Today, vocalist and guitarist Deb Never enters 2021 with her new single ‘Someone Else‘. Produced by Jam City (Kelela, Bad Gyal, Troye Sivan) and Michael Percy (Snoh Aalegra, Joy Crookes), the song struts Deb’s love drunk insecurities over a distinctly bare backdrop, sounding as sappy as it does self-aware. The more she shares the more the track blossoms, eventually unraveling into a drum & bass crescendo placed delicately beneath Deb’s inviting vocals.
Following months of LA isolation and releasing her Bandcamp-only quarantine project Intermission, Deb fell into what can only be attributed to a creative dry spell. In hopes of sparking new inspiration, Deb packed her bags and booked a one way flight to London, where she moved in with longtime collaborator and UK-based artist Michael Percy. With no real intention or plan, it was there that Deb would spend the next five months working and writing an onslaught of new music, with an insular group of London-based collaborators.
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Nicky Night Time and Ali Love have collaborated for a hypnotising new single ‘Ubiquity feat. Breakbot’. Filled with classic disco flair, funk riffs, and infectious vocals the track instantly encapsulates a dreamy dance-floor moment.
With each artist living in a different country, ‘Ubiquity’ has already made its way around the globe, Ali Love explains how the track came together, “‘Ubiquity’ started its life in Australia with Nicky Night Time as a drum and guitar track. Then made its way to London where I added electric bass and vocals very early in the morning. I recall there were about 8 Japanese girls in my flat for some reason, so you could say that really added to the song’s vibe. You can feel there’s a party happening. The tune then travelled to LA where, by chance, Nicky drafted in Breakbot, who wrote the amazing string and horn parts, and sent the song into the stratosphere. The stars have aligned and the vibe is ubiquitous.” Nicky Night Timeadds “It was a love project really and I think we felt it was a cool thing just to put out into the world between the 3 of us amigos.”
Widely respected Australian producer Nicky Night Time first arrived on the scene during the height of the electro-pop wave, touring alongside the likes of Phoenix, Daft Punk, Bloc Party and more. Traversing between various genres, Nicky Night Time has added his touch to Elderbrook’s ‘Capricorn’ and ‘Numb’, as well as working with the likes of Nick Littlemore (PNAU), Touch Sensitive, Cut Snake and more! Recently spending time touring and producing alongside Nat Dunn for their project – NAATIONS. Together the duo featured and co-wrote ‘Nowhere To Go’ with Hayden James as well as ‘Real Life’ with Duke Dumont and Gorgon City which has amassed over 65 million streams!
UK singer, songwriter Ali Love first broke out with his synth-pop album ‘Love Harder’, showcasing Ali Love’s powerful and tasteful vocals. His versatile voice has scored him countless collaborations, appearing on record’s with Camelphat, The Chemical Brothers, Roisin Murphy, Justice, and Lee Foss! Finishing off ‘Ubiquity’ is French touch favourite, Breakbot, signed to the much-loved electronic label, Ed Banger Records, is recognised for smash hit record ‘Baby I’m Yours’, scoring a mammoth 208 million streams. Since then, the producer has remixed tracks for the likes of Lizzo, and Parcels.
‘Ubiquity’ is out now via Sweat It Out and Music To Dance To.
For more info on Nicky Night Time, visit:
FACEBOOK | INSTAGRAM | SOUNDCLOUD | TWITTER
For more info on Ali Love, visit:
FACEBOOK | INSTAGRAM | SOUNDCLOUD
For more info on Breakbot, visit:
FACEBOOK | INSTAGRAM | SOUNDCLOUD | TWITTER
Emerging from the great cosmic dark, ORB are back with their first Australian show since August 2019. In a night of grand thematics, the 3 piece will bring their blend of wah drenched fuzz and dystopian sci-fi to the strictly limited capacity, fully seated Forum Melbourne. Sonically diverse and entirely monolithic, their wall of sound is set to envelope the audience across two divine sets. Split with intermission, each of the performances will showcase new and unheard works, as well as the bio engineered riffs and celestial synthesis that spans their esteemed discography. With special musical guests set to appear across the evening, this performance will bring on board some of Melbourne’s finest musical minds – in a show of synergistic grandeur and singular electricity. March 20th, one night only, ORB unparalleled.
