LIVE: Julien Baker – Earth, Hackney (19.11.2024)

A bitterly cold and wet Tuesday night in November; what better time to venture alone to immerse myself in some beautiful, emotion-filled live music… ? My first time at Earth in Dalston, I feel grateful to be able to see three such esteemed artists in this deceptively intimate space. 

After queuing in the rain for a while, I arrive in time to catch most of GIHE fave Katie Malco’s opening set. Reflecting on her recent US tour with Soak and her failings at booking appropriate / warm / safe accommodation, as well as all her gear going up in flames in a rehearsal space earlier this year, it seems she’s had a bit of a bad run of it lately, but this is no way takes away from her engaging charisma and charm as she delivers her captivating indie-folk ballads. Playing alone without a band, she still manages to create a rich scuzzy splendour and immersive gentle emotion with the sparkling heartfelt grace of songs like ‘Brooklyn’ and ‘Babette’ – the latter of which she normally sings alongside Soak, who is due on stage shortly. 

Touching on themes of self-discovery, queer identity and the housing crisis, Irish artist Soak delivers a set of new songs; each glistening with a stirring raw emotion. As their distinctive vocals float alongside lilting melodies, each offering tugs at the heartstrings with an achingly beautiful sense of nostalgia. Grateful I finally got to witness their delicately impassioned sounds live, I’m also left intrigued to hear more about the time that they were backstage on tour with Katie Malco and someone was “playing a saw like a violin and singing ‘Wonderwall’”… 

I’m not sure how I really expected to feel seeing Julien Baker live for the first time. An artist who I’ve listened to – and sought comfort in – probably almost every day for the last few years, my expectations and emotions were running pretty high. Amongst a crowd of predominantly young people accompanied by their parents, I wonder if it’s normal for a woman of my age to feel this much resonance with the music of someone like Baker, but as soon as she takes to the stage (beginning the set with my most favourite song), all worries cease and I’m instantly reassured. When music moves you this much, what does age matter? I’m a 38 year old queer woman and I need this beautiful aural catharsis in my life. As the swirling crescendo of piano and guitar soars throughout ‘Appointments’ alongside the melancholy raw emotion of Baker’s vocals, I feel my heart gently shatter and tears start to dampen my cheeks. But I also feel an unexpected sense of calm; a comfort in the relatability of the feeling and meaning behind the song – an unspoken sense of unity with the other damp cheeks I see glistening around me. And that is the beauty of music this honest and powerful; however old or young you may be, you can find comfort in what it has to say. 

Continuing to completely captivate the crowd with songs spanning her career, including the quiet desperation of 2019’s ‘Red Door’ and shimmering splendour of 2021’s ‘Relative Fiction’, Baker succeeds in immersing us fully. Although her anxiety is evident between songs – “Sometimes I get really nervous and can’t see my fretboard” -, when she’s delivering each heartfelt offering, her focus seems entirely intact, the raw emotive power of her vocals never faltering. And despite describing the experience as “like a stress dream”, I feel far from stressed at being able to bear witness to such exquisite musicality and refreshingly honest lyricism. In fact, I think there’s a subtle empowering strength to exposing one’s vulnerability through the stark emotion that emanates from each and every song. 

From crowd favourites like 2017’s ‘Shadowboxing’ to the glitchy whirring soundscapes of 2019’s ‘Tokyo’, each resonant lyric ripples with an effervescent grace. From the heartbreaking personal introspection of ‘Sprained Ankle’ to the fizzing lilting energy of ‘Bloodshot’, each sparkling melody gently takes hold, leaving 14 and 38-year-olds alike equally spellbound. 

Whether playing with or without her excellent full band, Baker succeeds in creating a soaring majestic splendour; a swirling raw emotion that envelopes her audience, offering a comforting catharsis. Having to leave the venue a few minutes early to catch a train, I realise it feels almost like leaving a therapy session; feelings have been shared, tears have been shed – I feel understood, I feel lighter. So, thank you Julien Baker for opening up to us, for creating music that is so honest and relatable; so soothing and empowering. So damn beautiful.

Words: Mari Lane / @mari_getinherears
Photos: Abi Chilton / @abi.chilton

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Five Favourites: Fightmilk


We make no secret of our super fandom of Fightmilk here at Get In Her Ears. We’ve been following them since they first played live for us back in 2018, and now – after having had the honour of them headlining many more of our gigs, and being obsessed with their albums Not With That Attitude and Contender, our fandom has only continued to grow with the recent release of their new album No Souvenirs. Reflecting on themes of getting older, particularly as a woman in music, the album exquisitely showcases Fightmilk’s ability to hone their sound, creating perfect punk-pop; angsty and uplifting in equal measure. Instantly catchy singalong anthems, combining the band’s trademark tongue-in-cheek wit with a swirling energy and gritty raw emotion. From fuzzy sentimentality to fierce tirades against patriarchal society, No Souvenirs is a perfect culmination of how Fightmilk have continued to refine their sound. With shades of noughties punk-pop, combined with an injection of fresh queer joy and raging emotion, it’s at once cathartic, validating and empowering. But, most importantly, fun. A sound that’s uniquely Fightmilk; truly distinctive in its colourful charisma, but consistently evolving into something more. 

