By Ian Valiente
The New York pop-punk duo Diet Cig recently released their lovesick fuzz-pop/garage punk album “Swear I’m Good At This,” a collection of Alex Luciano’s (guitar/vocals) experiences with messy romances and breakups, awkward situations, and the anxieties of youth and terror of adulthood.
Continue reading Tame Impala offshoot POND wants you to feel psychedelic
We’re going to make it nice and easy. Here are 17 acts from Hangout Festival that you may not have heard of, but should definitely check out.
It’s time to get a little dreamy with Australia’s Why We Run, and their gentle yet driving single “Comfortable Lie.”
Continue reading Theme Song This Week: Australia’s Why We Run
Check out the amazing things that indie rock band Young Bufffalo enjoyed while they were in the sunny city of San Diego.
Continue reading Young Buffalo’s Tour Diary: Famous tacos and fisting in San Diego
Indie pop lovers, look no further for what you should be doing this weekend. Get away from your desks and say bye bye to your pile of chores and head out to Queen Bee’s on Friday for Chelsey Chavez’s single release party.
Continue reading Chelsey Chavez’s single release party in San Diego
LA Based Dreams in Static is a project dripping with so much soul, they’ve already been compared to artists like The Rolling Stones, John Mayer, and Curtis Mayfield.Continue reading Dreams in Static: Taking on modern funk and soul
Do you need a new obsession in your life? Well good news, The Frail have just released a new music video, and they’re continuing to steal the hearts of fans everywhere in the process.TheIndieSD.com: I love the classical influence on the song “Count on This”. How did you come up with this idea?
The idea of blending classical French music with electronic music seemed so perfect at the time. It created a bitter sweet/uplifting feel to it.
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TISD: To say that your music defies traditional genre boundaries is very true! Where do you draw influences from when you’re writing or in the studio?
Well in the past it was just Kevin and I emailing back and forth writing parts and singing and mapping out the songs. But now we work with Different Fur Studio owner and producer Patrick Brown on a lot of the newer material. We listen to a lot of different pop music, and then bands like M83, The Drums, Phoenix, Kavinsky, Queen, really all over the place!
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TISD: You’ve already had the chance to tour with some amazing acts (Moby, Hot Chip, Justice). Are there any other artists that you’d love to have the opportunity to share the stage with in the future?
We’ve been listening to a lot of bands like The Neighbourhood, Delorean, Phoenix, Two Door Cinema Club, any of those would be awesome! (We’re here and ready wink wink nudge nudge)
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TISD: Tell me about some of the amazing shows you’ve had recently. Any really memorable moments on stage so far?
One really awesome show we played recently was in our hometown of San Francisco at The Great American Music Hall. We have always wanted to play there but never really had the opportunity pop up until a couple months ago. That place is legendary and we were able to play with some amazing friends: Doe Eye, Tremor Low, and of course our very good friends Parallels (We were on a mini tour with them at the time). It was definitely a highlight!
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TISD: The Firefly EP is magical, in my opinion. Your sound is definitely unique and inspiring. What can your fans expect from your future full length release, LoveDeathLegend? Will you be expanding on and exploring even more upbeat genres and themes?
Well we have really pushed forward with our musical style in regards to LoveDeathLegend. I think it touches on some of the older material while really pushing us a bit further in the pop genre. LoveDeathLegend has a lot more live instrumentation and everything sound a lot bigger than the older records. Expect a fun record that pushes our music to a place it hadn’t really been before.
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TISD: Which song is the very first song you wrote for The Frail?
It’s a toss up between “Who Am I” and “Count On This”, both on the Count On This EP on Tricycle Records :)!
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TISD: Being that you found each other on Craigslist, how was the band dynamic when you first started to create music? How quickly did you fall into your groove when you started writing with each other?
Kevin and I have a weird way of knowing what each other are thinking musically. It was really basic at first. Kevin had written a few tracks and we adjusted the structure of those songs together to make them fit vocals. From there we really started songs, we were both writing back and forth and it kind of fell into place. Being that we are a full band it’s a bit more challenging but definitely produces a well rounded sound at this point. It’s always a work in progress though and we are always looking to improve our songwriting or reach new heights.
