Down with boring
Issue 37 October 2019 readdork.com
Once more, with feeling: Lauv’s time is now.
INDEX
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October 2019 | readdork.com | Down With Boring
30
Ø4 Intro 26 Hype Ø4
ED’S LETTER LAUV
He’s the don on the streaming services, but with a debut album on the horizon, Lauv is a pop sensation in waiting.
38
SWIM DEEP
Back with a new line-up and a really rather great third album, Swim Deep have no intention of sitting still for long.
42
MYSTERY JETS
With their protest inspired new record, Mystery Jets have something important to say.
It’s easy to be a bit of a crushing bore when it comes to magazine covers. Not to get too far ‘behind the curtain’ about it, Dearest Reader, but we get asked about putting loads of artists on the front of our fair magazine. Some, indeed, demand it in return for a few hours of their time, the big divas. It’s so easy to find yourself turning to the established names - artists with a decade of vintage behind them, but that aren’t saying too much about today. They may be great - don’t get us wrong - but we’re not sure that’s what we’re really always about. But our current cover star Lauv couldn’t be more ‘now’. Clocking up the numbers in a world of streaming, his Spotify stats are really quite ridic. At the time of scribbling, he has twenty seven and a half MILLION monthly listeners. That’s almost as much as Beyoncé. I KNOW! With an album due in 2020, we’ve bundled him through ‘the doors’ to get a dialogue started. Can you smell a pop sensation cooking?
S tephen
30 Features 48 Incoming
SPORTS TEAM We’re all off to Margate with indie pop’s hottest upstarts.
Ø8
READING 2019
DECLAN MCKENNA
The boy wonder is back, and he’s brought bops.
26
PHOEBE GREEN
With two brilliant singles under her belt, Phoebe Green is making waves.
36
SAMPA THE GREAT
Sampa the Great examines self-identity and belonging on her arresting debut album.
46
LIFE
Hull’s premier punks are back, and they’ve got big ambitions.
‘EDITOR’ @STEPHENACKROYD
Aaron Smith
28 Mabel
15
AJ Tracey
12 Maisie Peters
29
Anna of the North
23 Metronomy
49
Bastille
16 Miss June
Billie Eilish
11 Mystery Jets
28 42, 52
Blink-182
51 No Rome
Blossoms
15 One True Pairing 6, 51
Bloxx
10 Pale Waves
Bombay Bicycle Club
What do you mean ‘why are we crying at The 1975 smashing Reading?
22
** BAND INDEX ** BAND INDEX **
10
10
Paramore 20
Charli XCX
10, 48
CHVRCHES
17
Circa Waves
10, 23
Clairo
12
Dave
10
Declan McKenna
22
Fall Out Boy
25
Feet
53
25
Phoebe Green
26
Pixies
49
Planet 1999
28
Porridge Radio
28
Post Malone
15
PVRIS
15
Royal Blood
10
Sam Fender
50
FIDLAR
Sampa The 16 Great
FKA Twigs
25 SCARLXRD
53
Foals
20 Shura
54
Gia Ford
28 Slowthai
Girl Band
52 Sports Team
36, 49
12 4, 20
Green Day
25 Stefflon Don
15
Grimes
20 Sundara Karma
16
HalfNoise
53 Swim Deep
Hayley Kiyoko
10 SWMRS
14
iDKHOW
10 Tegan and Sara
52
Jack Penate
20 Temples
52
Jerkcurb
49 The 1975
JPEGMAFIA
24 The Amazons
16
15 The Big Moon
20
Kim Petras
38, 53
8
King Nun
24, 53 The Chats
King Princess
20 The Japanese House 11, 12 30 The Menzingers 53 51 The Sherlocks 53 46, 51 Twenty One Pilots 14 28 Twin Peaks 49
Lauv Liam Gallagher LIFE Lily Moore Love Fame Tragedy
15, 52 Weezer
28
25
ON THE DORK STEREO THIS MONTH... MUNA
WOLF ALICE
Winterbreak
The Wonderwhy
We already told you that MUNA’s latest album ‘Saves The World’ is a five star triumph in last month’s issue, but this - taken from their debut ‘About U’ - is equally bloody brilliant. With new dates for December announced, they’re great.
They played Glastonbury Festival’s Pilton Party earlier this month, and with thoughts turning to album three, it’s lovely to head back to one of the ‘My Love Is Cool’ era’s most special moments. What a band, eh?
THE JAPANESE HOUSE
faraway
A great song, but also included as an apology to Amber’s awesome dog Calvin, who we so callously snubbed from his first magazine cover earlier this year. We are very sorry, Calvin. You’re a good boy.
NEW MUSIC. NO ALGORITHMS.
DORK radio TUNE IN 24/7/365 readdork.com/radio
READDORK.COM
INTRO
READING + LEEDS
8
(Sorry, we only went to Reading!)
