Rocstrong

Catch up with Dublin-based funk/rock artist, Rocstrong, and listen to first single, "Go'Head", from his forthcoming EP, S.O.W.Y.G., to be released this May.

What first got you interested in music?

Rocstrong: Honestly, the best memory I have of what got me into music was seeing the attention my sister got when she was being coached/managed by my dad; she was a great singer and dancer. I just wanted the opportunity to steal her shine and when the day came that I got it, I grabbed it with both hands and sang my ass off.

Which musicians have you been influenced by?

When you listen to my sound closely you can kind of hear lots of influences, but the one who sticks out the most would be James Brown. He made the biggest contribution to music, I think, and inspired a lot of the greats that have passed and that we still know and admire today. Speaking about most recent influences, I really enjoy what Pharrell Williams does; he’s in a league of his own.

If you were to make a playlist to share with your fans, which three songs - from other artists - would you have to include?

Pharrell Williams - "Come Get It Bae"

Justin Timberlake - "Suit & Tie"

Macklemore - "Thrift Shop"

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

I would describe my sound as today’s sound of motivation, funky, fun, catchy and addictive; a sound that leaves you with a feel-good feeling after every listen.

What were your inspirations for your single "Go'Head"?

"Go’Head" is a song with a message, that message is to just do what you want to do but do it good, it’s a song to motivate those that make excuses for not doing what they want. I was one of those people. It’s, in my view, a very unique sound and the lyrics inspired me to make sure it turned out as it did.

Could you tell us more about your upcoming EP and what we can expect to hear on Show Off What You Got?

My upcoming EP titled S.O.W.Y.G. (Show Off What You Got) is one big project that has one goal and that’s to inspire and motivate. The title itself isn’t so hard to crack and it simply says: if you’ve got something good? Show it. Just, like, if there’s something out there that you want to do? Then go’head and get it done! That being said, it’s going to be full of very strong catchy songs and those that have been waiting won’t be disappointed.

In one sentence, how would you sum up the EP?

The EP is an inspirational and motivational EP full of real head boppers, catchy lyrics and clever word-play.

What do you hope your listeners can take away from your music?

I hope it’s exactly what they’ve been waiting for and that they really see the best of me in every song. It’s been a long time coming and I’ve definitely got a lot to prove. However, I would like it to be known that I’m not at all scared of the journey ahead.

Is there anything you'd like to add?

The best is still to come and I haven’t even started to warm up yet. Thank you for the interview and if you want to keep up to date with what’s going on with me, check out www.officialrocstrong.com. It has the link to all my social medias, tour dates and anything that’s going on in Rocstrong’s world.

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The Black Atlas

Catch up with The Black Atlas' Peter Koronios and look for Equinox, the third and final installment of his The Equinox EP series, to be released April 22.

What got you interested in music?

Peter Koronios: There was definitely a familial element. Neither of my parents played any instruments, but there was a tremendous amount of music and music appreciation in my home when I was a young child, so I guess that really pushed me into an investigation of that whole world and, eventually, I just felt like I had to participate, so I started playing the drums at about 11 years old. 

Which musicians have you been influenced by?

There have been a tremendous amount of musicians that have influenced me. I guess, particularly for this project, I've been super influenced by a lot of the people that I've worked with, like Jesse Clasen, Drew Roulette from Dredge, Ryan Hunter from Envy on the Coast and, really, they just put me onto some good music that has totally changed my game.

Is there a current artist you've got on repeat?

We're playing some Phantogram in the van, definitely some Beach House, and I've actually been listening to a lot of Beach Boys; that's not very current, but not too proud to say the amount of new artists that I'm into these days is pretty slim.

Which words would you use to describe your own sound?

It's hard to describe your own music, especially with this last release. The one that's coming out on April 22nd, Equinox, it veers a little left of center and deviates quite a bit from the sound that was established in the previous two EPs. I've heard words like ambient rock, dark rock, psychedelic, experimental - little bit of that - really, alternative being the classic go-to bracket for when music is not easily categorized. So, I'd say alternative, I'd go with.

