Shazamers' Blog

One of the most respected rappers of his generation; it’s no exaggeration to say Nas is a bonafide hip hop legend. His debut album ‘Illmatic’, a striking masterpiece that perfectly captured life in early 90’s New York, remains one of the greatest albums of its kind and his work since has continued to bolster his reputation as one of the most important MC’s to ever pick up a microphone.

Nas’ recent work with reggae star Damian Marley, son of the legendary Bob Marley, has seen him develop his rugged hip hop sound in exciting new directions: the fruits of which were last year’s highly acclaimed ‘Distant Relatives’ LP. We caught up with Nas before his upcoming joint tour with Damian to talk about how the pair first met, his upcoming album and the impeding 20^th anniversary of his first album.

How did you first meet Damian?

I don’t really remember when we first met, I guess it was just backstage years ago at different shows. I remember we kicked it backstage at Lollapalooza and The Smokin’ Grooves Tour. (The pioneering US based hip hop festival). That’s where I first met him

Did you and Damian stay tight afterwards?

No. We reconnected on ‘Road To Zion’ on his (Damian’s) last album. And then, I wanted him to record something on my ‘Hip Hop Is Dead’ album, but it didn’t get on the album. We were just talking back and forth once in a while. Our managers; our teams were talking about us working a lot: we came up with an EP idea and that turned into an LP idea.

And obviously that was ‘Distant Relatives’. So with the tour, why was important to use a live band as well as a DJ for the shows?

There’s a different energy, it just becomes everything in one. Rock & Roll, Rap, Reggae… Classical. It becomes a whole musical experience that’s a different level from just a turntable. But we always keep it Hip Hop: you got to have two turntables and a DJ.
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Stephen Titmus Interviews Damien Marley, Nas

Old school metal-heads Hatebreed from Connecticut are not only one of the longest operating hardcore bands on the scene, with a 16 year career to date, but also one of the nicest bunch of guys you could ever hope to meet. Shazam had the pleasure of speaking with lead singer and 1994 mainstay Jamey Jasta to chat about new music and how he keeps the wheels oiled on his insane vocal style.

December 2010 saw you complete a UK headline tour, how was it?

It was really great the fans in the UK really get it…with it being a headline tour there is a little more pressure in that you have to be ready physically to do a 90 minute set, you need more sleep to be prepared and things like that; Frank and Chris will have a drink before the show – but I tend not to, that’s the one thing that can wreck your voice.

You sound a little hoarse are you losing your voice?

It normally sounds a little hoarse while I’m on tour, but actually I’m ok. Last time we were on a break I went to an ENT specialist back home and they told me whatever I’m doing I’m doing it right, I had a camera put in my voice box and everything and it turns out I’m fine. A lot of professional song coaches have told me I probably have polyps on my vocal chords and tell their students to never sing like I do but turns out I’m absolutely fine doing what I do.

Do you have a favourite UK city to play?

Leeds has been great on this tour because there was no barricade in the venue, which had a capacity of about 300 so it was a really intimate gig. We can’t do that back in the states anymore as we play bigger venues but I really enjoyed it over here. It reminded me of the old days when we played smaller shows.

What is the best and worst thing about touring?

The best thing is the fans, you get to see all the people who know your lyrics really mean something.
The worst is like, whatever bad can happen on tour it, happens to us; buses breaking down, snow storms, cancelled shows or gear breaking…you know how it is.

Are you going to play any festivals in 2011?

Yeah we will take some time off to do some writing to start with and we have boring stuff to do like sorting out the North American label stuff and normally we do 3 videos per album so we may do 1 more video for the last record too.

Do you have any new material ready for a new album?

There kinda is but I dunno what is going to happen with all that yet.

Who are you listening to at the minute?

I really like the new ‘Phobia’ record that is out on Relapse Records, I also really like ‘Black gives way to Blue’ the latest ‘Alice in Chains’ album. The new Weezer record is pretty cool oh and I went on itunes and just bought the new Waka Flocka Flame album, I really like the way he markets himself and has made a business out of what he does.

If you could have one song from history and claim it as your own work what would you go for?

Iron Man or Back In Black because at any sporting event anywhere these get played all the time.

Is that decision based on royalties?

Well in that case, add Welcome To The Jungle on there too!

Check out the latest Hatebreed news at their website here.

Hazel Savage Interviews Hatebreed

Recently Shazam had the good fortune to meet up with Adam Dutkiewicz best known as ‘Adam D’ – founder of the hugely successful band Killswitch Engage and Jesse Leach, the original KSE singer who left the band in 2002 for personal reasons. So if you ever wondered when Jesse Leach will release a dub-reggae album or how Adam D writes songs well now you can find out. Reunited under the name Times Of Grace the pair have crafted an amazing new melodic metal album. It was fascinating to watch just how close and compatible the two of them are as friends and musicians, Jesse providing the emotion and the poetry whilst Adam resonates with good humour and musical genius.

