Dork, May 2017

THIS MONTH DORK readdork.com

Editor: Stephen Ackroyd stephen@readdork.com Deputy Editor: Victoria Sinden viki@readdork.com Associate Editor: Ali Shutler ali@readdork.com Contributing Editors Jamie Muir jamie@readdork.com Martyn Young martyn@readdork.com

Contributors: Alex Bradley, Alex Thorp, Ben Jolley, Corinne Cumming, Eala MacAlister, Elliot Mcrae, Jake Hawkes, Jake Richardson, Jenessa Williams, Jessica Goodman, Josh Williams, Liam Konemann, Rob Mesure, Ryan Johnston, Phil Smithies, Poppy Waring, Sam Taylor, Sammy Maine, Sarah Louise Bennett, Steven Loftin 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

C O N T E N TS U P DAT E

04 FAT H E R J O H N M I ST Y 07 T H E M E PA RK 08 D EC E N T E X P OS U RE 0 9 A DAY I N T H E L I F E O F… F I C K L E F RI E N DS 10 G N A RWO LV ES 1 2 DAY WAV E 14 C IT Y GUI DES… EAT FAST 15 HALFNOISE 1 6 B N QT 1 7 BA N G E RS 1 8 SOA P BOX 20 D O RK L I V E 2 2 CA L E N DA R 24 C O N N ECT I O N HYPE 26 O F F B LO O M 2 8 VAG A BO N 2 9 T E N TO N N ES F E AT U RES 30 W I L L J OS E P H C O O K 36 P O N D 3 8 M AC D E M A RC O 42 C L E A N C U T K I D 46 F E I ST REV I E WS 4 8 G O RI L L A Z 49 S P L AS H H 5 0 H A P PY N ESS 5 1 M A X I M O PA RK 52 K ASA B I A N 53 D I RT Y H I T TO U R 56 MUNA A N Y OT H E R Q U EST I O N S ?

6 2 VA N T

E D I TO R’S N OT E SOMETIMES WE NEED A BIT OF CHEERING UP. That’s not to say that Will Joseph Cook is exclusively enthralled to the fixed smiles and day glo stylings of the relentlessly positive - but you can be sure that his debut album ‘Sweet Dreamer’ will put a smile on your face. And really, given the state of pretty much everything else going on in the world right now, that’s basically a super power, right?

So, obviously, that’s why Will is on the cover of Dork this month. Because we’re doing the same thing. This month, we’re turning ten - ten issues deep (yes, already!), kicking against the cynical pricks and having a giggle. We’re already throwing up shows and festival stages around the country, launching whole new editions (keep your eyes open for the first issue of the Dork Festival Guide), and generally battling boring on all fronts. Together, we’ve got this.

Stephen Ackroyd, Editor (@stephenackroyd)

ST U F F W E LOV E THIS MONTH Blood Red Shoes’ bangerrific first album, the impending promise of festival season 2017 (let’s come back to that come September, eh - Ed), Mark Kermode, the bit on the new Alt-J track ‘In Cold Blood’ that goes ‘la la la la la’, non-Brexit Toblerone, cheap non-denominational chocolate eggs, ‘Emotion Side B’, that Dirty Hit newsletter that suggested we might get some new Wolf Alice soon, the fact this is issue 10 of Dork (do we get to go to big school soon?), dogs on the internet (obv).

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.

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UPDATE Whyso serious?

IF IT’S NOT IN HERE, IT’S NOT HAPPENING. OR WE FORGOT ABOUT IT. ONE OR THE OTHER.

I

EVERYONE HAS AN OPINION ON FATHER JOHN MISTY, BUT JOSH TILLMAN IS EMBRACING THE MIRACLE. WORDS: LIAM KONEMANN. PHOTOS: GUY LOWNDES.

had this episode,” says Josh Tillman. “In Philadelphia.”

It’s a dreary, grey Saturday in Shoreditch and Josh – better known these days as his beardy, enigmatic alter-ego Father John Misty – is running the press gauntlet for his new record ‘Pure Comedy’. There’s a lot to get through. His third album is more political than his previous work, and its themes have been percolating for some time. While he started work on the album in 2015, he says that last year some of its lyrics “became very literal overnight.”

So. Philadelphia.

“It was the day after the Republican Convention, the day after Trump got the nomination,” he says. “I was horrified by that, and also horrified by the sneering, glib complacency I saw in my peers. I just thought, we’re fucked. If this is the way we react to things like this, then we’re fucked.

Because what’s much worse than this? This is just about as bad and as tragically stupid of a thing as I can imagine happening. And we’re responding with more jokes.”

He is, of course, describing the lead up to his appearance at New Jersey’s XPoNential Music Festival. He still seems baffled by the events of that week, and frustrated by many people’s refusal to take Donald Trump seriously.

“When I got to this festival, it was like

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this thing had happened and nothing had changed. People were sitting in lawn chairs drinking wine coolers and watching folk-rock. It was like-” He makes a resigned face and turns his palms out towards the ceiling, indicating the invisible masses. “- this is the left.”

When he got onstage, Josh didn’t play his set. Instead, he made a speech about the evils of Trump, halfperformed two songs, and walked off.

The backlash was harsh, but half a year down the line and the decision still makes sense to him.

“If this is not enough of a reason to disrupt the regularly scheduled programming, then I don’t know what is,” he says.

For a lot of people, that moment saw Father John Misty become a parody of himself. Josh Tillman has made a career from his sense of humour, entwining it with genuine songwriting ability and borderline obscene hip shaking to create a persona that is at once startlingly observant and frequently absurd.

Father John Misty is enigmatic almost to a fault. Which makes it difficult to make a serious point, sometimes. Josh Tillman: the boy who cried satire.

Since Trump’s election, the writers of South Park (of all people) have suggested that in the reality where a Wotsit-tanned former reality show host can rule the most powerful nation in the Western world, we are finally beyond satire. Josh has set up an entire persona around irony, more

or less, so you’d think the absurd pitch reality has taken would rain on the Father John Misty parade. But he seems at peace with it.

“I mean, I think that satire is a luxury in a sane world, you know?” he considers. “But it is very strange.

I think that satire was imbued with a potential for social change in the Bush era, and we’re seeing that it does not have the world-changing properties that certain middle-class liberals would have liked. It makes me think of ‘‘The Revolution Will Not Be Televised’. It’s not gonna happen that way. But I don’t think anyone thought that something quite this radically stupid was possible.”

“There was a time that when people were repulsed by something, it meant that they didn’t want to see it. Now, when you put something that’s horrible or scary on TV people want to see more and more because we’ve come to – tragically- view those horrible things as having entertainment value. Because we’ve just become numb and sort of desensitised. People are waking up going-” he leans over the table, mimicking the mania of someone who’s rolled out of bed to stare into the pale glow of a computer screen “Oh god I wonder what terrible thing Donald Trump said or did last night, I can’t wait to see. I’m going to eat my carrot muffin and see what horrible thing daddy said yesterday.”

If the western entertainment machine is part of the problem, then as an artist and performer where

does Father John Misty fit in?

“Well, I’ll say this – if I had made an album about heartbreak and recreational drug use, I’m not sure I would be able to go out and perform.

I don’t think I could bring myself to do it. But the fact that I have an album that does directly address these issues, I feel like I can,” he says.

‘Pure Comedy’ is different to his other records. On 2015’s ‘I Love You, Honeybear’, ‘The Ideal Husband’ - a tongue-in-cheek song about wedding (and possibly bedding) Julian Assange – was about as political as Josh got.

‘Pure Comedy’, on the other hand, goes deeper into Serious Grown-Up territory. Lead single ‘Two Wildly Different Perspectives’ has seen Josh compared to Elton John, thanks to its gentle piano melody and ‘Your Song’ style vocal. Set it next to everything else he has released as Father John Misty and the instinct is to look for the joke. But it never comes. The track’s closing lines are “and everyone ends up with less, on both sides”.

A simple conclusion, sure, but you wouldn’t have heard it from the Father John Misty of ‘Fear Fun’ or ‘I Love You, Honeybear’. He thinks now’s the time.

“I think artists are due up for a reevaluation,” he says. “That’s part of the communal human experience, every once in a while we have to make big reassessments. What do we want out of music? I remember in 2008 there was this flood of indie rock that was sort of about nothing. And the culture was saying ‘there’s something

THIS THIS IS THIS IS THIS IS THISIS IS HAPPENING HAPPENING HAPPENING HAPPENING HAPPENING

D OT D OT D OT Dot to Dot Festival has announced a bunch more names for their May Bank Holiday bash.

Dork faves The Big Moon lead the additions alongside the incredible Pixx, Slow Club, Miya Folick and To Kill a King. They join headliners Sundara Karma as the festival takes in three cities in three days.

COMING HOME Broken Social Scene have returned with their first track in seven years. ‘Halfway Home’ comes with the news that the band will return to the UK in May for two huge headline shows in Manchester and London.

O H , O H WO N D E R

“I don’t think anyone thought that something quite this

radically stupid

was possible.”

Dropping their first new music since 2015’s self-titled debut album, Oh Wonder have burst back into frame with the dazzling ‘Ultralife’. It’s believed to feature on Oh Wonder’s much anticipated second album, and is sure to sound massive during their packed summer of live shows around the globe (which include a couple of UK appearances at this year’s Reading & Leeds).

CALIFORNIA DREAMS When bands release that ‘deluxe edition’ of their album, they generally just add a couple of tracks they had hanging around and leave it at that. Not blink-182 though. When they drop their reissued version of last year’s ‘California’ on 19th May, it’ll feature a whole eleven new tracks. That’s basically a whole other album!

“I’m not

impressed with a lot of answers that this culture offers.”

magical that happens when five white men get together and play acoustic instruments’. I don’t think the culture has the same patience for that anymore, ten years later. I don’t think anyone feels that. That’s a re-evaluation.”

Bold words from a man who declared his performance on BBC 6music “the whitest, most acoustic thing you’ve ever seen,” but it’s true that on ‘Pure Comedy’, Josh is getting real.

Still, the sarcastic shaman hasn’t ditched his old MO entirely. The record is still brimming with his black humour, with tracks like ‘Ballad of the Dying Man’ and ‘Things It Would Have Been Helpful to Know Before the Revolution’ poking holes in our capitalist habits.

‘Pure Comedy’ is Josh trying to make a serious point, but it’s wreathed in the same wry amusement that’s tinged everything he’s done as Father John Misty.

He doesn’t think the humour cheapens the politics, but he’s wary of crossing too far into that territory.

“There’s a distinction between art and culture and entertainment,” he points out. “Culture is how we determine what our values are.

And I do think that this album is my bid at trying to articulate what our values are. Culture can be entertaining, but something that’s purely entertainment is just a narcotic.”

Josh is well aware, though, that no matter how well intentioned he is there are people who have no interest in his version of our cultural values.

“Since some of the songs have come out, plenty of people have said, ‘I don’t think anyone cares what fucking Father John Misty has to say.’ There are people who completely despise me and think that I’m the last person in the world who should be a mouthpiece for how to move forward,” He says.

“They don’t want it to be me. I think the response to this album is going to be really polarised.”

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Since he sat down today he’s moved back and forth between tiredness and animation, but now he seems properly bummed, if in an unsurprised sort of way.

“It’s depressing. It’s disheartening.

But there’s no way to go but further into the fray. If interviewers are asking me I’m not going to say, ‘Well I don’t think I’m the person to be talking about this’. I can’t do that either. I can’t hide,” he shrugs.

“I think what turns a lot of people off about my music is that a lot of the questions I’m addressing are clichés, like ‘What is love?’ or ‘Why are we here?’ ‘What does it all mean?’ But that’s what all my favourite artists are asking, whether it’s Terrence Malick or David Lynch.

For a certain type of artist you’re crippled with self-awareness, so when you go ‘I want to make a song about why we’re here,’ then you go -” he drops his head into his hands, violently cringing at himself, “’Oh god did I really just think that?’

But you can’t get it out of your head, so you do your damndest to do it justice. There ends up being self-awareness in the work, and awareness of the awareness. In my song ‘Leaving LA’, I’m making a meta-commentary on the song as part of the song. I think that strikes a lot of people as pretentious, but it’s just my way of dealing with how cliché the questions that I’m asking are.”

If Josh is asking clichéd questions, it’s only because he’s unsatisfied with the clichéd answers he’s been given. He was raised an Evangelical Christian but has clearly strayed from the flock, dabbling in psychedelics and philosophy to try to find the solution himself. He’s getting closer.

“Life is just narrative metadata in aggregate. Modern man’s solutions for the human riddle, I think are pretty counterfeit. We can do better,” he says. “We can do better than that.

And the answers I don’t think are all that sophisticated. I think our vanity wants to think that the answers are really complex, and I don’t think that they are. I think we have everything we need. You know? How

could we need much more than this?”

One of the ‘solutions’ that he appears to find particularly counterfeit is consumer culture. He seems preoccupied with capitalism these days, but then maybe he always has been – he’s sung about global markets crashing before on ‘I Love You, Honeybear’. Pure Comedy takes things a step further, as ‘Things It Would Have Been Helpful to Know Before the Revolution’ sees us return to living off the land. Our social lives are ruined, but it’s okay, because as Josh sings “there are some visionaries among us developing some products to aid us in our struggle to survive.”

He thinks people are self-sabotaging like that. They’ve got that classic Fight Club “the things you own end up owning you” problem. “That’s the irony of human beings. The things that make us so unique – our creativity, our ambition, our insatiable appetite for progress – the things that make us so incredible make us destructive,” he says. “The difference between those two is consciousness.

Consciousness enables us to use our talents and inspiration for the good of other people. Money doesn’t have a conscience. Capitalism doesn’t have a conscience. It makes the world binary. It turns the world into supply and demand.

It kind of makes us monstrous in a way. It kind of makes us deny our consciousness.”

The answer, he says, is to hold onto and care for each other. Compassion. Unity.

“People will look at the title of this album and go, ‘That is a flippant, cruel, narrow-minded perspective on who we are and our condition.’ But I think that there’s compassion in that. We’re all in this absurd state of affairs together, and we can only move forward if we recognise the absurdity and laugh. The end of the album is like, what is there to fear? We’re so insignificant. And it’s statistically a miracle that we’re here. So why be so serious?

Who are we kidding? Come on!” He laughs, incredulous now, and it’s infectious.

“I think that’s going to be the biggest misunderstanding with the album. When I say, ‘Just random matter suspended in the dark’, that’s not despair. It’s just saying let’s have some perspective.”

In himself, at least, Josh seems to have found a perspective he can live with.

“You get to some point where you realise that fundamental questions have fundamental answers. I like the fewest moving parts. I’m not impressed with a lot of answers that this culture offers. They just don’t sit right with me. I think that is the core of existentialism, is that culture and society or religion or philosophy have all failed to answer these questions.” He decides. “And you have to answer them yourself.”

Father John Misty’s album ‘Pure Comedy’ is out now.

LUST LUST FOR FOR LIFE LIFE Lana Del Rey has a title for her new album. Following up on single ‘Love’ comes the record ‘Lust for Life’. No release date yet, though.

THIS THIS IS THIS IS THIS IS THISIS IS HAPPENING HAPPENING HAPPENING HAPPENING HAPPENING

Confidence is a preference for the habitual voyeur of what is known as...

PARKLIFE

THEME PARK WERE UNCEREMONIOUSLY DROPPED FROM THEIR RECORD LABEL FOLLOWING 2013’S DEBUT ALBUM - BUT NOW THE BAND ARE BACK FOR ROUND TWO, AND THEY’RE PUTTING UP A FIGHT.

SA D’S O N TO U R Sadie Dupuis’ Sad13 is coming to the UK in May, for a string of UK headline shows. She will be bringing the full weight of ‘Slugger’ to shows in Bristol, Guildford, Brighton, Leeds, Glasgow and Manchester – before a final night headlining London’s Boston Music Rooms on 25th May.

M E LT D OW N After teasing away (and even asking Radiohead over Twitter), MIA has confirmed the first batch of names lined up for this year’s curated Meltdown Festival, which happens from 9th-18th June. Taking place the Southbank Centre, the series of shows include nights with Young Fathers, Crystal Castles, Yung Lean, Mykki Blanco and more – before MIA herself rounds things out with a special headline show at the Royal Festival Hall on 18th June.

L E M O N F RES H The Lemon Twigs have announced a new tour. Returning to stages all across the UK this November, the band kick things off in Manchester before hitting Sheffield, Glasgow and Birmingham and finishing up in London.

T

WORDS: MARTYN YOUNG.

he last few years have seen some glorious highs for Theme Park following the release of their self-titled debut.

However, they were tempered by one almighty low as the band parted with their record label. From adversity, though, has emerged a new Theme Park. Ultra-confident and ready to shoot for the moon, they’re determined to push things further than before.

To begin with, it was a matter of just adjusting to being back in the swing of things and what they were about, as singer Miles Haughton explains. “It was really nice to remind myself that that was my job. It was nice to remind ourselves that we were in a band.”

Once they reconfigured to band life and worked out a new path for Theme Park, they embarked on the process of making new album ‘Is This How It Starts?’ with a new sense of self-sufficiency and vigour. “This time we’re putting the album out ourselves,” Miles continues. “We did the last one with Transgressive, but we were dropped. It sounds sad, but actually, it was quite a good thing.”

The album is in some ways a reaction to the debut. While still proud of their first release, Miles admits they wanted to approach it differently this

time. “I love the first album, and it was a great time, but when I listen back to it there are lots of things I’d like to change,” he begins. “Lyrically, the one thing I wanted was for the songs now to be about actual things. I was always a bit nervous with lyrics and tried to make them ambiguous and hide behind things.”

It was a simple spark that led to this greater lyrical clarity, as producer Ben Garrett (aka Fryars) implored Miles to “do your lyrics like you do your tweets.” The results were imbued with a freshness and directness that gave Theme Park a new lease of life. “That was a challenge, and that was exciting,” exclaims Miles.

“There’s a track called ‘LA is Stealing My Friends’; I wrote that, and it made me laugh.

That was originally going to be a tweet.”

With the pressure off, the feeling of freedom and a relaxed atmosphere allowed Theme Park to spread their wings. There was a slight fear that maybe their new songs were a bit too different, but ultimately the feeling of excitement and something new shone through. “It’s about the spirit. It’s the voice of the band that you hear when you listen,” Miles asserts. Their circumstances may have changed, but Theme Park are ready for the fight. P Theme Park’s album ‘Is This How It Starts?’ is out 5th May.

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CREEPER

See more on readdork.com now.

Their debut album has just hit the shelves. They’re on the run to a Top 20 chart position. They’re the band everyone is talking about. It’s no wonder Creeper’s headline tour is going off.

Photo: Ryan Johnston

THE GARAGE, GLASGOW

A A DAY IN THE LIFE OF...

ADAY DAYIN INTHE THELIFE LIFEOF...

OF...

Natti from Fickle Friends A DAY ON SET FILMING THE VIDEO TO ‘HELLO HELLO’. WITH CHAINSAWS. OBVIOUSLY. 07:00 I wake up, hammer some pain killers because I have a bad running hip (lol), down a cuppa and I’m out the door!

08:30 My driver takes me on the scenic route to East London, the sun is shining and there’s tonnes of traffic but I’m like, ‘Yeah whatever, beautiful day, etc.’ I add a bunch of scenery videos to my Instagram story.

09:15 I arrive (late) to the video shoot. It’s in a grotty looking sports hall in Dalston, but the atmosphere is buzzing. I’m immediately directed towards hair and make up, I knock some coffee back, scour the place for vegan friendly breakfast (fail) and sit down to let them make me look nice.

11:00 The rest of the boys have arrived.

Sam was early so they’re just setting up for some of his performance shots. I get talking to a few of the cast, but mostly I’m watching my hairdresser Topaz fix the awful hair cuts the boys got for free the day before. I’m now sporting some pretty striking orange eye shadow and some patchwork jeans.

12:00 I’m called for my first shots, our director Rob Brandon is a perfectly eccentric looking indie kid pulled straight out of the late 80s. I’m asked to walk on set to camera, state my name, turn right, turn left and then lip sync to the music. All the while, our mad director is screwing with me, telling me to do weird shit: hold the mic with both hands, no hands, one hand, sing to the sky, read a different page of the script. It’s hectic and hilarious.

13:45 LUNCH TIME! I don’t know who was in charge of catering today but they have fucking nailed it! Grilled aubergine, curried cauliflower, sweet potato mash, salad. I think the others

JOHNNY ON THE SPOT had chicken or some shit. Now everyone is refuelled we crack on with some zoom shots with the cast and me. There’s a chainsaw and screaming and green lights and strobe.

FORMERLY OF INDIE BOPPERS TRIBES, JOHNNY LLOYD IS TRYING HIS HAND AT FLYING SOLO.

15:00 Some lovely gals from DEPOP arrive while some of the guys are filming (Rob threw his director’s chair at Chris during his, I lol’d).

We head to a cool cafe outside the gym and take some snaps of our merch for our DEPOP shop. Then we head back in and I spend some time filming a bunch of stuff for Instagram.

16:00 A tattoo artist arrives. I kinda assumed we were all in on some private joke regarding this idea that Jack was going to get inked in the video. Apparently it’s actually happening.

I’m on my sixth cup of coffee. Harry is doing his bass shots and as to be expected, director Rob is trying to make him play his parts by strumming the top of the fret and slapping the bottom. I get this all on camera, obvs.

17:30 We’ve almost wrapped and they’re filming the end of Jack’s tattoo. I’ve put my Fitbit on, trying to make up for lost time. I run up and down the stairs to the loo a few times.

18: 30 All of us except Sam are heading to London Bridge station to make our way home to Brighton. Naturally we’ve just missed our train, so we’re waiting around. Chris befriends one of the National Rail guys and exchanges film recommendations. I go and buy another coffee, and instantly regret it.

21:00 I’m back in my flat. It’s been pretty lonely for the last couple months as my flat mate has been away but she’s back for ONE night tonight so even though I’m absolutely cream crackered, I have agreed to go and share a bottle of red with her at the pub round the corner. It’s so good to have her back!

11: 30 I go to bed because I’m a real spent penny! My usual bedtime is a lot later, but I’m so glad of the sleep and know I can have a lay in tomorrow YAY! P

WORDS: STEVEN LOFTIN.

ince parting ways with Tribes back in 2013, Johnny Lloyd has been a busy chap. While he may only be on his second release, the ‘Eden EP’, that’s far from representative of his creative output - in fact, he’s got a hundred songs waiting in the wings.

For his new solo guise, he’s enlisted the help of a familiar name: The Maccabees’ Hugo White, who’s lent his master hand to Johnny’s music since the debut ‘Dreamland EP’. “Hugo brought so much to [the ‘Eden EP’],” Johnny explains, “and really put the hours in.” A big-name cast, Mike Crossey - who’s previously racked up credits with both Wolf Alice and The 1975 - also produced the title-track.

