THIS MONTH, WE’VE B E E N M O S T LY L I STE N I N G TO...
Blaenavon - That’s Your Lot It’s been a long time coming, but some things are worth waiting for.
Diet Cig - Swear I’m Good At This They’re the most loveable band in the world, and their debut album is straight up fire emoji.
THIS MONTH... U P D AT E
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F E AT U R E S
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F O R M AT I O N DUTC H U N C L ES SUMMER MOON KING GIZZARD AND THE LIZARD WIZARD TEGAN & SARA A D AY I N T H E L I F E O F … OSCA R F RO M S U N DA R A KARMA DA M S O F T H E W EST CITY GUIDES… IDLES BANG ERS SUPERFOOD T H E O RW E L LS
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VA N T L O W E R T H A N AT L A N T I S LOS ! CA M PES I N OS TEMPLES
REVI E WS 3 6 C I R C A WAV E S 37 THE SHINS 38 AMBER RUN 39 LAURA MARLING 4 0 M A L LO RY K N OX
HYPE
A N Y OTH E R QU ESTI O N S?
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42. DIET CIG
DORK readdork.com
Editor: Stephen Ackroyd stephen@readdork.com Deputy Editor: Victoria Sinden viki@readdork.com Assistant Editor: Ali Shutler ali@readdork.com
Contributors: Alex Thorp, Christopher Jones, Connor McDonnell, Coral Williamson, Corinne Cumming, Jake Richardson, Jamie Muir, Jasleen Dhindsa, Jenessa Williams, Jessica Goodman, Josh Williams, Lucas Fothergill, Martyn Young, Rob Mesure, Poppy Waring, Sam Taylor, Sarah Louise Bennett, Steven Loftin 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 The Bunker Publishing Ltd. 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 The Bunker Publishing Ltd holds no responsibility. The opinions of the contributors do not necessarily bear a relation to those of Dork or its staff and we disclaim liability for those impressions. Distributed nationally. P U B L I S H E D F RO M
THE BUNKER W E LCO M E TOT H E B U N K E R.CO M
UPDATE Power to the people
O PL E TO B R IN G PE AT IO N A IM M R FO , N O T R ITS O KS . L A N D M AT N G PO P H O TH ERS W IL IN G DA Z Z LI S U ER H LE D BY B RO . ET IR TO G M IE M U WO R D S : JA
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itting in a cafe in Camden on a Friday night may seem like a different way to start a revolution, but there’s something effortlessly unique about what Formation are all about. It’s been six months since we were sitting in the sunshine on London’s South Bank, and the cold chills of a new year and a new world are sizzling in the air - yet for Formation, the message continues. More than ever, the journey they’ve experienced and the potency of what they represent is vital in the world we live in, and not in the sense of a “the world is shit” mentality, but more in a way that wants people to discuss, love and thrive in what we all are. “The last time we talked was in the midst of a nice break,” points out frontman Will Ritson. “We were going off to America, back to London, doing so much in Europe - like, I keep thinking back on stuff and realising that it was only in the past year!” “Yeah,” interjects drummer Kai Akinde-Hummel. “It feels like ages ago, it feels like so much has changed since then, I guess...” What hasn’t changed is Formation. The vibrancy, freedom and passion that flows through everything they do is straight at the forefront of 2017, a fruition that’s come from years of experimenting, creating and crafting in all manner of outfits and styles. Whether that’s punk bands, hip-hop outfits, working with underground electro titans or sitting pride of place in an orchestra - there’s something about Formation which just pulsates with music. It’s a foundation formed by twin brothers Will and Matt Ritson, taking a childhood engrossed in beats and flourishes and following a passion that’s lead them into a world not lead by rock star posturing, but the pursuit of something more. Northern Soul, improvised projects, expulsion from school and an unfaltering sense of individuality laid the groundwork - and in drummer Kai, bassist Johnny Tams and keys man Sasha Lewis, they found a shared bond with music pumping through their veins and families. “Each of us is quite a strong musician, and we were all brought up around music,” explains Kai, whose family stems through touring with The Clash to playing
with acclaimed Afrobeat giant Fela Kuti. “Bringing that together, with that understanding - which some musicians may not have - it means we’re really good at communicating with each other.” This isn’t just the story of a group who all met at school and decided to crack on with things. Formation are a band who needed the multiple strands of history to get them to where they are today - collaborating and meeting at certain points in each other’s lives - and in turn developing a bond that’s naturally brought them together to the stage they sit at today. As Will explains: “It’s an amalgamation of a lot of history and a lot of different interactions finally finding a really good formula between us that works as people as well as musicians.” “Like with Johnny, he was feeding me my influences when I was growing up, as he used to work in the CD shop where I’d go all the time. He was the cool older guy behind the desk who’d suggest new things to listen to, knowing I was a drummer he’d end up pointing me towards bands like Can and all this crazy shit.” “Me and Matt would end up playing him loads of our demos, because we then ended up working in a warehouse together. The plan was always to get Johnny involved, and that was how the White Label EP came around, us taking the demos to Johnny who then helped us to produce it. When you factor in Johnny’s experience of working on records with the likes of Björk and Madonna and Sasha’s experience of working with electro wizard Four Tet, you know this is a band onto something special, a path that’s lead to a melting point primed and aimed at being something important and distinctly unique. “For a while, it always felt like this was the weirdest band,” notes Johnny. “Like when you see us in pictures, we look like we’re from completely different worlds, but now we’re all part of the same.” “It became its own thing in that way,” elaborates Will, “because we weren’t ever trying to be anything else but ourselves and then we realised that ‘Hey, that is our image, we can’t be any less authentic than that’. As soon as we realised this is us, this is who we are - that was the moment it clicked, because people want
