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SPF Editor-In-Chief Janet Adamana
Associate Editor Ally Sigurdson Promotions Director Steff Shields
Contributors & Photography Credits Trevor Johnsen Austin MacKay Jessi Gerstmar Special Thanks Franky Courcelles Micah Visser Cole Vincent Joelle May
May/june 2015
Everybody’s Bruising Note from the Editor
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All Those Who Wander Alone I Walk takes us through his debut album, Lost at Sea
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Dreamy Nights Micah Visser and his new record, OK Night
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SPF Reccomends Our picks for artists to listen to
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Secrets in the Song Cole Vincent on personal struggles and new projects
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Listology Ten songs to make you happy
Sound, Phrase & Fury is a Canadian music magazine out to help promote musicians not usually covered in mainstream media. All music, photos and articles used are for the sole purpose of spreading the knowledge of these artists and their music. We always encourage readers to support every act through purchasing releases, merchandise and attending live shows.
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Sound-Phrase-Fury.com info@sound-phrase-fury.com @soundphrasefury facebook.com/soundphrasefury
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Editor’s Note
Everybody’s Bruising As I put together this issue and listened to the songs written by those
within these pages I was reminded of something extremely important. I was reminded of the heartfelt root of it all, the real reason we human beings fall in love with music in the first place. It is music that reminds us that there is no such thing as being alone. It is music that builds the invisible bridges from one hurting heart to a thousand others. It is music that is our unfaltering friend, our hand to hold, and the hope we all cling to. As people we tend, and unfortunately in some cases, are taught to hide away from the things that hurt us the most. It takes a lot of selftrust and a lot of grit and guts to lay it all out there. These musicians, and many like them, do this day-in and day-out. Whether they’re recording a song or out performing it, they shed their protective skin and let you all in. A dangerous task for anyone with even half a heart. Find what you need buried in these songs and become inspired by all the hope. Know with every word, with every sound, that you really truly are not alone.
real life, good love, goodnight,
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Janet Adamana Editor-In-Chief
Facebook.com/AestheticHeartPromotions May/JUNE 2015 • Sound, Phrase, & Fury 5
Album Preview
For Franky Courcelles, music has always been a tool to promote positivity and happiness. But for his upcoming debut album, Lost at Sea, the artist behind acoustic outfit Alone I Walk delves into deeper, darker content and comes out to show others the light. Courcelles takes us through his writing process and creating Lost at Sea.
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Album preview
all those who wander
JA: Tell me about your upcoming debut album, Lost at Sea. What can people expect from it? FC: What people can expect is a more full-band experience and more group chants. Some songs I am singing higher than what I’ve done before. Normally, I keep within my comfort zone but I broke out of it to record some of these songs. I actually started writing my music a little differently I feel. It’s less rhyming but it makes more sense. Everything has a meaning in how it’s written.
JA:Your older stuff is very much about positivity and always staying happy. For this album you touch on darker subjects. FC: Yeah, this one is a bit darker. I wrote it that way so people understand that they are not alone. There is always someone who will feel that way. There is always someone that understands what you are feeling. This album does have a lot of happier songs, and even the sad songs still have a happy vibe. There isn’t really anything on there that’s emo or depressing. I mean, there is but in an enlightening way.
JA: I hear it was it originally supposed to be just an EP and then it grew. FC: It was going to be a 6-track EP, but then I ended up writing two new songs and we decided to expand to full band. It was originally going to be called One Big Journey, because it was going to be all happy songs, trying to, at least. Trying to write just happy songs and having that in mind made it a lot harder to write. I gave up on the happy theme and just wrote. I ended up writing the song “Lost at Sea”. That song made a big impact on me, so I decided to change the album title to that.
JA: So would you say that song is the most meaningful one on there? FC: Personally, I would say, “Be yourself.” It’s about telling people that they have to stop doing what others are telling them to do. Just do what you want to do, but “Lost at Sea” is the one that pumps me up the most.
