So Young Issue Twenty Nine

Issue Twenty-Nine marks the end 2020 and our first

Staying in the West Country, LICE are about to embark on

year making six magazines for you to read. We hope that

a much awaited debut album via their own label ‘Settled

you’ve enjoyed them and discovered something new.

Law’. The band talk us through mug painting and maybe

On the cover you’ll find Black Country, New Road, one

more seriously, ‘The Intonarumori’. Three new bands

of London’s most highly thought of creative units. The

we are very excited for are Melbourne’s HighSchool,

seven-piece’s experimental nature isn’t exclusive to their

London’s Deadletter and Brighton’s, LIME. We dig up the

music, with the band requesting that fan and founder

foundations and outline why you should be excited too.

of the Facebook fan page ‘Sunglasses Posting’, Lucas

Fat White Family’s Insecure Man, Saul Adamczewski is

Lockeridge lead the discussion. We went with it and sat

preparing to release some solo material. We got wind and

in. The pandemic has had a major effect on bands and

reached out. He kept it short and sweet. Nilufer Yanya is

their release timelines. For some it’s halted creativity

preparing to follow up 2019’s ‘Miss Universe’ with short

and others it’s given them time to hone in on projects.

EP release ‘Feeling Lucky?’. We gave her a call to chat

For PVA it’s been the latter, using this time to play with

creativity, working with your family and bringing back the

Virtual Reality ideas as well as prepare for the release of

guitars. From their bedrooms in London, Legss are taking

their debut EP ‘Toner’. We catch up inside. For Sleaford

some forced time apart and taking in the response to their

Mods you could argue that the handling over Covid-19 has

second EP ‘Doomswayers’. On a video call, we talk about

been a gold mine for Tory government, lyrical ammo. The

the frustrations of the pandemic and determine if the band

duo are preparing to release their sixth album, returning

are responsible for the resignation of Huw Stephens. To

to Rough Trade to unleash ‘Spare Ribs’. We give them a

round off the issue, Shame’s Charlie Steen gets creative

call on Zoom to chat capitalism and the doors of human

with a short story involving a trip to Egypt with Dr. John

perception. Bristol’s Katy J Pearson has released her new

Cooper Clarke, we meet illustrator Ciara Quilty-Harper

album ‘Return’ via Heavenly Recordings. We give Katy a

and Outsiders Division co-creator David Méndez Alonso

call to chat record shops, vintage clothing and shaking off

walks us through the brand.

the trauma of major labels.

3 PVA Talks

32 Sleaford Mods Mork n Mindy

8 Black Country, New Road Science Fair

36 HighSchool New York, Paris and London

13 Ciara Quilty-Harper Illustrator Interview

39 Katy J Pearson Return

18 Nilüfer Yanya Crash

44 Legss Doomswayers

21 LIME Fever

48 LICE Intonarumori

25 Saul Adamczewski Brian

51 DEADLETTER Fit For Work

27 Outsiders Division David Méndez Alonso

55 Charlie Steen An Afternoon in Egypt Opposite, Jan Robert Duennweller

PVA’s world is an organisation of noise laid bare; an

Louis: Super excited. Feels like a long wait but wouldn’t

open, inviting pulse, that exists as the backbone of a

really compromise having it out earlier with how much it’s

restless melange of genres. Flitting from disco punk

been realised, even up to now.

(their favourite affectation of their music) to acid, to solid, industrial soundscapes. This fidgety nature suits the

Ella: It feels really good to finally be sharing this music.

present world and offers an insight as to why they’ve been

It’s been in the works for a while. So it feels like a really

South London’s most beloved and in demand party band

nice way to sum up the last few years of playing and

for the past two years. They exist in the framework of the

writing together.

capital’s artistic landscape, cross-pollinating with other musicians, creatives and crusaders with every step and

Josh: Yeah, we’re really proud of what we have created so

stroke carefully planned out.

can’t wait for people to hear it!

Their debut single, ‘Divine Intervention’ spoke for itself

The EP is such a succinct snapshot of your music and

and now their EP, ‘Toner’ is born into the world. Released

‘Divine Intervention’ was out in the world for a long

via Ninja Tune imprint Big Dada and recorded with the

time on its own. Were you very conscious of when to

protean Dan Carey, a trusted confidante, it opens with

release certain tracks?

‘Talks’ and progresses through six tracks and remixes offering different sides of the dance music coin. A

Ella: Not especially - ‘Divine (Intervention)’ felt like a

hedonistic, fresh and whip-smart release, it proves that

really good introduction to do with Dan. The EP has a lot

PVA embrace the dance floor with subdued sophistication.

more of how our live set sounds within it - ranging sounds with more euphoric bits and more industrial elements. It’s

Hi guys. How are you feeling ahead of the release of

always just been a case of trying to get the tracks sounding

‘Toner’?

the best they could be; to bring live energy to them as well as a production value we feel proud of.

3

Words by Harley Cassidy, illustration by Jan Buchczik

Josh: I guess now feels like the right time to give some

Ella: Just as you said that, Bicep came up on 6Music. I’m

more insight into who we are.

a really big fan of a lot of the music on Ninja, especially Young Fathers, Little Dragon, Marie Davidson, Kae

Louis: I would say we’ve been able to work with more

Tempest, Machine Woman, Kamasi Washington… They’re

people as well by holding off a little.

a really interesting label. They leave a lot of room for experimentation within the music they put out, which as

For a band whose live sets are so integral to the music,

an artist I think helps you feel like your creativity isn’t

how have you coped with this year and the total lack of

restrained to limits put on you by anyone else.

performing?

Are there any club contemporaries you rate at the Ella: It’s actually been really nice to have a break. We’ve

moment? I particularly like what Shygirl and Sega

been continuously playing for the last two years, so some

Bodega are doing.

time to reflect on the live set, the music we’re making and our time up until lockdown was really vital. I feel

Ella: Love Shygirl! All the music coming from PC Music

like we’re far more self assured and reflective about how

is great. Park Hye Jin is someone that I’ve been taking a

we work and the music we’re making having had this

lot of inspiration from recently, too.

time to rest. We’ve been working with Volta to create this immersive audio visual experience - it’s definitely been

Josh: Cookie Kawaii is really sick. She makes footwork.

really fun to try out this new technology and how you

Henrik Shwarz just released some new music as well

bring these two worlds together.

that’s really cool.

Josh: As a band we have always been interested in the

In regards to creating a song, do you find the music

experience of live shows and the immersive ways of them,

comes to you before the lyrics? Especially as lyrics are

so the VR show is kind of trying to take that to a new

usually quite simplistic or part of a refrain in dance

level in which we have complexity controls over your

orientated music?

environment.

Josh: Yeah, we usually make the music first and then apply On the topic of immersive experiences, I was interested

the lyrics. Ella always has a lot of lyrics that we can apply

to read that ‘Talks’ is based on characters from Red

to the music we make. I find it a lot tougher to write lyrics

Dead Redemption.

and it’s usually a bit of a longer process for me.

Josh: Yeah, the relationship between the main character

Ella: I write a lot of half poetry/half lyrics most nights, so

and his wife. I found it interesting how they portrayed

I guess it’s just about finding the appropriate song for the

real life relationships in a game and how impactful it can

lyrics.

be. Just like how we make sense of life through reading books, listening to music and watching films, the same can be applied to the narratives from some video games.

Ella: The only video games I really play are Mario Kart!

Quite good at it now though.

Well, you’ve had plenty of time to practice. I wanted to talk a little about Ninja Tune and particularly Big Dada, which seem like a great home for you. How do you see yourself in relation to other artists on the roster?

5

PVA

find consumes your lyrics the most?

Ella: This year’s been a really strange one for me.

I’ve done a bit of a U-turn in my personal life and thinking. Part of that was coming to terms with a lot of things I’d chosen to ignore for a long time… trauma from the past. So a lot of what I write is reflections on that: coming to terms with things in real time, moving on from them whilst keeping them with you to avoid repeated hurt. I feel a lot better nowadays. But, it’s a continual process when you are healing from things. Having this creative outlet has been massively important for my mental health and being in a band with people who understand that has been incredibly beneficial to helping me feel a lot better in who I am now.

It does seem like there’s so much camaraderie as well as creativity in your orbit - do you feel gratified by the people around you right now?

Ella: Yeah definitely. We live and are very close to some of the Tiña guys. Lynks is a really close friend, too. It’s so nice to work closely with people, make music together and just enjoy this crazy ride with friends. We are also managed by our really good friends. It all feels very supportive and creative.

Josh: Adam, who played bass in Tiña, and I have just finished working on the Pet Grotesque album. Really excited for everyone to hear it, it’s an amazing album!

We’ve been working a lot recently as a production duo, MenCare, where we get to explore more hyper pop sounds compared to our other projects. We really love PC Music and I’ve recently been inspired a lot by some UK garage like MJ Cole and producers like DJ Rashad. I also love the mixing engineer Geoff Swan who mixes the new Charlie XCX album and AG Cook’s album. He’s really precise and makes really exciting mixes.

It’s so nice to work closely with people, make music together and just enjoy this crazy ride with friends

Night time is the best for writing… what do you

It’s perhaps unsurprising that Black Country, New Road

I came across Lou Smith’s YouTube channel, where he

wanted to do things slightly differently for this cover

regularly uploaded live videos of bands who played at

feature. Hailing from Cambridge, the band quickly gained

the Windmill in Brixton, included within the uploads was

notoriety on the London scene last year with their wild

BCNR, Smith’s live videos really impressed me, I was

live shows and avant-garde singles. Having kept a fairly

simply astounded by the group’s versatility.”

low profile on social media and established something of an arm’s length if not prickly relationship with the press

It wasn’t long after that the group ‘Sunglasses Posting’

since, they asked for a close friend and fan to host the

was born. “Eventually I got the chance to see the band

chat.

play at ‘Sounds From The Other City’, an emerging alternative festival in Salford - they blew me away

With their debut album ‘For the first time’ - a six track

immediately. After chatting to the band we continued to

feature with reworked versions of past releases dropping

stay in touch through social media. It was also around this

later this year, it couldn’t be a better time to sit in on a

time, where we decided to create the Facebook community

catch up between avid fan and the band, who pile onto a

group where people could discuss and share links to

sofa with beers and wine after rigging the Zoom call up

videos and bootlegs of BCNR live shows.”

to their TV. Enter Lucas Lockeridge who administrates their Facebook fangroup ‘Sunglasses Posting’ who will be

There’s an organised chaos to the chat as the band bounce

asking the questions. Before the chat, Lucas is quick to fill

questions back at Lucas, “How’s school going? Are you

us in on how he discovered the band.

moving to London? What are you studying?” They even start dissecting what makes the perfect KFC, “I just got

“I first found them when Speedy Wunderground released

a four-piece meal with gravy, popcorn chicken cause I’m

‘Athens, France’ in January 2019. Around this time, I

basic.” The band come back with a more philosophical

first caught black midi in Manchester, which introduced

take, “It’s like the Scott Walker of KFC, it’s always great,

me to the many eccentric bands emerging from the same

always delivers and is supremely underrated.” Without

scene.” Lucas was quickly sucked into the immersive and

further ado, the questions eventually get underway.

compelling London scene. “There was a sudden outburst of young, talented musicians.

