New Music Mix: Diamond Rings Interview and Check Out Britney Spears' "Big Fat Bass"
INTERVIEW
I recently sat down with Canadian rocker John O., an
interesting guy who only came out two years ago at the embarkment of a new
persona. You might know him as Diamond Rings, an androgynous character who wears rainbow themed make-up
all-the-while making some of the coolest Depeche
Mode quality alt-rock on the scene right now. And with a baritone voice as deep
as The National’s Matt Berninger.
In his latest video for
Not My Party” John is seen walking down the street in a dress singing in
one of the deepest voices that would put your granddad to shame. I’m digging
his whole package and I loved talking with him.
Going into my meeting with John, I found out he’s quite
tall, towering over me at 6’4. He’s incredibly intelligent and has these
striking blue eyes that I would have never noticed if we had not made our way
out of our dark little nook in his hotel lobby bar and into the light of the
hallway as our meeting ended. As we discussed the exciting announcement that
his debut album Special Affections is
being re-released in the U.S. because it’s just that good, John came across
humble, appreciative and very level-headed - a normal kid with an incredible gift for making original, quirky, slightly dark, pop songs.
AE: So you’re re-releasing your album Special Affections with Astralwerks, and I’ve looked at the roster
of artists you’re now teamed up with (Kylie Minogue, David Guetta, The B-52s),
it’s a pretty impressive list. I know that one of your heroes is Brian Eno, and
now you’re on the same label as him, were you excited?
DR: Yeah that definitely played a part in me being interested in working
with them for sure. The history of the artists that have been on the label.
Yeah it’s awesome, it gives me something to work towards for sure. What I think
I like most is that they’re all career artists and musicians who have been
doing it a long time and have worked really hard to get where they’re at. It’s
inspiring more than anything.
AE: So what’s
different now that Astralwerks has come into your life?
DR: It’s certainly motivated me more, not that I wasn’t motivated before.
Having a bigger team behind me supporting what I do is inspiring. It sort of
validates the efforts that I’ve made so far. And they’re all professional and
everyone really wants to do the best they can, sometimes that makes things more
complicated, but ultimately I think it’s for the best.
AE: So are there
going to be any new songs on the new release?
DR: We generally kept most of it the same. We’ve talked about revamping the
artwork but ultimately I really wanted the album to be able to stand on it’s
own for what it was. It’s very much a collaborative effort between me and some of
my friends on the packaging, like the cover photo, we made a lot of it in Garage Band. It’s very raw and if anything, I want to be able to inspire other
people who are just getting into making music - to just show them that you don’t
necessarily need a Kylie Minogue budget right away to get people to be excited
about what you’re doing as an artist. I thought that to change a lot would kind
of diminish actually what was already there as a record. I’m trying to keep it
very much so in it’s original context
AE: And they’re okay
with that?
DR: Yeah which is awesome too. That’s not to say that I’m “lo-fi or die” or
that that’s the sound that I always want to be known for, but for this
particular album to have it carry through from bedroom to a major label would
be kind of special.
AE: Special Affections was made in your
bedroom?
DR: Yeah totally, it’s possible right now with electronic music, it’s
really liberating that you don’t need a lot of space to record or rehearse or
do anything really. I live downtown and space is at a premium. It’s also nice
to get your ideas out and record them right away.
AE: I read where the
Gorillaz just released their new album made entirely on their iPad.
DR: Yeah, it’s crazy, I think it’s cool, too, why not if the technology is
there? Because that’s the way a lot of people are listening to music these days
– digitally. There is a sense of wanting to reflect the way the music is
changing and the way that we’re making it.
AE: Are you now
working towards a future project?
DR: Yeah I’m always working on new stuff. I’ve been doing remixes for the
past month, I’ve been doing a new one every week for other bands which has been
really exciting. It allows me to stay busy and keep working without necessarily
having to go so far into my own psyche and thoughts. To write an album
lyrically can be really taxing and not always the quickest process. It’s fun
during those times when I’m not feeling incredibly inspired to keep showing up
and doing something.
AE: Yeah and you’re
continuing to put your sound out into the world, artists like Calvin Harris and
Passion Pit have done the same. So what is your creative process?
DR: On the last album I wrote a lot of the songs on acoustic guitar and
piano. It wasn’t until after I had probably a good chunk of the album written
that I wanted it to sound differently and be electronic sounding, more popular,
and more fun to do it that way. Most of the music that I listen to has a beat.
It’s ultimately really nice that a tune can stand up as a great song. It’s
really easy the way technology is progressing to throw a lot of cool sound
effects and production techniques at something that isn’t necessarily the best
song to kind of trick people into thinking that it is. That’s not what I want
to do. It’s more important to me to write the words and make the chord
progressions and find something that really sounds nice and then worry about
dressing it up. So that’s kind of how I work.
