Corner Boy Conquer Europe and do reality TV

23-Aug-2015 By Ciara Sheahan

“Four and half beards and a van “ is how Michael D’Arcy frontman describes his band Corner Boy. He’s so modest, this Waterford ambassador for the arts. It’s Friday night and we’re having a chat in between kit load in and soundcheck for a gig at the Clonmel Busking Festival. Their new single “Untie The Noose “ has just dropped. So far they’ve had over eight thousand views of the video in one day. Oh my, what a beauty it is. Directed by highly accomplished writer David O’Brien, he of the “Blood Red Turns Dollar Green” trilogy. The film has a distinct Tim Burton flavour, superb storytelling stylishly framing this stomping tune. Michael reveals the song was written under a bridge in Waterford, adding yet another layer of lyrical intrigue.

Now firmly formed as a five piece, the band have totally self funded all their releases to date. They invest all funds from playing back into the band whilst juggling jobs and weekday routines. Hitting the road on Fridays, they’ve played every county in Ireland. Except Clare for some reason. But there’s a gig planned for that one. Enjoying the freedom to make their own musical decisions, whilst building a massive fan base has ensured Corner Boy maintained their own artistic integrity. Unlike many other aspiring artists it’s not all about a label. Michael preaches the word of the independent music maker. He’s not seeking a magic formula. “We do it because we love it. We love travelling, meeting all kinds of other bands and musicians, artists writers and filmmakers. We’ve met people from all over the world touring Ireland. Yeah I’m sure the day will come when a label will be there but for us it’s not just about that.”

In a bizarre twist, the band found themselves with a top five in charts in Holland. They had taken part in a reality show about two Dutch guys made learning Irish folk music. They played with The Young Folk and other remaining members of The Dubliners as part of the show. It was aired in The Netherlands on primetime tv as the two fellas were part of the panel for The Voice. So, Michael comes in from the farm at 4 am, (it was calving season) only to find their facebook page had gone mad with new Dutch fans and top five hit in the charts. Hence the reason Corner Boy are hitting the road to Europe in September.

I’ve been lucky enough to witness their True North and “Morning Morning” EPs live several times. From the energetic, uplifting, rousing “Morning Morning” to the romantic, ambling melody of “Move To Paris”. These guys are no one trick pony. There’s a big range of influences apparent, whether is blue-grass or alt-rock. We were lucky enough to have them for the finale of the youbloom Dublin 2015 festival in June. If they show up in your part of the world go see them. They will rise you like no other. In the mean time you can watch “Untie The Noose” here.

Running riot: Dublin band The Riot Tapes fire things up with new single and video. World appropriately sweats.

18-Aug-2015 By Shannon Duvall

“Goodbye my faith, goodbye my heart.”

Ah, Elaine Doyle, c’mere, would you ever stop being such a fantastic ride? Look at you there, running around the countryside, looking winsome and windswept, not a bother on you as you purr lyrics in perfect time and stare down the sunset like some badass bog Madonna.

Are your legs tired? Cause you've been running through my mind all day. — Are your legs tired? Cause you’ve been running through my mind all day.

Well then, at least put a scarf on, dear, you’ll catch your death of cold out there. Yes, even in August; this is Ireland, after all.

–
Just two months on from their ravishing show at youbloomDublin 2015, Reekus Records’ Riot Tapes are are off and running – rather literally, actually – with their latest release, a single called “Hello, Insanity”.

Recorded at Westland Studios in Dublin’s south inner city, and initially intended as a work-in-progress recording, the since-polished song has been receiving critical praise from fans and industry swingers alike; Joe Donnelly of TXFM has called it “…a thunderbastard of a song.”

Well.

You can see where he’s coming from. As Irish mainstream music goes, this is top stuff. The production is so clean and well-considered, it’s as if the group are aliens – seductively frank aliens – dropped off here to totally steal the show. And this is what they do, with cannonball drums and electro-effect guitar thrum burning up the reel. Donnelly goes on to liken the track to “Heads Will Roll”, by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, quite the comparison, and by all accounts spot on, if the response from listeners of his popular radio show Cheer or Sneer are anything to go on. Riot Tapes, are, quite frankly, killing it right now.

So what does a sassy band of audio assassins do when they’re not busy slaying from the airwaves and the stages of Ireland’s best fests? Why, drive up the mountains and get up to all sorts of antics, of course:

“The shooting of the video (for “Hello, Insanity”) was unusual,” says vocalist Elaine.

