Video Premiere: Hero Fisher – ‘I Let Love’

Born in Britain and raised in France, London-based artist Hero Fisher is indeed heroic in more ways than one; having previously collaborated with Alison Mosshart and Boy George, opened for The Rolling Stones and Neil Young at Hyde Park, been shortlisted for the 2014 Glastonbury Emerging Talent Prize, and received acclaim from the likes of Blur’s Dave Rowntree, it seems there is no limit to what she is capable of achieving. Following her debut album back in 2015, she is now set to release her sophomore album Glue Moon. 

Taken from the album is new single ‘I Let Love’. An impassioned slice or raw alt-rock, it’s filled with Fisher’s soulful vocals alongside twinkling melodies and an alluring gritty edge. Oozing a subtle power and a sweeping emotive splendour in the vein of the likes of Alison Mosshart or Beth Orton, it showcases all that there is to love about this promising artist, and is proof of why Fisher should be everyone’s new musical hero.

Watch the quirky new video for ‘I Let Love’ here, for the the first time:

Mari Lane
@marimindles

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WATCH: Gaptooth (feat. Sisters Uncut) – ‘They Cut We Bleed’

Following last year’s Pillow Fort EP and an Everett True endorsed debut back in 2013, East London artist Gaptooth (aka Hannah Lucy) is now back with the second single to be taken from her upcoming second album.

A tribute to Feminist direct action group Sisters Uncut – a charity who protest the life-threatening cuts to services for domestic violence – ‘They Cut We Bleed’ rages against the government with a frenzied, impassioned energy and empowering force. With shades of the likes of Le Tigre or MEN, it oozes whirring beats, glitchy electronic melodies and colourful uplifting vibes; the perfect call to arms that we need now more than ever. As Gaptooth says: “All these sexist, racist cuts, we don’t need ’em”. Enough said.

Of the track, Hannah explains:

“In the UK, two women a week are killed by a partner or ex-partner, but the government is cutting funding for refuges, legal aid, social housing – all services that survivors rely on… Across the country, the first services to shut down have been those set up for women of colour and LGTBQ+ survivors, while many migrant survivors are denied the right to access refuges at all. This is a matter of life or death. Theresa May has made a show of being tough on domestic violence, but is taking away lifelines for people trying to escape it.”

Filled with powerful footage of Sisters Uncut in action at protests, the new video for ‘They Cut We Bleed’ premiered on Loud Women and is now available to watch here:

Buy ‘They Cut We Bleed’ from Gaptooth’s Bandcamp page now, and all proceeds will go to Sisters Uncut.

 

Mari Lane
@marimindles

 

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Introducing Interview: Melissa Bel

With four recorded albums and numerous performances around the globe – including a BBC Introducing session – already under her belt, Toronto-born artist Melissa Bel has now shared her utterly infectious and gloriously uplifting new single, ‘Big Boys Don’t Cry’.

We caught up with Melissa to find out more…

Hi Melissa Bel, welcome to Get In Her Ears! Can you tell us a bit about yourself?
Hello! I’m a singer/songwriter originally from Toronto, but have been living in Devon since February 2016. I’ve been pursuing a music career for about ten years now and have released four albums over that time. My latest record, In the Light, was released in Nov. 2016.

How did you start creating music?
I started singing almost as soon as I could talk, and then I wrote my first song (which was actually more of a rap called ‘Believe In Yourself’…) when I was eight after seeing a TV show about songwriting. I basically wrote a bunch of words on pieces of paper, put them on the floor and rearranged them until I was happy with my lyrics. I started learning guitar when I was fourteen because I wanted to write more songs and be able to play along. My Dad is a bass player so I’d asked him to teach me the bass, but he suggested I learn guitar so that I could better accompany myself.

Your new video for ‘Big Boys Don’t Cry’ is out now – can you tell us what it’s all about?
‘Big Boys Don’t Cry’ is a break-up song with a sense of humour. It’s about the kind of break-up that sucks at the time, but you know is for the best. I wanted the video to have a light-hearted, upbeat vibe like the song, which is why we gave the ex-boyfriend character a very small role and focused on themes of positivity and self-confidence. We filmed it on a teeny tiny budget right in Exeter, and almost everyone you see in the video is one of my friends and/or bandmates!

