DIY, June 2019

FREE. JUNE 2019. ISSUE 86 DIYMAG.COM SET MUSIC FREE

Interview with a Vampire Ezra Koenig on the rebirth and reinvention of Vampire Weekend.

FRIDAY AUGUST 23RD

SATURDAY AUGUST 24TH

SUNDAY AUGUST 25TH

AND MANY MORE!

2 DIYMAG.COM

JUNE2019 Question!

Glastonbury 2019 is finally among us! What’s at the top of Team DIY’s must-see list this year?

SARAH JAMIESON • Managing Editor Considering I’m going to be a bridesmaid about 260 miles away, my must-see list will most likely consist of a large bottle of prosecco. Otherwise, I would probably have a lovely time watching The Killers - there’s a surprise!

EMMA SWANN • Founding Editor KYLIE. Given that I weeped briefly on seeing the tracklisting to her latest greatest hits collection, it’s fair to assume I’ll be a mess come the security guards’ inevitable Locomotion.

LISA WRIGHT • Features Editor Have approx three weeks to tone up my posterior in aid of Kylie’n’Miley’s back-to-back sets on the Pyramid and, honestly, that is a challenge I am fully ready to accept.

LOUISE MASON • Art Director Bananarama and Twonky Order.

Editor’s Letter Dear readers, I’d like to let you into a little secret. For as long as we can remember here at DIY HQ, we’ve wanted to put Vampire Weekend on the cover. After all, we officially declared Ezra Koenig the Ultimate Indie Dreamboat™ back in 2015. So, when new album ‘Father of the Bride’ was finally confirmed earlier this year, we knew precisely what we had to do - and that’s exactly why you’ll find him gracing the front of this magazine, in all his Dreamboat-y glory.

Elsewhere this issue, we catch up with our mate - and Actual Oscar Winner Mark Ronson, follow Bastille into the night and go snooping around museums with Mattiel. We meet the most ferocious bands at this year’s Great Escape, get objective with Pixx and discover what’s what with Serge Pizzorno’s new project, The S.L.P. Plus, it’s time to get all mistyeyed over Glastonbury because it’s back this month! Oh, how we’ve missed you, Worthy Farm!

Sarah Jamieson, Managing Editor

Listening Post What’s been blasting from speakers in the DIY office this month?

MARIKA HACKMAN - ‘ANY HUMAN FRIEND’ She’s back, she’s bold and she’s getting us a bit hot under the collar. Yep, this is Marika 3.0 and this time around she’s got raunch and riffs to spare.

BLEACHED - ‘DON’T YOU THINK YOU’VE HAD ENOUGH?’ Named after a moment of clarity that led singer Jennifer Clavin to sobriety, Bleached’s forthcoming third might be booze-less, but it’s still a party.

THE FUTUREHEADS ‘THE FUTUREHEADS’ With The ‘Heads back in the game and on the road, we’ve been reliving their halcyon debut in all its broadlyaccented Mackem glory. Altogether now: “Oh! Oh oh”...

3

Founding Editor Emma Swann Managing Editor Sarah Jamieson Features Editor Lisa Wright Art Direction & Design Louise Mason

Cover photo: Ed Miles.

For DIY editorial: info@diymag.com For DIY sales: advertise@diymag.com For DIY stockist enquiries: stockists@diymag.com

m

CONTENTS

Contributors Ben Lynch, Ben Tipple, Cady Siregar, Chris Taylor, El Hunt, Elizabeth Aubrey, Elly Watson, James Bentley, Jenessa Williams, Joe Goggins, Lisa Henderson, Louisa Dixon, Rhian Daly, Tom Connick, Tom Sloman.

Photographers Alex Williams, Ed Miles, James Kelly, Nicole Fara Silver.

DIY HQ, Unit K309, The Biscuit Factory, 100 Drummond Road, London SE16 4DG

NEWS

6 SERGE PIZZORNO 11 SWIM DEEP 12 SLØTFACE 16 HALL OF FAME 20 GLASTONBURY NEU

26 PENELOPE ISLES 28 CRUMB 33 JUST MUSTARD FEATURES

34 VAMPIRE WEEKEND 42 PIXX 44 BASTILLE 48 YEASAYER 50 MATTIEL 54 SURFBORT & VIAGRA BOYS 58 MARK RONSON REVIEWS

62 ALBUMS 74 LIVE 4 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.

Photo: Emma Swann

Shout out to: AIR studios for letting us loiter around for ages, New York’s Morris-Jumel Mansion for their unwittingly liberal attitude to trespassing, Outside Org PR for all the All Points East help, Horatio’s for another sterling year at The Great Escape, the quiz machine at The Victory in Brighton, Two Door Cinema Club for all the clocks, and Nobu Hotel’s room service helper for finding us a bonsai tree. It was deeply, deeply important, trust us.

NOTHING GREAT ABOUT BRITAIN

DEBUT ALBUM OUT NOW WWW.SLOWTHAI.COM 5

Fantastic “It’s really important for me to just put out positivity.”

NE WS

6 DIYMAG.COM

get yourself artistically stuck then everything feels a bit stuck and I didn’t want to [become like that], so it was the perfect slot.”

SURPRISE!

KASABIAN’S SERGE PIZZORNO HAS UNVEILED NEW SOLO PROJECT THE S.L.P: A PLACE WHERE HE CAN TEST OUT HIS WEIRDEST AND WILDEST IDEAS. LESS SURPRISINGLY, THERE’S QUITE A LOT OF THEM. WORDS: LISA WRIGHT.

T

he announcement of a new solo project from a member of a beloved band is always a bit of a double-edged sword. On one hand, you have the prospect of an exciting new batch of music; on the other, the implicit undercurrent that all is not well within their day job. For Kasabian’s chief songwriter and shaggy-haired vibemaster Serge Pizzorno, however, the urge to make something under his own moniker was born from far less complicated, untroubled times: his band had decided to give themselves a 12-month break after 15 years in the game. Serge, ever the creative tinkerer, didn’t much like the sound of a big holiday.

“We decided after the last few gigs that we were gonna have that time off and not do any shows, and I wasn’t gonna start making the [next] album until later on in the year. It was definitely the right thing for us to do, and it’s only a year - most bands usually take quite a while to knock out albums and go on tour so it didn’t seem like that much of a luxury - but I thought, I don’t know if I’m gonna just be able to not do anything...” he begins, chatting down the phone from his sunny Leicester garden, where he’s just woken up from a mid-afternoon outdoor snooze. “So then I thought, there’s a nice bit of time and I can just experiment and make a record and then I’ll be in a better place coming back to Kasabian with a completely new head on. If you

To completely allay any fears of the band’s future, he confirms that work on Kasabian’s eighth has already begun and that it’s “started from a whole different place than [he] thought”. Bedding down at his home studio The Sergery (natch), and allowing all the playful eccentricities of his personality to have their time in the sun has clearly had the rejuvenating effect he’d hoped and you can see why: from the excitable way the musician enthuses about the anything-goes approach he took to writing the album, to the glitter-smeared image that first emerged alongside first single ‘Favourite’, The S.L.P. (his initials, middle name Lorenzo) is all about freedom, fun and letting your most creative side out to play.

F

ormed around three orchestral tracks titled ‘Meanwhile...’ that open, close and centre the album, the rest of the forthcoming self-titled LP sees Serge painting a “self portrait” of his tastes and whims, without the pressure of public expectation and the massive Kasabian machine. “It’s things I’ve always wanted to try. When you get to a certain level, there are singles and things that you inevitably have to worry about to make a record, but I didn’t have to do any of that,” he explains. “[Kasabian have] managed to navigate our own path and, in our odd little way, become a huge thing, but still no-one really knows what we’re gonna do next which I’m really proud of. But in terms of the size of something like that, it is what it is and it’s beautiful, but I had this opportunity...”

He pauses. “It was important for me to have another place I can go, and now it exists and that’s really exciting. I’ve made something where I can just be like, I fancy going over there for a bit and living in that world, and that’s a place where I can express other ideas and be something completely different. And that’s so nice as an artist because I am in the band that I love, but there are other bits [of me] that are quite interesting too.”

If Serge’s songwriting for Kasabian has always been that bit weirder, that bit more prone to surprise and/ or ridiculousness than most bands of their stature, then here is the place where all those flourishes begin to make sense. “Stylistically, there’s the Italian orchestration and film score thing, and this sort of French disco thing, and an Afrobeat thing, and this Nigerian ‘70s thing, which are all music styles that I’ve loved,” he begins of ‘The S.L.P’’s tastes; across the conversation, he also cites Mac Miller, the wildcard “maverick” persona of Tyler, The Creator and David Byrne’s recent, game-changing live show as key influences. It’s the kind of wide-ranging, uncensored approach that’s always sat beneath Kasabian’s big, festival-baiting bangers; now, however, it’s been allowed to come further to the fore.

Playroom 7

Indeed the whole ethos of The S.L.P. is one, he states, of openness and good vibes. Musically, Serge describes the album as “sophisticated psychedelia”. “[The tracks] will still throw you out of joint and they’re still odd, but there’s a certain blissed-out feel to them. They’re less aggressive, I suppose,” he nods. Lyrically, meanwhile, he’s preaching that same path. “It’s really important for me to just put out positivity,” he nods. “It’s so easy not to, and it’s a shame there’s this horrible default button of hate that everyone seems to have, especially on social media: it’s a fucking mean place.

There’s definitely a different way, and I just want to put out good vibes, I really do.”

“I am in the band that I love, but there are other bits [of me]] that are quite interesting too.”

Aforementioned lead single ‘Favourite’ encapsulates many of these ideas. A playful, twitchy musing on the perils of concocting an online persona, it has the twinkle-eyed spirit of classic Serge, but with some notable new additions - particularly in the form of a guest spot from London rapper Little Simz. “I showed her the track and sent a lovely email, and that might have made her think OK, [this] might be something good...” he grins of their collaboration. Surprisereleased last month alongside that glitter-adorned portrait, it immediately set-up the project as something completely separate from what he’d done before.

“It’s playful and silly, but it’s still quite a powerful image,” he says of the shot. “There’s something in distilling that playfulness but it also looking like an art gallery, where there’s a side that’s also quite slick.”

Though Serge is remaining cagey about when The S.L.P. will get the live treatment, there’s a similar level of thought and attention going in to every element, “from the full stops on the logo to the shoelaces I wear,” he asserts. “It’s so important to me that I’m in this great band with my best mates, and I can’t be in a better band in my opinion. But this will never be that, so live it’ll look nothing like it does when I’m with the band. If you were taking a photograph from the front of the stage, and you put them side by side, you couldn’t get the two mixed up. I can’t compete with [Kasabian] and that’s what’s really exciting and empowering, because you kind of have to reinvent it all.”

With his best pals on board (“Tom text me today saying he can’t get the single out of his head. I’m so lucky because I know how these things can pan out, but the boys have been so supportive,” he gushes), Serge has wound up with a second project that both feeds back into his main outlet and delights on its own merit. No wonder the permapositive songwriter is sounding even more chipper than usual. “[Making this album] has jogged my memory about the artistic nature of making something from nothing,” he enthuses. “And that it can be whatever it wants, and that’s beautiful.” DIY 8 DIYMAG.COM

NE WS

Get DIY delivered to your door every month

diymag.com/subscribe 9

NE WS

have you heard?

Whitney

GIVING UP

When Chicago swooners Whitney first dropped early single ‘No Woman’ - the lead track from superlative debut ‘Light Upon The Lake’ - back in 2016, it landed with an impressive impact that belied its subtle tendencies. A soft, sprawling track filled with hushed falsettos and gentle, minimal backing, it won the band an immediate legion of fans and set them up as a classy, clever proposition. Now, the band are back with the first taste of LP2, and though ‘Giving Up’ isn’t quite as much of a breath-taker as its predecessor, it still rings with the familiar warm, emotive swells that first endeared so many. It’s in the soft, old soul swing that cradles the verse; in the moments of harmonic flourish that elevate it to the chorus; in the tender, sad brass that brings things to the final third. Whitney do a certain ‘thing’ to your heartstrings that few can top, and on ‘Giving Up’, they’ve not surrendered that power just yet. (Lisa Wright)

Sleater-Kinney

Jarv Is

Biffy Clyro

Sløtface

The internet audibly screamed when SleaterKinney shared a photo of themselves in the studio, St Vincent’s Annie Clark behind the production desk. ‘Hurry On Home’ is the first taste of what’s to come from the full album, and their pseudonymic pal’s filthy paws are all over it; from the opening industrial drums, via all manner of juicy squelches underpinning the track, to the way Carrie Brownstein aggressively lingers over the ‘k’ of “unfuckable”.

Add to that the trio’s familiar angularity, and it’s, well, a bloody smash. (Emma Swann)

Over the past six months, Jarvis Cocker has been slowly rolling out new project JARV IS... A smattering of performances have teased a more dystopian viewpoint from the connoisseur of kitchen sink melodrama, and now we get first track, ‘Must I Evolve?’. A nearly-seven-minute epic full of The Big Questions, it tracks humanity’s ascent from “pond slime” to the peak of our powers and now, a little bit back down again, “dragging our knuckles, listening to Frankie Knuckles”. Dark yet danceable, it’s a masterful return. (Lisa Wright)

If the words ‘Biffy Clyro’ and ‘film soundtrack’ struck fear into your heart when they first emerged, it turns out, there wasn’t much to worry about.

On the title track, the trio sound as though they’ve just taken an adrenaline shot from 2004: packed more tightly with the angular percussion and howls of their first three albums, ‘Balance, Not Symmetry’ still boasts the epic Biffy choruses we’ve come to know and love, but with its guitar squalls and quickened pace, it certainly turns any expectations on its head. (Sarah Jamieson)

Since their emergence back in 2016, Sløtface have been experts at whipping up a palpable sense of vivacious energy and that’s exactly what they do with return ‘Telepathetic’.

Sounding very much like a springboard between their debut ‘Try Not To Freak Out’ and a forthcoming second album, it’s a vibrant track that sparkles with sugar-sweet vocals and pop punk guitars. An infectious listen which is guaranteed to explode into life within their chaotic live sets, it’s an exciting hint at what’s to come from the Norwegian bunch. (Sarah Jamieson)

HURRY ON HOME .....................................

10 DIYMAG.COM

MUST I EVOLVE? ..........................................

BALANCE, NOT SYMMETRY .....................................

TELEPATHETIC .....................................

What’s going on with...

SPONSORED

SWIM DEEP

Four years after the release of second album ‘Mothers’, the road to Swim Deep mk III has been nothing if not a long and winding one. But they’re back, with new members, a new album - and a new perspective.

Hello, Swim Deep! You’ve finally announced new album ‘Emerald Classics’! When, where and how did it come together?

Austin ‘Ozzy’ [Williams, vocals]: The years after ‘Mothers’ was released were a huge part of how it all came to this. We had a couple of heartbreaks in the band but that was really what gave us the energy to make things work again. ...And tell us about new track ‘To Feel Good’.

Ozzy: I was listening to a Desert Island Discs podcast. They mentioned this choir singing a cover of Rozalla - ‘Everybody’s Free’ for ‘Romeo and Juliet’. I found a choir singing the song on YouTube and fell in love. I sampled it and put a big beat over it, then told a very mundane story over it.

I took it to the studio with the boys, and [producer] Dave [McCracken] made it sound like a rocket.

Also, for those at the back not paying attention - you’ve got two new members!

Cav [McCarthy, bass]: I first met Robbie [Wood, guitar] on the catwalk in Paris.

James [Balmont, keys]: The first time we met Tom [Tomaski, drums] was when he was playing in some band at Dot to Dot four years ago and we couldn’t take our eyes off him the whole set. He later played bass for Childhood, who we’ve always been a big fan of. In true Swim Deep style, Swim Deep, mountain high.

we’ve decided to put him on drums.

Obviously it took quite a while - what did you learn over the break?

James: We wrote a lot of stuff that just wasn’t saying anything, so we scrapped a lot of songs. We could have just made a record just for the sake of it, but what’s the point in doing that and selling ourselves short? Luckily for us we got there.

Ozzy: We lost two members because they didn’t have that faith in it anymore, and on their part it was the most honest thing they could do at that point, which is why it wasn’t a horrible break up. It was tough, but it also needed to happen. …and what does that mean Swim Deep is in 2019?

Ozzy: Like an unscratched scratch card.

Cav: Skint, but optimistic.

You also announced a hometown residency. What made you decide to head back for this?

Ozzy: Although now the band doesn’t all hail from Brum, that’s where it all started, and that energy still lives on in everything we do. Birmingham’s in the songs on the album. The album’s named after a pub in Small Heath. It’s probably our Brummiest album yet to be honest.

‘Emerald Classics’ is out 4th October via Pop Committee. DIY

DIY’S PICK OF LNSOURCE

In desperate need of a live music fix but can’t decide where or who?

If you feel too spoilt for choice, here’s just a few of LNSource’s upcoming shows worth getting off the sofa for.

Middle Kids Heaven, London, 25th

June The Aussie trio return to the capital with new minialbum ‘New Songs For Old Problems’ in tow, the record released just one day before this headline show. .

miro shot Oslo, London, 25th June

Headsets at the ready: this collaboration between musicians and filmmakers incorporates both virtual and augmented reality to their live shows. They visit Oslo off the back of single ‘Boston Dynamic’ - the video for which features footage from NASA. Obv.

Mt. Joy Bush Hall, London,

25th June The LA-via-Philadelphia gang released their selftitled album last summer, hot on the heels of a fair few streaming stats they’re in London towards the end of the month.

11

TRY NOT TO

FREAK OUT...

As Sløtface return with a brand new track and news of a UK show, we dropped them a line for a bit of a catch up.

S

løtface are back, and they’ve offered up a killer new tune to boot! Having spent the best part of the last year working on a new album - the follow-up to their 2017 debut ‘Try Not To Freak Out’ - the Norwegian quartet have now broken cover and released another sugar-coated ear worm in the form of ‘Telepathetic’.

not necessarily the best marker for where their new material’s headed. “This song is probably the most ‘in between’ of the songs on the new record,” vocalist Haley Shea confirms. “It’s kind of right in the middle of our first album and our second as far as mood and maturity goes.”

“We felt we lacked a Billy Idol kind-of track, like ‘Dancing With Myself’,” Tor-Arne Vikingstad explains of how the track came about. “So at 11pm, after a long day in the studio Lasse [Lokøy] came up with the intro-riff while Odd Martin [Skålnes, the producer they’ve been working with] was playing the chords on an acoustic guitar. We were all so tired, but we went straight to recording it. It definitely wouldn’t have turned out the way that it did if we were well rested, and I don’t remember much from it. I don’t believe Nils [Jørgen Nilsen] remembers playing the drums at all!”

A new single isn’t all the band have up their sleeves: they’re also going to be returning to the UK later this month for a DIY Presents show at London’s Electrowerkz. “We’re sooo stoked to be playing shows again!” the frontwoman continues. “We’re really looking forward to show people the new material and introduce them to Nils, our sick new drummer. People should expect a lot of the excitement and genuine joy we bring to our shows - that hasn’t changed but we’ll also be showcasing a more serious and heartfelt side of ourselves that we’re a bit nervous about showing people. I’ve never performed a love song that’s as sincere as the one on the new record for instance, and that seems so much scarier than screaming my head off at people.”

It’s unsurprising, then, considering its beginnings, that ‘Telepathetic’ boasts an infectious, restless energy. But it’s

‘Telepathetic’ is out now. Sløtface play Electrowerkz in London on 25th June. DIY

12 DIYMAG.COM

YOUR

MUSIC CAREER STARTS HERE

MUSIC PERFORMANCE • MUSIC PRODUCTION SONGWRITING • MUSIC JOURNALISM MUSIC BUSINESS • EVENT MANAGEMENT • EXPERT TUTORS • STATE-OF-THE-ART FACILITIES • UNRIVALLED CONNECTIONS TO THE MUSIC INDUSTRY EUROPE’S MOST CONNECTED MUSIC COLLEGE

BIMM.CO.UK 13

SHOW ME THE PUPPY We love dogs. You love dogs. Here are some popstars’ dogs.

This month: Stewart Baxter of LIFE and his pal Ted.

On

Name: Ted (aka Teddy Ted Ted) Age: 6½ Breed: Scottish Terrier Favourite things: Beatnik jazz and wanky coffee shops. He’s a local celebrity yet hates the attention.

