Milli Browne 11/11/20 Milli Browne 11/11/20

EP REVIEW: ZACHARY LEO’S ‘FEELS’ IS GIVING US THE FEELS

G’day, kids and kidlets! I know, been a while but here I am, and lawd do I have a stunner for you! If anyone remembers, I reviewed a sexy little single called ‘Feels’; a beautiful blend of soul, r&b, and some pretty rock vibes all weaved into that mix. Without further ado; I give you…. Feels, an EP by Zachary Leo.

G’day, kids and kidlets! I know, been a while but here I am, and lawd do I have a stunner for you!

If anyone remembers, I reviewed a sexy little single called ‘Feels’; a beautiful blend of soul, r&b, and some pretty rock vibes all weaved into that mix.

Well, wouldn’t you know who popped into our email inbox!

Without further ado; I give you….

Feels, an EP by Zachary Leo.

1: Prelude

Ahh, what a start! This instrumental number is a little bit 70’s, little bit mysterious, and a whole lot of rock. It’s very… music for those good 70’s and 80’s movies- hear me out- Pretty in Pink? It's just so SMOOTH. It’s delicate, slow burning but oh so sensual. This whole intro really sets a high bar for the rest of the EP. It’s so magically weaved together, I can’t even see straight. Where are my glasses???

2: Insane

You know what? I believe there is a vinyl being released on the 20th of November. I am telling you now- I really fucking want one. The transition from Prelude to Insane is LITERALLY INSANE. It’s so smooth and just seamless. What a good start, Mr Leo!

This one is a bit more on the “Rock” side of Zachary’s somehow multifaceted genre.

I did struggle to understand the lyrics a bit, but I think the focus was the instrumental aspect of this song. It was definitely interesting to hear the somehow unending vocal limit. I understand the angst in this song, this really conveys Leo’s struggle with anxiety and you can feel that? Once you know what the song is, you can hear it.

All around, it was a really punchy start to the vocal aspect of this EP. Zachary is really mastering the production of his own work, and let me tell you it is hard to stop playing with something until you’re sure that it’s reached it’s peak. This is that peak. The vocals and instrumentals aren’t battling each other for dominance. Everything is working together to create a great sound. Rock is really versatile in that it can basically reach everyone with very little effort. It’s a genre for the people.

3: In My Head

Hello, gorgeous! This is a really funky little track. I'm wiggling in my seat, it is so easy to move to! I think there is a music video attached to this song, being released early!

This is way more gentle than ‘Insane’, it’s got remnants of ‘Feels’ so you know it’s a kicker really, it’s got that slow build to the bridge and it just feels like it’s directed at me? I mean, the listener.

You get your classic Zachary Leo Serenade, with familiar guitar licks and punchy bass. Very good stuff, Zachary. I can dig it.

4: Interlude

Ah, this feels like the part where you’re supposed to take a breath and relax a little. Every single song on this EP is able to stand on it’s own; and yet they all work together so wonderfully? How does this happen??

This interlude is a little bit of lullaby, it’s so soft and delicate, I think this is exactly what the EP needed- just a teeny tiny little breather.

5: Feels

Now listen; I know I already reviewed this song, however when I heard it again in the order of the EP, I felt like I was hearing it for the first time. I feel like there is a whole other facet to this song that I wasn’t hearing before. It’s a whole new song when tied into this EP. It’s so brooding and I feel like I’m sitting on the couch on hot (Australian) summer night, and Zachary is explaining what he’s feeling towards me, the listener, the partner, the fling-or-something-more, and he's just pouring his heart out, the little muffin. Poor darling. I hear you. When I heard it as a single, I wasn’t sure how it would sound in the EP but now, it fits. Here is the missing puzzle piece. It’s a 6 piece jigsaw but it still needed this song.

6: Out Of Place

Did you think we were leaving the rock behind? You are sorely mistaken, my friend.

This is such a garage band kind of rock song. It’s super vulnerable but also so wonderful in the sense that we are being pulled in by the delicious guitar and enigmatic drum kicks, and the lyrics just set us down for a great show. This is the garage band your brother and his friend started and you go because his drummer friend is hot but you stay because you love the music.

This one definitely fits with the title, Zachary definitely puts across that he's feeling out of place in the scenario; I can’t quite pin whether or not he’s been rejected or if it’s coming, but there's a little bit of angst hidden between the rock/grunge guitar riffs, and is that a solo I hear? Yes. Come to mama.

Overall, this is a really solid start to Zachary Leo’s Album/EP discography. I believe the songs all worked together to create a beautiful story of love and the mental struggle with comes with that whole thing: rejection, hope, questioning of self worth,; it’s all there if you listen hard enough.

