Ani DiFranco: ¿Which Side Are You On?

Grammy Award-winner Ani DiFranco. Photo courtesy of Blurb PR.

American singer-songwriter Ani DiFranco, maker of over 20 albums and receiver of Grammy Awards, is releasing a new album ¿Which Side Are You On? on 17 January.

Having carved a career for herself in the folky acoustic category, with a healthy addition of feminism, fans will be glad to know DiFranco is doing two small London performances at the Union Chapel on 10 and 11 January to promote her new material.

The new album, the first in three years, is being released through DiFranco’s own excellently named Righteous Babe Records, which couldn’t suit DiFranco’s sassy, soulful style more. The tracks, as well as making for pleasurable listening, pack a political punch addressing subjects from environmental disaster to problems and injustice in western culture.

From the confident title track, with its energetic catchy slice of country, the album is an uncompromising look at how DiFranco sees the world. And what’s in it for you? Cliche-free lyrics, original folk-infused songs with enough of a sense of underlying vulnerability to keep them relatable, and something to think about afterwards. You can’t say that for many albums.

Will Varley

Will Varley, 'Advert Soundtracks' album artwork. Photo courtesy of Smugglers Records

Will Varley, a name that should be associated with his crowd-pleasing brand of acoustic folk, is releasing his debut album, Advert Soundtracks on 20 February.

After putting in countless hours of work touring around south-east England’s acoustic and open mic nights – on foot, no less, Varley was picked up by Smugglers Records. They will be supporting his tour to promote the album, which will also be carried out on foot. Let’s hope he has some hard-wearing sensible shoes…

You’ve been described as ‘the antithesis of all that Simon Cowell creates’ by Contact Music, is that a label – or lack thereof – something you actively try to steer clear from?

Well, what Simon Cowell or anyone else does really does not concern me. I am in the business of writing songs. Simon Cowell is in the business of bubblegum and that’s fine.

Let’s be clear though, some of his first records included The Teletubbies Single and The Mightymorphin’ Power Rangers. This guy is making stuff for children, like a clown. He essentially is a very famous clown. I like some clowns, but as for Simon Cowell, I’d like to see him with a bloody nose.

You’ve been trying to get yourself noticed from open mic nights and the like for years – was there ever a point when you were tempted to give up?

It depends what you mean. I would never give up making music and writing/playing songs. If you’re referring to the music industry as such, then I gave up trying to get noticed a long time ago. The ‘music industry’ is essentially a whole group of gatekeepers and I’d rather they didn’t notice me.

I play with a small group of dropouts called Smugglers Records. I think I probably noticed them more than they noticed me. The problem is that a lot of people still believe in the concept of ‘getting noticed’. It doesn’t exist, it’s like an old 1980s model that died away years ago. Write a song and go and play it somewhere. People will notice you. That’s enough.

What was your experience like of touring Kent on foot last summer? 

That was beautiful. We walked through the most glorious countryside and met some of the most excellent people in the world. People fed us and put us up and let us play in their pubs or front rooms. A lot of people go travelling in Thailand or someplace and end up in a McDonald’s with an ‘I Love Vietnam’ T-Shirt on.

Anyone can go travelling if they walk out onto their own doorstep one day and go and meet the people you walk past all the time and never speak to. By the time we got home I felt like the whole world was mine. Like every rock was mine to keep and no-one else could claim it. It wore off after a few days when I re-adjusted to living within the confines of my own space but I’ll never forget it.

Do you think the current music climate of embracing all that is folk has helped propel you, or is it more a case that all the practice has paid off?

Ah, shit comes and goes like the plague. Doesn’t bother me. It’ll be out of fashion again before long, I think I prefer it that way. As for propelling me, I’m nowhere. The electric went on the meter earlier and I had to borrow a fiver to turn the lights back on.

What made you come up with the title Advert Soundtracks? A really gripping Nescafe advert?!

The best thing a band can hope for these days is to get their song on an advert. I think that shits on what most people think about music and the power it has to change things or bring people together.

If all goes well with the first album, do you think you’d invest in a car, or even just a micro scooter for the next tour?

No, I want a gold-plated limousine. With twenty hookers and shit loads of cocaine.

As a little pre-album exclusive, you can have a listen to Will Varley’s The Sound Of The Markets Crashing, along with a single from Cocos Lovers who will be accompanying him on tour.

Bear Cavalry: Maple Trails

Bear Cavalry: releasing new EP 'Maple Trails'

Four-piece multi-instrumental band, Bear Cavalry, have released a new four-track EP Maple Trails, containing tracks Custom Hands, Will Smith Solves The Rubix Cube, Dragon’s Milk Pt II and Roman Summer, which was included in the Big Scary Monsters’ ’11 Collection.

