QUARANTINE PROFILE: Jordan Mackampa
We’ve recently launch a new profile series to highlight how artists are spending their time during quarantine. Several times a week we’ll have a new artist featured telling us what they’re up to and what new things they have in store.
You may have been hearing about the newest dream of an album, Foreigner by Jordan Mackampa. Jordan’s debut album dropped on March 13th, just in time for quarantine. Despite the lockdown and many of his exciting world tour plans cancelled for the time being (which we are still trying to accept), he’s been busy playing some soothing live stream concerts from his bedroom in South London. Jordan is one of the sweetest souls and smoothest voices we’ve encountered and we’re super excited to bring you his Quarantine Profile.
Jordan Mackampa Online: Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Spotify
Where have you been spending your quarantine?
In my South London flat, catching up on sleep mainly, as wells trying not to force myself into productivity because of this situation we’re all in - I spend the majority of my time on average doing something, so I’m taking advantage of the fact that I don’t have to do anything at all if I choose!
How have you been staying busy during quarantine?
I’ve been getting back into baking & reading. I used to be a chef so cooking/baking is like second nature for me, I bake most of my desserts blind - thank God for muscle memory right!
Anything new you’ve learned?
How to take better care of my plants! I’m a Taurus, so Earth Signs naturally gravitate to things that need looking after and designing. I’ve also learnt how to give myself a haircut too.
Album you’ve had on repeat:
The latest SIR album has been on for me lot, George Ogilvie dropped a stunner of a debut record a few weeks back, which I highly recommend everyone checks out.
An image keeping Jordan sane right now: wine
What’s your go to song to make you feel less alone? / What’s a song that is your go to comfort jam?
To feel less alone, ’Searching For A Feeling’ by Thirdstory. My comfort jam is ‘BMO’ by Ari Lennox - what a woman!
If you could only watch one film or TV show for the rest of time what would it be?
Brooklyn Nine Nine or Queer Eye.
What’s the best advice you’ve received during this time?
‘There’s no manual on how to deal with a pandemic, do what’s best for you to make you feel ok”
What do you hope we take away from this?
How precious time is, even though we have lots of it, don’t waste it.
QUARANTINE PROFILE: Audrey Mika
Incase you’ve missed it, we’ve launch a new profile series to highlight how artists are spending their time during quarantine.
Round out the week with our third Quarantine Profile featuring Audrey Mika. She’s back with a new bop today to get you dancing in your lockdown, ‘Just Friends’. This is the first release since her EP earlier this year 5 A.M. You may recognize her from her YouTube videos featuring an iconic pink microphone and covering some other pop tunes. Scroll down to see what’s keeping Audrey happy and inspired during the lockdown. Stay safe out there!
Audrey Mika Online: Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Spotify | YouTube
Anything new we should know about that you're working on?
Yes! I'm dropping a new single [‘Just Friends’] this Friday, May 8th. I couldn't be more excited to finally drop some more music during this time!
What's something you miss the most right now?
The beaches and even though I live with my best friends, I miss my friends that I don't live with. I also miss meeting new people.
An image keeping Audrey sane right now: Audrey with Amisha and Mason
If you could only watch one TV show for the rest of time what would it be?
It would definitely be How I Met Your Mother.
Album you've had on repeat:
"Free Spirit" by Khalid
How have you been staying busy during quarantine?
We've been okay. I'm lucky to be able to live with my best friends so we keep each other busy. Writing has been a little tricky but it's the only thing keeping us going.
QUARANTINE PROFILE: MASN
Incase you’ve missed it, we’ve launch a new profile series to highlight how artists are spending their time during quarantine.
I’m back with the second installment of the series featuring Utah based, MASN. If you’re a TikTok addict you’ve probably come across his track ‘Psycho’ in the beginning of quarantine stating accurately the point we’re all close to, “I just might go psycho”. He’s been busy in quarantine working on new music and we’re excited to hear more of the chilled out approach to experimental hip-hop he’s been gracing us with. Scroll down for a window into MASN’s quarantine life.
Anything new you’ve learned?
I'm currently learning to play all of my songs on guitar. This will be awesome once live shows are possible again.
Song you’ve had on repeat:
‘Robbers’ - The 1975. I always have this song on repeat, and always will.
What’s a song that is your go to comfort jam?
“Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right” by Bob Dylan
An image keeping MASN sane right now: driving to open spaces
I already think it’s affecting how we appreciate little things like having friends over or being able to go out and meet people in the city and go to things like gigs and the movies. Also how easy it is to travel across borders. I also think most of us will come out of it with a lot more patience.
If you could only watch one film for the rest of time what would it be?
I would watch Interstellar, mainly because even watching it for the rest of time, I'd still be amazed and confused.
What keeps you happy?
People. The relationships I have and the people around me are essential in my emotional ecosystem and I couldn't live without them.
What’s the best advice you’ve received?
Follow your heart. Never give up. Be yourself. All so cliché but when you really truly look into what these mean, and live by them, you’ll live a dramatically different life. Obviously, though, there are bounds to what’s right and wrong and it's important to still follow good core values when following this advice.
PLAYLIST: May Tunes For Quarantine
We’re back again and hope you’ve been keeping sane out there! The Photo Ladies are back again with our second edition of our monthly playlist, May Tunes For Quarantine. We’re stuck inside (in some places) another month, and we know we all are in need of new tunes. We’ve got you covered with 40 fun tracks we’ve had on repeat. With 100 founding members, and over 1000 Photo Ladies part of our community, we all have a huge variety of musical tastes, and we plan to showcase them each month through our upcoming playlists. Full playlist below, along with some Photo Lady blurbs behind the choices.
“My wife introduced me to John Prine a decade ago when she grabbed his self-titled debut album from a crate of used vinyl at a flea market. Sure, I’d heard “Angel from Montgomery” but I hadn’t yet uncovered the depths of his genius. We got home, took the vinyl for a spin, and the rest is history. We lost him to complications from COVID-19 on April 7th - just a devastating loss for music, America, humanity. I’m immensely grateful for his legacy. Rest easy, John Prine. ”
I can never just play this song once, it has a 2x playback requirement! - Ester Segretto | @estersegrettophotography
This is the perfect quarantine tune to make you think about a bright future...maybe. The thought that there's someone out there for you but you might not have them around yet. It's a refreshing way to think about love. - Carolyn Lederach | @Cled1024
One of the best artists of the last few years is still the one of the best artists of this year. - Victoria Sanders | @veesanders
“This song is getting me through this coronavirus pandemic. It really speaks to me in this difficult time by acknowledging struggle but unmistakably pours out a determination and confidence of hope that’s sure to come. I love songs with that blend of juxtaposition: a true reflection of how life is not so black and white, but rather, lighter/darker greys and a mixture of both ‘either,’ ‘neither’ and ‘or.’ ”
“‘If I could ease your mind,
calm the storm inside
Pull your drifting heart back from a cruel and bitter tide
Show you that tomorrow everything will be just fine
All in due time’
Nothing like an optimistic heavy metal song to lift my spirit up! ”
Melkbelly's a band from Chicago who released their second album in early April on Wax Nine Records. "Kissing Under Some Bats" is their longest songs on the release (most tracks are under 3 minutes long) and is one of my favorites on the new record. - Edwina Hay | @arenotphotos
Ariana And The Rose is an independent artist from New York, and I have especially been feeling her song You Were Never My Boyfriend during my stay at home since quarantine has truly shown which of my potential love interests actually cared or not - Taylor Nettnin | @taylornettnin
“Future bass and crackling glass. - Leave It Be is a new song by KELLALIT, who is a DJ and producer that I have created photo content for... including the album’s cover photo. ”
“Dream pop forward “Emotional Devotion Creator” highlight Peel Dream Magazine’s male/female vocals that wrap around each other like strands of DNA. You get it all in this... fuzzy, shiny, drone-y, and dreamy. ”
Jada Michael’s newest release “Freak” is a phenomenal slow jam, sure to seduce any audience. With her silky voice Michael’s has the raw talent, confidence and polished sound that makes this song even more stunning. - Jessi McKee | @jmckeephotos
Allegra is one of my favorite voices on the planet right now and I am constantly mesmerized by her music. She is releasing her new album soon and this first single is such a delight! - Liz Maney | @lizsmalls
A standard on my playlists since this album came out, “Haunted” is by far a stand out track for me on The Band CAMINO’s album ‘tryhard’. This track blends indie and rock, while not conforming to the traditional standards of music. - Addie Whelan | @addieleewhelan
QUARANTINE PROFILE: SKIA
Hello there! Carolyn here from The Photo Ladies. I hope you’re keeping safe out there during these pandemic times. I’m excited to launch a new artist profile series to highlight how artists are spending their time during quarantine. As we know, this is affecting everyone differently. For some their lives haven’t changed much, some it’s transformed completely. I set out to put this series together to highlight how everyone is spending this time along with with reminder we’re all going through this together.
