So some of you may not have heard of the name Brooke Fraser. Hailing from New Zealand, this humble and lovely songbird has already made quite a name for herself in the Pacific region. The album Albertine was released in the U.S not too long ago, and she’s currently on tour. I managed to speak to Brooke over the phone while she was preparing dinner for some friends to just have a chat about her music, love life, and the debate about the best coffee in the world.

ZME Music: Tell me more about yourself?

Brooke Fraser: I’m from Wellington in New Zealand and I’m one of 3 children but I’ve been living in Australia since 2004 and currently we’re over in the States touring for about 5 months so at the moment we’ve escaped the winter and we’re in LA

ZME Music: How long have you been playing music for?

BF: I’ve been playing music for I would say, in terms of playing my own songs, on a basic scale since about 13, then more properly when I was 15 or 16, and I was fortunate enough to be signed straight out of high school, and so I’ve been playing music ever since as my full time occupation

ZME Music: How would you describe your music?

BF: I’d say my kind of influence in terms of other artists tend to lean more to the folk side of things. But I like to write songs for everyday people, and so it’s almost like a folk but with a decent sprinkling of traditional popular music to make that accessible to the wider public I suppose you could say.
Permalink to this topic

Did I tell you how much I love and admire Bob Dylan? Today? In my humble opinion, you can use your fingers to count those who have just half as much experience as him in the music industry. In fact, who doesn’t like him? Even the Counting Crows say in their hit “Mr. Jones” “I wanna be Bob Dylan”. So, here’s how he just rightfully bashed the music industry.

Speaking to The Times, Dylan said: “The music world’s a made-up bunch of hypocritical rubbish. I know that the book people are a whole lot saner. And the art world? From the small steps I’ve taken in it, I’d say, yeah, the people are honest, upfront and deliver what they say.

The singer/songwriter said he preferred the art and book industries, which he described as more “dignified.” I have to say I agree with him - wherever that kind of money gets in, you can be almost certain there is no dignity left.

“Basically, they are who they say they are. They don’t pretend. And having been in the music world most of my life I can tell you it’s not that way. Let’s just say it’s less dignified.”

Some of you may remember when we wrote, in our Bands to Watch feature, about a nifty and emerging St. Louis pop-punk band, called Ludo. Their latest record “You’re Awful I Love You,” hit every respecting store on February 26th and was quickly embraced by their fans and new listeners alike. Recently I had the chance to have a short chat with two of the band members, frontman Andrew Volpe and synth master Tim Convy, about various aspects, like the band in general, the new album, the band’s musical directions and other fun stuff.

ZME Music: Aloha fellow rockers. What’s rollin’ ?

Andrew Volpe: Well hello there, good friend. Not much. You know. Keeping it real. Representing. How are you doing?

ZME Music: I’m doing great myself, thanks for asking, let’s just kick off the interview and find out some interesting stuff. Firstly, could you please introduce yourself to the more ignorant people reading this and not aware of your existence (i.e. Our readers)? You could start off by telling us how the band came together.
AV: Ludo formed as an acoustic duo in St. Louis, when Tim Ferrell and I (Andrew) met in the summer of 2000. We were a full band in our minds though - we just needed to find the right people to round out our super-team. After college, we moved to Tulsa to get away from all distractions. Tim Convy and Ferrell knew each other from playing in bands in high school, so he joined us in our acoustic tour. In the summer of 2003, we put ads out all over the internet to find Ludo’s bassist and drummer. Marshall from Omaha and Matt from Houston, respectively, answered the call, and moved into our tiny, crappy house in Tulsa. Three weeks after meeting each other, we recorded our debut album in St. Louis, immediately hit the road, and have toured basically non-stop since then. It’s a real man-bites-dog story. Not sure I used that term right…

Permalink to this topic

Recently we had the chance to have, a really short but concise, e-mail conversation with  Jeff Stinco, the lead guitarist from Montreal based punk-pop quintet Simple Plan. We pondered Jeff with a few questions, about the band’s new album, sound, new video and their upcoming 2008 tour and he was gracious enough to give some interesting answers.

Permalink to this topic

The legendary underground duo Smif-n-Wessun have put out their highly anticipated album, Smif-n-Wessun: The Album, and have been moving like work horses to promote it. Receiving positive reviews and being called “a breath of fresh air in hip-hop” they sure have a lot to boast about. Debuting over 10 years ago and steadily putting out new material whether that be with their group the Boot Camp Click, the regular appearances on mixtapes, or the albums they push themselves, this group is never standing still. I recently talked with one half of the group, Tek, as he talked about his reasons for a single producer, his legal happenings, and future plans for Smf-n-Wessun.