Hailing from Gosport, famous(ish) for the Navy, a bunch of forts, and Gosport Borough FC – it’s about time the place had an interesting musical connection.

If you think these guys are channelling any kind of quintessential Hampshire sound (whatever that is) then you would be mistaken, as they are keen genre mixologists, difficult to put into any kind of musical box, but have been likened to Vampire Weekend and Everything Everything for this reason. The guys say this is by accident…

You’ve got the multi-genre thing down, have you found any combinations that really don’t work?

We don’t do it on purpose really. We do like to blend stuff together and take songs in the odd unexpected direction but it’s not a conscious decision like ‘let’s make a song that combines house music with country and put a trumpet on it’, it just sort of ends up that way because we listen to so much different stuff.

Being a multi-instrumental band, how is it manically swapping instruments when you’re performing live? Any disasters?

No memorable disasters so far, sometimes having lots of stuff around the place can make things a bit cramped on a small stage. Had a few people stumble through and take some stuff down with them in the past.

What was it like doing a cover of Skillrex’s Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites? Were you worried he wouldn’t like it?

Really never even considered the possibility that he might hear it, it wasn’t intentional that it ended up getting so many hits at all. It was just a bit of fun on the side really but it’s very nice to know he appreciated it, he’s a big name out there at the moment.

A track on your EP is titled Will Smith Solves The Rubix Cube - is he a particular icon? Has Big Willy Style had an influence on your work?

Will Smith actually sings lead vocals on the track, he happened to be staying in the area we recorded in and decided to pop down. Said we sounded ‘fresh’. Nice bloke, he didn’t bring his ‘cube though…

You’ve started to get a lot of recognition from Radio 1, been included on the Big Scary Monsters collection – what’s been the career highlight so far?

A highlight we all look at fondly is Southsea Fest this year. Playing to a full up Wedgewood Rooms has been an ambition since we started, we’ve seen people like Foals and Cajun Dance Party play there so to stand on the stage and see people everywhere having a good time still brings up a smile.

The energetic EP is filled with highly melodic, jubilant tracks where a rich sound is accomplished when strings, trumpets, and perhaps even the odd bongo are brought in to complement the more standard indie instruments of choice. Upbeat tempos and group choruses make Bear Cavalry an instantly likeable slice of summer to brighten up a dreary January. Go listen.

Cocos Lovers

Cocos Lovers. Photo courtesy of Smugglers Records.

Cocos Lovers, a somewhat eccentric and many-numbered band producing ‘Kent coast folk rock with an African twist’, as described by The Independent, are due to release their new album Elephant Lands through Smugglers Records in March.

Wait, Kent folk rock and African twists sound like they go together as well as bacon and chocolate, right? Well, as Nigella is endorsing the latter, I guess sometimes surprising combinations can work.

How did the band meet?

I met Natasha, who taught me a couple of chords. We got married and had babies, and we made music with Tasha’s sister, Poggy, as a three-piece for a while. Then Poggy married James Hatton (our drummer) and his brother Dave joined us, and then I guess we formed as a proper band.

We then met Phil who moved to Deal, and recruited him to become our band genius, and we travelled around Europe for four months around squats and communes. Nicola was our au pair – we found out whilst jamming that she was also a genius (and a total babe). She joined when Poggy and James went back early from Europe, and when we came back, we recruited Billy Glinn (also a babe) on bass, as Pog and James took a temporary break.

We toured and played many festivals, made our first album Johannes (named after a Siberian farmer we met in a German commune), and then we made Elephant Lands, our new album. Pog and James have left again (this time permanently)…and that’s how Phil, Bill, Will, Natasha, Nicola and Dave met!

Your sound is quite distinctive, and very different from much of the folk acts around at the moment – was it a conscious decision to give your sound an African twist when you got together?

No, it wasn’t a conscious decision. We most definitely have an interest in world folk, not just African. I think it’s important not to be too influenced by anything. Whatever we listen to is probably seeping in the subconscious of our music – that influences the sound – but the songs come from a very natural place between us all, and that where you get a truly distinctive sound I think.

Would you count yourselves among the British folk collective, or does your different sound put you outside of that?

I don’t think we fit into anything! We only really played the folky instruments to start with because we went busking around Europe. We experiment with instruments as songwriters…. But we’ve played Cambridge Folk Festival and we had an incredible response. Guy Garvey played the record from there, but interestingly Mike Harding who does the folk for BBC Radio 2 thought we weren’t traditional enough for his show.

I think it appeals to people who don’t do categories. However, I believe that folk is music of the people, songs about the current time, place and culture, not just the keeping alive of old traditions (which is also incredibly important). So when you broaden the boundaries a little, yes, we’re within the ‘folk’ thing I suppose!

