London pop talent Austeya comes to Weatnu Records. She has been touring around the London scene this year of 2015. She was kind enough to bring her music to our corner of the web. This month we release her latest EP Teach Me. A mix of Electronic/Electronica and indie pop. From her own words, Austeya cites Lana Del Ray as her influence, among other artists. This lush but poppy EP is worth your listen. Add this one to your collection of great and talented #WEATNU Artists.
It isn’t everyday that you hear clear and precise quality, pop-related music. But this is experimental mind you. Ashleigh Antolini is soulful, her strong but trained style of singing is combined with R&B and experimental all in one. Do You Know, Vicious Cycle EP – Produced by Shark Anthony is Witchhouse/Dreampop in modern day with a hint of jazz, classical and DnB. This is good music, the rest of the EP will not disappoint. She has been slowly showing her music to #WEATNU, this of course won’t be the last time.
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Ideomotor, a true ‘dynamic duo’ are breaking into the Helsinki electronic scene, we were able to have a interview with Erkka Wennonen and Kimmo Myllyviita. As they give us insight into their music and influences.
How do you feel your music fits to a world fueled by the EDM sound?
Erkka Wennonen – We have been somewhat surprised on the the sort of genre descriptions we have been associated with, we honestly thought we were a bit more mainstream.. but I think there is a place for darker tones in an EDM era also.
I can clearly say your music is not EDM.
Kimmo Myllyviita -Yes! I’m having trouble to put us in one genre really.
It feels like you are bringing back the fantastic sounds of the 80s in a modern era. How is this being received?
Erkka – At least myself, I’m quite happy how the first couple songs turned out – there’s obviously a bit of homage, but also some more contemporary stuff. Feedback has been really positive and I reckon its only the live dates that will show how it will all work out.
Kimmo – I have to say we didn’t really plan the sound particularly. just started making music that felt good and would bring something new.. or a nice mix of old and new. I’m really happy if we’ve succeeded.
Which it does.
Kimmo – thank you.
Do you have some shows planned this year?
Kimmo – Not already booked, but definitely there will be!
Erkka – Yes, some support slots in Finland and at the continent are on the works, but will be finalized in the next couple weeks hopefully
Kimmo – Indeed, but can’t say dates yet.
It’s not hard to tell that you guys are influenced by some great artists, that I love as well, Duran Duran, DM and more. Would you like to tell us about your sound?
Kimmo – I think the great diversity comes from all diverse music that we both love and have listened to, but surely you can point out some references, such as DM… but to me at least there’s a lot of guitar rock influence too, 90s especially.
Kimmo – I mean, I’ve played for years, alternative rock, being a guitar player and a lead singer.
Impressive: Your new album is my personal favorite here on WEATNU and WEATNU [OUR] Radio, which we play often. When I first heard Master/Slave I was in love.
Erkka – It was one of the first songs we ever wrote for Ideomotor and that sort of got the ball rolling.
Kimmo – Awesome! I have to say I’m very happy about that song
Being a 80s affectionato myself, it really speaks to me.
Kimmo – Yes, I see that song as very early DM influenced, sure.
And who plays keyboard and guitar in Ideomotor?
Kimmo – Good question.
Erkka – Kimmo takes care of lead vocals and we split duties on other instruments.
Kimmo – We’re both more at home with guitars, that’s for sure. Keyboards are still a bit new to both of us.
Erkka – Not planning to do live shows as a duo however.
Kimmo – I think more like a trio at least.
So truly a synthpop duo, but many are calling it Synthwave these days. We’re rewinding the cassette tape back again, as history is repeating itself with many WEATNU artists.
Erkka – As said we thought of ourselves as more mainstream and have been quite astonished about the synth wave/darkwave talk – finding the correct hashtag is surprisingly tricky!
Kimmo – It’s obvious now I think. but when writing these songs… I had no idea really, what genre it’s gonna be.
As it is with WEATNU, we simply want to hear good music, we’re trying to change things for the Electronic musician. It’s interesting to hear what other countries call mainstream. Because in the states mainstream is pop, so over there it’s more 80s based.
Kimmo – And that’s really great, and I just care about songs. not the genres.
How long have you both been a band, it says that you started in 2014, but I feel much longer?
