DIY, July 2022

ISSUE 120 • JULY 2022 DIYMAG.COM

Maggie Rogers George Ezra Viagra Boys Hayley Kiyoko and more

Flo Milli is riding 2022 all the way to the bank

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HELLO JULY HELLO

Question!

It's official: festival season is very much in full swing!

But of all the sets Team DIY have watched across the summer so far, who's been the stand-out?

SARAH JAMIESON • Managing Editor While Arlo Parks’ set at Live at Leeds in the Park was joyous, seeing girl in red’s infectious performance at Montreux Jazz Festival was seriously incredible too.

EMMA SWANN • Founding Editor It may have been partly the result of me and camping being terrible bedfellows, but I shed a few emo tears at Wolf Alice’s Glastonbury set. And if we're talking expectations vs reality, then Pixies bringing out most of the bangers at Mad Cool did much to distract from the searing heat.

LISA WRIGHT • Features Editor Still slightly reeling from Kendrick's theatrical tour-de-force at Glastonbury (see p11 for more on that!). So stylish, so smart, so full of absolute slammers. 11/10.

LOUISE MASON • Art Director I have a newfound unexpected wild adoration for 100 gecs, their 3am set in Barcelona was absolutely ideal.

ELLY WATSON • Digital Editor Grimes dropping ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You’ during her DJ set in the early hours at Primavera was both surreal and iconic.

Editor ,s

Letter

Over the past three years, the ascent of Flo Milli has been wild, with each release from debut ‘Beef FloMix’ seeing the Alabama rapper’s star rise even further. Now, she’s gearing up for her next masterstroke - the release of debut album ‘You Still Here, Ho?’ this month - and we sat down with her to mark the occasion, and find out exactly what’s to come.

Elsewhere this issue, we dive into the delightfully bizarre world of Viagra Boys’ new release, catch up with Maggie Rogers as she returns with her second album, and speak to Hayley Kiyoko about the journey she had to undertake to reach ‘Panorama’. Plus, we’ve got you a bumper-sized report on the almighty return of Glastonbury; frankly, we’re still not over it…

Sarah Jamieson, Managing Editor

Listening Post CARLY RAE JEPSEN - WESTERN WIND Two years on since she dropped ‘Dedicated B’, Carly looks like she’s getting ready to dazzle us with even more pop gems, hopefully in the form of a new album very soon. Until then, we’ll be jamming out to her dreamy latest ‘Western Wind’.

LIZZO - SPECIAL After already giving us a viral hit, Lizzo’s fourth album ‘Special’ is set to be exactly what it says on the tin. Stay tuned for closing track ‘Coldplay’ which (according to Wikipedia) is set to feature the titular band themselves.

JONAS BROTHERS - BURNIN’ UP It’s about to hit 34 degrees in London. Enough said.

ISSUE PLAYLIST

Scan the Spotify code to listen to our June playlist now.

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C o n t e n t s

News

6 G las to nb u r y 1 2 G eo rg e Ez r a 1 6 Fes tivals

NEU 20 22 24 26

REVIEWS 5 4 Alb ums 6 4 Live

28 34 Flo Milli

Maggie Rogers

38

Working Men’s Club

42 46 Katy J Pearson

Viagra Boys

Shout out to: Olivia at Sony for pulling our cover together quickly; Chris Cuff and all at Good Machine for hosting us and our Viagra Boys feature at Primavera; State51 for the continued studio support, and Glastonbury for being the greatest place on earth and having us on your hallowed grounds once again.

Founding Editor Emma Swann Managing Editor Sarah Jamieson Features Editor Lisa Wright Digital Editor Elly Watson Art Direction & Design Louise Mason Contributors Alisdair Grice, Ben Tipple, Bryony Holdsworth, Cady Siregar, Chris Hamilton-Peach, Cordelia Lam, Dylan Shortridge, Ed Miles, El Hardwick, Elvis Thirlwell, Emma Wilkes, Ims Taylor, Jenessa Williams, Jenn Five, Laura Molloy, Matt Ganfield, Nicolas-Tyrell Scott, Ross Carley, Ryan Bell, Vendy Palkovičová, Will Richards.

For DIY editorial: info@diymag.com For DIY sales: advertise@diymag.com For DIY stockist enquiries: stockists@diymag.com All material copyright (c). All rights reserved. This publication may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form, in whole or in part, without the express written permission of DIY. Disclaimer: While every effort is made to ensure the information in this magazine is correct, changes can occur which affect the accuracy of copy, for which DIY holds no responsibility.

The opinions of the contributors do not necessarily bear a relation to those of DIY or its staff and we disclaim liability for those impressions. Distributed nationally.

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E numcla w Willo w K a y n e Cr awler s Naima B o c k

50 Hayley Kiyoko

UPCOMING LONDON SHOWS FROM ROCKFEEDBACK JULY

VISIONS FESTIVAL 23 JULY East London AUGUST

TORRES

22 AUGUST Bush Hall

NATALIE BERGMAN

25 AUGUST St Pancras Old Church

MINI TREES

30 AUGUST The Lexington

MONO

BOY & BEAR

JULIE ODELL 16 NOVEMBER The Lexington

SOCCER MOMMY

CHARLOTTE CORNFIELD

BILLY NOMATES 22 NOVEMBER Village Underground

LAURAN HIBBERD

THE DREAM SYNDICATE

NATION OF LANGUAGE 24 NOVEMBER Electric Brixton

PORIJ

LET’S EAT GRANDMA

KISHI BASHI 26 NOVEMBER EartH

16 SEPTEMBER Electric Ballroom 22 SEPTEMBER O2 Forum Kentish Town 22 SEPTEMBER The Garage

23 SEPTEMBER Heaven

15 OCTOBER Hackney Church 17 OCTOBER The Lexington 18 OCTOBER Lafayette

19 OCTOBER KOKO

I LIKE TRAINS

JANUARY

30 SEPTEMBER EartH

SHABAZZ PALACES 01 JANUARY Lafayette

OCTOBBER

MUSH

FEBRUARY

03 OCTOBER The Lexington

STARS 11 FEBRUARY Lafayette

REAL LIES 06 OCTOBER Heaven

PRINCESS CHELSEA 10 OCTOBER Moth Club SEPTEMBER

KEVIN MORBY 01 SEPTEMBER Hoxton Hall

KNOWER

02 SEPTEMBER Heaven

COCO

02 SEPTEMBER Omeara

STRAND OF OAKS 10 SEPTEMBER Lafayette

DANA GAVANSKI 12 SEPTEMBER Moth Club

DUCKS LTD.

15 SEPTEMBER Windmill Brixton

THE WAEVE 10 OCTOBER Lafayette

LAUNDROMAT 12 OCTOBER Moth Club

CJ PANDIT

12 OCTOBER The Lexington

TORO Y MOI

12 OCTOBER Hackney Church

CASS MCCOMBS

13 OCTOBER Alexandra Palace Theatre

!!!

14 OCTOBER Heaven

ALICE PHOEBE LOU 27 OCTOBER Hackney Church

THE SOFT MOON 27 OCTOBER The Garage

MARCH FATHER JOHN MISTY 09 MARCH O2 Academy Brixton

WESTERMAN 28 OCTOBER Union Chapel

MURKAGE DAVE

29 OCTOBER Islington Assembly Hall

FRIZZI 2 FULCI 31 OCTOBER Union Chapel NOVEMBER LOW ROAR 03 NOVEMBER EartH KIEYAA 03 NOVEMBER Colour Factory

MORE INFORMATION AND TICKETS: ROCKFEEDBACKCONCERTS.COM

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THE LIBERTINES

YARD ACT BASTILLE

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T

radition dictates that Friday’s Other Stage opener should be an artist technically far too large for the spot, and so whilst it’s a bizarre sight to see the infamously not-that-punctual Libertines rocking up promptly for 11.30am, there’s a quintessentially Glastonbury type of jolly idiosyncrasy to the whole affair. Crucially (and not a given), the band still sound genuinely tight and brilliant; ‘Can’t Stand Me Now’, ‘Horror Show’, ‘Don’t Look Back Into The Sun’ et al remain some of ‘00s indie’s highest highs. And it’s Pete that actually seems to be ageing somewhat more gracefully these days too - if the flat cap and hoodie combo of today isn’t quite as it was then maybe that’s better than Carl’s braces and trilby-cum-top-hat that won’t let the 2003 Camden dream die. Either way, the field is rammed, and there’s something emotional about seeing the band greeted with such love still.

FRIDAY

THURSDAY

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NOVA TWINS

GLASTO O

T

hursday evening usually finds William’s Green hosting a series of unannounced sets with, in previous years, the likes of Wolf Alice, Rat Boy and Yak given the task of warming up the masses for the weekend's ensuing chaos. Tonight Bastille - also a veteran of this spot - have roped in Ol' Dirty Brasstards for the occasion. In a manner not unlike the band's Re-Orchestrated outing, which saw songs reimagined alongside a full blown orchestra, the short set sees Dan Smith and co’s big hitters similarly peppered with bombastic brass.

Finishing with a triumphant 'Pompeii', it's a little wholesome fun to kick off a weekend which, for many, will be anything but.

Over on the Truth stage, Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs’ mammoth, Sabbath-y riffs and visceral thrills feel purpose-made for the area’s leftie political messaging and rousing, painted slogans. They clearly agree too; “We were offered a slot on a bigger stage but it felt important that we play here,” singer Matthew Baty declares with a glint in his eye. “Paul McCartney was actually their second choice…”. If the latter part of his statement might be a slight exaggeration, then Pigs could certainly show the Pyramid Stage a good time nonetheless. Dressed in vest and shorts like a punk Freddie Mercury, Matthew’s stage presence could rival IDLES’ Joe Talbot for cathartic, playful energy, for a start.

Having spent the last year slaying massive arenas on a series of hefty support tours, Nova Twins are a slick machine these days. Midway through their following Truth stage headline set, the duo’s sound almost entirely cuts out bar bassist Georgia South’s mic, but singer Amy Love barely misses a beat, switching sides and firing out lyrics a cappella. When their hefty riffs kick back in, it only serves to emphasise just how powerful a unit the pair have become - recent single ‘Cleopatra’ landing as an uncompromising, heavy ode to Black women, and cuts from second LP ‘Supernova’ sounding as laser-focused as any top tier rock band.

Over on The Park stage, the rise and rise of Wet Leg shows no sign of abating. With the field packed to the point of ridiculousness, it’s impossible to hear let alone see the band from the vantage point of 60% of the crowd but that doesn’t stop a final ‘Chaise Longue’ becoming likely one of the biggest singalongs of the weekend.

Meanwhile, the award for most stressful road to Glastonbury surely goes to Wolf Alice, who’ve spent the past 24 hours desperately updating the internet whilst being stuck in LA. Praise be to the Glastonbury gods for delivering the band in time for

their Pyramid stage set, however, as the Londoners are on the form of their lives, the additional wares of chart-topping third LP ‘Blue Weekend’ endowing them with a set that thrashes one moment (‘Play The Greatest Hits’ is augmented by a cheeky flashing graphic of ‘It is isn’t loud enough’ throughout) and swells with emotion the next.

The quartet are masters of the lot, Ellie Rowsell’s Grecian wedding dress aesthetic at perfect odds with the snarl of ‘Giant Peach’ or an opening, heavyriffing ‘Smile’.

Over on William’s Green, Yard Act might only be on their first Glastonbury but they more than know how to play to their audience. Whether instigating chants of “Somerset!” or spending the last part of ‘Land of the Blind’ attempting to collect cash from the front row and fielding off offers of pills, James Smith is a frontman with the emphasis on entertainment.

Of course, they have the material to ensure the edges are kept in still, and early tracks ‘Fixer Upper’ and ‘Dark Days’ are greeted like old classics from a crowd that laps it up.

Using her set to lead a chant of “Fuck the Supreme Court” in response to the overturning of women’s rights to abortions in America, Phoebe

FOALS

WOLF ALICE

WET LEG

O IS GO WORDS: LISA WRIGHT, EMMA SWANN. PHOTOS: EMMA SWANN, LOUISE MASON.

AFTER TWO YEARS AWAY, THE GREATEST FESTIVAL ON EARTH RETURNED LAST MONTH WITH A SPECTACULAR BANG. FROM POLITICAL PROTESTS, TO PARTY-STARTING POP HITS TO PAUL MCCARTNEY: HERE’S HOW IT ALL WENT DOWN.

Bridgers’ set is a charged affair over on the John Peel stage. Yet between the rightful anger, there are moments of levity and even a guest spot from Arlo Parks, who pops up for a rendition of ‘Graceland Too’.

Over on the Pyramid, meanwhile, Sam Fender is greeted like a future headliner and looks visibly taken aback by the reception, pausing to acknowledge the moment before ‘Seventeen Going Under’ rallies the field in a way that feels historymaking. Socially-charged and ringing with pain and defiance, to see a crowd of this size bellowing these sentiments in unison feels like the exact point of a festival like Glastonbury, where politics and community sit as important bedfellows.

Having released two full LPs since they last graced Worthy Farm’s stages, Foals’ Other Stage headline set could be twice the length and barely touch the sides of their now-hefty catalogue. Cherry-picking through seven albums in a far-tooshort 1hr15, they opt for a set of two halves; an early run of ‘My Number’, ‘In Degrees’ (complete with confetti cannon) and ‘2001’ delivering the party before the band sledgehammer into a fivefor-five end game that feels gargantuan in its weighty riffs and cathartic, moshing peaks.

Professional festival slayers, Foals always understand the assignment.

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Billie Eilish

M

uch has been made of Billie Eilish’s arrival as Glastonbury’s youngest-ever headliner, and the jump from her early-evening Other Stage appearance back in 2019 (itself a necessary upgrade from her booked John Peel Stage slot) is a mighty big one, to say the least. It can only be a positive, however, that this accolade has visibly reduced the average age of the crowd in front of the Pyramid Stage in tandem: proof enough that Glastonbury isn't content to be a mere nostalgia fest, recycling the same old, same old.

Cribbing mostly from Billie's current arena show - the staging an adapted version; the setlist a streamlined take - tonight’s set runs the risk of acting as little more than a ticked-off stop on her round-the-world trip.

The impact of album tracks is sometimes lost on the far-reaches of the crowd, and the glitchy visual effects used on the giant screens obscure any real view of her through the endless sea of flags.

Then, a giggle. A pause in the meticulously-rehearsed sequence, inciting deafening screams and a visibly-

overwhelmed Billie taking stock, and it’s game on.

Fireworks ping across the Pyramid, whilst 3D triangular shapes are formed by a series of lasers around the singer. ‘Oxytocin’ creates a rave-like atmosphere with its EDM-nodding synths and thunderous drums; ‘Your Power’, for which Billie is joined at the front by brother Finneas, is introduced with an emotionally-exhausted reference to the US Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v Wade earlier in the day; a funkier ‘Lost Cause’ puts forth the melodramatic side of the song, while ‘when the party’s over’ makes for a true festival peopleon-shoulders moment.

“You guys are fucking troopers with your tents and shit,” she laughs, before starting the final one-two of ‘bad guy’ and ‘Happier Than Ever’ - the former a riotous party, the latter crashing into the kind of crescendo most fully-realised rock bands would be envious of.

There’s no encore, and there may not have been any of the much-rumoured special guests, but killing it as Glastonbury’s youngest headliner ever? No problem at all.

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GLASTO IS GO OLIVIA RODRIGO

SATURDAY

O

G

lastonbury’s heavyweight Saturday kicks off with a secret set from today’s BBC Introducing stage

curators IDLES, who begin proceedings with a top-to-tail run through of debut ‘Brutalism’.

Taking the opportunity to return to his OG aesthetic of performing solely in a small pair of pants, guitarist Mark Bowen isn’t the only one revelling in the fun of it all; first declaring “Hi, we’re Green Day” as a nod to the (very silly) rumours of Billy Joe and co playing the stage that day, before leading the crowd in not one but two sing-alongs of ‘Wonderwall’, Joe Talbot is clearly having a blast.

Mid-afternoon brings with it a trio of bona fide Glastonbury Moments. First up on the John Peel stage, Self Esteem’s long-deserved breakthrough is steaming ahead in full force, as the packed tent attests. Of course, ‘Prioritise Pleasure’ contains enough rousing manifestos to speak for itself, but it’s when Rebecca Taylor dedicates the supportive swell of ‘The 345’ to “our sisters in America, fucking hell” that all its cries of frustration feel rooted in the here and now.

On the Other Stage, Olivia Rodrigo delivers a masterclass in how to rinse every possible moment of magic from a festival set. From the teasing, delayed opening of ‘Brutal’ through to a cover of Avril Lavigne’s ‘Complicated’ via a set that finds the singer using every inch of the stage as her playground, Olivia might still be in her teens but there’s not even a shred of nerves or self-doubt to be seen here. Midway through the set, she too references the previous day’s overturning of Roe vs Wade, calling out “the five justices who don’t give a shit about women” by name before bringing out Lily Allen for a duet of the latter’s ‘Fuck You’. It’s a perfect moment in a set that draws easy parallels to Billie’s 2019 Glastonbury debut on the same stage; Eilish returned as a headliner, Rodrigo could be on her way to the same.

Glass Animals, too, are clearly having the time of their lives. Gleefully dancing around their pool bar-themed stage set complete with neon signs and a pink pyramid (a stage they could have easily filled), Dave spends the entirety of a closing ‘Heatwaves’ looking like he’s about to burst with joy while repeatedly declaring to the adoring crowd how mad he’s finding the situation.

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SELF ESTEEM

IDLES

WORLD WIDE POP THE NEW ALBUM 15TH JULY 2022

CD/LP/DIGITAL 9

GLASTO IS GO SUNDAY

CHARLI XCX

C

harli XCX might be up against it: her John Peel Stage headline has her combatting not only Kendrick Lamar, but also Pet Shop Boys (who inevitably invite preceding act Years & Years’ Olly Alexander on for 'It's A Sin') leading the party over on the Other Stage. However the audience has filled out by the time a leather-clad Charli - flanked by two similarly-dressed dancers and Grecian pillars - emerges from the mist to treat Sunday night’s revellers to a set that leans heavily on recent LP 'Crash'. The Charli-penned Icona Pop hit 'I Love It' does get a look in, as well as 'Boom Clap' from her earlier guises, but that's it. It's a pop party in full swing and, looking around the cavernous tent, those inside are going hard before going home.

Over on the Park Stage, the secret’s out as to the afternoon’s special guest and it’s a sizeable crowd that pile in to watch Jack White storm through the

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PET SHOP BOYS

Paul McCartney

s soon as the catalogue of career-spanning images that act as a visual warm-up on the Pyramid’s screens begin to roll, there’s a sense that tonight’s set is - of course - The Big One. Much like The Rolling Stones’ headline in 2013, Paul McCartney’s long-awaited headline is right at the peak of the Glastonbury bucket list, and the following near-on three hours is a unifying, emotional, glorious celebration of a musician who changed the game forever. In some ways, the best moments are the smaller ones. Yes, of course there are fewer more next-level sights than that of Macca, Bruce Springsteen and Dave Grohl all jamming out Beatles songs on the same stage - a moment that will go down in Glasto folklore as almost certainly the most high-profile collaboration the festival has or will ever see. But it’s when the Beatle plays a stripped-down version of ‘Something’ in memory of George Harrison, or runs through ‘Love

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Me Do’ just on an acoustic and harmonica that you remember how such simple things changed history.

He returns for an encore that begins with ‘Let It Be’ track ‘I’ve Got A Feeling’, during which a performance video and isolated vocal of John Lennon allows the pair to ‘duet’ - the contradiction between Lennon’s voice from back then and McCartney’s older tones a poignant one. “I know it’s virtual but that was so special. Come on man, it’s John - we're back together,” he declares in a moment that’s overwhelmingly moving and about as close as we’ll ever get to watching The Beatles on stage again.

Sure, there are a few too many modern solo tracks peppered throughout, but you can allow him that: as far as headline sets go, it’s impossible to imagine one bigger and more steeped in history than this.

JACK WHITE

classics. The less said about the guitar hero’s acid-washed jeans the better, but anything can be forgiven when you’ve got this many bonafide anthems.

