THE RILLS
Casual chit-chat with the boys in The Rills.
LAdy bird
We jump straight in with breakfast chat alongside Lady Bird.
NOON GARDEN Spill the beans on their brand new sound & album!
PRESENTS
ISSUE NO.2
SPRINTS
5 Questions with Sprints.
BACKSEAT LOVERS We catch up with Backseat Lovers in the big smoke!
AND MORE!
YOUTH SECTOR / OPUS KINK / BAILEY TOMKINSON / LONG TONIC
ILLUSTRATION: @red_moon_design
WELCOME
ISSUE NO.2 HERE WE ARE AGAIN, BACK FOR MORE IN ISSUE 002. I can honestly say it feels surreal to be typing that, I always dreamt of becoming a print magazine, to say that we are now, is nothing short of mind blowing. It seems that the world is opening up again, the pandemic is seemingly in decline (at least in policy). There is a glimmer of hope in the air as we cascade into 2022. At least in the sense that we will be able to go to shows, festivals, and any form of gathering without fear of cancellation. It brings me to a quote from the interview with our front cover stars Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard actually “If the world is going to go to shit, at least the music will be good”. They’re not wrong on that one, are they? As always, I am incredibly proud of the hard work we as a team have put into this zine. I truly believe we’re creating something special with CLUNK and hope that you, the audience, feel the same. I want to extend a massive thank you for all the support you’ve shown us thus far and hope that you continue to do so in the future. Massive MASSIVE shoutout to Felix Bartlett for putting up with me and putting the magic touches to this zine, without Felix we wouldn’t have the zine. I also want to extend a heartfelt thank you to my sister Rhiannon Webber (Red_Moon_Design) for taking the time to bless us with her illustrations. Not to mention somehow turning my silly little drawings into actual art. Much love to you all and enjoy the zine!
kieran webber editor-in-chief
Editor In Chief: Kieran Webber Print Editor: Felix Bartlett Cover Photography: Lily Brown Illustrators: Rhiannon Webber (@red_moon_design) & Andrew Girdler (@andrewgirdlerdesign) Contributors: Cluny Powell, Luke James, Callie Winch, Guy Davies, ELI, Willow Shields, Angus Rogers, Nick Tomkinson. Photographers: Pete Ray, Kamal Rasool, Willow Shields, Lily Brown, Cluny Powell, Niamh Barry, Natalie Michele, Megan Hemsworth, Oleksander Ivanchenko, Kitty Eilish, Sophie Jouvenaar, Nicole Osrin, Jayde Riley, Charles Palmer, Isaac Westberg, Alice Hadden, Kieran Webber, Amy Ford.
6. the backseat lovers
CONT
6. BUZZARD BUZZARD BUZZARD INTERVIEW We chat with lead singer Tom about their new album and more.
32. JOE ROGAN VS. NEIL YOUNG Deep dive into the current hot topic sweeping across the internet.
16. SALOON DION The definitive guide to Bristol band Saloon Dion.
36. THE RILLS INTERVIEW Evening chit-chat with The Rills.
18. LADY BIRD Out and about in the big smoke with the chaps. 24. 5 QUESTIONS WITH SPRINTS New quick-fire round with Dublin band Sprints. 26. BAILEY TOMKINSON Exclusive chat with musician Bailey Tomkinson.
26. Saloon dion
30. sprints
40. ON TOUR WITH OPUS KINK Exclusive gallery and first hand review of life on the road with Opus Kink. 47. INDEPENDENT LABEL HIGHLIGHT Discover new and exciting labels near you! 48. THE BACKSEAT LOVERS Tour talk catch up with The Backseat Lovers.
6. BUZZARD BUZZARD BUZZARD
ENTS 52. OPINION PIECE Post-Punk and politics. 56. PHOTOGRAPHER HIGHLIGHT Alice Hadden gallery feature. 64. YOUTH SECTOR Lowdown on Youth Sectors latest EP. 66. NOON GARDEN We chat to Noon Garden about his debut album.
14. BAILEY TOMKINSON
82. CORNISH SPOTLIGHT Keep your eyes peeled on these Cornish artists. 84. THE REVIEWS You asked and we delivered. Check out our reviews on the latest albums and EPs that have just dropped.
20. youth sector
76. WAP Cardi B controversy explored. 78. TRIPTYCH FESTIVAL Photos and reviews of Brighton based festival.
72. Long Tonic
THE WELSH RENEGADES Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard first flew onto our radar during their 2019 performance at Leopallooza, Cornwall. The band brought a retrospective sound that was reminiscent of the greats such as Queen and T-Rex, albeit with a very modern flair that stopped it being a simple copy and paste. With an eagerly-awaited debut album ‘Backhand Deals’ arriving on 25th February Via Communion, the band are sharing their latest slice of glam-rock goodness. We join frontman Tom in his studio in Cardiff to discuss their debut album and more! WORDS: KIERAN WEBBER PICTURE: LILY BROWN
Hey Tom, how you been doing?
Zac joined in on guitar and then my brother who just started playing bass joined. He’d just got into The Beatles in a big way and was super keen to play. Although, he was never a big music guy (he was always the sporty one).”
“I’m all good mate. Just in the studio at the moment and there is shit literally everywhere!” Ha! Love it. Well, I’m going to jump straight in. How did Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard form and what was the influence behind coming together as a band? “It started with just me really, which sounds a bit egotistical but that’s just the way it is sometimes. I was in an indie band called Tibet but that fizzled out unfortunately. We did have a tour booked but no one was buying any of the tickets. It led me to look for a new band but it was a weird time, I was living at home with my mother and I wasn’t very happy. I had just finished University as well and this whole “follow your dream” rhetoric that had been sold to me by my parents was starting to fizzle out. Something I feel a lot of post-graduates will understand. When you graduate you seem to have an existential crisis that just keeps coming.
So, I decided to just do something for me and I started writing some new music whilst I waited for a new band to form. During that time, I wrote a good number of songs and recorded them myself and it was a really gratifying time as well as an emotionally sustaining process. I realised just what a great thing this is and my mindset shifted in terms of musical outlook. I used to be sort of corporate minded when I wrote music previously, in the sense I would write what I thought people wanted to hear. Whereas now I write music for me, music that I really enjoy and music that is fun. I stopped worrying what others thought and just focused on it being fun for me. In terms of the band forming it was pretty natural. So, Ethan, (drummer) he was in the previous band and we got together. Then our friend
The ideology behind the band is very natural and it’s something we want to continue too. I find that this is something you can definitely feel through your music. It’s clear you’re all having fun and enjoying what you’re creating. Thank you very much! I think of this more and more often, and I don’t know if it’s a generational thing, but we realise that the empires around us that we’re sold as being stone cold solid empires, especially the United Kingdom is dying in its ass. It has been for some time. However, the last decade we’ve all become hyper aware of that and I think people are tired of the commentary. People are fatigued, and I think people are just wanting some escape whilst the world around us burns.”
“I THINK PEOPLE ARE JUST WANTING TO ESCAPE WHILST THE WORLD As well as leaning into of the harder rock I AROUND US some liked during my rebellious teenage phase. The phase BURNS”. where I was straightening It certainly does feel like the end days at times and if we do have to watch society collapse at least the music can be good. “Yeah (laughs) at least when people look at our politics with disdain they can at least say the music was good!” So, when you sat down and thought about a sound were there any particular people or artists that influenced you? “I was working on my own for such a long time I had a really focused on the element of sound in the music. When I was in indie band before I felt like I was denying myself the music that I actually liked. At heart I am just a true rock fan, I love rock music. When I made the decision to start writing music for myself I made a very conscious effort to lean into the music that I liked growing up, such as David Bowie and T-Rex.
my fringe, wearing shag bands and hanging outside Blue Banana smoking fake cigarettes. It’s been great playing with the other band members though and each one has brought their own style and sound to the music. I really didn’t want to ask them to change their play style or endlessly picking apart how they play, I wanted them to have the same gratification I got from making music. It’s worked really well. Ed has brought his own bass style, Zac especially has transformed the band with his guitar playing and Ethan is just a massive powerhouse. You can hear the difference between the debut EP and the album as well. The EP was written and played by me in the entirety but with the album it’s all of us playing our respected instruments. The difference between the two is really palpable and tangible. All these contributions have made the band a better sounding one.”
the way of recording equipment so all vocals are recorded on an SM57, which I think is actually a great vocal mic for my voice, but I tend to put lots of effects on my vocals anyway. 2 of my guitar amps are out of order and one is in Brighton, so I’m going direct with my guitar into the computer. Literally all guitar amplification is simulated in this project. Sometimes I’m trying to make it sound like a real amp, sometimes I’m just going all out and experimenting with the digital sound. All drums are programmed, which is something I really enjoy doing, most of the bass is a pitched down guitar because I don’t have a bass with me. Some of the bass is synth.” “Being inspired to actually get into a writing session can be difficult at the moment. Sometimes it just all gets on top of you. Corona, the mad bastards in charge of the world, craving an international
One thing I want to chat with you about is your disdain for statements such as “rock is dead”, and I totally agree. Why do you think people are constantly looking backwards with rock music? Why do people always call new bands the next big band since say Led Zeppelin? “That’s a tricky one. The thing we have experienced as a band is hearing oh great, someone is finally bringing rock n roll back. It’s always been here! There’s a tangible feeling in anybody who just want to experience their youth again. I think that is a big thing and deal. I feel people fear change in big ways and small ways. I always think to the example, imagine you’re 21 and Oasis have just broken up, a band that were hailed as saviours of rock music. Then you get to the early 2000’s and a band like The White Stripes arrive and you’re probably thinking, well who are these two people who think they can play rock music.
It’s all a fear of change. It’s classic “good ol’ days” thinking. You only have to go as far back as your parents to find yourself in a similar conversation, where they’re telling you how much better it was in the 80’s. I had a conversation with my father during the lockdown actually and he just clearly stated “I JUST WANNA GO BACK”. That’s the whole thing isn’t it. It’s a human condition. For me the beauty of rock is that it doesn’t need to be constrained to the same formula. For example, I think Lizzo is one of the biggest rock stars to have ever existed. It’s always changing and always morphing. People who think rock music only
“I FEEL PEOPLE FEAR CHANGE IN BIG WAYS AND SMALL WAYS.” existed in the 90’s backwards are silly. We all do it though, we all want to go backwards. I remember being 21 and saying to friends do you remember being 16 and all you had to do was cycle around, I want to go back to that. Nobody is ever young enough. People need to let go and just enjoy music but it’s hard. It’s hard to just let go what you preconceive to be good
music and actually enjoy what’s happening right now. It’s not easy to just admit you’re wrong though. Point and case, case I don’t like Fontaines D.C. musically and there would have been a time I would have just written them off. I committed myself to making sure that I didn’t like them, I went to see them at Greenman Festival and thought this isn’t for me. So, I also grabbed a ticket to see them later in the year at a venue, and still came to the same conclusion. Fontaines D.C. aren’t for me but I respect what they’re doing. I feel people aren’t ready to go through that process to get to the conclusion. It’s in this lack of wanting to go through the process where the vitriol and phrases like rock is dead come from.”
