GIGWISE March 2023

IN DEPTH / MARCH 23

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C O N T

And here Are the All mAle he Adliners

Boygenius dominAtion

Glastonbury announced their headliners to a media storm. After revealing that a major female artist (cough cough, taylor swift) dropped out, Arctic Monkeys, Elton John and Guns And Roses made for a disappointing trio. And if that wasn’t enough for a social media frenzy, a weirdly designed poster not acknowledging Lana Del Rey’s position as a headliner of The Other Stage, got clapback from the singer. We’re team Lana…

sAfe trAvels, steve

Steve MacKey, bassist of Pulp, sadly passed away this month. Not only was Steve instrumental in creating that signature sound that dominated the 90s and endures to this day, his writing and production has given us a long list of modern classics from Florence + The Machine’s debut to tracks of M.I.A, Arcade Fire and more. In a statement, the band said; “We hope to catch up with you one day. All our love xx”

Back and well and truly ready for action, Boygenius are on a spree of announcements. To celebrate their first full album, The Record, they’re gracing a curated selection of festivals, creating some unexpected best lineups. Announcing slots at Connect Festival, Norway’s Oya Festival and their own big day festival at Gunnersbury Park - they’re at the top of our must see list.

Worst opinion of the month

Journalist Lachlan Marckay wins worst take of the month when he slagged off Meg White saying “I’m sorry Meg White was terrible and no band is better for having shitty percussion.” Now on the receiving end of virtual smackdowns from Questlove, Tim Burgess, basically the entirety of Twitter and Jack White himself. Rest assured, no such terrible opinion would ever come from team Gigwise…

is the thriving uK indie scene Being held BAcK

By guitAr

Words: Matthew McLister

nostAlgiA?

Photos: Georgina Hurdsfield + Niamh Louise

the current indie scene is thriving But BAnds Are Being restricted By sAfe selections

When it comes to discovering music legends, this generation have never had it so easy. Decades worth of music can be accessed in the matter of seconds on Spotify and for those who love music often a quick YouTube trip can descend into a rabbit hole of old music videos and classic live performance procrastination (guilty as charged here!). But is this overexposure to past guitar scenes holding back up and coming indie bands?

Where enjoying the music of your parents’ youth would’ve been unthinkable before (I refused to give The Beatles a proper go until my 20s for this very reason…) today it’s actively embraced. This nostalgia was noticeable during Liam Gallagher’s headline set at Glasgow’s TRSNMT festival in September 2021. As our kid belted out early Oasis classics ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll Star, ‘Hello’ and ‘Morning Glory’, he was joined by a sea of bucket hat wearing teenagers. Safe to say, they belted out each word with as much gusto as the Manchester icon in his mid-‘90s heyday. On one hand, it was refreshing to see the enthusiasm for rock ‘n’ roll hadn’t died - I mean, how many times do we hear in the media that the genre is dead?! But, on the other, with Liam and the same, ahem, older names dominating the festival circuit still, you couldn’t help but wonder where the headlining opportunities were for a newer scene.

Clearly, the yearning for Britpop content is as desirable as ever. Considered a golden period in this nation’s music past, the Gallagher Brothers are treated like gods in the British press. Recent cinematic releases of Supersonic in 2016 and Oasis Knebworth 1996 in 2021 have pushed calls for their reunion to fever pitch levels. The culture of the decade still surrounds us, for example ‘90s Madchester fashion is prominent in the football ultra movement. This month, Channel 5 even began showing a new four part nostalgia-laden documentary on the period. Indie radio is still in love too; if you turn on daytime Radio X you’re bound to hear the bops of The Verve, Suede or Blur, who sold out a summer gig at Wembley Stadium within minutes, before a new artist is given exposure. But it’s not the only era of guitar music restricting new bands.

Going hand in hand with Britpop in the nostalgia stakes is another prosperous period of British guitar music: the ‘00s indie sleaze era. Beginning with The Strokes in 2001, garage rock bands came to dominate the British airwaves. Local UK scenes spread as a result of the New York icons, spawning

the likes of The Libertines, Franz Ferdinand, Kasabian and, most prominent of them all, Arctic Monkeys. The fashion of skinny jeans, trilbies, converse trainers and faux-leather jackets were suddenly all the rage and many of today’s bands still copy this classic style.

