Interview & Playlist: Indietracks Festival

With festival season fast approaching, we’re getting extremely excited about heading to Derbyshire festival Indietracks for the first time this July. And, with our ongoing disappointment at the lack of diversity on the majority of mainstream festival line-ups this year, it’s particularly refreshing to come across one that consistently champions DIY bands and artists of all genders and genres. 

With the line up looking particularly wonderful this year, we caught up with Nat and Beck from Indietracks to find out more! 

Hi Indietracks! 2018 will be the festival’s 12th year – congrats! Can you tell us a bit about how it all started out?
Nat: The festival was originally the idea of Stuart Mackay, who used to work at the Midland Railway restoring the steam trains there. He had the idea of holding an indiepop one-night gig in April 2007, taking place on the platform at Butterley. The event sold out really quickly and was so successful that the railway then supported him to turn it into a weekend festival, with the first one being held in the summer of that year! When we first started, we didn’t even have an outdoor stage, but since then the festival has grown and evolved into something bigger than we could have ever dreamed of, with four stages, kids activities, workshops, discos and a fantastic food and merch area too. Sadly Stuart had to step down in 2010, and the team has changed a bit since 2007, but we’re still all so excited about running the festival!

What strikes me about Indietracks and makes it stand out against other festivals at the moment is the number of DIY bands and the good gender balance of the line up – was there an intentional and specific decision to do this, or does it just naturally pan out that way?
Beck: We’re aware of the need to get a good gender balance, but I think it’s more of a natural process for us. Female/femme fronted bands are just very visible in our DIY world and there are so many awesome bands that we want to book.

And how do you feel about the general lack of female headliners at a lot of big festivals at the moment?
Beck: I don’t really get it! It was great to see Beyonce, Cardi B and St Vincent given headline/prominent billing at Coachella this year, and I hope other festivals will follow suit. I think this whole issue just shows the difference between DIY and more mainstream music festivals.
Nat: I don’t get it either! In the run-up to Indietracks we’re just focused on creating our own line-up, and I’m really happy that we’re managing to showcase such a good balance of bands. Other festivals like Decolonise, First Timers Fest and Wales Goes Pop also showcase a brilliant range of bands too. Hopefully more mainstream festivals will continue to follow suit!

Over the last 11 years, you’ve hosted some amazing bands and artists including The Go! Team, Slow Club, Camera Obscura, Cate Le Bon and Skinny Girl Diet, but has there been a particular set that stands out for you as a personal highlight over the years?
Beck: Personally, it was seeing Helen Love in 2013. She means an awful lot to me – Love, Glitter, Hot Days and Music was the soundtrack to so many of mine and my sister’s nights out when we were sixteen or so, and ‘Debbie Loves Joey’ has been played at pretty much every clubnight I’ve ever DJ-ed! I never thought I’d get to see her because she didn’t really play live, so that Indietracks show was unbelievably exciting – everybody was singing and dancing along and there were confetti cannons!
Nat: I’ve been to Indietracks since the first one-nighter event in 2007, so I’ve got a lot of memories to look back on! My personal favourites are probably La Casa Azul in 2009, when Elefant sponsored our outdoor stage, and The Go! Team in 2015, which was just amazing. We’d wanted to book them for so long, and they were just brilliant!

And this year you’ve got some GIHE faves playing – Dream Wife, Sacred Paws, Ghum, Dream Nails, Sink Ya Teeth… Curating such awesome line ups must be a lot of work – how do you normally go about it? Is it all based on bands/artists that have got in touch with you over the year?
Beck: We start off with a list of bands we are personally keen to book and we also look at Facebook and the Anorak Forum where people post up their wish-lists. We also get contacted by bands, agents, record labels who know the festival and, finally, we have an applications process where bands submit their music for us to consider. I think we’ve listened to somewhere in the region of 450-500 bands to get to the final line-up this year.

And for any upcoming bands/artists looking to apply for festivals next year, do you have any tips?
Beck: I can only really speak from the perspective of our applications process and aside from the obvious (make sure your contact email address and the link to your music work!), I find it really useful to know about the live shows bands have been playing (who they’ve been playing with, who is putting them on etc) and whether they’ve got any press that we can look at.

