Guest Blog: LibraLibra

Covid 19 and the necessary restrictions surrounding it have brought about a number of cancellations of music events, including what would have been Get In Her Ears’ very first festival. Taking place tomorrow, Saturday 18th July, it was set to be a pretty special day, filled with some of our favourite female and non binary artists. Fingers crossed we can finally make it happen next year…

One of the bands set to play was Brighton’s LibraLibra. Creating immense, energy-fuelled cacophonies with a gritty magnetism, they’ve become firm favourites of ours over the last few years, having blown us away at our gig at The Finsbury last December with their seething, riotous charisma.

In the absence of the festival, and any gigs, at the moment, LibraLibra front-woman Beth Cannon has shared an insightful guest blog for us, as well as an epic playlist… Have a read, listen and then be sure to watch the video for the band’s incredible new single ‘Lonely Girl’ at the bottom of this article!

The realities of being a woman in a band in your early 30s… 

Yes, I’m 32 and wish I could say I was confident and proud of it, yet most days I’m not. I’m an insecure wreck seconding guessing every move I make. Sorry I’m not starting with an emboldened, empowering statement, but in what I do at the level I’m at there is no glamour; there may be a thread of security (my band & my manager), but also a whole world of fear. 

Firstly, you can’t be in a band and not work, unless you have lucked out and struck a deal, but even then most deals don’t amount to much. So, you are essentially working two full time jobs – one you hate and one you love; the love bit is great, but the reality is you’re in a 9-5 most days questioning your whole existence. This isn’t news, this isn’t an eye opener, it’s our reality. And it’s ok to hold your hands up and burn out sometimes. It happens to me a lot: I think this living two lives, this parallel universe shift, tugs at our mental health more so than we care to admit. It’s exhausting, it’s anxiety driven, I cry almost every other day. 

So, why the fuck do I do this? Because I fucking love it so much. That’s the sad truth; I’m addicted to music. It’s in my head 24/7 – melodies, orchestras, choirs, jingles, it’s never ending. The only way I can truly be silent in my head is being on stage. It’s the most terrifying experience, but also the most exhilarating – I go from throwing up backstage to forgetting my name and my existence within 3 minutes of being on that stage. So, what I’m trying to say in my usual long-winded way (I’m dyslexic, so being concise and structured is not happening!) is we do this because of love and love alone, and that burning raging passion that is flooding our veins. And that’s not OTT for any musician, anyone with a passion will feel it, and there’s almost no words, there is a silent understanding deep within. I won’t stop, I can’t stop, stopping is not an option. No matter how many times I have that daily meltdown –  I should be earning x amount, I should be settling down, it’s time to give up the dream you’re far too old. Who’s to say I’m too old? 

My main tip on how to get through this? Don’t listen to the mainstream media whose voice has been instilled in us since birth. Make it your mantra – fuck the media. Go with your gut, your instinct and your truth. If you can manage to hold on to it even on the darkest of days, you’ve got it and perseverance is key. Maybe I could have been something much younger than I am now, but I was severely mentally unwell: I had PTSD from experiences in my teens that I wish to forget but I was running for a long time, and in turn getting myself into even worse situations. So, why can’t my time be now, at a time in my life where I’m ready to look after myself, I’m ready to acknowledge the bad and embrace the good in me? Why do we place timelines on women? It’s wrong. There isn’t a shelf for us to retire too, we should be loud, proud and beautiful at any age. Hold on to your fire, to anyone having a day of doubts and despair: hold it, embrace it and then tell it to fuck off, don’t let the negative voices win. And that is the only advice I can give, ride this motherfucking mighty wave and go against the curve.

This playlist is called ‘No Humps’; it gets me going, it gets me inspired, it gets my blood pumping, the lows, the highs, the technical thrills that I can only hope to achieve… It’s full of badass artists that have given me hope along the way. 

 

LibraLibra’s upcoming EP Hail Mary is out 14th August. Watch the new video for the band’s latest single ‘Lonely Girl’ and download/stream here:

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Track Of The Day: LibraLibra – ‘Juicy Lucy’

With support from the likes of Radio X, BBC Introducing and Amazing Radio, Brighton-based LibraLibra have been firm favourites of GIHE for some time now, never ceasing to impress. And we remain throughly impressed by their latest incredible offering.

