You gotta hand it to Slash. There was a time when walking out on Axl Rose would have made you a persona non grata within the world of rock. Fortunately, Slash was right on the money when he left Rose and the iconic Guns ‘n’ Roses  in 1996. Since then, he’s managed to wipe the floor with Axl as a member of Velvet Revolver, Slash’s Snakepit, and as a solo artist. Sometimes it’s nice to be right.

Slash’s first album was certified Platinum here in Canada, and so it’s nice to see that he’ll be returning the favor by making an appearance at Canadian Music Week 2012 as both a performer (his March 23show at the Phoenix sold out almost immediately) and as a celebrity speaker at the Fairmont Royal York (also on the 23^rd).

Fox News correspondent John Roberts and CNN anchor Kyra Phillips will interview the much-loved guitarist and discuss his engagement with fans, life on the road and maybe even a few details on his second solo release slated for a May 2012 release. If you never had a chance to pick up Slash’s autobiography, this might be an ideal moment to get inside the head of a guy Axl Rose once called a “cancer”- which is probably better than being the guy who released ‘Chinese Democracy’.

Slash will be participating in a celebrity interview on Friday, March 23 2012 at the Fairmont Royal York Hotel. For more information please visit here.

The awards show will feature performances from some of last year’s hottest artists including The Sheepdogs, Dan Mangan and Rich Aucoin. SiriusXM subscribers across Canada and the U.S. will be able to listen to the Awards and concert live on The Verge on XM 151 and Iceberg on SIRIUS 151.

“SiriusXM Canada is excited and proud to present the SiriusXM Indie Awards as part of Canadian Music Week,” said Andreanne Sasseville, Director, Industry Relations and Canadian Content Development, SiriusXM Canada. “We’re looking forward to showcasing an amazing night of performances from some of Canada’s top independent artists – all of whom are taking North America by storm.”

This year’s SiriusXM Indie Awards travels the map to deliver a stellar line-up of performances by some of the year’s breakthrough artists, including: crowd karaoke, confetti dance party of Halifax’s Rich Aucoin; the vintage boogie and neo-psychedelic sound of Saskatoon’s The Sheepdogs; the lushly textured folk of Vancouver’s Dan Mangan; the driving gloss-rock sounds of Toronto’s Young Empires; and the gritty garage-rock of Vancouver’s The Pack A.D.

From south of the border, sonic visionaries Passion Pit will close out the evening with their brand of electro-pop in a headline concert. Fans will have the chance to hear some of their favourites from the band’s first two albums – Manners and Chunk of Change – while getting a sneak peek into new material from their forthcoming release due early this year.

Tickets for the SiriusXM Indie Awards are on sale now for $39.50 plus taxes through all Ticketmaster outlets, Rotate This, and Soundscapes, as well as online at www.ticketmaster.ca, www.indies.ca. Ticket buyers may also call 1-855-985-5000 to charge by phone.

In addition to these performances, the 2012 SiriusXM Indie Awards will honour the achievements of 140 deserving artists across 28 categories when nominations are announced later this month.

For photos, updates, and announcements, please visit www.indies.ca.

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About SiriusXM Canada
SiriusXM Canada (TSX: XSR) is the country’s leading audio entertainment company and broadcasts more than 120 satellite radio channels featuring premier sports, news, talk, entertainment and commercial-free music. SiriusXM Canada offers an array of content from the most recognized news and entertainment brands as well as from professional sports leagues including the NHL, NFL, MLB and CFL.

SiriusXM programming is available on a variety of devices including pre-installed and after-market radios in cars, trucks and boats, smartphones and mobile devices, and consumer electronics products for homes and offices. Sirius XM programming is also available online at www.sirius.ca and www.xmradio.ca and on Apple, BlackBerry and Android-powered mobile devices.

SiriusXM Canada has partnerships with every major automaker and its radio products are available at more than 3,000 retail locations nationwide. To find out more about Canadian Satellite Radio Inc. (TSX: XSR), visit our website at www.siriusxm.ca.

For more information:
Maricel Dicion
NATIONAL Public Relations
Phone: 416-848-1446
Email: mdicion@national.ca

Canadian Music Week
Planet3 Communications Ltd. • Jennyfer Sanchez/Joanne Smale
T: 647.346.4101 E: info@planet3com.net

Bessie Bullard – Communications Director
T: 905.858.4747 E: bessie@cmw.net

@NortonMusic

@TheBroadys

It’s easy to say that Burton Cummings is a Canadian treasure and music legend. He has been around for more than 40 years, as a solo artist, as well as the lead singer and co-writer for one of the most succesful Canadian bands of all time, The Guess Who. 

