Let’s get closer with your Laneway Festival 2015′s Line-Ups!

Angus & Julia Stone

Australian siblings Angus and Julia Stone. Angus started writing songs in his teens, after his parents separated. He shared his music and his guitar skills with his sister while she was living in Bolivia. It was she who encouraged him to start performing after hearing the songs he had written. By 2005 Angus was playing at open mic nights at the Coogee Bay Hotel in Sydney, sometimes with Julia performing backing vocals. Julia also started writing her own material, so they played split sets with each providing backing vocals for the other.

Banks

Self-taught in piano, Jillian Banks – simply known as Banks – started writing songs when she was just 15 years old. Vogue named her Artist of the Week in August 2013, saying her songs “perfectly capture a feeling of being lost and powerless in the world.” The 26-year-old was also labelled by Billboard as a ”magnetic writer with songs to obsess over”, while more than a dozen media outlets suggested she was the artist to watch in 2014.

Chet Faker

Australian electronica musician Chet Faker is Nicholas James Murphy. Faker used to play for a band called Sunday Kicks, and an electronic/dance duo “Knicks”. He also played under the name Atlas Murphy, but decided he needed to play under a stage name after people came to his shows thinking he was a different and already established musician named Nick Murphy. He settled on the name Chet Faker as an homage to Chet Baker.

Courney Barnett

Melbourne-based guitar player and singer/songwriter, Courtney Barnett, started her own label, Milk! Records, and released her first EP – I’ve Got A Friend Called Emily Ferris – to glowing reviews around Australia. She used to play in a garage grunge band which released one self-titled album on cassette. She was also a member of Australian psych/country band Immigrant Union, before she started her own label in 2012.

Eagulls

Eagulls is an English post-punk band comprising Mark Goldsworthy (guitar), Henry Ruddel (drums), Liam Matthews (guitar), Tom Kelly (bass), and George Mitchell (vocals). Eagulls has played with many notable artists, including Manic Street Preachers, Flipper, Milk Music, and as the main support for Franz Ferdinand’s 2014 UK tour. Formed in 2010, the band released its first single, Council Flat Blues, on Moshi Moshi imprint, Not Even Records.

Enterprise

The music of this five-piece band may be hard to define, but it has been described to carry influences from indie rock bands to electronic sound. The Malaysian band has played in music festivals, parties and shows. A keen favourite for nightlife events and party gigs, these boys produce upbeat grooves that carry a blend of electronic and analog percussions, synth soundscapes and guitar melodies that prompt your feet towards the dancefloor.

FKA Twigs

English singer-songwriter and dancer, Tahliah Debrett Barnett, is FKA Twigs. Before all these accolades came to be, Twigs was an independent singer who self-released her music. Now, she released debut album through Young Turks in August 2014. The record titled LP1.

Future Islands

Future Islands is a synthpop band whose members first met and formed while studying art at East Carolina University in Greenville. From recording their first album in a skateshop, and their second in their living room, this three-piece band has moved up the ladder and been signed on by 4AD. Originally called Art Lord & the Self-Portraits, Gerrit Welmers (keyboards and programming), William Cashion (bass, acoustic and electric guitars) and Samuel T. Herring (lyrics and vocals) roped in Erick Murillo, who played an electronic drum kit, and renamed the group Future Islands.

.gif

.gif (pronounced “dot jif”) is an electronic duo based in Singapore. They strives to make electronic music that combines lush soundscapes with lyrics that are intensely personal and meaningful. The duo – Weish and Din – see .gif as a space for freedom, respite, and honesty. Sometimes mystical, sometimes bizarre, other times captivating, but always experimental, the twosome’s music can best be described as intriguing.

Hanging Up The Moon

Needing a further outlet to express himself, Sean Lam of Concave Scream embarked on a solo music project, Hanging Up The Moon. As hinted at by the name, the songs were recorded in the dead of the night after the day’s work was done, his daughter put to bed, and when all was finally quiet. By simply accompanying the songs in his debut album with the guitar or ukulele allowed his plaintive vocals and introspective lyrics to shine through. It was deliberately left lo-fi and rough around the edges, to reflect the home-made nature of the project; and it is this quiet honesty in both words and sound that has captivated both critics and listeners.

Jungle

Formed by two best pals, Jungle is one of the most exciting, but yet unknown, bands to emerge from Britain in 2013. Friends since they were nine, and neighbours growing up in west London, the two were trying to make ends meet as session musicians and songwriters, and played as part of a seven-piece live band, before forming Jungle. With a desire for honest and true connections, as well as a belief in working as a collective drawing upon cumulative energy, Jungle has worked with different artists across diverse disciplines. Wanting to challenge themselves, they often resist the temptation to simply reproduce their music from their laptops. Instead, they translate their songs into a full and organic live experience.

