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INTERVIEW WITH MIESHA AND THE SPANKS

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Calgary heavy rockers Miesha & The Spanks are back with their​ latest release entitled Singles EP. #CMIAE artist Miesha Louie spoke with CMI via email about the record’s origins, adapting from an ever touring live band to releasing music under lockdown, balancing creativity and new motherhood, and exploring what it means to be a “Mixed Blood Girl”.

Q: HOW DID THE SINGLES EP COME ABOUT? 

A: The plan when we started (pre-pandemic) was to have 4-5 standalone singles, more like a compilation record than an album. But then we were interrupted, and suddenly there was this life-changing experience influencing the writing. When the EP should have been finished, more good songs kept popping out of us that fit together and we didn’t want to cut. So, we let more songs sneak on than maybe we would have otherwise, without the pandemic shifting things around.  

We released Singles EP with a series of pre-released singles starting back in July. When we started, we really weren’t sure what was going to happen with touring and festivals or anything. We figured our best move was just to start moving music and getting it out there. When “Unstoppable” came out, we hadn’t even finished recording the EP. The campaign became about radio pitching and music videos instead of tour dates, and even now I don’t think we’ll be on tour for real until next year. It’s been a different release cycle for us!

Q: WHAT MAKES YOU FEEL “UNSTOPPABLE”?

A:  I always feel unstoppable when I’m playing a really kick–butt super tour–tight set. About halfway through a tour, we like to challenge ourselves and play a game where we don’t stop between songs, and we just play the whole set in one go. When we pull that off, we are completely unstoppable.  

Q: WHAT IS SOMETHING THAT YOU’VE LEARNED TO DO IN THE PANDEMIC WHEN YOU “WANNA FEEL GOOD”? 

A:  Throughout lockdown, I’ve really been enjoying walks with my dog down to the river. I live close to Bowmont Park (in Calgary), and down the rocky beach there’s this spot where the Bow River splits, and I don’t know what it is but there are some special vibes there. A lot of my voice memo song ideas come when we’re out there. 

Q: IS THERE A PARTICULAR TRACK YOU’RE MOST PROUD OF ON THIS EP? 

A: “Mixed Blood Girls” took a lot out of me and I’m happy with the music and the lyrics and the production. It’s also connected me with more of my community and that means so much to me and Steve Lamacq played it on BBC6! I had a clean version made, but because there was profanity, I didn’t really expect it to get much airtime. I was wrong! I’m proud that something I made is meaningful to other people while still getting some small critical acclaim.  

I’ve always written personal music and shared mostly from real-life experience, except for this huge part of who I am and where I come from. I’ve always identified as Indigenous, but I’ve never shared what that meant to me, or what my life was like being mixed, or what my relationship was with my culture, community, and family. I guess it was always in the back of my head that I would eventually get there, but when I heard a poem called “Mixedblood Girls” by Rain Prud’Homme, it really inspired me to get writing. Because her poem hit me so hard, it finally resonated with me that maybe my story would connect with someone else as well.

Full interview on Canada’s music incubator.com

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Q&A WITH #CMISUPPORTED SAINT IDIOT

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Full interview on canadasmusicincibator.com

After spending 2020 locked away in his creative space, Saint Idiot (Tomáš Andel) emerges from the incense smoke and potted plants with a new single, “Bubblewrap.” We met this Edmonton-based musician in the first virtual offering of our Artist Entrepreneur program last summer. To celebrate his latest release, we caught up (virtually) to talk about creating in quarantine, personal growth and what to expect next.

Q: “BUBBLEWRAP” IS DESCRIBED AS A “SONG ABOUT HEALTHY ANGER, AND TRUST,” DOES THIS REPRESENT A PARTICULAR TIME IN YOUR LIFE?  

