RICH WEBB SHARES NEW SINGLE + VIDEO BLUE WILDFLOWERS AND NEW ALBUM RIGHT! SET FOR RELEASE DECEMBER 9
A warm and lucid bundle of smooth alt-country swoon, the brand new track Blue Wildflowers out today from Melbourne singer-songwriter Rich Webb marks a third peek into Rich’s upcoming fifth full-length album RIGHT!, set for release on December 9. An immersive amalgamation of the likes of Bob Dylan, apologies and lost loves, Blue Wildflowers will be witnessed live in action in Brunswick at the Union Hotel on Saturday December 10, as part of a special album launch show to celebrate all things RIGHT!.
Blue Wildflowers unfurls like a gossamer flower petal on a warm summer’s day, with nods to artists Rich himself holds in high esteem, including Sparklehorse, Bob Dylan, Patty Griffin, Silver Jews, John Prine, Vic Chesnutt and, a recent addition to Rich’s listening repertoire, American singer-songwriter Kevin Morby. Penned as an intimate atonement and a timely reminder, stemming from personal experiences, Blue Wildflowersis a bittersweet yet lolling rumination for both Rich personally and the broader audience, as Rich explains, “It’s in many ways an apology song – to a few people broadly, but one lovely person in particular that I didn’t treat as well as I should have done. Not saying on any level that everything was my fault – that’s not true and never can be – but when beautiful things turn sour for whatever reason, you have a responsibility as part of it. It takes two to make something work and grow – you both need to nurture what you have. And I could have done a lot of things better and been more careful and protective of the relationship and love we had. I wanted to say sorry for that – for being so careless and reckless with something as delicate and pure as that kind of rare love. More broadly also, I have tended to be a bit like that through much of my life too and I also wanted to get this song down – like a tattoo or something – to try and remind me not to behave like that in the future. So I won’t forget and fuck up again, or something like that. To remind me to appreciate the moment and the great things I have in my life and to think more before jumping off a cliff in search of something else.”
Produced by Rohan Sforcina, Rich Webb and Phil Wakeman, Blue Wildflowers was itself a significant catalyst for its overarching album RIGHT!, with Rich and Rohan bottling lightning early on in the process via the track, as Rich reveals, “Blue Wildflowers is the third single from the new album RIGHT!, the lead track and I reckon the heart and soul of the record. I wrote this song first and as soon as it dropped out, I thought it was too good not to do something with. It kind of shaped the rest of the songs that followed, and the sound of the record as a whole. I think I got some cred with producer Rohan Sforcina with it too, as he seemed to like it and it was one of the songs we tried on the first day… and that helped form the bond we needed to make the thing, and a strong one it is too. It’s a pretty important song for me, and something I felt I needed to do. I’m proud of it on so many levels.”
The accompanying video for Blue Wildflowers perfectly complements the warm and billowing sonic tapestry weaving throughout, with Richteaming up with good friends Matthew Lawes-Wickwar and Louis C Brandt to bring the music video to fruition. Capturing a real-life road trip for Rich, his family and crew, the end result is equally genuine and grounding, with the filming experience also celebrating the beauty of country Victoria, as Rich shares, “The idea was simple – a road trip into country Victoria for three days – and to film whatever we fancied along the way. Louis jumped in a hire car with me and a load of camera equipment, and my partner Emma and our two boys jumped in our car and we set off. It ended up being the most amazing trip – a hell of a lot of fun, some stunning images, an absolute pleasure to get out of town and everyone we met along the way was so positive and upbeat. I came back full of that positivity and just pleased we’d got out there for three days – it’s such a wonderfully beautiful and intense country we live in. There were two real highlights – Lake Tyrrell at dawn, an inland salt lake in the Mallee part of north-west Victoria, which was cosmically beautiful – that’s where the surreal pink-tinged footage came from in the middle of the clip … it was quite an amazing experience… and The Victoria Hotel in Dimboola, which was a totally rad place to stay – that’s where the back end of the video was shot. Wow, it’s beautiful out there!”.
