The Ultimate Band

On last week, NME made several interviews to several artists asking them witch artists would they pick for the Ultimate Band. One of them was Brett Anderson from Suede and you can see in the picture is choices. I decided to make the same exercise and choose my super group (I'll only choose one person per band, otherwise we could have many Suede members):

Vocals: Patrick Duff (Strangelove)

With artists like Brett Anderson, Dave Gahan, Morrissey or Jeff Buckley it was really complicated to decide who should be on the band as main vocals. Well, Patrick Duff, during Strangelove, was like an animal in terms of singing. He was a completely passionate guy with a non stop energy. His lyrics are very deep. On his solo career he is more mature and soft but with magical melodies and lyrics. He would be the best option for this place.

Guitars: Richard Oakes (Suede, Artmagic)

Oakes is my guitar hero. For all that he represents. He entered Suede with 17 years old and was, in my opinion, the greatest responsible in Suede biggest come back in 1996 with my all time favourite album Coming Up. Butler left Suede and no one in the press believed that they could come back to the spotlight but, with songs like Beautiful Ones, Trash or Filmstar they did it, and came back even better than they were before. Richard is a natural talented guitarist that can make millions of catchy and beautiful riffs. During last years he was gone but he came back with Artmagic and made an excellent album full of nice guitars and beautiful keyboards. 

Bass: Paul McCartney (The Beatles, Wings)

Paul McCartney is a living legend. The work he made on Beatles, Wings and on his solo albums are simply amazing and they are the best tunes ever. The Beatles were and still are the most influential band of all time and McCartney was the big brain behind it. The medley on Abbey Road or the first classic Beatles songs, passing thought his amazing solo album Ram or Band On The Run with the wings are little examples of a complete genius. His way of playing bass was incredible too. Very rhythmic, very enjoyable, very natural. Songs like Come Together or Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da have great bass lines. And of course he could borrow his giant creativity in the other instruments to all of the other band members (as we can see on his first solo album where he plays all the instruments)

Keyboards: Martin L. Gore (Depeche Mode)

Martin Gore is the synthesizer master. He was the main brain over Depeche Mode's 80's career and the responsible in their fantastic change of sound during Violator, Songs Of Faith And Devotion and Ultra. Although nowadays he plays more guitar than Keyboards in live gigs he still does it on studio (during last album he had an "obsessions" of buying a lot of keyboards from Ebay and made a huge collection). He is a really creative musician always exploring samples and new songs and, in my opinion is that what I would like to see in a keyboard player. As an example of his abilities in synthesizers I could remember songs like Walking In My Shoes, It's No Good or In Your Room (album version, is a complete climax).

Drums: Paul Thomson (Franz Ferdinand)

There are so much typical drum players that could make this list, like Dave Grohl or several hard rock guys but what I look in drum players is not for them to be protagonists or for them to try to evidence from the band. I look for them to really fit well on the rest of the band and I think Paul Thomson has the perfect style for that. When I listen to Franz Ferdinand, the drum sounds is really characteristic, and it is always in the right position with the right changes between verses and chorus and solos. As for examples, the classic Take Me Out is marvellous or the super great live version of Outsiders is brilliant too. I saw them live 2 times in the last years and was completely amazed by their great liver performance.

Band Name: Strange Sound

Suede Studio Teaser

To celebrate Richard Oakes birthday, the official facebook page of Suede posted a video of him and Neil Codling playing keyboards on studio. It is a really small video, and they just play one chord but it was nice to see the boys in action on the studio.
Check It Here

Rickard Oakes' Interview On Q Magazine

Last week, Richard Oakes, guitarist of Suede and Artmagic, gave an interview for the Q magazine where he talked mostly about his songwriting partnerships. It was a very interesting reading, and, in the end of his words, Richard talked about the music industry in general and how he sees it.
Read it now:

"Having forming a new group Artmagic with Robyn and Britney Spears collaborator Sean McGhee, Suede guitarist Richard Oakes (left) examines what makes the best songwriting partnerships - including his collaborations with Brett Anderson - work. 


