Belfast-born Jimi Mack has created his very own contemporary genre, drizzled with the serene elements of folk and jazz that have been presented exceptionally throughout his and Cameron’s newly released single, Salao. The stylistic manner in which he plays the guitar – soon accompanied by the bright harmony of the violin – plays a significant role in displaying his influences from Irish folk; however, a new fruit has been added to the smoothie as it has been blended with Cameron’s skillful drumming techniques, infused with nothing but fruity jazz.
Jimi and Cameron
“Shit, this actually sounds pretty fucking good, let’s do something with this” – Jimi Mack
After a chat with the two rogues, we covered everything from the behind-the-scenes making of Salao, released May 14th, to our love for “a bit of Justin Biebs”.
Accompanied by a very intriguing, homecooked video, questioning the inspiration behind their latest single was at the peak of my curiosity. As they both went on to explain their intentions were to create a moody video, presenting somebody who feels disconnected from those around them: the end result was a “vaguely psychedelic, trippy tea party”, soon progressing into acts of “chaos” as the person becomes more and more subdued towards their true emotions. The overall context of their single essentially symbolises the struggle of a person dealing with depression’s day-to-day life, whilst they are obliviously surrounded by those “who want to be there” for them.
Recorded in between the four walls of Cameron’s bedroom, the unreleased EP was an unintentional creation, molded from what was initially a collection of demos with just vocals, a guitar and drums, that turned out to be “pretty fucking good”. What started off as a few “nice and simple” recordings, resulted in later adding a bass and seeking out a session violinist and second guitarist. As the excitement builds for their EP launch on June 23rd, Jimi and Cameron are two match sticks far from burning out as they stated they have “lots more songs” in the bag, maybe even enough to make an album…
Like what you’ve read?
Take a listen to Jimi and Cameron’s latest single, Salao, and be sure to share their work around:
That’s right, Tune Crush met with Sam, Bram, Ned and Fred of Vega Bay on the 2nd April and – with much excitement – announced they were playing this years Ynot. So, if you haven’t already, go and grab your ticket and head down to Pikehall this summer!
Vega Bay Bassist, Ned Thompson
“We need to get our sh*t together” – Ned
Read below to see what Vega Bay had to say, with lots of Sam’s “flowery language”, about their life as a developing band.
How would you describe each other?
N: I’d say Freddie’s the dopey one. You’re just THE front man (pointing to Sam), there’s no other way to describe you–
S: I’m the one with the poncy words who acts like a tw*t basically. A little bit egotistical too–
N: A BIT??
S: You’re as egotistical as me! Not in the band, but like outside.
B: I wouldn’t say Ned’s egotistical, I’d say his more vain–
S: Bram’s the super chill one, I’d say
N: Yeah he’s the cool one–
S: That being said, we’re not exaggerations of those. We’re all relatively normal I suppose…
How do you go about writing your songs?
N: Well… Bram once wrote a song about being high and coming across a badger–
B: It was spiritual. I just had a zoot and was walking down the street, then all of a sudden this badger came out. I just stood and looked at it for a second and thought… Yeah!
Do you think being the same age helps with your music?
F: Yeah it does. It was my other band where I was two years below the others and it just felt a bit weird.
S: There’s a bit more chemistry with us–
N: You’re playing to a different audience now, too. It was mainly just to your brother’s mates and stuff.
Would you say your debut EP brought in a lot of traction?
S: I don’t think it brought in a lot of traction, I’d say it made the way for traction. As it’s our first EP, obviously it’s not going to be received like ‘OH MY GOD LOOK AT THIS EP’, y’know. It just allows for people to listen to our stuff.
Proceeding to say they were happy with the “surprised” response it created among their friends, Vega Bay – often being said to sound indie – spoke about how they feel “genre doesn’t really matter anymore” as everything is merged together and “people should just give music a chance”, as opposed to pre-judging it by what it has been labelled as.
N: Yeah I think one of the first things every band comes across, is that you say ‘me and my mates have made a band, come to one of our gigs’ and people immediately think: school band, strumming a few instruments and just messing about.
Is bringing props to your performances an ongoing thing, or was it just for your EP launch?