Named RIGHT! after Rich’s catchphrase when he wants to get something done, the new album builds yet diverts from Rich’s previous release Le Rayon Vert, with the 2018 album scooping up 2019’s Alt-Country Album of the Year at the Independent Music Awards. After fiddling with ideas on and off for a while, Rich decided to create RIGHT! locally, with different equipment and ultimately sought to shake up his modus operandi – and the rest, as they say, is history. Buoyed by the creation of RIGHT!’s opening track Blue Wildflowers early on in the album journey, RIGHT!covers everything from the maudlin swaying nostalgia laced with trumpets on Love Someone to the glistening drive of I Don’t Mind At All (Bring On Summer), mellow yet upbeat twangs (50 Miles), stripped-back bluesy tranquility (You’re Always Here In My Mind), oozing jazzy arrangements laden with electronic guitar (The Last Rowdy Hour), emphatic narratives (Nothing To Lose), toe-tappin’ gems (Shapeshifter) and soaring odes (Dead City). With Rohan also recording and mixing RIGHT! alongside producing duties, RIGHT! was mastered by Pete Lyman in Nashville, who has previously worked with the likes of Chris Stapleton, Tom Waits, Weezer and Panic! At The Disco. And starting life with Rich exploring ideas armed with nothing but his voice and a guitar, the time could not be more right for Rich to finally share his latest creation with the world, as he says, “In many ways it feels a long time coming, even though it hasn’t been that long really. It’s the anticipation I reckon – you put your whole self into making a record and from the moment the last note is locked in, can’t wait to get it out there. Time seems to go so very slow and then, finally, it’s a happening thing!”.
Already a critically acclaimed fixture in the Australian music industry, Rich has repeatedly been favourably compared to some of the singer-songwriter greats like Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen, with his recent releases scoring attention from Rolling Stone Australia, Beat Magazine and Music Feeds. A tried-and-true troubadour eternally in command of his craft and lyricism, Rich previously took out both Alt-Country Album Of The Year and Alt-Country Single Of The Year at the Independent Music Awards in New York in 2019 for Le Rayon Vert and Let Out Rainrespectively. More recently, Rich turned his gaze to raise awareness about the treatment of asylum seekers on his powerful single Love Someone, delivering not just a stunning musical triumph but also a hard-hitting message that all humans deserve to live peacefully, whoever they are, and wherever they’re from. Rich’s genuine delivery and sharpened musicality has seen him embraced around the globe throughout his career; and 2022 is only set to further the Rich Webb story to even greater heights.
Fresh off performing at Brunswick Artists’ Bar in Victoria in late October, Rich will launch RIGHT! officially live onstage on Saturday December 10 at Union Hotel in Brunswick, and these shows will perfectly capture the beautiful essence of the album’s nine tracks, as Rich concludes, “The album launch will be the record, played like it was written – and with joy and energy of getting it all together. I will be playing with a cracking band including Matt Dixon on guitar and Jim Carden on drums, both of whom are on the record, and Alics Gate-Eastley on bass, plus a few special guests too. It’s going to be great fun!”.
Blue Wildflowers is out today, Tuesday November 8.
Right! is due for release on Friday December 9.
RICH WEBB – UPCOMING TOUR DATES:
SAT 10 DEC | UNION HOTEL, BRUNSWICK VIC | 18+
Album launch – from 5pm, free admission
EDGECLIFF SHARE NEW SINGLE ‘RUNNING ON EMPTY’ NEW EP ‘UPROAR’ OUT DECEMBER 2
Get your motor running with the classic rock stylings of Sydney’s Edgecliff and their brand new tune Running On Empty. Officially dropping into the world today, Running On Empty is a raw and riveting peek into the band’s forthcoming debut EP Uproar, which will officially thunder into the world on Friday December 2. The band will also christen their new single with two shows in Cobar on Saturday 5 November, with an official EP launch party set to take place on Friday 7 January 2023 at Sydney’s Factory Theatre.
Channelling Aussie greats like AC/DC and The Angels, Running On Empty finds Edgecliff firing on all rock’n’roll cylinders, with the track boasting swaggering grooves, fiery guitars and raspy vocals dialled up to 11. A track that has been in the works for the band for a fair while now, Running On Empty may ultimately owe its sonic soul to classic rock, but it also itself evolved after Edgecliff were approached to write a song about the eponymous Running On Empty festival which took place in Cobar, also honouring the 1982 film of the same name. “We were asked to write a song to honour the Running On Empty festival, which took place in Cobar, a town that holds great history within the band,” shares keyboardist Nick Murace. “The festival took place in September for the 40th anniversary of the 1982 Australian film, Running On Empty. We were honoured to be given the opportunity to write this track and to play the festival!”. And of the track’s deliciously rowdy-yet-familiar flair, drummer Jacob Lock explains, “For this one we really wanted to go for an old school rock n’ roll belter to get the people dancin! It’s got that dirty rock groove that you can feel in your bones and reminds you of the old school Aussie rock we grew up on”.
Working alongside Callum Howell on producing and mixing duties, as well as the Grammy Award-nominated Mike Tucci mastering the new tune, Running On Empty is a track brimming with high octane energy and catchy melodies, while also offering an electric follow up to previous singles I’ll Be Gone and Calling For More, which will also feature on the band’s forthcoming EP Uproar. Covering everything from chest-bumping anthems amid prowling basslines (Running Out Of Luck), swooning rock ballads (Broken), galloping singalongs (Blackout) and balls-to-the-wall viscosity complete with sizzling guitar solos and infectious choruses (Who Are We To Be Silenced), Uproar is a genuine and ferociously fun collection of tracks that powerfully run the gamut of human experience. “We recorded six out of seven songs at the beautiful Grove Studios over a week,” shares bassist Kai Stackhouse. “After many tweaks in the studio and Callum Howell’s touch, we were able to bring these songs to life. The EP is mostly about average human experiences, one of the tracks talks about heartbreak and another track explores protest and outrage. We think there is at least one song in the EP that people will find themselves attracted to as it could summarise a certain time in their lives or the world around them.”