Cummings has been inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame, Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame, Canadian Music Industry Hall of Fame, and Canada’s Walk of Fame, not once but twice! Not only is he a member of numerous “Hall’s of Fame,” but is also a six-time JUNO Award winner, recipient of the Order of Canada, the Order of Manitoba, The Governor-General’s Performance Arts Award, and 22 SOCAN awards for over 1 million airplays of his song.

It’s easy to say that Cumming success is what all Canadian musicians strive for. He has taken the music indsutry by storm through his lengthy career. He knows a thing or two about making a career last in this dog eat dog industry.

And for good times sake, have a peak and listen to this gem!

TORONTO – January 19, 2012 – With just nine weeks to go, Slacker Canadian Music Fest is pleased to announce another round of headline performances from The Temper Trap, Treble Charger, The Inbreds, Dragonette, Nneka, and Andy C:Alive along with an additional 150+ showcasing acts.

Running March 21-25, 2012 throughout 60 venues in downtown Toronto, the five day festival will feature each of these acts in a headline performance open to all wristband holders and available for individual ticket purchase through all Ticketmaster outlets, Rotate This and Soundscapes, as well as online at www.ticketmaster.ca, www.canadianmusicfest.com, or call 1.855.985.5000 to charge by phone. Tickets are on sale now.

On Sunday, March 25 at The Phoenix Concert Theatre, Australian export The Temper Trap will preview tracks from their forthcoming sophomore album while their first album Conditions continues its momentum with the hit “Sweet Disposition” still heard across radio, television shows and commercials throughout the country.

Fans of 90’s Canadian indie pop/rock will have a chance to catch rare reunion performances by Treble Charger and The Inbreds. Together for the first time in almost a decade, Treble Charger will return to the stage on Wednesday, March 21 at The Phoenix Concert Theatre with originating members Greig Nori and Bill Priddle to bring back their hits “American Psycho” and “Red”, while The Inbreds take over Lee’s Palace on Saturday, March 24 to deliver their original brand of bass and drums along with college favourite “Any Sense of Time”.

Five-time 2012 Canadian Radio Music Awards nominees Dragonette will headline the ProudFM showcase at The Hoxton on Friday, March 23 after wrapping up a successful year at radio with their hit song “Hello” with Martin Solveig. The band will touch down in Toronto to perform for Slacker Canadian Music Fest audiences before making their way to California for the Coachella stage.

Bassweek comes to town with acts Andy C:Alive at the Guvernment on Friday, March 23 and Hospitality featuring Netsky, High Contrast, and Camo & Crooked at Kool Haus on Saturday, March 24. Created by Destiny Events and Embrace Presents in 2011, Bassweek is now part of Slacker Canadian Music Fest and is a week-long celebration of Drum&Bass, Dubstep and Breakbeat culture.

Award-winning Nigerian singer/songwriter Nneka will settle in at Virgin Mobile Mod Club on Friday, March 23, premiering tracks from her newest album Soul is Heavy. Known for her politically aware lyrics and intense live shows, Nneka already counts among her fans and collaborators the likes of Damien Marley, Nas, Lenny Kravitz, Lauryn Hill, Gnarls Barkley, Sean Paul and Erykah Badu.

Additional acts and performances for the weeklong run of the festival include:

