Josh Osho – The Manifesto EP Preview Interview

If you’re yet to hear the wondrous talents of Josh Osho, then The Manifesto EP, will be the perfect introduction for you. Dropping on Monday 12th March (This Monday), it also features the brilliant talents of Etta Bond, Rize, and Smiler. If you are still unsold, it’s available for free, so I mean, you haven’t exactly got anything to lose, have you? After announcing the release date for the EP last night on Twitter, I managed to get a quick interview with Josh, about The Manifesto, his recent slot on the MOBO Tour and the inspirational words Ghostface Killah has given him.

You’ve recently finished playing on the MOBO Tour in various locations over the UK, did you get a great reception everywhere you played?

Yeah man, it was an awesome experience, I got a way better reception then I had actually anticipated! It was proper eye opening.

You were there along side Clement Marfo & The Frontline, Smiler, Benny Banks and a few others. Who do you see really taking off after witnessing them on the tour?

EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM and I’m not just saying that. Clems energy with his band is nuts, its really infectious I found myself bubbling in the crowd during his set every night lol. Smiler I slept on for a while but managed to swing him onto my upcoming EP after being blown away by some freestyles, then his mixtape, ‘All I Know’. And Benny has been about for a while putting in the ground work and I don’t see why he cant fly.

Off the back of the MOBO Tour, along with Smiler, you’ve got him to feature on The Manifesto, as well as Etta Bond. If that’s not showcasing brilliant UK talent, I don’t know what is. Where they artists you were desperate to get on the release?

100% Etta was in the plans from day 1. I met her yonks ago and she has a beautiful soul then obviously I clocked her talent, and yeah I was eager to get her on board. Then like I say, Smiler is flying at the moment. Theres also an up and coming rapper called Rize on a track called ‘Superman’, who everyone should look out for, his grasp of lyricism is something else

I can understand how exciting it must be for any artist to get music finally out there, but I’ve been flowing the progress of The Manifesto, and you’ve really showed how much you’ve put into it. How glad are you that it’s finally coming out soon?

Oh man, over the mooon, for so many reasons! I try in everything I do to give from the heart and so-so much time but more so, thought and energy goes into the creative process so it just feels like the full cycle when you can share it! On top of that I did the whole project completely independent from the label, so getting it off the ground was a bit of a task but it feels so good having it there on my lap. Im mad excited, for myself and the supporters

Would you say it’s your best work to date?

Its progress, I don’t think I could ever say this or that is my best work honestly as all my work is my best work I don’t think I’d let anything I didn’t believe in 100% go out, but im really proud of what I’ve managed to accomplish.

What sort of feel can we expect on The Manifesto?

Musically as is kind of a custom for me, I’ve drawn from so many places and the producers I worked with all offered something different but its all quite dense and soulful, and there’s quite a lot of layers conceptually

I thought it was well deserved, but was it a bit mad getting nominated in the 4Music’s Ones To Watch 2012 list – seeing as they had people like Labrinth and Emeli Sande on there too!

Yh it was quite kl actually but im just tryna focus on what I do best writing, creating performing, those things just motivate me more I guess

It’s quite hard these days to find proper uplifting new music. But ‘Redemption Days’ could put a smile on anyone’s face I reckon. Do you find it earlier to write music like that?

Not particularly I just right relative to how I feel inspired at that moment as time goes on you’ll experience so many different dimensions of how emotionally I express myself, im a bit mad.

How many Take Two episodes have we got left to enjoy?

Well I think so far threes been 6 and the whole series is 10 so 4 more, but I may carry on and do more series’…

Redemption Days (video earlier) was compared to the Verve’s ‘Bittersweet Symphony’ and Ghostface Killah said “I usually don’t work with a lot of people, but my man Josh is in another lane!” There’s been so much high praise for you, but what stands out as the best bit of acclaim – if you have one?

That probably, ghost a huge inspiration and a mentor for it and me was a marker right at the beginning of my career, but ive had a lot of support and im grateful for every little bit

I know we should be given some time to soak in The Manifesto, but what’s happening with the album? Any dates on that yet?

No dates yet, but its more or less finished, just production tweaks but the writing process is DONE!

Would like to thank Josh for the speed of the interview, and still having great answers! Make sure you all cop a copy of The Manifesto EP on Monday!

Yelawolf On Ed Sheeran: “We just vibed man, that kid is something else!”

