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Artist Spotlight: Lael Neale

Konstantinos Pappis
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Artist Spotlight: Lael Neale

Though rooted in the poetry of the everyday, Lael Neale’s songwriting has a way of unearthing feelings that are both sacred and timeless. Following the release of her 2015 debut I’ll Be Your Man, the Virginia-bred, Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter struggled with figuring out where to take her sound next, completing full albums only to shelve them. “Every time I reached the end of recording, I felt the songs had been stripped of their vitality in the process of layering drums, bass, guitar, violin and organ over them,” she explains. “They felt weighed down.” For her new album and Sub Pop debut, Acquainted with Night, she’s pared things back, harnessing the lush intimacy of a vintage Omnichord and a 4-track cassette recorder to create a series of vignettes that feel at once ethereal and down-to-earth, as if drifting through the mists of time. Spilling over with wistful, sun-soaked melodies and subtle production flourishes, the album captures a kind of longing that can’t be contained but finds a home in the solitary splendor of Neale’s spectral compositions, which echo Sybille Baier’s reel-to-reel tape recordings or Adrianne Lenker’s songs and instrumentals. “I’m never lonesome,” goes the refrain of ‘Sliding Doors’, letting us in on the simple pleasures of an introverted life.

We caught up with Lael Neale for the latest edition of our Artist Spotlight interview series to talk about her new album, nature, and dealing with the fear of death.

Are you in Virginia right now?

Yeah, I am. I’ve been here since last April, so it’s been a bit of time.

How has it been there during these months?

It’s been really nice, because this area of Virginia and our farm in particular is really isolated. You kind of step outside of time and everything that’s happening in the world. I mean, everyone’s being asked to, but you can kind of just exist in your own imagination out here.

Something that a lot of people talk about right is how their relationship to their hometowns has changed during the pandemic. Has being back in Virginia made you think about your upbringing in a different way, or brought back memories that you realise have gone on to shape who you are now?

Yeah, definitely. That’s been a huge realization in coming back, is that I had kind of forsaken the town I’m from because it was so small and there was no culture, and not really anything happening. And I kind of felt like I didn’t really belong; I had friends, but I didn’t really find my people until I moved to Los Angeles. That’s kind of how it felt. But throughout my life in the city, I was always yearning for nature. That was a part of me that was so intrinsic to who I am that I really always felt that there was something missing, being in the city. And I feel like maybe that’s what’s happening with people now, is that living life in the city doesn’t have any of the sparkle or magic because you’re not going out, you’re not engaging with people, you’re not going to cafes or to clubs to hear music or anything. So it’s kind of like, well, what’s the point and living in this concrete mess? And obviously, some cities are kind of beautiful and nature, too. But Los Angeles especially is kind of like, why would you stay here if you can’t even have any of the benefits of the culture of that place? And so, I think reconnecting with my rootedness in the earth and in nature, that’s been really enriching this year.

Do you remember feeling connected to nature in that way at an early age?

Yeah, definitely. And I kind of thought that that was what I was going to do with my life. Because I really was an environmental activist from when I was very little – I was really worked up about the environment and humans’ interaction with nature and what we were doing to it. So I kind of always had a very strong passion to reframe the way that humans interact in the natural world and trying to to a place where we could be in harmony again. That’s definitely been a huge part of my identity and sense of self. And I think that through writing songs and making music, I felt that I could have more of more of an impact in the way that poets and writers have influenced and inspired me. So I thought, instead of shaming people or yelling at people in a Greenpeace boat outside of a ship or whatever, that it would be much more fun and probably more effective to broadcast my ideas about nature and the environment through songs. I kind of do it in extremely subtle ways. But I think if you listen, it’s kind of there throughout the songs; I’m definitely referencing nature often, and a more idealized version how we live in the world.

I think it definitely comes through; I’m thinking of songs like ‘White Wings’, for example, or ‘Sliding Doors & Warm Summer Roses’. And and you mentioned songs, but I’m curious – because I read that at first, it was more just writing or reading writers who were close to nature. You used the word “broadcasting”, but to what extent was it also just a way of processing your surroundings?

It was probably more about processing it. And I think that’s the conclusion that I came to, which is what most teenagers come to – because teenagers are so fervently enthusiastic, and think they know everything about everything, and that’s how I was. And I think that I came to a little bit of humility, in terms of my ideas of what was right and wrong, and being much less black-and-white in my thinking. So I think that through reading poetry and works about nature and the environment and humanity, I just realized, I don’t really know anything, but I can offer my perception of it. And songs are kind of the best way that I could find to invite people into my own process of figuring things out.

When did music and songwriting become an active part of that process?

Probably when I was 19 or 20, and I moved out to San Francisco. I was living with a boyfriend who was a musician out there, and I kind of was dropped into his world. I really didn’t have a place or a vision for what I wanted to do. I was really frustrated and depressed at that time. But through living with him, I guess through osmosis, I was like, “Oh, I can live this life.” You’re completely free from any kind of really structured life, you can be floating around in this like, realm of art and music. So I became enthralled by that lifestyle, and the life of someone who’s interested in thought and philosophy and art. I didn’t have to have a really strong career decision, I could be fluid, and so I guess it kind of came from that. And then, moving to Los Angeles, it solidified my idea that the music scene was probably the one that I wanted to live in. The people I was meeting in that in there were inspiring and exciting to me.

During those years, how do you feel that experimenting with different sounds and meeting different people affected your outlook or process? How did that evolve over time?

