Featured IPO CD Artists: Sean O’Brien & His Dirty Hands, The Viewers, The Stick Arounds, David Dattner, The Armoires
Featured IPO CD Artist: Sean O’Brien & His Dirty Hands
IPO Vol 21 CD Song: “My Colors Dark”
1) What was the reason you chose the song you did for the IPO CD?
First completed final mix of a track from the forthcoming album, My Colors Dark
2) Which 2-3 ’60-‘90s artists do you admire most (and why)?
Beatles, Velvet Underground and Radiohead. Melodic invention and innovation and songs dealing with adult themes in their lyrics.
3) Same as question 2, but for contemporary artists
Gillian Welch, Robyn Hitchcock, Elvis Costello – excellent songwriting with grace and humor.
4) What has been your most rewarding (and/or humorous) artist-fan interaction to date? (Can be with you as artist or as fan)
I think being able to travel to a little town in the Netherlands and play an acoustic radio show with a DJ/fan of the music and to be treated with respect. So much fun!
5) What do you most enjoy about being associated with The IPO Festival//CD?
I like being able to play in different cities for different experiences, and to meet so many interesting musicians!
6) Where can people who love your song on the IPO CD go to get more of your music and/or find out when and where you’re playing?
Websites:
http://www.seanobmusic.com/
https://twitter.com/seanob59
https://www.facebook.com/ seanobrienandhisdirtyhands
Featured IPO CD Artist: The Viewers
IPO Vol 21 CD Song: “Bitter”
1) What was the reason you chose the song you did for the IPO CD?
We chose the song “Bitter” from our album Universal Sky because it demonstrates a little diversity from the usual, ‘60s power pop songs we write. It shows us in a slightly more psychedelic light.
2) Which 2-3 ’60-‘90s artists do you admire most (and why)?
We’re all huge Beatles fans. If you’re going to be influenced by anyone then it may as well be the very best band our country has ever produced. We’re also mad keen on The Who, The Byrds, The Kinks, Small Faces and a whole load of stuff from the ‘60s and early ‘70s.
3) Same as question 2, but for contemporary artists
Hard to say which bands we like right now as the mainstream market is so stifled and one dimensional. We feel the last great band to make a significant impact was Oasis in the ‘90s. The best bands out there right now are either all playing at IPO or you’ll find them in the smaller tents at any summer festival. In the UK, BBC Introducing is finding good talent constantly but it is so hard to break the mainstream chart which is just awful.
4) What has been your most rewarding (and/or humorous) artist-fan interaction to date? (Can be with you as artist or as fan)
This is from Paul (The Viewers front man)…. ‘I was lucky enough to have been signed to the same label/management as The Kinks, Cher and The Troggs back in the ‘80s so that was an experience. It had a major impact on me as it triggered the whole love affair I have with ‘60s music.
I also met all of U2 backstage at the NEC, Birmingham on the Unforgettable Fire Tour circa 1985. Our current producer worked with them in their early days so we had a tiny bit of synergy. In the middle of speaking with Bono he was distracted by some media people and he introduced me to a couple from Amsterdam and promissed he’d be right back. The Dutch couple consisted of a tallish fella and his good lady who was in a wheel chair. Their story was incredible… the night before they had watched U2 in Amsterdam and early on in the show there was a rush of people to the front of the stage and the lady in the wheel chair was caught in the rush and crushed to the front of the stage. Her fella was pushing people back trying to protect her. Security saw this as him being violent and completely out of context ejected him from the arena. Bono saw it all from the stage and at the end of the show gathered all of arena’s security and front of house staff together to try to track the couple down. All through the night they managed to do so through ticketing and the tall guy got a call at around 8am the next morning. It was U2. They explained that they had seen what happened the previous night and that there was a flight waiting for them at Amsterdam airport to take them over to England and make them their special guests for the evening. That’s why the Dutch couple were there. Rock n Roll eh…? Now there’s a real story. Bono, good to his word did return and we carried on talking. I was taken by how sincere U2 all were and what great friends they were too. Lesson there for any band. Sorry that was long but it is a good tale.
