"..strings, reversed guitar tones, mysterious vocal samples/backing harmonies, bells, and (super) pleasing to the ear tranquil vocals..the perfect score for warming your ears, heart, and mind on an austere evening.."
Wintercoats
Singular Chimerical Composition
Wintercoats Bio:
Wintercoats is a solo Dream Pop project of Melbourne multi-instrumentalist James Wallace. Beginning at the dawn of 2009, Wintercoats began composing various pieces for strings and piano, before expanding the instrumentation and shifting his direction from Folk inspired music to Dream Pop. Opting to play solo, Wallace performs through the live sampling of piano, strings, percussion, and vocals, often drenched with reverb creating the sound of a ethereal, pop inspired orchestra. In May 2010, Wintercoats released his Debut EP “Cathedral” as a free download and will be releasing his follow up EP in June as a 12”/Download.
Hello, how are you?
Hey, I’m very well thank you.
What are you currently listening to?
Right at this moment I’m listening to Collarbones cover of ‘Cater 2 U’. It’s pretty fantastic. I’ve been listening to Sea Oleena, The Townhouses, The Orbweavers, and Rio En Medio quite religiously lately too.
Is there a story behind the band name?
There is, but I don’t think it’s incredibly interesting. I went through a plethora of names and pseudonyms but nothing really stuck. I ended up looking a coat I had on the floor and it really just came from that. It’s a pretty dull story, but I think it suits the project.
You do all of the music on your own right? What's your musical background?
Yeah, I’m the only musician on the recordings and when performing live. Lately I get asked a lot if I would ever consider having additional musicians, but I don’t see it happening. There’s something very liberating about having ‘complete’ creative control of something in terms of writing and recording music. It’s the same for the live performances; it feels much more natural and intimate performing solo rather than with a string section. When I was around 5 I wanted to learn the piano, but ended up playing the electone instead. It wasn’t exactly what I wanted, but it’s kind of amusing now. Pretty much they put a disk into the keyboard and you’d learn how to play the themes from major 80’s films. I eventually translated what I learned over to the piano, and then started branching out into a lot of different instruments. The violin was actually one of the later additions, and in terms of technique, it shows a bit, more so in terms of my vibrato and bowing technique.
Is there a tentative title/theme/release date for your debut LP?
The LP won’t be out for a little while. Originally, I was going to put an EP out last November and the album around the start of this year, but I ended up scrapping a lot of tracks and starting again. I’m still writing the album, but as of a few days ago the second EP is completely finished. So that should be out in either May or June as a 12”/Download. I’m still working on a title, but possibly “Softly” or “Please Be Quiet”. I’m not too sure, I’ll have to coin one fairly soon. It’s pretty much a continuation on from 'Cathedral', so it’s quite introspective. I also have a split EP coming out soon with The Townhouses. We’ve put it off for a quite a while, so it should hopefully be out sooner rather than later.
Will you be touring for said release?
I’ll definitely do an Australian tour, but I’m hoping to play a few overseas, but nothings really locked in at this stage. The plan is to try get over to the US, Japan, and New Zealand, but it’s not a definite at the moment. Fingers crossed I guess.
If you could collaborate with any artist of your choosing whom would it be with?
Beach House. They’re an act I’ve adored for quite a while now, and was fortunate enough to open for them in Melbourne about a month ago. I completely adored there set, the atmosphere that was set was wonderful. So my collaboration dream would probably revolve around Beach House with strings, ha.
You can only keep/listen to ONE album for the rest of your life ..which album would it be?
I don’t think I could ever decide on this. You need an album that’s incredibly versatile, something that will suit any scenario, mood, whatever. So I would probably make a mix tape instead. Is that aloud? If not, I’ll just take The Drones "Wait Long By The River….". Though I might slip a mix tape in to its case with it.
Are you living your dream?
If watching Seinfeld whilst eating ice-cream counts, then I most certainly am.
Thanx James!