By 2008, thanks in part to the weaker guitar ‘indie landfill’ bands (think The Kooks, The Automatic and Scouting For Girls) coming through, the mainstream guitar scene just didn’t feel exciting anymore. Yet a decade and a half later, the indie sleaze scene is very much alive again in the music world’s consciousness and lapped up by younger audiences.

An Instagram account of the same name has been one of many popular sources to romanticise the period and there’s numerous prominent podcasts too, each launched to fawn over the era. Meet Me In the Bathroom, a documentary looking back at 00’s New York bands from The Strokes to the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, hit the cinemas and further added to the allure. This year and last, from The Strokes at TRNSMT to Arctic Monkeys at Reading and Leeds, the UK festival line ups are also heavily represented by bands from this era. More often than not, this is at the expense of artists in their prime.

It wasn’t that long since contemporary bands had a path to the top of contemporary festivals. In the 2000s, young bands of the ilk of Kings of Leon, The Killers and Arctic Monkeys were granted Glastonbury headlining slots despite having only released a couple of albums. Back then it felt refreshing –relevant groups who perfectly soundtracked their generation getting big opportunities because they deserved it. It felt like a meritocracy. But fast forward to 2023 and a gasp of frustration surrounded the announcement that ‘80s hard rockers Guns ‘N’ Roses had been selected as the third Glastonbury headliner to replace Taylor Swift. Surely it couldn’t have been hard to find a younger band more worthy?

These festival headlining slots for newer bands have become rarer over the years. The 2010s saw them blocked by the conservative choice of a nostalgic act, Glastonbury itself again only providing headline slots to well-established bands regardless of if they feel tired or not. And don’t even get us started on festivals like Tramlines which are almost entirely dominated by nostalgic acts with newer, arguably more exciting bands only appearing further down the bill. The pathway is broken.

“But As refreshing

the scene is, these Artists still need to BAttle through the music

World’s overfAscinAtion With nostAlgiA And “the good old dAys”.

This would all lead you to believe people just aren’t interested in new guitar bands, right? Well not quite! The indie scene is in its best place since the late ‘00s. Proof of this comes in the improving chart success of upcoming bands. In April 2021, The Snuts became the first Scottish band since The View in 2007 to see their debut album head straight into number one on the UK Official Album Chart. A few months later, Wigan’s jangle rockers The Lathums achieved similar for their debut How Beautiful Life Can be, kicking Drake off the top spot.

Let's also not forget the recent chart success of Fontaines D.C., who gained a number 1 album with Skinty Fia. Other young UK post punk bands like Shame and Yard Act have also grown in popularity across the world since their arrival into the UK indie scene in the late 2010s.

One current guitar act holding his own against the nostalgic acts high up on the festival line ups is Geordie singer Sam Fender, bagging headline slots at Reading & Leeds and TRNSMT this year. His success with ‘Seventeen Going Under’ proved guitar music still held a place in the mainstream, reaching number 3 in the UK Singles chart and going viral thanks to

TikTok.

Last year, Sam Fender took home the Best Rock/ Alternative Act award at the BRITs, while Wolf Alice beat out Little Mix and Coldplay for the Best Group win. This year saw guitar music dominate again with Fontaines taking one home and Wet Leg storming it as they won both Best New Artist and Best British Group. With Rhian Teasdale quoting Alex Turner’s 2014 speech, the sentiment feels apt today; “that rock’n’roll, it just won’t go away…”

In a short space of time, Wet Leg proved how far a band from the British indie scene could climb. Yet despite their global success, they’d be resigned to afternoon sets at 2022’s editions of Glastonbury and TRSNMT festivals. Packing out the crowd at both, they’re exactly the kind of act that these same festivals used to and should still take a punt on for bigger slots. Still, their presence revealed the growing status of female-fronted bands emerging from the indie scene.

