GEMINI ZINE - ISSUE #1
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what is<br />
<strong>GEMINI</strong>?<br />
<strong>GEMINI</strong> is a zine made by twin sisters Beth and<br />
Martha, uni students at Liverpool and Leeds<br />
collectively. The zine is Beth’s passion project, and as<br />
an artist herself (making music under the alias<br />
Lazygirl), she’ll be writing about all things music—<br />
including interviews, reviews, popular music analysis,<br />
think pieces and music culture. She’ll also be curating<br />
a playlist for each issue featuring local artists, along<br />
with some of the twins’ favourite tunes! Martha’s job<br />
as an art student is to make the <strong>GEMINI</strong> look pretty<br />
by doing the issue’s covers.<br />
We hope that with <strong>GEMINI</strong> we can give a new take on<br />
music journalism from a student and musician, with<br />
emphasis on amplifying women and LGBTQ+ voices,<br />
as well as smaller local artists.<br />
2
c o n t e n t s<br />
ASCENDING: Jensyn<br />
After her lockdown release, we interview Jensyn about<br />
new material, queer representation and more. [4-5]<br />
THINK PIECE A glimpse at gender<br />
representation in Reading and Leeds, Affirmative<br />
Action and the Keychange initative. [6-9]<br />
ANALYSIS<br />
<strong>GEMINI</strong> takes a look at ‘What He Said’ by Poppy<br />
Shrimpton, and how the track creates its lush<br />
soundscape of melancholy. [10-11]<br />
SPOTLIGHT A look at this issue’s spotlight<br />
tracks. [12-13]<br />
ASCENDING: Atonia<br />
The rising star talks with <strong>GEMINI</strong> about musical<br />
influences and things in the pipeline. [14-15]<br />
<strong>GEMINI</strong> TOP PICKS Our favourite<br />
releases in Liverpool and beyond, along with twin<br />
favourites. [16-17]<br />
3
4<br />
A S C E N D I N G<br />
JENSYN<br />
Where did your journey as a musician<br />
begin?<br />
My parents had always encouraged me to<br />
learn an instrument from an early age but I<br />
think my real love for playing music started<br />
when I first began learning the bass at 9.<br />
From there I just wanted to keep learning<br />
other instruments like guitar and drums and<br />
then I really got into teaching myself<br />
production and posting remakes of songs on<br />
SoundCloud. Jensyn came about when I<br />
actually started to be happy<br />
with the quality of music I<br />
was making.<br />
Who would you<br />
consider your main<br />
musical influences?<br />
I would say I have different<br />
influences for the different<br />
aspects of my own music. I<br />
love creating melodic bass<br />
lines and that definitely<br />
comes from my love of Jaco<br />
Pastorius – especially his stuff with Joni<br />
Mitchell on Hejira. My mum is a big fan of<br />
soft/folk rock so she introduced me to groups<br />
like CSNY and the Eagles whose tight<br />
harmonies I became obsessed with. I also love<br />
to mix acoustic and electronic sounds<br />
together. I think my love for that combination<br />
has also been influenced by film/TV<br />
composers such as Ólafur Arnalds, Nils<br />
Frahm and of course big names like Thomas<br />
Newman. They have really inspired me<br />
through their use of harmony and choices of<br />
sounds which are always so interesting<br />
sonically.<br />
What does your writing process<br />
usually look like? Are you influenced<br />
by anything in particular?<br />
I like finding interesting chord progressions<br />
and harmony on the guitar, so it usually<br />
starts there. I'll record an idea and then when<br />
I have a lyric or subject, which sometimes<br />
comes immediately but also often at<br />
“<br />
It’s an exciting time<br />
regarding queer<br />
representation in the<br />
industry. More people are<br />
sharing their stories and<br />
more people are listening!<br />
”<br />
The lockdown release of debut EP<br />
‘Untouchable’ brought cool-toned pop<br />
soundscapes with captivating vocal<br />
treatment, synths and virtuoso bass<br />
lines. Now, Jensyn sits down with<br />
<strong>GEMINI</strong> to talk in-depth about<br />
songwriting, new material and queer<br />
representation in the music industry.<br />
random points in the day, I will work out a way<br />
to fuse the two. From there I like to record and<br />
