Introducing Interview: Jewelia

With over 20,000 listens on Spotify and with acclaim from the likes of BBC Introducing and BBC Radio Kent, London based artist Jewelia has been charming our ears with her soulful alt-pop sounds. Oozing a sparkling raw emotion alongside her rich, honey-sweet vocals, latest single ‘Second Best‘ offers a heartfelt anthem delivered with a subtle, stirring power.

To celebrate the single’s release, we caught up with Jewelia to find out more…

Hi Jewelia! Welcome to Get In Her Ears! Can you tell us a bit about yourself?
I’m a singer-songwriter based in London, originally from Bucharest, Romania. I moved to the UK a few years ago to study Music Production, so that I would be able to execute the vision for my songs without a middle-man. I play piano and I’m learning guitar. I love books and also writing my own stories and poems when I have time, online shopping (especially when it’s for music video props), and cats, but sadly I don’t have one… !

Are you able to tell us a bit about how and why you initially started creating music?
I’ve been singing and writing songs since I was little – in fact, I believe I wrote my first song when I was seven. When I was thirteen I became interested in production and started teaching myself to record and produce my own songs. Music was always something I was very interested in, so there was simply no other way!

We love your Maisie Peters-inspired alt-pop sounds, but who would you say are your main musical influences?
As a teenager, I was obsessed with Muse. Their early material was so powerful and intensely emotional, and I loved how their topics were things that don’t often appear in songs, such as outer space or the state of the world. It was what made me want to have a band, and have my own voice, so a very strong early influence for me. A couple of others would be Amanda Palmer (in the period of my first EP and album), Sufjan Stevens and Lana del Rey. These days I listen to a lot of alt-pop, the likes of Phoebe Bridgers or Holly Humberstone.

You’ve just released your new single ‘Second Best’. Are you able to tell us a bit about it?
‘Second Best’ is about feeling inadequate in a society that celebrates the one-in-a-million American Dream stories of going from rags to riches, while collectively pitying the the masses living average lives. From a young age, we watch stories of success against all odds and are besotted with the chosen one, while getting accustomed to look down on the average people and their struggles – the irony being, of course, that we are them. We are told that we can achieve anything, if only we try hard enough. As inspiring as this sounds, it also implies that we only have ourselves to blame (regardless of systemic disadvantages, biological limits, financial difficulty etc) for having an average life, in a world where mediocrity is viewed as being worse than utter failure. Something is messed up here, and I thought it was worth exploring.

Being based in London, do you get to see lots of live music? Would you say it’s recovered since the pandemic?
There is always something cool happening in London, but I don’t go out as much as I should, really! I used to go to a lot of gigs before the pandemic; not so much now, but planning to change that! I’m Not sure if things are the same, as some venues have really suffered and even had to close, but I see that lots of things are going on, and lots of friends and people I know are back to putting on gigs.

And what can fans expect from your live shows?
No shows planned for this year, but hoping to put together a UK tour in 2023, to promote the new album coming out next year. More details TBC!

How do you feel the industry is for new artists at the moment? And do you feel much has changed over the last few years in its treatment of female and queer/LGBTQ+  artists?
I am seeing a lot of positive change, a lot more visibility and lot more acceptance. But there’s still a long way to go! I’d love to see more women producers (we are still a tiny fraction of the total, less than 3%)! And less ageism, again especially directed at women. Life doesn’t end at 30, so why should music careers end then? Thankfully this also seems to be improving, slowly.

As we’re a new music focused site, are there any other upcoming artists or bands you’re loving right now that you’d recommend we check out?
Just looking at my feed at some musicians I know that have released music recently, check out Austel – ‘Cut Me Down’, GRAY – ‘A Million Roses’, Rookes – ‘Paint’, Feral Five – ‘Silver Sky’. I also love Luna Keller’s ‘Wolves’ and Luke Fraser with ‘Moth Eaten Romeo’.

Finally, what does the rest of the year have in store for you?
I have at least one more single dropping before the end of the year, a new album pre-order announcement to come, and also the obligatory Christmas video! And I’ll also be found playing songs and taking requests on Twitch (almost) every Sunday!

Massive thanks to Jewelia for answering our questions!

