Singer

A.R.T By The Lottery Winners reviewed.

12th Jun 2023 — 1 Comment

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.

Follow them on Spotify and instagram.

Saturn Stars, recently released by The Boy In The Rose Garden is a testament to resilience.

22nd May 2023 — Leave a comment

Why make someone your whole universe when you’re not even a star in their galaxy?

The Boy In The Rose Garden

You’ve fallen in love with a person that feels like a party. The lights just seem to find them, they know every word to the songs on a stranger’s playlist, each beat they move expertly to. The drinks are sweet and your surrounded by friends, time is moving too quickly on the night you don’t want to end but then they’re still at it yet it’s 6 am you wonder when you’ll be home again, your glass is empty and your ears are numb, but their eyes are searching for you, so you continue to move, smile stuck to your face.

You dance, you drink, you stay for them because leaving arm in arm is better than leaving alone. You feel as though you’re in love with a ghost but being haunted is better than being abandoned. Your world is built for them whilst you’re barley a yard of tarmac in theirs, but that doesn’t matter because at least you are there and when their eyes find yours you exist and, in that moment, you know you are everything. You spend your time finding ways to find that fire, you want to burn for them.

In their song Saturn Stars artist The Boy In The Rose Garden explores similar semantics, falling for the person that dropped you, hoping they’ll be the one to catch you. You are only the person of their dreams because you only matter to them when they’re asleep.

Boy in the rose garden

The ethereal vocals entrance you just as the previous lovers once had, you’re death to the eery undertone, a sinister nod to your foreboding future, a sound that places you in a disorientating mist, the confusion of what is is to be in love with someone who seemingly once felt the same for your but now sees you as thick dust on the fireplace, noticed just before a guest comes over.

Their words whip into you, but you’re just happy to bleed for them, to show them you truly love them, to show your devotion as they turn their back on your bones, you’ve learned to feel at home with the sense of being alone. Let go? Would you let go of all that you have When all you have to your name is a stone it becomes a jewel, a throne. You’re home a haunted house full of whispers of who used to roam the halls, figments of what once was but can never be again, the bare body of what could have been, where you throw your keys and lay your head. You had nothing, they provided you with a rag, you use it to wash my skin, bandage your wounds to cover your frail frame as you lay to rest. Holding out your empty hands and your full heart you declare, “this is all I have, and it is my kingdom, if it costs me my life it will have been worth it”.

The Boy In The Rose Garden

If you were a candle, you would set yourself alight to aid their journey to bed in the dead of night. If there were no food in the fridge you would volunteer your soul to keep them fed until Sunday. If all their clothes were to rip you would peel off your skin to keep them. Loving them is the passion that comes with knowing you would give yourself up for them to go on, for who are you to take from the living?

You are the whisper to their crowded room. A crease in their new shoe. You’re being held close, but your being used as a shield protecting them from themselves, what weapons id you bring to a war you did not know you would be fighting? Every bullet they shoot at you reflects how they view themselves, and you willingly make yourself a larger target, convinced you can take it if they promise to love you. That’s all you ask, love me you cry as they feast of your flesh, love me you beg as they wash their hands with your tears, love me you weep as they use your body as a punching bag, at least when they touch you, you are worthy.

Self produced, Saturn Stars ,in itself, is a testament to resilience, an audible lighthouse when you’re in the depths of the dark sea, just because you’re drowning does not mean you should grab onto the first thing that feels solid, a rock will just drag you down deeper, find your lifeboat.

With antoher song coming out in june 2023 promises to be a successful year for The Boy In The Rose Garden. Stay up to date with their releases by follwing them on social media.

(If your situation sounds like this there is help out there. Please reach out. You are not alone.)

Hilla Peer releases EP, Remind Me Who I Am.

19th May 2023 — 2 Comments

We all have times when we need to be told who we are.

Hilla Peer

Throughout our lives there will be times when we are less than thriving, getting through the day and calling it surviving. Activites that once brought us joys are now just tiring. There are days we don’t need to stand in front of the mirror to know we look good but there are others when we sit, entranced, scrutinising every stretch mark, every line, wishing for it to change. A spilled coffee on a new skirt, a train missed with seconds to spare, a phone with no messages, does anybody care?

Sickness and anger, days lost to darkness and nights spent awake. This need to hide away, to cry uncontrollably and swear at the stars, can all be a remedy but it’s also important to step into the sun, try to see the art in the spilled mess and enjoy the time between the next train. Sometimes all you need is something to remind you of who you are and Hilla’s EP does that expertly.