I went through a pretty rapid growth period in the space of meeting the guy who actually produced my first album, which came out six years ago. But I think through meeting him and his friends, who were all art school students, that kind of introduced me to a whole other realm of making music in a pretty specific way, with a very clear vision of how you’re going to write and how you’re going to present yourself. I was kind of all over the place, and this helped streamline my writing and realize this is what I am. It still took years to kind of hone that and I think that’s a big part of why it’s taken so long for another album to come out, because I knew that I was still needing to shed some extraneous parts of myself or my process of writing. So, I think the exciting thing about this album coming out is that it really does feel like it’s been stripped away of anything unnecessary. And I feel like the point I needed to reach now, and then it can flesh out as I go on, but it’s exciting to start at the skeleton.

And from what I understand, a big part of that was the Omnichord. Was it kind of like a revelation, almost, discovering the instrument and the raw intimacy it has? Or was it more of a process, arriving at that point?

I think it was a little bit of both. But the great thing about the Omnichord was that it kind of contained everything that I needed in one in one machine. On one hand, I didn’t need that much, but on the other hand, it kind of had a lot because like you said, the record, though it’s sparse, it still is kind of lush. Because of that organ sound and the drum tracks, it fills in space, without really needing to be too much. So the Omnichord was a huge part of that revelation, like I can be totally contained in this and still create something that’s big enough.

What was it like learning how to construct songs with it?

It was like being a kid again. Because I think we forget how to be beginners at things, you know. It takes so many years to learn the guitar or to learn the piano or to learn any instrument, and by the time you’ve mastered it, a little bit of the excitement has been drained away. And with the Omnichord, because it’s so simple, and it really is kind of made for a child, you can play chords on it having no clue how to play music. And because of that simplicity, it kind of opened up this whole new realm of creativity. I was also excited by it in a way that the guitar and piano had kind of lost their luster a little bit.

I know you worked with Guy Blakeslee on the album. What do you feel he brought to these recordings? 

He and I started talking a couple years ago about the best way to record the songs, because he was coming to my shows and was frustrated that I hadn’t been able to make recordings. I was like, “I’m frustrated, too.” [laughs] And so, he and I kind of spent a lot of time drinking coffee and talking and having meetings together, and then eventually, he was like, “I’m just gonna bring over my four-track to your house. I’m going to set up the microphone, and I’m going to leave it, and you just kind of play around with it.” And the four-track machine was something I finally understood, I was like, “Oh, you just press record and play.” There’s nothing complex or technical you need to know. So he gifted me with this whole safe space to make the record, and then would drop in and mix the song. He was a huge part of making it all happen, largely because he created a protective bubble around me and kind of kept his hands off, which I think is actually a really difficult and rare thing for a producer to do. He was just so kind of supportive and had faith that the thing that I was going to do would be the right thing.

My favorite song right now on the record is ‘Every Star Shivers in the Dark’; I just feel like the lyrics of that song have a resonance that’s very universal. And I love how, towards the end of the song, the line goes from, “I’d like to love someone” to “God made man to love someone.” Which, regardless of religion, I think captures how that longing for connection is something that’s ingrained in us, like it’s part of our nature.

I’m glad it struck you, because that was the intention with that line. When I wrote that song, I was really feeling this longing to experience love, and then I was trying to figure out where that comes from, why are we always reaching for it, and no one is going to satisfy it. No one person. So I think I come around to something that we all know, but that it’s just the experience of itself and it doesn’t matter, the object of your love. My idea is that that kind of is why we’re here. And there’s something powerful about the archetypal idea of Adam and Eve being made by clay, and what are they made of, you know? What is the clay? Is it clay, or are they made of love? I just like thinking about all that stuff and our own mythologies and archetypes, and why they have such resonance with people. And using those words is intentionally trying to touch on that common, universal experience that we all have.

I have one more question, but it’s kind of grim. It has to do with something you mentioned in the notes for ‘How Far Is It to the Grave’, this practice called Jeopardy. And I hadn’t heard of it – to be honest, I couldn’t even find anything about it online. But it seems rooted in this very common idea of like, living every day it’s your last, which sounds cliché but is actually really hard to put into practice. So I’m just wondering where you how you came across that.

Well, I really like grim questions, first of all. I came across that in this weird self-help book called The Tools, and I must have found that in some library book sale or something and I got drawn in. And there were, I think, four tools to living a better life. But that was one of them that really stuck with me. Another one was about the pain wall and how we don’t do things because we come against the pain wall. And so part of the tool was saying, “I love pain, pain sets me free.” And that sounded so crazy to me. But at the same time, I could kind of understand why that works, because you’re like, “I don’t want to get out of bed in the morning because it’s too cold out or whatever,” you know. But you need to do all these things, you have to break through that pain wall. So that’s a minor one that we all do. But it ratchets up to like, big things that we’re afraid of, or that are painful.

And so then, part of getting through the pain wall included this Jeopardy, which was part of the motivation to do the thing that was difficult to do would be to envision yourself on your deathbed, every morning. And then having that instilled in your consciousness from the minute you wake up makes everything in your day more precious and more vital. And you don’t want to waste any moment because you’re like, “Well, this is going to be me someday.” And, you know, “Maybe I won’t even be lucky enough to have a deathbed, I might just, you know, be knocked out by a bus or some—” you know, anything could happen. I don’t mean to take death lightly at all, it’s not that. And it’s also not instilling fear of death, it’s more of an appreciation, like you said, it’s become so cliché, but living every day like it’s your last. But it has worked, because it kind of sticks with me. And as you make decisions through the day, you kind of have that in your mind, like, “Is this important enough to get all freaked out and worried about?”

Is that something that you’ve found a way of integrating into your life?

Yeah. And I think that song is kind of my integration of that, my processing of it. I don’t know, it’s also a weird time to talk death and stuff with everything that’s going on, so I really don’t mean to take anything lightly. But I think it’s something we’re all going to experience someday and the fear of it, to kind of acknowledge it and look at it is actually a really helpful thing, because the fear of it is what causes so many problems in our own personal lives and with each other.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity and length.

