TIPPER OF THE WEEK: LISA DURRANT

This week we continue our latest feature on the Tipping Point, spotlighting the biggest and best emerging acts from across the UK. Each Monday, we ask one of our esteemed tippers to select five of their hottest tips to be featured on the site throughout the week.

Next up we have Lisa Durrant, who supports songwriters and musicians, labels and publicists with the writing of biographies and press releases. After more than a decade as staff writer for The Fly magazine among other titles, Lisa honed her craft writing for a variety of artists as a national music publicist. Her copy has been used in press campaigns for Toro Y Moi, Trudy & The Romance, Charles Bradley, Working Men’s Club, Her’s, John Maus, Viola Beach, Telekinesis, The Longcut, Wye Oak, Jon Spencer, Calva Louise and more. Recognising the need to support emerging artists with their own promotional endeavours, Lisa set up Just The Type in 2013, and has since worked with more than 100 local and international, well-known, and emerging musicians and their teams.

In November, Lisa will host Just The Type’s first copywriting workshop at this year’s OFF THE RECORD conference in Manchester. ‘Have a Word: A Musician’s Guide to Writing Brilliant biographies’ will be held on Friday 15 November when attendees can also listen to panels, network with industry professionals, and watch performers. Tickets are on sale now.

In the meantime, check out Lisa’s tips below!

 

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TALK SHOW

Listening to Talk Show is like rubbing rock salt into the deepest of wounds. Channelling the bite of Joe Strummer with vigour and bounce, this angular London 4-piece are a sonic force to be reckoned with. Fierce frontman Harrison Swann is a storyteller – a fist-clenching mass of combustible energy, exploding with 111mph yarns through inimitable style; claiming crouchy, shin splint inducing guitar-swinging for his own. Ruthless debut single ‘Fast and Loud’ – and the Daft Punk meanderings of B-side ‘Fear’ – was released on The Maccabees’ Felix White’s label, Yala! Records and hasn’t been off my turntable since. Insistent and infectious, their ferocious live show is as taut as their turn-ups.

 

DOCUMENT

This emerging Manchester 5-piece are a noir-esque requiem harbouring your favourite worst nightmares. Navigating the murky depths of The Fall and Protomartyr’s dead pan delivery – or perhaps even a bleak Campag Velocet – Document cajole a hurricane of sound, stoked by each band member’s deftly dramatic parts. After catching their set at this year’s Dot To Dot festival, they are the epitome of post-punk power on the rise, ready to cast their own shadow over the city skyline with a seriously attuned sneer and unapologetic scowl.

 

DO NOTHING

There’s nothing like a well-placed expletive. When singer Chris, of Nottingham’s Do Nothing, slurs his jarring narrative “leave people in the dark long enough and they’re bound to start fuckin’ each other” on single ‘Gangs,’ it’s impossible to shake off thoughts of Mark E Smith spitting words into a smoky ether. But that’s where the similarity ends. Veering between James Murphy, Alex Kapranos and Alex Turner, it’s suave and stylistic. Each line suggests more of a raised brow than a soul scorned – asking you to question yourself rather than them doing it for you. Oozing a natural self-assurance and showmanship rarely seen in bands so soon in their career, if they carry on like this Do Nothing could very well do something.

 

L.D. MOSES

Following their Glasto headline set, The Cure are having a bit of a moment so the time for Leeds band L.D. Moses to shine should be now. Through Robert Smith stylings and 80s faded glamour, shards of sparkling Marr-esque riffs cut through smoggy swathes of yearning and misery to create a brutally romantic affair. Recent single ‘Close As The Ceiling’ was released on the ace Manchester-based cassette label run by husband-wife dream team, Ramber Records. Don’t be surprised to stumble across the band on a Stranger Things OST sometime soon.

 

DRY CLEANING

Perfectly poised and reserved, there’s something equally compelling and comforting about Dry Cleaning. Whilst the driven groove of single ‘Magic of Meghan’ appears to be an ode to Harry’s missus, let’s face it; any band who can find joy within bleak landscapes and poke fun at overblown ‘celebrity’ culture deserves your time. Never without their tongues firmly placed in their cheeks, and perhaps a wry smile, the London 4-piece’s debut Sweet Princess EP twangs with more rhythmic guitar, 90s britpop nonchalance and spoken word mantras – apparently inspired by the musings on singer Florence’s notes in her phone. Think of it as a sonic re-imagining of the world, on a bitterly relatable spin cycle.