Little Dragon

Gothenburg’s Little Dragon has gained international acclaim after three successful albums and having toured all over the world. Their energetic live set and unique recording process have made fans out of some of the biggest names in music, including Pharrell Williams, Questlove, and OutKast. They have collaborated with artistes such as Big Boi, The Gorillaz, and SBTRKT.  The band, which blends strands of R&B, electronic and indie into beautifully and meaningfully crafted songs, comprises Yukimi Nagano, Erik Bodin, Fred Wallin, and Håkan Wirenstrand. Nagano, Bodin and Wallin used to meet up after school to jam and play records by De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest and Alice Coltrane. The band’s name was inspired by the “Little Dragon” nickname Nagano earned because of the fuming tantrums she used to throw while recording in the studio.

Lykke Li

Li Lykke Timotej Zachrisson, professionally known as Lykke Li, was born on March 18, 1986 in Ystad, Skåne, in Sweden. She grew up in an artistic environment with a photographer for a mom and a musician for a dad. Throughout her childhood, Lykke Li and her parents lived on several places, including Stockholm, Portugal, Lisbon, Morocco, Nepal and India. Lykke Li, along with her younger brother Zacharius and older sister Zara Lou, embraced their unconventional lifestyle. Lykke Li even moved to New York on her own for three months when she was 19 years old. There, she performed at open music nights and admitted that she pretended to be a Swedish superstar to score gigs.

Mac DeMarco

Singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer Mac DeMarco is best known for his solo career in which he released two full length studio albums and one EP. DeMarco’s live shows can be quite raunchy, with the musician engaging the audience with off-colour jokes, or some involvement of nudity and lewd acts. When asked why he engages in onstage behaviour that doesn’t necessarily relate to his musical style, DeMarco said that getting the crowd loose and goofy usually lightens them up and allows them to have a funkier time.

Pastel Lite

From the capital of Malaysia comes Pastel Lite, an experimental duo comprising vocalist Eff Hakim and multi-instrumentalist Mohd Faliq. After meeting via Facebook in 2012, the pair joined forces to release a run of promising demos that combine subtle harmonic vocals and minimal electronic melodies to much effect. The pair had chosen the name Pastel Lite because they originally thought their music was going to be pure and innocent, but that gradually changed. Their music now involves mostly a mass of synth pop and electronica, though they do tap into to a wide range of sounds.

Pond

Just like the ripples in its namesake, the crew of Pond is ever changing. This stems from the psychedelic rock band’s original idea of letting Pond get anyone who wanted to play whatever they wanted. The current line up is of this Australian band is Nick Allbrook, Jay Watson, Joseph Ryan, Jamie Terry, and Julien Barbagallo. They shared three members with psychedelic rock band Tame Impala which rose to prominence with its 2010 breakthrough debut album, Innerspeaker. This prompted Pond to release its fourth album – Beard, Wives, Denim. It was released to critical acclaim in March 2012.

Royal Blood

Royal Blood is a British rock duo band whose sound is reminiscent of, and rooted in, modern garage rock and blues rock. Singer/bassist Mike Kerr and drummer Ben Thatcher make up the band which released its debut single Out of the Black, with a B-side called Come On Over. This was followed by their second single, Little Monster, in February 2014. A month later, they released a four-track EP, featuring Out of the Black, Little Monster, Come On Over and Hole. Their debut album, Royal Blood, was released on 25 August 2014 to commercial success, and was well-received by critics. It was verified by the Official Charts Company as the fastest-selling British rock debut album in three years in the UK.

Rustie

Born Russell Whyte, Rustie is a Scottish musician from Glasgow. He is associated with the sub-genre of laser hip hop, a genre described as an experimental offshoot of hip hop that emphasizes slowed down, low-slung beats, with lashings of electronic mutterings and morphing basslines. Rustie believes his work conveys movement and fluidity, and that his creative process is an “immersive world” wrapped up in sound, rhythm, and color. Rustie’s long-time interest in videogames has influenced his approach to electronic composition.

St. Vincent

American Anne Erin “Annie” Clark is musician, singer-songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist St. Vincent. Her music has been noted for its wide array of instruments and complex arrangements, as well as its polysemous lyrics.  She began playing the guitar at the age of 12, participated in her school’s jazz band, and dropped out of the Berklee College of Music after three years. After that, she joined choral rock band The Polyphonic Spree, just before their European tour. She was also part of Sufjan Stevens’ touring band before forming her own band in 2006. Apart from the guitar, Clark also plays the bass, piano, organ and theremin. Similarly, her music often features a wide range of instruments, such as violins, cellos, flutes, trumpets and clarinets. Which explains why her unorthodox musical style has been called a mixture of chamber rock, pop, indie rock, and cabaret jazz by critics.