I’m kicking off these series with Scandipop cutie, SKIA. She’s just released her debut EP ‘Apricot’ today, I’ve had it on repeat this morning and I can assure you it’s a bop. You can catch one of the tunes ‘Anyone’ below. Hailing from Norway and currently residing in Liverpool, SKIA took a few minutes to chat with TPL about what she’s been up to in quarantine.
How have you been staying busy during quarantine?
I’ve been puzzling, listening to a lot of true crime podcasts, skiing and hiking and trying to get myself in shape by working out (with mediocre results) and Facetiming friends! I’ve also been writing some new music and playing some live music over the internet with my band :)
Anything new you’ve learned?
I’ve been trying to get my head around Final Cut Pro for some video editing, not really nailing it yet but practice makes perfect!
Song (or album) you’ve had on repeat:
‘Hungry to Kill’ by Violetta Zironi, ‘Moody’ by maye and ‘Le temps est bon’ by Bon Entendeur and Isabelle Pierre are three songs I have listened to on repeat EVERY day of this quarantine and would 100% recommend them. Beautiful melodies, lyrics and spring feelings all over.
What’s a song that is your go to comfort jam?
At the moment it’s been ‘Top Of The World’ by Carpenters. I love to put it on when I’m in the car.
What do you hope we take away from this?
An image keeping SKIA sane right now
I already think it’s affecting how we appreciate little things like having friends over or being able to go out and meet people in the city and go to things like gigs and the movies. Also how easy it is to travel across borders. I also think most of us will come out of it with a lot more patience.
What’s a puzzle you’ve completed during quarantine?
Right, so I worked on this 3000 piece puzzle for a good 7 weeks, it was a portrait of St. Peter’s Church in Rome and it was really dark and all the pieces looked the same. Me and my sisters nearly finished it but we officially surrendered a couple of days ago which I’m not proud about, but I must say I’m relieved. No more puzzling for me for at least a couple of months.
Anything new we should know about that you’re working on?
My debut EP ‘Apricot’ just came out, and it has been a lot of fun working on that and preparing everything these past couple of weeks. I’m currently working on some new tracks that I hope to release after the Summer! I also have several gigs scheduled, but we’ll see when we’ll be able to play live again! We will be playing DORK’s online festival Homeschool in May though, so keep an eye out for that!!
INTERVIEW: Outsider
Outsider
The Photo Ladies Interview
Singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Seán Ó Corcoráin, who performs under the name Outsider, writes lyrics that reflect Eastern mysticism and Western philosophy, wrapped up in an upbeat and vibrant new wave sound. That is the backbone of his recently released debut album Karma Of Youth (via Ok! Good Records). Having used music as a way to cope with mental health issues in his teen years, he aims to pay that back with his music in the hopes that it will help others with their struggles. Inspired by The Cure, Bauhaus, The Smiths, The Jesus & Mary Chain, Depeche Mode and The Talking Heads (to name a few). The record is described as a metaphysical roadmap for a lost soul and documents the Spiritual Awakening, or Kundalini Awakening, that he experienced last year.
“ I thought I knew what my songs were about for a long time, but it is only recently that they all make complete sense and thus create a metaphysical roadmap. I was misdiagnosed with complex post-traumatic stress disorder (CPTSD), but it turned out this was not the case. In fact, it was just a rebranding of a psycho spiritual experience that modern psychology is still too Freudian to understand and only Karl Jung truly explored.”
Although the meaning behind his lyrics may not connect with everyone, his music has universal appeal with its fun and danceable nature. Ó Corcoráin had been in bands previously, but always in a backing capacity. After the ending of a long-term relationship and band, he found the confidence to put himself out there and started his solo project Outsider, transitioning for the first time into the role of a lead vocalist and sole instrumentalist. In January of 2017, he released his debut track "Late Night Radio", which went on to be featured in the Netflix Original Series 'Shadowhunters'. He signed with Warner Music UK's W Songs and released his breakthrough EP "Míol Mór Mara". The EP has received over 2 million streams and the title track was chosen to be featured in the football simulation electronic video game FIFA 18. It was the first time the Irish language had been used in mainstream gaming and garnered a lot of positive attention and fans for Outsider. A love for the Irish language led him to take the middle ground with his lyrics, infusing his songs with a mixture of English and the Irish language. With Karma Of Youth, he has debuted a strong follow up with widespread and mainstream appeal. You can follow Outsider and stay up-to-date with all upcoming news and music, as well as stream and purchase his music, via the following links.
Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Spotify | iTunes/Apple Music | Google Play | YouTube | Ok! Good Records
You've said that in the past you only wanted to be a bass player and a backing vocalist, but you've since learned various instruments and have become a one man show. What led you to want to start your solo project Outsider and what was it like to transition into the role of a lead vocalist?
That's a long story, actually, so I'll try to tell you the short version. When I was 17, all I wanted to do was be in a band. I heard The Stone Roses and Joy Division and I loved the bass in those bands so I picked up the bass. That's all I wanted to do initially. I had joined a band of older guys and I wanted to sing, but they destroyed my confidence and they pretty much told me I couldn't sing so to not even try. That stayed with me until I was about 28, so a long time. During those years, I learned the guitar and started to explore other instruments. I started songwriting around the age of 25 or 26, but I wouldn't sing my own songs. I would sing them when writing them, but then I would get a lead singer to sing them because my confidence was just shattered. Eventually that lead singer quit the band I was in and I plucked up the courage to just try and sing my first song which was "Late Night Radio". The song ended up getting on really well. I think it's at 300,000 hits on Spotify now and got on a soundtrack, as well. But that was it for me. I was really, really nervous actually singing that song in the studio for the first time. It was a huge journey for me to get to the point where I would be Outsider performing on my own. The reason I perform on my own is because every band I've ever worked with, the other members seemed to want to be in a band but not do the work and not work as hard. The guitarist wouldn't write the guitar lines, so I learned the guitar and would write them for him. And the keyboard player wouldn't write anything for the songs, so I'd write it. That kind-of burned me out, but in the end the band broke up and I thought I had lost everything. But in the end I realized I had gained everything because I could do it all on my own now. So all of that hard work and slog paid off because it was developing the skills and the confidence in me. So I've had a long road to get where I am now.
You have also talked about how music has helped you to deal with your struggles with mental health and that finding bands you could connect with helped you to share that feeling of isolation. How have you gone about trying to pay that back in your own music?
That's a great question. I think that it's incredibly important to write music that is as raw and real as you can possibly do, without being a miserablist. You know with your more shadow-based emotions, your darker emotions. I try to make it uplifting too and balance it. For me, when I was younger...mental health is kind-of a new thing. When I was younger, there was no talk of that and that was the worst for me, when I was a teenager. What saved me was music and listening to bands. You know, there's bands on the radio and it's usually just vacant bubblegum pop, which I like too, but it didn't make me feel like anyone out there understood me. And then I heard bands like The Jesus and Mary Chain. They're a really good example. Or even Bruce Springsteen. Springsteen has some really, really deep stuff. Hearing that, the art form then turns into a life-saving kind of experience. And that's how powerful music is for me. I will never kind-of stand back on that. I don't think it can be overblown how powerful and how important music with real depth and honesty is. I tried to, with my first EP, express that it felt like my life was falling apart so many times. I'm in a great place now, but I tried to put that in the first EP and the response was...a lot of people contacted me. I made a promise, because i was so isolated and at one stage and alone, that if anyone ever talks to me, I will make 100% sure that I get back to them. That's something I have stuck to. It could be Instagram or whatever form of social media. Even in my YouTube comments, people have shared their stories with me. One guy told me how his engagement had broken off and he was just holding on. Another guy, a French guy, got in touch with me and told me this heartbreaking story about how his childhood sweetheart had left him and broke his heart and he was really depressed and his skin was covered in a rash and he just felt a connection with my music. That's just one or two stories. Obviously there's more. A fan wrote me a letter and at the time she was Lauren and I was the first person she told that she would be Matthew from now on. That was just mind-blowing for me. I've had lots of those experiences. It happens and came to fruition, all of this stuff that was going on in my mind when I was writing the EP. I didn't even have a manager or a band. I didn't really have anything. I say that in my mind, that if anyone contacts me, I will be the one to send the last message. It came to fruition for some reason. I'd like to expand that as much as I can going forward. That will be a huge thing for me, making a listener as important as the artist or the creator. I don't know how to develop it at the moment, but it's something that's incredibly important to me. I don't know how you can do it, I suppose, if your audience grows on a huge scale, but I'm pretty sure where there's a will there's a way with this kind-of stuff. That's what I'd love to see. I'd love to feel like the love that's pushed towards the artist at a live show reflected back at the audience as much as possible. I know that sounds idealistic, but that's something I really dream about. It's not about the ego projection for me anymore. That's just dead to me. There's something just bigger in all of this that I'm experiencing.
