Hey! Manchester music blogHey! Manchester blogs about the best folk, Americana and experimental music in the rainy city2010-02-26T15:53:31ZWordPresshttp://www.heymanchester.com/blog/feed/atomHey! Manchesterhttp://<![CDATA[The Photography of Steve Gullick – at the Kraak Gallery]]>http://www.heymanchester.com/blog/?p=6872010-02-26T15:53:31Z2010-02-26T15:53:31ZThe Kraak Gallery, the Northern Quarter’s short-lived but widely approved-of underground music venue, is hosting a photography exhibition next month, featuring photographs of people like Will Oldham:
Steve Gullick has photographed for NME and Melody Maker as well as his own publications Careless Talk Costs Lives and Loose Lips Sink Ships – and has impeccable taste, with Nirvana, Bjork, Beck, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Neil Young and Nick Cave among the familiar names that will feature.
The Photography of Steve Gullick runs from 12-27 March at the Kraak Gallery (11 Stevenson Square, behind Hula Bar). It’s open Tuesday to Sunday, 11am-6pm. What’s more, Steve’s band The Tenebrous Liar play the opening party at the Bay Horse on 11 March (£2, 8pm), and he’ll be giving a guided tour of the exhibition at 3pm on the final day – email him directly to book a place. Random Hey! Manchester posts:
]]>2Hey! Manchesterhttp://<![CDATA[Hey! Marble Valley]]>http://www.heymanchester.com/blog/?p=6762010-01-30T17:05:27Z2010-01-27T14:50:24ZAhead of Thursday’s intimate show at Dulcimer, Hey! Manchester catches up with Steve West, front man of Marble Valley and drummer in Pavement.
Hi Steve, how are you?
It’s been an uppin’ downer week here, cold as Big Ben’s hour hand.
Obvious question first: where does the name Marble Valley come from?
My mother’s father grew up on a farm with 12 siblings in Marble Valley, located in the blue ridge mountains of Virginia.
Why did you decide to record the latest album, Slash and Laugh, in Amsterdam?
Remko Schouten, our Sampler guy, owns a fabulous studio named Island Studios there, and he graciously offered to record us.
The songs are incredibly fun and quirky. How do you go about getting these elements into the music?
When we are together it comes out naturally like a burp or hick up. Alone, I just think about these guys playing the songs and go with it.
Do you have reels of out-takes where you’re all laughing or is the recording process quite serious?
It seems there is always laughter at the beginning and end of songs. There is always another clown around the corner in the Valley. However, we do take the final schmeel seriously.
Is there a dog in someone’s house called Duche Dog E Dog, or is it a surreal joke?
The Dog is Remko Schouten, our sampler/percussion/singing wizard. He is Pavement’s sound man and is famous for his manly exploits. He is a husband now and father of two, and has a leash and a collar on.
I read somewhere that you’re a stone mason. What kind of stuff do you like to make?
Beating on rocks is loads of fun. Sometimes I pretend there is a crowd of Pavement fans waiting for me to sign autographs at lunch time. Seriously though, I make stone fireplaces, retaining walls and patios for Virginians.
How does the experience of playing Marble Valley differ from playing in Pavement?
In the valley, I am the frontman, no place to hide. It is fun but very bright. In Pavement, I can hide behind the drums. I enjoy both positions. Drumming is easier though, I can be a Neanderthal. Front men have to wear a tie and a bowler like John Steed.
How did the Pavement reunion come about and are you excited about it?
The fans and the press brought it about by keeping the idea out there. It’s going to be a blast off. I am very excited to play these old Pavement songs and participate in a lot of male bonding.
You must have been to Manchester before, right? How well do you get on with the place?
Me and Manchester get along just fine. However, this country bumpkin sticks out like a old beat up Ford truck under the Manchester city nightlights.
