It was an absolute honour to speak to Wallis Bird on this episode of The London Ear. If this is the first you’ve heard of Wallis, here’s a quick intro. Wallis is an Irish Berlin based singer-songwriter who is about to release her seventh studio album. The album will be entitled ‘Hands – Nine and a half songs for nine and a half fingers’. She has just released the first two tracks from the album and I was delighted to chat to her about that.
Wallis encompasses what, for me, it is to be an artist. Hell, if I was a musician, Wallis would be who I would want to be! Cheeky, clever meaningful lyrics, a beautiful delivery and she knows how to funk it up. When the tempo rises, everything else is brought to a higher level.
I really enjoyed speaking to Wallis about the process of how her new album came about. Not only that, I haven’t heard many artists mention the tax payers. What? Yes, when artists were given grants from governments during Covid, these are ultimately coming from the tax payer. It was a refreshing attitude to have, especially when Wallis said that she didn’t want to let those tax payers down. Kudos.
There are so many more nuggets and gems in here, we get to find out about how Wallis, the artist, thinks and I truly appreciate her being so open with me on the program.
You can find out more about Wallis on her website: WallisBird.com
The London Ear Feb 5 2022 Playlist
Here’s what was on the menu on this week’s episode of The London Ear.
1. yunè pinku: Affection
2. Wynona Bleach: Moonsoake
3. A Ritual Sea: Desire Lines
4. Wallis Bird: Salve!
5. Interview with Wallis Bird Part 1
6. Wallis Bird: Pretty Lies
7. Interview with Wallis Bird Part 2
8. Wallis Bird: What’s Wrong With Changing?
9. Tara Nome Doyle: Caterpillar
10. First Class and Coach: My Oh My
11. Jane Willow: Burn So Bright
12. Soak: Last July
Listen On Demand
Thanks for listening, The London Ear is broadcast online and on your radio apps, in Ireland and around the world. You can always listen to the show on-demand after it has been broadcast on RTÉ 2XM on the RTÉ player including all previous episodes. The show is broadcast every Saturday at 1300.
BIG NEWS!!!
On next week’s show, I will be chatting to Daniel Cosgrove and Luke Lau, founders of minm.co, a new music streaming service which favours the artist! Also, I will have some massive news for you on next week’s show also!
Episode 371. It was a pleasure to chat to Jaime Nanci for this week’s episode of The London Ear. Jamie is such an interesting colourful character and has an amazing voice. I’m delighted that I had the opportunity to chat to him.
Jaime now lives in Valencia, Spain. It was lovely to catch up and find out about life in Spain and Jaime’s musical journey. It’s always very appreciated when an interviewee is so open and honest about their life and work. I love having the space on RTE 2XM to allow interviews like this and not having to rush.
You can find out more about Jaime and his new single ‘Escalante Street (Take Me Dancing) on his website, JaimeNanci.com .
Check out the video for Escalante Street (Take Me Dancing)
The London Ear – Jan 15 2022 Playlist
Here what was on the playlist for The London Ear, with our featured interview with Jaime Nanci.
1. Fontaines DC: Jackie Down The Line
2. Eileen Gogan + Sean O’Hagan: Wave
3. CMAT: Lonely
4. Jaime Nanci Interview Part 1
5. Jaime Nanci: Lost Boys of Turia
6. Jaime Nanci Interview Part 2
7. Jaime Nanci: Escalante Street (Take Me Dancing)
8. Viscose: I.L.Y.
9. Wekin Feat Ronia O’Connor: We Found Joy
10. NewDad: Say It
Listen On Demand
Thanks for listening, The London Ear is broadcast online and on your radio apps, in Ireland and around the world. You can always listen to the show on-demand after it has been broadcast on RTÉ 2XM on the RTÉ player including all previous episodes. The show is broadcast every Saturday at 1300.
The London Ear 303 // Interview with Aislinn Logan
Hello from South East London!
On this week’s episode of The London Ear, I was delighted to finally get the opportunity to chat to London-based, Belfast musician, Aislinn Logan.
Aislinn has been releasing some incredible music for the past couple of years and it was great to chat to her about her new EP ‘Look I’m Flyin’. Lots of nerdy music production chat 🙂
Here’s what was on this week’s playlist:
1. Biig Piig: Don’t Turn Around
2. Silverbacks: Dunkirk
3. My Sweet Beloved: The Invitation
4. Danny G, Tolu Makay and Jamel Franklin: D.A.R.L.I.N.G.
5. Fight Like Apes: Lend Me Your Face
6. Interview with Aislinn Logan (Part 1)
7. Aislinn Logan: Everything In Between
8. Interview with Aislinn Logan (Part 2)
9. Aislinn Logan: What Everybody’s After
10. Kyoto Love Hotel: Machine
11. James OR: You Know I Won’t
12. The New Ravis: Tequila Mockingbird
Listen On Demand to The London Ear
Thanks for listening, The London Ear broadcast on DAB radio, Saorview, nationwide in Ireland and outside Ireland you can listen online. You can listen to the show again on the RTÉ player including all previous episodes. The show is broadcast every Saturday at 1300.
