Amy Winehouse-inspired pop/neo-soul artist Felixity releases her debut album ‘Love Sick’ on May 1 via Komplex Recordings. The latest single ‘Twisted Love’ also gets a swank powerhouse video featuring (and jointly choreographed by) Felixity herself with dancer Joshua Jung, who has performed with Mabel at The Brit Awards and appeared on ITV’s The Greatest Dancer.
Felixity recently released the Oberkon Remix of her debut single ‘You&Me’, created by a trio of heavy hitters: Andy Spaceland (a.k.a. Andy Jenks), part of Alpha and 5 Billion in Diamonds, together with Butch Vig; Jay Reynolds, notable mixer for the likes of Dua Lipa, Liam Gallagher, MIST, Fred Again, Gabrielle, Paloma Faith, and Pixie Lott; and producer David Francolini.
This collection of 10 deeply personal songs is part confessional, part exorcism, and all infused with her extraordinary voice and street smart lyrics. These songs, which were written at the very end of last year, taking the listener on a poetic journey to the heart of the singer. Felixity’s music is also influenced by The Weeknd (Trilogy), Etta Bond, J Cole, Anderson Paak, KAYTRANADA, and Jhene Aiko.
“On the whole, ‘Love Sick’ is a full stop on a part of my life. Written about personal experiences and laid over heavy drums and lots of strings, I wanted people to know that we all feel the same things and the hardest stuff never lasts. I wrote this about my past and the things that have happened. Sex, drugs love and addiction, it’s all in there,” says Felixity.
This album was recorded in London, Bristol, Brighton, Berlin and Geneva. Mixed by Cenzo Townsend (U2, Ash, The Strangers, The Wedding Present) at Decoy Sound and mastered by Brian Lucey (Katy Perry, Shania Twain, Liam Gallagher, Hatchie, Green Day) at Magic Garden Mastering, this album was produced and engineered at Komplex Studio by David Francolini, drummer for Levitation, Dark Star and Dragons. Francolini has been operating Komplex studios out of Bristol, UK but has now moved operations to the French Alps.
“Given the confessional nature of Felixity’s lyrics, it was important to create a dramatic soundscape; a cinematic and lush harmonic bed on top of which her wonderful voice could sit and her stories’ meanings are amplified. I have shapeshifted the feel of the songs throughout the record so it feels like the emotional journey that the lyrics portray. All quite conceptual really, but always keeping it uncluttered, funky, simple, and the groove deep,” says producer David Francolini.
“Fusing old school soul music with more contemporary textures, color, rhythms, and tone, I brought in some of the best musicians I have had the pleasure to have met for the album recording: Dekel Shula Adin (bass), Dean Frechtman (guitar), Ziv Sobelman-Yamin (Rhodes piano) and Adam Coombes (piano). We also have guest guitar from Angelo Bruschini (Massive Attack) and Alex Lee (Goldfrapp). The strings were worked on together with the soulmaster Martin Eden. I played all the drums and percussion myself and also myriad other synths etc. Was a fukkin labour of love!”
This collection of songs of love and loss is just the tip of the iceberg of what is to come for Felixity, who has several albums planned for 2020. The ambitious songwriter is already in the studio completing the second one. As for many artists, live shows planned in support of this album have been postponed. Nonetheless, Felixity is hoping to perform again later in the summer, current environmental permitting.
Featured image by Steve Gullick.
CREDITS
Written and performed by Felixity and David Francolini
Produced and engineered by David Francolini
Recorded at Komplex Studio in November/December 2019
Mixed by Cenzo Townsend at Decoy Sound
Mastered by Brian Lucey at Magic Garden Mastering.
All songs were written by F. Abbott and D. Francolini, except ‘You&Me’, written by F. Abbott, D. Francolini and S. Clines
‘Twisted Love’ video directed, produced and edited by Alex Rozerot Kirkwood
LINKS:
https://www.facebook.com/Felixityx
https://twitter.com/felixity_x
https://www.instagram.com/felixity_x
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtqvgVRDF_xKKzWNNYnRVmA
https://music.apple.com/gb/artist/felixity/1497518825
https://open.spotify.com/artist/0rrpwcxiKQNAtpsU3e4q7V
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Olivia May – Tonight
Olivia May has a story to tell. Years of starts, stops and self-doubt has shaped a voice now ready to empower and inspire those going through similar struggles.
Hailing from Fresno, California, Olivia began her career at the age of thirteen when she joined her first band and started playing local venues around her hometown. She quickly earned the attention of some industry executives with her raw vocal talent and upbeat stage performance, and by the time she was sixteen she was playing shows at The Roxy as well as showcasing for record labels.
In early 2007, Olivia moved to Los Angeles to pursue her creative career finding some early success in acting. After establishing herself on the LA music scene as a solo artist, Olivia joined ISLES which lead her to open for Crazytown, performing on the Vans Warped Tour in 2015 and receiving placements on Mashable.com and in Alternative Press.
Not only a powerhouse rock vocalist, but Olivia’s angelic country vocal style also caught the attention of David Rosales while she was performing her acoustic set in 2011. ‘David & Olivia’ performed nationwide, including stops at SXSW, wineries, and dive bars. ‘David & Olivia’ were nominated for a variety of categories in the famous OC Music Awards in 2014 and were asked to perform and open for Steel Magnolias in Temecula. 2016 brought Olivia an exciting opportunity to focus on her solo career.
