By Linc Bradham
To be swept away in a sonic landscape of swirling guitars, reverb-drenched drums and vocals, and magical words of enchantment…that’s what it’s like to experience the music of Matthew Liam Nicholson. Not altogether alternative rock, not altogether Americana, not altogether psychedelic, but instead a blend of all of these and more, California-based Australian composer Matthew Liam Nicholson has been releasing music for the last 6 months, and it’s an absolute joy to watch and listen the budding career of this creative mind blossom. If you haven’t heard of Matthew Liam Nicholson, newspaper The Guardian understands and actually put Nicholson’s 2021 album “Nine Movements” in the list of their great albums you may have missed last year.
And it doesn’t seem that Nicholson will stop riding the increasingly swelling waves of success anytime soon. “Time Machine,” his most recent single, sounds like Radiohead meets Nashville twang, with atmospheric musings and vocals paired with sweet and soft pedal steel in the background. It’s interesting to hear such a blending of genres from Nicholson, and he says, “Time Machine is a waltzy dreamy meditation on circles, cycles, rotations, revelations, changing times, drawing upon my own history as a wanderer in spacetime, reflecting upon this indefinable gathering of souls from all over the universe sequestered here together on planet earth at this very weird time of transformation.”
Well said, Matthew. It’s easy to hear the swirling cycles of time you reference in the song and in this quote. Anyone who would like to hear this first-hand for his, her, or their self, you can listen to “Time Machine” here and enjoy the skilled songwriting of Matthew Liam Nicholson below, and find it on the Alchemical Records Multigenre playlist on Spotify.
Linc Bradham is an American multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, audio engineer, and songwriter originally from Savannah, GA. He has resided in the DMV for the last three years and has served in the active-duty Army for the last 12 years. He is in the process of switching Army careers into the Army Field Band as an audio engineering professional, with long-term goals of promoting music education in America and the Middle East.
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As a producer bringing some major events to Capital Pride this year, Zach Renovátes admits that he was keen to get Betty Who on the lineup. After having seen several of her live performances already, Renovátes knew the Australian would make a fine marquee addition to the “Kinetic Presents Candyland” event at Echostage June 10.
Fortunately, she was both available and interested.
“Something that I personally saw was that [Betty Who] is one of the most pro-LGBT singer-songwriters I’ve ever ever seen perform live,” Renovátes said, adding that the D.C. audiences at her concerts come largely from within the gay community. “So she absolutely knows that we as queer people make up a huge percentage of her fan base.”
The June 10 event is the main draw of a weekend of collaborations between Kinetic Presents and the Capital Pride Alliance in celebration of D.C. Pride 2023. Other big names who will play at various venues around the District include DJs Abel and Cindel, Dan Slater, as well as Jerac and Paulo Fragoso. It’ll be a pride-filled musical weekend indeed, with Echostage, Sax, Bunker and Bliss Nightclub hosting the pulsing sounds of revelry. And there’s also the big parade on June 10.
Alchemical Records is a Washington, D.C. based music publication. We cover the Washington, D.C., Baltimore and Richmond, VA metro area music scenes, including band interviews, articles about your favorite musicians, new music and concert dates.
