Paddy James has been making the rounds as his solo career is starting to take shape, with a impressive past behind him, he can now safely say, its his time to shine.
I’m sure that when Paddy James decided to leave his safe, good paying job to carry out a mini tour of Australia, there was worry, however, its looking like a bright future for the singer songwriter, as he releases new track “Perfectly flawed”.
This blues-folk inspred track is a breath of fresh air in today music, and a definite artist to look out for, for sure!
Singer-songwriter Donegan has been working hard to try and give music lovers and audiences the best sounds possible.
With a fully-fledged album on the way, a little teaser wasn’t to go a miss, and that’s what we got!
His brand new single ‘Reminisce’, a soft rock opus that incorporates different styles and genres to create an updated version of the early 2000’s Coldplay hits.
This is the first release in what is set to be few more before the overall drop of the album, so be sure to check him out:
On December 1st, JohnlikeJohn release their EP, “Vegans are Evil Too”, a distinctly British mixture of whimsy, introversion and head-spinning flights of fancy, all wrapped up in Tom Wait’s raincoat and Robert Wyatt’s mittens. Speaking to head JLJ, Calum, we found what it means to be a modern folk musician and what makes the band tick.
What kind of music did you grow up listening to at home?
Well between the hippy refugee that is my mum, and the zoot suit, white jacket and side vents-wearing mod that is my dad (The Who reference) I’ve have a fairly eclectic mix of music growing up. Quite a poignant moment of first falling in love with music, was when my dad first played me Matty Groves by Fairport Convention, the song plays like an old-timey English folk song, detailing a man found sleeping with the farmers wife, they then have a sword fight for the love of the wife, the farmer wins (apparently most farmers are skilled jousters). I remember thinking, wow that was like a whole entire story in a song, it was funny, it was tragic and there was a sword fight. At that point I became obsessed with folk music and the troubadours of the 1960s – there was something about the emotions behind the stories that seemed so theatrical and I never doubted they were lying, everything was said with such truth and conviction that even at 8 I could listen to someone like Joni Mitchell or Neil Young and feel the full force of words and be a bit changed with each listening.
What’s your local music scene like? How do you think you fit in?
Well local to Battersea? Ha, I can’t imagine I could pin a musical movement on Battersea in 2017. There are only a few venues I go to, one of them being that Magic Garden that’s always got good stuff going on – they always have great gypsy jazz bands and blues acts, so I should probably try get a gig there since it’s a 2 minute walk. Also I’m a bit of an open mic addict since there just aren’t enough stages in London to play everyday, I’d highly recommend The Grove on Battersea Park Road – really fun and laid back, unlike some snobby ones I could think of.
What names did you consider for the band before settling on JohnlikeJohn?
John likes couscous, John likes curtains, John likes chesterfields….. But then I finally realised I like myself the most.
You use your music to tackle some serious issues – is this just cathartic for you as a songwriter or are you hoping to change peoples’ minds about the subjects?
For the most part I use my music, as vehicle to spew out the most embarrassing, tragic and ugly parts of myself out. listening to the EP is pretty much the splash zone. The track Vegans Are Evil Too is essentially a long list of things that have gone wrong so far, but there’s a gag or two in there to stop you from completely overdosing on melancholia. But yeah, I write a lot about anxiety, depression and “purpose” and it is cathartic: the more I write about it, the more I open up a discussion in myself as to why I feel this way and hopefully in others too.
Tell us about how you go about creating your music, from initial idea to completion. What equipment do you use?
As I said before, probably the most crucial element of making my music is to be painfully honest and really embarrassing, I figure most people are as embarrassed and as anxious as I am, the only difference is I happen to sing about it. So, I normally start with the lyrics. I write them as more of a conversation with myself, kind of like a really incoherent monologue. And from there, I’ll grab my Guild acoustic guitar or ukulele and play something that sounds how the words feel…God, I sound like an art student! I’m not the most confident of singers, so a lot of times I put on different accents or character depending on the song. I was heavily discouraged at college from doing this, but, meh, it’s fun. The same applied to the humour in my music, which at this point I find is impossible not to put in. Since I tackle issues that are fairly dreary and melancholy, I feel it’s my duty to contrast it with whimsy and levity, reminding people not to take it all too seriously, cheer up, have some dip!