Words by Rhys Buchanan, illustration by Chi Park

8

How were the Black Midi, New Road shows a while

When we were just looking at the first record, we decided

back - weren’t they a part of a uni project?

to try something new in the studio a bit without too much preparation and with a slightly different technique. So we

Yeah, I had to put on a gig and I knew this wouldn’t take

mashed these two things together and just worked it out as

much work to promote so I did this and I could say it went

it went along basically. If it was good it would be on the

well. black midi tickets, especially at the Windmill, go so

album and if it wasn’t it wouldn’t.

quick so it wasn’t too much effort, it was really awesome and nice to be able to help out the local community as

It is a very different track to everything else you’ve

well. We contribute to Brixton in a certain way but we just

done before really...

go down there every now and again to play gigs, we don’t do much else within the whole Brixton thing, so it was

We’re not sure if we’re ever going to be able to play it

nice to be able to make a bit of a difference in the area and

live. It relies so much on us being able to see each other

raise loads of money for the Brixton Soup Kitchen. It was

visually to stay in time and to stay tight enough to do a

a really fun vibe, it was exactly what we wanted it to be.

live performance that you can’t really get when you’re in

We didn’t have much rehearsal; it was a bit of a sloppy

a horizontal line onstage facing an audience. It’s the kind

coming together with a few covers. It was a thing we just

of thing that works when you’re in a circle in a room. It

threw together, the tickets were so cheap as well so there

was recorded pretty much half live but some of it was

wasn’t much pressure on.

written as overdubs. Lewis didn’t really know what he was playing for the sax part, he kind of had it written, went

It did come together really nicely in the end though?

into the other room, put his baseball cap on and then went in and did almost exactly what he did on the end straight

We heard people were travelling down for it as well. I

away and then came back in sweating after four takes.

think once everyone got a bit pissed and people didn’t

There was a bit of a hole in the first record so that track

have as high expectations, we were just bullshitting our

just made sense.

way through it really. It was just quite funny. We made loud music that evening and people love loud music. The

It’s interesting that you realised you didn’t have to be

improvisation was ridiculous, everyone who gets handed

as intense as you once were?

a guitar was like, I’m playing with black midi so I should be playing in that really specific style. I guess because

It’s nice to have that moment of calm that we didn’t

the whole first half was so intense and obscene, then the

really have with our music before. We have started to be

second half was just doing some really raucous Christmas

able to play our old songs live with more moments of

songs with a nice bit of respite. I think everyone was

calm and more dynamic contrast, what that composition

always going to love that second half no matter how many

offered was the ability to not have to think about that.

Christmas covers there were, just to get away from the

Compositionally, it is a quiet song, it doesn’t rely on us

onslaught of improvisation. We did ‘The Man’ by Goat

having to make an effort to make it quiet. It was nice

Girl into ‘Boys In The Better Land’ by Fontaines D.C.

to have that in there, there’s not really a reason for us now emotionally to release a record that’s just pure loud

I should probably ask about the album - the moment

intensity for 45 minutes, we don’t feel that need anymore

that interests me the most is the ‘Track X’- how did

so it kind of suited perfectly.

that come about because it’s never been played before?

You’ve also changed the dynamics of the old songs as It’s quite an old piece of music in a couple of ways. It

well like ‘Athens, France’?

existed as a separate song in a very different arrangement with those lyrics and then some of that arrangement

It’s supposed to be. When we were on tour with deathcrash

existed as a very old sketch of a BCNR track.

we physically realised we could play a lot quieter than we usually did.

9

Black Country, New Road

Paul Waak

So we were in Glasgow and we thought, right, let’s play

It felt a bit stupid to do that though because I wanted the

all the quiet bits as softly as possible. The audience just

songs to be an honest enough document of what the songs

got really quiet when we played really quietly and that

originally were. There were certain changes that I thought

was kind of satisfying, it allows you to come back in, you

would make it a little bit more comfortable though. A few

have a much greater space to jump when you want to get

things that I wanted to put across in a different way to

loud again. It felt like something was happening. That was

feel a different release of the idea. I mostly just did some

pretty much down to deathcrash because they play really

light editing for my own piece of mind and for it to align

quiet as well. Those guys are the best at doing something

more. I’d rather it be an honest document than a document

and that is playing quietly, it’s impeccable and inspiring.

that anyone wants it to be. For us these are the definitive

You don’t get that as much anymore in popular music,

versions both lyrically and musically.

everything is always the same volume and it’s nice when you hear something that isn’t it’s a tension and release.

How was it recording during the pandemic, was it

That’s a satisfaction that you don’t get with a constant

different or harder?

volume, so it’s another tool we can use to create that.

It was slightly harder. We finished the album like a week Some moments definitely pull into a new direction?

before we had to lockdown. We did actually have to wait in order to go back and do some mixing bits here and

What I like about ‘Track X’ is that it’s a little nod to

there. That was kind of annoying, it would have been

what’s coming. I think it’s definitely the direction we’re

better if we were three weeks earlier than when we did

going to and that we like. Because it’s the most recent

record it. It just meant we were sitting on these half-

one that we completely arranged, it has been massively

finished recordings, waiting to hear it for months and

inspired by what we’re into at the moment and what we’re

months and we couldn’t so that was frustrating. When we

writing at the moment. It is the closest thing to tunes that

got back to it though it was pretty normal when we came

aren’t on this album but are going to be there on future

to do overdubs and extras. It was frustrating not being able

releases. It’s more similar to our future vein than it is to

to release as well, now we’ve made our peace with the

our current stuff, it’s almost a nod towards what’s to come

timeline we’re on but initially we were all desperate to get

like ‘Basketball Shoes’.

them out because we’d been playing loads of gigs and it was getting frustrating but we have all chilled out about it,

It’s interesting the album is six tracks but it’s still forty

it was hard though when we were getting lots of messages

minutes long really?

urging us to release new music. We were really lucky to get it recorded when we did though.

I think if you have an album that’s an hour long and it’s not been planned as an album really carefully, it is going

We’ll end on a silly one - what was the releasing Sims

to drag and it is going to start to feel boring. If you’re

characters based on?

putting tracks together that weren’t originally written to sit in a certain order on an album, it kind of has to be about

During lockdown we had started playing Sims and we

forty minutes. If it’s getting up to an hour then you’ve got

made our house anyway. We needed to do some content

to be quite careful with what you’re doing.

so we decided to do BCNR as Sims so people could play as us. God knows how many people are playing as us,

I wanted to ask about the lyric changes in some of the

probably three or four thousand. We spent so much time

songs and why that happened?

doing that as well. It was fun to do anyway. Nobody actually ends up spending that much time playing the Sims

I went back and seriously wanted to edit all of the lyrics

anyway, it’s all about the character creation anyway. We

because it had been a long time since I wrote them and

should have done a Simlish cover of one of our songs, I

things developed and changed.

wish we’d thought of that.

11

Black Country, New Road

Joe O’Donnell

Having completed her foundation at LCF and subsequently

If it’s a piece I’m planning, like my short comics or the

doing a BA in Surface Design at LCC, Ciara Quilty-

book I made recently for my final project, once I’ve got

Harper moved to Barcelona to escape London’s high

the writing done I can break the text down so I can plan

prices. With the idea to stay for a month, she’s now been

for an image per line. I’ll sketch out tiny compositions

living in the city for 8 years. “I recently finished studying

from life or photos, choose my colour palette, practice

illustration at Escola Massana where I’ve managed to

any details that I feel unsure about then just start each

push my work in a direction I’m really enjoying and I’m

drawing. I clean up things in Photoshop after scanning

now feeling like I’m part of a big creative community in

in, but if I find myself editing a lot it means I’m losing

Barcelona. Now it’s all about continuing to have fun with

spontaneity in the technique and the drawing isn’t working

projects and getting my work out there.” We caught up

so I’ll start again from scratch.

with Ciara to find out about her process and inspiration.

What inspires your work?

How do you go about starting a piece of work? Does it start as a pencil drawing? What is your process?

Colour, books and stories, landscapes, shadows, enjoying imperfections, the moments between the action or ‘pillow

It can be spontaneous, if I’m outside drawing from life

shots’. Trying to find something interesting no matter

it usually starts with a sort of obsession; I see something

where I am.

that I can’t stop looking at; a really good tree and house combination or a mix of colours and shapes all laid out

The challenge in drawing; there’s a sort of game in

before me and I either draw it right then or take a photo

figuring out why I like something that I see and then

and draw it when I get home.

seeing if I’ll be able to synthesise it on paper. Lately I’ve been going through a long list of films and documentaries

There is some organisation; I’ll draw out the size of my

I’ve been wanting to watch and drawing stills that

drawing area, choose my colours and once I know which

catch my eye. Above all it’s just the joy in just creating

part of the scene is most important, I’ll draw around this

something!

and the rest is downhill.

13

Words by Josh Whettingsteel

Ciara Quilty-Harper

ciaraquiltyharper.com

What are you currently working on?

At the moment its photos from a book called ‘Woven

by Hand’ of tapestries designed and woven by children

Right now I’m looking into getting my final project

at the Ramses Wissa Wassef Art Centre in Egypt, Maud

printed and perhaps published, planning out a collection

Lewis paintings, Bill Traylor drawings, lots of Jean Hugo

of animated drawings and continuing a series I started this

and Milton Avery landscapes. I usually save something

year of interpretations of Corita Kent’s Art department

because of the colours or because they’ve done something

rules, among other personal projects. My biggest job at

so well that I want to learn to do. Of course my Instagram

the moment is sending out more emails and portfolios,

saved folder is overwhelmingly full too!

entering competitions and applying for funding!

Does music influence your work at all?

Tell us about a typical working day.

It helps me imagine an atmosphere of a place better, or I don’t really have a typical day unless I’m working on

to hold onto a feeling I want to dwell on. Generally I like

a longer project in which case I need structure - I’ll start

melancholic songs at the beginning of a project when I’m

going through my list of things to do after breakfast then

more pensive and towards the end something energetic. I

tell myself I’ll work to a certain time, then take a food

lean towards sad songs but also a lot of funk, maybe that

break and start again. Basically my day is structured

comes out in the subjects and colours I gravitate towards!

around food and tea breaks. I also teach English online and this helps me be more organised about making a

Who’s your favourite new band?

schedule for time to draw.

I don’t know if you could call them new and they’re not How do you want people to feel when they see your

all bands but Vulfpeck are just amazing and also hilarious,

work?

