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Blogger Of The Week: Echoes and Dust
This week's blogger of the week is Dan, from Echoes And Dust. ABoF have enjoyed a lot of support from the blog over the years, and it's genuinely great to see that there are still bloggers and promoters out there with an eye for catching emerging new talent on the UK scene. We caught up with him over the weekend for a quick interview.
Tell us how Echoes and Dust got started.
Echoes And Dust came to life on a wet Wednesday evening back in 2007 when a group of like-minded Indie geeks sat in Islington’s Mucky Pup (best jukebox in London!) harping on that there weren’t enough websites covering the particular dark corner of Indiedom that we liked to frequent.
At that point the thought occurred to us that rather than moaning about it why didn’t we get off our collective backsides and do something about it? And Thus, the website was born.
Since then we have reviewed some several hundred albums, gigs and associated bits and bobs and hopefully become a go-to place for a hardy handful of music enthusiasts.
Where does the name "Echoes And Dust" come from?
That's a good question and one we're not totally sure of ourselves! We bandied a lot of names around that night in the pub, whilst consuming a number of sherbets, but my best guess is that we derived it from The God Is An Astronaut tune Dust & Echoes but felt it tripped off the tongue better the other way around.
What's your best resource for finding new music?
We're fortunate now that we've been going long enough and enough people know us that new music finds us, we get more submission requests than we can ever really cover but we do always make a point to at least listening to everything that gets sent in. That said, Twitter is a very powerful tool for bringing blogs & bands together & we've discovered quite a lot of our favourite bands just through chatting on there.
You're a promoter as well - any stories from the front line you'd care to share?
Haha, god, almost too many! I've been a promoter far longer than I've been a blogger, in fact without wanting to date myself too much I've been a promoter far longer than there have been blogs period! As much as I love writing & the site, live music is where it's at and although being a promoter can be insanely stressful (like having your headliner turn up 5 minutes after you've just announced to the crowd that he's not coming, as happened to us just this week) it can also be hugely rewarding (like when the same headliner then goes on a plays an utterly magical, spine tingling set) and the feeling you get seeing the look on people's faces during a really special night and thinking 'I did this' is like no other.
Beyond that, I'm sure every promoter has the same tales of woe, bands getting lost / breaking down / forgetting you've booked them or having to deal with venue owners who want you to fill their venues and sell their booze but also want you to turn everything down to barely audible etc & so on! Frankly, in my experience, organising musicians makes herding cats look like a relaxing pastime, but when it all comes together it is so worth it.
2011 is drawing to a close. What've been your musical highlights this year?
I think 2011 has been a pretty strong year on the music front, certainly in the areas that I pay most attention to. Great albums from And So I Watch You From Afar, Maybeshewill, Alright The Captain, Trojan Horse and Firesuite have all been on heavy rotation in our office. Special mention has to go to 2 albums though: La Ligne Apre by Tormenta, they are a French band and not that well known over here but this album is insanely good, heavy math metal. I have honestly never heard anything like it before & I'm very excited that they're coming to play for us at the end of this month. And lastly a record that I've only just got by a band from Belfast called LaFaro called Easy Meat. I can not stop playing it, it's just pure adrenaline fuelled power punk. They're not doing anything particularly new but they do it with such enthusiasm & gusto it's impossible not to like it.
Is there anyone on the ABoF roster that you've been listening to?
I have to say, without wanting to sound horribly sycophantic, that the ABoF roster has become increasingly impressive over the last year or so.
I'm a big fan of Esperi, IndianRedLopez, Architects Of Grace, Ex Libras, Talons, Knifeworld & the list goes on & on!
Finally, top tips for running your own music blog.
My main tip is persevere! For a long time it felt as if we were just shouting in to the void, a common feeling in all forms of blogging I think, but gradually after 3 1/2 years we have built ourselves up to a position where we have a small but pretty dedicated audience. I guess the other thing I'd say is find your niche, don't try & cover everything, but find a little corner of the music world that you're particularly passionate about. It makes it a lot easier to keep it going when you're writing about stuff you love. With Echoes & Dust we've gone out of our way to cover stuff we love but gets very little space elsewhere. As a result of that we've built a solid rapport with a lot of the bands we write about and subsequently that helps the live side of our operation, as they know we genuinely believe in them. Building these kinds of relationships is essential to surviving in an arena that is pretty saturated.
Ed Says. . . you need a relevant online presence.
If you want to be taken seriously, you need to have more than a Myspace page going for you.
I remember when Myspace first took off: I was in a band myself (the provocatively titled Whore!), and it seemed like a godsend at the time. I was able to communicate with hundreds of people at a time, arrange gigs, and even pick up a few fans along the way - one of which ended up becoming Mrs Ed. But alas, it all soon turned sour. Myspace - not my marriage, which, unlike the former, is still going strong.
