Hurry released the best record of 2016 according to The Power Pop Show. Sweet Sweet Music talked to Matt Scottoline about the need to be mildly psychotic, sensing a strong melody and Teenage Fanclub.

Sweet Sweet Music discovered Guided Meditation this week. (Blown away by it). It has been out for quite some time now. There even is a new ep. Is that the way the music industry works nowadays? How do you look at the music business? 

I don’t know if it’s specifically how the industry works now, but I do think there’s a feeling of urgency if you’re a musician sometimes, where you want to share the music as quickly as you can. Unless that’s just me. The band is named Hurry after all. The music business is very strange. It isn’t really designed for a naturalistic approach these days. If you want to make it happen, you have to be mildly psychotic, or very lucky. That’s pretty much the only way. I try and ignore it as best I can. But it can be difficult. 

Nothing to Say is such a beautiful song. How did it come together? Do you recognize early on during the writing process that you are on to something?

Thank you. I think whenever I’m writing a song, and can immediately sense if the melody is strong, and I knew that song had a strong melody. I know if I go back to listen to a demo multiple times, there’s probably something there. I remember that song specifically, I kept telling my band mates how I felt like it was going to be very good — and kind of had to make the case. Admittedly, the demo sounded terrible. But the song was there. I once heard an interview with Nick Lowe where he said he knows a song he’s writing is good if it sounds like something that already existed but he’d never heard before. Something like that. I felt that with Nothing To Say.

LISTEN/BUY

She tells you she will decide on a 5-song-mix tape if there is going to be a second date. Which 5 would you put on? 

1) Teenage Fanclub – “What You Do To Me”

2) David Kilgour – “Fall Away”

3) The Explorer’s Club – “Forever”

4) Matthew Sweet – “Sick Of Myself”

5) Paul Westerberg – “As Far As I Know”

If you could tour the world with two other bands, which two would you chose?

Teenage Fanclub

Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers

How will 2017 look like?

We are going to record and hopefully release a new record. And play more. It should be a good year.

 

Sweet Sweet Music talked to Mike Adams about Casino Drone, the favorite song of his 3 year old son, tension in a catchy tune, Glen Campbell and trying to remain super cool.

Casino Drone is a power/indie pop gem. GEM!

Diem Be seems to be everybody’s favorite track. Is that a surprise to you or did you know you had something special right from the start?

It’s a bit of a surprise. We actually recorded a version of that song for a split 7″ with our pals Sleeping Bag a few years before Casino Drone came out. I wasn’t really planning on including it on the album, since it’d already been released, in a way.

But, when I was trying to decide what songs to put on the record I was listening to the recordings a lot in my car, and my son (who was 3 at the time) would often request “Diem Be” by name. It was his favorite one.

That’s when I started to think that maybe that song had a little more to it than I initially realized. If a kid likes it, it has to be kind of good, right? 

Sounds like that track  grew up in the studio. Or doesn’t that make any sense?

No, you totally got me. That song started out with that opening riff, I was just playing it over and over again in my studio at home until the rest of it started to unlock for me. It felt like a real Frankenstein for a while in the demo stages until we started playing it live and got comfortable with the transitions. It came a long way before we got to Casino Drone.

The Razorcake review says: “Diem Be” sounds like it might’ve been taken from a hardcore song. But that’s the feeling I have with more of the songs. The “it can explode now any minute”-feeling. That kind of tension, is that what you are looking for in a song?

I love tension in a catchy tune. It’s a comfortable and effective contrast for me. I grew up attending loads of hardcore shows in my hometown, so even though it’s mostly subconscious, it’s no surprise to me that that stuff leaks out once in a while.

I think Kurt (who wrote the review for Razorcake) and I come from a very similar background, so it’s cool that he recognizes that stuff in what I’m doing now.

Another side to that is that my entire life is about trying to remain super cool in the face of unspeakable tension and anxiety, ha! So, I’m happy that the music I’m making can effectively communicate that.   

