On Saturday, June 9th Ani DiFranco comes to St. Louis, Missouri with support by Haley Heynderickx at The Pageant. The music goes from 8:09 pm to 11:45 pm. Visit HERE for the event details on Facebook.
Haley Heynderickx will return to St. Louis, Missouri on Wednesday, July 11th at The Monocle. This concert is scheduled to start at 7:00 pm. Visit HERE for the event details on Facebook. Continue on below to visit the artists online and to check out their music. Follow on for the latest by them also.
- Ani DiFranco: (Buffalo, NY)
Genre: (Folk)
https://www.facebook.com/anidifranco
- Haley Heynderickx: (Portland, Oregon)
Genre: Singer/Songwriter
https://www.haley-heynderickx.com
https://www.facebook.com/haleyhannahheynderickx
ABOUT ANI:
“My last record was very inward-looking,” says Ani DiFranco. “I was pregnant and then raising a screaming infant. But now that kid is about to turn four, so I got out of the weeds of personal space and started looking outward again, being more engaged, more big ‘P’ Political. As an artist, I like to be out in the world, and what initially compelled me was to try to push society to a better place. So when I’m not in heartbreak or motherhood mode, that’s where you’ll naturally find me.”
With her twentieth studio album, Binary, the iconic singer/songwriter/activist/poet/DIY trendsetter returns to territory that brought her to the world’s attention more than twenty-five years ago. One of the first artists to create her own label in 1990, she has been recognized among the feminist pantheon for her entrepreneurship, social activism, and outspoken political lyrics. At a time of global chaos and confusion, DiFranco is kicking ass and taking names, with a set of songs offering a wide range of perspective and musical scope.
She describes a moment during the writing of “Play God,” an unblinking pro-choice battle cry, as a particular breakthrough. (A live version of the song was included in the anti-Trump “30 Days, 30 Songs” campaign alongside tracks from Death Cab for Cutie, Aimee Mann, Franz Ferdinand, and more.)
“When I wrote the line ‘You don’t get to play god, man/I do,’ I paused and thought, ‘Can I say that?,’ “ she says. “It’s not the first time I’ve thought that, but it’s been a while. And in that moment, I thought, ‘I’m back, mothafuckas!’”
“When you make a record about family and relationships, people assume you’re mommy now and you’ve lost your edge, and it’s going to be all buttercups from here on. So that line had the feeling of ‘Take that! My kid is sleeping right now and I want to talk about some shit!”
On Binary, DiFranco tackles the challenge and necessity of teaching non- violence with “Pacifist’s Lament” and the need for empathy in “Terrifying Sight.” Remarkably, though, these songs—recorded, in her usual fashion, in a couple of short full-sprint sessions spread across several years—were all written prior to the 2016 elections and attendant political turmoil.
“I’m not surprised,” says DiFranco. “Over twenty-five years, I’ve found that my songwriting is often full of premonition. It shows me, in a deep and spooky way, how we know things on levels below consciousness. I write songs and then they happen, and later I realize what they’re about. I’m just happy to have some good tools in my toolbox to address what’s happening now—the feminist diatribes are turned up nice and high on this record!”
She notes that Binary’s title track is key to her intention on this project. “I always title a record from the song that seems to be at its core,” she says. “An underlying theme in the songs, and in the feminism I want to engage society with, is the idea that autonomy is a fallacy—nothing exists except in relationship to something else. We are, in some senses individuals with individual liberties and unique powers, but that’s only a surface story.”
Though this concept is closely tied up in our present-day obsession with technology (“Sitting alone at home, staring at a screen, you can’t really know anything, because knowing is engaging,” she says), DiFranco also reveals a growing connection to nature and the physical world.
“Every year on Goddess’ Green Earth, I understand my relationship to it more,” she says. “My early songs were all human drama. I don’t think I noticed the bigger picture at all—I was transfixed by power dynamics between people. Now I see that it’s largely the providence of women to really embody nature, so I do think I’m getting back to basics, and it’s a shift for me.”
