DIY, December 2015 / January 2016

+

readers poll results with

Years&years + foals set music free free / issue 47 / dec 2015 / jan 2016 diymag.com

and the

CLASS OF 2016

The Japane se Hou se Ale ssia Car a yak The Magic Gang the big moon creeper & more 1

Authentic, British, sub-culture inspired

2

diymag.com

authentic british

8 Berwick Street Soho London W1F 0PH online underground-england.co.uk/ 3

4 diymag.com

D E C 2 0 1 5 / J A N 2 0 1 6

GOOD VS EVIL

WHAT’S ON THE DIY TEAM’S R ADAR?

STEPHEN ACKROYD Founding Editor GOOD Star Wars. Star Wars.

Star Wars. Star Wars. Star Wars. Star Wars.

EVIL What if it isn’t very good? .............................

Emma Swann Founding Editor GOOD I went to Berlin for the first time and it was THE BEST. EVIL Does it even need to be said? ..............................

Sarah Jamieson Deputy Editor GOOD Thinking back through the past twelve months of music, there really have been some bloody wonderful albums.

EVIL Time seems to have really run away from us all this year. Where did, like, June go?! ..............................

Victoria Sinden Contributing Editor GOOD Little Mix Fridays.

EVIL ‘Love Me Like You

(J-Vibe Reggae Remix)’ ..............................

Louise Mason Art Director GOOD All the photographers who shot the Class of 2016 pictures - they are amazing.

EVIL I can’t unsee some of the things bands did with that rope. ..............................

El hunt Associate Editor GOOD Rihanna’s finally got a move on. Looks like I’ll have to be more original with my evils now ‘ANTI’ is ‘a thing’.

EVIL I tipped a perfectly good flat white all over The Big Moon. Sorry, The Big Moon. .............................. tom connick Online Editor GOOD Hopping on the dodgems with Yannis at Dreamland in Margate.

Smashed him good.

EVIL Rediscovering Jägerbombs, and the subsequent hangovers.

E D I TO R ’ S L E T T E R Twelve months back, we were tipping Years & Years, Hinds (FKA Deers), Tobias Jesso Jr and Jack Garratt for greatness as part of our Class of 2015. You can’t predict everything (like #piggate, for instance), but we’re giving it a go. There’s an exciting bunch of new acts heading up this year’s Class Of. Cover star Rat Boy is racing ahead like nobody’s business, and he’s joined by fellow stars-in-waiting The Magic Gang, Alessia Cara, The Big Moon, The Japanese House, Yak and others. They’re a bright, mostly bonkers bunch of acts, and they’re all intent on taking over.

Also in this issue - the results of our Readers Poll 2015 (surprise: DIY readers are into this band called Wolf Alice!).

Turns out you lot know a thing or two about the year’s best albums, songs and sauciest warblers.

Jamie Milton, Editor GOOD The Class of 2016 is more blue than Lee Ryan joining the Blue Man Group.

EVIL I didn’t win Indie Dreamboat of the Year in the Readers Poll.

LISTENING POST What’s on the DIY stereo this month?

Animal Collective Painting With

First played in Baltimore-Washington airport, Animal Collective take flight with their bouncy, berserk new album.

Milk teeth - Vile Child

Ace, swirling grungy punk is the order of this first full length from the Stroud nutters.

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C O N T E N T S

Founding Editors Stephen Ackroyd, Emma Swann

NEWS 8 B I F F Y C LY R O 1 4 SANTIGOLD 1 7 P O P S TAR P O S T BAG 1 8 S TA N D F O R S O M E T H I N G T O U R 2 0 H AV E YO U H E A R D 2 1 D I Y H A L L O F FA M E

CLASS OF 2016 2 4 R AT B OY 3 0 F O R M AT I O N 3 2 ALESSIA CARA 3 6 YA K 3 8 T H E J A PA N E S E HOUSE 4 0 PA R T Y B A B Y 42 CREEPER 4 4 THE MAGIC GANG 4 6 NAO 4 8 VA N T 5 0 BL ACK HONEY 5 2 OSCAR 5 6 I N H E AV E N 5 7 THE BIG MOON

40

READERS POLL WINNERS 6 0 WOLF ALICE 6 4 YEARS & YEARS 6 8 FOALS

68 6

diymag.com

64

REVIEWS 72 ALBUMS 78 LIVE

Editor Jamie Milton Deputy Editor Sarah Jamieson Contributing Editor Victoria Sinden Associate Editor El Hunt Online Editor Tom Connick Art Direction & Design Louise Mason Marketing & Events Jack Clothier, Rhi Lee Contributors Andy Backhouse, Anastasia Connor, Lucas Fothergill, Joe Goggins, Matt Hogg, Will Richards, Ali Shutler, Emma Snook, Alex Taylor Photographers Jonathan Dadds, Carolina Faruolo, Sarah Louise-Bennett, Mike Massaro, Alexander Matukhno, Matt Richardson, Corey Rid, Phil Smithies, Yimmy Yayo For DIY editorial info@diymag.com For DIY sales rupert@sonicdigital.co.uk lawrence@sonicdigital. co.uk tel: +44 (0)20 3632 3456 For DIY stockist enquiries stockists@diymag.com DIY is published by Sonic Media Group. All material copyright (c). All rights reserved. This publication may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form, in whole or in part, without the express written permission of DIY. 25p where sold.

Disclaimer: While every effort is made to ensure the information in this magazine is correct, changes can occur which affect the accuracy of copy, for which Sonic Media Group holds no responsibility. The opinions of the contributors do not necessarily bear a relation to those of DIY or its staff and we disclaim liability for those impressions. Distributed nationally.

Cover photo: Mike Massaro

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w h at’s goi n g o n wit h...

“i want to make a record that sounds like deafheaven meets tears for fears meets death grips.” - simon neil

news 8 diymag.com

It’s been almost three years since Biffy Clyro shifted the musical landscape with their huge double-album ‘Opposites’. Now that their epic trilogy has drawn to a close and they’re working on its followup, they’re aiming for something wildly different. Words: Sarah Jamieson.

biffy clyro “W

e’re basically trying to rewire Biffy Clyro on this record.” Simon Neil is sat on the other side of the world, in what he describes as “the gorgeous sunshine” of Los Angeles. The Scottish trio are currently in the middle of their first set of recording sessions at Eldorado Recording Studios in Burbank, where they’re working with producer Rich Costey, and – in his own words – they’re “in the process of making potentially the best Biffy album you’ve ever heard.”

That’s a grand statement after releasing an album as huge as ‘Opposites’. After all, not many bands would dare to release such an opus as their 2013 double-album, let alone start throwing about statements like that already. “We’ve got to believe that!” Neil chuckles. “If we didn’t believe it was the best one, then we probably shouldn’t waste our time; there are plenty of great bands out there making music and I want to make sure we’re hopefully one of the best and try to remain that way.”

GET YOUR FACTS STRAIGHT Title: TBC Where: Eldorado Studios, Burbank, CA Due: 2016 Other deets: After working with producer GGGarth Richardson for their previous three records, the band have changed things up and recruited Rich Costey for the team.

With their sixth album, they proved themselves to be exactly that. The final record to come from their loosely-tied trilogy – they happily admit that they tend to create in threes – marked a host of massive landmarks for the band: from earning another Number One record, to headlining Reading

& Leeds Festival, there’s no denying that they became one of rock’s finest. Understandably then, the pressure finally began to creep in.

“It’s probably the first time that I’ve felt pressure on a record,” Simon admits. “For previous albums I’ve just been able to avoid the pressure,” he says.

“For the first time, because there were quite a few landmark things for us on that record, it felt like, ‘Shit, people care about what we do now!’ I know that sounds like a very naive point of view, but the first time I sat down, and those first few songs I wrote, I just didn’t think they were that good. That was the very first time I was judging the songs I was writing off what we’ve previously done.

“The start of this year was an odd headspace for me,” he goes on. “I felt like I should’ve been writing, and I didn’t know whether to force myself through the songs so that I could get to where we wanted to be, or to stop writing for a bit. What I ended up doing was keep writing. After our third Biffy album, I went away and made a couple of records with Marmaduke Duke; what I needed this time was to do almost exactly the same. I made a record by myself called ‘ZZC’ - that’ll hopefully come out next year - but I needed to take myself out of the Biffy headspace. I needed to put my 9

w h a t’s goi n g o n w it h... guitar down and make some music that didn’t matter, that could be shit!

As soon as I did that, the Biffy songs that I was almost battling against in my mind came alive and I ended up writing some of the best songs that I think I’ve potentially ever written.”

Now also marks the time for a shift in sound: after the stadium-ready grandiosity of their previous three full-lengths, this time, they’re fucking with the rules. “I don’t think we could make anything as epic or as cinematic as the last three records,” he readily admits, nodding back to ‘Puzzle’, ‘Only Revolutions’ and their more recent record, “and I don’t want to try that.”

The name of the game now is to strip things back and be rawer. “With these songs, there are some really, really aggressive ones. Some have grooves to them for the first very time; for the first time, the songs have come from the rhythms more.

“I truly believe that we’re doing something on this record that we haven’t ever tried to do before. We’re really trying to fuck with the sound of what we do, and we’re not trying to do it as a live band in a room. My main aim of this record is that I want to make a record that sounds like Deafheaven meets Tears for Fears meets Death Grips. I don’t know if we’ll get anywhere near it, but that’s the three touchstones of songwriting and sonic architecture that I want us to try and go for.” DIY

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eagulls

W

orking in a “cold, vermininfested brick box” doesn’t sound too great, but – as Eagulls’ George Mitchell and Mark Goldsworthy reveal – it was just part of creating the follow-up to 2014’s self-titled debut.

“We put a lot of pressure on ourselves leading up to writing,” says Mark.

“Writing isn’t an easy process while touring. There were things we definitely wanted to improve on from the first album.”

“My headspace was somewhat confused really,” continues George, “but, as always, a creatively positive

confusion was occurring. Still, while searching for answers I was very focused on the future progression of the band. I’m not going to lie, at times the process became pretty gruelling, practising new material over and over in a cold, vermin-infested brick box with no daylight, but we came out in the end with good new material.”

“Our first album’s foundations set out to be speedy and visceral sounding from the gate to the finish and it worked for us at that time,” he adds. “But we wanted to show more dynamics in this album, and focus on expressing our energy in different ways.”

poliça

P

roving that things can change massively in the space of just a few years, Polica are returning with ‘United Crushers’, an album that - in the words of Channy Leaneagh - was born in “different, transformative head spaces.” Blimey.

“The very first song I wrote was ‘Berlin’,” offers Channy, “just home from tour, sleeping at my parents with my five year old daughter. By the time I was finished writing the record, I was living in my own place, settled down as fuck after touring non-stop for two years and also with a baby inside of me...

“I saw this record as my last chance,” she continues. “I’m not saying it actually is, but that’s where my head was at. I

wanted it to have a ‘final paper’ feel. I wanted it to be our best work, because who knows what happens next? I wanted to lay myself bare vocally, process vocals in different ways and play around - because why not? Write lyrics about something besides myself and re-work everything over and over until it was exactly as I wanted.

“I made a point to first start outside myself when forming the stories for each song,” she explains, on the album’s lyrical content. “They always bring a handful of my own experiences and angles, but I wanted to begin by looking out first this time. Most of the lyrics are observations of the lives going on around me.”

2016

New albums from…

BLAENAVON

HIPPO CAMPUS

COSMO SHELDRAKE

‘A mammoth slice of stadium-sized indie rock’

‘They’re shining brighter than ever before’

‘Stupidly talented multiinstrumentalist’

DIY

DIY

DIY

More to be announced soon Check www.transgressive.co.uk for news and announcements 11

animal collective

A

nimal Collective’s gigantic output over the last 16 years has one unifying quality - it’s impossible to play dot-to-dot with. Few bands are as consistently dedicated to variation, and with each record, their destination flies several trillion miles across space. Predictably, with new album ‘Painting With’, they teleport yet again, into another entirely different dreamscape. It’s a world filled with paddling pools, dinosaurs, cubist paintings, and a new focus on immediacy, apparently.

“There was this idea of wanting to do something with short songs, with a homogenous energy to the record,” Noah Lennox, aka Panda Bear, tells us.

“We talked a lot about the first Ramones record - not that we expected the music to sound like that,” he adds, “but we wanted to do something where the first song revs up the engine, and it kind of just cruises after that. We wanted to do something that blasted away the whole time.”

For the first time, Animal Collective chose not to road-test material from this new record on the stage before recording. They assembled ‘Painting With’ out of individual demos they each worked on alone, and back in January this year, they got together in Asheville, North Carolina to thrash out

roughly how the record would work.

A few months later, Noah, Brian, and bandmate Dave Portner (Josh Dibb, or Deakin, couldn’t take part) met up again in Hollywood’s EastWest studio.

Projecting dinosaur movies onto the walls, and for whatever reason, setting up a small paddling pool, Animal Collective went all Changing Rooms on the place. They made it feel like home.

“We made it feel like something...” scoffs Noah. “Like Dave’s house,” adds Brian, grinning at Avey Tare. “We had a kiddy pool in there. I don’t even think a toddler could fit in one. We used the rim of it [on ‘Painting With’].”

“It became about improvising with what was around the room, basically,” says Dave, “which goes back to the old school way of us doing things; just getting plates, knives and forks, and using what we have in our apartment.”

“It’s like putting butter, and garlic, and onion together, and what happens when it all congeals,” reflects Noah.

“I feel like our music in general is very soupy,” Dave ponders. “It feels less soupy on this record, than past records,” Noah adds, “it’s safe to say.” The three of them agree with a nod. “Yep. Less soupy.” DIY

w h a t’s goi n g o n w it h...

the killers

T

he Killers’ frontman Brandon Flowers has revealed that a new album is “in the early stages”. Although it’s far too soon in proceedings to give an exact date, Flowers says that “in a perfect world I think the end of 2016 maybe, there’ll be something.”

Speaking ahead of his recent solo show in London, the frontman revealed to NME that “If the fires are burning in the band then there will be a Killers record.

We’re writing - we’re in the early stages.

“We never really set out to do anything, you just sort of wait for lightning to strike. That’s the best way, but it’s elusive, ol’ lightning. It’s a son of a bitch, you never know when it’s gonna happen!”

warpaint

F GET YOUR FACTS STRAIGHT Title: ‘Painting With’ Where: EastWest Studios, Hollywood Songs: ‘Bagels in Kiev,’ ‘FloriDada,‘ ‘The Burglars,‘ ‘Recycling’ Due: 19th February Other deets: John Cale - who is a big fan of the band wrote a drone part for the album.

Photo: Mike Massaro 12 diymag.com

rom releasing singles as and when they fancy, to working on their own solo output, 2015 has still been a busy year for Warpaint, but as the band’s Jenny Lee Lindberg explains, working on their one-off demos has opened up the possibilities for the band’s third record.

“We’ve got so many demos we’ve written over the years,” she reveals, “and oftentimes we like our demos more than we like the albums, just because we see over-analysing and headiness on the finished product.

When we listen to demos, it’s like, oh, we were so free and having fun.

“That’s our plan for the third record, to just go in there and have fun, and not get too crazy. We’re going to have a good time.” And as for when we might hear the follow-up to 2014’s ‘Warpaint’...

“We’re working on it now; it’s definitely going to come out next year. I don’t know exactly when.”

PLUS GUESTS

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w h a t’s goi n g o n w it h...

jaws Now the Birmingham trio have completed work on the follow-up to ‘Be Slowly’, Connor Schofield offers up a few details.

Y

ou’ve just wrapped up work on your second album - what did you want to explore with this record?

We felt it was important to fully embrace the vibe of the songs with the new stuff, there was no point where we tried to write anything in a particular style or genre on purpose.

I think we still sound like JAWS but if you’ve seen us live, we’ve always been a bit more raw and I think you can hear that in the new stuff.

A lot of the first record we learnt to play together as we recorded it, whereas with this album we made sure we could play all of the songs to the best of our ability before we even thought about recording, and that’s why I think this really is the best stuff we’ve ever written.

What was the recording process like?

Recording was crazy: we went to Vale Studios with an incredible engineer called Dan Austin and a great producer called Gethin Pearson.

We had something silly like 12 days to do 12 songs so we were getting up at 9am and going to bed at 3am every day. It was intense but we really pushed it to make sure we made these songs sound as good as they deserve to.

We started a new track every day - the goal being you don’t go to bed until the track is finished. I remember recording vocals at 1am like, ‘What have I got myself into...’

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santigold

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ith a magnificent gingham outfit modelled on a fried breakfast, and an urge to throw a welcome back party - Santigold made her return to the UK earlier this year at Latitude. Behind the scenes, the Philadelphian has been quietly working on ’99¢’, the follow-up to 2012’s ‘Master of My Make-Believe’. In one loud, brash, typically larger than life statement, she returned with lead single ‘Can’t Get Enough of Myself’. “Ain’t a gambler but honey I’d put money on myself,” she announces over tootling flutes, and squelching, bouncy castle basslines.

It’s verging on cocksure, if not entirely straight faced.

“I think it’s a little bit sarcastic,” laughs Santi. “It’s silly.

You can take it two ways; I can’t get enough of myself, I’m still confident. Or, you can take it as a comment on this era where everyone is constantly selling themselves,” she expands. “It’s a very narcissistic time.”

In approaching ’99¢’ Santigold took a deliberate step outside her comfort zone. Though familiar faces like John Hill and TV on the Radio’s Dave Sitek appear on the production roster, she enlisted a whole rabble of new names. Vampire Weekend’s Rostam Batmanglij, Justin Raisen, and Patrik Berger - among others - appear in the production credits. Though they fit together as logically as Wotsits and strawberry jelly on paper, “we just found a real common ground really easy,” she says.

“Throughout the record I’m all over the place stylistically,” she adds, “which is pretty normal for me. It’s what I enjoy the most, that I’m really happy moving stuff around, and it can all find its home on the same record.”

What’s the best thing you’ve ever bought for ’99¢,’ Santigold?

There are whole lot of things I recently got for 99¢!

They’re all in conjunction with stuff I’m doing for this record - I bought a bunch of products for the cover. They’re not my favourites, though. When we were shooting a video recently for ‘Chasing Shadows,’ in the store they had those toy machines.

They had these Beavis and Butthead balls. I got one for 99¢, and I was so excited about it.

cate le bon Despite having spent the past few months working on latest project DRINKS – her collaboration with White Fence’s Tim Presley – Cate Le Bon has been pulling double-duty: she’s already been recording the follow-up to her 2013 full-length ‘Mug Museum’.

