Recently, I found myself wondering, more and more, what happened next to the artists I have had the honour of talking to over these last few years? I’ve been looking over some of my articles, especially the earlier ones, hoping that maybe some good came out of it for them, that the publicity surrounding their music, be it for their latest single or a new L.P., went at least some way to helping them achieve their dreams, or discover the wider audience they sought, and deserved? So, what the hell! I thought I would take the opportunity to find out. That I’d call a few of the acts and see if the exposure For The Love of Bands brought them did any good whatsoever?
A Second Wind for Scott Klein
One of the first artists I interviewed was the Canadian-born singer, songwriter, Scott Klein. Towards the end of 2021 his debut album, Jesse’s Hotel, landed in my inbox, and I immediately fell for its delicate intimacy, for the deeply personal and somewhat haunting lyrics that resonate throughout. Now, nearly four years later, I took the opportunity to contact Scott again.
“So,” I asked him, “what happened next?”
“After the article things stirred. More people found the songs, and more importantly, they felt them. The piece gave the music a second wind: it brought in new listeners, sparked conversation, and reminded me that the work does land, even if quietly.
“It didn’t open every door,” Scott admitted, “but it opened the right ones. The article put a spotlight on a sound that leans towards ‘Southern Gothic’ – moody, ragged and full of ghosts,” he explained.
The response to the album may have been quiet, but it carried weight. “It became a kind of underground success,” Scott continued. “It was passed around in late-night texts and long drives, whispered about in the corners of small venues. ‘Southern Gothic’ to the bone,” he revealed with a smile of pride, “decay and desire wrapped in smoke.”
Almost Sex Finds a New Name and a New Rhythm
At the beginning of 2022, I talked to the band, Almost Sex, and reviewed their E.P., We’re Okay. Having originally met on a dating app at the very start of the Covid pandemic, Nick Louis and Warren LaSota worked together remotely, beginning both a musical partnership and a romantic relationship. As our article revealed, Nick is a multi-instrumental singer, songwriter who has that ability to naturally blend lovely melodies and catchy hooks with highly emotive vocal tones that blend innocence and naivety with a well travelled sense of the adventurous. Warren is an architect, a multi-media artist, a musician with a passion for lyrical narratives and eery soundscapes that lend themselves perfectly to varying mediums, and together they allowed the band to seemingly defy genres.
“Lucille,” the lead single from the E.P., “had a good response in the few weeks after its release and continues to be one of our most consistently streamed songs. It didn’t catch fire online as we might have hoped, but it’s still one of the strongest songs in our catalogue, even three years later, you know?”
Unfortunately though, as Nick reveals, her relationship with Warren wasn’t to last.
“Warren, ended up leaving in the summer of that year,” she says sadly, “which meant that we were now going to be operating as a trio,” percussionist Sam Gautier, and guitarist Darrel Norrel had joined the band shortly after our interview appeared. “We took some time to slow things down and recalibrate, which mostly involved going back into the studio and pulling back from playing shows. Mostly out of financial necessity, we stripped down our writing and recording process and learned how to achieve our stylistic goals by recording almost everything in our home bedroom studio.” They are doing well though, she assures me, although there were further revelations!
When we last spoke the guys were operating under the name Almost Sex, but Nick tells me that after Meta introduced its A.I. content moderation system, “having an ‘expletive’ in the band name, no matter how light, meant we became totally unable to advertise on Instagram and Facebook. Apparently,” she says with a laugh born of frustration, “Zuckerberg and Co. are woefully unequipped to distinguish between adult content and a music account.” Nick went on to reveal that some of their fans were even getting their social media posts flagged, simply for tagging the guys in photos or videos, so unfortunately they had no alternative but to change their name.
“It sucks because we all loved that name and wish we could’ve kept it, but ultimately, it was holding us back in unnecessary ways. We decided on a short and sweet alternative: Minted.
“In recent months, we’ve added a new member, Zoe Tara, who plays keys and sings background vocals. She’s a very talented New Jersey artist with an album of her own coming out in the near future. We also began working with a very active and engaged manager, Alex Drake Peterson, who’s a lifelong friend of ours and heavily involved in the New Jersey underground music scene. With his help, we’ve been trying to bite the bullet and get more active on TikTok and social media. It really doesn’t come naturally to me though,” Nick admitted, rather surprisingly, “but it seems to be the only way to do things these days, so we’re all pitching in and trying to modernise our output in whatever ways we can.”
The Carousel Club Journey: From Buzz to Breakup
Ryan Cornelius, of Aussie five-piece band Carousel Club, who were also featured in For The Love of Bands back in 2022, is another with an interesting revelation.
“We played some amazing shows, and were really having fun for a short period. And then Covid happened! We stopped for a few years, lost a bit of momentum… Which it was hard to come back from,” he recalls sadly. Old Boy, the single that we reviewed, was, as it transpired, to be the band’s last.
