DIY, March 2021

Issue 105 • March 2021 • DIYMAG.COM

BLONDE

AMBITION

Zara Larsson is reaching for pop's top tier 1

i won’t care how you remember me the new album available now

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MARCH2021 MARCH2021 MARCH2021 MARCH2021 MARCH2021 MARCH2021 MARCH2021 MARCH2021 QUESTION!

ISSUE PLAYLIST

Inspired by our cover star's new LP 'Poster Girl', which pop stars did Team DIY have adorning their walls when they were younger?

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

SARAH JAMIESON • Managing Editor I'm somewhat ashamed (and yet not ashamed at all) to admit that a giant A1 photo of Gareth Gates' face did indeed hang next to my bed, when I was aged 11. And yes, I still think he was robbed.

EMMA SWANN • Founding Editor As a pre-teen, any and all posters of Take That I could find, later the pop star-adjacent (so he definitely still counts), David Beckham, and technically I do still have pop* stars' faces on my walls now. Except I mostly took them.

*OK, scruffy indie bands.

Same difference, right?

LISA WRIGHT • Features Editor Many hand-drawn tributes to The Spice Girls > an ill-advised Will Young phase as a pre-teen > a true early'00s indie shrine mainly comprised of various Libertines affiliates and Ricky from the Kaiser Chiefs circa his striped blazer and eyeliner debut album years.

EDITOR'S LETTER

LOUISE MASON • Art Director Many square metres of Alex James, too much R.E.M. for a child, and some others I'd never share.

The days are getting longer, the weather's getting a bit warmer and things, dear readers, feel like they're finally starting to look up (touch wood!)

And while we're certainly not out of the woods just yet, it is pretty good to feel a bit more optimistic right now.

ELLY WATSON • Digital Editor Made a full-on floor-toceiling shrine to Busted, which was subsequently ripped down when they broke up on my birthday.

16 years on and it still hurts.

And what better soundtrack for the start of a brighter spring than an album packed to the brim with feelgood pop bangers?

Luckily for us, Zara Larsson has gone and outdone herself on that count with her brilliant new album 'Poster Girl', and we're thrilled to have her grace the cover this month, in all her ethereal glory.

In honour of Mogwai's chart-topping turn, we've been listening back to a few other favourite Number One albums.

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ALT-J - THIS IS ALL YOURS (2014) Granted, debut 'An Awesome Wave' had already seen the band win the Mercury Prize two years earlier, but 'This Is All Yours' must still be one of the oddest chart-topping full-lengths going.

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Sarah Jamieson, Managing Editor

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O

Elsewhere this issue, we're diving back into the cinematic world of Black Honey, talking candidly with Celeste and discovering the strength of love and acceptance with Ghetts. And with loads more to dig into, here's hoping it'll keep you going til April, when we'll see you in the pub garden, yeah? (Fingers crossed...)

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THE WHITE STRIPES ELEPHANT (2003) Picture, if you will, a time when 'Seven Nation Army' was a mere chorus-less single on a record cut to tape off an unassuming street in Hackney.

ELASTICA ELASTICA (1995) The fastest-selling debut since Oasis' 'Definitely Maybe' the previous year, Elastica were one rare '90s UK export to have performed well Stateside thanks to those deliciously grimy guitars and Justine Frischmann's deadpan vocals.

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C O N T E N T S

NEWS 6 DEATH FROM ABOVE 1979 8 MARK RONSON ON TAME IMPALA 10 WILLIAM DOYLE 14 HALL OF FAME 16 SORRY NEU 20 GENESIS OWUSU 22 SAD NIGHT DYNAMITE 24 SPRINTS 26 PIXEY FEATURES 28 ZARA LARSSON 36 CELESTE 40 SERPENTWITHFEET 42 GHETTS 46 JULIEN BAKER 50 BLACK HONEY REVIEWS 54 ALBUMS

Shout out to: All at the British Music Embassy and Production Park for helping make SXSW 2021 happen (and photographer Tom for saving the day), the cast of Married At First Sight Australia for 40+ hours of non-stop entertainment, Topo Chico's hard seltzer making its way to the UK (or at least SW18), Arvida and her Stockholm dream team for making our cover shoot happen, and the sunshine! It was brief, but it was fun.

Founding Editor Emma Swann Managing Editor Sarah Jamieson Features Editor Lisa Wright Digital Editor Elly Watson Art Direction & Design Louise Mason Contributors: Alex Cabré, Aliya Chaudhry, Arvida Byström, Ash Cooper, Ben Lynch, Ben Tipple, Carolina Abbott Galvão, Connor Thirlwell, Dave Beech, Dhruva Balram, Eloise Bulmer, Gemma Samways, Greg Hyde, Jenessa Williams, Joe Goggins, Kasia Wozniak, Louis Griffin, Max Pilley, Olivia White, Ollie Rankine, Pooneh Ghana, Rhys Buchanan, Sean Kerwick.

Cover photo: Arvida Byström This page: Emma Swann 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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Lovers vs Fighters

We took a break and when we came back, the band had a mythology.” - Sebastien Grainger 6 DIYMAG.COM

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WE WERE PLAYING SO LOUD, JESSE’S RETINA DETACHED

Nearing twenty years in the game,

Death From Above 1979 are taking total control for the first time and pulling their genreshredding approach forward with menace.

Words: Rhys Buchanan.

and we had to find the nearest eye hospital,” laughs Sebastien Grainger. It’s fitting that our chat with Death From Above 1979 begins with them recalling tour stories of old: having lit up stages with their highintensity, ear-shattering dance-punk over the course of two decades (albeit with a halftime break), it’s a small reminder that the Toronto duo have never compromised in their approach.

This month the pair - completed by bassist Jesse F. Keeler - return with fourth album 'Is 4 Lovers’, and though they’ve marched to the beat of their own drum on past releases, this time was about assuming full autonomy. As vocalist and drummer Sebastien says: “When we were working on the other records we had voices saying, ‘That’s not so Death From Above, is it?’.

This time there was no external voice, it was like, we’re the band, we can totally trust in one another.”

As well as taking the recording entirely in-house, it’s the first time DFA have truly been able to shake off the legendary aura that preceded their comeback, following a well-documented hiatus in the late ‘00s.

“We’d done it as an instinctive, youthful exuberance kind of thing - took a break and when we came back, the band had a mythology,” recalls Sebastien. It’s a rarity that a group becomes larger than the sum of its parts - more so after one album - but the magnitude of their boundarybreaking 2004 debut ‘You’re A Woman, I’m A Machine’ weighed heavy on the duo.

Scenes at their surprise 2013 SXSW reunion show played further into the folklore, chaos unfolding when desperate fans stormed the venue, wire fences toppled and police arrived.

However, after so long in the game, the urge to shake things up once again came from looking inside rather than at the wider musical landscape. When asked about the current state of alt-rock - a genre they rewrote themselves - Sebastien laughs. “I don’t know if either of us has a clue what’s going on elsewhere. Look at what Jesse’s wearing; he’s in a poncho. We’re both two and a half hours away from a city, so we don’t really know what’s going on.”

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s the knowing title ‘Is 4 Lovers’ suggests, DFA found new ground thematically this time around, resulting in what they call their first ‘love album’. “If there’s a declaration on this record, it’s looking backwards without having any regrets,” Sebastien explains.

Yet, while that idea might concur with

following your gut romantically (“If you feel love in your heart, then you should lean into that,” he adds), then sometimes - as the band are more than aware - looking back on your history isn’t quite as simple.

Back in 2017, blog attention around Jesse's friendship with Vice co-founder and alt-right leader Gavin McInnes began to ignite. Having met when DFA signed to Vice Records for the release of their debut album, the accusations led to Jesse publicly distancing himself from the figure and strongly denying any link to the Proud Boys movement that Gavin had founded and that were subsequently heavily involved in the storming of the US Capitol this January. “I began noticing that Gavin was promoting violence and a form of radical politics that I absolutely do not agree with. I have always been anti-war and anti-violence. That is my baseline position,” Jesse asserted at the time.

It’s an interesting time to have turned their lyrical attentions to matters more of the heart; having been tangled up in social media finger pointing in the past, has it made the pair steer away from commenting on politics through their music? “I think there’s too much nuance in those discussions to boil it down in a rock'n' roll song,” interjects Sebastien. “It still exists on this record, this is still a bit of social commentary, but in a song like ‘Totally Wiped Out’ I’m talking about internet addiction, porn addiction, news addiction and all these things.”

He continues: “I can’t stand when I see it in others, when I see artists, actors, musicians, comedians definitively declare their feelings or thoughts on something; I always think it’s a mistake because who knows what you’re going to think in two to five years.” “I think it messes up the art a little bit too, to tell people what it’s about,” Jesse adds. “Maybe part of the reason we love and have this reverence for this really old art is because we don’t have the artist there to interrogate.”

It’s been a rollercoaster so far but, all things considered, could the pair have seen their reunion journey remaining so musically fruitful and productive when they first got the band back on track? Jesse is quick to respond: “It’s a wild ride man. I think about the people who do the voices for The Simpsons all the time; I’m like, did any of those people know when they first took that job they’d be doing it for the rest of their lives?”

Looking back to that chaotic reunion show, Sebastien bats away any semblance of rose-tinted nostalgia. “They’re just expressions of the pure energy of the band.

If we can come anywhere close to that in the music we make, everything is the fence coming down, everything is the sirens, everything is the energy level because we’re the expression of that energy.” He pauses and continues. “This record more than any other is so integrated into our lives and it’s set a blueprint for the future.”

With their vision clearer than it’s ever been, hopefully Death From Above 1979 - and their retinas - are here to stay.

‘Is 4 Lovers’ is out 26th March via Universal Music Canada / Spinefarm. DIY

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Dear Kenazi

The DIY Drag-ony Aunt

Dear Kenazi, As a singer I’ve grown to be a bit insecure about my voice and because of that I lack the courage to be as expressive as is needed, meaning my performances often lack the emotional truth I initially intend to get across. As a performer, have you got any tips to help me come out of my shell a bit more?

Tony Njoku Hi Tony, Here are my top ten tips to performance success:

Tame for Heroes This month, Tame Impala’s game-changing debut LP ‘Innerspeaker’ is getting the 10th anniversary reissue treatment [despite it actually being released in 2010, ahem - Mathematics Ed]. Collaborator, friend and long-term fan Mark Ronson waxes lyrical on the enduring appeal of the record that first introduced us to Kevin Parker and his box of sonic tricks.

“I

first heard of Tame Impala when I was working with an Australian musician and he told me to check them out. I felt like he was saying it sort of dismissively like, ‘Oh you’re into some things that sound old, right?’, but I was just blown away from the first EP. Then ‘Innerspeaker’ came out and every song on there is kind of a classic to me.

Kevin’s switched up his style so many times that he kind of influences a whole lane of music each time he puts a record out. His influence is everywhere; I’m sure he’s influenced me in some ways. He made it cool again to make breakbeat-y psych records, and then on ‘Currents’, he brings this heavy synth sound and these dusted, smokey vocals. And then you get people like Travis Scott and people on the forefront of hip hop who are fans of his stuff, and somehow that intersects and becomes really exciting as well.

funk because funk’s become this bad word and we could do something cool’. So I’m not saying there was a direct correlation between that conversation and ‘Uptown Funk’ but [maybe]. He came out to Memphis twice while I was making that album, and you can’t even get a direct flight from Los Angeles to Memphis so obviously coming from Perth is no joke - it’s probably six flights. He must have spent three days in the air just to spend three days in the studio with us, but his contribution to that record - ‘Daffodils’ and the other tunes - make the album what it is.

‘Innerspeaker’ is a classic because it hasn’t dated. It still sounds incredible; the intro to each song still makes my pulse race. It’s cohesive, it has incredible basslines, drums, vocals - it’s conceptually mysterious, but the groove and the feel rhythmically is so direct. And it has the luck of the fact that every album he’s made since then has got better and better, building on it. So you listen back to that album and you hear, as much as the sound has evolved, the seeds of all the things you might love [from later] all there.

It’s great because sometimes you have a band where you love the first album and everything they make after that is kind of disappointing so it’s hard to still ride with that first record, but in this case the first album’s a 10 and yet he still managed to get better after that.”

“Kevin Parker’s influence is everywhere; I’m sure he’s influenced me in some ways.”

- Mark Ronson

Wanting to work with him was this instinctual thing I have. There are people I think are great, but I might not think that it’s a marriage made in heaven, but with Kevin I heard the first record, we went on tour together in Australia and we just got on. We were into each other’s shit, and from then on the seeds were sown.

Before I wrote ‘Uptown Funk’, I remember seeing him on tour in London and hanging out at some party. We were just sitting there and he was like, ‘You know what we should do if we ever do a record? We should put it down for the

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‘Innerspeaker: 10th Anniversary Reissue’ is out 26th March via Fiction. ‘InnerSpeaker’

1. Huff poppers 30 seconds before getting on stage. It’s a mad rush.

2. Wear heels. Makes you feel mighty mighty.

3. Don’t attempt an awkward hands in the middle moment.

Or pray.

4. Add autotune.

5. Carry onions like the lady who stormed the Capitol. Cry. 6. Smoke more for rasp.

7. Bite the head off a bat.

8. Delete your mental health to focus more on social media.

9. Suffer for your art.

10. Get ripped.

If these seem impossible, I suggest you try bass. Love Kenazi xoxo

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imaginary Englishness that doesn’t really exist that’s ended up creating a lot of very interesting music.”

There’s this

The Full Monty On ‘Great Spans of Muddy Time’, William Doyle is letting down his guard, leaning into his eccentricities and paying homage to… Monty Don? Words: Max Pilley. Photos: Kasia Wozniak.

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lways back up your work, they say.

Well, what about if you don’t? In the summer of 2019, William Doyle had learned to stop worrying and love the chaos. Enjoying a period of quiet reflection after the release of that year’s emotionally draining ‘Your Wilderness Revisited’, he took to recording freeform, spontaneous electronic pieces in his own time and on his own terms. Recording them, that is, but not backing them up.

When a colossal hard drive failure struck, nothing remained of the loose, improvised tracks, save for some scratchily preserved cassette tape sketches.

For William - a meticulous sonic perfectionist - the idea of releasing such hastily recorded music was anathema, and yet he had begun to consider these tracks amongst the best work of his career to date.

exist, but nonetheless is woven into these people’s music in some way,” he explains. “I’ve always felt that I’ve wanted to be part of that tradition. There’s something about it, some sort of eccentricity that has ended up creating a lot of very interesting music that I feel like couldn’t have come from anywhere else. I’ve wanted to make a record like this for ages, but it was only through not really trying to do it that it happened.”

Above all, there’s a sense of fun on ‘Great Spans…’ that had perhaps previously been suffocated out of his work. The intense period of success and acclaim that came his way in his early twenties, when the first East India Youth album was shortlisted for the Mercury Prize

“If I’d have worked on these songs more, I might have even bludgeoned all of the greatness out of them,” he says now, with the benefit of hindsight. “I’m used to overworking stuff, so it’s a really nice lesson to be able to trust my initial instincts a bit more. I don’t think great art has to come from that slog mentality. A lot of great art does come from it, but I don’t think it’s always because of that.”

it, now that the heat’s off and I’m not the hot young thing.”

This record, like the last, will be released under his own name, the East India Youth moniker now permanently in the rear view mirror. “The name change has certainly made some sort of career longevity more difficult,” he quips, with a typically self-deprecatory tone. The record’s title, however, comes from an altogether more unlikely source.

William read a quote of Don’s in which he described periods of depression in his life as “consisting of nothing but great spans of muddy time”. “I thought it was such a brilliant, poetic phrase; to sum up so much in so few words, the economy of it,” he says.

It’s all a far cry from ‘Total Strife Forever’ and ‘Culture of Volume’, the intricately arranged duo of works he released under the East India Youth guise more than half a decade ago. “They have this strange quality to them,” William says about the new songs. “They’re unrefined, not as sophisticated as ‘Your Wilderness Revisited’ or any record I’ve made; it’s a very immediate process. I hoped in doing that that the experience for the listener might be immediate as well.”

“There’s this imaginary Englishness that doesn’t really

“I feel beyond that now, I’m on a new momentum,” he continues. “I think this record is going to start this phase where I’m just going to be making and putting out a lot of stuff for a long time. I feel more in control of

“Monty Don was a very important part of the process,” he explains without a hint of a smile. “He was our lockdown obsession; we got into watching Gardeners' World.

I don’t know why I’d never really watched it before, because it’s exactly the kind of show that I like to watch. It’s just so gentle and peaceful and hopeful, and I just found Monty’s manner so inviting. Everyone loves Monty, don’t they?”

Eventually, however, he was convinced to suppress his innate compulsion to fine tune and to send these tracks into the world largely as they were. ‘Great Spans of Muddy Time’ is the result: his most direct, personal and idiosyncratic release so far.

The serendipitous nature of the album has allowed for his personality to shine through more than ever. It’s easy to picture him as the latest in a proud lineage of maverick English sonic miners heading to the nearest middle of nowhere, armed with nothing but a synthesised toolbox; the echoes of Syd Barrett, Delia Derbyshire and Broadcast are never far away. It is a particular musical tradition that William has long romanticised.

grinding halt all of a sudden.

“I have an idea involving him for a video. There would have to be a lot of leaves involved so it would have to be set in that bit when autumn starts to come in, and I just want him to chuck autumn leaves into the air and they would just rain down on him in slo-mo. I wonder if he’ll be terribly offended. I don’t know if he’s into melancholy, alternative, slightly avant-garde English art-pop...”

and included on countless end of year lists, led to a period that he now admits sent him down a wrong path.

“There was a momentum that everyone was thriving off, including me,” he says. “I was already signed to XL so the next part of the chapter was already written. You can see quite clearly how that would just become too overwhelming. It ended up making me not very happy in the end, and it meant that I had to come to this more

In the meantime, William has been working as a producer for Anna B Savage’s recent debut album ‘A Common Turn’ and, fingers crossed, will be going out on tour with her later in the year. After a decade of highs and lows, things appear to be finally working out for him in a way that he feels fully in control of. Maybe backing up your work isn’t the be all and end all after all.

‘Great Spans of Muddy Time’ is out 19th March via Tough Love. DIY

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SEEK OUT THE MAD PEOPLE

When you’re young, you’re drawn to interesting people.

These guys are never gonna give you a quiet life but you don’t want [a quiet life] when you’re young; you want to be challenged and pushed, and you grow from it all. You want to be with the people who aren’t necessarily easy to be around but they’re offering intrigue or interest to you, and they might just do something a bit out of the ordinary and a bit special.

RESIST CONFORMITY

I always give the example of the red trainers.

You get a bunch of kids from one place and the hardest guy in the group gets a pair of red trainers so everybody thinks red trainers are cool. Over in the next estate, a sappy wee guy wears red trainers so everybody goes, ‘Fuck red trainers, get rid of them’. And so when they meet and argue, there’s a culture created from it. But here, what happens is everyone’s on Facebook, everyone’s on Twitter, and everyone’s decided whether red trainers are or aren’t cool and there’s no debate or discussion. It’s been completely homogenised.

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WORKING CLASS CULTURE IS WHERE THE MAGIC HAPPENS I think [the ‘90s] was almost the last time when you could have working class kids joining bands en masse and that ethos and hangover from punk. It’s a media rather than a street culture now; it’s basically posh kids in university bands, and that’s one of the reasons our culture has become very bland.

