Electronic Artist Spotlight: Hollywood Principle

 

We bring you a special artist trio soon to be in the minds of synth, indie electronic, and pop lovers everywhere. Beautifully crafted melodies, talented production chops, and breathtaking vocals make Hollywood Principle a musical force impossible to ignore.    

 

 

New on the scene, we had the chance to be one of the first to interview and find more about them:    

 

You’ve recently started receiving numerous accolades from bloggers and music curators with a wide range of opinions for identifying your Hollywood Principle Interview on Fluenceunique sound. The comparisons to The Naked and the Famous, Florence and the Machine, and London Grammar are all well-founded, yet you seem to posses something beyond each categorization. What do you think contributes to this?  

Mostly I think our desire to pull on our strengths individually is how we came up with our specific sound. Elliott is extremely focused on the complexity of the melodies, Mike is always focused on trying to have a higher production value, and Kayla is always centered around the songs having actual meaning.  

 

 

Is there a story behind the name?

Elliott and Mike are nerds. It’s a computer programming principle… Kayla has no clue what it means.

 

How did Hollywood Principle come into being?

All of us share a mutual friend, Rob Bondurant.  Who is also a musician.  Essentially we used him to find each other and start our own band.

 

How did you discover the Fluence platform? What do you think of the concept?

Elliott stumbled upon it on google when he was looking for innovative promotion platforms online. The concept is amazing, and we have been very fortunate to have made some key, beneficial connections through the platform.

 

 

We’ve been anticipating your debut EP ‘Starting Over’ being released sometime this spring. Are there any more specific release details we can look forward to? Are there any plans for a larger release down the road in 2015?

We will be releasing a new track every month until May. We spend a lot of time crafting the tracks into a cohesive work, so we are really excited to weave each of these tracks into a new experience for those who have enjoyed each individual work too. We should have a bunch of remixes and acoustic versions as well for when that comes out. The best place to stay up to date would be on our Soundcloud.

 

Your favorite tracks in 2014?

Mike Ault: Broods – Bridges

 

Elliott Sencan: Human – Aquilo (Marian Hill Remix)

 

Kayla Hope: Point Point – Life in Grey

 

Follow Hollywood Principle on Facebook and Twitter for updates, and add your email here to get notified when ‘Starting Over’ is released.

 

– Music Curators and Writers on Fluence –

Indie Electronic | Pop | Electronic | Synthpop

Indie Folk Artist on the Rise: The Division Men

Meet The Division Men; a husband / wife acoustic duo based in Austin, Texas. We were blown away when we heard their mesmerizing, haunting, desert-dusted sound a couple months ago, and since then their music has swept across the Fluence community evoking recurring comparisons to Leonard Cohen, The Handsome Family, and Tom Waits to name a few.

 

We see great heights in store for their talent, and after listening to their music, it’s not hard to imagine them finding a place alongside Conor Oberst, The Good Life, and Monsters of Folk in the future. Read our interview with J. and Caroline below to hear The Division Men’s genesis, creative influences, and what’s upcoming for them this year.

 

 

How did your collaboration as ‘The Division Men’ begin and transpire?

(J) The band began in my apartment Berlin, Germany, in 2008. I met a few musicians that I wanted to collaborate with. My idea was to work with my friends who did not live in Germany at the time. I  know a lot of talented musicians and I didn’t think our locations should be a factor.
I sent files to guys like Fredo Ortiz (Beastie Boys/ Tito and Tarantula/ Ozomatli), Steven Medina Hufsteter (The Quick / Cruzados / Tito and Tarantula) and Mitch Hertz (Salacious Crumb, Salmon Hater). I really enjoyed collaborating with them but just like everything in life, people get busy and the work slows down. At that time Caroline and I were dating and we continued to play music together under the already established name “The Division Men”.

 

Dying To Get By - The Division Men

 

 

 

 

 

 

Did growing up in Texas inform any of the creative direction in your work?

(J) I was raised on the border of El Paso, Texas and Juarez, Mexico. I was able to be apart of two different cultures coming together. El Paso is a perfect place to write music because of it’s surroundings, everyday struggles, history and beautiful people that have so many stories to tell. Our music is naturally Texas because it’s what we know, who we know and what we’ve heard and read about.
(C) San Antonio is a predominantly Hispanic town. It’s full of culture, fiesta, music and art. Any contributions that I have come from what I was surrounded by. I grew up in a musical family from the guitar makers (Bajo Sextos) to the guitar players. Although all of these things are my Texas influence, moving to El Paso in 2009 definitely encouraged the writing for our music.

You just released the music video for ‘Criminal’ which tells the story of a man spending his days travelling behind a mask. Is there any significance in that particular mask, and the cemetery where he chooses to remove it in the final scene?

(J) There’s no direct significance in the choice of the specific cemetery or that particular mask. The song is about someone realizing the wrong choices he made and trying to rectify them. The use of mask represented the temptation and the choice made. In the cemetery he leaves the mask asking for redemption in his choice.

 

Are there any artists in particular you’ve drawn inspiration from?