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TISD: Your latest video “Back to Me” had a very successful Kickstarter campaign backing it up. How does it feel to have such steady fans and heavy support for your music?
We feel extremely lucky that we’ve had supporters on both Kickstarter & Indiegogo! We really couldn’t have done any of this without them, so needless to say without them we wouldn’t be anywhere. So they are the ones that control this band and we are so grateful to have them be apart of this.
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TISD: And the end product is amazing, by the way. There seem to be a lot of deeper themes covered in the video. How did you go about making this video? What stories did you want to depict in this video?
Well the song is about a time in my life when I was actually dating someone in San Diego and practically living on a friend’s couch in Bankers Hill. It was a leap of faith kind of thing and definitely eye opening. The video took the pieces of the song that reflect that. Wanting to be somewhere else and just going for it while trying to escape what you called home before. We really really love San Diego by the way. (Shout out to Marshall)
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TISD: What do you hope to achieve in 2014? How do you hope fans will react to LoveDeathLegend?
Well we hope to have released LoveDeathLegend by then and to be on the road non stop. We are actually headed back into the studio in November to work on new material with Patrick at Different Fur. So you might even see an EP before the full length. We’re just having fun playing shows and writing music. As far as the reception to LoveDeathLegend goes, we hope people like it. It’s pretty different from all our other material and touches a lot of different genres so we think there’s a little something for everyone in it!
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Make sure to follow The Frail via their official site or their Facebook page for updates on the new album, LoveDeathLegend. And let us know what you think of their video in the comments below.
Recently, indie artists and independent labels have dominated the music world and proven that the little guys can acquire big fame, too. But despite all of this, many still wonder if independent music can continue to grow, or if a lot of these instances were simply “the right song at the right time”. And if it’s the latter, do we know if independent bands such as Arcade Fire will continue to gain recognition, or turn themselves into one hit wonders manipulated by mainstream media?
Independent artists and labels already have one thing going for them: they’re allowed to focus on sheer talent. Perhaps major labels are so used to racking in money and using a lot of that money to fuel expensive tours and production costs, they’ve grown too big to allow error. They can’t take the time to focus on an artist who might be good but won’t make any money — or else they’re out billions.
Can you imagine being out of billions of dollars because you decided to sign nothing but really talented artists for, let’s say for sake of argument, a year? That’s the world of big media. If it isn’t making them money, they simply don’t have time for it. And so continues the well oiled machine.
This could be why independent artists are having such a great decade. These acts are able to reach markets and achieve greatness that before did not come easily without the backing of a major label: from Macklemore, who set unprecedented records for an independent artist on the Billboard charts, to Arcade Fire winning Album of the Year at the 2011 Grammys and Mumford & Sons claiming the award this year. (Majority of the Grammy Album of the Year winners and Nominees are definitely on major labels.) And they’re doing it because the public really loves good music.
Most people like to argue that pop music ruined the creative, talented music market. I don’t believe one genre came in and wrecked it for everyone. I believe in cycles. In the 70s, disco haters might have come to the same conclusion, spurning the fad and citing it for ruining the time of 60s singer and songwriters.
The same could be said of heavy metal and nu-metal, both of which dominated mainstream charts in the 90s following the era of the 80s R&B revival and the “golden age of hip hop”.
My point is, popular music and fads will always be there. But so will the fearless, talented, and modern music makers who are passionate about the craft of creating a song. We’re lucky to have a market that has finally opened up to the “little guys”, so we can see independent labels create sell-out shows, unsigned hip hop artists make thousands on their own mix tapes, and yes, indie rock bands beat out millionaires to win a Grammy, effectively making them not so little anymore.
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So far, Arcade Fire is stirring up very deep conversations about their release today, “Reflektor”
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What do you think about this? Do you think independent music will continue to have its glory in the bigger music market? Or will the mainstream media take over again someday and shut them out?
The Indie 