FIVE FAVOURITES: Kira McSpice

Finding strength in vulnerability is something that multi-instrumentalist Kira McSpice has been carefully leaning into, on both an artistic and personal level. Her beautifully titled new album, The Compartmentalization of Decay, is a poignant reflection on trauma and life after sexual assault, which she personifies through the natural protective and healing mechanisms of plants, in particular, the maple tree. Her exquisite voice and dynamic string arrangements make for striking and hypnotic listening.

Plant pathologist and biologist Alex L. Shigo writes: “Animals heal, but trees compartmentalize. They endure a lifetime of injury and infection by setting boundaries that resist the spread of the invading microorganisms.” Kira McSpice draws on this natural phenomenon on her latest record, slowly becoming more resilient in the process.

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 Kira to ask about her “Five Favourites” – five tracks that have inspired her songwriting techniques. Check out her choices below and scroll down to watch the video for Kira’s latest single ‘Knife like a Spile‘ at the end of this post…

 

1. Kate Bush – ‘Hello Earth’
Kate Bush is my very favorite. When I was 19 I got her album, The Kick Inside, on CD and drove around blasting it and trying to hit all the high notes. I can’t really explain how much her music means to me. She taught me how to sing. Before I found her I thought I was supposed to have this kind of low vocal fry thing going on with my voice but once I found her I realized I was supposed to go higher and weirder and it felt like I had discovered who I was. This song ‘Hello Earth’ makes me crazy. It’s part of her album, Hounds of Love, and within the album there’s this 7 song story about a person lost at sea. It’s such a beautiful concept and basically ‘Hello Earth’ is when she’s floating away and losing consciousness and becoming detached from the world. She’s drowning and there are these huge waves in the song that come over and over as she’s drifting farther away and it’s just so powerful and emotional.

2. Joanna Newsom – ‘Only Skin’
Probably the most beautiful song ever. Every time I hear it I discover something new. I feel like it’s one of those songs that will be with me all my life and mean different things to me as I get older. Sometimes when I need a good cry I’ll listen to it and when she gets to that part about 6 minutes in I let loose. It destroys me. I think it’s the melody that does it during that part. Her melodies and the instrumentation and the lyrics… I just love it all so much. Also these lyrics: “While down in the lowlands the crops are all coming; We have everything/ Life is thundering blissful towards death/ In a stampede of his fumbling green gentleness” those lyrics… are insane. Her lyrics changed the way I thought about lyrics. I really take them seriously because of her.

3. Elgar – ‘Cello Concerto in E minor, Op. 85’ (played by Jacqueline du Pré)
I started playing the cello when I was really young and Jacqueline du Pré was (and will forever be) my favorite cellist. Her performance of the Elgar cello concerto is her most famous and the concerto breaks my heart every time. When I was growing up, I would move around in a really dramatic way while playing the cello – she was famous for her dramatic movements and I thought that one day I’d be just like her. There was a movie about her and her sister called Hilary and Jackie, and in the movie she wears a shiny green dress while performing, so I wore a shiny green dress for my performance of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star when I was 4. The way she plays the cello is unlike any other. Her performances were full of so much emotion and energy, so much drama and sadness. She taught me that emotion is essential in performance.

4. Stravinsky – ‘Firebird Suite’
I played Stravinsky for the first time in high school with the symphony I was in. It was insane. We ended up touring with it in Europe and got to play this piece every night. ‘The Firebird’ changed me and how I thought about orchestral music. I hadn’t been introduced to the cool composers yet and when I finally got to play him it was a door into a very exciting realm for me. It felt like my world had expanded/shifted, like I realized the symphony could be used in a crazy way. It was the beginning of my discovery of more modern composers and more experimental music. I’ll always remember playing the very beginning of the piece. It’s so brooding and evil sounding. I fell in love immediately and wanted to recreate that feeling in different ways. I think I like Stravinsky because he does a lot of weird stuff but it doesn’t feel distracting, it feels like it has a purpose.

