why Australia are taking part (it’s genuinely baffling), what is even more baffling is why she was wearing a strip of diamond encrusted wallpaper as a sash across her shoulder; proper Kanye West level of dress sense going on there. It wasn’t even the worst costume though – that goes to Bulgaria, who dressed herself in strips of reflective vest, creating shoulder armour, leg braces and a single ear-ring out of it – presumably to make the haircut the least stupid thing about her.

The final thing to note was the over use of lighting, particularly by the soviet bloc – Ukraine payed 20 grand for their lighting, while Georgia decided that raves were just too non-eventful, blinding everyone. Possibly to disguise the fact that their entry was Josh Widdicombe in a hat stolen from Pharrell Williams.

KBPS Interview: Malin

Originally from Northern Ireland, Malin headed over to live in America to live the dream in Nashville and one of the results of this time was single ‘Not About You’. I spoke to Malin as he was recording in a studio in America with some friends on a new project to ask him about the single. “It’s going great. We’ve finished basic tracking and we’re adding the overdubs and harmonies and all the good stuff.”

‘Not About You’ is a rock-pop based track based primarily around the electric guitar, riff and drum beat.

“[With] the main hook, I thought I’d heard it somewhere before. It was one of those paranoia checks. It’s ‘Not all these songs are about you, only the best ones are’ and I kept playing on that and I was convinced I’d heard it somewhere before but after Googling it I realised I hadn’t so I ended up finishing it up.”

The accompanying video, which sees Malin performing in a band stand in Battersea Park whilst an unconventional love story takes place around him, is a favourite here at KBPS. It also features an unscripted appearance by some dogs from the local dog’s home!

“The director of the video put out some ideas along with a few others competing for the job, and we liked the way the story overlapped with the busking in the park.”
The basic tracking for the song was done in Wisconsin, before Malin flew to Nashville to finish the mix, a time he describes as “phenomenal”.

“You’re soaking up the history and all the experience and talent in that town; it’s just amazing.”

Malin has also been recording more music, and his latest work has been mixed and mastered. “We’re adding a few UK mixes and then we’ll put that together as an EP. We’ve got more stuff in reverse for a second EP or to combine them into a record in the fall. Hopefully we’ll be touring for that in the summer!”

A fan of Crowded House and Squeeze, Malin describes them as the band’s who release songs you’d wish you’d written. “Once you start digging inside them and learning them, whether it’s the melody, the vocal delivery of Neil Finn (of Crowded House) or certainly with Squeeze I’m amazed how within one verse they can squeeze in some sneaky chord changes for the second verse, adding a little more depth to the music, and the writing is always inspiring to me!”

Malin takes his stage name from the area of water near Northern Ireland used in the shipping forecast. “I always find myself separated from Ireland and the UK by the sea and it’s always there and certainly growing up that was a word that was always floating around.

“When I began writing more original music I was always looking for twists and hooks, not just musically of course, in the lyrics as well. One of the things is that Malin Head itself is the most northerly part of Ireland, but it’s technically in the South but it’s more North than Northern Ireland and it’s west of where I grew up so it’s got most of the parts of the compass in there.

“If there was a perfect lyric to capture that, I haven’t found it yet, but it’s a perfect analogy for what I’m looking for!”

Alongside his recording Malin has also been planning some unplugged sets. Malin told us his live set changes depending on who he’s gigging with, sometimes with the full band, sometimes just acoustic. “I wouldn’t quite say Simon and Garfunkel but we interpreted some of the songs as a duo. For the summer I’d like to do it with the whole band.”

And what’s Malin’s big ambition for the rest of the year?

“Just getting out there and getting [my music] known and increasing the reach. It’s nice that people who haven’t actually seen me first hand and asking me when I’m coming and when they can see me play live. I guess a goal for this year would be to have four or five significant shows, perhaps opening for larger acts alongside shows of my own.”

This interview will feature in KBPS #9 available Saturday 14th May.

