Ian Bamberger Trio

Look for New Jersey based blues rock band Ian Bamberger Trio's first full length album, Satisfied, coming April 2016.

What got you interested in music?

I'm 24 now so it's already been a long time; I've played guitar for twelve years, my dad was a musician in my area where I've grown up, the Asbury scene, basically. I played guitar all through high school; I used to have a 4-track in my basement and do all these loops on this 4-track and then I bought a loop pedal and I became pretty proficient at recording all these melodies and everything and I played a bunch of coffee houses, then I got picked up as a guitar player by Tor - another musician who is signed now, this guy's playing Governors Ball - and we were in a band for a few years. The whole time I was writing music, doing that whole thing, went to college, broke up with Tor, played through college, graduated, and then I decided I needed to actually record, so I hit the studio - Lakehouse Studio in Asbury Park - and recorded my first EP. Then I got a band together, the Ian Bamberger Trio, played a bunch of shows in New York and a lot of basement shows in New Brunswick - which is a whole scene there - and then I recorded another five song EP and kept playing music, and now I'm here.

Do you remember the first song you wrote?

Oh my gosh [laughs]. Yeah, it's called "Forgotten" and it's the first full song I ever wrote, the first where I had the balls to sing, 'cause when I first started singing, I couldn't sing at all; everyone was like, 'oh my god, what are you doing,' especially in high school. I took the video down but I used to have it on YouTube. I just posted a video and people liked it, it was good, but it was "Forgotten". I must have written that first full song sophomore year in high school.

Which musicians have you been influenced by?

It's been a lot. I guess, everyone goes through phases, if you're a musician or not. When I grew up I lived by Green Day and Jimi Hendrix, kind of opposite but both three piece bands; Hendrix had the experience and everything and that was just very cool to me, that raw sound. I'm into some hip hop; I love A Tribe Called Quest, lyrically and it's another way to look at beats and that's great. Bob Dylan, Sam Morrison, Red Hot Chili Peppers, old Jack White - like White Stripes - and then, today, I love Ed Sheeran, John Mayer; so it's a lot, it's all over the place. I also love the old jazz players like Django Reinhardt or Wes Montgomery.

What's in your playlist now?

It's been a lot of Sam Cooke and old soul singer-songwriters from a while back, like Otis Redding and, obviously, I've been listening to more Bowie lately, since he passed.

Could you describe your sound?

I try to take it in two parts. When I write songs I try to lyrically and vocally make it my own and then try to emulate another really popular band from the past. So, if you check out "LA 2 DC" - it's a song I have from my last EP but then I remastered it and I'm going to put it on the next album - the verse is Red Hot Chili Peppers, straight out of the book; it has a hard hitting slap bass and it's really fast and upbeat, and then the bridge breaks down almost in a Led Zeppelin manner and it's pretty bass heavy, and then there's a smooth solo and then it breaks into another Red Hot Chili Peppers sound. Then, lyrically, when I try to write it's usually about traveling or past experiences, like love and lust; it can be cliché but if you deliver it the right way I think it can be very cool.

What was the inspiration behind your single, "Satisfied"?

It was a bunch of things. The original inspiration was someone I met a while back as a rowing coach and this woman inspired me from her past, quite a bit. And, just listening to a lot of blues players and rock songs. It was something fun to write and I thought it would be fun to play.

And that's the title track off your forthcoming album, how does this album compare to your previous releases?

Production wise, it's more in-depth. I hope, I think, my songwriting's gotten better, my singing got better, there's obviously more content on it - it's ten songs instead of the usual five I do - and what I have done, I started experimenting with layering my vocals and doing some harmonies with falsetto work and that's been really, really exciting, because the product came out well. And, it's the first recorded song I have with piano; there's one of the songs on the album - my drummer's also a multi-instrumentalist - and it was pretty cool to have the idea for the verse of one of our songs to have this 1978 Wurlitzer piano in the background and it adds a new dynamic.

Do you have a favorite track from that album to perform live?

I would say "My Champagne". "My Champagne" is crazy and, hopefully, I can get musicians to sit in, once this drops, for shows coming after 'cause it's fun. It's pretty catchy with the guitar riff but, also, you can extend it if you have an organ player or horn players or whatever, it's something you can just jam on for awhile.

Could you sum up Satisfied in one sentence?

It's my musical progression to take what I want in life to the next level.

What do you hope listeners take from your music?

