LISTEN: King Hannah – ‘State Trooper’

Following the release of their utterly captivating debut EP Tell Me Your Mind and I’ll Tell You Mine, Liverpool’s King Hannah have now shared a sweeping new offering.

A cover of the Bruce Springsteen 1982 track, ‘State Trooper’ is a beautifully bewitching listen. Maintaining all the gritty charm of the original, but with an added majestic splendour, the swooning hypnotic grace of Hannah Merrick’s vocals ripples alongside scuzzy hooks and a dark, spellbinding energy. A truly exquisite rendition of a song from one of my all-time favourite albums. It’s pretty hard to do The Boss justice (speaking as a mega super fan!), but King Hannah have managed it with flying colours – adding their own ethereal grandeur, they have succeeded in making it completely their own.

Of the decision to cover the track, the band explain:

“We have always loved the Bruce Springsteen album Nebraska, how sparse and raw it sounds, and how it is effectively a live demo recording. We wanted to keep that live-feel when covering ‘State Trooper’ and so we tracked the song live in our little home studio. We tried to do justice to the atmosphere of the original when arranging the track, with rumbling tom-heavy drums, warm creamy guitars and intimate slap-back vocals.”

Tell Me Your Mind And I’ll Tell You Mine, the new EP from King Hannah, is out now. Catch the band on tour later this year:

16/10/21: District – Liverpool  
20/10/21: YES (Pink Room) – Manchester
21/10/21: Hyde Park Book club – Leeds
22/10/21: Broadcast – Glasgow
23/10/21: Star and Shadow Cinema – Newcastle  
24/10/21: The Cookie – Leicester
25/10/21: Jericho Tavern – Oxford
26/10/21: Hare & Hounds – Birmingham
27/10/21: Lexington – London
28/10/21: Hope & Ruin – Brighton
29/10/21: The Louisiana – Bristol

Mari Lane
@marimindles

Photo Credit: Craig Whittle

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Introducing Interview: Clare Kelly

Leeds born ‘Mermaid Musician’, Clare Kelly, has been charming our ears for a while now with the stirring, ethereal sounds of the likes of singles ‘Less Alone’ and ‘Radio’.

Now, with the upcoming release of the empowering ‘Breathe’, we caught up with Clare to find out more.

Hi Clare, welcome to Get In Her Ears! Can you tell us a bit about yourself and what you do?
Hello and thank you for having me! I’m Clare Kelly, an ocean inspired alt-folk artist from Leeds. I grew up listening to songwriters like Stevie Nicks and Carole King, who inspired me to tell my own stories through music and gave me the bravery to be open and honest in my lyrics. 

How did you initially decide to start creating music?
I’ve adored singing since birth, or that’s how long it feels like to me and I’m sure my family and friends. I’ve been belting out every Springsteen line of ‘Thunder Road’ or ‘The River’ ever since I could speak. I began singing lessons when I was eleven and sang in all kinds of performances through school – Motown, Beatles and musicals like Les Mis and Sweeney Todd. I fronted a band when I was fifteen, which is when I started writing my own lyrics (we did pretty well for kids – interviewed by Annie Mac on Radio 1!). I juggled student and music lives and taught myself guitar while studying Popular Music at Goldsmiths University, to enable me to write and perform solo around London. Since then I’ve been creating on my tod all over the place. 

Your single ‘Less Alone’ is out now – can you tell us what it’s all about?
I wrote ‘Less Alone’ when I got back to Yorkshire after eighteen months on a DIY tour across the US and Australia. Coming home and trying to adapt, returning to the same routines I had before my adventures, was difficult and strange. The song is a reflection on my incredible time travelling and the special relationships I formed with people. I may have only spent a couple of days with some of these people, but they had a huge impact on me and my experience. I felt closer to those people I’d had fleeting moments with than some of the familiar faces I was surrounded by in England. 

We love the dreamy alt-folk vibes of your songs, but who would you say are your main musical influences?
Aside from the greats I’ve already mentioned, I adore and take my cues from Angel Olsen, Aldous Harding, Sharon Van Etten… I have too many to choose from! But what connects them all is the emotion they channel into every song. They have an incredible skill in describing a feeling or memory with concise and beautiful words which tend to linger in my mind. When I watch them perform, I see how their music is a continuation of themselves, and I hope that’s how my music is perceived as well. 

Of course, no one’s going to see live music right now, but – in more ‘normal’ times – how is your local music scene? Do you go to see lots of live music?
I miss live music so badly! I would usually be at three or four gigs a week across London. I managed to cram in a load of fantastic shows before the world went wild – over the course of one week I saw Angie McMahon, Julia Jacklin, Fenne Lily, Aldous Harding, Alaskalaska, Hot Chip, Imogen and Brooke Bentham. It was great, those were the days. When I’m in Leeds, I love seeing shows at Wharf Chambers and Oporto – these are smaller venues and their fate is really worrying right now. There’s nothing I want more than to be in a packed-out sweatbox of music lovers again. Shows at smaller venues are such an important support for local bands. It’s a scary prospect for when (and if) they can re-open – for the venues and the artists too. I hosted a Sofar Sounds-esque gig in my flat in South London for my single launch which worked really well, but at the moment we can’t do that either. It’s going to be interesting to see how events adapt and develop in the aftermath of the last few months.  

