Dork, May 2020

DOWN WITH BORING

ISSUE 43 MAY 2020 READDORK.COM

SEA

GIRLS Ready for more?

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PERFUME GENIUS! EMPRESS OF! PVRIS! HAZEL ENGLISH! HALLOWEENS! PORRIDGE RADIO! ENTER SHIKARI! GEORGIA! THE DRIVER ERA! LOADS MORE!

INDEX

** BAND INDEX ** BAND INDEX **

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Alec Benjamin

17

Alfie Templeman

28

ALMA

44

Subscribe at readdork.com now

APRE

27

BC Camplight

45

May 2020 | readdork.com | Down With Boring

3Ø

Ø4 Intro 24 Hype ED’S LETTER

SEA GIRLS

With their debut album announced, Sea Girls are ready for more. Frontman Henry Camamile reveals the full story so far.

36

Three albums deep, and - as PVRIS prepare to go bigger than ever before - Lynn Gunn is taking the limelight for herself.

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PERFUME GENIUS

Not shy of critical acclaim, Perfume Genius’ latest album isn’t willing to stand still.

We get it, Dear Reader. You’re bored and in lockdown. You’ve cooked lord-knows-how-many fancy dinners. You’ve had more conversations with pot plants than you can possibly imagine. You’ve dyed your hair an impossibly-bright colour you found in a cupboard just so you can say you’ve done something, and you’ve tidied the kitchen so many times you’re pretty sure you should be giving yourself a pay rise. Does washing-up ever end?

Christ, you’ve even taken up running again just to find an excuse to get out of the house that doesn’t involve emptying the bins for the third time this week. Entertainment is needed.

Well, we’ve got you covered. Despite the world falling apart at the seams, your mates at Dork know that pop never sleeps - so, we’ve committed to keep on at it as if nothing is happening. Yes, there may be no gigs. No, festivals don’t look like they’re happening. Perhaps half the albums released over the next three months have packed their bags and fucked off to Q3 or 4, but we’re keeping on printing magazines and talking nonsense until we fall on our 99p shop plastic swords. Unto the breach!

Not everyone has evacuated their musical responsibilities, though.

This month’s cover stars Sea Girls have just announced their debut album. With that on the agenda, we sat down with frontman Henry for a warts-and-all chat that opens up a whole new side to one of 2020’s most likely new acts. It’s an essential read. What a champ.

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THE FIGHT BACK STARTS HERE!

24

Cavetown

42

7

Cheap Cuts

18

Chelsea Peretti

13

Ciel

26

Coach Party

29

Cona Gray

44

Diet Cig

44

BACK TO SCHOOL

Dua Lipa

3

HALLOWEENS

ENTER SHIKARI

EMPRESS OF

HAZEL ENGLISH

With her debut finally here, Hazel English is offering a wake-up call.

Easy Life Egyptian Blue

HINDS

Just Like Kids (Miau)

smiling-you-idiot best. Like a cocktail with an umbrella falling down a concrete staircase and landing without a drop spilled, it’s chaotically brilliant.

Hinds’ new album may have ‘gone back’ due to ‘events’, DUA LIPA but this track from it Love Again Yes, we know that sees the quartet at actually the hook their no-you-stop-

from the de-facto best song on Dua’s new album ‘Future Nostalgia’ is a sample of a thing that’s also sampled by another song, but White Town’s ‘Your Woman’ is an inter-generational megabop, so shut the fuck up, yeah?

Cheers.

9 21

Empress Of

40. 45

Enter Shikari

20, 44

Foals

13

Georgia

46

Girl In Red Halloweens Happyness Hazel English Hinds

23 14, 46 45 42. 45 3, 9

Isaac Dunbar

26

Joe & The Shitboys

26

L Devine Larkins

6 28

Lauran Hibberd

11

Lily Moore

16

Marketplace

26

Marsicans

28

Maya Hawke

27

Mellah

23

Milk Teeth

44

Moses Sumney

45

Orlando Weeks

21 38, 45

Pete Wentz

18

Poppy

47

Porridge Radio

22

PVRIS

36

Rina Sawayama Sea Girls Self Esteem

this here, should we? Not long to wait now.

8

Charli XCX

19

ON THE DORK STEREO THIS MONTH...

No, we can’t tell you anything. Nope, even if you beg.

Sorry. Can’t. You’ll have to wait for next month. Stop asking.

Go away. Shut up.

God, we shouldn’t even have written

Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard

Perfume Genius

‘EDITOR’ @STEPHENACKROYD

Notes on a Conditional Form

21

23

Locked down but still productive, Empress Of’s latest record is a pop delight.

S tephen

THE 1975

11

Brockhampton

Declan McKenna

Think you know what to expect from Enter Shikari?

Think again.

4Ø

Bloxx

Courtney Barnett

Side projects may generally be a bit snooze, but Justinfrom-the-Vaccines and his mate are much better than that.

2Ø

27

You could sit and moan about lockdown, or you could do something like this lot.

100s of bands, direct from their own homes? Yeah, Dork is throwing an ‘online festival’. Get the details.

14

19

Biig Piig

23, 26, 44 30 21

Sorry

44

Sports Team

26

Squid

28

Taylor Janzen The 1975 The Big Moon

29 3, 23 8

The Chats

44

The Driver Era

16

The Xcerts

11

Thyla

11

Troye Sivan

23

Twenty One Pilots

23

Tyla Parx

12

Vistas Yard Act

11 26

READDORK.COM

3

PVRIS

Ø4

3Ø Features 44 Incoming

Biffy Clyro

INTRO

4

THE BEATING HEART OF POP.

MAY 2020

DORK

INTRO

5

Yep, our good ‘friend’ COVID-19 is here, and it’s wreaking havoc. As lives are sadly lost, and the world deals with lockdowns, social distancing and a need to adapt while solutions are found, the music community finds itself tipped upside down. No live shows, delayed releases and an audience confined to their own homes, it’d be easy to focus on the negatives. But in amongst the chaos, some bright sparks are finding new ways to thrive...

READDORK.COM

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INTRO So who saw this one coming? Don’t lie. When celebrating the start of a new year, little did we realise that just a few months later we’d all be shut away in our homes, quickly becoming experts in video conferencing software as we watch our future plans go up in smoke. Yep, the coronavirus pandemic has properly thrown a spanner into the workings of - well - everything, actually, and the weird, wonderful world of music is suffering as much as any.

With mass gatherings banned, there’s no way gigs or festivals can go ahead. That means so many of the events booked for the spring and summer ahead have already been moved, or cancelled.

With whispers suggesting it could be much, much later than the end of lockdown before we find ourselves in crowded fields and venues again, even some of those reorganising start to look wildly optimistic.

At the same time, even the new releases we’ve been looking forward to have started to move. Not only are the live shows used to promote an album off the table, but the record shops that would sell them are closed. Production delays are inevitable, and with everyone who can working from home, even co-ordinating a campaign is more difficult than ever before. Add to that a massive economic downturn, and it’s no wonder many are deciding it might be best to wait for later in the year to deliver something they’ve spent years working on.

All of which leaves us with a great big cultural hole to fill. While we could all shut down, pack it in and wait for the storm to blow over, music isn’t like that. It’s a creative space filled with exciting, innovative talents. Minds too sharp to stay quiet for months. People who, when faced with a problem, think up new solutions. From live-streamed shows to new ways to create, some of our favourite artists are already finding fresh, exciting ways to make art or connect with fans through a period on unprecedented isolation on a massive scale.

There’s no doubt about it - the coming months are going to be different. They’re going to be tough, too. There’s an inevitability that some of the things we love the most may be forced to change, adapt or even shut down entirely - but from that comes invention. Music is fighting back. Here’s how.

MAY 2020

DORK

L DE Can’t do an actual, IRL tour at the moment? Take it to URLs instead - that’s L Devine’s thinking. All the benefits of fans, music, and new scenery (kind of), with none of the smelly tour buses, dodgy hotel rooms, or incomplete riders (where’s the bloody Haribo?!).

Hello L Devine! How’s it going?

Are you feeling okay amid all this virus madness?

Hey! I’m doing fine, thank you.

I’m back up north in Newcastle, staying with my mum, so I feel really lucky I’m quarantined at home with family!

How has it impacted you so far?

It’s pretty much put life on pause, which I’m sure is the same for everyone. I’m so used to being constantly on the move and travelling a lot, so life being so slow-paced has been very strange. As a musician, I can definitely write and make music from home, but like so many other artists, it’s the touring side of things which the virus has really had an impact on. My support slot on Fletcher’s tour was postponed this month, as was my headline UK and European tour in May, along with a bunch of festivals.

So re-planning these next few months will be interesting!

You’ve been doing some nice and fun things to boost morale, can you tell us about them?

I planned this thing I’m calling a ‘URL Tour’ to make up for the fact I won’t be touring across Europe this month. The idea was to do different live stream gigs across different social media platforms.

I thought by doing it this way, I would still be reaching different fans in different spaces. For instance, the audience on TikTok isn’t the same as the audience on YouTube, similarly, when playing shows in different countries, I’d performing to different fans each night.

Have they been well received?

It’s been so lovely and rewarding so far. The responses from fans have been heart-warming. A lot of people have sent me messages saying these URL shows really help take their minds off of things

and have helped with anxieties.

Which I think is what live music is all about – you all come together and forget about the outside world for an hour or so and just enjoy the music in front of you.

Do you have more in the works?

I have a few more dates on the URL Tour coming up, but I’m planning some other stuff too. I had just started recording Season 2 of my podcast – L Devine’s Growing Pains – before this all started, so I’ve been exploring how I can continue to do that remotely. Some live stream episodes of the podcast could be really cool! So hopefully, that’ll be coming in the next few weeks too.

Is there anything you’ve seen someone else do around this that you thought was a great idea?

Rina Sawayama let her fans download the chords and lyrics

EVINE

INTRO

CHARLI XCX

At a time when many others are shifting their albums back to avoid a COVID-19 shaped sink-hole in the middle of 2020’s cultural universe, it would take a brave artist to go the other way. Someone who is used to turning left when the diversion sign says go right. Someone like Charli XCX.

of her new song before its release so they could interpret it how they want and create their own version. I think that’s such a fun idea!

Have you been self-isolating?

How do you fill the time?

Going out for my once a day exercise, which at the minute consists of walks along the Fish Quay, has been really nice. I’ve also been taking really long baths. And I’m absolutely addicted to the House Party app. I’m pretty sure my friends are getting sick of me.

What’s your favourite ‘can do at home’ hobby that isn’t music?

Cooking is great!! It’s actually so therapeutic, and I can still be pretty creative with it too.

Especially since I’m being

“It’s been so lovely and rewarding so far” extra conscious about not wasting anything at all, I think I’m definitely becoming a bit more experimental in the kitchen.

What do the next few months look like for you?

I don’t know if anyone knows

what the next few months look like to be honest! But I am releasing quite a lot of new music which Is awesome.

I’m not totally sure when it’ll all come out exactly, but I’ll definitely be dropping a few songs over the next few months. P

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One weekend earlier this year, we all giggled when an - at the time thought to be hoax - label memo appeared online stating a new Charli XCX album, ‘how i’m feeling now’, would be released on 15th May. Obviously, while tonguein-cheek about certain aspects (NOBODY MENTION TAXI - Ed), it was absolutely correct.

Embarking on a self-isolation Zoom chat with 1000 of her fans, Charli explained: “For me, staying positive goes hand in hand with staying creative, and so that’s why I’ve decided I’m going to use this isolation time to make a brand new album from scratch.

“The nature of this album is going to be very indicative of the times because I’m only going to be able to use the tools I have at my fingertips to create all music, all artwork, all videos… everything - in that sense, it’ll be very DIY. I’ll also be reaching out to people online to collaborate with, and I’m going to keep the entire process super open, so that anybody who wants to watch can.

I’ll be posting demos, I’ll be posting acapellas, I’ll be posting text conversations with me and any collaborators, I’ll be filming myself in the studio, I’ll be doing Zoom conferences to ask fans or anyone watching for opinions or ideas, I’m going to set up an email address so that fans or anyone can send me beats or references… the whole thing in that sense will be extremely collaborative because anybody who wants to be involved can explore their creativity alongside mine.

“The album is going to come out May 15th, which is kind of soon-ish, I suppose, and there’s a couple of scratch ideas but I’m basically starting from nothing, so hopefully I meet the deadline! The album is called ‘how i’m feeling now’, which is a working title but I kind of like it.”

So there we go. A new Charli XCX album will be with us very soon indeed. You can check out the full ‘announcement’ on readdork.com now. P

INTRO

THE BIG MOON If you’ve got some unexpected downtime, you may as well learn a new skill, right? The Big Moon’s Jules Jackson has been offering up guitar lessons. What a champ!

Hello Jules from The Big Moon. This is nuts, eh? How has it changed your plans so far?

The end of our tour got cancelled, and half our summer festivals are off. But we are actually in a good place compared to a lot of musicians, at least we managed to release our album and do 90% of our touring. So we are feeling very lucky.

You’ve been doing some online guitar lessons to boost morale and raise some cash, can you tell us about them?

It’s been so fun! I have enjoyed it so much.

It’s a luxury to be able to make connections with strangers at a time when the only people I’m seeing are the ones I live with. I think people are just enjoying chatting to a new human. And becoming sick shredders, obvs.

Do you have any more plans in the works?

We are making guitar/bass tabs by request and asking for donations for them to go to the Trussell Trust foodbank charity. Details are on our socials.

Is there anything you’ve seen someone else do around this that you thought was a great idea?

Self Esteem did a whole weekend festival of live streams called Pussy Pandemique which was fun. I have been really enjoying my friends zoom pub quiz nights, amazing what people can do with loads of time and space and boredom.

What do you think the music landscape will look like in 6 months’ time?

There will be a swathe of Corona albums, to go with the Corona babies and Corona divorces. We are going to be sick to the back teeth of songs about panicking and hygiene and the apocalypse.

How have you been filling all the time?

Writing another album hopefully. Although I have felt a bit unsettled and haven’t really got anything yet. I think once things start to feel more like a new normal, I’ll be able to focus. I think to be creative, you need to feel safe. I’ve also been playing a lot of Donkey Kong. And eating so much food. P

CAVETOWN

8

Have they been well received?

I’ve had so many people contact me! I can’t possibly fit them all in, but I’m trying to stagger them all out over a long time. A lot of the students are teenagers who aren’t at school anymore, so I am literally their

teacher for half an hour.

MAY 2020

DORK

Our pal Cavetown has been keeping up morale with livestreaming and vids.

Robin! Hello. Are you ok?

Hi! Yes, I’m fine. Staying inside pretty much all the time which isn’t unusual for me anyway.

How has this virus stuff impacted you so far?

I miss my housemate Marco terribly. He went to his parents’ house for the quarantine. I don’t know when I’ll get to see him again, which makes me quite sad, but on the bright side, I’m getting a lot of rest which is something I’ve been

needing for a while.

What’ve you been up to, then?

Yeah, I’ve been very active online since that’s where everyone is hanging out most of the time right now! So far I’ve released a new album (which is of course very exciting), done a livestream, and posted a bunch of new YouTube videos. It has felt great to reignite the relationship I have with my audience, and now feels like the perfect time to reconnect with them like I used to before I became so busy touring.

Has it all been well received?

Yes! My audience tends to just love anything I put out there,

which is so sweet. They really make me feel unconditionally cared for.

lots of fun projects on my Minecraft server with my friends!

Do you have more in the works?

Absolutely. I had a great time on the Livestream so I’d love to do more of that, and I am keen on doing some more oldschool YouTube videos too :)

What’s your favourite ‘can do at home’ hobby that isn’t music?

I’ve always loved painting! I really enjoy sitting down with a video or podcast playing and losing myself in a painting.

Is there anything you’ve seen someone else do around this that you thought was a great idea?

I’ve seen lots of fellow artists hopping on the live streaming bandwagon, which I think is wonderful! I think this situation is reminding everyone of the value of human connection, and we’re lucky enough to live in an age where we can stay connected even when we’re so far apart. I would argue that everyone’s becoming even more connected now because of the pandemic, and it’s great to see despite all the fear and uncertainty.

Are there any tracks or albums you’ve been listening to a lot to help get through this period?

My dear friend ‘Allie’ released his first solo EP which I’ve fallen so in love with! My favourite track is ‘Junior Coder’s Experiment’. It’s so expertly written, and I strongly recommend a listen if you’re in need of some comfort.

Have you been self-isolating?

How do you fill the time?

I have. I spend a lot of time sleeping. When I’m not doing that, I’ve been making some good progress on Animal Crossing New Horizons. For anyone wondering, my town is called Oat, my fruit is apples, and my villagers are Poncho and Camberra. I’ve also done

What do the next few months look like for you?

It’s hard to tell really, as it is for everyone right now. I’m hoping that it won’t be too long until I can give my audience the shows that they were looking forward to, and visit my parents again for the first time in months. For now, I’ll be resting, playing lots of video games, and probably coming up with some new tunes as always. The best thing for everyone to do is to just keep on truckin’, and keep doing the things that make you feel warm. P

EASY LIFE Last month’s cover stars, Easy Life have put their “famous people shit” on hold to challenge their fans to Mario Kart races, and work on their debut album...

What’ve you been up to, then?

Honestly, we are so lucky to have a platform that allows us to engage with fans and talk to people. At times like this, you realise how special that privilege really is. We’ve just been hosting little virtual gigs on social media and trying our best to teach people things. We’ve done a few cooking shows and some Mario Kart competitions and stuff. Anything to pass the time really.

Do you have more in the works?

We are planning on releasing some music at some point which hopefully will dispel people’s boredom for about

Is there anything you’ve seen someone else do around this that you thought was a great idea?

Last night I stood outside on the balcony and applauded for all the NHS workers who are still hard at work on the front line, and it was one of the most wholesome and genuine responses that I’ve seen from my community. The whole area was alive with applause, and I thought that display of gratitude was far more moving than any other idea I’ve witnessed thus far. Saying thank you is a really powerful tool.

What’s next for you?

I have no excuse as to why I can’t write and record the entire album. Usually, my excuse is that I’m super busy doing super famous people shit, but now I’m just sat in my house with my home studio and all the time in the world.

Annoyingly now I guess I have to work really hard and write the album but I’m super lucky to have a creative challenge to be getting on with. I’m excited. One more time though, massive shout out to everyone still working in public transport, construction, healthcare, food industries and all the other services that are keeping the country going. You should deffo interview someone who works at the local Tesco, that shit is wild! P

HINDS They’ve had to put their album back a bit, but it’s still all-go for everyone’s favourite Madrileños, Hinds.

Hello! How’s it going? Are you okay amid all this virus madness?

Hi! I’m okay thanks! I hope you are too. Every member of the band is healthy, so can’t complain too much!

What’s the feeling like in Spain at the moment?

It’s pretty bad. We have a very very high number of affected people.

You’re on lock-down too, right?

What does that mean for your day-to-day living?

Yeah, sure are. We were the second country to be on official lock-down in Europe, shortly after Italy. It’s been 15 days today since the government declared state alarm making illegal to go out for anything that’s not going to the supermarket or pharmacy.

It’s not been too bad, I have a weird feeling that time is passing faster than ever. I guess its cause every day is the same: record some stuff, interview, work out home etc., so time is passing without me realising! I hope at least I can clean my closet before this is over, haha.

How has the situation impacted the band so far - your album’s going back, isn’t it?

Oh yeah… it has massively affected us. We were supposed to go on the road right after releasing the album in April until summer festival season. So we had to re-schedule three months of touring! We will do Europe and UK in September and the US in November now.

We decided to push back the album a week ago. Even though we could have still done a “digital release” (no physical copy could have made it anywhere), we thought it was best to push it back

a bit. We are all going through a lot now, and a lot of our friends and families are getting sick with the virus. It doesn’t feel like the right time to be promoting our album, we didn’t even feel like posting about it social media.

It’s the record we have invested on the most, monetarily and emotionally; it’s been a very big and exciting challenge that came with a lot of changes. We are very proud of it and don’t want this stupid virus to ruin it for the listeners or us. The new date now is 5th June. We’ve always wanted to release an album in the summer anyways!

You’ve been doing some nice and fun things online to boost morale, can you tell us about them?

Haha, thanks! We’ve been working hard on that content! When we realised we were gonna be locked down for a bit, we thought we had to start thinking out of the box! We’ve been learning how to record ourselves, and how to play together in the distance so Carlotta can edit all it up and make a pretty piece together. It’s been fun!