You started songwriting around the age of 25 and I read that with your EP, your songwriting style was more subconscious and you just wrote whatever came out. With a new album being released soon, have you found that your songwriting process for the album was the same or has it changed?
It's the same process, yeah. I keep that process as much as possible. I love that process and it works for me. It also means that I don't understand my songs until maybe months after I write them. I don't really know what I'm doing, but it always works out so much better. It might be a few months later and I'll realize "Jesus! Oh my god! This is what it means. This is what this song is actually about. This is what I was trying to express". The subconscious is so vast. There's something that processes a long time before your core brain or the analytical mind. I've used that process in this and I will forever. I've found that when I started doing that is when people started to connect with me on an intense level. One guy actually was in Dublin and had flown over from England and went out of his way to meet me at a hotel. He told me his whole life story about how his dad used to be a quite violent man and beat up his mom and we just sat and had coffee and talked for a long time together. I couldn't believe it, but he was just saying how my music connected to something in him, with that suffering and those memories and just had an amazing effect on him. When I get a reaction like that, maybe it's not music for the masses just now, but connections like that are really important to me. I hope it's not always about this suffering. I hope it's not always that dark. I hope I can balance it out with more light. I think I'm going in that direction. I think there is a positive message of overcoming in my music. That's just as important and I don't wanna talk about all doom and gloom. Even with this COVID-19 right now, we're going to experience things that damn near break us and that's when you go to art and that's the cure. It doesn't have to be music, but for me it was music. That's why I do the subconscious writing. It knows so much more than I ever could. That's where creativity comes from. What are we accessing, you know? What were the great poets accessing? It's supposed to be the language of the gods or expressing something of a higher love or a higher nature, something that we only momentarily access in our lives. This stuff gets me. I love it. But yeah, that's why I write that way and am so grateful that I discovered that way of writing. It ends up being...it's not too far out there. It's not like Frank Zappa or anything. I'm not like a psychonaut taking psychedelics and exploring the depths of the subconscious. I just let it breathe as much as possible and try to let my feelings flow into a song. I've noticed, as well, that sometimes having positive core and positive energy to your music and a positive message of overcoming is going to be important right now. I have a feeling about that, you know? I think that's really important with music, as well, that that's included. Sometimes it can be seen as uncool to be kind-of positive. I don't know where that came from, but I have felt that in the past decade, that that's not as edgy. I think you have to have both the dark and the light.
What can you tell me about your new album Karma of Youth? What has it been like to release an album during lockdown, since normally a band would be planning to tour, which isn't happening right now? What has that whole process been like?
It's hard to say. You have to roll with it. I've never found anything I've done to be straightforward when it comes to music, so I don't know. I just roll with it. I'm really thankful that it's not worse and I still get to release my album. Ok, maybe everything is in disarray and I don't get to do a tour, but I don't really know what to say about it. It's just going to flow the way it flows. Whatever happens, happens. I'm not going to complain about it. It's just strange. It's odd. It's hard to know how to confront it or what to say. I hope people who hear it will connect with it and it can serve in some way during this time. I think it could be a great album to listen to, especially at this time, because it's a hell of an adverse situation. You're gonna have to face yourself. A lot of people are going to have to face things they haven't faced in a long time. You're going to spend a lot of time alone. This is a time when you can be driven towards the arts. As far as not being able to do the normal things surrounding an album release, I'm not a fan of the normal things anyways! I think I was talking to my publicist about this. You can probably tell by now that I'm quite spiritual, but it's all in the flow for me. That's what it is. I just go back to that. It's just in the flow and you can get really anxious or worried or down about these things, but that doesn't happen to me anymore. I'm just accepting that whatever happens, happens. I could see it being a positive thing for my style of music, to enter the kind-of collective consciousness to serve people in that way. It has that feeling of overcoming in a really dark time. I think it balances the dark and the light quite well and I think it has that feeling of overcoming suffering or of acknowledging and facing suffering. So yeah, that's how I'm feeling about it right now. It's all in the flow.
You have said that you weren't always spiritual and never really wanted to be but it just kind-of arrived at your door. You experienced a bit of a spiritual awakening last year, so what can you tell me about your journey into spirituality and why it's important for you to let the spirit, mind and body connect and how it all ties into your music?
We could talk for another hour on this! That's a great question. I suppose I was just a normal guy or whatever. I wasn't spiritual at all last year. To say not at all, I still had practices that were spiritual. A lot of Eastern practices now have been rebranded in Western terminology to make them more, you know, palatable or acceptable or easy to digest for Westerners. They'll be reframed in scientific terminology, like mindfulness or visualization, and it will turn out that it stemmed from Hinduism or Taoism or something ancient from the East. That's what I'm starting to see a pattern of. I was training in Muy Thai, so I had spiritual practices but didn't see them as spiritual practices. This whole thing really blew up for me when I experienced a spiritual awakening in July of last year. Most people say not to tell anyone about this, but I don't care anymore. If you're familiar with Kundalini or Kundalini yoga. It's not the same thing but they call it a Kundalini Awakening in Hinduism and Spirit of The Valley in Taoism...there's a number of different names for it. Basically it's like blockages to your chi energy. I didn't know what chi energy was. Or blockages to your chakras. Electromagnetic energy runs to your spine. It sounds out there. I wouldn't have believed it if you were telling me this, if it hadn't happened to me, but it happened to me and it's real. Anyone who knows me knows I would have been pretty straight laced and, I don't know, erred on the side of conservative science maybe. Well, conservative with science maybe, but I wasn't conservative otherwise. I was definitely a little conservative about spirituality until this happened. That was my experience, and it was so overwhelming and influenced my life. I looked back at my songs and even when "Miol Mor Mara" came out, on my first EP, my friend who made the video was like "I just love all of the Hindu references in it" and I was like "What are you talking about with Hindu references? I don't know anything about Hinduism". There was a spiritual energy to my music before I had any interest or awakening, so it was going in that direction. Even the song "Saviour" I think was a premonition of this awakening that was coming. A lot of Kundalini yoga practitioners would know what I'm talking about. Or Hindu. This is bread and butter for Hindus. I have a friend who is a journalist in Dehli and when I told her about this, she didn't bat an eyelid. She was like "Ok. You should do this, this and this" and it was so normal. If you tell someone in Ireland or the West, they'll tell you that you need to go see a doctor or a therapist. I have years of therapy done and am as happy as I've ever been in my life. Unbelievably happy. It's hard to explain, but that's the bones of it. There's lots about it online and as with any subject, there's loads of lies and misinformation about it online. It's like, if you're into it, cool and if you think it's a load of rubbish, cool. It doesn't really matter. I feel like being honest about it. I don't feel like living my life anymore where I'm keeping some secret. I'm an artist. Salvador Dali was as weird as it gets. David Bowie was out there. I look at them and feel it only takes a matter of time before people just accept you're a weirdo. Well, not a weirdo but that you're out there. I don't mean to label anybody. People are just going to have to accept that about me and hopefully they see it as a good thing. I'm not selling anything, you know, apart from my music. I'm not selling any...I'm kind-of into the anti-guru. I don't like gurus. I'm not trying to convince anyone of any one faith. I like Hinduism and Taoism. I like them all and any spirituality. I love science. I love atheism. I love listening to atheists. I'm not attached to anything and I'm not trying to attach anything to anyone else. This is just all happening to me and I'm experiencing it, and if it serves others and my music, great. I feel like it's raising my consciousness and making me happier. If I can do that through my art, which great artists have done forever and I see it in art everywhere, then great. That's the direction I want to go. I'm still working. I still have a day job as most musicians now have, who aren't mainstream. It's just a tough time at the moment. This isn't something I talk about at random, but it is important to my art and to my music and I think it's important to humanity. And it doesn't have to be called anything. You can frame it any way you want. I don't have to talk about any particular religion or spirituality. I just want to express myself and say how I feel. You definitely have to pay homage to...if you have a spiritual awakening in the West, and you tell people about it, if it's in India they're like "Awesome. I'm really proud of you", and if it's in the East, they're like "Jesus. That's great". But in the West, they tell you that you need to take medication and that happens a lot. They just don't understand it. Western psychology is absolutely fantastic, though, in processing trauma for people. It's wonderful. I'm a huge fan of Western psychology. I think Eastern mysticism or spirituality and Western psychology needs to be reconciled as much as possible. Everyone needs to open up to that a little bit. That's something I'd like to bring to the table if possible. That sounds incredibly ambitious but that's the power of art, isn't it?
