DOWN WITH BORING.
ISSUE 57 · AUGUST 2021 · READDORK.COM
Celebrating the return of live music with...
+
olivia dean jawny kawala frances forever + loads more of the best new music.
and the acts you have to see.
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+ MASTER PEACE (UK ONLY)
RESCHEDULED 2021 TOUR DATES SUN 21 NOV - CORK - CYPRUS AVE MON 22 NOV - DUBLIN - THE ACADEMY WEDS 24 NOV – NEWCASTLE - ST DOM’S SOCIAL CLUB THURS 25 NOV - GLASGOW - KING TUT’S WAH WAH HUT SOLD OUT FRI 3 DEC – MANCHESTER – CLUB ACADEMY SUN 5 DEC – OXFORD - THE BULLINGDON MON 6 DEC - CARDIFF - THE GLOBE TUE 7 DEC - BRISTOL - THEKLA SOLD OUT WEDS 8 DEC – BIRMINGHAM - O2 INSTITUTE 2 SOLD OUT THURS 9 DEC – LIVERPOOL - ARTS CLUB MON 13 DEC - LONDON - O2 KENTISH TOWN FORUM LAST FEW TICKETS
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JULY 23
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Index Issue 57 | August 2021 | readdork.com | Down With Boring
Editor’s Letter All back to normal now, right? No, I’m not too sure about that either - but regardless of such niceties as common sense and scientific logic, we all know the deal. A few days after this issue drops, it’s the grand reopening. Regulations become expectations, and live music can once again return. So, with respect for others and a good degree of caution, we’re taking the opportunity to celebrate what we’ve all missed so much over the last
year-and-a-bit. This edition of Dork is dedicated to the promise all those gigs, tours and festivals we’ve held dear to pull us through, finally able to actually happen. Fronted up by our 2020 Readers’ Band of the Year Sports Team - a gang who dropped one hell of an album then never got to give it the triumphant crowning it deserved - we’ll be running through fifty of the acts we can’t wait to see ASAP, if not
sooner. Truth be told, we could have listed a multitude more. Be careful out there, look out for each other - and we’ll see you ‘down the front’.
Stephen ‘Editor’ @stephenackroyd
Ø4 Intro 18 Hype 26 Features 58 Incoming Ø4.
Ø8.
26.
Sports Team Just over a year ago, Sports Team released their debut album and promptly shot to Number Two in the UK Official Albums Chart. Finally able to take it on the road for the victory lap it so deserves, we caught up with them to find out what comes next.
46.
5Ø.
Olivia Dean
Jawny
As she approaches the release her new EP ‘Growth’, London’s Olivia Dean reflects on a year in which she’s got to know herself a whole lot better.
Quirky pop maverick Jawny is following up last year’s standout ‘For Abby’ project with ‘The Story Of Hugo’. He doesn’t do boring.
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56.
Kawala
Creeper
Indie boys KAWALA are all about sunny vibes with their debut mixtape, ‘Paradise Heights’. Time to break out the Factor 30.
Creeper don’t do anything by halves; their new EP is just as grand as you’d expect from rock’s most interesting band.
Lorde
With the most anticipated album of 2021 in tow, Ella Marija Lani Yelich-O’Connor - that’s Lorde to you, Dear Reader - is back with a bang.
Dead Nature
From fronting Spring King to producing some of the hottest new bands around, Tarek Musa has little left to prove. With his debut album under new guise Dead Nature, he’s doing it anyway.
Ø9.
Aurora
10.
Samia
With a new megabop ‘Cure For Me’ just dropped, and the required TikTok buzz already going off, AURORA is back on a charge. We dropped her a line for a quick catch up.
After a breakthrough 2020 with debut album ‘The Baby’, Samia is back with a brandnew lockdown penned EP that promises a bridge to the future.
18.
Frances Forever
24.
Charli Adams
Frances Forever has earned their place leading this here Hype batch with ridiculously charming single ‘space girl’, and new EP ‘paranoia party’, which is front-to-back amazing.
Alabama newcomer Charli Adams isn’t afraid to get up close and personal, baring all on her coming-of-age debut album, ‘Bullseye’.
readdork.com
Editor Stephen Ackroyd Deputy Editor Victoria Sinden
Associate Editor Ali Shutler Contributing Editors Jamie Muir, Martyn Young Scribblers Alex Brzezicka, Connor Fenton, Dillon Eastoe, Edie McQueen, Finlay Holden, Jake Hawkes, Jamie MacMillan, Jay Singh, Josh Williams, Jessica Goodman, Laurą Freyaldenhoven, Melissa Darragh, Mez Green, Neive McCarthy, Steven Loftin, Tyler Damara Kelly Snappers Amin Musa, Ariel Fish, Charlie Harris, Holly Whitaker, Ian Lanterman, Isak Okkenhaug, Lani Parrilla, Louis Butler, Luke Rogers, MK Sadler, Olivia LiFungula, Ophelia Mikkelson, Patrick Gunning, Percy Walker-Smith, Phoebe Fox, Sarah Louise Bennett, Sophia Matinazad
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4. DORK
Dead Nature
From fronting former Dork cover stars Spring King to producing some of the hottest new bands around, Tarek Musa has little left to prove. With his debut album under new guise Dead Nature, he’s doing it anyway. p8
AURORA
Samia
With a new megabop ‘Cure For Me’ just dropped, and the required TikTok buzz already going off, AURORA is back on a charge. We dropped her a line for a quick catch up. p9
After a breakthrough 2020 with debut album ‘The Baby’, Samia is back with a brand-new lockdown penned EP that promises a bridge to the future. p10
With the most anticipated album of 2021 in tow, Ella Marija Lani YelichO’Connor that’s Lorde to you, Dear Reader - is back with a bang. Here’s everything we know about ‘Solar Power’. Photos: Ophelia Mikkelson.