Lael Neale’s Acquainted with Night is out now via Sub Pop.

Plastic by the Sea by Simone Bramante

Gerda Krivaite
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Plastic by the Sea by Simone Bramante

Simone Bramante is an Italian photographer and creative director based in Bologna. Known as @brahmino on Instagram, the creator has 1 million followers, and with good reason. Simone interweaves the human form with impressive natural landscapes, and his works are made all the more powerful by subtle positioning, balance and vivid colours. Simone calls himself a visual storyteller, and each photograph of his certainly evokes an emotional response.

Simone’s journey of visual communication started with work at communications agencies and classical advertising agencies. Having discovered his passion for photography more than 20 years ago, the artist first began capturing images with an old fashioned Canon 300 film camera. Simone explains:  “Humans are my subject, natural landscapes are the context, how people move or interact with nature, with the world”. His photography has been exhibited all over the world, including Los Angeles, San Francisco, Paris, Minsk and lately in Milan.

Shot in Puglia, Simone Bramante’s photo series Plastic by the Sea was created for a campaign run by Oikos, an Italian non-profit organisation which seeks to raise awareness about the use and reuse of plastic, a material that Simone claims must be sustainable so as not to become the only ‘creature’ of our seas.

The photographer warns: “Will there be more plastic than fish in 2050 in the oceans? Take actions to make sure there won’t be.”

The Best Content On Streaming Services: There’s Plenty To Binge Watch

Our Culture Mag & Partners
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The Best Content On Streaming Services: There’s Plenty To Binge Watch

If like many others you don’t have any plans for this weekend, then you may end up having a cozy night in front of the TV. With so many movies and TV shows available to stream instantly across a multitude of platforms, it can be an overwhelming decision when it comes to what to watch. Fortunately, there is plenty to start binge-watching – so start taking note!

Netflix

Arguably the most popular streaming service boasts some seriously good TV and film. Series 2 of Sex Education is a must! If you couldn’t get enough of Glee or Gossip Girl, then you are bound to enjoy this raunchy series, which has already been renewed for a second season. 

Did you know, Netflix uses an Intimacy Coordinator on set when filming its Netflix Originals content? This helps to make intimate scenes such as those in Sex Education much safer for actors, protecting them from the terrors of sexual harassment as highlighted by the Me Too movement in Hollywood.

Another top Netflix pick is Lupin – a brand-new French drama series. This one is subbed over in English but don’t let that put you off because it is definitely worth a watch. This series consists of five episodes that depict the main protagonist, Assane Diop, attempting to steal a prized necklace from The Louvre in Paris. 

Amazon Prime

If you order plenty of parcels online and hate waiting for slow deliveries, then upgrading to Amazon Prime is absolutely worthwhile. The content on this still relatively nascent streaming service is second-to-none and comes bundled with the service at no extra cost.

Firstly, there is the entire back catalogue of The Grand Tour to binge through. The Top Gear successor, starring Jeremy Clarkson, James May, and Richard Hammond is popular among both petrol heads and those whose car is just to get them from A to B. The trio embark on some incredible road trips across all corners of the globe, making for particularly aesthetic viewing – especially in 4K! 

Amazon’s offering also boasts some brilliant blockbuster films too. Baz Luhrmann’s classic Moulin Rouge! starring Ewan McGregor and Nicole Kidman has been available to stream from February 2021 which is worth setting aside a dedicated evening for! 

Apple TV+

The newest entrant to the streaming service market is Apple TV+ and if you’ve bought a new Apple product recently – such as a Mac, iPad, or iPhone – you may have been fortunate enough to receive a free trial. It’s definitely worth claiming because the California-based company has some real gems on its service. 

Ted Lasso is a great place to start. Starring the brilliant Jason Sudeikis, a college football coach somehow ends up in charge of a top-flight team in England. Already renewed for Season 2, this hilarious sports series even features a cameo from real-life football manager José Mourinho.

Other must-watch shows include The Morning Show with Jennifer Anniston and musical comedy Central Park.

Hopefully, this brief overview of what to watch has inspired your binge-watching for this weekend.

Jenn Lee’s Virtual Reality Show for London Fashion Week

Ayana Torio
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Jenn Lee’s Virtual Reality Show for London Fashion Week

Jenn Lee presented an astounding 360 VR show during London Fashion Week for her fall-winter collection.

The VR showcase aimed to bring together the ideas of transformation and dissipation. In this film, a chaotic VR world is juxtaposed with real characters from our everyday life. For this project, Jenn Lee and Renovatio Pictures, Inc. set about to invite a group of Taiwanese celebrities, actors, musicians, influencers, make-up artists and designers to participate in seeking utopia via virtual reality.

For the collection itself, details such as metal eyelets and metal zips are utilized as a critical design element to create a sense of fluidity and maintain Lee’s usual Sports lux style. The upcycled denim series are paired with technical waterproof trench coats and suiting for an ultra-modern look. Accessories provided by Nike and Gentle Monster are placed alongside some additional pieces such as Jenn Lee’s scarves which have been created using fabrics developed from discarded Oyster shells; as well as knitwear done in seamless ecovero viscose to avoid yarn wastage and bring the whole collection close to complete sustainability.

The global pandemic has changed the way we live, work, and create. The fashion industry has been affected in ways we could have never expected. With this in mind, Jenn Lee wants to use this collection to channel her positive feelings and encourage us to look towards a brighter future.

The soundtrack of the show ‘Hermitage Bliss’ was created by Taiwanese born musician and DJ Cloudy Ku.

