Five Favourites & Video Premiere: Junk Whale – ‘Pilebox’

Following infectious recent single ‘Happy Birthday’, Oxford band Junk Whale have now announced the release of their new EP, Caught In The Act Of Looking Weird, next month. Taken from the EP, latest single ‘Pilebox’ pays homage to being yourself in the face of adversity. Propelled by a fuzzy, emo-tinged energy and scuzzy hooks, raw impassioned vocals flow throughout as the track builds with a jangly allure to an anthemic blast of angst-driven splendour. Of the track, the band explain:

“It started as an attempt to write a song that sounded like a mashup of Pile and Jawbox (hence the title), although it ended up not really sounding like either. It’s about the joy of living life on your own terms and trying not to worry about fitting into anyone else’s expectations of you.”

We think one of the best ways to get to know a band is by asking what music inspires them. So, to celebrate the release of a quirky brand new video for ‘Pilebox’ and the upcoming EP, we caught up with members of Junk Whale to ask about the music that has inspired them the most. See below for their choices of their five favourite songs, and watch the new video for ‘Pilebox’ at the bottom of this feature.

The Cribs – ‘Things You Should Be Knowing‘ (Jenny – bass/vox)
When I wrote the guitar bit that became ‘Airbed’ from the EP, I sat down and basically just tried to write a song that sounded like The Cribs. One of the reasons I was keen to join Junk Whale was I heard that Hannah & Josie were also huge Cribs fans. Needless to say, I love them. They’re so consistent in their ability to produce bangers even now, but their first album is still closest to my heart. It’s so delightfully ramshackle, and has such an infectious energy – listening to it makes me feel young and reckless again (and it makes me feel old to be writing that). It sounds like they’re having loads of fun without even having to try, as if they’re just mucking about in the garage, and even though they’re playing massive venues and festivals now, I’d still favour the ramshackle mucking about sound any day. 


Illuminati Hotties – ‘Knead’ (Ali – vox/production)
Illuminati Hotties are one of the few bands I’ve discovered recently that I’ve really connected with. This song does a really great job of balancing elements of indie rock, pop and grunge which is more or less what we’re trying to do in Junk Whale. Their lead singer, Sarah Tudzin, is a professional audio engineer and produces their songs; she does an amazing job and is a real inspiration for me.

Doe – ‘Julia Survived’ (Josie – guitar/vox)
I first saw Doe in 2016, supporting Muncie Girls in Brighton (also on the bill was another Junk Whale fave, Fresh). I left with a cassette copy of their First Four compilation, and over the next few weeks I rendered it more or less unlistenable by playing it over and over again. At that point, Hannah’s and my pre-Junk Whale band was coming to an end and we were thinking about our next project together. Somehow, Doe had managed to capture exactly the kind of music that we wanted to make. Every song on that comp is great, but ‘Julia Survived’ has always stood out to me. It has that visceral punch of emotion that I crave in music, and the overlapping vocal harmonies were definitely a big influence on our songwriting. Nicola Leel is up there with Corin Tucker from Sleater-Kinney in my “people I wish I could sing like” rankings.

Taking Back Sunday – ‘You Know How I Do’ (Hannah – guitar/vox)
I first got into Taking Back Sunday when I was in sixth form because the drummer in my band really wanted to cover ‘Cute Without the E’ and I’ve never looked back. Their first album, which this track opens, is pretty much without flaw in my eyes and I struggled to pick just one song from it. Something I really love about it is the sheer quantity of vocals; Adam Lazzara barely lets up for a second, singing over almost every section of every song, with John Nolan pitching in frequently for some really effective back-and-forth segments. I think we have a pretty different sound to Taking Back Sunday, but they’re always on my mind whenever I’m trying to structure a song, and especially when I’m writing vocal parts.

Dinosaur Jr. – ‘Little Fury Things’ (Josie – vox/guitar)
First hearing You’re Living All Over Me as a teenager was a genuinely life-changing moment. It exemplified everything I love about guitar music: heavy riffs, soaring solos, ear-scraping noise and, most of all, beautifully expressive rhythm-playing. It was the latter that had the biggest influence on my playing; messing around with different harmonies and chord combinations is my favourite thing to do with a guitar and has formed the basis of my songwriting. ‘Little Fury Things’ is the best example of this. After the pummelling drum intro and aural chaos of the opening section, the plaintive guitar and melancholy vocals of the verse completely disarm you. To me, this song is the best demonstration of the immense dynamic power of a distorted electric guitar.


