Indie by Brenda Ramirez

INDIE JAMES BAY

THE MAN

BEHIND THE GUITAR

best Paramore indie acts releases new 2017 song “temporary”

INDIE

INDICE

MUSIC

3 The Strokes: New album to be their last?

4 James Bay: The man behind the guitar. Hayley Williams

6 Shares Rare Video

of Unreleased Early Paramore Song “Temporary”

Hayley Williams on criticism

10 The 1975: Debut new songs

INDIE En el contenido de esta revista se podrán encontrar artículos sobre bandas y artístas musicales conocidos alrededor del mundo, con el propósito de que el lector se actualice con las últimas noticias sobre el mundo de la música. PRINCIPAL EDITOR: Brenda Ramírez SENIOR EDITOR: Brenda Ramírez ASSOCIATE EDITOR: Brenda Ramírez ASSISTANT EDITORS: Brenda Ramírez PRINCIPAL CONTRIBUTORS: Brenda Ramírez List of Authors CONSULTING SOFTWARE ARCHITECT: Brenda Ramírez OTHER CONTRIBUTORS: Brenda Ramírez Past Subject Editors FACULTY SPONSOR: Brenda Ramírez ADVISORY BOARD: Brenda Ramírez PUBLISHER: Brenda Ramírez Universidad del Valle de México Hermosillo, Sonora LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOG: ISSN 1095-5054 EMAIL CORRESPONDENCE: brendaaramirez60@gmail.com

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The most powerful aspect of music is that it can open your eyes to the frustration of everything and give you the adrenaline and faith to go on the deal that you can do better if you do your thing

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J ul i a n C a sab l an c as

TALKS ABOUT NEW ALBUM

Casablancas revealed how plans aren’t really looking good for the future of the band, claiming how he got frustrated with how the group handled themselves. “Here’s the thing, the Strokes, the relationship is good now,” the Strokes singer said about the possibility of a new album. “The Strokes was my life. It was everything and I put everything into it - it was a journey that I wanted to keep moving forward, but I couldn’t do that anymore and it was very frustrating.” “So it took all this time to getting round to almost starting a new band to get to the point where I can continue to do what I set out to do from the beginning. It’s like if we had the best team ever and before the championship people started celebrating and not practicing. And we still have to play the playoffs.”With a new album reportedly on the

way for The Strokes, he also said in the same interview how the group is starting to write new songs for a follow up record to “Comedown Machine.” “It’s the first time [the Strokes have] been exclusively writing since ‘Comedown Machine,’” Casablancas said. “We’re planning on recording stuff. I still think we could do cool things and I’ll do that. I’d like to do both [bands] really if I could.” First confirmation of the new materials came during an appearance at the Landmark Festival in Washington early this year. According to a report from Diffuser, a tweet from one of the audience at the said show had the band confirmed that they would be working on a new The Strokes album. “We’ll be back soon. We’ll be back in the studio and s-t,”. 3

B AY J a m e s

becoming a household name. The singer and deftly skilled guitarist released his debut album this Chaos and the Calm in March, which netted two worldwide smash single “Let It Go” and “Hold Back The River.” Though his sound is draws on older influences, notably American artists from the 1960s, 70s and 1980s, there is something inherently modern to his story. Bay got his start playing open mic nights in Brighton where he was also going to school. One fateful night, a man recorded one of his sessions and posted the video online. By chance someone at Universal saw the video and decided they needed to sign Bay right away. Fast forward to today where Bay is selling out headlining tours, has opened for the Rolling Stones and racked hundreds of millions of streams on Spotify. The good-looking and talented writer and performer is shaping up to have a special career with all of the tools at his disposal. We had a chance to get Mr. Bay on the phone to discuss his positive experience signing with a major label, how to write a great song, performing with George Ezra and Sam Smith and much more. He’s released a couple singles—”Let It Go” also enjoyed worldwide hit status—opened for Taylor Swift and his revered Rolling Stones on their tours, welcomed Ed Sheeran and Ronnie Wood to his headline stages, and sold out arenas all over Europe. 4

“I write about personal experiences. I write about things that have happened to me and the people around me, so you just sort of keep this antenna up and on the lookout for things to say.”

THE MAN BEHIND THE GUITAR Despite that impressive cameo from one of the UK’s rising music stars, it was another Brit who was grabbing the Late Late headlines this morning. “I’m not fussed, man,” shrugs Bay, when I ask about obnoxious loudmouth Katie Hopkins. “I’m not exactly a huge fan. She’s doing it, it’s her job, which is an interesting choice, but it’s not like politicians are much better most of the time either. We didn’t run into each other, thankfully.”

Hayley Williams Shares Rare Video of Unreleased Early Paramore Song ‘Temporary’ Crazy as it seems, it’s been 12 long years since Paramore released its frenziedly promising debut album All We Know Is Falling. Hayley Williams, Zac Farro, and the rest of the band were all high school-aged then so even now, they’re in their twenties, like deceptively young NBA veterans who got drafted as wunderkind teenagers. But their first album is indeed a dozen years old, and yesterday they cracked open the archives to celebrate. Williams tweeted out video of a live performance of an

ancient (by Paramore standards) track called “Temporary,” which was never formally released. We unfortunately don’t get a clear view of Zac’s old scene hair cut, but there are plenty of very 2005 fashions to be seen in this one. “Temporary” is among a horde of old Paramore songs that’ve never been released, though a pair of All We Know Is Falling-era tracks, “O Star” and “This Circle,” were finally included on the album’s 10-year vinyl reissue.