Kaushik Velendra Autumn/Winter 2021 at London Fashion Week

Ayana Torio
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Kaushik Velendra Autumn/Winter 2021 at London Fashion Week

Kaushik Velendra, a London-based menswear designer, released an eye-opening fashion film at London Fashion Week. “Power dressing for men and tailoring for the future” is how Velendra describes his brand’s DNA as he works to reshape and redefine menswear. The film The Power of Fashion and Its Influence across our Self-Empowerment is a series of interviews looking at various artists’ opinions on fashion and gender. In the film, Velendra interviews artists such as Kelly Rutherford, Layton Williams, River Viiperi, Billy Langdon, Bobby Brazier, and Daniel Lismore. According to Velendra, the film and the collection were made “to capture the importance of dressing in the current situation and the purpose it plays supporting fashion designers and the creative community.” The collection itself reshapes some of the standard tailorings we have become to know. The sleeves are asymmetrical, loose-fitted with pleating, and have exaggerated shoulder padding. There is a charming juxtaposition of materials used in the garments, where lightweight fabrics are pleated and mixed with materials that hold more shape and structure.

Watch the full film here.

Artist Spotlight: BE GOOD

Rachel Chandler
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Artist Spotlight: BE GOOD

After meeting in a ceramic arts class and bonding over rap music and, well, pottery, vocalist Ash Cooke and drummer Charlie Clark came together to further explore their creative synchronicity. Relocating to Oxford, the pair enlisted the help of synth master James Cunning and bassist Patch Burley to form the quartet that is BE GOOD, so named after 96-year-old chemistry professor John B. Goodenough. Releasing tracks in 2017 initially as a response to suburban inertia, BE GOOD self-released their debut EP God Of Nowhere in 2019. Featuring the suave, jazz-inflected ‘Nightbus’ and their woozy debut single ‘It’s Cool But It Ain’t You’, the EP served as a slick, dreamy taste of the colossal feelings that exist in the mundane. Their recently released sophomore EP, Everything’s Alright in the Evening, further explores this delightful dichotomy, building upon a world of inconsequential events that feel monumental, namely young love and yearning. 

Completed in a remote farm cottage in the north of England during UK lockdown, Everything’s Alright in the Evening feels intimate; like the band opening up to, more than anything, themselves. Opener ‘Young Strangers’ pulses with a nervous energy, mirroring the sickly sweet feelings of first love through stabbing synths and layered piano, while ‘Dark Glasses’ boasts a hypnotic aura thanks to its trilling guitar riff chorus, and ‘Interlude (LGW-SXF)’ emulates a tender, swelling sensation. Mellow yet uplifting, Everything’s Alright in the Evening works in dichotomies to create a textured soundscape that sticks long after the final track plays out.

We caught up with BE GOOD for this edition of our Artist Spotlight Q&A series, where we showcase up-and-coming artists and give them a chance to talk about their music.

The questions that seems flippant but is more crucial than ever in these strange times; how are you? What’s been the thing that’s kept you going recently?

Ash: We’re doing okay, thanks. It’s been a tough time but we know there are lots of people who’ve had it a lot tougher than us. Friends and family have kept us going. Striving to create good things and put good work into the world has kept us going. Charlie and I live together so luckily we’ve been able to carry on making music even though we’re currently in lockdown again in the UK, although we’re missing Patch and James very much.

Your sophomore EP Everything’s Alright in the Evening was released recently. First off a big congratulations, it’s genuinely a stunning listen. What was the biggest hurdle for you guys when making the EP?

Ash: Thank you!! A lot of this EP was made during 2020 so we faced some difficulties with the recording process and weren’t able to be in the same room with people we were working with. In the end we did almost everything from home and we were able to make progress through zoom calls and wetransfers and whatsapp groups. Perhaps because of that, the EP has somewhat of a patchwork feel to it which I’ve come to really like. Towards the end of the process I was struggling with some of the final lyrics and vocals, so I went to a little cottage on the edge of a farm for a little while. It was quite remote and there was nothing to do, but I spent a lot of time watching the goats in the goat pen opposite the window that I worked at. The change of scenery really helped. By the end of those 10 days the lyrics for the remaining songs were more or less finished.

What’s the biggest progression or rather change that you’ve made as a band since your debut EP God of Nowhere back in 2019 and going further back your debut single ‘It’s Cool but It Ain’t You’?

Ash: We used to be very protective over the entire writing and recording process. For our first EP we wrote everything, produced everything and mixed everything ourselves. This new EP has been a process of accepting and inviting collaboration – it was the first time we invited other vocalists to sing on our songs, we worked with our housemate on lyrics and we worked with some amazing mixing and mastering engineers to take the songs to the finish line. It takes a certain self-belief to go it alone and we want to keep that spirit in the work we make. But it takes another form of self-belief to invite other people into the process and know that the music will still stand up as a true representation of who we are as a band.

You took inspiration for the name of your band from the Nobel Prize for Chemistry winning scientist John B. Goodenough. Why, what about him made you decide to name your band after him?

Ash: John B. Goodenough made breakthroughs in the 70s which led to development of the lithium ion battery. He did that work just a few miles from where we live in Oxford and I’ve been intrigued by him for a long time. I read a lot about him and watched every video on youtube I could find of him. I found it strange that he wasn’t more well known, so when we came up with our band name we thought it would be a cute little tribute to him. But anyway, he won the Nobel Prize a couple of years ago which is perhaps a greater honour than being our namesake.

The visual for ‘Young Strangers’ feels beautifully aged, sort of like it was created outside of time. It’s both vintage and grounded in the present. Was this purposeful, something you set out to achieve or did it come about naturally?

Ash: It was definitely something we discussed with the director Joe Vozza in terms of the locations and styling. This particular song and video have some obvious 80s influences but hopefully feels modern. I think the best art lives in the present but has one eye on the past. We want our videos to look like they could be set any time in the last 40 years. The idea of suspended time or being outside of time is something that we try to explore with our music and visuals. Growing up in suburbia it sometimes feels like years can go by and nothing really changes. 