“They kind of led into each other,” Cate explains. “It sounds like it would be awful, but actually I think every project gives the next project a new lease of life.”

basement Having returned from their two-year hiatus late last year, Basement are back with their newest full-length ‘Promise Everything’.

“The writing was really tough,” Basement’s vocalist Andrew Fisher admits. “With everyone being in full time work, there was little free time to write and zero time to practice.

“Instead, we would send each other ideas via email or voice notes and then those living in the UK” - the band are spread across two continents - “would get together and work on them. We made it work but I don’t think any of us wants to write a record like that again!”

letlive.. letlive. have never been a band afraid of ambition and with their fourth album, that’s not about to change.

In fact, it’s “easily the best” they’ve ever made. Words: Ali Shutler.

“T

his shit wasn’t easy,” begins Jason Aalon Butler on letlive.’s now completed fourth album. The band, officially a four-piece after the departure of Jean Nascimento, are hoping to release some new music early 2016, with the album out “sooner, rather than later.” The struggles in getting to this point go beyond their line-up changes though.

“We had so much shit written and so many ideas. At the same time putting it together and making it work between everyone’s artistic hunger took a while,” explains Jason. “That abounding creativity was a little stifling, sometimes because we all had different ideas.

Putting it together as a unit may have been the most difficult part.

“My whole life I’ve enjoyed so many different things about so many different types of music that, if anything, I’ve been overwhelmed by all the ideas I’ve wanted to incorporate. Us as a band, we all share so many different interests. I think that it’s always inevitable, even if it does create friction.”

“I’m not going to front, we butted heads and we argued. We couldn’t get out of each other’s way when we were trying to write this record because we had so many ideas. I’ll admit I had a very strong vision. There comes a point where you have to realise that in order to move forward, you need to get out of our own way. We had to really listen to what the songs wanted. We did and it worked.”

“I definitely went in with some things to say. We’re going to come out with even more to say,” he says of the album’s lyrical direction. Admitting he felt “the weight of societal affairs,” the record looks at the injustices that are happening locally in America and around the world. “We’re trying to spark something. We’re trying to advance the conversation really.”

Album four is “really good,” he enthuses. “If anyone has observed my interview history, when I discuss an album I’ll say ‘it’s an evolution’ or ‘it makes sense’ but I made a point to not say ‘it’s the best.’ I try not to overuse that expression - that sentiment towards the music but this is easily the best we’ve ever done.”

1515

NEWS

IN BRIEF FIRST IN THE FIELD

HELLO? IT’S 2016...

What better way to kick start the new year than by shaking off those cobwebs and meeting your new favourite bands?

E

veryone knows the drill by now.

January is all about recovering from the craziness of Christmas. That, however, doesn’t equal hibernation: DIY is very excited to announce the full lineup for Hello 2016 - four free new music nights taking place at London’s The Old Blue Last.

On every Tuesday of this coming January, we’ll bring you the best bands for the year ahead.

First up, the opening week (5th January) will

SPOTTED

WHERE’S WALLY? (And the rest of Foals)

We might have seen other indie ‘slebs in the wild this month (we’re looking at you, Higgy from Swim Deep in Westfield Stratford) but one band have stolen the show. For one month only it’s FOALSWATCH. Where’s Dave Attenborough when you need him?

• Yannis kicking a bag, in the street, with a lot of frustration but no real purpose.

• Yannis riding the bumper cars at Dreamland Margate (and being shunned by DIY’s own Art Director, as you can see).

• Walter, in the pub with Jimmy before their Cardiff show. What went down? An Estrella and a Guinness.

• Yannis eating a plant backstage at Reading Festival. No, it wasn’t this month. Yes, it’s still funny.

16 diymag.com

play hosts to Norwegian punks Slutface and Brighton bunch Abattoir Blues. Following that, 12th January belongs to Diet Cig, Bruising (pictured), Willie J Healey and Trudy.

In-your-face pop newcomer Girli is confirmed to play on 19th January. She’ll be joined by Beach Baby, Yonaka and very special guests.

Then, to round things off, there’s another secret guest that we can’t announce just yet for 26th January. They’ll be joined by Pumarosa, Cloud Castle Lake and buzzy bunch Salen.

The first names have been announced for Field Day London, taking place 11th and 12th June 2016.

PJ Harvey leads the first waves of names, alongside the likes of John Grant, Beach House, Deerhunter, Floating Points, Skepta and Youth Lagoon.

X X-T R A B I G

Jamie xx has announced two of his biggest headline shows to date, including a massive night at London’s Alexandra Palace. He’ll also be playing at Paris’ Le Zenith on 24th February, before headlining the huge London venue two days later, on 26th February.

I T ’ S G R E AT E S C A P I N G

The first few details have been announced for next year’s edition of The Great Escape. 2016’s event has already been confirmed to take place from 19th to 21st May, but now it’s been confirmed that brilliant duo Oh Wonder will be playing a spotlight show, along with Shura and Mura Masa.

TOUR OF THE Y E A R (S & Y E A R S)

Danish electro-pop superstar-in-waiting MØ has been announced as support for Years & Years’ massive UK tour in 2016. She’ll join the trio on their nine-date March/ April run, which will culminate at Wembley Arena. Check out the full dates at diymag.com.

Popstar Postbag Eoin, drenge

We know what you’re like, dear readers. We know you’re just as nosy as we are when it comes to our favourite pop stars: that’s why we’re putting the power back into your hands. Every month, we’re going to ask you to pull out your best questions and aim them at those unsuspecting artists. You don’t even need to pay for postage! This month, Drenge’s Eoin Loveless is poised with the Qs. was very wide of the mark - I think the writer thought all bands from Sheffield sound the same.

How did you boys enjoy Kanye at Glasto? @suurfgoth I think it was one of the best performances I’ve seen this year alongside Nicki Minaj and SleaterKinney. Other people don’t seem so hot on it, but I don’t care what other people think.

NEXT MONTH: CHVRCHES Want to send a question to DIY’s Popstar Postbag? Tweet us at @diymagazine with the hashtag #postbag, or drop us an email at popstarpostbag@diymag.com. Easy!

What’s your signal chain and amp setup like for both bass and guitar? @ CharlieFossick I’m very privileged to have a small basket of puppies at my feet so my signal goes through Jasper, Sidney and Bouncer Jr. Rob plugs his bass straight into a goldfish bowl (no tuna) but we have to keep it out of view incase anyone from animal standards gets in touch.

Why are you moody all the time?

Thomas, via email It’s just the way my face falls.

What was the best show of your tour with Wolf Alice and Made Violent? @ jelerton_ Without a doubt, San Francisco - all the bands onstage for an emotional cava-induced singalong to ‘Moaning Lisa Smile’.

Blur or Oasis? @__spearmint__ Or Pulp?

photo: emma swann

What’s the worst advice you’ve ever been given? @alanawolfy I’ve taken plenty of weird advice to help “cure” my eczema. When I was younger I used to wrap myself up in bandages before bed. Did that for two years. No results.

Which (well known) film character is each member like and why? @moaninglisa Rob is Han Solo. Rory is Chewie. I’m probably C3P0 or Jar Jar Binks.

If you could only listen to one song for the rest of your life which one would it be? @amriebin Channel 4 news theme or ABBA’s ‘The Winner Takes It All’.

Did you ever explain the thinking behind “those” dresses at Reading 2014? They should be a staple for live shows. @jushereforbands What dresses?

What’s the worst band you’ve been compared to? @RossBence Not the worst by any means but a comparison to The Human League

Looks like Eoin just heard about #piggate. 17

G N I H T E M O S R O F STAND TOUR 2015 E AN D TH E LO NE LY TH E BR AV UE TO CAUS E W YT CH ES CO NT IN UK AS PA RT OF E TH SS CH AO S AC RO W IT H DI Y. UR TO AL NU AN DM ’S

Lonely The Brave + Onl

y Rivals, The Limelight,

Belfast

Photo: Emma Swann

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e’s wrenching as ever, ther onight’s openers n a real sense of appreciatio R51 may be the d. There crow the from first band on d also happens to be a goo stage, but they ’re t Mark aris guit of nk chu all, bold from the off. After g Trot ter’s family watchin there aren’t many young this evening, who are ld wou who ds ban rock finally able to see the take on the challenge of group play live on their r thei but k, Björ g erin cov home soil. ves pro d’ Dea y ‘Pla on t twis The band are on fine to id afra not ’re they that in form. Fresh from work and ries nda bou the d blen the studio where they ’re k. mar own r thei e mak currently laying down Nex t, Dublin quartet the follow-up to ‘The just ve pro ls Riva y Onl Day ’s War ’, tonight ’s set an such ’re they why boasts a few gems of new in ct spe pro ing rest r inte material in amongst thei k pun pop ern mod the of cathartic on ecti coll world. Full of melody anthems. It’s tracks like and grandeur but still ‘Backroads’, ‘Trick of the nd satisfyingly rough arou Light’ and closer ‘The the edges, their take on Blue, The Green’ – the end the typically All-American of which Trot ter heads genre is both intriguing straight into the crowd a and full of depth. With ly for - however, that real ind solid debut album beh ignite a passion within them and per formances the crowd, offering up like this evening, it’s those lump-in-your-throat no real wonder they ’ve moments that they ’ve ing found themselves play become so renowned alongside such great for. Last year, the band bands recently. may have suppor ted on Tonight, however, the the Dr. Mar tens Stand to audience are really here For Something Tour, but see one band: Lonely The now, having witnessed Brave. Playing their first their grow th over the last show in Nor thern Ireland twelve months, there’s this evening, it’s both no doubting they ’re intense and celebratory. be more than qualified to While their musical dliners. hea ’s ight ton offerings are as heart-

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E LO NE LY TH E BR AV

E AN D TH E LO NE LY TH E BR AV UE TO CAUS E IN W YT CH ES CO NT E UK AS PA RT OF CH AO S AC RO SS TH AL TO UR .

NU DI Y AN D DM ’S AN

TH E W YT CH ES The Wytches + Demob Happy, The Corporation, Sheffield

After tonight’s headliners cram themselves into Sheffield’s Dr. Martens for an early evening instore, it’s over to Bear Chest to open things up.

Seemingly schooled on the True Detective soundtrack, the local group have more in common with the Deep South than their hometown. A sleazy, intentionally chugged aesthetic defines standout ‘Break You’. Like Royal Blood with a sting in their tail, they bring a deadly edge that’s matched in the rest of the bill.

Demob Happy’s sinister intentions could never be questioned. The four-piece have just released debut LP ‘Dream Soda’, a frenetic and tightly-wound assault on the human psyche. It’s a record all about

losing sanity, and those themes creep into Corporation tonight. The front rows are in a frenzy, and Demob practically have to wrestle off a stage invader, things become so crazed. Closer ‘Succubus’ reaches breaking point, but it’s in the more refined ‘Strange Things’ where their set hits a peak. Frontman Matthew Marcantonio huddles over a bass, and his bandmates seem to be having their own freakout on separate sides of the stage.

Together, they bring the kind of unrelenting force that only comes from a perfectly rehearsed pack.

PALMA VIOLETS

The Wytches share similar traits to Demob.

They bring a new slant to garage rock, designed for intimate venues but equally capable of looming over festival crowds in the thousands.

Kristian Bell barely peers out through a mop of dark hair, but he’s always plotting his next move. He can go from pensive verses to terrified, shrill screams with the flick of a switch.

A year on, material from debut album ‘Annabel Dream Reader’ has developed into a new beast.

‘Grave Dweller’ remains their trump card, and there’s an extra stride in their step compared to the early days. Their defining characteristic is in how they always know how to take it to the next level. Fever pitch simply won’t do they’ll raise the dial without hesitation. It’s an unforgettable night on the tour - the sight of three great bands surging ahead.

Photo: Sarah Louise Bennett

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here’s a buzz around Sheffield long before The Wytches top an all thrills bill at the Corporation, but the Brighton-based group can also be trusted to raise the excitement levels.

Fiendish noise is their game, upping the stakes even more so.

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David Bowie – Blackstar It’s a fool’s game to write off David Bowie. His 25th (!!) studio album, ‘Blackstar’, can’t be taken with a pinch of salt, and given the expansive route it’s taking, Bowie won’t be resting on his laurels. But even for a musician so glued to the art of transformation, there’s a remarkable journey taking place across this ten-minute single. Uptight percussion and religious references define the opening half, but what follows is a bolt of inspiration. A wild story gives way to a new chapter, and as the “blackstar” rises from the ashes of death, Bowie struts into new form. (Jamie Milton) DIIV – Mire (Grant’s Song) “I was blind but now I see, you made a river out of me,” sings Zachary Cole Smith with a more than personal touch, referencing his struggle with addiction. Traditionally sky-reaching guitars instead sink into a bottomless pit, and there are piercing, shrill screams burning in the background. This is the sound of a frontman telling all. ‘Mire…’ feels like a watershed moment, a key point in Cole Smith emerging from the brink with light at the end of the tunnel.

Suddenly, ‘Is The Is Are’ looks like being one of 2016’s early essential records.

(Jamie Milton) Weezer – Do You Wanna Get High?

Eight seconds in, before Rivers Cuomo’s vocals have even kicked in, and ‘Do You Wanna Get High?’ couldn’t be by anyone else. Weezer are at their best when, well, sounding like Weezer, and as this sounds Very Much like Weezer, it’s brilliant. Take the wiry guitars of ‘Pinkerton’, the punkish pop

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sensibilities of ‘The Green Album’ and the claustrophobic melancholy of ‘Maladroit’, pop ‘em in a blender, and it’d probably end up something like this. (Emma Swann) MONEY – I’ll Be The Night Grey and gloomy in its modernity though it may be, there’s almost a timeless hint to MONEY frontman Jamie Lee’s songwriting. ‘I’ll Be The Night’, the second cut from their new album ‘Suicide Songs’ is every bit as pained as that LP title might suggest, Lee’s open-heart reflections on life’s finality served up rawer than ever. But in his declarations of becoming one with the night, there’s a defiance deep within – a suggestion that really, that timelessness could finally feed into making MONEY a band for the ages. (Tom Connick) Foo Fighters – The Neverending Sigh To listen to ‘The Neverending Sigh’ without reading its history feels almost wrong. Released as part of Foo Fighters

EP ‘Saint Cecilia’ – which comes as a thank you to fans for the past two years - the track came accompanied with an epically long note from frontman Dave Grohl. It’s here that the story of the song – which is apparently twenty years old – unfolds. On the surface, it may stand as yet another Foo Fighters staple, but underneath those familiar guitars and growling vocals, it seems to mean so much more. (Sarah Jamieson) Deap Vally – Royal Jelly With their debut album ‘Sistrionix’, Deap Vally made their mark with their thrashing loudness but now they – in presenting the first of their newest material – they seem to have found their stride. Teaming up with Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ Nick Zinner feels inspired, as soon as that hallmark crunch of his production work kicks in. ‘Royal Jelly’ feels darker and more restrained, taught and tight. Glistening with rock and roll shine yet firmly in control, their next step is set to be incredible. (Sarah Jamieson)

Vampire Weekend: The most butterwouldn’t-melt band of all time.

DIY HALL OF FAME A monthly place to celebrate the very best albums released during DIY’s lifetime; the next inductee into our Hall of Fame is Vampire Weekend’s photo: Carolina Faruolo self-titled debut. Words: Will Richards.

the Facts THE FACTS Released: 29th January 2008 Standout tracks: ‘M79’, ‘Walcott’, ‘Mansard Roof’ Something to tell your mates: ‘Oxford Comma’ contains multiple references to the rapper Lil Jon, who sent Vampire Weekend a case of ‘crunk juice’ as a thank you present.

Vampire Weekend Vampire Weekend

I

t was difficult to know what to make of Vampire Weekend when they first strolled off campus and into the spotlight in 2007.

Everything from the band’s debut album’s cover - a picture taken at one of their earliest shows at Columbia University - to its first single and opener ‘Mansard Roof’, to the band themselves: preppy, fresh-faced, unique - made the quartet a compelling prospect.

‘Vampire Weekend’ paints a vivid, sundrenched picture of student life in New York, full of expectation and sprinkled with heartbreak. Ezra Koenig’s lyrics skip between childlike longing in ‘Campus’, wishing to escape in ‘Walcott’ and brushing aside preconceived notions of the band and their studious ties in ‘Oxford Comma’. Even when the subject matter of ‘Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa’ goes beyond staring at a girl across a lecture theatre, it’s delivered with a straight-faced, youthful sincerity.

Though the band’s breakout hit ‘A-Punk’ is what the album will likely be remembered for, the rest of ‘Vampire Weekend’ sits far away from its biggest single. ‘M79’ sees Chris Baio’s sliding basslines shine, while ‘One’ is outwardly insane. ‘Walcott’ remains the band’s barnstorming set closer live, and is the closest the album gets to feeling urgent, otherwise

vocalising wafting observations with ease and time.

Arriving in a post-Strokes New York, Vampire Weekend largely kept the make-up of an indie rock band, but with little quirks that helped them stand out: Ezra Koenig’s soon-to-bedistinctive guitar tones pack in melody after melody without ever becoming overbearing, Rostam Batmanglij’s keys are swirling and encapsulating, and Chris Tomson shows himself to be one of indie rock’s most inventive drummers, with afro beats that had rarely been paired with this kind of music.

Vampire Weekend have never sounded like this again, and never will - an album as youthful and bursting with enthusiasm as this could only be a band’s debut. It maintains a special place in the make-up of 2000s; taking the traditional elements of the genre and transporting it to a new, simpler, sunnier place.

It’s not an album to be replicated or dissected into a thousand pieces; just one to be revisited with a smile, a document of a special moment in time.

DIY Now you Sia...

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Photo: Emma Swann

A round-up of the gigs DIY’s been putting on this month.

SHURA

East Village Arts Club, Liverpool Music Week ith the hype surrounding tonight’s show it’s with no surprise that the room is packed out to catch what may be one of the last intimate gigs Shura performs in a while. Swapping the warehouse basement of locals’ favourite The Shipping Forecast, she finds herself within the panelled walls of East Village Arts Club, for Liverpool Music Week. This seems rather fitting of the synth pop player’s aesthetic: pure, clean and atmospheric.

