Brainlove Festival: Bleeding Heart Narrative

Today’s Brainlove Festival artist of the day is Bleeding Heart Narrative, who released a thrillingly ambitious EP called “Bison” on the label last year. Recently seen giving When Saints Go machine a run for their money as support at Hoxton Bar & Kitchen, BHN will play Brainlove Festival for the first time early in the afternoon.

You can read our interview with the band’s drummer Simon below, read the rest of the BRNLV Festival interview series here, and once thoroughly convinced by the lineup’s breadth and quality, get your hands on tickets here.

Could you introduce a little about yourself first and foremost?
We’re Bleeding Heart Narrative and we’re a six-piece from North/East London.

For people who haven’t seen you live before, what can they expect?
You can expect a pretty big but coherent noise from guitars, drums, cellos, violins, synths, voices and a wood block. The last time we played the Windmill I managed to catapult my glasses off my face with one of my drumsticks and smash them to pieces against a wall, so there’s always a chance that’ll happen again too.

Have you played or even been to the Brainlove Festival prior to this year?
Our singer, Oli, has played the last couple of years, but the rest of us have somehow contrived to book holidays before we’ve been asked. We’re excited to finally play as a full band.

What are you looking forward to most about it?
Our last EP came out on Brainlove so we’ve been exposed to a few of the other bands on the label’s roster as a result. It’ll be good to finally hear some of them live. Also, what’s not to look forward to about a day with music, bbq and booze at the Windmill?

Looking at the line-up, who are you excited about seeing live?
Mat Riviere. We were lucky enough to tour with him recently so it’ll be good to reacquaint myself with his set.

How do you find festivals in general? Do you prefer smaller venue shows?
I’ve not been to a big UK festival as a punter for a while now, mostly because of how expensive they’ve become, so in that sense it’s great to see a lot of smaller, venue specific events come to the fore. While there’s been a decline in the number of beer-sponsored 3-dayers, there seems to be more call for festivals like Brainlove, Southsea and Swn, where people can come and listen to great music for a fraction of the cost. Having said all that, playing Green Man last year was a pretty incredible experience, so I can’t pretend I’d ever write bigger festivals off completely!

Do you enjoy the prospect of people that necessarily aren’t that familiar with your music getting the chance to stumble upon you?
That’s what festivals are all about, right? It’s always exciting to try to win people over who haven’t heard of you. I think we’re also excited about people stumbling across us who have heard our music too, though. The sound of the band has changed quite a bit over the years, so it’s always good to surprise a few people who had us pegged in a certain genre.

Could you tell us a little bit about the track you chose to give away as a free download?
Well, it’s called Shoals and it’s the opening track from the EP Bison, which we released on Brainlove at the end of last year. We made a video for it too, which you can find here

What do your band have going on at the moment? Anything you’re working on or forthcoming releases in the works?
At the moment we’re just concentrating on writing, recording and gigging as much as possible. We’ve got a really busy few weeks coming up with The Great Escape, Liverpool Sound City, a couple of London gigs and, of course, Brainlove Festival, and in between we’re recording some new material and making more videos for the remaining tracks from Bison. Fingers crossed there’ll be some new material released in the near future…

Brainlove Festival: Enjoyed

UK producer Enjoyed has seemed to have popped out of nowhere during the past month. Prior to April, the electronic musician had only a handful of live appearances to his name, including a DJ slot at last year’s Binnacle micro-festival at the Old Blue Last. After some recent attention from the likes of The Guardian, Dummy and XLR8R, however, this seems all ready to change.

Latest single ‘Teeth’, from the forthcoming ‘Sugar’ EP, is a full-on disco showpiece, a taster of what the artist himself calls his genre of “joystep”. The artwork and corresponding video delves into swirling, abstracts patterns and lush colour schemes that reflect Enjoyed’s own highly tactile, mood-based and visual sensibility. The live set is just as engrossing – so we’re very happy to have him playing at Brainlove Festival this year. Tickets: here.

Could you introduce a little about yourself first and foremost?

I’m Peter Evans-Pritchard from Hampshire. I make colourful electronic music under the name, Enjoyed. I grew up listening to what MVC called, ‘dance’ music, and that’s what I like to make.

For people who haven’t seen you live before, what can they expect?

Lots of colour, lots of dancing, lots of my grimacing singing face and hopefully lots of fun.