POSH KIDS IN UNIVERSITY BANDS ARE ONE OF THE REASONS OUR CULTURE HAS BECOME VERY BLAND.” - Irvine Welsh

FIVE LIFE LESSONS

FROM CREATION STORIES’ IRVINE WELSH This month, Creation Stories - the hedonistic tale of Creation Records and its wild Glaswegian founder Alan McGee lands on screens to give your lockdowns a much-needed jolt of vitality. Written by legendary Trainspotting author Irvine Welsh, and delving into the label that launched Oasis, Primal Scream, My Bloody Valentine and more, it’s a disorientating ride of drugs, booze, raw talent and sticking two fingers up to the squares in suits. In other words: it’s exactly the shake to the system you need to remember that life is bigger than your bedroom, and one day soon we’ll rampage again.

Need further encouragement? Let Irvine rev you up with some pearls of wisdom…

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CONGREGATE (AS SOON AS WE CAN AGAIN)

If [the film] inspires one bunch of kids to ram raid [US electronics shop] Best Buy and grab some guitars and amps and just start bashing something out then all the better that’s fabulous. People need to have that kind of creativity again and they need to do it together.

You’re not gonna get that just sitting at a desk looking at a screen all day; you’ve got to get out there and start interacting with each other.

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RELISH YOUR YOUTH

[Creation Stories] is a tale as old as the hills of a bunch of young people from the provinces that go to London and try to make something happen. They’re all living in squats and getting fucked up, but they’re looking after each other and it’s just such a beautiful time in your life - such an exciting time. I spent a large part of it fucking bombed, sitting on mattresses, staring at walls and living in some kind of hovel, but it’s about youth and the power and excitement of it. Right now, I’m a wealthy guy with a good career and three houses, and I’d give that all up to be that daft young cunt sitting on a mattress with all that ahead of him again. No question.

Creation Stories is out 20th March via Sky Cinema. DIY

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PPL IS PROUD TO SUPPORT UK TALENT AT SXSW 2021 PPL collects royalties when recorded music is played on radio, TV, online and in public. We help to ensure that those who invest their time, talent, and money into making that music are fairly paid for the use of their work.

ppluk.com | @ppluk

photo credit: Thomas Jackson 13

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Fame

The Vaccines - ‘What Did You Expect From The Vaccines?’

Crash-landing in a surge of hype, The Vaccines’ debut divided people and yet ultimately conquered. Words: Lisa Wright.

he Vaccines’ arrival may only have been a decade ago, but its story feels like one plucked from an entirely different universe. A ramshackle demo uploaded in the summer of 2010 soon led to a then-infamous debut London show at Kentish Town’s now-defunct Flowerpot, with hundreds of fans, industry bods and music celebs queueing down the road. At the start of 2011, the band were first on the bill at Brixton Academy; by December, they were headlining two sold out nights at the same venue.

Ditching a previous set of lowkey, folky first steps released under the moniker Jay Jay Pistolet, singer Justin Young had assembled a group - guitarist Freddie Cowan, bassist Árni Árnason and drummer Pete Robertson - that embraced the ‘band as a gang’ in all its glory. Hyped beyond belief from Day Zero at a time when guitar bands could still thrash their way into truly mainstream cultural significance, their choice of debut single - the 82-seconds-and-out ‘Wreckin’ Bar (Ra Ra Ra)’ - seemed almost like a challenge. To their detractors, The Vaccines became immediate whipping boys: regressive, obvious and - the cardinal sin - secretly posh. To an overly excited indie press, however, they were a beacon of excitement - the next in a lineage stretching from The Ramones to The Strokes to take the simplest ingredients and turn them into magic.

The best nod to what The Vaccines actually thought, however, came in the cheeky title of their debut, released to huge anticipation and a Top Five chart

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FACTS THE

Released: 11th March 2011 Key Tracks: ‘If You Wanna’, ‘Norgaard’, ‘Wetsuit’ Tell Your Mates: ‘Nørgaard’ was written about Danish model Amanda Nørgaard, who also made an appearance in the accompanying video.

placing that March. Like Arctic Monkeys’ similarly piss-taking ‘Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not’ before them, ‘What Did You Expect From The Vaccines?’ landed with a knowing grin that suggested the quartet were more than aware - and in control - of their reputation.

Amidst 12 tracks of rollocking indie-rock (‘Wreckin’ Bar’, ‘If You Wanna’, ‘Nørgaard’), stadium-aiming slow burners (‘Wetsuit’, ‘All In White’) and the occasional tender moment (closer ‘Somebody Else’s Child’), the band’s debut revelled in its directness. It takes smarts to make something sound simple, and though few tracks on ‘What Did You Expect…’ dared bother with more than three chords, their trick was in deploying them in a way that somehow felt vital. In Justin, meanwhile, they had an unlikely yet magnetic leader - a well-spoken figure with a penchant for pastel shirts and boat shoes (the double denim era would follow later) who simultaneously seemed to embrace and repel everything about what a frontman should be.

Looking back on those days and the peers they were first positioned in battle against (Tribes, Brother, Mona…), the punchline of the record is that The Vaccines are now heading into Album Five. You can’t live off hype for a decade, and where many stumbled, The Vaccines managed to turn those first throes of excitement into the kind of lasting indie crossover success story that’s becoming more difficult by the year. What did you expect from The Vaccines? You’d have been foolish to underestimate them, that’s for sure. DIY

FOR MUSIC

PRS for Music is proud to be partnering with the British Music Embassy, bringing the best of British Music to SXSW online and giving our members a platform on the world stage.

PRS for Music represents the rights of songwriters, composers, and music publishers in the UK and around the world.

As a membership organisation it works to ensure that creators are paid whenever their musical compositions and songs are streamed, downloaded, broadcast, performed and played in public.

BECAUSE MUSIC MATTERS

prsformusic.com

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on the

‘Gram These days, even yer gran is posting selfies on Instagram.

Instagran, more like. Everyone has it now, including all our fave bands. Here’s a brief catch-up on music’s finest photo-taking action as of late.

What’s Going on With With… …

SORRY

Signing on to Zoom for yet another quiz (@dojacat)

Well one of us is going to have to change! (@chaiofficialjpn)

Outfit planning for 21st June already Justin? (@sheikhyhaand)

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With live sessions, new tracks, re-released oldies and a second album in the works, singer Asha Lorenz fills us in on the South Londoners’ surprisingly full spring plans. Interview: Lisa Wright. Photo: Pooneh Ghana.

It’s been nearly a year since ‘925’ came out - were you pleased with the (very positive) reaction to it?

It’s quite weird because we didn’t play the shows; we went out to America and got to New York and then the next day everything shut down and we had to go home. So it’s kind of hard to tell if it’s gone well, but it’s nice that some people seem to like it!

Was that part of the reason to put out one of the only shows you did play at Brixton Windmill on vinyl?

We just used to play there so we wanted to help out our friends - and it actually sounded alright! I think if we played more gigs like that [socially distanced] then it would be more weird, but it was nice for one night.

Have you been keeping creative over this past year?

I found it really hard to be creative in the beginning, but in the last couple of months I’ve been able to focus a bit more.

It goes one way or the other; some people can do loads and others find it really hard to do anything. We’ve got some tracks coming out that we did ages ago, but recently things have been coming more easily - I think it comes from reading good stuff and not putting loads of shit in your mind, which is difficult when you’re feeling lazy.

What does that involve? Stopping the endless Netflix binge?

I don’t really do that that much, but I do get in a cycle where, when you start getting a bit lazy or feeling a bit shit, then it carries on. So I’m trying to go for walks with friends and

make a little routine with the day - try and read something, do music at a set time. But we have done some music!

How would you describe the tracks you’ve got coming imminently?

I think me and Louis [O’Bryen] always do lots of tracks on our own and sometimes they’re a bit experimental or don’t fit together. We’re always writing little things. Most of them have been written at home, so they’re the more electronic ones.

We’re gonna drop all the [old ‘Home Demo/ns’] mixtapes on Spotify too; we like all those old songs and I feel like people who like the band would like them as well, so why not? The songs are always changing so we don’t really mind about showing the progression. ‘925’ was all teenage / childhood songs so [the mixtape] gives more context to that time and to the album, in my mind at least.

And can we expect a second album soon?

We’re just finishing writing the second album now. There are two tracks that are on the Windmill live session [‘There’s So Many People That Want To Be Loved’ and ‘I Miss The Fool That I Loved’] that are on the album, but they’re really more like arrangements at the moment. We’re gonna try and make more song-y, ‘70s arrangements; like on classic albums, really develop the song. On ‘925’ they were songs we’d been playing for ages, so it’s nice writing these songs that we mostly haven’t even played live. I feel quite unattached in a specific way, so they feel quite malleable like we can keep working with them.

U O Y E V A H ?

D R A E H

WOLF ALICE THE LAST MA N ON EA RTH

“Who are you to ask for anything more?” asks Ellie Rowsell in the opening few seconds of Wolf Alice’s first new offering since they won the 2017 Hyundai Mercury Prize. It’s an introduction that feels both poignant and devastating all in the same instance; a balanced skill the quartet have honed across their records so far. And while ‘The Last Man On Earth’ may, at first, feel like a

DRY CLEANING - STRONG FEELINGS If you were

staring down the barrel of another Valentine’s Day spent alone - except this time even MORE alone than normal cos, y’know, pandemic then worry not, 'cause Dry Cleaning delivered just the anthem for you. “I just want to tell you I’ve got scabs on my head / It’s useless to live” monotones Florence Shaw over minimal, shuffling drums and bass, before repeated intonations of “It’s Europe” arrive to kick the boot in even more by reminding you that, not only are you sitting there in your own filth for the 11th consecutive month in a row, but you’ll also never be able to work abroad again. Strong feelings indeed. Sob. (Lisa Wright)

more restrained version of the band - thanks to its piano backing and Ellie’s almost whispered vocal - there’s something entirely captivating at play here. Soon bursting into an array of otherworldly sonics, it’s clear that this marks the dawn of a new era for the band. And we can’t wait to discover what else they’ve got up their sleeves. (Sarah Jamieson)

MAHALIA FEAT. MANCHESTER RICO NASTYORCHESTR A JEA LOUS Don't you love BED HEA D While it when some of your faves come together? Well, Mahalia and Rico Nasty have done just that, joining forces for new track 'Jealous'.

A slick and polished collab that sees Mahalia's crisp vocals gliding effortlessly over the R&B-beat, Rico Nasty flexes her musical muscles, delivering an equally sleek and sizzling verse as opposed to the ferocious rap verses she's known and loved for. Complete with a hook that'll be playing in your head all day, what's not to love? (Elly Watson)

Manchester Orchestra may have become known for their explosive riffs and poignant lyricism over the past ten years, it’s on ‘Bed Head’ that they carve out something new. Opening with glitchy effects and weaving in electronics across the opening verses, there’s a new energy to the band, with these flourishes working to amplify the track’s soaring nature perfectly. A reflective rumination of life and death, ‘Bed Head’ yet again shows off Andy Hull’s innate skill for writing potent and insightful lyrics, and it, of course, still packs in their signature guitars. But here, it’s all of the track’s elements - both well-worn and new - that work together in harmony, to create something altogether more powerful.

(Sarah Jamieson)

YEARS & YEARSIT’S A SIN Not only has

Channel 4 series It's A Sin already been heralded as one of the best shows of the year - the decade, even?

- because of its deft and poignant storytelling, but it's got one hell of a soundtrack to boot. And so, what with Years & Years frontman Olly Alexander playing the show's Ritchie Tozer, it feels only right that the band would offer up a reworking of the show's titular theme song. An entire transformation of the original Pet Shop Boys banger, Years & Years' rendition is instead a more reflective piano-driven offering that echoes the show's emotion perfectly. A word to the wise: sobbing post-listen is entirely acceptable. (Sarah Jamieson)

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SXSW2021: WHAT TO WATCH

This year, Austin’s annual new band fest is going unsurprisingly digital, but what SXSW 2021 might be lacking in tacos, it’s more than making up for in talent. From 16th - 20th March, head to their online platform to see hundreds of the world’s best new artists strutting their stuff. That’s not all: the British Music Embassy is back too - thanks to a huge effort from music industry supporters such as AIM, BBC, BPI, the Department of International Trade, PPL, PRS for Music, PRS Foundation, ATC and Belfast City Council (phew!) - to showcase some of UK music’s finest new wares.

Need some help navigating it all? Start with our picks below - featuring the special someones playing DIY’s own stage at the British Music Embassy and more…

SQUID Ahead of their anticipated debut ‘Bright Green Field’, the Brighton art-punk experimenters will be gracing DIY’s stage to tease us with some of its inevitably wild wares.

BABY QUEEN Fresh from our Class of 2021, watch Courtney Love’s new favourite pop star (just check her Insta) deploy self-lacerating smart pop gems and ‘Raw Thoughts’ aplenty.

CONNIE CONSTANCE With last year’s ‘James’ and ‘Costa Del Margate’, Londoner Connie graduated to a voice with a Jamie-T-meets-Lily-Allen knack for cheeky social commentary.

Grab a tinny and get involved.

WALT DISCO If you want a show in its truest form (Flamboyance! Outfits!

Dancing!) then look no further than Glasgow’s Walt Disco an infectious manifestation of outsider art-pop in all its glory.

18 DIYMAG.COM

DO NOTHING Hello! What can we expect from your set and why should people watch you guys over the hundreds of other bands playing the event?

Chris: They should watch us if only to ridicule the unfortunate haircut my girlfriend gave me a night or two before filming. I looked bad.

You've said that new EP ‘Glueland’ is "about the inevitable feeling of being thrown onto a big pile of your own rubbish and paddling around in it like some kind of dusty walrus". So it's a cheery record, yeah?

Wow yeah, that does make it sound like a dreary affair! I guess it’s largely about this sense of things being naturally flawed in the face of an increasing

amount of pressure for everything to be shiny and perfect and appropriate all the time. Things get munched up and spat out more and more quickly as time goes on, and I think that’s funny.

Anything spinning wildly out of control is always funny.

Any plans to capitalise on a lucrative merch range now the whole world is literally doing nothing?

As it happens, we just found a bunch of t-shirts in our lockup and they sold out quickstyle which took us by surprise.

We’re currently looking into getting some new stuff made to sit alongside the EP. We hope to once again be dolefully manning a deserted merch table trying to flog them soon.

YARD ACT Having left jaws fully dropped at DIY’s Hello 2021 shows, the Leeds newcomers will doubtless be repeating the trick with the kind of witty, playfully danceable post punk that’ll have you bopping around your living room before they’re through.

PHOEBE GREEN Flame-haired Mancunian Phoebe released two of the best new indie-pop nuggets of 2020 in ‘Reinvent’ and ‘Golden Girl’; with an album in the works, don’t sleep on this one.

PVA No clubs open, no problem!

Recreate the experience of going out-out by necking too many shots and whacking PVA’s ravey set up loud. Don’t blame us the next morning, though.

DIY

at the British Music Embassy line-up:

• SQUID • • BABY QUEEN • • PHOEBE GREEN • • WALT DISCO • • PVA •

CHAMPIONING CHAMPIONING ARTISTS. ARTISTS.

SUPPORTING LABELS. PROMOTING BRITISH MUSIC. bpi.co.uk

Photos from JM Enternational

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GENESIS OWUSU 20 DIYMAG.COM

"Say cheese!”

Rejecting labels of any and all kinds, the genesis of Genesis Owusu is one that’s prioritising boundaryless, cathartic, inclusive excitement.

Words: Lisa Wright.

“I

don’t know what music does, but it pulls out something really different in me,” chuckles Kofi Owusu-Ansah, or Genesis to his increasing number of listeners.

“I don’t know how to describe it but it imbues me with a lot of confidence. It’s like Clark Kent and Superman, you know? Genesis Owusu is the Superman, and day to day, I’m just in Clark Kent mode.”

Confidence is an idea that crops up a lot in conversation with the Canberra musician. Moving from Ghana to the Australian capital aged three, he speaks of acknowledging his difference among his new peers and leaning into it from a young age. “It was definitely a place where I was immediately the outlier and it had come to a point where it’s like, do you assimilate and try and fit in or do you go fullfrontal with the outcast label? And I chose the latter,” he recalls. “I chose to try and embrace who I was completely.”

The ease with which he re-tells the story belies the fact that, actually, it takes some strong gumption to stick to your guns and choose yourself so completely. “I listened to a lot of Kanye West, which gave me a lot of confidence - probably too much…” he grins by way of explanation.

Then there’s the notable difference between the measured, articulate and softly-spoken man on the other end of today’s Zoom, and the vibrant star, gold grill in place, staring through a face full of bandages in his promo shots or owning the stage

Do you assimilate or do you go full-frontal with the outcast label? I chose the latter.”

backed by his omnipresent gang of “goons”. Genesis describes himself as an introvert (“I don’t talk that much; a lot of the time I’m just in my room”), but his output is anything but reserved - a collection of technicolour tracks that hop from Death Grips intensity to Prince-level seduction. “I say things I would never say in conversation in songs, which is super ironic because they’ve ended up reaching way more ears than they would if I was to talk to someone…” he notes.

It’s a duality that’s at the centre of this month’s full-length debut ‘Smiling With No Teeth’ - a record named, he explains, to encapsulate the idea of “pretending things are OK when they’re not”. “Some songs are sexy, some songs you wanna dance, but when you really dig in you realise that there’s something amiss; I’ve always been really interested in that idea of catching more flies with honey than vinegar,” he elaborates. “You listen to ‘1999’ and you think he’s talking about partying, but he’s saying ‘we’re gonna party like it’s 1999’ because the world’s gonna end and there’s gonna be armageddon and hellfire.”

Genesis’ own personal hellfire, however, is one less indebted to the millenium bug. Across the record, against a backdrop of deceptively upbeat cuts, come repeated motifs of black dogs - one a familiar metaphor for depression, the other a more troubling reference to the fact that he'd “literally been called a black dog in my life as a racial slur”.

“Throughout the album, I wanted to create these two black dogs as characters with their own personalities. The internal black dog of depression is very possessive and wants you to be its only one, kind of like a toxic relationship,” he continues.

“Creating them as characters really helped identify all of the characteristics [and work through] how I was interacting with them.”

The goons, too, may have begun life as an impromptu way to liven up an early gig, but now they’ve developed as a further tool to break down stereotypes. “When you’re Black in a very white space, a lot of the time it seems like you’re either a novelty or a threat,” he explains. “So when we’re on stage they start with balaclavas and military vests, playing into the boogie men that people want to see.

Then, as the set goes on, they take off the ski masks, take off the tactical vests and start throwing rose petals, and we start dancing and singing love songs. It’s an analogy to breaking the boxes that other people put on you and embracing the trueness of your identity.”

With his debut, Genesis is resisting the restriction and conformity of any boxes - be it social, stylistic or other. Already selling thousands of tickets in his home country (yep, they can go to gigs already - sob), it seems like a foregone conclusion that, by the time the rest of the world is able to open up its venues once more, he should be stepping through them into crowds of hungrily-waiting fans.

“It’s exciting and it’s very cool to know I’m not just doing this for myself, even though that was the original intention,” he smiles (with teeth).

“That means the most to me, these little weirdo Black kids like me growing up in spaces that they don’t necessarily belong. If instead of, like I did, not having many people to look up to, they feel like they have me, then that’s super meaningful and it warms my heart.” DIY

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SAD NIGHT DYNAMITE

The FKA twigsapproved West Country duo, creating dystopian music you can dance to. Words: Elly Watson.

