Tag Archives: new music

Dan and Laura Curtis: Overture

If you love a good musical tune or two then this is the post for you.  Welsh musical maestros Dan and Laura Curtis are shortly to release a double album of original musical songs – ‘act’ one and ‘act’ two, if you like, of a complete musical theatre experience.  Filled with classic sounding tunes, mixed in with more contemporary jazz-pop songs along the way, Overture makes sure there’s something for all lovers of all musical theatre styles.

I recently interviewed Dan and Laura about Overture and asked why they wanted to write and produce a double or concert length album.  Laura said that musical theatre cast recordings have a very profound meaning for her as “it’s the closest thing to seeing a live show”.  Laura went onto explain that Overture was “inspired by our trip to New York, we love Broadway and we wanted to explore a musicals themed album that transcended genres yet where each song was related”.  Each song flows seamlessly into the next and with an overture at the beginning of each ‘act’, Overture the album would be a perfect concert to stage.  Laura implied that her and Dan would be interested in that but not yet – they’re about to start working intensively on a big project that must, for the time being, remain hush hush.

Now you would think that an album of twenty five songs would take a long time to write and when I asked Dan the question (in case you’re wondering, Laura and Dan both did the interview but as separate times), he said that it took about a year from start to finish.  Bearing in mind that they not only write the music they also record and produce everything too, that doesn’t seem like a very long time.  However, the more interesting thing for me was the revelation that most of the songs were only written after they had agreed who was to appear on the album, as Dan explains: “We’re inspired by people and voices, not ideas.  Although I do write bits of melodies, it’s much easier to write songs for particular voices.  Our songs are notoriously hard to sing, vocal acrobatics and the best of Broadway can do them justice”.  This approach means that the singers and songs are suited down to the ground:

My favourite songs on the album are Playing Games, sung by Matt Doyle and Keep Dancin’ On with Emmanuel Kojo.  Perfect storytelling to accompany the music but the stand out track for me, both vocally and dramatically is Natalie Weiss on When The Curtain Falls.  A look behind the glitz and glamour of the music business, these lyrics sum it up:

“When the playbill’s gone and your ego’s died, how you gonna feel… when nobody cares who you are any more”

Although Dan and Laura have already worked with some of the leading lights of Broadway and the West End, they don’t pull any punches when asked who they would like to write for and record with in the future; Audra McDonald, Seth McFarlane, Neil Patrick Harris, Josh Groban, Michael Ball and of course Alfie Boe are the names mentioned.  If the calibre of songs is as high as those on Overture, Dan and Laura should have no problem.

Overture will be released on 24 October.

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Kaiser Chiefs Stay Together

It’s safe to say that Kaiser Chiefs completely wrong footed both their many fans and the world of music in general when they released the first single from their new album back in June this year.  In contrast to their previous guitar led indie sound, Parachute showed a distinct pop / dance style and to begin with, a fair amount of fans were really not happy.  I loved it and felt the same about the equally catchy second single, Hole In My Soul, which followed in August and vies with Parachute for best video:

The title track, Stay Together, kicks off the album and instantly showcases the rest of the album: catchy, upbeat, synth pop, dancey and something that has you singing along in no time at all.  Dancing along seems to be compulsory for me at least which makes writing a review somewhat tricky – taken longer than normal as I keep having to get up and dance!

I opened this review by saying that Stay Together is a completely different sound for Kaiser Chiefs and yet…it’s not.  Strip the synth pop sound away and most of the tracks would sound like the guitar led KC sound we all know.  I suppose this is not a surprise as they are an extremely well honed band live and several of these songs have already been played live at KC shows so far this year.  My favourite songs are Hole In My Soul, Press Rewind, Indoor Firework and High Society, the latter for the novelty value of hearing Ricky sound more like Mika than Mika!  I hasten to add that I could have chosen most of the other songs too.

