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Thursday, April 6, 2017

Rikard Sjöblom's Gungfly Sign to InsideOutMusic; new album to be released in May

Rikard Sjöblom's Gungfly Sign to InsideOutMusic; 
new album to be released in May





Following last year's disbanding of Sweden's much-loved progressive rockers Beardfish, vocalist and driving force Rikard Sjöblom has turned his attention to his solo project Gungfly, and signed with InsideOutMusic for the release of the next album 'On Her Journey To The Sun' on May 19th, 2017.

Rikard had this to say: "Gungfly was born out of necessity, songs came to life whenever there was downtime with Beardfish or if a song didn't quite fit within Beardfish's (otherwise quite broad and eclectic) frame of styles. I basically started recording songs, mainly pop-oriented material, but being the type of songwriter and musician I am, some prog slipped through the radar as well. With the break-up of Beardfish all of the prog-related material I write needed to go somewhere and Gungfly was ready and able for this step!"

Watch a teaser for the album here: https://youtu.be/zga0ZdGd-uc






"I recorded what was to become the first album between 2007 - 2008 and it was released in 2009. The name Gungfly is a Swedish word meaning unsecure ground, and it came from a novel I read where it was used to describe that someone didn't have grounds to back up their statements, so I liked it and chose to call the project that!" Rikard continues: "I've always been writing and recording lots of music and when I formed the live band to perform these songs for the first time I got to pick some of my oldest friends to play with and thankfully they wanted to be part of it! Petter and Rasmus Diamant (yes, they're brothers) on drums and bass have always been the backbone foundation in this line-up and sometimes we actually do gigs as the Gungfly trio. Sverker Magnusson has been behind the keys since the start and was recently joined by Martin Borgh too to be able to cover all of the keyboard work on the albums, so sometimes we do three keyboard players on stage at the same time! This is made possible by the fact that guitarist David Zackrisson (Beardfish) is in the band as well. Me then? I do what I've always done; sing, play guitars and a bunch of vintage keyboards (mainly Hammond organ) - and I have lots of fun."

Rikard Sjöblom is perhaps best known as the multi-instrumentalist frontman of Beardfish, who established themselves as one of the most consistently brilliant modern-day progressive rock bands over the course of eight studio albums. In recent years, he has also become known for his work with English progressive collective Big Big Train, playing live with them as well as performing on their 2016 album 'Folklore'. That year also marked the release of his most recent solo album under his own name, 'The Unbendable Sleep'.


GUNGFLY online:


INSIDEOUTMUSIC online: 


INSIDEOUTMUSIC Spotify Playlist: 


--------------------------------------------------------
All press related inquiries including promo copies, interviews, and more:
(If your reply email bounces back, please email me directly in a new email)


Roie Avin
US Digital Marketing / Publicity for InsideOut Music
Ph: 754-888-4380

  



 
  

Wednesday, April 5, 2017

Spock's Beard announce original member Nick D'Virgilio to play drums on next album!

Spock's Beard announce original member Nick D'Virgilio to play drums on next album!





Legendary Prog group Spock's Beard are back at work on the follow up to 2015's 'The Oblivion Particle'.  The band are now pleased to announce the return of original member Nick D'Virgilio on drums for the next album.  D'Virgilio played with the group on the recent Cruise to the Edge in Feb following the departure of drummer Jimmy Keegan. 

The band had this to say about the D'Virgilio's return. 

"Spock's Beard is super excited to announce that the amazing Nick D'Virgilio has agreed to play on our next album!

Nick of course is well known to SB fans as our former drummer/lead singer/all around awesome dude as well as for working with artists such as Genesis, Mike Keneally, Peter Gabriel and Big Big Train among others. Nick was with us when we first started and we are over the moon to have him back with us for this album! We know you'll be as excited as we are to hear what we will be able to create with him back pounding the skins. We've been writing new material and plan to start recording in earnest in late May, so stay tuned!"

D'Virgilio was the group's original drummer from 1995-2010 and was the band's lead singer for 4 albums from 2003-2010 before leaving the band.  Vocalist Ted Leonard and drummer Jimmy Keegan were brought into the band following his departure and recorded two albums with that lineup.