start to produce what I have got in order to<br />
work out what sounds/instruments I will be<br />
using around it because that usually helps to<br />
keep the momentum up creatively to help me<br />
finish it!<br />
Naturally I am always feeling something very<br />
strongly at that moment which I can't stop<br />
thinking about - that's why I'll be writing about<br />
it! On my EP I had two songs about the<br />
current Covid situation which<br />
starts and ends the project<br />
which definitely shows how<br />
present it was in my mind, like<br />
the majority of us I think. I'm<br />
an over-thinker for sure, and if<br />
I'm going down a spiral about<br />
something, usually lyrics will<br />
come from it because that's<br />
something that helps to put<br />
my mind at ease.<br />
Your song ‘Blue-Tinted’ is<br />
rooted in working out<br />
gender identity, and has been featured<br />
on BBC Introducing West Midlands<br />
(congrats!) How do you think gender<br />
and queer representation in the music<br />
industry is changing, or may evolve in<br />
the future?<br />
I think it is definitely a really exciting time<br />
regarding queer representation in the industry.<br />
More people are sharing their stories and more<br />
people are listening! I just want the amount of<br />
representation to keep increasing and also more<br />
quickly because so many people need to hear<br />
and see themselves in the media. I think in our<br />
generation there are lots of people leading the<br />
way in creating a climate to allow for<br />
unrepresented or misrepresented groups to be<br />
heard. I think the landscape of the music<br />
industry in the future looks diverse with music<br />
from lots of different backgrounds which is so<br />
needed!<br />
‘Blue-Tinted’ came about very quickly, in one of<br />
my overthinking spirals, and the subject matter<br />
is very personal. The fact that then BBC West
Midlands played it is so affirming<br />
to me and makes it a really special<br />
track because I'm just so happy<br />
people like it and connect with it<br />
in some way.<br />
Photo: Fraser West<br />
2020 has been an<br />
interesting year to say the<br />
least, especially concerning<br />
the effects of COVID-19 on<br />
the music industry. What<br />
was the last gig you played<br />
before lockdown?<br />
The last gig I played was an<br />
acoustic set for International<br />
Women's day with The Velmas in<br />
the Zanzibar Club in Liverpool! It<br />
was so much fun doing that one<br />
with my favourite fellow<br />
musicians, but it has been too long<br />
and I am definitely missing<br />
playing live. We have just heard<br />
that the Zanzibar Club has closed<br />
which is particularly<br />
heartbreaking for us.<br />
If you could have a dinner<br />
party with any artist - alive<br />
or dead - who would you<br />
pick and why?<br />
Christine and the Queens – she is<br />
just such an icon, especially for<br />
the queer community. It’s so<br />
awesome how her audience has<br />
grown and how big of a platform<br />
she now has and so I think she is<br />
providing this representation<br />
which is so important and<br />
necessary. Meeting her would be<br />
incredible.<br />
Finally, what does the end of<br />
2020 and the new year have<br />
in store for you?<br />
I definitely have some Jensyn<br />
material up my sleeve so, fingers<br />
crossed I will be getting that out<br />
in the coming months! I am also<br />
working on more instrumental<br />
music for visual media, so I will<br />
be sharing any projects that I<br />
become involved with. I have<br />
been trying to connect and<br />
collaborate with young film<br />
makers and this has given me<br />
the chance to explore new<br />
musical styles which is feeding<br />
back into Jensyn, helping me to<br />
create new exciting content!<br />
5
T<br />
STILL A MAN’S WORLD?<br />
Headliners, Keychange, and the Problem with<br />
Reading and Leeds<br />
he date is 11 th February 2020. A<br />
certain life-altering pandemic has yet<br />
to bludgeon its way through Britain –<br />
Boris hasn’t even told us to wash our<br />
hands to Happy Birthday yet – and for<br />
most, it’s just a cold Tuesday morning.<br />
Reading and Leeds Festival announce<br />
