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Paul Watson CEO
Keith Watson Chairman
Rian Zoll-Kahn COO
Amit Patel Managing Director
Alice Gustafson Editor-in-Chief
Adam Protz Senior Writer
Liz Wilkinson Content and Communications Manager
Rick Dickerson Reviews Editor
Marc Henshall Head of Digital
Grace Mcguigan Artist Relations Manager
Rae Gray Head of Design
Headliner kicked off March in style by attending the BRITs, celebrating the best of the UK’s homegrown talent, with JADE, RAYE and The Last Dinner Party doing the Brits proud, while US artists Chappell Roan and Sabrina Carpenter represented the biggest stars from across the pond. It was Charli XCX’s night, though –collecting five awards in total for Album of the Year, Artist of the Year, Song of the Year, Dance Act, and BRITs Songwriter of the Year.
But away from the performances, awards, and wondering who that horse was on Danny Dyer’s table, stars including Myles Smith, Lola Young, Rachel Chinouriri, Nia Archives, The Last Dinner Party and Paloma Faith took to the red carpet to join the ongoing campaign protesting government proposals on AI and copyright.
The issue was raised in parliament once again in March when Chancellor Rachel Reeves issued a Spring Statement confirming the creation of a £3.25 billion Transformation Fund, part of which will be reportedly used to “seize the opportunities AI presents”. Headliner is all for seizing opportunities, however, none of the concerns raised by the music industry regarding AI’s theft of music were addressed. UK Music CEO Tom Kiehl was one
of the first to notice this omission, pointing out that “there was nothing about the huge damage that would be caused to the music industry by Government plans to give AI firms unfettered access to music under sweeping changes to copyright law,” adding that “the proposals would be a disaster.”
In this issue, Kiehl speaks exclusively to Headliner about the UK Government’s latest consultation, which will allow AI companies to scrape artists’ work without permission or compensation, and outlines the ramifications and next steps for the industry.
This issue also provides an insight into how the score was created for one of the most WTF films of 2024 – The Substance, which was up for five Oscars in March. On the cover is British composer and producer Raffertie, who delves into his “raw, violent” electronic score, how the film merges with the distinctly squishy sound design (yes, we mean the shrimps), and explains why the film doesn’t need to win Best Picture to know it’s good.
Elsewhere in the issue, Headliner interviews The Wombats, who, almost two decades since breaking through with Let’s Dance To Joy Division, are releasing a new “messy,
charming” album. The Amazons frontman Matt Thomson opens up on the making of the band’s new album, 21st Century Fiction, and the fraught circumstances that spawned it; and American rock band OK Go, who won a GRAMMY for their treadmill-choreography music video for Here It Goes Again, speak to Headliner about their new single, A Stone Only Rolls Downhill, its video – which was filmed on 64 individual iPhones – and their upcoming album.
Meanwhile, in outer space, this month Imagine Dragons’ Children of The Sky - A Starfield Song, became the first song transmitted to Earth from the moon. Composer Inon Zur explains how he wrote the song with the band and details his role for Imagine Dragons: Live From The Hollywood Bowl, a concert which featured his orchestral arrangements of the band’s biggest hits played by the LA Film Orchestra.
Enjoy the issue!
Alice Gustafson Editor-in-Chief
By Alice Gustafson
By Alice Gustafson
By Adam Protz
By Alice Gustafson
Credit: Stella Gigliottti
SO BRAND NEW
CJ WILEY
A self-described ‘non-binary cowboy’, CJ Wiley is a Canadian artist effortlessly blending the sounds of lo-fi indie, country and Americana. With debut album So Brand New being released in February, they chat with Headliner about mixing acoustic ballads with grungy indie, being a queer musician in the country genre, and heading to the UK for the first time to perform in London, the Great Escape Festival, and Focus Wales.
Drawing favorable comparisons to the likes of Courtney Barnett, Orville Peck, and Sharon Van Etten, Wiley has been emerging from Toronto’s busy music scene. So Brand New has been named one of Exclaim’s Most Anticipated Albums of 2025, and Wiley has been spotted on Toronto billboards. Besides their solo music, Wiley has been making big contributions to Toronto’s LGBTQ+ arts scene as the founder of Big Gay Night Toronto, and is a member of the brilliantly named Shania Twain country covers act, Shania Twink. The
CJ Wiley solo project was announced to the world with the debut single, All Our Love, in 2022.
With the UK starting to show the odd sign of Spring being on the way after a savage winter, Wiley joins the Zoom call and says, “We [Toronto] are covered in snow, and it’s been snowing all weekend, and every single car is snowed in. Nobody’s going anywhere right now. But as a whole, Toronto is pretty awesome for many reasons.
“I’ve really cultivated a community here. I have my own concert series called Big Gay Night Toronto, where I showcase queer and trans musicians that are emerging here. So within that community, I feel like I’ve got to see many people shine and take their art into these spaces that are safe and also really supportive. And there are other facets of the music industry in Toronto that have helped me as well.”
If you ever grow tired of the music industry being riddled with people getting into the industry thanks to being born into wealth, privilege, or just being a plain old nepo baby, this does not apply to Wiley, who is open about having a difficult childhood and struggles with addiction.
“I got a late start,” Wiley says. “I had a pretty rough youth. During that time, even though I wasn’t focusing on music, I was always writing songs. That’s been part of my life since I was 12 years old. It’s like something inside me – I dream songs. I can’t even help it. It just comes out. When I started
taking music seriously and decided to dedicate my life to it, it was a process of finding my musical identity. I was in a band for a while, and I was listening to what the producer was telling me to do. I started listening to a lot of Shania Twain and Boy Golden, who is an Americana and roots artist from Winnipeg, Canada. When I listened to his album Church Of Better Daze, something clicked within me and I realized that was the kind of music I wanted to make.”
The state of diversity within country music has been a big talking point in recent years. On the positive side, Beyoncé’s double Grammy win for Cowboy Carter, her country and Americana-inspired concept album, is proof of progress in recent years. However, many US country radio stations still almost exclusively play music by white, male country artists, and female, gay, and black country artists complain of persistent gatekeeping and bigotry against them. Wiley certainly has thoughts on being part of a genre where a
portion of its fanbase is resistant to diversity with an undeniable element of rightwing thinking being dominant.
“I feel like queer people, and also all different types of marginalized folks, are just being able to take up space where it feels right for them,” Wiley says. “That’s really been happening with country music and Americana. Of course, there’s a huge history of underrepresentation and so it’s almost coming full circle now. I know that there’s a lot of really f**ked up stuff happening in the US right now for many marginalised groups. So there’s pushback, but it’s almost like we’re saying, ‘We’re here, we’re going to make the kind of music we want to make. We’re going to have these spaces.’ It’s important that these spaces that are dominated by white CIS dudes are being broken into and taken back.”
“I DREAM SONGS. I CAN’T EVEN HELP IT.”
One of the recent singles teasing the upcoming album is Adelaide, a ballad combining acoustic Americana and country with some of the fuzzy guitar sounds Wiley is known for. Its charming one-take music video sees Wiley singing, guitar in hand, in the back of a truck, going through a leafy and idyllic Toronto neighborhood, with close friend Marina hitching a ride and joining in towards the end. The tasteful touches of the banjo are irresistible, whereas so many country songs seem to plaster banjo parts in to tick a box.
“The person in the video is my best friend Marina, who I wrote the song about,” Wiley says. “That was an incredible experience to have together because we’ve been best friends for 15 years. We were driving up and
down those country roads to get those shots. It was so beautiful and really emotional. You have no idea how much I cried writing that song, just thinking back on all of the years that I have loved this person so much and how we both changed so much. But through all of that, we’re still in love as best friends. So writing the song and making the video was just a fulfilling and loving, nurturing experience.”
If Adelaide is all warm and fuzzy, the latest single Don’t Die Charlie sets a different tone. Speaking to Wiley’s experiences of struggling with addiction and grief, the sound palette leans much more on lo-fi indie, while still packing in an uplifting chorus despite the subject matter.
Looking back on that period of their
life, Wiley reflects: “That song holds very vivid memories of the time I spent in addiction for those 10 years. And it’s me wishing I could spend just one more night with the people that I lost during that time. People passed away — sorry, this is a trigger warning — from overdoses. And I guess I didn’t realize how dark it was until I was looking back. So when I was writing this song, I wished I could just see them again, one more time. I’m getting emotional talking about it!”
Despite how dark and bleak that long addiction cycle was for Wiley, they are nonetheless happy to open up about the experience in the hope that it might help anyone else who is going through it.
Credit: Stella Gigliottti
“I would say it was a really, really long road of trying and failing to get out of it,” Wiley says. “I fully didn’t expect to live past 25 years old. I just kind of accepted that. Which is a really dark and sad thing to look back on. But somehow I made it through, and for the folks that are experiencing that now: life can be better, and maybe you haven’t experienced love or support, and that’s how I felt. I didn’t have the support of a family. I did have supportive friends, but those folks were in their addiction as well.
“But life can be amazing, and it’s worth living, if not for yourself, then for others. Because if you don’t want to live for your own life, then maybe think about your community and who you want to see supported and put your energy into that. Getting out of
it was because I had the support of a partner — I don’t think I had really experienced love like that before, so that’s how I was able to finally get out of it. There’s definitely a song in there.”
Seeing the way Wiley effortlessly blends these different genres, going from an acoustic ballad to an indie song, the release of their debut album So Brand New is certainly something to be excited about. Wiley agrees: “I can’t wait. Oh my god. I feel like so much of my identity is in this record.”
And in terms of what the phrase Play Out Loud means to them, Wiley says, “Being completely yourself loudly and especially with trans people being so repressed in America right now. So being authentically you and making
sure that we take up the space that we can. The time will come when we will need to support the folks who are being repressed. So I think showing up as yourself as much as you can and being as loud as possible in your identity as queer and trans people.”
Beyond the album release, there is one other source of excitement for those of us in the UK: CJ Wiley is crossing the Atlantic to perform in London and at the Focus Wales and Great Escape this Summer. 2025 is shaping up very nicely for this cowboy in particular.
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droW s by ALICE GUSTAFSON SCORING THE SUBSTANCE
Have you ever dreamt of a better version of yourself? Younger, more beautiful, more perfect? Director Coralie Fargeat turned this idea into one of the most WTF films of 2024 in The Substance, which sees fading celebrity Elisabeth Sparkle (Demi Moore), take a black-market drug that spawns a younger, better version of herself: Sue (played by Margaret Qualley). The only rule? You have to share: exactly one week in one body, then one week in the other. If the balance is not respected, there will be consequences. It wouldn’t have been any fun if the director hadn’t explored the latter scenario, resulting in an explosive finale so gory and unhinged that it will stay with you longer than it takes to jet wash an elevator full of blood out of a TV studio.