5. Talk Talk – ‘New Grass’
I chose this song because I always come back to it. I think it left an impression on me because of how sad it feels while still also feeling hopeful. I’m always drawn to music like that. It’s also got this cyclical structure that goes on and on. I remember when I first heard it I was hypnotized and didn’t want it to stop. Didn’t want to leave the world it created. I also hear little secret sounds? Loops? Tremelo strings? going on underneath everything and I think that’s genius. Those details create such a wild landscape that the songs live in. There’s so much existing in it, making it feel so full but at the same time it feels spacious. I don’t know how they do it. I’m always striving for that I feel like. I want to produce a record that feels like that.

Thanks to Kira for sharing her favourites with us!

Watch the video for her single ‘Knife like a Spile’ below

Follow Kira McSpice on bandcamp, Spotify, Youtube, Facebook & Instagram

 

Photo Credit: David Weindorf

Kate CrudgingtonLeave a comment

FIVE FAVOURITES: NEXT TO NADA

London-based noise makers NEXT TO NADA have been busy cutting their teeth on the city’s live circuit for the past twelve months. Formed of Leah Francesca (L. Francesca) Liddle, Thom (Tom) Oliver (Revitt), Georgie Bogle (Gigi Ruckus) and Jason Davies; together they create grinding, punk-infused anthems that reflect on the pent up frustrations of everyday life.

NEXT TO NADA will be self-releasing their upcoming EP, WHINE // MOTHS, on the 15th March, and they’ll celebrating their new record with gigs at The Finsbury Pub in Manor House on 13th April, and at the Dublin Castle in Camden on 30th May.

We think one of the best ways to get to know a band is by asking what music inspired them to write in the first place. We caught up with bassist L. Francesca to ask about their “Five Favourites” – five tracks that have inspired their songwriting techniques. Check out her choices below and scroll down to listen to NEXT TO NADA’S latest single ‘Whine, Lips’ at the end of this post…

1. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – ‘Hiding All Away’
I’ve not been a Catholic for a while, but I’ve got a real thing for songs that make me feel like I’m back in the pews. What actually goes on in Nick Cave’s songs is so straightforwardly rock and roll – angsty, sexy, cocksure – but in execution it sounds like it’s coming straight from Mount Sinai or Golgotha. Gospel choirs and everything! I will never forget hearing that almighty ‘There Is a War Coming’ in the outro for the first time. And yet it’s all rooted in the blues, in the same way The Stooges or Captain Beefheart were, it’s not trying to elevate its genre, just push it to its absolute limits. And for a track that’s so steeped in both high culture and low culture there’s such an intoxicating lack of self-deprecation; there’s no sense that Cave’s worried about coming across as pretentious or preachy. And I find that inspiring, I really do. I’m a melodramatic person, and nobody legitimizes melodrama like Nick Cave.

2. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs – ‘Dull Life’
I think it’s funny that “Pop Punk” is a specific genre, but the term could describe so much. I mean, isn’t that what New Wave is? Just taken as adjectives, nothing embodies “Pop Punk” to me like ‘Dull Life’ does. It’s hook after hook, but it’s dangerous and thrilling and it goes about being both in a really clever, imaginative way. They aren’t pop hooks, exactly; they’re written for riffs, not beats, but they manage to do what pop hooks do. I especially love the second verse, where you’ve got Karen O multitracking melodic singing over distant screams of the same lyrics – I want to do that on one of our songs at some point. NEXT TO NADA initially was way more Britpop influenced and got a lot heavier over time, but we still care about hooks and melodies, it’s just about making those work in the context of a heavy rock band. That’s something the Yeah Yeah Yeahs really understand.

3. Joanna Newsom – ‘Sapokanikan’
As far as I’m concerned, Joanna Newsom is the greatest lyricist of all time. Her imagery, her metaphors, even her rhyme-schemes are always so complicated and must box her into so many corners. But she always manages to write her way out of it, and leads the song on this merry chase through so many meanings and implications; I refuse to believe she was aware of all of them when she started writing. It’s so easy as a songwriter to compromise your structure by ignoring it for a bit in order to make sure you’re saying things right, but I think that that’s a mistake, because you discover so much by rising to your own challenges. I also love how geeky ‘Sapokanikan’ is, it’s full of references to American history and geography, and it’s such a great feeling to hear someone sing about something you’ve only ever read about in dry educational contexts and think… oh shit, that can be a metaphor!