“I think we were feeling like we were not going anywhere. I ended up having another kid… Our drummer moved to Byron Bay and a few members were pushing for their own solo careers, so the decision was made to end the band.
“Do I regret it? Everyday,” Ryan admits. “Will we get back together? I hope so,” he says. “I think the timing was just not great for us at that stage. There’s a lot of people asking what happened to us, that definitely ignites a spark. To us, “ he added quickly, “we made good music and we had a lot of fun doing it with great friends. That’s all that matters in my eyes.”
How did he find the response to our article?
“It was received well among our friends and family. We were particularly proud of this track and felt that it was a turning point in our songwriting… We felt we were getting better. Unfortunately, not many people knew of us outside of the Farm bubble, not many people know we even existed, so I don’t feel like it got the attention it deserved,” Ryan says now.
Despite experiencing all the ups and downs of what the music industry offers, thankfully it seems that all of our artists are still following their star, one way or another, and are still hoping to finally grab and fulfil their individual dreams.
“I’ve been chasing ghosts again,” Scott Klein told me with a smile. “I’m working on a new album that pulls from darker wells,” he excitedly revealed. “It’s heavier,” he admits, “leaner and more desperate… Townes meets Danzig in a thunderstorm,” he laughs. “I’ve stripped the songs down to bone and shadow: less polish but more grit. The ‘Southern Gothic’ mood still runs deep through it, but now it’s tangled with something more primal. More blood. I’ve walked away from places that didn’t feel like home. The music knows,” he insists.
“I want to bring this new material to stages with intention, not routine. No background music. No lukewarm sets. I’m planning to release the new record soon—no fluff, no safety net—and let the road carve something honest. I want the songs to do what good songs do: cut through the noise, leave a mark, and linger.”
“I personally have been making songs, unsure what to do with them yet,” Ryan tells me, trying to carry on from where Carousel Club left off.
“George Rat, our very talented drummer, is playing in bands in Byron Bay, such as Bunny Racket, you should check them out! Our bass player Jakob is soloing as J. Kagan, really cool stuff!” he adds quickly, proudly. “Our vocalist, keys player, Riley, AKA Eileen Grace, is doing some great stuff, such a talent! Their music is chilling, really powerful!
“Lead Guitarist, Matt, has turned his creativity towards photography, and his work is incredible… Guitarist Evo’s writing and recording amazing music… Will the world ever hear him?” And he ponders for a moment. “He’s one of the most talented musicians you’ll ever meet!” Ryan crosses his fingers.
Max Garcia Conover: A Quiet Return to the Attic:
“I put out another weird little E.P. last year,” Max Garcia Conover told me, when I finally managed to get in touch with him. “And I've got two other projects that'll be out, soonish… I’d like to keep making songs forever. Hopefully more shows too?”
I discovered in the original article that Max wrote and recorded all of his music in the seclusion and privacy of his attic, when not teaching at local schools.
“I am proud of that record,” he tells me, looking back fondly on Everything In Winter, “and I hear nice things about it from time to time. Just a few months ago I was finally able to play some shows with Paula Prieto, who helped me make the E.P., and it was fun to play those songs for people for the first time.”
New Music and Lingering Dreams
It appears that the need to make new music, no matter how “weird” or “experimental”, is something shared between all of our artists. In fact, Ryan sent me a demo of a new song, Silver Lining, which you can listen to, exclusively, below. And it is good, really good.
“Probably got a bit to say about this,” he told me, after I had listened to it. “I think it’s about having anxiety… Being backed into a corner,” he admitted, after a short pause. “I just lost my eye… I kinda lost all hope,” he told me, recalling what was obviously a traumatic time for him. “Sometimes it just takes someone, if you’re fortunate enough, to reignite something… I just dream of making fucking good music ideally, and I hope we will do that again soon?” A passionate dream that Nick Louis and the rest of Minted obviously relate to: a dream they all dutifully share.
“We’re all getting older now,” she told me during our conversation, thinking over all the lessons she has learnt. “As all artists eventually find out, life has a nasty habit of getting in the way of your creative endeavours. It’s difficult to spend as much time on the project as we did in our mid-twenties, but we all still very much believe in ourselves and the work we do, so we do make time every week to get together… It’s just that we have to be more economical and strategic about the time we have. For instance,” she quickly added, “we’ve made it a point to stop playing out almost entirely in favour of building up our back catalogue of recorded material. With the limited time we have to put our heads together, we made the decision that our collective energy would be better served putting together solid recordings – and ‘content’, ugh! – than it would be playing club shows to half empty rooms. I guess you can say we’re in an ‘if you build it, they will come’, phase, and hoping for the best.”
Recent Comments