“I was really taken aback by the film,” nods British composer and producer, Benjamin Stefanski – aka – Raffertie, speaking to Headliner from his home in London just before the Oscars, where the film was up for Best Picture. “You could really feel the rage coming out of the screen. The ending is such a big moment; it’s such an audio and visual assault. It’s so loud and chaotic, and there’s such an audience interaction with what goes on on the screen with the groans and the gasps. I don’t want to spoil it for anyone who’s not seen it, but I got to the end of the film and came out the other side like, ‘What have I just seen?’”
Spoiler alert: There will be blood. Lots of blood. And (Oscar and BAFTAwinning) prosthetics. Taking the idea that you are your own worst enemy to the absolute extreme (how about a brutal fight to the death with your
older / younger self?), The Substance is a be-careful-what-you-wishfor fable that hammers home the objectification of women and the impossible pressures they face to maintain youth and beauty, and themes of body horror, toxic beauty culture, self-worth (and hatred) and ageism, topped off with some good old-fashioned misogyny.
Raffertie immediately knew he had to score this film: “I was completely blown away by the whole thing,” he says. “I absolutely loved it. I’m always looking for things that make me feel something or that move me in some way, and you can’t not be moved by The Substance – whether that’s because you’re a bit disgusted by some of the things you’re seeing, or whether you are brought into the feelings of despair and of being left behind,” he considers.
Joining the project when the film was in a post-production stage meant that Raffertie only had a few months to write a score that aligned with Fargeat’s vision. Following conversations with the director, he came up with an electronic masterpiece that mirrored the complex duality of Elisabeth and Sue. From evocative, nostalgic tones to cuttingedge, contemporary beats, the score became the frenzied backdrop to their intertwined stories.
“One of the first things that Coralie and I spoke about was the violence of the film,” Raffertie shares. “There’s the external violence – the things that happen to the character on an external level – but also, really importantly, the internal violence – all the horrible things that we say to ourselves. That is made real in the film: it’s a complete personification of this inner voice.”
Indeed, despite the film showing – in gory detail – an adult woman being born from the back of her older self (and then stitching herself up) and a large chicken bone being pulled from a belly button, one of the hardest scenes to watch is perhaps the most relatable. Having got dressed up for a date, Sparkle gives herself a quick onceover in the mirror before she leaves, and hates what she sees. In an act of self-hatred, she violently smudges her makeup all over her face, and later is called, “Gross, old, fat, disgusting!” by her younger self.
“The music had to underline that feeling,” nods Raffertie. “That was one of the key components of the film, and I think that was one of the things that drew Coralie to my music.
“And although as a man, this is not my experience, as with all great storytelling, Coralie lets us into that perspective, and you come away understanding the gravity of those feelings. In some of the tracks that I sent her, Coralie said she felt this raw, violent aspect to the music, which she thought could really work with
what was going on in the film, but juxtaposed against this more sensitive, emotional aspect,” he adds. “She was interested in that crossover point and how we could utilize that in terms of Elisabeth Sparkle’s character and Sue’s character. So we talked a lot about the violence, the mythology that’s created within the film, the references to the Faustian-style pact, and Dorian Gray.”
The Substance portrays the female body as a site of both beauty and horror. Rather than let the body horror genre influence his approach to the music, Raffertie moved away from what might be expected with a mostly electronic score, focusing in on the different themes for Sparkle and Sue.
“For Elisabeth, it was about trying to find a more organic world, something that represented her natural beauty and her inner turmoil,” he says. “And then with Sue, it was more about embodying a feeling of what it is to be youthful, but there’s this synthetic, unreal element, or rather, a hyper real version of Sue, because she’s supposed to be this idea of perfection.”
As soon as Sparkle’s younger self, Sue, comes to life, she is revealed as an eternally perky, AI-crafted fembot. A dynamic revolving camera captures every flawless angle of her newly perfected body, all set to the pulse of a pounding electronic score. Next, she’s leading a dance class – all oversexualised moves and gratuitous
close-ups of her leotard-clad body, while the relentless electronic score pounds away, creating a dizzying, almost manic energy. All signs point to hurtling towards something you can never keep up with. Was that a nod towards scrambling to keep up with impossible beauty standards?
“Yeah, for sure,” answers Raffertie. “Sue is quite uncompromising as a character as well, so there needed to be this drive and focus to the music. The first time we hear The Substance theme is where we see Sue in a leotard, and there’s this panning shot around her where you’re taking in her whole body, so you need to feel the seduction of her and of ‘the substance’ itself. We tried to capture that in that pulsating, minimal, technoleaning part of the score.
“There are these very distinct sound worlds which become more and more blurred together, more jagged, and more violent as we progress towards Monstro Elisasu [a grotesque clone of Sue, who is a clone of Elisabeth Sparkle – are you following?] and the eventual outcome of the abuse of ‘the substance’, so it becomes ever more angular, more aggressive and more grating, until she is effectively torn apart.”
The Substance theme that Raffertie alluded to is heard throughout the film whenever ‘the substance’ is mentioned or is being activated. Reinforcing the fact that they cannot escape from themselves, it’s a jarring sound that wails like a warning before hurtling into a thumping electronic score.
“This is a combination of two cues,” Raffertie explains. “Coralie picked this ‘mwhaaa’ sound out of some ideas I sent her and said, ‘This is the sound of ‘the substance’.’ In one of the other ideas I sent her, there was this kick and a bassline, and that bassline gradually opened out to create something more expansive. We put them together, and it just worked. It captured the essence of what we were looking for. It doesn’t always happen like that,” he points out. “Sometimes you’re stumbling around for a couple of months before you hit on a sound or an idea, but those two things came together. We put it to picture with Sue, and it just worked. The hit of the snare lined up perfectly with the cut. It was quite fortuitous, and that started to underpin a lot of the rest of the score, and we ran with it.”
The Substance’s distinctly squishy sound design ties in closely with the score; sometimes it’s unclear if it’s the score you’re hearing, a clever piece of sound design, or both. If you suffer from Misophonia, you might want to give this film a miss. In an early scene, Sparkle’s producer, Harvey (played repulsively by Dennis Quaid), fires her on her birthday for being too old – “Renewal is inevitable. And at 50... well... it stops,” – while shoveling shrimp into his mouth, filmed in revolting close-ups to a backdrop of squelchy sound effects. When Sparkle first takes ‘the substance’ and her body rips itself apart, and then later when Sue repeatedly smashes her older counterpart’s face into a mirror, at times the score and sound design –fittingly – seem to become one.
“Dennis Quaid eating all of those shrimps!” Raffertie shudders – “the sound design is incredible there.
“THERE IS THIS CROSSOVER BETWEEN THE SOUND DESIGN AND THE SCORE. IT REALLY PLAYS WITH YOUR FEELINGS OF DISGUST.”
“It really plays with your feelings of disgust. It’s also quite violent in terms of what he’s saying and how he’s saying it to Elisabeth. It’s powerful. The bit that I never got used to watching was where her knee seizes up, and then she’s trying to release it,” he admits. “For me, that was one of the worst points because you know what’s going to happen. It’s the anticipation – it’s almost like someone snapping a ruler. I know lots of people say the cooking scene is really difficult to watch too,” he
says, bringing it back to the merging of the score and sound design: “The film was fantastically mixed, and I like the fact that there is this crossover between the sound design and the score. There are a couple of moments where people have asked me if it’s the score or the sound design they’re hearing, and I like that it gets muddled up and you’re not quite sure. The fight scene is quite operatic,” he uses as an example.
“I mean, the whole end of the film is quite operatic in many ways – you really want to feel the culmination of the cost of this Faustian pact that she’s embarked on. It looks like a fight between two people, but really it’s just someone fighting themselves, so there is emotion that creeps in there, as well as darkness and violence. It came together in a jigsaw kind of way as the editing is quite chaotic in order to emphasize the violence, which can be quite difficult to pace musically. It became quite disorientating within the film, which I think, particularly for a film like this, really adds to the atmosphere and experience.
“It’s so manic, and there’s such a raw emotion that is happening on screen,” he furthers. “The actors are giving it their all. In some ways, it was about scoring it in quite a classical, ‘action’ way in the sense of marking out certain beats within that whole sequence. It was very much about knowing where to push and pull
because it starts big, and that doesn’t leave you anywhere to go, so you have to know where to drop out to silence within that broader cue. We worked closely with the sound designers in order to understand what they were doing with that scene, and Coralie was instrumental in helping to make that work.”
Despite not winning the most coveted prize at the Oscars (although the film did take home the gong for Best Makeup and Hairstyling), The Substance was a real shot in the arm (or perhaps, more aptly, spine) for the horror film genre in the context of a Best Picture nod. Horror has notoriously been snubbed when it comes to Best Picture. In its history, only a handful of horror films have been nominated for the award. The Substance joined previous nominees The Exorcist (1973), Jaws (1975), The Sixth Sense (1999), Black Swan (2010) and Get Out (2017), with 1991’s The Silence of the Lambs being the only
horror film to actually win.
Despite the film not taking home Best Picture, Raffertie couldn’t be prouder of the way The Substance has been received. “It is an extraordinary film. I always wonder whether branding the film as a horror film was accurate,” he considers. “I think in some ways it’s more of a drama with horror elements. Obviously it does have very horrific things that happen within it, but I feel like it’s more in that drama/ thriller zone, which then moves into using horror tropes as a way of telling the story.
“I think we all know what The Substance is, and we don’t necessarily need awards in order to know that it’s good. The way it’s been received really is testament to that.”
Credit:
Headliner was disappointed not to see a Best Score nomination at the Oscars or the BAFTAs. Raffertie weighs in as to whether the big award shows aren’t as accepting of electronic, experimental scores.
“I don’t know,” he considers. “The process leading up to some of these awards has opened my eyes a little bit as to what that actually entails. It does involve a lot of schmoozing, going to certain events, talking to people, people knowing who you are, and I suppose, to a certain extent, liking you. But are they accepting of electronic scores? People like Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross [composers of
2024’s Challengers] have shown that electronic scores can win awards. I’m incredibly proud of what we achieved with the film, and I think it’s a very good score. I think it’s one of my best, and I’m really glad that people have received it so positively.”
In the spirit of being our own worst enemies, we’ve all seen Jurassic Park, but if it opened today, there’s no doubt that it would be booked up until the next ice age. Which begs the question: If ‘the substance’ existed, would people use it?
“I’ve heard a few people say that they would take it,” smiles Raffertie.
“The Substance, in many ways, is a cautionary tale, but it is also examining something that is true within human nature, or at least true for right now in terms of how we consume things and look at ourselves.
“Despite the film, there probably would still be some people that would take ‘the substance’,” he shrugs.
Credit: MUBI
IMAGINE DRAGONS: LIVE FROM THE HOLLYWOOD BOWL
INONZUR
“I LOVE LUCK, BUT I NEVER LET LUCK CONDUCT OUTCOMES.”
