Throwback: The List

I wrote a couple of things for The List magazine back in September 2014 for their issue 728. You can read about the big solo artists playing in Scotland, the preview for the magazine’s own curated music event, and  where to head out as a student in Glasgow and Edinburgh.

THEATRE – Review: Wicked, Edinburgh Playhouse

[Published in The Student newspaper 25/11/14]

In terms of scale and success, the thriving musical Wicked is as big as they come. Having already bagged 100 international awards and captivated audiences both sides of the Atlantic, there’s been a genuine buzz surrounding its arrival at the Edinburgh Playhouse. It’s definitely been long anticipated and the level of expectation for the show is almost insurmountably high.

Based on Gregory Maguire’s novel, Wicked tells the story of the mutual-loathing-turned-friendship of two university students, the unfortunately green-tinged and unpopular Elphaba and the much-loved and ditzy Galinda. It is upon meeting the disappointing Wizard that both girls, who have been tutored in magic, must make a moral decision and eventually go their separate ways. This is the untold story of The Wizard of Oz, and it’s steeped in clever plot points that hint at the original source material and make you smirk in satisfaction when you understand a reference.

Emily Tirney shines as Galinda, quite literally, in a stunning array of princess-like costumes. Elsewhere love-interest and heartthrob prince Fiyero, played by Samuel Edwards, is delightfully self-assured, his voice only slightly faltering in places. But it is Ashleigh Gray who steals the show as Elphaba, aka The Wicked Witch of the West. She sweeps across the stage, showcasing her impressive vocal range, infectiously energetic and delightfully sarcastic in responding to the general disgust at her complexion. The culmination of the first act into the momentous ‘Defying Gravity’, a fearless and empowering powerhouse of a song, deservedly earns her tumultuous applause.

Coupled with this impressive cast, the staging is equally as striking. A fuming dragon sits above the curtain, watching over proceedings like a clock, its red eyes occasionally glinting maleficently. The contraption of the Wizard of Oz’s head is both terrifying and spectacular. The lighting changes in Emerald City are quick and serve to highlight a wonderful effort on behalf of the costume department with many green outfits that are reminiscent of the Hunger Games’ eccentric Capitol.

Perhaps another reason behind the lingering success of the show is the heavy political undertones that it carries. Not shying away from the question of Good and Evil, Wicked also presents a land of Oz under scary state observation, suppressing the animal minority who don’t have a freedom of speech, and distorting the truth to influence the public. ‘Where I come from, we believe all sorts of things that aren’t true. We call it history’, the Wizard reveals, in a chilling glimpse of totalitarian regime. There are moral and ethical questions to be asked here. Through the characters’ songs, we are taken on a colourful psychological journey where we might begin to wonder if Elphaba really is the villain after all.

Wicked is not your usual predictable, gaudy, one-dimensional musical. Rather, it is a much cleverer show that slyly points out common clichés and throws them at you, laughing at them in the process. There’s a surprisingly witty and perceptive script that makes it very special. ‘I clash with everything’ grumbles Elphaba, in a typical hormonal teenager fashion. Elsewhere, Galinda’s frequent mispronunciation of words produces giggles throughout the audience.

Visually stunning, surprisingly probing and extremely amusing, Wicked lives up to expectations. It’s a treat, go see it now.

Interview with Q magazine founder and broadcaster Mark Ellen

[Published in The Student newspaper 4/11/14]

I had a chat with the journalist ahead of his Born To Be Wide event to be held Thursday 6 November. 

Events targeted at giving you a sneak peek into the intricate workings of the music industry are sparse. But Born to Be Wide is here to change that. The Edinburgh-based project, founded in 2004 by friends Olaf Furniss and Brodie Smithers, aims to provide insight into areas within the industry through seminars, guest panels, and showcases of local bands, the odd DJ set being thrown into the mix. A brief trawl through their most recent endeavours reveals a spread of events on everything from music management to designing a record sleeve. It’s informative without the cost of an extortionate ticket down to a music convention in London. Their latest event is to be held this Thursday on the topic of music journalism. Edinburgh’s cosy Electric Circus will be the stage for a professional panel including Alan Morrison (Arts Editor of The Herald), Nicola Meighan (freelancer at The List) and the headline act of the evening, Mark Ellen.

