Anirban Jee Releases Single ‘You On My Side’

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"Anirban Jee Releases Single ‘You On My Side’"

Long time Soundslikecafe artist releases another great single and we are proud to add to our playlist

The song ‘You On My Side” portrays the fulfillment and celebration of finally meeting the love of one’s life who believes in them and remains on their side through the ups and downs in life. It is a tribute to the journey of every person finding the love of their life.

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SONGWRITER OF THE YEAR 2018 (Australian Songwriting Contest) & SONGWRITER OF THE YEAR 2017 (SongsAlive Competition) – Winner of Acoustic category (2021 Australian Songwriting Awards), Winner of INTERNATIONAL and BALLAD Categories (2018) –  Winner of POP category (2017 Songs Alive Competition) – Winner of BALLAD category (2017 Songs Alive Competition) – Winner of CONTEMPORARY POP category (2015 Australian Songwriting Awards), Finalist at the 2022 UK Songwriting Contest  – Numerous airplays in Commercial FM and Amrap Radio stations – Track published by Sydney’s EMBASSY MUSIC PUBLISHING and released by A&R Department (Shock records).

For Anirban Jee, his musical awakening spawned at the vibrant age of 12, when he received his first electronic keyboard. Heavily influenced by a diverse range of musical genres through the 80’s and 90’s, Anirban found himself heavily inspired by pop icons such as Elton John, Richard Marx, Maxwell, Sting, Carol King and many more. During his teen years, AJ found himself dabbling in numerous tuition courses and on the back of many years studying Piano/Keyboard through school and university, Anirban had honed his musical growth to original songwriting, musical compositions, artist collaborations and performing.

In his early years of songwriting, Anirban managed to catch the attention of Australian music industry heavy weight producer and ‘song doctor’ Matt O’Connor (Thirsty Merc, The Beautiful Girls) from the A&R Department, Sydney. Originally discovered from a rough demo, Matt O’Connor took Anirban under his wing to further develop and hone his craft.

His 2014 debut commercial single was ‘AEIOU’ featuring Blue (Celeste Newman). The A&R Department secured air play on FM radio stations across 5 states and even achieved a Top 10 ranking in multiple categories at the 2014 Australian Songwriting awards.

His second release ‘Undecided’ featuring Judd Field secured number one position at the 2015 Australian Songwriting Contest under the Contemporary Pop/Dance category. The track got aired by numerous Radio Stations across Australia such as MaxFM (NSW), 2GN Radio (NSW), 3ZZZ FM (Melbourne), Roccy FM (NSW) and also enjoyed a good spin across various AMRAP community radio stations.

His third release, ‘Deep Down’, featuring X-Factor artist Mary Ann Van Der Horst, secured the number one position under the International Category at the 2017 Australian Songwriting Awards. Several of his songs also ended up getting Top 10 placements in multiple categories at the awards.

His last two self-featured releases, ‘Mayday’ (2020) and ‘Move Out’ (2021), generated positive and exciting reviews on online music magazines such as GongScene, Vents Magazine, Around the Sound, BMA Magazine and even achieved #1 on Sounds Like Cafe Singles Chart!! His latest video single ,‘Will Above My Wish’, was a finalist at the 2022 UK Songwriting Contest.

Anirban’s current series of compositions alone range from Pop, Urban, Dance, and R&B, and feature a unique and un‐patterned soulful infusion that’s embedded in an expressive lyrical manner. Having recently worked with many sought after music producers such as Simon Cohen (Will.I.Am, Guy Sebastian, Vera Blue, Thelma Plum), Steve Peach (Icehouse, Marcia Hines, Stafford Brothers, “The Voice” Contestants, Choirboys, Fabrice (Milli Vanilli), Sophie Monk), Adrian Hannan (Delta Goodrem, Gabriella Cilmi, Taxi Ride, The Androids), Sven Tydeman (Josh Pyke, Tina Cousins, Candice Alley), AJ’s compositions and songwriting repertoire have resulted in numerous radio plays spanning both commercial and community radio stations across Australia.

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William Vanleer Releases Single ‘Time Machine’

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"William Vanleer Releases Single ‘Time Machine’"

A bot of classic authentic Nashville sounding aussie americana hitting our playlist today….

This song was written as William’s way of honouring the loss of two close friends. As the song unfolded, it took William on a very personal journey, reminding him of things unsaid and always an unfulfilled desire to spend more time with a loved one or someone who has a special place in your life.

‘Time Machine was to be the song I needed to write and always wanted to write. It was to be the song I had been long since searching for from the very depths of my emotions; a song that would connect me with my past, my present and my future. A song that commemorates all those I have ever lost without being able to see them again or getting the chance to say goodbye along with those I am sure to lose in the near future.’ – William Vanleer

A mid-tempo Nashville sounding americana cut from William Vanleer. Electric guitar layers, bass, drums and a lyrical story everyone can relate to. This debut release sets the tone for many more to come from Vanleer & Co. Memories of the days of Kris Kristofferson and more recently Sturgill Simpson.

