Soul-Pop singer, Sion Hill (Nathan Johnston) has announced the release of his highly anticipated new EP ‘A State Of Permanent Flux’ on November 19th, 2021 with his new single ‘Could Have Had It All’ released today. Recorded in Hamburg, Germany shortly before moving to London, ‘Could Have Had It All’ sets the scene for what is to come from the new EP, which is released on Johnston’s own label, Dead Rent.
Delicately encased in soft soundscapes, retro waltz-like guitar twinkles and moving songwriting, ‘Could Have Had It All’ is a touching new single from Johnston. The track flows upon a blanket of soft percussion and lush melodies while warm trumpets and strings exude an elegant 50’s-esque charm. Johnston’s velvety vocals surge with soulful tones. His smooth but supple vocal delivery invites listeners to experience the heartbreaking and emotional vulnerability expressed within the lyrics “please won’t you come back home because I want to be yours again”.The track is lavishly arranged with swooning tones blended superbly between biting guitar moments to create a well-balanced tune. Johnston has outdone himself with this passionate ditty. The earnest lyrics and refined production makes ‘Could Have Had It All’ a must listen.
Sion Hill (Nate Johnston) and Norwegian DJ/Producer MYXE (Rune Eie) have recently released their new house-pop single, ‘No Way Back From Your Love’. The track is laced in vibrant tones, crisp production and luscious pop melodies to create the perfect summer bop.
I caught up with Nate and Rune to chat about the new single, how an inspired hungover moment brought about the songs lyrics, gigging again as well as how the duo’s collaboration came about. At the time of our chat Rune was about to embark on a boat party to perform, the prospect of which seemed like finding El Dorado to me, here in Ireland and Nate in The U.K due to the pandemic restrictions.
Rune: “It’s on Saturday so I’m really looking forward to that. Well, they are getting a bit stricter here with the stuff, so hopefully, it will go through. I think it’s 120 [people]. I think it will go on because it’s sailing so it’s a sport, they call it, then.”
Nate: “Are you sailing anywhere close to London?. I don’t know what I would give for a boating party on Saturday, probably my left baby toe I would sacrifice.”
‘No Way Back From Your Love’ was originally written in London in 2020 by Nate and songwriter Louis Ryan for piano and voice and was actually intended for someone else to sing, but when Rune heard Nate’s vocal, he loved it so much that he decided to keep it in.
Rune: “We kind of got connected through a guy called Louis, that I met online. He told me about Nate, and said that he might have some vocals laying around that I could try and work with so that’s kind of how we got in touch, and, yeah, Nate sent over the vocals for ‘No Way Back From Your Love’ and I did an instrumental behind it”
Nate: “ I think this one is really a product of the lockdown. I see it as that. It’s a lovely thing because I wrote it together with Louis Ryan. He’s an Irish guy from Dublin, a great songwriter, and really great keyboard player. We just wrote some songs together a few times and then there was this moment, I think they opened up the studios for like a week or so, do you remember after the first lockdown there was this little mini lockdown for like a month, and that was how it was in the UK. I think we got into the studio, like, a day before that happened, so we actually got to use a recording studio, which is quite cool and then everything closed down. So we wrote that song and then yeah, he [Louis Ryan] connected with you [ Rune Eie], but we did everything virtually and I think that’s cool.”
Rune: “ I think the first time we spoke on the phone that was after the release actually. “
Nate: “Yeah. I’m just praying that next time you’re playing the tune at a boat party I got the invite.”
Rune: “Yeah for sure”
I wondered if the pair found the remote collaboration more awkward or difficult to communicate and express ideas through.
Rune: “It’s obviously not the same as meeting in person. But we had a good start on email and we both knew what we wanted. I really loved what Nate did with the vocals and yeah I think he found the instrumental, okay as well.”
Nate: “I don’t think that was too difficult doing it online. I didn’t really know what was going on because this song when we wrote it was a bit of fun. I wasn’t really intending on anything happening with the tune. I kind of forgot about it, and then all of a sudden I get this message from Louis being like, Oh yeah, MYXE this DJ has been working on the track with me and I’m like Okay, send me something. Then I got this 30-second clip. It was just the first verse and he was like just ignore the drop it’s not ready yet. You [refering to MYXE] said something you’re like oh no I’m not happy with that drop leave that off. Yeah. The next version I got was almost finished and it was quite cool. I like that collaborative process and you can do everything online now and there’s been so many songs, recordings and albums over the last year and a half, that have been done actually on Zoom and whatever.”
Rune: “Yeah, I think in the past it was a bit more awkward to do writing sessions or whatever through Zoom or Skype, because not everyone was doing it, but nowadays, it’s more the norm now, at least in my world. “
Nate: “Yeah, for sure. I think when we were using this technology during the last lockdown, we came across this thing where there is no latency, there was no lag between recording. Normally, the reason it was so difficult is, you’d try to write a song together and I play a chord and then you try to sing and obviously the timing doesn’t match. It’s always gonna be difficult and you can’t rehearse live together as a band over Zoom because there is this latency problem, but we found this one piece of software that fixes that. I think like Jay Z and some of the big boys and big girls in that world have been using that. I don’t know how we got our hands on it but even having things where we can actually sing a song together, over the Internet, and there’s no lag, that’s insane. So yeah, I think technology has made it easier but it’s not really that different, we’ve all been WhatsApp and phone calling each other for quite a while now”
When Rune heard Nate’s demo of the song he loved its rawness and decided to work with it. The demo was minimalist but highlighted the melody and the potential of the song.