KBPS Interview: Matthew Logan Vasquez

Matthew Logan Vasquez is a rock and roll artist from Texas and we caught up with him as he finished the sound check at his latest gig in the UK to talk to him about his new single ‘I Bet It All’. A solo track that is influenced by various artists including the Beatles, Vasquez has also worked as part of groups Delta Spirit and Middle Brother, and we asked him what it was like going solo.

“The comparison would be that now I get to call all the shots and have all the fun!”
On his new EP, which is out now, Vasquez recorded all the music, a process he described as a “blast”.

“It shows what I can do in the studio and kind of finish the material where the band would usually take over, but now I have the ability and the desire to finish the ideas. I’m really happy with the result.”

Working with The Night Sweats at live gigs, Vasquez described his live sound “like one thousand naked virgins coming together for one magical moment for the first time. Everybody’s been waiting for it, and it has finally happened and it’s insane to watch. The people in the crowd weren’t expecting that many naked people in the positions they find themselves in!”

Matthew Logan Vasquez is now touring in the USA. “All my fans back in the US are really excited to have me back and I’m excited to get back and kick them in their teeth!”

Looking ahead for the rest of the year, what is Vasquez’s key ambition for 2016?

“I’m going to tackle world peace this year. It’s not easy finding a thousand virgins every night but I think we’re going to beat ISIS. Tonight might be the night. World peace is in hand!”  

This interview will feature in KBPS #9 available Saturday 14th May.

KBPS Interview: Mavrick

Mavrick is an exciting new musician from Stockholm in Sweden and we spoke to him around the release of his new single ‘Funeral’ which he describes as a “chaotic, pop-song.”

“I think the melody is very poppy to me, and then I tried to mix it into a landscape of heavy bass and drums that are not as poppy.”

As well as making the music Mavrick also works on the production side of things, hoping to make something that has not been done before. “I like to mix different influences and not make it boring. I hate boring stuff!

“I want the listener to think it’s interesting and something new.”

Taking inspiration from gospel and one of his favourite bands ‘Rage Against the Machine’, Mavrick is also a big fan of Prince and he told me about his love of the artist in the interview, which was conducted before the sad death of the singer last month.

“I’m trying to stay away from Prince when it comes to making music as he’s a God and I’m not. I’m never going to be able to be as good.

“I listen to almost anything and mix in what feels good at that moment.”

Mavrick is currently working on his debut album, which is due to be released in August or September with one more single before then in May, and the process is going well and has almost been completed aside from a couple of finishing touches.

“I have to let go at some point. It’s never going to be 100% finished according to me but I have to release it so I have to let it go, but it’s 98% done.

“I’m eager to release it!”

Mavrick has also been gigging live recently including a performance in Oslo at a showcase-style festival called By:Larm. “That’s been one of my goals this year because it’s one of the festivals in the Nordic countries that I like the most. There were a lot of people there, more than I expected. It was really fun!”

Further live dates are planned for Mavrick in the summer.

Mavrick has also enjoyed success recently with Spotify highlighting him as an act as part of their ‘Spotlight’ pieces, and that service is something Mavrick enjoys when he’s not playing off vinyl, something he’s passionate about.

With Mavrick’s big ambition for the year to release his album things are looking great for the artist. “I’d also like to get on the road and win people over. At the moment I’ve only released two songs so it’s not that easy for people to see the whole picture of my sound, but I have big ambitions to take over the world!

“Maybe I have to be a little more patient for that, but my ambition is always high. When I’m making music I think it’s the best music in the world, Kanye West style, thinking I’m the best! I’m more low key though when I’m in the studio but I have high ambitions for everything!”

This interview will feature in KBPS #9 available Saturday 14th May.

KBPS Interview: Rex Domino

Rex Domino – Transcription

Based in Portsmouth, Rex Domino is a spoken word electro-poetry artist with a new EP coming out this month called ‘God’s Teeth’. We caught up with the lyricist fresh from a visit to the Tate Modern to chat about his single and his music, starting with the EP with the three tracks on it described by him as having a sombre and dystopian tone.

“The words themselves are quite bleak and yearning but the music paints a kind of cinematic landscape behind that, quite electronic and glitchy. It’s somewhere poetry and EDM.”