The ‘Eden EP’ marks the start of what could be a big year for Johnny. Having just returned from a trip to Mexico - where he’s quite a big deal following previous success with Tribes, FYI - he’s “overwhelmingly grateful” to be picking up fans all over the globe, and is about to head into the studio to put some of those many tracks to use.

Of the material we’ve heard so far, it’s proven to be weighty in subject and musically delicate, yet with a force that blows you away. Citing “everything, from your friends to the books you read” as his primary sources of influence, Johnny also draws inspiration from quieter moments. “I usually have a good period after a tour or after some time off,” he says. “It comes in waves.”

Throughout the ‘Eden EP’ you can hear this bursting out of each of the four tracks, dealing with universal topics such as “being free and trying to find a place in the world.” From the large and euphoric sounds of ‘Running Wild’ to the subdued, tender closer, Johnny incorporates the might of life into his music with ease. P Johnny Lloyd’s ‘Eden EP’ is out now.

LAKING LAKING ABOUT! ABOUT! Latitude has announced a bunch more names for its 2017 event.

Marika Hackman, Dream Wife and Shame have all been confirmed alongside Lake Stage headliners

The Magic Gang, Cabbage and Jorja Smith.

Latitude Festival takes place from 13th-16th July, topped by Fleet Foxes, Mumford & Sons and The 1975.

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together. Our idea then was to go back to our producer Lewis Johns but for him to do it the way Steve would do it. We’re gutted we’re not going away to do something crazy that we haven’t done before, but thought why don’t we use those techniques with someone that we were already comfortable with?”

WOLF PACK GNARWOLVES MAY BE OUTSIDERS, BUT THEY’RE STILL HERE TO MAKE A BIG NOISE.

F

or Brighton punks Gnarwolves, being in a band is about more than just playing music. It’s about life, relationships, big feelings and big ideas. Gnarwolves are a band to believe in.

For their second album ‘Outsiders’, their ethos of inclusivity, and one big communal expression of belief in the DIY scene in which they were forged, still burns intensely. Six years in and bass player Charlie

WORDS: MARTYN YOUNG.

Piper is perhaps most proud of the fact that not only have Gnarwolves endured, but their bond is stronger than ever.

“My proudest moment was that we got together and produced something again,” says Charlie of the two-year gap between albums, unusual for a band known for their relentless productivity. “I’m proud of the fact that our heads are still together and when we meet up we can still do it.

It’s the best record we’ve done.”

The two years Gnarwolves spent working on the album saw them exploring new ways of working and tailoring them to the spirit of the band. “We wanted to go to America and do something crazy,” begins Charlie. “We applied for a grant and started talking to Steve Albini. We liked the Cloud Nothings album he did and liked the sound of it. We wanted to go for that more indie punk vibe.

It was looking positive, but we got let down in the end and couldn’t get the money

SUPA SHOPPA

While established working methods are torn down, the beliefs the band held in the early days are still held dear: “It’s overwhelming for us. We haven’t gotten over people liking our band. It’s still crazy. When we do our tours, we still play those no barrier shows because we still want that connection. If we change that it might not work anymore and we won’t want to do the band. Our way of keeping the band going and staying friends is

Nothing is off limits for Gnarwolves. When they were recording the album and a song turned out to be uncannily similar to Placebo’s ‘Nancy Boy’ rather than sheepishly canning it they decided to embrace it on the thrilling ode to Placebo’s frontman, ‘Channelling Brian Molko’.

“We all love Placebo,” laughs Charlie. “The melody we were writing sounded like ‘Nancy Boy’ and basically ripped it off.

Rather than saying that sounds too much like it, we’ll go, let’s channel it. It’s like a tribute to them. As soon as you listen to it, it’s like, ‘Oh, yeah’. It happens quite a lot when you’re writing songs. It’s an ode to Brian Molko.”

‘Outsiders’ is a perfect album title for Gnarwolves.

“We’ve always been the outsiders, and we’ve never changed or been told what to do,” says Charlie. “We’ve been the outsiders of the whole pop punk scene for the whole time that we’ve been a band.” They might feel like outsiders, but Gnarwolves are now more important than ever. P Gnarwolves’ album ‘Outsiders’ is out 5th May.

A L L T H E C O O L EST CA P I TA L I ST P RO D U CT.

BLACK HONEY HEART PATCH £7.00 Yeah, okay, Black Honey may not be the only band with a line in heartshaped patches, but this one is especially sweet. blackhoney.backstreetmerch.com

BLAENAVON SONG BOOK £12.00 “Play along to the entirety of ‘That’s Your Lot’ with this limited edition chord and lyric songbook,” says their website. Just think of the neighbours first. blaenavon.com

SUNDARA KARMA TOTE BAG £9.00 Everyone loves Sundara Karma. Their artwork looks just lovely on a tote bag.

Everything is great. sundara-karma.co.uk

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The resulting album is Gnarwolves distilled to their primal best. “It’s got that crazy, raw sound,” says Charlie excitedly.

“The debut album was a lot of effects peddles and tracking. In my opinion, that’s punk. We all grew up listening to the 80s movement, none of those records technically sound good, but there’s just something about it.”

to be who we were from the beginning.”

DOWN WITH BORING TEE £15.00 No, it’s not cheating to include our own stuff.

Boring is evil. Boring is bad.

What better way to show your discontent with the forces of beige with this protest tee.

It’s clearly the most important issue of the day, right? readdork.com/shop

RAT BOY SCUM ALL OVER PINK SOCKS

£10.00 Rat Boy is always getting scum all over his socks. theholyscum.com

“Oh God, why am I talking about this?”

recording, the tape machine. Early songs ‘Drag’ (“I know that I still hang around/And I bring you down/And I’m just like that”) and ‘Gone’ (“I feel this way/I feel this way alone”) have been taken to hearts worldwide, encapsulating that sense of isolation and melancholy that so often plagues the teenage experience.

WAVE RIDER DAY WAVE IS READY TO RIDE.

J

WORDS: JENESSA WILLIAMS.

ackson Phillips likes to work himself hard.

As his voice crackles through a phone line that finds him in an LA departure lounge, awaiting a flight to China, he’s mere weeks away from releasing his debut.

And yet here he is, with a roster of songs in his back pocket, ready to get going on album two. “A lot of times I’ll be busy or travelling or doing stuff with my family or friends, but when I do get some weeks off, or time by myself, I write as much as I can. The last couple of weeks I’ve just been piling up more songs, it’s pretty fun. I have about ten already.”

APPY DAYS! We’ve finally done it! You can get Dork on your smartphone or tablet anywhere in the world, totally free, with our brand new iOS and Android apps. Including all our monthly mags, festival guides, special editions and exclusive extras, grab it from your app store or readdork.com now.

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It’s a good thing that Jackson knows how to move fast. Since starting Day Wave in 2014, it’s been a non-stop ride that has seen him release two EPs, and tour the UK and US. A sound that taps into references as diverse as Joy Division, Blink-182 and The Drums, the music he makes is a beautiful contradiction – sunny Californian melodies that recall the hazy contentment of youth, coupled with lyrics that express self-doubt and regret.

This level of introspection is present in everything he does, from the blurry Polaroids and scribbled song titles that covered his EPs, to his nostalgic lyrics and his preferred mode of

Raised on a diet of pop-culture at the hands of movie-fan parents, Jackson admits that he is deeply in love with the past. “Your life has all these chapters or scenes or eras, and you miss them once a certain amount of time has passed,” he muses. “There are songs on the album that refer to that… a lot of what I feel is nostalgia for something that didn’t actually happen to me, because I watched so much TV. You get these memories that are something you’ve internalised but weren’t real. Even though it didn’t happen to you, you just wish you could go back and experience that.”

Whether Jackson misses his previous incarnations as Berklee Collegetrained jazz drummer or half of synth-pop duo Carousel remains to be seen, but ‘The Days We Had’ is a record with its sights firmly set on moving forward. A selection of tracks that didn’t fit the EPs and new songs written just days before entering the studio, it’s a record that celebrates his affection for working alone. “I didn’t want to have to rely on anybody else.

[Performing as Day Wave] is all new - I had some synthesisers and guitars and drum machines at my house so I figured I should just do everything.

I find that when you do things all by yourself with nobody else, your standards are much higher – when you work with somebody else you settle, you just feed off whatever good they say and don’t really trust your gut. So really, on your own, you either think yes this is good, or no it isn’t.”

Luckily for Jackson, his gut proves pretty strong. From the slow build of ‘Bloom’ to the skittering pop of ‘Promises’, all hallmarks of a great Day Wave song remain in place, but with production value significantly raised (“basically I went through a less shitty tape machine”). On a record that regularly references anxiety and depression, the album’s closer, ‘I’m Still Here’ feels particularly poignant; “Looking down/I close my eyes and try to disappear/but I’m here/ I’m still here...” Alongside ‘Bring You Down’, it’s Jackson’s favourite song on the album. “I have been feeling good recently, but [depression] just comes and goes… I think putting it out there is cathartic, it’s this bitter-sweet thing, but it helps you get through it. Even listening back to it sometimes, you think you might cringe and be all, ‘Oh god, why am I talking about this?

I don’t want people to know about this’, but hearing people relate to it is really cool.”

‘I’m Still Here’ feels very different to what I’ve done before. I wanted the ending to sound so fucked up, and like it was just falling apart, which it why it turns into a mush of reverb and synthesisers. I wanted it to end in a place that wasn’t necessarily settled, but has an element of hope in there.

It feels like an interesting way to end a record, leaving it open-ended, like there’s more to come.”

And more to come there is. Unsure of exactly where he’ll take things next, Jackson is at least convinced that Day Wave is a project he can stick by. “I spent so much time just with this album and these songs, so now this is finally done, I have the time to make some new stuff. That’s kind of just what I’ve been doing from the beginning; seeing if I can create something that I would want to listen to and feels real.

“With a lot of albums there is a lack of that – you don’t have that analogue warmth or quality to it, you get so many albums that are very sterile sounding. I just want to capture songs with some sort of character.” P Day Wave’s album ‘The Days We Had’ is out 5th May.

BETH’S BETH’S BACK! BACK! With the Gossip no more, Beth Ditto has gone solo. She’s got a debut full-length ‘Fake Sugar’ coming on June 16th, with the first track from it ‘Fire’ streaming online in all the usual places now.

PHOTO: SARAH LOUISE BENNETT

DORK

CUT IT. STICK IT. DON’T LICK IT. THAT’S WEIRD.

GLASTONBURY HAS ANNOUNCED A KILLER FIRST LINE-UP The first big batch of bands for this year’s Glastonbury has been announced, and it’s packed with killer names.

We already knew about headliners Radiohead, Foo Fighters and Ed Sheeran, but now they’ve been joined by an all start cast including Lorde, The National and Haim.

The 88 new names also include Halsey, Alt-J, Biffy Clyro, Warpaint, The Lemon Twigs, Father John Misty, The xx, Circa Waves, Loyle Carner and Glass Animals, as well as pop megastar Katy Perry.

Shaggy is playing too. Yep. Shaggy.

Glastonbury takes place from 21st25th June.

THIS THIS IS THIS IS THIS IS THISIS IS HAPPENING HAPPENING HAPPENING HAPPENING HAPPENING

RI D E O R D I E

City Guides:

Ride, Hinds and Stevie Parker are amongst a fresh new batch of names confirmed for this year’s Green Man. The reformed 90s shoegazers are set to headline the Thursday night at the festival, with other new names including Lift To Experience, Daniel Avery, The Comet Is Coming, DD Dumbo, Jae Tyler and many more. Green Man takes place from 17th-20th August.

Eat Fast on Newcastle

B RE A KO U T Slam Dunk has got a little bigger.

With the likes of Enter Shikari, Against Me!, Tonight Alive and loads of other bands already confirmed, the festival has announced a whole other stage.

The Breakout Stage will play host to The Gospel Youth, Ocean Grove, Vukovi, Area 11, Sylar, Homebound, Casey and Makeout.

Slam Dunk takes place from 27th29th May. JOHN EDGAR GIVES US A GUIDED TOUR OF EAT FAST’S PLACE OF OPERATIONS, NEWCASTLE.

W

elcome to sunny Newcastle!

Yes, it may be quite chilly, but it is one of the driest cities in the UK. And, it is true that the Geordie folk are some of the friendliest going.

Just get lost and ask a stranger for directions. You’ll see.

We’re proud to call Newcastle our home. It’s nice and cosy and the musical community is tight. We all flocked here from, dare I say boring, surrounding areas such as Chester Le Street and Ryton. We live in Heaton and play/work in the Ouseburn. This is a pretty reliable rule of thumb for music folk in Newcastle. Certainly in our circles...

So, you’re in the Toon and you want gigs, booze, and scran. Here are our hot tips.

THE FREE TRADE INN You want a beer to get things started. This pub is the one. Great

14

selection of beer and cider. Two beer gardens boasting the best views of the river and its bridges. A pub-cat called Craig David (he’s an arsehole really). The lads bogs are a delight.

Decades of graffiti from Plato to Penises.

promoter, Joel Thomson does a grand job of putting on great shows. He’s also extremely ‘internet funny’. Try to get him on Facebook for daily lols and mental breakdowns. All the best local bands have graced these stages. Such as...

THE TYNE BAR Just down a set of stairs from the Free Trade, this is our spiritual home.

Three of us work here and we’ve all drank here for years. As long as you can get past our terrible customer service, you’re in for a treat. Why not sit on ‘Swaglet Hill’ and enjoy bottles of ‘top shelf’ in the sunshine. It has a very festival-esque atmosphere. It’s the bane of our lives if we’re working so please go on a Sunday when the kitchen is closed! We often have cosy/raucous gigs on a Sunday too.

PIGS PIGS PIGS PIGS PIGS PIGS PIGS Dear friends of ours. Local rock gods.

Just signed to Rocket Recordings.

Probably coming to a venue near you.

Cross Sabbath, Sleep, and Motorhead and you’re getting there. Totally radge shows. It’s postmodern, innit.

An absolute must-see!

THE CLUNY / CLUNY 2 Right. Now you want gigs and The Cluny is the first port of call. Both Cluny 1 and 2 (next door to each other) are class venues. In-house

CHEAP LUNCH Three lads who don’t give a fuck.

Fuzzy, tongue in cheek, psychy, punky bastards. Really nice lo-fi quality to these relatively new-comers. Geordie Ty Segall? Possibly. P Eat Fast’s EP ‘Immortal Kombat’ is out 19th May. Read their full guide to Newcastle at readdork.com.

HOW SOON IS ‘SOON’ Dirty Hit are a nice label. They like to keep in contact. In their latest mailout, which includes new music from Superfood, Pale Waves, King Nun and QTY, the label signed off with a little teasing message. “We’ll have news for you all soon on new music from The Japanese House and Wolf Alice…” they promise.

Colour us excited!

AVA L A N C H E !

The Avalanches have announced a handful of UK dates for this spring. The group – who released the follow-up to 2000 full-length ‘Since I Left You’, ‘Wildflower’ last year – will visit Bristol, London and Manchester in June.

FALLING IN LOVE AGAIN

THIS THIS IS THIS IS THIS IS THISIS IS HAPPENING HAPPENING HAPPENING HAPPENING HAPPENING

BACK IN PARAMORE AND WITH A NEW HALFNOISE EP, ‘THE VELVET FACE’, ZAC FARRO IS A VERY BUSY MAN. THE DRUMMER TURNED FRONTMAN GIVES THE LOWDOWN ON THAT REUNION AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF HIS BURGEONING INDIE-POP BAND. WORDS: JAKE RICHARDSON.

S

tood outside his Nashville home, Zac Farro is thinking back to his departure from pop-rock heavyweights Paramore back in 2010. “The story goes like this,” he begins. “The reason I really left was that we had been working so hard, and I just felt really tired from working for seven years straight. All seven of those years were my teenage years, and we were just touring all the time. I didn’t anticipate playing music at all after I left.”

fine! I wasn’t great at it, but I think drumming with Paramore and having been on stage before helped me.”

Zac never wanted to be a frontman; as a youngster, he didn’t want to sing or be the centre of attention. “I’d never been sat back there in Paramore going ‘I wish I was where Hayley

[Williams, Paramore vocalist] is,’” he claims, but leaving the band seven years ago allowed Zac to pursue a style of music he’d always been fond of. “I started playing with Paramore when I was thirteen-years-old,” he reflects. “We were all quite young – Hayley was only fourteen – so we started super early, and the music that we made was the music that we loved then, and we still do. Rock music has been a part of us since we were kids.”

“But Taylor [York, Paramore guitarist] and I have always been pretty diverse in what we listen to; I always loved upbeat rock music like Paramore, but also bands like Radiohead and Sigur Ros, which have a more ethereal kind of sound. And obviously indie music was huge for me, like The Strokes and Vampire Weekend, and that’s still very influential to me today. It wasn’t ever my intention to make HalfNoise sound a certain way. ‘Sudden Feeling’ was very rhythmic, very afrobeat, and kind of new-wave or psychedelic,” Zac explains of the band’s second LP, released last year. “And now ‘The Velvet Face’ is more straightforward and influenced by 50s French pop, The Beatles, the soul era.”

But the thing is, Zac is the kind of artist who can’t sit still for long without those creative juices beginning to bubble inside him. “I left Paramore, and I had no intention of playing music,” he says. “I knew that I’d always love it, but what happened was I started writing again, and my friend hit me up, and he goes ‘I’m trying to get into production, could I produce your new songs?’ And I’m like, ‘Dude; I’ve never shown this to anybody!’ But we did record together, and I fell in love with music again.”

And so, HalfNoise – Zac’s ‘other’ band, an indie-rock inspired, alt-pop cacophony of laid-back sounds and retro beats – was formed. Then, he took his project out on the road.

That same friend who recorded the very first HalfNoise music, and who produced the band’s new EP, ‘The Velvet Face’, invited Zac on tour. At first, he was sceptical: “I was like, ‘No, I’m not singing in front of anybody!’” Zac exclaims. But his friends convinced him, and those first HalfNoise shows were a success.

“The first time I sang in front of anybody was in front of a couple of hundred people on tour, and it was

Zac’s excited about straddling both Paramore and HalfNoise going forward, too, pledging to give all he can to both bands. “I’m more focused

The former Vampire Weekend man isn’t just a solo force. Be it teaming up with Hamilton Leithauser or working with Charli XCX, he’s a multi-talented man.

SADIE DUPUIS Last year’s Sad13 record

proved that Sadie wasn’t just the focal point of Speedy Ortiz.

GRAHAM COXON The Blur guitarist’s solo material goes to places his other job would never dare to tread, but while away from the band in the mid00s, he proved he could do

The Great Escape gets bigger and bigger. The latest announcement for the festival is jam-packed with 150 brand new bands including a lot of our favourites.

INHEAVEN, Rat Boy and Fickle Friends are top of our Must See List along with Anteros, Blood Red Shoes and Darlia. We’ve also drawn little love hearts around Girl Ray, Happy Accidents, Howl, Kamikaze Girls, Pixx, Ten Fé and Tigercub, who have also been added. The Great Escape takes place from 18th-20th May.

and more passionate than I’ve ever been because I’ve stayed busy,” he explains. “I think when you just exist and you don’t have any goals or plans – for me, anyway – my mind starts turning into mush, and I don’t have any direction or any drive, but now that I have both bands I’m even more driven. It’s funny because it sounds like my plate is too full, but I work better that way. I think it’s going to be a challenge, but I’m really excited about it!” P HalfNoise’s EP ‘The Velvet Face’ is out now.

no,

“I was like, I’m not singing in front of anyone.”

Nice hat, Zac.

TOP 5 PEOPLE FROM BANDS GONE SOLO ROSTAM BATMANGLIJ

I T ’S G RE AT W H E N YO U ESCA P E

the indie pop banger too.

DEV HYNES Since his days in Test Icicles, Dev has proved his solo chops both with Lightspeed Champion and as Blood Orange. Prolific and brilliant.

RACHEL STEVENS

THIS THIS IS IS 5MORE? 5MORE? At the time of press it hasn’t been formally announced, but it looks like Paramore’s much anticipated fifth album is very near. A bunch of tracks were registered with US licensing body ASCAP, and a snap from the set of a video has appeared online. Expect something very soon indeed.

No explanations necessary.

15

“Art is meant to be

collaborative.” the authentic nature we should have in relationships and a lack of ignorance or fear because when that permeates it’s so debilitating with something like this.

“Art is meant to be collaborative and without borders or any colour or race or religion or creed or gender to get in the way,” he concludes. “In these times when this is going on if this can be a representation of how good can come out of not having these hurdles or walls up then, of course, I would champion that.”

HEY BNQT MIDLAKE’S ERIC PULIDO HAS HIT UP SOME OF HIS FAMOUS PALS FOR A BRAND NEW PROJECT, BNQT - AND THIS IS JUST THE BEGINNING.

W

WORDS: EALA MACALISTER.

hen Eric Pulido got in touch with some friends to see if they would like to make some music, he wasn’t sure what, if anything, would happen.

The Midlake frontman received a resounding yes from Jason Lyttle of Grandaddy, Fran Healy from Travis, Ben Bridwell, best known for his work with Band of Horses, and Alex Kapranos, Franz Ferdinand’s frontman, and a new supergroup was born.

They would each contribute two songs for a full-length album, but with the musicians spread over continents, it was never going to be an easy task. “The logistics of it

probably were the hardest thing with a group like this.” Eric concedes. “ But I think there was a genuine willingness to contribute how we could whether that was remotely by email or file sharing or coming to town.

“Fran and Jason came to town at different times. They were here about a week. That was what I desired for it, for us to commune and break bread and make music and hang out in town but I didn’t want any of their schedules or limitations to inhibit making the record.”

It was a truly international collaboration which gives the finger to the political climate of fear and division that prevails today. Eric is clear this project is in no way a political statement but adds: “That should be a testament to

YOU’RE YOU’RE BEAUTIFUL BEAUTIFUL London Grammar have announced their second album: ‘Truth Is A Beautiful Thing’ will be released on 9th June. The trio worked on the full-length with Paul Epworth, Jon Hopkins and Greg Kurstin, alongside Tim Bran and Roy Kerr who worked on their debut.

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ALL TIME ULTIMATE BANGERS THEY SAY IT IS A LEGEND. THIS MONTH...

COURTNEY BARNETT PEDESTRIAN AT BEST

Right through BNQT ‘Volume One’ there is a sense of fun and a bunch of friends getting together in whatever way they can to chuck out musical ideas and see what sticks with no inhibitions. “There was a desire that, whatever we do, I wanted it to translate that it was a collaboration, a fun collaboration, one that left all our respective baggage and pretext at the door,” explains Eric.