to engage with that rather than with something that tries to be something it’s not.” The years of history, experimentation and passion have lead to ‘Look At The Powerful People’, a debut album that packs an unworldly amount of flares and flourishes into indietronic grooves and infectious sounds. It’s the sort of record that makes you sit up and take notice, and one not afraid to swing for the highest level. The result is a band in full stride, confident and natural in every twist and rhythm they head down. Hitting that highest level and marking out their own in the process. “It was quite intense,” remembers Johnny, “because we did it in like two weeks and did pretty much everything. It’s weird because we spend a lot of time rehearsing, we used to do it in Will’s room, and it’s just going ‘round to your mate’s house - and then getting to a studio with a whiteboard and things to tick off, it’s a real experience!” “There was a great focus for us all and a really strong work ethic,” Will remembers. “It felt like everyone had the opportunity there to be creative and give something to each song. And it comes from knowing how to listen to each other, whether that’s because of that shared upbringing, growing up together or playing in bands or that experience of the orchestral side of things and being part of something bigger. You learn how to listen to each other, and you learn just to enjoy playing together and enjoying that musicianship and pushing each other to do stuff was there throughout working in the studio.” ‘Look At The Powerful People’ is packed to the brim with potent hooks that jump between eras and moods, yet consistently exudes that Formation swagger. The swagger that blends every track, live moment and note that they’ve digested into one distinct cocktail of revolving dance vibes with a hefty punk punch. Whether it’s the dazzling slaps of ‘Drugs’, the visceral kicks of ‘Buy And Sell’, the blinding synths of ‘A Friend’ or the rich unravelling of ‘Ring’ - from start to finish it’s a record that stands squarely for who they are, and one with a voice impossible to ignore. The power that comes with it, and the impact music can have isn’t lost on Will. “It’s a point that’s
THIS THIS IS THIS IS THIS IS THISIS IS HAPPENING HAPPENING HAPPENING HAPPENING HAPPENING
A L L YO U R FAVO U RI T E AC E N E W BA N DS A RE P L AY I N G T H E G RE AT ESCA P E , O BV I O U S LY The Great Escape is getting bigger and bigger, with over 100 new names announced for the Brighton new music throwdown including The Japanese House, Dream Wife and Will Joseph Cook amongst others (and by others – we mean a bloody lot). The calling card for all things new music, the festival’s latest batch of names also includes the likes of bonafide Dork faves Marika Hackman, The Magic Gang, Pumarosa, King Nun, The Parrots, Dagny, Our Girl, Dan Croll, Salen, HMLTD, The Bay Rays and tons more – all bringing the heat across Brighton city centre. Tickets for the three day affair, taking place between 18th-20th May are available now. Check out the full list of new additions on readdork.com now.
Z A R A L A RSSO N I S SO G O O D It’s clear that Zara Larsson has become a big deal ever since the release of ultimate pop banger ‘Lush Life’ – so thank Christ we finally have some details about that debut album. ‘So Good’ is set to land on 17th March – stacked full of certified bangers such as ‘Ain’t My Fault’ and ‘Never Forget You’.
UPDATE
THIS THIS IS THIS IS THIS IS THISIS IS HAPPENING HAPPENING HAPPENING HAPPENING HAPPENING
F U T U RE I S L A N DS A RE DA N C I N G T H E I R WAY I N TO ‘ T H E FA R F I E L D’ T H I S A P RI L
It’s a hit!
UND ERR ATE D GEM : ‘DO N’T SAY THAT’ WAS AN SUP ERF OOD ’S DEB UT ALB UM SORT OF FIZZ Y, TO OVE RFLOW ING WIT H THE HEA PS OF FUN AND PAC KED BUT THE MOS T ALL OF D T CAN LIFT THE MOO EXU BER ANT BAN GERS THA NIN G TO DIRTY HIT AFT ER AN UNE XPE CTE D SIG DET ERM INE D MIS ERY CHO PS. - 201 7 SEE S THE CE ALI ES THE 1975 AND WO LF HOM E TO FEL LOW DOR K FAV NT.. . ERE DIFF BIT A LL, WE BAN D RET URN SOU NDI NG, Hey Dom, how are you guys at the moment? What have you been up to since we last saw you? Skint, bored. We need to get this stuff out there. Since we stopped touring, we’ve been keeping our heads above water making this album. ‘Double Dutch’ is pretty different to your last batch of bangers - what drew you to releasing it as your comeback track? It’s the track that is the furthest away from the stuff we used to write, so we wanted to put it out there and gauge people’s reaction. We also wanted to scare you. Is the new direction indicative of change within the band, or a new attitude towards what you want the band to be? We always wanted to make this album; things just got lost in transit. I feel like every record we do will change and grow. There’s no new attitude, it’s just that we’ve written and recorded this by ourselves with no outside influence at all. How far in are you with your second album? Is it done and dusted?
