Steve Means

There are some things that I don’t think I’ll ever get over. Liquid eyeliner in shiny colours, waking up to see a blanket of snow blocking your driveway – no work, no school… the happiness you feel when you get a new pair of headphones and, probably the best of all, hearing a song that utterly blows your mind the first time around, then listening to it again… and asking yourself why nobody else knows it.

                “Make it up to you” – Steve Means, is one of those songs… Actually, scratch that, Steve Means is one of those Artists. Only three days ago, I was on my last £1.70 on iTunes, and I was poring over my Genius suggestions. Yes, I’m getting on with it far better now – thank you very much for wondering – and I know which way to look for the artists I’m going to like. Steve Means is one of those… *lucky* few. His voice is both relaxing and yet has a quality that sends shivers down my spine pretty relentlessly.

                He was clearly born with a talent that not enough people have realised, and that bloody saddens me. There are so many voices – not all of them as incredible as his, but nonetheless, they are there, and they are totally unknown over here (in England, I mean), which is a waste of talent. These guys (because yes, most of the time, they’re guys), have the ability to manipulate words and melody into something both beautiful and solid and just… well. The music can envelop you and make you feel something you didn’t know was there.

                I’m getting lyrical, but it’s true.

                Back to the song, though. “Make it up to you,” is something special. The song itself is an apology, a cry to be forgiven when he’s tried so hard to get it right. When I heard it first, I shuddered, and then cried a little bit. Yes, I cried, get the hell over it. The last twenty seconds are possibly the most… wow, of any song I’ve heard in a while. Three words close the song – “Please don’t leave” and they are sung so poignantly that it broke me, and I was quite happy to break.

                That is the mark of an Incredible artist. Seriously good. There are about four songs that have made me cry, that is one of them.

                There are two EP’s/Albums that are available in the UK – “Now or Never” & “Rescue Me”, the title tracks of which are probably the most relaxing songs I’ve heard in a long time. In actual fact, he is something I haven’t heard in a long time.

                He is: Raw Talent, Blinding lyrics and simple, easy melody and damn good looks. It has to be illegal, or untrue, or some kind of sick joke, but it’s not.

                He is real, and amazing.

                And he’s in America. Which is almost like the slap in the face you get when you’ve just bitched about your best friend and she’s right behind you. No, that’s never happened to me either, but just imagine it. Exactly. It’s physically painful because, you are so close to something amazing, but you just can’t reach it.

                “Still Alive” is one of the tracks on ‘Now or Never’, and it is one that makes you smile involuntarily. With lyrics like “I am no superman/ but I do the best I can,” It gives you the lift you need to get through the next ten minutes with a huge, almost foolish grin on your face because you can relate to it, in one way or another, and no matter how involuntarily, you will relate to it. It’s in the easygoing nature of his songs to make you want to.

                And you take your headphones off with the biggest, goofiest, happiest grin on your face. Or, more likely, you won’t take your headphones off at all. You’ll bang that tune on repeat and listen to it for the next hour… or, in my case, until you’ve listened to it around eight times, and can hear it when you press pause – because that’s how memorable the music is.

                Last few songs to really prove to you how good his music is – “X-Ray Eyes” – on iTunes you can get both a live version and the studio version, and both of them are incredible. With the Live boasting about a minute-and-a-half’s intro that brings every section of the band in separately and makes the rush of his voice almost a surprise – he sounds a lot fresher when he’s live, at least as good as when you hear the studio stuff, maybe even better…

                “Mexicano” has a faster pace, with stronger bass, although it’s definitely got the same vibe as his other music, definitely combining fantastic lyrics with the strongest bass – the last couple of lines in the chorus especially emphasising it. “You and Me” is the most recent single, and the latest I’ve found. It’s sensual and kinda sweet, with almost adorable lyrics – “She got the looks / she got them from her mom,” that although aren’t the most metaphorical or heartwrenching, are just so, so, so good that you can’t help but love them, and wish you were the girl he was singing about.