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About William Vanleer

William is a singer/songwriter based on the beautiful Central Coast of NSW. Originally from rural NSW, he was born the son of a coal miner who also played in a country band. His passion for music began early with his father teaching him to play guitar.

He would spend much of his younger years harbouring a burning desire for his father to teach him to play, but wouldn’t pick up his first guitar until the age of 14 after being placed into foster care.  While in care, William met his foster brother, Terry, who taught him to play Little Red Riding Hood by Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs. Written for a Walt Disney Mickey Mouse cartoon.

In the mid 80’s William began composing, but it was not until he found a collaborator/friend and poet, Frank, that he was able to complete compositions that he was happy with. In 1989/1990 they entered two compositions into the steel city songwriter’s competition that ran Australia & New Zealand wide, both pieces making it into the final.

Since then he has performed for a variety of charity events held by the NSW RFS and Land Care organisations, as well as countless open mics along with band support roles in and around the Central Coast.

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Kalen Hogan Releases Single ‘Stoned and Cold’

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"Kalen Hogan Releases Single ‘Stoned and Cold’"

A news report about a young missing person gave Kalen the inspiration for this track. The missing person was someone his own age and the weather that day was miserable. Kalen felt a connection to how the teen’s family’s thoughts would go to the worst-case scenario. Were they worrying and imagining their daughters fear? Was she lost and cold in some unknown location?

The track’s sound is filled with pensive sadness and regret. Unusually the song ends with a final verse, rather than a chorus, leaving the listener hanging just like the imagined family. ‘Stoned and Cold’ is Kalen’s third single release. His album is due for release in March.

An acoustic guitar and vocal starts this Jeff Buckley-esque tune, once the drums come in its a very easy smooth listen until the song builds to a fine falsetto bridge and verse outro.

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Kalen Hogan is a 17 year old solo guitarist singer songwriter, living a very chilled out life an hour north of Sydney, near Wamberal Beach.

Influenced by his musical uncle, Kalen started out jamming on a ukulele as a toddler, before advancing to his first acoustic guitar in primary school. Now in high school, Kalen is composing songs and recently began recording tracks at Damien Gerard Studios, in Gosford.

Kalen’s has been performing regularly at local venues, showcasing the tracks he has been recording.  He released two single late in 2022 and is working on an album scheduled for March 2023.

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Jessie-May K with Miguel Cullen-Green Releases Single ‘My Type’

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"Jessie-May K with Miguel Cullen-Green Releases Single ‘My Type’"

Jessie-May K has never been one to follow the crowd, so it’s no surprise that conventional beauty standards hadn’t been implanted into their psyche, the same way they have affected the masses through media consumption and cliquish social paradigms.

My Type was inspired by the beauty Jessie sees in the unconventional and in support of the underdogs and nerdish types. They find themselves often discarded by society and labelled as unattractive and inadequate, when it comes to mankind’s idealisation of relationship partners and cultural paradigms.

The song was written in collaboration with Miguel Cullen-Green who is an excellent artist himself and a friend of Jessie’s. Although My Type is their first musical project together, Miguel is an actor as well as musician and has been featured in some of Jessie’s music videos.

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Jessie-May K is a young Singer, Songwriter, Director, Actor & Artist. Most successful as an internet personality, Jessie has released 4 Singles (2018-2021) & a collection of episodic works that accompany a 5 track EP titled ‘Zone Out’ in 2020.

Originally trained in Musical Theatre, Jessie transferred to music when they were 16. As they had been writing songs with lyrics and melody since they were 5 years old they taught themselves guitar off YouTube to elevate their musical ambitions.

Jessie is passionate about social justice and activism, often releasing music about movements that are important to them, raising awareness and sharing donation links in the hopes it will make a difference. Jessie is Neurodivergent & was born with ASD, ADHD, OCD and developed PTSD as a result of their early hardships and extreme childhood trauma. Jessie believes that the world thrives on diversity and that benign individuality is something to be celebrated and not feared.

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Burger Legs Joe Releases Single ‘Just Like Heaven’

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"Burger Legs Joe Releases Single ‘Just Like Heaven’"

The Bizarre World of Burger Legs Joe

In a world where people strive for a deep, meaningful, multidimensional existence, Burger Legs Joe stands for none of that. As shallow as his 2D appearance, staggering through life on legs of burger, too witless to realise how witless he is.