Huge thanks to Junk Whale for sharing their Five Favourites with us! New EP, Caught In The Act Of Looking Weird, is set for release on 8th July via Reckless Yes. Watch the brand new video for latest single ‘Pilebox’ here:

Photo Credit: Tom Turner

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FIVE FAVOURITES: Sea Change

Equally as inspired by the club music of LA and Berlin as she is by her quieter coastal surroundings in Kristiansand in Norway, Ellen Sunde aka SEA CHANGE’s sounds ebb and flow with a tranquil, yet deeply primal desire to move through a feeling that sometimes escapes written articulation. Her electronica ripples with emotion, but without every feeling weighty or over-thought, reflecting the way she feels about music in general. She’s set to release her new album, Mutual Dreaming, on 11th February via Shapes Recordings.

We think one of the best ways to get to know an artist is by asking what music inspired them to write in the first place. We caught up with SEA CHANGE to ask about her “Five Favourites” – five songs that have inspired her song-writing techniques and informed her new album. Check out her choices below and scroll down to watch her video for her latest single ‘I Put My Hand Into A Fist’ at the end of this post.

 

1. Aurora Halal – ‘Death Of Real’
Aurora Halal is an amazing techno producer, I’m just totally mesmerized by her productions. This particular track is more mellow, but it’s one of my favorites. I’ve recently been re-watching some videos of her hardware live sets. Wow! A total inspiration. Her music is super sensual and dreamy and has this dark psychedelic and shadowy vibe, and at the same time it’s also danceable. This combination was also something I tried to achieve on my album. She releases on her own label called Mutual Dreaming and, well, guess where I took my album name from? Just a little homage from me there.

2. Lövgren – ‘Power Surge’
Around the time I was producing Mutual Dreaming in my home studio, my friend Lövgren was finishing up his debut album, and his Burial inspired ambient made me realize I wanted to do more ambient textures in my music. I think his combination of hard hitting beats with manipulated vocal samples and textures is amazing. This was the first time I heard his music and I was totally blown away. It’s always really cool to be inspired by friends, it makes you try to reach even higher yourself. This track and the whole album is an amazing hidden gem that more people should listen to.

3. Julee Cruise – ‘Mysteries Of Love’
I was late to the party to watch the last Twin Peaks season, but when I finally did I got this total new fascination for Julee Cruise and her floaty voice over dreamy ambient. So then I had to re-watch Blue Velvet where this song is featured as well. Julee Cruise gives me a very strange and weird vibe – it’s almost too dreamy – I don’t even know how to explain it, but I guess that’s why it works so well cinematically in these films. This song was a very direct inspiration for the tracks ‘Mirages’ and ‘Mutual Dreaming’. I guess I sometimes can be a little afraid of singing too prettily over a beautiful instrumental track. Always a bit afraid of seeming too cute. But on ‘Mirages’ I tried to channel my inner Julee Cruise, and I kind of loved it.

4. Sassy 009 – ‘Okay’
The first time I heard Sassy 009 I was totally compelled by the ethereal feel, combined with her danceable beats. Sunniva who is the producer of Sassy 009 has a really stunning way of making her productions dreamy and experimental, but at the same time there’s several super catchy phrases in each song. It’s like all of them could be the main hook in a completely new track, but instead she spices up her song-writing with it and makes this beautiful forward thinking alternative pop of out of it. When I was looking for a mixer and co-producer for my last album INSIDE I looked everywhere for a person to work with. I tried different things out but didn’t really feel it worked. At that time Sassy 009 was a trio and released their debut EP, and I absolutely loved their vibe. I reached out to their mixer and co-producer and BAM – I found the right person to work with on INSIDE – BAYA and I also worked together on my new album Mutual Dreaming.

5. Haxan Cloak – ‘Excavation (Part 1)’
One thing that I loved about the process of producing my new album was that I felt I had the time to really go deep into learning new production styles. One thing I tried was reproducing tracks that I’m fascinated by, just to learn some new things in the process. This Haxan Cloak song was one of the tracks I tried to reproduce. Since this record came out I’ve been super fascinated by this album and especially this track. How it shifts and turns in the intensity of the production. The combination of the reverb heavy beats together with the heavy side chain makes you feel on edge the whole time. And it’s so dark and compelling that it makes me want to go into the woods and do some witchy rituals. My little copy of this track developed into its own thing and I split in two and it was actually planned to be the first and the last track on my album, but in the end I felt the first one didn’t belong there. But I kept the last part – which is called ‘Rituals’.