We also put up a couple of tutorials, and they have done great too. I think right now a lot of people is in a “passive” position; watching Netflix, staring at our phones, with music in the background etc. and things like tutorials are great cause they make you DO things! Learn a song, an instrument, whatever that’s productive and fun. Being busy and creative has been helping me a lot personally, so I’m glad to see fans enjoying our videos. Even our old booking agent is learning hinds songs.

Do you have more in the works?

Yep! Doing a bunch of new songs this week that will probably be ready next!

What do the next few months look like for you?

Release new music, new videos and the best damn album we’ve ever written!! P

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Alright, Easy Life. How’s this all treating you then, has it impacted your ‘plans’ much?

Hello Dork! I’m doing good thank you very much. I had a sore throat last week which scared the shit out of me but yeah, still going relatively strong (ish).

We have cancelled a UK tour, a Europe tour and a US tour and can’t even go to the studio. There are worse things going on in the world, but it seems to have pretty much stopped everything in its tracks, Easy Life included.

3 minutes at a time. Lots in the pipeline, but also kinda feels like music isn’t that crucial right now. Music is a luxury and not a necessity I’m afraid, so I think we are more inclined to drive people bags of spaghetti in and around Leicester than we are to write and produce a pop song.

INTRO

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SCHOOL’S OUT IN...

INTRO

Sorry, you thought we wouldn’t be getting involved? Come on, Dear Reader. This May Bank Holiday weekend, we’re throwing a massive digital festival. Here’s the first wave of what you can expect...

MAY 2020

DORK

HOMES

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We were supposed to be starting festival season this month. Live At Leeds. The Great Escape. Hit The North. Festivals filled with great new artists and established names, kicking off a summer packed with more of the same.

Obviously, things change. Thanks to our good ‘mate’ COVID-19, all of that is firmly cancelled. That doesn’t mean we have to sit in and be bored though. Over the past few weeks musicians have been taking to the live streams, performing from their own homes. Adversity is the mother of invention, and all that. So it only makes sense that we’d get involved too.

And yes, we’re Dork. We do nothing by halves.

We’ve been calling up our favourite artists and asking them to film us lo-fi sets from self-isolation. Recorded on phones, in front-rooms and with whatever is lying around, we’ve gathered them together - hundreds of them - to create the first big festival of 2020: Homeschool.

Held over the three days of the bank holiday weekend (8th-10th May), these performances will be played out across multiple stages showcasing some of the most exciting artists on the planet. Broadcast in a sharedexperience, linear style, you’ll be able to swap between a Main Stage set to see what’s going on over in Hype, or tweet about the new track you’ve just seen your faves drop unexpectedly. You just need to provide the drinks.

Fresh from the release of new track ‘Oh Please’, Tom Grennan will bring a special set to the festival this May, delving across beloved numbers from his acclaimed debut ‘Lighting Matches’ and a glimpse into the future too. A Dork mainstay, Murph of The Wombats fame will be beaming direct from Los Angeles as Love Fame Tragedy whilst a slew of revered favourites will be bringing their own sets to the Homeschool stage. From the colourful pop of Bad Sounds, the sweet indie hooks of Bloxx, the earnest tales of Cavetown and the joyous shine of Alfie Templeman all the way to listening party icon Tim Burgess, the soaring anthemic tones of The Xcerts, US kaleidoscope-pop movers Grouplove, the unmistakable electro-harmonies of IDER and the footto-the-floor guitar strings of Vistas and The Sherlocks - there’s something for everyone.

Packed with countless acts all set to become your new favourite act, there are unmissable performances across the board from artists who’ve become mainstays in tip lists and magazine pages all over the place. Try Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard, FEET, Phoebe Green and Rachel Chinouriri. Try APRE, ZUZU, KennyHoopla, Taylor Janzen and Sad Boys Club. Try Maisie Peters, Larkins, Nimmo, Lady Bird and Lauran Hibberd. Try Dizzy, Drug Store Romeos or Weird Milk. Homeschool is packed full of unmissable names bringing incredible sets direct from their front rooms to yours.

Complete with showcasing a range of incredible performances, Homeschool is also raising muchneeded awareness of the incredible work of frontline medical staff and volunteers here in the UK encouraging donations to the NHS Charities Together Covid-19 Urgent Appeal throughout the weekend.

You’ll be able to watch all the action on a dedicated, specially built website, homeschoolfest.com, with various extra ‘stuff’ happening across the weekend on social media and beyond. You can check the first list of names - there’s over 100 of them - to your right. More will be announced in the run up, too. Staying in is the new going out, right? P

LINE-UP SO FAR AJIMAL · ALEC BENJAMIN · ALFIE TEMPLEMAN · ANNABEL ALLUM · APRE · BAD SOUNDS · BAD//DREEMS · BEACH RIOT · BETSIE GOLD · BILK · BLOXX · BORN RUFFIANS · BRYDE · BUZZARD BUZZARD BUZZARD · CAVETOWN · CHAPTER AND VERSE · CHEERBLEEDERZ · COACH PARTY · DANA GAVANSKI · DELAIRE THE LIAR · DEVON · DIZZY · DRUG STORE ROMEOS · ELLIS · EMMA STEINBAKKEN · FAR CASPIAN · FEET · FLAWES · GAFFA TAPE SANDY · GRACE LIGHTMAN · GROUPLOVE · GUEST SINGER · GURU · HANNAH JANE LEWIS · HANYA · HEIGHTS · HOME COUNTIES · HONEY HARPER · HONEY LUNG · HONEY MOON · IDER · JAMIE LENMAN · JAZZ MORLEY · JENS KUROSS · JOE & THE SHITBOYS · JOHNNY KILLS · JONES · JORDAN MACKAMPA · KENNYHOOPLA · LADY BIRD · LANDE HEKT · LARKINS · LAURAN HIBBERD · LIDO PIMIENTA · LISS · LIZZY FARRALL · LOOR · LOVE FAME TRAGEDY · LYNKS AFRIKKA · MAISIE PETERS · MAX LEONE · NATURE TV · NIMMO · NOVACUB · ORCHARDS · PARA FICTION · PEACH PIT · PHIL MADELEY · PHOEBE GREEN · PIZZAGIRL · POLLY MONEY · RACHEL CHINOURIRI · RHODES · SAD BOYS CLUB · SFVEN · SKIA · SNOW COATS · SOCIAL ANIMALS · SPACEY JANE · TAYLOR JANZEN · THE BOTS · THE PALE WHITE · THE SHERLOCKS · THE XCERTS · THYLA · TIM BURGESS · TOM GRENNAN · TTRRUUCES · TUSKS · TWO TRIBES · UPSAHL · VC PINES · VISTAS · WALLFLOWER · WARGIRL · WEIRD MILK · WESLEY GONZALEZ · YAKIMA · ZAND · ZUZU + MORE TBC

SCHOOL

Who would be the worst bandmate to isolate with?

Thankfully I’m answering this because the other lads would definitely say me. I’d be happy to isolate with either of them but they wouldn’t say the same for me!

BLOXX

It must be super weird releasing

Do you have any other ideas for lockdown videos or projects?

Everyday Saturday at 8pm Prentice has been going live on our Instagram for ‘Vistas Pub Cover Night’. He plays some of the best indie bangers for half an hour that fans request.

I live-streamed on Twitch with other Bands playing FIFA. We also played games online with fans which was a great way to interact with them.

Hey Fee, how’s it going? Are you battling through selfisolation ok?

Hey! It’s going well, loads of writing, cooking and playing games! Horrible circumstances but not entirely awful to stay home! (I know the boys are battling it with loads of video games.)

It must be rubbish not being able to play gigs n stuff, have you had to cancel much?

We were actually on tour, with Twin Atlantic, and the tour got cut, and we were so bummed, but it was totally the right choice. A few other things have been moved, which really blows, but once everything gets back to normal, THAT will be an amazing first show.

Do you think ‘current events’ will impact what you want to write about for the foreseeable?

I think it already has started too, definitely by lyrical means. It’s all very weird, and I’m most inspired by weird and uncontrollable states of emotion.

Hey Murray, how’s it going?

Are you self-isolating at the mo?

I’m doing good, currently self-isolating at my place in Brighton.

Has the lockdown interrupted or changed many of your plans? What would you guys have been doing now, otherwise?

We would probably be on the verge of entering the studio to record the album. The process would have certainly started. We’ve discussed trying to roll out singles during this time, but we’ve decided not to rush

anything, we’re going to take our time, and hopefully, it will just push everything back by a couple of months. It’s hard to say though what with the never-ending race to keep up with the facts and stats about this awful virus, but I promise new music is coming this year.

Hello Millie! How’s it going?

Are you feeling okay amid all this virus madness?

Hello, all things considered, I’m doing okay! The uncertainty of things is, of course, difficult to process, but I’m lucky in the sense that I still have a space to write and

record music.

How’s the album coming along?

We are in the final mixing stages, and it is sounding great - feeling blessed that we managed to record it before all this madness and itching for things to get back to some semblance of normality so we can crack on with releasing it and touring it

What’s a festival without a wristband. Cut this one out and wear it. You may need sticky tape. Show us @readdork over the weekend!

Are you all off isolating in different places at the mo, or are you living together Monkeesstyle?

We’re not with each other, we’re all isolating at our parents’ houses. But we’re constantly checking up on each other to make sure we’re keeping well.

a debut album during all this, how has it impacted your plans?

Did you consider putting it back?

We had our biggest headline shows to date booked for the week our album came out. We also had plans for in store shows all around the UK. But as the world changed so did our plans.

We did discuss the possibility of moving it back but the world needs music now more than ever.

THE XCERTS

Hi Jamie, how’s it going? Are you guys doing ok?

Hi Dork, we’re all doing good.

Just making sure we’re keeping ourselves busy.

THYLA

VISTAS

Hi Lauran! What are you spending your days doing, other than working on live sessions for demanding music mags?

That’s the good stuff! Been oddly creative actually, have written a song a day since day dot so I have over two albums worth of material now, haha! I’ve also been planning this new release, and the second EP as well as filming a home music video and reading a lot. I also started watching Game of Thrones, I never watched it when it was all everyone was talking about, so I’m late to the party but loving it for sure.

HOMESCHOOL

LAURAN HIBBERD

8 - 10 MAY 2020

homeschoolfest.com

- 10 MAY 2020

INTRO

"I WAS THA

I CO ANY Actor-turned-songwriterturned-pop star TAYLA PARX has one hell of a CV: Nickelodeon shows, multiple Grammy’s nominations, co-writes for the likes of Ariana Grande and Janelle Monáe. It’s a lot.

W Words: Abigail Firth

12

hat do Ariana Grande’s ‘thank u next’, Janelle Monae’s ‘Pynk’, Panic at the Disco’s ‘High Hopes’, and BTS’ ‘Mic Drop’ have in common? Other than being stone-cold bangers, of course, they’re all the brainchild of Tayla Parx, who’s spent the last almost decade working her magic behind the scenes on some of pop’s biggest smashes.

Now, slowly she’s creeping out from behind the curtain and into the spotlight herself.

Last year, she released her debut solo album, ‘We Need To Talk’, which she’s touring when we catch her in London, and is currently gearing up for a second one, ‘Coping Mechanisms’, due for release this year. She works fast, and she works hard; she’s always been that way, and it’s probably what’s gotten her so far so fast.

“I was that kid who believed that I could do anything,” Tayla says of her childhood.

“I had singing lessons and dance lessons, and all of those things, every day I woke up wanting to do something new, and my parents would support that. It’s something that they actually loved, when I wasn’t talking back.”

Maintaining that passion was essential to Tayla’s success. Starting acting at a young age and earning herself roles in 2007’s ‘Hairspray’ remake, and Nickelodeon favourites ‘Victorious’ and ‘True Jackson, VP’ in the early 2010s, amongst other small roles on high profile TV shows, kick-started her career, but she quickly found she’d rather be making music.

So while she learned to do that, she took on some voice acting jobs, mostly to pay the bills, but also so she could experiment with her image and put more energy into music, which she describes as the “best thing I could’ve done for myself.”

Tayla grew up trying to become an artist in a generation rife with child-actorto-singer types. The formula wasn’t right for her – she wanted to write and produce her own music, and eventually would end up doing exactly that for ex-Disney and Nickelodeon stars who were also breaking out of their shell.

“It made it even harder because everybody expects you to be like that

MAY 2020

DORK

INTRO

AT KID WHO BELIEVED THAT

OULD DO YTHING" because of my age.

“Now, they love young writers, and they love young producers. You have artists like Billie Eilish who completely prove that, yeah, you should listen to the kids. And your age doesn’t have anything to do with your talent.

It doesn’t have anything to do with your ability to grow.”

After years working her magic behind the scenes and releasing mixtapes on her own label imprint Tayla Made, she released her debut album ‘We Need To Talk’ this time last year. It was a project that took her on her own tour, as well as putting her in opening slots for Lizzo and Anderson Paak.

“It’s been incredible to learn, and then to find people that are like, ‘wait a minute, I like you as a writer, but I love you as an artist’,” she says of the touring experience.

“It’s satisfying to know that you’re just doing your thing and people are reacting to it. It’s just me being real. And obviously, anytime that you’re being real, and you’re being honest, and you have hundreds of thousands of people, millions of people that also relate. You have that reassurance that you’re not crazy, you know?”

Hearing Tayla’s own music brings to light the stamp she’s had on other people’s work. The opening track of her debut album, ‘I Want You’, sits somewhere between Janelle’s ‘I Like That’ and Ariana’s ‘make up’, and complements them wonderfully.

Most of the record follows suit, mashing up genres to create feel-good tunes with a heart. Even on her work in K-Pop, you can hear her influence on tracks like f(x)’s ‘Diamond’ and Red Velvet’s ‘Dumb Dumb’, with the latter incorporating #TaylaMade signature heavily layered harmonies and a marching band beat.

“They already knew that genre didn’t matter. And it was really, really fun for me to write personally, because they’ve been doing what American artists are just now catching on to. They’ll have a five-minute song, and it’ll have completely different genres throughout the entire song. That was fun for me and also challenging as a writer.

“It’s really awesome to just kind of have my little golden touch, my version of it. And it’s really awesome that people are getting to know me more and more going through the music, which is what I wanted, and what makes me happy.”

She assures that her new record ‘Coping Mechanisms’ will have the same vibe, following on directly from ‘We Need To Talk’, ‘Coping Mechanisms’ has only been hinted at via her Twitter at this point, so there’s not much to be said, but it’s almost done and on its way* (*our chat was, of course, pre-apocalypse, and hopefully this is still the case).

“It’s a continuation of the last project, the way that ‘We Need To Talk’ was a continuation from the ‘Tayla Made’ mixtape. And so now it’s kind of like we’re transitioning into this next phase of how do you cope?

“’Coping Mechanisms’ will have a gumbo of different genres, the same way that my other projects do, even on the mixtape, and I think that it’s even more acceptable now. I think that now we’re finally coming to a realisation that it doesn’t really matter, the whole genre thing, it holds back music, and you’re so concerned with sticking to one genre versus adding and evolving your initial genre. So I definitely will be continuing to make my mash at the moment, it’s my thing, and seeing other people now follow that type of thing, in regards to being like, ‘yo, I don’t care about genre’ is only allowing more fresh music to happen.”

Always thinking of the future, when Tayla creates her own music, she’s eager to get some of her favourite up and comers on board, including Khalid and The Internet’s Syd on her mixtape, then Joey Badass, Cautious Clay and Duckworth on her debut album. She’s always experimenting, pushing forward, and defying expectations.

“I’m also on the management side of everything. It’s usually something that I think of after the album is done. It’s really a matter of saying like, okay, what artists inspire me. What artists do I feel like have up next or are making waves right now in the music industry?

“I want to continuously just add features that people are like, woah, I didn’t expect that to happen. Like with Florida Georgia Line, you know, I want to just continue to work with artists that I really really respect, and going back to the fact that genre doesn’t matter, continuing to push my own genre.”

Ultimately, her belief in herself is what keeps her going. Having worked most of her life in entertainment, she’s kept her eye on the prize, and in the past few years has ticked off bucket list goals many artists could only dream of, but she’s showing no signs of slowing down yet.

“I’m doing things that people haven’t done previously. Just because it hasn’t been done before, doesn’t mean that it can’t be done, I’ve always been that type of kid. And growing up, when I believed in myself, and it worked, that obviously makes you want to do it even more. So I think that’s why, if like my little sister or any stranger comes up to me and asks what’s the world’s best advice you can give, I’m like you gotta believe in yourself. You gotta believe in yourself more than anybody else will, and I know it sounds so easy and cheesy. But it’s actually the one thing that’s kept me going through all of the good and the bad.

“If you think that you’re not gonna do it you probably won’t. And if you think that you are, even if you don’t get as high as you thought you would, you’re gonna land somewhere close, and you’re going to be able to readjust and get to that goal, or even higher the next time around as long as you continue to believe that you can do that.” P Tayla Parx’ album ‘Coping Mechanisms’ is out later this year.

The wonderful Chelsea Peretti has announced her debut album, a coffee-themed concept record. Due in June, the news arrives alongside her ‘Foam And Flotsam’ EP, which features the tracks ‘Late’, ‘Oatmilk (Feat. Reggie Watts)’, ‘Chore (Feat. CHIKA)’, Soundproof’, and ‘Dad (Feat. Will Schwartz)’.

The new material was written and produced in collaboration with Kool Kojak, and, in addition to the collabs on the EP, features contributions from Wale, Juliette Lewis, Chika, Nick Kroll, Kathleen Hanna, Hannibal Buress, Terry Crews, Patti Harrison, and Andy Milonakis.

Foals are the latest in a long line of bands to reschedule their tour due to the outbreak of COVID-19.

The former Dork cover stars were due to hit the road in support of their double-album ‘Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost’ this May, but now they’ll be heading out in spring 2021 instead.

“The upcoming UK tour has been rescheduled to April & May 2021,” they explain. “Thank you for yr patience. We can’t wait.

Until then stay safe. Big big love.”

Slam Dunk has been moved to later this year.

The event will call into Leeds Temple Newsam on 5th September, and Hatfield House the following day, instead of May due to the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak.

In addition to newlyconfirmed sets from Alkaline Trio and The Used, still playing are While She Sleeps, Mayday Parade, The Wonder Years, Code Orange, Young Guns, Basement, We Are The In Crowd and loads more.

READDORK.COM

13

Disney kid, or that Nickelodeon kid, and this is the only way that you could do it at that age,” she explains. “At that time, you had younger artists like Tiffany Evans, and really young boys who could be successful like Bieber, for instance, but you can’t do the same thing that you do with young boys.

Young boys can have a million different girls screaming over them, and it’s cute, you know, quote unquote, but you can’t do that same thing for a young female artist.

“And so you have to work for that artist to grow up, or figure out what is the thing that makes them, them. They don’t know who they are. So you really have to discover yourself, and you haven’t discovered yourself at that age. But I think that when you allow people to at least say no, you’re not too young to be an artist, and you give the opportunity to develop and to grow and to discover. That’s where we find the next superstars, which is evident when you see an artist like Billie Eilish.”

Tayla’s biggest breakthrough was her work on Ariana Grande’s ‘thank u, next’. The single earned Ariana her first Number 1 on Billboard, broke the global streaming record for a female artist, and bolstered Ariana’s global superstar status.

“For Ariana, we did something that neither one of us ever did before. She’d never had a Number 1 before that, neither had I. And so doing that together, showed that we’re doing something right here. And obviously, there’s a lot of growth that’s happened since we were on Nickelodeon sets. The thing that me and Ariana can really relate to is having to break out of that whole child actor turned singer stigma. And it’s something that’s so dumb, it’s the same stigma of being a songwriter that turned into a singer, but now everybody wants to be that, you know? So it’s once you break out of that idea that other people have been trying to box you into it that’s awesome.

That’s the thing that an artist like Demi or Ariana, or any other actor/singer that I’ve worked with, has really been able to do.” ‘thank u, next’, and other singles ‘7 rings’ and ‘break up with your girlfriend, I’m bored’ continued Tayla’s chart reign well into 2019, following the success of Panic at the Disco’s ‘High Hopes’ and Khalid and Normani’s ‘Love Lies’, both of which charted in the Top Ten in 2018 and stayed on the Billboard Hot 100 for over a year. 2019 also brought Grammy nominations for Tayla’s work on Janelle Monae’s ‘Dirty Computer’, just as 2020 would bring nods for ‘thank u, next’.