Mac DeMarco, Michael Kiwanuka, Toro y Moi.

Anything they like, I’d hope that people have a sense of

Finally, what can we expect to see from you in the near

the enjoyment I get from making my work, and that they’d

future?

feel it was worth coming back to look at a second time.

I’ve had people say my pencil drawings are like a brain

The opening of my online shop; I lino printed some

massage or dreams of summer which was amazing to hear!

t-shirts over the summer and I love how they came out, plus I’ve got some riso and lino prints ready to go. I’d

Whose work do you admire and why?

love to invest in a small press soon to keep printing both on paper and fabric.

My friends and my dad’s work; everybody does such different things so I’m always learning new ways of

I’m starting a couple of book ideas and I’m dying to try

thinking about drawing or making work from them all.

making some wooden painted objects and do more sewing.

I’d like to do some collaborations with friends. I can’t

Anytime I see something I can’t get enough of it goes into

really think of anything I don’t want to do!

a folder on my desktop and I open it up regularly.

instagram.com/ciaraqh

16

Nilüfer Yanya 2019 was in many ways, Nilüfer Yanya’s year. Her debut

We just ended up getting a session in, we’d been trying to

album, ‘Miss Universe’, bridged the gap between a

make it work for a while. I really liked the demo that we

miscellany of styles, casting her as an emotionally rich

did, which turned out to be ‘Crash’. The vocals I finished

artist who could produce raw yet sonic opulence. It was

remotely during lockdown.

an album that elevated her to a new place of being, a seriously impressive musician, mysterious yet totally in

Was this at Riverfish studios?

control, it was no surprise that the music world lapped it up.

Yeah, so I did the vocals there! It’s my uncle’s studio.

What I’ve enjoyed so far is just being able to work with

After an eventful year, she was excited to take some time

different people and try things with different people and

off, but like many musicians, perhaps got more than she

keep finding others to work with.

bargained for. Whilst 2020 has been her most stationary year yet, it’s also accumulated into months of session

The video for Crash was directed by your sister, who

work, contemplation and discovery, all of which have been

you also run Artists In Transit with. I was wondering

distilled into her new EP, ‘Feeling Lucky?’

how you incorporate your family into your work as you all seem pretty creative...

A three track release, ‘Feeling Lucky?’ is perhaps her starkest work yet, reflecting on the notion of good and bad

Yeah, it’s quite fluid cause everyone does their own thing

luck and an underworld of thinking. In a state of constant

and no one’s really like ‘nah I don’t wanna do it’ when

evolution and self-critique, Nilüfer Yanya’s work is as

you have an idea. A lot of the time we just manage to

endearing as it is effortless.

make things work. My sister directs all the videos and my younger sister, she does a lot of painting. I’m actually

With this EP, it’s built around the concept of luck and

collaborating with her on the next video that’s coming out

how we deal with unpredictability and change - was

and some merch… it’s just really enjoyable.

that born out of what’s happened this year?

You’ve been very vocal about activism and support I mean, I wrote the songs before last year, so I can’t say I

networks over the course of this year - do you think

based it on that but the theme is definitely something I’ve

you view the world through a different lens after 2020?

been thinking about this year and that’s what I have pulled out the songs. They fit in quite well though, especially

I guess I would never have considered myself as a

‘Day 7’, it’s such a lockdown song.

political activist but I would definitely like to go in that direction and not shy away from things. More and more

How did the collaboration with Nick Hakim come

people are feeling like there’s the need to do that and the

about?

desire to do that, especially when you think it doesn’t involve you… because it probably does.

I’ve been a fan of his music for a while, I remember seeing him play in London years ago and then I ended up

When your EP comes out in December, what are your

getting signed to the same label and I think it’s always a

intentions after that?

good sign if you’re a fan of the people on the label.

Words by Harley Cassidy, illustration by Saskia Janssen

18

I think by the time the EP comes out, nothing else is going

I think that’s a very healthy approach. I was thinking

to happen. Right now, I’m just trying to be as creative

about when you played with my friends in Pixx in

as possible with writing and ideas and I’ll just see what

America last year and it made me wonder what positive

happens. It’ll be nice to tie some loose ends up. Hopefully

experiences you’ve gained from other musicians

next year will lead to another record but I don’t wanna

touring?

jinx it or rush it, as well. With the last album, I felt a lot of pressure to make it really good but do it quite fast, but you

I was thinking about that earlier, that was so much fun.

don’t really get anything out of that.

Beginning of last year we supported Sharon Van Etten and before that point, we’d only supported male-fronted bands,

I mean, the record is out, you have the fans now, it’s

which is fine, but it’s also like, “oh my god, how many

only going to keep building, so I think you can alleviate

bands am I going to support that are indie guys?”

a little of the pressure. I get it though, it must be hard birthing something into the world that’s essentially like

It is a never-ending rotation of them, at times...

a child...

Yeah and they were all great experiences and a lot of them Yeah, I think everyone’s like that a little these days. Once

were bands I would listen to as a teenager, so it was a

you’ve done one thing, it’s hard to just be happy with it

bit strange, like, “wow, how did this happen.” But yeah,

and sit with it. You just want the next thing. It’s like when

supporting Sharon Van Etten, really blew everyone away,

you buy something, you want another pair.

it was mad and I had so much respect for them. I watched them almost every single night.

We are a nation of consumers, after all. Stylistically, is there anything you’d like to try but you’re nervous to

Going back to the EP, I was listening to ‘Crash’, and

do?

that refrain in the introduction is so easy to get stuck in your head. Is there anything, lyrically, that was

Funnily enough, I know it’s classified as rock and stuff,

profound when you were writing the EP?

but I feel like some of my music is shying away from the guitars a bit and I’d like to bring them back in to focus,

With ‘Crash’, when I wrote it, it just seemed too blunt and

but I’m pretty sure my guitar playing has gotten worse as

crass .

the year has gone on, so I’m a bit worried about that, haha.

I haven’t been playing as much or practicing it as much…

The bluntest lyrics are usually the ones that stick the

I’ve been neglecting it, to be honest.

most, though. If you over-complicate it, it doesn’t usually seem to have the same effect...

I think when you’re not touring relentlessly it’s easy to get complacent or comfortable. Do you miss touring?

When you’re writing, that’s the first thing that comes to your head… it’s like, “I can’t choose the first idea I had.”

I do miss it. I’m glad for the break, otherwise I don’t think

Haha. I’ve never really over-complicated it so I don’t

I’d have missed it. It was very intense for two years and

know why I’m looking for it in my writing - it’s just not

it was crazy. It’s true about the complacency thing… I

the kind of lyricist I am.

was knowing I wasn’t very happy with my general guitar playing but I wasn’t that willing to change anything about it and now I have had that break, I’m like, “OK, let’s do this.”

19

Nilüfer Yanya

Gavin Shepherdson

In a year ravished by lockdowns and the music industry

Your brand new single ‘Fever’ has just been released,

coming to a full blown stop, you would forgive any band

how has it been received so far?

who put a stopper in their tracks too. Not Brighton-based LIME though; they’ve come out fighting by way of

Really good! We obviously had the Radio 1 play just

releasing brand new music and honing in on new artistic

before it came out, it’s been added to a few Spotify

crafts to come correct in 2021 and beyond. We catch up

playlists already and people seem to be enjoying it. And

with them on the first few days after lockdown series 2

plus we’ve got this So Young interview too! (Laughs)

was enforced...

Within the video there seems to carry a lot of vintage It’s Monday, and even though it’s raining outside, the

American 60s and 70s vibes with its content and the

world is a better place than it was last week already

way it was shot. What was the thinking behind the

with Joe Biden being president elect. How’re you

video?

feeling?

That’s spot on, but I think that’s also down to Richard We’re good, definitely. Feeling way more hopeful now

too! So we filmed it in the oldest gay bar in Brighton at

than we have been over this cursed year, but it’s almost

about six in the morning and this lovely Texan dude called

coming to a close so that can only be good.

Richard was just there pissed as anything and just watched us film the whole video, so we put him in it. He’s the

Lockdown 1 and 2 have seemingly put a stopper on

guy at the beginning and it actually worked really well.

some plans, but how are you feeling as a band overall?

He was also pouring us Screwdrivers that were like 80% Vodka and like a dash of juice and actually mixed it with

I think we’re actually more excited now than we were pre-

an actual screwdriver! It was one of the best mornings of

lockdown to be fair. That’s mainly because we’re writing

my life. I went home, had a nap, and it felt like it hadn’t

way more, planning more successfully. We actually have

actually happened. He definitely gave us the 70s Austin

like way more time now especially as we’re not out

vibes.

playing gigs all the time sadly, but also it allows us to be more strategic rather than just rocking up like, “hey!” And

Now to your lyricism. In both ‘Surf N Turf’ and ‘Fever’

having less to show for it if you know what I mean.

there seems to be a lot of random thought processes and moments, but if you look closer every line connects

It has come across like a bit of a weird blessing in a way.

in some way to the next in a very vague way (a la

Like, we’ve learned some really cool stuff that we’ll be

Pavement). What’re your usual lyrical inspirations?

continuing post lockdown like photo and video editing and content creation to keep people engaged that way.

21

Words by Matt Bisgrove, illustration by Gabriel Hollington

We were talking about this earlier actually. We write very

I also think that’s the way for songwriting in general you

much on observation and on a sort of commentary of

know, like how someone plays a certain instrument -

situations of the world we live in and because it’s quite

drums, bass whatever - I think women just have a different

a personal experience that we write about, sometimes

way of playing and that’s obviously new to peoples ears

it doesn’t make much sense - but it makes sense in our

because they haven’t been given the limelight that they

minds! So we’d like people to take what they want from

deserve until now. It’s exciting to be a part of it all..we’re

that and make their own little world or own little escapism

gonna take over! (Laughs)

away from all the shit that’s going on. It’s more of like a prompt for them to create some meaning from it, rather

You recently performed on an online show with The

than telling them what the story actually is.

Mysterines. How was that and how did it differ to performing an *actual* live show?

Plus, I think it’s quite cool for people to connect with something that means a certain thing to us, but could be

It was mad actually! It was really intense, much more

something completely different for them. Then that way

intense than a normal show because we had like twenty

they have their own individual connection to it.

cameras all pointing at us at all times. All in all thought it actually felt way more like a gig than we anticipated. You

Courtney Barnett has always been a massive inspiration

could see everyone through their webcams and hear their

both lyrically and musically. We love the way she portrays

audio coming through, which was a bit bizarre, but it did

the mundane and the super ridiculous in her own way and

feel more like a gig that way. They had a little chat box

applies it to her life and music. We’ve also never been

at your PA so you could see what people were saying and

shy to say that we’ve taken this line from something or

things like that. It gave me hope for the future.

someone and spiced it up a little bit, but that’s music isn’t it? Taking something and recycling it and making it your

It was also bizarre because we hadn’t played a show in

own.

like six months, to then going to play at the biggest venue we’d ever played - but with no one in it! - so it felt quite

Musically you can fit into and tick a lot of genre based

surreal. It was amazing though and felt very futuristic.

boxes - who inspires you most as a band?