Tell us about the rest of the band and how you met Kano (The Guitarist)
I have him in the band because he looks like a mixture of Neil Young and Nick Drake, plus he’s a wicked guitarist, especially when he’s got a slide in his hand…also he shares his tobacco with me. Pedzy(Ukulele/backing vocals/flute/general sound-maker) I first met Pedzy my first year of studying music at BIMM – he was the only person in the whole college who shared my love for freak folk music like Daniel Johnston, The Squirrel Nut Zippers and Coco Rosie. He always carries at least 8 different instruments with him at once,: they usually include a melodica; harmonicas; ukulele, and a bamboo saxophone, Tibetan bells and various percussive shit. He’s one of the golden ones that Pedzy. Iain (Mr Double Bass). The direct descendant of William Wallace, he is the only person in the band who actually knows what were doing, musically I mean. Sometimes I just am amazed at how intricate his knowledge of music theory is. I first met Iain at my second home, El Metro, a tapas bar next to our college (couldn’t afford it, but you got free bread). We instantly clicked, even though Iain’s more about the funk than about the freak, but we compromise. Twiggy (The Fox) – so you will either recognise her as a human girl or as a fox. A lot of the time, Twiggy is wearing her famous fox mask at our gigs. She’s making her first online debut on the 31st of October when she appears in my spooky music video to Faking Foxes.
What have been your acting highlights?
One of my earlier jobs was an episode of Casualty where I played the character Rory Ronson who suffered from severe autism and absent epilepsy. It was the first time that as an actor I had to do real research and actually change how I thought about everything in order to portray the character. I must have watched Rain Man 100 times, since Dustin Hoffman’s character was a massive inspiration and, funnily enough, Michael Cera too.
You’ve got a huge gig lined up – what would be your dream venue?
There’s a gig at the beginning of the film Lost Boys, where the big muscle guy’s playing sax. I’d play there.
Describe a typical JohnlikeJohn live show
Wow, see, when we play live its so much different to what the EP sounds like. Since I come from working in theatres and stuff like that, I’ve always had a strong on-stage vision. We’ve definitely toned down with recent gigs but there were goats and mimes and confetti, all kinds of shit but at the root of it all, its very entertaining. The audience aren’t separated from us and they are with us the whole way: making jokes; dancing with them, speaking to the audience. If I could, I’d spend all my time just playing shows.
What would be your ultimate aim in the music industry?
Honestly, just to keep doing what I’m doing but get paid for it haha! I suppose that’s they key really, write music, play amazing shows, say words occasionally and then get paid to do it again. I’d love to get a record deal with who ever Alabaster Deplume’s with.
Is there anything you would like people to know about your current release?
Vegans Are Evil Too, but so are milkmen, sausage dogs, barbacks and pretty much everyone. (I’m not just coming after the vegans)
Singer-songwriter. I’ll be honest, it’s not my favourite term. It immediately brings to mind a white man set on an uncomfortable chair with a brown guitar signing in a high voice. And yet, the great titans of the story-telling field – Tom Waits; Leonard Cohen; Bob Dylan; Nick Cave et all, are anything but beige. They are, however, white blokes. An alternative would be nice.
As you asked nicely, here’s an alternative who genuinely is exciting and worthy of your time. Julia Mascetti is a harpist. Are harps the new weapon of the musical bard and bardess? They’re an impressive beast for sure, always appearing as if the player is attempting to tame it like Hercules grappling with the Nemean lion. Julia even has a collection of harps, depending on the theatre of tuneful war on which she is operating. Small purple harp? Perfect for appearing on stage with metal bands. No, really.