Hundreds of bands, one big field, and a temperature so high we might be delirious.
Over the next few pages we’ll bring you everything you need to know from the mighty Reading 2019. Words: Abigail Firth, Ali Shutler, Jake Hawkes, Stephen Ackroyd, Steven Loftin. Photos: Frances Beach, Jamie MacMillan, Patrick Gunning.
OCTOBER 2019
DORK
The 1975’s headline set is one for the ages
WTF?!
INTRO
The day before
Reading & Leeds, The 1975 dropped a new track, ‘People’,
EVERY BAND HAS A
and it’s totally nuts!
It’s not every song that can guarantee a reaction. It’s not every band who can stop you dead in your tracks. On their third album, ‘A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships’, The 1975 shifted between sub-genre and mood at will, creating one of the most essential, thought-provoking, playlistlike mainstream records of recent years. From the call-to-arms of ‘Love It If We Made It’ to the pure vibes of ‘Sincerity Is Scary’ and the flat out top bop of ‘It’s Not Living (If It’s Not With You)’, even its preceding singles zigged and zagged between interesting, vital new missions of intent. But even with that mood music one of a band freed from their own expectation and boundaries - their latest track ‘People’ is something else. After the grand statement of the Greta Thunberg backed opener ‘The 1975’ - a song to instigate change marked by its closing statement, “it is time to rebel” - the first single proper from ‘Notes On A Conditional Form’ is nothing short of a fully-fledged riot. The easy route isn’t enough - it’s time to get radical. With an opening salvo of “Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!”, ‘People’ is scrawled in a completely new colour palette, gaudy and brattish in the best possible way. Audibly straining, screaming and yelping, Matty Healy is going all-in on his teen punk daydreams with a level of authenticity and abandon which could disarm even the harshest cynic. It’s positively visceral. Sure, ‘People’ is also a track with the ability to divide - it’s harsh, rough and totally unfiltered - but it’s that stabbing urgency which makes it the most exciting, life-affirming hard left turn in recent memory. The fact it might sit on a jagged, uncomfortable edge is the point. Though those early descriptions of ‘Notes...’ suggested a night-time record - one of car stereos, urban landscapes and the yellow glow of dirty streetlights - ‘People’ is wideeyed, fully awake and spitting blood. For even a solid set rock band, it would be a point of significant order. For one of the biggest groups on the planet and one not known for quite this kind of incendiary firebomb - it’s positively revolutionary. A moment to force a heart-stopping pause for effect, it really is time to rebel. P
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story. Each artist to top the bill at the legendary Reading Festival has been on a journey to reach this point. Every British act that’s found their name at the zenith of that poster will have taken a moment. And yet, for tonight’s headliners The 1975, it feels ever so slightly different. That’s the key word when it comes to The 1975. Different. While so many of their peers would strive to hit some career goal, for them, it’s more of a calling. Of course, they’ve always been heading here, but there’s something at their core that still makes the prospect daring. Maybe it’s the juxtaposition that sits at the very heart of their band. More than almost any other, every aspect of their world seems perfectly pitched. Reading hasn’t seen a more impressively staged show than this - there’s no need for lazy fire and brimstone when you look this good yet none of it feels safe or overly pre-prepared. It’s innate; born of instinct, not focus-grouped to follow a trend. Frontman Matty Healy is never less than compelling, a mix of emotions and raw honesty, which never feels truly safe in the best possible way. They’re two things that should rarely be found in the same place, and yet with The 1975, it’s a contrast that sets them apart. From the opening stabs of the ‘A Brief Inquiry...’ version of their self-titled theme, there’s a tangible electricity in the air. A spark that sets light as they launch headfirst into new track ‘People’. Debuted only a day before, it’s daring, confrontational and ever so slightly mad, but perfect for Reading Festival. It’s easy to forget where The 1975 came from - a band of scrappy pop-punk covers that evolved into something altogether different, but with the same addictive personality at their core. From there on out, it’s back to back proof that no band feels quite as in the moment right now as The 1975. Visibly taken back by how “mental” the position find themselves in is, theirs is a repertoire built for this moment. ‘Give Yourself A Try’ still feels like a raw adrenaline shot, while ‘TOOTIMETOOTIMETOOTIME’ is a top pop bop perfect for Reading’s 2019 vintage. ‘Sincerity Is Scary’, ‘It’s Not Living (If It’s Not With You)’, ‘Love Me’ - the first part of tonight’s set is rammed with crowd-pleasers. In terms of their suitability for the job, there’s nothing left to prove.
