Dork, August 2019

Down with boring

Sam’s Town

Issue 35 August 2019 readdork.com

Awards, hype and a debut album. Sam Fender has arrived.

INDEX

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August 2019 | readdork.com | Down With Boring

28

Ø4 Intro 22 Hype

28 Features 48 Incoming

** BAND INDEX ** BAND INDEX ** Alex Lahey

13

Amyl & The Sniffers

8

ED’S LETTER Sam Fender

As Sam prepares to drop his debut album, we head to Newcastle to find out what all the buzz is about.

38

Marika Hackman

Honesty is the best policy, which explains why Marika’s new album is awesome.

42

Kim Petras

One of pop’s leading protagonists, Kim Petras is heading for superstardom.

Expectation is a wondrous thing, Dear Reader. No artist wants to be ignored - everyone is forever chasing the buzz. But, once that glare of the spotlight is fixed in place, the pressure is on.

For Sam Fender, that’s a heavier force than most have to cope with. Already selling out live dates up and down the country, he’s even beaten bonafide sensation Lewis Capaldi to a Brit Award. Big, big things are expected.

Big things that, truthfully, we expected to land this month.

When we first started talking to Sam for this month’s cover feature, his debut album was due to arrive in early August.

Then, medical issues struck him down, taking him out of the firing line for a prolonged period of time. A prime Glastonbury slot - the sort that can prove the launchpad for an entire career - had to be pulled. With that record moved to September, there are more eyes on him than ever before.

But for all the expectation, there are few worries Sam can carry that weight. ‘Hypersonic Missiles’ already sounds like a huge album - packed with bangers. We’ve got a genuine star on our hands, people.

Expect fireworks.

S tephen

Love Fame Tragedy

Murph is sans Wombats, but ‘with bangers’.

1Ø

Mini Mansions

They say their new album is blockbuster good, and we’re not disagreeing.

12

22

Mumford & Sons

36

Anteros

24

Banks

48

Marika Hackman

38, 52

Bat For Lashes

16

Marsicans

20

Black Belt Eagle Scout

24

Mini Mansions

Black Honey

16

Mosa Wild

Blaenavon

11

Mumford & Sons

12

Bleached

48

Nasty Cherry

22

Bon Iver

9

New Found Glory

13

Bring Me The Horizon

8

Ocean Wisdom

24

46

Back with a brand new record, they’re the coolest gang in town.

EDITOR @STEPHENACKROYD

9 10, 51 26

13

Of Monsters & Men

51

52

On Video

19

Busted

13

Oscar Lang

24

Carly Rae Jepsen

14

Pagan

13

Caroline Polachek

21

Palace

49

Chappaqua Wrestling

25

Penelope Isles

Charli XCX

21

PVRIS

16

Queen Zee

19

Christine + The Queens

8 51

Sam Fender

Dead Nature

18

Sheer Mag

Dry Cleaning

24

Easy Life

24

Eli Moon

24

Emily Burns

16

Ezra Furman

8

Fever 333

16

Friendly Fires

13

Frightened Rabbit

20

Gaffa Tape Sandy

52

Ghum

24

Grandson

13

Guru

19

Ider

36, 50

Idles

6, 9

Jay Som

16 9

27, 49

Run The Jewels

9

Courtney Barnett

Julien Baker

The Regrettes

Metronomy

Broken Hands

Nasty Cherry

With their debut album finally here, it’s time for a bit of ‘Emotional Education’.

48

Brittany Howard

Clairo

Ider

4

Mabel

We’re in Manchester to see how Mumford and co. make arenas more, erm, ‘intimate’.

They’re officially approved by both Charli XCX and Dork.

What more do you want?

19

Love Fame Tragedy

26

Angie McMahon

4

Lorde

9 28 11

Shura

20

Skepta

6

Sleater-Kinney

19

Spector

16

Sports Team

16

Stand Atlantic

13

Sum 41

50

The Japanese House

24

The Libertines The Regrettes

6 46, 53

The S.L.P.

6

The Strokes

9

Thom Yorke

50

Vistas

19

Wallows

54

Walt Disco

26

Waterparks

13

WhoHurtYou

24

K. Flay

48

Kaiser Chiefs

51

Kim Petras

42

Kindness

14

King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard

21

You Me At Six

24

Life

14

Youth Sector

24

Yak

14

Yellow Days

26

Yonaka

8, 24

ON THE DORK STEREO THIS MONTH...

AMA Real The Dirty Hit signed newcomer continues to level up by the release.

Her latest is pure fire.

METRONOMY Salted Caramel Ice Cream Metronomy are never

better than when they’ve got their phasers set to fun. The latest taster of their new album ‘Metronomy Forever’ is a riot.

EP that’s full of bangers.

A supreme slice of glock-around-the-clock brilliance, this is one of the best.

GLOWIE

On A Roll Sorry Trent, but this is waaaay better than your ‘version’.

I’m Good Top pop newcomer Glowie just dropped an

ASHLEY O

NEW MUSIC. NO ALGORITHMS.

DORK radio TUNE IN 24/7/365 readdork.com/radio

READDORK.COM

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

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THIS MONTH

MINI MANSIONS

MUMFORD & SONS

They’re back with a new album, which is like Terminator 2, apparently. Hasta la vista, and all that. p10

Dork heads to Manchester to see how Mumford and his titular sprogs ‘do’ intimate in an arena. p12

DEAD NATURE

Tarek’s back! Spring Kings leader returns with a brand new project. Find out everything you need to know. p18

TRAGIC The life of the big indie band frontman might seem glamorous, but if history shows us anything, it’s that there’s always one thing that tugs at the emotions of even the loftiest of names: the side project. Matthew ‘Murph’ Murphy from The Wombats is stepping out with a brand new project, Love Fame Tragedy, and he’s called up a few of his all-star mates to lend a hand.

Steven Loftin grabbed a hot minute to find out more.

WE ALL KNOW MATTHEW

‘Murph’ Murphy as the frontman of indie-darlings The Wombats, but it would appear as if we have a new reason to love the man.

After a couple of cryptic social media accounts appeared during the last month or so with the moniker ‘Love Fame Tragedy’, the game was afoot. With fans receiving further mysterious messages and images around the same title, things were finally unveiled to be none other than Murph dipping his toes into a new musical endeavour.

“I was almost getting annoyed by all the cryptic tease that was going on at one point,” he says laughing.

“So I’m glad that it’s all out in the open and that people know what it is.”

Exactly what Love Fame Tragedy stands for becomes clear once you

delve into his debut EP, ‘I Don’t Want To Play The Victim, But I’m Good At It’ - a power-pop tour-deforce through the life and times of Murph and his new life out in LA, there’s a renewed sense of vigour that bounds outward.

It also features some familiar names such as Pixies’ Joey Santiago, and Alt-J’s Gus UngerHamilton adding their flourishes - but this wasn’t an exercise in just name-dropping.

“Why not utilise some of the really talented people I’ve met along this last fifteen-year journey? It was more, ‘Hey, do you want to come

round and have a bottle of wine and play on this?’”

None of this is to say that The Wombats are done - far from it, especially given their triumphant date at London’s Wembley Arena last year - but when you’ve been a band for fifteen years, it’s nice to shake things up a bit, and for Murph that brings a whole new world of opportunity.

“I just really wanted a project where I could do what I want with no politics attached and get music out as quick as I wanted,” he says. “If I wrote a song this afternoon, and I thought it was amazing, I want to be able

"I really wanted a project where I could do what I want"

to put that out the following day.

Obviously, you can’t do that if you’ve been in a band for fifteen years, it’s just a slower process.”

Now that Love Fame Tragedy is in motion, it’s all systems go. With one video and single lined up every month until the EP drops, it’s not only bold but a fresh statement for Murph who’s had his fair share of releases over the years.

The Wombats have always contained a delicious dose of irony with their indie-bops that’ve evolved over the years into poppier bangers, but the lyrical content often deals with the darker side of life, including addiction, depression and depravity. Love Fame Tragedy is no different.

“I don’t see it much darker than Wombats songs,” Murph says. “A couple of them were meant to be

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KINGDOM

6

INTRO

Wombats songs, but it just didn’t happen for political reasons. They are different, but I’m just not thinking in two completely different split terms; obviously, I write songs for The Wombats, and I’m still the person writing it everything’s still cut from the same loaf of bread. It’s just a question of which direction it’s getting funnelled.”

“I don’t think this is just Wombats under a different name,” he clarifies. “[But it’s] business as usual for me. I can be slightly more crazy with this, so maybe this is a true reflection of the music I want to make in some way or another. There is in the back of certain peoples heads trying to differentiate

as much as possible, but in my head, it’s not like The Wombats are The Rolling Stones, there are still a lot of people that haven’t heard of both projects.”

The project’s title itself is born from Murph visiting a Picasso exhibition at the Tate Modern with the same name, clicking on a light bulb in his head and bringing it all together. The EP title meanwhile, ‘I Don’t Want To Play The Victim, But I’m Good At It’ is the perfect depiction of Murph’s creative output - well, according to his wife anyway.

“My wife was laughing at me saying that in all my songs I’m playing the victim,” he chuckles. “And I was like, ‘Hang on, isn’t that the basis of

"Everything’s still cut from the same loaf of bread"

AUGUST 2019

DORK

songwriting? How many other songs are in that world as well?’ So it got me thinking, and then that title came around.”

Lyrically, it also sees Murph pushing himself further, “trying to be as open and honest as possible in trying to own who I am, more than I have done in the past.” Lead single ‘My Cheating Heart’, a brutally honest anti-romantic anthem has a run at Murph spotlighting the lives that surround him in his new hometown of LA. “I love LA; it’s ridiculous,” he marvels. Moving out there to live with his wife, he’s an accurate sounding “10-15% happier - I feel like I’ve got a bit more space. Living out here has opened my eyes to what I should be doing, and how I should be going about my career and my life.”

“The ‘money, women, cars’ line it’s just so objectifying and gross!” he laughs, knowingly at the track’s chorus. “But I love it, and that is me thinking about the status in California. Sometimes I think it’s important [to go too far] because if I’m not going to be completely open and honest, then I don’t know what the point is.”

Which is what this has all been about for him; returning to the ease of just writing songs, running on a schedule fuelled by creative flights of fancy as opposed to a strict democratic process. Of course, The Wombats are still at the back of Murph’s mind.

“It’s just business as usual there,” he mentions. “We’ve kind of written four songs, and there’s going to be more scheduled time to write this year.

With The Wombats, I’ve got a really good opportunity to get into six/seven album territory which is something that I take seriously because to me that’s big.

“Just even for the achievement alone of staying in a band with people that long and getting to album seven to me is crazy, and that’s something I want to do so as long as Love Fame Tragedy goes well. I just wanna keep rolling both out.”

So, with this all-new creative release, and life feeling pretty damn good at the moment - is there a concern Murph might run out of murky-waters to delve into for his pop-bangers?

“No,” he immediately starts laughing. “Because it’s all fucking deep-rooted Freudian bullshit from when I was a baby probably! I don’t think I’m going to run out of fuel, it’s a question of whether people are going to run out of fuel wanting to listen to those kinds of songs, and I feel they’re what people have wanted to hear for the last century. So I’ll just keep going, and I’ll know when my time’s up - but it’s not now.” P Love Fame

Tragedy’s debut EP ‘I Don’t Want To Play The Victim, But I’m Good At It’ is out in September.

‘FYI’ The Libertines are gearing up for Christmas with a winter UK tour. Their first headline run in over two years, the band will play some UK shows in December, following a European stint that takes them through November.

Find the full details on readdork.com now.

Idles have a short but sizeable live run planned before the end of the year.

Hard at work on their third full-length, the tour finishes up with a quite frankly ridiculously huge date at London’s Alexandra Palace.

Not bad, eh? Find the dates on readdork.com now.

Skepta has booked a big old UK tour, including London’s Olympia. He’ll be playing in support of his recently-dropped fifth studio album ‘Ignorance Is Bliss’, released via his own Boy Better Know label earlier this year. The run of shows will culminate in a huge hometown event at London’s 10,000 capacity Olympia on Friday 29th November. Find everything you need to know on readdork.com now.

’Serge from Kasabian’, operating under his new guise of The S.L.P., has announced details of his debut solo album. The self-titled effort is set to arrive on 30th August, and comes alongside a bunch of live dates throughout September. It’s previewed by a second track, ‘Nobody Else’, which follows up on first taster ‘Favourites’ which featured Little Simz.

INTRO

Here’s some of the best stuff we saw at All Points East 2019 Two weekends, one East London park - All Points East 2018 was one of the best festival debuts we can remember. With some of our faves booked in for 2019’s second instalment, we were present to check it out. Here are some of our favourite acts from across the festival - you can find more words and photos on readdork.com now.

Bring Me The Horizon

“When we started our band fifteen years ago, we had absolutely no ambition. No goals, we didn’t want to achieve owt,” admits a tearful Oli Sykes midway through Bring Me The Horizon’s headline set at All Points East. “We just wanted to make music our mates could have a mosh to and have a good time with.”

Despite it not being The Plan when they started out as a gaggle of noisy, scream northerners, two hours and twenty songs fly by in a hail of rage, joy and excitement. Touching on the darkness and suffering that haunts them, but turning towards the light and using it to fuel something positive, Bring Me The Horizon are triumphant from the moment they walk onstage. Still, they save some jubilant celebration for the closing sucker punch of ‘Throne’ and ‘Drown’. “I don’t wanna be in the biggest band in the world, I don’t give a fucking crap,” Oli continues, reflective and in awe of the connection he has with the crowd.

“But I do want to make as many people in this world feel ok, even if it’s just for a minute.”

Yonaka

Celebrating the release of their debut record, Yonaka shine and swagger around The North Stage.

Full of confidence and with the crowd in their palm, the band have never looked more in control. ‘Bad Company’ and ‘Ignorance’ rattle and rage with a trembling power before the closing blaze of ‘Fired Up’ sees the group unstoppable. This is the best they’ve been, and they’re only getting started.

Amyl & The Sniffers

You can hear Amyl And The Sniffers before you even see them. That’s

Headliner

8

Headliner

WORDS: ALI SHUTLER, JAMIE MUIR, JOSH WILLIAMS, LIAM KONEMANN. PHOTOS: PATRICK GUNNING, SARAH LOUISE BENNETT.

Christine + The Queens

Chris-strikeout-tine-and-the-Queens-endstrikeout is so spellbinding that the rain simply stops at her command. ‘Comme si’ is the perfect introduction to the spectacle about to unfold. Banked by dancers, yet clearly the main event, her trademark moves are present and correct. Diving immediately into ‘Girlfriend’, that energy is unmatched; Chris just oozes charisma as she effortlessly weaves through dance routines. Even in the most tender moments of ‘What’s-Her-Face’ - alone on the walkway bathed in a spotlight - Chris is triumphant in her glory with an intensity rarely matched. In the run of ‘The Stranger’, which sees her flanked by red flares, ‘Goya! Soda!’, and ‘Damn (What Must a Woman Do)’, she works her way through inch-perfect choreography. As confetti blows across the stage, she begins to sing Bowie’s ‘Heroes’, and it feels like such a pure moment. She is, quite simply, the perfect pop star for the modern age. As she leaves the stage, she’s won over every single heart, mind, and soul. Job done.

the sheer force that comes with a band taking over the festival’s main stage with the sort of no-fucks-given charm that basically thrusts you into pandemonium. It feels like a moment - their debut album released to the world the day before, and that drive pours out of every note they throw at Victoria Park. With Amy Taylor prowling the stage, they prove just why they’re one of the most celebrated live bands going right now.

Ezra Furman Bouncing off the stage and immediately turning Victoria Park into a collective celebration

INTRO that goes from Springsteen-esque jamborees to punchy punk kicks, Ezra Furman is on a mission. With a back catalogue filled with creativity and defining statements, it’s the sort of set the day needs, transforming the crowd into a joyous meld of faces and ages. There’s nobody quite like Ezra Furman right now, a must-see act over a must-see summer.

Julien Baker

Vulnerability and visceral emotion pour from Julien Baker. Striding out on stage with just a guitar and keys, it’s a jaw-dropping display in how to raise a voice louder than any other while stripping things down to the core. Playing tracks from across her stunning latest album ‘Turn Out The Lights’, each rip and call sends chills down the spine, silencing the crowd gathered. It may not be the loudest set of the day in terms of volume, but it’s certainly the most affecting.

Courtney Barnett

Headliner

It’s fair to say that Courtney Barnett is pretty darn special.

There’s something ever so natural to everything she does, and across two albums she’s shown a knack for

Bon Iver

There’s something special in the air as the crowds gather ahead of Bon Iver’s headline set; it feels like a rare occasion to witness one of the pioneering creatives of recent times in full flight. From his early days full of confessional solitude to now, the journey has been spellbinding.

On the grandest of festival stages, Justin Vernon feels firmly at home.

Leading his band through every electric twist and turn packed across his deep catalogue, it’s a masterful display that touches at the very fabric of human emotion.

Leaving the masses with a ripping version of ‘Holocene’ before exiting the stage to the airing of two completely new songs played through the speakers and on the screen in the middle of the stage it’s clear Bon Iver is far from done.

