Saturday 20 June 2015

Shoreditch Radio: WIIHAMB on New & Used

In a way, Amelia helped me fulfil a dream this week.


My school friend Amelia hosts her own show, New & Used, every other Tuesday on Shoreditch radio. For an hour every fortnight she delivers a mix of old and new obscure tracks by artists you've probably never heard of. If you like listening to things that take you on an unknown journey through time and space, it's definitely worth you tuning in to.

ANYWAY, this week Amelia asked me to join her on New & Used and I obviously jumped at the chance. This is it, my lifelong dream to "do radio" fulfilled, even if it is only a one off evening slot on an Internet station. We all gotta start somewhere, right? In reality, this isn't really a thing I want to do anymore, but it was a cool experience nevertheless.

Below, right here, embedded somewhere, hopefully, is the show that we did:



You can now listen to that to your hearts content.

I've also written a little bit about the songs I picked and why I chose them.

Holychild: Nasty Girls
I don't think I'd ever really listened to Holychild prior to the release of their debut full length 'The Shape of Brat Pop to Come' (stellar name) but I have rinsed the album since then. As I quite bluntly said, the duo are similar to Charli XCX but just a whole load better in every which way. It was tough to pick just one Holychild track but 'Nasty Girls' combines perfectly executed brat pop with excellent pop choruses.

Youth Club: People
I LOVE YOUTH CLUB SO MUCH and although things are definitely looking up for the Essex six piece, I can't understand why bigger publications aren't picking them up and they aren't absolutely exploding. Regardless, 'People' is the standout track from their second EP 'Brothers' released earlier this year.

Samm Henshaw: Only Wanna Be With You
This was a last minute pick for me, mostly because I'd already downloaded this track when it was available for free on Henshaw's soundcloud page but I'm so glad I included it. As I say during the show, this recording was a freestyle demo that they recorded on a whim one day which is insane because absolutely no element of this sounds unpolished.

A Loss For Words: All This Time
In hindsight, I should have explained more about why I picked this track during the show than I did, but as I say, A Loss For Words are retiring at the end of this year and they just played their last run of UK and European shows. I wrote loads about their last tour/show here. 'All This Time' is my favourite track on their latest album 'Before It Caves'.

Blink 182: Feeling This
Amelia explained a little at the start of the show about our combined relationship with Blink 182 and Green Day in our teenage years. Following this, I felt it only right to include 'Feeling This' in the playlist.

Maths Time Joy feat Flores: After Hours
Firstly I have to/must/need to apologise for my lack of ability to say Maths Time Joy out loud, every time this mystery 's' just appears on the end of 'Time' and I can not make it not. 'After Hours' is by faaaaaar one of my favourite tracks that I've posted on #theblog in the past month or so. I can't even describe how many times I've put this song on repeat. Flores vocals just take me to another place and with Tim Worthington himself joining in on the chorus, this is a match made in heaven.

Alessia Cara: Here
I picked 'Here' because I've heard this on the radio before and I knew it would sound huge. I said it when I originally posted this track, but I love it when a song tells a story and eighteen year old Alessia Cara nailed this one perfectly.

Lany: 4EVER!
The most actual prep for this show that Amelia and I did together was making sure that we were pronouncing Lany correctly, I was, she wasn't, you know how it is. '4EVER!' is my favourite track from their new EP 'I Loved You.' so I put it on, didn't I!

Huntar: Autumn
As previously started, 'Autumn' definitely isn't my favourite Huntar song, but I wanted to talk about him as an artiste which I was weird and nervous and rambled a little bit about. I forgot to mention that this song is free, but I did get the info in about his London headline show which is also free. Huntar, I'm invoicing you now for my commission on all ticket sales, if you could just make the cheque payable to Natalie at What If I Had A Music Blog that would be great, thanks.

The LaFontaines: Junior Dragon
This was my wildcard/doesn't really go with the theme of the rest of the show but who cares I'll do what I want choice. Fresh from seeing them live a couple of weeks ago and from the album release last week, why wouldn't everyone want to hear a rapper fronting a Scottish rock band?

Thomston: Grey
Coming completely full circle, Thomston was another artist I knew that I wanted to play but did not find it easy in the slightest to work out which song to pick. In the end I chose 'Grey', because the line about acting our age and bursting our eardrums in my dad's car really gets me.

I hope you enjoyed that little audio journey. Thank you to Amelia for having me, hopefully you'll have me back on again one day ;)

You can listen to New & Used with Amelia Maher every other Tuesday at 8pm on Shoreditch radio. She's back on air on 30th June with a special Glastonbury show!

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