Kaiser Chiefs’ previous album, Education, Education, Education and War was a blistering return to form after the departure of Nick Hodgson and certainly their most cohesive album since their early releases; Stay Together continues in that vein.  Despite a difference in sound and subject matter (Stay Together speaks throughout of the tricky business of relationships – which relationships, it’s up to the listener to decide), this sixth album is very definitely to be taken as whole rather a collection of disparate songs.  If you’re not keen on your favourite bands taking a new direction then this album might not be for you but you’ll definitely be missing out.  Can’t wait to see where Kaiser Chiefs go next.

Stay Together is available here:

kaiser chiefs

 

Here Comes the Summer Playlist #2

Following on from our first Summer Playlist, here are four more artists brought to you by Flo at Angry Baby and this time it’s all about the girls – don’t forget to download your free music from Angry Baby at the bottom of this post.*

  • Kelly Oliver, Bedlam

Being a fearless storyteller is a great starting point for any contemporary folk singer. Add to that the creativity to build stand-out instrumentation topped by a voice that is uniquely sweet and complex and you have all the ingredients you need for a breakthrough folk album.  That’s what I found in Kelly Oliver’s Bedlam, released on boutique indie label Folkstock Records on 6 March 2016. It’s no surprise that she is already a favourite with the UK’s Folk Radio station and legendary music presenter Whispering Bob Harris.

  • Kiirstin Marilyn, Out of Control

At first listening, her new EP, Ghosts could be just another electro-pop offering. The vocals are sweet and tuneful, the arrangements energetic and the production tight. But it’s way too demanding to be background music or something to dance along to. This is a collection of songs that tap you on the shoulder. Think you might drift away? check your texts? tweet? Not while this music is playing, you won’t. It wants all of you and it accepts nothing less than your full attention.  It’s the voice that does it. Kiirstin may deliver a sweet vocal, but there is an urgency to her delivery too. An ‘I’m-singing-this’because-it-matters’. A ‘listen-up’. A ‘get-with-it’. Her activism occupies her tone and campaigns through her phrasing. This is a songbird for social justice. [love the intro to the music video. Jane]

  • Lorna Dea, Stay the Same

Sometimes all you need is pop. For just those moments, meet Lorna Dea. Bubbly and up-beat, Lorna’s sound channels all-time favourites from across the decades – The Supremes, Bananarama, The Bangles, The Spice Girls, Little Mix – into a one-woman girl-band.

  • Rachael Sage – English Tea

Rachael Sage is a singer songwriter whose music I’ve loved the for some time now, so I was thrilled when she agreed to do an interview. Her music is incredible, but I’ll let you see how she describes it in the piece below:

I first really started developing my style when I was a ballet student. I would come home from ballet class in my pre-teens and I would sound out all of this beautiful classical music by ear, and then in my own way I would kind of mash it up and I eventually started composing my own music. The first building block for me musically was definitely classical music, so there’s a lot of melody and a lot of arpeggiation in the piano. Then of course I absorbed just about everything I heard, from Top 40 in high school, to later on a lot of more organic folk music and socially conscious music that I heard in college. So it was a mix of influences. I do get compared a lot to songwriters from the seventies, and I always take that as a compliment because I really try to tell stories in my music.

 

Thanks to Flo at Angry Baby for sharing her music with us – I really loved the intro to Kiirstin Marilyn’s music video.  Also Rachael Sage is an artist featured on thoughtsofjustafan last year – love her music.

Click on the links below to get your free downloads from Angry Baby and add to your Summer playlist

Kelly Oliver – Bedlam

Kiirstin Marilyn – Out of Control

Lorna Dea – Stay the Same

Rachael Sage – English Tea

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Here Comes the Summer Playlist

Even if Summer has yet to really arrive in the UK this year, we can dream about it and while we’re doing that, we need a Summer playlist which is where I come in.  This summer, I’m teaming up with Angry Baby to share our Summer playlist; not only that, Angry Baby is also giving away lots of lovely free music for you to download, so keep reading all the way to the bottom to get your free music links*.