                Honestly, he’s amazing. His music is, I think, best defined as sunshine, either with or without looking at the weather, just listening to his songs make you happy, make you feel so… good on the inside that you run around with the silliest grin all day – as I’ve said already. His image is just perfect for someone with such a sunny branch of guitar, of voice, and to be honest, he seems like a really nice guy.

                Go, listen. I’d pay you, but I think hearing the music will be payment enough.

Steve Means on Last.FM

Steve Means on iTunes

Steve Means on MySpace

Pete Schmidt

Hokay- been dead silent over the last quarter of 2009 mainly because I’m lazy, knackered and been working on school stuff before this.

But that’s thoroughly irrelevant.

—….—

                Pete Schmidt is currently playing on my iPod. Pete Schmidt is… Well, let’s look at this logically.

Thinking back to the time when I first found him, he was the saviour to my musical funk, shall we say? I found him through the Genius thingummybobby on iTunes – which usually picks the song that’s the next track on the album and goes “Have a go!” … and the song’s crap.

                Not that iTunes does that a lot… it’s just in my experience, I have specific tastes, and usually they aren’t it.

                But moving on for what appears to be the fortieth time.

 Pete Schmidt is healing. He is a young, don’t-ask-me-how-old musician, with a strangely comforting voice and an epic ability to catch your heart in one song and hold it through to the next. The album that caught me first off, is “No Safe Bet”, which is a lyric from the song, “On Sunday”.

                Okay, I’m totally losing the point of this.

                He is healing. He has the brilliant soulful voice that has a most… well, a sort of unfortunate All-American-Boy twang to it, where words like ‘summer’ have the extension on the ‘r’ to make it almost painfully pretty, and a crack in his voice that sounds… well, heartbroken.  This genuinely does sound like an awful estimation of him, but honestly? My point is… it works. He may be All-American, but the sound of it, coupled with his near-perfect acoustic guitar, is something that just fits.

                His songs have an air of melancholy, be they damaged because of a broken heart or a broken time in life – “Graduation” about the time when everyone leaves and moves onto a time when they don’t need to be together… and he can’t believe it’s over between… them. It’s never specified who, but if you listen to it enough, you get the feel for what it means to him… and see the strange and quite well-tapped-into teenaged side of him.

                Having a look at his website, I’m actually genuinely saddened by the fact that there doesn’t appear to have been any news about him since 2005. And that worries me considering we’ve just hit a new decade, but still, it’s not like he’s ever been to Britain anyway. He’s not “big time” and he’s not “small time”… and the fact that there’s been no news about him in a considerable age kind of indicates that he’s no longer up-and-coming.

                Part of me hurts when I say I think he’s just going to be… there, or thereabouts for quite a long time. Saddening, but in a good way, it’s nice to know that though he’s disappeared off the international radar, almost a year ago today, I felt the need to download something that Genius had hit me with. And I loved it.

                “Just So You Know” was the first song I heard, and I’m 100% sure it’s reduced me to tears many a time, for reasons to do with things that are still quite nice to think about. Even though it’s a desperate cry for love and seems to be told from both sides rather than just one, with the inclusion of some-unknown-female-voice on the recorded album. I’d tell you who it was, but honestly? Don’t know. The acoustic and stripped versions don’t have her in; they follow his voice and make it all the more beautiful.

                Another… well, one of the many painful songs on his album… and I say painful in the positive way – they hurt but it’s definitely a good hurt… well, another of those songs is “Angel”. It’s genuinely tear-jerking and I’d love to explain it to you… but it’s difficult without you hearing it… so thank you Last.FM. (Angel)

I think you can sum it up with a simple, “I wish I could have you back / For Just a Little while”, and that’s how you can basically sum up Pete Schmidt. His first album is brilliant. All acoustic, all solid, beautiful songs, and though it can seem a little repetitive, though the melancholy can get to you at times, and be a little bit painful to hear…

He has a beautiful heart in him, and he produces beautiful lyrics. Worth a listen if you’re in need of a sad-assed pick-me-up or someone to hug… or just a serious message.