Looking back its noticeable how the ‘00s indie scene was dominated by lads with guitars. Today, gradual progress is being made. Female artists make up almost half of those playing Glastonbury this year. Within the indie scene itself, some of the most exciting names coming through are fronted by females – Swim School, NewDad and Bleach Lab to name but a few. Whilst guitar acts like Dream Wife, Dry Cleaning and beabadoobee have grown out of the British indie scene and found a decent level of exposure across Europe and America.

Today the UK indie community is awash with brilliant new bands - the healthiest movement in over a decade. But as refreshing as the scene is, these artists still need to battle through the music world’s over-fascination with nostalgia and “the good old days”.

Rather than excluding these artists from the top spots at festivals, more opportunities need to be opened up to reflect our times. The ‘90s and ‘00s saw indie bands from Pulp to Arctic Monkeys granted headlining chances at their prime and gave us many an iconic moment. Today our festival line ups are dominated by the same nostalgic acts, with new and contemporary artists often a mere after thought: the smallest print on the festival poster. It doesn’t need to be this way – rather than get bogged down in nostalgia, let's embrace the current indie scene before these bands, too, become history.

As

shots shots shots

the Best live shots of 2023 so fAr

Melody’s Echo Chamber by Helena Coma

Jockstrap by Vendy Palkovičová

Self Esteem by Mattia Ghisolfi

Don’t Eat a Kebab an Hour Before The Show:

Words by Beth Mountford

March 31st brings the release of How Many Dreams? - DMA’S twelve-track, fourth studio album. Four singles have been released, with Everybody’s Saying Thursday’s The Weekend already adorning many a fan’s playlist. The album is set to satiate the band’s existing enthusiasts, and entice a wider crowd with some new and experimental “electronic dance elements” woven into their familiar, emotional and energetic sound. While the sun rose over a smoggy London, and dwelt low in the Melbourne sky, we caught up with Johnny Took about everything from spicy Sichuan food to the nostalgic merits of CDs. Oh, and the new album, of course.

While the band have roots in Sydney, Australia, Johnny explains they’ve always had a connection with England, beginning with his own, and front man Tommy’s British fathers, and the music that shaped their teenage years.

“We really looked up to bands like The Stone Roses and Oasis, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Primal Scream and Happy Mondays, all that kind of stuff. Particularly in like, later high school years, when we were kind of first forming bands.” He adds “now [England’s] just become one of our favourite places to play and probably some of the best crowds that we have ever played in front of.”

Since their last release the band have played numerous large festivals, including Reading and Leeds 2022. Johnny says the smaller, more intimate shows are still unbeatable for him, but credits the happy medium of venues such as Alexandra Palace, where the band played a sold-out show in October 2021. “That was almost like a festival, 10,000 people, but just to see you. You got the best of both worlds - it felt like a festival, but everyone was singing the b-sides.”

Those who are well-versed in DMA’S trivia

will know that their current top song on Spotify is their triple j Like A Version cover of Believe, originally by Cher. Ever curious about how the band came to choose this song, I took my opportunity to ask. According to Johnny, “Mason was playing Believe, kind of in a tongue in cheek manner at a soundcheck in Germany or something. And then Tommy came on stage, from the backstage room, went to check his mic and just started singing. We all kind of looked at each other like ‘woah that's really good.’”

He added that he was happy with how “organic” DMA’S Like A Version session had been, as back in 2016 the triple j series had not been so popular as it is now. “You see bands now, they get like a string section and all this kind of stuff, because they know it's a big moment. We just did it with bloody two acoustics and didn't really make a big thing of it.”

Reflecting on the evolution of DMA’S sound, Johnny says “I think at its core, it's got the same sentiment.” The songs still explore relationships between people, whether it’s partners, brothers or parents and children. While the music is still underpinned and inspired by rock and roll, Johnny explains: “I personally can't keep writing the same music again and again, because it fucking bores me to tears when I'm playing the same sounds. That's why I kind of moved into the world of production and started using drum loops and 808s, drum machines and the endless sonic tapestry of synthesisers.”

“People can be like, ‘oh, I want to write songs like I did when I was 24.’ And it’s like well, why don’t you just write songs like you fuckin do now?” He added.

Initially, the band spent three weeks in London recording the new album, with producers Stuart Price and Rich Costey; a

time which Johnny credits for the “amazing work…especially a lot of structural stuff”. Though back in Sydney, unsatisfied, the band joined forces with third producer and friend, Konstantin Kersting.

