Take 5 With Gia Ransome

Canberra based Indie Rocker Gia Ransome has just released her sultry debut single ‘Boots’, which we had the joy of premiering last month. Today Gia shares with us her favourite 5 artists of all time and why.

Tamino  

I first heard Tamino’s debut album ‘Amir’ when I was backpacking on my own in Europe. His music somehow grabbed something in my soul and hasn’t let go, because I don’t think I can recall any other artist whose work I’ve listened to so repeatedly and still been able to find something new each time. It’s beautiful, haunting, and completely mesmerising. Flavoured by his Egyptian heritage, it’s unlike anything I’ve ever heard in western music. ‘Amir’ was the soundtrack to some of the highest and lowest points in my life, and makes me feel a great sense of nostalgia now. His new album ‘Sahar’ is another masterpiece in my eyes and I’ve got it on vinyl at home, which is on high rotation. I saw him play live a couple of times when I lived in the UK and they were undoubtedly the best live performances I’ve ever had the privilege to see.

Recommended song for new listeners:

Alexandra Savior 

Alexandra Savior is a big musical influence of mine, but in a kind of funny way. She was introduced to me by some music friends I was working with at the time, who kept saying my music reminded them of hers and that I should give her a listen. Well, they were right! I first listened to her song ‘Vanishing Point’ and thought to myself, wow, THIS is what I want to sound like. In a way she’s an inspiration that came after the art, as it was already the direction I was moving in, but it wasn’t until hearing her work that I was able to see what direction that was. Her music is melancholy desert rock, and I love how she uses harmonies and little musical trinkets to give everything a sense of eeriness that I just find delightful and entrancing. She has two studio albums out – ‘Belladonna of Sadness’ and ‘the Archer’, which have been on high rotation on my spotify since I first heard them.

Link to my recommended ‘starting’ song recommendation, ‘Crying all the Time’  for new listeners:

Arctic Monkeys (with special mention to the Last Shadow Puppets) (link to album ‘AM’)

I feel a little ashamed to admit that while I list them as one of my top favourite bands, I pretty much only listen to their album ‘AM’. That said, it’s such an iconic album that I don’t think people will judge me too harshly for being a ‘fake fan’. I love the riff driven nature of all of the songs on ‘AM’, and Alex Turner’s crooning and lyrical prowess. That album just never gets old, and it’s one of my go-to albums when I’m going for a long drive. I have also been listening a lot to the ‘Last Shadow Puppets’ album ‘Everything You’ve Come to Expect’, which I’ve put in here, as it’s Alex Turner’s other band and in my mind the two are intrinsically linked.

Everything You’ve Come to Expect:

Lana Del Rey

Lana is the songstress of the generation in my opinion. Like Alexandra Savior, I was hearing a lot of ‘you remind me of Lana Del Rey’, before I had really endeavoured to listen to her music beyond the radio hits. When I started to dive into her albums, it was such a delightful time, because every other song became one of my favourite songs. It’s like mining for gold where the gold is just laid out in front of you for miles. There’s so much material to go through and so much of it is completely hypnotising. She is a big musical influence for me in her songwriting and the way she uses her voice, where she has the ability to aim for ‘vocal perfection’, but instead focuses her performance on character and expression. One of my all-time favourite Lana songs is ‘Honeymoon’, for all the soaring harmonies and strings.

Honeymoon:

The Blinders

I spent some time in Manchester a few years ago, and this is a band I met before I heard. My friend (and talented musician), Jon Coley, had been telling me how great this band was when we were headed out to an afterparty for a festival they had just played at. I met the band briefly, and their frontman Tom had the air of a musician who just had to be good, so when I got home that night I looked them up. That was the beginning of a musical obsession. When I tell you I played them on repeat, I mean it. It’s rock and roll, it’s political, and Tom’s voice has so much charisma that I just couldn’t stop listening. They remain one of my all-time favourite bands. Their album ‘Fantasies of a Stay at Home Psychopath’ is as enthralling as its title suggests, and is a must listen in my opinion.