Kimbra

This native New Zealander may be more familiar to the masses as the girl in the hit single: ’Somebody That I Used To Know’, but beyond that, Kimbra creates music that is a vivid arc of youthful exuberance and mature introspection, conveying an array of insights through her pop-funk beats.

Fun Fact: Wanting to run away from all the post-Grammy’s praise and criticism, Kimbra escaped to a sheep farm to write her latest release, The Golden Echo. In her words “The sheep don’t give a crap who you are. You spend time with them and there’s this beautiful kind of harmony of how everything works in that environment. It was a really great space to create.”

Local Natives

These Los Angeles-based group have come a long way from their days at the Gorilla Manor. Their newest album, Hummingbird’s solemn darkness is a far cry from the “battle-cry urgency” of Gorilla Manor‘s Sun Hands, perhaps acting as a window towards the changes they have gone through in the last few years following the departure of bassist Andy Hamm and the recent death of Kelcey Ayer’s mother.

Keeping their uniquely collaborative process intact, this band has matured from the comfort space of their established aesthetic and came out even stronger.

Fun Fact: Before each show, the boys of Local Natives psych themselves up before each show by listening to a specific song together. Every tour has a different theme song, from Prince to David Bowie, the list is as endless as it is random!

Jagwar Ma

Jono Ma and Gabriel Winterfield first met onstage at an FLRL stage performance of revolving musicians. With a mutual love of studio jams, home recordings, radio frequency manipulation, TR808 patterns, MPCs loops, vintage amps, and 7 inch vinyls — these two have found a soul amidst all that electricity. Creating music that slices human harmonies sliced apart by a dagger of sharp contemporary programming.

Fun Fact: They both come from mixed raced backgrounds! Gabriel’s dad is Persian and Jono’s dad is Chinese.

The Lemonheads

After their initial punk-influenced releases as an independent”college rock” band in the late 1980s, the Lemonheads’ popularity with a mass audience grew in 1992 with the major label album It’s a Shame about Ray,

Now, they’re back after an 8 year hiatus, with new releases that jumps from early British psychedelic to Dutch electronica, leaving you not know what is coming next but always wanting more.

Fun Fact: The Lemonheads line up has always been volatile, having more than a dozen different configurations over the last 28 years, with Evan Dando being the only constant.

Najwa

Malaysian born Najwa is back after a three year hiatus, playing with somber and minimalistic echoes over warm piano accompaniments. Thus the Aurora EP,stripping her sound down to it’s electronic core and revealing the deepest shadows of her soul.

Fun Fact: Najwa is the daughter of Malaysia’s Deputy Prime Minister, Muhyiddin Yassin

Kyoto Protocol

This five-piece outfit kick-started a renaissance of Rock & Roll in Malaysia. Since their humble beginnings playing covers in local bars in 2009, Kyoto Protocol have now played all around the world; even holding their own alongside Grammy nominees and YouTube record-breakers in Future Music Festival Asia 2013.

Fun Fact: Kyoto Protocol recently learnt some dance moves from all-girl Japanese pop-punk band Shonen Knife when they met on tour in India.

Enterprise

Enterprise made their first public appearance in 2011 after their rehearsal session on Youtube gained attention from promoters and organizers. Since then, they have played in music festivals, parties and shows all around Malaysia.

They made their Urbanscapes debut in 2012 and will take flight once again this year as we enter the Enterprise.

Fun Fact: Their name is inspired by the USS Enterprise, which Trekkies will recognise as the main setting for various television series and films in the Star Trek franchise.

OJ Law

OJ Law’s catchy melodies and arrangements have won him much critical acclaim and an ever-increasing fan base falling for the charms of his music. Urbanscapes will be the live debut of his latest album, ‘Let’s Be Adult’. Influenced by 70s pop and contemporary synth-pop, ‘Let’s Be Adult’ is an autobiographical album containing OJ Law’s most personal songs to date.

Fun Fact: OJ Law singlehandedly writes, records, and produces all his albums, with 3 albums to date.

June Marieezy

Hailing from the Philippines, June will be making her Kuala Lumpur debut this Urbanscapes. Where she will deliver her melodies, smooth voice, and lyrical heart songs through a performance that channels part performance arts, part visuals and a whole lot of interesting sound manipulations.

Fun Fact: June likens playing the flute to having a dialogue with the wind. An apt performance to look forward to considering she’ll play at a venue in the clouds.

Cashew Chemists

Heavily influenced by pop-rock music of the 60’s and 70’s, this Singaporean four-piece-bandwill enchant you with their dreamy harmonies and classic bluesy bass on top of a twiddling surf guitar.

Fun Fact: In the words of Daniel Sassoon, “Cashew Chemists kinda sounds like what the Strokes might have sounded like if they traded their New York hipster club-prowling swagger for a Singapore kopitiam seat-hunting gait…some serious potential lurking in there!”