Composer Inon Zur, best known for his scores for Fallout and Starfield, delves into his role for Imagine Dragons: Live From The Hollywood Bowl, a concert (and newly-released film) which features his orchestral arrangements of the band’s biggest hits - played by the LA Film Orchestra, including Children of The Sky - A Starfield Song, which, incidentally, just became the first song transmitted to earth from the moon. “The event itself was, ‘Shoot for the sky.’ Let’s put it that way,” smiles Zur, speaking to Headliner from his home in Southern California.
During the nearly two-hour concert, the band fused their explosive, cathartic sound with gorgeous, intricate symphonic arrangements played on stage by over 50 musicians. The one night-only event introduced many young fans to their first ever orchestral performance and certainly gave the band’s OG fans a night to remember.
Conducting an orchestra is one thing, but doing so with a globally renowned rock band that had never
worked with an orchestra before in front of thousands of fans is another. Zur reveals that he pulled it off with a lot of preparation, and a little luck. “I don’t want to say the words ‘sheer luck’, but I’ll just give you the dry facts: I have never performed or conducted an orchestra in this kind of live setting,” says Zur. “They had never performed live with an orchestra. We only had one rehearsal.
“So you take these three facts, then you look at the concert, and you tell me that it’s not sheer luck,” he laughs.
“But seriously, I prepared a lot, including plan B, plan C, Plan D, Plan E. If something were to go wrong, I had prepared so that everything would go smoothly, taking into consideration the fact that I’m inexperienced with this kind of scenario, and they are totally inexperienced with this kind of scenario. It took days and days of preparation before the concert to ensure the whole thing would go smoothly. So, I love luck, but I never let luck conduct outcomes.”
Despite his rigorous preparation, Zur couldn’t help but feel nervous before the opening number: “The nerve-wracking moment was when the concert started,” he nods. “I had prepared for it and the band are pros, but they had never performed with an orchestra, and by the way, I can’t speak highly enough about the professionality of the Los Angeles Film orchestra, who only had one and a half rehearsals with us and played it like they played it all their lives,” he points out.
“I stood there and the first note started. I started conducting, and I knew that the band would either come at the right moment, or not, and if they were not going to come in at the right moment, then I would have to improvise. That was a bit of a nerve-wracking moment. I looked at [Imagine Dragons’ lead singer] Dan Reynolds, and he looked so relaxed, like he’d been doing it all his life, and I just knew it was gonna be okay.”
The concert featured the live premiere of Children of The SkyA Starfield Song, a collaboration between Zur and the band to celebrate Bethesda’s space exploration adventure Starfield, which is where his collaboration with the band started. “I was approached by a producer from Interscope and he said that Imagine Dragons are avid, passionate gamers, and they would like to contribute or be involved somehow with Starfield,” Zur recalls. “I said, ‘Wow, that’s a huge honor’, because I have known and loved their music for a long time. The connection was made, and they started working on a song, and we went back and forth a little bit, and then they created this really great song called Children Of The Sky, and sent it to me.”
Zur thought it was perfect, but then had to consider how to make it fit within the Starfield world. “I basically took the hook – the main motif from
the Starfield main theme – and started inserting it into their melody, and they were gracious enough to actually adjust to this. We recorded it and the song went out, and I think this was the first time they were exposed to the majestic effect that a symphonic orchestra could have when it came to their songs.”
From here sparked an idea to incorporate an orchestra into the song, and the rest is history: “I said, ‘Okay, but how about we do a whole concert with orchestral arrangements?’ They totally went with me on that and graced me with a lot of leeway and creative freedom to do whatever I wanted with the orchestra and their songs,” says Zur. “The whole collaboration process was amazing. It was really a dream come true.”
From there, it was up to Zur to work out how to blend the band’s dynamic rock sound with symphonic
arrangements, which he says wasn’t as difficult as it sounds. “It’s weird to say, but with their rock sound, I always heard an orchestra there,” he says. “So for me it was always there –it was just not audible.
“So when I arranged Radioactive or other amazing songs that they have, the orchestral part was already there. Their writing is epic and almost symphonic, and the chords and the way the songs are built really accommodate the orchestral treatment. The big challenge was that I know what I like, but will the fans that have heard these songs for so many years in their original form accept it? How would they adjust to it? I must say that I was a little nervous, but luckily, it was accepted very warmly and with a lot of enthusiasm, which was a great relief.”
Credit: Andi Elloway
The set included reimagined arrangements of Imagine Dragons staples like Radioactive, Demons, and Believer. Zur explains that when it came to the orchestral arrangements, he could have approached it in two ways: “The first way, which will be obvious, is that Believer has a set of chords, so I could do an accompaniment where the strings and the rhythm section will play the same chords that the guitar plays, with some drums, low strings and some brass.
“The other way is to take the song and use it as an opportunity to create an orchestral hook that will play alongside the song, and create melodic lines that were not there before. This way it could complement, emphasize and transform the song into something different. Obviously, this second option was way more challenging, so of course, I went for that,” he grins.
Inside Zur’s studio, he shares a key piece of gear he couldn’t be without: “I have been using my Genelec monitors since 2001,” he enthuses. “In fact, I worked with Florence and the Machine for Dragon Age 2, and then JJ Puig, the famous mixer for The Rolling Stones and other huge rock bands, mixed our version of the song. I went to his studio, and he has the exact same Genelec monitors. I thought, ‘Well, if he’s using them, then I know they’re okay!’
“The great thing about the Genelecs is they are very balanced speakers, but they go as low as 30dB, so I do not need to use a subwoofer at all. The second thing is they possess a perfect balance between being a professional studio monitor, but not dry, because when I’m composing, I need excitement. And they do have really brilliant highs, and the resonance is really vibrant from the Genelecs. I get as close as we can to a nominal and objective mix that will sound pretty much the same on any platform, and that’s very challenging.
“The Genelecs are very reliable when it comes to what you hear. They give you everything, and you can trust what you hear. It’s great to mix with them, but it’s also great to compose with them. They’re a perfect combination and I have no intention to replace them.”
Credit: Andi
LOST IN A DREAM
CASSANDRA LEWIS
With a stupendous voice, real talk, and a wild storyteller’s wit, rising singer-songwriter Cassandra Lewis describes herself as a “cosmic western queer taranti-noir fever dream making fine art and songs from trash.” In this Emerging
Headliner interview powered by JBL, your favorite artist’s soon-to-be favorite Americana artist unpicks her origin story.
What’s immediately evident when talking to Lewis is that this girl knows how to tell a story, and she certainly has a few to tell. Take her upbringing, for example: her childhood was one of constant motion, moving montage-like from Germany through Florida, Texas, settling in Idaho for a time among her family of “high mountain desert folk”, finally through to Nashville, where she currently resides – for now at least.
“This is my 33rd city I’ve lived in,” she discloses, explaining that her nomadic lifestyle started when her father served in the army. “This is the first beautiful southern place I’ve lived in. It’s been so welcoming and sweet and a lot different than I thought it would be. After I graduated, I got out to Big Sur and started…” she pauses… “you could say, my youthful, spiritual exploration,” she lands on.
Lewis was a lonely child, finding escape in front of the television set where she would immerse herself in VH1, Elvis films and The Wizard of Oz. “It was lonely,” she nods. “You don’t really get to make a lot of close friends and it’s unsettling, but
you have to learn how to make a home wherever you go. In my 20s, I was learning how to make a space, whether it’s in the back of a van or a hotel room or a farm, or even when I was houseless for a while after a wildfire burned down the farm that I was living on. It’s an exercise of acceptance, I guess, and also just softening your eyes so that you’re not living within some expectation of where you should be. That definitely bleeds through a lot of the songs that I write, in that I desire to have that home base, but I have not yet found where that’s going to be.
One way Lewis did discover she could connect with people early on was through music, and she would go on to become known as the “little yodelling cowgirl” at the town’s lone Walmart, and in local retirement homes. Lewis inhaled inspiration from cut-and-dry classic country and rock ‘n’ roll, smoked-out soulful psychedelia, and exhaled a shadowy signature sound, which today can be likened to a fever dream between Marty Robbins and Joni Mitchell.
The years rolled by, and she slung her songs for anyone who would listen, only for a last shot to pay
off by landing a deal with Low Country Sound/Elektra Records. After releasing music independently for years and being just about ready to give up, Lewis wound up in an impromptu meeting with Elektra Records President Gregg Nadel, where she performed for him in Elektra’s parking garage. Killer acoustics aside, Nadel was immediately floored by her incredible voice, and enthralled by her story and personality.
“I basically gave up on the idea of wanting to be really mainstream when I ‘found my voice’,” she admits. “I found a great community of musicians in the bay and all over the West Coast that really supported the very weird, five o’clock in the morning around-a-fire-pit storytelling thing that I do.”
Lewis’ music came to the attention of American radio personality, Mark Collins, who rose to prominence in the early ‘90s as a DJ on an alternative rock station in Seattle alongside the rise of grunge.
“He’s an amazing and legendary radio DJ who was the first to break Nirvana and Pearl Jam,” Lewis nods,
“I DEFINITELY DIDN’T THINK THAT AT MY AGE THAT THIS WOULD BE SOMETHING THAT I WOULD HAVE ACCESS TO.”
Credit: Ashley Osborn
“and he fell in love with my music. He scouted me when I was playing in a tugboat in a junkyard in Portland, Oregon, and he loved it, and he just didn’t stop talking about it. I had already decided I was going to be indie and I had hopes and dreams of possibly working with my favorite producer, which was Dave Cobb, but that was such an off in the distance feeling. I was not going to pursue that – then it all kind of unfolded.”
Lewis found a manager and they discussed the fact that if they couldn’t get 13-time Grammy award winning Cobb (Lady Gaga, Chris Stapleton, Brandi Carlile, Take That, Rival Sons, and Zayn Malik), that Lewis would remain an independent artist. The fateful meeting with Nadal was arranged, although he didn’t know about it.
“It was a little sneaky thing,” she grins. “It was like a movie – just like I would have liked it! I told him my story and he said, ‘I suppose you’re going to sing for me now.’ I was like, ‘I suppose I better!’ I took them into the parking garage, because the acoustics were better, and my
guitar strings were dead, and sang them three songs. He said, ‘Wow; I’d love to hear the album that you have.’ Two weeks later, they wanted to fly me out to meet Dave Cobb in Nashville at RCA. I sang for Dave, and he signed me on the spot.”
Headliner notices that Lewis recounts the story with an air of disbelief. “I don’t like to be ageist or feel like there’s a limit on anyone’s creativity,” she answers, “but I definitely didn’t think that at my age that this would be something that I would have access to.”
Lewis’ Cobb-produced major label debut album Lost In A Dream weaves together a spellbinding tapestry of country, folk, blues, soul, bluegrass, gospel and rock. Recorded in Savannah, GA alongside Cobb, Lost In A Dream chronicles her journey down her own yellow brick road as she confronts a toxic relationship, addiction, and mental health struggles.