Thanks to Flo at Angry Baby for sharing her blogs with me here:

  • In Hoodies, She Got Caught:

When I first heard She Got Caught, I instantly fell in love with it, in fact this is probably one of my favourites of all of the songs I have given away on Angry Baby. Everything about the song makes it something I’d want to listen to all the time, as different aspects work well in different moods. The melody is quite relaxing and calm, but there is a certain quality to it that is more than that, and it adds another level to the music entirely. I can’t quite put my finger on what it is, but you can listen for yourself and see what I mean!

  • Jay Woodward, Blue Sky Blue:

At first what stood out to me about Jay’s music was the relaxing melody, but when I listened to the song a few times I noticed the meaningful lyrics. Jay’s songs are based on his real life experiences of death, bereavement and grief and so the words are very poetic and deep. His vocal style is distinctive – intimate with an overlay of blues on a backdrop of folk. I found myself leaning in to listen more, absorbed by the mood.

 

  • Albert Man, Cheap Suit

What comes first, the music or the words? – its one of those ‘chicken and egg’ questions, but Albert Man knows his answer:

Lyrics are so important to me. I always have a theme I want to write about first and try to get a title. I then write the lyrics before I start adding any music or melody. I will re-write the lyrics so many times too until I get something I’m happy with.

His new album, Cheap Suit doesn’t disappoint. A mix of quirkiness and pathos, it provides social commentary, viewed through the small stuff. Things that happen and thoughts that arise, unremarked and fleeting, are given a moment of deeper reflection, conjuring up a response of “ah yes!” and “me too!”

  • Danielle Lewis, I’ll Wait

Danielle’s voice has been compared with Karen Carpenter and, although her tone is lighter, the effortless emotion that merits this comparison is apparent in the second track of the EP I’ll Wait. In complete contrast to Anywhere is Home, this is a soulful ballad that exudes romance and demands to be heard in the arms of someone special. Lovers of female vocalists will applaud the purity and control that flows from phrase to phrase, supported by the simplest of strings.

  • Hugh Kelly, Give Me All Your Love

Britain’s blue-eyed soul scene has been in resurgence recently, thanks to artists like Adele, Sam Smith and Joss Stone. But wouldn’t you like to hear a voice with a more lived-in quality? Hugh Kelly leaps out of the speakers with a tone that growls with the gravitas of life experience, reminiscent of Leonard Cohen or the late Joe Cocker. If we believe what Harry Chapin told us, back in the 70s, maybe it’s the drinking he did on his last big gig that make his voice go low?  That’s not far off the mark. Hugh puts the strength of his voice down to time spent in pubs and bars, but as a singer, not a drinker. That, together with busking unamped in the streets of his native Edinburgh, built the power in his vocals so he could be heard above the crowd. Take a listen and I guess you’ll be as amazed as I was to find that Hugh isn’t some long-standing musician with a back catalogue stretching through generations of music making. No, he is a 21-year-old newcomer, doing it all by himself (with help from dad, Tom) and already receiving accolades from local music press and radio.

Thanks Flo for sharing some of your favourite new music with us, love the voices of Hugh Kelly and Albert Man especially!

In order to get your free music from Angry Baby, just click on the links below and start creating your Summer 2016 playlist!

In Hoodies – She Got Caught

Jay Woodward – Blue Sky Blue

Albert Man – Cheap Suit

Danielle Lewis – I’ll Wait

Hugh Kelly – Give Me All Your Love

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Beth Ford’s Voyage

Almost exactly a year ago, I blogged about Beth Ford’s debut single, If I Could Escape, which reached number 3 on an iTunes chart.  Following a year in which Beth has performed live with People’s Soprano Rebecca Newman and tenor Jonathan Antoine as well as recording a duet with Michael Boe, I’m thrilled to be able to bring you the news that this wonderful single is being followed by a three track EP, to be released on Wednesday 13th July.

