A cathartic track with swelling synths, engrossing bass and compelling production, ‘Undercover Lover’ explores the process of surrendering:
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Fresh off the back of the release of their debut project HEATHEN, New York’s HOKO have released a new set of visuals for their latest single, ‘Big Mistake’.
Directed by James Mountford, the video puts HOKO songwriter and lead vocalist Nathaniel Hoho to work, bringing new energy to an already spirited original.
As part of the wider HEATHEN EP, ‘Big Mistake’ is a standout point for HOKO – the song is a fleshed out and fully realised example of the type of band they are. Striking and captivating at their core.
A track that focuses on the dissolution of relationships, viewed through a sharp and entertaining indie pop lens, ‘Big Mistake’ is anything but for HOKO. It’s a touchstone release for the group, who have been taking strides since their inception only a few years ago.
“I feel like most songs come to you and write themselves through you, but I’m pretty sure ‘Big Mistake’ is a song about some of my exes. It’s a pop song with sitars and yoyos weaved through it; it’s a perfect example of the line we wanted to walk for HOKO. Exploring pop but keeping it unique and a little cynical. For the record, I have no hard feelings towards any of my exes who may read this; everyone is someone’s Big Mistake, I know I am!” Nathaniel Hoho, HOKO
Recently, HOKO took part in Rolling Stone Australia’s ‘In My Room’ series, where they performed ‘Big Mistake’ as well as ‘Starlite’ and ‘Hellogoodbye’ in a special stripped back style.
Says Rolling Stone of ‘Big Mistake in particular, it is ‘a track that perfectly helps to encapsulate the HOKO sound, in this case features Hoho’s Weeknd-esque voice, and luscious, subtle backing instrumentation that mix ambient soundscapes with electronic melodies.’
WATCH/LISTEN
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CejaFCgKogM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XieeF_XKKkQ
PRAISE FOR HOKO
AAA Backstage“The EP is a stunning showcase of a band who are likely set to be household names in no time.”
Rolling Stone Australia
PHOTO CREDIT: DARREN CRAIG
Alt-rock quartet The Wrecks are starting off the year strong with the release of their new single, I Want My Life Back Now, available to stream today via Big Noise. The track is an upbeat and positive tune about wanting that special someone back and wanting to go back to the way things were.
On the track that is guaranteed to hit you right in the feels, front man Nick Anderson shares, “Contrary to the suspiciously timely nature of the song’s title, ‘I Want My Life Back Now’ is not a Covid-19 cash-grab. Although, if you can imagine going through a break-up in the middle of an already devastatingly lonely global pandemic, this song might resonate a bit.”
The release of I Want My Life Back Now follows up The Wreck’s newest EP Static, released towards the end of 2020 via Big Noise. Static is made up of 4 tracks that cover everything from ballads to upbeat dance tracks. Static is available to stream now at thewrecks.ffm.to/static.
The Wrecks formed in 2015 in Thousand Oaks, CA. With heavy influences from The Pixies, The Strokes, and Weezer, they snuck into a recording studio to self-produce their debut EP, We Are The Wrecks. The group’s 2018 follow-up, Panic Vertigo, earned similar acclaim, with Ones To Watch hailing the four-piece as “indie rock’s best kept-secret” and Billboard calling them “as authentic and honest as possible.” Since then, the band has secured a number of nationwide tours while opening for bands such as Nothing But Thieves, Silversun Pickups, The Struts, New Politics, Paramore, and All Time Low.
The Wrecks are:
Nick Anderson
Aaron Kelley
Nick “Schmizz” Schmidt
Billy Nally
PRAISE FOR THE WRECKS
“The alt-rockers are finally giving fans the album they’ve been waiting for” – Billboard
“A MASTERPIECE” – MTV
“The Wrecks should be your new favorite alternative rock band.” – Ones to Watch
“This is alt-rock on fire. Burn, babies, burn.” – idobi Radio
“I Want My Life Back Now’’ is released March 12
Website | Facebook |Twitter | Instagram | YouTube
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What is your name and role within Hoko?
Nathaniel Hoho – I am the writer and vocalist for the band.
Where are you currently based?
NYC has been my home for the longest, but this year I spent most of my time in Australia between Sydney and Fremantle WA. I love Freo and am eager to get back.
How did Hoko form?
HOKO formed while I was living in LA working on projects for some other artists as a songwriter. I was focused on being a writer for nearly two years with no interest at all in doing an artist project but as I started collecting more and more songs of my own I started to become obsessed with the idea. Now I’m obsessed with the idea of playing shows.