You’ve been compared to the likes of Meghan Trainor and Taylor Swift, but who would you say are your main musical influences?
My influences range from The Beatles to John Mayer, to Joss Stone to Patsy Cline, and I think that’s why my music has never been one specific genre that’s easy to classify. I love pop and soul, which is the main direction we had in mind when making In the Light, but you still get bits of blues, like in the song ‘Sobered Up’, and a real singer/songwriter vibe in the the title track.

How is your local music scene? Do you go to see lots of live music?
Exeter is relatively small but has lots of gigs to offer, and like most music scenes it’s very close-knit and most of the musicians know each other. There really is a ton of talent here and I love the fact that I’ve met so many people who are making amazing, original music. It’s been very welcoming to me coming in as an outsider, and a great place to get my start in the UK. I probably don’t go see as much live music as I should (despite being a musician, I’m not much of a night owl), but I go to my friends’ gigs whenever I can.

And what can fans expect from your live shows?
I usually perform solo, so depending on the gig you’ll get just me and my guitar playing acoustic versions of my originals, covers, or a mix of both. Solo gigs are where my singer/songwriter side really comes out. I love shows where I get to tell the audience the stories behind the songs because I feel like sometimes you can connect as well in those moments as you can while singing. When I’m lucky, I get to play with a full band, which means a more upbeat show in general, and we can play the songs like they sound on the album.

As we’re a new music focused site, are there any new/upcoming bands or artists you’d recommend we check out?
Yes! Check out Brooke Palsson and Mike Todd – both Toronto-based – and Clara Bond who is also based here in Devon. All incredible singer/songwriters.

And how do you feel the music industry is for new artists at the moment – would you say it’s difficult to get noticed?
In my experience it has definitely been difficult to get noticed on a large scale. I think independent artists have a lot of useful resources at their disposal these days, but social media is a bit of a double-edged sword. It’s great because there is the potential to be seen and heard by tons of people, but there’s also so much content out there that’s it’s really hard to cut through the noise.

Finally, what does the rest of 2017 have in store for Melissa Bel?
The rest of the year will be spent playing live as well as getting the ball rolling for a small UK tour in early 2018. And I’m going back to Toronto for two sweet weeks off over Christmas! But I’ll be back in England for New Years Eve to perform at Lime Wood Hotel in Lyndhurst.

Huge thanks to Melissa for answering our questions! 

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Interview: PINS

Manchester five-piece PINS have been on my radar since 2015 when I caught them at Brighton’s Great Escape Festival. I remember being dazzled by their devious basslines, cool lyrics, and the way they easily commanded the attention of the crowd. Two years later, they’re still pros at all three; and their headline show at The Garage looked and sounded every inch as good as I remembered them to be.

I had a quick chat with Faith, Lois, Kyoko, Sophie & Anna backstage before their show, where we discussed touring with The Breeders, the anti-austerity march they recently participated in, and whether or not it’s acceptable to interrupt Queens of the Stone Ages’s Josh Homme when he’s backstage at a buffet…

 

Hello PINS! You’ve gone straight in to a UK headline tour off the back of supporting The Breeders on their European tour. That must’ve been something special? Was it as cool as it sounds?

Lois: It was as cool as it sounds. They’re a band I’ve listened to for years and years, so I feel like I’m still processing it. We played a few dates in Europe and the UK, so it’s like we’ve been on a holiday with The Breeders.

Sophie: It’s one of the nicest tours we’ve ever been on. Everything was really easy and the band and the crew were really nice.

Before that, you spent the summer touring and you also played the main stage at Reading on the Sunday. What was that like?

Anna: We played Reading & Leeds and it was really sunny and it was so much fun.

Kyoko: We made sure we stayed for the whole festival too, mainly because we really wanted to see Liam Gallagher…

Who else did you manage to catch?

Sophie: Giggs. He had a massive rottweiller back stage and a massive entourage too. I was expecting loads of people to be on stage with him, but it was just him and a DJ (laughs)

Lois: I saw a really good Australian band…

Tired Lion?

Lois: Yes!

I caught them too. They were great.

Faith: We missed Queens of the Stone Age because they performed a secret set. Our husbands and boyfriends went to see them, and missed some of our set because they were on.

Lois: We did see them backstage though.

Kyoko: Only from a distance. Josh Homme was at the buffet, so we just saw his back, and his general size. He is enormous.

Lois: We were like, “can we interrupt him? No, he’s getting his food…”

Another time maybe?

Last time we spoke you were headlining London’s Moth Club. During the show, you called the girls in the crowd to the front for ‘Girls Like Us’ for a stage invasion. Have you been to gigs as fans and taken part in something similar?