You’d be excused for not recognising the name, but you’ve most definitely heard of Mark Ellen’s accomplishments. Founder of Q and Word magazine, former editor for MOJO, contributor for the NME, he has broadcasted for Radio 1, sitting in for John Peel, and he was the familiar face presenting Live Aid in the 1980s. It’s half expected that Ellen would be a bit of a condescending media ‘wise guy’ based on this impressive résumé. Quite the opposite: self-deprecating, funny and very talkative, he’s a gold mine of anecdotes. Ahead of the event, I had a chat with him about his career and new book Rock Stars Stole My Life!.

“It seemed the perfect way of bookending 50 years of an obsession with music”, he says of his nostalgic memoir. It speaks quite heartily of an ever-changing form that has recently led to the diminishing importance of the writer. In fact, when I first question Ellen about his goal in writing it, he’s quick to throw himself into an exaltation of the bygone eras of his youth: the birth of rock n’ roll and the subsequent boom of the music press that, panting behind, fervently tried to keep up with this rocketing scene. “Nobody knew which direction it was going to go”, he professes, in his distinct booming voice. “I was right in the central, molten core. It was really thrilling”.

His breakthrough as a journalist in the 1970s was due to the painstaking process of sending live review upon live review to the NME reception desk, until they eventually caved in and published him. Does he feel he’s delivered valuable insight into how you’d get into the industry at that point in time, then? Ellen is quick to agree, before nostalgically musing about an early interview he did. “I interviewed Sting at one point and The Police were literally the biggest rock and roll band in the world. And I’m sat there in Sting’s house, having just been given his home address on a piece of paper, and gone around to spend 90 minutes with him. When I was a kid, you had the most amazing access.”

It’s hard to imagine a similar situation in the modern day. In fact, Ellen contrasts this with meeting another successful musician. “I was put into this situation where I was eventually interviewed by Lady Gaga for half an hour in order to see if I was worthy of passing the test whereby I could interview her.”

This changing landscape of music and press is made even more apparent by the rise of social media. Magazines like Smash Hits and the NME used to be the foremost sources of news, offering a sense of community amongst readers. The writers also shaped the artists. “A lot of your understanding of them was inflated by the great mythology of the press”, Ellen pronounces. “Now, everything is available, worldwide, instantly, in a way that’s completely controlled by the artist”. He uses the example of Rihanna and her gratuitous tweeting and self-advertising. “She’s the architect of her own propaganda”, he concludes. It would seem that the power completely lies at the other end of the spectrum now.

The modern day has an undeniable impact on the way we listen to music. There’s an immediacy and speed of listening today, as opposed to when the younger Ellen had to ride miles on the bus to pick up a record and bring it home. Platforms like Youtube are changing this struggle to hold on to something concrete in your hands. There’s a lack of “jewel-like, fabulous recordings and B-sides” being heard because “they’ve been lost down the back of the giant sofa of the iCloud.” “Everything else just disappears, it’s vaporised”, Mark Ellen mourns. So should we at least be trying to listen to albums as a whole? “Yes. You wouldn’t in any way think of spooling a tape forward and just watching your favourite bit of a film. You either watch the film in its entirety, or you don’t watch the film”.

Finally, I ask the man if he can offer any advice to aspiring music journalists. “First thing; write”. He pauses before reaffirming, “You really have to sit down and write”. The next professed tip is to do your research. “The more you know about the author of those songs, the deeper, the more soulful and resonant the music becomes”. Once you have this, you need an angle. “You need an intro and some kind of trajectory to follow. You need to have a new opinion that someone’s never had before”. But by far the most important thing is trying to find your own style, he explains. “Find a real individual voice, the voice that’s you. Don’t impersonate somebody else.”