JA: Was there any specific reason you went fullband this time? JA: What’s the biggest difference that you no- FC: I just wanted to get a different feel for what I ticed from recording your past EPs to record- wrote - trying to experiment I guess. I want to get ing this album? a different feel for every album. The first one was FC: Just trying to get everything done in time, and more acoustic, folk. This one is full-band and the having everything in preparation. Also getting ev- next one.. who knows! ery part done and making sure I was completely satisfied with all my lyrics, the lead fills, and the Grab Lost at Sea on June 6, 2015. For updates and background stuff. pre-orders check out Facebook.com/AloneIWalk
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Photo by trevor johnsen words BY Janet Adamana
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Q&A
dreamy nights Micah Visser caught the musical bug at the age of 7 picking up everything from the violin, to drums and guitar. Now, the young multi-instrumentalist has grown to become one of Winnipeg’s best alt-folk outfits. Visser sat down with us to discuss transitions, personal growth and the making of his new record, OK Night.
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JA: Tell me a bit about your shows? MV: I started playing a lot of shows probably about a year ago. That’s when I started taking [my music] seriously and booking shows around Winnipeg, with just me and my guitar. I got sick of that pretty fast. I like playing for people but because my songs were already really personal and intimate, I felt pretty uncomfortable playing them that closely to people when it was just me and I’m the focus. I really don’t like that, so I recorded this album in full-band format, and have played shows in that format. That’s going a lot better. JA: Can we talk about your influences? You have a lot of indie-pop elements in your music. MV: When I was growing as a songwriter I listened to a lot of Elliott Smith. When I was writing this album I was listening to a lot of Sharon Van Etten. That’s one of my big influences and I am pretty heavily influenced by pop music. I try not to get too pop sometimes but I definitely have that tendency to move towards those simple melodic hooks. But I try to have a little more depth in there.
Q&A
JA: Let’s talk about the OK Night cassettes. I love the nostalgia behind it. MV: I did physical copies with my last EP so I didn’t want to do CDs again. I found nobody uses them anymore. It’s all novelty now. It’s either vinyl or cassettes, and for vinyl there are huge wait lists and it’s really expensive. Cassettes are something tangible that people can get if they want to support, and JA: Take me through making the album. MV: A year ago I released my EP, The Moon In a hopefully add to their collection. Jar. Pretty soon after it was released I wasn’t happy with it. I felt like I was writing songs that were a lot JA: Anything else you’d like to say about OK better and that [EP] just wasn’t an accurate repre- Night? sentation of me at all. I wanted to record a couple MV: I hope people connect with it. It’s very perof songs to get them out and get people listening to sonal but I also didn’t want it to be self-serving. I them. I started writing a lot of music and I wanted wrote a lot of the songs for my friends about things to expand on the thoughts and atmosphere of the they were struggling with, how I saw that and how record. I felt like that was the direction it was going. I wanted to help them. I want that to come across,. I also didn’t want to make the mistake I did with my It’s not just something I want to do for myself. It’s last album when I rushed it out before I could really really something I want to do for other people. give the ideas a good chance to grow. I wanted this one to really say what I wanted to say with it. The atmosphere and the emotions in the album are very self-contained and I feel it’s a good representation Grab OK Night at MicahVisser.bandcamp.com. Like him at Facebook.com/ /MicahzVisserMusic of me and my life at that time. JA: What guilty pleasure pop stars are you listening to right now? MV: Taylor Swift (laughs). JA: Oh of course, everyone is! MV: Yeah, exactly. The new album has got some Taylor Swift influences in there.
