Interview

An Interview with Lunikk

Jammerzine has an exclusive interview with the musical duo known as Lunikk. Kristina Yordanova and Denislav Popov, a.k.a. Lunikk, had a humble beginning in the city of Sofia, Bulgaria, and are now set to take their music across the world stage. It’s a rare thing for an artist, or a band, to have a sound that transcends borders as well as cultures, but Lunikk achieve this as a part of their sound. And they do it effortlessly.

In this interview, we talk about the origins of Lunikk and how Kristina and Deni work together as well as the evolution of that sound, that sweet sound that mixes genres and influences just underneath the originality that is Lunikk, and much more.

About Lunikk

Lunikk is an Eastern European experimental pop duo created by Kristina Yordanova and Denislav Popov. They met a couple of years ago when Deni was in a rock band and Kristina was deeply deluded that music is something she doesn’t want to pursue. After many shared moments and conversations about music, they understood that their brains were chattering on the same frequency. As fate would have it, while Kristina kept a notebook with written poetry (called “Let’s live on Mars”) Deni’s band broke up, and slowly but surely the two discovered they wanted to hate and love the world together through the same melodies.

Consequently, they promised each other that there will be no compromises and that no ego can stay in the way. They built up a studio in a room at their apartment and 2 years and many cigarettes later 12 songs have been born within an imaginary world. A world that is based on the grey reality they are living in but delivered in a way anybody can relate to.

The beats and instrumentals are all done by Deni, but the vocal lines and the messages are framed by Kristina. They are very much influenced by artists such as Robert Johnson, Son House, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Muse, Coldplay, twenty one pilots, Highly Suspect, Lorde, Billie Eilish, The Weeknd, Imagine Dragons, and many, many more. Their name comes from the Bulgarian word for “Moon”.

Featured image by Licata.bg.

LINKS:
https://www.facebook.com/strangelunikk
https://www.instagram.com/strangelunikk
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvMsIaQS7JTaaRpnyb4zrGQ
https://spoti.fi/367GWvl
https://soundcloud.com/strangelunikk
https://twitter.com/strangelunikk

An Interview with Miles Francis

Miles Francis has today released they/their new album titled ‘Good Man’. And today we have the double treat of showing you that album as well as getting an insight from the one they/them in the form of an exclusive interview with Miles Frances via Zoom as well as feature they/their upcoming and original performances in support of ‘Good Man’.

One thing you have to know about Miles, from the start, is that this is an artist that you can’t simply peg into a specific genre, gender, style, or art. You simply can’t. And, after you get to know Miles, you realize why should you. Isn’t classification something that can hinder, or even hurt, and artist? Or a person, for that matter? We are slowly learning that lesson with the monumental shifts in society that we are experiencing at this point in history, and it is people like Miles, and many, many more, that light the way in distinguishing the socially and creatively relevant from the white noise of society. Helping us go from ‘You can’t’ to ‘Why not?’.

And, in this interview, we get a glimpse of the mind behind the music and the heart behind the soul in this conversation style interview on originality and beyond.

Check out our other features with Miles Francis HERE.

Get your copy of ‘Good Man’ HERE.

About Miles Francis

Polymathic artist Miles Francis is already known amongst musicians as one of the best kept secrets of the NYC music scene. Since they started playing – first the drums at 6, then guitar, bass, keyboards, other percussion – they have been an audiophile of the highest order. As a working musician, Miles has collaborated and performed with Sharon Jones, Amber Mark, Angelique Kidjo, Allen Toussaint, Tunde Adebimpe (TV on the Radio) and many others; toured the world with Will Butler (Arcade Fire), Antibalas, and EMEFE; and appeared on shows like Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and The Late Show with David Letterman.

LINKS:
https://www.milesfrancis.com
https://www.facebook.com/instamiles
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCngQ9Zv0-UjEQrVZ8azA8Ng
https://instagram.com/instamiles
https://twitter.com/instamiles
https://soundcloud.com/instamiles
https://open.spotify.com/artist/4dpiWnUskWeie5Psmc2HG3
https://itunes.apple.com/us/artist/miles-francis/400088007

An Interview with x-blu

Jammerzine has an exclusive interview with the musical masterminds behind the project known as x-blu. Fresh from the heels of their new single titled ‘Fear’ (review HERE), x-blu are having a stellar initial year of inception with a solid debut and a bright future.