Your EP ‘Heathen’ is being released on March 26 what influenced the sound and songwriting?
HEATHEN is the first half of a project we’ve spent almost 2 years conceptualizing.
Our aim was to create a body of work that sounded big, but was also sonically interesting, with songs that are accessible, but also have layers and complexity. All of my favorite albums give me something new every time I hear them, so that’s always something in the back of mind when finishing a song. Visually we wanted to pay homage to the artistic direction of artists like David Bowie & Queen who created beautiful images that stand on their own as art, not only as an accompaniment to the music. We’ve been influenced by artists like Terry Gilliam, Cary Foji Fukunaga, Alejandro Jodorowsky and Danish designer Henri Vibskov. Currently we are exploring a dark and muted world. Despite some peoples first impressions visually we are not a hard rock or metal band, haha. For HEATHEN I wanted to create something that embodied some of the struggles I endured trying to find my own voice as an artist for HEATHEN. Mentally I was constantly fighting the pressure of wearing a mask, for fear of not fitting in, based on the opinions and judgments of my peers. We come from a very Alt/DIY background, but for HOKO we wanted to focus on writing Pop music for the first time, which can be taboo in the circles we come from. We worked on HEATHEN bouncing between NY and LA, and ultimately landed back in NY at the end of creating it. LA stretched us creatively into new territories of Pop and the energy of NY kept us inspired to hold fast to our desire to separate ourselves creatively.
What’s the meaning and story behind the lead single ‘Big Mistake’?
I’ve heard that every relationship is practice until you meet “the one”? My dating history involves some pretty big red flags that I failed to miss while wearing hormone enduced rose-colored glasses…including an ex going to prison as an accomplice to kidnapping and armed robbery… I feel like most songs come to you and write themselves through you, but I’m pretty sure Big Mistake is song about some of my exes. Sonically, Big Mistake is a Pop song with sitar’s and yoyo’s weaved through it. It’s perfect example of the line we wanted to walk for HOKO. Exploring Pop, but keeping it unique and a little cynical. For the record, I have no hard feelings towards any of my ex’s that may read this. Everyone is someone’s Big Mistake, I know I am!
Where and when did you record/produce/master and who did you work with?
Because the project was created over such a period of time I would work on it in different locations. At home, both in NY, LA, and Australia. In NYC we worked at Shifted Studios in Brooklyn. In LA we worked at several of our friends studios. Michael Freeman is our mix engineer. Producers that we worked with are Mike Irish ( of Shifted Recording ) John Hill ( Santigold, Portugal the Man, Cage the Elephant) and Andrew Wells ( Kaiser Chiefs, Halsey ).
What programs/equipment did you use?
I work mostly on Logic it feels like the most versatile DAW to me. However all the songs were run through so many different DAWs depending on who was doing what. Mike is on Ableton, John Ableton and PT and Wells on PT.
How did you approach the recording process?
Really no rhyme or reason we just worked with what we had around at any given time and did our best to give it a nice vibe. We used starters from fireplaces at times for HiHats that we recorded on our iPhones. At the very end we had our friend Gus Oberg come in who produced a few of The Strokes records to record some live drums, but we only ended up using them for a few tracks.
What did you find most challenging and rewarding during the creation of Heathen?
The most challenging part of creating Heathen was that we wanted to try and create something that sounded unique to HOKO – because this was our first project finding that sound took some time. You start a project with endless possibilities so finding lines and similarities that can run through a collection of songs took us a little bit of time to find. The most rewarding part by far has been releasing the music and hearing from fans who are listening and connecting with the music. We haven’t been able to tour or play a show yet due to Covid but we have been speaking with fans over social media from all over the world. Its an amazing feeling to know that something you put so much of yourself into is connect with someone else. It really brings the whole creative process full circle.
What do you like to do away from music?
Good question. I really work on music nearly everyday in some way and if I don’t I feel a little lost. The last year has been alot of time conceptualizing artwork and music videos for HOKO. Other than that I love to swim, surf, eat, hang with my dog.
Who are you listening to at the moment?
At the moment I’ve been listening to alot of The Strokes, Hot Chip, and Grimes.
What’s planned for 2021?
We have some festivals coming up in US and are planning to be touring the end of the year in the states. We also will be releasing more music!
Favourite food and place to hangout?
NYC – love to hang at Niagara and eat next door at Miss Lillies.
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Today Joji Malani [pron. choch-ee ma-la-knee] is proud to announce his new independent label venture, Broth Records, in partnership with leading distribution company The Orchard.