“Myself and Chris (our guitarist) agreed on the concept which was basically me running up the Dublin mountains singing along to the song. So one cold sunny morning the two of us headed up to the mountains in Chris’s little Fiesta. We had a camera, a tripod, and some red rope. We put the camera onto the tripod, tied the tripod into the boot of the fiesta and began shooting. Chris drove as slowly as he could and I ran after the car whilst trying to sing. The whole point of the video was to do it in one take.”

“One minute in, we had a problem: my jeans were falling down quite rapidly when I ran. Chris cut off some of the red rope and made me a belt. You can kind of see it in the video if you look really close. We did four or five takes, and used the last one for the video. It didn’t take too long to do at all.”

Talented, tenacious, quite obviously full of creative energy; it must have been off to win over more listeners after the shoot, surely? Actually, uh, not quite:

“We spent longer looking for 50 euro that fell out of my pocket while I was running than we did shooting the video!” Doyle laughs. “We never found it.”

Check out all the pants (and panting!) -related mayhem right here in the video:

Riot Tapes play The Big Viking Picnic, a gig for charity, in Kells, Ireland August 29.

Don’t Worry, Buddy Guy. The Blues Ain’t Dead.

06-Aug-2015 By Shannon Duvall

Buddy Guy is worried about the blues. The legendary blues guitarist and singer recently sat down with NPR Music and told of his fears that the genre – so deeply entrenched in not just the American, but the international music scene – would die out before too long. Spooked by a conversation with musical peer Muddy Waters, shortly before Waters’ death, Guy says he’s made it his personal mission to ensure blues remains important to future generations of musicians and listeners.

Dwindling live audiences and a shift to more electronic sounds in pop music have been cited by older blues musicians and fans alike as the “downfall” of the sound. But a little research turns up blues’ massive influence across the modern musical spectrum – from rock and folk, to soul and hip hop, and beyond. Simply put, the blues ain’t dead. Here are fifteen examples of artists keeping the train a-rollin’. Hit play on the playlist below and get the scoop while you listen.

The Soul Crossovers

Leon Bridges

http://www.leonbridges.com/

Bridges’ debut album Coming Home was released in June 2015. Hailing from Fort Worth, TX (and many would agree, it almost seems, another era entirely), his performances (in which he dons exclusively vintage clothing) have been likened to great soul and blues legends such as Sam Cooke. And if that’s not bluesy enough for you, here’s this: the first song he ever wrote, “Lisa Sawyer”, was about his mother’s baptism. In a river.

St. Paul & the Broken Bones

http://stpaulandthebrokenbones.com/

A seven-piece band out of Birmingham, AL, complete with a crazy tight brass section, St. Paul & the Broken Bones are often classified as Southern Soul. There’s no denying the blues element here, though, strongly heard in member Browan Lollar’s lo-fi guitar sounds and raw, humid vocals. The band are signed to Single Lock Records, a label based in the blues-rich Shoals region of Alabama. They gave the label their first Billboard 200 entry with “Half The City” in 2014.

Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears

http://www.blackjoelewis.com/

Black Joe Lewis mixes the blues with old school soul.

Now performing as simply Black Joe Lewis, this band has been making bluesy waves out of Austin, TX (a city that has long been a hotbed for the blues) since 2007. Inspired by blues linchpin Howlin’ Wolf, with soul inspiration from Wilson Pickett and the funk sparks of James Brown, Black Joe Lewis’ guitar sound is vintage and moody, just as the best blues should be. Currently touring the US and Canada.

The Purists

Jack White

http://jackwhiteiii.com/

Perhaps obvious, but not to be overlooked, the popular and prolific White has been finding ways to sneak the blues into every musical project, from the White Stripes punk-blues, to the Raconteurs psychedelic version, to his country-blues collabs with superstar Loretta Lynn (which helped revive Lynn’s career). Some of the musician’s earliest influences – Son House and Blind Willie McTell – are clear throughout the body of his work, but come through strongest on his own, unfiltered solo albums.

Dan Auerbach

http://www.nonesuch.com/artists/dan-auerbach

Another famous band refugee, Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys fame (a band also featured on this list) is a blues powerhouse in contemporary music. After the large-scale success of the Black Keys over several years, Auerbach built his own studio in Akron, OH, to focus on his own pure expression of blues-influenced sounds. His debut solo album, Keep It Hid, was released by Nonesuch Records in 2009.