Recently, a lot more people over here in the UK realised the talents of Shady Records’ signee, Yelawolf. I only knew a little about him, but I’ve made sure I’ve checked out a lot of his own stuff, and yeah, he’s got a lot of talent! The realisation came from the collaboration EP, ‘The Slumdon Bridge EP’ – with Ed Sheeran.

In an interview with All Star Hip-Hop, Yelawolf was asked about his work with Ed Sheeran, and he certainly sung Ed’s praises!

“What happened with Ed Sheran was I got hit up and they said ‘Hey this kid Ed wants to do an EP.’ I was like, ‘Whats up with his music?’ I listened to his music and I was like, ‘Damn this kid’s music rips, but I don’t know.’ I didn’t really know how the music was going to come out and I just didn’t really know, but I was just like ‘F**k it, lets just get in the studio and see what happens,’”

“I literally pulled into LA and did the whole thing in one night. We just vibed man, that kid is something else, he plays guitar and sings like fool, you know, and he raps. He’s only 21 or 22 and its amazing that some people just get it so young. He’s just going to flourish as an artist, there’s no telling where he’s going to be in 10 years and he’s doing classic s**t right now,”

“There’s no such thing as broken Britain, we’re just bloody broke in Britain”

At the end of February, Ben Drew, widely known as Plan B, made a return to hip-hop. His new release, ‘ill MANORS‘, sees Ben back in the style he started up in. To many people, it may just sound ‘shouty’, ‘chavy’ or even ‘inflammatory’, but this only highlights much of what Ben tries to convey through his music. Problems in society. The uneducated mess in the UK – either academically or socially.

Obviously, we all know about last summer’s riots in the UK. Like many people, we probably all watched the ‘highlights’ on BBC News 24, somewhere abroad, far away from the smashed windows and excessive looting. Parents probably spoke about their ‘outrage’, then wandered off to get another glass of Sauvignon Blanc, and sit back in the sun. That may be a sweeping generalisation. So, if you read that, and get annoyed by it, then good. Because now you know how it feels. Despite the class divide Ben spoke about in an interview recently, the youth of the UK also got an absolute hammering. It was hard to be young whilst the riots were kicking off – even over here in Middle England. We were looked down on, and slated practically everywhere we went. I work in a near-by shop, and someone actually said to me, “Bet you wouldn’t mind going down there, would you? All you lot want is free shit!” The worst thing about that is that I had to laugh it off, I couldn’t stand up to him, and question why he said it, otherwise I’d have got the sack. Then I’d be playing even further into their hands. Another unemployed youth, eventually leading to being alienated by society. Catch 22.

In the make-believe Waterloo Road recently, you can see this. Yes, it’s Waterloo Road, famous for having a random lottery generator between: Abortion, Pregnancy, Hit & Run or Teacher/Student Relationship, each and every week. But this new series is about ‘tackling gang culture’. Watching Waterloo Road writers deal with a gang culture is exactly the way I’d expect my Hertfordshire school teachers to do so. Pretty badly. Obviously, they will never need to though, will they? But that’s half the problem, we’re so unaffected by the problems the riots exacerbated, that we end up fuelling the fire.

This is one of the many points Ben Drew made in a recent interview with BBC Radio 1xtra’s Mistajam. Speaking for over 40 minutes, it was such an inspirational, honest and raw experience to listen to, and it’s sparked that bit inside of me, that bit which made me decide to write this.

“It’s a very delicate process because we are tackling a very delicate subject and we have to get the tone absolutely right. Because I’m not trying to condone what happened during in the riots. It disgusted me, it made me sick, but it saddened me more than anything because those kids that were rioting and looting, they’ve just made life ten times harder for themselves. They’ve just played into the hands of what certain sectors of Middle-England think about them, and we have a big issue and prejudice in this country from certain ignorant sectors of middle class people towards the underclass, and an example of this is the word ‘chav’, which in the video I state stands for ‘Council Housed And Violent’… Just because you were lucky enough to be born into a family that can afford to give you a good education, doesn’t make you better than anyone, it just makes you lucky, and, again, certain sectors of Middle-England need to wake up and realise that, and stop ridiculing the poor and less fortunate.”

This whole section of the interview was such an eye-opener. I’d imagine a lot of you won’t see anything wrong with using the word ‘chav’ – as it’s so widely using in every form of the media, especially red-top newspapers. So why would you see anything wrong with it? What we need to realise is that, by using words like this, by pushing someone less fortunate than you away, you’re further fuelling the fire. Some of the paper’s coverage of the riots widened that gap between the people taking part, and the rest of society.