Everyone who owned a guitar or keyboard suddenly had their own Myspace page, and the ability to embed your own html background on the page meant that some pages could take an eternity to load before you realised the link you'd been sent consisted of a lone single man playing guitar with his feet for four whole tracks, flanked on all sides by a flickering background of cartoon monkeys picking their nose. Picking up fans became a pointless endeavour, as the site was now mostly comprised of other musicians, fake profiles trying to sell you "man pills", and anyone who was anyone had migrated to Facebook, SoundCloud and Bandcamp.
The problem with Myspace is that it's over. Like Friendster and Friends Reunited before it, people have moved on. The only people who still use them are people like my family (who have been known to phone me at one in the morning to ask if there's "any way on the PC to cut some text out of an article, and paste it into another"). By using Myspace as a landing page for your band, product or person, you are announcing to the world that you have no idea about current online trends, or the world at large. You are a relic that has refused to move on. Is this really the image you want to project when presenting yourself to the press?
You can follow ABoF super assistant Ed on Twitter
Blogger of The Week: A Pocket Full Of Seeds
A Pocket Full Of Seeds is a UK music blog run by 2 brothers. The boys don't specialise on any particular genre or decade for the songs they post but manage to combine a decent taste in music with their own opinions, thoughts and photography which has brought them a loyal fan base.A Pocket Full of Seeds is run by two brothers. What made you decide to run the blog together?
I got the idea of doing a blog after interning at a label in SF. I read tons of blogs each day and I had a pretty good idea of what my kinda blog would look like but I wanted to have a couple of writers to makes sure we could get enough content together. George has a music taste and writing style, which is hard to find in the blogosphere so it works out pretty good.
Have you had any arguments or disagreements over what to cover on the blog?
Well we only really get to see what the other person has covered after they post it so it's usually too late for a brotherly argument! Some of the most successful posts we have had have been when George has gone on some rant about rubbish dubstep songs or the negative side of the blogosphere, which I usually try and avoid being such a mild mannered guy!
A Pocket Full of Seeds is an unusual name for a music blog - is there any special story / thinking behind it?
It's a lyric from the song Christmas TV by Slow Club. When I got back from 6 months in the states where I had the idea to start the blog I went straight to Latitude Festival and Slow Club finished their set with this song and it just blew me away, it still does.
When you started the blog, was there anything special you did you get the word out there about it?
I guess not really. I'm a firm believer that the secret to a successful blog is to post at least once a day about good music that people haven't heard before. We do well out of aggregators like Hype Machine, StumbleUpon and links from other blogs but at the beginning there's not much you can do except work pretty hard for very little return, which is a bit rubbish.
With Twitter now a prevalent social media tool, has this changed the way you blog and promote the links on APFoS?
I am still undecided about Twitter as a tool for a blog. All our new posts get linked to on Twitter and I use it occasionally to have a chat with bands and other blogs which is great but it's not a big part of the way we do things. I sometimes think about sitting down with the computer for a few days to try and get our Twitter and facebook pages up to scratch but I always end up doing something a bit more fun.
How do you find out about new music?
We are lucky to be on the books of some really good PR companies who know what we like and occasionally offer up a real gem. I love getting submissions directly from the band as well, the scruffier the better! Another great way to find new music right now is to have a snoop around festivals for bands you have never heard of and take a gamble on their live show. And if all else fails then you can always see what the blogs are talking about!
Are there any ABoF artists you've heard that float your boat?
The most recent band on the ABoF books I took a shine to was The Sons (or is it The Son now?). Scotland has been producing some great music for the last few years and this is no exception.
Finally, do you have any music tips for us (signed or unsigned)?
Caulfield Beats, Civil Civic, Chet and Cains and Abels.
Interview: The Unkindness of Ravens
The Unkindness Of Ravens are back with a new double A-side single Virus | Viper. It's out on Sonic Fire Records, October 3rd 2011. The guys are in Berlin at the moment but took some time out to chat to us about the aforementioned single and their future plans.
Your new AA side single Virus/Viper is out on October the 3rd. Tell us all about it!
Ben: VIRUS is the title track of the album. I'd had the lyrics in my head for over a year as some kind of rap but could never figure out the music. In January when we were recording our album here in Berlin I was messing about with running two drum machines at once and as soon as I got this beat going on I knew what to do with it. We recorded it real quick and loved it so much we made it the title track of the LP. Viper is one of the first songs I wrote for this band and one I love the most, it's sinister and minimalist and it rocks, which is pretty much the blueprint of our sound.