You’ve been sharing little tidbits, stories and BTS photos etc on your Instagram recently from the making of the EP. Do you think it’s important to be transparent and inclusive with your listeners? By this I guess I mean do you place a lot of value on sharing these moments with fans/listeners?

I sometimes feel uneasy about being too transparent with explanations of what songs or videos are “about”. As an artist you want listeners and viewers to be able to approach the music and videos with the freedom to bring their own interpretations and relate them to their own experiences. I see videos where artists break down the meaning behind every single line of a song and that just feels like spoon-feeding. Having said that, I think some gentle sign-posting towards the ideas behind songs can probably enrich a listener’s experience sometimes so that’s what we tried to do.

On the more technical side of things, we like showing fans and listeners BTS footage of recording music or filming music videos as it shows that you can make great stuff with shitty equipment. We still record almost everything using a microphone I bought for £100 when I was 16.

And lastly what have you guys been spinning recently? What did your January 2021 sound like?

James: Tomberlin’s At Weddings works really well in early evening winter half-light. Harmonia and Eno’s Tracks and Traces is beautiful, human synth magic, and I keep going back to everything Mark Hollis ever did at the moment.

Patch: I’ve recently discovered cellist and producer Oliver Coates, particularly his recent album skins n slime. I’ve been alternating that with acoustic/folk music by Elizabeth Cotten and John Fahey – very different but somehow complimentary vibes.

Charlie: Puma Blue’s debut album In Praise of Shadows has been on repeat for me. I really like how restrained and precise the arrangements are and I love the intersection of the songwriting with his jazz and R&B influences. Also, Welcome to Conceptual Beach by Young Jesus from last year. I just discovered it, but that record contains a lot of the elements of Math rock, Emo and Indie that reminds me of the bands I’d go and see in Oxford growing up.

Ash: I’ve been listening to Sunset Rollercoaster’s new album SOFT STORM. Also, listening to Duval Timothy has been a revelation.

BE GOOD’s Everything’s Alright in the Evening EP is out now.

Album Review: Another Michael, ‘New Music and Big Pop’

Konstantinos Pappis
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Album Review: Another Michael, ‘New Music and Big Pop’

Michael Doherty’s lyrics can feel like you’re bearing witness to a small but important discovery. The one that opens his debut LP with Another Michael – initially a solo project but now a three-piece featuring bassist and producer Nick Sebastiano and guitarist/keyboardist/vocalist Alenni Davis – will be familiar to any music fan. “We were up late online talking about new music/ And you sent me a link to a song that I’d never heard before,” he sings warmly before his voice hits a stunning falsetto: “I need to get my headphones on.” No more than thirty seconds in and the music compels you to do the same, just to make sure you’re taking in all of its lush intimacy, or you might want to pause and send the link to a friend. “Just think about the long pause after it’s gone,” he ponders, but it comes out more like an invitation.

Though clocking in at just 35 minutes, it’s in these long stretches of time – when you’re going on a walk or a ride or making dinner with a friend – that much of New Music and Big Pop seems to come alive. They serve as the catalyst for a series of intimate thoughts and feelings, which Doherty presents in an evocative, stream-of-consciousness manner. It’d be easy to coast on the relatability of its opening lines, but what makes ‘New Music’ more interesting is how he steers the song in an increasingly confessional, introspective direction. Lyrics like “I am thinking about my own life and for that I feel ashamed” or “I am willing to hold myself and put up with this awful loneliness” might make you think you’re listening to a Pinegrove song – which makes sense considering the two bands have toured together – but Doherty, Sebastiano, and Davis infuse their songs with enough personality to confirm they’ve spent as much time honing in their own sound as they have sharing their love of other people’s music.

One of the features of their sound is how naturally pleasant and amiable it is, as if the group have charitably imparted some part of their own connection into it. Recorded in a small A-frame house they turned into a makeshift studio outside Ferndale, NY, the process of making the album was both collaborative and intuitive, and that approach comes through as much in the album’s lyrics as the looseness and vibrancy of the arrangements. It’s often at its most animated that their music shines the most: ‘I Know You’re Wrong’ sports a sprightly guitar progression to accompany Doherty’s emotive, pitch-perfect delivery, while ‘Big Pop’ channels the group’s pop influences for an infectious tune that’s also the record’s most memorable highlight. The album rarely loses its distinct flavour, even though a slight proclivity towards lighter hues, as well as the band’s tendency to spread out its palette a bit too thinly, can make some moments pale in comparison to others.

A more distinguishing quality is how present and inward-looking Doherty’s songwriting can be. “I’m thinking of my day as I go,” he hums on ‘My Day’, and it often feels like he’s approaching his writing in a similar way. There’s a lot of art about the making of art, but Doherty seems less interested in intellectualizing that process than simply relaying it in plain terms: how listening to a song can make you want to “be in on all of this” and “make something timeless,” what it’s like trying to turn a bad conversation into a good song, or simply how joyful it can feel to pursue that creative drive. Despite what its title may suggest, though, music is far from the only subject permeating New Music and Big Pop. Doherty uses it more as a vessel to explore deeper personal questions, or simply a means of setting the scene: during a Phil Elverum-esque passage on ‘Hone’, he mentions “a great record that Evan showed me last week,” drawing attention less to the unnamed record than the specificity of that exchange.

