DOWN WITH BORING.
ISSUE 82 · NOVEMBER 2023 · READDORK.COM
Declan McKenna
DREAM JOB TOUR 2024
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Issue 82 | November 2023 | readdork.com | Down With Boring
Hiya, Dear Reader. Here we go. The issue you hold in your hands is the start of something all together new. Like I wrote last month, Dork is delighted to welcome its sister mag Upset to the fold as we combine forces to make The World’s Greatest Music Magazine. Kicking off this month, we’re introducing more louder sounds to the mix, smashing even greater volumes of nonsense into our pages for your entertainment. As part of the evolution, we’re delighted to bring one of Upset’s most beloved cover stars to the front of Dork for the first time this month. Poppy is a genuine musical polymath, mixing genre and aesthetic to create a vision that fizzes with excitement. She heads up a charge including the likes of Wargasm, Code Orange, Creeper, The Menzingers, Knuckle Puck and loads, loads more. Not that we’re forgetting all our previous Dork faves either. In fact, this month we’re going double bubble. The official Prince of Dork Declan McKenna is back on the cover, as he preps for a new album that yet again shows why he’s UK indie’s most cherished son. He’s joined by the most magnificent pop star on the planet - CMAT - as she drops a second album for which five stars doesn’t really feel enough. A living legend. Elsewhere, there’s everything from The Vaccines to Lime Garden, Folly Group to Bombay Bicycle Club, Priya Ragu to Girl In Red and tonnes of others. There’s never been an issue of Dork more rammed than this one. It’s a brave new world, Dear Reader. Jump in.
‘Editor’ @stephenackroyd
P.S. EasyGroup? You suck.
readdork.com Editor Stephen Ackroyd Deputy Editor Victoria Sinden Associate Editor Ali Shutler Contributing Editors Jake Hawkes, Jamie Muir, Martyn Young Scribblers Abigail Firth, Alexander Bradley, Ciaran Picker, Dan Harrison, Emma Quin, Finlay Holden, Jack Press, Kelsey McClure, Minty Slater Mearns, Neive McCarthy, Rebecca Kesteven, Rob Mair, Sam Taylor, Steven Loftin
Top Ten.
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GIRL IN RED HEMLOCKE SPRINGS SCOWL
Hype.
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CREEPER L’OBJECTIF MATT MALTESE LIME GARDEN FOLLY GROUP THE VACCINES CHART ATTACK YEULE JOEY MAXWELL WALT DISCO KAMILLE CITIZEN TEENAGE KICKS
Intro.
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EASY LIFE A DAY IN THE LIFE OF... DIVORCE
DEYAZ PETER XAN KOYO SIPHO.
Features. 28 36 44 50 52 54 56 58
DECLAN MCKENNA CMAT POPPY SUNDARA KARMA BOMBAY BICYCLE CLUB CODE ORANGE PRIYA RAGU ††† (CROSSES)
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WARGASM
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REVIEWS WILL JOSEPH COOK THE MENZINGERS KNUCKLE PUCK
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HOME & AWAY DOMINIC FIKE PRIMA QUEEN AESPA 5 SECONDS OF SUMMER MUSE GRACIE ABRAMS
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STONE
Incoming. Get Out.
Backpage.
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Beach boy.
COVER STORY
28. DORK
DECLAN MCKENNA
DECLAN MCKENNA is undoubtedly Dork’s prince of indie. Now he’s back, with a new album on the way, and a brand new vibe. By Martyn Young. Photography by Derek Bremner.
live by the sea, so I spend most of my time by the sea.” Declan McKenna is sitting in his bedroom at home in Brighton, eating a pain au chocolat, and is very much at peace with the world. “We’ve been paddle boarding recently,” he continues. “When the weather is good, I’ve been paddle boarding. “The first person to take me paddle boarding, funnily enough, was Eli Smart when I went to meet him for the first time in Hawaii as I’d been working on music in LA. We went paddle boarding on this lake, and he said he hadn’t even seen it there before, but it was probably midnight or very late as it was dark, and there was all this bioluminescent algae. “This was my first exposure to paddle boarding. You could stick your oar in the water and move it around, and all the bubbles would go bioluminescent and bright white colour. A fish would go past under the water, and it would be literally glowing.” Now, you might wonder what all this fish talk has to do with Declan and his new album? Well, nothing, but maybe equally everything? “I just like being in the water at the minute. I find it the most calming thing, whether it’s on a boat or swimming. It makes sense for the album that I’ve been making.” The album he’s talking about is ‘What Happened To The Beach?’ and the bioluminescent trippy fish he’s talking about provide an apt illustration of the bonkers, vivid, odd pop brilliance of his best album yet. A collection that is idiosyncratic, playful, ambitious and resolutely Declan in a way that defines one of our most creative talents. We’ve followed Declan right from the start at Dork. All the way back to when we spoke to him for the first time in Issue 1, in 2016, pre-debut album, when he was first finding his musical feet and proclaiming that “I’m always changing things about how I’m making music.” We were there with his first Dork cover feature in 2017 as he burst out with his dynamic debut album ‘What Do You Think About The Car?’ and we chronicled the birth of his dizzyingly ambitious opus ‘Zeros’ with a second cover feature as he tried to navigate the uncertainty of peak pandemic. This time, though, things feel more relaxed in the world of Declan McKenna. The ambition and drive are still there but filtered through the prism of all the knowledge and experience he has gained from almost a decade of creation and evolution. Making up for touring lost time during the wilderness years of Covid that coincided with ‘Zeros’’ roll-out, the last year has been jam-packed for Declan. “It’s been a long year!” he exhales. “It feels like I haven’t really had much of a chance to stop. I started the year finishing off the album, and then I continued finishing off the album for about six months after that. Then I was on tour, and I was still finishing off the album somehow, and I’ve got the album announced, and it
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COVER STORY
THE
CMAT is the world’s greatest pop star. With her new album ‘CrazyMad, For Me’, she’s created her masterpiece. By Jake Hawkes. Photography by Sarah Louise Bennett.
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CMAT
GREATEST
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PrO it ve COVER STORY
Exploring uncharted sonic territories, infusing dance beats with a fearless exploration of identity and empowerment, new album ‘Zig!’ is POPPY at her very best. By Ali Shutler. Photography by Angelo Kritikos.
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POPPY
t’s a few weeks before Poppy’s fifth album ‘Zig’ is released, and the singer is in
Los Angeles, already working on the follow-up. “I’m just excited to be working on new things,” she explains. For the past six weeks, she’s been touring North America alongside PVRIS on their Godless/ Goddess tour, and the whole time she was out there, she was looking forward to being able to record. Now she’s back in the studio, she’s excited to return to the road. That’s just the way it goes sometimes. “Playing live is one of my favourite things in the world. The audience is the show for me; I love watching them, and their response is always inspiring,” she continues, constantly wanting to create something high energy to feed that excitement. Enter ‘Zig’. “People have been asking me if it’s a pop album,” says Poppy. And it is, kinda. “I like catchy songs, I like choruses, and I like pop music, but I’ve had that
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