We believe that if you have a platform, no matter how big or small, you should always use it for the better, I’d like to hope some people do see us in a light where we can inspire people to be themselves and be more accepting and open with themselves and others.
Cherym are a Derry pop punk trio, consisting of Hannah Richardson (Lead guitar and lead vocals), Nyree Porter (Bass guitar and vocals) and Alannagh Doherty (Drums and vocals). Over the past while, they’ve been intoxicating audiences and listeners with their upbeat, brash music, all with a side helping of fun.
I caught up with the gals, albeit socially distanced, to find out how 2020 was treating them.
Hello! Who are you and where are you right now?
Hello we are CHERYM and we are all currently in our rehearsal space cos this is basically the first time we’ve been together since lockdown.
You guys released your first music in 2018. Was that your first foray into music? How did it all start?
Honestly, its difficult to pin point how/when it all started because i can think back to so many occasions were i thought “this is it, i think we can make this happen”. I think we were very lucky that we had some sort of appeal to people from the start, i don’t know why but were so grateful because they pushed us to keep going. To discover who we were as a band.
-Nyree
You always seem to be having fun, is that the secret to Cherym?
DO NOT take yourself so seriously. When I first started the band, I was so scared of how I looked and presented myself on stage and Hannah told me, “right now when we’re playing, we’re the coolest people in the room, have fun and just be yourself.” It honestly made me into the musician I am today.
-Nyree
Describe your songwriting process?
We’re very fortunate that we can just go into the practice room, jam and suddenly, we have a song. Obviously we have to put a lot more into the song to have the final outcome but yeah, were very blessed lads.
-Nyree
Who have you been recording with?
Wee Caolan Austin, down in Smalltown America!
-Nyree
When you go to the studio do you have a definite idea of what you’re looking for or how much input does a producer have?
We have an idea but I think when we’re in the studio, we suddenly have more ideas to make it better. I think because Caolan is so cool and lets us explore ideas, we do get to make the song 100x’s better. And we are very open to any ideas that Caolan would have because he is a LEGEND.
-Nyree
Over the past while, there has been a lot of discussion in Ireland, trying to ensure that female musicians get as much air time as guys do. Why do you think it’s such a struggle for presenters (if they can choose their own music) or radio stations to acknowledge talented females?
I feel like there’s just always been a massive struggle for women in any career, even if we are being represented in some respects, it’s never to the point where there is accurate population representation for women in music. As well as this there’s always been an obsession for boy bands in radio so it’s hard to get away from the so called “norm” and to a more progressive social acceptance for women in the industry too. We are all acknowledged, but not as much as we should be.
-Alannagh
Abigail is such a sweet song to an ex. Instead of being moany, it’s upbeat and positive but more importantly, it’s a song from one girl to another. I think it’s really important to ensure songs like Abigail reach the mainstream. It helps acceptance of LGBTQ equality. Do you consider yourselves role models, how comfortable are you with that?
We believe that if you have a platform, no matter how big or small, you should always use it for the better, I’d like to hope some people do see us in a light where we can inspire people to be themselves and be more accepting and open with themselves and others. We’re quite comfortable with who we all are as people, all being members of the LGBTQ+ community and we would hope that if someone was struggling with that part of themselves that they could look to a song like Abigail and think “actually I’m not weird or I’m not an outsider, this is normal and this is me” as it should be in the mainstream media too.
-Alannagh
You’ve recently released a single, ‘Weird Ones’. It’s a difficult time to release new music but at the same time, people seem to have a little more time to embrace new music. Was ‘Weird Ones’ planned for release before Covid happened?
I think we tend to pace ourselves between releases and don’t want to rush, we definitely planned to release it the early months of 2020 so it was going to be released during the pandemic no matter what I guess.
-Alannagh
Your sound is huge recorded, fun, brash in your face. But, your live shows have gathered a lot of attention and over the past year, you’ve played a shed load of shows. What’s the best thing for you about a Cherym live show ?
I think the best thing about our shows is that we never really take ourselves seriously. It’s always good craic and a class atmosphere cause we just let ourselves go and really enjoy the time we get on stage. We just always be taking the p*ss and you’ll never see us being serious during a set, we just love having a good time.
-Alannagh
The Oh Yeah centre is a huge part of the Northern Ireland music community and you guys won the Oh Yeah Contender award at the NI Music Awards in 2019. How important has it been for you to know you have their backing?
Extremely important! The Oh Yeah centre work really hard to give local artists some kind of platform so honestly it was like a dream come true to win that award. Hopefully we’ll do them all proud !!!
-Hannah
You’ve released a number of singles now and an EP. It would still be very early days for a long player. What’s your next move?
FEBRUARY 2021 !!!!!!
-Hannah
How do you consume music?
Spotify mostly. All of us are constantly trying to find new bands and new artists to listen to, sometimes it’s like we’re in competition with each other like who can find the best band or whatever. We get a lot of music from each other I’d say.
-Hannah
Can you recommend a few albums which show where you’ve come from on your musical journey?
Imagine: It’s 2021, the pandemic is over and you’re about to go out on stage for your biggest headline gig to date. What venue would you like it to be?
