You may have noticed that we have been playing Rozalla’s new track “Magnificant” a bit recently. Well now Subculture chats to her about the brand new single.
Category: Pop
You may have noticed recently that here at Subculture we have added the brand new single “Whole” from Sophie Griffiths to our playlist. This week we chatted to Sophie about the track. Take a listen to the interview below.
This morning on Subculture we chatted to Jeff Updike and Justin Peeling from Lundon about their brand new single “Don’t Turn This Car Around.”
Take a listen to the interview right here.
Singer songwriter Jasmine Rae has released one of the most powerful and personal songs of her career, ‘Don’t Do It For The Haters’.
Written as an emotional response to the “hate” directed at her in response to a copyright lawsuit centred around her 2017 song ‘When I Found You’, Rae as co-writer was not a part of the litigation. However she found herself the subject of extraordinarily negative emails, phone calls and social media commentary that left her reeling.
She explains, “Because I was the face of our song, I copped an enormous amount of hate anyway, from all directions. It was a really confronting and confusing time for me.
For a while, I didn’t want to co-write with anyone, didn’t want to put myself out there or be vulnerable and I was questioning everything. People around me actually thought that I would give up.
But later that year I did a short tour with US country artist Granger Smith and that experience was a wonderful reminder for me about why I love doing what I do. I was reminded of how the love of music brings people together, the love I get from people who support my music and the love I get from performing my songs with my friends.
I realised that I don’t do it for the haters. It’s the LOVE that does it for me!
I wanted to write something about that whole experience. I initially wrote some very angry songs but this one feels truer. This song is the one that sums up the real lessons learned by that experience and puts a full stop on it for me. It gives me closure.
There are times when we face all sorts of roadblocks and setbacks. A lot of people are experiencing soul destroying challenges right now. So I guess this song is a testament that sometimes it can take just one good moment to remind us why we do what we’re supposed to do.”
Jasmine Rae’s new album ‘Lion Side’ will be released on July 24th and is available for pre order now.
‘Lion Side’ was recorded in Sydney and Nashville with producer Lindsey Jackson (Jessica Mauboy, Tori Kelly, The McClymonts) and is a culmination of several years of soul searching, rigorous and often tortuous self-assessment, indecision and the need to find greater inner-purpose and direction. Ultimately, Jasmine Rae has rediscovered that her true path to self-enlightenment is through her music.
The brutally honest songwriter and electrifying live performer said, “I took a long time to make this album, but ultimately I simply had to do it. Music has always been my way of thinking out loud and figuring things out. Writing and performing allows me to express those feelings… to be dramatic… be loud or be fragile… be emotional… and be real.”
‘Lion Side’ – released on July 24, 2020 – Pre Order Now
As you know we have been playing Omnivi3e’s new single ‘Panic Button’ over the past few weeks so this week we decided to get Omnivi3e on the phone to chat all about it.
Sydney artist Nick Pes is back with a killer new single titled ‘The Feeling.’ This week on Subculture we got him on the phone to chat about it.
Melanie C has today released brand new single ‘Blame It On Me’. This follows the success of latest track ‘Who I Am’, which went top 10 on iTunes across Europe, South America and the UK, was playlisted at Radio 2, and saw Melanie perform sets from her home studio ranging from The Late Late Show with James Corden and BBC 1’s The One Show to a specialist mix for i-D Magazine.
Furthermore, Melanie has been busy under lockdown adding the final touches to a brand new studio album, further previewed today by its euphoric second single, ‘Blame It On Me’. She has also brought fans together around the world in a series of quarantined live-streams, featuring Q&As on physical and mental wellbeing, the next generation of Girl Power (see a conversation with Rina Sawayama for Crack Magazine), plus some familiar faces (Melanie B, Sink The Pink cohort Glynn Fussell and frequent-collaborator Biff Stannard, who co-wrote ‘Who I Am’ with Melanie, have also guested thus far).
‘Blame It On Me’ is another blast of unapologetic modern pop from Melanie C, calling out toxicity in a relationship over a life-long love of disco, electronic music, and the sometimes-life-long journey it takes to stand up for yourself. It’s the perfect follow-on to the anthemic ‘Who I Am’, a track that embraced the power of vulnerability and also (in its affecting video) saw Melanie explore the past, present and future of Sporty Spice.
2020 has seen Melanie C return to the solo pop stage on her own unequivocal terms. A vital voice in the modern discourse on depression, body positivity, and the LGBTQ community, her trailblazing influence has arguably never been more apparent. Whether presenting her friend Billie Eilish with a BRIT Award, being remixed by a hero like Joe Goddard or discussing her journey thus far on a recent episode of Desert Island Discs, Melanie is also hard at work on her most celebrated music in years. New single ‘Blame It On Me’ continues to evolve her sound as much as it sees Melanie look back to her roots: she did, after all, cut her teeth not just in the biggest girl band in the world, but in the club-culture surrounding her childhood of Widnes (where she’d sneak off and attend Prodigy raves). With over 100 million records sold and multiple BRIT, Ivor, Billboard and Olivier Awards under her belt, her forthcoming album nonetheless feels like new, more assured ground for Melanie C – and a glorious new chapter for Girl Power.