their initial 2020 lineup. Outrage<br />
ensues.<br />
Edits on Twitter show the light dusting<br />
of non-male acts, usually<br />
gathering at the bottom<br />
of sections – an afterthought<br />
and an accessory<br />
under the punchy logos of<br />
male artists – and stuffed<br />
there haphazardly, so to not<br />
cause a media stir. But it<br />
does. Many in the industry<br />
call out this pattern of inequality,<br />
including Annie<br />
Mac, Maggie Rogers and<br />
Matty Healy – the latter of which headlined<br />
last year, and now pledges to sign<br />
only onto festivals<br />
with a<br />
50/50 split of<br />
acts.<br />
“<br />
The concern has<br />
shifted across<br />
the festival’s<br />
legacy from one<br />
of inclusivity to<br />
one of equity<br />
”<br />
This is not new<br />
behaviour<br />
from R&L.<br />
Since the start<br />
of the millennium,<br />
an average<br />
of 3 acts<br />
featuring female musicians have reached<br />
the main stage, compared to about 29<br />
main stage acts overall. Crunching the<br />
numbers, I found the highest value in<br />
2017, where 6 out of 27 main stage acts<br />
featured women (and after going through<br />
hundreds of Wikipedia pages of all-male<br />
artists, I considered this a victory). Still,<br />
in 2020, it is most common to see only<br />
two or three acts featuring women on the<br />
main stage lineup, and occurrences<br />
where there are none at all.<br />
This number becomes<br />
smaller in trying to find<br />
queer, non-binary and trans<br />
folk, even beyond the main<br />
stage.<br />
Fast forward six months,<br />
and Reading and Leeds<br />
bravely announce their return<br />
in 2021 with 20 confirmed<br />
acts and 6 headliners.<br />
One would hope that lockdown has<br />
given them some time to soul-search. The<br />
ratio has improved significantly, with<br />
eight of the 20 announced acts featuring<br />
women – but this doesn’t stop the onslaught<br />
of complaints on Twitter. Mister<br />
R&L is probably whining, ‘Why are you<br />
booing me? I gave you eight women!’ But<br />
the concern has shifted across the festival’s<br />
legacy from one of inclusivity to one<br />
of equity. There is a seat at the table for<br />
these artists, but it’s a low stool with wobbling<br />
legs. Three quarters of these acts<br />
have been delegated to the “also perform-<br />
6<br />
Laura Jane Grace performing on the main stage of<br />
Reading and Leeds festival in 2015. Photo: DIY Mag.
ing” section of the poster, in small print<br />
– even with a large portion of acts now<br />
promoted to headliners. These issues run<br />
far deeper than the lineup poster, and<br />
beyond R&L.<br />
When asked to explain why non-male<br />
artists tend to bunch at the bottom of the<br />
bill, Latitude’s booker Lucy Wood explains<br />
to Grazia: “We all want more<br />
women on the bills and we’ve all consciously<br />
tried to get more women at the<br />
top end, but there’s only so much you can<br />
really do… At the end of the day we need<br />
to [make sure] the artists we choose attract<br />
people to buy tickets… people who<br />
are already arena level or above.”<br />
Likewise, Glastonbury organizer Emily<br />
Eavis justified the festival’s all-male<br />
headliners despite the presence of women<br />
and queer folk “lower down the bill”<br />
by claiming “The pool isn’t big enough…<br />
it’s time to nurture female talent. Everyone<br />
wants it, everyone’s hungry… but<br />
they’re just not there.”<br />
This implies that the problem lies not<br />
with bookers, but with the artists themselves<br />
and their lack of ability to rise to<br />
the surface – which puts us in a vicious<br />
cycle. The music industry is still a male–<br />
dominated field, leaving non-male artists<br />
to be discouraged – no less by the lack of<br />
representation on the festival bill.<br />
This would give the illusion that these<br />
acts are “not there”, when in fact they<br />
just aren’t being given the same opportunities.<br />
A spot on a festival<br />
lineup is not something that just happens<br />
to artists, and there are deeper<br />
matters at play, trickling right down<br />
to how we educate and treat minority<br />
artists at their inception.<br />
This leads us to Affirmative Action –<br />
