 How are you guys feeling about getting back into live shows?
SCOTT - Hey! We are over the moon about getting back to live music, our first show back really hit home just how long it had been away and how addicted we are to this! There is a real cathartic sense in the venues and festivals, everyone knows not to take any of this for granted again and enjoy every second. First headline club tour, excited? SCOTT- Just a tad! There was a time when we didn't know if this would happen and slowly seeing the country open up just in time for the tour has us all as excited as we can be! The more the merrier. What's the band's favorite song to play from Against The Wall? SCOTT- I think I can speak for the guys, our single DNA is a big favorite during a show. After coming back from Covid everyone seemed seemed know the words! 8t makes that song one of our happiest times we can have, enjoying these songs with fans who finally have an album in their hands and who want to sing their lungs off with us. What inspired the album? or What are your inspirations? SCOTT- Ever since we were teenagers our dream was to release our first album and pursue this career in music, it may have taken longer than expected but our determination does not waiver, this is the Inspiration of Against The Wall. No matter how tough things get with your friends and teamwork you can get through the worst. Can we expect new music coming in the future? SCOTT- Yes! We have been using lockdown to not only release our debut album but also write new music for the future. What we have lined up I think will blow the socks of Against The Wall! Keep your eyes and ears open as new music is on its way!
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 How did the band come to be?
“ I (Romeo, lead singer-guitarist) and Vince (drummer and back vocalist) started to play together when we were 14. It’s a very long story of love ahah! We’re originally from a city called Troyes in France. Then we met our bassist / back vocalist Rudy in Paris as well as our Keyboardist and back vocalist André.” Do you have any releases coming up this year? “We are releasing a new EP called “(Be)For Tomorrow”, release date planned on the 3rd of July on all digital platforms and you’ll be able to order a CD on our e-shop (will open at the end of June). We’re super excited to let you hear this new one guys! We had to postpone our full album “For Tomorrow” (it’s already finished but because the conditions were not met to defend it on stage we had to find a way to make our audience wait, and that’s why we are releasing the EP).” What is something you want listeners to take away from your music? “Everything they wanna take!! Maybe we want us to have one of our melodies in their head when they start the day! So they will think about us all day ahah!” With everything that is going on in our world what is one cause or organization that you are passionate about? “All the causes about our planet & environment. I think it’s a cause everyone should worry about.” What is your writing process like? “I don’t have a precise writing process when I create music. Most of the time, it comes to my mind out of nowhere. Days, and nights. I have a melody in my head or the instrumental parts, sometimes both. So I take my piano or my guitar and I start playing it. Inspiration is everywhere for me. In my feelings, in my observation of the world or society, in the past, in my memories. Or just when I see something that inspires me at one moment. I usually start with a melody. Then I take an instrument (piano or guitar) and then the lyrics. But sometimes it’s the opposite as well ahah! “ To follow up with the last question, what inspires your sound? “All the period from the 60’s & 70’s. The Beatles are my Bible (laughs)!! But also Led Zep’, Hendrix, Clapton, Pink Floyd… All the standards from this period, and later I’ve been listening to more recent bands like Muse, Placebo, Kings of Leon, The Killers… On the other hand I did listen to a lot of Rhythm’N’Blues (Otis Redding, Percy Sledge…) and practiced a lot of classical music.” Any tours coming up soon? “We are trying to re-plan our cancelled tours in Europe, US and Central / Latin America. we’re finally going back on stage for the 1st time since the beginning of the Covid the 22nd of July in France.” Anything you would like to tell our readers? “If you don’t know our music, go and check it out!! We will be more than happy to count you in the Reaven’s family!! Hope you’re all safe out there!! Take care guys and let’s meet on the road!! In a Reaven’s show!!”  How did Dr Fabola come to be?