We think one of the best ways to get to know a band is by asking what music inspires them. So, following the release of No Souvenirs, we caught up with Lily, Nick, Alex and Healey to find out about the five albums that inspired the writing of the new album the most. Read about their five favourites, listen to the No Souvenirs on repeat, get tickets to see them live and watch the wonderfully DIY new video for latest single ‘Yearning and Pining‘ below:

Band pick:

Jimmy Eat World – Bleed American
We all collectively, coincidentally, fell back in love with this album HARD at around the same time. It’s such a perfect cocktail of anger, positivity, self-reflection and FUN. It’s obviously also catchy as hell. The timing of our obsession coincided with Lily sending us a demo of the song ‘No Souvenirs’, which we definitely made a conscious effort of melding into something that could sit alongside those J.E.W songs. By the time we’d recorded the title track, we even learned ‘A Praise Chorus’ for a couple of shows in 2023, though damned if we can remember how to play it now.

Lily:

Olivia Rodrigo – Sour / GUTS
My name is Lily and I’m a sucker for a Gen-Z Disney star. Olivia Rodrigo’s songwriting is phenomenal. She is so self-aware, so funny, and so brutally (ha) honest – a lot of comparable artists who write music on themes of anxiety and awkwardness feel focus-grouped to death by people who haven’t been teenagers for a long time, or they bottle a feeling at the last minute and turn it into self-deprecation, but her songs feel like they’ve come straight from her diary. Lines like “I hope you’re happy, but don’t be happier” are such an economical, Ronseal way of articulating such a big, messy feeling – it’s such a skill to reduce all those complex emotions into one line. It’s very much the Kirsty MacColl/Alanis Morrissette school of ‘stuff I wish I’d said’. Sour was my big album for No Souvenirs, but I’m so glad we got GUTS halfway through recording too. I wrote ‘Summer Bodies’ before I’d heard ‘Pretty Isn’t Pretty’, which is one of my favourite songs on GUTS, and felt so much that it was written with the same exhaustion. I felt very seen: “I could change up my body and change up my face/I could try every lipstick in every shade”. I also love that during a time where guitar music is incredibly uncool, Olivia Rodrigo has released two big grungy rock albums. We have so much in common…


Nick:

Press Club – Late Teens
I absolutely love everything about this album. The aggression, speed & ferocity of it; the blown out vocals and the sparing way it was recorded, which is really no frills and designed to capture the rawness of a live show (I read somewhere that Nat does her vocals in the booth DURING the instrument takes, which is insane to me), and of course Frank’s drumming, which is fast and nuanced without being overtly flashy. There’s always a danger in this genre that you’re going to over-complicate stuff and have one instrument’s role overshadow the others, but the balance is right on this, and it was a wake up call to keep things simple – both in terms of our individual roles, and production, with No Souvenirs.


Alex:

Eiko Ishibashi – Drive My Car (Original Soundtrack)
The words and music on No Souvenirs are as accurate as you can get to the constant screaming static in our heads, as the four of us left the lockdown era, and tried to remember how to exist in the world, let alone be a band again. In the face of that chaos, the delicate arrangements and kinetic calm of Eiko Ishibashi’s Drive My Car score were my actual soundtrack to the period – a 45 minute gap in time where I could shut out the outside world and pretend it wasn’t going to come roaring back at me once the album finished. If you can’t hear that influence on our record, fair enough! But I’d be lying if I said it didn’t find a way in there somewhere.


Healey:

Lucy Dacus – Home Video
The early summer of 2021 was a super strange time, we were coming out of lockdown and all COVID restrictions were being removed but everything still felt scary and weird. Like Lucy Dacus we’d just put out an album, but we had no way of touring it yet and had sat on the songs for longer than expected. I went for lots of contemplative walks by myself round Peckham and I’d mainly just listen to Home Video and voice note demos Lily had sent to the band group chat. I got obsessed with this one early demo called ‘Swimming Pool’ – it’s a quiet song with just an acoustic guitar and double tracked vocals. It’s sparse, vulnerable and reflective. It caused the same gut reaction I get when I listen to Dacus’ music, a homesick nostalgic pang mixed with a dose of teenage embarrassment. While the title and some of its lyrics have changed, the core emotion is still there and I think Home Video was a huge influence on letting that track gently build to an eruption of fireworks at the end.