The band's 12th studio album 'The Oblivion Particle' was released in August 2015 on InsideOutMusic, and was a successful follow up to the band's 2013 release "Brief Nocturnes and Dreamless Sleep", and charted all over the world.   




More info on the upcoming album to come.


SPOCK'S BEARD Online:
http://spocksbeard.com/


INSIDEOUTMUSIC online: 

INSIDEOUTMUSIC Spotify Playlist: 


 
  

Lonely Robot launches official video for 'Everglow'

Lonely Robot launches official video for 'Everglow'






Lonely Robot, the project masterminded by producer, guitarist and singer/songwriter John Mitchell (It Bites, Frost*, Arena), recently announced that their much-anticipated second studio album 'The Big Dream' will be released on April 28th, 2017. Today sees the launch of the official video for the track 'Everglow', directed by previous collaborator Lee Blackmore. 

Watch it now on VEVO here: 

John Mitchell had this to say: "Everglow is the first song I wrote for The Big Dream, and here is my ace pop video for it. It features what I call an anti-chorus...if you need to vindicate yourself on a public platform you're looking in the wrong place :)"

A series of interview clips were recently launched, where John Mitchell discusses how Lonely Robot came together, and the new album in detail. Watch the latest one here: https://youtu.be/1IZTy0l1CRw 


Following 2015's acclaimed debut 'Please Come Home', 'The Big Dream' has a core theme running through it - one that sees The Astronaut, the central character in the Lonely Robot adventure, emerging from a long period in stasis.

Mitchell explains: "The Astronaut wakes up from a cryogenic sleep but finds he's no longer in space, and is instead in a woodland area surrounded by a group of strange people with animal heads! It's a little surreal, a little 'Midsummer Night's Dream' to some extent. This is something of a solipsistic haze, for want of a better description!"

Mitchell explains more about his Lonely Robot concept: "I have always envisaged the storyline of The Astronaut's journey evolving over the course of three albums. And I always knew where I wanted to go with the second album - taking The Astronaut away from space and into a strange and unfamiliar environment. Right now, I have no thoughts of what will happen for the third one but I'd better start thinking about it now!"

"The key inspiration for Lonely Robot comes from my love of science fiction films, and the atmospheric soundtracks that often accompany them - such as Alan Silvestri's compositions for 'Contact' and Clint Mansell's work for 'Moon'."

The album once again features drums by Craig Blundell (Steven Wilson), with all other instrumentation on the album delivered by Mitchell himself.

 

'The Big Dream' will be available as a special edition digipak CD (including 3 bonus tracks), gatefold 2LP + CD & digital download. 

Pre-order the album from here: 


The track-listing is as follows:
1.     Prologue (Deep Sleep)
2.     Awakenings
3.     Sigma
4.     In Floral Green
5.     Everglow
6.     False Lights
7.     Symbolic
8.     The Divine Art Of Being
9.     The Big Dream
10.  Hello World Goodbye
11.  Epilogue (Sea Beams)

Bonus Tracks:
12.  In Floral Green (Acoustic Version)
13.  The Divine Art Of Being (Acoustic Version)
14.  Why Do We Stay? (feat. Kim Seviour)

At the end of 2015, Lonely Robot played a triumphant show at The Scala in London, and Mitchell wants to play further live dates in 2017, with a few already confirmed. "The only condition is that I want them all to be special; and now we have two albums of material from which to choose the set."

Lonely Robot will be brought to life on stage with Craig Blundell on drums, Steve Vantsis on bass & Liam Holmes on keyboards (pictured above). The following dates are currently confirmed:

Thu, April 27 - Sub89, Reading, UK (album launch show)
Fri, April 28 - Marillion Convention, Leicester, UK
Sat, May 27- Trinity Live, Assembly Rooms, Leamington Spa, UK

Lonely Robot's debut album Please Come Home received fantastic reviews upon release, with Prog calling it "one mighty statement of intent" and Fireworks stating it's "one of the finest pieces of Prog Pop".

Look out for more information in the coming weeks at John Mitchell's brand new website:


LONELY ROBOT online:

INSIDEOUTMUSIC online: 

INSIDEOUTMUSIC Spotify Playlist: