Posts Tagged ‘music’
Mostar Diving Club biog
Biog for Mostar Diving Club’s album Triumph of Hope which is out next week. Written late 2012 for Lucky Sixteen / BMG Rights Management UK Ltd.
In the city of Mostar stands Stari Most, a historic bridge which rises some twenty-five metres above the Neretva river. Since the 16th century, young men have dived from the towering bridge into the cold waters below as a rite of passage into adulthood – one false move and the diver finds himself in serious trouble. In 2008, Damian Katkhuda was visiting the city which his father and many of his ancestors came from. He hadn’t yet put a name to his new folk-pop project when, while observing the spectacle, he spotted a plaque engraved with the words The Mostar Diving Club. “I thought, I’m having that,” he smiles. “It meant a lot with my family history. I’m sure a lot of them would’ve done it in the past.”
While Katkhuda wouldn’t be exposed to the risk of life and limb that generations before him had encountered, his own Mostar Diving Club wasn’t without peril. After the decline of his previous band Obi, who released two well-received albums on Cooking Vinyl and played to audiences of up to 8000 in mainland Europe while being almost unknown at home, Katkhuda was seated in music’s last chance saloon. “Mostar Diving Club was probably my last stab at it. And luckily it worked,” he grins.
Working with producer and multi-instrumentalist Will Worsley, Katkhuda delivered Mostar Diving Club’s debut album Don Your Suit of Lights in 2009 on an estimated budget of £1000. Featuring material ranging from stripped down productions to richer sounds filled with brass, strings and all manner of other instrumentation, the album reiterated the fact that great music can be produced at little expense.
Their efforts would go on to be richly rewarded, as their music was selected for a number of high profile film, TV and advert syncs. As the release of the second Mostar Diving Club album The Triumph of Hope draws near, the duo’s songs have since been heard in Grey’s Anatomy, the Stateside hit crime-drama Castle, the Rachel Bilson movie Waiting For Forever and commercials for the likes of Honda, Asda, Walkers and Jacobs coffee. “Musicians have to do that. Unless you’re a real big hitter, you’re not going to make any money from your records or anything much else,” he explains. “As my lawyer keeps reminding me, I will not always be flavour of the month, so now is the time to take advantage.”
Some of those sync deals could earn five-figure sums with additional royalties on top, as well as the exposure created by the inclusion of the songs on mainstream TV shows. Katkhuda estimates that Don Your Suit of Lights sold “a few thousand” copies online in addition to the initial run of 1000 physical copies that are now long sold-out. Clearly, the Mostar Diving Club business model can provide a decent living. So why is Triumph of Hope – highlights of which include the uplifting folk-pop of Give A Little Love and To The Ocean, the tender Echoes and the haunting Train of Roses – being released as a joint venture between Katkhuda’s Lucky Sixteen label and BMG Rights Management (UK) Limited?
“If you can get that going, there’s no need to have a record deal,” Katkhuda concurs. “But people generally don’t take you seriously unless a bigger company is saying, ‘We think this is good too, and we’ll be put our weight behind it.’ If you want to go to the next level, a record company is essential.” His admiration for label mates such as Fleet Foxes, Bon Iver and Laura Marling underlines his point.
As much as Katkhuda underplays hearing his music on adverts (“I don’t watch much TV but when I have heard one of my songs in an ad, I think that’s nice… kerching!”), it’s evident that he’s eager for people to hear his work in its original form. “I write albums because I love doing them, it just so happens that people buy them for adverts. That’s all well and good, but I definitely don’t make them with that in mind, I make them because I love making and writing music.”
The writing process also holds more appeal than hitting the road. After tiring of endless touring during the Obi days, Katkhuda expects Mostar Diving Club’s future shows to be limited to special one-off dates. No matter how elegant the venue is, expect the unexpected: a fight almost erupted at a seated show at the St. Pancras Old Church when fans were angered by the loud chatter of others.
Triumph of Hope has been completed for some time and already Katkhuda is looking to the future. Serious progress has already been made on the third Mostar Diving Club album; he has another 170 Dictaphone-recorded ideas in mind for a fourth and is also forging ahead with work on a Christmas album (“It’s really funny dragging the sleigh bells out in the middle of summer”).