Track one: Remind me who I am.

The EP is born with a soft piano ballad, soothing and romantic, a tale that navigates the feeling of doing so much and getting nowhere, the confusion of inertia in motion whilst the energetic crescendo of the chorus pulls us into reality; we are still ourselves despite our surroundings, and we can over come how disorientating life without routine can be, and then how to mange the monotony of a routine we didn’t choose, juggling the dance of identity and social conformity, learning to mould our world to fit our own needs and realising we only have ourselves to live for and who we are should be enough to get us through.

Track 2 Addiction Baby

Addiction Baby offers a contrasting upbeat feel that’s fun to dance to despite depicting the details of a toixc relationship that cements itself to your mind, fixating on one person and forgetting yourself. Characetrised by its catchy lyrics and optimistc beat this song reflects hwo many of us feel when submerged in a smothering relatiosnhip, at first we are hoepful that things will be different, yet a few months down the line we are still waiting on that promise delivery of change.

Illustrating how memories can become addictive, we replay scenarios,changing them to reflect how we wish they had played out can become a pastime, idealising certain people, that in reality are actually quite toxic, but learning to realsie this comes with time, and letting them go can take even longer. When the situation is buried it’s importnat to reflect and forgive yourself for staying.

Track 3 One of a kind

One of a Kind is an ode to self love. As one of th emost complicated strains of love, coming to terms with who we are takes practice. We tend to perceive most of who we are through the eyes of others, our parents, lovers, bosses, and friends,who we are rides upon how they see us. We find ourselves asking them how we can be better, what they ecpect from us and how we can exceed this, exhausitng oursleves to be something we are not, feeling as though we must constantly balance who we are with how we are seen and trying to fall comfortably in-between leading to a crisis of self.

Here Hilla celebrates how it is to act authentically, remaining true to your own identity, the one you have decided for yourself, reminding us that we are one of a kind. Relinquish you’re own power by telling yourself you are who you are an dif you’re ging to be anything different it is because you chose to change. This song clebrates transformation and changes and introduces a more optimsitic light to the EP.

Hilla Peer

Track 4 WHAT YOU DO

Secure in who she is this song clebrates how Hilla has grown both in all aspect so fher life, finally feeling a sense of security within who she come to be. This feeling calls for a dance track, acknowledging what you do, taking time to look at your achievements and allow yourself those days when you’re feeling down. This track encourages the listner to keep on going, doing what they’re doing and refusing anyone that tries to hold them back.

Following on from the attitude in One Of a Kind this song reminds us that when it feels like no one is there you, you have yourself and you are more than enough. You’re leading your own life, taking pain and triumph in your stride. The upbeat instrumentals explore a dancey narrative, a sure fire way to get you ready for your morning commute, or meeting those exercise milestones this song is all-about what you can do and learning to love yourself for it all.

Hilla Peer

Track 5 Focus on you

This song has a very noughties, Kylie Myongoue vibe to it that’s both lively and reflective, you’ll find yourself dancing through your emotions. Life is contant and there is always someone else to be thinking o, you may be a parent with a partner, with a friend’s brihtday to plan and school dinners to make, a house to clean and work emails to answer , most days you manage it all without so much of a nod of gratitude but htere are days when the workload is too much, you’re fed up and you’ve had enough, it’s time to find time for yourself, with the kids in bed and the brithday card sent it’s time to focus on you, relive your youth.

Stick this track on and have a sing along, take time to remember who you are and forget your surroundings, be grounded and present with who you are, forget who you are trying to be and who you were, be with yourself how you are now and feel at peace.

Track 6 Unless

The EP ends in surrender, allwoing you to lay down your weapons, putting away the sword you have been busy sharpening your sword only to find you were preparing for the wrong battles, too busy trying to carry other people’s weight. Sometimes the war is worth it, emotions need to be expressed and situations need to be solved but what’s the point in wasting your energy if it falls on deaf ears. Fight the battles for the person you want to make peace with. Orchestral and empowering this song gives in to love, allowing us to be who we are with the people that appreciate us in our own right, encourgaging us to exert our efforts for those who will appreciar them and doing what matters in the moment.

Keep up to date with Hilla on her socials for more reminders to be who you are even when the world is telling you to be something different.