AE: How would you
describe your fanbase?
DR: It’s really diverse. Short of bugging your own friends to come out and see
you, after that it’s out of my hands by and large who comes to my show. I can
only make the music I want to make, and present the image that I feel
represents me and hope that the right people get it. Not that there’s wrong
people. People who come to my shows are all over the place. Kids in high
school, 20 something downtown folks like me, people my parents’ age, which is
really cool. It’s all over the place. I‘m trying to reach as many people as I
can. I want to try and make the music and put on the kind of show that allows
anyone to feel like they can come and express themselves and be themselves and
be safe and have fun. I would be really worried if I had a demographic niche
and everyone were the same that comes to my show.
AE: So you just came
off a tour with Robyn, and she has an enormous amount of gay fans. Every time
I’ve been to a Robyn concert it’s like going to a gay bar. What is it like for
you to now have an entire audience of gay people introduced to your music?
DR: It’s great. A lot of the artists that I’ve grown up admiring and being
inspired by I think appeal to queer fanbases whether it’s Grace Jones, Pet Shop Boys, Kylie Minogue or Robyn.
AE: Do you have a
favorite Robyn song?
DR: “Hang With Me”
AE: Do you have a
favorite song of your own?
DR: I think the very first song I wrote as Diamond Rings -“All Yr Songs.”
It’s a little ditty and not really the direction I’m heading with my music
right now, it’s a little cute, but that was really what got the ball rolling
for me. To me it’s the beginning of this whole now way of conceiving myself and
my role as an artist.
AE: Tell me about
this persona you’ve created as Diamond Rings
DR: I think this is something that I’ve wanted to do for a long time - ever since
I was in art school learning about music. I grew up in the suburbs and I don’t
have brothers or sisters so I didn’t have anyone bringing home cool cassette
tapes or records or going to shows so I really had to figure out everything on
my own. In my late teens I started buying records byThe
Smithsand TheHuman League
and kind of getting into synthy bands that presented a kind of androgynous, dangerous image. I wanted to see myself as an artist that was part of that
tradition but I wanted to do that in a way that was unique to me. I didn’t
really want to copy anything outright. It took a while to figure out what that
was going to look like, finding a way to do it that would feel right. I found
that when I started doing the shows, putting on makeup, being on stage, that it
was really exciting, and I wanted to do it all the time. Not all the time, all
the time, it’s a lot of work.
AE: Yeah right now
you’re not in make up.
DR: Yeah totally. I’ve done interviews before with people at 9 in the
morning and they said ‘oh I thought you’d have make-up on’ and I’m like ‘do you
know what time it is? What the hell? This shit takes time.’
AE: Well so you’ve
listed a lot of your influences. What are you currently listening to though?
DR: I just got the new Cut Copy
Album. I like Robyn. The newest Kylie Minogue album is really bad-ass.
There’s this electronic rock duo from Montreal called Handsome Furs that have a new album out that’s really wicked. My
friend Katie is in a band called Austra
and she sings back up on “Give It Up” on my record. My musical taste is pretty
all over the place. I likeSalt
n Pepa and Public Enemy.
AE: Yeah I noticed
that you rapped on your song “Show Me Your Stuff,” will you be doing more of
that in future works?
DR: I want to, whenever I perform live and I rap people go crazy. I definitely
think it would be fun to have more of that on the next album, not in the sense
that I’m a full on rapper, because I can’t do that. It’s a fun way to write but
it’s really hard and because there’s so many words there’s a bit less pressure to
be poetic.
AE: What are your
thoughts on other out male musicians right now?
DR: I guess in a way there aren’t many. For sure Adam Lambert, but his path is a lot different than mine, such a
different route doing the television shows, that I don’t really think of it as
being the same, maybe the end goal is. There are a lot of women right now that
I think are pushing a lot of boundaries in popular music, likeLady Gagaand even some of the
stuff that Katy Perry is doing, to me, is way more nuanced and interesting than what was going on in the nineties, but
there aren’t really that many men that are doing that in the same way, and most
of the artists that I look up to other than David Bowie or Prince,
are women, so if anything I would like to be able to provide a counterpoint to
that for whatever that’s worth. I ultimately identify with good music
regardless of the sex or orientation, but for sure if I can just show someone
who is 16, 17 and doesn’t know what’s going on in their life that things can
get better and that it’s okay to be yourself, then that’s great and that’s all I could
really hope to do.
AE: When did you come
out?
