Riverman Music Group

Placebo

PLACEBO NEW ALBUM – BATTLE FOR THE SUN

After thirteen years, five studio albums, ten million album sales, breakdowns, clean ups and the dizzy swell of global success, Placebo needed a change. As the world tour for their 1.1million selling fifth album ‘Meds’ wound to a close in 2007 after eighteen months of rapturously received arena shows across the globe – taking in scenes of fandemonium and stadium appearances in Chile, Mexico, Brazil France and Germany – they found themselves a broken band.

“At the end of the ‘Meds’ tour Placebo was a band only really in name,” says Brian Molko. “The ‘Meds’ tour for us was a really successful tour. We were able to build upon what we had worked really hard at doing as far as our live following was concerned, over the past ten years. We could really start to see the fruits of our labour this time in terms of the amount of people that were coming to the shows. But when you’re sat on a tourbus and no-one is talking to each other and people are avoiding eye contact with each other and people are saying to each other ‘it’s not fun anymore’ then you really need to readdress what’s going on within the dynamic of the band and it was basically all due to the breakdown of personal relationships. It became obvious to myself and to Stefan (Olsdal, bass) that without a personnel change within the band there would be absolutely no way for this band to continue.”

So shortly after the tour finished, Steve Hewitt – Placebo’s drummer since 1996 when he took over the stool from original sticksman Robert Schultzberg on the eve of the band’s first major hit ‘Nancy Boy’ – left the band. Having made four albums that have sold over a million copies each (1998’s ‘Without You I’m Nothing’, 2000’s ‘Black Market Music’, 2003’s ‘Sleeping With Ghosts’ and ‘Meds’ in 2006) and circled the globe together countless times, it was an understandably emotional split.

“Being in a band is very much like being in a marriage,” Brian explains, “and in the 21st century marriages seem to run their course, and this is kind of what happened within Placebo, we grew apart as people. I think what we were looking for from the band and what we were trying to achieve somewhere along the line had completely splintered and we’d gone off in different directions.”

Still brimming with new and vibrant ideas – “we still had new musical avenues to explore,” Stefan puts it - Molko and Olsdal returned to the form of one-on-one writing that had started the band back in 1994. Their contract with Virgin had expired after ‘Meds’ and, reluctant to throw themselves back into the major label machine, they grasped the opportunity of complete artistic freedom and decided to self-fund their sixth studio record, setting out with the vague intention to make a starburst of a record.

“I wanted to make a record which was very colourful,” says Brian, “because I felt that ‘Meds’ was pretty dark and pretty down and there were certain moments on ‘Meds’ that were probably the bleakest moments musically and emotionally that we’d had in our career. I wanted to do something a bit more upbeat and optimistic, almost psychedelic in a true sense of the word, not necessarily inspired directly by psychedelic music but full of colour. I wanted to do something that had a libidinous quality to it.”

By the summer of 2008 they’d amassed eighteen new songs, the most fresh material they’d ever taken into the studio. They’d also amassed a new young drummer, 22-year-old Californian Steve Forrest, whom they’d first spotted playing with one of their US support bands Evaline in 2006. “He captured our attention,” Stefan explains. “Standing side of stage, we thought ‘this guy’s got something’.”

“It wasn’t until over a year later when news got out that Placebo was a man down,” Brian continues, “that lots of drummers started getting in touch, one of which was Steve Forrest. One of the criteria was that we wanted to find somebody who hadn’t been successful before, who hadn’t been in another band that had sold a lot of records or had a big live following. We were looking for somebody whose enthusiasm could rub off on us, who would experience all of these things that we’d already experienced for the first time and for their excitement to raise us up out of our jadedness and make us into kids again.”

The songs they’d written – several born from a writing stint Brian spent on a river boat moored in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower - demanded production muscle. They turned to producer Dave Bottrill, largely impressed by his work with Tool. “We really wanted to do something sonically that was enormous,” says Brian. “There’s a lot of people you can work with who can do that but I think one of the most enormous sounding bands on the planet is Tool.”

