1. Looking Glass, from London (the solo project of Jim Wallis from the awesome My Sad Captains, where he plays drums);
Jim is no stranger to our blog since I've interviewed My Sad Captains and also wrote an article about his ep The First Real Target, released in August, 2010.
Brendan already has two albums released - March 2007 and January 2009 - the last, produced by Alex from Jónsi & Alex.
This release - which is out through Tip Top Recordings, a small independent label based in London - features 4 songs with a calm, intimate, almost idyllic approach to music. And both are successful when the task is to build a subtle, yet emotional, atmosphere. Don't know if this is a musical genre but each artist, in its own way, give us a very compelling slice of modern urban folk.
LOOKING GLASS: I had been making solo recordings for years, without really playing them to anyone, and without giving it a name. It wasn’t until I put some music online that I decided that Jim Wallis sounded more like a plumber, less like a musician. So I used the name Looking Glass. It didn’t come from anywhere specific- I liked the sound of it, and the idea of reflection, and that was enough really.
The music uses the familiar sounds of alternative indie, indie-folk, Americana, whatever you want to call it- but both in the song itself and in the recording and arrangement, I try to do something to make it idiosyncratic and give it its own feel. I think recording and playing the music mostly myself helps make it something that is both familiar yet individual-sounding at the same time.
VIO/MIRÉ: "Vio/Miré" is pretty much meaningless in any kind of genuine linguistic sense. The words come from the Spanish ver (to see) and mirar (to look).
In the music I make I am interested in repetition and restraint. I'm interested in unifying distinct musical phrases and driving a wedge between those that are closely related. I'm often told that my songs put listeners into a kind of meditative or hypnotic state, and this satisfies me greatly.