There’s more to Katkhuda than his obsessive love of music: he’s eager to elucidate on any subject of interest, such as how his surname originates from the Ottoman Empire’s attempts to force the Balkan region to convert to Islam; Bosnia’s lack of tourism; his hopes for the nation to return to its beauty; and how the death of Free’s Paul Kossoff indirectly inspired him to learn the guitar. Essentially, however, his story is that of a man who has encountered success simply by pursuing his strongest passion. This Mostar Diving Club might not have the long history of its namesake, but its sounds are causing a ripple around the world.
Biffy Clyro biog
Biog for their recent #1 album Opposites, written for 14th Floor / Warner Bros. Records in January 2013.
The story of Biffy Clyro is as romantic as it is archetypal. Three childhood friends from Ayrshire formed a band, delivered three albums of abrasive youthful exuberance and finally cracked the big time when their fourth – 2007’s Puzzle – hit the charts at #2. By the time the promotion of their fifth album Only Revolutions had ceased, they were bona fide stars who could headline festivals, fill arenas and deliver hit singles in an era in which rock bands rarely trouble the charts. With well over a million album sales to their name, no-one would’ve been too surprised to see complacency set in.
Such thoughts, however, certainly weren’t going to cramp the creativity of Biffy Clyro vocalist, guitarist and songwriter Simon Neil who instead proposed the idea of a career-defining double-album, which was subsequently titled Opposites. “It was a reaction to music being so disposable these days. Music still matters to people but often it’s just a distraction. I want our music to be a companion to people’s lives and something they’ll listen to in the future, and not just something that they’re into for a week or two until they move onto the next thing.”
“We were excited by the prospect, but the question seemed to be: how do we achieve that?” recalls bassist James Johnston. Yet not one member of the band – completed by James’s twin brother, drummer Ben – could’ve foreseen its inspiration.
As much as Only Revolutions delivered everything that the trio had ever dreamed of, the subsequent burnout slowly wore the band down. As they drifted apart, Ben’s drinking manifested itself with increased unpredictability. “I’d play these things down,” he admits. “Like, we got through it, so it’s okay. But I didn’t realise how much I was letting the guys down.”
The fractions within the band had already inspired Simon’s writing and the 45 new songs that he had written at home had been whittled down to 24 prior to arriving in Santa Monica to commence work with producer GGGarth Richardson. The day before recording was due to start, Ben became lost in a fog of alcohol and blacked out. Something had to change.
“I’d written all of these songs about us ending up in a situation I couldn’t believe we’d ended up in,” grimaces Simon. “Then one day we decided that we couldn’t let something as silly as drink get in the way of something we’d spent our life doing. We weren’t willing to let this take hold of our journey.”
“After the first couple of weeks in Santa Monica, I thought we were not only not going to make the album, but that we’d end up going home with no band,” adds James, almost struggling to get the words out. “For a few months it felt like it might not last. That’s absolutely devastating to even say out loud.”
The proposition that Ben should stop drinking was embraced by the drummer. “It’s usually the person who causes the trouble who realises last. That sounded like a good idea, because cutting down didn’t seem to be working. It never does,” he opines, offering a self-deprecating half-chuckle. “I’m truly grateful that I’ve got people in my life who are so sensitive, so close and who care about me. They could’ve just as easily kicked me out of the band.”
Subtitled The Sand At The Core Of Our Bones, the first disc of Opposites focuses on the dark challenges of Biffy Clyro’s past. Lyrics such as “It could’ve been a wonderful year / Instead we might not make it to the end” (from Biblical) and “The fog has cast a shadow homeward / We’re losing our direction so forget the whole thing” (from The Fog) reflect the band’s fragile mental state.
“There were a couple of times where I realised that my words sounded so sad,” says Simon, who’s happier discussing general lyrical themes rather than specific lines. “But you’ve got to be honest with yourself. That’s how I felt at the time, so you have to learn to trust your muse and to trust your instinct. I love listening to bands when I feel that someone is really giving me a glimpse into their mind and soul. I’m not afraid of that because music isn’t just a bit of razzle-dazzle. It should be something that can connect with people, and that starts with yourself.”
Ben’s recovery and subsequent battering ram performances re-energised the band. As James recalls with a smile that triumphs over his earlier controlled expression: “Our history shone through and our love for each other brought us back together. If we were a different band we could’ve said fuck this, let’s go home. Because we care about each other, we managed to bring it back together to be stronger than what we were before. When you go through difficult times you can go one of two ways, and thankfully we went up.”