Massive thanks to Lily, Nick, Alex and Healey for sharing their favourite album choices with us! Watch the gloriously DIY video for ‘Yearning and Pining’ here:


No Souvenirs, the new album from Fightmilk, is out now via Fika Recordings and INH Records. They’re currently out on tour – very limited tickets left, but you may be able to find some here.

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LIVE: Kae Tempest – Pitchfork Festival, KOKO Camden (05.11.2024)

Whilst other people were out in the cold watching explosions in the sky, on the evening of Tuesday 5th November I was lucky enough to be inside the warmth of legendary Camden venue KOKO having my mind blown and my heart set alight by the incredible Kae Tempest, who delivered a performance that was brighter and more powerful than any firework. 

A night of live music forming part of London’s Pitchfork Music Festival, I arrive in time to catch an uplifting set from Sam Morton. Oozing a soulful ethereal splendour, the actress-turned-musician delivers stirring genre-defying soundscapes, fusing together elements of jazz, reggae and electro, each rippling with a glitchy immersive allure.

Sharing that the last time they were here was fifteen years ago on their dad’s 60th birthday, Kae Tempest takes to the stage and instantly I sense a shift in their presence, a change from the other times I’ve seen them live over the years; a subtle, genuine joy and sense of ease emanates. And, before they have even said any more, it’s clear how much it means to them to be able to be here, to be able to be truly themselves, and share that with us. “This feels really special”, they say before they give a short introduction to the set, explaining that they’re going to be performing songs from the last ten years, and not be talking between songs “because that cringes me out.” Beaming as the crowd laughs and cheers, Tempest seems to be soaking up every moment: “Nothing stays still, it’s always in transition. But I still have the same feeling in my heart to connect.” And so begins 75 of the most fiercely moving, cathartic and joyous minutes; every single second pulsating with resonance and pride.  

Kicking off with ‘Tunnel Vision’, the closing track from 2016’s Let Them Eat Chaos, Tempest immediately casts their immersive spell over a completely captivated audience; the poignant and stirring social commentary of their poetic lyricism hitting more profoundly than ever before. As the glitchy energy of The Line Is A Curve’s ‘Salt Coast’ is accompanied by glistening visuals, it’s hard not to fall into a strangely comforting hypnotic state, transfixed by the sparkling resonance of the subtle emotive power rippling from the stage, which is only further amplified by the fierce joy that radiates throughout 2023’s ‘Love Harder’ – “… Correcting my pronouns to they/them, but he/him is also pretty fucking cool!” 

This powerful euphoria fizzes throughout the whole performance; the immense cathartic sense of relief Tempest feels at being able to be themselves and the resulting heightened confidence is so wonderfully evident, and the happiness they feel resonates into the crowd, creating a unified queer joy and empowering sense of hope. 

Flowing through a couple more tracks from their 2022 album, Kae Tempest’s glaringly honest and completely relevant social commentary is showcased with heartwarming clarity as the prowess of their band provides a beautifully enchanting musical backdrop for their stirring narratives. Then, following the sparkling romanticism and raw emotion of 2019’s ‘Firesmoke’, we’re lucky enough to be treated to two brand new songs. With one song featuring a recording of Tempest at 17, and another with an all-too poignant refrain – “… They used to tell their children not to stare, but when I’m dead they’ll put my statue in the square…”  – a stark awareness of the injustices of society and the struggles that they have dealt with throughout their life simmers under the surface of their fierce empowering energy and gloriously discernible love for themselves. 

And I feel honoured to be here, to be sharing this experience with Kae Tempest; for them to feel able to be so open and honest with us. Going on to explain how they have always had a complex relationship with the stage, and how they used to feel deeply uncomfortable, it really is wonderful to hear that it doesn’t feel like that anymore. To see it too; the exuberant, blissful trans joy that shimmers without hesitation. 

Tempest closes the set with ‘People’s Faces’. A track I’ve seen live many times before, its hopeful celebration of the happiness and comfort that can be found in others has brought me to tears every time, but it seems more exquisitely on-point than ever tonight; the line “there is so much peace to be found in people’s faces” striking with a new-found optimism, as there really does seem to have been such a warm sense of peace emanating from Kae’s face throughout the whole performance. 