There are so many different ways to write a song. When I first started writing at 14, I would give cassettes of chord progressions to my friend Peter and he'd pair them up with one of the many sets of lyrics he'd been writing that week. Staple them together and you have a song. No rehearsing, just record it immediately. 
With Suede it was a lot more traditional. I'd give home demos to Brett; he'd take them away and come up with melodies and bits of lyrics. When he felt they were fully formed enough, we'd rehearse them as a band. There were rare occasions when things would get written spontaneously in a room together, or a rehearsal jam would suddenly take shape, but mostly co-writes were written separately. 


With Artmagic, it's different again. I was throwing a lot of home-written music at Sean, but he'd want to write to it while I was in the room with him - something unusual for me; I'd never been invited to take part in the melody writing before. Sean has a very immediate reaction to the music, and seems to pinpoint the emotion perfectly in the lyrics he comes up with. We've attempted some spontaneous writing, and I think our next album will have a bit more of that on it, but Become The One You Love is largely based on music I'd written when between bands. 


Writing for Suede meant writing with the band in mind, so the music had to fall within a certain area in order for it to become a Suede song. With Artmagic there are fewer people but more options - the palette was and is wide open. That's why we see Artmagic as a project, rather than a band.


If you can successfully avoid pigeonholing, you've done the hardest job, other than getting in the Top 10! Saying that, I can't understand how so many chart hits have so many writers involved, especially when the songs are so simple. It serves to prove that making chart music now seems more about following a mathematical formula, and I only understand music that is about self-expression rather than calculation. I think we need great songwriters delivering great performances. Shows like The X-Factor have fooled people into thinking that songs are separate from, and secondary to, the performers. They aren't."

Parabéns Richard Oakes

Esta maré de aniversários não pára!
Desta vez é Richard Oakes a completar 34 anos! Parabéns ao meu guitarrista/compositor preferido e espero mesmo que este ano seja marcado pelo regresso dele aos discos, tanto nos Suede como nos Artmagic!
Parabéns!

You

Nova música dos Artmagic disponível no myspace e facebook oficial da banda!
Mais mexida e mais pop que Submerged, mas fica sem dúvida no ouvido. O refrão está bastante agradável, parece saída dos anos 90!
Myspace dos Artmagic

Artmagic

Artmagic é o nome do novo projecto de Richard Oakes com Sean McGhee.
O duo disponibilizou finalmente a primeira música: Submerged!
A música apresenta-se num Indie muito típico de Oakes num som que percorre imenso bem o nosso corpo como se estivéssemos a boiar numa piscina.
A voz de McGhee infiltra-se bastante bem no instrumental, não estava à espera que ficasse tão bem.
Para além de estar em forma no palco, Richard não perdeu nenhum talento na escrita de música ao longo destes 7 anos.
Aguardamos mais músicas!
Myspace dos Artmagic

Submerged

Submerged é o nome da primeira música de Richard Oakes e Sean McGhee já completa!
A música já foi gravada e misturada e estreará no fim deste mês juntamente com mais duas outras músicas!
Desde que Oakes deixou os Suede este está a ser até agora o seu único trabalho. O guitarrista já mostrou que está em forma em cima do palco, vamos ver como está na composição.
A expectativa é grande!

A Primeira Vez De Richard Oakes

Foi dia 22 de Outubro de 1994 que Richard Oakes apareceu pela primeira vez com os Suede quando estes estavam a lançar Dog Man Star, o segundo albúm.
Foi no famoso programa Top Of The Pops (TOTP) onde a contagem de singles mais vendidos era feito com a actuação de bandas (grande parte em playback)
Richard tinha 18 anos acabados de fazer e tinha entrado para os Suede umas semanas antes. Nota-se um bocado o pouco à vontade bastante compreensível, afinal foi um salto para o topo do mundo numa questão de dias.
Foi aqui que se viu (na minha opinião) o surgimento de uns dos melhores guitarristas e músicos de sempre.
Não sabemos de notícias concretas deste artista desde o desaparecimentos da sua banda o que é uma pena e um desperdício para a música.
Fiquem com We Are The Pigs ao vivo (ou não) no TOTP!