As invigorating as these small discoveries can be, much of the album is preoccupied by the kind of emptiness that’s hard to fill with momentary pleasures. ‘What the Hell is Going On?’ finds Doherty asking that question with heart-rending earnestness, unable to wrestle with the reality of a lover leaving for good. But it’s the following track, ‘I’m Not Home’, that marks an unexpected shift in tone, its jarring minor chords evoking the lows of depression that Doherty expresses in the lyrics. You almost wish the band had delved into more of these dynamics throughout, but New Music and Big Pop is the kind of introduction that peaks your interest just enough to want hear more, not least because of the way it ends: One of the few tracks that sets its gaze on the future, ‘Shaky Cam’ acknowledges a sense of aimlessness and uncertainty, yet showcases a band capable of distilling those emotions into a thing of dizzying beauty.

A helpful guide on how to organize a wedding

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A helpful guide on how to organize a wedding

Every engaged person looks forward to their wedding day. But when the reality of how to organize a wedding hits, you’d discover that you don’t know where to start. There’s so much to do, down to the tiny details, and that can be overwhelming. This could leave you disoriented and drained, stealing your joy.

However, it doesn’t have to be this way if you know what to do at the right time. That’s why to help brides, we’ve put together a detailed wedding checklist for brides. On this list, you’ll find useful wedding planning tips and ideas to suit your goals.

Embrace order

The tasks are unending. From the numerous things to buy for a wedding, to assembling vendors, signing of contracts, and more. You’ll also need inspiration for your attire, hair, makeup, cake, venue, decor, menus, and more. You’ll be cutting lots of clips from magazines and all. This means papers and wedding planning info will be strewn everywhere and this doesn’t bode well.

The best wedding planning advice is to get an organizer. Whether manual or electronic, the organizer or binder helps you put all these tiny bits of information in one place. This way, you don’t lose important details and can access them at will.

Preserve everything

One of the best wedding planning tips for brides and planners is the art of preservation. There’ll be a lot of receipts, invoices, vendor contacts, and signed contracts flying around. Pool them up and save them somewhere secure. There’s nothing insignificant when planning a wedding. Even issued invoices from food, attire, facials, or whatever else you do should be saved. They should be well disposed of only after a successful wedding. We must remember that anything could come up while planning and you’d need to refer or produce these items.

Get a spreadsheet

For the ultimate planning and organization, get a comprehensive spreadsheet. With this, you can log in all the wedding tips and ideas you know. From the budget to music, food, venue, cute photos, and everything else. You can also break down these tasks and assign costs to them.

Breaking all these down will help you track expenses, tick off completed tasks, and sum off the rest. This gets easier with spreadsheets that can automatically calculate and fill in the total. Lastly, you may get bonus countdown calendars to heighten your excitement.

Delegate to trusted hands

You can’t possibly do everything on your own, so we advise that you get a planner. If your budget doesn’t cover a wedding planner, delegate tasks to trusted friends and family. Grant them access to your spreadsheet so that they can update their tasks. If you’re going manual, have them give you feedback daily or weekly, so you can fill it in. Furthermore, try to get burlap table runner bulk for the wedding to make a good impression.

Create a realistic and flexible timeline

During the process of wedding planning, a lot of people want to do everything within the shortest time possible. However, like yourself, can I accomplish this within the assigned timeline? If I do, will it be the best of its kind or substandard due to the rush?

It’s important that you create realistic timelines while giving room for flexibility. This will help cut down undue pressure and associated stress, helping you function at your best. Lastly, you’ll love the outcome of working at your own pace.

Set up a mood board

It’s one thing to have wedding ideas and inspiration in your head or binders. But it’s another thing to visualize them and bring them to life. This is why mood boards are must-haves for intending brides.

If you favor the electronic kind, Pinterest is a great place to create your mood board. Get an account, open and name different folders, then pin your inspiration to the appropriate folder. If you work better manually, create a workspace for the duration of wedding planning in your home. Get a chalkboard and write down or draw all your thoughts using colorful chalks. You can always add to them as you get inspired.

Delegate to trusted hands

You can’t possibly do everything on your own, so we advise that you get a planner. If your budget doesn’t cover a wedding planner, delegate tasks to trusted friends and family. Grant them access to your spreadsheet so that they can update their tasks. If you’re going manual, have them give you feedback daily or weekly, so you can fill it in.

Be proactive

A huge mistake that many brides make when planning a wedding is leaving perceived insignificant things until the last minute. Those supposedly basic details can make or mar your wedding. Also, as a bride, don’t want to look harassed and stressed out because you’re doing last-minute tasks. The last two weeks before your wedding should be mostly dedicated to bonding with the partner and self-care. This can only happen if you’re proactive with your tasks.

No matter how much help you have, you must leave a personal touch on your wedding. If you don’t know how to, this guide, brides will learn how to organize a wedding with minimal stress.

Author Bio

Svitlana Yefimets

Svitlana is the chief editor and in control of all Wedding Forward content since 2017. She started writing in 2012. She is an expert in details concerning venues, gifts, ceremonies, music, and everything about real weddings. If you want to collaborate with us, send her an email. She spends her leisure tasting dishes, discovering new restaurants, and staying fit through yoga!

Planning Your Ideal Wedding

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Planning Your Ideal Wedding

Planning a wedding is a stressful and expensive experience. However, with the right organisational system, you can make it an enjoyable time. Reduce your stress levels with a detailed plan of what you need to get done in the next 12-18 months.

Just because you can’t have your wedding at the moment doesn’t mean you can’t plan. Start wedding preparation early so you can remain calm and efficient throughout the process. Here are a few tips and tricks on how to keep everything organised.

Mood boards 

Nothing says wedding planning like a Pinterest board. Create multiple boards for different sections of your wedding, such as food, dress, venue, table décor and much more. Keep everything in one account to combine your ideas and keep everything streamlined.

You can also build physical mood boards for different smells, textures and travel souvenirs. A physical mood board is more personal and a great activity to do with your partner over a glass of wine.