Tell us a bit about him: In a recent Instagram poll which asked ‘Does my dog look like Will Ferrell?’, 91% of the people voted yes. Oh, and I also have his face tattooed on my arm. He made me do it then refused to reciprocate.

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 LEDGE Looks like Biffy’s new album is progressing, er, well? (@biffy_clyro)

THE MILKSHAKE Ahhh, the humble milkshake. Such a simple - yet at the same time - complex beverage. So remarkable that Kelis dedicated an entire chart-topping hit to it. Is it a drink? Is it a dessert? No-one really knows. Regardless, we’ve always been a fan. However, what we’ve only just come to realise is its power in fighting for good against evil. Yeah, OK, this is nothing to do with music - more, just the good of the nation - but anything that means Nigel Farage gets marooned on his own bloody bus is worth paying homage to. All hail the milkshake - especially the one that was thrown by that legend of a bloke in Newcastle last month. Nailed it, mate.

Self Esteem: forever a style icon. (selfesteemselfesteem)

Gotta love a bit of free advertising… (@whenyoungband)

S P OT T E D Believe it or not, pop and rock stars sometimes do normal things, too.

They get lost, go food shopping, catch buses – all sorts. Here’s who we clocked this month...

Sports Team’s Alex Rice blagging free vapes in the guest area at All Points East, where Frank Carter also caught Amyl and the Sniffers, and Wolf Alice’s Ellie Rowsell was watching Parquet Courts. Metronomy’s Joe Mount having a wander down Brick Lane, and two members of Gently Tender on two different escalators coming out of two separate tube stations.

14 DIYMAG.COM

15

NE WS of

Mystery Jets – Twenty One On debut ‘Making Dens’, Mystery Jets began life as a ragtag bunch of oddball urchins.

Just two years later, however, and they’d return pastel-coloured, pop-soaked and with a bright and brilliant pair of bona fide crossover hits in tow. Words: Lisa Wright.

Thankfully, the success of ‘Twenty One’ meant the ‘Jets could afford to invest in a brush.

W

hen Mystery Jets first landed from the Mighty Boosh-sounding Eel Pie Island (actually an area located near Twickenham), it was as though a treasure trove junk shop had come to life. 2006 debut ‘Making Dens’ came loaded with strange percussion, cacophonous chants of “Zootime!” and a sleeve adorned with gramophones and old shop dolls; the band’s members, helmed by singer Blaine Harrison and his indie Edward Scissorhands back-combed do, all dressed like Dickensian urchins; they even counted Blaine’s dad Henry among their musical number, just to set them that bit further apart. One of the short-lived Thamesbeat scene’s main exponents (see also: the excellent Larrikin Love, early Jamie T), they were a wonderfully odd bunch - beloved by the indie press, and seemingly destined to stay there.

Until, that is, they re-emerged two years later with Laura Marling in tow, and the doomed, fluttering romance of lead single ‘Young Love’. At least 30 times more radio-friendly than before, yet with an offbeat familiarity at its heart, the track heralded an album that would completely refresh the band in terms of polish and potential, while still retaining all the melodic quirks that first endeared them. On ‘Twenty One’, it was as if they’d reshuffled their

16 DIYMAG.COM

The Facts

Released: 24th March 2008 Stand-out tracks: ‘Two Doors Down’, ‘Behind The Bunhouse’, ‘Flakes’ Tell your mates: An early B-side version of ‘Flakes’ saw Florence Welch guest vocal on the track - her second ever release, after debut single ‘Kiss With A Fist’.

own deck, still painting with the same colours but using them with bold and brilliant new strokes.

In opener ‘Hideaway’, with its grinding synthline, and the strange, sing-song ditty of ‘Umbrellahead’, there were still obvious bridges to be found from their debut, but they were packaged more concisely, more directly; on twinkling, lightersaloft ballad ‘Flakes’, meanwhile, they’d taken the innate sense of romance and heart-tugging melody at their core and exploded it out. It was through the big crossover hit of ‘Two Doors Down’, however, that the album really reached its peak.

‘80s-indebted, infinitely catchy and replete with the kind of pastel colours and shoulder-padded suits that Duran Duran would be proud of, it set up the band for the shimmering next moves of ‘Seratonin’ and a leap fully into the indie top league.

Yet, throughout all these moves and the albums that would follow, beneath the soaring pop hooks and increasing ambition, Mystery Jets still managed to maintain a sense of the intriguing outsiders they’d always been - always reinventing and twisting their formula, with a twinkle in their eye and a banger up their sleeve. DIY

Reasons To Dream The debut album Out 24th May

17

18 DIYMAG.COM

19

festivals

Glastonbury Special It’s been 24 long months since we last set foot on Worthy Farm for the biggest knees up in the musical calendar, but now it’s finally time to run into Glastonbury’s loving, muddy arms and make a pilgrimage to the Pyramid. We spoke to some of the festival’s stars - some returning, some making their maiden voyage - to see what they’ve got planned.

RONNIE VANNUCCI, The Killers

20 DIYMAG.COM

This is your second time headlining – what can you remember from 2007?

I remember everything was going wrong at the last minute! There were amps blowing up and technical difficulties at every turn. I think we experienced this collective feeling of force that couldn’t be stopped by these technical blunders.

Everyone’s parents and some extended family and friends were there; most of all we couldn’t let them down. So we went out there and did it! Then the subwoofers on the PA took a shit.

understanding of this great festival that it’s a one and done type of thing.

But like moths to a flame, when it was offered to us we couldn’t resist the feeling again.

Back then, Brandon was quoted as saying that headlining was a once in a lifetime experience. What made you accept the invitation again?

Well, I suppose that was our

Are you gonna stick around for the weekend?

I believe we are in and out. Like consciousness or a dream.

Does Glastonbury mean as much to you, coming from America?

I suppose it is one of the best festivals or even happenings in the world. This festival seems to be doing good things for humans and that message gets around, ya know?

Nice to see you Brandon, to see you nice.

21

HEATHER BARON-GRACIE, Pale Waves

ALEX TRIMBLE, Two Door Cinema Club

“We’ve got a really great slot this year, I’m very excited. I’m always so gutted when we have to go somewhere after Glastonbury; the last time we played was after we released ‘Gameshow’ and we got booked in Germany on the Saturday. It was Brexit, we played the show, got on the bus, arrived in Germany and the weather was so bad it was cancelled. I was just sat in a business hotel somewhere off the Autobahn feeling miserable. I’m not a bitter man, but when it comes to Glastonbury, I hold a grudge.”

Hi Heather! This is your first Glasto – what are you expecting from The World’s Best Festival™?

I have high expectations! I remember a few months ago my Dad and I stayed up super late just watching Glastonbury performances and the atmosphere looked incredible, so I’m so excited to see what all the hype is about.

Pale Waves are also rather high up the bill for first timers (second from top on the John Peel, FYI). Are you planning anything suitably special?

I know, it’s pretty insane! We all feel so grateful and it’s kinda mindblowing we’ve managed to get such an amazing slot. We’re planning on putting on the best show we possibly can and I’m sure that I’m going to pull out a wild outfit, maybe even a wig! We have to do something to shock people.

Can we expect any new music during your set?

We’ve been working on new music for months now and I really hope we can play some, mainly because I just want that excitement of playing something new again and I’m so eager for the fans to hear it.

The new material is pretty diverse, we took inspiration from pop punk with some of the tracks, but then there are typical Pale Waves pop bangers in there too of course.

DAN SMITH, Bastille

“I’m so excited to go back! We have the challenge of playing an afternoon slot whilst presenting an album that’s all about the night time... But yeah, this could be the only time we get to play on the Pyramid Stage so I want to fucking bring it! We’ve got a gospel choir and a brass section so we’re bringing in elements from our ReOrchestrated tour and we’ve been putting together a show that - even if it’s not to everybody’s taste - it’ll at least be an interesting hour-long spectacle. It’s also not often that you get to play before Lauryn Hill, regardless of what kind of a show she does. Both of the albums that she was involved in are some of the most important of my childhood, so that’ll be fun [to watch] and it’ll also mean our set’s over so I can relax! I just want to put something together that feels thought out and special, and for anyone who cares [that we’re there], we’ll hopefully give them more than they were expecting.”

REBECCA TAYLOR, Self Esteem How has Glastonbury treated you in your experiences so far?

I’ve never had a proper Glastonbury experience. I was there with The Moonlandingz and we were on at midday, so I had a pint of red wine at like, 11.45am and that really set my day off to a terrible start. I can honestly say I can’t remember Glastonbury, so I’m looking forward to finding out what it’s like.

At your recent London show you had a dress made of Boots Advantage Cards - how are you gonna top that?

I’m not going to attempt to top it, so I’m just going to wear it I think.

I’m playing four times, and I was considering doing every show in the dress and ripping a layer or two off each time, so by my last show I’m in the nuddy with meal deal stickers on my nipples, but I’d imagine the label will veto that.

Who else on the bill are you excited to see?

Well, I fucking love The Killers but I’m on at the same time, fml.

Give us your top tip for getting through the weekend with your mind and body intact.

Make no plans; promise nothing.

22 DIYMAG.COM

ED MACFARLANE, Friendly Fires Tell us about your first memories of Worthy Farm.

The first time I went was the first time we played on the John Peel Stage, which is the same stage we’re playing this year. I made the schoolboy error of going out and going crazy the night before our gig; I remember we played terribly and just regretting it loads. We played two big shows on The Other Stage [in subsequent years], but I feel like we’ve never done the John Peel justice...

Now’s your chance! Are you excited about throwing yourself back into the throng after several years off?

I’m really looking forward to it! We’re on before Billie Eilish and we’re the underdogs now, so there’s gonna be loads of youngsters there waiting for that and they’ll just see me dancing like an idiot. [Don’t worry - Billie’s actually been moved now, so you’re on before the equally inappropriate The Streets! - Ed] I like the idea that there’ll be fans of ours there, but I’ll also get the chance to annoy people who don’t wanna see our band.

It’s nice to go back to the stage where we have something to prove.

Glastonbury

HIT LIST In the market for more than just music? We’ve got you covered. Here are some of DIY’s favourite new finds, worth spending your spare pennies on this month.

KODAK PRINTOMATIC Slimmer than a Polaroid and prettier than a picture, Kodak’s new snap’n’print portable camera comes in a variety of colours and prints 2x3” stickyback photos. Perfect for taking pics of your passed-out mate, and plastering them over their tent in the morning.

RRP: £69.99 Buy it: Amazon/ Argos

Got any good tips for Glasto first-timers?

It’s always good to make sure you separate yourself from the rest of your gang and have your own spiritual moment; you become more aware of your surroundings when you’re on your own instead of just hugging your mates and shouting. You have these experiences that wouldn’t feel the same if you were with people, and then you can go back and say how you ended up in a tent watching Himalayan throat singers.

VANGO BREAKOUT 350 SLEEPING BAG Keeps you cool in the warm and warm in the cold, this value bag’ll sort you out for all the seasons - which, let’s face it, will likely happen in one day at Pilton.

RRP: £24.99 Buy it: outdoorworlddirect.co.uk

YAWN AIR BED Self-inflating, king size and with AN ACTUAL HEADBOARD, sleep on this blow-up bundle of joy and make a hard festival floor feel like your own personal cloud.

RRP: £79.99 Buy it: highstreettv.com

VANGO ARK 400 TENT It’s Glasto. Your three tent requirements are thus: 1) easy to put up if you’re already pissed. 2) not very heavy to drag from Castle Cary. 3) waterproof but also not sweaty. Thank us later.

RRP: £69.99 Buy it: outdoorworlddirect. co.uk

K SWISS X CLUELESS SNEAKERS

PROTEIN BALL CO. BREAKFAST BALLS

Be a total Betty with trainer dons K Swiss’ new collab with ultimate ‘90s teen flick Clueless.

You can pick from Cher’s classic yellow plaid, or a more subtle white version with a plaid flourish. You’ll be the belle of the Glasto ball.

RRP: £65 Buy it: kswiss.com

Harsh truth: it’s probably not a good idea to exist for 5 days purely on warm tinnies and emergency portions of chips. Pack some of these healthy guys and start the day the right way – available in hazelnut and chocolate, apple and blueberry, and strawberry and vanilla.

RRP: £1.99 Buy it: Holland & Barrett 23

New York City Bops

Oh Boy!

headed Stateside this month.

Welsh indie popsters Boy Azooga are among the latest names joining Sicilian festival Ypsigrock. The band - as well as Baloji, Dope Saint Jude, Pick A Piper, Free Love, Mokado, Alberto Fortis and La Rappresentante Di Lista - join acts including The National, Fontaines DC, Spiritualized and Whitney at the event, which takes place at Castelbuono between 9th and 11th August. Head to diymag.com for more info.

REEPERBAHN FESTIVAL are

Hamburg inner-city festival Reeperbahn has confirmed its return to New York City this month, hosting panels and a showcase as part of the American Association of Independent Music’s Indie Week.

Surfbort, Gurr, Yes We Mystic, Leoniden, Mira Lu Kovacs, ORI and Renata Zeiguer will play the live event, which takes place on 19th June at Rockwood Music Hall.

Additionally, Yak, Sebadoh and Stars head up the latest announcements for the Hamburg festival proper, joining artists such as The Japanese House, Sports Team, and Georgia.

Head to diymag.com for all the info.

Boy Azooga head up latest additions to YPSIGROCK.

Con’ Your Marks Final call for STANDON CALLING!

Connie Constance and Everyone You Know are to play this year’s Standon Calling, which had previously confirmed artists including headliners Wolf Alice, IDLES, Friendly Fires, Kate Nash, The Japanese House and more.

Additionally, Finn the Police Dog will be awarded the festival’s first ‘Calling For The Community’ award across the weekend, which takes place between 25th and 28th July. For more information, visit diymag.com.

Ronald McDonald was a lot cooler these days.

FESTIVAL

NEWS IN BRIEF

The Magic Gang, EUT, Lazy Day and Baby Strange are among those playing Glasgow event TENEMENT TRAIL (12th October), as it heads to the city’s East End for 2019, visiting venues including The Barrowlands, St Luke’s, and The Backyard.

Self Esteem, Heavy Lungs and Teleman are among the first names for this year’s RITUAL UNION (19th October). The Oxford one-dayer will also host The Comet Is Coming, Ibibio Sound Machine and Young Knives across the city’s various venues.

Solange has been added to WAY OUT WEST (8th - 10th August). The singer joins artists including Christine and the Queens, Cardi B, James Blake and IDLES at the Gothenburg festival.

Cherry Glazerr, Roses Gabor and Self Esteem join Florence + The Machine and The National at their BST HYDE PARK date (13th July).

24 DIYMAG.COM

RAG’N’BONE MAN . WOLF ALICE NILE RODGERS &. CHIC .

ECHO & THE BUNNYMEN IDLES LEWIS CAPALDI KATE NASH . THE GO! TEAM . BAND OF SKULLS

HYPNOTIC BRASS ENSEMBLE . THE BIG MOON . SEA GIRLS . THE JOY FORMIDABLE WARMDUSCHER . FLAMINGODS . ELVANA . THE SHE STREET BAND IRIS GOLD . LAUREL . SAINT AGNES . MEGGIE BROWN . HONEY LUNG THE HOWL & THE HUM . MONTY TAFT . BIG SOCIETY . SHIIVERS . FOXE + MANY MORE TO COME

DJS

EROL ALKAN . SIMIAN MOBILE DISCO . NORMAN JAY MBE FLEETMAC WOOD . LA FLEUR

TAKEOVER

: DELIA TEȘILEANU . EMILY DUST . 4 TO THE FLOOR . TASTY LOPEZ

Grogaordvene

PARTY

+ MORE

FAMILY

DICK & DOM DJ BATTLE HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DINOSAUR LIVE MR BLOOM & HIS BAND WOODLAND TRIBE

+ FULL PROGRAMME OF FAMILY ENTERTAINMENT

PLUS

COSTUME PARADE CABARET . DOG SHOW . TALKS WORKSHOPS . WELLBEING HOT TUBS . SWIMMING POOL REAL ALE . TOP FESTIVAL FOOD + MORE

Twisted Creatures THE 2019 STORY

A STRANGE EVOLUTION

PARTY JOIN THKENOW BOO

STANDON-CALLING.COM /STANDONCALLING

25

26 DIYMAG.COM

PENELOPE ISLES Bella Union-signed Brightondwellers, combining the rough with the smooth and keeping it in the family. Words: Lisa Wright.

When Jack and Lily Wolter were kids, they would regularly put on impromptu musical shows for whatever family members were available to form an audience at the time. So far, so normal for a pair of siblings. “We used to do performances after a Sunday roast for our grandparents,” remembers Lily. “We’d get our cousins involved who haven’t got a musical bone in their bodies, and there’d be Jack with a guitar, with the strap going all the way down to his knees. We’d play some sort of horrible sounding tune; not much has changed, really...”

Actually, however, a lot has changed. Because unlike most people’s formative living room concerts, these early moves would eventually lead the pair - alongside bandmates Becky Redford [bass] and Jack Sowton [drums] - to ink a deal with iconic indie label Bella Union, home to the likes of Father John Misty, John Grant and Beach House.

Now, Penelope Isles are gearing up for the release of debut LP ‘Until The Tide Creeps In’ next month.

It’s a far cry from the group’s beginnings as “the only band on the island”, back at the Wolters’ home on the Isle of Man. With six years separating the two, Jack had ventured out to university and attempted various musical projects while Lily continued learning classically; when he returned home, with a lack of any other willing people available, he decided to teach his sister the bass in order to start a group.

“That’s when we started getting on as mates rather than brother and sister,” Jack nods. “Every weekend, we’d play a gig in a pub in Douglas and everyone would unite,” continues Lily. “It was a soundtrack to this amazing couple of summers.”

It’s this fusion of Thrills-esque sweet simplicity and something more dense and involved that sits at the heart of the quartet’s enveloping, heady sound. Veering between pretty, heartstring-tugging lilts such as ‘Round’ and the more propulsive, fuzzy leanings of ‘Gnarbone’, Penelope Isles songs have an innate duality at their core. “A lot of our songs start all pretty and flowers and girl-boy harmonies, but then there’s those underlying distorted basslines and it’ll delve into something darker,” nods Lily. Many of her songs tend towards the more bright and lyricallydriven, her brother’s towards the heavier, denser end of their spectrum. Is that what it’s like in the Wolter siblings’ dynamic as a whole? “I’ve never thought about it like that, but I think it’s probably very true,” she nods slowly, as Jack laughs with a slight grimace.

While their pairing clearly acts as the crux of Penelope Isles, the quartet are undoubtedly a fully-rounded band of four these days. “Obviously Lily’s my sister and I love her, but we spend so much time together with the other guys that it feels like we’re all brothers and sisters,” Jack shrugs, as Lily chips in: “It really does feel like a family in the most honest way. I’m not just spouting some soppy bullshit; we’re in it for the long run, and it’s hard at times but it also makes the good times ten times better because we are so close.”

“A lot of our songs start all pretty and flowers, but then they’ll delve into something darker.” Lily Wolter

Soon, Lily headed to Brighton, but the pair continued to send each other demos, fusing a mutual childhood love of sun-soaked, melody-driven bands like The Thrills and The Magic Numbers (“They were never cool, but we were massively obsessed with those bands and they were the coolest bands to us,” smiles Jack) with more progressive artists such as Radiohead and Grizzly Bear, batting ideas back and forth. Eventually, Jack realised that they were onto something good enough to also up sticks to the seaside; with Becky and Jack Sowton already on board, they drew a line in the sand of their previous writing forays and everything henceforth became Penelope Isles.

There’s been a lot of good times to celebrate of late, too. As well as prepping their debut, Penelope Isles recently made the trip across the Atlantic, heading Stateside for SXSW alongside some hometown buds. “Seeing bands like [fellow Brightonians] Squid out there, I felt really proud that we were a part of these bands going over and fucking trying,” Jack enthuses. “I felt really lucky.”

But, as the old saying goes, really you have to make your own luck, and after years of creating their own thing and persisting by themselves, now it seems only right that Penelope Isles have become part of something bigger to take them to the next stage.

“Growing up on the Isle of Man, there you don’t really have a platform to stand on, it’s so mushy you could never really get anywhere,” explains Jack, “but I felt a part of that scene of British bands out there. It was a lovely thing to be a part of that.”