Janelle Monáe headlining the West Holts stage at<br />
Glastonbury Festival 2019. Photo: Getty Images.<br />
policies to ensure the inclusion of minority<br />
groups or those who have been<br />
discriminated against. Amongst many,<br />
we have the Keychange initiative: a<br />
Europe-wide pledge to “demonstrate<br />
commitment to a 50/50 gender balance<br />
in programming by<br />
2022” (Lowes, 2020). On their site,<br />
they reiterate that “talent is distributed<br />
evenly, opportunities are not”. 189<br />
festivals from across Europe, the US<br />
and Canada have pledged so far, including<br />
Liverpool Sound City and BBC<br />
Proms, though many big UK festivals<br />
have yet to sign on – and I can imagine<br />
this won’t change after the landscape<br />
of festivals has been left barren<br />
this year. Even before coronavirus,<br />
“<br />
Talent is distributed<br />
evenly, opportunities<br />
are not<br />
”<br />
bigger festivals have shied away from<br />
Keychange because of the risk of not<br />
being able to hit the 2022 target. As<br />
Wood says, bookers are burdened with<br />
ticket sales and must concern themselves<br />
with what sells – and a rough<br />
year means a smaller budget to<br />
spend on the following<br />
summer, thus having a<br />
knock-on effect.<br />
After a year of<br />
festival drought<br />
7
Above: on the left, the Reading and Leeds 2020 lineup; on the right, the same lineup with only<br />
non-male acts. Edit: Indie is not a genre.<br />
8<br />
which no doubt injured this once £2.6<br />
billion industry, festivals may be less<br />
inclined to take the leap of faith into<br />
more non-male acts, and instead grab<br />
for the money-making (male) artists.<br />
Meanwhile, independent festivals<br />
such as End of The Road have already<br />
met and even surpassed a 50/50 gender<br />
balance in their lineups. This balance<br />
can be explained by more creative<br />
control over the event itself, and<br />
the ability to curate festival bills based<br />
on what they want, rather than what<br />
will make the largest profit. Lara<br />
Baker, former Marketing and Events<br />
Director at the Association of Independent<br />
Music, encourages festivalgoers<br />
to “vote with [their] wallet and<br />
get a ticket to a more diverse indie festival”<br />
instead of the big names, in order<br />
to show the demand for minority<br />
genders in the headline slots.<br />
The Keychange initiative seems our<br />
most promising shot regarding festival<br />
diversity, but it comes with its<br />
own disadvantages for the industry’s<br />
ecosystem. Making quotas for diversity<br />
may lead to tokenism: a way of<br />
“ticking boxes” without actually nurturing<br />
gender minorities. This is the<br />
case for Reading and Leeds. Although<br />
2021’s initial lineup show two fifths of<br />
acts are women, they bunch in the<br />
‘also appearing’ section, far below the<br />
headlines. Whilst this is much better<br />
than even ten years ago, it risks perpetuating<br />
the idea that non-males are<br />
still just not up to the task of headlining.<br />
We must not overlook the context of<br />
Reading and Leeds as a rite-of-passage<br />
festival after GCSE and A-Level re-<br />
“<br />
Tokenism:<br />
a way of ‘ticking boxes’<br />
without actually nurturing<br />
gender minorities. This is<br />
the case for Reading and<br />
Leeds
sults, and gender minority individuals<br />
are amongst those attending. Rachel<br />
Maria Cox, founder of the organization<br />
Sad Grrrls Club, notes that “if you<br />
don’t see [equality in the music industry],<br />
especially as a young person, it’s<br />
hard to know it exists”. I would argue<br />
that by sticking to the<br />
same male headliners,<br />
Reading and Leeds is<br />
missing out on a vital<br />
opportunity to make the<br />
festival industry a more<br />
interesting place, especially<br />
with impressionable,<br />
chart-savvy teens as<br />
their target audience. If<br />
the bucket hat-wearing<br />
16-year-olds who smuggle<br />
vodka into water bottles claim they<br />
‘just don’t happen to listen to female<br />
artists’, give them some!<br />
Glastonbury certainly has an opportunity<br />
to feature gender<br />
minority talent further<br />
up the roster as<br />