“bc AWKIF is 12: here’s 1 of my fav vids/songs from those days... “Temporary”. never officially released. Z slams” posted Williams on Twitter.

Hayley Williams ON CRITICISM

“The thing that annoyed me,” Hayley Williams says, “was that I had already done so much soul-searching about it, years before anyone else had decided there was an issue. When the article began circulating, I sort of had to go and rehash everything in front of everybody. It was important, however, for me to show humility in that moment. I was a 17 year old kid when I wrote the lyrics in question and if I can somehow exemplify what it means to grow up, get information, and become any shade of ‘woke’, then that’s a-okay with me.”

ing words that didn’t belong in the conversation. It’s the fact that the story was setup inside the context of a competition that didn’t exist over some fantasy romance.”

“The problem with the lyrics is not that I had an issue with someone I went to school with. That’s just high school and friendships and breakups. It’s the way I tried to call her out us-

Williams continued: “I just was done. I thought, There’s gotta be something else that I’m good at in my life. Maybe it’s time for me to go find that.”

“For whatever reason, I believe I was supposed to have written those backwards words and I was supposed to learn something from them,” she continues. “It’s made me more compassionate toward other women, who maybe have social anxieties… and toward younger girls who are at this very moment learning to cope and to relate and to connect. We’re all just tryShe continues: “[The lyrics] literally came ing our damnedest. It’s a lot easier when we from a page in my diary. What I couldn’t have have support and community with each other. known at the time was that I was feeding into a Vulnerability helps lay the foundation for all lie that I’d bought into, just like so many other that.” teenagers – and many adults – before me. The whole, ‘I’m not like the other girls’ thing… this Paramore released their latest album ‘After ‘cool girl’ religion. What even is that? Who are Laughter’ last month – read the NME review the gatekeepers of ‘cool’ anyway? Are they all here. Williams later revealed that she left the men? Are they women that we’ve put on top of band for a period in 2015 after suffering extenan unreachable pedestal? sively from depression.

Hayley Williams has responded to criticism of the lyrics to the band’s hit single ‘Misery Business’ in a new interview.

THE 1975 Debut five new songs, incluiding new single Love Me “I’ve been shitting myself all day,” admits The 1975’s frontman Matt Healy midway through the Manchester indie-poppers’ first gig since January. On the sold-out opening night, his nerves are perhaps understandable. Fans have been camping out since 2am to secure a place down the front of the 2,300-capacity venue. Plus, as circus barker for their new album ‘I Like It When You Sleep, For You Are So Beautiful Yet So Unaware Of It’ – a moniker straight out of Pete Wentz’s ‘Overly Long Titles (That Never End)’ desktop file – the 26-year-old has talked a good game. New material was announced via a social media blackout, trolling the internet into believing the quartet were splitting, while earlier this month, Healy grandly stated they “want to be ambassadors for this generation”. With their second album only a few months away, could they be out to achieve these ambitious aims?

‘Fame’ with the bombast of ‘Kick’-era INXS, and features Instagram narcissism-baiting lyrics snarkier than Sleaford Mods’ Jason Williamson with a hangover. That The 1975 open with it feels almost like a statement of intent. In an interview last year, when talking about working with One Direction, Healy noted that “I spend a lot of my time in The 1975 trying to rein in my love of pop”. Although it’s difficult to judge an album you haven’t heard based on five songs, those previewed tonight feel like the group removing the tastemaker-appeasing stabilisers and hitting the lurid pop button, especially ‘Love Me’.

Monochrome is out, pink is in On their debut album, the band expanded the black-and-white aesthetic of the record’s sleeve for their stage set. As with their second album’s ‘Love Me’ is a bold opener artwork and the group’s fresh press shots, tonight ‘I Like It When You Sleep…’’s opening salvo is they’re bathed in garish pink. And if you were an absolute corker. Accompanied by an effecti- hoping for some of the props from the ‘Love Me’ ve Diane Martel-directed promo featuring car- video – Healy’s 2D megastar mates, a pink hot dboard cut-outs of the likes of Ed Sheeran and tub, or perhaps a new addition in a piñata shaped Harry Styles, it splices the strut of David Bowie’s like Sam Smith, you’ll be disappointed. 10

he new album will take you back to the ‘80s. Or at least if the songs on show tonight are a marker of what’s to come. All mine an ‘80s pop seam that feels more like a calibrated evolution of their sound rather than a revolution. ‘Change Of Heart’ is a soft-focus ballad reminiscent of Madonna’s ‘Crazy For You’, with Healy lamenting “I just had a change of heart”. ‘She’s American’ raids the bargin bin for the decommissioned sounds of Hue and Cry and Johnny Hates Jazz; all funky guitars, a finger-snapping bridge and a wailing sax solo. It’s the kind of guilty pleasure pop you can imagine Alan Partridge introducing by saying something terribly xenophobic. Over tsunamis of retro synths and morse code bass, ‘Somebody Else’ feels like M83, while ‘The Sound’, pivoted on sampled gang vocals, sees Healy attempting to teach the crowd the chorus (“Well I know that you’re around from the sound of your heart”).

If The 1975’s debut felt like a curate’s egg of influences, here they’re seemingly embracing their John Hughes movie side fully. They couldn’t evoke the decade more without recreating the Poll Tax riots in the encore. 11