Every 90s and 2000s kids have had daydreams where they’re sprinting through the bustling corridors of an airport, desperately trying to convince our first crush to stay. It’s a scene straight out of a romantic movie, where love triumphs against all odds, its a Rachel moment, we are all hoping that they too will get off the plane. Confessing your feelings to someone can be likened to catching a flight – the anticipation, the fear of delay, and the exhilaration of finally taking that leap of faith.
EST by Slaney Bay
Released on the 4th of July, EST is fuelled by the exhilaration of a now or never moment. Have you ever wondered if you missed your chance? Is your love powerful enough to stop the plane? You want to scream ‘just stay with me, I’ll show you what we can be’. Sometimes, we unknowingly become the anchor that holds someone back. Perhaps, by letting go, we can find a way to save both ourselves and our loved ones.
Frontwoman Cait Whitley revealed: “‘EST’ tells the tale of a love interest moving away. The whole song is imagined to take place inside an airport. You’re trying to psych yourself up to convince them to stay…but their boarding time is suffocatingly close. Is this your final chance to confess your feelings before they move to the Eastern Time Zone?”
“It’s not gonna change, right? When you’re sleeping on Eastern Time
I haven’t been laughing recently
I think you’re all I need“
Lyrics to EST
EST Music video directed by Zachary Hart and Produced by Jane Christie July 2023
With its transportive melodies and anthemic energy, this track takes you on a journey. As the soaring vocals intertwine with the instrumentals, you can almost feel yourself flying alongside that plane, bound for the island of possibilities. The lyrics evoke a sense of longing and contemplation, as if we are briefly visiting the island of what if’s after a short stay at what might have been city. Whitley’s captivating vocals add an extra layer of emotion, painting a vivid picture of the bittersweet curse of what could have been.
Distance, going that extra mile, waiting for just a short while, the unwavering commitment to go that extra mile, lengths we go to just to witness a loved one’s radiant smile.And what is love? But not just time spent with hose who make us smile, who make us cry who make us want to see the next day. Love is perseverance, it will go on despite the distance.
Hailing from an incredible few months on the festival circuit, the dynamic trio has been making waves with their electrifying performances. Their standout shows at The Great Escape, Gold Sounds, and Dot To Dot have garnered widespread acclaim, establishing them as rising stars in the indie music scene. Adding to their growing reputation, they recently wrapped up a successful support tour alongside the esteemed Coach Party, following previous collaborations with the likes of Sinead O’Brien, Bleach Lab, and Low Hummer. With their undeniable stage presence and extraordinary talent, this band is undoubtedly poised for an exciting future in the industry.
Keep up to date with the band by following their socials and check them out on Spotify.
Seb Gilmore,Thom Mills , Tom Bacon, Silke Blansjaar, Luke Vosper Public Body, taken by Lily Clamp.
Big Mess’ takes a wry look at the sedentary, boring or frustrating aspects of modern life;Joylessly gorging on TV (‘Way, No Way’), procrastinating (‘Break From Life’), irresponsible spending (‘Age Of Junk’) and ‘saying the wrong thing’ (‘No Constraint’). This monotony gets a creative shake up in this LP, given an anthem bang by the distinctive Repetition and agitation that defines ‘Big Mess’
Break From Life, Public Body
Welcome to a world built from hypnotically repetitive bass-grooves, spidery guitar lines and violent synth stabs, driven by a propulsive drum beat that defies the utilitarian routine of modernity.
The normality of life can sometimes feel dehumanising, the whirring of your brain after a week in front of a blank screen pressing buttons in a sequence to get paid a set of numbers. The dreams you drank up have drained from you stolen by the laws of society, the need for compliance. It’s ironic then that the very creation of this LP challenges the monotony of this conformity.
Driven By Data official music video by Public Body
The spirit of this LP, is tongue in cheek, satirical and reflective, the muted grey of an office cubicle life dissolving around you as you plug yourself into this.Detailing their debut full-length, frontman Seb Gilmore explained: “This album is a ‘Big Mess’. It’s me laughing behind my own back at all my failures, shortcomings and the shame that comes along with it. I’m not going to get upset about all that kind of stuff – I don’t know how! What I do know, is how to make fun of something – and that something is me”.
Globular bass-lines, glassy percussion and powerful vocals this band are the impact, the riot that gives us a break from the brick walls we’ve built around our brains, challenging us to leave that glass, pocket sized instant escape device and be in the moment. Ferocious and fun this post punk 5 piece make light of lethargy, neuroticism and boredom with playfully acerbic anthems and raw, unconventional sounds.