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Dusted. And how many 10/10 bangers are on this one? 13. What was the most important lesson you learnt from ‘Don’t Say That’, do you think? Don’t rush it. Think. Don’t give yourself two weeks. Follow through your own ideas until the end. Don’t listen to anyone. You’ve signed to Dirty Hit now, how did that come about? We were in LA mixing and saw The 1975 were there too, so we gave Matty [Healy, frontman] a message on Twitter. He said to send over what we’d been putting down and then things went from there... Will you be airing much new material on the upcoming tour? Yes my friend, old and new. Opening the window and giving it some decent airflow. Album aside, what are you most looking forward to in 2017? Fewer adults on scooters. Actually, nah, fuck that - do what you want. More adults on scooters. P
SUPERFOOD ARE HEADLINING THE DIRTY HIT TOUR, ALONGSIDE KING NUN AND PALE WAVES. YOU CAN CATCH THEM AT... MARCH 17 O2 Academy2, Oxford 18 The Leadmill, Sheffield 19 King Tuts, Glasgow 20 Sound Control Basement, Manchester 21 Brudenell, Leeds 22 The Welly, Hull 23 Think Tank, Newcastle 24 Arts Club, Liverpool 25 The Sugarmill, Stoke 27 O2 Academy2, Birmingham 28 Rescue Rooms, Nottingham 29 The Haunt, Brighton 30 Thekla, Bristol 31 Tufnell Park Dome, London APRIL 01 Clwb ifor Bach, Cardiff 03 Oh Yeah, Belfast 04 O2 Academy2, Dublin
We’ve waited a while to get our deep thinking dancing shoes on, and now Future Islands have given us a due date – confirming new album ‘The Far Field’ . The album will be released on 7th April, with the twelve track collection featuring a guest appearance from none other than Debbie Harry of Blondie fame. Future Islands will mark the release with a string of UK headline shows – heading across the country from the end of April through to early May, before headlining Green Man in August.
M U M FO RD & SO N S , DAU G H T E R A N D M O RE A RE D O I N G A T I N Y C H A RI T Y S H OW Ever the loveable guys that they are, Mumford & Sons have announced a very special intimate charity gig for 3rd March, appearing on a bill with the likes of Michael Kiwanuka, Daughter and The Fat White Family amongst others. The night, which is also set to feature the likes of Palace, Lucy Rose, Bear’s Den, Isaac Gracie, Charlie Cunningham and a poetry performance from Money’s Jamie Lee – is to raise funds for The Felix Project, an organisation that collects surplus food from supermarkets and the such before delivering it to 50 charities across London. Taking place in the stunning St Stephen’s Church in London, you’re guaranteed for a mesmeric night of stripped-back performances.
... w o n k u o y , d n a g n u o y re e “We w
” . s e l o h s s a l a t to hen you’re young, and in a band, there’s a certain level of expectation for you to fuck up and cause a scene. It’s an ideology The Orwells have taken to heart. Infamous for abrasive live shows and a general lack of giving a fuck, in 2014 the group kicked up a gear, releasing second studio album ‘Disgraceland’ and running riot during a performance on Letterman in the US. Now, they’ve returned to finish what they started. The perhaps aptly titled ‘Terrible Human Beings’ isn’t quite a forward move, if anything it harks back to the youthful vigour found on their first studio album ‘Remember When’. Guitarist Matt O’Keefe is more than ready for the world to hear it. “We’ve sat on it for a good amount of time, and you know, it drives us insane,” he says. “The songs are going stale for us, but nobody else has ever heard them. It’s a funny thing; I’m just stoked that this thing’s gonna be out.” After such a quick ride with their previous album, including signing to Atlantic Records and touring with Arctic Monkeys, the band were briefly a hot topic - but more for their attitudes and antics than
music. Matt recalls that time with a slight chagrin. “I was a little bit more gullible to what I thought was gonna happen with when that album came out. I think on this; we’re all wiser about how this goes, you know? What it’s gonna do, and all that stuff. It feels like we have a better grasp with this one and what we’re about to do. “When we were recording ‘Disgraceland’ I turned nineteen; we were eighteen-nineteen-twenty before we’d even released the thing, so yeah, we were pretty young and gullible. We believed a lot of things that were said to us, and that’s what I’m saying about this time around, we’ve got a better grasp. I think we’ll be able to understand what’s going on much better, so I’m excited to go through it again and age a little bit wiser to the whole thing.” Their first forays to British shores involved tiny shows, including one at a community church in Dalston, but they were soon selling out venues like the Electric Ballroom. “It was great to be able to comprehend that step up, seeing your music expand to new fans and more people,” says Matt. “It’s great when you get to come back, and you’re doubling the size of rooms. Hopefully it’ll happen with this. Hopefully people dig it.” During their now famed Letterman
slot, a worse-for-wear Mario Cuomo sat down for an entire verse. It drew a lot of attention - not all of it good. “People definitely did not get it,” affirms Matt. “[But] how any band should do it is not treat it any different than you would if you were on a stage in a club. We just didn’t want to water anything down when we got on TV, or we got to the bigger clubs or any of that stuff. We always do what we want to do, and you know, good things happened, and bad things happened because of it.” “I think you lose the magic if you think you’re not going to let yourself fall,” he muses. “You’ve got to put yourself in a bit of risk or let yourself be vulnerable because I think vulnerability and falling on your face go hand in hand with just being on stage and playing in front of people.” Following the album’s release, the band went away for a bit. “After we got off the tour we took some time to decompress because we just had to. Then we started writing, and you know, it was just me, Dominic [Corso] and Mario, we’d bring acoustic guitars and we’d write in my parents’ basement.” Sticking to what they know best, they had their third album in no time, keeping things as basic as
possible and letting whatever happened, happen. “If you make the songs you want to make, that’s all you’ll ever need to do. We never thought, ‘Oh, we’ve got to prove these people wrong, that we’re not these ‘kids’.’ Maybe it was somewhere in the back of our heads, but we never talked about that when we were writing songs, you know? We just made the songs we wanted to make.” As for that title? Matt laughs. “It’s a bunch of things I think. We thought it was funny, and it owns the reputation that some people put on us. It’s kind of an idea to some of our heroes too, you know? It’s a bunch of things, and it sounds cool too, which is important to us.” Looking to the future is a hard factor for a band as in the moment as The Orwells - they can’t carry on drinking and getting up to shenanigans around the world forever. “Who knows?” shrugs Matt. “I don’t see that sticking. I think the first time America and Europe got a look at us we were young and we were kind of, you know, total assholes. But I don’t know, who knows? I don’t really want to think about it.”P The Orwells’ album ‘Terrible Human Beings’ is out now.