Penelope Isles play Pohoda Festival (11th - 13th July), where DIY is an official media partner. DIY 27

CRUMB Shunning genre constraints and keeping it chill, this Brooklyn-based quartet are happy to go their own sweet way. Words: Ella Braidwood.

Crumb are trying to recall why they’re called Crumb. On the phone from Los Angeles, singer and guitarist Lila Ramani passes the explanatory baton to bassist Jesse Brotter, who tries to wade through the haze. “I can’t even remember,” he confesses. “It was kind of a joke that John [Gilad, drums] and I were drawn to one-word band names that were more about the sound of the word than the meaning and, somehow, we landed on this one.”

neu

A grand story it might not be, but this kind of work-it-outas-you-go-along attitude is typical of the Brooklyn-based quartet - completed by synth and percussion player Brian Aronow. Describing themselves as a “project” not a band, they’re not ones to subscribe to traditional timelines and ideas. Although Lila says they are not “anti-label”, they’re currently basking in their autonomy, with two EPs - 2016’s selftitled debut and 2017’s ‘Locket’ - fuelling the buzz around the release of forthcoming debut LP ‘Jinx’ this month. “We’re really grateful that we’ve been able to maintain a lot of control over this

“We just wanna make a powerful listening experience for people.”

- Jesse Brotter

28 DIYMAG.COM

thing,” nods Jesse.

An assortment of ethereal adjectives have been thrown about to describe Crumb’s sound - jazzy, psych-poppy, spacey, light - but, in similarly nonconformist fashion, they’re not about that. “They’ve been trying to pinpoint us, like, trippy, psychedelic, surreal, whatever,” says Jesse.

“We just wanna make a powerful listening experience for people.” Even their beginnings were about as unshowy as it comes.

Born somewhere out of the musical din at Tufts University, Massachusetts, where they met as students circa 2013, the group remained unnamed for a long while, keeping it lowkey. When they started, Lila had never even really sung before; “To this day, I don’t even really see myself as a singer,” she shrugs. After graduating, the four moved to Brooklyn, lured by family, friends and a love for the city, and it was only when they eventually released their first tracks that they gave the project a title.

Now all in their mid-twenties, however, and with a debut album proper around the corner, it looks like Crumb are ready to step it up a gear. Far from bumbling along, these days they’re already thinking about the long game.

“For musicians, it’s kind of like you move on mentally at a certain point and just start thinking about the next thing,” says Lila. “So I’m kind of in a future world of music already.” Jesse chimes in: “Lila is in 2025 in her mind.” DIY

FLIGHTLESS, EAT YOUR OWN EAR S & BAD VIBR ATIONS PRESENT

K I NGGIZZA R D A N D T H EL I ZA R D W I ZA R D.CO M

T ICK ET W EB.CO.U K

SEET ICK ETS.CO M

29

INJURY RESERVE

BABII

Experimental hip-hop, with a twinkle in its eye.

Icy synth-pop, with a Grimes-esque flourish.

Forget tropical drops and crunchy production, if there’s a trend among modern musicians it’s in their flagrant disregard for spelling and punctuation. Missing capital letters, numbers instead of letters, this lot don’t give a shit. Margate’s BABii is a prime suspect – most tracks on her forthcoming debut containing her ‘ii’ motif – but here, it kind of works. Producing the kind of cold, slightly industrial yet saccharine sweet synth-pop that Claire Boucher first emerged with, the singer’s the kind of left-of-centre proposition who needn’t bother with such formalities.

Listen: Recent single ‘CARNiiVORE’ is sweet and sour simultaneously.

Similar to: Music to anxiously browse through Instagram at 3am to.

EGYPTIAN BLUE Wired riffs from the Yala!-affiliated Brightonians.

Yala! Records, the label headed up by ex-Maccabee Felix White, is fastbecoming a key ear in the new guitar band game, and with recent signings Egyptian Blue they’ve not let their form drop. Recent single ‘Collateral’ begins with jagged, post-punk thrashes, before swerving left and turning into an intricate Foals-invoking mathy bop; other tracks from their forthcoming EP squall with a propulsive, thundering thrum. Promising first steps.

Listen: ‘Collateral’ is a multifaceted beast.

Similar to: Foals and Interpol having a scrap.

In the middle of Phoenix, Arizona trio Injury Reserve’s recent debut LP, there’s a track called ‘Rap Song Tutorial’. A tongue-in-cheek, self-referential step-by-step guide through how to write a hip hop hit, it’s a distilled summary of why the group are pricking up all kinds of ears. Funny, smart and not afraid to take the piss out of itself, it also yields a genuinely great track at its climax, full of drawling baritone bars and bursts of frenetic energy. With guests from the likes of JPEGMAFIA and Freddie Gibbs, Injury Reserve already have some notable co-signs; with a live-wired, eclectic record now under their belts, that fanbase should grow pretty quickly.

Listen: ‘Jawbreaker’ pits sparse Scandi beats with pithy words about shit Instagram posts.

Similar to: A three-man Brockhampton.

RECOMMENDED THE NUDE PARTY Vintage rock’n’roll kicks from the dusty South.

When one of the best songwriters of their generation cites your song as one of his current favourites in the whole damn musical universe, you know you’re probably onto a winner. It’s easy to see why Alex Turner (for t’was he) might be enamoured with the Black Lips-esque bar chant of ‘Chevrolet Van’, though; like much of North Carolina sextet The Nude Party’s output, the track fuses The Velvet Underground’s louche sense of easy cool and a tendency towards hedonistic party time good vibes with ease. Add a mean line in vintage threads and you’ve got a band of pretty cool cats.

Listen to: ‘Chevrolet Van’, like Alex told you to.

Similar to: A fantasy band plucked out of Almost Famous.

30 DIYMAG.COM

ARLO PARKS Minimal, soulful melancholy from the 18-year-old South Londoner.

In recent years, there’s been an increasingly exciting group of young South London confessional stars bubbling up; now, Arlo Parks seems like the next logical step for the scene to take. Half Nigerian, a quarter Chadian and a quarter French, recent EP ‘Super Sad Generation’ is as much of an intriguing melting pot as its creator’s own background. Imbued with the introversions of King Krule-esque storytelling, or the sweet, sad sounds of Puma Blue and the like, it’s half in that world, half in the world of modern, sparse soul, with a bit of Kate Tempest and a bit of some of America’s current cerebral singer-songwriters thrown in. Yeah, we’re bad at maths but hey - we know what sounds good.

Listen: ‘Super Sad Generation’’s title track is a smart soundtrack to modern youth.

Similar to: King Krule pitched several octaves up.

THE

BUZZ FEED

With only one track to their name, Londoners Dry Cleaning are still very much in their most formative of stages, but there’s an evident reason why they’ve already racked up a support tour with DIY faves BODEGA and the support of new music champion Huw Stephens. On ‘New Job’, the band are a dry (no pun intended), deadpan delight, fusing sarky, streamof-consciousness lyrics with tumbling Wire-esque guitar lines. Much more fun than an afternoon down the laundrette.

Listen: Well, you’ve only got one choice at the moment.

Similar to: The kind of band you’d imagine Mark E. Smith would probably be down with.

PLAY -LIST

All the buzziest new music happenings, in one place.

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: DO NOTHING ‘Gangs’ FALL GUYS As well as reading our chat on p33, have a listen to ‘October’, the newie from JUST MUSTARD, the flip side to ‘Frank’. Head to diymag.com for a link.

The Nottingham quartet crib bits of The Fall and the propulsive cowbell beats of LCD Soundsystem, fusing them into a sneering, danceable gem.

WALT DISCO ‘Strange to Know Nothing’ Glasgow’s latest theatrical types get all HMLTD, with warbling vocals and darkhearted ‘80s goth pop.

SORCHA RICHARDSON ‘Don’t Talk About It’

DRY CLEANING New Londoners with a fine line in sarcastic missives and tumbling post-punk.

ON THE

GET BACK ON THE DANCEFLOOR After kicking off her 2019 with a real bang(er) by releasing ‘About Work The Dancefloor’, GEORGIA has shared two huge remixes of the single by Happy and Gabe Gurnsey respectively. Check out them out now over on diymag.com.

If Marika Hackman decided to sit on the sunnier side of the fence, you’d probably end up with something akin to this hook-laden, intimateyet-bright slice of guitar pop.

TREEBOY & ARC ‘Concept’ The latest track to get the Speedy Wunderground single treatment comes from Leeds’ Treeboy & Arc and it’s a propulsive post-punk slammer.

THE FEAR Incendiary Dublin gang THE MURDER CAPITAL have announced details of their debut album. ‘When I Have Fears’ is out 16th August via Human Season, featuring recent singles ‘Green & Blue’ and ‘Feeling Fades’. Get all the info over at diymag.com.

FAUX FEROCIOUS ‘Stress Kills’ Nashville’s FF clearly aren’t keen on keeping you alive, because this sax-laced track is both very good and very anxiety-inducing.

31

BIG INDIE BIG NIGHTS The Van T’s Two Tribes, London. Photo: Alex Williams.

A

NEU LIVE

MUST-SEE SHOWS THIS MONTH

s things start heating up for The Great Escape, the latest Big Indie Big Nights offers up a perfect introduction to the impending chaos. This month comes the turn of slick Scottish quartet The Van T’s whose glammed-up, scuzzy sound is in-yourface and entirely satisfying.

London’s Two Tribes is treated to a taste of the Glaswegians’ brand of grungy punk rock and powerful stage presence. Helmed by twin sisters Chloe and Hannah Van Thompson, the band prove themselves a force to be reckoned with, commanding the crowd to move, crouch on the floor and burst into dance-offs throughout their set.

Blitzing through a selection of their heavier offerings, the stand-out tonight is their high octane post-punk single ‘Control’ - fresh from its release on Big Indie Records last month - with its swirling gang vocals and fuzzy guitars.

Pleasingly noisy and enigmatic to the last, this lot make a special punch. (Sarah Jamieson)

Like being the first to see the next big thing? Get ready to brag to your mates about watching this lot before they go big, sell out, and spectacularly break up.

Hatchie

The Aussie singer will be bringing her sun-soaked, dreamy guitar pop to Moth Club’s glittery belly on 12th June in support of debut LP ‘Keepsake’.

DIY x Alt Citizen

We’re teaming up with New York promoters Alt Citizen for a series of new band nights at The Broadway - the first features Computer Magic, The Muckers and Nyssa and takes place on 20th June. Get your tickets at diymag.com now!

King Princess

The Class of 2019 star will be warming up for her visit to Glastonbury with a show at London’s Kentish Town Forum on 26th June. No biggie.

32 DIYMAG.COM

JUST MUSTARD Adding a new dimension to the current influx of fresh Irish talents, this quintet deal in sonic storms and big, layered atmospherics. Words: James Bentley. Photo: Emma Swann.

neu

Irish border town Dundalk is best know in the music world for producing ‘90s pop band The Corrs but, according to ethereal noisemakers Just Mustard, it’s a melting pot of talent.

The five-piece champion their home town for its musical prosperity, citing former fisherman’s pub The Spirit Store - now heralded as one of the best music venues in the country - as a major catalyst for their emergence. Now however, just two years since forming, they’ve managed to turn the head of notable goth Robert Smith, who’s asked the band to support The Cure at the 17,000 capacity Malahide Castle in Dublin this month.

It’s easy to see why the group, fronted by hypnotic, glacially-voiced singer Katie Ball, might have piqued his interest. At the Great Escape, the quintet nearly brought the roof down inside Brighton’s most cavernous venue, The Haunt; Just Mustard might sound dreamy enough on [little known] debut album ‘Wednesday’, but live, their industrial cataclysms and heavy guitar effects are a whole different beast. “We’re definitely a live band”, the singer nods. “The music’s not unbelievably complicated,” chimes in guitarist David Noonan, “but the sound itself is

incredibly important.”

Citing Nine Inch Nails as a notable sonic influence, it’s this sense of atmosphere and weight that hangs over the band’s output. “With the guitars, we pay a lot more attention to the dynamics of the songs and building the layers of sound,” explains guitarist Mete Kalyon.

“I try to use the guitar as more of a percussive element,” adds David. And it’s these instrumental innovations that provide some of the most interesting ideas within the quintet’s sound. Bass harmonics are looped to create ghostly melodies, while drum beats make excessive use of rim shots and heavy snares. “We all listen to a lot of electronic music - Aphex Twin and Portishead are big influences on us as a collective - so I think that’s where those sounds come from,” he continues.

Having recently supported fellow Irishmen Fontaines DC across a UK tour, Just Mustard are picking up momentum – and famous fans - by the day. But though live performance is at the core of the band, they’ve got their sights on bigger things too. “We’d really like to get a sponsorship from Guinness,” nods bassist Rob Clarke, sagely. “We want to keep playing shows and making music, but that’s the real dream.” DIY 33

ride’, Vampire Weekend have B e h return T ed fro r Of e h t ma a F six-ye h‘ t i ar W

34 DIYMAG.COM

d’s e ban h t s A ever. n a h t s extrou d break refreshed, y l e v i and more creat

pensive figure head Ezr a Koenig . explains, it w as a much-needed expansion

ds Wor

m : To

i ck Co n n

i l es . os: E d M . Phot

Daddy Issues

35

Just call him Ezra Scissorhands.

“I needed to take time off to go back to not feeling like a professional musician, but feeling like

a person who has an interest in music.� Ezra Koenig -

36 DIYMAG.COM

I

t’s a cripplingly early Saturday morning in North London’s affluent Islington, and there’s already a queue around the town hall. This isn’t a mad rush to the voting booth, though, it’s a Vampire Weekend show - the second in an intimate run of gigs marking the band’s first return to London in more than half a decade. Perhaps the stand selling flat whites at the door gave it away.

On stage bang on 9AM, the band work as a warming wake-up call to their bleary-eyed devotees. Frontman Ezra Koenig’s all smiles, while the rest of the group - completed by bassist Chris Baio and drummer Chris Tomson - stretch each song out to almost comical proportions, throwing in guitar solos, Grateful Dead-like jam sessions, and a three-times-in-arow run-through of breakout single ‘A-Punk’. They might not be the first band to play a gig in the morning, but the wholesome gang are certainly the most befitting.

If a hangover-shifting AM gig sounds like something of a switch-up, however, that’s likely music to Ezra’s ears.

Long-awaited fourth album ‘Father Of The Bride’ is a deliberate tonal shift for Vampire Weekend in many ways - an attempt to break out of the box that the frontman saw himself building around the band as their first three records came together. Rich with instrumentation and boasting a variety of styles, feelings and stories to tell, it’s an 18-track odyssey that feels a world away from where they last left off with 2013’s brooding ‘Modern Vampires Of The City’.

“As much as, in my twenties, I saw the world, experienced new things and met new people, there was also a mental thing happening where the way I thought and the things I thought about got smaller, and smaller, and more intense,” Ezra explains now. He’s holed up in a fancy hotel in the city a few days before that early morning show, clad in socks and sandals; they’ll soon become a meme among the VW fanbase, before then becoming this season’s go-to summer style. Always ahead of the curve.

Ezra recalls a depression that followed him around the making of that third album. “I think at that moment I definitely felt a little - and I think a lot of people probably feel this in their late 20s - a sense of dread, a sense of the walls closing in, a sense of unease or discomfort about the way things were heading,” he recalls. “I remember being unsure if I really wanted to make an album. Being unsure if this career which has certainly brought me joy, but has [also] brought me a lot of stress and anxiety, was something I wanted to really lock into.” It all fed into a record which felt encumbered by dread; their most emotionally direct album to date, ‘Modern Vampires…’ stripped back the sunny-day sheen of their early, collegiate years in favour of something tenser with a less obvious light at the end of the tunnel. “It was the end of the beginning. The twenties are the end of youth in some

ways…” He pauses and chuckles. “Although I feel like a lot of people now extend youth into their forties...”

For a band who, in their earliest incarnation with the spirited stomp of breakout songs like ‘A-Punk’ leading the way, had been pinned as something fun-filled and frivolous, it seemed like a bold move. For Ezra and co, though, it was a progression that felt necessary. “The first Vampire Weekend album, while I think there is some darkness in it, I think it came across as very youthful, and fun, and playful,” Ezra admits. “Even some people who liked it saw it as a novelty - just young college kids or whatever. There’s a lot of reasons why the second album has some legitimate ballads - ‘Contra’, ‘Taxi Cab’ - and the third album directly approaches heavy themes; it’s not always hidden behind… whimsy.”

It was a typical trajectory - that of the moody, ‘grownup’ evolution - that Ezra refused to let continue. “You go from a chandelier at a party [on the artwork for their self-titled debut] to a black-and-white smoggy New York City [on ‘Modern Vampires…’] - what’s next?” he posits.

“Metallica’s ‘The Black Album’, and just songs about atrocities?!”

E

nter: the double album. ‘Father Of The Bride’ clocks in at a mammoth 18 tracks (though he initially wanted a nice round 20, Ezra trimmed two at the last minute to keep it under an hour), the record hopping between styles, stories and voices with spirited abandon. Previously hemmed in by his own artistic path, he saw the bumper-sized record as a way to stretch his creative muscles again. “It meant not throwing away some of those colours and feelings of the last album, because that wouldn’t be right, but also leaving room [where] you could have the heavy next to the light, the serious next to the stupid, and even lyrically, the pretentious next to the truly simple, borderline goofy.”

As he saw his options shrinking, an 18-song epic quickly became a way to open things up once more.

Away from the band, too, the singer began to explore other avenues. A Netflix anime series, Neo Yokio, allowed him to delve deeper into visual work, while a celebrated radio show, Time Crisis With Ezra Koenig, added another audio string to his bow. Musically, his name began to pop up in some perhaps unlikely places, too. Writing credits on Beyoncé’s world-beating ‘Lemonade’ and alongside Lily Allen on the singer’s recent LP ‘No Shame’ grabbed headlines, allowing Ezra to write for other voices but also prompting more questions about Vampire Weekend’s own future. As the years crept on, that six-year gap between records began to fill some with fear. Time and time again, however, the singer would pop up on social media to attempt to quash any rumours; the record, then jokinglytitled ‘Mitsubishi Macchiato’, was definitely coming, he promised.

“To give the full context, I’ve considered ending the band after every album,” he says with a knowing smile. “I know that sounds so dramatic, but I’ve found that it’s not 37

uncommon, talking to other people. If you’re really working on something and you’re striving to make it great, and you’re really trying not just to release another album, but to release something that feels like a step forward, and it’s right for you in your life right now, but also ties back to the old material… That’s a very complicated thing to do, and it’s the type of task that makes you want to quit, all the time.”

Recalling those extra-curricular activities now, he’s slightly self-flagellating. “There was also just a lot of hanging out, too!” he smiles. “I talk to a lot of people who are like, ‘You’ve been busy!’ And I feel guilty.

The cartoon took a year, the radio show is four hours a month, and the writing I did for Beyoncé and Lily Allen all happened in… a couple of days,” he adds with a laugh. The real benefit of that time away, he explains, was to reset his anxieties about where he was heading: “I needed to take time off to go back to not worrying about life - not feeling like a professional musician, but feeling like a person who has an interest in music.”

‘F

ather Of The Bride’ certainly sounds like the work of someone with a renewed faith in their craft. Jumping from be-bopping scat intros (‘Sunflower’) and flamenco (‘Sympathy’), to more brooding numbers like ‘My Mistake’, it’s a creative kaleidoscope, never dwelling on one style, mood or subject for too long.

Heading into the record, Ezra sought to expand his band’s palette; clearly, he succeeded.

“One person will come up to me and be like, ‘Oh, this album is so happy!’. And then another person will come up and say, ‘This album’s so sad and dark’,” he laughs.

“There’s a part of me that’s also kind of like, these are superficial ways to describe an album. I’ve never made an album that I think has a monochromatic emotion.”

The double-album is something of a boon for an artist like Ezra, whose career-long devotion to the format has come, he admits, at a time where every industry bod around him has been trying to tell him the long-player is ‘dying’. “It is funny, in the current moment we live in,” he shrugs.

“At the end of the day, [it’s] the mode of expression that I’m most interested in, more than social media, more than live performance, more than music videos which are all things that I do enjoy! But the true mode of expression that I fell in love with - and every year it’s more clear that it’s the love of my life - is making albums.