Nina: With VIRUS I remember kind of singing and half talking the lyrics, a bit robotic, because I didn't quite know what the hell I was doing. The beat is so powerful and it always makes me want to get up and go nuts. I then thought some heavy breaths over the snare would make the song more tribal sounding. Viper is one of those songs that I always kind of half sing and scream when we play it live. I don't know why I do it, it's like the song makes me angry or something, like I wanna take revenge, but the song is just a classic dirty grungy rock piece that hopefully makes people want to have violent sex when listening to it.
What was the inspiration for the video?
Ben: Contemporary dance has interested me for a long time now, and it's something I always wanted to explore with this band, especially as Nina has such a unique dancing style herself. We saw Black Swan in Berlin in January and the inspiration just fell into place.
Nina: The pre-production took a good four months, and after the auditions and finding a choreographer I could work out a routine with, I had four excellent dancers and a choreographer who really understood my vision. The main inspiration was Blade Runner meets Black Swan, and we wanted to shoot it up-close in order to give that claustrophobic feeling. So really, it ended up being a compilation of ideas from inspired people and that's when art gets really exciting.
Being a boy/girl duo, you draw comparisons to bands like the White Stripes and the Kills. Is that something you welcome?
Ben: The White Stripes 'White Blood Cells' record changed the way I thought about music in terms of how powerful and raw and soulful a band could be. But for me being a two-piece just means we can move fast, plain and simple. If I listened to The Kills I'm sure I'd love them too, but I consciously avoid doing that 'cause the comparisons are strong enough already.
Nina: Ben and I tend to find ourselves independent to what's happening around us, so when we get compared to other artists we just kind of shrug our shoulders. Although we're a boy/girl band, our sound will remain very different from everyone else and we hope people understand that.
You've been touring and recording in Germany recently. Are the Germans particularly open to your style of music?
Ben: Playing shows in Germany is a lot more of an interactive experience for us than in London. People here dance, and you know, that's kind of the point of what we do. And in general the nightlife in Berlin is so far in advance of England it's untrue. I've heard more good music in three months hanging out in bars here than I ever have in England.
Nina: The Germans show an enthusiasm that we felt was missing in the London crowds. We're not used to people dancing and going mental when we play our set, because London crowds tend to be more jaded. But playing in Germany is seriously a breath of fresh air, crowds here enjoy what we do and they're not afraid to show it. In fact, they're the kind of folk who will make you play all night if they could.
Overall your music is quite dark in tone. Do you see yourselves as the Joy Division for a new generation, or can we expect a brighter outlook in The Unkindness of Ravens future?
Ben: If art is not dark then it's not so interesting to me, same way I need it to express some kind of sense of wonder. So I want what we do to be sinister but also beguiling, which makes us dark yeah, but also full of hope too.
Nina: We're just experimenting. Our entire life's an experiment. I do have a feeling though that we might head more into electronic territory, for a little while at least, but that could be the influence Berlin's been having on us and it is a sound that's been getting me quite excited. I think as long as we stay true with what we like, be it dark or bright, people can make up their own minds.
We can imagine your tunes playing over the end credits of a movie. If you could have one of your tracks in any movie, which would it be?
Ben: The new Bladerunner film will do me.
You've released a lot of singles and an EP last year but there won't be an album until 2012 - what can we expect to hear from the debut album?
Ben: This album has been a long time coming in the sense that we've been putting out singles for two years, but at the same time we've only known each other three years and everything we've done has been off our own back on our own label. It takes a while to figure shit out and now that we've done a lot of that we feel we're in a good place to make the album and get it right. Our Berlin experiences have focused my mind as to where our sound is heading. If I can't imagine something I come up with being played in one of my favorite bars here then I forget it. There's just some intrinsic sense of cool this place has and I'm trying to synthesis that into this record. It's the same kind of thing I hear in Sonic Youth records.
Nina: Our album will basically be a perfect mix of rock, electro and heavy grungy beats. It will take you on a journey of dark love, whirlwind changes, revenge, the choices we make in life and the adventures explored. Our music will always be open for interpretation, our songs are never about just one thing, it’s whatever you make of them. If people are feeling something when listening to our music, then I think it means we're making honest songs. And that's what our album will be, perfectly honest.
Finally, your dream gig line-up (with you on the bill of course) would be...?
Ben: Ravens, Sonic Youth, and QOTSA Desert Sessions all playing half hour sets at The Old Blue Last.
Nina: With the Chemical Brothers DJing, we really dug their film score from that film 'Hanna'.
Ben: You can smoke inside too.
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INTERVIEW: The Shaking Sensations
The Shaking Sensations released their captivating debut album, East Of Youth this week, so we thought it was well past time that we sat down with the Copenhagen post-rock outfit for a casual chat about their plans to break into the UK.