It’s the stuff of dreams – specifically Tayla’s childhood ones.

“I definitely wanted Grammys,” she laughs. “I used to look up ‘who’s the youngest person to do this’ or ‘who’s the oldest person to do that’. How far have people really really taken it? That really inspired me because the thing that used to suck when I was younger was people just see you as a kid. Me coming into writing, at 19 years old, people tried to play me just

‘FYI’

14

SPOOKS

INTRO

MAY 2020

DORK

What do you call two-fifths of The Vaccines? The V, perhaps? EVac? No, don’t be daft - it’s Halloweens.

Words: Liam Konemann. Photos: Finn Constantine.

INTRO

“I have these folders of imaginary bands...”

Justin Young

L

“All I really do is write songs,” Justin says. “It’s my job and my hobby, and my passion. I don’t really do anything else. So it’s inevitable that if all you ever need for The Vaccines is 12 songs a year, or 12 songs every two years or whatever it may be, that you’re going to have like a pile of songs you really like that maybe can find life somewhere up somewhere else.”

Or several piles, as the case may be.

“I have these folders of imaginary bands, and they have the band name and the album name, and some of them even have artwork, and it’s all just kind of like one step away from being brought out into the world, but they’re never quite ready. It brings me a lot of anxiety that a lot of these songs that I really like may never see the light.’

Well, he could always take the K-Pop approach and farm them out to specially trained idols who will win his tunes veritable legions of adoring fans?

“I think that the way people make music and the way people consume music now, it is quite old fashioned and maybe out of step to sit on stuff for months or years,” he considers.

All those hours surrounded by towers of songs can make a person quite introspective. ‘Morning Kiss at the Acropolis’ muses on love and desire, excess and wanting the one thing that you aren’t allowed to have.

“My lyrics are always really personal. I think that’s one of the defining features. I’m not particularly observational, I’m a lot more experiential,” Justin says.

Still, part of the lyricism of Halloweens is a necessity borne out of the form. The music is more intimate, and so the lyrics have to be too.

“There’s an inevitability that if it’s just you and a piano or whatever it may be, the lyrics are the first thing that people are going to hear and connect with,” he points out.

Two of the key tracks on the record, recent singles ‘Ur Kinda Man’ and ‘My Baby Looks Good With Another’ centre on connection - or the lack of it. On ‘Ur Kinda Man’ Halloweens riff on a sense of inadequacy and an obsession with projecting the right image, while ‘My Baby Looks Good With Another’

visuals,” he says. “I just thought it was really interesting that all those great empires of the past we’re all civilised, sophisticated, modern societies that inevitably all crumbled.”

This has all become horribly prescient in recent weeks.

“Speaking about all this stuff in the current climate, there’s this added dimension to it. It’s very strange.”

On second thoughts, it might be best not to think too hard about fallen civilisations for the moment. Let’s go back to the bright and shiny. Consider Halloweens’ first single ‘Hannah, You’re Amazing’, which quite literally sings the praises of one specific Hannah. In these times of darkness we can scale up, though. We can celebrate Hannah’s the world over, or indeed anyone and everyone amazing.

“There is a celebratory nature to the record, and the people around me, and people I know, and people I don’t know.

It’s by no means a cynical record, all this stuff. It’s a celebration of humans and humanity as well,” says Justin.

“Ultimately this record, as every record I’ve ever made, and the Vaccines have ever made - and probably most records - is this strive for connection.”

The way things are going, records like that aren’t about to go out of style.

P Halloweens’ album ‘Morning Kiss at the Acropolis’ is out now.

READDORK.COM

15

ike the rest of the world, Justin Young’s plans for 2020 have been somewhat derailed. The idea was to release his debut album with Halloweens, his side-project with fellow Vaccine Tim Lanham, play a couple of festivals, maybe a little tour and so on. But, well, we all know what happened there. As the saying goes; if you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans.

The album has come out, at least.

‘Morning Kiss at the Acropolis’, as the title might suggest, has a thread of romanticism running through it, and a preoccupation with grand, fallen civilisations. That last part has become a little too prescient lately, if we’re honest. A bit too close for comfort.

The original intention wasn’t so sweeping. While writing together for The Vaccines’ fourth album, Justin and Tim found that sometimes songs went off in a direction that wasn’t quite what they were aiming for on ‘Combat Sports’.

“A lot of the stuff that Tim and I would write together never really felt right for The Vaccines pile,” Justin says.

“It always felt like it had legs, but we were both like, ‘even within a loose framework, does this make sense?’

Can I imagine running around onstage singing this at the top of my lungs?’”

Turns out, he couldn’t. Listening to the record, it’s pretty clear why. Where The Vaccines are exuberant, fast, loud indie, Halloweens are mellower, more melodic and sweet. These tunes were never destined for the Vaccines’ set.

Still, Tim and Justin kept writing.

“It kind of continued happening. And once we had three or four songs, both of us sort of thought, well maybe we could kind of put this into a pile for like, a real project. Maybe we could work on a record.”

He makes it sound as though an extra band coalescing was almost accidental, when really it was more an inevitability than anything else. When you write as many songs as Justin Young and Tim Lanham, eventually something you were idly working on is going to stick.

reflects the universal human inclination to want exactly what it is we’re not able to have.

“They’re both reflective of me as a person and the people I come into contact with, and maybe in the world as a whole we’re guilty of wanting what we can’t have, and then also not wanting what we have when it’s in front of us, and then wishing we had it when it was gone,” Justin says. “I think we do live in this culture of instant gratification, and greed and an insatiable hunger for all that is like big, bright and shiny. And I’m not critical of that; I’m just aware that like, we are on the whole an incredibly entitled bunch.”

He lets this sit for less than half a second before tempering the burn.

“And, you know, a lovely bunch at the same time.”

The balance between two extremes is the continuous thread at the heart of ‘Morning Kiss of the Acropolis’. These are love and heartbreak songs on the surface, but shot through with the aesthetic of grand, fallen civilisations.

Halloweens are, it seems, preoccupied with decadence and decline. Or, as Justin puts it; “those themes of enlightenment and entitlement running parallel with each other.”

“That’s one of the reasons I loved all that vaporwave aesthetic I was seeing online, because it’s this kind of retrofuture meeting, of this video game stuff with all these Greek, Roman, Egyptian

ALL KILLER SANDWICH FILLER

WHAT DOES YOUR FAVOURITE POP STAR LIKE TO PUT IN THEIR SARNIE? THE BIG QUESTIONS, ANSWERED.

THIS MONTH...

CHEEKY TUNA SANDWICH

by Lily Moore

16

“I just love sandwiches. It’s not cool. It’s not trendy.

But they’re bloody good. I think a tuna sandwich is potentially the greatest sandwich invented and being a food lover and packed lunch lover I have made it gradually into a restaurant-worthy snacky snack. Get ready ” INGREDIENTS: + 2 slices of decent brown bread (think rye sourdough. Think artistan. Think splashy the cashy in Gails. That’s the ticket) + 1 tin of tuna (in BRINE NOT OIL VERY BAD IN OIL) + Mayo + Gherkin + Avocado + Spinach + Jalapeños + Black pepper INSTRUCTIONS 1. Wash your hands, you naughty naughty.

2. Toast the bread for enough to give it a little crunch.

3. While toast is toasting get making the tuna mayo.

Just take the tuna and the mayo and shove in a bowl together. Add some black pepper and a chopped up gherkin. Just trust me.

4. Once the toast is done spread a generous amount of tuna in it. You want it to be more tuna than bread.

If it even slightly resembles the ratios of a school canteen sarnie, you’ve fucked up. Anyway yeah just shove it on one side of bread...

5. Bash an avocado on the other side of bread. Adds some millennial moistness and also just keeps you fuller for longer as lots of energy and stuff in an avo.

6. Here’s the cheeky bit: ADD A COUPLE JALEPENOS!!

7. Top the tuna side up with a layer of some spinach.

Then add the avo side on top.

8. Bash it down hard to make it less of a fat boy. Then slice in half, not triangles. This is a serious sandwich, after all. P

DRIVE LIKE THEY DO

INTRO

Brothers Rocky and Ross Lynch - the latter of whom you may recognise from Netflix’s new Sabrina foray - have been quietly releasing tunes under their The Driver Era moniker for a couple of years; this summer, they’re gearing up for a new album.

Words: Jessica Goodman. Photo: Anna Lee.

“

E

INTRO times, it does feel like we kind of know what we’re doing. You do kind of have to have a little bit of that.” “You have to treat yourself like a pro,” Ross agrees. “Now we’re actually controlling a lot of decision making,” Rocky continues. “I think that was only able to happen because we have so many years in this business.” “Oh my god, dude, we’re killing it!” Ross proclaims to his brother, the two sharing a gleeful laugh at everything they’ve managed to accomplish.

It’s an experience that reflects not only in their approach to the industry, but in their approach to writing music too. “When we first started making music there were a lot more sessions, and a lot of other co-producers and other writers,” Rocky recalls. “As you start out, you’re kind of learning.” When it comes to writing music now, the brothers’ process is much more organic. “Sometimes Rocky will just write a song. Sometimes I’ll just write a song,” Ross details. “Other times we’ll be sitting in our back yard with an acoustic guitar, just singing.”

It’s a picturesque scene they paint, one they bring to life with such energy and enthusiasm in conversation it’s hard not to feel like you’re sat right there with them. This love for their creativity – and every stage of its creation – is what pushed the duo to work on what looks set to be their most characteristically them record to date. “This next album will actually be the first album we put out where we write and produce the entire thing, just us,” Rocky beams, proudly. “We’re stoked about that.”

Asked what we can expect to hear from the new release, the duo’s description is characteristically vivid.

“It’s almost as if each song is a memory of a time in our past,” Ross describes.

“It’s cool. Rocky’s singing a lot of songs and I’m singing a lot of songs, so you get these different perspectives and different stories from times that we’ve experienced.” When the record will be finished is uncertain (the duo, again, poke fun at themselves for taking too long with deadlines), but for now, the brothers are simply making the most of their creative process.

“There’s a funny situation that does occur right when we sign off on a song,” Rocky contemplates. “Right when it’s kind of out of your hands to change or edit or add to, there is that feeling of ‘was there anything else I wanted to do with it?’ Sometimes that can distract you from the reality of what the song actually is, and how the song’s going to be. When you get in that headspace, you kind of forget to listen to the song as a first listener.”

That first listen experience, hearing a song with fresh ears, is something that’s vital to The Driver Era’s sound. “There’s usually a fair bit of grunt work we have to put in to clean up songs before they’re polished and crisp,” Ross portrays. “It’s like chipping at marble or doing a sculpture, almost.”

“A lot of the time, we’ll go for a drive,” Rocky explains. “We’ll have maybe two or three demos we’re working on, we go for a drive, we listen to them, and we’ll be like ‘yo, that kind of feels done.’” His brother is quick to agree. “Rocky and I will kind of look at each other and be like ‘oh yeah, that’s almost there, it’s right there.’” “Whenever we do remember that and click play, for an entirely fresh listen,” Rocky continues, “it is actually very satisfying. That’s when you feel like you came through.” P

"Oh my god, dude, we’re killing it!”

Q+A

ALL ABOUT THE BENJAMIN American singer-songwriter Alec Benjamin makes beautifully personal songs that have resonated to the tune of twobillion streams. His debut album, ‘These Two Windows’, is coming this summer.

Hi Alec! Are you having a good day? What’ve you been up to?

I’m having a great day, I’m on tour with Lewis Capaldi which is awesome.

You’ve been playing some huge spots lately, racking up a ridiculous number of streams does it feel like it’s all been a long time coming? What’s been your favourite ‘pinch me’ moment?

I guess so! I don’t really focus so much on those things. Sometimes social media really gets in my head. The real ‘pinch me’ moment is getting to play shows for people who know the words to my songs.

That’s really awesome.

Have you always wanted to be a musician?

I didn’t grow up making music, I kind of just fell into it. I learned how to play guitar to impress a girl.

What is it about your music that resonates with so many people, do you think?

Hopefully, it’s my lyrics. I spend a lot of time on them, so I hope they resonate with people.

Can you remember the first-ever song you wrote?

Yes, I wrote it for my grandpa after he died, it’s called ‘Beautiful Pain’.

How was your experience creating a debut album, what did you find most challenging about it?

It has been a really interesting time for me, a lot of ups and downs, it’s like an emotional rollercoaster.

Do you have a particular mindset that you find it easiest to write from?

I try to write when I’m in a happy place, it’s difficult to write when I’m in the middle of a hard time.

Tell us a secret about yourself.

I always get really nervous when I am releasing new music, I’m very sensitive, and it’s very scary to put yourself out there like that.

Alec Benjamin’s debut album ‘These Two Windows’ is out 29th May.

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verything’s kind of on pause,” Ross Lynch conveys. Having to postpone a world tour due to a global pandemic, while necessary, isn’t the most promising of situations for a band to find themselves in. As they self-isolate from their home in the Golden State of California, Lynch brothers Ross and Rocky – better known as The Driver Era – are making the most of the slow-down.

“It’s kind of a good mental break, I think, for me,” Ross mulls. “We can take our time right now, which is kind of nice, rather than the rush rush of the entertainment industry.”

The way they portray it, it does sound like something of a dream. “Right now, we’re posted up in our back yard,” Rocky describes. “We’ve been playing chess to occupy ourselves, making music whenever we feel inspired…”

New music recently arrived from the duo in the form of two new songs: the ever-sorelevantly titled new single ‘OMG Plz Don’t Come Around’ (not, as it turns out, written about self-isolation, but about seeing their younger brother in a toxic relationship) and its buoyant counterpart ‘flashdrive’. “We tend to take too long with deadlines,” Rocky laughs. “Because we’re way far behind, we wanted to try put out a song or two before the tour started.”

The tour might be postponed for the uncertain future, but despite the set back in their plans, the duo remain in remarkably high spirits. “Even though the tour got postponed, I’m happy that there’s something coming out while everyone’s at home,” Rocky enthuses – and that’s not all they’ve got hidden up their sleeves.

“We are going to wrap up an album here,” he teases. “That’s the plan.”

Working to finish a new record not even a year after the release of their debut, the duo might poke fun at their tendency to be behind schedule, but there’s no hiding that right now their creativity is thriving. “Writing is kind of an ongoing process,” Rocky explains. “We’re continuously starting new little ideas, and at the same time, there are songs that are 75% of the way that we’re wrapping up as well.”

He shares a laugh with his brother, saying “it kind of feels like we’ve been writing for seven years straight.” “Maybe even longer!”

Ross adds, with a cackle.

As they banter back and forth, it becomes increasingly more apparent that the pair are in their element. Having played in family band R5 since 2009 before forming The Driver Era together just over two years ago, they’ve certainly got the chops. Performing music – and working in the industry that surrounds that – is something that the pair couldn’t be prouder to have grown into.

“We get the question a lot,” Rocky pauses, adding a deeper timbre to his voice, “’yo, how do you guys feel touring the world instead of going to school or college?’” He laughs, before adopting his usual intonation and quickly continuing, “we’d always be like, honestly, that was our college.” Touring around the world, experiencing different places, encountering different cultures, and engaging with different audiences certainly doesn’t sound like a bad way to learn.

“We have literally almost eleven years of doing a lot of that,” Rocky expresses. “At

“YOU HAVE THIS ENTIRE WORLD AT YOUR FINGERTIPS, BUT I DON’T KNOW IF YOU’RE REALLY MEANT TO AS A HUMAN...

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INTRO

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Meet Cheap Cuts, the Pete Wentz-approved art-pop band with an anxiety-riddled lust for modern life

S

trange times demand strange art and Cheap Cuts’ debut single ‘Check Your Phone’ is stranger than most. A horn-driven dance track that fuses emo-rap with Trainspotting’s lust for life, it sees Pete Wentz step outside of Fall Out Boy for his first solo feature as his scrolling attention span flickers between outrage, despair and laughter. (“Think about how the polar bears are running out of ice / But hey, this photo got a lot of likes.”)

“I’m a naturally anxious person, and my attention goes everywhere like a cat following a laser,” starts Pete. “Some aspects of this global phone culture really feed into that. I’ll be going to sleep at night, and my head will still be running, and I’m not even aware of it.”

‘Check Your Phone’ taps into that manic energy. It’s a song that’s very 2020 as it skips between single-use plastics, an existential crisis and supersizing your vibe as it moves as fast as your timeline.

If they were going to launch with any other song, Cheap Cuts would have maybe waited until the current situation with COVID-19 had settled down before unveiling themselves, but a song about connection and phone addiction at a time where we have to rely on one to maintain the other just made a strange sorta sense.

“My kids basically exist on Zoom right now. It’s how they interact with their friends, and it’s this lonely non-lonely thing. It’s really weird,” Pete continues.

“For me, the takeaway is that you have to be careful what you wish for. And I don’t mean that in an ominous way. When I was a little kid, you dreamt about The Jetsons’ future of robot butlers and jetpacks.”

But now the future’s here and “the robot butler isn’t how you imagined it.

There’s a bunch of pitfalls that you didn’t think about. I’m not sitting here saying we should get rid of our phones, I just think it’s important to take stock and understand that when people first got hammers, they banged their thumbs a lot.”

Cheap Cuts started life when Jack Leonard and Jonny Harris found themselves at a crossroad. After coproducing Zedd’s ‘Clarity’ (winning himself a Grammy) and working with everyone from Foxes, to Ed Sheeran, to Rudimental, Jonny was starting to get disillusioned with the merry-go-round of pop-writing sessions. Jack, meanwhile, after fronting “perhaps the most unsuccessful indie band that Camden’s ever produced,” was invited into the world of UNKLE, working with James Lavelle on albums, remixes, film scores and tours. But, after five years, “it felt like the right time to go and do something else.”

The pair were drinking in the same pub and last summer, went into the studio together to see what would happen. “We found out straight away that we hit it off. It was a really good dynamic, and we really enjoyed working

together.”

They started writing with up-and-coming pop singers, but their leftfield art-pop wasn’t really the vibe most were after.

“We’d never hear from them again,” grins Jack.

“But it felt like we were really working towards something.”

After a cancelled session, the pair wrote ‘Check Your Phone’ as an answer to the question, “What is the 21st-century answer to Trainspotting’s signature, ‘Choose life, choose a job, choose a compact disc player’?” They decided to tell the story of the day in the life of a normal guy, without any agenda. “Wake up, check your phone” was the starting point, and in fifteen minutes, the first version of the track was finished. They fell in love with it instantly, and, in that moment, the pair shifted from guns-for-hire to A Proper Band. “This is definitely ours, and in the space of about 6 weeks, we wrote another 15 songs. They all sounded like Cheap Cuts.”

While Cheap Cuts were expanding their world, the spark that was ‘Check Your Phone’ was evolving as well. The pair worked on Korean and French versions, and the original found its way to Pete Wentz, who phoned Jack up on his birthday to ask if he could get involved with it.

“After talking to them and when I started writing, it felt like it could become relatable and not in the way that’s hashtag relatable,” offers Pete of his decision to get involved. A lifelong fan of Baz Lurman’s ‘Sunscreen’, this was his chance to do a version for times like these. “We’re back in a monoculture.

Most people in the world have the exact same fears right now, and that’s bizarre.

We haven’t had that since The Cold War. It’s an interesting time to address what we’re all feeling.”

“The song Jonny and I had done was very observational with a British tonguein-cheek nature to it. What Pete created was a call to arms. It was very emotional, very considered and very poignant. He’d taken some of the lyrics we’d written and explored them further. The song has been on such a mad journey, but we knew this version was The One.” The track bundles together the chaos of how the world is feeling right now.

In the “pre-party for the apocalypse,” there’s a need for connection, but there’s also drugs, alcohol and memes to make sure you don’t feel too much. “One of the things that ‘Sunscreen’ got right and we attempted to get here is that human beings are contradictory species,” explains Pete. “We feel one way, but we also feel the other way. Sometimes that sways in a minute. I feel a little bit like an alien sometimes when I’m at an airport or a restaurant, and I look at other people interacting, and I don’t really understand the emotion. I don’t really know what that’s from, probably being a goofy kid who didn’t have a ton of friends in high school, but then I sway the other side where I feel way too much. This song encapsulates that for me.”

“They are observations, but maybe they don’t sit as comfortably with some people because they are quite true,” continues Jack. “The first thing you do

when you wake up is check your phone.