Nate: “I think it was just keys and vocals actually that we did and this was one of those songs where I didn’t record. I think generally with House tracks and pop music, you sort of record it line by line, you know the vocals anyway, sometimes even, you might record just one word, just to get it perfect. So, yeah, I think that vocal take was actually meant to be just a demo take and you [Rune] used it, I liked that, that you took the original recording”
Rune: “Yeah the take, I really liked it because it was good, but still had that raw element to it and I just really liked it and normally I don’t do that, but I felt that it suited the vocal sounds.“
Rune: “If I like it, if I get a good vibe from it, then I’ll work with it. It doesn’t have to be techno or house or pop. It’s more the vocal itself, if it’s good, it’s good. I think.”
The lyrics for ‘No Way Back From Your Love’ were inspired by the Beatles’ – ‘All You Need Is Love,’ by playing on the idea of – if you can envision something, then it is not impossible. Nate explained how the lyrics came to fruition.
Nate: “It was an easy flow, I think. We made this little hook melody “Ooooh, oooooh”. I think that’s what Rune is saying there as well, it has this rawness to it because the night before, I’d been out quite late and I was just not really in the singing mood, but I felt kind of creative. I don’t know if you ever feel like this, when you’re hungover sometimes you are quite creative and come up with things. I came up with this idea. I love that simplicity of that song, The Beatles track, All You Need Is Love, and it’s, “There’s nothing you can do that can’t be done, Nothing you can sing that can’t be sung”. This idea, it’s really simple but I wanted to follow along that sort of idea so yeah it’s not really the same thing but it was sort of the inspiration. Then, at the time I was in this relationship and it was happening really fast so I realised that when you meet someone’s friends and their family and when it all happens really quick, I’m like there’s no way back from your love, that was the idea. It wasn’t necessarily Beatles inspired, I just liked that idea of, there’s nothing you can say that can’t be sung and so on. An inspired hungover moment, I think”
The track is built superbly around the melody and Nathan’s voice, creating a light, fun atmosphere filled with driving beats, lush synths and even a whistle-like feature. This arrangement is the perfect example of Rune’s exceptional production skills.
Rune: “I think, for me as I speak from a production point of view, I tend to do that a lot. I’ve heard that I let the vocal get its place but sometimes maybe too much so the vocals a bit too much in the front but I think here, it turned out really well, but yeah I think that’s important. I really love vocals – so let them shine a bit.”
Nate: “Yeah, I think it’s hard to find that balance isn’t it sometimes?. I think you [Rune] blend the production really well and some producers, the vocal either gets lost or it’s way out, and I kind of get annoyed by that because I like to have a bit of both, you know,”
I wondered if the pair plan on releasing a summer-themed music video for the song.
Nate: “We didn’t do a video actually no. Maybe on the boat. Maybe at the boat party.”
Rune:”Yeah, maybe we could do some iPhone videos”
Nate: “Some decent iPhone videos at the boat party and some candid shots of people. I did actually have an idea of going down to Brighton with my cousin who’s a filmmaker and shooting something on a boat because it’s quite a summery little bopper this song and it’s got the little whistle and everything. I thought it would be cool just to film some girl on a boat, driving around the place. That was the idea but yeah never happened.
Rune:” That would be cool.”
Nate: “ Yeah, I think we just got to the beach and then we got in the water and it was too cold. You realise you’re in the UK. It’s raining, it’s not quite the Ibiza sort of vibe that we’re looking for, but I don’t know it would have been cool to see a video but we’ve actually been working on some other tracks so possibly down the line we will do that.”
With things slowly opening up both Nate and Rune have got a chance to get back performing. We discussed the nerves and surreal experience of doing live gigs after all this time.
Nate: “ I was Yeah” [nervous]
MYXE: “Same here”
Nate: “The first gig I did back, I played guitar for this singer, so I didn’t actually do my own show, and I was a little bit nervous because it was her thing and I was backing her up. I wasn’t necessarily nervous about the crowd but it is a strange feeling, getting back on a stage after a long period.”
Rune: “You can also tell, the people in the crowd they also think it’s been a bit weird, you know people dancing and being close and you can’t really keep one and a half metres on the dance floor.”
Nate: “I’ve done a few sit down gigs where people are separated but after just 15 minutes everyone’s up and dancing on the tables. It’s too hard to stop it. But we make our choices and if you decide to go to a concert, if you want to be there, there’s a risk you’re going to get COVID. So, maybe you have to isolate after the concert for a couple of days.”
Rune: “It’s a bit weird, to be honest, but here in Holland they’ve closed basically everything. It’s obviously nice to be able to play a little bit again and see some people, that’s good, but it’s still a bit weird. We have been so long without it now.”
Nate: “It’s crazy. I’ve lived in London so it’s almost back to normal. I don’t know if you saw the Euros, the finals like Wembley was pretty packed, the streets, it’s crazy but there’s kind of a spike again in cases so that scares me you know, events are coming back but are they gonna stay. What’s nerve-racking about it for me, is actually booking shows and having to cancel them because I’ve had to do it twice now, I’ve cancelled two tours. We’re booking a tour at the moment and if something happens again we got to cancel it again, reissue tickets, it’s a nightmare, but also it’s exciting, getting back out on stages. I’m playing a gig next weekend in my town in Mullingar. They’re doing a charity event, and it’s gonna be streamed live but there’s a small crowd there so even if it’s only like 25 people or something that are allowed to be at the event, it’s still nice to get to play for a few people. Although here I’ve been doing open jam sessions. I’ve been to concerts in London so it’s quite unusual that Ireland is a little bit behind, but maybe they’re doing the right thing, who knows.”
Both Nate and Rune have new music in the works for the rest of this year and they told me what they are looking forward to the most.
