Music-interviews the definitive archive of stories behind the music

Where are you currently based and what is the music scene like there? Emil: Malmö, Sweden. Quite a few good venues here. I especially like Plan B, Babel and Inkonst. Sam: East Dulwich, London. South East London has a very vibrant music scene. From bands like Black Country New Road, Squid, The Golden Dregs, Alaskalaska and artists such as Jerkcurb, Tony Njoku and Pixx. Venue wise it’s pretty limited in comparison to East London but a new venue opened up last year called Peckham Audio which is a lovely addition to the area. Not quite South East London, but the infamous Windmill in Brixton isn’t too far away and is the pinnacle for discovering up and coming artists from the area. Lets just hope these venues survive these tough times because it would be a major blow to not just the venues themselves but to the whole independent music community. How did you first start playing music? Emil: Standard Swedish compulsory music education! Sam: As a kid, I was obsessed with the sound of distortion so my lovely Mother bought me a guitar! At first I didn’t really take to playing as I found it really difficult and didn’t enjoy lessons. I was about 8 so wanted to be instantly good. However when I was about 13 me and a group of friends decided to start a band and I’ve been playing in different bands ever since. How has your COVID19 experience been so far? Emil: Terrific, everything slows down- Sam: Other than the UK Government absolutely ballsing up their response to the virus and the fact that 1000’s and 1000’s of people have died because of it, I agree with Emil. It has been a much slower pace but also a little unnerving due to the lack of any plan from the government. I guess I’ll just ’Stay Alert’! What's been happening recently? Emil: Not much! Sam: I’ve been spending time with my girlfriend, cooking food and making music. It’s been a great time for me to be able to take a step back and just relax. Please tell us about how the Normal Average People project came about: Emil: We lived in the same flat in Nunhead, South London, we worked at the same bar and ended up playing together in a silly manner. Before we knew it we had a permanent recording set-up in our living room. Simply spending a lot of time in a relaxed environment is how the project came about really. Sam: Yeah the whole project came about in a very natural way. We spent A LOT of time together. Your second single Baggy Ankles is out now, what influenced the sound and songwriting for this track? Emil: All I can say is that the sound was definitely inspired by Bruce Springsteen. Sam: Hahahaha yes! There is an element of Springsteen in there. You really have to listen out for it though. Other than that I guess we were quite inspired by artists such as Talking Heads, Stereolab, Faust, CAN and Parquet Courts at the time. Where and when did you record/produce? Emil: We recorded everything live in the bar we worked at at the time. The bar We enjoyed the acoustics and thought it might add to the vibe. During the production process we also worked a lot with re-amping, sending sounds through different speakers and amps to different parts of the bar. Sam: Yeah it was a really interesting process as the room just really added to everything. It wasn’t your conventional studio set-up at all and I think we thrived off that. What programs/instruments did you use? Emil: Standard guitar-band setup plus a few synths. And loads of silly stuff! Sam: We even used a microphone in a bucket at one stage to get what we thought was a desired sound. We definitely experimented. How do you approach recording and production? Emil: Building a stage on which players can act freely, capturing something honest within controlled settings. Creating the format before the substance! Sam: Emil’s great at getting good performances out of people and a pleasure to work with. So yeah I just mostly went a long with his approach. Who are you listening to at the moment? Emil: Really like the new King Krule album. Sam: Yeah the new King Krule album is great!! I’ve also been listening to a lot of (Sandy) Alex G and Art Feynman recently. What do you like to do away from music? Emil: I'd like to be a rockstar! Sam: I like sleeping! What's planned for 2020? Emil: Hopefully the gigging situation will be back to normal before the year ends! Otherwise focus will be on collecting new ideas and then get together either in London or Sweden to record! Sam: Yes ideally gigging would be the next stage but unfortunately we can’t currently. We will be releasing more songs from previous recording sessions throughout the rest of the year and yes get working on the next thing. Got to keep things rolling! Favourite food and place to hangout? Emil: Anywhere but Voodoo Rays in Peckham! Sam: Hahaha! He only says that cos that’s where I work. Got really into making Tacos recently and hanging out in my girlfriends kitchen where I have a little recording set-up. It’s a nice space with great light so yeah I’d say there. Other than that I’d say Emil’s Mum’s house on the west cost of Sweden. It’s beautiful there, very relaxing and a very creative place.