You have a deep love of the Irish language which developed when your grandfather spoke it around you as a child. You have said that there are those who are staunch about speaking the language and those who have no interest. Why do you feel you connected so strongly to the language and ultimately get your degree to teach the language? Why is the Irish language so special to you?
You're bringing back so much for me. This is such a deep question. My grandfather would speak Irish when I was a kid. He wasn't a fluent Irish speaker. He would just speak some phrases so that kind of, I feel, ignited a sentimentality about the language for me. In my day job I'm a teacher. You have to teach it here in Ireland, so that kind-of went hand in hand, as well. I developed just a love for it because it is a beautiful language. It's so old and ancient and mystical. I especially loved with "Miol Mor Mara", that means 'giant beast of the sea', literally. It means whales in English, but that's not what it means in Irish. The language is really ancient and almost like reading Tolkien or something. It has beautiful poetry to it. Basically, after colonization by the English, although we now have 20,000 people speaking the language, we weren't allowed to speak our language. That was punishable. I'm pretty sure the famine...it wasn't a famine, it was a genocide...but we won't get into the politics of it. The Irish people were crushed. Their identity was crushed, but we rebelled and got most of our country back. The language was nearly crushed, so I feel like there are people who are really staunch and want to speak Irish all of the time. And then there are people who...it's a really difficult language to speak, so they are scared to try. I'm going to sound like Buddha now, but I like the middle way. I like the idea of the middle way. I love Pixies and the way they'd have some Spanish phrases in their songs. That's what I wanted to do, and you'll find Irish words peppered in my songs. Sometimes they won't be and sometimes they will be. It just depends. I have a really good song that I'm really looking forward to. I'm just finishing it up in the studio. It has a lot of Irish references. It actually references Che Gueverra and the Irish Rebellion and taking back of the free state. The song for some reason is about all of that. It runs deep in our blood. That's what I grew up with. We're only free really 100 years from colonization. I think this generation has kind-of forgotten it, but for me it wasn't forgotten at all. When I was growing up, the troubles in Northern Ireland were still happening. There were still bombs going off and people still killing each other. There was still a war between Catholics and Protestants. It was never about religion. It was about land and power and basically why the hell are you stealing our country, you know? I don't really want to get into the politics of it all because, I don't know. It's not the way forward. Love is the way forward, as cheesy as it sounds. Even my manager, who's from London, born and bred, he didn't know what the language was in my songs. He loved my music and was like "What's this language? I love it". He thought it was maybe Latin. He didn't know the Irish had a language and he's from London. That said a lot to me. English people aren't taught in school about their history of colonization. My manager Rich is one of the nicest people I've ever met in my life and I love him. He's great. It's like, how do we move forward from all of this? I'm going down a road I don't want to go down now, but it is something where I would hate to see Irish completely lost. The best way to reclaim it is through middle ground and true art. Definitely true art. We have traditional Irish music and an Irish speaking tv channel here and stuff, but it's not working. Whatever they're doing, it's not working. They need to, as Buddha would say, find the middle way here. That's what I'm trying to do with that. I'm just going to do whatever I want. I spent my life kind-of caring too much what people think. You know, you kind-of try to fit in. I just don't fit in, so I may as well accept it. I just don't care anymore. I'm going to do whatever the hell I want. The subconscious writing, it all connects. I work from how I feel and I don't care if it makes sense or not. I don't care if it suits an agenda or not. I don't care. I've never been happier since I've started to work that way and that's a message that I'd love to spread. I really hope that energy is in my music.
You also had a teacher in secondary school who you said encouraged you to develop an understanding of lyrics and poetry and you've talked about your love of lyrics. What do you love about the process of writing lyrics for your songs and what role does poetry play in your songwriting?
You're gonna make me emotional! Yeah, there was a teacher. With "Brotherhood", I think I talked about that briefly, about masculinity and this idea that, and even see it with some females, that crying is a weakness or something. For me, it's the exact same as laughter. It's the same release. For me, there's no difference anymore. You laugh, you cry-whatever. Yeah, when I was growing up I didn't feel like I was getting much encouragement or praise for anything, anywhere, that I would do. I definitely didn't believe I was good at anything. There was one teacher, Jim Minogue was his name...I don't know what I did. I think he got us to write a poem. He was kind-of a free spirit and was really out there. We liked him and you weren't supposed to like teachers. I didn't like a lot of teachers. I was in a Christian Brothers school and I didn't like it at all, actually. When I was 13, one of my friends who was 15 got stabbed in that school. There was just a bad vibe in that school. That was my memory of it anyway. Anyways, he encouraged me and just kept saying I was a poet and could write great lyrics. He just kept encouraging me to do it. He told me I should write poetry, that I could do it, that I was really poetic. Actually, it was my understanding when he would go through John Keats or Shakespere or something like that, I was just lit up. I'd never felt like that before. I was on fire. It was amazing! John Keats...I haven't read him in years. He hit me so hard. It was fucking unbelievable! It was like music had just helped me to survive or something. Ireland can be a hyper-macho society. Like Conor McGregor would be typical of an Irish kind-of guy...generally. Not all guys, but typical of where I grew up. Poetry, etc wouldn't exactly have been looked upon as a cool pastime anyways, but I stuck with it and he lit that fire in me. Just that encouragement was important, because I could have encountered it but not have had anybody encourage it and it would have just fell by the wayside. I wouldn't have believed it had any worth. I would have been ashamed of it or something, you know? He really had a good, positive energy from it. It's absolutely huge to have that. I don't think he even realized the effect he's had on my life. I remember I was listening to "Black Dog" by Led Zeppelin when I was 14 and I decided to write my own lyrics to the song. I used the melody from "Black Dog" and wrote the lyrics. I remember showing my brother and he was like "No way! You didn't write that!" and was like "Yes I wrote that man!" and he was like "That's the best fucking thing I've ever read! I didn't know you could do that". When you're 14, writing lyrics can blow someone's mind. I continued to do that and then started to write songs, but then after a long time I realized the melody should come first. If you are using a lot of poetic lyrics and consonants, it chokes your melody, unless you're going to use a lot of baritone. Now I kind of hum it and add the lyrics later. Yeah, they're always important to me, but I've become less flowery over time and more raw. I do have an affinity for trying to have a poetic turn of phrase or colorful words or language, but if it's simple and gets the message across, that works for me too. Is it enjoyable? Over time it's become a labor of love. I've learned not to be so hard on myself with lyrics. Sometimes I can really judge my own lyrics harshly. So, I do enjoy it when I feel like I've done something good, but the process can be difficult because I won't allow a lyric if it doesn't feel right to me. That can end up taking months and then they'll haunt me. There are lyrics in songs that I feel like I just put in. Like one or two. It's very minute. That would haunt me if I feel like something isn't 100%. It's something I've worked hard to let go on. The thing you love can become that thing that overwhelms you, whereas if you are just playful and let go, you'll create the best energy. I feel like you'll create the most emotionally charged and honest music. You know, I just admire some lyricists so much. Like Echo and The Bunnymen and Ian McCulloch's lyrics. I love Frank Black's lyrics. I think he was so far ahead of his time. I think he is so spiritually tuned in and doesn't know it. The stuff he was writing about back then is so important now, like climate change, like "Monkey Gone To Heaven", which has beautiful lyrics. He used numerology and was way out there with spiritual concepts. The more I read about him, the more I just admire him. I saw in a documentary that he has some mental health issues. I often wonder if he had a spiritual practice if he could be a much happier person. That song "Bird Dream of the Olympus Mons" from Trompe le Monde...the lyrics in that are as good as anybody out there. I don't care what anyone says. The concept that he has this dream and thinks he's a bird and flies over the Olympus Mons, the volcano on Mars. I don't know if you are familiar with the song, but you should listen to it. The whole concept is so melancholic and so beautiful and so astral, as well. I could talk about it forever. There's just some things that Frank Black does. He's so underrated if you really look into his lyrics. I find him astounding. I know there's Leonard Cohen and there are lyricists like Nick Cave that everyone considers the serious guys that write the real poetry. I don't always think that's true, by the way. I think there are some lyricists that go under the radar and Frank Black is definitely one of them. I think, and it took me a while to understand how much Kurt Cobain's lyrics went under the radar...I think he used to slate them himself. I'd leave it until the last minuet, you know? He probably got these subconscious flows of lyrics. When I look at them now, I can find so much meaning in them. And they seem sometimes almost a little bit throw away, but if you give them a chance, and there's some songs where if you just give them a moment and look a little bit deeper into them, there's just something so powerful about them. I think that really poetic and technical lyrics can be a little bit...at first glance you can think they are so beautiful. There's other lyricists where if you give them a little bit of time, they can potentially be much more powerful.