Recorded over three months in Bottrill’s Toronto studio and mixed in London by My Bloody Valentine, Smashing Pumpkins and Nine Inch Nails supremo Alan Moulder, the new album ‘Battle For The Sun’ is a startling, alive, vital and boundary-vaulting Placebo record. From the scouring rock of ‘Kitty Litter’ to the epic title track, the New Order-ish ‘Happy You’re Gone’, the stadium-surveying ‘Speak In Tongues’ and ‘Bright Lights’, the most upbeat pop Placebo song ever recorded, it’s swathed sparingly in strings and brass, as big as it is ballsy. It is, according to Brian, “not hard rock and it’s not pop, it’s probably hard pop. I think we’ve made a record which is almost the flipside of ‘Meds’. We’ve made a record about choosing life, about choosing to live, about stepping out of the darkness and into the light. Not necessarily turning your back on the darkness because it’s there, it’s essential, it’s a part of who you are, but more about the choice of standing in the sunlight instead.”

And out of the shackles too. When it came to discussions on releasing the record, Placebo took the brave and uncompromising step to either secure licensing or distribution agreements for the record with a number of smaller labels in each territory – beginning with a distribution deal with PIAS for Europe - so as to own the record themselves.

“It left us with a little bit of a bitter taste in our mouth to be part of such a huge corporation where a contract is a contract and it’s hard to get out of,” says Stefan, “it’s a bit shackling. The industry is changing, you’ve got to move with the times and in a way the control is reverting back more to the artist, the industry is in a bit of a slump, so we wanted to more carefully pick and choose how our records were going to be released.”

The line-up of Placebo Mark 3 made a memorable live debut. Midway through mixing the record an offer from MTV Exit, a charitable organisation working to raise awareness of human trafficking, invited them to headline a semi-acoustic show in front of Angkor Wat temple in Cambodia in December 2008, an offer they couldn’t refuse bearing in mind Brian had been there on vacation a few years earlier and had come back begging to organise a gig there.

“It’s carving out a little place in history for yourself,” Brian grins, “to be the first band to headline a gig in front of a twelfth century Buddhist temple is really not too bad a thing to have on your CV. We were asked to do a semi-acoustic show and we took it to mean if it’s semi-acoustic then it’s also semi-electric so instead of trying to strip everything down to acoustic guitars, to try to rearrange our songs in a slightly more mellow, spaced out way and create a unique evening that was perhaps never going to be performed that way again.”

Their growing schedule of European festival headline dates certainly won’t be ‘stripped down’, that’s for sure – already the band have announced headline sets shows at Rockness in Scotland, Rock Werchter in Belgium, Poland’s Heineken Open’er Festival, the Arras Festival in France, Sweden’s Siesta Festival, Paleo and Moon & Stars Festivals both in Switzerland, Rockwave Festival in Greece, Sziget Festival in Hungary, Pinkpop in Holland, Spain’s Bilbao Live, Rock Am Ring, Rock Im Park in Germany, Norway’s Quart Festival and Provinssirock in Finland, touring a six-piece band including a violinist.

“I’m very optimistic about the future,” Brian smiles contentedly. “I’m in a positive frame of mind and a good head space. It’s very exciting. There’s a lot of life in the old dog just yet.”

Let ‘Battle’ commence…

Expatriate

EXPATRIATE are Ben King (Vocals/Guitars), Cristo (Drums), Damian Press (Keys/Guitars) and Dave Molland (Bass).

Originally from Sydney, Australia, EXPATRIATE released their debut album ‘IN THE MIDST OF THIS’ in Australia and New Zealand in 2006 which catapulted the band into the limelight to huge critical acclaim. The album was nominated for an ARIA Award (Australia’s BRITS) for “Best Breakthrough Artist for an album” and received great support from the influential national alternative radio station Triple J. Subsequently the band toured Australia with Powderfinger, Silverchair, The Presets and Wolfmother as well as appearing at The Big Day Out and Splendour In The Grass festivals.

After solidifying their place in the contemporary musical landscape of Australia, the four members are now, in fact, expatriates; following the band’s relocation the rather colder climate of Berlin in the winter of 2008. The main catalyst for the relocation came from Riverman Management, the company behind Placebo, taking the band on and managing them. As a result, "In The Midst of This" was released in continental Europe on October 19th 2009 through [PIAS] International. The album, with a brand new track listing, features the band’s debut single, ‘Crazy’, released on September 28th 2009.

Touring in 2009 saw Expatriate play at a number of Europe’s largest rock festivals including Sziget, Nova Rock, Werchter and Rockwave as well as German mega festivals Rock am Ring and Rock im Park. The year was spectacularly rounded off with a 24 arena date tour as main support to PLACEBO, travelling through France, Germany, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Latvia and Austria, followed by 7 EXPATRIATE headline shows in Switzerland, Paris and Germany.

The album was release in the UK on 1 March 2010, with single ‘Blackbird’ released digitally on the same day.

After a short summer festival run in summer 2010 the band headed to the UK to record long awaited second album ‘Hyper/Hearts’, with producer Andy Savours at the famous Monnow Valley Studios in Monmouth, Wales. The band returned to their Berlin home studio in 2011 where they put the finishing touches to the record, as well as recording 2 new tracks.

The band have now returned to Australia to kick start the second album campaign, releasing first single ‘Miracle Mile’ on 8 November in Australia and New Zealand on Dew Process. ‘Hyper/Hearts’ is set for release in early 2012.

For any further info please contact: Alex@riverman.co.uk / Hide@riverman.co.uk

Evaline

Patterned EP – Riverman Records – Released April 18th

Kerrang

'Impressive anthemic rock'
(Sept 2010)

Record Of The Day

'Epic, melodic rock which will sound great on the radio'
(Oct 10)

AndPOP Best of SXSW

'Evaline played a stadium sized show that had everyone within five blocks buzzing like mad. Topped off by one of the most impressive and dramatic front men in music today, the only problem is finding a venue big enough to put them in.'
(March 2011)

For those of us waiting for the next band to take over our minds, hearts and souls here comes EVALINE – think of the skill of Radiohead and add in a helping of Jane’s Addiction for energy - with a full quota of startling tracks, complex rock songs that use layered sounds, intense guitars and swooning vocals matched for once with a high energy live show that has been gathering fans in every city they play.

JEN WALKER (ROCK SOUND)
Evaline: Patterned EP (Riverman Records)

There have always been hints of Jane’s Addiction, Radiohead and Placebo in Evaline’s music, but despite the easy reference points their music is harder to categorise. Patterned may only showcase three tracks but each offers something different; from the grungy riffs of the title track to the melodic-rock of Beneath The Fire, there’s something refreshing and effortless about this EP and that’s what makes it great.

By late 2010 the band had finished recording a stack of new songs for their forthcoming debut album, titled 'Woven Material', produced by Dan Austin (Doves, Cherry Ghost, QOTSA ) and includes the forthcoming single Hours (release April 18th) and favourite live track There There (mixed by Adrian Bushby).

The first fruits of their labour can be heard on the beautiful and powerful EP PATTERNED, which serves as an introduction to the new EVALINE with the tracks: ‘Hours’, ‘Beneath the Fire’ and ‘Patterned’. Listen to the full EP: on soundcloud

Evaline started touring their new songs in summer 2010 with an East Coast tour with Paper Tongues, Neon Trees and Civil Twilight. There followed dates with Deftones,Dredg, Dir en Grey and Apocalyptica throughout the USA. In September 2010 the band arrived in the UK, supporting Placebo at Brixton and Young Guns on regional tour dates gaining early approval from the UK press.

Replace with- Debut album ‘Woven Material’ was released on 27th June 2011, and coincided with a European summer festival tour, including Download and Hard Rock Calling (UK), Hurricane and Southside (Germany), Rock Werchter (Belgium) and Arras Main Square (France), as well as club shows in Amsterdam and Paris, finally rounding off the tour playing as support to My Chemical Romance at the iTunes Festival in London.

The band returned in November for a 13 date European tour with BUSH, with an additional show to a sold out 8k capacity Paris Zenith as support to French mega-buzz band Shaka Ponk.

For any further info please contact: James Sherry at Division PR on 020 8962 8282 / 07939 207828

Officers

An epic coalition of colossal beats, soaring guitars and abyssal bass. Expelling unadulterated euphoria and glacial menace.

You could almost call the songs Anti-Anthems.

The band self produced their debut album ‘On The Twelve Thrones’ over the last 2 years, with the finishing touches in the mix from Dave Bascombe (Soulwax, Depeche Mode) and Tim Holmes, from of the fabulous Death In Vegas.

The band joined forces with highly acclaimed contemporary Pop-Artist Stuart Semple (www.stuartsemple.com) on all the art creative, including the logo, EP cover, photo’s, album, album promo’s and the very limited edition ‘Book Set’, plus a series of limited edition band logo screen prints due. The band and Stuart have combined to inspire each other on the creation of the bands visual identity.