]]>1Hey! Manchesterhttp://<![CDATA[Hey! Manchester’s favourite albums of 2009]]>http://www.heymanchester.com/blog/?p=6702010-01-12T02:14:54Z2010-01-12T01:59:01ZOk, so it’s a whole 12 days off the pace (I’ve been busy booking shiny new shows!) but I finally got round to making a list of my favourite albums of last year:
Fever Ray – Fever Ray (Rabid Records)
Casiotone for the Painfully Alone – Vs. Children (Tomlab)
Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion (Domino)
Au Revoir Simone – Still Night, Still Light (Moshi Moshi)
Sleeping States – In The Garden of the North (Bella Union)
Grizzly Bear – Veckatimest (Warp)
Wild Beasts – Two Dancers (Domino Recordings)
The xx – xx (Young Turks/XL)
Miike Snow – Miike Snow (Sony)
Yeah Yeah Yeahs – It’s Blitz! (Polydor)
At Swim Two Birds – Before You Left (Vespertine & Son)
Dirty Projectors – Bitte Orca (Domino)
Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros – Up From Below (Community Records)
Alaska in Winter – Holiday (Regular Beat)
Taken By Trees – East Of Eden (Rough Trade)
Oh, and one more for good luck – favourite soundtrack of the year:
]]>1Hey! Manchesterhttp://<![CDATA[Hey! Love & Disaster]]>http://www.heymanchester.com/blog/?p=6602010-01-11T15:34:42Z2010-01-11T15:34:42Z‘Manchester’s New Order’ is what Dazed witly calls the current crop of local bands. Four of these great new hopes feature on the debut EP by Love & Disaster, a Manchester label with big plans. We asked founder Dan Parrott to explain more.
What inspired you to start a label now – and why 10-inch gatefold?
I have been involved in the Manchester music scene for a few years now, and I think the idea for the label comes from the fact that I have seen a recent and distinctive lack of cohesiveness in the new Manchester representing itself to the outside world. People say this every year but I genuinely do believe that it is Manchester’s time to be at the forefront of the UK music scene again, with a collection of amazing new bands whose sights are set only towards the future.
I would like to think that our first record is how we mean to go on, and is hopefully more than the sum of its parts. The bands are all at different stages of their careers but it was a mutual respect and friendship that pulled them together. The decision for who was on the record fell to the bands as much as me. Hopefully this EP puts the spotlight on these artists as well as the city and for the right reasons, not falling into the usual Manchester cliches. Most of these guys were too young to go to the Hacienda anyway so they don’t even feel the need to try and ’swear they were there’ – they were busy watching Blue Peter or something.
I wanted to release physically on vinyl because Love & Disaster is new and I felt it is important to launch with something that people can put there hands on. Also, one of the biggest ideas for the EP was the sense of ‘unity’ so I wanted the tracks to sit together on the same piece of plastic.
I felt the group photo was also very important and a key part to the ethos. If I’m honest, we were so rushed taking the photo we later worked out that it wouldn’t fit into a square so had to pay extra for the gatefold to fit in the picture. Am really glad I did this because I wanted to make the record as special as possible – although I have set an expensive precedence for future releases.
You were involved in Channel M television. How helpful was your role there in setting this up?
Channel M gave me a great and unique opportunity. Budgets were always small but success was due to the wealth of talent, support and trust we built with the acts that contributed. It was a shame that it had to end but am really excited about the future and hopefully this may serve as a logical and natural progression. From my time at Channel M Music I built up a great network of contacts and made some close friends. Being honest, the bands on this EP are the ones we embraced the most and wanted to help them in return for their support of the channel. In a way the inclusion of these bands is kind of cathartic for me – they need to go off and do great things for themselves and Manchester now, and I look forward to working with the next generation.
How do you decide which of Manchester’s many talented bands make it on to the EPs?
I’m not going to pretend that this isn’t down to personal musical taste but I am not close minded and can embrace anything as long as when scratching the service their is talent, ideas and the right attitude beneath. Another word I would like to add to that list is ‘longevity’ – I think this is really important. I think these bands could have a great career and not simply be a ‘fad’.
Is there any theme per release other than being from the same city?
If there is any theme at all it’s temporal. I think these bands represent the new Manchester scene in 2009 very well and they are going on to be some of our biggest hopes for 2010. Saying that, there are loads of great manchester bands who don’t appear on the first record and am looking forward to working with them for future releases. On this particular compilation I tried to get a balance on the way you might put together an album. Airships ‘Kids’ is an amazing sub-three-minute anthem opener, Dutch Uncles is a weird winding progressive track full of depth and interest, Jo’s track provides the downbeat brooding ballad and it ends on an upbeat Delphic/Everything Everything dance track. The next one I think is going to be very dancey most of the way through.
How often are new releases going to come out, and can you name anyone you’re talking to for future EPs?
Originally I was thinking about three in total over the period of a year and then taking stock. I also have other projects on the go, involving video and a new website that all ties in. I have so far approached my ideal four bands (maybe five this time around). I don’t want to jinx it by naming names as it is very early days, but can confirm we will be taking May68 into the studio for another exclusive track in January to kick it all off.