“Maybe back on earlier records, three weeks would have been enough. But when we got to Sydney, we had kind of recorded these great songs, did a lot of great stuff, but it was kind of a little bit too rock-band-in-a-room.”

DMA’S spent an additional two weeks with Kersting getting “surgical” with the sounds and working towards complete satisfaction. “I also think it helps that we were in Sydney,” Johnny said, “we haven't made a record in Sydney since the first one. It’s something nice when you can be home with your family and your loved ones and sleep in your own bed. And you know, take Kon out to our favourite restaurants in Sydney and stuff like that.”

Meandering briefly away from the topic of music, Johnny enlightened me on a wee touring ritual of the band. Namely, finding the best Chinese restaurant in town - lazy susan non-negotiable. While this is mandatory on tour, the night itself must be chosen carefully, Johnny explains: “You can't really eat that on a gig night, I made a couple of mistakes when I ate a kebab an hour before I played and it wasn't good. I didn't enjoy the show.” Asked what the perfect pre-gig meal was, Johnny answered “something safe, like Nando's or something like that…sushi or something, you know, not too crazy.”

We digress to the point of Johnny saying “I like that feeling when your face goes numb from Sichuan peppercorns,” at which point I abruptly changed the subject back to the music.

wholeheartedly describe the new album, Johnny picked modern, diverse and positive.

“Modern, which I think is important because we've been thought of as a throwback band. There's some beautiful pop songs, but there's some great rock and roll songs, and there's some dance bangers as well in there.” He said, adding “COVID was hard on a lot of people and we didn't want to have any ounce of that, sonically, in our record.”

While DMA’S have always maintained that their name is not an acronym, or a prompt for acrostic poetry, I decided to test the waters of some potential meanings for the band’s three-lettered title. From an extensive brainstorm with the greatest wordsmiths I know, I presented Johnny with five options, asking whether any of them could tempt DMA’S out of their explanationless namesake and give them a meaning. “I like it,” he said, “hit me.” The following five expansions were presented:

Dead Man’s Arse

Divorced Mothers’ Association Dicks Moving Around Dangerous Monkey Acquired Doesn’t Mean Anything

Contender number five (Doesn’t Mean Anything) had already been picked up by Johnny and used in interviews. It therefore had to be disqualified from the race for lacking originality. After much deliberation the verdict was in. “I like the monkey one,” he said. “I guess you could take ‘Dicks Moving Around’ as a positive, but I’ll have to pass on that one.”

Put in the uncomfortable position of choosing just three adjectives which

In the final few moments of our chat I found out that Johnny does not keep a journal, is a dog person, has honey in his tea, enjoys vodka martinis (“really dirty ones”) and prefers Vegemite over Marmite, stating that

“Marmite’s chat” (Australian slang for ‘gross’ or ‘shit’). My final rapid-fire question enquired of a preference for tapes over CDs, or vice versa. To this Johnny answered CDs, by merit of their practicality.

“I’ve still got a CD player in my car, so if anyone chucks a little random CD on stage I sometimes listen to it in my car. I miss the ability to put a secret track on a CD - when

you’d forget that it was playing and then like five minutes later this random song would come on. Streaming kind of ruined that. That was a good part of my childhood.”

DMA’S are back touring in the UK from early April, and tickets are already flying out the door.

How Many Dreams? arrives 31st March.

he Art Worms

Words: Chiara Strazzulla

Photos: Zac Mahrouche

With striking aesthetics, challenging themes, and a thick, inventive, sometimes dark songwriting using layer upon layer of sound to suck the listener in, Heartworms crafts an experience that goes beyond the borders of just music. The stage name of singersongwriter Jojo Orme, Heartworms is a force of nature bold enough to shake the alternative music scene from its very foundations, making ripples from the grassroots venues of South London which will be heard very far indeed. With a new EP out now, it might just be the most unique thing you’ll listen to this year.

Where does the name Heartworms come from, and what’s the story behind it?