“T

here’s a fine line between good and bad music, I think,” Sad Night Dynamite’s Josh Greacen muses, recounting a story from the duo’s early years. “One time Archie [Blagden] played one of the songs we were writing to a girlfriend of his and she just laughed in his face!” “It was really embarrassing...” his bandmate chuckles.

We inspire ourselves!

How Kanye West…”

- Archie Blagden 22 DIYMAG.COM

These days, thankfully, Sad Night Dynamite are creating an impact with their music far past inciting an inadvertent LOL. First meeting at school in Somerset, the pair had slightly different musical beginnings; Archie remembers being really into “1:30am really loud bass-y” dance music, while Josh was releasing original Christmas songs every year that were “as bad as they sound”. When they were 17, however, a music tech class brought them together to write their first song.

Although first starting life as part of a band, things began to click when the two went off on their own. Inspired by The Specials and early Gorillaz, Josh and Archie began crafting their unique blend of melodic hip hop-inspired beats, with their self-titled mixtape arriving in its full glory last month.

“It suits these circumstances,” Josh says of the project. “I

remember writing it and thinking it would be a lot better if this music felt like it belonged a bit more. At the time, things were pretty OK, and a lot of the music is quite dark and dystopian.

But there’s a lot of our lyrics that make sense with things that are happening at the moment. Influence wise, we’re kind of being inspired by the point that we’re at. It’s really fun at the moment to just delve into the world that we’re trying to build.” “We inspire ourselves!” Archie chips in. “How Kanye West…”

Already creating a buzz with their hypnotising sonic stylings, the group have even seen shout-outs from the likes of Shygirl and FKA twigs, the latter of whom they did a studio session with last year. “It was like being put in the equivalent of a title fight really, really early into your career and you just get knocked out straight away,” Josh jokes. “She’s incredible, she’s amazing,” Archie agrees. “She wrote a song in about half an hour which was better than anything we’ve ever written.”

The pair might have a way to go until they’re hitting at twigs-level success, but Sad Night Dynamite’s sharp and stirring songs are already ticking all the right boxes. And that’s no laughing matter. DIY

BULL

Melodically-minded slacker charm from the York quartet.

RAISSA

The Mark Ronsonapproved pop talent, stepping into her own limelight.

The NiNE8 Collective founder who’s continually turning heads.

West London’s Ava Laurel - who goes under the anagram moniker of Lava La Rue - may only be 22 years old, but they’ve already proven themselves as a creative force. Not only did the rapper help found the ultra-creative NiNE8 Collective - of which Biig Piig and NAYANA IZ are also members - they’ve also racked up quite the list of collaborators, with names-of-themoment Clairo and Deb Never both popping up on recent tracks. And it’s no secret why they’re such hot property right now; their brand of slick but euphoric R&B-imbued rap is delicious.

Listen: The Deb Never-featuring ‘Angel’ is mesmerising.

Similar to: Hazy summer evenings in the heart of London.

XVOTO

Abrasive new electronic noise from one sixth of HMLTD.

When South London decadents HMLTD first arrived half a decade ago, their explosive, disruptive gigs felt like nothing else. With XVOTO - the new project of that band’s Duc Peterman and vocalist Jazz Alonso you sense the trick could be repeated from an altogether different angle. Unsettling and magnetic, their first two tracks ‘Mommy Can’t Sleep’ and ‘Brainfreeze’ nod to Crystal Castles, Death Grips, Kanye West and music’s most unapologetic quarters. Still yet to play live, we’re expecting magic.

Listen: ‘Mommy Can’t Sleep’ is such an undeniable tune, it replaced Kanye himself on the latest Ford commercial.

Similar to:The to: kind of thrilling nightmare you want to revisit.

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RECOMMENDED

LAVA LA RUE

If you’re trying to carve out a name for yourself in the realms of bright yet confessional pop, there are few patrons you’d rather have on your side than the king of sad bangers himself, Mark Ronson. Signed to his Zelig Records label, and featured on last year’s cover of ‘I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight’, Spanish-born Raissa arrives as the producer’s newest protege. However the multi-lingual artist is already more than holding her own, a series of 2020/1 singles showing a knack for super-polished, synthetic pop with heart.

Listen: ‘Go Fast Baby’’s original is a wide-eyed cry for sensation, with its Mura Masa remix an additional hyperactive delight.

Similar to: In the words of Lykke Li, when you’re feeling so sad but so sexy.

York’s Bull, we’re told, are the first band from the city to sign to a major label (EMI, FYI) since the ‘90s. It’s a pretty hefty achievement for a bunch whose entire sonic outlook seems based on the kind of harmonydrenched slacker indie that’s like a hug for your lugs - heck, their forthcoming debut is even called ‘Discover Effortless Living’. And yet, beneath all the daydreaming, lies the kind of secretly very smart songwriting that you sense might hide a fair whack of ambition after all...

Listen: Recent single ‘Eugene’ veers from doo-wop loveliness to Pavement scrappiness in mere moments.

Similar to: ‘90s America and ‘60s Britain having a get-together.

SHYGIRL

The South London rapper concocting shape-shifting bangers.

It’s good to have people backing you from the beginning, and Shygirl has already amassed a list of legends tipping her for greatness. Being shouted out by Rihanna, Sega Bodega, Arca, and the late, great SOPHIE, the South London artist has been crafting genre-blurring belters for the last few years, experimenting with elements of electronic-leaning club beats, hyper-pop, and hip house. Known for bringing the party with sharp one-liners and mesmerising soundtracks, recent EP ‘ALIAS’ is just the latest handful of bops that’ll have you getting down and dirty on the dancefloor.

Listen: ‘TASTY’ will have you fist-pumping along within its opening three seconds.

Similar to: The triumphant tune the DJ drops on the first BNO.

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SPRINTS We’re very raw and honest, and there’s no real fluff or theatrics around us.” Karla Chubb 24 DIYMAG.COM

While the absence of live shows may have forced these Dublin noiseniks to change up their next steps, the last challenging year has only made them For new bands stronger. Words: Sarah everywhere, Jamieson. right now is - unsurprisingly proving to be a challenging time. With gigs wiped out, the last twelve months have been particularly hard for any artist whose identity is so intrinsically tied in with the visceral thrills of the live stage.

For Dublin quartet Sprints, that’s absolutely the case; one listen to the crunchy feedback that introduces discordant track ‘Drones’ and you’ll understand exactly what they mean when they say they’re “such a live band”. But, as frontwoman Karla Chubb confirms, right now is about adapting to the situation and growing stronger from it.

“Looking at the EP now, it feels like [we recorded it] years ago!” she admits.

Though debut release ‘Manifesto’ is only set to arrive at the end of this month, the band, says Karla, feel like they’ve already moved on to the next step. “I feel like - with everything that’s happened in the world - priorities have

shifted, and we’ve all grown and the band has matured so much so quickly because we’ve had to. We’re obviously really excited to have a physical release out there, but it almost feels like a different time.”

It comes as little surprise then to learn that Sprints have already banked a whole host of new tracks, which are set to build on the incendiary foundations laid down on their first release. “We’re very raw and honest, and there’s no real fluff or theatrics around us. It’s just a very honest encounter of our lives and our day-to-day experiences,” says the singer of their ethos.

Take the band’s visceral breakthrough single ‘The Cheek’, which fiercly tackles misogyny and the fetishisation of gay women, or the dark mantra of the EP’s title track, with its commanding lyrics and scorched vocals. “The best way to describe the songwriting is like ‘pub chat’; it’s issues that you normally gather around a table and chat to your friends about on a Friday night over a pint of Guinness,” Karla nods. “It’s all just very natural to

us; I wanted to touch on a lot of the issues that are affecting us in Dublin - from dealing with the homelessness crisis or the economy. ‘The Cheek’ touches on sexual harassment. With the stuff that we’re working on now, I feel like we’re just developing even more in how to portray emotions through music.

“A lot of our music is kinda anxietyinducing,” she adds, “or it’s based around emotions that you experience on a night out or the stresses in life.

We’re trying to build on the textures and soundscapes and, while I think we’ve nailed the tone and the lyrics, now it’s about the musicality.

We’re thinking a lot more about the performance, rather than just sitting in a room, writing a song. It’s become a lot more about us together, thinking ‘What are we really trying to do here?’”

With a focus and vision as clear as theirs, even without the usual live circuit to cut their teeth, Sprints are set to grow fiercer by the day. DIY

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Blackaby has announced plans to release new EP ‘Everything’s Delicious’ on 16th April, and has shared a new cut from it too - hear ‘Warm And Sweet’ over on diymag. com now. “The lyrics came about quite subconsciously with no purpose in mind,” he explains of the first song to be taken from his five-track EP. “Maybe it’s about not knowing what path to take in life. It might be about food obsession and it might just be about slowly losing your hair. It could be about wanting to do it all ‘right’ and thinking about that too much. It might be about our obsession with youth and it’s probably just about watching daytime TV”.

THE PLAYLIST

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

EVER SO DELISH FOREVER AND EVER Having recently shared his new single ‘Everybody’s Gonna Love Somebody’, Alfie Templeman has also announced mini-album ‘Forever Isn’t Long Enough’ out 7th May via Chess Club.

“I wanted to make a refined and focused pop record - something more widescreen than an EP but more concise than a full-length album - with a feel somewhere between Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Rumours’ and Tame Impala’s ‘Currents’,” Alfie says. “The songs took anywhere from one day to four months to two years to finish for this record, but I made sure each one was perfect and I’ve never been more proud of how they all came out.”

BUZZ FEED

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:

All the buzziest new music happenings, in one place.

KINGS (AND QUEEN) OF LIMBS Class of 2020 cover stars Dry Cleaning have finally announced that their long-awaited debut album ‘New Long Leg’ will be arriving on 2nd April via 4AD. Sharing the band’s new single ‘Strong Feelings’ alongside the news, Florence Shaw explains that the track is, “about secretly being in love with someone who doesn’t know it, and Brexit’s disruptive role in romantic relationships.”

It’s the first song from their ten-track debut, which was recorded at Rockfield Studios in Wales with producer John Parish, and follows up their 2019 EPs ‘Boundary Road Snacks and Drinks’ and ‘Sweet Princess’.

EADES - ‘FORMER WARNINGS CLUSTER’ Cowbells! Sassy call and response backing vocals!

Some very questionable sartorial choices in the video! Leeds band Eades might have formerly been lumped in among a corner of the wildly-oversaturated post-punk plethora, but on ‘Former Warnings Cluster’ the band are taking their cues from the altogether-more-fun end of ‘90s Britain. It’s a bit baggy, a bit Britpop, and - hallelujah! - it doesn’t take itself seriously at all.

File next to Sports Team for fans of knowing musical high jinx.

PARIS TEXAS - ‘HEAVY METAL’ Nowadays when you drop a debut, you've got to make an instant impact, and Paris Texas have come out the gate swinging with a jaw-dropping introduction that'll leave you wanting more and more. Made up of South Central LA-hailing duo Louie Pastel and Felix, debut track 'Heavy Metal' is a hard-hitting intro full of twists and turns as the pair trade biting bars over building guitars that erupt in thrashing glory. Combining impressive and striking lyrical flows with an infectious genre-smashing backing, if this is their first offering, their next is destined to be mind-blowing.

WINGS OF DESIRE ‘CHANCE OF A LIFETIME’ It might feel somewhat ironic to release a track titled 'Chance of a Lifetime' in the middle of a period where none of us can do anything out of the ordinary, but that doesn't stop the latest cut from Wings of Desire being an uplifting slice of joy. A little scuzzy, a little Krautrock, the new track from the previous INHEAVEN members provides a timely reminder of the wonder that life can - and often does - throw your way. A much-needed tonic for right now.

COBRAH - ‘DIP N DRIP’ Released via the singer’s own GAGBALL records, and bearing a sleeve adorned with a syntheticlooking nude, dripping with liquid, tactically covered by a snake / rope, you can assume Stockholm-based Cobrah isn’t gunning to be the next Adele any time soon.

Instead, ‘DIP N DRIP’ lands somewhere between the future pop of Charli XCX and the uncanny sensibility of Grimes abrasive beats set against cold vocals, with a splash of old school Peaches playful allure in there for good measure.

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PIXEY I thought I was going to die, and all I remember thinking was,

‘Oh, I never did that music thing did I?’

26 DIYMAG.COM

wanna be a teacher, I don’t wanna be anything like that. I wanna do music, that’s what I wanna do. So I remember getting my laptop and I downloaded Ableton and learnt how to produce and play the guitar and that’s where it all started.”

From lifethreatening illness to one of the UK’s shiniest new stars, pop newbie Pixey is pulling triumph from adversity. Words: Elly Watson. Photos: Marieke Macklon.

A lot of musicians talk about the catalyst that made them want to be a star - that famous lightbulb moment where everything finally clicked into place. But for Liverpool’s Pixey, her story involves more twists than most.

Growing up in a tiny town in Lancashire, music was always a pipe dream for her as a child. Surrounded by the legacy of the Liverpudlian greats - “I kind of don’t like ‘Yellow Submarine’ anymore because it’s such a traumatic part of my childhood standing at the front of the school singing it!”

- she was raised in a house filled with the sounds of Kate Bush and Björk.

“I was obsessed with how they looked and how they moved and they both had such an interesting sonic identity,” she recalls. “I think, growing up, I really wanted [to be] something quite similar to that.

And I loved Britney Spears as a child too!

Maybe that’s why I have a blonde hair complex?!”

Despite always wanting to pursue music herself, Pixey didn’t think that it was an attainable career and instead decided to study English at university. But halfway through her course something happened that would change that thought process and ultimately push her to take the risk.

“I remember being so ill and I thought I was going to die,” she explains of the systemic viral infection she contracted during her studies. “My parents were actually taken into ‘The Room’, and they were told that they couldn’t promise I’d make it through the night because I was really sick. I knew I was really sick and there were a lot of doctors fussing around me and I had wires coming out of everywhere, but all I remember thinking was, ‘Oh, I never did that music thing did I?’.”

Releasing fuzzy debut track ‘Young’ back in 2019, though the singer was certain of her path, things weren’t as immediately smooth as she’d hoped. “I had a few problems getting off my feet and with the first label I was signed to,” she recalls. “I kind of didn’t do anything for two years and I really thought it was over. I felt so confused about everything, I was dipping in and out of jobs, mainly waitressing, and I had that second epiphany where I was like, I NEED to do this. I spent two years writing and nobody was listening; I was putting out stuff and nobody cared. That’s testing in itself. It was probably equally as testing as my illness, because it’s one thing getting better from something physical, but when you’re putting out so much of yourself sonically and emotionally and nobody’s responding to it, that can be really hard.”

Eventually grabbing the attention of tastemakers Chess Club, since then Pixey has gone from strength to strength. Signed last year, she spent the time during the first lockdown finessing her production skills and honing the trademarks she wants to be known for. “The whole writing process for me started with production alongside it, because I couldn’t play guitar so I was literally doing one note and chopping them up to make them sound like I could play!” she laughs. “Somebody asked me to play live, and this was way early on, and I was like, ‘Ummmm, no?’. I think it’s such an advantage to have that knowledge of the technical side of music because it’s such an expressive side. For me, I wanted to pick something straight from my head and hear that back.

That, to me, is equally as rewarding as writing a song on the guitar.”

Now with new EP ‘Free To Live In Colour’ arriving later this month, Pixey is ready to reveal the sonic world she’s been creating. “I wanted to make a record that explored every side of being able to create what you want to create, and do what you wanna do, and not let anything stand in your way,” she gleams. “But I also wanted something that you could forget about all that stuff and just dance to as well!

“I never thought I’d get this far and this is just the first step, so it’s really exciting to just be able to even think about what’s next,” she nods. “I had so many years of everything being so complicated, it’s nice to just make stuff that is completely uncomplicated, and I can give that to people and give them the escape that I wanted back then.” DIY

Eventually making a full recovery and leaving the hospital - “When I first ate a banana it was the best thing, and I hate bananas as well!”

- Pixey’s near-miss fuelled the fire to give her dream a proper go.

“It was the biggest epiphany of my entire life,” she smiles. “I don’t

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28 DIYMAG.COM

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29

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30 DIYMAG.COM

h my

god,

hiiii!”

Zara Larsson exclaims, breaking off mid-sentence as a beam of sunlight suddenly illuminates her face. The 23-yearold singer pauses to rest her chin on her hands, lets out a megawatt smile and playfully tilts her head, as if to bask in the glow. “Damn, this lighting though...”

I hold myself to a very, very high standard.

Perfection actually, which can't really be achieved.”

Even at 11am on a Tuesday - lounging on the sofa of the Stockholm apartment she shares with her younger sister Hanna - Zara oozes star quality. Dressed for a day of Zoom calls, she’s immaculate from the waist up, wearing a pristine white sweater and natural make-up, her platinum hair scraped back into a tight ponytail. Just out of shot: her lower half in bed shorts and socks, plus a flat full of the sort of detritus generally accumulated by two young women in their early 20s, though it’s not until the end of our conversation that we’re given a brief glimpse behind the scenes.

Here to promote her long-awaited second album, Zara speaks fluently and with all the warmth and confidence of someone long-accustomed to fielding questions from the press. Like any media-trained star worth their salt, her default setting is to err on the positive at all times, but then there’s no need for damage control when you’ve just produced a pop album as buoyant as ‘Poster Girl’. Featuring songs written with solid gold hit makers Justin Tranter and Julia Michaels (Justin Bieber), Steve Mac (Ed Sheeran) and the Lord our Pop God Max Martin (Britney, Ariana, The Weeknd etc. etc.) it is, by her own admission, “a collection of bangers.”

Honestly, we expected nothing less. A decade and a half since she first found fame in Sweden - winning televised star search ‘Talang’ with her powerhouse vocals at the tender age of 10 - the Solna-born singer has a huge array of international smashes under her belt. Her full-length debut ‘So Good’ was released in 2015, spawning a fistful of multi-platinum singles including the all-conquering ‘Lush Life’, MNEK duet ‘Never Forget You’ and the brilliantlybrazen ‘Ain’t My Fault’.

Then there’s the small matter of her hit collaborations, including ‘Symphony’ with Clean Bandit, ‘Girls Like’ with Tinie Tempah and Official Euro 2016 anthem ‘This One’s For You’ with David Guetta. In 2018 she joined Dua Lipa in the BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge for a performance of ‘IDGAF’, as part of a supergroup of backing singers also starring Charli XCX, MØ and Alma. Add support slots with Ed Sheeran and her lifelong hero Beyoncé to the mix, plus a clutch of Swedish Grammis and MTV Europe Music Awards wins, and there’s no denying that she's a card-carrying member of pop’s current A-List.

And yet, to put the weapons-grade bangers to one side for a moment, arguably a huge part of Zara's appeal lies in the unfiltered charisma we see in her interviews and on her social channels. Mischievous, quick-witted and, at times, brutally frank, apparently there was no amount of media training that could soften her sharp tongue nor persuade her to put profit ahead of her moral compass. No, Zara Larsson is about as authentic a talent as

31

they come, and in a particularly solipsistic industry it’s heartening to see a young star engaging with the world on more than just a surface level.

