Miles Kane at Leeds Met University - 15th October 2011

Strobe lights cut through the smoke that’s starting to fill the room as an audible excitement signifies the arrival of the main act tonight. Miles Kane makes his appearance and the band launch straight into their first song. The audience immediately around the stage start to jump animatedly and their enthusiasm spreads in waves until the whole crowd is moving by the end of the second track.

There is something warmingly authentic about Miles Kane and the music he is producing. He has all the ingredients of a classic rock n roll front man; the cheeky charisma, the confidence in himself and the assured hip sway when the tempo drops for the slower numbers. Talking is kept to a minimal, instead Miles Kane allows the music to speak for him and you can feel the emotion in each guitar solo. You get the impression the band could play each song without thinking about it they are that tight. Even a new song that was only written a week ago is perfectly executed.

The tribal style of drums on ‘Kingcrawler’ are phenomenal and the crowd explodes into activity as drinks are launched around the room and some eager fan attempts to crowd surf. You can tell Miles Kane is thoroughly enjoying the gig, at one point he stands at the front of the stage, arms open, head back and eyes closed just absorbing the audiences cheers. The encore of ‘Inhaler’ sees the already exuberant crowd bouncing from the walls and singing the chorus as if it was a football chant. 

Marcus Foster - Nameless Path

If I had been told Marcus Foster was in his 50’s when I first listened to Nameless Path I would have completely believed it. Marcus’s voice carries an air of blues to it that is normally reserved for gentlemen approaching the twilight years of their life.

There is a delicate juxtaposition, Marcus’s vocals could easily lend themselves to heavy rock with the amount of grit present in them but that is exactly the element that gives songs like ‘You my love’ truthfulness. It’s a voice that has unsurprisingly been compared to Tom Waits and if you think David Grey you wouldn’t be far off.

Mixed in with the sadness though there is an underlining sense of nourishment and self-preservation. A narrative style of song writing combined with a distinctive voice has lifted Marcus Foster into an area that is very exciting.  

In ‘Shadows of the city’ and ‘Movement’ Marcus’s full range is given free range as he screeches and wails like Ben Harper or Paolo Nuttini.

On songs like ‘I was broken’ you can feel the heartbreak on every note, there is something undeniably true about the musicality, it’s a song every girl is going to wish was written about her.

Borrowing guitar solos from rock, tempos and instrumentation from folk songs and the melancholy from blues Marcus Foster has created a perfect blend of timeless songs.

James Taylor Quartet Interview

British jazz band the James Taylor Quartet are enjoying 25 years in the music industry and what better way to celebrate than taking their high energy show around the country.  Ahead of a show at the Wardrobe in Leeds we got some time with James Taylor, who’s amazing Hammond organ playing leads the quartet and is regularly called on by other musicians.

What attracted you to the Hammond organ in the first place?

When I was growing up I was into the Small Faces and they had a great keyboard sound. I didn’t even know what it was but a friend of mine told me about this mad instrument with speakers that rotate and I kind of got fascinated with it before I saw one. Then I went to see one, to play one and that was it I was hooked.

Miles Kane Interview

After having a taste of success with The Rascals and Last of the Shadow Puppets, Miles Kane has stepped from the safety of a band into the spotlight as a solo artist. His solo album ‘Colour of the Trap’ was co-written with Alex Turner and features a guest vocal by Noel Gallagher.  When we get to speak to him he is faultlessly polite as he discusses guitar bands, going solo and meeting girls.

For people who haven’t heard the album what is it like?

Well it took quite a while to get the right sort of foundations for it and find out where to go with it. There were lots of ideas and lots of songs knocking about. There are lots of different inspirations on there, some fast songs and some slow songs, weird songs, pop songs. I guess that comes from listening to great records, I get all my inspiration from listening to music and life.

Was it hard coming from a band to going solo?

Yeah defo, it was sort of. At the beginning it was hard; I’m not going to lie. I have always been used to, what ever it is, jamming in the room before you go in the studio and that sort of thing. With this it was down to you, getting the songs together then you would go in the studio. One of the best weeks of my life was at the start of this when I went in with Gruff Rhys and it was just me, him and a drummer. We recorded three tracks in a week, doing that week was a completely new experience and it kick started it. I will always thank him for that, he’s a mate now and I have learnt a lot from that guy. Then I went in and did the rest of it with Dan Carey, this producer, and that again was a great experience, he played bass, I played guitar, got a drummer in that he knew. We would get the song and just sort of play it fast, play it slow. That’s the thing I learnt on this record, what ever the song or the idea, if you write a song and it’s slow on the acoustic you can sort of beef it up and make it a stomper if you want, there is no sort of limits to songs, that’s what I learnt I guess.

Ed Sheeran Interview

Ed Sheeran describes himself as a singer songwriter but he also employs soul melodies, the lyrical style of rappers and hip-hop tempos to create songs that are transcending musical genres. ‘No.5 Collaborations Project’ was the last of his independent EP releases that consisted of collaborations with grime artists. It reached number 1 in the iTunes chart without involvement of a label or any promotion. Instantly the labels started to make him offers and within days he was signed to Atlantic. His debut single ‘The A Team’ was the highest selling and highest charting debut single of 2011. Ed Sheeran’s album ‘+’ was released in September with a UK tour following shortly after.

What can people expect from the album?

It’s just literally a collection of my favourite songs that I have written over the past 5 years and put together on the alum and recorded them in kind of a DIY way. I am really looking forward to putting it out.

You just did 8 performances at Glastonbury, how did they go?

They were good; they were all on different stages and to different numbers of people. The first one was in a tent that was 75 capacity which I did on a stool without any microphones and then the next one was in a tent to 5000 kids so they really differed.

The SB:TV video was quite a turning point for you, how did that come about?

It was through Twitter, I saw a re-tweet saying what film should I watch today from SB. I tweeted back and put Precious, SB was like “cool, I have heard your stuff and I really like it, lets make a video”. We did the video and it kind of blew up a little bit.