Who are the newest band that you think Manchester music fans should be listening to?
Thats a difficult one. In terms of Manchester bands on the record, they aren’t necessarily new but they are in terms of the UK. I’ve already talked about my favourites but really very new Manchester at the moment are Driver, Drive Faster and Techniques.
]]>0Hey! Manchesterhttp://<![CDATA[Hey! Fruit Bats]]>http://www.heymanchester.com/blog/?p=6532009-12-13T14:44:20Z2009-12-13T14:43:30Z
Having spent a year and half touring as a non-permanent member of the Shins, as well as working with Vetiver, Eric Johnson has recently returned to his own band Fruit Bats, with whom he has recorded and released the well-received album The Ruminant Band. This coming Thursday, 17 December, Fruit Bats visit our fair city and hit our favourite subterranean nightspot the Roadhouse – so we caught up with Eric.
Hello Eric. How are you? How’s your day been?
It’s going well – though right now I have not left the Travelodge Nottingham. But I’ve got coffee on the way, which is going to start my day off. We’ve been touring a bunch in France and Spain and although I love the espresso there, I like the British/American tradition of a nice large cup in the morning.
How is your current tour going?
It’s been great! We’ve been mainly touring in southern Europe with Vetiver, who are our dear friends (and make amazing music). So it’s been one long sweet mellow hang. We’ve just begun the UK portion of the tour without them. The first two shows have been amazing. I’ve been pretty surprised by the turn-outs, in fact.
You toured with the Shins for a while now. How did you find that experience compared to your one with Fruit Bats?
I always maintain that the two are incomparable. The Shins is about the most fun day job imaginable. The Fruit Bats is my show, so all the highs are mine, and the lows. Being in the Shins is like being an astronaut or lion tamer. Its an unrealistic, rare and cool experience. Fruit Bats is more of a blue-collar gig. Hard work, little money, but kinda soulful. It’s probably a better job than hard labour, though.
Do you and James Mercer feed off each other creatively?
Maybe, I’m not too sure. Both bands have been around for the same amount of time (I think Fruit Bats a bit longer, in fact). James and I hang out a lot, we’re good friends. But mainly we just listen to music, drink beers, and talk about geeky scientific subjects (something we’re both into). So creative trading is probably subliminal. We’ve never written together or anything…
You’ve said in previous interviews that with The Ruminant Band you’ve let the other members of the band have more of an input into the creative process. Has this been an easy step to take?
Yes, its been quite easy. Fruit Bats has been so much of a solo project in many ways until now, that this felt like me starting a new band. We even briefly considered a name change. ‘The Ruminant Band’ was a name we came up with for the new band. We ended up keeping Fruit Bats and naming the record that instead. It’s kind of got double meaning.
How did you end up getting Tim Rutili (of Califone) to contribute to The Ruminant Band?
I used to play in Califone, and Tim was a huge reason why Fruit Bats got off the ground. He was something of a big brother to me. We did The Ruminant Band at Clava Studio, which is Graeme’s (our drummer’s) studio. It’s in a sweet little Italian neighbourhood called Bridgeport on the South Side of Chicago. When you record there you’ll almost consistently be stuffed on amazing food from around the ‘hood. Clava is also the home base for Califone, and those dudes are usually around. Tim happened to be working in the office while we were recording and came in to do some tracks. He was on the first Fruit Bats record too, and was even in the live band for a couple of shows way back when!
You’ve also said that you come from a background of bluegrass and folk. What particularly attracts you to them?
When I was 20, I found a banjo used and cheap at a music store. I decided to learn it at the Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago, and found that I was kind of good at it. I ended up getting a teaching gig there eventually. Then I just fell in with that scene. Around that time at Old Town you had a lot of great players and writers working there – Andrew Bird was teaching violin, there were people from Califone, Pinetop Seven, Handsome Family etc. This was around 1996-1997. American folk music makes sense to me. I like the alchemy of it being this music from the British isles put through an African filter in America. It’s simple but in its simplicity there are multiple ways you can mutate it…
What else influences your song-writing other than bluegrass and folk?