Browse her Instagram and you’ll find her offering a peek behind the seemingly impenetrable curtain of fame, with witty personal posts tackling everything from her acne, birth control choices and mental health. There was the time she shared a photo of her leg inside a condom, saying, “To all the guys saying ‘my dick is too big for condoms’ TAKE A SEAT”. A favourite tactic is to lure casual observers in with a cute selfie, before dropping the mic in the comments, à la, “This hair reminds me of Ruth from Ozark and she would tell y’all that feminism that isn’t fucking inclusive of poc and trans women isn’t motherfucking feminism.” Fans have been left in no doubt of her support for the Black Lives Matter and #MeToo movements, nor in her fundamental belief in abortion rights for all. Hilariously, there’s even a section on her Wikipedia entry specifically dedicated to ‘Misandry Claims’.

“In this era for artists, fans want to know you, and you want to have this personal connection with them,” she shrugs today, when asked about her transparency.

“I've always been quite personal or outspoken with my opinions and what I think about things. And I think that it's really nice because you don't need magazines or TV to show people who you are. [With social media] you can have your own platform for doing that.

“It's really hard to say where I'd be if I didn't have my social media or if I didn't talk to people online. It feels good to be able to express what I believe in without having someone rewrite my words for me in every situation. I mean, sometimes I want to be like Frank Ocean and not say a word, but then sometimes I'm like, no, I want to be like Doja Cat, and just upload random shit and have fun with it, because it's not that serious. I do think that [an artist like] Doja Cat resonates more with our generation, because it feels like you’re supporting your friend in a way; you know their energy and you know what they stand for. Pop stars shine bright in a very different way these days to what they did back in the day. That relatability is very important, I think.”

Zara currently boasts an impressive 6.3 million Instagram followers. Does she ever find the prospect of potentially broadcasting to that many people daunting or anxiety-inducing? “It could be,” she replies, carefully.

“What I think it more comes down to is, I get anxious sometimes

32 DIYMAG.COM

because I find myself looking for that external validation from people that I don't know in real life.

But then that's also partly why I do what I do, I think. I think every pop star or person that really wants to be in the spotlight wants attention and appreciation.”

She continues with a chuckle.

“I don't know where that comes from, because my parents gave me a lot of attention when I was younger. But I think I have this constant need of being validated.

Because I do have an idea of who I am in my head - and that's a good person who's talented - but I still feel like I seek out that confirmation a lot, just so that I know that the idea that I have of myself is true.”

Talent, of course, is only half the battle: it takes phenomenal drive and discipline to manoeuvre yourself into the position Zara now finds herself in. It’s the sort of dedication she’s displayed since childhood, when she attended the Royal Swedish Ballet School, practising for up to 30 hours a week. Where does she think that drive comes from?

“Never being satisfied,” she bats back almost instantly. “That’s kind of sad. But true. I am never happy with anything. Like, I'm very proud of the things I do but I always think I could have done better. So every song and every video that I release is a way to redeem myself from the song I've released before, and that cycle goes on and on and on.

“It's a blessing and a curse because it always makes me want to go further. It makes me want to do better and it makes me want to improve. But I think also I want to feel satisfied, and that's something I rarely experience. I just hold myself to a very, very high standard.

Perfection actually, which can't really be achieved. But on the upside, I get to perform for people, I get to sing my songs that I love, and I get to travel the world. That is amazing. I am living my dream.”

I

n a world where the path from child star to platinum selling artist is notoriously treacherous - particularly for female artists who find themselves at the sharp end of an unforgivably male-dominated industry Zara has not only escaped unscathed, but has made the transition seem impressively easy. Ask her the secret of her success however, and she lays the credit squarely at her team, who have always acted with her best interests at heart.

“I've been so well protected, especially in the beginning of my

MAD

(TALENTED)

MAX

Pop writer extraordinaire Max Martin has been behind mega hits from Britney’s ‘...Baby One More Time’ to The Weeknd’s ‘Blinding Lights’; in fact he’s the third most successful songwriter in the US charts of all time. What’s his secret?

"Max is one of the best people in the industry because he is so down to learn. That's why he still gets number ones, because he's not walking in the studio like, 'Hey I'm Max Martin, I'm the shit, listen to me, I know it all.' He's a student in every situation which is why he can absorb stuff, and then he has his experience and he's insanely talented. When I've been working with him, you're never the best one in the room, and I find the idea that you never finish learning very inspirational."

Pop stars shine bright in a very different way these days to what they did back in the day.

Legolas looks a bit different here...

33

I feel like we were already at a tipping point, and then

#MeToo hit and that small wave became a tsunami.

34 DIYMAG.COM

career,” she nods. “I always had my mom with me. And she don't play. My A&R, my manager - I had really good people around me. And I was 16 when I first started coming to LA and even the most predatorial of predators don't really go for 16 year olds…” she laughs. “Well, maybe like R. Kelly…

The majority wouldn't do that, though. But if I had come into this industry at this age, without that protection? Phew.

“Because even though I was young I still ended up in some weird ass rooms, with some weird ass guys. I've been in sessions where I was the only girl in the room with eight other guys and they started talking about their dick sizes. Literally. I've had executives, the moment I turned 18, really move into me or say, ‘Hey so, what’s your room number? Give me the key, I'll come see you tonight.” And it's just like, ‘No you won't!’ The audacity! I feel like we were already at a tipping point where things were slowly changing in the industry, and then #MeToo hit and that small wave became a tsunami.”

For Zara, it’s been a relief to see more and more womxn join her team. She specifically praises Epic’s Sylvia Rhone, her label boss in the US, but also the executives underneath her. “It's just different! Women are twice as good as men, and they wouldn't say some weird shit to you. That's why I feel like everything should be run by women. And that's also why nowadays I don't go into sessions anymore where there's not another woman in the room.”

Control and exploitation is a subject Zara has been considering a lot since watching Samantha Stark’s documentary Framing Britney Spears. Examining the controversial conservatorship Britney finds herself living under, the film is a shocking indictment of both the music industry’s and the media’s treatment of the star, showing her being sexualised by men in positions of power, stalked by the paparazzi and widely ridiculed for her mental health issues.

“It's just like, what the fuck is this?” Zara fumes, visibly disgusted. “Why was this ever ok? It felt like these people just didn't have any empathy for other humans. I’m very lucky that I've grown up in Sweden because we don't have the paparazzi, or the obsession for invading other people's privacy. And I also felt really thankful that my parents really support me. But it was just really really heartbreaking, in terms of how Britney’s mental health was thrown into the public eye and was not taken seriously.

It’s like, that shit would CRUSH me.”

T

he complex relationship between an artist’s private life and public image is alluded to in the artwork for ‘Poster Girl’. Depicting Larsson daydreaming in her bedroom, with a poster of the glossy, pop star version of her on the wall behind, it reinforces the fact that both realities can exist simultaneously; a realisation that admittedly might be a bit of a stretch for a society that still struggles with the idea that women can be multiple things at once.

The ‘Poster Girl’ (and our cover girl) has some pretty impressive stats under her belt: that’s not opinion, that’s just maths. Don’t believe us…

4

Number of MTV Award wins

10

The age Zara won Swedish talent show Talang

2014

The year she released debut LP ‘1’

1 million

Copies of ‘So Good’ sold in the US as of January 2021

6.3 million Zara’s current Instagram following

950 million Streams of ‘Lush Life’ on Spotify

what the fuck have I been doing?” she laughs, when we raise the gap between records with her. “I've been releasing stuff in-between so I haven't been completely silent. And then nothing really happened last year, which was very weird because I felt like I didn't have any purpose. It made me realise how much I identify myself with my career and how well that's doing. And the fact that I couldn't perform was like... what am I doing? I felt really lost.”

While Covid can definitely claim some of the credit for the delay, so too can Zara's ruthless perfectionism, with recent singles ‘Don’t Worry Bout Me’ and ‘All The Time’ dismissed in favour of fresher material.

Ask her what she was looking for in this collection and she cites “upbeat, driven, dance-friendly songs” and music “that would make a really good live show.” ABBA were a big influence too, a result of delving into their back catalogue for the very first time.

“Their melodies, their production, what they're talking about: iconic. I feel like it's a little Swedish to have that upbeat melody but the lyrics are a touch melancholic.

So 'Ruin My Life' is basically a crying in the club situation, which is what Swedish people love, apparently.”

She describes love as “the red thread” running through the collection, though that takes many forms. Inspired by her current relationship, ‘FFF’ explores the moment the boundaries between friendship and romance become blurred, asking, “Is there a spark for us or is it just purely platonic? / Is this our story arc cause if it are it’d be iconic”. ‘I’m Right Here’ and ‘WOW’ are odes to intoxicating, rip-my-clothes-offright-now lust, while ‘Look What You’ve Done’ celebrates self-love, finding her declaring, “Now you’re gone I’m number one / Boy, I should thank you for who I’ve become”.

“The older I get, the less compromising and the more control I take of everything I do,” she says of her artistic development since ‘So Good’. She shrugs, “I’m the face of this - the person who’s got to stand by everything I release - so why would I compromise that for someone else? But this is a big collaboration, at least for me, and it's an artform in itself to be able to deal with people in the best way possible, without doing something you don't want to do.”

While Zara's intensely proud of ‘Poster Girl’, it’s only strengthened her determination to move on to bigger and better things. ”I'm done waiting four years [between albums],” she declares. “I will release this baby, and then I'll just ride onto the next album. I feel like I have so much left to discover, such a long way to go and so many goals to achieve in this pop star world.”

She unleashes another dazzling smile, a mischievous glint just barely perceptible in her eye, “Honestly, I’m only just getting started.”

‘Poster Girl’ is out now via Black Butter.

DIY

The album's release falls almost exactly four years on from ‘So Good’. “I don't know,

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C 36 DIYMAG.COM

Control standing IN THE WAY OF

WITH A BRIT AWARD AND A NUMBER ONE ALBUM ALREADY UNDER HER BELT, YOU MIGHT THINK YOU’VE GOT

CELESTE’S TRAJECTORY SUSSED.

BUT THOUGH SHE MIGHT BE A FIRMLY MAINSTREAM CONCERN THESE DAYS, THE SINGER IS - AS LP ‘NOT YOUR MUSE’ ATTESTS - TURNING THE GAME TO HER OWN IMAGE. Words: Lisa Wright.

[I would rather] not be the most famous singer playing songs I really like than play songs I hate to 50 million people.”

T

hough she obviously wouldn’t have wished for it, Celeste Waite might be one of the few people - the founders of Zoom and Jeff Bezos aside - for whom a global pandemic has proven something of a blessing in disguise. “People have their assumptions about how something makes you feel, like, ‘Oh you must feel really dreadful that you were the [BBC] Sound of 2020 and it’s been the year of coronavirus’. When actually, that’s not how it made me feel,” she explains.

Instead, the 26-year-old BRITs Rising Star Award winner and recent chart-topper is refreshingly candid - a defining trait throughout today’s conversation - about the machine that plugs in when you become the most talked about new artist of the year.

Crowned with the industry’s two biggest hype accolades back in January, Celeste was heading towards a 2020 of constant touring and commitments, her debut album - last month’s tellingly-titled ‘Not Your Muse’ - scheduled “to be crammed into whatever I could do in two weeks in March”. “When you’re in the studio there’s a lot of back and forth of people’s ideas and you can’t just say ‘I’m Celeste. This is my album. My idea overrules [you]’,” she continues. “You have to let things filter themselves out naturally, and two weeks isn’t long enough for that to happen.”

The subsequent derailing of those plans, then, became something of a lifeline for the record - not only as a means to give the singer’s ideas literal time to develop, but in resisting perhaps more insidious problems too. “By the time the pandemic had happened, a lot of fear of not making something the label would like had

37

gone,” she nods. “Everyone was like, ‘That’s not what matters to us right now’. Whereas in March, around the heat of the BRITs, everyone that was coming into a room with me was like, ‘This could be a really big album, so let’s make sure we please... maybe everyone except for Celeste’.”

I

t’s hardly a groundbreaking revelation that being a major-label pop concern comes with its compromises; in recent years, everyone from Lorde to Charli XCX to Celeste’s former label boss Lily Allen have publicly denounced some of their own songs, the takeaway being that, had they had it their way, those offerings would never have been pushed as hard.

T

here’s something attractively honest and uncensored about the way Celeste is navigating her current situation. Whether she’s chuckling that she feels “mummified” but essentially fine with having zero interest in TikTok or recalling her centre stage red carpet moment at last year’s BRITs (“Everyone was like, who is this ominous, not very bubbly person?”), you sense that, despite the obvious determination and ambition, she probably wouldn’t be that arsed if those crystal ball mainstream predictions didn’t lead her to become the next Adele.

“I feel like I’ll have more longevity in what I’m doing if I do something that I find fulfilling, ‘cause I could not be the most famous singer in the world but still have a career for 10 years doing shows in different countries and feel happy because I’m playing songs I really like rather than playing songs I hate to 50 million people,” she says. “That would last five minutes for me and I’d be like, I’m going to a different country and never coming back.”

Today, Celeste is pragmatic about the realities of the situation - albeit happy to casually throw some of her recent singles under the bus. “There’s a give and take that has to happen, so ‘Stop This Flame’ and ‘Tonight Tonight’ are those push and pull moments where I was like, these aren’t my favourite songs but we’ll find a way to make it work among the other She’s happy to have found herself in the position she has pieces of music that I favour and this past year, but acutely aware of maintaining her integrity feel proud of,” she shrugs. The throughout it. “If you’re in the hedonism of it, it’s sometimes rest of the album - a collechard to go: How do I actually feel about all this stuff? Where tion of intimate, jazz-indebted am I?!” she concedes. offerings that bring the listener in close Having first pricked up ears with frag(in which those ile, goosebump-inducing torch song two tracks stand ‘Strange’ (a pin-drop moment of tenout a mile) - she der emotion among a BRIT Awards feels represent ceremony of whistles and bangs), her better, and yet however, there’s always been a sense there still remains that Celeste’s appeal lies in being something a “With things like TikTok and the anomaly in the line-up. A vintage little sad when an courting all of these new fashion-wearing, Nina Simone-loving artist’s immediate social domains, I’m just Brightoner, ‘Not Your Muse’ - and the reaction upon a person that prefers real singer’s career to date - really shoots being told they’ve life interaction. I’m more for long-term importance when it’s reached Number analog than I am digital in the truest to itself.

One is something everything that I do, but I of an ‘I told you so’ think there’s a way of ac“When people talk about clever pop moment of relief. cepting it that hopefully will music, what they’re really talking mean I get to evolve and I’m about is the B-sides that sit really “I guess for me, it not left behind just being old well with the hit songs without the hit was a good pay and out of touch!” songs feeling like they’re completely off because when compromising the artist’s integriI first made the Tabloid ty,” Celeste nods. “When people album people defiMedia heard ‘Rehab’ for example and then nitely had doubts “In the time I’d met [Lily they heard everything else [by Amy as to what capacity Allen], she was probably Winehouse], it didn’t feel completely it had commergoing through some of the out of place. So eventually with the cially. It changed worst bits of media bullying. trust of the people around me, if I forms at different Around the time we were keep working away to find ways to points because the hanging out in the studio communicate my ideas, then hopefeeling generally was when the taxi driver had fully my music will get to that level was that it didn’t shouted at her and not let of intelligence because those are have enough sinher get in the cab with her the people that really last and really gles, I didn’t work kids, and she didn’t really change something. with big enough have to say anything. I could producers, all that see that something was “And with a lot of the big pop stars, kind of thing…” she going on; you can see when that’s not their concern; they have a recalls. “I definitely someone is troubled by lot of hit songs and they don’t really have that within something.” mind that the album tracks aren’t reme where I’m like, ally saying much. And the other side see? Just trust me a bit more. That’s how it feels Playing is the independent artists who’ll have because I’ve always known within myself that I Massive a hit in their own right that people could go on to do certain things and still make Venues play all the time, but it’s really about music in the way that I want to.

“I’m nervous about being the whole body of work that goes sprung into big shows when around those songs that keeps those “I remember when I was about 21 and I brought the last shows I played were artists vital,” she continues. “But I out this song ‘Milk & Honey’. It was one of my to 300 people; even if I have hope that eventually I can bring those favourite songs I’d written because I made it the fans to do big venues, two things together.” with a jazz drummer, and a few people were like, I’m gonna ease myself into ‘Oh you shouldn’t have that as the main song it cos I’ve missed out on a ‘Not Your Muse’ is out now via because it won’t get played on the radio blah year of experience. I don’t Polydor. DIY blah blah’,” she continues. “And I just thought want to go from 300 people whatever, let’s try it, and it ended up being to 10,000 people, I’d be in played quite a lot. So I guess I always had the complete shock if I did that, belief and determination to persevere to see so I just need to ease myself those things happening for me.” in, get my voice strong and see the temperature of the audience.”

By the time the pandemic had happened, a lot of fear of not making something the label would like had gone.”

38 DIYMAG.COM

Celeste on…

TikTok

39

!

“In my first few projects I explored grief and fear, and now I’m like, ‘OK, I’m ready to be joyous again’.”

40 DIYMAG.COM

Manifesting the calm energy of its title, ‘DEACON’ finds serpentwithfeet vocalising the intricacies of Black gay love with a tender new touch. Words: Elly Watson.

U

nlike many of us struggling to get out of bed in the morning recently, serpentwithfeet has been waking up at 5am to go and watch the sunrise over LA. His favourite place to start the day?

“I like the feeling that I’m the first one to see the sun rise! I’ve seen mornings in lots of different places, but seeing the sun rise over the beach? That’s kind of next level.”

the next project to be much more porous, much more breezy, much more gentle than my previous work, and I couldn’t make that work living in New York,” he explains. “I want to know who I am and how I take up space when I’m not compressed. I’d written so much music about being compressed, about being agitated, that I wanted to explore a side of myself that wasn’t agitated and that felt completely loose and soft.

Moving from his “second home” of New York after finishing 2018’s emotionally-raw, gospelindebted debut album ‘soil’, Los Angeles has provided the background for serpent to explore not only the numerous sunrise hot spots, but a different side of himself. His new trait as a “morning person”, he explains, has helped reshape his outlook; the result is second LP ‘DEACON’.

“I think it’s important for us to know all sides of ourselves,” he continues.

“Sometimes we try to relegate certain feelings to the basement, like anger isn’t as valid as joy, and I just don’t think that’s true! I think anger is important. I think rage is important. I think bliss is important.

I think all those things need to have real estate. I’ve explored rage, I’ve explored disappointment, I’ve explored sadness, because I think those

“I knew that I wanted

were feelings I was told not to explore.

“I think as a country we do a terrible job in America of grieving and we do a terrible job of dealing with pain. We’re so interested in this fleeting happiness that I think we forget it’s OK to grieve, it’s OK to fear, and I think in my first few projects I explored that because I was like, ‘I need to get into these feels that I haven’t got into for years!’. I did that, that was its own science project, and now I’m like, ‘OK, I’m ready to be joyous again’.”

M

anifesting that joyful feeling and sense of calm, ‘DEACON’ acts as an exploration into serpent’s new outlook.

Its title, calling back to the singer’s church upbringing, also mirrors this new calmness, inspired by what he calls “deacon energy”.

“Deacon is the office in the church that holds the church together, and

there’s something really beautiful about that,” he explains. “All the deacons that I’ve known have had this quiet spirit and quiet strength, so I wanted to tap into that deacon energy, and that peace.”

Musically mirroring this, serpent drew on techniques from icons past - stacked harmonies and the “airiness” of Janet Jackson and Brandy’s vocals - to aid the softer sound of the record, whilst playing more with synths and delays too.