Kate Miller-Heidke’s ethereal voice makes this empathetic gesture on her new single, “This is Not Forever.” The sentiment behind the song is simple but weighty – a plea for a loved one to hand over their hurt.
“I could see someone very close to me was falling into a depression. I’d seen it before and I wanted to let them know I was there for them in a very serious way. The song was written about six months ago, before all this happened,” she explains, referring to the global shutdown amidst the spread of Covid-19 – a context that imbues “This is Not Forever” with new resonance. “Listening to it in these changed times, I feel it more deeply than I did before. It just seems like the right time to put it out.”
Cinematic in scope and sound, “This is Not Forever” is a testament to people: trusting them with your ideas and your emotions, and allowing yourself to be close to them emotionally if not physically, just for now.
That belief extends into the music video for “This is Not Forever”. A collaboration with director Christiaan Van Vuuren and choreographer Lucas Jervies, the poignant video sees dancers trade the stage for their living rooms and backyards, encapsulating the hopeful spirit of the song in communal motion. Shot in isolation by each dancer on their phone and pieced together by Van Vuuren, you can watch the video here:
In late 2019, just months after Kate brought her unique blend of indie-pop, folk and opera to the Eurovision Song Contest with her song‘Zero Gravity’ and where she was also the first Australian artist to win the Marcel Bezençon Artistic Award (an award presented to the best artist as voted by the Eurovision commentators) – she threw herself into another new challenge. Paired up with producer Justin Stanley and songwriter Ingrid Andress at the APRA AMCOS SongHubs on the Gold Coast, and challenged to make a song in a day, the trio embarked on a collaboration that had evaded Kate during her career.
“I’d always kind of shied away from the pop song-writing tradition of baring your soul to strangers, and then writing a song. But I think after the whole crazy Eurovision experience, how exposing that was and that super hectic year, I was just feeling confident enough for the first time to do that, to sit in a room with strangers and write a song that way. And I’m so glad I did, because it’s really changed my whole approach.”
Kate had been writing music for over two decades, during which time she followed the path laid by her idols, one that involved channelling her deepest feelings alone in a room. “It was personal. It was like a pure channel, between the muse and the songwriter.” But following her experience at Eurovision, she realised there had been seeds of fear and social anxiety that led to her distrust of doing it any other way.
“After Eurovision I felt like, I can do anything now. Nothing’s going to be as exposing; I’ve been as vulnerable as I can be.”
In surrendering to the collaboration, she tapped into the intimacy of the song, and found that writing with others led to her ideas becoming more distilled, more effective.
Kate Miller-Heidke is one of Australia’s most celebrated artists, a sublime vocalist who effortlessly traverses the worlds of contemporary pop, folk and opera. She has released four studio albums including O Vertigo! which debuted at number 4 on the ARIA Albums Chart, Nightflight, which reached number 2, and Curiouser, which reached double platinum sales and spawned the multi-platinum hits ‘Last Day On Earth’ and ‘Caught In The Crowd’. Her yet to be titled fifth studio album is slated for release later this year.
Today on Subculture we chatted to New Zealand’s very own Marlin’s Dreaming about their brand new album. Take a listen to the interview below.
Today, global superstar Sam Smith releases their brand new single “I’m Ready” alongside international music sensation Demi Lovato. Download / stream HERE.
Also unveiled is the video to accompany the single – directed by award winning director Jora Frantzis (Cardi B, Rosalia) and renowned choreographer Sean Bankhead (Normani, Missy Elliot). View HERE.
The last twelve months have also seen Smith release singles “To Die For”, “How Do You Sleep?” and “Dancing With A Stranger”, a joint release with Normani. The new single follows on from Smith’s recent album postponement announcement (full statement here) with further details regarding this third studio album to be revealed in coming months.
On the local front, Smith returned to Australia in February to headline the 2020 Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Official Party where they performed a medley of hits including multi-platinum singles “Dancing With A Stranger” and “How Do You Sleep?”. Both tracks will feature on Smith’s forthcoming album.
Lovato kicked off 2020 with the debut of her powerhouse ballad “Anyone” during a stripped-down performance at the GRAMMY Awards, and then quickly followed it up by performing the National Anthem at Super Bowl LIV, proving that she is back stronger than ever. Most recently, the multi-platinum, GRAMMY-nominated singer/songwriter released her up-tempo, self-reflective new single “I Love Me” that was accompanied by a colourful official music video directed by Hannah Lux Davis (Ariana Grande, Drake, Nicki Minaj). Watch HERE.