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Introducing Interview: Queen Colobus

Having received support from the likes of BBC 6Music’s Mary Anne Hobbs, as well as Jazz FM and Soho Radio, South London based indie-jazz collective Queen Colobus have recently released their new EP Think Fast. Filled with blissful hooks, luscious swooning vocals and glistening laid-back beats, it showcases the band’s ability to fuse together an eclectic array of influences to create wonderfully woozy, musically rich euphoric soundscapes.

We caught up with Queen Colobus to find out more about the EP, what inspires them and what to expect from their live shows…

Hi Queen Colobus, welcome to Get In Her Ears! Can you tell us a bit about the band?
Hiya! We’re a genre-bending 4-piece based in South London. We’ve been together for about three years and Beth (sax/vocals) and Jelly (guitar) live together in sunny Camberwell in a house full of musicians. Our name was derived from an Old World Monkey called King Colobus, which we thought reflected our wise and playful nature (but being a female-led band, Queen felt more apt). We all love marmite.

How did you initially all get together and start creating music?
Beth & Jelly met at a jam session in Southampton years ago and bonded over being the only female instrumentalists in the room. We forged an alliance and, upon realising how weird we both are following a raspberry-blowing-on-a-random-person’s-stomach incident, we roped in our frivolity-filled mates Will & Adam to create Queen Colobus. We thought the weirdness might seep into the music too and, sure enough, our music has been repeatedly described as wonky.

Your new EP Think Fast is out now – can you tell us what it’s all about? Are there any specific themes running throughout the album?
Yes, we’re really proud of this one! It’s our second EP. Beth wrote the bare bones of most of these songs and then brought them to the band, so they’re fairly personal. The EP covers themes that are often not talked about in society; grief, mental health struggles and unrealistic body ideals. ‘Think Fast’, the title track, hits back at body ideals and their damaging effects on women, especially young women, whereas ‘5/9’ was written about Beth’s Dad’s relentless positivity as he underwent cancer treatment. The final track of the EP, ‘Old Friend’, was recorded live in one take and is a sweet song on learning how to be alone.

You’ve been compared to the likes of Hiatus Kaiyote and Arlo Parks, but who would you say are your main musical influences?
We’re lucky to all have such a wide spread of influences. For example, Beth always says that she sort of fell into jazz because she plays saxophone, but listens to so much indie and rock music that this weird amalgamation of them all comes out in her writing. Then when we come together, everyone brings their styles to create an even weirder combination that we often struggle to identify. We can feel a lot of the underground scene’s genre lines becoming blurred and us slowly moving into a post-genre music world, and we’re excited to be part of it. If we had to name one or two influences, Hiatus Kaiyote and Led Zeppelin are probably top of the list.

How is your local music scene? Do you go to see lots of live music?
As Beth & Jelly live in a house of musicians we were lucky to have a full band in the house over lockdown. As things started to open up but venues hadn’t yet, we would host jams for our community in our back garden, so we were really fortunate to still experience live music throughout the pandemic. Our music community is incredible – everyone is so supportive of each other. We see a lot of live music because we’re passionate about it but also because we want to support all our mates!

And what can fans expect from your live shows?
Lots of cathartic rage channelled through a saxophone, followed by sweet calming sounds soothed by Beth’s voice. Extreme guitar solos from Jelly via a concerningly un-grounded plethora of guitar pedals. Will’s head bobbing so furiously you feel his neck must be a slinky. An absurd rhythmic wizard named Adam via the medium of drums. Seriously, though, the audience are very much a part of our performance – we’re always so inspired by everyone’s energy in the room. We always try to create a space where everyone on and off stage feels like they can let go and be completely immersed in the moment.

As we’re a new music focused site, are there any new/upcoming bands or artists you’d recommend we check out?
Yes! We’re loving Holysseus Fly ‘Marigold’ and Stanlæy ‘omnibiguous’ – two singles released last month that are incredible. Shoutouts to Plumm ‘Flame to Flame’, Nina Fine ‘Little Lies’ and t l k ‘Frame Of Ted’. Also we became completely obsessed with Jessi Mac’s tune ‘Carry On’ last year. Excited for Marla Kether and China Bowls to drop their new music soon too.

And how do you feel the music industry is for new bands at the moment – would you say it’s difficult to get noticed?
It’s hard because the pandemic stopped so many artists’ trajectories in their tracks – it sort of felt like we were over-saturated as a scene as venues started to open up and bands released music they wrote over that time too. Having said this, the saturation is also super inspiring – everyone is creating and pushing boundaries with their art and it inspires us to do so too. There’s always an element of luck too which is impossible to predict.

