LISTEN: Hvmmingbyrd – ‘Papillon’

Having charmed our ears with previous single ‘Gozo’, Irish duo Hvmmingbyrd are back with an exquisite new offering.

Exploring the ebb and flow from creative euphoria to self-doubt, ‘Papillon’ is a soaring slice of ethereal electro-pop. A poignant and reflective creation, it’s hard not to fall in love with ‘Papillon’s sweeping, luscious harmonies, captivating musicality and dreamy allure. Of the track, the band explain:

“Creating music can be incredibly joyous and life-giving, but when it consumes you, sometimes you can lose a little bit of yourself.”

Listen to ‘Papillon’ here:

 

‘Papillon’ is out now.

 

Mari Lane
@marimindles

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Introducing Interview: Post Louis

Back in full force after retreating to a remote cottage in Wales, Post Louis have returned with their new single ‘Little Jack’.  Truly unique in what it delivers, it got our attention straight away delivering much more experimental and lyrically darker music than any of their previous offerings. Not being able to get the new single from the angular art-rock quintet out of our ears, we jumped at the chance to have a chat with them.

We caught up with vocalist Stephanie Davin to find out more about their new collection of songs, raising money for Women for Refugee Women and what to expect from their upcoming show at Paper Dress Vintage…

Welcome to Get In Her Ears! Can you tell us a bit about Post Louis and how it all started?
Robbie and I started making music at university. We tried all sorts of formats… From acoustic performances as a pair with a guitar, to working with a string quartet and full band. We even played quite an ambitious show at a student party at 3am with just the two of us on stage making lots of noise with loopers, guitar pedals, synths… We should have known better. Finally, we moved back to London where we’d both grown up, started playing music with friends and began forming the band into something approximating its current state.

Post Louis has just resurfaced with a collection of new songs, can you tell us a bit more about the process of creating these new songs? A mix of retreating to a remote cottage in Wales during the winter, then experimenting further in a Norwegian Church in South London?
Exactly. When Post Louis started it was more of a bedroom project, with Robbie and me writing, recording, experimenting and producing it all at home in quite an isolated way. By the time we wrote this current batch of songs, Post Louis had expanded and had been playing for quite a while as a solid group of five. The songs are designed to expose the playing styles and personalities of each band member, and this came out more and more as we developed them. After the time at the church, we recorded drums and bass live in two intense two-day batches at 123 studios with Brett Shaw, who we’ve worked with before. Then we added all the other parts at the church and in a home studio. At different points in the process we pulled in several mates and other jazz and classical musicians we know. There are lots of incredibly talented friends sprinkled throughout the new songs. And then the final stage was many, many hours of production and mixing. Robbie leads on the instrumentals, I lead on the vocals and then we glue it all together.

Did you intentionally choose to rehearse in a church and what impact do you think that has on the music?
I’d love to say it was intentional and made it somehow more spiritual or substantial. The truth is that we did it out of necessity. Our drummer lives and works at the church and it meant we could use the space for free, something for which we were amazingly grateful. If anything it probably made our sounds a bit drier. The church is incredibly echoey so we had to be careful with delays and reverbs.

We’re loving the new single ‘Little Jack’ at Get In Her Ears HQ, which we’ve played on the radio show. It seems like an incredibly apt and on point song to be releasing now, can you tell us a bit more about the song and what it’s exploring? 
Thank you for playing it! Essentially, ‘Little Jack’ is a character study of someone who lives mainly in their own head. It’s about the pains of loneliness and low confidence, and what happens when these mix with naïve sexual desire. I wanted to hint at the potential for harm or even domination. I have said elsewhere that Little Jack isn’t a monster, but the song is in part about how monsters – or wolves – are made. I believe we need to rethink how we make, force and mould some children into being ‘men’. As you indicate, discussions on these kinds of topics are growing in force in some spaces at the moment. I find it exciting and moving, but am also filled with some trepidation. Feminism gaining prominence often provokes a nasty backlash which I think we need to be ready for. At almost the opposite end of the scale, but also worrying, is co-option.

 

You’ve just played your first of two London shows at Stour Space, how was that?
It was wonderful. I live in Hackney Wick and have spent quite a bit of time at Stour Space. It’s an area that is changing quickly. The people at Stour have run a sort of locals night on Tuesdays for a while. They have pay-what-you-feel dinner and donate the proceeds. We asked for it to go to Women for Refugee Women to mark both International Women’s Day and the hunger strike that had just started at Yarl’s Wood. It felt good to be relaunching the band with a small event in our neighbourhood. A whole bunch of our friends came down to Stour Space and we had a great evening.

Your next gig is at Paper Dress Vintage on 27th April, what can people expect from your live shows?
I’m really proud of our live show. The musicianship is tight and I think you can tell we love doing it. I trust the four of them, which means I feel I can let go on stage. The live show is quite intense as a result. I don’t really do irony or distance (in music or otherwise); it’s full-on communication for 60 minutes or thereabouts.

What’s the rest of 2018 got in store for Post Louis?
Releasing good music, playing good shows and juggling the rest of our lives in the process.

Finally as we’re a new music focused site, are there any other new/upcoming bands or artists you’d suggest we check out?
Our drummer Mattis is part of a project called amini and our guitarist Andy has his own band called milkd – you should check these out. A friend of ours has also just started releasing music as Lokki, we played with him at the Stour Space show – you should also have a listen to his new single.

Huge thanks to Post Louis for answering our questions! 

Catch Post Louis live at Paper Dress Vintage (for Parallel Lines) on 27th April.

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LISTEN: HAWK – ‘Keeps Me Out’

Having won our hearts over the last couple of years with the politically charged grace of tracks such as ‘Can’t Explain’, ‘Below’ and ‘Sin’, GIHE faves HAWK return to charm our ears with a brand new single.

Oozing the twinkling majesty and subtle power of frontwoman Julie’s celestial vocals, ‘Keeps Me Out’ is filled with whirring hooks and exquisite harmonies, with a shoegaze-inspired haze reminiscent of the likes of Joy Formidable or Cocteau Twins. Exuding a swirling sense of euphoria, it’s another completely spellbinding offering from the band.

Listen to ‘Keeps Me Out’ now:

 

As well as loving her music, we’re also huge fans of Julie Hawk’s wonderful ‘Female Fronted Drawn Together’ project – a project through which she has created a playlist of admirable female bands/musicians and created an illustration to accompany each song.

Catch HAWK live at the following dates:

28th March – Whelan’s – Dublin, Ireland
5th May – Birdies Bar – The Local – Liverpool Sound City

Mari Lane
@marimindles

 

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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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