Described as part-MC, part-poet, part spoken word artist, Domino was more open about himself. “I’ll be whatever the person wants me to be. I’ll wear whatever hat sits at the time.

“I’m very much interested in doing hip-hop things, or grime things. I enjoy the intimacy of the spoken word where people can latch onto the words.”

The message behind the lyrics is also important for Rex Domino. “It’s important to say something. It need not be political, not necessarily all that clear, but something sincere or honest. Something that will get a point across rather than being for its own sake.

“We’re in a time where you can draw parallels to the Thatcher era and the punk music that was coming out back then, but I think because everyone is so self-absorbed in this realm of digital narcissism there’s less of that rebellious spirit. But I think we’re seeing more of that in the emergence of grime; music that has an aggressive, anti-social message becoming cooler, which I think is only a good thing.

“There’s certainly an appetite for music that’s got some substance to it.”

A video has been made for ‘Sam’s Spoon’ taking from the EP, with Rex positive about the creation of it, which was made with support from his collaborators Stanky and Polar Kid.

“They took their glitchy audio techniques and conveyed them into the aesthetics. [The video] is proper dark, proper twisted, proper obscure. The vibe I was trying to get was like a broken scanner; like a digital purgatory, the bit between the buffer where everything is messed up.

“[The video] emphasises the darkness and the strangeness,” he told us as we discussed the visual side of his work complimenting his music before we moved onto talking about his future gigs.

“[My set] is essentially live electronic stuff; we work with a tape machine; we like to keep it all weird and organic and I run my vocals through some effects. It’s all about that electronic performance. It’s just me and the two producers!”

Coming up for Rex Domino looks to be more work with his producers and he looks forward to more collaborations and developments as an artist. “Writing more things, coming up with new angles of ways of explaining my thoughts and such. Keeping on writing, and pushing for an album sometime next year!”

And for other ambitions? “I find ambition can be dangerous. I just want to really enjoy the things we are doing and continue to build something. I want to make a really sincere, affecting project and push it as far as we can.

“Play to as many people as possible, get the song heard by as many people as possible, all whilst maintaining a modicum of obscure integrity!”

Find Rex Domino on Facebook and Twitter.

KBPS Interview: Will Joseph Cook

Will Joseph Cook is an incredible new singer-songwriter from Tunbridge Wells who has followed up his ‘Proof Enough’ EP with the incredibly catchy song ‘Girls Like Me’, and we were lucky enough to get him to answer a few of our questions, such as whether the song was inspired by his own experience.

“Yeah, it’s about the mandatory turbulence nearly all young relationships go through. It’s something I experienced but fortunately it isn’t unique to me so it makes for a good pop song.”

‘Girls Like Me’ has just been playlisted on Radio 1, something that Cook told us is “great”.

“Being embraced by any platform that gets the music out to that amount of people is amazing.”

Alongside the catchy song there is a bright, funky video to go with it that sees the singer take on a rather intriguing split role in the speed-dating themed promo.

“At first I was taken aback by the reality of people working on and bringing my dumb idea into fruition. It was my first video and first time doing any degree of acting on camera. I enjoyed it a lot, essentially my job for a weekend was to dance and wear girl’s clothes so no complaints.”

With the single now getting plenty of air-play Will Joseph Cook is preparing for a series of live dates. Cook describes his show as “very energetic”.

“There’s four of us and we like dancers at our shows. This summer is gonna be a gas, we’re bringing our A game.”

His new live dates come on the back of a set down the road from KBPS HQ at ‘Live At Leeds’.

“Leeds was great, compared to playing similar festivals last year it was weird to see a crowd that hadn’t walked in by chance and knew the words. It was a shame that we didn’t have more time to see the city as I had never been before. That said, we came pretty close to staying another night as our tour van died!”

Cook has also been performing further afield such as the famous SXSW festival. 

“It’s definitely been the highlight of the year so far. SXSW is on another level though. There’s more going on there than I thought was possible, literally a live band in every building.”

Looking ahead to the rest of the year, Cook told us that he’s just finished recording his debut album though there isn’t a set release date yet. “It’s looking like the end of the summer. Another single and video is up next so that’s what I’m working on putting together at the moment.”