It comes from this band which actually got me into good music, The Shins. I’ve been obsessed with them since I was 14, and they’ve released an album called Heartworms. I thought it was a great name –it’s dark, it’s funny, and you can see it how you want; really gross, but also kind of sweet.

There often is a need to pigeonhole music into a genre, but your music is defiant of that. How would you describe it?

I’m a fan of so many different genres, and I like to appreciate that through my music as much as I can, knowing there’s no actual limit to what you can do. I enjoy using a juxtaposition of sounds, like one moment it’s soft and pretty, and the next it’s harsh, and scary.

The style you’ve chosen is also visually striking, with the use of military attire and retro callbacks.

I’ve always loved history, and I don’t want to separate my music from my other passions. It’s a way of creating a world – a dark, macabre world –bringing reality to it. It’s quite fun as well.

Is there, also, an element of performance art in all of this, that goes beyond the music?

Absolutely. I have always analysed the way people performed, and how it made me feel, even when I didn’t quite know how to process it. I wanted Heartworms to be something to watch, which could play with your emotions and keep you uncomfortable, on the edge of your seat.

We do live in a time where people are seeking comfort zones in art. Are you deliberately setting out to disrupt that?

Sometimes I’ll get comments like, ‘that’s too screechy!’ but unsettling is a space where I’m comfortable at, and that’s what I want people to see and understand. The latest music video, too: I have always had a fear of deep water, and so I wanted to put myself in a situation where the emotion would match the song. I explored that with Niall Trask, who directed it, and I decided to go into water into full military attire. I remember tripping and cutting my hand open, I was bruised, miserable – it was great.

Perhaps it’s this authenticity that stands out, most of all.

It’s what I love the most about doing this; I feel like one day I will look back on it so fondly. It’s all so incredible, because you’re doing something, you’re not stuck in an office, you’re not just being – and you’re doing something you love. It may not be pop star levels of glamorous, but you can experience everything as much as you can, find the joy and the humour in things, even when they go horribly wrong. And that’s the best part of it.29

SPONGE

First Impressions From The Newbie In Town

Words: Beth Mountford

The monthly diary of a culture-shocked KiwiSponge is the real-time first impressions of the London live scene. Soaking it all up.

volume one - Alphe.stAel @ AlghA group, hAcKney WicK

No build ups here, straight to the depths of the East. No, I don't think it's hasty. If anything I feel as though I waited TOO long to go there. If anything it was inevitable that the column would begin this way…

It was Saturday evening. I had slept around four hours since Wednesday. It seemed like hardly the time to explore the fabled Hackney Wick for the first time. Especially with only a vague description of an event, and no specified location other than a text which read: “come to fish island and everyone will point you here”. But, I got on the bus.

The Wick’s reputation had preceded it, and the impressionistic prototype it had built in my mind was one of wonder, an entire suburb of creatives who operated more so on the value of collaboration than the rest of London. I watched the bus drive away with uncertainty. This place

was industrial enough to fit the bill, but it felt kind of…desolate. I walked the wrong way several times before I was actually pointed, by a group of three very on-brand Fish Islanders, to the warehouse in question.

The event had begun in the mid-afternoon, and I had long since missed several soundscapes, some poetry with mad effects on modulation, and a performance which, from what I can gather, involved several people beating the shit out of a large sheet of acrylic. What remained, in the dimly lit and frankly kind of spooky basement, were more soundscapes, an overhead projector with interchangeable acetate screens, a bouquet of flowers frozen solid in a block of water and suspended from the ceiling, and several other sculptures and visuals.

Shortly after I arrived, an old friend (and fellow Kiwi) of mine - Tristan A.K.A alphe.stael - was called upon to play the closing set, replacing the headline act, from whomst nobody had heard a word. Off to retrieve his equipment (a single SD card), Tristan left me at the mercy of someone called [redacted].

It was nearing Co-op closing hour, so [redacted] and I went to buy drinks. She was drinking WKD,

a drink I had not been so close to since I was 15. Searching for her blue bevvy of choice, she proclaimed that she had already purchased and drank the Co-op’s entire supply over the course of the evening. I was fishing around in the fridge for pre-mixed gin and tonics and clocked the chilled stash of WKDs that [recacted] had overlooked. “There’s a cold one” I said. “Beth, aah Beth has this figured out” she said, approaching the fridge “Ooh what’s this though, Orange Hooch?! That’s just the most awful thing to name a drink” picking it up she turned around to me and said “it sounds like something out of a David Lynch film…she was drinking an Orange Hooch”. Pouting, she carried the fluorescent drink to the counter.