The album’s second disc – The Land At The End Of Our Toes – examines a brighter future for the band with positivity flowing through lines such as “If we hold on, there’s a victory over the sun” (from Victory Over The Sun) and “Feeling alive with a throbbing mind, you’re never gonna break my stand” (Skylight) ahead of the album’s climactic rallying mantra: “We’ve got to stick together.”
As Simon surmises: “The second disc is a lot more positive. It’s about sticking together and feeling like we can achieve anything if the three of us are doing it together. The first album is very singular and very inward looking from an individual’s perspective.”
Opposites was recorded over the course of five months at Los Angeles studio The Village. The studio’s past (encompassing sessions from Fleetwood Mac, The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd and many more) provided to be particularly inspiring for Ben. “Its history lets you believe that maybe what you’re doing will be considered a classic album, because you think about those bands being there. Did they think they were recording a classic? Of course not, they thought they were just working on their most recent album at the time. And you think maybe one day people will be saying, wow, Biffy did Opposites here. That really spurs you on to try to be creative.”
The very core of Opposites brims with fresh new ideas at every turn. Opener Different People evolves from a tender introduction before erupting into fierce waves of impassioned energy; the stop-start riffs in Sounds Like Balloons are interrupted by a harp; Little Hospitals factors in an explosion of kazoos; and The Thaw offers a redemptive closing statement to the album’s first disc.
The second disc continues in a similar vein with Stingin’ Belle, which reprises Biffy Clyro’s angular alt-rock attack before atmospherically turning to the Scottish highlands with militaristic drum rolls and soaring bagpipes; the Love-meets-Rush mariachi sound-clash of Spanish Radio; and Skylight which, together with the opening disc’s The Fog, is one of two keyboard-based songs written with the help of leading contemporary soundtrack composer Clint Mansell (Black Swan, Moon, The Wrestler) who helped the band to strip those compositions back to their very essence. “He’s a minimalist and we’re maximalists,” says Simon, evidently appreciating his own wordplay. Also featured is Ben Bridwell from Band of Horses who offers his “beautiful, fragile and emotive” Southern twang to Opposite and Accident Without Emergency.
Opposites also finds the band collaborating once more with renowned composer David Campbell who also applied his talents to Only Revolutions. His masterly command of orchestral arrangements again adds an undeniable layer of depth and emotion to Biffy Clyro’s work. It’s certainly a leap beyond the band’s early years, when financial restrictions would see Simon playing violin parts or when an orchestra was imitated by layering together multiple performances by two guest musicians.
“Basically the remit was that nothing is too crazy or mental to try,” states Ben, glowing with pride that almost every idea they tried worked out – one of the few exceptions being the talented if expensive gospel choir that was ultimately edited from the final version of Biblical. “The real challenge is doing that while maintaining the sound of the band and the identity you’ve built up over several records,” adds James.
That identity is something that fascinates Simon, who sees themes emerging throughout the band’s growing discography. “I see Puzzle, Only Revolutions and Opposites as a trilogy of records that are very personal, and that are about discovering what life is about – all the highs and lows of what being an adult entails. They’re very emotive, spacious and dramatic records. But you have to keep giving yourself new challenges.”
Given the trials that it required, the creation of Opposites can hardly be considered the result of a fortuitous collection of events. However, it’s a body of work that can only come from the shared human experiences – as uplifting and devastating as they can be – of three uniquely interconnected souls. None of the band are certain what will happen next – maybe James and Ben will become more involved in the band’s songwriting, the general methods of working will change, and the sound is likely to be stripped back after three albums of increasingly detailed production. But as Simon concludes, anything could happen.
“Even when Only Revolutions came out, if you said we’d make a double album next and what it would be about, I’d say that’s ridiculous. You never know what life’s going to throw at you, what it’s going to inspire you to do, or what challenges it will give you.” He pauses, obviously content that Biffy Clyro’s future is once again secure. “We see ourselves as family and friends first, but there’s no way we’d let this band fall apart.”
Electric Guest biog
Written specifically for the UK for Warner Bros. Records in December 2012.
It’s no surprise that Electric Guest’s Stateside profile is accelerating towards mainstream recognition following a succession of positive reviews and major television appearances on David Letterman and Jimmy Fallon.