You have said that upon reflecting on 2019, that it's only this year that you are discovering your true self. You have also said that artists can choose certain paths, that they can idolize success as a figure of accolades or use it as a way to find their purpose. What do you feel has set you on the path to finding your purpose and what do you feel that you have learned about your true self?
That's a hell of a question! That's something you can get easily embroiled in and I've seen it everywhere in the music "industry", where you start out loving art and all of a sudden it becomes this business and ladder of success and you're counting up your achievements by your number of followers you get and all of a sudden that becomes more important than the art along the way. You may have had this purpose at the very beginning. If I really was to be honest with myself right now, this purpose I've found is definitely aligned with my awakening. It's like you're finding yourself again and that feeling of the reason you fell in love with music or a certain song or art. That feeling that just made you feel not just stimulated, but you are feeling something on a huge energy level. You are feeling something spiritual. You don't have to call it that. It doesn't matter what you call it. Take spirituality out of the equation if you'd like. But everybody knows you're feeling something that you just can't describe and it's probably changing your life. In lots of instances, it's definitely saving people's lives. For me, that's the top of the mountain. That's the ladder, to create something that affects someone like that. When I say finding myself, I suppose I spent...relating back to the story where I was told I couldn't sing, I found it very hard to find my identity because I didn't feel...I didn't grow up in an environment where you're praised or comfortable with being yourself. Maybe that's why it's a huge thing for me now. I don't care what anyone thinks and am just going to do whatever I want. I didn't feel like I was allowed to be myself. You would be heavily criticized for being in any way different. It makes it very hard to step into your own identity. It took me a long time to do that. So yeah, I didn't grow up in an environment where I could freely express myself. I just didn't. I wouldn't say I'm envious, but I can see it in other artists. Maybe it's a class thing. I grew up working class. Maybe you grow up middle class or upper class. You'd be in a more educated and understanding environment. Definitely a more secure environment. Maybe I'm wrong. I could be corrected. There would be more of a chance of you growing up and supporting your artistic endeavors. Working class environment is typically more about the bottom line. You have other concerns and priorities. You can't prioritize art. I've found that making guitar music is a very middle class endeavor. It really can be you know. For me, with my first EP, I put all of my money into that. If that didn't go well for me or there wasn't any return, that was it for me. I couldn't afford to do that again. That was it for me. I didn't have a wealthy family to fall back on. It's taken me a long time to become who I am. So yeah, I am only stepping into it this year. I'm 36 now. Sometimes I feel like...Kurt Cobain was dead at 27 and I hadn't even sung yet! But that's it. I just have to accept myself. This is who I am. Once you can accept that, then you can move forward and hopefully create something great. It's been a long road for me. It's been a really long road for me. Music is an ego projection. I did get embroiled in that like everyone else, where you want to be the most successful. I mean, of course I want to be successful. I'm not saying that I don't, but there's an ego trap in it. There's a trap in becoming attached to this person that you think you are. You also, I see it a lot where you become this star. It's an incredibly bullshit word, because everyone in that room where you are playing that music is just as important as you, in my mind. I can't really figure it out yet, but I will figure out how to level the playing field a bit. I just feel there's an energy. You can tell the artists who are worshipping their audience in return. You can always feel that, you know? They're the best gigs I've ever been to. The energy in the room is great. You know when an artist is just so thankful for every person in that room. Everybody can feel that energy and it just charges up the whole room. I've seen The National do that and I saw Joe Strummer do that before he died. I've seen The Pixies do that actually. You can feel that energy and that's something that's important to me. I don't have these huge answers yet, but I don't think I need them. You just need the intention to do things differently. That's what I see in my future. We'll see where it all goes.
What's next for you? You'll be releasing your album soon, but what are your plans going forward?
We're in lockdown! There's a lockdown coming up! They say gigs aren't going to back until 2021. I mean, they aren't going to let schools back until September it looks like. I can't imagine 80,000 people in a stadium being a good idea. So yeah, I'm going to write and hopefully get back into the studio soon, but for the foreseeable future, I'm on a 2 kilometer lockdown, so I don't really know. I think everybody is in that zone of uncertainty right now. It's just business as usual for me and whatever comes up comes up. I'll take every day as it comes. I haven't a clue what's going to go on, but I do know that I'm going to continue to write songs and write music. Hopefully the lockdown doesn't affect things too adversely. If it does, it does and that's the way it's going to go. I have nothing to plug, apart from my album, which I'm happy to be able to do! There was a suggestion on holding off on the release. I suggested that, wondering if we should hold off, but the label said they didn't see why we should, and I love that attitude. I feel like my music is really soundtrack-y and I think there may be some soundtracks coming up, so that's something. We'll see what happens with gigs. A tour of America would be awesome.
INTERVIEW: Charles Fauna
Charles Fauna
The Photo Ladies Interview
Brooklyn based songwriter, producer and performer Charles Fauna has a sound that is described as euphoric, colorful alt-pop that explores themes such as death, anxiety, loneliness and existentialism. His goal is to challenge the notions of popular music, moving past the typical romance and revelry into the realm of empathy and self-awareness. He began his solo endeavor early in 2017 and has been featured in publications such as Billboard, NYLON, Idolator, EARMILK and Noisey. Having grown up with a father who worked as a television producer, he was exposed to the entertainment industry at a young age and learned to play a variety of instruments throughout his childhood. Rather than ever being focused on the theory of music, his interest leaned more towards the art of storytelling that would allow him to reach people with a story and think about things. Since his teen years, he has been writing and recording music in his home studio. Initially from LA, he moved to NY to study sociology at NYU, ultimately moving to Brooklyn to explore his passion for music and songwriting. He released his debut EP Eulogy in 2018, which was inspired by a hit-and-run accident he witnessed in Brooklyn and explores the issues of self-esteem, mental health and why we exist. He recently released his debut full length album Yonder on April 17th via Sleep Well Records. Yonder follows a sliver of humanity selected to leave a devastated, apocalyptic Earth behind to start a new community on Mars called "Project Yonder." The 16 year old protagonist questions humanity and is appalled by her fellow travelers who refuse to reflect on the selfish excessiveness and gluttony that led to Earth's inhabitability. Rejecting "Project Yonder" and its patrons, she steals a small spaceship and sets off in search of a more forward-thinking environment. Eventually she discovers planet Neon Eden, a nirvana with pink skies, lush fields of lavender and orange and bioluminescent wildlife. Perfection? Not quite. Living in paradise without family, friends and even those she held in disdain, is not the answer. In the end she returns to civilization with a renewed appreciation for what drives humanity -- interpersonal connection, community and love. You can follow Charles Fauna and stay up-to-date with all upcoming news, as well as stream and purchase his music, via the following links:
Website | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Spotify | SoundCloud | iTunes/Apple Music | YouTube | Deezer | Google Play
You will be releasing your debut full-length album ‘Yonder’ on April 17th and have hope that the album, and the concepts found within, can be used to help build a community and conversation in this time of social distancing. What can you tell me about the process of making the album and what role do you feel that music currently plays in bringing people together? How did you go about deciding which songs to release as singles ahead of the album’s release?
