Exclusive interviews with John Fryer, producer of such acts as Nine Inch Nails, Depeche Mode, Stabbing Westward, and Gravity Kills, and Joel Gion of The Brian Jonestown Massacre. Plus, new music from UK indie band Traveller and Italy’s Earthset as well as our new feature “The Mix Tape” featuring previews of new music that have recently premiered on Jammerzine.
-
An Interview with Earthset
Jammerzine has an exclusive interview with Italian band Earthset. This band, to me, is one of the reasons I created Jammer Direct and Jammerzine. Their music evolves deeper and deeper into the truest form of originality and their career takes them to original places others rarely go.
And in this interview we talk with Luigi Varanese and Ezio Romano, two of the masterminds behind the music, about their upcoming album ‘Bound’, their recent single and video ‘Pills’, and how they got from there to here on their own terms.
‘Bound’ releases on March 8th, 2022 (pre-save links below).
Check out our other features with Earthset HERE.
About Earthset
Luigi Varanese, Costantino Mazzoccoli, Emanuele Orsini and Ezio Romano are Earthset, an alt-rock quartet from Bologna, Italy.
Together since 2012, after their debut in 2015 with the concept album “In a State of Altered Unconsciousness” and the EP “POPISM” two years later, in 2018 they made the soundtrack of “L’Uomo Meccanico”a 1921 Italian-French silent film restored by the Cineteca di Bologna.
A tour was organised as a result of this experience, in collaboration with the Cineteca di Bologna, which led them to play the soundtrack around Italy and abroad.
Some of the highlights of this tour were the presentation of “L’Uomo Meccanico” at the Pesaro Film Festival; the show at Franco Maria Ricci’s Labirinto della Masone; the opening night of the Soundscreen Film Festival of Ravenna 2019, in which the band also had the opportunity to play together with the director Abel Ferrara; the shows in Brescia and Pisa, in collaboration with the local Universities; and, abroad, the closing evening of “Les Rencontres du Cinéma Italien” festival, which hosted soundtracks made by Italian groups such as Massimo Volume, Julie’s Haicut and Giardini di Mirò in previous editions.
Following the show’s success, the band released the soundtrack’s LP, recorded live and published by Dischi Bervisti and Koe Records.
The album was released on January 31, 2020 and was officially presented on the same day with a show in Rome, at the Salle du Cinéma of the Institut Francaise Center Saint Louis, in collaboration with the French Embassy. However, the subsequent tour, scheduled to support the release, was canceled due to the COVID-19 crisis.
Thanks to the experience with “L’Uomo Meccanico”, they produced a new cine-concert for Murnau’s “Nosferatu”, commissioned by the Ravenna Soundscreen Film Festival and presented exclusively at the 2020 edition of the Festival.
In February 2021, however, they recorded “Retour au Ciné” a film of the “L’Uomo Meccanico” cine-concert, shot live at the Teatro Comunale in Bologna and produced by Fonoprint studios, with the contribution of the Emilia-Romagna Region and the collaboration of ATER Foundation.
The film premiered at the Univerciné festival in Nantes and was then broadcast as part of VIRALISSIMA, the online event format of the Emilia-Romagna Region, which brought together the best of the regional production. In the second half of 2021, work on the new album “bound” was completed.
About ‘Bound’
In Earthset’s vision, “Bound” isn’t just an LP, but a full audio-visual-performative work of art. The album is made up of 11 tracks, each with its own video, each song and video connected to the previous and the next both visually and musically, creating a unitary 42-minute-long audio-visual narrative.
The concept that binds the whole project together, songs, images and videos, is a reflection on the value of relationships as the foundation of existence and is revealed in the title itself, “bound”. Coherently, the album works best together in its entirety, as it was envisioned as a whole.
As a matter of fact, while each song perfectly stands as a valid single, it is in its relation with all the other elements that make up the audio-visual project that the experience is justified and reveals a completely different meaning. The focus is not on the single elements but in the relationships between them, as the relationships bear meaning and are justified in themselves.