White knows exactly how to play to a crowd and so we get a jaunty hoe-down version of ‘Hotel Yorba’ into the pinging fizz of solo highlight ‘Lazaretto’ into The Dead Weather’s stormy ‘I Cut Like A Buffalo’. Of course, the set ends as always with a sing-along ‘Seven Nation Army’, but even its ubiquitous riff gets a new lease of fun set against the glowing Glastonbury sun.

Opening with Pulp track ‘She’s A Lady’, Jarv Is… might play a wildcard by kicking off with a classic, but his new band are a world away from his first.

Instead, the likes of ‘Must I Evolve’ with its robotic backing chants or ‘Sometimes I Am Pharaoh’’s dense walls of sound hit darker and more menacingly - Jarvis conducting the storm from atop a platform, angular dance moves still, thankfully, intact.

Rewind to earlier in the afternoon and, over on The Other Stage,

DECLAN MCKENNA

Declan McKenna is channelling the aesthetic of a sort of souped-up boy scout, bursting with the wacky energy of a kid doing knee slides at a wedding. Meanwhile, over the way on the Pyramid Stage, Diana Ross’ much-anticipated Legend’s Slot comes backed by beaming sun and effortless good vibes.

Decked in a sparkling silver gown and purple fascinator, from the moment she comes out to ‘I’m Coming Out’ (see what she did there?), the iconic singer feels like she’s on the way to a comfortable, easy win. With the back catalogue to easily justify the slot (‘Baby Love’, ‘Chain Reaction’, ‘Upside Down’ and oodles more get an outing), she peppers the hits with shimmying moves declaring that she “still feels 48”, thus fulfilling the titular slot brief with charming aplomb. For a festival that thrives on its breadth - highlighting the new, applauding the old and raising superstars up to their dizziest heights Sunday feels like the perfect ending.

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Kendrick Lamar

L

ike a powerful, theatrical cross between David Byrne’s ‘American Utopia’ show and Beyoncé’s Coachella spectacle, Sunday night of Glastonbury 2022 closes with a jaw-dropping headline from Kendrick Lamar that should by rights go down as one of the best the festival has ever seen.

Entering wearing a white tux and a sparkling silver crown of thorns, everything about the perfectly-choreographed 90 minutes that follows is visually stunning: as much a work of art as a thrilling live show. Separated into sections roughly moving through his albums, from ‘good kid, m.A.A.d city’ through ‘To Pimp a Butterfly’ and then 2017’s ‘DAMN.’ (with cuts from this year’s ‘Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers’ peppered throughout), the structure combined with the aesthetic makes it feel like the acts of a play.

A troupe of Black male dancers with a subtle military nod augment the first section before we’re plunged into darkness; a group of soft, tulle-clad female dancers come to cradle and nurture the singer on the second; the lighting is stark and white, lyrics blasted onto the background with mirrors placed tactically.

All of the drama, meanwhile, comes offset by a set that’s so hit-packed, and delivered so flawlessly, there’s no doubt whatsoever that Kendrick is at the absolute peak of his game. Laser-focused throughout, whether he’s exorcising demons on ‘United In Grief’ or a thrilling ‘The Blacker the Berry’, or uniting the crowd with an indomitable ‘King Kunta’ or ‘Bitch Don’t Kill My Vibe’, Kendrick is a magnetic commander of the stage, acquiescing to some light left side-right side competition on occasion but primarily just surveying his kingdom, taking it all in.

He ends with ‘Mr. Morale…’’s ‘Saviour’, crown of thorns dripping blood down his face and splattering his shirt as he changes its final lines in solidarity: “They judge you, they judge Christ, godspeed for women’s rights”. Repeating the refrain over and over, it’s an unforgettable final tableau on a show that feels as singular and special as a headline set could be.

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NEWS

“I don’t hate my first two records at all, I just don’t want to listen to them.”

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DIY In Deep is our monthly, onlinecentric chance to dig into a longer profile on some of the most exciting artists in the world right now.

On third album ‘Gold Rush Kid’, the UK's favourite happy-golucky hitmaker George Ezra is taking stock and looking for something a little deeper.

Words: Elly Watson.

DIY in deep

Happiness THE PURSUIT OF

O

ver 18 months since George Ezra rounded off the run for his fourtimes-platinum-selling second album ‘Staying At Tamara’s’ - a stint which ended in two sold-out shows at London’s Royal Albert Hall - he’s stood side of stage, minutes before his comeback at The London Palladium, thinking just one thing: “What the fuck do you do now?”

“You’ve essentially invited however many people into this room to share this thing, but you don’t even know what it is you’re sharing with them,” he recalls contemplating.

He soon found his stride, however, and now George remembers getting a bit emotional during that “special” performance back in April - especially, he says, after seeing the reaction from fans singing along to every word. “It’s like, you have a fan base, and you have a catalogue to pick from live. That’s fucking weird!” he laughs. “I guess that’s just the way things go, isn’t it? Things progress under your nose and you don’t really recognise it in real time.”

It’s easy to see how George’s career must feel a bit of a blur to him, having first risen to levels of pop ubiquity almost a decade ago with 2014 debut album ‘Wanted on Voyage’ - a record inspired by trips around Europe during his late teens and early twenties. When ‘Staying At Tamara’s’ arrived four years later, the anthemic single ‘Shotgun’ quickly became an undisputed sound of 2018’s summer, and the record once again saw him ascend to the UK charts’ top spot. With an immediate knack for earworm hits, the Hertfordshire-born singersongwriter’s spotlight doesn’t seem to be waning any time soon.

Looking back on those early years, George is open about how the sudden nature of his success affected him. Though on stage he was gleefully singing about “bikini bottoms” and “lager tops,” he admits now that he found it hard to cope as he navigated his

newfound fame. Having previously spoken about how he suffers from Pure O, a form of OCD, he recalls often feeling stressed over venturing into the outside world for fear of being recognised in the street, concerned that everyone was obsessed with who he was or what he was doing. “It’s not the end of the world, [but] I used to feel that it was the end of the world sometimes,” he shares.

It’s something that he’s had to come to terms with gradually. “What I’ve now realised is for a song [like ‘Shotgun’] to have that level of success, a lot of the audience that are enjoying it are kind of passive, they’re not necessarily concerned with who you are. I didn’t know that at the time,” he explains. “I love that song and it still makes me happy and I stand by it. It’s a hard ask of yourself, especially as young as I was, to go away and make sense of that.”

Having the work of your formative years still so prominently in the spotlight must be difficult, and though he still very much backs tracks like ‘Shotgun’, George does admit that he previously had a tendency to “cringe” when listening back to some of his older material.

“I woke up about six months ago and I couldn’t sleep, [so] I went downstairs and put on a vinyl,” he recalls, smiling. “I was going through my records and found a white label, so I was like, this can only

be one of two records, either ‘Wanted On Voyage’ or ‘Staying At Tamara’s’… I put it on and it’s the B-side of the first album and I was like, it sounds so weird!

But for the first time, I was able to sit through it and not cringe.

“I just wanted to hug me from the past!” he continues. “Like, you’re 18 when you’re singing this.

It’s OK! It didn’t need to be the best thing in the world. It just had to be a snapshot of where you’re at, and that’s exactly what it was. I don’t hate my first two records at all, I just don’t want to listen to them.”

Many before him have denounced their most successful songs, and George touches upon his own contrasting feelings about writing big hits.

“There’s a want to write the song that gets everybody’s hands in the air, but then not necessarily wanting to be connected to it… I’m fully aware that anyone reading this may be like, ‘Well, don’t fucking do it!’ and I get it!” he laughs. “But that’s why I think I owe it to myself to figure out how I feel about these things because I’ve chosen to pursue it.”

Read the full feature at diymag. com/george-ezra.

‘Gold Rush Kid’ is out now via Columbia Records.

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HAVE YOU HEARD? ALVVAYS

Pharmacist

There's a power in bands subtly changing rather than throwing away the rulebook. Across the last decade, Toronto’s Alvvays have never tried to revolutionise their exquisite indiepop sound, instead refining and streamlining it over two full-length albums (2014’s self-titled album and 2017 follow-up 'Antisocialites'). On ‘Pharmacist’, the first preview of third album ‘Blue Rev’, this continues in earnest on two minutes of deliciously dreamy soundscapes adding even more washy reverb to their sound but retaining the melodic bite of their best work. (Will Richards)

R AYE Hard Out Here

A week after she took to Twitter to call out then-label Polydor for continually shelving her debut album, Raye set up a microphone in her living room and let it all out. The result is ‘Hard Out Here’. A sleek and compelling track, driven by her smooth vocals over the cinematic backing, what stands out is her biting emotion and unapologetic delivery. “All the white men CEOs, fuck your privilege / Get your pink chubby hands off my mouth, fuck you think this is?” she spits, before asserting, “I’ll never stop fighting”. A bold reintroduction to the now-indepdendent artist, ‘Hard Out Here’ asserts Raye as one you should never have doubted. (Elly Watson)

MUR A MASA, SHYGIRL & CHANNEL TRES Hollaback Bitch

Mura Masa’s latest is an upbeat club bop. Driven by pulsing sub-bass, ‘Hollaback Bitch’ is defined by the bubblegum textures of the track’s collaborators, Shygirl and Channel Tres. Taken from ‘Demon Time’, the follow-up to 2020's hair-splitting 'R.Y.C.', if 'Hollaback Bitch’ and the album’s long list of features including BAYLI and Lil Yachty - tell us anything, it's that he’s very much back embracing the electronic side of the project. It’s in with the euphoric electronic sounds and out with bright spangly guitars for the producer.

(Dylan Shortridge)

LOYLE CARNER Hate

For as long as Loyle Carner has been in the spotlight, he's managed to perfectly encapsulate the sense of vulnerability that easily permeates everyday life; whether through songs about his family, friends or the challenges he has faced. It's with his newest offering, though, that we see a different side to these talents. Quite simply titled 'Hate', the track is - as he himself has said - "one of the few songs [he's] made from a hateful place" and, taking a look at the world right now, it's little wonder as to why.

Brimming with fury and emotion, but backed against lush orchestration, it's a deft juxtaposition that sets up his new chapter poignantly. (Sarah Jamieson)

THE 1975 Part Of The Band You should know by now to expect the unexpected from The 1975. The four-piece have consistently proven themselves as boundary-less pop pioneers, happily dipping their toes into pretty much every genre that exists, and now they’re getting ready to dive back in with fifth full-length ‘Being Funny In A Foreign Language’. Giving us our first taste of what to expect from the new record, ‘Part Of The Band’ is once again a head-turner from the quartet. An irresistible folk-rock offering channelling licks of Bon Iver’s ‘22, A Million’, the track was co-produced by the busiest man in pop (Jack Antonoff, duh) and features vocals from Japanese Breakfast. It also packs in many Matty Healy lyrical gems of the kind we’ve been lacking of late, as he lays it all bare in instantly-quotable lines; “I like my men like I like my coffee / Full of soy milk and so sweet it won’t offend anybody,” “I know some Vaccinista tote bag chic baristas / Sitting in east on their communista keisters.” (Try saying that one five times fast...) An intriguing and innovative pop song from some of the best in the ’biz, ‘Part Of The Band’ has set the bar high for the rest of what’s to come from LP5. (Elly Watson)

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UK & IRELAND TOUR PLUS SPECIAL GUEST

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FESTIVALS 16 DIYMAG.COM

Deer Shed 29th - 31st July. Baldersby Park, Topcliffe, North Yorkshire

Nestled up in North Yorkshire, Deer Shed may lay claim to being the ultimate family festival - complete with arts and crafts workshops, spoken word performances and its very own book club - but it's also got a stacked musical bill to get stuck into.

Q&A

Alongside DIY favourites such as John Grant, Nadine Shah, Self Esteem, Dry Cleaning and Yard Act, everyone's favourite Irish cowgirl CMAT will be bringing the party.

Ahead of her set, we found out what's new in her world.

CMAT

Hello CMAT! How are you?

I’m doing great thank you, I’m currently drinking natural wine at Roskilde Festival in Denmark. It really is the fruits of my labour.

Last time we saw you properly was over in SXSW - how have things been going since then?

Things have been great since SXSW, I went on my first headline UK tour which completely sold out! I’ve also been doing some festivals around Europe and I’m feeling fresh and excited for the rest of the year!

You released your debut earlier this year - what has the reaction been like?

The reaction to the record really surprised me if I’m honest. I started releasing music when I was stuck in my bedroom and I didn’t have a gauge of how things were going apart from tweets about the songs. I also didn’t know how it would feel hearing people actually singing the songs back to me in the room, that’s been a total mad one for me!

And now you’ve released a special deluxe version, ooh-er.

Why should we be checking it out? Sell it to us!

It’s some new takes on some of the tracks from the record, we might start doing a few of those versions live so stay tuned!

You’re deep into your first full on festival season - how have you been finding the shows?

I think it’s been most surprising going outside of Ireland and the UK and meeting people who actually listen to my music.

There are cowpeople all across the globe and they’re all beautiful!

You’re also going to be performing at Deer Shed - what advice would you give to punters heading there?

Pack a cowboy hat, some glitter and your best pre-mixed cans, Deer Shed’s gonna be a hoot!

Have you got any other sneaky plans up your sleeve for the rest of the year?

Anyone who knows me knows there’s not a sneaky bone in my body, or maybe they don’t know me well enough ;) keep up with my shenanigans on Instagram, there’s always a surprise coming!

Ypsigrock

5th - 8th August Castelbuono, Sicily

Q&A Still quite possibly the world's most unique festival experience, this year's Ypsigrock is back with a vengeance; not only will the Sicilian fest be celebrating its 25th anniversary, but it's helping record label Bella Union to mark its own birthday too!

Accordingly, there's a slew of Bella Union acts set to play - The Flaming Lips! C Duncan! Penelope Isles! - alongside other gems including Self Esteem, Yard Act, DIIV and Pillow Queens, who we had a natter with below.

Y Not

29th - 31st July. Pikehall, Derbyshire.

What do you get if you put Stereophonics, Manic Street Preachers, The Vaccines and the fringey wonder that is Gabrielle all in the same Derbyshire field for a weekend in late July?

Y Not Festival, of course!

This year's bill isn't just about the big-hitters though: other must-sees include Sports Team, Easy Life, Sundara Karma, Pale Waves, and the milkshake-loving Kelis, who'll all be appearing across the fest. Nottingham's Do Nothing will also be making the (fairly short) trip to Pikehall; for the occasion, we caught up with the band's Kasper Sandstrom.

Q&A

Q&A

PILLOW QUEENS

Hello Pillow Queens! What have you been up to recently?

Hello DIY! We have been so busy the last few months, touring Ireland, UK, America and Europe. When we landed back on Irish soil, we got a very welcome call to get over to Scotland to support Phoebe Bridgers.

It’s been a couple of months since you released your latest album ‘Leave The Light On’ - how was it to get it out into the world?

We were in Salt Lake City when it was released so we didn’t get to see the reaction on our home turf. The reception has been great! It was particularly special watching more and more people learn the words, especially in small towns in Europe where English may not be their first language. It was so heartwarming.

You’ve also played a slew of live shows since it’s been out - what was it like getting back on stage?

I suppose the insecure side of us wondered did people still care about Pillow Queens after a long time away? It turns out they do!

The new songs went down so well. I think the Pillow Queen extended family is a really special one.

DO NOTHING Hello Do Nothing! The last time we saw you was at DIY Alive! What's been going on in your world since then?

We had a few shows in with our pal Lawrence from Victory Lap, Kagoule and Blessed Twins, filling in on drums (Andy's been up to his eyeballs in uni work). They were pretty much all places we've never played before, from Huddersfield and Bedford to The Hague in the Netherlands and Rock for People festival in the Czech Republic. Lots of fun!

You released your latest EP ‘Glueland’ back last year so, if we’ve done our calculations correctly, we’d guess you might have been working on some new music? Can you tell us anything about that?

Yeah, it feels like a million years ago since we released ‘Glueland’. Vocalist Chris does the vast majority of the writing, and I think because we were so busy finally being able to tour, playing rescheduled gigs and getting back to our day jobs meant there wasn't much time for writing. But it's always been there in the background and we really hit our stride in 2022.

We also heard a rumour that you might be about to start recording a slightly larger project… Any secrets you can let us in on?

Yep we've finally booked in some time to go and record our debut album! It's been a long time coming, but we really wanted to have a proper idea of what we wanted it to be before we rushed into anything.

I can tell you that the album will feature all new material we're leaving the EPs and singles in their own little bubble. So much has changed since we formed the band so this felt right.

Live shows are very much back on the agenda!

What’s it been like

getting out there and playing across both the UK and Europe, after such a stop-andstart few years?

It’s been a whole lot of fun, we really missed it. It’s been so nice meeting new artists and reconnecting with old friends on the scene.

It was pretty wild doing our headline tour, because even though we'd actually played a lot of those songs live before, most of them weren't released until after the pandemic began. We didn't expect so many people to know the words, it was heartwarming. Lots of our songs before ‘Glueland’ were honed and tightened up when we played them live, before we recorded them in the studio, so it's been great to be able to try a few brand new ones out and see how they work.

You’ve also played a couple of festivals recently - what’s been your favourite bit so far?

I think Grauzone festival in The Hague was a big highlight. We absolutely love the Netherlands so it was beautiful to get back there after so long. The line-up was absolutely killer and lots of friends were playing, including Folly Group, Bdrmm, Lynks and Crows. We had a great time even if people did leave early to go see Viagra Boys (I would have done the same….

Later this month, you’ll be back on UK soil to play some more festivals, including Y Not! How’re you looking forward to those performances? What can fans expect from the sets?

It’s gonna be a hoot! Y Not is pretty close to where we're from in Nottingham, and we always love playing there. Fingers crossed for good weather, it seems to be a little cursed sometimes. Expect all the songs you've come to know and love as well as a couple of new ones!

Will you be trying to catch anyone else on the bill?

I’m very excited for Sorry because I've somehow never seen them live. We'll take a look at our pals Yard Act and Alfie Templeman, and I'll probably go and see Kelis and get a bit daft.

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FESTIVALS FESTIVAL News in Brief

Flow

12th - 14th August. Helsinki, Finland Taking place in the defunct power plant of Suvilahti, Flow Festival’s location may be a little more on the industrial side, but this year’s line-up boasts a who’s who of the best alternative artists around right now.As well as the likes of Gorillaz, Florence + The Machine, Jamie xx, Little Simz, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard and loads more, this year’s edition will also play host to Norwegian electropop hero MØ, who’s already very excited to get back to Finland.

Q&A

MØ

Hello MØ! How are you doing? What’ve you been up to recently?

Hi! I’m great! Just enjoying the summer and playing festival gigs again!

It’s been a couple of months since you released ‘Motordrome’ now - how did it feel to get it out into the world? How’s the reaction to it been so far?

It felt so good!! It seems that people are absorbing the stories these songs convey, and relating to them in their own way, so I couldn’t be more happy. The album has truly come to life to me, after having been on the road playing it to a live audience, because that’s really the moment where you can tell whether the album has translated to your audience or not.

It’s so special seeing people sing along to a song you’ve written for the first time!

Makes me feel so lucky!

Just a few weeks ago, you shared ‘True Romance’, a fan favourite that you’ve been performing live for a while now; what made you want to give it an official release?

It was just one of those songs that’s been lying around in my Logic folder for years and years, and I’ve been waiting for an excuse to finish it for a long time to be honest.

I’ve been playing the song live since 2015 or 2016. It was such a fun, dark and energetic - live song, and I think that’s why people fell in love with it. But it was some really busy years back then, so I just never managed to finish it. Once ‘Motordrome’ was out, and I was about to start

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touring, I saw, when hanging out on social media, that my fans were still talking about this song, and asking me to put it out. That excited me and inspired me, so I thought now was the time - in-between album and touring - why not!

Luckily, my drummer Rasmus (also known as School of x) also felt very keen and inspired by this idea, so together we gave ‘True Romance’ new life, and finished the song quite quickly actually. It’s about rediscovering artistic innocence, dreaming of the garden of youth and creativity.

You’ve also just collaborated with Gryffin on new track ‘Reckless’ - how did that come about?

We started working on it back in 2020. It was my friends at Snakehips who originally sent me the song, and I just loved it so much, and went to work on the vocals right away. Then Gryffin came into the picture, and made this banging and beautiful production. To me it’s about summer romance, a search for freedom, late night shenanigans and dreaming versus real life. I'm so happy this song is finally out in the world - just in time for the festival season.