Rock Stars Stole My Life! is out now.

For more information on Born To Be Wide and their events, check out http://borntobewide.co.uk/.

MUSIC – Interview with Hudson Taylor

[Published in The Student newspaper 21/01/14]

“Guitars, Irish and harmonies”. When asking duo Hudson Taylor to describe themselves in three words, these were the words they felt were the most fitting. Though perhaps restrictive, they do a good job of labelling the pair, also known as brothers Harry and Alfie Hudson-Taylor, within the nu-folk scene, and hinting at the image they have built over the past few years. Elder brother Harry provides the fingerpicking and impressive falsetto in the pair whilst Alfie enhances the sound with his rawer, nasal vocals, none too far from Mumford & co.

2013 has been a big year for Hudson Taylor, supporting established folk-pop acts like Jake Bugg and fellow Irishmen Kodaline, but also earning a support slot for none other than the Rolling Stones.

I had a chat with the two Irish lads about their hopes and aspirations before their gig at Edinburgh’s music haunt Sneaky Pete’s. Due to the venue being relatively small, and there being no adjacent and quiet room, the interview was conducted in the ladies’ toilets. It goes without saying that it was a first for everyone involved.

LC: You’re on tour currently promoting new EP Osea. How would you say it compares to previous EPs Battles and Cinematic Lifestyle?

 Harry: It’s our first EP that we’ve released with a record label. And it’s also the first one that seems to have got a lot of attraction. It got played on BBC radio and stuff.

It’s a different type of approach. We wrote all the songs in one place, on this island called Osea. Battles and Cinematic Lifestyle were kind of written over a space of a few months.

Alfie: And we worked with different people as well.

LC: Was it quite strange making that transition from uploading videos to Youtube to being signed to an important record label?

A: It was strange.

H: We were already fairly well established before, we kind of knew what we wanted. That helps a lot because some people might sign a record deal and they don’t really know or maybe the record label wants to shape them a bit. But we were left to our own devices, which was really cool.

A: We were put out with some people that it didn’t really like work out with though.

H: We’ve got our own instincts. That was pretty good.

LC: Which composition are you most proud of and do you ever go over songs and think you should have changed a lyric or used a better chord?

H: What we tend to do, more so, is leave a song for ages and not finish it.

A: I don’t think there’s anything we would have changed. I mean, my favourite in terms of writing it and everything behind it is probably our song “World Without You”. I’ll go with that.

H: I really like that song. I like “Care” as well.

LC: What’s the song writing process like between you? Alfie, do you write a half-song and then Harry writes the other half?

H: We’ve got many different ways but mainly we sit down in a room, even if it’s a bathroom like this. Bathrooms are good actually because they’ve got good acoustics.

A: And we just jam. Harry will start playing something awesome on the guitar and I’ll play it and then I’ll just start singing some words. I have a little book, so I write it down in it.

H: Sometimes it’s bits of poetry, sometimes it’s just a scrap, like rap or something.

A: Like “Care”, for example. That was all one go. So, we’re sitting down, singing it, going over the chords.

H: We go over the chords like five minutes, listen back to it and then just transcribe that.

A: Sometimes that happens, and you can get very lucky. I have all these recordings we’ve made. We’ll listen back to them and Harry will just be singing the words with the vowel sounds in harmony. That always gives me a boost. Sometimes it happens like that. These are the ones we enjoy the most because they’re so…

H: Spontaneous.

LC: I was at a gig the other day and I noticed that many people were filming with their camera phones. I was wondering what your views were on this and if it annoyed you as musicians?

H: I think everyone is guilty of it. I do it myself. I think the best thing is to go to a gig and if there’s one song that you film, then just film that one song, but don’t do it all. Otherwise you’re basically watching the gig through it.

