Ezra Vine is a multi-instrumentalist obsessed with escapism, indulging his melodic fantasies among handclaps, and the waltz of bass drums.
First single ‘Celeste’, is an infectious celebration of anticipation, combining an ear-worm acoustic riff with an army of floor toms, Beach Boys backing vocals, Miike Snow piano clusters, and a lilting, Shins-like vocal. Vine’s love for ambiguous Cohen-style lyrics mashes with immediate imagery (Brian Wilson, anybody?) resulting in an energetic tune that aches for a love lost (or was it a love imagined? Either way, he won’t tell us.) and is sure as heck to get you dancing. In Vine’s own words, Celeste is ‘an exploration of optimism, confusion, and the often blurred lines between reality and desire.’
Recorded in a small bedroom in late 2012, armed only with one microphone, a macbook pro, and any instrument he could lay his hands on, Vine meticulously recorded each and every instrument, breathing life into a handful of tunes that would soon become unofficially dubbed the ‘Les Enfants EP’. The resulting work was a collision of immediate lyricism, haunting falsetto, and counter-melodies, woven through folk sensibilities.
Circulating it privately, Vine found immediate fans among MTV execs and indie tastemakers abroad. Testing the waters, Vine released a handful of tunes somewhat unannounced on Bandcamp in January of 2013, under the moniker ‘Les Enfants’ and word slowly began to spread. On Bandcamp, Vine found an appreciative and thoughtful audience that helped propel the collection to regularly claim a top ten spot among Bandcamp’s bestsellers for the Folk category. From among that audience came Nashville Indie label execs, who chased Vine for label deals, calling the music “a polished, amazing, critically and commercially deep record and sound”. Furthermore, Brooklyn, NYC-based webzine Dingus are quoted as saying the work is “Somehow floating above the showmanship of 2013 …”, akin to “Of Monsters & Men with some dashes of Edward Sharp and Fun”, adding “There is something special about getting transported back to a specific musical memory in one’s own life.”
After signing a management deal with Let The People Speak (with acts like Mali Mali and Tom Lark as contemporaries) Vine was almost immediately featured on TVNZ as Channel ONE’s new brand identity, a title previously held by Brooke Fraser’s ‘Something in the Water’ and more recently, Avalanche City’s ‘Love Love Love’. After securing an NZonAir video grant, Vine commissioned animator Rob Wallace (From Parallel Teeth & Special Problems. Having created videos for Ladi6, David Dallas, and animations for Flying Lotus, Jonothan Boulet, The Naked and Famous) to create a video for Celeste that follows the story of a huntsman on a long and ambiguous journey, set among a majestic and wild landscape.
In November 2013 Celeste was released in New Zealand through Vine’s own label ‘Mythologie.’ The single peaked #1 on the local iTunes singer songwriter chart and #4 on the overall chart and #1 on Spotify. The song was also the most added song at radio the same week.
Vine is also working ceaselessly in his newly christened ‘Mythologie Studios’ on an EP due to drop early in 2014.