Issue Forty-Seven Also inside: Bill Ryder-Jones Flip Top Head Girl and Girl Lip Critic Richie Culver Folly Group Omni Tapir!
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Issue Forty-Seven is here, and with it we wave goodbye to 2023. On the cover are rising stars, English Teacher - a band we’ve written about and spoken with since Spring 2021. As the band builds towards its inevitable ‘bigger project’ moment next year, and off the back of a sold out Scala in London, we caught them between their debut headline shows in the USA. We discuss old bands, Jools Holland and what a good debut album should do. London’s Folly Group are edging closer to a long awaited debut album. ‘Down There!’ will be released in January 2024 and we gave the band a call to discuss making an album between jobs and distancing themselves from the post-punk pack. The name Bill Ryder-Jones has often featured within our pages with reference to the records he’s produced (Hotel Lux, The Rhythm Method), but he’s now back with a new record of his own. ‘Iechyd Da’ will land in January and we joined him at The Social in Soho for a chat that spans family, ripping himself off and the influence of Wu-Tang Clan. London’s Tapir! have been firm favourites for some time, and with the recent backing of Heavenly Recordings, we can be excited at the prospect of a debut album in January. With the wonder of their lore and nuance in mind, and the red heads off, we dig into ‘The Pilgrim, Their God and the King of My Decrepit Mountain’ and what we can expect afterwards. Our conversation with Atlanta’s Omni is a special one. As you’ll find within our interview inside, Folly Group and their beginnings owe a nod to the works of Omni.
To celebrate this, we arranged for Folly Group’s Sean Harper to interview Omni’s Philip Frobos and what comes out, alongside a dive into the new Omni record, ‘Souvenir’, is mutual influence and mutual appreciation. Two new favourites are Lip Critic and Girl and Girl. The former are causing chaos in NYC and have recently signed to Partisan, whilst Brisbane’s Girl and Girl have just returned from a UK tour, and are taking some time to decompress the family friction inside the band. We chat to both inside. Finishing off our new band features are Flip Top Head. The Brighton band have more members than songs at this point and following lots of fun at our London club night, We Are So Young, we were keen to dig further into the inner workings of the band. Having just released his sophomore album, ‘Scream If You Don’t Exist’ we catch up with multidisciplinary artist Richie Culver to learn a bit more about his influences, inspirations and daily life. The ‘Women in Revolt!’ exhibition at the Tate Britain is open until 7 April 2024. The exhibition expands the story of British art, mapping a landscape of creative practice from previously underrepresented voices. We visit the exhibition and talk with the curator and contributors. We catch up with Sophie Spratley, founder of fast rising fashion brand ‘rabbit’ who we’ve recently collaborated with on a limited edition t-shirt.
4 Folly Group Down There! 9 English Teacher Whooping and Hollering
36 Girl and Girl Fight Night
15 Richie Culver Born / Died
40 Bill Ryder-Jones Good Health
19 Tapir! Broken Ark
43 Omni Total Control
23 Flip Top Head Orchestral Cult Rock
49 rabbit Lovesick
31 Women In Revolt! The Beginning of the End of the Patriarchy
53 Lip Critic Two of Everything
Lily: Obviously there would be big dreams of 5*
L: I feel like my problem is not being able to decide on
reviews and stuff, but we’d just want people to like it. I
what a song is going to be. It kind of flits about and then
also feel like an album could help give you a sense of,
becomes an amalgamation of all of the different angles.
“okay, we’re actually good at what we do”. Everyone doubts themselves, so that would be good, to gain more
Lily: There have definitely been times where we tried to
confidence.
write something very specific and linear, like “we want something with a pop structure”, and I don’t think it ever
On gaining confidence, I’d say that compared to when I
ends up as planned no matter how hard we try. Our natural
first listened to you, you’re now a completely different
writing instinct is to keep things spontaneous.
band in so many ways. Obviously that’s inevitable and there are loads of reasons for that, but are there any
So, what’s on the agenda?
traits you had as young musicians that you want to carry into the next phase of the band?
L: We’ve got the Independent Venue Week tour…
L: Personally, I like how earlier on we didn’t have a
Lily: One of the shows sold out in the first 24 hours,
set plan of what we were gonna do. We were never like
which is the first time that’s ever happened, that was a
“we’re going to make this type of song”, it was always
moment! It’s an iconic venue near where I grew up too,
just whatever happens, happens. I really like the idea that
The Trades Club in Hebden Bridge.
we could do literally anything next. It doesn’t matter what it is.
D: …and that show is on my birthday as well!
D: That’s what I like. A lot of people have said that about
Lily: It’s gonna be a good night. We also have
us, that they don’t really know what’s going to be next.
‘Mastermind Specialism’ coming out, which is my
Even in a song of ours, you might not know where it’s
favourite.
going to go, there’s always a bit of an unknown. Is that conscious? In your writing, do you want to keep the unexpected?
