34 | September 18, 2014 | cambridge-news.co.uk | Cambridge News
the critical list: more hot tickets NEW MUSIC
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Andy Miller WRITER, editor and bookseller Andy Miller realised he’d gotten to a point where he’d tell people he’d read this book or that, when in fact, he hadn’t. Or he thought he had, but then realised – after spouting an opinion – that he’d never so much as opened a copy. So, in the interest of being more honest, better read and a more rounded human being in general, he embarked on a mission to read the classics: the big ones, the books everyone blabbers on about.
A Year of Reading Dangerously: How Fifty Great Books Saved My Life, is the result. A collection of essays, thoughts, blog posts and theories, it recounts his journey taking in the highs and lows of Middlemarch, Pride and Prejudice, War and Peace, and all the rest, ultimately asking: what makes a classic a ‘classic’ and what do we gain from finishing the books we think we ought to? Grill him on his discoveries during this Ely Literary Festival appearance.
ChangeTICKETS your life by reading with ON HOT WHAT’S Andy Miller, ON Ely Literary WHAT’S HOTFestival, TICKETS Tuesday, September 23 at 7.30pm. HOT WHAT’S ON Tickets TICKETS £6-£7 from (01353) 645005 / toppingbooks.co.uk. WHAT’S ON HOT TICKETS
POETRY
Hollie McNish CAMBRIDGE poet and spoken word artist Hollie McNish is releasing a collection of poems - as an album. 12 of her poems - pithy, outspoken, inspiring and always strong - have been chosen to feature, performed on one disc plain, and on a second disc set against music. The album, her debut and the first of its kind, is called Versus and has been produced by fledgling indie label YUP! and it was recorded at London’s Abbey Road Studios. “Digitally its poetry and music hit you from every which way,” we’re told, with a mix of styles ranging from more classical tones to pieces heavy with bass. More than anything it aims to attract the attention of people who love poetry, and convince people that think they don’t, that there’s a little bit of something for everyone in spoken word. Versus comes off the back of a year of intense touring, 4 million YouTube fans and the approval of big names such as Tim Minchen, Pink, Davina Mcall and the legend that is Benjamin Zephaniah, who said of Hollie: “I can’t take my ears off her”. You’ll be able to buy Versus from Monday, September 29 but can preorder it on iTunes.
ONEYBLOOD duo – Stina Tweeddale on guitar and vocals and Shona McVicar on drums – come with choppy locks, a beautiful Glaswegian burr and songs that make you want to leap and run and thrash about. They play loud, colourful garage rock stuff they’ve named “crunch pop”, presumably because they’re as bright and fun as a bowl of crackling Lucky Charms (and, if the video to their track Super Rat is anything to go by, they do like to play with their food). The pair met after moving in similar Glaswegian music circles for several years. Finally, after many a near miss and being prompted by friends, Stina finally accosted Shona in a bar, they “jammed out” some songs and then things began to very swiftly kick off. They’ve toured with Courtney Barnett, recorded their self-titled debut album with legendary producer Peter Katis (The National, Interpol), and are making more than a few magazines sit up and take note. In less than a year, you’re definitely going to want to be able to say you saw them play a tiny gig at The Portland Arms that time… So, Stina, had you always planned to be a super streamlined two-person band? “It was never meant to be that way, it was more the fact then when we started playing the songs, we started getting offered shows, and we were like, well we can’t find anyone else to play with us, so why don’t we just play by ourselves?” That definitely seems to have worked out for you so far. “We were surprised by how much noise we could make for just the two of us! It didn’t seem like it sounded as bad as we thought it would. So we just went on gigging and now we’re here: there’s the album, we’re going on tour. It’s an on-going process really. I think if we did find someone it’d have to be a special person, but the opportunity is there for someone…” Can you explain where the band name comes from? “Honeyblood is a really lazy Hallowe’en costume that I made the year before I was in the band, which consisted of me making homemade blood out of water, corn flour, red food dye and honey. I pretty much put it in an empty water bottle and then just spat it over myself and over other people! Ha ha! It was very easy to make, although it does ruin all your clothes.” Is it true you started out recording