“The act of making music has its value in the infinite series of interactions that lie within it and acquires further value in the potential interactions that may come from it. It is, after all, an attempt at communicating and connecting with a potential listener or viewer. Therefore the whole album was recorded live in a single take, without breaks or cuts and no edit; it is a key feature of the work and is in line with the mindset Earthset adopted for it. This is documented in a video of the full recording session, which is extra content.”
Bound will be released in March 2022 via Dischi Bervisti/Costello’s.
LINKS:
https://www.facebook.com/Earthset
https://www.instagram.com/earthset_
https://open.spotify.com/artist/27FihPbgJOaSdAyq9kgb9t
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCflPJZXoRcY5hGvGrXZbEeQ
https://earthset.bandcamp.com
https://orcd.co/pills
https://open.spotify.com/album/5YYJf90FktsQTRRMZWNInT
https://music.apple.com/it/album/pills-single/1593429471
https://www.deezer.com/it/album/270196352 -
Jammerzine’s The Week in #Indie for 12/9/2019
This episode from Jammerzine features exclusive interviews with Joan Jett’s Blackheart Records’ artist Fea and Crooked Ghost’s Ray Clark. Premieres from Aidan & the Wild, Beatific, Beauty in Chaos, Chinese Man, Scratch Bandits Crew, Baja Frequencia, Greta Jaime, Johanna Kuvaja, The 1865, and The Black Watch.
About Fea
Fea is one of those bands who will get what they work for based on the caliber of their music. I can say this because it is evident all over the exclusive interview above. Formed by friends who developed into a family, Fea is one of those tight bands that are lockstep in sound and unified in ambition.
And, in this interview, we get the entire band! With the perspectives of all four, we get the story behind the band, their new album titled ‘No Novelties’, their upcoming video for ‘Girlband’ and, importantly, the methods and meaning behind the music. Fea shows they are not only a band that will last but will thrive.
Fea’s latest album, ‘No Novelties’, is out now via Blackheart Records.
LINKS:
https://fea210.com
https://blackheart.com/fea
https://www.instagram.com/fea210
https://twitter.com/fea210
https://www.facebook.com/fea210
https://open.spotify.com/artist/3nKEqmxHdIu4WbtE2kKvya?si=ApteZrsqR_q6lnjCxVbFNAAbout Crooked Ghost
Ray Clark is a musician that knows what he wants and is constantly learning and executing the steps on how to achieve as such. And, what he wants now, is for the world to listen to his band Crooked Ghost. Their latest EP titled ‘Colors Bleed‘ is a solid set of original material that really lets the creativity and diversity of Crooked Ghost shine.
Today we get to talk with Ray, frontman for Crooked Ghost, about their beginnings in North Carolina and their new music as well as his new side project with Alex Cannon titled ‘Blank Iris‘, which Ray describes as the ‘soundtrack to a breakdown’.
Check out our review of Crooked Ghost’s single ‘Sinew in Red’ HERE.
Check out our review of Crooked Ghost’s video for ‘Sleepwalker’ HERE.LINKS:
https://www.facebook.com/CrookedGhost
https://crookedghost.bandcamp.com
https://www.instagram.com/crookedghost
https://twitter.com/thecrookedghost
https://soundcloud.com/crookedghost
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIgVwlr638HsQbVuTZGH6EQ
https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/skeleton-house/1394361906
https://open.spotify.com/artist/1dQla5TZY6h1hmDyAIDtrF?si=5Qufr3YuSmGi_5FdwECCPAAbout Beauty in Chaos
Beauty in Chaos has officially dropped the first video, titled ‘The Delicate Balance of All Things’, from their upcoming album ‘The Storm Before the Calm’. The song is a definitive evolution of the project’s previous album and remixes, with a darker tone and a subdued penchant for the musically macabre with hints of retro goth. You can also definitely see how the working relationship with Michael Ciravolo and Michael Rozon has evolved as they are branching out with their individual creativeness and finding that common ground where genius lurks and originality thrives.