At this year’s SXSW, which Eric likens to a big family reunion, some of the BNQT members got to perform together which has spurred them on to try and get some live dates in the diary, but it may be a while until they take to the road. “With different bands having their own schedules and personal family time and what not, we want to be sensitive to it, so we’re looking at the Fall to try and pull some things together.”

Despite the fact that ‘Volume One’ isn’t even out yet Eric has half an eye on a second record which will include other, no less recognisable musicians. “I can go back to folk and again the same type of thing, the mutual respect and love we played together in somewhere or another.

I mentioned to John Grant that we want to make a record together, we’ve toured together, we’ve collaborated, and it would be great to have him. He’s tentatively said he would be up for that as well.”

This project began from a need to break out of the mould of Midlake’s write, record, tour cycle which had been going on for 15 years. If the resulting album proves anything, it’s that great things can happen when friends get together to make some music. P BNQT’s album ‘Volume 1’ is out 21st April.

Some songs have something special about them. They’re not the same as their peers. When the pack turns right, they head left - and yet they never feel to be pushing too hard. They make the unbeaten path look easier. They’re a shift in perception; individuals with their own impossibly cool style, drawing eyes and changing minds.

Though ‘Pedestrian at Best’ might not have pushed the boundaries - if anything it’s a glorious throwback - when it arrived, few others were spitting near spoken word rhymes over waves of twisting, snake-like feedback. Courtney Barnett is her own person, and by embracing it, a song that should never have become anthemic achieved just that. Because really, when looking for that top drawer of bangers, nobody wants to be the sheep following the herd. Staying safe in the crowd is boring. Down with that. ‘Pedestrian...’ knows what it is. Snotty, snarling and vicious, a grungy throwback that feels like the future, it’s an impossible juxtaposition with flipping poles that could power the planet.

The BEST new tracks

BANGERS BANGERS BLACK HONEY

SOMEBODY BETTER

When Black Honey open their mouths, it’s like a motion picture rolling into focus in front of our very eyes. Whether it’s the runawaychase of ‘All My Pride’, the intoxicating moment of darkness in ‘Headspin’ or the sunset of ‘Hello Today’ – every touch is about cinematic-sized life. That’s a scale that bleeds straight out of ‘Somebody Better’, a mountain-top surge of resilience that places Black Honey into another league of life-affirming bands. Searing with an almost uncontrollable fire, ‘Somebody Better’ soundtracks a band who have already blazed their way onto a platform where the only way is up. Turning glam into sugarysweet drops of blistering euphoria, it refuses to lie down quietly – spitting squarely in the face of failure with a laugh and a wink.

FICKLE FRIENDS

FIND MORE ON OUR CONSTANTLY UPDATED BRAND NEW BANGERS SPOTIFY PLAYLIST AT READDORK.COM

KING NUN

HELLO HELLO

With each release, Fickle Friends have been laying out a path. For some bands, the music they make grows and becomes anthem-ready hits – but for Fickle Friends, the crafted bangers they come out with are aimed squarely at the biggest moments, and in ‘Hello Hello’ they’ve proven once again why being an important band hasn’t just come to them, but has been engrained in every note of who they are. Bristling with effortless pop charm, ‘Hello Hello’ is a nod to everything that’s come before – the soaring hooks, the shimmering beats.

It’s the sort of track that sounds like it could roll out on the very first take, as natural to Fickle Friends as water is to the ocean. What makes ‘Hello Hello’ most exciting though, is that it confirms how bottomless that bag of bangers is.

SHAME

HUNG AROUND

TASTELESS

When King Nun dropped ‘Tulip’ towards the end of last year, it was like an earthquake. It was the sound you’d usually hear from a band much larger in stature. What made it so powerful, was that it was a jolt completely from the blue from a band with the prize gripped firmly between their teeth. Strutting with the confidence and bravado of a peacock rolling through London Zoo during show time, ‘Hung Around’ is a track that knows exactly what it’s doing. That intoxicating pout is an alluring pull into a refreshing new direction, an example of the all-encompassing surroundings that King Nun could take themselves down. It’s a band showing that, whether they’re going at 100 miles and hour, or gliding along at 20, they can’t be caught and look just as magnificent either way.

That transition from the live stage to recording studio can be a hard one. To capture everything vital and unmissable from a precious moment in an underground basement on a Thursday night can seem impossible. After all, there are so many factors making their voices heard, right? When you see Shame live, it’s an experience which makes you feel every scream and every sweaty pore of passion radiating from the South Londoners – an experience which then finds you rushing out once it’s finished to tell everyone you know what’s just happened. In ‘Tasteless’, Shame have captured that bolt of lightning.

Visceral and packed with rawness, it’s the sound of a band coming together and pouring everything they are into a three-minute nugget that’d knock out any heavyweight.

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A A STORMZY STORMZY IN IN A A TEA TEACUP CUP

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CAT F IS

LINKIN PARK’S COMEBACK SINGLE ‘HEAVY’ GOT PEOPLE TALKING, BUT NOW THEY’RE BACK WITH AN ALBUM, AND A NEW SINGLE FEATURING STORMZY. WE ASKED MIKE SHINODA WTF IS GOING ON.

SOAPBOX

FUCK THE ‘REAL MUSIC’ BORES KATY PERRY IS PLAYING GLASTONBURY, AND OF COURSE SOME IDIOTS ARE COMPLAINING. DORK’S STEPHEN ACKROYD EXPLAINS WHY THEY CAN TAKE THEIR ‘REAL MUSIC’ AND SHOVE IT UP THEIR... <SNIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIP - ED>

I

t’s the same every year. ‘People’ - some of them, at least - have this weird preconception that Glastonbury is a ‘rock’ festival.

Ignoring for one backwards second that anything so cute as a genre-limited event could exist anywhere near on the scale of the annual Worthy Farm extravaganza - it’s a fatally myopic point of view that brings out that worst quality in the worst type of people: ‘Real Music Fans’.

We’ve all come across them. Some of us may even have the misfortune to be related to one. Those who think that music not made by boring looking white men with an acoustic guitar is somehow ‘less’ than their preferred earnest, outdated cry wank fare. Which is sort of ironic, because these people also don’t seem to have much time for boring-

looking white man with an acoustic guitar Ed Sheeran. Go figure. Maybe they’re just scared of wildly popular.

This year, they’ve set their sights on Katy Perry, but she’s far from the first. It’s not just thinly veiled sexism they turn to - they can do racism too, as proved by their small-minded attitudes to Kanye West, Jay-Z and Beyoncé performing in previous years, and there’s even been the odd moan about Skepta - yep, Skepta(!)

- this. There’s little point arguing in these pages why they’re wrong.

If you’re reading a magazine as discerning as Dork, you’re almost certainly going to be smart enough to work that out all by yourself. But beyond all that - it’s a misplaced preconception of what Glastonbury is for that underlines all this. A fatal flaw in a forest of flawed arguments.

EZRA EZRA SPECIAL SPECIAL Ezra Koenig has updated us on the new Vampire Weekend album. Bad news: it’s not done.

Good news: We’ve got lots of tidbits of information.

There’s a working

18

title of “‘Mitsubishi Macchiato’ cuz it is a helpful concept” and two songs called ‘Conversation’ and ‘Flower Moon’.

Also, “it’s a lil more springtime than the last one.”

Because Glastonbury isn’t a rock festival. It’s a celebration of all music, of all genres, evolving year on year across countless stages. If any of these naysayers got their head out of their River Island-clad bottoms, they’d see it as clear as day. A glance even at the television coverage would show a cacophony of world music, arts and ideas. None of those ideas involves playing pub indie by men, to men.

And it’s a pop festival too. Every year they’re there. Robbie Williams, Jessie J, Ellie Goulding - these are pop stars. The previously mentioned Beyoncé killed it as a headliner, and all right-minded people are still praying for the day Michael and Emily Eavis set right the wrongs and get Kylie in for a greatest hits set. Of all the UK festivals it’s not V that Katy Perry belongs at, but Glastonbury. Where else would performance art involving giant May and Trump skeletons fit? Katy is woke now. She’s destined to discover herself in the early hours of a Sunday morning in Shangri-La. But beyond all of this - demanding that anything of the scale should be purely for one, narrow taste isn’t just selfish, it’s stupid. Ignorant.

Raging against a thankfully dying sun. We’re beyond this now. Embrace the fun. Those bubbles need bursting, now. P

Hey Mike. Your new album is really different. Did you feel like you have to explain why you’ve gone in this direction?

Oh no, I think the music really does speak for itself. ‘Heavy’ and ‘Battle Symphony’ are a good sense of the core sound of the album, very melodic, beat driven and everything built around the song and the content. The reception has been positive and we’re thrilled. There are people out there saying they are upset that there’s no screaming or heavy guitars on this album, that’s what they were looking for and its not on the song. It occurred to me, you’re not listening for music.

You’re basically telling me you’re listening to engineering choices and arrangement choices, you’re listening for specific instruments.

And you worked with Stormzy, how did that come about?

I love Stormzy. It’s pretty well known, I dig for music. I love finding new things and I love putting people onto stuff. I had caught a couple of tracks from him a year or two ago. I remember hearing ‘Where Do You Know Me From’ and thinking, ‘What is this?! This is so amazing.’ I feel like grime has come a long way.

There’s a subtlety, as an American listening to an English rapper. I think that they’ve got better at creating this more unique style that feels more authentic. I used to hate hearing rappers from other countries just trying to sound like they’re from New York. Once grime stopped doing that, it got exciting.

I love Stormzy, I love Skepta, there’s a bunch of Dizzee Rascal songs over the years. Stormzy is a very unique though. What rounds him out for me, it’s his style, his singing but also his personality.

When you see him, you say that’s a real dude. You feel like you know him which is a very special thing to have. I wish I had that. P

ANOTHER TWO DIMENSIONAL INDIE BOY TO CUT OUT AND KEEP.

DORK

PHOTO: PHIL SMITHIES

DORK

!

Live “WHA T DO Y D O ES N ’T LO O U M E A N ‘T H IS O K L IK E LEE D S ’? .”

29TH APRIL 2017

LIVE AT LEEDS A PRIL 29TH SEES ONE OF THE FIRST BIG INNER CITY FESTIVALS OF THE YEAR. WE’RE OFF TO LIVE AT LEEDS TO HOST THE DORK STAGE AT THE KEY CLUB. GET INUIT WILL BE ALONG TOO, SO WE HIT UP FRONTMAN JAMIE GLASS TO MAKE SURE HE’S READY.

Hey Jamie, what have you been up to today?

I’ve designed an app that turns gifs into jpegs*.

PATENT PENDING. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY OWNED BY ‘GET INUIT INC.’ So you’re playing Dork’s stage at Live At Leeds - have you spent much time in the city before?

James (guitarist) lived there for a couple of years. He knows the ins and outs. He knows the nooks and

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crannies. The do’s and don’ts. He’ll guide us through the dark.

Also we’ve played there a bunch of times. It’s a swell city.

Are you going to try to catch any bands while you’re there?

A VANT / Get Inuit reunion is definitely on the cards. I need to find a way to catch The Big Moon, Bad Sounds, Temples, Slaves, Fickle Friends, Marsicans et al! It’s going to be a pain in the neck to plan this.

There’s too many good bands.. or not enough bad ones.. either way the ratio is off.

What’s the best thing about multivenue city festivals, do you think?

The babes. But perhaps more realistically, the knowledge that a bearable toilet is never to far away! And hopefully there will be less ‘bohemian festival glitter’. But mostly the babes.

ON THE DORK STAGE AT LIVE AT LEEDS...

Do you have any tips for people who haven’t been to this kind of festival before?

Plan ahead. But if you don’t want to feel like you’re racing around, just chill at The Key Club. The sound there is great. And imma let you finish... but the line up is one of the greatest of all time!

(Kayne at the VMA’s is still a relevant meme right?)

What’s your favourite thing from Yorkshire?

The Brontë sisters.

How would you rate your Yorkshire pudding making skills?

Next to none... sorry I mean none...

I’ve never made one.

What else are you up to this summer? Do you have big plans?

Nm u? Wanna hang?

Festivals a plenty. A single here and a single there. But mostly, keeping tabs on the footballing transfer market. P Live At Leeds takes place across various venues in Leeds on 29th April. Visit liveatleeds.com for tickets and stuff.

VANT

GET INUIT IDLES

DEAD! ATLAS WYND DEAD PRETTIES THE BAY RAYS MOSES DEAD NAKED HIPPIES FURR THE KEY CLUB, THE MERRION CENTRE, 66 MERRION ST, LEEDS LS2 8LW

Palace’s ‘Songs That Inspire Us’ playlist

IN PHOTOS

B L AC K H O N EY, FAC E BA R , RE A D I N G

2nd April 2017 Former cover stars Black Honey hit Reading for a Dork Live show, and it went off. Check the photos on readdork.com now.

Palace play South Street Arts Center for Dork Live on 26th April.

M ASS I V E AT TAC K - SA F E F RO M H A RM

This tune reminds us of being 16 and carefree, and getting super duper high with friends.

LO U RE E D - SAT E L L I T E O F LOV E

One of the greats. The melodies are killer on this and it transports you straight to the 70s.

D EV E N D R A BA N H A RT KO RE A N D O GWO O D

We’re all obsessed with Devendra. His quivering vibrato style voice and style have incredible vulnerability like no other.

K I N G S O F L EO N - K I N G O F T H E RO D EO

19TH MAY 2017

THE GREAT ESCAPE Yep, we’re coming to Brighton. With annual buzzfest The Great Escape arriving this spring, Dork is hosting its own stage. Hitting the Prince Albert on Friday 19th May, we’ve got faves INHEAVEN, Stevie Parker, Ten Tonnes, Beliefs and Xamvolo along for the ride.

With pretty much every other hot new act playing across the city over the three day event, what more could you ask for? Exactly.

UPCOMING SHOWS + FESTIVALS

What a song. A lesson in how to write an incredible song at under three minutes.

BO B DY L A N - O N E TO O M A N Y M O RN I N G S

Quite simply just a beautiful, beautiful song.

F LY T E - C LOS E R TO G ET H E R

This song is an incredible vintage pop song, and the end is amazing and so epic.

EMINEM - INFINITE

This is the first thing Eminem ever released and it’s the coolest thing he ever did before he went mainstream. P

HANDMADE F EST I VA L

A P RI L 29 T H

This song reminds us of heading home after a big night and the sun’s coming up and you’re in that reflective kinda mood.

This was without doubt the song of 2017.

Angel Olsen is a genius. Lyrically she’s leagues above others and her voice is spectacular.

A P RI L 28 T H -30T H

T W I N AT L A N T I C, F RI G H T E N E D R A B B I T, JAWS , CA B BAG E + M O RE L E I C EST E R

YEAH YEAH YEAHS - LITTLE S H A D OW

A N G E L O LS E N - H E A RT S H A P E D FAC E

THIS MAY WE’RE OFF TO BE BESIDE THE SEA SIDE, WITH A LINE-UP OF SOME BRILL NEW ACTS.

D O RK @ L I V E AT L E E DS

A P RI L 22 N D

VA N T, G ET I N U I T, I D L ES , D E A D P RET T I ES + M O RE T H E K EY C LU B, L E E DS

S P RI N G K I N G , T H E B I G M O O N , D RE A M W I F E , BA D SO U N DS + M O RE RE A D I N G

M AY 19 T H

A RE YO U L I ST E N I N G?

A P RI L 26 T H

PA L AC E

+ W I L L I E J H E A L EY RE A D I N G , SO U T H ST RE ET A RTS C E N T E R (14+) A P RI L 27 T H

H M LT D

+ D E A D P RET T I ES B I RM I N G H A M S U N F LOW E R LO U N G E (16+ / 18+ A F T E RPA RT Y )

D O RK @ T H E G RE AT ESCA P E

I N H E AV E N , ST EV I E PA RK E R , T E N TO N N ES , B E L I E FS , X A M VO LO B RI G H TO N AU G UST 10T H -12 T H

L E E F EST

W I L D B E ASTS , F I C K L E F RI E N DS , BA D SO U N DS , F I S H , S H A M E + M O RE N E A R T U N B RI D G E W E L LS

FIND MORE AT READDORK.COM/SHOWS

F L E ET FOX ES - M Y KO N OS

Fleet Foxes’ harmonies and melody in this are just sublime. This track has a pretty magical quality about it, like a lot of their tunes.

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CALENDAR 2

5

At The Drive In are back.

Properly. With a new album The return of At The Drive In has been a drawn out affair.

Though they’ve been playing live for a few years now, it’s only now - the better part of seventeen years since their last, legendary full-length ‘Relationship Of Command’, that they’ve laid down new material. Despite a mixed reaction to their initial live shows, ‘in•ter a•li•a’ feels to still carry that spark of a band who could do anything.

Will Joseph Cook is off on the road He’s on the cover of this month’s Dork, he’s got a debut album coming, and a UK tour too - it kicks off on the 2nd in Glasgow, before heading off to Newcastle, Manchester, Digbeth, Liverpool, Cardiff, Bristol, London, Oxford and Brighton.

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The Japanese House starts her UK tour As we mere mortals hold our breath in anticipation of The Japanese House’s next new material, this month sees Amber take to the road across the UK. She’ll play eight dates, kicking off in Oxford tonight.

MAY 2017 6

Rat Boy headlines The Roundhouse with Spring King!

If you’re playing London’s Roundhouse before you’ve released your debut, then you’re legitimately allowed to consider yourself A Big Deal. Which is worrying, ‘cause Rat Boy could take that as permission to do who knows what.

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Lock up your loved ones! The Declan and Girli roadshow starts here Bristol, be careful.

Cambridge, Manchester, Glasgow, London, Birmingham, Nottingham and Brighton - get ready.

Between them, Declan McKenna and Girli could be the force of nature that levels your town. Whoever decided they should tour together is either a sadistic genius or wants us all finished asap.

PWR BTTM will save us all Some bands are more important than others, and given the times we find ourselves in, PWR BTTM could be the most important of all. 12th May sees them drop their brand new album ‘Pageant’. By the time they’re done, expect them to be everywhere.

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Liverpool is a Sound City Most weekends in April and May see a city based festival taking place somewhere, at this one is no different as Liverpool hosts its annual jamboree. Metronomy, The Kooks, Slaves, The Kills, FIckle Friends and Cabbage all play.

Buzz bands, buzz bands, anyone for buzz bands? It’s The Great Escape!

What can you say about The Great Escape that hasn’t already been said? This year, we’ll be joining the fun at the annual music extravaganza by the sea, bringing a stage of great new acts to Brighton.

Across the festival there are hundreds of new crushes to discover, but more than that - how many other festivals offer fish and chips on the beach?

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Life, oh life, oh life, oh life. (Doo, doot doot dooo.)

Today sees Life release their debut album. “‘Popular Music’ sounds like panic and anxiety,” Mez Sanders-Green says of the record. “It’s the sound of shitting it about whatever happens next week.” Sounds great!

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Shall we compare thee to a Pumarosa? No, because they’re ace and that would be mean The further we get into the year, the more of the Hot New Bands we were tipping at the start of it release their debut albums. Today is Pumarosa’s turn, as they drop ‘The Witch’.

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Men’s Needs, Women’s Needs, The Cribs need to headline Leeds First Direct Arena It’s a good job that’s exactly what the Jarmans will be doing tonight, then, as they take their brilliant third album on the road to celebrate its 10th birthday this May.

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Marika-ka-ka-ka-ka!

We already loved Marika Hackman, don’t get us wrong, but the anticipation since she unveiled ‘Boyfriend’, with The Big Moon as her brilliant backing band, has gone through the roof. Though she’s played a few shows to preview the album - ‘I’m Your Man’ - tonight sees her begin a short run of shows ahead of its June release. She’s playing dates in Birmingham, Glasgow, Manchester and London.

Here’s some more albums turning 20 in 2017...

Foo Fighters

The Colour and the Shape Dave and co’s second album was actually released the day before ‘OK Computer’ dropped in Japan. Packing ‘Monkey Wrench’, ‘My Hero’ and ‘Everlong’, it could well be their best.

Oasis

The Verve

The ultimate, double exclamation point stopper in the big book of hype, ‘Be Here Now’ was less an album, and more a national event. What it may have lacked in retrospective appraisal, it made up for in excitement.

While they may not be mentioned alongside your Blur, Oasis and Pulp’s, Wigan’s The Verve released one of the defining albums of their era with ‘97’s ‘Urban Hymns. Bucket hats all round.

Be Here Now

Urban Hymns

INCOMING THE ALBUMS YOU SHOULD BE EXPECTING.

T H E D RU M S Title: Abysmal Thoughts Due: 16th June “Happiness can be confusing to me,” frontman and founder Jonny Pierce explains. “It shows up out of nowhere, and before you can even get used to it, it’s vanished.

But “Abysmal Thoughts”? I can rely on them.”

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RADIOHEAD’S ‘OK COMPUTER’ IS 20!

Often rated as the best of all time, Radiohead’s generation-defining work got its first release in Japan twenty years ago this month. Words: Martyn Young.

G

reat albums come along all the time, every year delivering a new crop of outstanding releases. Truly game-changing albums, though they’re rare, and when they do arrive, they should be cherished forever.

Radiohead’s 1997 third album is one of those records.

Released 20 years ago in May 1997, ‘OK Computer’ is a landmark record.

Radiohead had already firmly established themselves as a cut above, but as the day-glo euphoria of Britpop burned brightly, Thom Yorke and co. wanted to push things further, break down boundaries and create something out of this world.

The landscape in which ‘OK Computer’ arrived was defined by idealism and unshakeable confidence. Oasis had just conquered Knebworth and were on the cusp of

releasing ‘Be Here Now’; the rest of British alt-rock’s titans were either busy re-evaluating their sound, or enduring a long comedown from the excesses of Britpop.

Radiohead spreading their wings and showing just what they can do.

Nobody was making music like this at the time, and nobody has since.

Despite the celebratory feeling of Tony Blair’s landslide election victory in the same month as ‘OK Computer’ was released, Radiohead saw dark clouds on the horizon. They unveiled a record full of pre-millennial dread and tension tempered with some next-level bangers and the sort of affecting songwriting they had perfected on 1995’s ‘The Bends’.

The breadth of scope and ambition on ‘OK Computer’ is dazzling. It takes cues from progressive rock, electronica, indie and even classical to create an album that is compelling from start to finish. And it has hits, loads of them. From ‘Karma Police’ to ‘Let Down’ and ‘No Surprises’ with its iconic video of Thom drowning in a water tank, ‘OK Computer’ contains some of Radiohead’s very best songs.