Taken from their upcoming debut EP, ‘Juicy Lucy’ takes aim at the desire for a ‘perfect life’ and society’s obsession with celebrity culture and body image. A raging cacophony, it races with immense thunderous beats and frenzied hooks as the angst-driven power and gritty splendour of Beth Cannon’s vocal soars. A magnificent, riotous chaos; a ferocious swirling soundscape that defies genres and leaves you needing more of its unique, vibrant energy.

Of the track, Beth explains:

“The whole concept of the song itself is about obsession and escapism – despising being in your own skin and wanting to be someone else so badly you start to fixate, obsess upon another worldly being, you would even resort to attempting to consume them if it meant some of their radiance might rub off on to your own mundane and wretched being…”

Directed by Jay Bartlett, watch the wonderfully eccentric new video for ‘Juicy Lucy’ now.

Hail Mary, the upcoming debut EP from LibraLibra, is set for release on 14th August.

Mari Lane
@marimindles

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EP Track By Track: Sit Down – ‘Nice One’

Having been blowing us away for a few years now with their immense explosive offerings, and with acclaim from the likes of BBC Introducing, following their last single ‘Quarantine‘, Brighton duo Katie Oldham and Greg Burns – aka Sit Down – have now shared a brand new EP.

Having been sitting on these songs for about two years, Katie and Greg had been planning a full release of them just before the entire world went into lockdown. So, “throwing the rulebook out the window“, they’ve just decided to put it all online – no press, no campaign, no chance to play it live – name the collection Nice One (a bit of an inside joke as to how they felt when all their best laid plans fell apart), and see what happens. To help protect the live music scene in their hometown of Brighton at this time of uncertainty, the band have announced that half of proceeds from Bandcamp downloads will be donated to the Music Venues Trust crowdfunders of the beloved Brighton venues where they played their first shows.

Filled with the duo’s trademark thrashing beats and frenzied scuzz-filled hooks, Nice One offers four eerily doom-filled cacophonies that burn with a fiery passion juxtaposed with a driving, invigorating sense of fun. With the swirling gritty force of Oldham’s distinctive vocals, each track oozes a necessary raging energy, creating a perfect angst-fuelled collection for these times.

We were lucky enough to speak to Katie, who talked us through each track on the EP…

‘Told U So’
This one was so fun to make and features such an obscure sample at the start we’d be completely floored if anyone figured out what it was. Greg did such an amazing job with the production of this song, it’s so menacing and devious. Lyrically the song is based around the idea of opening night at a beautiful ornate ballroom and the story is told from the perspectives of two women, one who directed the show – “Last call now and we’re ready to go…” – and the other being the star performer – “Take me down where the world is mine, where the spotlights and diamonds shine…” For some reason in our minds we always imagined these being played by Lady Gaga and Kylie Minogue, and you can kinda hear that reflected in the vocal stylings in the verses. The idea was it would be an intoxicating show that lures in rich evil predatory men, then the doors would be locked and they’re all trapped and the real show begins – “You say you want a good girl, this is what you got”. So yeah, I guess this song is about comeuppance, karmic justice and the continual mistreatment of women, through the visual language of Moulin Rogue meets Saw, haha. My favourite line is “I’m not the first and I’m not the only one but if you feel something then I got my job done.“