More recently, I was also fortunate enough to work with Grammy Award winning record producer ’Nigel Gray’ on The Viewers’ last album. Nigel famously produced the first three albums for The Police. Lots of inside-stories about them including why Sting laughs at the start of the song Roxanne but that’s for another day.’
5) What do you most enjoy about being associated with The IPO Festival//CD?
The best buzz is the diversity and the hook ups you make with other artists.
6) Where can people who love your song on the IPO CD go to get more of your music and/or find out when and where you’re playing?
You can download The Viewers’ album Universal Sky from Spotify, iTunes or Amazon UK plus quite a few other online stores. An EP entitled Vision is also available. Alternatively you can order the physical album from:
www.theviewersband.com/product/universal-sky-cd or visit www.theviewersband.com and click the appropriate icon. There’s an online as teaser link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlybC7DjHLw
Featured IPO CD Artist: The Stick Arounds
IPO Vol 21 CD Song: “Great America”
1)What was the reason you chose the song you did for the IPO CD?
We felt it was a good representation of our album and sound. Has our 3 guitar attack and tasty harmonies.
2) Which 2-3 ’60-‘90s artists do you admire most (and why)?
This would, of course, vary according to band member, but … Teenage Fanclub, The Kinks, Joe Jackson. Why? Song writing, song writing, song writing!!!
3) Same as question 2, but for contemporary artists
Band of Horses, Nick Piunti, Ex-Hex… same reason, Song writing! It is the key to happiness.
4) What has been your most rewarding (and/or humorous) artist-fan interaction to date? (Can be with you as artist or as fan)
As an artist, it happens to us all the time… meeting new people through music who then become friends in day-to-day life. Priceless. As fans, a couple of us met Peter Buck and Alejandro Escovedo after a show and they could not have been more gracious. Talked to us for an extended period of time not just about music, but every day life… travel, recipes, dogs… it was great.
5) What do you most enjoy about being associated with The IPO Festival//CD?
Meeting new artists, friends. We connected with some great people at last year’s IPO Detroit and we still have those connections today.
6) Where can people who love your song on the IPO CD go to get more of your music and/or find out when and where you’re playing?
www.stickaroundsmusic.com
Featured IPO CD Artist: David Dattner
IPO Vol 21 CD Song: “Pinned”
1) What was the reason you chose the song you did for the IPO CD?
I chose “Pinned” because it was one of my first solo projects since my old band Brown Eyed Susan’s / The Big lie and David Bash liked it 🙂
2) Which 2-3 ’60-’90s artists do you admire most (and why)?
I’m very into Libertines lately. I feel like they have some great energetic power pop tunes and they seem to still be pumping out the hits into their later years.
I also love bands like Supergrass, Doves, Pulp, Blur & Radiohead that made some amazing brit-pop music in the ‘90s
The only band I can still listen to and have not overdosed on from the ‘60-‘70s is Led Zeppelin. For some reason they never get over-played for me…except for maybe “Stairway to Heaven” 🙂
3) Same as question 2, but for contemporary artists
Lately I’m liking War on Drugs & Wilco and all related alt-country bands like Kurt Vile… soul and twang with pop sensibilities
4) What has been your most rewarding (and/or humorous) artist-fan interaction to date? (Can be with you as artist or as fan)
One time I was playing bass with a band I was helping out in Spaceland in Silverlake and I saw one of my all time fave artists Elliot Smith in the audience. I looked over at him and was in shock so I messed up completely on the bass and really pissed off the band leader. He wouldn’t talk to me afterwards he was so pissed. I felt really bad… so I went over the “smoking room” in the back… because you used to be able to smoke in LA bars 🙂 Elliot was back there and I sat and talked to him and I told him “I’m a huge fan!” and he was like “oh yea… I just saw you… you were the bassist that f’d up!” 🙂 lol
5) What do you most enjoy about being associated with The IPO Festival//CD?