THE ORWELLS STILL WANT TO HAVE FUN, BUT WITH ‘TERRIBLE HUMAN BEINGS’ THEY’RE ALSO GROWING UP. WORDS: STEVEN LOFTIN.
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HYPE ESSENTIAL NEW BANDS
MUNA
D
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ude you know I’ve always fucked with them!” exclaims Josette Maskin. The topic of MUNA’s very first EP has arisen, and the memories are flooding back of the countless hours spent fine-crafting the first sounds of a trio on the cusp of something massive. That EP made its way onto Bandcamp, and now demand is flying with a legion of fans longing to hear the now-missing collection. It’s a re-release that’s already a hot topic, a career retrospective of sorts for a band already dealing in certified bangers at every turn. “I’d love to put it back out,” continues Josette. “We called it ‘More Perfect’ so it was a kinda statement for doing it all ourselves and learning how to produce. I love those songs because they got us to where we are today so...” What follows is three best friends rolling through those formative moments, an eye into the world of a band who dive through their days with each other, who bounce off each other’s every word and who are already looking at that career retrospective. “It’s a bit early for that now girls,” declares lead singer Katie Gavin when the discussions subside, “let’s wait for people to know who we are.” For MUNA, that wait is already at
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the gates of something bigger - and their importance is palpable. Bringing shimmering 80s pop-noir right into the 21st Century, their infectious knack for energy and pulling the joy out of every moment of darkness means that they’re primed and ready at the top of pop’s royal table. With MUNA though, they’re ready to take that table out into the world, and everyone’s invited to sit around it - a powerful blend of everything pure and real about music’s ability to change lives.
WITH A BON D TO BE RECKON E D WITH, U ND E RG ROU ND POP SE N SATION S MU N A MAKE FOR A FORM IDA B LE TRIO. WORDS: JA M IE M U IR.
“It’s interesting,” ponders Naomi McPherson. “We knew that we were going to play an important role in each other’s lives, but just didn’t know it’d be in this sort of capacity. We became best friends, very intimate and very close, very open - and very quickly into our friendships. I didn’t know that I’d ever have friends like this, it’s like we’re married!” Having that connection and that kinship within one another is a special thing. Many spend their lives chasing it, spending money in the
“WHEN “WHEN WE WE FIRST FIRST WROTE WROTE A A POP POP SONG, SONG, II WAS WAS ABSOLUTELY ABSOLUTELY SHOCKED.” SHOCKED.” After all, MUNA itself changed its member’s lives in a way only destiny could properly explain. Meeting at the University of Southern California, there was always a sense that the three of them had found in each other the strength and muse to their every emotion. It quickly became clear just how vital the three of them were to each other, a sense of family and a connection that radiates through everything they do.
hope of finding it - but in MUNA, that tight-knit support and unbridled love is living and breathing in stunning technicolour. In each other, the band didn’t need anyone else - and that spinning creativity allowed them to be free in every direction and simply enjoy the feeling of creating and being with each other. If the term, ‘let nature take its course’ was ever suitable for any band, then for MUNA, it paved the way. Josette saw that initial process of
defining the band they were as one that sat completely open. “When we first started, we were throwing shit against a wall. It was really experimental, we were just seeing where it could all go. When we first wrote a pop song, I was absolutely shocked. I’d never written pop music before and I never really listened to a lot of pop music, so it really hit me in the face. I feel like it kinda just happened to us, and then it all started to make sense.” What pop music has needed for a while now, is not only a band and a voice that can cut above the world around them but one that can shift and look to change it. As heard ringing through their debut album ‘About U’, MUNA are painting a masterpiece that’s gearing up to be recognised far beyond the dorms and halls they first called home. The power of family, love and friendship have never been more vital. It’s a statement Naomi keeps close to mind. “I feel like sometimes I take for granted what good friendships I have with Josette and Katie, not everybody gets to have that. By being in a band, we’re trying to encourage that vulnerability, to look for that connection with other people, and to be as open as you can be.” In a world where doors are being shut at every turn, MUNA’s open door is the stand of defiance we need. P MUNA’s debut album ‘About U’ is out now.
Hey Connar, what first got you interested in making music? My dad got me a guitar for Christmas when I was eight and ever since I’ve been obsessed with music and writing songs. What did you listen to growing up? The Kinks, Nirvana, Marilyn Manson and Atomic Kitten. What are your favourite things to write about? Some of your songs are pretty angsty… I write about real, everyday things I see happening or that happen to me. Most of them are about people who piss me off, or about myself. How much cake did you get through for the ‘Cake’ video, and how much did you hate custard come the end of it? We had tons of cakes - too many to count! There were about sixty cans of custard that we mixed with jam. I absolutely hate custard now. I smelt like it for days and it was all in my guitar, but my hair smelt like strawberries so it wasn’t all bad. Is being a musician all you hoped it would be? Being a musician is incredible. I get to play my music to loads of people with my two BFF’s as well as writing songs everyday and shooting music videos. It’s literally a dream.
playing football, skateboarding and watching really shit TV. How did you get booked for the INHEAVEN tour? Are you guys buds? I don’t personally know INHEAVEN but I’m a big fan and love their most recent single, ‘Treats’. As soon as I heard there was an opportunity to tour supporting them I was messaging my manager like ‘we need to get on this!’