The only child of Beefy Thighs Bill, and Betty Baguettes, they abandon their burger legged offspring at an early age outside a ‘specialist facility’, because “He just would not shut up!” Alas, thickness is a family trait, and after several weeks living in his pram in a McDonald’s car park, he became the poster boy of low res’ graphics, that for some reason, just won’t delete from your trash.

Adopted by the rich and famous, he studied music at a prestigious university, financed by his fancy benefactors. There he discovered his aptitude for breaking musical instruments, accidentally causing personal injury, and the spontaneous destruction of property. The University, low on playable instruments and high on medical pay outs, insisted Joe only use virtual instruments and graduated him early.

The avatar of an unidentified Music Producer, Burger Legs Joe is on a mission to restomod (restore and modernise) outstanding retro songs for your grooving pleasure. Treasuring the essence of what makes each track so fabulous, they are re-energized to a modern perspective; weaving rhythms and melodies in BLJ’s distinctive ear grabbing style, that lingers in your head, and puts beats in your feet.

Mesmerised by the voice of friend and vocalist Andi Bracken; together they have set out on a journey to blow the dust off some of the great songs of the past.

From bangers to ballads, and anything in between, Burger Legs Joe featuring Andi’s first restomod collection is The Love and Happiness Set Part 1, a quantum leap into reimagined retro joy. “We want to uplift our audience, so we naturally gravitate towards songs we love, that do that for us.”

And so from The Love and Happiness Set Part 1, we present our first release, Just Like Heaven, adapted from The Cure. We hope you enjoy.

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About the Song

Just Like Heaven is one of our favourite retro classics, written by Robert Smith (The Cure) and originally released 1987. We love this song!

Actually, Andi snuck this song in. When he suggested it I said “Yea! I love that song”. It wasn’t until we were in production that I realised it’s actually the most upbeat song about screwing up your relationship that was ever written.

Rusty Pilling has created an absolute banger of a mix, and our arty, Lo-fi music video that brings Burger Legs Joe and Andi to life sets the whole thing off a treat.

We hope you enjoy listening, watching, and bopping around, as much as we have enjoyed producing Just Like Heaven.

This snappy up-tempo version of the classic Cure cover ticks all the boxes, including big keyboards and a compelling vocal track from ex-pat British singer now here in Oz. True to the original but with its own flavour, not to mention a stunning video to go with it.

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John Kennedy Releases Single ‘Discover Me’

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"John Kennedy Releases Single ‘Discover Me’"

This song was one of the first written and recorded for the John Kennedy And The New Originals album. Even with the fractured process of recording between Covid lockdowns, it established a strong theme that many of the songs on the album explore: Identity.

“Take a look at this facade, you pass it everyday.

The doors are locked, the windows blind,

It’s got nothing left to say.

It’s got a lot of stories if you look inside.

They could be dreams or nightmares,

Shameless love and pride.”

Most people present a façade to the world. And the world can also project a façade onto people. And once a façade has been established, it seems to be accepted and nobody needs to look or investigate further. We think we know a person based on this façade. But there is, of course, in many cases, an untold story behind it.  The song says, Discover Me. But it is in fact a song for anybody that has ever been overlooked.

The band delivers a powerful performance on this recording giving it a driving, swinging rhythm with a punchy arrangement. Space had been left towards the end of the song for a two part solo, one was to be guitar and the other bass. Peter Timmerman put in a quirky drum fill between the two parts. As Phil Hall developed his bass solo, he was inspired and told guitarist Murray Cook that he needed both parts to fit the bass solo he’d developed. Yes, A BASS SOLO.  The result takes Kennedy’s Urban and Western sound into new territory. With this song they are now moving close to the edge of Prog and Western.

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About John Kennedy

An enthusiastic young music journalist once described Sydney musician John Kennedy as a humble genius. Kennedy is neither a genius not particularly humble. He is the singer / songwriter of many classic Australian Indie songs that have found a place in the hearts of music lovers of a certain generation.

Kennedy started his music career in Brisbane with his first band JFK and the Cuban Crisis. A move to Sydney brought immediate independent success with his first release on Waterfront Records, the Careless Talk Costs Lives ep. It’s featured song ‘The Texan Thing’ became a JJJ radio hit. The band broke up in the mid-’80’s after the release of the prophetically titled ‘The End Of The Affair’ album and Kennedy went on to pursue a solo career with his band vehicle John Kennedy’s Love Gone Wrong. Numerous indie hits including ‘Miracle (in Marrickville)’, ‘King Street’ and ‘Big Country’ followed but commercial success remained elusive. In 1989, Kennedy chose to travel the world with his guitar living by the mantra: Have Songs, Will Travel.

