Ned Roberts

Catch up with singer-songwriter Ned Roberts and watch the video for the first single "Lights On The River" off his forthcoming album Outside My Mind, out March 24th on Aveline Records.

What got you interested in music?

Ned: I just became a massive Bob Dylan fan back when I was 14/15 years old. I listened to all that early folk stuff like The Freewheelin' and The Times They Are a-Changin' and Electric Stuff and I just wanted to play some of those songs. So I picked up a song and started trying to play some of them and learned "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right" and songs like that and that's how it all began.

Do you remember the first song you learned on guitar?

It was either "Love Minus Zero/No Limit" or "As I Went Out One Morning" which was one of the tracks from John Wesley Harding. That was a long time ago. I learned all sorts of things. I think, once I picked up the guitar, I realized that I picked it up every single day for like 3 years whilst I was learning and playing, just playing as much as possible.

Which other musicians would you say you've been influenced by?

I really like all the '60s/'70s songwriters like Nick Drake and Paul Simon and Joni Mitchell. More recently I've started listening to some Bert Jansch. Anaïs Mitchell, I went on tour with her a couple of years ago and I just love her songwriting. 

Is there anyone you'd recommend everyone take a listen to?

I've been into this record for a while but I don't think many people know about it and it's pretty wild, it's from 1971 and it's called Time of the Last Persecution by a chap called Bill Fay. It's just really good. It's pretty out there. But he was a London-based singer-songwriter and I think after that record came out, the record label just - I think it was too weird for them - and they dropped him; then in the last 10/15 years he's sort of been rediscovered a little bit. So I'd recommend that record.

How would you describe your sound to someone who hadn't heard your music?

I always find that to be quite a difficult question. It's kind of mellow, folk-influenced, singer-songwriter stuff, really. I know that's awfully vague. The songs are bittersweet often and they're in that folk Americana sort of sound.

What were your inspirations behind your new single and the music video for "Lights On The River"?

The song itself for that is a classic break-up song, really, and it's probably the song on the record that has the least filter on it; it's the most honest, in a way. I'm often a little wary of writing like that too much, but in this case I just started to roll with it. 

The video was put together by a friend of mine called Barnaby Sax, he directed it and we just came up with the idea together. We wanted, obviously, to go with the idea of some sort of parting but also, as it shows in the scene with the friends, an idea that people were moving on, as well. It's the countryside because I grew up in the countryside, so that always feels like home to me.

Could you tell us more about your album Outside My Mind?

Yeah. I recorded it out in LA with a producer friend of mine called Luther Russell, he's recorded a lot of great people over the years. I went out there quite a while ago now and I had sent him some looped acoustic guitar demos and we recorded it pretty quickly; the bulk of it was done in about five days and we cut it mainly live, so even the drum track mainly all went down live. I really like recording like that because it keeps everything pretty fresh and inventive and nothing gets too stale. I think we recorded 15 tracks in total and we whittled it down to 10. As opposed to my first album, which was principally an acoustic record, we wanted to instrument this one a bit more 'cause it was pretty fun just deciding how to do that, which songs to strip back and which songs to build up. I knew I wanted this record to expand in its sound on the first one. I'd quite like to do a purely acoustic record again but, for this album, I definitely wanted to experiment with just building the sound up. Some tracks on this record we stripped right back and it's just a guitar with maybe a touch of piano and then some of the others are like the single with a more full-on band. The record was basically done with 3 people: it was me, my producer Luther Russell, and the engineer Jason Hiller. They're both really good session guys and Jason can play bass and Luther can play piano and drums and electric guitar, so it came out of that. That was how the record came about [laughs].

Is there a track off this record you're most excited to release?

The whole album, really, is quite a departure for me from the previous album I did. Many songs for many reasons, but maybe "Angel Station" simply because it's one of the more lighthearted tracks on the record and it's possibly the biggest departure in sound from the first album so it's quite exciting for people to hear that.

What do you hope listeners are able to take away from your music?

I hope they very much enjoy it and press play the moment they finish it, really. I wanted it to be sort of like classic songwriting, like the great '60s/'70s guys; I'll be happy if this album was half as regarded as some of those albums. 