They knew they had the songs, but what ‘OK Computer’ had to do was shake stuff up. Things had to get weirder. Established norms were no longer acceptable. Take lead single ‘Paranoid Android’, surely one of the strangest songs to ever reach the Top 3. It’s a six-minute epic that twists and turns from quiet beginnings to skull crushing guitar thrash. It’s

The effect of recording the album and its subsequent success had such a profound effect on the group that they ripped up almost everything they knew as they embarked on the even more experimental follow-up, ‘Kid A’. How could they top this? The rules had changed, and Radiohead were the masters. Things would never quite be the same again. P

LO RD E Title: Melodrama Due: 16th June There are few records more anticipated than Lorde’s second full-length. Following up on an album that launched her as a worldwide megastar, if ‘Green Light’ is anything to go by, it should be brilliant.

PIXX Title: The Age Of Anxiety Due: 9th June Pixx’s debut album “seeks to address a generation increasingly isolated by an unprecedented new world order, from the pressures of social media to everchanging political turbulence.”

Seems pretty apt, really.

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CONNECTION

You’ve got options. We could go on about all the other amazing bands on the scene. We could start our “OH FOR GOODNESS SAKE DORK, WILL YOU LOT SHUT UP ABOUT WOLF ALICE ALREADY” 2017 campaign now, and point out the OTHER most amazing band in the world are due to tag t’75 out of the ring as they re-enter. We could mention there’s still a few months until that Latitude headline blow-up. But we won’t. You need to make sure you’ve got a nice new motor ready for Music For Cars - the best driving compilation of all time - when it drops in 2018.

STUFF YOU SAID. STUFF THEY SAID.

CROOKED REIGN

Ed Sheeran. A blank space where a pop star should be?

LETTER OF THE MONTH UNCHART-ED

Well, you said it. Nobody actually cares about the singles chart. It’s not fit for anything. That’s no Real Music shite, either - God forbid.

The new streaming rules just mean it’s a bit... boring. Stuff hangs around, variety is out the window.

It reflects ‘stuff’, but nothing actually interesting. That’s why you’re better off paying attention to us, obviously. Bangers are all that matters. As for Ed, sure he’s a nice bloke, but shouldn’t pop stars

FOR-NIBBLE-ABLE

definitely along the right lines in trying to slap our heroes between two slabs of carby goodness. The filling is more complicated. It’s definitely nothing fishy, because they’re the real deal. You’d probably not go for meat - because everyone loves them, so you want to cater for every possibility. But at the same time, we probably can’t go full vegan

Dear Dork, We need to talk about Ed. Or actually, we need to talk less about him. The chart is wall to wall Sheeran, and what’s the point in that? Surely we need some new rules to stop one boring bloke stopping anything half decent getting anywhere near the thing?

Not that anyone pays attention anymore.

Kris, Manchester

Hi Dork, If The Big Moon were a sandwich, what do you reckon would be the filling?

Liv in the 4th Dimension Ah, our specialist subject. Well, Liv (great name, btw), obviously sandwiches are the greatest of all food delivery formats, so you’re

Hi Dork, If you could curate any festival with an unlimited grant given by a shady benefactor with a love for bangers, what would it be called, where would it be and who would be on the bill Shady Benefactor With A Love For Bangers We’re not throwing in with anyone shady. We’re not that type of magazine. We’ve got morals. BUT, dearest reader, we’ll assume you’re being self-depreciating, have won the lottery, and want to give something back, so we’re invoicing you for this already.

As for who we’d book - Mr Tumble seems great, and he’s always doing those family festivals, so he’s a must.

We note surprise guests are all the rage too, so we’ve decided he’d be perfect visualising Alt-J’s ouvre.

You always need someone to reform, so we’ll have Girls Aloud. And they usually do a classic album, so we’ll ask them to do My Bloody Valentine’s ‘Loveless’ in full.

And Spring King, ‘cause they contractually have to play every festival. It’s the rules.

WI N!

A WI ‘DOW TH N B T-S ORIN HIR G’ T!

have, y’know, personality?

Make an effort mate.

Stop being an omnipresent empty space. You’re not smashing the system by turning up like you’ve just popped down the shops. And pack in that substandard B*Witched tribute act shite. Hope this helps.

here, because we’ve heard their jokes.

Basically, they’re cheese. Glorious, amazing, brilliant cheese. And moondust.

SETTLE DOWN

DD, What happens when The 1975 go away? I’m not ready.

Somebody Else

BRITPACK

Hello Dorks, Loads of good bands around at the moment, which is good. Has the UK scene always been this strong or are we going to run out any minute?

Anon

TOP TWEETS @Truman_Black: I just heard the new @thrhythmmthd single. You didn’t. That means our lives are very different right now. Mine’s better & got a sexy groove Matty from The 1975 Those bloody music journalists, always bragging about hearing things first, eh?

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@DeclanMcKenna: Pop song format: verse-chorus-verse-prechorus-bridge-chorus Weezer song format: chorusdifferent chorus-also another chorus-back to chorus Declan McKenna Think you’ve missed at least two choruses out there, m8.

@whereisMUNA: It is the responsibility of pop musicians to give credit where credit is due.

And by that, we mean to @robynkonichiwa.

For everything Muna Quoted for truth.

@GETINUIT DO YOU EVER WAKE UP FEELING SO GANGSTER THAT YOU CAN’T HELP BUT TURN YOURSELF INTO A BRAND?

POSTCARD POSTCARD FROM FROM THE THE REWARD FRONT FRONT LINE LINE WE WANT INFO ON THESE THINGS. PROVIDE IT, AND WIN AN EXCLUSIVE DORK SPOTTERS BADGE!

THOSE BANDS. THEY GO OFF ON TOUR, THEY NEVER RING. WE’RE WORRIED ABOUT THEM. TO PUT OUR MINDS AT REST, WE’RE INSISTING THEY CHECK IN AND KEEP US UPDATED. THIS MONTH...

DUTCH UNCLES There ARE loads of good bands. You might have noticed we go on about them quite a lot. If it’s better than ever before - have you seen those 2007 playlists we posted on readdork.com.

That was ridiculous. And then there’s Britpo.... <sniiiiiiiiiiiip! Don’t start on Britpop - Everyone>

JACK ‘INDIE PRINCE’ PENATE

Yeah, we’ve been stalking. We know Jack’s been working on a new album. We know at the start of the year he replied to a tweet saying something new was “not next week, but not too far”, and we saw indie record shop Banquet send him a cryptic message the other week. So, two and two together - is this on? Let us know.

FRIENDLY FIRES

We’ve heard ‘stuff’ may be afoot.

We’ve even had one person claim they’ve heard actual music in these very pages. But what, dear readers, is going on? And be honest, some of you had completely forgotten, hadn’t you?

DOWN WITH BORING

Dear Dork, What’s more boring, bands teasing stuff or lyric videos?

Jen, Berkshire Lyric videos. Def. Teasing has the promise of something amazing. Lyric videos stink of ‘OH THE KIDS USE YOUTUBE JUST STICK SOMETHING ON THERE’. Make an effort, guys.

LOSTMYBEDHEAD

Dear Dork, What do you think Matthew “Son of Denise Welch” Healy is hiding in his hair? You know what Mean Girls says about big hair, after all.

Stu, Aberdeen Good question. We’ve conducted a scientific study to work out exactly what Matty could be hiding in there.

There’s a complex equation involving volume, bounce-back-ability and aerodynamics. After calculating a ‘Healy Barnet Co-efficient’, we ran the number against all the possible options. It’s obviously something significant, but not too big. Basically, there’s a 72.3% chance he’s concealing Yannis Philippakis.

THE BIG TOPICS

WE WANT YOUR LETTERS ON THESE IMPORTANT SUBJECTS!

WHAT THE CHUFF IS ‘MUSIC FOR CARS’ ANYWAY? WHICH FESTIVAL HAS THE BEST LINE UP IN THE YEAR OF OUR LORDE 2017?

WHAT SANDWICH / THING YOU SHOVE IN YOUR GOB BEST REPRESENTS YOUR FAVE BAND? SEND US YOUR CHEESY SNAPS WITH POP STARS. WE PROMISE NOT TO WRITE HORRID CAPTIONS.

T IS ! G E E !” “ YA N N THER IN K B AC

RAT BOY’S DEBUT ALBUM

Jordan. Mate. It’s time. You’re ready. Stop dragging it out. Let us know when it’s coming. You can have a badge! Everyone loves a badge!

GET IN TOUCH! TWITTER: @READDORK FACEBOOK: DORKMAGAZINE INSTAGRAM: @READDORK EMAIL: CONNECTION@READDORK.COM

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HYPE B ESSENTIAL NEW BANDS

OFF BLOOM

FO LLOW I N G M ASSI VE SUPP ORT SLOTS WITH BOTH LAN Y AN D DUA L IPA, OF F BLOOM ARE HEAD I NG OUT ON THEI R OWN. WORDS: B E N JOL L EY.

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ased between Copenhagen and London, Anglo-Danish trio Off Bloom create some of the most inventive electronic pop out there: Mads, Alex and vocalist Mette write and produce anthemic songs with beautiful melodies that sound like nothing else.

They’ve just finished a string of UK shows with LANY and, despite having only been together for two or three years, are about to head on a huge European tour with one of the hottest names in pop, Dua Lipa. When they started out, though, Alex and Mads were producers going it alone, heavily inspired by electronic experimentalists like Cashmere Cat and the Lucky Me crew.

“We felt like we wanted to start something for ourselves,” Mads remembers, having met the band’s vocalist, Mette, at a theatre school in Denmark.

“We just hit if off and had so much fun; then we went into the studio, and it worked perfectly.”

“We became a band soon after that - quite naturally,” Alex adds, having previously been in “more controlled” groups with Mads since they were teenagers. “I met Mette through Mads because we both had this impromptu show that we were going to play, but we wanted to start a whole new project.

So we wrote all of the music and rehearsed everything in two weeks and got Mette onboard.”

Having grown up with aspirations of becoming

“We don’t know

what the we’re fuck doing.”

an actress, Mette never imagined that music would become her career. “My parents didn’t do anything musically,” she says of her upbringing. “I had never even tried to write a song before the guys invited me to,” she considers, “and then it was just so fucking fun and really, really great.

It was a world full of freedom.”

For their first concert, the trio made some “really experimental electronic music using a lot of organic instruments, then I came along in the middle of it doing a Brandy cover,” Mette laughs. After that first show, when they started working together properly, it was about merging those worlds.

When they were signed, Off Bloom already had an army of songs. “Maybe 32 that we like, and 1,000 that we hate,” Mads jokes. “It feels more stressful than it is because we’re just making music,” he considers. “We have so many songs now; it’s just about figuring out which ones fit… If we’re going to make an EP, it’s because we want to tell a story.”

Regarding their influences, the band shares a love of “beautiful pop melodies whether they be Rihanna’s, David Bowie’s, Sade’s,

Britney’s or Nick Cave’s,” Mads suggests. When they first met each other, they would inspire one another to listen to “a lot of new shit”.

But the one album that inspired them most, because of its originality and creativity, was Hudson Mohawke’s debut record, ‘Butter’. “We were totally stoked and floored when we heard it,” Mads enthuses.

That album, in particular, inspired them to try and mess around with structure in music - “just combining beautiful melodies with really experimental electronic sounds is a huge thing for us”, they agree.

The result is a sound that’s impossible to define, though creating something that sounds completely new isn’t necessarily their intention. “It’s not like we want to make something that’s never been done before,” Mads explains. “It just has to feel fresh.”

Listening to their tracks ‘Love To Hate It’ and ‘Falcon Eye’, it’s clear that they like to use instruments in unusual ways. “We use organic but unique sounds to make something that cannot be recorded by somebody else; all our sounds are something we’ve made out of a vocal

KEEP YOUR EYES ON...

RE X O R A N G E COU NT Y

or a knock on a door,” Mads says. “Or a flute, a piece of wood or whatever, and then mess about with it.”

Having such creative freedom is the driving force behind Off Bloom. “That’s been the whole thing for all of us I think,” Mads begins, “is that we’ve been together in bands before where it feels almost nonfree, where you’re numb in a way because everything is so controlled. Whereas with this project, it’s completely different. When we first went into the studio with Mette, it just felt natural.”

But also because, as Alex puts it, “we don’t know what the fuck we’re doing… we’re discovering this whole thing together. Although Mads and I have been playing music for ages, it’s new territory– learning how to produce from scratch and getting it into a new style of music and finding our way through that. We’ve had to learn how to not cram everything in there.

In the beginning, we would just load a song up with everything we like, but now it’s a bit more refined.”

While their songs are produced in an upbeat, energetic way, Mette thinks the lyrics show a different side to Off Bloom. “As long as they feel something, it’s good,” Mads considers. “If

South London is so-hot-right-now, and it’s only getting hotter with the debut single from Moondude.

A perfect mix of introspective shoegaze and dreamy pop titled ‘Displaced’, the five-piece’s debut single aired first on readork.com.

After carving his own space in the sun-kissed world of 2017 with previous tracks ‘UNO’ and

they feel the urge to dance, that’s cool, or if they feel the urge to cry, that’s cool. I don’t really care, as long as it gives them some kind of feeling or energy - because that’s what we’ve put into it, and honesty.”

In terms of their “energetic” live shows, they want their audience to feel like they’re part of something. “I think our music is understood better, or even better, when it’s seen live,” vocalist Mette enthuses. “There’s some energy and almost fucking Rage Against The Machine vibe...”

One of the most important things for the trio is that “we’re not standing there like a unit without the audience,” Mette says; they want to minimise that divide. One way of involving the crowd comes from Mette being a part of it for half of the set. “It’s really about trying to talk to the people and listen to what they are saying. Just looking them in the eyes, telling them the stories of the songs and dancing with them: doing everything we can to make it a team thing rather than just a show on a stage.” P Off Bloom play Live at Leeds (29th April); Pickle Factory, London (16th May); The Great Escape (20th).

‘Best Friend’ – Rex Orange County has laid his intentions right on the table with bristling jazz-soaked new one, ‘Sunflower’.

It’s pretty clear that Artificial Pleasure are stealing hearts, but now they’re stealing romance with the new video for ‘All I Got’. Showing just what happens when you decide to take a date out to a chippy to propose, it’s full of off-the-wall extravagance; and there are plenty of moves we’ll be taking with us when heading out on the town this weekend.

ON ON THE THE GRAPEVINE GRAPEVINE E EZ- E H D O ES I T

Cabbage have taken the ‘special guests’ slot on Kasabian’s ‘intimate’ spring tour, visiting a handful of venues up and down the country, including three nights at London’s Forum on 18th, 19th and 20th April.

REVO LU T I O N RO C K

New single ‘Revolution‘ is another shade of excitement from pop chameleon Rat Boy and is backed by the electro riot of ‘I H8 U‘. Have a listen on readdork.com. Still no word on that debut album but there is a tour this April and May, so y’know.

O U R SA D G I RL F U Z Z

Not just content with slaying things around in The Big Moon, Soph Nathan’s other project Our Girl have well and truly carved out their own path – with the trio now delivering a swaggering cover of Ty Segall’s ‘Sad Fuzz’. The track forms a part of a recent Flying Vinyl subscription bundle.

C L EV E R T H I N G S

Brighton’s Clever Thing have aired their latest single, squealing stomper ‘Fixer Upper’, first on Dork; it’s due out proper on 28th April via Be Pacific. Citing influence from Billie Holiday and Black Flag, the band, fronted by Rich Fownes and Daisy Coburn, features former members of 80s Matchbox, Bad For Lazarus, Pink Lizards and more.

HYPE

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ætitia Tamko’s first live experience was her debut gig as Vagabond. “It was a pretty small show of maybe 15-25 people at an all-ages venue in New York. I was just excited to be performing live; I was riding that high for a long time,” she says, unable to really remember how the crowd reacted because that night was, rightly, “all about me in my head. I kept thinking to myself, ‘Oh my god, I can’t believe you’re doing this. Wow! That just happened’. I was in my own little world.”

Fast forward to March 2017 and the 24-year-old is just a day away from going on a month-long tour of the US (which she’s not yet packed for), having just put out a storming debut album full of DIY indie rock that filters emotional insecurity through heavy riffs and distinct vocals. “Once I felt that I could make something I was happy with, I was pretty determined to put my entire soul into it,” she says of the short-butsweet eight-track release. Having grown up in “a pretty quiet house” in which her family would play jazz (“there wasn’t a large scope of things”), Lætitia learnt to play the guitar before heading to university and started writing her own songs

in 2014. Though she didn’t really think of music as a career, Lætitia knew she wanted to keep making albums, releasing them and touring.

Discussing her music, she confesses: “I can’t put my finger on it. I jump around a lot, and incorporate a lot of different things into one song.” While ‘Infinite Worlds’ has a lot of rock instrumentation to it (‘Minneapolis’), there are also elements of electronic music and slowed down synths (‘Mal à L’aise’ – which in English means ‘uncomfortable’). “It’s hard for me to think of a package name for it all,” she says, before considering the emotions she wants the listener to experience. “I want them to feel less alone,” she begins. “People, including myself, listen to music so often to feel understood or represented in a way; in a feeling, in a thought or in a process - whatever it is… I guess that’s just how I experience music.”

Loneliness wasn’t an obvious theme of the album, but Lætitia feels that her own personality played a part in the record. “I do spend a lot of time alone. I’ve always been a very introverted person, a person who loves privacy and being alone in solitude, so it probably did seep into it in that way.” More than that, though, Lætitia says the album’s sense of missing home and different places in the US is because of the

amount of travelling she’s done.

“You’re always trying to find literal, physical stability - I think that’s where a lot of the mentions of home come into play in the songs.”

The album’s title, ‘Infinite Worlds’, meanwhile, refers to the many sides of human beings - some of which remain hidden. “It’s the idea that people are very nuanced, and what you see can be what you get - but not all of what you can get,” she suggests. “It was a way of, right off the bat, telling people who will pick this album up or here about it that I have put a multitude of things into this album,” she continues, summing it up perfectly: “here is me, someone that contains multitudes.”

With one hell of an album to her name, Vagabon will play her first set of UK shows in May. “I’m so thrilled,” she enthuses, having never been to the country before. “The live show, to me, is the perfect balance between the album and what I feel a live gig should be. I’m performing some of the songs on my own, so I don’t lose the intimacy of the way I like to perform… It’s really cool to be going to the UK as a musician, with something that I can share and send people home with. That’s pretty wild!” P Vagabon’s album ‘Infinite Worlds’ is out now. She tours the UK this May.

VAGABON VAGA BON I S C OM I NG TO THE UK FOR THE VERY F I RST TIME TH IS SPRI N G. IT’S G OI N G TO BE G REAT. WORDS: BE N JOL L EY.

f the t one o n is jus old Vagabo g this year’s G aking yin acts pla val in Leeds. T the at esti y F a s M d t n s u 1 So 20th-2 , other acts m o fr e b plac e, l Clu ell Socia Cabbage, Sham Bruden d de n lu fi c n in a c g n u appeari l and Her’s. Yo cket Goat Gir line-up and ti m. the full dork.co on read details

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ON ON THE THE GRAPEVINE GRAPEVINE P I X X ES O F G R 8

Delivering off-kilter electropop hits at every turn, Pixx has seized a special place in our hearts – with some landmark UK headline shows now confirmed. Kicking off on the very date that debut album ‘The Age Of Anxiety’ is released on 2nd June, the shows will run through Norwich, Glasgow, Leeds, Birmingham and London – before finishing up in Lancaster on 9th June.

S I G RI D - I C U LO U S LY GOOD

Sigrid is coming to the UK in May. She’s already announced (and sold out) a London headline show at Hoxton Square Bar & Kitchen (17th May), but now she’ll be taking to Manchester two days before for a gig at The Deaf Institute (15th).

SO M E BO DY O N C E TO L D M E ...

Dream Wife have shared the video for latest single ‘Somebody’, shot and directed by bassist Bella Podpadec’s father, John. “We drew inspiration from the maledominated iconography of 70s glam rock,” the band explain.

Watch on readdork.com.

A M A ZO N S P RI M E

The Amazons have announced details of their self-titled debut album, due for release on 2nd June via Fiction Records. “I wrote all the songs between the ages of 18 and 22 years old,” says frontman Matt Thomson. “It’s all quite direct, but it’s emotive too.”

TEN TONNES W ITH A SM ASHI N G N E W E P, AND A SLEW OF F ESTI VAL SLOTS TH IS SU MME R, EVE RY THI N G’S C OMI NG UP TEN TONNES.

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WO RDS: B E N JOL L EY.

nterrupting a quiet afternoon at his sister’s house in their home village of Hertford, Ethan Barnett - aka Ten Tonnes - has just had his hair cut and is relaxing with a cup of green tea. “I’m trying to pre-emptively sort myself out for the sunny weather because I’m not used to it,” he jokes, just a week away from flying to Austin, Texas to play a succession of shows at one of the biggest taste-making events in the world. “I’m buzzing for it,” the 20-yearold says.

Having started playing the drums aged nine to keep up with his now-hugely-famous brother George Ezra (music runs in the family) who was learning bass, Ethan enjoyed it for a while, but says “playing drums by yourself gets boring after a while.”

Then, four years later, he discovered The Beatles and quickly picked up the guitar before starting to write his own “shockingly bad” songs while at school.

When he turned 16, Ethan started gigging around the local area but “dropped it completely” for half a year when he started university.

“I didn’t know what I was doing, then I dropped out of uni and thought I should give music a proper stab... I didn’t go in much, and I ended up getting a lot of zero marks because I didn’t hand in much work,” he laughs. Looking back, Ethan’s glad he left uni behind - it just wasn’t for him.

“I wasn’t the best student at all; I think I would have had to re-do my first year anyway and I was just not enjoying the course at all. It threw up the idea of making me realise that I wanted to do my music properly.”

‘Born To Lose’, the lead

single from his new EP, has been a while in the making.

“As with most of my songs, it takes me a long time to finish them off. I had this one since July or August last year, and I just couldn’t ever finish it. Because it was such a comfortable place to be in, I was like, ‘This will be a good song maybe one day’, so you just leave it there. Over Christmas, I decided to finish all these half-finished songs that I’ve got.”

The second track, ‘Love Me To Death’, is in a completely different vein – more of “a bittersweet love song”, Ethan says, having worked with some massive names in the indie and alternative rock world. “Hugo White from The Maccabees produced most of the new EP, and when I found out I was going to go and write with Dan Auerbach, I rang my friend because we both love The Black Keys; we spent five minutes on the phone just screaming at each other because we were so excited. Stuff like that is mind-blowing. I fucking love it. It’s great.”

Rather than fan-girling for the whole time, the pair put their heads together and made the most of the time.