Edgecliff will be busting out their brand new track live in action this Saturday 5 November, with a special all ages show at the Cobar Youth Centre, as well as an 18+ event the same day at the Cobar Golf Club. And that’s not all the live Edgecliff goodness on the cards, with the band locked and loaded to officially launch their new EP Uproar early in the new year on Saturday 7 January at Sydney’s Factory Theatre. As to what fans can expect at these upcoming shows, lead guitarist and vocalist Will Howell reveals, “Anyone that catches one of our shows can expect a loud and energetic performance. We strive to make live shows an experience for everyone. We want everyone to leave our shows craving more.”
Bringing together five best mates hailing from Sydney’s Northern Beaches, the beating Edgecliff heart ultimately thrives on a love for songwriting, hard edge rock and the desire to create original music. With all band members currently completing apprenticeships in their respective trades, Edgecliff have creatively continued to turn heads via their upbeat and modern take on more vintage rock territory. Influenced by the likes of Powderfinger, Wolfmother and the Foo Fighters, Edgecliff have been hard at work in the studio and the jam room to ultimately deliver Running On Empty, which also marks the final single fans will hear before the release of the debut EP Uproar. And all signs are pointing to pure rock, as Will concludes “Rock’n’roll is our passion and we want to share that energy with as many people as we can!”.
Running On Empty is out today, Friday November 4.
Uproar is out Friday December 2.
EDGECLIFF – UPCOMING TOUR DATES:
SAT 5 NOV | COBAR YOUTH CENTRE, COBAR NSW | ALL AGES
SAT 5 NOV | COBAR GOLF CLUB | 18+
SAT 7 JAN | FACTORY THEATRE, SYDNEY NSW | 18+
JACK PANTHER SHARES NEW SINGLE ‘WEEKEND AT BERNIES’
Tāmaki Makaurau-based queer artist Jack Panther has unveiled his latest single, with Weekend At Bernies arriving as an equally quirky and anthemic piece of summery pop. The first taste of new music from Jack since the release of his why don’t you come over? EP back in June, Weekend At Bernies sees him leaning heavily into refreshingly honest territory, while harnessing influences from energetic pop names such as Remi Wolf, Dora Jar, and Omar Apollo.
Beginning life during a visit to friends in Wellington, Jack met up with producer Tarn PK for an impromptu writing session. Before long, the pair gelled creatively, with the demo of the track being crafted in just a matter of hours. The result is a track that looks at some of the harsh realities that occur during relationships, but ruminates upon the topic in a way that the enigmatic pop stylings of Jack Panther can.
“Weekend At Bernies is a fun, playful track about the panic moment when a relationship is fizzling out,” he explains. “It all sort of just poured out of me, something I never set out to write about. As Tarn and I were writing it I began to realise that in order to grow with people sometimes you’ve got to have the conversations you don’t want to have. The chorus bursts out with a dilemma begging, ‘How are we going to address this? Are we going to address this?’ with the lyrics ‘How you gonna break it down for me?’. However, the tangy, sweet vocals lie perfectly with the quirky, bright production suggesting that if we’re as bad as each perhaps in some twisted way we belong together.”
Mixed by Nathan Phillips (Remi Wolf, Omar Apollo, spill tab, Jean Dawson) and mastered by Hector Vega (Doja Cat, Justin Bieber), Weekend At Bernies sits alongside Jack Panther’s already-strong discography as a powerful example of his slick songwriting skills, and his inimitable pop sensibilities. “Having Nathan Phillips on to mix is huge, he works with some of the biggest alt-pop artists around, making some of the strongest new-wave alt-pop coming through,” he explains. “Honestly I’m really really excited to have Weekend At Bernies out. It’s a song still so fresh to me and probably my strongest track to date. It’s a relief but more importantly I feel so ready to have this track out. Writing this felt like a breakthrough, the chorus just poured out of me so organically, I think we ended up using parts of my very first vocal take.”
With a three-date New Zealand tour scheduled to take place with his full band throughout November and December, Jack Panther is looking to close out 2022 at the top of his game, before launching into dazzling new heights next year. Having just wrapped up a writing trip to Melbourne, Sydney and London, he’s eagerly looking forward to what next year holds in terms of both new experiences, new surroundings, and most importantly, new music.
Weekend At Bernies is out today, October 28.