Doors: 6:30 pm / Show: 7:00 pm
This event is all ages.
SOLD OUT
Second show added on Sat. 6/18 due to overwhelming demand. Tickets for the 6/18 show available HERE.
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Oh Wonder
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There is a sign pinned to the wall of Oh Wonderâs recording studio in south-east London, a pact of sorts, signed by the bandâs two members, Josephine Vander Gucht and Anthony West, in the winter of 2012. It isnât a checklist or a plan so much as a setting down of shared dreams for their musical careers. âWe wrote it to say that weâre dependent on one another,â explains Josephine. âThat there are things we want to achieve, and we can help each other get there.â
That Oh Wonder have achieved all of these dreams in the first year since starting the project is testament to their talent and their perseverance, but even they seem a little startled by how much more they have attained: the 100 million streams and now their debut album, a collection of 15 impeccably-crafted songs that explore London and loneliness, love and the need for human relationships.
Josephine was a classically-trained solo performer and Anthony a singer and producer whose lives and careers overlapped for several years â a run of near-encounters and half-conversations at gigs and venues, and vague introductions through musical acquaintances and mutual friends. It was only when they finally sat down in Anthonyâs former studio in north London with a view to producing an EP of Josephineâs solo material that they realised their great musical bond. âWe found all our favourite bands were the same bands, all our favourite songs were the same songs,â says Anthony. âIt was a day of saying âOh you should listen to thisâ. And then the other one saying âI know that song. Thatâs one of my favourite songs.ââ âIt was,â adds Josephine âreally, really odd. Iâve never had that. Iâve never felt that closely aligned with someone, musically speaking, and more widely in terms of how we view the world.â
It was Anthonyâs suggestion that they begin writing together â purely for fun at first, as an exercise in songwriting and collaboration while they pursued their other musical projects. The first song they wrote was called Body Gold and was, Josephine says, âthe marker for what the sound of Oh Wonder was: electronic and somewhat RânâB, which was totally surprising, and totally different to our solo work, but we were really proud of it.â
Still, for 18 months they did nothing with it. Anthony moved to London and released an EP as part of a duo, Josephine was busy writing and recording as Layla. âBut we thought it was a waste to leave Body Gold unheard,â says Anthony. And so they decided to post it on the internet, anonymously.
That day they went to a cafĂ© in east London, posted the song on SoundCloud and emailed a few of their favourite music blogs about it. âWe were in this cafĂ©,â Josephine remembers, âand we were looking at the play-count, and I think it said six plays, and then all of a sudden these blogs started posting the song â really lovely write-ups saying âWho the hell are these people? Theyâre about to blow up the internet.ââ They sat in the cafĂ© and watched the play count climb to 100. A few weeks later it had reached 100,000 plays. Just over a year later and they have tens of millions of plays and a string of sold out headline shows across the UK, Europe, Australia and the USA. âIt was just really, really bizarre. And odd. And completely accidental,â she says. âWe didnât tell anyone it was us, we didnât ask people to listen, we didnât tell our friends, it was so far removed from us. But I genuinely think that the reason so many people connected with it was because it was really sincere.â
The plan from the start was to release a song a month, for the course of a year. âWe approached it as a songwriting project rather than an artist project,â continues Anthony. âAnd so the most important thing of all is the song and we would never release what we consider to be a bad song.â
They had already written two other tracks: Shark and All We Do â a track Josephine finds most affecting. âItâs about the human propensity to play it safe and not push yourself beyond the parameters of normal life,â she says. âItâs about just existing and not wondering or being inquisitive. Itâs about how a lot of people sink into the monotony of everyday life. And how itâs a shame, because the worldâs there for the taking, and youâve got to go grab it and have an adventure.â
Their own adventure soon gathered pace. They found they could write quickly, finishing the body of a song in 20 minutes or so and spending more time, they say, on the production. âWriting together is a weird magical thing,â says Josephine. âMore than anybody else in the world I trust Ant. Which makes the writing process totally open, totally vulnerable and non-judgmental, and means you can say all of these things openly in a song.â