Gears shifted, the moments start to clock up. ‘Loving Someone’ feels especially timely when placed alongside Matty’s preceding thoughts. “I kissed a boy in Dubai the other week,” he offers. “To be honest, it was a beautiful moment. When you see that, as a human, your natural inclination is to think, ‘that’s nice’ but sometimes, to simplify it, governments are dickheads and they get involved in those sort of things when really, they should leave you and your lovely genitals alone to do with what you want. I really liked that boy, and I’m pretty sure he liked that kiss, so it’s not me that needs to change. It’s the world that needs to change.” It’s followed by a perfectly delivered ‘A Change Of Heart’, still one of the band’s standout tracks. There are old favourites - ‘Girls’ makes a rapturous appearance while ‘Somebody Else’ remains one of British pop music’s greatest recent triumphs. A main set ended with ‘I Always Wanna Die (Sometimes)’ would still deliver the goods, but there are more big guns to be fired. Kicking off their encore with their recent Greta Thunberg backed statement doesn’t actually feel brave. That would be the wrong word. It’s urgent, important, almost impossible to deny. With the words projected big and bold, the intent is clear, the platform deliberate. Less a pause, more a demand for change, it’s followed by another powerful message. It’s a testament to The 1975 that ‘Love It If We Made It’ already feels like a document of a point in history, but its energy remains undimmed. A fist in the air, a challenge to everything around it, it’s the opening gambit to a run of bangers big enough to bring Reading to its knees. ‘Chocolate’ and ‘Sex’ remain two tracks that prove The 1975 had it right all along, but it’s closer ‘The Sound’ that truly feels like the knock out blow. As mayhem descends, it’s proof that this is a band who can find the unifying moments in both the outward and the inward. Reading Festival has seen headliners come and go - and many of them come back again - but this is much more than that. This isn’t just some achievement ticked off a list. This band are about connections. Even in a field as big as the one they’re playing tonight, there’s still the air of something magical. While many bands are as much about the worlds created around them by their fans, they’re a group that feel actively present in those spaces. In some ways, it’s not just four lads headlining Reading tonight; it’s all of us. A shared experience that’s also deeply personal, The 1975 genuinely matter. P
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LAUV IT IF HE MADE IT Words: Abigail Firth. Photos: Sarah Louise Bennett.
27,633,943. That’s how many people listen to Lauv each month on
Spotify alone at ‘the time
of press’. That makes him one of the Top 50 most listened to artists on the
planet. Full stop. During a brief visit to London, we pinned the current-and-future pop megastar down to work out just why he’s so massive.
OCTOBER 2019
DORK
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TO FEEL GOOD. Words: Jessica Goodman.
OCTOBER 2019
DORK
A lot has changed for Swim Deep between albums. With a new line-up firmly in place, they’re back, and they’ve no plans to slow down any time soon.
39 READDORK.COM
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HEARTB
BEATS Now veterans of Jets have become somewhat of an indie national treasure - but on their latest album, they’re telling important stories. Words: Dillion Eastoe.
Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting! So… get on your way!” The closing verse from Dr Seuss’ ‘Oh, the Places You’ll Go!’ might’ve been written for children, but its sentiments of optimism and empowerment are ones we can all benefit with being reminded of from time to time. Sentiments like these, of determination, optimism, and strength, are the lifeblood of ‘A Billion Heartbeats’ – a record that found its inspirations not from a mountain, but at the top of a glacier. “I always felt like I needed to get as far away from my home, the city, and external influences as possible in order to access the place that songs come from,” Blaine Harrison contemplates. “I thought Iceland in January felt like about as far removed from London as I could think of,” he laughs. But much like when the narrator of ‘Oh, the Places You’ll Go!’ finds themselves in The Waiting Place, it wasn’t until he escaped – in this case, back to London – that the frontman was able to find what he was searching for (as Seuss describes, “the bright places, where Boom Bands are playing”). Having retreated to an Icelandic fishing village, it was a rare flash of contact from back home (unsurprisingly, phone reception is difficult to come by at the top of a glacier) that served as a lightning bolt of inspiration – the day of the International Women’s March in 2017. “I was struck with this real sense that this is where we need to be right now. We need to be in the thick of it all and in touch with the bigger conversations that are happening at this particular time,” Blaine recalls. “It’s all good and well having this incredible sense of peace, being far away from everything, but actually the stories that I feel that we need to be telling aren’t happening there. They’re not happening in the wilderness, cut off from everything. They’re happening back here. They’re happening on the streets.” Booking a flight back almost the very next week, moving into an abandoned building on the Strand as a property guardian, ‘A Billion Heartbeats’ began to take its shape on the streets and in the squares of London. “Every week I’d hear the sound of a protest coming down to Trafalgar Square,” Blaine describes. “I’d get up, and I’d go outside, and I’d join it – really as a means of education, as a way of connecting with the messages of the different protests.” Citing NHS protests and the Black Lives Matter march, free READDORK.COM
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their scene, Mystery
“YOU’RE OFF TO GREAT PLACES!