Pete Schmidt on Last.FM

Steve Appleton

This boy.

Ohhh this boy is both so amazing and so gorgeous, it should be blooody illegal.

And I’ve met him, which, although somewhat average sounding, will be all the more amazing when you hear HOW.

But that’s for later.

This boy. I’d sigh if I could do it without coughing. He’s brilliant. Literally fucking brilliant, and I wanted to keep the f’s to a minimum here.

I found Steve Appleton by looking.

Not specifically for him, actually, but looking at the iTunes Festival line-up for this year. I won’t make any attempt to hide it.

<<<<<<<<<<<<

<<<<<<<<<<<< This dude, the one I’ve got arrows pointing to… he’s hot. I’m not passing up the chance to hear a hot guy sing, and really, much of my music taste is based around that…

(Of course, I joke, if they sing well, yes, if they suck, they can leave the building and never return. and I’d only say about 1/5th is based on that shit =].)

Where were we? Oh, yes. Hotness and therefore clicking.

So I opened up the link to his first single.

“Dirty Funk” was released in early 2009, and is only £0.59 on iTunes. Go get it, or even better, head to Steve’s Website, and download a track he hasn’t released so far, “Music Made a Man of Me.”

Both of them explode into life almost immediately and carry the message he’s all about – having fun and letting music show you the way. Don’t be afraid to let go and have fun, because that’s what he is. Fun.

His debut (and as of October 2009, only) album, When The Sun Comes Up is full of fun, beats, relentless smiles, and lyrics which will blow your mind.

No questioning it. They will. Or else.

From the opening song, “Rule The World” – Nothing like the Take That song, but alive, bright and exactly the thing you’d expect from a twenty year old. It’s like he’s been on a night out and just hit the point where invincibility is the only thing on his mind – he knows he’d be bad at ruling the world – “I think I heard them talkin’ to get rid of me/ Cuz I’m the singer not the leader of a country”, but hell, he’d have a go, and not be afraid to change it all. In actual fact, I’d sat the whole album is just the progression of a night out. A damn good night out.

The song moves from a twinkling opening, to a close you can’t help but clap along to, and damn, you know you want to dance from just half a minute of it. Unbeatable? Certainly not, and I’ll prove to you why.

You skip a track, you’re at “The Bright Side,” A weirdly upbeat song which sounds to me like he’s fallen out of love – “I’ll sit on the bright side/ain’t no love over there”, and he sounds like he’s having far too much fun to cross back. This is freedom at it’s best – having no ties and not having to fret – and once again, it’s lively music you won’t be able to argue with…

“Seeing Stars” … Well, suffice it to say, you’ve probably heard this as a background to one (or many) different TV shows. I’ve definitely heard it – as recently as a couple of weeks ago, and when you know it’s there, as with a lot of Steve’s music, you refuse to let it drop.

This is the thing about him – he’s underrated, he’s unknown, and it’s unfair. He’s amazing, he’s…. Well, he needs far more recognition, and he deserves far more recognition than he gets.

Skipping through the album (when you hear it and download it, because you will, I know you’ll at least listen to the songs, and I’ll cry if you don’t), you find gems which are insanely fantastic, utterly addictive and totally unforgettable…

None of the songs are “slow” per-se, nor are they balladic, each of them has a beat, and they don’t have a specific style at all – he says it himself, in “Sunny Days of Summer,” – “from Hip-Hop to Reggae to Rock/To Drum’n'Bass comin’ from my iPod dock.” – It’s what he is, an eclectic mixture of madness and brilliance, with no track the same, but all of them sounding… similar, I suppose. It’s the fastest song on the album, and really, it’s the most full of life too – he talks about his generation (and ours, I guess), needing no better reason to party than existence itself, and how its a good thing, that we’re so… alive. We know we’re alive and that’s the point. Being alive is better than just going through a routine because you have to.