TICKETS: https://www.ticketmaster.com.au/event/13005A32AA0C4D00
PETER’S STATEMENT
To my friends in the music industry …. their families and those who love music.
As we are soon going into our second year, of little, or no gigs as a result of Covid ….
let us not forget what we need to do.
Let’s support each other… continue to check in and ask how we are doing.. be positive that a day is coming when we WILL get back to performing live, safely…. and do what we can to be a part of that wonderful day.
We need to remain positive, uphold our industry, where you see negativity in any area, including media…gently remind that it is through supporting our industry that we will ALL do better in the end.
Let’s not forget that although a large percentage of people have been able to get back to work …the live music industry, along with much of the hospitality and tourism industry hasn’t …. many of our favourite musicians and event company workers are on the dole, and suffering mental health issues. …
we need our media to report positively on us, and support the return of live music regularly in their reporting.
Let’s push the music media to agitate on our behalf.
We need government to find money to get us through this time, lots of it… we need them to Save Our Stages, as has been done in the US and across Europe through large grants, tax write offs and investment… and as well create a business interruption insurance policy to incentivise event presenters to put on events… and be protected in not going to the wall should an out break of Covid shut down their businesses at short notice… and protect that artists, crew and Suppliers will get paid should that occur… the Federal government did it more than six months ago for the Film Industry to get them back to making movies… why are we still waiting?
If you possibly can…please hold on to your tickets, as concerts and events are RE-scheduled ….again.
Do you know that for each ticket refunded, there is a service charge from the ticket agency… up to $8?
The show presenters , facing up to two years of no shows… is charged for this, after having paid staff to work on the show, bought advertising and paid a deposit to the artist which will be returned with costs deducted… this isn’t sustainable for our industry… and will result in less promoters and less shows..particularly in the indie area.
Our issues haven’t gone away… they just aren’t being discussed regularly… and they aren’t being reported, as our industry …endures this marathon of waiting….and in so many cases not being able to wait any longer … and businesses closing, as well as very talented people leaving our industry.
It’s up to us to look out for each other and Live music….I know many of you are suffering in silence.
However, it’s time to raise our voices…. we are the Live Arts…. and we love what we do, and we are a fundamental part of society… and it is unjust for government not to support us more than they have financially …simply by extending Job Keeper to those industries they have regulated not to be able to get back to work without major restrictions… the Live Music Industry, we will see many of our fellow workers be laid off when it end in March. How can that be justified on any level.?
There is so much for us to do.
please feel free to share your ideas, as well as my post.
Let’s find the way to get back…..we can do this, and have each other’s back at the same time
Thank you
Peter Noble OAM
Bluesfest
Bluesfest Touring
Where are you currently based?
Melbourne
What’s been happening recently and how has your Covid experience been so far?
Akaysha: 2020 was an absolute write off, I feel like I literally stared out the window for 8 months. Did manage to cook up some pretty good food.
Hannah: I reincarnated and became Hai Priestess.. the cocoon was pretty dark for a while there.
Sal: I mixed herbal teas and sent them to my family and friends (sorry family and friends). I also wrote some terrible apocalyptic songs and talked to my greyhound (a lot).
How and why did Queens of Club form?
Akaysha: Our periods all synced & Mercury was in retrograde.
Hannah: The planets aligned in all seriousness, it just clicked. It feels like we were meant to meet each other, and the first time we hung out it just made so much sense. Initially it was just three female producers coming together to hang out, share ideas and support each others work in a male dominated field – but naturally we started chopping up and adding to each others songs. Queens of Club was born out of play.
Sal: all the above
What are your musical backgrounds?
Akaysha: I started learning piano, guitar and drums as a kid, I always wanted to start a band but could never find anyone. Around 14 I started making electronic music & Djing as it was something I could do solo. I released a lot of electro house under Kaysh then evolved into more downtempo electronica as Ok Sure. 20 years later I have finally managed to start that band!