Everyone was dancing and there were little dogs on the webcam and it was so cute!

Definitely Talking Heads. Talking Heads are just the pinnacle of great music for us. We also go through phases

What’re your plans for next year (Corona permitting)

as a band where we listen exclusively to like one artist

and beyond?

for a few months, then onto the next and we think that’s healthy. Plus at the moment it does feel like everyone is

We’re definitely going to release some new music next

releasing some great music at the same time and it’s quite

year and we’re really excited about it. We’ve got a lot of

overwhelming in a way.

plans. We’re supposed to be going on a European tour with Happyness in the spring and that’s like our dream, so

It also feels with that positive overwhelmingness of

I really hope we can do that. We’ve got loads of festivals

releases, that the bulk of the best new music is released

and other shows in the diary too, but it’s all dependent

by women..

really. So many things in the works, but we don’t know if they’ll happen. We keep writing plans down and then

Yeah, exactly! I was also reading this article the other day

scribbling them out and moving them in the calendar due

on how guitar music is ‘going more female’ as women do

to everything that is going on. But multiple releases will

play differently to men and it’s a new sound.

definitely happen.

23

LIME

instagram.com/donnie_odonnell

Insecure Men and Fat Whites protagonist, Saul

It’s a choice and it feels great!

Adamczewski has been quietly working away on a certain collection of songs for years. Now, with enough material

Are there any places in particular that you associate

for an album and first single, ‘Brian’ due anytime, Saul

with the writing/recording of this album?

admits, “I’d gotten over whatever initial embarrassment I felt about the nature of the music so it seemed logical

It was written by the sea in Spain and recorded by the sea

to put it out.” We checked in with Saul to find out more

on the Isle of White so my answer is the sea which isn’t a

about his first solo venture.

particular place but you know what I mean.

Where did you spend the first lockdown?

Is there another Insecure Men album in the works?

Spent the first lockdown in Spain where I was living at the

There’s been talk of it but that’s all.

time. I drank a lot of pastis and sat staring out the window.

Not that it’ll be possible anytime soon but do you see

Was glorious.

yourself playing these songs in a live environment?

Has the current situation helped or hindered your creativity?

Yeah I do and I reckon it’s the kind of music that sounds better the more socially distanced people are. God willing,

I wrote a lot of stuff in the lockdown so it’s not been

I will do some shows next year.

hindered too badly. But the monotony is pretty uninspiring so I don’t know. It’s not really done either.

Can you tell us the story behind the track, ‘Brian’?

What were your main influences for this album?

If you listen to the lyrics you’ll notice that not much thought went into them. I think I’m just recounting the

Was listening to a lot of different European folk music.

things that happened to me on the day I wrote the song.

Ivor cutler, Nico and Gavin Bryars.

Looking in the mirror thinking I look like some gruesome old baby and Brian destiny (Nathan Saoudi) coming over

How does it feel being about to release your first solo

to my house to tell me I look rough.

album, under your name? Was it out of necessity or choice?

25

Words by Josh Whettingsteel, illustration by Peony Gent

Artist and illustrator, David Méndez Alonso is co-creator

Does music influence your work in any way? If so,

of Outsiders Division. A clothing brand that unites all

how?

Outsiders through a passion for colour. The brand’s dedicated following tends to come from creative fields

Music helps me while I’m working, I don’t know if a

rather than the fashion world, David imagines, “people

specific song can move so many feelings. It is the cultural

full of life, energy and finding the best version of

movements that inspire me, the music groups and their

themselves. People who haven’t stopped imagining.”

aesthetics. I have learned a lot designing costumes for singers, fashion and music have always been connected.

We caught up with David to talk influences, business and What kind of thing was on the mood board when you

Barcelona.

were planning your latest collection?

What’s been the main challenges in starting your own brand?

I work with many images of old paintings and film stills.

I really like Italian realism, Antonioni’s films I find very

For me, the most difficult thing is getting an audience

inspiring. I really like the industrial Italian design of the

to buy the clothes. Learning to listen to customers and

70s and 80s. And as for the types of garments, I always

differentiate what you like from what works has been

try to go back in time, if I want to make a duffle jacket I

important to me. And finally, I would talk about financing,

research its origins and design on that.

it takes many resources to produce a collection, distribute The prototype of the person is always the same, it´s

it and sell it.

that adult who is still a child and who still continues to Is there a brand in particular you’d like to collaborate

imagine.

with or design for?

How has living in Barcelona influenced you and your I’m interested in old brands like Pedemia, Borsarino,

work?

Swatch, Paraboot, Barbour. I would also like to work with Barcelona helps me to be connected and to have a strong

a toy brand.

team to work with, I am lucky to have photographers, Can you walk us through the Outsiders Division

stylists, producers, models, etc. for all the campaigns we

creative process.

do. It is a good starting point to settle down.

I try not to design with the sales ranking close, so it

What can we expect to see from you in the near future?

doesn´t condition the garment too much. First I draw all the looks, usually 28, and from there I start to design each

I am preparing new collections and working with

garment, draw patterns, cut patterns and fabrics, etc …

many vintage fabrics to get 0 waste. I hope to continue collaborating with artists who help expand the brand’s

My collections work as a container of ideas always around

imagination.

the same obsessions: Color, Fantasy, Rebellion. It could be summarized in those 3 concepts.

27

Words by Josh Whettingsteel

outsidersdivision.com

Sleaford Mods Sleaford Mods are a band so vital to the British musical

We caught up with Jason Williamson over Zoom to chat

landscape that even a short gap between albums in their

about capitalism, coronavirus and the doors of human

prolific, decade-spanning career allows a new release to

perception.

feel like a grand return. New album ‘Spare Ribs’, named in metaphorical reference to the expendability of the

What really comes across in the album is a frustration

spare rib working masses in relation to the full body of

with the economic and social conditions of today –

the capitalist elite, is perhaps their most important record

especially the divide between ‘the elite’ and everyone

yet. Whilst the days of ranting about the experience of

else. Would you consider yourself an anti-capitalist?

being broke and working shit jobs are over, their sound and subject has pivoted as they have evolved, affording

No not really, because I like making money and spending

them the scope to temper their ire away from the purely

it, wearing nice clothes and all of that. I mean don’t get

personal and towards the establishment at large.

me wrong, I’m not absolutely taken with it, but I practise all those things – but at the same time, it is the reason why

Having said that, Sleaford’s brilliance has always lain

everyone’s in such pain, because of the capitalist system.

in capturing the essence of a moment in a manner which

So until something comes along that’s going to sort that

stands the test of time. Tracks like ‘Out There’ and ‘Top

out, and that won’t happen in our lifetime, we’re going to

Room’ are caricatural of the process of living whilst

have these recurring problems, aren’t we?

creating during COVID lockdown, ‘Glimpses’ takes aim at consumerist culture, and tracks like ‘Elocution’ attack the

In many ways, the Coronavirus pandemic has really

perceived music-industry class tourism Jason Williamson

thrown back the curtain on what has been the norm for

has previously accused acts like IDLES of taking part in.

the last decade. On tracks like ‘Out There’ and ‘Top

For a man to be so acerbically seething on such a variety

Room’ you’re quite explicit about the pandemic and its’

of topics is a testament to itself, but there is a slightly

consequences, but it also contains a lot of imagery and

more subtle, refined feel to their sound now. Musically it’s

symbolism – when what you’re talking about is so raw

darker, with Andrew Fearn’s beats pulsating and writhing

and real, how important/difficult is it to present the

and Williamson more sardonic than raving in his fury, but

topic in a coherent fashion?

it has lost none of the energy characteristic of previous releases.

It’s quite hard because you get pissed off, you swear a lot, and that takes away from it. I sometimes wish I didn’t

Six albums and a very successful decade in, and now with

swear so much but you can’t help it, because that’s how

band members at around fifty years old, what really strikes

things are! [During lockdown] it got to a point where

is the band’s commitment to not stagnating. They seem to

you’d see people queuing up outside shops and know

be constantly confronting and tearing themselves down,

that you had to talk to them, and I don’t want to talk to

pressed by their self-awareness into not resting on their

them, fuck off! I’m not in the mood. I feel I’m probably

laurels. “We’ve always got to be questioning ourselves,

losing a swathe of listeners just talking about that, so it is

otherwise we’ll just start putting out wank” – and thank

hard, but at the same time it’s important to get down my

god for that. I’m not sure the post-Brexit, post-Covid

perception in words, and not a perception that’s a little

British musical consciousness could take a bad Sleaford

more gentrified and polished up, because that’s no good. It

Mods album.

has to be what I want it to be, or else what’s the point?

Words by Dan Pare, illustration by Charlotte Leadley

32

Where would you say that need to say exactly what

Was that evolution conscious? Or was it more just a

you want comes from? Because a lot of acts would,

fact of the way you’re living changing, and needing to

as you say, ‘gentrify’ their words for the sake of not

be true to who you are now?

potentially losing listeners.

You’ve got to be conscious of who you are, and your Choosing the right vehicle for what I was saying was

standing. I’m not going to talk about food banks, because

very important, at the beginning, matching the spoken

I don’t use them, know what I mean? You’ve got to be

word thing. But what really carries it is the anger, all of

conscious of your place in the world, and work with that.

the basic negative emotions that we all from time to time

I used to worry that the bigger we got, I wouldn’t have

suffer with; jealousy, anger, paranoia, bitterness, envy – I

anything to say, but there’s loads to say! Everything is

think all of these are really great energies and a lot of

political, and we’re all affected. I feel I absolutely nailed

the time I feel a lot of those emotions, and carrying these

my working-class experience in ‘Jobseeker’, why would

emotions makes me want to put things forward in such a

I want to repeat that? I’m never going to better it, I did it

stark way.

really well and we became quite famous for it.