In today’s interview, we talk with Gary Parker (guitar, key boards, vocals and production), Dani Tagen vocals, production, and creative director), and Sybil Mayard (vocals, keyboards, production and digital director) about the beginnings of the project, ‘Fear’, and what is coming in the near future for x-blu. Consider this the ‘I heard about them when….’ moment while you watch. Enjoy!

Check out our other features with x-blu HERE.

About x-blu

x-blu are an Avant-garde/Post Punk band who formed at the beginning of this year in Thamesmead, SE London and are influenced by The Velvet Underground, Joy Division and Doves.

In this short space of time, the band have already built a reputation for passionate live performances and the innovative use of digital media. They are a band from diverse backgrounds and equality and diversity are at the heart of their ethos. x-blu are Gary Parker (guitar, key boards, vocals and production) Dani Tagen vocals, production, and creative director) and Sybil Mayard (vocals, keyboards, production and digital director).

Whilst encapsulating Punk, Soul and Electronica they are a digital media band working in visual art, film, music, poetry, live performance and video. This is their debut single ‘Fear’.

LINKS:
https://www.instagram.com/xblu.music
https://www.facebook.com/xblu.music
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUADoM-aX56VME65giJIKSQ
https://www.x-blu.com

An Interview with Brake Loose

Jammerzine has an exclusive interview with Brake Loose. This is a band that I highly recommend for more reasons than just the obvious. Take a listen to the playlist below. Brake Loose is yet another reason that COVID needs to f*ck off immediately. This is a band we need to hear and see live. With sheer rebellion in the music and the anarchy in the anecdotes, Brake Loose are a band that needs to cut loose and the place for that is on the stage.

Having said that, we get the gift of gab featuring the entire band! These are the interviews that really shine, imho. In this interview we get a glimpse of the mayhem behind the music from a band that has already found their sound and capturing them at that moment in their career between lockdown and blowup.

About Brake Loose

Based in Dublin, Ireland Brake Loose is a five-piece Hard Rock band with a fresh hard-hitting sound and a penchant for including provocative Spoken Word Poetry within songs.

Led and formed in 2019 by reckless Venezuelan frontman and poet Alex Murillo with his rough melodic tunes and theatrical vocal style. They’ve gigged extensively throughout Dublin, establishing themselves as a notable force on the Irish music scene. With Tico Pellegrino (guitar), David O’Grady (guitar), Eoin Madden (bass), and Johnny Krasuski (drums) they lay down madness dripping with head-banging grooves and electrifying solos. They released their debut single “Dublin Daze” as a music video in 2020, which was well-received online, driving the band forward.

Selling Out their first headline show November 2021 at The Workman’s Club Cellar – Dublin, with this hype, they are currently crafting their debut album.

LINKS:
https://www.instagram.com/brakelooseofficial
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOQEZwprEC8II4l9tJvnSPg
https://www.facebook.com/brakeloose
https://twitter.com/brakelooseband
https://open.spotify.com/artist/0sklfNVhTLHQtAbLU1cqVA?si=Ub-9rbkyTRuO_JrC-6TXhg
https://soundcloud.com/brakeloose

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

An Interview with Hugh Reed

Jammerzine has an exclusive interview with the man himself, Hugh Reed from Hugh Reed and The Velvet Underpants. Hugh has a unique sense of humor all his own that makes him as endearing as it does just plain funny. But, he is also originally creative in many ways. His music has that outside-of-the-box thinking that makes it as original as you can get while still giving a nod to those influences that Hugh pays tribute to in his own way.

But wait, there’s more! There is the release of his new single titled ‘I’d Rather Have A Bottle In Front Of Me Than A Full Frontal Lobotomy’. And, if the title isn’t long enough to wrap your head around, the song will more than make up for that with an original style romp through the mind of a, well, mastermind. The song has as much personality as it does creativity.

About Hugh Reed and The Velvet Underpants

Hugh Reed, until recently was based in Beijing but has just returned to Glasgow his hometown. He’s a Scotsman with a long musical career, he’s toured with The Fall, Half Man Half Biscuit and has supported Mogwai, Simple Minds and Belle and Sebastian as well as many others.