FACT F I L E
How long have you been making music: Just over a year. Where are you from: Chelmsford, Essex. What musical pigeon-hole can we shoehorn you into: Big-Band Jazz. Which track of yours should we have put here, if, you know, this wasn’t on paper: ‘Cake’.
W I L L J OS E P H C O O K’S D E BU T A L BU M I S D O N E
Fans of ‘FYI’, not exactly news info - eagle-eyed watchers of Will Joseph Cook’s social media feeds over the last month will have noticed he’s finished work on his debut album. That’s exciting, isn’t it?
Are there any other new bands you’d recommend at the mo? Definitely, bands like Yonaka, Black Honey, CABBAGE and Bad Sounds are wicked. There are loads of really sick upcoming bands. J O RJA S M I T H I S O N TO U R I N A P RI L
You’re playing Live at Leeds soon, too - have you ‘done’ a festival before? Yeah we played Reading & Leeds last year which was incredible. The shows were mental. I can’t wait to start the festival season properly this year, it’s going to be mad.
The ‘tastemakers’ love a bit of Jorja Smith, so they’ll be delighted to hear she’s ‘hitting’ the ‘road’ in the UK this April. Basically, Jorja’s going to be massive and if you want to say “I was there” before she becomes a superstar, you know what to do.
What else are you up to this year? Do you have big plans for 2017? Definitely. Just releasing loads of new music and videos as well as tours. I’m really excited.
What new stuff are you into...
Anything else we should know? Everyone’s the same. P
What do you do for fun? I never really stop making music but when I do I like painting,
FREAK
“I love Mitski, Shura, Japanese Breakfast…” - SARA, TEGAN AND SARA “James Ferraro, Jeff Parker, Janet Feder, Marisa Anderson, Ian Sweet, Girlpool, Sean Nicholas Savage, La la la la, Princess Nokia, Girlpusher.” CLEM, CHERRY GLAZERR
18-YEAR-OLD CONNAR RIDD, AKA FREAK, MAKES THE KIND
OF RACKET THAT DESERVES TO BE PLAYED AT EAR-SPLITTING VOLUMES: MESSY, PACKED WITH ATTITUDE AND LOADS OF FUN.
KEEP YOUR EYES ON...
TE A R
ON THE GRAPEVINE
Bands. If you’re looking for a way to make us fall in love, include dinosaurs in your music videos. Or dogs. Londoners TEAR went for the former in their clip, which you can see on readdork.com now, and it was enough to send us head over heels. The music is great too, obv. If you’re not already familiar with Zuzu,
and you probably should be, now is the time to get yourself acquainted. They’ve gone two for two on amazing bangers. That kind of form will play a band right into the buzz big leagues. Peaness have just signed to Alcopop! Records, which is great news. Not only are they awesome, but it’ll keep us in comedy headlines for at least six months. Yes, we are still six years old. They’ve got a new EP, ‘Are You Sure?’, coming out “later this year”.
“We haven’t listened to a lot of new stuff recently, we’re stuck in the past at present. But some snazzy new exceptions would be Flamingods, Karl Blau, Whitney, The Parrots, Tacocat and Big Thief.” HOOTON TENNIS CLUB “Polographia from Australia have a great song called ‘Sly’ which is worth checking out. Silicon from New Zealand has also been a favourite of ours for a while so not exactly new but his song ‘God Emoji’ is really good.” - BEN, FENECHSOLER
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THE WORLD ACCORDING TO
EL IE V E IN . H AT TH EY B W R FO P U S PE A K SAY. A FR A ID TO S A LOT TO E VA N T H A N D S A R EN ’T TI A B AT E M M , O PS S O T. A PA RT, B EN N ET LO O D ’ D R R LD FA LL S A H LO U IS E M ‘D U M B B AS TH E WO OTO S : SA R EB U T A LB U D PH . R EI ER TL TH U S H A S WO R D S : A LI
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verything is so unfathomable. I don’t have a fucking clue what’s going on. I don’t understand the details of any situation,” admits Mattie Vant - but to be fair, who does? “The politicians don’t even understand now. The Oxford Word Of The Year last year was ‘Post-Truth’, and that says it all. We live in a time where everyone is scared, and everyone is unsure, to the point where unfortunately we just ignore it, and we just get on with our lives. That’s the problem. It increasingly gets worse and worse and gets more confusing because we choose to put our blinkers on instead of addressing anything.” Despite everything, Mattie has hope. “That’s what ‘Dumb Blood’ is about; waking up and being a part of the conversation before it’s too late.” Seeing themselves as more philosophical than political, VANT’s debut album is a considered reaction to the world that surrounds them. Inequality, misogyny, sexism, climate change, racism, global relations, religion and the general state of the human race: the band tackle it all. More than a checklist of grievances, though, they’re outspoken but considered. Searching for answers and hoping to get more people talking, ‘Dumb Blood’ is an album with purpose. If it feels vital, that’s ‘cause it is. This isn’t sideline commentary or echochamber self-gratification, ‘Dumb Blood’ is about immediate action. It’s now or never. The call to arms is undeniable, but it never detracts from ‘Dumb Blood’’s immediate and whole-hearted entertainment. “Music is the perfect platform for what we talk about. There’s no other way I can say this without sounding cheesy,” he warns, “but music is the universal language. There’s something very tribal about music. I could go anywhere in the world and play with a drummer from Iraq, a bass player from China and a guitar player from Mexico. We could get in the same room and communicate through song, that’s why it has such a universal nature. It’s something that gets a hold of us and grabs our attention. It’s the same as a caveman dancing round a fire, banging rocks together.” That primal want to be part of something bigger lights a fire in the centre of ‘Dumb Blood’. Above everything, each song is an anthem for coming together. From the rattling cry of ‘The Answer’ to ‘Fly-By Aliens’’ promise of “You are important/you are extinct. You have a meaning/you have a purpose. This life is short, make sure it’s worth it,” VANT take
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unfathomable ideas and turn them into fantastic pop songs. “I grew up listening to records that I didn’t know were political and it gradually seeped into my consciousness. It made me the person I am today,” explains Mattie. “That’s the main hope I have for our record. There are a lot of artists out there saying great things, but stylistically, their music is terrible. It’s not good enough. Just because something has meaning, it doesn’t mean it’s good.” “We love writing music. We love making melodies that are catchy, addictive and resonate on that language of music. If you can get that part right first, then say something meaningful with it, it’ll hit people even harder.” The song always comes first, but “if you also get the meaning and it impacts your understanding in some way, then that’s amazing. It’s all we can hope for.” Offering a shifting stream of conscious and never dumbing it down, VANT’s debut is clever without arrogance. “You can’t underestimate your audience; people understand things. People got it when PJ Harvey did ‘Let England Shake’. People got it when Arctic Monkeys did ‘Whatever People Say I Am…’, and the fact it was intelligent lyricism that questioned society as a 17-yearold in Sheffield in the same way that The Clash did it with ‘London Calling’, the same way that Rage Against The Machine did it in the 90s. It resonated with people, but the one thing all of those bands have in common is the fact they write great music. The fact they talk about important issues is almost secondary. I guess that’s what I’m hoping we do, that ours is an album that is accessible for people who