Rune: “Releasing music and hopefully get some gigs outdoors in winter and, yeah, travel a little bit again. “
Nate: “I’m actually releasing an EP, and an album. We’re trying to do it this year but it’s looking like it’s gonna be next January. But I’ve got a five-track EP coming at the end of August and, the album will be next year so it’ll be a few singles coming out before that, I have a few videos done. Then I’m booking a tour for 2022. “
‘No Way Back From Your Love’ is an infectious tune that is perfect to enjoy in the sweltering heat of summer. Both Nate and Rune display their refined musical prowess within the track and the result is a luscious pop banger that beckons repeat plays.
Sion Hill has released his new single ‘No Way Back From Your Love’ with Norwegian DJ/Producer MYXE. ‘No Way Back From Your Love’ was originally written in London in 2020 by Sion Hill (Nate Johnston) & Louis Ryan for piano and voice and was intended for someone else to sing, but when MYXE heard Johnston’s vocal, he loved it so much that he decided to keep it in. Sion Hill has teamed up with acclaimed MYXE to build on the success of his recent singles ‘Fuel Kids’, ‘Last Minute’ and ‘Speak Up’ (which have a combined 4.5m streams on Spotify alone, not to mention his debut album, ‘Elephant’) that garnered significant success across radio and digital streaming platforms. MYXE has had several releases with well known labels in the industry, and has streamed to platinum on his release “Breaking All The Rules”.
‘No Way Back From Your Love’ blends Sion Hill’s bright and charming songwriting with the infectious house sound of MYXE. This catchy ditty drifts through a buoyant beat, crisp production and sun-kissed soundscapes to create a bright dance-infused banger for listeners to indulge in. Hill’s knack with earworm melodies and irresistible hooks forms the track’s backbone and highlights the songs masterful production – the tune sparks into life with a finger-clicking rhythm ready to coax you to the dance floor before ethereal synths open up to provide a lush backdrop to Hill’s unmistakable velvety vocal. With mellow guitar, whistle feature and sing-along chorus, this sun-soaked ditty is a delightful carefree tune sure to brighten your day.
Speaking of the single Sion Hill said: “He sent me back the mix and when I heard it I was like – wow, this is a banger. It works. Let’s roll with it. The song talks about getting too deep into a relationship with someone without realising it. The song’s lyrics were inspired by the Beatles’ – ‘All You Need Is Love,’ by playing on the idea of – if you can envision something, then it is not impossible: “There’s nothing you can do that can’t be done, Nothing you can sing that can’t be sung.”
After some small technical difficulties and discussions of which mode of contact would be best due to Johnston’s phone’s decision to pack in, I sat down to have a chat with singer-songwriter Sion Hill (Nate Johnston) last week. A lot has happened since our last chat. The world went into lockdown, Johnston’s shows were postponed and he released a new single ‘Speak Up’. Given the fact that everyone now is living a new way of life due to covid-19, the track has been released at the perfect time as it discusses mustering the courage to tell your surroundings how you really feel. ‘Speak Up’ is an infectious, upbeat and utterly radiant tune. It’s quite the ray of sunshine on a miserable day and for Johnson it speaks about his anxiety through a natural upbeat and melodious medium.
“I think I wrote it about a year ago. I suppose a lot of people are thinking nowadays about technology, social media and everything else. I suffer a lot from anxiety and I don’t know where it’s brought on. I’ve always kind of had it but I think there has always been a stigma with talking about that. People are getting up and speaking about mental health issues in the last few years and I think it’s a great thing. With the walk into light and that, a lot more people are aware of it.Especially guys, who are just not very good at talking about their emotions in general. It’s still taking a while but I think people are better at it now, you know at least calling up a friend. In all my tunes I just try and keep a pretty positive upbeat melody and the music is always upbeat but I still try to say something that has some meaning. I mean most of the songs I hear coming out are just the same old story so I’m trying to say something but also keep it upbeat and hopefully that inspires people.”
Johnston slips into country/ traditional folk territory with this track especially with the perky fiddle melody. However it wasn’t his original vision for the track. In fact it was almost different tune altogether.
“ I actually listened back to the original demo I did for the song which is like five munites long.There’s two verses in it and a completely different chorus and its much slower. Its just electric guitar and voice. It was never really intended to go anywhere. It was just something I wrote for myself and I played it for a producer I work with in Hamburg and a couple of lads from another band that were there at the time. There was a fiddle player and we just started jamming and we sped it up slowly because there was a few people around and we were having some beers and we were kind of in a party mood. So we sped the thing up and it worked really well in this more upbeat faster tempo and then the fiddle player started playing this thing. He was actually German so we had to tell him how to change the notes in a way that would give it that Irish feel.
He was a seriously good violin player but it was more in the classical style so we had to get him to venture into this Irish thing.It wasn’t the intention of the song, it just went in that direction and it was cool. I mean the producer I work with, he is just insane with producing beats and finding new melodies and soundscapes so it was just a collaborative thing really the way it developed. The original song is completely different.
It’s really funny, sometimes going back and listening to the old demo, it was a different name on the computer and I was just listening to some old tracks for inspiration. Sometimes I go back to old songs and listen to them again and see if there is something there, you know, why did I stop working on this track, did I work it into something else or can I re-work it into something else and this was one of these tunes. I was looking through stuff and I heard it. I thought how on earth did that become this. It’s interesting how that happens sometimes. Its really cool when you see the end result and go back to the beginning and see how far it came. Sometimes it doesn’t change at all which is also pretty nice. “
Johnston recently represented Ireland performing his new single ‘Speak Up’ in the Free European Song Contest in front of a TV audience of 4 million viewers, finishing in the Top 10. The Free European Song Contest is a music competition in the Eurovision format that aired on German, Austrian and Swiss TV, organised by the German broadcaster ProSiebenSat Media and Stefan Raabs production company Brainpool TV. It served as an alternative for the Eurovision Song Contest 2020, which was planned to be held in Rotterdam, Netherlands, but was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. A surreal experience!
