Issue Forty-Two
Also inside: Shame High. O. Wombo Hello Mary Echo Northstar Mary In The Junkyard English Teacher Robbie & Mona THUS LOVE
Heartworms
28.04 - London. UK
TROXY
In our first issue of 2023 we welcome London’s Heartworms back to So Young, and this time on the cover. The speedy rise from the Speedy Wunderground signed band will have been hard to miss recently. Ahead of the release of their debut EP, we caught up with frontwoman, Jojo, about realising her manifestations and the Tik Tok men who can’t come to terms with a woman in military dress. Gearing up for album number three are South London’s Shame. ‘Food For Worms’ was born out of the imminent threat of a management imposed ‘new songs only’ show with no songs to play. We chat to Charlie Forbes and Josh Finnerty about working under pressure, old YouTube videos and getting things done in plenty of time…for once. In London, via Yorkshire, are English Teacher. Following two very sold out London headline shows, we caught up with the band to chat about their recent work with Dan Carey, creating their own TV skits and their hopes for the debut album. Arriving in London from Ireland last year was Echo Northstar. After being hooked on recent single, ‘Silent Fears’ for waaay too long, we decided to reach out. In our conversation we work out who Echo really is and gather advice on how to be in the know and independent all at once. Mary In The Junkyard are playing a show a week, maybe more, unlikely to be less, and the rooms are filling. Despite their favourite show being the one which was empty (due to train strikes), we caught them after soundcheck, ahead of a packed out performance, to find out how they came to be and who’s responsible for the on stage knitwear!
Bristol’s Robbie & Mona will release ‘Tusky’, the follow up album to debut, ‘EW’, in March. They’ve collaborated with the likes of Bingo Fury for this one and even let the film, Bad Boys have an influence. We discuss that and more inside. A duo. A baritone saxophone and a set of drums. Plus eighteen pedals. That’s the starting point for new Speedy Wunderground singing, O.. How that works is a lot to unpack and we do just that. Issue Forty-Two heads over to the USA for its remaining features. New Jersey’s High. talk us through their wall of noise shoegaze, with a hint of mild pop. And in Brooklyn, Hello Mary tell us about how lockdown removed the noise and how they sit somewhere between Elliott Smith and Sonic Youth. Brattleboro, Vermont is home to THUS LOVE but they’re currently in the UK touring. Ahead of a very packed show at the Sebright Arms, we discuss them being a queer band, how they built their own studio and lockdown cooking. To finish us off are Louisville’s Wombo. Their brand of Psychedelic Post-Punk has had us excited for some months now and the news of their imminent arrival on our shores is the best news. We give them a tarot reading via zoom. We’ve written about Tatjana Rüegsegger’s incredible, immersive project, ‘Brexit Bedrooms’ and more recently it was her photos of Lime Garden that adorned the cover of issue 41. We thought we’d dig a little deeper into the Swiss photographer’s work and process.
3 High. Bomber
38 O. OGO
8 Heartworms A Comforting Notion
41 Tatjana Rüegsegger A Student of Rock ‘n’ Roll
14 Shame Food For Worms
43 Robbie & Mona Tusky
19 Echo Northstar silent fears
48 THUS LOVE Memorial
26 English Teacher Song About Love
53 Mary In The Junkyard Top to tail, head to toe
33 Wombo Fairy Rust
58 Hello Mary Spiral
There’s a surrounding controversy, especially if you’re a woman wearing military. It’s a direct point for men who think they’re know it all’s. I understand people’s reservations, but at the same time, I’m not doing anything wrong to the uniform. If we think about other musicians – The Libertines wore the red jackets, The Clash wore berets. They’re almost all white men doing what they want. And they get looked up to! I kind of like that people think it’s a disgrace… Men being know it all’s…how unfamiliar? With artists like PJ Harvey who I know you’re a fan of, she’s a woman in control because she writes all her own music. If we think about this on a larger scale – engineering, touring culture etc. It’s still very male dominated. It’s annoying because men never have to answer these questions, but I am curious to know if you have any advice for navigating this frustrating landscape. Unfortunately, it’s going to happen. Always back yourself as being right. Without backlash it’s not as exciting is it? Fuck it, do what you want. We’re all going to die one day. There are so many things that will make you happy, so just make them happen. But be careful – don’t do anything really bad. Just do it…with good thought. Since you achieved the goals we talked about a mere eight months ago, do you want to voice any new ones? That makes me feel like I can do whatever I want if I work hard for it. My next goal would be to write a sick album and have Pitchfork write a review of it. Be on the cover of Rolling Stone. Support Interpol. I’ll manifest for sure. Last time you taught readers about the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress…can you give readers another interesting fact or insight into the future of Heartworms? There’s something aircraft related that’s going to come with the EP release. Something to do with spitfires and Airfix… Apart from that, lots of shows, cool new outfits, and meeting new cool people who love Heartworms.