4. Fugazi – ‘Bed For the Scraping’
The main way I write basslines is with a trick I call “lines and then coloring”. I start off with a jump of root note to octave to set the chord, and then “colour it in” with a bit of melody before landing back on the root in the next bar. That came from here. I’ve never wanted my bass to be the lead instrument, but I don’t really see myself as rhythm, either, I’m more like the guitars’ backing vocalist; I’m playing a melodic instrument but I have to step lightly with it, because everything I do sets the harmony. And Joe Lally is so good at working within that restriction. He barely ever follows the guitar in ‘Bed for the Scraping’ but as great as the bass hook is, it’s never just for itself. Plus he’s working with two guitarists, like I have to; he knows he can’t add too much on top, but he knows what space in the middle of things he’s been given, and how to use every inch of it. It’s amazing.

5. Hop Along – ‘Sister Cities’
I play in a real loud rock band but I think I have a very singer-songwriter-ish way of writing songs; it starts with lyrics, not riffs. Hop Along’s whole Painted Shut album is such a great reference point for that sort of thing because it sounds like you took an Elliott Smith record and wired it to some jumper cables. It’s a real gnarly album in a lot of places, and ‘Sister Cities’ is a highlight for riffs and solos, but even then they’re never leading the story, they’re just helping tell it. And the sound is so versatile. It could be a Dinosaur Jr song, but there are also songs on the album that feel like Phoebe Bridgers, and they still all sound like Hop Along. Also – Frances Quinlan has the most amazing voice I’ve ever heard. I can’t really say it’s an influence, cause the first year of me learning to sing was mostly spent accepting that I’ll never sound like they do, but covering this song on my old Squier strat during lockdown is where I started with all this.

Thanks to Leah for sharing her favourites with us!
Listen to ‘Whine, Lips’ by NEXT TO NADA below

Follow NEXT TO NADA on Spotify, bandcamp, Facebook & Instagram

Photo Credit: Elspey Photography

Kate CrudgingtonLeave a comment

Five Favourites: The Ophelias

Having just released their new album, Crocus, Ohio band The Ophelias continue to charm our ears with their stirring, shimmering creations. Showcasing a dreamy, folk-strewn allure, each track on the album flows with a beautifully captivating emotion, rippling with a heartfelt ethereal splendour.

We think one of the best ways to get to know a band is by asking what music inspires them. So, to celebrate their new album, we caught up with The Ophelias to ask about their “Five Favourites” – five albums that they love the most. Check out their choices below and scroll down to watch the unique new video for latest single, ‘The Twilight Zone’.

Joanna Newsom – The Milk Eyed Mender 
The first time I heard a Joanna Newsom song, I lay upside down with my head hanging off my bed, put it on repeat, and let my eyes well up and blood rush to my head. It was ‘Peach Plum Pear’ and it was unlike anything I had ever experienced. It was such a clear moment of eye-opening world expansion that I can still feel the vivid, confusing excitement of learning that this music existed. I was sixteen, and immediately bought The Milk Eyed Mender in full. I stalked around my all-girls Catholic high school with Joanna Newsom in my ears and Docs on my feet, staring off into space in the library as she sang about dirigibles and fruit. I make music that sounds nothing like Joanna Newsom, partially because no one else can sound quite like her. But the poetry of her lyricism and fullness of her harp, alone and rich on this record, have absolutely influenced me and my songwriting. The harpsichord and chorus of voices singing “I am blue, I am blue and unwell” have never left my reference palette. The other Joanna Newsom records are fantastic – I especially love Have One On Me, in all its sprawling glory and drama. But The Milk Eyed Mender was the first album to change my life, and has influenced my taste and creative process greatly. 