You have a new album ‘The Hymn Of A Broken Man’, what’s it like working together again and what inspired that?

Jesse: Its great working together again especially creating what we did together. We’re both really satisfied that we could capture a moment in time together.

Adam: As for what inspired it? Bad stuff! Personal tragedies; but out of personal tragedy comes triumph. I was going through some really bad times with my health several years back, I couldn’t walk on my own. I was nearly paralysed and while I was recovering from surgery, which took a few months, I wrote this record in my head. It was totally different to anything I’d written before but I always write in my head so I just lay there planning the whole record. Then it got to a point where I needed someone else to do the singing because I’m not that sweet a singer, so I asked Jesse to come in.

Jesse: I was delighted to accept the offer; I always knew we would work together again at some point, we have such a good connection and over the years its developed into more – we have a spiritual connection too, and we channeled something awesome on this record. When I received the album originally from Adam life was OK and then it went downhill so I was grateful during the personal hell I was going through to have this perspective on life. And we created a great record, it gave me a new purpose.
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Hazel Savage Interviews Killswitch Engage, Times Of Grace

For the last two weeks, UK urban star Chipmunk has topped our UK Pre-release Chart with his new single ‘Champion’. The track sees the London MC join forces with Chris Brown, who delivers an emotive verse that has particular resonance considering Brown’s well documented problems.  The collaboration is taken from Chipmunk’s forthcoming second album, ‘Transition’, which follows on from his platinum selling debut ‘I Am Chipmunk’. His steady rise puts him firmly within an ever expanding group of UK Urban artists who are dominating the European charts - including N-Dubz, Tine Tempah and Tinchy Stryder.

With ‘Champion’ ready to drop next week, we grabbed a few minutes with the man himself. We discussed a number of topics, ranging from his ever expanding tattoo collection and if he has plans to take his music to the States. To find out how his duet with Chris Brown came together and what we can expect from ‘Transition’ click on the link below.
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Jon Davies Interviews chipmunk, Chris Brown

Those with basic French skills will know Carte Blanche refers to a blank cheque.  However, for fans of hipster electronic music the name means something else entirely. Carte Blanche brings together the talents of UK DJ/Producer Riton and Ed Banger’s DJ Mehdi.  Last year the pair toured across Europe and America, leaving a string of clubs recovering in their path. Carte Blanche cemented their bromance in the studio, the results of which came in the shape of  the ‘Black Billionaires EP’: a release that pricked the ears of several tastemakers when it dropped on Ed Banger back in May.

The pair’s small output attracted the attention of Chicago house legend Green Velvet and Dutch Electro maestro Laidback Luke, who’ve both put their stamp on Carte Blanche tracks via ‘Black Billionaires: The Remixes’. Despite the hectic individual schedules of Riton and Mehdi, they’ve also found the time to get their heads together for a new track ‘Politrix As Usual’. We managed to grab a quick e-mail exchange with Mehdi to get his thoughts on the remixes, working with Kid Sister and if we can expect an album from the duo.  

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Jon Davies Interviews Carte Blanche, DJ Mehdi, Riton

Everything Everything were tipped as ones to watch by the BBC’s ‘Sound of 2010’ who also spotted Ellie Goulding and The Drums in the same long list. With their debut album ‘Man Alive’ released last August on Geffen Records the band have seen a steady garnering of critical success.
Speaking to multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Jon Higgs, we found out all about mixing R&B with rock and roll and why touring is like living on an oil rig.

How did the band get together?

Well I went to University in Manchester and met Jeremy (Bass) there, the others I knew from back home in Newcastle and I persuaded them all to move to Manchester to do the band about 2002, we have a different guitarist now but that’s basically how it happened. We all used to live together too but with girlfriends and life changes we don’t anymore, but we have three of us in Manchester and one in London. I don’t think we will be moving any time soon either, we like it here.

The album charted at #17 in the UK, did you expect it to reach the Top 20?

Well you never really expect anything to happen really, especially with this being such a weird album to start with. It actually went in the charts at #10 first and then slid and stayed at #17 but we couldn’t believe it, top 20 is amazing. The album was out last August and we are just starting to get more and more people contact us about it now, so it’s nice to think that the album is a grower which is what we always wanted.

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Hazel Savage Interviews Everything Everything

Having just finished a tour with Bring Me The Horizon and Bullet For My Valentine in the UK, Atreyu have now jetted off to Australia for sunnier climes but just as an intense metal experience.

Aftert touring for most of the year, Shazam caught up with Dan Jacobs, guitarist extraordinaire, for a quick five minute blast on 2010 and a sneak peak at 2011.

How is the current tour going?

Its going great, it’s been a lot of fun – especially Manchester those guys go crazy up there. Also I just found out that the Manchester MEN Arena is like one of the busiest arenas in the world beating places like Madison Square Garden and Wembley, which is crazy – I didn’t know that till I saw a sign in their lobby! It sells about a million and a quarter tickets a year to shows.