After ten years of living, performing and recording in LA, Berlin, Hong Kong, Holland and London, Kennedy returned to Sydney in the 2000’s and formed John Kennedy’s 68 Comeback Special. With an ever-changing line up of musicians, he continued to release numerous albums before settling with a stable group of bandmates: original Love Gone Wrong drummer Peter Timmerman, ex-Red Wiggle Murray Cook on guitar and Phil Hall formerly of Sardine v, The Dropbears and The Lime Spiders on bass. With this new release, this line up has now morphed into John Kennedy And The New Originals.

The last five years have seen Kennedy busier than has he ever been with six album releases in six years. The release will be his last for the foreseeable future with Kennedy planning to leave Australia in June 2023 to live in Spain for an extended period.

Song Description 

John Kennedy is back with a swinging and rocking new single ‘Discover Me’. Full of life, fire and passion, this up-tempo tune would give you no idea these guys have been recording since the 1990’s. Catchy backing vocals and guitar hooks and riffs – a power pop classic.

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Kaiyah Mercedes – ‘Don’t Forget My Name’ From Debut Album Added to Playlist

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"Kaiyah Mercedes – ‘Don’t Forget My Name’ From Debut Album Added to Playlist"

‘Don’t Forget My Name’ by 16-year old Kaiyah Mercedes and from her debut album ‘Hindsight’, is the perfect song to sing out loud to. An empowering track with raw instrumentals and a catchy chorus, it’s about leaving someone behind and hoping they never forget the pain they put you through. 

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Kaiyah Mercedes is a 16-year-old up-and-coming singer/songwriter based in Melbourne, whose lyrics are written with poetic influence with a focus on storytelling and emotions.

With Foo Fighters and Nirvana as two of her key influences, Kaiyah teamed up with Producer Chris Wilson to create her debut album, ‘Hindsight’.

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Gareth Koch & Martin Kennedy Release Album ‘Music In The Afterlife’

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"Gareth Koch & Martin Kennedy Release Album ‘Music In The Afterlife’"

“Brian Eno meets Massive Attack and classical guitarist John Williams”

The idea of an afterlife has fired imaginations across cultures for millennia and is one of the earliest belief systems in recorded history. It is fascinating to consider that a type of identity or stream of consciousness might exist in the absence of the physical body.
In ‘Music In The Afterlife,’ Gareth Koch & Martin Kennedy have created a sound world which seeks to convey a continued existence taking place in the spiritual realm, or otherworld. In mythology there are phases through which the consciousness passes before arriving at a reward in the afterlife. The Koch/Kennedy songs, or pieces, reflect imagined states in which the protagonist journeys through the stages of waiting, trance, drifting, resignation & Elysium.

In their debut collaboration Viennese-trained classical musician Gareth Koch & ambient music specialist Martin Kennedy have created a unique sound world. Their compositions weave acoustic & electronic realms into a seamless fabric in which medieval, folk & electronic influences are entwined. If this melange is beginning to sound like an unholy brew nothing could be further from the truth. The pieces are deft, intuitive & hypnotic, drawing the listener into a reflective & profound listening experience.

In what is termed classical music (perhaps more aptly described as western art music) the earliest notated plainchants of around CE930 were centred on spirituality & belief in the afterlife. From this point onwards classical music evolved with a connection to an otherworld or divine, often embracing various mythologies. Ambient music came of age in the twentieth century in the era of electronic synthesisers, but its origin’s date back to French classical music composer Erik Satie. Satie pioneered a genre of music which emphasised tone & atmosphere, providing the ideal sonic environment for contemplation & spiritual reflection.

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Jack Nolan Releases New Single ‘Oh My Darling’

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"Jack Nolan Releases New Single ‘Oh My Darling’"

Oh My Darling is the third cut from Jack’s fifth solo album release ’23. A love so deep but a resignation, where you must stand by & watch the one you love work through a process where nothing you say can help, where all you can do is stand by & be there when it gets too much. Here’s yet another step, a story adding to Jack’s commitment of producing one album per annum because ultimately the best promotion is the hard work, the output, the live shows & the letting go of outcomes, the life.

Oh my darling

There’s nothing I can do

I will row the boat my darling

That I promise you

Oh my darling

There’s nothing I can say

I’ve played around with versus

Only words get in the way

Based in Sydney, Australia, singer songwriter Jack Nolan has been performing and releasing music since the mid 1990’s. Along with a five-album solo catalogue Jack also fronted The Kelly Gang, with Rick Grossman, bassist for The Divinyls and Hoodoo Gurus along with Midnight Oil drummer Rob Hirst and guitar player Martin Rotsey. Their 2004 album Looking for the Sun was critically adored along with their energetic live shows.

Once quaintly described as ‘Darlinghurst Country’, his sound unites elements of folk, country, rock ‘n’ roll and ambient atmospheres fusing Nolan’s passion for intensely charged electric guitar and finger-picked acoustic guitar.

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