3 Inches of Blood – CANADA

3rd Line Butterfly – SOUTH KOREA

A-Game – CANADA

Agridoce – BRAZIL

Alejandra Ribera – CANADA

Alex Bien Band – CANADA

Alie Hughes – CANADA

Alyssa Reid – CANADA

Andy C – UNITED KINGDOM

Andy Clockwise – USA

Ashley Fayth – UNITED KINGDOM

Audio Rocketry – CANADA

Autumns Canon – CANADA

Bad Bad Not Good – USA

BBoss – CANADA

Bear Hands – USA

Bigott – SPAIN

Blackie and The Rodeo Kings – CANADA

Brad James – CANADA

Brendan Distefano – CANADA

British Columbians – CANADA

Brocade – CANADA

Cab – CANADA

Camo & Krooked – AUSTRIA

Capsula – SPAIN

Caspian – CANADA

Caveman – USA

Chad Price – CANADA

CHASING AMEE – CANADA

Chinatown – CANADA

Chloe Charles – CANADA

Christie DuPree – USA

Cloud Nothings – USA

Crazy Strings – CANADA

Crying Nut – SOUTH KOREA

Current Swell – CANADA

D-Pryde – CANADA

Daithi – IRELAND

Dallas Smith – CANADA

Dangerband – CANADA

Dani J – CANADA

Danielle Duval – CANADA

Danny Brown – USA

Darko – PORTUGAL

Dead Combo – PORTUGAL

Del Barber – CANADA

Devildriver – USA

Devin Therriault – USA

Diemonds – CANADA

Diesel – AUSTRALIA

Dinosaur Bones – CANADA

Djevon Earle && T-Witty – CANADA

Dragonette – CANADA

Dudley Perkins – USA

Dying Fetus – USA

Eisley – USA

Ferguson – SPAIN

Floor Thirteen – CANADA

Francelle Maria – CANADA

Frankie Chavez – PORTUGAL

Fred – IRELAND

Free City Collective – CANADA

Freedom or Death – CANADA

Georgia Anne Muldrow – USA

Glass Ampp – CANADA

Hacienda – USA

Hard Honey – CANADA

Hartford – CANADA

Head of the Herd – CANADA

High Contrast – UNITED KINGDOM

His Majesty the King – SPAIN

Hollowick – CANADA

Housse De Racket – FRANCE

Huddle – CANADA

Hue – CANADA

I Am Oak – DENMARK

Il Abanico – USA

Impending Doom – USA

INIRE – CANADA

Inlet Sound – CANADA

Jack Rollin’ Dandies – CANADA

Jen Lane – CANADA

Job For A Cowboy – USA

Jordan Cook – CANADA

Joy Phillips – CANADA

Kaila Picard – CANADA

Kate Morgan – CANADA

KIZ & LEGIN – CANADA

Kobra and the Lotus – CANADA

L.A – SPAIN

Lake Forest – CANADA

Lake of Stew – CANADA

Last of the Bandits – CANADA

Last Year’s Men – USA

Life Blown Open – CANADA

Lifestory: Monologue – CANADA

Live How You Live – CANADA

Long Story Short – CANADA

Loom – CANADA

Machines – CANADA

Madison Violet – CANADA

Maolain – CANADA

Marksmen – USA

Martha Meredith – CANADA

Maurice – CANADA

Melvin Lee Davis – USA

Michael Rault – CANADA

MiMi Cry – CANADA

Minus The Tiger – NETHERLANDS

MNDR – USA

Mo Kenney – CANADA

Molly Thomason – CANADA

Morning Thieves – CANADA

Nanna Larsen – DENMARK

Netsky – BELGIUM

Nneka – NIGERIA

Nova Heart – CHINA

October Flight – PORTUGAL

Old World Vulture – CANADA

OPOPO – CANADA

Oscar Penas – USA

Oscar Tango – CANADA

Paper Lions – CANADA

Party Cat – CANADA

Peace Be Still – CANADA

Peachcake – USA

Pedro Menendez Crossover Guitar – ARGENTINA

Petty Victories – CANADA

Poor Young Things – CANADA

Quartered – CANADA

Quique Gonzalez – SPAIN

Raz Fresco – CANADA

Redgy Blackout – CANADA

Rikers – CANADA

River Tiber – CANADA

Robyn Dell’Unto – CANADA

ROCKYARD – CANADA

Rosedale – CANADA

Rouge – CANADA

Run Romeo Run – CANADA

Ryan McAllister – CANADA

Ryan Nolan – CANADA

Salsa Con Jazz – USA

Samantha Savage Smith – CANADA

Saul Williams – USA

Scenic Route to Alaska – CANADA

Shanren – CHINA

Sheezer – CANADA

Shotgun Jimmie – CANADA

Slash – USA

Sparrows – CANADA

Stacey Kaniuk – CANADA

Street Pharmacy – CANADA

Sunny Daze – USA

TEA – CANADA

Teenage Kicks – CANADA

Teeth & Tongue – AUSTRALIA

The 6th Letter – CANADA

The Apache Relay – USA

The Autumn Portrait – CANADA

The Blue Stones – CANADA

The Danger Bees feat. Kid Twist – CANADA

The Dirty Mags – CANADA

The Dirty Nil – CANADA

The Draymin – SCOTLAND

The Faceless – USA

The Hippy Mafia – CANADA

The Mighty One – CANADA

The Modern Superstitions – CANADA

The Morals – CANADA

The Oh Wells – CANADA

The Playdates – CANADA

The Postelles – USA

The Swamp Yankees – CANADA

The Swaying Tuesdays – CANADA

The Washboard Union – CANADA

These Electric Lives – CANADA

Tiffany Shea – USA

Tinpan Orange – AUSTRALIA

TNG – CANADA

Topanga – CANADA

Trailhead – GERMANY