Vampire Weekend’s been told since we started that the album was on death’s door, and I’ve heard it enough that I don’t believe it anymore.”

What’s more, the longer format allowed Ezra to deepen his dearest-held connection - that he holds with the fans

38 DIYMAG.COM

who’ve “grown up alongside” he and his bandmates. “I don’t know if we’ve ever had a true crossover song,” he shrugs. “A lot of people know ‘A-Punk’; a lot of people know the name of the band. But we don’t have one defining hit or anything. So I had this feeling that, with every album, you’re gonna win a few people over and you’re gonna lose a few people. When you get to that fourth album, with the people who truly appreciate each [one], you’re building a connection that’s a little bit deeper than just the ups and downs of commercial success.

Life In Film

Ezra takes us through the starstudded video for album highlight ‘This Life’ - and that Mark Ronsonhelmed feast.

“We ended up shooting it in Palm Springs on the second weekend of Coachella, and it turns out the second weekend of Coachella was the Jewish holiday Passover, and it was also Easter - that doesn’t always happen.

Someone was like, ‘Oh, on Easter Sunday, Kanye’s doing a Sunday Service - maybe you should do a Passover Seder on the Saturday!’ We ended up having this beautiful scene in the video that’s a Seder, and a bunch of people sit around, and we had Mark Ronson be in charge of the Seder [as you do - Ed.].

And he looks really good in a kippah.”

“When other people connect with your albums, they do feel almost like friends.

One thing that’s not necessarily important to me is winning over people. There was a while where I really stressed out everyone I worked with by saying, ‘OK, Vampire Weekend needs to get smaller’,” he says with a cackle. “I really like this feeling that we grew up with people. That’s the most gratifying feeling I ever get. That’s about as connected as you can ever feel with a fan - not just someone who got obsessed with you in a brief moment, but somebody who treats you like a human being, and recognises your humanity as you grew up, because they grew up alongside you too.”

Since first emerging as a bright-eyed, bushy-tailed early-twenty-something, Ezra’s done some considerable growing up outside of the band, too. Mostly, he’s remained private about this area of his life, choosing to keep details of his long-term relationship with actor Rashida Jones, with whom he recently fathered his first child, out of the limelight. When Vampire Weekend finally revealed the title of their fourth as the unexpected ‘Father Of The Bride’ then, some did a double-take.

Speaking now, the singer acknowledges the double-bind of his situation; with the ever-present, ever-understandable need to maintain a private life, what about when you crave a different level of connection? “You do almost feel weird about not sharing more [with fans],” he admits. “Because in a perfect world, why should you have to be all that private? But obviously we don’t live in a perfect world.”

Ezra trails off a little, lost in self-analysis.

“It’s this tension - maybe that’s where the impulse to get a little smaller was.”

Ironically, of course, that desire to get a little smaller was met with a US Number One upon the album’s release. But while Vampire Weekend’s stature seems to show no signs of shrinking, Ezra’s keen to keep things in perspective. “I’ve seen musicians sometimes get panicked by people twenty or thirty years younger than them - musicians who are older than me!” he laughs. “And I’m like, ‘Jesus, I hope I’d have a more even keel by the time I’m your age’. Just like, some old-ass dude like, ‘What’s up with Billie Eilish?! How is that relevant?’ I’m like, ‘What the fuck are you on about? Jesus - if you catch me

“I’ve considered ending the band after every album.”

- Ezra Koenig

39

when I’m your age, weighing in on the Billie Eilish of 2040, please tell me to quit’. I’ve seen that, and I don’t wanna be that. It’s all ego.”

E Title & Registration What’s in a name?

For someone as analytical as Ezra, a whole lot. So what’s behind the shift from the comical ‘Mitsubishi Macchiato’ working title?

The dreamboat explains.

“Initially, I just thought ‘Father Of The Bride’ was kinda funny. For my generation, Father Of The Bride was this funny film that people had on VHS often. But then I thought about the phrase, and what I started to like about it was that it makes you think of a wedding - a happy day; a major life-cycle event; two people expressing their commitment to each other in front of a community. But then I was like, ‘What is it about FATHER of the bride?’ Because I wouldn’t make an album just called ‘The Wedding’.

That’s the moment of transition. The father of the bride is a beautiful thing - it’s a parent recognising that their child no longer needs their support. The truth is, it easily could’ve been ‘Mother Of The Groom’ too. But it’s about a generational shift - a moment of transition.”

40 DIYMAG.COM

go is something ‘Father Of The Bride’ finds Ezra shying away from even further. Sharing the vocal stage with a number of guests - most notably Danielle Haim and The Internet’s Steve Lacy, whose voices crop up across the album - the record is an “open door”, he says.

“Having other people involved, practically speaking, it’s more fun! I have other people in the studio, people to collaborate with, and it gives the texture of the album a new feeling, which I think is the right feeling after the trajectory of the last three albums.”

That collaborative effort has always been at the heart of Vampire Weekend, though, the singer stresses. Much was made of the departure of founding member Rostam Batmanglij in 2016, and this record being Vampire Weekend’s first without him at the

heart of things; for Ezra, however, there’s been little change. “Practically speaking, my role hasn’t changed in the band at all,” he says. “I’ve literally done the same thing on every record. I write songs, I sing, I’m the curator, I’m the leader. I feel so lucky to have collaborators, whether it’s Rostam, whether it’s the other guys, whether it’s Ariel [Reichstad, producer and co-writer], whether it’s all sorts of new people for the first time.

My role is very static, in a way.”

During their time away, bassist Chris Baio has produced two solo albums, while drummer Chris Tomson heads up Dams of the West.

Their move towards additional outlets could feed into the idea of this band as primarily the singer’s concern, however for him - as ever - it’s about trying to convey more than that.

“With Vampire Weekend, I’ve made my peace with the tension of being an individual, telling an individual story, within a group project,” he says. “But with all of these things, you have to hope that the voice of the project - which isn’t my voice as a human being - ultimately wins

Ezra: he’s got the juice.

“If you catch me when I’m older weighing in on the Billie Eilish of 2040, please tell me to quit.”

- Ezra Koenig

out over all the little details.”

The addition of Danielle and Steve helped that, he admits. As ‘Sympathy’ opens, Lacy introduces the track with a couple of lines that have been picked apart more than most: “I think I take myself too serious / It’s not that serious”. While Ezra’s reluctant to dissect his work too directly, he does laugh at the idea that it’s been seen as his own voice breaking through. “Because I don’t see this as a solo album, and I see the other voices you hear on it as very important - especially Steve and Danielle - if somebody else says something on the record, it’s probably fair to say that if [I] wanted to say the same thing, I would’ve said it. Maybe there’s a different meaning if Steve says it.”

Instead, much of Ezra’s own musings on the record are decidedly more complex. From the musically-whimsical, lyrically-devastating ‘This Life’ (“Oh Christ, am I good for nothing?

This life and all its suffering”), to ‘Big Blue’’s exploration of an individual’s connection to the planet, to the intersections of life and the Jewish faith that pepper throughout, the album’s musical levity - brought about by that aforementioned “open door” approach -

disguises some heavy topics. There’s always a bigger picture with Ezra Koenig.

Rather than any one meaning or set-in-stone interpretation, though, Ezra’s keen to stress the broader nature of his ambition. On his band’s new record, and in a wider context too, the New York college kid turned international indie dreamboat seems to be searching for something deeper. Just as he sought to expand Vampire Weekend’s scope on ‘Father Of The Bride’ - be it through collaboration, experimentation, or simply throwing a show in the early hours - he hopes to inspire a similar expansion in thought among those he holds dear. “I’ve met people whose relationship to Vampire Weekend came via their own relationship to their identity, and how they saw something similar in what I felt about the world and what they felt about the world,” he says.

“That’s what’s most important to me.”

‘Father Of The Bride’ is out now via Columbia. Vampire Weekend play Mad Cool Festival (11th - 13th July), where DIY is an official media partner. DIY

41

Mercy Mercy Me Taking down the patriarchy and writing from the perspective of a mantlepiece object; on second album ‘Small Mercies’, PIXX is letting her creativity run wild. Words: Elly Watson. Photo: Louise Mason.

42 DIYMAG.COM

We’re in the middle of a May heatwave and Pixx - aka Hannah Rodgers - is in her back garden, speaking to us while soaking up the sun before we’re once again plunged into classic British overcast gloom. For Hannah though, there are other benefits to enjoying the outdoors that aren’t limited to the odd week of London sunshine. “I feel like spiritually it’s saved me many times, just being by nature,” the 23-year-old songwriter muses. “That’s the core of happiness for me.”

It’s this thought that’s formed one of the main ideas behind upcoming second album ‘Small Mercies’. Raised in a Catholic family, Hannah began to realise how much that upbringing had shaped how she felt about herself and her connection to the world. “I started to think about how our relationships with each other are so influenced by our relationship with the planet and the idea of God,” she details. “They reflect so much in society and I think it’s important that people who idealise this ‘Godly’ thing... I don’t feel like that’s always a bad thing, but I think that when people rely on that and don’t respect the planet or each other, that becomes a problem.”

Deciding to look deeper into these ideas, Hannah found herself writing from different perspectives, drawing on alternate viewpoints that allowed her to delve into thoughts she hadn’t considered before, even adopting the guise of an inanimate object lamenting life on top of the mantlepiece on drooling synth number ‘Funsize’. “It was really surprising that it came out that way!” she laughs. “I think after the last record, I was feeling a little bit uncertain about where I was going to go with my writing, and for a while I wasn’t feeling that satisfied. I think writing from personas, in a weird way, was almost more emotional and passionate than writing straight-up from my own perspective. It let me write about stuff that I wasn’t really expecting to come out.

I didn’t even know that it existed and I didn’t really know I had that much to say about it.”

Throughout the 13-track record, her personas examine socio-political topics like religion and damage to the earth, as well as looking at the gender-based politics that affect women daily. The lo-fi ‘Andean Condor’ sees her invoking nature while cutting into male hierarchy and the inequality of the sexes, imploring: “Dance for me boy / Give me a twirl / I want to get to know you / But I probably won’t blow you.”

At their core however, ‘Small Mercies’’ tracks are all about love, albeit across an experimental spectrum. “A lot of it’s written about the human need for love and the fact that we often seek love in places

that make us feel powerless,” she begins, before urging that, despite the often heavy subject matter, it’s a hopeful record that you can still definitely dance to. “I want people to feel uplifted when they listen to my music and not just be bummed out by it completely,” she laughs.

But the BRIT School graduate will never be one to shy away from talking about the deeper issues in favour of a dancefloor filler. Hannah’s happy in her alt-pop provocateur position. “Some music is a form of escapism from reality, but since I was young I’ve always been drawn to songs that have some kind of bigger story behind them, some kind of message,” she explains. “That’s one of the things that drew me to wanting to do music, to be able to speak about things that maybe are hard to have conversations about.”

“This record comes from a place of a lot more certainty.”

The album also offers a step-up in terms of musical flair, and as the personas differ from track to track, so does Hannah’s sonic experimentation. Twisting between grungy guitars to synth-heavy pop numbers, ‘Small Mercies’ is a weirder and bolder offering than 2017 electro-pop debut ‘The Age of Anxiety’, and a world away from her 2015 folk-leaning ‘Fall In’ EP - a trait that she attributes to the new found confidence within herself. “For a while, I got kind of deterred, certainly on the last record because I was quite aware of people judging me for the first time ever,” she confides. “I guess I felt like I’d lost my sense of self and got a bit tangled up in blue. I wasn’t really certain what I wanted to do or what I wanted to say.

But often it takes you going through that process before you can let go of it and not let ego or fear of being rejected shape where you’re at. This record comes from a place of a lot more certainty.”

It’s this confidence and assuredness that she ultimately hopes people will take away from the new album. “I guess I want to make sure that people are questioning things and not letting fear shape who they are,” she emphasises. “Letting themselves feel vulnerable and passionate and not being ashamed to be emotional or have something to say.”

‘Small Mercies’ is out now via 4AD. DIY

It always pays to frame your Pixx.

43

RHYTHM OF THE

Already having two massive, multimillion selling records under their collective belt, Bastille are diving deep into a much more intimate scene on new album ‘Doom Days’. Words: Sarah Jamieson.

S

pend any time online, flicking through a newspaper or even just walking down the street, and it’s easy to feel bombarded by life.

With headlines and news stories growing more ridiculous - or more terrifying, depending how you look at it - every day, it’s beginning to feel like the best option is simply to shut off, stop thinking about it at all.

Having dealt with this onslaught head on with second album ‘Wild World’, that’s a sentiment that Bastille can sympathise with.

kitchen floor, back on the other side, with only his phone’s ringtone to call him back.

Despite its seemingly linear storyline, the end result was not necessarily always the plan. “I had these ideas of doing a ‘90s-leaning rave album, but if I’m honest with myself, it was probably never going to sustain itself for an entire album!” he laughs. “We sort of headed that way with a few of the tracks; the first song that we made was ‘Nocturnal Creatures’, which has this break beat and a drop. We wanted to put our twist on the feeling that you get when you listen to those ‘90s records, with their rolling, crunchy beats.

“I wanted us to make an album that was eight songs long,” he says, “and was this snapshot of how we were feeling a year ago, and was about this desire to go out and escape and ignore reality, and capture that feeling of that time at night. Then, we got distracted.” It’s that word again.

It’s unsurprising, then, to think that after another huge touring cycle, they might also fancy switching off for a little bit. And that’s exactly where ‘Doom Days’ began. “We set out to make something that was really about escapism and that was the opposite of what we did last time,” begins frontman Dan Smith, sipping a coffee in a food market not too far from the band’s base, studio One Eyed Jack’s. “I wanted to do something that felt hopeful, and was both a distraction for us and a distraction to listen to.”

What happened in reality was that ‘Doom Days’ was complete, by all accounts, ahead of the band’s 2018 ReOrchestrated tour, which saw them backed by a string quartet and brass section. But after spending some time away from the recordings, the quartet realised there was so much more to the tale. “I wanted to flesh out the story and add more elements; some more songs and some more voices to the record. It became a different thing entirely, but it’s been so much fun to make and I think it’s a better album for having waited.”

If one word dominates the feeling of ‘Doom Days’, it’s distraction. An admittedly - as Dan puts it - “loosely conceptual” journey, the album documents the events of a single night, following a group of friends as they party through the apocalypse that’s blazing outside. From opener ‘Quarter Past Midnight’ it follows the group on a journey through nihilism, lust, introspection and paranoia, before our narrator finds himself waking up on the fictional

W

44 DIYMAG.COM

hile Bastille are no strangers to analysing the ways in which humans interact with tragedy and darkness, on ‘Doom Days’, there’s a marked difference. “With ‘Wild World’ we were trying to do and say a lot, and be as expansive as possible,” says Dan. “With this, just for ourselves, we wanted to react against it and do

Bastille’s game of musical chairs was surprisingly sedate.

NIGHT 45

“We set out to make something that was the opposite of what we did last time.” - Dan Smith

46 DIYMAG.COM

something that felt small and more cohesive.” Even the idea of the party itself being cut off from the outside world, curtains drawn, reflects the record’s more inward-facing soul. “I think my repetitive re-assertion of this being an ‘apocalyptic party album’,” a phrase the singer’s used to describe the album’s backdrop, “was almost a helpful tagline for me to have. I said that publicly from the beginning, so we had something to work towards.

Creatively, it was a helpful tool for us to have a totally different experience.”

And while it’s easy to assume the apocalypse is a metaphor for the times we’re currently living through, Dan is hopeful that the album’s narrative is a little more obscure. “I feel like every era feels like it’s going through its own apocalypse. There were fears about nuclear war, or the First and Second World Wars, or Vietnam, or 9/11... [There have been] these different periods where it feels like there are big, internationally dramatic moments. All of these changes in culture seem to provoke the feeling that there’s some big scary change.

Look at the millennium; people thought the world was going to end.

People literally thought the world was going to end.

“In the era that you’re living in, it always feels so much more intense,” he continues, “and it’s strange, at the moment, I don’t really know how I feel about it. [Over the last few years] there was Brexit, Trump, and this huge international lurch to the right, that you can’t help but feel - if you’re vaguely liberal minded - that it’s a huge backwards step and feels really troubling. But, because we’re living in these times and it feels so acute, it’s quite hard to step back and see the grand scheme of things. I guess the idea of the apocalypse on the album is that I wanted to overdramatise [our current situation], and nod to it quite a lot, but leave it really open to interpretation. There was a part of me, as we were making it, that imagined a city on fire outside, and just closing the curtains to it and trying to ignore it so I guess it can be what you choose it to be.”

W

hat’s also quite clear is that this is not the first or last time that an artist will delve into the idea of freedom from reality. There’s no bones about it; escapism and hedonism aren’t exactly new territory to tread, and that’s something Dan knows all too well. “One of the points of crisis I had with this album was that

about a year ago, it was written and finished, but I had all of these creative anxieties. At Christmas last year, I was like, ‘fuck, I tried to write about escapism and hedonism, and these are things that’ve been written about so many times before, what’s gonna set this apart? What’s gonna make this album different?’” And while, at first, he feared having to toe the line with the canon, he soon realised that nodding to his influences could only enhance the album’s story. “I had a bit of a week where I tried to immerse myself in loads of films and literature about those subjects - all those topics - because I thought if I at least nod to it, hopefully that will set that tone.”

And much like any form of escape, what goes up must come down, and that’s something felt quite tangibly with closer ‘Joy’. Marked out as one of the band’s ‘happier’ songs by fans - “It’s kinda not though! A chorus of ‘I was giving up / I was giving in’ is hardly skipping through daisy fields!”

- it offers a moment of clarity. “I just wanted to put some sort of happy note on the end of the record,” Dan explains. “I always want our music to straddle the line between hopeful and very sad because that seems to be the fence that we seem to sit on all of the time,” he laughs. “I guess, the arc of the album is this somewhat naive, desperate pursuit of escapism that, as we all know from personal experience or films and books, never ends well. You never find what you’re looking for because you’re not really looking for anything. It’s about that propulsion into the night and the mess that it stirs up. But it’s also about the fact that all of the problems in your life or in the world, they all seep in, no matter how much you try to shut them out.

“If there’s anything [to take away] it’s that the truest form of distraction and happiness seems to come from human contact. Be that being loved up with your mates at four in the morning, or having a positive one night stand experience, or,” as ‘Joy’ concludes, “just getting a phone call from someone that is the one person who can set you straight and bring you back to some small part of reality.” Who needs distraction anyway?

INTO THE NIGHT

As you can probably tell, ‘Doom Days’ is basically about having a big one. Here, we offer up a potted timeline of the album itself…

QUARTER PAST MIDNIGHT

This is where it all kicks off: with our narrator driving through the city at night, probably annoying an unassuming Uber driver with incessant singing, it’s clear this lot are very much up for getting into the spirit of things.

THE WAVES

“Oh, what would your mother say if she could see what we’re doing now?!” As the evening continues on, things are getting a bit more hedonistic, and the lines of reality and euphoria really begin to blur.

DOOM DAYS

“We fucked this house up like the planet” - you can guess where this one’s headed. The night’s taken a darker turn, and paranoia has started to set in. Luckily, our narrator’s still determined to shut the outside off.

4AM

A hazy number which marks that moment in the night where things are finally beginning to trail off, this is a real love song for all those early mornings spent surrounded by your mates - even if they’ve passed out.

JOY

Morning has broken and our narrator’s found himself sleeping on the floor, but rather than let the hideous hangover anxiety seep in, he’s pulled right back out of it thanks to the arrival of a humble text message. Moral of the story? All you need is love, and friends that’ll text.

‘Doom Days’ is out 14th June via Virgin EMI. Bastille play Citadel (14th July), where DIY is an official media partner. DIY

47

just

s ay

ye s 48 DIYMAG.COM

Over the past decade,

and ‘70s classic rock bands”, there’s a more pointed, political antagonism laying beneath: happy clappy pop songs, these are not.