How do you feel the music industry is for new bands and artists at the moment – would you say it’s difficult to get noticed?
Beck: I think it’s hard for us to say because we’re focused on a very specific DIY community. We’ve got a few bands on the bill this year who don’t have a big profile in our world, but we just really liked, and we always keep an eye on who is playing events like First Timers Fest, Loud Women, Decolonise and Wales Goes Pop to find interesting new artists. I think festivals like these give new, up-and-coming bands an opportunity to get noticed and play shows in front of good crowds and that’s really positive.

Finally, as we’re a new music focused site, are there any particular new bands or artists you’d recommend we check out?
Beck: Beyond the bands we’ve booked for the festival, I’m really loving Karen Meat’s debut album (You’re An Ugly Person) which has just come out on Emotional Response Records. The lyrics are hilarious, and it’s sort of lo-fi with a liberal sprinkling of jazzy keyboard demos and bass riffs. Honestly, they’re amazing – check them out! Halo Maud is a really interesting new Heavenly Recordings signing.
Nat: I’ve been listening to the Indietracks compilation at the moment – Sink Ya Teeth, Happy Accidents and Melenas are definitely all worth checking out!

Huge thanks to Nat and Beck for answering our questions, we can’t wait for Indietracks festival on 27th – 29th July! Find all ticket and line-up info at their website.

And, in the meantime, have a listen to our playlist of some of our Indietracks faves here:

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Introducing Interview: LIINES

Having supported Desperate Journalist and Nelson Can on tour last year, Manchester trio (and GIHE faves) LIINES have fast been gaining attention from the likes of John Kennedy, The Quietus and BBC Introducing, as well as earning the title of ‘Ones To Watch 2018’ from yours truly.

Now, having cemented our love of them by blowing us away with their riotous, impassioned energy at The Finsbury a couple of months back, the trio are set to release their debut album next month, and have just shared another immense blast of post-punk perfection with new single ‘Cold’.

We caught up with Leila O’Sullivan and Zoe McVeigh from the band to find out more…

Hi LIINES, welcome to Get In Her Ears! Can you tell us a bit about yourselves and what you do?
Zoe: Hello! We are LIINES from Manchester. I’m Zoe and I sing and play guitar, and also in the band are Tamsin who plays bass and Leila who plays drums.

How did you all initially get together and start creating music?
Zoe: LIINES was formed in 2014. We were originally a band called (hooker) and decided to change our name when our sound and style of music was going from something a bit more grungy to a more sparse, post-punk sound. Our original bassist, Steph sadly had to leave last year which was really sad as we’ve played together for so many years. But we invited Tamsin to join – thankfully she said yes – and she’s been a great addition to the band and to our live shows!

Your new album Stop – Start is out next month, can you tell us a bit about it? Are there any themes running throughout it?
Leila: That’s right! It’s our debut album and one we’ve been working on for a few years. We’ve been playing some of the songs since the start of LIINES and it’s taken time to save up and record the album. To finally get it ready for release and see it out there on 4th May will be a very proud moment for us. Finishing the album was also something we were able to do before Steph left, so it’s got a lot of meaning for us and we’re really proud of the final product.
Zoe: In terms of themes, the theme lyrically is about relationships and loss. I find this the easiest thing to talk about as it’s something I feel I can articulate well and sing about passionately as I’ve experienced it – as many of us have. We also chose this particular set of songs to represent us in our first album as they have a strong musical theme running through of being sparse yet still powerful. We always think a lot about creating an atmosphere and how we structure our songs to give an impact. We’re really excited to hear people’s reaction to Stop-Start.

You’ve been compared to the likes of Sleater Kinney and Savages, but who would you say are your main musical influences?
Zoe: These are amazing comparisons – Sleater-Kinney especially. I think other influences are bands like The Pixies, Nirvana and Joy Division – bands who aren’t afraid of creating space in their music and a having vulnerability in the lyrics. I don’t think we can hide from the songs and they’re quite exposing and that’s what I hope creates our intense live shows and how much you feel from us performing them. There’s no acting. It’s all real.

