Summer Lovin’

How Seven Swedish Teens Became Two Rising Stars

Summer Camp make music about falling in love and coping with heartbreak, their songs will soundtrack your summer if not your life. Their sound mixes the purest forms of pop with a lo-fi fuzz that protects it from being too sugary.

Up until recently the group was thought to consist of seven girls with oversized glasses and very butch haircuts from a faded photo taken at a Swedish Summer Camp, but some snooping worthy of Columbo from The Stool Pigeon has revealed that Summer Camp is actually the work of actress/writer Elizabeth Sankey and musician Jeremy Warmsley (who had already been written off already by most people as just another singer/songwriter after just two albums in four years).

Though one does wonder about the dramatic shift in sound that this is for Jeremy, will he ever return to making heartfelt love songs? He has already been quoted that this is the music he has always wanted to make. “I don’t really feel any connection to my previous work, I was never trying to be a singer/songwriter that was just a label that got attached to me”. This is Elizabeth’s first band and the only time she has sung outside of karaoke.

The duo both have a hand in writing the songs, though they distance themselves from the songs subject matter of broken relationships and falling in love as being autobiographical of their real life relationship, most of time “characters are created for the songs” and they approach a song like “we’re sound tracking a movie of our own”.

They are only now really adjusting to people’s perceptions of them as a brand “everybody is like, is there gonna be an album? We don’t really know, if we record enough songs that are good enough to put on an album”.

For now at least let’s enjoy the gems that Summer Camp have already given us; little bundle of love that is Ghost Train and their fuzzed up cover of the song “I Only Have Eye’s For You” originally by The Lettermen.

Words by Dan Wilkinson
Photos by Dan Wilkinson and Bryan Medina

Black Manila Beach Parade Get Deep

Black Manila Beach Parade sound like the band that would soundtrack that road trip you were never going to take. They’ve already made two of my favourite songs last year (Brixton Hill and Jean Le Loup) and just when I thought it couldn’t get any better I found out the band have uploaded many more nuggets of delight like Sensation and Happiness. Conrad (singer) does take some lyrical cues from Lou Reed but definitely manages to find his own voice. They’re showing that music can sound grandiose and anthemic without sounding like White Lies the and look set to be a very entertaining live prospect this year.

How do you come up with the lyrics to your songs?
There is no general rule to writing lyrics or coming up with them. For me Lyrics are either observational, sensational, nonsensical or emotional.　 They either come to you from the unexplainable cosmos where thoughts and inspiration begins... or the back of a cereal box. You sometimes just have to let them come to you from the most unexpected of places, let them come when it’s time for them to come, forcing lyrics out can lead to some terrible forced overblown James Bluntish verse (and we don't want that now do we). You just have to keep on writing and eventually your confused scribbles will form a song. Sometimes　 a song just flows from you and you write the whole thing from start to finish in one go, then sometimes a song forms with a Burroughs approach with off cuts pasted together from fragments evolving over time. Sometimes its just freestyle. Poets like Allen Ginsberg 'Howl', Auden 'As I walked out', Lou Reed, Brautigan 'Love Poem' have been a big inspiration, their words have changed my life.

How DIY is the band? The band is pretty DIY, we are from a fine tradition of garage bands playing on crackling amps at full volume where noise complaints are frequent. We began in a DIY basement studio of a Warehouse called Cordy House on Curtain Road in Shoreditch, where we had a shared space with The onlyjoe Dub Band, but since that site closed down we have moved to another homemade studio in the South East. All our records are written, produced and recorded by us and we have all taught ourselves to play our instruments so i guess we are DIY, but I have never really thought about it in a sense of being DIY before, it has just been the most natural process for us as individuals.

Are you musically trained? I don't know what that means anymore, we have spent our lives listening to and loving music, that is all the training you need to make beautifully loud noise. Sid Vicious and Mozart play the same notes on their instruments, a C is always a C, Notes are just the written descriptions of sounds, and sounds are really easy to make. We are trained in sound. I think we need to redefine what musically trained is, as some of the greatest musicians of recent times have been self taught with no 'Formal, traditional' musical background, most obvious example that comes to mind is Jimi Hendrix.

Last book you loved? Mikhail Bulgakov - Master and Margarita. Leopold von Sacher-Masoch - Venus in Furs. Gareth (Guitar) is reading the John Lennon Biography.

