The Unsigned Guide Spotlight Re-visited - Part 1!
Blog by Michelle Lloyd under Artist Managers, Creative & Branding, Finance, Law & Music Business, Live, Media, Music Publishing, Music Training & Careers, Record Labels, Recording & Production, Selling & Distributing Your Music
As our monthly Spotlight feature has now been running for just over 6 months (time sure flies when you’re having fun!), we thought it would be a great opportunity to catch up with some of the acts we’ve featured, see what they’re been up to and find out what their plans for 2013 are.
In our first instalment we catch up with Spectral Park, Harry David, Georgie Mason, Clockwork Radio, Listing Ships, Ali Ingle and Joseph Grand.
Spectral Park
When we featured Spectral Park’s track ‘Colours’ back in September we knew he was destined for great things and it seems we weren’t alone in this thought. Fast forward to January and not only has Luke Donovan’s album been snapped up by the Mexican Summer label and due for release next week, but he’s seen some great write ups in the likes of NME and Clash, as well as this recommendation from PitchforkWe caught up with Luke to find out how it’s all been going and find out what’s next on the agenda:
“Over the past few months I've been recording the second album and doing the behind the scenes stuff for the debut record, like the artwork/cutting video for singles/legal stuff and working out the live side of things. I got a band together and we're pretty close to being ready for shows now. It's been insane re-learning all the songs and getting all the sounds off of the cassettes and out of my computer, working on video projections, so much work... It's going to take a while before it starts to breathe by itself when we play, it's a work in progress. Hopefully we'll scrape by for the first shows coming up and the tour dates with Unknown Mortal Orchestra. Super excited about playing with those guys and still overwhelmed that Mexican Summer are putting the album out. The next few months we'll be playing shows, hopefully tours and festivals, whilst I finish up the second album and then hopefully put the second record out later this year.”
If you fancy getting your hands on Spectral Park’s debut release, you can do so via the Mexican Summer website.
Harry David
Lincolnshire singer-songwriter Harry formed part of the inaugural Spotlight feature in July with his catchy little number ‘Lies and Truth (Won’t Back Down)’. Here’s what he had to say when we spoke to him this week:
“Since featuring on the Spotlight I've been gigging, recording and lots of new material. I've also taken my hand to co-writing more recently and the results have been fantastic and overall great fun. The highlight for me has to be travelling to Sweden last October to perform a few shows though; I had the privilege of meeting a lot of great folks there. All in all I've been honing my craft as a songwriter and producer and learning as much as I can to progress, both as an individual and a musician. It's been very reclusive at times, but thoroughly enjoyable!”
Check out the video for ‘Untouchable’ that Harry wrote with his good friend P-zed and get your ears around his new track ‘Solitude’ too!
Georgie Mason
Having reincarnated herself as ‘Inari’ – which is the Japanese kami of worldly success, Georgie who featured in October’s Spotlight with her kooky ode to ‘Tomatoes’, is devoting the majority of her time to completing her Art History, Fine Art and English Literature degree at Nottingham University. Still finding time to fit in the odd gig she recently supported Heartaker at Ipswich Town Hall and featured on the Leftlion site. Check out her new EP ‘The Phrenology’ on SoundCloud now.
Clockwork Radio
The Welsh/Eqyptian/rest-of-the-world 5 piece Clockwork Radio who featured in our August Spotlight blog have since been keeping themselves busy with plenty of live dates. Drummer Dan, filled us in on what they have in store:
“Well we've just announced another EU tour which will see us gigging in France, Germany and Luxemburg, and we’ll no doubt be announcing some festivals soon too. We’ve got some new tunes in the pipeline and some other ideas floating around with merch, art and other little projects. It’s all very exciting, 2013 is going to be a great one for Clockwork Radio!”
You can check out a recent live video recording of ‘Feel It Up’ here!
Listing Ships
Since featuring in September’s Spotlight, Listing Ships have released their 12" vinyl ‘The Hayling Island Sessions’ on Idle Fret, which has garnered some great press and all important sales. Having parted company with their drummer Dave Balch, who's taking a break from playing in bands for the foreseeable future, they’ve recruited a new drummer in the form of James Pamphlion, formerly of Oxford bands The Winchell Riots and Fell City Girl. They played their first show together at the O2 Academy Oxford this month, appropriately enough, supporting Tall Ships on their sold-out date. Currently locked away writing new material they’re also concerning themselves with finding somewhere nautical to record their next release, due out later this year.
Get yourself a copy of ‘The Hayling Island Sessions’ now!
Ali Ingle
One person who’s been a very busy young chap since we featured him in October is Liverpool-based Ali Ingle. He went on to win ‘Male Artist of The Year’ at The Liverpool Music Awards fending off stiff competition from a selection of the city’s brightest new stars. As well as picking up the award he’s also released two new self directed videos for ‘Ribcage’ and ‘Empty House’ and shared his new EP ‘Magic In The Mundane’ with the masses, all the while clocking up some impressive airplay from the likes of Amazing Radio.
We’re a big fan of his unique heart-warming videos, why not tune into Ribcage and Empty House for yourself!
Joseph Grand
When we got our hands on Joseph Grand’s ‘Adventure’ back in September we all instantly fell in love with its unconventional, fresh and engaging vibe. His ability to use old samplers, drum machines and broken guitars to make music that sounded like the search for that elusive after-hours party had us all hooked. Once digging a little deeper into Joseph’s world we found him to be quite the little character, and it’s come with no surprise that on trying to get in contact with him we got an Out of Office reply stating that he is in Bavaria learning the ancient art of vinyl cutting but will be back soon. Intriguing!
You can keep up with the latest developments in this curious little story over on his Twitter account.
Tags
the unsigned guide spotlight, unsigned bands, unsigned artists, new music blog, music industry, spectral park, ali ingle, georgie mason, harry david, clockwork radio, listing ships, joseph grand
