INTERVIEW 71 Oscar Fernandez (Discos de Kirlian)

Named after the iconic Aventuras de Kirlian, a band that is among the pantheon of influential artists from the spanish indie scene, Discos de Kirlian is an independent label based in Barcelona.
Oscar started the label in 2011 with the objective of releasing 7'' for less than 5 euros.
Two years and a few releases later,  what we have is an interesting collection building up with artists from the diverse and effervescent spanish scene (plus a lovely re-issue of Armistice's debut EP).


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The origins, aesthetics, logistics and what the future holds for Discos de Kirlian follows below.

tillsammans sessions

For the past 2 summers, Jonas Börjesson showed us the Swedish summer along with beautiful live
performances by Swedish indie artists. The Pool Sessions was a collection of videos featuring artists playing by a swimming pool (sometimes inside it) in Halmstad. A simple and beautiful idea. On its second season,  the sessions went from the backyard to beaches and fields of the Halland province.
Now Jonas is back with a new concept for the sessions. It's called Tilllsammans Sessions and as he explains:
"...it's a combined concert/session-project, which means that the artist will do a live recorded session and a gig at the same place at the same day.

The whole thing is taking place in a restaurant in Halmstad, Sweden named "Tillsammans" (means 'Together' in english)."

The sessions will run for 10 weeks (every Wednesday) and starts on 5th, June (next week). Bands playing include: Alpaca Sports, Death in the Afternoon, The Naima Train and Mire Kay.

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THE TILLSAMMANS SESSIONS
I decided along with Billy Nilsson (also from Pool Sessions) early this year, that we would try to do a project that does not involve so many people. We wanted to make it as simple as possible, and therefore we will record our sessions with only one camera and use microphones that record the sound directly into your iPhone.
It's hard work to arrange 10 concerts and also record sessions with every band, but Billy and I are really close friends and think alike and we're loving every second of this project. We think it's a good way to expand the whole session-thing, that we also can offer concerts for our audience.

THE PROJECT

"Tillsammans Sessions" really is my dream project at the moment. I can book the artist I like, I get the chance to know the band and also do a 'summery' video for them. And the place is nice, located by the water in the middle of Halmstad where all the cool kids hang out, and the girls who run the restaurant are the best people in town! And the best of all - everything is happening outside in the summer sun in Sweden!

MAKING THE TILLSAMMANS SESSIONS
Billy and I are doing everything together, and when we record the sessions I'm holding the camera and Billy is recording all the audio. The layup of the project is that the artist comes to "Tillsammans" in the middle of the day, we record a session on a pier or somewhere near the water. After that we just hang out together, taking a beer in the sun and doing a soundcheck. And 9 o'clock in the evening the band is playing a concert in front of an audience. The concert is completely free and there's no age-limit. Could it be better? I'm really excited, and I hope many of you will be able to get there any Wednesday this summer!

LEGACY OF THE POOL SESSIONS

"Pool Sessions" will never die for me, and I think the rest of the team feels the same. I really, really love that project, but it's hard to get it all together, we are after all six people involved who have other jobs and commitments in our lives. 

FUTURE OF THE POOL SESSIONS

Like I said before, Pool Sessions will never die. We just have to develop that project into something new and exciting. I've been thinking about "Pool Sessions LIVE" with artist playing live for audience near a swimming pool, like a small music festival. Or why not take a trip to Spain and record some session there?

(Jonas and Billy send love)

INTERVIEW 70 jeremy jensen (the very most)

photos by MaryAnne Remer

For over 10 years now, Jeremy's The Very Most has been making pure, uplifting, simple and heartfelt indiepop.
Known as "the only indiepop band in Idaho" (which sounds pretty awesome because we rarely see "indiepop" and "Idaho" in the same sentence and because Idaho seems to be a pretty magical place), TVM crafts heartwarming melodies straight from a shed turned into studio.
With a playful way and with a diverse aesthetic - part melancholy, part shooting-smiles-at-sunshines - TVM is captivating and irresistible. The purest indiepop.

Do explore their discography, in case you haven't yet. Lots of EPs and two albums that are brilliant (A Year With The Very Most contains 4 songs for each season and 2 of my all time favorites 'The Motor-VU Lights' and 'You're In Love With The Sun').

Also, their new EP Just A Pup, will be out via Manic Pop! on June, 14th. Here's a sample featuring The School's Liz Hunt.

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My interview with Jeremy is below, he answered the questions before a concert from Yo La Tengo. 

where we come from

EVIL MEN HAVE NO SONGS WHERE WE COME FROM EP independent 2013

Little is known about Hungary indiepop scene. As far as I know, Evil Men Have No Songs is the only one I know.
I got to know this one-man-dreamy-bedroom-project during the days when Holiday and Beko DSL released a single every Friday and Monday respectively... or vice versa.
Back then, a guitar driven song called 'No You No Me' got me instantly.

His 3rd EP - Always Somewhere Else - comes out with less frenetic (and distorted) guitars but richer in melody and texture. 

The hook in the title track is quite addictive. 

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INTERVIEW 69. jessica weiss (fear of men)

photo by Jacob Lillis

Fear Of Men is a 4 piece from Brighton (UK).
Combining a unique aesthetic where art meets philosophy, their straightforward guitar pop dwells mostly with a somber look on love, the contradictions of being and living without falling into a Joy-Division-or-Morrissey-esque cliché. Their explorations sound fresh and  spontaneous.
It's "Existentialist pop". Somber, sinister and "human, all too human" with an unrequited sense for catchy, blissful melodies and odd, decaying and foggy imagery.
Their debut album/compilation Early Fragments is available via Kanine Records.