Lewis’ powerful vocals vividly convey the disillusionment and heartbreak of realizing that you’ve put someone on
a pedestal they can’t stand on, which is a theme reflected throughout the album on tracks like So Bad, I Surrender and standout track, Hold The Door, although her favorite song to perform is Some Kind Of Love. “I wrote that while I was still in the throes of this relationship. It’s such a beautiful, heartfelt love letter to myself that I never really got from this person. Sometimes you don’t get to have the closure that you want, so you have to give it to yourself, so I wrote myself the most beautiful love letter I could ever hope to get. I really love that song; it’s got this classic Glen Campbell feeling to it. When it’s played live, there’s more of a reaction than the other ones, emotionally, at least. I’m out here to make you guys cry,” she laughs.
She may joke, but Lewis’ evocative songwriting is the cornerstone of her appeal. Drawing inspiration from her life experiences, she writes with a rawness that calls to mind some of the greats in Americana and country. Her music feels timeless, with roots in traditional country storytelling, while her lyrics serve as a confessional for her darkest times.
“The thing is, I’ve had a lot of things happen,” she says of gravitating to writing about times of hardship. “I’m not sure if I’m a magnet for some extreme experiences in life, or if I’m called to be in those places for some reason to learn something.
“I’m hoping to cultivate a lot more of a joyful presence in my music. I find humor in everything though – at some point you have to learn to laugh, or you’ll just cry all the time. Half of what I do on stage is almost a comedy,” she insists.
“Some of it is really heavy material, and it’s a lot of deep feelings. So I’m trying to laugh on stage just as much for my own preservation, as well as the audience.”
The storytelling may be heavy, but it resonates with audiences. Lost in a Dream has cemented Lewis’ position as one of the most exciting voices in Americana and country music. Her ability to transcend genres while staying rooted in authentic storytelling is a rare gift, and her grounded, soulful approach is something the music world needs more of, especially in a time when authentic voices can feel few and far between. Lewis attributes her approach to making music to growing up on “cowboy country”, leading her to embrace classic western storytelling.
“I want it to feel raw and visceral, so it hits people the way my favorite music hits me,” she says. “I don’t think we should feel comfortable all the time. I want my music to make people feel human – laugh, cry, scream – feel it all. The thing about the country is, I grew up in it. There was a straight shooting, big hearted energy in the country where I grew up. The best way to describe it is, it’s three chords and the truth. It doesn’t have all this flourish. I have a penchant for dramatics in my songwriting, but sometimes I’m surgical with my words – and real. I like to make it something that everyone can relate to. “It’s really just about the slow pace of
the country,” she elaborates. “When you slow everything down, you start to see things that matter and a lot of times that ends up being your family, your job and the good work you’re putting into your own little dream. [Western storytelling] feels like it looks out there: it’s high mountain desert. It feels like long roads. It feels like quiet days. It feels like birds, a river and fishing, and all of that is the absolute truth.”
Lewis has come a long way from yodelling in Walmart. These days you’ll find her touring with soulful artists like Allen Stone, or playing at iconic venues like Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium. “For country people, that’s the mother church,” she smiles. “So many legends have played there. You walk in and it feels like a warm blanket, or like butter on a warm muffin.”
Lewis shares that she takes a JBL EON ONE Compact Portable PA with Professional-Grade Mixer with her when she’s on the road. “I’d been looking for a good portable PA for a long time as my voice has a complexity at times and an intensity that overloads a lot of systems,” she shares. “The first thing that I listened to on it was through the bluetooth speaker, and it was a Nina Simone song. I had heard this song a lot, but
I heard all of the song through it,” she stresses. “I was blown away by the depth, sonically. It’s nice to have a portable option too, as sometimes I like to busk out of the back of a van and do little backyard shows. It fills the room. It sounds good. It looks good. It’s really lightweight. I’m surprised by the level of sound that can come out of such a small package, too.”
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Credit: Julia Godfrey
OH! THE OCEAN
THE WOMBATS
Almost two decades since The Wombats broke through with the UK chart-climbing Let’s Dance To Joy Division, we find them releasing a much more introspective album that isn’t interested in the glitzy parties and partying. Singer Matthew Murphy chats to Headliner about how a sudden state of total peace found on a Californian beach set the tone for the new record, and how they set out to make the most human-sounding album possible without a trace of AI.
Murphy met Tord Øverland Knudsen and Dan Haggis at the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts, and in their first three years together as the Wombats, they released several EPs. From 2006 onwards, the band’s singles began to increasingly make dents in the UK charts: Moving To New York, the band’s debut single and still one of their signature tunes, Kill The Director, and then the rest was history with the release of Let’s Dance To Joy Division, hitting a high of number 15 on the UK singles chart, no small feat for such a hyperactive indie-rock song.
That song’s unlikely success coincided with the Wombats’ debut album, A Guide to Love, Loss & Desperation, in late 2007, itself reaching number 11 on the UK album chart. The band certainly weren’t the only indie band success story of the time; the 2000s saw an explosion of indie rock’s popularity, particularly stemming from bands such as OK Go, the Strokes, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Razorlight, and many more.
The era has sometimes been disparagingly referred to as ‘landfill indie’ due to the enormous number of bands labels were clamouring to sign at its peak.
As that name suggests, many of the acts did not survive the era, but not the Wombats, who continue to be one of the UK’s most successful bands to emerge at that time; their last album release, Fix Yourself, Not the World in 2022, was the first Wombats album to top the UK charts.
Murphy eventually left his native Liverpool for the warmer temperatures of Los Angeles. “I’ve been in L.A. for about eight and a half years,” he says. “We came over to Liverpool to rehearse for eight days, and then I went to Berlin for three days and then back to London, then Paris, and then back to London. This is the typical week before the album comes out. It’s all pretty mental. My sleeping patterns have
been f**ked on this trip. Usually, after a few days, I’m fine, but this one has been wild.”
With the band’s latest album touching on themes of trying to be present in life, awe-inspiring moments of connecting with nature, and a strong dislike for certain social events as they mature, it’s fascinating to ask Murphy about that whirlwind few years when he and the trio first broke through. Despite Let’s Dance To Joy Division not exactly fitting into any for-the-radio mould (it has a shouty chorus, a BPM almost too fast to nod your head to, and very quirky lyrics), it was a truly ubiquitous song upon its release. It’s also not lost on Murphy that so many bands from that era were not heard from again after the 2000s indie era peaked, with EDM replacing it as the dominant sound as we transitioned into the 2010s.
“2006 and 2007 were kind of a blur,” he says. “I remember not being able to
turn on the radio without Let’s Dance To Joy Division being battered at you. My memories of it are still somewhat accurate. I feel like we were almost the last band to make it through before the gates closed on that whole scene. We were lucky that we made a good decision to sign with 14th Floor and work with people who genuinely cared about us. Otherwise, we might have signed to one of the labels that were just signing tons of bands at the time; labels like B-Unique, who had the Kaiser Chiefs, and they then signed 20 other bands that went nowhere. I think we’re the only band that still has the same lineup going from that period.”
If you’re curious about the new album title, Oh! The Ocean, it is drawn from a moment in which Murphy had an experience that went from “a f**king terrible morning” into a “mushroomesque spiritual experience.” On a family holiday last summer, he spent some time alone on a Californian beach and suddenly found himself dumbstruck and in a state of sheer awe at the surrounding nature and the insignificance of his problems next to it.
“We’d gone on a staycation, and I’d had a crazy, stressful morning,” he says. “We went down to Orange County. There’s this really nice beach, the Monarch Beach, and my kids were off with my wife somewhere. I just stood on this beach, staring at the ocean, and it was like the first time I’d ever seen it. All my troubles, daily fears and all the cyclical thought patterns that we all get into, everything just stopped.
“I remember running to my wife and telling her, ‘I’ve seen the ocean for the first time.’ She’s like, ‘What are you talking about?’ It was a huge moment being connected to life in a way that I’ve never felt before, being grateful and just being completely bemused and amazed by it. This powerful moment lasted for about 10 minutes. I try to go there sometimes when I start getting stressed out about little things that, in the grand scheme, don’t make a big difference. I wanted to name the album after that experience.”
Credit: Joshua
The album starts with its brutally honest opener, Sorry I’m Late, I Didn’t Want To Come. While the songs that the Wombats broke through with seemed perfectly conducive for wild parties and drinking, this single sees Murphy savagely laying bare his dislike of social functions he has developed in recent years. In the chorus, he sings, “I’m sorry I’m late, I didn’t want to come / It’s not that I hate you, I just hate everyone.”
Murphy explains that the track is about social awkwardness and social anxiety. “Which all human beings have, to some degree, some more than others. When I first moved to L.A. and was going out and making friends, I’d be walking into parties with a whole host of incredibly good-looking people. And with me growing up in Liverpool in the ‘80s and ‘90s, I was feeling pretty out of my depth and had this fear of what other people may think. That fear led me to imbibe in things, and then you get so messed up to the point that you become the thing that you were fearful of before you got there. I still don’t know how people do it today. It’s crazy to me that people can go to corporate events and mingle without being either weird or embarrassing themselves. It’s kind of shocking to me.”
Hearing this perspective, it makes sense then that Murphy has removed alcohol from his life. “Now the highs are higher, and the lows are lower, and the edges of life are sharper. But life feels bigger, and, ultimately, just feels more magical. And odder. Which is great for being a creative person. I guess it’s a second chance at life.” This can be heard in the song’s line, “I don’t want to socialise unless I’m getting numb.”
This may sound strange to some, but with AI continuing to encroach more and more into the music industry, the Wombats set about making an album that sounded as human as possible, even if that meant leaving some mistakes in takes, and recording the songs in a much more ‘live’ way than previously.
“I’d heard that AI Drake and Future track,” Murphy recalls. “I remember listening to it and going, ‘Oh, I quite like this. This is scary.’ And I was thinking about how AI is going to be able to replicate anything. It then dawned on me that it’s never going to learn how to make a mistake or fuck up as well as a human being can. I don’t think it’s ever going to take into account human error. So that was when the goal became to make an album full of mistakes and accidents. John Congleton [the album’s producer] loved this idea, as did Dan and Tord.
“John didn’t listen to the demos of any songs beforehand; he got me to play each song on an acoustic guitar or on a piano, from start to finish, and that was how he got into the song. Rather than listening to the demos. Then, every
song was recorded in full takes from start to finish, rather than jumping to a section or starting with the chorus or anything like that. We’ve never approached the making of an album in such a raw, organic way as we did with John. It sounds a bit messy, maybe, but in a kind of charming way.”
Another stand-out moment on Oh! The Ocean is I Love America And She Hates Me. The track opens with a gorgeous bassline with ambient synths swirling overhead as Murphy sings an ode to his adopted country and the personal change he’s been through living there as a selfconscious Liverpudlian.
