** PLUS **
2023... AT ITS VERY BEST
DOWN WITH BORING.
READERS' POLL 2023: THE RESULTS
CAROLINE POLACHEK
SPECTOR
CHAPPELL ROAN
+ LOADS MORE
ISSUE 83 · DECEMBER 2023 / JANUARY 2024 · READDORK.COM
LIST 2O24 THE HOTTEST NEW TALENT FOR THE YEAR AHEAD WITH... PICTURE PARLOUR NELL MESCAL GRETEL HANLYN D4VD CAITY BASER FAT DOG SEKOU VENBEE NEWDAD NIEVE ELLA DEADLETTER PANIC SHACK + LOADS MORE
BACK ISSUES! Want to complete your collection and grab Dork covers with all your faves? Get ‘online’ and head on over to shop.readdork.com and find our complete back catalogue, available while they last.
Issue 83 | December 2023 / January 2024 | readdork.com | Down With Boring
Hiya, Dear Reader. Lists. Everyone loves a good list at Xmas. So while most of you work on the important one (Dear Santa, given you've already brought back Girls Aloud, can we have a new My Chemical Romance album?), we'll deal with the rest. As ever, our double December / January issue features the two big ones - namely our Album of the Year list for 2023, and our new talent tips in the 2024 edition of the Hype List. Both are packed with brilliant names, including our five - FIVE - ace cover stars d4vd, HotWax, Gretel Hanlyn, Nell Mescal and Picture Parlour - dive in and discover something new. So as the year winds up, and we start to look forward to the next one on the horizon, we'd like to take a moment to thank you for reading our silly little pop magazine in 2023. Be you a regular subscriber or just someone picking up a single issue on a whim, you're part of a gang that understands that music is best when it's big, brash and bold. Feel free to get excited, because there are some records coming early in 2024 that more than fit that brief.
readdork.com Editor Stephen Ackroyd Deputy Editor Victoria Sinden Associate Editor Ali Shutler Contributing Editors Jake Hawkes, Jamie Muir, Martyn Young Scribblers Abigail Firth, Ciaran Picker, Dan Harrison, Dillon Eastoe, Emma Quin, Jake Hawkes, Josh Crowe, Finlay Holden, Jessica Goodman, Kelsey McClure, Minty SlaterMearns, Neive McCarthy, Rebecca Kesteven, Sam Taylor
Top Ten. 04 06 07
THE GASLIGHT ANTHEM EVERYTHING EVERYTHING CHARLY BLISS
36 40 42 43 44 47 48 50 SPECTOR 51 DAY OF THE GIRL 52 DORK LIVE 55 56 58 ALBUMS OF THE YEAR 59 60 CAROLINE 62 POLACHEK 66 BLONDSHELL 68 CHAPPELL ROAN 69 DREAM WIFE 70 CREEPER 74 FIZZ BLACK HONEY READERS' POLL 2023 75
Intro. 08 10 12
Best of 2023. 14 15
‘Editor’ @stephenackroyd
21 22 25 26 31 32 33
Hype List 2024. Incoming. HOTWAX NIEVE ELLA SWIM SCHOOL LIP FILLER GRETEL HANLYN HEARTWORMS PANIC SHACK SEKOU LUCY TUN D4VD UNIVERSITY FAT DOG HANNAH GRAE DEADLETTER NEWDAD NELL MESCAL CAITY BASER VENBEE CHARLOTTE PLANK PICTURE PARLOUR MARY IN THE JUNKYARD DIVORCE
76 76 77
REVIEWS PINKPANTHERESS O.
Get Out. 78 78 79 79 79 80 80 80 81 81 81
CMAT LOUIS TOMLINSON FALL OUT BOY BABY QUEEN ICELAND AIRWAVES BLINK-182 THE JAPANESE HOUSE IDLES LAUREN MAYBERRY THE LAST DINNER PARTY BEYOND THE MUSIC
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MIMI WEBB
Backpage.
Snappers Dan Bassini, David Richardson, Derek Bremner, Frances Beach, Grace Equi, Holly Whitaker, Jamie MacMillan, Jennifer McCord, Kelsey Ayers, Lola Webster, Nick Walker, Nicole Osrin, Patrick Gunning, Sarah Louise Bennett, Siân Adler, Steve Gullick PUBLISHED FROM WELCOMETOTHEBUNKER.COM
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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.
TOP TEN. THE BEST HAPPENING
STUFF N O W.
A WHOLE LOTTA HISTORY Words: Ali Shutler. Photo: Kelsey Ayers.
THE GASLIGHT ANTHEM make their electrifying return with new album ‘History Books,’ where they infuse fresh energy into their iconic sound.