your music in a bathroom? “It is true. The thing you wanna do when you start playing new music is hear what you sound like. For us we had limited ways of doing that. So we went to our friend’s house and we set up the drums in the bedroom and set up the guitar in the hall, and then I sang the vocals in the bathroom (laughing), and we just put the microphones all-round the house and we just recorded it like that!” The last year must have been a bit of a whirlwind since then? “It’s been a pretty fast two years, definitely and we have done a lot of things that really, now that I look back on, it’s a bit mind boggling.” What’s been the maddest moment so far? “I think going to America to record the album. We literally got told we were doing that and then we were away, so it wasn’t like a planned thing, it was literally: hey, you’re going to America! And it was the first time we’d been to America as well so, I think that, when you get the opportunity to record a debut album and you get sent to America to do it and you’ve never been to America, that was a pretty crazy thing to happen.” Do you ever feel your music
Honeyblood
BOOKS
Glasgow two-piece Honeyblood are more than going places, they’re absolutely running wild. ELLA WALKER catches up with singer/guitarist Stina Tweeddale on role models and recording in the bathroom gets overshadowed by people going on about you being an all-female two-piece? “We get more interest because we make so much noise for being two people! I think it’s exactly the same as not having a bass player. You could interchange the fact that, oh there are two girls! Or, they don’t have a bass player! I guess it’s just an interesting fact about us. I don’t think we get too much more interest because of it.” So being labelled a girl band of sorts hasn’t had too much of an impact on what you do? “I’d hope we hold some inspiration for
other girls who are musicians in a positive way.” Do you think teenage girls need some new role models? “Yeah, absolutely. I think more girls should play guitar and drums in general! When we’re on tour or away doing music stuff, we are always a minority, just because there are more men in music. It’s more a guy’s sphere, still, today. I would always, always say there should be more girls picking up guitars and picking up drums and playing.” Why aren’t more girls getting involved? “I really don’t know because for me, and
Cambridge News | cambridge-news.co.uk | September 18, 2014 | 35
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HONEY BE GOOD: Stina Tweeddale, right, and Shona McVicar of Honeyblood
“I’d hope we hold some inspiration for other girls who are musicians in a positive way”
Tour
2015
Friday 12 June
Cambridge Corn Exchange GIGSANDTOURS.COM • 0844 811 0051 CORNEX.CO.UK • 01223 357 851
johnbarrowman.com New album out June 30th
An SJM Concerts presentation by arrangement with Neil O’Brien Entertainment & BarrowmanBarker Productions
TICKETS ON SALE 10AM TOMORROW
Green Mind presentsWHAT’S Honeyblood,ON HOT TICKETS The PortlandON Arms,HOT Wednesday, WHAT’S TICKETS September 24 at 7.30pm. HOT WHAT’S ON Tickets TICKETS £7 from wegottickets.com/ greenmind. ON HOT TICKETS WHAT’S
I know for Shona as well, we were always into it. I can’t see why you wouldn’t be! Ha. When we started we were like 12, 13, and it’s just stuck with us.” Who are you listening to at the moment? “This morning I’ve been listening to that band Alvvays, their new album is so good, I absolutely love it. It reminds me of Camera Obscura. It’s like if Camera Obscura moved to California instead of Scotland.” Who would you like to collaborate with if you could choose anyone? “This is a difficult one. We just collaborated with Melissa Auf der Maur (of Hole and
Smashing Pumpkins) who is probably one of my biggest influences. But I would choose Kim Deal (The Breeders, Pixies). I think she would be the coolest person to work with.” And finally, a tricky one, where do you want to be in five years? “Yeah, oh gosh, I don’t think about five days’ time ha ha. We always say that we are extremely always confused and totally baffled by how well received Honeyblood has been, and we take everything at face value and are grateful for what we’re doing. So we never ever have a premonition of what’s going to happen. We don’t even speak about it.”
Really? You must have some hopes… “We just go, this is good we’ll just go for how long we can go with this and we think it’s pretty ridiculous that we get to do it in the first place so we’re not going to jinx ourselves! I hope we’re e still doing music and I hope I can look back in five years’ time and think wow, I’m really proud of that album that I made. Fingers crossed.”