I grew up on 1970s and 80s pop radio. My mom listened to the ’soft rock’ station all the time and there’s no way that didn’t work its way in there. I’ve got as much 10cc or Hall & Oates or Little River Band floating around in my brain as I do The Band and Neil Young. I love the old Upstate New York and Topanga and Laurel Canyon heroes, and I love the Brit folk mavericks, Richard Thompson, Incredible String Band, Vashti Bunyan, and I love the Kinks more than most things. I’ve got both Americana and Anglophilic tendencies. I love a lot of modern bands, too… Beta Band, Gorkys Zygotic Mynci and Super Furries were pretty huge for me when I was making the first Fruit Bats record at the turn of the century.
Have you spent much time in Manchester before, and if so what did you think of the place?
I love Manchester. I’ve visited a few times over the last five years. It was actually the first city I ever visited in the UK. It reminds me somewhat of Chicago, my home town. Cities that are overshadowed by their larger neighbours (like London and New York), usually have a character that’s more essential and perfect. Manchester doesn’t feel like anywhere else, just like Manchester. Plus so many insanely killer bands come from there that its hard not to be completely swept up in the history of it all. I’m a huge fan of the city.
You’re signed to Sub Pop, famous for putting forward grunge luminaries Nirvana and Soundgarden. Which of the current crop on the label do you like?
I like a lot of them. Vetiver, Fleet Foxes, Blitzen Trapper, Iron and Wine, Beach House… man, the list could go on.
Fruit Bats play at the Roadhouse on Thursday 17 December, with support from Piney Gir and Puzzle Muteson. More information.
Interview by Chris Gilliver of CityLifers Possibly related to this:
]]>0Hey! Manchesterhttp://<![CDATA[Write For CityLifers]]>http://www.heymanchester.com/blog/?p=6452009-12-08T17:46:37Z2009-12-08T17:46:37Z
A friend asked me to mention CityLifers, a reviews site he writes for – something of an unofficial off-shoot from CityLife. They’re looking for Manchester music fans looking to ‘indulge your inner journalist’ and share their views with a like-minded community. Here’s CityLifers‘ manifesto:
To create a place for EVERYONE with a passion for music, so they can spread the word about the bands, artists, singles, albums and venues they are passionate about.
To feature reviews and recommendations of the latest and best music out there.
To make sure that smaller venues and the acts that play in them are given the coverage and recognition they deserve. At some point in their careers, all bands and artists rely heavily on these places to learn their craft.
Without fans with a passion for music, the world would be even more awash with the soulless sounds that are so often thrust upon us. We believe that every music fan using this site is as much a part of the music industry as record companies and the artists themselves. It is the people that buy music and watch bands live that help keep musicians in a job, so we believe that those music fans should have a place to make their views known.
The site is stuffed full of content – from venue, album, single and live reviews to interviews with the likes of Jesca Hoop. They’re offering free CDs to reviewers – visit http://citylifers.co.uk/want-to-join-us/ to send a sample review and join the CityLifers team. Possibly related to this:
]]>0Hey! Manchesterhttp://<![CDATA[Hey! Cass McCombs]]>http://www.heymanchester.com/blog/?p=6372009-11-21T17:51:02Z2009-11-21T17:50:33ZWhat with December fast approaching, we’re only a few weeks away from endless end-of-year lists – including, no doubt, one by yours truly. Catacombs, the fifth album by well-travelled American musician Cass McCombs, might well be on our list – so we decided to catch up with him ahead of his Roadhouse show on 2 December.
Hello Cass, how’s your day going? What have you been up to?
Hi, going well, thanks. I’ve been rehearsing for the tour in New York City.
You’re coming to Manchester next month. How do you feel about the city’s musical heritage? And which artists are your personal favourites?
Yes, I am aware of Manchester music. I’m a pretty severe record collector, but I’d rather not get into the name game. I understand you people are very territorial about these bands, this history.
The opener of Catacombs, Dreams Come True Girl, sounds very 50s/60s influenced. Who were you listening to when writing the album?
We wanted the record to have a 1950s rock and roll element, not the 1960s, so we bought some old broken equipment we read the great old studios like Sun, Chess, Norvajak, Gold Star, The 3-Track Shack etc used to use. We also recorded in the same manner: we recorded each song ‘live’ and very few overdubs were made. If I missed the vocal we had to do the whole thing again, because all the mics in the room were picking up everything. But it was part of an ethic we were attempting that we hadn’t done before and it was exciting. We were only able to overdub once we bounced tracks on the tape machine, which is a risky process as you’re never sure how the bounce will turn out. But throwing out caution was again part of the ethic, each one of us had made records where the recording process was too precious and felt it sucked the fun out. We wanted to make something fast and flawed.
