Devin DiMattia has updated the trailer to the fantastic Firewall of Sound

Firewall of Sound is a documentary looking at how the digital revolution has changed the way we receive and distribute the music we listen to. From bands promoting themselves on Myspace and Facebook, to major labels and record stores looking for relevance in the digital age, the music industry is constantly evolving. This film is an attempt to document the different ways people are evolving with it.

Original post can be found here.

DbR speaks to Mr Andy Abbott about life, art and the DIY music scene – If you like your rock geezers with their fingers in many pies – tuck in!

1: Hey Andy, introduce yourself… a little history maybe ?

Hi Rob, I’m Andy, I’m a 28 year-old man; I like to eat hot meals in the evening but can handle something straight out of the fridge or at room temperature for lunch. I play guitar in the rock duo That Fucking Tank, am a member of the art collective Black Dogs, study a PhD in socially engaged art practice at the University of Leeds, do a bit of teaching at Leeds College of Art, and live in Saltaire, West Yorkshire with my girlfriend Yvonne. That’s my life.

I was born in the Highlands of Scotland to a young mother and older dad where some of our meals during Winter months were poached off of the local moors. As a youngster I was particularly interested in field sports; air rifle target-shooting, archery, training kestrels and other birds of prey, ferreting and baseball. Around 8-10 years old I got addicted to ZX spectrum and NES games. Upon starting secondary school in Matlock, Derbyshire I got into alternative rock music, learning how to . . . Read More

Here we go with part two of our exclusive interview with Mac of Superchunk fame. We’re massive fans of Superchunk and Merge records here at DbR . . . Part one can be seen here

Q5. When a band ‘reforms’ the cynics amongst us see the lucrative festival circuit winding out in front of them… (The optimist hopes the band felt they had unfinished business)… Tell us about Polvo’s ‘regroup’…

Polvo is a really interesting case because there was never any acrimonious meltdown or anything…all those guys seemed to just kind of move on; i read recently where Ash or Dave said they just kind of felt they’d done all they could do with the band. they lived in different places for a long time and Dave still lives in . . . Read More

Merge Records are twenty years old this year and still acting like teenagers. OK, so maybe the label are treading a little more carefully in the current economic climes but Mac McCaughan seems unaffected, honest and above all still in love with the music his label are putting out. The feeling you get from talking to Mac (Merge co-founder and lead singer with influential punk rock stalwarts Superchunk) is that he’s still having fun – he seems more teenage-fanzine-writer than a successful businessman.

Merge are currently still coming down from their 20 year Merge celebrations, dubbed XX Merge. We caught up with Mac . . . Read More

Nine Black Alps are due to make their Doncaster debut at The Priory on Saturday July 18th.

Explaining where they had been for the two years since the last release, Martin (bass) from the band told DbR “We took about three months off doing anything after the end of our last tour. We then spent six months writing the third album, then a couple of months getting that album all recorded, mixed, mastered etc… and now we’ve just been twiddling our thumbs for a little while“.

The new album, due for release later in the year, has been recorded live in the studio, something the band hadn’t tried before. Gone is the poppy edge found on the second album being replaced by “…slower, darker, sludgier, weirder…” tracks.

So, what can we expect from the set at the Priory next week? “Extreme guitar volume and feedback with minimal crowd interaction” is to be expected from an average NBA set says Martin.

Tickets are available from The Music Week for £8.00 plus booking fee…

Download their track “Buy Nothing” for free here.
(Right click and save link/target as…)

You can listen to the track in the player below…

North Carolina’s Hammer No More The Fingers have been credited with revitalising the Chapel Hill glory days when Polvo and Archers of Loaf reigned supreme. They are currently touring their J. Robins (him of Jawbox) produced debut “Looking for Bruce” but were kind enough to find time in their busy schedule to talk to Andy Maddison about their eagerly awaited debut and more…

Andy: The North Carolina area has a long and impressive musical history, are all of the band members local and why do you think it is that this particular area is so musically fertile?

HNMTF: Jeff, Joe, and I are all from Durham, NC. Durham, . . . Read More

Devin DiMattia graduated from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington with a degree in Film Studies in 2008. It’s been his dream to make movies ever since he saw 2001: A Space Odyssey when he was 15.

Q1. Devin, the subject of your new documentary is a very emotive one for a lot of people and particularly for those of an age that can remember a time before people held their entire collection of music on a hand held device. What inspired you to make this film and what kind of reaction are you receiving to it so far?

