The Impersonators came into being after the demise of Finnish pop/rock band Carmen Gray in 2013 when Tommi Tikka, the other half of Carmen Gray’s songwriting team, joined forces with lyricist Antti Autio to write some new songs.
While Carmen Gray had recorded for major labels, such as Sony and Warner, The Impersonators’ story was going to be different from the get-go. With this particular group, Tikka wanted to have complete artistic control over the songs he recorded to avoid generic and sterile production typical for modern pop/rock.
For quite a while, Tikka auditioned musicians for the new group. However, after three failed attempts to put together a lineup that did justice to the new songs, he decided to make The Impersonators a group of two songwriters rather than a group of four or five musicians. Hence began the search for a great producer rather than the right musicians.
Finally, in early 2017, Tikka teamed up with Janne Saksa, a seasoned professional in making records, who became Tikka’s collaborator in the studio and took over the head producer’s reins from him. Together, they’ve arranged and produced the group’s two singles “You Are The One” and “Burning Blue.”
The best way to describe the sound of The Impersonators is to call it sixties-flavored “alternative pop/rock”. Their goal is to nurture and cultivate the creativity, spirit, and warmth that graced the pop records of yesteryears.
LINKS:
https://impersonatorsmusic.com
https://www.facebook.com/ImpersonatorsBand
https://twitter.com/1mpersonators
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Katalina Kicks – We Don’t Care
Katalina Kicks is a quintessentially West London band, first fashioned in the clatter and fume of Shepherds Bush. Even if they’ve changed postcodes since, their sound – urgent, questioning, loud and fierce – has never lost the urban beat of W12. Singer and guitarist Ian George is the last man standing from Katalina Kicks Mk I, once a punkish quartet who released an album named after their cat, stray moggy “Montague Rotter”, and found themselves accidentally sound-tracking a straight-to-DVD horror Z-Movie directed by the son of James Bond. “I’ve never watched it!” grimaces Ian of Jason Connery’s 51. “When we started we had an American publishing deal and that was one of the weird things that came of it. We got all of £3.50 for having a song in a crap film. So it’s taken a long time, and a lot of changing line-ups to get to where Katalina Kicks are today. I’ve always believed in the band. It’s just been a waiting game to find the right people.”
One such right person finally surfaced in the beard and flexing tattoos of Jase Wilkinson. Not so much born as smelted in Manchester, as a kid he’d wait for his stepdad to leave the house so he could sneak a listen to his Led Zeppelin vinyl. “And getting a whopping for it when he came home and found out.” Between John Bonham and hip hop, he fell in love with the drums, later moving to London, instinctively settling westwards off Ladbroke Grove, first blurring his limbs behind the kit of a ska band until a chance audition with Katalina Kicks. Which he failed. “Because he wore these dodgy heavy metal black leather fingerless gloves,” laughs Ian. “My first thought was, no way am I having THOSE in the band. But then a few weeks later I called him back. Before Jase our drummers had mostly been arseholes, mentally ill, drug addicts and glory-grabbers. He was none of those. He had the passion and the power I’d always needed… so long as he kept those bloody gloves off!”
In the meantime, bassists continued to fall by the wayside until a long-time friend of the band Conor Cotterill came on board after jamming with Jase and Ian through some new material. ‘It just clicked straight away’, says Jase. ‘Con was the missing link and brought a massive low-end rumble, swagger, bounce and musicality to the table, a bass that is both forceful and fluid, twisting in the lull between my rhythmic thunder!’
Katalina Kicks have been a formidable core trio ever since. Together they play simple and direct heavy garage rock’n’roll: power chords and pummelling rhythms, fuzzy guitar and throbbing bass, big riffs and shouted choruses, pin-balling between grunge, punk, and heavy blues. In Ian, they’ve also a songwriter who can’t help but use his band as a platform to air his anxieties about the world around him. “I would never pigeonhole us as a ‘political band’,” he explains. “I just write about things I see and hear that upset me. We’re not preaching at anyone or trying to change the world. We’re just saying these are the things that affect and worry us. They’re too important not to talk about, whether in conversation or in rock’n’roll. That’s all we try to do.”
SOURCE: Official Bio
Katalina Kicks are:
Ian George (vocals/guitar)
Conor Cotterill (bass/backing vox)
Jase Wilkinson (drums/backing vox)LINKS:
http://katalinakicks.com
http://facebook.com/katalinakicks
http://instagram.com/katalinakicks
http://twitter.com/katalinakicks
http://soundcloud.com/katalinakicks
http://youtube.com/katalinakicks -
Mercury Slim – Space Cadet
Mercury Slim has officially released his new video for the song titled ‘Space Cadet’. This song, and video come to think of it, have that ethereal quality from that first frame/note. Almost a subtle journey to be shared. A dream state in transit. A personal journey of bonding and growth. Its funny how life can inspire, and even encourage, the magic in music and share that with anyone who wants to listen. In that way alone, we are all connected. We’re all the space cadet. Our goal is to live long and prosper.
About ‘Space Cadet’
I wrote this song while living in a Van on a rainy day
The song is very multi-faceted and takes on Many roles rather than being about any one thing in particular. I continue to find new meanings as time marches on. Space Cadet about rejecting everything culture and society hands you as what you are supposed to be. As well as rejection of the consumerism and ideology that drives a lot of what’s harming people and the planet we live on. The chorus/ hook is a release from societal expectations.
I became a huge Star Trek (particularly TNG) fan after high school and it has shaped how I view the world and what is possible for humanity in a post-scarcity society. On another facet, my father and I began working together right after I got out of high school and he drove the company work van.
Once I got into Star Trek, which he was already into, it became something we bonded over and we were able to connect in a positive healthy way really for the first time in our lives. He had been gone for half of my childhood battling addiction and was able to overcome what he needed to come back into my family’s life. We named his work van the NC-17D and it was kind of our ship to drive around and solve mysteries (doing IT work) in.
LINKS:
https://linktr.ee/mercuryslim_
https://www.instagram.com/mercuryslim_
https://soundcloud.com/mercury-slim-6
https://www.facebook.com/mercuryslim
https://mercuryslim.bandcamp.com
https://twitter.com/SlimMercury -
Joe Dolman – Something Beautiful
21-year-old singer-songwriter from Leamington Spa. With 2 independently released EP’s under his belt landing him top 10 in the UK and US iTunes charts, Dolman has been growing from strength to strength with each show he plays, picking up BBC Radio 1 plays from the likes of Huw Stephens as well as across the country on BBC introducing.
He recently appeared live on Gaby Roslin’s show on BBC Radio London.
His first appearance on the big stage was at Hyde Park back in 2014, since then he has taken his music around not only the UK but overseas also – including appearances at Reeperbahn in Hamburg, The Great Escape 2017, headlining the Acoustic Stage at Godiva Festival 2017 and house concert tours across America.
LINKS:
https://www.facebook.com/joedolmanmusic
https://www.twitter.com/joedolman96
https://open.spotify.com/artist/4A5MQi1opEqAcE0yZCmrZw