ZME Music: What’s up?
Tek: Everything is beautiful now that the albums out.

ZME Music: First off Congrats on the new album.
Tek: Good looking. It’s great to be back.

ZME Music: How do you feel about this new album?
Tek: We’re ecstatic with it right now. It’s our baby so we’re runnin’ right with it. It defiantly feels good to have new material out that touches in every way.

Permalink to this topic

The Radiohead lead guitarist and part time lyrical guru, alongside Thom Yorke, has graciously accepted to respond to a few questions, pondered by our colleagues from Rolling Stone and NYC’s Gothamist. Questions range from general “In Rainbows” info, like it’s particular distribution method, it’s sound quality and over all sound; to Johhny’s recent solo work that includes a orchestra composition and a Paul Andresson flick soundtrack.

Gothamist: What’s motivating the band to distribute the album this way?

Jonny Greenwood: Just getting it out quickly. It was kind of an experiment as well; we were just doing it for ourselves and that was all. People are making a big thing about it being against the industry or trying to change things for people but it’s really not what motivated us to do it. It’s more about feeling like it was right for us and feeling bored of what we were doing before.

Permalink to this topic

Tags: Radiohead

Last week we posted the official promo mp3 for My Heart Gently Weeps, a Wu Tang Clan interpolation of the famous Beatles classic “As My Guitar Gently Weeps.” Clan guru RZA recently sat down with Kotori Mag and talked about The Beatles in general, the song, the people who worked on it (Dhani Harrison, John Frusciante etc), the theme of the song (dope and people affected by it) and a lot of other fun facts. We don’t often get to see some RZA interviews, so sit back and enjoy.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs first lady Karen O, by her full name Karen Orzolek, has been recently interviewed by the Daily Press. The interview makes a awesome read, with info on regarding YYYs latest EP “Is Is” and tours, in-band disputes and Karen O’s … Playboy posing invitation.

Daily Press: Are you guys working on any new songs right now?

Karen O: Working here and there, without much pressure on myself. I think Nick and Brian could say the same. … Working pretty much nonstop as an artist, the hardest thing is to know what to do with yourself when you have some time off. You struggle with yourself to take a vacation. I just went to Martha’s Vineyard. It was totally restful.

Read the whole thing down at the Daily Press.

Chicago’s own Common, who just recently released his veritable seventh LP “Finding Forever“, made a freestyle hip-hop performance for AOL’s 16 Bars. There he said, amongst other things, that “to be able to rap is a blessing; it’s a gift”, and afterwards unleashed some his rap phenomena, spitting rhymes and beats all over the place.

After the rap session Common did a small interview as well, check it out at AOL. Here’s a snippet:

Tell us about ‘Finding Forever.’
‘Finding Forever’ is my new album, which is coming out July 31. I entitled it ‘Finding Forever’ because I thought about making music that would be here forever. Music that would be timeless and ageless, and would be able to go for generations beyond my physical existence. As I thought of that title, I began to think about forever for all of us — finding our purpose in life and what our legacy would be, what will our contribution be and how we will be remembered. That’s what “finding forever” meant for me; just finding that place where I can create something that will be memorable and timeless throughout life.

The guys down at CMJ caught up, in between recording sessions, with We Are Scientists frontman Keith Murray. The indie trio are currently working on a new album, follow up to last years great LP “With Love And Squalor”, in Sausalito, California recording studios. The current working title is err… “What $ Of $ Do That Cost”, other titles they’ve thought of are “Fluffin’ Tha Cushions” and “Onlookerswatchedinhorror”. Boy these guys sure are wacky scientists. Anyway bellow’s a snippet of the interview, be sure the read the whole thing here.

CMJ: And the new stuff sounds like…

Keith: “It sounds like it was made by perverted wizards. It’s still pretty poppy, but far less reductive than our last album. We’re sort of screwing ourselves with the arrangements, but it’s much richer and thoughtfully layered… Needless to say, after playing the same songs every night for the better part of two years, anything new sounded amazing to me. I would lazily strum my guitar while watching TV and then automatically declare whatever progression I happened to half-consciously conjure to be a Top 40 single before someone nearby would note that I was holding the instrument upside down. But I got over that little honeymoon pretty quickly and I can now assess the new stuff with clarity, if not actual objectivity… I’ll admit that it sounds both self-serving and hackneyed to posit that this new stuff is by far the best music we’ve ever produced, but that happens to be true, so, in this case, I’ve been led into cliche by simple fact. “