Marco Dalla Villa feat Leanna Gage - Marie-Clo - Thee More Shallows - Anya Hinkle - Trapper Schoepp - Jesse Marchant
Marco Dalla Villa is a London based DJ and producer originally from Italy. Having studied music theory and composition from a very young age, Marco uses his theoretical knowledge in an experimental way. Instead of following a structure, his songs are simply a flow of real emotions which follow a strong, hypnotic beat. Marco doesn’t take himself too seriously and hopes his listeners will do the same. With the ultimate goal of making music to share emotions and encouraging others to dance and feel happy, Marco provides a healthy dose of positivity throughout his intoxicating soundscapes.
His latest release “Wonderful Days” is a modern take on the 1971 song “Help (Get me some Help)” by Tony Ronald. Telling the tale of longing for love after experiencing heartbreak, the melancholy lyrics are a juxtaposition to the uplifting melodies. Marco took the melody from a football chant from his local football team, deciding to put a fresh spin on the tune and combining it with the 1971 hit. This unusual amalgamation of songs delivers a feel-good anthem that’ll be stuck in your head all day long.
Leanna Gage provided the vocals for the track, adding a mellow, chilled-out vibe to the sun-soaked song. The song features zesty, tropical drums, silky, sunny synths and an upbeat tempo which blurs the lines with bouncy indie guitar riffs and loops radiating both warmth and sorrow. The production captures the hopefulness and surrender to the fear of love.
Marco Dalla Villa is here to brighten your day with “Wonderful Days” currently available worldwide.
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A true creative chameleon and seasoned traveler, Marie-Clo is a born performer who ropes her audiences into a feverish pitch in both official languages; thanks to “hooked on phonics”. Singer-songwriter and dancer, her eclectic indie pop tackles current themes & conscious lyrics, but also conjures a colourful and enchanted world.
Marie-Clo began her artistic career on stages worldwide performing in musicals, but honed in soon thereafter on her true passion project, music. She is currently promoting the first of three EP’s which will make up her full-length english album entitled Shell(e). A conceptual feminist narrative, it is slated to be fully released in 2021, produced by Polaris shortlisted drummer/ producer Olivier Fairfield (Fet Nat, Timber Timbre, Leif Vollebek), with the support of the Ontario Arts Council, the Canada Council for the Arts, and FACTOR.
In 2017, Marie-Clo won TFO’s pan-Canadian tv search for francophone artists Planète BRBR and was given carte blanche to participate at the Granby International Song Festival 2018, as well as at the Petite- Vallée Song Festival 2018. Following these, Aero chocolates bought her song “Sablier” for a 52-week run national commercial in which she stars.
She celebrated the independent release of her debut EP Faune which has since been playing on numerous radio stations across Canada, on Sirius xm, and joined numerous editorial playlists on Spotify. Radio-Canada named her Ontario’s number one artist to discover in 2018 as part of a 13-artist list, Canada wide, for each province & territory. Her latest single Red Flag topped CBC (#2) & Sirius XM’ (#4) top 10 charts for many consecutive months & was featured as a Sirius XM exclusive single. She recently had the pleasure of playing Ottawa’s Bluesfest, the National Arts Center, Place des arts in Montréal & opening for Ariane Moffatt.
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Three-piece experimental indie-rock band Thee More Shallows released three albums and a few EPs back in the early 00’s, garnering critical acclaim and a cult following before the band disbanded. Each of the members moved into new phases of their lives. Now, frontman Dee has emerged from the wilderness working under the Thee More Shallows moniker again with the help of some previous band members and some new musicians. New album ‘Dad Jams’ is the first Thee More Shallows offering in fourteen years and comes out this May 28th on Monotreme Records.
‘Dad Jams’ is a retrospective look at life’s trajectory and the personal and creative choices that shape its convoluted path. Musically, it retains the adventurous, experimental edge of previous Thee More Shallows albums, but is also rooted in a stronger pop sensibility, with plenty of bouncy, hooky melodies that burrow into the mind for days.
Speaking on his intervening years between Thee More Shallows’ last album ‘Book Of Bad Breaks’ and ‘Dad Jams’, Dee said, “For me, that meant raising kids, making music for TV and film, and incrementally earning some hard-won peace of mind. My body has (to quote my doctor sister) sclerosed, and my impulses have slowed down enough to do a weak impersonation of wisdom, but I still feel like the same person who helped make those old records.”
‘Dad Jams’ is an indie-pop ode to waking up middle aged with kids. First single ‘Ancient Baby’ rockets the album open with an invigorating blast of psychedelic hippy-infused pop, its weaving flute refrain becoming more and more embedded in the mind with each return. ‘Boogie Woogie’ builds around a restrained synth groove that surprises and delights with crystalline harmonies in the sort of way bands like Foster The People and The Temper Trap combine sensitive emotive themes in a tightly packed indie formula.
On creating the new album Dee explains, “So when I finally found time to eke out another collection of songs - in the thick of my 'dad' years - I asked Brian, Jason, and Tadas if I could use our old band name. They graciously said yes. Jason flew out and was able to contribute wonderful drums, Cosmos Lee visited and played violin - and as usual I did my level best to describe how I felt. There are also new characters - my friends Eddie and Laura Burke sing on a song, Silviolini Graciani makes his debut, phoning in all the way from Sicily - and you get to hear the voice of Rayel, an epic talent deserving of world-renown.”