And what can fans expect from your live shows?
My music is hugely personal and quite confessional – it’s safe to say you will leave my gig feeling like you know me quite well! I find that my songs really enable me to re-live memories, so it’s a really immersive experience for me and I think for the audience. Expect my face to be scrunched up as I project my (‘weird’) vocal straight from my gut, especially at the moment – while I live stream performances on Facebook & Instagram every Sunday from my bathtub! Before lockdown, I had just started gigging with my full band which has allowed me to alternate my sound and given me freedom to play around with the arrangement and introduce a new vibe to my set. 

As we’re a new music focused site, are there any new/upcoming bands or artists you’d recommend we check out?
I spend so many hours of the day scouring the internet for new music and welcome all recommendations. I supported Sofia Wolfson in Leeds earlier this year who is from California, and since then I’ve had a few LA based females on repeat such as A. O. Gerber, Allie Crow Buckley and Valley Queen. More local though – I love Katy J Pearson and Prima Queen. 

And how do you feel the music industry is for new artists at the moment – would you say it’s difficult to get noticed?
I’m just going to be really honest here because there’s no point doing anything else! It feels damn near impossible to get noticed – maybe I’m not meant to say that, but it’s such a slog without a label or management to help with contacts and funds; it’s a struggle to even get someone to open an email. It’s harder as a solo artist, without a group of band members to assist with all the admin (and keep you motivated through knock backs and un-read emails). You can play in pubs and bars and self-release records but to get a look into the window in which you can reach that larger audience and secure some great shows, sadly, you do still need a label. Spotify have a monopoly on emerging artists and what they choose is not eclectic enough for the varied genres of music being made. If Spotify doesn’t like you, it’s unlikely new listeners will find your music. It can be soul destroying when you pour yourself into your songs and then you’re constantly selling yourself the best you can, often to no response, and you’re just a drop in the ocean. But of course none of this is new and it hasn’t stopped me yet –  I continue to pour everything into my music because it’s what I love the most. I can’t imagine a life where I’m not performing and I can certainly say I’m learning more about the industry with every project! That’s why Get In Her Ears is such a fab platform for artist exposure – thank you for your fantastic playlists and shows. I’ve discovered some great artists through listening to your recommendations and you can tell that you genuinely care about the music you’re promoting. 

Finally, what does the rest of 2020 have in store for you?
I have a new single ‘Breathe’ coming out this week. Strangely, even though I didn’t write the song in lockdown, the meaning in the lyrics are now relevant to our current situation and I’m excited to think that listeners who are isolating will find some comfort in the words that explore liberation and independence. The song is about taking a breath and listening to what your mind wants. I also love the artwork (photos by Anxious Film Club) and there’s an incredible video to accompany the track. After this, when hopefully life has returned to some normality, I’m in the process of recording an EP with my all female band of songs which I’m really proud of. They’re quite angsty and it’s going to be a hoot performing them live. Obviously, everything is all up in the air right now, but I hope the EP will be released before the end of 2020. 

Big thanks to Clare for answering our questions!

‘Breathe’, the upcoming new single from Clare Kelly, is out this Friday 12th June.

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Five Favourites: Captain Handsome

Having been a pretty massive fan of indie-pop superstars Fightmilk for a couple of years now, we’ve recently been excited to hear that Lily from the band’s solo project Captain Handsome have just released their debut EP.

Exploring everyday anxieties and all-too-common awkward situations with an intimate twinkling emotion, the EP’s filled with sad lo-fi bangers and effervescent indie-pop sounds that tug at the heartstrings in all the right ways.

We think one of the best ways to get to know an artist is by asking what music inspires them or influences their writing. We caught up with Lily, who has shared her “Five Favourites” – five tracks that particularly resonate with her. Check out her choices below, and make sure you take a listen to brand new EP I Am Not An Animal as soon as possible!

The Proclaimers – ‘Over And Done With’
I don’t know how many kids have a ‘Proclaimers phase’ but mine was FORMATIVE. I was about ten, still one of the tall kids in class and extremely sensitive about my bad skin, when I started listening to my parents’ cassette tape of This Is The Story – which I thought I’d try out because I thought the nerds on the cover looked funny. The best song on their debut album is ‘Over And Done With’. It was the first song I ever learned to play on guitar, and I loved it so much that after months and months of practicing C, E, Am and F, I covered it and made a music video for it, long lost to the toilet of history.

“This is the story of our first teacher Shetland made her jumpers and the devil made her features” – It’s just a series of little awkward, unfair or tragic moments, completely mundane but weirdly existential and funny. It’s a mood I absorbed as an angsty kid and have probably transferred, knowingly or unknowingly, into almost every song I’ve written since. I love how it’s upbeat and simple, completely stripped down to just two voices and a guitar, a singalong tune about shag ennui and low-key worrying about death and how, in the end, it doesn’t matter anyway. It’s over and done with.