You’ve launched a new platform called Karen’s Desktop. Can you tell us a little about it? What inspired you to invite fans even further into your world?

I just realised I had so much shit on my computer - a ton of old demos, old collages, pictures, lol stuff and so on. And since I have so many creative fans, I just thought they might think it fun to dive into some of all this.

40 new names - including Ashnikko, Courting and Miso Extra - have been added to the line-up for this summer’s Reading & Leeds festivals. This year’s events take place from 26th - 28th August and feature headline performances from Arctic Monkeys, Halsey, Dave, Megan Thee Stallion, Bring Me The Horizon and Rage Against The Machine.

VLURE, Sinead O’Brien, Francis Of Delirium, Cassia and Liz Lawrence are just some of the latest names to join the line-up of this year’s Reeperbahn festival.

The Hamburg event - which takes place from 21st - 24th September - had already confirmed the likes of Lime Garden, Kokoroko and Crawlers.

Taking place in Cardiff from 21st to 23rd October, Sŵn Festival have announced the first wave of names set to join this year’s edition; Walt Disco, Talk Show, Connie Constance, Sea Power, Bodega, Lime Garden, Panic Shack, Deadletter are all set to perform.

My Chemical Romance, Arctic Monkeys and Miley Cyrus are set to headline this year’s Corona Capital festival, which takes place from 18th - 20th November in Mexico City. Paramore, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The 1975, Run The Jewels, Liam Gallagher, Phoebe Bridgers and Mura Masa are also among the artists confirmed to appear.

Organisers have confirmed that Download Festival will expand to four days in 2023 to celebrate its 20th anniversary. This year’s edition took place last month and featured Biffy Clyro, Deftones, Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes and Iron Maiden.

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“At the moment, you’ve got [bands] that are hot and look cool but then it sounds like they’re three monkeys banging on tin cans.” - Aramis Johnson

ENUMCLAW Not every new band has the wholehearted confidence to label themselves the best thing since Oasis, even before they’ve dropped a song. But it’s not often that you find a band like Enumclaw.

The wildly ambitious Washington quartet aiming to shake up the grunge-rock landscape with a scintillating combination of bangers and bravado.

Words: Elly Watson.

Hailing from Tacoma, Washington, the quartet quickly garnered substantial buzz due to their infectious live shows and you-shouldhave-been-there sets at various festivals across the US. Last year’s scuzzy first single ‘Fast N All’ helped propel the word over the Atlantic, and now, with the announcement of debut LP ‘Save The Baby’ (due 14th October), the buzz is reaching boiling point. But the increased interest doesn’t seem to be phasing the band themselves.

“I don't think it's unjustified and I definitely don't feel impostor syndrome,” vocalist Aramis Johnson shrugs over Zoom. “Like, I think we've made a really good record and when you listen to it, it's pretty obvious.”

Channelling the same nonchalant cool - and slight knowingness - of the aforementioned Gallaghers, Enumclaw (completed by guitarist Nathan Cornell, drummer LaDaniel Gipson, and bassist Eli Edwards) aren’t shying away from their own hyperbole. If anything, they’re driving it and thriving on it, adamant that they’ve come just at the right time to shake things up in their scene.

“For the most part in the last couple years, there’s not been any bands that I’m impressed with,” Aramis continues. “There’s a lot of bands nowadays that just kind of suck. And it’s like, what the fuck is this band doing, you know? I think that’s kinda where music is at the moment, that you’ve got people that are hot and look cool but then it sounds like they’re three monkeys banging on tin cans.”

Bold words, but it’s this world view that’s encouraging them to deliver something different. “We’re making music that people can see themselves in,” Aramis argues. “I think a lot of bands are more concerned with a vibe than creating a space for people.”

hip hop inspirations with Aramis shouting out his recent rotations of ‘Rid Of Me’ by PJ Harvey, and Drake. “This man loves Drake, [but] fuck that motherfucker,” LaDaniel smiles, to which Aramis retorts: “We actually kind of got into an argument about this at the bar last night. But he’s got some bangers!”

Differing Drizzy takes aside, it was at the same renowned Tacoma dive bar Bob’s Java Jive (a venue actually shaped like a coffee pot) that the band first bonded over late-night karaoke. After Aramis suggested they form a band, it’s been - in LaDaniel’s words - like “peaches and cream” ever since.

Enumclaw have already shaken off what they call the “Tacoma curse”: the tendency for local talent to remain confined to their hometown. Now they’re ready for ‘Save The Baby’ to blow things up even bigger. Pulled from stories about relationships, home, friends, and various aspects of life over the last few years (alongside some “easter eggs” from Aramis), the record comes in as 11 tracks of nostalgia-tinged, grunged-up goodness. “I hope there’s songs that people can live with and relate to, but also have a good time to,” Aramais smiles. “There are times that songs have made me feel very seen and I hope that we can have the same impact on somebody else.”

Enumclaw look set to solidify themselves as one of the most exciting new artists of the year, and no one’s more ready for that than the band themselves. “I want it to be our break-out record,” Aramis enthuses. “I want it to put us in a place where I don’t have to work my dumbass part time job anymore.

“I want to fucking play Glastonbury. I want to play Japan,” he continues, getting on a roll. “I want to be friends with cooler people and I want to date cooler girls. I want it to be like The Strokes’ ‘Is This It’ or [Oasis’] ‘Definitely Maybe’, and be that album that bursts onto the scene.”

It might seem like a bold plan right now, but with the talent and drive to back it up, nothing seems quite out of Enumclaw’s reach. DIY

Via thrilling, rock-tinged bangers, the group fuse influences, pulling on pop and

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WILLOW KAYNE Creating a multi-sensory, ‘90s-soaked world, Winning an Ivor Novello Rising Star award aged Willow Kayne’s already just 19 and with only two released songs to your bagged an Ivor Novello name might be setting your own bar dauntingly and is only aiming higher high for some, but you sense that London-viafrom here. Words: Lisa Bristol’s Willow Kayne is aiming for different Wright. Photo: Emma things. “Fucking hell bruv, what a nice welcome Swann.

more intense in the dark, and music sounded different, and it just spawned this whole monster of looking a bit deeper,” she explains. Meanwhile, lyrically, a teenage period spent “off the rails” has led to an early body of work that’s purposefully bratty, sassy and full of middle-fingers, from the playground chant of EP opener ‘Opinion’ to the brag-rap of ‘Two Seater’.

into the music industry!” she guffaws in response to the memory, pint in hand. And as for being paired with Ivors mentor Nile Rodgers? “I had no idea what he’d done, my manager had to Uber a biography to me,” she shrugs. “We get on really well though, me and Nile - we still have our catch up phone calls. He’s a good egg.”

“Music was the first thing I did where I could turn very negative things into something good,” Willow grins. “When I was younger I was searching for that euphoric feeling through fucking acid and things, but then I got on stage. Seeing people sing what you’ve written was like, ‘Oh this is it! I’ve been searching for this feeling in the wrong places!’”

Lofty institutions and lauded musical icons don’t rank high on Willow’s technicolour, ‘90s-infused moodboard. Instead, the singer is obsessed with making something entirely her own - from the Charli XCX-meets-MIA sound that emerged with this year’s debut EP ‘Playground Antics’, via the meticulous, multi-sensory universe she’s building around it. “Someone asked me if I have synaesthesia and I don’t even know what that is, but I just think a colour goes with a vibe. Same with a smell, a smell goes with a vibe. At my headline shows I worked with a scentologist who made smells for each song - so all the graphics in the background were the colour of the song, and then there were unique smells that got released with each song,” she enthuses.

Citing influence from Gorillaz, MIA and Santigold, but then naming the Bulgarian State Television Choir as her current obsession before gushing about her ambitions to work with children’s choirs and full orchestras, Willow’s boundaries are clearly limitless. “We’re in the world of playlisting and I keep getting put in playlists that are like, ‘Misfits’ or ‘Outcasts’ where I’ll be next to an artist called Vomit Guts,” she laughs. “It’s like, ‘Guys I know you don’t know where to put me but come on!’”

Having lost the sight in her right eye aged 15, Willow credits the resulting recovery experience during which she had to live in total darkness for two months as crucial to this outlook. “It meant my senses [were heightened] - things tasted

“When I was younger I was searching for that euphoric feeling through fucking acid and things, but then I got on stage.”

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But the algorithm’s loss is the rest of our gain; strap on board the Kayne train and lord knows where she’ll take you next. “I used to think I wanted to be a pop star, but I’ve realised that’s kind of limiting,” she decides. “If I can change the direction that pop can be, then that’s what success sounds like to me to be honest.” DIY

LOW HUMMER Hull punks delicately balancing light and dark Alongside longtime faves LIFE, Low Hummer are another act putting Hull on the map. On their modest output so far, the five-piece sing in deliciously thick Northern accents of dissatisfaction over post-punk that traverses the genre’s full spectrum, from bright, bopping basslines to dark, thunderous drums.

LISTEN: 2021 single ‘The People, This Place’ is the best showcase of their swelling musicianship and biting lyrics.

SIMILAR TO: All your fave postpunk bands rolled into one.

Manchester quartet breathing new life into goth rock Witch Fever vocalist Amy Walpole grew up in something called a Charismatic Church that focuses on “modernday miracles” before leaving at 16. With her band, Walpole makes music as majestic and dangerous as that sounds. A debut album called ‘Congregation’ is coming later this year, and its title track is a hammerblow of dark, dirty and dramatic rock’n’roll.

LISTEN: New single ‘Charismatic’ is their thunderous mission statement.

SIMILAR TO: The drama and majesty of My Chemical Romance, who they supported on tour recently.

Rough Trade-signed dance-punks with a live show that rips up the rulebook

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SPECIAL INTEREST Amid a line-up of far-from-MOR treats, there was one band at Primavera Sound who seemed ripped from an entirely more feral, unhinged place than most. Enter, Special Interest: Rough Trade’s most recent signings, and a quartet of New Orleans dance-punks who seem ripe to inherit the uninhibited space that Gossip left open. In vocalist Alli Logout, they’ve got a writhing, thrashing wildcard of a front person who you won’t be able to take your eyes off.

LISTEN: Their debut single for the label, ‘(Herman’s) House’, is a gnarly, crunching dancefloor leviathan.

SIMILAR TO: A lost gem from the ‘00s NYC scene that brought us LCD, The Rapture and the like.

REGRESSIVE LEFT Sardonic post-punk put through a DFA Records filter "I only talk about free speech when it concerns my freedom to be a dick,” Regressive Left sing on their new single ‘The Wrong Side Of History’ - a delightful, sprawling track that mixes the grit of post-punk with the thudding beats of Talking Heads and LCD Soundsystem. Seeing the sonic mutations of the Windmill scene continue to grow is a delight, and this trio are some of the best around at the moment.

LISTEN: New eight-minute monster ‘The Wrong Side Of History’.

SIMILAR TO: What David Byrne might sound like if he hung out in the grubbier bits of South London.

KOKOROKO The London collective proving eight is the magic number Blending jazz improvisation with Afrobeat rhythms, London group Kokoroko have spent the last few years hypnotising listeners. Now armed with their debut album ‘Could We Be More’ that’s set to arrive next month, the collective are gearing up for the record to spread their sonic joy even further.

LISTEN: Their upcoming debut is bound to be magical.

SIMILAR TO: The sound of wandering through a festival in the sunny early-afternoon.

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CRAWLERS “It’s just been amazing to have this community and safe space for people to express themselves.” Holly Minto

With over 30 million streams and a host of sold out shows under their belt, things are only going to get bigger for Crawlers.

Words: Sarah Jamieson.

R

obbie Williams, Blur, The Libertines, Girls Aloud; for all the British acts we’ve sent over to attempt to break America, there’s a sizeable list of massive names who’ve had to turn right back around and head home. Yet, for fast-rising quartet Crawlers, the trajectory towards becoming the toast of the Transatlantic town is already well underway. And while, sure, the band haven’t quite reached the pinnacle of American fame just yet, they may not be

says of the reaction they’ve been met with so far. “The fans have just been crazy in the best way, so enthusiastic and so much fun.”

While guitarist Amy Woodall and bassist Liv Kettle first played in bands together during their school days, it was when Holly and Liv met in college back in 2018 that the foundations for Crawlers were more formally laid. Then, having later recruited drummer Harry Breen - he actually reviewed one of the band’s early tracks for a local zine - their lineup was complete, with each bringing their own distinct set of influences and styles to the fore.

that far off.

Since then, their powerful offerings have helped solidify their ever-growing fanbase, whether through the Britney Spears-inspired ‘Monroe’, that deals with the continued misogynistic attitudes of the entertainment industry, or ‘Statues’, written against the backdrop of Black Lives Matter. Most recent single ‘Fuck Me (I Don’t Know How To Say)’ is another intensely personal track for Holly, investigating her relationship with her own body, amid issues of consent.

When we speak to the Liverpool band, they’re parked up outside a McDonalds in the middle of the American midwest, en route to their next show in Phoenix, Arizona. It’s about halfway through their first ever US run, which is set to include a slew of sold out shows. “We’re in the middle of absolute buttfuck nowhere!” grins the band’s Holly Minto. “But we’re having loads of fun.”

“The lyrics are about all our experiences,” Holly nods. “I try to bring in elements from all of our worlds, and our four lives.” It’s this openness - also expressed vividly across the band’s social media channels - that’s seen them connect with so many people already. “It’s just been amazing to have this community and safe space for people to express themselves.”

It’s little wonder that their brand of confessional and raw pop-rock is catching on over on the other side of the Atlantic; they’ve already amassed almost 700,000 followers on TikTok, while their staggering viral track ‘Come Over (Again)’ has had a casual 32 million streams. For a band with just one EP and a handful of tracks to their name so far, it’s the stuff of dreams.

What’s more, the pinch-me moments that Crawlers have experienced so far haven’t gone unnoticed. Mention their recent stint opening for My Chemical Romance in Warrington, and they appear visibly giddy (“Honest to god, it was unreal,” enthuses Liv), while Holly offers up another full circle moment to reflect on. “I actually recently logged back into my Snapchat account after three years or something, and I saw that I’d posted saying Crawlers had had 30,000 streams on Spotify. We now have 30 million streams…” If this is just the beginning, they’ll be reaching those dizzying heights in no time. DIY

“The shows have been amazing. It’s been incredible to see fans across America knowing our lyrics and they’ve all just been so into it. It’s been bizarre,” Holly

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LOVE LETTERS Jockstrap have announced their eagerly-awaited debut album ‘I Love You Jennifer B’. The ten-track record will feature previous single ‘Concrete Over Water’, and an extended version of last year’s ’50/50’. “‘I Love You Jennifer B’ is a collection of Jockstrap tracks that have been three years in the making,” Georgia Ellery and Taylor Skye explain. “Everything on it is pretty singular sounding so we hope there is a track on there for everyone and something that speaks to you and says ‘I’m a banger.’”

Sharing lead single ‘Glasgow’ alongside the news, Taylor adds, “‘Glasgow’ is our coming of age, moving forward, long-distance travelling, beautiful bosk, wonderful thicket song.” Listen to the track over on diymag.com now.

All the buzziest new music happenings in one place.

BUZZ FEED OUR HOUSE Peckham wordsmith Pinty has announced plans to release new mixtape ‘Pinty’s House’, set for release on 9th September via Winged Feet. The ten-track release will feature appearances from Afriqua, Catching Cairo, Mina Rose and Jadesea.

To mark the announcement, the MC has also shared his latest AA single, ‘Flex/On My Own’. “’Flex’ is all about me being free, having fun and not being too serious,” Pinty has said. “As soon as I heard the beat (shout out to Karma Kid!) it took me back to my teenage bedroom listening to Dizzee and classic grime. I took those influences and made a tune influenced by those carefree days. On the flip side ’On My Own’ is about me on my lonesome on the walk home after the party.”

Listen to both tracks over on diymag.com now.

THE

PLAYLIST Every week on Spotify, we update DIY’s Neu Discoveries playlist with the buzziest, freshest faces. Here’s our pick of the best new tracks:

BEEN STELLAR ‘MY HONESTY’ After truly exciting shows at The Great Escape and around the UK earlier this year, Been Stellar’s new song ‘My Honesty’ is another reason to be all over these New Yorkers. The band say the song – the first they wrote in lockdown – reflects the restlessness of that time and, as such, it comes over as deliciously taut and full of tension. They also honour their city’s musical legacy; the razorsharp guitars feel lifted from Interpol’s ‘Turn On The Bright Lights’, and that’s no bad thing.

FEMES ‘VOICES’ You might have seen Elina Lin on stage with The Courteeners or Sundara Karma, or as a former member of The Ninth Wave, but she’s now emerged with new solo project Femes. On debut single ‘Voices’, a first taster of an EP arriving later this year, Lin presents music that’s majestic but with a darker underbelly. A song about getting out of your head and grounding yourself in the present, it’s huge both in meaning and sound.

BIIG PIIG ‘FUN’

GIDDY UP After featuring in Neu earlier this year and knocking our little socks off with a number of recent live shows, Wunderhorse - aka former Dead Pretties frontman and Pistol star, Jacob Slater - will release debut album ‘Cub’ on 16th September via Communion.

An album he describes as a document of adolescence, ‘Cub’ tracks Slater’s life from his exhilarating but fractious time in that explosive band through to a new life in Cornwall and a more balanced outlook. See him live on 20th October at London’s Lafayette.

Biig Piig – aka Jess Smyth – is back with her first new music of 2022 in the form of ‘Fun’, and it does exactly what it says on the tin. The track concerns a closeness in relationships that can bring out the child in both of you, and ‘Fun’ contains a wild sense of youthful abandon as her layered vocals dance atop a synthetic drum’n’bass beat. It’s just delightful.

ELLIE BLEACH ‘BIG STRONG MAN’ “It’s saying, ‘Okay, whatever. I give up. You carry on being a tortured genius. See you around’,” says Southend’s Ellie Bleach of this first cut from debut EP ‘No Elegant Way To Sell Out’. Over plaintive pianos, occasional flourishes of brass and a strong line in eye-rolling lyrical zingers, ‘Big Strong Man’ lands adjacent to early Matt Maltese in a world where classic ‘70s melody and a heavy dose of worldweary sarcasm make for excellent bedfellows.

Want to stream our Neu playlist while you’re reading? Scan the code now and get listening.

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NAIMA BOCK The former Goat Girl bassist arrives solo with debut album ‘Giant Palm’ as part of a new folk revival that studies the past but looks firmly forwards. Words: Will Richards. Photo: El Hardwick.

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aima Bock has a long and special history with Glastonbury. Born to a Brazilian and Greek family, her mother - a selfidentifying hippie - relocated the family to Somerset while pregnant with Naima so she could drink the spring water in the area, which supposedly had healing powers, while also making a daily pilgrimage to the top of Glastonbury Tor. These kinds of traditions and nods to history also feel imbued in the Londoner’s music: sweeping, grand folk that feels part of a lineage going back centuries. Just a few days after we speak, meanwhile, she’s set to attend the famous Worthy Farm festival for the first time, playing the William’s Green stage just a week before debut album ‘Giant Palm’ is released into the world.

“Folk music feels like a healthy way of looking backwards and feeling safe.”

Naima first entered our consciousness playing bass in Goat Girl as they - along with Shame, Sorry, black midi and others - made the Brixton Windmill the epicentre of exciting, fresh, young British music.

After leaving Goat Girl in late 2018 following their debut album, she began writing songs that sat sonically far away from her former band’s output. ‘Giant Palm’ is a gorgeous and graceful album led by Naima, her guitar and her stirring voice, but backed by a bounty of strings and other sonic grandeur.

“I’m grateful for the experience,” she reflects of her time in the band, “but I think we were a little bit spoiled because we got signed very young and were part of this scene where record label people were throwing money at all these bands. There was very little struggle for us to get to a reasonably comfortable place as musicians. Part of me

took it for granted and that was why I left, because I didn’t really feel satisfaction.”

“We fell into indie, punky bands, which was fun for the time,” she explains of her and a number of her peers including Sorry bassist Campbell Baum, who Naima collaborates with in the Broadside Hacks collective. “But we didn’t know that anyone else was listening to this stuff.”