Compared to a lot of young bands with guitars, you got

Something about music that separates it from the

into music quite late – at what point did those emotions

world of art or literature, is the premium placed on

you mentioned boil over from just a feeling to “I need

authenticity- I know you’ve had your own spats with

to get this out”?

people you perceive to be non-authentic. Particularly now, where on the internet anyone can create a

I started in bands when I was about 24, doing the guitar

persona, do you think authenticity is still something

stuff. The country was besieged by Britpop and so I

that should be so highly valued?

bought a guitar and was doing stuff in that vein, then moved on to more folk-y, beat stuff, and then in the end I

I do, yeah. As I get older, I’m more aware of just how

just got fucked off with it! Everyone was doing it, it was

much inauthentic posturing there is, and it’s just shit!

always so tired, and I’d just had enough – in the end, I

What is that doing for anyone apart from making other

just resented it, and with that I discovered the formula to

people from that social group want to do the same thing?

hip-hop and got really into the Wu-Tang Clan, and started

If you’re a middle-class guitar band, I’m not going to

moving that way. That must have been about 2003?

think you’re edgy or interesting unless you’re clever about it! Which isn’t to say you can’t be interesting and middle-

Six albums in, when presumably the closeness of early

class, of course you can, but a lot of bands from that social

tracks like ‘Jobseeker’ are not quite as pressing, you’re

group are trying to portray something unrelated to their

now a full time musician, and have mentioned living

own experience and I think that’s wrong!

quite a middle-class existence. When writing, was there ever a danger of feeling disingenuous?

No, not at all. I spent a long time in a working-class environment, and that’s where I come from. I’m not going to sit here and talk about ‘Jobseeker’, because I’m not doing that any more, I’m not going to write songs about shit work, because I’m not working as such any more. I’m not bothered whatsoever about projecting old memories of what things used to be like, I’ve paid my dues and it just doesn’t bother me at all.

33

Sleaford Mods

You’ve mentioned not being intimidated by coming

If you resist that, or are aware enough of it to critique

across as negative. Whilst your music can feel quite

it, then you find you have great bonds with people, who

bleak, there’s something really freeing and cathartic

aren’t necessarily friends, but share a common reference

about that. Do you get a similar feeling when writing

point. For that, I suppose, there is some enjoyment in

and recording? Or is living that Tory-tired mindset

being English, but I think that’s more just enjoyment of

professionally completely exhausting?

being a human being around like-minded human beings!

Anything else, the idea of empire, union-jacks and the

Recording is a bit more laborious, because the idea isn’t

like, I’m completely estranged from.

formed. When you write a song, you’re not sure of it and it makes you a bit uncomfortable. But it’s important to

On ‘Nudge It’ and ‘Mork and Mindy’, you feature

always try and push yourself out of your comfort zone – it

Amy Taylor (Amyl and the Sniffers) and Billy Nomates

would be so easy to just do rants and beats, but I wanted

respectively. Features are something you haven’t

to try moving forward with the vocal, and Andrew always

dabbled in until now. Why did you feel those particular

tries to push it forward with the music. Because it’s such a

tracks called for a feature?

minimal affair, it could just fall on its’ arse at any minute.

I’m always worried about it being shit – we’re six albums

We had a meeting with Rough Trade and had a meeting

in, is it just wank now? We’re fifty, these old men – we

with our manager, and it was suggested to us – I had a

shouldn’t be doing this, there’s all these insecurities. But

collaboration in mind for ‘Mork and Mindy’, and Billy

if you challenge yourself on what you’re working on and

Nomates had been sending stuff to Andrew for ages and

you aren’t comfortable with the idea, generally speaking

we thought it was really good, it really took me. I started

that’s a good sign. Sleaford Mods is now ten years old,

to really become influenced by the way she was singing

we’re not a ‘buzz band’ anymore, but you can grow old

and everything, but I was obviously shit at it! With Amy,

gracefully, creatively speaking. I used to think we only

she’s obviously also on Rough Trade as well, so thought

had a certain amount of albums before it all went a bit

that might work. And they did! I was really nervous about

crap, but that’s stupid – it will only go crap when we let it

it because it could have been really terrible, but lo and

go crap.

behold it was great.

A lot of your tracks illustrate your anger at England

If you could do one thing to improve the world in your

and its’ establishment as a whole, but your music is the

eyes, what would it be?

soundtrack to a lot of people’s experience of England.

Are you patriotic?

Redistribution of wealth, I guess. A complete overhaul of the idea of marketing, get these fucking images out of our

No. No I’m not. I’m aware that I’m English, but there’s

heads that make us want to go and buy things. Some new

nothing to be proud of really, is there? I think if you

doors of perception to be flung open and there we are,

look into the country’s history and how it’s acquired a

given a blueprint for a more engineered humanity.

lot of it’s capital, you’d see that there’s nothing to be proud of there. In fact, I’m surprised that other countries haven’t got together and bumped us off! I’m really quite estranged from the idea of being English, what is that?

You can separate it from the experience of being English, where you’re all brought up under the same rules and regulations, and your collective personality is somewhat shaped by that.

charlotteleadley.co.uk

34

HighSchool Setsunai is a Japanese word which in translation lacks

In a year of somewhat forced mass reflection

an English counterpart and therefore remains one of

HighSchool’s music seems to make even more sense than

language’s great mysteries. It’s the fading of the seasons

it usually would and we are all the more grateful for its

as emotions build up from one verse and spill over into

existence.

a fresh chorus of joyful melancholy. The feeling of time slipping through your diaphragm like sand in an hourglass.

Freshly stitched into the rich tapestry of Melbourne’s

It’s the end credits of a film rolling past in a wet blur as

music scene. A city that doesn’t scrape the barrel when

you soak in what just happened and the familiar names of

it comes to artistic expression, given the city’s dazzling

strangers whose fates you briefly wonder about wander off

array of venues, DIY spaces and pub backrooms. We

of the lucid dream conveyor belt of your life for good.

caught up with the band to talk about beginnings, introspection and the almost cinematic aspirations of a

It’s your packed up and now bare walled dorm room as

group of artists who look to push boundaries forward

you look around to notice the reverberation of your own

from within, even if it does mean looking backwards

voice echoing back at you whilst the chapter dissipates.

sometimes...

The beautiful stranger on the train whose life you’ll never know but will forever be cast in yours as the smudged

Hello HighSchool, you are a mysterious trio so I’ll start

and barely legible newsprint of the ‘Rush Hour Crush’

off by asking how this musical project came to be in the

submission that will forever be lost in the post.

first place…

It’s this familiar ache that softly smoulders and

The band formed at the start of 2020. We were initially

emanates much in the way that the music of Melbourne’s

called Rosary. Together we began reworking songs that

HighSchool does. A trio who so far have revealed two

we had all written separately. We started practicing in a

grainy snapshots of bittersweet longing for which a word

storage container in Brunswick that this guy Mark rented

or phrase in English can only ever truly fall short when

out to us as a rehearsal space. Lilli was initially playing

compared to the feelings that they evoke.

drums, and Rory singing and playing guitar. Scotty was living in Poland at the time and we had been sending

Most recent single ‘New York, Paris and London’ sees

him bits and pieces. He came back just before covid hit

frayed vocals jarring sweetly against the meticulously

because he ran out of money and he knew we needed a

tailored construction of bright chiming guitars, underlaid

bass player. When he got back Lilli moved to synth, we

with euphoric synth melodies and then all of this bolted

wrote a bunch of songs together in lockdown and shot

down by the stark warmth of tightly wound bass and

some videos. We all write eachother’s parts now and swap

drums. This casting of light and darkness results in a

and change between instruments.

dichotomy that is resplendent. Jangly but never nonchalant or too cool to the state of indifference, HighSchool’s modus operandi seems to be manifested upon an urgent conviction that is laced with an honest yearning. It’s what makes us want to dance to spite the lump in our throats.

Words by Sammy Clarke, illustration by Tatjana Prenzel

36

You’ve released two songs into the world so far

Would you say that the big screen is as much of an

(‘Frosting’ and ‘New York, Paris & London’) both of

influence for the creative process in the studio as

which seem to elicit an atmosphere of nostalgia. Would

your musical inspirations are? And are there any

you say that nostalgia runs thematically throughout the

other creative disciplines that inform what you try to

group as a unified collective or more on an individual

interpret musically?

basis for whoever is writing whichever part of a given song?

Thank you! Yeah we are trying to think of HighSchool as an art project rather than just a band. We consider

The nostalgia may arise from writing in a rather

everything that surrounds/accompanies the music of

uninspiring, shitty time. Having written all of our music

equal artistic value to the music itself. Absolutely, film

in a city experiencing the world’s most severe lockdown

is important. The big screen is a culmination of many

(at least in terms of longevity), I suppose we may have

separate art forms come together into one “hyper-

drawn on the past as a form of escapism. I mean, it may be

artwork”. We’d like to do something like this with

an incredibly inspiring time for science fiction novelists

HighSchool. Music is the central medium but also a

depicting dystopia but for us it’s been introspective,

springboard for our other artistic pursuits.

strange and frankly quite grim. In another sense, there is a nostalgia to our music in terms of our influences. We like

In a sense, I feel that ‘New York, Paris & London’ is

the 80’s and early 2010’s bands like Beach Fossils and

about the grand and lofty idea of those destinations

The Drums. But we don’t consciously create our music

significantly paling against the reality of what these

to sound nostalgic. It’s cool that it makes people feel that

perceived ‘world stages’ are actually like if one were

way.

to achieve their ambitions in reaching them. Did the subject matter of this song arrive in the form of a

Melbourne’s underground music scene has given us so

personal lived experience? And would you recognise

much delight over this past decade from kaleidoscopic

the song now as a cautionary tale of sorts for other

psychedelia to scuzzy pub punk and wordy garage

dreamers who might find disillusionment out of

drizzled anti-folk; it seems that HighSchool is a sonic

mistakenly placing the proverbial cart (the destination)

anomaly amongst the aforementioned rabble and so

before the horse (the journey)?

I wondered where you felt that HighSchool fits in Melbourne’s current musical backdrop and whether

Not in the most literal interpretation of the song. None of

there were any Melbourne based artists/musicians past

us have ever moved to one of these destinations to make

or contemporary that inspire you?

something of ourselves. But of course, we’ve all attained something we desired only to discover it didn’t meet our

Yeah I guess we could be thought of as a bit of an

expectations. Things rarely turn out how we assume or

anomaly. We made a concerted effort to stray away from

hope they will - I suppose it could be taken as a cautionary

the music Melbourne is known for, partially because

tale of sorts

we didn’t want to be derivative plus we don’t feel that Melbourne has a shortage of psych, punk, dolewave or tongue-in-cheek-aussie-pub bands. We like Twerps, Spike Fuck, Program, Nick Cave, Kylie, Primitive Calculators, we also like the guy in the city who plays drums on paint tubs.

The videos that perfectly accompany your first two singles are bonafide visual art statements in themselves.

37

HighSchool

Katy J Pearson After rescheduling our initial meet so Katy could pick up

I was basically brainwashed into thinking I had to write in

a new kitten, we got together to talk about her new album

a certain way. I had to unpack that to get back into a space

‘Return’, Bristol’s vintage shops and Cher the horse.

where I felt confident and authentic writing genuine songs about the way I felt.

So, how’s the new lockdown kitten settling into your mum’s house?