And what about any big ambitions for 2016?

“Play more shows around the world. I would love to do more European and American dates. I also desperately want to play in Japan so I’m gonna try and make that happen. Also, to make a really great collaborative track/project but we shall see.”

This interview will feature in KBPS #9 available Saturday 14th May.

KBPS Interview: Clare Teal

As her Facebook page declares, Yorkshire born Clare Teal is one of the most successful Female British jazz singers in decades with a string of albums behind her, including the UK National Top 20 hit "Don't Talk". As well as being an incredible singer she’s also an acclaimed radio DJ and in May is performing with her trio at a variety of dates including Victoria Hall in Settle, her third visit to the area musically, in support of her latest album ‘Twelve o’clock Tales’. I spoke to her ahead of this show about it and she confessed her love for the theatre, and especially when it’s local as she hails originally from Skipton.

“I’m very fond of Settle. It’s a lovely place with some nice pubs and places to eat and that beautiful hall which has been renovated and looked after by such a great team.”

Her new album, Twelve o’clock Tales, is a collaboration with the Hallé orchestra, with their impressive 93 musicians appearing on the record. “Obviously,” Clare told us, “I won’t be bringing all of those to Settle but generally when I’m not working with orchestras or big bands I work with my trio.”

What was working with the Hallé orchestra like? In one word from Clare it was ‘Amazing’.

“I get to work with orchestras up and down the land but the Hallé are a very wonderful bunch of people. It was last June and we’d done a couple of concerts together and I was having a beer in the bar with the conductor Stephen Bell and happened to mention about recording with them. It’s taken about ten months and I never thought it would happen but we made it a reality.

“You take it for granted that orchestras are going to be amazing musicians but you don’t always take it for granted that they’ll be thoroughly nice people but these lot are! They were so accommodating and lovely.” 

Clare has been working with the trio for around a decade and said it was always fun to work with them, both on and off stage.

“We cover as many bases as is earthly possible. We have fantastic musicians. It’s a mixture of all sorts of jazz, it’s just that I’m interested in the record centred around really great songs that were originally made famous by the likes of Ella Fitzgerald, Peggy Lee, and Doris Day, but we also do more contemporary material such as Sting and Van Morrison, and a few originals as well.

“It’s probably because I’ve got the attention span of a goldfish that we keep changing what we’re doing.”

The album ‘Twelve o’clock Tales’ takes its name from a track called ‘Lush Life’, originally by Billy Strayhorn, which appears on the album. “Guy Barker, a good friend who is behind a lot of the arrangements on the album as well as being a world class trumpeter in his own right, is [like me] a big Strayhorn fan.”

Though not a hugely well-known name now, Strayhorn was the right-hand man of famous musician Duke Ellington. “He wrote a lot of Ellington’s greatest works and no one really knew who wrote because Billy could write in the style of Ellington effortlessly but he wrote ‘Lush Life’ when he was sixteen years old and it’s probably on every jazz singer’s list as it’s very difficult to sing.

“It seemed a good nod to his genius to call the album that.”

Clare talked passionately about her love for Doris Day and the eagerness for her and her trio to take requests for the audience and see if they can play them. “That’s the great thing about working with jazz musicians is that they can generally do whatever you want in whatever key you want so it doesn’t take too long to get it off and running!”

In terms of her musical hero, Clare Teal confirmed it would be Ella Fitzgerald. “Of all the singers I listen to I always come back to her as she has this extraordinary tone of voice, this wonderful instrument, of many octaves. She could sing absolutely anything. But it is the joy that she puts in her music that we get out of it and that’s what I try to do in every single song we perform, to make people feel good.”

We asked Clare about how her work on radio has influenced her music taste. “I’ve been working for Radio 2 for about twelve years or so now, and my Big Band Show was always pre-recorded and scripted, so when it was extended by an hour and went live three years ago I finally had the ability to choose what I wanted to play, and this was music I really feel passionate about and I like to play the best music that I can so people realise how exciting this stuff is, and how talented these musicians were and are.