In Bloom, the lead track from a forthcoming EP, is the product not only of Julia’s imagination but also her environment. Having moved from the UK to Tokyo, she has become a fervent blogger and object of quite some attention in her newly adopted home. Her Japanese audiences have taken her particularly sweet (and disarming) English vocals and her golden spider webs of plucked strings very much to their hearts, language not proving to be a barrier in her dark fairytales. Indeed, for the listening public in the UK, it’s the strangeness of the Japanese culture and use of local instrumentation, not to mention the aching longing of distance and loneliness, which subtly creeps into your brain and takes up residence. Sparce, yet densely packed, Julia’s music is a Godsend, a ray of light which takes an age-old musical form and adds utterly unique components and takes them to genuinely new places. You can keep your singer songwriters: we’re keeping this one.
Natalie Kocab & Michaela Polakova are new to me, but god have they made an impression. Not only does their latest release have the Ex-Verve guitarist Nick McCabe lending his talents to the pair but its a dark, etherial masterpiece. Move Nick Cave Natalie and Michaela are taking over!
The new album ‘Ellis Island’ really stands out as not just a great album but as a work of art. Ever tracks stand apart from the last moving though Cocteau Twins to The National, the pairs sound hits on al the right notes taking influence from some greats.
‘Ellis Island’ is out now on Warner Music, Listen below:
As band we all come from different backgrounds with different influences including rock, pop and classical. Nicola Bates (violin & vocals) has toured with the English Orchestra and Sting, Brían McNamara (lead singer/guitarist) comes from a folk rock background and honed his craft playing venues in bars from New York to San Francisco and Dublin. Laurence Bridge (Bass guitar) has performed in the past with likes of Lucie Barrat (sister of the famous Libertine) and Tom Odell. We’ve merged these influences together to create a unique sound.
What would be your ultimate aim in the industry
To make music and to try and stick around for as long as we can.
How long have you been writing your own music?
We’ve been writing together since we started the band in Brighton in 2013.
Who are your top three influences and why?
Our sound taps from a well of music that includes Wilco, Fleetwood Mac and The Waterboys. They influence us as they have made some incredible music that will stand the test of time.
Is there anything you would like people to know about your current release?
Its available on Spotify, Amazon and ITunes from March 10th
Where are you based and what’s your local scene like? Any favourite venues?
We’re based in the sea-side town of Brighton. The local scene is a vibrant one with great venues such as The Hope & Ruin and The Green Door Store. We feel lucky to call it home.
Who else can you recommend from your local scene for people to have a listen to?
Rotait are an incredible two piece alt-rock act (cello and drums – think Damien Rice meets The White Stripes) and Paul Murray is one of the finest solo troubadours we’ve seen.
Give our readers a roundup of where they can find you online and hear more of your music.
You can find us on all the usual music media channels – Spotify, You Tube, Amazon, ITunes etc
Follow us on Twitter / FB for all the latest news & gig updates:
Music was in my blood from a very early age. For my birthday, an Uncle bought me a tin drum, of which I added a few more cans, in order to make different noises. By the time I was in my teens, I had bought a full set of Premier drums and taught myself. My Mother and Father were both singers and music was constantly coming from our house. The word went round, that I was a confident player/drummer. A well known local lead guitarist by the name of Chris heard about me and gave me a call to meet up, this was the beginning of a 5x piece rock band. We played every weekend traveling as far up the country as Mid England, and from London to Cornwall. We also had a very formidable fan base.
What would be your ultimate aim in the industry?
My aim today is to find a new manager with a good reputation. My ultimate aim is to find a 5x piece band, in which to tour, also making videos to compliment my songs, and to achieve status. Also writing soundtracks for new films.
How long have you been writing your own music?
I n j i n was writing songs as far back as the late 70’s and 80’s for local released albums.
Who are your top three influences and why?
In the beginning I n j i n loved big band sounds, whether cabaret, dance, or jazz, also rock + roll. But when I n j i n started performing, he was influenced by journey, foreigner, styx. Steve Perry of Journey, had such a beautiful toned voice, singing many octaves. The bands in question had fantastic harmonies, so melodic, and well executed. Bands in the UK were Whitesnake, Deep Purple etc etc.,
Is there anything you would like people to know about your current release?
My lastest song ‘Turning inside out’ (C) is a song about such people out there on the streets, whom have nothing, including some refugees.
Where are you based and what’s your local scene like? Any favourite venues?