The Strokes

No matter where it is, The Strokes have a special ability to come in and prove themselves as one of the greatest indie bands on the planet. Over the next 90 minutes, they pretty much do just that. Julian Casablancas leads a procession that showcases the band who ‘wouldn’t care’, focusing firmly on their first three albums. A one-two of ‘The Modern Age’ into ‘Hard To Explain’ practically scorches its way through East London while ‘Reptilia’, ‘Someday’ and ‘New York City Cops’ are once again greeted with an overflowing wave of passion and screams. Arguably the most noted point of the day, however, is the patchiness of the sound throughout The Strokes’ set. While some found themselves in a good spot to experience it all, for others, it became a minimal blur. What comes next - if anything - is anyone’s guess, but for one summer evening, Victoria Park was treated to living proof that - provided you can hear them - The Strokes remain untouchable.

earnest and direct songwriting that very few doing it right now can even come close to. It’s what makes her set at All Points East a real warming snapshot of a songwriter in her prime - delving across her catalogue with ease and whisking a packed crowd to another planet. What’s exciting is that this really feels like a glimpse at the paths she’s bound to go down next - an artist emerging into a real poet of modern times with one of the most on-point sets of the day.

Run The Jewels

Another year, another festival with Run The Jewels as the token crossover. It doesn’t matter if you think you’ve seen it before though, there’s something relentlessly entertaining about Killer Mike and El-P’s onstage chemistry. “We’re here to fuck shit up,” they declare, adding a little bit of Hollywood starshine to the day. Tumbling into their set, the pair are having the time of their life as they frolic about the stage, delivering poignant, urgent and hilarious in equal measure. The likes of ‘Stay Gold’, ‘A Report To The Shareholders’ and ‘Nobody Speak’ are perfect in the sunshine while ‘Close Your Eyes (And Count To Fuck)’ adds fiery chaos to the mix.

Metronomy

If there’s any band today who can nail a festival set, it’s Metronomy. From ‘Heartbreaker’ into ‘The Bay’; not even a double whammy of new songs can stop the moves from flowing. ‘Wedding Bells’ sounds like peak Bruce Springsteen whereas ‘Whitsand Bay’ channels more familiar ground for the band. ‘Insecurity’’s riff sounds suspiciously like ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’, but it doesn’t matter - nor the fact that ‘Salted Caramel Ice Cream’ is ridiculously funky. From their last album, ‘Old Skool’ hits the turbo banger button with a beefed-up live iteration that makes the studio version sound like old news. Leading into ‘Love Letters’ and ‘The Look’, this is a band who could have given up years ago but refused to do so; instead, they’ve only become better. P READDORK.COM

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Idles dial their ramshackle, urgent punk rock up as they take to The East Stage. Sincere and ridiculous, their mantra of having a good time despite the bullshit is in full swing today. Swerving between the powerful, unifying pro-acceptance anthem of ‘Danny Nedelko’ and the bratty carnage of ‘Where’s My Ice Cream’, the gang make the stage their carnival playground. “Don’t read The Sun, it’ll give you cancer,” they declare.

Headliner

IDLES

INTRO

AUGUST 2019

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INTRO

Raising the bar WORDS: ALI SHUTLER. PHOTO: SARAH LOUISE BENNETT.

Mini Mansions are the perfect modern band. Like everyone else, they’re working other jobs - popping up in the other bands of their dead famous musical mates - but, as they reconvene for their new album, they’re expanding their horizons and sparking up something exciting. Y’know. Like Terminator 2.

"That’s how I see our record. It has the makings of a break up album, but at the end of the day, it’s Terminator 2. It’s Judgment Day"

obscure, beautiful arrangements, Even though the record ends and then adding lyrics to them,” this in heartbreak, Mini Mansions are time around, Mini Mansions went never bitter. They celebrate the love words first. “I had something to say they’ve shared, and they’re at peace with this thing,” offers Mikey. And with it ending. “It seems like people he’s not afraid to say it. “The lyrics are really responding to the new are right there in front of your face, songs, which is great. You make a you’re feeling what they’re saying.” new record and you hope people like “There’s something about us it but there are times when it’s not being 33-year-old men. I’m more as good as you thought it was. But I comfortable with being honest,” he think this one is,” grins Mikey. explains. “Now I don’t give a fuck.

As sincere and heartfelt as the This is me, this is exactly what’s record gets though, the band never happening and I don’t care what quite manage to wipe that smile people think about off their faces. “As it. But because we’re serious as some of being so open and the songs are, it’s us more confident in fucking around,” he that, I think people continues. “The way will connect to we get through tour that because that’s is laughing our way human nature.” through it.”

The record tracks “We’d laugh the beginning, the through Hell if we giddy middle and had to,” adds Tyler. the heartbreaking “That’s end of a relationship.

Sheer Mag have important, to not announced they’re putting “It’s not a break up take yourself too out a second album later record, but it ends seriously or else that this summer. Titled ‘A up being that. The becomes a joke.”

Distant Call’, the follow-up first eight songs “Certain people to 2017’s excellent ‘Need are about exploring can do it well, but To Feel Your Love’ is set to relationships and that’s tough to do. arrive on 23rd August. romance, before it They’ll support the record We’re just not those with a run of tour dates, gets to the bitter people.” including headline shows end. We thought The band in Manchester, Dublin about how people currently have plans and Leeds following an write break up to tour for the whole appearance at London’s records all the time of 2019, and beyond Mirrors Festival on 2nd and that wasn’t our but only if it’s still a November. intention. It was to good time. “If we get do something a little tired or we’re not bit different. I won’t happy, if we’re not say it’s a journey, ‘cos laughing anymore, Journey are lame but then we’ll stop.” every song is a new “There’ll be days chapter.” that aren’t fun,” “You wouldn’t promises Tyler, Blaenavon have pulled call Terminator 2 a “but if that day lasts out of their summer coming of age story a month, then guys, shows, including Reading about a young man & Leeds and Community. it’s time to stop.”

They’ve also cancelled their trying to be closer “Otherwise upcoming support slow in to this father figure, this band can go the US with Bombay Bicycle would you,” asks on forever,” beams Club, citing ongoing health Tyler. “It’s a fucking Mikey, before Tyler issues. “We appreciate action film. That’s also cracks into your continued support how I see our record. a grin: “Fingers and passion for the band,” It has the makings of double crossed.” a statement reads, “who a break up album but P Mini Mansions’ hope to see you after an album ‘Guy Walks extended period of rest and at the end of the day, recuperation, but for now, Into A Bar…’ is out it’s Terminator 2. It’s they will not be performing 26th July.

Judgment Day.”

‘FYI’

any upcoming shows.”

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record.

IT’S A MIRACLE THAT MINI Unsurprisingly, the title for the Mansions have managed to make record started off as a joke. When it a new album. Since the release of was first suggested, Mikey’s initial 2015’s ‘The Great Pretenders’, the reaction was “That’s silly,” then band have all been occupied by other “That’d be funny,” and finally, “Ok, work. Michael Shuman is a full-time well maybe this is a good idea. It member of Queens Of The Stone could be the first lyric to the record Age, Zach Dawes has been playing because everything after that is what bass with The Last Shadow Puppets comes next after all of us humans and Tyler Parkford has set up shop go into a bar, looking for romance, behind the keys of Arctic Monkeys’ a partner, a friend or a beer.” That ‘Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino’. title is the first step of the rest of the It’s enough to keep any three people record, which looks at “going out, busy. But there’s something more enjoying yourself, letting loose then distracting that world tours. meeting someone. You fall in love, Today, we’re backstage with the and you fall out of love. That’s the band ahead of their London headline journey.” show at Islington Assembly Hall.

‘Man Walks Into A Bar…’ was Zach is off picking up his dry cleaning written on the road out of bare (it’s hard work looking sharp) while necessity. “We made a record under the band’s touring drummer, and circumstances where it’s really hard Mikey’s QotSA bandmate, Jon to make a record,” continues Tyler.

Theodore is trying to order food and “It’s not ideal, but we did it, and I’m not be too much of a distraction. glad we did.” If they’d waited until Turns out Mikey and Tyler don’t stars and schedules aligned, we’d need any help in that area. Left to probably still be waiting. “That their own devices, it’s a wonder they distance created an intimacy we found the time to record twelve wouldn’t have new slices normally been of colourful, able to achieve.” pulsating “It’s all cocktail bar inspired by this rock. relationship While the I had,” starts bands previous Mikey. “If I was two albums feeling romantic, have been very or frustrated cool, slick and or the distance hidden behind on tour was dark sunglasses, making me miss ‘Guy Walks somebody, it was Into A Bar…’ all just poured is more open, out. I didn’t want energetic and to think too more excitable.

Tyler Parkford hard about these It’s fun, loud songs; I don’t and at times, think I’ve ever written so freely. ridiculous. Mini Mansions are no Everything else, I’ve over-thought different. and overproduced. It might not The addition of an actual sound that way, but we’ve definitely drummer changed things for the over-thought every fucking little band. Before, Mikey would have to thing.” perform from behind a kit, but now “With ‘The Great Pretenders’, he’s free to roam the stage. “It frees we went through twenty different up the power of our interactions. versions of each song,” adds Tyler.

I’m able to interact more,” starts “We lost touch with what the value Mikey. “We wrote differently as well was to begin with.” This time around because we didn’t have to worry though, the songs are instant and about keeping being simple. We can much more exciting for it. do anything we want to do. It opened There’s also a directness to the up me being able to play more guitar, lyrics. Rather than making “the most so there’s a lot more guitar on this

INTRO

Manchester is red

blue

Mumford*

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(* and his sons**) (** and Tom Morello)

As Mumford & Sons hit the road, Steven Loftin heads to Manchester to find out just how one of the biggest bands on the planet are making huge venues into (relatively) intimate spaces.

YOU KNOW WHAT THEY SAY, DEAR

Reader. Bangers comein all shapes and sizes. They’re not all gleaming poptastic gems, either. In their own way, every band has a banger in them.

Yep, even Mumford & Sons.

Don’t try and pretend otherwise just because it makes you sound cooler. Four ‘lads’ from London who brought folk music twanging into the mainstream with their knockout debut ‘Sigh No More’, ‘Little Lion Man’ and ‘The Cave’ are - let’s be absolutely clear here Proper Bangers.

Since then, they’ve gone large, upsizing from the only-relative intimacy of their pre-breakthrough buzz to becoming a worldconquering arena band.

Which is why we’re up in Manchester; to not only catch up with the group but to also see what all the fuss is about. On a run of

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shows that were initially planned for late last year but ended up delayed due to a logistical issue with the new setup, we’re promised it’ll be worth it.

But first, in the depths of the concrete labyrinth that is Manchester Arena, tucked away down one of the faceless corridors, we’re in a dark, velvet blue room to chat to two of Mumford’s storied children; double-bass toting Ted Dwane and banjo-extraordinaire Winston Marshall.

So, how do Mumford & Sons make folk music into this arenabusting event that it’s become?

“At the beginning, it was the challenge that we set out for ourselves was how to make it as intimate as the gigs we’d always done up until that point,” Winston begins thoughtfully. “And that remains the ambition, which is actually why we’re in the middle and as close to that amount of people,” he mentions, alluding to tonight’s all-encompassing stage setup.

“That’s probably born out of the original ethos and intention of the band - to be an intimate experience.

At the beginning of the band’s career, when we were leaving the pub circuit, we did that by doing festoons, and that continued into our first arena shows - we actually had festoons that went up to the back of the room, we did that at

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‘FYI’ Five things we learnt from Slam Dunk 2019

as wide open as possible to anyone that would like to enjoy it.

“That is the whole idea, we’re musicians - we don’t have huge philosophical ideas, well we do, but that’s not what tonight is about.

That’s almost what makes it - it’s nothing specific, it’s just a reason to come together and be a human being, as soon as you begin to give it deeper point than the simple thing it is.”

A stage slap-bang in the centre of Manchester Arena, four ridiculous sized screens face the heavens, so no one misses out. From the moment ‘Guiding Light’ creeps in, it’s a non-stop sing-along affair.

Even when the time comes for the encore, there’s no hiding; the band have to make their way through the crowd to get to and from their brief respite, with fans clambering to get a look.

Of course, not all of tonight is based upon stage set-ups.

A sentence we’d never really thought we’d be typing - Rage Against The Machine’s Tom Morello joins Mumford and Sons to cover Nine Inch Nails’ ‘Hurt’. It’s a tender moment that bides its time before striking sharp with Tom doing what he does best. As confetti - and we don’t say this lightly, given the sheer volume of it - thunders down from the blackened heavens, second-album mega-hit ‘I Will Wait’ leaves sing-alongs pouring out of the exits.

Nothing rings truer in these final moments than one of Ted’s earlier sentiments; “When you walk out on stage - you have to show up. We’re not a band who just phone it in. We want to give [the crowd] as much emotional joy as we can.” P

WORDS: ALI SHUTLER. PHOTO: SARAH LOUISE BENNETT.

Pagan make heavy music fun

At home inside the gloom of The Key Club Stage, Pagan are an absolute force of the super-natural, snarling, screaming and somehow making their confrontational assault accessible and full of twisted joy. An absolute must see.

Green is the new black

Waterparks launch their Green Era with the absolute romp of ‘Turbulent’, and All Time Low debut ‘Getaway Green’ - a brand new song, played here for the very first (and second) time, it sees the band leaning into their role as scene leaders.

Grandson is the sound of a bright new future

Brittany Howard – lead vocalist/guitarist for Alabama Shakes – will release her debut solo album later this year. ‘Jaime’ is due on 20th September via Columbia Records.

The full-length is named for her late sister, who died of cancer when they were still teenagers. “The title is in memoriam, and she definitely did shape me as a human being,” she explains.

“But, the record is not about her. It’s about me. I’m pretty candid about myself and who I am and what I believe.

Which is why I needed to do it on my own.”

Alex Lahey has teamed up with fellow Aussies Stand Atlantic for a new version of the latter band’s track, ‘Skinny Dipping’. The collaboration is in aid of the It Gets Better Project, a non-profit organisation with a mission to uplift, empower, and connect members of the LGBTQ community.“I’m so excited to be involved in this release with Stand Atlantic to celebrate Pride Month and support ItGetsBetter,” says Alex. “As a member of both the music and queer community, I know how important it is to support one another.”

Grandson’s set today is fuelled by rage. By anger. By a want for change. Yes, his blend of hip-hop and rock has ties to Rage Against The Machine, but this is smarter and more evolved. Taking that global awareness we’re all plugged into and wrapping it around his fist, today’s set is an unstoppable march towards a brighter future.

Pop punk isn’t dead, but it’s at its best when it’s a wedding band

Rather than try to blend their sugar with something different to try and remain ‘relevant’, New Found Glory have gone for sheer entertainment with the release of ‘From The Screen To Your Stereo Vol. 3’, a covers album that sees the band take on a load of famous movie songs.

Today sees the very best of those, ‘Eye of The Tiger’, ‘Let It Go’, ‘The Power Of Love’ alongside their own greatest hits ‘Understatement’, ‘My Friends Over You’ and ‘Dressed To Kill’ to create a festival set that’s practically perfect.

People still give a shit about Busted

Twenty One Pilots. Bring Me The Horizon. The Jonas Brothers. Blink 182. The rumours around Slam Dunk’s Secret Set are wild. So when Busted walk onstage, there’s a moment where it could go either way. The reformed boy band have never ventured into this world, despite providing an entry point for many, and yet today they’re given a hero’s welcome. Now, we’re not saying Busted are going to go and headline Download off the back of this, but it turns out a little nostalgia never hurt anyone. Now, about that Son of Dork reunion... P

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festivals, and that did a great job of bringing people in. “ All is well in attempting to keep this connection between band and crowd alive, but it also boils down to the group needing to keep themselves invested in the live show. The sheer number of gigs that Mumford have played is a testament to their durability, but when they’re the ones taking to the same rectangular space night after night well, can you blame them for wanting to shake things up?

“It’s a whole new challenge being surrounded and figuring out how to perform,” Ted says of their new venture.

“We’d always done this four in a row thing, which always felt powerful, and was nice to perform, but to leave your comfort zone I think is something we generally embrace.

“This has been wicked, we’ve only got a handful more shows in this format actually, and then we’re going to take things that we’ve learned from doing the show this way and incorporate them into the next production. It’s important not just to repeat yourself.”

Obviously, any show at Manchester Arena is going to bring some more weighty thoughts to mind, with Mumfords playing only a couple of weeks after the second anniversary of the 2017’s bombing. “Here [the arena] is a poignant example.

I’m always struck with the importance of music, generally,” Ted muses. “And the event’s like any gig where people can commune over something that isn’t reliant on cultural belief or politics, so to invite people in, we’ve always tried to have our arms

Friendly Fires have announced their longawaited third album, ‘Inflorescent’. Due on 16th August via Polydor, news of the record - their first in eight years arrives alongside a new single, ‘Silhouettes’. The record’s blurb reads: “If their previous records summoned a feeling of yearning and hazy escapism, ‘Inflorescent’ is much more direct, in part inspired – lyrically at least – by reconnecting with the hardcore records they’d bonded over as teenagers.”

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‘FYI’ Kindness has announced their third album, ‘Something Like A War’, due 6th September.

Recorded in several locations while Kindness was based in New York, the full-length’s blurb explains that “the record is a collection of works representing a period of reflection and transformation over the course of four years following their second record Otherness.”