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Celebrating the arrival of springtime has long been a favored pastime of poets and songwriters, and especially in this year, as we emerge not just from winter, but also from deeply trying times, the theme of renewal, whether in the natural or spiritual realm, is especially resonant. With the lengthening of the days, the warm light of the sun becomes ever more present, and the hardship and self-reflection engendered by the isolation winter brings — especially during a world-wide pandemic — give way to more tranquil and even uplifting moods. For Anya Hinkle, capturing the mood of this unique season needed no words, and so her latest single for Organic Records, “Meditation: Beyond the Shores of Darkness” wound up being an instrumental composition, one that nevertheless says all that needs to be said.
“The past year has been unprecedented in its darkness,” the singer/songwriter confesses. “The uncertainty eats away at the fiercest sense of discipline, at any sense of purpose; it’s felt very difficult to continue moving forward at times. When I wrote this song, I planned to write words. But there weren’t any. I was living beyond language. Tears rolled down my face onto my guitar as I explored the fingerboard for chords that revealed new facets of this journey inside.”
“Each one of us is feeling our way through,” she adds. “Sitting in the isolation of our being, journeying to new places we never took the time to see before. This song sits with pain, boredom, anxiety, and after awhile we tire of that; our mind flits elsewhere, curious, open, childlike.”
With the assistance of cousins Julian Pinelli (fiddle) and Duncan Wickel (cello), “Meditation” traverses its three and a half minutes with almost somber restraint, opening with a statement of the main melody via Hinkle’s fingerpicked guitar before entering a darker, almost mysterious middle passage that introduces hushed, atmospheric notes from Pinelli and Wickel. A pause leaves the listener suspended before the trio returns to the original melody, voiced now by guitar and fiddle, with cello joining in just before one last passage recontextualizes the melody’s air of hope with the moodiness of the middle passage in an ultimately satisfying resolution.
A notable change of pace from her usual lyric-driven songcraft, Anya Hinkle’s “Meditation: Beyond The Shores Of Darkness” is an evocative composition, echoing an internal transformation that many listeners will recognize in themselves through its redemptive sonic journey from darkness to light.
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Milwaukee-based singer-songwriter, Trapper Schoepp, has announced the release of his upcoming album, May Day, out 5/21/2021 via Grand Phony Records, with the release of the single, “River Called Disaster.” The accompanying video finds Schoepp lighting his piano on fire in a river, which he says felt ceremonial and therapeutic, symbolic of both the song and year we’ve all endured.
“River Called Disaster,” is about feeling broken down by the compulsion for more. “The river is an apt metaphor for the way we can get swept up in our destructive desires. This past year, social isolation has exacerbated these kinds of feelings and challenged the way we cope. Many of us are bottoming out and trying to make our way back to the surface,” Schoepp says. “On May Day, I use the natural world as a motif because I feel a strong connection to it. Nature is something real that I can feel, see, smell and touch, and it's a place where I've found comfort in these times.”
This is the follow-up to Primetime Illusion, Schoepp’s acclaimed 2019 album produced by Wilco’s Patrick Sansone, which featured a serendipitous co-write with none other than Bob Dylan. On the day Dylan entered Columbia Studios in 1961 to begin recording his first studio album, he wrote a song about Wisconsin. The lyric sheet sat unseen with a former roommate, and was later unearthed and put up for auction. Schoepp saw the story and seized the opportunity to set music to words, and was granted Dylan’s approval to jointly publish the song, entitled “On Wisconsin,” leading to features in Rolling Stone and Billboard, as well as nearly a hundred international tour dates.
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When asked what headline he’d like to see 12 months from now, Jesse Marchant jokingly replied, “Jesse Marchant paints his masterpiece.”
Marchant himself may be humble. For the rest of us, though, it isn’t the least bit farfetched to think that – 12 months from now – Marchant’s imagined headline will actually grace the pages of industry publications. And that’s because we’ve heard his new stuff.
Marchant’s stunning new single “Go Lightly” premiered with American Songwriter, and is officially out everywhere now. “Go Lightly,” which Marchant describes as “living in the realm of Radiohead, Pink Floyd, and recent Nick Cave” is the first track from his much-anticipated new album, Antelope Running. Look out for Antelope Running later this summer.“ ’Go Lightly’ was one of those songs that almost fell by the wayside” shares Marchant.
“I had the piano part for quite some time but struggled to find the vocal melody, imagery and words. The falsetto notes that open the song came to me one morning when I was playing the chords, but I lacked confidence in that range for my voice, as it was somewhat new to me. Over time my confidence with it deepened and the song began to bloom, later to become one of the pillar tracks of the record. I am proud of how it moves through different sections seamlessly, like a stream that flows and forms into pools before continuing on to do so again and again.”
Featuring Marchant’s longtime bandmate Jason Lawrence on drums; Logan Coale (Taylor Swift, The National, Now Ensemble) on electric bass, and D. James Goodwin on guitar and synth, “Go Lightly” was recorded, mixed, and mastered at Isokon Studio in Woodstock NY.
“Although I began writing the lyrics in Feb 2020 just before the pandemic began, I was working on it throughout and believe that the forced isolation of that period played a significant role in where it ended up,” shares Marchant. “To me the song is about being forced to take stock of the life you’ve chosen for yourself, or have arrived to, when you remove all of its peripheral elements - for better or worse.”
Previously known as JBM, Marchant likely doesn’t get credit where credit is due. The Canadian singer and songwriter is a classically trained guitarist who also produces all of his own albums. Antelope Running is his fifth album.
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