From practicing in their family shed as teenagers in rural Australia, to touring the world with Fleetwood Mac, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, King Tuff, and King Gizzard, it’s been a strange trip for the four Findlay sisters. As Stonefield, they’ve got three albums and thousands of miles under their belts, plus plenty of perspective on what it’s like to fight to make a place for themselves, and tell their own story.

Written largely on the road in America earlier this year, the songs on BENT are filled with reference and reflection--the kind that comes from months spent far from home, living on four wheels. The surreal isolation of trudging through white-out snow and snaking down deserted highways served as the perfect backdrop for the band to look inward, taking stock of the journey they’ve taken thus far as musicians, and as people. “It’s a culmination of experiences, emotions, and stories collected over time,” explains lead singer and drummer Amy Findlay, “A growth of honest, raw, energy that has been burning within us and waiting for its moment.”

Recorded in just five days with Joe Walker and Stu Mackenzie from King Gizzard at their studio in Melbourne, the album is almost 100% live. Besides being an impressive feat and the flexing of a confident band operating at the height of their powers, that immediacy lends the album a distinct, crackling energy--thunder, lightning, and muscle-bound horsepower. “Sleep” opens the album with guitars covered in five inches of sludge and distortion and something that sounds like a far-off siren, or the high-pitched howling of the wind. It serves as a warning, a call to arms, kicking things off with a next-level version of the massive, unholy racket the band has become known for over the course of their last three albums. 

The sonic inspiration taken from listening to Black Sabbath, Beak, Deep Purple, The Alan Parsons Project, and Mike Oldfield inject BENT with its sternum-shaking heaviness and ever-present swagger, but also its exploratory fearlessness--letting the songs loose to twist and turn, sticking to no one’s rules but their own. Take the proggy, keyboard-soaked intro at the top of “People,” or the cheeky combination of tinnitus-inducing hard rock and hip-shaking boogie at the core of “Dead Alive.” “Don’t make me think I’ve lost control / I know exactly what you said / Don’t make me think it’s in my head,” Amy sings during the latter, keeping the lyrics as defiant as the music.

“The album is about our own experiences and stories,” explains Amy, “Songs about the fear of walking home alone at night, stories of what it’s like being an all-female band and the power of supporting one another." With that being the lyrical subject, the music that came out is definitely our heaviest.” It’s clear that darker thoughts were on the Findlay sisters’ mind-- “Route 29,” with its suspenseful synth intro was inspired by the creepy The Route 29 Stalker podcast the band was listening to as they drove the namesake road on their way to a gig with King Tuff, and the cascading synth line and slinky restraint of the hi-hat on “If I Die” can only distract so much from the song’s terror-stricken lyrics.

BENT has all the chills and spills you would expect from an album that mines inspiration from some of the darker experiences of being misrepresented, belittled, and underestimated. By taking control of the narrative, and pumping it up with stack-blowing, guitar hero riffs and razor-edged vocals, it becomes an album of power, control, and confidence--projected in the face of a world that too often forces the opposite.

A boutique record label, tour promoter, blog and occasional party enthusiasts from Australia.
www.iohyou.com

Label Roster: 
City Calm Down, DMA's, DZ Deathrays, Montgomery, Violent Soho.

Alumni:
Bleeding Knees Club, Snakadaktal

New single 'We Are Affected' out now.
Available for purchase tomorrow!

'Heirs & Graces' - http://smarturl.it/clbfthg

One of Australia’s most-loved alt-pop darlings, Owl Eyes (Brooke Addamo), releases her first solo music for some time, the dreamy new single ‘On Me’. A poignant ode to finding power within oneself in the face on uncertainty, ‘On Me’ marks the anticipated return of Owl Eyes.

‘On Me’ showcases all that we have come to know and love when Owl Eyes comes to mind. On the single, Owl Eyes represents an honest fragility sitting tightly beside a humble strength that comes with growing into who you are as a person. Written and rewritten many times over the course of a year, ‘On Me’ has taken on a number of different personas, never quite feeling right for Brooke to release but also hanging in the wings like the shadow of a dream. It took an understanding and acceptance of her vulnerability for the song to truly come to the surface.

Produced in collaboration with Aeroplane, it wasn’t until he sent Brooke a version with added strings and cassette piano that the lyrics for the chorus finally came to her. Within 20 minutes, the rest of the song poured out of her.

Owl Eyes captured the hearts and minds of both fans and media with her hugely successful debut LP Nightswim (2013) which cultivated the young artist a legion of dedicated and loyal fans, not to mention widespread acclaim. Featuring the title track and fan favourite ‘Nightswim’ and lead single ‘Closure’ (over 3 million streams), Nighswim saw the Melbourne artist undertake a sold out national headline tour, extensive metro and regional tours, perform on national TV on RockWizz, head to the US for SXSW Festival and grace the cover of magazines throughout the country. Owl Eyes has also featured on tracks with the likes of Illy on ‘It Can Wait’ and on Flight Facilities’ smash hit ‘Heart Attack’.

Over the last few years, Owl Eyes has been touring the world as a vocalist with Flight Facilities, the opportunity allowing her to perform to huge crowds across the globe including coveted slots at Coachella and Glastonbury. She features as the main vocalist on the dance duo’s live recording of their set at Melbourne’s Sidney Myer Music Bowl with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.

In and around her hectic touring commitments, Owl Eyes has been refining her craft both as an artist and songwriter. She has found time around tour dates to write on her own and collaboratively in LA and in Europe. One such collaboration seeing her flex her songwriting prowess on Slumberjack’s mammoth hit ‘Fracture (feat. Vera Blue)’ which is approaching 7 million streams. 

With more music hanging in her wings, we can’t wait to see what else Owl Eyes has in store.

A & R / Artist Manager / Agent | Mushroom Group, Melbourne

City Calm Down is a live electronic four piece from Melbourne, Australia. 

Band: contact[at]citycalmdown.com

Management: craig[at]fivefourentertainment.com.au

Bookings: ryoung[at]mweentertainment.com

Label: johann[at]iohyou.com

Publishing: info[at]mushroommusic.com.au

"One listen of City Calm Down’s Movements EP is enough to hear why these guys are so hotly tipped. It’s also long enough to deduce that they know it."
Fasterlouder [Feature Album]

"Intense and frantic, [City Calm Down have] created evocative music well beyond their experience ... There are a lot of bands trying to make this type of music at the moment, but most of them aren’t (nearly) this good. City Calm Down have delivered on a major scale with Movements, and this release signals them as a major force in Australian music going forward. Definitely one to watch."
Indie Shuffle

"...City Calm Down are making music far beyond their years, and with the quality of music they’re producing currently, it would be worth keeping an eye on them to see where they end up." - 8/10
Tone Deaf

"This is patient, carefully considered art, with gorgeously arranged instrumentation and beautiful songwriting."
Inpress Magazine

"...one of the more alarmingly dense EPs in recent memory."
Beat Magazine

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