There is definitely some cohesiveness to each song and the transitions are wonderful, and while I think that while interlude was needed in such a multifaceted EP, it feels slightly out of place in it’ lullaby like form. It was a breath of fresh air from the heavier, rock/funk tracks, but I felt like maybe it could have gone at the end instead of the middle of the track list. A calming, almost moment-of-clarity end to the EP would have rounded it off well.

In any case, it’s wonderful to see such strong music coming out of Melbourne; it’s looking like the music industry will recover from the hefty times we have all been through as of late.

Great work, Mr Leo.

FOLLOW ZACHARY LEO
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Suze Blacketer 26/10/20 Suze Blacketer 26/10/20

INTERVIEW VELVET BLOOM & X PROMOTIONS

Mornington Peninsula songbird Maddy Herbert has one of the most amazing voices I have come across. Think along the lines of Norah Jones/ Amy Winehouse!! Maddy is one of the artist’s involved in the live stream gig AND WE ARE LIVE (X Promotions) on 29th October.

Mornington Peninsula songbird Maddy Herbert has one of the most amazing voices I have come across. Think along the lines of Norah Jones/ Amy Winehouse!! Playing original soul filled songs with her band Velvet Bloom and The Vito Collective Maddy is one of the artist’s involved in the live stream gig AND WE ARE LIVE (X Promotions) on 29th October

With a new single out ‘7hundred25’ and a video clip for the single coming out on 13th November I had a chat to Maddy about her music and her involvement in the live stream that X Promotions are putting on.

First off I absolutely love your voice!

Oh thank you so much. It’s been so hard not performing for such a long time, but we are so excited for this event it’s going to be really great.

The venue sounds amazing. The X Promotions guys were telling me about it the other day.

The venue is so huge. I’ve played there for school concerts and I did a theatre production when I was maybe 12. It’s a crazy venue, it’s so beautiful. A lot of people on the Mornington Peninsula wouldn’t know it exists. This show will be really good to show people, especially the young people, that there is a space down here.

How did you get involved in AND WE ARE LIVE?

I’ve been chatting with the guys from X Promotions for quite awhile now. Andrew DM’d me a while back and said he would love to organise something in the future, I don’t even think that this concept was thought of back then. When he put this line up together he really wanted us to be involved and obviously we jumped at the opportunity because we haven’t played shows in such a long time. We have had a few live streams which have been incredible. We did one at The Nightcap in May and one at a place called The Love Machine with Moor Music in June. That was the last time we performed. Andrew and the guys from X Promotion and The Frankston Arts Centre were just so eager to have some Peninsula talent onboard to do this event.

It’s been hard during lockdown for you guys.

Yeah but the silver lining is that I have been able to spend time writing so that has been really good.

So is Velvet Bloom a band or is it a solo project and you have musicians join you?

It’s a project, its just kind of like the concept. I perform solo, so I write the music. I then perform with different variations of Velvet Bloom in a live setting. So there is a full band which will be playing at the Frankston Art Centre, then there is a 4-piece, a 3-piece and a 2-piece version. I like doing it like this because we can be more diverse when we are playing at different places. Having so many different versions of the one act you can always see the songs in a different light which I really enjoy.

What is The Vito Collective?
So that is what I use to describe when I am playing with the full live band. The Vito Collective have been performing with me for a while. Two of them have been with me for about 4 years. The reason that I wanted to call them that is because it means ‘life giver’ and so I guess they give a lot of life to my music.

You’ve just released a new single ‘7hundred25’ recently which I love!

It was put out for 2 weeks as a part of a compilation album done by record label Cousin Will that came out on the 18th September. We then released it onto Spotify in early October.

Tell me about 7hundred25, the title intrigues me!

I guess I wanted to incorporate numbers into writing because I hadn’t really thought about it much. When I started writing this song it was when I was in the midst of a break up and I thought about how through our relationship, we had been together for this amount of time. I was trying to pinpoint different parts of our relationship and where I guess things stared to fall apart. It wasn’t meant to be a negative song or anything, it was a realisation song. Figuring out what I needed to do to move forward as well.

Do you have an EP in the works?

Yes we have an EP in the works. It’s just been really hard because we haven’t even been able to jam for like 3 months at least. As soon as we are allowed to be in the same room we will be recording. We have all of the stuff ready for our EP, but it won’t be released until some point next year.

Do you guys self-record?

No. We usually outsource everything. We have recently started working with Quin Grunden from The Grogans and he’s really great. He will be our recording engineer, so we are really excited to work with him..