The news arrives with lead track ‘Hard To Believe’, a collaboration with Jazmine Sullivan - check it out on readdork.com now.

Live Report

HRH Queen Carly Rae Jepsen played London’s XOYO and was brilliant, obv WORDS: ALI SHUTLER. PHOTO: SARAH LOUISE BENNETT.

HAVE WE MENTIONED HOW GREAT WE THINK

Carly Rae Jepsen is? ‘Emotion’ was a huge, smart pop record that took Jeppers from bubblegum sweet to someone you could relate to. A friend through music, her storytelling was honest, funny and vulnerable. ‘Dedicated’ sees her further embrace that role, warm and interested, it sparkles and adds an ‘x’ to every message it sends.

Tonight she’s playing the teeny, tiny XOYO as part of a short run of warm-up shows before the full might of her ‘Dedicated’ tour is unleashed across North America (and then hopefully the world). It’s ridiculous before it even starts. It gets out of hand the minute Jeppers walks onstage.

Starting with the sparkling ‘No Drug Like Me’, Carly Rae owns the wandering spotlight.

The stuttering title track to ‘Emotion’ swiftly follows, a sunset party anthem that promises the best, before ‘Run Away With Me’ opens arms and dances into the horizon. The first real explosion of the evening is with ‘Julien’, a shiny new song that

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already sees the room sing back every word with utter belief; its warped pop grin is undeniable.

Of course, that’s not the only big moment of the night. ‘Call Me Maybe’ is stupidly massive, and Carly leans into that. Elsewhere ‘Party For One’ and ‘I Really Like You’ are as gargantuan as you’d expect, the sort of pop song that can dwarf everything else, but not tonight. The big pop moments have their moment to shine, sure, but so do the quiet moments. Connecting in a different way, the likes of ‘Too Much’, ‘Want You In My Room’ and ‘Now That I Found You’ are just as celebratory, just as giddily received.

Across nineteen songs, Carly proves that there’s strength in depth. There’s joy in every album track and b-side, with each song meaning something special to someone in the room. A pop maverick and someone who cares so much about each moment, Carly Rae Jepsen is dedicated to brilliance. Tonight that beams in the light. P

Life’s have confirmed their new album, ‘A Picture Of Good Health’, due on 20th September via Afghan Moon/[PIAS].

“A Picture of Good Health is not a collage of work but rather a snapshot of time,” says Mez from the band, “our time and the time of those around us. It’s political, but in a personal way. It’s a body of work that explores and examines the band’s inner-selves through a precise period; a period that has brought pain, loneliness, blood, guts, single parenthood, depression and the need for survival and love. It is the sense and need for belonging that is the resounding end note!”

Yak are hitting the road this November for a new UK headline tour. The band will be playing in support of their second album ‘Pursuit Of Momentary Happiness’, which came out earlier this year. Kicking off in Brighton before calling off in Bristol, Southampton, Coventry, Edinburgh, Hebden Bridge, Sheffield and London , you can find the dates in full on readdork.com now.

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BANGERS THE BEST NEW TRACKS

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The first line-up announcement is in for this year’s Neighbourhood Festival. The one-dayer returns to Manchester on 12th October, taking place across over 15 venues with more than 100 bands.

The first batch of names includes one of the headliners, Miles Kane, as well as some Dork faves like The Big Moon, Easy Life, Ten Tonnes, Sports Team, Bloxx and Alfie Templeman.

PVRIS

Black Honey

Jay Som

They’re back! With a few summer dates ‘in the planner’, the coolest cats in the rock/ pop/alt/whatever-you-wantto-call-it crossover divide have strapped a rocket to their brooding brilliance. Part pulsing, monochrome banger, part multicolour explosion, ‘Death of Me’ is driven by the kind of opposing poles that keep spinning way after the first listen. Whatever is planned next, expect it to be positively massive.

’The Honey’ are back(!), back(!!) and - third time for luck - back!!!

What appears to be a oneoff track drop, ‘I Don’t Ever Wanna Love’ is drenched in the cinematic noir that Izzy and co. specialise in, all vampy posing in doorways and the threat of a good headscarf. Queens and kings of the modern indie Bond theme, but never likely to be found doing something so passé, they’ve got a licence to swoon.

It took us a good two weeks to work out the intro to Jay Som’s first taster of new album ‘Anak Ko’ was reminding us of Radiohead’s magnificent ‘High and Dry’. That, in case it wasn’t obvious, is the highest of compliments. An artist of the highest regard, it feels like a real, true breakthrough moment is about to arrive.

Death of Me

Emily Burns PDA

You’ll be well aware, Dearest Reader, that Dork is a fan of artists with TPP (that’s Top Pop Potential, we just made it up Ed). Emily Burns is swimming in the stuff. Doing laps, in fact.

The title track from her new EP, ‘PDA’ proves it. A blipping, blooping, booty shaking banger, it is - and ‘they’ can have this for the sticker - transcendent. Five bubblegums out of five.

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Superbike

I Don’t Ever Wanna Love

Sports Team

Here It Comes Again Is the new Sports Team track a banger? Durr. DURR! Of course, it bloody well is. A tumbling firecracker that still manages to style out a super confident strut, we’re approaching the point of fine pop art. Approaching a critical velocity, ‘Here It Comes Again’ is less nice-y nice-y tiki-taka and more full on gegenpress. Just, y’know, with guitars and stuff.

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Get the latest bangers at readdork.com or follow our Brand New Bangers playlist on Spotify.

Check out all these tracks and more on Dork Radio now at readdork.com/ radio

Spector

I Won’t Wait International men of misery mystery, Spector’s 2018 may not have gone quite as initially planned, but their 2019 is promising some proper banger action. ‘I Won’t Wait’ is right out of the indie titans’ top drawer, complete with the obviously brilliant pause and release the title demands. Still as fresh and sharp as ever, they’re basically a national treasure.

Fever 333 are touring the UK this November.

The LA band have announced six new shows which will see them play Bristol, Birmingham, Manchester, Glasgow, Leeds and London following the release of their recent debut album, ‘STRENGTH IN NUMB333RS’.

“The few experiences we have had in the UK have been nothing short of incredible,” says frontman Jason Aalon Butler. “The people. Their power. We cannot wait to return after the release of our full length and feel that power of the people once again.”

You can find the dates in full on readdork.com now.

Bat For Lashes has announced her new album, ‘Lost Girls’.

Her fifth studio album, it will arrive on 6th September via AWAL Recordings - check out lead single ‘Kids In The Dark’ below.

“It’s an album full of romance,” reads the record’s blurb, “a homage to Los Angeles where the album was recorded, to being a kid in the 80’s, to films that touched and changed her life.”

THE NEW ALB

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ON TOUR 4 NOV SOUTHAMPTON, THE LOFT 5 NOV BRISTOL, THEKLA 8 NOV LONDON, O2 ACADEMY ISLINGTON 9 NOV BIRMINGHAM, O2 ACADEMY 3 11 NOV GLASGOW, KING TUTS 12 NOV LEEDS, THE KEY CLUB 13 NOV MANCHESTER, THE DEAF INSTITUTE 14 NOV LIVERPOOL, ARTS CLUB THEREGRETTES.COM

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TOP TEN OUR FAVE THINGS RN

"Life as a musician is notoriously plagued with highs and lows, but I wouldn’t have it any other way" Tarek Musa

EVEN WHEN SPRING KING

decided to call it a day, nobody seriously expected it’d be the last we heard of the multi-talented Tarek Musa. Not only content with being the singing-sticksman in one of our favourite bands, he’s also somewhat of a self-starting legend, with a side line producing all kinds of buzzy upand-comers. No surprise, then, that he’s back at the coal face in double quick time. Under the title Dead Nature, we caught up with Tarek to find out more about his debut EP.

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Hey Tarek, how’s it going?

Enjoying summer?

TAREK’S BACK!

SPRING KING’S FORMER LEADER HAS RETURNED WITH A BRAND NEW PROJECT.

WORDS: SAM TAYLOR.

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Summer has been eventful so far.

I’ve locked myself away in studios for most of it working on Dead Nature… and with other bands, too.

There’s so much great music out there, and I’ve been honoured to meet some of these artists this year.

One of my favourite things about summer is definitely getting on my bicycle and clearing my head a bit.

The weather is alright, and the birds are singing. I’ve sprained my ankle, though.

Congrats on your new project are you completely on your own for Dead Nature, or do you have some pals helping out?

Thank you. Dead Nature is a complete solo songwriting expedition. I’m usually playing most parts in the studio, running between the drums, bass, guitars and keys. I’ve also had some great additional production input from my good buddy Joe Wills who has produced some great artists in the past like Stealing Sheep and All We Are. This project is definitely a vehicle I’m building to create music that I find pleasure in making, and someone finds pleasure in listening to.

Has there been much of a learning curve?

I’ve been fortunate to get a lot of experience in the past, but this

INTRO feels completely different for me. Lyrically I’m exploring my upbringing a lot more on these songs, and trying to make sense of a world that feels like its dramatically shifting in so many ways. I’m still producing and mixing the music, that has always been a huge part of me too. The approach is always from the gut, and I feel a great sense of certainty in what I’m trying to get across here. It’s nothing smart, nothing wildly out-there, but it resonates completely with me.

It sounds like ‘In My Heart’ is an appropriate first track; how are you dealing with the transition from Spring King?

The Future Is Here SLEATER-KINNEY HAVE ANNOUNCED THEIR NEW ALBUM!

The transition has brought its ups and downs, life as a musician is notoriously plagued with highs and lows, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. I’ve always written because I have something to get off my chest. I feel like I can put my complete heart on the line, and that’s all I want from music.

What can you tell us about your new EP?

Have you figured out how or when you’re likely to take the project into live shows?

It’s 100 per cent likely I’ll be doing live shows, and I’ve got some ideas scribbled down that I’m hoping to realise. It’s going to be a wild one. I have this split where I want to be on the road and the studio at the same time. I’m aiming for Dead Nature to bring that balance between the two worlds.

What else have you got coming up, is there a lot in the works?

I’m working with some incredible bands on music regularly as a record producer. I’m also writing more tunes for Dead Nature. The response so far has been too good, and I want to keep going, there’s a lot to say still, and I’m happy that so many fans are on board for the journey already. P Dead Nature’s debut EP ‘Taking My Shadow’ is out 26th July.

Etc, Etc.

OUR ANNUAL FREE FESTIVAL OF NEW, EMERGING AND ALTERNATIVE MUSIC IS HAPPENING RIGHT NOW! If you pay even the slightest bit of attention, Dear Reader, you will probably be aware that your good mates at Dork are already halfway through the second edition of their free festival of new music, Etc. And also, seemingly, now talking in the third person. Hi. But, rejoice! Even if you are late to the party, there could be two editions still ‘to come’, including one with a top secret (and spiffing) headline act that we’ll announce a few days before the show. You can grab tickets - totally gratis - via Dice.com, and get the latest on what’s going down at readdork.com. See you there!

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Lorde has a “third one in the oven”

BY WHICH SHE HOPEFULLY MEANS ‘AN ALBUM’ AND NOT THE BREAD SHE CAN NOW BAKE. Last month, Lorde’s Really Far Better Than Just Good album ‘Melodrama’ turned two, so to celebrate the occasion she posted to Instagram a rare message about ‘it’.

“Want to say thankyou for how you took that record and made it your own,” she wrote. She goes on to reveal that she’s “grown a lot since then,” and has “been to Antarctica”. She also has a dog and a cat and “can bake bread and cook dinner and keep pants alive etc”, meaning Lorde is a more functional adult than we are. Congrats, Lorde.

She finishes with “Thankyou thankyou.

Third one in the oven.”

Which is, Dearest Reader, enough to hit that big red hype alarm. BRING ON THE LORDEAGEDDON.

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The EP is four tracks, one of which is ‘In My Heart’. It’s titled ‘Taking My Shadow’ and was written and recorded in Liverpool. It’s completely finished and you can pre-order a vinyl copy of it which I’m self-releasing via Dead Nature Records. I miss the old days of doing mail outs and posting records and being hands on. Part of music for me is the process around it; writing peoples addresses on mailers brings me a level of satisfaction.

Titled ‘The Center Won’t Hold’, the St. Vincent-produced record is due on 16th August, followed by a UK tour early next year. Speaking about the new music, newlyformer drummer Janet Weiss explains: “I think for Carrie and Corin it was liberating to explore a different sound palette.”

“Instead of just going into the studio to document what we’d done, we were going in to explore and to find the essence of something. To dig in deeper,” continues vocalist and guitarist Carrie Brownstein, while the third part of the iconic trio, Corin Tucker reveals that working on new music “was like this manic energy of empowerment.”

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Shura’s much, much, much anticipated new album is coming this August Titled ‘forevher’, we’ve been waiting for a second full-length from the poptastic star for ‘quite a while now’. On the strength of ‘religion (u can lay your hands on me)’, (which has an, erm, POPE-tastic vid?! - Ed), it’ll be Really Very Good. More next issue.

Marsicans aren’t worrying about the ‘Little Things’ THAT’S THE NAME OF THEIR NEW SINGLE, ‘FYI’.

Marsicans are already on their way to marking out 2019 as something special: fresh from supporting Foals in Hamburg and Kaiser Chiefs at Elland Road stadium, they’ve just dropped their new single ‘Little Things’, have loads of festivals to see them through the summer months, and - as bassist/ vocalist Rob Brander tells us just ahead of the band’s set at Barn on the Farm - their debut album is “firmly in the works”.

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Hey, Rob. Are you lot busy at the mo, what are you up to?

We’ve actually had quite a quiet week this week, recharging our batteries after supporting Foals in Hamburg and the Kaiser Chiefs in a big old stadium last week. We did go down to London for Bushstock over the weekend and played the smallest stage ever to the busiest pub in the world - but it was fun. Then it’s more festivals thereafter, like good ol’ Barn on the Farm! Oh, and we have a new single...

Frightened Rabbit have released a covers album featuring a load of their pals

Frightened Rabbit are celebrating the

tenth birthday of their second record ‘The Midnight Organ Fight’ by releasing a covers album featuring some big name friends including Biffy Clyro, Chvrches, Julien Baker and more. “Every single person on ‘Tiny Changes’ has been a part of our lives in a special way over the last ten years,” the band explain. “We’ve shared studios, vans, bars, dressing rooms and probably even underwear with some of these people and that’s why this record is so special to us.”

“Scott was a vital part of bringing this album together and it’s something he was very excited about,” they continue, referencing the band’s late frontman, Scott Hutchison. “He approved every track on there with us and he had already started preparing the artwork.”

Titled ‘Tiny Changes’, the record is out now.

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Tell us about ‘Little Things’?

It’s a song about the ‘little things’ in life that brighten your day, like finding a tenner in your pocket, and how sometimes we need those things to keep us going through the more turbulent times. It’s certainly our most bold musical statement to date. There are some RIFFS and quite a few twists and turns. It’s a trip.

Do you have lots of songs raring to go at the moment?

Like you wouldn’t believe! Our debut album is firmly in the works, and we could not be more buzzing.

And lots of live shows, too? Stylus is going to be a huge one.

After festival season is over, there will definitely be some tour dates in the autumn, and then it’s the big one in Leeds. It’s always fun playing in our hometown and to play to a thousand of our fans will be a dream.

Are you going to debut any new tracks live over the summer, do you think?

We’ve already been letting ‘Little Things’ out of its hutch for a runaround. I can’t say whether anything else will end up sneaking into the set.

How have you found festival season so far? Have you been travelling about a lot?

It’s been a blast! I suppose we have done a lot of travelling. We did the length of

"Our debut album is firmly in the works" Rob Brander

the country in the first few weeks, kicking off with a killer Live At Leeds show, then we went to Brighton over The Great Escape weekend, over to Warrington for Neighbourhood, up to Newcastle for This is Tomorrow. The outdoor field festivals are the real fun, there have been some sick ones so far.

Do you spend much time at events when you’re playing them, or are you straight in and out and back home for tea?

A lot depends on what time of day we play, but we always try to hang out at least a few of the festivals we play each summer.

How would you rate your camping skills out of ten?

Me personally? 0! I always share James’ tent and forget to bring basically everything that is important on a campsite. The rest of the boys are pretty good. Cale has a weird orange survival tent that looks like it could make it up a mountain without much difficulty.

Have you ever had any festival disasters or mishaps?

Oli once fell over a tent rope in a very, very dramatic fashion, which he has never lived down. Oli also got drunk and tried to play the role of Jennifer ‘nobody puts baby in the corner’ Grey, in a recreation of THAT scene from Dirty Dancing with a fan at Barn on the Farm last year, which he has never lived down.

Basically, Oli is our festival mishap. P

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A-Door-able CAROLINE ‘CHAIRLIFT’ POLACHEK IS BACK!

Caroline Polachek has debuted her first solo single ‘under that name’. Best known for being the vocalist in the Really Very Good Chairlift, our Caroline recently made an appearance on Charli XCX’s era defining It’s-A-Mixtape-Not-An-AlbumHactually ‘Pop 2’, guesting on the track ‘Tears’. She also dropped a surprise instrumental album ‘Drawing The Target Around The Arrow’ in early 2017, under the name CEP (i.e. her initials, so technically, not breaking her self-defined naming convention, right? - Ed). Now, she’s returned with a fresh cut, titled ‘Door’. Apparently, it’s “the first taste of a forthcoming, larger solo project from [Polachek] to be released later this year.” In an accompanying statement about the track, she explains, “I feel totally out of control of most things in the world, but can at least build landscapes for the mind.”