She pinpoints the early 2010s British folk revival spearheaded by Mumford & Sons as a “cringe” movement that turned her generation off the genre. “The last year has been a bit of an explosion of it, which is lovely,” she continues. “It’s a reaction to the direction the world is going in. People look for some comfort in history. Everything else is changing so much that it feels like there's no permanence, but with folk music, it feels like a healthy way of looking backwards and feeling safe.”

Naima also sees folk as a way to be “positively connected to one's Englishness rather than completely rejecting it, which I have most certainly done my whole life. Neither of my parents are English so I never really felt that much at home here,” she says, “but in the last year, I've really looked at what living here has offered me, and the countryside here is beautiful, as is the history of the working classes. The really horrible, horrible stuff should be completely addressed too, but I think folk music let me relate to [Englishness] in a nonnationalistic, racist way.”

Numerous folk collectives are springing up and hosting nights where the likes of Naima sing centuries-old songs alongside new creations. At a recent gig with the influential Shovel Dance Collective, Morris Dancers in their fifties and sixties were surrounded by folk fans in their twenties, passing the torch of these traditions to a new generation.

With ‘Giant Palm’, Naima is becoming a pillar of the movement. Formed of songs written across the past halfdecade, the album draws on love, nature, tradition and beyond.. For the month before it was recorded in early 2021, Naima and producer Joel Burton spent six days a week inspecting the songs in granular detail, working out how to embellish them with further instruments. As a final product, it feels like the story of one woman but deeply connected to history and the continuation of folk’s lineage.

And, with 25 demos already laid down for its follow-up, ‘Giant Palm’ feels like the foundation for an exciting career sure to blossom and grow from hereon in. “This album is a really nice starting point,” Naima reflects. “I love it, but there’s so much to improve on. Or maybe it will be my best album, which is also fine!” DIY

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IN

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MILLION

“I

feel like I’m more secure in myself [performing on stage].

You just feel it more, being in real life with fans,” enthuses Flo Milli. Far away from her Mobile, Alabama beginnings - and following a pandemic during which her star rapidly ascended across the internet - these days the rapper is more than just embracing the mantra ‘we outside’, she’s amplifying it to increasingly massive levels.

In less than a week prior to today’s conversation, Flo has tackled a gruelling schedule traversing the stages of Denmark, Sweden, the Netherlands, England and Portugal, making her debut at renowned festivals including Wireless, WooHah! and Rolling Loud. “This will be my first Rolling Loud out of the country; it’s a lot of firsts going on right now,” she affirms with a grin, sat in Sony Music’s Kings Cross office.

FLO MILLI

MAY HAVE STARTED HER CAREER WITH A SERIES OF VIRAL MOMENTS, BUT HEADING INTO DEBUT LP ‘YOU STILL HERE, HO?’ THE RAPPER IS AIMING FOR PROGRESS, SUCCESS AND LONGEVITY. Words: Nicolas-Tyrell Scott.

Rewind to the start of the month and, standing on Wireless’ main stage (“The London-crowd was lit,” she exclaims, declaring the show her favourite European date so far), Flo Milli embodies every bit of a star performer. Engaged, with her cadence perfectly projected, you’d think that the 22-year-old had been training for these centre stage moments since her infancy, and the reality wouldn’t be far off. From her early school years, Flo would enrol herself in talent shows, obsessed with showcasing her dancing and singing skills. “I would sign up every year for most of elementary and a little bit of middle school,” she recalls. “Those moments were fun for me, I even remember choreographing routines in nursery. I was always passionate about music and displaying that,” she laughs, referencing Ciara’s ‘Goodies’, and Fergie’s 'Glamorous’ as songs she’d dance to.

It’s this same childhood spirit of inquisitiveness and directness that informs Flo Milli’s musical character too. It anchors her debut single ‘Beef FloMix’ (a remix of Ethereal and Playboi Carti’s 2015 track ‘Beef’) - which quickly ascended to Gold

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I THINK IT’S SO SMART TO TAP INTO THE CULTURE OF [REALITY SHOWS], THEY ARE A PART OF ME AND WHAT I GREW UP AROUND.”

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“

I FEEL LIKE RELATABILITY IS YOUR POWER. WHEN I’M ANGRY OR SAD, IT’S LIKE, ‘MAKE A SONG ABOUT IT’.” status, exceeding half a million sales. “It took me a while to come out of my shell, but at least I can say I did it with no help,” she notes. Now the rapper has employed that confidence in each and every one of her numbers to date. “Who got beef with me? Girl you don’t wanna compete/ I’m too fast on my feet and you know where I be,” she raps across the aforementioned single, before labelling herself “the petty queen”.

saw myself everywhere, so many people, more than I thought were tagging me and talking about how much they loved it,” she says giddily. The tape itself encompasses relentless, boisterous cockiness, paired with thundering trap hues and cartoon-esque adlibs (the hypnotic “la la la” on ‘In The Party’ a case in point). At all turns, the record provides empowerment and endorses self confidence. “I like feeling and being myself and [being] confident,” she explains when reflecting on the project. “It’s something I’m leaning more into as I grow as an artist; I really learn as I go along to appreciate how far I’ve come and how solidified I am now.”

There has, however, been social media attention of a less desirable type in the past too. Mentioning her inclusion in Beats’ 2020 ‘Flex That Clapback’ campaign, Flo danced in front of a confederate statue to promote the Flex model release. Facing a largely polarising response, including pushback from subsets of Black Twitter, two years later Flo is accepting of her mistake and trying to utilise it to outline lessons for artists who come after her.

“Please listen to your gut and know you have power. I didn’t push back enough when I was confused about the creative direction. I didn’t have visibility over the ideation of the creative, but fought back three times and [Beats] still convinced me to do it,” she says. “There’s power in fighting back on what doesn’t make sense.”

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orn at the turn of the millennium, Flo Milli is “a 2000s baby”, as she readily notes. A product of the Gen Z group of rappers and a growing community of fresh-faced women in rap including Latto, Monaleo and Lakeyah, Flo Milli’s formative years were marked by the peak of MTV’s Base, BET’s 106 & Park and the wider boom of early reality TV. “My dad wouldn’t let me watch everything,” she recalls, toying with her cream placing on Spotify’s Viral Chart with ‘Beef FloMix’ acrylic nails across the table. “But I grew up age she wrote her first song around that era, and my mom would let me watch shows like [Bachelor-style times Flo has guested on tracks, including offerings from Rico Nasty, Big Freedia and Benee dating show] Flavor of Love.” the price of Flo’s car in 2021 single and new album track ‘Roaring 20s’ Most of Flo Milli’s infectious numbers follow in this lane: an oft-adopted brand of braggadocio that can be traced to rappers such as Biggie Smalls (‘Juicy’), Lil Wayne (‘A Milli’), and Queen Latifah (‘Ladies First’). In Flo’s case, she’s merely adapted colloquialisms like ‘petty queen’ for digital natives in the 21st century.

FLO MILLI 1N NUM3ER5 2: 9: 13: $150K: 6 MILLION: 230 MILLION:

The influence of those shows is still visible in Flo’s output today: combined Spotify listens of debut singles ‘Beef FloMix’ and ‘In The Party’ to date Joseline Hernandez, who helped front the Love and Hip Hop Atlanta franchise, first coined the infamous “Ho, why is you here?” line that informed the rapper’s debut project. It’s a theme that features on the record’s After years of traversing the realms of Soundcloud and forthcoming successor ‘You Still Here, Ho?’ too, primed TikTok, ‘Beef FloMix’ caught the attention of RCA, who as her incoming debut album and set for release later signed the rapper following the breakout success of the this month. The name also acts as a double entendre, track. With her animated, youthful and cartoon-adjacent marking her survival throughout the pandemic after her abilities immediately making her stand out from the TikTok-certified ascension. “I think it’s so smart to tap pack, she soon repeated the trick with follow-up single into the culture of [reality shows], they are a part of me ‘In The Party’ - another viral, Gold-selling success. In and what I grew up around,” she says proudly. a crowded market, and during a time that restricted artists to the internet instead of allowing for real world In an era populated by vintage, boutique reference interaction, Flo used the time to her advantage whilst points and nostalgia, Flo has cleverly translated these maintaining her sights on bigger things. “I wanted to get early experiences into skits to promote the upcoming LP. my initial record out and prove to people that I was here First premiered across last year's Halloween weekend, to stay, more than just a TikTok trend or fad,” she affirms. and in support of the album’s second single ‘Ice Baby’, Flo Milli and rap peer Buddy crafted an ode to Tiffany Proving those with doubts wrong, Flo’s inaugural project Pollard’s trademark dismissal from Flavor of Love 2.

- 2020’s ‘Ho, Why Is You Here?’ - plunged the rapper Embodying the vigour that follows in the track alongside into a new realm of social media fame, quickly trending Pollard’s melodramatic reaction, Flo divulges that the across the whole of its debut weekend. Laughing at skit even gained the attention of Pollard herself. “We talk the recollection, she recalls the time she realised the all the time,” she shares. “It’s just so surreal because furore surrounding her arrival. “I went onto Twitter and

views of her first ever TikTok video

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she said she loves it and said that I’m special too.” Channelling Tyra Banks’ America’s Next Top Model for another of her singles ‘PBC’ (‘Pretty Black Cute’), Flo plans on eventually releasing all 13 pre-recorded skits in support of each album track.

A

longside the visual stunts and curation by producers like OG Parker and Trinidad James, ‘You Still Here, Ho?’ arrives as a notable step up both in production and vocal skill. Candid about her newness as a recording artist, Flo is clearly embracing her development and yearning for progression at all times. In previous conversations, she’s referenced renowned rap figures such as Kenny Beats urging her to toy with her voice, and in recent months she’s taken that advice on board wholeheartedly.

Upcoming album track ‘Bed Time’ flirts with a new cadence, rendering Flo’s previous threats on songs of yesteryear as tame in comparison. Paired with ominous, menacing pitching, the roar of “When I see you out in public, bitch your ass is mine” hits hard over a distorted sample of Missy Elliott’s ‘She’s A Bitch’. “[‘Bed Time’] is a real situation that I was in, so it was like, however it comes out, it comes out,” Flo laughs. “It’s like, ‘Bitch, I’m coming to get you’. It was a situation where I needed it to happen.” Using relatability as the framing, she explains how she wants to continue in this vein, appealing to audiences based on real life experiences. “You don’t know how many people are gonna feel inspired or moved, or seen by your music,” she says.

“I feel like relatability is your power. When I’m angry or sad, it’s like, ‘Make a song about it’.

So many artists get scared to do that, but I’ve learned to use those moments.”

Paralleled with her increasingly lethal vocals, meanwhile, is a desire to transcend her current terrain of subject matters (“Everyone knows I always talk about men,” she concedes). Her aforementioned threats stem from the 10th grade, when a trio of sisters misconstrued a boy trying to get her number as Flo trying to take the middle sister's love interest. “I didn’t want to fight as I was an Honours Society and 3.8 GPA student,” she rationalises. “Instead I made a rap about it; my first ever song was called ‘No Hook’.”

On songs such as ‘PBC’, Flo Milli succeeds in broadening

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her lyrical focus by crafting an anthem for and in honour of Black women. “The expectations that people put on darker skinned women, they expect us to feel unimportant or less than,” she begins. “But I’ve always loved my skin tone, I love everything about me.” Referring back to her childhood, she explains how there was never colourism from her mother between her and her lightertoned sister. “She’d love us equally, calling us her dark and light chocolates,” Flo smiles.

Sampling American runner Sha’Carri Richardson’s voice to create assertions of selflove, ‘PBC’ goes even further in its efforts to display unity throughout Black womanhood.

As she states “Pretty for what? Pretty for who?” across the song's chorus before affirming her unrestrained beauty to herself, Flo pokes fun at dangerously offensive ‘compliments’ she’s gained over the years.

In 2022 Flo is ready to confound yet more expectations, expanding on her feature from GoldLink’s 2021 single ‘Raindrops’, during which she sings instead of raps. “Y’all don’t even know what I can do,” she enthuses. “[Forthcoming track] ‘Tilted Halo’, for example, is very different from anything I’ve ever put out. It’s a very vulnerable song. I’m not lighthearted or having fun. I’m ready to talk about being human and talk about my heart.”

Part of Flo Milli’s desires also lie outside of music. She’s been ruminating on what her identity means to her and, as she gets older, there’s a yearning for clarity with regards to her ethnicity. “I wanna know where I’m from,” she nods. “Someone recently told me that I had Yoruba features. I looked it up and was like, ‘Wow’. There’s power in knowing where you come from.” Flo is adamant on performing in Jamaica or “somewhere in Africa” across her debut album campaign.

“Anywhere where I’m around my people, I wanna feel what that feels like,” she nods.

And, as Flo Milli continues to make a run at domestic and global domination, the question of achieving these ambitions feels not so much an ‘if’ as a ‘when’. Heading into her debut album proper, Flo Milli’s not just still here, she’s thriving.

‘You Still Here, Ho?’ is out 22nd July via RCA. DIY

Beats Music

Producer Kenny Beats has been a guiding force in Flo’s career we caught up with him to get the inside Milli intel.

What did you see in Flo that made you want to work with her?

I had talked to her about a year before the drop of ‘Beef FloMix’.

She was a fan of stuff Rico [Nasty] and I had made, but for some reason the session never happened. I started keeping tabs on her socials and was shocked at how FAST she was becoming her own artist and grabbing people’s attention. It went from her wanting to do a session with me to me begging to get in with her!

Tell us a bit about the sessions.

Mia has a very thoughtful, calculated side that the fans do not always see when she is in full Flo Milli mode. Don’t let the fun songs or party lyrics confuse you; she’s a very serious artist with a very specific approach. I was shocked to see the standard she holds herself to - she put every lyric under a microscope, it’s not easy being that clever and giving that type of delivery as people might think.

There’s so much thought process behind making people feel that energy.

What do you think she adds to rap?

Flo is Dennis the Menace and Whitney Houston at the same time.

She’s the badass little sister who is so smart you’re scared to get in an argument and lose. She’s putting Alabama on the map in a way no one ever has, and I don't think she’s even begun to show what she’s capable of.

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THE EXPECTATIONS THAT PEOPLE PUT ON DARKER SKINNED WOMEN, THEY EXPECT US TO FEEL UNIMPORTANT OR LESS THAN.” 33

The most spiritual experiences I’ve ever had in my life were as a fan in the crowd.”

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Can You

The last three years left Maggie Rogers hungry for feeling, connection and humanity.

Her new album ‘Surrender’ is a kicking, screaming call to arms that embraces being alive.

Words: Cordelia Lam.

I

t’s a quiet and brilliantly sunny day in London and, over coffee at The Standard Hotel, Maggie Rogers is discussing the idea of cultural consciousness. “It’s this idea that there’s an energy, a shared frequency, within a group of people,” she suggests.

“That culture moves in tides created by art, religion and politics when they intersect.

“It’s more human than trends.

It’s about emotion, hunger. Like, what are you needing as a people right now?” she questions, talking with her hands as she ponders examples. “Fashion, architecture, music - the way guitars have come back, or how suddenly everyone wants to make really quiet music.”

She points to the iced coffee on the table. “You see it in like, oat milk.”

This is Maggie Rogers’ way of seeing - one of connection; the world in a coffee cup. Everything for the singer is alive, emotional and integrated, with one thing in the centre. “Music is the bridge.

The common language that we can all speak for a second, you know?” she nods. “When you’re at a show and all screaming the words to a song, suddenly you’re unified in something.

“I wrote ‘Light On’ [from Grammynominated debut album, ‘Heard It in a Past Life’] about wanting to quit music,” she continues.

“Then I met a mother and son who told me it was their song to stay connected when he went to college. At the show everyone is singing ‘Light On’ together, but it means something different to every person there.”

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aggie has always chased connection through music and, in the later days of the pandemic, she decided to go back to university to study the idea.

Quietly earning a masters degree in religion and public life from Harvard, her focus was on music, pop culture and public gatherings.

“The most spiritual experiences I’ve ever had in my life were as a fan in the crowd, and onstage feeling this real oneness with an audience,” she smiles.

This month’s second album ‘Surrender’ shares its title with her graduate thesis. “I felt so numb all the time. There was so much trauma in the world, more than any person could hold,” she recalls back from that period. “I kept questioning, ‘Why the fuck don’t I feel anything?’. The album is about trying to let go and just give into that feeling.”

‘Surrender’ sounds like this revelation too: like release, dams breaking, letting the air in after holding your breath. Straight out the gate it invites us in with panoramic opener ‘Overdrive’, a song that feels like flying over the city in a helicopter. “I’m sick of saying ‘You made me weak at the knees’,” Maggie sings over a simple but stratospheric piano riff. “‘Cause I was a runner and I could go for miles.” “The song is really wide shot,” Maggie agrees. “It says, ‘I want to be here while I’m here’. It’s the thesis statement.”

A sense of urgency permeates these songs that hum with a hunger to feel it all. “I see horses running wild / I wish I could feel like that just for a minute,” she belts on ‘Horses’; craving elation on ‘Be Cool’, she kicks the door down with the opening line, “Sick of the sound of self-importance, I fucked off for a month or two / Needed a summer just to be a teenager drunk on the month of June”.

The feeling of forward motion that characterises ‘Surrender’ comes in

Feel It All?

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part from the drums, which are almost a main character in themselves.

‘That’s Where I Am’ and ‘Want Want’ feature harsh metallic drumming, while ‘Shatter’ and ‘Anywhere With You’ stomp forward with crashing, frenetic heartbeats. “I needed something physical,” explains Maggie.

“I kept daydreaming about British festivals and thinking about drums.

Drums are so undeniable; they just hit you.” Her production dips heavily into distortion for similar reasons. “It felt really soothing, like this noise and chaos that I could control. Everything was just so quiet before.”

Maggie thinks of her debut album like a time capsule (“I had just graduated, and suddenly got famous while I was basically in my first job”), and ‘Surrender’ as a more internal exploration of who she is now.

“It’s much more about my personal life. In the pandemic, my inner world was all I had left,” she notes. The album tracks Maggie’s journeys in love, sex, friendship, devastation and hope. As she summarises: “It ended up being a lot about being human and being alive.”

She recalls the summer she wrote ‘Shatter’ - the heat, the sweat, the parties in the street. It was June 2021 and New York had just come out of lockdown. “That summer was crazy,” she muses. “I’d never seen the city like that before.” With the streets crackling with a fevered potential energy, and the air thick and flammable, Maggie decamped to Electric Lady Studios to document this new world that she didn’t understand.

“Everyone was out and alive, dancing and drinking, basically naked. I felt like I was witnessing this performance of fun - people wanted it so badly.” She captures this feeling on the track’s chorus: “I could break a glass just to watch it shatter”. “I’m basically yelling,” she explains, “about everything - the state of the world, my favourite artists dying. I was at all these parties waiting to feel good again, being like, ‘Is it happening yet?

Am I doing it right?’”

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aiting to feel OK is undeniably part of it. Maggie wrote ‘Begging for Rain’ - her favourite on the album - first, alone on her guitar in Maine in the summer of 2020. “I feel that song so much now, seeing so many mass shootings in the US every day

“Music is the bridge. The common language that we can all speak for a second, you know?”

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and fundamental rights being stripped away. Just being like, ‘Fucking please. Anything, anyone. Can we please just be fucking humans for two seconds?’” She fumbles for the Hilary Duff quote from A Cinderella Story. “How does it go? ‘Waiting for you is like waiting for rain in this drought!’”

Through it all, she grounded herself in learning to define her own spirituality. “Studying different belief systems and religious theory, what I came back to was actually where I started: nature, art, and friendship.

I spent time figuring out how to structure my relationship with these things so I could keep them sacred.” She takes a beat. “Like, friendship is so fucking sacred. The people you choose to spend time with? That’s religion!”

And indeed, ‘Surrender’ does feel imbued with a kind of religiosity.

“There was something stuck inside of me and it just had to come out.

I think you can hear it in the vocal delivery. I’m a different person now that it’s out,” she explains. Many of the songs end with Maggie singing the same line, over and over. “Are you ready to start? Are you ready to start?” she repeats on ‘Anywhere With You’, louder and more frenzied each time until it builds into a cry. On ‘Horses’, meanwhile, she corrals a lover to run wild with her - “Could you just give in, give in, give in?”. Is it a spell? An incantation? For Maggie, she decides it’s a “mantra”.