YEASAYER have

The seeds of their discontent began, as they did for most of liberal America, when the country was thrown into madness three years back. “The end of the touring cycle [for ‘Amen & Goodbye’] was pretty bleak honestly because we were on tour during the disastrous 2016 presidential election, playing these songs that were based in biblical imagery, and it really felt like the world was ending,” Chris recalls. “We were playing in some of the places that voted for this horrible President that we have, and it just really felt like shit. I started talking a lot of shit on stage, and generally that’s fine and well-received, but then one night in Texas it wasn’t that well received, and one time we were in another place and a fight broke out. It was very high tension. Going out to a bar the night after [the election] and seeing a lot of thick-necked, dickhead fratboy guys wearing those horrible red hats... I was never more sure that I was gonna get in a fight and get arrested.”

carved out a career as odd-pop pioneers amid Brooklyn’s indie elite. On fifth album ‘Erotic Reruns’, they’re back with their most direct, streamlined work to date. Words: Lisa Wright.

“H

uman beings are complex and we’re capable of so many different emotions and so many layers of influences, so why try to pigeonhole yourself?” shrugs Yeasayer’s Chris Keaton, speaking down the phone from Brooklyn, where he and bandmates Ira Wolf Tuton and Anand Wilder have recently finished laying down excellently-titled fifth LP ‘Erotic Reruns’.

He’s talking specifically about the short, sharp set of streamlined pop songs that make up their latest work - a significant jump away from the disparate, dark material that comprised 2016’s ‘Amen & Goodbye’.

But really, it’s the kind of rhetorical question that’s informed the band’s career for more than a decade now. Though Yeasayer have had moments in the zeitgeist, it’s always been more coincidence than chart-chasing; now, they’ve re-emerged with their most radio-friendly work in ages, but you sense it’s simply just the way the tides have taken them. “I think we sometimes have a purposeful identity crisis, but I’ve always liked when musicians do unexpected things. It’s detrimental to a career,” he laughs, “because jumping around like that [means that] no-one knows what to grab onto as a fan, but that’s what I find interesting.”

Returning to Brooklyn, inevitably these experiences began working their way into new material. “It [put fire up us], and I think it helped include some more statements on the new record. We were consciously trying to make something direct - we wanted all the songs to be under three minutes - but coupled with the tensions we were feeling at the time,” he explains. And if the idea of a song that pairs Tame Impala-esque vocal coos and brass parps with a comparison of Press Secretary Sarah Sanders to Joseph Goebbels sounds jarring, then somehow the trio turn its result, ‘24-Hour Hateful Live!’, into a playfully catchy earworm. Self-produced and recorded in their various home-studios, favouring relaxed sessions peppered with lake swimming over a fancy gaff filled with “knobs and buttons where you don’t know what any of the stuff does”, there’s an easy confidence to ‘Erotic Reruns’ and its dual mission of musical and lyrical directness. It’s a record that excites because it sounds audibly as though it was made by people who were excited by it.

“There are bands that make a very similar record every time, but I think we get bored too easily.” Chris Keaton

First emerging at the end of the ‘00s amid a buzzy Brooklyn alternative scene, it’s this attitude that’s kept them slightly to the left of the bands they first shared column inches with. “I have friends where it seems like they’ve found their niche and they stick to it. And it’s no sleight on them, it’s just what they do - like Beach House just always sound like Beach House,” he says. “There are bands where it seems like they make a very similar record every time, but I think we get bored too easily.” Even within ‘Erotic Reruns’’ seemingly buoyant nuggets, influenced by “The Beatles and The Cars and The Turtles, and ‘60s

“Listen to the shit going on on the radio Post Malone doesn’t have an opinion about everything. I don’t get the sense that he’s particularly troubled by [what’s going on]; it’s just the same old asinine idiotic bullshit. Taylor Swift - maybe occasionally she says something in the media about how she’s going to support a candidate, but in general most pop music doesn’t really say anything. It’s really sad! I think it’s disgusting!” he exclaims. “It’s complete chaos, the musical landscape these days - nobody knows what streaming income should be and the touring markets are changing, but I’m constantly discovering new music and we’re trying to play all kinds of new places... There’s limitless things you can do.”

‘Erotic Reruns’ is out now via Yeasayer Records. DIY

49

Factory Reset

On her debut, Atlanta’s MATTIEL took the first steps on an intriguing path of idiosyncratic rock’n’roll; now, on follow-up ‘Satis Factory’, she’s making bold and confident new strides.

Words: Rhian Daly. Photos: Nicole Fara Silver.

“G

o stand guard,” Mattiel Brown instructs, her voice dropping to a commanding murmur, eyes darting to the stairway in the corner of the room. As DIY scuttles off towards the creaking bannister of the Morris-Jumel Mansion to watch for anyone who might catch the Atlanta musician in the act, she hops over the wooden barricade that usually keeps the public from entering the pristine bedroom and strikes a pose on a vintage chair. Minutes later, she’s back on the right side of the fence, the only clue to her rule-breaking digression the small, exhilarated smirk on her face.

Mattiel, as she is mononymously known, strikes you as someone full of confidence, with the fearless instinct to do as she wants, consequences be damned. She hasn’t always been this way, though.

Although the singer always loved music, and has been playing guitar since her parents gifted her one for Christmas aged 12, there was a time when she never believed she would ever be An Actual Musician (capital letters intended), let alone one making appearances on Later… With Jools Holland and supporting Jack White - her childhood hero.

“I don’t think it’s good for the human condition to be complacent and comfortable.”

That changed shortly after she turned 21, around five years ago. Struggling with a skin condition caused by overusing a cream prescribed to treat eczema, she went through a process of withdrawal that took a long time to complete.

“I spent two-and-a-half years in the bathtub with oatmeal all over my skin, trying to get some relief from these rashes that were all over my body,” she recalls, munching on a panini in a nearby coffee shop once the shenanigans of the photoshoot are over.

“That was a very dark period of my life and put a lot of things in perspective,” she says, staring out the window.

“Before that, I didn’t know how to value my health because I’d always had it and I had taken it for granted. After that experience, my whole entire perspective was: ‘You have

50 DIYMAG.COM

to take advantage of the time that you have while you’re healthy. You have to take advantage of opportunities as soon as they’re here and if you pass them up you will regret it forever. Do not waste your time.’” The way she says the words - sternly, coolly - makes them sound like a mantra she’s repeated to herself in the mirror many times before.

While she was still going through that period of health issues, she called up an acquaintance, Randy Michael, and asked if he and his friend Jonah Swilley wanted to make some music together. Despite her new attitude, she was still apprehensive.

“I knew that I could write but I wasn’t really sure what their reaction would be to my singing voice, or even if it was any good,” she smiles, explaining she’d never really sung in front of anyone before that.

It turned out to be a phone call that would begin the journey to where Mattiel’s life is now, and one that provided her with a cathartic outlet for the feelings running through her at that time.

Together, the trio made the singer’s self-titled first album in a series of allnight sessions, the lyrics often written while she was driving to her day job as a designer at MailChimp. It’s a record of intriguing rock’n’roll that sounds like it could have been produced in any time period over the last 60 years; for a first body of work, it was hugely impressive, and the opportunities and plaudits began rolling in in tandem.

Now, however, she’s ready to step things up. More settled into the idea that this is her reality, Mattiel’s second album, ‘Satis Factory’, is a striking collection of confident, personality-driven songs that jump from sound to sound, idea to idea. It still feels timeless, but isn’t quite as rooted in the past as its predecessor. “I really love those parts of the first record,” Mattiel says, nodding in agreement. “They’re really beautiful compositions and beautiful productions in their own right, but I really wanted to try something more modern where I could get my message across without necessarily relying on nostalgia.”

“Fuck with me, and you fuck with all of us.”

51

choice in favour of music.

Press play on the album and you’ll find 12 bold songs that do just that.

There’s the warped disco funk of ‘Heck Fire’ that sounds like Blondie’s first experiments into disco, and the country swing of ‘Blisters’; the Stones strut of the fiery ‘Rescue You’, and the chiming hop of ‘Keep The Change’ - the latter of which details Mattiel’s experience of touring with the former White Stripe in 2018 and then returning to her day job.

“In 20 years time, will it all be mine / Or will I wish that I can take it all back?” she hollers on the track, hinting at the decision that was looming in her future: keep juggling touring and recording with her design job or throw herself full throttle into being a musician. “I certainly don’t feel like I had a sense of pride that was damaged ‘cos I went back to work,” she explains. “But it put my career in perspective. It was almost like the universe was telling me, ‘You’ve got a choice - you can go there or you can stay here.’” Almost a year later, Mattiel handed in her notice at MailChimp and made the

Although she’s no longer a designer by day, the musician puts her skills to good use by taking control over the imagery of her records and videos.

The cover for ‘Satis Factory’ features her stood in front of a looming maze of factory structures, chosen for its mundanity. “It’s something I notice when I’m on tour or on road trips - these big factory silos and scaffolding. They’re mysterious. You don’t know what they’re making in there. No one ever thinks about that stuff.”

The decision to quit is one that also ties in with the theme of ‘Millionaire’, the slow, tinkling song on which she comes across like a modernday Nico; voice droning, low, and utterly arresting. “Ever since I got myself this EZ chair, might as well be a millionaire,” she sings at one point. The image is one that evokes contentment, but in reality satisfaction, Mattiel explains, is a dangerous game. “Every artist I’ve ever spoken to who I consider a true artist, they’re always chasing

satisfaction,” she elaborates. “But if they ever fully reach it, they might as well quit. If you become satisfied with your work, what else is there to do? I was getting really comfortable in this job that paid so well - I had health insurance and everything. I don’t think it’s good for the human condition to be complacent and comfortable, and let your life pass by.”

As she finishes up the last bit of her sandwich, Mattiel looks out the window again and narrates the scene. “I’m looking at people just walking across the street, regular people wearing t-shirts and jeans,” she begins, before launching into an impassioned mini-speech. “Anybody can do this if they really want to. We all have the ability in us to be creative - it’s just that it’s been squashed in people at a young age.” If she someone who had never performed before making her first album - can do this, she posits, why can’t everyone else?

‘Satis Factory’ is out 14th June via Heavenly. DIY

“I wanted to get my message across without relying on nostalgia.”

52 DIYMAG.COM

Are back...

New single ‘Telepathetic’ out now.

Tue 25th June - exclusive release party at Electrowerkz, London.

Tickets available via livenation.co.uk // ticketmaster.co.uk

53

54 DIYMAG.COM

The Weirdos Are Taking Over

and precarious ur lo co of ot ri g in ell dw kor Y One’s a New

dental standards; the other’s a tattooed bunch of snarling misfits dredged up from Sweden’s gutters. We join

SURFBORT and VIAGRA BOYS as they vie

for the title of The Great Escape’s most unforgettable band.

Words: James Bentley. Photos: Emma Swann.

SURFBORT

W

hen it boils down to it, if there’s one thing that festivalgoers want, it’s to be entertained. And at this year’s Great Escape there are two bands set to excite, provoke, and confuse whoever comes close. Both can loosely be described as ‘punk’, but beyond that vague descriptor, the two couldn’t be more different.

In the blue corner is the most unexpectedly wholesome band of the weekend - if not the whole rock scene in 2019. Formed of three 50-something veterans of the ‘80s West Texas punk scene and a 26-year-old frontwoman who recently became the unlikely face of Gucci, Surfbort are simply giddy on the south coast.

“We started Surfbort as a joke,” chuckles Dani Miller as she munches down on a pile of french fries. She’s currently sporting a hefty mullet, a vintage Coca-Cola dress and a rainbow Gucci jumper, with fluorescent yellow fingernails and devil horn eye make-up. Needless to say, the singer is not a wallflower. “This is my first band and I love it.”

While drummer Sean Powell and guitarist David R. Head Jr. had performed in bands like Fuckemos and The Motards since the early ‘90s (co-vocalist and guitarist Alex Kilgore refers to himself as “the guy who hung out”), Dani simply lied that she was in a band when a reveler at a Together Pangaea gig mentioned she was booking a show. “I just came up with the name Surfbort and that was that,” she says.

Early antics set the scene for the band’s explosive live shows.

Several years prior, former member Matty Picola jumped off a four-storey yacht at a festival and then refused to be rescued by the lifeguards, instead opting to escape, then attempt re-entry via a series of disguises. The video for Picola-penned song

PUNK TRUMPS SURFBORT

Band members: 4 Tattoos: Lots, all on Sean.

Level of on-stage drunkenness: 0 Stability: 7 References to actual Trump: 1, negative (obvs) Most erratic moment: You read the bit about the boat, right?

55

‘Trash’, meanwhile, features several scenes of Dani puking over a television set; songs with titles like ‘Hippie Vomit Inhaler’ are similarly imaginative in their lyrical content.

But with two of the band sober (“Half of my friends are dead,” says Alex by way of to-the-point explanation), one a grandfather, and another a recent father, Surfbort are now more concerned with their shows providing a party for everyone else. “We want it to be a love fest,” grins Dani.

Surfbort’s mid-afternoon performance on the open-air Jubilee Stage finds people truly losing their shit to the band’s meat-and-bones rock romp. “Fuck Donald Trump and all the shitty, evil people out there,” the singer screams as she climbs the rafters; it’s like a rallying cry to the wild assortment of mismatched folk that make up the band’s audience.

music,” he admits. “I never fit in with the skinheads or the punks or the new wave people. I was just a mash-up.” “I used to get jumped by rednecks at my school,” chimes in Alex. “I quit school when I was 15.

My nickname in Texas was ‘faggot’.

I wasn’t a badass, but in the punk rock scene there were other guys who would stand up for you when you got your ass stomped.”

“I’m proud of that now,” continues Sean. “I never wanted any fucking uniform. Why do you have to have these badges to be in the club?

To me this band is all about being inclusive.”

“We’re for the outcasts, the weirdos, the freaks being who they want to be.” Dani Miller, Surfbort

“We’re for the outcasts, the weirdos, the freaks being who they want to be,” she continues later, through another mouthful of fries.

“Growing up, everyone gets made fun of and feels so left out and alone. I was totally an outcast.”

Opposite her, soft-spoken Sean sports facial tattoos and chains. “I was a weird kid and I was lonely, and the first thing I related to was

VIAGRA BOYS

T

he yin to Surfbort’s yang comes in the form of Stockholm’s sleaziest six-piece - the imaginatively named Viagra Boys. “They’re a bunch of ass grabbers,” Surfbort’s Sean Powell says affectionately. “We had a wild time with them in New York - although they looked like they’d been having a wild time for about a month without stopping.”

sniggers between gulps. “He was singing Mariah Carey, and so I talked to him about forming a punk band together because I could tell he was a talent. That was four or five years ago.” Since then, the band have released two EPs, with debut LP ‘Street Worms’ arriving in September 2018 - a sordid post-punk slither of shuffling beats, wild saxophone jams and basslines stinkier than last week’s underwear.

It’s only 6pm when DIY meet the Swedish collective, but the band are already several pints deep with no signs of stopping. “Can we do the interview here?” asks vocalist Sebastian Murphy, pointing at a picnic bench overflowing with half-finished beer glasses. He sits down next to Henrik ‘Benke’ Höckert, the band’s slap-headed bassist and fellow founding-member. They’ve been drinking for four hours so far.

Sebastian looks the part as the band’s head-turning centrepiece. He’s dressed, as he usually is, in a tracksuit and baseball cap, with wraparound sunglasses that obscure his blue eyes. A tattoo artist by day, his torso and limbs are covered with a tapestry of ink. Across his forehead reads ‘LÖS’ - Swedish for ‘loose’. “I have a loose moral compass,” he explains.

“I saw Sebastian singing karaoke on a night out,” Benke

56 DIYMAG.COM

Sebastian also designs the band’s eye-catching artwork and merch, which invariably features deformed cartoon

figures illustrated in the same style as the tattoos he’s adorned with. “The visual side of the band is pretty important. We had a vision at the beginning that it would be a package deal,” he explains. “I love bands that have their own imagery that has the same feeling as the music.”

But for all his creative prowess, Sebastian and the band seem unbothered by the rapturous reception they eventually receive later that night when they take the stage. “People are only interested in us because we’re being marketed to them,” says Sebastian. “It’s mathematics! Should I be thanking my mom for all this attention?!”

“We’re not gonna hype up the crowd, there’s no gimmicks. Expect nothing. The lower your expectations, the better,” he continues. “If someone said we have an exciting show, I would think they were lying.” Benke chimes in with another cackle: “Most of the time we just stand there waiting to go off stage.”

Viagra Boys only perform five songs when they take the stage at dingy club venue The Haunt later that night, and they’re clutching beer cans throughout half of that performance. But in spite of their apparent indifference, it’s the most charged show of the weekend. Through twisted Fall-esque fairy stories and screeching saxophone solos, tracks like ‘Sports’ seem set to bring the whole house down. It’s The Great Escape’s unlikely anthem and, hours later, crowds are still shouting “Short shorts! Cigarette! Sports!” - even during other band’s gigs.

orst people.” w e th r fo is y all re ic us m r ou k “I thin - Sebastian Murphy, Viagra Boys

“There have been gigs where guys have been pissed off with us,” admits Sebastian. “In Italy there was this guy who was shouting ‘You should be ashamed of yourselves!’, but I think our music really is for the worst people. We don’t try to provoke people, I just go out there and try to live my life. Some people get upset, but we want people to be able to feel like us, like we have something in common.”

Anticipation still hangs in the air long after the band has left the stage, and with no chance of a break any time soon (the band have been on tour with barely a week off since January), Viagra Boys will likely continue to leave a trail of confusion in their wake.

As DIY leaves, Dani from Surfbort is walking up the road to join the party, the beaming grin from her earlier show still fixed firmly across her faces.

“We’re all the same,” she’d remarked earlier. “Alien recognises alien”. And frankly, if being a freak is this much fun, who’d want to be normal?

Surfbort’s ‘Friendship Music’ is out now via Cult Records. Viagra Boys’ ‘Street Worms’ is out now via Year0001. DIY

PUNK TRUMPS VIAGRA BOYS

Band members: 6 Tattoos: Sebastian is basically one big tattoo.

Level of on-stage drunkenness: 9 Stability: 2 References to actual Trump: 0 Most erratic moment: All day, every day.

57

58 DIYMAG.COM

HE’S THE MULTI-AWARD WINNING AUTHOR OF SOME OF THE BIGGEST SONGS OF THE DECADE AND ONE OF THE MOST IN-DEMAND PRODUCERS AND SONGWRITERS IN THE BIZ. HOWEVER, WITH THE EMOTIONAL ‘LATE NIGHT FEELINGS’ ON THE WAY, WE FIND MARK RONSON MAKING PERSONAL BREAKTHROUGHS AS WELL AS PROFESSIONAL. Words: Lisa Wright.

B

ack at the start of the year, Mark Ronson, accompanied by frequent collaborator Lady Gaga, set off around the awards circuit, landing a Golden Globe, an Academy Award and a Grammy for their mammoth A Star Is Born hit, ‘Shallow’. A few years previous to that, back in 2015, the musical polymath had cleaned up in a similar fashion with global, Bruno Mars-featuring mega-smash ‘Uptown Funk’, picking up a Best Single BRIT Award and another Golden Globe, and topping the US Billboard chart for 14 weeks the second longest run of any track released this decade.

In between those two career peaks, the London-born, LA-based 43-year-old has, among other things, produced massive albums for Lady Gaga and Queens of the Stone Age, started new project Silk City with pal Diplo (landing another Grammy for their Dua Lipa collab ‘Electricity’ along the way) and launched record label Zelig, kick-starting the career of King Princess.

And yet, today, as we convene at north London’s AIR Studios, in the middle of a hectic press day ahead of the release of his own new LP ‘Late Night Feelings’, we find Mark contemplating the toll that this prolific work ethic has taken on the rest of his life. “I saw an interview in Vanity Fair the other day where they had some quotes from some friends of mine, and there was a quote from one of my oldest childhood friends Sean Lennon who said, ‘Yeah Mark’s like an Olympic prize fighter. When he’s on his thing, he’s so focused and the rest of the world doesn’t exist’,” he begins. “And I know he meant it as a compliment, but also I was like, oh really, is that what it looks like? Because you don’t wanna be somebody who’s looked at as being... not heartless, but detached from the world...”

