EP Review: Oh Morice - “The Shapes”

A long long time ago, when Whyd was just a little chubby baby wiggling in its cradle, we interviewed an artist called Oh Morice (aka Patrick). At the time, he was working on his EP “The Shapes” but he had not formally released it yet because he was “looking for a serious label.” 

After nearly two years of hard work and dedication, his EP “The Shapes” was released officially last week on Alter-K. Here’s the deal: 

Released: March 16, 2015

Genres: electronic rock, synthpop

Tracks: 12

Who would like this EP?

Fans of Bastille’s vibes/vocals, people who like Empire of the Sun’s compositions.

Our thoughts:

While we are partial to people who we have been following for a while, this EP has a lot to offer. Careening between English and French lyrics, Patrick’s vocals and guest singers, there is a communality that comes from his layering and use of accompanying sounds like claps, recorders, and harmonicas - like you are listening to this EP with other people. There is also a simplicity, formed around the strategic repetition of certain lyrics, that comes out very strongly through the often muted vocals. Top this all off with the extra-terrestrial electronic touches and the result is an innovative next step in the continuum of electronic rock. One that might not always please, but never fails to inspire. 

Listen to Oh Morice - “The Shapes” 

Track of the Weekend #127: Grimes - “REALiTi”

Well, the promise of a pretty-fucking-sweet solar eclipse gave us a case of the blue balls here in Paris, as the cloudy fog didn’t burn off and it didn’t get any darker than the usual late winter morning dreariness. Too bad, but that’s the reality of the situation. 

Speaking of reality, it’s also the name of this week’s track of the weekend from Canadian experimental artist Grimes. “REALiTi” might sound like a lost Madonna B-side, with all of the poppy catchiness and seductive vocals, but the track was actually a scrapped demo from her fourth studio album. Annoying spelling aside, Grimes has been steadily conquering the world with her unique blends of multiple styles, all put together with an expert touch of individuality. Let yourself be seduced. 

Welcome to reality

Thanks again to Radar Bazaar for getting another one to us this week! 

Interview Questions for Fakear?

Great news! In May we are going to interview the French born, international sensation Fakear! This is your chance to send us your questions, so we can ask him directly! Please send your questions to tony at whyd dot com, or respond directly here in the blog. 

Très bonnes nouvelles! Ce mai on va faire un interview avec la sensation internationale, Fakear! C’est votre opportunité de nous envoyer vos questions, et on va les poser à lui directement. Envoyez vos questions à tony at whyd dot com, ou répondez ici sur notre blog. 

Never stop jamming! 

The Whyd SouthbySouthwest Playlist

Last year we had the pleasure of attending what has becoming the largest gathering of music and technology in the world: the epic South by Southwest festival. This year, we are not attending, as we are in development mode for our future products. But take one look at the incredible feast of music on display there and we know that we are not alone in wishing that we could be there. 

So for all of us who aren’t enjoying SxSW this year, we’ve made a playlist with some of our favorite picks from musicians performing in Austin this year. 100 solid tracks for your listening enjoyment. 

Never stop jamming!

Capturing Intense Emotions in Song, a MySpace Success Story, and The Appeal of Tim Burton: Interview with Charlotte OC

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In the lobby of Universal Music’s French Headquarters the music business minions trickle in to start the day. Big posters of bigger stars like Katy Perry adorn the walls while a TV cycles through highly-produced music videos. 

We’re here to meet Charlotte OC, an up-and-coming singer from England who has a new EP dropping today. We climb up a series of staircases, passing awards, more posters, offices with executives pouring over their latest projects. 

In an upper-level conference room Charlotte opens a bottle of water, the night before having been a bit crazy, she says. Appropriate coming from a singer whose lead single so far is called “Hangover.” But she’s all smiles for the first interview of the day. The mic clicks on. 

Tony Hymes for Whyd in bold. All photos courtesy the Charlotte OC Facebook page

I want to start off talking about your background because I think that you are technically one of the most diverse artists ethnically speaking. What is your background?

Charlotte: My mum is half-Malawian and half-Indian, but there is also some English in there somewhere. My Dad is Irish and his grandmother was Spanish. 

So are you like what the human race will look like in a few centuries?

Charlotte: Probably, probably. 

