Kaleidophone

Kaleidophone is a four-piece alternative rock band from Maidstone, England, which formed in 2007. Instead of playing music right away like most bands, the band decided to do something more unique.

“The first thing we did as a band was building our own recording studio,” the band said. “After a few months doing this we began making music and working towards creating the sound that we have today.”

The band is influenced by artists such as The Wombats, Friendly Fires and Vampire Weekend.

“We wanted to create fun and good music that was melodic and uplifting,” the band said. “We think we have a great debut album and that the songs on the album say quite a bit about Kaleidophone. A career in music is a journey and we are loving every step.”

The debut album, “What’s Your Tonic?” was released in May 2011 and received some positive feedback according to the band.

“What’s Your Tonic?” is related to the eclectic nature of the record – people are all different, and every track on our record has its own identity,” the band said. “It’s really a celebration of diversity.

“Having the studio which we built was invaluable as we didn’t have the usual time constraints that many bands have to work with when hiring some studio time,” the band said. “We were able to utilize the amazing talent within the band and self-produce our record and the label gave us the freedom to do that.”

The band likes the songs on its latest album.

“From a production point of view, we’re proud of ‘Wrecking Ball’ and also as the lead track for the album it has received a lot of radio play,” the band said. “From a musical, lyrical and sentimental point of view, ‘Hometown’ holds a special place in our hearts."

In the future, the band hopes to tour the U.K. as well as the U.S. and start working on its second album.

“To us, music is a two-way street and we want to join in and make a true connection with those who like what we’re about,” the band said.

Wrecking Ball - Kaleidophone from Rob Sampson on Vimeo.

The band members include:

Mark Wells - Lead Vocals and Rhythm Guitar

Al Holland - Lead Vocals and Lead Guitar

James Holland - Bass

Mark Thompson - Drums

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Violet Bones

Violet Bones is a rock band from Cambridge, England, who got into music at an early age.

 “I was brought up on the ’60s music my parents listened to, and the other guys were pretty much the same,” Si Dartford, lead singer and guitarist, said.

 The band got its start much like any other high school punk band, teaching itself along the way.

 “We started when we were teenagers, kicking out punk covers of bands we looked up to,” Dartford said. “We were lucky enough to be given gigs at pubs despite not being old enough to even be in there in the first place.

 “We have always played punk rock as a basis of our music,” Dartford said. “It’s what influenced us when we were starting out. Although we aren’t necessarily a punk band, we thrive when we are playing upbeat music. It’s thrilling to play live and can stir and provoke the crowd in a way other music can’t.”

 Originally called 9FoldPunch, the band decided to change its name to Violet Bones.

“We changed our name because we had grown up a lot since we started out as 9fold,” Dartford said. “Our sound had matured and our style was changing, so it was agreed that we found a name that reflected that. We got the name Violet Bones from when I went to visit my grandma in (the) hospital. There was an old lady in a bed opposite called ‘Violet Bone.’ It was around the time we were looking for a new name and I told the guys this story and we agreed that name had a good vibe. It felt right to us.”

Violet Bones’ music comes from what happens in its daily life.

 “Songs we write all come from different places. For instance, how we feel about the world, having love, not having love, the night before, the morning after,” Dartford said. “We want songs that are relevant, that mean something.”

The band’s recent single, “Villains,” is based off of their home town and how to handle diversity.

“The story behind Villains is about the town we live in. It can be quite small minded. If you look a bit different and have your own thing going on, people will always try and put you down because they can’t handle diversity. It’s about standing up to those people. It’s good to see at gigs people that get into it and understand and feel the same, for whatever reason,” Dartford said. “Every time that happens, we consider that a success.”

In the future, the band plans to finish recording and release its debut album later this year.

“We are currently recording our debut album, which is very exciting times for us. We have a good vibe about it,” Dartford said. “We’re starting to book up shows up and down the UK. So things are definitely getting a lot busier, with tours being planned in the not too distant future, too. There’s a lot (of) hard work to be done, and we don’t mind this…rolling our sleeves up and getting on with it…that’s what we are all about.”

“We are four best mates that have been through a lot together,” Dartford said. “We are a gang that have played all over the UK to lots of people and sometimes not so many. We have formed a close band with one another. We know we are better together playing music than doing anything else.”



http://blog.violetbones.com/

Folk of Flight

Folk of Flight is an alternative folk band from St. Louis made up of Paul Ranheim and Karen Choi, who met after graduate school.

“We met while both performing solo acts at a coffee house,” the band said in an interview. “We also were both graduate students in St. Louis.”

The band started playing in January of this year and has been happy with its success so far.

“Our goal was simply to explore the local music scene together,” the band said. “We wanted to give shape to what we were doing collectively, so we formed Folk of Flight. At that point, we had no plans to record the EP and no idea how long we would play together.”

Being from two different backgrounds, both Ranheim and Choi find a great sound.

“Somehow, it is a really natural fit,” Choi said. “Although, Paul is always trying to make our songs less country and I’m always trying to put a southern country beat on our tunes. But, somewhere in that tug of war, we find our sound.”

The band released its EP in July after a short time.

“We found ourselves sitting in a studio with a local sound engineer we met through a mutual friend,” the band said. “He told us to pick a weekend to record and that he would do the project for free. After we caught our breath, we got something on the calendar, invited some talented friends to play on the project and before we knew it, we were making plans to release an EP.”

After the release of the band’s first EP, it was posted on Noisetrade to help promote its music.

“Noisetrade is a great resource for artists,” the band said. “It allows us to extend our music to many, beyond our immediate local scope. Fans download our tunes for free in exchange for sharing our music with their friends on facebook or twitter.”

In the future, the band hopes to record its first full-length album and to continue seeing where its music goes.

“We were joking the other day that our future is a perpetual ellipsis,” the band said. “Sometimes we feel like we’re just along for the ride. We want to keep honing our sound as a duo and lean into our natural collaborative relationship.”

http://www.folkofflight.com/

LA VIE

LA VIE is a rock band from Venice, Calif., with the hopes of making its music known to the world.

“I came to meet Bill and Adam through a mutual friend,” Trevor Conner, guitarist of the band said. “Jeff Azoff told me about a great singer songwriter who was looking to do more of a band thing. The next day we got together at a rehearsal spot and from the first song we started playing, we all felt like we had found something great together.”

The band has been influenced by many artists such as Kris Kristofferson and Buffalo Springfield. On its first EP, the band had the opportunity to work with Andrew Dixon, producer of bands such as Augustana and Colbie Caillat.

“Working with Andrew has been great,” Conner said. “We came into the studio well rehearsed and with a plan. Being a baby band in LA, money is short and studio time is expensive. We had one night to record 90% of the EP and everyone was ready to get it done.”

“To have him excited about our music and to get his creative stamp on our debut record was the perfect fit,” Bill Delia, drummer of the band said. “We are going to go back into the studio with him to record a new batch of songs this fall, and can’t wait to get started.”

The band strives to make its music the best it can be.

“Songwriting for us all starts with the initial inspiration,” Ryan Williams, bassist of the band said. “A good writing session usually consists of at least three of us at a house or small studio trying out new ideas. We always have been big in demos, and revisiting them until it sounds right to all of us.”

“We write the songs that come natural and feel good to ourselves, never forced or mirroring some other artist,” Adam Roth, lead singer of the band said.

“For being so young, we all have an incredible amount of professional experience in music,” Conner said. “I have always believed that it’s not every day that creativity overflows, but through practice and discipline, we define art.”

The band’s second EP, “Redemption Day,” was released this year, by Fredrik Eriksson, which is combined with their first EP as a "Dual-EP" on their website to help the Rubicon Team with disaster relief in Los Angeles.

“After the release of our first EP, we continued to write nonstop,” Delia said.

“Over the winter we decided to have our touring keyboard/guitarist, Fredrik Eriksson produce some new tunes. Fred is from Sweden, so that was sort of the ‘home-base’ for the record. Adam went to Sweden to cut guitars and vocals. I stayed in LA and tracked drums at Threshold Sound in Santa Monica and sent files to Fred and Adam. We all met in London to play a few shows and perform on the Dermot O’Leary show, which is where Trevor cut guitars and Ryan cut bass.”

LA VIE has been able to perform in Hollywood, Calif., and in the U.K.

“Playing in the U.K. gave us a great international taste and we all have expressed our intention in going back there,” Williams said. “It’s always a treat to see new people and a new place all at once.”

The band hopes to make its music known to the world and appreciates its fans support.

“We write songs really well together and it doesn’t matter if we are writing a song that’s more country or something more pop, it still sounds like LA VIE and that is something important to hold onto,” Conner said. “We write songs because we want to share them with the world, because there is something within all of us that seeks out music and the connection therein.”

“Music for me, and for all of us, is about that ability to connect on a human level,” Delia said. “Being able to provide that for anyone else, is just awesome. Thank you.”

The Walla Recovery

The Walla Recovery is a cello-folk band from Fort Worth and Decatur, Texas, which got its start in 2004.

“We met and played together at our church every week for about three years, and then just ended up sticking together,” Zack Smith, lead singer of the band said.

Once the band started, its goal was to have audiences connect with its music and it’s something that continues to this day.

 “I’ve always had the goal of spreading the music around to as many people as possible by giving away free songs, and that is something we’re still doing as well,” Smith said. “It’s always been about creating something beautiful and being able to share it with others.”

The band’s song “Beautiful You” played on MTV’s The Real World this year, which has given the band motivation to keep their music going, according to Smith.

“The experience opened my eyes to the fact that there’s always a way to reach the plethora of people out there who have never heard our songs,” Smith said. “Beautiful You was over six years old when The Real World used it. I knew we were (and still are) extremely unknown, but it was surprising to see some listeners call it ‘new’ and recommend it to their friends.”

The band is working on its future release of its full-length album.

“This album is a little different, because it’s mixed media, and based on a fictional story I’m writing,” Smith said. “So there’s a literary element, and some tangible pieces that have to come together alongside the music, to help tell the story. It’s the most diverse and ambitious project I’ve ever attempted.”

Even though it’s been a difficult journey for the band, its biggest success has been its love for music.

“Seeing a new listener have joy over the sounds and ideas that we’ve put on tape really helps to put things in perspective,” Smith said. “Meeting people and telling our stories together really enhances life and makes it more enjoyable.”

In the future, the band hopes to work on their new album, keep touring Texas and keep close to its fans.

“I like to take things a step at a time, because it’s easy for me to get distracted by all the possibilities,” Smith said. “We do our best to do what we know. We’ll be focusing on the new album until it’s completed, working on our live shows so that we can create really memorable and interactive events and continuing to build our little community of friends.”


The Walla Recovery - Beautiful You (Live) from The Walla Recovery on Vimeo.

Tyrannosaurus Alan

Tyrannosaurus Alan is a seven piece punk/ska band from Medway, Southeast England.

“We’ve all been involved in music from around 11 years old…just starting by picking up guitars and teaching ourselves to play, forming bands and trying to write songs,” Ben Robinson, singer and bass player of the band, said. “We all started playing music to have fun, using whatever instruments we could get for as little money as possible.”

When starting out, the band found it needed a name and came across it in a unique way.

“We couldn’t come up with a name,” Robinson said. “We didn’t have a name when we started booking gigs. An advert came on TV with a character named Tyrannosaurus Alan…it made us laugh and stuck in our heads, so the next time a promoter phoned us, we told him that’s what we were called.”

The band has been influenced by many artists, but its biggest influence is its experiences.

“With seven members, there are a lot of influences,” Robinson said. “A good tune is a good tune, but we don’t aim to sound like anybody. Our music and lyrics come from things that have happened to us or things that we’ve done. Places we’ve been, and stuff that we’ve seen happen.”

As for Tyrannosaurus Alan’s sound, the band finds that its music is its own and not a specific genre.

“We’ve always thought that rap music and metal music work well together,” Robinson said. “A horn section can make a simple song sound huge. We love the energy of punk music, the honesty of hip hop, the technicality of metal, the groove and feel of ska and reggae music. It’s all come together out of seven impatient young guys. We want to hear our favorite bits and skip the rest, so we wrote songs that make the most of all the things we like about music.”

Tyrannosaurus Alan has performed throughout the U.K., Germany, and the Czech Republic and it hopes to continue to play in other areas.

“We’d love to play in Japan and the USA, Canada and Australia, too, eventually,” Robinson said. “We’re very privileged that we get to travel around and see so many places and meet so many people.”

The band released its debut album, “Campaign,” in 2010, which was a great success.

“We were contacted by Andy B, the producer, before we’d even written the album,” Robinson said. “The studio was on a farm in the countryside in Southwest England. We lived for two weeks in a caravan in the next field over. We slept three in each bed and two on the sofas. The caravan smelled terrible and we were woken every morning by the cows on the farm. We were completely cut off for the whole recording process and it was brilliant. We were initially going to do a 5 track EP. We recorded 5 tracks and we were offered a deal from Moon Ska records to put out an album, which was to be the 5 new tracks plus our old EP put together. The songs are all basically about growing up in Medway and the things that we encountered. A lot of them are about specific people, but as a whole it talks about life growing up in a concrete jungle.”

The band plans to release another album in 2012 and hopes to continue making music in the future.

“Probably looking back, thinking about everything we’ve done and still trying to push ourselves even further,” Robinson said. “This band won’t last forever, but we make the most of every opportunity.”

 www.tyrannosaurusalan.com
 www.facebook.com/talanband
 www.soundcloud.com/trench-foot