Alex G – Trick
There’s nothing like a perfectly crafted, catchy song. Alex G has records worth of those, but Trick was my entry point. Freshman year of college is great for becoming friends with people, soaking up their music taste, and never seeing them again once your schedules change and welcome week ends. I’m grateful to the fellow freshman who put on ‘Mary’. The thing about Alex G songs is that they’re not revolutionary – guitar, bass, drums. But they’re so perfectly executed that they feel new. Most of Trick’s songs are short and to the point, so when he chooses to extend an outro or repeat a chorus it feels purposeful. I see that reflected in my songwriting – trying to be purposeful about extending things only if they need to be extended. The Ophelias as a whole have super varied music tastes, since we come from different backgrounds and approaches to music, but have all coalesced around Alex G. He makes songs that are sometimes accessible, sometimes experimental, sometimes vulnerable, sometimes silly. We can all find something we relate to or want to emulate in his work, since it covers so much ground. I graduated a couple years ago now, and Alex G has created songs beyond just guitar-bass-drums, but Trick holds a special place in my heart.

My Bloody Valentine – Loveless 
The first iteration of The Ophelias formed in high school, when Andrea and I were seniors and Mic was a junior. Jo grew up in Madison, WI, and they joined later, so at this point they were pulling pranks and applying to film school. Andrea and Mic played in another band together with friends of mine, which is actually how I met them both. That band was playing at a warehouse show that I booked, and in the middle of their set they burst into a cover of ‘When You Sleep’. I watched Andrea play the iconic melody line through fuzzed out, pedal-laden violin and was completely obsessed. I loved the song already, but hearing it in that new context made me rethink how violin could be intertwined into the songs I was writing. My Bloody Valentine is another band who we sound nothing like, but we all definitely take influence from. The layers of sound, the soft octaved vocals, and the unexpected use of items like vacuum cleaners are all exciting, specific sounds that have affected the creative choices we make. Loveless is a whole world within an album, something that sweeps you up into it. 

that dog. – Totally Crushed Out!
I’m not sure how I found this album – maybe the public library, maybe somewhere on my parents’ shelf – but I’m very happy I did. It appeared in my life one day and became the closest parallel to the music I currently make. ‘She Doesn’t Know How’ is one of my favourite songs of all time, and the way that this record bobs and weaves through more punk-inspired tracks and softer, violin-and-harmony focused songs inspired me to not only expand my songwriting to harder, faster places, but to also feel content and settled in softer songs. The violin acts as a second (or third) guitar in a lot of songs as well, sometimes carrying the melody line or engaging with the vocals. Andrea’s parts are extremely dynamic, and it’s always fun to watch her figure out ways to slide a harmony into a guitar chord or mimic a vocal line with her own twist. I started listening to Totally Crushed Out before I had a band at all, and originally didn’t think to name it as an influence. But as the songs evolved, I realised how much I wanted to emulate that dog., and how I had been moving towards that for a long time. 

Fiona Apple – The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than the Driver of the Screw and Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do 
I struggled with which Fiona Apple album to include on this list. It came down to this one or Fetch the Bolt Cutters, which even though it only came out in 2020 left me reeling and full of new ideas for ways to stretch and evolve. But as I was re-listening to both that record and The Idler Wheel, I realised just how much of an impact The Idler Wheel has had on my creative process and decisions. Jo and I were obsessed with the ‘Hot Knife’ music video in college, watching it over and over again to see her avoid eye contact with the camera. Fiona Apple is a master of tension, building it up both in her voice and the piano as they caterwaul and thunder. Her records feel organic, like you can hear moving parts in the rooms where she recorded. Her lyrics are twisty and literate – she fits more into a single stanza than most say in a whole song. I try my hand at that every now and again, seeing what can fit in the container I’ve created for myself. But the other lyrical side that makes Fiona Apple so particularly gut-wrenching is when she forgoes the poetry and says it straight out, like “All that loving must have been lackin’ something / If I got bored trying to figure you out.”

Massive thanks to The Ophelias for sharing their ‘Five Favourites’ with us! Watch the new video for ‘The Twilight Zone’ here:

Crocus, the new album from The Ophelias, is out now via Joyful Noise Recordings. Buy it here.

Photo Credit:  Cam Whaley

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FIVE FAVOURITES: Aerial East

Described as a deeply personal coming-of-age record, New York-based musician Aerial East is preparing to release her poetic new album, Try Harder, on 12th February. Set to be released via Partisan Records, the LP tentatively explores East’s experiences of disconnection, loneliness, suicide, friendships, gender roles and breakups, whilst also embracing the simple beauty that life can unexpectedly bestow upon us.