Andrew was saying that you have broken into the Melbourne scene

Yeah. I love performing. That’s just what I love to do. I guess our weekends, mine and the band, revolve around playing gigs. They aren’t always advertised, sometimes I just play solo stuff that’s not necessarily my own material. Prior to lockdown I was playing 3 gigs a week. It’s been an adjustment that’s for sure. There are so many incredible venues and musicians in Melbourne. People just need to discover them. It was really hard for me at first breaking into the Melbourne scene and I don’t think I even started playing as many shows as I wanted to until maybe a year ago. We’ve been this version of our band for probably three years now. Even prior to me saying that we have only been where I wanted to be for a year we were playing shows with other bands in Melbourne quite frequently. But I’ve only really just started to find people that are more similar to our music. I think that on the Mornington Peninsula we have a very heavy surf rock kind of community. We fit into it to some extent but not really. I need to be playing with soul artists I think. As much as I appreciate all the opportunities we have gotten from people down here when we are playing at a surf rock gig its not going to be the same vibe.

We also have a music video coming out in about three weeks’ time for the single. A lot of the live footage in it was filmed about a year ago while on tour and it would have been when I had first written the song. So it is very nostalgic, and it also has a lot of scenery from the Mornington Peninsula. I’m really excited to put it out.

If you’re looking for something to do this Thursday night jump on and grab a ticket to AND WE ARE LIVE where you can see Velvet Bloom along with subcult, Boler Mani and Teenage Dads.

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Suze Blacketer 26/10/20 Suze Blacketer 26/10/20

INTERVIEW SERIES: AND WE ARE LIVE!

We all know that Covid has well and truly messed with the music scene this year. X Promotions have taken matters into their own hands to promote some of the best local indie pop/rock, soul and hip-hop acts from the Frankston/Peninsula area.

We all know that Covid has well and truly messed with the music scene this year. X Promotions have taken matters into their own hands to promote some of the best local indie pop/rock, soul and hip-hop acts from the Frankston/Peninsula area. This 60 minute event will be live streamed into your lounge room from the Frankston Arts Centre via their Facebook and YouTube pages:
FACEBOOK

YOUTUBE

Tickets are priced at whatever you can afford and 100% of ticket sales will go to the artists and guest hosts on the night. Support the artists via the ‘Donate Now’ button HERE

Check out the Facebook event page HERE

Ryan McGeary and Andrew Gorman from X Promotions sat down and had a chat with me about what they are doing and why.

Well to start with I guess you better tell me about X Productions and what you guys are about.

Ryan: It’s a pretty new venture into the live-streaming stuff. Andrew and I stumbled upon one another with an interest in putting on live shows. Back in the day it was me with my band. We were looking to get some shows. Andrew had an interest in fostering some live shows. We met while doing separate shows and then came together to do some. This is just our next step in the Covid friendly world.

There isn’t anything friendly about Covid!!

Andrew: Ultimately, as much as we love to see the crowds and bands having a great time, we can only do half of that at the moment. With this event, we saw the Frankston Art Centre putting on live-stream events for the traditional theatre type crowds. We though hey there is no reason why some of the younger music acts couldn’t get in on that as well. Thankfully the theatre have jumped on board and the council has backed it as well. There are a few more big announcements to make in the coming weeks, there are a lot of things going our way. Thankfully everyone is loving it.

That’s a really good thing to hear. Good for the bands and for the fans. So there are just the four bands on this bill

Ryan: Yes we are seeing some really talented bands. We are trying to keep it local, there are some really awesome acts down this way that we thought needed the spotlight shone on them a little bit more. Especially during this lockdown. So we have subcult. Velvet Bloom who are.. how would you describe them Andrew?

Andrew: They are a very grass roots soul act. It’s a really cool sound. It’s not a sound that you expect. Maddy the singer has the smoothest voice.

Ryan: Maddy has that voice that as soon as she starts to sing you just lean in a little more than what you were.

And then we have Teenage Dads who have an indie pop sound. They are just an awesome bundle of joy on a stage. And then we have Boler Mani who is in the hip hop/rap game. Again he is high energy, really good stuff that is well produced. As soon as I saw him I was like cool. It’s tough when there is one person on stage, tough to get that energy across and he’s got it

Andrew: He was also lined up 3 or 4 festivals this year, so this was going to be his break through year. Teenage Dads have some festival experience. Velvet Bloom has been around on the peninsula for a while. She has broken into Melbourne in a big way, she has a big fan base. subcult have a new single out and are releasing their second single on the night of this show. They have all had stuff put on hold.

It’s a good time to be interacting with fans on social media and getting your music out there. Building that fan base so that when gigs return you already have a following.