“By having that radio show I have to listen to music every week and sometimes when you’re on the rod you’re so focussed on what you’re doing yourself you don’t have time to listen to what other people are doing, and you forget how important music is for your general well-being. You need it in your life, it helps you feel good, and express your emotions. It can lock down your memories; it’s pretty magical stuff!

“Taking time out to listen to music can only make you a more fun person to live with!”

Get your tickets for the event on Thursday 26th May at http://www.settlevictoriahall.org.uk/prog/2016/may_teal.html

This interview will feature in KBPS #9 available Saturday 14th May.

KBPS Interview: Dead Love Fear Wave

Paul Eaton and Jim Spencer make up ‘DeadLoveFearWave’, an experimental duo from Manchester. As they release their debut single ‘Don’t Exist’ we spoke to Paul about the experimental indie-electronic track, inspired by the music Paul listens to.

“I’ve always been into guitar music mainly; indie-rock, alternative, sort of Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, but I’ve always liked electronic music. This is my first foray into making it but I have always had a good appreciation for electronic music.”

Producer Jim Spencer has worked with previous projects of Paul’s but this time it was a little different. “We’d never done something as collaborative as this. Jim had moved into new studios which was full of vintage equipment and interesting gear so it was about trying out new sounds and experimenting so we weren’t going into the studio with a complete track and laying it down, it was more just doing it piece-by-piece, building it up as we went.”

Paul uses a sketchbook to capture his ideas for future reference to help compose new material. “My iPhone is [also] full of things I’ve recorded. For a project like this, it’s where it all came from, pulling bits of ideas together. Instead of sitting down with the idea of writing a traditional song – verse, bridge, chorus – it’s more about an atmosphere.”

A video for the single will be launching by the end of the week, the visual side being important to Paul as well, keeping though within their budget. “This track in particular has got quite a narrative behind it so we wanted to get that across in the video. It’s cool what we’ve done.”

As well as recording his own songs, Paul also composes songs for other people. “I just like writing,” he told us. “I like hearing what other people do with something I’ve written. It’s something I’ve always enjoyed doing. I’ve never really struggled writing, and I do like writing in different styles, not gutting stuck to one thing. I like to try different things; keep it interesting!”

Paul confesses that this allows him to keep fresh as a musician, and not be pigeonholed, something which has happened in the past. “Jim has produced all sorts of different people, but never really had the creative freedom to work on a project like this where there’s no limit on what we could do with it.”

Following the single will be an album out this summer, an album which is already well underway. “After that we’ll see; we’ve got a lot of material and there’ll be another single following this up.”

Looking ahead Paul is exploring about how they take DeadLoveFearWave into a live environment. “It’s a complex studio arrangement [but] we’ve got some really good musicians who are joining us to bring it live and we’re exciting about that, but again it’s not something we planned at the start of the project.

“We’re playing at the Alternative Escape in Brighton [soon] so that’ll be our live performance but then we’ll be taking on more shows later in the year which will be cool!”

Find them on Facebook and Twitter.

KBPS Interview: Nzilani

Nzilani Francq is an exciting new 20-year-old singer who has released the incredible new single ‘Never Be’, and we got a chance to speak to the London-based singer about the record, which he describes as a song reacting to the artist she’s been compared to musically.

“I’d describe it as a coming together of an emotion that a lot of artists feel and that I went through. It was a great way of expressing that.”

Nzilani described the recording process as fantastic. “I came over to London in November. I basically spent a week in the studio recording and it was an amazing experience.”

Next week Nzilani is shooting the promotional video for the record but is keeping the promotional video under wraps for the moment. Looking ahead to the future, an album from Nzilani is already in the works.

“The album’s coming out in June, hopefully. Exciting stuff is definitely coming this year!”

Nzilani lived in Switzerland for eight years and has only just returned to the UK. “It’s very disorientating going from one country where you can travel for half an hour and be in a different city to one where you can do the same and be only five miles away!

“It’s very different but it’s nice to have a change of pace, to do something different once in a while, and keep things fresh.”

Later in the year Nzilani hopes you have some live gigs coming up though there’s nothing confirmed at the moment. “It sounds incredibly cheesy,” she said talking ambition further ambitions for 2016; “But anything I can do for my art, that helps that, is beneficial. For me that’s just up there. It’s everything I’ve wanted to do for a while!”