Totally. I used to think I’m not an angry person for a lot of my life, as in, I didn’t express anger in outbursts or aggression, but instead, in this frozen, low-key anxiety that I wasn’t even aware was there; slow poison. I read “Anger: Wisdom for Cooling the Flames” by the Buddhist monk Thích Nhất Hạnh (it peered up at me from a thrift book store shelf at a totally synchronous moment), and it floored me to realize that it’s not that I didn’t get angry, I just wasn’t acknowledging or working with my anger. At the risk of sounding dramatic, this realization completely changed my life, and I’ve been incomparably happier since I decided to let anger into my life to work with it. 

Anger is also a form of trust. You have to really trust the other person to see you, hear you, and consider whatever issue you’re raising, otherwise it just becomes either a volatile explosion of bad energy that doesn’t help anyone or do anything, or this hidden-away festering wound. So how you broach your anger is a real test of character and a real test of boundaries. It’s OK to get angry, it’s unavoidable—what we do with that anger matters more. 

Q: HOW DID 2020 CHANGE YOUR OUTLOOK AS A MUSICIAN? AND IF IT DID, HOW IS THAT REFLECTED IN YOUR MUSIC? 

For me 2020 was about slowing down, indulging in being a little idealistic for the sake of creativity, and taking time to imagine a more harmonious world—especially since it seems like the popular imagination is so fascinated with dystopias lately. A huge component of my album (Alternate Utopias from a Nostalgic Future) was world-making. I think when it’s all out, it’ll be worth it to lie down with it and listen on headphones, because a lot of it was deliberately crafted to transport you. 

I’m already at my happiest when I’m spending endless nights shaping sounds in the studio. I love experimenting with colors, texture, and space, which has always been my favorite part of making music.  

I do like playing live, but given that it’s still unclear when we’ll be able to do that again, I’ve actually been more than happy to double-down on going deeper into being a “studio first” musician.  

Q: TELL US ABOUT SOME OF THE CREATIVES INVOLVED WITH YOUR PROJECT

My friend Doug Parth from The Den and With Dogs helped dial in the orchestral arrangements, and it was then mixed and iterated by Hill Kourkoutis, who added additional production, and carved this gorgeous lifeline through what was probably more of an enthusiastic muddle at that point. Kristian Montano breathed the final magic into it—his masters really deepened all the musical space.  

All along though, I’ve had so much help from everyone around me. Kelsey McMillan, who has done my photos also helped me workshop lyrics, and has often weighed in on the music and the art direction, as has my friend Holly Pickering aka sodium light. Working on my roommate Anthony Goertz’s documentary really humbled me and inspired a lot of the directions I went exploring after, plus he’s a wonderful, bright mind to bounce ideas off of. A very, very cool Twitter-famous visual artist did the album artwork (the only non-Canadian involved), but I wanna save that for later!  

I share my work in progress songs all the time, so I really see the final thing as an accomplishment shared with a pretty huge group of pals. I feel pretty lucky to be surrounded by so many wonderful, receptive people.

Click for the full read.

Featured, interview

Q&A WITH #CMISUPPORTED TAIGENZ VIA CMI

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Hey all, I’ve started doing interviews for work so here is a sneak peak, check out the full read on canadasmusicincubator.com.

“With a new single out, Taigenz, a self-described “North American city boy with a unique African sound”, has utilized the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic to release new music and solidify his brand on social media while the world is at a halt. We caught up with the musician via email to talk about finding joy, inspiration, and the importance of having a sense of self while navigating social media as a musician (especially in quarantine).”

Q: HOW DOES IT FEEL TO RELEASE MUSIC DURING THE THIRD WAVE OF THE PANDEMIC, HOW ARE YOU CONNECTING WITH YOUR AUDIENCE?

A: It feels much better than 1st or 2nd wave. I’ve been connecting with my audience by being more diverse with my online content and developing new ways of relatability outside but still close to music. I didn’t really know where to go after my last project in 2019 (Life Ain’t Free). Add the fact that you can’t perform and everybody is fighting for everyone’s attention online, there was a feeling of “who’s really checking for me?”

Q: WHAT HAS CHANGED FOR YOU AS AN ARTIST DURING THIS PAST YEAR-AND-A-HALF AND HOW IS THAT REFLECTED IN THIS NEW SINGLE?