You’ve previously wowed us with the immense seething force of your live show at The Finsbury, but would you say there’s been a particular gig you’ve played that stands out as a highlight for you?
Leila: It’s hard to pinpoint specific gigs as there’s always something memorable from any gig we do. Some of our most special gigs have been festivals in Europe – we’ve played to packed crowds who turn up because they trust the promoters. We’ve played a few packed rooms to people who don’t know who the hell we are but have welcomed us and get into the music from the first notes. One night in particular we played the night of a film festival in Linz to 400 people – not numbers we are used to playing to! – and near the end of a brilliant gigs ever Zoe raised her beer, said “Prost!” and the whole room screamed “Prost!” back – it was electric!
Zoe: We’ve already had some amazing gigs this year – absolutely including our headline gig for Get In Her Ears – but selling out the Manchester date of our tour last month was an amazing feeling and made for a pretty special night.

How is your local music scene? Do you go to see much live music?
Leila: Manchester has an amazing music scene – we are spoilt by some incredible small to massive venues all putting on music most nights of the week. Though it’s also devastating to see some legendary venues lost to developers, which I know is happening all over the place. It’s also the variety of stuff going on that impresses me. We try to go to as many gigs as we can – from new music to coming through to touring bands and I can’t see that changing any time soon!

As we’re a new music focused site, are there any other new upcoming bands/artists who you’d recommend we check out?
Zoe: One of the best things we love about gigging is who we get to play with! In the last 6 month we’ve supported two amazing bands – Nelson Can and Desperate Journalist. We also played with Sink Ya Teeth at Loud Women Fest last year, who were brilliant (and we play with them again next month!). And then I saw Kin play recently and she blew me away. Specific songs I’d recommend are: Nelson Can – Break Down Your Walls , Kin – Killed Off My Unicorn So I Can Pay Off The Loan , Desperate Journalist – Hollow , Sink Ya Teeth – If You See Me

And how do you feel the industry is for new bands at the moment – would you say it’s difficult to get noticed?
Leila: There are so many bands, and new ones I hear about every single day, it blows your mind and makes you wonder how any band can make it today. We were playing as LIINES for a while and struggling to get any attention or make any impact, even though we were playing some pretty decent gigs. So, we took a step back and made some plans about how we were going to approach the following 12-18 months and that was when we started to get noticed by a few blogs, websites and even radio. It wasn’t anything too difficult, but it was the basis for the last few years and it’s really put us in a good place as we release our album. So, definitely, it’s crowded and sometimes feels like it’s hard to get noticed, but get your music out there and do it in a way that makes it hard not to be noticed. I think it’s hard being ignored, and we’ve been disappointed when we’ve not heard back from some places or DJs, but you need to carry on – writing, gigging and releasing – and enjoy making music!

Finally, what does the rest of 2018 have in store for LIINES?
Leila: We have some pretty special gigs coming up in the next few weeks – we’re playing The Membranes all-dayer at The Ritz in Manchester, alongside Sink Ya Teeth which will be the biggest venue we’ve played in! Then we have some festival appearances and more gigs to be announced to promote our album. We’re hoping to make it back to Europe for a tour in autumn too, as we’ve done quite a few gigs over there and have been waiting until our album was out to go back. We’ve already started to write and play some new songs, and we’re going to keep on at that for the rest of the year as we don’t want to wait another few years before our next album!

Thanks so much for answering our questions!
Leila: Thanks so much for having us and to Mari and all the GIHE team for supporting LIINES over the last few years and for all you do to champion women in music!

Stop – Start, the debut album from LIINES, is out 4th May via Reckless Yes Records. Catch LIINES live at the following dates:

5th May – The Ritz, Manchester (The Membranes & Friends festival)
25th May – Dot to Dot Festival, Manchester
18th August – Some Weird Sin Festival, London
14th September – Head for the Hills Festival, Ramsbottom
+ more TBA

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Interview: Sink Ya Teeth

Having blown us away with their completely captivating live performance at The Finsbury, Norwich duo Sink Ya Teeth are fast becoming one of our favourite bands. With the addictive, pulsating beats and ‘80s-inspired dance-pop hooks of previous singles ‘If You See Me’ and ‘Glass’, they’ve received acclaim from the likes of BBC 6 Music, Pitchfork and The Guardian, and now they’ve shared a new video for latest funk-fused track ‘Pushin’.