Following local TV appearances his band The Velvet Underpants were invited by Deborah Harry of the band ‘Blondie’ to support her on 11 dates throughout Britain. This culminated in Hugh and Debs doing a live duet of Waiting for the Man, which can also be seen on YouTube should you wish to see it. Deborah also faxed Lou to tell him about Hugh who was happy to hear about him.

Hugh’s debut album Take a Walk on the Clydeside was released receiving a lot of radio play not just in UK but also throughout, Europe, America and Canada.

Hugh describes himself as “multi talentless” and can also be seen in a cameo role in the ‘coolest film of the nineties’ Trainspotting – More recently he acted in the Jackie Chan movie ’12 Zodiacs’ as a butler and has also appeared many times on CCTV – Chinese TV in many acting roles.

Hugh has toured extensively throughout the U.K., Germany, Holland, Belgium, Denmark and Ireland. Relocating to Beijing, he recorded his next album ‘Ni fa feng le ma?’ (R U Crazy? -in Chinese)

But for now, here’s the incredibly titled ‘I’d Rather Have A Bottle In Front Of Me Than A Full Frontal Lobotomy’

LINKS:
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100010322434790
https://www.youtube.com/hughreed621

An Interview with Sweet Justice

Jammerzine has an exclusive interview with a pair of sheer talents in the form of Frank Meyer and Bruce Duff, a.k.a. two-thirds of Sweet Justice. Add drummer Mike Sessa to the mix and you have the absolute definition of a power trio. And that is what you hear in their new EP titled ‘Redline’. You get the sheer face of true rock n’ roll. That sucker punch of rebel rock with the stank of slide and the power of mojo. Fleeting moments of heart for the soft-spoken surrounded by the grit and grime of a constant rock anthem.

And today we get to talk with Frank and Bruce about the power of music, the power of THEIR music, and how that music is going to help ease us out of the pandemic and put the unity of music back in music.

About Sweet Justice

Featuring the founding members Frank Meyer (vocals, guitar) and Bruce Duff (vocals, bass, guitar) of indie punk vets The Streetwalkin’ Cheetahs with drummer Mike Sessa of Rosie Flores, Cracker, The Joneses, and Cheetahs fame joining in for the fun, Sweet Justice delivers consistently strong and pure modern blues rock that follows the stylistic paths of Gary Clarke Jr, Rival Sons, and the Black Crowes.

Produced and written by Duff and Meyer The Redline EP tackles a White Stripes-style stomp-clap (“Tell the Preacher”), swampy pop (“Sunny Daze”), Texas blues (“Medicine Show”), glam-boogie (“I Get More”), and the Robert Johnson-by-way-of-AC/DC strut (“Redline”). “Aww Shucks,” “Feeling Fine,” and “Gotta Get That” round out this hot ‘n’ juicy classic rock swagger platter.

“These songs are a little harder-edged than the first album and a lot catchier,” explains Meyer. “We got inspired by all the great blues-rock acts happening these days and wondered if our first album wasn’t a bit ahead of its time. It seemed like the time was right to revisit the Sweet Justice sound, but we gave it a modern twist on this one. This new album is less traditional than our earlier work and fits much comfortably in the modern rock landscape.”

“I think both Frank and I have evolved a great deal as producers since the first Sweet Justice record which was one of the very first LPs we produced as a team,” notes Duff. “Applying all of that combined experience to these songs was a blast; that, and plugging in all the crazy fuzztones we’ve acquired in the past 15 years!”

All three Sweet Justice members arose as underground emissaries from the real rock world, as well as also playing in The Streetwalkin’ Cheetahs, though each member has their own impressive pedigree. Meyer is also the frontman for Iggy & The Stooges guitarist James Williamson, a member of Long Beach supergroup Blind House, and bandmate of Eddie Spaghetti (Supersuckers) in their side project Spaghetti & Frank. Duff is an established music producer and manager who cut his teeth in 45 Grave, ADZ, Jeff Dahl, and plays in Jesters of Destiny, The Magnificent, and Scared Cowboys. Meanwhile, Sessa has toured with everyone from Cracker, Rosie Flores, The Joneses, and Wayne Kramer.