(To those who attended the EP Launch, I regret to inform you the palm tree was knifed, due to Ned forgetting to go and collect it the next day…)
N: We’ve only done it once because it was our EP launch, we just wanted to make it look a bit pretty.
B: I feel like if we did that and we were just supporting somebody, we’d look like absolute d*cks.
N: Yeah, you’d look like you’re a bit too far up your own arse, I think.
If you weren’t Vega Bay, would you listen to Vega Bay?
N: I’m gonna say, yeah.
*A solid nod from Fred*
B: I’d listen to Badmash and Sometimes It Rains… I wouldn’t listen to Exhaust.
S: I’m not sure, I think if we re-recorded the EP again as the band we are now, I’d be more inclined to listen to Vega Bay, as we’ve changed a lot.
N: If somebody asked me ‘would I prefer to just listen to the EP or go and see us, live’, I’d definitely prefer watching us live.
Vega Bay Logo
How did you come up with the name, Vega Bay?
N:Well I was talking to James on Facebook (previously described as ‘a computer wizard’) about trying to decide a band name, ’cause originally some of us wanted to be called Roswell Beach Club–
S:Yeah, I stood against that one.. It was a bit too long.
F: It took the mick getting the name, we thought way too much about it.
S: Okay, as a forward, it literally means nothing–
N: At the end of the day, we like Pulp Fiction.
S: Yeah, and Bay just kinda flowed off the end of Vega.
Have you got any fans?
*An outburst of laughter*
N: Can we just skip that question… No comment, no comment! No, I wouldn’t say fans, I think we’ve got a nice amount of support… That’s a better way to look at it.
S: It depends what you define as a fan, because there’s two people that came to the King No-One gig–
N: It’s three turbines that spin around and create cool air
…
F: That’s shocking
S: Yeah that’s another strike of bad jokes right there. No, we did a support gig for King No-One at The Bodega and there were people there that had liked our page and tagged their friends, when we announced our EP launch, with ‘F*CK ME UP’, and we were just like ‘oh sh*t, that’s exciting’.
N: Yeah they came along as well.
B: I think it helps when you support bigger bands, too.
Are you working on anything exclusive at the moment?
S: Yeah, we’re writing sh*it at the moment and trying to work on some of our newer stuff–
F: Thinking about it, we haven’t actually played together in ages, apart from at gigs. Like for the last two gigs, we didn’t practice, we’ve just gone straight into it.
B: Some exclusive information that I probably shouldn’t say just yet is, we’re playing Ynot–
S: AAA YES! HE SAID IT! I wanted him to say it!
*Followed by lots of celebratory cheers*
B: But all we know so far is that we’re playing on the Sunday.
How did you find out you were playing Ynot?
F: We all just thought we were going for a BBC introducing interview and he was like “you’ve got a slot at Ynot”… So all of these were so excited, jumping around and I didn’t hear what was said and was like “what’s going on?!”
N: Freddie was stood there just seeing a monkey peeling a banana!
Like what you’ve read?
On that exciting note, go and give them a listen and be sure to keep up to date with their latest gig and release dates, via:
“A British melting pot of infectious vocals, catchy guitars and heavy rhythms” – Left Lion Magazine
My first encounter with Lee was him running into the interview, with no sign of Kieran, saying he’d “escaped him” as he didn’t want to be late and Kieran had “clipped some guys car on the way in” and almost gotten ran over by a city bus while walking down. As Kieran soon scrambled through the door, my initial reaction was to ask if himself and the car he’d driven into was intact; his response being, “Yeah, it barely brushed it. Serves him right for having such a sh*t car”… With an ice-breaker like this, I thought, “Yeah, I like these guys!”
Vocalist, Lee Heir Performing Live with Prime (19.01.16)
Formed almost exactly a year ago, Prime have travelled all across the country, sharing their music among various venues. Over the past year, Prime have released a series of singles, accompanied by videos on a few, on a range of different platforms that have built up an audience with their shared love for “classic-rock” (Lee Heir).
On the 2nd of February, Tune Crush teamed up with Lee Heir (Lead Vocalist) and Kieran Hill (Lead Guitarist) of the post-punk, five-piece, to talk about Prime and the things they had in store for us this year.
