GREGORY PORTER at Hoochie Coochie, Newcastle - 14th March 2014

Where to begin. This gig will live long in the memory. A world class artist at his peak playing to a crowd of no more than 250 in an intimate and welcoming venue. I was standing no more than 30 feet away from a genuine star. That's not to say that I was star-struck; had this been an average performance I'd have recognised and reported it as such without fear of contradiction. But of course it wasn't. 

The band entered the stage at around 9-15pm to rapturous applause and rather than ignite them further with one of his best known hits Gregory Porter began with less familiar songs. It immediately struck me that this was a jazz band playing a jazz gig. The 'polished pop' production of the recordings was replaced with soul and authenticity that only a live performance can ever really completely capture. The first hit to be rolled out was 'Be Good' but even that seemed more raw, and all the better for it. 

On another night alto sax player Yosuke Sato would have been the star of the show with his mesmerising solo breaks but when sharing the stage with other great musicians, most notably perhaps pianist Chip Crawford and with the man himself on vocals he could not possibly have upstaged his peers. 

The band clearly revelled in playing to the relatively small audience in this cosy setting, Porter remarking that it seemed probably 'illegally full' (I'm reliably informed it was just legal). The crowd gave very vocal support and it seemed to raise the band and singer to great heights. 

On 'Liquid Spirit' Porter even treated the throng to a little 'scatting'. Gregory Porter showed he's the master of all styles when singing a solo piano accompanied version of 'Water Under Bridges'. A gorgeous rendition of 'Real Good hands' also featured as one of my personal highlights and when the call and response of '1960 What' came around both singer and audience gave and received in equal good measure. 

A first of two encores raised the roof (again) with the crowd joyfully singing along to 'Musical Genocide'. This was anything but. 

Bets are off. Gig of the year. 

Words and photo: Russell Poad

SOAK - Q & A Interview

Sitting on the table back stage at the O2 Academy with the noise of Chrvches sound check rattling in the background; seventeen year old Derry singer song writer, Bridie Monds-Waton AKA Soak seemed fairly relaxed. It may have been a familiar accent- I too am from Northern Ireland- that had put her at ease or perhaps it was being surrounded by her favourite things: an acoustic guitar and a skate board- not the typical must haves for an ordinary 17 year old. But then again Soak doesn’t seem all that ordinary. Despite her early success, however, this young artist remains approachable and endearingly sweet – not at all disgruntled, which is often the case with some musicians at the end of a long day of interviewing.  So we launched in to chat about her time touring and her experience with Glaswegian tour mates, and record label owners Chvrches. 

You have recently been signed to Chvrches new label ‘Goodbye Records’; how did that come about?

“We have the same publishers, Universal. They contacted me and were like; Chrvches have a song called Mother We Share, would you like to cover it? It was basically for TV syncs and stuff like that. And so I recorded that and Chrvches really liked it and so, I ended up signing with them to release an EP.

Will there be any further collaborations between you and the band following the Chrvches remix of your song Blud?

“I don’t know, maybe at one stage we’ll write a song together or something. I really loved their remix though; iv had a remix before by Ryan Vale and it was really chilled, and they brought my vocal down to like, a male vocal- it was really weird. But when Chrvches done Blud it was so much better – it made it like a disco song”

Do you think working with Chrvches and their electronic style with change your sound at all?

Em, I think I will just naturally differ with the kind of music I make; I don’t set out to make a particular genre or anything. What it is, it is. Everything transforms when you get it to the studio anyway. But I reckon over the years I’ll probably transform into something else; but I don’t know

Coming from Derry in the North of Ireland, how do you find touring in England in comparison? 

Well I’ve only done a few tours prior to this, so I don’t really know what I’m getting myself into to be honest. We did two weeks in Europe and it was really big capacity venues; it was pretty sweet. Things like that don’t really make me that nervous. I mean like, England has much bigger venues that Ireland definitely. I mean, this is so much better than playing like Mandela- but yeah, this is strange because it’s an electronic band and I’m an acoustic artist; it’s a strange audience. It’s hard to get them to listen sometimes, but I think it’s pretty cool. I like playing bigger capacity venues though, it doesn’t make you feel so tiny.  Like, if there’s a crowd of ten, and just me, then it’s terrifying.

You’ve supported a lot of great acts in your short time; who has been your favourite act to support?

Ah, that’s hard. 

Tegan and Sarah were amazing to play with; when I was 13 they were like my heroes. I mean, they once played in Belfast and I couldn’t go because it was over 18. All my mates got fake ID’s, but my mum wouldn’t let me; so I had a tantrum.  They were really cool people.  Bombay Bicycle club were lovely to tour with as well.  But out of all of them I really think Chrvches have been the best to tour with; they’re really down to earth and like nice people to chill with.

What has been your most memorable moment of touring so far?

I guess one of the highlights would be on the European tour. We stopped in the middle of the Alps and everyone got out and we just had a snowball fight; that was pretty amazing. The whole idea of a tour is pretty special to me – going to different places and having these opportunities to see other cultures. To do all that, and get paid – that’s a highlight in itself.

As a musician coming out of Northern Ireland, do you think it’s harder for bands to make it from such a small place?

