Introducing Interview: Megan Airlie

Having just released her stunning new single ‘After River’, Scottish artist Megan Airlie tackles the issue of mental health with her sweeping, emotion-strewn vocals and twinkling, finger-picked melodies.

We caught up with Megan to find out more about her journey with music…

Hi Megan, welcome to Get In Her Ears! Can you tell us a bit about who you are and what you do?
I grew up in Glasgow which has a pretty predominant and flourishing music scene. You do need to go on the hunt though to find music that isn’t, as a friend calls it, “skinny white boy guitar bands”, but there is definitely a wide variety of great music happening here. I’m currently only performing solo around Glasgow, my voice and my guitar. Soon I would like to build up to being in a band again on my terms. But I write all my own tunes and pull a lot of influence from the ‘40s-‘60s

What initially inspired you to start creating music?
I would never tell anyone as a child, for fear of embarrassment, but I’ve always wanted to perform in some way. I looked up to my aunt a lot who was in a band in the ’90s and I thought that was the coolest thing ever, so I taught myself how to sing and play but didn’t really write anything until I was 17.

Who would you say have been your main musical influences?
Jeff Buckley, Fiona Apple, Judy Garland, Aretha Franklin and Etta James were always the people I would aspire to perform like. I take a lot of influence from the ’60s folk scene as well.

We love your beautiful new single ‘After River’. Can you tell us a bit about what inspired you to write it?
I had not sat down to write or felt the need to write in a long time before ‘After River’. It came out during a very dark period and when my mental health was at its worst, so I thought best to hold myself up as much as a could and release something out of me that needed to be said. I find it easier to talk about things through writing it down and putting it to a melody than just saying to folk “I feel terrible”. I don’t think I could have written about anything else at that time.

 

Do you feel the music industry could be doing more to support mental health issues?
Totally. But every industry could be. I actually feel more unity and support when it comes to mental health discussion in the music scene than anywhere else. There is a lot more understanding I find. But we should always be attentive and we should always open up a dialogue about it.

And what advice would you give to other musicians struggling with their own mental health?
When in doubt, write it down. Get it out and take time to process. Everything slows down a little when you put pen to paper.

And what does the rest of 2018 have in store for Megan Airlie?
I’m currently preparing for future single releases to come out in the next couple of months, and getting back into recording soon with Scott Flanagan who recorded my single ‘After River’. A lot of exciting stuff!

Huge thanks to Megan for answering our questions!

‘After River’ is out now Bloc Music Records.

 

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Introducing Interview: Hvmmingbyrd

Having charmed our ears with previous single ‘Gozo’, Irish duo Hvmmingbyrd are back with exquisite new single ‘Papillon’. Exploring the ebb and flow from creative euphoria to self-doubt, it’s a soaring slice of ethereal electro-pop.

We caught up with the duo to find out more about their new single, influences, learning how to produce their own music and more…

Hi Hvmmingbyrd, welcome to Get In Her Ears! Can you tell us a bit about the band?
We are Deborah Byrne and Suzette Das, a pair of singers/songwriters/producers from Dublin, Ireland. We blend electronic sounds with intense layered vocal harmonies and have been making music together since early 2016.

How did you initially all get together and start creating music?
Deborah had performed both as a solo singer/songwriter and with a folk band prior to the duo forming, and Suzette had studied music in university and performed in choirs and jazz bands. They met each other through mutual friends in Dublin in early 2016 – Suzette had been posting loop original and covers on Youtube and Deborah thought it could be an interesting collaboration and asked Suzette if she wanted to work together! 

Your new single ‘Papillon’ is out now – can you tell us what it’s all about? Are there any themes running throughout the single?
‘Papillon’ is about the darker side of the creative life inspired by our own experiences. Creating music can be incredibly joyous and life-giving and the song begins by describing stitching something beautiful together, releasing it, and watching as it takes on a life of its own. But the creator is conflicted by how obsessed and driven they are to create versus wanting to slow down and enjoy it more. In the end, she is overridden by the compulsion and becomes obsessed with the creation to the point of self-destruction; the creator has made something beautiful, but is left completely spent and weary from the effort.

 

You’ve been compared to the likes of Maggie Rogers and Overcoats, but who would you say are your main musical influences?
We have lots of different influences, from classical, orchestral music, chamber choirs and movies scores, to hip hop, folk and pop. Some of our current favourites would be Bon Iver, Daft Punk, Francis & the Lights, Vera Blue… Growing up Deborah was a massive fan of Lauryn Hill and Joni Mitchell, and Suzette loved Kimbra and Laura Marling. We are both converts to electronic music so there are splashes of electronica throughout our music too – last year, we both started studying production and engineering and made it a goal to produce our own music both in the studio and live onstage.