The things they chose to say all possess a striking tenderness and a tangible passion for life, ranging from exquisite break-up songs Drive, Landslide and The Rain to quiet rallies against materialism, gambling, gentrification and globalization, and, in Lose It, a song that serves as a tribute to a night out they once had in Melbourne, where as the sun came up, Josephine found herself at a party dancing in her underwear to Destinyâs Child. âIâve never before felt what I felt that night,â she says. âI didnât take any drugs, and I wasnât even drunk, there was just something heady in the air. It was the first time Iâd ever felt untethered from myself.â
Though they vary from piano-led ballads to whip-sharp electronica, what unites all of Oh Wonderâs songs is their extraordinary sense of humanity. âWe didnât realise it at first, but a lot of our songs are about relationships and support,â says Josephine. Anthony points to album opener Livewire, âwhich is about needing someone to lift you up, someone who can bring you up from your lowest point, bring you back to life, be the heartbeat you needâŠâ and to White Blood, about times in life, in illness or difficulty, when you âreally need someone with youâ, and to Heart Hope, inspired by watching the area around their home in east London rapidly gentrify, and feeling that for all the shiny new buildings, what people really need is other people, âitâs saying actually all you need is a heart and a soul and to be connected to yourself and to each other.â
âTheyâre songs about humans, and about people being there in your life,â says Josephine. âPeople need people. And thatâs what this album looks at, from all the different angles: itâs about being grateful for the people in your life, for relationships of all sorts.â
Perhaps most of all, this album is Anthony and Josephineâs tribute to each other, to the partnership they have formed, the places it has taken them and the confidence they have given one another.
Josephine tells a story that perhaps best sums up the depth of the belief they have in one another â the bond, the trust, and the faith they have in their own music: âI used to have lots of jobs,â she says. âI worked in Waterstones, and waiting tables, and Ant was the person who told me to give them up. He told me to call up my boss and say âSorry I canât work at Waterstones anymore, Iâm being a musician.â He said âweâre going to do this. And that was the same day we wrote that sign.â
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LANY
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Initially harvested entirely behind a Windows computer during what industry veterans have comically–âreferenced as the most–âproductive handful of months by a new artist, this genre–âbending band is prepping a busy 1st quarter of touring in 2016 in what is destined to be the year LANY becomes a household name. Born in a Nashville bedroom, LANY (pronounced LAY–âNEE), comprised of Paul, Les and Jake, are a trio that started as a group of friends looking to combine their unique skills to “see what happens.” LANY had initial unprecedented success on Soundcloud’s platform which was enough to get Soundcloud’s internal cloud of executives to partner with the new artist, and impactful social platforms like Snapchat have been avid supporters â LANY played their Holiday party this past December.
Masochists in love with an underwritten theme of hopeless romance, LANY front man Paul opens on debut cuts like “Walk Away,” “youarefire” and “ILYSB,” with vocals that are glacial while engaging, and draw you into their heartbreak manifesto; and a vibe reminiscent of the 80s on tracks like “Made In Hollywood” and “4EVER!” LANY makes it clear that lethal good looks and vocal prowess are not mutually exclusive, and even guys with all of the above get their hearts broken.
Since their initial experiment to get feedback on what was just an idea little over a year ago, LANY has released 2 EP’s to their dedicated and rapidly growing fan base. Often utilizing the success trends within the millennial landscape, LANY has zeroed in on a gap in the music business that aches for a sound like theirs.
In 2015 LANY wrapped tours with Halsey, Tove Styrke, Zella Day, Twin Shadow and X Ambassadors. They played Lollapalooza and Sloss Festival in the summer and ended the year with a headline run on the Westcoast. As for 2016, in February they play Summit Series in Utah and perform 12 shows with Troye Sivan in North America; in March they play 11 Arena shows with Ellie Goulding in the UK; and then they go on to play Squamish and Shaky Knees Festivals.