Lois: I have done at some point. Actually, I did about a thousand stage dives when I went to see The Oh Sees at SXSW.

Faith: I haven’t done it since I was a teenager. When I was about 17 I went to see The Melvins and everyone got on stage then.

Kyoko: I’ve crowd-surfed with the attempt to get on stages, but never actually got on them. I always get dragged away.

Sounds like you have good intentions, but security always thwarts them. It is hard to get on stage nowadays actually.

Other bands like Dream Wife and Dream Nails tend to call female fans to the front as a show of solidarity in the face of sexual assault at gigs. I was wondering if this was one of the reasons why you also encourage girls to come forward?

Kyoko: Although sexual assault at gigs is a really important issue, I don’t think that was our main reason. It’s kind of just to highlight the fact that as a fan “you’re here, make yourself known and enjoy yourself!”

Lois: Kind of a safe space.

Kyoko: Exactly.

Faith: For me, I find that there’s always a line of photographers at the front and behind them are a line of men who really stand their ground and prevent other people from coming to the front. Not just girls, everyone who wants to dance and have a good time. I don’t know why they put up such a weird barrier, but it seems to happen at every show I go to and at every show I play. So it’s just a way of breaking that down and asking them to make room for other people to come to the front and have a good time.

Sophie: It does affect the room too. Those two lines of people are standing and watching, and they might be having a great time, but you can’t tell. The minute that it breaks up the whole atmosphere changes.

Faith: Do you know what, sometimes it doesn’t actually create a safe space because when it kicks off and people start pushing each other, you feel responsible for people who fall down.

Sophie: We played a show in Brighton that was really rammed and some people were getting crushed against the barrier, and Faith was like “are you alright? Do you need to come over the barrier?” and they were like “no, we’re good!”

Your fans are such troopers. You’ve had some great female talent supporting you on previous tours and on this tour, including Sink Ya Teeth, Yassassin & Madonnatron. What is it that you like about these bands? 

Lois: The music… (laughs)

I guess that was an obvious answer to an obvious question.

Faith: With Madonnatron I literally just heard their song on the radio on 6 Music. I wasn’t sure what stage they were at as a band or where they were playing, so I thought what’s the harm in asking them to play with us?  Kyoko and I met Maria from Sink Ya Teeth last time we played in Norwich, and I think they put themselves forward to play with us on this tour, because we didn’t know they were playing. There have been a few bands who have opened for us who we didn’t know were on the line up, otherwise we would’ve put them on our posters! I take no responsibility for that though…

You’re in the clear.

Your video for latest single ‘Serve The Rich’ was filmed at the anti-conservative March in Manchester at the beginning of October. What kind of reaction did you receive from fellow activists as you were shooting the footage? 

Kyoko: It wasn’t like other people on the march were like “Oh Hey! You’re PINS!”, but we had painted signs with lyrics on – “save the kids” and “I’m only here to serve the rich” – and some photographers took a real interest in that.

Faith: They put us in the news…

Lois: It was the quality of the sign that got us the attention (laughs)

Sophie: Our housemate, who’s a graphic designer, painted the signs for us, so they were honestly exceptionally well made.

Lois: The whole march was really positive. Everybody was doing their own thing and they were there for their own reasons, which was really nice. It was good to see that other people share the same frustrations as you, and then to feel supported by them too. Half way along the march there was a band on the street playing to keep the people going as well.

Faith: It was really fun actually. Everyone was really happy and positive.

Sophie: Yeah, nothing felt shady or like anything was going to kick off. There were two marches going on at the same time that day, the anti-austerity march and the anti-brexit march, and despite the two marches not meeting there were so many people walking in both of them.

Faith: The police were on our side too.

It sounds like it was a great thing to be a part of.

So, Christmas is fast approaching… any plans for another festive single?

Sophie: We’re playing some shows in December with The Cribs, so that’s how we’re going to celebrate Christmas.

Faith: We probably won’t play our Christmas songs though. We’ve got two now, we can’t do another…

Lois: I suppose we could do one a year until we’ve got about 25 of them?

Then you could release a compilation album: PINS Best of Christmas…

Finally, what does 2018 hold for PINS?

Lois: (whispers) Everything…

Sophie: A new album hopefully.

Faith: And new outfits.

Anna: So many possibilities…

 

Huge thanks to Anna, Faith, Lois, Sophie & Kyoko for answering my questions. Follow PINS on Facebook for more updates.

Photo Credit: Kelly Chard

Kate Crudgington
@KCBobCut

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