QUINNY SHARES JOVIAL NEW SINGLE + VIDEO ‘EVERYTHING YOU WANT’ TAKEN FROM DEBUT ALBUM ‘OUTER MONOLOGUE’ DUE OUT OCTOBER 17
A charming pop turn from Scottish-born, Melbourne-based artist Quinny, the brand new single Everything You Want, out today, expands Quinny’s indie folk sonic universe into buoyant new territory, also armed with an endearing accompanying music video. Following on from his recent singles Settlers and Found & Lost, Everything You Want also unveils yet another sneak peek ahead of Quinny’s debut full-length album, with Outer Monologue officially set for release on Thursday October 17 and available to presave now.
A track that took on many forms during its recording process, Everything You Want saw Quinny team up with Graham McCusker, a composer for BBC’s His Dark Materials and lead artist in Glasgow/Manchester bands KAZE and Marouli, as well as fellow creative Kieran Logan, drummer for Kassidy, to bring the charming new single to life. Mixed and with additional production courtesy of Nathan Cable and mastered by Neil Pickles, Everything You Want ultimately flourishes with balanced modernity and classic craftsmanship, drawing on some dazzling influences and real-life experiences along with performances from Quinny himself on vocals, guitar and bass, Marie Collins (from The Vegan Leather) on backing vocals, Graham McCusker on backing vocals and keys, Dan Drennan on guitar, and some integral drum work courtesy of Kieran Logan. “This song is fairly new, and it got changed a lot in the recording process, so I definitely still feel in our honeymoon phase,” shares Quinny. “Everything You Want is one of my poppier tracks, very upbeat with a good groove – and props for the groove goes out to Kieran Logan who played drums on this one. Once we got right into the weeds of this tune, we were really aiming for a 1975 feel. Bit of Bombay Bicycle Club, Biffy Clyro and Steely Dan in there too. It’s about us not realising how good we have it. I feel like when things are going well, we can create problems to justify ourselves and our struggles.”
Recorded at Tpot Studios by Robin Evans in Quinny’s homeland, Scotland, Everything You Want’s cheerful wiles are perfectly matched by its accompanying music video. Centred around a wedding photo booth, the clip for Everything You Want follows the bride and groom and their guests posing, drinking and everything in between as the evening wears on, serving as a clever yet simple reminder to relish the good times when they pass your way. “We just wanted a fun vibe that fitted the feel of the song,” reveals Quinny. “The video features some people in the photobooth at a wedding, capturing the highs and lows of the evening as things get messier. The video was directed and produced by Eilidh Loan, known for her performances in ‘Doctor Who’ and ‘How To Have Sex’, and features an ensemble of performers including Anna Russell-Marti, a Screen International Rising Star, known for her TV performances in ‘Karen Pirie’, ‘Falling Into Place’ and ‘Annika’, and Reuben Joseph known for his run as Alexander Hamilton in London’s West End and TV roles in ‘Vigil’ & ‘Crime’”.
An artist capable of seamlessly harnessing jovial and moody overtones with unbridled relatability, Quinny’s fusion of innovation and fresh sentimentality is on full display throughout his forthcoming debut album; the aptly titled Outer Monologue. Opening with the airy melancholic beauty of Raining Monarchs, Outer Monologue traverses pulsating calls to action (Up the Dollar), wistful indie folk (Settlers), raw and plaintive rumination (An Act of Contrition and Astral Plane), Beatles-esque lush melodics (Darkness at the Door), crisp nostalgic odes (Friends and No Place to Die), as well as jukebox-ready swoon (Found & Lost), all helmed by Quinny’s captivating Scottish lilt lining his vocals while the additional acoustic version of Settlers brings in Marie Collins, Hannah Daman and Graham McCusker performing alongside Quinny. And while the overall album has been many years in the making for Quinny, nodding to his core influences of The Beatles, Biffy Clyro, Blink-182 and The Flaming Lips, as well as more recent nods to the likes of The Killers, Rufus Wainwright and Pixies, the end result of Outer Monologue is something that has been entirely worth the wait – and it’s one ready to resonate with new and old fans alike. “It’s been a long time coming,” says Quinny of his upcoming debut album release. “It’s sort of unbelievable that I managed to commit the time and money to it. I remember a lecturer of mine when I was 20 telling me it was time I wrote an album… so it’s overdue! I often can’t spot the themes of my songs until after the fact. Now that all of the creative part of the work is done, I can realise that the whole thing is me trying to look at things from other people’s perspectives, but I always end up just writing from my own. I can’t escape my own take!”.
