Talking with Shoreline Dream was a complete joy. I have to start this out by saying that. As a musician myself, Ryan and Eric epitomize the namesake of musician in the truest sense of the term. They are not out to impress anyone, they are out to connect. They don’t label their music for anyone, they leave their music up for your interpretation. As far as music itself goes, this is how classics are made. And today we talk to both of the main components that is A Shoreline Dream, and in turn, get a glimpse into the minds behind the music. Enjoy!
Check out our review of their latest single ‘Room For The Others’, which was released July 14th, 2017. Buy links below.
About A Shoreline Dream
‘Room For The Others’is the fourth single from their ever-evolving new album, which is being released digitally one track at a time, before the full vinyl-only album is finally ready. After fine tuning the song over the winter months, it has become a favorite for the duo to play, partially due to the resonance of the song’s message.
The song deals with the struggle to come to terms with, and attempting to overcome, the biggest fear in life…change. With the recent loss of close family and friends, A Shoreline Dream frontman Ryan Policky has instead taken those potential negatives and turned them into a message of personal reflection.
“Given the nature of all the amazingly overwhelming things going on these days politically, socially, etc., this track became a personal reflection on it all. Both the good and the bad. The love and the sadness,” says Ryan Policky. “I found myself feeling emotions from all sides of the spectrum, and room for the others is just that… a spectrum of emotions. This song goes out to those who may have ever felt just a little bit of place… who just wanted to stand in line with the rest.”
While the original wave of shoegazers chose textures and otherworldliness over conventional clarity and 90’s post-rockers opted for progressive and fluid structures rather than traditional form, A Shoreline Dream are the keepers of both of those flames. Delivering a heady cocktail of dream-pop, shoegaze, neo-psychedelia, goth and progressive rock, the new single also brings a gothic undertone set against a pulsing, energetic rhythm and is, on the whole, more in keeping with northern European atmosphere than the warm sidewalks of Denver’s suburbs.
A Shoreline Dream, comprised of Ryan Policky and Erik Jeffries, originate from Barnum, Colorado. Their music is often referred to as “progressive shoegaze,” indicating their blending of lush sampled textures, organic instrumentation and vocals layered like a synth. But it is the studio’s final treatment of the song that is the real joy, affecting a cavernous production style, and haunting and ethereal resonance in keeping with the semi-lucid and sonorous nature of this music.
While A Shoreline Dream have not re-invented this particular musical wheel, they have certainly re-treaded it, painted it interesting colors, and added some shimmering gloss before taking it out for a spin, ultimately leaving multi-colored vapor trails throughout the neighborhood.
Over the past 10 years, A Shoreline Dream has churned out numerous acclaimed releases under their own label (Latenight Weeknight Records), working with legends such as Ulrich Schnauss, Mark Kramer and The Engineers (for whom they remixed a song for progressive label gods K-Scope). They also opened for Chapterhouse for their final appearance.
“Room for the Others” by A Shoreline Dream is available through iTunes and can be ordered via Bandcamp.
Featured image credit Ryan Policky.
LINKS:
http://www.ashorelinedream.com
http://www.facebook.com/A-Shoreline-Dream-173485236012279
http://ashorelinedream.bandcamp.com/
http://twitter.com/ashorelinedream
http://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3hfpwdCJzLO3epBifJcBSA
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Black Bordello Releases Eponymous Album (The Week in #Indie Segment)
Black Bordello have released their eponymous album. A solid fusion of a little of everything from Fusion to vintage show and everything in between but one thing is for sure, this is all Black Bordello. In all of their glory. And this is what I love about #indie music. That unbreaking originality and melding of influences. This is the love of music put to record.
Click HERE to watch Season 6 of Jammerzine’s ‘The Week in #Indie’.
Click HERE to watch Season 5 of Jammerzine’s ‘The Week in #Indie’.
Click HERE to watch Season 4 of Jammerzine’s ‘The Week in #Indie’.
Click HERE to watch Season 3 of Jammerzine’s ‘The Week in #Indie’.
Click HERE to watch Season 2 of Jammerzine’s ‘The Week in #Indie’.
Click HERE to watch Season 1 of Jammerzine’s ‘The Week in #Indie’.ABOUT BLACK BORDELLO
After a few years of gigging in and around London, Peckham’s Black Bordello is an established live force. Following a succession of well-received singles ( Spectre Man, Backache, Leeches ) The London group has released a full-length debut album that melds Vaudeville, Jazz, and Gothic Rock in one complete and overwhelming maelstrom.