In my experience I think it worked in my benefit. But in the way that, because it was such a small place and there wasn’t a lot of music coming out of it. So when something decent came from there, people flocked to it. What happened with me was whenever I released my first EP they were getting played on radio one and all these music industry people flew over to see me.  I mean, Derry is smaller than Belfast and there is some great stuff coming out of Belfast that just isn’t getting recognition.

You’re such a young artist to be touring; if you weren’t here now what would you be doing?

I got to like, GCSE’s and in the middle of them I was doing gigs as close as 30 minutes before exams, and I didn’t care really – I didn’t like school at all, except for music and the artsy side. But I ended up with good result; I got more than enough to get into the Tech I wanted.  At that time I was being offered such big gigs, like supporting snow patrol. I seemed like people at tech were thinking “Why the f#ck are you getting all that?”, so it was kind of hard to make friends. But with my career going so well, and all the flying back and forth – the school said ‘you can’t stay if you’re not here more often’. So I left. It worked out better for me though, I’ve done so much and Il only get this shot once. 

Questions: Dominique Daly

ASIA - Gravitas

Asia simply don’t get enough credit these days. Their April ‘82 self titled debut sold more copies than any other album released that year – and considering this was the same year in which a little known singer named Madonna made her debut and in which Michael Jackson released ‘Thriller’ – the “gravitas” of that achievement cannot be underplayed.

Fast forward to 2014 and the seminal British rock band, themselves the natural successors to bands such as King Crimson and YES, have released an album which captures their classic sound. The beautiful and haunting ‘Russian Dolls’ is a perfect example of how this album captures the lyricists natural ability to tell their story, while ‘I Would Die For You’ is an upbeat Deep Purple inspired folly through natural rhythm.

The album itself possesses something magical for fans of classic Deep Purple, Whitesnake and even Thunder, with ‘The Closer I Get’ showing the full range of John Wetton’s vocal ability. You can certainly shout to be heard but – like Wetton – the slow and meandering ballad is what provides a real talent.

For the symphonic and the experimental it’s impossible to accuse this band of simply standing on ceremony and taking “new money for old rope”, with a piece like ‘Heaven Help Me’ really reminding me of Queen’s later progressive rock work on the ‘Innuendo’ album. 

The title track involves the instrumental symphonies of elegance you’d expect to hear on Elton John’s ‘Funeral for a Friend (Love Lies Bleeding)’ or from an equal album of such comparable majesty – and if you’re looking for something like that – you needn’t look much further.

Words: Wayne Madden

THE WAR ON DRUGS - Lost In The Dream

It starts with a rattle over gentle, swirling synth keys. Then it hits; ‘like the arrival of a new day’. ‘Under the Pressure’ opens the third album from Philadelphia indie-rock outfit The War on Drugs; the follow up to 2011’s critically acclaimed Slave Ambient.

The War on Drugs is very much the brainchild of lead singer Adam Granduciel. He wrote, recorded and produced almost the whole album himself, with bandmates only briefly making an appearance on the record. That’s not to say though, that the sound of this album isn’t one of a band bound tight together.  

This is no run of the mill ‘indie-rock’ record; far from it, in fact. From the sparse opening keys and crisp drums of Under the Pressure, accompanied by Granduciel’s Dylan-esque croon (you know that one where vowels go on a split second longer than they should?), you can almost feel yourself heading off down the open road. The guitars wrap around each other, slowly but surely dragging you forward with them, building and building until you find yourself almost lost as textured keys swirl around during an almost 3-minute outro. 

Straight into the albums lead single ‘Red Eyes’ where glittering synthesisers melt into acoustic strums and electric riffs creating a Bruce Springsteen-meets-Arcade Fire style stomp. Granducial’s vocals blend together with the music, creating an extra texture.

‘Suffering’ slows the early pace down; sounding much more wistful and reminiscent than the dynamic openers. Achingly so as Granduciel asks ‘Will you be here, suffering?’ 

‘An Ocean in Between the Waves’ drags things forward again; the drums and the bass piggy backing more swirling synthesisers and Dire Straits influenced reverberating guitars. The pace builds and builds like an avalanche sliding down a mountain, culminating in a thundering guitar solo, until the brakes are slammed on to end a soaring 7-minute epic… straight in to the albums centre piece, ‘Eyes to the Wind’; an uplifting, country tinged anthem. Subtle saxophone riffs floating overhead while a sprinkle of keys flitter in and out. 

‘Burning’ carries on this alt-country styling with the ghost like synths. The album closes with ‘In Reverse’ that sees the tone of the album end as it started, with Granduciel singing about struggle and loss. Yet, through all this, it still sounds amazingly uplifting.

There’s no subtly here. This album knows exactly what it is and exactly what it wants to be. The apparent absence of anything resembling a chorus only strengthens the feeling of a freewheeling, spacious sounding album. It seems to offer something new with every listen. There are certain moments which do sound reminiscent of other artists but it would be wrong to get to bogged down in comparisons, although this could end up dividing opinion on the album for a few. For The War on Drugs fans, though, it seems like a natural successor to Slave Ambient, Granduciel perfecting sounds he’d previously flirted with. It’s a modern twist on something that may not be particularly new, yet still sounds up to date, and it’s somehow satisfying to know that music like this can still be made, every once in a while. 

Words: Darren Montgomery