Arriving on stage to much adulation and adoration, the denim jacket clad twenty-something has adopted her own unique stage persona, embracing the slightly enigmatic nature which is reflected in her music. As she begins to play it becomes clear that all the buzz is well earned. Listening to her and her entourage of bandmates play has a weirdly dissociative feeling about it, an astral projection, like floating outside your body among the ethereal sounds lifting up the audience into a dream-like haze. The sound is beautifully minimal in its feel imagine The xx radiating white light. (Matt Hogg)

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coming up DECEMBER

08 Demob Happy & Yonaka, The Hare & Hounds, Birmingham JANUARY

05/12/19/26 Hello 2016, Old Blue Last, London 21 Dilly Dally, The Castle Hotel, Manchester FEBRUARY

18 MONEY, The Hare & Hounds, Birmingham 22

diymag.com

Photo: Corey Rid

DIY live

CLEAN CUT KID

Hoxton Bar & Grill, Community 2015 omething’s in the water for Clean Cut Kid. The Liverpool four-piece trade in wide-eyed optimism, and not a single speck of unrelenting happiness can be faked. Bright colours line their threads, and every member’s prone to the odd air punch or mini leap. Not least bassist Saul Godman, who looks like he’s spotted his best mate in a crowd every thirty seconds, constantly smirking. At first, their dose of vitality is off-putting, like stumbling into a clique and not understanding their in-jokes. But by the end of their DIY Presents Community showcase, it is genuinely impossible not to join the cult.

It’d be over-simplifying things to say these four are happygo-lucky nutters with too much energy for their own good.

‘Runaway’ is a balancing act of emotions, and ‘Jean’ takes time to step into its stride. But that doesn’t make set closer ‘Vitamin C’ any less of a shock to the system. It’s fun, cutesy, bound to leave cynics drowning in negativity, but these four possess a spirit that’s hard to match, and it’ll put them in good stead for 2016. (Jamie Milton) Now you don’t!

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Goldenvoice Presents

goldenvoice.co.uk

VILLAGERS

MARCH 2016 TOUR 04 BELFAST MANDELA HALL 05 DUBLIN OLYMPIA 07 STOKE-ON-TRENT KEELE UNI STUDENTS UNION 10 MANCHESTER ACADEMY OUT UEA 11 NORWICH SOLD OUT 13 OXFORD SOLD O2 ACADEMY 14 PORTSMOUTH PYRAMIDS 16 GLASGOW BARROWLANDS 17 YORK BARBICAN 19 LEEDS O2 ACADEMY

21 FOLKESTONE LEAS CLIFF HALLS 22 BRIGHTON THE DOME 23 NOTTINGHAM ROCK CITY 24 CARDIFF GREAT HALL

FEBRUARY 2016 Mon 1 GATESHEAD Sage 2 Tue 2 GLASGOW Oran Mor Auditorium Wed 3 LEEDS Brudenell Social Club Fri 5 MANCHESTER Gorilla Sat 6 SHEFFIELD Leadmill Sun 7 BIRMINGHAM Glee Club Mon 8 OXFORD O2 Academy 2 Wed 10 BATH Komedia Thu 11 LONDON O2 Shepherds Bush Empire Fri 12 BRIGHTON St George’s Church Sat 13 ASHFORD St Mary’s Church

EXTRA DATES ADDED DUE TO DEMAND

26 LONDONOUOT 2 FORUM SOLD KENTISH TOWN 27 LONDONOUOT 2 FORUM SOLD KENTISH TOWN 28 LONDON O2 FORUM KENTISH TOWN

AXS.COM | SEETICKETS.COM | TICKETMASTER.CO.UK DEBUT ALBUM ‘MY LOVE IS COOL’ OUT NOW

A MERCURY PRIZE ALBUM OF THE YEAR WOLFALICE.CO.UK |

f WOLFALICEMUSIC | T @WOLFALICEMUSIC

A Goldenvoice, SJM Concerts, DHP & DF presentation in association with Primary Talent International

AXS.COM | TICKETMASTER.CO.UK | MUSICGLUE.COM wearevillagers.com f /villagers T @wearevillagers A Goldenvoice, DF Concerts, DHP and Futuresounds presentation in association with CAA

MONDAY 28 MARCH

INVERNESS IRONWORKS SOLD OUT29 TUESDAY

EXTRA DATE ADDED

WEDNESDAY 30 MARCH

GLASGOW 02 ACADEMY FRIDAY 01 APRIL

VERY SPECIAL GUEST

BIRMINGHAM BARCLAYCARD ARENA SOLD OUT SATURDAY 02 APRIL

MANCHESTER O2 APOLLO MONDAY 04 APRIL

BOURNEMOUTH BIC TUESDAY 05 APRIL

PLYMOUTH PAVILIONS WEDNESDAY 06 APRIL

SWINDON OASIS FRIDAY 08 APRIL

LONDON THE SSE ARENA WEMBLEY AXS.COM | SONGKICK.COM | SEETICKETS.COM

f/YEARSANDYEARS t@YEARSANDYEARS YEARSANDYEARSOFFICIAL.COM

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S OF AS CL 2016

Fun Fact: We actually pulled the blue rope for this issue out of Rat Boy’s brain, via his ear.

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OF...OUR EVERY YEAR, DIY BRINGS YOU THE CLA SS DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO THE NEW YEAR AND THE BANDS INTENT ON HAVING THEIR SAY. THIS YEAR’S LIST IS PACKED FULL OF ACTS READY TO DEFINE THE NEXT TWELVE MONTHS, FROM STATESIDE CHART-BOTHERERS TO THE MOST BONKERS NEWCOMERS IN YEARS. PREPARE TO GET OBSESSED WITH THE CLASS OF 2016.

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Nobody can stop Rat Boy in his tracks. Damon Albarn’s making him cups of tea. Shamir’s inviting him round to house parties. And thousands of fans are losing their minds at his gigs. We’ve seen nothing yet. Words: Jamie Milton. Photos: Mike Massaro.

he momentum behind Rat Boy is unstoppable. This self-professed “scum” is on the edge of everyone’s lips. Stage invasions are his forte, and he’ll convert a hundred new fans in the space of one crazy show.

His tweets get more obscene, his songs more obnoxious. Nobody can shut him up, and he’s the poster-boy for frenzied gigs.

From a distance, it’s bizarre that this has happened so quickly.

It was only this time last year that he released his debut mixtape, a melting pot of voice memos and razor-sharp garage punk threatening to boil over. There’s a debut album on the way, and he’s playing to thousands on the regular. Few sprints to the top come quicker.

But a few hours spent with Jordan Cardy reveal him to be one of a kind. He’s the very definition of restless. There’s always a new idea popping up in his head. Midway through a photoshoot he’ll ask if he can draw something on a wall, just for the hell of it. He’s a mind-boggling machine, and actually

a lot more polite than his middle finger social media game might suggest.

It’s always been like this. Before Rat Boy took over, Jordan relentlessly messaged music to complete strangers, until he won over a new fan or - and this was the more regular consequence - got blocked. “Whoever liked a Mac DeMarco track on SoundCloud - I’d DM them all,” he remembers. He’d do the same on Twitter, and the powers that be would crack down on his “too many messages” tactic. “I was just guessing what to do, sending it to loads of blogs, people my age who could write about it.”

He only stopped the self-promotion frenzy this summer. By that point, the sample-centric, signature sound he sports was well in the spotlight. Now he finds himself in 13 Studios, belonging to Damon Albarn. “He offered me a cup of tea, and I thought that was pretty cool,” he remembers, shunning any potential dream collaboration. There are countless threads running through Rat Boy’s chaotic noise, but his combination

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“I REMEMBER BEING IN THE STUDIO FOR TWENTYHOUR HOURS AND AS SOON AS I LEFT, I FELT ILL - SO I HAD TO GO BACK!”

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of whacked out art and storytelling screams of Gorillaz. It must have been a dream come true, and he’s not taking his new studio home for granted. “Most of the time I sleep on the floor,” he says. “Record all day, sleep at night - that’s what I do. It gets a bit weird at four in the morning there, or forgetting when the time is. I remember being in the studio for twenty-four hours and as soon as I left, I felt ill - so I had to go back! There’s so many different instruments to try out. I love it there.”

There’s a sense that the speed with which Rat Boy’s progressing has a lot to do with his background. Jordan recites a story of when he first decided to get into production.

Nobody was giving him advice, and the only instrument he had was an electric guitar his dad’s friend lent him. “I didn’t know how to produce, or what software to use,” he says. He tried out everything, eventually realising like most bedroom-pop diehards that GarageBand was the answer. He got a job, saved up as much as he could, and bought a second hand iMac. “When it arrived, it didn’t work. The guy gave no refunds,” he remembers, like it was yesterday.

Rat Boy’s early mantra was the lyric “young, dumb, living off mum,” and he’s since penned autobiographical singles ‘Sign On’ and ‘Fake ID’, tales about being broke, bored, without much of a cause. Jordan gets coy when asked about his background, but it’s clear he’s not a rich kid latching onto fictional tales. He says he thinks he’s “working class”, but “you don’t wanna go around saying ‘I’m working class,’ because

I just want people to listen to my music.” Most of the time, Jordan uses Twitter to post dodgy Periscope videos or pre-gig pep talks to fans, but he once had an argument online when someone accused him of having everything handed on a plate. “That really fucked me off,” he says bluntly. “That pissed me off - I don’t know why people think that. It’s not like the record deal was given to me for no reason. My brother went into meltdown when someone wrote that online. He was so angry. And he works proper hard, left home when he was sixteen.”

He’s swapped broken computers for plush studios, but not much else has changed. He hangs out in Essex as much as possible (“I just go out and see my friends, stay out all night with my mates”) and his mum barely sees him because he’ll always be off skating somewhere. His dream is to one day own a “massive warehouse,” a hangout space for anyone with an invite. “It’d be a music studio, art studio, and there’d be skate stuff everywhere. My mates would mess around, we’d make videos all the time,” he lists off. “I’d call it Scum Studios.”

Lovely.

Instead of going to shows every night and religiously obsessing over his favourite bands, he’d scour YouTube for inspiration. “I’ve probably been to less than ten gigs that aren’t mine,” he admits, and if that’s the case, he likely has a skewed impression of the average night out. Rat Boy shows are the liveliest, most hedonistic scrums imaginable. They’ve been that way from day one, but as each gig passes, there seems to be an unwritten code among fans to make the next one even more insane. “I’ve always wanted that, but I didn’t expect it to happen,” he says. “You know when you watch Rhythm Factory videos and seeing how mental the shows used to get? You don’t really see it happening so much these days.” But if anyone’s bringing it back, it’s him, and as more chaos ensues, this teenager is getting better at playing the role of mediator. “It’s not like people go too far, but you do start worrying about them. You don’t want anyone to

ON A LEASH

Rat Boy’s Twitter game might seem unhinged, but Jordan’s trying to keep watch on his bandmates.

“I don’t really read what people write about me, it’s just when someone tags you in it, and you see it. I ignore it. It’s more like my brother or someone in the band who’ll be watching, and they’re all really mouthy. I’m like, ‘Delete what you wrote!

I can’t be bothered’,” he says, and he’s always on the lookout for trouble to quash. “I feel like I have to kind of check what they’re writing!” he claims, of his bandmates.

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actually damage themselves.”

band he manages, Joy Again. The guy never sits still.

Just a year’s worth of gigs to his name, and Rat Boy has his fair share of bizarre experiences. He remembers being “pulled down the staircase by my neck” after a festival slot went too far. A fan once broke their ankle at a show, “and that was at some industry gig, not even a proper one.” And he’s recently had to deal with the pitfalls of broken gear, after crowd melees go too far. “We can have stage invasions every night, but we just need back-up equipment,” he jokes. “I enjoy the energy of the shows. It’s just not fun paying for new equipment.”

Beyond the celeb tales, security scuffles and free cups of tea from Damon, Rat Boy is getting ever-closer to achieving everything he set out to when he first cobbled together pennies for a broken computer. “I was just freaking out. It’s weird that people know I exist. I’ve met a lot of my heroes…” he starts. “But it’s the process of making things that I really like - making art, making music, skate videos. It’s cool to be in creative control of everything. That’s what I’m into.” The rate he’s going, he’ll have that fantasy warehouse and a few albums under his belt in no time. Who knows what kind of anecdotes he’ll have by the end of 2016. DIY

His first twelve months have felt like a stampede, and Jordan is collecting new anecdotes every day.

Like the time he was too scared to talk to Yannis Philippakis from Foals. Or when musical hero Carl Bârat from The Libertines said “‘I’ve heard good stuff about you!’” and left him speechless.

The 1975’s Matt Healy called him recently to give an introduction before they toured together. Jordan was on the toilet. “We carried on chatting though. He’s proper nice.”

And on a rare visit to the States, he ended up partying at Shamir’s house before skating with the

DEBUT DAYS

Putting the finishing touches to his debut album, Rat Boy’s already thinking about a second LP. “I’m excited to finish this one, so I can get that sorted and do the whole process again, bringing in stuff that I’ve learnt,” he beams. His first work - due out in April - is set to document the baby steps. “I think it’s about growing up, because that’s how I wrote it. Two years’ worth of writing.

And my style has changed since the first mixtape. Not loads, but it’s cool to have the songs I had two years ago and the ones I have now. Hearing the old vocal takes, I sound so much younger. It’s cool to keep all of that together.”

28 diymag.com

“I’VE PROBABLY BEEN TO LESS THAN TEN GIGS THAT AREN’T MINE.”

Goldenvoice Presents

MEADOWLARK 14.12.15 THE LEXINGTON

THE MAGIC GANG

02.12.15 BRIGHTON HOPE & RUIN 15.12.15 THE LEXINGTON

JASON ISBELL

+ JOHN MORELAND 22.01.16 02 SHEPHERD’S BUSH EMPIRE

THE LIBERTINES

+ SLEAFORD MODS + THE ENEMY 25.01.16 NOTTINGHAM CAPITAL FM ARENA 26.01.16 CARDIFF MOTORPOINT ARENA 27.01.16 BIRMINGHAM BARCLAYCARD ARENA 30.01.16 LONDON THE O2

ANNE-MARIE

28.01.16 MANCHESTER DEAF INSTITUTE 01.02.2016 VILLAGE UNDERGROUND

VILLAGERS

11.02.16 O2 SHEPHERD’S BUSH EMPIRE

MARIBOU STATE 17.02.16 KOKO

HALSEY

T 20.02.16 SOLD OU BIRMINGHAM O2 ACADEMY T SOLD OU 22.02.16 MANCHESTER ACADEMY

KIKO BUN

21.02.16 BRISTOL LOUISIANA 22.02.16 BRIGHTON KOMEDIA 25.02.16 BIRMINGHAM RAINBOW

HINDS

24.02.16 BRISTOL FLEECE 26.02.16 BRIGHTON PATTERNS

EAGULLS

02.03.16 LONDON OSLO HACKNEY

RUDIMENTAL

T 05.03.16 SOLD OU PLYMOUTH PAVILLIONS T 07.03.16 SOLD OU BIRMINGHAM O2 ACADEMY

HONNE

03.03.16 BRIXTON ELECTRIC

ELLIE GOULDING

+ JOHN NEWMAN 08.03.16 CARDIFF MOTORPOINT ARENA 24.03.16 & 25.03.16 THE O2

WOLF ALICE

13.03.16 OXFORD O2 ACADEMY 21.03.16 FOLKESTONE LEAS CLIFF HALL 22.03.16 BRIGHTON DOME 24.03.16 CARDIFF GREAT HALL T T SOLD OU SOLD OU & 28.03.16 26.03.16, 27.03.16 O2 FORUM KENTISH TOWN

YEARS & YEARS

+ MO 01.04.16 BIRMINGHAM BARCLAYCARD ARENA 04.04.16 BOURNEMOUTH BIC 05.04.16 PLYMOUTH PAVILLIONS 08.04.16 THE SSE ARENA WEMBLEY

MATT AND KIM 08.04.16 SCALA

FATHER JOHN MISTY T 18.05.16 SOLD OU & 19.05.16 THE ROUNDHOUSE

SHURA

26.05.16 O2 SHEPHERD’S BUSH EMPIRE

www.goldenvoice.co.uk

+ OTZEKI T 08.12.15 SOLD OU THE VICTORIA DALSTON

DEC–MAY

ISLAND

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“I DON’T KNOW ABOUT ANYONE ELSE, BUT I DON’T GIVE A FUCK.” WILL RITSON Will and Matt weren’t impressed when we suggested they both try and climb up the rope.

30 diymag.com

Cl as s of 2016

FORMATION

Cries of “DFA!” and “more cowbell!” defined Formation’s earliest steps. Will and Matt Ritson just keep on experimenting, and increasingly, there’s no pigeonholing this duo.

Words: El Hunt. Photo: Mike Massaro

F

ormation are back in London after a packed summer of festivals, and Will Ritson has just concluded an extremely off-the-cuff talk about the history of percussion; complete with his thoughts on Latin rhythms, cabasas, and tambourines. “We do take it kind of seriously,” he admits. “We don’t abuse the cowbell. Never,” Will warns, “abuse the cowbell.”

“And,” he adds, indignantly, “there is an equal amount of woodblock!”

“Woodblock’s not as cool,” snorts his twin brother Matt Ritson. “It’s like the demoted, uncool younger brother.”

When twin brothers Matt and Will Ritson first burst into view, it was their liberal use of said cowbell during Formation’s intensely energetic live shows which first grabbed attention - despite Will’s protests in favour of the woodblock. Their jaggedy dancepunk picked up comparisons to early DFA Records releases, including LCD Soundsystem. It’s a huge compliment, say Will and Matt, even though they were too young to be infiltrating any kind of disco at the peak of that particular scene. Teaming up with Brighton house maestro Leon Vynehall on production for new EP ‘Under the Tracks’, what’s becoming most evident is that Formation can’t - and won’t stop experimenting. “I think if we can’t do something, it would drive us more to try and create that,” says Matt, “and find out why we can’t do that.”

Formation rarely take no for an answer, in fact. Putting out their music themselves at first, in an “all or nothing” venture, they improvised their way through the first half of their debut gig - supporting Shura at London’s Village

Underground - after their keyboard gave up the ghost. “It was fucking awful,” Will laughs. “It was in at the deep end. We then learned how to plug in instruments properly.”

Zoom forward a few months, with keyboard dramas behind them, and Formation wound up supporting Foals on a string of European tour dates - a daunting gig for a band who stepped on stage together for the first time in March. “We were worried about playing to their crowd,” admits Matt, “because their fans are intense. We’ve been winning people over a lot lately,” he adds. “That’s our mentality.”