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panduh party!

THE PANDUHS PANDUH PARTY! EP beep hop 2012

Plain and simple (and once again): I don't get the fact that The Panduhs aren't indie darlings throughout the world (and other planets)...
Coming from Modesto (California), their sound has a straight forward, vibrant feeling. A combination of punk and twee playfulness covered in sugar. The kind of music that makes impossible to just listen: you have to clap along, hum along, jump along and twist around.
Seriously, check this guys out! It's the kind of simple, effortless and fun loving music that can change your mood and day. Oh, and catchy as hell!

Last Wednesday, 'Love Her More' - the opening track from their latest EP- got a video. With a charming, low budget and amateur aesthetic, the video follows the fun path that their music transpire.
A Chroma-key, watercolor sets, glitter, girls and drag queens extravaganza.



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INTERVIEW 68. thomas mendelovits (milk teddy)

Thomas
(All photos by Carbie Warbie)

To start talking about Milk Teddy, we have to mention their debut album Zingers, released last year.
Zinger - I've learned recently - means, "a sudden shock, revelation, or turn of events". A very fitting name when applied to Milk Teddy's music.
This album was #11 on my list for best albums of 2012... but if the list had to be made today, it'd rank way, way higher. When I discovered them I thought "Wow, this is good!" but a month ago I started listening to the whole album again and it was, indeed, a revelation. A superb, warm and vivid revelation.

This 5 friends from Melbourne (Australia) make pure guitar psych pop (what is it with Australia and its insanely good number of artists playing around with psychedelia?) combined with walls of sound, reverberations and delays. But there's something special about their melodies: something that I should be able to describe - since I have a music blog. But there are cases when you simply feel and can't quite put into words what is the experience to listen to certain groups or songs. That's the case of Milk Teddy.
While you keep reading, listen to the opening and title track of the album Zingers below... you'll understand what I'm talking about.


Ok, continuing...
Maybe the difficulty to describe Milk Teddy's music comes from the the abundance of genres in the fabric of their melodies - that goes from psychedelic vibes to punk, synthpop and 60s pop - and the way they're arranged to create something effortless, catchy and breezy. Wrapping all together, is Thomas' soothing and emotional interpretation of lyrics that - as their sound - aren't answers but clues, pieces of a bigger picture that we slowly unveil.

Music to discover. Rediscover. Carry along. And feel it.

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Now we get into a train in Melbourne to talk with Thomas... origins, processes, seriousness of creating music and experimentations are some of the topics.

mnemonic syncretism

THE SORRY SHOP MNEMONIC SYNCRETISM independent 2013

Here's some sweet noise from the south. And by south I mean the deep, antarctic south of Brazil. A place close to the end of the American continent.
Mnemonic Syncretism is the second album from The Sorry Shop, a band from Rio Grande do Sul (my home state), Brazil, fronted (and produced) by Régis Garcia. It arrives as sonic and distorted as their debut Bloody, Fuzzy, Cozy from last year…
But in this second album, there's an ambient, more melodic and profound feeling that I really, really enjoy, channeling a combination between My Bloody Valentine's experimental fuzziness and Slowdive's contemplative walls of sound with a lo-fi, angry-dreampop aesthetic.

Soundtrack for urban, grey jungles. Or polar expeditions.



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i thought you were my friend

GHOST LAKE I THOUGHT YOU WERE MY FRIEND EP INDEPENDENT 2013

Henric Wallmark's musical vehicle Ghost Lake is back with its 2nd EP featuring 3 new songs and 2 versions by guests Marcus Kimaro and J.O. Hansson.
The fun and playful manners are there in the title track 'I Thought You Were my Friend'. It channels the best moments of the warmest melodies from Suburban Kids With Biblical Names and works as a reminder that Ghost Lake is the project of the mind behind one of the catchiest indie pop makers Sweden's gave to the world - Heart-Sick Groans.
The songs 'Why I Don't' Like Clean-Up' and 'If I Did It, It Must Be Right' are endearing, heartfelt and soothing in their simplicity and atmosphere. Indie pop lullabies, if you will. These two songs appear twice: performed by Ghost Lake and versions by guests Marcus Kimaro and J.O. Hansson.

With Ghost Lake, Wallmark goes deep and wanders through a path where acoustic and electronics walk side by side - probably silently holding hands - surrounded by minimalistic trees, desert surroundings and contemplative, organic feelings. What matters, after all, is how we translate life and reality on the inside.

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INTERVIEW 67. beach vacation

DIY escapism made in a small town located on Whidbey Island, Washington. That's Beach Vacation.
Their first EP, Maritime - released last Monday via Dufflecoat Records - is the debut EP that Captured Tracks will never release. It is such an exciting introductory piece! It's on the edge of surf and jangle pop with a very unique and fresh appeal.
With the opening track 'Waves', we dive into their melodies with the sound of the ocean, seagulls and a crystalline guitar strumming. Compared to the other tracks, it sounds quite conceptualized and contemplative, but it works perfectly preparing us for the what's next.
For the rest of the EP, we get a sound that's warm and with rich textures.
'Washington Weather' and 'Escape' are simply beautiful. Joyous in their melancholic yearning.
I like how you're are able to dive into their melodies and actually feel a breeze and really escape. Even though the EP has less than 10 minutes.
Fantastic release from an exciting new band.



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Read my interview with Tabor, Tyler, John and Justyn below.