“YOU CAN’T UNDERESTIMATE YOUR AUDIENCE.” don’t want to think about those sort of things but for those that do, it’s like the golden snitch.” “We’re not like anyone else that’s out at the moment,” reflects Mattie. “That wasn’t intentional; it’s just the way it is.” VANT want to stand in the spotlight, entertaining and connecting with the world on a primal level but they’re never going to pander. The songs have meaning, and they’re going to use their platform to start conversations. Don’t like it? “I don’t give a fuck.” That take it or leave it attitude is the pinnacle of a massive learning curve. “When we first started out, no one gave a fuck who we were. It’s been a circle,” he continues, ignoring geometry. “I had all that freedom not to give a fuck, because no one gave a fuck about me.” As more people became aware of the band, more people started criticising them for having an opinion. To begin with, Mattie would engage. “I’d reply because it’s all about debate. It’s fine if you don’t share my opinion, but that doesn’t mean I can’t have one.” But as time has gone on, it’s become pretty obvious what VANT are about. “We want to start a conversation. You can choose to ignore the lyrics, but I’m not going to resist having a message
or denying that ‘cause it’s fucking important. Now, I just ignore those people who complain about us having something to say. If someone says something that makes me think about my opinion or makes me realise a different narrative I’ll maybe engage, but in general, I don’t give a fuck.” Having an album to cement their voice solidifies their stance because “there’s no arguing with it,” Mattie continues. “Whenever you’ve created a piece of art, whether it’s a documentary, a painting or an album, you can’t change that opinion. It’ll always exist in the state that it does. You can interpret it in different ways, and you can take whatever meaning you want from it, but from the artist’s perspective it’s a matter of ‘this is what I fucking think so deal with it’. I guess that’s the approach you’ve got to have with everything these days, and you’ve got to be prepared for backlash because it’s inevitable. You can’t worry about those people who turn off because we have opinions. The majority of people who love our band care about the message. They care that we’re actually saying something. Hopefully, we are giving a lot of people a voice. The bigger we get, the more power we have to
represent people who don’t have someone backing them up. “I’m appreciative of every moment we’ve had so far, but we’re going to continue to do what we set out to do in the first place, which is to stir opinion and make a fuss. I like to think, especially over the last six months, that politics isn’t a dirty word with music anymore and there are a lot more artists who feel like they can speak up or write about certain things. I said a long time ago that if there was one thing that I hoped we could do, it was to open the door for more political music. Obviously, world events have been the main cause of that, but I think we’ve made it less of a taboo.” After a decade of bouncing around the industry, the community and the country, Mattie has finally found a platform for his voice. In a relatively short time - VANT’s debut single was first aired in the opening months of 2015 - the band has found a connection. Not that Mattie knows why. “I still don’t understand what’s going on. I’d rather I didn’t. It’s been this gradual, natural climb for us, which has been nice. If the band skyrockets, you’re just holding on, and it’s out of your control, but I feel like we’ve approached it in a sensible, mannered way that reflects the type of band that we are and the type of band that we wanted to be in the first place.” And the type of band VANT are is a genuine one. They soundtrack an authenticity that Mattie has craved since he was a child. “I used to act when I was younger, just stage and theatre, and having that response from a live audience, clapping and stuff, that was cool. I felt like a fraud though because I wasn’t myself, I was playing other people.” He soon realised music was a way of playing yourself that earned the same response from others. “That was the turning point. I realised if I wrote my own stuff, I could start performing it.” Mattie was told he didn’t have the musical ability to learn violin or acoustic guitar at school when he was seven. “I wanted to prove those people wrong. The only opportunity I had to play music from that point on was to play the recorder in a recorder choir. I was the only boy, and that resulted in a lot of bullying, and I packed it in.” A handful of uninspiring private Spanish guitar lessons came a few years later - “I fucking hated it” - but from the moment he finally got his hands on a guitar of his own after being inspired by The Strokes and The Vines in the early 2000s, he started writing. Visits to a few local battle of the bands later and Mattie assembled a group around him. That first band, like VANT, was also “completely real.” Formed when he was fifteen,
“THE PEOPLE IN POWER DON’T GIVE A FUCK.” they did everything but sign a record deal. “I think that was purely based on geographical location. We were a great band.” Eventually, it all fell apart when Mattie moved to Brighton and the others didn’t. Everything about that first band “felt so easy because there was no resistance. That led me to this deluded place where I thought, ‘If everything’s that easy, then whatever I do next will be easy’, but it wasn’t.” What followed was a series of projects that saw Mattie trying to conform to what he thought was popular. “I experimented with folk music and then later on electronica, dubstep and just whatever was the current trend. I realised quite quickly that it was vacuous and I wasn’t
getting any satisfaction from it.” The various bands just weren’t him. “I kept hitting brick walls because I wasn’t doing things that were honest and natural. Authenticity is the number one thing you have to have as an artist. You have to be authentic, and you have to be undeniable.” Moving to London and soaking in the atmosphere, the community and the spirit of acceptance while working in a bar, VANT started off as a solo project. “I had the realisation that it’s so important to make music from the heart and from a place that is honest. That resulted in me returning to the punk rock music I made when I was younger. It was the music that I listened to most and really cared
about. I was at a point in my life where I didn’t want to talk about self-indulgence anymore, or love, or any of those things. I was frustrated seeing what was going on in the world and I understood the struggle a lot of people have living in London. Sometimes I was working 80 hours a week, and I’d take home just enough money to pay my rent and get the bare minimum food requirements to survive. I was living in a shithole with drug addicts and arseholes, and I went through a lot of weird, weird times. That general frustration filtered into the lyrics I was writing at the time, and it made me want to express my views and philosophies and also try and raise a few key, basic human principles that were no
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STOP
BEING A BAND.”