“I don’t know about anyone else, but I don’t give a fuck,” says Will.

He’s being slightly arch, but there is an element of actual fearlessness, too, that gives the vital pulse to Formation’s live show.

“I’m not sure that’s very personable of me, but I’m not scared to interact with people,” he justifies.

“I think they appreciate that.”

Neither Will nor Matt see Formation as political band - “it’s a musical band,” they quip - but regardless, politics inspire a great deal of their lyrics.

They’re about “how much I hate people” jokes Will.

“I think the individual songs have very strong identities,” he explains. “‘Love’ is about love, but what I don’t want to do is write a love song that’s

sentimental. Urgh,” he winces. “I just broke up with my girlfriend, I can’t feel my face.” “‘Under the Tracks’ is about liberty,” he adds. “On that Metallica album [‘...

And Justice For All’] you’ve got lady justice with the weighing scales. It was an idea I had, about if she was looking at the world, seeing the immeasurable injustice of being alive, and if she just went on a rampage. Do you know that film ‘Falling Down’ where Michael Douglas has a breakdown?” he asks. “A bit like that.”

“I can’t stress enough how much I hate Conservative politics.” he goes on. “I genuinely go to sleep at night worrying about Skate-crazy how much damage Formation fill us in David Cameron is going on the artwork for to do, and it makes me their new EP upset. ‘Control’ [on new Will: That’s an image EP ‘Under the Tracks’] is we stole from Lords about the left and right of Dogtown, the sides of the House of skate film. We were Commons - who are you thinking about going to believe? The the cover, and this people, or the cocainehand-drawn stuff ridden other side?” we do, and we were nerding out Looking ahead to 2016, watching this film debut albums are firmly in the on Formation’s mind. van, and “We’ve been thinking there’s a about it for a long time,” shot of this says Matt. “I’m looking graffitied forward to summing a lot wall. It’s of stuff up,” picks up Will, in Venice “because these EPs have Beach, in that 70s been a lot of figuring time, and I guess it out what we’re doing. was for someone’s It’ll be nice to take what dad, someone’s we’ve learned and make dad had died. It something 100 times translated so well. greater.” DIY 31

Alessia: Pulling her own strings.

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Cl as s of 2016

ALESSIA CARA I A pop megastar in waiting with Taylor Swift’s backing before she’s even released a debut album. Words: Tom Connick. Photos: Carolina Faruolo t’s been all about the slow climb for Alessia Cara. Looking back on a summer of 2014 spent “going around all these different record labels just with my guitar,” she’s spent the time since building things brick-by-brick.

Before she knew it, she was a superstar in waiting – 2016 will be the year she leaps that wall. She’s already had the first leg up.

Sitting in a hotel room in West London, she’s barely had a second to hit solid ground. Just days ago, Alessia took part in 2015’s pop rite of passage, joining Taylor Swift on stage for a run-through of her debut single ‘Here’. Organised over Twitter DMs “only a couple of days before the performance,” she’s still reeling from the experience.

“I haven’t really done huge shows. So going from four- or five-hundred people to 55,000 people… was very strange,” she laughs. “I was so nervous but she made me feel really comfortable.”

It’s not the first time Taylor’s lent her ear to Alessia, mind – earlier this summer, Swifty shared a list of ‘New Songs That Will Make Your Life More Awesome’.

Amongst them, scrawled in Taylor’s handwriting? ‘Alessia Cara - ‘I’m Yours’’.

Nevertheless, being asked to join her

on stage was another level of “mindblowing”.

“I always thought not enough people know my music,” says Alessia, “she only has big artists come in. That did not cross my mind. She had people like Justin Timberlake, The Weeknd, all these big artists, and there’s no way she’d ask me to do it.” Whether she’s aware of it or not, Alessia is very quickly becoming one of those ‘big artists’ herself. “I just really want to get used to the idea of performing in front of people,” she admits, keen not to trip up on her runaway success. “It’s really new to me – I’m still a new artist and I’m not really used to doing my own shows.”

DOUBLING UP

In her earliest days, it was her laptop that provided the stage, to an immediate audience of one – her own mirror image. Pitching up in front of her webcam and uploading her performances made perfect sense for the young and aspiring singersongwriter. “I wasn’t ready to do stages yet,” Alessia confides. “I wasn’t ready to do performances. The only thing I had was YouTube and online videos.”

She’s aware she might be waiting a while for Frank Ocean, though; “I know! And the thing is, we’re both on the same label, so you’d think my label would have some sort of insight to give me – I keep begging someone to tell me but they don’t tell me anything.

It’s top secret, unfortunately.”

Joining Taylor on stage is one thing, but Alessia’s a big fan of all kinds of collaboration, lamenting before it’s even out that “this album doesn’t really have other artists on it.” Who would she most like to team up with, though?

“Oh my gosh, probably Drake – if Drake could be on one of my songs that would be a dream. Or Lorde, or Frank Ocean, Ed Sheeran.“

It’s an increasingly

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common tactic for those suffering from early-days stage fright, Alessia admits.

“You see so many artists coming out of there, posting videos and they just go viral because anything can go viral now. With me, I think my story was kinda different. I never went viral and I didn’t have a lot of views, but someone still happened to find my video.”

“People could still hear me sing and I could sing for people, but it wasn’t in front of people. It was a cheat way of doing things.”

She might call it cheating, but finding her own way’s been integral to what makes Alessia stand out from the crowd. ‘Here’ is an ode to that outsider mentality. Written around the begrudging feeling of attending a party that you’re aching to leave, it’s a brooding number that’s a world away from shinier pop sensations, and it’s reflected in its slow burning success. As the end of the year creeps closer, it’s tipped over into over 20 million YouTube views. That’s a lot of people who really just want to sit in the corner and have a quiet drink. Looking forward, though, Alessia’s keen for things to grow – “I’m just really big on albums, I’m a big believer in a body of work rather than just a bunch of songs put together,” she explains.

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“It’s an album about teens and youth and rebellion and vulnerability,” Alessia continues of her debut album ‘Know It All’, “and all the things that a teen goes through and that I go through. I hope that older people can relate as well, but I just think people can relate. Either you’re in it right now, or you’ve been there…” - she peels off, laughing - “unless you’re like three years old, then you’ve obviously not.” DIY

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“WE LIKE TO SOUND A BIT CRUNCHY AND NASTY.” - OLI BURSLEM

Cl as s of 2016

YAK

A furious whirlwind with a penchant for drone-notes and noise, there’s a zest to Yak’s psychedelia that defies their nonchalance.

Words: Tom Connick. Photo: Emma Swann

Y

ak are a tornado. Barely off the road all year, they’ve swept up all manner of fans through their unhinged live show, redefining the word raucous with every step. There’s chaos wrapped up in everything they do – a mad collection of happy accidents informing every step of their otherworldly, psychedelic thrash.

Every now and then, though, the real world catches up. “We just got through about fifteen parking fines,” explains drummer Elliot Lawson as the group collectively look over their shoulders to check the van’s alright where it’s sat.

“We really don’t need another one.”

Despite frontman Oli Burslem having been up ’til half five that morning writing lyrics, and the band collectively heading straight into a studio “behind a fish factory,” they’re in remarkably good spirits. “We’ve built up now, from the one single, then the second single…

Now for the first time, we are definitely doing an album,” states Oli, a note of relief in his voice.

True to manic form though, they’re not about to hole themselves up in a studio for weeks on end. They’d only get

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restless. “We’ll go in for like two days, and we’ll probably expect ourselves to do six or seven songs – it’s quite quick,” Oli continues. “With guitar bands – all the music we like’s a bit more rough. We don’t like it to be overdone afterwards or polished, we like it to sound a bit crunchy and nasty.”

Hammering out all their kinks live, there’s a frazzled edge to every Yak track – a feeling of containing the madness of that live show, crushing it into the tiny confines of a studio and recording the resultant explosion. “Great records, like The Fall, they’re like documentations of the time, rather than ‘Here we are!’ and the curtain falls down and we’re all there in sparkly suits,” Oli grins.

“Live can be like an energy thing though,” he qualifies, “you get up there and swing your guitar around, tell everyone to piss off or something - you can’t really do that on a record,” he admits, “can’t really mid-take just throw a guitar and go, ‘Yeah!’”

They’re quick to denounce the supposed hardships of touring, too. “It’s easy!” says Oli, “I don’t know who even

says that! You literally play for twenty minutes. We’re used to having normal jobs – I had a job for two years once, and I was thoroughly depressed every day I woke up,” he grins, “It’s just a walk in the park.” He laughs remembering a show where they “literally played one song” over an entire set – “I really enjoy that!

Improv kinda stuff – it’s noise to most people, and it’s quite challenging, but I really enjoy it. So when we go and play no songs and just do noise, I think it’s interesting. I’d prefer that than seeing someone press the space bar and do a dance routine. Seeing someone have a breakdown, it’s quite nice.”

Not many bands would find the Yak way of life “a walk in the park” – no setlists, no planning, no instruction – but then there aren’t any bands quite like Yak out there at the moment. Not that they let that go to their heads – in fact, even heading into an album, all expectations are off the table. There’s a nonchalance to their every move that either suggests they’re aware of their brilliance, or that brilliance is the happiest of all the accidents that got them to this stage.

Oli shrugs: “We’re only as good as we are.” DIY

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Cl as s of 2016

THE JAPANESE HOUSE A future-pop sensation with the momentum to break free of the blogs, each of Amber Bain’s baby steps has been a giant leap forward. Words: Tom Connick. Photo: Mike Massarro

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iven the glacial nature of her take on electronic pop, Amber Bain’s year hit warp speed pretty sharpish. A spot as Zane Lowe’s final Radio 1 ‘Hottest Record’ was the spark that hit the touchpaper, but that was just the start - The Japanese House has been an inferno ever since, baby steps replaced with giant leaps forward with every release as Amber turned heads the world over.

“It hasn’t really felt like that,” she smiles in an East London cafe, “’cause I’ve just been in my room.”

It’s no surprise to hear she’s the retiring type. Both of The Japanese House’s EPs are swathed in the smoky production that defines countless young producers.

Taking her bedroom demos to an “amazing studio in Brussels” isn’t the

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only thing pitching her leagues ahead of her contemporaries though – her dedication is astounding. “I’m probably going to go to the studio after this,” she admits. After that, she’s gearing up to take The Japanese House across the globe - 2016 is set to be a “whole year of touring”, and after a debut UK run that saw numerous dates sell out way in advance, she’s keen to keep the wheels rolling.

“The tour was quite overwhelming ‘cause I’d never met ‘a fan’ before,” she laughs, “so that was quite intense – in a good way! Meeting people after shows and stuff was a bit like, ‘oop!’”

“I still get really nervous,” she admits.

“It’s more like I get a huge adrenaline rush, maybe like three hours before sometimes, which is really annoying.

Sometimes I get it at like two o’clock in the afternoon, like ‘WOAH I’M SO EXCITED’, and then I get really shaky.

Then when I come off I don’t really remember anything that I did and then just get -- ‘woo!’ – like, really pumped

up. I’m definitely less terrified on stage now – before, it was quite intense.”

She recalls one Camden gig in particular when she was just 14; “it was one in the afternoon and there was no-one in there apart from this couple, and I think they were having an argument,” she cringes. “The most horrible experience ever” though it may have been, it’s a distant memory – these days things are far more romantic. “There are a lot of couples at the gigs!” she laughs; “Maybe that’s just a coupley thing to do, go to a gig… slow dance.”

Amber admits she’s “basically” made music all her life, thought it’s not a statement she relishes. “I hate that.

‘Ooh I’ve played the guitar since I was three!’” she snorts, “it sounds really cheesy, but I guess it’s true.”

Picked up “since I left school” by Dirty Hit, a label synonymous with a slow-and-steady approach to building world beaters like Wolf Alice, Amber’s widescreen take on pop is no flash-

GUILTY BY ASSOCIATION

in-the-pan moment of inspiration.

“I’m really lucky to be on a label that want to facilitate being creative,” she smiles. “Rather than saying, ‘go and be creative’, they’re like ‘okay, let’s help you.’”

“There was a point at which I found… not a genre, but a style of making music, and I think that was when I started producing as well. I was always writing songs on guitar and stuff like that, but as soon as I started actually getting interested in that, they all - even songs from like five or six years ago they had the same kind of feel. And I think actually, a lot of those songs, I’ll probably re-do as I’d produce them now.”

Looking forward to globetrotting dates alongside the likes of The 1975 throughout 2016, she’s far more confident than her initial smoke and mirrors approach might have implied. “I think people thought I was trying to be

mysterious, but I wasn’t - I just don’t like having my photo taken!” she laughs.

“Hopefully I’ll take influences from different places,” she says of her plans to pack out her passport, admitting that being able to take her personal studio on the road has its benefits.

Thinking back to a trip to Iceland at the beginning of the year, there’s fits of giggles; “I did a remix of one of my own songs cause it was the only thing I had on my laptop and I was really bored at the airport - it sounds like Enya, really sad Enya! I was wearing my North Face, getting really emotional.”

As she creeps out of her bedroom and packs that warm jacket for 12 months of travelling, writing and recording that eagerly awaited first full-length, it’s anyone’s guess where the final destination will be. DIY

The Japanese House’s earlier works came pinned with one ‘rather notable’ credit: ‘produced by Matty Healy and George Daniel of The 1975’. “I definitely think that’s helped in terms of how many people listen to it and stuff like that,” admits Amber. “It’s weird, ‘cause as soon as you’re associated with someone who’s famous, it has both effects – people who originally dislike them, might dislike you, and people who like them might like you. It’s a weird one, but I do think it’s helped.

“I don’t think it’s been negative – it’s one of those things. At the beginning, most people thought Matty was singing!” she laughs, “And obviously a lot of people think it’s not a co-production and they wrote the songs, but it doesn’t really matter to me.”

Looking to 2016, she’s hitting the road with the recently returned megastars. “I think the 1975 shows will be pretty nuts!” she admits, “But I’m not really that scared for it, ‘cause I feel it’ll probably be quite fun.”

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“THE WORLD NEEDS SOME FUCKING MEDICINE.” NOAH GERSH

Who’s going to clean this one up then, eh?

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Cl as s of 2016

PARTYBABY LA’s PARTYBABY have just two songs and one clear idea - to be the most fun, excitable band on the planet. Words: Jamie Milton. Photo: Yimmy Yayo.

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ew groups start out by attempting to write pop hits for Christina Aguilera.

But there isn’t an awful lot about PARTYBABY’s early existence that seems especially normal.

Noah Gersh and Jamie Schefman were getting sick and tired of doing music.

Gersh used to be a member of Portugal.

The Man, while Schefman had spent life as a producer and engineer, most notably on 30 Seconds to Mars’ past two records. They built themselves a “nice but shit little studio” in Los Angeles, and set about rediscovering enthusiasm for their day jobs.

“We’d both become pretty cynical. It’s a dicey thing to play music professionally, especially when it’s something that’s incredibly therapeutic. You run the risk of it turning into something that’s also causing you strife, and that’s what we’d reached,” says Gersh from his back yard.

The potential Aguilera gig wasn’t a dream come true, or some ‘genie in the bottle’, if you will. “They put out feelers to five thousand musicians!” guesses Schefman, and his wild estimation probably isn’t far off. They “slaved away” at this draft track, to the point where they were climbing up the walls.

Rage gave birth to ‘Your Old Man’, one of two balls-to-the-wall punk songs to PARTYBABY’s name. “Made up, on the spot. It was like ‘OK, cool, that’s our band,’” remembers Gersh.

“The disenchantment that we felt from that grind is what led to the start of

the band,” confirms the afro-sporting Schefman.

Once PARTYBABY was set in motion, both members were intent in regaining their lust for life. “I wasn’t happy,” admits Gersh. “And the only reason for that was music. And that’s scary as fuck, because that’s how I know how to cope in the world. I was about to go to fucking culinary school or something. And then we started making this record, and thank god. I genuinely do believe that in one way or another, I’m going to be playing music for the rest of my life and that’s what I’m supposed to be doing.

This project came along at literally the last moment it could have happened.

And it kept me on that track.”

Tragedy and strife haven’t been far away from Gersh, especially recently. A “very good friend” of his was tragically killed in the Bataclan, when Paris was struck by terror attacks. Speaking just a couple of days later, he’s come to a refined conclusion. “The only thing that I’ve been able to take away from it: Call everyone you fucking love. Go have dinner with your parents. This shit could stop at any time.”

PARTYBABY’s aim, in effect, is to capture a spirit and energy that only music can provide. “The only way you can fight off the fucking insanity happening around you is to try and be as positive as you can, and to hug the fucking people that you love. If we can make PARTYBABY that, then I can get behind it,” declares

Gersh. “If we can in any way help anyone feel happy for a second of their day, then I think it’s enough to keep me going. I think the world needs some fucking medicine.”

So far, they’ve struck gold. Debut track ‘Everything’s All Right’ is an aggressive barge through the door. Comparisons abound, from FIDLAR to Weezer to even the faint touch of Tobias Jesso Jr., who also happens to be Gersh’s roommate.

It bottles up a spirit that can’t be replicated by default. It requires two guys, clearly at the end of their tether, to suddenly reach an epiphany. Now there’s big plans. They’re coming to the UK in 2016, and a full-length’s been finished for months. The live game sounds ambitious. “There was going to be a Japanese anime bass player. We were going to have loads of screens up on stage and she was going to jump in between all the screens,” enthuses Gersh.

“It turns out that’s a little difficult to apply,” admits Schefman.

One step at a time. PARTYBABY might be relative nobodies at this stage, but they have everything in their power to take over. DIY

“DISENCHANTMENT IS WHAT LED TO THE START OF THE BAND.” JAMIE SCHEFMAN 41

T

he past eighteen months have been a whirlwind for Creeper. From playing their first headline show in their hometown of Southampton back in September 2014, to supporting the likes of Frank Carter and the Misfits towards the end of this year, things have gone from strength to strength for rock’s hottest prospects. Throw in two brilliant EPs and a record deal with Roadrunner and it’s not hard to realise that this quintet are at the beginning of a very interesting road.

“I feel like we haven’t really had time to stop and assess it, you know?” begins frontman Will Gould, on the band’s speedy rise. Taking time out from shooting a new video, ahead of their final tour of the year, it’s still very much all systems go for the group. “It’s just happened so quickly and it still doesn’t feel like it’s real a lot of the time.” “We’re so concentrated on looking forward and what’s going to happen next,” chips in guitarist Ian Miles, “we generally don’t have time to think about the things that have happened.”