Use the mood boards to stay on track and communicate your vision to various suppliers. You may find that your mood boards follow the same theme or style. Use this research to identify a specific theme and make sure you stick to it. Popular styles include vintage, festival, bohemian or movie themed.

List ideal locations

Your wedding venue will determine the date, location and number of guests. Sit down with your partner and decide what type of venue you want and where you want it to be. Do you need a venue with accommodation for guests? Will your guests be able to afford a destination wedding?

Jewellery 

Choosing your wedding rings should be a romantic experience, followed by a luxurious dinner and cocktails. Try to enjoy the wedding planning process by making it fun for you and your partner.

Write your guest list

It’s essential to be selective when you are writing your guest list. Determine who will be in the wedding party and who will be invited to the day and evening celebrations. Costs per head make up the most significant proportion of your expenses, so choose carefully! Avoid adding too many plus ones or inviting people you don’t want to come.

Choose wedding suppliers

When looking at photographers, caterers, and wedding entertainment, opt for suppliers that suit your wedding style and budget. Consider giving your photographer a brief of when photos need to be taken and the overall style. You will cherish your wedding album for years to come, so make sure it’s perfect.

Remember the smaller details

Make sure to remember the legal details, like getting your marriage license. Build a schedule for the day, detailing the time vendors to arrive, when the ceremony starts and much more.

Budget!

Write down a budget for your wedding, stag do, hen do and honeymoon. There’s nothing worse than going over budget and then forgetting essential items, like flowers! Decide how much you can afford to spend together and plan a detailed budget.

Artist Spotlight: WOOM

Konstantinos Pappis
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Artist Spotlight: WOOM

Having previously performed in various groups around South London’s music scene, Alice Barlow, Lara Laeverenz, Ella Rimmer, and Izzy Risk wanted to created a space where they could further explore their love of singing as a collective. They formed a concept-choir called WOOM, spent years practicing and performing, and finally sought to capture the magic of their live shows with their debut EP, Into the Rest. Released last week via House Anxiety, the six-track collection was produced and mixed by Tom Carmichael at London’s Fish Factory studios, where the four members recorded a selection of covers and originals nearly all in one take. Perhaps that’s part of the reason why it all sounds so seamless as they transition from the haunting original ‘Walk’ to a fusion of Bonnie Beecher’s Twilight Zone track ‘Come Wander’ and Linda Perhacs’ ‘Chichicum Rain’, or when a Frank Ocean medley leads the way to a beautiful rendition of Angel Olsen’s ‘Unfucktheworld’ and Outkast’s ‘Prototype’ segues into ‘Limit to Your Love’. But the appeal of WOOM goes beyond the harmonious nature of their almost-acapella reworkings – it’s because of their shared connection as singers that they’re able to tap into and combine the qualities that make different songs resonate, immersing the listener into a world that feels uniquely their own.

We caught up with WOOM for the latest edition of our Artist Spotlight interview series to talk about the origins of their project, their new EP, and more.

I know you were all part of the same music scene in South London. How did you connect over your mutual love of singing, and how did that lead to the idea for WOOM?

Lara: It felt like it happened really naturally. We were all kind of going to these gigs in South East London, where individually everyone was singing and everyone was playing in different bands. I remember going – I wasn’t singing yet, really – but I remember going and seeing Ella perform, seeing Izzy perform, seeing Alice perform, all in their individual groups and just being so awed by their voices and just really wanted to sing with them.

Izzy: I think it came a bit out of being in projects but kind of wanting to do something more with singing and focused in singing.

Alice: Yeah, a space as well in which we could all have control and really collaborate, because we’d all been in bands or situations where we were the front singer, but the idea that came with WOOM was one of total collaboration.

Lara: I think also, Alice was singing Izzy’s band and Ella was singing in Izzy’s band, and then Ella and I were singing together, just like for fun, and then we would sing in our friend’s band as well. These things were already happening, so then for us all to come together just felt like it needed to happen. There was definitely a hunger for it.

Do you remember that specific conversation of how the idea came about, or was it more gradual?

Alice: I feel like I remember the conversation. I think it was one night, we were at a gig, and I think a few of us had been talking about starting a choir. And we were all probably quite drunk and sitting outside. I think it was just me, Lara and Izzy. We were like, “Yeah, let’s do this!” And then Lara was like, I know Ella wants to do something. And then at some point, I think Lara was like, “We should call it WOOM.” But the interesting thing about WOOM was that we started this idea as a project just for us, and we got asked to play at Brainchild Festival. But going there, we kind of had no idea how it would go down. We were planning to do a workshop and then we ended up being booked for a gig on that weekend. And it was when we played the gig and the feedback we got after that that I think really solidified it.

Over the four years that you’ve been together as a group, what would each of you say you’ve learned during that process of getting to know each other and singing together?

Ella: There’s something that happens within the body when you’re saying with other people, and I think there’s even been studies into how people’s heart rates will match up when they all sing together. It’s a very kind of visceral, ritualistic, embodied experience. And I think that focus on trying to be present in that has been something that I’ve definitely gotten from this. And more so than that, the challenges and limitations that occur when you’re four very different voices trying to create quite a unified sound, no one’s individual skill could substitute for the time that has been put into finding a space where everyone’s voice sits.

Alice: Another thing I’d say I’ve learned is the power of collaboration, because prior to that, I’d released stuff on my own and it’s such a different experience. Sometimes it’s tricky because we’ve all got really strong ideas, but it’s been an amazing thing to learn how to amalgamate all of those things and present it as one.

Izzy: Moving from what Ella said, a lot of the singing I’d done before that was just like, fronting a band. And although that can be really nerve-racking because you’re the only one singing, you also have the texture of the band and the instruments behind you. And I found sometimes these WOOM gigs are kind of even more nerve-racking because the vocals are so exposed and you’re creating songs and textures with just vocals.