“Its really funny that whole thing. I was probably the first unofficially elected Irish representative for the fake Eurovision. But yeah it’s a shame the actual Eurovision was cancelled. I haven’t been a big supporter of it since Dustin the Turkey was our rep. I just thought after that it kind of went a little bit downhill. There was a couple of nice entries the last few years, the whole thing is just such a big spectacle now but it has a really loyal fanbase.
There is so many people that love that and were really missing it this year. There’s this guy, Stefan Raab and when he heard it was cancelled he was like I want to try and do something along the same lines as the Eurovision. He has a production company and he is a huge German talk show host. He’s actually retired for 2 years but his production company only runs Germany, Austria and Switzerland so he was like look that’s kind of the best I can do, so it was only open for live viewing if you were in those countries unfortunately. So that meant back home people couldn’t actually watch it live or tune in to vote.It was more of a German Eurovision style but it was on the same level. I think there were 4 million people watching and Conchita Wurst presented it. It was still a huge production and a massive audience but its not really the Eurovision at the end of the day. They knew that and they made a tongue in cheek version and they made fun of a lot of the countries but in a nice way before everyone went on.
It was also terrifying with the social distancing, that was still going on over there although Germany is pretty much opened up now at this stage but they were still wearing masks going in between backstage and onto the stage.There was perspex glass everywhere and people were dressed up in these ghostbuster outfits with visors, but it was a pretty surreal experience. It was cool to be able to perform after 2 months without playing a gig. Even though it was only 1 song, it’s still nice to get to stand up on a stage and perform.”
It’s a tricky time to release music as bands and artists can’t tour to promote their tracks. However, Johnston has already broken into the Billboard Top 100 songs in Germany and the Shazam Top 200 charts for ‘Speak Up’
“ Yeah its good, I’ve signed with Warner Brother Music but we released this with an independent label. Actually I think it was meant to come out this weekend but we brought it out early…I think a lot of people were shazaming it and it’s got a lot of radio play in Germany at the moment so we will see how it goes. I think it’s really difficult right now to release music. I’ve seen a lot of bands that normally would release an album then do a tour and have postponed the album release so that they can tour it but then some of them have just gone ahead with it. Yeah it’s such a weird time to release music you have so many battles with trying to get things into playlists you just can’t promote the song without playing it live. It’s doing alright though, I think in Germany its doing great. Hopefully it picks up a little bit in Ireland. “
The music video for ‘Speak Up’ was shot in Berlin.However this was not the original plan for the video but Johnston has had to improvise to get the shots he needed including creating fake rain.
“Originally I was meant to film it in Ireland.But that was cancelled obviously so when I went over to Berlin to do this competition. I had to quarantine in Berlin for 2 weeks and then I had to quarantine here for 2 week when I came back to Ireland. So that was 4 weeks for a 3 minute and 21 second performance its ridiculous! but we were just there and originally I filmed myself with a webcam playing the song and lots of different clips. I put it together and it was pretty cool but the label were like we want an actual video so I put all that work in and had to scrap it.
I called up some friends who work with a band in Germany called Giant Rooks and Milky Chance and they go around with them and do these live videos and photography and stuff. They came over to the apartment and I said let’s just walk around and film. I like their style I like their vibe its quite personal and sometimes that’s nice just the personal introspective look at the artist. I went for a walk and they came to the house, played the song a few times, went out, walked around the streets, drove through Berlin for a bit and that was it. Nothing major but sometimes its nice to just have a look at the artist just walking around singing the song.
Actually we used the film directors car. He had an old Mercedes Hatchback from like the late 80’s or early 90’s or something.It was quite a cool car to drive, the gears are really sticky and it actually has some decent acceleration on it as well. It was meant to rain that evening and it didn’t so we went down to this sort of car park old petrol pump place. It’s in the video, you can see me walking around there where I parked up. [We] tried to mimic the rain and the lights. [We] basically just put all these random things into the car and then just got one of those car wash spray things and sprayed water over the car. There was a girl who had to hold this, I don’t even know what she was doing. I think she had to hold a light and she had a massive rain coat on and she just got soaked by this thing for 10 minutes. You do what you gotta do to get the shot but its pretty fun being on these sets sometimes.”
Johnston always looks confident and at home in his videos.I wondered was he always confident in front of the camera or is it just something he has had to get used to.
“ Oh I’m not confident in front of the camera at all. I hate it but you have to do it. At the beginning, one of the first tracks I released we did a video that wasn’t released [ for it ]. It was with some directors that wanted a group of people, a few of them were dancers and I’m rubbish at dancing and they were like just do some dancing while your walking toward the camera. I was like, what! get me a choreographer, I’m not a dancer. It was the first music video I had done, the first video I had done since I was a kid when we just filmed things with little cameras running around the place playing Lord of The Rings, but now I’m more comfortable with it. I kind of know how it works.
I have a good few friends who are filmmakers and photographers so I chat with them a lot about how it works. Obviously it’s pretty interesting to hear about it first hand and to be honest I’ve done it enough times so it’s fine.I just prefer being behind the camera but in the end its difficult to convince the label guys and the management that I shouldn’t be in the video. Although I’d love to be able to film a story and maybe have a cameo or something or just not be in the video at all but they want you to be in the video unless you are like an indie rock band.