Take the duo’s breakthrough single This Head I Hold as evidence; with Asa Taccone’s sweet, soul-infused falsetto, a rhythm steeped in classic, up-tempo Motown and a hook that barely requires a full play before it burrows into your subconscious, it’s as immediately familiar as a greeting from an old-friend. And while their debut album Mondo switches genres with blatant disregard for simple categorisation, there’s an almost old-fashioned love of melody running throughout. Add the production nous of Danger Mouse –contemporary ingenuity rooted within pop’s most essential and traditional attributes – and it’s clear why the Electric Guest package is so immediately enticing to such a wide audience.
Yet underneath the feel-good exterior lies a darker heart. “A lot of the album is about growing pains, and the mood in Los Angeles,” says Taccone, Electric Guest’s vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, co-producer and songwriter. “It’s like the epicentre of distorted American values. When I first moved to L.A. the only people I knew were Brian [Burton, aka Danger Mouse] and my brother [writer, director and comedian Jorma Taccone], and I felt like I was walking into their scene. I’m not very extroverted, so I’d go to parties to meet people but end up just thinking, what am I doing here?”
“Music is a weird thing because it has all of these other aspects to it,” he continues. “Making a record in your pyjamas in your room is a completely insular, intimate process and it has nothing to do with being able to stand and sing in front of a thousand people. This is the first band I’ve been in and I still struggle with that.”
Taccone was first introduced to Danger Mouse by his brother and their friendship dates back several years. Taccone would often give his demos to the producer to listen to, and later moved into the rented house that Danger Mouse had just vacated. As he recalls: “I had a choice of a regular guest room, or another room in which he’d wrote all this great shit like Gnarls Barkley’s Crazy and Gorillaz. I had to pick that one!” It was during this time that he met future Electric Guest partner Matthew ‘Cornbread’ Compton, a drummer who grew up with a love of eighties thrash metal and who subsequently played with underground favourites Cursive and Engine Down.
It was in June 2007 that Danger Mouse suggested that Taccone should record an album of his own. “I’ve listened to albums by The Shins, Sparklehorse, Cee-Lo, the Black Keys and many others and jumped at the chances I had to work with and learn from them when I could,” said the producer in a statement. “So after years of listening to and being influenced by what Asa was doing, I jumped at the chance to work with him.”
The songs included on Mondo vary in age. ‘This Head I Hold’ was written over seven years ago, while the 10-minute landmark ‘Troubleman’ – which was played in full on KCRW and was described by NME as “the exact mid-point between all-American melody king Ben Folds and the pop smarts that made Justin Timberlake so credible back in the day” – was the last to be written. Typically, though, Taccone would arrive at the studio with an idea for the song and its basic instrumentation, which would then by fleshed out by Cornbread and Danger Mouse. Taccone’s perfectionism came at a cost as stress-induced shingles forced him to take six weeks away from the recording process. Luckily, Danger Mouse procured a substantial quantity of Vicodin to help get his old friend through the final stages. “I’m sure another man would’ve dealt with in a cooler manner,” he shrugs self-deprecatingly.
Electric Guest recently completed the Festival Les Inrocks tour of France alongside The Vaccines and are now looking ahead to series of UK dates in February. Live shows see Taccone and Cornbread joined by Dahlhoff brothers Todd (bass) and Tory (guitar / keyboard) who had previously played with Devandra Banhart and Little Joy. “The live set definitely has a different energy than the album, and the songs are more dynamic in a live setting,” he states. “All of us are pretty capable and we don’t just do one thing, so you’ll see a lot of multi-tasking on states, which I really enjoy.”
Previously quoted as saying, “I have a sweet tooth for terrible music so I won’t even say what I’m influenced by”, it seems that Taccone would rather let people make up their own minds as to the artists that inform his own writing. As he succinctly concludes, “Our music was never meant to be a big mash-up of genres, but it ended up being what it is.”
The Overtones biog
Written in the summer of 2012 for Warner Music Entertainment ahead of the group’s Top 10 album Higher.
After years of grinding out a living while chasing their dreams of becoming successful singers, The Overtones’ perseverance was richly rewarded when they landed a recording deal with Warner Music Entertainment in the summer of 2010. Released that same year, their debut album ‘Good Ol’ Fashioned Love’ was forecast to sell a respectable but hardly ground-breaking 20,000 copies. Almost two years later, the album has now exceeded 500,000 sales after peaking at #4 on the album chart. 2012 has already seen them play to over 250,000 people at the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebration and to another large audience at an Olympics show in Hyde Park. Now, with the release of their second album ‘Higher’ approaching, is the perfect moment to be an Overtone.