13
English Teacher
One More Thing The Debut Album from
16/02/2024
How do you filter your ideas if you’re producing and
It feels like you can touch it. It’s always just been there.
writing it all yourself?
My Dad would be like “we’re going on holiday”, and we’d go to a youth hostel for two days. Then somewhere
Just time. Obsession and time. A huge amount of it is
else. And it was great. I fucking loved it. But I always
drafting, you know? I was doing [the album] in and
remember being struck by the sound of…everything
around studio work, and time off, and evenings. When I
looked the same where I was from - but the sound, and the
did have a couple of weeks on it, it would largely be: work
road signs - were just like something out of a book! It was
on the idea from last night in the studio; put some ideas
a great place for the imagination. It’s a beautiful place,
down and get a feel for it. Then go to the pub and listen to
with beautiful art, beautiful language, beautiful writers.
what I’d done and make notes. And then go back in. It’s
But yeah, it’s always been there, and Gorky’s [Zygotic
an internal [thing]: you know when something’s a bit shit.
Mynci], of course, is my favourite band! It’s always been
And you can waste so much time, because there’s always
this magic, safe place.
something alright in the shit tune! Why do you so often look to these memories of your Another specific song I wanted to talk about was ‘This
past in your music?
Can’t Go On’. With the lyrics, the hugeness of the sound, everything, it feels like a brave song to make.
[sighs] Because it’s, fucking, art? I’m not overly happy with the way life’s turned about. I’m forty years old.
With ‘This Can’t Go On’, it was just that energy of ‘I
I don’t have a partner, don’t have kids. It’s trauma,
Can’t Go To Sleep’ by Wu Tang. Something about that
probably. That’s a huge part of it. I’ve tried to make
tune has always hit me. But yeah, [“This Can’t Go On”]
sense of, or monetize, my grief! [laughs] Lots of people
was fun! I just love the drums! I said to the drummer, “you
go through death, and losing someone young. Some
know when I don’t let you do anything fun? This one just
people deal with it better than others, but [my Family]
go, ‘fuck it’”. Usually he’s just doing that [thrums simple
fell apart completely. My mother is nowhere near over it.
beat on the table]. It’s the shittest job in rock being my
[My parents] split up. I fucking went mad in my twenties
drummer!
tryna cope with the fall out of it. But that’s the truth, you know - that’s the singular, one thing in my life that I think
Is it one of your favourite albums you’ve made?
I draw back too. I know people have lost siblings and have dealt with it much better than our family. But, what
Yeah yeah! You’re always going to struggle to beat
are you gonna do? That’s the defining thing, why I’m so
something like, ‘If…’ and I’m always gonna love ‘A Bad
obsessed. Before [my brother] Daniel died, my childhood
Wind Blows in my Heart’. But certainly ‘Iechyd Da’ is the
was fucking great. We were a cracking little family. And
best thing I’ve done in years and I’m very proud of it.
you see that go [clicks fingers] just overnight - the change in everyone. It’s not easy to get over.
Changing tack a little bit. I wanted to talk about Wales, and Welshness. A lot of your music seems to have a
I guess that’s all my questions, but to end on a lighter
strong sense of remembrance, of looking back at where
note - any fun plans for Christmas?
you came from, and where you grew up. This album is looking at a different part of you and I just wonder
Did you not just listen to what I just said?
how this affected the music, if at all? [embarrassment] I don’t really have a great connection [to Wales]. Aside from the fact that my Grandfather came from there and
[laughs] Nah, I’m only messing! I actually do. I’ve
brought the family to Liverpool from the valleys, we don’t
got family in Manchester, and I’ve not seen them in
really have that family link. But we would go on holiday
three years, so I’m dead excited to see them. But yeah,
there. And in the little village I lived in, I grew up on the
Christmas…fucking hell. It’s 2023 and you’re still doing
sea. [Wales] is there, you know?
Christmas? Shit the bed…
41
Bill Ryder-Jones
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Editors Sam Ford
Josh Whettingsteel
Writers Sam Ford
Reuben Cross
Amber Lashley
Josh Whettingsteel Eve Boothroyd
Sachin Turakhia
Natalia Quiros Edmunds Elvis Thirlwell Sean Harper
Will Macnab
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Josh Whettingsteel Clémence Mira
Shimeng (Monjajaja) Jiang Richie Culver Rory Wynn REN
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Rita McGurn
Bhajan Hunjan
Marian Elliott-Said (A.K.A Poly Styrene) Gina Birch
Zhigang Zhang
Sophie Spratley
Cover Photos Holly Whitaker
Photos for Collage Justin Villar
Jeff Anderson
Marieke Macklon Gem Hale
Matt Ritson
Alexandra Layer Holly Whitaker