Is there anything you want to add?

I hope at some point in the not too distant future I'll be out in the States for some gigs. And that the third album will not be so long away from the first one. I hope to get some new music out in, instead of two and a half years, maybe a year and a bit.

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Trella

Photo Credit Mikaela Hamilton

Catch up with singer-songwriter Trella and listen to her single "Stand Up" off her upcoming EP, Vapor.

What got you interested in music and songwriting?

Trella: Well I picked up a guitar when I was 8 years old - I was 4th grade-ish - and I just learned how to play. I've always been into music and I've always been a singer; pretty much as soon as I could talk, I was singing. I was always super into music and my mom was always into music; my mom was a singer as well and my dad was into music, so I grew up in a very musical family and just naturally was drawn to it. I started songwriting, I guess, really after I learned how to play guitar in about 5th grade and was writing songs all throughout my childhood and adolescence, just writing about everyday things. That was my therapy and a hobby for me, just something I really loved and that I thrived in. I started getting my first cuts in high school, just through random connections and people who poured into me and championed me as a writer. But I realized I could make a career of it and it was something that I actually wanted to do for real and actually invest my whole life into. That's kind of the long story short [laughs].

Do you remember the first song you wrote that you were happy with?

[Laughs] Honestly, the first one I'm happy with now, looking back, it's some of the ones I've written over the past few years. But I remember I wrote some funny songs in high school. [Laughs] I actually went to a liberal arts high school - it was a magnet program - and I took this recording class and I remember writing this song called "The Elephant In The Room" and it was about being in a relationship and then the relationship ending but still having to see that person all of the time. I remember I called it "The Elephant In The Room" and looking back now it's a really dumb song, but I remember being very happy with it.

Which musicians have you been influenced by?

My favorite band has always been The Beach Boys because I'm a vocal nerd and I just love all of their harmonies. Brian Wilson is just an absolutely incredible songwriter, so I just love everything that came out of The Beach Boys. Currently, I love Sia as a writer and as a singer, I love her raw vocal and I love the topics that she chooses to write on; I love that she's in pop music but she writes very heavy material and she writes on the things that reach the deepest corners of the heart. That's kind of what I try my best to do, as well. I love Beyonce, I love Adele, Bruno Mars, Esperanza Spalding - she's a jazz artist. I grew up listening to Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Dean Martin, Miles Davis, classic jazz artists; I sang in a lot of jazz ensembles in high school. I'm kind of all over the map. I also love R&B; I love R. Kelly, Usher, Chance The Rapper, Drake, The Weeknd. I also love Noah Gundersen, he's more of a singer-songwriter, but I love what he comes out with and the content of his songs - especially his older stuff - I just love and connect with. And I love Coldplay. I would say I'm all over the map as far as listening and influences goes. In my music, I'm influenced by all of those things even though it might not come out; whether it be the writing, production-wise, how I choose to go about the production of the song, I feel like it all has its own way of influencing my music.

What words would you use to describe your sound?

It's hard to explain your own sound. The melodies a lot of times are very pop-y and some of the production is pretty pop-y, but it also has a lot of jazz influences. Those are the two words that I would use to describe it, jazz and pop. And I try to keep my vocals pretty raw; we don't do much vocal editing because I really believe in the power of the raw vocal. I am a singer-songwriter at the core so I try to keep the singer-songwriter vibe even though I'm doing the pop thing. 

What were your inspirations behind this new single "Stand Up"?

When going into writing most of my songs, I would say that there are 5 different things that I am thinking of at the same time; I rarely am like, 'this is exactly what the song is about'. When I went into writing this song, I had gotten out of a pretty toxic relationship where I felt very held down and I had really just been wanting to write songs of freedom and songs of breaking free of chains. I also love to write songs about stories I hear; I love listening to people's stories and meeting strangers. I love just trying to understand what's happening in our world and trying to write on that, so I've been talking to a lot of people and a lot of friends and had all of these crazy interactions at the time with people who had just felt so trapped in their situations. That's all an illusion really, we're never actually trapped, we have the power to step out of a situation and to literally stand up. So that came from a bunch of different conversations and I'd been wanting to write this song and waiting for the right time and the right melodies. Also with our political climate right now there's just so much systemic oppression - racism, sexism, you name it, it's all happening - and it always has been happening but we're becoming more aware of it with social media. So I think that all of those things combined and I felt it stirring up within me to write this song.

