HOTGIGS

WILL.I.AM – Dec 3, Phones 4 U Arena, Man-chester; JESSIE J, JLS, THE WANTED,LABRINTH, NAUGHTY BOY, A*M*E and more– Aug 31 and Sept 1, Fusion Festival, CoftonPark, Birmingham.

KINGS OF LEON – tonight, O2 ShepherdsBush Empire; MARTHA WAINWRIGHT –Mon, Picture House, Edinburgh; BAT FORLASHES – Tues, O2 Shepherds BushEmpire; CRIBS, Thurs, Garage, Aberdeen.

NEWMUSICBy JIM GELLATLY

4.5

3 LEON T. PEARLWHERE: EdinburghFOR FANS OF: The Streets,Frank Ocean, DisclosureJIM SAYS: One of my favour-ite new tracks is the gloriousdebut single from Leon T.Pearl. Blending electro,garage and soul, with aninfectious hook, Take You ToMarket is a perfect introduc-tion to the 24-year-old.It’s released through chart-

toppers Disclosure’s Methodlabel. Leon said: “When Dis-closure released Tenderly/Flow a year or two ago Ithought it was the most inter-esting dance music I’d heardin a long, long time.“Then when industry peo-

ple started appreciating mywork Method got in touch.“The lads that run that label

are exactly on my page.”The London-born singer

and producer started learningclassical piano when he waseight, becoming interested inelectronic music in his earlyteens. He added: “I got an8-track and a synth when Iwas about 14 and becameaddicted to producing.“Towards the end of univer-

sity in 2011 I started thinkingproperly about producingand sharing my work.”The rising star has spent

time crafting his art in Tokyoand New York. He said: “Iwas always intrigued by theculture and aesthetic ofJapan. The music of RyuichiSakamoto and Yellow MagicOrchestra was always a biginspiration as well. So I took a

plane to Tokyo, and bookedmyself into a languageschool for six weeks so Icould get by.“I went out to clubs and

just spoke to everyone whowas interested. I made abunch of incredible Japanesepals and crashed on theirfloors for the next six months.“In 2011 I lived in New York

for four months working withthe electronic producer Nico-las Jaar. I love New York andthe vibe is pretty unique. Iabsorbed a lot and the experi-ence gave me confidenceand got me motivated.”Back home in Scotland, he

also engaged with the scene.He added: “Being brought

up in Edinburgh has had ahuge impact.“My songs are very autobio-

graphical and so Edinburghwas often the setting, alongwith plenty of ridiculous Glas-gow nights as standard.“The passion that many

Scottish people have for a5am singalong is vital.“Not to mention the sarcas-

tic Scottish humour that filtersthrough a lot of my lyrics. I’mexcited for the future of thisplace.”Leon T. Pearl plays Sneaky

Pete’s in Edinburgh next Fri-day. Take You To Market isavailable to download fromSunday.MORE: facebook.com/leontpearlQ Jim will be playing Leon T. Pearl onIn:Demand Uncut this Sunday from7pm. Check it out on Clyde 1, ForthOne, Northsound 1, Radio Borders,Tay FM, West FM & West Sound FM.www.indemandscotland.co.uk.

IT felt like a genuine piece of history when theStones emerged on to a stage festooned withfake trees framing giant screens.As a sweltering July day gave way to a

balmy evening, the band were back in HydePark, London, for the first time since the fabledfree concert of 1969.Today, Mick, Keith, Charlie and Ronnie may

be getting on a bit but their timeless songs arefor the young at heart.It is clear from the first familiar staccato

notes of Start Me Up that youthful fire is stillburning in the titans of the music scene for thepast 50 years.For those who were there and for those who

wish they had been, the Stones have releaseda live album through iTunes, comprising thebest bits of the two new Hyde Park shows.3(You’ll have to hurry as it’s only available untilAugust 19.)The good news is the recordings sound

great . . . lively, sharp, atmosphericand emphatically capturing themoment. Of course, the set list is prettypredictable with all the band’s big hitspresent.Yet there is room for a couple of less-

expected gems, such as Jagger’s

tender reading of Ruby Tuesday or Richards’turning into an old delta blues man for his leadon You Got The Silver.Even obligatory new song Doom And

Gloom strikes a chord. But it’s the homestretch of Jumpin’ Jack Flash, Sympathy ForThe Devil (with crowd ooh-oohs), BrownSugar, You Can’t Always Get What You Want

(with choir) and Satisfaction that reallyproves why we all love this amazing,enduring band.