It’s so obvious this is such a personal album. The journey of you stepping back to look at the person you

Oh my god I’d forgotten to get the seller’s number, so I

thought you were and then blossoming into the one you

turned up and she wasn’t there. I was messaging her on

want to be…

Gumtree being a psycho - I felt like one of those people who gets on @depopdramas. She finally gave me the

When I got dropped, I was 21. I’m going to be 25 next

kitten and it had never been outside, so it freaked out and

year and at that point in your life you still have so much

ran away. Took 15 mins to find it again! My parents are

working out to do. When you’re going into a major

quite eccentric, they’ve called her Precious, like Lord of

industry at that age and being put under that much

The Rings.

pressure, you can lose sight of who you are. It took me a while to work out what kind of musician I wanted to be.

A big name to live up to but I’m glad she’s returned

It’s so inclusive being signed to an independent label,

to you. I mean your album ‘Return’ marks the quite

there’s community spirit and people really do want to be

literal return of your music too, right? You’ve left

friends.

a major label and you’re now signed with Heavenly Recordings; how does it feel to finally share your debut

There’s clear growth throughout the album while

album?

acknowledging topics of heartbreak, loneliness, depression and as you said, trauma. Was it difficult to

It feels amazing, now it’s only five days away I’ve started

be this vulnerable with yourself?

getting nervous. I’m excited but oh my god it’s about to come out. I’m releasing this body of work that is personal

I still struggle to talk about my feelings. Songwriting is

to me, it’s such a big moment.

a way to channel those feelings and for me it was really scary. I was anxious because you see other artists do it and

As you say, it’s a whole body of work and it’s hard to

you think they’re amazing, but when you’re the artist it’s

give one genre. You span folk, pop, country, lots of 70s.

like ‘I’m not gonna do that’, but I’m happy I did. I feel

Did you purposely want to move away from the sound

like it’s made the album much stronger because people

you were making before?

can feel the pain and struggle as well as the happiness. It’s almost bittersweet.

I wanted to go back to basics and try to get into a place where I was writing naturally again. Where I wasn’t

Being honest with yourself is always difficult, especially

feeling this immense pressure or overthinking. It’s taken a

when it’s a sad time in your life…

while, but I had to shake off all the layers of trauma from major labels and what they perceived I should be doing.

39

It’s going to be cathartic and therapeutic to release.

Words by Pheobe Scott, illustration by Chloe Watts

Some of it is really old, so for me to give birth to songs so

It gives the audience something to look at by using fashion

encompassing of that time in my life is a positive. Since

in an artistic and visual way.

then, I’ve changed so much as a person, it’s interesting to see how I was writing a few years ago and the space I was

There are so many independently owned businesses and

in. Looking back, I really honour it.

venues in Bristol. You recently did an acoustic session at one of the record shops during summer. Do you have

In the title track ‘Return’ you say, “I’ve been waiting

any favourites?

to return and tell you what I’ve learned”. What do you think this record has taught you?

Obviously Friendly Records - Tom Friend who owns it is the nicest guy, I feel so bad for him. They’d been

It’s taught me to not be a doormat. I think I was so

renovating the shop and then lockdown happened, they

appeasing and like, “oh yes I’ll do whatever you want”

were about to re-open and I was meant to be playing a gig

or “I’m sorry for being me” – I’ve learned to stay true to

there for my album launch, it’s been so gutting. There’s

myself. This album has taught me to stay strong about my

such a great scene of people at Rough Trade Bristol too.

views, how my career is getting controlled and everything

Also I work at a venue called Strange Brew and they have

around it.

a new record store in there called Planet Caravan. Charlie who runs it has some good records, I just bought Paul

I’m guessing you had a lot of control over your new

McCartney and Wings ‘Band on The Run’ and my brother

video for ‘Fix Me Up’. It’s shot in a beautiful open

has got into Gustav Holst, so I bought him ‘The Planets’

green space and has a lovely horse cameo. Where did

on vinyl.

you shoot this?

That’s such a shame you couldn’t do your album We shot this in Portishead at a place called Gordano which

launch in-store. You must be looking forward to

is a riding centre run by the most wonderful couple, they

performing again. Is there anywhere in particular

were super Bristolian. Really lovely, had a dog called

you’re excited to visit?

Rosie who I couldn’t stroke because of lockdown which was so sad. We had a coronavirus officer to make sure

Really excited to play in Manchester again and go up

we all stayed socially distant during the shoot, but that

north a bit more, I haven’t played there much. No offence

was just the way it had to go. It took two days to film

to the south, but the crowds in the north are friendlier. I

during the heatwave - it was 32 degrees and I was boiling

was supposed to be playing the Trades Club earlier this

wearing corduroy and big shirts. I was a bit scared of Cher

year, I’ve heard such good things about Hebden Bridge as

because she was so big, I don’t think she liked me singing

a place, it sounds right up my street.

at her loads, she kept neighing while I was doing sync Fingers crossed, hopefully it can happen soon. Until

takes.

then, what are you going to do with your lockdown 2.0?

The outfits you wear are incredible, your style gives Dolly Parton vibes - double denim, embroidery details

I’ve started on album 2 because I’ve got the free time.

and unique pieces. Where do you like to clothes shop?

I always find I write bad songs first and then the good stuff comes through so I’m writing the bad songs while

I used to work in a vintage shop on Park Street called The

I’ve got the time. I want to rehearse with my band but

Vintage Thrift Store, I got most of my clothes from there.

one of them is in Cornwall, so I don’t think that’s going

There are some good shops in Bristol, we’ve got a Beyond

to happen. If by some miracle in December we’re able to

Retro and Urban Fox. I mainly charity or vintage shop

do socially distant gigs again, I think a few of us want to

and I like to look the part for my music. Before I wouldn’t

organise a Christmas thing. Maybe at The Old England

really care but now, I think it’s important to be consistent

or somewhere, to have one final gig to end this disastrous

on stage.

year on.

41

Opposite, REN

Legss “What a week though? Biden and a vaccine!”. Positive

Louis - No, that’s the best one. The purple one is the

news surrounding current affairs aside, Legss are

caramel and the nut in the middle…

frustrated. The London band have recently released their second EP ‘Doomswayers’ but without the string of shows

Ned - I thought it was the green triangle everyone was

or on the road follow up it deserves.

after…

Part fantastical-tales and part post-punk sardonicism, It’s

Louis - I’ve always thought that when your wee stops

jagged riffs and experimental cuts make ‘Doomswayers’

being purple, it’s time to eat more beetroot. Maintain a

one of our favourites this year. The four-piece have

healthy colour.

established themselves within an exciting new world of bands and frontman, Ned Green’s sharp tongue has begun

How are you managing to connect as a band at the

to cut through to a growing audience. It’s no surprise that

moment? Or are you taking a breather after the EP?

this second lockdown has felt like a wall in the way.

Ned: It’s just all the merch stuff got postponed, like As a magazine, we’ve grasped every opportunity to put

the T-Shirts and the Vinyl just because their production

Legss on our pages and stages, so we got in touch via

sites were either shut down or reduced because of the

Zoom to try and draw out the positives, discuss socially

pandemic. So we’ve had to send out lots of emails saying

distanced shows and settle whether Legss really are to

it’s been pushed back another month. I think the main

blame for the loss of Huw Stephens from our airwaves...

thing we were doing as a band just before lockdown was finding a new rehearsal room. We wanted a rehearsal

Max - Have you now seen that in Costa, they’re doing a

space for like four hours a week, every week, for like

coffee called ‘The Purple One’?

four months just so that we could get into a routine again like we had before the first lockdown. Creatively at the

Ned - Oh yeah, we’ve just got a beetroot tea in with

moment I guess we’re all just writing bits and just chilling

hibiscus. I think that’s the new thing, beetroot.

out, not connecting as much as a band because you can’t.

Jake - You’d have never of guessed that.

Since we last spoke, which was post ‘Writhing Comedy’ and pre UK tour with Hotel Lux, you’ve now released your second EP ‘Doomswayers’. Was that release

Max - It sounds ridiculous.

planned pre Covid-19 or something you managed to (Stepping in as an all knowing festive sweet

put together during the pandemic?

connoisseur) Isn’t it (The Purple One) in reference to Quality Street? Christmas demands that we MUST have massive tins of chocolates…

Ned - Isn’t the purple one the worst one...isn’t that the strawberry one?

Words by Sam Ford, illustration by Kati Szilagyi

44

Max - It had been in the works for the majority of this

Jake - It’s been quite interesting because it’s been

year in varying bits and forms. Some of the songs we kind

developed without gigging it as much as we would’ve

of had in early drafts back in January and had played them

done or at all. We’re in this interesting situation where we

in their current state on tour but we weren’t happy with

have this set of songs which we are really proud of and

the recordings that we had at the time to release them. The

now we have the exciting task of translating them to live

rest of it did progress throughout lockdown as something

performances.

to focus our energies on whilst we could only work in limited ways and see each other at limited times. So we

Louis - I’d say the pandemic worked in our favour. If

changed our way of working.

we didn’t have that time where we weren’t doing much apart from writing material, it would be a completely

Was there a positive part to lockdown for the band?

different EP. It definitely gave us a chance to experiment

I’m thinking towards the work that surrounds a self

with something that we wanted to conjure a lot more and

release and more time available to push your new

be a lot more experimental with it. Like Ned said, taking

music?

that skit idea and developing it into a well produced story rather than just iPhone memos.

Max - I don’t think there’s been a notable benefit that way It seems a case of being able to see positives but more

to be honest.

the frustration at not being able to push it as far as you could’ve done…

Ned - Aside from the time to think about the forming of the EP, the pandemic hasn’t been helpful in any way at all really. You wanna play shows really don’t you. That

Max - I certainly feel like that, for sure. I’m sure everyone

was the initiative for doing all of this merch. We thought

is in the same way. You have to find different avenues and

how could we engage with potential fans where they

ways of working to stay prominent. The main things you

feel like they’ve got something personal from us which

do are play shows or release music and both are almost

would usually be a gig. So we thought, how could we

impossible, so you’re forced to think up other ways or

replace that...but the pandemic hasn’t really been helpful

schemes to stay ‘relevant’ for want of a better word.

in terms of bringing us to a wider audience. The EP idea

Which is a task in itself really.

wasn’t formed until August. We had demos of ‘Venus’ and ‘(On Killing a) Swan (Blues)’ in Feb. In August time

Jake - I think it’s also been a way to keep us sane

we all met up when the pubs first reopened and initially

throughout and having a project to focus on. Whether that

‘Doomswayers’ was going to be lots of short little skits

be the EP itself or the designing of the artwork or video

and then 4 full tracks. We wanted it to be a bit longer and

and stuff like that.

a bit more experimental, having these interlocking comedy skits, kind of like ‘A Letter to Huw’ but a bit more free.