The Cotton Field Scarecrows

The Cotton Field Scarecrowes is a Malaysian indie-folk band who blends the earthy tone of early American folk with modern-day retro styled music. Their debut album ‘Dancing Hymns And Broken Rhymes’ which was released late last year embraces what they call “The Bleak Folk Hymnody”.

Fun Fact: Tracks on their debut albumwas mostly recorded live, with the finishing blanketed with long play textures. This is to give listeners the vinyl experience anytime, anywhere.

Azmyl Yunor & Orkes Padu

Azmyl Yunor & Orkes Padu is a new band spearheaded by Malaysian underground folk icon Azmyl Yunor and beat guru Raje, the band leader of Orkes Padu. Experience a toe-tapping technicolor embodiment of the plaintive yet heartfelt heartland storytelling from one of Malaysia’s best at Urbanscapes. Modern folk rock to celebrate the Malaysian spirit!

Fun Fact: Orkes Padu means solid orchestra in the Malay language.

Ali Aiman

This Malaysian-born multi-instrumentalist has been strutting his stuff since 2006. With a mastery of the piano and trumpet that has earned him industry-wide recognition. After six years of living abroad, Urbanscapes will be Ali Aiman’s attempt to re-enter the local music scene with his new and improved refinement.

Fun Fact: Ali Aiman graduated from the Berklee College of Music with 1st Class Honours in Contemporary Writing and Production!

Faiq & The Manja Mob

Faiq & The Manja Mob may not have any original material (yet), but get ready to be seduced by muscles, magic, multiple languages, and strange musical choices. Lead singer, Amanda’s gentle voice is reminiscent of old-school crooner, Doris Day. If Doris Day was Malaysian and cursed more, that is.

Fun Fact: The day jobs of the band range from physiotherapist,copywriter, to even a financier.

Paperplane Pursuit

This electro-pop band self-produced a single called ‘Beat Of Your Love’, a collaboration with fellow Malaysian musician and DJ, Darren Ashley portraying their fierce independence and DIY capabilities in the production of their music and their videos. Since then, Paperplane Pursuit has released their second album titled ‘Higher’ along with a follow up single ‘Feel Good’.

Fun Fact: The music video for ‘Feel Good’was self-produced with the help of some of the most recognisable faces in the Malaysian entertainment scene.

Jumero

Making their first debut at Urbanscapes back in 2012 after winning The Star R.AGE open-mic competition, these laid-back acoustic trio hassince then, written their first EP which will be releasing at the end of 2014.

Fun Fact: Apart from their passion of writing and releasing original songs, the trio also enjoy covering current as well as older classic songs whilst adding their personal touch to it.

Dirgahayu

Dirgahayu first emerged in July 2013 as a 3­-piece instrumental math­rock outfit. The band hit the scene with a single release Bahawasa­nya: 4 minutes of organised chaos, robust guitar attacks, and exuberant drum beats punctuated by intense abrupt transitions.With the recent addition of Seikan Sawaki on drums and Zulhezan back on guitar duty, expect their sound dynamics to turn more progressive, odd-signature compositions greeted with dense guitar riffs and a new foray of sound.

Fun Fact: Dirgahayu comes from the Sanskrit word meaning “Long live my Lord” and was supposed to be used only for the king, as the phrase “Dirgahayu Tuanku” is often used to hail the royal highnesses in Malaysia.

Urbanscapes 2014 – Playlist :

(Adeline Hong)

Prepare yourselves for the 2015 Laneway Festival line-up. Featuring a mix of Singaporean, Malaysian and international acts, the Singapore event will host perhaps its strongest line-up to date.

Following a successful 2014 event with a crowd 10,000+ strong, Laneway Festival Singapore returns to the idyllic setting of The Meadow at Gardens By The Bay for the fifth year running.

Into its eleventh year in 2015, St. Jerome’s Laneway Festival has expanded into a seven-city music festival which has gained international following and acclaim, as well as an unrivalled reputation for programming new talents on the cusp of greatness. Having well and truly settled into its home in each state, the event is a true highlight on the Singapore, New Zealand and Australian music calendars.

Check out previously announced festival dates and venues along with our amazing early bird deals available from today until 16 October here.

THE LINE-UP

In alphabetical order:

ANGUS & JULIA STONE • BANKS • CHET FAKER • COURTNEY BARNETT • EAGULLS • ENTERPRISE • FKA TWIGS • FUTURE ISLANDS • .GIF • HANGING UP THE MOON • JUNGLE • LITTLE DRAGON • LYKKE LI • MAC DEMARCO • PASTEL LITE • POND • ROYAL BLOOD • RUSTIE • ST. VINCENT