At the moment, I am based in Dorset, where I have found a place of serenity to write songs. There are countless clubs and pubs in Weymouth and Bournemouth, both in Dorset, whom supply all types of music, almost every day of the week. Once very famous venues, The Steering Wheel, and Cat’s Whiskers, often use to house celebrities whom have fond memories of these clubs.
Who else can you recommend from your local scene for people to have a listen to?
One popular rock band in their time were ‘Splinter’ based in Weymouth. They too travelled far, until certain musicians moved on.
Give our readers a round up of where they can find you online and hear more of your music.
I n j i n can be found on many sites. His own site on www.injin.co.uk . On Facebook under Roger James, (in stage costume photo).
My older brothers (who already had guitars), inspired me. I was captivated by their interest in music in London in the late 1960’s and early 70s. One of my brothers gave me a Yamaha FG140 acoustic guitar which I still have. They were listening to Donovan, Dylan, The Beatles, The Doors, etc. I wanted to be like them and inevitably copied my older brothers! It was a very exciting time musically and soon I was writing my own songs.
What would be your ultimate aim in the industry?
My aim is simply to broaden my audience. I would like more people to enjoy my music.
How long have you been writing your own music?
Since I was about 15.
Who are your top three influences and why?
Leonard Cohen – Because of his emotional intensity and sincerity and the melodic beauty of his tunes.
The Velvet Underground. – A wonderful mixture of the spontaneous and the contemporary. So natural and unpretentious. Unsurpassed.
Bob Dylan – Incredible range and edge. Iconic – Genius.
Is there anything you would like people to know about your current release?
My current release continues my interest in the personal and universal and reflects my various influences. The songs are concerned with affairs of the heart – Love, loss, beauty and melancholia. I think it best to listen to the whole album if possible, as it develops and deepens as it progresses. I have tried to make it so the words and music fit seamlessly together and flow naturally. It’s something of a slow burner I think to be listened to in ‘chill’ mode perhaps!
Where are you based and what’s your local scene like? Any favourite venues?
I’m based in Edinburgh. My favourite venue is currently The Outhouse, Broughton Street Lane, Edinburgh. I performed there recently. I also like the Jazz Bar and hope to perform there too.
Who else can you recommend from your local scene for people to have a listen to?
Lindsey and The Storm.
Give our readers a round up of where they can find you online and hear more of your music.
I started playing singing and playing music in my teens but It was when I went to The Brighton Institute of Modern Music in my early 20’s that I really started taking it seriously. I lived there for a couple of years and it was there that I made and self released my first album and considered myself a musician for the first time. Brighton will always have a special place in my heart because of that.
What would be your ultimate aim in the industry?
I guess my aim is to keep making music and to get it out to as wider an audience as possible. Its a difficult time for the music industry and making a living from music is harder now than it ever was. I would just like to be able to book a tour and know that people will come because I have an audience. I’m not particularly bothered about being crazy famous I’d just like to be successful and self – sufficient as an artist.
How long have you been writing your own music?
I wrote my first song when I was about 14 and played it in my music class at school. It was called “A Reason to Believe” and it was truly fucking terrible. I’ve been writing (better songs hopefully) ever since.
Who are your top three influences and why?
1) Bowie- I grew up listening to him and like a lot of queer kids for own generation and the one before me he made you feel like it was ok to be different. He was a visionary and there will never be anyone else quite like him. I feel lucky to have been on the planet at the same time that he was.
2) Tori Amos – She is criminally underrated and is often overlooked but when I was 16 and I first heard “From the Choirgirl Hotel” I knew I had to find a piano (even though I couldn’t play for shit at the time and start writing songs
3) Sufjan Stevens- I sound nothing like him and possess only the tiniest fraction of his talent – but he is vulnerable and honest in his songwriting in a way that I am always striving to be in my own.
Is there anything you would like people to know about your current release?
The concept for Night Music came to me around summer 2013 I had been on tour in America for my last album and while that in experience in itself was a lot of fun, I was suffering terrible bout of writers block, and my confidence as a songwriter was waning.