There have, however, been real markers along the way.

There was returning to headline the Old Blue Last as part of their ‘The Callous Heart’ EP release – which also happened

Endless touring and record deals aren’t the only reason Creeper are gaining momentum: it’s time to join the escape, and bear witness to their “sincere pantomime.” Words: Sarah Jamieson. Photo: Carolina Faruolo

to be the first London venue the band had played, for a DIY Presents… show – and, as Will remembers, walking onstage at this year’s Hevy Fest.

“We were out the back, all kind of getting in character and getting ready to go play,” he continues, before diverting slightly. “I always feel like we’re really inadequate and like, ‘Oh god, why did they ask us to do this?’ and we feel really out of place. But I remember that day in particular, the guys went out and started the show, then I heard my cue to come out. As I came into the tent, there were loads of other bands that we knew lining up at the side of the stage – I had to push them out of the way to get to the stage! – and the whole tent was so into it. That felt like a real turning point, ‘Oh shit, we actually are becoming like a band; a band that people want to see and listen to.’ I know it sounds really bizarre - often we’re so in our own bubble - but I felt we were really accepted by our peers and the crowd.”

“Walking onto the stage that time,” surmises Ian, “was like the final scene in Big Fish!” “And he sees all of his old friends!”

“Then, as soon as you see a person, you remember a part of the tour that you were on with them. I just had all

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these people patting me on the back as I was walking past.”

Having spent the majority of their youth sharing stages together, there’s a real sense of excitement around Creeper’s success so far, from fans and bands alike. “It feels like everyone’s been really stoked for us,” confirms Will. “I don’t even know why! We’re just counting our lucky stars.”

Creeper are more than just a band, though; one listen to their music, one look at their videos will give all the clues necessary.

There’s a real tangible sense of image, a consistency to the bigger picture that’s helped them stand out from the crowd, all the while allowing them a real sense of escapism. “We’ve always been really comfortable with it,” says the frontman, when opening up on their image “and the visuals are just an expression of how we are anyway. It’s different variants of the same thing. The image itself came from growing up with certain bands and artists – AFI, The Nerve Agents, David Bowie; they were all very image-based, and it would reflect the music.

“It’s also the complete opposite to this laddy rock thing that’s been going on. I mean, it’s been completely unconscious, but we’re kinda the opposite of a lot of what the music industry has been accustomed to for a while.”

“A lot of the sort of the lad rock that’s around at the moment is really grounded in real life, with social media references,” Ian continues. “That makes me cringe! We do this to make it otherworldy. It’s something that takes you away from the stuff that you’re constantly bombarded with anyway.”

“I always say with this band,” adds Will, “a lot of the time when you see other punk, or pop punk bands, they advertise themselves as being really sincere and very authentic, but a lot of the time, you go to see their show and it’s a pantomime. When you come to see us, I feel like we advertise a pantomime, and without people really noticing, we try to make it as sincere as possible.” He laughs, as Ian chips in, “A sincere pantomime.” “But not an Aladdin at Christmas pantomime…” DIY

IT’S ALL IN THE MEME

Ever wonder what the real inspiration behind Creeper was?

Well, here’s the answer.

“When we first started this band,” admits Will, apparently for the first time too, “we saw a meme on the internet: it was Freddy Krueger and he sat by this fountain. The caption was, ‘Sometimes I wonder if she dreams about me,’ and I just thought that was really cute but also had this tempering of fantasy and real life. I was like, ‘We should write songs like this meme!”

“Genuinely,” confirms Ian, “that’s what happened.”

“What’s more interesting than a heartbroken monster?! That’s how we started off: for our first EP, that was the basis.”

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THE MAGIC GANG

Cl as s of 2016

“And for our next trick...”

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People flock towards The Magic Gang without these four even asking for fandom. That’ll continue in 2016. Words: Jamie Milton. Photo: Mike Massaro.

familiar pattern emerged when The Magic Gang were recording their new EP, in a fancy-sounding but not actually that swanky South London space. With just a couple of days to put tracks down, sessions would be interrupted by a bunch of wandering kids, all curious as to what this Brighton four-piece were getting up to.

“They’d run riot for five minutes, and then the studio owner who’s really polite would eventually start losing his temper,” remembers bassist Gus Taylor. “He’d literally have to herd them up. These kids said they’d form their own band and record it.”

For the past two years, The Magic Gang have been getting this kind of response. Without begging for support or clogging up social feeds with ‘Please love us!’ messages, they’ve picked up crazed and loyal fans. The best kind of fans, too. They’re ones who’ll buy the merch, decorate their bedroom walls with memorabilia and, in the band’s own words, “know all the words to unreleased songs.”

“That’s nice but also a bit worrying,” remarks frontman Jack Kaye. “Which version have they heard? What

“ WE H

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ROSS KEMP ON THE MAGIC GANG A spin-off of ‘Ross Kemp on Gangs’ has to happen, the premise being that Ross Kemp gives comment on The Magic Gang.

That’s it. It’s been in the works for ages (ie. we’ve reached out to his agent several times and they’ve never replied), and the band are keen for it to happen. So if you’re reading, Ross….

“We just need him to say something,” agrees Jack. “That would be so good. I would love that. You’ve got our backing there. We’d do a video with him if he was up for it.”

THE MAGIC GANG ON ROSS KEMP If Ross Kemp isn’t going to say anything, we’ll switch the format and let The Magic Gang do the talking. Over to Gus… “He was in Papua New Guinea once. He’s stood there filming and he goes to meet this warlord.

These gunmen come out and they put a gun to him, telling him ‘Give me all your cameras!’ He’s just like - ‘Are you gonna shoot me?

Eh?’ and he pulls the gun away from him.

He knows it’s not loaded because, well, because he’s Ross Kemp. And then he ends up smoking cigars with them!”

video have they downloaded on their iPhone?!”

“Might be a dodgy Russian website that just has every single thing,” replies drummer Paeris Giles.

“Yeah!” starts Jack. “Limewire’s making a comeback!”

The foundations of The Magic Gang’s world domination are firmly in place. With just two singles to their name, they’ve toured with Wolf Alice and Swim Deep, prompting crowdsurfing at the latter’s recent London Roundhouse show. For a full-time support act, they’ve built one hell of a reputation, and that’s without a record label or some bigwig’s backing. “The further we go, someone might come along. We haven’t signed a deal, but we’ve had help along the way,” says Jack. Gus agrees, adding that things are likely to change in 2016. “You need to go up levels as

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a band, and we’re probably at the point now where in a few months, we’re gonna want to do more. And we won’t be able to do it without the backing of a label. I think we’ve done everything we could have done right for the first two years.”If the group’s new EP is a sign of where they’re going, The Magic Gang haven’t needed a label to hone their pop-noding craft. Weezer comparisons abound, but there’s a deadly, wit-fledged twist to everything they do that feels more distinct. These songs sound cheery, but lyrically they’re determinedly miserable, a party pooper in jester’s clothes.

They race into 2016 arm in arm with fellow Class Of alumni The Big Moon. Both bands are unsigned, biding their time before taking the next step. “We get together and talk about the bands we’ve played with, everything we’re doing,” says Paeris. “We’re in a similar position to them.”

Before inking any deals, next on the agenda is the establishment of an official ‘band house’. It existed for a while - tons of Brighton bands bunched in the same space but this summer everyone moved out, and any groundswell of a ‘scene’ was quickly stunted. But this winter all four members are setting up home in a new place, alongside Abattoir Blues. Pity the poor strangers living next door.

“Maybe we should apologise to the neighbours in advance.

Give them gifts,” wonders Jack.

“We could give them songs!” beams Gus. Fingers crossed they don’t get kicked out of their new crib, but everything else is coming up Magic Gang for 2016. DIY

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“IT’S HARD TO REACH PERFECTION, I’D RATHER SAY IT DOESN’T EXIST.” - NAO 46 diymag.com

FULL DISCLOSURE

Cl as s of 2016

NAO

After teaming up with everyone from A.K Paul to Disclosure this year, Nao’s traded in perfection in favour of soul.

Words: El Hunt. Photo: Phil Smithies.

“I

didn’t write there, I went there to do nothing!” cackles Nao, speaking about progress towards her “underway” debut album. “I think it’s just important to get breaks in, because you can overwork, can’t you?” she asks. “I went to India for two weeks, and being able to turn your phone off - it was really good.” she says.

“The day after I came back, I wrote [first debut album preview] ‘Bad Blood’.”

Nao’s recent technology detox caps off a gradual couple of years, defined less by calculated roll-out, and more by relaxed experimentation. Her two EPs, ‘So Good’ and ‘February 15’, are journeys, Nao playing with various creative directions along the way. She may have played just a small smattering of live shows this year, and she might hide in every single press shot, but Nao doesn’t see it as a mysterious agenda.

“I’ve been working on my music quite publicly, I think, through the first two EPs,” reasons Nao, having emerged from DIY’s smoke-filled, blue-drenched photo studio. Up until now she’s kept a fairly low profile; today, she’s full of the excitement of piecing her debut together. “I didn’t know what I wanted to say as an artist yet,” she justifies. “I felt like the first thing I needed to get right was the music.”

Get stuck into said music, and any sense of mystery surrounding Nao evaporates instantly. Her love of jazz and soul pours crystal clear through every melody, everything she writes stemming from spontaneous improvisation. Songs

like ‘It’s You’ and ‘Adore You’ make no attempts to conceal the real people, and emotions, they’re addressing.

“Most of my songs are about my life,” nods Nao. “It is hard to put yourself out there personally,” she starts, “but the audience respond to that.”

Shadowy mystery might not have been Nao’s intention, but the recurrent arms that feature across everything she’s done so far, on the other hand - that’s entirely deliberate. “I like things with themes,” she says, “I remember Massive Attack had flames, that fire which you may or not notice. I’m also not that comfortable in photographs, so I thought hands would be a good way of distorting them,” she goes on. “I also wanted to bring hands into the EPs in that way because they’re quite homemade.”

“I sang the vocals in my cupboard at home,” she smiles. “When you’re in a big studio with lots of people watching you behind a glass screen, and this red light comes on, suddenly you just choke. I don’t feel I can get personal with myself, knowing people are watching. I sing into my cupboard because it’s a good bit of dead space to record into,” she laughs, “and no-one’s complained about the quality yet!”

After growing up in a busy house filled with all manner of genres - garage, soul, classical, gospel, grime, jungle, and her first love, jazz - pelted from all directions, Nao went on to study at London’s prestigious Guildhall School of Music. “I’m not really sure how I got in, I think it was just luck,” she dismisses.

“I spent a lot of time ticking boxes, and,

Along the way, Nao’s been involved in a fair few collaborations. She wrote ‘So Good’ with Jai Paul’s brother A.K, pulled a curveball remix of Wolf Alice out the bag, and only went into the studio with two blokes who go by the name of Disclosure.

Working with Howard and Guy Lawrence in particular was a huge influence on where Nao’s headed now...

Nao: That Disclosure session was where I learned to relax a little bit more. I learned a lot from that session, actually. I think sometimes I can give myself a hard time if I think I’m not getting somewhere quickly enough. I was impressed by the way Disclosure were so relaxed.

Jimmy Napes was there, too, and I feel like the song, ‘Super Ego’ is an amalgamation of all our sounds.

There are some corners in there I wouldn’t have taken if I was on my own, but it was a very interesting collaboration.

actually, I don’t think I was very creative in that time. I think it taught me to be progressive musically,” she ponders, “take risks and stuff. It gave me a really good work ethic, too.”

“I’ve got all the time in the world,” Nao grins. “I had to unlearn being stressed. I had to have a bad work ethic! The easiest thing to say is what comes naturally.

First thought, best thought, I think.”

“It’s hard to reach perfection, anyway!” she continues. “I’d rather say it doesn’t exist. I think people’s imperfection is what makes them incredible. I found this word actually, Wabi-Sabi, which embodies that. I really like that word.”

Wabi-Sabi is Japanese, to do with beautiful things being flawed. For things to really exist, they have to be incomplete, impermanent, and imperfect. “There’s no wrong answer, you just give it a go!” concludes Nao. “You can just go anywhere, and you don’t limit yourself. You can push your own boundaries.” DIY

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Cl as as s s of of 2016 2016 Cl

VANT

From growing up in a punk band to inciting mosh pits at half past eight on a Tuesday night, it’s now all systems go for VANT. Words: Sarah Jamieson. Photo: Mike Massaro

“F

or me, it was the rediscovery of being natural,” answers Mattie Vant, when asked what it was that drew him back into rock music. Having relocated to Brighton after growing up in the north-east town of Seaham, the frontman soon turned his talents to a more stripped-back form of music, but it didn’t take long for him to find his way back to his roots.

“When I was sixteen, I used to play in a punk band and we never thought about anything we were doing,” he explains. “It was so honest and raw, and we did alright really, for where we were and not really having any experience and being young.

Everything happened so easily with that, but when I moved to Brighton, I almost forgot about how easy it was and realised I had hit a brick wall and was trying to conform to what I thought was popular at the time.

“When I started with this, it was like a bit of a rebirth really,” he says. “I had just been messing around on guitar and came up with this song called ‘Headed For The Sun’ and I realised that’s what I needed to do. I couldn’t even pinpoint how I had written the song, it was so natural. Then, after that, I wrote thirty songs within three months, and it just felt right.”

Finally feeling inspired by his writing, Mattie still wasn’t entirely content. Admitting that he was at a point where he felt

“I WROTE THIRTY SONGS WITHIN THREE MONTHS, AND IT JUST FELT RIGHT.” - MATTIE VANT 48 diymag.com

quite “self-indulgent and insulated”, he decided it was about time to write music with more of a message: ‘Headed For The Sun’ was that catalyst. “I got to the point where I was like, ‘Is this worthwhile? Am I doing something that could make a difference in any way?’ When I wrote that song, because it had a specific message in it, I wondered if I could channel that energy and belief into music and add a whole different layer to my writing, to make it all worthwhile and give it a meaning and a context.”

Now, with countless songs written and a fresh awareness of politics - “what we’re trying to say is, instead of trying to stick your head in the sand, just be a bit more aware and contribute when you can, or care a little bit more” - the band aren’t about to shy away from causing a racket and speaking their minds. Already on the recent Neu Tour, with The Big Moon and INHEAVEN, they kicked up a fuss with stage invasions and moshpits alike, and now that the wheels are in motion and people are tuning in, there’s nothing in their way.

“I mean, it’s moving really fast,” says Mattie, of the momentum that the band have already picked up. “You can see just from - I hate to mention this but obviously it’s so prominent now social media, the stats are going and going, faster and faster.

You can see that there’s a curve and it’s gonna get faster and faster hopefully. If we keep ploughing away and getting good

“THE WHOLE POINT IS TO HAVE A MUSICAL PLATFORM, AND INTERTWINE MEANING INTO THE SONGS.” - MATTIE VANT support, then hopefully we’ll be able to achieve what we want to achieve.”

“I don’t just want to be a band with a political statement who can’t write songs,” he says, definitively. “I want to be in a band who have a hugely commercially-successful album so it puts us in a position to do more and change more: now the whole point is to have the musical platform, but intertwine the meaning into the songs. The fact that people are reading a little more deeply into it and are getting a bit more excited about what I’ve got to say as a lyricist, it’s really satisfying. It also justifies continuing to write in that way and to follow the belief that we had from the start.

Not that we’d sway from it, but it makes you feel like it’s right.” DIY

COMING PREPARED VANT may already have an album’s worth of tracks ready to go, but it looks like their debut could still be some way off...

“It’s been really strange for us because we’ve always worked in a way where we’ve recorded batches of songs as they were ready,” Mattie explains, “so we’d already recorded twelve tracks before we had even been signed. They were originally gonna be the album because that’s what we could afford and it’s what we had at the time.

“Naturally, since then, we’ve written more songs and we’ve developed more and we’ve got a bit more of a mature sound, so we’re gonna just continually write and record right up until release.

We don’t really know what the final tracklisting would be; we have enough material for an album now but that’s not to say that there won’t be things that complete with that order.

“Also, we’re really ambitious and we want to get a Number One album - I know it sounds insane but I’m a firm believer in that thing of, if you don’t aim for the best possible scenario, you’ll never get anywhere near it. To do that, we obviously need to develop a fan base first and we’re still in the very early stages of that, so it’s hard to say when it’ll be ready. It’ll definitely be at some point next year.”

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Cl as s of 2016

BLACK HONEY Channelling the spirit of rock’n’roll, Black Honey have made their mark by doing things at their own pace. It’s already paying off. Words: Sarah Jamieson. Photo: Emma Swann

W

ith dreamy melodies and psychedelic guitar solos, Black Honey may well be one of new music’s brightest hopes, but they aren’t shy about harping back to the good ol’ days of rock’n’roll. There’s something special about this lot and their connection to the past.

“We’ve been playing together for years and years,” begins frontwoman Izzy B. Phillips, opening up on the Brighton band’s history; collectively the four members have been working together – in and out of musical projects – for a long time, yet their new incarnation seemed to grow along with them. “I feel like all of that was experimenting and learning about what we wanted to do.

Black Honey…” she trails off. “I don’t want to say it built itself, but it sort of did. It all fell into place and everything felt right about it.

“Artistically, it felt like a much stronger direction, and creatively, in terms of production and art direction. They’re all things that we’re really into. It was a long process of playing together and writing a lot of songs, and eventually Black Honey kind of formed itself from those experiments. We enjoyed it so just thought, let’s run with it. It’s still got its own sense of path, and we just let it do its own thing sometimes.”

Doing their own thing has been the name of the game all along: after all, people are still chatting about the band’s initial secrecy and their first real foray into social media, which saw them

50 diymag.com

give out a phone number for curious fans to WhatsApp message. “The Whatsapp thing was just because we wanted to do things a bit differently,” Phillips explains. “We didn’t just want to follow everyone else’s path.”

Without the pressures of an internet presence to keep constantly fed and satisfied, the band have been able to develop at their own pace. “I think all of the best bands take years before they’re something,” throws in bassist Tommy Taylor. “It’s probably why so many bands fail so early,” adds Phillips,

“We always talk about how we long for the days where you’d discover records from your friend coming over with their new release,” Izzy continues, delving into their love of all things retro. “It’s something I’ve spoken to people about from that generation, and I’ve read about, but we don’t have that.”