Hannah: I learned piano and guitar and began playing folk music shows at around 15, I was never an amazing musician, but loved songwriting, construction and performing. I always wanted to be in a band and it wasn’t until I was 26 when I formed Bonnie Doom and Pow Pow Kids, I spent a number of years playing around town. I loved the production side of things, and after we recorded albums for both those bands and I got an insight into recording, I started to get the itch to produce myself. I released a solo album that I wrote and produced in 48 hours called Bonnie The Kid – Xanadu, and from there I was hooked and developed as the producer Syntax/Semantics for some years to reach my final incarnation Hai Priestess in Queens of Club.
Sal: I started with jazz and classical piano, and dabbled with electronic music software in my early teens. My mum made me take opera lessons (why?!) so for a while there I was singing dramatic operatic German pieces after school with an unnecessarily strict teacher – maybe one day I’ll tap into that (Queens, consider yourselves warned).
How did your track ‘Bones’ come about?
Akaysha: This was one of my old songs back from 2015 that was never officially released, the girls had some ideas and it evolved to what you hear today.
Sal: I fell in love with Akaysha’s original version of Bones and needed more it in my life.
How did you go about writing the track?
Akaysha: Sal took my original version and added more lyrics, a proper hook & rearranged it, all skills that I lack in songwriting, if I’m left to my own devices I’d probably be stuck in an instrumental loop for 5 hours.
Hannah: I didn’t have much to do with this one except tell them it was a banger and a bit of “woo woo” high vocals.
Sal: For a few weeks, I listened to Akaysha’s version obsessively every time I did the dishes, singing new ideas for it as I went. The dishes weren’t cleaned well, but I’m very happy with this version of Bones and that’s more important.
Where and when did you record/produce/master and what equipment did you use?
Akaysha: I started recording this 6 years ago, I can’t remember what gear I used, probably all soft synths, I don’t use a lot of hardware. All produced, mixed and mastered in my bedroom studio.
Sal: ALL the magic happens in Akaysha’s bedroom studio.
What did you find most challenging and rewarding during the creation process?
Akaysha: As I said I have a habit of getting stuck in an instrumental loop. Sal and Hannah are more in tune with vocals & arranging & catchy hooks so it’s great to collab with them, they breathe new life into all the half finished stuff I have lying around. Obviously there are always a few creative differences but nothing major and we can generally all agree on a final outcome.
Hannah: The most rewarding thing is getting to hang out and be creative with close friends, it’s just super fun.
Sal: I respectfully agree with my Queens.
You are very much a sensory live act with the use of costumes, visuals/audio – how did this come to be?
Akaysha: We wanted Queens Of Club to be just as much of a visual experience as an audio one. Instead of us all standing behind computers we thought putting placemats on our heads and dancing around would be way more interesting.
Hannah: It’s a natural evolution for us, we all love dress-ups, costume, theatre… all kinds of art forms. This is a playground for us where we throw ideas around and see what sticks and what doesn’t, and there’s some wacky shit in those minds of ours. We are so different, yet so complementary and so because QOC is so authentically who we are when we come together it’s a natural unfolding – we don’t look at or listen to others and try to copy or follow trends. We’re just being creative with the things, sounds, looks, ideas we like.
Sal: because Akaysha cannot stop herself from attaching homewares to her person.
How do the costume, visuals and audio creatives for the live show come about?
Akaysha: A lot of hot glue guns, trips to the Kmart homewares section and tassels were involved.
Hannah: We are very DIY, and between us we have some pretty random skills so we manage to make it all ourselves (so far – but we’d love to collaborate). We share images, videos, anything really that catches our eye and is inspiring, and pretty quickly the visual elements just started to come together – it’s a very strong vision and we somehow could see what the others were seeing too. We wanted to create an entire world and experience.. It’s so boring standing around watching people with egos play their instruments. We wanted to remove the ego, and make it about the audience.. not us.
Who are you listening to at the moment?