The entire concept from the very beginning of Yonder was commonality; bringing people together over things that we mutually experience. My idea was to do this by exploring concepts that are infinitely bigger than we are as people; God, spirituality, love, death etc. I wanted the main character to be deeply yearning for something more, some greater connection. I personally am not religious in any way, but I do believe in unknowable natural forces which humans might experience as “god.” I had hoped that the protagonists journey might speak to some people who feel lost in their own lives. And that this might be the common feeling that unites listeners of this record: wanting something profound, but not necessarily knowing what that even is. Music is one of few modes of expression that can enable this sort of bond between strangers. It’s storytelling at its most purely emotional, and explicitly primal. As for the singles, we always knew that Apollo and Listen would be out first because they were finished first and, at least for me personally, showed the most promise.
The theme of your album is about a 16 year old protagonist who leaves a devastated planet earth to form a new community on Mars called Project Yonder, only to leave and discover the paradise of Neon Eden, then realizing that living without those she loves and even disdains is not the answer. How did you develop the concept for the album and how do you feel it mirrors today’s society? With an appreciation for the interpersonal connection, community, and love that drives humanity, what examples of those qualities can you see in the world currently and what do you see as our biggest challenges?
The greatest illusion in our world is separation. We are all one people, but we live as if divided. Be it the borders of nations, the doctrines of religions, or the colors of our skin, people BELIEVE themselves to be different from others. To me this is our biggest challenge, and one that I try to address on Yonder by trying to make all of our earthly concerns seem irrelevant. The earth is literally left behind in the first song of the record and the main character is forced to wrestle with the beyond, the cosmos, the infinite nothingness of the universe, and come out on the other side with some meaning. I wanted to tell a story in music that made other records seem simple and narrow-minded. I wanted to leave behind the typical subject material of popular music and delve into a more philosophical space, where the listener could experience the euphoria of uplifting, fun, colorful pop while still considering forces above and beyond their control. Early on I began toying with imagery of outer space and this eventually became the perfect place to set my story.
Why was it important for you for ‘Yonder’ to have characters and a beginning, middle, and end to tell a story that your listeners could really get lost in?
I have always been spellbound by the tradition of storytelling. I used to run around my parents back yard as a kid telling stories to myself, completely disappearing into worlds of my own design. When it came time for me to finally make a record and say something with my art, it was important to me to provide this kind of experience to other people. I did not want to simply compile my 10 best songs and release them, I wanted to go the extra mile and create a place, an environment for the listener to get absorbed in. Those were the records I loved most as a kid and so that’s the first kind of record I made when it was my turn. Whether it actually worked or not, I suppose time will tell!
What can you tell me about the artists and inspiration behind the artwork for your singles, as well as your album artwork?
I was fortunate enough to collaborate with an incredible visual artist for the look of Yonder. Kamtin Mohager of the musical project The Chain Gang of 1974 developed the visual aesthetic for the record with me. We wanted it to be ethereal, beautiful and dream-like. The idea of clouds, specifically clouds shot from a lower angle, were the way to go. It gives the impression of someone looking up, longing for something, and being small against the massive wonder of the sky.
Your 2018 debut EP ‘Eulogy’ was recorded at your Brooklyn home and mixed at various studios across the five Burroughs. Did you approach the recording of ‘Yonder’ in the same way?
Yes, both Yonder and Eulogy were recorded in similar ways in that they were each entirely recorded and produced by me. I work from home, and mostly by myself. When a song or handful of songs are done I’ll usually take them to a studio to get some fresh input from my friends and to add a few bells and whistles. Yonder made its way to a handful of studios, and saw many different track listings and mixes. The one I settled on is the result of a lot of people’s hard work and I am very grateful to them!
With regards to your song “Abandon”, you have said that it shows you don't have to stay comfortable and complacent in life and that if you abandon what you know, then all that’s left is what you don’t, which can open up a world of limitless new beginnings. What led you to abandon what you knew for the unknown and what new beginnings have you experienced?
The philosophy of ‘Abandon’ is still very present in Yonder. What inspired me to write and say those things was frustration. I felt stuck, stagnant. I was trying so hard to get what I wanted but not seeing any results. I became down on myself and on my work, and started to believe I was inherently not good enough. Abandon was me hitting a wall and then realizing “this wall doesn’t actually exist.” It was a rallying cry to myself that things didn’t have to be this way, and that just because things weren’t turning out how I envisioned didn’t mean that they wouldn’t turn out at all. That I had the power to change my own life and no one else. That idea is something I still grapple with and is all over the new record.
You studied sociology at NYU and have said that you’ve always been fascinated by people, social trends and human behavior. What do you find the most interesting about people and their behavior and what have you been most surprised by? In what ways do you feel that your studies have influenced your view of societies and your songwriting?
My degree in sociology can both positively and negatively impact my songwriting. On the one hand it gave me the tools to view human behaviors on a macro scale, observing trends from which meaningful emotional information can be gleaned. On the other hand sociologists tend to look at things in huge, broad strokes; often missing the day-to-day details that make stories so engrossing. The thing I find most interesting about us is that despite our historical tendencies towards fear and violence we also desperately need each other. We crave connection in various ways yet are loathe to admit it. We see ourselves as above the natural world yet we are very much apart of it; animals who have conquered the earth with our minds, yet who are still beholden to it.
You recently did a remix of the song “Gold” by IYVES. What can you tell me about that experience and how the opportunity came about? What do you enjoy about the process of remixing other artist’s tracks and do you have more planned for the future?
IYVES is a friend of mine in the Brooklyn music scene. I’ve always been a fan of her music and when I heard she was in need of some remixes for her new single “Gold” it was a no-brainer. My whole angle with remixes is to take the song as far in a different direction as the artist will allow. I love showing people alternate versions of their music and themselves.
You have said that when you were growing up and realized music was something you really wanted to pursue and we’re good at, that you were less interested in learning about music theory and more focused on storytelling. What inspired your love of storytelling and how how do you go about incorporating storytelling in your songwriting? In what ways has songwriting broadened your mind?
My love of storytelling comes from my love of being told a story. I love not only getting lost in stories but understanding stories: how they work, what aspects of a story make the audience feel something, how certain stories survive and are cherished more than others. Every time I sit down to watch a movie or a tv show I imagine a group of people trying to communicate an idea or feeling to me and study the ways in which they go about that. Stories ARE culture. Songs are often stories told in miniature with profuse emotional output. By writing a song you are inadvertently embodying the role of the storyteller, which to me is very much connected to our heritage as human beings. It fulfills me in the truest sense of the word.
After the release of your ‘Eulogy’ EP, you discussed working on music that was not your own for a few months in an effort to broaden your portfolio as a producer and composer. How did you become interested in producing and composing and what can you tell me about those aspects of your music career?
Composing became my job because it was a way to get paid for doing what I love. I still consider myself to be a bit of a novice when it comes to composing for film and tv, it’s an entirely different creative process than personal songwriting. I had some friends working at various media companies that were always asking me to send them unused demos. Eventually I did and a few of those connections turned into regular freelance gigs. At some point it became possible for me to do that and live off of it. Any job that lets you live off of your creative efforts is a gift, and when I realized I could do it full time I dove right in. Still working on it, but am very grateful.
What inspired the idea for your On The Spot videos, where people give you a genre and a topic and you write a song on the spot? They sound fun! How has the response been?
The On the Spot videos exist because making up songs and voices on the spot is something I do for fun anyway. My close friends will tell you that I am a relentless goofball. I am constantly making stupid voices, botched impressions or making fun of things at the piano. I decided to challenge myself and put this unseen skill to the test by trying to see how fast I could do it. The response has been really cool! More often than not it makes people laugh and that makes my whole day.
With regards to your track “Listen”, what led you to partner with local schools to ask kids ”what do you wish people knew about you?”. What did you take away from that experience?
The kids’ responses were at once heart warming and heart breaking. It makes you realize how astute most children are, how full of desire they can be. I saw myself in so many of their answers and that was the most profound thing. I was grateful for their honesty.