XCX 3 IS FINALLY COMING, AND IT’S RAMMED WITH STAR NAMES! Rejoice! Charli XCX has announced details of her first album proper in five years.

Technically following up on 2014’s ‘Sucker’, ‘Charli’ is set to arrive on 13th September, and sees the titular pop titan teaming up with the likes of Christine and the Queens, HAIM and Sky Ferreira, as well as Kim Petras, Clairo, CupcakKe and loads more.

Also including her previously released team-ups with Lizzo and Troye Sivan - alongside a second collaboration with the latter - you can check out the full tracklisting on readdork.com now. P

10 Oh, rats!

OF COURSE KING GIZZARD & THE LIZARD WIZARD HAVE A NEW THRASH METAL INSPIRED ALBUM,

Prolific Aussies King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard have announced their plans for their second full-length of 2019. Titled ‘Infest the Rats’ Nest’, it’s set for release on 16th August via Flightless Records, and is described in a press release as “by far The Gizz’s hardest and heaviest album to date”.

Arriving just six months after their last record, ‘Fishing For Fishes’, ‘Infest the Rats’ Nest’ draws on “the mid/ late 1980s golden period of thrash metal - Metallica and Slayer, certainly, but also lesser-cited bands such as Exodus, Kreator and Overkill.” Blimey.

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It’s Charli

FIND MORE FRESH SOUNDS ONLINE NOW AT READDORK.COM/HYPE

ESSENTIAL NEW MUSIC

Nasty Cherry LOADED WITH POP BANGERS AND ATTITUDE, NASTY CHERRY ARE OFFICIALLY XCX-ELLENT.

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WORDS: ABIGAIL FIRTH

linking to a @nastycherryband WHAT QUALIFIES AS ‘HYPE’? account. No one knew what was Selling out your first ever show? going to happen – much like the When you have no songs out? attendees of that first show – but And Charli XCX is your biggest we followed anyway, because what cheerleader? And your main goal Charli says, goes. is to take over the world? All of The result was a new band those things are true of Nasty to believe in - a Spice Girls/ Cherry, who debuted in March Runaways crossover with plenty a with ‘Win’ – a groovy, ramshackle, banger to release. fuck-it song, co-written by HRH “We all knew Charli XCX. individually before becoming a So we gave the Cherries a ring, band, to different degrees,” says two of them, drummer Debbie Debbie. “So I was her drummer Knox-Hewson and bassist Georgia for like the last five years, Chloe Somary are in London, and the is another band called Kitten, and others, frontwoman Gabby we toured with Charli as Kitten.

Bechtel and guitarist Chloe Georgia is a really good mate of Chaidez are in LA. They’re chaotic Charli’s from London, and Gabs in the best ways, and we’ve only was in one of her music videos. So seen the start of it.

Charli hit us up individually and When we call, they’re gearing was like you know I wanna start up for their second show in New a girl band, I wanna put together York, but what went off at the a girl band that’s gonna take over elusive debut? “It was fucking the world, so that’s what we’re all fun!” Chloe says, “We had no tryna do. What a soundbite, God.” clue what to expect, we somehow Obviously, some of the sold out, with not a single song members had more experience out in the world. I don’t know making music than others. what people came for; it’s just a “Georgia’s in it for the culture. curiosity, so all of us were curious She’s learned bass to be in the as to what was going to happen.” band, I love that,” says Debbie.

“Some got more drunk “You know what though, you than others…”, Georgia says, know what, it’s fun to sound like interrupted by Debbie’s “I played a band with good self-expression a drum solo! That I did not plan! through it,” Georgia replies.

It just came out of me; it was a But that’s Nasty Cherry’s whole surprise to me, more than anyone ethos. Just doing else.” it because it’s fun.

“Honestly, it THE FACTS They want to inspire surprised me, girls to pick up an Debbie, I can + From Los Angeles, US instrument and just fucking tell you DO IT. Be confident, that,” Georgia + For fans of don’t give a sod what replies.

The Big Moon, Dream Wife anyone says, don’t The hype worry if you’re good surrounding + Check out or not, HAVE FUN. Nasty Cherry ‘What Do You Like In Me’, ’Win’ “I think the project started at the is a wider thing, I just beginning of 2019, + Social want people to think when Charli XCX @nastycherryband it’s cool to support started posting + See them live: your female friends,” Instagram pics You can’t atm, soz

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says Debbie. “I want the whole girl writing with Georgia and Gabby gang thing to have a revival, and who’ve not done music in this that kind of empowerment and way before, it’s still refreshing, building each other up. I always because for me, when I write a hope when people listen to Nasty song, I have a lot of anxieties Cherry; I hope if they’re dating an that come along with that, just arsehole they break up with him, because I’ve been doing it for if they’ve got a best friend and so long. I’m like ahh is this the they wanna go dancing, they put one? And Georgia and Gabby just our music on. Loads of things, but sing melodies as they come into they’re all really positive.” their head. It’s really beautiful.

“If there’s any young female They bring such a beauty to the musicians, or even non-musicians, project.”

I hope they create music with “I think I could get choice their friends if they feel like it, paralysis when it comes to writing with their female friends, and I and I could sit on an idea and then want girls to feel inspired to come think about it and overthink it”, together,” Chloe adds.

Debbie says about writing ‘Win’.

And that’s reflected in the kind “Working with Charli, she’s like of music they’re releasing. ‘Win’ a top line genius; she’s like yep, and ‘What Do You Like In Me’ that’s good, do that again, we’ll are the only double that, songs we’ve and that’s done, heard (unless let’s move onto you’ve been a chorus. It to a show, of was super fast, course) and which is really showcase exhilarating. very different I didn’t really vibes for have time to the group. doubt the song’s Apparently, potential or what’s to whatever, so I Debbie Knox-Hewson come is a big think that was mix too. the first song “We’re like that underwear that came together fully. It felt you used to wear as a kid, we’re right that it would be the first Monday through Sunday,” says single.”

Gabby. “That’s been the beauty of So far, there’s a new single on us not going into this like with any the way, it has a video, and they previous history of making music, haven’t decided what it’s called or being a band in general, aside yet. There’s an EP on the cards, from Chloe I guess, an all-girl and lots of work with ‘exciting band at that, and some of us not people’. doing music at all, like. Having “Win was produced by Justin that open-mindedness and just Raisen, who’s worked with us not having to feel like we’re on some other things, maybe making music for any specific our next single… maybe, maybe reason other than to love it and ….” says Debbie (bloody tease). hope that other people love it, “We’re getting to work with a lot that’s it really.” of really interesting people at the Chloe adds, “I feel like when minute; it’s really exciting.” P

"I just want people to think it’s cool to support your female friends"

23 READDORK.COM

IN THE KN OW

...

First on

You Me At Six ‘s

CHECK OUT THESE NEW ACTS IMMEDIATELY

top acts playing Truck Festival 2019

DRY CLEANING Bands don’t get much fresher than this - Dry Cleaning’s debut EP was announced literally days ago (literally! days!) along with debut single ‘The Magic Of Meghan’, an ode to the Duchess of Sussex that takes a dry, deadpan look at news media, misogyny and racism. Someone pass the Daz. Check out: ‘The Magic Of Meghan’

24

GHUM Now based in South London, ‘post-punk ghost grunge’ quartet GHUM came together from Spain, Brazil and London after responding to a Gumtree ad - and yet none of them are a creepy old bloke with his knob out, go figure. Their just-dropped new EP ‘The Coldest Fire’ has a similar dark, brooding edge to Savages.

Check out: ‘Get Up’

ELI MOON 20-year-old singersongwriter Eli Moon’s debut single ‘Bury’ is a heartfelt R&B-influenced number that sounds like it should be all over ‘the charts’ all summer long. “I was in a place of complete guilt,” he says of the track, which mulls over a failed relationship.

THERE ARE ALWAYS MORE BANDS - THE BIGGEST QUESTION IS WHO DO YOU LISTEN TO WHEN IT COMES TO RECOMMENDATIONS? OBVIOUSLY DORK SHOULD BE YOUR FIRST PORT OF CALL, BUT THERE ARE OTHERS TOO. THIS MONTH GUITARIST MAX HELYER PICKS HIS FAVE NEW ACTS FROM THE LINE-UP TO THIS SUMMER’S TRUCK FESTIVAL LINE-UP.

BLACK BELT EAGLE SCOUT

“It sounds like a song that’s saying ‘I’m better than you’; it’s actually saying, ‘you’re far too good for me’.”

Check out: ‘Moon’

YOUTH SECTOR

ahead of each of her shows, and is currently working on a zine to educate people on the true history of America and its separate indigenous groups. Top stuff.

Check out: ‘At The Party’

YOUTH SECTOR Did you know you’re not allowed to live in Brighton unless you’re in a band? True fact, there.

Local lads Youth Sector make super fun art-rock packed with witty barbs and boopy bits. New ‘un ‘Renting Spaces In My World’ is a particular highlight, if only for the new “…are missing” catchphrase we’ll now be bellowing out whenever we can’t find our shoes.

Check out: ‘Renting Spaces In My World’

BLACK BELT EAGLE SCOUT Black Belt Eagle Scout’s Katherine Paul

OSCAR LANG OSCAR LANG

is following up last year’s debut album ‘Mother of My Children’ quick-sharp with new full-length ‘At the Party With My Brown Friends’, due 30th August via Saddle Creek. From an indigenous background, she performs land acknowledgements

Brace yourself, 18-yearold Londoner Oscar Lang has come up with the best EP title ever.

Are you ready? His new self-produced release (and first for Dirty Hit) is called… ‘bops etc.’. See, told you it was good. It’s an accurate description, too - upbeat, breezy pop hits that’ll drag a smile out of even the most miserable sods.

‘Hey’ features a guest spot from his pal Alfie Templeman ’n all.

Check out: ‘Hey’

WHOHURTYOU

GHUM

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The new project from All Time Low guitarist Jack Barakat and singer/songwriter Kevin Fisher aka Sweet Talker, WhoHurtYou are probs a few steps away from what you’d expect - their debut single ‘Wish We Never Met’ has such a high sheen we’re surprised the lads are still upright. FFO the Jonas Brothers, probs.

Check out: ‘Wish We Never Met’

Anteros Anteros released their debut record this year which has a great cross over of rock / indie / pop bangers that makes me believe this band will start popping up more on everyone’s radars in the next couple of years.

Easy Life I have only just come across Easy Life myself from a recommendation from a friend who’s a producer. He saw them at The Great Escape and said it was one of the highlights of the weekend. It’s hard to describe Easy Life as it sounds like they take influences from many genres of music from hip hop, jazz, alternative, and so on. Luckily we are playing the same day as them, so they are on my list of bands to go check out.

Ocean Wisdom I would say Ocean Wisdom is one of the kings of underground hip hop in the UK, I was put on to him by a friend who’s mad into hip hop, and if you like hip hop, you’re gonna love him. He’s energetic, quick bars and flows that will knock a lot of people sidewards.

The Japanese House A great act that has a blend of indie pop, electro-pop and all things pop, a great mid-weekend watch that is a change of pace from the other artists that I have picked. The album ‘Good at Falling’ has been one of my go-to records of the year.

Yonaka Recently releasing their debut record ‘Don’t Wait Till Tomorrow’, Yonaka have big riffs and songs that will kick off a festival in style with swag and attitude; they’re ones not to miss out on before they go and get massive. P Truck takes place from 26th28th July in Oxfordshire.

Chappaqua Wrestling SCHOOL PALS JAKE AND CHARLIE ARE FLEXING THEIR MUSICAL MUSCLES; THEY COULD GO ANYWHERE. WORDS: JAMIE MUIR

TEN YEARS AGO, CHARLIE WOODS

was sitting in German class, looking ahead at the teacher talking about different variations of words as the world passed by outside the classroom doors on another day at school near Brighton, when a kid stumbled through the door.

“We were both 14,” explains Jake Mac. He’d been moved from another study group after being, well, a bit naughty. “Charlie had just moved back from the States and was this kinda cute chubby rocker kid, and I was like this hard rude boy like…”

Charlie intervenes: “Not hard.

Not hard at all,” he laughs.

“Yeah, you’re right, not hard - just a bit of twat,” he cracks. “I got moved to his group and got sat next to what should have been a guy who kinda diffused me, or I wasn’t going to be naughty with, and that was Charlie.”

“You massively snaked me there, Jake!” cracks up Charlie. “Oh ‘Charlie was some fat kid, and I was this hard cool guy with an attitude’.”

The laughs ring out. “Oh, he needed cooling down, that’s for sure!”

Chappaqua Wrestling is built on

"A lot of people perceive us as just a rock band, or an indie-rock band, or a surf-rock band, and we don’t want to be that" Jake Mac

summer

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25

the pair’s undeniable friendship, guitars. We would play them so and their almost telepathic ability much because we lived together and to weave and create the sort of warm were always writing for this band or and immediate tracks that invite you another. Eventually, we were like, in for more. Sitting in that German you know what? This sounds fucking lesson, Charlie and Jake would great. We were writing very much chat and bond over the bands that to how those guitars would let us connected them - whether it was play and that naturally brought out Foals, The Maccabees, New Order or some inspirations, but really we whatever, it set the path for the next were going just real fundamental decade of their lives. songwriting that strips it all down.

Warm, insatiably immediate and That foundation first.” dripping in the sort of effortless With alternative pop songs at charm that would make a cute the heart of what they do, it’s only a dog wearing a tie look like a bag matter of time before thousands will of stones - Chappaqua Wrestling be singing along with them, joining already feel commanding in the two best mates in facing the world tracks they’re putting out. Blending with a smile.

90s/early 00s alternative-rock “We’re still at quite an early age as with rich songwriting ease akin a band,” admits Jake. “It was only a to The Beach Boys or The Beatles, year and a half ago that we knuckled there’s something already classic down, and we have quite nice ideas about them yet distinctly fresh and of where we want to take it. We’re invigorating. thinking maybe becoming a five“There’s always that feeling piece, stripping things back with the when you’re growing up; oh imagine set even more... being in a band and it all just “A lot of people perceive us as just happening,” elaborates Jake. “Like, a rock band, or an indie-rock band, what is ‘happening’? What is that or a surf-rock band, and we don’t ‘happening’ thing? The last few want to be that. We want to be taken months we can definitely say - yeah, in as a duo of songwriters where we it’s starting to happen. It’s nice.” have a whole range of artists around Playing in various bands together us creating delicate sounds but with over the next few years, it was very big pop songs.” when Charlie and Jake moved to “A lot of the songs we’re putting Manchester for uni that they truly out at the moment are songs we pulled together - crafting the songs wrote years ago,” recalls Charlie. they wanted to make after not “It’s great to get them out, but the finding the sort of people who would songs we’re writing now are of the fit into the music they were writing same ilk, but I think we’re much together and creating. better now.”

“Prior to going up, we were “Yeah,” adds Jake. “There’s a song making very pedally we have at the moment and lush sounding which has elements of all music - the sort of the songs we’ve had out, THE FACTS sounds you make but has this different when you’re 18 essence to it which is + From Brighton, UK and drinking a lot very forward. Without a of beer,” explains doubt, our most fun and + For fans of Charlie. “And hooky song.”

Gus Dapperton that was cool! In What started out as + Check out Manchester, we another day in a German ‘Cry Every Time’ weren’t playing in a lesson at school has + Social band and couldn’t turned into best mates @chappaquawrest1 find the right thriving, with the world + See them live: people to play with in front of them. Prepare They’re at Latitude, us, so we started to whack on those Three Wheel Drive writing together shades, Chappaqua and Green Man this with just two nylon Wrestling are here. P

On The Grapevine NEW BAND NEWS

Mosa Wild have announced they’re going to release a new EP this summer. ‘Talking In Circles’ will arrive on 2nd August, preceded by new single ‘Tides’ and accompanied by support dates with Tame Impala and Jade Bird. “This song was written during a time where a lot of my friends (myself included) felt pretty stuck in life,” the band say of ‘Tides’. “And I guess this song was born from the realisation that you can sometimes free yourself from the quicksand.”

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Walt Disco

WALT DISCO HAVE A RAFT OF TOP-NOTCH TUNES AND VINTAGE PUNK-INFUSED INDIE-BOPS. WORDS: SAM DALY

you’re live; people are paying for a WITH SETS SUPPORTING THE show.” likes of Sports Team, Black Futures Their tour with Sports Team and Interpol on tour, and festival saw them venture out of Scotland, appearances at city buzz-fests Live visiting places that some of them at Leeds and The Great Escape, had never been to before such as Glasgow’s Walt Disco have certainly Margate and Oxford. Following this had a lot on lately. stint with ten days on the road with Playing London’s Electric Black Futures, and Walt Disco have Ballroom with fellow hypewell and truly been thrown in the merchants Sports Team was a deep end when it comes to living life particular highlight, lead singer on the road. “It’s not like a movie, James Potter explains. “We only not that mental,” James laughs, found out the day before that we adding: “Being in a vehicle when were playing it as the support had you’re hungover… that’s not fun.” pulled out. It was the biggest stage They’ve recently released new we’ve played. It was amazing.” track, ‘Strange To Know Nothing’.

