Originally hailing from the Scottish town of Greenock, Strakerbarlow AKA Gareth O’Neill is a Perth WA-based singer/songwriter who is driven to get his songs out into the world.  
O’Neill was for many years a guitarist in various bands, but when pandemic complications skittled the last outfit he was playing in, he felt compelled to step forward as an artist in his own right. 
“I think when you're in a band it’s one of the best things in the world, but it also can be like trying to steer a cruise ship,” O’Neill says. “I feel like I'm getting to the age where I don't really have time for compromise. I just want to do it myself, the way I think it should sound.” 
That sound is earthy yet atmospheric. Ethereal at times but of flesh and blood and borne of a diverse range of influences, from the Rolling Stones to Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds and a melange of ‘60s UK folk. 
"There’s quite a bit of darkness in the songs,” O’Neill notes. “They can be quite cinematic, which I think really comes from the Bad Seeds. I really loved when they used to do those driving, Ennio Morricone type songs. 
“I also really like John Martyn, Bert Jansch and Nick Drake, those guys really influence how I play acoustic guitar. I think quite visually. I really enjoy arranging my music so it sounds like it could be in a film, evoking something sinister and atmospheric.”
O’Neill’s songs evoke a feeling of twilight and that moment of reflection before night falls is there to embrace in songs such as Push Against The Sun, the weaving, open-tuned guitars embracing the lyrics that were inspired by Justin Cronin’s post–apocalyptic book, The Passage.
“It's about two people who stay up all night by a fire, and they’ve both fallen for each other,” O’Neill explains. “They're both kind of feeling each other out, to see if something will happen... two people who don't want the night to end, basically.”    
Words by Bob Gordon 
http://www.facebook.com/bob.gordon.906

Sinatraboi's Turnin' it Arounddd

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Formed in 2006 in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Slow Down Molasses rank among Western Canada’s finest musical exports. Their third album, 100% Sunshine, will be released on September 2, 2016 on Noyes Records, and forges new sonic territory for the band while retaining their unique hybrid of ’90s Anglophilia and contemporary Canadian rock. 2015’s Burnt Black Cars was hailed as “drug-drenched psych-pop” by Q magazine and “immediately memorable and timeless” by The Line of Best Fit, with the band going on to share the stage with the New Pornographers, Swervedriver, Built to Spill, Preoccupations (fka Viet Cong) and the Besnard Lakes. Veterans of festivals across North America (SXSW, CMJ, NXNE, Sled Island) as well as European (Incubate, End of the Road, Liverpool Sound City, Great Escape, Reeperbahn, Nouvelle Prague), the band are renowned as a euphoric live experience, with Exclaim praising their “huge, stadium-ready sound and colourful presence”. Slow Down Molasses are singer/guitarist Tyson McShane, drummer Jordan Kurtz, bassist Chris Morin, guitarist/keyboardist Aaron Scholz, guitarist Levi Soulodre and keyboardist/singer Jeanette Stewart.

Band contact: slowdownmolasses at gmail dot com
Management contact: emily at southernbird dot com

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