What was your inspiration behind your single, "The Master"?

That particular tune was sort of a really intense look at a lot of my own internal struggle, trying to keep ego out of the creative process and it was just hard to do, but there's definitely a certain amount of mental checks and balances that I try to keep in place and one of them is being able to write a song about yourself and acknowledge the fact that there's that aspect of yourself that you always have to keep in check. That kicks off the EP, that's the first track, and I think it really sets the tone for what is, essentially, a dissection of myself, which is the final EP; that's the lyrical content and, really, the inspiration for the whole thing.

Could you tell us more about The Equinox EP series and this upcoming final EP?

Obviously, this has been done over the course of a year and a half and it's been done in installments, but the EP series really is a concept and, briefly, it's just about a sort of metanoia, a mental transmutation, changing your mind and really having a breakthrough; being able to see yourself as the hero and the enemy of your own story. This EP, Equinox, the last one, is kind of the catharsis and capstone to the whole story, really delving into subjects of the importance of being present and the necessity of mental clarity and stuff like that; taking a good look at yourself but also allowing there to be a certain acknowledgment of forgiveness. 

Sonically, it's a little bit more, I wouldn't say upbeat, but it's definitely a little calmer. There are definitely some dark elements and some heavy stuff that is going on that harkens back to the previous sound, but it's a little bit more accessible and the songs are not as abrasive or heavy.

Is there a song from the EP you're most excited to share with listeners?

Prog Sphere just premiered "Equinox", which is the title track of not only this upcoming EP, but the whole series, and, lyrically, it's a very exemplary song for the mindset I was in when I started this entire project. Lyrically especially, it is an extremely important song to me, personally, so I guess that would be it, "Equinox".

What do you hope your listeners can take away from your music?

It's interesting, I was having a talk about this yesterday or the day before, it's super important to me to at least feel, in some way, that I'm doing a very personal work and I think that that will, in many ways, come across to a lot of the people that are going to be interested in this type of music and, ideally, music has helped me; it's started me off on the path of a little bit more self discovery and lots of area of study that have literally just expanded my mind and helped my life and, really, when you break down what I tried to do with this EP series, is create a creative self-help manual [laughs]. It's a guide to interpreting your own psychology and, at the very least, in this three act story, what I attempted to do is lay out my own mental story. I think that a lot of it is applicable to pretty much anybody who is going through that kind of self discovery.

Is there anything you'd like to add?

We're on tour now and we're heading to Sioux Falls, South Dakota and we'll be in Aberdeen, SD tomorrow night and we're coming up on the last ten shows of the first leg of The Equinox Tour. After that, we have a little reprieve for the month of May and we're back out again in June, so we're always posting and updating our dates and things like that on social media and we'd really like to see some people out at the shows and make some new friends.

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Cooper Anstett

Catch up with Detroit-based singer-songwriter Cooper Anstett and check out his latest single, "Wrong", off his upcoming sophomore release, Cooper.

What got you interested in music and songwriting?

Cooper Anstett: My dad was always really into music and he never wrote any music, but he was always singing and playing songs for me when I was a little boy. Once I got into high school I had been playing guitar for a while and high school, for me, was the first time I was starting to grow up a little bit and coming into some of my own life changes and everything and needing an outlet to reflect on that. It started off as something that was more of a journal/diary entry type of thing with songwriting, and then it grew into people liking these songs and maybe I needed to focus more on writing songs for both personal reasons and for entertainment for others, for other people to connect to some of my stories. 

Do you remember the first song you wrote?