I was at this writers camp in Nashville with a bunch of writers in town and I was writing with these two guys who I know and trust who are my friends, Ethan and Chuck, and I just told them, "I have this idea for a song called 'Stand Up' and I'd love to write it with you two". We wrote it in a day. I think it took us 6 hours but we just talked about all of these things and I shared a couple melodies and some lyric ideas and they helped me complete my thoughts. So we wrote the song at this writers camp and I ended up doing some edits once I was in the studio but, for the most part, most of the song was written on that day.

Is that single indicative of what we can expect from your EP and could you tell us more about Vapor?

Yeah. The EP Vapor is a journey through heartbreak and healing, that's the overall concept. For me personally, it's romantic heartbreak and healing, but I would say it's the universal feelings of heartbreak and healing; anyone who's going through anything that's in that realm could relate to it. I go through the stages of when you first have your heart broken or when you first go through this really hard thing. At least, for me, I was in denial and I was just super-empowered and so the song "Crash" is just a straight up song of me proclaiming my independence and saying, "it's all good, I'm all good, I'm nobody's lady, I'm ready to take on this world," type thing.

Then it goes into "Vapor" which is the stage of being completely numb and when I originally wrote it, it's really just about how in a toxic relationship - at least for me - afterwards, the person is still reaching out to me and still wanting to be a part of my life and I was just completely numb. The first line of the song is, "I see your hand touching but I don't feel you," so the idea of people reaching out and people trying to get to you and you literally just having no feelings. The idea of "Vapor" is like, when you're smoking a vape, it's a fake way of smoking and you're taking in this thing that's supposed to substitute the real thing: the idea of accepting a love that's substituting the real thing is the idea. The overall theme of that song is just the stage of being numb.

"Retreat" is a song about looking back into your roots. For me, I actually wrote that song when I went home for Christmas break to see my family over the holidays. I was going through that really hard time and during that break I had a ton of really good conversations with my friends and family and every morning I would wake up and go watch the sunrise on the beach, because I just grew up a mile from the beach. I felt like, during that trip, I also got back in touch with God and the spiritual realm and was just going back to all of the things that I would say are the core of who I am and being reminded of who I am through nature and through the ocean and all of that. That whole song is just about getting back to your core self. 

"Stand Up" is the physical visual of actually standing up out of your circumstances, slapping yourself in the face, and moving forward and using whatever has happened to you in this life to take physical action. It's a song of action, really, whatever that means for each person when they hear it. For me, it literally was just standing up and walking away from a situation and a toxic relationship.

Then there's "Salt" and "Salt" is a song about looking back. Right after you decide to walk away from a situation and you take these action steps, it's that moment of regret and so it's that idea of looking back at something good that you had and wondering if you should go back to it. The whole song is a ballad and it takes you through the journey of missing something and regretting, but then being reminded that that thing is actually terrible for you and you want no part of it. 

The very last song is called "Breathe Again" and it's just a super fun, dance-y, fist-pumper song and it's literally just freedom. It's about coming to the edge of something new and the feeling that you get when you're taking this super long hike - in my head while writing it I imagined this 5 day hike and then you get to the top and you have this view and you're coming to the edge of something new - and that feeling when you breathe in that air and you just find freedom. That's the last song of the EP and it's just this journey of healing and finding your core self again after a long period of ups and downs through heartbreak.

Is there one song off this album you would say is your favorite?

It's funny because, throughout the whole process, each song has been my favorite at one point or another, which is maybe a good thing. Right now I would say my favorite song is "Breathe Again" and that's because it's the most recent one that I did. I think it's the freshest, because we just finished our production for that about a month and a half ago and I'm really excited about it. It's fun and it's free and I also think that I most relate to it with where I am in life right now. I wrote every song when I was in that season. So I've written this whole EP over the past 2 years of healing from something and each song I wrote when I was in that. It's cool because it's been this personal journey and this last song, "Breathe Again", I would say I'm still living in what that song is saying.