To me, the video is the next step for the project as it involves familiar faces taking things into new directions with a video that is darker in tone, to match the track, and a brilliant mix of storyline scenes cut with performance shots beautifully breaking the fourth wall. In a way, this is what Beauty in Chaos is to me; that subtle balance between fantasy and reality, because this is where dreams become the motivation in us all.
‘The Storm Before The Calm’ album will be released on February 21, 2020, via 33.3 Music Collective. As with the two albums released to date, it will be available at the official BIC Store and Bandcamp.
LINKS:
https://www.beautyinchaosmusic.com
https://www.facebook.com/beautyinchaosmusic
https://www.instagram.com/beauty.inchaos
https://twitter.com/MichaelCiravolo
https://www.beautyinchaosmusic.com/music-store
https://www.beautyinchaosmusic.com/bic-blog
https://soundcloud.com/33-3-music-collective
https://beautyinchaos.bandcamp.com
https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/finding-beauty-in-chaos/1436694940
https://open.spotify.com/album/7cmbwIpDm9aAXS4vVjcq4U?si=LZ_9_Bi1SzaZyN7wOIRCvwAbout Beatific
Beatific finally drop their long-awaited EP titled ‘Sunshine’. We originally reviewed their single ‘She Loves Him’ and that was the moment the anticipation began. With the full EP ‘Sunshine’, we get a more complete picture of what Beatific is about and want to accomplish.
Those thick and blended harmonies of the lead single are expounded upon with the rest of the EP present. With added instrumentation such as a serenely played acoustic guitar riff in ‘Perpetual Contemplation of an Infinite Glory’ to the almost retro-esque synth wave of ‘Smile Dangerous’ finalized with an almost purely orchestral rendition of ‘Naftali (My Struggle)’ with a hint of an homage to M83, Beatific solidifies their style and puts forth their intention in the industry as an act that is not only here to stay, but here to play.
LINKS:
https://www.beatificmusic.com
https://twitter.com/imbeatific
https://www.facebook.com/ImBeatific/
https://orcd.co/qkly5eoAbout Aidan & the Wild
Aidan & the Wild premiere their new video for the track titled ‘Pipedream’. At first listen one can usually tell if the music is performed by talented musicians, and ‘Pipedream’ certainly is. Aidan & the Wild is the brainchild of Diederik van den Brandt. And that first listen tells me that he is an amazing guitarist and a prominent songwriter. This song is simply gorgeous. And, while the video is simple, it is quite eloquent and fitting for the track at hand. With a crooning vocal over a tight and layered piece of music, Aidan & the Wild accomplish a quiet sonic bliss that stays in the mind long after that initial listen and captivates the heart for years to come.
LINKS:
http://www.aidan-music.com
https://www.facebook.com/aidanandthewild
https://www.instagram.com/aidanandthewildAbout Chinese Man, Scratch Bandits Crew, & Baja Frequencia
Chinese Man, Scratch Bandits Crew, and Baja Frequencia drop the mega-collab in the form of their new single and video titled ‘The Drop’. I’ll start this by saying ‘Holy shit this punches you in the face from the start!’. And it really does! Like a force ghost hell-bent for revenge, ‘The Drop’ starts off strong with all those elements you love about each of these artists colliding like a crossfire of shotgun blasts and only goes up from there. This song is an ode to adrenaline.
What I take away with me after viewing the video is totally tongue-in-cheek, in a way. What I mean by that is I get the feeling that the video is trying to convey that we are all controlled by the environment around us and our emotions and perception are defined by what we experience or told to experience. The pool and the diving represents a choice. Do we jump and take the dive into independence and rationality knowing we may not survive the fall, or do we stay on the diving board and remain listless, suspended and non-moving. The choice is up to each and every one of us.
LINKS:
Chinese Man : https://CMR.lnk.to/ChineseMan
Scratch Bandits Crew : https://CMR.lnk.to/ScratchBanditsCrew
Baja Frequencia : https://CMR.lnk.to/BajaFrequenciaAbout Greta Jaime
Greta Jaime releases her new single titled ‘Internet Love’. I have to say that Greta’s voice is simply amazing. You can tell she has that special talent that all great vocalists have in that she finds the pitch and plays around it with sheer power and honest emotions. And, when you place her over a solid beat, bassy rhythm, and hook-filled chord progression, you have musical magic. ‘Internet Love’ is one of those catchy and memorable tracks that lingers with you and grows on you with a fondness only given to those things that are cherished.