→ “We have to prove that we still belong here and that we’re still adding
something new to the world,” Brian Fallon considers. The Gaslight Anthem are about to release their first album in nine years. And it’s an absolute corker. Different to what’s come before but instantly recognisable, ‘History Books’ sees the New Jersey rockers comfortable with who they’ve become. The band have found comfort in the past before, though. The Gaslight Anthem went on hiatus in 2015 after getting burnt out, releasing five increasingly bigger albums in just seven years. Still, they reunited in 2018 for a tenth-anniversary run for breakout
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"WE KNEW THAT IF WE WERE THE UNDERDOGS, WE’D BE GOOD UNDERDOGS" B R I A N FA L LO N
album ‘The ‘59 Sound’. “The shows were great, but it just reaffirmed that we were still burnt out,” Brian explains. However, last year’s massive reunion tour came alongside the promise of new music. “We’re very much looking forward to the future,” he said in a statement at the time. “All the bands I admire are either still making music, or they stopped,” he
tells Dork today. “For me, it can’t just be about nostalgia.” Going forward, the live show’s energy is all about “blowing everybody away,” says Brian. “We want to keep it the most exciting thing you can see. We’ll still play all the songs you want to hear, plus some cool ones from the new record. And maybe that’ll change every night. We just want it to be fun." Immediately following the split, Brian started work on a solo career that went on to span four records, but he started missing the camaraderie of being part of a team. “There’s a collective nature to being in a band. Everyone has something to gain, and everyone has something to lose,” he explains. “When you’re doing your own thing, you find yourself by yourself a lot of the time, and after the pandemic, being by myself was not a thing I was looking forward to.” After seeking advice from his wife and Bruce Springsteen, Brian set himself the task of writing four songs worthy of getting The Gaslight Anthem back together. “Having new demos to show the rest of the band was really important,” he explains. “I wanted to show them I was serious but also give them something they could judge.” Guitarist Alex Rosamilia, bassist Alex Levine and drummer Benny Horowitz were soon on board. Brian admits there was a degree of nervousness as The Gaslight Anthem started working on new music, with questions about their abilities and relevance hanging over them. “Every time there was a new song, and it didn’t suck, everybody was so relieved,” laughs Brian. For each song, he would record the lyrics and an accompanying guitar line on his phone, then send it to the rest of the band with a brief description of the vibe. Dinosaur Jr. meets The Smiths, for example. Each member would then write their own parts. “From there, we figured it out in the practice room." “When you’ve been in a band for a bit, you get to know your audience,” he continues. “I don’t know about newcomers, but I think the people who like this band will like this album. It feels
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like the next logical step. It’s not a wild departure from anything.” ‘History Books’ is inspired by the likes of Foo Fighters, Pearl Jam and Nirvana alongside Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan. It’s the same sonic pallet The Gaslight Anthem have always dabbled in, but this time the band were also inspired by themselves. “I felt confident this time around,” says Brian. “When you’re in your 40s and making your sixth record, you do feel like an underdog a bit, even if your band is big. But we knew that if we were the underdogs, we’d be good underdogs. We might not be young, shiny, pretty and new anymore, but I still felt like we could give these kids a run for their money.” That bristling excitement can be felt across The Gaslight Anthem’s new album. “We were writing music again, we were working with a new producer [Peter Katis], and we were playing shows. There was just this excitement on every level.” Because of this, at no point does ‘History Books’ feel tired or uninspired, with a joyous sense of fun driving each moment forward. “I am not ready to put on my mature shoes,” says Brian. “That’s the thing about being in a rock’n’roll band. You should absolutely put thought into your ticket prices, what you’re saying in your lyrics and where your fans are, but sometimes, it should be dumb. ‘That sounds cool, let’s do it’.” In fact, the title ‘History Books’ came from the fact it sounded cool (“I wish I had an interesting, deep answer for you,” Brian says with a grin), while collabs with PUP’s Stefan Babcock (‘Little Fires’) and Bruce Springsteen (the title-track) were chosen for a similar reason. “Maybe the lyrics are where we start to get a little mature,” adds Brian, with ‘History Books’ wrestling with a lust for life, change and growing older. “You can’t run away from that ticking clock that you can feel in your head. It sucks, but everybody over the age of 30 will know exactly what I’m talking about. It does propel you towards immediately feeling alive as well, though,” he explains, with a ‘do it while you can’ mentality. “One of the special things about The Gaslight Anthem is that we’ve always been able to write about pretty morose stuff but still have it feel celebratory,” says Brian. “It would be stupid if I was writing a party record because I’m not sure that translates when you’re in your 40s. Even though there are songs about negative or hard subjects, the vibe of ‘History Books’ is very positive.” There’s also a hard-fought sense of freedom across ‘History Books’. The band are comfortable with who they are, confidently playing to their strengths and inspirations rather than trying to chase whatever scene is popping off on Spotify. “The older I get, the less I feel tied down,” explains Brian. “We actually started this whole process off by asking for our freedom back,” he continues. 2014’s ‘Get Hurt’ was released by Island Records, and they still had first refusal on whatever came next. So, before the band had written a single note of music for ‘History Books’, they called them and said they didn’t want to be on a major label anymore, which Island agreed to. “We’ve made five records, and we don’t own any of them. We really wanted to do this one for ourselves,” says Brian. “We wanted that." ■
UTOPIAN DREAMS
→Yard Act have announced their
second album, ‘Where’s My Utopia?’.
