LONTALIUS SHARES NEW SINGLE ‘SWIM’ AHEAD OF NEW ALBUM ‘ALL I HAVE’ – SET FOR RELEASE OCTOBER 4 + NATIONAL TOUR SUPPORTING JAPANESE WALLPAPER IN OCTOBER & NOVEMBER
Enigmatic NZ electronic artist Lontalius, also known as Eddie Johnston, has today announced his glowing new single Swim, a comforting, honest track about accepting the ups and downs of life, out now. Swim is also accompanied by a stunning clip, made in collaboration with Phoebe Gittins and Arty Papageorgiou (Pacific Heights, Whim, Weird Together). The prolific young artist has also announced his new album, All I Have, set for release on October 4. Lontalius will be joining Japanese Wallpaper on the road for his first ever Australian shows in October and November this year, kicking off at Melbourne’s Corner Hotel on October 25, then moving through Perth, Adelaide, Sydney and wrapping up in Brisbane at The Brightside on November 9.
Swim is an endearing track, seemingly buoyed by pessimism and optimism at the same time. Reminiscent of indie pop giants The 1975 and Troye Sivan, Swim is driven by a pounding beat and intricate guitar lines (not to mention a killer solo towards the end) while Lontalius’ idiosyncratic vocal floats above it all. Speaking on the inspiration behind the track, Lontalius says, “Swim is about the acceptance that with all the heartbreak, anxiety and stress of being young, the universe is still leading you on the right path. You can have everything seemingly perfectly lined up in front of you, but sometimes it just won’t work out… it’s a song that i’m really proud of. It hit a lot of marks I had been trying to hit for the past few years. It’s energetic and it has a pace to it that I haven’t done before, all the while still living in the ‘lontalius’ world, I think.”
The clip for Swim zooms in on the self-reflection in the song in a figurative and literal sense. Lontalius sings alone, in the gorgeous Wellington wilderness, looking deep into a mirror suspended in mid-air. The clip is beautiful, dreamy; an appropriate visual representation of Swim, as Lontalius explains, “The video follows me singing the song into a mirror, walking along various locations in my home Wellington, NZ. With the song mostly being a dialogue with my own brain – a moment of self reflection, it made sense for me to sing it back to myself. This clip was a culmination of a few ideas we’d had in our minds for a while. The picturesque NZ landscape never fails to contrast the emotion in my music…I made it with Phoebe Gittins and Arty Papageorgiou. They’ve done all of my videos as well as a number of other NZ artists. We tend to have similar ideas around what will work, I’m not sure if I could work with anyone else.”
If Lontalius’ debut LP I’ll Forget 17 was a snapshot of his life as a teenager, All I Have documents the period in life when he was exiting adolescence and entering adulthood. Outgrowing one era but not yet ready, perhaps, for another. With a characteristic melancholic, yet beautiful temperment, paired with wistful synthesisers and soft, gentle guitar, All I Have is a superb collection of songs from this impressive artist. Working in LA alongside Grammy award winning producer Om’Mas Keith (Frank Ocean, John Legend, Jay Z), Jim Fairchild (Grandaddy, Modest Mouse), Roy Blair (Kevin Abstract) and Mr Hudson (Kanye West), Lontalius dove deep into a varied array of infuences for this second album, drawing inspiration from the artists he grew up listening to, such as U2 (circa Joshua Tree), REM, and Coldplay, alongside modern pop auters Kacey Musgraves and Lorde. Reflecting on the album, Lontalius enthuses, “The main themes on All I Have are love, youth and anxiety. I started writing it at 18 so it basically follows my own experiences with love, being away from home, new pressures and pleasures, as well as that general feeling of ‘coming of age’. Just trying to make sense of it all… It was my intention to add a little more energy and life into my music than I had done before. I had built up energy and I wanted to let it out! It was also important to me that it didn’t end up being a bloated, 20 song thing. I wanted to be able to grab it all with one hand.”
Lontalius will be playing his first Australian shows ever in October and November this year supporting Japanese Wallpaper on his Glow national tour. Thrilled to be hitting the road for what is set to be a beautiful, immersive experience for audiences, Lontalius says, “I’m really happy I’m finally making it to Australia! I’m doing solo sets, playing new and older music from even my soundcloud days. Trying to create a sound that people can get lost in for 30 minutes or so.”