Akaysha: Louis Theroux’s podcast ‘Grounded’
Hannah: Shamanic Visioning by Sandra Ingerman Audiobook and In Too Deep Podcast by Jack Rowland
Sal: Judge me if you must – A 10 hour playlist of Gregorian chants (it’s my new must-focus music). Other music-wise, I’ve been listening to “Tipper” (Gulch is my favourite track) and “HAAi”. My enduring faves are the album “Thora Vukk” by Robag Wruhme, and anything electronic that involves mallet percussion or grainy, crunchy bits.
What do you like to do away from music?
Akaysha: I’m a big foodie, I do a lot of visual art, I also have a major wig obsession.
Hannah: I run a start-up called The Local Green Pages which is a free local directory for Creative & Sustainable people. I also work in Social Change, so am a passionate Social Entrepreneur.
Sal: At the moment, I fan-girl Ryan Shelton, read my greyhound bedtime stories and dance.
What’s planned for 2021?
Akaysha: I think I better freeze my eggs.
Hannah: Lots of Queens of Club, releasing new music, we’re planning a clip for our next single at the moment so bringing all those pieces together.
Sal: all the above. I have some solo music to finish and release this year (like the other Queens).
Favourite food and place to hangout?
Akaysha: The 10 course degustation menu at some fancy restaurant
Hannah: Kaysh’s balcony and fancy Uber Eats
Sal: 10 course unfancy Japanese, potentially on Akaysha’s balcony
LISTEN TO Bones: https://snd.click/QoCBones
I OH YOU are fired up to present DZ Deathrays second single ‘All or Nothing’ lifted from their fifth studio album Positive Rising: Part 2 (out Fri 9 July 2021), the highly anticipated follow up from 2019’s Positive Rising: Part 1.
Premiering yesterday on triple J’s Drive, ‘All or Nothing’ is a testament to the objects that serve as reminders of home when the band are far from it.
“It’s reminiscent of touring life and the idea that something like a guitar can bring so much joy and adventure to our lives,” Parsons explains.
One of the hardest songs on the record to finish, Parsons rewrote the music over and over in different keys “to try see where it would go”. After six attempts it wound up right where it started: as a rollicking, garage epic that shifts key from verse to chorus. In other words: a classic DZ Deathrays song. “It’s the flip-side to some of the other tracks that look out into the world: this one looks into our little world.”
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Melbourne’s Mia Wray is coming at 2021 head on via her new single ‘Never Gonna Be The Same’, a no-holds-barred ode to empowerment. Having made a serious impression with her debut single ‘Work For Me’, which had the likes of triple j, NME and Rolling Stone singing her praises, ‘Never Gonna Be The Same’, with its undeniably powerful vocals, cathartic arrangement and a hook that will have you singing at the top of your lungs, sees Mia Wray continue to carve her space as a star on the rise.
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Hand Habits – dirt EP is out February 19 via Milk! Records / Remote Control Records.
Summer is the first track from a forthcoming EP titled Homelands by Aboriginal led punk-rock band Chasing Ghosts. Frontman Jimmy Kyle is a proud Koori man, a descendent of the Thungutti mob from the mid-north coast of NSW. He speaks and writes with a potent mind. Every track on the forthcoming EP is about real people and real situations, all of them born from intense real-life stories. Wanting to do justice to the topics while bringing everyone on the journey and simultaneously still speaking the truth was a pressure that weighted heavy. “I was scared to write these songs, because a lot of the topics are challenging,” says Jimmy Kyle. “But that’s how I knew I was onto something. It made me feel nervous.”
Listen to Summer
Watch the video for Summer
“Summer” is one hell of an amped track with a beat that drives so strong it has the legs to keep rockin’ all Summer long. Produced by Jimmy Kyle and Lincoln Le Fevre (Luca Brasi, Wil Wagner, Lucy Wilson), accompanied with an equally charged and culturally strong clip by award winning filmmaker Ben McFadyen and cover art by Wiradjuri, Ngiyampaa woman and Instagram design influencer @coffinbirth, this power posse is one you need to be across.