It’s a brand in the end and you have to represent the brand, but then, Ed Sheeran, I think his first video, The A Team song, he’s only in like one clip, Hozier’s not in Take Me To Church. There are so many videos like that in the pop realms, because obviously when you go down into indie territory, rock music it’s often just a story. You’re not always going to have the band or the artist in the video.Sometimes it doesn’t matter, it is just an artists thing anyway. In the pop industry it’s rare that you don’t have the artist and it’s rare that they are not singing to the camera as well. I always find that a bit strange because it’s more of a hip hop style to actually sing to the lens. The hardest thing when you are on film or recording your own voice is listening back to it, especially with other people but once you do it and put it out there you get so much encouragement from people and you realise that people really appreciate when you do that because it’s not easy. Most people know it’s not easy. It gives you a confidence boost for the very first time you do it. It’s just the first initial get up and go that’s difficult. It’s like anything, like going for a run. Once you get out there you’re grand but initiating the run is horrific.”
Last time we spoke Johnston told me he had a new album in the works. Thankfully the lockdown has not slowed the progress of the album too much, although he has had to do a lot of remote collaboration with his band to lay down the drums etc.
“Yeah it did but it’s almost finished. I had one more session left to do that was cancelled..the ones I have done… my drummer, he’s got a studio in his house. So I sent him the tracks, he recorded some stuff, I sent some stuff to a violin player to put some things on, I sent some stuff to another guy who plays keys. Most of it was finished, half the songs are actually done.The rest of it, a lot of it has been done remotely and it’s really interesting sending it because when you are in the studio you can influence what happens and tell them what you want but when you just send something over to a drummer and say, yeah play on it and send it back. It’s going to be pretty cool to hear what they try and do to it. It’s coming along. I think it should be finished by the end of July. We have a session set up for mid July. I don’t know when it will come out but it’s nearly done.”
Johnston was due to perform at a number of music festivals and had the Last Minute Tour postponed which opened up his schedule a little. He has made the most of his time and has a few things planned for the coming months
“It’s not the worst thing, I think when I spoke to you last I was in Hungary. Those were the last gigs I played and around that time they were saying things were closing down and my tour was sort of being postponed around then so I knew it was coming. That was early March. I don’t know, you just have to make the most of it. I’ve been just writing songs. I think that’s been better for me right now. Just having time for myself, I think most people have benefited from this if you have a garden or an outdoor area. The weather has been nice so you have time to go out in the garden and get healthy. That’s sort of what I’ve been doing. I think tour life is not the healthiest so I probably saved myself a couple of years in this last few months.
It’s still quite busy though, I mean I went to Germany and I did that and you have to get up in the morning you can’t just be lying around the place. For me I just tried to get fit, start eating healthier, focus on myself and spend a couple of hours a day just writing. There is a lot of crap that comes out of it. After a while you kinda think yeah I need to travel and I need to meet people and go out in public and see things to find inspiration. I find it gimmicky writing from things you see online.I want to get back into the world. I think a lot of people need that. Writers, artists, musicians especially if you are writing lyrics you need to go out in public there is only so much you can do from your bedroom.
I’m doing a couple of these street music festival things. There is a couple around mainland Europe, in the Netherlands, one in Hungary again. I don’t know, they seem to like me over there, they keep asking me to come back. Which is nice I really like it there it’s beautiful.So I’m doing a street festival where they have a couple of small stages and they limit the amount of people that can come in and watch. Apart from that we are rescheduling some dates for September/October but I don’t know we will see what happens. I think things are opening up a little bit but it’s just hard to actually make a plan.I know loads of people have already set out tour dates but I’d be afraid of it being cancelled again and it’s just a nightmare when that happens.”
Sion Hill as an artist is gaining traction and his new single ‘Speak Up’ is a delight to the ears. He is developing his sound allowing the beautiful soulful tones of his debut album ‘Elephant’ flourish and blossom as he adds catchy pop elements and warm folk hues into the mix. Each of his releases have been tight, vibrant earworms. Johnston’s knack for sweet melodies make his tracks dangerously addictive. If his velvety tone, passionate vocals and swaggered personality alone don’t pique your interest then the upbeat sunny glows that surround his tunes, rich musicianship and irresistible hooks will get you for sure.
Mullingar native Sion Hill (Nate Johnston) represented Ireland on Saturday night performing his new single ‘Speak Up’ in the Free European Song Contest in front of a TV audience of 4 million viewers, finishing in the Top 10. ‘Speak Up’ has already broken into the Billboard Top 100 songs in Germany and the Shazam Top 200 charts following its release last Friday. The music video for ‘Speak Up’ was shot in Berlin where Johnston was quarantining for the last few weeks in order to be able to compete in the competition, which took place in Cologne. Sion Hill is signed to German record label Clouds Hill GMBH and has recently released two other singles, ‘Fuel Kids’ and ‘Last Minute’ with Warner Music Germany.
Johnston’s rasped warm vocals and soulful tone translate superbly in a live setting. His tracks are melodious and honey to the ears. This is one not to be missed.
Sion Hill has just released his new single ‘Speak Up’ check out the video below
Sion Hill has released his highly anticipated new single ‘Speak Up’.After leaving Ireland for Berlin, after leaving Berlin for Hamburg, and after leaving Hamburg for the murmuring vastness that is London, Nathan Johnston alias Sion Hill has carefully re-calibrated his musical palette. While his lauded 2017 debut “Elephant” was an eclectic soul-pop wonderland comfortably sitting between a room full of chairs somewhere in Berlin, his relationship with London is manifested in the globetrotters’ latest single, ‘Speak Up’.