“There are some tongue in cheek elements, but I do love being there,” Murphy says. “I feel like I’m 15% more productive and 10% happier. This is not a moral judgment on gun ownership, but gun ownership, to a person born in Liverpool in the ‘80s, is a mad proposition, so I still can’t really get my head around that. It’s also born out of this idea of tall poppy syndrome that we have in the UK, and not to put your wins and successes in life on parade, whereas in the US people are more supportive and get excited when something good happens for you.”
And, on embarking on the Wombats’ biggest-ever UK and EU tour, including an appearance at London’s O2 Arena, he adds, “It feels like a long time coming. I prefer playing large shows — the small shows freak me out, and I get really nervous. I can see everyone’s faces. There’s nowhere to hide, and I can see when someone’s dragged their boyfriend along who doesn’t want to be there. I can just see too much, whereas these big ones feel like more of a show. And as a socially awkward person, I feel like I can hide a bit more.”
The Wombats will be touring Europe throughout April and then returning to the UK for a hometown performance at the Pier Head in Liverpool on the 19th of June. Oh! The Ocean is out now, and who knows, perhaps you’ll experience a little blissful satori moment as you share in that moment Murphy had on the beach.
THEWOMBATS.CO.UK
CONSISTENT SOUND ON THE ROAD WITH
Words by LIZ WILKIN S NO
BECKY HILL
Credit: Anna Dahlin
“THE LARGE SURFACE LAYOUT OF THE QUANTUM 338 IS GREAT FOR KEEPING ORGANIZED, WHICH MEANS I CAN WORK FROM MUSCLE MEMORY WITHOUT TAKING MY EYES OFF THE STAGE.”
Since appearing on The Voice UK in 2012, Becky Hill has built an impressive career, becoming the only contestant to achieve a UK number-one single. Her 2024 Believe Me Now? tour has taken her across the UK, America, New Zealand and Australia, with her team tackling the challenge of delivering consistent, high-quality sound across diverse venues, as Headliner explores…
At the heart of the tour’s audio setup are DiGiCo Quantum 338 consoles, used by Anna Dahlin (Front of House) and Robyn Hannah (monitors).
Both engineers rely on the desks’ flexibility and processing power to handle Hill’s dynamic performances, balancing live instrumentation with electronic elements.
“I met Becky back in 2012,” says Dahlin. “When she started her own band in 2020, she called me to get involved. I’ve been touring with her ever since.” As the show expanded in 2024, additional DiGiCo SD-Mini and SD-Nano racks were incorporated to handle the growing input list.
“Robyn and I spent a long time
arranging the input list in order to use a single show file wherever we went, as the show scaled up and down.”
Dahlin uses the Quantum 338’s builtin compression, reverb, and EQ to mix the intricate blend of instruments and backing tracks. “The show is heavily reliant on snapshots. I also use groups to feature sections of players and macros for global changes in a cappella and instrumental moments.”
Hannah manages 21 stereo mixes for performers, on and off stage. “Workflow is important. I use groups and macros to make sure I can respond quickly. The large surface layout of the Quantum 338 is great for keeping organized, which means I can work from muscle memory without taking my eyes off the stage.”
Both engineers incorporate outboard processing, with Hannah using an SSL Fusion to enhance stereo width in Becky’s IEM mix, while Dahlin applies it sparingly to the master bus, adding a Bricasti reverb to Becky’s vocals. “The Mustard processing is in use across most channels, and the Naga 6 has been a game-changer because I’ve
not needed anything external,” says Hannah. “For fly shows, it’s great - I load my file from my USB, and it’s done.”
Beyond technical performance, the engineers appreciate the support from DiGiCo while on the road. “You can always pick up the phone and ask anything,” says Hannah. “Even at festivals, they’ll check in to see if you need anything.”
Dahlin agrees, adding, “Having that personal relationship with the team makes a huge difference.”
Through careful planning, a refined workflow and DiGiCo’s cutting-edge technology, Dahlin and Hannah continue to deliver consistent, highimpact audio, ensuring Becky Hill’s arena-sized energy reaches every audience, no matter the venue.
DIGICO.BIZ
Credit: Jess Greaves
21ST CENTURY FICTION
THE AMAZONS
21st Century Fiction is a timely and topical name for the upcoming fourth album from The Amazons, their first since the 2022 top 5 UK album How Will I Know If Heaven Will Find Me? Being teased as their darkest and most heartfelt album yet, singer/guitarist Matthew Thomson speaks to Headliner about why the band are embarking on an album about fears of unfulfilled promise, ideas of masculinity, and the heavy weight of self-criticism that many of us are experiencing in this modern age.
The band hails from Reading, Berkshire – a little less exotic than the broadleaf tropical rainforest their name refers to. Thomson joins the Zoom call from his parent’s home, where he is hibernating with a flu virus he picked up while touring.
Contracting illness aside, Thomson is feeling very positive about the tour.
“It was a great chance to give a real beginning to a lot of the songs from our new record. We called the tour the 21st Century Fiction Prologue Tour. We wanted to play in small rooms and have our closest community come to witness the birth of a lot of these new songs and reconnect over the old ones as well.
“It felt like the right opportunity for new songs to be heard in a live setting for the first time. I thought that could be really powerful. I’ve had such strong memories of seeing bands’ new material live, and there’s just an energy and a spirit to that.”
First emerging in 2014, the Amazons, completed by guitarist Chris Alderton and bassist Elliot Briggs (they don’t
currently have a permanent drummer since the departure of Josef Emmett), the now-trio steadily grew with their big, arena-friendly rock riffage and choruses. Their early success as an independent outfit led to putting pen to paper with Universal Records imprint label Fiction and several top 10 UK album chart success stories.
2022’s How Will I Know If Heaven Will Find Me? featured the band’s brightest, most optimistic sound yet, with catchy hooks aplenty and nods to Americana music. The new album, however, was not born from a cheerful place for Thomson, and he isn’t currently reflecting on the previous album cycle with happy nostalgia. Not only because Emmett left the group, but a general malaise around the band and his life in general. “It was born out of a time of real frustration and unhappiness,” he says. “I was frustrated with where my life was, I was anxious about the future, and I was a little bit frustrated with the past. The most maddening thing of it all was that the music that we were making wasn’t really an effective vehicle for me to express
myself. There’s an alternative album knocking around or the beginnings of one that was more of a continuation of the third record. We just felt like we’re just kind of ringing in, or that we were making the stuff that we felt we should do rather than wanted to. I was all the cliches of a 29-yearold thinking his life was supposed to be different, and reading The Daily Stoic,” he laughs.
When listening to the previous album How Will I Know If Heaven Will Find Me? with this in mind, and comparing it to the direction The Amazon’s new singles are taking them in, you can see what Thomson is talking about sonically. The singles for the new album that rounded out 2024 are more sonically daring, whereas several critics remarked that the 2022 album didn’t see the group looking to switch up their musical formula much.
Credit: Kieron Webb
“ANY SORT OF NORMAL DAY IS JUST ABOUT THE CREATION OF CONTENT TO FEED THE BEAST.”
You could be forgiven for thinking all this would bring the band itself into question for Thomson, and whether he wanted to carry on with it and pursue music. However, he was also confronted with the fact that he couldn’t see any realistic alternative.
“I have A levels, but I never seriously pursued any further education, so I don’t have any qualifications, really,” he says. “So I felt like I’m gonna have to make this work, even if I don’t have a clear vision of what this means anymore. I thought we were going to be one of those bands where it was the founding members forever, like Coldplay, U2 – all my favorite bands. I never wanted to be like a Queens of the Stone Age revolving door situation. But guess what? I was served a big fat lesson in life, and it’s just not something that you can choose, because circumstances out of your control happen all the time, and you’ve got to work it out.
“But thank God the music happened when it did, because, for the first time in my creative career, we made an album that I needed to make. Of course, I care if it’s received well, but that wasn’t the end goal. I think making it was the end goal, and
having those lyrics on paper and on record, and having the vision realized and executed was the goal. I don’t know if I can honestly say on previous records, I would be okay if people didn’t listen to it, because we were just in love with being in a band, and we wanted to tour the world, and we wanted to make records.”
The first single to emerge from this new unbounded creative approach was December’s Living A Lie, a track that opens with cinematic strings, and a wordless, wailing female vocal that wouldn’t sound out of place in a sword and sandals epic like Troy. As the orchestral overture builds to its end, the incoming guitar and bass riff hit extra hard.
The band followed this with Pitch Black, a song that carried over some of their 2022 LP’s touches of Americana, albeit darker in tone this time round. The third single My Blood has a Muse-esque swagger to it, with stadium-ready drums, a vocal sample, big brass, and one of the band’s typically huge riffs.
For 21st Century Fiction, the Amazons decided to collaborate with a few producers and engineers. “One of the first people we talked to was Mike from Royal Blood,” says Thomson. “I was just really intrigued, because I had loved his production on the last two Royal Blood records, and we’d been friends for a long time. We’d met each other in passing over the years, and they’d come to our Brixton show because they really liked the second record. I moved to Brighton, and me and Mike would do the long COVID walks and just talk music the process and trade stories. It was a natural thing.
“And then after speaking with Mike, I learned about Pete Hutchings, who is a kind of co-producer and engineer for the Royal Blood records. Mike told me, ‘This guy is incredible.’ He’s incredibly creative and gracious and is just a master of taking your crappy
demos and making them sound like a million bucks. It’s been probably one of the best creative collaborations that we’ve had as a band. I think Pete Hutchings is probably the most gifted and the most unsung and accomplished producer that we’ve ever worked with. 21st Century Fiction wouldn’t be the record it is without him. So Mike did one track, Catherine (Marks, Wolf Alice, boygenius) did a couple, but the lion’s share was a collaboration between us and Pete.”
With the new record slated for a 9th May release date, Thomson and the band are now in full promotional mode.
“I guess any sort of normal day is just about the creation of content to feed the beast, ultimately, but we’ve kind of been reframing it,” he says. “This record is just more opportunities to tell the story of the record and the songs. There are some big swings on there, and I feel like it’s an album that will benefit from the context being laid out for the listener. Especially for our more immediate fan base, who are very present on everything that we’ve been doing. We’ve got another two or three singles to come out between now and May, and a lot of story to tell, so hopefully it will all make sense by the time we get to May. Hopefully, the 21st Century Fiction world that we’re building will yield a good listening experience.”
With this big, cinematic scope the Amazons have laid out for both the album itself and the manner in which they are releasing it, it seems that their fans and beyond have plenty to anticipate. We are living in a time where fiction to escape into has never been more vital, and the Berkshire trio are offering up the musical version of that.
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WILKINSON
FOLLOWING THE SCRIPT
TOUR SOUND
Irish pop-rock band The Script took to the road last year in support of their most recent Satellites album. The tour of arenas in the UK and continental Europe saw the band return to live performance with a high-energy show which typified their approach to pushing boundaries. Added to the band’s legendary collection of anthemic tunes, the boisterous hip-hop and funk rhythms of their new material made for a memorable show.