It’s been a long, zigzag road getting here, and yet it’s only just beginning. When I was younger I enrolled in music summer schools and took music courses during term time as well. It started just as a way to pass the time and I originally learned the piano and bass guitar just to look cool. Though I didn’t realize this at the time, it laid a foundation for me which I’ve built on over the years. I later picked up the guitar and got really into fingerpicking, started writing songs, then performing in music venues, then releasing music, and that brings us here really :) I picked this stage name – Dr Fabola – by combining my professional title (Computer Science PhD) and my surname (Fabola) for uniqueness ;) Do you have any releases coming up this year? Yes yes yes :) I’m releasing my 8-track “Good Times EP” pretty soon; the first single will be out on June 25 th (2021). The EP is a collection of old songs, written at a time that’s not so long ago but yet feels like ages because of all we’ve been through recently, hence the “Good Times” title, which is a homage to a time when all of what we’re going through now was practically inconceivable. It takes me back to a different, pre-pandemic time in my life. I’ve also got many more tracks which we worked in the studio at the end of last year. Keep an eye out on my socials for latest updates and more info :) What is something you want listeners to take away from your music? I hope that my music listeners feel good. I hope listeners get a warm, fuzzy feeling in their core, a feeling that reminds us of what it means to be human, to take pleasure in the little things and to be kind to each other. Above all I hope they enjoy it and find it relatable :) With everything that is going on in our world what is one cause or organization that you are passionate about? I know you asked for one cause, but I’ll give you 3, sorry :)…I’m passionate about (1) sustainable living and protecting the environment (2) human rights & wellbeing, and (3) animal rights. As for organizations, I prefer to not be prescriptive on this; if you care about any of these issues (or any other issues really), you can support the organizations that are close to your heart or those that operate in/near your geographical location :) What is your writing process like? It’s difficult to articulate my writing process because I don’t exactly have a formula for it and it isn’t set in stone, at least not in my mind. The thing is I generally write a lot, sometimes for writing/journaling sake to help process my emotions, and sometimes I write with intention and purpose to create a song. I also play around with ideas in my mind while walking or running. There are times when I start a song by just chilling with my guitar, playing around with melodies, and then I come up with lyrics based on how I’m feeling in the moment, or what’s on my mind. Other times I take some words I’ve written and come up with suitable melodies based on the vibes the song is headed in. Sometimes everything comes rushing altogether, all at once. That’s when I know for sure that I’m on to something, and it’ll be rude to not tune into it :) To follow up with the last question, what inspires your sound? My sound is largely inspired by Folk, Blues and Jazz music, blended together in predominantly acoustic fashion. At the center of it all is my West-African heritage and early exposure to Hi-life and Reggae, which I’ve combined with classical guitar techniques and my love of Folk storytelling, Blues guitar and Jazz improvisation. Over the years I’ve been heavily influenced by some of my favorite artists like Tallest Man on Earth, Passenger, Tracy Chapman and Jack Johnson but I like to think that the aforementioned blend and combination makes me and my sound unique. Any tours coming up soon? I’ve not got any full tours on at the moment, got a few gigs lined up here and there though. If you’re in Manchester on Saturday June 19 th , come to WitchKingsRum in Ancoats to hear me play a full set in a fantastic cocktail bar :) Anything you would like to tell our readers? Yes…thank you for giving me a moment of your time, thank you for taking a chance on new artists like me, and thank you for supporting musicians in these trying times. If you’d like to keep up with what I’m up to, please check out my socials, I’m @DrFabola everywhere :) www.instagram.com/drfabola www.facebook.com/drfabola  How did the band come to be?
Matt and Conor had spoken about being in a band for years and nothing really came from it but Matt met Josh through a friend and found out he played drums, they started talking about putting a band together then they found Skips on a musician website and ask Conor to come along and we starting working on songs from there, after trying out a couple of people for a second guitarist and them not working out Matt remembered Harry was back from University and that he sang and played guitar so asked him to come along and it all fell together from there. Do you have any releases coming up this year? We’ve just released our new EP ‘Heart, Mind & Hell’ in April so we’re really happy to finally be able to release that after the pandemic! What is something you want listeners to take away from your music? Anything they need too! Whether its the lyrics hit home in a good way or they connect with a song or even just that they’ve had a good time! With everything that is going on in our world what is one cause or organization that you are passionate about? Personally I’d say especially after everything that happened, everyone has got to give it up to the NHS, I know a lot of people that work for the NHS and hats off to all of them for all their hard work. What is your writing process like? We’re all involved with all the songs writing process, someone will bring something to the table whether it be a riff, the skeleton of a song, lyrics or even just an idea for how the song could sound and then we all work on it together from there. To follow up with the last question, what inspires your sound? Normally just whatever’s happening in our lives or what we’re listening to at the time, we always want our own style of rock ’n’ roll involved with our post-hardcore/ metalcore sound, the lyrics on our new EP are extremely personally because they’re about what we’re going through or have gone through. Any tours coming up soon? Nothing concrete as of yet however we are in talks for a few things. Anything you would like to tell our readers? Just for everyone to please go check out the new EP ‘Heart, Mind & Hell’ and check out all our social medias and Merch store!  How did you become the artist you are?