Broth Records is a network of musicians and creatives who together represent community, independence and pure music discovery at its core. Its ethos remains firmly planted in Malani’s interpersonal approach and a DIY mentality that could only be shaped by his near-decade tenure as a musician, formerly of Gang of Youths. This experience, born out of sheer creativity and ambition built from the ground up, is what gives Joji the means to understand the artist process first and foremost and nurture those taken under his wing.
Of the launch Joji Malani says “I am thankful to have a great partner in The Orchard and excited to work hard and throw myself at this next venture with these amazing acts.” Blake Rayner, General Manager of The Orchard for Australia and New Zealand echoes Malani’s sentiment, adding “Joji came to me with the idea of a very modern independent record label that represented an incredible diverse roster of artists and genres. The Orchard’s teams in Sydney and New York worked closely with Joji to develop a structure that suited his vision. We are delighted to offer the leverage and reach of The Orchard’s global teams for the Broth Records artist roster for many years to come.”
Malani continues, “In one of my early hospitality jobs, there was a storeroom malfunction that caused our many vats of broth to collapse and flood the storeroom. It added a painful extra five unpaid hours of cleaning the spillage and remaking all the broths to my shift, causing much justified resentment towards soups and warm liquids. I thought it was nonsense, a soup made up of so much of random meat and veg, that takes so long to prepare and to my untrained taste buds, made very little difference to the end product.
The chef saw my disgruntled demeanor and was motivated to improve my countenance towards broths. He made two dishes, one with and one without the broth, which he asked me to try and to show him which one tasted better. Unbeknownst to me, I acknowledged the broth based dish. The chef then went on to impart a lesson I would never forget: ‘You may not see the value in the process of what goes into the broth but without the time and process, you don’t get the end result.’
I changed a lot that day. That thought and concept caused me to become so thorough. Not cutting corners but trying to be present and fall in love with the process. I’m privileged enough to have had the career I’ve had so far and achieved so much success, but it’s the ‘broth’ that nobody else sees. A good broth can either be enjoyed on its own or can form a strong base for most meals. A good broth is uncompromising. The labour of love behind those many tours and recordings, that’s what makes the end product so much more special. This is what I look forward to sharing with Broth Records, and to be a part of with the new acts that I will be releasing.”
Beyond Joji’s forthcoming solo project, the Broth artist roster is dedicated to ambitious bedroom music; “the Australian art that I see and want to see more of. Diverse in race and gender, yet strong in identity,” Joji shares. He describes each act through the tales of their discovery in moments of unsuspecting serendipity via dating apps, his time living in London and the United States, and close attention paid to those on the fringes of the music community, who contribute behind the scenes. Threading each artist together are the moments that Broth and Malani hold close – the nostalgic spirit of uncovering your favourite band as a teenager; stumbling across something so unexpected; the glee of being let in on a secret before anyone else.
Broth’s ‘Soup Kitchen‘ is an upcoming live music showcase of the label’s roster and more coming later this year. Stay tuned as Broth Records steadies to introduce its artist roster in the next few weeks.
Stay connected with Broth Records:
Website | Facebook | Instagram
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Where are you currently based?
I am currently living on the Gold Coast, Queensland.
My whole life has been surrounded by music. My nanna used to sing all the time and I grasped onto it from her at a young age. When I was around 7 I would record myself singing and pretend I had a huge crowd in front of me, It’s always been something i’ve wanted to do.
What’s been happening recently and how has your Covid experience been so far?
At the start of covid I was lacking a lot of creativity and motivation to sing and write. I ended up getting really bored during quarantine so I found the sudden urge to sit down and write a song. I got on many zoom calls with my songwriting teacher and we cracked down a few songs until we eventually wrote ‘Talk To Me’. After months of finalising my song I released my first ever single ‘Talk To Me’ and i’ve received great feedback so far which is very exciting! At this point in time i’m starting to sit down and write more songs in the hope that i can release another one late this year or early next year.
Yes it is very exciting! I’ve been wanting to write and release my own songs since I was very young so this single is a huge accomplishment for me. I remember hearing the produced track for the first time and crying because I was so overwhelmed with happiness and joy. I really love singing and songwriting and all i’ve ever wanted is to share my music with those who share the same love for music as I do.
Before I wrote ‘Talk To Me’ I knew i wanted a song with a big ending filled with strings and all different instruments, which we managed to add into the song. I also took a lot of influence from Billie Eilish.
Talk To Me was written about my experience with unconfined love and the obstacles that I went through with this person. I became upset about the entire situation which influenced me to write a song about what happened. This then created ‘Talk To Me’
I started the recording and producing stage in December 2020 with Josh Beattie in his studio. It was a great experience!