Cate Talks with Lee and Kieran
Bassist of Prime, Daniel Ison
In the October of 2016, Prime added a new bass player to the scene, Daniel Ison, due to slight controversy between Prime and the previous bassist. Since then, Prime had also gained Kieran as the lead guitarist. Both playing with exceptional musicianship, Daniel and Kieran have become perfect assets for the band.
What caused you to get a new bassist? “Well, Chris was like a family member of the band, but we (Lee) just had a bit of a falling out really. We’re on speaking terms now, but we were pretty much best friends. It was just a mixture of personal issues and a mixture of creative issues, but we did work well together.”
In regards to new releases, what do you have in store for us this year?
(Lee) “We’ve got a single called ‘Bye Bye’, which you can hear on a few bits ‘n’ bobs, and that’s coming out on March 24th, with a new video. We’ve got a video recorded at O2 in Sheffield, too, so we have some live footage of that to mix in with some ‘road footage’ – as we’re going to Cardiff next week.”
Being an active band, they have consistently shown their faces among various cities, to make a Prime-shaped mark on the stages of multiple venues; however feel they want to play “Nottingham a bit less, as you can only play so many times” in the same venues (Lee).
Do you play in Nottingham, often? (Lee) “Yeahh, we got to play Spankys for the first time recently and we’ve got another one coming up with Space, the 90’s band. So we’re just trying to play some better venues, really.”
Taking a lot of influence from punk-rock bands such as The Clash – with Joe Strummer having a “big influence” on Lee – Prime have primarily been defined as a punk-rock band over the course of their gigging days; however, Lee and Kieran feel as though they’ve taken more of an influence from classic-rock techniques.
Ignoring other people’s description of Prime, what would you define your music as? “I’d say (Kieran) we’re more on the classic-rock side as punk’s all good ‘n’ stuff, as you can pump up the volume and bang out a few chords, but I’d say we’re a little bit more in depth than that. We sit down and think about the lyrics and the music, [..] to develop our ideas more.”
“Yeah, I think (Lee) the main influence that comes from classic-rock is probably the backing vocal side, because I don’t think much ‘punky’ stuff has got particularly intricate backing vocals, really.”
What would you say Prime’s quirk is? “I think (Lee) we just come to entertain really, when we play live-”
(Kieran) “Yeah, I’d say – good music – but we’re also a good live band to watch, I think… I might be completely wrong, but […] we try to steer away from just standing up and playing-”
(Lee) “If you’re just stood there as four people playing, your songs have really got to be excellent, haven’t they?”
Being an ensemble filled with members of a wide variety of ages – unlike many other bands – Prime feel as though the age-gap between certain members compliments the music they produce, due to the “younger influence” bringing “different possibilities” into the band (Lee).
What do you feel makes a successful band? (Lee) “Just because you’ve got four or five amazing musicians, it doesn’t mean you’ve got an amazing band; it’s the mixture of people.
A Nottingham-based band called Vanity Box mentioned the same thing during an interview, too. Their previous drummer knew more about drumming, but didn’t suit the band as much as their current drummer, Paul– “Yeah, we played with Vanity Box, at a very early gig, once, but they just struck me as one of those bands who wouldn’t really stick around and watch another group. They were a bit aloof and up their own a*s.
I think you’ll find that there’s people who are in it to help other bands and make each others music better, then there’s people like that, who are just clearly in it for themselves, really.”
Who would you say are your favourite bands in the local Nottingham-scene? “I’m (Lee) a massive fan of Daniel Ison’s solo stuff, I think he’s a really original songwriter. I really like Unknown Era, a Ska band, too. I’m really close friends with a band called Zadkiel. Dan, who sings with them, is a really good guy; he’s one of my best friends on the music scene. The Varletts are really good, we enjoyed playing with them.”
(Kieran) “Yeah, The Shrives are good, too, a really nice group of lads.”
How do you go about your creative process? “I (Kieran) usually tend to just sit down and jam something out. That’s a bit of a starting point. Then I’ll send it over to Lee, on my phone, and he adds some sort of vocals on the top. […] It’s so much easier to do it with just the two of you, as, if something needs to be changed, it can be changed quickly, which makes it a lot more efficient. The end result is usually a lot better, that way, too.”