Moving on from that I want to discuss what you meant when you said, “If we were ever considered the band that brought rock music back I think I would shed a tear”. It’s kind of on the same lines as previously mentioned really. There are so many great bands that have been maintaining rock music. It’s of my belief that it never went away and if you ever think it went away, then perhaps something went away in you. There have been so many bands that have been sustaining the idea of rock so to think we’re bringing it back just makes me think oh my god. By saying something like that it denies the hard work that other
bands have been doing during this time to keep it alive. Even bands like Sports Team, who are now huge, they’ve put so much hard work into keeping guitar music alive. Keeping it fresh and making it modern as well as tying into the lives we all lead today. I just think it is a very blanketed statement to say you’re bringing it back. I understand why people say it, they want to say a nice thing, but I just think it does a disservice to those who have been holding up the rock mantel.” Okay, so let’s chat about the new album ‘Backhand Deals’, out February 25th. How long has that been in the making and what was the recording process for that? “Very good questions! So, we had about 20 songs in late 2019 and we went to our studio in Cardiff and put around 8 or 9 of them together. We collectively thought that perhaps this wasn’t
an album, more just a collection of songs. So, in January of 2020 I took a couple of weeks to write songs specifically for the album. I had been writing sporadically for a few years, but I felt that for an album it needed a bit more focus. The sporadicness had worked in the past when it was just me, it was just how I worked. Then after that two weeks we had around 30-40 tracks and then we collectively trimmed the fat and recorded 14, which ended up with 11 tracks in total in the end. We recorded it all in our lovely studio in Cardiff, which is in this beautiful Victorian building just behind an optician. Also want to note just how cheap the rent is thanks to Cardiff been dirt cheap. It’s certainly a benefit of staying here. We’re in a very fortunate position where we have our own studio as well as a record company that is happy for us to make our own album. It’s very rare to be able to have such creative control over the album. The recording took us about two months and then I mixed it around late summer 2020. The
process was pretty easy as we’re in a situation where we can be very honest about every element, from recording, to writing, to mixing. It’s really easy for us as we’re in control of everything, which is an opportunity that is not afforded to enough musicians.” A lot of your tracks have a political element to it or a commentary, yet the music remains fun and carefree. How do you balance that out and is that a conscious decision when you’re writing the music? “Yeah, it’s very intentional. I’m basically very bad at writing love songs and I feel a lot of artists write from the The Beatles perspective. As in people tend to just write what come in to their heads and in a way that appeals to a mass audience. I just can’t do that, and it doesn’t feel right for me. I found when I
was writing music that I was taking the piss out of things that I have seen and that could be political or about seeing someone in double denim. It was just fun shit that I liked to talk about. With the political stuff though, I would hate for people to think I am telling them how to live their lives. It’s a bit of a catch 22 for me actually. People have had enough of this awful political discourse where they are shamed if they don’t have a certain mindset or don’t think a certain way, on both sides of the fence, they’re considered outsiders. We need discussion and I think a lot of times people who aren’t qualified to hold the opinions they hold, tend to ram them down people’s throats. Which is why I caveat the songs as a lyrical warning, the truth is I am just a guy in a band, I am
just a person. I prefer to highlight the hilarity of things or shine a light on it and be like hey isn’t this funny!? I always try to make light of it or take the piss is so that we can all just get along, because there is a lot of bands out there who take themselves seriously. A lot of bands want to have that Buffalo Springfield moment. People still look back at the ‘For What It’s Worth’ track and still quote it today, those guys really tapped into something. However, the truth is they were just a bunch of guys in a band. At the end of the day they’re going back home to light one up or kick it with their friends, they’re not running for office. As a band you don’t have to have that moment I think the most important thing is to at least spark a conversation. If people listened to our music and then decided that’s how they’re going to live their lives, I would be horrified. I am just big on conversation and don’t want people to think we’re telling them how to live. Everybody in an ideal world should be able to take the piss out of themselves and political beliefs. There is a track in the album actually called ‘On The Kill Again’ which
people might take very seriously. It’s basically about politicians who are addicted to power as if it was heroin. For me though that’s funny, it’s hilarious. I really hope people don’t think we support positions of power. No, we don’t it’s just us having a laugh.” Is there any particular track on the album that you would consider a favourite and if so, which one and why? “I would say my favourite, as it was very satisfying to write and perhaps my best writing, would be a song called ‘Faking A Living’. I like this song a lot from a musical perspective as it’s got some amazing harmonies and lyrically it’s really cool.” You’re also heading on tour in March and April, are you looking forward to hitting the road again?
“We are.. BUY TICKETS. I am very excited for that, but I get so so worried about ticket sales. I find it hard to imagine people buying tickets to just see us. I think it’s because we’ve spent so long being a support band, so I get really nervous. I am trying to get everyone to buy tickets at the moment, I want your nan and your weird aunt at the show. Everyone is welcome within sensible limits of course!” Not to make you more nervous but you actually have your largest headline show to date at The Scala, London? “That is correct!” How would you prepare for a show like that? Do you have any pre-show rituals? “We rehearse as much as possible, maybe too much to be honest. We are competing with bands who playing backing tracks who also create amazing performances.
I like to treat our live shows like theatre, meaning I want it to be a real show for the audience and that each one is of the same quality. In terms of a pre-show ritual I guess the only thing I do is shit buckets (laughs), honestly it’s ridiculous. The weirdest part is that it is consistent each show as well, the next show we have I will shit just as much as the night before, I often wonder where I store it (laughs). It doesn’t matter how big the show is either, we’ve played to 50 people and I have still been running to the toilet beforehand. The only thing that is comforting is that it is consistence, I think if we’d play to 250,000 people I would be the same.” Well at least it’s consistence and frequent *laughs*
another record, but we will have to see. I know that we’ll be trying to play live as much as we can. We’re also trying to get out to America to play as well not to mention as many festivals as we can. We’re hoping for a year with no Covid-19 but we will see.
Lastly, what’s next for Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard after the tour and album?
Hopefully we will get to see you in Cornwall again, you guys smashed Leopallooza in 2019!
Well, if we don’t crash and burn spectacularly then we have some ideas for new material which we’re very eager to get to. Covid delayed the album release by just over a year, so we’re very ready to get back to recording. There may be an EP possibly, but we’re not sure. Personally, I would like to release
Ahh that festival was great. Seasick Steve was there wasn’t he? Actually, we had the most awkward encounter with him (laughs). Just as he was about to go on we asked him for a quick photo, but he was telling us he was about to go on. The problem is that we had to leave so we had to
“IF WE DON’T CRASH AND BURN SPECTACULARLY THEN WE HAVE SOME IDEAS FOR NEW MATERIAL.” get the photo then. He was less than impressed but did oblige, the photo is hilarious, he’s not smiling at all and we’re all buzzing. I think it’s on our Instagram actually, go check it out as it is hilarious. Well, that’s a story! Thank you so much for having a chat with me Tom It was a real pleasure. Thanks for taking the time to chat and see you on tour!
ARTWORK: ANDREW GIRDLER
FEATURE
WORDS/PICTURES: CLUNY POWELL
AN AMALGAMATION OF BELOVED FORMER underground Bristol bands, Saloon Dion, are a relatively new to the scene five-piece whose music is a unique blend of heavy post-punk and funky ‘80s synth rock. They formed in early 2020 after Taryn McDonnell (guitar/vocals) sent a message into a group chat with other Bristol bands, and Tom Simpkins (guitar/ vocals) was the only one to reply. Drummer Ben Molyneux was already a part of the band in its formative stages, when band architect Taryn proposed the idea, to now bassist Luke Mullins, of starting a band “that is like a heavier Kings of Leon” on a night out in Bristol, he explains during our interview before their Rough Trade Bristol show. Dave Sturgess (vocals/ synth) was the missing piece to the band, and they reached their final form in May 2021. Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on your point of view)
they did not follow their intended path and managed to forge a unique sound, which is illustrated in their 2021 singles ‘Deal Or No Deal’ and ‘VHS’. Saloon Dion’s newest single, released on the 23rd of February, also features satirical lyrics with flurries of intricate guitar with influence from Parquet Courts. Despite their short history the band have recently signed to label Nice Swan Records of whom pillars of the indie-rock music scene, Sports Team, Pip Blom, English Teacher and Hotel Lux, are also signed to.
The quintet’s sold out hometown Rough Trade show was a milestone in their music career. Not only was it their largest headline to date, they are (almost) certain that their newest single ‘Hey Hey’, which is being released on vinyl, will be sold in Rough Trade stores. The night opened with Getdown Services who are Bristol’s selfappointed “best band”, they definitely provided a service for everyone to getdown and boogie to. They were followed by Slug Puppie who’s amazing performance included the one-time only formation of Bristol supergroup Getdown Saloon Puppie with a cover of Calum Scott’s ‘Dancing On My Own’. The room filled swiftly for Saloon Dion as rings of everyone’s favourite cowbell reverberated through the venue, the Rough Trade backroom quickly became a sweatbox, considering this was their 13th show (a number that is unlucky for some) it
was a remarkable experience. Although coming together just before the first lockdown, they have played a great number of successful shows, and been blessed with packed out rooms for all of them, apart from one in Glasgow, which was during a lockdown. Before restrictions were fully lifted for the music industry, Saloon Dion played a show in London with Lumer, managing to get the socially distanced heads bopping. They made such an impression that when they arrived back in Bristol, they were invited back to support Feet at the Old Blue Last, just two days later. After drinking just, a little too much, and Tom Simpkins forgetting how to play his guitar at their George Tavern gig, they continued with a summer and autumn full of shows. The three that really stand out to the band are: their show at Crofters Rights in Bristol, which was their largest headline gig in 2021, playing Green Door Store in Brighton and performing on an array of boats at V11 in Rotterdam, which they can only assume
is because they are from Bristol, which automatically makes them pirates. Alongside their new release, Saloon Dion are going on tour in late April and early May starting off in Cornwall playing The Cornish Bank and rounding it off at Hare & Hounds 2 in Birmingham. When their previous bands (Kimbo Nice, Ratbags and Football FC) came to an end they lost hope, so much so that Dave Sturgess thought he’d “never be in a band again, ever”. But luckily what feels now like the right group of people formed Saloon Dion, who feel as though
they are on the cusp of something big. The imposter syndrome kicks in when receiving support from people that don’t really know them and they assume that they can only give back very little. This support around them, and a guy named Ryan, has considerably assisted with their quick success. Not only are Saloon Dion treating us with an entire tour in April, they will also be gracing the stages at Bristol’s very first Outer Town festival, which could be the first British festival the band have played.
INTERVIEW
LADY BIRD ARE A BAND THAT MAKE YOU feel like telling them everything about yourself. Based on no evidence whatsoever; they feel like the cool, funny, naughty boys from school that I always wanted to be friends with but never could be because it was you know…school. And they could smell a girl with no friends that sat in the art room at lunch from a mile off. You join this girl with no school friends waiting in an excruciatingly long queue inside the Rotunda cafe in Preston Park, fresh off the train from London, in desperate need of caffeine. WORDS/PHOTOS: WILLOW SHIELDS
Half excited but mostly scared of coming face to face with the Tunbridge Wells triplet ‘Lady Bird’ whom I was utterly obsessed with not long enough ago to not panic. After spilling my tea over myself like the effortlessly cool and mysterious girl I am, I walked into the fresh air and sunshine of the outside and also into a purple tracksuit clad, buggy pushing frontman of the band, who would later be introduced to me as ‘Don Bird of Lady Bird’. Who, when I confessed to being a semi-longtime fan, said something to the effect of ‘it’s always nice to do this sort of stuff with someone who enjoys the music.’ In addition to finding frontman and toddler, there was drummer Joe Walker. A freckled, fiery haired, energy ball of a man. Who’s first question to me was ‘So, Willow, what’s your story?’ With no idea how to respond to such an honest question, I breathed a sigh of relief when guitarist Alex Deadman walked out of the nearest door to join us on the balcony, accompanied by his mum Jane and their dog Harvey. I felt completely accepted and welcomed into their group as soon as I sat down, which was not what I was expecting whatsoever. We went into
the cafe and as I sat down with what felt like lifelong friends, I attempted to curb my anxiety. With jacket potato and mango eaten, setlists and rehearsal schedule debated and ‘Don Bird of Lady Bird’s’ stepdad Martin arrived (a discussion premartin had arisen as to which one he was - see Lady Bird’s Boot Fillers and leave your guesses in the guess box below!). And then they decided it was about time I started asking them some questions. Mentally I was prepared. I wish the rest of my body and the part of my brain that makes words
got the memo, they did not. I began with asking them how they were, which obviously was the wrong thing to ask since they all erupted in fits of laughter. After the giggling had subsided, Don prefaced their answers with “Let’s be honest, shall we?” and carried on with “Feel alright now, didn’t feel very good this morning, felt alright yesterday.” Then working anticlockwise round the table, Alex says “Things are getting better, I’m enjoying life again at the moment but that requires me being sober and clean so I’m doing that at the moment. I’m about three weeks in from when I last did anything so I’m feeling more myself, just gotta
keep it up.” then Joe “Good man! I reckon I’m cruising at a fairly consistent nine out of ten. Pushing nine point five at least a couple of days a week.” After his answer the table then begins to debate how it’s humanly possible to be a solid nine out of ten for most of the week, with them concluding it’s probably something to do with Joe’s commitment to his Buddhist faith. Being slightly out of practice with interviews I defaulted to a question I’ve got used to asking recently, ‘Favourite thing to have for breakfast?’ Joe, “crunchy peanut butter with a big black coffee, every day.” Alex, “My regular is Weetabix but I like a sausage sandwich, no sauce, just butter. Veggie sausage, obviously.” Joe again, “in my bacon days, I used to like brown sauce and sweet chilli sauce with a thick butter base.” Martin makes his
“THINGS ARE GETTING BETTER. I’M ENJOYING LIFE AGAIN AT THE MOMENT BUT THAT REQUIRES ME TO BE SOBER AND CLEAN.”