Treble Charger – CANADA

Vetusta Moria – SPAIN

Via Audio – USA

Waterbodies – CANADA

Whitebrow – CANADA

Wildlife – CANADA

Will Currie And The Country French – CANADA

X-Wife – PORTUGAL

Yuichiro Tokuda’s RALYZZ DIG – JAPAN

Zachary Lucky – CANADA

Zoo Legacy – CANADA

Zoo Lion – CANADA

Along with previously announced shows by:

Slash featuring Myles Kennedy | Friday, March 23 | The Phoenix Concert Theatre | 9 p.m.

*Childish Gambino w/ Danny Brown | Saturday, March 24 | Sound Academy | 9 p.m.

The Cat Empire w/ Tinpan Orange | Saturday, March 24 | Phoenix Concert Theatre | 9 p.m.

*Fanfarlo w/Avalanche City | Saturday, March 24 | Virgin Mobile Mod Club | 7:30 p.m.

Saul Williams w/ Spoek Mathambo | Friday, March 23 | The Great Hall | 9 p.m.

*The Trews w/ Poor Young Things | Friday, March 23 | Queen Elizabeth Theatre | 8 p.m.

John K. Samson & The Provincial Band | Thursday, March 22 | The Great Hall | 9 p.m.

*Kings & Queens: Blackie & The Rodeo Kings w/ special guest appearances by Amy Helm, Holly Cole, Mary Margaret O’Hara, Serena Ryder and more Queens to be announced | Wednesday March 21 | Massey Hall | 8 p.m.

*The Saw Doctors | Tuesday, March 20 | Virgin Mobile Mod Club | All Ages | 8 p.m.

*(in association with Live Nation)

For a complete list of acts, visit www.canadianmusicfest.com. All Slacker Canadian Music Fest performances are accessible to holders with a festival wristband. Certain restrictions on some shows may apply. Entry to all shows is subject to capacity. All shows are 19 and over unless stated all ages.

The schedule is subject to change. The schedule will be updated frequently – so check the site often for up-to-the-minute information and announcements.

Stay tuned for more shows and announcements as they develop.

About Slacker Canadian Music Week

Celebrating 30 years, Canadian Music Week is Canada’s leading annual entertainment event dedicated to the expression and growth of the country’s music, media and entertainment industries. Combining four information-intensive conferences; a trade exposition; a film festival; a comedy festival; four awards shows and the nation’s largest New Music Festival – Canadian Music Fest – CMW spans a five-day period from March 21 to March 25, 2012 at the Fairmont Royal York Hotel and over 60 various downtown Toronto venues, attracting participants from across the globe. For more information, visit www.cmw.net.

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For media information and to arrange interviews, please contact:

Planet3 Communications Ltd. • Jennyfer Sanchez/Joanne Smale

T: 647.346.4101 E: info@planet3com.net

Bessie Bullard – Communications Director

T: 905.858.4747 E: bessie@cmw.net

Although they claim to be transparent Amos are anything but. They live between the light and the dark, sometimes in the shadows, occasionally in the dark, more often in the light. Their songs take them there. Quantum shifts between heavy and light, soft and hard, loud and quiet.
Much like the band itself, the songs from their first two releases Everything I’ve Forgotten To Forget and My, What Big Teeth You Have… come alive when they are performed on stage. They have become more dynamic, more intense and the audience involvement in the live show has re-shaped many of their best known numbers.

For their new material Amos The Transparent have decided to release their light and dark sides separately on two EP’s Goodnight My Dear… and I’m Falling Apart and then collectively (with bonus material) on a special vinyl release of Goodnight My Dear…I’m Falling Apart.
Whether they are sharing a stage with Jeff Beck or Zeus, headlining a show in Australia or rockin’ a music festival in the United States, Amos come alive when they perform. With a recent band addition or two, keyboards and strings now compliment a three guitar attack and seem to make the louder moments more aggressive and the softer moments quieter.

Read more: http://www.amosthetransparent.com/

Winter People were born into tradition, but raised on distortion pedals and amplifiers. Combining the pastoral harmonies of the old world, with the bitter edges of the new one. Songs of the modern wilderness.