So tell me about your music. When did you start singing? What was the inspiration that first brought you in? Were you one of those girls at the school talent show that was always trying way harder than everyone else? 

Charlotte: There was a priest that came to our school. We were recording this song for a charity competition to win this thing, and just the fact of having something on tape, just having that, was really excited to me. It was kind of like, thinking as a kid, “my voice is on there,” and it was mind-blowing to me. 

It got me excited, and I remembered how I felt when I was doing it. It was a really bizarre feeling because I knew that I could do it, even though I didn’t know what the “what” was. I knew I could make a career out of it and I will follow it through. I just knew. 

Did you develop that actively? By being in choirs?

Charlotte: Yeah. I was always in the choir and I started learning piano but it didn’t really sit well with me. When I was 15 my Dad gave me guitar lessons, and it was a masculine instrument. I think that’s because I went to an all-girls school and everyone was playing violins and pianos and it was just a different thing to do. But I think it was the best thing I’ve ever done.  

I had my Dad’s old, old guitar, and it was the hardest thing to play and my fingers were killing me. Then I started to get the hang of it and I started to realize that I was going to be obsessed over this. And I think piano put me off as well, like if that’s not sitting well I wouldn’t be able to enjoy anything else. Once I started to get the rhythm of the guitar I started on melodies and writing lyrics. 

Then Myspace arrived, and I started uploading tracks and my career started there. Managers got in touch, brands got in touch, and I started developing this project when I was 16, co-writing for the first time which is a very daunting experience. Still is, I think it is the scariest thing that I will ever do. It’s like a first date naked. Doing that when you’re meeting these people and you have to connect with them in the space of 3 hours or 4, you don’t know them. As a kid you’re like “this is crazy!” But then it’s done and then there’s this album. 

Myspace always had these “top friends” lists, I was #1 for this guy and he was signed to Columbia and his A&R man saw it and I got signed through him. 

Wow, so Myspace really came through for you! 

Charlotte: Yeah! My early project. I made this album, and it’s an album that you’d make when you are 16, it’s very naive, happy, sweet, but I had no idea what I was doing. 

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How has your music changed since then? Is it less naive? Are you a pessimist now? 

Charlotte: No, I’ve experienced things. When I was younger I hadn’t experienced things yet. I mean I had such a lovely childhood. As the youngest of 3, I was hidden away from a lot of things. But I had nothing to write about other than other people’s experiences and it didn’t really translate. You can hear that in the album. 

What are some of these experiences? Aside from hangovers…

Charlotte: Well, Hangover is one of my tracks, and I wrote it when I felt one of my first monster hangovers. And heartbreak, you know, finding out that humans are weird people, and that in itself is inspiring. Death, I went through my first death a while ago and that’s just such a powerful, terrible, beautiful thing. One of those emotions that just hit hard, it’s probably when I write songs. I rarely watch +18 rated films, because I will be too affected by it. I will be scarred. 

I can’t watch sad movies either. I just cry. 

Charlotte: “American History X” would be like the worst thing for me, that would ruin like a year of my life. My music now is a lot darker because I realized that wow life’s hard, it’s difficult, and you can feel that in your music now. 

Would you recommend that people listen to a few different songs, back to back, so people can see this transition?

Charlotte: Yeah. It’s what I did, and I’m proud of it. There are some good songs on there. I was really learning but what I’m doing now really represents me now, and my childhood, it pinpoints those influences that inspired me when I was younger. 

So you say your childhood was protected, awesome, this little bubble of joy and smiles and long eyelashes. What were your influences at the time?

Charlotte: I was listening to a lot of Leonard Cohen. The first love of my life was Freddie Mercury. When I first heard “Bohemian Rhapsody” I thought, “this is the most incredible thing I’ve ever heard.” It’s like watching Michael Jackson for the first time. I’m watching Freddie Mercury, when you’re watching him it’s like watching a film. 

Him, Tim Burton, those types of films that I really connected with, especially “Nightmare Before Christmas,” “Edward Scissorhands,” they make incredible sense to me. That’s what I wanted to do with my music, to have this darkness but also this pop art color and warmth that Tim Burton has. 

Do you think you’ll ever do anything as epic as Bohemian Rhapsody?