Originally the project of Sienna Bordello, much of the album’s material dates back to Black Bordello’s 2017 inception, although it has now been honed to streamlined perfection. However, as the band’s line up has stabilized, a singular sound has emerged that fuses the band’s seemingly disparate influences.
Sienna’s influences come from across the board from “the loaded rebellion” of PJ Harvey and Poly Styrene to the emotional integrity of Bessie Smith and the post-modern vibe collages of Post Normal. The latter of which she was introduced to by her university lecturer the late, great writer Mark Fisher. “I sheepishly told him I couldn’t make music because i didn’t have any of the right ‘stuff’. He told me that was bollocks and showed me some bands who recorded at home without all the fancy gear and software, Garage Band and Audacity became my playground as I discovered there is no right way”
Of her own musical beginnings, Sienna says ” I got very into pre-war Jazz and started singing standards at the Jamboree in the Cable Street studios, where I later ended up illegally living. I would get up and sit with the band and sing a song or two, normally Billie Holiday or Bessie Smith, as dancers with day jobs partnered up and practiced swing dancing in hoards on the old scratched parquet floors. I had fun but it wasn’t always easy”
After Sienna’s scatting was deemed too experimental for the jazz standards group, she looked for a new musical vehicle. After bonding with keys player Andrew Marriott over similar fish tattoos at a Brockley party, Black Bordello swiftly took shape, with the group taking their name from Sienna’s family restaurant ‘Il Bordello’.
Now roughly 3 years after the band’s first show, a fully realized self-titled album is finally ready for release. From the Dreaming era of Kate Bush’s theatre of ‘Leeches’ to the heady prog swagger of ‘Prufrock’, a wild range of music is on show. ‘Baby’ is a noisy Jazz sprawl and ‘Spectre Man’ is as maudlin a ballad as you’re ever likely to hear. This is a vital debut album by one of the capitals most exciting new bands.
LINKS:
https://www.blackbordello.co.uk
https://www.facebook.com/siennabordello
https://open.spotify.com/artist/0LhmtJ38vRhd35Eg3oC1nt
https://music.apple.com/us/album/leeches-single/1503188893 -
Ethan Gold Releases ‘Not Me.Us’ Video (The Week in #Indie Segment)
Ethan Gold has officially released his new video for the single titled ‘Not Me. Us’. Beginning as a somber anthem the song slowly builds up to the hook with pop-sensibility and a craft only a good songwriter can achieve, ‘Not Me. Us’ gives a poignant reflection on the better qualities of humanity with the craft of a poet and the form of an artist.
‘Not Me.Us’ is out now everywhere digitally, including stores such as Apple Music, and streaming platforms like Spotify.
Watch the full episode of The Week in #Indie HERE.
Click HERE to watch Season 6 of Jammerzine’s ‘The Week in #Indie’.
Click HERE to watch Season 5 of Jammerzine’s ‘The Week in #Indie’.
Click HERE to watch Season 4 of Jammerzine’s ‘The Week in #Indie’.
Click HERE to watch Season 3 of Jammerzine’s ‘The Week in #Indie’.
Click HERE to watch Season 2 of Jammerzine’s ‘The Week in #Indie’.
Click HERE to watch Season 1 of Jammerzine’s ‘The Week in #Indie’.ABOUT ETHAN GOLD
With the slogan ‘Make Sensitivity Cool Again’, Gold makes lullabies of strength for the quieter half of the human race. This is catchy art rock, for people who still dream. With personable flair and depth, Gold sings about the longing for human connection in the city, and also for the natural world.
“I wrote ‘Not Me. Us’ as an anthem to reflect the times. I started with the then-current Bernie slogan “Not Me Us” – a simple phrase, a moral protest against the lack of compassion, lack of empathy, and narcissism that’s become a point of pride for current political leadership in many countries. As a person who’s primary political motivator is a concern for our biosphere, I found this phrase very appealing, as it respects the interconnectedness of all life,” says Ethan Gold.
“Musically I went with a sound that’s more traditionally American. There’s a power in those idioms. I wanted to call out the hard fight everyone is having in the country, while also allowing everyone to feel, in a time where the dominant feelings are factionalism and fear, that the things which unite us could still be greater.”
