‘river‘ is the new single of italian singer-songwriter Emit, lyrics in english with crystal clear electric guitars floating on a lo-fi beat as if they were carried by the stream, in the same way the feelings of a relationship depart from us becoming memories.
The river image, proceeding slow and unstoppable yet placid and calm, conveys a peculiar mood, a sort of serene nostalgia. The lyrics tell us about the concern one feels in a relationship in the moment of distance and the inability to control the emotions involved (‘How can I control the power of this river?‘), but at the same time they manifest the desire for those feelings not to end (‘I never wanna learn this love‘).
The song is born at university, during a semester abroad in Rotterdam, where Emit finds at a concert exactly the sound he was looking for. He asks who was playing the beats and so he meets Noel Gregory van Drunen from the band Dichter Bob. After a few days they meet each other to cook something, Noel samples a beat from a keyboard from the ‘80s and filters it through a tape machine. On that beat Emit composes and records guitar and voice.
This latest version was re-made last autumn using that same original beat. Synth and bass were added to sustain the chords of three guitars playing the same part, with different shades and leaks, intertwining as tributaries of a river.
The single anticipates ‘vivo (deluxe)‘ releasing on March 24th 2023, an updated and extended version of the debut album published on December 9th 2022. A peculiar effort for sure, by which the singer-songwriter chooses to widen the previous work with six songs that add new colors to the world of ‘vivo‘.
Just in time for Spooky Season, Shane Archer Reed got the chance to do an awesome collaboration with two other amazing artists from central New York. Roscoe Red and Ashley Rose! We covered “Monsters” by All Time Low, blackbear and Demi Lovatoo! And here is the result! Big thanks to Ian Brown for producing the track and Tony Grande for shooting the video!
Formed in the multi-cultural hub of London, LIVINGSTON are Beukes Willemse and guitarist / keyboardist Chris van Niekerk from South Africa, drummer Jan Siekmann from Germany and bassist Phil Magee from the UK.
Finding their feet with 2009’s debut “Sign Language” and 2012’s “Fire To Fire” (Universal Music Germany), the band achieved numerous successes including Top 20 in the German Sales Charts and Number 1 on the Amazon & iTunes Rock Charts as well as iTunes Newcomer Album of the Year 2010. Their single “Broken” went to Top 20 and their second single “Go” was the official song for German national broadcaster ZDF during the Winter Olympics of 2010. Their music has also been featured in numerous TV shows. Their single “Human” reached N°4 of the European Charts.
While waiting for their new record “This is a Robbery” to be released, LIVINGSTON are back with a new single, titled “Show Me the Money”. On this new song, Chris (guitar / keyboards) comments:
“Well this one is a bit of a mutant. It’s a track that has come quite a long way with us and started it’s life as 2 completely different songs. A few years ago Chris and Phil had written an electro track called “Steam”. In case you’re wondering, I am Chris and yes, I just wrote about myself in the 3rd person. At pretty much the same time and “Steam” was written, Beukes had written another track which was kind of Hip Hop-esk which he called “Show Me The Money”. But at that stage we saw no connection between the two. About a year later I was driving to a holiday destination and I listened to both tracks and thought they might be interesting to somehow mould together. So when I arrived at my destination (to the delight of my girlfriend) I started to work on the mutant and then Show Me The Money was born.
It took while longer before we started proper production on it, but we knew there was something special about it. As with all our songs, the meanings are kind of abstract. One of us might think it’s about one thing, and someone else thinks it’s about another. To me at least the song becomes some kind of a personification of money, as if it is a real person. It reminds me a bit about a documentary that I saw years ago called “The Corporation”. Similarly there they psychoanalysed corporations as if they were a person. But as is the case will all our songs, you make up your own mind what the song is about to you. Cheesy but true.”
KRAYKULLA-WEBZINE 