East Of Youth was released in the UK on the 12th of September, but is already available in your native Denmark. What has the feedback to the album been like at home?The feedback back here in Denmark has been really good. East of Youth has been received overwhelmingly well and the general opinion is that we can follow the footsteps of the Mastodonts with our heads up high. And that’s a fantastic recognition to get. Of course we're being compared to bands such as Explosions in The Sky, Mogwai and Godspeed You! Black Emperor - but that isn't too bad either.
What would your hopes be for the UK release?
Hopefully that the UK audience will be aware of our existence and that it will help us to get a fan base over there and, of course, some live shows. So far, the way we have promoted our band outside Denmark has been through live-shows – and then people have bought our records. With the UK, it’s sort of an opposite tactic with the records out there first, before we go and play there. It’s hard to be visible on the UK scene, and I guess it’s even harder for us, since UK post-rock and instrumental acts really are doing well these days. Hopefully there’s a hype we can join, but it will be hard for a debuting Danish band to contribute to it.
Something that has always intrigued me about post-rock bands is how do you name instrumental tracks? Is it just random words pulled out of the air?
It’s always hard and it’s a question we’re frequently asked. It might be a mix of random words pulled out of the air and well considered and sophisticated thoughts.
Some words and titles are just cool; others have a deeper meaning. Sometimes we have the title before we start composing the music, other times it’s the opposite. On East of Youth, all titles are contributing to a universe that we, at some point in the process of making the record, realized was starting to evolve. About standing on the doorstep to becoming a grown up and saying goodbye to boyhood and youth. Also it’s a record about holding on to those things, even though you’re getting older, and we think that the titles on East of Youth reflect these thoughts pretty well, however the beautiful thing about instrumental music is that you, as a listener, can make your own thoughts about the music and that it can mean totally different things to people. On East of Youth you can say we have chosen a theme and that it is up the individual listener to get whatever out of it.
Do you think being an instrumental band will help your music translate to the UK audience, as there'll be no language barrier to overcome?
Not really. We’re working on the same premises as UK instrumental bands, and we will communicate on the same level as them and appeal to the same audience. It would be hard if we had vocals or tried to make obvious statements with our titles – not that many Danish acts can handle the English language well enough to make good lyrics and make that a quality in their song writing – maybe that’s why not that many have gotten through to the UK audience. It’s also a tendency in Denmark that stage presence and image, hair style and shoes, seem more important than making good music. Luckily post-rock and instrumental music isn’t about this – and the audiences all over the world seem to be aware of that – makes the job a lot easier for us
Do you have any plans to play live in the UK in the future?
Yes – at the moment we can’t say that much about it, but we’re working on a UK tour in early 2012.
You've played live all over mainland Europe. Is there a different reaction to your music from different parts of the continent?
In Denmark the audiences are really reserved – maybe because of the point mentioned above about image and shoes. Post-rock isn’t that recognized in Denmark and the concert culture over there somehow seems to be considered as a question of collective mass entertainment and collective experiences instead of feelings and experiences of the individual listener. We experience a more dedicated crowd outside Denmark and the audiences seem to be aware of what this kind of music is about. Sometimes we meet a very critical crowd and we can feel that our music is being listened to and getting judged – and that’s actually a relief – especially when they seem to like it.
Two drummers is quite rare, even in Post-Rock. What made you choose that line up?
It looks good on the stage. It actually started as a random experiment and Mads was only meant to do a couple of shows with us, however it turned out to work really well and he became a member of the band.
It gives us freedom in the way we compose our music and we think that it adds a depth to our music that you can’t create with only one drummer on record. But live, it also adds a visual aspect that can’t be delivered with only one drummer. Also Mads is such a good guy and we really wanted him to be in the band – since he was a drummer, he had to play the drums.
What other bands on your label Pad and Pen Records should we be excited about?
Well Pad & Pen is a weird label, representing many different genres. We think all bands have something special to offer, but the acts that should appeal to listeners of our music would be Mimas – who also started out as post-rock band, but now play something they call death-indie (!) and Keith Canisious which is dream pop/shoegaze. Pad & Pen is also representing Talons from the UK and if you don’t know them, do yourself a favour and check them out. Futuristic post-rock with a touch of punk and Celtic folk. However Darling Don’t Dance which is a 3-girl -1-guy garage-rock band is worth checking out as well – they’re recording their debut album at the moment and we’re sure they will rock everyone out there.
East of Youth is released via Pad & Pen Records and is out to buy today from Amazon for just £4.74!
The Shaking Sensations - Glass Wings by abadgeoffriendship
You can download "Glass Wings", a track taken from the debut album, on the ABoF SoundCloud page.
For more information about The Shaking Sensations, Pad & Pen Records or our PR services, please email .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).