Raised in San Francisco during the long extended hangover after hippie times, Ethan Gold is son to Beat author Herbert Gold and Melissa Gold, a collaborator and girlfriend of legendary concert promoter Bill Graham – the two died together in a helicopter crash. A childhood of constant change and chaos may have led Ethan to the unique way he approaches music. Today he lives and dreams songs, writing much music while asleep.
“There’s huge economic inequality destroying American life. A country that pioneered the notion of everyone being able to be comfortably middle class is now breaking into bitterness and division as a huge majority of the population is frightened, living paycheck-to-paycheck, and at the risk of bankruptcy from one unexpected illness or job loss. Even people working multiple jobs are having trouble making ends meet,” says Ethan Gold.
“So I put a mosaic of families in the song and video. A father who’s sick but can’t afford treatment. A son falling into hatred. A mother working two jobs but barely surviving. A young daughter hopeful. Proud grandparents who see their life’s work crumbling as their children slide down the economic ladder. We could all be all these people; this is every family. The struggles so many are having aren’t so different from each other.”
In 2013, Gold suffered a serious head injury. After a long recovery, he now credits the temporary dissolution of his cognitive ability with upgraded inner power, creativity, and clarified mission: in a world that seems more and more combative, bringing sensitive people and quieter things – music and poetry and the living earth – back into their magnificence.
The ‘Not Me. Us’ single follows Gold’s most recent offering – ‘Never Met A World Like You’, an environmental song with highly impactful video, to coincide with the first climate strikes. He also performed, for the first time after his head injury, at three L.A. rallies in late 2019.
Following his acclaimed ‘Songs From A Toxic Apartment’ LP during his recovery, 2018 brought the release of the naive-electronic ‘Expanses (Teenage Synthstrumentals)’ and Gold’s tribute to childhood favorites ‘Live Undead Bedroom Closet Covers’. Gold also handled film scoring for Blumhouse supernatural thriller ‘Don’t Let Go’ and brother Ari Gold‘s feature films ‘Adventures of Power’ and ‘The Song of Sway Lake’, which features John Grant and The Staves singing Gold’s songs.
This track was produced and engineered by Dave Tweedie (So You Think You Can Dance, No Doubt, Flipsyde, Akon). Gold and Jay Ponti produced the video, with editing and effects by Adam Laiben.
Ethan Gold has just finished recording his upcoming double-album ‘Earth City’, which explores themes of longing — for human connection, for romance, for city nightlife, and ultimately for connection to the threatened natural world. Release expected later this year.
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An Interview with The Neverlutionaries (The Week in #Indie Segment)
Jammerzine has an exclusive interview with The Neverlutionaries founder Christopher Harold Wells. Having released what I consider one of the most diverse albums in the last few years, The Neverlutionaries is as much Christopher’s music lab as much as it is music project.
Having cut his teeth and added his resume with some of the most prolific people in music, Christopher now demonstrates his extreme diversity with The Neverlutionaries new eponymous album filled with tracks that really make the album sound like it has multiple artists throughout. Like completely different bands. I have no other way to say it, so I just said it. Check out the playlist below.
In this interview, we talk with Christopher about The Neverlutionaries, the songwriting and recording process and how he maximizes his output, especially in this pandemic, as well as the next evolution for The Neverlutionaries.
Watch the full episode HERE.
LINKS:
https://www.facebook.com/TheNeverlutionaries
https://www.instagram.com/theneverlutionaries
https://soundcloud.com/the-neverlutionaries
https://open.spotify.com/artist/761GJflRuZzXhuuCh9yaKD?autoplay=trueClick HERE to watch Season 7 of Jammerzine’s ‘The Week in #Indie’.
Click HERE to watch Season 6 of Jammerzine’s ‘The Week in #Indie’.
Click HERE to watch Season 5 of Jammerzine’s ‘The Week in #Indie’.
Click HERE to watch Season 4 of Jammerzine’s ‘The Week in #Indie’.
Click HERE to watch Season 3 of Jammerzine’s ‘The Week in #Indie’.
Click HERE to watch Season 2 of Jammerzine’s ‘The Week in #Indie’.
Click HERE to watch Season 1 of Jammerzine’s ‘The Week in #Indie’.