Callum Richards and Mark Evans on the Pure Local Extra show

To start the show, we talked about what’s new for both Callum and Mark. Callum has recently started a business, a live music entertainment agency called Smooth Booking Promotions. It’s a way for people who need live music to get live music for whatever reason, think weddings, birthdays, pubs etc). As for Mark, he’s trying to revive his music career as in more recent years he hasn’t been too involved as before. He said that he’s getting back into writing new music.

Throughout the show, we listened to some music from our guests and got some insight into the song, the story behind it and some of the musical process behind it. We listened to ‘Dead Streets Sigh’, a song from Mark about the death of the high street. The idea came from how his hometown (Ebbw Vale) feels now as opposed to when he was younger; it used to be so much more vibrant, with more shops, live music and a busier atmosphere. He added that it was like walking through and thinking ‘what happened?’

Another song we listened to was ‘Forgetting You’ by Callum. The song is a breakup song, although it takes on the idea that you should just forget the person you broke up with as opposed to trying to stay friends. The idea came from a message he said to himself that he should just forget the person and cut all ties. He added that it worked for him.

Seeing as Mark and Callum are from 2 different generations, there was lots of discussion about how things are different now from then; one of which is learning music. As Callum is much younger, he has things such as YouTube to learn a song, whereas Mark had no such thing. When Mark first started playing (at around 11 years old) he learned by ear, he would play songs on a record and learn from listening. He is self taught as not many people taught guitar. Another thing he said they’d do is trading information or techniques with each other.

Our next topic of discussion was collaborations and whether or not they enjoy it. As for Callum, he likes collaborating. He tends to write in the same style, so other people give a song a different perspective and something new to a song. Mark used to work with other people a lot, believing that bouncing off other people’s ideas is good. However, more recently he’s been writing all his music himself but he gets  a friend to sing over it and give some vocal ideas.

Finally, we talked about the latest news for each artist. Mark’s latest album entitled ‘Sohar’ can be found under the name Sonic Coins + Icons on all the usual music places. He was also kind enough to give us a copy of the album on Vinyl! As for Callum, his events company Smooth Booking Promotions is the latest project but he’ll be releasing new music soon when it settles down.

You can listen to the full show here