Wartoad have been on a warpath of punk rock proportions. And now with the release of a new album and cover, they are sure to be tracking their success with attitude and Anger!
Having smashed themselves to a place of prominence back at Christmas time with the release of their cover of ‘Merry Xmas Everyone’, Wartoad have managed to keep the hype up, and are now owning the summer with the release of a full length studio album!
This Angsty, Un-apologetic Album has managed to create a lot of buzz, and with much more fuel still left in the band just yet.
We got the chance to talk to the band Ikkarus, and with a brand new album out, they sure do have a lot to talk about.
Q: Firstly, you’ve just completed and released the new album ‘Stains and Echoes’, how did you write the songs, and what does the writing consist of?
A: “Normally, Javo gets to the studio with the main ideas, or sends them to us through email or any other means. When I listen to a “skeleton” I start to think about patterns, rhythms and fills that would fit into it. Sometimes I just work on it by humming”.
“When creating music, I try to make it a spiritual thing. I ask for guidance within my beliefs and I start playing for a long time until something jumps out and catches my attention: Maybe a simple melody or guitar riff. Maybe just a chord sequence. I record that onto the computer, leave it sounding on and on for a while”.
Q: How did you finish off the album, how did you figure out the track list?
A: “We practically went through all the finished songs we had. We took care that the ones chosen for Stains & Echoes were all part of the style and genre we’re trying to work on”.
Q:What is your local music scene like?
A: “There are many projects I’m a fan of. However, I feel it can be monotone. It doesn’t really explore an original sound or seek to create one. Many local bands sound pretty much the same, and I feel emerging styles such as Indie-Pop and Indie-Folk constantly influence them and so the product all around is too similar”.
“I feel it has been a difficult scene in Mexico, for many bands (us included). It’s generally difficult to get a gig unless you have some sort of connection”.
Q: How do you guys think you fit in?
A: “We hope that the different elements we’re bringing to the table captivate our audience from the first experience, whether it’s live or listening to the studio record. If there’s something we’re looking to be, is emotional in our music”.
“Based on our live performances I feel we’ve had a good response from the audience, however, only time will tell what kind of part we played in our local music scene”.
Q: And finally, What do people need to know about the album?
A: “Stains & Echoes is our presentation card to the world and at the same time seeks to be an instrument to find some good vibes, solace and consolation through art”.
“I want to say that Stains & Echoes has a little piece of our hearts tattooed into every single song of the album”.
“Stains & Echoes is a huge thing in my life. The hope of its existence at the beginning led me personally through many rough places, helped me push through a multitude of musicians who just wouldn’t believe in this project, through a huge lack of self-belief and many other things”.
Waking up, on a crisp, frosty morning. Walking to the living room, with your Hot Chocolate in hand, you turn on your stereo system, and……BLAST! You’ve been hit with some merry Punk, screaming down your ears.
These are the cheerful sounds of Wartoad. Made up of an array of different artist based in the US and the UK. This is a super group that consists of quite a few talented members.
Al Dijon(Organ, Mellotron, Drums, Vocals), Butch Dante(Guitar, Vocals, Whistle), Calvin Voltz (Guitar, Bass, Drums, Kalimba, Vocals), Charlie Danielson(Bass, Vocals, Guitar), Diego Fontana(Drums, Vocals), Hal McNulty(Vocals, Bass, Guitar), Kip Larson(Drums, Vocals), Nigel Stevens (Vocals) and lastly Tony “Terk” Downing (Drums).
This may seem a far stretch from punk trios or normal four-piece bands, however, I can assure you that this cover of ‘Merry Christmas everyone’, is just the thing for your winter blues.
Founder of Clit rock, and dedicated activist, Ms Mohammed uses music to make her point.
Her recent release ‘Alibi’, was a hit with music lovers from all over the world. This may be due to the fact that Ms Mohammed has managed to take inspiration from areas all over the world, incorporating different aspects from her past travels.
Having lived in New York City, as well as London, She was born in Trinidad of South Asian descent, she has managed to perfect her craft. Ms Mohammed also finds the time to protest and stand against oppression and prejudice that is fully fledged and happening today, this allows her to also be extremely current with her music and reach messages to many people who feel the same.
Bringing heavy distorted guitars, with ethnic and eclectic style in different forms, Ms Mohammed is a sure hit with any one ready to hear a good, classic rock tune.
Know Me Better were recently in conversation with Feline Lang, one half of Berlin based electro-wave cabaret act, Feline and Strange, who are ready to unleash their out-there sounds to the world.
How did you get your initial start in music?
I was born into it… seriously. My parents are classical musicians, I was bred in a womb that supported a concert harp, played with bricks under a grand piano, and started to learn the violin within 4 years. Thus I am sorry to say that it is beyond even my abilities to remember the initial moment!
What would be your ultimate aim in the industry?
I want to become a household name and fill the biggest arenas in the world, and have my music sent on the next gold disc that goes out into the universe to represent humanity – who doesn’t? Anything below that wouldn´t justify a musician´s life which is serious shit most of the time. But then there´s these magic moments when you play for hundred, fifty, maybe just two people, and you REALLY touch them, and you know that´s why you do this. Happens rather frequently to me lately.
How long have you been writing your own music?
I have been writing the odd song or arrangement since school days, but it all became really serious in 2009 after learning my tools through arranging operas for pop and folk bands with my own troupe.
Who are your top three influences and why?
Do I really have to choose from a world full of music? OK, first three that pop to my mind. Mozart, because he wrote music everyone can enjoy but few can understand. Depeche Mode, because their top defined sound is what defines pop music for me, and they proved like no one else that you can be epic without an orchestra. Nina Hagen, because she, in turn, proved that you can be a punk on any instrument and in any language.