Encased in cosy folk tones and wholesome songwriting ‘Speak Up’ is a warm uplifting slice of infectious pop. With soothing acoustic guitar glimmering through the verses along with clean piano chords, the song has a charming heart warming quality. Johnston shows an honest and vulnerable side to him as he depicts times he felt down and felt left out. The lyrics talk about mustering the courage to tell your surroundings how you really feel and how it’s fine not to feel okay. His soul hued velvety vocals slip into an R&B tone at times before allowing a yelp to take him into country/ traditional folk territory. This bubbling anthem is brimming with hope, good vibes and oodles of charm and Johnston presents this perfectly through his passionate delivery and relatable songwriting. A perky fiddle melody brings a healthy dose of optimism into the song while blood pumping beats and sun kissed soundscapes grace the backdrop in rich prisms of scintillation; ‘Speak Up’ is a vivacious and feel good anthem. It’s ridiculously catchy too.
I spoke to singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer Sion Hill aka Nathan Johnston on the phone. I became extremely envious on hearing he was sitting outside as it was a glorious day in Hungary ( it was 20 degrees ! ) where he was playing a show that night. Johnston has been steadily building up an international fanbase since he began his career playing in Dublin’s bars and venues. Now based in London, he has also spent time living in Berlin, where he adopted his moniker as a homage to his Irish roots. As well as making appearances at music festivals across Ireland and Germany, he has supported the likes of A-ha, Jim James, St. Paul & The Broken Bones, Alice Merton, Lilly Among Clouds and Pete Doherty.
We took a nostalgic look back at Johnston’s move to Germany from Mullingar once he signed to Warner Music Germany.He chuckles at the prospect of that move being quite daunting
“Not really. To be honest I moved to Dublin initially after Mullingar. I went to Trinity for 2 years and then I got offered this contract and I moved from there but I had been away quite a lot when I was younger and I went to New York twice for J-1s so I had been to a big city before. So it wasn’t like I left Mullingar and went into the unknown.But yeah I moved from Dublin to Berlin.I lived there for a year. It was a pretty manic place to be honest, I think it’s changed a little bit now it’s become more popular in the last few years. When I went it was snowing. I had my guitar in one hand and a massive suitcase with my whole life packed into it in the other hand. I was meant to meet a friend to stay with him but I couldn’t find his house for like, 3 hours so I was just trudging around in the snow with all of my possessions, everything to my name in my hand so that was pretty terrifying to be honest.But after a few days you get settled in.Its like moving anywhere it’s a bit scary at the beginning but you just gotta go into it full on and give it your best shot.”
When asked about his knowledge of German and whether or not he was familiar with the language Johnston laughs
“No unfortunately when I was in school I chose French over German at the time I prefered the French language to be honest it’s just much more beautiful it’s not as harsh and throaty.It took me a bit of time. I can speak a bit now but to be honest in Berlin everybody speaks English. The first day I went into a cafe and I ordered a coffee in German and it was an Irish fella serving so you don’t really need German there but I think they do really appreciate it when you do make an effort, because even though they love to speak English they like to practice their English and they are all so good at English so it doesn’t really matter but they like to see you try to speak German.There is a beauty to the language though.They have words that we don’t have in English to describe specific things. Like in English if you have somebody with a sweet tooth, we don’t have an actual word for that we just have a sentence whereas in German they have just one word which is Naschkatze and it’s quite a funny word for them. I use it pretty much every live show I have over there. I say “Ich bin eine Naschkatze” I don’t have very much German but I have these few expressions.I think it’s pretty interesting that they have some words that describe a whole sentence.There is beauty to the language that is way more broad than English. English comes from the Germanic language anyway so a lot of it stems from German.At the beginning it doesn’t really sound very nice but after you get into it it is pretty cool how you can describe things in a way we just can’t do in English. It’s like Irish, it’s another layer worse than that like there aren’t many words in Irish. We just have to use these idioms to express them whereas German has one word that can describe all of that. However some of them are like a sentence smushed together like they stick 7 words together …. Oh sorry I’m going into way too much detail into German but it’s pretty interesting.Like the word for airplane in German it’s not very creative it’s just “Flugzeug” which literally translates to fly- thing . The word for drums is “Schlagzeug” which is literally hit – thing. A lighter is “Feuerzeug” fire – thing.They kind of stick things together but that makes it easier to learn after a while its just the grammar that can be difficult.
After some chuckling about the relevance of the German language and its parallel to Johnston’s career we move on to the actual music and how he creates his tracks.
“I just listened to a lot of blues music when I was growing up about 14 or 15 years old. I got really into Jimi Hendricks, Otis Redding- a lot of that 60’s soul stuff I was a big Beatles fan since I was a kid but I actually started off listening to pop punk like Green Day, Blink-182 and Sum 41 that sort of stuff. I was like 12 or 13 listening to that sort of stuff and I learned the guitar because of those songs and because they were so easy to learn. Once you learn a power chord you can pretty much play every single Green Day Song. So I did that and because I knew how to do that then I went into learning seventh and Major seventh and things like that and I got into the blues. I was in school with this guy, his name is Joey Weidner and he has actually got quite a bit of followers on Instagram now for playing blues guitar. We formed a band at about 14 or 15 and I think he got me into the blues a lot more.So I just started playing that and listening to it a lot more and it just rubbed off on me. But I have always been much more interested in the American side of guitar based music rather than the UK sort of post punk thing that my dad would have been into like The Cure or The Smiths or bands like that like Led Zeppelin. Although I like that too but I think the soul side really attracted me.Especially because there is so much beauty behind the words. There is so much pain behind a lot of it as well. It’s not that I resonated with that or anything but I think they were able to convey their pain through this style of singing this style of music and I loved it and tried to bring it into my own thing.Although I took a modern approach to it as well. It’s got a lot of modern embellishments to it and different keyboard sounds and things like that.”