‘Banana Split’
This is probably our most honest and autobiographical song… But also a piss-take of ourselves. Normally we bury the meaning of our songs in imagery and world-building, so it felt so funny for this song to be just a completely upfront list of mistakes that nearly led to our demise. The first verse “Picture this, two banana splits, sitting in a diner off the Route 66″ is about when we went to the US to shoot the music video for ‘Mothership’ a few years ago, and came back all gassed up thinking we’d made it. The second verse “Fast forward, internet explorers, searching for an answer but now things are getting awkward” is about when we suddenly went from getting bigger and better gigs every week to having to email everyone begging for a show. Verse 3 tells how after a string of bad gigs, we were due to play a local festival, and the moment we finished setting up and were just about to perform, we played the first note and instantly blew both the bass amp and the guitar amp simultaneously. It was the worst experience and so humiliating, and after about 30 minutes trying to figure it out with people in the crowd just watching us, we ended up just having to quickly pack up our stuff again and leave the stage. So that’s where the “Next gig, checking out the rig, a couple minutes later and we’ve busted up our shit” comes from. It felt like such a bad omen and we really thought we blew it and the band was done. But then the last verse is us questioning if we should give up or not, and that’s where the refrain “But who the fuck are we, if we’re not doing this?” comes from. It all sounds kinda heavy but for us it was like the death of ego, and learning not to take ourselves too seriously, which is why we turned all the mess into a song!

‘Promiseland’
So, you know how I said we have super complex backstories for most of our songs? This is one of the more ridiculous, haha! Years ago before we even started this band, for some reason one day we just started inventing this world; like as if we were writing a novel or creating a video game or something – over months and months, we came up with this fictional city that had history and industry and about 50 characters, who had jobs and relationships and interlinking storylines etc. I still have the document of it on my phone and when I get drunk enough I love to bust it out and bore people to death with it. But we imagined this city was out in the middle of the desert and existed in a pocket of spacetime that could only be accessed by certain people if they have the right intention. ANYWAY! Long story short, that’s what the lyrics are about – “Some people say it’s a promiseland, but most people just see the void…” and also in the chorus “And though they try, they’re never gonna find”. The sonic inspiration comes from a gig we saw in Brighton a few years ago where we saw this incredible artist supporting The Voidz. He had this incredibly industrial sound and had this infectious energy we were completely mesmerised. And lo and behold, his name was Promiseland – hahaha. We choose our moments to be subtle. 

‘Feel It’
I think this might be our only semi-serious song, and it sounds quite different to everything else we’ve put out. We actually finished this song and put it on Bandcamp in the middle of our grand aforementioned demise that’s detailed in ‘Banana Split’. We were totally lost and things had all gone to shit across the board, and it was just a bleak and scary time. But despite it all, the one that remained is how much raw power music has to heal us and bring us together. So this song is like a tribute to that special kind of magic, which is reflected in the lyrics “So move if you need it, scream until you feel it, we’re burning up our demons tonight.” I always think this would be our Pyramid Stage opener if we ever got to Glastonbury. Ooh, just the thought gives me full body goosebumps! Please stream our shit so we can get there, haha.  

 

Thanks so much to Katie for talking us through Nice One! Indeed, please do stream their shit! And in the process support local music venues. Stream on Bandcamp and Spotify

 

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Track Of The Day: CLT DRP – ‘Like Father’ (Sit Down Remix)

Having blown us away numerous times with both their incredible live show, and singles such as ‘Where The Boys Are’ and ‘Speak To My’, Brighton trio CLT DRP have now returned to blast into our ears with a seething new offering.

A magnificent, whirring electro-punk cacophony that addresses the complexities of family ties, ‘Like Father’ is propelled by propulsive, clattering beats and scuzzy, ferocious hooks providing the backdrop for the gritty angst-driven power of Annie Dorrett’s vocals. Driven by a swirling, impassioned energy, it oozes a poignant breathtaking force, showcased perfectly in this immense frenetic remix by fellow Brighton faves Sit Down.

Of the track, Dorrett explains:

“‘Like Father’ is the most heartfelt song on the album, although it might not sound like it through the shouting. I wrote this letter to my dad on the plane one time after I left Toronto, and instead of giving it to him, I put it in a song… I thought it would be nice to have a song with an honest kind of dialogue about how he continuously influences me in a good way, even if we don’t tell each other all that often. I find that when talking to a lot of my friends the majority have a difficult time opening and communicating with their fathers. Whether it’s their generation or just toxic masculinity it’s still interesting that there’s a bit of a common theme.”

 

Without The Eyes, the debut album from CLT DRP, is set for release in August.

Mari Lane 
@marimindles

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