“Typically with my music, if you have a scale of one to 10, I let myself go to 11. I go off!” he laughs. “This time I was like, everything needs to sound really calm and like it’s inside the cup of your hands, and it needs to be really sweet, so I didn’t let myself go past a six. I spent hours and hours trying to be more relaxed, which is actually very difficult.”

Calling the album “a study rather than a

story”, ‘DEACON’’s heart lies in its exploration of Black gay relationships and companionships. “I think people recognise that I am making work with the Black gay listener or viewer in mind,” serpent says.

“That really touches me because that’s the intention; I intentionally used pronouns where I use ‘he’ or ‘him’ rather than being ambiguous.

Black gay people have been making space since before I was even born. I think about all the legends: Marlon Riggs, a Black gay filmmaker, or Essex Hemphill who is a brilliant Black gay writer. I think about what Patrik-Ian Polk did with Noah’s Arc, which was a huge show showing Black gay love on TV and we haven’t had that so much since then. If anything, I’m responding to all the work that I’ve seen and hopefully standing on the shoulder of those legends. I don’t wanna make myself like the Black gay saviour - it’s been done before me - but I do hope that

my audience feels like I’m adding to the canon because that’s my intention.”

With the first half of ‘DEACON’ exploring the feeling of butterflies from meeting someone new, and the latter about maintaining relationships, serpent hopes that the numerous ways he talks about affection on the record will encourage people to embrace the way they process their own emotions. “I felt like I’ve already done the heartbreak thing, and I felt like I did a pretty decent job at it. I don’t wanna go down in history as the sad boy because that’s not who I am,” he smiles. “I never wanna be a one trick pony. I don’t even wanna be a two trick pony, I wanna have a thousand tricks!”

‘DEACON’ is out 26th March via Secretly Canadian. DIY

41

FROM JUSTIN TO GHETTO TO

GHETTS, THE LAST TWO DECADES HAVE BEEN ONES OF CONSTANT

Confl Res -tion I’VE ALWAYS WANTED TO TAKE MYSELF OUT OF THE NORMAL GRIME BOX.”

42 DIYMAG.COM

EVOLUTION AND GROWTH FOR

RALLYING HIS PEERS AND CHAMPIONING

ON ‘CONFLICT OF INTEREST’, HE’S

THE EAST LONDON RAPPER.

flict solu G n LOVE OVER ALL.

Words: Dhruva Balram.

hetts is calm, sprawled on a blue couch at his home. His third album, ‘Conflict of Interest’, is eight days away from being released when he speaks to DIY; arguably, it’s his best and most complete work to date which - after six mixtapes and two EP’s - marks a new chapter in the life of the musician.

‘Conflict of Interest’ also signals a significant evolution in the character of Ghetts - the artist born Justin Clarke, who may not have had the commercial success his peers attained but whose pen was always mightier than anyone else’s in the game. “I’ve always felt what I represented as an artist or where my penmanship could lead was beyond repeating an eight bar and beats,” he begins over a Zoom call on a freezing day in London. “Don’t get me twisted, I’m not putting it down. There’s a great energy that that brings, but for me, I’ve always wanted to take myself out of the normal grime box.”

On this album, Ghetts does that with a masterful force. Over 16 tracks, the East London rapper skips between genres like he’s playing double Dutch, toying with the idea of them until he’s collapsed them entirely. 'Conflict of Interest' is a journey from start to finish, a rollercoaster ride for the senses that took two years to build, calling on a diverse roster of producers to bring the project to life. There are violins and strings, cellos and double basses, all played live in

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an unconventional turn, while the album also marks a new chapter for Ghetts all round.

Justin’s first phase came with Ghetto - the moniker he used in the early stage of his career across projects like ‘2000 & Life’, ‘Ghetto Gospel’ and ‘Freedom of Speech’. After his name change to Ghetts in 2009, he navigated a rocky path before his music took on a more soulful, introspective outlook - the birth of his daughter coinciding with a natural dissipation of his former youthful energy. “I’ve still got energy,” he says, “but I haven’t got my teenage energy. For me to sound like that, I would have to force it so bad because I don’t feel that way.”

Now, with the release of ‘Conflict of Interest’, Ghetts has elevated his artistry even further, challenging himself in ways he hadn’t before. “I think it’s that all three [stages] have never existed at one time,” he says.

“I think this is the first time we’re all co-existing in peace. It’s not Ghetto or Ghetts or Justin; it’s something different coexisting all together.”

G

A

pproaching 20 years of making music, and now a celebrated part of UK music culture, Ghetts is something of an elder statesman of the scene these days. Does he think of himself that way?

“Nah," he says dismissively. "I'm trying to glide through. I'm trying to keep myself to myself, keep good energies around me and then do what needs to be done.

Kids that are coming up might be earning more money than man but we try to embrace that. That's what the foundation was built for. You don't hustle within your family for your children not to surpass you; that foundation was built for them to surpass what we’ve done. There's a reason why we were doing those radio sets and building.

Of course, we want to be around and have an impact for as long as we possibly can."

KIDS THAT ARE COMING UP MIGHT BE EARNING MORE MONEY, BUT THAT'S WHAT THE FOUNDATION WAS BUILT FOR.”

hetts was born Justin Clarke in 1984 in Newham, East London. Raised in a musical family, he knows he would have been a musician no matter what. “Without a shadow of a doubt, I would have 100% been a rapper,” he nods. Growing up “a massive garage head,” he fell in love with words thanks to his obsession with American hip hop and the genre’s dominance over culture in the ‘90s. Citing influences like Nas, The Notorious B.I.G and Jay-Z, Justin's mother, a teacher, also helped shape his passion.

His energy came from the London boroughs that shaped him, yet, combined with his love of language, this dual approach seemed to hold him back. A desire for narrative-driven raps over the repetitive four-by-four call-andresponse that shaped early grime battles set Ghetts apart but didn’t make him a commercial success. “That’s why I struggled so much in my first years of grime,” he recollects. “People saying they didn’t understand me. You heard Ghetts, but you never comprehended what was being said.”

But slowly, Ghetts’ penmanship became revered. With each project, he vaulted himself to a new chapter, allowing his sonic landscape to expand. “I feel like I’m learning at a faster rate than everybody else because I’m taking so much in and analysing everything,” he nods.

“Like, ‘Why is it amazing? Why do I feel like that when I listen to that, and I don't feel like that when I listen to that?’. Then I study the character and study the person and see the genius, and then apply that to my music, to my mission. It takes a whole different level of mindset to get to that point."

Analysing the greats - Michael Jackson’s mixing on ‘Thriller’; Beyoncé holding her notes at the Super Bowl; Kanye West's production on ‘My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy’ - Ghetts sees the details hidden between the lines.

"Sure, there's going to be greatness in terms of numbers and things like that. That's always gonna exist. But how are we gonna see true greatness?"

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In attempting to answer that question, Ghetts has aligned himself with many of music’s big leaguers on 'Conflict of Interest'. There are features across the record from Ed Sheeran to Emeli Sandé, Giggs to Dave, Skepta and Pa Salieu - each of whom help elevate the project to further heights. Here, Ghetts cedes space masterfully, allowing the guests to share the spotlight. Skepta’s appearance on ‘IC3’ instantly stands out, the two

legendary artists collaborating for the first time officially (the track’s outro is a throwback to their pirate radio days). Emerging stars Pa Salieu and Backroad Gee bring energy and tenacity on ‘No Mercy’, while Stormzy’s venom can be felt on ‘Skengman’. Dave, Hamzaa and Wretch 32, meanwhile, leave the album on a mournful note, trading verses on its outro ‘Little Bo Peep’.

Among it all, Moonchild Sanelly’s appearance on ‘Mozambique’ shines brightest. The South African artist met Ghetts “at a writing camp in South Africa in 2018”.

When she was in London, he invited her to the studio where she delivered one of the most captivating features on the entire record - an infectious chorus coupled with a stunning spoken-word intro in Xhosa.

However, pay attention to the lyrics in between the star features, and the conscious messages that Ghetts has become renowned for shine through. Where previous track ‘Rebel’ was written for a Black British male teenager’s angst and ‘Black Rose’ was created for his daughter, here ‘Sonya’ discusses sex work in a way few male rappers would dare to. “I wanted to create a story that was relatable from both the male perspective and the woman's perspective,” he explains. “Because I was thinking, it's mad. I've sold drugs for money, why is that cooler than [sex work]?"

Ghetts looks at his longevity in the game as one down to his attitude change, one of embracing his peers and wanting to spread warmth and love more than anything else. “I’m climbing that mountain,” he says. “I want to get a time of peace and serenity where I feel well. I want to get to a point where, when I walk in the room, you can’t never feel any animosity towards me because I’m just exuding peace and love.”

And that’s a warmth that runs throughout ‘Conflict of Interest’. It’s the album Ghetts is proudest of yet, and rightly so. “Love is the strongest energy Antisocial to have in the face Media of evil because Last summer, Ghetts unleashed people don’t a particularly potent Mad About even know how Bars freestyle: “Right now I don't to combat you,” feel too social/ Start writing a he smiles. “I used tweet and delete it/ Just cah I to think that ‘fuck ain't too vocal/ It don't mean that the world’ energy I'm keeping a secret/ It's been a was the strongest fucked up year but I'm hopeful, if energy you could we unite that's a serious achievehave and feeding ment.” He explains further… off that energy [was the best], “Because I'm a very outspoken while not knowing human being, I get DMs that are like, that love defeats ‘Why are you not speaking about all of that. It this? Why are you not doing that?’. defeats all of it.”

But my own situations and problems aren't perfect for me to go and speak on the next man or jump out and ‘Conflict of condemn that person, because that's Interest’ is out what people love doing now. They now via Warner. love hiding their own skeletons in DIY their wardrobe, and coming out and condemning everybody else when something happens, and expecting you to join the bandwagon of the condemnation. I was just saying, that's not what I want. Right now, the mindset I'm in is I'm looking at the world burn. I've got children, and I'm watching the world burn. And I'm thinking, bro, there's only one way for us through this and it's uniting.”

“LOVE IS THE STRONGEST ENERGY TO HAVE IN THE FACE OF EVIL BECAUSE PEOPLE DON’T EVEN KNOW HOW TO COMBAT YOU.”

Life Advice

Ghetts addresses his former prison stint and turning his life around on ‘Conflict of Interest’ - “I've replaced that 'ex' with an 'i' / That's why they call me an icon”.

What advice would he give to others trying to pick themselves up from a similar situation?

“As long as you have the vision, you know that vision, just let that drive you. Because no one is going to understand you like you understand yourself. In terms of [being] 18-19, I just knew that the jail situation weren't for me. And I'm not saying, one day I woke up and everything was just [better]. I had my fair share of little mishaps and cases along the way. But what was happening now was praying, and then people was praying for me. It's just about mindset.”

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Other Obl

46 DIYMAG.COM

Addressing failure and confronting her struggles, ‘Little Oblivions’ finds Julien Baker stamping her space in the middle of life’s confusing Venn diagram. Words: Carolina Abbott Galvão.

J

ulien Baker used to spend hours poring over theological and political texts in her early twenties, trying to figure out what the best formula was for discerning right from wrong.

"I mean, I knew I could never be sure, but I thought I could figure it out for some reason," she laughs, self-mockingly.

These days, she's even less certain she'll ever come to a worthwhile conclusion. But, along the way, the Tennessee native has realised that music doesn't have to be an expression of her ideals or a way for her to promote positivity. Addressing topics like addiction, mental health and faith in her songs has always been a key part of Julien's work, and she's never avoided confronting deeply personal aspects of her identity.

Yet the recently-released 'Little Oblivions' sees her take an even darker turn, trading in the soft, quasihymnal tones of 2017’s 'Turn Off the Lights' for a punchier, full-band sound.

Calling from Nashville, Julien explains that the album's title details the ways in which she'd previously sought

self-examination, and a direct confrontation of what it feels like to fail and then look for healing. Most tracks are filled with meditative statements and admissions that examine what it's like to flirt with self-destruction, as Julien lyrically grapples with her sobriety: "Blacked out on a weekday / Is there something I've been trying to avoid / Start asking for forgiveness in advance for all the future things I will destroy?" she sings on 'Hardline'.

Still, the singer is hesitant to call her work confessional - she's wary of what the term implies. "It's an important practice for people to be open about their failures, but not as a way of excusing them," she says.

"When I admit to substance abuse, that's not what takes away the power of substances over my brain.

The practice of wanting to be better and making [healthy] choices - those things make it better".

oblivion as an escape from pain and anxiety. "I had several unsuccessful coping mechanisms for that," she adds, tentatively. "And I just realised the cyclical nature of me returning to anything - whether it's drugs and alcohol or compulsive exercise or obsession with faith - was really just to placate a desire to be free".

J

The bulk of these realisations were born out of a difficult couple of years. In late 2018, Julien experienced a substance abuse relapse. Then, in the summer of 2019, she found herself cancelling her remaining tour dates and going back to university to finish her degree. "I just wasn't mentally healthy enough to be touring and I knew that if I didn't have some structure around my life, I would probably go crazy," she admits. During that period, she realised she had become so used to cloaking her obstacles and shortcomings in a "narrative arc of redemption", she had forgotten how to see things for what they were. "Doing that is great. I mean, it's how humans make sense of pain," she offers. But eventually it came time to make a record that dissected the "very real emotions of desperation and loss" instead.

Making a record about failure has also meant that she spent a lot of time thinking about forgiveness. Growing up, Julien was taught to believe that it was dispensed transactionally from God; now, she's struggling to come to terms with what that really means. "[That logic] prevents us from believing that we are inherently worthy of it and that's so bad," she notes. "Even though it seems like it should model compassion, I honestly believe that it discourages empathy. Not only empathy for your fellow human beings, but for yourself, you know?".

At its core, 'Little Oblivions' is an exercise in frantic

ulien says this the way she says most things: in a measured tone, often punctuated by quick bursts of inspiration. She’s careful with what she tells people ("Interviews are hard because I'm never sure of a damn thing I say!"), but can't help but resort to her usual fast-talking self when she's interested in a topic - and she's interested in a lot of them. You often get the sense that out of the ten given thoughts in her head at any one time, you might be on the receiving end of two.

Questions of faith have gone hand in hand with

r Side of livion

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“I DON'T HAVE SOME DISTORTED SELFIMAGE THAT I'M THE REPRESENTATIVE OF ALL GAY CHRISTIANS...”

LYRICAL LESSONS Julien explains the meaning behind some of ‘Little Oblivions’’ deepest cuts.

ZIPTIE:

Good God, when're you gonna call it off, climb down off the cross / and change your mind?

“I had a very obsessive, devout nature and I think I was just searching everywhere for some sort of external moral compass because I didn't trust my own – it's not like I never did hurtful or bad things, I did tons of hurtful and bad things, but I could just never quite get all the pieces to fit”.

HARDLINE:

I say my own name in the mirror / and when nobody appears / you say it's not so cut and dry, it isn't black and white. / What if it's all black, baby – all the time?

“Optimism can be escapism. It can be a thing that prevents you from having to feel the true weight of hurt as a human being. And sometimes you need to feel hurt.”

RELATIVE FICTION:

When I could spend the weekend out on a bender, do I get callous or do I stay tender? / Which of these is worse, and which is better? / Dying to myself virtually, a massacre.

“Being honest about your failures is how you recognise what makes them failures. Imagine if I knew that I had run over a nail with my car, and I took it into the mechanic, but said 'I really think it's the engine. I wasn't near any nails!'.

You could never fix the problem.”

BLOODSHOT:

Isn't like I do this on purpose, I just forget the second I've learned it. / Looking for Little Oblivions, I'd do anything knowing you would forgive me.

“I think sometimes when you're overwhelmed by chaos, it's hard not to think that you would prefer oblivion”.

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discussions about Julien's music, mostly because the singer, who is queer, grew up having to carve out a space for herself in Christianity.

What was it like, then, for her to reevaluate how she felt about religion when it had been such a fundamental part of her image? "Maybe it made me less willing to radically change the ways that I thought about things and want instead to modify my existing beliefs," she answers.

Julien's commitment to inhabiting the world of faith and queerness began when she realised she couldn't reject something she found fascinating simply because there wasn't any room for her in it. She wants others to feel they can inhabit both worlds too. "I don't have some distorted self-image that I'm the representative of all gay Christians," she notes, "but there are a number of people who ARE invested in that element of me as a performer, and in the things that I have to say, because it provides them comfort; because they feel lost and displaced like I was".

It's why she's still hesitant to write religion off completely. "I don't want to make it my cause now to be like, 'Christianity emotionally wounded me and now I changed my mind, and I was brainwashed'," she says, putting on a voice for dramatic effect.

"I don't want to do that because that doesn't seem constructive either. I know I don't want to continue in a fundamental, traditional Christian understanding of the world, but I can't bring myself to dismiss faith as a hugely important part of my life".

Religion aside, learning compassion, particularly towards herself, is something the singer is actively working on. Notably, it's also a topic she discusses at length in 'Little Oblivions': "You pulled a moth out from the grill of your truck saying it’s a shame / How come it’s so much

easier with anything less than human / Letting yourself be tender?" she asks in 'Favour', a song featuring harmonies from her boygenius bandmates Lucy Dacus and Phoebe Bridgers. Can we expect a new record from them soon? "We've been trying to figure out a way to hang out despite us all being in separate cities, but it's coming," she smiles. "Not even because of popular demand. Just because we like writing with each other.”

As for her own music, Julien hopes 'Little Oblivions' will clear the way for a better, or at least more candid, form of storytelling going forward. "Maybe I felt like I was trying to trick everybody into thinking that I was a really good person [before],” she suggests. “And now that I don't think of myself as good or bad, I can just more honestly report on what it's like to be a person."

‘Little Oblivions’ is out now via Matador.

DIY

“IT'S AN IMPORTANT PRACTICE FOR PEOPLE TO BE OPEN ABOUT THEIR FAILURES, BUT NOT AS A WAY OF EXCUSING THEM.” The GENIUS of BOYGENIUS As one third of boygenius, alongside Phoebe Bridgers and Lucy Dacus, Julien helped establish a supergroup for the ages. Unsurprisingly, it was just as well-loved a project from inside the circle as out.

“Being in that collaborative space, where no one knew that we were a band that made music until the moment it was out in the world, removed so many of the apprehensions that I had experienced with my music - just the fact that it was not resting solely on me or my ideas.

It's this interdependent band and I feel like, because it wasn't just about me, I could actually feel this objective pride for the record and make musical decisions that made me happy. For no other reason than that they made me happy. Working with them made me want to work like that more.”

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ehind B

Curtain Black Honey have never been ones to think small, and on second album ‘Written & Directed’ their flights of fancy are out in full force. Singer Izzy B. Phillips unpacks the rich world that makes up the band’s second. Words: Jenessa Williams.

Photos: Emma Swann.

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the

“My therapist says that there's a village of people who live within us, and it's about exploring the different parts.” - Izzy B. Phillips

I

t’s July 2020, and the teeth-bitten tongue of Black Honey’s self-titled debut album art is licking flames, embers curling at the edges. Out of shot, their fearless leader Izzy B. Phillips has upended her mum’s lawnmower and is letting the petrol flow, high off of freedom’s fumes.

“I’m still so proud of album one, but the only record you really get the right to burn is your own, y’know?” she laughs eight months later.

“There was a very ‘phoenix rising’ moment to it that just felt very artistically liberating - to be able to say, ‘Fuck the past off, I’m moving forward’.”