Headliner discovers how event technology specialists Adlib, which has supplied audio to The Script for nearly 15 years and has seen the band develop into global superstars, once again chose a CODA Audio system to meet the needs of a tour which played to venues that varied in capacity from 6,000 to 23,500 fans.
The Script’s production manager, Colin Rogers, is a fan of CODA Audio’s flagship AiRAY line array system, having seen it in use in the band’s previous arena tours.
“As the show design for this production relies heavily on video, we aimed to maintain a clean,
unobstructed stage,” explains Rogers. “The compact size of the CODA system allowed us to position the boxes in a way that minimized visual clutter, significantly improving sightlines in comparison to other systems. Importantly, we didn’t have to compromise on audio quality to achieve this.”
Adlib’s Marci Mezei designed the system and served as the system engineer for the tour. He deployed the AiRAY with flown subs. “Richy Nicholson, our account manager, involved me at a fairly early stage in the system design for the tour. My personal preference is for flown subarrays, as I like how they compare in distribution to ground-only subsystems, which typically overwhelm the front rows with excessive energy when trying to reach the back rows. Flown sub arrays easily deliver nice, smooth sub energy to the back rows,” says Mezei.
“The flown loudspeakers were positioned in an imaginary ‘arc’ to ensure all the time relationships remained as close to each other as possible. This was done to achieve the smoothest overlap between the main, side and 270° hangs.
“We engaged closely with the lighting and video teams to obtain a consistent trim height around 10m from the ground, which offered the best compromise between sightlines and low-frequency coverage,” he furthers. “The subs on the ground
were able to ‘fill in’ and add low end to the first few rows, which were underneath the coverage pattern of the flown subs.”
The CODA Audio system, which was scaled to accommodate the variety of venue sizes but retained its concept throughout, typically comprised (per side) main hangs of 16 x AiRAY, 8 x SC2-F extensions, and 8 x SCP-F flown subs. Side hangs were 14 x AiRAY, with 12 x CiRAY as 270° upstage hangs. On the ground, 2 x SCP-F subs per side filled the low end for the first few rows, 8 x equally spaced HOPS8 acted as frontfills across the downstage edge, with a further 3 x APS per side as outfill to cover any gaps towards the side of the stage.
Front of house engineer, James Campbell, comments, “I was very happy with the system. I always love the way the CODA Audio subs sound. To my ears, they don’t seem to have as much excess information in the low frequencies, which I think helps them to travel the length of an arena without a huge build-up. For this tour, I think that was also down to
Marci’s design, with most of the subs being flown and the ground subs only acting as a bit of ‘feel’ for the front few rows.
“At the end of the tour, there were three smaller shows for which we didn’t take our PA.
“The difference was very noticeable - Marci and I both agreed that there was a lot of top end missing compared to what we’d been used to with the CODA system.”
Rogers reflects on another successful tour, stating, “The CODA system provides excellent value, offering powerful performance without excess. The system was efficient enough to fit into a single truck, which was a great advantage as truck space is always tight. Having used a CODA system on our last few arena tours, it continues to exceed expectations every time.”
Credit: Steve Srok, Adlib
JOE ELLIOTT
DEF LEPPARD | LEAD SINGER | 8424 CONSOLE
Our Engineer Ronan and I wanted a Neve, and we identified the 8424 - which is a magic desk. I have one in my studio here, and Ronan has one in his studio - it works really well.
WHY THE MUSIC INDUSTRY IS FIGHTING BACK
AI VS. COPYRIGHT
The battle over AI and copyright has reached a boiling point, with the UK Government’s latest consultation sparking widespread concern across the music industry. At the heart of the controversy is a proposal that could fundamentally weaken copyright protections, allowing AI companies to scrape artists’ work without permission or compensation. This move has ignited fierce resistance from musicians, industry leaders, and music royalty in Sir Paul McCartney and Sir Elton John, who warn of devastating consequences for the creative sector. As the Government reviews approximately 11,000 responses to its recent consultation, the industry is rallying to push back against what many see as a direct threat to the future of music. With campaigns like ‘Make It Fair’ gaining momentum and high-profile figures speaking out, the fight to protect artists’ rights is far from over.
In the recent Commons debate, MPs from across party lines joined forces to denounce the Government’s controversial proposal, which would allow tech giants to train their AI systems using material taken from UK creators without compensation or consent. Dubbed ‘The Great Train Robbery’ by insiders, UK Music’s CEO, Tom Kiehl, minced no words in his criticism, describing the plan as “catastrophic” for Britain’s vibrant creative sectors. As the debate
continues to unfold, the clash between technological advancement and artistic integrity promises to be a defining issue in shaping the future of UK creativity and innovation.
In this interview, Kiehl discusses challenging the UK Government, outlines the ramifications AI could have on the music industry if left unchecked, and outlines what the next steps are.
Now that the Government’s consultation on AI and copyright has concluded, what are the most significant ramifications for the music industry based on the proposals put forward?
The biggest issue is this idea about changing copyright rules. The government is proposing to introduce what’s called an exception to copyright. This has generated a lot of concern around the music industry and other creative industries because it essentially means changing the law so that it makes it much harder for individual creators and music businesses to exert their rights over music in the way it’s been scraped by AI systems. At the moment, we have a situation where a lot of AI companies are training their systems on copyrighted protected materials. That’s a big concern to us, because there is no remuneration; they’re not going to get permission from music companies and artists. We want greater transparency from those companies so we can actually have a discussion about licensing. However, what the government is proposing is, instead of actually dealing with that issue, they are giving the AI companies an ability to do that without permission. That’s a grave concern to us. They say that they have built in a safeguard to allow people to opt out if they don’t want their work trained in that way. We don’t think you can easily opt out of such a system, so we don’t really see that as a safeguard. We’ve been working with the music industry to push back on these proposals. We need to get back to a real, proper, solid conversation with the government about the existing copyright framework and how it should be improved, particularly in terms of transparency in that
regard. The industry is united in what effectively amounts to theft. Stealing music in that way shouldn’t be legitimised. We very much hope that the government will listen to the concerns of the music industry and rethink these proposals.
AI is developing at such a rate; do you think the government and all involved parties – with the best of intentions – are struggling to keep up with the latest advancements, and in turn, the consequences that AI presents?
Yes. The government, on one hand, wants to be a big innovator. It wants to be a hub of AI activity. It wants to make sure that it doesn’t lose its competitive advantage. Our answer to that is that the creative industry is worth 125 billion to the economy –these are very successful UK domestic creative industries. You can’t change the copyright framework and expect to maintain that success or creativity. Technology changes all the time. Legislation can be a bit of a blunt instrument as well, because it can never quite keep pace with technical developments in the same way. We definitely think there’s a different style of conversation that needs to be happening with the government at the moment.
What does the music industry need to do next, now that the Government’s consultation is over?
The Government has been on record saying that they’ve received something like 11,000 responses to this consultation, which is a huge amount. It was a very technical consultation. It had 50 or so questions. So the fact that it generated so much public engagement is a really good thing. We hope and expect that a lot of those 11,000 are individuals and working creators, musicians and performers with big concerns about AI and where it potentially may go, and particularly with regards to the music industry. It’s going to take them a little bit of time to actually reflect on those responses. I don’t imagine that the government will come back immediately with an answer that says, ‘There is a bill which is going through Parliament at the moment.’ We very much hope that the government will rethink these proposals. Hopefully the government will see this as an opportunity to actually strengthen copyright and ensure that transparency around AI companies is at the forefront.
What would be the best outcome for creators?
I think the best outcome will be to say that the copyright law is strong and important. We don’t need to actually change the copyright law and weaken it. Copyright is so important to the music industry; it gives artists and
creators the ability to be remunerated through their works, but it also enables businesses to invest in that creativity. Keeping the copyright framework strong is the ultimate outcome of this.
You’ve described these proposals as potentially catastrophic for the creative industries. What are the specific threats you see to artists’ livelihoods and the broader economic impact on the UK’s music sector?
The big challenge is the fact that people’s work is being used without permission, without credit, and without remuneration. That’s a fundamental point. If we don’t value the rights of the people who are actually creating the music in the first place, how can you have the basis for a successful industry? It’s a really big issue in terms of how we value music and creativity as a society. Technology is brilliant. It can really enhance things, and artists create with AI at the moment, and we mustn’t forget that. It’s very clear that artists and musicians use AI in a positive way, but we don’t want to have a situation where people’s works are being used without permission. That’s where the concerns ultimately exist.
Looking ahead, what do you envision as the future of the music industry if AI companies are allowed to use artists’ work without compensation or permission?
The quality of music will not be as great. Human creativity always pushes boundaries. AI systems can only be as good as the thing that it has trained on, whereas the human mind can take you beyond that. One of the things we’ve been calling for as part of this consultation is around the issue of labeling and making sure that if you get AI-generated works, that it is quite clearly identified as being AI-generated. We’ve done some public polling, which indicates around 70% of people would like to know whether they’re listening to something which is human-created versus computer-generated: are you listening to the genuine article or not? It also goes into some wider societal issues around deep fakes. There’s a lot of issues where we can work together as a society to make sure that AI is potentially a good thing to both society and to creativity. But we need to get the balance right.
Credit: BRIT Awards
Algorithms can now mimic any artist. At the moment, would there be anything to stop someone putting out an AI Lady Gaga track, for instance?
It’s all about permission. If Lady Gaga had given permission for her voice to be used in a certain way, then that’s fine. The artists need to have been given that right. At the moment, AI companies are not seeking permission. The issue is complex, but it all boils down to a simple issue of theft and legitimising theft. No one in normal society should want that, so it should be a no-brainer. We are trying to get to a situation where the government can make sure that the creative industries grow, and that they don’t undermine that.
The issue has gained real traction lately – almost every UK national newspaper printed the same ‘Make It Fair’ front page, protesting government proposals that could weaken copyright protections for creative industries in the age of AI. The recent BRIT Awards also saw strong support from a number of artists who backed the ‘Make It Fair: Don’t let AI steal our music’ campaign. Is UK Music working with the BPI on this campaign?
Very much. The BPI is one of our UK music members. We worked very closely and collaborated with them
on the first campaign. They’ve been doing some really great work with this wider coalition called CRAIC, which is a broader coalition with other organisations. The UK Music membership, which ranges from business bodies such as the BPI, AIM, PRS, The Musician’s Union, The Featured Artists Coalition, the Music Managers Forum, The Ivors Academy and The Music Producers Guild have come together and recognize the real threat and challenges of the government’s approach.
UKMUSIC.ORG
Photographer: Piper Ferguson
A STONE ONLY ROLLS DOWNHILL
OK GO
OK Go are the ultimate band to go above and beyond and over-deliver with every single they release, hence the Grammy award win for their outrageous treadmill choreography music video for Here It Goes Again, with 67m views on YouTube alone. The new single, A Stone Only Rolls Downhill, doesn’t disappoint with its video, which was created using 64 videos filmed on 64 individual iPhones. Frontman Damian Kalush discusses the new song and creating the mind-boggling video with Headliner, and teases And the Adjacent Possible, their upcoming new album and the band’s first in a decade.