Aiming to blend a established auditory sepia with contemporary pop sensibilities, Winter People deliver a sound reminiscent of what seems to be the best bits of some well known acts; from the harmonies du jour of Fleet Foxes (etcetera), to the roaring swells of Radiohead. This six-piece, boasting no fewer than 2 violin players and 5 vocalists, do not offer standard ‘indie’ fare, but instead insist on reaching for something more grandiose and emotional. They want to make you feel. Winter People are based in Sydney but you won’t find it easy to pigeon-hole the band into any particular hipster movement. Winter People are timeless. Or time travelers. It’s hard to tell.

On their first Australia-wide tour (with a then-exploding Megan Washington) Winter People played to five sold-out Corner Hotel audiences, and never skipped a beat. In fact they conquered all before them, and added a stately presence to proceedings around the country. Winning over fans and critics alike.

Singer and songwriter Dylan Baskind is a musician, author and visual artist. One listen to the debut Winter People single, Wishingbone, makes sense of all of this. It meant as much to Peter Katis (The National, Interpol, Jonsi) that the in-demand Brooklyn based producer moved proverbial mountains to mix Winter People’s debut album, which had been recorded in mid-2011 with Tim Whitten (Augie March, The Go-Betweens). The texture and depth that both of these gentlemen have added to the Winter People mood is a deal-closer.

Winter People will prove to be one of the most exciting artists you discover this year. That is a promise.

Read more: http://winterpeople.com.au/

When Glasgow’s Twin Atlantic released their 2009 mini-album, Vivarium, it immediately found an awestruck audience. The reviews were uniformly ecstatic. Grand, sweeping and eloquent, it was a collection of songs with a heart and soul, crafted by passion and informed by staunch lyrical and musical frankness. It set Twin Atlantic on a rollercoaster – one that has led, now, to the release of their full debut, Free, on Red Bull Records, an inspiring collection of songs full of ambition, pain, belief and soul. In a world of music dominated by talent show winners, mass-marketed bands and meaningless music, here, finally, is a band in which to invest your heart.

Formed in 2007 in Glasgow, and infusing their music with their Scottish heritage, Twin Atlantic found themselves caught in a whirlwind in the months that followed Vivarium’s release. Support slots with the great and the good – from blink-182 to My Chemical Romance and The Gaslight Anthem – followed tours the length and breadth of Britain, Europe and America. Interviews, photo-shoots, magazine articles and newspaper pieces amounted to a blur of excitement and hype. “We had three years where we’ve had this barrage of dream scenarios which we grasped with two hands,” says frontman Sam McTrusty.

But, in the grasping, Twin Atlantic worried they had strayed from the ethos and ideals with which they had started their band. “We suddenly thought, ‘What are we doing?’” adds McTrusty. In that moment of realisation, Twin Atlantic did what only the best bands do. They rediscovered their love for music and for pouring themselves, their feelings, fears, hopes and dreams into it. The results are their brilliant new album. “This band was meant to be based on integrity,” says McTrusty. “We wanted there to be a brutal honesty in the lyrics. I think we’ve done that.”

The quest to deliver authenticity in their music led them to the influential producer Gil Norton (“a fucking dude-and-a-half,” according to guitarist and cellist Barry McKenna) with who they teamed up in the Red Bull Studios in Santa Monica, California at the end of 2010. “We really trusted that he could help us make an honest record because he’s already achieved that with other bands like Pixies and Foo Fighters early in their careers. You can hear the genuineness in the bands he’s worked with.”

And with Norton, they set about crafting an exceptional album. “I was unbelievably excited to be working with Gil – he’s been at the helm of a handful of my favourite records, including The Colour And The Shape which single-handedly made me decide that I needed to play in a band,” says drummer Craig Kneale. “When we got in the studio with him, it was just a complete dream. We’re so confident in each of the songs, and there must have been about 100 points in the studio where we would listen back to something and all get goosebumps.”

And throughout, that all-important sincerity was there. “We can hold our heads high and say we did exactly what we wanted, and exactly how we wanted. At no point have we compromised as a band, as musicians or as people,” says McKenna. “I think all great music has to be truthful and we have certainly achieved that, to one another and collectively outwards.”

Free is an album of experiences. Having had their horizons broadened by touring the UK, Europe and America, McTrusty, in particular, spent time gazing from aeroplane and van windows fearing the world he was seeing was becoming a more uniform place. “We haven’t written a political record,” he says, “but there are issues in there like globalisation because that’s something that freaks me out. Perhaps that’s come from touring and feeling that everything sometimes seems the same.”