(C) There are many artists that both of us draw inspiration from. We’re inspired by writers, film, art and music. Going into this we never tried to replicate or mimic anyone but have been compared to some amazing artists who we both truly admire.
(J) David Romo, Cormac McCarthy, Stanley Kubrick, Wes Anderson, David Lynch, Tom Waits and Leonard Cohen are just a few.

 

 

How did you discover Fluence? What do you think of the platform so far?

(J) I’ve followed Travis Keller’s writings for years and have been a fan of Buddyhead. I read that he was doing reviews and thought it was a great opportunity for him to listen to our music. I’m glad we became part of Fluence because we have been fortunate enough to have great writers review our work. We plan on continuing to work with Fluence and promote it as much as we can.

 

You released your debut album ‘Under The Gun’ the past May. What are your plans for 2015? Can we look forward to any live shows?

(J) We’re currently getting ready to head out for a short tour in February. This will take us through Texas, California, Arizona, Nevada, Wyoming  and Colorado with our friends (Black Market II) from San Diego. Another tour later this year is also a possibility. We are starting to work on new material for a third record and will release a few more videos.

 

Follow The Division Men here on Bandcamp, Facebook, and Twitter

Indie Folk Curators | Music Writers and Bloggers | Indie Curators

Emerging Artist Spotlight: David Rosen

Powerful. Resonating. Ever-evolving. Crystalline.

 

These words are repeatedly found in the responses artist and musician David Rosen has been receiving from the creative community on Fluence.

After spending years creating award-winning film scoring and composition projects, Rosen’s solo work is emerging with a surging style all its own. Listen to his latest music video release ‘Dreams Like These‘ for a glimpse of his exceptional talent.

 

 

We seized on the chance to interview David to discover more about his musical influences and the creative process behind his work:

 

Your debut album ‘Echoes In The Dark’ soars along combining an eclectic collection of ideas reminiscent of IDM, orchestral, and even darker synth-pop influences. Who are some artists you’ve drawn inspiration from?

David RosenMy two biggest influences also happen to be my two favorite bands and that’s The Cure & Depeche Mode. Aside from that, my influences come from all over the place including everything from film score composers, to industrial like Nine Inch Nails, pop like Michael Jackson and all kinds of other music. I also compose music for film, and I definitely try to let that influence creep into my album music as well.

 

A recurring theme in tracks such as ‘Inside Of Us All’, ‘If Only Tonight I Could Sleep’, ‘Takeover’, and even your newest single ‘Dreams Like These’ is the use of elongated builds; gradually adding layer after layer of instrumentation over a progression creating exceptionally gripping apexes. Is there a general motive behind this, and could you tell us about your creative process for composing and building on a progression?

It’s funny that you picked that out. It’s actually a very specific decision I’ve made in my songwriting process to have various different structures that I use in different songs. A lot of pop songs have the old verse-chorus-repeat structure, and I will make songs like that sometimes too (although without lyrics), but I also have about five different structures (and variations of those structures) that I usually use when I’m creating a track. Usually by the time I’ve gotten to the 5th or 6th layer of the music I can start to tell what the best progression is going to be. One of my favorites is the elongated build like you mentioned because I can just keep making it bigger and bigger and bigger. There are 3 or 4 tracks on the new album that use this structure. My main reason for making music is scoring films, but when doing that it’s my job to serve the picture. So when I am working on these albums I get to experiment more which is why I like to have these go-to structures in my mind that I can build from.

 

 

Any upcoming releases or news for 2015?

Well most exciting is my second album, An Unseen Sky; I’m hoping to release it around March. I never thought I’d be ready so soon to release another album after spending so long building up the music (and confidence) to release my first album Echoes In The Dark, but the music just started coming right away. There will be some more videos from the album too, made by filmmakers here in Las Vegas. I also have some feature films lined up that I’ll be scoring including “Finding The Truth” which is the debut feature by Doug Farra, director of my “If Only Tonight I Could Sleep” music video. We may end up releasing a soundtrack album of the film’s score as well. Other than that I’m also really excited that the “If Only Tonight I Could Sleep” video has gotten into a couple more film festivals this year.

 


How did you discover Fluence? What are your thoughts on it?

I found out about Fluence on some music site… I don’t remember which one though. I really think this service is invaluable. Some might say paying for feedback isn’t cool… But getting feedback from friends usually doesn’t give you much to work with. And I can send music to 100 blogs and probably end up with two responses… One will be a reprint of my press release and one MAYBE will have some kind of useful critique. So getting real feedback from real music bloggers for honestly VERY little money is such a great idea… And the fact that some of them even go on to share your work to their followers is icing on the cake.

 

Favorite album you’re listening to right now?

Ooh that’s a tough one. I’m on a pretty big sad singer-songwriter kick lately haha… Ryan Adams’ self-titled new album, Jason Isbell’s Southeastern and Laura Marling’s Once I Was An Eagle are probably my three most listened to albums of the past year… And I’m listening to the work in progress version of An Unseen Sky pretty much constantly while I pick it apart. I might be biased but I love this freaking album.


 

Say hi to David on Twitter and Facebook, plus check out more of David’s music here on Bandcamp, SoundCloud, and his website.

 

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