“The bar keeps being raised and we’re going with it,” says Lachie Chapman, with his immediately recognisable Australian accent only adding to his sense of enthusiasm. “To perform at the Jubilee and the Olympics is amazing, as is having a new album coming out that really evolves our sound. It’s a year that has its foot firmly on the accelerator for us.”
Regardless of whatever great adventure is next on the agenda for The Overtones – completed by founding members Mike Crawshaw, Darren Everest, Mark Franks and Timmy Matley – their collective excitement is focused heavily on the release of ‘Higher’. Featuring a selection of their own self-written material, the album finds the boys pushing the boundaries of their music with a collection that blends a variety of contemporary pop influences into the uplifting, soulful sounds of the defining male vocal groups of the 50s and 60s. It captures the essence of everything people loved about The Overtones the first time around, but it also finds the group brimming with confidence as they explore new territory.
“We knew that after the success of the first album that we’d need to raise our game again,” says Everest. “We wanted to stay true to the roots of what we do, but at the same time take a huge step forwards.”
That involved enlisting some of music’s most respected producers. Renowned for his ability to capture masterly vocal performances from some of the world’s most successful artists, Walter Afanasieff (Mariah Carey, Celine Dion, Boyz II Men) was an obvious choice of collaborator for a group which is resolutely proud of their determination and work ethic in ensuring that their music achieves its full potential. As a veteran of the big band circuit, Trevor Horn could easily identify with The Overtones’ roots, but his famously accomplished production techniques also allowed the music to evolve in a direction in which the sound forged ahead rather than wallowed in the past. Pop curators Future Cut (Olly Murs, Lily Allen) also contributed to the sessions by utilising their renowned ability to craft commercially successful songs built for repeated plays which brim with The Overtones’ cheeky, effervescent personalities.
“We were so happy that people like Walter, Trevor and Future Cut wanted to work with us, because they’ve got the ability to help us make our music as strong as it can possibly be,” explains Crawshaw. “Throughout the album, you can really tell that the level has been raised.”
“They’re top producers at the top of their game, and it was great to collaborate with them as it’s important for us to be able to contribute our ideas about production,” adds Franks. “We feel very fortunate to have been able to work with some extraordinary and experienced people.”
The Overtones’ own songwriting credits, which include collaborations with Steve Booker (Duffy) and fast rising writing team Electric (Cheryl Cole), are central to the success of ‘Higher’. The album’s title track is a prime example. “lt’s uplifting, gritty and almost like a classic dance track. I love that we’re bending the rules a little bit regarding what vocal harmony groups can do,” enthuses Matley, who humbly refers to himself as the group’s “token Irishman” when his band mates praise his brilliance.
Other highlights include ‘Love Song’ (Chapman: “It’s a modern version of an old teen heartthrob anthem that’s designed to be danced to today”), ‘Call Me Up’ (Matley: “It’s like a mod version of a song from Footloose”) and ‘When You Say My Name’, on which they worked with Steve Robson (Take That, James Morrison) and Wayne Hector (JLS, The Wanted). The first single to be taken from the album will be ‘Loving The Sound’, which was written with Phil Thornally (Pixie Lott) and Jon Green. “It’s got an upbeat soul vibe, but it’s about picking yourself up and moving on,” says Everest.
The album also includes fresh interpretations of established classics, such as Fairground Attraction’s 1988 chart-topper ‘Perfect’ and Chapman’s lead vocal on a soulful rendition of ‘Unforgettable’, both of which highlight The Overtones’ strength as a modern vocal group built on the tradition of powerful performances and finely crafted harmonisation.
‘Unforgettable’ is a song that could well soundtrack their experiences over the past two years. From the magical (Franks and Everest in particular found their show at the London Palladium to be a highly emotional experience) to the surreal (performing live on Finnish television to accompany a routine by Olympic figure skater Kiiri Korpi), the group have enjoyed almost every moment. “I think people can see that we enjoy what we do and that really helps their enjoyment of the music too,” states Crawshaw. “We worked really hard for this, and now we consider ourselves really lucky to wake up in the morning and be able to do what we love to do.”
