I tend not to be into new music. It doesn’t really excite me. Don’t get me wrong I am not all into nostalgia, reliving the music from my youth. If anything the music that I am listening to now although new to me, was made around the time and prior to the year that I was born.
Exceptions to this are few and far between (and that is likely to remain that way whilst Ian Brown and Kasabian have a career), but there is a new band from the UK called 45 Flames, and by band I mean a one man operation that seems off the strength of his 2 albums so far, Break Up In A Beat Motel and the recently released Goddess, to be releasing diverse rock music with the accent on good tunes and clever lyrics.
45 Flames debut, Break Up In A Beat Motel appeared to take its influence from Big Star, Bolan and Richard Hawley. Smooth love songs for people that don’t like love songs. I suspect that whiskey may have been imbibed. Whiskey breath and stubble permeate its zeroes and ones, love songs for the lonely, the bemused and bewildered, with a hint of menthol cigarettes. Jilly Gouldon would have a field day.
It seems that in the time between Break Up In A Beat Motel and it’s follow up, 45 Flames drink of choice may have gone from a smooth Irish Whiskey to a Tennessee Bourbon. That’s the feeling that he is looking to put across on Goddess, its difficult not to picture on any number of occasions a barefoot girl running from her front porch and hopping into a pick up truck. Big Star are still present but Hawley’s influence is replaced by the dirty British indie blues of Primal Scream, Jailbird Primal Scream and not Loaded Primal Scream. 45 flames don't sing I'm yours, your mine, that barefoot girl running to the pick up is a goddess, she's a goddess. The other pea in the pod to Jailbird.
Influences schminfluences though. What is appealing about 45 Flames are the tunes, both albums although very different do have some great tunes flowing through them, taking care it seems not to put any chaff on either release, a great number of independent artists could take note of this. They could also take note of the word diversity as 45 Flames on the strength of his two releases isn't looking to let the grass grow under his feet, and not dwell on a single sound.
It seems that 45 Flames is trying to go the truly independent route, releasing his own material, self producing, playing all instruments bar a few exceptions and self promoting. but I am unsure in this day and age how far you can get without employing a company tasked with getting you 250,000 "friends" on Myspace, but if music alone earns you friends then 45 Flames should be well on their way.
I am unsure what is next for 45 Flames, I suspect it won't be like the two albums he has out now, I do believe though, along with The Evangenitals he is releasing truly imaginative, independent music that improves with ever release.
I spoke briefly to 45 Flames and asked him initially about an overview for his two albums.
PD: What can you tell me about the differences between the two albums, Break Up In A Beat Motel and Goddess?
45 Flames: Looking back, at the months following the writing and release of “Break Up In A Beat Motel”, it is now quite apparent to me, that the songs for “Goddess” took shape in rather a spontaneous almost organic fashion, with no real pre-conceived plan for me to assemble a group of songs, that had a related subject matter running throughout.
PD: As time went on did you formulate a plan?
45 Flames: The plan, if ever there was one, after completing BUIABM was to continue writing with view to providing material for other artists (which is still my primary goal), however, during this process, the songs on “Goddess” evolved. Perhaps as a result of a subconscious knee jerk reaction to the songs previously worked on for BUIABM, which primarily were 13 set pieces based on the twilight hours of any given relationship, set in 13 rooms of a fictitious motel, and by their very subject nature had to be intimate in style and approach (concept album I hear you cry! – maybe …..but not intentional)
PD: How did Goddess differ?
45 Flames: With Goddess I wanted to celebrate the first flushes of wicked love, tell tales of every siren that lurked behind a suburban front door, those I had known and those I had only dreamt about, real and imagined.
So again, the very nature of the subject matter has unassumingly dictated the path that the sound would need to follow, and determined the styling of both writing and recording, in a bid to convey the urgency of desire and lust, without the remorse and reflection that the dissolution of a relationship brings, that BUIABM tackled.
