Tag: On The Run

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Rising London-based Act Tempesst Releases a Brit Pop Take on Psych Rock

Growing up in a musical family, Noosa, Australia-born, London-based twin siblings Toma and Andy Benjamin joined the church band when they were 14. Coincidentally, the church band was where the Banjamins met their future Tempesst bandmates Kane Reynolds and Blake Mispeka. 

The Banjamin Brothers eventually left home and discovered a whole new world of music, ideas and ways of living that weren’t part of their previous purview: after a short stint in the UK, the Banjamins wound up in Williamsburg, where they soaked up the DIY ethos of the  late 2000s Williamsburg scene, while developing their own ideas and starting home recording projects inspired by Joni Mitchell, Al Green, Wings, Electric Light Orchestra and others. 

After a year in Brooklyn, an expiring visa forced the Banjamins to relocate to Hackney, where they hunkered down and got serious about writing and recording material. They recruited Swiss-American Eric Weber (guitar) and reconnected with their fellow Aussies Reynolds and Mispeka. And at that point, the rising London-based indie act Tempesst started. 

Unsurprisingly, the need to practice, write and record in a city like London helped facilitate the creation of their own studio. “We started out with a basic production studio that Tom kept at his house but one of the biggest challenges in London is that you can’t make noise,” the band’s Andy Banjamin recalls. “So we began looking for a rehearsal space and came across this warehouse, which was way bigger than anything we were looking for but got us wondering about what it would actually take to set up a proper studio.” 

Naming the space Pony Studios, the band started to convert the warehouse into multiple studio rooms and practice spaces. Simultaneously, the band started Pony Recordings, which helped changed the way the band had approached their work.  “These days artists are expected to do so much themselves and we have always been slight control freaks anyway,” Andy Banjamin says in press notes. “DIY is part of everything that we do, so that extends to our label, the studio, the videos, all of it and really it’s just how the indie music scene has evolved.” Toma Banjamin adds ““With the studio, we have time to work on all the key things that have become quintessential to our sound but also experiment and add an element of surprise, whether that is a weird synth solo or a key change. It’s those little departures that keep the listener on their toes.”

After releasing a handful of critically applauded, buzz worthy singles and EPs, the Aussie-born, British-based members of Tempesst will be releasing their highly anticipated full-length debut, the Eliot Heinrich co-produced Must Be a Dream. Slated for a September 30, 2020 release through the band’s own Pony Recordings, Tempesst’s full-length debut reportedly finds the band boldly taking a step forward with their songwriting and their sound. Generally leaning towards folk-tinged psychedelia, the album’s material nods at Spiritualized, The Flaming Lips, and The Beach Boys — but with a modern melodic sensibility. 

Sonically, the material is deceptive: complex musical ideas are centered around seemingly simple melodies.  Seemingly sun-kissed, the album thematically explores themes of longing, love, loss, substance abuse, the death of loved ones — and yet remembering the beauty just underneath all of it. “This record is the first time that I feel like I’ve had the uninterrupted ability to create and have full control at our own pace,” Toma Banjamin says in press notes. “With this LP, we’ve created something we’re really proud of that truly cements our identity as a group. The joy of taking these songs live is something that we’re really excited about.”

Must Be A Dream’s first single “On The Run” is a decidedly Brit Pop-take on 60s and 70s psych rock centered around shimmering and reverb drenched guitars, layered vocal harmonies, an enormous hook and Toma Benjamin’s serpentine-like vocals. And while superficially being a sun-kissed, summery anthem, the song is actually much darker, as the song thematically focuses on substance abuse, death and the loss of innocence — that feels haunted by the weight of heartache. “it’s about a close friend who disappeared for a decade and returned as someone completely different, and it’s an ongoing trauma,” Toma Banjamin explains. “When I connected the music to the lyrics to try and finish the song, it felt like it had a rolling rhythm, so the chorus fell into place from there. For me, this song carries a lot more emotional weight.”