How is your local music scene? Do you go to see lots of live music?
Both of us live in or close to Dublin city centre so we’re pretty spoiled for choice. There are quality gigs happening every night if you have the time or energy to go! It’s been a real joy for us getting stuck into the Dublin music community. We learn something new every time we go to see our peers perform!

And what can fans expect from your live shows?
Our vocal harmonies will always remain at the centre of what we do, whether it’s an intimate acoustic show, or a full electronic show at a festival. We’ve always wanted to convey the colours and movement of our music in a visual way so we are collaborating with a lighting designer to incorporate a lights show and also hope to introduce live visuals too. From a live perspective, we are exploring how to blend the freedom of improvised acoustic music with the restrictions of electronic music by incorporating live vocal looping with our electronic sounds.

As we’re a new music focused site, are there any new/upcoming bands or artists you’d recommend we check out?
Some of our Irish favourites include ‘agrosoul’ four piece BARQ, RnB trio Wyvern Lingo and singer-songwriter Sinead White.

And how do you feel the music industry is for new bands at the moment – would you say it’s difficult to get noticed?
Well, living in the digital era makes some things easier and some things harder. The parameters of social media and its algorithms keep changing for good reason but it can be challenging to stay up to date on how and when is the best way to reach fans, as well as holding a balance of keeping everyone informed without posting incessantly. It’s also fun trying to keep producing quality social media content – we are musicians, not digital marketers, videographers or graphic designers, but we try our best! Overall, the opportunities that living in a digital era afford us as independent artists are pretty amazing and we’re thankful for that.

Finally, what does the rest of 2018 have in store for Hvmmingbyrd?
We are already working on our next single which we hope to release in June, followed by a few festival dates yet to be announced, and a national tour in the summer with Sinead White.

Huge thanks to Hvmmingbyrd for answering our questions! 

‘Papillon’, the new single from Hvmmingbyrd, is out now.

 

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Introducing Interview: Post Louis

Back in full force after retreating to a remote cottage in Wales, Post Louis have returned with their new single ‘Little Jack’.  Truly unique in what it delivers, it got our attention straight away delivering much more experimental and lyrically darker music than any of their previous offerings. Not being able to get the new single from the angular art-rock quintet out of our ears, we jumped at the chance to have a chat with them.

We caught up with vocalist Stephanie Davin to find out more about their new collection of songs, raising money for Women for Refugee Women and what to expect from their upcoming show at Paper Dress Vintage…

Welcome to Get In Her Ears! Can you tell us a bit about Post Louis and how it all started?
Robbie and I started making music at university. We tried all sorts of formats… From acoustic performances as a pair with a guitar, to working with a string quartet and full band. We even played quite an ambitious show at a student party at 3am with just the two of us on stage making lots of noise with loopers, guitar pedals, synths… We should have known better. Finally, we moved back to London where we’d both grown up, started playing music with friends and began forming the band into something approximating its current state.

Post Louis has just resurfaced with a collection of new songs, can you tell us a bit more about the process of creating these new songs? A mix of retreating to a remote cottage in Wales during the winter, then experimenting further in a Norwegian Church in South London?
Exactly. When Post Louis started it was more of a bedroom project, with Robbie and me writing, recording, experimenting and producing it all at home in quite an isolated way. By the time we wrote this current batch of songs, Post Louis had expanded and had been playing for quite a while as a solid group of five. The songs are designed to expose the playing styles and personalities of each band member, and this came out more and more as we developed them. After the time at the church, we recorded drums and bass live in two intense two-day batches at 123 studios with Brett Shaw, who we’ve worked with before. Then we added all the other parts at the church and in a home studio. At different points in the process we pulled in several mates and other jazz and classical musicians we know. There are lots of incredibly talented friends sprinkled throughout the new songs. And then the final stage was many, many hours of production and mixing. Robbie leads on the instrumentals, I lead on the vocals and then we glue it all together.

Did you intentionally choose to rehearse in a church and what impact do you think that has on the music?
I’d love to say it was intentional and made it somehow more spiritual or substantial. The truth is that we did it out of necessity. Our drummer lives and works at the church and it meant we could use the space for free, something for which we were amazingly grateful. If anything it probably made our sounds a bit drier. The church is incredibly echoey so we had to be careful with delays and reverbs.

We’re loving the new single ‘Little Jack’ at Get In Her Ears HQ, which we’ve played on the radio show. It seems like an incredibly apt and on point song to be releasing now, can you tell us a bit more about the song and what it’s exploring? 
Thank you for playing it! Essentially, ‘Little Jack’ is a character study of someone who lives mainly in their own head. It’s about the pains of loneliness and low confidence, and what happens when these mix with naïve sexual desire. I wanted to hint at the potential for harm or even domination. I have said elsewhere that Little Jack isn’t a monster, but the song is in part about how monsters – or wolves – are made. I believe we need to rethink how we make, force and mould some children into being ‘men’. As you indicate, discussions on these kinds of topics are growing in force in some spaces at the moment. I find it exciting and moving, but am also filled with some trepidation. Feminism gaining prominence often provokes a nasty backlash which I think we need to be ready for. At almost the opposite end of the scale, but also worrying, is co-option.

