You could be tricked into thinking ‘Is It Me or Is It Love’ was something coming out of a 70s vinyl found in your local record store, but this is in fact the newest release from rising Australian artist KESMAR (aka Nathan Hawes).
With its retro-tinged style of indie, the song delivers a sound that feels charming, classic and playful, while still maintaining some modern pop sensibilities.
The track is taken from Hawes’ forthcoming debut ‘ALWAYS CHASING RAINBOWS’ album (out 31st March), of which he says:
“‘ALWAYS CHASING RAINBOWS’ is my first full length body of work produced and written entirely by myself at my little home studio – ‘Dino Studios.’ It reminds me of a simpler time, just writing songs and making a damn record. I had quite a loose deadline so there never felt like there was any rush to just smash out a bunch of songs for an album. I really got to take my time and to be completely honest, 50% of it was figuring out how to plug gadgets in. If there is an easy way of recording something or playing a line, I’m going to do the opposite, not in a way of ‘look at me’ but I just like to do things the hard way or ‘impractical way ‘ some would say. After learning how to write songs front to back it quickly became known this is the way I have to do it and it resulted in my favourite batch of songs I’ve ever written.”
With an ever-growing fanbase across social media, as well as tastemaker praise from outlets as respected as Under the Radar, Earmilk and The Luna Collective, KESMAR has already marked his name as one of Australia’s most promising musical exports.