Shazamers' Blog

Christina Perri is a name about to enter into your everyday lexicon; the 24 year old American singer songwriter is the voice and talent behind the huge hit single ‘Jar of Hearts’. At Shazam we spotted Perri’s talent as she entered the top 10 in the US tag chart early in 2011.

Perri was signed byAtlantic off the back of the song when it aired on the American version of the show ‘So You Think You Can Dance’ in June 2010. By April 2011 the track had sold over 2 million digital downloads.

Shazam caught up with Ms. Perri to discuss her debut  album, her inspiration and her interesting past.

Purchase the album from iTunes here.

Hazel Savage Interviews Christina Perri

The King Blues are London’s premier punk troubadours. With influences ranging from Public Enemy to The Clash, the band have a broad sound that’s sewn together from the group’s political  outlook.

The band have just released their third album ‘Punk & Poetry’ and here at Shazam we were lucky enough to get the guys in our studio to record a stripped back version of the single ‘Headbutt’.

Renowned for fusing punk and ska in an innovative way, The King Blues have caught the attention of just about everyone, especially BBC radio’s Zane Lowe who picked ‘Headbutt’ as his ‘Hottest Record In The World’ earlier this year.  To purchase the latest album from iTunes click here.

Hazel Savage Shazam Sessions The King Blues

Secret Sisters are real life sisters Lydia and Laura Rogers from Alabama, USA. Often compared to The Everly Brothers or Doc Watson, their music is filled with authentic country riffs and melodies.

Leaning heavily on 50′s inspiration the girls often play a mixture of self penned works and reworkings of classic hymns or roots songs. The Sisters have recieved massive plaudits for their work so far with features in the Sunday Times and a spot on BBC’s Jools Holland show, ‘Later‘.

To be let in on the secret yourself head over too their website  for tour information and to purchase the debut self titled album.

Hazel Savage Shazam Sessions secret sisters

It may seem that summer has begun early this year with uncharacteristically high temperatures right across Europe, but it would also seem that the festival season starts earlier every year too. These days, if you want to, you can attend festivals from Easter weekend right through to the beginning of September.

This year is no different, with the 20th Anniversary of Europe’s (if not the world’s) premiere Punk and Hardcore festival Groezrock, which takes place yearly at Easter in Meerhout, Belguim. Originally starting out as a 400 capacity event, the festival has grown to accommodate close to 32,000 people.

Groezrock is renowned for its world class line up and only charging 1,66 Euro for a beer, which knocks the current UK festival price of  £4.80 for a drink into a cocked hat! Add to this temperatures that topped the mid eighties and you have the ingredients for a great weekend.

The festival organisers continually up the ante with ever increasing stellar line-ups and this year was no exception with highlights coming from industry stalwarts Dropkick Murphys and NoFx. Attendees of Groez were also fortunate enough to see American punksters Descendents in fine form after reportedly bombing 2 days later at one London show, with singer Milo losing his voice and cancelling their other London date.

Performance of the weekend had to be Swedish punk band Millencolin who treated the audience to a complete playback of their 2000 seminal album, ‘Pennybridge Pioneers’. Some of the songs were seemingly played at double speed and crowd pleasers included ‘No Cigar’ (above), which found fame as a track on Tony Hawk’s skating games, and sing-along acoustic track ‘The Ballad’. Other great sets came from mid-billing acts such as Scottish emo rockers Twin Atlantic and American Ska punkers Streetlight Manifesto.

Keep an eye on www.groezrock.be for all new Groez news and roll on the rest of 2011 into 2012.

To see more photos, including Quinn the guitarist from platinum selling band The Used showing off his Shazam, see below:

Hazel Savage Gigs/ Events dropkick murphys, Groezrock Festival, millencolin, twin atlantic

Earlier this month UK indie rock band Guillemots recorded an amazing live session at Shazam HQ and since then we’ve been looking forward to showing you more. The song performed in this second exclusive performance is called ’Tigers‘: a beautiful and yet mournful troubadouresque piece featuring lyrics such as “I’m a tumbling star and home isn’t anywhere that we both are.”