The backbone of Binary’s sound is DiFranco’s long-time rhythm section of bassist Todd Sickafoose and drummer Terence Higgins, but on much of the album, the trio is augmented with some all-star guests. “I knew I wanted to involve some of my brilliant friends this time out,”
Virtuoso violinist Jenny Scheinman and keyboard wizard Ivan Neville both join in for more than half of the record; “they are so captivating and they elevate my shit whenever they come near it,” says DiFranco. Other contributors include the legendary Maceo Parker, Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon, and Gail Ann Dorsey, longtime bassist for David Bowie. New Orleans resident DiFranco takes special pride in the Crescent City funk spearheaded by natives Higgins and Neville on a number of the tunes. “Their souls are of this place,” she says. “The feel they bring is something they got in utero.”
For the better part of 2016, DiFranco beat the drum for voter turnout on her “Vote Dammit!” tour, focusing on registering and inspiring people to vote. In the days following the election, fans turned to her for guidance with renewed earnestness, anxious to hear music and wisdom from the longtime activist. Ani encouraged fans to take political action and did the same herself, participating in the Women’s March on Washington and performing at the official Women’s March after party benefitting Planned Parenthood with The National and Sleater-Kinney.
Binary, of course, is being released into a world in which music distribution and consumption have transformed rapidly and dramatically. For DiFranco, a true pioneer in the music industry with her Righteous Babe label, it’s a time to reconsider the possibilities and ambitions of her business.
“While I was precedent-setting at one time with Righteous Babe and my indie crusade, I feel like, in the time it took me to nurse another baby into being, I’ve fallen behind,” she says. “The universe and technology have continued to evolve, and the idea of harnessing technology and crowd- sourcing everything—money, knowledge, revolution—is a very powerful concept that I’m ready to get more involved with. Righteous Babe is starting to grow now into something that will hopefully become avant-garde once again- more of a collective, more dynamic.”
“I’m trying to figure it out daily,” says Ani DiFranco. “Just like always.”
Haley Heyndericxk Announces U.S. Headline Tour This Summer and Shares Stop-Motion Music Video For "No Face"
Haley Heynderickx announced a U.S. headline tour recently. The tour follows a run of dates with Nap Eyes in the U.K./Ireland, an appearance at the Strawberry Music Festival in Shanghai and Beijing, and support dates with Ani DiFranco. Heynderickx will have her full band on the road with her for the first time since SXSW. She has also shared a stop-motion video for "No Face" today, saying it "stemmed from the idea of a Miyazaki character of the film Spirited Away, "No Face" represents a soul in no-man’s-land, the song is an odd ramble written after witnessing a bar fight in Portland based on racial discrimination." "Haley and I wanted a silhouette for simplicity to complement the song," says director Evan James Atwood. "Shooting it surrounded by these plants, the palo santo, and the energy, it came together naturally in one take. We both loved how we tapped into the heart of the song itself — capturing the emotion so strongly."
Seeing Haley Heynderickx live has been likened to "unknowingly see[ing] Jeff Buckley or Elliott Smith" while Stereogum's Tom Breihan praised Heynderickx and her debut album I Need To Sart A Garden saying, "Heynderickx is the sort of virtuoso who puts her gifts toward making richer, more intricate, more deeply felt music". Pitchfork's Olivia Horn in her review wrote that Heynderickx "turns her incisive gaze inward, writing from the feelings in her heart and the visions in her head." NPR Music wrote that her "voice can embody nervy intensity, caustic strangeness or cooing beauty" while Uncut Magazine mentioned that she "evokes the lyrical nature writing of Nick Drake or Vashti Bunyan" and Bandcamp's J. Edward Keyes included the album in their Best of Winter 2018writing, "Heynderickx has built an album that is both profound and profoundly moving, an album that holds nothing back and invites the listener to do the same."