Kimmo – Well, we’ve come a long way.. but as friends, doing music separately. This was bit of a lucky coincidence, that we decided to do music together.
Erkka – I’ve been in and out music for a long time whereas Kimmo seems to have been recording something always.
Both of you are seasoned musicians?
Kimmo – I’d say that, sure. But never professionally, music is my greatest passion. Can’t think nothing better than doing the music I love and people listening to it.
Erkka – We both have been playing guitars for a long time though. It was just quite refreshing to find an alternative outlet from a more electronic approach.
Kimmo – Like being new born.
And that outlet is WEATNU?
Erkka – I truly hope so!
We’ll we appreciate you guys, glad to have you. I’m looking forward to this new album, when do you have it on release?
Erkka – Thank you! it’s been great you doing this for us!
Erkka – We are currently in the studio lobby.. the producer just left so can’t give an exact time-line; but we hope to have something new out sometime during the spring. Not really decided whether we want to go for a full length album or whether to keep going releasing ep’s.
I think your music will be a refreshing sound to this world, but music abroad is always more colorful, we need more of that here in the States. Do you plan on touring around Finland? Might even open for acts such as Röyksopp?
Kimmo – Wow! that’d be awesome.
Erkka – We are hoping to, but the business side of things is always a little complicated and depends on a lot of things.. but hoping to get some good dates for the spring already. And I reckon the live sound will be a bit more of a band, but lets see what it will fit with!
Kimmo – it would be a dream come true, so driving for live definitely
Optimism is high with our artists in weatnu, they now have hope. What are your thoughts about “We are the New Underground in a whole?”
Kimmo – From what I’ve seen BIG RESPECT!
Erkka – It’s been really inspiring to find quality artists over the platform and I truly hope it gets the attention it deserves. The world has become a lot smaller and therefore platforms such as WEATNU has much more influence on the whole market than ever before. It’s not only the major labels that rule anymore, and it gives decent odds to all kinds of artists.
About the name of your duo, what does Ideomotor mean?
Kimmo – By definition Ideomotor is a part of brain that tells us behaviour intuitively we thought that’s the way we should also do music without over thinking, let the music flow out.
And the future of Ideomotor?
Erkka -Well, we are definitely going to release new music this year. Also we’re quite enthusiastic about the prospects of getting some good warm up slots to get the live shows going.
Kimmo – LIVE! and lots of new listeners, keep on doing un-compromised music and yeah that’s a good track I think.
So you want to make it up there with the likes of 4AD artists? Great to hear that.
Erkka -That would be pretty sweet!
Kimmo – I love Future Islands btw…
Erkka – Would have little complaints..
Kimmo – as one of the new acts to me
Your music quality is very high, care to share your song structure, sequence DAW usage?
Erkka – We ran protools at the studio, but worked with logic at home and shared tracks as Kimmo now lives in Zurich and I stay here in Helsinki.
Kimmo – We have a great production team. We also add a lot analogue stuff to the sound which I think is essential. Also live drums and guitars.
There are more than 2 in Ideomotor, live?
Kimmo – Yes, we want to have live more live.. u know. so that that the person who comes to see us hears and sees a live performance.
Erkka – So at least some added synth and bass to back us two up!
So.. We’ll be seeing some of your videos in the coming future?
Kimmo – Oh yes!
Erkka – Yes, some pretty interesting ideas we’ve floated around with, a friend of ours who does our video production for one.
Kimmo – I’d like to see Master/Slave video
Erkka – Wouldn’t that be motley crue girls, girls, girls 2015?
What do you see about WEATNU as a future?
Kimmo – But you have a great thing going on that’s for sure! I think it’s gonna be biggest label on the planet. no boundaries right!
Erkka – Music discovery is becoming increasingly difficult as there is more music out now than at any point in history. And my take is that vendors such as WEATNU will reap the rewards here.
What are you guys listening to these days?
Erkka – You start?
Kimmo – hah, everyday something different.. let’s see. lately obviously more electronic than ever before. But mostly it’s been indie-alternative rock if you can say that nowadays.
Erkka – I’ve been a bit late to discover Wild Nothing, I’ve listened to a lot of that. Also, whenever I can’t think of anything to listen White Lies is something I never seem to get tired of. Also on the more electronic front Jaani Peuhu is definitely worth checking out, like his stuff a lot.
