By The Sea-A Psychedelic Pop Dreamers Story

Three Nights ago or so i decided to find out more about this wonderfoul english band ''By The Sea'',their latest song ''Dream Waters'' really blew me away,so i had to find out what do we have in here and believe me,we have 3 genuine psychedelic pop makers blessed by their producer and friend ''Bill Ryder Jones''.

1.Alright so..''By the Sea'',please feel free to introduce yourselves.
By the Sea:We are Andy (drums), Liam (vocals, guitar) Daniel (bass), Joe (keys), Steven (guitar), Mark (guitar) from a lovely coastal town in the northwest of england...
2.Who chose the name of the band,and what does it mean to you?is it because you live in liverpool?
By the Sea:The name By The Sea came about after a tune one of our mates put on a compilation cd for us, called by the sea, by a 60s girl duo called Wendy And Bonnie(amazing lp by the way), we just wanted to avoid being another 'The' band and we thought it sounded pretty cool so it was easy really...
3.I saw that Bill Ryder Jones is on the wheel of production and mixing,how's that?are you friends or you reached him?
By the Sea:Bill lives nearby us so we've always been friends and he's got a little studio set up in a spare room in his mums house, so naturally we hassled him until he agreed to spend countless hours of his own time to record us! But he's great he really knows his stuff, he's played a big role in helping us shape our sound and arranging tunes when we're recording...
4.Tell me some things about the first days you got the band together and any difficulties you might found on your way.
By the Sea:When we first got together, we were really obsessed with Simon And Garfunkel, The Byrds, and folky harmony groups, we did a lot of acoustic stuff, but we just naturally progressed into what we're doing now, we wanted to sound more contemporary rather than a pastiche of 60s stuff, which is no bad thing, we're still influenced by that era, but also by alot of 70s and 80s bands, so we kinda wanted to mix it up a bit more rather than stick to one sound...
5.Please tell me some details about the songwriting, who writes the songs and what is your favourite subject to write about, and what influences you to write these cool dreamy pop melodies?
By the Sea: For writing the tunes, Liam will get a sort of blueprint together for the song and write some lyrics, and then we all just pitch in in rehearsal editing bits out or putting new bits in so its all of us really. For influences of melody there are loads of bands we love, too many to mention them all, but to name a few are: Gorky's Zygotic Mynci, The Beach Boys, Super Furry Animals, Pale Fountains etc.

6.Now i would like you to tell me about the recordings of your album with Bill ryder Jones.

How did he manage to capture this retro dream pop sound on your songs?

By the Sea: Most of the songs we've recorded with Bill have been done in the Scandinavian Seamans Church in liverpool, so everything comes out with loads of reverb on! 

7.''Dream Waters'',please tell me about this song,what's the story behind the song?

By the Sea:Dream Waters kind of has two big influences lyrically, The Flying Burrito's version of Dark End of the Street, and Townes Van Zandt's 'Kathleen'...Midnight love affairs, ghosts and the sea. But the lyrics are still vague enough to have your own interpretation, i guess the aim is too invoke an image in you're mind, like a book or a poem would do...

8.Name me some of your favourite artists and songs,movies,anything you like.

By the Sea:Stuff we like: Robert Frost, Blade Runner, American sitcoms, computer games, Twin Peaks, comics, Guitars and fx pedals...
9..Do you consider yourselves as psychedelic pop dreamers?
By the Sea: I suppose so, we spend more than half our time dreaming about what we could do, and most of the other half not actually doing it! But there's still a little left over where we manage to do a gig, or record...
10.Tell me about a great moment you had with the band all this time.
By the Sea:The first few times we played in London in with the See See were definitely good times, we had only just started playing gigs and we didnt really have an audience but they brought loads of mates down, and releasing the album on Dell Orso and the singles on The Great Pop Supplement came as a result of that ...
11.When your album will be released and what to expect from it?
By the Sea: Hopefully the album will be released sometime in August, we're not really expecting it to be much more than to be a nice introduction to us, it'll be nine or ten tracks, few slow tunes, a few dreamy pop tunes, then we're going to record an E.P. of all new tunes, hopefully do a little tour and a second album..
12.Would you ever come and do a gig in greece?
By the Sea:We would definitely LOVE to play Greece!
13.Say something to all the readers of our wonderful blog.
By the Sea:Never marry a railroad man...

