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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 />

@lazygrrrl<br />

@marthalxcy

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