11
Heartworms
Josh: Also, I got covid just before our writing retreat, so
Charlie: Your eyes practically didn’t open for the entirety
even switching personnel helped. Less people jumping
of the video Josh.
on ideas helped it flow, it’s good to take things away occasionally.
Please can I include this?
I feel that with ‘Orchid’, it’s much softer than any song
Josh: You can, its fine. There are so many interviews from
you’ve written before, like something has been taken
that time equally embarrassing for me, painful almost. Its
away. Should people expect a change of tempo in the
only ever me making a fucking idiot out of myself though,
live show?
the others get off lightly in comparison! I genuinely think it should be illegal to be video interviewed until you are
Josh: A few of the new tracks add extra considerations
at least 23.
when it comes to production value, so there’ll be a new level to step up to now. Regarding our energy on stage,
Charlie: That one is just too good though. The one I can’t
nothing is going to change there.
watch is the Pitchfork Over Under, not that I’ve watched it recently, but fuck, I know it’s bad. I’m afraid to open the
Charlie: We’ve been playing every song off the record live
memories.
anyway, so they already feel engrained in the set. We’re just excited for everyone to know them.
Josh: Yeah, in that one you and Sean slag off the Chilli Peppers which I’m still annoyed about!
Do you base your single choices on crowd reception? Charlie: I know! Why would I do that! Charlie: Not really. We just pick a ‘meal deal’ of slightly different sounding tracks.
Josh: Because dude, I wanna be friends with Flea.
Josh: The singles tend to be our favourites. Usually there’s
Charlie: Poor, poor form from me. I apologise to Flea.
unanimity within the band when it comes to choosing
Please put that in the article Leo, this is my official
singles as well which is helpful.
apology to Flea.
So, what’s the press schedule like for you guys? Have I
Josh: Yeah, Shame’s official stance is that we love the
caught you at a good time?
Chilli Peppers. You heard it here first. That’s the headline. In fact, put that at the top.
Josh: Yeah, for sure, you’ve caught us at a good time. Only If I can put a link to bands buy records just underneath.
Charlie: It hasn’t been savage for us. If you’d called up Steen and Sean who are in the middle of a 4-day European press trip they might have something different to say…
Josh: Fuck, fine.
Me and Josh are chillin’. Annoyingly we’re going to run out of time, and I Well, you’re having a ciggie in bed so can’t be too
wanted to throw some hinge prompts at you. I guess
difficult, eh?
we’ll have to wait.
On a bit of a nostalgia trip this morning I re-watched
Charlie: Well, I’m a black belt in respecting my peers.
your bands buy records video… Josh: Ah jesus… Lol I think we’d had five minutes sleep before then.
17
Shame
Maga zine
Editors Sam Ford
Josh Whettingsteel
Writers
Artists
Al Mills
Kim Blue
Sam Ford
Poppy Richler Leo Lawton
Charlie Brown
Amber Lashley Elvis Thirlwell
Josh Whettingsteel Reuben Cross Will Macnab
Eve Boothroyd
Rhys Buchanan
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Josh Whettingsteel Inês Viegas Oliveira Sergey Isakov
Martha Verschaffel Pauline Pete
Eva Klemann-Kochhan Alice Meteignier
Tatjana Rüegsegger Michael Highway Bahij Jaroudi REN
Alison Laing
Photos for Collage Camille Alexander Holly Whitaker Pooneh Ghana
Luke Ivanovich
Oisín Hennessy
Special Thanks Al Mills
Jamie Ford
Cameron JL West Jack Reynolds