MySpace a place for friends

UK ARTISTS "LIVE" is..... Oi !!!! Welcome! Intrigued with the music and the local color I soaked in following a visit to England ages ago, it became my dream (Lyric's dream!) to showcase UK artists . This desire came to fruition here in February, 2006. The site became an underground phenomena with BBC Radio Stoke's MATT AND DAVE's 'SUBCULTURE', hearing from SIRIUS RADIO who inquired on our featured artists and consequently offered said 'featured artists' radio exposure. UNKNOWN RECORDS,UK, a sister label to GEFFEN took note when we had over 6700 hits in a few hours' time featuring a band from Stoke, "VOICES MADE ME DO IT" and signed them.I won't say that I was particularly pleased with how they managed the outcome for that band, however, this site was getting a great deal of attention, and really, all that we had in mind was simply presenting something FRESH and UNIQUE on myspace!!!

WHY I RUN THIS SITE:THIS IS THE VERY FIRST AND ORIGINAL "FEATURED ARTIST SITE" on MYSPACE, whilst others feature only the tunes, this site features brilliant and engaging interviews, getting artists noticed by the powers that 'be', with visuals and much more. A certain very popular site actually kiped (*stole) their 'featured artist' concept from me,then I noted it happening on every music site! However they continue to lack the personal touch with an elegant platform offering visuals, music AND engaging and intelligent interviews..This is a unique musician-supported site, designed for the great unsigned artists of the UK! Here, artists have an elegant platform and an opportunity to express themselves via professionally-composed personal introductions to compliment each artist with in-depth and intelligent interviews by your seasoned and internationally respected journalist, |Lyric LaCeile. This site is intended to educate the reader-listener on every genre. We welcome other members of press; musicians; DJ's; recording studios; festival coordinators;on-air presenters, fans of UK music and the like.. .

Once a month we present a SPECIAL CELEBRITY ARTIST who, via interview, offers sage and essential advice to the artist on the rise! Our special guests for THE MONTH OF OCTOBER-NOVEMBER BEGINNING OCTOBER 24TH, UK ARTISTS 'LIVE' PRESENTS "propylaion" OF Hamburg, Germany, unique to this site, presenting a mind-bending twist of Funk/Indie Rock/Soul and killer musicianship to twist your mind with intelligent lyrics, stellar vocals, superb arrangements and 'wicked kill' melodies !!!

Lyric LaCeile and UK ARTISTS ‘LIVE’ now begin 'propylaion''s feature on OCTOBER 24th-NOVEMBER 24th! SLIDE SHOW, ‘propylaion’

INTRODUCTION, Hamburg's ‘propylaion’ by Lyric LaCeile

Hamburg is a stunningly scenic, artistic and resilient city, destroyed and occupied several times from 845, with fleets of Vikings to a king of Poland, the Black Death (killed off 60% of the population) to a major fire in 1842 leaving the city to rebuild itself once again! Nearly two million make up the city with major radio and television broadcasters “Norddeutscher Rundfunk and publishers “Gruner + Jahr….

What caught my attention, aside from the historical value of this charming city was a band with a notable most name, ‘propylaion’….remember the William Blake “doors of perception”, well now you have four artists whose name translates from Greek to “the doorway” !! The band formed in 1995 and did the road scene for five years-Nils, George and Michael . In 2007 was the debut of their first album .In 2008 propylaion build up a new lineup including incendiary drummer Patrice….. In a tumultuous and uncertain world, ‘propylaion’ brings halcyon comfort to all of the senses, and are a refreshing gift to the world , a departure from the unoriginal clones that populate most music sites today.

Here they are, ‘propylaion’, with the innate ability to send its listeners into a sensual trance. Show them a huge “UK Artists ‘Live’ support and adoration by reading their fabulous interview, listen to their enchanting songs and dig the slide shows.

“freedom, regained” , LIVE AND UNPLUGGED ! propylaion is:

nils wommelsdorf – voice michael holland - guitar, vocal backings georg sheljasov – bass patrice serfort – drums

The Interview, “propylaion”, By Lyric LaCeile

Lyric: I want to welcome all of you to “UK Artists ‘LIVE’, it is such a thrill to have such a demiurgic collective featuring here!! What piece of music first enticed you and forever became a part of your soul, driving you to this point in your creative flow, Michael?

Michael: Max Bruch - Violin Concerto No. 1 G - minor. Max Bruch was a German romantic composer and conductor; my father played the violin part at home when I was a little child. I was chained, and began to play the violin at the age of four.

Nils: We were singing children..s songs since I was a newborn>

Lyric: Ah! I played Chopin and Beethoven to my sons in the womb and they adore classical music to this day….my point all along, I played classical music and sang to my sons in the womb and they came out loving it and playing it !

Nils: When I became a boy scout at the age of six I learned to play the guitar and singing . What really influenced me was “Tubular Bells“ by Mike Oldfield --and the first real records I owned (including The Cure, Depeche Mode, etc.) - that influenced my way of writing, singing, playing and recording my own music.