And alongside music there’s always a chance for her to expand into acting, having previously voiced a character in two episodes of Peppa Pig. “[It was] the character of Delphine Donkey,” she revealed. “Acting has always been a big love of mine. I’ve done musical theatre so I’ve been acting and singing since the age of four! It’s something in my blood that I love doing and am passionate about.”

Nzilani on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Click here to listen to her single.

KBPS Interview: Bare Knuckle Parade

Jamie Beale, Tom Cory, Callum Moloney, Ben Lythe and Huey Smith make up Bath-based indie folk-rock quarter ‘Bare Knuckle Parade’ who describe themselves online as specialising in ‘Sweat drenched, beer soaked pandemonium.’

We spoke to lead vocalist Jamie, keyboardist Ben and guitarist Tom around the release of their latest single ‘Diamond Eyes’, which was proceeded by a debut live stream on Facebook. “That was a great way of reaching a bunch of people,” they told us. “We’re definitely planning on doing it again from the back of a van at some point. It’ll be horrible but we’ll love it!”

Diamond Eyes is a single packed with harmonies, loud choruses, massive guitars and hard-hitting drums. “These are the kind of things we do best. It’s our first single in quite a while. We recorded that single and an entire album over a 24-hour period in a studio in Devon. That song made the album recording possible so it’s a special one for us.”

The band said that recording the album in such a short time period was surprisingly funny. “To be honest it’s a bit of a blur. We were up all night, so when we got to 5am we were pretty much just fuelled by coffee! The conversations went really weird and deteriorate, and went more mental as we did take after take after take. There’s actually some recordings of us abruptly finishing a conversation, doing a take, and picking up the conversation where we left off!”

Single ‘Diamond Eyes’ is pretty reflective of the band’s sound, and the track was chosen as the lead single for this reason. “It’s got the pop style, the instrumentation, the walls of guitars, the raspiness and the energy we like to give every time we play.
“The whole album was recorded live so it kind of represents what you’ll hear from us when you see us live. What you hear on the album is what you get live, it’s all kind of natural.”

The promotional video, which was recorded in the same studio as the music, and is available to watch online now. “The studio has nice looking rooms so it seemed the obvious place to record it.”

Hailing from Bath, I was keen to find out what the city is like to live in as a band. “It’s a very creative city; there’s lots of art stuff going on with film and music, so there’s a good community of small venues. It’s great for interacting with people, and we get lots of tourists so we go out and busk on the streets for a couple of hours and play to people from pretty much every country.”
The band use busking as a way of building their fan base. “Us making as much noise as we possibly can attracts people. From that some pay to go to our actual gigs. We’ve made quite a lot of fans through doing that. We haven’t done it for a while but I’m sure we’ll go back to it.”

We spoke to the band ahead of their April tour and rehearsals were going well, and we were also intrigued by their graphic design skills with the map they’d created to help them get around.

“I think it was worth it. The sat nav needed to go, as other things needed to be purchased. We used to have a sat nav that we called Eugene and he always led us in quite horrible directions and one day decided not to work altogether, so since then we’ve been designing our own maps from vague memories of what the UK looks like. It works really well until we have to cut through a couple of lakes or something on the way to a gig, but we usually dry off with a couple of towels!

“Someone actually commented that Cornwall is finally bigger than Devon [on our map] so we might have started some arguments about the borders of certain counties!”

So where is it now for the Black Knuckle Parade? What’s their big ambition for the year?

“Seven Christmas number ones! Different songs for Christmas number ones! It’d be about the joys of Christmas, and touring around Christmas, basically things that aren’t very Christmas related, but we’d give it a good shot either way.

“[Seriously though] our real goal will be tour around the country as much as possible, keep playing, keep on writing. Always writing, always playing, always making noise! The Christmas number ones can wait a little longer!”

Bare Knuckle Parade are due to play the Camden Rocks Festival in June.
This interview will feature in KBPS #9 available Saturday 14th May.