Is there anything you would like people to know about your current release?
I wrote this album in only 2 weeks, away from home, while Germany was turning upside down, from welcoming refugees with soft toys and water bottles at train stations, to burning down camps and marching against the government who let people seek help. I watched the news, and didn´t find any ways to help. So I wrote the album and made it, together with the now-released CD artwork, a pathetic glimpse into the feeling of suddenly losing your home, your right to survive, without warning, or alternative. What happens when you are evicted from planet Earth? And somebody you never met decides over your fate? The album tries to put you into this perspective. But it´s just a game. A play.
Where are you based and what’s your local scene like? Any favourite venues?
We´re from Berlin! Well, we´re extraterrestrials obviously, but I guess most of Berlin´s inhabitants are. I like ballroom dancing a lot, especially Sing, and Tango, and I love swimming, so my favourite location is a tiny lake in the city, the Weissensee, where in summer balls are held at the shore, sometimes with live performances – we played there too – and after dancing your heart out, you can jump into the lake and swim, have a cocktail, and feel like a VIP in Monaco. Only dirtier.
Who else can you recommend from your local scene for people to have a listen to?
You should definitely check out The Jackaffair! They do Latin Fun Punk, and support us very often. And I only recently met Les Pleureuses, who are as wacky as we are.
Give our readers a round up of where they can find you online and hear more of your music.
If you want to know all that´s going on, join The Feline&Strange Spaceship Crew on www.facebook.com/groups/felineandstrange! I spend a lot of time there, and reveal a lot of what´s in my head. Even closer you can get if you become a patron on www.patreon.com/feline, of course, getting early access, exclusive releases, and can actually influence my work. When I need help, I call out there, and listen! But the best first steps into the Feline and Strange universe is, of course, via our webpage www.felineandstrange.com. And if you are like, leave me in peace with all that stuff, I just want the music – did you know you can stream (and buy for your own price) ALL our music on http://felineandstrange.bandcamp.com?!
The young, 21 year old R&B songstress Connie Constance is making waves in the UK music scene with her beautiful blend of poetry, punk and jazz all stemming from unique points of inspiration. Perhaps this is how the new generation of songwriters work?
Whilst she may sound nothing like The Spice Girls, Connie cites them as one of her main influences, perhaps not in terms of the music, but more due to their personalities as women: “they were totally owning being a female in the nineties, and became so influential to younger people.”
Despite this, Connie also focuses on poetry as a starting point for her songs. She says “I had somewhere to release, and sometimes I would base the whole song off my poems. I really want to encourage kids to write down how they feel or express how they feel somehow.”
Connie even uses her mad dreams as material for writing original songs. She describes how one particular dream inspired her latest single ‘Clouds’: “At one point I was flying and when I was moving my hand I could feel the wind going through them, it was crazy. It was like ‘Woah what is going on in my mind’ so when I woke up I just put it straight down, but you don’t forget them.”
The music of the Nova Twins is the kind of music that slaps you in the face when you first listen to it, leaving you wondering what just happened.
Whilst ‘Hitlist’ might be considered an assault on the ears, its a pleasing assault, if there’s such a thing. The London based duo create powerful punk-infused rock that draws eually as much influence from grime and rap too. A potent combination I think you’ll find.
Heavy basslines akin to Royal Blood and Slaves blend with attitude-injected vocals not dissimilar from the likes of Sleigh Bells which consequently create a sound like no other heard before.
The band note ‘We don’t call ourselves rock or grime. It’s the 21st century, everyone’s mutating now. Girls who listen to pop music will have ripped jeans on. We’re a 21st century band,’.
It seems with their unique brand of music, the Nova Twins are bringing along a new era where anything goes.
It was after hearing Queens of the Stone Age’s lullabies to paralyze I set out to learn how to play guitar when I was 13 through Esteban DVD’s but found it too hard. I later picked it back up when I was 16 teaching myself basic chords and writing material with those new chords.
2.What would be your ultimate aim in the industry?
I would like to have the track on radio that gave those chills down your spine. I would love to tour and see the U.K. Set up the biggest rock and roll concert ever seen.
3.How long have you been writing your own music?
5 Years, I have wrote and recorded over 30 songs.
4.Who are your top three influences and why?
The pixies have to be one of my main influences, I love the diversity in their song writing, their live performance of tame when Black Francis screams never fails to give me energy.
Queens of the stone Age they first introduced me to rock and roll. I spent times in early high school playing air guitar to Josh Homme’s Riffs. I have heard every album of theirs.
Captain Beefheart was also a recent influence on songwriting he has been one of the more obscure which after studying his album safe as milk.
5.Is there anything you would like people to know about your current release?
Every song takes on different emotions, Mainly love and loss and anger. I find it impossible to fake a song. I think faking an emotion or playing for someone else makes for a bad song, that is why a lot of our stuff sounds different from each other. I would say listen to it twice.
6.Where are you based and what’s your local scene like? Any favourite venues?
We are based out of Everett Washington, the music scene was very scarce a few years back but we have worked to get people out there and ever since their has been as few venues. 3231 Creatives theater, the Jericho, Cafe Zippy ands the recently departed Old Strokers which gave us our start.
7.Who else can you recommend from your local scene for people to have a listen to?
John Paul and The Apostles are one of the kindest bands you will meet and they have a rocking sound. Psychedelephant is another one great stage presence.
8.Give our readers a round up of where they can find you online and hear more of your music.
Know Me Better Music 