There was a day when a review like the AllMusic one would be bring stardom. The music industry changed, didn’t it?

I suppose it has, though I’m admittedly fairly ignorant of the industry. I’ve been making music in my various bedrooms with no money since I was a teenager. I loved doing it then, and I love doing it now. I take a certain amount of pride in what I’ve been able to accomplish just from curiosity and amassing years of experience and making mistakes.

I’d love to be a big fat rich guy with no worries, chowing on a turkey leg with my foot propped up on a gout stool someday thanks to my record-breaking album sales, but I also tend to think of music as this really primitive human thing that’s going to go on existing whether there’s an industry or not.

I’m baffled and content just to exist in some strange space between those two extremes. 

 

She tells you she will decide on a 5-song-mix tape if there is going to be a second date. Which 5 would you put on?

“All Done Wrong” – Starflyer 59
“Like A Diamond” – Glass Ghost
“Tender When I Want To Be” – Mary Chapin Carpenter
“Wishing Now” – Glen Campbell
“Under Your Spell” – The Range of Light Wilderness
…this question is entirely too hard.

If you could tour the world with two other bands, which two would you chose?

Electric Light Orchestra, and Sound of Ceres

What will 2017 look like? How will you promote Casino Drone?

We’re doing some touring and playing a lot of shows around the midwest and the east coast of the USA this spring. I’d like to start recording again by the summer.

Although, we’ve yet to play abroad, so if anyone reading this wants to make that happen, I’m all ears!

BUY/LISTEN

Mike Adams at His Honest Weight @ Daytrotter

Caper Clowns are from Denmark. They just released their debut record, The Buca Bus, a pure pop delight. Sweet Sweet Music talked to Rick Kingo about hygge, songwriting, Oasis, The Divine Comedy and about too many ballads on a mix-tape.

 There is a “Hygge” hype going on over here in the Netherlands. Does that in any way relate to your music? Or is that a stupid question?

You could argue that there is some “hygge” to our brand new single All We Ever Do Is Run (out Monday 9^th of January), but that’s pretty much it. It wasn’t actually written that way either, but as soon as we added the banjo, “hygge” just sort of magically appeared.

Does that pure pop sound come naturally to you? Who are your musical influences?

It does. Not always though, and we do sometimes make rockier tunes, but quite a lot of the stuff we write is just pure pop, which is great, ‘cause we love it.

As far as musical influences go there’s of course The Beatles, The Beach Boys and other 60’s bands, but there’s also bands like Oasis, XTC, The Kooks, Panic! at the Disco and many many more.

Lyrics or melodies, what comes first?

Of the 12 tracks on The Buca Bus words only came first once, and that was on Dressed In Flaws, which started out as a poem by our bass player Christian. On the other 11 tracks the music came first, and the words for Dressed In Flaws were actually even heavily re-written after we wrote the music. So usually it’s music first, though we do consider the words equally important.

A Tale of Romance & Magnetic Trains is my favourite song (for now). How did that one came together?

Thank you. That’s one of mine (we are four different songwriters on the album, so it’s always nice when someone picks one of mine as a favourite).
It was actually written very quickly. I just picked up the guitar, started playing and singing and 30 minutes later I had the chords and melody down, and maybe another 30 minutes later the words were done too. Took a few days in the rehearsing room and studio with the band to get the arrangement quite right, but it was definitely one of the fastest to make.

She tells you she will decide on a 5-song-mix tape if there is going to be a second date. Which 5 would you put on?

That’s a tough one. So tough.

I think I’m going to have to pick Don’t Look Back In Anger by Oasis, ‘cause that’s the song that got me into playing the guitar in the first place.

I’d probably have to pick a Beatles song as well, ‘cause they were just pure genius, and I think I’m gonna go with In My Life.

To The Rescue by The Divine Comedy would be on the tape as well, ‘cause it happens to be my favourite song at the moment. I first heard it on Alan Haber’s Pure Pop Radio about a month ago, and I just haven’t stopped listening to it since.