We do everything through a phone. We socialise through it, we work through it, and you’ve got every bit of information ever at the palm of your hand, it’s no wonder we can’t take our eyes off them.

It’s mesmerising, isn’t it?”

“My favourite part of the day in quarantine is the five minutes after you wake up, where you’re in that dream haze,” Pete says. “You don’t have the dread, you don’t have the monotony, but then you check your phone, and you end up looking at a groundhog eating a piece of pizza. You have this entire world at your fingertips, but I don’t know if you’re really meant to as a human. It’s too much.”

But still ‘Check Your Phone’ feels like an escape rather than a lecture. “We’re very interested in the state of things, but we don’t want to get dragged down by that either,” promises Jack. “We’re not overtly political or trying to change your mind. We’re positive people that do like a party.” Pete takes a similar stance. “People want their expertise from experts. Right now, people want to be told how long to wash their hands for by experts, not by the guy from Fall Out Boy. They want something to take them away from that,” which is exactly what the familiar warmth of ‘Check Your Phone’ offers.

Cheap Cuts aren’t here to grab your attention and drift away, though. There’s a bunch of music on the way including a lot of exciting collaborations as well as moments of pure Cheap Cuts. “I love the way Damon Albarn does Gorillaz.

Shaun Ryder was very much in the band for ‘Dare’,” starts Jack. “And Pete has so much of his identity on our song. Pete is in Cheap Cuts, and so is any other collaborator. We want this band to be positive and inclusive but also a rolling art project. I want it to keep evolving and shapeshifting. Everything that’s available to an artist now, your Twitter, Instagram or Tik Tok, it’s all there to be as creative as you want to be. When we finally come to play live, I want it to be the culmination of everything, a big performance piece that makes sense of all of it. Cheap Cuts is definitely not conventional. that’s the ambition I have for it.”

And now’s the perfect time to be strange. “This is definitely the time where, if you don’t need a label or a big infrastructure, you can get a lot done,” offers Pete. “It’s definitely a time where people who can do it in the wilderness can do amazing things.” Cheap Cuts live by the same ragtag creative spirit. “There are no rules anymore,” starts Jack. “If you have the ideas and the energy, just do it and see where it goes.” P Cheap Cuts and Pete Wentz’s single ‘Check Your Phone’ is out now.

INTRO

‘FYI’ Live At Leeds has moved back to autumn. The multi-venue city event was originally scheduled for May, but it’ll now take place on Saturday 28th November.

Many of the original bands are still on the bill including Pale Waves, Easy Life, Shame, The Magic Gang, Marika Hackman, Ezra Furman, and more.

A statement from the event reads: “Though this virus has brought unprecedented disruption across all industries and around the world, we are determined that it won’t stop us providing you with the event we all deserve when this is over.”

Courtney Barnett is set to soundtrack an upcoming documentary.

Working alongside her Milk! labelmate Evelyn Ida Morris, they’ll provide the music for Brazen Hussies, a film exploring Australia’s Women’s Liberation Movement in the 1960s and ’70s. Directed by Catherine Dwyer, the film - which is still in development - will curate a selection of archival footage, photographs and personal accounts from Australian women’s rights activists.

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...IT’S TOO MUCH”

Biffy Clyro have moved the release of their new album to later in the year. ‘A Celebration Of Endings’ was originally due imminently, but it’ll now arrive on 14th August owing to the impact of COVID-19. They explain: “With all of the turmoil and anxiety that the Coronavirus situation is causing in everyone’s lives, we decided that it would have felt wrong to have continued with our original release plan. Music is of course important, but there are bigger issues at stake right now.”

DREAM BIG

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Enter Shikari have been one of the most consistently interesting bands of the past two decades, and with their ambitious new album ‘Nothing Is True & Everything Is Possible’, they’ve outdone themselves.

“

Words: Dillon Eastoe.

Photo: Derek Ridgers.

T

he album is basically about possibility.

Musically, we pushed ourselves in all sorts of ways, but also lyrically it looks at the theme; what’s possible in this day and age.”

When Rou Reynolds chatted to Dork in early March, the UK had yet to be fully gripped by the COVID-19 pandemic, but the Enter Shikari frontman’s description of their new album feels grimly prescient as he gives us the record’s mission statement.

“Possibility has historically been looked at as something quite positive, the prospects of the future. Whereas now, possibility is something else.

With the political and social shocks of the last five years, we’ve had things that we never thought would happen.

Possibility has become a much more even-sided thing, and some things are quite terrifying, really.”

“Semantically I find it really interesting because the more used phrase is ‘Anything is possible’, which has always been a faux motivational phrase. A platitude like ‘You can do anything, man!’” Rou expands.

“Whereas, ‘Everything is possible’, is a lot more interesting and a lot darker.”

Since hauling themselves out of St Albans in the mid-2000s, Enter Shikari have always been a band to weigh every word and note carefully, their wild brand of neuro-punk cradling delicately assembled themes. Rou is on a roll detailing his latest creation.

“If you break it down as any of the things are possible, it implies choice, it’s like you’re looking at an array and any of these things are possible so you can choose some of them

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INTRO

“I really dislike hope just for hope’s sake”

Orlando Weeks has announced his debut solo album, ‘A Quickening’.

His first project since he wrote, illustrated and soundtracked alternative festive tale The Gritterman, the full-length was penned in the lead up to the birth of Orlando’s new baby, and it’s due for release on 12th June.

“I was trying to find a course through something that happens all the time, but still feels exceptional,” he says.

Self Esteem has announced a new EP, ‘Cuddles Please’.

The follow-up to her recent album ‘Compliments Please’, the release is due on 1st May and features three special alternative versions of songs from the full-length, plus a cover of Alex Cameron’s ‘Miami Memory’.

“After doing a run of special stripped back shows, I thought it would be nice to record some of the songs that work best in that format,” Rebecca explains. “I really love to sing the songs in their birthday suits.

Neighbourhood Voices had been learning some of the songs anyway and suggested singing with me live and of course I jumped at the chance to have 30 women singing my feelings with me.“

Brockhampton have delayed their upcoming UK tour due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

The band’s live run was originally set to kick off in Bristol on 18th May, followed by two nights at London’s Brixton Academy, then stops in Birmingham, Manchester and Glasgow.

Now, it’ll start on 19th May next year, 2021, at Glasgow’s O2 Academy.

Original tickets will remain valid.

TRACK X TRACK

EGYPTIAN BLUE have a new

EP, ‘Body Of Itch’, out.

Here’s what they have to say about each of the tracks on it.

NYLON WIRE This track was born in our rehearsal space, it came to us at the tail end of writing ‘Never’. It’s perhaps one of the more direct EB tracks. I [Andy] remember breaking a string in rehearsals while writing ‘Never’ and instead of re-stringing we just started jamming, then the riff for ‘Nylon Wire’ came out of the dark and into the light!

Sometimes that’s just how it works. Some of our tracks take weeks of configuration, others take minutes. The first demo we recorded on that day isn’t too far off the ‘Nylon Wire’ on the EP. FOUR IS THE LAST FOUR While watching a band in London last year with a friend, a mate of mine whispered in my ear, “Why don’t they say something like this four is the last four”​(referring to the band counting each song in).

It was pretty out of context but created a setting for the song.

The music was written back home in Suffolk - I was listening to a lot of abstract noise music at the time, which I knew I wanted in the track, and for me, it’s an integral part of the sporadic intensity for the track. Lyrically it plays on the monotony of dead-end jobs.

Clocking in and clocking out like a robot, servicing commercial giants, and for what?

NEVER The intro for ‘Never’ came from playing the last chord of one of our other songs, ‘Contain It’. We ended up jamming this weird glitchy intro for quite a while, which was reminiscent of a stuck, broken record. At the time it felt like we had struck one of our most emotive and powerful moments.

Lyrically with ‘Never’ we focused on various themes, some of which are perhaps more obvious than others. At the time I had been listening to this one track that was so monotonous, but yet never deteriorated my attention so part of that ideal and awareness might have seeped into the track,​ but really ‘Never’ is very much a conveyor of emotions. I​ ’d like to think the line of weapons of mass deception sheds light on politics today. P

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and do them. Whereas ‘Everything is possible’, is saying all things are possible and probably going to happen, whether you’re having something to do with it or not. It sort of takes away choice, so it makes it much more disconcerting and menacing.”

The current crisis has robbed the band of a string of release shows for bonkers new record ‘Nothing is True & Everything Is Possible’, but Shikari are making sure the album comes out on time to give us something to dance to, locked in our bedrooms for the foreseeable. The LP itself is a lurching, shapeshifting beast, a collage of everywhere the band have been so far and places they’re yet to go. The 20s waltz of the de facto title track, an actual symphony (more on that later) and two multipart suites; even for Shikari, this is a rollercoaster ride, taking the listener on a zigzagging, dizzying tour of their past, present and future.

As always, amongst the climate collapse, crony capitalism, and other injustices that decorate their songs, there’s room for optimism. “’The Dreamer’s Hotel’ is a space of peace and imagination and collaboration and community,” Rou expands on the album’s lead single.

“It’s thinking about the future in a positive way and thinking about design and where we can go, human ingenuity and what we’re capable of in a peaceful and respectful manner.

We don’t seem to check into those kinds of spaces really anymore,” he laments.

‘Satellites’ is a defiant love song where Reynolds aims for empathy with members of the LGBTQ+ community who face persecution for displaying affection publicly, in light of multiple violent attacks on samesex couples in London in the past few years.

“For me, that’s one of the most important things, encouraging empathy in society, encouraging people to think about other people’s lives and situations, because as individuals in society, we’re often discouraged from that. It’s a very individualistic society that we live in and from the 1980s onwards from Thatcher and neoliberalism, she said herself, “the death of society” (“There is no such thing as society”). [That song] is just trying to get people to think about other people’s situations.

And not always be in one’s own head with one’s own problems.”

After over fifteen years and five full-length albums (not to mention piles of EPs, standalone singles and live bootlegs), Enter Shikari have carved a unique path in modern rock, masters of their own destiny as they reinvent and reinvigorate what’s

‘FYI’

possible for a rock band. They’ve crisscrossed the planet, recently embarking on an Eastern European trek that took them as far as Siberia.

The sense of community their music creates allows them to journey to the edge of civilisation and still find a few hundred people hanging on their every lyric. 2017’s ‘The Spark’ was an inward journey borne of anxiety, a coping mechanism wrought in concise arrangements and singalong choruses. While the new album isn’t necessarily a reaction to that, the quartet have this time hurled everything at the wall, including a fully orchestrated symphony, courtesy of the BBC’s flagship composer George Fenton, who you might know from Attenborough’s Planet Earth series.

“It was a dream come true really working with him, being able to learn from him was incredible,” Rou admits. It’s a stirring, moving piece, but it wouldn’t be Shikari without carrying some heavier, deeper meaning than mere mood music. “It’s trying to tell the tale of life on our planet, but just through music. In classical they call that ‘programme form’ where you’re trying to elicit or convey a certain thing just through the instrumentation,” he tells us.

“It starts off with these very sprightly strings, little flutters and little flurries of woodwind, the guitar and that’s supposed to be conveying the Cambrian explosion, the different species coming to life on our planet. Then it goes into the second section, which is a march, very literally the march of life if you imagine the evolutionary tree broadening out.” And then we come along and fuck everything up. “The last section is the Anthropocene and us affecting the planet in such a negative way and 50% of species being lost, and it ends in a big, horrible, distorted discordant mess.”

“It’s not so much of a conscious thing, but I try to always just keep our output realistic rather than edging towards optimism or pessimism,” Rou elaborates. “I really dislike hope just for hope’s sake, false optimism which I think a lot of bands fall into. But at the same time, we couldn’t be a doom metal band either. There’s an energy of hope that’s always going to be within the music somehow. So it’s just it’s just getting the balance right I suppose.”

The past few years have seen the emergence of a vibrant, defiant environmental focus, which in part inspired the rallying cry of the anthemic ‘Crossing the Rubicon’.

“That was definitely inspired by the various youth climate change movements. I just felt so rejuvenated and re-energised. That youthful vigour and power, the sheer knowledge and passion that was on offer from these people was just really energising.”

In precarious times where our whole way of living has been thrown into doubt, ‘Nothing is True & Everything is Possible’ is a mirror to our dysfunction, at times a torch of hope and at others an ominous tick on the doomsday clock. Breaking down walls and winning hearts with reckless abandon, Enter Shikari are still here, standing like statues. P Enter Shikari’s album ‘Nothing is True & Everything is Possible’ is out now.

INTRO

Once Brighton’s best kept secret, cult faves Porridge Radio are breaking out with their second album, ‘Every Bad’.

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Words: Blaise Radley. Photo: El Hardwick.

P

orridge Radio might make music that lashes out with a snarl, but they’re big softies really (we say that with love, honest). Rising rapidly out of the DIY punk scene in Brighton, lead singer/ guitarist Dana, keyboardist Georgie, bassist Maddie and drummer Sam make cuttingly candid songs that don’t so much wear their hearts on their sleeves, as shove them down our giant collective throat.

When we speak to Dana, the group are days out from releasing their excellent second record, ‘Every Bad’, at the same time as boshing through a UK in-store tour, so some chaos is to be expected. “Sorry for all the noise, we just got done finishing up soundcheck,” she explains, barrelling from room to room trying to find a quiet spot. “Sam just came up to me with a menu asking what food I want to eat. We’re on in an hour!”

There’s an edge of panic to her voice, but it’s of the fun-giddy-nerves variety rather than anything serious, and it soon floats away as we get into how the band was formed. “I started writing on my own in my room doing solo bedroom songs. I went to open mic nights a lot and was just playing solo, and then I met all my band members by weird coincidences in Brighton. We spent a long time DIY touring, and generally just being loud and figuring out what we were doing.”

Weird coincidences? “Like, I was selling ‘zines at a fair, and Sam came up to me, picked one up, and opened it to a page that Georgie had written - he knew her from back home. Or Maddie had seen me play at a show that Georgie had put on, and then she

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came up to me and was like, ‘I want to be in your band!’ and I was like, ‘Cool!’

I didn’t remember that until later on actually. You know how it is - you just meet people around.”

From recording their first album together in a shed four years ago, to signing to Secretly Canadian, you might expect a bumpy transition, but Dana views the shift pretty pragmatically.

“Having a team, working with loads of people who get paid to work in music.

It’s different. Having a booking agent - it’s a completely new way of doing things. We used to be a DIY band because that’s how we did things, and now we do things differently. I still love the DIY scene.”

As their major indie label debut, ‘Every Bad’ represents a levelling up, even if the seeds were gestating in the group’s first shed-spawned record, ‘Rice, Pasta and Other Fillers’. “We’ve just learned and grown so much between the first one and the second one; so much has changed. I think we were able to make it sound the way that we wanted it to sound, whereas the first one was a lot more chaotic. We didn’t really know what we were doing.”

Like the gloopy breakfast food that forms the first half of their name, Porridge Radio are exciting because they make music that sticks, albeit

to your brain rather than the roof of your mouth. A large part of that is down to Dana’s lyrics; less poems than mantras. Each song features a refrain that recurs again and again, gradually losing meaning before resurfacing with a totally new one. The things she sings about most? Boredom and indecision.

“I talk a lot about boredom, but I don’t actually generally get that bored.

I like to stare at the wall and zone out.”

Perhaps boredom isn’t such a bad thing if you can find value in it, perhaps say, through music? “Yeah, for sure.

I like that. I feel like people for generations have been getting bored and frustrated and upset. It’s nothing new.”

Thanks to her hypnotic repeated phrases, and her unvarnished, frank songwriting, it often feels like Dana is leading a group therapy session. “When you start to share, other people share back, and when you open yourself up, other people open back, and the more vulnerable you make yourself, the more people allow themselves to connect with you. I think I do this because it helps me, but if that can help other people, then that’s great.”

So, what does porridge have to do with any of this? And does she have a favourite porridge brand to plug? “I don’t eat that much porridge, to be honest, but I do like it. I don’t really think about porridge as like, a word.”

"The first album was a lot more chaotic; we didn’t really know what we were doing"

There’s a contemplative pause worthy of such a weighty question, before we ask if porridge has become another mantra to her. “Yeah, I just think of it as a series of sounds. It’s gotten to that point.”

How about her favourite brand of radio (some might say station)? “I spend a lot of time listening to Radio 1, Radio 6. I just love it. I like being in the car and listening to the radio and just being like: there are loads of people all around me who are probably listening to the same thing.” She’s not talking about her own music, but it’s a striking image: a squadron of BBC 6 Music cars dispersed across the nation’s motorways, all tuned in to Dana’s scorching self-help.

Given how personal her songwriting process is, it’s no surprise when Dana emphasises the catharsis of finally releasing ‘Every Bad’. “We’ve spent a lot of time obsessing over every detail of this album, and for me, it’s a release. To have it out in the world and for people to have all those songs... if they want to listen to them. It’s been so, so long. I guess I’m actually most excited to work on new songs. That’s what I love the most - writing.”

Before she jets off to play, to write, and to (maybe) eat more porridge, there’s one last burning question: what menu did Sam show her earlier? “Uh, it’s Japanese food. I still can’t decide what I want,” she says, laughing. “See: indecisive.” It’s a knowing statement, but a universal one too. If you’ve ever stared blankly at a sea of menus, frozen by the ginormous number of choices, then Porridge Radio might just be the band for you. P Porridge Radio’s album ‘Every Bad’ is out now.

BANGERS

INTRO

TOP TEN The constantly shifting list of Dork's favourite albums of 2020 updated every month!

01. RINA SAWAYAMA SAWAYAMA *NEW*

Top of the pops, Rina is an artist capable of swerving left at every turn. A remarkable record.

02. THE BIG MOON WALKING LIKE WE DO

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THE 1975

If You’re Too Shy (Let Me Know)

The anointed one arrives! It’s a long time - a Very Long Time Indeed - since a track had as much pre-game buzz as the latest cut to arrive from The 1975’s fourth album, ‘Notes On A Conditional Form’. Debuted on the band’s UK tour earlier this year (Remember tours?

- Ed), it quickly took flight.

Live videos shared, demands levelled - the two-month wait for a final recorded version feels like nothing when confronted with a top pop bop so timeless. In our darkest hour, let there be sax.

GIRL IN RED

Midnight Love

We all need treating with a delicate touch right now.

That’s what Girl In Red is offering up, with the wistful admission of unrequited love.

Willing to lose the battle to win the war, a refusal to be “your silver when you’re my gold” might be poetic, but truth be told, with songs like these it’s first prize every time.

TWENTY ONE PILOTS

DECLAN MCKENNA

The Key To Life On Earth

With album two approaching, our Deccy-wec already sounds to have stepped up his game.

Following up on the bombastic ‘Beautiful Faces’ comes ‘The Key To Life On Earth’, a delightful ditty with a hint of weird-and-wonderful magic Get the latest on the side. Trapped within its bangers at own glittery snow globe, it’s readdork.com or direct hit indie pop charging follow our Brand through a hall of mirrors. Apt, New Bangers then, that the video features playlist on Spotify. the doppel-Declan himself End of the F**king World’s Alex Check out all Lawler. these tracks and more on Dork TROYE SIVAN Radio now at Take Yourself Home readdork.com/ Yes, our chum Troye may have radio started styling himself like your mate who discovered Marilyn Manson in sixth form and decided to artfully cut holes in his long sleeve black tee, but by golly, it works.

Tactile and restrained, ‘Take Yourself Home’ is pop fuzzy felt, cushioning its big beats with a marshmallow-like pillow.

Sensitive but sensational, some people can pull anything off.

S

Level Of Concern

Put together from isolation, there’s little more on-the-nose than Twenty One Pilot’s first post-Trench offering. Tales of quarantine, worry and a need for reassurance, it’s evidence that - however big they get there’s always more in the tank for Tyler and Josh. While others will be hard at work from their pop bunkers over the coming weeks, few will manage to make their creations sound so impossibly huge.

MELLAH

Family Fun

If you’re old enough to worry about being too old, you may well remember Clor. An oddball bunch of indie popsters, they were a mid-00s not-sohidden-gem sure to summon a misty-eyed grin from those of A Certain Vintage. The fact that anyone under 30 may well be fully yer-what-mate at this reference shouldn’t worry Mellah. Wonky-pop-bops of the highest order have a market in any climate, and ‘Family Fun’ is fun for all the... well, you get the rest.

Down to two - yes, pop pickers Sports Team have dropped out of this list due to album ‘delays’ t’Moon’s second album is still one of the very, very best.