Charlotte: Ha! I’d fucking love to! I think my music now is very dramatic, and there is a lot of performance in it. 

Grow a little moustache, get it started now! What’s your plan for 2015? Do you see your trajectory continuing? Will you continue being more dramatic or will you find an equilibrium between your current style and your bright childhood?

Charlotte: I’m making the album at the moment. I’ve also been playing a lot of live shows, and learning a lot from that. You learn a lot about your work when you perform it. There’s a moment where I just play guitar and just sing a cover, and there is a real rawness that I’d like to carry through my album. I don’t want there to be too much production. More organic instruments, keeping it electronic but not too much. I don’t want it to hide behind anything. 

And the team you have assembled, do they share your vision?

Charlotte: Me and Tim Anderson, who I wrote some songs with, was the first moment that I had a musical connection with somebody. It’s incredible when that happens. Like a romance, a connection with someone. I remember playing him a few songs when I first met him, and we sat down at the piano and instantly I had the melody on top of it and the song literally happened in a couple of hours. It was a very fluid thing. 

There are still moments when I think, what am I doing? I’m still learning and it’s not easy but it’s getting there. 

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Who are some contemporary artists that you look up to? Or people that you look up to. 

Charlotte: Little Dragon are amazing. I listen to a lot of them, their last album. and the album before. Caribou, their latest album might be the best album I’ve ever heard in my life. Every track is incredible. They all feel related to each other, like cousins. Fluid. 

One more question, when you’re not making music what do you do besides drink a lot? Do you have hobbies?

Charlotte: I love music, I just love it, it’s what I do. Don’t really enjoy doing anything else. When you’re making a record it’s hard to expose yourself to other music. But it’s also good to watch something and be incredible inspired by it and it gives you a fire in your belly. I know that if I watch Hozier, another artist who is the real - fucking - deal, I’m inspired by that. There is a gospel element present in my music too, and when I hear that, I get it. 

So yeah, I don’t really do much else, but I do love drinking though :) 

Track of the Weekend #126: Woodkid ft. Lykke Li - “Never Let You Down”

The end of another week and another weekend is almost upon us in the waning weeks of winter. The buds are on the trees here in Paris, and the tulips are ready to burst. Just like the cycles of seasons, music is cyclical too. We knew it would only be a matter of time before the velvet-voiced provocateur Woodkid would be back on the world scene. He’s already had one track of the weekend, and now he claims #2 alongside indie favorite Lykke Li with “Never Let You Down.” The tone is bleak, sad, like something has been lost. And yet despite this dark environment hope still exists. 

Do you remember all the sounds, when I found you by the lake? And how the water seemed to call your name?” 

Thanks to the unassailable Radar Bazaar for nailing this one! 

EP Review: Kagu

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A few weeks ago we featured a talented producer from Sudan, and now, our focus on emerging music turns to the land of red sand and open spaces, known for barrier reefs and unending beaches. Australia’s Sean Heathcliff has become the musical entity Kagu, releasing his first eponymous EP this week out on Humming Records

Released: March 10, 2015

Genres: singer-songwriter

Tracks: 4

Who would like this EP?

Fans of Bon Iver’s vocals, people who like Beck’s guitar arrangements.

Our thoughts:

Singer-songwriters are a nickel a dozen these days. As a songwriter, It’s easy to fall into a trap that people will be carried by your lyrics alone. Yet poetry does not command the influence it once did (unless it’s clever hip hop). To be successful, this style of music needs to become more, it needs to be delicate and luscious at the same time. It has to feel full, with a combination of seductive vocals and layers of complexity, the more surprising the better. Kagu does exactly this: managing to walk the tightrope between annoying angst and overproduced orchestras. The result is an honest, delightful, and highly pleasing EP that signifies a powerful career to come. Just one listen to “Shadow of the Wind" and you’ll understand why. 

Listen to Kagu’s EP here

Surf Sound Pop, a New EP and The Hope of La Voyage: Interview with Amarillo

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March is a hot month for new music in Paris, with exciting acts understanding the mechanisms of launching new projects with the hopes of conquering their future fan bases around the world. It’s precisely this spirit, hope carbonated into a long neck bottle to be opened on a hot, dry day, that we encounter at Le Fée Verte, one of the most friendly Parisian bars nestled along the raucous Rue de la Roquette. 