That’s three semi-ballads so maybe I would need to pick something more upbeat like Chelsea Dagger by The Fratellis, ‘cause that one is just a lot of fun.

Finally I’d probably pick one of our own tunes, ‘cause rumour has it chicks dig guys who play guitar. Probably an upbeat one, ‘cause there’s definitely too many ballads on my mix-tape already.

If you could tour the world with two other bands, which two would you chose?

If I could pick anyone that ever existed I’d pick The Beatles and Oasis, both because they’re great and because I think it would be all kinds of fun.

Sadly none of those bands exist anymore, which means I’d pick The Kooks, because they have some quality tunes, are a great live band and I think their fans would really like what we do as well.

I’d also pick Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, ‘cause I go to a lot of their shows all over Europe anyway, so it would save me A LOT of money not to have to pay to get in!

What will 2017 look like? How will you promote The Buca Bus?

We’re going to play a lot of concerts and festivals. At the moment, we only have shows planned in Denmark, but we would of course love to travel and play all across Europe (and the world, but we’ll settle for Europe this time around).

In addition to that we’re going to release a few more singles over the next 6-7 months, which means we will hopefully continue to be on the radio a lot, like we have been with our lead single Pockets.

And we will of course continue to write and record new music, and it actually just so happens that we’re headed back in the studio on Saturday to start working on our next album, which we hope to be able to release some time in 2018.

Listen here  and buy  here

Baroque, Bubblegum and Bittersweet.

Sweet Sweet Music talked to Butch Young. About Mercury Man, “crypto-religious” references, a poppy melody with life-and-death-related imagery , The Trashcan Sinatras and keeping “both feet in”.

Read, Watch & Listen!

 

“The album’s occasionally crypto-religious lyrics may leave you wondering what Young is on about,” writes MusoScribe’s Bill Kopp. How does religion influence your music?

While religion in no way influences my music (the melodic/instrumental aspects), such matters have indeed infiltrated my song lyrics. I did (quite subconsciously) sprinkle-in some “crypto-religious” references.

While I am mindful/curious about “spiritual” matters (for lack of a better word: Big Questions/Theories about the origin/nature/meaning of Life/Love/Death), I’m not at all “religious.” I don’t subscribe to any religious dogma. I interpret religious books and ideas poetically/symbolically – as opposed to literally.

I have a powerful faith in Love/Mercy/Kindness/Karma but not much else. I studied Comparative Religions and Alan Watts along with Bowie’s “Quicksand” lyrics and (post- Beatles) Lennon and Harrison. These songwriters cryptically remarked upon “God/Krishna/Karma” and “the great salvation of bullshit faith.” Some of their lyrics left me scratching my head (till it opened a crack and some light shone in).

My own such allusions tend to employ more of a wink-and-smile than those of the aforementioned late-greats. I figure “tongue-in-cheek” is a more advisable tone to strike within the context of my sugary, four-minute pop shuffles.

 

 

Your songs really require the listener’s attention. Only if you listen carefully will the full beauty will be “shown.” Does that make sense?

I think I understand what you mean. There’s a variety of instrumentation, vocal layers, counterpoint, etc. I suppose it does get somewhat busy and baroque in places — which is why I chose certain other places to drop almost everything out for a few bars — to cleanse the listener’s palette with at least a moment or two of sparseness.

I’m fully aware that (depending upon the listener) this polyphonous approach may be considered a plus or a minus. There’s something to be said for “Easy Listening” (not intended here as a pejorative). Headphones (good ones, anyway) never hurt!

 One Foot In is my favorite song, featuring soft melodies and strong lyrics. Can you tell me more about it?

It’s certainly (lyrically) non-linear. Juxtaposing a fun, poppy melody with life-and-death-related imagery. A series of phonetically-suitable and pointedly provocative non sequiturs. It’s vaguely about the perils of indecision, procrastination, tentativeness.