Both chaotic yet cultivated Public Body is a colourful a an addible force for change, challenging the stereotype of a digital brain. Made up of Seb Gilmore (guitar, vocals), Thom Mills (drums), Tom Bacon (synths, backing vocals), Silke Blansjaar (bass), Luke Vosper (guitar, backing vocals)it’s no surprise this five piece has received accolades from Gigwise, BBC 6 Music’s Steve Lamacq and BBC Radio 1’s Jack Saunders,plus in July they’ll be on a nationwide tour across the UK.
Live Dates 13th July – The Hope and Ruin, Brighton 14th July – The George Tavern, London 15th July – Forum Basement, Tunbridge Wells 20th July – The Fly Tower, Sheffield 21st July – Crofters Rights, Bristol 22nd July – Big Hands, Manchester
If you’re an agent of positive change or just like good music, check them out on their socials for more.
An exploration of grief for oneself, the journey out of mourning, the battle we are all fighting to maintain ourselves, ART offers an upbeat and honest take on what it means to be human.
The Lottery Winners Thom Rylance, Robert Lally, Katie Lloyd, Joe Singleton
Talking to NME about their new album at the start of 2023, The Lottery Winners frontman Thom Rylance said: “I’ve always told my story in our songs. If you’re telling your own story, it’s never going to be boring. When I started assembling these songs, I realised that everyone I wrote was getting a bit lighter, feeling progressively less down.
Play
An omniscient narrator introduces the album as an audible therapy. You are instantly immersed in the kaleidoscope of your mind, are you worried about what you might find? How will you recover what is lost if you do not search for it?
Worry
Who are you when your head is full of worry? Trying to navigate your way through life whilst your mind is jumping to the direst conclusions takes a toll on the soul. Accompanied by raw visuals, depicting the honest scene of a depression pit, a tray from a takeaway you had two weeks ago festering by your bed, a pile of pills on the cabinet, unpaid bills glaring up at you from your nightstand. Every intention to face the day, fully dressed and ready but your funky, floral bedding becomes a straitjacket forcing you to stay.
Punctuated by the discarded first edition copy of the picture of Dorian Gray it can be interpreted that this song discusses the curse we all feel, lamenting our youth, wanting to revisit it and savour our innocence, haunted by who we could have been if we were parented differently, but then they wouldn’t be who we are and would only end up missing them. Gray also suffers from an addiction, an indulgent drug infused escapism that only imprisons you to a false face of reality.
This track echoes the familiar verve and energy from The Lottery Winners but also recreates the imploding pressure your brain puts upon itself in times of desperation. Each track stands as an individual anthem but all work together to reflect a year of frontman Rylance’s life.
Burning House
Burning House Music video by The Lottery Winners.
Sometimes we stay in burning houses just to stay warm, there are fires on the stairs so we stay safe in the living room, the TV loud enough to drown out the roar of the inferno so it becomes nothing more than a whisper, but we know it’s still there. Burning questions feed the flames as you ask yourself who you have become, who you are to the flames and plead with them to stop burning, but that is what a fire does, it destroys.
Katie Lloyd, electric bassist for the band, dominates the track with her uplifting energy,a complete contrast to the depth of the song offering an insight into how some of us act when everything is falling down, stoicism, the danger of saying you’re fine when you’re bleeding through your badly wound bandages.
Money
Money by The Lottery Winners Ft. Shaun Ryder
Featuring Shaun Ryder this song explores what it might feel like to live how we all deserve to life, freely. But how possessing a certain amount of money after having none can corrupt the mind, the more you spend the more you lose your sense of self. Fine line between worth ad greed but when you’ve worked hard, peeling your eyes red to stay alert on that late night shift, picking up more to make ends meet, you have a right to a little touch of luxury.
Outside of this it’s a satirical reflection on what many musicians hope to achieve, after juggling odd jobs, playing countless gigs to half empty rooms, headlining stages getting albums, sharing their success and doing what they love full time. It’s a lesson that, ART, which enriches the soul, offers a hand out of mess is so neglected by finance that the struggling, starving artist has become romanticised, if you’re not suffering you’re not doing it right, but talent should be celebrated, it should be invested in, art is pure, it’s the only thing we have to help us through.
The Lottery Winners.
Long Way Down
A loss of inspiration can send anyone into a sorrowful state of desperation, screaming out to find yourself, only hearing echoes of who you could have been if you had achieved the dream, you sold your soul to achieve. Who could you be if you could go back to your birth and bring yourself up? Resenting your parents for not being the people you needed them to be. Your brain doesn’t feel like your own anymore, tired and run down you cry for who you once were.