When will you do a UK tour? Festivals in the summer. Then we are taking some time out to write an album in Berlin. We have played in Brighton but are ready for a UK tour whenever the UK will have us.

Who would you get to cover your songs? Let the gypsy trumpets ring out with Brian Jones standing amidst the chaos wearing a vampire’s cloak. We have a lot of love for Isaac Brock from Modest mouse, Anton Newcombe from Brian Jones Town Massacre, Lou Reed, but if anyone covered our songs i would want them to sound almost unrecognisable as i would want them to interpret them their own way, and bring their own styles and ideas to the music.

What are the prominent themes of your songs? Happiness.

Did you have any jobs before being in a band? I work at Plastic People, and did a club night called Bukkake at Madame JoJo's for a year and a few Warehouse parties in Shoreditch called 'The Shoreditch Triangle'. Liam (Drums) works for the Art department of a film company making low budget vampire stripper gangster movies, which is a pretty cool job.

Was it always what you wanted to do? I am a painter and will always be a painter as well as playing in a band, have always wanted to make music, and will always make music, i don't care about the money, it’s just that i can't not do what i do, it’s a compulsion, even if i die penniless i will be happy and fulfilled from a life of art and music. It’s Gareth’s Destiny to play Guitar, and Liam is a visionary drummer, so i think we are stuck with this dream.

Top tip for an aspiring band? Do it for the love, if you don't love playing and you don't need to make music then don't quit the day job. If you aren't making music because you don't need to make music then people probably don't need to hear it. There is so much bad soulless music out there being made for the wrong reasons, we need to find the soul again. Also become a good live band, don't rely on backing tracks and over production, the future of the music industry is in Live music.

Where next for the band? Berlin and the Black Forest.

Rock n roll tale? Wait for Gareth's autobiography, i don't want to spoil the start of the book before its even written.

Rejected band names? We were called Wolf on our first show and had 7 people on stage, we were then called Wolfgang and had 5 people on stage, we then found out that there was another Wolfgang in town when they played the Stag and Dagger festival and people thought it was us. We were then called No Bardo with 4 people on stage. Now we have the longest name of our history Black Manila Beach Parade and have just 3 people on stage.

I’ll let Conrad have the last word

"What becomes of life, when inspired by a chess playing cat"

http://www.myspace.com/blackmanilabeachparade

Dan W

Smith Westerns Secret Crush..

The Smith Westerns are four teens from Chicago who have just released their self-titled debut of lo-fi love anthems. Unlike most noise-rock nowadays, tracks like 'Tonight' don't sound pointlessly angry or obnoxious, but triumphant and prone to moments of introspection. At their heart, The Smith Westerns are a pop band.

When I contacted the band to do an interview their singing guitarist Cullen he said he only had limited time before he had to go college.

*What are you studying at College?

Only Max [guitars] and I go to college. He does English because it's easy, and I'm meant to do film, but I think we're all transferring to Brown so we can hang out with Hermonie from 'Harry Potter'.

*How do you come up with the lyrics to your songs?

I listen to my heart.　

*Were you trained or self-taught to sing? It’s all self taught. We sing along with records.　

*Last book you loved? Speak. It’s about this girl who gets raped at this high school party and then calls the cops on it but keeps the rape to herself so everyone hates her. And then at the end of book she speaks about it. Kristen Stewart was in the movie version of it.　

*Favourite place to tour? New York/Canada　

*Favourite new band?

Girls, duh.　

*Will you ever tour England?

Yes. Probably this summer. Or maybe before that if someone wants to pay for our flights.　

*How much did it cost to set up　the band?

It cost nothing, we didn't have anything else to do and it's was a good option. Its cost a lot to fix our van. It’s a piece of shit. No A/C, no side opening doors, the truck doesn’t open.　

*If you could　interview　anyone,
who would it be and what would　
you ask them?

Emma Watson. Wanna FuCKKk?

*What's the most un-Rock n Roll
thing you've done?

Going to College.　

http://www.myspace.com/smithwesterns

Words: Dan W

Pearl Harbor Explode

Pearl Harbor are the best LA sister duo since.... ever really.

The band was formed by Piper after being inspired by a chance collaboration with godfather of the home recording R Stevie Moore. She then found further motivation to form a band after finding an abandoned bass guitar in her parents’ house and began to make songs there were a sonic daze of harmonies.