One foot active and the other inactive. One foot in life; the other in the grave. Death is inevitable and we’re all doomed/helpless – so hopefully that realization may serve to heighten our appreciation of the here-and-now and the beauty that surrounds us.

There’s a bit of God/Death-baiting in there as well: “Well come on, let’s have it” and: “Let’s get down to it” and: “That’s right, God damn it!”

You would need quite a band to perform “Mercury Man” live. Possible?

True, I would – though it’s absolutely possible. To perform it with all the parts represented on the album would require one very populated stage. What a delight that would be! I’ve performed some of these songs live – but on each occasion, it was a more scaled-down arrangement of instruments/musicians.

If you could tour the world with two other bands, which two would you choose?

I’m going to assume you mean living and extant bands (?) Otherwise this fantasy could get really far fetched! Let’s see… I’ll go with: Teenage Fanclub + The Trashcan Sinatras.

What will 2017 look like?

It will include lots more writing and recording (getting the next album shaped-up) + collaborating with different musicians (“calling all string quartets and horn sections!”) + more live performances + another music video + broadening the scope of my contacts & relationships + keeping “both feet in.”

BUY/LISTEN HERE

 

Just for fun. And we had a lot of fun this year. Great answers. GREAT ANSWERS!

Thank you all. See you in 2017.

So for re-reading purposes … “our” 5 most popular  Q&A’s of 2016.

 

5. The Loved

I also have this quote I picked up somewhere, sometime…I put it on a note that hangs on my wall: “Deep and simple is far more essential than shallow and complex.” Both of these lines mean something, form a bit of the base of how my songwriting should work.

Re-read here

4. Terry Malts

We’ve always had a deeper affinity for UK music than for American music. There’s a romance and charisma to it that Americans can’t naturally reproduce. It’s got style.

Re-read here

3. Ed Ryan

My favorite lyric writers in any genre tend to go deep and a little dark. Like most songwriters there’s a fair amount of romantic relationship stuff but I like to go beyond just boy/girl stuff as much as I can. Davies, Townshend and Hiatt are such great storytellers while staying emotionally true…they are my gold standard.

Re-read here

2. The Top Boost

We are massively influenced by 1960’s pop music. It naturally comes out that way while composing. What we went for was just what we thought sounded right. To build each song properly we put together a sound collage filled with our favorite instruments.

Re-read here

1. Nick Piunti

The song is actually about a relationship that ran its course, but using the analogy of a “one hit wonder” band that couldn’t follow it up. The relationship couldn’t survive past the infatuation, love at first site stage. Actually a true story of sorts.

Re-read here

An album of rich melodies, lush harmonies and reverb laden guitar driven pop. It stands on the cross roads of Americana-English late 70s guitar pop with a dash of Australiana from the same era.

Sweet Sweet Music talked to Wade Jackson.

The story or the melody, what comes the most natural to you? 

The melody definitely comes first for me. I find inspiration from chord structures and melodies to create a story. There are rare times that it all comes together at the same time. Wouldn’t it be great if it was always that easy?

Shooting Star is my favorite song on WADE. Really like the guitar. Build and build till It was perfect? 

Shooting Star seems to be one of the most popular tracks from the record. It was the most played track on radio here in Australia. I really wanted to go for an ethereal sounding outro and I had some great ideas on the original demo. It wasn’t until Liam Judson (co-producer) brought in the Roland Juno-6 keyboard and said let’s layer it up with the guitars that it really came to life. It ended up sounding reminiscent of The Church for me, which is a great thing. I still love that outro, I revisited the record a few weeks back.

How did you record W.A.D.E.?