Ryan: It’s a really good time to ‘gather your supplies’ is what I have been telling people. Strengthen your foundations and get all your processes in place so that when you do get released into the world it goes gangbusters. The really good thing about the acts that we have got at the moment is they were all on the verge of something really great this year. They still are, don’t get me wrong, but using subcult as an example they did shows with Ruby Fields and names like that and it was looking to be a huge year for them. This has delayed them a little bit, but it gives them an opportunity to get more songs under their belt.

Andrew: Support local doesn’t have to be just for your shops. Support your local bands. We aren’t going to see any international acts in Melbourne for at least the next 6-12 months. So we all need to get behind not only Aussie music but the local bands that are in your back yard. All the big bands started out small so let’s help these smaller bands get there quicker.

That’s why I started writing for myself. I want to help promote the smaller grassroot bands that we have in Australia. There is so much talent here. And I’ve been lucky and had so much support from the scene.

Andrew: It’s huge. When Ryan and I were sitting working out how to spread this as far as we can, you don’t discount anyone who has even 50 followers. Speak to whoever you can because it’s not only about getting to 5 big 10,000 follower groups, but also about getting to as many small pages and groups as well. The love comes back and forth amongst these people.

Tell me about And We Are LIVE

Ryan: We have four acts that we have mentioned, so Boler Mani, subcult, Velvet Bloom and Teenage Dads. It will be hosted by the awesome Ali Barter and Oscar Dawson (Holy, Holy) we were stoked when we got the call from them saying they wanted to be involved. It’s hosted at the Frankston Art Centre, for us it’s one of those venues in Frankston that everyone has an experience with. Whether its as a kid in your school play, or as an adult in a lot of theatre based things. They haven’t really dabbled in this scene as much so in our conversations with them they were really excited to be expanding their horizons to a new audience.

Once Covid blows over you have yourselves another venue.

Ryan: I’m going to be there as often as possible. There are some awesome spaces within that venue. There’s something like 3-4 performance spaces, each with their own little quirks. Fortunately we get to cover off a few of them in this live stream, so we are doing it in different ‘studio’ spaces which helps with the changeovers and all that. It also showcases what they have to offer as well.

Andrew: The main theatre is 800 seats, so it’s a huge theatre. The Cube theatrette is 200 seats.

Ryan: The Cube 37 is an amazing space. Its an art gallery mixed with a performance space. When it is set up for a live show it is such an awesome spot.

Andrew: It’s not your traditional pub venue. It’s a world class venue that these acts don’t have access too. This event is not for profit, we are doing this for love as well.

It would be a perfect place for AA shows!

Ryan: I was going to mention that. The world is hanging out for AA shows. If you ask people what their favourite show was there is a 90% chance that the answer is we had this all ages show at this hall. It was an awesome atmosphere. It’s almost like you take the alcohol away and everyone is more invested in the music. It’s something that I hope we can foster.

We then moved on to genres!!

Andrew: Don’t read a book by its cover!! Ryan gets as dark as any.

Ryan: (laughs) This is my formal attire.

I listen to anything from Country to Black Metal!

Ryan: Good. That’s the way to be though. It’s a thing I have always found with people who are so genre bound with their tastes. When you’re not feeling angry and angsty or if you’re not feeling lovey dovey what are you listening too?? You have to embrace it all and each genre has their own advantage. And bringing it back to the event I think we capitalize on the moment by having four acts that arguably you wouldn’t see on a bill together unless it was a festival setting.

There’s been a lot of talk about bringing back the mixed bill line-ups.

Ryan: I think the only prerequisite should be that they are good.

100% correct

Ryan: I used to be in bands that sort of did the heavier thing and now I’m dabbling in weird electronic stuff. I would love to be able to still play with those bands, I’d love for their to be a scene that ‘Is it good? Yes. Cool let’s do something together’

Andrew: You have to look at the broad brush. If you have a fine artistic brush and you are just appealing to that one corner you might get your 50-100 people along. Where if you have that bill where you can get the boyfriend bringing the girlfriend and her mate because they all love something different that is on the bill it makes for a great night. And you fill the room. And as Ryan said if it’s good you will.

The diversity was key in this line-up. Funnily enough all four acts were the first four acts that we approached. We thought that we could do it with three acts not expecting them all to jump on board. Being a live stream we didn’t want to have them playing 30-40 minute sets so they each have 15 minute sets so if you’re not loving this genre wait 10 minutes and the next act will be on.

After having a listen to these bands make sure you jump on and purchase a ticket because you are in for an hour of great music by some up and coming talented young Australian bands.

Leading up to event day (THURSDAY OCTOBER 29) we have a series of interview with the artists involved so watch out for those over the coming days!