Doing things on their own terms has already led them down the road of success: not only have the band already released more tracks than they’d first expected, but they’ve already wrapped a headline tour too, which hints that

“ALL OF THE BEST BANDS TAKE YEARS BEFORE THEY’RE SOMETHING.” TOMMY TAYLOR “because they get all this excitement around them, and they don’t have any time to get their shit together. There’s so much overexposure, but we took that leap in regaining our own control as what we do and don’t expose ourselves as. That was empowering for us.”

things are – if Izzy has got anything to do with it- only going to get more insane as time goes on. “There was a moment in Birmingham when I came off stage and Tommy said to me, ‘So, did you instigate the wall of death or did they start it?’ I would’ve loved to take credit for it, but actually, no, they did!”

“The thing about our favourite bands is that you wouldn’t really see them, unless you went to a show,” adds Taylor. “It wasn’t like you could log on to Twitter every day and see what they had for breakfast.”

“I looked over my shoulder,” laughs Tommy, “and Izzy was just shouting, ‘Wider!’” “I mean, with our music, it doesn’t even really fit,” chips in guitarist Chris Ostler, “but if that’s what they’re gonna do, we’re not gonna stop them!”

DIY

“BLACK HONEY BUILT ITSELF - EVERYTHING FELT RIGHT.” IZZY B. PHILLIPS

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Cl as s of 2016

OSCAR

He can’t stop breaking his phone, and he’s fed up of the fast world we live in. Oscar is rising to the top the slow and steady way. Words: Jamie Milton. Photos: Mike Massaro.

W

hen an excitable Oscar Scheller finished art school and decided to focus on music, he thought he’d be a star in no time. It’s no surprise.

The North Londoner was penning giant pop songs in spades, albeit delivered with a rough edged charm. “I once got warned that this would be very slow, that I wouldn’t be an overnight success and that I’d have to be patient,” he remembers, two years on and closer to winning that pursuit of stardom than ever. “I was adamant that wouldn’t be the case,” he admits. “It wasn’t an arrogance, but these songs had to do something. I felt like they needed to be heard… Probably like every artist!”

Oscar’s been anything but an overnight success, but his ethos has stayed resolute. Happy to stay in his childhood bedroom, he’s been recording songs that sound sweet on the outside but rely on an emotional pendulum, swinging from one state to the next. Recent single ‘Breaking My Phone’ best sums up what he’s about. He’ll relay his frustrations about relationships, personal feuds and the world we live in, but it’ll be ribboned neatly with simple, high-flying hooks. It’s easy to see the smile-inducing glee of this year’s ‘Beautiful Words’ single as verging towards twee territory, but in reality it’s about seeing someone lose their lust for life.

Quite the contrast.

Everything Oscar writes about tends to boil down to the modern age and “the pace we’re at.” Always available, always distracted, he’s one of millions who’d like to see the world slow down. “It’s just having to be on a map all the time, when you might wanna be lost, or get lost,” he remarks. “I do think we’re too switched on. I have days when I really enjoy being online and talking to people.

And I have days where I have nothing to say. But that’s what being a human being is about.”

Time’s been on Oscar’s side, hence why he’s not too keen on the speed of life. “I’ve been lucky enough not to have a job, because I’m still living at home. My mum is very supportive. She’s an artist herself, so she understands what it takes, and how long it takes,” he confides, and despite not racing to the top in record time, he has everything on his side to take on 2016. “I’ve realised these things do take time, and in a way, slow and steady does win the race. It may not seem like it, in this very

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NOT TOO HARD OUT HERE

Oscar’s writing pop songs for superstars, these days. First on the agenda is a track for Lily Allen.

“Coming up for lyrics for her was really fun. It’s more scornful! It’s a sketch, so we’ll see if she likes it,” he says. “There’s stuff not on the first album that I’d like to find a home for, so I’ve been adapting it for other people, writing from their headspace. And that is the most fun.”

Writing massive singles is a tiring game.

“I DO TOO THINK S W IT W E CHED ’RE ON.” 53

“THESE SONGS HAD TO DO SOMETHING; THEY NEEDED TO BE HEARD.” fast world. Sometimes it works for people and everything clicks into place all at once. Sometimes it’s off-kilter for a while and suddenly things match up. That can be out of your control. You just have to stay strong and make sure you’re doing it for the right reason.”

With a debut readied for early next year, Scheller’s decided to build up a buffer. First off, he’s writing for other musicians, something he’s dreamt of doing since the early days. “I don’t think that side of my work’s going to take off until people have heard my record and know what I’m about, though,” he admits. “ It’s just all about exposure, really.

It’s taken Kevin Parker three albums

to get to where he is now, collaborating with other people and going into the pop sphere.” There’s also a second album, one that he’s been working towards since the start of 2015 (he speaks about “Album Two” more than “Album One”, to be honest). “I’m fleshing everything out on a MIDI keyboard, so everything sounds like a Christmas song at this stage,” he says. “Again it goes back to the world that we live in, and how artists can work within this relentless space. You have to keep up. You’re forced to have an output all the time.

PURE TOURS

“You have to be a family on the road,” says Oscar, and here’s his verdict on the bands he’s been on the road with.

GENGAHR

“You could get stuck in, have some good stories. It was lads on tour! They do it in moderation, though. They pick their moments. Just like I do.”

HINDS

“We were kindred spirits, and it was great but a bit dangerous.

When you have that kind of connection, it makes things scary thinking about what comes next - whether you’ll find that again or not.”

“I’m like a magpie, gathering all my bits - it’ll happen in good time.” DIY

Are you taking the Mickey, mate?

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Cl as s of 2016

INHEAVEN F

Fresh from the Neu Tour, INHEAVEN have a “taste for blood” and they’re ready to take over. Words: Jamie Milton. Photo: Phil Smithies. or every band playing 2015’s Neu Tour, it was a leap of faith. Groups who’d barely headlined tiny venues were suddenly going arm-in-arm across the country. But for London fourpiece INHEAVEN especially, this was their first experience of cramming into a van, seeing new cities and playing to strangers.

It’s a strange situation for a band who, at the start of the year, had a plan to bung a song up online every week and wait for the fans to flock. They hadn’t planned a record deal with Sony, they hadn’t worked out how to tour, and they had no idea they’d be recording their debut album that December.

Things look to have progressed at a batshit speed for INHEAVEN, but they’ve been sitting on these skyreaching songs for two years. “It was a chain reaction,” remembers floppy-

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haired frontman James Taylor. “We got thrown into this stuff. We had enough songs to release one a week for a whole year. You’ve gotta gulp and go with it.

There’s no room to overthink stuff.”

It started with ‘Regeneration’, a blistering work of escapism that threatened to lift off out of Planet Earth.

Since then, nothing’s been able to stop their newfound momentum. “We weren’t expecting this,” admits James.

Beyond anything else, the Neu Tour established INHEAVEN’s hunger to tour ‘til they drop. “It’s getting a taste for blood, isn’t it? It was fucking amazing.

I’ve always wanted to do that,” beams James. But with The Big Moon and VANT by their side, it was also an chance for the group to work out how to improve. “You realise how good you need to be,” says Chloe Little.

“There was a gang mentality,” agrees James. “We’re all trying to do the same thing. Everyone was so supportive.

Watching The Big Moon and VANT every night - you learn something from watching them. The Big Moon and the way they interact on stage; and VANT are a powerhouse. They’re so fucking tight. It made us want to be better musicians.”

Sessions for INHEAVEN’s debut start this month, in rural Wales. They’re working with Tom Dalgety on songs that’ve existed in the back of their heads for what feels like a lifetime. “We’ve had it ready for ages, and we’ve just been sitting on it. It’s been frustrating. I listen to it every day, just to think about what we can add,” explains James. “‘Nevermind’ was recorded in two weeks! So we can do it. We’ll hit the ground running in the New Year.” DIY

Cl as s of 2016

THE BIG MOON

It’s been a chaotic 2015 for this London four-piece, and things are only set to get madder. Words: El Hunt. Photos: Phil Smithies.

“W

e’ve dropped the coffee onto the recording device!” shrieks The Big Moon’s Soph Nathan suddenly, deftly rescuing a dictaphone from otherwise certain doom, and reporting on unfolding events like the band’s own news anchor. “And now it smells delicious,” she adds.

The Big Moon appeared out of nowhere back in April this year, with the fittingly titled ‘Eureka Moment’, and they’ve not looked back since. Far from still finding their feet, there’s a fully-formed, breathless, playful euphoria to their pop songs; a live presence that’s impossible to contain. Believe the hype with this lot.

Half-buried underneath a pile of their gear, today finds The Big Moon in fairly dazzled moods. The four-piece have just crash-landed home from DIY’s Neu tour with VANT and INHEAVEN, and in just under a week, the road-trip picks up again. Slated to support The Maccabees, The Vaccines, and Ezra Furman in the next few months alone, the band are off for practice later today, too. They’re also beginning to piece together a debut album.

“Do you think of ideas, on the road and stuff?” Soph asks Jules Jackson, The Big Moon’s

NOTHING WITH-HAT YOU

The Big Moon talk DIY through metaphorical band headwear.

Jules: Writing, recording and touring are all such different things. They’re different hats, all at the same time!

Soph: A touring hat would be one of those hard hats, with the beers and straws.

Jules: A writing hat would be a chef’s hat, for cooking up beats. A recording hat would be...

Fern: A surgeon’s cap.

Celia: I read the other day you can get those face masks, for pollution, but made out of swan feathers.

Soph: Eww! Celia: You’re not allowed to touch swans, or the queen gets so mad!

It’s like voodoo. She can feel every move.

Soph: In the BBC building they have four different alarms for different things, and one of them is for if the Queen dies. There’s a specific alarm.

Erm, Soph, we’re not sure face-pushing is allowed in the tug of war rule book.

57

frontwoman and lyricist. “Yeah.

I do,” she answers. “But I write in my bedroom. I can’t on tour, because I don’t have a lot of time, or privacy. I mean, I could get my guitar out in the van, but it would be a squish.”

“There’s no specific plan, but that’s hopefully a step soon,” adds Soph of the debut. “It’ll be nice to get something from this period,” adds bassist Celia Archer, “that’s a nice snapshot of us as a band.”

It’s an exciting time for The Big Moon, after all, and this week marks their only moment even vaguely resembling time off all year. Celia’s been getting into Downton Abbey during her down-time, apparently, while Soph’s been hoarding half-rotting bags of fruit in her bedroom, left over from the tour. Drummer Fern Ford is still hung up on the pitiful scores The Big Moon received from judges in their dance-based video for ‘Nothing Without You’ - “tell us how good we are!” she demands. Meanwhile, Jules has been sampling some strange culinary delights post-tour.

“Have you ever eaten dog food?” she asks the group, with the flippancy of somebody enquiring about the time. “I have. Wet dog food, dry dog food,” she lists.

“Just to see.”

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“Anything healthy, with vitamins in, that isn’t beige, we welcome,” notes Celia, changing the subject.

“Yeah,” agrees Jules, “if you find a whole carrot, you just have to stuff it in.”

“It feels like a real milestone, it’s crazy to think,” Celia says, observing that The Big Moon has been a band for over a year now.

“We were all in the cafe round the corner from where we practice,” she continues, remembering the day they first uploaded debut track ‘Eureka Moment’ and things properly kicked off. “We were supposed to have a practice, but obviously we couldn’t concentrate, we were too excited.

It’s a bit overwhelming.”

Amid the whirlwind of this year, the super blood moon also took place. It’s a lunar phenomenon The Big Moon claim they orchestrated. “That was a really expensive PR stunt,” tuts Celia. ”Just to get everyone talking about #TheBigMoon. We wanted to get it trending,” she says.

“Come to one of our gigs and you’ll see it,” Soph adds.

“Would you actually go to the moon, do you think?” wonders Fern. “No,” glares a troubled Soph. “That’s awful. Never in a hundred years would I go to the moon.” Fern nods in agreement.

“I don’t think I’d like being that far away from coffee.” DIY

AND ONE MORE THING

Here’s what else to expect from the next twelve months. he Big Moon round up DIY’s Class of 2016, but there’s an awful lot more to be looking out for. Hinds, Jack Garratt and Spring King are all Class of 2015 alumni, and their eventual world domination looks imminent.

Particularly with Garratt, a bearded wizard bound to top every ‘who’s going to be massive’ poll going.

Garratt brings a slick, fault-free but inventive take on pop that’s being upheld on both sides of the pond. Brooklyn act Tei Shi’s debut is likely to turn heads, and the PC Music-affiliated LIZ is bringing a bombastic side to bubblegum that’ll get more than just SOPHIE’s approval. Back in the UK, Dua Lipa is as fresh as new prospects come, but there’s every chance she’ll take over in no time.

Sticking to these shores, Pumarosa kick off the year with a show for DIY’s Hello 2016 nights at London’s Old Blue Last. Their debut single ‘Priestess’ is a seven-minute juggernaut, and it’s one that’s swiftly put them in the spotlight.

Liverpool’s sunny-side-up poppers Clean Cut Kid, ballad specialist Frances and smooth-as-it-gets duo Honne are similarly bright UK newcomers.

And if it’s pure, unhinged noise you’re looking for, there’s a similarly good outlook. Milk Teeth have a superb debut album (‘Vile Child’) fast approaching, and Norwegian group Slutface master similar tricks when it comes to all-out pop punk. Leeds fuzz fiends Bruising, DIY-or-die thrashers Sheer Mag and the intoxicating Ho99o9 should all be releasing first works next year, while Danish punks Yung look to follow an impressive batch of EPs with an almighty full-length.

Keep New Yorkers Show Me the Body in mind, too. Their batshit take on hardcore is disorienting at first, but there’s a seriously exciting edge to their output so far. DIY

T

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PLAY GIGS IN GREAT VENUES

59

DIY READERS POLL 2015

It’s that time of the year again! The time when you, dear DIY readers, decide what’s what.

Which albums have been very good? Is there a certain musician who’s clearly a bit of a prat? Is there someone who’s obviously a lot better than everyone else? Most importantly, who is the sauciest warbler of them all?

We opened voting last month, and the results are in. It’s time to reflect on the very best of the last twelve months, and the stars who’ve defined this bonkers and often brilliant year.

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BES T PERSON

IN (OR O UT S IDE O F ) A BAND: 1 Ellie Rowsell (Wolf Alice) 2 Harry Koisser (Peace) 3 Halsey

BES T ALBUM

BES T SONG

1 Wolf Alice - My Love Is Cool 2 Foals - What Went Down 3 Lana Del Rey - Honeymoon

1 Wolf Alice - Giant Peach 2 Wolf Alice - You’re A Germ 3 The 1975 - Love Me

4 Tame Impala - Currents 5 Bring Me the Horizon - That’s the Spirit 6 Swim Deep - Mothers 7.Peace - Happy People 8 Jamie xx - In Colour 9 Drenge - Undertow 10 Gengahr - A Dream Outside

4 Foals - What Went Down 5 Chvrches - Clearest Blue 6 Major Lazer ft. MØ - Lean On 7 Drenge - Running Wild 8 Bring Me The Horizon - Happy Song 9 Jamie xx - Loud Places 10 The Maccabees - Marks to Prove It

It’s not exactly a bookies upset, is it? Wolf Alice have graced these pages month after month, and they’ve also delivered the best debut in decades, all without getting above themselves or acting like dickheads. It’s no surprise that DIY readers have picked this lot for pretty much everything. They fully deserve it.

WOLF ALICE , THEIR YEAR IN QUOTES

The best way to look back on Wolf Alice’s whirlwind 2015?

Putting together all the silly (and sensible) things they’ve said.

On finishing ‘My Love Is Cool’

”We were making the final minute touches to the mix the day we had to finish. And Ellie cried. Sorry, I just thought I’d tell him that.” - Theo Ellis

On adding glitter to their entourage

”I’ve only got one colour, and it’s horrible, a yellow. I’m pretty annoyed about that. Well, no, I have two, but the other one’s horrible.” - Theo

On their fans

BAND OF THE YEAR 1 Wolf Alice

2 Foals 3 Bring Me The Horizon

”One of the most heartwarming things is recognising fans in the front row. We know them by their Twitter handles. Or there’s a couple who always come to our shows - these people who were one of five fans in a crowd three years back are now in the balcony. Our fans are supportive. People are always saying ‘Is guitar music back? Is there a new scene?’ and I don’t know, but I definitely feel like what’s happening and what’s special is that fans of bands are supporting all the support acts. Regardless of if they would have liked them much in the first place.” - Ellie Rowsell

On what’s next

”Everything’s achievable, to a degree. I knew we had the potential. When you’re younger, you have dreams and a lot of people will say ‘You can’t do that’. Even if it’s a city job or a life as a footballer. You’re not superhuman. But everything’s possible if you approach it in the right way.” Joff Oddie 61

INDIE DREAMBOAT OF THE YE AR: 1 Harry Koisser (Peace)

2 Zachary Robinson (Swim Deep) 3 Joel Amey (Wolf Alice)

BES T COVER VERSION

1 Chvrches - What Do You Mean? (Justin Bieber) 2 Wolf Alice - Steal My Girl (One Direction) 3 Slaves - Shutdown (Skepta)

BES T ‘COLL AB’:

1 Skrillex, Diplo & Justin Bieber 2 Wavves x Cloud Nothings 3 FFS (Franz Ferdinand & Sparks)

MOS T W TF LYRIC

1 “Caught up in fashion, Karcrashian panache and a bag of hash for passion.” (The 1975, ‘Love Me’)

2 “It’s alright to feel like a fat child in a pushchair.”

(Everything Everything, ‘No Reptiles’) 3 “Do I make you feel like cheating? I said no, not really.”

(OMI, ‘Cheerleader’)

BES T VIDEO:

1 Wolf Alice - You’re a Germ 2 Grimes - Flesh Without Blood / Life in the Vivid Dream 3 Bring Me The Horizon - True Friends

SAUCIES T WARBLER 1 Harry Koisser (Peace)

2 Sam Smith 3 Brendon Urie

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DIY READERS POLL 2015

BREAK THROUGH BAND 1 Years & Years 2 Gengahr 3 Bully

It’s been the year of Years & Years. They were the cover stars of DIY’s Class of 2015. Then they won BBC’s Sound of 2015. After that, it was pretty much confirmed - they were going to be massive.

But that didn’t necessarily mean they’d become proper superstars, with debut album ‘Communion’ topping charts worldwide and frontman Olly Alexander being one of 2015’s defining faces.