Have you played or even been to the Brainlove Festival prior to this year?

I have not, unfortunately for me!

If no, what are you looking forward to most about it?

I’m really looking forward to seeing a whole bunch of people I’ve not come across before. That’s always exciting.

Looking at the line-up, who are you excited about seeing live?

I’m gonna have to say Napoleon IIIrd. I saw him a few years back at a local festival down in my neck of the woods called, ‘Woolfire’. Back then he had a huge reel to reel on stage with him and he sounded amazing. I’m really psyched to see what he’s up to nowadays!

How do you find festivals in general? Do you prefer smaller venue shows?

I do enjoy a good ‘big festival’; Glastonbury, Bestival etc. There’s something about being in a crowd of thousands, losing it to ‘Star Guitar’ together, that you really can’t beat. That said, some of my favourite ever gigs have been sit down, theatre type shows. It’s less energetic but sometimes you just need a comfy seat to listen in!

Do you enjoy the prospect of people that necessarily aren’t that familiar with your music getting the chance to stumble upon you?

I love the prospect! It’s basically the best way for people to hear your music. I’ve gotten into a bunch of great bands and artists from just wandering around at gigs and festivals. I think it connects more with people if they find something themselves. They make more of a personal attachment than if they simply read about it on the interweb and that’s just a nice thing!

Could you tell us a little bit about the track you chose to give away as a free download?

It’s called ‘Teeth’… Don’t ask me why. It’s kind of about living in a city, and kind of not. It’s supposed to be a sort of journey. I wrote a lot of it on the train to and from Brighton so I tried to make it so it could accompany that sort of venture. It’s one of the more bluey-yellow songs I’ve written…

What do your band have going on at the moment? Anything you’re working on or forthcoming releases in the works?

I’m in the run up to releasing my new EP ‘Sugar’, which comes out on June 4th. I’ve just finished up the video for ‘Teeth’ as well and the rest of the tracks from the EP will be making their way out over the next month or so. After that it’s back to remixing and finishing the album…

Get Brainlove Festival Info and tickets.

Brainlove Festival: Crushed Beaks

Crushed Beaks are a duo whose live performances win you over right away with their unabashed and unbridled energy. Or at least that was the case with Brainlove/Snipe’s very own John Rogers who, upon seeing the noisy twopiece play at Dalston’s fashionably crammed Powerlunches venue, decided to give the band a little more space and booked them for this year’s Brainlove Festival.

We spoke to frontman Matt about what we should expect, what they’re looking forward to and, of course, the Windmill’s infamous resident dog on the roof.

Could you introduce a little about yourself first and foremost?
We’re a two-piece based in Peckham and Lewisham. We make noisy pop songs with limited means and boundless energy. We released our first single on Too Pure Records in November. Since then we’ve released a ‘cover swap’ split single with our bros Torches, where we covered one of their songs and they covered one of ours.

For people who haven’t seen you live before, what can they expect?
Our live set up is quite stripped back, we just use an electric guitar, a drum kit, vocals and a couple of pedals. We like to concentrate on making really good songs, without letting ourselves get bogged down with loads of equipment. Also, my shed (where we rehearse) is too small to fit much stuff in, so that’s another reason we’re a two-piece.

Have you played or even been to the Brainlove Festival prior to this year?
We haven’t been to Brainlove festival before, but we’ve played a few shows at the Windmill and we bloody love it.

What are you looking forward to most about it?
The dog on the roof, obviously.

Looking at the line-up, who are you excited about seeing live?
I don’t think I’ve seen anyone on the line-up before, so everything is going to be new to me.

How do you find festivals in general? Do you prefer smaller venue shows?
I’m actually a massive fan of huge, impersonal stadium venues where I have to use binoculars to see the band and pay £9 for a pint of beer in a plastic cup.

Do you enjoy the prospect of people that necessarily aren’t that familiar with your music getting the chance to stumble upon you?
I think that’s probably the best thing about playing festivals to be honest. It’s always good to be a little bit out of your comfort zone and play to people who haven’t heard you before, and to see how long they stick around before they head back to the bar.

Could you tell us a little bit about the track you chose to give away as a free download?
‘Close-ups’ was the A-side from our single with Too Pure. It’s only two and a half minutes long. If that hasn’t sold it to you already, I honestly don’t know what will.

Tickets & Lineup Info for Brainlove 2012 at: www.brainloverecords.com/festival.