LC: It sort of hinders your enjoyment, doesn’t it?

H: I think it does.

A: Well, if you’re paying for a ticket… I’m probably guilty of it myself. Yeah, I wouldn’t film the whole gig.

H: Nobody in 1969 at Woodstock had a camera phone. It’s interesting because we play at a gig and then someone, that night, has already uploaded the video online. It’s nice to see, but I don’t know…

LC: Where would you ideally like to be in three years time?

 A: Well, we’d probably have two albums out by then! The first album will hopefully be out by the middle of next year. We’re cracking away at it now, getting the singles in and just recording really.

H: In three years time, I would love to have been to all parts of the world, every continent would be nice. It’s more of an ambition. By the age of 25, if I’d seen every continent in some form because of music, that would be pretty cool. I feel like we’re achieving quite a lot anyway. Music as a career is pretty hard, having to sustain ourselves next to the label and all that.

A: Touring and doing some albums.

H: I still want to be able to go busking as well.

LC: In Dublin?

H: Everywhere.

 

Hudson Taylor’s new EP Osea is out now and available on iTunes.

MUSIC – Joe Bonamassa rocks the Edinburgh Playhouse

[Published in The Student Newspaper 01/10/13]

New Yorker Joe Bonamassa has been exciting audiences for a while, having played small clubs in the Big Apple from the age of 11 and opened for icon BB King a mere 12 months later. More recently, he has fulfilled his childhood dream of playing London’s Royal Albert Hall, a packed event at which legend Eric Clapton joined him onstage. Now, the American guitarist is being hailed as one of the finest Blues guitarists of his generation.

And, undoubtedly, when you are put on a pedestal from such a young age, it is hard to fulfil everyone’s expectations, particularly those of self-proclaimed music connoisseurs, such as Jessica Novak, who accused Bonamassa last year of a lack of “love” in his playing. However, on Tuesday 24^th September, Bonamassa set foot on the Edinburgh Playhouse stage and played a show that, without a shadow of a doubt, would leave Novak and other pompous critics biting their tongues and hanging their heads in shame over words they dared to utter.

By way of introduction, Bonamassa threw himself into instrumental fingerpicking sensation ‘Palm Trees, Helicopters & Gasoline’ whilst sporting his distinctive attire; a sharp black suit, trademark shades and tonight, brave burgundy shoes. The American effortlessly exudes a distinct air of cool onstage, and this isn’t surprising when you take into account his vast experience when it comes to live shows. A particular impressive segment of the show followed when he was joined by drummer Tal Bergman and pianist Derek Sherinian; the three played off each other wonderfully, often coaxing each other into blazing solos and non-verbally challenging each other to one up each another’s performances.

After a few acoustic numbers, the stage was suddenly steeped in darkness before being lit up to show Bonamassa handling his more familiar Stratocaster and delving into the intricate finger work of ‘Dust Bowl’. Initially the band stuck to a wealth of blues material, the Clapton cover ‘Someday After a While’ being a significant highlight, and it became apparent why Bonamassa has been slightly criticised for the repetitiveness of his material. Despite being melodic and the chords being faultlessly executed, there can certainly be an overbearing aspect to playing a lot of blues.

That’s why it was especially refreshing when Bonamassa began to orchestrate for the band to abruptly change tempo and volume, keeping the audience on their toes. In fact, these split-second changes from a Blues song like ‘Song of Yesterday’ to a rendition of The Who’s ‘Won’t Get Fooled Again’ emphasised how much we were witnessing a master excelling at his craft. There was a distinct feel of privilege, like being granted a ticket to an exclusive jamming session, Bonamassa choosing to provide a master class in guitar playing with a distinct ‘watch and learn’ attitude.