Well you heard the lads.
They are great,they're dreamers and they are fresh.
Catch their Music below.
Their album is gonna be released late this year.
Till then..

Made of Stone:Ladies and Gents i present you Lee Southall(The Coral) and Molly Jones talking about their music project and The Coral-An exclusive interview.

Well about 2 weeks ago i interviewed Lee Southhall(The Coral) and Molly Jones.
We talked about his new project with Molly Jones and the future and the past of one of the greatest bands of my generation ''The Coral''
Here are some very interesting things Lee and Molly told me.

Spir:First of all Hello to Both,Greetings from the sunny Greece.
Lee you've been to Greece Before with The Coral on a festival with The White Stripes Headliners,what do you remember?
Lee:I remember that the gig called off half way through their set due to bad weather.
Spir:Molly were you singing somewhere before you do this project with Lee,in a band or on your own?
Your voice reminds me a combination of Susan Christie and Margo Guryan.
Molly:Yes..i come from a family of folk musicians.
My father Steve tilston(a well known singer-songwriter here in england) and my mother Maggie Boyle(irish traditional singer).I was Also on the same label as The Coral for a brief period of time.
I started out performing around the city of liverpool at the age of 17.
I played guitar and performed on my own mainly.
Spir:How was it to perform on your own?
Molly:Great but i feel better just putting my heart and soul into vocals on stage as i prefer to use my voice as an instrument,i prefer playing with Lee as his guitar ability is much stronger than mine ever was and will be!I joined the label Deltasonic just after the coral had released ''Roots and Echoes''.
Spir: so you are callaborating with Lee now,who writes the songs,tell me about the process.
Molly:Well Lee will sit around the house playing different styles on the guitar,all of which i like!
I will wait until the melody comes and i will catch it and ride the wave.
Lee writes the tunes and i write the words and melodies.
It just seems to work,everything he plays i find quite easy to turn to a song.
Spir:How many songs you guys have?
Molly:About 16,..put it this way,we have an album on the way.
Spir:I have an inevitable question now..what is going on with The Coral,or it's just a break between the members of the band Lee?
Lee:The Coral are still together..we have been touring and recording since we were 15 and we are all enjoying separate projects at this moment in time.
It won't be long until we make another album.We are all very much a unit!
Spir:So and the other members will release an album?
Lee:Yeah they are working on solo projects.
Spir:Tell me the story behind your first song ''Painted Lady''.
Molly:The story of the song really comes from tales of different folk songs my mother used to sing.
It's a folk song from my imagination about a lady whose loves is away at sea and she falls for her Gypsy Davy.
''Gypsy Davy'':Gypsy-a traveller,Davy-his name.
Spir:How do you imagine the sounds in the album,is it gonna be a psych,folky album?
Lee:Well yeah!
Have you heard of Hope Sandoval-Mazzy Star?
We would like it to sound like early Led Zeppelin but with a female vocal and a bit of Coral of course.
Spir:Does The Coral have new songs set for a record?
Lee:Yeah we did have a lot of songs we were working on and they were very good,but the coral write so many songs all the time.
Spir:What do you have to tell me about Bill Ryder jones Departure back in 2007?
Lee:When Bill Left was a tough period,he was my best friend and we learnt the guitar together and we shared great moments so the band had to pull together,but that made us stronger in a way and Butterfly house is a great record.
Spir:How did you react when you heard Bill's first album?(IF)
Molly:Well it has been on the pipeline for a while,i met bill for the first time about 4 years ago,so the album is probably a lot different in my ears than yours as i understand the process,which is good and bad thing.It means i can take bill's music for granted sometimes.
Let me tell you something though,Bill is a very special soul,i am more interested in spending a little time with bill than listening to his music sometimes.
Spir:Can you tell me some of your favourite bands,or records you were listening while creating the songs?
Lee:Well i listen to loads of fleetwood mac when peter green was there,bert jansch,john martyn,led zeppelin,chris smither,joni mitchell and of course The Beatles.
Molly:The mamas and the papas,the verve,the stone roses,joni mitchell too.
Spir:Do you have a daily job apart from the music?
Lee:Well i'm going to apply for a guitar teaching at the local school.
Spir:Molly do you believe you're gonna have a great journey in music with lee?
Molly:Yes i believe we will but sometimes i'm wrapped in doubt,but i do believe.
I believe in the songs,i believe this is what we were meant to do and i believe this is all we can do....
After a while Lee and Molly sit me down and asked me questions about my music and why i interviewed them...
Lee Southall and Molly Jones are gonna release a record soon,they have the songs and they also want to come for a Gig in Greece..
They are both amazing persons.
This is their Music so far roughly recorded and performed live..