Swim is out now. All I Have is set for release on October 4.
LONTALIUS NATIONAL TOUR (SUPPORTING JAPANESE WALLPAPER)
FRI OCT 25 | CORNER HOTEL, MELBOURNE VIC| 18+
SAT OCT 26 | SEWING ROOM, PERTH WA | 18+
FRI NOV 1 | LION ARTS FACTORY, ADELAIDE SA | 18+
FRI NOV 8 | OXFORD ART FACTORY, SYDNEY NSW| 18+
SAT NOV 9 | THE BRIGHTSIDE, BRISBANE QLD | 18+
THE SUPERJESUS ANNOUNCE DOUBLE LIVE ALBUM SUMO 20 LIVE + NATIONAL TOUR
Australian rock legends The Superjesus have today announced a new recording, The Superjesus SUMO 20 LIVE – a double live album recorded during their massive 20th anniversary tour of their celebrated debut album SUMO, set for release on September 6 and available to preorder from July 4. And not only will fans be able to re-live the hits, b-sides and rareties through this killer live album, but The Superjesus have also announced a run of shows in September to celebrate the release, with support from Violetine. The group will be hitting up Badlands in Perth on September 6, then moving through Adelaide, Melbourne, and wrapping up in Sydney at Crowbar on September 21, with tickets onsale Thursday July 4. Lastly, as if all of this wasn’t enough, The Superjesus have also announced that they have recorded a brand new, never-before-heard song, entitled The Impossible, which will be available as an exclusive free download to those purchasing a ticket to the tour, or buying the SUMO 20 LIVE on vinyl, or a ticket and vinyl bundle.
Initially known as Hell’s Kitchen, The Superjesus received national radio play with their debut 1996 EP Eight Step Rail and became a festival favourite at Big Day Out throughout the ‘90s. Their iconic album SUMO reached number two on the ARIA charts, and with a few ARIA awards in the trophy cabinet and their well-deserved induction into the South Australian Music Hall of Fame in 2017, The Superjesus are seriously beloved Australian rockers. Their epic 2018 tour celebrating 20 years of SUMO was a true testament to this, with fans flocking from far and wide to party with The Superjesus once more.
The SUMO 20 LIVE album captures this energy, as frontwoman Sarah McLeod explains, “2018 was the year that marked the 20 year anniversary of our debut album SUMO. To celebrate, we put together a show that encompassed a jurassic back catalogue of material that rolled out a two and a half hour show. After smashing this set out night after night, it became obvious to us that we had become a pretty good band! Three quarters of the way through the tour we decided that we should document where we were at, because it was surprising even us! Also, and more importantly, the crowds were singing along with us with enthusiasm like we’d never heard before. This shit needed to be recorded, so we set it up to film and record two shows. We were playing two sets per night, set one was Sumo, set two was hits and rarities. We recorded set one at the manning Bar in Sydney and set two at The Zoo in Brisbane and were stoked with how it came up.”
The experienced rockers are more than ready to hit the road again to launch this dynamic live album. Thrilled to be back in touring mode, McLeod says, “Luckily our idea to create a killer live album worked, and the results were better than we had hoped. It’s more a best of than a Sumo live record and we are very proud of it – and now we get to go on tour to coincide with its release and we’ve dragged our old touring mates Violetine out of retirement for the occasion! We’ve been big fans of this band since they released Small Speaker Joyland in the 90’s. We are very happy that they’ve agreed to reform to tour with us!”
Fans of The Superjesus had best be quick to secure tickets to these shows – they won’t stick around for long.