Johnston has a very smooth velvety voice with a warm rasp that is quite luring yet versatile allowing him to bring a modern twist to his soulful or indie pop tracks. Finding and becoming comfortable with his tone wasn’t really a problem for him, just something to get used to.
“Yeah everyone does, it’s like listening to a voice message.When you record a voice message and send it out to someone and listen to it back, everybody hates that.I hate listening back to my own voice as well but after awhile you become accustomed to it. You just have to do it. The more you practice and the more you sing and work with it and develop it yourself the more accustomed to it you become and after awhile you forget about whether you sound like an idiot or not. I went through a lot of phases as well when I started off. I really had this strong American accent which had come from all the artists I was listening to like Green Day and Blink -182 songs and all that which was the most nazely horrible American accent. So after awhile I just tried to develop it and make it into something. I tried to have a little bit of my own Irish accent in there but my accent has fairly watered down from all the travelling as well. When I went to Germany at the beginning people found it hard to understand me sometimes. So I had to tone down some of the more intense sides to the accent.Get rid of the “Shmoke” and actually pronounce my words properly.My dad is also quite well spoken and he always tried to encourage me to speak properly.You’d get the ol’ wooden spoon on the back of the hand you know. But I think with the voice the more you practice the better you get.“
Johnston released his debut album ‘Elephant’ in 2017 featuring some wonderful melodies, sun sprinkled vibes and oodles of soul. Each track flows smoothly into the ears; it’s a compact and impressive debut.
“All the tracks are sort of experiences I had growing up. Some of them I wrote when I was 16 or 17 years old. You know early first love, moving to the city was a big inspiration. I think a lot of that album has first time living in a big city as the backdrop to it. ‘Circus’ is about New York on J-1 and that overwhelming feeling of being in this gigantic place, feeling like, am I just another face in the crowd.Dublin is very small compared to other cities but it is much bigger than living in Mullingar so a lot of it came from that. People always ask do you write the lyrics first or the music first but that really just depends on the song.I don’t think anyone every single time writes the music first or writes the lyrics first. It depends on how you are feeling. It might start off with a riff and that riff brings about an emotion or reminds you of a certain time or place.Or I might have some lyrics written. I’ve had lyrics written and I’ve put it to music by chance.Generally it’s by chance you can’t really force it. With regards the flow it just came like that. At the time I was listening to a lot of The Beatles early stuff and I was listening to a lot of singer songwriters like Bahamas, John Mayer in particular I was quite obsessed with him when I was 16. A lot of his stuff is very smooth sort of soul pop tunes but he has something to say in the lyrics. It’s not just oh I miss my girlfriend which a lot of singer songwriters do and I liked that he had something to say whether its what it’s like growing up in school, or what it’s like having your first love or what it’s like just to live in a big city but putting it to something that is easy listening. I wasn’t really listening to anything really hard core or intense at the time so I suppose what I was listening to sort of influenced how the sound was going to be. It was always going to be a bit more smooth and easy listening because of that.’Beaches’ is a bit more upbeat than the others but it’s still smooth and you could listen to it before you go to bed. It’s not going to wake you up or anything.”
Earlier this year Johnston released his new single ‘Last Minute’ It’s a smooth, groove-drenched number as Johnston dips slinky 60’s -esque swagger into a fizzy pop sprinkled melody to create something truly infectious and timeless. The track is about when Johnston missed his train from London to Liverpool for a writing session with his producer, Rich Turvey (Blossoms, The Choral). Johnston and Turvey decided to build this experience into a portrayal of a budding relationship that is overshadowed or propelled by his latecomer streak.
“I’m currently working on the rest of the album with him (Rich Turvey). I met him through another producer in London called Dan Dare who mainly produces grime music.Hes a good songwriter and he has a side project called SLANG. I asked him if he could mix some songs that I had recorded myself and he recommended I work with Rich and he put me in touch.Rich said to come up and meet him and have a chat and we could do some writing and see if we work well together.So I booked a train for the next week and that morning I overslept. I missed the train and I was 3 or 4 hours late and this had kind of been a recurring theme in my life over the last 3 or 4 years I had just been really bad at time.When I got there and we sat down to chat I was like look I’m really sorry and he was fine he said let’s just write a song about that.If that’s the theme of your life at the moment that’s you in a song.So I came up with this lyric “ You know I didn’t mean it , I just always leave it to the last Minute” which was sort of an apology not to one particular person just to everyone. I’m not doing this on purpose you know like I know its a flaw and I’m trying to improve and I’m not going to blame it on my Irishness anymore. But yeah Rich is a legend. I went up to record with him like 3 weeks later and the exact same thing happened and he was like man I just knew you were going to miss the train.He’s a super chill guy to work with and he’s able to laugh it off.He’s got a lot of experience he’s just got two number one records with Blossoms in the UK over the last few years. He’s got a lot of success but he doesn’t really get a lot of recognition for it. Because the music industry in the UK is very much about the producers in London that are doing big pop acts. Even though the ones like Rich who is up in Liverpool has two number one albums and still somehow he doesn’t get the recognition but it doesn’t phase him.He is very relaxed he was like… 4 hours late.. ok.. I’ll just do something else and I’d be the same. Sure someone being late is annoying but if you just let those things bother you too much you will just get caught up.I think that’s why we work well. He’s a bit like myself but he’s better at time keeping. However I don’t like keeping people waiting for a show. They have waited already through a support act and the time in between and that’s annoying.”