I guess there’ve been a lot of influences on me. From playing in youth clubs in my teens then as a professional musician in a covers band in my 20s to original stuff in my 30s and now more original songs. Do you have any releases coming up this year? Out today is ‘By My Side’. In essence the song is about rebuilding trust in a relationship after one of the people involved strays into the arms of another. Regret grows and there's a realisation that the new relationship isn't nearly as deep, loving and rich as the one that was left and so, it inevitably fails. It's so hard for the person who was abandoned to deal with the (known and imagined) stuff that went on within the new relationship. The lyric is an acknowledgement of that. There’ll be some more singles later this year - I’m in the studio again in July. What is something you want listeners to take away from your music? I want listeners to think Christopher Taylor is a songwriter who writes lyrical, catchy tunes with infectious melodies and come back for more! With everything that is going on in our world what is one cause or organization that you are passionate about? Fairness and equality. I’m a big supporter of Oxfam. What is your writing process like? I usually write the music first and then look at how lyrics might work with a particular tune. I also use lyrics from others in particular a friend from school Steve Cree. He’s a great and clever lyricist and with his I look at the words and work on the tune depending on the feelings they provoke. To follow up with the last question, what inspires your sound? All sorts I love most genres and styles there’s some indie, pop and even folk and jazz in there if you check it out. Any tours coming up soon? Not tours yet just one off gigs which is fab after the last 18 months. Hoping more gigs slowly and surely! Anything you would like to tell our readers? Check out my tunes and please let me know what you think. I’d love to hear from you.  How did the band come to be?
This project started when we, Ask and Carol, the two members of Ask Carol, became friends right after high school. We were studying music in southern Norway. We were always talking about starting a band, but it would take about 7 years before we finally went through with the idea. The summer of 2015 we stayed at a cabin in the Norwegian mountains, with no electricity and no water, far away from people and civilization, only a few sheep outside the windows. That's where our first songs were made, and where the seed to what would become Ask Carol started. One more year went by before we started for real, and Ask Carol was officially born, in 2016. Our first concert ever was at a small blues club in Seoul, South Korea, called Strange Fruit. At that point, Carol was already a somewhat known guitarist-for-hire in the Oslo music scene, and had never ever sung in front of people before, or at all for that matter. That's why we wanted to try out our music and hold our first concerts far away from our hometown. After thinking hard and long about the band name, with many pretty good suggestions, we ended up with the simple band name Ask Carol, the first names of our two members, Ask and Carol, put together. Ask is a real Norwegian name, coming from Norse Mythology, the Viking religion; Ask was the first human being, created by the God Odin, out of a piece of Ash-wood. Do you have any releases coming up this year? Yes, we are currently working on our debut album, which will be released in the coming Fall. Before the album we’ll have a couple of singles coming up. We’re in the studio as we speak, and can’t wait to show you guys the new stuff :D What is something you want listeners to take away from your music? That is up to the listener. We create music, and if it makes someone feel anything, at all, that’s great. With everything that is going on in our world what is one cause or organization that you are passionate about? There’s so much happening in the world at the moment, there is no one thing that is more important than the other. Many things are important. The most important thing is to be a little bit engaged, and not totally ignorant or apathetic. There are important issues like climate change, women’s rights, and there are issues which are more directly affecting us like the handling of the Covid crisis in the cultural sector. It is important to educate yourself, and we try to keep up with what’s going on. What is your writing process like? We usually start out with the ideas separately, and then later on in the process we get together to finish up the songs. We often do the songwriting and production process in parallel, but it all varies very much. At the moment we are in two separate locations, so we use the internet and the cloud to send ideas back