Tickets to the SUMO 20 DOUBLE LIVE national tour will be available at 10am on Thursday July 4 from www.thesuperjesus.com
THE SUPERJESUS SUMO 20 LIVE is set for release on September 6 and will be available to preorder (digital and vinyl only) at 10am on Thursday July 4 from www.thesuperjesus.com
THE SUPERJESUS SUMO 20 DOUBLE LIVE TOUR
FRI 6 SEP | BADLANDS, PERTH WA | 18+
Tickets available from www.oztix.com.au and www.thesuperjesus.com | 1300 762 545 | All Oztix Outlets
SAT 7 SEP | THE GOV, ADELAIDE SA | 18+
Tickets available from www.oztix.com.au and www.thesuperjesus.com | 1300 762 545 | All Oztix Outlets
FRI 20 SEP | MAX WATTS, MELBOURNE VIC | 18+
Tickets available from www.oztix.com.au and www.thesuperjesus.com | 1300 762 545 | All Oztix Outlets
SAT 21 SEP | CROWBAR, SYDNEY, NSW | 18+
Tickets available from www.oztix.com.au and www.thesuperjesus.com | 1300 762 545 | All Oztix Outlets
MONTAIGNE ANNOUNCES NEW SINGLE READY OUT TODAY NEW ALBUM COMPLEX OUT AUGUST 30 – PREORDER NOW NATIONAL TOUR IN NOVEMBER
Following on from her national For Your Love single tour in April, Montaigne has today released her new single Ready, and confirmed details of her forthcoming LP and national tour.
Ready is undoubtedly Montaigne’s most anthemic single to date, and is lifted from her soon to be released second album entitled Complex, the follow up to her ARIA Award winning, Top 5 debut album, Glorious Heights. Complex is set for release on August 30 and is available to preorder now, with all preorders scoring a bonus illustrated poster. There will also be a spectacular limited edition red vinyl of Complex available to preorder, along with CD/vinyl bundles with an environmentally friendly tote bag included.
To celebrate the new record, Montaigne will be hitting the road for her Complex album tour (presented by triple j) in November 2019, kicking off in Adelaide on November 7, then moving through Perth, Fremantle, Maroochydore, Brisbane, Byron Bay, Bendigo, Torquay, Melbourne, Canberra, Sydney, and finishing up in Wollongong on November 30. Montaigne has partnered with PLUS1 so that $1 from every ticket goes to support Bush Heritage Australia a national non-profit organisation conserving biodiversity in Australia. www.bushheritage.org.au
New single Ready is a heartfelt call to arms, a soundtrack for activism. There’s an undeniable element of pop to this song as Montaigne’s soaring vocals elevate the chorus, and the irresistible hook ‘I think I’m ready to go, I think I’m ready’, cycles like a mantra around shifting drumbeats. However, like all of Montaigne’s music, there is a deeper element, a considered purpose for this song, as she explains, “To me the song is about this political moment, where humanity is starting to realise how actually cooked this planet is, that it never had to be like this, and that we have the power now to overthrow those who’ve forced us into this corner. It’s music that I’m proud of representing, because I think that it reflects the feelings swirling around the current political shitfest my generation is facing, and it attempts to transform the anxiety amongst those feelings into angry power. It’s like a fuel source.”
Complex is certainly an accurate name for the articulate popstress’ second album. Themes will range from loneliness, isolation, distorted love narratives, confused sense of self, the desire to escape, self-image issues and self-realisation. All these concepts interact and percolate amongst themselves on Complex, and Montaigne does a spectacular job of expressing herself with eloquence, passion and powerful vocal authority. Speaking on the inspiration and work behind the album, she says, “The right songs all came together over a couple of years and each song pertains to a different period of my life. It’s basically a series of portraits of all of my insecurities, or the weird relationships I’ve been in, or neurotic feelings I’ve felt while being attracted to others. The album’s like this veil behind which I stashed all these secrets I was keeping from myself.”
Montaigne worked with a wide range of producers on Complex, including long-time collaborator Tony Buchen (Courtney Barnett, The Preatures), Wynne Bennett (Twin Shadow, Janelle Monae), Kyle Shearer (Dua Lipa, Broods, K. Flay), Mozella (Madonna, Miley Cyrus, One Direction), Dave Sitek (TV On The Radio, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Foals), Mario Späte (Tkay Maidza, Urthboy, Allday) and Eric J Dubowsky (Flume, St. Vincent, Dua Lipa).
Montaigne will be playing shows around the country in November to celebrate the release of Complex. Her unique, theatrical and emotional performance style never fails to impress. Fans should get in early to avoid disappointment.
Ready is available now.
Complex is set for release on August 30
Exclusive Complex National Tour presale available from Wednesday 12 June at 9AM AEST from http://www.montaignemusic.com.au/live/
General onsale Friday 14 June at 9AM AEST. Tickets available from www.montaigne.oztix.com.au