Johnston has an upcoming album in the works so with the slight change in tone in ‘Last Minute’, it leaves a curious intrigue as to whether this next album with follow the more pop side of Last Minute’
“There are a couple of tracks on the new album that are a little bit more pop and upbeat.But I think the main reason it’s like that is we were trying to capture what it is to be always late and leave anything to the last minute. So we had that driving beat the whole way through.The drumbeat, it just doesn’t stop, it’s just kick and snare the whole way through. We don’t have any cymbals on the track it’s just a vibraslap instead of cymbals.We did that because cymbals can slow things down a bit.We wanted to have this driving thing like I’m always running to catch the train.Its a little bit more pop-y and I think that’s something to do with label people they can kind of push you in a certain direction.But I try to keep it as organic as possible.while still being a little bit more radio friendly. Also the last two tracks are singles and with singles you want to get radio play and you want to push them so people can listen to them so you don’t want a song like ‘Before You Go’ on the radio because its slow and a bit long. ‘Last Minute’ is only about 3 minutes long so it’s kind of quick to the point and says it all.I think a lot of the tracks on the next album are similar to the last record.and some are a little like ‘Last Minute’ so it just depends on the day. If I want it to be a little more of a soul track or a bit more pop it depends on my mood. “
Johnston has a very sleek 50 /60’s rock ‘n’ roll swagger in his appearance, slicked back hair and all while adding a modern touch. With social media artists are under more visual scrutiny than they ever were however how an artist looks and their style has always been a big part of branding
“100%, absolutely, but it’s also important to be authentic.I don’t think it works if you’re not authentic.I think people can see through it if you are trying too hard. I wear my own clothes. Occasionally for video shoots or photo shoots I might have a stylist who comes on set. Generally I wear what I like.I like dressing a certain way and I like to keep that apparent through the brand.But also if you look at The Arctic Monkeys which I’m very influenced by as well. I think my voice when I was younger was influenced by Alex Turner and the way he sings but I think if you look at their style it changes with each album.They have a different image for the band so the beginning, the first album was 16, 17 year old teenagers from northern England that have mod haircuts, Fred Perry and really messy guitars up really high and don’t care that much and then when they did AM it was all leather jackets slicked back hair this sort of 50’s style.and now the new record they have long hair, beards, this whole 70’s style.They have a very specific image with each record and I think that is really cool actually.But then again you have artists who just have a hoodie and a pair of jeans on stage and nobody bats an eye.It depends on the person but I think if its authentic people will get it.”
It’s difficult for a singer songwriter to keep things interesting in a live show. Johnston plays with a band for some of his live shows. He has played support slots with the likes of A-ha, Jim James, St. Paul & The Broken Bones, Alice Merton, Lilly Among Clouds and Pete Doherty. He is becoming very comfortable with the live setting
“I like to shake it up but I do play on my own and with a band. If I have the band with me I will always do a couple of songs on my own just to show a different side of me and to do something a little chill.I really like to get the audience involved and get them to sing along.People find that cheesy sometimes but if you do it in the right way it can be really lovely. I’m not a great dancer so I don’t do too much dancing about the place but my bass player is always rocking and stuff so that keeps it alive. I think it’s really important what music is playing before I go on the stage.I have a playlist with a few songs that are a sort of intro before I come on the stage and I think it also matters what plays when I come off the stage.The order of the songs is important.It always depends on the gig if its an intimate show and people are sitting down or if it’s in another country and people don’t understand what I’m saying, like right now I’m playing in Budapest in Hungary.most of the audience aren’t really going to speak English so I’ll have to keep down on the chat. Sometimes it can be a bit more daunting when you have a band behind you because of the sound on stage you can’t hear your voice as well.I tend not to use in – ear monitors.So with the monitors on stage if it’s a small venue it can be hard to hear your voice.”
Sion Hill plans to have a show in Ireland later this year but for the moment you can catch him live at the dates below. Keep an eye on his Facebook page here for more details : https://www.facebook.com/sionhillofficial/
Sion Hill has just released the eagerly awaited ‘Last Minute’, his second single on Warner Music Germany following “Fuel Kids” earlier this year. Hailing from Ireland, the 25-year-old singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer (real name Nathan Johnston) currently lives in London. His debut album “Elephant” was released in 2017 via Clouds Hill Records. ’Last Minute’ is about when Johnston missed his train from London to Liverpool for a writing session with his producer, Rich Turvey (Blossoms, The Choral). Johnston and Turvey decided to build this experience into a portrayal of a budding relationship that is overshadowed or propelled by his latecomer streak.
‘Last Minute’ is a smooth, groove-drenched number as Johnston dips slinky 60’s -esque swagger into a fizzy pop sprinkled coating to create something truly infectious and chic. Its glossy exterior has a suave and endearing charm as Johnston’s rasped warm vocals coo with a soulful tone while the honeyed melody seeps effortlessly into the ears. Sprinkled with a catchy hook, vibrant guitar, bubbling beat and sensual bass – the track is steeped in panache and charisma with tropical sensibilities. It’s an exceptionally sleek song, well crafted and refined as Johnston fleshes out his infectious pop musicianship with intricate and refreshing twists of zest and timeless qualities.
About the track Johnston said : “It’s not so much an apology to one person for not showing up on time, but more of a general statement that sometimes things can be more interesting when they are spontaneous, I don’t like letting people down, so I’m trying to get better with my timing, but at the same time, I leave a lot of things to the last minute. There’s something slightly freeing about not having plans and I love those evenings when I go out with no real plan and just see where the night takes us. I love surprises and being spontaneous always keeps me on my toes. It has allowed me to meet so many interesting people and have so many crazy and amazing experiences.”
Watch the video for ‘Last Minute’ below
Author : Danu
Indie: (n) an obscure form of rock which you only learn about from someone slightly more hip than yourself.