The album will be released on 1st March preceded by the single ‘Dream Job’, and accompanied by a new Leeds show at Millenium Square on 3rd August. Speaking about ‘Dream Job’, James Smith says: “‘Dream Job’ feels like an apt introduction to the themes explored on Where’s My Utopia? – though not all encompassing. In part I was scrutinising and mocking myself for being a moaning ungrateful little brat, whilst also trying to address how the music industry is this rather uncontrollable beast that hurtles forward unthinkingly and every single person involved in it plays their part. Myself included, obviously. As with pretty much everything else going through my head last year, trying to find the right time to articulate the complexity of emotions I was feeling and the severity to which I was feeling them couldn’t be found – or accommodated, so instead I tried to capture it in a pop song that lasts less than three minutes once the fog had cleared a bit. It’s good and bad. I’m still glad that everything that happened to me happened.” The band are also taking the album on the road in spring 2024. The dates include their biggest London headline show to date at the Eventim Apollo Hammersmith on 27th March.
DINNER IS SERVED → The Last Dinner Party have announced their debut album.
Produced by James Ford, ‘Prelude To Ecstasy’ will be released on 2nd February via Island Records. The record features their early singles ‘Nothing Matters’, ‘Sinner’ and ‘My Lady Of Mercy’, as well as latest drop ‘On Your Side’. The band say of the full-length: “Ecstasy is a pendulum which swings between the extremes of human emotion, from the ecstasy of passion to the sublimity of pain, and it is this concept which binds our album together. This is an archeology of ourselves; you can exhume our collective and individual experiences and influences from within its fabric. We exorcised guitars for their solos, laid bare confessions directly from diary pages, and summoned an orchestra to bring our vision to life. “It is our greatest honour and pride to present this offering to the world, it is everything we are.”
PARK LIFE
→ Live At Leeds: In The Park has
made its first announcement for 2024. Taking over Temple Newsam
Park on Saturday 25th May, the alldayer will host sets from The Kooks, (Dork cover star) Declan McKenna and The Cribs. Plus, Future Islands, Melanie C, White Lies, Mystery Jets, The Academic, The Mysterines, Vistas, The Slow Readers Club, Sprints, Antony Szmierek, Flowerovlove, Nieve Ella, Cosmo Pyke, Matilda Mann, Michael Aldag, Somebody’s Child and more to come. READDORK.COM 5.
Twelve months.
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A whole load of **great** music.
This is 2023 at its very best.
Caroline Polachek's 'Desire, I Want To Turn Into You' is a pop odyssey that marries chaos with clarity, weaving a tapestry of maximalist soundscapes and intimate confessions. It's also our 2023 Album of the Year. by Abigail Firth READDORK.COM 15.
As the nigh ts draw in a nd the light ranks of ne s go up, we w artists to trawl the find the be make an im st of the be pact on the st, set to twelve mon is no differe t hs ahead. T nt. Prepare his year to find you r n ew faves in Hype List 2 the 024.
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→ Between a pair of incredible EPs,
The South Coast's new rock heroes, HotWax mix effortless cool with a razor sharp edge. by Ali Shutler. photography by Derek Bremner.
