I’ve always had a sweet spot for Tom Waits. When working as a video editor for a local newspaper back in 2012, I did a piece on a theatre company performing Wait’s Black Rider. The director of the show told me “You always have to play a Tom Waits song like a glass of beer that’s toppling over.” That quote stuck to me, isn’t it accurate?
Waits and his Black Rider was one of the first things I thought of, when I listened to Billy Momo’s “We Need Another Shovel”, which was submitted to Music to Conquer Mountains. Billy Momo is a Swedish band of seven hailing from Stockholm. They combine folksy elements and swanky arrangements to create the bluesy, dissonant sound Waits is known for.
Lyrically they stray from his line of songwriting. While Waits lyrics have a way of working like prose, telling short stories, Billy Momo’s “We Need Another Shovel” is more of a call to action. They describe a situation: Where they are, where they want to go, what they want to accomplish and they’re calling upon us to join their cause and - in their words describing the song - conquer the world.
You can learn more about Billy Momo here:
About the curator - Julia Maehner
Julia knows two main passions: Music and writing. From an early age she has been making music after a fashion. When she was 13, she sat herself down and decided: “I will be a music journalist. Because I love music and writing.” After a brief intermezzo in New York City working for the music boutique agency Girlie Action as a digital marketer, she moved back to Germany. This experience helped her build her know-how for her content marketing client, the business intelligence software CoffeeCup. She still writes for several German music and tech magazines and is working on launching her own blog, amps on ears.
Find out more about Julia and her projects:
- juliamaehner.com
- ampsonears.com (coming soon!)
- coffeecupapp.com