King_leer's Videos Playlist....Summer 2015

Friday 27 February 2009

Just an "Ordinary Day" or not..... A conversation with WhiteRoom






Hi,

WhiteRoom is the name of a band from Canada. In my research through out Myspace back in 2007 one particular song captured my attention. Almost two years from our initial talks where is the transcript of one "conversation" during last week. Hereafter you can discover more about the band and their strong relation to Portugal. 



King_leer (KL) :

Eddy, one of the tunes that i've kept in my mind is "Ordinary day" since i first got in touch with you back in 2007. Can you explain us the story behind that song/lyric? I'll play it on the blog's player.

Eddy Silva (ES) :

When I wrote Ordinary Day, there was a lot of talk going on about the US invasion in Iraq. At that time I kept asking myself what it would be like to be a soldier in the middle of a heated battle and what would go throw my mind if I were to be called upon by my government and sent into the trenches. These thoughts are what influenced me to write Ordinary Day and the song is about the thoughts of a soldier who is summoned by his government and is getting ready to leave his home and go to battle.

(KL) :

Tell us about your EP to be recorded in London in March, i believe and what brought you to Portugal, since you have more shows scheduled for May.

(ES) :

We managed to pique the interest of The Animal Farm Records in London and we’ll be recording a 5 song EP with them. They’re part of the SJP Production house, which has produced Radiohead, Mos Def, George Harrison and Paul McCartney in the past. We decided to release an EP and not a full-length album as the physical LP has lost popularity due to the increased digital distribution methods. We think that more and more it’s up to the artist to decide how to group songs for releases. We feel that these 5 songs blend well together and this is also a shift from our 1st album which is more eclectic. We’ve also had the chance to work with a world-renowned string quartet and strings are present on every song.

Regarding Portugal, we needed to go to a place where the sun shines in the winter!! lol My parents are Portuguese so I’ve been quite a few times before. I honestly love Lisbon! That’s the beauty of being in a touring band. You get to go wherever you want to. As long as the gigs are set up, you’re good to go! It does help to have family here though.

(KL) :

Crisis, crisis, crisis.....i've been asking to your peers to escape the music routine their thoughts on this. What's you view on this. Who to blame, what to do?

(ES) :

Which crisis are you talking about? Are you talking about the US sub-prime mortgage collapse, which triggered the recession in Europe? Are you talking about the peer-to-peer sharing phenomenon, which is slowly killing the music industry? Are you talking about the ongoing struggles in Africa? My point here is that there is always a crisis going on in the world. Unfortunately we only hear about the ones that affect us directly, in this case the mortgage crisis, which Obama will soon have a solution for! lol At least I hope so... Each generation always thinks that their particular crises are somehow more apocalyptic than others. We chose to remain optimistic that these problems will be resolved. In 6 months we might be faced with a whole new set of problems and hopefully we’ll have the strength to deal with them. Practically, despite all the reasons not to get out of bed, we do so anyway. At the moment, I think that the best way to stay positive is to keep doing what we do best. For me that’s making music. Our goal right now is to be self-sufficient as musicians, but we aim to one day be in a position where we can be more socially pro-active.

(KL) :

 On Canada : What are the top 3 Canadian bands that we should listen nowadays?

(ES) :

Big bands right now are: The Arcade Fire, Feist and Malajube

If you’re looking for more underground bands check out: Lhasa, Hot Hot Heat and Chromeo

(KL) :

 This one is just for "fun". Is it really true that yearly almost all the people in Canada move from one house to another and at that period is the most profitable to companies that take care of furniture and house moves? If true, what's the main reason for that?

(ES) :

Haha I’m not sure where we got that reputation! This isn’t entirely true. July 1st, which is also the national day of Canada, is what we call the “moving day”. The main reason is that most leases always end on that day. So yes, many people move on July 1st, but it’s not a national event! lol This is mainly for people who rent apartments and the standard is a 1 year lease. Moving companies definitely make a lot of money at this time. I’m not sure how July 1st became the moving day, but in my opinion I believe that our very cold winters are what may have caused this. Believe me, it gets so cold in the winter that there’s no way anyone would be out in the cold moving furniture around!!

 

THE END

Thursday 19 February 2009

BEST 2008 SONG - MY VOTE!

Hi there,

Hi think it's now time to reveal my choice for 2008. Leaving "Glasvegas" in second place with Geraldine (and since they were my 2007 choice) this is the tune i've admired the most in 2008. I think it's pure, it's raw, it's poetic, it's frentic, it's everything a song can be. It's only my choice, "only by the night" also but everytime i listen to it, well, i'll go with the flow.

Cheers to the Kings, from the King

Listen it on the player and watch the Kings home-video on it bellow!



Kings Of Leon-'Only By The Night' Home Movies- Day 22

Friday 6 February 2009

James Skelly - "Love thy neighbour"



"...I caught you crying
Trying to hide your tears away
And all the while
I never knew you felt this way
I've loved you from the start
How could we let this come apart ?

We've got to put
The sun back in our hearts..."


I believe everyone of us at some point or stage in life had thoughts like this above line from the song "Put The Song Back", written by James from the 2007 Coral's record, "Roots And Echoes".
This record was one of the great editions from 2007, a trademark sound and filled only by good vibes.
It was a shame it wasn't released at here in Portugal and this is something i really cannot understand about our local record companies and distributors. But this is another that you can read something in a future post with someone from a local major record company.

I had the chance to place some questions to James and that's what this is about, so, let's see the result. It's a short interview this time on lyrics, family, etc.

I know probably James will take a look at this post and there's something i want to say about "Cobwebs" from the same record that i kept on my "visual landscape" everytime i hear that song. The melody reminds me the Western Saloon dances, with cowboys and girsl with large colourful skirts....... You can hear this song at the bolg's player (it's the 2nd one), "In the Rain" mentioned bellow it's the there also and the magnificent "Put the Sun Back" opens the player. Also, but this time on the video player there's a live version of "Put the Sun Back" taken from the BBC's "Later with.... Jools Holland's".

So, let's go:


On lyrics:

KING_LEER (KL):

Tell me please what is behind "In the Rain" lyrics ? What is right for them that is not right for you (If you are quoting yourself).

JAMES SKELLY(JS):

I'm not saying its wrong but it doesn't mean it's right.

Again on lyrics:

(KL):

What band or performer most influenced you on the lyrics side and why? Give one example of one lyric that really influenced you.

(JS):

Dylan Thomas and the line from his book " under milkwood" "starless and bible black" were a big influence.


On society, the global crisis, the Palestinian/Israel crisis......:


(KL):

Tell me in your opinion (your point of view) what do we have to do to "Put the sun back in our hearts"?

(JS):

Love thy neighbour.

On Familly:


(KL):

The last one:

I've made recently a work around the last Kings of Leon's record(it's on my blog). Talking to people around the production it was obvious that the family word were always around the table in a very strong and peculiar way (off course they're brothers and cousin).

At what point yours and the rest of the bands families were important in The Coral's life?

Any particular episode?

(JS):

There are 3 sets of brothers in and involved with the band from the artwork to guitar tech to tour manager.My dad was the manager in the earlier days but he just went round chinning club owners.


THE END