In a time before the band became notorious for their concept-heavy and outrageously ambitious music videos, OK Go broke through in 2001 with the single Get Over It, appearing in games such as Madden NFL 2003, and Guitar Hero 5. Having formed in 1998, this relatively early success saw the band riding the wave of the early noughties explosion of indie rock, sometimes later disparagingly referred to as ‘landfill indie’ due to the sheer number of bands being signed to labels to try and match the success of OK Go, as well as the Strokes, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Razorlight, and too many to list here.
The rate of bands from this era still going is small, but OK Go have gone from strength to strength. The Get Over It video is, by their own standards, quite low stakes. But, in a sign of things to come, the band did market themselves by sending out miniature ping pong tables to press outlets in a reference to the video.
Things stepped up in 2005 as the band released A Million Ways, another showcase of OK Go’s organic viral promotion, as new guitarist Andy Ross programmed 1000000ways.com, a website that allowed fans to listen to and share the track for free. Then came the video, in which the band performed a dance choreographed by Kulash’s sister, Trish Sie. It became the most downloaded music video ever with nine million downloads, and saw the band performing the dance on British Saturday morning football
show Soccer AM, of all places. And then, also for the band’s second album Oh No, they achieved their destiny of fusing their alternative indie pop with some of the greatest DIY music videos; while becoming a very pop culture/indie version of the gesamtkunstwerk (total artwork). This was with the music video for Here It Goes Again, again choreographed by Sie. Only this time, the band performed their dance on eight treadmills, as they moved from one machine to another in one continuous take. It took them 17 attempts, and was uploaded to YouTube in the very early days of the website, now clocking 67 million views (it would be double this number if a dispute between YouTube and OK Go’s then-record label hadn’t seen the video removed).
Kulash joins the call, and first up is whether his artistic ego is ever hurt by music journalists inevitably focusing their questions on OK Go’s videos, perhaps more so than the music itself. Thankfully, that’s not the case:
“We didn’t plan Here It Goes Again as a proper video,” Kulash says. “We thought it was just for our nerdiest internet fans. The only idea for distributing that was to put it on these download sites where IT department folks would download it. We’d seen something go viral before like that [A Million Ways]. We thought it was so funny that they like this weird homemade shit that we do. We had no idea that it would wind up on MTV and VH One and get GRAMMYs. And
now, our gravestones will say ‘those treadmill guys’ on them. And we’ve embraced it. I don’t think you can dance on treadmills and then be like, ‘No, we’re too cool for that,’” he laughs.
“I think that the only thing we’re all looking for as artists and with our music and videos is human connection and getting outside that noisy isolation of our brains: the neocortical chatter of yourself, the logic and the words, and the motivations. I’m sure there are neuroscientists or evil social media architects who know exactly which chemicals flood your brain when listening to music that we love. For me, it’s that release of love or sadness or excitement, or optimism, and 10 variations of these things all at once that could never really be described.”
Visually, things ramped up from there as the band’s own expectations increased, and as the music video budgets began to increase exponentially. Another huge moment for OK Go was This Too Shall Pass, another trademark one-take video with an outrageously elaborate Rube Goldberg Machine partly designed by the band themselves, seeing dominos, balls, and toy trucks triggering a staggering chain of reactions.
Photographer: Piper Ferguson
Photographer: Piper Ferguson
Then there was 2012’s Needing/ Getting, a collaboration with Chevrolet as OK Go perform a live take of the song. Besides the band performing themselves in the car, the vehicle deliberately collides with pianos, guitars, percussive tin cans, and much more to create the music. It totals 1,000 instruments over two miles of desert, with Kulash himself driving said Chevrolet while singing the lead vocal.
Perhaps OK Go’s peak moment in terms of sheer ambition was Upside Down And Inside Out. The video begins with the text: ‘What you are about to see is real. We shot this in zero gravity, in an actual plane, in the sky.’ If you somehow haven’t seen it, it’s probably best to let the video speak for itself — just be careful to cushion your jaw as it hits the floor.
Regarding the origin story of new single A Stone Only Rolls Downhill, Kalush says, “This song has been floating around in little pieces for years, since our third album, about 15 years ago. Then I came across the demo again, and it sounded to me a lot like the melancholy that I have with the world right now. There’s this split screen style of life that we’re all living, where the only way to get from one day to the next is to be hopeful in some way and have faith. Because things do get better and things do work themselves out. But, man, there’s so many things pointing in the wrong direction right now.
“And I have two young kids, and that pulls all of this into focus: what do you tell your kids about climate, war, fascism and AI? You can’t say, ‘Look, kids, the world is f**ked!’”
If you’ve ever felt the symptoms of a migraine beginning when trying to contemplate how OK Go plan their music videos, you might want to have a packet of ibuprofen ready for this latest visual piece from the band. Not only is it nigh impossible to imagine planning such a thing, but it has
“WE DID 1,043 TAKES. IT TOOK EIGHT DAYS TO FILM.”
also produced one of their trippiest music videos yet. A Stone Only Rolls Downhill’s video was created with 64 phones, each containing one take of the video. A camera films each of the phones’ screens, as we see the band weave from one screen to the next, and as more and more of the phones appear, things get increasingly psychedelic. Kulash codirected it himself, while bringing in some heavyweight talent in the form of Chris Buongiorno, producer on projects such as Spiderman: No Way Home and Star Wars: Skeleton Crew.
In terms of the linear process, Kulash says that he writes the lyrics first. “I can’t keep video ideas in my mind while we’re writing. But it did provide this framework, that split screen, fractured self idea led to the video directly. We’re not trying to literally describe the lyrics. We’re trying to extend that feeling out into the video. You wind up with these big, broken mosaics of images, and it is very surreal and psychedelic. It’s sort of monstrous at times because of how weird people look when you’ve broken them apart like this. And it is playful and joyful at other times, and it’s very colorful and fun, but kind of unsettling. Hopefully that’s pulling out that dimension of the song rather than simply describing it.”
And to get an idea of the sheer amount of labor that went into creating this thing, Kulash explains: “We did 1,043 takes across the 64 final things we did. It took eight days to film. It was basically us filming the same routine over and over again with small changes. We’re doing it in
four different color outfits, so that you see us walk from phone to phone, and on one phone we’re all in green, and the next phone, we’re all in pink, the next one, we’re all in brown. And it helps you see that each one is its own distinct video. And one of the things I love is because it’s all human and there’s no CGI, it doesn’t always line up right and you get these fissures and fragments where our faces aren’t quite in sync.”
OK Go’s fifth album, And The Adjacent Possible, will be released April 11th, over a decade after Hungry Ghosts. One reason for the long wait is Kulash co-directing The Beanie Bubble with his wife, screenwriter Kristin Gore, starring Zach Galifianakis and Elizabeth Banks.
The promise of more quirky indie goodness and bonkers music videos from the band can only be tantalising for OK Go’s army of fans.
That excitement is, of course, shared by Kulash, who signs off by sharing: “When the album comes out, there will be a new video with it. We’ll be leaving the country to go film that, which I’m really excited about. It’s so different to the part where you’re working on just the sound, and I sit between a pair of speakers with my eyes closed, just trying to get the feeling right. And now it’s like a million moving parts and videos and running our label, and it is such a different beast at this moment in time. But it’s always fun.”
OKGO.NET
byLIZ WILKINSON
PRODUCER NOTES FROM POP ICONS TO PRISTINE SOUND
Michel Gallone is a producer and engineer whose storied career has taken him from his early days as a student in Florida, to the professional studios of London, Paris and Montreux - most notably as a longtime collaborator with legendary producer, Mutt Lange. With credits on major projects for artists including Shania Twain and Céline Dion, his work spans the worlds of pop, classical, and also film.
Gallone recently spoke with Headliner about the lessons he learned under Mutt’s meticulous eye, how vibe and emotion are key to his workflow, and why he still reaches for Merging Technologies when transparency is everything…
Can you tell us about your early life and how you found yourself in the music industry?
I have always been into music and music production since a very young age. After graduating from Full Sail University in Florida, I worked in France and the UK as a recording and mixing engineer in recording
studios and post-production facilities, including Nomis Studios in London and Teletota in Paris. I then moved back to Switzerland (Montreux) and I started working for multi-platinum music producer Robert John “Mutt” Lange on projects with international artists like Shania Twain, Céline Dion, Bryan Adams and Britney Spears.
“I’VE BEEN USING MERGING CONVERTERS SINCE 2012 TO RECORD CLASSICAL MUSIC ALBUMS AND I’M CONSISTENTLY IMPRESSED BY THE AUDIO TRANSPARENCY.”
What was that experience like, and do you have a favorite studio memory from those sessions?
Working with Mutt Lange was extremely interesting and very formative. Mutt is extremely precise in his approach to music production - meticulous in a way that I had never experienced at that point. Also, technologically, Mutt always demanded the best and the latest in technical equipment. Working with him challenged me every day and made me learn more than ever in technology and music production.
I have a few great memories. I was impressed by the speed at which Britney Spears learned a song, music and lyrics. Mutt sang a song to her once, and she learned it instantly just by listening. She wasn’t even 18 at the time. Andrea Corr of The Corrs has one of the most beautiful voices I’ve ever heard. I was in awe. And, Bryan Adams was not only an extremely talented songwriter and singer, but also such a funny and positive guy.
You’ve worked in major studios around the world - what makes you reach for Merging Technologies’ products specifically, and in what kind of situations?
When working with Mutt Lange around 2001, we tested Merging Pyramix with my colleagues Kevin Churko and Richard Meyer. Weand Mutt himself - were extremely impressed by the audio quality of the converters, which were surpassing all other equipment. At that time,
we were so used to Pro Tools that a switch to Pyramix was difficult to imagine, especially as the converters weren’t available independently from the software yet.
I’ve been using Merging converters since 2012 to record classical music albums for pianists Elizabeth Sombart and Philippe Entremont, and I’m consistently impressed by the audio transparency. I’ve also worked as a producer and coordinator on many recordings at Abbey Road Studios and other venues with Elizabeth Sombart and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, with recordings captured by Arne Aksleberg using Merging converters and software exclusively. The sound quality is incredible.
What does your typical studio setup look like these days? Have those preferences evolved much over your career?
My DAW is mostly Pro Tools and Logic Audio for music composition. It’s been that way for over 25 years. I keep up to date with what’s new, but I haven’t seen a reason to change my workflow. I’ve been using Merging Horus, DAD and Prism Sound interfaces lately. They all have slightly different audio characters, but they’re very high quality. For monitoring, I use Neumann KH 420s - they’re impressive in terms of musicality and usability for all kinds of music. And lately, I’ve been exploring Audio over IP (AoIP). I’m cautious about how it affects sonic purity, but I enjoy experimenting.