03. SOCCER MOMMY COLOR THEORY

04. GEORGIA SEEKING THRILLS

05. BOMBAY BICYCLE CLUB

EVERYTHING ELSE HAS GONE WRONG

06. SORRY 925

07. MOSES SUMNEY GRÆ *NEW*

08. BONIFACE BONIFACE

09. BLOSSOMS FOOLISH LOVING SPACES

10. MURA MASA RYC

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BUZZARD BUZZARD BUZZARD Welsh four-piece Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard are challenging with it means to be ‘rock’.

Words: Jamie Muir. Photo: Pooneh Ghana.

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“

“We can just have fun, nobody needs to pretend that they’re very cool…”

o my whole thing is that I’m terrified of dying and nobody knowing who I am, you know what I mean?” lays out Tom Rees, frontman of Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard.

It’s a chilly February evening, and the band are gathered in a Brixton street food market, preparing for their show down the road. They’ve tucked into a wealth of food options, seen the price of a pint (“£5.60 for a pint of Red Stripe!” exclaims about what would work or fit in. Writing drummer Ethan as one makes its way to from what I loved naturally, it opened the the bench) and now are deep in chat about doors to all of these cool 70s rock bands being in the heart of a huge moment as a who were doing the same thing. It all kinda band. fed from there”.

“I’m sure everyone has that feeling, It’s the first takeaway you get from right?” picks up Tom, returning to the Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard. Honesty. A subject of making a mark in the world. “For catalyst for every element of what they do, example, if we did a special show in a huge it’s the freedom to create those feel-good memorial hall and people thought it was an moments that’s set them apart. amazing show, then it’ll at least stay in the “That honesty was the most important memory of those in the crowd who came thing that we developed at the start of the along. I’d be a happy guy knowing that. I band. We’d all been in other bands that just want to last a couple of generations. had a bit of a focus on ‘how are we going Then that all can die out,” he smiles. to appease the industry’ or ‘how are we When new bands come along, that going to appease that way of thinking to attention can be a fleeting moment, glued get audiences to believe we’re rock enough into a scene or a specific moment in time for them and therefore rock enough for where everything seems to make sense. the world’. We developed quite slowly, and Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard sit in something because of that, we fell into this natural way more universal. Combining timeless of playing and responding to one another, rock’n’roll, an unstoppable energy of funwhich is really important,” details Tom. filled spectacle and a feverish dose of joy Starting as a bit of fun on the side from into proceedings - it’s opening the doors to other bands, Tom’s bedroom tracks and a simple motto. Throw away your worries demos were built from sneaking in to and head to the dancefloor, it’s time to record at Ethan’s house (“I’d be woken party. up at like 9:30 and come “I had this thing, where downstairs to find Tom I was listening to that song recording some drums!”

‘Spirit In The Sky’ and I THE FACTS remembers Ethan). was like, I’m going to write + From Alongside his brother Ed some music free of any Cardiff, UK and guitarist Zach too kind of idea that I should + For fans of Buzzard grew from its early be writing for someone Boy Azooga foundations of just Tom into or that it should fit in a the fully formed unit that it certain way,” recalls Tom. + Check out is today.

“It was just like, I love this ‘Hollywood Actors’ “The thing that rules kind of music. I had this + Social everything in the band, malaised idea from being @buzzardbuzzard because me and Ethan were in bands before and the + See them live: in a band when this one music industry that you They’re on tour in needed to be business started, and it was treated September about this all and think as a hobby,” notes Tom,

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“was very much turn up when you can and when you do, let’s just have fun.”

That sense of unabashed discovery rings loud and proud. From first single ‘Double Denim Hop’ and its continued build and build of swaggering swings, to the arms aloft stadium-filler ‘Love Forever’, ringing favourite ‘Late Night City’ and latest spinner ‘Hollywood Actors’ - that spirit of grandstand hooks from years gone by is shot straight into who Buzzard are. A tongue in cheek wink with the tracks to back it up, it’s seen wide eyes pick up on their every move, whether it’s touring with Miles Kane or pulling up at venues and proceeding to flip them on their head.

“Yeah, things have really picked up for us,” Tom recognises. “I actually have a lot of worries all the time about whether people will like the tunes, but thankfully they’ve been received really well. There’s a moment of nervousness before we release every track. I do this thing where I stay up till midnight and listen to it on Spotify and usually I cry… Isn’t that fucking awful!”

Connecting with an immediacy that comes from writing 70s inspired glam rock hits grounded in the Cardiff surroundings of everyday life, it’s easy to see why they’re primed to be countless peoples’ next favourite band. It’s also pretty good then that they might just be one of the best new live bands going too.

“We developed this love for ‘the rock show’,” Tom recalls, thinking back to those first shows supporting Boy Azooga in the heart of Cardiff. “That love of the big rock show is why it feels a lot better when we perform live because we’re very theatrical with stuff. We can do it every night, and it comes from that honest place.”

“That’s my thing with rock music more

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broadly, you’ve gotta kinda have this second voice of honesty that allows you to bring it back from the brink of being too Spinal Tap. It started in that honest place because we didn’t expect that live side to be as big as it is.”

From stage-kicks and flamboyant points to throwing shapes and jumping between instruments, watching Buzzard on stage can only be described as infectious. There’s a vigour that exudes through each and every track, a band treating every room as if it’s Wembley Stadium and thriving with the passion that comes from connecting with everyone gathered.

“Every part of the live show, when we talk in between songs or the humour, it’s all based on just trying to break down people to establish that level of honesty so we can just have fun. Nobody needs to pretend that they’re very cool right now…”

“Like if you go to a Royal Blood concert, suddenly everybody there is like ‘can’t forget my leather jacket’ and ‘I swear to god if it looks like I’m not rocking out right now then people are going to hate me’. I just want to throw away that kind of idea.”

Losing yourself in the moment in a song, in a gig, in a band - that feeling is what Buzzard thrive on. Of hearing something for the first time and wanting to listen to it over and over.

Of being a band who guarantee a good time at every occasion, whether it’s slap-bang in a gig or nestled in your bedroom with the speakers loud, it doesn’t matter. “There’s an AC/DC quote that says ‘We’re a rock band.

Nothing more. Nothing less’,” recalls Tom. “There’s nothing wrong with that. Rock is great.”

Recent single ‘John Lennon Is My Jesus Christ’ shines a light on their next bold moves. A campfire singalong that plays with the idea of adoration and worship, shimmying and bouncing in equal measure - it lays the path for their next golden steps. Newly signed to Communion, with a slew of live dates under their belt and (when all this clears up - Ed) more stages to conquer, what comes next is even more exciting.

“I think we just...” ponders Tom, taking a moment as he finishes his Thai bowl. “Everything we do just needs to be increasingly interesting like we have this opinion - or at least I do, anyway - that if you’re a band you can keep recycling the same thing, and it can get increasingly stale.

Sooner or later people are going to know that the game is up.”

“We want to keep pushing ourselves in more creative ways than just music, I think that’s really important,” Tom continues. “The visual aspects, pushing stuff live so there are more theatrical elements we can bring in. Whoever’s onboard for that and how big that gets… we don’t really care about that. We’re not going for Madison Square Garden here, y’ know?! If people come along for that, enjoy it and experience it then that’s really really cool.”

More than ever, that sense of pushing any cares you may have to the side makes Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard the perfect band to soundtrack those long nights.

With a touch of glam, a slice of life, a spoonful of insatiable tracks and a sprinkle of humour, it’s a recipe bound to be a bestseller. P Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard’s ‘The Non-Stop EP’ is out 10th July.

HYPE NEWS

What’s happening in the world of new music.

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Rina Sawayama has rescheduled her tour to September. The new dates are: Glasgow, King Tuts (20th September); Manchester, Gorilla (22nd); Birmingham, O2 Institute (23rd); and London, Electric Brixton (24th).

Sports Team have knocked their debut album and upcoming instore shows back to summer. The band will now release ‘Deep Down Happy’ on 19th June, accompanied by gigs that will (probably not, come to think of it) kick off on 15th June in Dundee. “In a way it seems fitting that we’re trying to release our debut in the midst of a once in a generation global pandemic,” they explain.

FIRST ON

Isaac Dunbar has released a proper good new EP, ‘isaac’s insects’. The sevensong release includes his previous singles ‘comme des garçons (like the boys)’, ‘scorton’s creek’, and ‘makeup drawer’. “I call my fans insects,” Isaac reports, “and this EP is an accumulation of songs I’ve made over the past year for them. It features a ton of unreleased stuff they enjoy, and they’re my favourite songs I’ve put out so far.”

YARD ACT

Leeds bunch Yard Act have made their move with debut single, ‘The Trapper’s Pelts’.

Out now via Zen F.C., and produced by Bill Ryder Jones, the unnerving slice of postpunk “skewers elements of the American frontier into a Scarface-type narrative set against the backdrop of a mundane West Yorkshire suburb,” James Smith (vocals) shares. The band was formed

Brudenell Social Club.

CIEL

last year by James and Ryan Needham (bass, and also ‘of’ Menace Beach), later joined by Sammy Robinson (guitar) and George Townend (drums), who they met at The

Brighton-based trio CIEL are making waves with their wonderfully reassuring shoegazey dream pop. Their debut EP ‘Movement’ has just landed, and it’s like a hug for your ears - perfect for filling space in these ridiculously quiet spring days, or nursing a bank holiday weekend hangover.

MARKETPLACE

Hartlepool newbies Marketplace have debuted their new single, ‘Hard 2 Love’. Out now, it’s a pretty dark indie pop bop that’s concerned with the trials that come with growing up, frontman Joel O’Beirne explains. “It’s about the struggle of falling out of love with people because you’re getting older and changing and so are they.”

JOE & THE SHITBOYS Joe & The Shitboys, a bisexual vegan punk band from the Faroe Islands who really like eating massive bags of crisps, use their hilariously witty on-point racket to call out meat eaters, homophobes and misogynists everywhere.

"We’re Joe & The Shitboys, and we’re the Faroese champions of music"

F

Stranger Things star Maya Hawke has announced her debut album. Titled ‘Blush’ and due on 19th June, she’s previewing it with a lead single ‘By Myself’, too - her first material since last year’s ‘Stay Open’ and ‘To Love A Boy’, both of which will also feature on the album.

“This album happened accidentally,” she says.

“From my point of view, Blush is a collection of secret messages, hidden communications with the people in my life.”

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Islands,” says Joe. “We like punk music, and we play punk music, but there’s no punk scene, so we just hang out with whoever. We couldn’t only hang out with punks, we’d have Words: Jake Hawkes. no friends.”

The size of the scene is AROESE matched by the number of QUEER VEGAN venues the Shitboys have SHITPUNK access to, with a tour of the HOSTED BY Faroe Islands taking “about a JOE!!!!!!!!!!’ weekend” estimates Ziggy. “It Proclaims the does depend on how much Facebook page of Joe & The effort you’re willing to put in, Shitboys – we’re not sure why though,” Joe explains. “We’ll Joe gets to keep his name, play basically anywhere we and everyone else has to be a play at skate parks and all that Shitboy, but it seems to work kind of stuff, you just gotta for them. Now we’re going to get creative. There are two or level with you, Dear Readers, three venues in the capital and we didn’t really fancy getting a few others elsewhere, maybe two separate planes to the 11 venues? And that’s spread Faroe Islands to speak to across 18 islands, just for Joe and the gang (especially perspective. with *waves arms around* “Because of that, we can everything the way it is) so we never really play shows back to video called them instead. back, either. You have to space The call goes through, and them out because it’s the same we’re greeted by the sight of people coming to every show, Joe and Ziggy Shit (no, really) you don’t want them to get sitting on a faux leather sofa bored. The songs probably eating crisps straight out of a aren’t long enough for them to share-sized bag. “It was the get too bored, anyway.” He’s Faroese Music Awards last not kidding – their upcoming night, and we won Artist of the Year, so we’re pretty hungover,” album weighs in at around 10 minutes, and each song is explains Ziggy. “It was great! about a minute long.

We were up against the pop “We press them on 7-inch idols of the Faroe Islands, but vinyl,” says Ziggy. “Five minutes we won,” adds Joe, grinning as each side, I figured it’d be the Ziggy holds their trophy above most punk thing we could do. his head.

So that’s sort of how we arrived You get the sense that there at the album length. Then we may not have been too many book a day of studio time, and punk entrants to the awards, something that Ziggy confirms. write, practice and record each “Yeah the music scene is pretty song in an hour each. Once we’ve done 10 of them, that’s small, so all the musicians the album finished.” know each other – we’ve been “Normally we come up with playing music the song titles for years, so we first, talking know everyone about which really well.

THE FACTS subjects we There’s no + From want to cover,” separate punk Faroe Islands says Joe. “Then scene, either, + For fans of the song itself there’s like one The Chats and the lyrics. other band, + Check out We’ll sit there and that’s the ‘Life Is Great You like ‘hey, what’s one we grew Suck’ pissing us off’, up listening to.” or ‘what do + Social “That’s why we like’, then @Joe_Shitboys you can’t really write a song be a punk + See them live: about it. Like on the Faroe They tour in October

the latest single ‘Life’s Great, You Suck’, is just like ‘fuck you, you’re being a downer!’” He laughs, before adding: “There are obviously legitimate depressions out there, but loads of it is people romanticising depression and writing these boring Facebook statuses, making it a personality trait or whatever – which is actually pretty depressing itself.”

“The Faroe Islands are pretty conservative,” says Ziggy. “I think we beat out Poland as the most Christian nation in Europe. I think we also beat Poland in being the place in Europe where the highest proportion of people are creationists, too. There’s a lot of that kind of thing. We just started talking about legalising abortion, gay marriage was legalised three years ago, which is pretty late - we’re part of Denmark, and they got gay marriage in the 80s! What I’m saying is that we don’t have a shortage of stuff to write angry songs about.”

Joe nods in agreement, saying: “People here aren’t very confrontational. A lot of people silently support liberalising things, but they don’t say anything because they don’t want to be an inconvenience.

Nothing fucking happens when you’re like that, so we just decided to be in your fucking face about it.”

Their frustrations with the Faroese quickly lead to a discussion of where they’d rather be. “We’d get away if we could,” says Joe, before Ziggy cuts in. “We’d love to move to the UK – can we stay at your place? [No - Ed] Actually, maybe not, you drive on the wrong side of the road, that’s a real deal-breaker. There is a British connection here though – you occupied us during WWII, so we all drink tea, and they sell Cadburys chocolate in the shops. Your politics aren’t too great at the moment, either though. Welcome to life outside the EU, I guess.”

We’re not sure whether we’re flattered or insulted that we’re mainly known for tea, chocolate, roadside rules and the Tories, but we decide to leave the Shitboys to nurse their hangovers in peace, with a few parting words from Joe: “Hello world, we’re Joe & The Shitboys, and we’re the Faroese champions of music.” He smiles and grabs a final handful of crisps before hanging up the video call. P

APRE have released their new single, ‘Go Somewhere’. A wistful tune longing for adventure and escape, it’s sung from the point of view of a single night, they explain. “It describes the realisation that you can take your brain to another universe, and the urge to bring the people you love with you on that journey.” The band are currently working on new music from home.

Biig Piig has dropped her high-angst new single, ‘Switch’. First aired as Annie Mac’s Hottest Record in the World, the frustrated tune follows on from her recent EP, ‘No Place For Patience, Vol.3’. “[It’s] about the tension, helplessness and pressure that the world is under right now,” she says. “The beat and lyrics to me represents the fast pace of how the world is falling apart, and the anxious undertone of it all.”

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HYPE NEWS

What’s happening in the world of new music.

Alfie Templeman has shared a new bop, ‘Happiness In Liquid Form’.

Co-written with Justin Young of The Vaccines, the tune is his “most colourful sugary disco-pop song yet,” he says. “It came about so easily one day in the studio, we knew we had something special on our hands. It’s a tough time for everyone right now so hope this brings a little happiness into people’s lives!”

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LARKINS

One of the UK’s next big names in indie, Larkins are following up their new EP ‘Hit And Run’ with a huge headline tour that includes a ridiculously big hometown show at Manchester Academy.

W Words: Sam Daly.

“

e did a video shoot last night ‘til like 7 in the morning,” Josh Noble explains wearily. It’s all-go for Manchester’s Larkins, following the release of their ‘Hit and Run’ EP, and the announcement of their biggest UK tour yet (initially April, now December, ‘FYI’). The video is for their next release, and it’s set to be one of their most ambitious to date.

For Larkins, the band is about a lot more than creative output. With a sense of community brewing, there’s a real excitement surrounding the upcoming set of dates; and not just because they’ll be playing some of their biggest venues yet.

“On the last tour, for the first time, a lot of people were coming to shows,” Josh explains, revealing a collection of group chats the band have with fans on Instagram. “We’d have five group chats with 50 people in each, so a tribe of like 250 people who would come to shows together, talk every single day, support each other, back each other up and the point of it was that it was backed up by the band. It was some way that they could latch onto the band in a very community-style way.”

Josh compares this sense of unity to Glossop, the small town just outside of

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“I remember watching Foals when I was a kid and thinking, ‘I want that atmosphere’”

stage that we’re at, but we know where we wanna go, and hopefully, this shows where we wanna go.”

For Josh, ‘Make You Better’ is his proudest track from the collection. “It felt super bold to release a track like that at this stage in our career. I think people just want bangers,” he says, cringing a bit. “I hate that word,” he laughs. “It was really honest. I felt very vulnerable, it felt very bare and very naked,” he comments, explains that they’d “finished a lot of it in LA, I’d experienced a sound of somewhere different to Manchester for once which was really nice. It was the first time I’d Manchester that Larkins have come from. been properly involved in the production “You’d think [it] would have some sort of as well.” sense of community, but it really, really Production is something that Larkins didn’t,” he reveals. “And then moving to have started to focus on a lot. With their Manchester as well, it was really obvious own studio in Manchester, Josh has even to see these cultural and political divides. started helping other bands too. “It’s I’ve never felt a sense of community in something that I’ve really liked doing, it my whole life, except for on the last tour. allows us to explore that side of music a Something clicked, and this group of lot earlier, so now we send quite robust people surrounding the band was just demos,” he explains. “Me and Dom [Want, beautiful.” guitars] are obsessed, sometimes you can “I’d love to think that our music is what base a song entirely around production.” sets us apart, but the sense of community It’s not just production they’re looking is really special,” Josh says earnestly. to step up either, as talk circles back Fast forward a year and the group chats around to the mammoth are still very much upcoming tour, Josh is quick alive and well. “People to recognise that it’ll be are making them from different to the last run of different shows and THE FACTS dates. “A lot of shows sold venues, people will come + From out on the last tour, although to shows and hold their Manchester, UK they weren’t massive, they phones up to show which + For fans of were complete house party group chats they’re in.

Sea Girls raves,” he explains excitedly.

It’s sickeningly modern, + Check out “I remember watching Foals but at the same time, so ‘Hit and Run’ when I was a kid and thinking, old school,” he laughs.

‘I want that atmosphere’. We Now they have a full + Social played tiny venues, and it was EP out in the world too, @larkins just fucking nuts,” he says, choosing to release each + See them live: adding: “This time, they’re a track as a standalone They’re on tour in lot bigger.” P Larkins’ tour single beforehand. “The December the UK from 1st December.

EP is a statement of the

Marsicans have delayed the release of their upcoming debut album. ‘Ursa Major’ was originally due for release on 22nd May via Killing Moon, but now it’s coming on 14th August instead. They’ve also shared that they’re hoping to do a run of sets at independent record stores during the week of release, as well as a special version of the vinyl.

“So hopefully by August things will be returning to some sort of normality - and we can all see each other again!” they say in their statement. Keep an eye out for some digital singles in the meantime.

Squid have shared their new tune, ‘Sludge’. Billed as “a fitting way to begin this new chapter” in its accompanying press release, the track is their first since the band’s signing to Warp Records.

“What a weird time to be announcing this huh?! We’ve signed to Warp Records!” they explain on Facebook.

“We’ve been playing Sludge for a while so some of you might be familiar with it. It was kind of written about self-isolation before it was a government-enforced lifestyle. We don’t really want to say much else about it, other than we hope you like it.”

COACH PARTY Chess Club signees Coach Party are one of 2020’s hottest new tips, following in the footsteps of smart guitar bands like Wolf Alice.

Vocalist and bassist Jess Eastwood tells us more.

Words: Sam Taylor. Photo: Phoebe Fox.