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tours on both sides of the Atlantic with Royal Blood and their urgent, energetic and often chaotic shows, HotWax have earned themselves a reputation for being one of the most exciting new guitar bands around. But what do they make of the buzz? "I hope it's true," grins bassist Lola. "I think we're exciting." Drummer Alfie agrees. Vocalist and guitarist Tallulah takes a slightly more diplomatic approach, though. "I mean, there are a lot of good bands around at the moment, but… yeah," she adds with a smirk. That exhilaration and self-belief can be felt across snarling tracks like 'Rip It Out' and 'Treasure', but it's been a journey. Lola and Tallulah were introduced at school because they were the only two people who played guitars. Things didn't click straight away, but the pair quickly became inseparable after Tallulah gave Lola a bottle of Matey bubble bath ("I'd said how much I enjoyed baths, and I was touched by how she'd paid attention"). "We'd write songs together and gig at every opportunity we could," says Tallulah. "We basically grew up together." Their love of guitar music saw them labelled as odd by their classmates in secondary school. "We literally just had each other," says Tallulah. "Having that friendship and discovering music together spurred us on to keep doing it," says Lola. HotWax want to create that same sense of belonging with their listeners. "The best thing about the Royal Blood tour is playing to kids who wouldn't usually be able to see us, 'cos most of our shows
"ALL WE WANT TO DO IS MAKE MUSIC. WE'VE NEVER BEEN INTERESTED IN ANYTHING ELSE" TA L L U L A H S I M - S AVAG E
have been 18+. Hearing them say they've been inspired by us, it feels amazing." HotWax officially formed in 2019 after their previous band drifted apart. Their first gig at local pub Crowleys in Hastings followed the same year before a sporadic string of singles were released across 2020 and 2021. "We never had a plan," admits Tallulah, with the band releasing music whenever they saved enough to afford a session in the recording studio. "They're all quite different from what we do now," says Lola, with those early tracks confidently working through psychedelic rock, dreamy indie, funk and thrashing rock'n'roll. "We were just figuring out who we wanted to be," she adds. Even back then, you could hear the excitement. "We were doing it because we enjoyed it," Tallulah says. "It definitely felt like a hobby, but at the same time, we weren't doing anything else." "Yeah, we never thought we would still be doing it now, but I don't think we ever thought we wouldn't be either," continues Lola. The band were eventually drawn to big, chunky rock bands like Foo Fighters, Muse, Rage Against The
Machine and Blondie, with their music scuzzy but ambitious. "They just made me feel something," says Lola. "They were the bands that made me want to pick up my guitar and play in front of the mirror." "I used to be really shy, and I'd only ever play acoustic guitar," explains Tallulah, but that shifted when her mum gave her a copy of Hole's 'Live Through This'. "I had to listen to it in my room because that's where I felt safe, but there was something about Courtney Love's vocals that felt so powerful and intense, and that really interested me." It led Tallulah down a rabbit hole of heavier bands. "There was something about the energy and the anger of it. I never felt like I had that within myself, so listening to it was therapeutic." "For the longest time, no one even heard me hum," says Tallulah, but HotWax gave her space to come into her own. "We didn't really start sounding like we do now until I became more confident singing and shouting," she continues. One of the first songs they wrote was 'Stay Cool', a riff-driven hunk of basement rock. "I didn't feel comfortable singing a heavier song, so I had to lock myself in the toilet by myself
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Bat-cats, Gothic tales, and altpop brilliance: welcome to the darkly enchanting world of Gretel Hänlyn. by Martyn Young. photography by Sarah Louise Bennett. make up by Louisa Copperwaite using Fenty Beauty 44. DORK
→ Gretel Hänlyn is drawn to
darkness. Not like in a bleak, existential misery kind of way, more as fantastical storytelling. One of Gretel's favourite things is bats. They're pretty dark, right? She's also obsessed with cats. Primarily cats that look like bats. We'll let her fill you in, "Anyone who has followed me on social media will know that I'm obsessed with cats," she explains. "I like all cats, but I've always quite liked those ones with no hair. The ones that look like shaved rats or something. I think they're perfectly freaky. I've always thought, even though they're not cats, that bats look like cats, and they can fly and are adorable and can wrap themselves up in their wings." When she's not thinking about bats or cats or cats who look like bats, Gretel is also making music. Really good music. Music that marks her out as one of the most exciting talents making indie alt-pop today. She's spent the last few years turning Maddy Haenlein into the alluring and richly evocative music of Gretel Hänlyn as she has expanded her beguiling folk-tinged indie songs into ever greater and more ambitious visceral rock music. As we talk to her in a Mexican restaurant on her first American tour, waiting for a very large margarita to arrive, the twenty-yearold singer, songwriter, guitarist and newly minted alt-pop star is reflecting on a very good year in which she has released her stunning second EP, 'Head Of The Love Club', as well as a string of killer singles. "This year has been a really lovely build from last year," she begins. "I really love how steadily it's been going. It hasn't felt like anything has spiked in an uncontrollable way. It's been an incredible year of doing lots of shows, meeting lots of fans, building my fanbase, and really getting into writing and challenging myself as a writer." Her songwriting and storytelling abilities and knack for bewitching wordplay mark Gretel as a special talent. It's a craft she's spent years honing and is forever evolving. "I've been going into rabbit holes left, right and centre and trying to find that thing that I want to have when I'm writing," she explains. "I've definitely almost had it, but I'm