LINKS:
https://www.gretajaime.com
https://www.facebook.com/GretaJaimeMusic
https://soundcloud.com/gretajaime
https://twitter.com/Greta_Jaime
https://www.instagram.com/gretajaimeAbout Johanna Kuvaja
Nordic vocalist Johanna Kuvaja has unveiled the colorful new video for her debut single ‘Shower’, an upbeat catchy single with a style sounding like the personified love child of Aqua, Katy Perry and Kylie Minogue.
Written by Kuvaja, the single was mixed and mastered by award-winning London-based producer Sefi Carmel, who has been mixing music of real icons such as David Bowie, Phil Collins, Bruno Mars, Michael Buble, Massive Attack and Birdy. The song itself was recorded in Helsinki, Finland at Saumaa Records by Mikael Forsby, who also provided instrumentation.
“This video symbolizes new beginnings. I had a colorful, messy life with many problems (deteriorating health, loss of my house, marriage, and job), but I am also a really colorful personality. The meaning of the video is that we have the power to recreate ourselves and to rewrite our story. Figuratively speaking, I took a shower, washed away my past and started fresh. I followed my heart and recreated my life and it all worked out,” says Johanna Kuvaja.
LINKS:
https://www.johannakuvaja.com
https://www.facebook.com/Johanna-Kuvaja-2086970581607223/
https://www.instagram.com/johanna_kuvaja
https://twitter.com/JohannaKuvaja
https://soundcloud.com/johanna-kuvajaAbout The 1865
The 1865 release their new video for the track titled ‘John Brown’s Gat’. For those who do not know, John Brown was a man living in the 19th Century who believed that no one should be enslaved. He believed in this simple truth so much that he turned to the gun. And he paid for it with his life. So it is of special importance that The 1865 to shed light on such a figure, especially in today’s age of conflicting stories.
The track and video are simple and to-the-point. Which is how it should be. The truth is the same way. It cannot be denied. If you watch the impeachment hearings you can see this. The obstructors tend to speak more, and louder because the truth is hard to fight. John Brown would be a fan of The 1865 if he were alive today.
The album ‘Don’t Tread On We!’ is out now, available digitally via Apple Music, Spotify and directly from the band via Bandcamp, as well as numerous other online stores. It is also available on black and red vinyl in a vintage style jacket with a lyric/coloring book.
LINKS:
https://www.facebook.com/the1865band
https://the1865.bandcamp.com
https://twitter.com/the1865band
https://www.instagram.com/the1865band
https://soundcloud.com/massappealrecs/sets/1865-dont-tread-on-we
https://open.spotify.com/artist/0V0ykZPvAxhUYzvTRu25dU?si=OfnMJODwRW2O8reeyhjEcA
https://music.apple.com/us/album/dont-tread-on-we/1448751051About The Black Watch
The Black Watch drops their new single titled ‘Crying All the Time’. The song starts off like a rocket hellbent for space with a chiming, bright, and tube-like guitar riff that sets the tone for business as the beat marches with steady velocity. This song does not mince words yet retains that style that only comes from The Black Watch. But I have to say again that this is a guitarist’s song as that is what sets the tone for me. Layers of that classic grit surrounding the lucid and subtly harmonic vocals announce the song to all those that are listening. This is a ‘stop what you’re doing and pay attention’ type of track.
As of November 22, ‘Crying All The Time’ is available across music stores and streaming platforms such as Spotify as well as Bandcamp. The full ‘Brilliant Failures’ album will be released on January 24.
