Industry news & advice blog

Lou Price - ‘Figure It Out’

Crafted in just one day, Lou Price’s exquisite song ‘Figure It Out’ is the second single to be taken from his soon-to-be-released solo EP. With collaboration with his band Swimming Tapes put on hold due to the pandemic, Lou has branched out in making his own music over the past 12 months, and it’s just the antidote we need for the rather ramshackle year we’ve all experienced.

He describes his sound as “a really nice bacon sandwich with a crisp peach ice tea on a hungover Saturday morning. Or maybe just lo-fi indie guitar music. I dunno, you decide.” Sonically the song is a tonic of sorts, with lush guitars washing over you and a soothing melody line providing a hazy, warm feeling that everything will turn out ok. Quite a contrast to the circumstances in which the track was written, as Lou explains; “I wrote and recorded it in early Spring 2020 in my dining room. I just woke up pissed off at the whole situation and how it was being handled by those in power in this country and so wrote a simple little guitar pop song about it. Musically it happened very organically, I wrote the general progression on my acoustic one morning and finished the full demo in time for dinner. One of those nice times where a song almost falls out of the sky and into your lap.”

With his solo project still in its early days, Lou has plenty to look ahead to. His debut EP ‘Parkside Grooming’ will be released on Hand In Hive Records on 16th July. He’s part way through writing and recording an album too, and hopes to play some shows further down the line, hopefully with Japan in his sights following 2 sold out gigs he played there with Swimming Tapes at the start of 2020, “...it was immense, so incredible to fly to the other side of the world and have people singing the words to your songs back at you. Can’t wait to go back, I loved Japan so much.”

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crush - ‘Chewed’

Manchester band crush have been serving up delicious slices of dreamy, trance-like shoegaze, with a hefty side of reverb and fuzz for added texture, since they formed in 2018 whilst studying together at BIMM.

The past year has allowed the four-piece time to refine their sound, leading them into darker, denser and more expansive realms, and the result is their latest song ‘Chewed’. The band elaborate more on their experimentation; “We wrote Chewed during a period of self-reflection during lockdown. The lyrics are about coming to the realisation that some relationships in your life are bound to expire, but inevitably you find the right people for you. They explore the emotions felt after breakdowns of friendships, and they're raw and exposed which is something we wanted to experiment with in this track.”

Excited to share their evolved sound, crush have recently recorded a live session for ‘Live at The Edge’, a show for Sky TV hosted by the legendary Mark Radcliffe, and they’re keen to smash their upcoming headline show at Manchester’s Gullivers on 31st August.

‘Chewed’ marks the first in a string of new releases we can expect throughout 2021, including an EP. With a fantastic press response already under their belt, plus radio love from the likes of John Kennedy who featured the single as an X-Posure Hot One on his Radio X show, we have great expectations for whatever sonic gems are next.

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The Liars Club - ‘Tutankhamun’

Putting Barrow-in-Furness firmly on the map are boisterous bunch, The Liars Club. The four-piece have already received enviable airplay from Steve Lamacq, Huw Stephens, Tom Robinson, Jack Saunders and John Kennedy, plus plenty of solid support from the blog world. All this, and they’ve only just unveiled their second EP ‘Of Self’. ‘Tutankhamun’ is the second single to come from this EP, and it’s a lively affair; energetic, fast-paced and ultimately formidable. Recorded at Wolverhampton’s Magic Garden Studios under the skilful hands of producer Gavin Monaghan, there is reasoning behind the song’s turbulent pace; “The track is about ruthless leaders that become mad with power in an almost brutal, tyrannical way. The lyrics come from the standpoint of a person in power, verbalising the extent to which they will go to get people to follow their orders.”