It’s no surprise that they’ve Recording in London found themselves so with Chris from booked up with gigs Catholic Action and though, they’ve been THE FACTS Seth from Sistertalk, turning heads with + From the song is an their raucous live Glasgow, UK 80s-infused indie shows for a while now. + For fans of dance bop that leaves “Everyone is a great Sports Team a lasting impression. musician in the band,” + Check out “I wanted it to be this says James. “I’ve ‘Strange to Know grand dance track,” always found being on Nothing’ James reveals, stage for a show a bit + Social explaining that they easier than being in @waltdisco_ wanted to see how the studio. People can + See them live: much ridiculousness listen to your music at They’ll play Deer they could fit into home, so you’ve got to Shed, Neverworld, and a short three-minutes. give them more when October tour

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"Hopefully we can appeal to people who feel a bit different"

Yellow Days - aka George van den Broek - has dropped his new single, ‘Just When’; out now via Columbia Records, the track was recorded in LA with Nate Fox. “The reason why I make music is to understand myself and the world around me,” George explains. “I can talk about my feelings ‘til the sun goes down with my friends… I love to just assess my own human condition; why I act a certain way.”

“The whole point of Yellow Days is to be a project about youth,” he adds. “It’s all about being young and having this overwhelming sense of emotion, this confusion, all heading towards an eventual goal of happiness. It’s all about the hope within.”

James Potter

James wants to be “as theatrical as possible with more modern instruments,” he says; they’re keen to make music that people can relate to. “Hopefully we can appeal to the people who feel a bit different. The people who were quiet when they were younger but didn’t feel like that person, they just didn’t know how to express it.”

As for more new material, they’re desperate to get back in the studio, trying to fit in time. “We want to write a whole album’s worth of material,” James reveals. “Just as a writing exercise.”

2019 is set to continue being a great year for Walt Disco by the sounds of it, but what’s their end goal? World domination? Awards?

No, “For someone to write an opera or musical using our music,” says James. P

Angie McMahon has announced her debut album, ‘Salt’. Due on 26th July via AWAL Recordings, the release is preceded by the Melbourne-based songwriter’s new single, ‘And I Am A Woman’.

“There are all these things that our society teaches us about bodies, spaces, choices, feelings, safety, that we have to question and unlearn and do better with,” she says of the track.

“This song started as a heated conversation, but I had to finish it on my own and make it into music because I didn’t feel like talking, I felt like yelling. I wanted the hurting to be obvious.”

Penelope Isles WADE INTO THE DEEP BLUE WITH JACK WOLTER FROM BRIGHTON-BASED FOURSOME, PENELOPE ISLES. WORDS: JAMIE MACMILLAN

WHEN YOU WERE A KID, THOSE

hazy summer holidays at the beach seemed like they could last forever; full of dreams, escapades and potential adventures ripe for the taking. Penelope Isles, made and forged by the coast, have created a debut record that embodies that beauty and promise of living by the seaside - unsurprisingly, as the band’s main songwriters Jack and Lily Wolter have been stuck as tight as a limpet to the waters’ edge since birth.

With snorkels and flip flops to hand and the sun beaming down.

“Ever since me and Lily were born, we’ve lived by the sea. I don’t think I could live anywhere else; it’s built into you. Like a magnet.”

Jack, older brother to Lily by six years, is discussing a subject that goes to the very soul of him. Raised on the Isle of Man, later spending time in Falmouth, it was when Lily moved to the London-by-the-sea hub of Brighton that Penelope Isles truly came to life. Jack picks up the story.

“Lily moved to Brighton first and started a band with Jack [Sowton] and Becky [Radford] called KookieLou.

"There’s so much in Brighton, we just got stuck in" Jack Wolter

She came back home with a bunch of songs that she had written and asked me to produce it. We started working on it, then I added some songs into the mix, and it turned into Penelope Isles.”

Relocating to Brighton permanently, the fledgeling band found a whole new world of opportunity waiting for them.

“The Isle of Man and Falmouth are wonderfully creative places to be, but there’s no real scene or anything to get stuck into. But here, there was so much. New bands, new promoters, everyone wanting to do something bigger in the future. We just jumped on that and got stuck in.”

That attitude eventually brought them to the attention of Bella Union,

under whose protective wings they sounding existence of shared hopes have now finally delivered on that and experiences. “It’s amazing”, Jack early gigging promise. ‘Until The Tide admits. “It’s a wonderful feeling, Creeps In’ is a sheer delight. A record especially now we’ve started to that is in no hurry to reveal its secrets, travel.” elements of psych, There’s something lo-fi, indie rock and infectious about his dream pop wash out excitement for these THE FACTS from its core. Tracks upcoming travels, as well + From meander, seemingly as the sheer pleasure and Brighton, UK freely at points pride in finally having + For fans of before suddenly that debut under his belt.

The Orielles snapping back into “We’ve fallen in love + Check out place. with it, we’ve fallen out ‘Chlorine’ “A lot of records of love with it and back + Social that we love, bands again, and now I’m just @PenelopeIsles like Deerhunter and really excited for people + See them live: Radiohead, have to hear it!”

They’ll play Deer that kind of ambient With their largest Shed, Green Man, textural feeling that ever headline tour in and a November/ we love so much. So the bag later this year, December headline I guess that element and the first baby steps tour was naturally in our to album number two minds when we were already begun, there is a recording,” explains sense that the tides are Jack. starting to swell for Penelope Isles.

Also at the heart of Penelope Bringing the seaside to a town near Isles is of course family. Not for you, it’s time to dive in. P Penelope Isles’ debut album ‘Until The Tide the Wolters any Gallagher-esque Creeps In’ is out now. fisticuffs, instead it is an idyllic-

READDORK.COM

HYPE RSON IC FEELIN'

WORDS: JAMIE MACMILLAN. PHOTOS: SARAH LOUISE BENNETT.

Sam Fender is a man on a mission. Already beating current ‘biggest noise on the block’ Lewis Capaldi to a Brit Award, as his debut album nears its much-anticipated arrival, the sky really is the limit for an artist not short of stuff to say.

It’s not all smooth sailing, though. As a medical issue knocks back the album’s release and forces the cancellation of a bunch of shows and festival appearances, Dork heads to Sam’s native Newcastle to get inside the mind of one of UK music’s biggest hopes.

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ON THE METRO RIDE FROM THE

city to the sea, ghosts emerge in the distance. Relics of a lost industry pepper the horizon as the urban landscape makes way for rural and then slowly back again.

Giant cranes, once responsible for building some of the largest ships in the world, lie dormant and rusting under constant assault from the North Sea air. The sea looms into sight as the Tyne runs its course, one lonely fishing boat returning to the shore with its catch. Walking through North Shields to meet our cover star early one Saturday morning, the town is springing to life. These are the streets, the estates, the pubs and bars that have added so much texture and colour to ‘Hypersonic Missiles’. This is Sam’s town.

These have been strangely tense times for Sam Fender recently. A series of festival cancellations in the early part of summer rang alarm bells, but this week has brought good news. The threat of serious and permanent damage to his vocal cords appears to have subsided, and recovery is well underway.

Armed constantly with a kazoo to aid rehabilitation, and now under a strict new diet (lots of avocados, no beer, two glasses of red wine max), the race is on to get gig-fit for a busy summer. Looking good for the enforced health kick, Sam admits that the recent news has lifted him out of some real moments of despair, though nerves about the impending reaction to his debut album still linger.

Much of ‘Hypersonic Missiles’ is torn from the pages of life in North Shields, familiar moments of high drama captured and frozen in time by a songwriter with a keen eye (and ear) for the tiny detail. The town itself, sitting at the mouth of the Tyne, is like hundreds of other seaside spots up and down the country. It’s the sort of town where, to quote his track ‘Leave Fast’, you either do just that or stay forever.

“I suppose it’s just a blue-collar town, same as most coastal areas,” explains Sam of the place he’s lived his whole life. “There’s a mad juxtaposition between the Shields estates and Tynemouth, which is this tiny blue Tory section, posh and outrageously beautiful. We’ve got some of the most beautiful beaches in the country, really idyllic, but then you’ve got the dead bars and clubs of places like Whitley Bay. It was like the hot place to go, it used to be heaving, and now nobody fucking goes there. It’s all died out.”

With his father a player in the local music club scene in the 1970s, it might seem like no surprise that Sam followed in his footsteps. But

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"HIPSTERS AUTOMATICALLY ASSUME IF YOU’RE ON RADIO 1, THEN YOU MUST BE SHIT"

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it was one musical introduction in particular that first lit the fire that still burns today, a first encounter with someone who he needs no excuse to rave about at length.

“My brother used to drive me down to Manchester for auditions and stuff when I was 15,” begins Sam. “One day I was in the car, and he asked me if I’d heard of Bruce Springsteen. I was like, ‘who?’ So he put on ‘Born To Run’, and it was like baaaam bam-bam-bam-bam, and I just couldn’t stop fucking listening.

I just kept putting it back on; I hammered it. It was the best song I’d ever heard in my life, and it probably still is. He was my age when he wrote that, living on the beach in this tiny little house with a piano in.”

It began a love affair that remains to this day. “I love him; I just love him. All of his stories, all of the characters, you somehow feel like you can be them, even the crazy ones.”

Like all great music, it brought comfort and solace in the darkest periods of life, tracks like ‘Meeting Across The River’ making him feel like he wasn’t alone. “There was a time in my life when my mum was skint, and we were struggling to pay for rent. It was dark, she was very depressed, and I was only 17.

There were times then when I was thinking, what the fuck do I do?

And I contemplated doing some bad things to try and get a lot more

money. Just because I was sick of living like that, and seeing my mum like that.”

His affinity with classic bluecollar rock still holds true. “I’m not from New Jersey or anything, but all of the imagery of the seaside town obviously rings true around here.

Any seaside town really, I feel like a lot of them are rundown because a lot of the attractions are gone.”

Not a natural writer at first, Sam’s storytelling craft was honed in a surprising fashion. “I always had the imagination; I just didn’t know what to do with it. When I was a kid, I was always creating my own Star Wars stories in my head. Fan fiction essentially, but I’d be playing in my house on my own. I’d be swinging this lightsaber around, creating all these mad Jedi’s in my head,” he laughs. “All their backstories, who their master was and everything.

Total. Little. Dork.

“I did the same with Lord of the Rings; I’d draw all the maps and play games with my mates. I got horrendously bullied for it, but it was so worth it. I remember playing with my lightsaber once, and some kids from our school came round the corner, I chucked it under a car and was like ‘Hiya! Nothing going on here!’ As soon as they were gone, I was like, right, get my lightsaber back out. Swoosh.”

With the help of teachers, the writing ability that is so impressive now slowly came to the fore though there is still a sense of Sam not quite believing it. “It still took me a while to get it. And I’m still not a great writer in the ‘classic’ sense; if I sat an English exam today, I’d probably fail it. I’m probably not a good writer, really.”

The evidence says otherwise.

Amongst a collection of keenlyobserved vignettes and short stories, ‘The Borders’ is simply sensational in its themes of domestic violence and what follows from it. Breathtaking in its matterof-fact description of moments of extreme violence, it marks Sam out as a first-rate story-teller and will likely define him and his unique voice for years to come. Former singles ‘Dead Boys’ and ‘Hypersonic Missiles’ discuss male suicide and violence in the Middle East, ‘Two People’ paints a startlingly eloquent picture of love gone wrong in a small town, while ‘You’re Not The Only One’ paints a candid picture of a close friend suffering from mental health issues following tragedies in his personal life.

“The first time I met him, I asked him what he liked doing, and he said ‘I just like setting to fire to things’, and I said ‘cool’. That’s where we started, I hit it off with him then at

"I JUST WANTED TO WRITE SONGS I COULD BELIEVE IN"

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DORK

in him, you genuinely believe immigrants are stealing your job, and then imagine someone coming over and saying you’re a fucking racist because of that. It should all just be about trying to understand peoples’ concerns, and a lot of left-wing people don’t, they just immediately call people thick. They might be clearly ignorant, they might be thick, but that doesn’t give people the right to call them it.

Stuff like that is naturally pushing working class people to the right.”

Shaking his head at the needlessness of it all, he finishes simply. “I think there are a lot of people that are more interested in fighting against people, instead of redirecting it, being smug because they’re more highly educated.”

Dismissing any idea of being seen as a figurehead or spokesman for a generation, he admits to finding the whole online world unsavoury and anxiety-inducing these days. “Everyone reads everything in black and white; it’s like [The 1975’s] Matt Healy says.

‘Like context in a modern debate, I just took it out’. That is the truth; there is no context anymore.

People just jump on a bandwagon, whatever they think it is or what they immediately see, that’s what it is.

“Everybody’s offended, nitpicking all the time. You’ve got people arguing for non-binary gender rights, which I’m all for, and then you’ve got people [Piers Morgan, Twitter fans] saying that Manchester should be called Personchester? Really abstract, silly arguments.”

Admitting to being more guarded in interviews than when he started out, he states: “Definitely, but that comes with the territory, and learning the job. I came into this a naive kid and made a few mistakes along the way.”

As a pop-slash-rock star from the north, Sam has noticed a difference in how he is treated and described in the media. “Everyone likes to play that ‘poor working class boy’ thing, but for the first 14 years of my life when my parents were together, we were pretty cushty.

Probably the last ten years you could consider me that, we were on the breadline for those years. I sometimes cringe when people say I’m working class though.”

Patronised for his accent, he points out that people from Newcastle are regularly ridiculed.

“I am able to laugh at it, but it is strange. People take the piss out of the Geordie accent all of the time. At the BRITs, Jack Whitehall came in and obviously didn’t know what I’d said so just went ‘Why aye

man!’ I get it, but it instantly makes you look like some indecipherable bumbling idiot, do you know what I mean? I actually really like him, but a lot of people say that.

“I guess it’s probably been accentuated because Geordies are everywhere on reality TV. Geordie Shore probably put Geordies on the map again, even if it is in a slightly negative way at times, so when I come around, and I’m doing my music, people are like ‘oh he’s one of them crazy sounding mad bastards from the north east’.”

Thinking about it further, Sam expands. “There’s probably more of a focus on your class if you’re northern. But if you’re a workingclass kid growing up in London, I think it must be harder. My cousin lives in Camden, and it’s tough, he’d been mugged three times by the time he was 13. That’s fucking mental.

“In Newcastle, I’ve been clouted, I’ve had my head kicked in and had unlucky things happen to me, but probably very normal things to happen to a kid anywhere. In a normal place, there are dickheads, and you will be bullied by some of them, it’s all part of life. But being mugged three times by the time you’re 13 is mental.”

It’s just not socially that it comes to play a part, as Sam has also noticed a difference in music opportunities too. “In London, there’s probably music projects and things, a million different colleges or art colleges. Up here, there’s fuck all for the music. Like, fuck all. My brother’s busker nights were the span of my musical career through all of my teenage life. I was staring out to sea and wondering what there was over there.”

Eventually, the big noise from the north was heard in London, where labels scurried to sign him up in a manner that ‘That Sound’ describes scathingly as ‘loaded vampires’ buttering Sam up.

“That was the industry, before I got signed. We were getting our fucking heads chewed off all the time, every night. You can tell they’re on gear, chewing your ears off. Desperate to get that next three-year contract signed, desperate to keep their jobs essentially.”

Back home, the green-eyed beast has also raised its head, but Sam laughs it off. “Everyone knew who I was anyway because I was a lad about town!” Generally, though, fame hasn’t changed things at home too much. “I fucking love it. It’s my place. I used to work down in a pub down there,” he smiles as he points down the hill.

“Everybody in there still treats me

like Sam. They still call me names, slap me with a newspaper, and they’ll always do that. It’s always gonna be my town, and it’s always gonna be my people.”

Talk turns to the future.

Surprisingly, Sam is still not entirely happy with his debut. “I think there was a lot of looking out and pointing at things [on it], being a bit aggressive. Which is fine, I wrote it when I was 19-20, so you’re gonna have a bit of teenage angst in it. It’s naive, and that’s the beauty of it. The second one is going to be much grander, more like ‘The Borders’.”

Laughing, he clarifies. “No, I genuinely think it’s alright. It’s okay. It’s got a couple of stinkers on it, for me.” Whenever he says this, any bandmate in his vicinity shakes their head. “‘Call Me Lover’, it was originally super dark, but the label didn’t like it. They were like, nah, you’ve lost the pop song. I thought my mix was much better, but they said no.”

Playing the original mix, it’s hard to disagree with Sam, the driving mix fitting in more naturally with the heartland rock found elsewhere on ‘Hypersonic Missiles’. But quibbles aside, is the battle between Sam and Lewis Capaldi at the BRIT Awards this year set to continue into 2020?

“Hahaha, fuck knows! I’m not expecting to win anything next time.”