LINKS:
http://johnandrewfredrick.com
https://www.facebook.com/theblackwatchmusic
https://theblackwatch.bandcamp.com
https://twitter.com/blackwatchmusic
https://www.instagram.com/theblackwatchmusic
https://open.spotify.com/artist/7F0pMIrR6GIb49HDXza8dnClick 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’. -
Soundbytes: Kristin Hersh Tour Announcement & Interview
Set to take place at London’s Southbank Centre on June 15-24, this year marks the 25th edition of this iconic festival. This special celebration, curated by The Cure’s Robert Smith, offers a jam-packed line-up of unique performances. Apart from Kristin Hersh, this year’s line-up includes My Bloody Valentine, Nine Inch Nails, Mogwai, The Psychedelic Furs, Manic Street Preachers, The Libertines, Deftones, Placebo, Mono, 65daysofstatic, Alcest, and The Notwist.
Kristin Hersh has been confounding expectations and breaking rules since founding her influential art-punk band Throwing Muses at the age of 14. Her solo career spun off in 1994 with the release of ‘Hips and Makers’, a widely acclaimed album which included ‘Your Ghost’, a duet with R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe. Since then, Kristin has released a steady stream of distinctly individual solo albums, including 2010’s ‘Crooked’, her first release in the inventive book/CD format for which she is now known. She played all the instruments on her latest release ‘Wyatt at the Coyote Palace’, an explosive work defined by blistering guitars, powerful drumming, and Kristin’s signature visceral vocal technique. Her poignant true stories bring the listener into what the BBC calls Hersh’s “dark and dizzy world”.
Throwing Muses first gained traction in the early ‘80s playing with similarly singular artists like The Pixies and Dinosaur Jr. They continue to release groundbreaking music and tour the world, most recently with 2013’s double CD masterpiece ‘Purgatory/Paradise’.
In 2004, Kristin formed the noise rock power trio 50FOOTWAVE, releasing a series of frighteningly intense mini-albums, mostly available for download free of charge. The most recent ‘Bath White’ EP, which is like “a series of loud explosions, of velvet like dreams all intermingled at the same time” (Liverpool Sound & Vision).
Kristin’s writing career has flourished with the highly acclaimed ‘Paradoxical Undressing’ (released as ‘Rat Girl’ in the USA) and the award-winning ‘Don’t Suck, Don’t Die’, a personal account of her long friendship with the late Vic Chesnutt, in addition to the enchanting books that now accompany each record release.
Kristin Hersh, 50FOOTWAVE and Throwing Muses continue to create gorgeous, exciting music, with new releases expected online and in the stores as this year progresses.
The Meltdown Festival is the UK’s longest running artist-curated music festival. Smith is the lead singer and principal songwriter of The Cure, and its only constant member since the group formed in 1978. A defining band, The Cure took ‘alternative rock’ mainstream around the world and received numerous awards including a Brit Award for Best British Band, an MTV Icon Award, a Q Inspiration Award and NME’s Godlike Genius Award. Smith has also been presented with an Ivor Novello Award for International Achievement.
An iconic figure in his own right, Smith’s influence reaches across popular culture, film, art, and fashion. His many collaborations include performing and recording with artists as varied as David Bowie, Billy Corgan, Blink 182, The Stranglers, Placebo, Crystal Castles, Faithless, Korn, and 65daysofstatic.
Meltdown is one of the UK’s most anticipated music events each year, in which an iconic artist curates their own personal festival, revealing their interests and influences. Robert Smith follows in the footsteps of such legendary curators as Patti Smith, Nick Cave, Yoko Ono, Massive Attack, Ornette Coleman and 2017’s M.I.A.
“I am honored and excited to be curating the 25th Meltdown. More than 30 of my all-time favourite artists – some of the most exciting, inspirational, intense and influential performers of the last 40 years – will make sure this 10-night extravaganza is the must-see event of the summer!” says Robert Smith. “as each invitee confirms, as each shimmering piece falls into place, I pinch myself – this is really happening… And the complete picture will undoubtedly be out of this world!”.
Kristin Hersh says that “Meltdown is an opportunity for musicians to present what they do in a different light: music from the musician’s perspective. A private thing, a world unto itself.” Hersh will be playing the festival on June 21.