Whether you feel this would’ve happened regardless,

Louis had been working on some stuff and I had some

the EP feels complete from its sound to visuals, which

stuff but as the ball got rolling and we wrote ‘Local God’

is something to feel positive about…

and ‘Doomswayers’ got done, we thought we’ve got 4 really strong tracks here and we added ‘A Letter To Huw’ and thought let’s keep it concise. The pandemic helped in the formation of the EP but other than that it hasn’t been very helpful.

45

Legss

Ned - I think that would’ve happened anyway, We

Ned - We were definitely really surprised with the Hotel

were like that before because we cared so much about

Lux tour support and the response from that. I mean we

everything to do with the release. With ‘Writhing

only did five or six dates but there was such a positive

(Comedy)’ it was the same so I think Lou’s right that

reception from each city and we thought well that’s

lockdown has helped us develop these things but if there

probably the best route in terms of expanding the group

wasn’t a lockdown we would’ve pursued the concepts

and gigging as much as you can all over the UK. I think

as far as they possibly could’ve gone musically and

without that, you’re always going to hit a roof.

artistically. That’s just how we work as a band.

How do you feel about socially distanced shows? It You’ve had some good radio play and you’ve

seems that that’ll be the future for at least the short

potentially cost Huw Stephens his job…was that your

term…

fault?

Louis - I don’t mind them. I think it’s really funny, I saw Louis - It could have something to do with it

a gig at the Windmill and it’s funny how, I’m not gonna shit on the Windmill but...you know the Windmill is quite

Ned - (Laughs) It’s funny you know because after the

grotty, but now you get the most pristine table service.

NME skit about, i forget her name, the old editor-in-chief.

Even if you try and get up to get a drink, there’ll be

We put it out in our book ‘Good News Horse’ and she

somebody there and over to you in seconds. It’s funny how

resigned a week later. And then we did ‘A Letter To Huw’

it’s transformed into a Ronnie Scotts-esque vibe. Yeah I

and he resigned. It’s wishful thinking but I don’t think

think they’re alright. There’s more of a desire to do one

either party has heard or saw.

of these socially distanced shows now that the Windmill might not potentially re-open and wanting to support these

How’s the EP gone down?

independent venues who have done so much for bands like ours.

Ned - It’s difficult because we don’t really have much to compare it to. With ‘Writhing (Comedy)’ that was our

Max - It’s a begrudging acceptance, it’s not going to

first release so we didn’t expect much. We were already

blow over overnight so if you want to play shows in any

overwhelmed that 100 people had listened to it. But with

capacity, you realise you’re going to have to do it - out of

this it did better because we are more established now, but

necessity if anything.

you hope for big things and you want it to get picked up in as many places as possible. Maybe in a sense it didn’t

Louis - Yeah, but there’s a lot of homework to be done

meet all of our expectations because we’re all so proud

before we get into it.

of it as a piece of work. We can’t complain, we’ve got no financial backing, we’ve put it all out ourselves.

Louis - It’s got more than what we hoped for in radio play so i’m pretty chuffed with it.

I guess the biggest limiting factor now is the lack of live opportunities to help you grow…

katiszi.com

46

LICE

When T.S. Elliot penned his ‘The Waste Land’,

A handmade machine of 100-year-old design, ‘The

all modernist hell broke loose. Burying the dead,

Intonarumori’ is destined to become a landmark

philosophically highlighting cultural illusions and

for inspired cacophonies to follow; marvellously

self-reflecting arduously, the poet-come-maverick

encapsulating what it means to abstractedly encourage

demonstrated what it means to be thematically relatable

informative engagement, in our current era of instant

from within a world of visionary alienation.

accessibility.

LICE, a 21st Century Bristolian group with pamphlet

LICE, in all their ‘magical realism’, are determinedly true

ideals and a taste for soul-expanding noise, too, have a

to their interests. Gareth keeps ‘The Intonarumori’ in his

‘Waste Land’ of sorts; but theirs takes the form of a debut

home, Alastair was thrice his school nativities narrator

record, soon to be released via the bands very own Settled

and Silas has taken up mug painting. As for Bruce... he

Law Records.

watches over Omnipresently and Omnisciently almost always.

‘Wasteland: What Ails Our People Is Clear’ is encouragingly challenging, timely self-constructive and

Alastair: We should turn this interview into a mug painting

an all-round remoulding of inspiration; tackling ‘The

session by Silas.

Futurist’ philosophy of acclimatising the populist to the sounds of industrialisation by introducing present-day

Silas: See… I’m trying to re-position myself as a bird

Punk fans to a world of lyrical misrule. In other words, it’s

person- I want that to be my thing.

fucking iconic.

A: I’m a huge fan of that, and the three seconds of silence By moving modern-music forward (in order to introduce

that followed…

“foreign sounds to a contemporary audience”), conceptual stimulus has full circle engagement and it’s working within such un-pragmatic progressiveness that the groundworks for LICE’s ‘Intonarumori’ were structured.

Words by Al Mills, illustration by Cameron JL West

48

You’re very vocal about the preface of ‘Wasteland:

Making this available is giving people access to something

What Ails Our People Is Clear’. Why choose to

that was part of the record musically, but also its source

explicitly highlight your “wild Burroughsian”

material and the arguments made lyrically.

influences rather than leave it to interpretation?

Scottish poet Edwin Morgan said: “Push the boat out, A: In some respects it’s meant to be a functional record

whatever the seas... push it all out into the unknown.

conceptually; the manifesto on the front sets out the point

The unknown beckons best.” What does trusting the

and so it’s always felt natural to talk around it.

unknown mean to you, when working conceptually?

I didn’t want to be esoteric for the sake of it. The idea of

A: I think it would be fair to say that as four people,

‘Wasteland’ lyrically, was it’s bizarre / dense form but it’s

we’re interested in extremity and that’s guided by Bristol,

all to an end- for a point. It’s not a metaphor for a point so

and being surrounded by ‘difficult’ and ‘bizarre’ music.

it never made sense to be coy.

As a practise, we’re interested in what’s transgressive or confrontational, but what that means has radically changed

Critiques and explorations of bias and social-inequity

for us since LICE started.

that “Punk” music is ostensibly designed to deal with is insufficient to the task partially due to the limitations of

S: There’s a certain range of music that’s extreme to you-

song lyrics formally. By experimenting with the role lyrics

we’re always trying to push the engine to the overton

play in an album, the idea is you can body forth a more

window and progress our central point. The interesting

effective kind of satirical music.

question is why we feel the need to constantly switch directions... and I don’t think I could answer that.

Pre-orders came with a sample pack of your ‘noisemachine’. You’ve built a concept, provided a broader

Sounds chaotic...

understanding and now offered a very physical engagement to the record; giving the audience literal

S: There’s a temperament we share as a group that might

tools and guidelines to your concept. Is LICE a

lead us to Brutalist / chaotic elements that we don’t

platform for physical and philosophical interrogation?

necessarily consider chaotic.

Gareth: ‘The Intonarumori’ is an intangible concept

G: That joint idea was reflected when we were playing in

without the sample pack. It’s our way of extending the

the studio and our producer Alex would be like: “Aren’t

idea of how lyrics can change with offered suggestions.

you a half beat off…” and we’d all look around like: “no….” It just feels natural, we never had a discussion on

S: I’ve found recently that what I read and listen to ends

being avant-garde; it’s a genuine interest.

up having a LICE focal point. Normally, inspiration is the way philosophy might flow, where you hear loose threads

This bands really fucked us up hasn’t it…

of what others have done and take a leaf from it; but, we also have this physical seed (‘The Intonarumori’) and

A: You do forget that dynamic when a band inherently

seeing other people use it in their own music shows in a

becomes its own echo-chamber. I feel like with such

sense they agree with what we’re saying.

lengthy exposure to each other and each-others tastes, my definition of chaotic music has become radically eroded.

A: ‘The Intonarumori’ was designed by a guy called Luigi Russolo and ‘The Italian Futurist’ circles he was a part of at the turn of the century, had a huge impact on the way our lyrics are presented.

49

LICE

You can also tell the interest is genuine I think,

A: We were also influenced by a narrow set of influences

from the way you approached Settled Law Records-

and started unpicking them. Lyrically… the double EP was

looking for creatives who view their art “thematically

influenced by the ‘Swiftian’ idea of presenting ugliness

urgently”.

which musically was mediated by first encounters of ‘The Rebels’ or ‘The Country-Teasers’.

How can you tell when art is such?

That originally was interesting to me but I started realising S: Art can illuminate a different aspect of a viewpoint that

that in many respects… in the intervening time between

you might not have considered yourself; if it’s doing that

the EP’s and the serious work of ‘Wasteland’, I wanted to

then I’d consider it ‘thematically urgent’. Making you

focus on being inventive.

realise something you didn’t before, you engage with it and that’s what makes it worthwhile.

G: It’s felt like we’ve finally found our footing more after struggling for so long. It was satisfying.

A: In terms of curation, at the moment all of our real energies are occupied by our record. When choosing

S: ‘Elation’ by LICE. We should’ve put that out as a pre-

what music we want to release, that’s going to be lengthy

order bonus.

discussions based on what’s out there that we’re in a position to release.

G: I thought you said the next record’s just going to be riffs Silas?

We know what we can do a degree of justice to, but we don’t have a pervading aesthetic in mind sonically.

S: We’ve been thinking about it too hard let’s just play some fucking riffs. You can’t go wrong!

You’re your own middle voice in a sense… the cause and the focus to a Settled Law experience.

A: Damn right.

A: It’s an canny promotional move.

You’ve said before you’re “reacting against [your] old EP’s.” Is there a clarity to re-moulding yourselves whilst your previous work is still accessible online?

S: You’ve got to keep transparency in history.

A: The double-EP was an insanely difficult birth. We recorded the songs within a year of being a band and then toured them for two. We were so sick of it and you can hear us starting to strain.

G: We were disillusioned with the music we played ourselves. If we didn’t have this dramatic shift we probably wouldn’t have bothered anymore... we needed to keep inspired.

cjlw.co.uk

50

DEADLETTER Though the road to contentment has been slow-going for

I wasn’t sold immediately on the idea but we did it, it was

DEADLETTER, perseverance has paid off. Not unusually,

hard at first, everything’s so fucking expensive and it’s

it took a while for circumstances to align but fortune

overwhelming. It was a few months of really only just

favours the determined and this year has seen a deluge of

making rent by the skin of my teeth, but that pushes you

excitement surround their first two singles, whetting the

to get out there and it gives you the right motivation to

appetite for what’s to follow. It’s the night before a second

say ‘well this isn’t how I want it to always be’. I think if

lockdown is due to ensue when we catch up with frontman

we were all comfortable, the music and the band probably

Zac Woolley, who echoes the feelings of many in sharing

wouldn’t have developed as well as it has done up to now.

that he’s a little bit less phased this time around. After breaking the ice over the placement of northern accents

We need things that make us feel a little bit nervous

and establishing what brews were being consumed, the

and a little bit scared, we need that push sometimes...

discussion turned to the past, touched on the present and how the fervid energy they exude on stage may be

It’s true and I think nervous energy usually can be

redirected in the future.

transferred into art and I think to be comfortable all the time you’re not gonna be creating the best stuff. I believe

Being from Yorkshire, did you find London hard to

you’ve got to face some hardship to kick you up the arse

adjust to?

and keep you on your feet.