Featured image by Jason Valdez

LINKS:
https://www.instagram.com/sweetjustice_music
https://www.facebook.com/sweetjusticetheband
https://lnk.to/SweetJusticeRedlineEP

An Interview with January Jane

Jammerzine has an exclusive interview with Mitch C. Mitchell and Pat Via from BMG artists January Jane. I’ll start this off with a simple truth. These are the types of artists I love to interview. Not only are they living their dream as major label artists. They made it happen on their own terms. And not only that, they seem to be a tight knit family that deserves to be where they are. Mitch and Pat are totally cool. Fame has not phased them whatsoever. I get the feeling they have the same friends and dreams they had when they first started out. Those aren’t always the types of artists who make it big, but they are almost always the ones that stay big. They are the ones their fans love not only for the music but for their character. And that’s where ‘love’ turns into ‘in love’.

And today we get to talk with Mitch and Pat about their new EP ‘Your Drug’ (review below) as well as their thoughts on music, their music, and where they are taking it. This is more of a good conversation than an interview, and that’s how you get to know good people. Enjoy!

About January Jane

“The story of January Jane is so absurd – but then, everything about being in the music business is absurd,” says January Jane guitarist Mitch C. Mitchell with a laugh.

He’s correct: January Jane has taken an unusual path so far – but this strategy seems to have worked, because BMG is set to release the band’s much-anticipated EP, Your Drug, on September 17, 2021. Every track is ridiculously catchy, overflowing with melodies that are at once smooth yet highly textured, seamlessly blended with unapologetically emotional lyrics.

It’s an exhilarating moment for the band as they take a brief pause for reflection as they prepare for the whirlwind ahead. As lead vocalist and lyricist Pat Via says, “We feel like we’re at this jumping off point right now. We’re ready: we hope that we’ll soon be overwhelmed!” he says with a laugh.

Via writes the lyrics because he’s the one who has to deliver them in a way that will connect with fans, both in the recorded versions and in a live setting. Mitchell doesn’t mind handing over that particular duty: “If it’s a very cool lyric but it’s not from Pat’s heart, the audience will know it,” he says. Besides, Mitch, along with Peter Scialla, who joined the duo in 2014 on keyboard and piano, are busy writing the band’s music.

It’s an equitable and agreeable division of labor, and it was that way from the moment this band formed. Via and Mitchell met by chance at an art gallery opening in New York. Meeting up the next day to try to write together, they clicked so well that they had an outline for their first song sketched out in a mere 10 minutes.

This type of instant creative chemistry is extremely rare, so they immediately knew they were onto something special. In fact, January Jane has been such a revelation for both Via and Mitchell that they decline to discuss anything that came before it in their musical careers. “I don’t feel like anything that happened before this band matters,” Via says. “I’d rather talk about the story we’re writing now.”

Then, another New York City night cast its spell and delivered yet another surprise, when after wrapping up a show they were invited to a private gathering at a loft in the Meatpacking District: as they walked through the door they heard the sound of a piano rising from the center of a crowd that had gathered in a circle around the source of the music. They were immediately drawn in, and pushed their way past the pack to the grand piano in the center of the room, where they saw Peter Scialla manning the keys from within the eye of the hurricane. Peter seemed to sense their presence and looked up briefly from his keyboard, waving them over, before returning his gaze to the black and white keys in front of him. As the night progressed and they made their way through another bottle, singing and playing together to the impromptu crowd, they all realized they had found the missing piece, and Peter became part of January Jane.

With their epic songs, January Jane quickly gained a loyal fan base. One of their earliest supporters was Matt Pinfield, the DJ, journalist, television host, and all-around music industry legend. Pinfield has proven instrumental for the band: he took them under his wing and produced some of their early recordings (under the auspices of his own label, Whiskey Vinyl). Those songs, in turn, brought them to the attention of BMG, who quickly signed them. As always, when the opportunity came, January Jane’s members were prepared to grab it with both hands. As Via puts it, “It’s about staying ready for when the big lights get turned on.”

Being backed by BMG’s world-reaching might is exactly what January Jane’s members want, at this point. As Scialla explains, “We’ve put so much into this band – now we absolutely want to get it out there in a very big way.” Via agrees: “What band doesn’t want to be the biggest band in the world? When you have a label like BMG behind you, you get the opportunity to do that. Why walk when you can ride?”