The album ends on ‘Different Kind of World’, where quietly, almost by campfire light, she sings: “One last song, I’ll sing a song and make it a song for peace / Though we all may carry on, may we do so decently.”

It’s a prayer for hope, a plea for virtue, and underneath it all, an affirmation of that same belief Maggie’s always had: that art is the way to get there. “At the end of the day, I’ve learnt that all we’re trying to do is find ways to make sense of the chaos,” she decides. “The way to do that is still music for me.”

‘Surrender’ is out 29th July via Polydor. DIY

the new album out now “Indie rock’s next big thing” - NYLON mommaband.com luckynumbermusic.com

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CALM EXORCISING HIS DEMONS VIA THE AGITATED WARES OF SECOND ALBUM ‘FEAR FEAR’, WORKING MEN’S CLUB’S SYD MINSKYSARGEANT IS LEARNING HOW TO RELEASE LIFE’S PRESSURE VALVE.

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hen Working Men’s Club dropped their self-titled debut album in 2020, there was already an air of mystique and mythology surrounding the newcomers. Frontman Syd Minsky-Sargeant - aged just 18 at the time - had garnered something of a reputation for his outspoken interviews and interband fallouts; with a release date nestled in between two suffocating lockdowns, meanwhile, the record’s gargantuan, dancefloor-ready tracks landed at stark odds with the stifling reality of life at the time.

Sat in a basement venue in central London late on a Monday afternoon, however, Syd radiates a very different energy to the frenzied creature who’s come into his own fronting late-night festival sets in the time since. Whereas, on stage, the singer is a tightlywound ball of jerking, convulsive body language and hostile gurning, in person his demeanour is affable and relaxed as he leans back in his seat and thoughtfully considers each response. As DIY’s photographers experiment with lighting and smoke machines, Syd looks unfazed and gives long, conversational answers as strobe lights intermittently blitz his face.

Yet while, visually, today’s setting feels implausibly well-paired to the mood of Working Men’s Club’s new album, Syd’s easygoing aura is completely at odds with the themes of this month’s ‘Fear Fear’.

As its title suggests, the band’s second LP sets its sights on the darkness and dread that the now-20year-old observed over the past couple of years: some pandemic-induced, some not. The 10-song tracklist plays as a murky, labyrinthine exploration into the ominous and the sinister, all set to the rhythm of relentless drum machines and catchy, agitated synth-pop.

From the creeping slow-build of opener ‘19’, Syd leaves sapless suggestions at the door and

arrives with intent - taking aim at those “bereft of persecution” through an unshakable coldwave snarl that sounds like a Mark E Smith vocal produced by Giorgio Moroder. Elsewhere, moments of ecstasy penetrate the album’s dark, Detroit techno-inspired loops; ‘The Last One’ has a truly ethereal quality, while seven-minute shredder ‘Cut’ reaches boiling point in his hot-and-cold relationship with the electric guitar.

True to his perpetual outsider status, it feels noteworthy that Syd switched his lyrical gaze outwards during a period of social collapse that left almost all other artists mining introspectively for inspiration. “I felt like I'd done the introspective thing on album one,” Syd says of ‘Fear Fear’’s lyrical themes. “It was interesting to look outside of myself when everyone else was looking inward, and to take the time for once to properly consider what it was that I was seeing.

“There were a lot of topics being talked about online and on the news which came to the fore during the pandemic - social and economic issues where certain people weren't being looked after,” he continues. “But money is redundant in a world without humans, isn't it?”

M

eeting Syd, there’s an unexpected air of contentment - zen, even about the songwriter. Absent is the bedevilled performer last seen contorting his body on stage at Primavera just two days prior, the gobby shite who declared the entire Manchester music scene to have been “shit” for the past 20 years in his first DIY interview, or even the angry observationist who recently penned the lyrics “Meeting by the river / Filter out the dread / Why is rapture rancid / Look inside my head” on album track ‘Rapture’. Has he cultivated a newfound mellow streak?

WITHIN

“Yeah, I suppose I’m more mellow,” he laughs,

THE

STORM

Words: Matt Ganfield. Photos: Ed Miles.

39

I TOOK ADVANTAGE OF BEING ABLE TO SAY WHATEVER THE FUCK I WANTED WHEN I COULDN'T DO SO IN OTHER AREAS OF MY LIFE.” - SYD MINSKY-SARGEANT looking as if the idea had never previously crossed his mind. “In my early interviews, there was a lot more going on behind the scenes than anybody knows about or ever will know about - that's life.

I think I was trying to vent my confusion and frustration towards being young, while also trying to keep a grip on things.”

Much of the conversation surrounding Working Men’s Club’s primitive days gravitated towards the constant reconfiguration of the group, which resulted in every member besides Syd exiting the band amid fallouts and bouts of egotistical tug-of-war. “I was always the youngest person in that band, but because I was the person writing the tunes, the mic was put in front of me,” Syd recalls of those early days. “I took advantage of being able to say whatever the fuck I wanted when I couldn't do so in other areas of my life at the time.”

The idea of being interviewed by national media outlets whilst in your still-formative teens, with your responses archived evermore for posterity, may feel like a Black Mirror-esque foray into dystopian fiction to many, but Syd is pragmatic about his early career outbursts. “When there’s alcohol around you, or substances, it's easy to get carried away with what you say,” he reflects. “A lot of people grew up by going to university, and

40 DIYMAG.COM

experimenting and making mistakes. I've been making mistakes over the past few years and I'll probably continue to do so.”

In a two-year period which has seen critical acclaim and festivalstealing performances tessellated between anxieties both professional and personal, it’s been the simple things that have cultivated a sense of self in the singer. Walking around during lockdown to see nature reclaiming areas of the Todmorden town that he calls home, and investing time into his small community of close friends, ‘Fear Fear’ might be a second album that arrives steeped in the anxieties of its title, but the man behind them is growing into a calmer presence.

Now, with much of Album Three already written, Syd is too busy looking ahead to give anymore thought to what has come before.

“It's nice to see praise coming in and people paying attention, but I’ve realised that I get my kicks from making my music in private; I find it quite easy now to take each day as it comes,” he says.

“There’s definitely something to be said for trying to be content and happy at some points!”

‘Fear Fear’ is out 15th July via Heavenly. DIY

41

RISE&SH “Seeing myself on that [TV] screen, I thought, ‘Fuck, I really know what I’m doing’’.” doing

42 DIYMAG.COM

HINE On second album ‘Sound of the Morning’, Katy J Pearson is shedding ill-fitting genre tags and simply aiming to make beautiful, strong songs.

Mission emphatically accomplished.

Words: Will Richards. Photos: Jenn Five.

I

n mid-June of this year, Katy J Pearson fulfilled a lifelong dream. When she was a child, the Gloucestershire-born, Bristol-based singersongwriter used to watch Later… with Jools Holland religiously, the show becoming a tool by which she’d discover new music and see her favourite artists in action.

Playing an electrifying rendition of ‘Talk Over Town’ with her band on Later… last month, Katy’s friends held a viewing party for the episode at Bristol’s Louisiana venue. “I started crying at the intro music to the show,” she remembers a few days later when we meet in London. “And everyone’s like, ‘Oh my god, why are you crying at THIS bit?!’ But seeing myself on Jools Holland was like an out of body experience. It’s the biggest achievement of my existence.

It’s such a validatingly crazy thing that I’ve just done.”

So, how did we get here? Emerging in the mid-2010s with major label project Ardyn, Katy and her brother Rob made bright, melodic pop music under the name.

Though it gave her a start, in retrospect Katy describes the “corporate” environments they were pushed into as “calculated” and “very soulless”.

It wasn’t a surprise, then, that when she re-emerged in 2019, the music also took a turn, with debut single ‘Tonight’ favouring shuffling acoustic guitars and accentuating her unique, twangy voice. On 2020 debut album ‘Return’, Katy’s sound started to take shape further, its tracks ‘Take Back The Radio’ and ‘Fix Me Up’ becoming low-key indie hits, full of addictive choruses and a gorgeously unpretentious outlook.

“On the first record, I was clutching at straws at times,” she reflects now. “I wasn’t feeling fully confident as an artist, and was worried what the album would mean for me identity-wise.” One identity that was thrust upon her from day one was the idea that she was a country singer. Most of this, she says, came from the ‘Tonight’ video, which saw her line-dancing on a cliff top with a rhinestone-emblazoned jacket. “It really pissed me off,” she says of the conclusions people jumped to. “They saw what I was wearing and said, ‘Oh, she’s a country singer!’.

When you actually think about the first record as a whole, I don’t think it’s that country at all.”

And so, on second album ‘Sound Of The Morning’ - the fantastic, jubilant follow-up to ‘Return’ - Katy wanted to “stamp out” any easy categorisation of her music. “One lady made me laugh. She said I sounded like ‘country folk punk’,” she chuckles. “When people ask me what I think I am, I have no fucking idea!” It’s a puzzle that makes

43

sense, because while labels are convenient and easily translatable, none quite fit for Katy J Pearson; on ‘Sound Of The Morning’, she sounds just like herself.

H

er second album, recorded across and in between various lockdowns, traverses genre boundaries and takes the singer out of boxes others had put her in. With notions of being country, folk, punk or all of the above far from her mind, instead the focus was purely on writing the best song possible. And these are damn good songsLead single ‘Talk Over Town’ employs the widescreen, chugging rhythms of The War On Drugs, while ‘Alligator’, written with Speedy Wunderground’s Dan Carey, is a slinky alt-pop gem. On ‘The Hour’, she strips things back on a fantastically haunting, sparse folk ballad, while ‘Howl’ is a delicious earworm.

The latter song was written when Katy was in Ardyn, with the track dismissed as “too indie” by her label.

“I wrote it six years ago at my parents’ house, and we had some builders round who were big BBC 6 Music heads. They said, ‘Ah that’s a great song, we could hear that on Radio 6’,” she recalls. In taking the song back and repurposing it for the new album, Katy encapsulates the energy and intention of ‘Sound Of The Morning’: it’s the story of trusting in your own convictions after having them rubbished for years, and of releasing the best music possible regardless of others’

opinions. It’s no wonder the songs here sound so true and free.

At the heart of the new album is collaboration.

While ‘Return’ saw Katy largely block out any outside voices and make a true solo album, she rediscovered the joys of letting people in for its follow up. Alongside Bristol-based engineer Ali Chant, she worked with Dan Carey in his south London studio and wrote songs with her brother, Bristol scene stalwart Oliver Wilde, and more. At her live shows, she plays alongside members of caroline, Black Country, New Road, Drug Store Romeos and beyond, and it feels like a true gang on stage.

One act also in Katy’s orbit are post-punk band-dujour Yard Act, who remixed her track ‘Miracle’ and have invited her on stage at numerous gigs. “Their fans might not have heard of me, but they’re really lifting me up,” she says of the Leeds band. “They’re doing so well, and it’s so lovely seeing these people that are doing really well and wanting to really give me a foot up and get me the exposure that they think I deserve. I find that really, really wonderfully kind.”

Hours after we chat, meanwhile, Katy’s off to the Roundhouse to sing alongside former Maccabees frontman Orlando Weeks. Repaying the favour for Katy’s turn on his 2021 track ‘Big Skies, Silly Faces’, Orlando adds his deliciously distinctive vocals to the chorus of ‘Howl’ on the new album, while Black Midi’s Morgan Simpson also drums on a handful of tracks. The list of familiar faces on show here feels endless, and adds to the chameleonic musical landscape of the record, with no sound or vibe discounted.

Finally, though, she knows she deserves to be here.

“It’s so important to feel like you belong,” she reflects on her journey, and the penny drop moment of her Jools viewing party. “Seeing myself on that screen, I thought, ‘Fuck, I really know what I’m doing’.

“Although I am seen as a solo artist, it’s quite a big collective of people that contribute to my music,” Katy reasons, calling it a ‘community’ of artists rather than giving it the dreaded ‘scene’ tag.

“It’s been the

‘Sound Of The Morning’ is out now via Heavenly.

DIY

“Although I am seen as a solo artist, it’s quite a big collective of people that contribute to my music.”

44 DIYMAG.COM

most brilliant place, and we’re all out to support each other. There are some parts of the industry that are really competitive, but this community that I’ve ended up part of has been the most loving.”

“Oh COME ON Katy, you’ve done like 300 million gigs,” she mocks in response to the self-doubting part of her brain before deciding: “It’s a wonderful feeling to feel that assurance that I am meant to be there.”

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45

Welcome Under I t’s 5pm on Primavera Sound’s baking hot final afternoon and Sebastian Murphy, bleary eyed and clutching a large espresso like an emergency raft, is muddling his way through “the worst hangover of his life”. Having spent last night (and, you suspect, a decent portion of this morning) carousing at a friend’s tattoo shop, we’ve nonetheless caught the Viagra Boys frontman at one of the perkier moments of his day so far; an earlier interview, we’re told, saw him spend the latter portion of the chat face down with his head on the table, answering questions from somewhere inside the abyss.

That the gold-toothed frontman is still more charismatic, engaging and quotable than 98% of interviewees is testament both to Sebastian’s naturally dry and wicked way of looking at the world, and that fact that - despite today’s hyperbole - he has almost certainly had many, many worse experiences of pulling himself through the morning after’s mire.

Founded in Stockholm the best part of a decade

46 DIYMAG.COM

Conjuring up a freakish cast of sordid specimens for third album ‘Cave World’, Viagra Boys are putting an injection of surreal humour back into punk.

Words: Lisa Wright. Photos: Louise Mason.

rworld TO THE

ago from a place of societal antagonism steeped in nihilism and amphetamine use, Viagra Boys’ ethos has always been one of forcefully, uncompromisingly kicking against the pricks. These days, the singer might describe his mental health as “pretty good,” but he recalls the time up until 2018 debut LP ‘Street Worms’ as one categorised by a steadfast refusal to toe any sort of party line, with the only intention a form of manic creative oblivion. Still, despite the increasing stages they’ve found themselves on through 2021 follow-up ‘Welfare Jazz’ and this month’s delightfully piss-taking ‘Cave World’, there’s a visible thread of acting out to everything the sextet do.

“I think I just wanted to be relentless in art, and I had this hate for music as well so I wanted to make anti-music. I wanted it to be as simple as possible and for everything to say ‘Fuck off’. Everything I create, everything, I just wanted it to represent those two words: ‘Fuck off’,” he begins of the band’s early years. “I had a very clear vision of: ‘I’m gonna be high for the rest of my life and I’m gonna change the fucking world’. I had this fucking incredibly clear vision that I was gonna die for, but then slowly something happened and I thought, ‘Oh fuck, maybe I don’t wanna die anymore, maybe I wanna do this for a little bit longer…’”

47

In relative terms, the Sebastian of today is a comparably mellower proposition, but, as he states, “it’ll always be there”. “It’s part of my soul,” he shrugs, “this disdain for authority and for what people expect out of you in society. I just hate it all.” Now, almost certainly more in line with doctors’ orders, the frontman has begun to channel these impulses and angers into a more healthy, yet no less potent, space.

Enter ‘Cave World’: a primal, surreal, grotesque and often hilarious third record that holds a warped fairground mirror to the world and revels in the repulsive results.

W

ritten from the relatively relaxed confines of Sweden’s version of the pandemic, with few rules, Sebastian spent his days “watching everyone [else] tear each other apart”. “Watching America from the sidelines was very entertaining, very entertaining for sure…” he chuckles, bleak sense of humour ever-present.

The conspiracy theorists and puff-chested blowhards that populate ‘Cave World’ - Viagra Boys’ most character-driven output to date - acted as an exercise less in trying to make a grand condemning point about what the frontman was seeing than attempting to inhabit their out-there headspaces for a brief moment. On ‘Creepy Crawlers’, he freestyles an outraged speech from the point of view of a QAnon theorist, convinced that world leaders are harvesting adrenochrome and that children will start growing up with animal hair (“Some of ‘em are growing up with tails, maybe even two tails man!”).

‘Troglodyte’, meanwhile, pokes fun at the trolls and gun nuts by teleporting them back several thousand

“It’s part of my soul, this disdain for authority and for what people expect out of you in society.

I just hate it all.”

- Sebastian Murphy

48 DIYMAG.COM

years and watching them flail in the primordial soup.

“It’s interesting to put myself in the mind of someone that’s insane, because I’ve been insane in certain periods of my life. There was a period of my life where I took so much amphetamine and slept four hours a week, and slowly my brain was just rotting. I became clinically insane but I also had a lot of interesting ideas then, and sometimes I like to tap back into that in a way,” he theories. “Now I’m doing pretty good, I feel like it’s harder for me to find these wild or passionate ideas. The better I feel, the less I care about actually doing something - which is weird and very dangerous. So I have to tap back into feeling horrible and having all these insane ideas about what’s going on…”

It’s perhaps ironic then that ‘Cave World’’s other main lyrical tick comes from a sense of eye-rolling self-mockery at the way the band are perceived.

Heavily-tattooed on all visible skin surfaces, with ‘lös’ (Swedish for ‘loose’) emblazoned on his forehead, Sebastian might semi-jokingly attest to

Shrimp World Running solidly throughout Viagra Boys’ career - and populating new album track ‘Ain’t No Thief’ - has been an unusual mascot: the shrimp.

Sebastian explains their crustacean fascination.

“I was really into shrimps five or six years ago. Me and my friends would always talk about shrimps; back then, amphetamines smelled a lot like shrimp in Sweden so we always used to be like, ‘Where’s the shrimp at?’, and due to a lot of amphetamine use, your penis can look a lot like a shrimp. So shrimps were just a major part of my life for a little while, and then when we started the company Shrimp Tech Enterprises, it just kind of stuck. Our fans won’t let it die.

They throw shrimp on stage and give me presents related to shrimp. I guess out of fan service, I have to keep it alive.”

“It’s interesting to put myself in the mind of someone that’s insane, because I’ve been insane in certain periods of my life.” Sebastian Murphy spending his downtime being “the calmest person ever, just hanging out, playing video games, going for long walks on the beach,” but the stereotypes still precede them.

“People think that I’m that person, for sure,” the singer says of recent single ‘Punk Rock Loser’ (sample lyric: “I don’t go to parties where folks get dressed up / I go to the function just to fuck shit up”).

“So I kind of wanted to give it to them, like alright, fuck you, here’s your fucking song that you wanted to hear, asshole.” He pauses. “I hate that song. I think it sucks. I think it’s so stupid, but there are parts of me that also like it for its stupidity. The duality of man, you know…”

D

uality is, perhaps, the key to understanding Viagra Boys. Having broken through with the purposefully dumb deadpan dirge of 2018 single ‘Sports’, Sebastian is confident in the band’s ability to balance the absurd with the astute.

“I remember our bassist was worried [with ‘Sports’] that people were gonna think we’re the fucking Bloodhound Gang or something. But I was like, fuck

it, I don’t care. I think most people know that it’s not just a joke - it’s more than that,” the singer notes. “It’s about finding this balance; there’s a time to be stupid and there’s a time not to be. We don’t wanna end up being a Weird Al Yankovic type of band; I love jokes and humour, but we’re always gonna be a little bit rooted in reality or in a commentary on society.”

On ‘Cave World’, the band combine the two in smarter, funnier, more gleefully ridiculous ways than ever. Rather than just angrily lashing out at the world, Sebastian and his gang of misfits translate their vision into a League of Gentlemen-esque patchwork of life’s sordid outliers - all soundtracked by the sort of sleazy, uneasy punk that evokes the spirit of Nick Cave’s The Birthday Party and sends it down into the gutters. Or, as he puts it, “what I’m interested in at the time will always be mixed with my disdain for the human race and for society in general. [You take] something funny - or that I think is funny - and then you mix it up with total hate for the world. It’s a good time.”

2am set later tonight, the singer having fully revived himself by this more sociable hour. They may have begun life in a blaze of disdain and fury for the world around them, but nowadays Viagra Boys seem to have found a way to make it work on their terms.

“There’s a lot of pride [for what we’ve achieved],” he nods, a slow smile inching across his hangover. “I mean, we’re called Viagra Boys and we’re playing for thousands of people. That’s the stupidest shit I’ve ever heard…

“It’s like, ‘Ha, I tricked ‘em, I tricked everybody!

Gotcha!”