As a songwriter, Lee “doesn’t see the point in doing anything else” other than writing songs relevant to topics important to him; however, states he’ll “often stick in a silly line” that’ll make him laugh, but is always trying to “make an observation of something”.
(Lee) “We’ve got a song that we’ll always open up with called Teen TV, and that’s just a statement of fame, really. It just takes the p*ss out of the fact a performer shouldn’t be afraid of being massively popular – they shouldn’t be afraid to embrace fame, or anything like that. There’s nothing worse than a performer who almost apologizes for being famous.”
Like What You’ve Read?
Prime, upcoming gig dates for 2017
To check out more Prime, follow the link to their Facebook page and give them a like, to keep up to date with latest gig and release dates! Find them also on a range of platforms, via, iTunes, Amazon, Google Play and SoundCloud!
“Ridiculously high quality indie tunes” – DJ Mark Del of Nusic
The Varletts’, Laurie Rowland
From the ‘grebs of Grantham’ (as quoted by vocalist, Laurie Rowland) the alternative-rock, three-piece – The Varletts – released their debut single, City of Sin, on Friday 13th January. Cate, from Tune Crush, interviewed the band members: Laurie (vocalist & bassist), Matt (lead guitar & vocals) & George (drums & percussion); 6 days after the release, to discuss their singles and discover the behind-the-scenes lifestyle of newfound musicians.
Inside The Varletts…
Before The Varletts, did either of you have any involvement in the live music scene?
Matt: “Well we were in bands before the Varletts but we were all–” Laurie: “We were all kind of in a band from the age of 14, but it was mostly just doing covers and things – it wasn’t very serious.” George: “I’ve done a couple of small, jazzy gigs in the past, at places like The Pelican and a few more.”
What’s the music scene like in Grantham?
Matt: “Awful… There’s a lot of ‘Dad bands’–” Laurie: “Haha! The answer for that, would be there isn’t one. We say we’re based in Nottingham because that’s where we essentially do the majority of our gigs. Although we have grown as a band with other bands, such as The Shrives, but that’s about it…” George: “Yeah, The Shrives are pretty much from Grantham.” Laurie: “We say we’re a Nottingham-based band as that’s where we essentially do all of our gigs.”
Where did you record your debut single?
Matt: “We recorded it at Random Records, a lot of local bands like Papershop Dave have recorded there–” Laurie: “It’s a really professional recording, for an affordable price – so good.”
Are there any difficulties being an early-established band?
George: “Haha, it’s basically like you have what you’ve got and you do the best you can with it.” Laurie: “It’s an odd life as we all feel a bit left behind, as all of our friends have gone to uni and we’re stuck in Grantham as musicians! It’s very easy to get down when you’re sat inside, while everyone is at uni”– Matt: “In some ways it’s useful, though, as we get to spend a lot of time with each other and develop the band. We all work in bars, too, which makes us pretty nocturnal.”
What made you want to release two singles as opposed to an EP?
Laurie: “we strayed from doing an EP as we wanted to create songs different to each other; whereas, if you do an EP, you feel like you have to have songs quite similar to each other.” Matt: “We’re really happy with the result, as they are completely different songs, which is what we essentially wanted to achieve. We initially wanted City of Sin to be the B Side, as Accused of Effeminacy became our favourite out of all of the songs we’ve recorded.” Laurie: “I’ve always been influenced by and closely followed The Cribs, too, which is why I like our B Side more, as you can hear The Cribs fused into the song.”
How did you come up with the name, ‘The Varletts’?
Laurie: “At the start, we were thinking of names and couldn’t come up with anything straight away. The thing that jogged my memory was I was reading something, from a month or so before, and saw the definition for ‘Varlet’ is a ‘dishonest person’ and”– Matt: “We saw somebody had already taken the name, so we were like ‘oh sh*t’ and just added an extra T on the end!” George: “Yeah, nobody can spell our band’s name!”
How did the artwork come about?
George: “That was mainly just Laurie messing around and cutting things out!” Laurie: “Haha, yeah, I just cut around a load of photos and had an idea (as I can’t paint or draw) to collate a random idea. We used a ripoff version of Photoshop to put it all together! I’m very into poetry and in the artwork, I used a poem by Mathew Arnold, called Youths Agitations, (I have no idea where he’s from).