"I'VE BEEN GOING INTO RABBIT HOLES LEFT, RIGHT AND CENTRE" G R E T E L H Ä N LY N
trying to refine it and find the purest form of writing I possibly can." There's a constant desire within her music to take things further, either musically or thematically. In 2023, she felt like all the pieces that make Gretel Hänlyn so exciting were falling into place on the back of the most productive year of her career so far. "It's been a year of artistic discovery," she smiles. "Just before going on tour, I finally came home to myself as an artist. I feel like I really understand myself and the fundamental values of what I want as an artist. I want to enjoy writing and get some catharsis from it. It doesn't have to be anything other than pure writing. It doesn't have to be clever. That's what 2023 has been for me. Discovery and building, building, building." The thing that Gretel is building, is music in its most primal form. Powerful emotions distilled to their purest qualities. The realities of trying to make it in the music industry, though, often force artists to second guess themselves or subconsciously work against their natural impulses. As her nascent career has progressed, Gretel's development as a writer has seen her fully realise that those early impulses are most potent. "It's so interesting because when I first started writing, it was what I think of as really pure, just feeling your way through the dark type of writing," she reflects. "Feeling it out and using instinct. That's when I first started going to the studio and challenging myself with writing parts for instruments other than just guitar and vocals. As my musical tastes developed, I naturally put more pressure on myself to be smarter with my songwriting. Even copying certain sounds or certain atmospheres for songs and getting inspired by other things but feeling my way through the dark around
it. I went down a rabbit hole of feeling like nothing was right, and nothing was ever enough. I was never clever enough, and it wasn't leftfield enough. That's the rabbit hole I went down this year, and I've come out the other side and I'm back to feeling my way through the dark and not knowing or trying to force my writing anywhere. I'm not pressuring myself to compare myself or my career to other artists that are maybe the same age as me or have a similar sound." There might be some artists out there who have a similar sound in that they also make music primarily focused on guitar, but there's no one out there quite like Gretel Hänlyn. Distinctive and singular in a way that makes her stand out, she's continuing a lineage of women making exciting indie music while also forging her own path. "I always had obsessions growing up with artists in the same way that a lot of quite young women obsess over a certain band or another female artist or a boyband, or an emo band. I always had those obsessions, and I would deeply follow the characters," she remembers. "I don't think it actually clicked with the writer inside of me until I started listening to Wolf Alice. Female-fronted guitar bands. I looked at it, and I was like, wow. That sounds absolutely incredible, the amount of energy and female rage. I found it all very impressive. I was also getting into a lot of folk music when I was 14, and that inspired me to start writing. It was a combination of having that representation in female guitar bands plus the songwriting inspiration of people like Tim Buckley and Nick Drake. Nico was a big influence earlier on because she had a low voice, just like me. That encouraged me to feel allowed to sing. It was that musical and songwriting element, plus I was writing
LIP CRITIC
→ Normally we run at the first sign of a band “jamming out” but few do it with as much giddy merriment as Lip Critic. Blending the aggression of post-punk with the free-spirited euphoria of electroclash, this New York-based fourpiece make hedonistic dance music for the end of the world, perfect for a live show that’s as unpredictable as it is fluid. LISTEN TO: 'It's The Magic'
COLE BLEU
→ After causing a buzz with alt-rock group The Let Go, Cole Bleu switched things up with a more poptastic solo project. Proper debut EP ‘CRUSHED!’ came earlier this year, a fearless, cinematic record dripping in ambition and coming-of-age angst, with Cole sounding every part the pop star of her dreams. With those glittering foundations setting up the next era perfectly, those lofty arena dreams won’t seem out of reach for long. LISTEN TO: 'HEARTBREAKERS'
a lot of gothic stories at the time, as well inspired by Nick Cave. It all had a bit of a folky beginning, and then I got into the studio and started using other instruments, and it all got a bit grungier and full band-y." Those gothic stories are what became the heart of Gretel Hänlyn; from her debut EP 'Slugeye' to the grand flourishes of her latest work, it's all there. It's not just despair and sadness, though; despite the emotional resonance of her music, often it's playful and funny and engaging. There's a gothic underbelly READDORK.COM 45.