Josh is super cool! I told him what I was looking for in the song, he pitched some ideas and made the song I really wanted into reality. He is very talented and makes the whole process of recording the song fun. I will definitely be working with him again.
I was very nervous for it all because I had never been in a recording studio before, and I was worried it wouldn’t turn out how i’d like but I got comfortable quickly, it was really fun and I can’t express how much I love the way the song came out.
At the moment I’m listening to Beach House, Danial Caesar and Gorrilaz. I would say Harry Styles, Billie Eilish and Frank Ocean are my biggest musical influences at the moment. I look up to them a lot and I take a lot of inspiration from them.
When I’m away from music I enjoy learning to drive and enhancing my digital art skills.
Lots of exciting things are happening in 2021! I just got my busking license so i’ll be busking around the coast, I’ll be writing more songs and performing at gigs!
My favourite food at the moment is sushi and I love exploring Brisbane city with my friends!
Elke Schon ‘Talk To me’- Click to listen
Where are you currently based?
Hey! I’m originally from a city called Pune in India, but am currently based in Los Angeles.
How did you first start playing music?
The first time I really got into Western music in general was when I was 14 (Having grown up in India, I wasn’t exposed to western music initially). My dad played me Smoke on the water by Deep Purple and I was hooked right from the first time I heard the main riff. From there onwards, I got my parents to buy me a guitar and kept exploring the world of classic rock music, learning songs by Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Eric Clapton and all the other legendary bands and musicians of that era. That’s what help set and build my strong foundation in music. I then started playing in bands locally, writing original music and started experimenting with electronic music production. I found that by applying all the musical concepts I had learnt through classic rock music to my new production skills and writing originals on them, I was really onto finding my sound. I decided to then move to Los Angeles in 2016 to test the waters in the global music scene. Ever since then I’ve been constantly writing, releasing and performing my music and have been growing constantly both as a musician and an artist. Can’t wait to see what’s in store for the future.
What’s been happening recently and how has your Covid experience been so far?
Initially when Covid hit and the world went into a lockdown, I too panicked like the rest of the world and was uncertain as to how long it would last and how I would cope with everything. However, as time passed, I realized that since I was home all day, I could really focus on creating and finishing my existing songs. It also challenged me and got me to push myself into really getting creative. In order to still stay proactive as a music artist, I had to figure out ways to make quality content (both audio and video) right from my home. This is when I started experimenting with vlogging, making loop music videos from my home, using green screen and animation videos. I learnt a lot in the past year and developed a lot of new skills and 2020 turned out to be one of the more successful years for me as an artist in terms of growing my fan base, social media and streaming numbers. But I really hope the world goes back to normal especially with all the vaccines coming in as I have a lot of new music and videos dropping that I want to test out in live crowds.
Your new single ‘Olivia’ is out now, what influenced the sound and songwriting?
Olivia is about a girl (not named Olivia) I met a couple years ago and immediately fell for her. There was just some intense sense of familiarity I felt with her and was absolutely hooked onto her. It was too soon to communicate exactly how I felt about her as we had only just met a week prior so I decided to put all feelings down in a song and the result was the song ‘Olivia’. Me and her only lasted about a month and a half but the song has helped me with courting a lot of other women haha.
How did you go about writing Olivia?
The goal was pretty clear to me. I wanted to pour all my feelings for the girl out in the song but more importantly accurately convey why I felt so strongly about her. I wanted to bring forth the instant sense of familiarity I felt with her. She never felt like a stranger even though we had only recently met which is what made me keep exploring with chords until I came up with the warm and pretty progression that I wrote the song over. Then came the time to write the lyrics down. I wanted to put forth my feelings softly, subtly yet effectively and had to make sure I wasn’t coming on to strong with my words and phrasing choices as I had to create a warm and light vibe rather than a powerful one which took me a while of going back and forth on the lyrics till I had the finals words penned down. I also made sure I sang the song in a soft falsetto once again to make sure the aura I was trying to set and the feelings I was trying to convey were brought out accurately.
Where and when did you record/produce/master and who with?
I write, perform, produce, record, mix and master my songs all by myself. The whole goal I have with my music is for the listeners to hear my songs exactly how I intend them to. I feel in today’s world, renting a professional studio, hiring producers, engineers isn’t necessary. It could be beneficial but isn’t necessary. I make all my songs in my home studio setup and see them all the way through; from the initial idea and inspiration to the final product. I feel the lesser people involved in the process of creating a song the more the song stays true to its creator’s original vision.