We could have easily gotten somebody else to do it, but A: Money and B: I felt like I wanted to do it myself, even though I have the bare minimum of any art skills”– George: “That’s what makes it more cool and deep.” Laurie: “In the artwork, also, is a map of Amsterdam’s rivers; as, when people think of ‘the city of sin’, they think of Amsterdam, as it is renowned for its Red Light District, where men just pay for women. Therefore, the last verse of our song, City of Sin, relates a lot to my distaste for that.”
Were you nervous to release your debut singles?
Matt: “Yeah, we were anxious to see how it would go down, as we had the song written since September”– George: “We had faith in it, though! The only thing we’d recorded was demos in Laurie’s bedroom with two mics; whereas our singles were professionally recorded!” Laurie: “We’d been gigging for a few months, too, so we wanted to get some stuff out.”
Other than the Cribs, who would you say influenced your singles?
Laurie: “I’d say you can hear a lot of influence from The Wytches in City of Sin, with the Guitar and things, including a mixture of other bands we like, such as; King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard and Greenday”– Matt: “The influence from Greenday mostly comes from my music taste.”
Accused of Effeminacy, The Varletts
Like what you’ve read about The Varletts? Take a listen to their B Side, Accused of Effeminacy…
Find them, also, via their Facebook and Twitter pages, via the links in the text!
Listen to more of Vanity Box, and never miss out on release dates, via their Facebook and don’t forget to give Tune Crush a like and share to keep up to date with our latest articles!!
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Progressive musician, Abdulla Mahmood (referred to as ‘Whatsmahmood’ among his social media platforms) has spent many of his writing days travelling around Nottingham, collaborating with various artists – especially during the production of his latest EP, ‘Nottingjam’.
Musicians Abdulla and Toby Corton Performing at Dot to Dot Festival, Nottingham
With making as many songs as Abdulla, in just a mere five years, it’s difficult to bring something new to the table every time; however, Abdulla ensures his music has an added twist in each of his EP’s.
Tune Crush Interviews Abdulla
Tune Crush had the pleasure of interviewing Abdulla, to find out more about his musical background and what his inspirations were when young…
Tune Crush: When was the first time you picked up a Guitar and decided you wanted to learn?
Abdulla: First time I wanted to play guitar was 14 and it wasn’t until 15 where I used up all my allowance to buy one for almost £30. My Mum and Dad didn’t want me to start playing music knowing it would be an expensive commitment, they weren’t sure I was gonna continue.
Tune Crush: Who was your biggest musical inspiration at the age of 15?
Abdulla: Well I wasn’t really inspired until I met my god, Jimi Hendrix!
Tune Crush: when did you write your official first song & what inspired you to write the lyrics you did?
Abdulla: It’s not a very inspirational moment, but I was auditioning for ‘Bahrain’s Got Talent’, the night before we (my friend Ebrahim and I) wrote this song called ‘Happy Pill’. It turned out to be so catchy, everyone loved it!
Tune Crush: As an independent musician, what’s the toughest obstacle(s) you’ve had to (or are having to) overcome in the music industry?
Abdulla: Woah, lol, so many… I truly believe that for an independent artist, the complicated obstacles are ever changing. My only concern is to always perform my heart out, regardless – even if it puts me in a bad mood, I always want to entertain the crowd.
Tune Crush: Where’s the best venue you’ve played, in your opinion?
Abdulla: I can’t choose because Nottingham is literally full of them! I’m more into the intimate small venues – they mean more to the artists and to the people there. I love love love to interact with everyone too! ‘Rescue Rooms’, ‘Jam Cafe’ & ‘Spankey Van Dykes’ – to name a few – but I had an unbelievable experience at Rescue Rooms playing alongside Toby!
Tune Crush: And last, but not least, what three local artists would you recommend to Tune Crush for a future review?
Abdulla: The Hijinks, Cherry Hex & The Dream Church and Sunflower Thieves – I really enjoyed their music and live performances!
Take a Listen to…
‘Public Fiction ft. Abdulla – Jam Session’
Find More of Abdulla’s Music & info on Latest Releases via…
Tune Crush 