d4vd's cinematic journey is swiftly taking him from cult bedroom pop fave to global sensation. by Ali Shutler. photography by Nick Walker. → d4vd's life is a movie. This time
last year, he only had a handful of songs to his name and had never even been to a gig, let alone played one. Now, he's just wrapped up a celebrated arena tour supporting SZA and played headline shows across Europe, North America and Australia. He's also released ambitious debut EP 'Petals To Thorns' alongside sprawling companion record 'The Lost Petals'. By the time the 2023 is out, he'll have released 'Call Me Revenge' with 21 Savage for Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and 'The Line' with The Kid LAROI, performed at Tyler, The Creator's Camp Flog Gnaw festival and played shows in the likes of Indonesia, Thailand, Japan and South Korea. He isn't using a few days off between shows to chill out, though. "I'm in LA right now, writing," he admits. "I'm feeling motivated. I want to get back on the creative grind. I'm feeling like it's time to put my foot back on the gas." d4vd's journey so far has rarely dipped below breakneck. Growing up, he wanted to be a professional streamer, but after his gaming videos kept getting taken down from YouTube for using copyrighted music, his mum suggested he make his own. Armed with a phone and the headphones that came with them, he started creating gloomy bedroom pop, adding lyrics to help capture people's attention. It worked better than he could have ever imagined, with people demanding less Fortnite compilations and more brooding anthems. A string of singles followed before 'Romantic Homicide' swiftly blew up (800 million streams and counting). From there, the success came in thick
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and fast with d4vd using every one as a learning experience. He describes supporting SZA as a dream and still isn't sure how best to put the experience into words, but d4vd always felt like he deserved to be up on those massive stages. "There were no nerves, and her fans were so receptive. They rocked with my music so much, it almost felt like a double headline show," he explains. "I was taking notes on stage design and how she changes songs to fit the live arena," he continues, believing it'll be a case of when, not if, he'll be playing arenas on his own. "Playing shows has been beautiful," says d4vd. "It lets you be passionate about your own work. It lets you know what kind of music you need to be making because you can see which ones connect with people. It does feel like I'm building a community," he continues. "It's more of a family than a fanbase." Rather than chasing numbers by releasing songs for people to listen to, d4vd cares more about each track truly connecting. "It's always amazing to see people react to your music in realtime. They're not just connecting with me at gigs; they're connecting with a room full of like-minded people who are all sharing an experience. They're also connecting with themselves." For the first time, d4vd's writing music after seeing that connection firsthand. "It's about finding a balance between making music you love and what your fans will love. It's easy to get caught up in the noise, but it's so important not to lose the magic that people gravitated towards in the first place." Despite describing himself as an
"IT'S EASY TO GET CAUGHT UP IN THE NOISE, BUT IT'S SO IMPORTANT NOT TO LOSE THE MAGIC" D4VD
analytical guy obsessed with data, d4vd still doesn't know exactly why his music is connecting as widely and passionately as it is. "Music is a universal language, though, and I feel like what I make describes what a lot of my generation is going through right now. There's loneliness and a sense of not being able to fit in anywhere. There's so much FOMO going on, and my music is FOMO central," he explains, pointing to tracks like 'Romantic Homicide' and 'Don't Forget About Me'. "It's super Gen-Z, but with a touch of nostalgia. It feels old but new at the same time." Throughout his supercharged journey from bedroom amateur to global star, d4vd has been transparent about how much he's learning in real-time. He's entirely self-taught using readily available software, and he didn't go to hundreds of gigs growing up. Rather than hiding these shortcomings, he's celebrated that DIY attitude without it hindering his ambitions. "My mom keeps telling me that not many people can do what I did, but I
don't agree with that at all," says d4vd. "The reason I make the music that I do, in the way that I do, is because I want you to feel like you could have made it. I want to try and inspire people." "There's no such thing as making a hit. You just make music that connects to people," he continues. "You have to want to do it, though. Most people don't." As well as taking him around the world and onto the front page of Spotify, making music has helped d4vd in "so many ways," he says. "It's the only real outlet I have. Sometimes I don't know what I'm feeling until I make a song," he adds, comparing his music to a diary. Debut EP 'Petals To Thorns' explored the ups and downs of a relationship, with 'The Lost Petals' acting as a five-track epilogue. "I wanted to show people that it's okay to be sad, but it's not okay to be sad forever. You don't have to force yourself to be happy," he explains. "Whatever you're feeling, you're feeling for a reason, and not everything has
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Nell Mescal is dishing out pinch-me moments and indie-pop triumphs at an unstoppable pace. by Neive McCarthy. photography by Sarah Louise Bennett.