The big question: 12 months on from being the most exciting new band around, and having that premonition confirmed, have they become wankers? Not by the sounds of it. Their riders are more fancy. They’re wearing nicer clothes, come to think of it. But they don’t have an endless entourage and their egos haven’t skyrocketed just because ‘King’ is a massive tune. photos: Mike Massaro 64 diymag.com

On a scale of ‘really rubbish’ to ‘oh my god amazing’ to ‘couldn’t believe this would ever happen’, what’s this year been like?

Mikey: I think we need a graph, here.

Emre: It’s definitely been the last one.

It’s been a year of firsts. Jools Holland to Glastonbury to Number One. It’s been amazing.

M: Probably a nine out of ten.

E: You can never get a ten. It’s a falsity.

When in life is anything perfect?

It only dawned on me just how massive you are, when I was in Poland. Open’er festival, thousands of people stampeding towards this stage, which you happened to be playing.

M: Were they running away from velociraptors?

E: Poland? Well you wouldn’t have been in America.

Olly: We’re rock stars in Poland. We’re always trending in Poland.

Is there anywhere that doesn’t bloody get it, then?

O: I don’t think China have embraced us yet. North Korea. They hate us. But in America we’re not really all that. We’ve played to big crowds but we’re not considered commercial enough, in radio.

E: Someone in the US said that ‘King’ wasn’t commercial enough.

O: Yeah someone said ‘It’s not really an obvious pop song, is it?’ Erm… I once played it to a songwriter in LA and he was like ‘That’s a very unusual concept’.

M: What did he say it could be improved by?

O: Something about the lyrics not making sense.

It was too ‘80s or something, I dunno.

It’s pretty intense.

E: America is an entirely different beast. Each state is the size of the UK. Several Polands.

It all kicked off when you won the BBC’s

‘Sound Of…’ poll, which doesn’t always translate into a brilliant thing.

Did you get told, ‘Hang on, you’ve actually got to be massive now’.

E: It certainly changed everything for us.

Literally, the day after was insane. And it only hit home the day it was announced.

O: We’d not really done anything like that until then. I knew it was a big deal. We thought we’d had most of the album written. And then we were lucky, because ‘King’ was our next song. Then it ended up being crazy big. We were shocked though - we thought James Bay would win.

James Bay’s had a good year though.

That hat’s taken off.

E: Yeah, the Sound Of is a strange concept. But one of the things I like about the British public is that they don’t like being told what to do. It sometimes has the opposite effect, pushing people away from you. But that doesn’t seem to have happened with us, and that made me really happy and proud.

O: It gets harder and harder for new acts to break through. If you’re not on X Factor, you need tastemakers to approve you and get you into a place where more people are going to hear you. It doesn’t necessarily work out.

And then it’s viewed as a Sound Of curse. Or a Mercury curse. Were you a bit bummed out at not getting a Mercury nomination, or was it not really on the radar?

O: I didn’t think we were gonna get one.

E: It never occurred to me. But to be honest, we’re still at that stage where we don’t expect to be nominated for anything. The Mercury is a different kettle of fish.

O: All the attention we got seemed to be more commercial. Although they have had commercial acts before.

Florence was nominated this year.

O: That’s true. But no, I didn’t think we were gonna win it.

E: It’s a good list though.

In a year of big things, how have you kept yourselves in check? You seem to have an entourage of ten people now.

E: Do we?!

O: Well that lady over there does make-up. There’s our manager, with her assistant.

M: I’d quite like an entourage though.

That’d be great. They’re not supposed to do anything.

O: Justin Bieber honestly had fifteen people around him constantly. And as soon as he came off stage, they were like 65

‘Our boy smashed it! He killed it!’ and they were high-fiving each other.

They walked into this dressing room, and there were fifteen massive guys blocking the way.

E: I want high fives!

O: I want people to tell me we can do better.

E: Our sound guy usually goes ‘Hmm yeah, that was alright’.

Has your rider changed dramatically?

O: It’s definitely gotten bigger. The crew love to eat sandwiches, so it’s got an impressive array.

You could open a deli with our rider. Sliced meats, hummus, breads, sauces, dips. It’s all very deli-based.

E: We were once told our rider was the best for sandwiches.

O: We could do a thing where the first two fans through the door get a free sandwich.

Do you not throw in a wildcard every so often?

E: Tapenade. Have you not tried it? It’s a sensational olive paste.

M: Quite salty though.

But there have been no diva requests? Nothing about what’s in the sandwiches?

E: Second album. That’s when we’ll do it.

Ooh, second album.

What’s going on with that? It’s early, isn’t it?

E: I started getting some pedals and I started sifting through synth sounds. But other than that, nothing.

O: I’ve been writing bits, but not really. I need a proper piano to write on, because I can’t use a computer that well. I have a lot of voice memos, notes on my iPhone - that sort of thing. It’s all a scramble.

PR AT OF THE YE AR

1 David Cameron 2 Matt Healy 3 Rat Boy

NEW BAND MOS T LIKELY TO BE AMA ZING IN 2016: 1 Rat Boy

2 The Japanese House 3 VANT

DIY READERS POLL 2015 66 diymag.com

ARTIS T WHO MOS T NEEDS TO ‘GET A BLOODY MOVE ON!’: 1 Frank Ocean 2 Haim 3 Arctic Monkeys

BES T COMEBACK: 1 Sleater-Kinney 2 Blur 3 Adele

THE WO O DEN S P O O N AWARD FOR B ES T DIY RE ADERS P OLL VOTES: 1 “Yer nan” (Sauciest Warbler) 2 “Miley, what’s good?!”

(Best Comeback) Don’t ask Sleater-Kinney to put on the rose-tinted specs; unless you fancy facing their wrath, anyway.

After a decade away, theirs didn’t feel like any old reunion. Playing to scores of first-time gig attendees, and deliberately forging forward with ‘No Cities To Love,’ relevancy was at the centre of Sleater-Kinney’s 2015 takeover.

After putting out ‘The Woods’ in 2006, SleaterKinney went on hiatus. Did you think you’d ever get back together, or was that not on your mind at that point? Why did you choose this year to return?

Corin Tucker: I think that we purposefully used the word hiatus. We meant it as in we have to put this [Sleater-Kinney] on pause right now, but we need to come back to it, if we can.

Carrie Brownstein: I don’t know [why now], specifically. I think we just wanted to play again, and the timing happens to be right now. It’s been kind of percolating for a few years, and it took a while to carve out the time. It wasn’t on some kind of timeline - it could have taken years to write the record, or it could have happened really quickly. You know, it had to be very intentional.

3 “Theo and Joel’s friendship” (Best Collab)

4 “Chris Pratt” (Prat of the Year)

BES T T V APPEAR ANCE: 1 Drenge on Letterman 2 Wolf Alice on Jools 3 Foals on Jools

Do you feel it was also because you had something new to say again with your music, after that break?

Corin: Yeah. We wanted to come out with a new record that we - we worked on it until we had an album that had something new to say. I’m not necessarily sure that we would have taken the same path otherwise.

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DIY READERS POLL 2015

ARTIS T MOS T LIKELY TO ‘HE ADLINE’ A S O - CALLED ‘FES TIVAL’ IN THE NE AR FU T URE:

1 Foals

2 Wolf Alice 3 Bring Me The Horizon

BES T FES TIVAL (O R ‘FES TIVAL LIKE E VENT’):

1 Reading & Leeds 2 Glastonbury 3 Latitude

“I

t’s been a long time since we played a roller disco,” grins Yannis Philippakis as he takes to Margate’s Dreamland stage.

Crammed into the tiny confines of the curved, brickwork roof, it’s a quirky checkpoint on a tour that’s seen an arena-ready Foals squeeze themselves into all manner of intimate past haunts, and it’s been rewarded immediately with non-stop ferocity both on- and off-stage. “Crowds have been berserk,” he says a few days prior, reflecting on their cosier surrounds, “it’s very tangible, which is what’s nice, you feel like you can just connect to the crowd. It’s easy to get that connection – the atmosphere’s more contained and more ferocious.”

A career spanning set toys with the band’s split personality, fire-starting heavy numbers like opener ‘Snake Oil’ sitting comfortably alongside the more delicate likes of ‘Give It All’. Its common thread lies in the weight behind their every move – once a spindly math-rock band, Foals are now beefed up and carrying themselves with a puffed-out chest. Where the slower numbers emphasise their emotional depth, the heavier side goes straight for the jugular, an early ‘My Number’ in particular inciting a predictable swarm of limbs from the off. “Some of the new songs are more intense,” considers Yannis, “a song like ‘What Went Down’, when we play that live at the moment that’s taking the roof off every night. It’s fun to have those extreme songs, but I like the fact that the set is a balance of all four records. It’s like a ‘best of’ set in some ways – it’s designed to have different bits in it. It’s not all one gear – it’s a three-dimensional set.”

BES T LIVE ACT 1 Foals 2 Wolf Alice 3 Drenge

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Bad Habit

“I think that’s the strength of it,” he continues, “the fact that it can go from a heavy, y’know, a ripper, to something that’s more understated and more atmospheric. I think that’s part of what makes our show great.” Back in Margate, a “ripper” like ‘Providence’ sees him break cover, clambering into the crowd, before he’s briefly reigned back in with ‘Spanish Sahara’. As the soft hiss of waves marks the track’s opening, Dreamland feels to be its perfect setting, just a skimmed stone’s throw from the beach.

From there on out, the intensity goes through the roof. Guitars are brandished like weapons, guitarist Jimmy Smith full-blown wrestling with his instrument as every track rings out, lending ‘Late Night’ a jagged, improvised outro in the process.

“We’re not overly rehearsed. You need to remember with rock‘n’roll not to overly rehearse it or overly choreograph it. Those are the shows that I used to like to see. Live music should be impulsive in many ways – if it wasn’t, it would just be stale.”

“IT’S NOT ALL ONE GEAR – IT’S A THREEDIMENSIONAL SET.” - YANNIS

“It’s a fucking Saturday night in Margate, are you ready?!” he screams from the roller disco stage, diving headfirst into ‘Inhaler’, before an encore sees him leap atop the back bar of the venue, necking a shot halfway through the achingly long build of ‘Two Steps Twice’. It’s these moments that marks Foals out as the country’s greatest live band – it all feels fit to collapse at any moment, and watching Foals claw themselves back from the brink while relishing every moment of the madness is a spectacle unlike any other.

PHILIPPAKIS

Halfway through their November tour, Yannis tweeted about keeping “shady macho behaviour” out of the pits. “I think there was a girl – I’d read something – that was complaining about how she’d been treated in one of the moshpits,” he explains. “Particularly there’s an increasing awareness of maybe the fact that certain girls don’t get treated like they should. There’s some shady shit that goes on, and I don’t like to hear about it sometimes.

“I don’t want shows to be that thing where they don’t feel like they can go mental,” he clarifies.

“I think that the beauty of a live rock show is the crowd feeling like it can be ecstatic, and at times that’s to do with moshing and that’s to do with circle pits and that’s to do with crowdsurfing.

There’s a difference between a mosh-pit and just groping somebody. I think that goes without saying.”

“I think our crowds are great, I very rarely ever see anything go down where I’m like, ‘that’s not okay’, but I just thought on a general level it’s probably worth pointing out.”

“LIVE MUSIC SHOULD BE IMPULSIVE” -

Poor Yannis was only going to the shops to buy some milk.

Photo: Carolina Faruolo

YANNIS PHILIPPAKIS

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best of 2015 album of the year sufjan stevens

public service broadcasting

carrie & lowell

the race for space

tame impala

currents

björk

vulnicura

courtney barnett

sometimes i sit and think, and sometimes i just sit kurt vile

b’lieve i’m goin down...

hot chip

why make sense?

jamie xx

in colour

john grant

grey tickles, black pressure

julia holter

s have you in my wildernes

the fopp list

the fopp list get the lowdown on our favourite albums of 2015 in this month’s edition of the fopp list, free magazine in-store now while stocks last

70 diymag.com

father john mis ty

i love you, honeyb ear

sleaford mo ds

key markets

fopp stores

bristol college green // cambridge sidney st // edinburgh rose st // glasgow union st & byres rd // london covent garden // manchester brown st // nottingham broadmarsh shopping centre

alabama shakes

sound and color

beach house

depression cherry

the maccabees

marks to prove it

low

ones and sixes

deerhunter

fading frontier

new order

music complete

ghostpoet

shedding skin

everything everything

get to heaven

wolf alice

my love is cool

sleater-kinney

no cities to love

ffs

ffs

belle & sebastian

girls in peacetime want to dance

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REVIEWS

eee

ADELE

25 (XL Recordings)

In reality, ‘25’ could’ve been anything. A nine hour techno mix; an album composed entirely of dog noises, a spiritual successor to My Bloody Valentine’s ‘Loveless’ – its predecessor ‘21’ sold so many copies, and the anticipation for a follow-up was so fevered, that Adele could’ve recorded literally whatever she fancied and it still would’ve been in about a zillion stockings come Christmas time.

That’s not to say this isn’t the record Adele wanted to produce: the hundreds of studio sessions and extent to which ‘25’ has been agonised over shouldn’t be underestimated. But now it’s arrived, it all just feels so safe. ‘When We Were Young’ - the much anticipated team up with Tobias Jesso Jr. - has none of the spark that putting those two in a room together should do.

Despite coming from the same body that houses a personality so unbelievably erratic and off-the-wall in the best possible way, ‘25’ is as straight-down-the-line ‘Adele album’ as it gets. Adele could’ve done whatever she bloody well liked at this stage – it’s a bit of a shame to see her so content to settle into old habits. (Tom Connick) LISTEN: ‘Send My Love (To Your New Lover)’

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LIZZO

Big GRRRL Small World

(BGSW Records)

Lizzo’s 2013 debut, ‘Lizzobangers’, was a fireball of a record, all incendiary wit and magpie production. And while she’s toned down the confrontation musically on this follow-up, opting for minimal, smooth beats made in collaboration with BJ Burton, lyrically it cuts even sharper. “Ain’t I a woman?” asks opener ‘Ain’t I’ in its closing seconds, nodding to abolitionist Sojourner Truth’s much-quoted 1851 freedom speech. “I see someone like me ashamed to be,” says ‘My Skin’, “and honestly really, I’m fed up with it”.

Her deft wordplay and knowing winks haven’t gone completely, but ‘Big Grrrl Small World’ is an intentionally intense listen – Lizzo’s physical presence (a black woman,“statuesque and big as hell”) is placed meticulously front and centre. (Emma Swann) LISTEN: ‘My Skin’ Lizzo talks through the making of ‘Big Grrrl Small World’. Words: Joe Goggins.

Q&A

What was it like recording at Bon Iver’s April Base Studios in Eau Claire, Wisconsin?

It felt like a retreat every time I went there. When you’re in the city you live in, there’s so many pressures, so many things pulling you left and right, but Eau Claire is right in the middle of the woods. I felt in touch with nature; there’s trees everywhere, and there were these crazy lightning storms too, these really cool natural occurrences. The environment saved me from distractions, but it also made me want to make something earthier, and I think you can hear that on the record.

How would you sum up the headspace of ‘Big Grrrl Small World’?

‘Lizzobangers’ has so much angry yelling, so much confusion. It sounds like what it is; a woman with no place to process emotions. There’s moments where I’m shouting and moments where I’m crying. That was a woman with so much baggage, but thank god for ‘Lizzobangers’, because it allowed me to get to where I am now on ‘Big Grrrl Small World’. I’m way more confident, way more settled, and I’ve made something that sounds true to life - true to who I am right now. There’s a funny parallel between this album and the last one; ‘Lizzobangers’ opened with ‘Lizzie Borden’, about the woman of the same name who axe-murdered her father and stepmother and got away with it, and now the first song on this record is ‘Ain’t I’, which all comes form me rediscovering Sojourner Truth’s “Ain’t I a Woman?” speech. I’ve chosen a better representative this time. You can tell I’m more focused - you can tell I’ve got a real purpose now.

eeee MYSTERY JETS Curve of the Earth

(Caroline International)

Inspiration can be found in the unlikeliest of places.

Amid an assortment of abandoned buttons in a former button factory, Mystery Jets have recorded their most ambitious work to date with album number five. Stirring opener ‘Telomere’ sees frontman Blaine Harrison channelling Matt Bellamy with his profound musings. New bassist Jack Flanagan helps to craft the album’s most irresistibly enticing and lazy groove, which provides some comfort to ‘Midnight’s Mirror’, a track during which Harrison laments lost friendships.

The band bow-out in appropriate style with ‘The End Up’, proving this album to be an accomplished effort. (Emma Snook) LISTEN: ‘Blood Red Balloon’ 73

eeee

HINDS

Leave Me Alone (Lucky Number Music)

Few things could dampen the spirit in camp Hinds. When the Madrid fourpiece had to change their name from Deers, instead of kicking up a fuss they embraced their new moniker and continued on their way.

Debut full-length ‘Leave Me Alone’ is interesting, then, in how it presents a new case for Hinds. They’re not just a happy clappy bunch of high-spirited kazoo players from Madrid. Their first work is more defiant than joyous, more stubborn than most debuts tend to be. They stick to their guns, and they end up emphasising their rough-around-the-edges strengths. It’s appropriate that the record’s standout track is the chantathon ‘Warts’, because this is an album that revels in its own imperfections. True and proud of every ingredient making up their early existence, Hinds create a blueprint in how not to give a fuck, no matter what anyone else thinks. (Jamie Milton) LISTEN: ‘Warts’, ‘Chili Town’

eeee THE MAGIC GANG The Magic Gang EP

(Telharmonium Records)

Brighton’s The Magic Gang exist somewhere between present day house parties and ‘50s discos. Across five tracks, Jack Kaye and co. announce themselves as old school romantics. There’s love and longing defining every song, but it’s more complicated than that. The down-in-the-dumps ‘Jasmine’ and ‘All That I Want Is You’ come off simple on the outside, but deep down they’re complex and confused souls, like Mark from Peep Show trying to find “the one”. Love isn’t quite their forte, but the charm of The Magic Gang is in how they make thorny, difficult subjects sound blissfully simple. (Jamie Milton) LISTEN: ‘Jasmine’

e FAT WHITE FAMILY Songs For Our Mothers (Without Consent)

Unpredictable, dangerous, at loggerheads with each other - the mythology around Fat White Family has taken on a bizarre form since the release of 2013’s ‘Champagne Holocaust’. At their best, the group are an enthralling live act always on the brink of collapse.

‘Songs For Our Mothers’ possesses none of the same spirit. There’s no light to shine, no tales to be told and no ground to be broken.