“Summer “finds Jimmy Kyle singing in both English and, for the first time ever, in his native tongue as he explores the horrors of the 1856 Towel Creek massacre. The singer-guitarist delivers the song through the eyes of a grieving Aboriginal Elder, of the story of “Baaba” (Babaang) Jack Scott as a baby; the lone survivor of the Towel Creek tragedy. Incredibly, through a schoolyard incident when he was younger Kyle learned of a close family link to that Elder.
“The song explores white nationalism, colonisation, assimilation and ultimately reconciliation,” offers Kyle. “It asks the question of white Australia to come and reconcile the true history of the country and invites non-Indigenous Australians to see themselves as an extension of Aboriginal people.”
With a strong passion for Aboriginal languages Jimmy Kyle is committed to his culture and his community and has a long history working with First Nations Youth, Elders and community. Further, Jimmy’s cultural awareness training workshops and seminars are in high demand due to the cultural depth his brings to this space. He works with entities such as the Victoria Police, DHHS and other government agencies to help them better understand First Nations cultures and histories. “Only having a little knowledge is dangerous,” he says.
Summer single tour dates 2021
19 Feb – The Corner Hotel, Melbourne – Tickets
5 March – The Brightside, Brisbane – Tickets
13 March – Crowbar, Sydney – Tickets
CHASING GHOSTS : are Jimmy Kyle (founder/frontman and chief song-writer ), Josh Burgan (guitar/vocals), Aaron Schultz (guitar/vocals), Jake Dargaville (drums), Chris O’Neill (keys/vocals) and Rohan Welsh (bass).
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Scott Darlow presents his single ‘Forgotten Australia’, a reminder for Australians to embrace their togetherness and come together to celebrate the things that make our country and its people special.
Scott has today also released the video for ‘Forgotten Australia’, where he is joined by an all-star cast to reflect on their connection to Australia and share stories of what Australia means to them. The video features the likes of John Butler, Kasey Chambers, Robert DiPierdomenico, Anthony Koutafidies, Myf Warhurst, Shelly Ware, Otis Carey, and Kyle Chalmers.
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Live music lovers can rejoice today as postponed heavy music event Thrashville releases full line-up for its rescheduled date of February 13th 2021.
Held at Dashville at Lower Belford, the one-day camping event features an array of local and regional bands ranging in styles from punk rock to death metal, alongside skateboarding displays and live graff art.
Thrashville is a rare opportunity regardless of COVID and Dashville is proud to be able to deliver such an event in an outdoor COVID Safe environment.
Thrashville’s full 2021 program:
Astrodeath // Basil’s Kite // Battlesnake // Boudicca // C.O.F.F.I.N Chop // Dark Order // HOON // No Quarter // PurEnvY // Ragdoll Scabz // Whatever // Zombonimo
Since the festivals debut in January 2017, the grass roots one day camping event, has proven to be a key event in the ‘heavy’ music calendar, being sorely missed in 2019 and 2020 due to drought, bush fires and COVID respectfully.
Event organiser Dashville has persevered in a very tricky environment to produce a quality experience for their much loved, but under serviced, metal, punk and rock fans with Thrashville being one of the only ‘slightly heavier’ outdoor festivals still in existence.
Organisers concede it has been very challenging planning in such uncertain times. However, through the success of other COVID safe events held at the pristine rural site, alongside the importance of Thrashville to its community, it wasn’t hard to find the encouragement to persevere, curating a quality experience, albeit slightly smaller than usual and delivered at the final hour, due to working within a changing COVID safe environment.
Despite a reduced capacity and a designated seating area, organisers are confident the heavy music community will come out to support the artists and enjoy the event responsibly.
‘We’re all in this together, Dashville has been hosting events since August last year and it’s amazing how people are willing to work within the boundaries and adapt in order to get along and enjoy themselves.’ Says organiser Matt Johnston
Thrashville is rated MA15+, it is a fully licensed one day event with onsite camping. Anyone under the age of 18 must be accompanied by a responsible adult at all times.
For further event information and ticketing please head to www.dashville.com.au/thrashville