I guess my biggest inspiration . . . Read More

Craig Cowling, aka Naughty James hails from Doncaster but having worked for some of the World’s biggest publications has his finger, according to his biography anyway, on ‘photography’s pulse’… Rob Che finds Craig maxin-n-relaxin in his London City digs and asks what makes him the (arrogant, opinionated and strangely likeable) man he is today…

So, you have your finger on the pulse… Who inspires you in portrait/people/band photography ?

My biggest inspirations are Helmut Newton & Guy Bourdin. They dominated and changed the fashion photograph for ever though the mid 50’s to the late 70’s, sadly they both met a premature end. Both of them produced images with such amazing narrative power, I was blown away . . . Read More

Inhaler Records’ Andy Maddison talks to Justin Lockey, musician, songwriter, producer and outspoken skin beater with new duo White Belt Yellow Tag, about the Yourcodenameis:Milo, producing and the big smoke… sit tight kids.

Q1. Justin, most people will know you best by your previous musical output with Yourcodenameis: Milo or by your production work with bands like Late of The Pier, Kubicheck and Hot Club De Paris. How did current band White Belt Yellow Tag come about and for those not aware of the band could you describe your sound and influences?

White belt came about after i started working (mixing) out of a studio up here where Craig (singer) worked.. after a while  he asked me to help him out with some . . . Read More

When we first heard Pontefract’s Above Them were recording their debut album in Manchester, images of the band living it up in the city flooded our minds. Country kids in the big city seemed like the perfect story for the young trio, who after recording their EP a year ago, are now ready to take the plunge on their long player.

So consider our surprise when we roll into Manchester to find a huge old mill where the band can be found recording in a small corner of the building.

“I haven’t had much sleep,” mutters bassist Mark as he welcomes us in. “The hotel bed is hard as anything, plus we . . . Read More

Tellison from the South East of the UK have been making indie-pop waves for some years – generally regarded as one of the UK’s best kept guitar-wielding secrets; sharing stages with the likes of Get Cape Wear Cape Fly, Good Shoes, Hundred Reasons, Hell Is For Heroes, I Was A Cub Scout, Dartz! Dave House, TANAOU, Spy vs Spy, Walter Shreifels, Sam Isaac, Gallows and many more.

Andy Maddison from Inhaler Records talks to Stephen H Davidson from Tellison about gigs, fans and Stuart Lee!?

Q1. I have seen you play live quite a few times over the last couple of years and it has been great to watch you grow in stature as a band over that time. You still look like you are having an immense amount of fun, have things changed for the band much as your popularity and audience has increased?

To be symptomatically and frustratingly human about it, Yes and No. Yes things have changed, a few more people come to our shows, . . . Read More

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Doncaster Live February 2008 Edition
Q and A: Above Them

Inhaler’s latest signings Above Them are their biggest and boldest act yet. With an EP on the horizon, a major tour and having conquered the States Richard Mushet catches up with the band on their visit to Doncaster.

How did you meet and get together as a band?

Mark: We’d all played in local bands and Tom had played in a band called Seed, who were plodding along pretty well. I’d played in local bands, only really playing Pontefract and Wakefield now and then. My band were basically . . . Read More

John Fell

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Doncaster Live February 2008 Edition

With The Fontanelles album Three Finger Salute out in February, what better time to catch up with Font’s frontman and elder statesman of the Doncaster scene, John Fell for a nice cosy chat?

“Statesman implies some kind of achievement or power, but thanks” laughs John as we settle down with a pint in his local. Perhaps he hasn’t yet achieved all of his goals in music, but he certainly can’t argue with the ‘elder’ part of our description, having had some sort of involvement with the scene in Doncaster for the best part of 15 years. “Yeah, I started playing in bands around ’93/’94, and the bands I was in slowly evolved into Thumper. Our 2nd gig was Henri’s Music, a big festival over a weekend at Cusworth Hall. It felt absolutely huge at . . . Read More

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Doncaster Live October 2007 Edition

Inhaler Records seemed to spring from nowhere around a year ago, galvanizing the scene with a series of must see gigs, and exposing some of our local talent to the national radio and press. But who are they, and where did they spring from? I caught up with founding member Andy Maddison to find out more…

Introduce the Inhaler team?
Team Inhaler consists of Mr Ben Thomsett, Mr Robin Burns, and myself Andy Maddison.

When did Inhaler Records begin?
About 1989 in my mind! I had always dreamed of setting up a label, but it was not until meeting Ben in 2005 and finding that we shared a love of . . . Read More