I hope they would tell their friends to come to a show. One of the things I try to get across in the studio recording is, if you hear us live, it'll have even more energy than the tracks, and that's the biggest thing, bringing it back to the stage and having a really powerful live performance, so that's what I would want. And, obviously, just, come out to shows.

Is there anything you'd like to add?

I will go on tour in June - I'll be hitting up the Northeast - and then the album will release in early April.

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The Queen And King

See what the Nashville based electro pop duo, The Queen And King (Caroline Shumate and Greg Graves) have in store for fans and look for Pep Talk in 2016.

What brought you two together?

Caroline: Greg and I actually met in high school and we're always people who did back-up band for things; we both have an instrumental background and so he would either play bass or guitar for somebody and I usually played guitar or drums for somebody, so we got to know each other through high school. Then, our freshman year of college, he was like, 'I am moving to Nashville to do audio engineering school,' and I just kind of followed so, here we are [laughs].

Which musicians have you been inspired by?

Caroline: Definitely Tove Lo, Betty Who, Lights, Halsey.

What's in your playlist now?

Caroline: Our playlist is very eclectic; we listen to a lot of hip hop, pop from '80s, '90s, 2000s.

Greg: Phil Collins.

Caroline: We actually just created a Spotify playlist called 'January Jams' that people can listen to and kind of see what's in our playlist this month.

How would you describe your sound?

Caroline: Our sound is like dark, electronic pop.

You just released the acoustic version of "Trouble"; what was the inspiration behind that song?

Caroline: Well, a couple of summers ago, the show, Orange Is The New Black, was on Netflix and I was watching it and was just kind of inspired by some of the relationships in that show, so I wrote that song about that.

Could you sum up your Cavities EP in one sentence?

Caroline: Ooh, [laughs] I have to think about that for a second. I think Cavities is just the beginning: it is just kind of an introduction to TQK, because our songs have gotten better, our production has gotten better; it's just a taste of what's to come.

Greg: I'm pretty on board with that.

Could you tell us more about your other forthcoming EP, Pep Talk, and how it compares to your previous releases?

Caroline: Absolutely! The new EP is definitely more concentrated. I think, lyrically, it's very dense content and production wise we just went up a whole step.

Greg: We hired a producer. We had an actual producer make that entire EP with us and it was perfect because we had a separate set of ears, someone who was more experienced than us in actually writing songs and making music. You'll be able to tell the difference between Cavities and Pep Talk, because there's just a massive difference.

Caroline: But, I think just the songs are better, the lyrics are better, the production is better. We're just so excited to get it out there, but Cavities was a great first step for us and I think we learned so much about ourselves and where we wanted to take the next music, the direction that we wanted to go with the next music.

Is there a track from Pep Talk you're most excited for your listeners to hear?

Caroline: I don't know, my mind changes on that. Every week it's a different song that I'm excited to release.

Greg: Yeah, whenever I come back to listening to the EP again, there's always a new song that I get really stoked for people to listen to, but it's always different.

You've been putting out covers on Spotify and YouTube, why choose to do that while still working on your EPs?

Caroline: So, whenever we started the band - I guess it was a year and a half ago, almost two years ago - we kind of were trying to figure out our sound because we are both instrumentalists at the base of it. We were kind of figuring out what genre we wanted to go towards and so we thought that trading covers and experimenting with different sounds and different genres to figure out what was the best fit for us would be a great introduction to creating our own music and seeing which genre fit the best for us. And apparently, I mean, people like them.

Greg: Also, people love content and we definitely needed something out there. We wanted to put something out before we released an EP, I guess, and that's another reason. Whenever we started, we were making all of those videos, all of those covers, and it was just so that people could have something; if they were ever to talk about us they could actually open Spotify or YouTube and find us. I think that was how we started on that whole cover thing.

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

Caroline: We just want people to connect. My greatest hope is that somebody will listen to one of our songs and be like, 'yeah, I get this, I could have written this song'.

Greg: Yep, and dance.

Caroline: And dance, definitely dance.

Is there anything you'd like to add?

Caroline: We're just so excited to keep putting music out there and keep growing the number of ears that listen to our music.

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Tameca Jones

What got you interested in music?

Tameca Jones: I've always been interested in music but it wasn't until I had my twins - I became pregnant with twins in college, I was an English major at Baylor and I decided to become an entertainment attorney, for some reason, and I got pregnant with twins - and after I had them I had to figure out some kind of career path and I always knew that I could sing, so I just decided to make money that way. It was kind of the only thing I could do, because I have narcolepsy and an 8-5 job just wasn't the best for me 'cause I'd have to drive long distances and I'd be sleepy and I'm a single mother of twins, so I just kind of went into music as a desperate attempt to make a living at something that I knew I could do.