Upon return, we found the previously fragmented crowd all united for alphe.stael’s performance. I wish there was a word more euphoric than euphoric, so that I could even come close to describing it to you. It was driving, and ravey, and focussed, and wistful, and enveloping. I had the distinct feeling that I was not only witnessing, but actually part of, something incredible. And I know that every person in the crowd felt the same way because of the wild ceremony of congratulations, and even thanks, that were crowned upon alphe.stael after the set. It was more personal than any other gig I've ever been to.

Post-set people were having conversations where they said things like “It’s like an XLR connector but it’s inside [inaudible]. Dante [unintelligible] running two networks.” I listened politely, revelling.

When it had all died down and we’d eventually found the keys to Tristan’s home (another warehouse), we found ourselves in conversation about being someplace new. Let me paraphrase:

B: I have noticed to quite an extent that when you meet people, they’re never like hey I wanna be friends they’re like hey I can do something for you, or you can do something for me

T: interesting yeah, it’s all where are you based, let’s link up

B: it’s very interactional

T: transactional

B: transactional, exactly and it kinda pisses me off

Tristan disclosed his opinion that everything in London feels comparatively inauthentic to Wellington (capital city of NZ). And that was why he had settled in Hackney Wick, because, for the most part, things feel a lot more authentic than the rest of London. Here is a place where every single corner and every single space is occupied by, and used for, creativity. Trees, windowsills, fridge doors. A place where it is permanently like the fifth day of a festival. Here is a place where people decide their own names of the streets and subvert paid parking by - every time - painting over the signs which the enforcers depend on, as soon as the council replace them. I felt lucky to have been initially immersed in it on a night where the stars aligned.

On Repeat: March Selects

On repeat all month, as picked by the Gigwise team…

Angel Olsen — Nothing’s Free

Angel Olsen went from lo-fi folk to experimental indie-pop to almost country and she doesn’t stop there. “Nothing’s Free” the lead single from Asheville-based artist’s upcoming EP Forever Means sees her go in an almost gospel direction yet with her unique spin on it. (Aleksandr Smirnov)

Eyesore & The Jinx - An Ideas Man

A surreal swirl into the absurdity of post-millennial British life. Upheld by a buoyant guitar riff and a steady rhythm section that parallels the hopeless monotony of Being A Renter, 'An Ideas Man' is a weird and witty take on the horrors of land ownership. (Tilly Foulkes)

Neve Bowen - Song For Anna

Not only am I a sucker for the drama of a song with a person's name in the title (who are they, what did they do?) - Neve Bowen’s first ever single is explosive with potential. Dark, gothic, lyrically sharp and incredibly tight for a debut. The subtle horns in the outro and the echoing vocals turn your headphones into heaven… (Lucy Harbron)

Sleaford Mods- D.I.Why

Prowling, snarling and dripping in disdain, this cut off the Nottingham duo's newest album UK GRIM sees them explore new territories. This swipe at "post-punk dross" shows exactly why we need acts like Sleaford Mods as an antidote. (Cameron Sinclair-Harris)

The Dare - ‘Good Time’

After dropping his old Turtlenecked moniker in August, the indie sleaze faithful, Harrison Smith, is back and better than ever as The Dare. Creating outrageous, raucous, pleasure-driven pop, 'Good Time' is as close as we can get to actually being in New York's burgeoning indie scene here in the UK. (Cian Kinsella)

Tilly Louise

- ‘Join The Club’

Truly insatiable pop coming from Liverpool with just over 500 monthly listeners - i feel like i’ve found a hidden treasure. All boiling into a huge chorus with boisterous guitars and a massive dose of joy, Tilly Louise is making good old fashioned altpop as she joins the league of rising scouse talent such as ZuZu and Pixey. (Lucy Harbron)

Listen up, listen in:

BILLIE JOE ARMSTRONG