and forth. The most important thing is to get the initial ideas down as fast as possible, cause those often tend to slip away if you don’t get them our of your head and down on paper/computer/phone/recorder. To follow up with the last question, what inspires your sound? We are both inspired by so many different things. A few of our biggest common inspirations are Jimi Hendrix and Pink Floyd, which I think you can really hear in our music. In addition to that, Ask is very influenced by The Clash, and Carol draws inspiration from amongst others, Nirvana. A place that has inspired us a lot in the past has been Carol’s cabin, high in the Norwegian mountains. There is no electricity and no water, so it’s a very old school way of life. And no internet. That means less distraction, and room for inspiration. The inspiration might always be there, but with all the constant impressions and distractions from the internet there is just no room for it. That is where we wrote our first songs as Ask Carol, in that cabin. Any tours coming up soon? At the moment there are no tours planned, as the government does not allow any traveling at all. We can’t play any concerts here either, but that might change the coming months. Hopefully. But, when the situation in the world becomes a little better, we will definitely tour a lot! There are so many cool places we wanna go to and play. Anything you would like to tell our readers? Stay tuned for our upcoming debut album and new singles after the summer! Meanwhile you can check out the new music video for our latest single, «Darkest Hour»: https://youtu.be/ 1O1uWrwT2_o Oh, and btw, if you want you can sign up for our newsletter here, and you’ll get a free download of our song «Come Closer»: https://askcarolmusic.ck.page/comecloser How did the band come to be?
Before being a band, we were childhood friends! We met each other at school and didn’t separate from this time! We started covering songs from our favorite bands and then wrote our own songs… Twenty years later, the story is still being written with the same crazy team! Do you have any releases coming up this year? There’s a lot of new stuff coming up! We just launched our new music video for our song “9th Life”! Then 2021 will be marked with the release of new music videos, new songs… And a lot of surprises! So, stay tuned!!! What is something you want listeners to take away from your music? Perséide will remind you of your adolescence!!! We want to make music as we always loved it: with energy and chills! All that we want for our listeners is to enjoy. To feel free to love the music as we love it, no matter the style or influence. In a day of your life, you can be happy, sad, angry, or crazy. The best way to live these emotions is to let them flow through you and to express them without holding back… That’s what we want to share with our music and live shows: you can be all these things at once and music helps us to escape; even for the time of a song or a concert. Living and sharing this with our listeners to make them live these emotions with us to feel better is the most important thing for us. With everything that is going on in our world, what is one cause or organization that you are passionate about? Julien (vocals/rhythm guitar): I’m a medical doctor. I usually spend several days in the year travelling in Madagascar to help people in need with the aid organization I’m in at my hospital. What is your writing process like? The guitar players start with a basic framework that we propose to the other musicians. Then, we all make musical arrangements to fit everyone’s taste and we play the song in rehearsal and then we play it live. If the song pleases the audience, we keep the final version for recording and drop it right to your ears! To follow up with the last question, what inspires your sound? As a medical doctor in anesthesia and critical care, the things I’ve seen in the hospital make me remember that when you’re in good health, you must love your life and seize the day! That’s a concept we like to inject in our lyrics and chords: enjoying the little things that are enjoyable, listening to music, losing yourself in a rock show and live it up! Any tours coming up soon? If the situation remains stable, our next tour will take place during 2022! Fingers crossed!!! We hope that it will allow us to book some great gigs with bands we love and keep the inspiration to carry on with this great experience! Anything you would like to tell our readers? The shame is to be ashamed. When you give 100% in your passion, you don’t have to be ashamed, you have to be yourself, and enjoy, no matter if you don’t please everybody. The few ones you will please will enjoy with you and truly live the moment.  What made you want to be an artist?