It’s a weird one isn’t it. I think when I first got to London

There has been quite a lot of attention from the two

the way I described it was sort of as one of the few places

singles you’ve put out. Do you feel like there’s a lot of

where you can be in a room full of people but still feel

pressure to put an album out?

very isolated. We moved in together and it was a little bit mental, four lads who were overexcited. Where we come

We’ve got to sort of take a step back and have a look at

from up north there isn’t really a music scene and there

when the likelihood will be that we will be back playing

wasn’t much room for us to develop in such a small town.

venues on a consistent basis. I think that now is probably

The other issue was that we sort of didn’t really have a

time, if ever there was a time, to get something a little bit

fanbase, there were loyal people who’d come to the gigs

longer out into the world because it’s all very nice putting

but it’s just very different and one thing I’m grateful for

out singles but if there’s no gigs to go to, people are going

about London is that it’s really allowed us to grow and

to want a bit more, that’s how I see it. We’re just writing a

develop, we’ve been welcomed in with open arms. It was

lot at the moment in all honesty, just getting the new stuff

definitely the right move.

down. We’re fairly prolific when it comes to writing.

51

Words by Emma Flynn, illustration by Sarah Cliff

What’s the process? Do you just get together and

I wrote a lot more songs than I’d ever written before and

hammer it out?

there was a month where I was pretty much just writing a set of lyrics a day and it just kept coming. My main issue

Yeah basically. I suppose the core is the bass and the

is that every set of lyrics I write, if I don’t deem the next

drums, they form the soul and everything forms around

ones to be better, then I feel like I’ve failed. It’s not really

that.

a battle with anyone else because when it comes down to it, I think your audience are far more inclined to sit with

Where do you draw your influences from in terms of

what you’ve said, and are likely to agree or take it in and

writing?

enjoy it, whereas you yourself have constantly got this conflict.

In all honesty it’s as simple as what’s in front of me. I Who have you been listening to throughout all of this?

do sometimes write from a more personal perspective but I sort of see it as a way for me to express disgust, which I like to do. I suppose my writing can be a little bit

That’s an interesting one. At the start of lockdown, for

misanthropic at times, but it’s unintentional. A song like

some reason I just delved straight back in to Bob Dylan.

‘Fit For Work’ was like ‘fuck me, what the fuck is going

It was really strange because I went from listening to

on with this country?’. It wasn’t about sitting down and

nothing but The Fall for all of last year and the year before

writing a political song, there are people dying because

that. Maybe there was some subconscious part of me that

the government is declaring them “Fit For Work”. I think

said, ‘let’s get jolly’, so I listened to a lot of Bob Dylan.

if we were to release an album I’d probably be declared a

That ended up going into listening to a lot of The Band

pessimist because I just have very little faith in humanity.

and then Neil Young came back into the loop. Then I got

I mean, I’m a people person, weirdly enough, but just

back into John Martyn and The Waterboys who are one

about every day there’s someone fucking something or

of my all-time favourites, I think Mike Scott is bloody

someone up. On one hand I hate people, and on the other

brilliant. Then I kind of had a little blank month and went

I love people, it’s a sort of cocktail of hatred and empathy

really heavy on Nick Cave. I’m also still really into ‘Pain

and it’s what ultimately leads to the lyrics I write.

Olympics’, the Crack Cloud album, it’s almost like a manifesto.

Have the past few months helped or hindered the process?

Before zoom kicks us out, is there anything else you’d like to add?

Absolutely helped. First of all you’ve all of this going on in front of you, but it’s a little bit cliché to have an album

Divorce lawyers and Mothercare. They’re the real winners

dedicated to the pandemic. Regardless of that it doesn’t

now.

mean to say that it’s not slightly slipping into some of the lyrics and the content. There’s a new song of ours called ‘The Kingdom’ which has a line about how shocking it is that we as people are comfortable to rely on the efforts of an old man walking around his garden, and people seem to think that that’s something worth celebrating. So, there’s that, and I was working from home and had so much time to just write when I fancied writing.

53

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- CHARLIE STEEN

I’m sat at a table with the Doctor in an Egyptian flea

That should be the epitaph on my fucking tombstone.” His

market, seventeen clicks outside of Cairo. A silver pot,

lips curl upwards into a smile as he places the hookah pipe

filled with mint tea, acts as a border of herbal sweetness

back between them, inhaling the flavoured vapour into

between us.

his lungs, smirking and ingesting the comment he has just made.

We are prisoners of this explosive environment.

Submissive to a myriad of native tongues that scream and

His thick, black hair crawls down over his white skin,

barter in the nearby alleyways. We surrender ourselves

and scratches against the creases in his cheeks. “What do

to the culture. The air is thick with arson and meat

you think happiness is?” I ask, as I pour more tea into his

extract; it sticks to our flesh like sweat. And a plethora of

cup. “Happiness is opium in the basin of this shisha pipe,

commodities are sprawled across the tables that surround

not apple-flavoured tobacco.” He coughs out a laugh.

us, an enticement to every tourist who trails past that these

“Nah, but seriously kid, that’s a question best left to the

are essential possessions to own.

pharaohs. If poets were synonymous with satisfaction, there wouldn’t be much good poetry in the world would

John’s sunglasses glimmer with the reflections of

there?” I nod my head, unsure whether this is a statement,

hieroglyphics that are stained onto the ceramics around us.

a question or both.

“I have more in common with these fucking knick-knacks than I do with most people,” he sneers with a Mancunian

I take a sip from my cup and notice that the water has been

drawl, pointing a thin finger at the tacky ornaments. “An

drained of heat and is now tepid; the leaves lie crumpled

artwork that was once a vessel for history to be preserved,

and tired at the base, depleted of all life and taste. Turning

and for the gods to be fêted, has now been reduced to an

around in my chair, I try to garner some form of attention

everyday artefact for tourists.

from the waiters in the café to order another pot, but they seem to be occupied in an argument with each other.

55

AN AFTERNOON IN EGYPT WITH DR JOHN COOPER CLARKE

From behind, I can hear the high-pitched voice of a child

Panting and inhaling the dense, sticky air as we attempt

who has approached the table and, in pidgin English,

to find the child. “There he is!” shouts the Doctor

started a dialogue with the amused Northerner. I admit

triumphantly, and steers me in the direction of a dead-

defeat in my pursuit of more refreshments from the staff,

end alleyway. The alley is nothing but crumbling bricks

turn around, and am greeted by the Egyptian boy’s wide

scarcely held together, the floor is wet with clouded water

smile. The light from the harsh sun dips into his dark skin,

searching for a gutter, and at the end of the road shivers a

creating a colour of pure health upon his face. His curly

small Egyptian boy. Speechless to the fact that a figure as

hair stretches long over his shoulders, and his mouth is

gangly and malnourished as Dr John’s, should be the one

filled with gaps, empty spaces where teeth will hopefully

to catch him. Even a deer’s eyes don’t get this fucking big

emerge soon. A similar physical description could also be

when caught in headlights.

applied to the Doctor.

The Doctor slithers towards him, grinning like a snake I smile with amusement, not wanting to disturb this

who knows its rodent prey has no chance of escape.

prophet of innocence and his interaction with the people’s

“You’re not the first to try, boy, don’t take it too hard”,

poet. They make faces at each other, impersonate farm

he says, bending his scales in delight. But the boy’s face

animals and conclude, through sign language, how pale

seems to change, the dread of fear that had glossed over

skinned the Doctor and I both are. “That very, pretty,”

his eyes is now dissolving into a look of comfort. We turn

says the boy, giggling, and modestly points towards a

around and two large figures have enforced themselves

jewel-encrusted necklace that the Doctor wears around

upon us, vehicles of brutality, savagery and barbarity.

his neck. The admired stones are held in place by a silver

These are people who need not wear sunglasses, their

chain that stretches lavishly around the collar of his cotton

eyes are already black enough. Against a child we might

blazer, and over his skinny-knot tie.

have had a chance, but now we’re faced with two Spartanlooking fuckers. Don’t ever pick on anyone your own size.

The Doctor cackles with flattery, “I’ll tell my wife you like it, was a present for my birthday. Cost an arm and

I’m about to hold out my hands in an attempt to mediate

a leg. The rest of the body, too!” Before the Doctor can

but one of the Spartans is faster, where-as I am about

completely divulge his devotion to yet another laugh, a

to use my palms to attempt a sign of harmlessness, he

flash of flesh springs out towards his neck and a popping

clearly decides on the alternative and unsheathes a steel

sound rings out. The chain has vanished, the jewels have

blade. The Doctor withdraws almost as quick as me.

been snatched and the thieving child is quickly slipping

Unfortunately, we are only receding further into the dead-

between the bodies in the crowded market in hope of

end alleyway. They smile. We sigh. If only the waiter had

escape from his latest victim. “Cunt.” Mutters the Doctor

brought over another pot of fucking mint tea.

in shock, and suddenly he jumps up and is off through the market, too. Startling me with his feline qualities of agility.

Using the limitations of my stamina, I’m barely able to keep up with the Doctor. We slip through the congested pathways and wind ourselves past merchants and hagglers, trip over beggars and bicycles.

Charlie Steen

56

Artists

Josh Whettingsteel

Jan Robert Duennweller Jan Buchczik Chi Park

Joe O’Donnell

Ciara Quilty-Harper Saskia Janssen

Gavin Shepherdson Gabriel Hollington

Editors Sam Ford

Peony Gent

Charlotte Leadley Tatjana Prenzel

Josh Whettingsteel

Chloe Watts

Writers

Kati SzilĂĄgyi

REN

Sam Ford

Cameron JL West

Rhys Buchanan

Charlie Steen

Matt Bisgrove

Cover Photos

Harley Cassidy

Josh Whettingsteel Dan Pare

Sammy Clarke

Sarah Cliff

Bart Price

Pheobe Scott

Photos for Collage

Emma Flynn

Will Reid

Al Mills

Rowan Allen

Charlie Steen

Julia Nala

Printed By

Lewis Khan

Ex Why Zed

Email

info@soyoungmagazine.com

Website

Hector Clark Joel Kerr

Bart Price

Art Direction

www.joshwhettingsteel.com

www.soyoungmagazine.com

Special Thanks

News

Harley Cassidy

Jack Reynolds

@soyoungmagazine (Twitter)

Jamie Ford

soyoungmagazine (Instagram)

Cameron JL West

SoYoungMagazine (Facebook)

Dan Pare