A: The confidence and self-assurance has been a positive change for me. Not saying I wasn’t confident before, but now it’s gotten at an even higher level thanks to all the new stuff I learned and people I’ve connected with online. And this confidence will be surely be reflected in my new single “Foolish Money”. I want people to hear me and be like “Yeah…that boy ready”.

Q: WHAT BRINGS YOU JOY AND HOW DO YOU INCORPORATE THAT INTO YOUR MUSIC AND BRAND?

A: What brings me joy is the part where inspiration hits me and I get on a creative wave that feels like a high. I don’t have to rush to write or record anything, I just let the idea, the concept, the weird rhymes, unfinished hooks, and simple melodies marinate in my head until I finally see what I need to see mentally and then go “iight, time to put it in writing”. And it’s also fun to think in a different language, cause that opens up a whole new box of punchlines, wordplay, rhyme schemes, etc. That’s what is mostly incorporated in my music and brand. My rhymes, like my content, can switch at any given time from English, to French, to Spanish, and even to pidgin (A West-African dialect).

Click here for the full read.

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Interview: Hockey Dad on what it’s like releasing an album during Quarantine.

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Hockey Dad CREDIT: Ian Laidlaw

The year I first saw Hockey Dad’s, Zach Stephenson, wail into a microphone with closed-eyes and a guitar across his torso, is lost on me, but it’s been an experience I’ve grown used to. Despite their Australian origin, Hockey Dad’s, Billy Fleming (drums) and Stephenson (vocals and guitar) steady stream of tours made them a recognizable name in Toronto’s music scene. It would be easy to credit their name to the Canadian success, but untrue. When they perform there is a charm uniquely their own, an easy fun to be had along with their music. The band has altered that experience with their latest release, Brain Candy. Gone are the youthful tributes to surf rock, instead, a new exploration of who Hockey Dad are as artists plays out over the album erasing any genre people may try to attach them to. 

Last week, from two sides of the world, Zach, his new quarantine puppy, Margarita and I chatted about the band’s long awaited third album and what it has been like to release an album in quarantine. Check it out below. 

T: How has 2020 and quarantine been on your creative side? Do you think that’s taken a toll or improved in any form?

Z: I’m not sure. I feel like I’ve definitely had a lot more time to think about writing. Mm hmm. I don’t know if it’s actually done a lot more writing itself. It’s been strange if we’ve been locked away and I mean, I don’t know, I guess being locked away and not being ever gotten sides still doesn’t really make the ideas pop in the header. Oh, focus powder on songs when I’m doing demos. And we’ve had more time to just to practice quietly on our own to kind of flesh songs out a bit more and get them a little more up to speed. Okay, I think it’s probably helped our writing a little bit for sure.

T: And how are you getting ready for the upcoming release in quarantine? What’s that experience like?

Z: It’s  kind of the same as many releases really where we just focus on getting everything made, and getting everybody excited, but it is a little different now that we can’t. We haven’t really got any tours or anything to play so we can’t play these new songs live and get people excited that way.  I guess we’re really just trying to push it online and get everyone kind of out of air.

T: Do you have any bittersweet feelings about releasing this album while in quarantine and not being able to tour?

Z: Yeah, I think it’s kind of frustrating. It’s a little disappointing cuz we really liked these new songs on the record, and we wrote a lot of them live as well. We were all really excited to just go straight out and play them live and just kind of really get to know them. Yeah, it’s a little disappointing to put the record out and then you know, it’s just there, but we can’t really do anything with it. I’m sure as soon as we can play live again we’ll be fine playing that thing back to front. 

T: For this album you’ve said it has forced you to be creative, what shifted that focus?

Z: We just had a little more time writing and in the studio. We had the time  to work on a song or start a song and then kind of taken in a few different directions and see where we want it to go. So I think to do that we got the chance to do that with a lot of songs on this record as compared to older songs on old records where we just write them maybe in a couple hours and that was kind of it was kind of finished. I really liked this album. I think it’s one of our best. So I’m excited for it to get out there and for everyone to hear all the tracks in one go. 