presence known on the tape, something about brown sauce, at which point Don addresses this by saying “number 2 for the record.” and back to the question “Years ago it would’ve been a steak sandwich, out of Martin’s collection of steaks, probably quite expensive at the time but I saw them as a commodity. Just to pull in some shared experiences. Nowadays, practicing a plant-based diet; a bit of toast.” Listening back to them talk, I realise how giggly the whole band are, and giggly I was. I didn’t realise how much they made me laugh at the time, and I think that’s something that should go on Lady Bird’s permanent record, they make you laugh. Back to the cafe now, Don says “If I have my shit together I’ll
have overnight oats”. I then ask a new one I’ve been trying out ‘Have you ever been on a plane?’ With a “yup” and a “yes” from Joe and Alex, Don says “Good question. Yeah, last time I was on a plane it was Peru. I was actually performing [there], which makes it sound like I do this sort of long distance performance thing all the time but I don’t.” That’s when Alex chimes in with a smirk “once every ten years.” Don replies instantly “Well, at least every 4, as to align with the recommended dose of carbon footprint. But gigs don’t really come in that much. What about you Joe, what was the last plane you got?” Joe thinks and then, “Probably when we went to Switzerland.” Alex says “I don’t know the last
time I was on a plane, probably back in 2019 sometime, couldn’t tell you where I went. I haven’t been on holiday in quite a long time to be honest, it’s starting to show.” ‘Favourite fruit?’ Joe, “Orange’’ Alex, “Apple or banana, I don’t branch out much.” Don chuckles “you don’t branch out. Good joke there.” Then doesn’t elaborate. Martin looks at Don and says “yours is mango, because I buy and eat mango and every time I buy a mango, his hands are all over it.” Don shakes his head and then answers “it seems to taste better than a fruit should. The best experience I had eating fruit was actually just outside Kingston (Jamaica) and I was sat on the edge of the swift river, somewhere near St Annes. And my friend brought me over a
tropical fruit, and I’ve tried tropical fruit over here, different experience. This fruit tasted like the tropical juice that you get in those milt bottles but proper, it was ridiculous.” All three of the Lady Birds warned me before we started that they love to talk and will keep talking if I don’t interrupt, but the issue was that I didn’t want to stop them talking. Every snippet of information, every story is an unseen insight into their lives that I simply must hear and absorb. I then brought myself back to the reason I was there, their album. Their songwriting and lyrics are incredibly personal, and experience based. I asked them where they got it from, and I realise now that when talking to Lady Bird in particular you have to be very particular with what words you use, because Dons immediate answer was “my head.”
then he elaborates after leaving me to panic for at least a couple of seconds “One of them, at least, from Martin. On my right. the others come from not just me. On one of the tracks on the new album, ‘Karma’. Joe was like ‘I wanna write this song, here are some lyrics I’ve got’. And I said I’ll take the lyrics and tweak the syllable-ige so we did that and ‘We’, Alex can talk about. But usually it comes from our minds.” Then taking the cue, Alex says “Just stuff that’s happened really, real life experiences, we’re not really… we’re not very imaginative, we’re not writing mystical stories about dragons and stuff, you know. It’s really an avenue in which we can release some of our emotions in certain situations. I’m not really a lyric-y kind of person, I don’t really consider
myself a songwriter in that sense.” Then Don suddenly interrupts “I’m going to have to stop you in your tracks there, because one of the best lyrics on this record is by Alex. The last verse of ‘we’, there’s a beautiful bit of the English language. ‘I couldn’t look for trying to see…’” Then Martin supplies us with a piece of his wisdom, “It’s deep. Can’t see the wood from the tree, you’re so busy trying to look for something that you’re missing what’s right in front of you.” We then talked about inspiration for the album, a question I tend to avoid due to normally being met with a cookie cutter answer, but Lady Bird had wholeheartedly promised me that they wouldn’t say anything boring. Don begins “well we didn’t give up on writing it, that was the first inspiration.” Alex then chimes in “it was a long time coming, it needed to be done in some sense. We’d been aiming for it for a long time and there were various things that meant it was delayed so we pushed it back and I don’t think we were in the right space to be releasing an album any time before we are.” Don then expands almost solemnly “lockdown was
a small setback compared to some of the things that came up during the course of it.” then Joe chirps up “In the end it was Don’s baby that was due that actually made us get into the studio and record it all.” Don starts up again “believe it or not it actually helped! And I have to shout out my better half, Tilly, because she supported that. We were in the midst of lockdown one, which was the one that we actually all believed in. We were taking it seriously you know, it was a war time fear situation. However, during that time we realised that we needed to do it now or never. Who knows what would’ve happened, we didn’t know, no one knew. She said you can go, and I got back the day her waters broke, and I left two days early!”
The album, ‘We’ named after another album track, written by guitarist Alex Deadman (more on that later). Was written with the help of their friend Lee “a producer from Tunbridge Wells who we spent a lot of time with in the pre-production stage, I suppose. Writing, building, collecting… arguing.” Joe fondly recalls, Alex then says “He taught us how to be critical of our own music and when to stop when you think you have something that’s really viable. And when to keep pushing something, which was essential. We ended up writing an extra 6 or 7 songs in the end that went on the album.” The album itself, as we will hear it, was recorded with Jim Riley in Rochester, who also produced the band’s debut EP ‘Social Potions’ in 2018 and mixed by Alex Newport remotely from LA. Jim Riley, Don goes onto tell me why they picked Jim; “I recorded my first record with Jim in 2009,” at the mention of that, Martin asks about ‘wrongun’ to which Don explains to me “we talk about Ross Wrongun, who we stayed with recording
that record. He was spending thousands and thousands and thousands of pounds back in the naughties on recording Ross and The Wronguns songs, which is my former band that I used to play drums in, and it always sounded shit.” “We did social potions and the album that’s just coming out now [with Jim] and we did [Social Potions] all in one day, four tracks, mixed and mastered and I played it to Ross in the van on the way to a gig; ‘what the fuck? For 150 quid that’s bananas’ so we went with Jim for the album. It was all fabulous.” From what I’ve seen, heard and in fact been a part of, I gather that Lady Bird have a firm ideology with community at the centre of it all. Be that their personal community, the community they’ve built with their music or the wider-world community. Don begins almost instinctively, “It is essential isn’t it?” and after some jokey chatter, Joe continues; “not just building a community ourselves and having gratitude for people who want to be a part of that but finding it all around in our lives, who our family are, who our friends are. my best mates I’ve known since I was very little and hopefully will know them
until I’m very old, or at least until I die. Which would be nice if I was very old.” After agreeing as a group, Don continues “we have our friends we’ve known for a long time that’s community isn’t it? The centre of our community is the forum in Tunbridge Wells, it’s where we started and continued to work together, that’s community! Having a fan base is a community. And we’re a part of this global community now which seems to have less and
less face to face contact. And that’s a life threatening problem, or certainly a community threatening problem.” and then Joe argues “I think even with that it’s to accept that we’re having less face to face contact even that’s a narrative you’re buying into. You’re still seeing just as many people as you normally would, you’re just not seeing the people you’d like to see or the people you were seeing before. That’s about where you notice a sense of community where you feel your sense of connection and how you relate to your immediate environment… community’s a core to wellbeing.”
5 questions with SPRINTS
PICTURE: NIAMH BARRY
INTRODUCING OUR QUICK-FIRE section ‘5 Questions With…’ In this you will find a variety of thought provoking, if not slightly whacky questions and answers from a new artist every issue. Kicking things off is the recently emerged Dublin cathartic punks SPRINTS. WORDS: KIERAN WEBBER
1.
4.
“A living wage for all jobs
“Overrated - Post Malone Underatted TRAAMS, Little Simz, Brian Jonestown Massacre, my bloody valentine.”
One overrated artist and one underrated?
If you were in charge of the world what would be the first thing you’d implement? and a 4 day working week so everyone can live life to the full.”
2.
List your five essentials for when on the road touring? “A really good series to watch
(we binged The Wire and it got us through a 12 hour drive from Southampton to Edinburgh unscathed), a good playlist, a pillow (naps are essential), coffee.”
3.
If you could organise a celebrity boxing match, who would you pit against each other? “Roy Keane and Jamie Carragher.”
5.
One thing you all want to achieve as a band? “Glastonbury.”
CORNISH TALENT
BAILEY TOMKINSON IS THE 22 YEAR-OLD rising star from St. Ives, Cornwall. In the past couple of years, she has seen praise from major press outlets, topped the iTunes charts multiple times, and played various festivals across the county, including the prestigious Boardmasters. She has often been referred to as the UK’s answer to Taylor Swift but she’s more than a carbon copy of another artist, she’s a music maker and songwriter in her own right. With all this in mind, we caught up with Bailey during these colder months as she prepares to embark on her first UK tour. We chat about life in Cornwall, her music, and much more WORDS: KIERAN WEBBER
PICTURE: NATALIE MICHELE
Hey Bailey! Thank you so much for taking the time to chat with us, how are you? “Hey! Thanks for having me. I’m good, been so busy lately, got loads of exciting things happening this year including a new EP and my first UK tour!” The past few years have been very busy for you, you’ve hit #1 in the iTunes charts with your single ‘Bright Red’, played a variety of festivals, and more! How has that felt and did you ever envision that happening? “I’ve had the most amazing last couple of years, making and performing music is my most favourite thing in the world so its super rad that I can say it’s my job. ‘Bright Red’ was such an important release for me and I’m so happy that it resonated in the way that it did. The song allowed me to
were doing multiple shows and festivals a week, performing at places like Boardmasters to The Clapham Grand! Sharing stages, lineups and getting to meet amazing artists that really inspire me. use my voice to make a difference about something so politically and environmentally important to not only me but people in my county and people with a shared interest and passion to protect our planet. I was published in The Times, Financial Times, The Independent and performed live for Daily Mail + and Music Declares (No Music On A Dead Planet) given the opportunity to talk to amazing and influential people like Mariella Frostrup, BBC4 and BBC Newscast! Festival season was awesome! The band and I rehearsed like crazy and
“I TOOK GUITAR LESSONS AT SCHOOL AND WROTE MY FIRST PROPER SONG WHEN I WAS 11 YEARS OLD.”
We were also recording the EP at the time too so summer was like a whirlwind, I’m very lucky that I’m able to do the thing I love most and make so many memories with my band, we had some fun times on the road.” You’re heading out on your first UK tour in 2022, what can people expect and how are you feeling about this? Nervous? Excited? I’m so excited about the tour, I’m going to be performing the shows upcountry solo, a couple of shows as a duo and some band shows too. I’ll be touring the EP so I can’t wait to talk to everyone at the shows about the new songs. As I’ll be mostly performing solo, I’m working on adding
some samples to my set which adds a layer of technological complexity that I’ve not had to deal with before, but hopefully what it adds to the songs will be worth it!” How and when did you first get into music and at what point did you decide to start writing your own material? “I’ve always loved music, when I was a toddler I was obsessed with MTV and all the music videos that were played on it. In all honesty, I knew I was going to do something in music at a really young age because I idolised so many artists and was always performing. I can’t remember a time before writing little songs and poems as a kid. I took guitar lessons at school and wrote my first proper song when I was 11 years old, I knew that if I wanted to be a singer/ songwriter I actually needed my own material aha. Being a shy kid, songwriting was always my outlet and has been one of the most consistent things in my life. I performed literally anywhere that would have me, I even went to the lengths of
persuading the teachers to let me perform in the older student’s concerts at school when I was in the first year or two of secondary.” Were there any particular influences? There are so many artists that have inspired me and over the years my list of influences has grown. When I started writing music I took inspiration from artists like Sheryl Crow and Taylor Swift, but I started to collect vinyl and discovered artists that have inspired my sound tremendously like Guns N’ Roses, Bruce Springsteen, Carole King and Neil Young. One of the most exciting things about growing up is discovering new artists and their music helping you through difficult situations like school and relationships, I was super obsessed with Weezer when I was 16 and listened to ‘The Green’ Album everyday!”
PICTURE: MEGAN HEMSWORTH
A lot of people call you the UK’s version of Taylor Swift, how do you feel about this? “I think a bunch of things about it I guess, firstly, it’s a massive compliment, she’s been one of my idol’s forever! Taylor Swift has taught me not only a lot about music but she’s helped me through a lot of hard times in my life with her music and relatable lyrics. Secondly, I feel the comparison thing is something people do, especially to women because I suppose it’s easy. I don’t lean away from it, because I understand if that’s a connection people make then, you know, cool. At the same time, I’m an artist in my own right and I hope that as people discover my music they find it stands up on its own.” Cornwall is an often forgotten county when it comes to music, how has your rise been, and do you feel it is feasible for an artist to ‘make it’ from Cornwall? “I think Kernowfornia has a lot to offer for musicians, we have so many great
PICTURE: OLEKSANDER IVANCHENKO
venues, and festivals like Boardmasters, Rock Oyster and Pandafest to name just a few. Lots of musicians have actually moved down to Cornwall in the past couple years, I think that it inspires a lot of artists with it’s open spaces and natural beauty, not to mention all the art galleries. This is a thriving scene and we’ve got lots of great music being made in Cornwall by Cornish artists. I guess it depends what your definition of “making it” is, but you can definitely make a career in music in Cornwall! Unfortunately, one of the most difficult parts of living in Cornwall is the inflation of house prices, so many areas of Cornwall (including my hometown, St Ives) are very difficult to afford especially for a young person.” Do you feel more people should look to Cornwall for more than pasties and seagulls? “Definitely! This isn’t Disneyland. There’s much more to Cornwall than tourism. We’ve been underinvested in as a nation and far too much money generated here bleeds out of the Duchy but Cornwall has so much to offer. We’ve got great studios and venues here, but it’s not
“I THINK KERNOWFORNIA HAS A LOT TO OFFER FOR MUSICIANS, WE HAVE SO MANY GREAT VENUES AND FESTIVALS”. not only musicians, we’ve got great artists, poets, writers, farmers, architects, builders, teachers, cooks, and and, and! ...What’s the expression? Necessity is the mother of invention? Well, one in 3 children in parts of Cornwall are born into poverty, many get driven up country for jobs or education but the story of Cornwall is that despite those challenges, we find ways to create and we find ways to thrive. I paid my dues as a 14 year old girl playing in local pubs in guitar circles with 70 year old men on stormy winter
PICTURE: JULIUS THIEROFF
PICTURE: KITTY EILISH
nights in Cornwall. This is a community where you can do that, it still values the passing on of knowledge to the next generation. Any grit and work ethic, I may have, they were forged in Cornwall, by the wonderful, unique people I’ve met here. That’s the real Cornwall, still.” Lastly, what can we expect from Bailey for the rest of 2022 and beyond? “Lots of new material. Lots of touring. Hopefully festivals in the summer! I’m just getting started!”
