New songs from Aussie acts Violent Soho, Sam Fischer, Vlossom and Something For Kate strike eerie virus chord
Something For Kate, Violent Soho, Sam Fischer and Vlossom wrote their new stuff long before anyone thought pandemic. Now they are anthems for our isolation and loneliness.
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There is some big crystal ball energy coming from new Australian album and singles released today.
New songs and albums by chart-topping rockers Violent Soho, enduring altrockers Something For Kate, rising pop artist Sam Fischer, new electronic duo Vlossom and global pop star Troye Sivan are proving prescient as the world grapples with the COVID-19 pandemic.
Their songs – written months, even a few years ago – about isolation and loneliness, resilience and despair, self-care and hope for a better world resonate loudly with heightened meaning as they are released into this current climate.
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‘SOMETHING WAS COMING’
Los Angeles-based Nick Littlemore has partnered with Cloud Control’s Alister Wright for their new project Vlossom and release their debut EP My Friend this week.
It features songs including Catch Your Breath, Gotta Prepare For This and Missing You.
“There is a prescient thing happening with music. I think it starts about a year ago now, you could feel something was looming, an underlying foreboding or something was coming,” Littlemore said.
“Yeah, the political climate then had a lot to do it. A song like Gotta Prepare For This meant something quite different a while ago but now, it’s like ‘Wow, that’s a trip.’
“Everything I write is about that part of human nature when emotion gets too much and it overwhelms you and Gotta Prepare For This is about dealing with all that pent-up emotion and angst and how you come to terms with it. As I’ve gotten older I haven’t got any better at coming to terms with it. I’ve got better at writing about it but I still fall to pieces and I think we all do.”
EVERYTHING IS A-OK
Some major international artists have pushed back their scheduled album releases for personal reasons, including Sam Smith who announced he would retitle his upcoming To Die For record.
There was also a seven per cent dip in music streams in the US in mid-March as more cities shutdown and people didn’t use music to soundtrack their daily commute but turned to current affairs, podcasts and video on demand.
But that hasn’t been the case in Australia, with streaming figures remaining stable and new homegrown releases poised to fill the breach left by Smith, Lady Gaga, The 1975 and others delaying their records.
One of the most anticipated new records is the uncannily-titled Everything Is A-OK from chart-topping Brisbane rock heroes Violent Soho.
Frontman and songwriter Luke Boerdam said despite the band having to cancel their promotional plans for the record — including instore signings and radio station visits — and delay their album launch tour to later this year, he said the band felt lucky to be still putting the record out into the world having played some shows in February and receiving strong reaction to the initial singles.
LISTEN IN ISOLATION
And they got some unexpected brand association assistance from Spotify.
“I think there’s a big Spotify billboard going up near where we are from in Brisbane that says something like Everything is A-OK. I’m not sure if it’s Spotify being ironic,” he said, laughing.
Boerdam said both the band’s team and fans had wondered out loud about the pandemic prescience of the album title and singles including Lying On The Floor, Pick It Up Again and Vacation Forever
.
“There’s a growing consensus that somehow we knew,” he joked.
“But even back with the bushfires as well, it’s odd. It was all written during a really painful time (a relationship break-up) and I was trying to tell myself everything is going to be A-OK.
“Now everyone is listening to this record is a state of isolation and it’s extremely relevant to the lyrics.”
The state of isolation has indeed been a driving factor in the yearning melancholic song This City, by rising Australian pop writer Sam Fischer, exploding worldwide as the coronavirus crisis took hold.
Fischer, who is also based in LA, wrote the song about 18 months ago when in the depths of despair about his recording future after being dropped from his label deal.
Ironically, that song has now put him on the world map and is rapidly being added to radio playlists.
A SAFE PLACE
The song started to get attention when shared by his friends Lewis Capaldi and Meghan Trainor and then was catapulted into virality courtesy of more than 1.4 million videos on TikTok. This City now has well over 100 million streams.
“No one would dream of their song blowing up in a pandemic. I think most songwriters want to be able to provide a safe place for people to go through their feelings and I’m grateful to be able to do that,” he said.
“I put it out independently about 18 months ago and the only reason anyone saw it was my drinking buddy Lewis Capaldi and Meghan Trainor, who is a friend of a friend, posted it. Then I started getting messages on Instagram saying the song was going viral on TikTok and after that, the labels hit me up and I got a new deal.”
Alternative rock heroes Something For Kate made their long-awaited return this week with Situation Room, their first single in eight years.
MYSTERIOUS THINGS
The trio — Paul Dempsey, Stephanie Ashworth and Clint Hyndman — made a dash to Los Angeles last month before Australian borders closed to film the video for the song.
“You are not going to get it out of me but wait until you hear our album title, which was finalised when we finished the album last year,” frontman Dempsey said.
“It’s not like any of the artists could have predicted a pandemic but the album is full of songs about the very weird direction the world was heading in before this happened. And it wasn’t going swimmingly.
“In Situation Room, the protagonist is obsessed with predicting every possible outcome and getting the jump on every disaster and becoming the master of avoidance of every possible pitfall and then realising they have no control over some things.
“It’s also about the mysterious things in our lives that baffle us.”