Jimkata are a three-piece anthemic, synth-washed, electro-rock band based out of Ithaca and Los Angeles. With a triumph of swirling analog synths, infectious pop hooks and candid lyrics, Jimkata have built a distinct sound which has been resonating with listeners across the country.
Friends since middle school, Evan Friedell, Aaron Gorsch and Packy Lunn infuse Jimkata, (named after the so-bad-it’s-good 1985 gym-fu caper Gymkata) with both an adventurous musical streak and relatable lyrical themes. Mixed in with the modern synth sensibilities and hard driven indie rock are influences drawn from the likes of Motown, singer-songwriters like James Taylor and even old country songs, where storytelling and a quick turn of phrase share priorities with melody and the beat. Jimkata have concocted an unusually rich and rewarding mix and one that’s evolved naturally.
After taking a two and a half year hiatus following the release of six studio albums and the successful building of a vibrant, grassroots fanbase, Jimkata are preparing to release their next album, Bonfires. The 10 track album is set for release as a series of singles every month with an accompanying visuals and merch line. Thematically, Bonfires touches on poignant themes of uncertainty, being in limbo, and looking for an anchor of hope in these trying times.
Bonfires is set for release Spring 2021 worldwide.
Jimkata are a three-piece anthemic, synth-washed, electro-rock band based out of Ithaca. With a triumph of swirling analog synths, infectious pop hooks and candid lyrics, Jimkata have built a distinct sound which has been resonating with listeners across the country.
Friends since middle school, Evan Friedell, Aaron Gorsch and Packy Lunn infuse Jimkata, (named after the so-bad-it’s-good 1985 gym-fu caper Gymkata) with both an adventurous musical streak and relatable lyrical themes. Mixed in with the modern synth sensibilities and hard driven indie rock are influences drawn from the likes of Motown, singer-songwriters like James Taylor and even old country songs, where storytelling and a quick turn of phrase share priorities with melody and the beat. Jimkata have concocted an unusually rich and rewarding mix and one that’s evolved naturally.
After taking a two and a half year hiatus following the release of six studio albums and the successful building of a vibrant, grassroots fanbase, Jimkata are preparing to release their next album, Bonfires. The 10 track album is set for release as a series of singles every month with an accompanying visuals and merch line. Thematically, Bonfires touches on poignant themes of uncertainty, being in limbo, and looking for an anchor of hope in these trying times.
Of the new single, Singer Evan Friedell shares, "I’ve always been inspired by artists like The Police who often paired poppy upbeat music with darker lyrical themes as well as classic reggae artists like Third World and of course Bob Marley and Peter Tosh who often sang about deep political or moral issues set to an uplifting beat. I couldn’t help but follow in that path a little bit with this song, imagining a character who by day deals in lies but by night fears his reckoning. Ultimately, it's sort of a moral tale set to a shiny dance groove."
Bonfires is set for release Spring 2021 worldwide.
It’s been seven strange years since The Veils’ last studio album Total Depravity, and Finn Andrews has a new double LP to show for it. …And Out Of The Void Came Love is the result of this tumultuous period of injury, isolation and new life...
“Time is a tempest tearing you apart
Time has a well-known distrust of the heart.”
Following the release of Total Depravity, Andrews released a solo album and began a worldwide tour. One night, while lashing out at a particularly intense moment on piano, he broke his wrist on stage. “It sounds wild and Jerry Lee Lewis-esque, but it was an absolute fucking nightmare,” Andrews says. He played on and finished the rest of the tour, but it wasn’t until he got it examined much later that he realized what a bad move that was. “The scaphoid bone in my wrist had died, which I didn’t know was possible. My sister said that at least it was a really ‘on brand’ injury for me.”
Finn’s convalescence meant a lengthy hiatus from touring, so he did what he does best and stayed at home and wrote songs. “I was in a cast and couldn’t use my right hand. I sang the melody lines, then recorded the right hand piano part, then the left hand part. It might have been an interesting, avant-garde process if it wasn’t also just profoundly annoying.”
“I speak to the darkness and I vent to the void
I fill in the sad bits with the parts I enjoyed”
Just when his hand had healed sufficiently for him to play again, The Veils found themselves in need of a new record label but Finn set about starting to make a new record regardless. Producer Tom Healy invited Finn to his small studio underneath the old Crystal Palace ballroom in Mount Eden, and they listened through the legions of songs he had amassed throughout the previous year.
“Tom was incredibly patient, it was a really laborious process - I brought a lot of junk down there and we had to sift through it all to try and find the parts worth saving.”
Following another two years of intermittent recording between lockdowns, Finn’s wife became pregnant, and yet more songs started coming.
“Unlived moments within you
Further than I can see”
By the time the songs had been recorded, it was clear that arranging the album into two halves best suited such varied material - but the meaning of the songs as a whole still eluded Andrews. “Then my daughter was born, and suddenly the whole record made sense to me,” he says. The music was telling a story, and somewhat strangely for The Veils, it seemed to have a happy ending.
The result of all these years of questioning, confinement and precarious uncertainty is the magnificent new double album from The Veils … And Out Of The Void Came Love. It is an album intended to be listened to in two sittings with a short break in the middle, or as Andrews instructs: “Make a coffee or smoke a cigarette – but don’t mow the lawn or go to the movies or something, that takes too long.”
Composer Victoria Kelly’s soaring string arrangements play an integral role in bringing the songs to life, as do musicians Cass Basil (bass), Dan Raishbrook (lap steel, guitar), Liam Gerrard (piano), Joseph McCallum (drums) the NZTrio and special guests the Smoke Fairies on backing vocals.
A Brief History of The Veils
Since being signed to Rough Trade when lead singer Finn Andrews was 16 years old, The Veils have now released six studio albums: The Runaway Found (2004), Nux Vomica (2006), Sun Gangs (2009), Time Stays, We Go (2013), Total Depravity (2016), …And Out Of The Void Came Love (2023) and two EP’s, The Troubles of the Brain (2011) and The Abbey Road EP (2013). Finn’s debut solo album One Piece At A Time was released in 2019. The Veils have toured consistently throughout their twenty year history and garnered a formidable reputation as one of the world’s greatest live bands. They have also been praised by film directors Paolo Sorrentino, Tim Burton and David Lynch who have all used their music on their soundtracks.
Lipstereo is a young, four-piece Australian indie rock band from Melbourne, Australia. Formed in 2019, this collection of music tragics bonded together over a mutual obsession of The Strokes, Weezer and Arctic Monkeys' back catalogues. By channeling too much time spent watching worn out Ramones and Blondie VHS tapes as children, Lipstereo creates performances reminiscent of late nights at CBGB, and spilling drinks just a little too cheap on the floor.
Lipstereo is composed of frontman Sam Stranges on vocals and rhythm guitar, Andrew Stainsby on lead guitar, Tage Hosking-Gregory on bass and Jesse Porter on drums. Playing all over pre-lockdown Melbourne in 2019 and 2020 at their high-energy live gigs, Lipstereo fuses loud guitars with a post punk songwriting sensibility to create music that in a parallel universe, would be on Phil Spector's Spotify playlist.
Lipstereo is one of Melbourne's most promising alternative bands, having recently released their four track debut EP, Modern Mythology, at Thirty Mill Studios with top Australian record producer, Mark Opitz (AC/DC, INXS, Cold Chisel) and engineer Colin Wynne (INXS, Jeff Lang, The Casanovas). The band has since received acclaim from Rolling Stone Australia, NME, ABC Rage and Noise 11 to name a few. Their single "Little Spaceships" chronicles the relatable feeling of feeling left behind when friends and loved ones move on.