ILLUSTRATION: @red_moon_design
THE BIG PICTURE
WORDS: GUY DAVIES
To those of us wellversed in the protesting timeline of Neil Young’s career, from abandoning tours midway, declining to release completed albums and removing his partner’s, Crosby, Stills & Nash, contributions from the master tapes before releasing them, Young demanding his music be removed from Spotify feels less like a shock than confusion as to why it’s taken a bluechip rock legend so long to grab power from the metaphorical jaws of, the widely scorned, streaming giant. Spotify had been in Young’s crosshairs before, seven years ago, he had removed his music from the platform (later returned), stating it offered listeners “the worst quality in the history of broadcasting”, a complaint he renewed recently, leading his fans to other streaming services that “present my music today in all its high-resolution glory”.
The gripes that Young has been about the vaccine misinformation spread by Joe Rogan on his podcast. New York Times has described Rogan as “one of the most consumed media products on the planet”. Spotify took this into account as in 2020 Rogan signed a $100m deal that gave the streaming platform exclusive rights to the show, which may have been the nail in its own coffin. I am not suggesting that Spotify will collapse due to the recent controversy, but once Rogan signed that exclusive rights contract he stopped being the free press, able to express any opinion with little to no backlash, he is now, arguably, a spokesperson FOR the software. This is why Young and 270 doctors, scientists, healthcare professionals, and
professors wrote an open letter to Spotify, expressing deep concern over the spread of medical misinformation rife on the “Joe Rogan Experience”. The letter stated, “This is not only a scientific or medial concern; it is a sociological issue of devastating proportions and Spotify is responsible for allowing this activity to thrive on its platform”. Following Young’s catalogue deletion announcement, he wrote on his website, castigating Spotify as “the home of life-threatening Covid misinformation. Selling lies for money.” Spotify has a history of upsetting the artists they offer. Famously, Taylor Swift ignited a three-year boycott in 2014, in which she said Spotify was undervaluing art after an argument on royalty rates, Swift later backed down claiming the
decision was a “gift” to her fans. Adele kept her album “25” from Spotify for months after release (with her new album “30” appearing instantly) due to Spotify’s shuffle function, it being the default setting when playing albums, which has since dissipated, due to Adele’s argument that an album is supposed to be enjoyed start to finish, you wouldn’t pick specific pages of a book and say you’ve read it. Adele and Swift have ten times the monthly listeners that Young has, although he may be a legend, showing that, maybe, bigger streaming artists could have an effect on the biggest streaming platform’s decisions, but so few ever raise their voice, I assume because they are unwilling to disrupt the still water and suffer the same fate as Young. Neil Young may not have the highest monthly listeners, but his fan base is of a generally older demographic, meaning a majority of his listeners comes from avenues like Vinyl, CDs, and tour dates. This gives Young the freedom to give a finger to the giant rather than play limbo like the rest of the “victims”. Unlike previous gripes of money or artistry toward Spotify, Young’s disagreements feel different; it is about politics and social morality. Spotify vaguely replies, “hoping to welcome [Young] back soon”, and a far cry from the “Anything for you” desperation toward Adele’s shuffle request. Young writes, “I sincerely hope that other artists will move off the Spotify platform”. Other artists have joined ranks with Neil Young, including Joni Mitchell. “Irresponsible people are spreading lies that are costing people their lives,” Mitchell says, “I stand in solidarity with Neil Young and the global scientific and medical
“IRRESPONSIBLE PEOPLE ARE SPREADING LIES THAT ARE COSTING PEOPLE THEIR LIVES.” communities on this issue”. Young and Mitchell have been friends for over half a century, emerging around the same time touring with similar ‘punk’ attitudes, riding the wave of stratospheric fame together. ‘Only Love can break your heart’, one of Young’s greatest songs, was written for Graham Nash, who was grieving after his break-up with Joni Mitchell. Young and Mitchell understand first-hand the dangers of the anti-vax misinformation rumour-mill. As children, they both contracted Polio BEFORE vaccinations were widely available, Mitchell was hospitalized for weeks, Young quarantining with a sign on his family home warning neighbours. Rachel Clarke, best-selling author, and NHS doctor tweeted: “Both Neil Young & Joni Mitchell…know painfully well how much harm, suffering & avoidable death anti-vaxxers can cause”. Various right-wing figures, including the Godfather of misinformation, Donald Trump Jr, pointed out that Young didn’t have control over his master recordings after he sold a 50% stake to the publishing company Hipgnosis in Jan 2021. Young stated that he “was reminded by my own legal forces that contractually I did not have control of my music”, but his record label, Reprise (a Warner Music Group subsidiary) allowed the music to be removed. “Thank you, Warner Brothers, for standing with me and taking the hit – losing 60% of my worldwide streaming income in the name of truth” he wrote.
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WHERE THE MUSIC STARTS www.8trackrum.com
CHIT-CHAT
It’s a cold winters night in London as I make my way to Heaven where I am to sit down with the ever-popular band The Rills. Currently, they’re supporting Bloxx but there is no doubt that they will be headlining shows across the UK in no time at all. Especially as they aim to spend much of 2022 touring and releasing new music, of which they have their debut EP out ‘Do It Differently’ out May 6th via Nice Swan Records. We caught up with the young scallywags to chat about all the questions you’re dying to know, such as their favourite breakfast, best meal deals, and first kisses. WORDS: WILLOW SHIELDS PICTURES: SOPHIE JOUVENAAR
What’s your favourite breakfast cereal? Mitchell: “That’s tricky, I’m not a huge cereal guy, you know, I’m more of like a savoury… but to be honest if I had to pick one. What did I have the other day? Curiously cinnamon. I love them.”
Callum: “If you have Weetabix for breakfast you can just do superhuman things.”
farms you’d go to as a kid and you’d have a packed lunch that your mum would make.”
What’s your favourite meal deal?
Mason: “You’re not making full use of the meal deal there.”
Mitchell: “It changes quite a lot, to be fair.”
Callum: “I’m the guy you need to ask about this. Mitch is wrong, well you’re half right, it’s malted wheat the cheapest cereal you can get - with cinnamon on them. And then you make the same cereal for a fraction of the price.”
Callum: “Mine’s quite infamous, we once had a podcast that we did one episode of and we spoke about this very topic, it angered a lot of people. Mine is very simple. I like it as simple as it gets sometimes. I like to awaken my inner child and get a cheese sandwich with a Ribena and maybe just some ready salted crisps.”
Mason: “I’m gonna go Weetabix, classic.”
Mitchell & Mason: “WRONG!”
Callum: “You’ll be lifting up buildings and things today you know.”
Callum: “I do like it though it reminds me of going to rand farm, you know those
Mitchell: “See, the objective of the meal deal is to maximise items, right? You wanna basically wanna be getting a meal deal and going ‘oh my god this should’ve cost me about 10 pounds’, but it hasn’t. It’s cost you 3 pounds 50 depending on where you’re getting it from. But yeah, it’s always a Tesco’s, that’s the best place to get it. Recently the highest I’ve got it, was up to 7 pounds because they were doing the extra-large iced coffee things. I didn’t even want a coffee that day, but I
What’s your favourite gig you’ve played so far?
I thought ‘I’ve got to get it because it was about 2.50 worth of a drink, it was outrageous.” Callum: “Without people like me though, Mitch, meal deals wouldn’t exist. If everyone was like you, meal deals would stop happening and we’d be like Europe. Whereas we’re not like Europe because people like me exist.” Do you have a favourite item of clothing? Mitchell: “I had a pair of monkey boots. I actually got them from Fred Perry when I worked there, a bit of a devious lick actually as they asked for me to return them, but I returned a different pair.” Mason: “My Air max 95’s. They’re a classic!” Do you have a favourite park? Mason: “Gloucester Park in Basildon that’s a good walk, erm I like Hyde Park but that is a bit gimmicky.”
All: “Reading and Leeds!”
Mitchell: “I really like Hinchcliffe park in Sheffield, it was right at the bottom of our road. There is chaotic energy about it as when the sun would come out the whole of Sheffield would go there. It got so bad they would have to shut the toilets, which on reflection is a bit weird. One-time people were climbing up this tree and around the toilets and just going toilet there, it was disgusting actually. It was all very primal. It took me back to year one, just like that infamous Jack Black film with Michael Cera.” Mason: “Didn’t you have your first kiss in a park?” Mitchell: “No! But I did once have a kiss in the back of the Bradford Odeon, which was alright!”
“IT WAS OUR FIRST FESTIVAL AND WE WERE ON GOLF BUGGIES BACKSTAGE.”
Mitchell: “Although saying that, if we go back in time maybe Kendal Calling, as we had such a great time. It was our first festival and we were on golf buggies backstage. However, the weather was wet, and it was raining constantly, I got mud all up my leg and by the time I got on stage, I was like the Tin-man from The Wizard of Oz. It was still so much fun though!” What makes a good gig to you guys? Mitchell: High energy, that is always great. Callum: Mechanically, having a good sound is always great. However, I do feel we have played shit but the energy has been so good that it’s made it great. We like to bring a lot of energy to a show and we have found that it is almost always reciprocated from the crowd. You can’t just come on and expect the audience to just have the energy.
