Features / Music

Meet NY-based producer Thomas Arsenault, AKA Mas Ysa.. Mas Ysa is another of a heap of interesting acts making up the lower part of the Splendour In The Grass 2014 line-up - acts you might not know too well yet, but will do yourself a massive favour in getting to know them... Who are you? Thomas Augustin Lenny Davila Arsenault is my name if that's what you mean. Other than that, aren't we all one? I'm you, you're me, and so on.   How’d you meet? I was incarnated then found a mirror. I'm just one person in this music of Mas Ysa. What kinda tunes we talkin’? Electronic, some upbeat, some ballads, some instrumental, loosely improvised, pretty confessional. Lots of kick drum, sometimes noisy. Sometimes soft.  Production/writing process: Each tune is different. And as my tour schedule changes, the way I work is changing. The normal stuff, I muse, I dance around. Not much is done on a computer until I record. Mostly I'm in the dark on my live rig.   What do you do outside of Mas Ysa? I want

"They’re both massive businesses and big, big industries, but we should never lose sight of the fact that first and foremost they’re fun and people love them."

"There’s enough of the N-word, there’s enough of the B-word in black music and culture, and I just don’t want to be like that, I don’t want to be about that."

Endless Heights are a band that stands out from the pack. Their sound, a mix punk and hardcore with melodic tendencies, has seen them distorting genre boundaries on records and in the live setting for a number of years. Last year, the group released debut full-length effort 'New Bloom' earning a regarded and well-received response. The album was admired by a wide range of music lovers, earning them the tenth spot on Killyourstereo.com’s 2013 Australian Album of the Year poll. "It’s so fulfilling to see people enjoy your work," guitarist Jem Siow tells us in an exclusive interview. "We put so much into that record as it was our first one and we put it off for awhile as we wanted it to be just right. There were a lot of people who were listening to us who really liked it and then there were people who were brought onto [our fan base] because of the record." You can read our 80/100 review here. ‘New Bloom’ is an interesting name for an album but it is one that holds a significant ...

Internal head-butts and breaking-up kid fights - it's the UK, Sticky Fingers style!

Hardly a week into their nationwide tour, Safia frontman and all round nice guy Ben Joseph took some time to chew the fat with us.

The Paper Kites are set to tackle a national tour after the release of their much anticipated debut album 'States' they share their top video picks with us.

"We play this song slightly differently live – there’s extra beats and a helluva lot more energy/shape-pulling."