LIVE: Matt Owens & The DVP at Hoxton Square Bar & Kitchen (18/6/15)

On Thursday I went to London for the day with my mum (for my birthday which was yesterday), mostly to see the superb Matt Owens and his band The Delusional Vanity Project. The show was the launch of Matt's solo record, Songs For An Empty Room, a slight departure from his work as a  founding member of Noah & The Whale, but brilliant in its own right - read my review of the record here.

The show was at Hoxton Square Bar & Kitchen and after walking in the opposite direction to the venue for a while we were lucky to get there just in time for opening act Tom Figgins, who played solo and also plays as part of Matt's band. Playing to a fairly small offering of people, most of whom made up Matt's band, Tom put in a lively performance regardless, and really won me over with his solo tracks. Check out this performance of his track Let Your Roots Grow.

The second support set was from Stratford-upon-Avon band My Grey Horse. I had taken a listen to their latest EP online before the show and had enjoyed it. Whilst I can't remember much about the set apart from that there was a lot of clapping, it was great and I certainly remember liking it enough to take a punt on the band's album I Still Don't Understand at the merch stall. Having since listened to it a couple of times I'm loving the record and would recommend it (sadly no idea what to compare it to!) You can order physical copies of the album here on the band's store.

The bar's gig room having filled up, it was time for Matt's set. As with the other times I've seen the band play lately, the performance was highly fuelled and a showcase of the talents of the individual members of the ensemble. For instance, the band features Matt's Noah bandmate Fred Abbott on keys, who is also working on a solo record, Serious Poke, out late July. Above is a video I got of the band performing one of my favourite tracks of the record, Jack Does Hollywood, which is a sort of rough rock track about channelling Jack the Ripper and going on a killing spree in Hollywood... It was a really fun evening, by the end of the set a mass of the crowd had broke into dance, which culminated in this vine!

To gain more experience shooting gigs I took my camera along, I got the below shot when trying out  the settings from the crowd, and you can view some more of my photos of Matt's set here.

Playing a UK tour of sorts and constantly booking new shows to promote the record, you can catch Matt at various shows in London, as well as in Leeds, Manchester and Brighton. All dates and ticket/RSVP info on his website here.

GIG NEWS: Matt Owens at Hoxton Square Bar & Kitchen (18th June 2015)

Matt Owens (aka Urby Whale) of Noah & The Whale has just announced that his London show at The Hoxton Bar and Kitchen on 18th June is going to be a launch show for his solo record, Songs For An Empty Room. The record is superb (read my review of it here) and with a group of talented musicians playing as his band The Delusional Vanity Project, his live shows are pretty great too. The show on the 18th June comes with support from Tom Figgins and My Grey Horse, and tickets are here.

Matt's recent gig at The Boogaloo.

LIVE: Matt Owens & The Delusional Vanity Project at Notting Hill Arts Club (20/5/15)

I'd apologise for the large outburst of Matt Owens related posts lately... but he's one of my best recent musical discoveries and I'm pretty excited about sharing his music with you. A few days ago I had my final exam of the semester and finished my first year of uni, so I decided to spend my last evening before moving home in London seeing Matt and his band The Delusional Vanity Project again. I love Matt's record Songs For An Empty Room (which I recently reviewed here) for its diversity in style, brilliant lyrics and true to live sound, as it was recorded over a couple of days - and this all comes across in their live shows, where the fact that the band is comprised of incredibly experienced musicians is also prevalent. Being a relatively new project and having played a limited number of gigs as TDVP, the band are tight and sounding brilliant. Having seen them four times in a month in various different venues around London, with a slightly different line-up each time, I can reliably say that this post-Noah & The Whale project is superb and I can't urge you enough to go along to one of the upcoming shows, with various London and Ireland dates (many of which are free - what excuse do you need?!) on Matt's site here.

The set on Wednesday evening felt slightly stripped back as a four piece band, but it remained energetic and comprised of tracks from the album, including particular favourites of mine, The Harbour In Kinsale (live video from another gig) and Get Me Back To Austin, and was ended with an encore cover of the The Band track, The Weight, which I recorded below.

I took my camera along to the show to get more experience of shooting in a small venue, and got the shot below which I'm pretty chuffed with. My other shots from the evening are in an album on Flickr here.

Source: Megan Seekings

LIVE: Matt Owens & The Delusional Vanity Project at Effra Social (14/5/15)

I went along to see Matt Owens and his band The Delusional Vanity Project again last night at Effra Social in Brixton. Took my camera along but as both the above video and one of my shots from the evening below show, the lighting was pretty dreadful so I quit whilst I was ahead. But who needs to see anything when it sounds as good as this? After travel delays I was glad to arrive in time for Tom Figgins' impressive solo support set, after which he joined the rest of the band shortly after for a set comprising of tracks from Matt's solo record, before turning to impromptu covers including a pretty fun performance of Johnny B. Goode. The guys are some of the nicest people I've had the pleasure of meeting and was lovely to see them again and get to chat - certainly recommend getting along to a gig as they continue to play London shows, and an Irish tour at the end of May (dates: http://www.mattowensmusic.com/tour-dates/).

See my review of Matt's solo record, Songs For An Empty Room, here.

Source: Megan Seekings

LISTEN: Matt Owens - 'Songs For An Empty Room'

After a successful run and four brilliant records, indie rock band Noah & The Whale announced a split of sorts a month ago. I'm a huge fan of their music, particularly favouring their second album The First Days of Spring, and naturally I was pretty gutted, but glad to know that the band were all continuing to make music. Lead singer Charlie Fink has hinted at solo work with a new website and Soundcloud, while Fred Abbott is working on a solo record, and Tom Hobden tours with Mumford & Sons.

Matt Owens (AKA Urby Whale) is also releasing a solo record, which I was lucky enough to get my hands on and absolutely adore. He’s currently playing tons of London gigs with an impressive band (interestingly entitled The Delusional Vanity Project) comprising of Tom, Fred and Michael of NATW, with George Leigh on bass and Tom Figgins on guitar. Last weekend I went along to a show at Proud Camden (a slightly surreal club experience but I won’t go into that) and they played a superb set, showcasing the range of the record, which goes from rough rock (think I made that up) to stunning violin solos within moments. After the set I introduced myself to the band who were all lovely guys and pretty shocked that I’d travelled from Oxford for the show, and with whom I got to chat with before dashing for the last train.

Matt’s record is titled Songs For An Empty Room, a hint at the difficulties involved in starting over again, though I must admit that I admire that he hasn’t chosen to use the NATW social platforms to get an instant, large response to his music, instead building up a new following in his own right. In our discussion last weekend he told me about the interesting process of recording the album live over a couple of days, with much of the album being authentic to its original recording. This comes across on the record in a fantastic way, allowing for the brilliant songwriting and arrangements to be foregrounded without being overshadowed by fancy effects. For me, a highlight of the record is its range, going from the slow Everything’s Got It’s Place (listen on the album sampler above) with it’s beautiful violin solo two minutes in, to the lively The Harbour In Kinsale. A particular favourite of mine is Jack Does Hollywood, which is what you might call a murder ballad, sung from the perspective of Jack the Ripper, which sounds strange admittedly but works and is catchy in its own haunting way.

Overall, the album is refreshing and a favourite of mine so far this year, showing promise for the other upcoming post-NATW releases. You can listen to a sampler of the record above and take a look at the upcoming gigs here (mostly in London) - can’t recommend enough that you go and see the guys live if you get the chance!