If you’re curious about Hockey Dad’s new sound, here is their latest video Germaphobe, from Brain Candy, out today!

interview

Cut Worms’, Max Clarke, performs for himself, and you’re all invited to watch

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Cut Worms-4The shy demeanour of Max Clarke disappears the moment he steps into Cut Worms on stage. Clarke has decorum in his music that gives it a sense of timelessness tenderness. The debut EP, Alien Sunset, will release next month on Jagjaguwar records. Currently touring with The Lemon Twigs, I caught up Clarke for a Q&A on his new EP and the band.

Can you describe your sound in one word?

Clarke: Wow. That’s tough. I’ve never been asked that before. For the EP, I’d describe it as immediate. I was writing them [songs] as I was recording. I was just trying to get them existing as fast as possible.

 What’s it like to be at a Cut Worms show?

Clarke: I mainly care about song writing as a craft. I’m not that natural as a performer, I’ve had to force myself to do it.

Why do you need to force yourself?

Clarke: I’m not an outgoing person. It’s mainly before I start playing, then once I start I tune it out by trying to focus on what I’m doing.

 Is there a big contrast between you as a person and as a performer?

Clarke: It’s all me. I do write from characters a lot. Some people hear my songs and think it’s direct personal experience. I couldn’t really say my songs are about one thing. I try to write from a different perspective as much I can, this sounds pretentious, but it helps me understand what life is; by trying to explore feelings other people have rather than just my own.

What are we going to hear on the EP?

Clarke: The EP is mainly to give these songs a little bit more life before they’re deleted off of Bandcamp forever. They’re demos that I’ve recorded over two years. The first half were recorded when I was living in Chicago, the second half were from when I moved to New York. Some of the songs will cross over onto the full length EP that will be released later on. But they’ll be flushed out studio recordings; these [demos] are the most initial pure forms of the songs.

What’s your favourite song off of the EP

Clarke: My favourite one is the last one Song of the Highest Tower. I adapted it from a poem. I put the words to music then added some of my own words. I liked the way it came together, I’ve never written a song like that before.

What are we going to see in the future?

Clarke: More…better…music. *Laughs* I’m just going to continue on the same strand. There is a certain feeling I go after. I can’t really put it into words. The closest I can come; is me playing the songs. So I’m just going to keep trying to reach that thing. After a certain point you’re never going to achieve what you’re after so it’s about the chase.

It seems like you perform more for yourself

Clarke: It is a personal thing. I just make music that I would want to listen to.

Alien Sunset will be released Oct 20th, you can pre-order here. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

interview, Q&A

Locals Only: Q&A With The Bandicoots

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It’s been a few weeks since the release of Zolly, by Hamilton-based band The Bandicoots. They’ve established themselves as a young, fast-paced, alt-rock band, yet, switched things up with their latest release. Justin Ross, the band’s lead, gives a quick Q&A about the new sound.

Q: Your latest EP seems to take on a more mature tone than heard in your previous releases, where has that come from and was it intentional?

A: For a while, I think I was limiting my songwriting in order to fit into this place where we didn’t necessarily fit.  I had this image in my head that we’d blow up as this young punk sort of thing, then develop into something more interesting as we went on.  Thing is, our tastes changed, and it began to feel forced.  So I guess we’ll just have to find our fame as a more interesting band.  So it goes.

Q: You mentioned, Could You Get Me To Tomorrow, was different to write due to the honest lyrics is that something you carried to the new EP, do you feel more exposed with Zolly and how does this change the onstage performance?

A:  For most of the EP I was just playing with words, stringing them together by their sound, rather than their meaning.  However, I was listening to this Leonard Cohen song ‘I Tried To Leave You’ a lot; it’s this really to-the-point kind of song where he doesn’t hide behind too much language.  I went for something like that on Dead End Street. I honestly find that stuff harder to sing when I’m showing it to the rest of the band, compared to a gig, just because they all know who I’m singing about.  The audience doesn’t really know everyone involved, so I don’t feel all that exposed, know what I mean?  That stuff fades though – they just become words after a while.