THE PAST FEW YEARS HAVEN’T ALL BEEN SUNSHINE AND ROSES FOR LOS CAMPESINOS!, BUT NEW ALBUM ’SICK SCENES’ SEES THEM TAKE CONTROL AND COME BACK FIGHTING. WORDS: MARTYN YOUNG.
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t’s easy to take being in a band for granted. You’re living the dream, making albums, playing shows and travelling the globe. But what happens when things get a bit sticky, and real life takes over? For long-standing indie rock heroes Los Campesinos!, the past few years saw the most frustrating period of the band’s existence, one that has only recently come to an end with the revelatory recording of their sixth album, ‘Sick Scenes’. It’s a record full of their typical exuberance but tempered by an added maturity as the band went through their darkest period and came out fighting. For singer and lyricist Gareth Campesinos!, the fact that the album exists at all is a testament to the band’s spirit forged after a period of hardship and inactivity. “By the
time this one comes out it will be over three years since ‘No Blues’,” he begins. “It was a difficult, boring time for the band. Going into ‘No Blues’ was the time where we all got proper jobs. Previously we’d all been very fortunate to be doing the band as a full-time thing. We knew that wouldn’t last forever.” Forced to take a back seat to the realities of making a living, the band came under pressure to call it quits. “People we worked with previously encouraged us to stop being a band, said it wasn’t worth doing anymore,” explains Gareth. This negative response forced them to confront some nagging issues. “We were frustrated with how ‘No Blues’ was handled. We felt it was dusted under the carpet as soon as it came out.” Coupled with their lack of touring and inability to visit America, the
band decided to take things into their own hands. “We stopped working with the label and started self-managing. That was a huge positive,” says Gareth. That was a decision that proved to be the making of ‘Sick Scenes’. “The great thing about managing ourselves at that point was that we could raise money and choose what we did with it. We were in a position where we were able to record an album, and it was very clear that was what we wanted to do.” There’s no doubt that fans are very happy to have Los Campesinos! back, fit, firing and brimming with the kind of irresistible, smart bangers that they specialise in. Los Camp! are an important band to a lot of people. In many ways, they’ve been the quintessential gateway band to a whole generation of indie fans since they emerged eleven years ago, even
if Gareth thinks people bafflingly want to hide it. “I think there are a lot of bands who are influenced by us, but I don’t think we’re at that point in our legacy when people will openly admit it,” he says. ‘Sick Scenes’ arrives at a point where the band are embracing becoming older and more mature by imbuing their music with the sense of exuberance and joy of their earliest albums. It’s a perfect mix of the spirit of the old, and the confidence of the new. “Tom, our guitarist, said for a long time that the truly honest record you make is the first one. That’s the first batch of songs you’ve written, and you make them without consideration for how people will react. We felt like that approaching ‘Sick Scenes’ because it felt for so long that we might not get to do another record that when we did come to write it, it was a celebration
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REVIEWS
Circa Waves Different Creatures
eeeee
W
ith ‘Young Chasers’, Circa Waves introduced themselves into the world with a winking eye and a sun-dazzled glow that captured the summer in a bottle and passed it round for all to savour. Unafraid of what they would get compared to or how close to the line people would think they were playing it, ‘Young Chasers’ was a free record in every sense, and the perfect summer soundtrack. Yet the summer cedes into winter, the light into the dark and from ‘Young Chasers’ comes ‘Different Creatures’ - a bold and meaty record of garagerock spinners that unravels the sunshine to show Circa Waves’
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teeth, and boy are they hungry. Sizzling from the get-go, ‘Different Creatures’ is a record that shows the full spectrum of who Circa Waves are - rippling with a Queens Of The Stone Age intensity on the scorching ‘Goodbye’ and lead single ‘Wake Up’ yet flourishing with a distinct blossom when dipping into The Verve’s territory with the pulling strings and burning swell of ‘Out On My Own’. More than anything, the album is an invitation and plateau of the bows and arrows Circa Waves may have hidden from view when knocking on the door back in 2015, a new found confidence that means when they do let rip with indie gazes - like they do on ‘Crying Shame’ and ‘Without You’ - it comes with a bigger punch than ever
before, with a reinforced standing of a band in their prime. Through diversions into throbbing bassstreams (‘A Night On The Broken Tiles’), slick modern Strokesswoons (‘Different Creatures’) and stripped raw odes (‘Love’s Run Out’) - it’s a record that shows the plumage of a creature many underestimated. ‘Different Creatures’ is a record that’s bold in its vision, free in its adventure and ambitious in its destination. It comes from a space of not giving a shit, of wanting to be bigger and instead of creating a sound to fit the stages they’re playing - flips the story to create the band that’ll make their own. Because of it, ‘Different Creatures’ is packed with landmark moments for an important year. Jamie Muir
PACKED WITH LANDMARK MOMENTS FOR AN IMPORTANT YEAR.
