Kami Maltz – On The Loose (Music Video Premier)

Kami Maltz
Kami Maltz

The city of Brooklyn currently lays claim to the exceptionally talented artist  Kami Maltz, who was born in Israel but calls Argentina home as well. Kami recently sent her fresh new single ‘On The Loose’ to Black Cat Tapes, and let’s be real we obviously LOVED IT! Kami’s voice has the dimension and warmth of a true artist, which bleeds out onto the song in an authentic way you don’t necessarily hear everyday in this disposable music ecosystem we now live in. So when it became apparent we had the great privilege of premiering the cinematically brilliant music video that accompanies this musical pearl with the rest of the new music community, we were stoked to say the least!

So in keeping with my theme of not muddling up your perception of the music with my own personal perception (too much) I thought it fitting to ask Kami her thoughts on the music and how, if at all, she believes her writing has an impact on humanity’s conscious evolution.

(Be sure to hit play on the video below if you haven’t yet, although I’m pretty sure it will make you pause from reading the interview… thankfully it’s not going anywhere!)

  1. What, if any, does inspiring humanity’s collective conscious growth, or evolution if you will, play on your art, and more specifically lyrics?

Well, I don’t really think about that when I write my lyrics, but I do believe in music as a strong connection between me and my listeners.

Someone once told me that listening to me sing made him feel like there was a lot of light in the room – that I shed light on him and feelings that he’d been avoiding.

That’s something that I like to think about when I perform or write – having this ray of light coming out of me, this pure strong energy, and spreading it outwards… connecting people to me, connecting them back with themselves – and helping them realize something about their lives. It doesn’t have to be a big dramatic thing, it could even be “I’m hurting today, and I didn’t allow myself to feel it…” or “I miss this person, maybe I should give them a call and tell them I love them.”

As long as my music keeps making people feel something, anything, I think I’m doing my job.

  1. You were born in Israel, call Argentina a second home, and are now based in Brooklyn, NY… What has this global life experience, living in such diversely different cultures, brought to your songwriting and art in general?

Yes, I’ve moved around, as a kid and now as an adult… I think living in different places, changing my life’s scenery each time, can sometimes be painful and hard. It might sound kitschy but it made me realize that no matter where you dump me, I’ll be ok eventually.

Each place where I lived, with its own stories and the relationships I’ve had with the place and the people there… has definitely affected the topics that I write about and the way I approach creating and songwriting. I mostly write about things that happened to me – feelings, dreams, desires… and I’m trying to be as honest as I can.

“On the Loose” is in English but I also sing in Hebrew, and often people come to me after a show and say how touched they were by one of my songs in Hebrew, even though they didn’t understand a single word. That’s the power of music to connect people – no matter who they are or where they’re from, and I absolutely love it.

  1. The video is brilliant! The cinematography really caught my eye, and allowed the music to sink a deep hook, personally. Can you expand for the readers a bit on what the thought process was behind the video, and maybe go a bit into the creative process you and the director had throughout its production?

I met Gabrièle Laborde (Parisian mood agency) through a mutual friend, saw her work and knew immediately this was going to be a great fit. I didn’t know exactly what we were going to do, but her aesthetics and visuals really fit mine. We started talking about the meaning of the song for me… and realized the music video will deal with the division we all have, our demons, our passions, lusts –  vs. logic and rational thought. How do we deal with this conflict? Who wins?

We started playing with the idea of the two characters, each representing one side of the coin. At the beginning we weren’t sure if the characters would be played by different people, or if I would play both. In the end we decided to have me do both, which was very ambitious. When your set is the streets of NYC, with tons of people passing by, no changing rooms and no privacy… switching between the two outfits and different makeup… it was challenging but we did it!

We did all of this on our own, just us two – which I think we really benefited from, it helped us create all these intimate, minimalistic moments.

 


Be sure to follow, share and support Kami Maltz via the links below!

Buy ‘On The Loose’ by  HERE!

Official Website, Facebook, Twitter , Instagram, YouTube, SoundCloud

 

Maths and The Moon – Interview

I was recently lucky enough to receive an advance copy of Southampton trio, Maths and the Moon‘s brand new sophomore effort Familiar Strange. The albums lead single ‘Futurist’ grabbed my attention right away with its neo-grunge heavy guitar tones, space-driven syncopated drumming, and striking vocal delivery. After listening, I just had to know more about the band so I reached out and asked the guys a handful of questions the album left burning in my mind. Below is our conversation as well as links to stream and purchase Familiar Strange via the bands official Bandcamp page.

 

Maths and the MoonWhat role does inspiring humanity’s conscious evolution play for you as a band with regards to your lyrical content, if any?

Without wanting to sound like a hippy, it’s a nice ideal that to look outwards properly, you need to look inwards first. A lot of our lyrics are introspective and deal with people’s emotions, states of mind, your connection to the world and yourself. If you were to get something from that to move forwards then, great. Writing can be cathartic and confrontational, so I guess that’s a good thing to help make sense of yourself or a situation.

Who would you say Maths and the Moon take their inspiration from musically; top 5 artists and why?

1.      Can – They are a massive influence. They have such a great mix of grooves and space in their music. You can listen to a lot of it in the same way you can with some dance music – in that it has repetitions and drones – it really takes you to the same place. Way ahead of their time and completely out-there.
2.      Bowie – the great man needs no explanation whatsoever.
3.      Nirvana – We were impressionable kids at the right time, in 1991 and their influence is unquestionable. They are the reason we picked up instruments, much like everybody else the same age as us.
4.      Deerhunter – These guys have been our modern day favourite band for years now. Their ability to mix great song writing with noise, ambience, punk, pop and psychedelia has been something we really aspire to. We love them.
5.      Primal Scream – We have always been super fans of the Scream and they’ve sound tracked our lives ever since we were teenagers so we’d have to say them. The best thing about the Scream is whatever version of them you got, you were introduced to their record collection, which made you delve even further. If it wasn’t for them, we might’ve not been such fans of Neu!, The Orb, Can, Stooges, the Velvets, Suicide etc. Hugely influential on us as a band.

What has been your most unbelievable occurrence that you have collectively experienced as a band, touring or otherwise?

We had a lot of fun along with a lot of problems each time we’ve been out to play in Germany which definitely sticks out as a great experience. Broken trailer lights fixed with new bicycle lights stuck to the back once, breaking down with a ceased engine as we got on the ferry in Dover which left us stranded in France for two days another time, that kind of thing. All whilst having the best time as a band and playing shows in completely new places. By the time we got to Hamburg, we had strangers/fans shouting for us to play certain songs that we hadn’t yet played which really felt like an achievement. Playing a UK festival dressed as Patrick Moore and some aliens was also quite a highlight gig wise once too.

As a band, what would be your collective view of the Fermi paradox?

We were extremely close to solving the Fermi Paradox back in December, but unfortunately our assistant (as seen in this video here:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ame4341QdHE ) left Planet Earth before we could get the final pieces of the jigsaw.

What are the next big things on the horizon for the group; any big dates lined up?
We have just released our new record ‘Familiar Strange’ and are looking forward to playing many more shows to promote its release – watch this space.

Where should people go to buy your music and support what you are doing as a band?

Our bandcamp page www.mathsandthemoon.bandcamp.com is the best place to find and support us – we sell digital and physical copies of our records there along with t-shirts. Both our albums ‘Night Train Daydream’ and ‘Familiar Strange’ are also available on all the other major digital sites. We also have active facebook and twitter pages too – check us out there and keep up to date.

Meow

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