Q: Which song was the most honest and difficult to write? Have you heard any backlash?

A: Yeah, Dead End Street was that.  Hard to write, but the process always helps loosen up any knots up there.  And I haven’t heard any backlash, which must mean it’s a perfect song.  Thanks for pointing that out.

Q: I’m feeling some arctic Monkey’s vibes embedded into your music, so who are some of your influences and how do you strive to be unlike and alike them?

A: Referencing that first question, the Monkeys have been with us from the start.  I think everyone has that one band that lends themselves as the blueprint for their creativity.  You feel safe following their footsteps because if they’ve done it, it must be okay.  However, if you’re only willing to explore the areas they’ve been, you start to go stale creatively.  So, yeah I think a bit of their DNA is sort of permanently engrained in us, but we’re a bit more interested in finding our own swimming holes these days.

Q: Can you explain the artwork and what you want people to take away from the EP as a whole?

A:  The artwork was done a few years ago by my girlfriend, Emily Whitbread.  It was called ‘Behold! The Fishermen’, with two fellas floating in a boat, drifting through space. The word ‘Zolly’ refers to this camera trick they used in stuff like Vertigo and Jaws.  It gives off this disorientating effect. I guess the songs give off the same kind of vibe; like you’re a lost space wanderer, not sure which direction is up or down – but you’re alright with it.  Too busy fishing for stars.

 

Festival, interview

5 Things you didn’t know about Julia Jacklin

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Meet the singer-songwriter on the edge of a breakout. About to release her debut EP, Don’t Let the Kids Win, Julia Jacklin is an artist to watch. Bringing us sweet melodies and poetic lyrics all the way from Australia this past weekend at TURF, Jacklin took a minute before the performance to talk. We learned that behind the scenes the singer has a winning personality and sense of humour that makes her more endearing.

Check out our interview where we learned a few unknown things about the singer.

1. She makes men cry

 

Q: What’s the most emotional song you’ve ever written?

JJ: Don’t Let the Kids Win, which is the title track for the album.  I didn’t think it was super emotional, I mean it is, but the reaction I’ve gotten from crowds is just great, weird and amazing.

Q: Weird how so?

JJ: Just tears, a lot of tears. I just did a tour around the UK and grown men were coming up to me and were like ‘I cried and I feel ok about it.’

Q: How do you feel about that?

JJ: *laughs* I feel a little bad about it actually! It’s pretty crazy that it brings out such an emotional reaction from people that I’ve never met. I didn’t realize the power of it before I started playing it outside of Sydney.

2. Her break-up songs bring people together

Q: What is your favourite part of performing?

JJ: I like being able to talk to people after shows and learn something about people I’ve never met before and hearing all of their stories and how they have a totally different emotional reaction to a song than me, or what I thought possible.

Q: What’s been your favourite fan story you’ve heard so far?

JJ: I played a show in Sydney and this couple came up to me and were like ‘Oh, we did our first dance at our wedding to this song.’ and I was like…that’s interesting. That’s a really sad break up song. It makes you realize what someone is taking away from your music, even if it’s not what you intended, it’s rewarding.

3. She used to phone it in

 

Q: What was the first song you ever performed?

JJ: It was a song called something really lame like The Sea Captain. It was a folk song about a wife waiting for her sea captain husband to return home.

Q: Why do you think that’s lame?

JJ: Looking back I can see what I was doing. I was trying to be a folk song writer and I was listening to a lot of better writers than me. I was like, I have to be singing about these things that mean nothing to me…like…a sea chanty. When I lived in a landlocked area and I grew up in the 2000’s. Obviously I have no idea what it’s like to lose a husband to the ocean.

Q: How did you find your own song writing skills?

JJ: I realized after I had written a bunch of those terrible songs. I was like, ‘these sound terrible and no one wants to hear them.’ Because they feel bad to sing if they’re not coming from a real place. Even if you have a good voice, when you’re singing disingenuous lyrics it doesn’t matter. Get over yourself and have a bit of fun. No one needs melancholy folk songs about forests.

