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Interview

A Big Bunch Of The Truth From David Simon (The Wire)

david simon
28/05/2011 By In TV

Spare 50 minutes of your life to get inside the mind behind televisions best ever show, The Wire.

David Simon (born 1960) is an American author, journalist, and a writer/producer of television series, best known as the creator of the HBO television series The Wire. He worked for the Baltimore Sun City Desk for twelve years. He wrote Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets and co-wrote The Corner: A Year in the Life of an Inner-City Neighborhood with Ed Burns. The former book was the basis for the NBC series Homicide: Life on the Street, on which Simon served as a writer and producer. Simon adapted the latter book into the HBO mini-series The Corner. He is the creator of the HBO television series The Wire, for which he served as executive producer, head writer, and show runner for all five seasons.

Have A Question For My Passion?

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29/04/2011 By In Interviews, Music

MY PASSION: FAN Q&A


Panic Dots have a fan Q&A session with My Passion and we want YOU to take part… Got a question to ask them?
Email: jessica@panicdots.com with your question(s) and name!

Please keep questions as clean as you possibly can! Have fun! Get your questions in before May 1st or else they won’t be included. :]

 

 

Interview: Starboy Nathan

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17/04/2011 By In Interviews, Music

There’s been a lot of talk of Starboy Nathan around Panic Dots for the past couple of weeks and FINALLY we got to say hello to him. We sent our ace junior reporter, Jennifer MacGeagh, down to The Waterfront Hall to meet up with Starboy Nathan and find out a little bit more about him before he jumped on stage with N-DUBS. Here’s what happened… oh.. and you don’t even have to read it, just press play and have a listen to what went on! While you are listening check out some pics below. Ohhh… and we have pics of you crazy fans that were at the performance in DV8, Belfast.

DV8 Photos HERE

Starboy Nathan Interview by panicdots

TRACK REVIEW/INTERVIEW: Kasper Rosa – Coronal Mass Ejection

thumbelina
02/03/2011 By In Interviews, Music, Reviews

In this piece I will begin with a track review of Kasper Rosa’s latest track, and first from their upcoming album, Coronal Mass Ejection. Following this there will be an audio interview conducted between myself and two members of the band (Steve and Ryan) a couple of days before the single’s official launch at the Speakeasy in the Student’s Union at Queen’s University Belfast.

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Since their inception in the latter half of 2009, Kasper Rosa have simultaneously been at the forefront whilst pushing harder to be the foremost of Irish

King Crimson - New York, The Pier

Image via Wikipedia

 

post-rock. Their influences are both contemporaneous and classical, spawning along the musical path of Pink Floyd, King Crimson, The Mars Volta;

 

and most clearly Tool and Oceansize. As can be seen from these influences, they lend themselves most clearly to the elements of progressive rock which they themselves thrive on creating; hooking on addictive melodies and forming entire songs around departing and returning to these melodies in both loud and triumphant ways, in both soothing and subtle tones, and in both metallic and classical varieties. Time signatures become shifting variables and moments of epiphanic slowness are thuddingly brutalised with shifts into themes of mania and chaos.

Pinning musical variety to a plurality of influences though, does not do the music itself complete justice. It ignores the unignorable. That is, the huge progress this band have made in their time on the Northern Ireland music scene; their first EP showed glimpses of this – see Am I Now Going to be Less Sensitive? and You Fool, Warren is Dead! EP2 brought their heavy metal influence out much more clearly and their progression into more concrete progression, was a huge progression – see Scaling Mount Improbable, Pollen Grains and Magic Bullets, and Good Luck with David. Working now on album material, Kasper Rosa have emerged with a track just under ten minutes in length. And whilst being a piece of robust and formidable post-rock in and of itself, this marks a musical and creative maturity shift in the band’s material that cannot be overstated. The track, Coronal Mass Ejection, is a track infused with the band’s opening two EPs; but one which emancipates itself from them.

Coronal Mass Ejection is a track of overarching thematic grandeur. Picking up snippets from Oceansize, Tool, Incubus, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, among others; it takes these influences and creates their most individual piece yet. What this means, is that whilst this material has a clear and distinct causal route, that of Oceansize for example, it is one in which Kasper Rosa take on a new aura of creativity and magnanimity. The ambition is unmatched for bands in the current Northern Ireland circuit, and is pervaded by a sense of emotion and passion.