It’d be easy to draw comparisons with the likes of punk bands IDLES or The Ruts, but The Liars Club are keen not to ape other sounds, bringing their own individual slant to the scene, “We write organically and whatever comes out in rehearsals we will work on and see where it goes. We don’t ever intentionally look for a particular sound when we are writing or to try and imitate another artist. However, we definitely try to find some kind of originality and although that’s difficult to achieve in this day and age with guitar, bass, drums and vocals, we will always work around this philosophy. And for future releases we are currently experimenting by introducing other instruments to our songwriting process.”

The band are also making their mark overseas and have recently enjoyed some French media attention; something they find astounding, “We’re just 4 lads making music from Barrow-in-Furness, a town that’s famous for its submarines and not really its music scene. It’s mental to think that people in other areas of the UK listen to us, never mind France!”

So what does the rest of 2021 hold in store for The Liars Club? They’ve been busy working on new material throughout various lockdowns, and plan to keep practicing and writing new songs. And the news we’ve all been waiting for… they’ll be on the road this autumn, so keep that diary wide-open.

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The Rotanas - ‘Get The Call’

If you like your indie rock tinged with 90s tinged psychedelic lilt, then Cardiff five-piece The Rotanas need to be on your radar. Their single ‘Get The Call’ sees the band welcome a new fifth member to the fray, Aaron Tormey who took the lead on writing the track and offers a little bit of insight into its origins, "Personally, I like to be quite ambiguous when speaking of the inspiration and meaning behind tracks as I like to let the listener interpret it how they see fit, and I think song meanings can be interchangeable from person to person. I will say that loosely, for me anyway, it’s about putting effort into something but questioning if it's what you're meant to be doing in life and whether it’s worth the struggle."

‘Get The Call’ is the band’s third release of 2021, hot on the heels of ‘Spinner’ and ‘Manic’, and nicely scoring the lads a hat trick when it comes to media support; Radio X, SiriusXM, RTÉ 2FM, BBC Radio Wales, BBC Introducing Hereford & Worcester and Amazing Radio are all on board. They’ve also played some stand-out gigs including a sold out show at Cardiff’s iconic Clwb Ifor Bach, festival slots at Isle of Wight Festival and Shimmer Sounds Festival, plus shared the stage with the likes of Black Grape, Pete Doherty and Kyle Falconer of The View. Not bad at all for a band who characterise their sound as “like a bulldog on acid surfing an optimistic tsunami.”

Recorded at Leeders Vale Studio by Jon Constantine (Public Service Broadcasting, Tom Odell), you can get your eager hands on ‘Get The Call’ when it is released tomorrow, Friday 9th July, on Disobedient Records. And The Rotanas will be returning to the stage over the coming months. Catch them supporting Black Grape again in Cardiff on 16th September, then they team with promotion company This Feeling for a 7 date UK headline tour during October. Not to be missed, so head to their socials to grab yourself some tickets.

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Hallworth - ‘Built To Last’

Hallworth, aka singer songwriter Hannah Lloyd, has been writing and singing songs since she was 9, and after years of performing live and honing her craft, she has finally unleashed her debut single, ‘Built To Last’, upon the world. It’s a dreamy and melodic pop number with a resilient edge, stirred by the life shifts Hannah was experiencing at the time, “I wrote this song back in the summer of 2019 when I had just graduated from University and was moving back to London. It came out of feeling like I was giving up everything that I had built in my 3 years in Sheffield and was facing the unknown back in London. The song became a way of reassuring myself that at the end of the day I was in control of what happened next, and that things might take a while to settle again, but there was no need to rush anything.”

Opening simply with just ethereal organ chords and Hannah’s sweet vocals, the track begins with a mellow vibe which gradually builds into something bolder and more uplifting as Hannah’s confidence breaks through with affirming lyrics “I’m behind the wheel, I have control of me”.

Having played some spectacular gigs in the past - BBC Introducing Live, Sofar Sounds, and even supporting Paul Young at The Foundry in Sheffield - obviously Hannah is itching to get back on stage again and is busy working on getting a band together for her forthcoming performances. Until then, there are also more new releases on the way, so plenty to look forward to from the Hallworth camp!

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