M. Ward feat. First Aid Kit - Swansea Sound - TAYLR - M. Rider
M. Ward is sharing 'too young to die' feat. First Aid Kit today, the final pre-release track from his upcoming album ‘Supernatural Thing’, out this Friday. In the song’s new video, Ward is a security guard working the graveyard shift who starts to see the ladies of First Aid Kit appear in his security camera’s video feed.
"First Aid Kit are sisters from Stockholm, and when they open their mouths, something amazing happens,” Ward said of working with them. “It was a great thrill to go to Stockholm and record a few songs there. The sound from blood-related harmony singers is impossible to get any other way – The Everly Brothers, The Delmores, The Louvins, The Carters, The Söderbergs - all have the same kind of feeling in their vocals."
In addition to First Aid Kit, the album is filled with guest stars - Shovels & Rope, Scott McMicken, Neko Case, Jim James and others — who enliven the album with surprises. Eight of the album’s ten songs are Ward originals, but there is also an unusual Bowie choice, “I Can’t Give Everything Away” from Blackstar, and a live rendition of Daniel Johnston’s “Story of an Artist.” “Bowie and Johnston are constant sources of inspiration for me, have been for I don’t know how many years,” Ward offered.
‘Supernatural Thing’ is M. Ward’s first new music in three years, but in 2020 M. Ward released two albums. On April's ‘Migration Stories’, Ward was inspired by the immigration journeys he’d heard from friends or read about in newspapers, as well as what his own grandfather had to go through when immigrating to the US from Mexico. For the December album ‘Think of Spring’ he covered classic Billie Holiday tunes, as she is an artist he’s greatly inspired by. “Instead of the small jazz bands or orchestration she relied on, M. Ward pares the songs to just his voice and guitars, making them sound even starker than they once did,” said Rolling Stone.
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The first single taken from the forthcoming LP ‘Twentieth Century’, Keep Your Head On is a duet between Hue (The Pooh Sticks) and Amelia (Talulah Gosh/Heavenly), with a seriously rousing, singalong chorus.
Set in a humble Adult Education class, it’s an anthem for everyone who fears for the Twenty-First Century – a song for anyone who’s struggling to keep their head above the rising tide of digital disinformation and political deceit.
It’s positive and it’s upbeat, despite the odds. It might remind you a bit of Britpop hit Common People - although, in Keep Your Head On, the woman has a voice, and she’s more interested in education than getting off with her optimistic male counterpart.
Keep Your Head On will be released on all digital platforms and as a very limited lathe-cut 7” single. Only three copies of the physical single will be made available. The first will be offered as a raffle prize at Swansea Sound’s gig at The Lexington on 30 June. The second will be given at random to a customer who pre-orders the album on Bandcamp. The last copy will be given away at the Twentieth Century album launch gig at Rough Trade East on 9th September.
The new album ‘Twentieth Century’ will be released on 8th September (Vinyl LP, CD, Digital). It features twelve glorious bursts of indiepop agitprop!
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Self-taught Calgary artist TAYLR is no stranger to self reflection and deep internal exploration that bold, technicolor songwriting is born from. Taking bits and pieces of R&B, jazz, folk, and indie pop, “the thinking person’s songwriter” succeeds in creating hearty melodic recipes.
Their single “The Blue” is a gloomy minimal yet empathetic single inspired by a previous relationship that was bound in deliberate aversion.
“The two of us knew things needed to change and work needed to be done on ourselves and what we had built, but we made a silent agreement to put the blinders on and focus all of that energy into renovating our home. I wanted the song title to be the exact shade of blue that we painted our kitchen cupboards during this escapade but it felt too niche..”
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Croatian electronic-pop singer and producer M.Rider is back with her brand-new single and video for ‘Little Things’. The single is taken from her forthcoming album, due to drop later this year.
‘Little Things’ started off as a sonic adventure on a Prophet 12 synth. From there, M.Rider created a beat on her Roland TR-8 – the usual four-on-the-floor house beat – which inspired the first version of the song. The single explores ambivalent, evolving feelings underlying in relationships that just aren't meant to last. Illuminating emotions that quietly simmer beneath the surface, the track indicates something is amiss before erupting like a volcano. With hints of New York underground house music, the final version (co-produced with Ant Whiting and featuring synths by Vincent Taurelle (Air) and violin by Lucy Wilkins (Bryan Ferry, Tindersticks)), encompasses a raw and punchy house track edge that has been softened with her signature dreamy, melodic pop sound.
Speaking of the new single, M.Rider said: “It's a song about all the little things that are felt but are often ignored within a relationship. We keep these feelings, this voice of intuition, buried somewhere underneath and we keep going with the story we want to believe in... And these little things, little signs, quietly whisper the truth to us – if only we would listen.”
Joanna Petkiewicz (concept, direction, additional footage) explained the accompanying music video: “The idea for the video came from a format of theatrical monologue (in English ‘soliloquy’, where the audience hears the actors thoughts). Visual inspirations draw upon Flemish baroque portraits that are only bust-length, and where characters stare into space or gaze mischievously or alluringly in a direct manner at a viewer, which makes it feel more like a conversation or exchange. Another big inspiration was also the flower motif, that originally also came from still-life flower paintings from the same era as the portraits. What they have in common is very often the lighting and the blurring of physical context as they often have a very dark background, which allows imagination to add a story. I was also inspired by some of Sally Potter’s Orlando headshots, that follow similar aesthetics and she translated them beautifully into a moving image.
I wanted to retain the lyrical intimacy of the song by slowing it down visually so it contrasts with its dance rhythm. The character is mostly quite still, like in the paintings…Such an effect was achieved thanks to filming and editing by Robin Lochmann, a very talented cinematographer from Ireland. We chose a vintage look which also opposes the atmosphere of a modern electronic pop song.”
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