After releasing ‘Drinker’ as a one-off single earlier this year, Minas returns with the four track EP “Nudge”, released Friday 27th November.

The EP is a flurry of recent work, with reflections on recent situations. 'Take Me With You' dives headfirst into the current feeling and situation. It asks for salvation in a time of threat, uncertainty, division and chaos. The chant of "lockdown, lockdown, lockdown" is an angry cry of frustration amongst a distorted diatribe against powerfully overdriven beats.  “What My Monster Looks Like” haunts with its warning “you’d be out of sight if you knew what my monster looks like” and repeats “never mind” in an all too familiar apathy. Pulsing bass and looped samples push the track forward.

'Gander’ is brutally melancholic at first, echoing and duplicating as it emerges from one theme, the monotonous loop and cycle of not being able to move forward or do something. It then transforms into a dance beat - evoking freer times - before exposing the original theme again, losing the memory for reality. An acoustic guitar evokes sweet resonance on "As It Goes" under the raw honesty of a final argument at the end of a relationship. The structure also grounds it in the Groundhog Day feeling a lot of people have been experiencing this year. The EP winds its way through both jarring and soulful transitions as well, capturing a state of mind that bounces between chaos and serenity at whim.

Minas is the project from Cardiff producer James Minas alongside drummer Greg Davies and bassist Bob Williams. The songs tell stories of a chequered past over a mix of deep melodic soundscapes and loud, aggressive stanzas. Covering subjects from personal struggles with mental health to finding a place in the society we have. As a producer James is working to build a new sound for the South Wales scene with a number of artists and genres (such as Luke RV, Razkid, Mace and more) but as an artist he presents brutal honesty going against his natural defenses to present the most open and vulnerable self for anyone who wishes to listen.

Minas grew up in the circus with parents who were heavily involved in the 1980’s Punk scene and then moved to secondary school in the Welsh Valleys, with the boredom and misbehaviour that came with it. Minas aims to create music that discusses these things and ends with an empowering feeling of hope, something we all need in right now

Stream/Download

Nudge

All My Love Has Failed Me

Grazes

Loving You Is A Losing Game (Minas Rework) - Davina Michelle

Shush

Payday

Foreign

Chatty Patty

Cutting Off

I Wish I Could Be 23 Again

The Public Ain't Spoken (feat. Freddy Forbidden)

Flutters

Stress (feat. Razkid)

R U OK, UK?

A song about being too far inside your own mind and being a victim to your own thoughts. Morphed samples and synths from various places with some nice strings to make a dark atmosphere for y'all.

Time To Yourself

Come Clean (Minas Rework) - Mudlark

Gender

Dayz

Out now Gutterbreed Records

Songlink: https://song.link/6bmktjkqdtn8q
Music video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DbwXKm5wsfs

FFO: Sleaford Mods, Shellac, The Prodigy, Slowthai, Deftones

‘PAYDAY’ is the relentless first single from Minas’s debut album “All My Love Has Failed Me”

‘Payday’ incorporates a clash of punk and electronica that James Minas as a producer has crafted over the course of three years alongside his band (bassist Bob Williams and drummer Greg Davies).  It’s a skewed sideways track with a simplistic yet aggressive bass and drum combination sitting unrelentingly under a strung out, spitting vocal performance.

Taking influence from the DIY punk of Shellac and experimental electronica from Burial, Minas has combined a wide lineage of influence, as well as considering new sounds and messages from the likes of Slowthai and Sleaford Mods. This combination, plus further strong inspiration from The Prodigy and Deftones, makes up a musical, lyrical and thematic basis on which Minas has threaded through stories both grounded in his own reality and conjured up to reflect the state of society.

‘Payday’ digs into frustration and angst with a crooked grin attached. Self deprecating humour describes an almost idle boredom marked by depravity and desperation. Its chorus speaks to the title “I get paid Friday, trust me I am good for it” Minas howls over the increasing noise of his band. 

The last year has been Minas’s most prolific, releasing two singles ‘Drinker’ and “Burner” (both with forward thinking music videos and playlisted by Dummy magazine) as well as the EP ‘Nudge’, written, recorded and released in a span of a couple of months in lockdown. Minas was also granted BBC Horizons Launchpad funding in cooperation with the Arts Council Of Wales. This has afforded him the opportunity to create a unique recorded live show during a time where his charged, manic, crowd-fueled sets aren’t possible. Set within the walls of a circus rehearsal space in what was once a Cardiff chapel, the three piece band played through the album to no one. The show is set to be released with the album later this year.

- Ends -

Additional Info / Past Reviews / Lyrics

Interviews/Blogs/Online/Print - contact: info@edtownend.co.uk
Radio - contact: olli@obscenestrategies.co.uk 
ISRC: USHM22113005 - PRS Tunecode: 413528CV - UPC: 198000332082 
Full assets: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/fw60he5r8xpr39p/AADs3JDlyFNjw1Wrl81UQDtxa?dl=0

‘All My Love Has Failed Me’ was put together in 2019, and includes engineering contributions from Charlie Francis who has worked with Future Of The Left and Manic Street Preachers. Francis has become a vocal supporter and production mentor to Minas over the last few years.

LYRICS

I was dragging my ass across the floor like a dog, mate.
You got like 4 and I’ll pay you later? Mate?
He was like “you’ve had 6 off me this week bruv!” Mate!
Ha this tolerance mate it’s gone up init.
Though…

I get paid Friday, I get paid Friday, I get paid Friday.
Trust me I am good for it.
Trust me I am good for it.
I get paid Friday, I get paid Friday, I get paid Friday.
Trust me I am good for it.
Trust me I am good for it.