“Taking this time to write and record has given us the chance to really explore creatively and find our unique sound,” says Mitchell. Also, the members understand that this type of band launch takes a long time to get ready, so they don’t mind waiting until everything is right for it.

As a primer for the music of January Jane, Your Drug is the perfect taster for what’s in store. From the cover of the Hall & Oates “I Can’t Go for That (No Can Do)” which updates the ‘80s hit by adding a modern cinematic swirl, to the epic soar of the title track “Your Drug” whose pulsating keyboards leads you right into an escalating chorus reaching anthemic heights, the EP carries a sneaky familiarity that is immediate and enduring. The lead single “Versions of You” with its fluid melodies and hooks sinks deep, cementing their indelible and transcendent mark on the contemporary pop rock genre.

Now, with their new EP finally in sight, January Jane say they’re especially excited to support the album with a tour, because live shows have long been a strength for this band. They’ve routinely sold out shows at larger theater venues like the Gramercy Theater in New York, as well as appearing at prestigious festivals such as SXSW multiple times.

January Jane have often performed charity concerts, benefitting the Akron Children’s Hospital and The Dream Foundation, among other causes. Their most unusual benefit show, in 2018, found them headlining the October Ball, held at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City, with proceeds going to the Bigs & Littles NYC Mentoring program.

This desire to spread love is at the heart of what January Jane has been about from the start. In fact, it is this pure love – for the music itself, and all the good it can do – that seems to ensure that January Jane’s future will stay bright. “We’ll never run out of ideas, because we love making music more than anything – every step of the way is fun,” Mitchell says. And there’s no reason to think their luck will change: “That chance meeting that Mitch and I had has somehow gotten us this far,” Via says, “and wandering into Pete’s studio in the time that followed was pure luck. We’ll just keep riding on those chances. It’s serendipitous.”

LINKS:
https://www.januaryjane.com
https://facebook.com/JanuaryJane
https://twitter.com/januaryjane
https://www.instagram.com/januaryjane
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkM7uWL6oc9-d_vj0XB_fUw
https://tiktok.com/@januaryjane
https://open.spotify.com/artist/6ODcblM0A3Z5emvZK3H7R6

An Interview with We Are Scientists

Jammerzine has an exclusive interview with the musically juxtaposed juggernauts known as We Are Scientists. We talk with Keith Murray, one of the two scientists. And everyone knows that one out of two scientists recommend good music and the other scientist would add that if you don’t listen to the first one it’s because you’re a d*ck.

Having said that, we get a chance to get inside the mind of a musical mastermind and delve into the world of creative songwriting and the creative process therein, near future plans and possible touring (hmm?) as well as ‘Huffy‘, the new album by We Are Scientists.

Check out the full article on Jammerzine HERE.

About We Are Scientists

American rock band We Are Scientists debuted in the early aughts with the angular post-punk edge of With Love and Squalor, later evolving to incorporate polished synths and expanded atmospherics on efforts like Helter Seltzer and Megaplex. Although modestly popular in America, the band was a hit in the U.K., where its sound — part post-punk revival and part indie rock with a touch of ’80s synth pop — drew parallels to contemporaries like Editors, Franz Ferdinand, Interpol, and The Killers.

Formed on the West Coast by three California-based college students, We Are Scientists officially took flight after front-man Keith Murray, bass player Chris Cain, and drummer Michael Tapper (who replaced founding drummer/vocalist Scott Lamb) relocated to Brooklyn and began building a small but devoted following. After releasing three EPs and one independent album — Safety, Fun, and Learning (In That Order) — the group signed with Virgin Records and released its major-label debut, With Love and Squalor, in early 2006. The effort peaked at ten on the Billboard Heatseekers chart and eventually was certified gold in the U.K.

In 2008, We Are Scientists — reduced to a duo comprising Cain and Murray after Tapper parted ways with the group — put out its second full-length album, Brain Thrust Mastery. Produced by Ariel Rechtshaid, the set included the singles “After Hours” and “Chick Lit.” As before, the record found popularity in the U.K., where it debuted at number 11 on the albums chart. The band toured heavily in support, playing a number of European festivals and opening shows in America for Kings Of Leon. As We Are Scientists prepared to record a third album, former Razorlight drummer Andy Burrows joined the lineup, and the revised band unveiled itself with the release of 2010’s Barbara. That year, founding members Cain and Murray also appeared in their own series of comedy shorts, Steve Wants His Money, which aired on the Internet and ran in segments on MTV.