Wintercoats are currently working on a follow up to last year's astonishing (#6/100 2010) debut release..look for that/those soon..!
Wintercoats
Singular Chimerical Composition
Wintercoats Bio:
Wintercoats is a solo Dream Pop project of Melbourne multi-instrumentalist James Wallace. Beginning at the dawn of 2009, Wintercoats began composing various pieces for strings and piano, before expanding the instrumentation and shifting his direction from Folk inspired music to Dream Pop. Opting to play solo, Wallace performs through the live sampling of piano, strings, percussion, and vocals, often drenched with reverb creating the sound of a ethereal, pop inspired orchestra. In May 2010, Wintercoats released his Debut EP “Cathedral” as a free download and will be releasing his follow up EP in June as a 12”/Download.
Hello, how are you?
Hey, I’m very well thank you.
What are you currently listening to?
Right at this moment I’m listening to Collarbones cover of ‘Cater 2 U’. It’s pretty fantastic. I’ve been listening to Sea Oleena, The Townhouses, The Orbweavers, and Rio En Medio quite religiously lately too.
Is there a story behind the band name?
There is, but I don’t think it’s incredibly interesting. I went through a plethora of names and pseudonyms but nothing really stuck. I ended up looking a coat I had on the floor and it really just came from that. It’s a pretty dull story, but I think it suits the project.
You do all of the music on your own right? What's your musical background?
Yeah, I’m the only musician on the recordings and when performing live. Lately I get asked a lot if I would ever consider having additional musicians, but I don’t see it happening. There’s something very liberating about having ‘complete’ creative control of something in terms of writing and recording music. It’s the same for the live performances; it feels much more natural and intimate performing solo rather than with a string section. When I was around 5 I wanted to learn the piano, but ended up playing the electone instead. It wasn’t exactly what I wanted, but it’s kind of amusing now. Pretty much they put a disk into the keyboard and you’d learn how to play the themes from major 80’s films. I eventually translated what I learned over to the piano, and then started branching out into a lot of different instruments. The violin was actually one of the later additions, and in terms of technique, it shows a bit, more so in terms of my vibrato and bowing technique.
Is there a tentative title/theme/release date for your debut LP?
The LP won’t be out for a little while. Originally, I was going to put an EP out last November and the album around the start of this year, but I ended up scrapping a lot of tracks and starting again. I’m still writing the album, but as of a few days ago the second EP is completely finished. So that should be out in either May or June as a 12”/Download. I’m still working on a title, but possibly “Softly” or “Please Be Quiet”. I’m not too sure, I’ll have to coin one fairly soon. It’s pretty much a continuation on from 'Cathedral', so it’s quite introspective. I also have a split EP coming out soon with The Townhouses. We’ve put it off for a quite a while, so it should hopefully be out sooner rather than later.
Will you be touring for said release?
I’ll definitely do an Australian tour, but I’m hoping to play a few overseas, but nothings really locked in at this stage. The plan is to try get over to the US, Japan, and New Zealand, but it’s not a definite at the moment. Fingers crossed I guess.
If you could collaborate with any artist of your choosing whom would it be with?
Beach House. They’re an act I’ve adored for quite a while now, and was fortunate enough to open for them in Melbourne about a month ago. I completely adored there set, the atmosphere that was set was wonderful. So my collaboration dream would probably revolve around Beach House with strings, ha.
You can only keep/listen to ONE album for the rest of your life ..which album would it be?
I don’t think I could ever decide on this. You need an album that’s incredibly versatile, something that will suit any scenario, mood, whatever. So I would probably make a mix tape instead. Is that aloud? If not, I’ll just take The Drones "Wait Long By The River….". Though I might slip a mix tape in to its case with it.
Are you living your dream?
If watching Seinfeld whilst eating ice-cream counts, then I most certainly am.
Thanx James!
Wintercoats are currently working on a follow up to last year's astonishing (#6/100 2010) debut release..look for that/those soon..!
No comments:
Post a Comment