After going on tour with a lot of high-profile artists, and appearing at festivals what’s been the career high so far?

I would probably say it was Green Man Festival last year. Pog and James had just left and it was a sad thing at the time but right. It put us in a vulnerable situation as band, a crossroads I think. We played a 1pm set in the Chai Wallahs tent, which is a brilliant stage, but it normally becomes quite sedate and is half empty at this time. We came on stage, and it was packed (people were sitting, however); we started the set a little nervously then Nicola played the most incredible flute solo at the beginning of our song Moonlit Sky that two blokes at the front got up and screamed, then so did the rest of the audience. More people tried to get in and they couldn’t.

The whole place went mental and a lot of people were singing the tunes. We couldn’t believe how this could happen so far from home, such a surprise!

Is your album going to be all new songs or a collection of your favourites that you’ve been touring?

All the songs on the album are brand new ones. However, the album tour will feature old, new, even newer and even older songs!

Was putting an album together more challenging than you’d perhaps imagined?

We’ve made two EPs and two albums so far, and we’ve become better at it. It’s always a little tense, but very enjoyable. Making an album is a way, my favourite way, of collecting memories. The songs you make can then become soundtracks to other people’s memories, and that’s pretty magical.

If you fancy a sneaky pre-album taster, you can listen to Cocos Lovers’ track Feral And Wild. Full album review to follow in a couple of months…

Eleanor Friedberger: Last Summer

Eleanor Friedberger/Flickr

Eleanor Friedberger, whose drawling soulful vocals you may recognise from when she was one half of The Fiery Furnaces with her brother, Matthew, has just released her first debut album, Last Summer.

Transporting you to a world that falls in the no man’s land between folk, soul and pop, where Friedberger’s lyrics flow freely and unpredictably, building pleasingly cliche-free pictures and situations. Some tracks seem to play out more like a film than a pop record.

The vocals are rich and multi-faceted, combining a raspy softness that is intelligent, soulful, sometimes funny, yet always underpinned with a sense of melancholy.

From the awesome foot-tapping bass riff in Roosevelt Island to the soft hopefulness in Angel, and plenty to draw you in between – there is certainly variation and craft here. Not that the album is flawless. The inane repetition of the numbers 2010 in Glitter Gold Year verges on insufferable, and while I do think Friedberger’s voice has many enchanting qualities, in a steady listening of the album from start to finish there are moments when it starts to grate. Perhaps a little more variation would overcome this.

Overall, though, this is a fresh and promising debut as Friedberger the solo artist – it will be interesting to see what she will come up with in the future. A bohemian idol in the making? Perhaps.

Wild Hope: 43 Degrees

Four piece Cambridge band, Wild Hope

Cambridge-based band, Wild Hope have released a new single, 43 Degrees, our now, which reportedly tells ‘a dark and passionate tale of the plight of refugees’ in Somalia.

In support of the charity War Child, the band are donating money from the online sales of their single and from a live performance in the New Year.

The single is full of energy, with an underlying sense of desperation expressed in lyrics which paint a picture of the conditions refugees are facing. So as not to become an altogether depressing three minutes or so, this is offset with upbeat prominent guitar riffs, that are instantly catchy and ensure the song doesn’t become too heavy.

So, there  you have a catchy pop song delivering an important message of awareness, while raising money for the cause in question. That’s total guilt-free listening, I reckon.

You can purchase the track from the band’s Bandcamp page, and follow them on Twitter @WildHopeMusic for updates on their charity gig.

The Thinking Men: Mirror Test

The Thinking Men. Image courtesy of Lauren Razavi.

Three-piece band, The Thinking Men are releasing a new EP, Mirror Test on 7 November.

The EP will be self-released, and is a follows the Norwich band’s earlier single release of Whiskey and Milk which came out in August, and received its very own review.

The band, comprised of two guys and a girl, cite the likes of Tom Waits, Nick Cave and The Doors as their inspiration behind their folky blues-rock. The EP features the already released Whiskey and Milk, as well as tracks I Think, Therefore I Am, Don’t Do What I Do, Just Do What I Say, False Alarm and Sonnet.

There is a surprising amount of variety for just a five track EP, from the funky, plodding base of I Think, Therefore I Am that slowly builds with intensity, to the faster instrumental blend of Don’t Do What I Do, Just Do What I Say, where some growling vocals are really let loose, to the melodramatic False Alarm that would be at home in a Tim Burton film, with the rockabilly feel of Whiskey and Milk and the chilled out, more mainstream Sonnet. While each track greatly differs from the one before it, they are tied together with the masculine, gravelly vocals and the rich instrumentals.