“We ended up writing four songs in two days!” Ethan enthuses. “His work rate is just insane, so we’ve got four really cool tunes which I think will be released later this year. I just try and write good, uplifting pop tunes with decent choruses and a bit of a story to them, and the electric guitar. The fact that Morrissey, Dylan and John Lennon are big on their lyrics has always been a key thing for me, and if people like my music then I’m more than happy…”

Of his top moments of the last year, Ethan says Reading & Leeds was “massive for me. It’s one of those things

that when I found out I was playing I went straight to the pub with my mates because that was a festival that we all went to…” How his career has snowballed so quickly, too, is a great feeling to have, he says, having put out his debut ‘Lucy’ EP - a three-tracker full of catchy, earworm melodies and breezy lyrics - in March 2016. “How things picked up from there - every day was just insane and super fun. I’m just loving it - playing live has been great and getting to meet all these incredible people and write and record with them.”

This spring, Ethan is playing pretty much every city festival going; Live At Leeds, Dot to

Dot and The Great Escape to name a just a few. “It’s going to be great; I’ve only done a few of these, before I was just booking them myself so it’s great to get a call saying I’m playing at all these places.

I’m really excited to just get out there and play to as many people as possible.”

He’s started working on an album, too, which will hopefully come out next year.

“I love recording, it’s one of my favourite things. Putting out songs and playing live seeing how it goes. It’s living the dream.” P Ten Tonnes’ EP ‘Born To Lose’ is out 9th June.

“I rang my friend and we spent five minutes on the phone just

screaming.”

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Sweet Dreamer SOMETIMES, BEING ENTHUSIASTIC CAN GET CONFUSED FOR BEING MISINFORMED. IT’S NOT “COOL” TO BE

PASSIONATE OR JUMP ABOARD WHEN WE SEE A GAME-CHANGER COMING OVER THE HILLS. IN WILL JOSEPH COOK, THAT IDEA HAS BEEN LAUNCHED FIRMLY OUT THE WINDOW, WITH THE HOOKS AND STYLE TO BACK IT ALL UP. POP WITH PERSONALITY IS BACK, AND THERE’S ONLY ONE NAME WHO CAN TELL YOU WHAT’S AHEAD. WORDS: JAMIE MUIR. PHOTOS: SARAH LOUISE BENNETT.

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I L L J OS E P H C O O K H AS HAD AN I N T E REST I N G M O RN I N G . Waking up a tad late, he jumped into a cab with the sort of cabbie that you only see in the movies, the ones who’ve met the famous, dealt with the tricky ones and have a stacked number of interesting twists and tales from a lifetime of doing the job they love. “He commutes in from Ireland every week!” exclaims Will, delving into a 25-minute ride that he’ll be talking about for the rest of the day - that is if you discount the packed bag full of clothes he’s taking around with him, the quickfire ideas that keep coming about future videos and live set-ups and the fact that he’ll be out on the road once again tomorrow. There’s many a shining light in the life of Will Joseph Cook, and he’s only just getting started.

pretentious in the sense that you had to listen to it five times to get it. It’s unabashed, it’s exciting, the music is sick, and you can hear that they’re having a great time making it rather than seeing it as some sure-fire way to success.

This all tends to happen when you’re sitting on the cusp of releasing a debut album, which in Will’s case bursts with a full deck of ideas, captivating hooks and feverish excitement - a modern day guide to pristine pop with indisputable charm. ‘Sweet Dreamer’ isn’t just another glistening moment in the sun, but a stamp in the ground for a generation’s pop maestro. A culmination of everything Will has listened to and loved across his 19 years on the planet; it’s a journey through classic 60s songwriting, modern 00s indie in full flight and a generation born on delectable bites of effortless euphoria. Pop with personality is once again leading the charge, and the skies have never looked clearer because of it.

G ROW I N G U P I N T U N B RI D G E W E L LS is a pretty defining feature. Nestled in the shadows of London’s frantic commuter diary and Brighton’s more flamboyant coastal breezes, it’s the sort of town where everybody knows everybody. A contained retreat from the harsher pressures the world can throw at people and a natural surrounding for a childhood caressed by musical tastes and flavours.

“Pop’s a bit of a weird word, isn’t it?” points out Will.

“Like the bands that I was really into and grabbed my attention were just the classic or defining indie bands of that time, so Vampire Weekend, MGMT, Phoenix - all of that stuff I still love dearly. They all had this mass appeal and were just good; they weren’t about being

“I think that’s been lacking a bit in music. I don’t really like stuff that’s one-dimensional or sombre or serious, because you wouldn’t want to hang out with a guy who’s like that in real life, would you?”

There’s no doubt who you’d want to be hanging out with at that party, and Will’s got a big enough table for everyone. Trading in glacial-smooth harmonies and dazzling portraits of life shot through a larger than life filter - Will Joseph Cook knows all about unparalleled blizzards of fun, something that he’s bore witness and jumped into since the very beginning.

Those early memories continue to stand out for Will, as diverse and encompassing as the collection of beats and sounds that ripple through his own moves today. “I had Neil Young and Joni Mitchell played to me while I was still in the womb,” explains Will. “My mum’s really into that classic songwriter stuff, and I remember clearly her singing Joni Mitchell to me in the car when I was younger. Then there’s this memory of me dancing to ‘Gangster Trippin’’ by Fatboy Slim, and my dad playing Eels for the first time. It’s a track called ‘Lucky Day In Hell’, and I was super young when listening to it.”

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as I could,” notes Will. “You kinda fantasise the lifestyle of music in general and what it means to be into it.

“I went to so many gigs with my dad when I was about 13 or 14, and this was about the time where I was writing and playing, and I put on some of my first gigs and got a glimpse at the feeling of what it is to ‘do it’. It was when I was watching Digitalism and they were playing the Kentish Town Forum, and it was a wicked show and all that, but when I was watching it, there was a slight annoyance that I wasn’t doing it myself. That was the moment that I decided that I wanted to it.”

If there was a time where a path started to emerge in front of him, it was now. Soaking in the spirit of guitar music, there really was nothing else Will could think of. School work?

Grades? Finding a “real” job? That all seemed a step away from the world Will wanted to leave a mark on, and instead of compromising for the steps involved in learning, going to university and graduating - Will was fixed on earning another kind of degree. The ones they give out for nailing an array of pop bangers in a deftly swoop.

Looking back at those early years, Will recollects every moment with a fondness that radiates right off him. Music was always around and playing throughout the house, becoming almost second nature to everything he did - soundtracking every turning point and becoming an integral part of day to day life. Before he even knew how to be a musician, Will was already creating like one, a natural born drive to follow the voices he’d hear played out of the speakers at home.

“I had this conversation the other day with my mum,” notes Will. “She said when I was nine I’d written this song, and we’ve now found the lyric sheet and everything, called ‘Video Life’. It looks like another bullshit indie track with some dumb lyrics that I’d pulled together, but apparently, at the time I was saying ‘I have the song in my head, all the melodies and everything, I can hear it!’ but I just couldn’t play anything. So I decided to go and learn.”

Inspired by the brightly coloured figures he’d see written in the pages of magazines, and the vibrating shots he’d witnessed online, Will slowly built up his own scrapbook of influences and styles. Whether it was the off-kilter disco of Calvin Harris’ debut ‘I Created Disco’, or the opening calls of Darwin Deez and Vampire

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Weekend, that personable charm of pop twinned with indie heights found Will firmly signed-up to the three-minute bursts of unrivalled energy.

“It’s weird because they don’t feel that old in my head,” comments Will, wide-eyed as he takes a trip down memory lane with the bands and voices that lend a considerable degree of influence over the shimmering winks of ‘Sweet Dreamer’. “I remember the first time that I heard ‘Oxford Comma’ and it just hitting me as an instant jam. It feels so innocent and unadulterated and that’s what drew me in.”

Heading out to London and Brighton, Will and his dad took their passion to the stages and shows they’d been talking about back at home.

Spanning across the cities on an almost fortnightly basis, it was an education for Will and an eyeopener in the sheer collective rush of playing live - feeding right into a passion for following in their footsteps and taking that slot he’d been seeing in front of him. Not just content with catching bands and diving into track after track, he wanted to be a part of it all, taking those bright lights and lining it up for himself.

“I wanted to go to gigs as soon

“It was inspiring,” remembers Will, “I remember at that time it all just affirmed to me that I needed to do this. I told myself I just have to do this or I’ll regret it, and I think I knew that from pretty early on. I remember having a careers meeting at school and I said that I wanted to be a musician, and I got slated so hard. It was this Russian woman who said, ‘You’ll never have a wife, you’ll never have a girlfriend’, and I was like, ‘Okay...’. I was sitting with all my other friends who had wanted to do all these clear and planned-out careers, and I just wanted to play and make music.

“It was just because I’d spent so long saying that I was keeping my options open and thinking about going to uni and actually, I didn’t want to go, I fully didn’t want to do that.”

What Will wanted to do, was take his record collection of blistering indie debuts and glistening classic pop and turn into something distinctly original and vibrant. Flowing with confidence and unrivalled passion for making music, his first forays from the bedroom to the stage saw him take in local nights in Tunbridge Wells - appearing at candle-lit performances in the local music lounge. Plying his trade, it helped craft the first stems of who Will Joseph Cook would become, bold and vivid in the sounds he’s creating.

Pondering back on those shows, Will knows how crucial they really were.

“It didn’t come naturally, but I just

went and did it. I would put on a show every couple of months and it was great, we used to fill a room with around 60 people in this small lounge with me just playing my guitar. It’s probably a good thing that I started there, I kinda got this sense of excitement and was encouraged by it all. It allowed me to do my own thing and not have that range of people judging from an early stage and gave me that room to grow a bit.”

AT 18 Y E A RS O F AG E , most of us are rolling into the thrills of going out, sipping on enough WKDs to send us ‘round the bend without a hint as to what we’re going to do next. Yet for Will, it was the age where the pieces of a puzzle he had long been looking after began to take shape.

A vision that continued to radiate throughout his own mind, it was one that needed to be shaped with him in the driver seat.

“I definitely wouldn’t enjoy having the clash of ideas that you get being in a band,” comments Will, leaning forward in his seat. “I think when you have a band, it kinda dictates what you have to do with each track, and it’s nice having complete free reign and being allowed to make what I want to with nobody will get annoyed by it.”

Bringing everything he wanted to create to the forefront with the help of longtime collaborator and mate Huw Worskett, the ideas that he once had brimming through his mind now had a canvas to paint it all on. Across two diverse EPs, Will’s dabbled into folk, electro, indie and bonafide pop allowed him to nail that pure sound that sears ‘Sweet Dreamer’ - the first stones laid in building the Will Joseph Cook skyscraper that’s grand opening is about to rip through the pop skyline.

Bombay Mix IF YOU’RE GOING TO MAKE A GREAT INDIE ALBUM, YOU COULD DO WORSE THAN WORK WITH SCENE ROYALTY. That’s exactly what Will was thinking when he enlisted Bombay Bicycle Club frontman Jack Steadman to lend a hand on ‘Sweet Dreamer’. “It was really good to have some fresh ears and hands on the album after me and Huw had spent all this time on it,” he explains. “It’s good to get another perspective after all that time. What Jack was really good at was looking at what was already there and what parts were in place, and just bringing it all to life. I’m obviously a massive Bombay Bicycle Club fan too, theirs was another one of those debut albums that I bought when I was younger, so it’s really weird that we’re now texting!”

is a bit of a weird word, isn’t it?”

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“When I was I wrote this song...”

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“I think on EPs you gain a lot from them being more experimental, and not being a perfectionist,” states Will.

“We recorded most of that first EP in his flat, and I loved those sessions, being able to work on arrangements and making music that would sound exactly like the sort I would listen to.

That ability for me to say ‘I really like this’ and Huw being able to say then ‘This is how you make it’ was super important and I learnt so much.

“Being a perfectionist with those EPs definitely wouldn’t have worked with me - but with the album, I had to be a bit more brutal.”

Putting everything into practice, ‘Sweet Dreamer’ is the record Will was born to make, one that takes every sun-soaked daydream and turns it into a breath of fresh air.

Immediate and surging with a rainbow of different flavours, it keeps close those memories of finding your favourite band in a local town hall, the feeling of bliss that comes when a hook catches your ear, and the connection felt when a song speaks to you. It’s a record that’s daring in its ambition and has the tunes to back it all up, flipping that idea of pop you may have had in your head and clearing out his own path.

It’s a momentous point that didn’t cause Will to falter. “I didn’t want it to be a long album,” he proudly defines, rising to the edge of his seat like he’s about to lay out the plans for a new work right in front of him.

“I wanted it to be pretty condensed, after toying with the idea of making it more concepty or interludey - I mean, I just thought well, that’s not the type of music I write naturally and if I don’t need that, then why try and push it, y’know? I wanted it to say, here are the best songs that I’ve ever written, because those first albums that I talked about before from bands I loved when growing up, that’s what they were!

“Your debut album isn’t necessarily make-or-break, but it has to be an announcement or a statement of something that you love a lot, and I think that’s what ‘Sweet Dreamer’ is.”

What ‘Sweet Dreamer’ is above all else, is the sound of unabashed revelry enjoying a free dance in the sun and a welcoming party to the very core of what makes Will Joseph Cook so incredibly unique. Unafraid to delve into the furthest corners of the pop cannon, it’s a clear-cut message that pop can be undeniably rich yet playful at every instance.

Take the digital blend of steel drums in ‘Plastic’, or the sensual grooves of ‘Treat Me Like A Lover’, both egging you on to try and not crack a smile.

Vigorous and itching to get out of the gates, it’s a captured bottle of being young and carefree in the 21st

century.

“At the start, it was just continuing what we’d done before; there was no deadline, so we just kept on recording. Some of these songs have been around for years and years, back from when Huw and I started working together in the studio. Stuff like ‘Alive’, ‘Take Me Dancing’ and parts of ‘Girls Like Me’ stem from quite a while ago and have come together over time. On the other side of that, though, are the last four songs which were all finished in the final couple of months, almost as a panic writing session. I remember being in the studio and just thinking ‘It needs to be better’, and working away at it.

“What’s cool about those tracks is that I was looking at the album and I was thinking about what it needed, and how I could cement what this album is - so I kinda wrote tunes to complement others and either solidify that sound or add something completely different. I wanted to add some tracks in that might throw people off a bit, and have it sit really well across an album. I kinda wasn’t until the end that I got my shit together but I think that’s how it should be, making music up until that point where you need to wrap it all together.”

With Will’s voice echoing throughout like a pillar to build these dazzling soundscapes around, ‘Sweet Dreamer’ is personified pop in comic book colours. It goes from orchestral gazes (‘Habit’, ‘Light Of The Day) to anthems designed for thousands to bellow in unison (‘Beach’, ‘Sweet Dreamer’); it covers every corner of the spectrum and with an unmistakable knack for character. These aren’t just threeminute swipes made up in a studio in Scandinavia, but the sound of a creative mind buzzing ideas onto tape and building a world around it that can only be pinpointed to one guy, and that’s Will Joseph Cook.

“I remember that last bit of recording being quite stressful. Like, I remember it was a vocal take, and I was writing the lyrics in the recording room and continually saying ‘This song will be good’,” Will tells. “Everything was done on it, and I was so determined that it was going to be a really good, but I just hadn’t finished the lyrics. It was when recording with Jack [Steadman of Bombay Bicycle Club fame], and so I was like, ‘Do you want to go out and have some tea while I get this all together?’

understandably sitting at a juggling stage. “It’s the best thing I’ve ever made,” cracks Will, a grin sharply appearing across his face. “Having it all together with the opportunities it brings is amazing, but it’s also scary in the sense that it’s like a climax of everything that’s come before it.

When we talk about years of writing and playing, you start thinking ‘Well, yeah! It has been years of working away’, but it’s a pretty sweet feeling.”

W I L L J OS E P H C O O K I S A LWAYS LO O K I N G to the next creative opportunity and sees every closing of a chapter as more time he can now spend on something new.

It’s the sort of mindset that places Will head and shoulders above most, a knack for seeking out the next great flourish in a career that’s only primed to grow bigger.

“The track ended up being ‘Biggest Fan’, so was well worth it all.”

And that’s what makes him so exciting and vital. A modern pop figure that could only come from this generation - everything he represents is an indicator of what’s to come.

Like a guide from the future with the stripes of the past, it’s not often that one person could encapsulate the dynamic flicks of Peter Gabriel with the skinny jeans heartthrob pull of Jack Penate in one fell swoop.

After pouring so much emotion, so many years and so many hours of creating and expanding upon each element, Will’s emotions are

Will Joseph Cook can be anybody to anyone, a champion of sticking to your guns and embracing every gorgeous moment that’s served up

in life with tongue firmly in cheek.

Taking pop firmly back into the realms of bright, Will is a man with the virtues of feel-good hooks placed firmly in his back pocket - and now the world gets to bare witness to it all.

“It’s not like because the music is fun and has mass appeal it has no depth to it,” elaborates Will. “I think what’s so great about it is that it has this appeal and if you want to go into it and listen to the lyrics and dive into that then there’s so much to get from it.”

When picking up ‘I Created Disco’, ‘Oracular Spectacular’ or Vampire Weekend’s self-titled debut, Will Joseph Cook was clearing out the shelves for a classic of his own, and now it has pride of place in the record collection he’s been forming for years.

“It’s crazy,” comments Will, as he finishes up his final sip of tea. “Having a debut album out really legitimises you. To be in a position where your album could identify a year for someone when it comes to memories is just an amazing feeling.”

And just like that, Will Joseph Cook is off to colour in the rest of the world.

The sky is wide open, the era of sweet, sweet dreaming has only just begun. P Will Joseph Cook’s album ‘Sweet Dreamer’ is out now.

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fair

weather

friends.

SINCE BACKING OFF FROM HIS ‘OTHER’ BAND TAME IMPALA, NICK ALLBROOK HAS THROWN HIMSELF INTO POND. THEY RETURN THIS SPRING WITH NEW RECORD, ‘THE WEATHER’; AN ALBUM PARTIALLY INSPIRED BY THEIR SUNNY HOMETOWN, PERTH.

E

ven Jaden Smith is woke to the fact that your cells completely regrow every six years,” Nick Allbrook exclaims.

Referring to a video for Vanity Fair in which the star dispenses pearls of wisdom such as “In an average lifetime human skin completely replaces itself 900 times,” and “Sharks have been around longer than trees,” Pond are highly attuned to how much the world is constantly altering around them. “Everything changes far too quickly,” the frontman affirms.

The universe that the group inhabit is one that’s continuously shifting.

Whether writing / recording / touring together as Pond, in Tame Impala, or as their individual projects, the only constant in their world seems

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WORDS: JESSICA GOODMAN.

to be their unrelenting creativity.

“We all write music habitually whenever we’ve got time off,” Nick states. “That’s a thing we’ve all been doing for too long to really know how to stop.” Building from vibrant sparks of inspiration, everything Pond create is richly layered and ripe for exploration.

“We all write on our own, and we communicate all the time what each of us are writing,” the frontman details of their multi-faceted approach. “If there are gaps in things or we need input from someone else because it’s fun, then we get them to do it.” With the lines between creative outlets blurred, the music that emerges is as characteristically vast as the range of influences that trigger it. “Unless it’s totally obviously something that is too…” Nick pauses. “…too much music for the alone times,” he grins, “then I think I pretty much just play whatever to the other

guys.”

Drawing on each other’s’ feedback for everything they create, the result is as eclectic as it is richly structured.

“If Jay’s ears perk up at a certain thing then we might take that and do it in Pond,” Nick laughs. “Unless there’s something desperately batty and weird, that’s pretty much it.” With their new album, ‘The Weather’, the collective have taken something of a step back from the “batty” and “weird” that’s always been an undercurrent of their music.

“It is less fantastical and whimsical,” Nick comments. “Maybe I’m getting old,” he laughs. “Maybe we’re all getting old. Old and jaded.” Whether it’s through the wisdom that comes with age, the increasingly more harrowing and inescapable nature of the reality we live in, or something else entirely, Pond’s latest effort is grounded in a sense of the

innately familiar. “It’s not talking about fantasy things anymore,” Nick describes. “Outside of the fantasy, there are a lot of hard things happening,” he mulls. “Maybe that just made the lyrics heavier.”

Recorded with Kevin Parker at his studio in Perth, perhaps the biggest inspiration for the album was the place that birthed it. “A lot of the album seems to focus thematically on the city that we all live in,” Nick conveys. “Why would anyone possibly go to Perth unless you were mining or you were going for the weather?”

And so the album name was born, a sweeping title for the shimmering appeal and concrete influences the album condenses.

Real life certainly had a striking influence on the record, but that isn’t to say the music remains grounded.

“We had Tony Abbott in power and stuff,” Nick recalls of the first time

he heard a roughly demoed sketch for one of the album’s tracks. “It was a bleak time for Australia. It felt grey. Melbourne felt grey.” Against a monotonous backdrop, the band used their music as a vehicle of escape. “I’d just read somewhere that there was about 30000 megatonnes of nuclear weapons on the face of the earth...”

The resulting track - ‘30000 Megatonnes’ - twists and turns through a soundscape that wouldn’t be out of place in an eighties stage musical about aliens. “We added to it a lot in production,” Nick enthuses.

“Kevin did lots of really cool things, like making the throbbing side chain part at the end, where it’s like the whole mix gets sucked in by the kick drum.” Bursting into a fit of giggles, he continues, “and he added the little birds at the end!”

Combining celestial sonics and very real influences with a wry sense of

humour is how ‘The Weather’ was born. “There’s stuff happening every day that’s inspiring for different reasons,” Nick asserts. “There’s stuff from completely different angles that will always inevitably influence what’s being made creatively.” The result is a record that challenges the nature of where we stand carried along a tapestry of ethereal sounds shimmering as if from slightly beyond our plane.

It’s fitting then that the album announcement arrived alongside ‘Sweep Me Off My Feet’, a bust of celestial escapism accompanied by a video seemingly ripped right out of stock footage heaven. “The sentiment of the desperately naive ‘Sweep Me Off My Feet’ worked well with stock advertising footage,” Nick expresses.

This very desperate questioning of the world around us runs ever present through ‘The Weather’ and its many varied sound constructions.

“The album’s so ADD, and so all over the place,” Nick alludes. “So we got to thinking that we may as well take that to its logical conclusion, and just put these two half songs together...” From its rough and rapidly ricocheting origins to the gentle piano-guided croons of its ending, ‘A B’ faces the dichotomy of the album head on. “They’re both conceived in different ways,” Nick explains of the track’s two parts. ”We thought we should just mangle them together with tape and radio noises, taking the polarities of the album to an extreme at the middle.”

It’s this affinity for the extreme and the unpredictable that make Pond’s music such a hard thing to define, even in their own terms.