Liberated from industry constraints, she has harnessed her original inspirations and is ready to unleash her wildly passionate Hard Pop, with a dash of performance art style and a voice that has been through struggles to emerge as a beacon of growth, awareness and wild, unapologetic self-expression.
‘Tonight’ is released on January 13th, 2017, along with an artistic music video shot and directed by the punk rock Greta Valenti of GROWVISION Creative Studios. (GrowVision.com)
Talking about the inspiration behind her new song, Olivia says “I wrote Tonight during a time of complete wonderful chaos. Finding my true love, living in my car, absolutely no stability in my life. But none of that mattered because I knew I found the one who would be there for me through it all.”
LINKS:
http://OliviaMay.com
http://instagram.com/OliviaMay
http://twitter.com/OliviaMay
http://soundcloud.com/OliviaMay
http://facebook.com/OliviaMayMusic -
Folk Devils – Forever
Folk Devils, the London group that took their name from a well-known academic text on media scapegoating*, have returned with their first new music in 33 years. The band blazed a trail across the UK’s independent music scene of the mid-80s with their unique brand of post-punk energy, known for their acclaimed indie-chart singles “Hank Turns Blue”, “Beautiful Monster”, three John Peel sessions, plus live dates opening for Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, The Fall, The Gun Club, Screaming Blue Messiahs, and others.
The 3-track “Forever” EP lands on 10” (Clear Red Vinyl)^ and Digital on September 18, 2020, via Optic Nerve Recordings and features two new compositions, the title track “Forever” and “My Slum Soul”, plus an incendiary new version of an old live favorite “Ink Runs Dry”.
Recorded at London’s famous Konk Studios in North London and mixed and co-produced by Grammy Award-winning engineer Rik Simpson, the re-born Folk Devils drew inspiration for new recordings from the release of their 2016 career retrospective “Beautiful Monsters (Singles & Demo Recordings 1984-86)” and the excellent reactions at subsequent live shows around the UK with kindred spirits Membranes, Inca Babies, The Wolfhounds, and The Cravats.
Founder members, guitarist Kris Jozajtis and bassist Mark Whiteley, reformed the group by recruiting members of a short-lived 1987 version of Folk Devils; guitarist Nick Clift and drummer John Hamilton.
Together with singer Dave Hodgson they soon discovered they had created a well-oiled twin-guitar juggernaut that brimmed with the same restless, twisted blues that characterized the first and second iterations of the band from 1983-87 when they were fronted by the highly underrated and now sadly-departed singer/songwriter Ian Lowery.
Hodgson, a fellow transplant from the North-East, had known Lowery in the early 80s prior to Folk Devils when the two were in their respective post-punk bands Ski Patrol and Parting Shots.
LINKS:
https://www.facebook.com/FolkDevilsUK
https://twitter.com/Folk_Devils_UK
https://www.instagram.com/folk_devils_uk
https://folkdevils.bandcamp.com -
The 109’s – So Long
The 109’s follow their 2017 eponymous debut with ‘Hollow Point’, a set of 11 new songs that showcases the band’s combination of ferocious rock riffage, searing lead guitar breaks, and harmony vocals. The 109’s are an English four-piece who celebrate a mutual love of the late ’60s and early ’70s rock – Sabbath, Zeppelin, AC/DC, The Who, MC5, Grand Funk Railroad. This melting pot of influences has created a blistering, dynamic fusion of all that is best in rock, and their music has garnered praise from DJs, festival promoters and gig-goers alike.
The musicians come from strong improvisational backgrounds and write their songs as a collective, jamming until they find riffs, melody lines and unusual rhythms and cadences that can be boiled down into short, punchy song structures that strut effortlessly through complex, unexpected changes. The album has been produced by Jason Wilson, at Stakeout Studios who has produced bands such as ‘Don Broco’ and ‘You Me At Six’. Jason has translated the tremendous power and passion of the band’s live performances into recorded songs that have an equal sense of aggression and grandeur.
On “So Long” Matty says:
“Sometimes a song begins not with a melody or a lyric, but with a guitarist suddenly discovering a unique tone or sound. This riff appeared literally seconds after I plugged in a freshly purchased effects pedal, an Octave Multiplexer, which gives the guitar that distinctive phat fuzzy tone. We added some lyrics that pay homage to our interest in grungy, dystopian sci-fi and the rest of the song wrote itself”.
Lead guitarist, Matty P, is also an author and member of the UK Crime Writers Association. He has published four novels in the UK to date – Scarecrow, Stolen Lives, Broken Arrow and Werewolf – under the name Matthew Pritchard, and was nominated for the CWA’s Gold Dagger Award.
The band’s line up is as follows:
Drums – Steve Collings
Vocals and Guitar – David Gambril
Bass – Andrew Horstead
Guitar and Vocals – Matthew PritchardLINKS:
https://soundcloud.com/the-109s/sets/album
https://www.facebook.com/the109s
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/the-109s/id1153559243
https://twitter.com/the109s
https://www.instagram.com/the109s
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCX-DfgIKTdyQmAoBtLCjFUA
http://www.the109s.com