Finally, what does the rest of 2022 have in store for Queen Colobus?
We’re working on some new music and will be back in the studio early 2023 – lots more weird sounds coming your way!

Think Fast, the new EP fro Queen Colobus is out now. Listen to / buy it on Bandcamp now.

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Introducing Interview: Red Ribbon

Following the release of last year’s album Planet X, and 2018’s Dark Party, LA based artist Red Ribbon is now heading over to our shores for her first ever UK tour. With a London date planned at The Victoria a week today on 19th October with support from GIHE fave, Ailsa Tully, we can’t wait to witness her captivating sounds live. If gritty, ethereal soundscapes and sweeping celestial vocals, interwoven with a twinkling folk-strewn musicality, are your thing then you should definitely join us there!

Prior to her setting out on tour, we caught up with Red Ribbon to find out about what inspires her, the influences behind her latest album, the power of fear and more… Have a read!

Hi Red Ribbon! Welcome to Get In Her Ears! Can you tell us a bit about yourself? 
Thank you so much! I am currently based out of Los Angeles. I’m originally from the Pacific Northwest, but had a bit of a transient upbringing and moved around the United States growing up.  That has given me a dual perspective of both knowing how to get along with all kinds of people, yet always sort of feeling like an outsider everywhere. I always have a soft spot for underdogs.

Are you able to tell us a bit about how and why you initially started creating music? 
I was in the grade school choir and band as a little kid.  There was also an acoustic guitar and a piano in my home growing up, so I’d play around on those when I was small. Nothing exceptional, just kid stuff. I don’t think anybody really saw musical potential in me or anything, but I was always drawn to it. What really got me going was when I studied classical violin when I was about eighteen.  I began busking alone in San Francisco, and that is when I realized I loved to perform as a musician, and that I could do it as a job. Sort of in conjunction with that, I began messing around on the electric guitar to write songs, and yeah, I was hooked.

We love your beautifully twinkling sounds , but who would you say are your main musical influences?
Elliott Smith, The Velvet Underground, The Pacific Northwest’s underground DIY music scene…

You released your Planet X album last year. Are you able to tell us a bit about what inspired it and the themes running throughout it?
I recorded the album mostly in Brooklyn January of 2020, right before things really shut down. A few tracks were also recorded in Tornillo Texas (along the Mexican border) and in Seattle Washington, where I was living at the time. I was very influenced by touring my first studio record, Dark Party. Me and my band had the chance to do some lengthy touring in 2019. There was a knowing that we all had going into recording – the American political climate was reaching a fever pitch of horror. I think we knew perhaps something was going to break – though I don’t think any of us imagined how it would play out exactly. I built the visual world of that record as an escape from the disasters of 2020 and 2021. It was my place to go to, colourful and strange.

You’re coming over to the UK this month for a little tour (including a London date with GIHE fave Ailsa Tully), which is super exciting! What can fans expect from your live shows?
I am so excited! This is my first solo tour and my first UK tour. Really I’m looking at this as a tour surrounding the album I’m working on now. I am taking some of the songs from this tour into the studio when I get back to Los Angeles.  I will also be playing some of my favourite songs from my previous albums of course!

And have there been any gigs you’ve played in the past that stand out as particular highlights for you?
I love playing in unusual places, under a freeway with a generator for example! But I think these upcoming shows will be some of my favourite ever, because I am afraid of them, haha. I know that sounds funny, but there is power in becoming the fear! You know, I am travelling very far, and alone. It is fairly dangerous. Sometimes that is exactly what music needs. It’s really about the ‘X Factor’ – the unexplainable magic vibe – that makes a show killer. A little danger is good.

How do you feel the industry is for new artists at the moment? And do you feel much has changed over the last few years in its treatment of female and queer/LGBTQ+  artists? 
There is a song by Gillian Welch called ‘Everything is Free’ that I think sums up things better than I can.

As we’re a new music focused site, are there any other upcoming artists you’re loving right now that you’d recommend we check out?
Absolutely!  I’ve been really loving the tracks that Cold Mega has been putting out – ‘Swinging the Dog’ is so good. Also some of my most favourite musicians and collaborators, Sheridan Riley and Abbey Blackwell have formed the new rhythm section for the Canadian band Alvvays, and the new record they put out is honestly a triumph. I am so proud of them. My former label mates Momma are also absolutely crushing it right now, they have been hitting the road hard the past few months and I think the world is noticing.