I enjoy the struggle to get into Disc 1 … and a top spot in there… 🙂
6) Where can people who love your song on the IPO CD go to get more of your music and/or find out when and where you’re playing?
Please just go to “David Dattner” at either spotify, itunes, google play, youtube etc.. and hear the latest tunes. You can also check out my old band under “The Big Lie”. Thanks for listening!
Featured IPO CD Artist: The Armoires
IPO Vol 21 CD Song: “Anemone!”
1) What was the reason you chose the song you did for the IPO CD?
Ah, “Anemone!” … this was a track in progress for The Armoires’ upcoming album, and it was quite simply the one that was closest to completion at the time! As it happens it’s very representative of our sound, and a song that audiences have heard at our many, many IPO appearances, and thus doubly appropriate by serendipity.
2) Which 2-3 ’60-’90s artists do you admire most (and why)?
With regards to this track, from the get-go, it’d be hard not to cite The Byrds, wouldn’t it? We’re deeply indebted to the late ’60s guitar pop and psych sounds of California, the UK, and beyond, and in some senses equally so to the ’80s resurgence of those styles in the Paisley Underground movement and the college rock scene of that day. Our writing owes massive debts to Robyn Hitchcock, Scott Miller of Game Theory and The Loud Family, and The Go-Betweens, to cite just a few.
3) Same as question 2, but for contemporary artists
Right, despite the above, one of our greatest inspirations didn’t get off the ground until the early 20th Century: there’s no clearer template for what we do than The New Pornographers. And we draw constant inspiration from our contemporaries on the live scene… friends in bands that are no strangers to IPO stages worldwide. Plasticsoul, Spygenius, In Deed, Blake Jones & the Trike Shop, Sitcom Neighbor… too many to list. This music is very much alive and we love to hear what our friends are writing and recording and bringing to the stage from year to year!
4) What has been your most rewarding (and/or humorous) artist-fan interaction to date? (Can be with you as artist or as fan)
For us it’s always when someone we admire as an artist admires our work in return. So we’re over the moon when we get positive feedback from people like Pat Fish (The Jazz Butcher), Jonathan Segel (Camper Van Beethoven), Russ Tolman (True West). Maybe the most amazing thing is when someone legendary is humble enough to collaborate with us, and it just coalesces organically. We had a song at one point that was heavily indebted to The Soft Boys, and that band’s bassist Matthew Seligman just happened to hear it and volunteered to play on the recording. That’s one that still sounds like fiction when we think about it (the guy was onstage with Bowie at Live Aid!) but it’s hard to pick a standout, because we also consider our friends to be artists of some stature, and getting to “talk shop” with people whose work you admire, regardless of their industry reknown, is a great pleasure.
5) What do you most enjoy about being associated with The IPO Festival//CD?
It’s been said many times by us, but we owe a great debt to the IPO Festival as it launched us on the path to creating Big Stir, which now has a life of its own as a record label (Big Stir Records) and ongoing concert series on a couple of continents… more than that, it gave our music a context and inspired us to keep doing what we do, and continues to do so to this day. Blake Jones of our crew likes to say that IPO represents the pioneers and wagon trains of the power pop world, and that we in every city along its route are the “settlers” keeping the homefires burning until the festival comes back to town. We feel very honored to have that kind of relationship with such a venerable and seemingly eternal institution!
6) Where can people who love your song on the IPO CD go to get more of your music and/or find out when and where you’re playing?
The Armoires, all of the Big Stir Records artists, the various ongoing concert series, and our print magazine (which is honored to feature the writing of IPO creator David Bash) are all most easily followed via the Big Stir Records website — www.bigstirrecords.com — and moreover our presence on various social media platforms which are pretty easily found under the Big Stir Records and The Armoires names.