Despite assuring us that they think that “false exits are manipulative”, Tempest returns for a little encore, much to the ecstatic relief of the crowd. After a moment of vulnerable reflection sharing their poem ‘Hold Your Own’, they leave us with the uplifting message “If you take away one feeling from tonight, let it be delight”, urging us to focus on the ways that we’re all connected. And that is certainly what I come away feeling; a sheer sense of delight at the joy I have witnessed. An empowering and unifying queer energy and subtle sense of hope that through coming together as a community we can find happiness and strength. Thank you Kae Tempest for sharing your journey with us; for being you, and for giving us this hope that is so needed right now. 

Mari Lane / @mari_getinherears

Photo Credit: Kimberley Ross

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Five Favourites: Umarells

Having just shared their debut EP, One More Day, Manchester-based dream-pop group Umarells create lush, glistening soundscapes, fizzing with a rippling raw emotion. Combining elements of shoegaze, grunge and indie-pop, they offer heartfelt reflections on themes such as grief and failed relationships, each song offering their own unique sparkling musicality.

We think one of the best ways to get to know an artist is by asking what music inspires them. So, following the release of their debut EP, we caught up with Imogen, Josh, Ryan Sarah and Fuchsia to find out about the five albums that inspire them the most. Read about their five favourites, and watch the beautiful video for stirring single ‘June‘, below…

Weyes Blood – Titanic Rising
I first heard Natalie of Weyes Blood’s gorgeous Carpenter-esque voice on Drugdealer’s 2016 album The End Of  Comedy. When Titanic Rising was released in 2019 it resonated as the theme of an era of my life. Blending ‘70s pop vocals with romantic space age synth cynicism I was hooked from my first listen and rushed to see the masterpiece live in Manchester venue Yes’ pink room. ‘Picture Me Better’ – a song written about the loss of a friend – perfectly encapsulates heart wrenching grief and the hope to hear the impossible “call from beyond”. A song that inspired me to pour my own grief into our song ‘One More Day’.

Burial – Untrue
I vividly remember the first time I stumbled upon this album while exploring a friend’s CD collection. It was a revelation – nothing I had ever heard compared to its dark, gritty sound, interwoven with ethereal melodies and harmony. So melancholic. I often listened to it on my bike rides home through the city centre at 5am, after finishing my shift at a nightclub; feeling as though I was the only soul awake in the world. It’s perfect for those late nights when you’re caught between the desire to drift off and the inability to do so. The sampling on this album is incredible; the original sources are so cleverly transformed that I found myself spending hours online trying to uncover their origins. It’s a remarkable masterclass in genre-bending and structure, carving out its own distinct niche within the electronic scene. Its sound remains refreshingly futuristic, even today.

Pixies – Doolittle 
All amazing tracks and completely seminal. I became obsessed with Pixies when I was fifteen, after loading up my mp3 player for a school trip to Sorrento. I’d heard that Nirvana’s loud-quiet-loud structures were ripping off Pixies, so I downloaded some songs from Limewire. Listening to them on a coach driving along the West coast of Italy really cemented the tracks for me and I was kind of blown away by it. The guitar work is just perfect to me – simple driving bass lines, and Joey’s surf inspired riffs and bends are just amazing. The range of sounds in Frank’s voice means the album never gets boring and it contrasts with Kim’s vocals so well. To top it off, ‘Gouge Away’ is just the best final track on an album for me.

The Smashing Pumpkins – Siamese Dream
My favourite album changes constantly, but if I had to choose one right now I’d pick Siamese Dream. My first introduction to Smashing Pumpkins was at about seven or eight years old hearing them on The Simpsons episode ‘Homerpalooza’. A few years later when I hit my full-on emo phase I delved into their back catalogue and Siamese Dream was the album that stuck out to me. I’ve never got sick of listening to it. Billy and James’ guitar playing on this record is just insane to me. The dynamics of the album too are just so great, the fact you’ve got heavy songs like ‘Geek USA’ but the softer songs like ‘Luna’ and ‘Disarm’ but they work perfectly together when listening to the album in full. Billy’s lyrics as well – “Fool enough to almost be it, cool enough to not quite see it. Doomed.” on ‘Mayonaise’, incredible. Whenever I’m writing new music I find this is the album I reference the most.

Big Thief – Two Hands
This is such a beautiful album – the lyrics are so raw and heartfelt – it’s such incredible story telling. The album flows from really soft gentle tracks to heavy gritty ones so effortlessly, and everything about the way it’s recorded sounds so natural. It came out when I first got back into playing music after a really long break and I would just listen to it on repeat. The whole album reminds me of a time when I really started to feel comfortable with myself and listening to it still reminds me of that. Seeing them live at the Apollo last year was an awesome experience!

Huge thanks to Umarells for sharing their five favourites with us! Watch the beautiful new video for stirring single ‘June’ here:

One More Day, the debut album from Umarells, is out now via Fear Of Missing Out Records.

Photo Credit: Kitty Handley

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