Lara: I like what Ella was saying about being present. I think the four years of doing WOOM, it does just confirm that feeling you get when you sing and how much it puts you into your body. And then, harmonizing is really just listening most of the time, so it’s just about learning to listen to each other.

I think it’s interesting what Ella said about communal feeling of it, but at the same time what Izzy mentioned about how exposed it can feel. Especially because with the songs you perform, there’s often a lot of intimacy to them that’s accentuated in that way. Could you talk about what goes into the process of selecting the songs?

Alice: Usually the songs we choose are ones that collectively we’re all excited about. And really quickly, quite often, you can tell whether it’s going to work, like there’s been a few songs that we’ve really wanted to cover and we start doing it and it doesn’t necessarily click in the right way. But the ones that we do end up fully arranging are ones that quite quickly feel like it connects on some level. All of the covers we’ve done so far, I think, are some of our favorite songs ever.

I wanted to talk about the Frank Ocean medley in the EP specifically. Because all those songs are from Blonde, so I’m curious what the significance of that album is for you collectively, and what the process of bringing those tracks together was like.

Ella: All of us have a very deep respect for Frank and the way that he writes, like every aspect of the process is kind of masterful, I think, and Blonde in particular is such a triumph of an album. I remember being in Alice’s house or in Izzy’s house, and we would be singing like the ‘Seigfried’ part and someone would come in with another line from another song. And I think it’s this idea that those songs have this like liminal membrane between all of them, where when you listen to that album it’s not just like listening to separate songs on a list. It’s like they already speak to each other. And it was such a pleasure to experiment with kind of swimming through that a little bit. It felt very natural that they would all just sort of fit with each other in that way.

There’s definitely this natural kind of connection between these songs, as opposed to something like ‘Prototype’ and ‘Limit to Your Love’, where maybe it’s not as obvious.

Izzy: Maybe because we love melodies and these melodies of all these different songs that we love are kind of echoing in our mind, when we sing one, something else just pops in. It can be like a little trigger in the music or a word.

Ella: There’s a lot of background work and particular disciplines that we have to practice in order to make the arrangements we do, but I think when we’re really in the moment, you do sometimes feel like a vessel through which different melodies, like you said, pop in an echo in your head. It’s not like we’re sitting down being like, we’re going to construct this thing, necessarily. A lot of work goes into it beforehand and after afterwards, but in that moment, it’s almost like you just have to get out of the way to let that happen.

Alice: I think that’s the nice thing about ‘Limit to Your Love’, for example. Obviously, it was written by Feist, but probably the most commonly known version of it is by James Blake. When we were talking about it recently, it’s like this idea of these songs that are written that have multiple lives, and reimagining something or giving it a different life. I think it’s the same with ‘Unfucktheworld’, the Angel Olsen cover. We’ve had a few people come up to us and say, “When we listen to it, we even hear the lyrics differently because of the way you sing it,” even though they absolutely adore the original.

What I love about your rendition of that song is that there’s this loneliness to the track, especially with the line “I am the only one now,” but when you sing it all together it takes on a new resonance. How much of that was a conscious choice?

Lara: It was cool to find a song that we could really all just sing this chorus in unison. And I love what you say about that line, it does recontextualize it when you have four voices singing it. And when we sing it together, it’s really empowering. I feel like it does feel a bit like this idea of collective pain or collective grief that you can share, and it kind of eases that pain.

Alice: One really lovely thing was when we did the video for this one, we then got to really explore the meaning of the song and what it meant to us and the sense of escapism. We kind of got to relive a whole new meaning when we were creating the visuals; it felt like even more of a reimagining of a reimagining, if that makes sense.

My introduction to your sound was actually the original composition, ‘Walk’, and it did very much feel like a collective musical identity came through on that track. What do you remember about making the song, and how does it compare to reimagining other people’s tracks?

Ella: We’ve been wanting to do our own original material alongside the covers for quite a long time. And that’s something that we’ve kind of done maybe more in private and haven’t shared a lot of it. But I think we had like a little – I have old voice notes on my phone of the [sings melody from ‘Walk’] part. We were at my old house, I think it was towards the end of a writing session or something, and we were all just knocking around a little bit, allowing ourselves to be a bit dramatic or theatrical. And then I think Lara and Alice had a session and wrote lyrics for it and added a structure and sent back some ideas. But yeah, that was a special one. I think it’s representative of maybe more stuff that we might like to experiment with in the future.

Alice: For sure, I think what’s beauituful, when we came to writing that, we’d been arranging covers for so long that we’d already kind of had this form between us and almost like an unspoken knowledge of how our voices work together. And similarly to how you were saying earlier, Ella, some things, it does feel like you’re just like plucking them from the ether. And I feel like the songs we have written, they’ve all kind of come about like that.

You mentioned that it’s maybe more representative of where you might want to go in the future – do you think the covers will still be an integral part of the project?

Ella: The ratio might be a little different in terms of output, but I think the covers are a part of our – ‘cause we’ve actually had quite a few conversations about this over the process of making, and I don’t think we’ve arrived at an answer yet, but I think the covers are definitely part of our DNA and part of our art as well. They’ve taught us so much, and I don’t think we need to necessarily distance ourselves from that. But I do feel like ‘Walk’ was a really important marker in our history because it represents – there is almost sometimes a little bit of a pressure when you’re standing on the shoulders of giants, representing these names through your own versions of them. And the release of ‘Walk’, for me personally, marks a thing of like, “No, this stuff can stand alongside the work that we do that is an homage to other people.” And I find that really empowering, and that’s maybe something that all of us are quite keen to continue to step into.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity and length.

WOOM’s Into the Rest EP is out now via House Anxiety.

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