A talented singer and songwriter hailing from Scotland, renowned for his tongue-in-cheek Christmas sonic creations, as well as frequently having strangers mistaking him for Ed Sheeran in public, Quinny’s musical endeavours has seen him fuse his burgeoning musical flair over the years with his four influential B’s, namely Biffy Clyro, Blink-182, The Beatles and Bombay Bicycle Club. With tours in the UK and North America under his belt, the multifaceted creative relocated to Melbourne in early 2020, with his newfound hometown sparking creative excitement that is now set to culminate in 2024 with the release of his debut album – and Quinny is certainly not bidding farewell to Australia any time soon. “I’m here for a while!” says Quinny. “I’m currently starting the hunt for somewhere to buy with my girlfriend. We met in London, did long distance once her visa ran out. I then moved here in 2020, got stuck… and never left.”
Alongside headlining shows at The Gaso, Last Chance, Retreat and Fitzroy Pinnacle since moving to Melbourne, Quinny also previously won the 2020 Darebin Songwriters’ People’s Choice Award shortly after moving down under, scoring the nod for his single Found & Lost that will also feature on the upcoming album Outer Monologue. Described by Tenement TV as “an enthralling mix of the raucous and sentimental with witty lyricism and poppy charm”, Quinny had also spent the past few years releasing older material and flippant Christmas songs, with One Foot In The Grave’s Richard Wilson making an appearance in one of Quinny’s infamous Christmas videos.
To celebrate the release of Outer Monologue this October, Quinny will host a special album listening party on Saturday October 19, with the free event set to take place at The Gem in Collingwood, before christening the album live in action this December. “I’ll play the album in full for the first time in December, followed by a set of my wonky Christmas tunes,” Quinny shares. “It’ll be high energy, and I’ll try not to derail the sombre mood of the songs by talking too much – though that seems to be half of what people come for now!”
“I’m looking to do more recording next year,” Quinny concludes. “I’m currently trying to suss out dates and see if I have enough ideas left after this. I might be hitting up my pop punk roots for the next thing. They’ve been calling me a bit lately.”
But before Quinny’s pop punk roots return, Outer Monologue is primed to delight this October, and keep your ear to the ground for a new Quinny Christmas song this December, also.
Everything You Want is out today.
Quinny’s full-length album Outer Monologue is due out Thursday October 17 and is available to presave now.
QUINNY – UPCOMING SHOWS:
SAT 19 OCT | THE GEM (UPSTAIRS), COLLINGWOOD, VIC | ALL AGES
Album listening party – Free entry
THU 19 DEC | SHOTKICKERS, THORNBURY, VIC | 18+
Tickets available from Moshtix
GAVIN MAC SHARES NEW SINGLE + VIDEO ‘MAKE YOU FEEL’ + DEBUT ALBUM ‘MAKE YOU FEEL’ DUE OUT SEPTEMBER 5
Combining glistening modern alt-country with sentimental hues, the upbeat new single Make You Feel out today with an accompanying music video from Sydney country sensation Gavin Mac is an utterly effervescent glimpse into Mac’s impending debut full-length of the same name, with the album Make You Feel officially set for release on Thursday September 5.
A buoyant outing anchored by infectious melodics, lustrous instrumentation, and lashings of country charm, Gavin Mac’s new track Make You Feel saw the talented artist team up with Ben Butler on lead guitar, Melinda Jackson on backing vocals, and Josh Schuberth on drums, along with mastering courtesy of William Bowden. Simultaneously nostalgic and joyful, Make You Feel ultimately also reflects Mac’s driving musical mission statement threading throughout his debut studio release, as he reveals, “Make You Feel was, first and foremost, my mantra when I was thinking about song selection and production. I felt that success, for me, was eliciting an emotion, taking the listener to a time or place, and opening them up to some kind of reflection. In today’s fast paced life, we’re always ‘more’ and ‘what’s next’. I’m as guilty of this as anyone.”