Hi Jess, how’s it going?

Hellooo, it’s going good. Coronavirus has us all locked down to our houses, so I’m making the best of the situation - which means reading conspiracy theories online and binge-watching Parks and Recreation on Netflix.

Are there many opportunities for upand-coming bands over there?

For opportunities anywhere, you do have to work hard for it yourself.

The opportunities we do have over here are: a great music venue (called Strings), who regularly have some pretty cool bands; the Isle of Wight Festival (in which you’d see a lot of local bands play amongst some really

How did you guys all meet and decide to form a band together then?

Living on the Isle Of Wight, everyone low-key knows each other. Guy and Joe (guitarist) used to be in this really cool band called Polar Maps, which Steph (guitarist) and myself used to really enjoy. We approached them with some songs initially just to help us out and make them sound better, and they did such a good job that it made sense for the four of us to do something all together.

Have you always wanted to make music and perform?

It was my second goal after becoming a princess. But I’m still working on that, so definitely a yes from me. For everyone else, they are so talented and good at what they do, that to think of them doing anything else feels wrong.

Can you recall the first song you wrote? Is it still kicking about?

Me and Steph wrote a song called ‘All I Do’ a few years ago, and it banged.

It is still kicking

“Living on the Isle Of Wight, everyone low-key knows each other” about, but only in our private files, sorry (will show it to anyone for a crisp tenner).

What do you most enjoy writing songs about?

It’s an opportunity to say things how they are, in the comfort of sweet melodies and without the confrontational backlash of a realworld conversation.

Tell us about your debut EP, due ‘soon’ - what songs are on it?

We are calling our six-track EP ‘Party Food’ and it was written/recorded over the summer of 2019. We have our first three singles on there, ‘Oh Lola’, ‘Breakdown’ and ‘Space’, followed by ‘Bleach’ ‘Puke’ and ‘Red Jumper Boy’.

All strong contenders, and to add to our originality, the cover of our EP is a photo of us, surprise.

Anything else we should know?

Hidden talents that aren’t talents: Steph is extremely average at skating, check out Instagram for proof. Guy ‘the rage’ Page is the former Isle of Wight, Hampshire, Surrey and Sussex (the world) schoolboy bantam weight Champion. Joe has never been photographed without a pint. And for me, I can walk into any kitchen and tell you where the cutlery draw is. P

TAYLOR JANZEN

In the comparatively carefree days of late-February/early-March, 20-year-old Canadian singer/ songwriter Taylor Janzen was about to hit the road in the US with Beabadoobee, before coming over to the UK for a sunny spring set at The Great Escape. You can guess where this is going, right?

“Can’t wait to meet Beabadoobee soon!” she told us. Unfortunately, her plans have been well and truly trashed. Still, with new music on the way, it’s a great time to get to know a new talent that’s been compared to the likes of Julien Baker and Phoebe Bridgers.

Hi Taylor, tell us about your early days as a musician, how did you break into playing gigs and releasing music?

I’ve been playing music since I was a kid, and it’s always been my only passion and my first love. I started playing around the Winnipeg scene when I graduated from high school.

Winnipeg’s music scene is so welcoming and nurturing; it really helped fuel a lot of growth in my musicianship and my career.

Have you travelled much with your music? Where’s the most exciting place it’s taken you?

Yeah, I’ve travelled a lot! I’ve loved being able to tour recently. I’d say I’m most excited to explore more cities in Europe. So far though, I really liked visiting Seattle. I love anything on the coast because I grew up so landlocked. Ironically though, my favourite city to play will always be Winnipeg. There’s something really special as beautiful about being supported by your hometown.

What do you most enjoy writing about? Do songs find you, or do you usually have to find them?

I mainly just like to write about my life and my experiences, no matter how hard it is to confront those things.

Usually, the best songs find me at unexpected moments, like when I’m driving or meditating.

Do you have many new songs in the bag, waiting for release?

Ya, I have quite a few! Writing the record I’ve been working on these last few months has been such a healing and exciting experience. I’m making some of my best work, and I couldn’t be more stoked. P

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We hear you all live and work on the Isle of Wight - what’s that like? Is travelling for gigs a pain?

Firstly, yes. However, the most painful thing is 100% the price of catching the ferry, she really burns a hole in your pocket. The timings can be quite testing as well. But despite all that, the ferries are worth catching for the dog deck, it can be a very wholesome hour.

big names); and some great recording studios with very talented engineers and producers (one of them being Guy Page, also our drummer).

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Read forM MAY 2020

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dy More?

After a string of huge indie megabangers, upstart four-piece Sea Girls are announcing their debut album. The story behind it, though, is far from care-free.

Frontman Henry Camamile explains all...

Words: Jamie Muir.

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T

here’s little wonder Henry Camamile has a smile on his face. After 18 months of packed shows and festival stages, his band Sea Girls have quickly gone from small village Leicestershire life to beloved indie titans in waiting. “I’m sort of in love with the romance of everything that being in a band entails,” he muses. Yeah, we bet.

It’s something Henry has a laser focus on. He’ll stay up watching first album live shows from the likes of Kings Of Leon or At The Drive In, tearing apart a performance on Later... with Jools Holland. The emotion of capturing a moment in time, being a band who makes every

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night mean something - it’s what all of this is about. “When I would go and see bands I would always think, fuck I want to do what they’re doing up there,” recalls Henry. “That was the dream. I want to do that, and I want to do that with my mates.”

So that’s what Sea Girls have done. After hopping between various bands, instruments and locations, Henry - alongside bandmates Rory Young, Oli Khan and Andrew Noswad - has created the thing he always wanted. Sold out headline tours, dates around the globe and a seemingly innate ability to pick up those oh-so-valuable playlist spots - you name it, Sea Girls have it covered. “There have been so many moments.

Like playing Community Festival at Finsbury Park, standing out there and hearing

a packed field scream back at you and sing your songs - like, you could just retire there, and you’ve done it” laughs Henry. “Headlining the Kentish Town Forum, it’s been surreal.

Surreal seeing people connect with what we’re doing too, that kinda sneaks up on you, that feeling. Someone came up to me in Bristol and was like: thank you so much, your music just means so much - it got me through a hard time. It’s like, oh right, you really get it and connect with it. That’s the whole picture, right there.”

All of that’s just the build-up though. Now comes the big stuff. With their debut album ‘Open Up Your Head’ now firmly on the books, it’s time to deliver on all that early promise. A fizzing record packed with sky-high hooks and live favourites destined

to trigger pandemonium and repeat spins, it does just that.

“We’re entering a big moment,” admits Henry. “You always dream about your debut album.

Ever since we put out our first song, this is what we’ve been working towards, and we put a lot of pressure on ourselves with it. This is what we’re really proud of. We’ve finally done it.”

The culmination of years of hard work, it’s a statement of intent from a band hungry to drive their way to the very top; a record of bonding experiences between four best mates doing the very thing they dreamed of doing from the very start. ‘Open Up Your Head’ is all of those things, but it’s also more than that.

For Henry, it’s a frank and unflinching look at one of the darkest periods of his life, one he couldn’t see a way out of.

One that he’s looked to keep hidden for years. Only now is the time for that story to be told. “For so long, I didn’t feel like I was being true,” he alludes. “To my friends, to the band and to my family about how I really felt. I think this album is really important because there’s a shitload of truth there. It really is opening up mine and the guys’ heads and pouring out songs and pouring out the truth. I think it’s really important, y’ know?

We’re going to put the album out, and I’m going to talk truthfully about it.

“I’m giving you a story, really. ‘Open Up Your Head’ is a bit of a journal.”

Henry’s love of music came from a love of spotting hidden messages. The songs that

"This album is really important because there’s a shitload of truth there” trap doors slammed on top of his head, knocking him out in the process. Instead of going to receive medical help, he went back to work, swigging some coffee to try and finish the shift.

“I was so embarrassed by it,” details Henry, thinking back to the moment, one that sits front and centre in his mind. “I was such an idiot about it, but I was so embarrassed about what I’d done and if I’d be told off at work for it happening. So I pushed on and tried to finish, but I got sent home because I was feeling awful. Went into A&E the next day. Sat there.

Didn’t feel like I deserved to be there for some reason, so just left. I felt so fucking shit and then…”

His voice trails off. Henry gazes out the window as he comes to grips with what happened two years ago. “For five months after that, I had a really bad concussion and brain injury, but I daren’t tell my family about it properly. I don’t know why, I was in such an unhealthy headspace. Over that time, and I don’t know why, but I totally lost any sense that I deserved to feel anything or take up anyone’s time.”

Instead, Henry carried on.

He would tell his bandmates and managers that it was just a knock on the head and kept those feelings to himself. He threw himself into partying, an escape that papered over the cracks when he was feeling low at university, but now not

even that would work the same way as it used to. It didn’t feel like before, and Henry didn’t know why. “We went on tour and weeks later it still wasn’t any better. I was dizzy, felt sick all the time. I just kept thinking, why hasn’t this gone? I kept saying to myself, ‘Henry, you’re imagining this. Come on.

Man up and sort yourself out.

What’s wrong with you?’”

“I remember doing a tour, and after every gig, I would just cry. I would cry and hide away. I think the guys maybe thought I was drinking or something, but I wasn’t very coherent either.”

It’s during this time that a large portion of ‘Open Up Your Head’ was written, as Henry struggled to understand what was happening in his own.

You can hear the personal reflections, the uncertainty and fear ring out. ‘You Over Anyone’, a tender piano-led ballad that sits as a “fake love story about partying, being unwell in the head, being depressed and drinking not working,” or ‘Ready For More’ which focuses on a time where Henry just said yes to everything as he came to grips with what’s going on. “I was so scared that I would let people down by not doing a gig or not doing a tour,” admits Henry. “It was a ridiculous thing to do [to keep touring] but I didn’t let myself recover because I was so scared. Of course, everyone would have supported me and helped me to recover, but I just kept it secret.”

That overarching feeling informed many of the tracks across the record, because Henry simply had to find a way to express what was happening to him. “It’s partly why I called the song and the album ‘Open Up Your Head’, because after that injury two

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would on the surface seem like bright and breezy bangers with huge singalong refrains, but on a closer look would reveal much deeper emotions and very real feelings. “I would listen and think, yeah they’ve experienced the same things as me,” explains Henry. “Like The Wombats, for example.

There are tracks which are super fun, but actually, he’s getting out something in this big song full of colour. That’s what hooks me into it and what drew me to writing music. I find it really powerful, that idea that it’s okay to put whatever I like into a song and then other people in that situation, they’re going to hear it even if it’s not obvious. They’re going to hear it.”

Frontmen don’t often seem the shyest of souls, but Henry isn’t the archetypal egotist.

When he first started learning how to play the guitar with Andrew, he didn’t dare tell his parents that it’s what he wanted to do. Instead, he searched out rock music in secret. It was only with ‘Call Me Out’ that he first found the confidence to pour real honesty into the songs he was writing. “In that session we were recording it, I said to the guys and those helping us record it - do you think it’s alright to say how you feel in a song? Before then, I always felt bad about it.”

It came at a transformative moment for Henry. In the last year of university, his first real relationship fell apart, and he recognises a real change took place in his demeanour. “At that point, looking back, I think something happened. I just lost all confidence in myself,” he admits. “I was super down about it and the only place I acknowledged that was in music and everywhere else in life I just pretended to be happy.”

“I don’t know what it was. I was in a… I was sort of… I was pretty depressed, to be honest, and I didn’t even realise it,” he continues. “I just knew that I felt inadequate. I just decided that I wasn’t good enough. I felt like as a band we weren’t going to make it. We’d put everything behind this and nothing was happening. It’s where ‘Call Me Out’ and ‘Lost’ came from. This was my safe space, this was my outlet, and over time, I would hide it all in these songs, but…”

Henry takes a deep breath in. This is one of the first times he’s opened up in such a way, and the emotions are still undeniably raw. “Every song that has come out, I’ve been hesitant in case people work out what the song really means. I sort of had a state of being worried people would hear what I’m actually saying and think it was maybe too self-indulgent or too dark, but I would put it out so that someone else in my position might hear that and find comfort in that I think. That’s why I thought it was alright and I hoped everyone else wouldn’t notice…”

“I just kept writing and got on with it, but I didn’t talk about how I felt. How desperate I felt. How down I felt,” notes Henry. “I didn’t talk about it because I didn’t feel like I deserved to talk about it. That idea that everyone was just like, oh you’re trying to be in a band, working in a pub, living the high life, you know?! I was full of inadequacies, and I put that into songs that sounded exciting. I just thought, as long as I can write music that sounds exciting and has truth in it then that’s great.”

What came next would define the next year of his life.

It was while working in the pub that Henry was to experience a life-changing event that left a profound impact on him both physically and mentally. While collecting a delivery, the pub’s

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"These guys are my best mates, and we’ve done it. We’ve done it together.

This is us” it’s what I want - I need to feel like I’m alive.”

Together, Henry got the support and love he long thought he didn’t deserve.

Out of the other side, tracks continued to formulate themselves - ‘Weight In Gold’ is one that particularly stands out as “the first little bit of peace and calm” he’d experienced in a long time. The summer that followed was full of the biggest shows of the band’s career, completed with a headline run that cemented a long-known fact: that Sea Girls are bound

for the very top.

“Right now, I’m the happiest I’ve ever been in my life,” reflects Henry. “I can write referentially to how I felt and some songs are quite dark, but they’re looking back on a time and how much pain I fucking went through. Ridiculous trauma that I didn’t talk about, I didn’t complain about. I didn’t dare talk about it unless it was in songs, something’s so bad with my brain. There was a time where I didn’t believe I would be out of the darkness. I’m just talking about myself here and

from my own experiences, but there is calm after the storm. I can feel it.

“Like with everything going on in the world right now, it is going to get better at some point. I’m sitting here now and thinking, this isn’t going to remain bad forever.”

In ‘Open Up Your Head’, Sea Girls have the blueprint.

A record full of tracks born for mass singalongs and immediate earworm bliss, it’s not a question of if they’ll make it big, but simply how big they’re going to get. Standout singles ‘Violet’, ‘Damage Done’ and ‘All I Want To Hear You Say’ sit pride of place alongside the U2-esque euphoria of ‘Forever’, the shining pop keys of ‘Do You Wanna Know?’ and the call and response of ‘Transplant’.

It fully embraces the spirit of 00s indie in a fresh new jacket.

“It just feels so right,” Henry points. “It all slotted into place perfectly. It’s a record we’re so, so proud of, something that’s really come together over three years of being a band.

“We’ve done this from the very bottom. Jamming, learning to play better and better, playing shows, working really fucking hard and improving as songwriters too.

It’s just super, super important.

These guys are my best mates, and we’ve done it. We’ve done it together. This is us.”

They’re already looking ahead to the big shows that have fuelled their desire so far.

Where every part of their story pays off big. A special tour that includes a date at London’s Brixton Academy looms at the end of 2020, and the sheer scale isn’t lost on the band. “I thought when we first started that if we could headline

Brixton Academy, then we could die and go to heaven and be very happy with ourselves.

It’s so fucking cool and a dream come true, at one point we thought it would never ever happen. Writing old songs like ‘Lost’ in my bedroom and thinking that nothing was going to happen to me and now we have all of this. We’re not taking any of it for granted. There won’t be a day where I don’t think - fuck, I’m so grateful people like us. I’m so grateful I get to pick up a guitar and go on stage and sing.”

“It’s about taking this all in and recognising just how fun this all is,” smiles Henry. “We’re putting out a debut album.

Let’s have fun doing it and really enjoy every moment.

Make every show the best it can be and have a really fucking good time.”

There’s already talk of where they go next musically, a vigour to keep creating and ride the wave. It’s ambition written loud from a band hungry for every second. It’s time to crack open the windows, and let the sunshine in.

“The place in my life where I’ve been the most honest is my writing and the band’s music,” Henry says, as he glimpses out the window once more. “The fact people are going along with it, and it means something to them is really powerful.”

He smiles again, a knowing nod of acknowledgement for what he and the band have been through. “I can’t wait to get out there, lose myself in that music, lose myself in that fucking journey, fucking feel alive and hope other people feel alive for a minute too.” P Sea Girls’ debut album ‘Open Up Your Head’ is out 14th August.

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years ago, I poured out these songs and opened up what was going on in my own head.

I was obsessed with how shit I felt and being too scared to tell anyone.

“I felt really scared putting out that song [‘Open Up Your Head’] because I hoped my family wouldn’t hear it. I hope nobody listens to these words, but I have to get it out…”

That first connection to music, of being able to hide meaning and emotion in the same way bands he’d grown up listening to had, was now a therapeutic way for Henry to be real. It’s a core idea that pins ‘Open Up Your Head’ together, gazing into a period of his life with the sole purpose of connecting with others feeling the same way. “I guess the whole point was that someone is going to hear this, someone has got to feel the same because I saw things in other people’s songs. Someone else would feel the same way that I do. I felt like being honest, that is the only thing that feels right at the moment. Writing songs that mean something.”

While Henry was hesitant to tell anyone just what he was going through, friends and family were beginning to take notice. He recalls speaking with a friend who noticed how his speech was all over the place, even though Henry hadn’t had a drop to drink.

Other friends asking what had happened because he was no longer speaking to them. “They would say, all you do is music - it seems like something’s wrong and I would actually be thinking, yeah… something is wrong”.

During that time, the band were going from strength to strength. They’d captured attention and adoration, picked up tastemaker tips and were beginning to feel the momentum take them higher and higher. After years of working away, a record deal finally dropped on the table in front of them. A goal they’d always dreamed of, it was then that Henry realised he had to get help.

“Right when I was at rock bottom when it comes to my feelings, we got that deal,” remembers Henry. “The chance to be able to keep doing this, to keep making music, to live through being on stage just means the fucking world. I spoke to my mum, and my mum said, ‘How was it?

Amazing that you have a record deal, did you have a nice time celebrating?’ and I was like, ‘Yeah, loved it and so happy about it’.”

“I put the phone down and just thought, I’m not fucking happy. I’m lying. I’m constantly lying to the people closest to me who I have the right to ask for help from. I picked up the phone again and said, ‘No, I’m not alright. I’m really unhappy, and something’s wrong’. I’ve just signed a record deal, and my life can’t carry on like this.

This opportunity is so big, and

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For album three, PVRIS return with a new focus, a new label and a new sense of purpose. Taking centre stage, Lynn Gunn reveals why her time is now...

Words: Jack Press. Photos: Sarah Louise Bennett.

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Flay] – he’s a great teammate, there was never any butting heads or miscommunications on how I wanted ‘Use Me’ to sound.

“We were very much on the same page the entire time, and that’s something I had trouble finding before we were working together. I’ve been in a transition phase in finding the right people and finding someone who I can communicate really well with, and with JT it was very effortless, and I got to just run free.”

Utilising Daly’s Lego-like studio for a pick-and-mix take on writing and recording, Lynn ran free creatively like she’d been given the keys to the kingdom. Taking ownership of PVRIS in every possible sense, ‘Use Me’ has ultimately taken the form of the definitive sound of PVRIS. “This is very much how I’ve pictured PVRIS going, but I’ve never had the right tools or the right collaboration to be like that, so JT’s been a great fit and a great teammate for finding that and dialling that in.”

Lyrically, Lynn continues to divulge the details of her personal life, particularly her battles with not one, but two, auto-immune disease diagnoses and the dissolution of a long-term relationship which had come to define her in some ways.

Whereas 2017’s ‘All We Know Of Heaven, All We Need Of Hell’ was a hauntingly cynical well-oiled misery machine, ‘Use Me’ is a colourful explosion of phoenixes rising from their ashes, representing the new-found hope that comes out of taking on the tiredness in your mind.

“There’s an underlying theme of cutting ties with old relationships and toxic patterns and wanting to make peace with those and send them off and wish them well.

“But there’s also a sense of just being really tired and feeling apathetic and resentful at the same time and wanting to honour that and express that healthily and in a thoughtful and slightly cheeky perspective.”

It’s a perspective that needed pitch-shifting for Lynn to continue her personal development both as a writer and as a human, every moment of her life is a learning curve whether in the public eye or behind private lines.

“In the first two albums, there’s a lot of stirring and feeling lost, and not really knowing how things are going to turn out. There’s a perspective on this album that very much knows, there’s a trust in it, there’s a little bit more hope to it and a little bit of cheekiness in it. And some winks are thrown in throughout the album, which I’ve never really done before.”

