VIOLENT SOHO’S WACO Having spent the last eight months recording and mixing their forthcoming record at The Shed studios in Brisbane with producer Bryce Moorhead, it’s fair to say that the four friends from Mansfield that are Violent Soho have been putting in the hard yards to make sure that the follow up to 2013’s breakout album Hungry Ghost is not only up to par with its predecessor, but builds upon it.
RUDIMENTAL RETURN Rudimental will return to Australia and New Zealand this May to play their biggest headline shows to date, joined on tour by fellow UK powerhouse Jess Glynne plus local talent Thandi Phoenix for all Australian shows. The UK four-piece have gone from strength to strength with the release of 2015’s We The Generation, celebrating the album’s release with a near-sell-out global tour that included a string of sold out Australian headline shows, explosive performances at Glastonbury, Governors Ball Music Festival, Bonnaroo and T in the Park, plus a coveted support slot on
Hungry Ghost, released in September 2013 was a huge success for the band and certainly their breakthrough album. The gold selling album peaked at #6 on the ARIA Album Chart and unexpectedly made a return to the charts
in April 2015, some 18 months following its release. The band’s fourth album is titled WACO and is due for release on Friday, 18th March. WACO is named for the small Texas city that was the site of the Koresh-led Branch-Davidian siege/massacre/shootout with the FBI in 1993. WACO, explains singer, guitarist and songwriter Luke Boerdam, is like Hungry Ghost’s older sister. “Hungry Ghost dealt with the spiritual skeleton we’ve become from this spoon-fed reality. WACO is more about control and illusion: what the skeleton is being fed.”
Ed Sheeran’s Australian and New Zealand stadium tour that saw them play to more than 250,000 fans this summer: A cacophony of backup singers and musicians line the stage surrounding Rudimental’s four founding members - Amir Amor, Piers Agget, Kesi Dryden and Leon Rolle - who bring all they’ve got to their performances. With a history of sold out shows in Australia and New Zealand, fans best act quick to secure their tickets to a tour that is guaranteed to be jam-packed with thumping rhythms and mass sing-alongs – don’t miss out!
A WORD FROM THE EDITOR What makes a classic? It’s a question we’ve pondered all too often here at the MINT office. Sigh, the taxing task of sitting in judgment of others... The answer doesn’t really exist, at least not in absolute terms. This month we’ve reviewed The Beatles’ classic eponymous album, colloquially entitled the White Album, a veritable classic by the dictionary definition.
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And yet, it’s an unashamedly-pop album, created in the early years of music’s transformation from art to business. Or perhaps more accurately, an art-business hybrid. You wouldn’t classify today’s leader of the Top 40 charts as a classic, would you? Maybe you would. That’s fine... maybe a really, really good song suddenly and unexpectedly received a great deal or airplay, or an influential social butterfly stumbled across a friend’s music page on social media, going stir-crazy with the Shares and Likes. More likely is that the person who’s finally found a way to get their creation to the masses is actually a talented individual, one who’s been searching for that big break for many years. Everyone can share their stuff now, and it’s making waves for those in the music-as-business camp. How do you turn a well-crafted and freelyshared song into a money-making machine?
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MINT Magazine | March
2016
That’s the real question here – much of the music that graces our airwaves, whether commercial or otherwise, is distributed by the artist for free long before the tune gains widespread recognition. That leaves playing to a live audience as the last place one might profitably ply their craft. The music festival scene has grown exponentially, from its once-humble beginnings to its Glastonbury-sized excesses, with dozens of popular artists playing at everything from cultural events to bush doofs to more traditional festive gatherings. It’s not the only way to make a quid in the music business, but I’ll bet it’s a fun one. Get to know yourselves a local organiser or PR doyenne, fire up LinkedIn and put your industry feelers out. At worst, you’ll get a couple of strange emails and a whole lot of nothing, but at best you’ll make contact. Contact with someone who knows exactly how your career in this arty-business-ofa-hobby fits into the world of music as it stands today. Someone who recognises that underlying element of creativity, just enough to help you fly.
Billy Dixon Your MINT editor bayside & mornington peninsula