An album born from the catalyst of his recent divorce from actor Josephine de la Baume, it’s one that, for the first time, sees the man with music’s most heaving phone book turning some of the spotlight on himself. Emotional, vulnerable and with its subject matter at the fore, it’s a record that’s clearly also provoked some self-reflection outside as well as inside the studio. “I do realise now, especially in the wake of having made something super personal and wanting to find a bit more balance between work and these things, that OK: maybe all these work tendencies might have paid off in

one part of my life, but there’s also this other part of my life that needs some attention,” he sighs. “Perfectionism is, in some ways, an ideal in the studio, because it sounds a tiny bit neurotic but it also sounds like a positive thing because it’s like, oh he cares so much. But perfectionism is a little bit of a bullshit abstract concept, because there’s no such thing as perfection. This idea of constantly clawing your way up a rock climbing wall that’s made out of a treadmill...

It’s exhausting and you’ll never be happy, because you’ll never reach that thing.”

I

f this kind of anxious approach seems at odds with the objectively huge successes that the musician has achieved over the past decade since first making a significant dent in the pop world with 2007’s ‘Version’ LP, then it’s a self-deprecating tendency that peppers Mark’s entire conversation. Slumped on a sofa, he’s friendly and polite, casually fancy in Yves Saint Laurent trainers and a watch that likely costs an average year’s rent, but with a bleary-eyed look that suggests he could do with a big sleep.

He is, a member of his team tells us, a professional napper, able to squeeze 10 minutes in at the drop of a hat after years of constant travelling and time differences. Only now, the musician explains, does he feel any real certainty or safety net in terms of his career. “I do feel a little bit better after [getting] a couple of things under my belt, especially in the last six months. Being like, ‘OK I’m not going to lose my spot any time soon’ is a nice thing to know,” he nods. “I feel a little more centred and OK with where I am for sure, but I don’t know that I’ll feel that way a year from now.”

The beginnings of his career were filled with this mix of uncertainty and tenacity. Originally making a name for himself as a DJ in New York, he first inked a solo deal because “they were giving out record contracts to any New York DJ with a name at that point” and released 2003 debut ‘Here Comes The Fuzz’. When it didn’t do as well as predicted, he was subsequently dropped. Then, when ‘Version’ - an album created “a little bit by accident because I wanted to make versions of songs that I loved in a way that I could play in my DJ sets” - spawned hits in the Lily Allen-featuring ‘Oh My God’ and Amy Winehouse’s unlikely cover of The Zutons’ ‘Valerie’, he was picked up again by Columbia. “So I found myself in this new position over the

59

past 10 years of a record company going, ‘Right! You’re due for an album now!’,” he explains. “And because I don’t really work in such a conventional way like, sit at a piano, here are my feelings, let’s put this out, then I have to usually come up with some kind of conceptual thing to motivate the record.

So, for [2015’s ‘Uptown Special’], it was ‘let’s drive through the south and take a road trip’. [Until now], they’ve more been motivated by a sonic idea.

“But then this record was really different because I couldn’t really fight the fact that every time I sat down to write some music, it was a little sad and a little melancholy,” he continues. “I think I felt [before] that I’m a DJ, and when I make my DJ records they’re meant to be fun, and when I work with Lady Gaga or Queens Of The Stone Age, then that’s when I’ll get deep and make something more substantial. But this is the first record where I just had to put myself into it, because any time I tried to do something else it was this knee-jerk thing of it not feeling good.”

Assembling a cast of co-writers and vocalists including Miley Cyrus, Alicia Keys, Angel Olsen, Lykke Li, King Princess and emerging artist Yebbe, the blueprint for ‘Late Night Feelings’’ album of self-described “sad bangers” soon began settling into place. Though the title track still shimmies along with a disco undercurrent, and Miley’s ‘Nothing Breaks Like A Heart’ is an undeniable, soaring slammer, for the first time, Mark began writing with a different brief. “There might be some lyrics and vocal performances that are great on those [previous] records, but they’re kind of an afterthought to the music and the track. But this is the complete opposite where the lyrics and the emotion are the most important thing and we then figured out how to make it dance afterwards,” he explains. “Whenever I’m in the studio producing for someone else, I’m always urging for a little more raw emotion, a little more honesty, a little more vulnerability.

And I feed off that so much with the people I work with, that it’s a little odd that I haven’t challenged myself in that

60 DIYMAG.COM

way up to now because that’s the thing that makes music really transcendent to me.”

U

tilising the same eclectic, foraging approach of his first sets, where he’d “come out of a Biggie song or the rock remix of a Puffy song, and then go into ACDC’s ‘Back In Black’ so no one would really realise by the time it dropped that the music had massively changed”, the cast of the record ranges from breaking artists to established superstars. Notably, however, all the vocalists are female. “There’s not a lot of male artists that I find super interesting right now, except in rap music where, in the post-’Yeezus’/ Drake world, there is quite a lot of emotional vulnerability,” he shrugs. “A lot of male pop singers, other than Frank Ocean, I don’t see it. You look at the massive female pop stars like Ariana and Miley and SZA, and there’s this really confessional, open thing, but it seems like the dudes aren’t really holding it down right now.”

With his forthcoming fifth, however, Mark Ronson may not be on the mic, but he might still buck that trend. Finally

“Perfectionism is a bullshit abstract concept, because there’s no such thing as perfection.”

digging a little deeper into himself, and with a record of often poignant, often hearttugging, subtle-yet-hook-laden emotional pop nuggets to show for it, he cites it as “far and away the best” release to bear his own name at the top of the masthead to date.

Now, he’s concentrating on getting all the other shit figured out, too.

HOW TO WRITE A GLOBAL SMASH,

by Mark Ronson

A few months ago, he recalls, he was on a flight from Italy to Germany, making notes on 1,200-page mega-tome, ‘The Feelgood Handbook’ - aka “the bible on cognitive behavioural therapy”. “I landed and this guy was like, ‘That’s a very impressive text you’re reading’. I think he thought I was some kind of psychiatric professor,” Mark remembers.

“I feel like the idea of realising that some patterns I’ve had my whole life are unhealthy and proactively trying to work on them [is progress],” he nods. “I guess, because I’m not falling out of nightclubs and I don’t scream ‘headcase’, it’s easy to gloss over some of the other things in my life where I’ve maybe put shit off or pushed it down by going into work [mode].

“I’m just psyched that I feel I’m at least on the path to making myself a whole person.”

‘Late Night Feelings’ is out 21st June via Columbia. DIY

Advice, from a master... “‘Uptown Funk’ and ‘Shallow’ are such different kinds of songs, but when I think about the moment of [both of] their inceptions, it was just a pure emotion.

‘Uptown Funk’ is pure joy; Bruno’s on the drums, Jeff [Bhasker] is on synth, Phil [Lawrence] has a mic, I’m playing bass and we’re just playing this bullshit jam for five hours but it’s so much fun. ‘Shallow’ we went in a room and it felt a little moody that night, and Gaga had the idea for the ‘I’m off the deep end’ bit first, but when she sung ‘tell me something boy’ for the first time, all my hairs stood up.

Quincy Jones said it, and I’m gonna paraphrase it, but you’ve got to leave a little energy to let God in the room, or whatever the thing is that you believe in.

You’ve got to go slightly into this emotionally vulnerable, open place and let it happen.”

61



BASTILLE

F

or the best part of their existence so far, Bastille have taken the darker moments of life - be it ancient history, politics, the general chaotic state of the outside world - and transformed them into anthemic pop bops, bathed in a sense of hopeful euphoria. It’s a style that’s dominated both of their albums so far - ‘Bad Blood’ and ‘Wild World’ - and while ‘Doom Days’ may share similarities when it comes to syllables, their latest record feels like its cut from a different cloth.

62 DIYMAG.COM

Doom Days (Virgin EMI)

That’s not to say the glorious hooks and earwormy lyrics that peppered those first records aren’t present here; it’s more that while their previous efforts channelled bombast, ‘Doom Days’ is more of an intimate, and therefore unexpected, affair. Based around the events of one night partying (which, as you may guess, all kicks off at ‘Quarter Past Midnight’) it’s an album that digs into the musical influences of the band as a whole. Layered with electronics and synths, samples and drops, it finds itself constantly shifting to follow the phases and mood of the evening.

Through the likes of the soulful ‘The Waves’, which sees Dan Smith sharing his vocals with female vocalist Bim Amoako-Gyampah, or the ‘Born Slippy’-ness of ‘Million

Pieces’ - a song that feels closer to a clubland classic that your regular Bastille chart-topper - we’re given a more detailed glimpse into their brand of musical magpie-ing.

It’s also a record that feels more thematically insular than previously: set against the imminent apocalypse, which apparently rages outside while the party’s guests rage inside, it casts a closer eye on the insecurities and fears that burn deep in the belly of escapism. Its title track becomes the record’s dark centrepiece, Dan’s vocals more hushed and almost suspicious of the modern world - “So many questionable choices / We love the sound that our voice makes / And this echo chamber’s getting loud”

- before ‘Nocturnal Creatures’ sweeps the paranoia away with its cathartic electronics.

While ‘Doom Days’ may look like an unusual step for a band as huge as Bastille - with fewer obvious hits and more introspective numbers - it’s certainly not. A record which thrives on evoking feeling and catharsis, while remaining committed to their personal influences, on ‘Doom Days’ they’ve managed to deftly build a conceptual world not all too different to the one we’re facing right now, and that feels like a triumph in itself. (Sarah Jamieson) LISTEN: ‘The Waves’, ‘Nocturnal Creatures’

63

A REMINDER OF WHY THERE’S STILL A PLACE FOR THEM. 

THE RACONTEURS Help Us Stranger (Third Man)

11 years since the release of second LP ‘Consolers of the Lonely’, it seemed unlikely that we’d ever be staring down the barrel of a new Raconteurs record. Having quietly gone on hiatus at the turn of the decade, co-frontman Brendan Benson then declared a few years later that the hiatus was actually more of a split, and talk of the supergroup that he, Jack White, Jack Lawrence and Patrick Keeler had first unleashed back in 2005 soon dwindled away. In the interim, Brendan released a couple more solo records, and Jack L and Patrick continued playing in various projects – most notably those connected to Big Jacky W, who... well, safe to say the prolific star hasn’t exactly been lazy since.

First teasing their return last year, the advent of a new album proper should yield the obvious question that’s floored so many bands attempting a second spin of the wheel: coming back to a musical landscape that’s changed immeasurably in the interim, where do they fit in 2019? And yet, now as ever,

64 DIYMAG.COM

The Raconteurs don’t really fit anywhere. Theirs is a union as progressive as a tin can on a piece of string, as zeitgeistchasing as an old man playing shuffleboard; the beauty of The Raconteurs is in the timeless joy of hearing two world-class songwriters, cut from two very different sides of a similar cloth, come together to make something if not greater, then at least as good as the sum of their considerable parts. And in that sense, ‘Help Us Stranger’ succeeds, and then some.

If Jack White has always been the bigger star pull in this operation, then on the band’s third, the two frontmen stand perhaps on more equal footing. Of course, it’s the White Stripes legend who underpins the likes of ‘Live A Lie’ and ‘Only Child’ with fizzing fretwork and strange piano inserts, but it’s Brendan whose more major-key driven, simple melodies bring something fresh to the table. The sassy kiss-off of the Jack-led ‘What’s Yours Is Mine’ or the histrionic, wild-eyed fire of ‘Don’t Bother Me’ are classic White and make for easy highlights, but they’re also more familiar; having released solidly for years, we know what Jack can do. But it’s when the pair truly come together, on the stadium stomp of opener ‘Born and Razed’ or the lighters-aloft ‘Now That You’re Gone’ that The Raconteurs remind exactly why there’s a place that still remains for them as a unit. Whether they continue ablaze or leave it another 10 years, it’s a place always worth returning to. (Lisa Wright) LISTEN: ‘Now That You’re Gone’, ‘Live A Lie’

ALBUMS 

TWO DOOR CINEMA CLUB False Alarm (Prolifica / PIAS)

If the Two Door Cinema Club of 2010 debut ‘Tourist History’ were young, successful deer in the headlights then, by 2014 and the conclusion of their second, things were altogether more fractious; returning in 2016 with ‘Gameshow’, meanwhile, the band that showed up were a trio fighting to regain their sense of self and their place at indie’s top table. It’s been a rollercoaster for the Bangor group, but it’s one that only makes the fresh, invigorated pay-off of fourth LP ‘False Alarm’ all the more joyous. From the opening, ringing keys of ‘Once’ - the appropriate, aural equivalent of taking your first, squinting steps into the new-day sun - ‘False Alarm’ manages to combine a newfound sense of brave experimentation with the band’s tried-and-tested way with a sparkling hook. The idiosyncratic, Devo-esque ‘Talk’ is the strangest single they’ve ever released, but it’s still huge; ‘Nice To See You’ prowls along with a ‘Fame’era Bowie slink, while ‘Dirty Air’ is the taut dancefloor banger that Franz Ferdinand never wrote. It’s unexpectedly weird in places, but never for the sake of it. Instead, Two Door Cinema Club have learnt how to harness their mainstream power while taking creative risks. They pay off almost every time. (Lisa Wright) LISTEN: ‘Dirty Air’, ‘Nice To See You’



MARK RONSON

Late Night Feelings (Columbia) Ever since his breakthrough with 2007’s ‘Version’, Mark Ronson’s career has been fairly un-pigeonholeable. There’s no-one else, let’s face it, whose name is credited on albums by both Adele and Black Lips. It’s why, though logic might expect him to follow up the mammoth success of ‘Shallow’ with another stab at the stratosphere, it actually makes far more sense in Ronsonworld to deliver ‘Late Night Feelings’: his most emotive, personal album to date, chock full of subtle, sad bops and wistful nuance. Recruiting an army of female guest vocalists, the album veers from eyelash-fluttering disco shimmies on its Lykke Li-featuring title track, through Camila Cabello’s more Radio 1 turn on ‘Find U Again’ through the weird, bass funk of ‘Knock Knock Knock’, featuring a star turn from Yebbe. The ‘biggest’ track is, unsurprisingly, Mark’n’Miley’s alreadyreleased ‘Nothing Breaks Like A Heart’, but it’s a testament to the album that the singer’s star power doesn’t dominate; instead, it brings to a close a record that pushes each of its contributors to stamp their own mark, uniting them under the banner of heartbreak but leaving room for each vocalist to twist the blueprint to their own shape. ‘Late Night Feelings’ is the last dance at the disco, as romances are made and dreams are broken; at least with Mark at the helm, you know the playlist’s in good hands. (Lisa Wright) LISTEN: ‘Late Night Feelings’

Probably just be easier to get an iPhone, eh lads?

65



HOT CHIP

A Bath Full Of Ecstasy (Domino)

With a name like ‘A Bath Full of Ecstasy’, you’d be forgiven for thinking indie disco stalwarts Hot Chip were about to hook you up with more pills than The Shamen and take you down to The Haçienda. But Hot Chip have never been about the hedonistic ‘90s bacchanals. Though built for the dancefloor, theirs has always been a more introspective groove: the kind of sound that mixes the euphoric with the melancholic, rooted in the mind as much as in the body. ‘Clear Blue Skies’ sees them opening with a surprisingly orchestral movement before the shuffling beats and twinkling synths elevate the record to a heavenly place. Joe Goddard’s endearingly warbling vocals remind us that this is still inherently human, however, as he longingly asks “What kind of magic did you use?” As it shifts into album closer ‘No God’, with its piano house riff, filled with warmth and long-sought acceptance, it feels like a weight being lifted off your shoulders to an almost transcendent extent. This is what Hot Chip do best: infectious escapism at its finest. (Chris Taylor) LISTEN: ‘Hungry Child’



YEASAYER Erotic Reruns (Yeasayer Records)

Sonically, ‘Erotic Reruns’ is Yeasayer’s most accessible album in a decade. In being less about experimentation, and more interested in having the hooks and melodies front and centre, it has resulted in standouts like the danceable ‘Ecstatic Baby’ and the brooding ‘I’ll Kiss You Tonight’. Work began around the time of the 2016 presidential election and, perhaps surprisingly for a band not known for wearing their politics on their sleeves, a slew of these tracks reflect on the present state of America in bitingly satirical fashion. It makes for a weird dichotomy; musically, they’re travelling back to what they know best.

Thematically, they’re in uncharted waters. They don’t quite pull it off as spectacularly as they might have looked set to, but they have made a genuinely beguiling album. (Joe Goggins) LISTEN: ‘24-Hour Hateful Live!’

 BLACK MIDI Schlagenheim

 MATTIEL Satis Factory (Heavenly)

(Rough Trade)

‘Schlagenheim’ is one of 2019’s most hotly anticipated debuts in a year that’s been slammed with them. Rest assured, however, that Black Midi’s debut does not disappoint; it’s one of the most inventive and breathtaking records that’ll be released before these 12 months are through. The album hurtles out of the gate with ‘953’, a hurricane of pure adrenaline, Morgan Simpson’s exhilarating drums merging with volleys of distortion: it’s the sound of a controlled demolition.

Yes, there are some missteps along the way, mid-point number ‘of schlagenheim’ deploys Geordie Greep’s distinctive vocal one step too far leaving him gibbering in the middle of the track like a demented gibbon. Still, even in their errors, Black Midi’s commitment to pushing everything to the absolute limit has to be commended. ‘Schlagenheim’ is a breath-taking, exhausting listen, doubling down on their early promise and then some.

(Tom Sloman) LISTEN: ‘The Crying Girl’ 66 DIYMAG.COM

Following on from her Jack Whiteendorsed eponymous debut in 2017, Mattiel returns with ‘Satis Factory’, a more experimental second offering. There’s also more of a concept behind the record, which puts a never-ending search for self-gratification at its core, as illustrated on the infectious ‘Millionaire’ and ‘Berlin Weekend’, the latter asking: “What then when you’ve got a means to an end? / What are you gonna do then?” Exploring the quest for both self- and creative fulfilment, the album resolves that the journey is more exciting than the destination.

Tackling interesting ideas and putting the genre through an avant garde filter, Mattiel Brown’s powerful vocals once again impress too on what ultimately feels like a significant step forward. (Elizabeth Aubrey) LISTEN: ‘Millionaire’, ‘Berlin Weekend’





SURFBORT

PIXX

(Cult Records / Fat Possum)

(4AD)

Friendship Music

Yes, Surfbort are a band who need to be seen live, but ‘Friendship Music’, the New Yorkers’ debut album which was originally released Stateside late last year, still does a damn good job of introducing their high-octane punk. “Pussy-grabbing paedophile,” opens the visceral ‘45’, one of the most to-the-point sonic assaults on the current US President yet, “I hope you move to your own private island / and North Korea only bombs you.” In true punk style, the recording quality isn’t exactly consistent (‘Slushy’ and the wordplay of ‘Les Be In Love’, notably fuzzy) over these 17 tracks - of which none reach the two-and-a-half-minute mark, fyi - but whether frontwoman Dani Miller is literally howling (‘ACAB’) snarling “I’m not looking for a pretty fucker like you,” or repeating “Fuck the government,” it’s a compelling listen. (Louisa Dixon) LISTEN: ‘45’

Small Mercies ....................................................

‘Small Mercies’ veers between the electronic stylings of debut ‘The Age of Anxiety’ and a more traditional indie rock palette - right from the outset, we go from airy pop on opener ‘Andean Condor’ to crunching guitar and belligerent vocal delivery with ‘Bitch’. This dichotomy comes to define the record, for both better and worse; Hannah, who was raised Catholic, has again taken an ambitious conceptual approach, looking at oppression through the lenses of both religion (‘Disgrace’, the thrillingly grungy ‘Mary Magdalene’) and gender (‘Hysterical’, the shape-shifting, synth-heavy standout ‘Funsize’). The constant stylistic divergence means that ‘Small Mercies’ lacks a sense of cohesion, but it remains a consistently gripping group of songs. ‘Small Mercies’ is not a complete success, but Pixx’s creative voice remains unique.