"Heynderickx is the sort of virtuoso who puts her gifts toward making richer, more intricate, more deeply felt music" - Stereogum
"[Heynderickx is] already an utterly distinct and wonderfully nervy, idiosyncratic presence"
- NPR Music
"Haley Heynderickx may not have a garden just yet, but if beauty can cure uncertainty, this album should be enough for now" - Pitchfork
"Every once in a while, amid the swirling chaos of the music world, a song comes along that stops time" - Gold Flake Paint
"Untitled God Song" is an "extraordinary catalog of personal metaphors for the divine"
- The New York Times
“I Need To Start A Garden [is] one of the most intriguing and immersive debuts of this year"
- Stereogum
“Haley Heynderickx has quickly established herself as one of music’s most captivating new voices"
- Paste Magazine
“Heynderickx is a remarkable guitarist, and there's as much intrepid fretwork as there is impressive lyricism on I Need to Start a Garden” - No Depression
"I Need to Start a Garden is as fully-formed a debut album as they come." - Bandcamp
"Heynderickx’s voice is a wonderful warble, and she wields it with the practiced skill of a veteran singer" - Uproxx
Since the release of her first single, “Oom Sha La La", in the fall of 2017 Heynderickx has been making waves, garnering best of and most anticipated lists from Uproxx, BIRP, NBHAP, Clunk Magazine, Various Small Flames and The Bluegrass Situation while also receiving a coveted spot on NPR’s ‘Slingshot’ program. In their best tracks of 2017 OPB Music called “Oom Sha La La” “easily one of the year’s most striking songs” while Uproxx predicted, rightly, that “though this may not be a name that rings a bell at the end of 2017, it’s going to be one of those ones that you’ll hear everywhere in 2018.” Heynderickx's "I Need to Start a Garden" was reviewed by Pitchfork, Q Magazine, DIY Magazine, The Skinny, Under The Radar, Brooklyn Vegan, Exclaim!, Paste, KEXP, Noisey, Uproxx, Le Devoir, GIGsoup, The Phildelphia Inquirer, KEXP, BuzzbandsLA, Highway Queens, Old Rookie, The Revue, PopMatters, MusicOhm, No Depression and more.
Stereogum called Haley Heynderickx an Artist To Watch alongside an interview with Stephen Deusner who called "Untitled God Song" a "deeply contemplative, occasionally hilarious, spiritually provocative meditation into the nature of the Woman Upstairs." Deusner goes on to praise Heynderickx's songwriting saying, "Heynderickx doesn’t write songs to present answers or offer confessions. She writes instead to pose puzzling questions: about herself, about her world, about God and reincarnated bugs and someone named Jo. That approach has made her one of the most promising artists to come out of Portland in the last few years, and it makes I Need To Start A Garden one of the most intriguing and immersive debuts of this young year."
Heynderickx's second single, the almost 8-minute epic "Worth It", was picked up by MTV's TRL, the New York Times had a track review by Jon Pareles and Simon Vozick-Levinson recommended her first ever, sold out, New York show while AdHoc, Brooklyn Vegan, The 405, Under The Radar, What Youth and Line of Best Fit all lauded the single. The song was also the most discussed on HypeMachine the week of release.
Heynderickx uses her songwriting as therapy, a sort of mandorla to bridge the gap between -- whether it be between her mixed Filipino and American roots, or the dichotomy of her soft spoken nature and her vocal power. I Need to Start a Garden is full of pure bursts of humanity, in all their beauty and all their rawness, documenting anxiety, pain and conversely healing, community and creation. I Need to Start a Garden, will be released March 2nd, 2018 via Mama Bird Recording Co.
Mama Bird Recording Co. is a Portland, Ore. based record label committed to exceptional songcraft. Founded in 2011, their catalog includes acclaimed albums from Courtney Marie Andrews, Saintseneca, Barna Howard, Myriam Gendron and Vikesh Kapoor, among others.
I Need to Start a Garden Track Listing:
1. No Face
2. The Bug Collector
3. Jo
4. Worth It
5. Show You a Body
6. Untitled God Song
7. Oom Sha La La
8. Drinking Song