Directed by Andrea Banjanin, the recently released video is centered around cinematically shot footage of the band performing the song in a studio space with symbolic imagery placed in quick cuts — and that imagery focuses on the songs overall themes of mortality, loss of innocence and the complications of adult life. 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Emerging Welsh Act Private World Releases a Lush and Brooding Single

With the release of a batch of singles including “Chasm” and “Crisis Era” and the Passage EP,  the Cardiff, Wales, UK-based indie pop act Private World, comprised of Tom Sanders and Harry Jowett received attention for a lush and sophisticated take on synth pop.

Building upon a rapidly growing profile, the Welsh pop act signed to Dais Records earlier this year — and since joining the American-based label, the duo went into the studio to work on their full-length debut, which is slated for release sometime next year. In the meantime, the duo’s latest single, the lush “On The Run” is a carefully crafted song, centered around shimmering and arpeggiated keys and synths, slashing guitars, a sinuous bass line and a soaring hook. And while bearing a bit of a resemblance to Danish JOVM mainstays Palace Winter, the song is actually a bit pessimistic, as it thematically focuses on its protagonist realizing that they’ve wasted valuable time in pursuit of hopeless — and perhaps naive — ideals. 

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Introducing the Spaghetti Western-tinged Sounds and Visuals of Bermuda Angels

Comprised of Ben “Bermuda’ Jones, who splits his time between Nashville, TN and 29 Palms, CA; and Sophie Kadow, who splits her time between 29 Palms, CA and New York, NY, the electro pop duo Bermuda Angels fell in love and wrote an album together, while living in a secret room in the East Nashville, TN-based music venue The East Room. Besides writing, recording and playing music, the duo are involved in a number of creative pursuits — Kadow is a painter, while Jones owns The East Room and focuses on a number of writing pursuits. 

The duo’s self-titled album is slated for release on September 29, 2017 and the writing and creative process managed to be both fruitful and chaotic — creating while being romantic partners, moving across five different states (CA, NY, TN, WV and ME), recording in multiple makeshift studios including a taxidermy/oddities shop, two basements, a garage, a chain and two houses. And according to the duo’s Bermuda Jones, “the album was partly inspired by our surroundings and landscapes. We explored the extremes of the weather spectrum in the US and spent a winter in Maine on Mount Desert Island surrounded by snow and windstorms, and freezing cold, working on our sound. A few months later, we spent our summer in an adobe in the desert in Joshua Tree, CA in incredible heat, working on our sound some more.  You could literally fry an egg on a rock outside.

“We were also inspired by the excitement and turmoil of forming our relationship and planning our future together.  This seeped into the songs and overflowed throughout the album.  Developing our trust was important throughout the process and it comes in many forms.  Do I trust the other to follow through, to be honest to themselves and to me, to be faithful, to try his or her hardest, to create good music, to be understanding, to improve, to give support, and most importantly, to keep coming back. “

“On The Run,” their self-titled debut album’s latest single will further cement the duo’s growing reputation for crafting Spaghetti Western-tinged electro pop reminiscent of Betty Black and Daughn Gibson with a sultry yet cinematic vibe; but the song is under-pinned with a swooning romanticism, as the song (and video) as the duo’s Sophie Kadow explains is about being in love with Bermuda Jones” — and  in particular about being in love for the first time and allowing yourself to be both intimidated by love and vulnerable.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Single: Joseph Giant’s New Single “On The Run” Channels, Classic Rock Sound of the 70s

Formed by its creative mastermind, Joe Syverson back in 2010, the Seattle, WA-based quartet Joseph Giant quickly found themselves with a growing local and national profile as they’ve toured with and opened for a list […]

Uncategorized by William Ruben Helms

Axxa/Abraxas is the music and art project of 23 year-old Atlanta, GA-based Ben Ashbury, who derived the project’s name from two principles that he associated together – one that’s deeply personal, the other spiritually dichotomous. […]

Uncategorized by William Ruben Helms

A Million Billion Dying Suns formed earlier this year; however, frontman Nate Mercereau (guitarist and vocalist) and the rest of the band Steve Wyreman (guitar), Josh Lippi (bass), Derek Taylor (drums), and Ben Schiwer (keys) have been […]

Uncategorized by William Ruben Helms

One of Detroit’s renowned emcees Guilty Simpson and Philadelphia-based producer Small Professor are collaborating on a new album, Highway Robbery which Coalmine Records will be releasing on September 24th. The first single off the new effort, “On […]