The first sounds off the record came in the form of the ‘Co-Education EP’, released in August 2011 which featured 2 tracks off the record as well as a remix by Tim Holmes. The full album was released on 17th October, and had it’s physical incarnation in the form of a week long listening booth installation at Rough Trade East, created by Stuart Semple and the band.

Eddy Temple-Morris (XFm)
“best new band by a f*cking country mile”.

Music Week
“A cataclysmic slice of sexual tension, driving electronic pulses and beautifully powered vocals.”

Rock Sound
“Destined for greatness 9/10”

Soundsphere
“A Serious contender for anyone’s album of the year. Brilliant.”

Gary Numan also selected the album as his LP of the year for Artrocker.

Gary Nock

Gary Nock is an English acoustic singer-songwriter originally from Walsall in the West Midlands but as a child his family relocated to the sleepy seaside town of Dawlish in Devon. Gary first picked up a guitar at 17 years old and could therefore be considered something of a late ‘starter’. After a few quick lessons from a friend he borrowed an old nylon stringed Spanish Guitar and locked himself away in his bedroom and began working his way through book after book of classic songwriters and groups, including The Beatles, The Kinks, Tracy Chapman, The Jam and Leonard Cohen.

After a couple of years, Gary began playing in the pubs and clubs around Devon performing Beatles covers and similar classic tunes and eventually started to write his own songs. At the age of 24 he moved back to the city where he was born to base himself in the heart of the country to try and make something of all the years of practice and develop a career in music . He began touring, up and down the country, from Edinburgh to Brighton , singing and playing to many different types of audiences.

Gary signed a publishing deal with P and P Songs in July 2007 and has collaborated with various writers and producers and supported acts including - Newton Faulkner, Ed Harcourt, Kate Walsh, Jamie Scott and Tina Dico. However, since the middle of 2010 Gary has been self published.-

Influences
Music : The Beatles, The Jam, Pink Floyd, Bob Marley, Tracy Chapman, Noel Gallagher, OCS, Paul Weller, The Kinks, Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Tom Waits, Elvis Presley, Nick Drake, Dave Matthews, Carole King, Lisa Hannigan, Damien Rice, James Taylor, Van Morrison, Steve Miller Band, Jeff Buckley, Joni Mitchell.

Literary : Pablo Neruda, Sylvia Plath, Robert Browning, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Elizabeth Jennings.

Future plans
Gary finished recording his debut album ‘The Life We Learned To Live’ with producer / engineer Ben Robbins at Dean Street Studios in Soho, London which was released on 31 October 2011

One of the album tracks ‘Sunlight’ has been licensed to Arla Foods from Scandinavia and is the sound bed to an advert which is being TV broadcast throughout Europe as part of an extensive advertising campaign www.youtube.com. To coincide with this activity a four track debut EP including ‘Sunlight’ was released via AWAL on 13th December 2010.

Another of Gary’s tracks ‘Make It Better’ was included in a Mars Advert for a major TV based campaign covering the UK and Ireland. The ad aired on 9th February 2011 and the campaign is expected to run for 12 months. www.youtube.com

www.garynock.com

Contact: Mark, Riverman management, T. +44(0)20 7381 4000 E. mark@riverman.co.uk

Shields

In a town where music heritage is long and illustrious stretching back over several decades, Luke Elgie, Rich Sutton & Tom Larthe met amongst the chosen few who gathered to study ‘Popular & Contemporary Music’ and hone their understanding of their chosen instruments at Newcastle College.

Their immediate conversations discussing shared musical luminaries, made them aware of their clear desire to be in a band and to create innovative beat-driven pop music, that is both interesting and influential, as far removed from the soulless and generic music that the world finds itself incessantly subjected to today.

The band recruited the percussive and tech skills of John Martindale and the deft touch of David Williams as a 3rd guitarist and pianist, and they had completed a live sound that is far greater than the sum of all its parts, with songs that defy the listener to try and walk away without a chorus replaying, on repeat, in their mind.

Once the band recorded their first demos in the spring of 2011, they serendipitously fell into the white hot palms of a man who needs no introduction to those in music, Adrian Bushby (Foo Fighters/ MUSE/ U2/ Two Door Cinema Club), in one way or another we all own something that Adrian Bushby has applied his logic to.

Adrian’s mixes revealed what he proclaimed to see in the demos, that being the rich, intricate melodies and harmony that SHIELDS create in their music.

www.behindshields.com

Contact: Anthony Crook, Riverman management, T. +44(0)20 7381 4000 E. anthony@riverman.co.uk