I also really love and am excited to share the song "Salt". Any friends and artists that I've shared it with have been really excited about it, too. It really is this universal idea and I feel like most people can connect to it and feel like they're not alone in what they're feeling and the pain that they're experiencing. 

In one sentence, how would you sum up your Vapor EP?

That's a toughie... It's a journey through heartbreak and healing and freedom. That's probably the best way to describe it.

What do you hope listeners are able to take away from your music?

Really, my goal as an artist is to unify people through my music. Just the universal feelings that we all experience as humans. Although it sounds like a cliche, I really do think it's super easy to feel alone in whatever pain you're experiencing. I see it time after time again - myself included - and all of my friends just isolating and feeling as if this intense pain that they're experiencing is a unique situation for themselves. I've just realized that we're all going through it. Really my goal as an artist is to say straight up what I'm feeling, whether it be positive or negative, and to unite people in realizing that they're not alone in that, to encourage people, and to bring hope into every situation because I think that there's so much power in telling your story and someone hearing your story and saying, "yeah, me too". That's really my goal as an artist, 'cause as much as I love to sing and I love music, I love people and I want to reach people's hearts wherever they are, right this second, and I want them to know that wherever they are, that it's okay. Either I've been there, we've all been there, or it's just looking at someone and being like, "that's really hard," if it's a situation that I've never personally been through. It's someone who's having a hard time going to your song and having them press play on their iPod or iPhone or Spotify and being like, "I can listen to this song and feel less alone in this"; that's the goal, really. 

Is there anything you want to add?

It all releases on March 17th and I'll be touring some in May and June and those tour dates will be released in the next month or so. 

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KELLR

Catch up with producer/engineer KELLR and watch the video for his latest single "Faded" (ft. Matt Giraud and July 3-0) off his forthcoming EP, Hear My Voice, out soon.

What got you interested in music and production?

KELLR: My whole family are musicians. My grandfather was a band director for close to 40 years, both my parents and my cousins and everybody are singers, a bunch of my family plays piano, so I was always around music growing up. I ended up playing piano myself and started composing and writing my own songs when I was about 11 and just played by ear, I don't actually read music. I was playing by ear and that's what got me started, just being around music all the time.

Do you remember the first song you wrote that you were happy with?

Yeah [laughs]. I think that was about the time I was maybe 12 or 13 when I wrote that song. I was taking piano lessons in the traditional route where you go through the books and play other people's songs, but all I wanted to do was play my own songs. I wrote a song and I remember there was a recital for all the other kids and I was the only one that was playing original music so I thought that was pretty cool.

Which musicians would you say you were influenced by?

Definitely Michael Jackson. Growing up, I had a half hour commute to school from kindergarten through second or third grade and that was right after Bad had just come out, so I just remember listening to him all the time. I think that's probably had a big influence on the way that I produce as well, especially with rhythm and drums and the beats that him and Quincy Jones, his producer, made. He was definitely a big influence on my music.

Is there a new artist you'd recommend everyone take a listen to?

Yeah, there's a producer/artist, his name is Lido and he's from Norway but he's a really good producer and musician and I think he sings as well. He co-produced one of the tracks on Chance The Rapper's album that just won a Grammy. He has an album out that came out maybe 6 months ago called Everything. It's a pretty cool compilation, a lot of really unique production, electronic music, R&B stuff; he's kind of a jack of all trades. His production is really top notch and I really like him.

How would you describe your sound to someone who had never heard your music?

I kind of describe it as electronic hip hop. Drums and rhythm are really important to me so I always try to make those a focal point, at least in part of the track if not throughout the whole track when I'm producing. Hard hitting drums, unique sounds, and cool transitions. I always try to focus on my mixing, as well, to make things sound as clear as possible and have their own space and I definitely want to tap into emotion too, whatever kind of emotional scape that I'm trying to make with the song.