Aside from the tour, what does the rest of the year have in store for Red Ribbon? 
I am close to finishing my next record in Los Angeles. I have been working on it since March of this year. This is a different approach for me.  More of a long-game approach versus you know, seven days in a row at the studio or whatever. Though admittedly musicians always are most excited by their current work, in my opinion it is the best stuff I have ever done. I can’t wait to share these songs with you! The world is opening up again. I didn’t get to tour my last album Planet X much, since it was released during the pandemic. Personally, I didn’t have the desire to be the first back out on the road. But with this tour, and with this new record, I am finally ready. I am relentless in my drive to just keep going.

Massive thanks to Red Ribbon for answering our questions!

If you’re London based, catch her live at The Victoria in Dalston on 19th October – tickets here.

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Introducing Interview: Tina Boonstra

Having previously charmed our ears with her heartwarming 2020 EP, City Of Doubt, and received acclaim from the likes of BBC 6Music’s Tom Robinson and BBC Introducing, alt-pop artist Tina Boonstra has now returned with a beautiful new single. A stirring reflection on female friendships and how life rarely meets your expectations, ‘Martha’ flows with lilting melodies and a shimmering, heartfelt lyricism, showcasing the raw, immersive emotion of Boonstra’s vocals.

We caught up with Tina Boonstra to find out more about what inspires her and her experience of the industry… Have a read, and listen to ‘Martha‘ now!

Hi Tina, welcome to Get In Her Ears! Can you tell us a bit about yourself?
Hi! I’m an artist based just outside of London. I’m really interested in songs that tell stories, and I’ve been trying to write them since I was a kid.

How did you initially start creating music?
I think I was eleven or twelve when I wrote my first song. My sister played guitar at the time so I tried to get her to work out the chords to play along, but she couldn’t figure them out. That’s when I started playing guitar. After that I just kept on writing new songs, and that fuelled me to practice playing. I was never really very interested in playing covers – it was the writing that really excited me and still does now

Your new single ‘Martha’ is out now – can you tell us what it’s all about?
It’s a story about getting to know someone. And how first impressions aren’t always that accurate., When you meet someone for the first time, you almost never start at the beginning. You start somewhere in the middle and travel simultaneously forwards and backwards together as you begin to build a picture of who they are, where they’ve been and where they’re going. The way this song developed, it took me by surprise; it takes a pretty dark turn when Martha starts telling her story. But I suppose that’s true for a lot of us – there’s the self we show when we meet someone, but then over time we share more of the things that have shaped us, the good stuff and the hard stuff. 

You’ve been compared to the likes of Regina Spektor and Sam Fender, but who would you say are your main musical influences?
I love songs that tell a story. So artists like Sheryl Crow and Fleetwood Mac have really had a big influence on me over the past few years. 

How is your local music scene? Do you go to see lots of live music?
It’s been difficult over the past few years, but it’s exciting to see things start to happen again. There’s this incredible record store not far from where I live called LP Cafe. It’s a tiny place, but they host some great events, they do a lot to support the local scene and they make a mean flat white too.

And what can fans expect from your live shows?
I love playing these songs live – there’s nothing like the energy of a room full of people singing songs you wrote in your bedroom. Expect all the emotion, joy, pain, heartache that you hear on the record times a hundred. Expect to dance, sing, cry and maybe even make some new friends. 

As we’re a new music focused site, are there any new/upcoming bands or artists you’d recommend we check out?
I’m really looking forward to hearing Nadine Yomi‘s new EP – she’s just released a new single, ‘Bloom’. I love her songwriting and her voice. Definitely go and check her out.

And how do you feel the music industry is for new bands at the moment – would you say it’s difficult to get noticed?
The times when I’ve focused on making music instead of ‘making it’ in music have always been a lot more fun for me. As an artist I have an amazing opportunity to introduce fans of my music to other great artists. I love curating nights, sharing great music with people I love and giving other artists the opportunity to share their story. I think if we could do more of that as artists, the better the world would be. 

Finally, what does the rest of 2022 have in store for Tina Boonstra?
I’m working on an album at the moment. It’s my first one, and I’m very excited about it. There are a lot of stories to tell. Mostly stories of older women, which kind of surprised me in the writing process, but I hope it will connect people. Also, me and my band are playing at Between the Trees Festival later this month!

Massive thanks to Tina for answering our questions!

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