There’s a contribution on that song by Karen Black. How did that come about?
Karen came into my life through a friend called Aaron Brown, who designed the last two album covers and made the video for Dreams. Both of them are so creative and wonderful folks. And Karen taught me a lot about performance and singing out with my biggest voice.
You move about a lot in the US. Is this to soak up different musical environments for your song-writing, or a sort of restlessness… or neither?
Everyone in the states moves a lot. I move out of the necessity to work; I move wherever I can work with the most clarity.
What made you become a musician: a particular turning point, or was it something you always wanted to do?
It wasn’t a thought. I love music and writing and drawing and I’ve always been lucky to be surrounded by talented folks to teach me things. I just kept writing songs and at some point I guess they were good enough to get some attention. I also had the patience to deal with the nonsense – that’s huge, a lot of people quit or scale down because of an ego conflict.
Who or what are your major influences when writing?
There are no influences worth mentioning. Writing or music is not motivated by fame. I’m guided by my instinct and ethic and soul, and write only when I have to get something essential out. I do a lot of reading and research for each record, so it takes me a very long time to write each song. It’s a challenge because you have to maintain the emotional instinct as you plunge into analytics. I imagine this separates me from most other musicians – I don’t care to keep up the myth of rock.
What do you hope the next year will hold for you?
Generally, I don’t make plans, I try not to have expectations. I have so much work to do right now, I just need to finish that first and things will turn out the way they need to, for better or worse.
]]>0Hey! Manchesterhttp://<![CDATA[Hey! Efterklang]]>http://www.heymanchester.com/blog/?p=6252009-10-17T14:30:19Z2009-10-16T19:13:58ZWith Halloween, that most terrifying of holidays, looming on the horizon, Hey! Manchester will celebrate by hosting a bone-rattling night filled with short horror flicks and fancy dress. Efterklang will be providing a live theme tune. Scared? You probably shouldn’t be, because Efterklang are more beautiful (both physically and musically) than they are beastly. It will be up to us (and you!) to bring the fear and dread then – but for now we bring you an interview with Efterklang’s Rasmus Stolberg (third from the left) to whet your appetite.
You’re coming to Manchester on Halloween! Which horror character do you hope to see in the audience?
We have always been big fans of Arnold’s Terminator character – but I’m not sure he qualifies as horror. Maybe Willem Defoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg in their Antichrist roles?
And which tracks should be on our Halloween playlist?
I guess some of the later Scott Walker material would be quite effectful. In general I think industrial music is pretty scary – that and greatest hits by Smokie, which they always re-release in Denmark this time of year.
You’ve played Manchester before in less gothic times. How do you feel about your experiences here?
We have very fond memories of our concert at the Roadhouse. I think it was in 2007? That was just a superb night! We took a photo of the audience and realised afterwards that 90% of the people there were men:
Afterwards we stayed at Bernie’s house with Akron/Family and jammed and enjoyed life and Bernie’s chilli!
Let’s get on to your music. How would you describe it to the un-informed?
For the last couple of months we have told people that the music is a sort of orchestrated and experimenting pop music. That can mean a lot of things I know, but I think it is best to just be open-minded and come to our show out of curiosity. Curiosity is a nice thing in humans.
‘Cinematic’ is a word many would apply to your music – and you have previously scored an animation feature by Anders Morgenthaler. Are there any plans to score a feature film?
There are no current plans, but we would love to do more of this kind of work. It is usually Mads and Casper who do these projects. They also scored two theatre plays last year.
You’re about to release a CD and a DVD of your performance with the Danish National Chamber Orchestra. Tell us about how this collaboration came about.
To many people it is a surprise that the orchestra actually contacted us! Their producer liked our Parades album and it was also his idea to play the entire album from start to finish! I think we planned the concert over a period of 10 months, and afterwards we spend months and months of finishing the audio and film. I think this has to be our biggest project yet.
Was it everything you’d hoped for?
it was actually. The feeling of being part of that 50-piece orchestra playing your own music was incredibly uplifting!
In the video for Caravan you are all wearing strange conical hats. Why is that?
If you take a closer look at the film, you will see that the background is full of pointy mountain formations in various forms and colours. The hats are a reflection of these mountains. The idea was that we were playing in a weird and secret cave.
If you could collaborate with anyone, who would it be?
