Our conversation was recorded on Friday 14th September 2018, and finds Suzi Rodden and Lewis Cook (aka FREE LOVE) discussing their adventures in music together over the past 10 years. After 5 years of performing under the name Happy Meals, the duo have recently transformed into FREE LOVE - indeed, the music they recorded for VISITATIONS is their first physical release under this new moniker. We talk about how they developed their sound over the years, and the inspiration they took from the island during the recording of the VISITATIONS EP.
If you’d like to hear the music Free Love created on Eigg in full, or simply support our podcast, you can do so by signing up to VISITATIONS. Visit www.lostmap.com/visitations for details on our vinyl and digital subscriptions.
You can visit Free Love over here: https://www.freelovenrg.com/, and be sure to catch them on tour over the coming months - as they have another mini-album of tunes, Luxury Hits, coming out this year.
Lost Map Podcast is presented by Pictish Trail, produced and edited by Joe Cormack, and supported by Creative Scotland.
S1 04: VISITATIONS - Free Love Pt.1
FREE LOVE, cosmic duo Suzi Rodden and Lewis Cook, are a couple whose pulsating psychedelic odysseys have been emanating from Glasgow since 2013, via esteemed labels Night School, and the Optimo imprint, So Low. Formerly operating under the name Happy Meals, their transformation into Free Love is now complete, where hi-NRG Italo disco and 90s rave-pop thrills complement the undulating drones of their sonic and yogic experimentalism.
They beamed down to the island for a week, at the end of September til the beginning of October in 2017, just as the summer’s sun was beginning to set, and created a concept EP about being abducted by aliens. Analogue synths and drum machines come to life, taking possession of Free Love’s bodies, and creating a truly intergalactic entity. “Set the controls for the sun of your heart”. We’ll be chatting with the band, one year on from their experience, in our next episode.
You can visit Free Love over here: https://www.freelovenrg.com/
If you’d like to hear the music Free Love created in full, or simply support our podcast, you can do so by signing up to VISITATIONS. Visit www.lostmap.com/visitations for details on our vinyl and digital subscriptions.
Lost Map Podcast is presented by Pictish Trail, produced and edited by Joe Cormack, and supported by Creative Scotland.
S1 03: VISITATIONS - Monoganon Pt.2
This conversation was recorded in late-June 2018, via Skype - with Monoganon calling from his home in Malmo, Sweden, and Pictish Trail on the Isle of Eigg, Scotland.
Having spent a week in sonic isolation, Monoganon reveals all about his experiences on the Isle of Eigg, and the music he created for VISITATIONS - which has just been released as a 12” vinyl EP, with an accompanying CD of bonus tracks. This podcast episode contains excerpts of the music, as well as the sound of soft vaping and a few stray lambs.
You can visit Monoganon over here: monoganon.com
If you’d like to hear the music Monoganon created in full, or simply support our podcast, you can do so by signing up to VISITATIONS. Visit lostmap.com/visitationsfor details on our vinyl and digital subscriptions.
Lost Map Podcast is presented by Pictish Trail, produced and edited by Joe Cormack.
S1 02: VISITATIONS - Monoganon Pt.1
Pictish Trail chats with the first contestant in our VISITATIONS residency project, John B McKenna, aka MONOGANON. We recorded this during Monoganon's stay on the Isle of Eigg, in July 2017.
Monoganon is a singer-songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist from Carluke, in Scotland - who relocated to Malmo, Sweden, about 6 years ago. After a series of mini-albums and singles, he self-released his first full-length album, Songs To Swim To, in 2011. His sophomore album, F A M I L Y, was the first official release on Lost Map Records in 2013, and was followed up by Killmens in 2017.
In this first interview, we talk a fair bit about John B’s name, the records he listened to during his teenage years, and his life in music - from his first early recordings, and ramshackle live shows, to the recording of his three albums. There’s also a good bit of chat about the legendarily unrelenting Glasgwegian metalcore monsters, Desalvo.
Visit Monoganon over here: http://monoganon.com/
F A M I L Y : http://lostmap.com/products/monoganon-family
Killmens: http://lostmap.com/products/monoganon-killmens
We’ll be chatting more to Monoganon about his experiences on the island, and the EP he created for VISITATIONS in Episode 03.
If you’d like to support the podcast, you can do so by signing up to VISITATIONS. Visit www.lostmap.com/visitations for details on our vinyl and digital subscriptions.
Lost Map Podcast is presented by Pictish Trail, produced and edited by Joe Cormack.
S1 01: Introduction to Lost Map and VISITATIONS
Pictish Trail, aka folk-pop musician Johnny Lynch, is a household name on the Scottish Isle of Eigg (although, to be fair, with a population of around 100 people, there aren’t many houses there). From Eigg, he runs a unique DIY record label and collective called LOST MAP, and has just started an exciting residency program called VISITATIONS - where artists are invited over to the island to record new music, in solitude. In this introductory podcast you’ll find out all about the Lost Map label, and the VISITATIONS project, and how you can get involved.
Episode Links
If you’d like to support the podcast, you can do so by signing up to VISITATIONS. Visit www.lostmap.com/visitations for details on our vinyl and digital subscriptions.
The music played at the end of the episode is ‘Receiver (Sunken Version)’ by Firestations. You can purchase the track, here: www.lostmap.com/postcards/postmap-209
Lost Map Podcast is presented by Pictish Trail, produced and edited by Joe Cormack.