Gary Clark, Jr

http://www.garyclarkjr.com/gcjsosbs

Another Austinite to make it onto the list, the 31-year-old guitar player, singer, writer, and arranger has been widely lauded as one of the great blues artists of the new generation. After learning to play at age 12, Clark became a regular feature at Antone’s, Austin’s chief blues club, and from there went on to gain serious momentum on the international scene. Eric Clapton himself hand selected the musician for the Crossroads Guitar Festival in 2010. His latest album, The Story of Sonny Boy Slim, is now available on preorder.

The Rockers

The Black Keys

http://www.theblackkeys.com/

With no introduction needed, The Black Keys are perhaps one of the most influential blues-rock outfits on the scene today. Originally happy to self-produce their records in basements and the like, the duo’s sound emerged raw, taking the radio by storm and ushering in a new wave of interest in the genre. Influenced cited include Junior Kimbrough, Howlin’ Wolf, and Robert Johnson.

The Heavy

http://theheavy.co.uk/

Their first album was released in 2007 after members bonded over Jim Jarmusch films, and much like their artistic preferences, this garage-blues band’s sound is eclectic and sample-loving, with homages to Screamin’ Jay Hawkins and others on key tracks like “Sixteen”.

The Irish

Hozier

http://hozier.com/

It’s not only found in the USA, you know. American blues sounds share quite a few similarities with Irish trad music, and the genre has long been loved across the sea. The music of darling-come-lately Hozier is a forceful example of how the blues are shaping sounds abroad. His first band at age 15 included blues persuasions, natural, perhaps, for the son of a Bray blues musician. The viral “Take Me To Church” has received international acclaim, and at 25 years old, he’s gaining momentum fast.

Davy Knowles

http://davy-knowles.squarespace.com/about/

The hotly-tipped 28-year old musician from the Isle of Man has been teaching himself to play the blues from a young age. His original blues-rock band Back Door Slam was formed in 2003, with sounds shaped by prior generation luminaries like Rory Gallgher and Eric Clapton. In 2014, Davy was selected to serve as the Isle of Man’s official Cultural Ambassador for “…Island of Culture 2014, the biggest cultural celebration in the country’s history.” His sound tends toward the pure end of the blues spectrum, a true tip of the hat to a special musical breed.

(*Note: The Isle of Man is not actually part of the Republic of Ireland, but is located in the Irish Sea, midway between Ireland and England. It is a self-governing Crown dependency.)

The Unsigned

Castle Creek

Castle Creek – The Blues/Rock You’ve Been Waiting For!

One of our favorites, we recently had the pleasure of hosting Castle Creek at this year’s youbloomDublin 2015 Music Festival & Conference. We also had the chance to talk with them a little about their musical background, which featured in youbloom: HEADROOM #4. These ambitious New Yorkers incorporate the blues into their unique sound with panache.

The Contemporary Barnshakers

J Roddy Walston & The Business

http://jroddywalstonandthebusiness.com/

Uh...sir? You're on in five? — Uh…sir? You’re on in five. Sir?

Originally from Tennessee, with live shows which “make James Brown look lazy” (Baltimore City Paper), these guys take the blues to the its most rowdy, scrappy, and danceable. Quite the sensation, they can currently be found touring all over the eastern United States.

Cage The Elephant

http://www.cagetheelephant.com/

A band from Kentucky whose first success was in England (hey, the Brits have a real fondness for the blues; just look at the Rolling Stones!), these four young guys toured for nearly five years off the back of their self-titled debut, released to critical acclaim.

The Bleeding Hearts

Goodnight, Texas

http://www.hiwearegoodnighttexashowareyou.com/about-us

Self-described as “American in every sense of the word”, Goodnight, Texas write songs reminiscent of a time when the blues were vital and necessary, and the back of a boxcar was the perfect place to sing them. Named after the geographic midpoint between members hometowns in San Francisco and North Carolina, they feature chugging, steady rhythms and plaintive, nostalgic lyrics which call to the dark, sentimentalism of your escapist daydreams.

Delta Spirit

http://deltaspirit.net/

A feature on the American music scene since 2005, Delta Spirit have a lot of work under their belt. History From Below, the follow-up to their warmly reviewed debut EP, featured collabs with blues lover Bo Koster of My Morning Jacket, as well as bass player & producer Elijah Thomson. Their latest release was 2014’s Into The Wide, and they are currently on tour in the northeastern United States.

What do you think? Know a modern blues band people should be grooving to? Let us know in the comments below.

youbloom artist spotlight: James Houlahan

03-Aug-2015 By Amy Van Daele

Pull up a chair and kick back with us as we chat with youbloom artist James Houlahan about his new album, Multitudes, which is set to release this October.