Taken from the recent album “Walk The River” the Shazam Guillemots Sessions are a beautiful and acoustic take on the album versions of the songs. It’s debatable that we have ever had a finer male vocalist grace our studios!

For all the latest Guillemots news and tour dates, which include slots at Glastonbury Festival and The Secret Garden Party, check out their website here.

Hazel Savage Shazam Sessions Guillemots

As the marriage of Kate and Wills brings out the closet royalist in most of the English speaking world, today seemed the perfect day to showcase our latest Shazam Session: this time from Roadrunner Records signings, Royal Republic.   

Whilst over in the UK for the first time the band managed a tour and also found time to stop off and record a track for us, which was their first ever live session in the Britain.

At first appearances the band seem to be from the US, speaking with heavy American accents, but Royal Republic were actually formed in Malmö, Sweden in 2007  – the accents come from the movies. Drummer Per explained to us that the choice to sing in English was an active one, “We want to communicate internationally, singing in our own language won’t achieve that.” He then went on to say they always speak in English out on the road as their crew is German.

Watching the session its clear that no other band have had such fun doing a session, or looked quite so good whilst at it, as these four guys.

To purchase the new debut album “We Are the Royal” click here.

Hazel Savage Shazam Sessions Royal Republic

The Pigeon Detectives are the archetypal UK indie band with their leather jackets and shaggy haircuts; but there is an extra dimension to these guys. Here at the Shazam Studios they gave one of the most emotive performances ever to grace our stage, with lead singer Matt Bowman grasping the mic stand at every chance and proving to everyone why three albums on the band are still going strong.

The Leeds based five piece visited a few weeks ago and laid down this beautiful acoustic, laidback version of their new single ‘Done In Secret’ which is to be taken from the forth coming album ‘Up, Guards And At ‘Em!’ which is available to order here.

Hazel Savage Shazam Sessions The Pigeon Detectives

Indie rockers Guillemots are back with their third long player, ‘Walk The River’ due out April 18th. ‘The Basket’ is the first single to be taken from the album and it sees lead singer Fyfe Dangerfield in fine form and full voiced, intertwining his intelligent lyrics with whimsical indie fancy.

The session they recorded in the Shazam Studios, shows off the amazing musicianship the band posses; giving us a unique, stripped down version of the track. The band are also playing a series of secret gigs throughout April; where the venue will be announced to ticket holders on the day of the show. For more information, head to www.guillemots.com

The album is available for pre-order here.

Hazel Savage Shazam Sessions Guillemots

Glasvegas are a platinum selling indie-rock band from Glasgow. Having released their eponymous debut album in 2008, the band went on to be nominated for the Mercury Music Prize and won a plethora of top industry awards including a ‘New Music Award’ from influential UK radio station XFM.

Three years on, the band are back with a new second full length album titled ‘Euphoric /// Heartbreak \\\’ set for release on the 4th of April.

The above track ‘The World Is Yours’ is taken from the new album and we were lucky enough to have the guys in for an acoustic session. Singer James Allan and guitarist Rab Allan performed  a wonderfully atmospheric, stripped down 8 minute long version for us.

To pre-order the new album click here.

Hazel Savage Shazam Sessions Glasvegas

Matt and Kim are a feisty NYC duo who take an inventive spin on indie rock, combining Kim’s innovative drumming with Matt’s vocals and keyboard – producing destructive dance-punk melodies.

Whilst in the UK we caught up with the pair to set down a small challenge; to see who could name a song faster; Matt and Kim or Shazam? With three million recognitions made every single day on our apps and an exhaustive musical database, could Matt & Kim compete? To find out what happened in the challenge watch the video above.

Matt and Kim formed in 2004 and last year they released their third studio album ‘Sidewalks’, to purchase the new album head here. The band are also touring in Europe in March and then a comprehensive American tour in June, you can check out the list of dates here.

Hazel Savage Shazam Sessions Matt & Kim