PHOEBE FOX Portrait and Live Music Photographer, touring with the likes of Anne Marie, The Amazons, Grace Carter & Holly Humberstone
Orla Gartland Independent Musician who released her debut album 'Woman on the Internet' in August 2021, securing a UK Top 10 spot
Kat Kennedy General Manager at Big Life Management and Artist Manager for We Are Scientists
Tina Hizon Session Musician and Musical Director working with the likes of Maisie Peters, Ed Sheeran, Dua Lipa & The Pet Shop Boys
Jess Iszatt Radio Presenter and Producer for BBC Introducing and BBC Radio London, Weekday presenter on Magic Chilled
Megan GrayE Founder of Vocal Girls Club and Radio Show Host
Hannah Brodrick Touring Sound and Monitor Engineer for the likes of Dodie, Olivia Dean & L Devine
Yasmine Summan Freelance Journalist for NME, Metal Hammer and Refinery29, and On Wednesdays We Wear Black Podcast co-Host
Eliza Williams A.K.A Doolittle Illustrations, Illustrator and multidisciplinary creative, working regularly with Spotify on their Our Generation campaign
Alice Backham Digital & Creative Content Producer at Parlophone
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ON TOUR WITH
OPUS KINK
AND SO! CURTAINS. Pitchforks! blood on the pages. We did embark on a tour, it was on Independent Venue Week. Enter Opus Kink, the very same, aside from, hark: there with us rode Jack Banjo Courtney, on trumpet, for the very first time live on stage with this lank and stuttering outfit. Dear scum, imagine this - the sun rose, having no alternative, on Sunday 30th January 2022, in Manchester, England. WORDS: ANGUS ROGERS
The walls of the basement of YES were slick with passion. Filing through the swinging doors came Automotion, Priestgate, Freak Slug. Outside the rain came down like nails, hallelujah! God is both merciful and cruel. This being the first sellout of the musical tour we quaked in anticipation as the icy hands of Italian Lager From The Fucking Rider grappled our throats. Lo, my poor, poor twentyseven-year-old knee did hurt from vaulting fences the week prior; quick soundchecks give way to larger swathes of preransack sot-drinking, and before long, lo, the knee hurt no longer. We were then set to implode with grace. The hammer fell, and we played Music to the crowd, kindly surging and giggling as they were. Scream & blow. We had returned! The hot dance lights glanced off five sweltering mops and one
scintillating dome. One man down front spat at us in a feral manner then shook hands thrice over after the show. We flopped like worms into The Shit. Two t-shirts were stolen from the merch stand. We were not standing there. Thus a lesson. A big bag of cans. Other people’s top-ups. Onwards to Shiv Hall for nitekaps. Airbeds; confusion. The sun was rising again! Head down for mere moments then away, away, away in the morning... Bristol, I cherish thee. Our third time in the city. Hail to Miles! Gravy! Train! Crofter’s Rights. Hangxiety tempered by Ethiopian bean. A sellout as of the day before, Lord were we not thankful
and satisfied? Through the saloon wafts a raft of pizza was lovingly delivered to the reeling group. As I drip into the green-room I see these columns of Stella Artois as though they had known we were coming. This night were we joined by the remaining skeins of Fake Turins after The Disease felled 3 of their ranks (not expired mind you but convalescing with soup, with Emily, with Paris). A crazy flame tore through their frontal lobes and staggering from the smoke came the Hand of God, knock-kneed, cursing through sludge. Most of them & some of us - eleven on stage and completely improvised incl. Dominic Rose’s vocal spasms... every soul in the room for their opening set. Hearts &
PICTURE: NICOLE OSRIN
wild doors opened, revolving now until kingdom come. In short - triumph for the improv band. With the full room warmed like a bogseat from a feverish hind we took up the mantle and chalked up a favourite show to date; blessed be the Bristol fans and the makers of their evenings, promoters, bar staff. Kanpai! In the morning Jed & I were sitting beneath a belltower awaiting hot bread when a sightly couple
PICTURE: NICOLE OSRIN
“WE FLOPPED LIKE WORMS INTO THE SHIT. TWO T-SHIRTS WERE STOLEN FROM THE MERCH STAND. WE WERE NOT STANDING THERE.” crowned in flowers approached us requesting an audience and a flourish of the pen to their imminent matrimony. An honour, said we, strangers in the dawn! We signed the papers, hallowed the halls. Devils bless you, Nick & Roisin. And Grazie for the morning time champagne & toothsome THC oil. We will see you down the line! In the dank and dry-throated morn, we sprinted back to London to convalesce for mere moments before sucking ourselves down to the 100 Club. I inhaled some non-beige foodstuffs in my flat (500g pomodoro-bathed linguine) then limped into central were my compatriots
PICTURE: NICOLE OSRIN
were stuffing Musical Equipment into a small hole in Oxford Street. Here again, we discovered a severe depletion of tickets available to this show, until, dash it all - a sellout! Fuck me. The stars glimmer, dead yet beautiful. To old friends & new, endless gratitude for making it so. Jack Flanagan & his band struck up the evening in this Hallowed and Hospitable cavern, slide guitar turning tricks, then Peeping Drexels in assorted gowns and kimonos Made it Happen in Serious Manner in the main support slot and confirmed that this place was Big & Loud. Throw your red stripes to the lions, the walls, the drains, then; Our clarion call came. What can I say about this show? It went off. We felt exalted, hosannah; we were utterly fucked too, and the better for it. All of our equipment that could break did so, but nothing could dampen the sickening flame. May the pigeonsquits fall ever around you, not on you, each soul who retched alongside us. The Quite Delightful. One day off after that. Reader, you do not need to know if and when we rose from the ashes of our sickbeds, what went in and out of us, and where the day went in such a hurry. Get up out of bed you and clean out your cell; we away now to PICTURE: NICOLE OSRIN
the streets of Bedford... After checking into the Clean and WellLit Holiday Inn Express of dreams, we dragged our quivering carcasses to Esquires. Enter Milky, a legend among men, who supplied all mod cons, excellent psych-ups and more than one kind of bread, more than a few kinds of beer. Our first time in Bedford. This venue is a totem of glory and passion & has a pool table. By this point, our instruments and innards were running on empty and we plumbed the depths to wrench free a soundcheck from our yellowed and plaintive hearts (thank you, engineer). Fear not though, my pedigree chums, we soon found a ninth wind, and as more people than we’d bargained for began to tread the bitter soaked boards we whipped ourselves into a tequila & Las Ketchup-based frenzy. This tour being all killer and no filler I can only describe the experience of playing this show as One of The Six Highlights.
“BY THIS POINT OUR INSTRUMENTS AND INNARDS WERE RUNNING ON EMPTY.” Bedfordians let down your hair; we will chew, we will tipple, for many moons to come. Until next time. Haggard breakfasttime at The Inn saw us nodding into our mushrooms until we strapped ourselves back into the two trusty whips for one final and ill-fated journey. Birkenhead beckoned. None of us had ever been close to The Head or Liverpool and Future Yard looked to be an Absolute Gaff, so we were snarling at the bit to pile out and
shake our tits at the assembled. Four hours on the road later we pulled into the Parking Slot of Destiny to find there a keyboard player whose face told a thousand terrible stories. After a week scot-free and uncorona’d the lateral flow, finally and brutally - said NO. I’m amazed we made it so far to speak my own uninhibited truth. The kindly denizens of Future Yard brought us lattes and lateral flows - the rest of us were negative as fuck, but the hand had been dealt. With tears and little spurts of wee we turned right around and said goodbye for now to the Birk. An age later we
PICTURE: JAYDE RILEY
flowed back into London like the living detritus we were. Alas... the final push ended in a spurt of dust, but morale remained bolstered by the Very Good Time of the preceding days. We shall... we shall return. It is written. So, passed the Opus Kink IVW tour. Come ye, break the chains of misery; we shall see you on the lonesome road again soon - Vielen dank to all involved, and here now we will raise a glass to those we haunted along the way. SKOL!
PICTURE: CHARLES PALMER
By Friends for Friends
info@actcoolrecords.com
INDEPENDENT LABEL HIGHLIGHT
WORDS: LUKE JAMES
With releases such as Keg’s ‘Assembly EP’, DZ Deathrays’ ‘Positive Rising pt. 2’ and Tigercub’s ‘As Blue As Indigo’ among others, 2021 was a good year for Alcopop! Records. With releases from Home Counties and Lady Bird kicking off 2022, it looks as though they’re going from strength to strength. Started in Oxford in 2006 by Jack Clothier and Kevin Douch, Alcopop! is no ordinary record label. Whether it’s releasing compilation albums on mediums such as a message in a bottle or a dinner menu where you can pick tracks from each “course” to create a cd that they will send to you or opt to pay for the entire menu (literally a physical menu containing a cd of all of the
tracks), the people at Alcopop! haven’t lost any passion for making the music industry interesting. In 2015, Alcopop! stepped in after a hacker cancelled the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) website contract and temporarily purchased the UKIP website. If that doesn’t make you want to support them I don’t know what does. Recently they’ve been embarking on a campaign behind the scenes to bring indie legends and label favourites Johnny Foreigner’s debut album to vinyl. That they went to every effort to do this and packaged it with the original press release and some extra art pieces to make it feel like an event speaks to Alcopop! as being
a label for music fans. Having signed Pulled Apart By Horses at the end of 2021 with an album being announced for 2022, Alcopop! are only bolstering their roster and are already giving you reasons to be excited about 2022. On their website, Alcopop! state “What’s most important to us though (without meaning to sound too cliché) is you, the bands we work with and the whole Alcopop! community that comes together with the finest faces and hearts all aglow” and you feel like they mean every single word. So next time you see a record released on Alcopop! Records, give it a listen because it’s almost definitely a banger.
TOUR TALK
WORDS/PICTURE: WILLOW SHIELDS
TONIGHT, YOU FIND ME AT ‘The Social’, just off Oxford Street. By “just off’’ I mean about a 7-minute walk around the corner from Urban Outfitters, past buzzing restaurants, brashly lit DIY stores and down a dim side road that I would avoid if I didn’t know what lay within. I’m here in said dim back street to talk to Utah sweethearts ‘The Backseat Lovers’. I sit outside the front of The Social, where they are to play their second ever UK show. Straight off the back of a huge North America tour and ahead of another one, where somewhere along the road they are set to support THE Killers! Anyway, I’m sitting slap bang in the middle of this wobbly bench, on a cold street in London, with the most Americans I’ve ever met in my life. Directly to my right, is Joshua Harmon; heartthrob, singer, guitarist and Russle Hammond lookalike, to Joshua’s right is Juice Welch; founding member, drummer and funny guy. To my left is KJ Ward: the quiet, long
dark-haired bassist and to his left is Jonas Swanson; denim clad, less pretty (but equally as attractive) as the rest of the band, guitarist and singer. Sandwiched in between these lovely, obviously sweet stoner types of American boy, I’m completely wracked with nerves and ask the first thing that comes to mind. Which, detriment to my professional journalism career, happens to be: What’s your favourite thing to have for breakfast? “Mine is french toast.” He says succinctly. Joshua continues “We take breakfast very seriously, probably anything that has biscuits. Like biscuits and gravy, potatoes, collection of things…” With me now looking to KJ for elaboration, he says “I love hash browns with over-hard eggs.” Jonas finishes on “I love
having a breakfast burrito, because you can put anything you want in it, every ingredient you can imagine all in one thing.” Continuing in my panicked state that comes with four gorgeous Americans looking in your direction for questions to answer, I ask them: Have you ever been in love?. They all grumble and giggle and come to a unanimous ‘yes’ answer. Juice begins again “plenty of times” with Joshua following up with an “absolutely” and Jonas finishing with “certainly.” Sensing an opportunity to overstep, I ask: Have you ever had your heart broken? Once again, a unanimous yes. Juice pre-emptively laughing at his own joke “plenty of times.” I brand them as ‘a band full of heartbroken people’ and Joshua says, “that’s the only way we get to write music, you gotta get your heart
broken a couple of times.” Would you say that it’s the only way you can write music? “Oh, definitely not. I feel like the majority of the songs we write are not about that, people think that they’re about that, naturally. Which is okay. We write about a lot of different things.” Surprise surprise, the two singers (Josh and Jonas) are the songwriters of the band. What are your favourite things to write about? “Our writing is very personal to us so often times it’s kinda a good - sometimes the only way to connect with yourself in a genuine way, and understand what you’re feeling in a genuine way. So often times it just feels best to write about what’s real in the moment. Whatever is pressing in your life that feels real and important, it doesn’t necessarily have any bounds to what it is, just how important it is and feels.” So what about you, Jonas, what helps you write music? “What helps me, I think similar to what Josh was saying, I like to write to connect with myself, when I’m feeling comfortable with myself and - sometimes that can even be something that pushes me towards writing more, trying to connect with myself. So, I guess, feeling grounded and that’s when I write most, and it also pushes me to write more when I’m not feeling that way too.”
PICTURE: ISAAC WESTBERG
Sensing the conversation shift to ‘official interview’. How are you guys finding London? KJ is quick to answer, “I love it.” Juice continues “It’s fantastic.” Joshua elaborates “we really like it, we’ve pretty much just been chillin’, exploring, going to thrift stores, eating food. I’ve loved it, it’s been super fun to see the city and learn about all the history.” Jonas picks up “yeah, this is the farthest we’ve ever been from home so it’s kinda crazy, and the history of it all, in America everything’s at most 300 years old or less. It’s cool to be somewhere that everything’s older than the place we come from.” Is there anything you hate about England so far? Any pet peeves?
Joshua answers for the collective “we don’t like that you have to sit backwards in the taxis, we get car sick, we don’t like it.” Jonas says “I don’t like having to have a different plug, like, power lug outlet, that bothers me. But that’s just, like, how it is.” What about growing up, what was that like for you guys? “I personally loved growing up, it was great, not really getting older, but the process was nice, Juice and I both grew up in a really small town about an hour outside Salt Lake City in Utah. These two fellows (KJ and Jonas) were in a similar situation on the side of the mountains. But yeah it was really quite interesting growing up on a small town where there was really, absolutely no music scene, no venues there was literally one
music store. The owner was called Mr. Lee. He was the heart of any music that was in Heber City. Really interesting trying to start bands and trying to meet musicians basically only within your own high school. But once I graduated high school I was able to meet Jonas. It was always quite a special occasion to drive out of the [city], through the canyon to the bigger cities and go meet musicians and see shows and go to Kilby Court and Salt Lake City, so yeah. In a nutshell, growing up.” Joshua added “I liked growing up too, it was a good place to grow up, I feel like there’s always been access to music, which has been nice, that hasn’t been too far from home. So yeah, I think that had a lot to do with most of our upbringings into music, and yeah growing up in that world.” Jonas begins his story “I grew up in a place called Sandy, which is like just a suburb of Salt Lake, it was great. I feel like there are things with growing up that are hard, obviously adjusting to change. I think I also got into music right around 13 or 14. I feel like listening to music and playing music is something that’s always been a part of my life and although I didn’t really see being in
a band from the beginning I always felt like [music] was something that would be a part of me for a long time so I feel like that helped me grow up for sure.” How have you guys found being pretty much, famous? “I think the part about getting any sort of recognition that is rewarding, is seeing that it makes people happy, seeing that it brings people any amount of joy or positivity, and if they can find something special in the music that connects to their life and makes them feel like they’re worth something, that makes it worth it for me. I wouldn’t say any attention is something we’re very motivated by or fond of. We love to meet fans and people that are excited about the music but it’s not necessarily a motivating force usually, we’re fairly introverted people in general so we don’t deal with it very well. Regardless, we’re very grateful to have the opportunity to do things like this and travel the world just because we wrote some songs, so it’s pretty great.” Living the dream? “I’d say so.”