The Voyage comprises the title track, How We Love and Follow Your Dream and all three tracks showcase the improved maturity and strength of Beth’s voice.  Last year I was struck by how much Beth had improved since I first heard her sing (on Alfie Boe’s Bring Him Home tour, with Alfie himself and Flo Bannigan) and a full twelve months on, I’m again struck by a much richer tone in her voice.

Beth new photo

 

My favourite track is Chris Broom’s Follow Your Dream which sums up the performers mantra of believing in your dreams.  Beth herself says “This sums up so perfectly what I believe in, nothing is impossible if you pursue your dreams…The lyrics of the song are simply perfect ‘your star will shine if you follow your dream‘”.

All three tracks flow seamlessly, telling a story of voyage, adventure and following your dreams which is what Beth seems to be doing quite successfully at the moment. Indeed, this weekend saw Beth sit at the top of amazon’s movers and shakers chart, thanks to all the pre-orders so far – an amazing achievement.

To order your download of The Voyage, just click on the image below:

beth ford voyage

If you click through now, you will also receive a musical gift from Beth to say ‘thank you’ and the chance to grab a special edition CD which features two bonus songs not available anywhere else.  Having heard these extra two tracks, I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend pre-ordering now.  How do you get your hands on this?  Once you have pre-ordered, just email freemusic@angrybaby.co.uk with ‘The Voyage Bonus’ in the subject line – then you sit back and wait for your download and free musical gift to arrive.  Hurry – you only have until Wednesday to get this exclusive special offer!

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Lánre’s Human Soul

As you know, here at thoughtsofjustafan I like to bring you new music and lately this has tended to be indie or folk in nature.  This week, however, I’m bringing you the unique sound of soul and folk combined in the form of British Nigerian singer songriter, Lánre.  If this sounds bizarre, trust me, it works.

Human is the third release from Lánre and is a four track EP detailing the trials and tribulations of what it means to be human.  In particular, I felt the title track contained some powerful, inspirational lyrics that describe the process of living and making relationships work.  I discussed this with Lánre recently and it turns out that this was exactly her thought process upon writing the song.  She said “life’s not about getting it right all the time, doing the same things again and again reaffirms that we are human”.  The song was not written specifically with young women in mind but it seems like the perfect song for young women to listen to and hear that life is not about perfection but about being yourself and enjoying the ups and downs we all go through.  The stand out lyric, inspired by Leonard Cohen is

we’re all broken so that light can come in

which sums up perfectly what the song is about, accompanied by Lánre’s powerful soul voice and folk based instrumentals.

Talking to Lánre, she appears to be a pragmatist as evidenced by the reason to release a second EP rather than a full album; she was collaborating for the first time with new musicians and folk instruments and wasn’t sure if the results would warrant committing to a full album.  Furthermore, when writing songs that will be played live, she doesn’t always have the luxury of a band around her so the songs need to work as solos as well as with a band.  She also admits to being a bit of a “control freak” (her words) as she self produces all her music which she also writes.  Asked if self producing is a conscious choice, Lánre says that “in time, I don’t know what will happen but now it’s working for me…I understand what my sound is and it’s a better fit at the moment.  I’ve had meetings with record labels but the control freak in me doesn’t think it will work”.  All this was said with much laughter and more than a bit tongue in cheek I suspect.

As always when I interview songwriters, I’m interested to know about that process – what comes first, how do the ideas come?  For Lánre, who has always sung, rather than played instruments, the lyrics and the sound pf the vocals come first, followed by guitar chords and the melody before being shared with the musicians she is collaborates with.  Describing this process, Lanre again mentions her tendency towards control, “I never played an instrument so I always had to rely on other people for that which brought out more of the control freak”.

Although Lánre acknowledges this posed something of a dilemma in her songwriting, she says that it took the sudden death of her father to push her to learn to play her guitar.  Her father was a musical person in that he listened to music a lot but never played an instrument and that pushed her to “go out and do what I want.  Go for it, never waste time”.  This pivotal moment in her life also prompted the decision to leave the safety and security of the six piece voice collective, GK Real and turn solo, again “doing what I wanted to do” although she admits it has been hard, “when you’re working with a band you have that support system but you have to do everything yourself when you go solo”.  On the evidence of Human, I’d say it was a pretty good decision.