Ben finished that point, by saying this, “We are all just, in the simplest form, animals, and when we’re backed into a corner, we lash out – it’s a primal instinct, and it’s got nothing to do with class, that’s us as human beings. And I guess there’s a lot of kids out there in this country that feel like they’ve got egg on their face.” And I think that speaks volumes. Remember John Prescott lashing out and punching a member of the general public? “It’s nothing to do with class.”

Why I’m speaking about, and quoting Plan B’s words, then discussing problems many of us will never really understand or come across, and classing it a music article, may be unclear. But I think people need to see the more inspirational side of rap music’s words. As the riots’ wick was still burning, a Daily Mirror ‘journalist’ caused uproar with many artists in Plan B’s genre, which he wrote about. If you missed the article, Paul Routledge blamed the “pernicious culture of hatred around rap music”, and how it “glorifies violence”, and “raves about drugs.” I wouldn’t want to quote anymore of it, because my IQ level may start to drop. Blaming rap music for the riots is such a ridiculous statement to make. Many people saw Paul’s words, and then wondered how he had a job in modern day journalism.

Fellow artist Professor Green spoke out on Twitter about this back then, “Yeah ban rap music, silence our voices even more.” Then following it with, “Surely this isn’t about shifting the blame, but accepting responsibility? Neither my music or that of my peers is to blame for society and its faults. We didn’t create the tiers. If you’re all so smart how is it you’re confusing understanding with justification? I’ve said from the start there’s no justifying it.”

This is then backed up with Ben Drew’s recent words about the understanding of hip-hop, “If you don’t understand it, especially after hearing me speak about it now, and you’ve still got issues with the song, maybe you’re not as educated as you think. Maybe you’re educated academically, but you need to go out there and get some life experience under your belt. ‘Cause I tell you one thing, if these kids on the streets, on the estates, are so stupid, how come they can understand the outform of hip hop, and the rest of the world cant?”

Ben didn’t just go on about what was wrong with people’s views on society, he also spoke about how to begin to fixing them, notably about how there’s always someone you, as a family member, knows, that is less fortunate, “These people probably come in your house, spend time with your kids and eat at your dinner table, that’s that one person that you can take under your wing, and treat as one of your own and kind of help.”  I’m not sure how much we can relate to this in my area, at least, but you’ve got to admit, it does sound like a productive method given to us by a clear-minded person who’s experienced this kind of method in his own house, and with his band members.

The setting up of an ‘umbrella charity’ also stood out as a great idea from Ben. This would allow minor charities, which have been set up by individuals within so-called ‘broken communities’, who have finally had enough of their communities way of life, and possibly through lack of support from the government, have taken it upon themselves to sort out the problems. Ben stated, “A lot of people feel they’re allowed to have an opinion, on the problems and issues we have within society, just because they pay taxes. But we all know the government don’t change quite a lot of the things they promise they’re gonna change, but we still expect them to, because they take our money. If we know that, then maybe, we need to start taking responsibility ourselves. Money isn’t going to change this issue. Especially when the people in control of our money and where they spend it, are politicians, because they don’t understand the world they’re trying to change.”

I don’t think I’ve read or heard a more reasonable view on this subject. Now the riots have passed us, and been swept under the carpet again in the papers, journalists have now got off that high-horse – albeit moving onto another similar one with the next ugly-headed problem, possibly revolving around X-Factor judges. “This is an issue we’ve had in society for probably longer than 30 years, and it’s never been front of the queue – ’till the riots happened. That’s what this song, and music video, and the film, ‘ill MANORS’ needs to do, and I, as an artist need to do, because I genuinely want to change things – and this is just the first step. Let me raise my point first, let me raise the issue, then if anybody wants to talk to me about how I think we can change these things, I’m ready.”

Music can help these problems in society. People like Ben Drew have the ears, have the respect of the ‘hooded youths’ the media banged on about; he can create a positive wave of influence within them. Encourage them to use that spark of talent in the right way.

“Sometimes I think people may find my methods unorthodox, but they have to be unorthodox, because that’s the world I’m trying to challenge.”

There’s so much more I could say, so much more could’ve been quoted from Ben’s interview. He spoke pure and utter honesty, about topics which so many other artists run away from. For that, we need to congratualte him. The success of Strickland Banks pulled in people, and Ben could’ve run off and taken them with him, created pop songs with no substance. But that wouldn’t be Plan B, would it?