4. She laughs at herself

Q: Worst song you’ve ever written?

JJ: Oh, I have so many. I listened to one the other day that was just so bad. My friend sent it to me because I asked if he had any of my old demos, because I was curious. It was called something like, Wolf at The Door and it was talking about a man and some relationship I had never experienced. He was a wolf and I was a sheep…it was just really, really bad. I was like ‘please never show this to anyone ever.’

5. She knows how to play children's cartoon 
theme songs on the sax.

What was your first instrument and why did you play it?

JJ: *Silence* Do you have Bob The Builder here? The first instrument was the saxophone.  I played it because the school training band needed a saxophone player…and that was all that was left. I played it for six months and I hated it. The first song we had to learn was the Bob The Builder theme song, the kids show. It was just so bad. I wanted to learn some cool cheesy sax line, not a children’s cartoon theme song.

What did you do after that?

JJ: I moved on to theatre.

What was the best play you acted/ sang in?

JJ: Fiddler on the roof. I had no lines, I was in the chorus, chores member number twelve.

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Don’t Let The Kids Win is out October 12th. Check out the video for the second track, Leadlight, off of the album below and photos from her TURF performance here.

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Interview | Meet Oh Wonder

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OH WONDER .jpg

It’s 2 .p.m, inside the Danforth Music Hall the giant letters “O” and “W” are being hauled on to stage. Soundcheck is still an hour away and the final preparations for Oh Wonder ‘s show are being sorted. Outside, fans are already lining up in the cold for the sold-out concert. They wait bundled from head to toe with smiles unbroken by the below zero weather.

In a tour bus a few feet away, Josephine Vander Gucht and Anthony West, aka, Oh Wonder, wait patiently to introduce themselves to Toronto for the first time. Saturday, before their show, I got to chat with the two and find out a few things you may not have known about them, like how Oh Wonder almost never happened and what all this success means.

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Your music is very emotion driven, how do you capture that with stories about characters?

Anthony:  It’s weird. We never write about our own scenarios. We always kind of write about people we make up, like a dream world  that we write within. The songs are actually really detached from us. So, I guess people kind of draw things from them.  What would you say?

Josephine: *chuckles* What he said.

Tell me what it felt like to record your first single:

Josephine: It was very inadvertent. We had just written a song and we had just wanted to make a writing demo of it. We just did it on a laptop in our living room. Didn’t we? It was really uninspired.

Anthony:  Oh yeah, the next step was just getting some pizza, really.

Josephine: And then in the end we just had a song called Body Gold which was the first song we ever wrote. We actually recorded that about two years before we released it. We were just living with it quietly wondering what to do with it.

Why didn’t you know what to do with the song?

Josephine: Well, we were jus t in our own projects. Anthony was in a band and I was just a solo artist and it just wasn’t fitting for either of our musical projects. The idea of just joining up as a duo never occurred to us. For two years, it was just a self-imposed thing, no, it was an outside-imposed thing, wasn’t it? We never wanted to be in a band together, it was never the intention.

Anthony: Yeah, we just wanted to be songwriters together. We just enjoy writing songs and producing music together. So, that was the main thing…and then all the touring comes.

What was the force that made you join together?

Josephine: The song really. Body Gold, it was the only song we had. We sent it to our managers and they were like ‘oh guys. This is a really good song, your voices sound really good together. We love the production, you should do something with it.’ They weren’t pushing us or anything. But then I kept pestering you (Anthony) for like two years saying please let’s release it. Because I was really proud of it and it was unlike anything either of us did individually.

Anthony: I think at that point, the people listening to it every month, that’s what really spurred us on to do more and take it more seriously. We were like wow, there are actually people out there listening to us in every country. So for us that was the real inspiration.

What did you both anticipate during the year of monthly song releases?