Logic tells us they won’t be aroundfor ever. Yet I suspect, on thisevidence, this isn’t the last we’ll hearof the Rolling Stones. SC

By JACQUI SWIFT

ON their third album BigTV, trio White Lies havereally come of age.“We grew up a lot making andtouring the first two albums andthat has definitely informed thesongwriting and sound of thisrecord,” singer and guitaristHarry McVeigh told us.“I think we’ve reached a pointwhere we understand the soundof our band and we are happy todeliver music that is pure WhiteLies rather than to try and rein-vent. We are confident with our-selves and our sound.“We have a very dedicated fanbase and we love playing ourmusic to our fans all over the

world, so we certainlyfelt that delivering arecord that they wouldenjoy and we wouldenjoy playing live wasvery important.”Here Harry, drummerJack Lawrence-Brownand bassist CharlesCave tell SFTW howthey’ve moved on, theconcept behind BigTV and how muchthey are lookingforward to playing it

live.HOW have you moved on from pre-vious album Ritual?Harry: We learnt a lot fromboth our first two records, butwe have no regrets. A record isall about capturing a moment inyour life.Although we don’t love all ofthe songs on Ritual, now theywill always take us back to thattime. We wouldn’t have made BigTV, and been so happy and confi-dent about it, without the experi-ence of the second record.

It’s a concept album. Whatthemes run through it?Charles: It’s an album made upof a fragmented narrative. Thereis a story running through it, andsimply speaking it’s a story of agirl looking for something betterin life, love and everything.She moves from a small provin-cial town to a big city hoping toslot into the modern life she hasseen in films and magazines.It comes from a lot of differentpersonal experiences and anec-dotes that people have told me.

Tell us about the song Big TV?Charles: Big TV has come torepresent the vacuous ambitionthis girl has. It sits totally out ofplace with her small, humblehome in this new city.It’s a superficial badge ofachievement or success that is asempty as the black screen on itsface. It’s disposable and will beoutdated soon, possibly like thecity. The album is a story ofempty hope in many ways or atleast the mortality of satisfaction.At one point or another you’lljust want to change the channel.

You’ve said you’ve been influ-enced by heavy metal on thisalbum. In what way?Harry: Charles and I are bigfans of metal music and we cer-tainly listened to it a lot whilewe were writing this. So whoknows, maybe some of it found

its way into our creative process.I think there are certainly someguitar sounds on the album thatif they were isolated wouldn’t beout of place on a Mastodonrecord!

Tell us about the single ThereGoes Your Love Again?Charles: This is where the anti-heroine is trying to mend herrelationship with someone in herhome town. Her reasoning is des-perate and weak and I think thisis a common story.

You’re seen as an album band.Do you feel under any pressure towrite a hit single?Harry: We approach every songwe write as a hit single. We havea pop music mentality.We love the idea of an albumof songs that all connect with peo-ple in one way or another.We only write the best songs

we possibly can and I enjoy thatour fans tend to enjoy wholealbums of our songs rather thanjust one or two.

A lot of bands you started offwith haven’t lasted the distance.Why have White Lies endured?Jack: We are a very determinedand hard-working band. We builtup a wide fan base early in ourcareers, which benefits us now.We also have a great live showwith an expanding catalogue ofgreat songs. We are always tryingto improve, and the constant fine-tuning keeps us fresh.

Tell us about the Big TV albumartwork?Jack: The album cover is a bril-liant oil painting by the NewYork artist Michael Kagan.He was suggested by a friendand he was a White Lies fan andkeen for us to use his paintings.

Although space travel is in noway referenced lyrically on thealbum, the imagery still seemedto sit very well with the songsand music on Big TV.Michael’s paintings will be usedin various forms across the wholecampaign.

You’ve got Reading and Leedscoming up. It’s a big one for you.How are the nerves?Jack: It’s massive for us. I con-sider Reading our hometown festi-val, and the three of us spentmany debauched years attendingin our youth, so to finally gradu-ate to the main stage is some-thing fairly surreal.They will hopefully be the per-fect balance of excitement andnervous energy that drives ourbest shows.They’re also our only UK festi-val shows this year — I’m hopefulfor a good turnout.