How did you approach the recording/production process?
Once I had the song written down and the chords finalized and laid down. I brought the project onto my loop station setup in my home studio and just started experimenting with adding and subtracting elements to and from the song. I started building layers, adding synths, drums and percussion and the song process was pretty straightforward. The coolest part was creating the little catchy hook that really drives the song. I was exploring a lot of vocal formant change effects and came up with a really nice melody to use with the effects and create sort of a mellow, positive drop section and I’m really proud of it haha.
Who are you listening to at the moment?
Honestly, thanks to Spotify, I have been discovering a lot of indie underground artists that I’ve really enjoyed listening to. Most recently, I got exposed to Josh Fudge, Julyan amongst several others. I’ve been straying away from all the popular music and have been really into exploring new artists and finding inspiration in their music and talent. I feel these underground independent artists have more soul and originality in their music that most of the major artists have been lacking.
What do you like to do away from music?
When not making music, I love to read books, I like to drink beer and play pool with my friends, I have really gotten into cooking recently, but most of all I love playing with my dog.
What’s planned for 2021?
I’ve got a bunch of new songs and music videos coming out this year that I’m super stoked for. The next one to watch out for would be my song ‘Lead Me On’ that’s dropping on the 7th of May. I’m really excited to see what feedback I get on that. Other than releasing music, I plan to play a bunch of live shows and pop up events locally with my band once all the venues start opening up and the live music scene hopefully gets back to how it was before the pandemic hit.
Favourite food and place to hangout?
My favourite food place in Los Angeles has to be Dave’s Hot Chicken. There are so many good food places and restaurants to explore in LA but I freakin love Dave’s and could eat it every day if I wanted haha. Other than that, I love hanging out with my friends at this low-key pub called ‘The Brickyard’. We go there every weekend to kick it with a few beers and play pool.
Instagram – www.instagram.com/
Youtube – https://www.youtube.
Official Website – www.flyghtclubmusic.
Facebook – https://www.
Twitter – https://twitter.com/
TikTok – https://vm.tiktok.com/
Spotify – https://open.spotify.com/
Apple Music – https://music.apple.com/us/
What are your names and roles within jus Kno’?
We are Alex Aller and Pablo Villanueva. Alex takes care of the music and Pablo is in charge of all the visual content.
We are living in Madrid right now.
In our case, the most important thing is that we have finally released our new album “Looped Circles”. This project was developed during the quarantine and it is something that you can tell all along the record because it is our deepest, personal and introspective music till date.
We have been working on the album since Christmas of 2019. During the quarantine of 2020, Madrid was heavily restricted and we spent many months isolated at home. We are flatmates so we passed through the same experience together. By the end of 2020 we realized that all the music that we were making during that time had a connection, the songs were talking to each other somehow. That is why we decided to put them all together in our first album.
The music was our way to escape from this painful situation we are all suffering. In a way, we would prefer that the inspirations of our first album would have come from travel, gathering with other artists or more joyful experiences. However, we think that this album is going to become very special for being our saviour in this historic time, which is a beautiful thing.
We have our own studio at home, where we write, produce and mix all our songs. When it comes to master, all of our records are taken care of by Carlos Koschitzky.
We work with Ableton and we try to stay analog as much as we can by using vintage mixers and also tape processing.
The challenge is always to decide when a song is ready. This is our first album, so there were a lot of discards and changes, also the mixing process became very frustrating since we were stuck at home and refreshing the ears was a bit difficult. The most rewarding moment was when we finally put it out and received all the messages from people loving it.
So for recording we work mainly in Ableton, processing the mix by the Teac 2A and the Teac A3440, especially when we want more texture in some parts. Regarding the instruments, we have an upright piano, a Rhodes piano, guitars and some synthesizers as the Prophet 8 or Juno 106. We only use samples when it comes to drums, for the rest we prefer to write music by using these instruments so we can reproduce almost everything on a live show.
We had already planned and signed to release an album with Faneca Music, but we did not know that this was going to be the scenario. We are happy with the result, although the best thing of an album is sometimes to tour with it and this is something that seems to be kind of impossible right now.
We are planning to keep delivering visual content, with visualizers or more music videos. Also, we would love to do a presentation of the album and put on a good show. We are currently working on it.
The new albums from Grandbrothers, Floating Points and Maria Arnal.
Climbing, movies and traveling.
Hopefully, the return of live events!
We love the food from Asturias, one of the reasons this region is famous for. Our favorite place here in Madrid could be “Matadero Madrid”. It is an abandoned slaughterhouse used now for cultural events.