Make You Feel also arrives today with a charming accompanying music video that seamlessly expands the underlying lyrical content. With its 1980s setting, empowering storyline and sentimental cues, Make You Feel is equally relatable and aspirational, with Mac choosing to not take centre stage in the visual setting. “I wanted to tell the song’s story, through the experience of my intended audience,” shares Mac. “I’m a terrible actor, which doesn’t help either. Funny given my younger brother Blair McDonough, forged a pretty successful career as an Aussie actor on Neighbours. Based in the 80s, a decade synonymous with excess, the story revolves around an uber-successful businesswoman, who, having reached burn-out, flees the city to reunite with her childhood bestie. En route, she breaks down in the middle of nowhere, and with no means of modern communication, she is forced to walk until she finds help. As she clambers through the countryside in high-heels and a white power suit, our hero’s exacerbation with work and life in the city melts away, and the sights and sounds around her reignite her nostalgia for simpler times. She is reminded of a similar car breakdown with her best friend, and their journey to find help. From despair comes a journey of re-discovery, which results in the two reuniting with a warm embrace. “
Serving as the title track for Gavin Mac’s forthcoming new album Make You Feel, Mac’s latest single opens proceedings into the 10 tracks lying in wait across his maiden full-length, flowing between sharp and driving empowerment (Live Your Life), swooning contemporary twangs (Getaway and How Much Better), airy countrified love songs (Angel In A Black T-Shirt), and poignant, heart-rending odes (Bushfire and Forever Changing You). Spanning influences ranging from John Mayer through to Chris Stapleton, Eric Clapton and Midland, Make Them Feel also boasts Mac’s time-travelling single Sideswiped, with the crisp tune first penned and demoed by Mac as a teenager before catching the attention of Sony Music Australia earlier in his career. “Although this collection of songs was written over a long time span,” shares Mac, “I tried to unite them by singing them, cleanly. By that I mean, not leaning into any style, just singing them straight. I also chose to work with a renowned country music producer to unite the songs through honest, earthy production techniques and instrumentation. My goal was to present a polished set of modern contemporary songs, that each incorporate a nostalgic cue, be it the narrative, instrumentation, or driven. In absence of these recordings being easily boxed into a popular genre or genre subset, my hope was to ‘make you feel’ something.”
Discovered at the age of 16 by Sony Music’s Denis Handlin and John Watson, Gavin Mac quickly gained the title of being Sony Music Australia’s youngest-ever Australian recording artist at the time. Evolving his music industry skills and knowledge in the years to follow, Mac worked alongside both international and iconic Australian artists, including previous work with Nickelback, Queens of the Stone Age, Linda & Vika Bull, and Alex Lloyd. And from managing A&R duties for Roadrunner Records to stepping back from the industry to raise his family, Mac still kept his creative fires alive, co-founding the award-winning brand experience agency Urban, conceiving and delivering marketing campaigns for Electronic Arts, Airbnb, and Netflix.
With years away from music, a fortuitous 2019 road trip to the Tamworth Country Music festival provided the very kindling that would ultimately turn Mac’s gaze firmly back to his passions, songwriting and storytelling, with the Melbourne-hailing singer-songwriter emerging from his musical hiatus with gusto in 2023 balancing renewed purpose, perspective and the powerful drive that comes with unfinished business. In 2023, Mac released his debut solo singles Getaway, Live Your Life and Bushfire, amassing over 300K streams and counting, with 2024 also garnering Mac his first industry nod, taking home the Tamworth Music Association’s 2024 New Songwriter of the Year. Now poised to release his long-awaited debut album this September, Make You Feel may be Gavin Mac’s first official full-length release, but it’s been a labour of love many years in the making, with many incredible experiences also along the way. “Make You Feel is a debut album 30 years in the making,” says Mac. “Do I qualify for some kind of Guinness Book of Records nod?! It’s been a long time in making, but hopefully the first of many to come. I’m already well into my follow up album, which I’m planning to release a little quicker than the first. I take a quiet satisfaction in defying convention. It’s when you know you’re being different, brave and beating to your own drum. So bring it on.”
“The album is like an old photo,” Mac concludes. “I’ve extracted my favourite photos and then digitized them for perpetuity. But not to dwell on the past, instead it’s presentation to the market blends old and new, to ensure it is true to its promise of delivering a ‘modern nostalgia’ experience. I feel the same as I’m sure any artist does when releasing a debut album: excited and nervous. Releasing music into the public domain is also cathartic for any artist. Regardless of how it is received, it’s liberating to hang your music in the public domain for people to hear and hopefully, enjoy in perpetuity.”
Make You Feel is out today.
Gavin Mac’s full-length album Make You Feel is due out Thursday September 5.
CHAVEZ CARTEL SHARE HYPNOTIC NEW SINGLE + VIDEO ‘UNFAMILIAR BOY’
A hypnotic blend of grit and post punk narcosis, the brand new single Unfamiliar Boy out today from Gold Coast five-piece Chavez Cartel is a woozy yet powerful continuation of the group’s trademark sound, serving up simmering intensity alongside a fittingly moody music video also out today.