“Pond... doing... music... band...?”

Nick offers in description of the new record, before laughing. “I don’t know.” Undefinable though it may

be, the group’s hopes for the record are much clearer cut. “I hope some people really get a kick out of it,” Nick enthuses, “and that the people who don’t get a kick out of it recognise that they don’t have to, and they just do fine anyway.”

“Or maybe they’ll just go and do a little cover of all of our songs,” the frontman speculates. “They can record them all in their basement, and get carried away and make their own songs. That’d be pretty gnarly.”

Releasing a new album in their everconstant flow of creation, Pond sound at their most ambitious yet, and the future is anyone’s guess. “The merry go round continues.” P POND’s album ‘The Weather’ is out 5th May.

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n a c u o Y n a h c tea g o d d ol new tricks M OV IN G FR O M N EW YO RK TO BU Y UP, D O ES N ’T IT ? M AC A N D RE N O VATE A HO D EM A RC O ’S US E IN LA SO C UR RE N T O TO C RE AT E UN DS AW FU UT PU T SE ES A SO UN D TH LLY G ROW HI M C O M PE AT ’S UN C HA N TI N G W IT H RT ED POW ER SA WOR DS : JA TE RR ITO RY WS KE HAW KE FO R HI M .

S. PH OTOS

I

n the few years since Mac DeMarco’s last full-length ‘Salad Days’, he’s toured extensively, moved from New York to LA and released minialbum ‘Another One’.

Now it’s time for album number three, ‘This Old Dog’, and nursing a hangover and clutching a cup of coffee ahead of a tiny preview show at London pub Nambucca - he’s characteristically unfazed.

“There was a point, maybe around spring 2016, I wrote some new songs and then thought, ‘Oh, maybe I’ll make a new record!’ Then I was like, ‘Eh, maybe not right now’. We went back on tour for a while, and then I moved to Los Angeles. I

: PO PPY WAR IN G.

was just making songs, and they just sat for a while, and the label was like, ‘Look, if you wanna put something out in 2017, it’ll have to be done soon’.

that. I’m able to do it because I’ve been on tour for years now and I have money sitting there, but that reservoir is gonna run out at some point.”

“I wrote 12 or 14 songs in a week and a half in the spring, and then when the deadline finally came I was like, ‘Oh shit, I’ve only got a month left!’ So then I just worked every day. It’s the same vibe I usually have, all it took was maybe a month and a half jammed in, and then I completely wasn’t thinking about it for the rest of the time.”

Not that he worries too much about money - or anything else, for that matter. “I think I’m adaptable, I’m a cheap son of a bitch,” he laughs while lighting a Marlboro Red (it’s hard to get Viceroy, his favourite brand, in the UK apparently). “I don’t buy new clothes or new cars or anything. I’ve never had the opportunity to spend any money.

I’ve never been in the position where I have time; we’ve always been touring.” He pauses with a grin. “I have bought a house, that was weird! And then when we got it, it was really fucked up, the renovations are still going on actually. It’s kinda funny, if

“Not having anything to do just drives me crazy eventually,” he explains. “I do like to relax, and a lot of being in LA for the last few months has just been taking it easy. But there’s also this fear because then I get used to doing

they turn on a power saw when I’m recording my guitar will make this weird high pitched noise; doing vocal takes with a bandsaw going is kind of difficult too, but hey, it’s not so bad.”

Despite the move and the different environment that the new album was recorded in, Mac was keen to make sure it didn’t stray too far from his established sound. “When I put out a record, I like it to make sense. Especially with this one I’m putting out right now, I think it completes this triangle of albums. ‘Another One’ and [2012 mini-album] ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll Nightclub’ are in there too, but there’s this triangle of full-length releases.

The format on this new one is a little bit different; the sound is a little bit different, the whole vibe is a little bit different. But

39

people can still hear it and be like, ‘Oh, this is a Mac DeMarco record’, which is important to me.”

That’s not to say ‘This Old Dog’ is just business as usual, with Mac keen to try new things on the release. “I love synth, my appreciation of and love for synth grow day to day, and that shows on the album. I was really feeling acoustic guitar when I made this as well, I mean some of the stuff I’m making on the side is this weird drone-y synthesiser stuff, I’m just experimenting. Maybe I could go that direction, or maybe I could go another, who knows?”

As for the pressure that traditionally surrounds an artist’s third release, he shrugs. “For me, it’s not my third album; it’s like my tenth album. But I get that by all accounts it’s my third proper release, and people listen to my music now. The way I rationalise it is that I know there are kids out there who listen to me - well, not just kids, people too - and hopefully, they like it, but them liking it is not exactly the bottom line, I just enjoy doing it. I enjoyed it, sometimes it was a little frustrating, but I enjoyed it.

“I knew I didn’t want to do the same thing again, but I also didn’t want to do this big, insane…” He clears his throat and impersonates a middle-aged record exec. “‘Well are you gonna try and go Top 40 now?’ No, I’m just making some songs, so I just let them be what they wanted to be. I wasn’t even really thinking about performing them, just if an instrument sounded fun or I felt like playing it, I did.

“I always just choose one of the songs which I think encompasses the vibe of the record,” he explains, on why he chose ‘This Old Dog’ as the title-track. “In the song, I guess I’m just talking about myself; I’m not trying to say like, ‘Oh I’m so old, fuck!’ But I have seen some shit; my life’s probably a little bit weirder than some people’s lives. But it’s just a little love song. It’s one of my favourites, but I think my real favourite is the first song off of side B, ‘Dreams from Yesterday’. I like that sound. I like all the songs, though; they’re all my children. Well, they’re not my children anymore, now they’re just orphans waiting for release day.”

And does Mac have an ‘old dog’ of his own? “No, but I really like the idea of a basset hound. They’re my favourite dog; they’re just so droopy. I’ve never really been around one, though. You know how different breeds of dog have different personalities? I don’t even really know anything like that about them. I just have this idea from back when I was in Montreal; I just wanted to have me cruising around in my station wagon with a nice basset hound riding in the shotgun seat, I think it’s a good look. I think they get health problems, but that’s not my fault.” He laughs and holds his hands up.

“Hey, I didn’t breed them to be unhealthy; somebody did it a couple of hundred years ago!”

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a m ’ I “ cheap son of a bitch.”

Dog breeds aside, does he ever think about the future? “I’m in the honeymoon stage. I’ve just done a record; I don’t have to think about shit! I’m enjoying that, but at the same time I just like recording so I do it as well. I guess I’ll go on tour for like a year and a half, and then do it all over again.” He lights another cigarette before continuing. “I’m sure it’ll end at some point, and that’s totally fine. I think to have a long lasting career is rare.

Especially in guitar music, guitar music is a dying breed, so who knows? I’m just gonna stay happy, count my blessings as they come. Enjoy yourself in the moment, that’s something that I’ve always said.

Maybe there will be a point that no-one gives a shit that I’m putting out a record, but oh well.

“The other thing is that it’s great that people like my music and come to the show, but a big part of why I do this is that it’s my hobby, I love to do it. So I’ll probably keep doing it even if nobody listens.” He’s happy to keep touring too, as long as people will have him. “I like the travelling aspect of it. The only thing I don’t like about it is flying, but I could spend the rest of my life driving around in a van, I’d be so happy. It’s a weird lifestyle, and it’s a weird community, but it’s really cool. Back in the day when we had to stay at people’s houses because we were so broke… you don’t forget those people.

And maybe the ‘cool kids’ that only liked your music because it was ‘the new thing’

won’t be coming along anymore, but we try and make sure everybody’s still around. The reason that I started making records was that I loved going to shows.”

He is keen to downplay the crazy stuff he’s famous for on stage, though. “Most of the true craziness is just its own single occurrence. Say you show your butt on stage once; people think you do it at every show. I do crowd surf at the end of every show, though; it’s such a routine that I don’t event think about it anymore.

Sometimes if I’m hurting or something, it’s like ‘God Damn it, I have to crowd surf.’

So yeah, it can be strange getting into the routine. We try and keep it as fresh as we can, but there’s no way for it not to be weird. Except the thing that you’ve got to keep in mind is it’s a new set of people every night and a new place every night.

That’s what keeps it fresh.” P

Mac DeMarco’s album ‘This Old Dog’ is out 5th May.

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DANCE

YRSELF

CLEAN E

CLEAN CUT KID’S ORIGIN STORY IS LIKE SOMETHING FROM A MOVIE - FROM FRIEND SET-UPS TO ALMOST-MISSED CONNECTIONS TO LITERALLY BECOMING FAMILY... IT’S BEEN ONE HELL OF A RIDE.

veryone loves a big weekend.

Y’know, the ones that are crammed full of memories waiting to happen at every turn and the sense that anything’s possible. For Evelyn Halls, as she sits in her childhood bedroom preparing for a right ‘ol “knees up”, that weekend might be extending far beyond the one that lies in the coming days - in fact, the sense of a big weekend perfectly wraps everything essential about Clean Cut Kid into a universal nugget. Whether it’s the group singalongs, the delicate latenight realisations or the infectious swagger in every pore of their being, Clean Cut Kid are setting course for something special - a welcome crack of joy to dive right on into. It’s a journey that lives and breathes through the streets of Liverpool, built upon friendship, heartbreak and above all else, a bloody great time. As can be imagined, the vodka jellies are coming in thick and fast.

“Most people I’ve spoken to have said it feels like it’s announcing a baby,” notes Evelyn. That baby is Clean Cut Kid’s debut album ‘Felt’, a fuzz-coated trip into a world of skittle-flavoured hooks laid over crushing tales of broken hearts and head over heels love.

Shimmering at every moment, it’s the

WORDS: JAMIE MUIR.

sort of record that transcends a certain moment in time and delivers with each sweeping harmony, a trip into Tom Petty sunsets with a lightning bolt rawness. “Until a couple of years ago we all still would have thought that this all was just a crazy pipe-dream, which would be amazing to do but the chance of it ever happening was small - we just feel so, so lucky that we’ve done it.”

Built around the core harmonies of Evelyn and frontman/husband Mike Halls, Clean Cut Kid are a band that simply couldn’t come from any other city, any other time or from any other minds. Cracking smiles and triggering feverish reactions wherever they go, they’re the sort of band that you’d want to organise your birthday party, guaranteed to bring the bells and whistles to make it an unforgettable night - and that’s something they’ve been delivering for years now. In 2016, the band played 91 shows, 31 different festivals across five countries - a feat that could only be dreamed of in Evelyn’s mind as she grew up with music encompassing all around.

“I wanted to be in bands from whenever I can remember. I dunno I just always wanted to do it,” Evelyn muses, gazing around the room at the origins of where she stands today.

“I remember being in school and just grabbing people in my class and saying ‘You’re in my band now’, and just formed them in the school playground

and stuff. It’s funny looking back at how seriously I took it, I remember getting some boys in my school, this is in like Year 5 by the way, and I was like, right you can be the manager, and you can be the agent. I didn’t even know what an agent was; I think I’d picked it up from watching Spiceworld!

“And Mike always tells the story that his parents say - when he was around three or four, whenever a theme tune for a TV show came on the telly, he’d like, scoot across the room and put his ear to the speaker, he was only interested in hearing that. They’d put headphones on him, and he’d wear out the Beatles tapes he had on his Walkman.

“We’ve all honestly never toyed with the idea of doing anything else.”

Burgeoning out from the playground into studio time, shows and practice rooms around the city and the country as a whole, both Evelyn and Mike spent their formative years pursuing that dream, creating sounds and bands in various incarnations. Those first steps into making music and all that it comes with took them across Liverpool - laying a path to one fateful day at Hyde Park where Clean Cut Kid and ultimately, Evelyn and Mike’s future became one in a connection that goes above and beyond simply just music.

“We’d both been doing all this bouncing around between different

projects, and for me, one of them involved a guy we both knew who’d asked me to come down and play with him at those Olympic-themed shows that were going on at Hyde Park,” elaborates Evelyn. “As a thank you, we managed to get tickets to the final night where Blur played - and in that space of time between playing and the Blur gig, the guy had planted the seed to set Mike and me up. Mike had been writing and playing guitar with him, so it all came about that way - and it was funny because we’d both been at uni together a couple of years earlier and didn’t know each other then.”

“After the first date at Blur, we’d spend quite a time apart, as I was living in London at that time and Mike up in Liverpool - but in-between that time from our first date and our second, Mike had written a song for me. The first thing he did when he came down was play me that song - and I was just balling my eyes out, it was so cool.”

Connecting over a shared love and passion for music, Evelyn and Mike quickly started playing together, forming the foundations of what would become Clean Cut Kid. Growing out of their flat and shared sessions together, it became clear that the music they were creating was destined to be heard by far more than simply just them, and at that very moment, Clean Cut Kid were destined to hit the biggest stages.

“Mike had always had this idea of

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starting Clean Cut Kid and had been writing songs and playing,” notes Evelyn. “Gradually, over about a couple of months of playing them together, we just thought ‘Hey, let’s give this a go, let’s go for it. Let’s get a band together!’

sounds. We just had no money and had to make our own stuff. I was playing drums and keys at the same time, Mike was playing guitar and Saul on bass.

“Mike remembered Saul [Godman] as this mad, crazy guy who was making a Pot Noodle once in a studio, who was just the most amazing person and so excited about music. He just had this feeling that Saul was the right person for the band - he didn’t even know if he could play bass but knew that he was an amazing guitarist. So we went off to find him, and just had no luck - he didn’t have Facebook, he didn’t have a phone, nobody knew where he was...

One night, when we went out for food, and as we were walking down the

With drummer Ross Higginson joining a few months later, it was the coming together of a band who believe in every flourish the sheer power of dazzling and uplifting pop in its prime. Beneath the big stages, the soaring anthems and the moments where Clean Cut Kid’s surging numbers grab you in the gut and make you feel every sweat of emotion that swoons from them, there’s one thing that remains key. Fun. To remember above all else that music is there to lift you from the gutter and make you feel ten times taller, and it’s

“We didn’t really know what it was.”

“We love that we get to do this as a band, there are highs and lows, but we always aim to be having fun.”

The highs and lows of love are laid out for all to see on ‘Felt’, a record that timelines the breakdown of a relationship on one side and the unparalleled feeling of a new one beginning on the other - capturing every essence of something that can’t be contained or boxed away. It’s the human form at its most vulnerable and at its most stunning, and ‘Felt’ manages to provide a snapshot of it all, with a wink and a smile at every moment.

Recorded in studios around the country (see Ray Davies’ Konk Studios or Liverpool’s acclaimed Parr Street),

From the off-kilter scratches of ‘Vitamin C’ through to the hip-shaking buzz of ‘Leaving You Behind’, ‘Stay’, ‘Pick Me Up’ and ‘Make Believe’ - it’s a record confident in every move it makes, radiating warmth at every note.

Whether it’s with sky-high choruses designed to be screamed at the top of your lungs or with the delicate pulls of classic grooves in the album’s title track, ‘Brother’ or ‘Time To Let You Go’ - ‘Felt’ is a record of life-affirming importance.

“We’re all really proud of it, and we’re confident that people are really going to like it,” comments Evelyn. “I’m trying to make a rule with myself, that I’ll read just one review a week because you’re opening yourself up for people to have those opinions. If we’re happy with

“WE DIDN’T HAVE ANY MONEY, NOBODY HAD JOBS…” street at about 1am in the morning, we saw him busking outside the bombedout church in Liverpool and Mike was like, ‘That’s the guy!’

“Mike went over to him and just asked if he wanted to join the band, explaining that it wasn’t a band yet but that it will be and if he could play bass too. Saul was like ‘Yeah, I clock off at about 3 - do you wanna jam at 4?’

“The next day we went to his little rehearsal room, and a month later we were in the studio recording ‘Vitamin C’ and ‘Runaway’. We’d gone into that recording session not knowing what it was that we had - just me, Saul and Mike. I’d created a drum kit out of Tupperware boxes and some tablets to make snare drums, experimenting with different tea towels to make drum 44

about having a great time with the ones closest to you.

“When we think back to before we signed our record deal, they were almost like the peak of the fun times.

Even though they were hard times where we didn’t have any money, and nobody had jobs - that was the moment where we cemented our proper friendships and became who we are as Clean Cut Kid,” notes Evelyn.

“We take it really seriously; like, we take touring seriously, we take going into the studio seriously, we take every aspect of it really seriously, but at the same time, we’re all best mates in the band - when we’re not gigging we’re all hanging out together. We honestly have so much fun, Saul and Ross are so boss, funny and crazy and Mike’s not only my husband but my best mate.

and balancing out an intense run of touring and playing live - it’s a record that captures the journey of Clean Cut Kid in style. “We recorded it over about 18 months from start to finish, with loads of gaps in-between. We’d finish a festival at like 9pm, drive four hours to get to the next studio and then be up the next morning and do four days - get up on Friday and drive to the next place and do festivals over that weekend.

“I remember the day we recorded the last thing, walking back from the studio and being so confused as to how to feel. I was thinking, am I going to have to Ask Jeeves about how to feel at this moment? I felt like crying, I felt like I was going to be sick, I felt happy and confused - but it’s slowly sunk in, and now we’re just itching to get it out.”

what we’ve done then... well, unless it’s completely catastrophic, we’ll be cool!”

Life is a pretty serious topic, it’s something that is drilled into everyone each and every day - but more important than any flash-news on the telly screen, the world needs to have a right ‘ol good time. Clean Cut Kid aren’t just a band made for now, but one desperately needed for it. Across love, loss and friendship, Clean Cut Kid are here to remind us that even in the darkest moments there’s something incredibly jubilant about life, and throwing your hair back to savour it is just as vital as confronting it. Crack out the vodka jellies; Clean Cut Kid are about to hit the town. P Clean Cut Kid’s album ‘Felt’ is out 28th April.

BECAUSE LINKIN PARK ASKED US SPECIFICALLY, WE MEAN DOWN AS IN ‘STOP BEING...’. WE’RE NOT ‘DOWN’ WITH BORING. OBVIOUSLY. HOPE THAT HELPS LADS.

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“I was waiting for lightning to strike.”

T

AFTER A SPELL AWAY, FEIST IS BACK, REFRESHED AND READY FOR MORE.

he opening title track on Feist’s new album ‘Pleasure’ is a creeping, almost unnoticeable slip through the door – a hushed return from a songwriter who is able to capture our uncertainties and turn them into a sort of dynamicallycharged, candid poignancy. It serves as a vital force in the reintroduction of an artist who’s been away for six years, reaffirming her ability to weave and encapsulate the very intricacies of what makes us human.

“It seemed like an apt beginning to such a tentative album,” Feist says of the title-track. “The subject of the album is that I’m neither here nor there; I’m in this liminal state of I’m not sure, everything sucks, and I’m not sure if it’s going to be okay... I’m not sure I’m doing the right thing, I’m not sure that you’re doing the right thing,” she continues.

“It felt truer than to arrive at some sort of podium and state my case. The megaphone comes later.”

Feist has always been a prolific artist.

Her 2010 documentary Look At What The Light Did Now showcased the extent of what actually goes into a tour – “It felt like it I was white water rafting, there was such much momentum” – and with the 2012 Polaris Prize going to her last album ‘Metals’, it’s no wonder Feist found herself needing to take a breather, to rediscover what it is she loves about songwriting in in the first place. “I did throw myself under the bus a little bit, so to speak,” she says. “It took me a little while to begin to write again because I was really listening closely to what might compel me again, and to be honest, I was completely open to having that be something other than music.”

“I was at a point in my life where I just felt like the 16-year-old version had lunged into making these decisions that were based entirely on the moment and my mood and the time and the place, and it felt right to join that hardcore band. I followed one song to the next, one gig to the next, one band to the next and then here I was after ‘Metals’ really wanting to make sure that I

WORDS: SAMMY MAINE.

wasn’t continuing because it was all I do or all I had done. I really got quiet for a while and was waiting for some type of lightning to strike me and by the time songs began to formulate in my mind, I realised that that’s just the lens I see the world through, and it’s a relationship I’ll always have if I’m lucky.

It felt worthwhile continuing.”

Dynamically speaking, Feist has always been one to use her voice as a constructional tool for storytelling.

It dips and tumbles as quickly as it soars and bursts, marking the moments of most importance through each narrative. Her vocal delivery throughout Pleasure feels particularly focused; the hushed tones during the fade out of ‘Lost Dreams’ is juxtaposed with the crescendo of ‘Any Party’ while a choir is introduced on ‘A Man Is Not His Song’.

Concerning her voice, Feist jokes that they “know each other pretty well by now,” adding that it “knows what to do to be true to me and my range of person”. “I’m not very concerned with the way it sounds as much as how honest it sounds,” she continues. “I’m really concerned with conviction and maybe squinting very closely about what’s necessary about the conveyance of a narrative. That is more important to me than sounding pretty or evoking prettiness.”

The sparse instrumentation throughout the album is also strikingly evident.

Compared to the richness and collaboration of ‘Metals’, ‘Pleasure’ is stripped back and intimate, revealing a lucidity that marks its themes of uncertainty as imperative to its purpose.

“The angular simplicity of these arrangements were really intentional because I think the subject matter is a little bit sparse and a little bit raw and boney. I’m kind of just squinting into the wind or something,” she says, laughing.

“I suppose it was a moment of not feeling certain about anything so it’s hard to try and pretty that up or make it more dressed up than that experience really is. There are no declarations of having my shit together. The confidence is only in having the self-compassion to state these things without being ashamed of them and that experience of squinting at yourself through the dark night of your soul; it’s just a stark experience, it’s a little bit like a spectre, of being haunted by all of that

hollowness of loss.”

This spectre stretches across the final moments of each track, as the meditative, instrumental fade out of ‘Lost Dreams’ is quickly juxtaposed with the abrupt conclusion of ‘Century’.

This, as Feist explains, aims to show the swimming of our thoughts – the repetition of certain ruminations that run through our minds in a seemingly never-ending cycle. “Each one was instinctual,” she adds. “Each song tells you what type of ending it needs.”

However, she’s adamant that the album isn’t entirely doom-and-gloom. “At the very end there’s a small wink to the potential that not all is lost, but ultimately when you have those kind of thoughts, they’re like a broken record in your head so to have a two minute fade out [on ‘Lost Dreams’], it felt narratively correct.”

‘Century’ also marks a rare collaboration on the album, with Jarvis Cocker offering a narration over haunting, intimate melodies. “There would’ve been no other choice right? Who else could be the Vincent Price to my ‘Thriller’?” she says enthusiastically, clearly happy to be talking about someone she admires. “There was no other man for the job to be the narrator.

He has such a history of observing the fall apart of the difference between fantasy and reality. I was lucky that he was willing to be on this record.”