‘Cave World’ is out now via YEAR0001. DIY

Perversely, Viagra Boys ARE a riotously good time: just ask the crowd feverishly getting down to their

49

Living in

Having established herself as a proud pop advocate for the queer community, now on second album ‘Panorama’, Hayley Kiyoko is becoming a true advocate for herself.

Words: Ben Tipple.

Widesc

50 DIYMAG.COM

H

ayley Kiyoko stands in front of a suitably lavish mansion, welcoming a string of women inside. It’s a playful riff on turn-of-the-century TV sensation The Bachelor: a show that has traditionally paired one male singleton with a selection of potential suitors of the opposite sex. In its many spin-offs including flipping the script with The Bachelorette - the franchise has yet to branch into the queer community despite its two decades of airtime.

However in her video for ‘For The Girls’, a slice of celebratory pop taken from the singer’s second album ‘Panorama’, that changes for three minutes.

Hayley’s proposed matches argue, cry, drink and make-up in an attempt to win over our protagonist’s heart, only to be outwitted by late arrival Becca Tilley; not only a cheeky, pop culture-skewering video nugget, the clip also uses the opportunity to confirm Hayley’s real-life relationship with the two-time Bachelor contestant. It all forms part of the creative all-rounder’s confidence in her art. Beneath the fun is a bold, unashamed and unfiltered acceptance of herself – one that has been a long time coming.

If coming out marks the moment of acceptance, Hayley will have been carefree for years. A proud queer advocate, her career to date has been dominated by inclusive anthems, with 2015 breakthrough single ‘Girls Like Girls’ forming the focal point of her nostalgia-filled ‘This Side Of Paradise’ EP - a theme she has driven forward since. Her openness has led to her being affectionately labelled the “lesbian Jesus”, but, as Hayley notes, “a lot of people in the community go through this journey of having to come out to themselves multiple times and having to come out to others multiple times”.

Although there’s a definite freedom in presenting your authentic self, it’s not the end of the journey.

Her propensity for nostalgia speaks to this. Hayley’s self-directed videos, features and music all find comfort in Y2K glitz; it runs throughout the palette of ‘For The Girls’’ video, and was brought to life via the depiction of her childhood bedroom in the 2020 clip for ‘She’. Meanwhile her sound, particularly on ‘Panorama’, pushes it further with a blend of ‘00s hip-hop and synth-pop power.

“I've spent a lot of my life not only dreaming but escaping and going back to certain times in my life,” Hayley explains. “This nostalgia is always a part of me, because I'm healing this younger version of myself, and trying to understand that younger version of myself.” Though not unique to a specific demographic, it’s a reclamation of lost years that many of the queer comunity find themselves facing.

“I never got asked to prom. I never went on a date. All these things that I wanted to experience, I never could or never allowed myself to be able to,” she notes. “As you truly form your authentic self, it's almost like being reborn and starting your life again. So there are just these weird time

screen

51

“ Nostalgia is always a part of me, because I'm healing and trying to understand that younger version of myself. ”

52 DIYMAG.COM

capsules, and I just feel comforted by nostalgia. That's what I love.”

Feeling like an outcast has pointed Hayley back towards old movies, having been unable to identify with anything being released at the time. Even now, outside of her own music, she still finds solace in art of the past; nostalgia provides a comfort blanket. On the flip side however, it also represents something a lot more current. “Looking back at my life, knowing that it was really dark at times and knowing that I'm here and I've overcome that,” Hayley opens up, “well, surrounding myself with nostalgia ignites hope because I got through that. It builds that resilience and invigorates me to keep going.”

O Out & Proud

Over the years, Hayley has released a canon of queer anthems to cement her ‘lesbian Jesus’ nickname. Here are the best of them.

‘Girls Like Girls’ (2015) Asked in the studio what scares her, Hayley responded by penning this coming out anthem, complete with self-directed video. "Girls like girls like boys do," she simply states, "nothing new".

ver the last few years, Hayley has battled with significant health issues. Her physical well-being deteriorated, leading to struggles with depression and, with her body shutting down and a series of doctors unable to find a cause, she turned to herself to find an answer. “I had this moment where I was just like, ‘I'm taking control of the situation and I'm gonna figure this out, because no one else is’,” she recalls. “That led me to an anti-inflammatory lifestyle. ”Firmly focusing on her health, Hayley began the process of personal spring cleaning. “It was a question of, what do I keep in my life that's gonna keep me high functioning for my health and what's causing the chaos in my life? I was forced to look at the bigger picture and be like, OK, what is working and what's not working? What am I still hiding from, and what am I not letting go of?”

Decluttering her mind, surroundings and lifestyle led to two things. Her sound shifted slightly, welcoming executive producer Danja into the fold whose previous work alongside the likes of Justin Timberlake, Timbaland and Britney Spears fit perfectly into Hayley’s ‘00s sensibilities. Personally, meanwhile, the process also gave the singer space to look inwards at herself, her songwriting, and her throwbacks to the past.

“I had this realisation that I’ve always coded my lyrics or had a protective layer. I wanted this part to be mine, and no one would understand this piece, but I'll give them everything else,” she enacts of her previous thought processes. “And

‘She’ (2020) Looking back at her time in the closet, this one covers the journey from hiding yourself to becoming an all-out diva.

And rightly so!

‘For The Girls’ (2022) It's hot girl summer all-round in this self-affirming pop banger. "Summer's for the girls," Hayley commands, "the girls who like girls".

Pure joy.

“I think, as a person, you can be very confident and love yourself and live your authentic truth while navigating the fact that there are still some old wounds and trauma that you're having to heal,” she expands. “That's just a part of life. I named this album ‘Panorama’ because it's about embracing the highs and the lows and loving yourself through it all.”

The record’s softer, deeply personal moments “encompass true sadness,” she smiles, speaking of ‘Underground’’s depiction of depression and the title track’s grasp to stay grounded in the lowest moments. On ‘Found My Friends’, she openly calls for help. “That was a huge moment for me to know that I could get lost and there would be people in the world that were still holding my soul and that space for me to find myself again,” Hayley nods.

This personal journey has also led to bigger musical soundscapes, inspired by the singer’s love of alt-rock and indie, and championed by Danja. Even the more straightforward pop numbers like the euphoric over-her anthem ‘Well’ carry an edge that fans will struggle to find on earlier material. Hayley sounds more assured on both sides of the record, be it the dancefloor fillers or the introverted tales, whilst all the while embodying the queer empowerment that has secured her a legion of fans.

“It's about normalising our love, presenting it and exposing people to the fact that queer people are everywhere,” she enthuses. “We are wonderful, magical people, and we deserve to have the platforms that heterosexual people have. Being a lesbian, we need more representation, so it ends up landing in the category of trailblazing because we haven't seen it before.”

Despite her turbulent journey to ‘Panorama’, the fire burning inside Hayley Kiyoko is clear. There’s a resilience, passion, and a genuine drive for change that moves her forward. “My goal is to make great music and to release great art, and hopefully my art will speak for itself,” she continues. “And I love talking about my identity, because that's who I am, and a huge part

“ As women we have to really work hard and go the extra mile to have a seat at the table. ”

‘Pretty Girl’ (2016) Aka Hayley's ode to all the beautiful women she’s seen but not had the confidence to approach. "I just wanna tell you that you're really pretty girl," she sings. Job done.

‘Sleepover’ (2018) For young queer people, the line between friendship and attraction is often blurred, a narrative Hayley owns in the proudly queer, self-validating video for 'Sleepover'.

‘For The Girls’ with its proud ode to lesbian love sits against the pain of ‘Flicker Start’; “I can’t figure out what to do today,” Hayley sings. “Everyone’s having fun, but I can’t relate.”

so, through working on this record and pulling myself apart and putting myself back together, I was like, why am I still protecting myself?”

Finally able to let the walls down, Hayley has approached ‘Panorama’ with a new attitude. She notes that 2018 debut LP ‘Expectations’ is still a full representation of herself, but that in dealing with her health issues and all that’s come with it, she’s realised when and where she’s been holding back. “It took pulling myself apart and putting myself back together to find what was still lingering around, trying to protect me from my authentic truth.”

‘P

anorama’, then, arrives as the lessons learnt from this journey. Hayley links the album’s title to walking through valleys and stopping to take in the view, both to learn to live in the moment and to see how far she has come, and it’s these two thoughts that underpin the album’s candid mix of celebratory confidence and insecurity. Within the album,

of my life. My goal has always been to be a mainstream artist that people love and that everyone can listen to, but I have no regrets being very open and bold about who I am, and who I love, because I think that helps people.

“I think as women we're always behind. I think that will always be a part of my journey with music,” she continues. “We're still fighting for rights in general and reclaiming that space for lesbian women. As women we have to really work hard and go the extra mile to have a seat at the table. That is not a secret.

And I think that in lesbian representation - in TV and film and music - that’s also not a secret. It's extra hard. So, in general I'm trying to share my truth and my experiences and also trying to help that movement. “‘Expectations’ was me catching up with and sharing my stories from the past and ‘Panorama’ is me sharing my present self,” she concludes emphatically. “That's what ‘Panorama’ is, it's reclaimed power for me as a queer person.”

‘Panorama’ is out 29th July via Atlantic. DIY

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Reviews 54 DIYMAG.COM

Proof that you can grow up gracefully with every inch of your vibrancy still intact.

Albums

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Jamie T

The Theory of Whatever (Polydor)

Whether it’s the reunion of Black Kids, My Chemical Romance filling the stadiums of Europe or Foals re-embracing the disco, the class of noughties indie have been having an awful lot of fun of late. Celebrating their coming of age while also marking out a vibrant future, it seems that being free of your twenties brings a certain removal of pressure, a chance to shake off expectations and follow your own bliss. The happiness of artists is not always as much of a priority as it should be, but in the eyes of true fandom, patience over a new project often pays off.

Firmly ensconced in his thirties, Jamie T is famed for taking time over his releases. But 15 years on from the endearingly-scrappy ‘Panic Prevention’, ‘The Theory Of Whatever’ demonstrates that he has never been more comfortable at the helm of his own vision. Dusting off his playbook of classic tools - fond snippets of London, murmured chats with pub mates, fallibly-romantic storytelling - he tweaks his talents into sharper focus, referencing maturity without descending into chin-stroking pretence.

The sweet nostalgia of ‘90s Cars’ would have sat happily within the ‘Kings & Queens’ era, while ‘British Hell’ and ‘Sabre Tooth’ display his enduring talent for rap-rock alchemy, tackling post-Brexit patriotism and proxy wars with the kind of deprecating wit that keeps him relevant among the Bob Vylans and Sam Fenders of today. The do-wop balladeering of ‘Thankyou’ could be a quirky Damon Albarn cut in its swooning chorus, but the one-liners are all Jamie; “shit sticks like a dirty magazine” …“and if they can’t pronounce my name I guess he’ll call me Addison…Lee.” An ode to long-distance relationships, it sits next to ‘Talk Is Cheap’ as signs of his growing candour, ostensibly coming from quite a personal place.

Though there is some clear intention not to spell everything out, Jamie T seems to have made an album about leaning into yourself, embracing even life’s tougher moments knowing that they will eventually work themselves out. Both ‘A Million Ways To Die’ and ‘Between The Rocks’ could feel utterly despondent, but with his riotous, mosh pit-baiting melodies, they become quite hopeful, laid out in the gutter but still staring up at the stars. “Victim, no way” declares the former, while the latter reflects on his ability to “keep writing with obsession,” a heartfelt nod to setting his own pace. It appears to have paid off; the sound of an artist coming home to themselves, ‘The Theory Of Whatever’ is proof that you can grow up gracefully with every inch of your vibrancy still intact. (Jenessa Williams) LISTEN: ‘90s Cars’, ‘British Hell’

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King Princess Hold On Baby (Zelig / Columbia)

King Princess’ second album ‘Hold On Baby’ is about facing herself. “I’m not sure I like myself, but I’m figuring it out,” Mikaela Straus writes in the record's accompanying manifesto. “I want this album to give us all some strength in accepting ourselves as chaotic as we can be.” Indeed, this may be King Princess’ most diverse, “chaotic” sound to date - within its tight 12 tracks, the album dances across innumerable genres and influences, each another door through which to access herself. The project bounces from muted yet stormy piano on introspective opener ‘I Hate Myself, I Want to Party’, to pulsing and electric on ‘Little Bother’, to wispy, tender, then utterly explosive and earth- shattering on the Aaron Dessner-produced ‘Change The Locks’. These varied sonic textures are tied together by her distinctive conversational vocal tone and unflinching songwriting. King Princess sings directly to her girlfriend on ‘Winter Is Hopeful’ to assuage her fears: “Quinn, oh Quinn, I love you / I feel its seasons / Summer is cold and winter is hopeful”. Pulling together synth, strings and warped melodies, the love song is tender yet distant, disarming yet comforting, discordant yet oddly harmonious - the way this album sounds. (Cordelia Lam)

A vulnerable musical experiment that stays true to her roots of authenticity.

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Albums

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Maggie Rogers Surrender (Polydor)

Despite her viral fame beginnings and leaving Pharrell speechless, the delicate majesty of Maggie Rogers is taking things slower than ever on latest album ‘Surrender’. Imbuing her typically layered, pensive pop with a darker, more insidious phenotype, Maggie succeeds in bringing a new life to noughties radio pop hysteria. Channeling her inner Natalie Imbruglia on ‘That’s Where I Am’, the blown out snares and hooky chorus are somehow both modern and instilled in the past. ‘Want Want’ is fizzing with taut energy, yet elsewhere ‘Horses’ and ‘Shatter’ show her daring capacity to push the ever-expanding boundaries of songwriter-led musicianship. With accompanying music videos using resurfaced early-aughts symbology from cult films 10 Things I Hate About You and Lost In Translation, ‘Surrender’ proves Maggie can use motifs from the past to build worlds and stimulate memories while always looking forward. (Alisdair Grice) LISTEN: ‘That’s Where I Am’

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Interpol

The Other Side of Make Believe (Matador)

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Conan Gray Superache (Republic)

On ‘Superache’, Conan Gray meticulously portrays a doomed relationship, destined to fail from the first guitar strums on harmony-rich opener ‘Movies’. Themes of adolescent angst and unrequited love continue to dominate, as Conan vents a tendency to over-romanticise life. Ironically, yearning for a “love like the movies” preludes an album that sounds like it could soundtrack one, from the vivid, almost theatrical descriptions on ‘People Watching', to deeply moody ‘Astronomy’ which wouldn’t be out of place in a Netflix original musical.

Meanwhile, ‘Best Friend’ offers a brief interval from the heartbreak to shout out a partner in crime that is “just as psycho” as himself. Detailing the intricacies of heartbreak within a chronically-online generation, ‘Superache’ sees the full force of Conan's experimentation as a storyteller. His teenage fixation on Lorde and Taylor Swift is evident in standout ‘Disaster’ where his clear ability to write an unapologetically great pop song shines. There are real moments of pain too piano ballad ‘Yours’ yearns for a more substantial love while flexing his talent as a vocalist. It’s a record sure to speak to the crowd that once made up his YouTube subscribers and now line the barriers at his gigs. ‘Memories’, littered with therapy talk and wailing guitar, is a final powerful thrash at an ex, but ultimately melancholy dominates to the bitter end, as he departs on the sour note of ‘The Exit’. There’s no clear journey from track one, or even album one, as ‘Superache’ seems to chronicle Conan's attempts at finding his feet in love as much as his music. (Laura Molloy) LISTEN: 'Disaster'

For their seventh album, Interpol have taken a slowburning approach. Anyone hitting play on ‘The Other Side of Make Believe’ hoping to find an indie punk banger along the lines of ‘Slow Hands’ or ‘PDA’ might come away feeling short changed: this is not an album that favours catchiness, but atmosphere. This approach works best when the Manhattan trio infuse their sounds with a touch of the cinematic.

Sunny opener ‘Toni’ is the strongest and most immediate offering here by far, held aloft with floaty piano and pounding drums, while ‘Something Changed’ simmers moodily with Paul Banks’ low croon lending an air of murkiness. There’s a reason their music has been used so frequently in TV shows (most famously soundtracking Joey and Rachel’s first kiss in Friends) - it’s where they’re at their best. Conversely, the songs lacking this feeling of drama are less memorable.

Though it’s one thing for music to be slow-burning, the likes of the all-too-placid ‘Fables’ and the aimless, Coldplay B-side-esque ‘Go Easy (Palermo)’ don’t stand a chance of even briefly setting alight. This is an album that asks for patience, and only on occasion is it duly rewarded. (Emma Wilkes) LISTEN: ‘Toni’

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Minions: The Rise Of Gru OST (Decca)

If the question was ‘what would it take to rehabilitate the Minions’ image?’, then it would appear Jack Antonoff is the answer. The small yellow creatures’ ubiquitousness quickly made them an object of hate; like stepping on a Lego brick via the eyes. And while ‘The Rise of Gru’ might not make everyone do a full 180 on them, it does have a good chance of not just soundtracking the film, but a whole summer. ‘70s funk and sweltering heat are perfect partners: opener ‘Turn Up The Sunshine’, a gorgeously loose collaboration that pairs Tame Impala’s penchant for swirly psych with the iconic disco presence of Diana Ross successfully sets the scene on a record which consistently makes smart choices throughout. Recruiting the late, great Brockhampton to put a fresh spin on Kool and the Gang’s ‘Hollywood Swinging’, H.E.R for Sly & The Family Stone’s iconic ‘Dance to the Music’, Thundercat bringing his twisted funk to Steve Miller’s ‘Fly Like An Eagle’: even if there wasn’t a heatwave at the time of writing, daresay this collection would bring it regardless. Caroline Polachek’s restraint on ‘Bang Bang’ is virtuous; St Vincent’s deadpan delivery on ‘Funkytown’ a delicious counterpart to the track’s maximalist string section. And Phoebe Bridgers being given The Carpenters’ ‘Goodbye To Love’ is pure masterstroke, the warm production and sincere presentation working as a giant wink to her crafted persona. Tune in, turn up and bask in its sunny disposition. (Emma Swann) LISTEN: ‘Hollywood Swinging’, ‘Goodbye To Love’

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His clear ability to write an unapologetically great pop song shines.

Albums 

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black midi Hellfire (Rough Trade)

Tuning into black midi’s third studio album ‘Hellfire’, we are greeted by a slew of vast caricatures. However, central to their existence is Geordie Greep, the group’s frantic-yet-not-fanatical vocalist, who brings these characters to life with his emphatic, brittle vocal stylings, alongside the broken gearbox art-rock pacing of his band members.

Presenting their most cohesive album to date, ‘Hellfire’ dives deep into the sprawling concepts of different pop culture and religious interpretations of the afterlife, modestly intertwining with themes of pain, shell shock, and retro-futuristic landscapes. Their glut of influences bleeds through without over-saturating the landscape.

You can catch the quiet country-leaning folk of Bob Dylan on seven-minute epic ‘The Race Is About To Begin’, stomping oompa and steadfast krautrock on ‘Welcome To Hell’ and the expected maximalism of cocksure heavy-hitter ‘Dangerous Liasons’. There are less fully unhinged moments (see ‘DT, MI’ from their debut) than previous records, and more open air that allows bassist Cameron Picton’s voice to float through the intensity and bring a grounding sense of calm. This is especially clear in the Bowie-feeling ‘Eat Men Eat’ or the uncanny ‘Still’. Although less esoteric than its predecessor ‘Cavalcade’, ‘Hellfire’ is a fiercely experimental record that sees black midi teeter back and forth on a crumbling precipice, halfway between unhinged madness and art rock precision. (Alisdair Grice) LISTEN: ‘Dangerous Liaisons’

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Working Men’s Club Fear Fear (Heavenly)

Released in October 2020, Working Men’s Club’s self-titled debut arrived as a fairly singular entity: a ravey, nocturnal slice of electronica served up both at the most incongruous time possible and by an author - the then-teenage Syd MinskySargeant - seemingly operating on an altogether more dark, aggressive and claustrophobic plane than any of his peers. On ‘Fear Fear’, as its title suggests, WMC are no less enamoured with the underbelly; the album’s title track prangs out on descending sirens of noise, ‘Rapture’ sounds like a dial-up modem come back to haunt us, while opener ‘19’’s gnarly one-note bass drones hardly make for the cheeriest welcome mat. Working Men’s Club are at their best, however, when they let a little light in. Previous single ‘Widow’ is hardly sunshine and roses (“Misery is bliss to me/ I love you now you’re dead you see”) but its Depeche Mode-isms build into a climax of heady catharsis come the chorus. There’s a New Orderesque sense of euphoria to the likes of ‘Circumference’, meanwhile, or an ‘80s futuristic buoyancy to ‘Cut’ that underpins Minsky-Sargeant’s sneering vocal perfectly. With ‘Fear Fear’, WMC already have a signature viewpoint all of their own - the fun is in seeing how they continue to play with it. (Lisa Wright) LISTEN: ‘Widow’

Mabel

About Last Night (Polydor) “So.. about last night…” whispers Mabel on the intro track of this second album, recalling the morning text that many have sent after a particularly fun, albeit heavy, one. It’s this feeling of looking back on a big night out that forms the core of her eagerlyawaited follow-up to 2019 debut ‘High Expectations’.