KBPS Interview: The Manor

The Manor are a 3-piece hip-hop act from South London who have recently released their new single ‘Don’t Like Going Places’ and we got to speak to Johnny from the trio, who had been up for thirty-six hours at the time ahead of the single’s release working and in the studio. Johnny and the rest of the Manor had been working at Relentless Studios for the three days prior to the interview, with things going well for them.

“We’re getting together our new album. We’ve got about twenty-five half-finished tracks at the moment and we’re just trying to work out which ones we’re going to put out on the album, which will be out later this year.

“We’ve got so much new production. We’ve been back in the studio with Yanaku, who produced a lot of the songs on the last album and we’re just trying to tidy things up, and luckily Relentless, the energy drink, have given us a fair bit of studio time to get things done, so it’s been very productive!”

With the energy drink helping keep the band awake for their recording sessions and other commitments, I was keen to chat to him about their new single.

“It sums up exactly what we’re about. Dan and I, after University, since we started the Manor, haven’t had the money to leave the country but everyone else has been going on holidays. It’s about how to enjoy staying in your local area, with the home comforts. It’s basically celebrating being normal.

“Not everyone’s got money and you almost learn how to accept staying indoors and enjoying the things that don’t cost that much and that represents exactly what our brand is about, which is enjoying the normal things and the less extravagant things in life.”
Reaction to the single has been incredibly positive, with support coming from BBC Radio 1 and 1xtra, including from Toddla T, Huw Stephens, Charlie Sloth and Mistajam.
“Since the video has come out it’s given the song a bit of an identity and it’s had a lot of views. We’ve had lots of interest from people who’ve heard the song.”

Creating the video, which sees the camera slowly tracking through the flat of the band, was a fun experience and a change of direction.

“Normally all of our videos are at house parties and we’re very drunk. [The director Elliot Simpson] has directed all our videos and for this one had a full team and it was planned days ahead. It was done in a day, and it was a lot easier than our normal shoots.”
The Manor had their biggest show yet at the start of April, a sold out gig in London, which had to be moved to the larger room at the O2 Islington Academy as the initial capacity sold out within nine minutes, with the rest selling out within two days.

“We were really overwhelmed with that. We were recording at the time and for the whole day we didn’t get anything done thinking ‘how have we done this?’.”

Challenges in planning the event was choosing the songs from their five years of being together and also sorting out special guests for the gig. “We’ve got so many songs that we love but we picked a set that we all finally agreed on!”

With the London urban and grime scene becoming increasingly popular across the country I was keen to find out Johnny’s thoughts on the genre’s popularity.
“I think it’s now the time that Britain [is making itself known]. We’ve spent so much time looking over to America. We’ve got to the stage that we can accept the good stuff that we produce. With artists like Stormzy, it’s not just the music but it’s the character and people are starting to relate to the grime scene a bit more, it’s more palatable whereas before it was ‘that’s what the poor kids do, this is what we do’.

“Now it’s being a lot of more accessible. It’s just us accepting our national identity and being proud of what we do, and hopefully this will last for a long time and do what they did in America twenty years ago where rap and urban became the pop music and I think we’re ready for it over here now.”

So where are the Manor heading now?

“We’ve got a few things planned. We’ve got a lot of videos from the last album we did that we need to release. We’ve got ‘Creps in the Rave’ which was played on Soccer AM and that’s the upbeat hype song of the album. We’ve got a song that we’ve done in collaboration with Relentless called ‘No Half Measures’ which is like old school Dizzee Rascal-style grime.

“On the album we had a French singer from Nice [so] we’re going to go over [to France] before the Euros start and shoot [videos] two of the French-sounding songs that we had on the album.

“Then we’re going to start thinking about the new album and getting some of the songs and visuals done. We’ve got some festivals coming up including ‘The Great Escape’ and more gigs coming up in late summer.”

With a headline gig planned for the autumn, things are looking incredibly positive for the Manor.

“We’ve always put our foot on the pedal and then eased off, looked around and given ourselves a pat on the back. This time we’re going to go full throttle with it. We’ve got so much material to come out, and it is all getting received well, so let’s just crack on!”

This interview will feature in KBPS #9 available Saturday 14th May.