“That’s when I come into my own, when I see injustices happening, and I talk about the unfairness of them”

‘ill MANORS’ is set to be released March 25th, then the album on May 7th, with the film dropping on May 4th.

Emeli Sande: The New Role Model.

Every so often you get to hear a new album which you’ll be completely absorbed in. You won’t be able to leave it alone. But last Monday, we had Maverick Sabre’s ‘Lonely Are The Brave’ come out, so surely we’d have to wait a fair bit for another album of that quality, right? Well, a week is a long time in music, I guess.

As this Monday, just one week after Mav’s debut, we’re treated to the incredible Emeli Sande’s – ‘Our Version Of Events’.

With her number 2 single, ‘Heaven’, and the incredible feature on Professor Green’s ‘Read All About It’, Emeli began to attract a lot of attention, which peaked when she was announced as the BRITS Critics Choice Award Winner, following in the footsteps of Ellie Goulding, Florence & The Machine, Jessie J, oh, and Adele!

But if you were more aware, you’ll know that Emeli has been showing her talents for a bit now. Writing for and with, what seems, every fairly successful X-Factor candidate, but also with Wiley, Tinie Tempah, Tinchy Stryder and Wretch 32, plus featuring on great tracks with the likes of Chipmunk (Diamond Rings) and Wiley (Never Be Your Woman) and Tinie Tempah (Let Go). She’s also be described as, the Dark Lord himself, Simon Cowell’s ‘favourite songwriter’! Oh, 1 more then, she’s recently finished touring with none other than Coldplay… Things going well then?

You could possibly be forgiven for thinking the hype may have outdone the talents she has. But, well, you’d be wrong. Because, ‘Our Version Of Events’ showcases, arguably, the best UK talent out there right now. And, well Adele’s still out there isn’t she. I mean, I know that’s a big thing to say, but well, I certainly stand by it.

Kicking off her debut LP, is her number 2 single, that I mentioned earlier – ‘Heaven’. Sublime production which brings out the strong, majestic vocals of Sande. Pitched by Emeli as a confession that she’s changed so much since she was younger – but that it’s because “of everything that comes with living.” Just one of the many examples of how down to earth she is.

Originally, this post was planned as a track-by-track review of ‘Our Version Of Events’, but then I just thought, who’s really going to go out and buy it purely because of a review of mine? you’re going to buy it anyway. So I thought I’d try and show anyone reading, why Emeli Sande is the perfect role-model to aspire for – not even just for becoming a musician, but an all-round person too.

There are a lot of talented musicians. No doubt. But how many would you describe as intelligent? How many would you describe as humble? How many would you actually describe as a ‘nice person’? I certainly can’t think of that many. But after watching a mini documentary on Emeli, entitled, ‘Her Version Of Events’, you realise you can firmly include Emeli Sande in those previous categories.

She’s always shown the musical promise – learning the piano at the age of 10, and writing at 11, but she was once on course to becoming a neurologist – brain surgery for those who don’t recognise! Her link to this can be seen in her second single, ‘Daddy’. “Everyone is essentially addicted to something.” She says, adding, “I think that’s why I loved studying neurology… We’re all flawed in some way.” She also, when speaking to Q Magazine, said, “I’m really fascinated by mental breakdown.”

Despite being just 16, Emeli won Trevor Nelson’s BBC Urban Music Competition – which, fairly obviously, brought in label interest. In the same Q Magazine article, she said, “I’d sit and play to a line of men behind a glass shield talking about where the music should go… I could feel my control slipping.” This is when she chose to follow the science road for a while, but still maintaining the musical side – in playing as a background jazz pianist in Glasgow – for £40 a night! I think it takes a lot of commitment and loyalty to your talents to turn down record label interest. But if, and when, it pays off, it pays off big – as seen with that guy Ed Sheeran!

You could really pin down why Emeli is doing as well as she is now, by her mum’s actions. Obviously Emeli could have reached this stage at some point, but it was her mum who sent off a sample CD over to BBC Radio 1xtra, which eventually found its way through to Naughty Boy – which formed a very strong musical relationship between the two of them – creating ‘Daddy’ on their first session just over 3 years ago. She seemed blown away by his love of music. “I loved how passionate he was… purely about the music!” And it was in 2010, when she finally got a deal with EMI and Virgin.

