A Q&A WITH VERSEARY

Our gal Ashlee had an e-chat with Verseary for a quick Q&A about her upcoming double single A Fools Gold.

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Firstly, I just want to say that it was great working with you on this project and congratulations on the release! What was some of the inspiration behind ‘A Fools Gold’? 

It's a single with an extra song. The new song is called Losing Game.

It's called “A Fool’s Gold” as a lot of people were moving from Melbourne to regional areas of Victoria to escape the Covid restrictions. 

Essentially, the grass is not being greener on the other side. It’s also another term for pyrite which is fake gold. Victoria has many gold rush towns. Where I grew up and stayed last year was one of them. 

During our recording sessions we had a few struggles. Do you want to talk about that a little bit? 

We recorded in a busy rehearsal space and each room I had hired ended up next to the larger rooms that were occupied by a couple of Melbourne metal groups. 

You do what you can on a budget, and It was wonderful that the place was booked out and everyone’s able to rehearse again.

It was quite the competition when it came to recording vocals, but we got there in the end.

 You did an amazing job mixing and mastering the songs and I was happy to work with an up-and-coming female engineer.   

I really like the differences between the two songs and the dynamic it creates on the double single, with one being more mellow, and the other being heavier. Can you tell me about the meanings behind ‘Losing Game’ and ‘Sad, Bad and Blue’?
There are 2 different stories and they were written at different times throughout the lock down.

Losing Game is about having to move from somewhere you called home back to where you grew up and not knowing what lays ahead, especially post Covid.

The second song, Sad, Bad and Blue is about miscommunication and how some choose not to change their ways especially when you cared and tried to be a friend. 

What are some of your favourite Aussie artists right now? 

I’ve been listening to Jess Locke’s new album “Don’t ask yourself why” it’s fantastic! 

What can fans expect to see next for Verseary?                                                               

Some live shows coming up and I’m looking to record and E.P or Album in a few months. 

A Fools Gold will be available on the 30th of April via Bandcamp.

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A QUICK Q&A WITH FRASER HEARTLINE

Our gal Ashlee had a e-chat with Fraser from Heartline for q quick Q&A about their latest EP ‘i call for the sinking warmth’

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Firstly, congratulations on the release of the EP! What was some of the inspiration behind ‘i call for the sinking warmth’? 
Thank you! Most of the inspiration came from personal issues at the time, there was just so much frustration we wanted to release through music. 

Can you walk me through the creative process that you went through to produce the EP? 
So first our guitarist Fraser started working on the structures and textures throughout 2019 and 2020, and then our vocalist Luke was able to begin building the lyrical content. 

This is probably a tough one…but what’s your personal favourite song off of the EP?
Personally, I (Fraser) think under the willow is my favourite overall, just because it sounds so unique and it’s such an important turning point on the EP. 

You guys were added to the Adelaide show as one of the support act for Belle Haven’s ‘Nobody Likes A Hospital’ tour. How did it feel to play these new songs live?
Amazing! We’ve spent so much time creating a live show that does these songs justice and to see people really get into it was heart-warming. 

I know it was only released a few days ago but how has the response been so far to ‘i call for the sinking warmth’? 
So special. We’ve had so many messages and people really seem to like the whole thing. Knowing that it is connecting with people has made all the work worth it for sure. 

Who are some of the Aussie acts you’ve been listening to right now? 
Northlane, Thornhill, Void Of Vision and Windwaker are our favourites, but for a bit of a different vibe we can’t go past Up Late and Ecca Vandal, they’re crushing it. 

What can we expect for the future of Heartline? 
Lots of music, sooner than you think. We’ve been busy. And of course hopefully some tours before the year is out!

Check out Ashlee’s heartening review of the new EP HERE!

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INTERVIEW: SKYWAY CHAT ‘CUT THE TIES’ AND UPCOMING EP ‘HOPE FLOATS, LOVE SINKS’

Skyway’s Rupert Muir recently got back to us with a quick chat about their most recent release ‘Cut The Ties’

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Listening to ‘Cut the Ties,’ I got the impression that it was about needing to break away from something holding you back, but struggling with that potential loss. What was the inspiration behind the song?
Disconnecting from things in your life that hold you back from your true potential.

I imagine that after a long break, you must all be excited and ready to get back into it. How does it feel to be working together again?
Yeah we’re stingin’ to do some gigs to play some of the classics and new songs. It feels normal, like riding a bike or rolling up a durry. A lot has changed in all of our lives but when we’re all together it’s all familiar.

Looking through social media, it’s safe to say that all of your fans are super keen that you’re releasing new music. Did you anticipate this type of response?
We didn’t really think about it to be honest. It’s very humbling to see some of the responses and that people have been listening to us over all these years. We owe some new tunes to ‘em and a gig or two.