Thanks to Sea Change for sharing her favourites with us.

Watch the video for her latest single ‘I Put My Hand Into A Fist’ below.

Follow Sea Change on bandcamp, Spotify, Twitter, Instagram & Facebook

Photo credit: Simen Løvgren

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FIVE FAVOURITES: LALA LALA

Following the release of her latest album, I Want The Door To Open via Hardly Art earlier this year, Chicago-based musician Lillie West aka LALA LALA is preparing to take her altruistic electronic sounds on tour across Europe and the UK in February 2022. Choosing to look beyond herself for themes and inspirations when creating this record, West co-produced the album with Yoni Wolf of WHY?, and had contributions from poet Kara Jackson, OHMME, Gia Margaret and her former tour mate Ben Gibbard.

We think one of the best ways to get to know an artist is by asking what music inspired them to write in the first place. We caught up with LALA LALA to ask her about her “Five Favourites” – five songs that have inspired her song-writing techniques. Check out her choices below and scroll down to watch her video for her ‘DIVER’ at the end of this post.

 

1. Hildegaard – ‘Jour 8’
Hildegaard was introduced to me by my friend Pascal (Fashion Club) when I asked her what I should listen to on a bike ride. This whole album is a masterpiece. I think the production is perfect, it’s sparse but very intentional. This song in particular I’m truly obsessed with – the vocal loop, the bass line, the intertwining voices, the lyrics, the beat coming in half way through. I’m very inspired by Hildegaard, their music is restrained but super impactful. Enchanting.

2. John Carroll Kilby – ‘Walking Through A House Where A Family Has Lived’
I’ve been really into piano music lately and John Carrol Kilby is a beautiful contemporary pianist. I find this record to be very emotional. I don’t know how to play piano really at all, but I aspire to make a piano record and I listen to this all the time for inspiration. It makes me think of… wind? Wind moving leaves. Looking out a window peeling an orange.

3. FPA – ‘Baby’
I listened to this song for the first time walking down the street in the morning in Chinatown in NYC. My friend Andrew sent me the record because he worked on it some. I think it’s so incredible. I love this song. “My body pure, have I not paid it forward? My heart, she beats, did I not lay her on you?” The record is a story she wrote about Princess Wiko. I really want to collaborate with her.

4. Alabaster DePlume – ‘Whisky Story Time’
Wonderful saxophone player, very reminiscent of Mulatu Astatke. Introduced to me by my partner via the label he is a part of – International Anthem, which I highly recommend, everything they release is special. I love this style of saxophone playing, very loose, fluid? Sam Gendel is another sax player I love. Lately I’ve been mostly drawn to instrumental music, maybe because I’ve been stressed… Sometimes it’s just too much to hear other people’s words all the time. Anyway I love this record and Gus is also British, like me…

5. Dua Saleh, Amaarae – ‘fitt’
Two artists I love collaborating. Amaarae was introduced to me by my bandmate Yasmine who is a longtime super fan of her. I listened on our flight together to California. I love the panning on the distorted blown out beat. I love dancing to this song. It just moves around in a really satisfying way. I also love a pitched down vocal. Produced by Dua and Psymum.

Thanks to LALA LALA for sharing her favourite songs with us.
Watch her video for ‘DIVER’ below.

LALA LALA UK Tour Dates 2022
Feb 20 – The Green Door Store – Brighton, United Kingdom
Feb 21 – Moth Club – London, United Kingdom
Feb 23 – Hyde Park Book Club – Leeds, United Kingdom
Feb 24 – Nice N Sleazy – Glasgow, United Kingdom
Feb 25 – YES – Manchester, United Kingdom
Feb 26 – Strange Brew – Bristol, United Kingdom

Follow LALA LALA on bandcamp, Spotify, Twitter, Instagram & Facebook

Photo Credit: Miwah Lee

Kate Crudgington
@KCBobCut

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Five Favourites: SUEP

Led by SuepLord (Porridge Radio, Garden Centre, The GN Band) and Brain Wastefield (UK top model), London based SUEP are now a fully formed band with the addition of GN (The GN Band, Joanna Gruesome, The Tubs), Freakin’ Deacon (PC World, Garden Centre), and T-Mr.9 (Head of Pastoral Care). Interweaving jangly hooks with a whirring, psychedelic haze, the band recently released their debut single ‘Domesticated Dream‘. Oozing a vibrant, quirky energy, a joyous clatter of percussion swirls alongside uptempo electro-driven melodies and sweeping, honey-sweet vocals. A perfectly eclectic scintillating soundscape.