OPINION PIECE
WORDS: CALLIE WINCH PICTURES: KIERAN WEBBER
When Jason Williamson of Sleaford Mods accused IDLES of ‘appropriating working-class culture’ in a The Guardian Q&A session he faced an extreme backlash online surrounding cancel culture and was deemed to be ignorant towards the ‘ground-breaking’ nature of the band’s political actions. Although one can clearly see the political themes that many artists are currently weaving throughout their work, how many of these performances are providing elevation to the marginalisation of the groups who are being commodified for an aesthetic? This poses the further questions of: is this political ‘aesthetic’ being used by bands within the post-punk problematic and why has this trend declined at such a rapid rate over the last 6 months? When questioned on his previous expression of distaste for IDLES, Williamson explained that he initially took issue with the band after realising that, despite their lyrics taking a
‘working class voice’ and describing a dislike for the middle-class, the members of IDLES themselves were not from working class backgrounds. The pair behind Sleaford Mods explained that this, in combination with the anti-austerity and feminist political sentiment that has been commodified by the band, offended them as they believed that ‘they were appropriating, to a certain degree, a working-class voice’. It’s not hard to see why Sleaford Mods have generated such distaste for the actions of the men within IDLES. The band hails themselves as being frontrunners for including themes of a political nature within their music and their lives performances, a cis-gender white male shouting ‘I am a feminist’, whilst another wears a tank top with a feminist slogan on it, during a live performance at Le Bataclan hardly feels like I’m witnessing the next Simone de Beauvoir. Despite announcing an all-
PICTURE: KIERAN WEBBER
female support slot for their 2021 UK and Ireland tour and providing some generalised statements on gender equality within interviews, IDLES frontman Joe Talbot is seemingly content with his political activity being constrained to acts of performativity in front of a live audience. A band of five cis-gender white men that have formulated so much of their support around being ‘feminists’ and actively fighting gender inequality are actively failing to act in solidarity with those most marginalised by the patriarchy that they so publicly detest. I’m aware that many reading this will feel as if I’m holding these bands to too high a standard, especially regarding the allfemale support slot move, but when a band such as IDLES ride so heavily on the political sentiment that they are aestheticizing, they have to put their money where their mouth is. It’s not just feminism that bands such as IDLES are using as aesthetic trends to ramble about topless on stage or plug as trendy/ woke merch,
anti-austerity and class issues are often being favoured by middle-class artists within the post-punk scene. Despite his direct admittance of living comfortably economically, Talbot’s online shop for IDLES merchandise features slogans including ‘always poor, never bored’ and parodies on ‘social club’ names, a communitybased solstice for many working-class individuals. It could be just me, but something about using class critical sentiment to sell merchandise doesn’t sit hugely
comfortably. Actively categorising your band as anti-capitalist yet using themes that are obviously appealing towards marginalised individuals in order to generate revenue seems pretty oxymoronic to me. This is unfortunately not a standalone case for IDLES, a political aesthetic is, seemingly, the hottest new accessory for bands within the post-punk scene. It must however be noted that this interest in interweaving the musical with the political has dropped
off the radar significantly within the last 6 months to a year. Many bands have actively contributed to independent venue campaigns in order to keep them open post-pandemic and under threat of development, but few have upheld a public involvement in social change movements. The Black Lives Matter movement resulted in plenty of genuine, effective political action and teaching material being distributed amongst individuals online, but this also provided fertile ground for performative activism. A fair share of bands within the post-punk scene used this movement to create merchandise where all proceeds went towards the BLM UK charity, which although could hold the most genuine intentions, faced criticism online from POC activists questioning whether this was the case or if it was a way or morally ‘one-upping’ against others. After time, the BLM movement shifted away from being a popular trend that people could share infographics about on Instagram, artists within the scene stopped
creating charity merchandise or sharing petitions. Since then, we’re yet to experience another social change movement that the postpunk boys in the scene deem ‘good’ enough to commodify, despite the on-going injustices towards POC, women, working class and queer people day to day. I don’t have a definite answer as to why this political performance has declined so much in recent months, but I think you can point fingers towards general trends of people being less politically motivated due to general desensitisation and fatigue towards the life-altering events that have unravelled over the last couple of years. I guess for now we’ll just have to wait to see what political movement is regarded as good enough to be used on some new merchandise – ‘kicking the poor/women/marginalised when their down’ doesn’t have a great ring to it does it?
PHOTOGRAPHER SPOTLIGHT
ALICE HADDEN is a freelance music photographer hailing from iconic Scottish city of Glasgow. Alice has been working with CLUNK for just under a year and has already dazzled us with her superb portrait work and live music photography. She is a master of capturing the moment and portraying that through her photography. 2022 is shaping up to be a big year for Alice and we cannot wait to see what she produces. Instagram: @alicehadden PICTURES: ALICE HADDEN
PICTURE: PETE RAY
EP BREAKDOWN
WORDS: NICK TOMPKINS OF YOUTH SECTOR
YOUTH SECTOR EMERGED onto the scene with their 2020 debut EP ‘Mundanity’, a force mature in poignant songwriting and sideways look at the postpunk genre. It was full of sharpedged guitar and biting vocals, a theme that has stuck with the band since. Now the band have just released their latest EP ‘Adult Contemporary’, a barrage of wonky guitars and as always reflective songwriting that holds a mirror up to the hypocritical mindset British Society. We caught up with Nick and gave him the opportunity to talk us through the band’s latest EP in detail, song by song. Self Exile “This one is our favourites off the EP to play live, it’s so lively and bouncy it’s a good chance to let loose a bit on stage. It’s the closest thing we have to a fun pop song on the record. It’s about that self-destructive streak you have when you know you’re in the wrong but feel like you have to dig your heels down anyway to save face. We shot a music video for this in a squash court but didn’t realise until we arrived that the whole roof was glass, so we spent the day moving equipment around the room to avoid shadows and trying to race the sun before it went down so that was an extra bit of tension thrown into the mix.”
No. 1 Bestseller “‘No. 1 Bestseller’ is a collective favourite of the band, it’s probably the most Youth Sector song we have in that every part feels very us - everyone has a weird little boopy twiddly bit to play at some point in the song - it’s also a good outlet for Josh (bass) to do his thing. It was written about the wellness industry and how, at its worst, it tends to capitalise on people’s vulnerabilities and sell products/lifestyle tips that no one needs rather than to make serious efforts to tackle mental health issues.” Always Always Always “This song was the final track off Adult Contemporary to be written; as with every song on the EP it was written during lockdown 1 in my parents’ shed - I was in between houses and too scared to put a new rent deposit down in case my job wasn’t safe, so all this material was written there and most of the vocals on the record
were recorded in that shed too. We were really looking to finish off the EP by writing a big, fun, explosive number but I ended up going in the complete opposite direction with this sad, Spaghetti Western style guitar riff which we ended up really liking. It’s about blind ambition for money, power and success at any cost questioning why the Bezoz’s and Musks of this world are always in the pursuit of ‘more’ whatever that means for them. That was before Bezos and Branson went to space so feels all the more relevant now.” Is Blood “We often take quite a while putting together the foundations of songs but ‘Is Blood’ seemed to come together really quickly, I think the guitars and the lyrics/ vocals all went down within a day - the words just fell onto the page. This was during the BLM protests following George Floyd’s death and all the bigots were having a field day getting upset about statues of slave traders and refusing to discuss the bleaker side of our history - something we found so tiring and depressing. This song is asking these union-jack-waving ‘patriots’ whether being born on this declining, Brexiteering little island that built itself on the spoils of slavery is really something to be proud of.”
ARTWORK: ANDREW GIRDLER
SPOTLIGHT
WORDS: KIERAN WEBBER PICTURES: KAMAL RASOOL
NOON GARDEN IS THE SOLO project from Flamingods Charles Prest, a project that has long been in the making. Now as we rapidly drift through 2022 we get ever closer to his long-awaited debut album ‘Beulah Spa’. The album was slated for a February release but will now be available on April 1st via The Liquid Label. You’ll also be able to see his brand of exotic psych-pop wonderment live when he tours with the cumbia-infused instrumentalists Los Bitchos, later in 2022. After having our ears tickled by the singles ‘Desiree’ and ‘Villa’ we were desperate to find out more about his uniquely inventive sound, process, and the person behind Noon garden. Thankfully Prest was happy to oblige and we chatted about all this and more!
Hey Charles! How are you? Are you ready for 2022? “I’m doing good thanks! And yes, I feel like there’s a lot of things I’ve been involved with over the last couple of years that are all finally ready to bloom so I’m pretty pumped!” So, 2022 is set to be a big year for you with the album release and sub sequential tours, how do you prepare for that, and are you excited? “It’s always really exciting releasing new music, and since this is my first real solo album it feels even more so. It’s usually coupled with a slight sense of dread, but that’s all just part of the fun really. I find working on things in smaller chunks over a long period of time really helps make the whole process
find doing non-musical things like listening to podcasts, watching films and TV really helps give a bit space and perspective on it all too.” When recording the new album ‘Beulah Spa’ did you do anything differently or explore any new sounds/genres? “The sound and direction of the album changed a lot over the years. It’s a project I would work on for a few months then put back on the shelf again kinda on and off for about six years or so. Throughout that time, I was getting inspired by so many different artists, genres and learning about interesting production styles that it took me a
while to narrow down which aspects I wanted to pull from to piece together an album of my own. In the end I basically just let it all sink in and the album naturally started to reveal the direction it wanted to go in and I just followed my instincts with it.” One thing that surprised me about the new album was that the opening track is over 7 minutes long, it’s fantastic but I feel it was a brave choice of an opener. Do you feel this way? Why was it you decided to open with this track? “How an album flows is something I think a lot about while writing. Lyrically the track sets
to open with it. I grew up listening to a lot of prog rock as a kid too where tracks take their time and you can settle into them, so I think that played into things a bit too.” Did you have a specific idea to as what you wanted to create or was it something that came naturally? I think it was definitely a bit of both. I remember from the outset I wanted to explore an exotic psychedelic pop sound, but I had no idea how that would materialise into actual songs or what the final outcome was going to be until I got to the end. The track listing changed so much over the years too. I’d work on a track for a while then get bored of it, then get really excited by a completely new idea which would sometimes completely change the perspective on the rest of the album. So, it was definitely process of letting myself go through the motions musically until the dust finally settled.”
Your music is such a fantastic and varied combination of sounds, do you find it hard to control? Or do you feel you can masterfully direct it into song form? (we think you’re a musical wizard FYI) “Ha! When it comes to weaving genres together I don’t really think too much about it at the time. Sometimes it’s as simple as hearing a very lo-fi ethiojazz rhythm in a Mulatu Astatke song and wondering what that might sound like dressed up in more contemporary elements involving a club dance kick, a fat snare and sub bass and then building on that. “Desiree” had its roots in Lee Hazlewood-esque cowboy-psychedelia and songs like LA Woman by The Doors, but overtime I could hear room for some Bollywood funk inspired hand percussion as well as vocally drawing influence from 1960s girl pop, namely the Tammy’s and
their track “Egyptian Shumba.” I think thats the really fun part for me; seeing how some unlikely genres can coexist and complement each other.” You also play every instrument on the album which is nothing short of wildly impressive. How do you construct the music when you are playing every element? “A lot of my songs initially come to me while I’m on the move and I can often hear a few elements from the outset that I record and hum into my phone like a guitar, bass or vocal line. I’ll then get home and roughly record those parts then and make a demo out of all those pieces. Once I have that down it’s often a lot of time just listening to the demos over and over and figuring out what I can tweak to the parts and just refining it all.” How does your recorded music transfer into a live setting and which do you prefer? “Right now, it’s about expanding on what’s on the album and adjusting a few things to fit that live environment. There’s certain sections in some songs that can be extended which make them a lot more interesting to play rather
than just performing them exactly as they are on the album. Thankfully so far, the whole process of translating the tracks live has been easier than I originally thought, largely due to the help of my great musician friends I’m lucky enough to know have play with me.” Do you see a disconnect between the music you create as Noon Garden and that of Flamingods? How do you feel it differs? “I feel like both definitely draw from the same ideology of continually exploring new sounds and connecting the dots of music from across the globe. I guess with this record there’s maybe more of a pop sensibility compared to most Flamingods material, but both are ever evolving and changing album to album.” Does working as a solo artist allow you more creative freedom?
“IT’S PRETTY EASY TO OVERCOOK SOMETHING BY DOING TOO MUCH” “I think it allows me to fully see my own ideas through to the end, whether good or bad. With Flamingods, it’s a collaborative process where sometimes you almost can’t tell where an idea originally came from because that idea goes through a lot of refinement and every member usually gives their two cents on that idea which is great. Having both processes has been very healthy creatively and they really balance each other out.” Lastly, what advice would you give to other multi-instrumentalists out there? And what can we expect from you in 2022?
“I’m the worst at giving any kind of advice to anyone so I rarely do! I think for me, restraint with what I can play has become pretty important to my process. While working on something I’ll usually ask what the part actually needs rather than what I can do. I feel that can sometimes be a big pitfall and it’s pretty easy to accidentally overcook something by doing too much and you can lose sight of actually writing a good song. As for 2022 I’m just excited for putting more music out there. Outside of finally having this album ready to be released, there’s some new and fun Flamingods stuff on the way too. I’ll also be supporting and playing rhythm guitar with my good buds Los Bitchos and getting involved in a few other musical projects throughout the year, so I’m psyched to be getting on with it all!”