→ For many people, playing beer pong with HAIM is the kind of bucket
list item you wouldn't even think to put on your bucket list. For Nell Mescal, it's one of many she has ticked off this year, alongside supporting the likes of Florence + the Machine and playing her biggest Irish headline show yet. Yeah, all in all, it's been a pretty big 2023. For the Maynooth native, it has equalled pinch-me moment after pinch-me moment. Rest assured, though, there can only be more to come. "Right before we went on tour, I went away with my mum for a week," Nell recalls. "It was the first time I realised what I'd gotten to do. I was looking back at photos and just thinking that it's so cool; I would never have imagined doing anything like that before. That was the first week where I was like, okay, I've done some really cool stuff this year, and I really have to be grateful for it, and I have to remember it and not let anything get into my head." Nell kicked off 2023 with the release of 'Homesick' in January, and from that point onwards, it's been nothing short of madness in her world. A string of impressive singles followed, and the last twelve months have proved fundamental to Nell's artistry and paved the way for what comes next. It's been a time of truly learning her craft and understanding herself, and her audience has come along with her, growing rapidly with each release. "The past year for music was really just putting out feelers and introducing myself to people," Nell says. "Like, 'Yeah, I write music, here I am, I want to do this 62. DORK
forever'. It was a lot of different things, and I worked with a lot of different people who I love very much, and I love each and every sound, but I'm definitely finding my own pace now. I know what kind of artist I want to be right now, and I know that will change, but right now, I have my vision, and I'm working on something for next year that I'm so excited for. I've wrapped myself up in this world, and this is where I'm staying for the next few months." With this year's releases, Nell has demonstrated how multi-faceted and capable she truly is. 'Homesick' is an upbeat, effervescent bop navigating living on your own for the first time, whilst its follow-up, 'In My Head', deals with heartache and the rose-tinted glasses of nostalgia, favouring a more cinematic soundscape than before. Nell shifts and tries on different versions of her artistry, peeling back more and more of what she wants to embody along the way. 'In My Head' proved to be an exercise in learning to drill things down to specifics, to be as true to herself and her experiences as possible, something she realised she had been missing previously. "I wasn't being specific, and I wasn't actually putting the story on the page," she explains. "It's like how they say in therapy to imagine all your thoughts and everything that's happened to you are pieces of paper crumpled up, and they don't all fit in the jar. So, you have to take them all out and fold them all up, and immediately, there's more space to fit in the jar, more space to think.
"I KNOW WHAT KIND OF ARTIST I WANT TO BE RIGHT NOW" NELL MESCAL
The jar is your brain. I don't fucking do that! I just say everything, throw it in and hope I haven't missed anything. When I started listening to more music, watching more things and reading more, I realised I actually just need to put a place in and say, 'This happened here; let's talk about it'. It immediately opened up a whole different world, and now when I write music, I want to put a place, a person, a thing – something that's tangible so that the person who is listening to it can be like, 'Oh I've done that, I've been there'." That resonance is of utmost importance in Nell's writing. It's something she seeks in the music she chooses to listen to, and the need for people to find that comfort in her own music becomes paramount as a result. She might be supporting some big names and hopping off on tour, but the parallels between Nell's teenage years and coming-of-age and her peers' are still reassuringly palpable in her music. She's rewatching Gilmore Girls (importantly, she's Team Jess with a soft spot for Logan, if you were wondering), she's trying to tell her mum not to post on TikTok, she's dealing with the gut-wrenching hardships of friends and
relationships that many of her audience have. Of course, it's partly because of that understanding and grounded nature that so many listeners have been drawn to her. "Other than people like Taylor Swift, I found it really difficult to find music that wasn't about a relationship," Nell recalls. "When I was fourteen or fifteen and going through friendship breakups, it was hard to find music showing how much it can affect you. Talking about my experience helps me, but it's cool that I get to talk to other people about it, too. I'm not glad that they can relate to it, but I'm glad that if they do relate to it, they've got a place to go and let those emotions out." While Nell had the likes of 'Mean' and 'Fifteen' growing up, the young girls listening to her are fortunate enough to have an array of other hauntingly realistic songs that offer a real sense of solidarity. "It's really difficult, and everyone always underestimates the power of a friendship breakup because it's so difficult. I sing about more than just that, but this past year has definitely been about that for me. I've got so much more coming up, and I do talk
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LIST 2O24
They arrived into a tornado of buzz, chaos and badly-targeted social media outrage, but you can ignore all of that, Dear Reader. Picture Parlour are the real deal. by Finlay Holden. photography by Sarah Louise Bennett.