“I aim to release the new album in October of this year, and I launched a Kickstarter campaign to help finance the release of the album. Hopefully there will be enough support for a vinyl release. I’d really love to present my music to the world in that format. But we’ll see how it goes…”

Can you tell me more about Multitudes and how it compares to the two previous albums?

“My first album Seven Years Now contains mostly songs that reflect personal experiences. And the second album “misfit hymns” contains songs about characters, some of which were fictional and some who were real, like Janis Joplin. For some reason, I thought there needed to be a line drawn there. Between the personal and the fictional/imagined. But the more I write, the more these two elements are blending together. To the point where I no longer care what is actually true in a historical sense (e.g., whether something actually happened to me personally or not). I find myself getting lost in the stories of other people, of experiences I can only imagine, of dreams where I’m not sure where reality begins and ends…and I’m inextricably bound up within these songs to the point where I’m no longer interested in how they relate to me, personally. I hope that makes sense! In short, I don’t really know who I am anymore, and I absolutely love it.

“I wasn’t sure how to choose songs for the new album until I remembered the lines from Walt Whitman: “Do I contradict myself? Very well then. I contradict myself. I am large. I contain multitudes.” And those lines made perfect sense to me (as well as provided me the album title!) So the new album has songs that combine the personal with the fictional in this multitudinous way. It’s also a little darker, a little more rock than the other two. There’s much less acoustic guitar, and there’s a lot of drum sounds! I was really interested in pursuing multiple textures of percussion. I’ve gotten much better at singing too, but I’ve still got a long way to go there. Anyway, there’s lots of differences, but I think it’s all for the best.”

What does your creative process look like when writing songs/recording an album?

“I tend to hear completed songs in my head. Like from a radio somewhere… Often the signal is not coming in perfectly, and I only get fragments. Sometimes I’ll write those down and work them later into a more complete shape. But the best songs tend to hit me all at once. Usually the chorus first, if I’m lucky. (Choruses are harder to write than verses). Sometimes they just appear in my head at the worst times, like when I’m driving on a crowded freeway or in line at the supermarket. But thankfully my iPhone is usually handy and I record them as voice memos. I find that the songs I end up recording more formally, in the studio, are generally the most insistent. Their presence in my inner ear is not to be denied. If all songs are like children, then the ones I record on an album are those that are crying loudest for my attention.

“When it comes to recording, I want to bring in other musicians and let them get inspired. I do tend to offer some guidance here and there, but I think what we’re really searching for is to capture a moment of magic. Something that sounds both spontaneous and composed at the same time. Lightning in a bottle. It’s really hard to set up the environment in which that happens, but it helps to keep an open mind. And to surround yourself with very talented players who can see your ideas and take them even further than you imagined. It’s good to have a plan or a map, but then be prepared to throw away that map when you no longer need it.”

What is it like to be in the studio with you?

“It’s like we are hunting something, searching for something, everyone together. It’s dark, and we’re not really sure where we’re going. But we’ve been hunting before and we know what it’s like to pick up the scent of something worth pursuing. But sometimes things get really weird and we’re not sure anymore that we are the ones doing the hunting. Maybe after all, we are the ones being pursued! Ha ha… But really, it’s a kind of strange blend of craft and magic, being in the studio. All of your past experience bubbles right back to the surface. But at the same time, it’s challenging and even a little disconcerting. Overall though, I love being in the studio, chasing those sounds. If I have ever experienced anything like a true sense of belonging in this world, it has been during moments in the studio. I know that might sound grand and mystical, but to me it’s just plain fact. I just love making music!”

How long did the album take to create and record? Tell us a bit more about that as well.

“I was writing and planning the record ever since I moved to L.A. from Boston about three years ago. Some of the first few songs actually appeared to me on the trip across the U.S., so it’s been in the works for a while. But late last year (November), I went in to Veneto West studio in Santa Monica with producer Ronan Chris Murphy. We brought in the amazingly talented Mike Gattshall on drums (The Letters Home, Rivermaker, Hot Sauce Holiday) and the musical maven Fernando Perdomo (Dreaming in Stereo, Linda Perhacs, The Dirty Diamond) on bass. We cranked out a bunch of basic tracks and started there. Due to the difficulties of my schedule and the others involved, we had to space out the tracking over many months. We ended up bringing in a whole bunch of other great players like Danny Frankel (Lou Reed, K.D. Lang) on percussion, Kaitlin Wolfberg on violin, and Danny Levin on horns. But now we’re in the mixing process and I hope to have it mastered before September.”

What advice can you give to emerging artists beginning the process of recording an album? What have you picked up along the way through your experience?