Juxtaposition has always been frontand-centre in PVRIS’ aesthetic and is no stranger on ‘Use Me,’ cropping up throughout no matter how hopeful Lynn has become over the last few years, there’s been a lot of dark moments before the dawn.

“There’s definitely tiredness and resentment towards being pushed

around and trying to hold it together for a lot of people, and that came from experiencing a lot of health issues while making the album. I was constantly battling with whether I needed to rest or whether I needed to go into work. I was feeling pressurised, I was worrying that not everybody was looking out for my best interest.”

The pressure of putting on a performance to the public eye interested in PVRIS continuing to produce chart-breaking music played a role in making a once wide-eyed woman weary of the industry that they’re carving their career in, which reflects lyrically as much as it does personally for Lynn.

“It’s scary in general. Ignoring the political climate, the cultural climate, the Coronavirus, the obvious – even without that. The industry and the way music is being consumed and enjoyed and shared these days is kind of like the wild, wild west, and no one really knows anything anymore, so it’s absolutely terrifying.

“I have a hard time saying no to things and setting boundaries, even if my body is not aligning with where my brain is. There’s a lot of learning to do, like to listen to that more and to not be as much of a people pleaser. To do what I need to do for me, and to do that unapologetically, and confidently. There’s a lot underlying it.”

That rebellious nature, that desire to turn the tables on the industry that has taken so much innocence away from Lynn, and PVRIS, has led to a move that was as unexpected as much as it was expected. On ‘Use Me,’ Lynn has taken the stage front-andcentre as the de facto leader of PVRIS, a step which is as freeing as it is empowering.

“Nothing has really changed from a creative end, but everything has changed at the same time. I think it’s my mindset in approaching it because it’s been like this since the beginning, but with this album, it was the full acrossthe-board transparency. I said to myself, ‘Just go for it, and own it’. I was making sure I didn’t feel like I had to hide behind anything or shrink anything and doing this allowed for a lot more freedom and excitement on my end. It felt really freeing, and that’s what I hope this next chapter can be too.”

‘Use Me’ is at the sum of its parts an album about growing, whether that’s personally or professionally, socially or culturally, however you must to continue to evolve through life’s everchanging playing fields. It’s an album that for Lynn, and for PVRIS, had to be made no matter who was lost in the fire.

“No change is ever to disrupt anything or make anybody feel excluded. This is what feels exciting, and I want to share what feels exciting to me, and I always hope that translates to our fans, and if it doesn’t, that’s unfortunate. That’s just the risk you’ve got to take, but I do believe every step of the way you need to do what’s best for your growth no matter what.” P PVRIS’ album ‘Use Me’ is out 10th July.

"I was feeling pressurised, I was worrying that not everybody was looking out for my best interest”

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GIMMIE A MINUTE GIMMIE A MINUTE GIMMIE A MINUTE

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hen you’ve spent years honing your craft and carving out a loyal worldwide fanbase, you could be forgiven for playing it safe. Few authentic alternative bands are willing to roll the dice and risk it all to stay true to themselves artistically while on the brink of cult status. However, there are a few bands on the fringe blurring the boundaries between alternative and pop like a bartender blends flavours in a cocktail.

One such group is Massachusetts synth-poppers PVRIS, who’ve slowly been drifting away from their electrostained alt-rock since the release of their 2014 debut ‘White Noise’. On album number three, ‘Use Me’, the band put their tongues firmly in cheek and wrap their musical arms around pop music.

“I’ve always gravitated towards pop,” muses Lynn Gunn, the multiinstrumental frontwoman, creative director, and lifeforce of PVRIS. “And I’ve always wanted to create music that I want to listen to as a fan. It’s always me trying to find that and being like, ‘What would you want to listen to? What would you want to make?’ and embracing that.

“I’ve always wanted to focus on what feels good to listen to, and what’s good on the ears. That, to me, has always naturally been in a more pop direction, in what is the most basic terms of pop.”

When you’ve built up a fanbase hailing predominantly from the remnants of your pre-PVRIS posthardcore act’s fans and an alternative rock scene all too affiliated with being ‘authentic’, challenging your own artistic integrity on a scale as grand as theirs is something PVRIS are not afraid of doing. It appears that alienating any element of their fanbase is simply part and parcel of the production process.

“It’s unfortunate if someone’s not on board, but I can’t and won’t sacrifice excitement or risk-taking for someone’s nostalgia or people’s comforts. A lot of people are afraid of change, especially in themselves, and I think when an artist you really like isn’t staying familiar and isn’t going in what you think is the right direction or what you had hoped for, it’s going to seem like a gamble.

“My intention all the time with whatever we create is to make sure it’s real and follow that feeling. If it feels right, I go with it and take that risk.”

It’s a risk that Lynn began to take on last year’s ‘Hallucinations’ EP, where they married dreamy synths and explosive choruses to create a unique blend of modern-era pop music.

Three of its tracks – ‘Death Of Me’, ‘Hallucinations’ and ‘Old Wounds’ – can be found smack-bang in the middle of ‘Use Me’ as if they have always been the creative lynchpin and blueprint of the entire operation. Opener ‘Gimme A Minute’ pulsates with electro-explosive riffs that rattle the rhythm in your feet, while closer ‘Wish You Well’ wouldn’t feel amiss on a Dua Lipa or Halsey project, lending your ears to a dreamyclub vibe.

Lynn has been spending every minute of every hour of every day searching for the spark to ignite the true creative fire in her belly like London lights up on New Year’s Eve, and somewhere between putting out ‘Hallucinations’ and recording ‘Use Me’, she found it.

“I did this all with JT Daly [frontman of indie-poppers Paper Route and producer for alt-hip-hopper K.

A man of many talents, Mike Hadreas isn’t without acclaim, but with his latest album as Perfume Genius, he’s pushing forwards.

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Words: Jessica Goodman. Photo: Camille Vivier.

A

deep breath.

A pause. A lingering refrain: “Half of my whole life is gone.” What could be heard as a broken-down lament instead asserts itself as a determined cry for something, anything, everything new. So begins the new album from Perfume Genius, a record that revels in the hyper-presence of the moment with a sense of catharsis that’s nigh-on physically freewheeling.

“After I wrote that line, I had a decision of, even if it’s aspirational, where I want to go,” Mike Hadreas reflects. “I love the idea of,” he pauses, thinking through his words, “not forgetting, but letting go, of completely shifting and completely changing.” Another pause. “Or maybe completely letting go and maybe forgetting.” The result is a song – and indeed, a record – that finds hope not through the absence of sadness, but in choosing to move forwards.

“I sometimes feel so informed by everything, disconnected from what I would’ve chosen or where I would go if the world hadn’t got to me,” he cautiously conveys. “It’s hard to get back to your gut and your instinct when they’re so seasoned by everything that’s happened to you and everything you’ve done to yourself. Sometimes I just want to get rid of all of it and see what would happen if I just forgave all of it and let it all go.”

Talking from his home on a sunny day in LA, the musician is in high spirits. Admitting he’s a little hyped up on caffeine, he talks with an openness and enthusiasm that it’s difficult not to get caught up in. “I keep talking about it,” he comments.

“I’m almost embarrassed,” he adds, laughing. “I feel like [people] are going to read all these interviews

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HE ON

EARTS N FIRE with them.

“It started leaking into my daily life and the way I move and the way I look at things,” Mike enthuses. “I felt like I was bringing that magic into my life in the actual world, when it used to feel like something that

reflects. “We wanted everybody to be together and playing and singing together in a more live way, to capture the room and capture the performance and try to see how intact we could keep that and still communicate the spirit of the song.”

“Capturing the actual moment of recording,” he continues, before pausing, “which I guess is what recording is,” he laughs, taking a moment to reorganise his thoughts. “It wasn’t like a diary entry, talking about it or narrating it. I sang these songs like I was singing to people and I was singing in the moment for that moment to someone.” This way of singing, of writing, makes itself felt through flashes of imagery – a lock on a door, blue jeans discarded on a bedroom floor – that ground the songs in a moment so vivid it’s almost as if you can reach out and touch them.

“Even if they were about abstract ideas or feelings, I tried to write [the songs] more in that way,” Mike agrees, “and make a story, make a real-world thing out of them, make a more physical presence out of something that feels like it’s swimming around in my brain or something that I’m trying to reckon with or deal with.

“That’s what I learned in the dance,” he continues, “that I can get these things out of me, these things that are trapped or these ideas that I haven’t been able to articulate or things that have been confusing...”

He trails off in thought for a moment.

“It sounds so stupid and simple to say I could just hit something and that helps,” he chuckles, then quickly turns earnest, “but it does help.

It doesn’t feel simple or stupid. It feels like it has the whole weight of everything behind it, just like it does when it’s more existential.”

"I require isolation in order to make things; I’ve only felt safe going there alone” was very alien and then I’d have to access something that comes from outer space.” All of this isn’t to say his songwriting has lost that quality – far from it, in fact. What dance has done is enable him to connect to and with his creativity in an entirely new way.

“It’s still far out, and it still has that same supernatural element to it, but it’s also hyper-connected.”

This sense of connection is something that came to life not just in writing, but in the studio while recording too. “It was a very different experience from the last record in a lot of ways, even though I worked with the same people,” Mike

Writing this way, about people and places and memories and moments, isn’t new for Perfume Genius. Mike Hadreas’ songwriting has always been open: his sexuality, his struggles with addiction, with Crohn’s disease… These parts of his life he sings about, talks about, because they’re part of him. “The longer I made music, the more kind of impressionistic it got,” he mulls. “I wanted this record to marry that, and be able to harmonise where I started and where I’m at now.”

“I think that’s what dance did for me too,” he continues. “It harmonised those things. It’s telling a story in a real way, in a way that’s two people: one person holding the other person up, and you can see that, but there’s so much behind it.”

Approaching songwriting in the same way as dance, inviting those energies into a place that has always been solitary, was undoubtedly daunting, but the result is a collection of songs that thrive. Mike admits, “my whole life changed when I sort of lived against my instincts.”

“A lot of the reason why I was solitary is because I felt like I had to,” he expresses. “I felt like if I let anything else in that it would disrupt me, that I wouldn’t be able to make anything, that I wouldn’t be able to pay my rent or take care of myself if I let more of the world in, or more people in, or more love in, or more wildness in, that it was going to fuck me up – ‘cause classically, it did.” With ‘Set My Heart On Fire Immediately’ he lays waste and lays claim to all of that, an earnest desire to feel and to experience anything and everything making this his most vivid record yet.

“I felt like I had to sacrifice big feelings in order to survive,” Mike reflects. “I’ve been doing that for long enough to know that maybe there are parts of that that work, but in parallel with that, maybe I’d built enough of a centre that I can let more in and still make stuff just the way that I am. Now that I have that idea, I just want all of it right away. I don’t want to just gently and patiently add or gather. I would like to just have all of it.” P Perfume Genius’ album ‘Set My Heart On Fire Immediately’ is out 15th May.

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and be like ‘Jesus Christ; this guy is OBSESSED.’” The conversation topic has turned to dance. Mike Hadreas is certainly no stranger to performance. On stage and in music videos he carries himself with a poise and grace that’s enviable – but it had never been something he trained at. Since collaborating with choreographer Kate Wallich and The YC dance company on ‘The Sun Still Burns Here’ last year, dance has become a part of the way he expresses himself. “It really did change a lot for me, even creatively,” he conveys.

“I always think I require a bunch of isolation in order to make things, and to make myself available to whatever they come from. It’s always been alone,” he expresses. “I’ve only felt safe going there alone.”

Songwriting, for him, is an innately personal thing.

So it makes sense that the songs he writes come from a private space. Dance, he enthuses, is changing that. “In dance, I was going to that same place but with people, and in a different way, and in a very present and physical way.”

“I’ve always been in my room when I’m writing music,” he describes, “flinging myself around and grinding into the walls,” he laughs. “There’s never been a shortage of that,” he assures, “but it’s been a solo. I think it’s in the music now.” And it is. You can feel it. The songs on his new record sprawl, stretch, and spiral, offering an extended hand and an open invitation to sprawl, stretch, spin, shuffle-ball-change, and move

40 MAY 2020

DORK

With her new album ‘I’m Your Empress Of’ arriving as the world went on pause, Lorely Rodriguez isn’t sitting still for anyone.

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is, like I’d get off stage and not know what to do with all that adrenaline.

That was a catalyst for just wanting to stay home and write music.”

It’s the first time she’d written on the road and in between tour stops, and while she says no process for making any of her three albums has been the same, ‘I’m Your Empress Of’ was the easiest to make, because it was just happening naturally.

“It was the first time I’ve done

taking advantage of how therapeutic and healing songwriting can be. I also really love the bit that my mom says in the first track where she’s like, ‘I only have a daughter, but it’s like having thousands of daughters because there’s a little bit of her in everyone’, and I think that that’s a really good way of expressing what I mean by ‘I’m Your Empress Of’. It’s like I’m giving myself to other people.”

Oh yeah, and that’s her mum talking

“I could say a lot about this record, but this record just happened” something like that; I just had to write it. I wasn’t going out. I wasn’t partying. I was just like, I don’t know, I just felt the urge to get up out of bed and write. It’s like a perfect storm. I could say a lot about this record, but this record just happened. It’s like the perfect thing that a lot of artists strive for, just the immediacy of writing something and creativity channelling you, and you’re not chasing it. I didn’t chase this record, it just came out. And I think it’s because I had an opportunity, I had a window of pause from like, the world’s the craziness, like touring and promoting and performing and entertaining and like merch, meet and greets. I hit pause and really took that moment.”

While on 2018’s ‘Us’, Lorely worked on striking a more equal exchange of energy between herself and her listeners, and honing her skill as a producer, creating a sound that was uniquely Empress Of. On this record, she steps closer to both of those goals, naming the album accordingly.

“I wanted to call it that because I realised on this album that once it was written, it’s like not my feelings anymore. In a way, that’s like me really

on the record. Dropping in at various intervals to narrate the album and provide some grounding and rational words for her daughter. She pops up in the opener to introduce herself and the record, and acts as Lorely’s subconscious throughout the record.

“It’s about like my growth as a woman. I feel like I really arrived at a place and I wanted to use my mom’s voice as the subconscious, because she says some crazy stuff. She’s like, ‘You gotta make yourself a woman that nobody is going to mistreat’. And like you know, you never think about those feelings when you’re like caught up in a relationship, that you’re giving so much of yourself in, you know?

“She usually has so much to say, like she talks a lot of shit, but with a mic in front of her, she was like, I don’t know what to say! I was like, well talk about being a woman! Talk about being an immigrant, talk about being a mother, talk about being a lover, like, just talk about everything. And then it started to come out, and it’s just like, amazing soundbites.”

The way the soundbites of her mother link up with each song is interesting – seeing the

intergenerational similarities show themselves in ‘Void’, where she mentions 2016 single ‘Woman Is A Word’, and notes ‘you make yourself the woman you want to be’. That’s shown in Lorely’s work ethic, and that fact that she finished this up almost entirely alone, even if that connection is an accident.

“I didn’t put that in there because I wanted to prove something, but I was at home, and I wrote all these songs, and I felt the urge to finish it. But to have written a song called ‘Woman Is A Word’ and then have like, a different generation experience that same thing, like a lot of woman-identifying people feel that way.

“It is something where hearing someone’s family on a record, it just like reveals a lot about the artists, you know? And like generational things and cultural things. A lot of my favourite records have that, like Dev’s record, Kendrick’s record, Tei Shi did it on her record, and it’s a cool way of showing more of who you are.”

This is the most ‘Empress Of’ sound we’ve heard from Lorely yet too. The record is confident, heartfelt, and consistently treading the line between sobbing and dancing it all out instead.

She mentions that this is her favourite record she’s made, and that the songwriting is really good, and that it sounds like a very ‘Empress Of’ record, and she’s right. It’s the boldest album she’s made, and the most open – revealing “embarrassing” feelings (her words) post-breakup – and it feels like she’s settling into her own groove.

“There’s a lot of post-breakup songs, a lot of loneliness songs and there’s like a rebound song in there where the lyrics are like, ‘you’re not the one, but it helps’. A lot of lyrics that in any other context would be really embarrassing. You know, like ‘choose me over her’. When I wrote the songs, I was like, oh my god, if I wasn’t singing this, I would never say this out loud, and that’s really healing. I remember writing that song, ‘Not The One’, and just feeling like I’ve always wanted to capture the sentiment of rebounding with someone and just like wishing it was your ex. I feel like there’s really, really good songwriting on this record in a way that feels different to me and I’m happy to progress as an artist.”

We’re already seeing Empress Of 2.0, but it sounds like there’s more music to come yet. While it’s sort of impossible for her to go out and tour the record just yet, she is eager to crack on with some new music from her bunker. Good thing she’s had the free trial. P Empress Of’s album ‘I’m Your Empress Of’ is out now.

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efore we all went into indefinite isolation, Empress Of was already there. Between tour stops promoting her second album ‘Us’, and supporting slots on some pretty exciting tours, Lorely Rodriguez locked herself away in her home studio in LA, ferociously creating a third album that was practically writing itself.

She’s back at home now, albeit not necessarily by choice this time, putting her current schedule on hold.

“Things are sort of like shifting around,” she says over the phone from Los Angeles. “I had like a bunch of promos scheduled around the world, which are now cancelled. So I’m just at home, and I might start writing some new music. Just because, you know, I don’t know what else to do. But I do have a record coming out in three weeks!*” (*3rd April, it’s out at the ‘time of press’).

Rejoice! Some music is still happening! And a great joy it is, this album. Written over the course of two months, in between intense touring for her own record and supporting slots for Lizzo, Blood Orange and Maggie Rogers, Lorely created her most exciting and personal record yet.

‘I’m Your Empress Of’ came about spontaneously after feeling a disconnect between the love and connection she was feeling with audiences and others on tour, and the intense self-reflection and loneliness she felt when she returned home.

The result of letting that energy build up and releasing it in her music is reflected in its sound – urgent and immediate, ‘I’m Your Empress Of’ is giddy, intense and extra danceable.

“Traveling the world was like, something that was happening in my life. A lot of those beats started on planes, and then I would come home, and it’s like that quiet, you know. It’s like the isolation that I had at that time, I really took advantage of the moment when I wasn’t on stage.”

Touring with artists that have a genuine connection with their audiences was inspiring for Lorely, although her personal life was stuck somewhere else, and the desire to exorcise her current feelings pushed her to create new music about her situation.

“I was touring like, Australia, Mexico, Europe, in like a month. Really crazy travelling, so when I got home, I was just like, oh my god, I don’t even know who I am because all I’ve known is entertaining other people and being on flights. I would say the isolation and just coming home from the massive adrenaline drop that playing live music

Words: Abigail Firth. Photo: Dorian Lopez.

WORK 42

IT OUT Bright, bold and not lacking in ambition, the wait for Hazel English’s debut album has been worth it.

Locked down thanks to our good mate COVID-19, we called her up for a pregame catch-up.

Words: Charlotte Croft.

MAY 2020

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too much time spent online.

“The other night, I just started playing songs for the first time in ages and felt so relieved that I was doing something tangible and not just consuming constant streams of news, entertainment or messages.

I’m just trying to balance talking to friends, catching up with the news, but also taking time for myself without putting pressure on having to create something spectacular during this time.”

Scrolling through Instagram feeds now, you’ll see an array of illustrations on ‘how to self-isolate’, giving the term ‘self-care’ a whole new kind of meaning. While these posts may mean well, the pressures of having to create or be productive is something we can all be guilty of allowing to make us feel bad if we just want a nap or watch TV. Hazel tries to deconstruct where these pressures to succeed come from. “[It] comes from society, not from within me. There is an urge to create, but it needs to come from an organic place, not from a place that says, ‘I’m only valuable if I’m constantly productive’.

That’s kind of what capitalism does to us – makes us think that we have to be constant producers of work for consumption.

“There’s a lot of pressure in society to succeed, whether that’s having a lot of followers on Instagram or streams

of a perfectionist. It’s kind of a way of relinquishing control, but I still have a lot of say in how the song happens. I just like the energy of having another person in the room and bouncing ideas off each other. I’m probably going to like it more and be less critical too.”

Working with others meant swapping the bedroom for a studio space and losing the DIY approach to production. “[Being] in a really great studio was really exciting for me [as I got] to do it the old fashioned way. It was a longer process, but I’m really glad I took that route and worked with some incredible people as well. Once you do a fully-fledged album, you get addicted to those lush arrangements.

It’s hard to step back!