If fans in Izzy’s DM’s were fearing the worst, they needn’t have worried. Black Honey’s backyard pyrotechnics were never meant to symbolise the end of the band, but the dawning of a new era, taking their spaghetti-western style of rock’n’roll to new theatrical heights. And with follow-up ‘Written & Directed’, the quartet (completed by guitarist Chris Ostler, bassist Tommy Taylor and recent recruit drummer Alex Woodward) are intent on shaping their own narrative - one that shows the listener their many sides.

“We actually wrote three albums-worth of demos, slotting into these distinct families,” Izzy explains. “The first was very nighttime disco ‘Drive’ soundtrack, and then I was exploring an album-ish of Motown ideas. But I just remember coming into the studio and being like, ‘Guys, we need to go heavy’. It started with ‘Disinfect’ and ‘I Like The Way You Die’. I wrote both songs with Carl Barât and Olly [who played with] The Prodigy in the space of two weeks and knew that they would be the singles to slap people in the face.”

Always content to offer a peep behind the curtain, the world that Black Honey have built as an independently-signed band is a real

testament to the ingenuity of Izzy’s creative imagination. All the visuals for ‘Written & Directed’ so far have been the stuff of highend fashion house fantasy - go-go dancing vampires, cowgirl pin-ups, evangelical nuns in a Tarantino desert - delivered on an impressively small budget. When not busting out her glue gun on set, Izzy can also be found creative directing and songwriting for other people, never quite content with sitting still.

“For a long time I found it quite difficult to manage praise about being a visual artist because I always felt that it would be like diminishing our musicality,” she says. “But then I listened to FKA twigs on the Louis Theroux podcast, talking about how obsessed she was with world-builders. I really identified with how she spoke; I love things that are completely escapist, and I also like to see how people do it without it being so glossy all the time. When I was struggling with my creativity in lockdown, doing stuff for other people was a great way to switch modes. All of that is easy to me; it’s a lot harder to write your own truth.”

T

he first step to truthfulness is figuring out the multitudes of who you actually are. As someone who constantly has a million ideas and identities firing off in her head, ‘Written & Directed’ found Izzy doing a lot of subconscious soul-searching, most of which only really made sense as a result of the pandemic; “That happens a lot with me, where I don't really understand what I'm doing until afterwards,” she notes. With the album fortunately finished before the first lockdown, the forced halt to her usually hectic schedule has had her revisiting the characters she intuitively embodies, pondering what each of them might mean for her most authentic self.

“I'm really into the concept that any caricature of yourself is a true extension of you,” she says. “My therapist says that there's a village of people who live within us, and it's just about drawing the different people out in different situations or exploring different parts. I find it quite fun! I don't think I ever sat down and thought ‘God, I don't know who the fuck I am’ until lockdown; I’ve been living my life through all these femme fatales, but when it all comes down to it, I’m still living at my mum's house, trying to do a career that doesn't pay you any money. You realise that you’ve been crutching on your extension personalities instead of tapping into your core being, really figuring out what those core needs are. There’s been some intense reparations and healing and I don't think I'm out of the woods yet, but I definitely feel like

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I'm going to be coming into the new world as a different person.”

The album process (and subsequent epiphanies) also meant unravelling some of the ‘one of the boys’ internalised misogynies that often plague female indie fans, forced to adapt-or-survive in a traditionally male space. As a figurehead in an ever-diversifying landscape, Izzy takes comfort from no longer wanting to dampen any of her attributes, allowing herself to embrace a feminism of more nuanced gender expression.

“I think I really align myself with LGBTQ+ culture because I had such a struggle to identify where I land on the spectrum between my femininity and masculinity growing up; I knew I was a woman, but I was so confused by having some of those more stereotypically ‘masculine’ traits,” she says. “I don't think I'm the poster child for perfect activism, but I do think that if you have a platform and can be part of social change, you absolutely don't have a choice when it's so much bigger than you. We all carry around these patriarchal structures, but it’s about breaking down those parameters around you and realising that indie rock doesn't have to only follow the cues of straight white males anymore.

If I can open the door just a little bit, who knows who might come through? I just want girls and people of marginalised genders to hear this record and feel like they can own their angry side and stomp their way into class. I want them to feel fierce.”

‘Written & Directed’ finds Izzy and Black Honey fleshing out their cinematic world even further than ever. The singer shows us around the treasure trove of influences that went into creating the band’s second record…

Over The Edge [1979]

I

t’s this film that was based on a true story of America, this suburban town where a baby boom meant that there was a disproportionate number of teenagers. They’re all pent up and angry, so they just have a riot and set the school on fire and burn everyone’s cars down. It’s just the greatest concept I’ve ever seen, and I instantly knew that it had to inform the visualisation of ‘Disinfect’. My formative relationship with Nirvana was so distinctive to my angry teenage years, but I only found out after I’d seen the film that it was what Kurt Cobain had built the whole aesthetic of ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ on. It suddenly made total sense why I would love it so much.

Vintage fashion

I can’t really explain that feeling of seeing a dress on the rail and knowing that if you wear it, you’ll feel like It’s this sense of personal growth Dusty Springfield. I do think a lot of fashion is a bit that is instrumental to ‘Written & overblown, but there's something just really exciting Directed’. Nothing in life is constant, about turning your exterior into a canvas. As an outfit, but there is always a new way to I see this record as pretty grungy and dressed down – explore your creative identity, to just a cool ‘70s t-shirt and ripped up jeans, the sort of become the architect of your own thing Lou Reed would have worn. I don't see Elton John vision. “It can glitzy suits, which I sometimes do with album one. I’m feel a bit scary thinking go-go girls in big knee-high boots with nothing retelling the else on, shimmying in black and white… very ‘60s truth of my Parisienne. life, but I really think that I’m myself in all of A lot of the things we do come these stories off as quite high-budget when - even if it’s it's actually really lo-fi. It kind of as this hyperreminds me of drag, the way drag characterised performers can take a boring little vampire villain dress and put all this work into go-go girl,” it until it becomes this amazing Izzy’s come Izzy confirms. prepared for piece of art. It's the most heroic Don your another big thing ever, to be able to just be lockdown night in. costume and your authentic self at the most fetch your extreme level with no boundaries. motor oil; it’s I just find it super admirable, and time to let the it really speaks to the way I draw flames begin. upon my inner village. I think a lot about burlesque too - I’d 'Written & love to do a Black Honey tour Directed' of feminist strip clubs. There's is out 19th some amazing communities in March via London that do progressive and Foxfive. DIY genderless shows that I would love to work with. The time will come!

Drag Artistry

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Edie Sedgwick & ‘70s New York My ‘70s New York obsession started with Edie Sedgwick, which then turned into Andy Warhol, who was around during the best era of the Rolling Stones, and there was Blondie and Patti Smith; all of the arrows just lead back to CBGB's and Studio 54 and The Factory, all of these places where people hang out. Wherever I’m at musically, I just find myself asking, ‘Would Edie Sedgwick dance to what I’m making?’ What would she be into if she was going to Glastonbury with her mates?’. Even now I’ve said that out loud I’m feeling weirdly insecure about the idea of her not liking this record…

Tarantino Films People talk a lot about Tarantino’s influence on us, but I just think he's more of a background feeling here. It’s quite a bold thing to say, but I do think our songs would suit his movies. I don't know if I've necessarily written a direct homage to him, but he's just always bubbling in the background - Mia Wallace is always subtly doing the dance with John Travolta in the song somewhere.

Bodily Fluids There’s a vinyl pressing of ‘Written & Directed’ that actually contains our literal blood, sweat and tears.

It’s been an absolute pain in the ass trying to get it to the pressing plant in Poland; it’s a pandemic obviously, and it's really expensive to send blood there. But we made little contracts, and found a friend of a friend who is a trained phlebotomist to take the blood. Sweat and tears were actually a lot harder to collect - we were literally rubbing onions in Tommy’s eyes trying to make him cry and just got nothing. And then for sweat, we clingfilmed ourselves and did a workout, scooping the sweat off into vials. It was glamorous stuff!

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Photo: Lindsey Byrnes.

The strength of Hayley Williams - as a songwriter, a vocalist, a woman - is still awe-inspiring.

revi

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

HAYLEY WILLIAMS FLOWERS

for VASES / descansos (Atlantic) Across Hayley Williams’ first solo record - last year’s ‘Petals For Armor’ - the Paramore frontwoman transformed her pain and vulnerability into something more palpable and potent. It’s on her new follow-up, ‘FLOWERS for VASES / descansos’, that she takes a closer look back at those emotions, in an even more reflective guise. Written and recorded by Hayley alone in lockdown, there’s a disarming - and perhaps unsurprising - intimacy to the record as a whole.

From the raw acoustic opener of ‘First Thing To Go’, through to the confessional lyrics of ‘Trigger’ - “All I ever had to say about love is a sad song / I get off on telling everybody what went wrong” - this is an album which optimises the ruminative nature of the past year’s struggles. It also tracks a breathtakingly frank - and sometimes, painful - exploration of how she’s both processed and protected her feelings over the last few years. Even the reference to ‘descansos’ - the Spanish term for a memoriam placed at the site of death or loss, and a nod to Clarissa Pinkola Estes’ Women Who Run With The Wolves - in the record’s title is telling; it’s within this album she seems prepared to revisit some of her own.

While ‘Petals For Armor’ before it came packed with slick beats and big choruses - which, in turn, acted as her own musical armour - the true strength of ‘FLOWERS for VASES / descansos’ lies in its laid bare nature. “There’s no such thing as good grief / Haven’t eaten in three weeks,” goes the aching introduction of ‘Good Grief’, Hayley delicately reflecting on a previous relationship, before the repeated swirling mantra of ‘No Use I Just Do’’s chorus becomes intoxicating. Closing track ‘Just A Lover’ feels raw and visceral, its jagged guitars building into a cathartic outpouring that soon gives way to a final moment of peace. Powerful, but in an entirely different way to its predecessor, it’s a record which further proves that the strength of Hayley Williams - as a songwriter, a vocalist, a woman - is still awe-inspiring. (Sarah Jamieson) LISTEN: ‘Good Grief’, ‘My Limb’

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KINGS OF LEON

When You See Yourself (RCA) Perhaps the most disappointing thing about Kings of Leon’s journey into the mainstream megasphere over the past decade was not that they’d ‘sold out’ or grown from the initial whirlwind of hair, sex and whiskey that they first emerged as: it was that, a lot of the time, the Followills didn’t look like they even really believed in what they were doing themselves. Witness a KOL tour from across the late-’10s and you’ll likely have been greeted by four men that seemingly couldn’t wait for home time; having made some of the most sizzling, uncontainable guitar tracks of the ‘00s, it was like watching a sad husk of what once was - a cash cow being milked in broad daylight.

And so there is something undeniably heartening about the first steps of ‘When You See Yourself’. Starting off with something of a double bluff, its title track appears to commence with some echoey stadium-setting before actually kicking in with a gallop that’s far tighter and pleasingly rudimentary; previous single ‘The Bandit’, meanwhile, canters along with a youthful joy - if it’s not quite the full young manhood, then it’s closer than we’ve seen in a while. It sets the tone for an album that, though not without its fillers, feels like Caleb, Nathan, Jared and Matthew are having more genuine fun than they’ve had in years.

It’s not even that the songwriting is THAT unexpected; between the ‘Use Somebody’ belters have always been more danceable offerings. But there’s something in the willingness to sound a little more rough around the edges, in the simple twanging bass line that opens ‘Stormy Weather’ or even the polished-yet-joyful stomp of recent single ‘Echoing’ that hits slightly differently. There are tracks to skip over, yes. ‘Time In Disguise’ turns the sonics up to ‘arena’ without really having the substance to fill it, while ‘Supermarket’ trundles along like an aimless lockdown trip to Tesco to kill some time. And, given the choice, would we still just whack ‘Because of the Times’ on instead? Duh. But ‘When You See Yourself’ sounds like a jolt back into something potentially promising: there could still be life in the old Kings yet. (Lisa Wright) LISTEN: 'The Bandit'

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THE HORRORS Lout (Wolf Tone)

Over 14 years and five studio albums, The Horrors have transformed themselves through numerous incarnations but never have they sounded quite so gnarly as they do on ‘Lout’. Where 2007 debut ‘Strange House’ - a gloriously OTT cartoon strip of gothic garage punk and howling, prowling excess - was allbut-abandoned by the band come the dawn of their more ‘mature’ second coming, now Faris and co seem to have resolved their past into a dirtier, more gristly, grown-up thing. ‘Lout’’s title track - all distorted riffs, punishing drums and fuzzy vocals - answers the question of what Nine Inch Nails might sound like covering Beastie Boys, but it’s ‘Whiplash’ that really grabs the baton from Trent Reznor’s group of sonic aggressors. A gloriously filthy, industrial thing, its opening gambit of “I wanna live like an animal / Take the whip like an animal” pays such direct homage to NIN’s ‘Closer’, you assume it must be intentional. In between the two lies instrumental ‘Org’: a punishing, dense assault that sounds like being trapped inside a laptop malfunction.

And then, 12 minutes after they began, The Horrors are out, having made their boldest, most exciting switchflip in years. (Lisa Wright) LISTEN: 'Whiplash'

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GENESIS OWUSU

Smiling With No Teeth (House Anxiety / Ourness) For someone who thinks of himself as a misfit, there’s a lot of space in the modern musical landscape for Genesis Owusu’s genre-bending to take centre stage. A best-kept Australian secret, the main intention of ‘Smiling With No Teeth’ is to share that momentum with a wider audience.

Opener ‘On The Move!’ is a chunky clarion call that shares equal DNA across punk, hip hop, electronic and New Age psychedelia, stopping short at under two minutes so you’re left enticingly hungry. ‘Whip Cracker’ is longer, but takes a delicious funky turn at its midpoint – a throwback to the glory days of dance-punk rapture in the basement of noughties indie discos. Like Gorillaz, Outkast or even The Weeknd before him, he plays well with dark and sinister, throwing theatrical voice in a musical hall of mirrors with real versatility. If the gleeful monster-mash of ‘The Other Black Dog’ or the ’80s cruise of ‘Drown’ seem like frivolous costume, they are worn by a man who carries a much wider weight of depression, frustration and societal disrepair that only really reveals itself when you dig into the lyrics. ‘A Song About Fishing’ is a laid-back, relatable rap-folk mediation of the difficulties of motivating yourself when nothing seems to be going right, while on ‘I Don’t See Colour’, he ponders the nature of racial stereotyping over a slick beat (“‘Cause somehow my actions represent a whole race / It’s hard to move different when your face is our face”). There’s a whole abundance of themes at play, but all are dealt with a knowing creativity, a melodic choice tailored to fit the topic. If Genesis is consistent with anything, it’s the reminder that life is often more fun when you allow yourself to explore the leftfield. At 15 tracks long, he occasionally falters under the weight of his own abundance, but there are so many great sweets in the pick’n’mix bag that you don’t really mind the odd underwhelming chew. In time, it’ll be a real joy to watch his ideas crystallise into something properly essential.

Until then, there’s a lot already here to be grinning about.

(Jenessa Williams) LISTEN: 'The Other Black Dog'

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Pure pop escapism. 

ZARA LARSSON Poster Girl (Black Butter)

If 2020’s biggest album (Dua, obvs) offered up killer dancefloor vibes at the precise moment it transpired nobody would be seeing one any time soon, that Zara Larsson’s third hits on the cusp of spring, with its increased daylight hours and promise of meaningful human interaction in the middle-distance is a stroke of genius.

Take the Marshmello-produced, and curiously understated ‘WOW’, the vocal swagger of opener ‘Love Me Land’ or peppy title track.

Or the breezy ‘Need Someone’, which makes like Calvin Harris’ ‘Funk Wav Bounces Vol. 1’, and begs to soundtrack a road trip. The Young Thug-featuring ‘Talk About Love’ packing a nostalgic punch, with a chorus that hits in all the right places, the earworm-and-ahalf that is ‘FFF’, or even ‘Look What You’ve Done’, disco-tinged both in string section and empowered lyrical melodrama. Musically rose-tinted, ‘Poster Girl’ is pure pop escapism. (Emma Swann) LISTEN: ‘FFF’

DO NOTHING

Glueland (Exact Truth) The second EP from Nottingham upstarts Do Nothing is an ode to alienation, with as much itch in its bones as you’d expect from a project conceived, written, and recorded in lockdown, without rubbing it entirely in your face. As ever, Chris Bailey is a compelling narrator, a deft guide through the title track’s intro which squelches like mud, and Kasper Sandstrom’s hypnotising riff work. “There’s something weird going on out there, man,” he drawls, before fulfilling his own observation with a quip about a baby eel swimming in a glass of water. Strap in folks, it only gets stranger. On ‘Uber Alles’ the band experiment with dance beats to brilliantly stirring effect (remember dancing?) while the syncopated rhythms of ‘Rolex’ make it seem almost like the track is unfurling. All the while Chris warbles about the many characters of ‘Glueland’. There’s “Screaming Blue Bill”; “the Marlboro man”; something about a swordfish. It doesn’t all make sense, but you sense that’s the point. Then there’s the eerie new sound this EP ushers in. Even on the slower moments of ‘Zero Dollar Bill’ (and the various singles that came before) the energy was unpredictable; the recorded songs weren’t much different from their rough-around-the-edges onstage counterparts. ‘Glueland’, not afforded the luxury of extensive road-testing, shows that Do Nothing are far from just a live act. ‘Great White Way’, an animated and funky closing cut that sees the band gel as a unit with punchy finesse, leaving you thirsty for more. (Alex Cabré) LISTEN: 'Uber Alles'

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XIU XIU

OH NO (Polyvinyl) Xiu Xiu's Jamie Stewart says he was inspired to write their 12th album, ‘OH NO’, by feelings of isolation, so it’s not surprising that a gloomy mood underpins the album. The surreal menace that permeated much of precursor ‘Girl With Basket of Fruit’ is gone, replaced by a pervasive sadness. Jamie's vocals have rarely sounded bleaker, recalling those on latter-day Bowie and Greg Puciato’s recent solo work. He collaborated with a number of musicians on the album who he says somewhat restored his faith in humanity, meaning it is a succession of duets, all with interestingly chosen collaborators. His vocals interweave with Chelsea Wolfe’s well on ‘One Hundred Years’ and Sharon van Etten’s voice on opener ‘Sad Mezcalita’ has a very beguiling, torchsong quality to it. After all the preceding melancholy, the closing triptych of ‘Knock Out’, lead single ‘A Bottle of Rum’, and Valerie Diaz monologue ‘ANTS’ makes for a comparatively optimistic conclusion to the album. Xiu Xiu have recorded a 12th album that is an interesting listen, but rarely an easy one.