Lyric: You were a boy scout, I was a flower-child-in-training in San Francisco! (Tubular Bells’ release) Since you mentioned “Depeche Mode”, you’re stuck with my story in early reporter dayz…Andy Fletcher and Martin Gore shared Andy’s birthday party with me, (World Violation Tour, 1990) I arranged a private after- party for him following another private VIP party we held at the famed “STARK” club, and the rest you can write me about! Michael, where did you meet Nils?

Michael: A place north of Germany, Leck, Nordfriesland, I met Nils at school. We exchanged our favourite lp’s.

Nils: Yes, I moved about, lived in other cities as Michael had, but it was magic when we began playing and writing…

Lyric: It is always compelling to discover an artist’s journey from initial inspiration to actual performance with an instrument- Any others in the family gifted with the music gene, Michael?

Michael: My father used to be a violin player, my grandfather as well. He taught music at school….

Lyric: Ah ! And there you have it, naturally-inclined….Nils?

Nils: My mother played the piano, my father is a big music enthusiast, and my brother studies audio and visual arts and plays and writes music too.

Lyric: A duality of genetically-inclined inevitability!! That clarifies your progression , synergy and magnetism as a creative force !!! What would you say is the driving influence behind your music?

Michael: It's the thing I can do best, and the thing that makes me happy.

Lyric: So its safe to say that music opens up what nothing else can inside the deepest recesses of the self….Nils?

Nils: Self-expression and therapy. The ability to create and to build up something that maybe could express something important and memorable to the listener.

Lyric: I find no better surge of endorphins than the extreme ability of music as therapeutic! So which of you composes the soothing and stimulating lyrics and the lithe melodies?

Nils:. The music is written by all band-members, when someone comes up with an idea. Sometimes michael shows us some instrumentals he has written—However, I compose the vocal melodies and write the lyrics.

Lyric: What genres of music would you say have influenced you the most?< p> Michael: New wave , post punk / classical stuff, The Beatles….

Lyric: I hear flashes of the Beatles in “The Pit”, my fave tune, by the way. Nils?

Nils: Post-punk (by far, my biggest influence), analogue synth music –and yes, and The Beatles, for sure!

Lyric: Tell the salivating public what source you drew your band’s name from, I love it!

Nils: The (original) name of our first band was "Einfaat" (which is the German word for "doorway"). By the time we started working with other musicians and began playing live shows, we searched for a better name. We knew a guy who taught Greek at school. He said that the Greek word for "Einfaat" is "Propylaion". So its cooler and we’ve got it! *

Lyric: Every artist has their muse, be it a lover, an ocean, life experiences, what/who’s yours, Michael?

Michael: Life, coffee & nicotine, Antje!

Lyric: Not so far-removed from my own inspirations as an author and biographer, the parallels are fascinating !! Nils?

Nils: My life and the lives of others (I am a male nurse, so I hear a lot of strange things each day) – and now my biggest influence will surely be my family with my girl-friend and our girl twins!

Lyric: Nils! You have such a noble profession to support your artistic endeavors., which I know from personal experience. You’re a father as well, with twins, with girls who will adore their daddy for the rest of your life. Trust me on that one. My father and I adored one another til the day he went home to Heaven, and his music and influence still lives on in the hearts of artists everywhere, most of all, in mine. So, Nils, does the chaos and uncertainty of our world today in any form influence your music, and what is it that you have to say on the “One World Order” movement?

Nils: Sometimes there are political influences in my lyrics (not often in propylaion songs) – we are pacifists , against racism and fascism, or to put it very simple: no one should have the power to suppress others.

Lyric: “Love Music, Hate Racism”, are you part of that movement?

Nils: Absolutely we are.

Lyric: Georg, your bass playing is reminiscent of early jazz, the resonance of the upright bassists. (My fave!) When would you say that you knew that playing the bass was to be your life’s path, what bass are you playing on the recent tunes, and which bass are you would be your fondest desire to own??

Georg: Thank you! Jazz, especially music from the modern jazz era with bass players like Ray Brown, Paul Chambers...had and has got a strong influence to my approach to music.

Lyric: What I felt and heard, it all makes sense to me now!

Georg: In fact, I'm a piano player at first, but I love to play the electric bass and the upright bass. With ‘propylaion’ at live shows , I use an older ‘Squier Precision’ bass. On the record, it's a ‘Fender Jazz Deluxe’. I don't believe that thing about "magic" vintage instruments. I'm happy with the stuff I can use.

Lyric: Michael, your guitar performance is enchanting and intoxicating, how on earth did you find yourself so masterful with such strong musicianship on this instrument, making the listener positively swoon?

Michael: Thanx as well. I don't know really. I was making music nearly my whole life. Learning to play guitar saved my days when I was an adolescent...It's the best thing you can do if you are a 14 - year - old boy living in a boring small village.