Conceived in lockdown after rewatching ‘Paris Is Burning’ and ‘Pose’, Mabel has created an album that boldly celebrates ballroom and dance culture, and each song feels like you’re wandering through a different room in a nightclub. ‘Let Them Know’ is an empowerment anthem perfect for grabbing your gang and taking them to the dance floor, while stomper ‘Good Luck’ is the mid-night out debrief in the girls’ bathroom. ‘Take Your Name’ provides a moment of vulnerability allowing Mabel’s vocals to soar as she reflects on a breakup, before ‘Crying On The Dancefloor’ is a shining testament to friendship as Mabel brings us back to the dancefloor to dance all our cares away. Mixing disco, dance, pop and R&B elements, ‘About Last Night…’ whisks us through the highs and lows of the best night out of your life, and Mabel is the perfect party guide. (Elly Watson) LISTEN: ‘Crying On The Dancefloor’

Operating on an altogether more dark, aggressive and claustrophobic plane.

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Albums

RECO MMEN DED Missed the boat on some the best albums from the last couple of months? Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered.

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Nova Twins Supernova

Already lauded as a force to be reckoned with, the duo outdo themselves second time around.

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Beabadoobee Beatopia (Dirty Hit)

Beabadoobee’s debut, ‘Fake It Flowers’, delivered bedroom pop in every sense. Beginning life as demos saved to a phone, its release fell towards the end of 2020 and offered a brooding, grunge-infused soundtrack to those confined by the same four walls. It was an insular listen, primarily the work of an individual, and one that wasn’t afraid to wear its ‘90s influences on its sleeve. It harked back to baggy jeans and walls covered in posters of floppy-haired heroes.

‘Beatopia’, despite being named after a universe first imagined by Bea at seven years old, is conversely very much rooted in the here and now.

It’s a representation of who the West London singer has become, now breaching singularity to work alongside the likes of bandmate Jacob Bugden, Matty Healy and George Daniel of labelmates The 1975, and Georgia Ellery of Black Country, New Road. The latter’s strings permeate the record, testament to Bea’s growing confidence and expanding her sound way beyond the lo-fi confines of earlier work.

‘Beatopia’ shows growth without risking losing the charm that has made Bea a firm favourite. The odd moment of musical nostalgia, such as the stunning midwestern emo on Matty Healy collaboration ‘Picture Of Us’, is far from contrived or forced, sitting against the beauty of the rousing ‘See You Soon’, itself an ode to a therapeutic mushroom trip. It’s in these moments that Bea’s personality shines, clearer and more authentic than before. If the land of ‘Beatopia’ was conceived in the isolated mind of seven-year-old Bea, it’s a far better world for letting others in. (Ben Tipple) LISTEN: ‘Picture Of Us’

The land of ‘Beatopia’ is a far better world for letting others in.

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Katy J Pearson Sound of the Morning (Heavenly)

Branded as a country music darling following the release of acclaimed debut ‘Return’, follow-up ‘Sound of the Morning’ sees Katy J Pearson burst from these rhinestoned chains. Every note rings and chimes on ‘Sound of the Morning’ as she peels back the layers to offer up a project that is full of charm and catharsis. The title track opens the album, her remarkable voice floating over woozy guitar melodies. It feels like the warm dew of a summer morning; milky rays of sunshine peeking through the clouds. The folk lilt has a transformative effect as day breaks - introducing the listener to this new chapter. The jaunty brass specks of ‘Howl’ are bouncy and buoyant - with longtime friend and collaborator Ollie Wilde (Pet Shimmers) lending a hand on backing vocals. It’s a deft example of her ability to spring between genres with ease. As she flexes her musical muscles, the track ends with a flurry of harp strings - the final decadent flourish. Whether it be the slow, slinking rhythms of ‘Alligator’ or her Kate Bush-esque vocals in ‘Float’, Katy's songwriting takes the listener on a luscious journey. Written and recorded at the end of 2021, she embraces creative collaboration throughout, allowing herself to be inspired by the artistic forces around her. The result is an album teeming with life brimming with the joy of human connection. (Bryony Holdsworth) LISTEN: 'Howl'

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Angel Olsen Big Time

Her songwriting talents soar to great heights through this ten-song suite.

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Horsegirl

Versions of Modern Performance A gleaming window into a new generation of American guitar bands.

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Viagra Boys Cave World (Year0001)

You can nearly feel vocalist Sebastian Murphy smirking after he delivers each line on Viagra Boys’ feral third LP ‘Cave World’, serving as the bohemian Willy Wonka inviting listeners into his psych-punk chocolate factory. Treading listlessly from room to room, we are met with satire, sardonicism and often just plain provocation. As seen on tongue-in-cheek Wheatus-inspired ‘Punk Rock Loser’ and ‘Ain’t No Thief’, the band know how to tell great stories in even better songs. Their pacing, album placement and earworm factor can’t be overlooked - with both released as singles in the run-up to release, it nearly feels like the Swedish oddballs are dangling a carrot in front of unbeknowst fans, drawing them in, and suddenly replacing it with the wacky, surreal ‘Troglodyte’ and rhapsodic, Patrick Batemanchanelling ‘Return To Monke’ for a bit of a laugh.

Listening to ‘Cave World’ is akin to dipping your whole body in murky, warm sea water - you feel blinded and a little bit disgusted, but overall excited to explore your new surroundings. (Alisdair Grice) LISTEN: ‘Punk Rock Loser’

Albums

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Superorganism World Wide Pop (Domino) Superorganism make maximalist pop for the terminally online. Having initially met through the Internet - exchanging demos and mixes through the ether before meeting IRL - they soon developed a reputation for being a group contained within the digital space via their adventurous self-titled debut. Follow-up ‘World Wide Pop’ is a joyously over-the-top explosion of audio technicolor, where the group embrace their oddities and eccentricities. They are bigger and brighter, and whereas their debut album was created after spending too much time online, the creation of ‘World Wide Pop’ is just the opposite, bringing an understanding of reality into the virtual stratosphere. The band have expanded their orbit with a stellar list of collaborators here, namely Pavement’s Stephen Malkmus, CHAI, and Pi Ja Ma. The soundscapes are more bombastic than ever, perfect for flashy disco raves in your spaceship as you fly off to Mars, and Orono’s signature deadpan vocal delivery is as resolute as ever. Opener ‘Black Hole Baby’ is a nihilistic number about celebrating the world ending; ‘Flying’ is an escapist ode that romanticises the fantasies of getting “lost in the hellish galaxy,” and standout ‘Put Down Your Phone’ is an ironic allegory about getting lost in your cellular device, and pondering how much better life would be if you’d just throw it into the sea. ‘World Wide Pop’ is about the joys of living in the digital ether and losing yourself in cyberspace, and the anxieties and disillusionment that comes with fame. ‘Put Down Your Phone’ may be a cautionary tale, but it’s with ‘Oh Come On’ that Orono and the gang remind themselves - and us - that it’s our IRL relationships that ultimately make everything worth it. Sure, we might be dying a little more each second that we stare at the ominous black boxes that are our cell phones. But if our phones are our one true gateway into the world of Superorganism, they really can’t be all that bad. (Cady Siregar) LISTEN: ‘Put Down Your Phone’

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Momma Household Name (Lucky Number)

Q&A

‘World Wide Pop’ is an effervescent, sparkling record that smuggles true emotional depth under the radar. Max Pilley finds out more.

The making of this album marked your first ever time in a studio together. Did being together physically make a difference to the recordings?

Orono: Definitely for some of the songs. ‘Oh Come On’, for instance, captures the magic of being in the room. I was super bummed out after being forced out of the Airbnb we were renting in Chicago and I was super depressed and watching RuPaul’s Drag Race all day, eating Chipotle, and some of the other guys were jamming in Carter Lang’s studio [Lang is a producer for SZA, Doja Cat, Rihanna and many others] and they kept saying, ‘Come on, dude, you’ve got to get out of your room, you have literally not left your room in 24 hours’. I really didn’t want to, but we got there and we worked on that song, thank goodness.

You’ve made a record where Stephen Malkmus and CHAI seem equally at home, that’s quite a unique achievement.

Harry: Yeah, to me, it’s even weirder that Stephen Malkmus and Gen Hoshino are on the same song. Gen is a Japanese superstar, whereas Stephen is this indie hero. In a lot of ways, they’re worlds apart in terms of who they are and their outlook, and yet on that song, they just both gel so well. That’s what we’re trying to do, we create this space and these people that we love can be brought into it.

There’s more earnestness on this album than the first one and an emotional depth. Is that something you were

consciously aiming for?

Orono: Yeah, I think so. I was listening to a lot of Kacey Musgraves. I just love it when a pop song is able to be super honest about a really specific thing and it’s relatable to so many people, but without being super corny. Also, I was just feeling very emotional. We weren’t even a band really for the first one, we didn’t know that we would be living together or making an album. So, knowing that we would tour this album, I wanted to do something that was very honest and I wouldn’t get sick of playing every single night. Not that I got sick of playing the first album, but I just wanted to be honest, so that I don’t make myself go crazy.

At the end of ‘Black Hole Baby’, you have a montage of radio hosts introducing songs from your first album. How do you reflect now on how crazily fast your rise was back in 2017?

Orono: I’m looking at Wet Leg, who are a label mate now and they are the new hype band. It’s like, I remember being the hotshot a couple of years ago. It’s weird because I know what that feels like, but it also feels like a crazy trip that I went on. It just kind of happened to me and I was there. It’s truly bizarre what happened. I’m so relieved that it did happen.

Harry: To have two years where you’re thrust into a completely new world and then to immediately follow that with two years of global lockdown – it's like, when is life ever going to be normal again?!

On ‘Household Name,’ Brooklyn-based duo Momma - duo Etta Friedman and Allegra Weingarten - take the scuzzy, distortion-heavy guitar rock made famous by bands such as Smashing Pumpkins, Pavement, and The Breeders, and give it a fresh spin. Etta and Allegra’s interlaced melodies give the vocals both a haunting and yet kindred feel, capable of switching from anthemic-sounding belting to raw, vulnerable hissing in just a matter of seconds. The album plays host to 12 tracks that span pretty much everything from love, lust, loneliness, and the wonders and disillusionment that come with “fame” – whatever that really means.

Throughout, the pair are unafraid to be earnest and tender in their lyrics, and the openness of their yearning, lust, and chagrin never feels stale - they seem to make having feelings something that actually feels - whisper it - cool.

Distorted guitars and fuzzed-out grunge dominate, from “putting the pedal to the metal” on the road trip-worthy ‘Speeding 72’; the sensual ‘Medicine’, and the lovelorn ‘Lucky,’ a ballad about wanting to be near the person you love most when they’re far away. Momma’s brand of sensitive, guitar-driven alt-rock is the perfect listen for when you’re either deep in the throes of love or still nursing heartbreak - just hit the gas and join them for the ride. (Cady Siregar) LISTEN: ‘Speeding 72’

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Albums 

Naima Bock Giant Palm (Sub Pop)

Naima Bock’s debut solo outing switches the neo-psych splintered post-punk of former outfit Goat Girl for sylvan folk, sitting within the earthen legacy of luminaries such as Nick Drake and Pentangle.

She channels an upbringing divided between the UK and Brazil to paint a raw collage, wispish balladry giving way to Latin intersections (‘O Morro’) - genre sidestepping and technical continuity shared with the band she co-founded.

‘Giant Palm’ straddles as such between worlds, ‘Tool’ in its impish flute flights and acoustic brushes treks through an ephemeral wonderland, whereas the classical strings of ‘Dim Dum’ and jazz tinted ‘Working’ lend weight to the album’s darting identity. Naima invests the past and present into her songwriting, self-reflective moments meeting free-spirited Laurel Canyon-hitching vibes of tracks such as ‘Campervan’, while ‘Instrumental’ serves as a reminder of the musicianship on display; the blast of sirens and faint ambience of modern life invading at times among a string of smoky sax and piano. As a debut, ‘Giant Palm’ situates itself in a specific tradition without being constrained by convention - finding a voice in ten tracks that occupy their own lifeforce, almost set in motion by the elements. (Chris Hamilton-Peach) LISTEN: ‘Tool’

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Wu-Lu

LOGGERHEAD (Warp) Wu-Lu knows exactly what he wants to preach. This debut album, named after a distinct species of sea turtle with a disproportionately large head, sees the musician unpack years of deep-set learned behaviours throughout his life, throwing the mic to collaborators Asha, Lex Amor and Léa Sen to add a touch of convivial soul. ‘LOGGERHEAD’ is as much for fans of horrorcore stalwarts clipping. as it is for Damon Albarn stans. Wu-Lu combines a left-field sonic palettte (with some abstract sampling) and a unified sense of rhythm, apparent on the outro to ‘Night Pill’ were he utilises blown-out drum machines and industrial screeching to flip the song’s entire cadence.

He’s lyrically verbose, and offers a patchwork of musical sensibilities, flipping the switch between downtempo garage, lo-fi beats and arty punk with ease, even treading into Nine Inch Nails territory with the seething ‘South’, an homage to his South London HQ. ‘Road Trip’ is a progressive, quasiindustrial punk song, whereas double single ‘Blame / Ten’ treats us to singalong moments and a minimalist breakbeat outro that defies any idea of genre. However, ‘LOGGERHEAD’ never feels cohesive, which is undoubtedly intentional, but can be jarring at times. Wu-Lu is in metamorphosis: the experimenting and freestyling that is so prominent on this album must be incredibly purging for the multi-hypenate, but fails to create sonic continuity. (Alisdair Grice) LISTEN: ‘South’

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Rae Morris Rachel@Fairyland (RCA)

Described by the singer as a "homecoming and a rebirth," 'Rachel@Fairyland', the third studio album from Rae Morris, offers a collection of melodic, folk-inspired tracks melded with an almost hyperpop string of singles. The influence of collaborator Fryars shines through on 'Spitting From The Top' and 'Skyscraper Love', as well as 'Go Dancing', on which the songwriter and producer (and partner) features. The record draws heavily on foremothers such as Kate Bush and Eartha Kitt, as well as nodding towards contemporaries such as First Aid Kit and Laura Marling.

A vibrant list of touchstones to be sure, but it's ultimately unclear just what Rae's intentions here are. (Ross Carley) LISTEN: ‘Spitting From The Top’

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Metric

Formentera (Metric Music International) With a ten-minute opening opus, Metric’s electro-pop tiered alt-rock hits its stride from the initial pulsating seconds of ‘Formentera’. Inspired by a magazine promoting the Balearic island, the Toronto band’s eighth album owes more to an escapist state of mind than a postcard portrait of its namesake’s palm trees and private beaches.

Speeding through late-‘90s Eurodance via softer keyed breathers, ‘Doomscroller’ is a throwback anthem with lyrics rooted in addictions of the modern age – an adrenalineprimed benchmark for the rest of the album. ‘All Comes Crashing’ finds twitching guitars and Emily Haines’ vocals at their most animated, tight basslines and Italo discoesque synths scatter the title track’s elastic melancholia, whereas the driving-rock of ‘I Will Never Settle’ balances AOR riffs with glitched-out cyber gloss. ‘False Dichotomy’ jolts between the all-out pop of The Knife and La Roux, trending with the era-flitting standard at the record’s heart - the chugging guitar-driven choruses that powered ‘Art of Doubt’ more electronic focused but retaining the latter’s brighter scaled melodies. Twenty years in, Metric prove they’re still able to flaunt a few surprises whilst tearing through a familiar exchange of sharp sheen and double-edged themes. (Chris Hamilton-Peach) LISTEN: ‘Doomscroller’

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Q&A For Miles Romans-Hopcraft, South London isn’t just a home - it’s a community hub and a breeding ground for lyrical enlightenment. Actively swimming against the flow in order to disrupt and turn heads, Alisdair Grice speaks to the Wu-Lu lynchpin about all things local, musical and future-facing.

To what extent has the culture of Brixton and greater South London influenced this album?

I would be doing a similar commentary if I was in North or East or South or West. When it comes to my surroundings, there is so much unspoken that needs a light shined on it. I spend time with people that share the same outlook on their own communities as me, you know, Lex (Amor) is from North and Asha is from North and Léa Sen is from France. I feel like there's so much going on in the community that I surround myself with that I've got to pass commentary on.

So your music and outreach efforts are an example of what you would have wanted when you were younger?

Absolutely. And that's where ‘Broken Homes’ came from. I'm talking about the perception of laziness. There might be kids who are the class clown or whatever, they then get penalised for that in school by the teachers. But you don't know what's going on at home. They are not getting the attention that they need at home so they're acting differently. but I'm trying to say “don't let the devil take you down”.

You’ve said before you wanted to do a tour of youth clubs...

I'm definitely trying to work out a way to do that, and bring bands down so lots of people can get insight into how we do it. A lot of the messaging that I’m trying to give to the clubs is that I am a living example of their success. That's kind of what I'm trying to do.

After ‘LOGGERHEAD’’s release, where do you think your future is taking you?

I feel like in terms of that, there's so much greatness around. I’m a part of a bigger path in my mind - I'm just expressing myself.

Any last words?

There are people in the world that need to be kind and a little bit more conscious of the things that are happening around them.

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dear amelia (Interscope)

Straddling pop and rock, with a heavy injection of the intimacy of bedroom pop, renforshort’s ‘dear amelia’ blends Olivia Rodrigo-like dreamy lyricism (see ‘let you down’) with quintessential pop-rock instrumentals (‘hate the way you love me’) and presents it all via a distinct, youthful honesty. Citing Linkin Park’s Mike Shinoda and UK guitar pop behemoth Yungblud as mentors, ren is a member of the impressive Travis Barker club, too, the prolific Blink-182 drummer brought in for ‘we’ll make this ok’, which combines guitar riffs and video game synths with flickering flow for one of the record’s standouts. Elsewhere, ‘don’t come back’ is anthemic, ‘better off’ is dark and bubbly, while sweeping closer ‘amelia’ and ‘i miss myself’ are subtly imbued with emotional intensity. (Ims Taylor) LISTEN: ‘we’ll make this ok’

Absolute (behind the) scenes!

In the studio with renforshort as she recorded ‘dear amelia’.

Recording ‘Complicated’.

I kinda had to get into this deep emotional space, as the spin we wanted to take on the song was a moodier, more stripped down version.

Look at the emotion here! This is me recording some high notes that took a minute to get and master.

You can see it on my face!

I got this Telecaster and was so excited to play it I could hardly wait.

This is me tuning it so I could try it out!

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Oh Wonder 22 Make (Island)

Coming Up

renforshort

It’s no secret that the pandemic put strains on relationships of all kinds. So it’s perhaps not all too surprising to hear that Oh Wonder real-life couple Anthony and Josephine Vander West - found themselves facing those kind of issues after the pair had to grapple with a new kind of life together after their hefty touring schedule disappeared over night. It was this experience - and their subsequent near-break up - that became the foundation for last year’s fragile ‘22 Break’. But - as you may have guessed from their identical surnames - things turned out alright in the end; enter ’22 Make’, a companion record telling the flip-side to the former’s story. Unsurprisingly, it’s a record that’s filled with the warmth and reassurance of enduring love, and while it’s not exactly straying too far from familiar sonic territory for the duo - glitchy electronics still play a major role - it’s a heart-warming sentiment all the same. (Sarah Jamieson) LISTEN: ‘Magnificent’

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TRAAMS

personal best (Fat Cat) TRAAMS’ first LP in seven years, ‘personal best’ represents a triumphant emergence from protracted hibernation. An album of teethgrinding kosmische grit, tracing slumbrous, psychic ascension one overdrive-grumble at a time, the Chichester outfit herein transfigure a matured collection of understated anthems, dominated by oblique drum machines and soft-bellied motorik. Restricted by lockdown, they were only able to write at night at hushed volumes due to the confines of their rehearsal space - vocalist Stu Hopkins’ workplace.