(Greg Hyde) LISTEN: ‘One Hundred Years’

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THE ANTLERS

Green To Gold (Transgressive)

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SERPENTWITHFEET Deacon (Secretly Canadian)

For his second full-length, the now-LA based serpentwithfeet has opted for adoration over heartbreak, delivered with a beautiful simplicity that mirrors the largely uncomplicated love that runs throughout the album’s spiritual R&B. It’s a vast, and perhaps deliberate, contradiction to the harsh realities that face many people of colour in the LGBT+ community. The result is an unfiltered ode to relationships; emotional, physical and spiritual. Raised in religious spaces, the aptly-titled ‘DEACON’ is filled with gospel flourishes - from the choir vocals on lead single and album closer ‘Fellowship’ to the hymnal ‘Dawn’ interlude. At odds with stereotypes and outdated expectations, he plays with notions of masculinity, vulnerability and sexuality, often simultaneously. “He never played football, but look at how he holds me,” he sings on ‘Hyacinth'. “He never needed silverware, but I’m his little spoon." ‘DEACON’ confidently celebrates love in all its spiritual glory, with an unwavering focus on the good. In his sweetest moments, serpentwithfeet’s joy is palpable, paired with an unwavering sensuality that underpins each of the album’s eleven tracks. There’s bravery in its openness, and in his ability to be at once disarmingly vulnerable and self-assured. As the world continues to wrestle with the individual freedoms of the Black, LGBT+ and combined communities, ‘DEACON’ looks for hope in love, much like in the spirituality that birthed it. (Ben Tipple) LISTEN: 'Hyacinth'

When Peter Silberman released his debut solo record back in 2017, it provoked a mixed emotional response from Antlers fans. To have the band’s frontman back in any form after the three years of radio silence that followed the ambitious, divisive ‘Familiars’ was welcome, but to discover that the hushed, barely-there nature of the six tracks making up ‘Impermanence’ were that way by necessity rather than design was to realise that the future of The Antlers was in serious doubt. With Peter having been dealt a devastating triple blow to his aural health tinnitus, hyperacusis and cochlear hydrops, any of which on their own would be enough to cause a professional musician serious problems - and the departure of Darby Cicci, there must have been considerable temptation to put a cap on things. Instead, having moved at their own pace, Peter and Michael Lerner have crafted a first new Antlers album in seven years, and one that - crucially - feels like the opening of a new chapter, rather than the closing of the last one. Both ‘Hospice’ and ‘Burst Apart’ - the former operatically intense, the latter dizzyingly claustrophobic - were maelstroms of feeling that put listeners through the emotional wringer, but ‘Green to Gold’ is cut from considerably more sedate cloth, a gentle treatise on ageing that deals in pretty simplicity. Quiet, country-inflected guitars and handsome flushes of brass and strings imbue standouts like ‘Wheels Roll Home’ and ‘It Is What It Is’ with gorgeous warmth, while Peter’s newly-tranquil voice suits the most reflective lyrical material of his career down to the ground.

For The Antlers to be back at all is one thing; for them to have reinvented their own musical language to suit their protagonist’s circumstances is another entirely. (Joe Goggins) LISTEN: 'Wheels Roll Home'

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NUHA RUBY RA

How To Move (Brace Yourself) Beneath the iron girder ceilings of East London’s warehouseconverted art communes, Nuha Ruby Ra has been busy stewing in the shadows of her mind. A shapeshifting provocateur, her music bleeds a sort of divine femininity.

Behind the dim red hue of her own battle-scarred exterior, her musical silhouette twists and cavorts to the tune of her own making as one by one, she unfastens each restrictive tie that strains to hold her back. Whether or not she’s able to shake the remnants of toxic lust or depression, her new emotionally-graphic EP, ‘How To Move’ wastes little time with pleasantries. Clawing anxiety and taboo sexual desires collide on the masochistic ‘Sparky’. With pursed lips and spitting venom, her meandering stream-of-consciousness teases the X-rated portrait of a once passionate flame between lovers. Fantasy soon becomes heartache on ‘Erase Me’’s confessional new age noir when above heavy, strung-out textures, she submits to her prickling insecurities and fond memories begin to slip fast and uncontrollably into oblivion. It all comes to a heady climax on ‘Run Run’s’ epic seven-minute thriller. (Ollie Rankine) LISTEN: ‘Sparky’

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PIXEY

Free To Live In Colour (Chess Club) There’s a brand of jubilant friendliness synonymous with Liverpool that you just can’t find anywhere else in the world, so it makes sense that when Chess Club newcomer Pixey dishes up psychedelic dance cuts on her debut EP, she does so with a wink and a smile. Fresh, floral, and infectiously upbeat, ‘Just Move’ is a firecracker of an introduction whose hazy guitar/vocal combo hints at a range of influences, from ‘60s girl groups like The Shangri-Las to ‘90s pop-rock a la ‘Brimful of Asha’. Bringing up the rear, a hypnotic breakbeat hints at De La Soul’s easy-going sensibilities, something that’s heavy in her sepia self-production which is, put simply, a ton of fun. ‘California’ and ‘Electric Dream’ are solid pop cuts that will one day do well in sun-baked festival fields, but ‘On the Mersey Line’ is the EP’s real gem with a melody that sticks in mind like bubblegum to a cheek. An ode to her Scouse stomping ground, it’s easy to picture her skipping along the riverside humming the notes to herself, before nipping home to lay them down via the medium of kitschy guitar licks. Warm and vibrant, ‘Free To Live in Colour’ is a solid introduction to a sparky new pop personality, and a perfect antidote to those winter chills. (Alex Cabré) LISTEN: 'On The Mersey Line'

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Q&A Peter Silberman talks the newfound 'lighter' sound for The Antlers, looking back, and that long-awaited return.

You’ve implied the record is more of a ‘daytime’ album than those before it. How and why do you think that manifested itself?

Working on these songs almost exclusively during the daytime infused them with that lightness. I wanted them to sound like they’d been warmed and sun-faded. So there was an effort to use earthier instrumentation, and in mixing, we’d pass the sounds through lots of tape and tubes, old finicky analog delays and spring reverbs, and a vintage analog console. It was a matter of matching the production with the subject matter, which deals with change and aging, life cycles and nature.

How was looking back at the ten years since ‘Hospice’ on its reissue?

It was enlightening to reflect back on that album ten years after its debut. When I made it, it served as a way to make sense of a disturbing experience that I had only recently emerged from. But looking back on it so many years later, it now exists for me as a document of my mind when I was younger, as well as this

very important landmark in my career, one that completely changed my life.

Now it lives as both that personal time capsule and a shared experience with the people it affected.

How did returning to work as The Antlers compare to your solo record?

For one, it involved a lot of close work with [drummer] Michael Lerner, which made the process less intensely insular than [2017 solo album] 'Impermanence'. He and I were regularly workshopping ideas and passing them back and forth for a couple years, which strengthened the songwriting process overall, and made it fun. 'Green to Gold' began as more of a feeling and an intention, so there was a great deal of exploration from the beginning. On the other hand, I pretty much knew what I wanted 'Impermanence' to be from the beginning, set fairly rigid rules for myself in the writing, and didn’t open it up to outside input all that much.

This time around, I wanted to make an album with Michael, and I wanted to think of it as an Antlers album.

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WILLIAM DOYLE

Great Spans of Muddy Time (Tough Love) Taking a 17th Century oil painting by Dutch renaissance master Melchior d'Hindecoeter as its artwork, and a lofty metaphor for depression as its title - a quote from Gardeners' World presenter Monty Don, of all people ‘Great Spans…' appears at first glance every bit the artistic statement you’d expect from William Doyle. The sombre strains of opener ‘I Need To Keep You In My Life’ fit this bill, suggesting the heavy period of introspection and therapy involved in the album’s inception. And yet, hiccups in the recording process – a hard drive malfunction and the loss of several pieces - encouraged a more improvisational, hotchpotch record. There’s his placid brand of retro-leaning synth-pop, recalling the quirks of early Eno or the slickness of the Pet Shop Boys, populated with lyrics that read like beleaguered confessions to a therapist: “A terrible time in my life... diffuse and empty inside”, (‘Theme of Muddy Waters’). On the other, scattered throughout the darker reaches of the record, is a collection of glitchy, brooding, instrumentals, where we find him at arguably his most accomplished. His cerebral electronica might be awash with tranquil gorgeousness ('(a sea of thoughts behind it)') or pulsating with serrated horror ('Shadowtackling'), but what is constant are its dazzling, spontaneous qualities. What ‘Great Spans…’ may lack in coherence, it makes up for with occasional moments of sheer beauty. (Connor Thirlwell) LISTEN: ‘Theme From Muddy Waters’

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CITIZEN

Life In Your Glass World (Run For Cover)

Longstanding Citizen fans are well versed in accepting change, having witnessed the three-piece traverse from distorted post-hardcore to the comparably pared-back tempo of 2017’s understatedly heavy ‘As You Were’.

Four years later, the band have landed between the dense atmospherics of what has come before and a newfound desire to seriously up the energy. ‘Life In Your Glass World’ pairs their explorations of life’s struggles with hints of anthemic indie rock, not least on mood setter ‘I Want To Kill You’ and the appropriately-titled opener ‘Death Dance Approximately’. ‘Pedestal’ thrives on its pulsating drum beat, making space for the band’s characteristic unrelenting riffs come the chorus, while ‘Blue Sunday’ places Mat Kerekes’ distorted vocals front and centre and embraces a melodic chorus that surpasses much of their prior work. Climaxing with standout ‘Edge Of The World’, an unfurling of hope in difficult times, ‘Life In Your Glass World’ never shies away from its obvious love for mainstream-friendly rock, more often than not hitting the mark. The band thrive in their more overt indie moments but lose traction on the likes of the more pedestrian ‘Thin Air’ or the experimental electronics of ‘Fight Beat’. “I hope you learn to love yourself,” they offer in the album’s closing moment, having spent almost half a decade re-evaluating their own influences and defiantly doing things the exact way they want. (Ben Tipple) LISTEN: ‘Edge Of The World’

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NICK CAVE & WARREN ELLIS Carnage (Goliath)

Nick Cave’s approach to writing took something of a turn following 2013’s ‘Push The Sky Away’ from storytelling to abstraction, with song structures unbuoyed and freeflowing atop Warren Ellis’ hypnotic synth-loops. 2016’s ‘Skeleton Tree’ was a spectral, haunting document while 2019’s ‘Ghosteen’ was steeped in biblical imagery and folklore as he processed the tragic passing of his son Arthur. Things come full circle on ‘Carnage’ as the same logic is applied to the pair's most enthralling and unhinged work since ‘Grinderman II’. Opener ‘Hand Of God’ finds Nick playing a crazed preacher at a sermon as Warren’s synth throbs restlessly beneath. Pure mania ensues midway through - choirs repeat the title like a mantra as strings descend and dramatic vocals build on a rising tide. Squeals of guitar spurt across the jostling synth-bass of ‘Old Time’ as wild strings crash in and out of sequence: instrumentals that wouldn’t be out of place on ‘Yeezus’. Alongside the mania, there’s a romantic side to ‘Carnage’ too. The escapist meditation of ‘Albuquerque’ sources light in the shrouding darkness of lockdown. “And we won’t get to anywhere, baby / unless you take me there”, he sings gently as strings hover across a striding piano and choir. ‘Carnage’ is a jewel in the Cave-Ellis cannon. A thrilling piece of work that sources a sweet-spot between the unbound introspection of the Bad Seeds’ recent work and the furious fire lit beneath Grinderman and The Birthday Party.

The creative streak the pair have been riding the past decade shows no sign of slowing down. (Sean Kerwick) LISTEN: 'Old Time'

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TIGERS JAW

I Won't Care How You Remember Me (Hopeless) For the best part of a decade, Brianna Collins and Ben Walsh have forged forward as Tigers Jaw, having parted ways with three of the band’s founding members in 2013 ahead of the release of ‘Charmer’; itself a sonic departure from the raw emo sound that had until then defined the Pennsylvanian outfit.

With just 2017’s ‘Spin’ released in the meantime, ‘I Won’t Care How You Remember Me’ arrives as a statement of intent. Recruiting full-time band members Teddy Roberts and Colin Gorman into the fold and returning to work with scene stalwart producer Will Yip, their sixth studio album sees Tigers Jaw return to a full band aesthetic, one that fully swaps the urgency of their early material for a more considered power pop back-and-forth between its principal vocalists. That Tigers Jaw have evolved beyond the band they once were is obvious, and rightly so.

The confidence and togetherness on display outweighs that of its predecessor, and early adopters will already have welcomed the band’s shifting direction or moved on. By directly continuing the journey from ‘Charmer’ through ‘Spin’, the band’s latest effort all-but removes the punch that once established them, instead favouring subtle guitar-led melodies and elevating Ben and Brianna’s vocal performances. The outcome is a far gentler listen, with each track largely providing a specific platform for one of the two distinctive singers. Yet although accomplished in its tone, ‘I Won’t Care How You Remember Me’ longs for dynamic crescendos to differentiate the album’s eleven tracks, no matter how pleasant they may be. (Ben Tipple) LISTEN : ‘I Won’t Care How You Remember Me’

MAD SOUNDS Brianna Collins lets us in on some of what the band listened to around the creation of 'I Won't Care How You Remember Me'.

THE STROKES - IS THIS IT

This has been one of my favourite and most consistently played records since high school. It feels timeless and nostalgic simultaneously, and I love that the production is very raw. We channelled that sonically in the song 'New Detroit', especially in the drums.

OASIS (WHAT'S THE STORY) MORNING GLORY?

I’ve always loved Oasis because the music and chord progressions seem relatively simple, but the vocal melodies are really catchy and interesting. That juxtaposition is something that I can relate to in my own writing style.

JAWBREAKER DEAR YOU

We watched the documentary Don’t Break Down: A Film About Jawbreaker at the Airbnb that we were staying at during recording, and that led to this record being put on a bunch. The guitars have some of the craziest sounding production. There’s actually a few references to Jawbreaker and Jets to Brazil that made it into the lyrics of the song 'Heavens Apart'.

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Build A Problem

Collections From The Whiteout

DODIE

BEN HOWARD (Island)

(Doddleoddle)

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.

Charming, tender and admirably vulnerable, 'Build A Problem' is a profoundly freeing reflection on the struggles of youth, growth and identity. Although the debut certainly taps into dodie's darkest, most-inner thoughts, the folk-inspired artist scatters light and hope through stirring strings and candid songwriting, making even the gloomiest of her thoughts both accessible and relatable. Enchanting harmonies and unpredictable arrangements meet solemn lyricism while dodie frames a vivid description of her life thus far, opening up her world to be scrutinised and explored. Single ‘Cool Girl’ is warm and light, plucked with sincerity and fringed with adolescence compared to the likes of ‘?’, ‘Four Tequilas Down’ and ‘.’ which seamlessly flow into each other so quickly they signal a resistance to dwelling and the urge to overshare. Yet it’s these haunting glimmers that ring the loudest as you find yourself questioning your own poor decisions. Woven with cautionary tales, witty one-liners and a painful level of self-awareness, once dodie has finished "building a problem" she can start to build a home.

(Olivia White) LISTEN: 'Four Tequilas Down'

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DEAP VALLY

MIDDLE KIDS

Today, We're The Greatest (Lucky Number) 

GOAT GIRL On All Fours

They've blossomed while keeping the integral sense of the unexpected at their core.

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MISS GRIT Impostor

The powerful, playful guitars set her up as a natural successor to axe queen St Vincent.

Ben Howard’s reputation is one defined by tales of heartbreak, resolve and intense soul-searching. From the weighty folk of 2011 debut ‘Every Kingdom’, to the expansive soundscapes of ‘Noonday Dream’, his ability to make every word spoken sound essential and heavy with resonance has proven captivating. Teaming up with Aaron Dessner of The National, this time he instead opts for themes less personal. Cribbing ideas from news headlines, he tackles topics including dead sailors (‘Crowhurst’s Meme’) and a rogue engineer unlawfully piloting and crashing an aeroplane (‘The Strange Last Flight Of Richard Russell’) to thrilling effect.

Dialling down the traditional and diving deeper into a range of electronics, whether the distortion of ‘Sage That She Was Burning’ or the tactile ‘Metaphysical Cantations’, is a primary deviation here. Opener ‘Follies Fixture’ expresses this newfound path from the onset, its entrancing swirl likely to divide fans while potentially turning a few new heads his way. Make no mistake though, ‘Collections From The Whiteout’ remains in the truest sense a Ben Howard release: melancholy, meticulous and achingly grand. (Ben Lynch) LISTEN: 'Follies Fixture'

To pick through this second album from Australian trio Middle Kids is to figure out the roadmap that led them here. Their 2017 debut, ‘Lost Friends’, won them plenty of plaudits, not least because it imbued well-worn influences with new zest and vigour and singer Hannah Joy had a sharp enough voice - both lyrically and thematically - to imbue the record with an irresistible sense of forward momentum.

Four years on - and via the perfectly serviceable diversion of 2019 EP ‘New Songs for Old Problems’ - and things have changed. The Middle Kids approach to navigating the difficult second album appears to be a two-pronged one. First, the freewheeling pace has been abandoned in favour of a more deliberate approach; the moody, acoustically-driven atmospherics of opener ‘Bad Neighbours’ set the tone in that respect, while the quietly epic panoramas of ‘Summer Hill’ and ‘Run with You’ also suggest that the blueprint for ‘Today We’re the Greatest’ was one that valued a move towards softly epic soundscapes. That approach is one that chimes with Hannah's lyrical move towards more straightforward, less metaphorical territory. The issue is that, in conflating deliberation with maturity, 'Today We’re the Greatest’ ends up feeling a little bit middle-of-the-road. (Joe Goggins) LISTEN: 'Summer Hill'

Digital Dream (Cooking Vinyl)

Ostensibly a way to mix up their writing processes, there’s a sense that the hyper-collaborative ‘Digital Dream’ is primarily about having fun with friends; there’s a lightness to the four songs on offer that suggests if they’d left the studio with nothing, nobody would have been disappointed. The first half of the EP - first, ‘Look Away’ with Warpaint’s jennylee, and the Soko-featuring title track is woozy and lackadaisical; the former appearing to echo the bassist’s day job in sonic palette, the latter a spoken-word slice of almost ‘60s psych, spinning tales of the post-apocalyptic. Similarly, closer ‘Shock Easy’, with Jamie Hince is no surprise, though Lindsey Troy’s vocal does crib a little from Dylan in places.

The sweet spot, however, falls with ‘High Horse’, KT Tunstall chipping in on the kind of riffs the Californian duo have a reputation for. As stop-gap releases go, this is a gem. (Emma Swann) LISTEN: ‘High Horse’

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BLU DETIGER How Did We Get Here?

(ALT:Vision)

'How Did We Get Here?', the debut EP from bassplaying TikTok star and Caroline Polachek live band member Blu DeTiger, is a collection of crisp, bass-led indie pop that shows off the musician's skills without ever becoming indulgent. Lead single 'Vintage' is the clear standout, a breezy number which makes cool, detached observations when deciding on a love interest, flipping the 'armcandy' narrative around: "I need a vintage boy for my outfit," while the instrumental 'disco banger but you're crying in the bathroom' is ultimately a nod to her digital fanbase. There's definitely a reservedness across the release, playing up to the idea that to be earnest is to be uncool, but it is effective in centring Blu as that cool girl without getting too serious. 'How Did We Get Here?' is more than just a vehicle to show off bass riffs, instead it's a promising introduction to where Blu's music could go. (Eloise Bulmer) LISTEN: 'Vintage'

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ARAB STRAP

As Days Get Dark (Rock Action)

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RICO NASTY Nightmare Vacation

It'll chew you up and spit you out, and you’ll love every minute of it.