BOOKNOW

By JACQUI SWIFT

IF you think that MikeRosenberg. aka Passenger,looks familiar, it isprobably NOT because youhave watched him on TV.It is more likely you have seenhim busking on your High Street.Because that is what the mysterioussinger-songwriter — who is the break-through success of summer 2013 — hasbeen doing for years.Mike formed a five-piece band, alsonamed Passenger, in his teens, but theirsingle Walk You Home hit just 134 inthe charts.He admits the band was a “struggle”most of the time, but has now gone onto massive success with the same name— albeit without his former bandmates.In a huge turnaround, his debut sin-gle Let Her Go — currently charting atNo8 — has been No1 in 16 countries.The video has a jaw-dropping 76mil-lion views on YouTube and the albumAll The Little Lights is at No3.“I guess the story behind Passenger isa bit of a crazy one,” laughed Mike onthe phone from Chicago. “It’s certainlyone of DIY and hard work.“I never dreamed I’d ever have a hitrecord. But the last six months havebeen getting crazier by the day. LetHer Go has blown me away. To see thissuccess in the UK means the world.”

‘We just weren’tright as a band’

Brighton-born Mike, now 29, startedPassenger after dropping out of schoolaged 17.Influenced by Bruce Springsteen andPaul Simon, Passenger was made up ofMike and friend Andrew Phillips as co-songwriters “and a few mates joined usto play bass, keyboards and drums”.Debut album Wicked Man’s Rest wasreleased in 2007, but Mike confessed: “Itwas a struggle most of the time. Bandsare complicated and Passenger wasn’tright as a band.“Everyone was pulling in differentdirections and wanted different thingsthough I’m still really good mates withall the guys from the band.“When we split after Andrew left in2009, I didn’t plan to carry on asPassenger — it just happened.“I had a credit card debt to pay so Ithought I’d try some busking while Ifigured out what to do next, never real-ising that would be the start of things.”With no cash or a record label, Mikeventured on to the streets of Brighton.He explains: “Busking is a brilliantway of getting your music out there.It’s really amazing how much peoplewant to listen.“I started busking in Brighton butsoon I was travelling around the coun-try, staying in youth hostels and busk-ing by day and playing pubs by night.“On good days I’d make quite a bit ofmoney and on a bad day it would rainor I’d be moved on by the police.“The worst thing to happen would bekids stealing my busking money. Butbusking was a real learning curve.”

Mike found that it was not just buskingthat was earning him an income — hehad started to sell CDs.“I’d written a bunch of acousticsongs,” explains Mike. “I recorded themin five days at my friend’s.“I pressed up 500 copies to beginwith but some days I was selling nearlya hundred a day! Over the years I’vesold 30,000 albums just from busking.”He then spent six months in Aus-tralia, with Sydney as his base, and itwas there that Passenger as the solosinger-songwriter started to take shape.“I’d decided I really wanted to carryon with music. When the band brokeup there were so many male singer-songwriters. I thought, ‘How am I goingto stick out?’ So I kept Passengerbecause it adds a bit of mystery.”Mike has put out four albums: WideEyes Blind Love in 2009, Divers AndSubmarines and Flight Of The Crow in2010 and his breakthrough, All The Lit-tle Lights, released in February 2012.He added: “I don’t really see them as

proper albums until All The LittleLights. And then Let Her Go startedgetting lots of airplay in Holland. Thatwas when life changed.”Mike owes his success to two things —Let Her Go and touring with closefriend Ed Sheeran. “I’ve known Ed foryears,” said Mike. “And he’s been sogenerous getting me out there. I can’tthank Ed enough for that opportunity.”

‘I try to be nice firstand foremost’

The success of Let Her Go still hasnot sunk in with Mike, who said thefirst time he heard his song on theradio — in a taxi in Holland — he juststarted giggling. Mike added: “I didn’tthink it would ever get on the radio.It’s taken me ten years of hard work tohave a hit — and now it’s huge.”The song, written about a painfulbreak-up, has connected with peopleacross the world. Mike explained: “I

remember playing it on stage andseeing everyone sing it back. It wasmindblowing. It’s a simple song aboutloss and falling out of love so we’ve allbeen there.”Passenger is now set to release Holes,another from All The Little Lights.Mike said: “Let Her Go has gone sowell, we thought we had better releaseanother song. Holes is a live favourite.“The video was filmed in Brightonwith mates. I’ve been all over the worldand now people are getting to knowme, I want to show how proud I am tobe from the UK and Brighton.“I will never change. I’ve struggledfor ten years so I will never have anyairs and graces with this new fame.“Someone told me that it was moreimportant to be a successful humanbeing than to be a successful musician.I just try to remember that every day.“I try to be humble, generous and anice guy first and foremost. That won’tchange, however many records I sell.”l Passenger’s new single, Holes, is outon September 23.

ROLLING STONESHyde Park Live

48 Friday, August 9, 2013 1S