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 Aerial East to ask about her “Five Favourites” – five albums that have inspired her song-writing techniques. Check out her choices below and scroll down to watch Aerial East’s latest video for ‘Try Harder’ at the end of this post.

 

1. Joanna Newsom – Have One On Me
This album just keeps giving. When I first heard it in 2010 I had a really negative reaction to it. I was already a big fan having binged The Milk Eyed Mender and Ys after high school. A friend of mine made a comment about her during this time that was something like “I would marry her without even meeting her” and I followed an immature impulse to prove that she wasn’t that amazing by rejecting the overwhelming 3 disc record. By 2011 though I was feeling heartbroken and I found myself uncontrollably humming and singing ‘On a Good Day’, the most digestible song on the epic breakup record. The more heartbroken I felt the more I threw myself into the record. I must have listened to this album thousands of times – probably more than any other. It is so familiar to me and feels like home. It still makes me cry. My friend Kelly once said that she feels like herself when she hears it. I feel that way too. I still don’t always know what is going to happen next when I listen though. I haven’t yet memorized the lyrics, melodies and structures of the songs and that makes for stimulating repeated listens. I saw her perform again in 2019 and it sent me into a satisfying spiral of obsessively analyzing her lyrics and reading about her that really helped me think and write about my own songs.

2. Kate Bush – Hounds of Love
The Kick Inside gives this one a run for its money but Hounds of Love is the record I put on to cheer myself up when I’m feeling depressed. I actually first heard the song ‘Hounds of Love’ in high school when the Futureheads covered it and didn’t discover Bush until years later when I moved to New York. I was immediately drawn in when I first saw her dancing in the red dress video for ‘Wuthering Heights’. I remember thinking I had heard the song as a child but I later realized I was remembering ‘Come to My Window’ by Melissa Etheridge. Anyway, Bush’s videos are all amazing. I wanted to study mime for a long time because of her. I still kind of do. Hounds of Love is one of the best records ever made.

3. Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou – Ethiopiques, vol. 21: Emahoy (Piano Solo)
This record centers me. It was all I could listen to in 2016 and I don’t play piano but I wanted my record Try Harder to feel like this. I first heard it when I was working at Dimes, a restaurant I have worked at since 2013. I used to listen to it often while setting up for my night shift that the closing daytime server would put it on when they saw me arrive. Emahoy, homemade pizza, and David Attenborough got me through 2016. A good remedy for anxiety.

4. Joni Mitchell – Blue
I mean, come on. It’s so good! I actually didn’t get into Joni Mitchell until Teeny Leiberson and Rachel Pazdan invited me to perform in their HUM Joni Mitchell tribute show. There was a lot to dig into and I said yes obviously, but then I had a deadline to familiarize myself with her work – she is pretty prolific – and choose a song I wanted to sing. I ended up doing ‘My Old Man’ because I don’t really write love songs even though I’m very romantic and ‘Hana’ from 2007’s Shine, because I wanted to acknowledge her as a contemporary artist. This is one of those records that just makes me feel good when it comes on. It came out the same year as Carole King’s Tapestry and I like thinking about the two different song-writing styles. Tapestry has so many crazy big hit songs that you are like “wait, she wrote that song too?!” They are such perfectly written pop songs but Blue is full of weird idiosyncratic songs that only really make sense if Joni is singing them. I love both albums so much and I imagine Carole made more money off of Tapestry because those songs are so widely covered and licensed, but if I could choose I would rather have made Blue.

5. The Beach Boys – Pet Sounds
Beautiful melodies, beautiful harmonies, dizzying layered vocals, heart-breaking lyrics produced joyfully. I’m not sure if it was the first time I heard this record but I remember listening to these songs upstate and crying and everyone in the room politely pretending not to see. Pet Sounds was a big reference when I was producing my first record Rooms.

Thanks to Aerial for sharing her favourites with us!

Watch Aerial East’s video for ‘Try Harder’ below.

You can pre-order Aerial East’s new album Try Harder here.

Follow Aerial East on Spotify, bandcamp, Twitter, Instagram & Facebook 

Kate CrudgingtonLeave a comment