Opening in a stripped-back haze, Unfamiliar Boy soon grows to oscillate between smoky simplicity and raucous choruses, headily driven by the repeated mantra “I wanna change, I need a change / I’m only human after all” and healthy servings of post punk rock. With nods to the psychedelic stylings Iggy and the Stooges as well as IDLES, Arctic Monkeys and Fontaines D.C., Unfamiliar Boy ultimately draws you headfirst into a vivid reflection on the overwhelming rollercoaster that is time, as the band explains, “The song was inspired by a period of time where life seemed to be going really fast and having the feeling where you don’t have time to even think. Like life is slipping through your fingers and you can’t quite grasp what’s really going on. Not a good headspace to be in. There’s a line coming out of the breakdown, “I need to wheel-spin in the mud, now that the months feel more like weeks”, that paints the mental picture of that feeling. It’s sort of like a plea where I’m going “If my head is going to go round in circles this fast can’t we at least stand still while we’re burning out and overheating so we’re not wasting any more time while we’re doing it?”.
Working alongside friend and frequent collaborator Jake Johnson, aka Burning Jacobs Ladder, Unfamiliar Boy firmly captures the live Chavez Cartel sonic potency, with the addition of Spencer Martin on mixing duties also continuing the creative thread in the band’s recent creative journey. “We did this song with a good mate of mine called Jake Johnson aka Burning Jacobs Ladder,” shares the band. “He’s a really great producer, he produces all his own music and he’s had a lot to do with our band over the last few months. He filled in on bass for our US tour and was a really cool addition to the lineup. We wanted to take that tour sound into studio with us and we’ve replicated it quite well. Johnson also engineered All I Know for us as well which is the bonus track on our Red Flag Blues EP. Those songs came out in March (check ‘em out!). Spencer Martin mastered the song for us who is an American mix/mastering engineer based in South Korea. He worked with Johnson a lot on his stuff, so we kept that working relationship going on our song.”
Wielding a slick yet gritty aesthetic, the accompanying music video for Unfamiliar Boy balances performance visuals along with punctuated shots of New York, resulting in a journey that feels simultaneously intimate yet perfectly curated, with all the featured visuals filmed by Brooklyn-based videographer Katie Oliver during the band’s recent North American visit. “The video was filmed by Katie,” the band shares, “It was all filmed on our New York leg of the US tour. She followed us around and hung out with us while we were playing over there and covered all our shows. She’s a real cool cat and came out partying with us and showed us round the city a bit too. It’s all there in the video. The video has a bit of a gritty/grungy tour documentary sort of vibe which is exactly what we wanted for this song. It’s more of an intimate live diary sort of feel as opposed to our previous production heavy music videos. Chavez Cartel in New York City. I still can’t get over it. Proud accomplishment.”
Releasing two EPs in 2019, Lucky Lucky and Confidence Is All I’m Taking Home, Chavez Cartel bunkered down during the pandemic years, ultimately turning their gaze and full focus into sharpening their sound and songwriting. The end result saw the band sign with End Of The Trail Records and release their 2023 EP Man’s Best Friend, before embarking on an extensive East Coast headline tour, supporting The Reytons on their What’s Rock N Roll Australian run, tour as main support alongside The Delta Riggs, and tick off their first ever UK performances, including headline shows in Sheffield, Barnsley and Rotherham, along with performances at The Great Escape Festival and at the End Of The Trail Creative Showcase in London.
In 2024, Chavez Cartel took off overseas once again, performing at The New Colossus Festival in New York as well as at SXSW in Austin, Texas, with both experiences broadening the global reach of this talented Gold Coast group. A band undeniably on the rise and one absolutely not to be missed, Unfamiliar Boy is the beginning of a phenomenal new chapter for Chavez Cartel; and following an extremely busy 12 months on the road, the band are raring to reveal even more new music to the world in the not-too-distant future, as they conclude, “It feels like we’re back to business. Whenever we get back off touring it always feels like we’re doing nothing because the pace is so slow compared to life on the road. Of course, we never stand still, but the change of intensity is always disheartening. It feels like we’re working again now. We’re still in the studio finishing off a second song which will be the follow up single to Unfamiliar Boy. It’s a real change of pace for us but it’s a really beautiful track. We played it live once in Byron Bay a couple of years ago and it was received really well. We don’t often get chance to perform any stripped-back songs, but Byron is a hippy town and we dropped it at a small venue down there. It was quite magic, so we’re really happy to be digging this one out and getting it laid down. It shows our versatility as writers. Stay tuned for more to come.”
Unfamiliar Boy is out today, Wednesday July 10.
CHAVEZ CARTEL – UNFAMILIAR BOY – Official single artwork