45 Flames can be heard at his Myspace www.myspace.com/45flames
Goddess is available to buy on MP3 from Amazon.co.uk
Goddess is available on CD from Amazon.com
Break Up In A Beat Motel is available from Amazon.co.uk
Exceptions to this are few and far between (and that is likely to remain that way whilst Ian Brown and Kasabian have a career), but there is a new band from the UK called 45 Flames, and by band I mean a one man operation that seems off the strength of his 2 albums so far, Break Up In A Beat Motel and the recently released Goddess, to be releasing diverse rock music with the accent on good tunes and clever lyrics.
45 Flames debut, Break Up In A Beat Motel appeared to take its influence from Big Star, Bolan and Richard Hawley. Smooth love songs for people that don’t like love songs. I suspect that whiskey may have been imbibed. Whiskey breath and stubble permeate its zeroes and ones, love songs for the lonely, the bemused and bewildered, with a hint of menthol cigarettes. Jilly Gouldon would have a field day.
It seems that in the time between Break Up In A Beat Motel and it’s follow up, 45 Flames drink of choice may have gone from a smooth Irish Whiskey to a Tennessee Bourbon. That’s the feeling that he is looking to put across on Goddess, its difficult not to picture on any number of occasions a barefoot girl running from her front porch and hopping into a pick up truck. Big Star are still present but Hawley’s influence is replaced by the dirty British indie blues of Primal Scream, Jailbird Primal Scream and not Loaded Primal Scream. 45 flames don't sing I'm yours, your mine, that barefoot girl running to the pick up is a goddess, she's a goddess. The other pea in the pod to Jailbird.
Influences schminfluences though. What is appealing about 45 Flames are the tunes, both albums although very different do have some great tunes flowing through them, taking care it seems not to put any chaff on either release, a great number of independent artists could take note of this. They could also take note of the word diversity as 45 Flames on the strength of his two releases isn't looking to let the grass grow under his feet, and not dwell on a single sound.
It seems that 45 Flames is trying to go the truly independent route, releasing his own material, self producing, playing all instruments bar a few exceptions and self promoting. but I am unsure in this day and age how far you can get without employing a company tasked with getting you 250,000 "friends" on Myspace, but if music alone earns you friends then 45 Flames should be well on their way.
I am unsure what is next for 45 Flames, I suspect it won't be like the two albums he has out now, I do believe though, along with The Evangenitals he is releasing truly imaginative, independent music that improves with ever release.
I spoke briefly to 45 Flames and asked him initially about an overview for his two albums.
PD: What can you tell me about the differences between the two albums, Break Up In A Beat Motel and Goddess?
45 Flames: Looking back, at the months following the writing and release of “Break Up In A Beat Motel”, it is now quite apparent to me, that the songs for “Goddess” took shape in rather a spontaneous almost organic fashion, with no real pre-conceived plan for me to assemble a group of songs, that had a related subject matter running throughout.
PD: As time went on did you formulate a plan?
45 Flames: The plan, if ever there was one, after completing BUIABM was to continue writing with view to providing material for other artists (which is still my primary goal), however, during this process, the songs on “Goddess” evolved. Perhaps as a result of a subconscious knee jerk reaction to the songs previously worked on for BUIABM, which primarily were 13 set pieces based on the twilight hours of any given relationship, set in 13 rooms of a fictitious motel, and by their very subject nature had to be intimate in style and approach (concept album I hear you cry! – maybe …..but not intentional)
PD: How did Goddess differ?
45 Flames: With Goddess I wanted to celebrate the first flushes of wicked love, tell tales of every siren that lurked behind a suburban front door, those I had known and those I had only dreamt about, real and imagined.
So again, the very nature of the subject matter has unassumingly dictated the path that the sound would need to follow, and determined the styling of both writing and recording, in a bid to convey the urgency of desire and lust, without the remorse and reflection that the dissolution of a relationship brings, that BUIABM tackled.
45 Flames can be heard at his Myspace www.myspace.com/45flames
Goddess is available to buy on MP3 from Amazon.co.uk
Goddess is available on CD from Amazon.com
Break Up In A Beat Motel is available from Amazon.co.uk
And the usual MP3 stockists, iTunes, Amie St, Napster and eMusic
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