When I returned home I began to notice people around London at night time. Lonely disaffected seeming characters. An old lady on a night bus at 3 in the morning with a far away look in her eye talking to herself out loud. Prostitutes walking the streets in Finsbury Park looking for business. A man weeping into his phone in a bus stop because his lover had left him. Over that summer I began to notice these nocturnal creatures who took to the streets and the bars when the sun went down over London. People that were lost and lonely, people that the rest of society had all too happily forgotten. The album is really inspired by London and its nocturnal inhabitance with a few melodrama’s from my own life thrown in as well. I made the album with my friend and producer Aneek Thapar who is a genius production wise its quite cinematic and the most electronic thing I’ve ever done. I think its my best work and I’m really proud of it. I hope it’s well received. I guess time will tell…
Where are you based and what’s your local scene like? Any favourite venues?I’m usually based in London. My favourite venues there are Ronnie Scott’s and The Troubadour. I love playing those places because so many greats have played there before me, Also The Union Chapel because its beautiful and really intimate. I’m yet to play yet there though, so if anyone from their team is reading this, please book me! I’ve spent the last few months living and playing around Berlin in all these great smokey little bars. My favourites of these so far are Laksmi Bar and Madame Claude in Kruezberg and Tik Nord in Fr
Who else can you recommend from your local scene for people to have a listen to?My pal Paul Diello is an English Musician also living in Berlin who does kind of 80’s inspired piano pop and his voice is a wondrous thing. Jon Campbell is a queer alt country singer who lives down the street from me and he’s just put out his first EP. Definitely worth checking out.
Give our readers a round up of where they can find you online and hear more of your music.
My new album “Night Music” will be out on iTunes, amazon, spottily and all other digital music retailers worldwide on 27th May with the first single “Always Tomorrow” out May 6th and my back catalogue is also available now as well, or you can follow me on social media or my webiste on the links below
Played bass guitar at Church lol. First deal with Rhythm King records.
2. What would be your ultimate aim in the industry?
To win a Mercury Music prize and a MOBO.
3. How long have you been writing your own music?
I co-wrote my first song (Old Octavia) in 1992
4. Who are your top three influences and why?
Smiths – Morrissey has something to say and says it. Melody and lyrics that make a grown man cry.
Nirvana – anger
Pixies – odd rhythms and structure but great underlying melodies.
5. Is there anything you would like people to know about your current release?
It was recorded in a shed with love and I hope people like it.
6. Where are you based and what’s your local scene like? Any favourite venues?
Tonbridge. The local gig is excellent (voted best small venue in the Guardian last year) it’s called the Forum and I’ve played it a lot of times in my life. Local scene isn’t what you’d expect
7. Who else can you recommend from your local scene for people to have a listen to?
Kings of Electronic Rock – H2SO4. Techno masters – Mortal and Code.
Graham:
1. How did you get your initial start in music?
Initial start- i was a painter working above a studio . I liked the band’s music and agreed to mix their stuff live in london as there were so many
difficult and inept engineers. The band were Code who went onto record the classic ” Architect” album on 3rd Mind records, but they had so many problems getting a decent live mix .
2. What would be your ultimate aim in the industry?
Peer recognition is high on my list. Mercury also.
3. How long have you been writing your own music?
First track ” Cities 1-4 ” a cityscape in electronic music ; for Code in 1997
4. Who are your top three influences and why?
Duke Ellington for hooks, Kraftwerk for cool and integrity, Beach Boys for exuberance and general ‘spot-on-ness ‘
5. Is there anything you would like people to know about your current release?
This is an album with lyrics that will shake, rattle and roll you. The likes of which I have not heard for a very long time. It will unsettle you and inspire you at the same time.
6. Where are you based and what’s your local scene like? Any favourite venues?
I pay very little attention to ‘scenes ‘ apart from landscapes..
7. Give our readers a round up of where they can find you online and hear more of your music.
Spotifyetc . See You Tube– Roman Devreaux channel also Coleman Hatch for many interesting videos ( eg the instrumental ” Credit Crunch” by the zzips ) ..other than that i tunes , amazon, cd baby etc.
Know Me Better Music 