Small Town America

Small Town America is an independent record label based in Derry, Northern Ireland and London, England. They describe themselves as a 'boutique, independent publishing company' that sits alongside their sister record label business. Their aim is to cultivate a self-sustainable business model through which artists can release the best records they can possibly produce. Their artists and writers represent the best in contemporary, left-field, rock, indie pop and folk. 

Their main current bands are Feldberg, Jetplane Landing, LaFaro, More Than Conquerers, Negative Pegasus, Our Krypton Son and Sullivan And gold.

A certain band that caught my eye were 'More Than Conquerors' (www.morethanconquerors.co.uk), initially due to their album artwork, being unusual and quirky, with originality. The artwork forms a big aspect within the production of each band's music, as the album cover alone can represent just who and what they are.  I then became more and more engaged in their music and the band's background and inspirations linked to the music they have produced, and I now class the band as a band I would listen to frequently. The band describe themselves as:

'Dirty, rhythmic guitars under-laden with hard-hitting bass-lines and punchy drums in a catchy way that makes sure the audiences' feet stay nailed to the ground. Amidst all the chaos, the melodic     vocals grip the listeners emotions', with their music genre being hardcore/pop. The band have made themselves known to their audiences via multiple social networking sites, being MySpace, Twitter, Facebook etc. and also own a youtube channel under their name 'morethanconquerorsni, and have a band website morethanconquerors.co.uk. Audiences can listen to their music for free and familiarise themselves with it via the Small Town America website or via their own, and can absorb the band's process through their youtube videos of their ongoing journey and live performances. I have viewed a few if the band's music videos which impressed me first hand, two of my favourite videos are:

When The Well Runs Dry:


A Lion, A Man:



Comparing the two music videos together, it is noticeable that the band has a recurring theme involving the artwork and presentation of the videos. The main one would be the use of lyrical art in sync with the music. I liked this aspect of the music videos as it brought me to learn the lyrics of each song, becoming more familiar with them. I find these aspects within the music videos make them more interesting and original, something different from the typical music videos you would watch with just the band playing on screen the whole time. 
Within the video for 'A Lion, A Man', the video is shot in complete darkness as they use a torch to shine on certain objects or lyrical art. I especially liked how they used art and images to accompany certain lyrics, for example, with one of the lines being 'with his hands', they had the lyrics written in a cut-out shape of a hand. I was especially impressed when i found out this video was shot altogether in one single shot without any editing as the timing is immaculate. I feel that the video has been given a kind of grunge-like edge to it, which is appropriate for the style of the music. The video for 'When The Well Runs Dry', has similarities, although there are multiple contrasts between the two based on editing, lighting, mise en scene, shot types, angles and effects.