I was down in Florida and I think I was a freshman in high school and I had a trip down there with some friends. There was this guy who was maybe 30 years old, performing on the street, and I talked to him and he was really inspiring to me because he was playing a lot of his own music and I thought those are pretty cool songs so I thought, 'yeah, I'm going to give it a shot and write my own tune'. I had gotten back to Michigan from visiting Florida and still wanted to be in the sunshine and enjoying the weather, so I wrote a song about just my experience in Florida; not so much about the weather, but it was just a really enjoyable time with my friends and my first solo trip when I was younger. It wasn't anything I was super proud of at the time, but it was fun to get the process started and learn how to formulate a song and just the whole process of creating an entire length of work: progression and finding the melody and whatnot and deciding what I want to talk about. I think now, where I'm at, I've developed more meaning behind my songs and they're more meaningful than that song was, but it was a good place to start, for sure.

Which musicians have you been influenced by?

When I was younger, my biggest influences were a few different people. I'd say Jack Johnson was a huge one, Mason Jennings, Ben Harper, and a couple other older singer-songwriters, James Taylor and Cat Stevens. I'd say those were the essential people I listened to and that was a result of both my own interests and my parents' listening to them. I got exposed to some more classic singer-songwriters at a very young age and that let to me wanting to do something similar, at that point.

Who do you have in your playlist now?

It's always changing but, right now, a band that I've been listening to a lot is The 1975; and Kendrick Lamar, I've been listening to a lot, as well. I still always have the essentials that I go back to, but I like to throw in some new stuff just to keep my mindset fresh and follow the progression of music. I think it's really important to evolve as a musician and not get too set in your ways and pigeonhole yourself, because music's always changing and that's not a bad thing, it's fun to change with music, as well, and keep things exciting, keep people interested, and evolve as an artist with an ever evolving industry. 

How would you describe your own sound?

The way I write songs is just me and my guitar, whether it's me writing the song alone or with a friend or another songwriter who we've set up a co-write with. My sound has grown from, originally, just me and a guitar recorded and that's it - I had a couple demo CDs when I was younger, just very raw, very basic singer-songwriter - to, now, I'm going more in a direction where it still is that, in its essence and its most raw form, it is me and my guitar and that singer-songwriter sound, but I think it's evolved into a little bit more of a modern sound. I want to be labeled as singer-songwriter, but I don't necessarily want to have that classic singer-songwriter sound, you know, a guy just plucking away at the guitar and singing a tune; I want to keep it interesting, show people what a singer-songwriter is and that it can be a modern sound, even though it's labeled as a singer-songwriter. For me, I think my music is very, very happy, very upbeat but, at the same time, I think the production behind it plays a big role in keeping it modern and what I've done for the latest two singles is teamed up with a producer named Ryan McDermott who has a really hip-hop and R&B influenced background and I think, with that background in addition to my background of more chill singer-songwriter stuff, we've created a sound that's very interesting. Definitely, in my eyes, it truly is just a modern singer-songwriter.

What were your inspirations behind your new single, "Wrong"?

Myself, and I'm sure a lot of other people can relate to this too, I tend to get myself into the same situations - whether it's in relationships or just with another person - and you know that type of person's not good for you but, for some reason, you're attracted back to that type of person. Let's say you're with someone and you realize they're not good for you and you want to end it with them, but the next person you start to fall in love with or get intrigued by, you're blinded by your heart and you don't even realize that you're falling in love with the same type of person and restarting this cycle of getting yourself back into something that's unhealthy. The song is about learning to break that cycle and realize where your heart goes wrong and understand what is actually best for you and not something that is just pleasurable in the short term.

Could you tell us more about your upcoming self-titled mixtape?

I'm very excited about it and I'm calling it a mixtape because, pretty much, it is an EP at the end of the day, but when you see a mixtape, you generally see rappers releasing mixtapes or whatever and that ties back into what I'm trying to do with a modern singer-songwriter. Singer-songwriters can release mixtapes too and a mixtape is a pretty loose word and can be used in a lot of situations and that's why I'm calling it a mixtape.