well, seeing as<br />
customers<br />
don’t get a<br />
glimpse of<br />
the lineup<br />
until months<br />
after they have<br />
scrambled to<br />
buy tickets.<br />
“<br />
The talent – and the<br />
headline potential –<br />
is most definitely<br />
here, and we have a<br />
responsibility to<br />
nurture it<br />
”<br />
2019 showed the amazing potential of<br />
gender minority acts with its highlights:<br />
Lizzo’s takeover of the most packed<br />
West Holts crowd, attended by festival<br />
goer and celebrity alike; Janelle Monáe<br />
and Christine and The Queens – two<br />
huge queer artists – filling out Sunday<br />
headline slots on West<br />
Holts and Other Stage<br />
respectively; Billie Eilish<br />
engaging a crowd so<br />
sweaty and packed that I<br />
almost had a panic attack.<br />
The talent – and<br />
the headline potential –<br />
is most definitely here,<br />
and we have a responsibility<br />
to nurture it.<br />
In order to conduct real change, those<br />
with a voice must first start at the bottom.<br />
It is not a coincidence that we hold<br />
different genders to different standards<br />
in the industry, and it’s no longer just<br />
about giving these acts a place to sit<br />
pretty. Affirmative Action goes far beyond<br />
tick boxes, and we must evaluate<br />
how we all engage with music and<br />
artists of all genders. Female and<br />
queer voices need to be amplified to<br />
reach the same volume as the<br />
men at the top, and<br />
it’s up to the most<br />
powerful to take<br />
risks to make it<br />
happen. The<br />
clock is ticking.<br />
If not<br />
now, when?<br />
Ezra Furman headlining<br />
the Garden Stage at<br />
End of the Road Festival 2016.<br />
Photo: Matthew Parri Thomas.<br />
9
A N A L Y S I S<br />
How Poppy<br />
Shrimpton’s<br />
‘What He Said’<br />
nails the sonic<br />
representation of<br />
bittersweet love<br />
10<br />
One of the things which sets <strong>GEMINI</strong> apart<br />
from other music zines is musicology. In each<br />
issue, we will take a look in-depth at a spotlight<br />
track and dissect it: what makes it beautiful<br />
to listen to? What musical characteristics<br />
help to convey the meaning of the song? In<br />
our first issue, we’ll take a look at the title<br />
track of Liverpool-based artist Poppy Shrimpton’s<br />
debut release ‘What He Said’ and analyse<br />
some of the ways Shrimpton uses chords,<br />
harmonies and melody lines to convey the<br />
song’s topics of lovesickness, rose-tinted visions<br />
of a boy, and the toxicity underneath.<br />
Firstly, Shrimpton conveys a slight uneasiness<br />
through verse melodies by playing with<br />
tonality—this means the notes that fit within<br />
the song’s key. Whilst the key of ‘What He<br />
Said’ is B major, the track uses major seventh<br />
chords—meaning the B often clashes<br />
with its adjacent note, A sharp.<br />
This interval is called the minor second—<br />
think of the music which plays when the<br />
shark is coming in Jaws—and is often used in<br />
music to convey menace, instability, or unease.<br />
Whilst the major seventh chord can actually<br />
sound very beautiful, composers can<br />
often play up the clashiness of its minor second—this<br />
is what Poppy Shrimpton does.<br />
Ending the phrase on an A sharp creates a<br />
clash with the bass part, which is playing a B.<br />
So, what does this mean? Taking in this dissonance<br />
with the lyrics more literally, it implies<br />
the singer feels some unease towards her love<br />
interest, or perhaps her inability to stop thinking<br />
about him. Interestingly though, this note<br />
resolves to a B in the next line:<br />
suggesting Shrimpton sees this person through<br />
rose-tinted glasses; that thinking about him is<br />
the issue, but the thoughts themselves are comforting.<br />
This idea is reiterated by the lyrics later:<br />
“I only see your sweeter side”.<br />
Now examining the main hook of the song, we<br />
can see how the vocal styling and rhythms represent<br />
bittersweetness in the relationship. First<br />
looking at the notes themselves, Shrimpton has<br />
composed a three-part harmony which<br />
moves in parallel—this means when one note<br />
moves up or down, all of the others do too.