What I find most incredible about Emeli is her humbleness. She’s speaks so highly of so many highly deserving artists that she’s worked with, especially the already mentioned Naughty Boy and Tinie Tempah… “He was so on point.” It’s something you don’t often see too much nowadays, artists giving other artists proper heartfelt credit and applause.

Despite this not being a track-by-track review, I thought I had to write a bit about my favourite track on the album. ‘Hope’. Obviouslty every track offers so much, in terms of raw emotion expressed through Sande’s brilliantly worked lyrics, which can sum up the most complicated of feelings into one sentence. ‘My Kind Of Love’, ‘Maybe’, ‘River’, and especially ‘Read All About It (Part III) – [below] all showcase this.

But ‘Hope’ really stood out to me – due it’s message.

So many artists can write perfect songs based on various, let’s face it, depressing emotions. Even some of my favourite artists can’t really get the effect Emeli has managed to achieve with this track. ‘Hope’ is the most inspiring, uplifting track I’ve heard in a very long time. You can see the opportunity the London riots have offered musicians, alongside youth unemployment rates, and just the general decline in views of young people, it’s a topic which can create some great music. But Sande has captured that whole picture, but also included other moments of desperation from far away from the UK – “I have a link to Zambia and places with standards of living that are just horrible.” Written with Alicia Keys, on a rainy day in New York just after the aforementioned riots, they came up with the first line: “I hope that the world stops raining, stops turning its back on the young” – she described it as a “prayer”. It’s 3 minutes of beautiful crafted music, inspiring lyrics, soulfully sung vocals with the brilliant production that is a constant throughout the album.

Emeli Sande is intelligent, talented, and just perfectly humble. A proper winning combination in life – not just music. If you don’t get lost in this album, I feel sorry for you.

Enjoy this cover of Blur’s classic, ‘Country House’, from her recent trip to Radio 1’s Live Lounge below. Really is something!

Azu – The Economist + Interview

Every now and then I get aproached with some new music. It really is every now and then, as it very rarely happens. But it’s even rarer to have an artist email over an actual written email – not just an automated one. So, I felt I should check out this email. And I did. And here’s the result.

London based singer/ songwriter Azu released his newest EP yesterday, and, well, basically, it’s great. It’s got that un-tampered feel – a more all round honest feel to the music. Which is really made more prevalent by the lack of it in a lot of music nowadays.

Economics

Wall Street Crash

The Black Market

Find out about his writing style, his views on the feelings he’s written and sung about, and then where you can see him playing, in the interview below

How exciting is it, putting a new EP out to be heard?

Its very exciting, I’m interested in the response. Never released anything before and I’m releasing songs that people have never heard. Never performed them live either.

How do you go about your music, does the chorus or verse come first, or is it just random orders?

The concept i.e. ‘Economics’ and then the lyrics- I have never underestimated the power of a lyric! Then the vocal melody and then the chords- usually on my acoustic guitar.

For how long have you been certain music is where you want to take your life?

I have never felt like I had a choice. There has never been a moment where I thought ‘I’m going to do this’- I have always done it.

What did you draw from to write this EP?

The EP is basically me expressing myself with economic concepts. I drew from my personal life as I always do- The song ‘Economics’ is a serious song to me. I’m questioning the value of honesty. Society and religion have encouraged honesty at all times but is there a point where honesty can break you? This was written after I had been ‘economical’ with truth and it was for the better. I’m not asking people to  lie- I’m just saying sometimes you have to twist the truth- exaggerate it or underplay it. The other song ‘Black Market’ is about the joy and thrill of doing something taboo.

 

I read on your interview with Soundhall that ‘Wall Street Crash’ is based on betrayal. Is it easier to write about darker, more unhappy events?

To be perfectly honest, thats all I write about! I don’t know how to write happy and ‘uplifting’ songs – I’ll leave that to the Lighthouse Family!

Each song of mine is a reportage of events in my life the way they happened- thats not to say I’m an unhappy person- I’m actually really goofy. Unhappy/darker emotions are more complex and I find it way more interested to write- firstly, you have to identify it then decipher it, then understand it , the accept it , then make a decision to move on or not. There’s so much in those emotions that can never be explored in writing about rainbows and butterflies. Having said that, a lot of my songs are written on major chords so the music is not really dark but the lyrics are 99% unhappy/sad/upset/frustrated.

When and where can we see you live in the near future?

13th February at The Dublin Castle, Camden and 28th February at The Troubadour, Earls Court –

And, finally, when and where will ‘The Economist’ EP be available?

