Scott Candlish | Asher Ossn | The Know
In case you missed it, Naarm/Melbourne-based Scott Candlish recently released a really sweet indie folk tune called “Blue.” The song explores a lot of the darker thoughts, feelings, and vulnerabilities that many have experienced since the onslaught of COVID. That said, the track has absolutely nothing to do with COVID itself, so if your darkness extends prior to 2019, its melody will still be able to burrow itself beneath your flesh once it has entered through your ears. Candlish says that “Blue” encompasses the “times of helplessness and a desperate need to communicate these feelings without becoming a burden.” He utilizes some of our favorite techniques here: beautifully finger-plucked guitar and vocal layering the way that the gods of folk have willed it to be done, and the occasional ghosts of a lap steel and a wonderful vocal harmony. This one is perfect for an afternoon of contemplation…
Hot off the press, we have a new one from South London’s own Asher Ossn, entitled “Bound.” While the genre is a bit outside of our usual tastes, the sparseness of the recording, coupled with Ossn’s fantastic vocal work, make this a song that we cannot help but show to everyone. It manages to hit on a few, modern, pop music marks, while still being extremely intimate and highly emotional– and these are the exact reasons that we love it. According to Ossn, “‘Bound’ is about initial magnetism and connection which can quickly become suffocating and not what it seemed to be.” Relatable subject matter and talent to boot, you might as well press play now because we all know that’s what is about to happen…
The Know is comprised of husband and wife duo, Daniel Knowles and Jennifer Farmer, who decided to spend their honeymoon locked inside of a recording studio. The kicker here is that they did not have any songs written when they went in– they simply wanted to see what would happen. Their track, “Used to Be,” describes “the complexities of romantic relationships specifically when they were heightened during the pandemic.” Being stuck at home during lockdown enabled everyone to get to know their partners painfully well. And while some of these relationships could not withstand the pressure, others were able to lean into the love that drew them together in the first place– to recall how they ‘used to be.’ And that is often all that the passion needs in order to survive. These ideas are eloquently explored in the song, which arrives to us just in time for the holidays, expertly wrapped in the ribbons and bows of dream pop and shoegaze:
There is also a video for this one:
-TM