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Photo by Austin MacKay words BY Janet Adamana May/JUNE 2015 • Sound, Phrase, & & Fury Fury 11
Recommends recommends
words BY Janet Adamana
funk/rock- Seattle
the dip
Bring on the funk! Nine-piece Seattle group, The Dip, blends the best of both worlds: new and old. Catchy, energetic and oh-so-full of soul, the band’s self-titled debut album would impress even the most diehard funk fan. The Dip so vividly captures the feel of the iconic genre, with every listen audiences can’t help but feel immediately transported back in time to a smokey Southern bar. Put on their tunes and get your dancing shoes, The Dip gets even the biggest squares to groove.&
facebook.com/thedipmusic - thedip.bandcamp.com - twitter.com/thedipmusic 12 Sound, Phrase, & Fury • May/June 2015
recommends
kissing booth emo/punk- Melbourne
facebook.com/kissingboothmelb - kissingbooth.bandcamp.com There is something in every Kissing Booth song that manages to rip open old wounds and awaken dormant emotions. The Melbourne 4-piece just released their debut album, Never Settle. The record boasts profile the band’s beautifully crafted brand of nostalgic emo combined with equally-pained female/male dual vocals, painting a vivid portrait of strained relationships and the troubles of youth. Enveloping the feel of early emo/punk forefathers like Taking Back Sunday, Jimmy Eat World and The Dangerous Summer, Kissing Booth breathes some new age life into a long beloved genre. &
words BY Janet Adamana may/june 2015 • Sound, Phrase, & & Fury May/JUNE Fury 13
spotlight
Latka’s own Cole Vincent isn’t one to shy away from difficult topics, and with his familiar face making its way throughout the Winnipeg scene, he’s hoping to spread awareness to anyone who will listen. Through personal struggles and coming out the other side, this vibrant, young acoustic artist is making a name for himself, and for more reasons than just his music. We sat down with Vincent to discuss his new project, Comasix, real life and owning who you really are.
photos & words BY ally sigurdson AS: What made you want to start a solo project? CV: Solo acoustic is what I really started with. Back when I was 16, I started writing songs with an acoustic guitar. I looked up to Dallas Green a lot back then. I still do now, so I was always trying to write these acoustic songs. They finally started getting a little better as I got older and I kept developing over time. There might be one or two songs from my teenage years still kicking around, but a lot of my material is work from my twenties. When I was working with Latka most of my writing went towards that project. I always kept writing for myself but I never did anything with it. For the longest time I just had [these songs] there, just for me. After [Latka] had become more established, I was able to go back and really begin working on a solo acoustic project. Going back to those songs really gave me a chance to reflect and decide which part of me I wanted to express, because I was never able to in the past. I hid myself and my experiences for
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a very long time. I hid them in those songs. Now, every time I play them I feel amazing. I’m finally able to give a voice to that person who wanted one when I was younger but never had the opportunity. AS: Take us through your process of getting ready for a show, now that you’re doing solo shows. CV: For me, a huge part of preparing especially if I have the whole day to myself, is to do cardio in the morning. Honestly, I find it really opens me up and gets me in a great place to rehearse and later perform. Other than that, it’s just the regular process of practicing my set and making sure everything is coming together properly. It’s totally different preparing for a show alone. I’m so used to having the energy of my band mates and a large, hyped up crowd bringing me up. When it’s a solo act you have to sit down with yourself and really envision what’s going to happen. It’s different when you only have the support coming from within yourself.
spotlight
secrets in the song I also have a habit where I start to rewrite lyrics a lot of the time; rehearsing puts me in a creative mindset. I’ll be practicing a song and realize that I want to change the message or say something a bit differently. So usually, it’s more than just knowing my set, I have to remember all these new verses. I end up cramming a bunch of new information into my brain, sometimes as late as half an hour before my set, but it usually goes over well.
AS: Where does your inspiration come from? CV: I think a lot of what represents my music is personal experience. That really could be anything because you experience so much in life. From relationships to friendships, to personal struggles, there is always so much to write about. When the music starts coming, it becomes an avenue for me to figure things out. Whether it’s relationships with people, or how people in my life have influenced
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spotlight
me; it all comes from that moment in my life or an event. Anything that might be on my mind long enough, I usually realize it’s importance and it becomes something more. For me, I really get a feeling inside when it’s time to start creating a song. Some days I’ll wake up and be like “Okay, everything else is going on the back burner today. A song is coming. I know it’s going to.” My best work seems to happen when that feeling overcomes me. It’s all about the things that come into my life that need to be expressed.