With Songs like “Have a Go Hero”, “Stay Strong,” and “That’s Life“ there’s more… more… agh. There’s not a word for them. They’re real-life experiences and they’re all about backing down, but not being afraid, and taking life as it comes, and they shove realism in your face, quite smoothly and tell you that even though it’s bad now, and it might be bad for quite a while, that’s life, but you can change it - “Who you are / Well it’s down to you / Cuz that’s life…” – You just have to pick yourself up, get moving and shut the hell up about it.

Of course, you could always follow up with “Seems a little,” Which is all about the relaxation, all about the having the best day and not wanting to go anywhere… until you realise you have to – though he “Don’t think [he] ever wants to walk away”, he knows that he’s got to, but he’d stay if he could.

The album’s full of gems, as I’ve said before, but probably my favourites are “Wake Up Honey,” and “Funky Joe’s”. Both have a consistent beat, brilliant lyrics and a great voice behind them – Wake up Honey being led by his forgetfulness (after a one night stand, who the hell is the she sleeping next to him?!), and “Funky Joe’s” all about that *favourite bar* everybody has. I think I love Wake Up Honey more because of the mental images it conjures up – him standing at the foot of the bed wearing a really confused expression, and of course, the use of a spoken layer of lyrics under the traditional layer, with “nah, it’s gone” being his own internal monologue – he really just can’t remember who she is.

Funky Joe’s is livelier though, and starts off with the sounds of chatter. You know you’re at the bar already, and you feel like you’ve just come in, shut your eyes and you’re there in your head, staring from the edge of the dancefloor and grinning like a maniac because you wish you could just… be there. The saxophone really doesn’t damage the thing either.

Much of the album seems to be based upon personal experience – he’s transferred the things he’s seen and done brilliantly if it is, and what impressed me insanely was the fact he’s played every instrument on the album, and recorded them too… and his studio? Well, that’ll be his bedroom, really, couldn’t you have guessed? It’s amazing really. It’s just incredible. It’s just… wow.

I’m ranting, as per usual, but seriously, people! He’s incredible!

If you don’t believe me, check out the remix of “Use Somebody” That he’s got on youtube. He makes it his own, the video’s class, and you’ll see possibly the coolest way of counting in 4 beats… ever. All in three minutes. Give it a go, you won’t regret it!

… Oh, and, of course, I’m guessing you’ll wonder how his iTunes Festival gig went?

… Sadly, I didn’t win a coveted pair of tickets (I was lucky enough to see Vagabond instead), but upon getting the Five-Track iTunes album, I wasn’t disappointed. He’s got everyone in the audience having fun, and even though I wasn’t there, I’ve seen pictures and the place was filled with colour and liveliness and… just the beginnings of a rave.

And, he’s a Michael Jackson fan. The cover of “Human Nature” He’s pulled out across his gigs is incredible, and I really can’t believe he pulled it off – obviously it’s nothing like the original (in my opinion it’s better, you might not think so, try it and see,) but trust me. Trust me. It’s worth it.

…—…

… I’ve been raving about him for a while now, but I really don’t care. It’s easy for me to go on about him because I just can’t believe that somebody so nice, so gorgeous and so talented actually exists. But he damn does. And I’ve got proof. I’ve met him.

It sort of went like this, … *check this page, because this post is far too damn long otherwise*

…. So, how’re we loving him at the moment?

Steve Appleton is a totally unique talent, and I honestly don’t know how he’s so underrated – because chances are, you’ll have heard of and be familiar to instrumental versions of his songs. I love him, and his music, and to be honest, was hooked from the second I heard the full version of Dirty Funk, and my lovely friend, the one in love with Vagabond? Well, in her words, “when i heard MMAMOM [music made a man of me] i was like hes good – but when i heard more i couldnt stop singing it all the time LOL x”

 

… Just awesome. How were we lucky enough to meet him?

I don’t know, but really, I’m just amazed.

Steve Appleton on Last.FM