Josephine: We felt a lot but we didn’t anticipate anything. We had no expectations. It was just a really personal challenge, we just wanted to release music. Releasing music is literally the best thing you can do. It’s like when you release an article, you’re like Yay, I’ve contributed to the world and even if no one reads it and even if no one listens to the song, you still feel fulfilled. So it’s a really self fulfilling thing.

Anthony: Yeah, it’s just so energizing. It was so energizing to start the month with the best feeling you could have as a musician. It felt so good.

Josephine: But we weren’t anticipating anything. We didn’t even really want to play live and now we’re in Toronto performing. The world works in mysterious ways for sure.

Why didn’t you two want to play live?

Josephine: We were just both doing our own thing.

Anthony: We were going to write songs and produce them and put them out, but we weren’t going to tour. It never crossed our minds.

Tell me about the first successful moment for Oh Wonder.

Anthony: A big moment for me was when we first played in L.A. We had our first American show and we could really see the affect of our music across the pond. It was nuts. To be that far away from home, it was like whoa. To actually see tons of people, it was like whoa.

Josephine: Well, it depends how you define success. The success was the fact that we’ve been able to release a song that we were both really into and both really proud of. We designed artwork for it and we were really proud of ourselves. I think the first week, when it unmasked the first 100,000 plays we were anonymous and no one knew us and none of our friends knew us. We were like, hang on. It was a success in itself in the fact that people were listening.

Anthony: So, we see little bits of success everyday. Like today, we’ll see Canadian success and it’s awesome.

What have been some great moments on the tour?

Anthony: We had a really great show in Seattle. I really enjoyed that. It’s a very musical town, you can really feel it there.

Josephine: Yeah, there’s been so many good ones. Just every show just continually surprise us. I’m sure if you asked us tomorrow we’d say Toronto. It’s like the biggest venue we’ve ever played. We had no idea people knew who we were in Canada. We’ve just been told that our album did quite well out here, and we are like how do you know who we are? So I feel like tonight will be really special.

Explain what it feels like when you run into fans who love you guys?

Josephine: Oh, it means a lot.

Anthony: Yeah, it’s when they have a really cool story about how the music’s effected them, or even a story about themselves. Josephine interviews fans after gigs to gain an insight to the people that listen to our music because they’re ultimately the most important people. We’re just the people who make it.

Josephine:  It’s continuously humbling. It’s a reminder of why we’re here. This only occurred to me a year into the project which is that music or art or literature, theatre, dance, sport,  any kind of art or creative outlet is a force for good and a force for positivity in changing the world for the better. When you meet people, even if it’s juts three people outside and one says Oh my god, I just wanted to tell you that this music helped me through a dark period in my life, you’re just like, we’re doing something positive.   We’re not out here trying to change the world. We are here contributing in some small way to building a community in a sense of love and comfort more than anything. Music is comfort for people. We’re comforted by our favourite bands, so meeting fans it’s like okay, we’re doing something good here.

 

Beginning in London, Oh Wonder is formed of multi-instrumentalists Josephine Vander Gucht and Anthony West. A little over a year into the project, Oh Wonder is currently on a nearly sold out world tour.  If you haven’t heard them, check out their latest video, Without You.

 

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Q & A | Avec Sans’ Alice Fox Shares Instagram Secrets

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It’s a common thought among any social media savvy person: How do I make my Instagram awesome? and it’s a lot harder than it looks. avec sans

Imagine how hard it must be for a band. Bands today have to stand out while, being themselves. To set themselves apart from the crowd they need to offer fans something new and fresh alongside their music.  London’s electro pop duo, Alice Fox and Jack St James otherwise known as  Avec Sans  do just that with their unique presence and style. They’ve mastered not only their music, but how to incorporate themselves and their style into what fans see and hear.Take a look at their Instagram account and their thousands of followers. They have one of the most artistic and well thought-out band pages. But how exactly? Alice Fox explains some of the secrets behind the page in our Q&A.

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Q: How much planning goes into your photos? 

A: We try as much as possible to post what’s going on at that time, so we tend not to plan too much.