The melody rocks up and down in major triads<br />
(happy-sounding notes equidistant to each other).<br />
This melody is saccharine, and purposefully<br />
so, as Shrimpton occupies the voice of her partner,<br />
whom she sees through rose-tinted glasses.<br />
Though, in the second part of this phrase, the triad<br />
breaks into a clashier chord on “like”, and<br />
sinks to the dissonant A sharp on “me” — possibly<br />
showing the cracks and imperfections in this<br />
individual.<br />
guaranteed earworm, perfect for sitting in<br />
your feelings to amongst local lockdowns.<br />
The rhythm of these words also reflects this<br />
meaning. On “you will never give it up, you’ll<br />
never meet another man”, the melody is a gentle<br />
swing, bouncy and even, like rocking a baby’s<br />
crib—perhaps showing how the idea of this man<br />
is a source of comfort for the singer. However, on<br />
“like me”, the rhythm of the melody cuts across<br />
the usual timing.<br />
Looking at the lyrics themselves, this partner’s<br />
words are manipulative, even toxic, and are disguised<br />
by the syrupy harmonies conveyed by<br />
Shrimpton, again showing “all the loveliness”<br />
this individual “hides behind” in the relationship.<br />
After another verse and chorus, Shrimpton<br />
introduces a new chord (G# major)<br />
which is completely separate from<br />
the key of B major. Using a chord<br />
which does not typically fit in the<br />
key could also represent how this<br />
character is not what was first<br />
expected, or has changed from<br />
the gentle sweetness of what<br />
we see in the first run of the<br />
chorus. Analysis aside, the inclusion<br />
of this chord offers colour<br />
to the repetition of verse<br />
and choruses, making it sound fresh.<br />
Poppy Shrimpton’s debut release<br />
conveys real emotion through sonic<br />
subtleties and beautiful imagery. This<br />
lush, laid-back track shows great<br />
promise from this artist, with an<br />
abundance of hooks making this a<br />
Poppy Shrimpton’s debut two-track<br />
single ‘What He Said’ is available on<br />
streaming services now.<br />
@poppyshrimpton on Instagram.<br />
11
S P O T L I G H T<br />
S P O T L I G H T<br />
S P O T L I G H T<br />
S P O T L I G H T<br />
Summer release ‘It Ain’t Cool’ by Niki Kand is a fresh<br />
and infectious track with the sonic qualities of a piece<br />
pulled out of Kali Uchis’ archives. Retro drum beats and lo<br />
-fi, muted synth ostinatos loop as Niki’s high register<br />
vocals glide effortlessly through the punchy rhythms, with<br />
frank lyrics and melodies that will be playing in your<br />
mind for hours. A little goes a long way in this song, and<br />
the simplicity of loops and hooks gives this song its<br />
undeniable charm—this is pleasurable pop at its finest.<br />
12
S P O T L I G H T<br />
S P O T L I G H T<br />
S P O T L I G H T<br />
S P O T L I G H T<br />
‘George Foreman’ by Audrey Tunes is the debut drop<br />
of Liverpool student, composer and producer Mili Payne,<br />
and offers a promising glimpse into this new artist’s<br />
discography. Swirling 80’s-inflected synths and vocal<br />
treatment give this song extreme vibrance and clarity,<br />
whilst drum tracks and pulsing chords show a retro take<br />
on bedroom pop. Reverberated harmonies echo and make<br />
the track crisp, highlighting soul-bearing lyrics from<br />
Payne in the song’s climax: “Oh beautiful boy / are you<br />
going to break me now?” A song definitely worth<br />
recommending to lovers of 80’s music.<br />
13
14<br />
A S C E N D I N G<br />
ANTONIA<br />
Where did your journey as a<br />
musician begin? How did Antonia<br />
come about?<br />
I’ve always been musical, my first<br />
instrument being viola when I was 6 (I<br />
bought it home from school thinking it<br />
was a guitar!) I played piano too so I<br />
first started to write little songs on the<br />
piano. I started learning guitar at 16<br />
and carried on writing. Over the past<br />
three years I have been writing,<br />
collaborating with different people and<br />
only started to gig in Liverpool<br />
