Indie Sounds NY & Austin

Five Minutes With Bryan Dunn

Bryan Dunn is a regular on the NYC music scene with strong connections to Austin.  Photos of his recent showbiz wedding are all over Facebook, and it looked like a great celebration.  So Indie Sounds caught up with the married man himselft ...


The Fallen Angel by Emily Rawlings

Indie Sounds: You recently tied the knot with Emily Rawlings.  How was the big day?

Bryan Dunn: I'm a little biased, but it was probably the best wedding ever.  We met at a karaoke night at Public Assembly four years ago, and since Larry Hyland (who works a lot with Local Correspondents) is one of the owners, it was the only place we considered.  Emily's dad did a short ceremony, then Matt Basile was MC for the rest of the night.

Five Minutes With Kiri Jewell From AwShockKiss

AwShockKiss is a pretty new act, a project that's been a while in the making, but fate lent a hand and once it got going properly, it has leapt on to the NYC scene pretty nicely.  Indie Sounds got the scoop from frontwoman Kiri Jewell.



Indie Sounds: How did you come up with the band's name?

Kiri Jewell: The name was one of the last pieces of the puzzle to come together.  Stefanie and I had a list a mile long, and the boys were up for anything.  After rehearsal one night and over pints of Octoberfest, we narrowed it down to AwShockKiss.  It doesn’t mean anything, it just sounds cool … and, happens to be an acronym for “Kick Ass Show,” which is fitting.

Five Minutes With John Pointer

Local musician John Pointer is a man of ideas, always up to something new, always looking for a new way to expose his - and other people's - music.  Shows at the ZACH Theatre are his latest brainwave ...



Indie Sounds: You have something cooking at Zachary Scott Theatre - the ZACH - this weekend. Tell us about it?

John Pointer: I've been working full time as a musician in Austin since 1996.  In 2007, the ZACH asked me to play Judas in Jesus Christ Superstar, and that's where this started.  I realized that there was a whole group of people over there who would prefer not to go to a bar to see live music - over 20,000 on their email list alone.

Five Minutes With Danny Malone

I first saw the name Danny Malone when I noticed his CD Cuddlebug at Waterloo Records a few weeks back - and I noticed it as it was in the #1 slot for sales that week.  I've gotten to see him live a couple of times since then in both Austin and NYC, and it's pretty clear the guy has something going for him ...



Indie Sounds: According to your MySpace page, you hang in Austin, Chicago and New York City.  What's the story?

Danny Malone: For a while, I was splitting my time between LA, New York, Chicago, and Austin.   But the story is maybe I just don't really relate to any one place.  I suppose I'm just about equally homeless wherever I go.  So I don't want to claim any city as mine.  Because that means I'm theirs. And I'm no one's. I'm in the air. They are just names of places anyways.  In my brain, it's all one big place.  Wherever I am, I'm just somewhere, you know?  And whenever I'm somewhere, I'm not all there.  So, who cares where I'm from?  It doesn't have much to do with the music crippling my mind.

Five Minutes With Trisha Keefer

So, it's widely known that I have a 'thing' about ladies who play the violin in non-classical genres.  I even have a website dedicated to the art form.  As it happens, when I started coming to Austin frequently late last year, one of the first such lady violinists that I saw was Trisha Keefer, and since then I've become just a bit of a fan.  These days, she's playing out with everyone and I'm a happy camper ...

Photo by John Grubbs

Indie Sounds: How did you get into music seriously, and why the violin?

Trisha Keefer: My mother is a high school orchestra director, so my brother and I grew up around classical music and instruments.  He started playing cello when I was around three years old, and that made me want to play something. My mom handed me a Mickey Mouse toy-violin and a year later, I had real violin.

Five Minutes With Dion Roy

An email arrived asking me to check out Dion Roy so I did ... his song Come Back Around is on the latest Harris Radio podcast.  And here is a bit more about him ...



Indie Sounds: You were born in another continent and now live in NYC.  What's the brief history of Dion Roy?

Dion Roy: The story gets stranger and stranger every day. I was born in Windhoek, Namibia which is in South West Africa, then when I was about two my family moved to a small mining town outside of Johannesburg called Welkom. And at about nine years old, my family left South Africa as the economy and social climate became very unstable there.

Five Minutes With Cupcakes (of Hank & Cupcakes)

Hank & Cupcakes are a great drum and bass outfit who have been rocking NYC, and a few other places, for the past few months.  An awesome live act, and now with an EP called Pleasure Town - to be released on Friday!  OK, I do know what their real names are, but somehow I don't want to give the game away.


Photo by SeaSick Mama

Indie Sounds: How did you come up with the name Hank & Cupcakes?

Cupcakes: We both love Charles Bukowski, and were watching a documentary about him one night, around the time we were thinking of a band name. He used to call himself Hank Chinaski in his books and in a certain scene in the documentary, he was waiting in vain for a lover of his called Cupcakes ... that's how we thought of it!

Five Minutes With Benji Rogers of Pledge Music

Benji Rogers of Marwood is up to something new. Since his return to the UK last year, the one-time New Yorker has been hard at work creating Pledge Music, a new kind of label that allows artists to raise money from their fans to fund the creation of albums, contribute to charity and retain ownership of their works.  It all sounds too good to be true ... so Indie Sounds decided to get the scoop.



Indie Sounds: What is Pledge Music? Why did you start it?

Benji Rogers: Hi Pete. Pledge Music helps artists fund their albums, keep 100% of their rights and raise money for charity. I started it because I wanted to use it, and because none of the alternatives appealed to me. It was designed to combine maximum flexibility for the artist both during the "Pledge" and afterwards. That is why we insist upon the artist keeping 100% of what they make from the sale of their records.

Five Minutes With Graham Wilkinson

Austinite Graham Wilkinson has a new album - Yearbook - packed not only with great music but also with 'names' you wouldn't expect to be guesting on an album from an unsigned artist.  Following on from a memorable CD release gig at the Continental Club, he's now on tour, and plays Hill Country BBQ in NYC on Thursday (and Piano's on Sunday).  Indie Sounds caught up with him on the road ...



Indie Sounds: In your earlier years, you traveled a lot to far off places.  What did you get up to, and did those experiences feed into your songwriting?

Graham Wilkinson: As a child, my mother and father valued the luxury of traveling. From family vacations to Japan, Alaska and Norway, to mission trips down into the heart of Mexico, those experiences led me to pursue solo journeys like working on the Greek Islands and volunteering in Micronesia.

Five Minutes With Michael Di Lalla Of Keygrip

Keygrip is back with a new album - listen to a track on the latest Harris Radio podcast - so we got to talk to the band's leader and songwriter Michael Di Lalla find out more.



Indie Sounds: So how was the CD release party? I didn't realise Don Hill's was still open!

Michael Di Lallla: The record release party was great! YES! Don Hill's is still open and it's a great sounding club. The sound system is so tweaked, great lights and not to mention the stage is a good size. Plenty of room to do our thing.