It was a train of thought that unfurls masterfully throughout the record. “There are songs about how the media and big corporations manipulate and mould your opinions,” he says. “You end up becoming a lesser version of yourself as a result.” But if this is a record that takes a more worldly view than before, it is still one that remains steadfastly personal too – yet it’s one that could be personal to all their fans. “Sam discusses a lot of issues not only personal to him, or even the four of us, but to the modern generation,” says McKenna. “Many people will be able to relate to these songs, and hopefully they will.” “Lyrically these are not my stories,” adds bassist Ross McNae, “but I do feel more of an attachment to some of the messages within certain songs. I can personally associate more with the lyrical content of these songs.”

Musically, too, they were ambitious. Forging on from Vivarium’s expressiveness, Twin Atlantic wanted to make an album that was both vast and encompassing. “There are love songs and relationship songs, there are some with a party vibe, there are some that are weird, heavy and grungey pop songs,” says McTrusty. Hence Free’s stunning vision, one built on intricate songwriting aimed at the emotional core of its listeners. In each track, in each guitar line or beat, each lyric or phrase, it’s an album in which the band’s hearts beat and their souls shimmer. You can hear such personality in even the simplest things: the fact that McTrusty’s Scottish accent shines through is just one. “Why,” asks McTrusty, “would you tell a personal story in anyone else’s voice but your own?”

But, most of all, the album has an emotional honesty that speaks straight from the heart. In all its twists and turns it embodies its creators. “I don’t know if we could live with ourselves if we were to make a song that didn’t have the four of us in the music,” says McTrusty, before McKenna adds: “Personally the only thing I wanted to achieve from this whole process is an album the four of us could stand by and invest ourselves in. We have done that.”

And it’s because of music like this that the sense of expectation around Twin Atlantic is developing rapidly. This brilliant record, one of the most anticipated of the year, has been tipped by tastemakers and fans alike. If Vivarium left the band poised for greatness, 2011 will be the year in which they attain it.

“Music’s been dumbed down and homogenised. There are lots of people who don’t believe in it anymore. But we’ve made a record with substance,” says McTrusty finally. “We’re giving people something to believe in again.”

Read more: http://free.twinatlantic.com/

Considering how quiet they’ve been over the past couple years, you’d think the Big Sleep decided to suddenly take their name seriously after the tireless tour cycle behind 2008’s Sleep Forever LP. The truth is much simpler…

“We took a little break, worked on stuff separately and just lived our lives,” explains bassist/vocalist Sonya Balchandani.

“It obviously took longer than we thought it would,” adds guitarist/vocalist Danny Barria, “but I wasn’t feeling rushed or pressured. I just wanted to write good songs.”

Which brings us to the hefty hooks and sugar-spun noise pop of Nature Experiments, the filler-free full-length Danny and Sonya have hinted at since 2000. That’d be the year the duo started cutting demos in the former’s Brooklyn kitchen; demos that eventually shifted from a loose shoegaze sound (the You Today, Me Tomorrow EP) to the iridescent instrumentals and groove-locked guitar anthems of the Big Sleep’s debut album, 2006′s Son of the Tiger.

As promising as that LP was, it’s nowhere near as focused and forceful as the tractor beam tracks the pair started recording at the beginning of 2011. Helped in part by Sonya’s increased use of GarageBand as a songwriting tool and a more collaborative creative process, Nature Experiments is as robust as a Big Sleep record gets, bursting at the seams with restless rhythms and choppy power chords (“Ace”), venomous vocals and blown-out beats (“Meet Your Maker”), and effects pedals/synth pads that rub and ring out against some of the band’s most climatic choruses yet (“Valentine,” “Ghosts In Bodies,” “Ladders”). And if you need a breather, there’s always the psych-steeped balladry of “1001″ and “Wood on the Water.”

“There was definitely a tunnel vision thing going on with our last record,” says Danny. “That pressure was cool and intense, but the guiding principle this time around was to take our time and do whatever we needed to. We’d work on things separately and then meet in each other’s living rooms with just an acoustic guitar and a keyboard, which is funny considering that’s exactly how the band started.”

“This band’s always been about what comes out of the two of us working together,” adds Sonya. “I think it’s normal to write a little past the edge of your capabilities, so then you have to deliver, and the next time around, you end up pushing yourself again. We are always just looking for and editing ourselves towards what feels right, what we can both agree is putting across a feeling in a style that’s truly ‘us’.”
- Andrew Parks

Read more: http://www.thebigsleep.net/