If asked to pick the one defining moment of The Overtones to date, it’s fair to assume that all five members would choose the Diamond Jubilee celebration which they performed at after a personal invitation from the legendary Gary Barlow. “Looking down the Mall at so many people was just amazing,” recalls Franks with an energy that overawes his normally dry Mancunian tone. “At one point I shouted, ‘Can you hear me at the back?’ and 250,000 flags went up in the air.” At the subsequent after show party at Buckingham Palace, the boys enjoyed mingling with a veritable who’s who of famous faces, including Prince William, Paul McCartney, Stevie Wonder and Cheryl Cole.
The Overtones will follow the release of ‘Higher’ by embarking upon a major twenty-seven date tour of the UK and Ireland. They’re evidently awestruck by the loyalty of their fans who have booked tickets months in advance before a single note of ‘Higher’ has been released for public consumption, and are promising a joyous, celebratory atmosphere. As Matley concludes, “It’s great that people are excited to see us and are taking the time to invest in our entire album as it means that they believe in the entire piece of work. This is a labour of love and I love that people are willing to go on that journey with us.”
Sam and the Womp biog
Written in the summer of 2012 for One More Tune / Warner Bros. Records ahead of their #1 single Bom Bom.
“Did somebody order a party?”
That’s the mantra of Sam and the Womp, a Technicolor explosion of comic book superheroes and pop art who brew a potent cocktail of ska, dubstep, brass ‘n’ bass. At the front stands de facto band leader Sam punching out the horn riffs and vocalist Lady Oo. “The idea is to paint life as you’d love it to be,” she glows. “This life is a lucid dream and it’s in your hands. Make it what you want it to be.”
Chief rabble-rouser Sam says, “Love for brass and bass is the focus of the project. Bom Bom is the band at our brassy bombastic best.”
“We didn’t sit down and decide to form a band and write songs,” recalls synths man / DJ Aaron Audio, the collective’s enigmatic musical alchemist who, as a teenager, squirrelled himself away in a recording studio with a mass of equipment and didn’t emerge again things started to sound right. “We just decided to have some fun.”
Early shows found Sam on the trumpet, Aaron Audio DJing and Lady Oo dancing in a banana outfit. “It wasn’t a classic way to start a band, it was just pure improvisation,” reminisces Sam, a man whose on and off stage personalities recall the duel life of Clark Kent and Superman. For the record, Sam would rather be thought of as “a feral Elvis with a trumpet.”
Sharing an interest in music from a broad spectrum of cultures meant that Sam and the Womp’s London home provided the ideal environment for their development. As Lady Oo explains: “London is like a big train station of the world. So many people from so many different places are passing through and they’re all looking for the same thing which is something different from what they already know, something open, something more connected. The energy of this place means that you have so many people to create and exchange ideas with.”
The band grew a substantial live following playing the festival party circuit with multiple shows at: Secret Garden Party, Glastonbury, Bestival, Lovebox, Big Chill, Standon Calling etc. As their reputation grew Sam and the Womp’s sound gestated into ever more unpredictable directions. “It’s always evolving and changing, whatever we can do to make it insane and fun and different for us,” states Aaron Audio. “We like to see how far we can push it.”
Sam and the Womp’s progression had already seen Lady Oo promoted to vocal duties as well as keyboard, while Aaron Audio moved from DJing to synth bass. For live shows, the core trio are bolstered by a rotating squad of six horn players who had previously played with the likes of Bad Manners and Prince Buster. As Sam says with evident enthusiasm, “They’re amazing pedigree musicians. For them, it’s a laugh because they play a lot of jazz gigs and they get to join us and cut loose.”
“You can call our music a lot of things, but it’s essentially just musicians writing songs,” affirms Aaron Audio. “I don’t think we’ve worked out exactly what it is, but that’s part of the journey and part of the fun. We’re not about destruction or politics or anything like that, we’re about dreaming about a beautiful reality with love and music.”
Now signed to Stiff Records / One More Tune, Sam and the Womp’s first single ‘Bom Bom’ is already winning substantial radio play as well famous fans such as Rizzle Kicks. It stands on the edge of becoming a bona fide hit. Not that the trio are too perturbed by their recent progress. As Sam observes, “The thing we started to do for fun has become the thing that we do seriously, but we’re serious about making it fun still.”
That’s the Sam and the Womp story so far. But it leaves one final mystery. Just what the hell is a womp?
“It’s onomatopoeic for the sound of the bass,” explains Aaron Audio. “We’re all bass addicts.”
“The womp is the space between the bass and your face,” interjects Sam. And then, as if prompted, the trio burst into life as one: “Embrace the bass!”