Of the video, Maria Uzor explains: “Pushin’s about kinda losing yourself in something; that feeling of euphoria without questioning fully if it’s actually doing you any good… We wanted to explore that idea of an almost child-like devotion in the video.”

We caught up with Maria and Gemma from Sink Ya Teeth to find out all about the upcoming release of their debut album, their biggest influences, and the importance of playing your best at every gig…

Hi Sink Ya Teeth, welcome to Get In Her Ears! Can you tell us a bit about the band?
We’re a two-piece from Norwich, and we make music you can dance to.

How did you initially get together and start creating music?
We were in another band together and that fell apart when the bassist decided to go travelling. The drummer was pretty busy too with loads of other projects, so Gemma and I decided to get something together with just the two us. We basically formed the band to make band practices less complicated to organise!

We’re loving your new single ‘Pushin’ – can you tell us a bit about it?
Sure! It’s off our debut album, which is coming out June 1st. Gem emailed me this tune she was working on last Summer and I really liked it for its sparseness and how it lifted at the end. I had some lyrics knocking around which seemed to fit perfectly; and ‘Pushin’ was born! It explores blind faith and how we can sometimes surrender to things, for good or for bad.

And we’ve heard talks about a debut album coming out soon… are you able to reveal any details about that?
Yes! We’re so excited! We wrote and recorded the majority of it last summer. We got some funding from Arts Council England to develop our recording and production skills, so we were able to focus on writing and recording. It’s a 10 song self-titled, self-produced, self recorded, self designed (Maria designed the artwork), basically self everything album, which will be available on CD and Vinyl and will be released on June 1st through Hey Buffalo Records!

You’ve been compared to the likes of LCD Soundsystem and ESG, but who would you say are your main musical influences?
Maria – I’m influenced by a lot of music and often for different reasons. And my influences can change from week to week. Like if I’m listening to Zimbabwean music, that’s likely to influence the way I layer rhythms or write a bassline. If I’m listening to The Smiths, I might find myself approaching the lyrics in a certain manner. A week of Zapp & Roger and it’s all about the 4/4 chunk and the slickness. There are those artists whom I admire to such a degree that to glean any inspiration from them would produce only a pale imitation and that would just be so awful. I am inspired by their personal truth though, so I guess that’s an influence of sorts; people like Bowie, Grace Jones, Patti Smith, Siouxsie Sioux.
Gemma – It’s hard to pinpoint influences sometimes as often there will be something that comes out in the music that sounds like a song you listened to years ago but were unaware that it was influencing you at the time of writing! ESG has been a long time fave of mine – the bass, the drums, the vibes. But more often than not these days, it’s artists with an electronic element. Currently I’m re-discovering New Order and learning about the bands that influenced them at the time too, like Africa Bambaataa. There’s sooo much more I’ve not discovered yet, so much good stuff outthere, old and new *rubs hands together*.

You’ve previously supported Chk Chk Chk and Mary Epworth on tour, but has there been a particular live show of yours that stands out as a career highlight so far?
Maria – Opening for Chk Chk Chk was such a blast! And we got to play venues like The Electric Ballroom too, which was amazing. Another moment that stood out for me was in February when we opened for Moon Duo at XOYO. When we were forming Sink Ya Teeth, Moon Duo were one of the bands we talked about being inspired by, so to then support them two years later was a beautiful and surreal moment.
Gemma – There’s been loads, and all for different reasons, but I think I’m gonna go with supporting Chk Chk Chk at Leeds Brudenell Social Club. The whole night had such a great vibe, I really liked the venue, the audience were so friendly, and its always a pleasure to watch Chk Chk Chk, so that gig had it all really! Another one I loved was playing with Eton Crop in one of Norwich’s undercrofts last year. It was one of those small, intimate, punk gigs. Brilliant.