Normal Average People Interview

Where are you currently based and how did you wind up there? I’m currently based in the central highlands of Bali, Indonesia. The waves initially brought me here, I landed a 6 month surf coaching job just as the English winter was about to begin in 2010. It’s been my home base ever since. How did you first start playing music and singing? My dad taught me guitar at age 11 but a had piano lessons since I was 6. He and my mum were big Beatles fans and he would teach me a lot of their songs. I especially remember learning blackbird in the garden along with my brother - this was my first intro to fingerpicking. I overcame the ‘singing whilst playing conundrum’ pretty quickly somehow, so I was blessed in that sense, I learnt a bunch of songs from tablature from the internet and from my dads books ranging from Black Sabbath to Van Morrison. My first live song performance was at a friends living room and we only played one song, Daytripper! How have you been dealing with the current COVID19 situation? It’s a shocking time and I’m doing my best to stay positive. I’ve been keeping busy inside recording, I have an album of songs ready to get down and my plan is to release them as singles as I go. I’ve also been getting into some gardening that I’ve been wanting to do for a while but never made the time - it’s nice to do something different and give my ears a break for a day or two. I really like the idea of growing your own food and being self sufficient, plus it feels great to be out in nature. It’s super easy to do in the tropics because everything grows so fast. You have a new single 'Lucky Kid' out now, what influenced the sound and songwriting for this track? Lucky Kid is a kind of postcard to myself. A reminder of where I’ve come from and what I’ve got to be grateful for. It came to me one day out of nowhere and I wrote the whole thing at the kitchen table in one sitting, which is super rare for me. I always have this nostalgic feeling when I play the song live and I wanted to capture that when it came to recording, which meant performance was key, so there weren’t many takes and it all came together quite quickly. How did you go about writing Lucky Kid? It was this rare moment where everything happened at once. I was hanging around downstairs with my acoustic guitar drinking tea and thinking of England and how I got to where I was, just playing around with a few chords and all of a sudden the verse melody came to me and I just started writing out what came into my head. How and when did you record/produce Lucky Kid and what programs equipment did you use? I recorded and released Lucky Kid in April 2020. I have a little wooden bungalow next to my house that I use as a studio. It’s helpful to have all my gear and instruments set up so I can just go in when I feel like it. I use an Apogee Duet as my audio interface and Logic X. My go to mic is the Rode NT1a, I also use other condensers and dynamics for different purposes. I started by laying down a scratch guitar and vocal and making sure the tempo is right, then add a live performance of my kick and tambourine and make sure it’s in time. Then once the song is mapped properly I can comfortably go for a real guitar take, then vocals/harmonica and slide guitars and light percussion were added after. How did you learn how to record/produce? I’ve always been messing around with recording since I was a kid and I used this Tascam 4 track that was my brothers, but never had any formal training. I schooled myself from copious YouTube videos and blogs and just learnt what I needed to know as I went along - a kind of trial and error approach. By no means am I a pro but I know what I want the song to sound like and I’m now proficient in the various parts of the process to get a decent version down. Please tell us about how you came to send the mix to a guy in Amsterdam that he ran through his Ampex Analogtape machine, how did this come about and how did the process effect the track? I sent the mix of Lucky Kid to a friend and we were discussing tape vs digital sound. We started riffing about sending digital mixes through a tape machine to see what it would sound like. I was curious to do an experiment, so after some googling I found this guy in Amsterdam at Lullabye Studios who had an Ampex Tape Machine from the 60’s. So I flipped him the mix and he put it through in various speeds and saturation and sent back 4 different versions. I could really tell the difference, the guitar and vocal and percussion seemed more present to me. I chose the 15IPS setting with normal saturation, It just sounded more full, thicker and clean. Some of the other variations sounded cool but at 7.5IPS with higher saturation it just sounded too gritty for this acoustic song. It was amazing really to be able to do this process remotely. It doesn’t beat actually recording everything to tape of course, but you can get a little bit of that analog colour on your mix for a small price, and I’m stoked with how it turned out. I’ll definitely be doing this with more of my recordings. Where, when and how did you master Lucky Kid? So I received the mix after it had gone through the tape machine and I mastered it myself here at home. The process it quite simple really, you are in essence just making the track louder and balanced. I usually just do a bit of EQ, light compression and make sure