The mixtape's going to have a lot of different influences on it; the two songs, "Wrong" and "Move", are produced by Ryan McDermott, like I said, but then I have two other songs that are going to be on it that I'm feeling excited about that are produced in Nashville which are going to have a little bit different of a sound on it: it's going to be slightly more live instruments and a little bit more full band feel, instead of a more electronic, sample type of feel. But, the two sounds are very representative of what I am and what I'm trying to do, moving forward. I'm also going to have an acoustic track on there too that is strictly just me and my guitar. The mixtape is just showing a few different sides of me and, moving forward in the future, I intend to focus on all the sides of me, whether I focus on one side for a whole project and then the next project I focus on another side of my artistry, I just want to show people, in one project of five songs, a few essential sides of where I'm coming from and what my roots are as a musician and what they will be growing and evolving into in the future.

How would you sum up Cooper in one sentence?

Diverse.

I'd probably just sum it up in that one word, to be honest with you. Diverse, progressive, and my music, in general, is just very positive; I've always lived my life in a very positive way and that's what I try to express in all facets of my life, besides music. But, yeah, I'd say diverse and progressive for a singer-songwriter.

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

At the end of the day, I just want to affect them in some way, whether it's just making them feel a sense of positivity or happiness throughout their day - like I said, that is a central thing I'm trying to put into people's lives is happiness and positivity - or making them reflect on their own life and making them realize like, 'hey, it's okay to feel and recognize the emotions you're feeling,' and I think music is one thing that can help you realize you're feeling a certain way and not ignore the way you're feeling, but realize it and face it and then make a change to move forward; or, not make a change and continue what you're doing and live a happy, positive life. I hope my music can promote that for my listeners and I think it will. I'm excited to release it.

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A+A

Catch up with Anwar (all instruments) and Andrew (lyrics, vocals) of R&B pop duo, A+A, and check out their video for new single "Changes" off A+A's forthcoming debut EP, LivingRooms, out May 11.

What brought you guys together?

Andrew: What brought us together, first and foremost, well, no, let's start from even further back. Anwar, what got you into music?

Anwar: Well, what got me into music - wow, you're questioning me, okay - I think, more than anything, probably just my upbringing. My whole family was into music, my mom was a musician, my father was a singer in a band and he had records on RCA Records and stuff like that, and then my dad's uncle was in a band which was famous at the time, so that's me. What about you bro?

Andrew: Me, same thing with my upbringing. My father is a musician but I was eased into it by Prince and George Michael, who are some of my biggest influences, so that was the upbringing that I had. It was that sense of music like Michael Jackson and when music was real music. 

Anwar: What's wrong with music now?

Andrew: It's not real bro, it's not real. It's just not.

Anwar: I think it's real.

Andrew: Yeah, but we're not real human beings.

Anwar: That's true. Okay.

Andrew: So, yeah, just the upbringing was the same, like that was very influential in molding my music likes and dislikes and whatnot.

Anwar: I think that's what got us together, is the fact that we were on the same page with being real and honest in our music.

Andrew: Right, it's more-so about what we love rather than what the world is telling you to do right now, like, 'oh, this is hot so I'm going to do this,' no, that's why there's such a different variety of music that we make, because there's so much music within us that we'd be selling ourselves short to stay in one lane.

Anwar: Yeah, one lane, one genre, forget about that. Crazy enough, I'm a classical jazz pianist by trade and I listen to classical music half the day sometimes but, when me and Andrew are together, we're writing-

Andrew: Everything.

Anwar: I think, more than anything, just the fact that me and Andrew love music so much that we don't give it one face.

Andrew: I feel like it wouldn't be real if we had to, because then that would be the case: we would have to sound like this or do this because it's what we're doing. Even starting from the beginning of everything, we've always made different types of music, even when we were working with and writing for other people, so that's what made it easy, the fact that our background was so different. Me, personally - and I know that Anwar's the same way - I'm very, very stubborn and selfish in the sense that I don't care about what people like, I want to make my own music and if you don't like it, then you don't like it and if you like it, then awesome.

