Where’s Slater? A six-piece band from York have released their moody stripped back rock track “June”. A dark acoustic song that explores summer landscapes, accompanied by guitars and the lead singer, Saul Devlin's, wonderfully textured and gravely vocals. Devlin says they aim to be “tuneful but electric, I try to barrel myself into the weirder more wonderful sides of rock”. Devlin notifies that he is happy to explore all kinds of emotion in music. Their mention of the “weirder” sides of rock is echoed in the quirky and experimental notation in “June”. This track is a perfect amalgamation of the band member’s inspiration, they all identify with various branches of the rock genre. Stand out lyrics in the track include “She’s cold and hard, and her friends, they’re all gone, on a June’s breeze, summer sun”. The lyrics explore a hot summer evening where friends have been parted, the perspective of a setting sun vales a darker reading on a supposedly culturally romantic symbol. There is a vintage feel to Where’s Slater?, their sustained nod to the past creates an edgy soundscape.
Nicola Rawnsley's artwork, “Cranes at Sunrise with Vitruvian Man”, is an oil and mixed media on a A4 piece of card. Rawnsley describes herself as a “professional woodworker with a real passion for art”. Rawnsley works with a variety of different mediums, from wood, felt, wool and acrylic. Quite impressively, she confidently moves from medium to medium. Throughout her work Rawnsley seems deeply interested in the industrial landscape. Her works explore urban sculptures such as cranes and gas storage infrastructures. The success of Rawnsley’s work is the romantic lens she places on these hard unnatural fixtures. “Cranes at Sunrise with Vitruvian Man” is an example of this, the painted orange sky depicts a sense of serenity as the orange brush strokes smudges with the black outlined cranes, creating a blurred landscape where the sky and structures merge into one, a romantically frosted glass, an impressionist gaze on the erected cranes. The darkness of the structures that blend into the sunset like sky, echoes the dark versus brightness in “June”. The marriage of these artworks are brought together by the track's narrative. The landscape that surrounds the man in the foreground emulates the loneliness described in the track’s lyrics.
LOUD ART LIVE, a digital exhibition where music meets art. CLICK HERE to view Nicola Rawnsley’s artwork and PLUG IN to listen to June by Where’s Slater?