Liam Judson recorded W.A.D.E. and I performed all instruments. We started at Ripple studio in Sydney City and recorded the drums, from there we spent 4 days tracking bass and guitars at a friend’s Mum’s place in Lawson in the Blue Mountains, that’s where the album really took shape. It was really cold up there and we had a fire going the whole time. It was a perfect environment for us to work in. Some friends came up and made a short video which was really cool. We took some time out after that as I hadn’t finished writing lyrics and had some serious writers block. I was really trying to force lyrics and they were terrible, definitely not from the heart. So over the next year we added more guitars, keys and eventually finished vocals at my place in Tamarama, Sydney. It was a lengthy process but well worth it. I’m glad we took the time to get it right otherwise it may have not turned out like it did. Incidentally, I am re-releasing Whiskey Alpha Delta Echo on Vinyl with a joint label release from You Are The Cosmos in Spain/Europe and my new label Grow Yourself Up here in Sydney. I’m really excited about this as I always intended for this record to be on vinyl.

Did you do things differently for the new record? 

Yes, for my upcoming record “Crown & Cathedral” it was a completely different process. For one is was all written on piano except one song and I didn’t try to write complete tracks, just ideas. Eventually I had amassed a heap of stuff and started matching it all up and putting it together. I wrote almost all the lyrics just before I would track vocals. I had melodies and an idea of what the subject was and luckily it happened really fast. I recorded the entire record and Liam mixed it. 

The music industry has changed a lot (or so they say). What did it bring you? And what not? 

It brought to me the fact that I could no longer afford to go to “recording studios” and record albums so therefore I had to learn how to do it myself which is a little sad because I love the whole romanticism of a beautiful working studio. A lot of what I learned was from watching Liam work and have realised that I actually work better in a comfortable completely controlled environment such as my house or his work space. In saying that I would love to do an album with a full band someday and return to the “recording studio”. The only thing that hasn’t changed for me is the fact that I’m as passionate as ever about creating and playing music. It’s remains completely the same. It’s become a financial ghost for everyone but we still keep plugging away

She tells you she will decide on a 5-song-mix tape if there is going to be a second date. Which 5 would you put on? 

OK, well if I’m trying to court someone then it is a different ball game, but I’d like to know that she likes similar stuff to me but that’s not too important. So here we go
Michael Jackson – Rock With You

Glen Campbell – Galveston 

Fela Kuti & The Africa 70 – Let’s Start

Steely Dan – Black Cow

Scott Walker – It’s Raining Today

If you could pick two bands (any) to tour the world with. Who? 

Todd Rundgren and Blur

What’s up for the next couple of months? 

I’ve just released the first single “She Burn” from my new album that will be released in late February 2017. So lot’s of promotion and hard work until then. I’m also about to record a project with Liam Judson which is something we’ve wanted to do together for a long time. So it’s going to be very busy, which is a good thing right? I’m also awaiting the vinyl release of my new album and W.A.D.E. I’m super excited like a kid at Xmas for that.

Will you still be promoting the record? 

Yes I will. I haven’t played live for quite a while but I am planning to do so to launch my new album. I’m hoping to get over to Europe and Japan later in 2017, let’s see how the reaction is over there. I’ll also be hitting up all my favourite blogs, I think they are such an integral part of the industry nowadays.

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We’ve always had a deeper affinity for UK music than for American music. There’s a romance and charisma to it that Americans can’t naturally reproduce. It’s got style.

Sweet Sweet Music talked to Corey Cunningham of Terry Malts about Lost At The Party.

Lost At The Party has been described as Californian Power Pop but, at the same time, it sounds like Liverpool in the mid 80s. Does that make sense?

Definitely. The “California Power Pop” is a pretty lazy tag. I think it comes from rock writers who don’t have very deep record collections. We’ve always had a deeper affinity for UK music than for American music. There’s a romance and charisma to it that Americans can’t naturally reproduce. It’s got style.

How did the album come together? Why the new approach?

Within a week of finishing the basic recording of our second album I had moved to Los Angeles and started a new life. Our bassist/singer Phil moved down for about 9 months at one point, too. The ensuring two years of touring, writing, and demoing brought out that desire for change. As much as we put our hearts into the second record, it seemed like we were treading water.