(Joe Goggins) LISTEN: ‘Funsize’



TYLER, THE CREATOR

Igor

(Columbia)

Fresh from the lifting of his UK travel ban, ‘IGOR’ sees Tyler The Creator pick up from where 2017’s ‘Flower Boy’ left off, displaying the kind of gentle nuance that his decadeyounger self may well have scoffed at. It’s hard to believe that the tie-dyed teen who hurled gay slurs with alarming regularity is even the same person crooning beautifully about unrequited love, but here we are. Over the course of 12 tracks, we dance around funk, R&B and rap, recalling the spirit of Outkast or old bandmate Frank Ocean in the playfulness of his samples, meandering by way of small snippets of gospel vocal or a sudden bass drop. Much like collaborator Kanye West, who is heard in fine spirits on ‘Puppet’, Tyler constantly flirts the line between controversy character and musical genius. When he gets it right, he throws the idea of ruthless cancel culture into jeopardy - is it really too hard to believe that people may grow out their teenage obnoxiousness? Whether you want to give him a pass or not, ‘IGOR’ is full of glittering moments that might change your mind. (Jenessa Williams) LISTEN: ‘New Magic Wand’ 67



ANOTHER SKY Life Was Coming In Through The Blinds (Fiction) South Londoners Another Sky have been releasing a steady stream of singles over the past year, going from strength to strength with each passing nugget. Anchored by lead singer Catrin Vincent’s haunting, androgynous vocals, they take cues from experimental post-rock heroes Talk Talk and Radiohead to create grandiose, intricate soundscapes. The quartet’s new EP is led by track ‘The Cracks’, a paean dedicated to young revolutionary hopefuls trying to make the world a better place than the one they grew up in. Doused in vivid, eerie imagery that blends politically-aware themes of loneliness, anxiety and how to find deeper purpose in an already broken world, the four-track offering is a glimpse into how Another Sky are a band capable of deftly soundtracking the looming future. (Cady Siregar) LISTEN: ‘The Cracks’



PSYCHEDELIC PORN CRUMPETS

And Now For The Whatchamacallit (Marathon)

....................................................

“I was too young to see Tame Impala and that innovative psych scene, but that sound’s still around. It’s like Perth’s gold nugget,” say Psychedelic Porn Crumpets, and they’re not lying - the city’s latest day-trippers sound positively fuzzed-out on their third album. ‘Bill’s Mandolin’ is named after an instrument given to singer Jack McEwan by his Grandfather, and it’s given a fitting tribute, the track galloping in the same fashion as the Kevin Parker vessel’s own ‘Elephant’. ‘When In Rome’, meanwhile, features sexy, distorted riffs a la QOTSA, while the delirious refrains of ’Social Candy’ provide bursts of elation on an album that’s already got its head in the clouds. (James Bentley) LISTEN: ‘Social Candy’

Q&A Another Sky’s ascent er, skywards, shows no sign of slowing any time soon. Catrin Vincent spills on their whirlwind rise and this new EP. When and where did you record the EP? We recorded the title track in our bedrooms, passing it round to each other like a patchwork quilt. ‘I Don’t Hate You’ was done at The Pool in London with engineer and fifth brain Jimmy Robertson, and ‘The Cracks’ was half and half.

‘Apple Tree’ was recorded also with Jimmy at Chale Abbey Studios, on the Isle Of Wight.

What have you explored lyrically on it?

I’ve written about things from a more personal perspective, something I find quite uncomfortable to do. ‘I Don’t Hate You’ is obviously about someone I don’t hate, but it’s an ironic thing to say, like saying “I’m fine” through gritted teeth. ‘Life Was Coming In Through The Blinds’ is about still existing despite bad things happening and the resulting period of depression that comes with it. It’s about that feeling of astonishment that you’re still here, that life goes on.

How do you feel the EP encapsulates where you’re currently at?

We’re evolving at a rate we can’t keep up with. Every song sounds different, but we like it that way. I think this EP encapsulates a period of time after teenage years, the moment of clarity that arrives with becoming a young adult. The feeling that you can understand what’s happened to you in a bigger way.

68 DIYMAG.COM



PIP BLOM Boat

(Heavenly Recordings)

........................................

On opener ‘Daddy Issues’ Pip Blom explodes with pent-up angst and emotion: “You said you never wanna die now / Now you don’t care anymore - what you wanna do?”, she taunts. The energy doesn’t let up, through addictive guitar anthems ‘Don’t Make It Difficult’ and the incendiary ‘Say It’. Elsewhere, cuts like ‘Aha’ and ‘Bedhead’ turn the dials back only slightly, but reveal the honest, insightful songwriter behind the noise. The loud-quiet-loud dynamics are amped up to the max courtesy of producer Dave McCracken. With spiky guitars and giddy screams around every corner, ‘Boat’ evokes the very best of Pixies and Courtney Barnett. (James Bentley) LISTEN: ‘Say It’

 

KATE TEMPEST

STEVE LACY

(American Recordings / Fiction)

(3QTR)

...............................................

Seeing Steve Lacy’s name on a production schedule is a sign of gold standard. From his work with The Internet to Vampire Weekend, his light production touch is instantly recognisable, capturing a sound that is at once ‘70s nostalgia and forwardthinking black excellence. His first record with his name above the door, ‘Apollo XXI’ makes for the ideal CV. ‘Playground’ and ‘N Side’ are the jump rope-slapping sound of block parties and burst water hydrants, while ‘Guide’ would have Metronomy’s Joe Mount selling his soul for that itchy bassline. It’s not all fun and games though - ‘Like Me’ conceals a hard-hitting message, detailing a life without role models or representation, questioning the lack of diversity in both his upbringing and the wider entertainment industry. If Steve is to get the props he deserves, he may well be one of the young black artists leading the charge for a better world. (Jenessa Williams) LISTEN: ‘Like Me’



RICHARD REED PARRY Quiet River Of Dust Vol. 2: That Side Of The River (ANTI-)

.................................................

When Richard Reed Parry released ‘Quiet River of Dust Vol. 1’ last year it marked a dramatic break with what he’d released before under his own name, all hushed vocals and gentle guitars and soundscapes that unfurled slowly, softly, methodically. ‘…Vol. 2’ continues very much in the same vein, but there is also consistent evidence that the Arcade Fire man may have saved some of the more abstract work for the back half. The kind of boundary-free experimentation that ‘Where Did I Go’ so neatly sums up is at the core of the ‘Quiet River of Dust’ project, and the abstract flourishes continue throughout; environmental atmospherics have a part to play on ‘It’s All Around You’, which brings woodwind into the mix. The completed ‘Quiet River of Dust’ picture is one of nuanced, unhurried beauty. (Joe Goggins) LISTEN: ‘Where Did I Go’

...............................................

Like her two previous Mercurynominated albums, ‘The Book of Traps and Lessons’ sees Kate Tempest cast a critical eye over modern Britain, exploring the detrimental effects of our current political narrative and how, together with the isolation and anxiety that social media brings, we are a society broken. “The racist is drunk on the train / The racist is drunk on the internet” she cuts on ‘All Humans Too Late’.

Instead of working to repair the damage Brexit has caused, she highlights how we are instead “online, venting our outrage / Teaching the future that life is performance and vanity.” While this is perhaps Tempest’s darkest work to date, there is light and hope to be found too, like on the tender ‘Firework’, an emotive ode to her partner. On ‘The Book of Traps and Lessons’ Kate Tempest continues to impress as one of the UK’s most vital voices. (Elizabeth Aubrey) LISTEN: ‘Keep Moving Don’t Move’



FLYING LOTUS Flamagra (Warp)

...............................................

‘Flamagra’ is a whopper of an album that spans the course of a delirious hour.

The opening sequence of tracks takes in jazz, hip hop and acid-fried elevator music, and then ends with a thumping cameo from Anderson .Paak on ‘More’.

From there things continue to take a turn for the weird: funk overlord George Clinton steps up for a trippy verse intoning “the fire won’t stop burning” on ‘Burning Down The House’. This is all before a haunting bit of spoken word from your boyfriend’s favourite film director, David Lynch. If this sounds like a lot, then that’s because it is. ‘Flamagra’ is a headspin of a record, like going on an acid-fuelled stunt plane ride. It is a deliciously weird album that demands it be met on its own terms for better or for worse, combining all elements of Flying Lotus’ storied career into one very bonkers universe. Well worth the price of admission if the listener is willing to hang on. (Tom Sloman) LISTEN: ‘More’

RECOMMENDED

Apollo XXI

The Book of Traps and Lessons

Missed the boat on the best albums from the last couple of months?

Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered.



SLOWTHAI Nothing Great About Britain

A record that’s every bit as iconic as its frankly astonishing artwork. Essential listening.



WHENYOUNG Reasons To Dream The debut we’d been hoping for from the Limerick dreamers and then some.



LIZZO Cuz I Love You Releasing bangers for days, flaunting her flute skills and generally being a force for good - there’s nothing Lizzo can’t do.

69



SACRED PAWS Run Around The Sun

eeee

HATCHIE Keepsake (Heavenly)

(Rock Action)

Much like their previous releases, ‘Run Around the Sun’ is a collection of delightful, sunshine-soaked fuzz-pop. Rachel Aggs’ guitar-playing - effervescent and the heartbeat of the band - is as infectious as any melodies. ‘The Conversation’ recalls the glorious indie-pop shimmer of Pip Blom or the Orielles. “I don’t care, no / Life’s too short,” the duo iterate on the album track of the same name. Sacred Paws are having fun, and you just have to go along with the ride.

(Cady Siregar) LISTEN: ‘The Conversation’

 TITUS ANDRONICUS

An Obelisk (Merge)

Over six studio albums, one thing became clear about Titus Andronicus: those who like them, really like them.

You’d have had to in order to get through 2015’s ‘The Most Lamentable Tragedy’, a fiveact ‘rock opera’ that lasted longer than a football match.

Even the group’s most recent LP, ‘A Productive Cough’ released last year, was testing in its mellow demeanour. Of course, by the time Patrick Stickles’ barely-enunciated howl repeats “Nothin’ but trouble, man” in ‘Troubleman Unlimited’ in his best Kurt Cobain, it’s clear ‘An Obelisk’ ain’t no softie. If you’re partial to a bit of blue-collar punk, this is likely to be right up your street. (Louisa Dixon) LISTEN: ‘Beneath The Boot’

70 DIYMAG.COM

As Hatchie, Brisbane native Harriette Pilbeam provides the soundtrack to falling in love.

She floods your ears with dreamy melodies, sugary tones and lush vocals, nestled in a perfect middle between Cocteau Twins and Alvvays - though commanding an artistry entirely her own. Having already released a slew of strong singles, the debut LP from the Australian musician veers away from the sometimes-sickly sweet sound of her older work. She ventures out into pulsating basslines and deeper, darker ‘80s synthpop while still being able to turn virtually every sigh of a melody she breathes into an earworm. “If I could kiss you one more time, would it make everything alright?” she wonders on ‘Without a Blush’, before pleading “Give it a try,” on ‘Unwanted Guest’.

She writes and wears her heart on her sleeve, half-singing, half-sighing through her songs with wide-eyed candour, shining through such swoon-worthy dreampop. At some point, you’ll wonder if it was Hatchie’s heartache and pain that was written about, or your own. (Cady Siregar) LISTEN: ‘Without A Blush’

Q&A Following the super hyped ‘Sugar & Spice’ EP with a fulllength proper, Hatchie’s Harriette Pilbeam reveals her own ‘Keepsakes’, and returning to work with producer John Castle.

What did recording in your home studio give you?

I finished the album in the studio, though I did demos and the foundations of the tracking from home, a lot of which ended up on the final record. It gave me the ability to record however and whenever I wanted to, in my own timeframe. I feel pretty comfortable in the studio but there’s something about being able to take your time with starting each day and going as late into the night as you may want to, that makes the experience even more relaxed and comfortable.

How do you think it shows you as having changed since ‘Sugar & Spice’?

It’s hard to step outside of my headspace and look at it objectively. I guess it shows more depth and growth in my reflections, as it’s been a long time since I wrote those EP tracks.

And what made you return to working with John Castle?

Everything just worked so well with John - he’s hilarious, puts us at ease, understands all of the sounds we’re aiming for, and works super fast. It was a no-brainer to work with him again.

What kind of ‘Keepsakes’ do you, er, keep?

I wouldn’t say I’m a hoarder; I don’t really keep strange things, just small mementos like tickets, notes and photos.

MINI MANSIONS Guy Walks Into A Bar...

Quite possibly the band with the most impressive phone contacts list - they have a literal Queen of the Stone Age among them, after all. Out 26th July.

THE MURDER CAPITAL When I Have Fears

The Flood-produced debut from the Dublin newcomers is one worth getting very excited about. Released 16th August.

AFRICA EXPRESS Egoli

Georgia, Ghetts, Gruff Rhys and of course Damon Albarn headed to South Africa to collaborate with locals including Moonchild Sanelly and Blk Jks. Released 12th July.



MIDDLE KIDS New Songs For Old Problems (Lucky Number)

....................................................

As the title suggests, there is little deviation from Middle Kids’ form book on ‘New Songs for Old Problems’; fizzing guitars, racing percussion and boisterous vocals from singer Hannah Joy are all in plentiful supply. She and bassist Tim Fitz, clearly have a sharp grasp of melody and we see a slightly different side to that here; where ‘Lost Friends’ was hook-heavy throughout and occasionally heavy-handedly anthemic, the likes of the bittersweet ‘Needle’ and the reflective ‘Big Softy’ here suggest that the next record might swap out some of the relentless energy for moments of introspection.

‘New Songs for Old Problems’ will augment Middle Kids’ live set nicely between now and the end of the year, but for evidence of real progression, we’ll have to wait for album two. (Joe Goggins) LISTEN: ‘Big Softy’

 

DUMB Club Nites (Mint)

........................................

Like Vancouver’s answer to Parquet Courts, Dumb deal in spiky, rattling riffs and the kind of vocal - courtesy of frontman Franco Rossini - that lands somewhere between pissed-off rant and sarcastic stand-up. There’s a strong line of bands coming through that deal in ‘this sort of thing’, from New York’s Bodega to Amsterdam’s Canshaker Pi, but on second LP ‘Club Nites’ Dumb state a decent case for their place among them. ‘Beef Hits’ is an infectious, two-fingers up romp through twanging guitars and a big fuzzy chorus, while the Stephen Malkmus-recalling ‘Cursed’ shows they can do prangedout melancholy just as well. Far from the fools of their name, Dumb are onto something pretty magnetic.

(Lisa Wright) LISTEN: ‘Beef Hits’

FRANK IERO AND THE FUTURE VIOLENTS  Barriers BAD BREEDING (UNFD)

....................................................

Exiled

Frank Iero has never been afraid of productivity; even in the six years since My Chemical Romance called it a day, he’s had his finger in many a musical pie. That’s what makes the news of a third solo album - this time with another backing cast, the Future Violents - not too surprising. This time, however, some things are different.

There’s an easiness to his genre-swaying - moving from the bluesy opener of ‘A New Day’s Coming’ through to the crunching riffs of ‘Fever Dream’ via the drama of ‘Basement Eyes’ - that feels more accomplished, more confident. Still very much channelling the punk rock that’s been his lifeblood, ‘Barriers’ really benefits from Frank, well, not really having many. (Sarah Jamieson) LISTEN: ‘Fever Dream’

(One Little Indian)

....................................................

Stevenage shredders Bad Breeding take influence from the current state of British politics on their third album. In their words, we’re “a nation circling the drain while forever eyeing the plughole.” As such, ‘Exiled’ tears the listener a new one from the start. The suspensebuilding kick drum thumps of seven-minute finale ‘Tortured Reality’ preface hazy, Sonic Youth-like explorations of white noise and distortion.

It’s one of only two songs longer than two-and-a-halfminutes and it provides a decent respite on a record that barely takes its foot off the gas pedal. This onslaught would make even the most hardcore listener flinch. Bring earplugs. (James Bentley) LISTEN: ‘Tortured Reality’ 71



PLAGUE VENDOR

By Night (Epitaph)

While Plague Vendor’s acclaimed 2014 debut embodied free-spirited Californian surf-punk, and 2016 follow-up ‘BLOODSWEAT’ unfurled like the audible equivalent of Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas’ psychedelic desert road trip, ‘By Night’ sees the two collide headfirst under the watchful eye of producer and creative behemoth John Congleton. Taking their characteristic off-kilter moments, the result sees Plague Vendor’s ferocious punk swirl around explosions of synth and thunderous electronic drums, a combination that ultimately propels their ever-present homage to classic sounds into the present day. (Ben Tipple) LISTEN: ‘New Comedown’



YONAKA

Don’t Wait ‘Til Tomorrow (Asylum)

Yonaka have made no secret of their grand ambitions in the past, so it’s perhaps no surprise that the quartet have leaned into their arena-rock sensibilities on debut ‘Don’t Wait ‘Til Tomorrow’. The full-length is a more saturated version of the bravado-fuelled angular rock we’ve heard previously, but, to its detriment, minimises many of the idiosyncrasies that earned their status as rock’s new rule-breakers.Still, ‘Punch Bag’ is a Kasabian-esque rally call that finds singer Theresa Jarvis at her most emphatic, and ‘Fired Up’ proves Yonaka could yet achieve dizzying heights without compromising on the beginnings that got them there. (Lisa Henderson) LISTEN: ‘Punch Bag’



STEF CHURA Midnight

(Saddle Creek)

On debut ‘Messes’, Stef Chura introduced a sound distinctly, well, Stef Chura. At times indecipherable, and endlessly engaging, it exhibited the kind of character label Saddle Creek is so closely associated with.

While ‘Midnight’ continues to reflect Stef’s gloriously distinct idiosyncrasies, it is, by her own admission, somewhat more intelligible. Tracks such as ‘Method Man’ and ‘3D Girl’ are tight, feral and expertly executed. Elsewhere, she divulges in influences from country and folk (‘Trumbull’, ‘Jumpin’ Jack’) to straight up Waxahatchee-esque indie (‘Love Song’) without ever compromising on the essence of her sound. There is also an assurance, a defiance even, that has grown since her debut, best encapsulated by the opening line to ‘Sincerely Yours’: “These demons, do not resist / Because I’m fucked up and I’m ready”. Not just accepting, but celebrating her own unique style, it epitomises exactly what makes Stef Chura such a valuable artist. A value that, a couple of prolonged indulgences aside, ‘Midnight’ captures with great success. (Ben Lynch) LISTEN: ‘Method Man’

Back to the

Drawing Board With Stef Chura

Q1: Where did you record the album?

72 DIYMAG.COM

Q2: What is your favourite thing to do at ‘Midnight’?

Q3: What do ‘Eyes Without A Face’ look like?

Q4: What does listening back to the record make you feel?

73

POTTERY

LIVE THE GREAT ESCAPE

Various venues, Brighton. Photos: Emma Swann and Louise Mason.

74 DIYMAG.COM

D

ay One of Brighton’s yearly new band marathon, where the great and good of music’s freshest hopes battle it out to win the buzz crown like an indie Hunger Games but with less violence and more lukewarm pints, and there’s barely time to grab a battered sausage before the treats begin.

CHAI THE MURDER CAPITAL

Over at The Haunt, Japan’s selfprofessed ‘neo-kawaii’ ambassadors CHAI kick off the lunchtime show with a set that’s the aural equivalent of eating 10 bags of Skittles at once.

Marika Hackman follows and, despite having a terrible time in terms of technical issues, still manages to herald the start of phase three with gusto. Shredding her way through new material, and offering up recent assured bop ‘I’m Not Where You Are’, she’s even dyed her hair darker as if to give a visual cue that this time around she’s not shitting about.

Meanwhile, it’s barely into the PM and Lady Bird have already turned it up to 11. “Both of my knobs have fallen off,” singer Sam Cox complains - referring to his guitar rather than his personal effects - but the resultant buzzing only compliments the arsenal of sound.

At DIY’s stage at Horatio’s, Walt Disco are at their stylish best.

Frontman James Potter sports a dangly earring, fishnet sleeves and a kilt as he channels both PiL’s John Lydon and Echo and the Bunnymen’s Ian McCulloch with powerful, warbling vocals.

Meanwhile at the Paganini Ballroom the spectacular 17th century meeting room of Brighton’s oldest hotel, The Old Ship - The Murder Capital are causing a stir. Baritone-voiced frontman James McGovern graces the stage in a suit and tie, brandishing a tambourine as the band blitz and chug through tracks like ‘Love Love Love’ and ‘Feeling Fades’. Waves of creaking feedback build a dark and fiery backdrop to his powerful lyrics, while the singer remains stone-faced and serious for the duration of the set.

FOALS

As midnight rolls around, Montreal’s Pottery have the Komedia Bar at capacity, but for those that can squeeze in it’s a jaw-dropping, freewheeling ride. At points, the quintet are like a modern-day Television, all choppy riffs and tight, springy rhythms; then, they delve into a deep funk odyssey, coloured lights dancing behind them as the band indulge in a

joyous wig-out before emerging out the other side of the playful ‘Lifeline Costume’ in glorious synchronicity.

