ON THE RISE
ORLANDO, Fla. — Everyone needs affirmation and that’s what Giles offers in his new single, ‘Alive’ which debuted on the Digital Radio Tracker Global Top 200 Airplay chart at No 116 on April 9.
A fast song that sends a message of hope and worthiness to everyone who listens, Giles released three versions on YouTube last month — including a visualizer version and a version that shows the lyrics. But to get a true measure of the artist’s talent, one really needs to listen to the unplugged version.
Recorded on a simple Canon camera, Giles plays the beat on the piano and sings the song without the fancy studio and digital enhancements that you see in the video or streaming version of the song. It leaves no doubt regarding Giles’ talent and the heart with which he spreads his message of encouragement and empowerment.
“That was my goal to let people know that I really do have some competence musically and that it’s not a bunch of studio tricks,” Giles said. “I wanted to showcase not only my musicianship and my ability to produce on a high level, but also my ability to rap on a high level and to sing on a high level and do the things that make me feel unique as an artist. I wanted to overdose on that a little bit, just really show the world what I had to offer. I didn't know at the time that this was going to be the single that I came out with, but I knew it was a possibility.”
Producer, singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, rapper, audio engineer, arranger, and composer; Giles, formerly known as Vthov, has worked as pianist and lead musician on “What Does Freedom Mean” off the Soundtrack to the Oscar winning major motion picture "Twelve Years a Slave.” Giles has also worked as the principal arranger for Cody ChesnuTT's critically acclaimed sophomore album "Landing on 100.”
Giles said his previous stage name came from the nickname his friends gave him in school combining his first name, Alvin, with Beethoven, to come up with Vinthoven, then the shortened version Vthov.
When he decided to reboot his entertainment career, Giles decided to reboot completely and go with his surname instead of returning to that previous stage name. Now he just has to deal with people figuring out whether to pronounce his name with the hard “G” or the correct way with the soft “G,” like “Jiles.”
“I decided to rebrand and ‘Vthov’ was so hard for people to say and even if they heard it they couldn’t spell it, so it wasn’t easy to find my music just from hearing people talk about it,” Giles said. “So I did what any reasonable person would do and switched my name from one thing that was difficult to pronounce to something else that was difficult to pronounce. Now I’m dealing with the ramifications of that, but that is actually my surname so I’m a little less flexible.”
Now Giles is setting off with new music, including “Alive,” which was released in March, and another single coming out soon called “Grinders and Hustlers.”
Giles said when he plays “Alive” before a live audience, it’s fun to watch the awe on people’s faces when he plays with just a bassist and drummer and himself on the piano.
“This is my first time putting out music in a while so some people who are familiar of my artistry as a live performer have the sense of me covering other people’s music,” Giles said. “But they weren’t really familiar with what I could do as a song-writer. Some people who have never heard the song in its recorded form, their first interaction with the song is hearing me replicate it live without all the production elements. Just me playing the piano, sometimes with a drummer, and for them to have that response lets me know that irrespective of the production value, it’s a good song. It’s a strong, well-written song, and that’s all you could ever ask for as a song-writer.”
Giles said “Grinders and Hustlers” is another song with a message, honoring those who go out and work hard at whatever they do, whether they’re college students, contractors, or they work in a board room.
“I wanted those people to feel that their hard work is valued as well and it’s something they should be proud of,” he said. “And it’s something I’m proud of watching them excel in those areas. That’s kind of a twist on it, I’m saying something that’s been said before about acknowledging people who grind and people who hustle but I’m doing it through a different lens.”
Giles said he plans to continue performing and promoting and he may put these two singles with other music he’s preparing into an album soon.
Follow Giles on all social media and streaming platforms:
Website: https://gilesmusic.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Official_Giles
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/OfficialGilesMusic
Instagram: http://instagram.com/officialgilesmusic/
Tik Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@officialgilesmusic
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/OfficialGilesMusic
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/68TzkIrPgDqHPko5ZHvxqV
ON THE RISE
As Belle & Sebastian share their buoyant 2026 Scotland World Cup anthem ‘It Only Takes One Lion’, frontman Stuart Murdoch has spoken to NME about capturing the feeling back home and his hopes for the team since childhood.
Released today (Tuesday June 2), the Scottish indie heroes’ bid for their nation’s tournament anthem was written after the team’s surprise 4-2 qualifying win against Denmark.
“I felt like we were watching history in the moment, like the hand of God from the old National Lottery adverts was pointing at us,” Murdoch told NME about that game-changing victory. “It was meant to be. Scotland aren’t a terrific team and Denmark are better, but it just felt that day that Scotland were destined to win. Three out of the four goals were things of beauty.”
Produced by and co-written with Pete Ferguson and premiered at the band’s recent London Royal Albert Hall show as part of the anniversary tour for their classic first two albums ‘Tigermilk’ and ‘If You’re Feeling Sinister’, the soaring song is intrinsically Belle & Sebastian as it morphs from a hymn to a an orchestral disco jam as Murdoch sings of a nation’s hopes and his own boyhood dreams.
NME spoke to Murdoch from the band’s North American tour, where we found him in a graveyard in Texas. “I was just looking for a park because Austin is a pretty scary place downtown now, so I’ve ended up in the Texas Cemetery,” he shared via Zoom.