Also our old band, Magic Bullets, was the kind of group that would really usr the studio as an instrument by implementing overdubbing and production techniques. I’ve really missed layering guitars in particular since we had been making music as Terry Malts. I was hoping we could reconcile the sound of the two bands by finding a sonic midway point between them.

Once we had the songs together, I approached Monte Vallier who had mixed the last two albums and also recorded the final Magic Bullets EP. I’ve been a fan of his ability to manipulate sounds for a long time. He has an incredible ear for tones and a sweet nature. If you listen to his work, particularly with the band Weekend, you can really notice the detail he adds to a recording. He has a lot of unconventional techniques and I’d describe him as the closest thing to George Martin that this generation has.

I brought notes for every song and we sent him tracks by other artists (some of which you can find on our Party Platters mix on Spotify. 

From there we recorded the basic tracks and started overdubbing different guitar tones, keyboards, and sound effects. Over the course of the next few months Monte mixed the tracks. Once we had a final mix he bounced the mixes down to a cassette tape, played the tape back through a boombox, and mic’d the boombox with a close mic and a room mic in his kitchen. It gives the recording a really dense, warm feel.

How will you promote Lost At The Party?

Is touring the most important part? Or is Facebook as important?


The first thing we did was create a 1-800 number for people to call and hear a little skit promoting the album that I created with our friend Sean O’Shea. It makes fun of these corny American commercials advertising compilation CDs that were really popular in the 90s.

Since then we’ve been touring in patches. It seems to make the most sense because it’s hard for everyone to get time off from their day jobs. We’ll be touring the US early next year and Europe over the summer.

I think touring is way more important than Facebook. In fact, Facebook is more of an obstacle these days because of their algorithm that only allows your posts to pop up in certain fan’s feeds if you’re “trending”. The only way around their algorithm is by paying them to leave a sponsored post in people’s feeds. 

This was something I had serious hang-ups with and avoided for as long as we could. Unfortunately, this is the reality of being in a band now. You’re forced to participate in the marketing of your art, which feels completely wrong and puts you in a compromising position that you have to live with.

She tells you she will decide on a 5-song-mix tape if there is going to be a second date. Which 5 would you put on?

The Necessaries – “More Real”, 
Durutti Column – “Bordeaux Sequence”, 
Virginia Astley – “Some Small Hope”, 
Amina Claudine Myers – “Going Home”, 
The Mamas & The Papas – “Snow Queen Of Texas”

If you could pick two bands (any) to tour the world with. Who?

I would definitely put Henry’s Dress on there. Even though they’re no longer a band, I would say they have been the most influential on us. We played our first show after seeing their reunion show.

And I think I can speak for the others when I say touring with Neil Young would also be a dream come true. It’s been such a strange and horrible year for American politics and I’ve found myself drifting back to the two artists that seem to have brought me the most comfort in my life over the years: Neil Young and The Smiths. 

What about The Netherlands?

We loved The Netherlands! Most of our shows on the last European tour were there and we played big festivals and little village bars. It was pretty special and the people were so engaged and caring. It’s the complete opposite of playing in America where nobody cares unless you’re already incredibly successful. Hopefully we’ll be back soon so we can hang out with our friends Bas and Marco.

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Complete mayhem at Sweet Sweet Music’s HQ. But, hey for the love of music, it was worth fighting for. This is our Top 13 of 2016.

01. Ed Ryan – Roadmap

02. Berwanger – Exorcism Rock

03. Bryan Estepa & The Tempe Two – Every Little Thing

04. Nada Surf – You Know Who You Are

05. Public Access TV – Never Enough

06. Ryan Allen & His Extra Arms – Basement Punks

07. Nick Piunti – Trust Your Instincts

08. Family Fold – Lustre Go

09. The Forty Nineteens – Rebooted

10. La Panther Happens – For The Night Crawlers

11. The Legal Matters – Conrad

12. Sweden – Oh, Dusty

13. The Well Wishers – Comes and Goes

The band Sweden is from Norway. Of course. Fredrik Gretland explains why. 