What were your inspirations behind your single for "Faded"?

That was an instrumental that I just really liked. That's how I started with this project, is basically just producing songs that I liked producing, that I liked listening to, and so that instrumental was one that I really liked. Nothing really happened with it for a while when I was trying to put together the EP and then it just came out of nowhere. One of the co-writers on "Faded" had the instrumental and played it for Matt in a session and he really liked it and they were just almost joking around with ideas for the track and I think that's probably why it turned out so good, is because there was no pressure; it wasn't like we had to write a track and there was a deadline, it was all for fun. So he liked that and he came over here and we finished up the track and then I've been friends with Alex, the rapper, July 3-0, for a while and so I knew that he would be perfect for a bridge or a third verse part. It all came together really easily and I think that's probably when the best music is made, when there's no pressure and everyone is just doing their own thing for fun.

Could you tell us more about your debut EP, Hear My Voice?

It's kind of a compilation album almost - I never listened to those Now That's What I Call Music things growing up [laughs] but this is kind of like that where there's a bunch of different types of music on there - it represents the sound and the music that I enjoy making, that I enjoy listening to. There's electronic stuff on there, there's R&B, there's hip hop, there's pop, there's 2 instrumentals that are on there. That's the whole idea; this is a body of work and all these styles and songs are what I like making, what I like listening to, and hopefully that'll resonate with the people that listen to it too.

Is there one track off the EP you're most excited to share with your listeners?

"Faded" was probably the one I was most excited about. I like all of them [laughs], they all have their own unique place in my heart, but the next single I'm putting out is called "Rumors" and it's a more electronic track and it's really cool. I'm excited to put that one out, too. It's a polarized track, there's a lot of very broken down, intimate parts where the vocalist, it's just her and a basic beat and then there's a huge explosion into this chorus with lots of synths and drums so there's like opposite ends of the spectrum, which I think is really cool, so I'm excited to share that at the end of this month.

How would you sum up Hear My Voice in one sentence?

It's a great representation of the music that I love making and I like listening to.

What do you hope listeners are able to take away from your music?

I hope when people hear it they can tune in on all the emotion and the emotional space that I create with each track and maybe that will resonate with them. Or if they just like listening to the music, then that works too. It's really just an artistic expression and I'm sure there's something for everybody on the EP so I'm sure they can find at least one song that resonates with them.

Is there anything you want to add?

Definitely to check out the video for "Faded" that just came out - it's up on Yahoo Music and it'll be on my YouTube page, as well. Then there's a video for "Rumors" that's going to come out probably closer to the end of March and I think visuals like that are pretty important. But ["Faded"] is a cool video so definitely check it out.

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Rough Church

Catch up with LA-based band Rough Church's Greg Franco and watch the video for their latest single "5 AM Shadows" off their upcoming sixth album, Queen's Sacrifice, out February 24th.

What got you interested in starting Rough Church?

Greg: I had a band for 10 years that I kind of split up [laughs]. It was called Ferdinand and I had an offer to make a solo album in New Zealand and I did that with these guys in this band called The Clean, then I came back to LA and some friends wanted to jam and I was like, "maybe I'll start a new band with some different people," so we called it Rough Church and it's been around since 2005, about 12 years. 

Where did you come up with the name Rough Church?

It just sort of hit me,. We live in rough times, it's kind of exciting but also trying times, and the idea of bringing people together is church-ish. Musicians playing together is kind of our church, in a way. It was rough rock & roll and church and it just hit me one day. 

Which musicians would you say you've been influenced by?

Well I've always been a huge fan of this guy D. Boon from the Minutemen; this guy from the '80s who died at 27 - a young guy - he was a hero of mine when I was in my early 20's. He was in this punk, really unique, LA band and his music had a lot of politics in it, so he's always been a huge influence. And Frank Black from The Pixies and I'm sort of a bigger guy so I like these big rockers and big dudes. Screaming - musical though, not just screaming. Kurt Cobain, punk, all that early '80s stuff, I was into everything: Sex Pistols, Joy Division, all that stuff.

Is there anyone you're hooked on right now?