We watched the Kurt Cobain ‘Montage of Heck’ biopic the other night, so I posted a photo of him and his daughter, so the stuff that isn’t about us and what we’re doing, is usually connected to something we’re watching or listening to at the time. Something that’s inspired us or caught our attention.

Q: You guys take a lot of photos on Instagram, why do you feel that the platform is important?

A: We don’t really think about it as a platform, but more of a visual timeline of what’s happening. Music as audio isn’t a visual art form in itself, so it’s nice to see what’s going on visually with music creators. We love seeing what the people who we’re interested in are up to, we’re consumers as much as we are posters.

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Q: Both of your outfits are always so catching! Where does your style come from?
A: We think it’s important to look striking and that your style matches your music, so I guess how we dress is what we feel works with the electronic music we make.

Q: How does your profile help you connect to fans?
A: It’s really nice to be able to follow back the people who regularly interact with us, Instagram becomes a two way street, we get to know way more about the people who like our music than on Facebook. as we see what they’re up to too, which is really nice.

Q: Do your photos spend a lot of time in the editing process?
A: The photoshoot images that accompany our singles are usually more thought out and worked on than our Instagram photos, which we usually just run through VSCO cam and then without a filter on Instagram.

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Q: How do you think of your ideas for Insta-photoshoots?
A: For a photoshoot, we’ll tend to go to a location, have a bit of a mood board and some ideas to bring to the table. We look through We heart emoticon It and Tumblr and develop visual ideas that we find there. We usually use a proper DSLR for those shots.

Q: What is your favourite photo you’ve taken?
A: There’s one shot we took is back on our timeline, I was wearing an 80s costume as we were playing as part of the set for Back to the Future’s for Secret Cinema. I was backstage and Jack took the photo against some hoarding, it’s just a camera phone shot, but I like the way it came out.
https://instagram.com/p/sN78RYhg0Y/?taken-by=avecsans


Q: Who is your favourite person in Instagram to follow?
I think my favorite person is actually a small, white, domesticated fox called Rylai.

Avec Sans style doesn’t just stop on Instagram. They’ve managed to set themselves as a staple in the fashion industry, often times their music is played on runways due to the influence that seems to fit in so perfectly to the setting. Check out their style and music infusion in their video Hold On, below.

 

 

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Most Memorable Dragonette Videos Explained | Q&A with Dragonette

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Q: Is there any significance behind the red roses in Let The Night Fall?

A: Probably, yes. But I think we just liked how strange it looked. Kind of bends your brain for a second.

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Q: Fixin’ To Thrill might have the most striking ending. You kill the parents of the kids at the end. Where did this concept come from?

A: It was so long ago I might not exactly remember what we were getting at. But I don’t remember it being a dark message. The Director Wendy Morgan and I came up with all the ideas. The gist of the video is that there are 2 simultaneous videos happening. One is in the imaginations of the children and one is closer to the real world. They’ve invented their own homemade superhero sort of. The end of the vid to me is kinda like a page from a comic book.

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Q: The entire video for Giddy Up is rather different unexpected, where did the idea for that video come from?

A: It was more of a lark that video. We did it while we were rehearsing in a barn in Prince Edward County so I think there was a lot of rural stuff floating around us. And the song has a bit of a ho-down vibe. So we just went with it.

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Q: Live in This City is one of the most memorable videos for me! The clothing, the dance moves, everything. Where did the concept for the video come from and is there a specific meaning behind it?

A: The concept in this video is an idea I had floating in my head for a while. I had this idea of someone walking down the street feeling so fly and sexy that everyone that they make eye contact with turns into crazy sex freaks. Wow, just writing that down makes it seem very strange. We had so much fun coming up with the details and shooting it. We laughed so hard on set. It was such a good time. And the end, when Dan and Joel turn into crazy sex freaks, was an idea conceived by the director Wendy Morgan, Dan, the DP and myself when we were almost finished the entire shoot. It was never meant to end that way. But we started joking about it and laughing so hard at the idea that we changed the storyline and location for the end of the video.