Human is available now on iTunes:

lanre

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I Love Kaiser Chiefs’ Parachute!

Yesterday I heard (in full, for the first time) the Kaiser Chiefs’ new single, Parachute from their long awaited sixth album, Stay Together which is due out in October.  I’d seen YouTube clips of Parachute over the weekend so I had an idea of what the song would sound like but I was blown away by the dance style sound of the single.  Blown away as in not expecting it but really loved it.  Judge for yourselves:

[August 2016] The second new song, Hole In My Soul, has just been released and I love this one too.  Fab video – apart from anything else, how cool is Whitey?

How often is it that you get a fab dance track that works just as well when played live by a guitar based indie band?  It’s genius – catchy, great lyrics, had me dancing about at first listen, what more could you want? And the answer to that last question, at least when scrolling through tweets on the subject, was that a number of fans just wanted a record that sounded the same as the previous five albums.  Actually, I don’t think that any of the previous albums are similar enough to warrant that statement (I have followed the band since their first album, didn’t listen for a while, around the times of the third and fourth albums, but came back to the music via front man Ricky Wilson’s stint on The Voice) so I suppose what disgruntled fans mean is that they want something that offers a recognisable Kaiser Chiefs indie band sound.

So, (Ricky once said on his Radio X show that you shouldn’t start a sentence with so but I do it quite a lot) I suppose the question is whether Kaiser Chiefs are trying to reach a new audience with this single or they’ve just written something that they wanted to?  Who knows – maybe I’ll get the chance to ask them one day – but I do know that it’s their choice.  Personally, I love it when a band goes in a new direction (and as I’ve not heard the rest of the album I don’t know if the rest of it is the same); life’s an adventure and just doing the same old thing dulls creativity or at least it does for me.

Having said all that, I think it’s not surprising that some fans are not all that enamoured of the sound.  Writing about Alfie Boe’s music for almost three years now has shown me that although a lot of fans say they would listen to anything and everything an artist puts out, that’s not actually true for a sizable percentage of the audience.  Alfie is renowned for endlessly changing the style of his music and not all his fans have stayed the course throughout his career (on a personal note, I could happily live without the musical theatre albums) despite originally and repeatedly saying that they would listen to him sing anything, “even the phone book”.  Balanced against those fans are the ones who have come to him following one of his many changes in direction proving only that there is never just one audience for an artist or their music.  Change is good – embrace it and you might find a whole new world out there but that’s another song entirely.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that if your favourite band, and Kaiser Chiefs are my most listened to artist after Alfie, wants to try a new sound, go with it, you might find that like me, you love their new song.  On the basis of Parachute I can’t wait to hear the album.  Roll on October.

Stay Together is available for pre-order here:

kaiser chiefs

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Thompson Twins’ Tom Bailey: Come So Far

If you’re an avid BBC Radio 2 listener you may well have heard the first single in 27 years from Thompson Twin’s Tom Bailey which has been on the playlist for the last couple of weeks.  Titled Come So Far, the single marks Bailey’s return to music, except of course that he never really went away, as he continued to write and play music after the break up of iconic 80’s band The Thompson Twins, albeit most of it not in the public eye.

tom bailey

Come So Far could be about many things, not least Bailey’s return to writing and playing pop music and his return a couple of years ago to performing the music of the Thompson Twins at festivals here and around the world but it’s actually about neither of these things.  It’s essentially Bailey’s response to the refugee crisis in Europe and he talked more about this when I met him a few weeks ago on a glorious May morning.

The single is being released to raise money for Medecins San Frontiere on a pay what you want download basis but this only came about after Bailey had written the song and played it for friends who immediately said that he must release it.  Having decided to release it as a single, the charitable aspect became very important for Bailey and the decision to invite people to pay what they want came about from the desire to as Bailey says “open doors instead of closing them. Others had done it and it seemed like a good idea”.