Even as a BRITs winner, Sam occupies a fairly unique place in music but is honest about where he fits in. “I think I’ve been shoehorned into the pop world, and they’ll keep me there as long as it gets them more record sales,” he smiles. “But whatever, it’s an alright place to be. I get to write songs that I believe in. Hipsters automatically assume if you’re on Radio 1, then you must be shit. It’s like people are too scared to put their stamp on you or stand by you, or too scared to say you’re mint as they’re waiting for someone like Pitchfork to say I’m cool. They need to see four stars before they can buy it. But I’m here, pushing songs about mental health or male suicide, and it gets played on Radio 1 to millions of people, and that’s a triumph. I’m lucky in that I’m mainstream without having to act like it.”

Proud of what it means getting these messages out, he continues.

“It’s getting played to people who don’t have time to find music because they’re too busy. The single mothers and stuff like that, real people. These people aren’t wearing woolly hats and sitting outside St Martins University,

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an early age, and we’ve been best mates since,” reminisces Sam with a smile before explaining how some of the personal traumas have affected him. “He’s one of those people who doesn’t fucking talk until it’s a bit too late, he just explodes. So that song is about him coming out of that stage.”

There is no denying that some songs have struck a little too close to the bone, however. There is a noticeable sadness when he talks about the reaction that ‘Poundshop Kardashian’ received in some quarters, a track that was described variously as vile or misogynistic.

“I didn’t want it to be interpreted like it was by a lot of people, so I guess that goes to show that maybe I should have… you can sit and mull over things all day. I could have gone back and revised the lyrics to make it not…” His voice trails away, but it’s clear that what transpired was not what he intended. “I was never that sure about it as a song anyway; it was one of those where I wrote it, and the label said we’ll put it on an EP. “It’s weird though because it became a crowd favourite. It’s not one of my favourite songs by a long stretch, and now I think it’ll probably just slip away. I’ll probably never play it again.”

This time around, his nervousness now rests on one track in particular, ‘White Privilege’, written as a series of characters.

Provocatively jumping into Brexit, it takes aim at all sides with mention of smug liberal arrogance, right-wing bigots, echo chamber social media and the mainstream media feeding lies to the public. In short, it has the potential to offend everybody, and he knows it.

“I am nervous because it is provocative. But writing it as a character gives me the freedom to do that.” Diving straight in, he continues. “It’s not just that you’ve got idiots like Tommy Robinson and Katie Hopkins stirring up crap and making people think that that’s the problem with the country, blaming immigrants. If you tell people enough times that immigrants are stealing their jobs, then it’s gonna become true [in their minds]. But there’s also this real contempt for people who have a different opinion, some real condescending bastards out there on the left too.”

Warming to his theme, he continues. “Even if some people believe in Robinson, I don’t call them a fucking idiot or a racist prick. I’ll ask them why? Ask them, have a conversation with them.

There’s this arrogance sometimes - imagine if you genuinely believed

"I ACT LIKE I DON’T GIVE A FUCK, BUT I DO" smoking a rollie and listening to Pitchfork’s Top 100 Music Playlist. Because they don’t have time, they’ve got kids to raise, jobs to go to. So they get spoon-fed Ed Sheeran, and now they’re getting spoon-fed ‘Dead Boys’ too and maybe that’s a good thing?”

Pop beef fans can stand down, there’s nothing to see here, as that isn’t his intention with the Ginger Prince. “There’s nothing wrong with Ed, and there’s nothing wrong with easy-listening pop music. If it’s making people happy, then that’s fucking great. He’s just too successful, and I’m never gonna get a Number 1 as long as he exists!” he laughs. “Goddamn you, Ed! But seriously, it’s a good thing, and I probably do straddle that line between pop and indie. But fuck me, so did Arctic Monkeys!

Everybody did. People are like, oh my god, guitar music on Radio 1, what the fuck’s going wrong? It’s like, were you not around eight years ago?”

Like most supposed ‘overnight’ sensations, there were many years of gigging and gut-busting to get here, but now he has, fame has seemed to come quicker than expected. “I never wanted to be niche and cool; I just wanted to write songs I could believe in. And I want to play them to as many people as I can.”

Good job too, as ticket sales in his home town on the first day alone equated to a staggering 10% of the population of Newcastle paying their hard-earned cash

to watch him this year. “It’s absolutely daft. We thought it’d be a couple of years to get here, maybe three. It’s great; it’s nuts, it’s exciting. I am so scared,” he laughs.

Nervous too about the album reaction, he is similarly honest. “I always go, ‘I don’t give a fuck what people say’, but I do. I act like I don’t give a fuck, but I do. I just want it just to be received well. I’m like any artist, I want to be liked, and I want to be seen as relatively credible. I want to be like one of my heroes.”

After our interview, we walk with Sam round North Shields as he introduces us to the local sights and environment that have shaped his world. Everywhere we go, he is asked the same questions with concern etched on the faces of those asking. “How are you doing? How’s the voice?” He is told that by one pub punter that he must be famous now, as he was playing in Next.

There is genuine warmth, which turns into hilarious double takes and hushed conversations from starstruck onlookers as we venture up the coast to sample his favourite ice cream parlour (official Dork rating - 5-star, total banger). Sam is in his element throughout, a man at ease with the world.

“Leave fast or stay forever?” he asks rhetorically at one point. “I chose to stay.”

And why not. It’s his town, after all. P

Sam Fender’s debut album ‘Hypersonic Missiles’ is out 13th September.

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E M O Together, Lily Somerville and Megan Markwick are a force to be reckoned with. On Ider’s debut album ‘Emotional Education’, they’re dishing out some life lessons.

Words: Ali Shutler.

N I G H T FOR A HOT SECOND, IDER ARE

get so many knockbacks in the the album didn’t have a concept, general day to day of it.” our relationship and our ability It’s an idea that’s explored on to dig deeper and draw more ‘Swim’. The last song recorded from each other is the root of for their debut album, it looks what we’ve written.” at the anxieties and struggles Sometimes one of them will of chasing dreams and trying write 90% of a song, while the to wrestle them into a workable other acts as an outside voice reality but still finds the and editor who help push things positives. As gruelling as it forward. Other times they sit in sometimes may be, Ider are never a room together and a song “will alone. “I don’t know how solo fall out of us.” artists do it because it’s not easy In its own oddball way, at all,” offers Lily. “Thank god ‘Emotional Education’ is a we’ve got each other.” coming of age record. An album From the get-go, Ider have that takes the saying ‘you’ve had A Sound. Their soul-felt pop got your whole life to write your manages first record’ to comfort to heart, it and energise deals in big and on experiences. debut album Across the ‘Emotional album, Ider Education’, it explore shines with a nostalgic glitzy control. feelings from “The two when they of us figuring were young, out the world “parents, with our heartbreak, music, that’s not knowing Lily Somerville always been who you are, the heart identity crisis’, of Ider. That’s what we pride anxiety and mental health.” ourselves on, but over the years “We didn’t have a conscious we’ve had various ‘who are we?’ vision for the album, but we knew moments of doubt,” admits Lily, we wanted it to say something,” as Megan continues: “The heart continues Megan. “Choosing to of all the music we write and at call it ‘Emotional Education’, the heart of the album, is our it says something. You know friendship and our relationship when you read something, and it with each other. stops and makes you think for a “We’ve been mates for seven second? That’s what we wanted. years now, and we’ve always “The title comes from our played music together. We’ve song ‘Saddest Generation’, and never known friendship without the lyrics ‘where is the emotional music. It’s enabled us to write so education we’re all looking for?’ honestly and in a raw way. While It’s about the world in which

"I don’t know how solo artists do it. Thank god we’ve got each other"

we’re living in but more than that, it’s about the emotional education we offer one another and how the process of writing and recording this album has been such an outlet of personal experiences. We’ve gone through a lot and relayed it in the music.

It’s about the education we’ve learnt from one another, but also the world around us.”

As ‘Clinging To The Weekend’ admits, “we’ve been healing each other’s hearts since the start of this world.” That song was inspired by Lily’s trips back home to the Midlands.

“Some of my girlfriends were having a difficult time, and I found it difficult to leave them and come back to London. You wish your best mates could see themselves the way you see them.

It celebrates the idea that we’ve been in it together since the beginning, we’ve been looking after each other and healing each other’s hearts. There’s a lot of loneliness going on in the world.”

Because of social media and how easy it is to communicate, “There’s a lot of connection on paper, but is that a deep connection?” Lily muses. If everyone’s talking, who’s listening? “This record and us as a band, it’s about our connection with each other, and hopefully that will spread.”

“We want people to relate to it,” adds Megan. “We want them to know they’re not alone in the things that they hear on it and may also be experiencing. We want them to feel connected and empowered.” P Ider’s debut

album ‘Emotional Education’ is out 19th July.

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managing to catch their breath.

They’re currently in a taxi heading from airport to festival venue, and things are just about running on time. Their summer is set to be filled with mad dashes like this as the band bring their emotionally-driven, heart pop to stages around the world. It might be chaotic, but Lily Somerville and Megan Markwick wouldn’t have it any other way.

The band and their friendship started as a group project at University seven years ago, but Ider quickly discovered there was more to explore than good grades. Inseparable since their first performance, the pair have joined forces like some sort of poptastic Megazord to create Ider. The word was meaningless when they first named their band; now it’s who they are when they’re together.

For Lily, being a pop artist was probably always going to happen.

“I was lucky enough to have supportive parents who were always telling me do what you love, and that was music. It felt inevitable that I would want to pursue that.”

For Megan, “it was such a dream [to make music]. I hope this doesn’t come across as corny, but it wasn’t until I met Lily that it actually felt possible.”

The reality is different, though.

“It’s so up and down,” continues Megan.

“We spent the first few years in this blissful world of possibility.

We love playing live, writing together and the whole thing is a passion for us. But it’s hard work.

We’ve worked so hard, and you

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Most people keep themselves to themselves. Maybe, if they’re open, they’ll share those deepest thoughts with a friend.

With her third full-length, Marika Hackman is putting it all out there. Seriously, all of it. Unsurprisingly, it’s also one of the albums of the year so far. We caught up with her to find out exactly what makes a person want to play their parents songs about, y’know. Sex. WORDS: ABIGAIL FIRTH. PHOTOS: PATRICK GUNNING.

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SHE'S THE ONE

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MARIKA HACKMAN IS SO COOL.

across as me being a twat or putting home in my bedroom, and it was just anyone down, it’s supposed to be a let’s get this in here and record this, celebration of that. You don’t hear so it sounds really big, really slick that perspective so much.” and just fucking clear and spacious If you’re familiar with Marika’s and great, and that was the mentality music, you’ll know she has a sweet and going in. He works really quickly, I’d soft voice, previously making topics be like ‘oh should I do maybe ten more like stealing ur girl (‘Boyfriend’) and takes?’ and he’s like ‘no we’ve got euthanasia (‘Time’s Been Reckless’) enough in here, it’s fine’, and it gives on her last record, 2017’s ‘I’m Not it that real immediacy, which is great Your Man’, sound like a dream. because that really reflects the lyrics She knows that too, and has used and what the album sentiment is.” it to her advantage on this album.

The album takes on an innocence She’s playing with her songwriting, beyond its explicit lyrics, speaking to characters and identity, and thinks our childlike instincts and genuine you’ll find it a little shocking. humanity. That’s demonstrated in “I thought it’d be interesting to the title, ‘Any Human Friend’, which hear it from my voice, from a female.

Marika pulled from a Channel 4 I think people see me as quite a soft documentary about young children character, so to see someone like me meeting the elderly in a dementia singing about these kinds of things home. in that way, whether that will be “I was watching it with my friend shocking. I’m interested to see what Meg, and she cut to this bit, she was the kind of response to that would like ‘you have to hear what this little be, if people do find it shocking, well girl says, it’s so sweet’. So there are why? Because you hear it all the time, two little girls talking about their but does that suddenly become this experience of the week, and she’s different narrative that’s like ‘ooh talking to them like ‘oh have you you shouldn’t be singing about that’ made any friends?’ and the one goes, or anything, I’m ‘yeah I’ve made interested to see lots of friends’, how that goes then the other down, but I think goes ‘oh even with it’ll be a good the old people’, thing.” and the other girl It wouldn’t a goes ‘yeah any new era without human friend’. a new sound now, I just thought would it? ‘Any that childlike Human Friend’ sense before you is Marika taking get cynical and on her most browbeaten by life synth-pop sound and all the sadness yet. It’s slick and that’s in it, to just Marika Hackman shiny and new. come out with this There’s an actual idea of any human guitar solo on it (!!), it’s bold and friend, it’s like, yeah anyone. Anyone direct, it’s fucking fantastic. “When I can be that. was writing it, it felt poppier, so I was “So going on that narrative of this like ‘oh this is where it’s going’, and album stripping back to all different the treatment of that in the studio aspects of the character, whether was ‘let’s not shy away from this’. they’re good or bad, to put that out When I was first writing, when I was there, open that up, and hope that a kid, I was like ‘I don’t wanna be pop’, people are like, oh I have felt like that and as I got older I was like ‘well I before and actually, that’s ok. Other love pop music’. The reason it’s pop people feel like that. We should all be is that it’s popular, and it reaches a supporting each other at the moment wider audience, and people connect because the world is quite terrifying.” with it, and that’s an amazing thing. If If she’s got one wish for the album, you can harness that energy and still it’s RSVP. The past two years are in keep your integrity and remain true to the record, and she hopes you’ve got what you’re saying, that’s the ultimate something to say about it too. “I don’t combo. write music for myself, I don’t write “It felt like it was maybe time to it for other people, but I write it for challenge myself and step out of that a conversation, I write it for a wider comfort zone, so I worked with David narrative. Having to wait for that Wrench, who is known within the response, on the 9th August, that’s industry for having, like, the best ears. when the conversation starts, that’s It was a co-production, the first time when I actually open the dialogue, I’ve had that role, which is quite an and I can finally have the other side intimidating label, but stepping into of the story.” P Marika Hackman’s album ‘Any Human Friend’ is out 9th it felt quite natural. It was just about August. taking these parts that I’d written at

"Even the bits where I might come across as a complete dickhead, it’s important to share that"

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Like, not try hard cool either. She’s wearing a leather jacket and smoking a cigarette and talking about wanking like it’s the morning weather forecast.

(Dork wishes we were this cool, but you know, there’s a reason we’re called Dork).

Her third record, ‘Any Human Friend’ is almost out in the world, and it’s about as brave as you can get. She’s stripped bare on the cover, down to her knickers with a baby pig covering her boobs, and the songs detail breakups, self-discovery, and… yeah, lots of ‘self-discovery’.

“I mean, I feel brave. I felt brave doing it. I feel brave putting it out,” she says. “I don’t feel nervous, but I feel like it’s a lot, it’s kind of exposing, and it’s exposing parts that people maybe don’t always wanna see. It’s kind of every facet of my human character, so even the bits where I might come across as a complete dickhead, it’s important to share that, and that’s the whole idea of the record.

“We all have our ups and downs, and we all make mistakes, and we all do things wrong, and it’s okay, I kinda wanna get that message out there. So sometimes some of those lyrics come out, and it was a bit nerve-wracking, but I learned with ‘Boyfriend’ on the last album, I had that feeling, and it was so worth it, so I’ve learnt that that’s a good thing to be a bit intimidated by what you’re creating.”

How could she find anything intimidating after showing the track ‘all night’ to her parents? She assures us they’re both supportive and happy to rip the shit out of her lyrics, but they’ll never judge her.

Good job too, because this record really is a deep dive into Marika’s personal psyche. While she’s always told honest stories with her songs, ‘Any Human Friend’ is her most candid work yet, speaking directly about the queer, female experience.

“I can’t fabricate stuff because people know, they can sense bullshit a mile off. So I think talking about my experience, hopefully, it’s that thing where the younger generation or people who are struggling with their sexuality at whatever age can listen to that, and it gives a voice within everything.”

“Masturbation is an interesting topic. ‘hand solo’ is about masturbating and I love the lyrics of that song, it’s so funny. I think it’s nice to hear women singing really directly about sex and their own sexualities; it’s really empowering.

And the way I sing about having sex with women, it’s explicit but it’s not in a derogatory way, it’s all about that experience from both sides, and that’s important to me that it doesn’t come

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KIM POSS -IBLE Kim Petras is a banger machine. ‘Do Me’, ‘Heart To Break’, ‘Feeling of Falling’, ‘I Don’t Want It At All’ - it’s just pop hit after pop hit. With the release of her new project ‘Clarity’, she’s well and truly arrived.

“I feel real confidence now,” she explains, “and that’s really amazing.”

WORDS: ABIGAIL FIRTH.

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IF YOU COULD BOTTLE THE

millennial American dream – fame, fortune, love, and the risk of losing it all in an instant – you’d probably get Kim Petras. When she burst onto the pop scene in 2017 with single ‘I Don’t Want It At All’, she was debuting as a pop star that had spent over half a decade writing songs for other artists, and the first taste of Petras pop we got was a bubblegum ode to superficiality and sugar daddies.

She spent most of her first ‘era’ singing about everything she wanted to be, but on her first full length – not album – project, Kim is ready to open up more.

“My first era was when I didn’t think I could ever be a pop star,” she says from across the pond on her US headline tour. “I was just a songwriter for other people in LA, and I wasn’t feeling confident in myself. I didn’t think I was good enough; I didn’t think I was pretty enough. I didn’t think my songs were good enough, all of those things. I love all of those songs about what I’ve wanted to be like, like this super confident, bratty pop girl. I was blown away when people reacted well.