Feist reveals that she’s off to see Jarvis Cocker perform tonight, alongside Chilly Gonzales with their collaborative project ‘Room 29’. She says the album is her “new obsession” and jokes that she’s scheduled her entire European press run to coincide with their performances.

“I’m going to go to Berlin too,” she says, laughing. “I’m finally figuring out this travel thing.”

When Feist makes a new album or embarks on a new project, she has the tendency to make visible what is audible. She presents new material with a focused sense of imagery, and as we chat more about her intentions with the record, it’s clear that this is something that will continue to shape her work.

“I think that when I first developed the instinct to think like that was because I started to learn that there was a necessity to make visuals to go with the songs and to go with the albums,”

she explains. “I was adamant that they not misrepresent what I’d made and so it was sort of self-protection that I became so interested in the imagery and protecting the imagery around records.”

The main visual to take away from the new album and well, any album ever, is the artwork. The front cover of ‘Pleasure’ is adorned with bougainvillea, its vibrant colours juxtaposed against a darkened sky that pretty much perfectly sums up the album’s shifting tone – of seeing the light despite the darkness shrouding your mind. Feist was living in Los Angeles last winter and drove past the bougainvillea building almost every night; it was two weeks before her eureka moment. “I screeched to a halt and realised that I was looking at the album cover,” she says. “I was in the midst of mixing the album at that point too, so it was funny that it took me so long to realise that’s what it was.

It definitely felt like a moment where things were triangulating for me I didn’t want the album imagery to be dark – the title up against something dark too would have been misleading, the title up against me with a lollipop would have been totally misleading. It was important to strike a balance and really represent what the album is. I felt so grateful when I found that.”

All in all, ‘Pleasure’ is about facing your demons and making it out alive; it’s about being okay with not being okay. But perhaps the most compelling take away from the album is never to feel ashamed of these emotions and uncertainties, that by welcoming them with open arms we’ll become better, more honest versions of ourselves.

“The album is dealing with a dark time, but I didn’t land in a dark place,” Feist continues. “I think it’s necessary to go through those periods and allow yourself to be fully forged by the flame of those experiences; they’re unavoidable and you can come out the other end bitter, or you can come out the other end having really fessed up and faced yourself and the experience.

Even the most difficult experience can be the thing you’re most grateful for when you’re 90-years-old.” P Feist’s album ‘Pleasure’ is out on 28th April.

47

REVIEWS

BRIDGING THE GAP BETWEEN THE SURREAL AND THE SINCERE

Gorillaz Humanz

‘HUMANZ’ IS PACKED WITH A-LIST COLLABORATORS. HERE’S JUST A FEW OF THEM.

eeeee

F

or a virtual band with an ever evolving list of collaborators, the possibilities of which direction to turn in next are endless. When they released their self-titled debut the group challenged the notion of what a band should - and indeed, could - be. Soaring towards a heavenly climax, ‘Demon Days’ demonstrated them at their most euphoric. Creating an entire island for their own exploration, ‘Plastic Beach’ showcased the collective at their most immersive. On ‘The Fall’ technology sat front and centre. With ‘Humanz’ Gorillaz arrive at their most expansive yet.

From the moment Vince Staples introduces us all to the next phase the band have created for themselves, you know you’re on to something spectacular. Ever the innovators, Gorillaz have banded together a group of collaborators to draw from seemingly every music genre ever to create

48

something entirely their own. But this is something the outfit have always been known for. Where ‘Humanz’ finds new strength is in making every moment - be it cinematic, pop, rap, or rock, soulful, indie, or hip hop - feel like one and the same.

‘Stroblite’ is a keytar led disco jam of the most contagious kind. On ‘Momentz’ long time collaborators De La Soul are at the helm, strutting their way through a celebration of here and now with a rallying sense of occasion.

‘Busted And Blue’ offers a moment of stratospheric contemplation. “Through the echo chambers to other worlds I went,” Damon Albarn sings, one foot in a daydream and another rooted in the realisation of the moment.

Sure, the album also has claim to its share of surreal moments - ‘Charger’ sees Albarn adopt a vocal delivery that’s perplexing at best - but Gorillaz have never been about finesse. Where

they excel is in creating music that can instantly transport you to somewhere new. What makes ‘Humanz’ different from their previous records is that instead of whisking the listener away, they’re bringing that world direct to you.

‘Let Me Out’ is an instant standout, the double whammy of Mavis Staples and Pusha T as elating as it is energising.

On album closer ‘We Got The Power’ the group (with the help of Jehnny Beth, Noel Gallagher, and Jean-Michel Jarre) take that energy to the next level, passing the capability to create and to change straight from their hands to yours.

Bridging the gap between the surreal and the sincere with an innate dexterity, ‘Humanz’ is essentially Gorillaz at their most, well, human. Rejoicing in every ounce of spectacle they make, the collective stand with their world at their feet, giving voice to the belief that you can do the same. Jessica Goodman

NOEL GALLAGHER Mr Potato might be the last one you’d expect to see turning up alongside Damon on a Gorillaz album, but here we are - the two kings of Britpop reunited on one of the least Britpop songs possible.

And it works.

JEHNNY BETH In fact, it’s probably down to the intervention of Savages’ firebrand leader that it does. With Jehnny on board, ‘We Got The Power’ becomes a euphoric, near religious experience.

GRAHAM COXON It’s a measure of just how comfortable the Blur bandmates are that Coxon might show up on a Gorillaz album. There’s no mistaking his mad, buzzsaw like guitar work.

SPLASHH ARE THE REAL DEAL

Hi there,

Splashh SASHA FRANTZ CARLSON AND CO. HAVE TAKEN THEIR TIME WITH SECOND ALBUM, ‘WAITING A LIFETIME’.

So Sasha, you’re back with a new album - how are you guys at the moment?

Good, We are anxious & excited to get the new record out now, Been a long time coming for us - Sitting with these songs and what not. Mostly excited to tour the new songs and get in front of people again that’s what’s important to us.

What was your frame of mind like when you started work on ‘Waiting A Lifetime’?

It was full on. New York is crazy in general which added to our frame of mind I think, but we were focused on pushing it in the studio.

How did you hit on ‘Waiting A Lifetime’’s sound, did you experiment much during its creation?

We had some of the songs since 2014, so they had been through a lot of changes but when we got to the studio all that kind of went out the window. We definitely experimented with this record.

Recording in New York sounds awfully glam what drew you to Brooklyn?

We always wanted to work with Nicolas Vernhas going back to when we started the band even. We are huge fans of his work (Deerhunter, Animal Collective, etc.), so that was a huge draw card. It’s lucky that we have spent the last few years there back and forth, so we have like a second home vibe going on. The nightlife is quite glam I do admit.

What’s your favourite thing about the new album?

I think for me its diverse and hasn’t stuck to one particular sound. Lots of melody. The songs seem a little deeper that the precious LP Is there anything you really hope listeners ‘get’ about the release?

I just hope it draws some reaction out of the listener whatever it may be. Whether it makes you feel sad, happy or angry, etc. Just some reaction What are you most looking forward to happening or doing this year?

Touring again is pretty much on the top of that list, Travelling you know, Being with friends doing this is a great thing. P

Splashh Waiting A Lifetime

Cinematic Music Group

eeee For Splashh, ‘Waiting A Lifetime’ is an important record. After creating their own carved out universe off the back of debut album ‘Comfort’, this is the moment where a band confirms what they’re about, and doing it in style cements who they are. On their new full-length, Splashh not only confirm the ambition of their debut, but build pillars upon it.

Drenched in neo-pop glory yet surrounded in a fuzzy psychedelic packaging, ‘Waiting A Lifetime’ is a record that stands firmly on its own two feet. ‘See Through’ is a spiralling yet decadent dive into a hazy wonderland, a feeling that carries throughout, breathing at every moment through tracks such as ‘Come Back’ and the decadent pulls of ‘Honey and Salt’.

Fuzzing and dipping through electric portraits of punk, psych and pop, it’s the seeds of something stunning that’s only going to blossom further.

Splashh are no longer the support act; they’re the real deal. Jamie Muir

Little Dragon

Clean Cut Kid

At The Drive In

Because Music

Polydor Records

Rise Records

Season High

eeee Little Dragon’s fifth album, ‘Season High’ finds them going ever deeper into the sort of emotion-filled clubready bangers that have become their calling card. They’re a band who’ve always been out on their own, carrying on with their own blissful path. Here, they again showcase an immaculate gift for dynamics, and the stunning vocals of Yukimi Nagano; it’s her star power and vocal charisma that give pop hits like ‘Sweet’ and ‘Strobe Light’ their bounce. There’s nothing understated about ‘Season High’ - Little Dragon are right at the top of their game.

Martyn Young

Day Wave

The Days We Had Fiction Records

eeeee “There’s something here,” proclaims Jackson Phillips on opening track ‘Something Here’.

And it’s not just an obvious refrain, either. There’s a measure of magic to Day Wave’s debut album. That quiet confidence of an act that has found a groove that’s both productive and consistently good. While it may result in things feeling a little comfortable, it’s always in a welcome way. ‘Home’ sparkles, but with an underlying impression of hope, while ‘Wasting Time’ does anything but. As the nights grow shorter, ‘The Days We Had’ are welcome to hang around.

Stephen Ackroyd

Felt

in·ter a·li·a

eeee

eeee

Love and heartache have never sounded as fuzzed up and wrapped in harmonious ease as ‘Felt’, an album that glints with feverish excitement and playfulness in a way that makes you jump aboard the Clean Cut Kid wagon with such sharpness, that there are knives sitting green in envy. What makes it such a rip-roaring success is the important ingredient that rings throughout: fun, an invitation to no longer feel alone. Love can cause some extreme reactions, but Clean Cut Kid will have your back no matter what. Jamie Muir

Like sodium hitting water, At the Drive In burned brightly, fiercely - emitting furious waves of scissorkicking fever - and briefly, on hiatus since just after 2000’s taut, inventive ‘Relationship of Command’. Now the band are back, and, calming any concerns following the departure of co-founder Jim Ward, ‘In•ter a•li•a’ is an ear-splitting success. Claws and hooks exposed, opener ‘No Wolf Like The Present’ thrusts itself in your face, snarling and spitting, at a pace which seldom slackens; they sound as passionate as they did during their first, dazzling burst of activity. It’s a wild, blistering return. Rob Mesure

Theme Park

Johnny Lloyd

Is This How It Starts?

Recreation Records

e e ee e Remember the heady days of 2011? The laid-back cool of debut ‘Wax’ marked Theme Park out as something a little more luxe than your average guitar outfit. Six years on and subtly-subverted pop is where they’re at their best - the squelchy rhythm of ‘Something Good’ feels fun and modern, while ‘I’ll Do Anything’ tells a charming tale.

Occasionally, though, their genrehopping quest goes a little too far; ‘Is This How It Starts?’ is a mixed bag of a record. Jenessa Williams

Eden EP Xtra Mile

e e ee When Johnny Lloyd, The Maccabees’ Hugo White and Mike Crossey (The 1975, Wolf Alice) unite, what you end up with is one hell of an EP. ‘Running Wild’’s indie pop fully embraces life-affirming lyrics, while ‘Kanaval’ brings a groove that will get your feet moving and ’Traffic’’s a bit more focused and serious. Closer ‘Eden’ strips everything away leaving Johnny and an acoustic guitar to convey a yearning for his perfect someone; his Eden.

This is an EP to nurture and savour.

Steven Loftin 49

REVIEWS

BENJI COMPSTON IS LOOKING ON THE BRIGHTER SIDE OF LIFE. Hey Benji, how would you describe ‘Write In’’s vibe?

Kids-walking-around-in-their-mum’s-heelsand-having-the-best-time.

Or Mostly-on-piano-and-guitar.

Was it a fun album to create?

It was, and it wasn’t. There’s nothing like the thrill of making something that makes sense to you. But we had lots of ups and downs making this record - Benji had major surgery in the middle of making the album, and so there was this weirdly fragmented period when things were touch and go, but the times we captured on record and the songs that made the cut are the ones that we felt particularly moved or excited by - if that makes sense. We had to slightly cut and paste the positive moments and patch them together.

In what ways do you feel this release is a step up for Happyness?

It’s kind of hard to answer that before the record’s out and people have had a chance to live with it for a while - so I’m sure we’ll have a completely different answer in six months time. But I think this record feels like a collection of more complete ideas than ‘Weird Little Birthday’. We wanted to make a record where each song completed itself, rather than necessarily needing the whole album as context. We got really into Randy Newman...

Were you at all influenced by ‘world events’ or ‘the state of things’ during its creation?

Weirdly I think ‘the state of things’ being the way they are contributed to it being a more optimistic album. I think we really needed to find the positive in all this fucking idiocy.

What’s your favourite song on the album?

For me, it’s probably ‘The C is a BAG’ or ‘Through Windows’. ‘Through Windows’ was the first song we wrote for this album and definitely hits a special spot for us. P 50

Gnarwolves

Moshi Moshi

Big Scary Monsters

e e ee

eeee

If debut ‘Weird Little Birthday’ was an invite to Happyness’ oddball world, then ‘Write In’ is the fall down the rabbit hole. Selfrecorded once more, its post-grunge is instantly enjoyable.

Sprawling opener ‘Falling Down’ recalls Real Estate by way of Pavement, while ‘The Reel Starts Again [Man As Ostrich]’ and ‘Uptrend_Style Raids’ are as trippy as their titles would suggest. With the majority of the tracks clocking in at five-minute plus, ‘Anna.Lisa Calls’ is probably the most college-radiofriendly thing they’ve done.

For a band who’ve often struggled to be truly heartfelt, ‘Write In’ feels like an encouraging step forward into three-dimensionality. Jenessa Williams

‘Outsiders’ finds Gnarwolves as energised as ever.

Their determination to pack as much punch as possible into two minutes hasn’t become boring, and they seem to be growing older with their anxieties hand in hand. Over the ten tracks, vocalist Thom Weeks, part-time punk and mental health nurse, turns the subject of his songs onto his own well-being. From the clenched-fist-punching-the-air opener ‘Straitjacket’ to admissions like “I find comfort in my old anxieties” in ‘Argument’, the singer searches the recesses of his own brain. It’s brave and sincere and once matched with that familiar chunky bass and rapid drumming, the songs become everything you’d expect from Gnarwolves. Alexander Bradley

Write In

Hi there,

Happyness

Happyness

Mac DeMarco

Outsiders

Mac DeMarco’s music has always felt more sincere and, well, more normal than his public persona as a goofy party boy that loves nothing more than a drink and a packet of cigarettes would suggest. ‘This Old Dog’ continues on the path started by previous work ‘2’ and ‘Salad Days’, a mix of dreamy love songs and selfreflective lyrics that see Mac trying to piece together where he is in life and just how the hell he got there.

Title track ‘This Old Dog’ is painfully honest, opening with the lyrics “Sometimes my love may be put on hold / Sometimes my heart may seem awful cold.” Later track ‘Dreams From Yesterday’ continues this theme of self-evaluation, with Mac reflecting “No amount of tears / Can roll back the years / Bring back all your dreams

/ From yesterday”. Heavy stuff from someone often considered the crownprince of slackers.

It’s a beautifully crafted album, and the prominence given to the synth and acoustic guitar ensures it isn’t just a retread of previous work. The guitar line from ‘A Wolf Who Wears Sheep’s Clothes’ is sure to worm its way into your head, and the synth work from ‘On The Level’ will do the same. It’s important to note that Mac’s always been more contemplative than he seems, especially when the lyrics are given much more prominence than on earlier releases.

Sure, it sounds like a Mac DeMarco record, and doesn’t exactly stray too far from his comfort zone, but it’s a stellar album nonetheless. With ‘This Old Dog’, Mac has chosen to refine the formula that made his first two full-length releases so good, rather than to make a bold stride in a new direction. It might get stale in a few albums time, but right now? It works like a charm. Jake Hawkes

BNQT

Little Cub

Pond

Bella Union

Domino

Marathon Artists

eeee

e e e ee

South London trio Little Cub’s debut album is certainly an intriguing one; ‘Still Life’ promises the bluster of big pop moments, but boils down to nothing beyond average.

Opener ‘Too Much Love’ builds up with a New Order-esqe twang with a frustratingly catchy chorus that gives way to nothing. This is a recurring theme throughout the album where it feels like the songs just go nowhere.

At times it feels as if singer Dominic Gore’s voice is overpowered by the synths – particularly on ‘Breathing Space’. The album as a whole feels formulaic: vaguely intelligent lyrics backed by a robotic band with little purpose. Josh Williams

In these downright ridiculous times, it feels like escapism has rarely been more necessary. So, what better way to get the hell out of here than by jumping into the back of a fuzz pedal-powered rocket, piloted by four slightly mad Aussie blokes?

Pond have seized the moment and made ‘The Weather’ - a clever concept album that looks down on the chaos unfolding below with twelve soaring psych-rock tunes, full of well-crafted hooks and smart lyrics. The album does run out of rocket fuel as it reaches its conclusion, but it’s a solid record that feels likes a step forward for the Tame Impala offshoot. Further proof that the psych renaissance is in safe hands Down Under. Alex Thorp

This Old Dog Captured Tracks

eeee

Volume 1

eee e BNQT is an intriguing project – thought up by Midlake man Eric Pulido to bring together five different songwriters such as Alex Kapranos and Fran Healy and work with them to create an album with each person writing two songs each. Opening track ‘Restart’ sees a bassline that’s straight out of a Tame Impala track with the vocal melody coming from late era Beatles, while Kapranos-led ‘Hey Banana’ creeps along before hitting up a relatively large yet subdued chorus. The entire record seems to hinge on a central theme of vague psychedelia but with each track having a distinct identity.

Overall, it’s a good album but lacks the coherence that makes a record truly great. Josh Williams

Still Life

The Weather

Maximo Park

Sylvan Esso

Daylighting

Loma Vista Recordings

eeee

eeee

Maximo Park have looked out at the world and are not much pleased with what they find. ‘Risk To Exist’, the North East band’s sixth album, doesn’t shy away from tackling the big issues of the day such as the migrant crisis and the elitism rife in this country. ”Throw your arms around me, I’ve come too far and the ocean’s deep,” cries frontman Paul Smith on the title-track. It’s bold in its ambition to balance the personal and political, but Maximo Park now have the experience, ability and creativity to manage it admirably. ‘Risk To Exist’ encourages listeners to sit up and take notice of what’s going on in the world. Eala MacAlister

Sylvan Esso’s 2014 debut was more coffee shop than club: now, as the band have said, they’ve allowed themselves “full permission to just make bangers.” They do - while embracing woodsy melancholia - and ‘What Now’ is often stunning.

The beatless ‘Sound’ fades in on waves, clicks and hisses. “All you’ll hear is sound, all you’ll feel is sound, all you’ll be is sound”, a heavilyprocessed Meath sings, pretty much summing the album up.

It’s like a discussion of the joys of music, the sheer possibilities of sound. The gaps between melody and noise, grief and joy. These could be all the sounds you’ll need. Rob Mesure

Perfume Genius

WALL

New Found Glory

Matador

eeee

Risk To Exist

Hey,

Maximo Park.

Recommend us some stuff.

No Shape

eee e

Last good record you heard: Bing & Ruth - ‘No Home Of The Mind’.

Favourite ever book: Anna Karenina by Tolstoy.

TV show you couldn’t live without: My faves are The Wire, The Sopranos & Mad Men but for something that’s still on all the time, it’s got to be The Chase!

Best purchase of this year: Three-piece Paul Smith suit (half price in the sale!).

Anything else you’d recommend?

My friend’s band Warm Digits have just signed to Memphis Industries and have a song out called End Times featuring Peter Brewis from Field Music. It’s a good one!

Will Joseph Cook

Sweet Dreamer Atlantic

ee ee It seems silly to say that the pure joy of music can sometimes be under threat. It’s easy to get snowed under by “critically acclaimed” darlings or the latest trendy act, but what music is really there for is bonafide smiles and dazzling escapes, and there might not be anyone better at that than Will Joseph Cook. Radiating with a pristine ease in pop of the highest order, ‘Sweet Dreamer’ is the culmination of a journey that began in bedrooms and is now destined to play the biggest stages.

Throwing away any shackles of restraint, ‘Sweet Dreamer’ is a record that places life under a microscope, and glistens it with shimmering hooks galore. Laid across beats

Mike Hadreas has always been a bit of a cult figure. Now, with his fourth album as Perfume Genius, he’s ready to burst into widespread consciousness in glorious fashion.

As ever he’s doing it his own way. ‘No Shape’ is a record that’s distinctively Perfume Genius but everything is ramped up. There’s big glittering crescendo’s like on opener ‘Otherside’ and a palpable sense of assurance on songs like ‘Sides’, a stunning duet with American singer Weyes Blood.

There’s no one quite like him right now. The songs here are brighter yet more affecting than ever, turning intimate moments into something huge. Martyn Young

and backdrops that vary between orchestral havens (‘Habit’, ‘Light Of The Day’), golden nuggets of bouncy licks (‘Girls Like Me’, ‘For Thursday’) and an insatiable thirst for the next glorious rise of the sun - Will doesn’t just make a statement but lays out a go-to guide for how pop can deliver in 2017. Taking influences from 00s indie and pushing it through a sound system of tropical flourishes, his knack is best demonstrated on the strut of ‘Treat Me Like A Lover’, or the hands-in-the-air bliss of ‘Take Me Dancing’. Actually, it’s there at every kick, bursting with energy and charm.

There are many records this year that’ll try to command the confidence that ‘Sweet Dreamer’ spills out - but most won’t get close. Like flicking through the record collection of an entire generation and popping it out in a minty-fresh package, it’s a record that tantalises throughout. Will Joseph Cook has laid out his cutlery at the table, and with ‘Sweet Dreamer’ he’s bringing the feast. Jamie Muir

Untitled

Wharf Cat Records At last year’s SXSW, WALL were one of the hottest tickets in town. A year later, and they’re gone. ‘Untitled’ is the full-length they leave behind. This is no funeral dirge, though, but a snapshot of a band for whom living in the moment seems the perfect eulogy. ‘Shimmer of Fact’ broods in its post-punk room, while ‘Save Me’ kicks down the doors on its way out. ‘Everything In Between’ - previously the band’s live instrumental intro - swirls and shifts when presented as a fully fledged song. In an time where nothing feels permanent, the echo of a band who nearly were still deserves to be heard. WALL could have been contenders. With ‘Untitled’, they still are. Stephen Ackroyd

What Now?