What begins as careful, noodling and catchy in the opening segment, carefully yet intentionally remits in to atmospheric stadium rock whilst suddenly retreating into a soft and soothing theme, it retreats further into the noodlism pointed out at the beginning; and following this begins an avalanche of progression and of vocal and instrumental manipulation, slowly advancing the crescendo as Ryan croons, “Set the atmosphere alive,” – fittingly. This though, is interrupted bombastically by a huge shift in theme and tone, building layers and volume throughout as Kasper Rosa give the track, which has spanned from classic rock – to acoustic – to progression  – an injection of metal which is supported by chants of an almost religious nature. What is striking also, upon reflection, is not just the track’s ability to soothe and stir – but also the sheer simplicity with which it is achieved. (A point which, fittingly, was echoed in the interview: below.)

Kasper Rosa Interview, 23/02/11

VIDEO: Awkward Interview

awkward
21/02/2011 By In Funny Pics, Interviews, Music

INTERVIEW: LITTLE COMETS

ALBUM ART NEW 2
13/02/2011 By In Interviews, Music

LITTLE COMETS INTERVIEW.

Their new album, new single and music video has just been released.. and they’re currently in the middle of a tour, it appears these lads are very busy boys. Despite this, we were lucky enough to catch an interview with the lovely, funny Little Comets…

At the minute you guys are in the midst of your UK tour, how is that going so far?

It’s been brilliant…. Most gigs have been packed which is lovely, but we do
feel a little strange as we’re used to supporting bands so at the end of the set
we’re almost thinking: right, time for the headline act to come on now… haha.

What do you do to relax when on the road?
I think different cities tend to be good for different things, so in Manchester we
managed to go vintage clothes shopping and terrorise some lecture theatres;
Edinburgh will be nice for coffee at Artisan Roast; the beach at Brighton and
the home comforts of Newcastle!

Your debut album has also just been released; do you prefer the recording
process to touring?
It depends as each are such different experiences… probably overall
recording is more enjoyable as we can be as creative as we want in a
potentially limitless timeframe whereas there are a lot more constraints live.
Plus standing in front of Mark’s cymbals every night gets pretty tiresome and
travelodges can be soul destroying, especially the newer ones where you
can’t lie down in the bath.

How was the recording experience for you?
That was great: Michael our guitarist produced the album so we didn’t feel
at all hindered or the necessity to adhere to a prescribed sound. We also
recorded it in quite a few places over quite a wide period of time so there
weren’t any time constraints. Recording is a really important part of our song-
writing process too, we tend to sectionalise our parts a lot and explore the
minutiae of the songs – adding lots of layers. Getting to make the album in the
adhoc way we did was a lot of fun.

Do you have a personal favourite track off the album and does this influence
what you release as singles?
Not really, I think our favourite song is always our newest song so we haven’t
really listened to the album since the tracklisting was completed, just more on
new songs we’re playing in rehearsals. I’m not sure how we decide on which
single to release really – one always seems to stand out at a particular time,
so there usually isn’t that much debate or anguish over it.

Can you tell us what more can we expect to hear from Little Comets in 2011?
Hopefully we’ll be playing lots of festivals over the summer and then we’re
planning to record and release some new songs around about September!

How did the formation of Little Comets come about and how did you come up
with the name?
Me and Mickey are brothers so we’ve grown up playing music together. We
met Matt when we worked in a greengrocers and got chatting over courgettes
and David Bowie on the stereo – then Mark flew into the room. One night
Matt had a dream in which the archangel Gabriel told him to go to Bethlehem
and start a band called Little Comets. Despite being a committed agnostic he
convinced us to follow the advice of his celestial visitation.

When you were growing up, who or what were your biggest influences
musically or otherwise?
I’m not sure. I think we got influenced by lots of things like incidents and
accidents, hints and allegations, authors like Road Dahl and Milan Kundera,
poets like Seamus Heaney, colours, rehearsal rooms, the weather and writers
like Paul Simon and Elgar.

What’s the best album you’ve ever bought, when did you buy it and why?
Probably the Paul Simon Anthology when I was about 11. It was one of the
first cds I bought and has been listened to almost constantly since.

How would you describe your music?
Hahaha, this is a nightmare question. I don’t know. Hopefully it sounds as
authentic as the original idea was intended to be.

Are there any upcoming bands or musicians that you love right now and
would recommend to our readers?
Yep, a band from Newcastle called Grandfather Birds are amazing and also
Ajimal from Edinburgh – two lovely bands.

Little Comets Myspace | littlecomets.com

Catch The Guys In Stiff Kitten March 5th!