“It was also an exercise for me to write [lyrics] on the spot rather than spending too much time lingering on word choices and make snap decisions where I don’t mull over too much.”

Since the last release, Hazel has allowed herself to show more vulnerability in her writing, but also to be more expansive, sharing thoughts on wider societal issues. “Honesty is very important to me, so I’m always writing from a personal point of view, but with this album, I’m also talking about things on a bigger scale of how society affects me – rather than just immediate emotions. [‘Wake UP’] deals with both sides, but I was

out so vehemently. “I definitely think it’s important to explore spirituality,” Hazel explains, “but I also think it’s important to question everything and not just buy into the first thing you read or something that just sounds good to you.” This circles back to previous musings of the power of consumption, especially across social media platforms, where click bait can clout and pressures can mount.

Luckily, Hazel offers some muchneeded escapism of the 1960s, with musical elements echoing those from Dusty or Petula tracks. If we close our eyes, we can just smell the flower power freedom.

“At the time I was writing the album, I was very in the rabbit hole of the 1960s. I’ve been collecting vintage since I was 16, so there’s an idealistic and maybe naïve longing for that time.

I loved how experimental and free the songs are and felt like the idiosyncratic tendencies of that era felt very align with the sentiments I was trying to express.”

Standing out in the streaming sphere also proved to be the driving force behind the creative process – again linking back to this constant current of consumption, as music is more accessible than ever, making the realm of commercial music in 2020 more concentrated than the 1960s.

so I started to reflect on the reasons why I was feeling that way. It opened me up to a lot of revelations. I was feeling a mixture of apathy, isolation, despondency, addiction to social media, consumption and I think a lot of these things were symptoms of my environment.”

During the process of writing ‘Wake UP’, Hazel turned to philosophy for inspiration, leading her back to the works of Guy Dabord; The Society of the Spectacle in particular. Released in 1967, Dabord explores a society where we prioritise appearances versus reality. “We’re kind of living through these moments now, which we hold up on social media and present as our true lives, spending all this time behind the lens, rather than living our life. The book talks about how important it is to be present in the moment and getting rid of these false ideas.”

The thoughts and insecurities Hazel mentions surrounding the excessive use of social media rings truer than ever to our current living situation – and how we’re all learning, now more than ever, to try and live in the present.

“It’s even more challenging right now because we just have social media and our screens to connect with friends and family. It brings me a lot of anxiety as I’m figuring out how much time is

on Spotify. I realised I was feeling a bit empty about that because deep down these things don’t really mean anything to me. What matters to me is creating the best art that I can and creating meaningful things that other people can connect to, so I had to readjust my idea of what success looks like.”

Hazel’s double EP, ‘Just Giving In’ / ‘Never Going Home’, released back in 2017, features 11 tracks brimming with a fizzy pop punch for the sunniest of daydreams. While ‘Wake UP’ still carries the same fun pop-filled finesse of the first record, the process for writing the second shows a promising and exciting transition.

“With the double EP, it was much faster because a lot of the songs were written and recorded on the same day.

There were fewer people involved and this time, I spent a year doing sessions in LA, just writing with a whole bunch of different people, which was really fun to try because I’d never done that before. It was a whole new experience.

“It made me realise that I love working with new people and collaborating. I can sit and write a song at home by myself, but I’m not going to have as much fun doing it, and it’s probably going to take me twice as long because I can be a bit

thinking more of the larger picture and analysing things a little more philosophically.”

Thematically, the LP shines a light on power and intimacy and how the two can relate to each other. “I guess I was realising when you become intimate with someone, it can get to the point where you’re so fused together that you forget your own identity and, in that way, I started to feel disconnected to myself. But then on the other end of the scale, I was experiencing moments where I was physically intimate with somebody but not feeling emotionally intimate with them at all. For me, it was about balancing that out – the need to have intimacy with people but also a need for space and self-reflection. I guess as a kind of a scale - a balancing act.”

Lead single, ‘Shaking’ offers a fresh and upbeat melody, but with a more serious subject matter behind it. “[Shaking] was really about seductive and manipulative use of power and using intimacy as a tool for gaining power.” This isn’t shied away from lyrically, as Hazel demands “get down on your hands and knees / Baby beg for me / Tell me that I am your queen / Maybe I’ll set you free”.

Hazel ponders on our search for identity and what drives us to seek this

“I was seeing a lot of homogenisation of music in the Spotify world, with playlists and algorithms, [so] I didn’t want to make music for just being in the background.

“What I find exciting [about the 60s] is that people were becoming really active politically and challenging the status quo. People weren’t afraid to go against the norms and question society. We’re starting to see rumblings of that now, and it’ll get stronger as more people wake up to what’s going on. That’s why I look back and feel nostalgic because I think it was a time that people were really trying to make a difference.”

When thinking of how the new tracks will slot in with the old in setlists, it seems like an exciting prospect.

Hazel reveals, “I wanted it to be a fun and exciting record for people so they can hear different things on multiple listens - there’s very much a live feeling with some amazing players on it.”

While bringing these new tracks to life might be further from Hazel’s grasp due to recent quarantine restrictions, it’s a method we must take to ensure artists can perform to audiences once again – the glimmer of hope we can listen and look for in the future. P Hazel English’s album ‘Wake UP’ is out now.

“YOU HAVE TO QUESTION EVERYTHING”

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ialling in for a chat on the Dorkphone is a little different at the mo - speaking from self-isolation; the result of a global pandemic, which has seen Coronavirus (COVID-19) rapidly sweep across the globe. While most of the world stays in quarantine, turbulent times like these mean reaching for more music – old and new, to soothe anxieties and give us something else to focus on if the daily news threads or Whatsapp group chats become overwhelming.They’re born choppers and changers.

“When I first started writing the album, I was feeling similar to how I’m feeling now,” Hazel English explains.

“Like I can’t move forward on what I want to be doing in my life, and a bit stuck where I am. That was more of a mental thing for me, not physical, which it is right now, so it’s strange to be returning to those feelings.”

Hazel never anticipated that the main motivations for writing her debut album, ‘Wake UP’, would correlate so heavily with the current climate; no one could.

“For me, it was just blockages that I had within myself because I kept falling into bad habits, like getting stuck on social media and the fear of trying new things or projects. I just felt like I couldn’t move forward and progress,

INCOMING THE ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO THE LATEST NEW RELEASES

RINA SAWAYAMA SAWAYAMA

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ALMA

Low rise jeans! My Chemical Romance! Fears the world will end! The 2000s are well and truly back! And no one is celebrating their return like Rina.

On her debut LP, ‘SAWAYAMA’, Rina brings allllll of the Y2K vibes with a future forward twist.

Much like on her (also self-titled) ‘RINA’ EP in 2017, it’s equal parts self discovery and social commentary, except this time she’s dialled up the pop (and rock) star meter to 100.

Perhaps her greatest creative decision for this record was going full nu-metal on the record’s first offering ‘STFU!’, a massive ‘fuck you’ to racist microaggressions that revealed Rina as our best and most unexpected rock star.

That energy is maintained on the Britney-meets-Korn satirical capitalist anthem ‘XS’, glam rock banger with all the theatrics of ‘Black Parade’ era MCR and just one (there’s multiple!!) of the key changes on this record, ‘Who’s Gonna Save U Now?’, and on opener ‘Dynasty’, which feels like Rina’s version of Xtina’s ‘Fighter’, and signals her true arrival as one of The Great Pop Saviours of recent memory.

While her anger is channelled into the heavier songs, there’s incredible fun on this record.

Have U Seen Her?

Namely on the video game sounding ‘Paradisin’, a song about Rina’s mum totally killing her vibe back in the day (featuring a lyric about MSN!!! And another key change!!!! And a sax solo!!!!) and cocky club banger ‘Comme De Garçons’.

Lyrical and sonic throwbacks aside, ‘SAWAYAMA’ details Rina’s life and her own struggle to find belonging between two cultures, and an ever-changing idea of home. That includes a love letter to Toyko, and a touching one to the queer community that welcomed her (easy to see this one being a tearjerker live), as well as an electro-ballad about drifting away from a friend.

There’s a lot to take in on Rina’s debut. It’s completely bonkers but she slides into every style perfectly. Seriously, her versatility is something a lot of the pop crop wish they had. It all culminates on the final track ‘Snakeskin’, where she signs off letting us know she’s not finished growing yet, and that when she’s finished with the early 2000s references, she’s still got more in her back pocket. Even if she’s still discovering herself, she already sounds 100% Rina, and to nail that on a debut is an incredible feat. Abigail Firth

eeeee It’s rare that a debut album feels more like a comeback, but alt-pop Queen (or shall we say ‘King Of The Castle’) ALMA achieves the impossible with ‘Have You Seen Her’, an album the world has been patiently waiting for. ALMA’s debut tells a very personal story laced with the struggles of a young adult being thrown into the limelight.

Not afraid to speak her truth, she addresses issues from women’s rights to body positivity, from sexuality to depression and drug use head on. The album fluctuates between confidence and anxiety, ecstasy and vulnerability.

Stand out moments include first single ‘Bad News Baby’ that, with intoxicating beats, bouncy rhythms and an irresistible chorus, gives you powerhouse ALMA at the top of her game, and closing track ‘Final Fantasy’, a beautifully poetic song that perfectly captures her gift for writing effortlessly flowing melodies. In the past two years, ALMA hasn’t lost any of her sucker punch attitude that makes her music so unforgettable, but what she has gained is an unfaltering sense of self and authenticity. Laura Freyaldenhoven

Even if she’s still discovering herself, she already sounds 100% Rina

DIET CIG

Do You Wonder About Me?

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RECOMMENDED SORRY 925

The long-awaited debut from Sorry proves that it was well worth the wait. The world that they’ve created here is an addictive and satisfying one.

No apologies, this is stunning stuff.

MAY 2020

DORK

THE BEST ALBUMS YOU NEED TO CATCH UP WITH NOW

THE CHATS High Risk Behaviour

If one thing’s clear, it’s that The Chats couldn’t give two shits.

Their rollicking debut plays to their strengths, heralding the emergence of a new laid-back punk spirit.

CONAN GRAY Kid Krow

The complete pop star package, a cheesier publication would probably include some awful pun about there being 50 shades of Conan Gray. Like him, we’re obviously far better than that.

MILK TEETH Milk Teeth

Ending a four-year struggle with line-up changes, mental health battles and the weight of the world seemingly crashing down, ‘Milk Teeth’ is a seminal album for the modern brit-rock movement.

Dynamic duo Diet Cig return with their second release, ‘Do You Wonder About Me?’ to illustrate their emotional eloquence once again, reaffirming their spot as the straighttalking teen angst band, unafraid of bearing their deepest insecurities.

Opener ‘Thriving’, offers the same self-love mantra as a Lizzo banger, but with heavier sprinklings

BC CAMPLIGHT

Shortly After Takeoff

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EMPRESS OF

I’m Your Empress Of

eeeee Lorely Rodriguez’s (sort of) surprise third album sounds as snappy and immediate as its conception. Written in her LA studio between stops on tour, it’s Empress Of’s most intimate record yet, with the most ambitious sound. ‘I’m Your Empress Of’ brings her closer to listeners than ever before, owing to the record’s brilliantly honest lyrics and a more spontaneous sound. Where 2018’s ‘Us’ focused on Lorely’s move into pop territory, ‘I’m Your Empress Of’ pushes that further and brings in the fun. This is Empress Of representing herself in each one of us, it’s her gift. Abigail Firth

ENTER SHIKARI

Nothing Is True & Everything Is Possible

eeeee Enter Shikari have always known exactly what they’re doing, no matter

what genre they’re working in - a streak that’s continued over their sixth album ‘Nothing Is True & Everything Is Possible’. They’ve never been afraid to pick and choose elements from whatever takes their fancy to commendable effect: ambient synths with distorted vocals, heavy breakdowns reminiscent of previous albums, huge orchestral scores, this is a band that would sample a kitchen sink just to say they’ve got everything.

But it works.

Lead single ‘{ The Dreamers Hotel }’ is a blistering example of what the band do at their best; crunchy bass and machine-like percussion, with human drum machine Rob Rolfe blurring the line between synthetic programming and live kit, while ‘Waltzing off the Face of the Earth’ provides some of Rou Reynolds’ most politically-charged lyrics, taking aim at climate change deniers, Flat Earthers and other aspects of modern life, all in one fell swoop.

Further along, ’Elegy For Extinction’ is a beautifully arranged, near-four minute orchestral piece recorded with the City of Prague Symphony Orchestra that builds and builds to an incredible crescendo, whilst recent single ’T.I.N.A’ is an apocalyptic rock, sounds of jet fighters flying

overheard and all.

What Shikari have managed to achieve over the course of the album is nothing short of spectacular, all produced

by Reynolds himself.

Sonically technicolour and emotionally draining in the best way, it may feel like the end of the world, but Enter Shikari are here to hold it all together. Kay Jupe

HAPPYNESS

Floatr

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HAZEL ENGLISH

Wake UP!

eeeee Hazel English’s debut full-length has felt a long time coming. Debuting back in 2016 with single ‘Never Going Home’, the years in-between haven’t been wasted. ‘Wake UP!’ is an album that mixes together different worlds.

From bedroom bops to lush studios, the fact that half the album was made in sunny LA with popmegamind Justin Raisen (Charli XCX, Sky Ferreira), and half in Atlanta with Ben H. Allen (Deerhunter, M.I.A, Animal Collective) seems apt. Textured and organic, but saturated in sunny day vibes, it’s bigger, bolder and - dare we say - better than

Happyness’ third album ‘Floater’ sees the now duo of Jonny Allan and Ash Kenazi, exploring deeper and more honest, personal themes while losing none of the exuberance and melodic sensibility that made their name. The album arrives after a period of upheaval as they dealt with illness and personal reflection and have emerged from the other side with added clarity and lucidity. Tracks like single, ‘Vegetable’ ripple with energy while ‘Undone’ grows from blissful acoustic strumming to the most sunny and positive melody.

‘Floater’ features every side of a band who have grown in depth, and acts as a candid and illuminating insight into Happyness mk 2.

Martyn Young

MOSES SUMNEY græ

eeeee Where his debut album ‘Aromanticism’ was a delicate and unravelling look at the many forms of love that can exist to someone who is yet to touch upon their own ideas of what it means, Moses Sumney’s aptly titled follow-up ‘græ’ is a defiantly self-assured declaration in accepting that binaries are not for everyone, and that existing in the other is nothing to be afraid of.

Splitting the mammoth release over two parts, he ruminates on not making peace with dying alone in ‘Neither/ Nor’ and navigating the spaces where the lines of friendship are blurred, ‘In Bloom’ which serves as a nod to ‘Make Out In My Car’. With

his intangible genreblurring expressionism at work more so than ever, the consistency of Ayesha Faines, Taiye Selasi, Jill Scott and Ezra Miller’s spoken word musings is a salve. ‘Two Dogs’ draws the listener to a reality which is almost enraptured by the ennui of not being able to say that they’ve encountered the fairytale romance, or felt an inkling of emotion for anything sentient, while ‘before you go’ knows some things weren’t meant to last. A polymath in the throes of love; Moses Sumney may still be searching for some of the answers, but his growth thus far is undeniable. Tyler Damara Kelly

what’s come before.

Dealing with weighty subjects - from power dynamics to capitalist consumerism - through the prism of bright, bushy-tailed guitar pop, it’s one wake-up call not to be slept on. Stephen Ackroyd

a fragility to Perfume Genius’ work but on ‘Set My Heart On Fire Immediately’ the fragility is a sign of strength.

Unafraid to tackle big themes and intense emotions Hadreas puts everything out there from the delicate, graceful beauty of sparse immaculately measured ballads like ‘Moonbend’ and ‘Just A Touch’ to the more developed and powerful distorted sludge of striking first single ‘Describe’.

This album is the most diverse of Perfume Genius’ work so far and as well as the typically emotional songs he’s always having fun on the playful funky pop tracks that highlight the album including ‘On The Floor’s’ endearing tropical strut.

The album is the sound of Perfume Genius emboldened and embracing both his playful and expressive side as well as his tender emotive side to great effect. Martyn Young

PERFUME GENIUS

Set My Heart On Fire Immediately

eeeee The fifth album by Perfume Genius sees singer and songwriter Mike Hadreas fully blossoming on a collection that builds on his previously acclaimed albums while emphasizing the confidence and creative spirit of an artist at the top of his game.

There has always been

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of glittery grunge, while lead single, ‘Night Terrors’ reveals Alex Luciano’s anxieties.

The New York two-piece have never shied away from shorter snippets of alt-rock riffs, with ‘Link in Bio’ and ‘Apricots’ in their debut, and their second offering is no exception.

Despite being less than a minute, ‘Priority Mail’ gives us a short but most definitely sweet pianofilled piece, where Alex shows off the saccharine side to her vocals, while in ‘Flash Food’, a menagerie of scuzzy guitar work and pounding drums which leads to Alex stretching her vocal chords for a lasting shriek.

Contrary to their album titles, ‘Swear I’m Good At This’ and ‘Do You Wonder About Me?’, these New Yorkers don’t need to reassure us of their greatness: they’re thriving, thanks for asking.

Charlotte Croft

On ‘Shortly After Takeoff’, a finale of Manchester Trilogy, Philadelphian Brian Christinzio, BC Camplight’s main man, is done with hiding behind convoluted metaphors and tired of the ever-going struggle. If his last album, ‘Deportation Blues’, was an immigration elegy, here he cries over all the rest. It’s a record that shows Christinzio who, despite spiralling around his fears, tries to face them with an open heart. Even though the album couldn’t be further from feel-good music, it’s strangely pleasing. Like you’ve found a person who’s as lonely as you and now you can be lonely together. Aleksandra Brzezicka

ANY OTHER QUESTIONS? ASKING THE USUAL STUFF IS SO BORING

This month it’s...

GEORGIA

Which defunct band would you most like to reform?

The Fugees.

Who is your favourite member of One Direction Zayn.

What was the first record you bought?

Tina Turner - ‘River Deep Mountain High’.

What did you last dream about?

Hmm, well it’s hard to remember I’ve been having such deep sleeps recently. It was something to do with panic and corona, I think.

What strength Nandos sauce do you order?

I don’t eat Nandos, never have and never will!

How punk are you out of ten?

Hmmm, around 8 or 9.

What is your earliest memory?

Not sure, I haven’t thought about that ever. Let me think… my earliest memory is being a conductor and conducting my friends in my bedroom in our first flat. I was probably around 5 or something.

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

This horrible girl in Year 7 shouted I had nits in front of everyone in a class. I was so humiliated.

DORK

Deputy Editor Victoria Sinden Associate Editor Ali Shutler Contributing Editors Jamie Muir, Martyn Young Events Liam James Ward

Scribblers Abigail Firth, Blaise Radley, Charlotte Croft, Dillon Eastoe, Jack Press, Jake Hawkes, Jessica Goodman, Kay Jupe, Laura Freyaldenhoven, Liam Konemann, Sam Daly, Sam Taylor, Tyler Damara Kelly Snappers Camille Vivier, Derek Ridgers, Dorian Lopez, El Hardwick, Finn Constantine, Jennifer McCord, Phoebe Fox, Pooneh Ghana, Sarah Louise Bennett

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Have you ever had an imaginary What’s your fave TV show? friend?

It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

I never had one, but I used to play lots of imaginary games.

Have you ever been banned from somewhere?

What’s your favourite midnight Yes, many nightclubs. snack?

Hmmm, it used to be a cheese What’s your middle name? toastie with either Marmite or Rose Harriet.

Branson Pickle, now I don’t allow What’s the furthest you’ve myself midnight snacks, lol. travelled to attend someone What was the last thing you else’s gig? broke?

Peckham.

My lava lamp, I literally just Do you snore? broke it.

Nope. P Do you believe in aliens?

Not really, I believe there must be Georgia’s album ‘Seeking Thrills’ is out now. life outside of our universe.

MAY 2020

Editor Stephen Ackroyd

Doodlers Russell Taysom

If you could have a super power of your choosing, what would it be?

The one they have in Star Trek, where you can beam to anywhere you want. That would solve all the travelling and carbon footprint I have.

Photo: Ryan Constantine

46

If you were on Mastermind, what would your specialist subject be?

Chicago House Music, 19831987.

What’s your biggest fear?

Snakes.

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Photo: Sarah Louise Bennett.

Photo: Sarah Louise Bennett.

HOMESCHOOL 8 - 10 MAY 2020

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