Anwar: [Laughs] I used to own a recording studio in New York and, unfortunately, it closed down but it's all good because I met Andrew through that. There was this top artist and we were looking at her project and we just ended up hitting it off right from session one. 

Andrew: Yeah and we just kind of went from there.

You've touched on your separate influences, but who would you say influences what you're doing now?

Anwar: In terms of musically and all the sounds that you hear on our album, a lot of influence just comes from, you could say, Bach or Chopin, because that's what I always listen to and then I'll apply it to this music. I listen to a lot of Radiohead, I love Radiohead, and I love artists and bands that follow a wave of making great music, they're not really finding one distinct sound, 'cause that's what Radiohead is and I really dig that. I like James Blake, I'm listening to The Japanese House too which has really, really cool sounds made with 1975 but, I think, more than anything, our sound has so many different influences, it's even jazz. We watched The Basement Tapes and fell in love with Marcus Mumford and we wrote the song "Manhattan" right after we watched that TV show, so sometimes it's not even music that influences us, but TV shows or walks in the park and all that.

Andrew: Right and, from the lyrical standpoint, me personally, I'll be the first to say that I love music, but I don't really care for it. I'm all about words, the meaning of words and how I can say whatever I need to say or want to say and developing phrases and statements that way so, with that being said, I listen to a lot of artists that are known for the way that they put words together so surely; the way that the words are put together are so definite and there's no doubt in any of it or I wouldn't even want to replace it any other way. My biggest influences in writing are George Michael, that's one of my biggest, if not the biggest, lyrical influence because everything he says is just so sure. Same with James Fauntleroy; he has a totally different style of writing and he's more melodic first, but everything that he says has a way of flowing and messing with your mind, but everything is so definite, as well. It's about the story and about the message, and also marrying that with whatever sound we choose to be portraying that day.

Anwar: We loves James. James is definitely a huge influence on us.

What words would you use to describe your sound?

Anwar: It's so unique, so freaking unique, I don't even know what words to really put to it. It's almost like starting our own little genre. 

Andrew: The word I would say, to describe our sound, is just, 'whatever'. It's really whatever we feel, it's not about, 'oh, this is the A+A sound,' - and I guess it's because it's coming from the same base that it's all cohesive - but it's literally whatever we feel.

Anwar: Yeah, I think whatever is the best word.

Andrew: It's careless and it's careful; it's just whatever.

Could you tell us more about your inspirations for your single and video for "Changes"?

Andrew: I was going through a lot at the point of writing that record. The record was a prayer and I went on a hike one day and I was just rambling in my mind and going through it and beating myself up and overthinking - as us emotional people do - and I got to the top of the mountain and I was just like, 'I can't do this anymore,' and I started praying, but praying really loud and screaming out loud and, literally, what the record says is a play by play of what happened: 'I fell my knees just hit the ground / I feel your presence all around / I lift my hands and scream out loud / I don't know what about 'cause it all just hurts / but things are changing now'. It's just a declaration of faith to let the world and the enemy, whatever the enemy may be, know that you're not going to be put down by the struggles or your situation because you have faith that there are better days coming.

Anwar: Yeah baby!

Are your past two singles indicative of the sound we can expect to hear on the album and can you tell us more about LivingRooms?

Anwar: When we release the record, one of our next singles is going to be "Naked" and it is a great summary of the type of sound that we're going for which is, we have major urban influences and then we have some pop influences, for sure, like indie pop. And we love Kanye West so we'll throw 808s on.

Andrew: "Naked" is definitely the perfect marriage of all the sounds.

Anwar: You can expect a whole lot of everything. Just picture all the tracks that you hear on Soundcloud and then put it all into one track and that's our focus and sound.