We think one of the best ways to get to know a band is by asking what music inspires them. So, to celebrate SUEP’s new single, we caught up with Sueplord to ask about her “Five Favourites” – five songs that she loves the most. Check out their choices below and scroll down to watch the unique new video for ‘Domesticated Dream’.

The Flirts – ‘Passion’
I only heard this song kind of recently, my friend Liam put it on in one of our YouTube sessions that me and my housemates often did during lockdown. It’s just so good and I reckon it’s quite theatrical, I really want to sing and act out all the words and dance along every time I hear it. I just looked up that The Flirts were formed by Bobby Orlando who worked with Divine and the Pet Shop Boys who I also love. I’ve been playing this song every time I DJ at the moment, and when I was on Green Man radio this summer I accidentally put on the extended mix which is just under 10 mins long but no one complained, that’s why I know it’s a good ‘un. There are a few performance videos of the song on YouTube and they are all amazing. I have definitely tried to use the song as a kind of exercise video by dancing along to their moves in my living room.

The Umlauts – ‘Boiler Suits and Combat Boots’
Ahh man I love the Umlauts so much, this is the first song of theirs I heard. It doesn’t have a video but it’s just such a great vibe and tune that I think I can get away with it. Porridge Radio played with them at two Library shows in Ashton and Widnes last month and there weren’t many people there and in Widnes it was a matinee performance, but they rocked it so hard, they sounded so large and full and it was literally impossible for me not to dance. I’ve listened to this song so much that when the synth solo came in I was singing along… They are stand up people as well. I can’t wait to hear their next single and the album. They are on Prah Recordings that are putting out some incredible stuff at the moment.

Jona Lewie – ‘I Think I’ll Get My Hair Cut’
Ok, this song is the song that I wish SUEP had written. But my man Jona wrote it. Jona Lewie is such a huge inspiration to me and Josh from SUEP. All of his songs have incredible hooks with a twinge of humour, which is exactly the genre I love, and I think it’s definitely a genre. One that Paul McCartney also fits into. I love that throughout the song he’s trying to be more attractive and popular and he’s concluded that to do that, he needs a haircut, but at the end of the song he realises he’s trying too hard and actually his hair is great. We’ve all been there. The synth riff that comes in goes straight to my heart every time I hear it, and I’ve heard this song a lot, I know all the words. By writing this I have concluded that SUEP should maybe cover this song. Keep your ears to the ground.

Becky Hill, David Guetta – ‘Remember’
Something a little different. I cannot contain how much I love this song. I have listened to it maybe a million times. The video is fine, don’t let it distract you from the lyrics:

“It’s only when I’m lying in bed on my own
And I wake up and I don’t see your name on my phone
It’s in the moments where I think that I’m better alone
That’s when I remember, that’s when I remember
Every time I walk past your house in the rain
And I tell myself that you were the biggest mistake
And just when I think I’m finally doing okay
That’s when I remember, that’s when I remember’

It gets me so deep every time. And it’s a huge club classic slam dunk. The amount of times I’ve been driving and yelling every word. Just thinking about it makes me want to cry with some kind of joyous sad tears. Nice one as well to Becky Hill, her voice is smash hits good. And David Guetta, all I can say is thank you. I’d just like to shout out to another song I would have put on this playlist that the rest of the band would have probably hated: Avicii – ‘Wake Me Up’ (definitely a song I wish I had written).

Alessi Brothers – ‘Seabird’
Damn, when this song drops and the vocals come in! The way the vocals are produced as well, they are so loud but so perfect. Normally I like vocals a bit buried, but this song has just got it. The lyrics are so beautiful and also is that a drum machine??? Also mega fade out vibes. It has it all.

Massive thanks to Sueplord for sharing their Five Favourites! Watch the video for ‘Domesticated Dream’ here:

‘Domesticated Dream’ is out now. It was recorded with producer Matthew Green (Sniffany & The Nits, The Tubs, etc.) at
SuepLord’s old house, which was once a youth centre in Surrey Quays, with the old sports hall being made into a makeshift studio where SUEP laid down a mini album worth of songs in two days, and later mixed by Mike
O’Malley (caroline, Girl Ray).

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