AS: Now that you’ve done both solo and the band thing, what are the differences you’ve noticed between the two projects? CV: If you’ve seen a Latka show, you know that there is a certain type of energy that is given off at our shows. It’s a very different energy than a solo show. In the beginning, it was quite an adjustment for me. I was used to jumping and running around stage and dancing along. With solo work, it’s a very different idea. When I’m with Latka I want to hear the crowd screaming along with us. When I’m alone, it’s sometimes the best when the crowd is absolutely silent. Then you know they’re really listening. You’ve captivated them. There’s always that pause at the end of a song when they’re not sure if it’s okay to clap. You know that you have them; it’s a totally different energy.
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AS: What’s a big moment for you? CV: Like I said, a lot of my work comes from certain events and things that have happened to me. A big moment was when I discovered a professional who was doing a seminar on holistic approaches to mental health, had been using a live video of my song “Broken,” in her presentation. To have my music used in any way is pretty incredible, especially surrounding mental health awareness. That topic is very close to me. That was really huge for me. To have that song - that came from such an honest place and was written about a difficult time in my life - be used as a tool to help others, it was overwhelming. AS: What do you want people to take away from listening to your music? CV: The big reason I decided to do this was because it was time to give a voice to this person inside of me that wrote all those songs when he was young and going through some things in life. Some of my songs are the most honest pieces I’ve ever written about myself and for me to find the confidence to share it and be empowered by the experience is a big step for me. I hope when people see me and
spotlight
hear my story they can feel empowered to be who they are and not hide things from the world. There is something extremely powerful about owning who you are, what you’ve been through and being able to talk about it. I look up to people who share their life with others in hopes of starting a discussion. They really own who they’ve been, and they love themselves and receive a lot of love in return. I really look up to those people and I just hope that what they did for me, I could do for someone else. AS: What are your future plans? CV: Some of the solo songs may get eaten up by a Latka project, but I definitely would like to do an album. I would enjoy having a solo release. It’s still in the early stages but I’m excited to see where it goes. I’d really love to tour the west coast with a few other solo artists; just us and our guitars. Other than that, I plan to just keep playing all the shows that come my way, because really, that’s how it all started. I just want to share my music and keep growing.
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Check out Cole’s new acoustic project at Facebook.com/Comasix
There is something extremely ful about owning who you are what you’ve been through and being able to talk about it. May/JUNE 2015 • Sound, Phrase, & Fury 17
SONGS TO LISTEN TO WHEN YOU’RE HAPPY 18 Sound, Phrase, & Fury • May/June 2015
listology
‘Tis the season where everyone rolls down their car windows and blasts their favourite songs. Everyone knows those songs. The ones that you save to sing in the summer. The ones you belt out with your friends. The songs you can’t help but sing along to. In preparation for the hot, simmering days and nights, we take you through ten songs guaranteed to put you in an awesome mood.
compiled by Jessi Gerstmar All the Small Things by Blink 182 No matter who you are, you all jam out to it when it comes on your iPod. If you lived through the ‘90s, you’ve watched American Pie at least once and that’s enough to know this one.
James (Never Change) by All Star Weekend It’s really catchy. It’s really happy. It’s just really awesome to dance around to. Bipolar Baby by Forever the Sickest Kids The story of a girl, written in a way you will remember.
High School Never Ends by Bowling For Soup This one’s for all the graduates or soon to be grad- Tangled Feet by Distances uates. With its humour (“I’ve seen it all before, I The upbeat tune just matches your mood. want my money back!”) listeners just can’t help but laugh. I Feel Like Dancin’ by All Time Low This one is so upbeat, you just can’t help but dance like no one is watching! Love Your Friends, Die Laughing by Man Overboard Besides the fact that it’s acoustic, making it that Gone in September by Mike Posner much better, it’s also a song to sing in the car with This song is pleasantly unpleasant. The lyrics can the windows down or around a bonfire. make you chuckle. Rock Show by Blink 182 Everyone’s dream summer = Vans Warped Tour! This one is so happy and upbeat. Let loose!
Things I Can’t Change by The Story So Far Parker Cannon gives off such awesome energy.
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