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+
SPIDERBAIT ANNOUNCE EXCLUSIVE SHOW SPIDERBAIT – THE SINGLES AT FORUM MELBOURNE ON NOVEMBER 9 + SINGLES VINYL BOX SET
To celebrate their hit-laden career, legendary Aussie rockers Spiderbait have today announced a one-off show at Forum Melbourne on November 9, with tickets going on sale at 9am Thursday July 11. And another exciting announcement for long-time fans – the show will be paired with a brand new, limited edition 7” vinyl box set of singles, SPIDERBAIT – SINGLES and will be available exclusively at the show.
The story of Spiderbait is an unlikely but heartwarming one – three friends from a small Australian country town taking on the music scene, and emerging triumphantly 25 years later, friendship intact, and now one of the biggest and best rock bands on the national landscape. Taking inspiration from far-reaching influences from all sides of the musical spectrum (everything from Slayer to The Bangles), Spiderbait took their fervent thrash-pop from their tiny hometown of Finley in NSW down to Melbourne and immersed themselves in the rich, fertile creative scene. From there they quickly consolidated their status as national treasures, with their popularity spanning three decades with no signs of abating. Spiderbait have released seven acclaimed albums, which have all racked up gold, platinum or double platinum status and have combined Australian sales of over one million units. As if that wasn’t enough, they have also racked up pretty much every accolade there is to achieve on the Australian scene, having taken home numerous ARIA Awards, chalked up a number one single (their 2004 cover of Leadbelly’s Black Betty) and even topped the prestigious triple j Hottest 100 (for Buy Me A Pony, 1996).
The upcoming show at Forum Melbourne is sure to please old and new fans alike, as drummer and vocalist Kram enthuses, “For the first time we’ll be performing every one of singles in order of release, from Circle K way back in 1990 to now. It’s been great to look back at all these singles, from number 1s like Black Betty and Buy Me a Pony… to my personal faves like Calypso , Stevie and It’s Beautiful….
They are like a diary of our lives bringing back memories from all time we’ve been playing together. The same three country kids who formed a band for fun and ended up having this fucked up, brilliant, unexpected adventure…so to all our fans, come celebrate with us at the Forum in November, it will be a special night.”
Thrilled to be dropping the SPIDERBAIT – SINGLES 7” vinyl box set in conjunction with the show, complete with original mixes & artwork, Kram explains why they chose to add an unexpected song into the mix, saying, “We included Old Man Sam from 1991 – which wasn’t actually a single back then but might as well have been, as weirdly and wonderfully it became our first big hit song! I’ll never forget the first time we played the song at Big Day Out in Sydney. This was a big moment for us as we went on stage a bit nervous, it was a massive crowd of thousands at the Sydney Show Grounds and when we did Old Man Sam, the whole crowd sang it and went nuts. That day we came off stage a very different band than the one that went on 45 minutes before. It’s amazing and dare I say fucking awesome how one song can do that.”
Spiderbait are a very special Australian band with an abundance of fans across multiple generations and this exclusive show at the Forum Melbourne will be a victory lap for the group, and they’re excited to be taking all their fans along for the ride.
Tickets to Forum Melbourne will go on sale at 9am on Thursday July 11 from https://www.ticketmaster.com.au/event/130056D9ABB97BB0
SPIDERBAIT – SINGLES vinyl box set will be available to preorder as a ticket & vinyl bundle, and will be available for purchase at the show.
Spiderbait is Janet English on bass, Kram on drums and lead vocals, and Damian Whitty on guitar.
SPIDERBAIT – THE SINGLES EXCLUSIVE SHOW
Presented by Triple M Melbourne
SAT 9 NOV | THE FORUM, MELBOURNE VIC | 18+
Tickets available from www.ticketmaster.com.au | 13 61 00 | All Ticketmaster outlets
SPIDERBAIT – SINGLES VINYL BOX SET TRACKLIST
1. Old Man Sam / Circle K
2. Monty / Jesus
3. Buy Me A Pony / Calypso
4. Glokenpop / Shazam
5. Black Betty / Fucken Awesome
6. It’s Beautiful/ Straight Thru the Sun
MYLK ANNOUNCE NEW SINGLE + VIDEO NOT MY FAULT + MELBOURNE LAUNCH SHOW ON AUGUST 23
Lovable indie rockers Mylk have today announced the release of their fun new single Not My Fault, a hooky track about being a bit of a bad luck magnet, set for release on August 8. The group have also released a fittingly entertaining and super endearing clip for Not My Fault; it’s a one-shot-wonder bursting with youth and personality. And they’ll be celebrating the release with an exclusive hometown show at the Grace Darling Hotel in Melbourne on August 23.
Not My Fault is the perfect example of what Mylk is – a bit cheeky, undeniably catchy, with idiosyncratic vocals and colloquial charm. Not My Fault is an uncomplicated yet extremely effective track, kind of effocative of jangle legend Mac Demarco but still with a unique Mylk spin. Thrilled to be releasing the track, Nathaniel Peacock, lead vocalist of Mylk says, “It feels great to be releasing this track after working so hard on it for such a long time. We love the song, and to finally be able to show it to the world is exciting and relieving, hopefully it gets stuck in people’s heads!” Not My Fault was inspired by a simple melody, and the song was completely written without any lyrics at first. “It was while jamming the song instrumentally that we just happened to sing the words ‘it’s not my fault’ to the tune of the chorus and the rest of the lyrics just came together. The lyrical content of the song is not meant to be taken super seriously at all, with the track aiming to be fun and catchy, and something to make people move.”
The clip for Not My Fault is just as eccentric as the band themselves, as the viewer is taken on a spectacularly quirky ride through a classic sharehouse environment with a surreal twist. Working alongside Jack Wilson-Lee of JWL Productions, there’s puppies, hairdryers in the bathtub, backyard amateur theatre, and more, and it’s all tied together with a wonderfully apathetic performance from Mylk. It’s tongue-in-cheek, but it has a lot of heart, and it does a great job of convincing the viewer that Mylk would be a pretty fun group of friends to have. Explaining the inspiration behind the clip, Peacock says, “The video is a bunch of small sketches where different events occur that are seemingly ‘Not My Fault’, this idea of doing multiple lighthearted sketches was our idea from the beginning of planning the video, as well as creating the effect that the video was filmed all in one take. We wanted the video to emphasise the lyrics in the song, as they do tell somewhat of a story.”
Mylk are celebrating Not My Fault with a show at Melbourne’s own Grace Darling Hotel on August 23. Giving fans a taste of what to expect on the night, Peacock enthuses, “We really take pride in our live performances, and I think we can all say that playing gigs is our favourite part of being in a band and making music. Mylk gigs tend to be a great time, at least for us, with a fun and safe environment for all encouraged. We make sure that our recorded music is exactly the same as our live performances in terms of sound, and that the shows give everyone a memorable experience and an excuse to shake yo booty.”
Mylk is Nathaniel Peacock (lead vocals, guitar), Harry Bohmer (lead guitar), Julian Addati (bass guitar), and Ewen Stewart (percussion, backup vocals).
Not My Fault is out August 8.
MYLK ‘NOT MY FAULT’ LAUNCH SHOW
FRI 23 AUG | GRACE DARLING HOTEL, COLLINGWOOD VIC | 18+
Tickets available on the door.