And how is your local music scene – do you get out to see live music much?
Maria – God, haven’t been to a gig in months! Too bloody busy! We need a manager!
Gemma – What Maria says! But there are several good venues in Norwich, and a thriving music scene, both for local bands and visiting bands. Norwich Arts Centre is a good place to check out local bands supporting larger national bands. And the Owl Sanctuary. There are also several promoters that help with local acts, so there are plenty of
opportunities to play when you’re just starting out.

As we’re a new music focused site, are there any new/upcoming bands or artists you’d recommend we check out?
Maria – Birds of Hell is a great Norwich-based artist. He’s got a bit of the Sleaford Mods about him. Loves a good rant but theres a real tenderness there too. I really like what Goat Girl are doing too. Looking forward to their album in April.
Gemma – I can recommend some Norwich bands to check out – GRACELAND (dreamy vocals, post-punk basslines), Birds of Hell (what Maria said), Mega Emotion (synth-guitar pop), Ben C Winn (for fans of Ian Dury), Broads (electronic duo), Peach Club (riot grrrl)…

And how do you feel the music industry is for new bands at the moment – would you say it’s difficult to get noticed?
I’d like to think that if your music is good enough then you will get noticed, but you’ve got to work really really hard with it too. For no money, in all of your spare time. And that’s still no guarantee you’ll get noticed. That’s never been any different though. It’s definitely more difficult to get noticed when you don’t have a label or a team around you. It’s that chicken and egg situation. We got noticed at a gig in Norwich. Someone in the audience (now a good friend!) saw us, loved us, tweeted about us, and he happened to have friends in the industry who checked us out cos of it. So kids, you should always play your best at every gig because you just never know who is watching!

Finally, what does the rest of 2018 have in store for Sink Ya Teeth?
We have some UK wide spring dates in Bristol, Brighton, London and Birmingham (supporting A Certain Ratio. Legends!), A Manchester all dayer at the O2 Ritz in May with The Membranes, Lovely Eggs and LIINES, album launches in Norwich and London, IndieTracks festival. And the album release, of course, on 1st June! Hopefully we’ll get to write some more songs over the summer in-between rehearsing for a tour in October that we’re currently planning.

Sink Ya Teeth, the eponymous debut album, is out 1st June. Catch Sink Ya Teeth live:

24th March – Fiddlers Club, Bristol
25th March – The Haunt, Brighton
21st April – The Garage, London
5th May – O2 Ritz, Manchester
31st May – Norwich Arts Centre, Norwich
7th June – The Social, London
30th June – Hare & Hounds, Birmingham
29th July – Indietracks Festival, Derby

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WATCH: Table Scraps – ‘I’m A Failure’

With acclaim from the likes of Steve Lamacq, Lauren Laverne and IDLES’ Joe Talbot, Birmingham’s Table Scraps featured as one of our ‘Ones To Watch’ in 2018, and they’re certainly proving themselves worthy of the title. Following the dark and gritty garage-punk of tracks such as ‘My Obsession and ‘Sick Of Me’, and the recent release of their debut album, the trio are back with a riotous new single.

Fuelled by the band’s trademark ferocious force and an infectious scuzzy energy, ‘I’m A Failure’ blasts out whirring riffs alongside the raw, impassioned vocals of Poppy Twist. Accompanied by a brand new tongue-in-cheek video, it’s another perfect slice of raging, empowered grunge-fuelled rock from our favourite Brummies.

Of the inspiration behind the new visuals, TJ from the band explains:

“Making videos without any budget is more fun. We took some cheap wood and socks and made this Beavis and Butt-Head inspired love letter to the golden era of MTV – excess, big budgets, channel hopping and boredom. Sock puppets and explosions were always meant to be together!”

Watch the new video for ‘I’m A Failure’ here:

Autonomy, the new album from Table Scraps, is out now. You can catch the band live:

10th March – Sticky Mike’s Frog Bar, Brighton
28th April – Wrong Festival, Liverpool

Mari Lane
@marimindles

Photo Credit: Meg Lavender

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