The London Ear 397
What a great show, even if I do say so myself! The London Ear episode 397 features chats with UPPBEAT, Irish Track from The Vault is from The Kanyu Tree and Siobhán is this week’s Sound of The Underground.
The London Ear with UPPBEAT
You may remember back in 2019, I spoke to a young gent from Mayo called UPPBEAT. I was really impressed with his track ‘Hold Me Close’ and how open and honest his music was. Honestly in your lyrics and music doesn’t mean it has to be a singer-songwriter vibe with a guitar. You can be honest and be true in any genre. UPPBEAT connected with his alternative pop / hyper punk vibes.
Fast forward a couple of years and UPPBEAT has added to his catalogue of music. In 2021, he released the album or what he calls the soundtrack ‘HI VIZ’. He has built a community of creatives around ‘HI VIZ’, with the album acting as the soundtrack. It’s a really great way of building a community around an idea rather than a physical place.
I really enjoyed the chat with UPPBEAT, chatting about how his single ‘Exhale’ has just passed one million streams on Spotify without too much of the Irish media taking notice to what he’s doing. We also chatted NFTs, punk culture and Wallis Bird gets a shout-out.
Follow UPPBEAT on Insta, Twitter, Tiktok and sure you can also listen to his music on Spotify.
From The Vault: The Kaynu Tree
This week’s Irish track From The Vault was born out of song I introduced on last week’s show. The Kanyu Tree released an album called ‘People Street’ on Sony Music in 2011. The lead single was ‘Radio’, literally a radio bop. But I’d often wondered what happened to the Cluskey brothers, who formed the band.
When I introduced Geoffrey Harold’s new track ‘Birdcall’, I noticed that Shane Cluskey, lead singer in The Kaynu Tree was mentioned as playing piano on the track. So I just had to take the opportunity to play ‘Radio’ this week and follow it with ‘Birdcall’.
Sound of The Underground: Siobhán
The Sound of The Underground is the part of the show where I introduce you to a London basic musician or act that I feel you should have in your life. This week’s Sound of The Underground is from Siobhán and, with a name like that you’d think that there’s Irish in there somewhere. A quick snoop around Siobhán’s insta and I found a photo of her in a retro Irish soccer jersey.
‘Black Hole’ is Siobhán’s debut and it’s a cracker. I can’t wait to hear what comes next from her. Very exciting things, I would say!
You can keep up to date with Siobhán on Insta and TikTok and listen to her music on Spotify.
The London Ear #397 Playlist 16 July 2022
Here’s what was on the playlist for this week’s episode of The London Ear.Hour 1
Gilla Band: Eight Fivers
Sinead O’Brien: Like Culture
Telefis: feat Sean O’Hagan: Space is Us
Local Boy: Milkshake Pilltaste
Kynsy: Point Of You
Uppbeat: Psychotic
Interview with Uppbeat
Uppbeat: Exhale
Interview with Uppbeat (Part 2)
Devmo: Hey Big Sister
From The Vault: The Kanyu Tree: Radio
Geoffrey Harold: Birdcall
Gabe Guersey: Push
Hour 2
Los Bitchos: Las Panteras
M(h)aol: Bored of Men
Sound of The Underground: Siobhan: Black Hole
Local Boy: Milkshake Pilltaste
Just Mustard: Seed
Keeley: Where The Monster Lives
Zaska: Gone in a Minute
Phoebe Bridgers: Sidelines
Matt Ó: Sonny
Oliver Cole: Seaside Song
Plastic Cowboys: Mundane Ecstasy
Loyle Carner: Hate
Laura Mulcahy: Cúmha i Ndiadh Aisling
Bicep: Meli (II)
Billy Idol: Hot in The City
Listen On-Demand to The London Ear
You can find all previous episodes on the pages of this
There aren’t too many bands that I go and see gigs of a few weeks apart. When the opportunity arose to head to The Academy to Cloud Control on April 7th, I jumped at the chance. I had seen the band open for The Naked and Famous in The Button Factory and was looking for to seeing how their own headliner in a smaller venue would go down.