Another criticism that has been brought up recently was in regards to Bonamassa’s unconventional voice. It has almost become synonymous nowadays to have a gritty voice accompanying dirty Blues, and a growlier tone for rockier numbers. But his vocal range was pleasantly surprising, as he mixed raw and bluesy, only occasionally faltering when it came to the lower notes.

But, what he does arguably lose in voice, he definitely reclaims with his incredible guitar technique. Shredding, improvising riffs, playing harmonics, there is a catalogue of terms that can only began to describe what the man is more than willing to show off. The fantastic ‘Django’ proved all of this, a blissful experience that reached almost transcendental levels at times.

And, as Novak’s lack of love comment, that is one thing that was hard to associate with the charismatic man onstage. Both his facial expressions and body language denoted a man who is both passionate and humble to be living his childhood dream.

MUSIC – Interview with Matt Corby

[Published in The Student newspaper 20/11/12]

On 17 November I had the opportunity of sitting down with singer-songwriter Matt Corby before his gig at the Electric Circus. Soft-spoken and genuine, he comes across as a musician who is truly impassioned by what he does.

Corby is a 22-year old singer-songwriter hailing from Sydney, Australia. Former contestant on Australian Idol, he is currently signed to Ben Lovett’s (of Mumford & Sons) label Communion which prides itself on being a friendly platform for independent artists.

His latest EP Into the Flames (out this week in the UK) has already gone 4X Platinum in Australia. Mixing indie rock with stunning falsettos, Into the Flames offers a break from its folky predecessors with a venture into blues on song Souls’ A Fire. I asked him if this new musical direction was intentional “I try to make a decision not to do that. I have always wanted to write that type of music. But I try as best as I can not to let it head down that avenue. Too much blues can be a bit overbearing.” The Australian is definitely non-committed when it comes to defining his musical genre “I write whatever I feel. If I want to write a blues song, I write a blues song. For me, it’s finding that cross-genre balance in the songs.”

Trained classically as a child, Corby started touring in a 5-piece vocal group at the age of 13. He tells me that he’s always placed particular importance on his singing voice “I trained and practiced for years and years. It’s always been my number one instrument”. His vocal control is definitely put on show during his live performances where it ranges from low and husky to surprisingly high and powerful, particularly on Brother which Corby agrees has “different elements and dynamic, jumping notes”. In fact, friend and musical act Passenger (who is currently supporting Ed Sheeran on his Autumn tour) asked the singer-songwriter if he would collaborate with him on his track Golden Thread. “He’s a beautiful human being. We recorded that song when I had no money,” confesses Corby, “when I was bumming around Sydney not doing anything and he just got me to do these twirly vocals on it. He even paid me which I thought was the sweetest thing ever.”

I purposefully avoided asking him about his experience on reality TV, but there still seems to be a lingering grudge against the current music business. “People have to like it, market it, and distribute it”, he says, concerning his debut album to be recorded in January. “It’s not really in my hold. Musicians don’t run this industry, funnily enough. I’m just trying to write music that’s timeless, so it doesn’t really matter when it’s released”.

And writing music always seems to follow a certain creative pattern for him, describing how he always hears the melodic structure of the song “then you’re honing it to lyrically what you mean to say. There’s a thousand ways to say one thing. But there’s only one or two great melodies that would fit with the words.”

“I love singers that have a proper message, even if they say the simplest thing ever. Ryan Adams gets away with so much. He has blatant, obvious lyrics, but he’s so incredible. I don’t know how you can get away with saying something that honest.”

What would be his perfect collaboration then, if he could choose any musician in history?

“There’s people I would want to collaborate with just because I would want to see them work and people that I would want to collaborate with because we could do something great. I’d be interested to see what would happen if me and Tom Waits got into a room together. He’s one of the best songwriters ever.”

Certainly Matt Corby is one to watch. After success down under, all signs lead to him becoming a sensation in the UK. Into the Flames is well worth checking out for avid listeners of Ben Howard, Jeff Buckley and Bon Iver.