“WET ASS P***Y
WORDS: ELI
August the 7th 2020 was a pretty normal day for the majority however, that cannot be said for Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion who released ‘WAP’ to outrageous uproar. Republicans within the American democracy showed their outright disapproval for the now winner of the BET Best Song of the year such as James P. Bradley who tweeted out: “Cardi B & Megan Thee Stallion are what happens when children are raised without God and without a strong father figure” and DeAnna Lorraine (an unsuccessful republican runner) who tweeted that WAP “set the entire female gender back by 100 years.” The thing that mystifies me is how both of these republicans showed their discontent for WAP but had no objection for the 45th president of the United States, Donald J Trump, who spoke about ‘grabbing women by their p****’ and this was played down as
just ‘locker room talk’. The reasoning for this is the double standards within the society we live in, where men can say and do things women can’t without being ridiculed and music is no exception to this double standard as we are about to explore. If we hone into rap music for now we will see some of these double standards taking place before our very eyes. Femalefronted songs such as ‘WAP’ unapologetically talk about sex and specifically what women want out of sex. The empowerment of this is crucial as sex is about pleasure of both parties and in past generations women haven’t been able to express this. We are still seeing today this empowerment being branded as
explicit and disgusting. However, in contrast to this men have the freedom to lyricise not only their sexual fantasies but also in turn objectify women. Songs as recent as ‘girls want girls’ from Drake’s most recent album ‘certified lover boy’ prove the obviously stated inequality and if the title of the song alone doesn’t raise eyebrows then lets explore deeper into the lyricism. ‘Starin’ at your dress ‘cause it’s see through Yeah, talkin’ all the shit that you done been through Yeah, say that you a lesbian, girl, me too Ayy, girls want girls where I’m from’ These lyrics are not only problematic by the blatant objectification of the female body but these lyrics also fetishise lesbian women by fabricating this negative
connotation of lust for ‘something you can’t have’ but due the privileged position of manhood you should be able to get. it also furtherly, solidifies and portrays the societal sexism within which we live in and, as an artists with currently over 50,000,000 monthly listeners on Spotify, normalises it for future generations which will consequently hinder the road for equality. These implications of mistreatment of women can be seen from how we treat our female artists. Female rapper Rico Nasty has over 3,000,000 monthly listeners on Spotify and her biggest hit so far
‘Smack A B****’ has racked up just under 100 million streams (as of 13/1/22) making her one of the freshest, most exciting female rap singer in our lives, oozing with personality and promise. The pure grittiness within her voice and the energy she provides on tracks such as ‘OHFR?’ and the versatility she has shown from her Hyperpop track ‘iPhone’ proves she is a talent that should be celebrated worldwide. However, on Playboi Carti’s King Vamp Tour, at the end of 2021, Rico Nasty was not treated like the prodigy she is. Whilst
many Playboi Carti ‘fans’ booed and chanted disrespectful towards Rico Nasty some even resorted to extreme measures to show their displeasure and hurled bottles at the artist. Things got so bad Rico Nasty Tweeted out concerning things such as ‘crazy how I wanted to tour bus my whole life and now I just be on the tour bus crying myself to sleep every night’. This recent example alone shows the way in which we treat women in the industry and how it will consequently result in a lack of diversity within the representation of females in genres due to the worry of mistreatment.
We can even highlight the way in which the media treats female singers in comparison to male singers. From pop queen Ariana Grande being asked by Los Angeles’s Power 106 male interviewers “If you could use makeup or your phone one last time, what would you pick?” to a reporter implying to Taylor Swift, one of the most successful artists of all time, she was going home with ‘lots of men’ post Grammy’s in 2015 shows the media’s aid in these gross misdemeanors. These ignorant comments and questions implicitly show the problems within our modernday treatment towards women. If you were interviewing a multi-platinum award winning artists such as Ariana Grande, surely the last question to cross your mind as a male music interviewer would be about something as cynical as hair and makeup. Furthermore, can you imagine telling a highly influential artists such as Taylor Swift about how many men she will go home with after she has just won awards for her individual, independent success? Unfortunately, some people still believe that men measure success and, in a world, where male thought is deemed more powerful, put female artists at the background unless being used an object or something to drool over. To put it bluntly. We don’t value our female artists as successful artists.
“WE DON’T VALUE OUR FEMALE ARTISTS AS SUCCESSFUL ARTISTS.” Misogyny is embedded throughout the music industry and has been for decades. From industry to artistry, tours to music videos, sexism runs rife through our society and if we don’t highlight key aspects of how we have let this manifest within music it will continue to run rampant through not only artistry but through our society. As a society we need to recognise, acknowledge and highlight the successful women within our industry as just that: successful. We need more exposure of empowerment and embracement of female artists and most importantly men need to dismantle toxic stereotypes in their head that set women back in society. One of my favourite answers to a sexist question is from Lauren Conrad in which when being asked about her favourite ‘position’ she replies ‘CEO’ and I feel that answer rounds off how women should be treated in our music industry and in general society perfectly.
MOVIE CLUB
“FANGTOOTH”
OUT NOW
MOVIECLUBTHEBAND.COM
FESTIVAL COVERAGE
TRIPTCH Y FESTIVAL BRIGHTON
WORDS & PICTURES: WILLOW SHIELDS
TRIPTCH IS A MINI-FESTIVAL HELD at The Hope and Ruin and lovingly crafted over many years by the team at Love Thy Neighbor. After a miss-a-go of a year last year it was finally time for Triptych to return and oh how mighty it did. The premise of the event/s is that one (a punter, a live music fanatic or other such person) can roll on down to the H&R, for about eight o’clock sharp thank you very much, watch, consume and listen to three of Love Thy Neighbors best and brightest spots
of the year ahead. Then when all is said and done, go home with a super special vinyl -seriously there’s only 15 pressed for each night- of those three bands, that said punter can show off to their grandkids when one or more of those three special bands is world famous. Make sense? The first night was lined up as a punk night, consisting of Wife Swap USA and Lambrini Girls, but not Sit Down because they contracted
Our Top Performances At End Of The Road 2021
PICTURE: AMY FORD PHOTOGRAPHY
Covid. Not to worry though because friends of all, Lime Garden were free for a late-night DJ set in lieu of them. To kick off the shortest of the three nights was Wife Swap USA, a very shouty-walky-roundy-theroomy band. Which I was not used to but enjoyed nonetheless as I had been abstaining from punk postlockdown. The honesty and frankly comedic and brutal vulnerability of Wife Swap USA lyricism was a very welcomed surprise and enjoyable to witness. Next up was Lambrini Girls who are genuinely, I think, completely mental, in the absolute best way possible. Clad in underwear, tights and a cowboy hat, vocalist Phoebe Lunny made her entrance onto the stage after a long and heated apology to drummer Catt Dampier for ‘shagging their dad’, after which Phoebe was accepted back into the band the second half of Lambrini Girls performance began. I can
safely and profusely announce that Lambrini Girls are one of the most engaging and exciting bands I have ever watched and been entertained by and I vehemently urge you to go and watch and be entertained by them. They will blow your socks off, promise. Triptych’s second night was psych night, with Lucy Feliz, our dearest friends Hutch and Spang Sisters on top. Lucy Feliz was yet another act I hadn’t seen before and was yet again, absolutely entranced. Her music is like the underwater bit of the 1971 film Bedknobs and Broomsticks, mostly
the underwater-ness with a little bit of the 70’s thrown in. She’s totally captivating and her music soothes the soul. Also, a bit like walking in a fairy forest. Hutch were next up, and most-of-the-time middleman JP was home sick with tonsillitis. So, the triptych audience got treated to a switched up setlist and bassist Charlie Bogg taking over main vocals on fan favourites ‘Sandworms’ and ‘Charge Me Up Buttercup’. And maybe that’s what makes hutch so strong because most of them are vocalists anyway, they barely have to worry if one of them were not there. Hutch still managed to charm me as much as the first time I saw them and that’s no mean feat. Go see hutch at your earliest ability. Spang Sisters took the headline spot. I am utterly enthralled by the way they describe
themselves and how they talk about their music and almost everything else. Their sound changed with each song along with the energy in the room. A captivated crowd and I was looking at the flautist! Because who has a flautist? Spang Sisters that’s who, now you know. Once again, go see all of these bands at your earliest convenience and you will not be disappointed. On the third night of Triptych, Love Thy Neighbor gave to me; a post punk night. God, heart eyes. Toast were first on, a compilation tape of a band. Leila Deeley and Annabel Whittle of Lime Garden, Dan Cox and Owen Bullock of Sad Dads (Owen is also the drummer of Hutch) and honorary member Tom Coram of Porchlight on second guitar. Formed yonks ago at university, the band grace the stage with their first biyearly performance of 2022. Toast sound like Yard Act but they were before Yard Act so I’m determined to push the narrative that Yard Act stole Toast’s sound. The lyrics are funny and fuelled by social irony, they’re loud, very loud and its fucking beautiful. Porchlight were next, a wall of sound, filled to the brim with cowbell, screeching guitars and echoing vocals. If you like Black Midi, Squid or Folly Group you’ll love Porchlight. Their energy brought the crowd forward and their eyes
to centre stage where every single member of the band are running around like headless chickens, in a good way obviously. Porchlight sound like a band who have been touring for years and years and have sold over a million records. They’re tight, they’re put together, and they know what they want. Gorgeous. Finally Public Body fill the air with their soundwaves, their energy matching both bands before them. Lyricism about getting too drunk and being old. With an anecdote from guitarist Theo Verney about turning 30 and getting too drunk to accompany. Vocalist Seb Gilmore told us in 2020 that “Apparently we sound like Kaiser Chiefs, but also like Blur and then some other people have said The Fall. One person said I sound like Paul Weller… I don’t like any of that stuff so fuck knows what I’ve been doing.” So if you like any of those artists check out Public Body, same if you hate all of them. They might surprise you either way. I can promise you’ll laugh at least once in their set and probably enjoy at least one song.
TO RECAP; Love Thy Neighbour brought together eight of the most promising, amazing, energetic, heart wrenching, fully, marvellous bands for three nights of utter mayhem and if you weren’t there, not your fault, not everyone lives in Brighton. But listen to the bands. No excuses there. Go see them when they play narby. Buy a record, buy a t-shirt if you like them. Truly Triptych is the bringing together of the creme de la creme of the Brighton music scene and it did not disappoint, not in the slightest.
PICTURE: CHARLOTTE HORTON
HOME GROWN
WORDS: KIERAN WEBBER
Long Tonic
These five lovely gentlemen met at Falmouth University and haven’t looked back since. During their time in Cornwall they had the whole town spellbound with their groove riddled jams. It truly is hard not to fall in love with Long Tonic as their smooth vocals breeze over you, whisking you away to a world of comfort. All the whole swinging percussion, bass and sultry guitars serenade your body. It’s almost impossible to not dance or move to their music. It’s a real treat. It’s looking like 2022 will be a similar story and we’re here for it.
Daisy Clark
Daisy Clark has been stunning audiences locally in her hometown of Newquay and across the nation since her teenage years. She became known for her heartfelt songwriting and angelic vocals, not to mention her vibrant personality. Daisy has had an impressive career already, having played for the world leaders at the G7 summit and has been noticed by Billie Eilish. The blend of impressive songwriting, soft acoustic/indie pop sound, and stunning vocals makes Daisy one of Cornwall’s best exports. Keep an eye out for Daisy, she is no doubt on the edge if becoming a household name.
Factor 50
The Falmouth band have been making waves throughout the university town for the past year. They’ve fast become known as one of the town’s most promising, exciting, and exquisite new bands. Their blend of art rock and post-indie is a real infusion that thrives in a live environment, it’s a true spectacle. It’s still early days for the band but they’re showing great promise. There is no doubt that during 2022 the band are going to dominate the emerging post-punk/indie scene.
Flowers Of Palo
Flowers Of Palo have been dominating the Cornish music scene for the best part of two years. The big smoke has been an incredibly welcoming place for the band, who are now starting to build a strong fan base in the big smoke. It’s no surprise they’ve been able to build audiences wherever they go. Flowers Of Palo had an incredibly successful year in 2021, now as we enter 2022 they’ll be looking to keep the momentum up. Hopefully we see a release of an EP or debut LP.
THE REVIEWS
WE ASKED AND YOU ANSWERED, you wanted album reviews in the zine! So, we’re happy to announce that moving forward there will be album reviews in all our zines. Starting with this edition which sees reviews on some of the best releases of 2022 so far.