Epitomising this prevailing atmosphere is cornerstone ‘Breathe’: a nine-minute Krautrock transcendence including lyrics that could be used to summarise the group’s withdrawal and return: “We were crashing / But we’re working / Just refining / Our process.” Mixing things up with Joy Division-ed abrasions, (‘Dry’; ‘Shield’), or the muted intensity of ‘The Light at Night’ (featuring Protomartyr's Joe Casey with a manic evangelical vocal), ‘personal best’ wades through its lamp-lit, murky side-alleys, sounding monumental, yet always keeping to the shadows. It’s one for the late night coach rides; for the wee, contemplative hours spent staring through black windows. (Elvis Thirlwell) LISTEN: 'Breathe'

RINA SAWAYAMA HOLD THE GIRL If singles ‘This Hell’ and ‘Catch Me In The Air’ are any indication, Rina’s second full-length will see her go stratospheric. Out 2nd September.

TWO DOOR CINEMA CLUB - KEEP ON SMILING The relentlessly sunny indie popsters’ fifth album will be released on 2nd September.

DJO - DECIDE Best known to the public as Stranger Things’ Steve Harrington, Joe Keery’s musical moniker releases this second album on 16th September.

TOVE LO - DIRT FEMME The Swedish singersongwriter’s fifth fulllength will be released on 14th October.

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Live

Live at Leeds In The Park Temple Newsam, Leeds. Photos: Emma Swann.

F

or well over a decade now, whenever the words ‘Live at Leeds’ were uttered, you’d be instantly transported into the basements and back rooms of the city’s finest venues, with a selection of new music’s most promising new names. However, it’s in 2022 that things are a little different; for the first time, the festival has been split in two, with the first, aptly-titled In The Park event happening - you guessed it! - in nearby Temple Newsam park to kick off festival season proper.

Embracing more of a traditional green field festival set-up, the day gets off to a boisterous start, with the Isle of Wight’s Lauran Hibberd bringing her pop punkinfused offerings. Dressed completely in bright orange, she provides a zesty burst of energy so early in the day, before the more psych-imbued stylings of Alfie Templeman take over.

Over at (ahem, our stage - Ed) the DIY Big Top, things are getting that bit more explosive as Dream Wife take to the stage. Seemingly harnessing the more unhinged side of their talents, there’s something wildly invigorating about their set today; whether in Rakel Mjöll’s unnerving 180 swing from eyelashfluttering to scorched screaming, or Alice Go’s tremendous guitar skills, the trio are a force to be reckoned with; a feat still best personified by their glorious, extended rendition of ‘F.U.U.’.

Back at the DIY Big Top and the tent is already packing out for Arlo Parks, who’s greeted with a true hero’s welcome.

What’s more, her set this evening takes tracks from her gorgeous Mercury Prizewinning debut ‘Collapsed In Sunbeams’ and transforms them into a collection of restorative anthems. Bubbling with energy, Arlo is backed by a full band who together have given the whole set a more jazzed up feel, and she looks truly in her element. It’s a pleasure to witness.

To say that The Vaccines are festival pros may be stating the obvious, but as the quintet embark on what’s arguably a greatest hits blitz through their back catalogue, it’s easy to see why they’re such mainstays on bills like today’s. Their brand of raucous rock and roll is the perfect tonic for the Leeds crowd, who take little time to get into the singalong

Arlo Parks is greeted with a true hero's welcome.

It’s quite a contrast, then, to see Holly Humberstone take to the MTV Main Stage and offer up her more introspective brand of electro-pop. And even though she still seems to be building her confidence in her betweensong patter, the haunting quality of tracks like ‘Deep End’, ‘London is Lonely’ and recent Matty Healy collab ‘Sleep Tight’ shines through perfectly. Admittedly confidence is no issue for Sports Team, who - let’s face it - are in their element during festival season. Even an awkward journey from stage to barrier won’t hold back Alex Rice, who’s determined to make it down and to the audience from the off. With the crowd echoing back ‘Camel Crew’ and ‘M5’ - even new album cut ‘The Game’ has a fair chunk of the crowd singing along - it’s little wonder as to why they’re so at home on stages like this.

THE VACCINES

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ARLO PARKS

mood, while frontman Justin Young complete with a cheeky sparkle in his eye - is the perfect conductor.

Rounding off the evening, punters are given two choices: either the classic nostalgiatinged indie rock of Bombay Bicycle Club, or the laidback retro pop of Easy Life. The former are experts in the kind of arms-aloft euphoria that’s perfect to close a festival - set opener ‘Eat, Sleep, Wake (Nothing But You)’ sparkles as the sun goes down - while the cheeky charm of Murray Matravers et al is hard to resist, especially when the band arrive dressed in double denim suits and ties, and command the crowd to ignore security and climb atop each other’s shoulders. Whatever the choice, one thing’s clear by the end of this inaugural Live at Leeds in the Park: if today’s sets are anything to go by, it’s going to be one hell of a summer - and we’ve never been more ready for it. (Sarah Jamieson)

DREAM WIFE

Live

THE STROKES

Primavera Sound Parc del Fòrum, Barcelona. Photos: Louise Mason.

W

ith the moanier corners of the internet piling in on the first day of Primavera 2022’s first weekend to lambast its early infrastructure wobbles (search ‘Primavera’ and ‘Fyre festival’ on Twitter and watch the results roll in), it’s worth noting front and centre that, come Weekend Two, there are no such issues. If we’re being picky, they could do with a few more portaloos, but we’re several lightyears away from sad cheese sandwiches and offering sexual favours in return for hydration.

With those fears allayed, what’s left is a sunsoaked weekend stacked with so many top tier names it’s hard to pick a route through them.

Kicking off Thursday, Dry Cleaning’s set of idiosyncratic storytelling and spiking guitar intensity has an out-of-place allure among the halfclothed festival revellers - singer Florence Shaw’s expressive, slightly awkward presence amping up her lyrical oddities even more.

capable of transforming any field into a dancefloor.

And, having fully graduated from trolling Odd Future upstart to an emotionally intelligent, visually forward-thinking artist of clout, Tyler, The Creator ends the night conducting his way through ‘Call Me If You Get Lost’ from atop a stage covered in moss and mountains, like a Wes Anderson fantasy come to life.

Friday brings with it the sort of sheer life-affirming positivity c/o Brittany Howard that should be dosed out daily during times of trial. Sserving up a serotonin-raising cover of ‘(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher’ and preaching messages of compassion and understanding, it’s warm, big-hearted festival moments like this that the world has been sorely lacking.

When The Strokes last headed to Europe just before the big you-know-what, the band seemed on the form of their lives; visibly enjoying themselves and with ‘The New Abnormal’ in tow, it felt like one of the lesser spoken tragedies of Covid would be cutting the famously turbulent quintet off Where tonight’s co-headliners Gorillaz are just when they’d regained their mojo once more. normally a band tailor-made for communal And so, after last week’s cancelled set, it’s with no gatherings such as this, there’s something about small degree of glee that The Strokes we get today their setlist that doesn’t fully click tonight. There seem like they’re having more fun being in The are portions of brilliance - a one-two of ‘O Green Strokes than ever. Jokingly spluttering into the World’ and ‘On Melancholy Hill’ that shows the mic after declaring he was last week’s Covid breadth of Damon Albarn’s penmanship catcher (“Too soon?”), Julian Casablancas skills. But when the energy sometimes is both affable jokester and his dips it feels like a shame for a band usual bastion of unassailable with such a proven catalogue of cool combined; playing rallying, celebratory joys. completely to the crowd, their There are no such issues, setlist is however, for Dua Lipa, who flies flawless the flag for pure pop brilliance - an with aplomb. If the majority of endless DRY CLEANING Primavera’s lineup swings to the barrage MEGAN THEE leftfield, ‘Future Nostalgia’ is its of hits (‘Juicebox’, STALLION glittering angel on the top of the ‘Someday’ and tree - a camp slice of escapism ‘Reptilia’ make for an

The Strokes seem like they're having more fun being in The Strokes than ever. almost obnoxiously perfect run).

It’s a surreal proposition to see Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood playing on one of any festival’s smaller stages, but you suspect that’s half of the appeal for them of new outfit The Smile. Relieved of their usual headlining duties within Radiohead, Yorke especially seems loose and engaged, the spidery, spiralling wares of ‘The Smoke’ or ‘You Will Never Work In Television Again’’s propulsive judders matched by the expressive moves and cheeky glints of the singer at his most free.

It’s left to Viagra Boys and Megan Thee Stallion to bring the weekend to a close - the former topless and drenched in blue light, serving up slices of tongue-in-cheek, grizzled punk from the gutters; the latter a deliciously filthy headliner in a very different way, uniting the crowd in a bouncing, hedonistic mass. It’s a fitting way to end a festival whose wares remain varied but united by being wholly at the top of their game. (Lisa Wright)

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Live

Long Division

ELKYN VENUS GRRRLS

Various venues, Wakefield. Photos: Emma Swann.

C

elebrating its eleventh year, Long Division once again sees the clubs, pubs and even chapels of Wakefield open to host live music from both the local area and beyond.

With an opening speaking engagement from Poet Laureate Simon Armitage at the Town Hall on Friday night - he will return the following evening at the same venue with his band LYR - the festival fully kicks off on Saturday afternoon. In the top room of The Counting House, The Strangerz showcasing a set of snappy, punchy punk cuts with a charismatic lead performance from frontwoman Martha Kelly.

Seeing familiar haunts repurposed for exciting live music is a welcome attribute to city festivals and in some cases elevates the artists themselves, such as Elkyn, whose softly-sung folk stuns the pew-seated audience in the atmospheric setting of Westgate Chapel, or the somewhat surreal sight of riotous Leeds punks Venus Grrrls on the paradoxically formal Town Hall stage.

crowds of the day, especially considering their earlier billing. Nobody would argue Low Hummer are doing anything particularly revolutionary on the surface, but the duality of Dan Mawer and Aimee Duncan provides a pleasing contrast: Dan’s restless, manic and declarative performance, and Aimee’s captivating stillness.

Bored At My Grandmas House is one of the buzzier newcomers on show today, and Amber Strawbridge and band wow a crammed Vortex with a set of nostalgiatinged dream pop, including new number ‘Friendship Bracelets’. Relative veterans Field Music are similarly impressive, the outfit’s disco-infused indie giving revellers a bit of groove as the evening beings to draw in.

One of the day’s more unexpected highlights - coming via a rogue artist elsewhere’s apparent decision not to turn up - is Yusuf Yellow. Energetic, skilful rap with a jazzy backing of breezy horns, tight rhythms and soulful backing vocals courtesy of his Energy Collective, there’s smiles all round.

Sea Power’s swelling, esoteric indie rock makes for a celebratory end to festivities The headline stage Venue 23 mostly operates as space for tribute acts and nostalgia themed DJ sets these days, so having rousing performances from a pair of Hull natives - Low Hummer and LIFE - is a real treat. The latter command the stage with a compelling and confident performance of garagey post-punk, while the former draws one of the strongest

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LIFE

The day - with all its familar kinks (sound gremlins; delayed stage times) - is capped off by Cumbrian outfit Sea Power.

20-odd years in the game now means the group are teetering towards elder statesman label, and their set is one of quiet confidence and skill, pulling in a committed crowd, despite some revellers having long dispersed into the wider Wakefield nightlife.

With a set curated from across their now considerable discography, from classics ‘It Ended on an Oily Stage’ to new cuts like ‘Two Fingers’, the band’s swelling, esoteric indie rock makes for a celebratory end to festivities. (Ryan Bell)

SEA POWER

Live

Yeah Yeah Yeahs Brixton Academy, London. Photos: Emma Swann.

A

s the lights go down on Brixton Academy tonight, there’s a certainty that something very special is afoot. As Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ frontwoman Karen O emerges from the darkness, dripping in iridescent rainbow colours - and wearing one of the most unusually iconic hats we’ve ever seen - that’s only confirmed further.

To think that it’s been four years since the iconic New York outfit last played our shores (as support to neighbours LCD Soundsystem at 2018’s All Points East) is perhaps less shocking than the idea their last UK headline show was almost nine years ago. Yet, even after such a long period away from the country, the trio are still completely potent on stage. Breaking the ice with their newest release - the moody slow-build of their Perfume Genius-featuring ‘Spitting Off the Edge of the World’ - the band quickly remind us of their knack for balancing things on a knife edge; one moment they’re capable of building ominous storms of sound, the next they’re smashing them to smithereens.

SETLIST SPITTING OFF THE EDGE OF THE WORLD CHEATED HEARTS PIN DOWN BOY BURNING ZERO WOLF SOFT SHOCK POOR SONG GOLD LION MAPS Y CONTROL HEADS WILL ROLL ENCORE: HONEYBEAR TICK DATE WITH THE NIGHT

One moment they’re capable of building ominous storms of sound, the next they’re smashing them to smithereens.

Throughout their hour-long set, the three-piece are a force to be reckoned with, Karen shedding layers of her effervescent costume while deep-throating her mic and spit-spraying water across the stage. Nick Zinner and Brian Chase are controlled but ferocious, a juxtaposition best showcased in the renditions of frenetic debut album tracks like ‘Pin’ and ‘Tick’. Almost twenty years on from their release, there’s still an electric current that flows through their core.

But it’s not all pure frenzy; the electro-stomp of ‘Heads Will Roll’ and the soaring ‘Zero’ - the latter complete with those giant inflatable eye balls that are tossed out across the audience - blend seamlessly into the iconic likes of ‘Maps’ and ‘Gold Lion’, showing off the band’s talent for deftly bouncing around styles with skill and ease. They do it in a way that only Yeah Yeah Yeahs could. So as the frenetic squalling of ‘Date With The Night’ roars into life, it’s impossible not to feel entirely exhilarated by their return; here’s hoping we won’t have to wait so long for them next time. (Sarah Jamieson)

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Live

Sky Ferreira

Omar Apollo KOKO, London. Photo: Vendy Palkovičová.

D

espite the sunburnt bodies filling out the room, the subtle majesty of Omar Apollo is unfazed by the heat, giving off a cool, airy energy as he approaches centre stage at KOKO.

Opening with the grungy ‘Talk’, he proceeds to deliver a masterclass in carefree R&B. ‘En El Olvido’ sees him blend Mexican ranchera, Cuban bolero and American folk intonations to wind back the clock and create the scene of a porch-lit late night storytelling moment in the centre of Camden, while the punchy ‘Invincible’ is equally heartbreaking, yet filled with an urgent energy that sees him wince as he sings artfully about facing death head-on.

‘Hit Me Up’, with its breezy bass-driven melody, is a perfect mid-set pace changer. Omar swaps his dreamy singsong for a punchy moment of melodious rap, pinned down by a disciplined drummer. And despite his claim of not having slept in 36 hours, Omar is the one waking the crowd up from their heat-induced slumber.

In the most part his set is moulded around ‘Ivory’, although his careful placements of the buoyant ‘Kickback’ from 2019 EP ‘Friends’ and the agreeably catchy ‘Ugotme’ from breakout 2018 release ‘Stereo’ are welcomed by clamorous applause.

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As Omar Apollo hits all the right notes, his songs hit all the right nerves.

His impossibly smooth vocals travel with the unwavering competence of a veteran performer, and when his flirty guitar licks are added to the equation, they only serve to prove that Omar is born to be on stage. He’s also a vocal advocate for his community, waving a Mexican Pride flag as his band tease the beginning of acoustic ballad ‘Bad Life’.

For some, it felt like he’d sleepwalked his way up.

But tonight, Omar Apollo’s mellow aura proves its worth via the hundreds singing his words right back at him. As Omar Apollo hits all the right notes, his songs hit all the right nerves. (Alisdair Grice)

Southbank Centre, London.

Photo: Burak Cingi.

“S

tory of my life,” Sky Ferreira muttered standing in front of an expectant Primavera crowd earlier in the month. She was battling with technical difficulties that - she later revealed - left her with nothing but white noise in her ears. Hidden by large dark sunglasses, she had evidently written the performance off as a total failure. From the crowd, things were very different.

Her brazen guitar-driven pop sounded huge, and fans lapped it up. Five days later, history looks set to repeat itself at London’s Southbank Centre. Stage time arrives and quickly passes.

Then shortly before midnight, the lights drop and the smoke machines kick in. Sky, as effortlessly cool as ever, takes to the stage and glides into ‘24 Hours’. This, the crowd realises, is really happening. And although she carries herself with the same resignation as the previous weekend’s performance, on stage her art comes to life. She sounds good, even if she shies away from the microphone between tracks. But how tonight actually sounds is largely irrelevant. It’s all about how it feels for an audience drowned in hazy smoke and neon lights. The crowd here are with her through every note, from the dirge of ‘Downhill Lullaby’ to the cathartic self-destruction of ‘I Blame Myself’. Despite its late start, Sky runs through fifteen tracks - dominated by her debut album and spotted with a couple of covers. Nobody leaves the room early, and the biggest reaction is unsurprisingly reserved for closer ‘Everything Is Embarrassing’. In person, those words appear to punctuate Sky Ferreira’s inner monologue, but for her fans it couldn’t be further from the truth. It’s raw and unfiltered, and really, everything is exactly as it should be. (Ben Tipple)

OMEARA PRESENTS JULY

AUGUST

08 09 10 12 15 16

04 DAMIAN LEWIS 05 FEEL IT 20 JACK BOTTS THE SOUTH LONDON SOUL TRAIN 23 SARAH SHOOK AND THE DISARMERS 24 ALLISON RUSSELL 26 FEEL IT 27 DIASFORIQ 30 KATIE PRUITT 31 SKULLCRUSHER

17 19 22 23 28 29 30

FEEL IT MEGA SHAE UNIVERSE MOSA WILD & FRIENDS FEEL IT JAMES VINCENT MCMORROW DIASFORIQ JAMES VINCENT MCMORROW TRUENO FEEL IT STEP*WIZE 1ST BIRTHDAY LOREN ALLRED FEEL IT FRATHOVSE

BEERS, WINES, COCKTAILS & GOOD VIBES

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A big inter-band pub quiz of sorts, we’ll be grilling your faves one by one. Now brought to you via Zoom!

IT’S YOUR ROUND THIS MONTH: RAE MORRIS Where: A park in North London Drink: On a quest to find an Aperol Spritz

General Knowledge

1

What is the capital city of Austria?

Vienna?

4

The founder of the NHS, Aneurin Yes! Bevan, was born Oh, thank god… in which country of the UK? Who plays Pamela I really know Anderson in the nothing about this 2022 biopic series person. Scotland?

Pam & Tommy?

It’s Wales!

I think I know this… Lily Damn it!

James?

The 1942 It is! painting Nighthawks, Who is the Greek which depicts an god of travel?

American diner Oh… This is scene at night, was really obvious isn’t it by which artist and I’m going to kick Edward Hopper or myself… I don’t know!

David Hockney?

It’s Hermes.

Edward Hopper.

Like the delivery service!

Correct!

2

3

5

3/5

SPECIALIST SUBJECT: Blackpool

6

Blackpool has a population of roughly 145,000 - true or false?

Three!

I thought it was more Nailed it. like 300,000 so I’m going to say false.

Which goth-pop It’s true. music icon was It’s a smaller place born in Blackpool? than I realised!

Goth-pop? I don’t even Blackpool FC play their really know what that home games at which is. Is it the guy from football ground?

Whitesnake? All I really Bloomfield Road. know is that guy, The Pet Correct!

Shop Boys and Graham Nash but I don’t think any I used to work there! of those are goth-pop…

The name of It’s The Cure’s which Irish city Robert Smith! translates to Oh man, I should “Blackpool” in English? have got that.

Dublin.

Correct!

It’s cool, innit?

How many piers does Blackpool have?

7

FINAL SCORE:

9

10

6/10

3/5

Final verdict: “I’m quite happy with that! I’m going to go tell my husband about my general knowledge score because he’s always said I’m terrible at it.”

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NEW RELEASES FROM closer

head first dive

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