Kimmo – But already on Soundcloud there’s so many great artists I’ve discovered, such as an Estonian electro/crossover band called I wear* Experiment and to shuffle up a bit I was very happy about the new Weezer album! The guys are back to their roots. I love that stuff.
Interesting to see they are making music again.
Kimmo – And great music that is! I think they lost themselves there for few years.
And the music you grew up with?
Erkka – For me it was Kiss first!
Kimmo – The usual suspects in Finland, Yes, kiss, Iron Maiden, Metallica… then Grunge!
Metal and Grunge for me too in the 90s.
Kimmo – Stone temple pilots is still my favorite.
Erkka – We listened to a lot of classical music at home, but for me the great revelation was The Stone Roses with their debut album. That really blew me away and made want to start playing guitar and write music.
Kimmo – Later on big influences to me have been Placebo, Muse, Mew, Nada Surf, but man there’s a lot..
So a lot of the 90s sound, which is very good, I might add.
Erkka – We only have 2 or 3 bands we ever agree on
Kimmo – Haha. So there you go, diversity.
It’s interesting to find out what our artists are influenced by but it’s also nice to know who they are listening to in WEATNU. Any favourite artists from [OUR] Radio or our SC group?
Kimmo – I have to say I’ve been so busy writing own stuff that I’ve been a little bit too lazy to listen very actively. But I listened to your show case radio show… it was all diamonds
Erkka – Mangabros is great and also The Aircrash Bureau is something I’ve been listening to.
Great to know that!
Erkka – Obviously listened to some of your tracks too. Some good stuff.
Thank you, Appreciated.
We have a feature with TAB and Mangabros this month, so best of both worlds, both highly talented people. WEATNU is about the artist helping the artist, word of mouth promo, do you think this is working?
Kimmo – Sure! With social media anything is possible!
With the birth of WEATNU starting on ‘yet’ another Soundcloud group in 2014, it has come a long way.
Kimmo – I have such respect for music I’ve found through your channel and Soundcloud, truly great artists which I’d love to help myself if I can to get more listeners.
We hope you continue to find great artists, as we will continue to showcase them.
Favourite food?
Erkka – Thats a tough one – I am maybe a bit of a foodie..
Kimmo – Finnish rye bread, I don’t get that in Switzerland.
Bitter with a little bit of wine?
Erkka – Asian food always seems to work, we’ll we do enjoy our drink also
Kimmo – Any alcohol will do, and milk.
Thank you for having a interview today with #WEATNU Digital Magazine, may the best of luck shine on you both.
Look out for their new album soon…
Canadian band ‘Texture & Light’ form a unique sound of Electronic/shoegaze.
We are interviewing Trevor of Texture & Light, how are you today?
Trevor Refix Mervyn: I’m great, thanks. I’m just taking a break from my recording hibernation to do this interview, so it’s a nice change up.
I understand that you guys are breaking into the electronic scene, how is that going?
TM: I’m not sure if we’re breaking in to the electronic scene, or breaking out of the electronic scene, it’s up for debate. I come from a 12 year career as a deep house DJ, this is my first band. We play equally alongside bands and DJs / electronic artists. Whatever the classification, it’s going really great. Wherever we play, we’re the most electronic band or the most live electronic act.
So Texture & Light is a big change for you then?
TM: A big change, but a necessary one. The music and production style that T&L embodies has been my dominant style / passion since about 2006, but going from a DJ or a one man producer to a band is a huge change.
What bought about this change?
TM: A combination of things really. As a DJ that was getting into producing my own tracks, I was getting really uninspired with the basic formula that a Dj-able track has to have. And the records I was buying and playing out (this was back in about 2005) were just so damn good compared to what I was making too. Not in a depressing way, but in a way that I was playing the best tracks I could find in my sets and they were just in a different league. I also grew up on a steady diet of Nine Inch Nails and the like, so combining elements of electronic and instrumentation was just natural to me. While in the midst of being a DJ, I started a love affair with indie rock, and as soon as I stopped paying attention to tempo, patterns, and intros in my productions and started just making music that I wanted to listen to, everything changed. I bought a guitar. I bought synthesizers. I holed up for a long time.