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“I don’t give a fuck about the past, our glory days gone by,” drawls Aidan Moffat as he opens the first new Arab Strap album in sixteen years by confirming in stirring fashion that every aspect of their musical calling card remains intact. ‘The Turning of Our Bones’ is a remarkable curtain raiser, constructing an ominous atmosphere out of strings, sax, synth and the sardonic, and everything from its brooding feel to its unsettlingly prescient lyrics feel so tailor-made for our times that you wonder about the record’s title: where have Arab Strap been as the days have gotten dark? Of course, the answer is that they’ve been here all along. Aidan Moffat and Malcolm Middleton never really did manage to keep their distance after they initially called time on the band in 2008, and they’ve been officially back in action since 2016, meaning that Arab Strap have again been a going concern in precisely the kind of increasingly-bleak world that their albums always seemed to speak to back in the nineties. ‘As Days Get Dark’ is largely faithful to the same sonic blueprint, even as it tosses mini-jazz freakouts into ‘Kebabylon’ or underscores ‘Fable of the Urban Fox’ with a stirring groove: the familiar blend of post-rock and post-punk remains the bedrock. Most crucial, though, is that Aidan’s scathing wit is more incendiary than ever: the vivid, often lurid portraits he paints of the society around him feel more vital than ever, as does his ability to navigate them with a grim chuckle. (Joe Goggins) LISTEN: 'Kebabylon'

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ADULT MOM Driver (Epitaph) 

BULL

Discover Effortless Living (EMI) Recorded across two years with Pavement sound engineer Remko Schouten in his Amsterdam studio, the debut full-length offering from York quartet Bull is a sugary rush of guitar-driven slacker pop that skips joyfully through a nostalgic, coming-of-age haze of adolescent tribulations: infatuation, loneliness and self-loathing, tempered by the odd curry and cheese toast. Across its thirteen tracks, ‘Discover Effortless Living’ rarely strays from the formula masterfully blueprinted by debut single ‘Green’, written by founding members Tom Beer and Dan Lucas as teenagers nearly a decade ago.

Like much of the record, ‘Green’ is infectiously melodic, doused in halcyon optimism, and indebted in no small part to their jingle-jangle ‘90s alt-rock heroes. If ‘Discover…' occasionally threatens to become monotonous in its unrelentingly cushy positivity however, Bull deliver exhilarating moments of gusty musical intention. The rancorous 'Eddie’s Cap' exhibits Bull’s darker, heavier side - recalling Stephen Malkmus at his snarling best - while ‘Serious Baby’ catapults the listener, via psychedelic meanderings into a sky-shattering, organ-drenched indie rapture. It’s moments like these which mark Bull out as a guitar-wielding force to be reckoned with. (Connor Thirlwell) LISTEN: ‘Green’

Q&A

Vocalist Tom Beer spills on how 2020 changed their plans, and just why they're all about fuzz pedals.

There’s probably never an ideal time to release a debut album, but now is particularly strange...

It is, for sure, odd. I think I imagined we'd be playing non-stop gigs. There have certainly been many positive effects in the lead up to our release, time off gigging, so lots of writing time and 'rock admin' getting done, making artwork.

Gigging can be quite all-encompassing time wise, and certainly has been for the previous eight years or so when we were doing it. The thing is I think we were kind of hoping we might get away with it, in that we'd do all the rock work, then release it just in time to walk onto the Pyramid Stage. But sadly this isn't the case, we couldn't push it back indefinitely, and we think it makes sense for the album to come out in spring and hopefully give people something new to listen to.

Did it affect how you put it together?

We finished recording the album the day before lockdown hit the Netherlands. And we signed our record contract the day after that, and then scurried back to the UK. So we were lucky in that regard. We made the album cover together in Scarborough. I collected lots of colourful trash from the streets and back alleys of Scarborough

Oi, what’s so funny?!

(a great way to explore this new place I live in) and we all assembled a large scale, Neil Buchananesque collage, drone photographed

by Paul Stinson. We put it all together on one hot summer's day and then Kai designed it for print and there we have it.

You’ve been a gigging band for some time already - how far back do some of the songs on the record go?

We sure have! The oldest song on there is 'Green', I wrote that song in 2012. It's a hit. We decided the album could use another hit so it was actually one of the last ones we recorded.

So yeah that's the oldest. The newest is a song called 'Love Goo' which we recorded very soon after its conception.

You’ve successfully channelled that fuzzy ‘90s indie-pop sound; what is it about that era which enamoured you so much?

I think I like the artistic nature of a lot of it. Also rock music can be, or had been, typically macho or performance based; this sort of stuff does away with all that bullshit and focuses on songs, while maintaining those powerful surges guitar/ drums/bass can bring on. No pretence, just beauty and power.

“And the only thing that I’ve done / this month is drink beer and masturbate / and ignore phone calls from you.” That’s a critical line from ‘Sober’, the emotional and literal centrepiece of this third Adult Mom full-length. It's the sort of line that looks deliciously witty written down and yet, when delivered in something close to deadpan by Stevie Knipe, both retains that sense and also feels quietly devastating. In that respect, ‘Sober’ is ‘Driver’ in microcosm; turning the plain into the plaintive, with sparse instrumentation and tastefully-restrained arrangements leaving Stevie’s matter-of-fact vocals to do much of the heavy lifting. The song’s key theme, meanwhile, calls to mind the most obvious frame of reference for ‘Driver’; Waxahatchee’s ‘Saint Cloud’, which it recalls in both composition and in how confidently it wears its emotional fragility. Anybody drawn in by their sharply funny Twitter presence will delight in the fact that the same sense of humour is written into the record’s DNA. ‘Berlin’, in referencing dorm-room screamalongs to Hole’s ‘Violet’, perfectly encapsulates the sense of post-collegiate longing for something you've barely even left behind. Records like this always sound deceptively simple when done properly; if it were as easy as Adult Mom makes it sound to write pop gems this endearing in their honesty, everybody would be doing it.

(Joe Goggins) LISTEN: 'Berlin'

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LYNKS

Smash Hits Vol. 2 (LynksCorp) Lynks launches into their second collection of avant-garde bedroom pop with the overt self-deprecation of ‘Everyone’s Hot (And I’m Not)’, unfolding through the sting of rejection caused by a misjudged encounter in a bar. “Everyone’s fit and I’m shit,” they claim over an unrelenting DIY production that brilliantly pairs frustration with an unfaltering level of sarcastic fun, not least when the track breaks the third wall and immediately propels Lynks’ uninhibited personality to the forefront. But for all its superficial frivolity, it’s also an ode to the fragile vulnerability of the LGBT+ community, offering a satirical middle finger to the tropes of attraction that Lynks so effortlessly dispels in their art. “So I rip my face off, go to the face shop, buy myself a new face, now I like my face lots,” they muse on ‘Brand New Face’, a sequel of sorts to the opening track and one that further cements their biting blend of upbeat self-ridicule and shade. A carefully crafted new-wave rendition of Courtney Barnett’s ‘Pedestrian At Best’ mirrors the EP’s tongue-in-cheek pessimism. “Don’t take it personal, I’m just feeling shit today,” Lynks concludes on a record that simultaneously fully embraces their individuality and exposes their fragility, all wrapped up in a pulsing sound begging for a return to sweaty nightclubs. (Ben Tipple) LISTEN: 'Everyone's Hot (And I'm Not)'

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BLANKETMAN

National Trust (PIAS) 'National Trust' provides a slightly askew view on modern Britain. Frantic, frothing guitars are Blanketman's stock-in-trade, coupled with insistent rhythms and semi-ironic hooks. Case in point is opener ‘Beach Body’, which finds vocalist Adam Hopper’s yelping instructions to “Lift off! Lift off!” over a bed of locomotive rhythm guitar. When the band take the time to make something both emotive and funny, there are glimpses of brilliance. ‘Dogs Die In Hot Cars’ manages to square genuine nostalgia with a hook comprised of an impassioned "Awoo!". Meanwhile, the title track is an ode to English parochialism, somehow making “places of cultural interest” into a workable lyric, one that proves just surreal enough to pull it off. ‘National Trust' shows promise, but seven tracks proves a slightly tall order.

(Louis Griffin) LISTEN: 'Dogs Die In Hot Cars'

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GHETTS

Conflict of Interest (Warner)

BACK TO THE

DRAWING BOARD W I T H T U N E - YA R D S

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TUNE-YARDS

sketchy. (4AD)

Q1: Where did you record the album?

Q3: Who is your neighbour?

Q2: What does silence look like?

Q4: What is 'under your lip'?

On 2018’s ‘I Can Feel You Creep into My Private Life’, Tune-Yards felt subdued, darker and more ruminative than on previous releases. And well they might have. Coming at the end of a decade in which the band felt they had become “complicit in all of the systems that [they] really don't believe in”, something had to change. And change it did. Eschewing computer screens for live instruments and mammoth jam sessions, it wasn’t long before the earliest mutterings of 'sketchy.' began to materialise.

11 tracks of technicolour indie pop, Tune-Yards’ fifth combines the quiet introspection of their previous record with the unifying sense of optimism harboured in their early days. And as always, delivered with the band’s trademark idiosyncrasy. As such, ‘sketchy.’ is a record that unfurls at a rapid pace, and though by its very nature can feel disjointed, especially in the opening half, tracks don’t hang around long enough for this to ever pose a problem. In fact, it’s the record’s halfway point ‘silence pt.

2 (who is "we"?)’ that offers the first real breather. Literally 61 seconds of silence, it allows the introspection previously provided by Merrill Garbus’ lyricism to shift focus. Elsewhere, ‘nowhere, man’ kicks off proceedings in typical style. Frenetic and fizzy, it sets a fine precedent for what’s to follow. ‘hypnotized’ tones things down a little, channelling the band’s soul influences while retaining enough wooziness to still feel suitably strange.

It really is ‘sketchy.’’s second half where the record comes into its own, however. ‘under your lip’ and ‘my neighbor’ offer a duality of light-soul influence that allow Merrill’s vocals to shine; the former backboned by a tight bottom-end and understated brass, the latter built around deep bass grooves and icy backing vocals.

Though unlikely to win over those who weren’t already fans, ‘sketchy.’ is a more mature offering than previous Tune-Yards records though still retains much of the tripped-out whimsy that first made them so infectious. (Dave Beech) LISTEN: 'my neighbor'

Ghetts is recognised as one of the forefathers of grime alongside the likes of Kano, Wiley and D Double E. He reminisced about the genre’s halcyon days on the nostalgia trip of ‘Class Of Deja’, featured on Kano’s ‘Hoodies All Summer’ LP in 2019. A few years previously, he delivered a fierce verse on Stormzy’s ‘Gang Signs & Prayer’. Despite these appearances, it still feels like Ghetts never had the ‘moment’ his peers have enjoyed... until now. It’s on his triumphant third LP, and major-label debut, ‘Conflict Of Interest’ where the stars align. Opener ‘Fine Wine’ is his statement of intent. He highlights the fears and doubts that have tailed his dwindling successes in grime’s dormant period (“I'm upstairs writing bars and my daughter's colouring / Embarrassed / Had a bill to pay and my girl had to cover it”) before smashing it down with unflinching confidence in his craft (“Just crown me please / Furthermore, I love converting the non-believers / So, yeah, go ahead and doubt me, please”). The instrumentals are beautifully constructed, a fresh clash of the orchestral and the digital crunch of trap-style beats simmer together at the hands of producer Ten Billion Dreams.

Strings cascade in downward strides on ‘Mozambique’ and flourish on the ballad ‘10,000 Tears’. Piano and chirruping sax intertwine beautifully on ‘Sonya’ as chugging strings cut pleasingly through Emeli Sandé’s guest spot.

‘Conflict Of Interest’ weaves a rich thematic tapestry. Highlight ‘Fire and Brimstone’ chronicles a flashback offset by “blue lights in the rear view” set to a slinky synth sequence which feels as if it's sneaking around under cover of darkness. On the flipside, ‘Proud Family’ is a straight up ode to his loved ones. “Our family, proud family from our granny to my children / Mum, you raised a real one,” he raps. It’s Ghetts’ ability to paint rich scenes and his breadth of unabashed honesty that animates his return into a fully-fledged triumph. Although meticulously crafted under Ghetts’ famed perfectionist nature, it’s pure; neither shunning the light or the dark across the 16 tracks. He lets it all show. (Sean Kerwick) LISTEN: 'Fire and Brimstone'

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Coming Up ROYAL BLOOD TYPHOONS Expect big, bold bass riffs, pounding drums and (eventually) a series of massive festival slots. Out 30th April.

ICEAGE - SEEK SHELTER The moody Danes return sounding... about as moody as you're picturing in your musical mind.

Released 7th May.

DINOSAUR JR SWEEP IT INTO SPACE Fans of fuzz rejoice!

The veterans release album 12 (!) on 23rd April.

ST VINCENT DADDY'S HOME Annie Clark promises "warm Wurlitzers and wit, glistening guitars and grit, with sleaze and style for days". Out 14th May.

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CHAD VANGAALEN

World's Most Stressed Out Gardener (Sub Pop) How stressful can gardening ever really be? You could apply the same line of thought to Chad VanGaalen himself; as somebody who has only ever marched to the beat of his own softly psychedelic drum, his records are not ones that have ever suggested that the enigmatic Canadian is operating under any kind of weight of expectation, instead offering tantalising glimpses into his adaptable, genre-fluid musical outlook. This eighth full-length is no different in that regard; ‘World’s Most Stressed Out Gardener’ is a typically eclectic collection, running the gamut from short, sharp nuggets of twinkly psych-pop like ‘Nothing Is Strange’ and ‘Samurai Sword’ to the brooding atmospherics of the sprawling ‘Inner Fire’ as well as quietly epic synth odysseys (‘Earth from a Distance’ is a case in point: instrumentally, it plays like a spiritual cousin to Alvvays’ ‘Red Planet’ - a track Chad produced). Underlining everything is a sense that he’s playing to his musical strengths, both in terms of the way he incorporates so many aspects of his sonic calling card; droll lyricism, field recordings, off-kilter melodies, and a general sense that he’s having the analog and the electronic meet at deliberately awkward junctures - making it all the more impressive when, counterintuitively, the kind of clashes that define ‘Nightmare Scenario’ or ‘Starlight’ actually work strikingly well. Long-time followers of Chad's will find his cartoonish appetite for invention intact. (Joe Goggins) LISTEN: ‘Nothing Is Strange’

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Hoppa Pt. 2 (Hoppa)

Liminal

EMIR TAHA

'Hoppa Pt. 2' continues where its counterpart, released back in June 2020, left off, establishing emir taha's signature mix of Turkish folk, alt-pop and R&B. His vocal shifts seamlessly between styles, navigating delicate melodies while switching between English and Turkish. Pared-back and carefully controlled, layered instrumentation elevates each track and create a sense of drama. 'Bad Reception' starts off with folk-tinged picking before a trap beat takes over, while highlight 'Autopilot' hooks listeners in with its accelerating grooves. Sure, 'Katikulli' might sound like one of many alt-pop R&B numbers, but when embracing the back-andforth between styles and the juxtaposition of melodies and vocals, 'Hoppa Pt. 2' marks emir taha out as one to keep an eye on. (Aliya Chaudhry) LISTEN: 'Autopilot'

ĠENN

(Everything Sucks)

'Liminal' is the fittingly titled stopgap between Ġenn’s debut LP 'Titty Monster' and a second full-length. Six tracks across a little over 20 minutes means 'Liminal' is a record that gallops rather than canters - not so much bridging the gap between psych and post-punk, as occupying the murky waters beneath said bridge. Opener ‘Feel’ is built around a chunky bass and sporadic lead guitar licks, ‘Mackerel’s Funky Mission’ features an Ian Dury-esque delivery, while ‘Catalyst’ takes things in a darker, more sinister direction.

As much a call to arms as it is the record’s centrepiece, a frenetic bass rumbles beneath claustrophobic guitars and steadfast percussion, all the while the gang-chant calls for revolution never seem far away. 'Liminal' confirms Ġenn to be multi-faceted while still managing to have a whole lot of fun. (Dave Beech) LISTEN: 'Catalyst'

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L'IMPÉRATRICE

Tako Tsubo (microqlima) Parisian intergalactic pop voyagers L’Impératrice communicate a retrofuturism that’s rooted firmly in the present.

Extending to both sound and style, the band’s reinterpretation of ’70s space disco can be distilled within Flore Benguigui’s bloodied knife-wielding ensemble of pastelcoloured slacks and platform heeled boots during ‘Peur des Filles’. A murderous parody against misogyny, those who dig up such blatant artifacts of revivalism often come wrapped in a certain irony or kitsch, but Flore's cooler-than-ice delivery does so with absolute assurance, calmly reiterating that such attitudes should be routinely dismissed. Woven between the space-age chic and disco ball heartache, mentions of quarantine and broken social politics break up the party on the funk-laden ‘Submarine’. Further clues that things might not be apropos continue to claw themselves into ‘Voodoo’ where, transmitted beneath the juxtaposing synths and guitar lines, urges to ditch friends in favour of reading Torture Magazine speak for itself. L’Impératrice might be a band stuck between eras, but it’s their unnerving awareness and disguised social commentary that keeps ‘Tako Tsubo’ very much within the moment. (Ollie Rankine) LISTEN: 'Submarine'

THE BRAND NEW ALBUM Recorded in Berlin, Athens & Paris – a nomadic & truly European record Produced by Jaakko Eino Kalevi & mixed by Renaud Letang (Feist, Gonzales, Connan Mockasin)

OUT NOW

In print. Every month.

diymag.com/subscribe 65

? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?

D N U O R R U O Y IT’S quiz of sorts, A big inter-band pub

faves one by one. we’ll be grilling your

LYNKS

NO BROUW GHT TO YO U VIA ZOOM !

Where: Parents' house Drink: Negroni Price: Free, by making his ow “instant classy” bottle. n

Specialist Subject: Cocktails

Q1: What are the two ingredients found in a screwdriver?

Vodka and orange juice.

Easy.

Q2: Pina Colada is the national drink of which country?

Oh gosh! You’ve taken it to a whole different direction, I was expecting to get my millilitres out not revise geography! Brazil?

It’s Puerto Rico!

Is that a country? This is from Drag Race but they let people from Puerto Rico in so I thought it was an American territory or something…

Oops, that’s our mistake.

Point for you and your superior geo-political

knowledge, Lynks.

Q3: Which ingredient is added to a plain martini to make it into a dirty martini?

Olive brine.

Correct!

Q4: If we mixed Bourbon, lemon juice, sugar, and maybe an egg white all together, what would we get?

That would be a whiskey sour!

Q5: What is the name of Carrie Bradshaw’s favourite cocktail in Sex and The City?

Cosmo, right?

Of course!

5/5

General Knowledge

Q6: What is the longest river in the world?

What’s the river in the Amazon called? Or is it not even that? I’m really not good at being wrong… The Nile is very long. That’s a fact. Let’s say the Nile.

You’re right.

Wow, that was a total guess.

going to be very irritated.

Oh god... Alexandra Burke?

It is in fact Matt Cardle.

Oh my god, ‘When We Collide’!!

Q7: In tennis, what piece of fruit is found at the top of the men’s Wimbledon trophy?

They have orange slices, so orange? No, strawberry!

It’s actually a pineapple.

What the fuck! Why?!

Q10: Taylor Swift grew up on what type of farm?

Oh, come on… Pony?

Reindeer?

Kind of on those holiday lines...

Christmas tree? Christmas tree!

Yes! You can have a half point for that.

Q8: One Direction are known for being the runners-up on X-Factor in 2010. Who won?

Oh no. If I don’t get this I’m

FINAL SCORE:

Q9: Which bird can fly backwards?

Oh, hummingbird.

Correct.

YEEEEEESSSSSS!!

7.5/10

2.5/5

Verdict: "Fuck pineapples. Love Taylor Swift. Let’s have some cocktails."

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