Lyric: Well, Michael, living in that ‘boring small village’ as you call it, really paid off, and your humility is quite refreshing. You missed the distractions of frenzied and frenetic city living, with much beauty and inspiration all round you…..Nils, you have a most quixotic vocal ability with simple yet charming arrangements ! The melodic cadence in all of your songs leaves the listener positively breathless, amorous and grasping for their lover!! How do you manage that riot ass soul woven in with such enchanting melodic vocals??

Nils: Thank you! I don’t like blues and soul vocalists, I’m very “European” in that sense… and I always work out a lot of possible vocal melodies, just to find a line that adds a new melody to the song, something that gives a new mood or gives more “weight” to something the others are playing. The backing vocals are worked out with Michael and Georg who sing them onstage.

Lyric: Well it works, and how!!! Nils, any formal training with your voice, or were you just blessed by ear like my father?

Nils: I used to sing songs nearly since I was born. I did the vocals in a lot of bands in a lot of styles – folk, synthe pop, experimental music, punk, jazz- but no classical training at all (except for my first experiences in playing guitar).

Lyric: Patrice, (drummer) coming from a jazz legacy as I have, I note percussive instruments immediately. There is a visible jazz influence in your drumming. You enhance the rhythm rather than playing over the other band members as most drummers do and in turn damaging the sound the band is striving for. Where on earth did you learn to master the brushes as you have?

Patrice: I listened to millions of records, and besides that: play, play, play!!

Lyric: Well your musicianship is impressive, I can tell you. So many young artists think they should become famous overnight, without the effort and the struggle. Thank you for being so direct with your answer. So, guys, tell us, what is your amplification preference: (Most love the Marshall tube amp heads and Mesa Boogie Mark IV’s) Solid state or Tube(valve)???

George, bass: Solid State. It's more direct. I use ‘Markbass’ amps.

Michael, guitar.: Tube. I own different tube guitar amps, on stage I use a ‘Fender Vibrolux Amp’.

Lyric to Nils: So you like Bukowski too, eh? What’s your fave book of his? I love “Postal”. And filmmaker George Romero?! My fave is “Dawn of the Dead”)” !! You?

Nils: Yes, I like that ‘dirty old ma’n – and George Romero is a big influence too (even if my favourite, “Dawn of the Dead”, is forbidden here in Germany – you are not allowed to own an uncut copy of that movie).

Lyric: Nils, you are all serious? The goriest films and the first film noir movement stemmed from Germany. I thought of all countries they were far more open-minded! Well all you’re missing are cow’s intestines.

Nils: (More on the author and the director) These two always use isolation (maybe even depression) as an important part of their style. They just show a world at the end of time, Bukowski with his own world full of broken memories and relationships and Romero showing our world at the end of times with only a few people fighting a gigantic mass of enemies and even each other. These stories are so desperate, there is no future that you can hope for. And to bring it to an end, I remember Robert Smith singing the first line of the best record I know: Pornography“ by The Cure starts with: It doesn..t matter if we all die”.

Lyric: What an astute observation. I’ve honestly never heard this reaction to both an author and a director! And thankfully, we know it isn’t all that bleak, because we have the healing power of music, of all art forms, of majestic visuals ! Great fodder for song, isn’t it? Michael, have you a fave venue preference and why?

Michael: Oh that would be, “Pooca” in Hamburg, the locale of our next show!

Nils: Oh most definitely. Michael is right on that. He always is….

Lyric: Yep, right in St. Pauli! I would love to know who the artist is that painted the black and white mural at the entrance!!

Nils:Not sure of the artist, it is, as most of venues in st. pauli, a little, yet charming location with no big p.a. or other sound devices. But we love the spirit of these little venues with all these nice people that really rock!

Lyric: Sometimes ambiance is so more important. Well I cannot tell you what a delight it has been to meet such intelligent, original and truly gifted musicians. And to you Nils, you are one helluva graphic designer on top of being a nurse who cares genuinely for others, a loving parent, and a great musician. You have the integrity that lacks in many today, and is a pleasure to find!!! Will you come back and feature with us again?

Nils:FOR SURE we..ll do - it was a pleasure to meet you and to have this very nice interview with you!

Booking Information for ‘propylaion’: propylaion@myspace.com mailto:propylaion@myspace.com

WEBSITES: http://www.myspace.com/propylaion

http://www.myspace.com/propylaionremixes

http://twitter.com/propylaion

And if you missed the slideshow because of your limited attention span, well, here it tis’ again!

ANNOUNCEMENT! NOTE: Always note any changes in your appearance dates. We have contacted each act to notify you personally of the newly scheduled dates after February 2, 2008. WE strive for a constant calendar, and try our best to accomodate all artists' timing to the best of our abilities! Thank you very much for your patience and your kind support of our site!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

©COPYRIGHT NOTICE  To the ARTISTS featured here (and to any and all lurking barristers/entertainment lawyers):   For copyright purposes, all music featured here is with the artists' permission. Music is deleted from our systems following performance for the artists' protection. All artists have the option of making their music download-able on this site, unless we are notified, that feature will not be offered. All interviews are submitted upon approval by said Artist. Starting in February, unless previous agreement is made, all features will be 10 days in length,