Nothing to see here. (Jamie Milton) LISTEN: To something else

eee JENNYLEE

Right on! (Rough Trade)

‘right on!’ is built from jams. Warpaint’s basswielding stronghold, Jenny Lee Lindberg’s voice breezes through the gaps, slighty raspy, but barely grazing the sides.

Each song germinates in fast-forward, and bass lines (as you might expect) are often the integral lynchpin. While ‘riot’ grabs that initial spark with both hands, and ‘long lonely winter’ rasps with a sinister, isolated undertone, a sizeable portion of this record wafts along with only a vague notion of direction; like it’s caught up in a gale-force wind without Citymapper. Jam is all well and good, but this record is at times lacking in the bread and butter of music - songs. (El Hunt) LISTEN: ‘never’ 74 diymag.com

A WHOLE NEW REALM OF POSSIBILITIES. eeeee

GRIMES

Art Angels (4AD)

The way Grimes is perceived and viewed as an artist in general becomes a topic that crops up time and time again on her fourth record. “The things they see in me, I cannot see in myself,” she sings on ‘California,’ and appearance - or rather, an awareness of being looked at - reflects in every surface of ‘Art Angels’. The Janelle Monáe-featuring ‘Venus Fly’ confrontationally demands “why you looking at me again?” atop tinny, timid melodies which take swigs of silly-juice, and eventually self-combust with rage. It’s the sort of insane production work which consistently defines this entire album.

This is a bold, unapologetic, and brilliantly garish pop record. Repeatedly, and without fail, Grimes reaches joyful heights, with monstrously proportioned bangers, and creatively, this is like listening to a kite with a lopped string, snatched away by the wind, and free to travel everywhere without limits. Guitars thrash wild and raw on ‘SCREAM,’ while Taiwanese rapper Aristophanes lets loose unhinged snarls, painting dark, sexual scenes and “desire just awoken.”All the synthetic, claustrophobic blooping that came to define ‘Visions’ is replaced by something smackingly physical, and often unwieldy.

For all of its complexity, ‘Art Angels’ is, at its heart, about one simple idea. It’s impossible to resist the instant, limb-grabbing appeal of the pop music Grimes is making here, and dizzyingly big, this is a record about shaking off every constraint, and wrenching hold of reality with both fists. Defining albums like ‘Art Angels’ - which brazenly stick a middle finger up to preconception, and grasp full creative autonomy - are few and far between.

“Welcome to reality,” Grimes sings, and she opens up a whole new realm of possibilities in the process. (El Hunt) LISTEN: ‘Kill V Maim’, ‘California’, ‘Butterfly’

DAU G HTER LEAD A CHARGE INTO THE A BY S S . eeeee

DAUGHTER Not to Disappear (4AD)

.new View (frenchkiss)

‘New View’ abounds with familiar Eleanor Friedberger observations.

These are personal and intimate details that make each narrative at once both uniquely individual and universal. “We’d muddle through ’til dusk, then we’d huddle in our coats,” she sings in the final track ‘A Long Walk’ and, suddenly, her story becomes your own story. ‘Because I Asked You’ betrays edgy frustration; yet it is a narrative of love that brings to light all that is sacred in a long-term relationship.

Friedberger’s smooth, mercury-like voice flows through the confessional diary pages of each song: ‘New View’ is the most self-assured realisation of Friedberger’s delicately eloquent and intelligent musical talent. (Anastasia Connor) LISTEN: ‘Sweet Girl’

eeee PANIC! AT THE DISCO Death of a Bachelor

(Fueled By Ramen)

With every album that Brendon Urie releases as Panic! At The Disco, he seems to grow bolder and more unhinged. While the band’s previous effort still pushed against the boundaries of pop rock, ‘Death of a Bachelor’ just seems to charge headfirst through them with an utter disregard for the consequences. The results are brilliant. There’s the bombast of lead single ‘Hallelujah’, the taunting chants of ‘Victorious’’ introduction, the swing-infused power of ‘Crazy=Genius’.

As ever, the songs come packed with the flair and sass that the frontman has become so renowned for, but these tracks seem even more sure of themselves. An unpredictable but spectacular ride through pop, rock and everything in between, it’s hard not to bowled over by Urie’s efforts yet again. (Sarah Jamieson) LISTEN: ‘Emperor’s New Clothes’

Photo: Emma Swann

As days get shorter and the gloom rolls in, there are two choices - do everything to ignore the changing of the seasons, or embrace the freeze. Daughter’s second album, the apocalyptically dark ‘Not to Disappear’, presents a persuasive case for the latter. It doesn’t so much shun lightness as destroy it, and the only glimmer of hope it provides is this idea that with enough force, it’s possible to resist darkness.

Beauty defines Daughter’s every move.

Spiralling guitar lines shake ground, far more so than on 2013 debut ‘If You Leave’. Elena Tonra’s vocals are in a constant battle against despair, but in truth she’s the one leading this charge into the abyss. ‘Not to Disappear’ is intentionally difficult to stomach.

But few acts could deliver these unceasingly grim details with such majesty. Daughter’s signature - and their staying power - is in how they balance the harshest of subject matters with groundbreaking beauty. (Jamie Milton) LISTEN: ‘No Care’, ‘Numbers’, ‘Doing the Right Thing’

eee ELEANOR FRIEDBERGER

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SAVAGES .Adore Life (Matador)

Capturing their intense live focus was the name of the game on ‘Silence Yourself’ - a debut concentrated on documenting Savages’ first steps in frenzied, hyper-live fashion. It also made them harder to reach; serious, intense, art peddling post-punks.

Gradually, over the last few years, those walls have been coming down. With ‘Adore Life’, Savages ditch the distance. These days, they place less value in unavailability.

It’s immediately evident this album is all about boundless, all-consuming zest. That’s roughly the mood board for the sound of this entire record, too. Though Savages remain toweringly intense, carving strange grooves like ‘Slowing Down The World’ out of Ayşe Hassan’s battering, unforgiving bass, there’s a smirking playfulness to ‘Adore Life’ which proves its pumping heart.

Savages may have a newfound warmth, but they’re every bit as mindbogglingly ambitious. At times, the musical chaos they paint teeters on impenetrable, but Savages get away with it. Harsh, aggressive, hungry, and urgent, ‘Adore Life’ is everything a Savages album should be. Unexpectedly, this is also the kind of album that holds the door open with a beastly arm, then cackles with post-prank joy as a carefully balanced bucket of water soaks everyone at the party.

(El Hunt) LISTEN: ‘Adore’, ‘Something New’

eee CHAIRLIFT

Moth (Columbia)

Chairlift’s self-produced third album ‘Moth’ is relentlessly creative. With a thudding, club-ready beat and strong vocals from Caroline Polachek on ‘Moths To The Flame’ (which shine on ‘Show U Off’ as well), long-time Chairlift fans may be put off by the duo’s new direction.

Hopefully that’s not the case, because ‘Moth’ - aside from the underwhelming ‘Ottawa to Osaka’ - is a delight, an album bursting with confidence. It’s a joy to hear two artists having so much fun. They may have left behind their haunted house roots, but Chairlift have found themselves creating something more barmy, bold and exhilarating than ever before. (Lucas Fothergill) LISTEN: ‘Show U Off’, ‘Ch-Ching’

eee TINDERSTICKS

.The Waiting Room (City Slang)

There aren’t too many immediate points of valid comparison for Tindersticks. ‘The Waiting Room’ is certainly faithful to the chamber pop template that has long proved the group’s calling card; it’s gloomy, sparse and occasionally stormy, generating real atmosphere in droves and understanding the power of economy as far as vocal turns are concerned.

This record is reserved and considered, yet you still come out of the other end feeling like you’ve run the emotional gamut; in that respect, at least, you have to recognise it as their strongest set of songs for a good long while. (Joe Goggins) LISTEN: ‘Like Only Lovers Can’

eeee

NZCA LINES

Infinite Summer (Memphis Industries)

2015’s been a spectacular year of music - but where’s our goddamn hoverboards? Unlike eighties time-travel blockbusters, the sequel to NZCA Lines’ self-titled 2012 debut doesn’t fall under the shadow of the first hit; ‘Infinite Summer’ is a cinematic escapade all of its own. It’s the classic case of an album that’s so self-composed in its identity that you get the nagging sense of déjà vu, and yet it’s brand new. But none of this really matters. The ‘1984’ of albums this is not. ‘Infinite Summer’ has no agenda to have you walk away with a bitter truth, holding up a distopic vision of the corruption of society. This is the dancefloor at the end of the apocalypse. (Andy Backhouse) LISTEN: ‘Do It Better’

HARS H , AG G RES S IVE, .

H U N G RY, U R G E N T. .

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Dan couldn’t play on Halloween dressed as anyone else, really.

the black tambourines

The wytches

hop along

Mirrors

The Garage, London Photo: Jonathan Dadds

Various venues, London Photos: Carolina Faruolo

I

t takes some doing for a new, multi-venue London festival to create a fever of its own. Mirrors’ inaugural year might have the spooky Halloween atmosphere on its side, but it feels different.

It utilises venues like Hackney Round Chapel, somewhere that’s barely opened its doors to (secular) music before. Instead of over-egging the ‘everything, everywhere’ approach, it picks out three locations and crams them full of bills that essentially morph into separate, exciting all-dayers.

DIY plants its flag in Oslo from postnoon until close, hosting a crop of bright new acts adding fresh shades to outward-thinking pop. St John at Hackney, meanwhile, keeps things hushed and sob-worthy with emotional juggernauts Rhye and Jessica Pratt.

The Round Chapel is all things fuzzy, from The Black Tambourines’ eye-opening early evening set to The Thurston Moore Band’s vibrant closer.

Mirrors will no doubt look to expand and go one bigger in the years ahead, but there’s a charm in keeping curation tight and options neat. In the space of ten minutes, punters dash from the smoothed-out, Tobias Jesso Jr.nodding Cameron A G to the lounged pace of Cloves. When Traams finish thrashing, it’s off to Oslo to witness a heady embrace of dreamy dance from Manchester producer Oceáan.

There’s always a sense of something going on, but rarely the feeling that anyone’s missing out on one act in lieu of another.

Still, there’s no doubt that on fiendish costumes and fireworks alone, Mirrors’ first year belongs to the fuzz bandits.

The Black Tambourines have three criminally unsung records to their name, and any sense of injustice is justified in a fast-moving set that threatens to smash in the surrounding glass-stained windows. The four-piece switch pace and direction like it’s an inside joke or a fanciful game. If Parquet Courts master the art of acting nonplussed and impassioned at the same time, The Black Tambourines are the UK’s answer.

Traams and The Wytches take the baton and go skywards. New album ‘Modern Dancing’ finds the former embracing a more playful side to their heavily structured garage rock. But it’s still left to the barmy ‘Flowers’ to do the legwork. The Wytches couldn’t turn up without dressing for the occasion, but they go one further, providing Saturday’s best set; a deadly mix of ferocious noise and perfect execution.

But it’s clear Mirrors isn’t the type of festival to go without at least one new act staking their claim for big things.

Dreller - a multi-instrumentalist barely out the pram and signed to Terrible / Goodbye - does exactly that.

His frenzied pop isn’t dissimilar to Passion Pit, but he’s also bringing a showmanship that you can’t teach. If this turns out to be a theme for Mirrors - mixing old and new, giving each sides the same big platform - it won’t put a foot wrong in the future. (Jamie Milton)

H

op Along’s third album ‘Painted Shut’ remains one of the grittiest, most powerful records released this year, and tonight the band crash through the highlights from both that, and 2012’s ‘Get Disowned’. Tracks from the latter still get the best reaction, with ‘Tibetan Pop Stars’ inciting a reflection of every ounce of vocalist Frances Quinlan’s passion from the crowd.

The funny, charming, cutting ‘Painted Shut’ is transmitted live with every amount of emotion and humour the recorded version is given, and while little or no variation is shown from the studio versions tonight, it’s a seamless run-through.

Quinlan often stops to exclaim just how grateful she and her bandmates are for the quite clear step up the band have made on these shores since their last visit, and the progression seen on ‘Painted Shut’ is fully reflected in the live setting. Never ones for year-long world tours, Hop Along’s next visit to the UK is likely to be with a new record, whenever that may arrive. As a result, every second of tonight is taken in and digested fully with this in mind, and ‘Painted Shut’ is given a run-out that does it absolute justice. (Will Richards)

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Years & Years Brixton Academy, London Photo: Matt Richardson

O

ver the past twelve months, Years & Years have gone from strength to strength: tonight - their second sold-out show at London’s Brixton Academy - stands as a landmark in their career so far.

It’s strange to think, then, that it was just a little over a year ago when the band first unveiled the earwormingly infectious ‘Desire’.

Since then, their star has risen even further, with Number One singles and a Number One album. Tonight, all of this hits home; from the intense, darkened introduction of ‘Foundation’ to the tender piano ballad of ‘Eyes Shut’, the danceability of ‘Take Shelter’ to the euphoric conclusion of ‘King’, the trio guide tonight’s crowd through the length and breadth of their talents, that all burst into life in a live arena.

N

ashville’s Bully, led by Alicia Bognanno, are the main support act. Tracks from June’s debut ‘Feels Like’ translate brilliantly live; Bognanno’s screams contrasting her ice cool stage presence. The Cobain inspired ‘Trash’ is a force of nature, pummelling the concept of love into submission, but ‘Milkman’ shows a lighter sonic side, brilliantly unapologetic in its 90s alt-rock revivalism.

FIDLAR are the sound of reckless abandon and the words of its consequences. Tonight, London’s Saturday crowd are certainly ready for a high, infected by the jaunty get-up-andfight guitars on ‘Stoked and Broke’, willfully ignoring the morbid honesty in Carper’s howled “I just wanna get really high / smoke weed until I die”.

But this is exactly how the band want it to be. The FIDLAR experience on record offers reflection – Carper’s struggles and demons well documented - live it’s simply a wave of beautifully hedonistic destruction. A heady mix drawing on everything from pop-punk to surf rock, and shoegaze licks that might just make Billy Corgan smile. Maybe.

The spirit is as frantic as the music, which burns through like wildfire. ‘West Coast’ is perhaps their most accessible party song to date; bassist Brandon Schwartzel is crucial in keeping things sounding tight as Zac flies through at sonic speed. The line “got drunk and barfed on my shadow” still rings as one reveller throws up in a corner, catching my eye and smiling.

Seconds later he’s back up and jumping around to a cover of Weezer’s ‘Undone — The Sweater Song’. What else?

A fitting inspiration. Fuck it dog, life’s a risk. (Alex Taylor)

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It’s not just about the music though: there’s the excitement buzzing through the crowd, the playful cheekiness of every move that Olly Alexander makes, the sheer adoration of their audience. When an entire bouquet of flowers gets thrown up on stage mid-set and Alexander scoops them up with an elated smile, it’s less dramatic theatre bow and more just business as usual. The addition of gay-drag troupe Sink The Pink, who head on stage for the band’s closing number - along with oversized paper crowns to match the track’s title - just heightens the sense of celebratory fun that’s surrounded tonight. If things continue like this evening, it’s soon going to be eclipsed by way bigger achievements.

(Sarah Jamieson)

FIDLAR& bully

The Forum, London Photo: Emma Swann

Iceland Airwaves

Various venues, Reykjavík Photo: Alexander Matukhno

T

his year’s Iceland Airwaves was dealt one of the biggest blows possible back in August, when Björk’s two homecoming performances at the event were among a number of dates she cancelled due to ‘scheduling conflicts’.

With its national hero no longer performing, Iceland turned to its adopted one instead, with the already-announced John Grant taking the top spot alongside the Iceland Symphony Orchestra in the Harpa Concert Hall’s stunning main room.

Grant’s set is in equal parts monstrous and comfortingly intimate, with his band and the orchestra adding swathes of pomp to his wry, personal and hilarious storytelling.

Lucy Rose is then the first of a large number of British acts to shine across the weekend, even if her quieter, more reflective early tracks feel out of place and a little too beautiful for Reykjavik’s Art Museum, a renovated prison. Skepta and JME’s midnight set the following night, meanwhile, sets the place on fire.

Reykjavíkurdætur, a 22-member rap collective, play seven sets across the weekend; their set at the Art Museum early on Saturday couldn’t be more aggressive and purposeful. Many Icelandic acts make this many appearances at the festival, with Dream Wife and the unstoppably unique dj flugvél og geimskip proving other highlights.

Reykjav í ku rdæt u r

Låpsley’s set in the Art Museum gives her more than a few new admirers, and Kero Kero Bonito start a party at Húrra that’s fun beyond belief. East India Youth is sandwiched in between inquisitively watched sets from QT and Sophie, and continues his evolution from figure-behind-a-desk to worldconquering performer.

A UK one-two ends the night, and the festival. Sleaford Mods’ fiercely British storytelling fails to translate somewhat, but Hot Chip’s following headline set, conversely, couldn’t be any more universal. (Will Richards)

Swim Deep Roundhouse, London Photo: Emma Swann

T

here’s something about the cavernous industrial surroundings of this former railway shed that’s a perfect match for Swim Deep’s recent turn. As the eight-minute epic ‘Fueiho Boogie’ unfurls complete with spinning dancer on stage, the band’s neopsychedelic light show flickers around the Roundhouse’s iron columns and suddenly, everything makes perfect sense.

Which is some doing tonight: they’ve just followed the krautrocky self-indulgence of ‘Mothers’ cuts ‘Forever Spaceman’ and ‘Imagination’ with debut favourites ‘Honey’ and ‘King City’. Their sonic shift couldn’t seem more stark than right now.

Frontman Austin Williams appears far more relaxed away from front-centre stage, when allowed to immerse himself in their newly-explored experimental side. This evening is an odd one. Part indie-rock mayhem, part warehouse party hedonism, completely weird, totally enthralling.

(Emma Swann)

Swim Deep finally found the sound of the colour purple.

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DIY

INDIE DREAMBOAT Of the Month

Nathan Williams WAVVES. Full name: Nathan Daniel Williams.

Nickname: Idiot.

Star Sign: Gemini.

Pets: Snacks the cat.

Favourite Film: Goodfellas.

Favourite Food: Pasta.

Drink of choice: Jameson.

Signature scent: Chanel Bleu.

Favourite hair product: I don’t use hair product.

What song would you play to woo someone: Louvin Brothers - ‘Satan Is Real’.

If you weren’t in a band, what would you be doing: Jail time.

Chat up line of choice: I don’t like talking to people.

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