Village-Village

Well what do we have here..
Dream Pop mixed with amazing crystal guitars and Velvet Vocals.
Do you need anything more?
Well i don't.
enjoy their music like the summer sun...

By The Sea-Dream Waters

Hey Dreampoppers here is a band to watch out,cause they're your perfect escape for the summer.
''Dream Waters'' is a colourful panoramic popscape.
Recorded and Mixed with Bill Ryder Jones in Various churches,bedrooms and Garages.

Allah las-Sacred Sands

Needless to say that this is one of the best surf/psych pop bands around.
This is their B-Side of their single ''Tell me(What's On Your Mind).
If you love west coast pop art experimental band and the 60's they're your new favourite band.

5 Songs For May

Well i decided to give it a go and choose 5 songs that will keep you good company for the month of May.
Elections sucked here in greece by the way.
 1.I will begin with the amazing ''Allah Las'' from the sunny California.
Here is their Song 'Tell me what's on your mind'' and yeah it will remind you something between the voice of Eric Burdon(Animals) and all the surf pop bands of the 60's,they will release and a record at the end of the year produced by Nick Waterhouse.

2.Here we have some beautiful sunshine dream pop from a new band Trails and Ways.
Love the sad female vocals and the clear revrbed guitars.
A perfect song to go and sit on a rock and smoke out a cigarette while the sun falls in front of your eyes.

3.''I am just a star in a democratic flag'' by the obscure band ''Smiles''..i will say no more,the song speaks for itself.
Thanks to Anton Newcombe from Brian jonestown Massacre in his youtube channel for this Gem.

4.Brand New Song from 'Fear of Men''.
 Fear of men are an Indie Pop band with some great melodies and a great female voice that haunts your soul.
You will always remember them in the time of your personal need as i did.
Who hasn't cried for a girl?(or a boy?)
This is for you my lovely dreamers...
Be careful to don't drown in the ''Green Sea''.

5.And a last song that i personally love very much.
It's a cover to a Zombies Classic Hit titled ''She's Not There'' by The Magnificent ''Black Angels''
Please don't bother try to find her,she's not there...
Onwards ladies and Gents.

In a Haze of a Dream-Mixtape

Well i made a mixtape feat some rare and obscure tracks from the 60's and not only.
With all my heart i dedicate this mixtape to my friend Hunter Lea in Seattle for all his help and appreciation.
You can listen and download the mixtape below.

Aufheben

Aufheben:Σηκώστε.
Προφανώς το Βερολίνο και η τρέλα του Newcombe συνδυάστηκαν πανέμορφα.
Το να έχεις ακόμα τα πρωτιά στην Garage/Psych σκηνή μετά από 20 χρόνια δεν είναι και λίγο πράμα και το να γράφεις δίσκους σαν το Aufheben μόνος σου είναι ακόμα μεγαλύτερο ζήτημα,δεν ξέρω τι κουβαλάει ο Newcombe στο κεφάλι του και δεν με νοιάζει,είναι η ιδιοφυία της γενιάς μου και αν κάνω ποτέ παιδιά θα τους μιλάω για αυτόν τον άνθρωπο που έκανε μουσική,δεν ξεπουλήθηκε ποτέ και το βασικότερο όλων το κάνει γιατί γουστάρει....,γιατί γουστάρει.
Αν δεν γουστάρεις γάμα το άλλαξε επάγγελμα ότι και να κάνεις.
Λοιπόν χθές ξεκίνησα την ακρόαση του δίσκου και έχω πολύ δρόμο μπροστά μου για να τον χωνέψω,ποσό μάλλον για να γράψω κριτική.
Είναι η πέμπτη φορά που τον ακούω σήμερα και γουστάρω την ζωή μου,αυτό απο μόνο του λέει πολλά.
Καλό μήνα σε όλους.
Θα επιστρέψω στο μέλλον να μιλήσω αναλυτικότερα για τον δίσκο.
Για την ώρα τον ακούτε παρακάτω.
Aufheben-BJM