Makes Me Sick Hopeless

e ee e e New Found Glory’s ninth LP, ‘Makes Me Sick’ is a record that reaffirms the belief that pop-punk is a young person’s game. There are plenty of attempts to channel early-noughties teenage angst on songs like ‘Call Me Anti-Social’, but when the lyrics are so clichéd, and sung fifteen years after the event, it’s not particularly convincing. That’s not to say this record is all bad. Opener ‘Your Jokes Aren’t Funny’ is a joyous helping of vintage NFG, and ‘Barbed Wire’ has shades of euphoria, but when these positive moments are dispersed amongst tiresome, textbook poppunk, it’s pretty easy to forget them.

Jake Richardson

‘SWEET DREAMER’ IS THE CULMINATION OF A JOURNEY THAT BEGAN IN BEDROOMS AND IS NOW DESTINED TO PLAY THE BIGGEST STAGES 51

REVIEWS

You want to be snooty about

Kasabian,

mate? You’re having a laugh.

JAMIE MUIR IS STANDING FIRM. LOVE THEM, HATE THEM, WE NEED BANDS LIKE KASABIAN.

Kasabian

For Crying Out Loud

eeeee

T

here’s only one Kasabian.

Heck, there’s only room for one Kasabian. Larger than life, they’re a force of divisive nature - a one band explosion, packed with arrogance and self-belief in the face of any and all opposition. They’re living their best life, and all the slings and arrows in the world won’t slow them down.

In a way, you can see how they’d wind up anyone of a delicate disposition.

But here’s the thing - Kasabian are in on their own joke - and on ‘For Crying Out Loud’, they’re delivering their own

glorious punchline.

Opener ‘Ill Ray (The King)’ is the point where Leicester’s most famous musical export distil their character. Like Jamie Vardy’s perfect party, it’s on not the ‘Eez-Eh’ scale of ridiculousness, but it’s jammed with attitude - 40% proof, straight, no chaser. But after the bombast comes a realisation. Kasabian have evolved.

It’s on ‘Good Fight’ the truth really takes hold. Lead single ‘You’re In Love With A Psycho’ has an intangible something extra, but here it’s as plain as day. A hip shake, a glam shimmer, a 60s pop wink -

there’s substance to the swagger.

Still, even this is only foreshadowing the main event. ‘For Crying Out Loud’’s penultimate track was always going to be amazing from its title alone, but ‘God Bless This Acid House’ surpasses all expectations. A bafflingly brilliant mix somewhere between Stuart Murdoch and Slade, it has the lot. Hand claps; huge, ridiculous backing vocals; a killer chorus. Nothing is for show. This isn’t the same Kasabian. There’s no irony.

There’s no knowing nod to the camera.

It’s just great. Really, really great.

Stephen Ackroyd

The Magic Gang

Charly Bliss

Ho99o9

YALA

eeee

Toys Have Power

Growing up is all trial and error. Charly Bliss know this better than most. With a debut album recorded and put back on the shelf because it didn’t capture their fizzwizzing chemistry, the band hit the road to try and capture what they felt when they were together. In short, they were out for magic. The result is ‘Guppy’, full of attitude, personality and a ramshackle sound that permeates every big dream and niggling fear. It’s dark, it’s light, it’s weird, it’s wonderful, but the tie-dye puzzle fits together perfectly. Complex and marvellous, this is Charly Bliss. Ali Shutler

Filled with visceral statements and an attitude that can only come from living and breathing what you’re pissed off about, the debut effort from hiphop/punk juggernauts Ho99o9 is rife.

Over an impressive seventeen tracks, theOGM and Yeti Bones stand and deliver a volatile take on life. If you feel your ears may be fragile then give this one a miss because it’s a non-stop barrage; unrelenting, unforgiving and most of all unapologetic. Imagine if Black Flag were backing NWA, Ho99o9 are a staple we didn’t know we needed.

Steven Loftin

EP Three

eeee The Magic Gang like to keep things simple. The title of ‘EP Three’ should tell you that much. Rather than showing off all the sides of the die, the Brighton collective use the four tracks of this release to knuckle down and do what they do best. Refined, classic and instantaneous, the band take the typically boring marker of being lovely and twist it into something vibrant. ‘EP Three’ is a record to fall in love with, over and over. It never tries too hard but that Magic charm strolls about the place. It’ll capture your heart. Ali Shutler

Guppy Barsuk

United States of Horror

e e e ee

You need these albums...

The best albums from the last few months.

The Big Moon

Los Campesinos!

Creeper

Like a rainbow of special Smarties that make everything glow brighter, The Big Moon aren’t just a band - they’ve got a glowing energy that makes everything feel that bit more amazing.

The band claim they nearly called it a day between albums, but thank goodness they didn’t. ‘Sick Scenes’ is right up there with their very best. A decade in, and Los Campesinos! still have the lot.

Creeper are important.

Not just because they’re the best new rock band in the world right now, but because they genuinely matter to an army of dedicated fans. This is a cult.

Prepare to sign up.

Love In The 4th Dimension

52

Sick Scenes

Eternity, In Your Arms

Do you remember when rock music would knock the holy fucking shit out of you? I don’t mean metal droves or blistering riffs, I mean the moment when a band would take the bottom of your stomach - lift you ten feet high and proudly proclaim that the world is looking at you, so ya better fix up and get ready. That’s the sort of thing that music should live for, a larger than life drawing of the world, daring in its sheer audacity and never taking a moment to reel it in. I want a track that hundreds of thousands can sing-along to. For every sarky comment or nib of down the barrel downsizing, there’s only one band from these fair aisles that is truly giving that label the justice it deserves. Kasabian.

It’s all so easy to dismiss. I mean, hey, they’re not hitting that breeze of what is cool and hip when you sip that Vanilla Latte on a sun-kissed Tuesday brunch. Yet, when held up to a mirror, Kasabian are the sort of band that thousands will lose their fucking marbles to. Whether you want to admit it or not, you will bounce like Tigger on a trampoline when ‘EE-ZEH’ ripes like a sun-blushed tomato. Since when was that a fucking disgrace?

Constantly innovating and delving into new realms and chapters at every turn, Kasabian are the sort of band that the world needs. Unafraid to experiment, outlandish in their delivery and allencompassing in their final-product, they are the sort of band that 2017 sees as vital when comparing as to how the world all stands. We have a cartoon in charge if the White House, we have pure lunacy biling out of Downing Street - we don’t need a deepsighted portrait, we need an anthem to kick the shit out of us and force everyone to wake up.

In an age where everything has to be measured and planned out, Kasabian are bursting through the doors and throwing a party in the process. Fuck what your snooty colleague at work says, fuck what the guys who “knows music” say about the new track Kasabian are here to have a rollicking good time. And if you don’t want to jump on board for it - then that’s not a problem - but no matter how it may look to your mates, you’ll be missing out on the biggest party of 2017.

That above all else makes you pretty un-cool, if we do say so ourselves. P

TOP 5 KASABIAN BANGERS CLUB FOOT

The first fully fledged, certified Kasabian anthem.

It all started here with one cry of ‘Ooosh’ preceding an enormous chorus. As a statement of intent, it takes some beating.

EEZ-EH

By the time we got to 2014’s ‘eez-eh’, Kasabian had fully embraced all their glorious ridiculousness with a bonkers techno banger featuring some brilliant lyrical gibberish. “Everyone’s on bugle” indeed.

FIRE

You can’t argue with that chorus. Just try it. You won’t win. Ready-made for festival singalongs all around the globe. It goes off every time you hear it without fail.

UNDERDOG

Fitting for a band that have always been pushing against the consensus and carrying on their own merry way, Underdog is a mission statement for both Kasabian and their fans. We’re all in it together.

GOD BLESS THIS ACID HOUSE

It’s Kasabian, but not as we know them. The next to last track on ‘For Crying Out Loud’ sees the band emerging from a cocoon of empty WKD bottles and take-away wrappers as a glorious butterfly. With teeth.

It’s a

WORDS: MARTYN YOUNG.

Hit!

PHOTO: ELLIOT MCRAE.

DIRTY HIT IS HOME TO SOME OF THE MOST EXCITING BANDS ON THE PLANET RIGHT NOW. HERE’S A FEW OF THEM...

PHOTOS FROM THE HAUNT, BRIGHTON

THE 1975

Voted Band of the Year in our 2016 Readers’ Poll, The 1975 are the kings of the scene right now, playing arenas and headlining festivals everywhere they go.

Hit us baby one more time Superfood, Pale Waves & King Nun

D

WOLF ALICE

King Tut’s, Glasgow

irty Hit are probably the most exciting label in the country right now. Still basking in the success of The 1975’s glorious 2016 and with Wolf Alice waiting in the wings to return, it’s now time to focus on some of the label’s hottest prospects and some returning heroes as a good old fashioned package tour winds through Glasgow’s King Tuts.

King Nun are a band in a hurry and they career through their short sharp set with reckless abandon. It’s easy to get swept away in their thrilling punk rock attack as songs weave into one long heavy and glorious racket. There’s clarity amongst the chaos though and some whip smart pop hooks begin to emerge. Over in what feels like a flash the whole thing sounds like a supercharged rocket strapped to the moon. King Nun = Big Fun.

Pale Waves are a little more refined but when you’re in possession of the banger of the year in ‘There’s A Honey’ you can afford to play it cool.

There’s a huge amount of anticipation as they take to the stage and rightly so. This is a moment. Opening song ‘Television Romance’ is a certified banger which contains the best chorus you’ve ever heard. What’s even better is that they top it with the next song and the one after that and… you get the picture. Just when you think Pale Weaves have reached peak banger they raise the bar even higher. You can see the band led by singer Heather Baron-Gracie visibly grow into the set as effortless gleaming pop hooks stream out like water from the purest glistening waterfall. They end with ‘There’s A Honey’ and, in case you were wondering, it’s even better live.

Obviously.

Unlike the first two bands Superfood have been around a bit longer but Dirty Hit provides a perfect home

for them as they return with a point to prove. Their forthcoming as yet unnamed second album provides them with a new batch of tunes and a fresh impetus as they return to the stage for the first time in ages.

Frontman Dominic Ganderton is positively beaming as the band run through their vibrant set with more than a few new tricks up their sleeve.

They open with ‘Double Dutch’ which takes on a new kind of urgency and energy live. The smattering of new songs they do play highlights the band’s willingness to shake things up.

Hooky, fun and bonkers in the right way there’s no boundaries for the all new Superfood. There’s still room for old thrills though and a joyous run through ‘Superfood’ and ‘You Can Believe’ reminds us why Superfood are so great.

Any one of the bands on show tonight would make a great show on their own. Package them all together in one bundle and you have a special night.

Dirty Hit’s new breed are rising. P

The glue that holds a whole spectrum of bands together, ‘My Love Is Cool’ showed that, with a shimmer of magic, anything is possible.

THE JAPANESE HOUSE

If Dirty Hit hold two of UK alternative music’s aces already, The Japanese House could well be the third in waiting.

53

REVIEWS

VANT ARE A BAND FULLY REALISED. WORDS: ALI SHUTLER. PHOTO: SARAH LOUISE BENNETT.

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VANT stand up to be counted at London’s Electric Ballroom VANT’s debut album is a sprawling listen. A collection of ideas, thoughts, beliefs and hopes. It’s a reflection of the times and presents countless rabbit holes to tumble down and threads to pull at. Live, there’s less discovery and more adventure.

With the excitement dialled up and everything making a more direct sense on stage, VANT are a band fully realised as they headline London’s Electric Ballroom.

Onstage for a little over an hour, the band burn through their set with an intense desire to make each pointed moment or reckless abandon count for something. It quickly adds up to blistering and jaw dropping. With the album out and their cards on the table, it feels like everything has come together in glorious harmony. You can almost hear the click as the pieces fall into place. “The fact that this many people give a fuck, gives me hope,” beams frontman Mattie in a pause from the wonderful chaos. “Right now, we need to imagine we’re in the sixties,” he explains before ‘Mess Around’s laid back escape.

Elsewhere, the message of ‘Peace & Love’ extends far beyond the track’s call to arms. From warning about crowdsurfing, “please be considerate of the small people at the front. If you’re too big to crowdsurf, don’t do it” to telling the room that anyone asking what’s the point of International Woman’s Day is a fucking idiot through the rainbow lights that soundtrack the declaration of “we’re all the same” in ‘Put Down Your Gun’, VANT are a band standing up.

It’s not a passive demonstration either. Tonight’s gig is an exercise in expression and being heard. Their songs are designed to be sung, screamed and shouted about the room and there’s a power in being vocal. “We are a sleeping generation,” Mattie repeats. “What you’re showing now is that you can use your voice. Turn them into the real world.”

Tonight that message feels real. It feels believable. It is attainable. VANT have been charging forward for months now but they’re finally at a point with people backing them. It’s a force to be reckoned with. “Dumb Blood. It’s time to wake up.” P

WORDS: ALI SHUTLER. PHOTO: CORINNE CUMMING.

You can bank on Banks being great at The Roundhouse

B

anks is an artist with a vision. Tonight, at London’s Roundhouse, she brings it to life. There’s no compromise or painting it as something else as she takes to the iconic and very sold-out venue.

Instead, every moment forms a brush stroke in a world that’s been meticulously put together.

Any questions about the sort of show this is going to be are answered instantly. As the layered ‘Poltergeist’ rings out, Banks’ admission of “I started all the wars” rings true. The inwards bounce of ‘Fuck With Myself’ is angular and devastating before an early airing of ‘Gemini Feed’, Banks’ most well-known

cut, underlines the fact that tonight isn’t usual or expected.

Deliberate and choreographed, every movement from Banks and her two dancers comes with a purpose. It’s all been carefully planned, examined and run through but it never feels contrived. There’s emotion to be felt in the words, sure, but there’s more to it than that. The abrasive movement conjures a beauty all of its own and sometimes the English language isn’t complex enough to convey the emotions of the heart.

It’s powerful, poignant and expressive.

“This song changed my life when I wrote it,” Banks explains before ‘Mother

Earth’. “I wasn’t allowing myself to be as powerful as I could be.” And there’s a feeling of empowerment, of betterment, of taking control and doing things your own way in the air tonight. Banks is in complete control and she doesn’t even bother need the spotlight to make it clear.

Drenched in red lights and lit from behind to enhance the movements, even when she’s at her most vulnerable, she finds a power within that honesty.

There’s a vision to tonight, it’s fully formed and glorious to behold, but it’s entertaining, interactive and with a purpose. Banks is operating on a level reserved for others, and that’s kinda the point. P

On the road

Get your diary out - you won’t want to miss these bands on tour.

George Ezra 26th May - 7th June

George is back on the road this May and June, playing some ‘top secret’ shows. That he’s told everyone about. Silly George.

Belfast (26th May), Derry (27th) Dublin (29th), Limerick (30th), Rhyl (1st June), Cardiff (3rd), Barnstaple (5th), Exeter (6th), Bath (7th).

Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes 1st - 8th December

Frank’s rise continues apace, with an end of year run climaxing at Brixton Academy!

Bristol (1st December), Birmingham (2nd), Manchester (3rd), Glasgow (5th), Nottingham (6th), Norwich (7th), London (8th).

Loyle Carner

Weezer

Loyle’s going big, playing Brixton on his birthday!

Dublin (27th September), Glasgow (28th), Liverpool (30th), Leeds (1st October), Birmingham (3rd), Bristol (4th), London (6th), Portsmouth (7th), Norwich (8th), Exeter (10th), Nottingham (11th), Manchester (12th).

Weezer never do ‘proper’ UK tours, right?

After what seems like an age, California’s finest hit our shores in October to give it a proper go. Maybe with a new album in tow?

Leeds (23rd October), Glasgow (24th), Manchester (25th), Birmingham (27th), London (28th).

27th September 1st October

23rd - 28th October

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REVIEWS

WORDS: JAMIE MUIR. PHOTO: CORINNE CUMMING.

MUNA’s pop coronation is the stuff of legend + Lo Moon Hoxton Bar & Kitchen, London

W

hen you get the chance to capture a band as they surge out of the blocks, there’s a real feeling in the air. It radiates through the queue into the venue, through the staff checking tickets and through the very actions of those on stage setting up. It’s a feeling that confirms a band’s standing in the world, rolling into hearts and minds. For MUNA, ‘About U’ isn’t just a debut album, but a statement of who they are. It’s an infectious mix of unparalleled pop in its prime and a record that’ll get played over and over in the bedrooms of thousands around the world. Tonight, in the middle of Shoreditch, that feeling became a reality, and boy, it’s something that everyone needs to jump on right now.

There’s always an enviable task in opening such proceedings, and for Lo Moon that sense of occasion was one that they were determined to conquer.

In their first ever UK show, they more than proved why their name will be rising into the ranks over the coming months. Bursting with cinematic

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panoramics of slow-building glides in full flight, it’s a defiant statement of intent from an act whose motion picture screens are longing for bigger stages. Current single ‘Loveless’ closes a set that fizzes and throbs with glacial hooks that stun at first listen, delivering mountain-top moments that’ll soon be invading music collections around the globe.

The night is unquestionably MUNA’s, a band whose rise in the past few months have made them prime invitees at the table of certified bangers. Tonight is a communal gathering of joy – an eruptive confirmation of everything that seethes through debut LP ‘About U’ and more. Opening with ‘I Know A Place’ is a definitive nod that this trio are not hanging around for any passers by, infectious at every moment and receiving the sort of reaction that’s reserved for bands that change lives. That’s where MUNA live, and that’s what makes them so vital.

From start to finish, lungs are pushed to their edges in singalong bliss – flowing through a record that stands for far more than some simple

click-worthy tints. They’re a band that represent an entire generation, one where the gender neutral toilets displayed around the venue are an obvious tick, where tracks such as ‘End Of Desire’ and its Fleetwood Macstyle gallop are welcomed with open arms, and where ‘If U Love Me Now’ is greeted with the tear-streaming importance that radiates through its every tone. Every note is dripping with meaning, served under the glossy glory of pop blistering out of the gates.

As they barter around chatting to those gathered and stealing each other’s jokes, it’s clear that MUNA are a gang that welcome everyone. Who’s to argue when ‘Winterbreak’ rings out with effortless ease or when ‘Around U’ engulfs everyone gathered in a blurry of electro-pop royalty – it’s just exactly who MUNA are, a welcoming shoulder for the world’s woes drenched in uplifting sheens that’d pep talk the shit out of anyone stuck in a field of worries. When a band can cover Evanescence’ ‘Bring To Me Life’ with such style and relevance, then you know that you’re on to a winner.

The best kept secret in pop’s coming out party is one we’ll be chatting about for years to come. And we blooming love that it’s only just getting started. P

Yr Poetry

One Night Alive N/A

e e e ee Set around the concept of a single night out, ‘One Night Alive’ is “as close to a musical as we’ll get” according to Yr Poetry’s Alexei Berrow. It’s a bold move for the Johnny Foreigner duo - Alexei alongside bandmate Junior - but it more than pays off for its sheer energy.

Stocked with fast punk tracks that have no relent - where the guitars are loud, the drums are rampaging and vocals are filled with vigour. That is until the finale of ‘it’s all there’ which slams on the brakes and turns to a piano ballad that calls to mind those drunken rambles we’ve all undertaken.

It’s a clever concept that is sure to strike a chord with anyone who’s been on a night out. Steven Loftin

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ANY OTHER QUESTIONS WITH...

THIS MONTH, MATTIE FROM VANT RUNS THE GAUNTLET OF OUR RANDOM, STUPID QUERIES. HELLO. HOW ARE YOU? Fantastic.

WHAT’S YOUR FAVOURITE THING ABOUT BEING A MUSICIAN? Getting to do something I love every single day.

WHAT’S YOUR BIGGEST ACCOMPLISHMENT? Putting our debut album, a political punk record, out on a label as prestigious as Parlophone.

VANT

Fugazi.

WHAT IS YOUR MOST TREASURED POSSESSION? Probably my laptop, I’ve written almost every song using this one and it’s waterlogged predecessor RIP. HOW PUNK ARE YOU OUT OF TEN? 8.

YOU HAVE TO SUPPORT EITHER U2 OR RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS ON TOUR. WHO DO YOU PICK? Easy, RHCP.

IF YOU WON THE LOTTERY, WHAT WOULD YOU SPEND THE CASH ON? Environmental protection and improving our educational system.

WHAT IS YOUR EARLIEST MEMORY? It’s very North Easterly. I remember my Grandad taking me around Seaham Harbour town centre in my pram and feeding me Greggs pasties. He used to try and hide the crumbs but my mam would always find them. We also used to walk crabs together along the seafront, he was a character.

WHICH DEFUNCT BAND WOULD YOU MOST LIKE TO REFORM?

WHO’S YOUR FAVOURITE NEW BAND? Cabbage.

WHAT’S THE BEST SONG YOU’VE WRITTEN OR PLAYED ON? One you haven’t heard yet.

WHAT WAS THE FIRST RECORD YOU BOUGHT? ‘Popstars’ by Hear’say.

WHAT’S YOUR BIGGEST FEAR? The extinction of humanity.

WHO WAS YOUR FAVOURITE MUSICIAN OR BAND WHEN YOU WERE 14?

The Vines.

WHAT’S THE SCARIEST THING YOU’VE EVER DONE? I scuba dived off the coast of Tasmania (in Shark Country, which I didn’t find out until later) without any previous lessons and very little guidance from my ex’s father, it was fun though. No idea what I’d have done if I’d encountered a shark though!

WHAT’S THE CRAZIEST THING YOU’VE EVER DONE, AND WOULD YOU DO IT AGAIN? I once drove my friends car to college hungover without a license to get my exam results. I would never do that again it was fucking stupid.

WHO’S YOUR FAVOURITE POP STAR? Katy Perry.

WHICH IS THE BEST REVELS SWEET? I wouldn’t know the difference.

WHAT STRENGTH NANDOS SAUCE DO YOU ORDER? Fuck Nandos.

WHAT WAS THE LAST THING YOU BROKE? My headphones.

WHAT’S THE MOST IMPRESSIVE THING YOU CAN COOK? I have a thing called a ‘Mattie Special’ which is my perfect breakfast. I make it a lot for my girlfriend at home and the boys on tour. Toasted hand-cut sour dough, smashed avocado with lime, chilli and olive oil, caramelised / roasted vine tomatoes, garlic mushrooms, halloumi, poached eggs with a bit of salt, pepper and coriander to garnish. I’m trying to become vegan though so I’m working on a few alternatives.

VANT play Dork’s stage at Live At Leeds on 29th April. Visit liveatleeds.com for all the info.

DON’T TRY AND PRETEND YOU’RE NOT CUTTING THIS OUT AND PUTTING IT ON YOUR WALL.

B L A E N AV O N - THAT’S YOUR LOT -

FEATURING THE SINGLES ‘ORTHODOX MAN’ ‘MY BARK IS YOUR BITE’ & ‘LONELY SIDE’

-OUT NOW“AN INFLUENTIAL FORCE FOR A GENERATION” DORK