The Isle of Wight Festival is set to kick off this weekend, and so what are you most looking forward to in set performances and artist appearances?
After Gallagher’s triumphant return to the main stage belting out Oasis classics – and falling out of a helicopter after – it certainly brings out the festival in a new, raucous light.
“Who said Rock ‘n’ Roll is dead, Keith Moon eat your drum skin out.”
For some, the new rockers are the next influencers for the industry – they just don’t know it. For many, TikTok is very much running everything.
With the global pandemic shutting down the industry as a whole, artists had to adapt and bend the rules a little bit. Enter the meteoric rise of TikTok. A multi-global phenomenon that has taken the world by storm, it is a huge opportunity for upcoming musicians to get the go-ahead, from just the sheer numbers they pull in!
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The story of Jason Derulo is one to admire. Dropped by his label in early 2020 for not being a priority, Derulo was at a loss. After feeling under appreciated from his mass delivering of number 1s over the years, he felt done for in the music industry. But, since he joined TikTok, he has amassed over 46m followers and became the 13th most popular music artist influencers on the platform. No doubt, revitalising his music career and putting Deluro back into the name of Jason.
It may be certainly easier as an already established artist, but the independence is there for anyone to pry into their creativity and amass a large following. The importance is to understand the game and out-work everybody – then? The sky’s the limit.
More and more musicians are being told that social media is the key to success in the music industry. But how much does it get in the way of creating our music?
Does it make it any more or any less valued than simply playing the tunes? Do we as grass root level musicians have to become trendsetters over night to gain any wealth of confidence in streaming numbers?
As social media barrages us with video after video, more undoing our creativity and reducing our attention span, will social media be our downfall in it all? After all, will we get through an entire song without skipping?
It seems that anything more than 30 seconds, and we will simply skip!
As prestigious from his masterclasses to his independency in artistry and musicianship, Plini is one artist who is a devoted forward-thinker and has created a magnificent blend of instrumental progressive rock.
–All hand-crafted and recorded from his own bedroom studio.
FIRST THOUGHTS
Truth be told, instrumental prog rock is never a genre I have tapped into almost entirely during a music session. But, holy hell. What an artist to discover this genre. A mind-bending genre in its own right.
Beautifully harmonic, illustrious in creativity and composure, Plini is a mastermind on the guitar.
Using oh, so many strings and no headstock allowing you as a musician to manipulate its work that little bit more, his craft is a complex cavity of musical brilliance that is flawless and – hard to grasp when you realise its just one Australian fella behind it all.
LISTEN
You can have a listen to his EP from last year named, Impulse Voices below. This most recent display of work shows off the sunset offerings of I’ll Tell You Someday and The Glass Bead Game. Going back further, is the witnessing of 2016’s EP of Handmade Cities. An album that is far more contemplative and reserved than his follow-up, it features Electric Sunrise and Every Piece Matters.
Even if you were not an avid investor of progressive rock similar to myself, I implore you to have a listen. …Even if it’s just for a couple?
Handmade Cities:
Impulse Voices:
For something extra, witness Plini’s mindset as he takes a walkthrough of his song, Pan.
The song of the day today is Black Foxxes’, Witch Mountain. An ‘airy’ magnificence which lingers that bit longer even when finished.
Like the swirling atmosphere you begin to imagine at a summit of such a place like ‘Witch Mountain’, the song has a certain sense of odd beauty, uncertainty and important spacing throughout.
Recently discovering Black Foxxes as an iconic indie collective abound with emotion and musical arching, and are certainly prevalent on any chill playlist I wish to play on a weekend afternoon. Best during those overcast kind of days.
Give it a spin – or have a blast through their catalogue so far – and let me know your thoughts on the raw and husky works of Holley and co.
This is BLACK FOXXES.
