Interview: Shimmering Stars

Shimmering Stars: Rock 'n' Roll saviours?

Having forthrightly plugged Shimmering Stars’ latest single, ‘I’m Gonna Try’ (released last Monday), which made a late run for one of my favourite songs of the year, I thought it might be an idea to talk to let the charming Vancouver quartet introduce themselves and do some plugging of their own. I caught up with singer/guitarist Rory McClure to get his views on the internet, time travel, and the band’s plans for 2011. Turns out he’s quite a funny chap...

Give people who haven’t heard you the lowdown on Shimmering Stars in 10 words or less...
Dreamy downer pop. Recommended for the heartbroken and the insane.

I started a band because....

Rock and roll needed to be saved and clearly I was the only man for the job.

What plans do you have for 2011? Can we expect a full length record next year?

2011 is either going to be a huge year for us or a huge, embarrassing failure. But one thing I’m sure of is that we’ll be releasing a full length in 2011. It’s 95% done and I’m really happy with it. We’re very hopeful that we’ll be playing SXSW and doing a European tour as well.  We’re also very hopeful that Andrew will spontaneously combust on stage, as countless drummers do each year. 

I’m told that your influences include “anxiety attacks” and “antisocial behaviour” – please explain.

If my group of friends is any indication, a lot of people in their 20s exist in a weird state of prolonged adolescence where there aren’t any guidelines or expectations as to what we should be doing with our lives. To have this kind of freedom is a mixed blessing. The possibilities are endless, but with all this possibility comes a kind of paralysing anxiety about what to do, who to be, and ‘The Future’. These kinds of themes inform a lot of the lyrics for Shimmering Stars...

This interview was conducted for The Line Of Best Fit. Go here to continue reading the full interview.

Brief Lives: 5 Tracks from 2010's Dearly Departed

With every year that passes, another sorry constellation of musical bright lights see their stars burn out forever, their souls going to join John, Freddie, Jimi and the rest in rock-star Valhalla. Whilst any passing life is distressing to contemplate, at least musicians can continue to touch people posthumously through a legacy which will far outlive them, and may even grow in breadth, stature and popularity in their absence. As 2010 draws to a close, we thought it proper to revisit the work of some of this year’s departed musicians, to remind old fans or downright inspire new recruits. Below are five less heralded but emblematic cuts from artists such as Alex Chilton, Gregory Isaacs and Ari Up.

Gregory Isaacs: ‘Let’s Dance’ (available on Cool Ruler, 1978)

Before reggae icon Gregory Isaacs succumbed to lung cancer earlier this year, the “lonely lover” had sighed his way through a 40-year career with such melancholic vocal purity he could make a grown man swoon. When Isaacs signed to Virgin Records in 1978, mainstream stardom beckoned, but beyond a ripple of success for signature track ‘Night Nurse’ his brand of lovers rock never took-off. This loping minor-key masterpiece from his major-label debut epitomises Isaacs’ understated brilliance – a tale of rudimentary dancehall passion brought to life by the tender ache of Isaacs’ delivery and lines like “I want to feel your lips resting my mind”, which said as much about his wearying addiction to crack-cocaine as his need to feel loved.

This article was written for TheLineOfBestFit. Click here to continue reading.

Politics/Music #5: Bad Religion

Check out my politicsSLASHmusic column in this month's splendid Notion Magazine as I offer up some free PR work for punk-rock legends Bad Religion and their excellent new record, reliving my youth as a 15-year old punk in long-shorts and Vans hoodies in the process. Includes a potted history of the band's finest sub-30 minute classics, plus an exploration of how they fitted into the early-80s recession overseen by Thatcher and Reagan, and why they're now more relevant than ever. One small step in my mission to make punk-rock cool again.

The article is on page 28 of the magazine's digital reader. 

Interview: Everything Everything

Interview with Manchester-based art-rock chart champions Everything Everything. Check out the condensed version over at Spoonfed.co.uk, or the expanded reissue below. 

Hype can be a poisoned chalice. The balloon can quickly burst on some poor feted next big thing, whether commercially or critically. Worse still, a band can be left trailing in the triumphant wake of their like-minded peers, labeled as Johnny-come-latelys to a party they might have helped start, or simply engulfed by the hot air cloud surrounding contemporaries and forgotten.

It’s a fate which could have befallen Everything Everything. Labeled part of a spurious ‘Manchester scene’ – although the quartet formed in Manchester, none of their members hail from the musically fertile metropolis – the band had been forced to play third fiddle whilst fellow leading lights Delphic and Hurts saw their stock soar. All three were long-listed for the BBC Sound of 2010 poll, but only Everything Everything failed to make the final shortlist. As 2010 stuttered to life, Delphic hit the top ten with debut album Acolyte, while just a day before the release of Everything Everything’s own debut Hurts scored an unlikely singles chart hit with the icy synthpop of ‘Wonderful Life’. Meanwhile, the band was left fretting over their prospective fortunes as trailing single ‘MY KZ, UR BF’ stalled at a hundred and twenty-one.

They needn’t have worried, as Man Alive duly gate crashed the UK top twenty, picking up open-mouthed plaudits en route. It was a fitting prize for a record which fizzes with invention, often flitting seamlessly between unconventional time signatures before peaking in a series of beautifully melodic art-pop choruses, all held together with the dexterous falsetto yelp of frontman Jonathan Higgs.

If the music both challenges and rewards, then the band themselves are a far more straightforward proposition. Preparing to perform at a Spotify/3G sponsored show at Shoreditch Town Hall, I find Higgs and drummer Michael Spearman in genial spirits. Articulate and warm, they riff off one another; touching upon in-jokes without ever seeming exclusive, while their answers exhibit a sharp, self-deprecating wit underpinning thoughtful reflections – starting with their reaction to music scenes.

Politics/Music #4: New New Labour and Brothers in Arms

Go and check out the PoliticsSlashMusic column in this month's Notion Magazine for a (not very) detailed exploration of the Miliband's infighting and the death of New Labour. And then a few columns of guff about brothers in bands who liked to fight one another, like The Kinks and Oasis. You can thank me later.

The article can be found on page 37 using the Digital Reader at the following link:

 http://theenvironment.vfolio.co.uk/notion/67/

Under the Radar Indie Labels

Guest blog on 'Under the Radar Indie Labels' for Virgin.com/music...

As another week of the X Factor bites the soporific dust, in its wake 21st century music aficionados could be forgiven for feeling a little left out.

Simon Cowell owns the airwaves; High Fidelity-esque niche independent record stores continue to close at an alarming rate. Oh, and Phil Collins is back in the top five of the charts. These are dark days, are they not?

Well, actually no. The charts may seem like a watered down recreation of a Friday night playlist at a cheap club, but that hasn’t stopped independent record labels springing up left, right and centre to get great underground music out into the public domain.

Some of our best loved bands of the past decade – from British Sea Power to Best Coast – have been housed by efficiently run and artistically fertile ‘indies’. Beyond these, however, there exist scores of tiny labels who put out records purely as a labour of love. Here are a few of the best under-the-radar UK independent labels you might never have heard of...

Read the rest of this blog at Virgin.com/music

Interview: Gang of Four

Go and check out my interview with post-punk legends Gang of Four for my politicsSLASHmusic column in Notion magazine...

http://theenvironment.vfolio.co.uk/notion/64/ - Page 40 of the Digital Reader