If this hopeful spirit has a color, it would be yellow: the color of the sun, the color of energy. In Spanish, it’s “Amarillo.” In Paris, it’s the band, releasing their first EP today entitled “Tomorrow We’ll Be Long Gone.” We’re joined by Noé, Amarillo’s sombrero y corazon, and Dylan, the lead guitarist for the 5-member group. Over coffees and Perrier, the mic clicks on. 

The following is translated from French. Bold is Tony Hymes for Whyd

How many are you guys in Amarillo?

Noé: We’re 5 musicians for the stage. Dylan is the lead guitarist while I do the rhythm guitar and the singing.  

Who is responsible for the creation of music?

Noé: At the beginning I wrote everything in my room alone. Since I play a lot of instruments, not all very well, I recorded the songs and from there the tracks were able to grow. That gave me the desire to put the music on the stage, to call on friends that I’ve known for a long time. 

Had you already played music together with the other member of Amarillo?

Noé: It’s been about a year that we’ve been playing together on the stage. 

So you guys already have a vibe of what it’s like to work together? Your respective strengths and weaknesses?

Dylan: Before Amarillo we’ve already had other projects together. Like Caandides

Noé: Yeah we know each other so the ideas come faster, we get mad at each other faster, and of course the problems are resolved faster. 

It’s just like a family!

Noé: Yeah!

Your music has been described as psychedelic surf pop. I imagine you don’t do a lot of surfing in Paris. Does this mentality come from a particular geography? The idea of the coast?

Noé: I don’t know if surf music for French people is tied to actual surfing, it’s more of a sound. Or at least it’s become a sound, a guitar sound, very Tarantino-esque. And for me that’s sort of surf music. And it’s an influence. 

Is that the center of your music? Or is your music more of a mix of a lot of different styles and that’s just what people tend to take from it?

Noé: When I write songs I never ask myself what the music is supposed to sound like. I like a lot of different music. I’ve played a lot of classical music and blues. I’m really a fan of pop music in general too, and so when other people listen to my music, they tell me other bands that they think it sounds like and so I say “cool!” It’s a good way to discover new music too! 

And then afterwards when we are 5, everyone brings their own personal touches. That’s also part of the idea, for example, Dylan works his sound with the effects pedals, so I trust him a lot with the sonic texture, the timber of the music, things that I normally wouldn’t have thought of. 

You mention blues, pop, are there other big styles for you on the level of your influences? 

Noé: On a songwriting level I’m very into Americana, Neil Young, or Leonard Cohen. Pop songs, those are my biggest influences. Tom Waits too. 

Tom Waits, Leonard Cohen are influences that often go together!

Noé: Oh merde!

No! It’s a good thing, because Leonard Cohen is a giant, he’s still producing music today! Either people tell me Leonard Cohen/Jeff Buckley, or Leonard Cohen/Tom Waits, and that gives me the immediate idea of the direction. That’s a public marker so people can understand. 

And Dylan, as a guitarist, do you have major influences?

Dylan: I’ve never really been able to identify direct references between my personal style and the music that I listen to. But there are guitarists that I love for their textures. 

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The name, Amarillo. Texas?

Noé: Also. 

Did you choose the name before or after you started making the music? 

Noé: Well, I have Chilean origins through my mother. I speak Spanish at home, so it was all about the color. Afterwards I searched and I found out that it was a city in Texas, which doesn’t have a very easy history. That gives me more things to talk about but…

It’s more about the color. 

Noé: Yeah, I like how the word sounds, there are a lot of vowels, and yellow for me is also hope, sunshine. 

For this EP, there are 4 tracks. Do the tracks tell a story together, or did you just pick four really strong tracks to lead with?

Noé: The idea that I proposed to Antoine from our label Microqlima, was to have 4 strong tracks, and we chose the tracks together. Then afterwords we realized that with the track titles and the themes, that they could in fact be a story. Songs like “Tomorrow” and “Long Gone.” In the end it has a sense, adding to the feeling to voyage, the promise of the future, what’s going to happen soon. 

Do you share this feeling of voyage Dylan?