What’s next for you?
After Yonder there will be a second album. I’m already working out a track list for that. But until things calm down and become safer in the world I’ll continue to create for anyone who is kind enough to listen.
INTERVIEW: The Buckleys
The Buckleys
The Photo Ladies Interview
The Buckleys, a chart-topping Australian sibling trio comprised of Sarah Grace Buckley (vocals/guitar), Molly Buckley (vocals/mandolin/fiddle) and Lachlan Buckley (electric guitar/slide guitar), perform what has been dubbed "Hippie Country", an energetic blend of country, rock n roll, soul and pop. Having officially formed in 2011, a trip to the Tamworth Country Music Festival had them winning a busking competition without even knowing they had entered! The win afforded them the opportunity to perform the next day on the main stage top thousands of people. At only 20, 19 and 17 years of age, the trio have graced popular stages across Australia and The US, have won two American Songwriting Awards and collaborated with various renowned Nashville and LA based producers and songwriters. Last year, The Buckleys signed a Global recording deal with Chris Murphy's Petrol Records, as well as Universal Music Group. Only the second band to be signed to the label after INXS, they released their debut single "Daydream" soon after, a song written by Sarah and ACM Award winning songwriter Phil Barton and Kelleigh Bannen in Nashville. The single was accompanied by a music video that starred Australian actor Brenton Thwaites, whose acting credits include Pirates of The Caribbean. This year will see the release of The Buckley's debut album Breathe, an album that was produced in Nashville by two time Grammy Award winning producer and engineer Chad Carlson (Taylor Swift). With a number of Australian and US festivals under their belt and collaborations with hit songwriters, the siblings are well on their way to fulfilling their lifelong dream of writing and performing music. In the wake of tour cancellations due to the Coronavirus, CM Murphy worked with Universal Music Group and LiveNation to help the Buckleys launch a successful virtual tour of North America, reaching over 370,000 fans! They will next take their virtual tour to South America, Europe, The Middle East, Asia, Australia and New Zealand...all from their home in Byron Bay. Check out their remaining tour dates below. You can follow The Buckleys and stay up-to-date on all upcoming news, as well as stream and purchase their music, via the following links:
THURSDAY April 23 @ 6pm GMT+3
Middle East - https://www.facebook.com/LiveNationME/
FRIDAY April 24 @ 6pm GMT+8
Bangkok, Thailand - https://www.facebook.com/livenationth/
China - https://b-m.facebook.com/livenationchina/
Malaysia - https://www.facebook.com/livenationmy/
Singapore - https://www.facebook.com/livenationsg/
SATURDAY April 25 @ 6pm GMT+9
Japan - https://www.facebook.com/livenationjapan/
Korea - https://www.facebook.com/livenationkorea/
THURSDAY April 30 @ 6pm GMT+10
Australia & New Zealand - https://www.facebook.com/LiveNationOzNz/
Website | Facebook | Instagram | Spotify | iTunes/Apple Music | YouTube
Hi! How is your day so far?
Sarah- Fantastic actually! We just wrapped up the second show of our virtual tour with LiveNation!
Molly- It's Easter over here, as well!
I know you were planning to head out on tour this month, but obviously with the Coronavirus, tours are being cancelled worldwide. What can you tell me about the idea behind the virtual tour that you are currently wrapping up, and how have you gone about trying to give the audiences a personalized experience from your home?
Sarah- Totally! Well, like you said, we, like everyone else, are just restructuring what the rest of the year looks like and what we're going to do. We love playing shows...it's our favorite thing to do. We didn't want to go without playing any. I think it's important, because although we love playing them, for the people watching them, that's a massive void to me that needs to be filled. Just seeing live music, and feeling that energy and buzz...I love going to shows so it's a real bummer missing out on that.
Molly- With this concept of the virtual tour...and a massive shout out to LiveNation for making it happen...is that we are doing these personalized shows. They're going to be different each time we do them. And it's cool, because each city, as well, has a different kind-of music taste, I guess. The next shows we're doing will be in Tennessee and New Orleans, which we love, so we're going to change our set to kind of cater to that audience, as well.
Sarah- Yeah! It's as if we are going on the road, except we're just doing it online with LiveNation and Facebook pages around the world, and House of Blues, as well. So yeah...it's been really, really exciting!
You all perform music that's been described as 'hippie country'. What can you tell me about how you went about developing your sound and the message you aim to convey through your music?
Sarah- Yeah, the 'hippie country' thing kind-of came about by accident. We just love playing music and were brought up being influenced by so many different genres. Our dad is a musician, so we've had his influence, as well as our mom's, with everything from Frank Sinatra to The Eagles to Jon Bon Jovi and The Rolling Stones. We listen to everything and we love all of the different kinds of music we've been exposed to!
Molly- And as we've traveled through Australia and The US, people just randomly started saying that we had a cool, hippie country sound. We'd never heard of that term but thought it sounded cool, so we decided to just run with it.
Sarah- We just want to be authentic and not try to fit in any particular label, per say. It's just kind-of comes out. Our goal is to just write the best music we possibly can and to play the best music we can. So yeah, that just happens to be what comes out with us being our total authentic selves at this point in time!
When I think of Australia, I don't typically think of country music. What can you tell me about the country music scene in Australia and what drew you to that genre? What do you love about country music?
Sarah- Growing up, we always listened to Patsy Cline and Casey Chambers, who is a big artist over here. The industry and the genre is definitely growing over here, but it isn't as mainstream in the culture as it is in say the South or in the US. Our dad really made sure we got introduced to country music, especially when we were growing up with a lot of parties...he was like "How do I get them away from this" (laughs). He had been to Tamworth Country Music Festival quite a few times before we came into the world, so he wanted to get us to Tamworth.
Molly- And busking! We started busking when I was about...the first time we went busking, properly when we first started playing music, I think I was 11 years old and we busked on the street. Dad was in a rock and roll band in the 80s, as well, so he probably saw country music as a bit safer and wholesome with the family values (laughs)! In terms of what we listened to, they played a lot of country music around the house. They love country music. We always loved Nashville and wanted to get there. It's been fantastic just discovering new music.
You all traveled to Nashville for the first time right out of high school. You have talked about how your goal had always been to make it to Nashville since you were really young, so what was that like for you when you finally made it there, especially being so young?
Molly- Yeah, well Sarah and I always had a dream to go to Nashville ever since we were really little. The goal was to get there by the time Sarah was 16.
Sarah- Yeah, so we got there when I was 16. It was amazing! It's an amazing city and we love going there as much as we can. And just the buzz and the energy and music 24/7...that was just something that was like wow! There's literally loud music happening 7 days a week, all the time.
Molly- It's very magical, especially coming from quite a rural area in Australia. It's not like a city, like Nashville is, so you can just feel the vibe when you go to sleep. It's pretty magical.
Sarah- Discovering the songwriting community, as well, was great. Being embraced by the songwriters was really special and I love going over there to write songs. All of my friends are songwriters. Discovering that that world even exists was a really big deal, as well. We're really lucky to go there a few times a year...as much as we can really!
Sarah, you have done a lot of writing and co-writing with many amazing and renowned songwriters and artists. What has that experience been like for you and what do you feel like you have learned about songwriting over the years from working with so many people in the industry?
Sarah- Everyone has their different way of writing. When we first started writing over there, during that first trip, when we saved up to get to Nashville when I was 16 years old, a lady named Debby Throckmorton took us under her wing. She's a great songwriter and actually just won a Grammy for songwriting. She wrote Willie Nelson's song "Ride Me Back Home"). She kind-of took us under her wing and started getting us writing with these legacy songwriters. We wrote with Bruce Channel and Greg Barnhill and just a lot of really renowned songwriters. That was really an amazing experience for our first co-writes, literally with these hit songwriters. It was a little bit confronting but we learned so much and they are all so humble, as well, and the nicest people. Just learning the art of co-writing was massive in developing my style. Songwriting, for me...I've developed so much from just being in Nashville and the intensity of just writing every day. That really has developed the skills and the muscles that you need to write songs. If I go back and listen to the songs I wrote before that first trip to Nashville, it's such an improvement now. I have all of the different songwriters and mentors to thank for embracing me and writing with me. I love working with them.
Would you say that you prefer a collaborative songwriting experience or are there times when you prefer to write by yourself?