“Once I found my fans I felt more confident and was like ‘ok people actually wanna listen and hear what’s going on in my brain’, so this one, ‘Clarity’, is much more of that. Obviously, Kim Petras it’s still larger than life; it’s not depressing.

I was going through something, I’ve been cheated on, I felt really bad, and for me, I’ve always gone into the studio, reflected on what’s happened to me, and figured out how I actually feel. I’m just hoping people can relate to this, that people who are going through the same thing can enjoy it and not feel alone.”

She’s right. It’s not depressing, she hasn’t lost the hyper-catchy choruses that caught our attention, ‘Got My Number’ is quite easily one of the biggest bops of the year, ‘Personal Hell’ is so ‘Blackout’ Britney, and ‘Clarity’, ‘Icy’ and ‘Meet The Parents’ are real bad bitch anthems. “Face facts, I make more than your dad,” she sings on the latter; that’s growth.

“I feel like I’ve grown so much. I’m a much better songwriter than I was, I mean I’m always trying to improve and trying to write better songs, but I’ve evolved, for sure, just evolved into a different person, and I feel real confidence now, and that’s one thing that’s really amazing.”

But of course, the first single from the project was ‘Broken’, and there was a lot of rubbish Kim had to go through, mostly while on the road

with Troye Sivan late last year, to get back to herself.

“But at the same time, I don’t feel confident all the time, I feel like trash sometimes, and that’s something that’s really important to say, I’m not always happy, and nobody is, and I think it’s a good thing to know that. I want my fans to know that.

“I started feeling lost, and in my personal life, I didn’t know what to do. When I wrote the song [‘Clarity’], I felt like I’d found a clarity in my life and what I wanted to do, and found that the only place I wanna be is in the studio and on the road. I would not let anything else bother me, just my interest and my drive and my career.

This project was like getting back to myself and not letting relationships define me, and finding out what I wanna be and what I wanna do.”

If you were wondering why we heard so much of the project before its release, it’s because Kim wants you to hear it all NOW. She knows exactly what she’s doing too, quickly building her Bunhead army by releasing songs every month in era one, and upping it to one a week for the ‘Clarity’ project.

“We were feeling adventurous. I felt like putting a song out every month until the project came out. I did a song a month last year, and it worked well for me, it was a really good concept.

During the age of streaming, it’s changing so much that to constantly release new music, for me as a new artist it works better as a strategy to just drop something because it keeps you on top of people’s minds.

“So I decided on one a week, and when I’d decided on the twelve songs that we wanted for the album, we’d just finish them and put them out as fast as possible, so we put one out each week. At the beginning of the year, everyone was like ‘don’t do it’, but I felt like it was a good thing.”

It’s part of the reason she’s stayed independent; she doesn’t have to answer to anyone other than herself.

“Also labels were unsure about working with me because I’m transgender, so signing to a label wasn’t a great option for me, everyone kind of had a problem with me being transgender, or wanted to make it a big deal. I’m independent, so I’m making my own art, and I can be in charge of my own career, and I can do my own work because I don’t have a huge machine behind me doing everything and writing my songs, so I really get to do it exactly the way I wanna do it.”

Rest assured, this is not the last we’ve heard of Kim Petras this year either. ‘Clarity’ is a ‘project’ because

"I didn’t think I could ever be a pop star"

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Kim Petras

her full-length album is still to come. “It’s my first body of work, so I’m calling it a project, later on, I’m putting out as an album, but I just wanna see how this does before I put anything out there calling it an album,” she says. So with ‘Era 1’, ‘TURN OFF THE LIGHT VOL. 1’ (a Halloween EP she released in 2018), and ‘Clarity’, she’ll have released effectively three albums worth of material without ever releasing an official album. The other pop girls are TRULY shaking.

You’ll be able to catch her on her ‘Broken’ tour in the UK over the Summer, at her London headline show, Manchester Pride or Reading and Leeds.

“Well, I’m gonna sing all of my songs, pretty much. It’s my first time on a headlining tour; it’s my first time doing the tour I’ve always wanted to do, after being a supporting act for a really long time for other people. I’ve been a sub for a long time, going on club tours, so this time I get to make it my own show, which is really exciting.” Woo ah! P Kim Petras’s new project ‘Clarity’ is out now.

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"I don’t feel confident all the time, I feel like trash sometimes that’s really important to say"

R EG R E T T E S Lydia Night and co. are truly the coolest gang in town. Their second album ‘How Do You Love?’ sees The Regrettes round out their punky sound of old with a vintage pop worthy of repeat plays all through the summer months and beyond.

WORDS: ABIGAIL FIRTH.

LYDIA NIGHT IS A TOUGH

cookie; she’s just gone a bit softer in the middle now. On The Regrettes’ second album ‘How Do You Love?’ they’re sweet and salty, telling the story of our character falling in and out of love, delivering banger after banger along the way.

There’s not just love on the brain though. In the two years since the release of their debut album ‘Feel Your Feelings Fool!’, The Regrettes have opened the main stage at Reading & Leeds, toured with Twenty One Pilots, had all of their gear nicked in the process, lost a bassist and got two new ones, and released an EP AND numerous singles and covers. Not bad for Lydia, who’s barely out of high school.

So we call up our California friends (lol) for a little catch-up, and to find out some more about their new record.

Hey Lydia! What can you tell us about the new album?

The new album is a love story, and it’s more of a cautionary tale or leads on that side of it, and we want people to listen in order for sure.

It’s a bit of a different vibe from the last one, the last one was like “fuck u!!” and now it’s like “luv u”.

It’s more of a mature record, did that happen naturally?

Yeah, I think it happened naturally, but we also did wanna make sure our second record wasn’t too similar to the first. The music we were writing wasn’t that similar to the first anyway, so that was easy to do, but there was a conscious decision just to let ourselves make the music that we wanted to make.

On the first album, you’d mentioned you’d written a lot of the songs yourself before it was even going to be a record. Was it the same for this one?

For this one, it was more of a collaboration. Some of the songs I wrote with our producer Mike, some of the songs we all wrote together as a band, just a big mix. A lot of them I still wrote alone, but it’s definitely more of a collaboration.

What sort of inspiration did you have for it?

Just life experience, it’s all based on life experience. Some of it’s more exaggerated than others, but it’s all come from different relationships that I’ve been in.

I think right now my favourite would be ‘Colouring Book’, but it’s changing, it’s a constant changing thing, but that’s what’s been stuck in my head.

I wanted to talk about the opening part because it’s so sweet. Was that a poem you wrote?

Aw, thank you! Yeah, I didn’t know what it was gonna turn into at first, and then I just thought it’d be the perfect pre-album thing to have, to set up the story and have the listener like ready, prepared for this journey.

And I like that it comes back to it at the end but from a different perspective. Was that intentional?

Thank you! Yeah, oh yeah the whole thing was intentional.

How long have you been working on the record?

I mean, working on it and writing and everything, kind of since our first album came out, a little after I wanna say, so a few years. We only started recording it though a year ago.

Who were you working with on it this time?

annoying shit ever. But that’s like less now everyone’s getting older, and we’re more established now, people tend not to do that now which is great.

some point. It wears on you no matter what. I’m a person who can tour and enjoy touring, and not everyone is, but it wears on you at a point.

Were those kind of comments part of the reason you wanted to write feminist songs in the beginning?

And you guys toured with twenty one pilots as well, how was that?

I never directly thought about it in that way, I mean I’m sure yes, because that’s the shit that I was going through and I would just talk about what I was going through in an honest way, and I feel like that’s where it came from. So I’m sure it was a reflection of that.

"The new album is a love story, it’s a cautionary tale" Lydia Night

Mike Elizondo, who actually produced our first album and produced our second, but did a great job of having it like sound sonically totally new. It still feels true to who we are, but it takes on a new and fresh outlook and approach to it.

You’re on your second album at 18, which not many people manage. Is it all work and no play for you guys?

True. It’s a combo, we, on tour, have so much fun that it feels like play a lot of the time anyways because we all get along so well and are super close, so it doesn’t feel too much like work. I mean there’s definitely a lot of hard work involved, and like mostly that, but we have fun.

How do you guys feel about people bringing up your ages, do you ever feel like you’re underestimated?

I mean the only time it’s annoying, or the main time, is when they call us all teenagers because I’m literally the only one underage.

Like, I’m the only teenager, and I’m also an adult now, so if we get called a teen band, it’s the most

How did you feel at the beginning of the last album cycle, being called the new face of riot grrl?

I mean, honoured to be associated with that. That’s so inspiring to me as a writer, the riot grrl movement and all of the bands involved in that, so to be a new face to it for people is insane and so cool.

Did you ever feel like you had any expectations to live up to?

I mean, you just have to be very aware of what you say and how you act, because if there are young women and humans looking at you and looking up to you and dissecting what you do, you can’t be naïve and ignorant to that and pretend like nobody’s watching, when they are. There’s a responsibility that follows that.

Let’s talk a bit about the tour because you’ve had a bit of a turbulent time in the UK. Has that ever deterred you from touring?

It’s an up and down thing for me.

There are moments where I love it, and there are moments when, you can’t not feel homesick at

So much fun, it was incredible.

It’s insane being part of this crazy operation. I’ve never seen such production like that, so seeing it behind the scenes and seeing it all was super inspiring and cool.

They do some amazing stuff live.

When are you guys touring this record?

We’re doing a lot of touring for this album. We actually have about three months of touring. For the rest of the year, we’re doing a July run across the States, and we’re going to Japan, coming back, having two weeks off, then setting off on the beginning of our album cycle tour here (US), and across the UK and Europe in November quite a bit.

Is that festival season too?

We’re not doing many festivals, not this year. We’re doing Summer Sonic in Japan, which is a really cool festival there.

Let’s end on something silly. If the album was a dessert, what would it be?

I’d say it’d be a cake, because there are many layers to it and many different parts. It’d be like one of those cakes that’s filled with sprinkles – you know like those viral cake videos where they cut it open, and there’s this rainbow of craziness in the middle? I think it’d be like dark chocolate on the outside and then like vanilla rainbow sprinkles on the inside because it gets to the point of being like ‘I’m gonna feel all these things and learn from them’. P The Regrettes’ album ‘How Do You Love?’ is out 9th August.

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Totally, but it also turns into that, I think it shows that it’s not all love songs that’s for sure, it’s developmental, there are a lot of changes in feelings and it kind of walks you through that.

Do you have a favourite track on the record?

INCOMING THE ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO YOUR NEW MUSIC FRIDAYS

Banks III

12THTHJUNE 7 JULY2019 2019

Going back. Back. .

F**king back

ent to print’, As this issue ‘w bel’s album Ma ed rn lea we ck to the 2nd ba ing pp sli s wa ough time to August. Not en ts, but enough redo our layou is badge on. time to stick th ords Adjust your rec Dear appropriately, Reader.

eeee

AS ONE OF THE BLOGSTARS OF

yore, Banks has seen so many of her peers wash up against the shores of hype. With ‘III’, there’s little to no chance of her joining them. A record that rumbles, thumps and glitters in all the right places, it provides the perfect counterpoint to a vocal powerful enough to stop a moving vehicle. ‘Gimme’ is a genuine master class in modern pop, too. Third time, it turns out, is definitely a charm.

Stephen Ackroyd

Bleached

Don’t You Think You’ve Had Enough?

eeee

48

WITH ‘THE AGE OF ANXIETY’, AN

Mabel eeee FIRST ALBUMS ARE TRICKY,

no matter who you are. But when you’ve sold out Brixton and had two platinum singles before you’ve released your debut, the pressure not to put a foot wrong is off the charts.

It’s to Mabel’s credit that ‘High Expectations’, her first studio album, knocks it out of the park.

‘Bad Behaviour’, the first proper track (track one is an intro) is classic Mabel – a volatile mix of pop and RnB with ‘massive hit single’ plastered all over it. The previously released ‘Don’t Call Me Up’ follows, a one-two punch of flawless chart material that shows exactly why Mabel has had no trouble racking up millions of streams.

AUGUST 2019

DORK

album of personal progression, Bleached’s latest full length ‘Don’t You Think You’ve Had Enough?’ is a record of crystal clear clarity.

Created from a platform of sobriety, it might seem pious to observe Jessie and Jennifer Clavin have never sounded so sharp, powerful and direct, but it doesn’t stop it being true. From opener ‘Heartbeat Away’, Bleached drive straight for the bullseye. ‘Hard To Kill’ struts and shimmies to a disco beat, while ‘Rebound City’ tub-thumps with wild abandon. There’s no hangover here - Bleached sound fresher than ever. Stephen Ackroyd

High Expectations After the opening salvo comes ‘FML’, a classic tale of love and heartbreak that also features Mabel soulfully lamenting “Fuck my life” over and over in the chorus. It’d be noteworthy for that alone, but it’s also an absolute banger, even if it’s not entirely clear how they plan on making a clean version for radio.

It’s a strong start, but the album stalls in the middle with a run of songs which, while not bad by any means, blend together without much to separate them. ‘We Don’t Say’, ‘Selfish Love’ and ‘Trouble’ all sound more like bonus tracks or B-sides than album material, and with the album clocking in at 14 tracks, a bit more curation

wouldn’t have gone amiss.

Luckily ‘High Expectations’ pulls itself back into gear for the final few songs, with ‘Put Your Name on It’ standing with the best of Mabel’s output and the stunning ‘OK’ managing to talk frankly and emotionally about mental health without devolving into a downbeat, melodramatic ballad.

With so many hit singles before the album, Mabel could have just put them all on the debut, sat back and watched the streaming figures comes rolling in. Instead, she’s released a fresh body of work that stands up with the best of her output.

It isn’t perfect, but it certainly lives up to expectations, no matter how high. Jake Hawkes

K. Flay

Solutions

eeeee

HAVE YOU HAD A TOUGH YEAR

so far? Stupid question, really. But, it’s all going to be okay now. K.Flay is here, and she has ‘Solutions’. Taking cues from hip hop, alt-pop, emo and electro, the album explores K. Flay’s recent swagger out of the grasp of darkness. The record kicks off with a trio of defiant, bright-side bops, but there’s tenderness too, like the bass-y siren-synthed ‘Sister’, and ‘Nervous’, about being flush with the anxieties of new love. Despite the bleak indictment of our current state, 2019 feels better already. Liam

Konemann

INCOMING

some sort of connection to it. Nothing makes us happier than when people tell us that a certain song meant a great deal to them and helped get them through a tough time. It’s amazing.

We never dreamt that our music could ever have that effect on people. I have a feeling people are going to connect with the new album. The songs are about things that everyone goes through at some time or another. I hope the fans who’ve been with us from the start see our journey with this new one - where we’ve been and where we’re at now mentally and emotionally.

Penelope Isles

Until The Tide Creeps In

eeee

JOINING A BAND WITH ONE OF

your siblings can often go one of two ways: anarchy (yes Oasis, we are looking at you), or a perfect meeting of minds. Thankfully Jack and Lily Wolter of Brighton’s Penelope Isles would seem to be very much the latter on the evidence of this lush and dreamy debut. Considering the album title, and the coastal background of the Wolters, life by the shore ripples through everything here.

Much of ‘Until The Tide Creeps In’ seems to exist in a dream state, one where themes and thoughts drift intangibly just out of reach, aided in part by the sheer ambiguity to Jack’s lyrics. With an unhurried vibe, the record flitters freely and goes where it will.

Don’t expect everything to be revealed upon first listen, but just as surely as the tide, each fresh visit uncovers something new.

Dive in. Jamie MacMillan

How did you find the recording process, did you pick up any new tips or tricks in the studio?

We called up Palace frontman Leo Wyndham to find out more about ‘Life After’.

Palace eee

Life After

IN MANY WAYS, PALACE

could feel like a throwback to a simpler, more organic time. An indie band shrouded in rich, textured depth, they sit as a counterpoint to a culture obsessed with the short, sharp, shareable soundbite moment. What could be seen as being out of time, though, is also a potential antidote. Indeed, it’s easy to get lost inside ‘Life Itself’. The band’s second full-length, following up on 2016 debut ‘So Long Forever’, runs at its own pace. With the luxury of

space to spread out, it flows from one lush, sweeping moment to another. That’s not to say there’s no drive or immediacy, mind. ‘Younger’ shows both sides of the coin - an intricate, swooning verse that climaxes in a pounding, exhilarating chorus - while ‘Martyr’ could be Foals in their most intimate, affecting moments. An album for more than just the flick through, easy skip nature of streaming culture, ‘Life Itself’ is a record built to last. Stephen Ackroyd

Also ‘out’ this week...

Africa Express (feat.

Damon Albarn) EGOLI Bloc Party Silent Alarm Live Ed Sheeran No.6 Collaborations Project Glitterer Looking Through

the Shades Gauche A People’s History of Gauche Lights Skin&Earth Acoustic METZ Automat

Words: Sam Taylor Tell us about the conception of ‘Life After’, how quickly did you crack on after releasing ‘So Long Forever’? How were you all feeling?

To use an incredibly annoying word - it all happened quite organically.

It wasn’t really a sit-down and brainstorm concepts and ideas for the record kinda thing. It happened very naturally really - and like all our songs I think rather than pre-planning themes and moods they just reflect us in that moment - what we’re going through and experiences we’re having. It’s all very fluid, natural and unspoken the directions we take.