Well, I guess I was inspired by music and arts from a very early age thanks to my mother. She was a piano teacher and often taught students at home, so music was around me at most times. It was mainly classical music and also some jazz later on. My mother was also a history of arts teacher and very often took me with her to see concerts and go to exhibitions from an early age. I’ve got to admit that at the time, I didn’t use to enjoy going to all these classical concerts and galleries, but later on as I grew up, I realised how important all this was in my development as an artist. I am forever thankful for all she did for me in that sense. What inspires your sounds? The inspiration I got into developing my sounds come from listening to a lot of different genres of music. As I mentioned earlier on, classical music was my grounding then later on jazz but I listened to a lot of other genres of music in between. From metal to hip-hop, alternative dance to electro-pop, reggae, dub, folk, rock and afrobeat to name but a few! I guess I am always interested in discovering new music no matter what style or genre it is. If it’s good, well so be it! I think these days (mainly in western culture) we have the luxury to live in a global village where all cultures entertwine with each other and often these mixtures of genres create really interesting fresh new sounds. All that is very exciting! With everything that is going on in our world, how is it to release music at this particular time? I think these days, with music being mainly distributed digitally online, it hasn’t really changed much of my process with distributing new music. Throughout this global pandemic more people have been gravitating towards online streaming for new music. Regarding physical sales, I am thinking of producing a limited series of collectors vinyls to sell directly to my hardcore fans on tours but other than that, my music will always firstly be available to be streamed on most online distribution platforms. Has the pandemic affected your music? Yes, it has affected it a lot! Throughout the lockdowns, I’ve got to admit that my songwriting and lyrical content overall got a lot more darker sounding. By living these times of isolation and spending a lot of time on my own, I got to dive in deeper into my personal emotions and that was translated directly into my creative output flow. What is something you want listeners to take away from your music? I would hope that it could make them feel something special they can relate to and help them bring out their inner emotions, may they be sad or happy as well as questioning the meaning behind my lyrics. I get really excited about cool wordplay and poetry and admire artist wordsmiths such as Kate Tempest and more obvious ones such as Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen. I like the idea of story-telling as well with lyrics and it is something I feel more inclined to do in my latest songs. What are your goals? I want to collaborate with other artists, rappers and music producers around the world and keep releasing new music regularly. I also want to expand my fanbase globally and tour the world so I can connect with my fans more closely. Other than that, I plan to design my own streetwear using original artwork I have created. Any tour coming soon with the reopening of venues? I am definitely planning to tour as soon as possible. Right now, I am first concentrating on my next single releases and building-up momentum towards these releases. Once these are out, I will look into booking a tour. I can’t wait! Anything you would like to tell our readers? Yes. My journey into becoming an artist has been filled with constant hurdles and learning curves. It took me some time to find out who I really am as an artist and actually I am still learning a lot about who I am today to be honest! From my very early days as an artist until now, there sure were moments when I thought of giving it all up, but I realised along the line that I was given a gift from a higher power above me to be an artist and my mission in this life is to create music and arts. There is nothing else that can fulfil me more than creating music or a piece of art and sharing it with the world as a gift. Listen to "Winner Today" here. Check Can Guru? socials for more: https://www.instagram.com/canguru_music/ https://twitter.com/CanGuru90535341 https://www.facebook.com/cangurupage Interview by: Laury Verdoux  How did the band come to be?