Was there anyone famous buried there?
“I was looking around and I found the founder of Austin City Limits, which is pretty cool as that’s where we’re playing tonight. I’m looking at one now and it just says, ‘Martin: he loved the law’. Then underneath it says, ‘Billie Louise: she loved the lawyer’.”
We joke that there’s the opening to a Belle & Sebastian song if there ever there was one. “It’s great! It’s given me inspiration.”
For now, read the rest of interview with Murdoch below as he tells us about Scotland’s chances, 30 years of hurt, if fans will be singing it at the top of their lungs in Canada, the US and Mexico this summer, and what’s next for the band.
NME: Hello Stuart. Here we are with ‘It Only Takes One Lion’ Who needs three?
Stuart Murdoch: “Who needs three? Good question. I wouldn’t know!”
What’s the mood been like in Scotland since you qualified?
“It’s funny. I’ve noticed this everywhere: with the World Cup there’s a mixture of cynicism and anticipation. When the actual tournament starts, everyone will get excited about it. Because of FIFA, the peace prize, the ticket prices, people seem quite down about it. I found that in Mexico. They were quite fed up with the general hype about it. I’m in the States just now and you shouldn’t believe all the hype: people are people. The States are just as ‘great’ as ever. We love coming here, we love the cities. The general sense of North American optimism will make for a good tournament.”
“With Scotland though, people will definitely be excited about it. You have to understand, it’s been 30 years since Scotland qualified so I think everybody and their dog has written a song for the team.”
How do you meet the challenge of penning a World Cup anthem, when there have been so many legendary bangers and absolutely shite duds?
“I never planned it. I woke up with a tune in my head and a feeling. That’s the way it should always be for songs. I couldn’t control myself and it was quite straight-forward. I wrote this initial bit about how I felt about the current World Cup team and the qualifying game. It was more introspective.
“When it starts off with, ‘The days are dark and long…’, it’s just my general feeling about football. I’ve been going to see my own team quite a lot recently. It’s my little anthem for how I feel about football and following Scotland for the last 50 years, just the ups and downs. It’s quite a heartfelt thing. When I was eight or nine, the Scottish team meant so much to me, it the thing I was most invested in. There’s a line in there about how I used to memorise the whole squad before ‘78 and 82.”
Tell us about lyric: “This is Scotland, where everyone knows you start with nothing… where you can join an army for peace”…
“My wife made the video for it and she said, ‘I’m not sure I like that line about everyone starting with nothing’. Our first game is against Haiti and they really have nothing. Their country is pretty poor and they’re going through hard times. It was almost a throwaway line and I’m not sure what I meant by it, but in a footballing sense every game starts with nothing. Even if it’s against Brazil, you’ve always got a chance!
“The army refers to The Tartan Army, which has really been quite a remarkable institution for the past 30 years. We changed from drunken buffoons that used to wreck things to this excellent supporting brigade.”
It’s not your standard football sing-along. Can you see it being sung in the terraces?
“I’m not sure, I didn’t cynically design it for that. Many people have said to me in the past, ‘None of your songs have a chorus, you need to write one’. ‘This is Scotland’ is a chorus! They things need to happen organically. I’m sure the fans will still be singing ‘Yes sir, I can boogie’ for years to come.”
What do you actually think of Scotland’s chances right now?
“With the last Euros, they maybe got stage fright or didn’t have that tournament experience. I think Andy Robertson [captain] will be telling them, ‘We really need to produce our best stuff’. If they do and we see them actually playing football, then I don’t really care about the results that much. I just want to see Scotland exceeding our expectations of them. That Denmark game was so crazy that everything after just feels like a bonus.”
If miracles do happen and Scotland make it to the final, how will you celebrate? A free gig in Glasgow?
“Of course, yes! Free everything. If we even got close, I think the whole country would shut down for a year and the GDP would drop. We’d go into a massive recession but no one would care.
“We were playing a gig in Mexico City and I told the crowd, ‘It’s you and us, Mexico and Scotland in the final’. Mexico have never really got close either. I told them it would be five goals a piece, even after everyone takes a penalty and we have to share the trophy. I would settle for that.”
You released two albums in quick succession with 2022’s ‘A Bit of Previous’, 2023’s ‘Late Developers’ and then your debut novel Nobody’s Empire in 2024. You’ve been busy! Is there any progress on new material?
“We went through a period where we recorded a lot and we said, ‘Let’s not record for a while and give ourselves a couple of cycles off’. We’re doing these 30th anniversary shows so we’re just going to lean on the back catalogue and cruise for a while. We’re doing a year on and a year off so everyone can focus on different things.
We’re not looking at new Belles stuff for a while. I’m meant to be developing Nobody’s Empire into a film, so that’s my next task. It’s a long way off from being made but I’m going to write the script for that.”
Scotland’s first World Cup tournament match is against Haiti on Sunday June 14, before they go on to play Morocco on Friday June 19 and Brazil on Wednesday June 24.
The band’s ‘Tigermilk’ and ‘If You’re Feeling Sinister’ anniversary tour continues throughout the summer, performing the iconic albums in full during across the UK, Europe, North America, Mexico, Australia, Singapore and Japan. Visit here for tickets and more information.