Their new album, Oh, Dusty, is filled with 10 power pop, Indie Rock gems.

What was the biggest fun during the making of the last album?

I always enjoy the recording process. This time we went to a studio on a remote island in the west of Norway. We recorded everything but vocals there in one week. The studio, ocean sound recordings is so amazing so just being there is fun. Then we went to Stockholm to record the vocals with Pär Wiksten, (the singer in The Wannadies). And that was super fun. One day we went out to get lunch an Pärs local hang out, we ended up trying all the new aquavits and weren’t able to record anything else that day, but it was great fun!

How often do you have to explain about the band name?

Haha, every time! But it’s ok, I guess we asked for it. When we grew up in the nineties, the music scene was a lot better in Sweden than in Norway, and growing up close to the Swedish border we were heavily influenced by Swedish bands. So it is our little homage to them.

How will you promote Oh, Dusty?

We have had two singles play-listed on Norwegian radio and we have played club shows and festivals over here.

What about the outro of For Everest (Forever rest)?

Yeah, our little noise rock moment. Well that song has sort of a duality in it. Between the verses and the choruses. We thought it would be cool to accentuate that by freaking out on the last half. Let that mellow-ish chorus turn into chaos.

The music industry has changed a lot (or so they say). What did it bring you? And what not?  

We have been in bands forever and none of us have made a lot of money on record sales. It has always been touring the has made some revenue. I guess the biggest change is that we see that the record industry itself has a lot less money to spend.
And there are a lot more bands/artists now, which kind of turns the industry people into the rock stars.

She tells you she will decide on a 5-song-mix tape if there is going to be a second date. Which 5 would you put on?

Oooh, that’s hard. I will make a much better mix tape when she tells me there won’t be a third date. I tend to gravitate toward the melancholy stuff, but here goes:

Descendents – Silly Girl

Janne Kask – Summer is Here 

Sleeper – Statuesque

Nada Surf – Always Love

Ryan Adams – Oh My Sweet Carolina

What’s  coming up for the next couple of months?

We still have a few shows left this year, and we continue touring next year. We are trying to get a few shows together in Germany, and we would love to visit The Netherlands too. If anyone want us to come and play get in touch!

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Sweet Sweet Music talked to James Gilling about Midnight Daydream, the new release by his band Lilliput.

File under: west coast, power pop, mellow, beautiful!

Listen on Spotify

Buy here

What was the biggest fun during the making of the last album?

David Bowie passed away halfway during recording, and the bar next to the studio had a full on Bowie listening party. We listened to the whole of Blackstar and the room burst into applause. Was an amazing thing to be part of. It affected the overall recording too.

The music industry has changed a lot (or so they say). What did it bring you? And what not?  

To be honest, the music industry hasn’t done much for us. We’ve funded everything ourselves, recording, sourced merchandise, printing, vinyl pressing and artwork ourselves. If anything we’ve learned to operate without a lot of help. We can control everything we do.

She tells you she will decide on a 5-song-mix tape if there is going to be a second date. Which 5 would you put on?

Low Flyin Bird – Cass McCooms
Sooth Lady Wine – Matt Corby
Jóga – Björk
Breathe – The Cinematic Orchestra / Fontella Bass
As Time Goes By – Dooley Wilson

What’s up for the next couple of months? 

We’re rehearsing the new album and playing around with it a little at the minute as well as writing some new stuff. Working toward our annual christmas show also. There’s a couple little projects in the works also!

How will you promote Midnight Dreamer?

The next few months we’ll be promoting the album. It’s available to stream online currently, so keep an eye out for the physical copies!

You have a Autumn/mellow/melodic/harmony …. beautiful sound. How would you describe it?

Thanks! I don’t know about beautiful, but we’ve been listening to a lot of west coast singer songwriter stuff recently, which is a lot more laid back. I think you’ve described it better than I ever could!