It all started years ago when Simon became Emil’s guitar teacher. They pretty fast found each other and started playing in a cover band together with different constellations and a lot of different gigs. After a few years they got tired of playing covers and started rearranging and rewrite and translate the lyrics of a lot of known and popular rock/pop songs to spice things up. By this time, they released that they also wanted a lead singer and they found me Olof. When I joined the band we first worked with Simons and Emil’s rewritten covers. But pretty fast we did our first own song, and as soon we started walking that path there was no going back. No more covers. It has taken us about 1-1,5 years to find our sound. We play “story metal” and it’s a mix from many different genres. We use the heavy sound from Metal Rock to tell different stories. We are really proud of our sound and will probably keep working and develop our sound as time goes on. We have been playing together for 2 years now. Do you have any releases coming up this year? We have at least four planned releases. On the 7th of May we will release Our first album “Path Of A Shadow” and on the same date a single called “Ingen Som Hör Dig – No One Can Hear You” Than one or two month later we will have one more single release, and after that probably sometime in September we will release an EP in German. This is what is planned but there will probably be something more. What is something you want listeners to take away from your music? We really hope you “feel the pressure”, he he. No seriously, we but a lot of thought into our lyrics and write about real life stories and pressures that often can be interpret in different ways, many times in both a good way and in a bad way, it’s up to the listener do decide. But many of the the songs wants you keep on fighting, believe in yourself, and dare to live life. With everything that is going on in our world what is one cause or organization that you are passionate about? For me it’s the three things. Taking care of the elder and try to be there for the even though we can’t meet in real person. I know its really tough for many people that feel isolated. And I also feel for all people that’s got their life’s work ruined because of the pandemic. And finally take care of mother earth and each other. What is your writing process like? Simon, (the collector) collects stories all around him, by talking and interacting with people. That gives him ideas for lyrics riffs and melodies. He records everything from drums, bas, guitars and vocals. He shows me and Emil his idea/draft, and I (Olof) intervjus Simon about what he wants to say, to be sure everybody will get the message. I re-record it with my vocals, and pretty often changing the key, parts or words of the lyrics and parts of the melody. (Sometimes almost no changes at all) After that Simon and I start recording together, setting harmonies, take it home and all of us listen to it. Comes up with more ideas/changes, rerecord it. Take it home listen to it… And after a few rounds when we feel, we can’t do it better than this, we record the “final version” and send it to our fantastic producers for mixing and mastering. To follow up with the last question, what inspires your sound? We are influenced by ordinary everyday people that have a real self-experienced story to tell us. That’s the base of our music, to tell real life stories. When it comes to musicians it is every musician that do music with their soul. It is not one band, person, or genre, it a little mix of many of them. But if I have to give you some examples, this is what you could expect if you listen to our music. A heavy sound with a lot of guitar melody’s and a lot of vocal harmonies. If you take the Vocals from Rammstein, Volbeat or Thåström and the backing vocals from Queen or Aerosmtih mix it with the guitars of Bon Jovi, Guns ´n Roses and Mötley Crue and add the drums of DIO or Whitesnake and the lyrics of Skid Row or Bob Dylan and add the bass of Metallica or Korn, and finally add a little bit folk music into that mix then you have our sound. Anything you would like to tell our readers? Check us out! You can listen to us on all the different streaming channels and see a lot of videos on Youtube. On YouTube we also have videos “From The Dome” that’s kind of a diary and give you a glimpse about what we are doing and working on. It’s a raw cut, edited or planned videos so you will see the real behind the scenes of Pressure. We also have pretty cool merch with very high-quality products, check it out if you want something new for your wardrobe. https://shop.spreadshirt.se/pressure And if you want to listen to us and follow us, here are some links for you https://www.instagram.com/pressuresweden https://www.facebook.com/pressuresweden WWW https://www.pressure.band Youtube https://www.youtube.com/c/Pressuresweden Spotify https://open.spotify.com/artist/7a9rKp03MYJv4leDN7Mm8k Merch https://shop.spreadshirt.se/pressure  How did the band come to be?
The band came about just from jamming on Saturday morning between, Russell, myself and Ray. Slowly it progressed, we started to get some songs together, and we’ve picking up steam ever since. Do you have any releases coming up this year? We released our second our EP “1996” this year in March. However, we’ve just been studio we’ve producer Mark Myers getting some more songs down, that we’re super excited. One of them will be a single that we will release this year. What is something you want listeners to take away from your music? In the end, I just hope they relate etc, and get some enjoyment from it. With everything that is going on in our world what is one cause or organization that you are passionate about? The ABC (Australia) ;). What is your writing process like? We don’t really have a process, Ray will come in with an idea or riff, and I’ll add some lyrics and figure out melodies. Or I might come in a completed song form. To follow up with the last question, what inspires your sound? We have a wide range of influences going from, The Cure, Violvent Soho, Powderfinger, Silversun Pickups and pop punk hero’s Green Day. Anything you would like to tell our readers? Give some of our tracks a listen - https://open.spotify.com/artist/4serq8W7kitDHuSTd4DhjF |