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Hazel Savage Interviews Atreyu, BFMV, BMTH, Volbeat

There aren’t many bands who can claim Volleyball brought them together, however BG5 (short for Beach Girl 5) can indeed trace their roots back to the popular sport. The girls were individually brought together when they performed between matches on the AVP Professional Volleyball tour.  Sensing the chemistry between them, Brooke, Dominique, Noreen, Mandy and Laura decided to form a group. Their big break came when they won a Radio talent contest last year in the US, performing to an audience in their thousands.  Since then the girls have gone on to work with uber producers Rock Mafia and opened for the currently unstoppable Justin Bieber.

The band occupies a position between the squeaky clean tween pop of Miley Cyrus and the risqué R&B of the Pussycat Dolls. After their forthcoming single ‘Scratch’ popped up in our UK Pre-Release chart, we caught up with Noreen from the band. We chatted about their forthcoming album, plans for 2011 and if ‘Scratch’ is dedicated to any DJ in particular.

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Jon Davies Interviews BG5

Richie Hawtin is perhaps the most influential act in modern electronic music. As a DJ he’s probably the biggest name in techno: a man who turned a whole generation of dance music fans on to his unique emptied, out no frills sound. However, unlike many of his peers, he’s constantly pushed the boundaries of what electronic music can and should be. Whether that’s changing the way DJ’s play records by inventing digital DJ systems or evolving the mix CD with his ‘Closer To The Edit’ project. His label, Minus, set the tone for underground club music throughout the noughties: while his Contakt world tour has gone down as an era defining moment.Yet as important as all his recent work has been, it’s perhaps Richie Hawtin’s music as Plastikman during the ‘90’s that still remains his most mysterious and alluring. Psychedelic, visceral and meticulously stripped down, the music Hawtin made as Plastikman drove the more cerebral end of dance music forward relentlessly. This summer saw Richie Hawtin resurrect his Plastikman alias for a series of highly celebrated live shows. Bridging technology, music and visuals into a startlingly unique experience, Plastikman live set a new standard for live electronic performance.

We talked to Richie about his recent Plastikman shows, his favourite new bands, and how he hopes to one day hope to facilitate two week long virtual reality shows.  
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Stephen Titmus Interviews Richie Hawtin

Currently finishing up a tour in the UK before they head to their homeland of Canada, Shazam caught up with Wade MacNeil, guitarist and vocalist for the post-hardcore outfit Alexisonfire.

The five piece released a four track EP in 2010 entitled ‘Dogs Blood’ and have three full length studio albums under their belt since 2002. Comparible to the likes of Killswitch Engage and Thrice, Alexisonfire have achieved what many other screamo hardcore bands fail to and that is to stick it out and keep the fans on side.

How is the tour going?

It’s been good, we are kind of coming to the end of this leg, but we have had a great time in the UK.

What’s been the craziest thing to happen on this tour?

Well, we are all getting matching tattoos as we speak! We always make a point of getting tattooed when we are in Glasgow by our buddy Nick; so we are all getting a globe with the words “Where’s Steele?” because our bassist Chris Steele is always wandering off – we never know where he is. Then Steele is going to get one that says “I’m right here” it’s kind of a band joke.

Are you looking forward to going back to Canada?

Yeah it’s good; we always save up the Canada tours, like maybe only tour there once a year or something – so it’s like a yearly event.

What are the differences between playing the UK and Canada?

Well, the risk of snow this time of year in Canada means shows might get cancelled –that’s a little difference. No matter where you play in the world there will be little cultural differences you notice; but, hey! we are an old colony of yours; we have the queen on our money – so it’s not that different!

Your latest EP was called ‘Dogs Blood’ what does the title mean?

It’s a reference to a Wes Anderson film, ‘The Royal Tenenbaums’. It sounds brutal too – but it’s not meant to be, I have a dog I love dogs – but it fitted well with the brutal nature of the tracks and being a film reference kinda made it an ‘in joke’ with the band too. So yeah, watch the film to get the joke and then watch ‘The Life Aquatic’ straight after it – it’s got nothing to do with the EP but it’s just another awesome Wes Anderson film.

Are you planning on releasing another full length album soon?

Oh yeah! Absolutely! Though we have been on tour for about two years now so we might just take a minute before we hit the studio.

What inspires you as an artist at the minute?

I dunno. I think because we are around aggressive music all the time, because that’s what we sound like and the bands we play with are aggressive, that when I’m on my own I tend to listen to stuff like Sam Cooke and Otis Redding – much more chilled out stuff. Also I’m loving the new Grinderman album at the minute. I keep missing them when they tour, though, because we are always moving on!

If you could’ve written any one song from history to claim as your own what would it be?

‘Hybrid Moments’ by the Misfits. Definitely that one.

Hazel Savage Interviews alexisonfire, post-hardcore, roadrunner records, screamo, Tour