As well as raising money for Medecins San Frontiere, Come So Far also refocuses the light on a human story that has dropped out of the day to day headlines but hasn’t gone away: the huge amounts of displaced persons / refugees / migrants arriving in Europe over the last months and years.  Bailey said that like many of us, he just “saw the headlines and didn’t really hear any individual stories”.  That changed when he heard the story of an Afghan teenager who had been sent to London by his mother to avoid being killed or recruited into something dangerous.  It took him three years and it was only when he arrived that he had time to look back at where he’d come from.  To Bailey, that narrative was “so powerful and poetic that I had to write the song.  At the time, it was just one song out of many that I was writing, I had no plans at all to release it”.

As the interview went on, it was clear that Bailey is well informed about the issues at hand having spent a short time visiting the refugee camps at Calais and was quick to point out that none of this is simple or clear cut; there are many facets to the story and not all of them lend themselves to helping charitable causes.  This, together with what can be described as a weariness on the part of consumers for yet more charity singles, meant that Bailey initially hesitated about releasing the single.  Indeed, Bailey has sympathy for the view that this is not what pop music is for, saying that “pop culture is about escapism, it’s not for reminding people that there’s a world of grim reality out there”.  Having said that, Bailey’s pop music hey day comes from a time when Live Aid really did change the way we viewed things and he’s a canny enough musician to write a catchy song that tells a story, well.

He’s also canny enough to know that as the first single from Thompson Twins’ Tom Bailey in a long time, the single has rarity value, something he acknowledged when talking about his return to his 80’s music.  Having consistently refused to play that music for over twenty years, the time was right when he was approached by fellow 80’s music icon, Howard Jones to take part in an 80’s tour of the USA (Thompson Twins had huge hits on both sides of the Atlantic).  Having said yes, Bailey went about rediscovering his own music, re-recording and redesigning along the way, having as he wryly said “earned the right to do that the first time around”. Fans have been wholly receptive to this return and one of the delights for Bailey at the live shows is seeing fans who came to gigs in the 80’s – like Bailey himself, they have obviously worn very well.

Come So Far is released on Cooking Vinyl Records on 17 June.

Thompson Twin’s Tom Bailey is appearing at festivals across the UK this summer.

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Ciaran Lavery’s Let Bad In

Let Bad In is the second album from Northern Irish singer songwriter Ciaran Lavery.  I first heard his voice a year ago and described it then as “beguiling, giving an emotional honesty to his music”.   That was in reaction to just one song and having now listened to an entire ten track album, I still stand by that initial assessment.  Let Bad In showcases a seriously good songwriter.

I recently spoke to Lavery about this new album, released on 27 May and one thing came across clearly: his passion for songwriting, especially lyrics.  Lavery says that as a listener, lyrics are the things that he really listens out for and I think that this shows in his song writing.  A lot of the songs relate to days gone by and the past which helps the album flow effortlessly from beginning to end, a balanced listen which is a deliberate approach; Lavery preferring albums that hang together well with a general theme rather than just a collection of songs that bear no relation to each other.

I asked Lavery how he approached song writing and interestingly, he says that he’s recently changed from sitting down to write a song to starting off “with a feeling, an inspiration” and now can write without having an instrument to hand.  He goes on to say that “it feels as if there aren’t as many rules of writing…it’s a nice way to write, I can bank songs for a later date when they’ll fit in with the current theme”.  Previously, any songs that didn’t fit with everything else being written were thrown away although Lavery was quick to laugh and dismiss out of hand my assertion that he could have thrown away any number of masterpieces.