Dylan: In fact very early on we got this idea from Noé, when he told us about the tracks and how he explained them to us. Also on a graphic level too. So as a good student I entered into his idea of voyage, and I feel like we approached the songs with respect to the idea of travel. 

You can easily get that idea of voyage, but also on a temporal level. 

Noé: It’s even more that. The idea of traveling is not always about the destination, but the voyage, and everything that is going to happen on the voyage. That’s really what we tried to develop with the themes, the graphics, the idea of “what we are going to do.” It’s not important where we are or what we’ve done. It’s hopeful, rejoining the theme of “amarillo.”

Who would you be proud to be classified with, in terms of similar styles of music?

Dylan: I love Sufjan Stevens, personally. 

He definitely aligns with your style, his focus on geography, voyage. 

Noé: I would add Mac Demarco too. I like how he write songs, very simple but great.

You can go see Amarillo perform around Paris over the next few weeks, and make sure that you attend their official launch party slated to coincide with the start of Spring, on March 21st at Le Perchoir. 

Speaking With Your Hands, a Serendipidous Flower, and the New Album “Digital Pourpre” - Interview with Turnsteak

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How did you start making music together?

Our first meeting was at a concert where we were playing with our own, different rap groups, each of us on the turntables. We started to exchange tips, scratch phases, our little ticks, and that was it! 

At the beginning we would mess around and often our challenge was to choose a second-hand disc randomly, then we had to create a plan in 5 minutes. We laughed a lot! Then we passed through numerous different phases and musical aesthetics before arriving where we are today. 

We also bought some materials, a loopstation, pads, and a few synths to evolve our music along the direction of our projects. 

Who do you count among your influences? 

Being first of all DJs, we have the habit of listening to a lot of different, varied musical styles. There are tons of cult albums that have changed our way of seeing things. In terms of electronic we can cite Modeselektor, Edit (GitchMob), Rustie, Lorn, Eprom, Slugabed, Salva, Ta-Ku, Machinedrum, Flying Lotus, Flako, Kaytranada, and also some of the artists from Soulection…

Where does the name of your group come from? 

Turnsteak originally comes from “Turntable Speakers.” At the beginning it was 100% turn tables, the turntablism. The concept of “speaking with our hands” represented what we were doing at the time. 

Then the name was shortened to Turnspeak, and it’s been changed from there, but I won’t say anything else :) 

What is the genesis of your LP “Digital Pourpre” which comes out tomorrow? Does it tell a story or is each track independent from the others?

Having the habit of always working on short projects, even the concept of an album was already a lot of pressure. The idea wasn’t to do a series of tracks without coherence. We wanted to go farther. So we imposed certain directions, constraints, and limits on ourselves, to not fly off in every single direction. 

At this level, our friend Olivier Vasseur who mixed the album, did a great job of artistic direction and he gave us a lot of advice around the conception of the album. We worked the sound and the textures with him and added an organic dimension to the tracks. That let us bring in other sensations, images, and have the listener dive deeper into the heart of our music. 

The balance between the light synths and the deep bass let us bring energy and power. The voices are also key elements on the album. They bring a color and different environment to each track, like on “High Line” for example where the voices come from a Vietnamese comic theater! 

Finally, getting back to your question about the genesis of the LP, the first brick was the title. For the anecdote, we were at a rest stop off the highway during a tour and we stumbled upon a description of a flower that was growing in a corner, the “digital pourpre.” We were looking at it saying to ourselves that would be an awesome name for an album. All of the universe connected to this flower immediately spoke to us: its history in relationship with white magic, its medicinal side and its pathological and cardiovascular benefits (which we immediately connected with the rhythm, dance) the connection to digital, to fingers, to scratch… a name that’s full of mystery and subtleties. It’s exactly what we wanted to bring with the first long format. That’s to say make an album that’s rich and subtle, without falling into easiness, and with the idea of a voyage.

Urielle, the artistic director at With Us Records agreed with us and oriented it the best possible way while staying within the scope of the project. We had also worked on a moodboard together that let us see everything more clearly, the progression of the tracks and the history of the album. 

Where can your fans come to see you live?

A little bit all over France! Find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or Bandsintown to find our latest concert dates. 

You can even send us a little private message and we can invite you if there are places left!