Can you tell us a little more about your upcoming EP, ‘Hope Floats, Love Sinks’? What can fans expect?
5 tracks including intro and a cover. It’s pretty lit, it sounds like Skyway after a long hiatus. Some fast stuff. Some slow stuff. Some fun stuff. Good clean fun.

Can you walk me through the creative process that you went through to produce ‘Hope Floats, Love Sinks’?
Had a couple of Jams together and thought why not? Had a few tracks up the old sleeve so we finally hit the studio and the rest is history

With the current state of the pandemic in Australia, the music industry has definitely been put on the back burner. How has this impacted you, both musically and mentally?
I’ve been a hermit for years so I was mentally prepared for isolation and not much changed for me except for not being able to go to the gym or gamble. We’ve been pretty lucky in QLD and all of our respective industries were mainly unaffected. So we’re in no spot to complain. If anything its made us more hungry for gigs.

At the beginning of isolation, creatives were expected to create more and there was an immense pressure placed on them. Is this something you experienced with the production of ‘Hope Floats, Love Sinks’?

We had the foresight of the pandemic so we took that hiatus all those years ago to prevent any sort of creative pressures placed on us...We were mostly done with recording before C ‘Rone got skitz, luckily.

Who are some of your favourite Aussie acts?
Loser, Speed, Smash, Polaris, Violent Soho, Aversions Crown, Thy Art Is Murder,

INTERVIEW: GOOD NEWS EVERYONE - I’M NOT EMO (BUT THE SONG IS)

1. You’ve just released a new single, I’m Not Emo (I’m Just Sad), can you describe the song for me?
I’d say that Emo was our version of a sad boy pop punk song that would’ve come out back in 2015 from a band off of warped tour. 

As a whole, I would say the song is definitely a good mix of an emo and pop punk song, although instrumentally there are a couple of times, such as the second verse and the bridge, where that changes up.  Lyrically, the chorus is basically a description of the point I was at when I wrote this, talking about how I’m not the person I want to be and more and more frequently I would just reminisce on the past. But then there’s also that duality throughout the chorus saying I’m not going to let the past define who I am and that I’ve already come so far from where I was and I can’t let that go to waste.

If I look at the song broadly, I would say that it’s not a song about being sad but more about being hopeful for what’s to come

2. What was the inspiration behind the track?
At the time we started piecing Emo together we were listening to a lot bands like Real Friends, Moose Blood and Pierce the Veil so just naturally we began writing things that were more in that vein. 

As whole though, we all really enjoy the vibe that you get from seeing bands up on warped tour so I think that played a big factor in influencing the song, being that we listened back to it and could see it being something a band on warped would play

I think coming into Emo, we wanted something that was a bit more upbeat that we could have some fun with and I think we achieved that pretty well. 

Right as this was coming together though, Victoria went into its second lockdown which was rough because we weren’t able to catch up with our friends which put me in a really negative place. That’s why there isn’t anything especially complicated about the lyrics, it was straight from my mind to my paper on exactly how I was feeling listening back to the demo

3. As you’re in Victoria, I imagine it must have been challenging to work on new music. How did this single come about with the restrictions in place?
The way that we normally work as a band wasn’t really affected that much by the restrictions. Typically what would happen is I would demo a few songs, have the boys come over and listen to it, pick out parts we wanted to change or fix up and then decide what to do with it. 

With these restrictions all that changed was instead of having the boys come around, I’d just send them a google drive link to the song and we’d go from there.

Once we knew we wanted to put this out, we recorded our parts and sent them off to Jaime Preciado from Pierce the Veil to mix and master and we couldn’t be happier with the result!

4. The music industry has definitely been hit hard with the pandemic. How has this affected you, both mentally and with your music?
For us, we were just starting to get organised to do some gigs and all that so it definitely set us back a long way when it came to what we’d want to be doing right now. Right now though we are going to be getting into a rehearsal studio in the next couple of weeks so at least now we can start making some progress and hopefully get out there and start playing some shows soon!

Mentally, the first month or so of the lockdown left me reflecting a lot on better times and had me thinking about a lot of people and memories that I hadn’t for a long time. It put me in a bad head space and I realised that there was a lot of thing I hadn’t properly worked through and I think that’s probably going to reflect a lot lyrically in our songs that we’ll be putting out later

5. I have to ask...is the band name a ‘Futurama’ reference or just purely coincidental?
Yes it is! One day it got thrown around and we thought it was funny but eventually we couldn’t agree on a name so we stuck with that one

6. What are some of your current favourite Aussie artists to listen to?
Right now I know that Alex is listening to DMA’s, sticky fingers and dune rats. Adam is listening to a lot of Thornhill, Windwaker and Stand Atlantic. I’ve been listening to a lot of The Beautiful Monument, Eat Your Heart Out and Columbus 

7. What can fans expect to see from you next?
We’re currently working on our next EP that’ll be coming out between February and March of next year so that’s always exciting. We’re also now going to be able getting into a rehearsal studio to get ready for some gigs whenever we can so that’s gonna be fun once we can!

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