The Overload Yard Act prove they have a lot potential, and if they keep up at their current pace then exciting things are on the horizon. GEORGE WARD
The Overload is the debut album from Leeds postpunk band Yard Act. It is very on-the-nose and quite predictable but still fun to listen to. Yard Act are clearly aware of the tendency for some post-punk bands to take themselves a little too seriously. To counter this, every song is filled with as much irony and selfawareness as they can manage. The problem is that once you’ve worked out that this is what they are doing, it gets a bit repetitive. Almost every track is so mocking of those in power (deservedly) and they certainly don’t shy away from embodying and internally taking down these characters with narrow mindsets and prejudices. This is sometimes very funny but does become slightly boring after the first half of the album. When the band start to take themselves a little more seriously, while still including their trademark humour, like on ‘Tall Poppies’, these are actually some of the most interesting moments. ‘100% Endurance’ is a surprisingly touching ending and leaves us feeling just optimistic enough, without being overly sentimental. Instrumentally, the album starts energetically with ‘The Overload’ and generally manages to keep this energy up for most of the album. The slower tracks like ‘Rich’ do drag a bit but they pull you back in with tracks like ‘Witness (Can I Get A?)’. They would fit right in on a
festival stage and I’m looking forward to seeing them at End of The Road this summer. While I wasn’t blown away by The Overload, it does show a lot of potential, and if the band keep their energy and witty lyrics while going slightly less hard on the cynicism constantly, I’m excited to see what they do next.
beautiful song lyrically and while the first half is quiet and lyrical, the second half of the song slowly builds to a dramatic instrumental climax. Instrumentally, the album isn’t at all in-your-face and you have to let the songs, often above 6 minutes, breathe and develop at their own pace. The opening track, ‘Sundown’ is a massively slow-builder but when you reach the end and the sound explodes, you know that the wait has been worth it. They know exactly when to blow up and when to hold right back, like in the lovely acoustic track ‘Matt’s Song’ which is followed by the short and brutally distorted ‘Wrestle with Jimmy’.
Return GEORGE WARD
Return is the debut album from London slowcore band, deathcrash. deathcrash have been releasing music since 2019, with several singles and two EPs that gained the group quite a lot of hype. Their sound is melancholy but warm, combining devastating lyrics with gorgeous chords. Tiernan Banks’ vocals are hushed but emotional and fit perfectly with the sad yet cosy feel of the album. His lyrics are observational and very sad, often even devastatingly so. On highlight ‘American Metal’, he reflects on a relationship, tackling themes of depression and death; it is a bleak but
While I loved losing myself in Return’s atmosphere, its runtime of 1h5mins is slightly too long and the album would benefit from dropping a minute off some tracks. This is not to say there are any bad tracks here, just that deathcrash could create something just as absorbing in less time, as seen by their shorter EPs. deathcrash are brilliant at creating an atmosphere and once you’re in, you can relax and let their noise surround you. Return is a slow-moving album and one that requires a lot of patience, but if you give it time, it is incredibly rewarding.
LP3 LUKE JAMES
As the title suggests, LP3 is the third album from Minnesotan quintet Hippo Campus. When the band released their EP Bad Dream Baby in 2021, it hinted at a new direction from their first two albums and LP3 sees them take these ideas and run. Opening two tracks 2 Young To Die and Blew Its sees Hippo Campus lean heavily on the electronic side with barely a guitar in sight. Still with their indie and pop sensibility, Hippo Campus infuse each song with their beyond cool songwriting making them gorgeous indie/electronic hybrids. The guitars make up for lost time on Ashtray which feels almost like a Bombay Bicycle Club track with the beautiful guitar work sitting on top of the simple drumbeat. Add to that a couple of timing changes and it’s clear that Hippo Campus know how to keep tracks interesting. Singles Bang Bang and Semi Pro are indie pop heavyweights. Seemingly purpose written for summer, each track bursts to life and has that laid-back vibe that Hippo Campus do so well.
Ride Or Die feels like a Vampire Weekend cut with bouncing reggae-light drums, summer vibes and a production so tight you could bounce a coin off it. In both their Bad Dream Baby EP and on LP3, Hippo Campus have not only found a new direction, they’ve found a new lease of life. Each song on LP3 is a bonafide pop hit with the creative percussion and inventive guitar work underpinning Jake Luppen’s smooth vocals. LP3’s production is as clean as they come, and Hippo Campus are a band that are as cool as they come. From start to finish, LP3 is an indie pop gem that is the sound of a band elevating themselves to iconic status.
In A Middle English Town LUKE JAMES
As Home Counties bounce in to the first track on their latest EP In A Middle English Town, the energy is immediate and their quirkiness a joy. Although the influences of Gang Of Four, Devo and Talking Heads are there to be heard, Home Counties have still created a sound that feels fresh. Taking on the weighty topic of economic policy on opener Back To
70’s, synth player Bam reads a spoken word piece over the band’s off kilter guitar, space age synth and a rhythm section that sets a solid foundation. Home Counties carries on the sideways poppy art punk on their track The Home Counties, a track about the mundanity of middle class white family life. The odd whistling synth noises crashing together with the quirky guitar create a noise that is anything but mundane. If Home Counties were just left of pop before, Ad Gammon sees them take it even further. Angular synth and electronic drums create a borderline uncomfortable backing that builds over the track to create a wall of digital noise. Village Spirit brings In A Middle English Town to a close with a dose of alt pop that wouldn’t be out of place on a Talking Heads record. Lyrically based on a story of a nobleman being murdered by a mob based on the power rumours can have on a collective, it’s not the most traditional of choices and yet still fits as a commentary on modern life. Set to a backing with an almost reggae beat and angular, sporadic guitars, it brings things back to as close to normal as you can get with a band such as Home Counties. In A Middle English Town is about as left field as an indie pop record can get. With one foot in pop and one in post punk, Home Counties create a sound that feels like freedom of genre restrictions and it will be interesting to see where they go next.
WE LUKE JAMES
WE is the latest release on Alcopop! Records and the debut of three-piece Lady Bird. Fusing multiple genres, Lady Bird come out of the gates swinging with opener Guided Hesitation. The blistering guitars and drums are the artillery that lay ground fire for vocalist Don Bird’s poetic delivery which feels like a cross between Johnny Rotten and Idles frontman Joe Talbot. As a statement of intent, Guided Hesitation certainly grabs your attention. Bludsuckers soon swaggers in with buzzsaw staccato guitars backed up with all the attitude and indie pop grandness of early Arctic Monkeys. A song about people that drain your energy, it’s certainly a topic that a lot of us can empathise with. After the furious garage punk twin attack of Factory Fool and Infants, Lady Bird show their range with Individualism which is a grand pop gem. All major chords and joy, it feels like an anthemic break from their brand of abrasive, sweat-inducing post punk. Title track WE is as vulnerable a track as you
can get. A tribute to his late father, guitarist Alex takes the lead on WE with only an acoustic guitar for support. As the guitar strums it’s last chord, you can hear how raw the emotion is when the microphone is left on and you can hear Alex letting the tears go. Karma soon crashes in to get things back on track with Don’s vocals spat over a beastly guitar tone playing a single note riff that doesn’t sound empty despite only being guitar with an octave pedal. As a three piece, Lady Bird create one hell of a noise. With a sound that takes in everything from punk to indie to hardcore to post punk, Lady Bird manage to keep consistency in the sound and have planted a flag in their own little corner of the musical globe.
Let the Festivities Begin! CLUNY POWELL
Prior to listening to this album, I had not heard of London-based pancontinental band Los Bitchos, so did not know what to expect at all. Their Spotify “About” section describes their music as ‘having the fiesta of your lives under a giant piñata’,
which perfectly describes the feeling of Los Bitchos’ debut album ‘Let the Festivities Begin!’. Sitting in the abnormally large kitchen hatch at my dad’s house I pressed play on ‘Let the Festivities Begin!’ for the first time. Not until about a song and a half into the funky bass heavy, AfroLatin dance music inspired album did I realise, that to my great surprise, Los Bitchos are an instrumental band - I guess you cannot judge a book by its cover, or whatever the music alternative of that would be. The few vocals that are included on this album on the latter half of second song ‘I Enjoy It’ are reminiscent of Mac Demarco, whilst still encapsulating the feeling of summer with the Latin guitar that is featured throughout the album. 2021 single ‘Las Panteras’ really stood out, as the middle eight features what feels like a more indie Two Door Cinema Club influence, which somehow both juxtaposes and compliments the song and album as a whole. The other singles released on the run-up to this album ‘Pista (Fresh Start)’ and ‘Good to Go!’ capsulise the emotion of ‘Let the Festivities Begin!’. This album encapsulates a summer vibe that has a refreshing optimistic feel. It’s not hard to imagine it being played at a picnic in a park surrounded by friends and good food or echoing across the fields of a music festival, everyone dancing, dressed in wild glittery outfits.
Fix Yourself, Not The World LUKE JAMES
The Wombats seem to have been going longer than some newer bands have been alive. Fix Yourself, Not The World marks their fifth full studio album and sees them show no sign of slowing down. Packed with the usual mix of anthems, dancefloor fillers and modern pop indie loveliness, Fix Yourself, Not The World starts things off in surefooted style. Flip Me Upside Down pumps along with a frenetic bounce that’s sure to light up mosh pits and dance floors alike. It doesn’t take long for The Wombats to unleash their anthems with This Car Drives All By Itself and If You Ever Leave, I’m Coming With You. Each track seems so familiar such is the songwriting of The Wombats with the ability to create a sound that is so unmistakably them. People Don’t Change People, Time Does has a touch of the Fleetwood Mac about it with a slightly hazy feel to the acoustic guitar that sits comfortably underneath the electric guitar sliding over the top of it. Although The Wombats’ sound is familiar, each record still somehow sounds fresh. Still with that
youthful energy about it and lyrics that seem to both at times be obscure and entirely relatable like in Everything I Love Is Going To Die (“sometimes I go to mars in my head, sometimes I don’t leave town”). The Wombats seem to speak to any generation that wants to pick up on the message they’re sending out. Considering their debut album was released fifteen years ago, The Wombats are showing no signs of aging and Fix Yourself, Not The World is the sound of a band in their absolute element.
Harbours LUKE JAMES
Webmoms (or Karum as he’s better known) and Ciaran Austin didn’t have the most conventional introductions to each other to kick off this project. Challenged to make a track together by the BBC Introducing teams ‘random artist collab’ scheme, the creative juices started flowing which led to them writing an EP together entitled Harbours. 6 Hours is the track that started it all and opens the EP. With an open air feel to it, it
can speak to anyone but feels like it’s best enjoyed driving to a secluded Cornish beach. The guest vocals from 3lin lend 6 Hours a jazz feel which is echoed in the subtlety played guitar laced around the track. Starsigns with its lazy drum beat and grainy piano track lay a soft background for Ciaran’s laidback rapping. The lyrics are open and honest (“this hobby’s only valid if it’s something I can sell”) and with a flow that’s as smooth as the music, you can see why Webmoms and Ciaran work well together. As the embers of Starsigns float off, the hazy, grainy synth of Fortress seeps in with the simple drum beat underpinning layers that compliment each other but never overpower. Once again, Ciaran’s flow works perfectly with the music as he tells tales of love. Throughout Harbours, Webmoms has created music that is at the same time intricate and simple. When you give yourself to the music, you’ll hear layers and sounds dip in and out to create a musical tapestry that speaks of clear blue skies and hot weather. Ciaran’s vocals throughout work beautifully with the music both in flow and lyrical content. Taking influence from hip hop, jazz and r&b, Harbours seems to have a voice of its own and it’s a mesmerising one.
YOUTH SECTOR Adult Contempary LUKE JAMES
After their impressive debut EP ‘Mundanity’, Brighton five-piece Youth Sector are back again with new EP Adult Contemporary. Exploding in with a burst of youthful exuberance, Self Exile sets off the party in impressive style. The tightly wound art pop gem manages to show off each member of Youth Sector but never to the detriment of the song. The relentless energy of the drums, the dancing bass lines and the staccato guitar lines all set up to support Nick Tompkins infectious vocals. No. 1 Bestseller comes across as an 80’s art pop song in everything from the cheeky guitar to the wobbly synth. This song about the cost of wellness and how companies are trying to sell you self-help has a joyous vibe about it that’s undeniable. Compared to the relatively upbeat tone of the previous two songs, Always, Always, Always has an unnerving feel to it as it erupts through your speakers.
Once the chorus hits though, it lifts the whole track and has a fun, anthemic quality to it. This change in tone is handled so deftly between verse and chorus it’s barely even noticeable but definitely enjoyable. Is Blood jitters in to finish up Adult Contemporary and it is yet another tightly wound indie pop dancealong. With the spasming guitars taking turns cutting in and out, the drums keep the tempo going as the bass flutters about the fretboard with abandon. The youthful energy and upbeat vibes of Adult Contemporary are infectious from start to finish and the production is raw and honest. Youth Sector sit comfortably between the pop of a band like Talking Heads and the art indie of Maximo Park. They are their own entity though and you can’t help but feel that this is just the beginning of a great journey.
THANK YOU On behalf of the entire CLUNK team, I want to thank you the reader for continuing to read and engage with us. When we created this physical publication during the lockdown of last year we had no idea how it would be received. It has always been something we have aspired to do, and with your support we have managed to continue to do so! I want to thank all the writers, contributors and photographers who have dedicated their time to researching and conducting some exceptional interviews for this zine. Every thought counts. I would also like to say a special thanks to Kieran Webber for his support and dedication to Clunk. None of this would be possible without him. Finally, I would like to thank all the musicians who contributed to this Zine. Till next time guys.
FELIX BARTLETT PRint editor
ILLUSTRATION: @red_moon_design