Sertraline
What is a skill if it cannot be shared, why sing a song if it won’t be heard, why make art if nobody cares? We live for other people so when there is no one around us why do we continue? When we are lost where do we search? The last place we left of, when did you last see yourself? In a childhood memory? As you rest your head, where does it fall? On the floor of your first home? Who were you then where you used to roam?
Pause
The audible exploration comes to a halt, forcing us to re-connect with reality, has our mindset changed? Will it? The narrator asks us to acknowledge that colours may seem brighter, and we may feel lighter, and then he asks us to imagine our childhood bedroom, the smaller version of who we once were, stares vacantly back at us as we open the door.
Letter to myself- Frank Turner
A Letter To Myself music video by The Lottery Winners ft. Frank Turner
We live our lives in hindsight, wishing we could reverse time in the hope it would change our current situation, but who’s to say if we had enjoyed those days of simplicity, when a summer’s day was full of magic and the biggest stress was completing that week’s homework that anything would be different now?
The only way to change your current situation is by facing yourself and doing it differently. Find forgiveness in reflection, thank your parents for doing what they could, releasing too that they are still human, they were learning too. Sometimes reflection is the only way we can move forward realise that ‘it’s not all plain sailing’ there will be ‘times you’re in front and times that you’re failing’ but this is human and that’s all we can be.
Jennie
It’s the monotony of life you breathe then you die, trapped in a cycle trying to get by. You seek help and people wonder why, that’s just life mate, that’s the way it’s going to be. If this is normality, sell me a fantasy let me breath in some wonderland, promise me you’ll hold my hand? Through love we escape, ‘travelling to a place where the sun and ocean kiss’ an eternal bliss surely that’s the true meaning of all this, not to work all day in a place we hate.
Let Me Down- Boy George
Enter a neon world full of potential and possibility, drink in the lights and look alive, this is the start of your dazzling new life. ‘Let Me Down’ came from Rylance’s interest in researching pop icons and understanding what makes a song a classic.
He shared that he was listening to a lot of Boy George’s music and ended up writing a song for him to sing without realising it. The video itself pays homage to George’s career, flamboyant, a beacon paving the way to the next generation of artists.
Tackling insecurity, this track is empowering an audible armour against all those that were supposed to be there for us yet time and time again fail us, from our friends, to our families, to ourselves. Boy George’s vocals are expectedly energetic, powerful yet soothing, voice through all the noise whilst Rylance, Katie Lloyd and Rob Lally add further layers of therapeutic splendour, making this song a cinematic piece.
You’re Not Alone
A song that reaches out to you whatever it is you’re going through, you have an audible army, marching alongside you in your ears.
This realisation can take a while, in your state you may have pushed people away but there will always be somebody to turn to, there is always someone that cares. When you see a stranger in the street crying, do you worry for them? Do you wonder what’s wrong? Go to them, offer a voice, a hand. We are not alone, ever it just takes the courage to ask for help to realise.
Anxiety Replacement Therapy
This song is a testament to transformation. When it comes to change, we believe it must be a phenomenon, having blonde hair to black, from being fat to having abs, learning the first few chords to writing a song, we celebrate change when it is instantaneous, without realising everything is gradual. The final verse to this track reflects on the album, with references to previous tracks.
“I used to worry about money now I worry about health Wrote a letter to myself but I left it on the shelf I’m in a burning house and I’ve gotta get out But I’m looking out the window, it’s a long way down I have to call Jennie ’cause I’m having weird dreams Maybe it’s a sign of the sertraline But I know that when I call she’ll always answer the phone She’ll never let me down, I know I’m not alone.”
Our narrator has understood his situation, indulged in and is now trying to change it, seeking prescribed medication, reaching out to friends and looking for ways out of the burning house. Our narrator is trying to be better for themselves, because to be there for ourselves is all we can ask.
Stop
Our omniscient narrator addresses us, a refreshing taste of reality, we are awake in our nightmare now, we can leave this place.
From recently reaching number one, to being in the full throttle of their UK tour The Lottery Winners the band are gritty, colourful and raw. Reality is the core of their sentiments, reflecting on their success Rylance explained: “I always knew we’d do it the hard way. We’re from a working-class mining town in the northwest of England. We’re not from London, we don’t have famous dads. We’re just trying our best, and if people connect to our music, that’s authentic.”
Mediative and liberating A.R.T is out now, get it here.
Evolve Music 