It’s simultaneously tight and hedonistic.

While the festival’s general vibe tends towards the new, it also has good form in bringing some altogether larger treats. This year they’ve outdone themselves: the 500 people that pack into Concorde 2 to witness Foals return to the venue they played a literal decade ago on the way up know they’re in for something special.

Playing as part of label Transgressive’s 15th anniversary celebrations, it’s semi-ridiculous to hear this many massive hits packed into such a small space. Now five albums in (with a six mere months away), the band have enough bona fide anthems to fill 90 minutes without ever letting up; couple that with the intimate, high-intensity energy of such a small room and it’s like being caught in a cathartic, chaotic glorious pressure chamber.

From the opening jagged jabs of recent single ‘On The Luna’, through the old crescendoes of ‘Olympic Airwaves’ via the emotional purging of ‘Spanish Sahara’ and the mammoth roars of ‘What Went Down’ and ‘Inhaler’, it’s a tour through a band whose canon has swelled and sidestepped but also stayed completely true to itself.

Earlier in the day, Do Nothing are greeted by the first proper sunshine of the weekend. The Nottingham boys play to a packed out Dive Bar tent, with gurgling bass lines and spiky flashes of guitar matching the stage’s strobe lights.

Off the beaten track at one of the festival’s Alternative Escape stages, North Carolina sextet The Nude Party are the coolest motherfuckers on the block. Like if The Velvet Underground and Black Lips hooked up and decided to collab, they’re an effortlessly suave tumble of sunglasses, vintage shirts and jangling, ’60s riffs. Very good indeed.

Squid have a queue snaking down the pier. It’s been the same for them across the festival, and tonight’s frenetic set more than justifies why.

At once taught yet chaotic, they’re a magnetic mix of wild yelps and wired, almost mathy, technical precision, and in recent single ‘Houseplants’ they have probably the best song about leafy greenery in memory.

75

Saturday afternoon is all about Australia. At the open-air Ditto Stage (essentially a caravan with the front propped open), These New South Whales mix witty banter with surging punk choruses. At the Dive Bar, Perth’s Psychedelic Porn Crumpets provide head-banging psychrock riffs to a fired-up audience, with a colourful light show to match. At the Deep End, Tropical Fuck Storm take the stage as electroclash synths and guitar crunches whip up some intriguing menace. Following them are Australia’s premier party starters Confidence Man, who don’t fail to impress. Synchronised dance moves, light-up rainbow lingerie and face masks underpin a vibrant visual performance as bubblegum pop melodies and ‘90s house pianos get the crowd busting shapes. Vocalists Janet Planet and Sugar Bones spray champagne across the front rows to top off the most fun, playful performance of the weekend.

At Coalition, we’re treated to a different set of tricks as Fictionsigned Another Sky conjure up the kind of intense, mesmeric performance that’s already earning them some not-inappropriate Radiohead comparisons. This is cerebral, intricate music, but

imbued with emotion, weight and gravitas.

TALK SHOW

Down on the beach, Talk Show’s take on post-punk is taught, frenetic and races away at 100mph, the singer channelling every bit of anger into a compelling stage presence that belies their status as relative newbies.

Over at DIY’s stage, Dutch gang EUT might win the weekend’s prize for visibly having the most fun. With cuts from debut LP ‘Fool For The Vibes’ bringing tinges of glam to their fizzing guitar kicks, singer Megan de Klerk – possessed with a gloriously Karen O-esque vocal twang – busts an impressive set of moves.

It’s left to Leeds’ Mush to close DIY’s Horatio’s takeover and the weekend of music in general, which they do in wonky, idiosyncratic fashion. Like a Northern Parquet Courts, theirs are angular, propulsive songs that skip along to their own pace, revelling in repetition at one moment, and fuzz the next, all helmed by singer Daniel Hyndman’s odd-but-excellent, hyper-expressive vocal.

THESE NEW SOUTH WHALES

Onwards to 2020… (Lisa Wright and James Bentley)

ANOTHER SKY

EUT

Madonna, eat yer heart out.

LI VE 76 DIYMAG.COM

CONFIDENCE MAN

LI VE

THE RACONTEURS Electric Ballroom, London.

Photos: Emma Swann.

J

ack White is a prolific kinda guy: this much we know.

Over the past ten years, he’s carved out a solo career with three albums to date, released another three as part of The Dead Weather and continued to preach the vinyl cause as head honcho of Third Man Records.

But while those projects have seen the iconic Detroit musician put barely a foot wrong sonically, they’ve not done a whole lot to change the stereotype of Jack, the eccentric.

With The Dead Weather, he’s the backbone of a group built on prowling rock’n’roll; with his solo output, his long-time tendency towards the precise, be it in colour-scheme or the consistent, omnipotent use of the number ‘3’, has only heightened. It’s all brilliant, but he’s never exactly been the kind of person you’d want to go down the pub for a pint with.

With The Raconteurs - the group he formed alongside the altogether sunnier Brendan Benson, Jack Lawrence and Patrick Keeler back in the mid-‘00s - however, there was always something akin to approachability, and it’s Fun Jack that arrives at Camden’s Electric Ballroom tonight. Heading to the venue for their first gig on UK soil since 2008, it’s an intimate, thrilling re-introduction to a band who many assumed would never necessarily return. The venue, sweaty at the best of times, is more than sold out - bodies jammed right to the back at the bar; there’s a buzz in the air that only comes ahead of a real ‘moment’.

And if the rammed audience are clearly rapt from the second the band walk out, backed by rows of glowing orange bulbs, then The Raconteurs themselves - bolstered by Queens of the Stone Age and The Dead Weather’s Dean Fertita - look like they’re having a ball. There’s an easy camaraderie between the frontmen, Jack regularly crossing the stage to his pal to share

a moment, while tonight, the singer has swapped the suits and military jackets of his recent solo tour for a simple black get-up, an intermittent Flying V guitar and a perma-grin. It all feels relaxed and positive.

Playing two-thirds of forthcoming LP ‘Help Us Stranger’, they weave the soaring stomp of ‘Bored And Razed’ and the fuzzy kiss-off of ‘Live A Lie’ into greedily sung-back fan favourites, and if it’s a bold move to load a comeback show with more than 50% fresh material, then it’s to the credit of these tracks that, even without the luxury of familiarity, they still rip hard. ‘Don’t Bother Me’ is a classic Jack wild-eyed rant, the singer’s singular voice sounding as feral and inimitable as ever, while ‘Only Child’ finds Brendan bringing in a sweeter side with an unexpected melodic punch of a bridge; the beauty of the band has always been in the duality of its two singers’ styles, and it seems a decade hasn’t dampened the joy of seeing them weave together.

When they serve up the old call-and-response slink of ‘Level’ and the hedonistic romp of ‘Salute Your Solution’, it’s as though they’ve never been gone. When they bring ‘Steady As She Goes’ out for an encore, meanwhile, it’s a treat to see the staple of Jack’s solo shows once again put into its original context.

If there’s a gripe about tonight it’s that, after such a long time out of the game, the quartet don’t pay a huge concession to the songs that made them first time around. There are notable omissions – specifically early single ‘Broken Boy Soldiers’ – that really should be given an outing here, especially as they bow out with a cover. But if the only problem with a show is that it ends too soon, then you’re probably onto something. A decade after they last played, The Raconteurs’ return to the city proves there’s still a more than worthy spot for them. (Lisa Wright)

77

ALL POINTS EAST Victoria Park, London. Photos: Emma Swann.

E

ach year, as more and more inner-city festivals pop up in London’s major parks, the same quibble always rears its muted head: volume. Last year, at Finsbury Park, watching the headliners was like glorified rockaoke; each year at BST, the same issue arises.

In its inaugural run All Points East threatened to buck the trend; from LCD Soundsystem’s bangin’ beats to Nick Cave’s cathartic closing performance, everything sounded... well, as it should. And so it’s extra disappointing as The Strokes make their long-awaited return to UK soil that the predominant noise on offer isn’t Julian Casablancas’ throaty howl, but a repeated, incessant chant of “TURN IT UP” coming from large portions of the throng.

Thankfully, across the afternoon that precedes it, there’s never a second that isn’t filled with absolute quality.

AMYL AND THE SNIFFERS

THE STROKES

Demob Happy kick things off the main stage. Confident and assured, their saucy swagger is built on the kind of gloriously sleazy basslines and crashing crescendoes that sound massive when given this much space to breathe.

Meanwhile, over on the North Stage, North Carolina boys The Nude Party serve up ‘60s-drenched, rock’n’roll good-time gang vibes. In comparison, Egyptian Blue might be more of your quintessential British band of young guitar fans - aka, more likely to be swigging a tinny of Red Stripe than getting high in the sun - but the likes of recent tracks ‘To Be Felt’ and ‘Collateral’ still show promise.

Amyl and the Sniffers’ Amy Taylor is a joyful, infectious ball of manic energy. Running around the stage, she’s the human incarnation of a fighting gremlin finally let out of the cage to run free; a hyper, wildly-charismatic, but innately weird presence who can’t help but provoke a smile.

No Jarvis, that’s west!!

JARV IS...

Perhaps surprisingly, given their beginnings as New York’s most self-serious band, Parquet Courts provoke the biggest grins of the entire day. These days, with the energy of last year’s career peak ‘Wide Awake!’ still clearly coursing through, the quartet are a legitimate festival band. From the bouncing riffs of ‘Total Football’ through the lighters aloft sing-along of ‘Freebird II’ to the infectious cowbell beats of the record’s title track, it’s the absolute perfect album for a sun-drenched Saturday. Over on the West Stage, the continued evolution of Jarv Is... (the new project from the iconic Pulp frontman) takes you out of the easy breezy world of overpriced pints and chips and into his own personal dystopia. Naturally, the aptness of a final run through, in the wake of both the EU elections and Theresa May’s resignation, of ‘Cunts Are Still Running The World’ is not missed.

.

And so, to The Strokes. Last time the band popped over to UK shores, it was to headline BST in 2015, the odds stacked against them. At that point, they’d last put out the polarising ‘Comedown Machine’, and all seemed slightly rocky. However, on the day, they slouched out onto the mammoth stage and reminded everyone exactly how, back at the start of the ‘00s, they changed guitar music forever.

There seems less of a point to prove tonight; people are fully 78 DIYMAG.COM

just here for a good time, and yet a good time is only sort of what they get. There’s a level where, when you’re playing songs this brilliant, when you look that cool, when you’re so damn iconic, you can’t ever truly have a bad show. And yet, the frustration of having these transcendent songs pumped out at half mast is huge.

KAMASI WASHINGTON

The show looks great. There are all manner of flashing lights and moody colours; with a newly sleek, half-shaven crop, Julian looks better than he has in years. The whole visual is just as unbearably cool, and no-fucks-given as it ever was. And the setlist is exactly what you want: all killer, no filler from a band who’ve killed it more times than most.

There are so many highlights: ‘New York City Cops’, ‘Reptilia’, ‘Someday’. The quintet might not faff about with full tours or many shows, but when they do arrive they know exactly what to do. It’s a set that blighted by the extraneous problems that surround it, but not beaten.

Hopefully, All Points East will use tonight as an example, but thank fuck they had a band as mighty as The Strokes at the helm when they did wobble. (Lisa Wright)

S

unday? The day of rest? Pfft… not on Princess Nokia’s watch. Flanked by a pair of charismatic dancers who orbit around the stage like leather-clad electrons, she impresses. And while outside of New Jazz circles, superstar sax-man Kamasi Washington is best known as an in-demand collaborator: in recent years he’s been credited on ‘Run the Jewels 3’ and Kendrick Lamar’s ‘To Pimp A Butterfly’, this afternoon his nimble handle on the genre gets a deserved chance to shine on its own merit alone. Another highly sought creative collaborator follows him. James Blake is grins-a-plenty. Placing focus squarely on his latest record ‘Assume Form’, there’s a relaxed easiness about the way he flows from the deliciously carefree ‘I’ll Come To’ right through to past breakout moment ‘Limit To Your Love’.

JAMES BLAKE

Riverdance had really upped its game this year.

CHRISTINE AND THE QUEENS

With the arrival of Christine and The Queens - stepping into UK festival headliner shoes for the first time - the day’s sedate tranquility takes a sharp veer into danger.

The heavens suddenly open with ferocity, and as punters quiver damply under their free holographic Tinder visors, Héloïse Letissier emerges in a sizzle of golden sparks a la Flashdance. On several occasions, portions of the stage briefly catch fire and are put out without fuss by burly men wielding extinguishers; as Chris rises majestically on a small crane to sing ‘Saint Claude’ it trembles and judders in the wind. And you suspect this is precisely the sort of untameable chaos that her powerful, muscular, sexy persona welcomes with glee; Chris thrives on the unstable, uncertain, the escaping-definition.

Despite - or more likely goaded on by - the elements, Chris billows down a gangway into the audience, covering David Bowie’s ‘Heroes’ sans backing track, and gyrating her way through the lusty funk-bass of Janet Jackson’s ‘Nasty’. Stripping back the complex and astonishing precision of her recent live tour, this is the same ‘Chris’ vision, but reimagined into something rawer.

Her biggest London show of her career doesn’t just showcase her as gifted dancer, expressive singer, and artist with grand, grand ambition. In a few quiet pockets, she briefly faces the back of the stage and seems overcome by emotion for a second. Above everything else, tonight shows Chris as the rare the kind of a performer who has something seriously at stake, every time she steps on stage. (El Hunt) 79

SHAME

JUST MUSTARD

LIVERPOOL SOUND CITY Various venues, Liverpool. Photos: Emma Swann.

W

hereas back in the day you’d have to wait for the first slivers of June sunshine to herald the start of festival season, May is already chocka with musical weekenders.

This bank holiday alone finds a holy trinity of new band events, with Live at Leeds, Hit The North and our destination of choice, Liverpool Sound City, all getting their glad rags on.

Buzzy Irish newcomers Just Mustard kick things off, their brand of bleak shoegaze a dark-hearted foil to the afternoon sun.

Their stormy noise feels confident, singer Katie Ball staring dead-eyed into the crowd, half-bored, half-defiant.

Shame’s set, ostensibly a headline spot mid-way through the day, is chaos. Backed by the now-infamous picture of EDL founder Tommy Robinson getting a milkshake in the face, they kick off with a bass-heavy new track with the kind of chorus that’ll be setting the mosh pit off before too long; another newie gives guitarist Sean Coyle-Smith room to deliver the kind of joyous riff that made ‘One Rizla’ such a standout.

On DIY’s stage at Hangar 34, King Nun have become a tight and direct proposition in the time since they last passed our way; where before, frontman Theo Polyzoides was an endearingly goofy lead, now they rattle through their set with barely a pause, the whole thing sharper and heavier than ever before. Blaenavon are having a bit of a shitter technically; delayed due to a malfunctioning piece of gear, they’re not quite at full capacity but the trio, bolstered by a live fourth member, still sound big. ‘Catatonic Skinbag’ already feels as much of a staple hit as any of their superlative debut and, though bassist

80 DIYMAG.COM

Frank Wright is trapped behind a keyboard these days, his usual flailing leg dance sadly abandoned, the band offer a more mature set of kicks.

While honey-voiced Mabel winds down proceedings over on the outdoor Main Stage, over at Constellations, a different kind of party is erupting. Having already played one festival earlier today, Zac Farro’s Halfnoise are well-oiled for a good time. A melding pot of psychy influences - with a good dose of Liverpool’s golden boys thrown in - their tracks are joyous displays of funky pop.

On Sunday afternoon the gloriously noisy sounds of Heavy Lungs blow away the cobwebs of the night before. Led by Danny Nedelko - you know how it goes - theirs is a set which feels weighty but ferocious, their scorched post-punk a brash triumph.

Fresh from the release of his new album, Loyle Carner is in high demand this evening: despite topping the bill on the festival’s biggest stage today, there’s still a queue snaking around the Main Stage’s outside, punters craning their necks through its perimeter fence to try and get a glimpse of his set.

If anyone knows how to close a festival, it’s probably The Magic Gang. Singalongs? Check. A sense of mild but endearing hysteria from the front few rows? Absolutely. Their set is pure joy, the likes of ‘How Can I Compete’ and ‘All This Way’ sung back like stadium anthems. The inclusion of a new track is a pleasant surprise but, let’s be honest, that’s not what why we’re all here: it’s just to have a bloody lovely time. With this lot, the crowd’s in safe hands. (Lisa Wright and Sarah Jamieson)

18TH - 21ST July 2019

THE CAT EMPIRE · KATE TEMPEST JACK SAVORETTI · THE SHIRES GOMEZ · KT TUNSTALL

GOGO PENGUIN · EZRA COLLECTIVE · CYMANDE TANK AND THE BANGAS · LET’S EAT GRANDMA JADE BIRD · BC CAMPLIGHT · KOKOROKO MELT YOURSELF DOWN · BENJAMIN FRANCIS LEFTWICH

Comedy

JOSIE LONG · NISH KUMAR

IVO GRAHAM · STUART GOLDSMITH CATHERINE BOHART · JESS FOSTEKEW ANNA MANN · LAURA LEXX THE COMEDIAN’S COMEDIAN PODCAST (LIVE)

Family Festivaling ANDY AND THE ODD SOCKS FEATURING CHILDREN’S TV FAVOURITE ANDY DAY · COMEDY CLUB 4 KIDS HOW DOES THIS POLITICS THING WORK THEN?

Theatre, Poetry & Talks KATE ADIE IN CONVERSATION WITH RICHARD OSGOOD BBC RADIO 4’S FOUR THOUGHT

Plus cinema, workshops, delicious food and festival fun for the whole family

larmertreefestival.co.uk Cranborne Chase, Dorset / Wiltshire border 81

quiz of sor ts, we’ll A big inter-band pub es one by one. be grilling your fav

IT’S YOUR ROUND

MARIK A HACK

MAN

unt, Brighton Location: The Ha e st Beer Cost: Fre Drink: Old Blue La

SPECIALIST SUBJECT: Cooking 1. What’s the difference between a rocher and a quinelle?

One’s one handed and I think it’s a quinelle?

Ooh...

It’s a rocher that’s onehanded!

It was, but it’s impressive that you sort-of knew so half a point.

2. What type of food is Gigli?

Pasta?

That’s correct!

GENERAL KNOWLEDGE

Correct, or – if you’re in America – the humble eggplant.

4. What type of food is n’duja?

Sausage Another point.

5. What type of root vegetable is wasabi the...

Horseradish!

Wait for us to finish the question! But yes, it’s a Japanese kind of horseradish, well done.

3. Easy one: what’s the main ingredient of a parmigiana?

Aubergine!

4.5/5

FINAL SCORE:

6.5/10

Verdict: We brought Marika back for another crack at the whip, and this time she did... pretty damn good actually! We’d go round her house for a meal. Got our invite, pal?

82 DIYMAG.COM

6. What erroneous object was spotted on screen in Game of Thrones recently?

A Starbucks cup, oh my god I loved that so much.

It was very good, and you also get a point.

7. What’s the only mammal that can’t jump?

Oh that’s hard... maybe an otter?

Think bigger.

A polar bear?

It’s an elephant.

8. How many squares are there on a chess board?

84? Wait I can work this out. Two pawns, two knights, no not

two pawns... what’s 14 squared?

Not even close to the answer. It’s 64.

9. What was the first Bond film to star Daniel Craig?

Casino Royale?

Correct.

10. Who is the oldest Kardashian sister?

Oh god, I don’t know anything about the Kardashians. Is it Kim? It’s Kourtney.

I’ve never watched it, sorry.

And for that, you win in a different way, but sadly not a point.

2/5

83

INFANCY

PART 1 OF THE DEBUT ALBUM ‘INFANCY’ IS OUT NOW

AVAILABLE ON A LIMITED EDITION RUBY RED & BLUE VINYL PART 2 WILL BE OUT ON NOVEMBER 15TH, PRE-ORDER NOW! DIY MAGAZINE THE SKINNY THE LINE OF BEST FIT

“Exactly what the future of British rock and roll should sound like” - Radio 1 “The most undeniably alive thing we’ve heard” - The Guardian “Unforgettable” - NME “Stunning doom-laden post-punk” - BBC News 84 DIYMAG.COM

WWW.THENINTHWAVE.ONLINE