If I could have been a part of Paul Simon’s Graceland recordings then I would be the happiest person on earth! Maybe I should convince the others that we should travel to Africa and make a record with some incredible local musicians and Paul Simon can produce the whole thing?
I actually think we would choose some film directors – maybe Lars von Trier! Or maybe we should just make a single starring Beyonce.
You’ve just moved to 4AD. How does it feel to be moving to such a respected record label, and what do you hope to get out of it?
It feels nice and strong to become a part of their history and bands. I’m not sure we have fully understood yet how nice it is.
We have the same ambitions as always. We hope that more people will get to know and like us so that we can stay independent and stay creative.
Would you agree that you’ve also moved from an electronic sound to a more acoustic one? What changes do you think we will see in the future?
I would agree, but I think we did this in 2007 with the release of Parades. With the new and upcoming third album on 4AD I think maybe we will move closer to being a rock band with actual songs that people can sing along to.
]]>0Hey! Manchesterhttp://<![CDATA[Hey! Alaska in Winter]]>http://www.heymanchester.com/blog/?p=6142009-10-10T15:42:51Z2009-10-10T15:41:05ZIn the winter of 2004 Brandon Bethancourt dropped out of art school in New Mexico and headed up to Alaska. Shielded from the elements by a tiny cabin, and from boredom by his laptop, he spent this period of isolation recording music. This experience propelled him on a quest to the Balkans, and more recently on to Berlin where he soaks up the local musical culture and conjures up songs that fuse orchestral elements with electronica. Hey! Manchester catches up with Brandon ahead of Alaska in Winter’s show on 22 October.
Let’s start with the name: did you go up to Alaska specifically to record music?
No, not at all. I didn’t plan to do any recordings while in Alaska, but after a while I just got the itch and managed to borrow enough stuff to get some recordings done.
Not quite that extreme… but it’s the first time I’ve ever had to use an outhouse when it’s -5 degrees outside.
What inspired you to travel from Alaska to Eastern Europe in search of dance parties? Couldn’t you have done this a bit closer to home?
Well I think that’s exactly the point. I wanted to get as far away from home as possible.
What were they like when you found them?
Fun, different, foreign, exciting – not like anything in New Mexico.
Your music is a combination of bedroom electronica and orchestral scores. How has Berlin affected this sound?
Well being in Berlin has definitely led me to have a fonder understanding of electronic and dance music. The music scene here has really influenced my music and has added a dash of dark minimal techno flavour in the mix.
And now you find yourself heading to Manchester, famously a party city. What do you know about the place?
Actually not much but I’m looking forward to the party.
Tell us about your ‘virtual video orchestra’ to give the people of Manchester a foretaste of your live shows.
Well, I’ve videotaped myself playing all the parts that the ‘band’ would normally be playing on stage and synced it up with the music. I then project video on a screen behind me with all of the ‘band members’ who are each in a little window playing the music that the audience hears. I wrote my own computer program to do this using Max/MSP and Jitter, which is a bit high tech at times. I play keytar and sing… and there are costume changes to coincide with what the ‘band’ is wearing in the video. It’s meant to be playful, and hopefully a different and new experience for the audience.
So you’ve travelled Alaska, the Balkans and Berlin in search of music. Where next?
Hmmmm, good question… I don’t know, maybe I’ll go to New Zealand or something.
]]>0Hey! Manchesterhttp://<![CDATA[Fancy writing about Manchester music?]]>http://www.heymanchester.com/blog/?p=6092009-09-29T09:34:54Z2009-09-29T09:34:54ZYou should get in touch with ManchesterMusic if so:
MM is built on a bedrock of supporting emerging talent, which puts an equal emphasis on the talents of reviewers and photographers as it does for musicians. MM is serious about its coverage and approaches this in a purely professional way – so this means our reviewers are expected do be fair, transparent and knowledgeable, as well as, of course, competent and interesting writers.
We don’t set a minimum workload, but do ask that you’re honest about what you feel you can deliver and stick firmly to deadlines – we can get you into a lots of gigs/venues, but we also ask that biased importance (ie. in contrast to signed/touring material) is attached to:
Local music
Unsigned Music
They’re looking for live reviewers plus feature writers and interviewers, plus people who can contribute relevant audio/visual content. So far they’ve covered 4,500 artists on http://www.music-dash.co.uk/.
If you’re interested in writing for ManchesterMusic, email sovrec@yahoo.co.uk with some samples. Random Hey! Manchester posts:
