Thirteen Senses

Thirteen Senses is an alternative rock band that formed in Cornwall, England. 

 

“We started the band in 2001 and played small pub gigs locally,” lead singer and guitarist Will South said. “We recorded a number of demos and our break came after we sent one out to some record companies, who were kind enough to offer us a deal.”

 

Since its start, the band’s music has been continuing to be known, featuring on shows such as Grey's Anatomy and Bones.

 

“It gave us a platform to deliver our music to the American audience,” South said. “Our albums have never been given a proper release over there, so it’s great to have the music out there in this way.”

 

For Thirteen Senses, music is like a piece of art and expression of oneself.

 

“It’s a desire to create and express ourselves,” South said. “I think any artist, whether you’re a painter, poet or musician, must have a mysterious force behind them that needs to be expressed in a different form. As a band, when we are all together creating a new piece of music, it’s where we feel most comfortable.”

 

The band’s recent album, “Crystal Sounds,” was self-produced after being on a major recording label.

 

“It marked a slight change in direction and gave us a new injection of energy,” South said. “We started writing it as soon as the second album, Campaign, came to an end. Most of the songs were actually written and demoed by the beginning of 2008. The album wasn’t completed until the end of 2009 before finally being released the next year. We recorded most of it in our own studio.”

 

Thirteen Senses’ biggest success has been continuing its career.

 

“Our biggest success is that we’re still here making music,” South said. “We’re just in the process of finishing album four, so our future will, at the moment, involve getting that released and heard by as many people as possible.”

 

The band has been grateful for its fans support and hopes to release its next album soon.

 

“Just a big thank you for listening and supporting us,” South said. “That’s all really and we can’t wait for you to hear the new tracks, which hopefully won’t be too long a wait.”

 

  

Locksley

Locksley is a rock and roll band who originally formed in Madison, Wis., during high school. The band moved to New York shortly after to spread its upbeat music.

The band has been influenced by many artists and have been able to perform with them as well.

“We’ve gotten to perform with Graham Smith, Fountains of Wayne, Ray Davies and The Hives,” Jesse Laz, singer and guitarist said.

Unlike many bands, Locksley has many voices, not just one main song writer.

“There are three songwriters in the band, all with different inspiration,” Laz said. “This album was mostly various romantic experiences but there are a few songs about growing up on there.”

Locksley has performed on Jimmy Kimmel Live and Late Night with Conan O’Brien.

“Jimmy Kimmel was much more relaxed, more like a normal show,” Laz said. “Conan was very professional. The timing they had on that program was unbelievable. Everything was timed and executed so tightly that after we finished I thought I might have forgotten to play guitar.”

The band recently released its self-titled album this past summer.

“It’s really like a Greatest Hits, so it was recorded over years at different times but all at a studio called The Space in lower Manhattan,” Laz said.

One of the most memorable performances the band had was performing the national anthem.

“We sang the national anthem at a memorial for one of the navy seals who died in that Chinook helicopter crash in Afghanistan,” Laz said. “Maybe interesting isn’t the word, but it certainly felt more moving than anything else we’ve done.”

In the future, the band hopes to make more music and continuing its career.

“We have a lot of new music that we’re trying to figure out release plans for,” Laz said. “One thing I can promise is that after the next album comes out, there will be very frequent releases until the end of our career.”

Young Man

Young Man is an alternative rock musician by the name of Colin Caulfield from Chicago. 

“I’ve always listened to and analyzed music, so once I picked up piano and guitar, it wasn’t too difficult to pick it up,” Caulfield said. “I play guitar, piano, drums, and sing. Rather than any one instrument being a favorite, I seem to vibe most with the combination of voice and piano. I write a song nearly every time I sit down at a piano.”

Caulfield started his band when he was in college.

“Young Man is a concept project I started working on when I was a sophomore in college,” Caulfield said. “At that point (as well as right now) things were constantly hanging - my life was dominated by a transition from young to old. I briefly considered using my own name, but that made everything too specific - there’s an intentional universality within each Young Man song, whether or not it’s about a specific experience of mine.”

Being a solo artist has been an enjoyable experience for Caulfield, but he hopes to do more things with a band.

“’Boy’ and ‘Ideas of Distance’ are definitely solo records, but the next two LPs will be considerably more of a group effort,” Caulfield said. “I liked being the dominant creative force for a while because it made me progress quickly, but I don’t know if I’m cut out to do that forever. I enjoy being in a band and seeing how ideas can grow with the help of other people.”

The debut album, “Ideas of Distance” is based on a long distance relationship Caulfield has been in.

“When I wrote the record, that relationship was being tested not only by distance, but by my looming graduation from college, which signified a significantly new phase of my life,” Caulfield said. “I was attempting to juggle career plans and being in love constantly caught in thinking about the future. Having said that, the album functions on two levels…On one hand, it’s my argument for why being in a long distance is terrible. On the other hand, it’s a more general discussion of love that everyone feels. The recording process was more or less concurrent with the writing process. I did all of it in my room, except for additional production done by my good friend, Phil Tortoroli, who lives in New York City.”

Young Man has toured throughout Europe, the East Coast and Midwest and it looking forward to the West Coast and opening for Cold War Kids on Nov. 1.

In the future, Caulfield hopes to release more albums and be part of a band again.

“I’m really anxious and impatient when it comes to my creative future,” Caulfield said. “There are two Young Man albums in addition to ‘Ideas of Distance’ in the next year, which will conclude the project, but I’m already writing more and thinking about what I’d like to focus on afterward. It’d be great to play drums in a band again, but I have an open mind.”

Joey Ryan & The Inks

Joey Ryan & The Inks is a five-piece alternative rock band hailing from St. Paul, Minn. 

“I played with our bass player, Matt Mitchell, for a long time in a band called ‘The Exchange’ growing up,” lead singer Joey Ryan said. “Once that band ended, he helped me demo a small catalog of songs I had been working on and playing as a solo act that would soon turn into a good chunk of what was on our first record, ‘Well, Here We Are Then.’ From there, Matt’s brother, Chris, started playing some guitar with us and we asked Ryan Mach who we knew from playing drums with other bands around town. Tim Dickson is the newest member of the group and has been playing with us for a while, too.”

The band has always wanted to play upbeat tunes and has been influenced by artists such as The Beatles, The Hollies, The Beach Boys, ELO and Bob Dylan.

“I’ve always enjoyed music in this vein, but it’s taken different forms over the years - that’s where all of those different influences come in,” Ryan said. 

Inspiration comes from many things for the band, but most of all is the people around them.

“First, we just have a good time making music and as long as that continues, I see no reason to stop,” Ryan said. “But also, I think we’ve got some good momentum going as a band – we’re playing in new places to new audiences and getting a pretty good response to it, and I think the new record has added to that.”

Its newest album, “Dennis Lane,” was self-produced and released in July of this year.

“We have (a) studio in my basement, which is where we came up with a lot of these songs and recorded almost everything…and it happens to be located on Dennis Lane,” Ryan said. “Being able to record at home at our own pace certainly shaped the recording process – it takes some of the pressure off and gave us some freedom to experiment, and sometimes you find a new idea in those experiments that really adds to the song.”

In the future, the band hopes to create more music and keep traveling.

“We’ll keep writing songs and making records,” Ryan said. “We haven’t really charted out a specific course, but hopefully we’ll keep broadening our horizons and bringing our music to new places with some touring.”

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

Sam Beeton Update

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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/