Rapper NEAK circles back on the blog and drops his brand new music video, ‘What’s Really Here,’ Directed by Irv Vaz.
‘What’s Really Here’ takes us on a trip and captures the entire essence of Chicago (inner-city) and the ills that come along with living in underserved black communities. Featured on Neak’s latest project, INNENSTADT, this is the second visual released after 4eva Eva music video, directed by Irv Vaz and produced by Rashid Hadee. Hit play on the video below…
CÉLINE AND THE BLUE debuted on the blog in 2019 with sassy number, ‘Learn To Be Alone’ and since then, they’ve been regular favourites with you guys (and myself, I have to say). Their most recent offering, ‘Crave Love’ scooped the Song of the Week title for two consecutive weeks in January AND Song of the Month title in February. So it’s an absolute pleasure to invite frontwoman, Cèline Buccomino into the interview seat to discuss latest EP, ‘Within & Without, out now all good DSPs.
NLM: Hey, thank you for taking part in an interview with NEW LEASE MUSIC. How is 2021 treating you so far?
CB: Heyy, thank you so much for chatting to us on here! 2021 has been very promising so far, it’s been filled with loving, inspiring and exciting energy. We’re very keen to express that back through our music, the past year has just made us that much more committed to this career.
NLM: You recently released your EP, ‘Within & Without’. What is the public perception on the project so far?
CB: Our listeners are so talented at spreading the love! We’re very grateful for every message we receive about our music. It’s so lovely to hear when listeners connect with the story line intertwined within the track list. Even the press response was great, we love seeing new people come in from new sources!
NLM: What inspired you to produce the EP?
CB: Our favourite thing about the EP is that it came about extremely organically, we hadn’t initially planned to set out the releases as an EP. Once a few songs had come out, we noticed a common thread between the tracks, it only made sense to encompass them in a unique body of work. We thought this collection really embodies our origins as musicians and is the perfect way to wrap up the first ‘era’ of our music!
NLM: How would you describe the album’s sound to potential fans?
CB: ‘Within & Without’ has a groovy and colourful character which ventures into the genres of Jazz, Soul and Pop. An authentic sound dominates the sound pallet with live instruments, guitar and keys solos and fresh vocals. We wanted to inject a lot of good feelings in this EP, we hope you sense those too!
NLM: What is/are your favourite single(s) from the EP and why?
CB: As the whole band, ‘Learn To Be Alone’ is our jam! We feel so good while performing it, it fires great connection between us and makes us feel alive! Despite this, we each have individual preferences which vary from ‘Safe’ to ‘Crave Love’ to ‘Papaya’.
NLM: If you had to feature one mainstream artist on the EP, who would it be and why?
CB: It would be quite hard to settle on just one artist as everyone has their own favourite, but John Mayer is probably the one we might find a common agreement on. It would be incredible to witness him interpreting our genre. And he’s just so timeless and brilliant!
NLM: Did the Covid pandemic present any drawbacks in the production of your EP?
CB: It slowed the production down loads! We started recording ‘Papaya’ and ‘Safe’ in March 2020 and then had to wait until August to finish them. It was frustrating! Making music is made up of many things, we were still working hard on the behind the scenes elements but for a while we were missing out on the actual ‘making music’ part of it, which was hard to adjust to. We made it in the end, better late than never!
NLM: Do you have other project(s) for 2021?
CB: Yes! We are making some fresh music, focusing on production a bit more to refine the sound pallet and we’re loving what’s coming out of this so far. We absolutely cannot wait to showcase this new music getting back into gigging this year!
NLM: How can potential fans find you?
CB: First of all, thank you so much if you want to check out our work and connect with us! Just look for ‘Céline & The Blue’, our music is on every music streaming platform, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube. You can also find our podcast ‘Out of The Blue – By Céline & The Blue’ on any platform for podcast streaming.
NLM: Finally, any special shout outs to those involved in the production of ‘Within & Without’?
CB: Biggest thanks go to Sam and Tom over at Studio 91 who have really helped us craft the sound for this project. Their imprint has been essential to provide this EP with the character it has. We always have the best experience working with them, the environment at Studio 91 is stimulating, positive and a true pleasure!
Within & Without is now out on all good download/streaming sites
After the soon to be USC graduate woke up in the hospital with a broken heart from a break-up and hit-by-car-related-injuries, Jake McEvoy (AKA KID HASTINGS) immediately knew he had to write a song. The following day, he wrote Off Guard’ to make sense of whatever metaphor was being thrown at him, and the result is a melodic, indie, upbeat tune encouraging you to sing along and take life less seriously.
The accompanying video speaks to these surreal moments of life, and what better way to come to terms with absurdity than to embody it. Filled with over-saturated scenes of cow costumes and LA-river-fishing escapades, the video allows viewers to take any impact they want as they become intoxicated with the incomprehensible. Check it out below….
Sparked by journeys with partners and great friends, 5OMERSET perfectly captures the feelings of love and nostalgia in single, ‘Talk About Love’. Oozing delicately smooth synth-pop arrangements, the single is about standing together as a team after time and hardships pass. “I think about my 10+ year long relationship and all the ups and downs we have been through together’, says 5omerset.
‘Talk About Love’ is 5omerset’s second release of 2021…check it out below….
On the heels of her last single, ‘Cry’ and with over 20 million streams on Spotify, BETH CROWLEY follows up with her new single and lyric video ‘Storm Chaser’.
Rumbling thunder and a piano melody opens ‘Storm Chaser’ before Crowley pours her heart out while reminiscing about a love that could only occur once in a lifetime. The emotional ballad follows the story of someone so tormented by the past that they can’t even imagine a future that compares.
Speaking of her latest single, Beth says: ‘Storm Chaser’ was inspired by the Alexander Graham Bell quote: “When one door closes, another one opens, but we so often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which open for us.” I thought about how sometimes we are not so far down a path that we couldn’t imagine what it would have been like to have chosen differently. This song is from the perspective of someone that is daydreaming about an ex-lover that parted ways with her, and she is wondering if she will always be longing for what they could have had.”
Check out the Official lyric video for ‘Storm Chaser’ below…
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