A well fitting name is essential for every band. My Heart Belongs To Cecilia Winter from Zurich score at least 100 in this game and seem to be ready to spread over europe. Over the last one-and-a-half years the attention started to grow and if you believe the swiss blog-scene, this band is the common denominator of the indie scene in their home country. Artists like Scott Matthew or Rufus Wainwright count as famous fans.
In 2010 the band released their debut “Our Love Will Cut Through Everything” and features a sound that combines Neo-Folk with aspects of Post Punk and New Wave. Later this year you can see them live at Jugendkulturfestival (Basel) and Reeperbahnfestival (Hamburg).
The label City Slang just announced a release date for the new Dear Reader-album. If you look at the tracklist of “Idealistic Animals” it seems to be some kind of conceptual work. The album will see the light of day on September 2nd. City Slang and Dear Reader are giving away a new song for all good people waiting.
I did not want to like this band at the beginning. Young Rebel Set from Stockton-On-Tees in North East England seemed to be too obvious, like a Pub Rock-Version of everybody’s darlings Mumford & Sons. So I tried to not listen to their music. But then came “If I Was”, the first single and one of the best Folk Pop-pieces of 2010 and you couldn’t avoid to fall in love with the song. Now 2011 sees Young Rebel Set release their debut LP “Curse Our Love” and the video to “Lion’s mouth” gives a first impression. Here’s a band to watch.
I don’t really know how I first got in touch. Whatever may have led me to the irish songwriter Terence O’Connor and his project The Butterfly Graveyard, in the end I listened to the self-titled record and decided to put up a show with them.
The Butterfly Graveyard started as a collaboration between Terence and the producer Herbie Macken, who had already worked with Neil Finn of Crowded House and with U2’s producer Daniel Lanios. “The Joshua Tree” is one of his masterpieces.
Terence O’Connor: I was a big fan of that Lanoisesque kind of production and I also really Liked the way Herbie used very intrcate arrangements and harmonys. We had met a few years before working on a different project, then a few years later I had written a bunch of songs, called around to Herbie’s place, played a few songs on acoustic guitar and we decided to make a record.We ended up writing a lot of material and whittled it down to the eleven that made the album.
Buzz: Are The Butterfly Graveyard a band or do you think of it as your solo project?
Terence O’Connor: I feel the terms band or solo project dont quite apply as I enjoy collaborating with different people be it in the studio or live. In a sense The Butterfly Graveyard is like it’s namesake as it is in contant flow or evolution. Like the chrsyalis of the butterfly, The Butterfly Graveyard started life in the studio with myself and Herbie and it then evolved into the live show which is something completly different. To recreate the album in a live setting I am working with Anthony who plays guitar and keyboards and who has a great feel for the light and shade of the music and also with Timmy who’s a drummer. Between us we try not to replicate the album note for note but to take certain aspects and highlight them and make them into something new.
Buzz: Your self titled debut seems to me to be “grown up” music in some way. Do you understand what I mean? Would you agree?
Terence O’Connor: Yes I do understand what you mean and I do agree. The Butterfly Graveyard is not “bubblegum music” although I must admit I do enjoy a well crafted disposable three minute pop tune. I suppose one does what comes naturally. I tend to write songs that usually don’t come in under three minutes and I do take time with the lyrics. Yet a lot of great pop songs have great lyrics but I suppose themes of transience, spirituality and alienation dont really fall into the pop music bracket for the most part.
Buzz: The toppics you are naming more often appear in other musical genres besides pop. Could you name some of your favourite blues and folk artists?
Terence O’Connor: My gateway into the blues really began by listening to Led Zeppelin. I’m a huge Led Zeppelin fan and I was really interested in tracing or exploring the geneaolgy of where a lot of that early Zeppelin stuff came from. Songs by Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon, Howlin Wolf, Memphis Minnie, Otis Rush. I also really like female blues singers such as Bessie Jones, Vera Hall and of course the great gospel singer Mahalia Jackson. In the folk genre I would say the legendary Irish folk group Planxty are a big influence, again they sent me off on explorations of traditional songs, trying to hear them in early field recordings. Also the power of their music was so groundbreaking, mixing folk with traditional irish music really upset a lot of purists back in the 1970’s, yet they took it on and pushed through and changed folk music forever. I also like a lot of contemporary folk music such as The Unthanks and The Imagined Village.
Buzz: How would you describe your sound to a complete stranger in a bar late at night, five minutes before you leave?
Terence O’Connor: I would describe it as Lo fi, acoustic, ambient, thoughtful, spiritual, uplifting, music.
Buzz: Your song “I’m lost in the city when I can’t see the stars” was choosen to be released in an online-mixtape by Mercedes Benz. How did they got in touch with your music?
Terence O’Connor: I’m not actually sure of the intial contact, I would presume it was from our myspace site and they liked what they heard. They then got in touch with our manager and said they would like to inculde the track on their next mixtape. The song itself is an urban lullaby, a post nightclub walk through a city from night time into morning. The name of the Mercedes mixtape was “blue mood” so I reckon they felt our track “Im lost when i can’t see the stars in the city” suited that mood.
Buzz: Did you get any feedback with that release?
Terence O’Connor: Yes that’s an interesting one, I have found that if you mention that your music is linked to Mercedes Benz people are very positive. As a brand Mercedes Benz are associated with style and class which is something I like my music being asscociated with. From a publicity perspective it certainly brought the music to a wider audience via the Mercedes Benz website and it’s links to facebook and twitter. Although I’m still waiting for my free merc… Just a joke by the way.
Buzz: You told me that you work full time. Is it hard to combine a full time job with being engaged with a musical project that has the ambition to tour and release albums?
Terence O’Connor: In some ways they complement each other in the sense that they are a balance. They both inhabit different worlds but it can be very refreshing going from one to the other. Yes it can be difficult at times to accomadate both but as a rule the good things outway the bad.
Buzz: In December 2010 you came to Germany to play two shows on a weekend. It is a rather short trip for that distance. What made you decide it was the right thing to do?
Terence O’Connor: Well there were a few factors that helped me decide. Firstly I suppose I was aware that Germany has a huge interest in music especially the kind of indie genre I find myself in. We had already been played on the radio in Berlin and also it was quite soon after the Mercedes Benz thing which made me think that it might be worth going for a look so to speak. Then we got the invite to come over and play the two shows and the timing just seemed right. Also another factor in the mix was that it was Christmas time and I really wanted to see a German Christmas market but actually didn’t get to see any in the end so that means I might have to go back again.
Buzz: What are your plans with The Butterfly Graveyard in 2011?
Terence O’Connor: 2011 should see the Butterfly Graveyard starting work on writing for the second album. Also there is talk of us playing in New York at Easter and actually of us coming back to Germany in April to play a show with the German band Early Autumn Break.
Here is a little glimpse of 2011. Wye Oak will release their third album “Civillian” via City Slang in early march. The duo of Jenn Wasner and Andy Stack play a kind of 21st-century folk music, imbued with dense shoegaze guitars, nearly melodic rhythms, and splashes of electronic color. You can get the title track of the forthcoming LP now at their Labels homepage.
Our Broken Garden is the moniker of Anna Brønsted. The Singer/Songwriter from Denmark recently released her second album “golden sea” and echoes the likes of Feist, Beach House or My Bee’s Garden in her music. The outstanding track of the LP is “garden grow” a soft hymn for the cold winter days.
Propably one of the best british Bands you’ve never heard of. The Wave Pictures return this autumn with a 6-Track-EP entitled “Sweetheart”. Here’s the leading track.
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