LOS CAMPESINOS! HAVE FINALLY EMBRACED WHO THEY ARE.
Rag ‘n’ Bone Man
REVIEWS
Human
Columbia Records/ Best Laid Plans
eee It’s been a long time coming for Rag‘n’Bone Man. After years of grafting, the stars have aligned with ‘Human’ on the cusp of record collections around the country. That sort of pressure can be a dealbreaker, but for Rag‘n’Bone Man it may just have given him the purpose to create an album that’ll take him into a legion of pop stars, as he mixes R&B, soul, hip-hop, jazz and blues into a potent cocktail of hookpacked success. Jamie Muir
Temples Volcano
Heavenly Recordings
eeee From the opening drums on ‘Certainty’ to the dying guitar strains on ‘Strange Or Be Forgotten’, ‘Volcano’ is simply a delight to listen to. Once you get past the lengthy intro on ‘All Join In’, it turns into a ridiculously catchy melody with James Bagshaw’s 60s-infused vocals drifting across - a formula they repeat to great success. ‘Volcano’ is full of expertly crafted pop while retaining Temples’ trademark psychedelic sound; a leap into the future from a band firmly rooted in the past. Josh Williams
Los Campesinos! Sick Scenes
Wichita Recordings
eeeee There’s no denying that Los Campesinos! have played the long game. Prioritising a hard-working DIY ethos over making a quick buck, the music they’ve produced over the past few years has always been held together by one thing – a raw, open honesty in Gareth’s lyrics that incite wry smiles as readily as tears. ‘Sick Scenes’ pushes Los Camp!’s most distinctive qualities to the fore – hitting the perfect sweet spot of musical perkiness but lyrical despair. Speedy guitars and self-loathing battle each other to the finish line via an obstacle course of gang vocals, football analogies and Cure-worthy atmospherics, used to tell some close-to-home tales about love, depression and the ‘is this really it?’ anxiety that plagues so many millennials. So much of the bands’ career has centred around Gareth’s attempts to find love in a hopeless place, and it’s quite the sensation
‘HEARTWORMS’ ISN’T AFRAID TO GET WEIRD. to experience his place in this record, seemingly having found it but not altogether better for it – ‘‘I’m glad to be in love, but I’m lonely/and I feel like I’m the only one’ (‘Hung Empty’). This sense of no-frills honesty really glows on the record’s slower tracks - it’s no coincidence that the intro to ‘A Slow Slow Death’ sounds remarkably similar to that of past single ‘Hello Sadness’, beautifully describing the ‘elephant shoes’ that make it so difficult for depression sufferers to go about their lives. ‘The Fall Of Home’ is something even those lucky enough to avoid mental illness can relate to, watching a hometown go to shit as both memories and youth fade. When depression statistics are higher than ever, and it’s all too easy to compare somebody’s else’s Instagram feed to our trash folder, ‘Sick Scenes’ feels like an important record. If acknowledgement really is half the battle, this is an album where Los Campesinos! have finally embraced who they are. Jenessa Williams
The Shins
Heartworms Aural Apothecary/ Columbia Records
e e e ee You might think that five years is a long time to go without a new studio album – and it is, really, for a lot of bands. But for James Mercer and The Shins, it’s practically normal. ‘Heartworms’ is the band’s fifth studio album, coming out five years after the excellent ‘Port of Morrow’ – which itself came five years after ‘Wincing The Night Away’. It’s been 13 years since we were told to listen to this one song because it’ll change our life, Natalie Portman swears. So, time continues its relentless march, and what do we have to show for it? An album that sees frontman James Mercer continue as the sole songwriter behind The Shins, and picking up production duties again for the first time since 2001’s debut, ‘Oh, Inverted World’. And for all that – it’s a pretty good record, too. While ‘Port of Morrow’ was loosely influenced by newfound fatherhood,
this time Mercer’s daughters inspire opener ‘Name For You’. With such loveliness at its core, ‘Heartworms’ lives up to its name. It features the kind of lyrics that burrow into your vital organs: “You kissed me once when we were drunk / And now I’m nervous when we meet / I’ve got nothing under my feet,” sings Mercer on the relentlessly bouncy standout track ‘Cherry Hearts’. ‘Heartworms’ also isn’t afraid to get weird, either. Playing with more electronic noises in between the more easily recognisable Shins tracks (‘Dead Alive’, ‘Heartworms’, the soaring ‘So Now What’) results in the likes of the throbbing ‘Painting A Hall’ and the squashed synths of the catchy ‘Half A Million’, while the swooping sounds of airplanes introduce ‘Fantasy Island’. The overall result is an album that, yes, sounds like a Shins album, although occasionally it can feel a little disjointed (‘Mildenhall’ is a bit of a plodding and sleepy three and a bit minutes halfway through the album). But its heart is certainly in the right place – and with any luck, it’ll worm its way into yours too. Coral Williamson 37