STACK #145 Nov 2016

NEWS MUSIC

INTERVIEW

HARRISON CRAIG

T his issue just kept getting dough: that's Tkay Maidza. Brownie chunks: Katy Steele. Caramel-covered pretzels: Korn. Cherry jam: The Laurels. bigger and bigger like my bowl of Ben and Jerry's. Cookie

Marshmallow cream: Lisa Mitchell. Choc chips: Meshuggah, Dorsal Fins, Leonard Cohen, Empire Of The Sun, Sleaford Mods, Agnes Obel, and my new favourite guy: Jeff Rosenstock. The Ice Magic on top is our face-to- face interview with Client Liaison, so get spooning. Zo ë Radas (Music Editor) TKAY MAIDZA INTERVIEW

Q1/ Which section of the jazz orchestra do you most identify with, when you’re listening to a piece? I think it depends on the arrangement of each song, but generally speaking, the drumming aspect of every song really gets me going. Of course, when a song ramps up to a key change or tempo change, then it’s a different story; I'm so into the song by then, I find myself immersed in it. I find I am particularly quick to this when I’m listening to songs on vinyl. Q2/ With well-known standards like Fever or I’ve Got You Under My Skin , how do you deliver them from your own heart? With any song, everyone naturally fills the emotion of listening to or singing it with memories of their own; I find this is even more true when I sing timeless classics that have a place in the hearts of everyone around the world. Leading with my emotion in a song is paramount to me. You have to be more than 100% invested to achieve what you’re after whenever and wherever you perform. Q3/ I think everyone has an idea of what Route 66 is like, whether they’ve been there or not! How was your experience of it, and did the effects of the landscape make their way into your singing style? As most people know, Route 66 is an American icon that has been immortalised in the song Route 66 and mentioned in many others. Travelling down this historic road, I get to thinking about the pioneers of our time both past and present, and how they travelled down the same road as I. The landscape is so barren that it leads you to thinking a lot, and I find this both calming and exhilarating. I find myself thinking about arrangements of songs, and thinking back to my latest trip down Route 66; it drove the feeling that some songs should be beautifully bare in their sound and feeling, and give both the singer and the listener a powerful emotional moment. 22-year-old former The Voice champion Harrison Craig is releasing his buttery- smooth third album Kings Of Vegas .

Jeff Rosenstock

I t’s a mistake to call Tkay Maidza ‘precocious’, because it suggests a kind of smugnesss that the 20-year-old just doesn’t have. She’s definitely talented, cool with big-upping herself (in the hip hop tradition), eager to look out of the box, and more committed and motivated than most, but she’s young – and totally owns that fact. “I think the whole idea of me doing this was to please myself, not for anyone else,” she tells us. “It was just a bonus that people care.” Maidza’s debut TKAY includes the Killer Mike-

featuring Carry On (“I think what [Killer Mike] is saying is that some people kind of want to scare you into not trying… like their life’s goal is to convince someone not to follow their dreams”) and the mega propulsive Tennies (such a Missy beat!), but you also get cuts like the beautiful and vulnerable Follow Me , in which Maidza’s impressive melodies shine. “That’s kind of what felt right,” she explains. “Sometimes when I write songs I’ll just sing, and if it doesn’t feel very necessary for it to

have a rap in there, then I’m not going to put anything in there. It’s all natural.” It’s the same way with moods; Maidza wants to embrace them all. “When I

TOURING 03/11 - 19/11

wrote Tennies I was probably in a really cheeky mood, so it came out. If I feel like being funny or weird, I’m going to write a funny song about how cool I am. Then a day later I’m like ‘I have no idea how I wrote this, ‘cause today I’m just not in the mindset.’ You can certainly flip it, and

TKAY by Tkay Maidza is out now via Dew Process/ Universal.

Kings Of Vegas by Harrison Craig is out November 4 via Universal.

write a song that says ‘I’m going to be great’ – that’s when you’re trying to find the positives out of it.”

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