December/January this year.<br />
In 3 words, how would you<br />
describe the style of music you<br />
create?<br />
Chilled, smooth and<br />
soulful.<br />
What does your<br />
writing process<br />
usually look like?<br />
Are you influenced<br />
by anything in<br />
particular to write<br />
a song?<br />
It changes each<br />
time but I’ll usually<br />
find the chords<br />
and then spend<br />
time crafting a<br />
melody I like.<br />
Sometimes I’ll<br />
have loads of<br />
random<br />
sentences in<br />
my notes and<br />
will try and work them<br />
into a song. I definitely<br />
have to feel content<br />
With soulful melodies and beautiful<br />
blues-y vocals, Antonia is already a<br />
force to be reckoned even before her<br />
first single release—named one of<br />
LIMF Academy’s ‘Most Ready’<br />
artists for 2020/2021. <strong>GEMINI</strong><br />
catches up with this rising artist to<br />
talk musical influences, favourite<br />
projects, and more.<br />
and to have had closure on the<br />
particular situation to be able to write<br />
about it. I think that’s the best feeling<br />
though, being able to write about<br />
something that has taken you so long to<br />
figure out how you feel about it. I do also<br />
love writing with other people.<br />
Who would you consider your<br />
main musical influences?<br />
When I was very young my sister and I<br />
used to listen and dance to a lot of pop<br />
like Lily Allen, Avril Lavigne, Florence<br />
and the Machine, I basically listened to<br />
whatever my sister listened to. When I<br />
got older I became obsessed with Etta<br />
James, Louis Armstrong and a lot of<br />
Jazz and blues. This combination has<br />
shaped my style. I have recently been<br />
influenced by Daniel Caesar,<br />
Izzy Bizu, Joesef, Jorja Smith. I<br />
find it hard to pick influences<br />
because I feel like I am being<br />
constantly influenced, there’s so<br />
much amazing music to listen<br />
to and I’m always finding<br />
new artists and<br />
obsessing over<br />
them.<br />
Do you have a<br />
favourite tune<br />
or project - if so,<br />
what makes it<br />
special to you?<br />
My song ‘Sober’ is super<br />
special because it took me<br />
so long to figure out how I<br />
felt about the situation and<br />
when it came together it felt<br />
perfect. I also have a project
with Amelia Wallace where we wrote this<br />
song called ‘Owe Me’ and it was perfectly<br />
fitting how both of us felt at the time and was<br />
just so good to get it out of our systems.<br />
If you could have a dinner party with<br />
any three creatives - alive or dead - who<br />
would you pick and why?<br />
Carole King and Billie Eilish because they’re<br />
both such good songwriters. Etta James<br />
because she had an insane voice and I used to<br />
listen to her all the time.<br />
In live gigs, you seem to have a great,<br />
organic bond with your band mates.<br />
What’s the story there?<br />
The band only got together in September last<br />
year. I started working with James Walker in<br />
second year of uni, writing together and him<br />
also accompanying me on guitar. I felt ready<br />
to perform so that’s when the band came<br />
together. We’re all such good mates and I<br />
think that is so important because I feel<br />
super confident and comfortable around<br />
them.<br />
“<br />
that’s the best feeling—<br />
being able to write<br />
about something that<br />
has taken you so long<br />
to figure out how you<br />
feel about it.<br />
”<br />
Check out Antonia’s<br />
Sofar Sounds Leeds<br />
session here.<br />
@heyitstonez on<br />
Instagram.<br />
What does the end of 2020 and the<br />
new year have in store for you?<br />
I am really excited to be working with<br />
LIMF this year, planning my releases and<br />
meeting other cool artists. I hope to<br />
release some music in the near future,<br />
fingers crossed !! I’d also love to perform<br />
with the band again so hopefully live gigs<br />
can happen soon.<br />
Can you recommend any artists/<br />
bands/albums/songs <strong>GEMINI</strong><br />
should check out?<br />