Their songs fall into the bracket of too odd to be pop and too pop to be odd, it’s hard tell whether they want to be millionaire pop stars or are attempting to soundtrack a séance, there’s echoes of the Cocteau Twins, Mellow Gold era Beck and a My Bloody Valentine that you wouldn’t feel awkward dancing to.

The origin of their name changes with every interview, it could be inspired Pearl Harbor and the Explosions or legendary cult duo Stone Harbour or in Pipers own words "(we could) go down as a great disaster in the history of the Pacific coast".

I spoke to lead singer and the eldest half of Pearl Harbor Pier Kaplan about their first show, the band motto and her burgeoning obsession with USSR pop rock.

What's the band motto?
"shut up and play it RIGHT"

What do you think of most current pop music?
Next

Definition of the perfect song?
"Dream Baby Dream" by Suicide.

*What was your first show like?
Our first show was great. It was a show Mario Orduno put on at some bar in San Diego. We played to a pretty decent-sized crowd of bros and their
obligatory hoes with a bunch of those tiny ass Vox practice amps and a drum machine I borrowed from Nite Jewel. My sister had to stand
outside till we played, then we went home.

Your favourite new album?
Ariel Pink's Haunted Garrido Bros II

*Average day in the life of Pearl Harbor?
Chatroulette

*Your top tip for surviving as a struggling musician?
Don't get high on your own supply?

*What do you like best about USSR pop rock?
Cuz it's the cat's pyjamas, the balls to music's proverbial shaft.

*Who are your favourites?

Кино, Àâòîãðàô, Аквариум

*What do you think of Pearl Harbor and the Explosions?
Between you and me, I like her because she's fucking nuts. I recently
heard she was married to Paul Simonon for a minute. As Alan Partridge would say, "Back of the net!"

*Who would you get to cover your songs?
Yanni, 12 Stories of Christmas, East of Gideon, Sunhouse, Sade... Sorry I'm just looking at random shitty cassettes (though Sade’s not shitty) my mom has lying around. I'm at her house right now playing string with my sister's cat answering this.

*Loudest gig you've been to?
My Bloody Valentine tops everything else. That hair-splitting noise meltdown they do in the middle of You Made Me Realise made all the organs in my body twist up into a pretzel of agonized ecstasy and all I could hear for the following 3 weeks was shriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinggggggggggggggg))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))

Piper also told me about the must see teen rock comedy from the nineties Rockula, About a Virgin vampire trying to score, which also stars Bo Diddley.

By Dan Wilkinson

　

　

　

　

The Vivian Girls Are Inked Up

The Vivian Girls are one of my favourite bands and I am eagerly awaiting their new album Everything Goes Wrong(out next month). They combine two of my favourite things cavernous reverb and girl groups, their songs are usually about the timeless girl group topics of falling in and out of love and total and utter heartbreak.

I managed to secure an interview with the vocalist/guitarist and main song-writer Cassie Ramone Where we talked about Germs Burns and their many many tattoo's.

*What’s your favourite new album?
Woods - Songs of Shame.

*Would you ever license your songs to a TV advert?
Sure, if it was a product we support anyway, like Hybrid cars or Diet Coke.

*What was the last book you loved?
Flowers For Algernon by Daniel Keyes.

*Do you prefer playing live or in the studio?
They both have their pros and cons, but playing live is usually more
fun and less labour-intensive.

*Your top tip for surviving as a struggling musician?
Work very hard on every aspect of your band, and try to do as much as
you can yourself.

*As someone with a Germ’s burn (a cigarette burn representing a Germs fan), what did you think of the Darby Crash biopic What We Do Is Secret?
I haven't seen it yet, I'm waiting for the perfect night with the perfect group of people to make fun of it with.

*Do you have any tattoos?
I have a cheeseburger, a cassette tape, a palm tree, a pyramid with an all-seeing eye, Mickey Mouse, five firecrackers, my friend's name, an eye and two hands and a funny little doodle. Katy has a globe, a fork, a girl and a cat walking down the railroad tracks, the Wild Eyes 7" graphs, a bird, the Minor Threat sheep, a Germs circle, an envelope, a milkshake, and some more that I'm forgetting. Ali has three cups, a Daniel Johnston eyeball, a record player, the Morton Salt Girl, and a lawn gnome. Katy and Ali both have the Modern Lovers heart. Katy and I both have the Ramones first album. We all have a feather and a cactus.


Everything Goes Wrong is out in September

Dan Wilkinson