The EP is out on the 13th February and you can download it for free fromwww.facebook.com/azumusic

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If you needed more persuasion, then you can listen to the 3 tracks at the top of this post, and if that doesn’t do it for you, then, well I don’t know. But I can’t see why you wouldn’t love to have it in your life!

Thanks to Azu for coming forward for this as well!

Download Link

Introducing: Kings Of The City

‘Wu Tang Clan meets The Beatles’. Big, and unique claims. But claims Kings Of The City Can easily back up.

Kings Of The City, a cross-genre collective from London, are really shaping up to have a big 2012! After a 2011 of positive reviews from RWD, 1xtra, SB.TV and the likes, and supporting the brilliant Maverick Sabre on his UK headline tour, Kings Of The City will be looking to produce a “constant flow of videos, new music and many gigs”.

Their new EP, ‘No Rules To The Game’ showcases perfectly what this lot are all about – that original, yet memorable mix of rap, rock, hip-hop and blues. What other artists could say they’ve packed all that into their recent work?

Make Me Worse – Official Video Coming Soon!

They’ve also previously produced a Covers EP. Which showed the complete versatility, covering tracks from Maverick Sabre (shown below) and Wretch 32, to Bruce Springsteen and Fleetwood Mac! But what I loved about this EP most, was the fact that every track, especially the more recent tracks, sounded like they could just be a Kings Of The City track – they made them their own.

In-between editing videos for their tour diary and singles, they managed to answer a few questions from me… Enjoy.

1) I first came across you lot through Twitter and SB.TV. Just how important have SB.TV been so far – filming for 3 of the covers from the previous EP?

We have a lot of respect for SB.TV as they have given us a platform to showcase the industry what we are about. Without a doubt, they have increased our awareness.

2) How did you all go about choosing the songs for the Covers EP, ‘cos the choices do vary a lot, from Professor Green to The White Stripes – was it like every member chose one, or a group effort?

Originally we wanted to cover classics from the past, our first was actually a live cover we do at shows of ‘I Want You’ by The Beatles. I think that was Danny’s suggestion, and the rest came from future whiskey sessions. The SB.TV covers were more a way to show what we can do with today’sUKhip hop and grime music.

3)  I had a little watch of your biography video, and there’s a lot of great comments from pretty big people, like Charlie Sloth, Marcus Barnes (music journo for The Sun/Daily Mail and others), people at RWD, that must be brilliant getting reactions like that?

We show nothing but honour and respect to those that show it back to us. That is all.

4) I know you’ve got ‘Wu Tang Clan meets The Beatles’ in the info section of your Facebook page, I mean, it must be hard to pin your music down as one genre, right?

Yeah its hard but we kind of like that to be honest, because there is a wide range of music we feel we are capable of making and eventually we want to make it all, so by not having a particular genre that we fall into it allows us that unlimited creative space to experiment musically which is how we started in the first place.

5) There’s 7 of you, so is it easy to stay focused as a group, or are there the occasional little ‘artistic disputes’?

Yeah course, we always have ‘artistic disputes’ its the same for every group or band, or atleast it should be, because we’re all striving for the best possible musical product so any disputes we do have once ironed out, which is easy because we all know each other well, the music is the one that wins in the end.

6) I’ve seen a few highlighs of a few of your shows; which one stands out above the rest?

Off tour, I think Jazz Cafe as its such a prestigious venue all of us feel very honoured to have played there on the same stage as some very talented and big artists, some of our favourite artists even.
On tour, I think for crowd reaction and love its very hard to choose but Brighton probably stands out the most as we’ve never had so many people in one room vibing off our music like that the energy was incredible.

7) The Tour Documentary’s gone up recently:

How was supporting Maverick Sabre – a guy who everyone sane knows is going to have a massive year?

Supporting Maverick Sabre was a weird experience. We never knew whether to expect an audience who adored us or an audience who didnt care at all. We ended up with some hardcore fans though and Mav is a gentleman.

8)  Your new EP, ‘No Rules To The Game’ is out now as a free download, would you say it’s your best work so far?

No rules to the game is some of our best work so far but there is some material we haven’t released yet that we’ve been holding back for future projects

9) What does 2012 have in stall for Kings Of The City?

2012 will be a year of consistency. Constant flow of videos, new music and many gigs up and down the country. Continued support from Charlie Sloth and SB.TV and playing our trademark shows.

Big thanks to Kings Of The City for the interview, sure you’ll smash 2012!