the loudness meets the optimised standard for streaming platforms like Spotify etc. What did you find most challenging and rewarding through the process? I normally have a hard time getting my acoustic guitar to sound good, it’s often quite boomy and involves heavy EQ in the mix, but I played around with some unusual microphone placements and found a spot near my strumming elbow that required almost no EQ whatsoever. I think mic placement is super important and it’s something I’ve overlooked previously. Where can we listen/buy? Go over to Spotify, Apple Music or any music platform to listen to Lucky Kid. Its available to purchase on iTunes and Bandcamp too. Who are you listening to at the moment? I’ve been listening to the Beatles recordings a lot at the moment, they are just fantastic and always inspire me to get into the studio. Been getting into some Dr Dog, Phil Cook and Hiss Golden Messenger to name a few. What do you like to do away from music? I really like to travel so I try and go somewhere new each year. I feel like it’s important to go somewhere so I can come back with new ideas and experiences that can weave their way into the music. Favourite food and place to hangout? My girlfriend and I have been trying out new recipes and there’s lot of yum food coming out of our kitchen right now. And since I decided to be vegetarian 2 years ago it’s opened my eyes to a whole new world of dishes, hence to say I’ve never looked back. So, actually here at home is my favourite place to eat and hang out right now, and it’s the safest! Plus all my dogs are here too, they love that I’m home so much. www.andysixstring.com @andysixstring instagram https://www.instagram.com/andysixstring/ @andysixstring_ twitter https://twitter.com/andysixstring_ Andysixstring Facebook https://facebook.com/andysixstring/

$How did you first start creating music? I don’t have a musical background and was generally discouraged in this regard growing up. I got to point in my life where I simply had too much bottled up inside myself and had to find a medium through which to get it out. Rap seemed like the genre with the easiest entry level and I set myself the goal of creating a mixtape. I learned as I went, approaching and overcoming obstacles such as not being able to sing, and not having any references of someone creating contemporary rap with an Australian accent. I haven’t stopped since, and I now think the lack of musical training is actually an asset forcing me to be more creative with how I approach my work. Your latest single 'Dirt On the Name of Steven’ is out now, what influenced the punk trap sound for this track? The song itself is nostalgic, looking back at a period of time I am now distant from and comparing it to where I stand today. The Emo/Pop Punk instrumentation by Lil Aaron is reminiscent of the music I listened to in the years during the events expressed in the song’s lyrics. You have an EP on the way, what different creative elements do you have in store for us? After the release of my EP I’m going to be focusing on finalising my book. It will be a collection of my ritual photography as well as a snapshot of my personal philosophy as it is in this moment. But before then I have my most ambitious videoclip yet planned for the first song on the EP, it’s my most favourite song on the EP “Lava”. I don’t want to give it away, but I think it should make people smile, we all need a little bit of escapism right about now. How has The Zheani Sparkes EP progressed or differed from your previous releases? I think I approached it with a slightly tighter concept than other projects. I aimed to provide context about my past and give people more insight into the background that shaped me. It came out extremely grim so at the very end I sprinkled a bit of positivity like adding sweetener to medicine. What did you find most challenging/rewarding during the creation of the EP? Most of what I speak about on the EP is deeply embarrassing. These are memories I tried very hard to suppress and forget. Making music out of these memories is like alchemy, I take something terrible and make art out of it. Then the memory is out there for everyone to experience and I am no longer as ashamed. Transmutation. I hope this process will allow me to finally leave all that baggage behind, rather than having darkness hidden inside, I want it out of me. I genuinely want to be a happy person. I hope the reward for my transparency will be getting to move on. What direction can you see your music taking next? I want to take a moment and work on some more light-hearted music. However, I’m also considering taking some time to myself in preparation for working on my first album. Technically I’ve released an album-length project, but I’ve never approached them as such. What are you listening to at the moment? City Morgue, Grimes, Nicole Dollanganger, Aphex Twin, Young Thug, Bright Eyes, Tracey Chapman, Neil Young, 100 Gecs. What do you like to do away from music? Cooking, gardening, audio books, stretching/laying horizontal… Waifu Shit. What else do you have planned for 2020? It all depends on when they let us out of the country ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ The Zheani Sparkes EP is out on May 29. Stream the latest single ‘Dirt On The Name Of Steven’ here. Follow Zheani: @askulloffoxes facebook.com/zheanisparkes twitter.com/askulloffoxes zheani.com$