Joan & The Giants - Alice SK - Ella Therese - Lindsay Munroe - The Clockworks
Beloved alt-pop indie band Joan & The Giants from Boorloo/Perth have finally releasing their debut EP 'Me & You' via Tomboi Records and it is one that fans old and new will embrace and hold dear for a long time to come.
Following a handful of stellar single releases, Joan & The Giants' long-awaited debut EP sees musical and romantic partners Grace Newton-Wordsworth and Aaron Birch with band mates Riley Sutton and Liam Olsen hone their craft with a stronger pop-production sensibility, that collides beautifully with their folk-informed anthemic-indie roots, heartfelt lyricism and that hint of magic that can't quite be put into words - but is captured perfectly with music.
Grace speaks more on the inspiration and themes explored: “The 'Me & You' EP is a collection of deeply personal songs that capture moments shared by two people. Stories centered around love, rebellion and definitely a touch of heartbreak. To me they are all songs that share vulnerable moments that we’ve personally gone through in the last few years, and we hope they connect with those who listen."
Opening with strong emotive indie-pop is ‘The Weekend’, a rebellion against modern grind culture and the mentality of 'living for the weekend'. The song reflects the band's new mantra to live every day with the same enthusiasm: live like you're 17, fall in love but never fall in line, and spend time with someone whenever it feels right - because why should we only reserve our joy for days that the capitalist calendar dictates? With a melody that seeps in and sticks, earnest drums and cherry-sweet vocals, this is a memorable tune dripping in honeyed rhythms.
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Alice SK has been raising eyebrows with a series of vintage-noir style singles recently that combine her haunting soulful voice and fresh sounds of the London scene that express authentic stories and work their way into the soul of the listener.
Next, Alice SK presents, ‘Daisy Jane’ where she proves her ability to work across different styles as she changes up her sound to a more washed-out, stripped back, acoustic palette. With gorgeous harmonies, a sparkling 10-string guitar and warm bass, the combination of Alice's lyrics and unique stylised melodies captivate the listener as the song escalates.
Written as a love song to all the amazing women in her life, ‘Daisy Jane’ is a very beautiful anthem for sisterhood, expressed with a great maturity and poise. Sounding like a jangly 60’s-esque Joni Mitchell psych-folk classic, with ‘Daisy Jane’, Alice SK has once again delivered a single that is both intriguingly unique, yet engaging and memorable all at the same time.
On the song’s new sound and lyrical themes, Alice explains, “Muca played me the music of the Brazilian Viola and it was such a beautiful pure sound that the lyrics had to reflect the music in the sense that I wanted the lyrics to be 'true'. So, I thought of what the purest form of love that I've experienced is and it lies with the female presences that I've been lucky enough to have been surrounded by from- my mum, my sisters and my friends.”
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Calling out the emphasis on youth and the perpetuating ideal that there is a 'limited time' to achieve success, new song 'THIRTYFOUR' (Out Now) by WA artist Ella Therese serves as an unapologetic celebration of breaking down barriers to fulfil your dreams, and one that she hopes will encourage conversation about shared experiences.
Making her dazzling debut in 2020 with 'Feelings', Ella has already played WAMFest 2021, Fremantle Arts Centre alongside Banjo Lucia, and had Siobhan Cotchin and Indoor Fins play her last single launch. Following the 2021 release of her intoxicating second single 'Confusion', comes new alt-rock track 'THIRTYFOUR'. In an empowering move to maintain ownership and artistry, Ella will also be releasing the song as an NFT.
This is a soulful and arresting mantra that gets straight to the core of its message with plenty of heart and a catchy hook. 'THIRTYFOUR' sees Ella embracing her power, and demonstrating that we can resist and liberate ourselves from the shackles of expectation by calling out the bullsh*t, and doing what we want with confidence. The song also universally speaks to demanding more, maintaining high standards, and chasing your ambitions - regardless of the limitations society may try to place on us. Driven by a strong beat and an understated soft alt-rock sound, Ella's voice and the message it delivers are given full reign to be heard loud and clear - as they deserve to be.
Written in response to the initial feeling of being 'too old' to start her music career, particularly as a female artist, 'THIRTYFOUR' is poised to spark conversations with its audience.
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We last heard from Manchester based artist Lindsay Munroe when she released her 2021 EP, Softest Edge, a record written on a week-long perspective-shifting solo trip to the Lake District. In the time since that first trip, Munroe has developed a writing practice built around isolating herself in nature. Today, she is sharing her new single, ‘Wild Me’, the product of another week spent alone in the Lake District.
Since Munroe’s departure from an oppressive church and the end of a long-term relationship, she’s been on a journey of learning exactly who she is when she’s totally free. “A lot of my music over the past 3 years has been about difficult things that I have been through - leaving the evangelical church, dysfunctional relationships, big breakups - and all of those are encapsulated in 'Wild Me'” she says. “But ultimately the song is me realising that the core things never changed; when I was a child I was a 'tomboy', I was obsessed with being outside, I was stubborn and sensitive and smart and quite weird,” she continues.
Lots of us experiment with trying on different personas in our teenage years, most ultimately stumbling across the right fit somewhere down the line. However, in her adolescence, Lindsay found herself shying away from her true, more ‘wild’ self. “I was singing backing vocals in folk bands, wearing floral dresses, shrinking myself to fit into a conservative church environment, desperately trying to find that sense of self and freedom I had as a child,” she explains. “And when that whole tumultuous time was over, I looked around and realised that the same things were true about me now as when I was young. I dress androgynously, I feel most at home outdoors, I'm stubborn, sensitive, smart and still pretty weird.”
It took Munroe years to make the difficult decision to break from the church she had been involved with since her mid-teens. When she finally did, and at the same time went through a breakup, her identity was shaken to its core. On her debut EP, 2020’s Our Heaviness, she explored the pain and turbulence that came with the departure. The EP garnered praise from BBC Introducing, DIY and The Line of Best Fit, and even an Instagram shoutout from one of Munroe’s heroes Sharon Van Etten. In 2021, on her second EP, Softest Edge, we found Munroe embracing the opportunity for growth, both personally and professionally. Instead of writing with the pure catharsis of Our Heaviness, Munroe applied her new sense of endless possibilities to her songwriting, exploring the depths of genre and production while lyrically drawing from a wider pool of experiences. Her single ‘Parallel’ even made it onto the soundtrack of hit BBC show Conversations With Friends.
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Galway four-piece - THE CLOCKWORKS - return with their rousing new single: “Advertise Me”. Arriving ahead of an extensive run of UK + European shows throughout the Autumn, the track is also the first new music from the band since the release of their essential debut EP ‘Endgame’ earlier this year.
“Advertise Me” is a scintillating, scathing new track that sees The Clockworks confront the hypocrisy of a sanctimonious society that moans more than it does take action. Recorded at Abbey Road Studios and produced by the band in collaboration with Michael Rendall (The Jesus and Mary Chain, Shed Seven, Black Grape), The Clockworks explain of the caustic new cut: “The idea for this song started with the line: ‘complain about consumers from the comfort of my Mac’. It got me thinking about contemporary culture and that feeling of dissonance that comes from criticising society while continuing to conform to it. The song is partly a satire in answer to this feeling.”
Simmering with spiky rock energy and once more boasting The Clockworks’ knack for scorching lyrics that hold a mirror up to society, the track plucks influence from a range of decades and genres. The band add:
“Todd Rundgren was a musical and production influence for this one. David Bowie. The Last Shadow Puppets. Red Hot Chilli Peppers. Interpol. The Cure. Pixies are usually brought up at some point in writing a new song.”
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