Josh Osho & Shadez The Misfit – Hey Ya (Take Two Ep.1)

Josh Osho & Shadez The Misfit – Hey Ya,

The original concept from Josh, will see him perform with different artists, once every two weeks. If they’re as good as this first one, then I’m really looking forward to the next load!

Josh also gives an interview, with cuts of a live performance, in the video below. (via @SoulFeatures and Rockstar Etiquette)

Prodigy “won’t go near” Dubstep!

Today marks Zane Lowe’s last breakfast show on Radio 1 while filling in for Chris Moyles. He’s done quite a good job of it, I must say! And, today, apart from announcing the ‘Sound Of 2012’ winner, Michael Kiwanuka, he also had a short interview with the busy Liam and Keith from The Prodigy, and yes, ‘busy’ does mean NEW music from them!

Firstly, they told Zane about taking the Warrior’s Dance show, from Milton Keynes, to Serbia! But they were reluctant to say that they’d take it to a load more international locations.

Then the new music. An album still seems a way off, for now. But they told Zane they had the artwork and title for the LP, and they’ve got “lots of ideas down” but they’re, “still developing the sound.” What I was very happy about hearing was the news from this quote, “all the dubstep stuff that’s going around, we’re loving it, but that’s not our game, we won’t go near it… We know what we do.” If The Prodigy had changed their ways to incorporate the trends of dubstep, I think it’d be the start of a tragically slow death for them. So, to hear they’re sticking to the ways they’ve always developed their music, is brilliant! They’re trying to find the sound that’s “the next stage of The Prodigy.” Can’t tell you how much The Prodigy have influenced me in my musical tastes, ‘Invaders Must Die’ is possibly the most influential albums in my life, it opened my eyes to a lot of other music in various genres… So to hear the promise of new music in “the first third of the year” is just massive!

By the sounds of the interview, the only UK gig they’ll be doing will be at Download Festival, so that will definitely be a special one!

Introducing Andrew Balkwill:

I arrive at the famous O2 Arena way earlier than I’d expected – around 3 hours before the music kicked off. The ease of Monday lunchtime London public traffic helping me out I guess. After the obvious choice of a Nandos, I set up my wi-fi and plugged myself into some music – keeping my nerves down, a little. The cold didn’t help much at all.

I’d been given the opportunity to go to a few days of the December Sessions, and then review and interview the acts I saw for Yahoo Omg! Held over 20 nights and hosting 100 sets from new and up-and-coming bands and artists, O2’s December Sessions seems a perfect chance and opportunity to gain some more fans and just have the experience of playing in the O2 Arena – on a specially set up stage which is open to the walkers by.

After wandering around the arena for a while, I settled down in a bench opposite the stage, still plugged in and tweeting. Around half 3 I spot Andrew Balkwill – the opening act, walking around like I had done an hour earlier, having a look at the music photography on show, and setting up the on stage instruments along with Alex Yeoman (Bass), and Reuben Humphries (Drums). Dressed in a slim-fitting suit, Andrew looked quite calm despite being only half an hour away from playing, to what I have to admit, was a fairly quiet arena. The 4pm set time grew ever closer, and Andrew still seemed relaxed; hands in pockets as his band warmed up. Opposite of how I was feeling – seemed silly really, all I was going to do was review and interview him. He was the one actually performing.

But Andrew explained to me, “I don’t really get nervous, I’m more excited about playing. His first few gigs were “nerve-wracking”, but then went on to explain, “you do so many gigs, and everything can go wrong, so you learn how to deal with the things that go wrong. We’ve had power going off at a gig before. My keyboard actually stopped the other day, which was annoying.” It seemed the main thing bothering him was the cold chill flowing through the O2, “It’s very cold!” Both of us laugh as we both know how freezing it was ‘inside’. “My fingers took a bit of time to warm up!” But luckily, “after the second song, they were back to how they should be.”

Andrew’s set kicked off at around half 4 in the end, and saw a gradual increase in crowd size throughout the duration of the talent-filled performance. I was unsure what to expect, with it being a Monday afternoon, it’s hardly a Friday or Saturday night time slot. “When I first got here, it was empty.” (He should have tried it at 1pm – I was practically only one there!), “And I was thinking, ‘are we just going to play to a few chairs in the corner, or?’ But it did fill up quite well in the end – there was quite a few people who came and listened.”