Sarah- I definitely think I need both. I would say that I enjoy writing with people, just because it's fun, but I definitely need both.
Molly- It's like a therapy in a way, I guess, as well. It's a pretty confronting thing when you write, and, what's the word...
Sarah- When I'm writing by myself, you can take more time to really go into your head and it's just more personal, I guess. When we're writing with other people, you have a certain amount of time and you're bouncing ideas off of each other. There's positives to each and I wouldn't even say negatives. They both just have their place. I just need to do both in order to get the best out of me.
You recently signed with Petrol Records and are only the second band to be signed to the label after INXS. What can you tell me about your decision to sign with them and why you feel they are a good fit for the band?
Sarah- Petrol Records and Chris Murphy, the head of the label, it was really a moment of the starts aligning. It was the perfect timing. We had come back from Nashville and had recorded "Daydream" with Chad Carlson over there, and came back and made a video with our friend Brenton Thwaites, a fantastic actor who was in Pirates of The Caribbean, he was here and he lives near us and wants to start directing. So we decided to make a music video and we made the video and we didn't really have money to do it, we just made the video because we had the song . We met Chris Murphy just after that and all of the pieces just came together so perfectly. We released the song with Petrol Records and Universal Music and it went to number 1. They are such a fantastic team to work with and so passionate on every level, from the business side to the music side. They are just fantastic people to work with.
Your new single "Money" is your first worldwide release. What do you feel is the significance of that song for you as band, being your first worldwide release, and what led you to choose that song in particular?
Sarah- I wrote that song over in Nashville with some good friends of mine. It was just kind-of this fun song to do. I was over there just for a quick trip and was there for a week, I think. It was the last day and I was talking to Phil, one of the co-writers, and asked him if he wanted to quickly do a co-write before I had to fly out. He picked me up at like 8:00 the next morning before I flew out to LA that evening. We wrote this song and it was just this fun bop and we loved it as soon as we wrote it. We then sent it over to Molly and Lachlan and they like it, as well. It's just this fun, boppy, pop song with a country and rock feel. It's our first international release, which is really special to us. Nashville is really special to us and we love going over there, so it's really awesome to get to share our music now with the whole world. Its pretty cool! This week it made the top 10 on the radio charts, which is really exciting!
Growing up with your dad being a professional musician, and growing up in the industry, how do you feel that helped to prepare you for a career in music. What did you learn that has helped you along the way?
Sarah- Yeah, it has definitely helped, just knowing how the industry works and that it's a long process. One of the most important things that he is always telling us is to just be happy now and enjoy the journey. Obviously, we have big goals and he tells us to strive and work hard for our goals, but to focus on this moment and not be like "Oh, I'll be happy when I reach that goal or reach that place". Then you are relying on this thing that's mental. So just being happy right now and enjoying the whole process and the journey is one of the most important things he has taught us, and that it's not going to come overnight, obviously. The most important thing is to just enjoy playing music. If that stops being the thing you love, then none of it's probably worth it anymore, so just staying on track with music being the priority and being a family, as well.
Molly- Yeah, and it helps when we get caught up in a situation and need advice. Dad has experience in the music industry, so he can come from an educated place. It definitely helped when we were younger in the recording studio or just in general.
Sarah- He has so many experiences we can draw from.
It sounds like things have been happening for you very quickly, from releasing "Daydream", which went to number 1, to signing with Petrol Records, and then getting your first Golden Guitar nomination in the "Best New Talent" category. Do you feel it has been a pretty smooth transition for you, having so many big things happen for you at once, or have there been challenges adjusting to everything?
Sarah- It's definitely been amazing! We've been doing this since we were really young, so it's been one big journey and we're enjoying every moment of it. There are always up and downs and enjoying the whole thing has been the most important part. We're so, so lucky to have such a fantastic label who want us to do the music we love and support us on every level. To have all of these things happen has been really mind-blowing!
Molly- With the Golden Guitar nomination...we've been going to the Golden Guitar Awards ever since we were little, and we always imagined playing on that stage or being nominated for an award. We got to both this year and it just felt like we had come full circle and it was just an amazing moment for us. It's pretty cool.
You were recently featured on Guitar World's 'Sick Riffs' Feature. How did that opportunity come about and what was the experience like for you?
Molly- That was really cool to do. We really love Guitar World and Lachlan our brother is a guitarist and watches all of the videos that they put up and studies that. It was really cool to have that opportunity and we just made the video up in my bedroom. It was pretty funny, us trying to do a tutorial and be teachers (laughs)! It was fun. I think we're going to put out more of them, as well.
What can you tell me about your 'Meet The Buckleys' documentary? What led you to want to release it in a weekly series instead of just releasing the whole thing at once?
Molly- The documentary is really, really exciting! We had all of this archival footage that Chris Murphy from our record label saw. He couldn't believe we had all of this old footage of playing our first shows and learning how to play and write songs. We've been doing music ever since we were little, so we have so much archival footage of ourselves from babies until now. It made so much sense to kind-of show people our journey from then until now. Trevor Smith, who directed it, and everyone else, created this little documentary and decided to put it...why did we decide to put it out as a series? I think it just felt right to do that. The whole documentary will be uploaded I think next week...no, the week after next. There's a lot going on (laughs)! Yeah, we have the three episodes, and then the full documentary will be out on the fourth week. It's really, really exciting and we just hope everyone is enjoying it. It's pretty amazing that we have a documentary out!
You will soon be releasing your new album Breathe. You have said that you approached the album to where every song isn't necessarily a single, but rather a journey and a body of work that captures who you are as artists. What inspired you to take that approach to making the album?
Sarah- We just have so many influences and so many people we are inspired by. All of our songs kind-of bring in a different element...some are funky ones, some are country ones, some are rock ones, some poppy ones, so it does take you on a bit of a journey and shows everyone every aspect of ourselves. The most important thing to us is to be authentic and really love what we are playing. We are really lucky to be working with a great producer who is a great friend of ours, Chad Carlson. He really helped us to tie it all in into a cohesive body of work, so it doesn't sound all over the place. It sounds like you are getting all of these different flavors but it's all one pie...I dunno! I just made that up in my head (laughs)! We were a little experimental, but it still fits into our vibe.
I read that you re-wrote half of the album a week before recording it. What led you to want to rewrite so many of the songs on the album?
Sarah- It wasn't that we necessarily felt that we had to. We had chosen 10 songs, and then I went to Nashville a week early and there was no harm in writing more until we hit the record day. I went over to Nashville and I think I wrote like 14 songs that week, or something like that, and we ended up using a lot of them.
Molly- Yeah, she sent...we had all of the songs and Lachlan and I had learned them all and perfected them all to record, and then we got this message with all of these new songs to learn to record before hopping on an international flight (laughs)! But we love, love, love all of the songs on the album.
Sarah- It kind-of broke our hearts, as well, to have to let go of some of the songs that we were planning on recording. But, it just meant that we're very passionate about every single song on the album and we can't wait for everyone to hear it. There is no filler for us. Every song earned its place. It's a really good place to be, I think, having so many songs to choose from!
What are your thoughts in general on the effect of the Coronavirus on the music industry? Are there any things that bands are doing now that you see continuing, such as the living room concerts or virtual tours, even after everything goes back to normal, so to speak? How do you see it changing the landscape of the music industry?
Sarah- Right now it's pretty devastating how many people have lost their jobs. It's not even just the artists. It's the crew, and the sound guys and the roadies and all that, so every part of the live music industry has been affected for sure. Right now, so many artists are doing these live streams and shows and we are, as well. I'm sure it will be carried through after all of this craziness ends because it's also really fun to connect with people virtually.
Molly- I think learning to connect with people online is going to be something we've all learned how to do really quickly.
Sarah- Our favorite part, personally, is playing live and playing live shows. It's definitely been fun, though. We're going to Alberta and Salt Lake City and Colorado all at the same time (laughs). It's a fun thing to do that wouldn't be possible if it wasn't virtually!
What do you have coming up? What's next for you and what are some of your goals going forward as a band?
Sarah- Yeah, so we have the 'Meet The Buckleys' documentary and the virtual tour, which is really, really exciting. We have the album coming out, which is massive! It's our first, debut album. We're just so excited for everyone to hear it.
Molly- We just really can't wait to get it out and share it with everyone. And also, once all of this is over, to just start playing again and putting on shows and touring a lot.