G
ood things come to those who wait, Dear Reader - and so it’s absolutely no shock at all that we’ve all got sky high hopes for Lorde’s third album. So anticipated we’ve run out of much-es to give, we now know that, after years of expectation, the fateful full-length is imminent. In order to help you measure your hype appropriately, we’ve compiled all the important information you need in one place. We’re good like that. IT’S CALLED ‘SOLAR POWER’ According to Lorde, the
title for LP3 has been set for a while now - the inspiration hitting her on a trip to Antarctica she took in 2019. “I actually decided on the album name right about that trip,” she revealed. “Just coming back... I thought: ‘This is what it is.’” The album title fits - fronting up an album Lorde describes as “a celebration of the natural world, an attempt at immortalising the deep, transcendent feelings I have when I’m outdoors. “In times of heartache, grief, deep love, or confusion, I look to the natural world for answers,” she continues. “I’ve learned to breathe readdork.com 5.
It’s official! Live music is back! Back! Andindeed-BACK!!! After a year of rescheduled shows, cancelled festivals and cultural shut-down, live music is back. As we prepare to take those first cautious steps back towards normality, there’s a whole world of exciting new bands, beloved old faves and lockdown legends who we can’t wait to see back on the stage again. Over the next few pages, we’ll run you through 50 of the names we’re desperate to catch ASAP, if not sooner - and there’s only one place we can start...
26. DORK
Just over a year ago, Sports Team released their debut album and promptly shot to Number Two in the UK Official Albums Chart. Finally able to take it on the road properly for the victory lap it so deserves, they’re already thinking about what’s next. Jake Hawkes trawls Soho with indie’s most chaotic frontman Alex Rice to find out more.
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y come Here thein aga ... tt.
Photography:
Sarah Louise
Benne
M
ost interviews with bands are relatively simple affairs – you meet the band at a pub / café / venue, you speak to them all, then you go home and write it up. Well, Dear Reader, would it shock you to learn that our interview with the most chaotic band in indie didn’t quite pan out that way? “I think it’s full up,” says Sports Team frontman Alex Rice, craning his neck to look through the window of The French House, a pub in Soho. “That’s a shame; I’ve got some vouchers I wanted to use. That’s why I picked it.” As he talks, he scans the street for an alternative venue, singing parts of ‘Golden Years’ by David Bowie under his breath as he does. So far, so normal. The rest of the band are unable to make the interview, with guitarist Henry Young, songwriter / guitarist Rob Knaggs, and keyboardist Ben Mack all self-isolating in their Margate house as a precaution after contact with someone who tested positive for Covid-19. Drummer Al
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FEATURES
46. DORK
OLIVIA DEAN
As she approaches the release her new EP ‘Growth’, London’s Olivia Dean reflects on a year in which she’s got to know herself a whole lot better. Words: Martyn Young. Photos: Olivia LiFungula.
“I
feel like things are a lot better than they were this time last year, so I can only be grateful,” says Olivia Dean, as she ponders a period in which she has made great emotional and musical strides. Navigating her way through a stint of upheaval, uncertainty and isolation, she’s come out the other side with a greater understanding of her musical gift, deploying those innate talents to stunning effect on a new EP that looks set to reinforce her status as one of our brightest new songwriting talents. “It’s been the most interesting year of my life,” she explains. “Considering everything, I’m pretty proud of myself. The first half of the last 18 months had been pretty hard. I spent a lot of time by myself in my flat.” The requirement to lock yourself away and lock yourself down was challenging for an artist who thrives on the visceral power and thrill of live performance. “I see
myself as a live artist,” she affirms. “That’s what makes things feel full circle for me. Getting out of the studio and playing the songs live. I definitely feel like I write songs to play them. I was left feeling quite confused about what I was doing and what was my purpose.” Fortunately, though, things are now looking up. “I have my two shows at the Jazz Cafe, and it feels like things are coming back to some form of normality,” she smiles. “I’m getting on with it. I’ve been very lucky to get in the studio and write and finish off this project,” she says excitedly. “I get to go to the pub and hang out in the park when it hasn’t been raining like it has EVERY DAY for the last two weeks.” Ah, the good old British weather. Forever spoiling our plans. Still, not even the weather can spoil where Olivia’s headed next. The new music she has been working on provides something of a considered soundtrack to this most unusual year. “I’m really proud of this
project I’ve made,” she begins. “I see it as a time capsule of the last year. It’s quite downtempo, but I think this last year has been like that. It feels like the natural way for it to sound.” The EP is called ‘Growth’, and it radiates with all the soulful warmth and tender emotional resonance that pierces through all Olivia’s music. “I’ve been singing since I was 8 years old,” she says of her formative musical years. “I always remember it being something that I wanted to do, but I didn’t start writing songs until I was 15 or 16.” When she did start writing, the songs she was creating became an outlet for feelings that she struggled to otherwise express. The power of music became Olivia’s language. “I was thinking about why I started songwriting, and surprisingly, as a person, I’m not really good at talking about how I’m feeling,” she says. “Especially with the people closest to me in my life. It was an avenue for me to express myself and figure out what was going on in
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FEATURES
Indie boys KAWALA are all about sunny vibes with their debut mixtape, ‘Paradise Heights’. Time to break out the Factor 30. Words: Steven Loftin.
52. DORK
KAWALA
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