To celebrate the EP, The Thinking Men are holding a launch party at Norwich’s Bicycle Shop on 10 November, and will also be holding a further gig in The Constitution, London on 11 November, if you fancy seeing them in action.

You can also follow the guys on Twitter @TheThinkingMen.

Ethan Ash: All I Need

Ethan Ash. Photo courtesy of Lauren Razavi.

Following a tour around the UK and festival circuits with Ed Sheeran, Ethan Ash is performing in three last shows this winter to promote his new single, All I Need. 

Ethan has previously appeared on Beat The Static last year, for a review of No Early Nights, a track which was picked to be an iTunes ‘Single of the Week’. In addition, he was also picked up by the musical headhunters BBC Introducing. We had a chat with him to find out what life has been like dealing with increasing musical notoriety:

You’ve recently finished touring with Ed Sheeran – how did that go? 

Unbelievable! They were great gigs in lovely venues but it was mainly the audience I remember, they were just incredible. I never expected the terrific reaction I got from them but I loved it. It was great to be able to support Ed again and it was a privilege to be able to meet and play on the same bill as the talented people I met there.

His success with A-Team propelled him to the mainstream pretty quickly – did that happen before or after your organised to tour with him?

I played with Ed about a year ago so I knew him back then but he was becoming more of a mainstream success when I was asked to join him for some dates. But by the time the tour came around he had just blown-up, which was great. He has paid his dues and worked seriously hard and it was nice to be able to celebrate his success.

What’s the best and worst things about being on tour?

The best? Probably getting to play all the time, being in different cities and being on the road; I love it. The worst? Erm, I suppose the fact sometimes it’s difficult to get some personal space because you’re working so close to people for long periods of time. The upside is that it’s often a laugh a minute: also, either eating too much food or absolutely no food.

How would you describe your new single All I Need?

I tried to write it as a feel-good song which people could perhaps relate to but with an upbeat, soul-influenced, acoustic pop sound.

Is it based on a personal experience?

Yes, most of it. Normally when I write I have a certain subject or person in mind but sometimes a single phrase will be about one person and other phrases will relate to someone else. All I Need is about a friend of mine but I think it also reflects a generic experience that most people can relate to.

What made you first decide to be a singer-songwriter on a full-time basis?

I don’t think you really decide to do music. I don’t want this to sound philosophical but in a way you never really choose to do music, it’s more of a need to do it. I’ve been playing guitar since I was six years old and began gigging in my early teens but I decided I wanted to do music full-time about 18 months ago. I made a conscious decision to see how it went for a year but things have just got better and better. I honestly didn’t expect it to go as well as it has done over the last year.

All I Need is available for free download here, if you fancy it. As Ethan says, it is an acoustic pop track with nods to soul, mainly thanks to his raspy vocals, which are almost verging on the Rod Stewart in places. They lend themselves to the life-affirming upbeat message, with plucky guitar strums that make the track a pleasure to listen to.

Sophie Barker: Say Goodbye/A Forest

Singer-songwriter Sophie Barker. Photo courtesy of Blurb PR.

Sophie Barker, who you may have heard as the voice on Simple Things by Zero 7, is due to release a new double A-side single, Say Goodbye/A Forest on October 31.

The single comes as a follow-up to her solo album, Seagull, which came out in May this year, and is also being released through Ho Hum Records. Sophie says both sides of the single represent two different sides of the same woman, one light and laid-back, the other darker and more emotional.

Say Goodbye is the lighter track, with a cheerier beat still underpinned by a sense of longing and melancholy, achieved by Sophie’s emotive, husky voice. A Forest by contrast, goes all out on the dark emotional torment, in a slower, quieter, more sombre tone.

What’s reassuringly refreshing about the double A-side release is that it manages to avoid the clichés that tend to litter so much popular music, which should always be commended.

Sophie is currently touring around the UK to promote the single, culminating with a special Halloween performance on the evening of the official release at the Elgin Pub, 96 Ladbroke Grove, W11. Entry is free and fancy dress is not required – so you can put your tired witch’s hat away for another year.

Eureka Stockade: All Alone

Eureka Stockade, 'All Alone'

Cambridge-based band, Eureka Stockade – whose album I reviewed a little while ago – are back again with a new single All Alone, which is due to be released on November 14 through record label Cracking Tunes.

Downloading the single will get you title track All Alone, a supremely catchy tune of jangling guitar hooks and definite echoes of REM, and Erotomania, a more sombre affair, a throwback to the solid Britpop rock of old. No fussy synths, no remixing, no special effects – these guys have gone back to basics.

Intrigued? You can have a listen now on the band’s Bandcamp page.

Have a read about their previous album, and follow the guys on Twitter @_eurekastockade.