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→ Exploding from the live circuit into the wider industry zeitgeist back
in June, London-based outfit Picture Parlour have dominated internet conversation with an all-consuming storm of buzz. Vocalist Katherine Parlour and guitarist Ella Risi are the creative drive behind the group, and their giddy, infectious chemistry and electrifying writing sessions have resulted in two tracks released to date. Previously, they both existed within their own musical entities up in Manchester, but that was until a pretty brutal accident rendered the former sofa-bound. "Oh yeah, I've got titanium metal in my right femur bone now! It makes going through airport security a nightmare," Katherine quips, seemingly miles past what must've been a fairly traumatic period. After slipping into a muddy pothole at Sziget and breaking both her legs, she was forced to put her music – as well as everything else – on hold. "Out of life for a year and a half," she grimaces. "If you're gonna break both legs, though, do it at a music festival." Shortly after "learning how to walk again", Katherine met Ella through mutual friends in the Manchester scene. "I saw Ella play guitar and knew I had to get my hands on her; we had to work together. We lived in Fallowfield on adjacent roads and went through uni side by side without ever knowing it, but we finally met properly in 2020 during the pandemic." The admiration was instantly mutual, as Ella recalls. "When I heard you sing for the first time, I was really taken aback. I was like, I haven't heard a voice like that come from anyone in my lifetime. There was something raw and gritty there; I have never heard anyone, especially a woman, sing the way that you do."
"THE PICTURE PARLOUR WORLD COMES FROM THE THINGS THAT EXCITED US AS KIDS" K AT H E R I N E PA R LO U R
Shortly after meeting and with little else to do ("the live music scene was dead and out of action, getting a whole band together wasn't a priority"), a three-week period of drinking, partying and songwriting began and solidified the future potential of Picture Parlour; not only were everlasting bonds formed, but much of their intoxicating material developed while… well, probably while they were intoxicated too. "Those three weeks were enough for me to realise, this is it," Katherine reflects. "This is something that I would be willing to put everything into. It felt like a magical escape that neither of us had felt before in any of our past projects. I'd written songs since I was a kid, but it never felt that electric before." Classic influences from their similar regional histories fanned those growing flames of friendship, with the union of groups like Fleetwood Mac, T. Rex and The Smiths, as well as the individuality of artists like Joan Jett, David Bowie and Elton John providing some common ground, but the aim was never to impersonate. "The songs come from such a raw place," Katherine describes, "it can't come from influence outside; it's too much of an insular thing. But the Picture Parlour world, the clothes we wear or the mood we're trying to create,
100% that comes from the things that excited us as kids. I remember watching the likes of Marc Bolan onstage and thinking, that's a true rock star. Glamorous but not in a shallow way; it was just this pure power. I think we try and capture that, for sure, because we love seeing it ourselves." As the pair began to funnel their idols and experiences into something truly fresh and special, the question that remained was one of their immediate futures. Although a career in music was but a twinkle in their eyes, a move to London was on the cards, with both women starting part-time masters' degrees and investing that student loan straight back into their creative exploits. Outside of smashing out assignments fuelled by copious Red Bull, the duo were busy trying to fathom a city they'd never experienced the scale of before. "We didn't know anyone; we didn't have a live band. We knew the Manchester and Liverpool scenes, but where do you even start in London?" Ella asked herself. "Lots of Googling, Facebook forums, emailing venues… the one place we had heard of before moving down was the Windmill [in Brixton]. It's so iconic, and so many of our favourite bands have come out of there. We thought if we could play there for our first show, it'd be insane, but it
seemed so far out of reach." After recruiting drummer Michael Nash through Facebook groups and poaching bedroom bassist Sian Lynch from social media, Picture Parlour were nearly ready to get on a stage. After sending over some self-made demos, they were booked to play the Windmill show they'd fantasised about. "We practised for six months because we didn't want to embarrass ourselves doing gigs in random venues and being shit," Katherine says. "We were finally ready to hit the stage, but unfortunately, my dad became sick, so I had to move back to Liverpool for months to look after him full-time. We'd got the band together but hadn't even done a show yet; we were sure they were going to leave. It was a nightmare scenario." Three months later, and with another kind invite extended, Katherine's father urged her to take the leap and chase the dream. "For us, we knew this was our last chance," she admits. "If we really wanted to do something in music, and we believed in something like this as much as we did, we had to make sure everything was right. We had to get it right because we wouldn't have the opportunity to again." Rehearsals paid off, and Picture Parlour stunned the crowd with a refined performance that turned their Windmill headline into a regular fixture, generating their initial excitement and earning fans in the industry and beyond. Long-standing icon Courtney Love attended their sixth-ever show and went on to declare, "There's no more mojo to go around. It's all gone. They ate the mojo." It's fair to say things were looking up, then. Winning over an audience that knows you only by reputation had the quartet spinning with satisfaction. "It's a different level of excitement when I can
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