INTERVIEW: MR Henry Von – DJ

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26/01/2011 By In Interviews, Music

Our awesome DJ, Holly Lester interviews MR Henry VonWhat made you want to become a DJ and where was your first gig?

When I was a teenager I went to buy some speakers and instead came home with a DJ mixer. I’m not really sure what happened in between going into the shop and leaving the shop but I’ve been hooked ever since.

My first gig was at a party I organised soon after that, at my parents house whilst they were on holiday. Now when they go away I feed the cats and water their plants, where did it all go wrong?!

Who/what inspired you to start producing your own music?

It was hearing other people’s music and dreaming of being able to come close to making something with a similar impact, which is still the case now to be honest. I often find myself in clubs hearing a track and trying to work out the hell it was made.

2010 has seen the launch of new techno label “Tribal Rage” with Fergie. Having also co-owned “Rekluse” with Fergie since 2008, why did you both feel that another label was necessary?

I admire and enjoy labels with an open musical philosophy, labels like Crosstown Rebels release a wide cross-section of music which is incredible. However we go about things a little differently, our Rekluse and Tribal Rage labels each have their own sound and persona which we try to adhere to as much as possible. Rekluse is for our dark and chunky taste in Techno, such as our recent releases by Marco Bailey & Tom Hades and Flavio Diaz. Tribal Rage is more for our slightly deeper and groovier picks, Tom Budden and Jon Gurd have both featured on Tribal so far.

Running the labels this way also allows us to release more of our friend’s amazing music that they send us :)

How would you describe your DJ sets at the moment?

A mixture of House, Tech-House and Techno, I’m definitely not the most diverse DJ out there but I do try to mix it up a little bit, whilst trying to keep the groove, rhythm and momentum alive. Whatever and whereever I play my aim is to always try and create the party, and then make it something the people will remember for times to come.

Are there any producers in particular that have stood out for you recently?

The UK producers of my kind of music are getting stronger and stronger, Reset Robot, Teva, Jon Gurd, Matt Cooper, Ryan Thompson & James Dutton are all creating some really fresh beats. Ferg’s new stuff is killing it for me at the moment. Outside of the UK, I find myself regularly buying the music of Daniel Stefanik, Mathias Kaden, Davide Squillace, Christian Burkhardt and Guy Gerber.

What does your live setup consist of?

Currently I am using Traktor with 2 midi controllers to perform, although I am experimenting a bit with my set up, at home I am back on the 1210s with timecoded vinyl and also I am testing out Ableton, so watch this space.

What gig has stood out the most for you in your DJing career so far?

The way my mind works, for me it’s always the last few that stand out the most, such as Bam Bam in Barcelona, and The Fuss in Cambridge. But the time Excentric hosted the Coco Loco room of Privilege in Ibiza, and playing Stiff Kitten in Belfast were both pretty special.

If you could play at any venue in the world alongside a lineup of your choice, where would it be and who would make the lineup?

Outdoors can be magic so let’s have it on a desert island somewhere, we could do it for charity and see if Richard Branson would lend us his private island for the weekend? On the decks, I would invite some close friends to play their favourite tracks from over the years, I’m pretty sure this would involve Ferg sticking on some Trade classics at some point! I would also try and squeeze in Carl Cox and Luciano somewhere – I think their music would suit the tropical surroundings and people might enjoy their music even if they weren’t into electronic music.

I would put myself on warm up duties so that I could properly enjoy the rest of the night. On second thoughts I’ll play at the after party as well ;)

Asides from what you play in your sets, do you listen to any other types of music (electronic or not)?

At the moment I am completely absorbed by electronic music, the only non-electronic stuff on my my ipod are podcasts by Ricky Gervais and Russell Brand to be honest. Actually I am a big fan of Damian Lazarus and his “Lazpod” which can get pretty diverse at times.

What are your plans for 2011?

I have a string of much delayed releases to come out, including “Composure” on Excentric Muzik, “Nightwatchman” on Tribal Rage, “Verbatim” on Loco & Jam’s CODE label, a remix of Matador on Rekluse, another remix of Fergie on Excentric Muzik and an unofficial remix of the Rolling Stones which I’m not sure what I can do with yet! We are also kicking off a series of label showcases next year, the first one being in Chester; “Uberlube Presents Tribal Rage” featuring Fergie, James Dutton and myself, I can’t wait.

For more info on the awesome MR Henry Von check out the links below!

www.facebook.com/mrhenryvon

www.twitter.com/mrhenryvon

www.soundcloud.com/mrhenryvon