Did you know the Proclaimers have ELEVEN albums, one of which is called Angry Cyclist? There you go.

Kirsty MacColl – ‘Free World’
Ahhhh fuck the Tories. This song came out in 1989 as a way of saying “fuck the Tories” and lo and behold and quelle surprise, we (at least in the DIY scene) are still saying fuck the Tories 31 years later. This is my favourite fuck-the-Tories song. Sick of bands doing Political Songs and then skirting the issue in interviews? Here’s what Kirsty said about ‘Free World’:

“The subject matter is Thatcherite Britain – you know, grab whatever you can and sod the little guy. That’s a fashionable way of looking at things, and I don’t agree with it.”

Kirsty’s abilities as a political songwriter are unfairly overlooked. Very often hits like ‘They Don’t Know’ and ‘Soho Square’ are cited as her best writing, same as it ever was with female artists and big love songs. ‘Free World’ sounds like it’s been playing at breakneck speed forever, urgent and fast and present, and that massive, effortless, vibrato-free note at the end is still unnerving today.

“And I’ll see you baby when the clans rise again // Women and children united by the struggle // Going down with a pocketful of plastic // Like a dollar on elastic // In this free world.”

I’d love more than anything to be able to write and sing half as well as Kirsty, but I don’t think anyone but her could write ‘Free World’.

Bruce Springsteen – ‘Bobby Jean’
For such an ecstatic sounding song, ‘Bobby Jean’ is a real bummer. It’s about Bruce/The Boss/Daddy as a young misfit, falling in with another young misfit and running wild, listening to rock music and being little punks that everyone looks down on. So far, so Stand By Me.

But kids grow up, and BruceTheBossDaddy and Bobby Jean fall out of touch. Years later he goes to call on her (or him – Bobby Jean’s gender is never specified, which is an entirely different dissertation and one that I hope you write one day), hoping to shoot the shit and remember their halcyon days of throwing rocks at trains and wearing jorts. But Bobby Jean has disappeared. Where does she go? Does life get too much for her? Does she go on the run? Does her mother send her to a convent school for girls bewitched by Bruce Springsteen?

“And I’m just calling one last time not to change your mind // But just to say I miss you baby, good luck goodbye, Bobby Jean.” – Bobby Jean is just gone, and it’s fucking brutal. BruceTheBossDaddy never got the chance to say goodbye in person but, absolute human being that he is, craves closure so much that he writes a song, effectively leaving a voicemail.

As far as happy-sounding pop hits about devastating blows to the heart go, this is one of the all time greats. Just when you think that BrucetheBossDaddy howling his guts can’t get any more powerful, there’s a sax solo.

Phoebe Bridgers – ‘Funeral’
Phoebe Bridgers is ruining my life. Aside from the fact that she successfully KOed an abuser’s career with a pop song, Phoebe writes the kind of gloom-country I can only dream of. ‘Funeral’ is a track from her debut album Stranger In The Alps, and it’s such an amazing move to position a song ostensibly about pulling perspective on your own sadness so near the start of a record about your own sadness – like punching a hole in your ego before it can even begin to inflate.

“I have a friend I call // When I’ve bored myself to tears // And we talk until we think we might just kill ourselves // But then we laugh until it disappears” – I love this song because as someone who finds it hard to write happy lyrics, I often find myself mining for things I know make me sad and this is a reminder to never, ever take the dark stuff for granted or to trivialise it. Of course you should be sad – there is so much to be sad about – but Phoebe is a master at self-awareness. This song, about going to a funeral for someone the same age as Phoebe, is about there being some things you can’t have.

Dolly Parton – ‘Little Sparrow’
To know Dolly is to love her. ‘Little Sparrow’ is a pretty recent Dolly drop, taken from her 38th (38! Who has the fucking time?!) studio album of the same name. It’s a small, spooky song in the fine tradition of heartbreak and bad men, but there’s no self-pity – it sounds old and folky, bluegrass violin fluttering and soaring like a second vocal, but also angry and young and impetuous, too late for hellbent revenge on the cold false-hearted lover and his evil cunning schemes and so just doomed to be a cautionary tale. It’s one of my favourite Dolly vocal performances, powerful and fragile and uuuuggghhhhhh. It’s one of those songs that sounds like it’s been around for centuries and it gets to you HARD. And I love Dolly for continuing to make gorgeous folk music into her ACTUAL 70s without falling into the trap of feeling like she needs to reinvent herself and make glitzy country-pop. Dolly is the top of her game. She is the best at this. She is the heavyweight champion of the world at making lighter-than-air country songs that fuck you up.

Also, I really like the line “they will vow to always love you // swear no love but yours will do”. It’s probably completely unintentional and Dolly is far too cool to self-reference – there’s no way Dolly’s flipped the coin on her most beloved song to reveal an absolute misery-banger on the other side… Right?

Massive thanks to Lily for sharing her Five Favourites with us! Captain Handsome’s debut EP I Am Not An Animal is out now via Reckless Yes, and make sure you catch them live at The Finsbury for us on 14th February, along with Piney Gir, Grawl!x and I Am HER.

 

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