Which artists have you been influenced by?

It's crazy, it's changed so much. At the beginning, it was definitely more rock, like Led Zeppelin and British rock and American rock - like Nirvana - and a lot of pop, but now it's got more soul like Donny Hathaway, Tina Turner, and Aretha; it's just all over the place, pretty much. I have a lot of contemporary influences as well, but those are the influences I've had growing up in the past: the pop and the rock.

Is there an artist you're hooked on right now?

You know, it's funny, I listen to a lot of old '90s music - like a lot of old Timbaland and Missy Elliot stuff - a lot of old RnB I listen to just for the production value. I've been listening to that a lot lately, for some reason.

How would you describe your own sound?

It's definitely evolved since I found a producer to work with who has let me grow and hasn't put me on a leash and made my sound his sound. It's definitely evolved to more of a soul/pop, because before it was more soul with contemporary sprinkles, but now it's kind of switched to contemporary with soul sprinkles, because my voice is always going to be soulful. The producer for the song "Hot and Bothered", he said my voice reminded him of Tammy Burell or Marvin Gaye, he said my voice has this whole soul quality to it, so anything I do is going to be soulful, but I just love the electronic, synthy pop kind of music. It's just evolved to more contemporary with soul. 

What inspired your single, "Hot and Bothered"?

I had a crush on this guy that I was texting and I'm super shy and I just found this loop on GarageBand and it was just cool with this soul, motown basis, and I just played it over and over again and I wrote this song about him. It was pretty easy to write - they all came that easy - but that was extremely easy to write about my crush [laughs].

That track is off your forthcoming EP, what can you tell us about that EP?

I've been working so hard on this EP. My friend, Gary Clark, for example, he knows his sound and he knows what he's going for because he plays an instrument and he's like, 'I want this sound and this sound and this sound'; I don't have a sound yet, it's constantly evolving. So, I think you can expect more stuff like "Hot and Bothered", but it's kind of like a big stew of influences and genres. I have some electronic stuff, one kind of reggae-ish tune, and one soul/throwback song that's Aretha-like; it's just all over the place. I just want to throw something on the wall to see if it sticks and it's kind of all over the place now until I figure out the sound. I kind of have sonic ADHD, because I like this certain genre and then I like this certain genre; I kind of cut and paste. It's just going to be a sonic stew of genres.

Was that track you did with Gary Clark Jr any indication of the sound we can expect on the EP or was it just done outside of your album?

Yeah, that was like a fun, outside of my album song. I've known Gary for years and I've been trying to work with him forever but we just couldn't coordinate our schedules, and then, finally, Gary was working on his second album and he heard me singing the demos that he wrote for his song and he asked me to come and lay it down and I was like, 'oh my gosh, what a huge honor'; and that song was so sexy, I think that's probably my favorite song on the album. That was a huge honor and I love Gary so much. I want to collab with him in the future, but it just didn't work out for my EP because he's working on his new album and touring and whatnot, so we just couldn't connect, but hopefully one day... [Laughs]

What do you want listeners to take away from your music?

I just want to move people with my voice and my words and my tone. I make use of tone and I just want someone to get chills when they hear my voice, because it's taken me a lot of hard work to understand tone and phrasing and just the little nuances of people's voices. I've been studying that for so long and I just want people to be touched by my tone and my phrasing and for it to be refreshing. I want to refresh people. Refreshing, hands down [laughs]. 

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Peppermint Heaven

What brought you two together?

Spark: Musical similarities.

Juno: Yeah, so we were in a band together in Chicago some years ago and we wrote music together-

Spark: We wrote music together and had somewhat of a good career in Chicago-

Juno: But then we came out to LA and, after a bit of a break from each other, reconnected a few years back and formed this new group, Peppermint Heaven, and now we're making some inspired new music.

Where does your name, Peppermint Heaven, come from?

Juno: Oh, Peppermint Heaven comes from an obscure pre Smiths Morrissey song that we ran across in one of his bios or interviews and it was just kind of like a really interesting name. That particular song I don't think was ever released, it was something that came from Morrissey and, of course, we're influenced a lot by the '80s, so it seemed to fit well.

Spark: And peppermints are wonderful things. They taste like heaven.