It’s funny because after the album is done, you sit back, and THEN you realise what it’s all about and what you were going through. It’s only on reflection that that bottled chapter of your life is kind of clear as to what was going on. The second one is really about hope whereas the first one was clearly about loss.

What do you hope listeners will take away from the record?

I guess we just hope people have

Have you worked out a new live show for the November tour?

Confetti, pyrotechnics, giant stage props? What can we expect?

One ridiculous drunken idea we had once for our live show in the tour bus was that instead of playing normal shows we might each take a 25-minute slot and give a kind of Ted Talk thing.

Matt would give a Sushi Making Masterclass, Rupert would give a Judo Demonstration, Paul would discuss the Pros and Cons of Microsoft Word, and I would talk about the History and Origins of Uno. No, but seriously we’re working on some big, big stuff for the November tour. All-out for sure. We plan to make them the greatest and biggest shows we’ve ever played.

Playing the Roundhouse is huge, is that a bucket list venue for you?

Have you been to any notable gigs there yourselves?

It’s a total dream come true. When we started out, I had two venues that I loved in London and dreamt of playing. One was Shepherd’s Bush Empire which we managed to play, and the other was the Roundhouse. It’s the thing of dreams to play there. P

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Q+A

It was an amazing experience. We worked with three different producers in Catherine Marks, Luke Smith and Dani Spragg. It was intense but an incredible learning process. Catherine taught us to seek the heart of the song and build it around that, Luke taught us to think outside the box and experiment and Dani taught us to have fun and that imperfections are special too. We definitely lost our minds at points - but that’s standard, really. When you’ve played the same guitar part 75 times, it slightly loses its spontaneity and joy. We also got to see Ed O’Brien from Radiohead in the studio a couple of days as he was recording his own album next door. I saw him once in the hall and slightly puked in my mouth and stared at him like a psychopathic owl.

19TH JULY 2019

INCOMING

Ider eeee

Emotional Education

Sum 41

Order In Decline

eee

50

SUM 41 HAVE BEEN ‘THROUGH’

the ‘wringer’, that’s for sure.

But, with frontman Deryck Whibley firmly back in the saddle, they’re a band riding the wave of resurgence. In an era of rock where those turn of the millennium icons still command the limelight, they manage to sound fresher than most of their peers. Their mix of pop-punk and something more barbed might stick to the same formula it did when they first burst onto the scene, but it’s still enough to hit their mark. Dan Harrison

Thom Yorke ANIMA

eeee

THOM YORKE CAN DO WHAT HE

wants. Which is just as well, because what he wants - new solo effort ‘Anima’ - is really good.

Matched with a Paul Thomas Anderson short film built for both enjoyment and maximum meme-ism, it’s a record instantly recognisable as peak Thom.

‘The Axe’, in particular, is one of the strongest things Yorke has produced in years - atmospheric, deliberate, and so very him. What more could you ask for? Dan Harrison

Also ‘out’ this week...

Babybird Photosynthesis Crown the Empire Sudden Sky The Flaming Lips King’s Mouth Freya Ridings Freya Ridings Generationals Reader As Detective Goon Heaven is Humming Steven Battelle Midnight Between Months AUGUST 2019

DORK

MUCH OF MODERN LIFE IS

wrapped up in identity. Am I the best person I can be? What defines me? Do I actually deserve everything I have? When the idea of imposter syndrome becomes more prevalent, and discussions around mental health become more open, there seems to be an even greater need to find out who we are.

IDER’s debut album, ‘Emotional Education’, is wholly concerned with this interior struggle. Comprised of Megan Markwick and Lily Somerville, IDER have made a trade in honest and often cutting tracks that bristle with energy.

From body issues to trying to rediscover yourself after devoting yourself so completely to someone else, the London duo are not afraid to go deep.

‘You’ve Got Your Whole Life Ahead Of You Baby’ is the most evident of this, with the duo trying to understand why your twenties feel so terrifying. Here, they understand that self-reflection is often self-destruction; constantly worrying yourself by questioning why you did this instead of that, or trying to figure out just what the future will hold.

The duo’s vocal power never fails to impress. Rarely do they sing without the other in tow, becoming one voice and an instrument in its own right.

Even if a song is distinctly personal to one, they both tackle it with the same emotion and energy. A strong belief that a load shared is a load halved, this isn’t just chemistry for chemistry’s

sake; this is two people who have each other’s backs.

‘Emotional Education’ is something of a middle finger to those who think these worries are just millennial whinings.

It’s not hard to feel like you’re drifting on a sea of anxieties when you’re constantly being told by tabloids and previous generations that what you feel isn’t real.

But, here, IDER dispel the idea that these are idle concerns, that they are instead real and justified, but also that you’re not the only one experiencing it. From ‘Mirror’ to ‘You’ve Got Your Whole Life Ahead Of You Baby’, the record offers no quick fixes, simply reassurance. And sometimes that’s all you need.

Chris Taylor

Kaiser Chiefs eeee

Duck

LOOK, THERE’S NO BEATING

Guy Walks Into A Bar...

eeee

FUN IS, LET’S BE HONEST HERE,

an underrated pastime. Music loves to dwell on the difficult or challenging, but with ‘Guy Walks Into A Bar...’, Mini Mansions have no interest in fulfilling either of those so-called-higher callings. Instead, they’re here to be positively riotous. From opener ‘Should Be Dancing’, the stage is set. Embrace the abandon - this is blockbuster stuff. Stephen Ackroyd

Clairo Of Monsters and Men Fever Dream

eeeee

Immunity

eee

IF YOU WERE EXPECTING THE

first album in four years from Icelandic folk-pop connoisseurs Of Monsters and Men to be a continuation of their dual-harmony kitsch, you’ll be duly disappointed.

A squeaky clean indie-pop spongebath, ‘Fever Dream’ is a beautiful explosion of colour which radiates the more you listen. Jack

Press

Also ‘out’ this week...

Angie McMahon Salt Florist Emily Alone Lloyd Cole Guesswork Maneka Devin Night Riots New State of Mind

IS SAD GIRL AN OFFICIAL

genre? If it is, Clairo has mastered it. Few artists have such a natural sorrow in their voice, but on Claire Cottrill’s debut album, that voice is front and centre, floating alongside lo-fi guitars and hazy synthesisers.

That’s not to say that’s a bad thing; it’s quite the opposite. On ‘Immunity’, her endearing heartache is transformed, taking the sub-par production of her previous EP’s (recordings that were the very definition of bedroom pop), and turning them into sprawling studio jobbies.

The first taster of which we got on ‘Bags’, a slick, shoegazey number that sparkles and dulls at the same time. “Pardon my emotions, I should probably keep it all to myself”, she sings. Christ, if this was the first single, she definitely isn’t holding back on the rest of the album tracks.

Her vulnerability is never compromised in her songwriting, instead its empowered. ‘White Flag’ is peak Clairo, as she warbles “I was fifteen when I first felt loneliness”, but the odd upbeat tracks are the real standouts.

‘Closer To You’ might be as close to a banger as we get from her, with it’s autotuned vocals and rattling high hats, and ‘Sofia’ is not only a welcome change of pace, but a gorgeous ode to another girl, that has a subtle anger in it’s “you and I shouldn’t feel like a crime” hook.

While her first EP was titled ‘Diary 001’, it sort of feels like ‘Immunity’ is the real open book. It’s more than just a great little collection of songs, it’s a young woman’s journey, from her teens into her twenties. It’s laying everything out in the open so she’s untouchable.

Abigail Firth

Also ‘out’ this week...

Fever Ray Live at the Troxy Francis Lung A Dream Is U Haiku Salut The General Little Boots Jump EP Mosa Wild Talking In Circles EP

Northlane Alien Ty Segall First Taste Slaughter Beach, Dog Safe And Also No Fear

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51

around the bush, it’s quite possible that the mid-00s aren’t actually cool anymore. Even as The Killers headline Glastonbury, that middecade scene of indie dominance feels further and further from the truth of 2019 with each passing musical trend. And yet, in so many ways, Kaiser Chiefs’ grip on the zeitgeist was never actually based on that aloof sense of the now. Not really. A band that were born out of a city that, sure, for a hot minute felt on the cusp of something genuinely ‘edgy’, they’ve also always drawn on something more timeless.

As rooted in classic Madness, Kinks and distinctly British pop, ‘Duck’ is perhaps as close to their initial pomp as t’Chiefs have come since. Presented in bold technicolour, and drenched in frontman Ricky Wilson’s instinctive charm, it’s a record that’s all set to go big or go home.

That sense of self-aware humour is as whip-smart as ever. ‘Golden Oldies’ is a knowing nod that’s way smarter than the punchlines a less forgiving audience would write, while ‘People Know (How To Love One Another)’ is the sound of a band grasping for that unifying call they perfected with their breakthrough moment. ‘Target Market’ is a reminder that this isn’t just a band for the bombastic, but it’s closer ‘Kurt v Frasier (The Battle For Seattle)’ that really stands out. A bouncing bop packed with wry smiles, nostalgia and genuine warmth, Kaiser Chiefs are a band comfortable in their own skin. There’s nothing cooler than that. Stephen Ackroyd

Mini Mansions

2ND AUGUST 2019

26TH JULY 2019

INCOMING

9TH AUGUST 2019

INCOMING

Broken Hands Split In Two

eee

THE STORY OF BROKEN HANDS

doesn’t fit your usual identikit narratives. The Canterbury rockers released their debut back in 2015, but after a spell away working in the shadows, find themselves signed to a Big Deal record company and charging for new, shinier horizons. They’ve definitely applied the polish to ‘Split In Two’, an album festooned with the various trinkets of Ambitious Brit Rock. ‘Friends House’ ticks the broody box well, while ‘Lazarus’ is dripping in attitude. An album which more than clears the bar, but perhaps needs to offer up something more inventive to win the race.

Stephen Ackroyd

52

Gaffa Tape Sandy Family Mammal EP

eeee

STARTING WITH THE

Marika Hackman eeeee CAN WE DECLARE AN INDIE-

pop state of emergency? Yes? Good. Sound the alarms then.

Step down, all you beard-oil man bands of yore. We are now entering Marika Hackman country. Her new record Any Human Friend sees her not so much as ‘return’ but glide in on a parade float having triumphed in the Great Indie Wars. Okay, we’re making ourselves giddy here. But the point stands: Marika Hackman is sharper and somehow more unapologetically herself than ever.

On ‘Any Human Friend’ AUGUST 2019

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Any Human Friend

assertion (from a small child, no less) that your band makes - quote - “banging tunes” is quite the power play, but there’s nothing in Gaffa Tape Sandy’s latest offering to dispell the notion. From the pounding, infectious, razorembedded bubblegum of ‘Beehive’ onwards, they’re a band who revel in the direct hit. ‘Meathead’ drips with attitude, while ‘So Dry’ is a staggering, swaying delight, punch drunk on its own brilliance.

Pushing through the gates on strength of personality alone, there’s something winningly loveable about Gaffa Tape Sandy.

It’s probably those banging tunes.

Stephen Ackroyd

she burrows deeper under her own skin, stepping over the outer boundary of what was previously a comfort zone. ‘all night’ reclaims sex between women from the fetishistic male gaze, harmonic and sweet but truthful about - and taking rightful ownership of - queer female intimacy. Later, the outstandingly titled ‘hand solo’ is just as blunt, its bristling guitars and Marika’s glam vocal turning a surprising song about solo sex into an all-out banger. This is an all-in type of deal, so in some places, Marika addresses particularly painful

topics. ‘send my love’ stems from internalised shame, while the tremendous ‘i’m not where you are’ describes dismantling an emotional connection after the breakdown of a relationship.

Frankly, ‘Any Human Friend’ is all bangers, all the time. The Blondie-esque ‘the one’ is by Marika’s own account likely the most ‘pop’ song she’s ever written, but there is not a single low point on the album.

Really, we’re not exaggerating here. Marika Hackman for President of Everything. Liam

Konemann

The Regrettes eeee

How Do You Love?

SOME BANDS JUST FEEL

fresher than the rest.

Y’know, cooler. That’s The Regrettes all over. The kind of people that make us think their gang would be riotous fun to be a part of, we’re basically just hoping for an invite.

‘How Do You Love?’ may not be a perfect album, but that’s in part its charm.

Far more concerned with splashing the colour than always staying carefully within the lines, it’s primed for the summer sun.

Never better than when they’re baring their teeth, those moments when The

Regrettes let rip are by far their strongest. The abandon of ‘California Friends’’ chorus or the stomp of ‘Dress Up’ feel truly infectious, but even in their less rambunctious moments, they’re a band with an ear for the salted and sweet combination.

It’s that certain indefinable something that really sets The Regrettes apart, though. In Lydia Night, they’re a band with a focal point that truly captures the moment.

There’s no Mean Girls spirit here. Stephen Ackroyd

Also ‘out’ this week...

Acres Lonely World Crushed Beaks The Other Room Fionn Regan Cala Kevin George My Darling’s A

Demon Ra Ra Riot Superbloom Seeker Lover Keeper Wild Seeds Slipknot We Are Not Your Kind

These albums are coming soon, ‘FYI’ 16TH AUGUST Blanck Mass Animated Violence Mild Friendly Fires Inflorescent Husky Loops I Can’t Even Speak English King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard Infest the Rats’ Nest The Murder Capital When I Have Fears Shura forevher Sleater-Kinney The Center Won’t Hold 23RD AUGUST CRX Peek Jay Som Anak Ko

Taylor Swift Lover Tropical Fuck Storm Braindrops 30TH AUGUST !!! (Chk Chk Chk) Wallop Black Belt Eagle Scout At the Party With My Brown Friends Ezra Furman Twelve Nudes The Futureheads Powers Whitney Forever Turned Around 6TH SEPTEMBER Bat For Lashes Lost Girls Kindness Something Like A War Muna Saves the World

OUT NOW

ANY OTHER QUESTIONS? ASKING THE USUAL STUFF IS SO BORING

What’s your biggest fear?

Dylan: Being stranded on a cruise ship.

Braeden: Being on a cruise in general.

Cole: The idea of being on a cruise.

Have you ever been thrown out of somewhere?

Cole: We got thrown out of a bar in London for no reason. They thought I was high but I really, truly wasn’t.

What’s the scariest thing you’ve ever done?

Braeden: Going on X2 at Six Flags Magic Mountain. I was super scared of roller coasters at the time.

Have you got any secret tattoos?

WALLOWS

54

This month it’s...

What was the first record you bought?

Cole: Charli XCX.

Dylan: ‘Abbey Road’ by The Beatles.

Braeden: ‘Funeral’ by Arcade Fire.

Cole: ‘Is This It?’ by The Strokes.

Do you believe in aliens?

What is your most treasured possession?

Braeden: I broke a faucet while trying to wash my hands at This Is Not A Love Song festival in France.

Dylan: HOME. Braeden: My Frogger game on the PS1.

Cole: My Nintendo Switch with Mario Party.

Who’s your favourite pop star?

Dylan: Ariana Grande.

Braeden: Ariana Grande.

AUGUST 2019

DORK

All: A unanimous “yes, of course!”

What was the last thing you broke?

What did you last dream about?

Braeden: I dreamt that I showed Dylan and Lydia [Night, from The Regrettes] the debut Whitney album even though they’ve heard that album in real life before.

Dylan: No. Braeden: No. Cole: Yes, it’s on my right butt cheek.

That’s all I’ll say.

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All material copyright (c). All rights reserved. This publication may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form, in whole or in part, without the express written permission of The Bunker Publishing Ltd. Disclaimer: While every effort is made to ensure the information in this magazine is correct, changes can occur which affect the accuracy of copy, for which The Bunker Publishing Ltd holds no responsibility. The opinions of the contributors do not necessarily bear a relation to those of Dork or its staff and we disclaim liability for those impressions. Distributed nationally.

How punk are you out of ten?

Dylan: 1.

Braeden: 1.

Cole: 9.

Have you ever seen a ghost?

Braeden: When I was younger, I was obsessed with seeing and trying to film ghosts. I thought there were ghosts in my closet, but it turned out to be dust.

Have you ever sold your own CD or merch on eBay?

All: NEVER. What have you got in your pockets right now?

Dylan: Two credit cards, Burt’s Bees, air pods, my phone.

Braeden: A stick of gum.

Cole: Five euros, headphones, wallet, my phone.

When was the last time you said, “Do you know who I am?”

All: Never? Lol. What’s your favourite thing about being a musician?

Dylan: Being able to form relationships with other artists that I admire.

Braeden: Creating music. Lol. Cole: Getting to work with my actual friends.

Tell us a secret about yourself?

Dylan: If I told you a secret about myself, it wouldn’t be a secret anymore.

What’s the most embarrassing thing that’s ever happened to you?

Dylan: It’s a secret. P

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Another music festival.

Curated by

DORK

3rd July Too late!

Mosa Wild Blossom Caldarone Ed The Dog

10th July Already happened!

Apre + special guests

24th July

‘International Men of Misery’ Vistas On Video 31st July

Queen Zee Guru

+ special guests

The Old Blue Last, London.

Get free tickets now at Dice.com.

(Please don’t bring your dog.)

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