Andrew: That's it. As far as the whole project, the sounds will be everywhere, but what you can expect is, honestly, to get to know who I and Anwar are, because it's really - sonically, lyrically, vibe-wise - everything is the perfect representation of who we are, as people and as artists and just as beings of the universe.

How would you sum up LivingRooms in one sentence?

Andrew: The waiting area between one door closing and the next one opening.

Anwar: You know what it is, we started in a recording studio and then we moved it into my living room and we pretty much made the whole record in my living room. It's a very open space, my kids are running around everywhere and there's always people in the house, so it's a very open, free vibe in the studio.

Andrew: That went hand in hand with my songwriter process with writing all of these songs, even before we decided to group them together, because I'm 23 and I'm still figuring it out; I'm figuring life out, I don't know when I'm going to be done figuring it out, but I'm just going with it, I'm rolling with the punches, and literally every single song came from a place of confusion and a place of, when is the next door going to open? I want this one to close, I want to get to the next stage of my life, and that's basically what a living room is and it's kind of perfect that the way that we did it was in a living room, because we were able to express the way that we were just waiting for that next level and we were literally in the living room making all of these things happen while waiting for the next level. Whatever's coming up, God is in control.

Anwar: What's really crazy is, as we're writing these songs, I might be jamming on the guitar for awhile and what's awesome about the setup that we have is, if Andrew gets mega inspired, my bathroom is right next to the studio wall, so he writes the majority of the music in the bathroom.

Andrew: In the bathroom, yeah.

Anwar: You're a bathroom songwriter.

Andrew: I am, I mean, it muffles the sound so it's quiet enough for me to think, but then I still hear it so it's like I'm still there [laughs].

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

Andrew: Be yourselves.

Anwar: Yeah!

Andrew: Be open, be who you are, because that's the greatest way to be different. Everybody's trying to be different, but we're all already different as individuals; there's nobody on this Earth that's just like you, and I feel like, especially working and writing with other people, it's really hard to portray yourself or lead yourself through the work that you're doing when other people are dictating, 'no, do this, do that'.

Anwar: You just hit it on the nose, because we've been writing for other people for a really long time and, after a while of just doing that, I realized, coming from a producer standpoint, I've just been everything to everyone for years, just making people sound like a million bucks and I've never really spent the time to really focus on myself and, the moment I met Andrew, it hit me, it was time to really do this and just shut the others out and focus on myself. It's okay to be selfish, a little bit.

Andrew: You have to be. I come from a background of always being on the backburner of things, maybe family, maybe life, and when I got to high school, I just started to be myself and, if you don't like it, then you don't like it, and if you like it, then awesome, we're friends, but it comes with a lot of loneliness and being with yourself but, you know what, at the end of the day, you are all that you have to answer to and you are all that you have to live with and everybody and everything else is irrelevant. As long as you're happy, that's what matters and that's what the whole project is about; it's about that process of finding life and finding you and finding love and being loved and being real with yourself. 

Anwar: And we reflect this on the stage; all our live shows are very 'real' feeling. We just don't care what anyone else thinks, we'll do the craziest things - it's not even that it's a comedy act - it's just the fact that we don't really care so we'll just do whatever we feel in the moment. We love that and we preach that to people and we hope that we can also open up doors for other people to feel the way that we're feeling.

Is there anything you'd like to add?

Anwar: Basically, do whatever you want, meet whoever you want. Andrew and I met on blackpeoplemeet.com... [laughs].

Andrew: No, we didn't.

Anwar: [Laughs] I don't actually know where I was going with that.

Andrew: I would just say, closing statement, there's a very wise man, his name is Aubrey Graham, he goes by Drake, and he goes, 'yeah girl, just be you / and I do this shit for my hometown / it been going down it ain't new / that's that north north, that up,' just kidding, but just be you. Be you! [Laughs]

Anwar: The album's coming out May 11th.

Andrew: May 11th, LivingRooms, yeah.

Anwar: And we'll be opening for Glint at Pianos in New York City on April 26th.

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