Which musicians, other than Morrissey or The Smiths, have you been influenced by?

Spark: David Bowie, David Bowie, David Bowie.

Juno: We have to pay tribute to David Bowie. 

Spark: Brian Eno. That whole alternative stuff has stayed with us.

Juno: '80s groups like Simple Mind or Pet Shop Boys, New Order, that whole world, you can hear that influence in our new album, Precious Things, available for sale on January 29th. A shameless plug.

Which David Bowie track would be your favorite?

Spark: "Ashes to Ashes" is one of my favorites, I love that, I loved that.

Juno: I would say, thinking back to "Golden Years" and Young Americans, that period. But, there's so much rich music and I'm glad to see so many people paying attention again to this great artist.

Spark: Yes, the Earthling album was very impressional to me. I enjoyed every track from that album.

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

Spark: It's like an '80s dance club kind of rock, if you mix it all together, it's like something fun to play in the '80s but there's a rock n' roll, a rock edge kind of thing, a seriousness to the music.

Juno: Yeah, it also has a contemporary feel, a modern feel, but it definitely has that '80s vibe - not Huey Lewis, but more of New Order.

Spark: Yeah, I would say something that would be played in the clubs in Europe or something in '85 and in Berlin they'd play some of this music at night.

What was the inspiration for your single and video for "The Cage That We Live In"?

Juno: The video is actually directed by a UK director, his name is Pierce G Wilson, and animated by a Taiwanese animator, Jeremy Zhang, and their inspiration came from the lyrics of the song which are kind of talking about breaking free of limitations; we don't want to explain our lyrics too much, we'd rather have people interpret them for themselves, but the video is just a couple of guys driving around in the snow and spinning their car and they end up painting some graffiti on an abandoned building and it's animated so it is really quite cool. You all should see it.

Spark: The bird's eye animation is really unique - that's where you're looking down from the sky - and each video that I've seen that has that kind of thing in it, it's really cool; you're looking down upon the scene so it's a good thing to check out. They're fun.

Juno: We're doing seven videos in support of the album that are all animated, all done by the same guys in England, and we're trying to create a continuity and a theme and something unique, and it's more like a hand-painted watercolor looking animation, some of the characters don't have faces, some do have faces. 

Spark: The plots all tie together, so the same characters are in each one; it'd be kind of neat to see all seven in a row, like a little movie. 

Juno: The next one is called "Decide 4 Yourself" and it's just been unveiled. We're working with a website called PopWrapped and they're doing our exclusive unveiling of each video; this week they unveiled "Decide 4 Yourself". Everyone check those out, please!

That single is off your forthcoming album, Precious Things; could you tell us more about that album?

Spark: "Talk To Me". Listen to "Talk To Me", that is a big one. That's a powerful message, that track there. "Talk To Me" is really a wonderful thing.

Juno: Yeah, we're getting some great feedback on that track; it's more of a harder edge sound, but the album goes from that harder sound to a more acoustic, haunting track called "The Girl I Used To Know" which is pianos and acoustic guitars and still keeping in the same vibe as the album, but we're trying not to have every track sound the same. There's a good range of darker indie pop sounds on there that we hope our fans will enjoy.

What do you want listeners and fans to take away from your music?

Spark: I think a love of the arpeggiator, which was invented by somebody [laughs]. Most of the songs carry arpeggiations, which is an amazing thing to listen to; the automatic, arpeggiating, rotating computer kind of thing, if you're a novice to it. But, just, each one is a different flavor kind of arpeggiating system.

Juno: And drum loops.

Spark: Yeah, but repetitive arpeggiating things, that New Order did and stuff like that, but that would be neat to have people really get benefits from the world of arpeggiators and to invest in some arpeggiation in your life [laughs].

Juno: We're big fans of that.

Spark: It's a wonderful thing, each one's different.

Juno: We hope people take away a love of the music and continue to look out for us, 'cause we'll be coming out with more of our music later this year, as well, after the album. We're working on another group of songs.

Spark: Our second album is being formed. It's wonderful! We're excited for that.

Is there anything you'd like to add?

Juno: We have remixes that have been completed for three of the tracks on the album; AMPM remixed "The Cage That We Live In" and Damon Hess and Deep Matter remixed "Words Colliding" and we will be releasing these dance remixes about a month after the album, late February, so we're going to be hitting the dance clubs and dance music fans and DJs with these alternate versions of the tracks, so keep an eye out for that, as well. 

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