I’ve been listening to a lot of<br />
Olivia Dean, all of her songs<br />
are amazing. Lola Young’s<br />
song ‘Blind Love’ is such a<br />
perfect song, one I wish I<br />
wrote myself. Biig Piig,<br />
Still Woozy and Papooz<br />
are also sick and put me<br />
in a good mood whenever I<br />
listen to them.<br />
15
T O P P I C K S<br />
Shirts (Zach Bahn Remix)<br />
Nikki & the Waves<br />
This spin on the band’s recent single<br />
elevates its charming foundations with<br />
new and exciting textures. Use of<br />
bouncing sub-bass, drum samples, lush<br />
string lines, swirling synths and excellent<br />
use of delay on Nikki’s “we only go<br />
around” solidify this as a mesmerizing,<br />
almost hypnotic take on indie pop.<br />
One More Day<br />
Mollie Coddled<br />
A refreshing bedroom pop banger from a<br />
Leeds-based artist in her element. With<br />
twangy guitar lines, pitch-bending synths<br />
and Coddled’s crisp vocal delivery, One<br />
More Day is to-the-point pop about a<br />
complicated love, whilst giving us the<br />
melismatic lines and sun-kissed<br />
production fans have come to expect from<br />
Mollie.<br />
Slow Down<br />
iamkyami, Sonny Miles<br />
New York native iamkyami is a force to be<br />
reckoned with in the Liverpool scene;<br />
listening to Slow Down, it’s easy to<br />
understand why. Mesmerising, down-toearth<br />
vocals enveloped by jazz-inflected<br />
chords and laid back shuffle beats give<br />
this song its undeniable charm, whilst<br />
Sonny Miles’ rapping and accented<br />
harmonic lines aid in making this song’s<br />
groove infectious. Slow Down is like a<br />
fresh cup of coffee: comforting and<br />
addictive.<br />
16<br />
Apart Together (Snowmelt)<br />
Fraser West<br />
This recent single brings ethereal folkinspired<br />
soundscapes with solemn, hushed<br />
vocal melodies and shimmering textures,<br />
with airy harmonies and almost haunting<br />
guitar slides guaranteed to induce chills.<br />
Released in lockdown, with money from<br />
sales and streams going to the Black Lives<br />
Matter movement, this release is<br />
particularly poignant in context. Apart<br />
Together shows a promising glimpse into<br />
his upcoming full-length album.
T W I N P I C K S<br />
BMO (feat. Doja Cat) - Remix<br />
Ari Lennox<br />
With its retro R&B style, tight use of<br />
harmonies and an infectious chorus, this<br />
remixed version of from Lennox’s 2019<br />
album Shea Butter Baby kept spirits up in<br />
lockdown, and emerged a twin favourite<br />
amongst the bleak months.<br />
Umbrella Academy (Season 2)<br />
Netflix<br />
The dysfunctional superpowered siblings<br />
return upon being accidentally marooned<br />
in 1960s Texas, with a plethora of fight<br />
scenes, a killer soundtrack, and another<br />
apocalypse to beat. The incorporation of<br />
Alison’s (Emmy Raver-Lampman) identity<br />
as a black woman in the South emerged as<br />
a standout arc, especially amongst the BLM<br />
protests in America today. Seeing Vanya<br />
(Ellen Page) in a relationship with “farm<br />
Frau” Sissy was also a sub-plot highlight.<br />
No Shame<br />
Lily Allen<br />
Allen’s 2018 release serves as gospel to<br />
this year’s feelings of disconnection, loss<br />
and self-reinvention. This album speaks of<br />
marital breakdown and substance abuse,<br />
emerging as her most raw and authentic<br />
piece of work. Her playful sing-song voice<br />
soothes as much as it hurts, fused with<br />
stimulating electropop and notes of<br />
reggae. Highlights include Lost My Mind,<br />
What You Waiting For?, Pushing up<br />
Daisies and of course the album-opener,<br />
Come On Then.<br />
Check out more tracks from<br />
Liverpool artists and beyond with<br />
our curated Spotify playlist HERE!<br />
17
Are you an artist,<br />
musician, writer or<br />
creative?<br />
Email <strong>GEMINI</strong> (or message us on our<br />
socials) to be in a future issue as a feature,<br />
a guest writer/artist or as part of our<br />
writing team!<br />
G E M I N I Z I N E @ G M A I L . C O M<br />
@gemini.zine<br />
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