My housemates staying in his room,
We’re blasting tunes, I mix up codeine in the kitchen while he munches his noodles.
My parents were punks and I’m being youthful,
What is this revelation, we’re all stuck on phones, you’ll get run over,
I used to break shit to fix things.

I get paid Friday, I get paid Friday, I get paid Friday.
Trust me I am good for it.
Trust me I am good for it.
I get paid Friday, I get paid Friday, I get paid Friday.
Trust me I am good for it.
Trust me I am good for it.

An acoustic guitar evokes sweet resonance on "As It Goes" under the raw honesty of a final argument at the end of a relationship. The structure also grounds it in the Groundhog Day feeling a lot of people have been experiencing this year.

Minas says: "As It Goes is the rawest song I've ever done - its about an occasion that led to my girlfriend leaving, and it was kind of a wake up call which led to the self reflection in the song. It helped me realise I'm just being a fuck up, I've let things go to far, I don't like who I've become and I am going to change things. It wasn't viable and I won't survive like this. If anything the song is therapy, cathartic - it's me not hiding behind vocal effects. The song is the reflection."

"As It Goes" is the final track from the upcoming four-track EP 'Nudge' which showcases a flurry of recent creations from Minas across a whole spectrum of moods and sounds.

Lyrics:
Think it was 4 weeks ago I had another friend dip,
Talked about losing his head again, I know the feeling mate.
And she, when we say she in songs you know we mean trouble.
Nah jokes, but seriously though I was in kinda trouble,
I’d forgotten who I was for about a month, head was deep in the music thing and I was making beats for the boys,
But I’d forgotten about me and my girlfriends anniversary.
I always forget something.
Always fucking forget something.
I unfortunately didn’t take it like a champ,
I kicked off like “how am I supposed to remember anything.. you’ve seen my calendar it’s a madness I don’t even schedule in breaks anymore!” 
That kinda thing.
Fully my problem though init.
So I was finding life hard again,
Pretty hard.
Like the best of us do.

Wish I fucking liked it more,
I wish I fucking liked it more.

Once drunk in love once drugs I loved once took enough to lose enough,
As it goes.
Benzos benzos and no hopes.
Train wreck heads a mess you know those ones.
Anyways, that nostalgia’s a killer I’ll tell you that much,
You ever scroll through your old photos and think life was always better beforehand?
I was doing that for what felt like ages,
Obsessing over getting my life together while wasting time trying to get my life together.
She had no time left for that shit.
Plus the fact I treated her like shit most days.
Push and pull I was told to call it,
I want you I don’t want you but I need you always,
Usually ended up screaming that I didn’t need her but I did,
Was clear as day when she left.
Ah fuck I’ve done it now,
The support circle dwindles once more,
I’ll make that 2 Guiness then.
Alright let’s make a plan to get her back, think you’ve been a fuck up long enough it doesn’t seem to look as cool anymore, does it?
Does it?

Pre-save

As It Goes

'Gander’ is brutally melancholic at first, echoing and duplicating as it emerges from one theme, the monotonous loop and cycle of not being able to move forward or do something. It then transforms into a dance beat - evoking freer times - before exposing the original theme again, losing the memory for reality.

Minas says: "Gander" is about missing rave and gig culture in isolation, the lyrics. the few there are, are pretty obvious with that and they repeat as a kinda boredom, slightly going crazy as you repeat yourself"

Lyrics:

I let it go but can’t stop thinking about it.
It’s a safer option.
Feel like putting my head through a window.
Just missing going outside.

Gander

What My Monster Looks Like” haunts with its warning “you’d be out of sight if you knew what my monster looks like” and repeats “never mind” in an all too familiar apathy. Pulsing bass and looped samples push the track forward.

Minas says "the track is about being scared to get close to someone you love when it feels like you're hiding a dark part. It's about the other side of us, the one we don't like, don't recognise and hide from view"

"What My Monster Looks Like" is from the upcoming four-track EP 'Nudge' which showcases a flurry of recent creations from Minas across a whole spectrum of moods and sounds.

Lyrics:

You’d be out of sight,
If you knew what my,
Monster looked like,
You’d have to hide your eyes.
Step right back into,
Where your comfort lies,
I’d be as sketched out as you,
If I weren’t so tired.
I don’t recognise,
What I look like I’m,
Scared to wear nothing,
You don’t have scars like mine.

Never mind, you’re never mine.

What My Monster Looks Like

'Take Me With You' dives headfirst into the current feeling and situation. It asks for salvation in a time of threat, uncertainty, division and chaos. The chant of "lockdown, lockdown, lockdown" is an angry cry of frustration amongst a distorted diatribe against powerfully overdriven beats.

Minas says: "This track imagines if Jesus came down to earth and for some reason landed in front of me. It's me begging for him to save us because the world is fucked"

It is the first track from the upcoming four-track EP 'Nudge' which showcases a flurry of recent creations from Minas across a whole spectrum of moods and sounds.

Lyrics:

Save us, just save us all,
I was aiming for another ride,
Took my lessons and kept to the side.
Say nada, you wrecking ball,
I heard that you’re from another time,
Take me with you I don’t wanna die.

They said you came to save us,
You seen cases? The rates up.
You must have room on your back for most of us,
Jesus Christ just don’t ignore us,

Jesus Christ just don’t ignore us,
They said you came to save us,
We’re all sick in the brick walls they built us,
But some of your followers mate, they’ve scathed us,
Is this plague you brought here made to save us?

Lockdown lockdown lockdown lockdown I forget numbers,
Take me with you I don’t wanna die,
Lockdown lockdown lockdown lockdown I forget numbers,
Who would a man like you take to heaven?

Gassed up gassed up youts, that’s all we are mate,
Have another one, that’s all you need mate,
This is what the world's like now, what do you think of this place?
This is what the world's like now, what do you think of this place?

Minas

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