Other than Return to Form, above, one of my favourite tracks on Let Bad In is Wilder which turns out to be Lavery’s favourite too, if only because he “enjoys the musicians that play on it”!  Wilder showcases some great lyrics which isn’t surprising as Lavery is a self confessed “lyric freak, it’s the first thing to catch my ear as a listener”.  The line that caught my ear is:

remembering days when I was young enough to fail without them sticking in my throat

And another line that really spoke to me is from Tell Them All:

live a life where you can live it / give a hand where you can give it / never raise your glass to someone’s sorrow

Talking to Lavery, it became clear that he suffers from an almost crippling level of self doubt about his music.  He rarely listens to his own music, other than during the editing and production process and finds it difficult to accept praise (a family trait, he says).  He needn’t worry,  his song writing really captures an emotional response in the listener which is complemented by his voice; soft when needed, raw when the song asks for it (this is is especially true of the title track, Let Bad In, where Lavery’s almost raw vocals act as a faultless companion for the lyrics

I’m learning each and every day not to let bad in

There is nothing bad about this album; on the contrary, it’s full of great songs that show off the very talented Ciaran Lavery.

Let Bad In is released on 27 May on Believe Recordings and is available here:

ciaran lavery

 

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It’s All Inside Mi’das’ Head

Soulful, contemporary pop with a folky edge and a bit of piano led gospel thrown in for good measure perfectly describes some great new music I heard recently.  This eclectic mix of sounds comes from the first full length album from Brighton based singer songwriter, Mi’das aka Mike Davies.  I say first full length album as over the last few years, Mi’das has recorded enough EP’s and singles for two or three albums but All Inside Your Head is his first proper album release.

Davies has a voice full of soul that easily adapts to folk, gospel and full on pop and All Inside Your Head has the songs to match that versatility of voice and this is probably explained by the fact that some of these songs have been with him for years, just waiting for the right recording vehicle to come along.  I interviewed Davies while he was preparing for a short headline tour next month and asked him what the album title means (it’s not the title of a track on the album).  He quickly explained that it was originally a track on the album but although the song didn’t fit, he still wanted to use the title for the album as whole as “it’s about a way of looking at the world, sometimes things feel bad but sometimes it’s all just inside your head”.  This approach to naming an album led me to ask why Mi’das and not Mike Davies and it turns out that he “just wanted a stage name, some artists I like had similar names”.  Writing this now I’m struck why I didn’t ask if any of those artists were Wakey Wakey or Oktoba, both of whom have featured here.

All the songs on All Inside Your Head were written in full or part by Davies and I’m always curious about other creative processes (fascinating!).  Some of the songs had been with him “for years” and others came more recently but they were all started with an instrument and the melody – the lyrics came later.  The album is full of different sounds from gospel to folk to soul and anyone listening won’t be surprised to hear that amongst his influences, Davies lists Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, Stevie Wonder and Ray Charles.  In particular, Grace, Get On Up, If I Were You and Twilight are the ‘big songs’ and the ones where the influences work best.  That being said, my favourite track is Justice, which opens the album.  It’s a big ballsy song and makes a powerful anthem against injustice in all forms.  Maybe the fact that I’m writing this and listening to the song the day after the Hillsborough inquest means that I’m thinking more deeply about the meaning of justice but either way, it’s a great song. The album ends with an eleventh track, a live recording of Everybody’s Changing:

All Inside Your Head is an album full of soulful music which you feel has been lovingly crafted over a long period and it turns out that music that has been created with care and artistry is just the kind of music that Davies cites as good music.  I asked what he would class as bad music as let’s face it, everyone’s idea of bad music is different.  Ever asked someone what music they don’t like and they name your favourite? Awkward!  Davies said in response that for him, bad music is “music made with no thought or artistry in it; music whose sole purpose is to be sold as a product”.

Creating music with no care or artistry is unlikely to be levelled at musicians on independent labels and sure enough, Mi’das has his own label.  Not that he would ever be averse to singing a major record deal, he just wants to “get there by doing it myself and I haven’t arrived at my destination yet”.  Being a musician for a long time means that Davies is aware of the flip side of signing to a major label, having seen others land seemingly great deals and then get dropped when targets aren’t met.  Having your own label is a sure fire way of avoiding that.

All Inside Your Head is available now:

midas

His headline tour starts on 9 May.

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