I like Courtney Barnett. She's my girl, she's just a lefty like me who plays guitar and she sings great lyrics. And I like her influences too, all the Aussie stuff. We go over there and play sometimes and I really am just loving the Australian music scene almost more than any place.

How would you describe your sound to someone who had never heard your music?

I think we're trying to recreate the whole idea of the punk rock ethos with '70s classic rock. Really well-recorded, good songwriting, good singing, harmonies, vocals. There's a pop element to it but there's also a rough punk edge to it, but we also have some songs that are really languid and beautiful and sweet and this girl plays violin. The song "5 AM Shadows" on our record is kind of a hit right now, it's been featured on a lot of blogs and they like it, and it's really pretty, groovy, pop rock.

What were your inspirations behind that single "5 AM Shadows"?

It's neat because the riff came in from the guitar player and he was like, "this is a really pretty riff, what do you think?" and then Kaitlin and I wrote the lyric on it. It got really groovy and we liked Cocteau Twins and Stereolab and bands like that a lot and they influenced that song. We were going for something in the head that was beautiful and organic and natural for that song. The drums are real, every thing is live, and the original take is us in the room; that's what we're trying to do, is preserve the idea of live recording. 

Is that single indicative of what we can expect to hear on Queen's Sacrifice?

I think we're going more in that direction but then we have some angrier songs about the times we are in. "Speak" is one, so we have some political stuff. "Book Junkies", which is a pop rocker but it has some energy. We have an album probably coming out next year so it's going to be like a double with this one and it's kind of all over the place. We have this ability to write songs like little mini movies so everything is different and each song is its own person with very different features and blends. But I have the main songwriting people in place now, which took me a few records to get it done. Everybody's working together in harmony and we all love each other and that's not easy, that's the hard part with bands, I think, to get that part done, and then that's when the music can get really good. It's a good record. 

Is there a track off this album you're most excited to perform live?

I think that one, "5 AM Shadows". We're playing our record release party on Friday and I think "Speak" is one. We can do longer versions of the songs and have solos and, in that way, we can be a jam band and take songs and lengthen them; it can be a 4 minute song and we'll turn it into a 10 minute thing where we have solos and jams and make it so the audience gets a little bit more of what they paid for. 

How would you sum up Queen's Sacrifice in one sentence?

It's a journey through a modern era but it doesn't want to waste your time. 

It's a short record, it's only 8 songs. In the era of making records for vinyl, we want to make records for all time. There's records I've been listening to for 40 years and a lot of them are really like 39 minutes long, they're not really long records. Like Steely Dan's Aja is a good example, I've been listening to that record and I still hear new things on it. I just want to make songs that hold up over time. Queen's Sacrifice is a reference to chess in that, it seems like your opponent's winning 'cause you gave up the queen but then it turns out that's exactly the right move to get them thinking that they're winning and then you win in 7 moves. It's a 7 move checkmate, so that was intriguing to me as a title. We're trying to make a short amount of songs for a record, but then you need to hear it again; it's like a drug. In the beginning you're always skeptical, but by the end you're left devastated, like this is one of the great records. I want to make records that I'm remembered by, so that's what it is. It doesn't mean you have to put out every song that you demoed - we demo 100 songs and release 8 at a time - but we really fussed over this record, it took us 2 years to make it. It was quite a journey and one of the songs we recorded in Wellington, New Zealand, so we're willing to go anywhere to find the gold. We'll take our pickaxes out and chip away at it.

What do you hope listeners are able to take away from your music?

It's always about love and any kind of healing that we're trying to do for people. People go through all kinds of things in life and the music, you need it. We all need music, and not just any music, but music that touches us. I want those songs to be touchstones in people's lives, that's important to me. 

Is there anything you want to add?

Just a shout out to everybody in the band. Alfredo's busy with his band Gogol Bordello and he's playing drums for them and he was in the Beastie Boys. I just want to shout out to everybody in the band for doing such a good job. Dante for writing and to my mom, Rosanne Hall, who helps us a lot and supports us, and my wife, Michelle Davis; people and my family who have really been supportive, because it's not an easy thing to do to hold onto this dream.

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