DR: I’d say pretty much this project [as Diamond Rings] essentially has kind of been in lock
step with me accepting and presenting myself as queer to a lot of people. I’m
really close to my parents and have never had to deal with a lack of family
support in my life which I’m really thankful for, I think it makes it a lot
easier knowing that the people who made my life possible by birthing me are
supportive of what I’m doing. That helps a lot. And it also helps that people
have responded so positively from the get-go to what I’ve been doing that it has really inspired me to keep going. For anyone out there: if you’re not afraid
to be who you are, whatever that is-- and I don’t think for everybody that means
playing music and wearing eye shadow-- and if you project what you are inside
outwards, then you’re going to find the right people.
Check out Diamond Rings Fall Tour Dates:
Tour Dates:
09/04 Making Time Warehouse
Project, Philadelphia, PA
09/06 Maxwell's, Hoboken, NJ
09/07 Rock and Roll Hotel,
Washington, DC
09/08 Ottobar, Baltimore, MD
09/10 The Earl, Atlanta, GA
09/12 The Bottletree,
Birmingham, AL
09/13 Spanish Moon, Baton
Rouge, LA
09/15 Fitzgeralds, Houston, TX
09/18 Lowbrow Palace, El Paso,
TX
09/20 Casbah, San Diego, CA
09/21 Troubadour, Los Angeles,
CA
09/24 Henry Miller Memorial
Library, Big Sur, CA
09/25 Great American Music
Hall, San Francisco, CA
09/26 Doug Fir Lounge, Portland,
OR
09/27 Crocodile Café, Seattle,
WA
10/01 7th Street Entry,
Minneapolis, MN
10/03 The Mod Club, Toronto, ON
10/06 Paradise, Boston, MA
10/07 Webster Hall, New York, NY
ALBUMS
Beyonce’s hotly anticipated
fourth solo album aptly titled 4
dropped recently and having had the chance to listen through it a few times
now, I’m not as pleased as I had hoped. The album starts off with the track
“1+1,” a beautiful ballad with a resemblance to a Maxwell song in which B pours her heart out into every note. It’s a
very old school throwback, and I love it. The standout track on the album in my
opinion is “End of Time” it’s got heavy bass, drums, horns, - the works. Andre 3000 guests on “Party” and shows
his classic Outkast greatness.
As a whole, the album is a lot
slower than I Am… Sasha Fierce,
especially on the tracks “I Miss You.” And I kind of hate “Rather Die Young”
and “Start Over.” Beyonce has taken a very bluesy and soulful direction with
this album and unfortunately I didn’t hear many (if any) standout tracks on
it.
But move over Beyonce, on the same day that 4 was released Wynter Gordon dropped her debut EP With The Music I Die filled with 4 fun new tracks just in time for
summer. Lead single “Til Death” is infectious and fun, while “Buy My Love” and
“Don’t Stop Me” sound current and are perfect pop melodies. Of the bunch though
I think I like “Still Getting Younger” the best.
performance at this year’s Pier Dance during NYC’s Pride
SINGLES
My five jams this week are:
London based pop/rock duo Graffit6 consist of singer/songwriter
Jamie Scott & producer TommyD. The duo are gearing up for their debut album
Coloursout later this year. Take a
listen to the latest single “Stone In My Heart”
A standout track off Wynter Gordon’s earlier, not quite
heavily marketed EP The First Dance is
the hit "Renegade" which in my opinion is as good as Rihanna’s “S&M.” Check it out!
On tour with Britney Spears right now are Australian
twins Liv and Mim Nervo aka NERVO.
The girls are the songwriters behind David
Guetta’sMega-hit “When Love Takes Over” and are gearing up for their debut
EP out later this year. Get a taste of their works here.
Speaking of Britney Spears, I had the chance to catch the artist on tour for her
Femme Fatale tour over the weekend in Chicago and this track was definitely one
of the highlights of her performance. Check it out: Britney Spears – "Big Fat Bass"
By now I imagine everyone and
their mom has heard the latest LMFAO
song out at the clubs or on radio, but I never saw the guys behind “Shots” and
“I’m In Miami Bitch” creating quite the catchy hit. To date this is my favorite
summer song.
VIDEOS
Estonian club sensation Kerli
performed her Billboard Dance Chart-topping single “Army of Love” on the main
stage of San Francisco’s Pride this summer, catch footage of that here and the
Official Video below.
Skylar Gray will
be performing this summer at Lollapalooza and she just recently released her
first single “Dance Without You” off her debut album Invisible. To be honest I’m a bit disappointed. I’ve loved her
collaborations with Eminem and Dr. Dre on “I Need a Doctor” and Dirty Money on “Coming Home” but I
can’t get into the sound of her first solo effort. What are your thoughts on this?
Lady Gaga’s fellow
Interscope labelmate Natalia
Kills releases the video for her latest single “Free” featuring Will.i.am. Now this I can dig.
Joe Jonas of
Jonas Brother fame is the latest Jonas to set out on his own and is taking the
pop direction… could he be the next Justin
Timberlake? You decide.