“Whether you’re making a whole album, or just recording a few tunes, I think the most important thing is to have good songs. I ended up not attempting a debut album until several years after I had started writing and performing, and I think that made the eventual album a better collection of songs. I was able to kinda process and discard a lot of material along the way…basically I had to write maybe 10 bad songs to get one good one! And then I grew loyal to those tunes and played them for people as much as I could. So I think it’s good to get the songs out there and get audience’s feedback.

“The other thing I would say is that, regardless of budget, it really helps to know how you want the music to sound in terms of production. If you don’t know, then just keep it simple. And be careful with who you work with in terms of engineers, producers, etc. It needs to be a good creative collaboration. When that relationship is not well developed, the music can suffer badly. Where, at the end, one is dissatisfied with all the artistic choices made along the way…it really pays off when you’re working with people who inspire you and who you can trust. Did you ever hear how Leonard Cohen got locked out of the studio during “Death of a Ladies’ Man” by crazed producer Phil Spector? They could not agree on anything and Spector started threatening Cohen with a gun. Eventually, Cohen was shut out of the production of his own album. Yeah, that’s an extreme case, but it highlights the need for that relationship to be productive. Having the right people around you is crucially important.”

Check out some of James’s tunes: “New World Blues” and
“The Party Goes On”

Learn more about James, listen to his music, and see his gig schedule on his official website. Any of his prior albums can be purchased here.

Streaming Services, Good or Bad for Indie Music

03-Aug-2015 By Guest Blogger

The recent launch of Apple Music has brought a clearer image of the streaming music market. While the money keeps flowing and new subscribers tune in every day, how does this affect the indie artist?

The continued rise of streaming music is just the beginning of a transition into a digital-only market. Numbers are up all around for providers and listeners, creating an attractive outlook for the future of the music industry. But does this mean that you should sacrifice your soul and talent for streaming services? Of course not. They are undeniably large money machines, but artists only see a tiny fraction of these sales actually make it to their pockets. The traditional way of focusing on live performances and merchandise sales remains the best way to earn revenue.

Bringing up discussion about revenue is something that isn’t easy for artists, as general artist income and royalty payments have dropped off considerably over the past few years. This drop-off is due in large part to a significant reduction in physical albums being sold (i.e. illegal downloads). Royalty payments from streaming services are also quite small, with recent numbers for Spotify hovering around $.007 per song played.

Now, you probably have heard that artists like Neil Young and Prince have come out and complained about, and even elected to remove their offerings from streaming services. Superstar Taylor Swift has recently threatened to remove her latest album, 1989, from Apple Music completely over questions surrounding royalty payments. Apple Music is notably also facing an FTC probe itself into whether it violated antitrust laws in their practice of charging 30% extra for subscriptions through the Apple Store.
But how can we compare the likes of Neil Young, Prince and Taylor Swift to less-mainstream indie artists? These millionaire artists have already collected their fortunes and can afford to threaten streaming services by pulling their catalog but is this notion a reality for indie musicians as well?

Simply put, no.
First, an aspiring indie artist is already going to have a mountain to climb when it comes to selling music and gathering followers, something that services such as Apple and Spotify can make somewhat easier. Second, it is easy to blame streaming services for not giving more back to artists when a case could be made that it is the major labels who are to blame for such small payments. These major labels take a large part of Spotify shares due to various financial agreements that are only beneficial to themselves. Mainly, major labels use streaming services like a shield from artists who complain about streaming while taking a significant percentage of payments.
In this digital age, all artists have to make the right decisions when it comes to streaming. As an indie artist, the added exposure and simplicity “should” trump those checks in the mail. Keep touring and selling t-shirts at concerts because those remain the best way to make money.

Of course every artist is going to have a different experience with streaming. Do you have any good or bad experiences with streaming services? Let us know in the comments below!

Post by Thomas Ujj.
An expat/traveler and IT enthusiast with a passion for security and privacy. When he isn’t planning his next trip, he likes to take the time to practice his Italian cooking as well as religiously watching Italian football team AS Roma. Unfortunately, cooking and watching football games doesn’t always equal paychecks, so he writes for SmartDNS.com as well.

Corner Boy Conquer Europe and do reality TV

Running riot: Dublin band The Riot Tapes fire things up with new single and video. World appropriately sweats.

Don’t Worry, Buddy Guy. The Blues Ain’t Dead.

youbloom artist spotlight: James Houlahan

Streaming Services, Good or Bad for Indie Music

Main Pages

Get Involved

Contact

Legal