What does a person hear when they hear T&L for the first time?
TM: Well I’m hoping that they hear something that blurs the lines a bit, and makes them think. And dance. I think everyone gets so wrapped up in labels and decisions based on said labels. I do it too, but the cool part about being in a band that (attempts to) bridge the gap between electronic and indie music is that it means there’s a chance for a fan of each individual genre to be exposed to something that leans in the other direction. When we’re playing shows with DJs, some of those people would never go see a band with a guitar in it and likewise when we’re playing a show with a rock band, we break all the unspoken rules about what a live band is.
Who sings in T&L?
TM: Oh, that’s me. The first album is all me (writing, producing, performing, recording) save for a couple tracks have a percussion line from a Soundcloud friend in the states, and one track has a guitar line that a friend played. The remixes on our SC are more collaborative between Lyell and me so that we could get our work-flow figured out for making a new album. They’re probably more true to the direction our sound is heading.
So, you write in solo mode most of the time, then send your songs to your other members?
TM: I always write in solo mode. always have. For the new stuff I’m doing the writing and laying down the structural elements and then Lyell adds touches of this and that from his hardware. We sequence the stuff together, or rather I now have someone whose opinion I trust when I need to decide where a song needs to go. Once the track is basically laid out and recorded, Lyell does the editing / effecting / engineering. And around and round we go.
How many members now in T&L?
TM: There’s 3 of us in T&L now. The third member is my wife, Clare. She isn’t involved in the writing process (yet anyways though, a lot of the first album was certainly inspired by her), but her creative stamp is all over the band, she’s in charge of the visual elements and design. She’s also an integral multi instrument playing part of the live band.
I’ve been listening to your album “The Hard Problem of Consciousness”, a mix of indie, electronic, even a little 8-bit. How are you growing as a musician going down this path?
TM: Oh, I’m growing as a musician immensely. I feel that I have to be a lot more accountable to the sounds I make when I’m standing on stage with a microphone, a guitar and some synthesizers. There’s nowhere to hide. My band mate Lyell (joined about a year and a half ago) has been a big influence on my skill set / goals as a musician. He’s got a degree in recording engineering, and teaches music for a living,(pretty much the exact opposite of my self taught ways) but we have similar tastes in sounds – we just approach them from opposite ends of the spectrum and come to them from opposite experiences. He’s become my production partner, so the new album we’re working on will be a big leap forward, not just in the way that it will be recorded, but right down to the sounds themselves. We switched to an all hardware set up last year and now we’re synthesizing all of our own sounds which is just a whole new level of music in my opinion.
I really dig the song “Let’s Go, Let Go” , it calls to me from the Shoegaze days I’ve always enjoyed with the likes of Starflyer 59
TM: Thanks. I’m not familiar with Starflyer 59, but I’ll check it out. Getting into bands that people compare you to is this totally unexpected bonus of making music. In the past year I’ve developed a major love affair with Mercury Rev and Telefon Tel Aviv after separate reviewers compared us to them.
I noticed there is a more moody vibe going on with “17th And Heather”.
TM: Oh yeah, that was my attempt at writing an industrial love song. The vocals on that track are probably the oldest thing on the album actually, a majority of the album was re written and re recorded in 2012, once I left the city to start life in a small town, but those vocals were tracked in a shitty apartment in Vancouver with paper thin walls and was just me singing through guitar pedals. Try as I might, I couldn’t re create it once I went back to re record the album in a proper space.
Since Canada is overflowing with talent these days, it’s like the States are under another British Invasion, only this time it’s BC. How is your music being received there?
TM: It has it’s challenges, but I’m starting to realize that Canada is a great place to be an artist, providing you don’t have illusions of fast found fame and glory. It’s just physically too damn big and the cities are spread out to really get your music out there in front of people in a hurry. It’s more of a slow burn which I think in the long run makes for better art, or better disposition anyways. The cool thing is, that means that there’s 1000s of smaller towns / venues full of people just craving live music so it’s actually a really supportive place to be an artist if you’re willing to put in the effort to get to these places. Or get over your perceived ideas of what a venue / show / festival is. This creates a real family feel with other artists that we meet, we’re all doing the same thing but it feels less like competition and more like family. I may just have rose colored glasses on right now though haha.
