News
Premiere: Brisbane artist Aren’t unveils debut single, the transfixing ‘The Black from the Dark ft McKisko’ and announces debut EP.
Brisbane band Requin burned brightly but tragically briefly, leaving behind an impressive body of work (see our review of the single ‘Rules That Won’t Be Broken’ last year). All is not lost however – Fionn Richards from the band has formed the project Aren’t, and we are honoured to provide an exclusive listen to the …
PREMIERE: My Son the Doctor play with pop-punk tropes on spiky new song ‘Bethany’
Subversions of popular songwriting tropes, if done well, can really speak to an artist’s strengths. In the case of Brooklynite new wave bunch My Son the Doctor, their new song skewers a classic pop-punk fallback: the mutually toxic relationship. Its subject? Er… we’ll let the band explain that one. “We genuinely love pop-punk and thought, …
Premiere: Melbourne’s Skybelly unveils the chapter of an exotic space adventure in the dreamy track ‘Sapphire’, ahead of debut album.
The vivid, sparkling and unbound imagination of Sara Nelson, working under the name Skybelly, creates a whole new universe in her forthcoming album ‘A Space Tramp Odyssey’, due out on 23 September 2021. As a taste of what’s to come, we are honoured to premiere the track ‘Sapphire’ which is due out on 17 September …
Track: Brisbane’s dream pop queen Hatchie is back with another incandescent shimmering single ‘This Enchanted’ and news of singing with US label Secretly Canadian
There’s a frisson of excitement in Backseat Mafia’s antipodean offices. It’s been two years since Brisbane’s dream pop queen Hatchie graced us with her presence with her album ‘Keepsake’ (see my review here), and while she has raised her head above the parapets with a few collaborations (including her duo on the stunning Rinse single …
News: The Charlatans reveal music box in support of ‘The Music Venue Trust’
Who doesn’t love those little wind up music boxes of yesteryear, and also The Charlatans anthem ‘The Only One I Know’. Well certainly not us here at Backseat Mafia, and in our offices (well, house), I have a resplendent Richard Hawley music box on the shelves, and my battered 12” of The only one I …
Meet: We chat to John Russell from Brisbane’s glorious 4000 Records label on music, passion, mixtapes and the 4000 Records Birthday Party.
4000 Records in Brisbane is celebrating its second birthday today – an innovative boutique agency that has on its roster some of the most exciting and diverse talent in Brisbane. And that is quite a feat considering Brisbane is an absolute hotbed of artistic talent at the moment. Backseat Mafia has enthusiastically reviewed output from …
PREMIERE: Canadians Dear Rouge rail against influencer culture on storming return ‘Fake Fame’
It’s been a hot minute since we heard from Canadian duo Dear Rouge; the duo of Drew and Danielle McTaggart have kept a relatively low profile since the release of their second album Phases in 2018, and what have they been up to since then? Well, it hasn’t all been downtime – they’ve completed work …
PREMIERE: Broke Royals spruce up their sound with help from Bartees Strange on crackling new track ‘Postcard’
Sometimes, a small change can make a big difference; for Washington D.C. quartet Broke Royals, that change was brought about by bringing on their contemporary Bartees Strange as a test-run producer for new material that would be collected as a follow-up to their 2019 second album Saint Luxury. It paid off: Strange encouraged the band …
News: Richard Ashcroft (The Verve) announces new solo album of acoustic songs from his back catalogue and drops shimmering version of ‘Bittersweet Symphony’
Richard Ashcroft is set to release the new album ‘Acoustic Hymns Vol. 1’ on October 29th via RPA / BMG. The album features twelve newly recorded acoustic versions of classic songs from his back catalogue spanning both his solo career and his time with The Verve. The album is now available to pre-order here with ‘Bittersweet Symphony’ provided as an instant download. You can have a listen to …
Track: Sydney singer songwriter Jack Nolan unveils an atmospheric slice of Americana in his new single ‘Gabriel’, title track to new album due for release in October
Sydney’s Jack Nolan has a new single out, ‘Gabriel’, which is an atmospheric slice of what is called American, (amusingly translated to the Australian milieu as Darlinghurst Country – inner city urban country). An evocative piece of storytelling is delivered in a multilayered parcel that jangles and sparkles with an organic feel. Nolan’s vocals and …