When asked about where December Sessions rated in his overall gig history, he responded, “Playing at the O2 is always going to be quite a good thing to have on your gig list! But I recently supported Charlie Simpson on tour, which was really cool! It’s good because you’re playing quite big venues, and to a good crowd of people – it’s a good way to get your music out there! But yeah, they’re [December Sessions] pretty high up!”

“I’ve played for a very long time.” He says when I ask him about his piano skills. If you haven’t heard Andrew’s music, you wont know how talented he is on keyboard, truly magical! “Someone asked me the other day, ‘When did you decide to become a musician?’, and I was like, ‘I never really decided’ – it’s just one of those things I just did, I sort of just grew into being a musician.”

I gave him a question on his writing style after that. “The piano comes first. Some songs go different ways, but normally I just sit there and play a load of chords. It’s like, if you’ve had a bad day, or a good day, and you’re just chatting to your friend, and telling them what you did. It’s almost like that, but you’re just playing the piano, playing these chords. And if you’re in a happy mood, you’re gonna play happy songs. Sad mood, sad songs. You’re just kind of singing about stuff that’s been happening.”

“I love to work with hooks!” Which is evident from witnessing his set earlier, great hook, after great hook! “I normally sing a load of rubbish. Terrible. I’ll never record it. But I can get like a little hook, and go, ‘that’s a great song!’ then you can start on that.”

On any tips for other new music to listen out for, he gave me the name of Lianne La Havas. A female vocalist who recently appeared on Jools Holland, and who had, just that day, been announced on the BBC’s Sound of 2012 Longlist! So, as well as Andrew, look out for her too!

Dream collaboration. A fairly standard interview question, but with a great answer. “Jack White!” Obviously from the White Stripes. “His sound’s so raw and just cool. And he does piano as well, so it wouldn’t sound too strange.”

On his magnificent video for his single, ‘Bad Bad Luck’, he says, “I was trying to think of ideas, I wanted to make it quite quirky. We were on a bit of a budget, we didn’t have £100,000 to splash out on a video. So we tried to come up with a creative idea. I love Radiohead’s videos, just stuff that’s more about the idea. Originally it was going to be people getting into the cab and singing the song – I wasn’t going to even be in the video. But then we thought it would be a good idea if I was in the cab, and had different people getting in and out.” If you haven’t seen the video, why not watch it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9wsds8GkhQ&feature=youtube_gdata_player

I also wanted to find out how getting the chance to perform at December Sessions comes about for the artists playing over the next 3 weeks or so. From Andrew’s answer, I doubt it’s the same route to the O2 for everyone else. “It’s really weird. Music’s like a small world. I was playing in Scotland doing the support for Charlie [Simpson], and one of the sound guys was like, ‘I really liked your set, we’ve got this gig at the O2’, and I was like, ‘wow, oh my god, the O2?’ So we swapped numbers, and then I got a call from the promoter, and it just all went ahead.”

“I looked at the line-up and there’s quite a lot of people in bands that I know”, he says after telling me he’s staying to see one of his mates playing soon. “So, yeah, it’s a small world!”

I was also interested in his views on the ‘X-Factor road to stardom’ – whether he thought it had longevity. “Well anything you can do to get noticed, for people to see you, is good. I think the only problem with X-Factor is because that’s how people notice you. Next year, you’re yesterdays news. I think if you actually go out and gig, you build up a fan-base, and chat to the people coming down and get to know them – they’re the ones that will actually support you.”

Finally, the old ‘hopes for the future’ question. “The plan is to record an album probably late this month or early January. We’re going to do another single, and another video. But off the back of that do a whole album as well.” So, for live performances? “The plan is, in January, to get on another tour, to support another act in the UK. Then maybe by March, get the album finished, and start promoting like crazy! Well, yeah, that’s the plan.”

Andrew’s set was brilliant, and I hope you can tell how nice a guy he is from this interview. ‘Bad Bad Luck’ is available on iTunes, as well as a small album on his Facebook Page’s Music Tab. The ‘Bad Bad Luck’ video, along with other videos, are up on YouTube – and they’re well worth a look.

(yes, this was posted about 2/3 weeks ago, but yeah)

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/andrewbalkwill
Twitter: @AndrewBalkwill
Official Website: http://www.andrewbalkwill.com/

Third and final time here at the O2 Arena for December Sessions and Yahoo Omg!

And today I’ll be interviewing the supremely talented band, The Dash! Still getting nervous as I have done before everything I’ve done here, but I’ve loved every minute of it – just not the cold.

Red N Pink interview should be going live soon as well, so watch out for that!