In late 2012, the band entered the studio in New York with producer Chris Coady (Beach House,Gang Gang Kids, Blonde Redhead) to record sessions for its fourth record. relocated to the city from England while he worked with Murray and Cain to write and record tracks for the album. Titled TV en Français, it arrived in early 2014 on 100%/Dine Alone Records and featured appearances by Rose Elinor Dougall (Mark Ronson) and Tim Wheeler (Ash).

In 2016, We Are Scientists returned with their fifth studio album, Helter Seltzer, produced by Max Hart (of Katy Perry’s band). The effort charted in the Top 50 of the U.K. and Scottish charts. They returned in 2018 with their sixth effort, the polished Megaplex, also produced by Hart. Megaplex featured the singles “Heart Is a Weapon,” “Not Another Word,” and “Your Light Has Changed.”

James Christopher Monger & Andrew Leahey.

LINKS:
http://wearescientists.com
https://100percent.it/GetHuffy
https://www.facebook.com/wearescientists
https://www.instagram.com/wearescientists
https://twitter.com/wearescientists
https://open.spotify.com/artist/35YNL4wwv11ZkmeWWL51y7
https://soundcloud.com/we-are-scientists
https://www.youtube.com/user/wearescientists

An Interview with Ra’s Sahaj Ticotin

Jammerzine has an exclusive interview with a legend of loud in the form of Sahaj Ticotin from the rock band Ra. As the world cautiously opens up and the venues begin to fill, Ra are set to take their music on the road with fellow acts Awake At LastREDDSTARSeptember MourningAny Given Sin and Killakoi on select dates. The tour begins this Friday (August 20th, 2021).

In this interview we talk with Sahaj about the new tour and their latest album, ‘Intercorrupted’, Ra’s musical history and where Ra is headed musically.

Ra is a band that, in my opinion, came out at the right time. I remember the late ’90s. I also remember, it was getting a bit boring in regards to music. Ra was my ‘Holy Sh*t!’ moment. That glorious mix of middle eastern and modern western that is ‘Do You Call My Name‘ made me play the guitar in front of my stereo again. Their genre-redefining at the turn of the century turned the century into a place that could survive creatively. ‘Intercorrupted’ is a continuation of such and sees the band take a more accessible and melodic approach. Where could the band be headed next? Actually, there is an answer in the interview.

Watch and enjoy!

About Ra

Formed in 1996, Ra took off in 2002, when their song “Do You Call My Name” from their album From One was released. Their music was described as “exotic yet familiar, heavy yet funky, direct yet sophisticated, sensual yet soulful, unrelenting yet cathartic.”

The band is known for their hit songs “Do You Call My Name,” “Fallen Angels,” “Don’t Turn Away,” and “Broken Hearted Soul.” To date, Ra has sold 400,000+ albums in North America alone.

In the 8 years since Ra’s last studio release (2013’s Critical Mass), Sahaj has been hard at work replicating the formula for his success by producing other artists while the rest of the band has pursued independent projects; however, collectively, they feel now is the time for a comeback. What makes the timing so special is that all original members of the band will be together again to not only create the new album, but tour it as well. After a very successful re-emergence on 2020’s Shiprocked, the band has again tapped into the fan based that sustained them all these years.

About ‘Intercorrupted’

Ra released their new album, ‘Intercorrupted’, via Wake Up! Music Rocks on March 19, 2021. The album has guest features from Lajon Witherspoon of Sevendust and Dustin Bates of Starset.

The band is hitting the road with the two runs announced for August and November.

Prior to the release of the album, the first single of the albums same name debuted in October 2020.

RA ARE:
  • Sahaj Tictotin – lead vocals, rhythm guitar
  • Ben Carroll – lead guitar
  • P.J. Farley – bass
  • Skoota Warner – drums

Featured image by Chet Atkins/Sweetwater Studios.

LINKS:
https://www.facebook.com/OfficialRA
https://www.instagram.com/officialraband
https://twitter.com/ratheband
https://twitter.com/raband
https://raband.net
https://www.youtube.com/channel/RaOffficial

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