I agree. It seems as if the music industry is changing that old way, who’s the best one on top. But the indie world is very supportive, so I can see how Canada would be no different. Also the songs on ˜The Hard Problem of Consciousness” are very well put together, are you playing on CBC?
TM: CBC’s been really good to us. The single from THPC , “A Quiet Place” was in high rotation on CBC Radio 3 and ended up being voted onto the top of their weekly R3-30 chart for 6 weeks last year. They listed AQP as one of the top tracks of 2013 as well.We’ve gotten a lot of support from community and campus stations too, those are the people that are doing what they do in the scene just for the love it and it’s great that they’ve found a place for a our music in their lexicon.
It needed to happen, and people are benefiting from it. Perhaps #WEATNU is like a
virtual Canada, but based in the States.
I think true art and true music is being appreciated everywhere to a degree, it just has room to grow through the cracks more when there’s more space. When I lived in the city, I went to shows every week and missed at least as many as I went to that I wanted to go to- never-mind the ones that I wasn’t familiar with. Being based in a small town now (this applies to our country on some level too), I find that it’s easier to just go see an unfamiliar show, and be pleasantly surprised. I think what you and #WEATNU are doing is in the same spirit, helping small people with big ideas for the same communal goal.
Do you get the urge to do more centered Electronic music, or are you indeed trying to target a wider audience by playing the shoegaze/indie pop scene?
TM: I actually find that most electronic fans are pretty open minded towards genres and what music or art is. Chances are they’ve had some really great times in front of records, cdjs, laptops, mcs, etc etc, so their kind of up for anything that works. I find turning on people that have only experienced “live music” (aka no electronics, though guitar pedals and the like don’t seem to count but that’s a tangent) have a big invisible barrier in terms of what art, music, or talent is which “let’s be honest“ can get in the way of their experience. But I’ll get off my high horse, because even though I try not to, I do that too sometimes. I honestly do not think about the audience at all when I’m making music. For me to want to do this, spend the time, the effort, and “my god, the money” I need to just make music that makes me happy. Music that I think is good. That’s the only way for this to be sustainable for me.
That is true, and if you grew up during the 90s (such as myself), you appreciate a wider sound all the way back to the 80s, and beyond. It’s always refreshing to hear thatthe music is the driving force,not the gain.
TM: We do think of the audience when we build a live set ; from what songs we play, to how they’re sequenced, to who’s playing what, to how much to deviate from the original, etc etc. That’s a whole different beast though! That’s about the audience 100%. The music that I make is for me, first and foremost but then once you have created something that you love, the next step is sharing it with others, and off you go on various infinite feedback loops.
What changes can we expect on your future projects?
TM: Well the future is wide open isn’t it? The line in the sand was drawn earlier this year when I started buying and producing / playing on hardware. Now I feel like there’s 100’s of hours of music inside me that really just needs the time to come out. I can be certain that synthesizing my own sounds will be a guiding force from now on. I’ve really gotten into field recording too, and loading the samples into a hardware sequencer to be mangled too. That’s just too much fun. I just made a track the other day that the whole drum loop is samples of me chopping wood for instance.
Having access to Lyell’s brain means that everything from here on it will also be at a much higher level then anything I was making before. So as you can see, I’m pretty excited. 15 years into making music and I’m just getting started. Sampling takes you places you can’t imagine, just 2 years ago I began the journey of the avant-garde and it just keeps getting deeper. Both being in a band and switching to hardware have really made me excited to think that anything I make I can perform live as well, that opens up a whole new world of possibilities in my mind. When I first started making indie / electronic with instruments and vocals etc, simply taking that 100 hours of work and all that instrumentation and burning it to a cd to play on a CDJ seemed like a soul crushing thing. I’m happy to say that 8 years after I first started thinking like that, that doing that wouldn’t even register as an option anymore
You have let us know much about the sound of Texture & Light, yourself, your members, the future, but what I’m dying to know is, do you like your coffee black or with sugar?
TM: I like my coffee black as a dead dog’s eye.
Thank you for doing an interview with WEATNU Digital Magazine today, we wish you
the best of luck, to your music and future.
TM: Thanks a lot Almark, this was great. I think it’s great what you and #WEATNU are doing and I look forward to growing together.