 

You’ve just played your first of two London shows at Stour Space, how was that?
It was wonderful. I live in Hackney Wick and have spent quite a bit of time at Stour Space. It’s an area that is changing quickly. The people at Stour have run a sort of locals night on Tuesdays for a while. They have pay-what-you-feel dinner and donate the proceeds. We asked for it to go to Women for Refugee Women to mark both International Women’s Day and the hunger strike that had just started at Yarl’s Wood. It felt good to be relaunching the band with a small event in our neighbourhood. A whole bunch of our friends came down to Stour Space and we had a great evening.

Your next gig is at Paper Dress Vintage on 27th April, what can people expect from your live shows?
I’m really proud of our live show. The musicianship is tight and I think you can tell we love doing it. I trust the four of them, which means I feel I can let go on stage. The live show is quite intense as a result. I don’t really do irony or distance (in music or otherwise); it’s full-on communication for 60 minutes or thereabouts.

What’s the rest of 2018 got in store for Post Louis?
Releasing good music, playing good shows and juggling the rest of our lives in the process.

Finally as we’re a new music focused site, are there any other new/upcoming bands or artists you’d suggest we check out?
Our drummer Mattis is part of a project called amini and our guitarist Andy has his own band called milkd – you should check these out. A friend of ours has also just started releasing music as Lokki, we played with him at the Stour Space show – you should also have a listen to his new single.

Huge thanks to Post Louis for answering our questions! 

Catch Post Louis live at Paper Dress Vintage (for Parallel Lines) on 27th April.

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Introducing Interview: Leisure Tank

Since forming in 2014, duo Leisure Tank have released debut album Wet Suit, and wowed crowds at the likes of Camp Bestival and Mellow Festival with their catchy alt-rock offerings.

Having just released the raw and dynamic energy of new single ‘Higher’, we caught up with Leisure Tank to find out more…

Hi Leisure Tank , welcome to Get In Her Ears! Can you tell us a bit about the band?
Leisure Tank is a female fronted indie rock duo. K.C. on guitar and vocals and Budi on drums. Style-wise we probably float around the area of indie rock; stoner, grunge-influenced, and a bit of punk attitude with some bluesy touches. Man, that’s the hardest thing to do as a band, describing your own sound.

How did you initially get together and start creating music?
We met in Berlin in the late nineties. Budi broke into my flat, helping a friend who had lost the key… Then we started hanging out, listening to music and creating it. We had a folk/songwriter band for 8 years, then created Leisure Tank as I started writing on electric guitar and wanted to get all loud and fun.

Your new single ‘Higher’ is out very soon – can you tell us what it’s all about?
I wrote ‘Higher’ after someone complained to me about their ex girlfriend. It was in such clear view, all the things that person had projected on her and she couldn’t possibly live up to and fulfil. Still, she was the one to blame. And I could not tell that person, so I wrote ‘Higher’ and became all brave and in-your-face, as music gives you that space. And it turned into a really fun song for us to play!

 

You’ve been compared to the likes of Blood Red Shoes and The Joy Formidable, but who would you say are your main musical influences?
Mm… I actually don’t listen to that much music from our own genre, I do have two Blood Red Shoes albums though and love their song ‘Don’t Ask’. I like The Band, Vampire Weekend, Dylan, Joni Mitchell, lots of songwriter music. Budi and I both like Led Zeppelin, Cream, some Jazz….

How is your local music scene? Do you go to see lots of live music?
We are based in London and really cannot complain about the music scene here. I wish I had more time to see more live shows though.

And what can fans expect from your live shows?
Well, it will be emotional but fun, I’d say.

As we’re a new music focused site, are there any new/upcoming bands or artists you’d recommend we check out?
Marine, Spy from Moscow, Frauds….

And how do you feel the music industry is for new bands at the moment – would you say it’s difficult to get noticed?
Yes, but also we can release music to our liking and make our own way through the musical jungle without relying on anyone’s approval.

Finally, what does the rest of 2018 have in store for Leisure Tank?
A video release, more shows in UK, Germany and Czech Republic, and hopefully more writing and recording.

Huge thanks to Leisure Tank for answering our questions! 

‘Higher’, the new single from Leisure Tank, is out now. And catch Leisure Tank live at the following dates:

29th March – Little Buildings – Newcastle Upon Tyne
30th March – Sticky Fingers – Middlesbrough

 

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