There’s always a debate between character vs. clarity when it comes to gear. Where do you fall on that spectrum?
Some people enjoy equipment with strong analog emulation. Personally, I use external summing (Dangerous Music 2BUS+), and sometimes insert analog outboard. But when it comes to sound interfaces, I prefer high fidelity and transparency, and Merging’s Horus converters are at the top of the league in my experience. I believe that vibe and emotion are extremely important. In pop music, mid-range equipment is often enough; musical direction is the most important asset. But combining that with high-end gear can really make a difference in the final result.
How do you balance technology with creative intuition when you’re working on a project?
I always think about what I, and the people I work with, want to achieve in the final product. Once a record is out, it’s there to stay. We don’t want to have regrets about what we could have done better. So I take everything into account: musical direction, making the artist comfortable, and using the available technology to get the best result possible.
AI makes me both cautious and excited. We don’t yet know how much it will take over. Even in the worst-case scenario where AI replaces our knowledge and jobs, I still believe there will always be a place for authentic human creation, because people will get tired of AI being everywhere. I hope I’m right.
Words by LIZWILKIN S NO
WES NELSON FROM THE GROUND UP
For Wes Nelson, music isn’t just about the final product, it’s about the entire creative process. Since bursting onto the UK music scene with his debut single See Nobody in 2020 - a track that landed in the UK Top 5 and spent 14 weeks on the charts - Nelson has made a name for himself by combining a feel-first writing style with a solid technical grounding in the studio. Recently, Nelson sat down with Headliner to talk about his love for music, why creative freedom matters, and the gear that shaped his sound.
“I used to sing gospel as a child, so that sort of shaped my singing style,” recalls Nelson. “My dad was heavily into old school R&B, Luther Vandross specifically. And at my grandmother’s house, there was a keyboard, which I used to learn how to replay songs.”
R&B has remained a major influence in Nelson’s sound, grounding him even as his music has moved increasingly more towards pop. “My major music influence growing up was Ne-Yo – it was the first album I ever bought, and Luther Vandross, thanks to my dad. So that sort of R&B/pop was a heavy influence at the start of my career.”
Though now a fixture in the charts and on stages across the UK and Europe, Nelson’s serious pursuit of music didn’t begin until fairly recently. “It was just before the COVID-19 lockdown, around the end of 2019. I’d been invited to a few studios and fell in love with the behind-the-scenes of music production and the writing process. I bought some equipment myself, and I was in my good friend Josh Denzel’s spare bedroom, and I was writing and doing some pretty amateur production,” he explains. “That was where it all kicked off. And then, I started getting some good feedback from the likes of Krept and Konan and some other artists at the time, and it filled me with the confidence to want to pursue it professionally.”
Since then, Nelson has released a string of singles and collaborated with heavyweight UK artists including Yxng Bane and Hardy Caprio. Most recently, he teamed up with multiaward-winning singer, songwriter, rapper, DJ and producer Craig David on the 2024 single Abracadabra
Speaking to Headliner last year, Craig David was full of praise for Nelson, later bringing him out at his arena shows and introducing him to the crowd as “the future.”
As a writer and producer, Nelson takes a hands-on approach from the very beginning of the creative process. “I don’t really like taking [finished] beats. I usually build with a producer from the ground up. I like focusing on the chords first, and it depends on how I’m feeling on the day,” he explains. “Often I go into the studio with something I really want to talk about, a life experience or something like that. But
for the most part, it’s how the chords make me feel.”
Diagnosed with ADHD, Nelson finds himself juggling multiple creative ideas at once. “It’s almost like I have 1,000,001 different ideas, and I pursue three or four of them and then cut it down from there,” he offers.
His method also includes a lot of vocal exploration, long before lyrics are set. “I’m usually scatting and mumbling melodies over the chords, and that usually gives me a good idea of the energy that I want to put into the song and how it makes me feel.”
“WHEN I SAW THAT ARTISTS LIKE JUSTIN BIEBER AND OTHERS WERE USING 1073S IN THIS HOLY TRIFECTA COMBINATION, I WAS LIKE, THAT’S THE DREAM.”
As his studio skills have evolved, so too has his recording setup. “I remember going into Sarm Studios in West London, and they had a Neumann U87, Tube-Tech CL 1B and Neve 1073, and I was told that that was the holy trifecta. So in my head, I was like, ‘Oh, I need this setup!’”
Nelson worked his way toward the full rig, piece by piece. “They had a Shure SM7B in the room for scratching vocals down. So I got the SM7B first, and then worked my way up to the U87 with the 1073 and the Tube Tech,” he tells Headliner. “I think that chain gives such a raw and authentic sound to my voice. When I saw that artists like Justin Bieber and others were using 1073s and this combination, I was like, ‘That’s the dream.’”
“I also think the CL 1B just gives it that warmth, and it makes it super easy for me to control the gain and all that kind of stuff, because I can fluctuate quite a lot throughout a song. It just allows me to be dynamic and gives me a lot of customization options.”
“I like the old-school sound. I just don’t think you can beat it digitally. I like being able to see the gauges, twist the knobs and all that. It just feels easier for me to get the sound that I want.”
Freedom, both creative and practical, is a crucial part of his studio mindset. “I think freedom is essential for any creative to get the best out of their work,” he says. “I like working out in my home studio, and being in the house, being able to go downstairs, make a cup of tea and then come back up without restrictions. I think it’s a better environment for creatives to work in where they feel like there are no restrictions on their craft.”
That space allows Nelson to process personal experiences, even if he’s not always ready to talk about them publicly. “There have been a lot of things that have happened in my private life that I don’t really discuss publicly, but I can express through songs, even if it’s hypothetically. It’s almost like therapy.”
Now, heading into 2025, Nelson is gearing up for his next major chapter. “There’s going to be a lot of cool collaborations coming this yearsome artists that I haven’t worked with, some artists that I have worked with in the past, and some of my best
music and my favorite songs.”
He’s also narrowing in on a more defined sound. “This year, I’ve really honed in on how I want to be known as an artist. With the release of my track, Yellow, it solidified in my head the direction I want to go.”
Whether it comes in the form of another hit single or his first full-length project, fans can expect cohesion and clarity from what comes next. “A body of work would make sense, like an EP or maybe even an album. I think it will be more in the ‘pop’ lane, and a lot more consistent.”
WESNELSONMUSIC.COM
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byLIZ WILKINSON
RAISING THE GAME
SUPER BOWL LIX
The Caesars Superdome in New Orleans has seen it all. Since opening in 1975, it’s hosted eight Super Bowls, a string of unforgettable halftime shows, and even stood as a vital community shelter during Hurricane Katrina. But for Super Bowl LIX, the iconic dome delivered something even more striking: concert-level sound for every moment of the game. From kick-off to the final whistle, and every performance in between, the sonic experience was elevated to new heights thanks to ATK Audiotek, a Clair Global brand, and its deployment of a full L-Acoustics K2 system, as Headliner discovers…
For years, stadium sound at the Super Bowl focused primarily on the spectacle of the halftime show. Installed house systems were traditionally used for game-day announcements and effects, while temporary PA rigs were wheeled out for the showpiece musical moments. But the game has changed. Sound matters - not just during the halftime show, but every second of the game. Every call, every referee announcement, every cheer from the crowd is part of the live experience. Better clarity, more dynamic sound, and full-range coverage engage fans, whether they’re sitting in the front row or the upper rafters.
This year, the L-Acoustics K Series system was brought in specifically to deliver that immersive audio experience.
“The halftime show is so different from what we’re doing for opening night, but we get a good handle on how the room feels,” Kirk Powell, design engineer at ATK Audiotek, explains. “Having a flown system makes a lot of difference because the coverage is better and it’s consistent – it’s there all day; we’re not moving it in and out during rehearsals.”
The system for Super Bowl LIX was the largest ever deployed for the event. Sixteen hangs of K2 arrays and eight hangs of KS28 subs filled the dome with concert-grade audio. Twelve of the K2 hangs had K1-SB above - eight of them closely coupled, and four used as line extensions. All told, the setup included 200 x K2, 40 x K1-SB, and 64 x KS28.
“The number of subs has been increasing over the last few years,” Powell notes, citing Roc Nation’s production of recent halftime shows. Since Jay-Z’s company took the reins in 2019, there’s been a noticeable shift toward hip-hop-oriented performances, with Kendrick Lamar headlining this year’s show, a style which demands more low-end energy - and the system was designed to deliver it. But game day isn’t just about booming bass, it’s about intelligibility and consistency, and the Superdome’s complex acoustics present real challenges for audio design.
“It’s got really deep under-balconies and that creates a big challenge,” explains Powell. “You have to rely on the installed house system for the fill speakers you need to reach those areas.” PA systems designer, Johnny Keirle, also had to work around strict rigging limitations. “One of the biggest challenges was the trim height restriction, as no rigging elements could be lower than 153 feet from the field,” he says. “That forced me to design the system higher than ideal, which introduced coverage and tonal balance challenges, as well as potential temporal issues.” Keirle credits the K Series’ flexibility
“WITH K SERIES, RATHER THAN HAVING A PUBLIC ADDRESSTYPE SYSTEM, I CAN DESIGN A SYSTEM THAT DELIVERS A TRUE ROCK AND ROLL EXPERIENCE.”
for overcoming these issues: “The flexibility of the K Series, particularly K2’s adjustable Panflex and rigging flexibility, was key in combatting these constraints. Narrowing the horizontal dispersion of the K2 using Panflex, and using K2 rigbars to allow for extreme curvature where needed, helped to both maintain coverage and tonal consistency despite the higher-thanoptimal trim requirements.”
L-Acoustics’ Soundvision software also played a key role in optimizing the system. “Soundvision allowed for fast and accurate on-site optimization of the designs,” Keirle adds. That level of precision is crucial when the sound must transition seamlessly from music to sports commentary.
“With K Series, rather than having a public address-type system, I can design a system that delivers a true rock and roll experience, not just for
the halftime show, but also for pregame entertainment and the game itself,” Keirle furthers.
“Both elements of the event – the game announcements and the halftime show – have different criteria, and I approached the system design with both in mind from the start.”
It wasn’t just the performers who benefited. From the Opening Night event, where media outlets interview players and coaches, to the last seconds of gameplay, every audience member, whether in the stands or watching on a screen, heard it all, loud and clear.
“Everything went just as fantastically as we expected,” Powell concludes. “We had plenty of headroom with the L-Acoustics system all night long, and it sounded great for both the halftime show and the game itself. It was a win.” L-ACOUSTICS.COM
MATT DAIGLER
Words by ALICEGUS T A NOSF
CELESTION APPOINTMENT
Celestion has appointed Matt Daigler as business development executive. In his new role, Daigler will work together with Celestion’s sales and distribution partners in the U.S. musical instrument category, the PA service market, and retailers who cater to DIY hobbyists. In addition, Daigler will be managing existing OEM relationships and pursuing new OEM partners in the pro audio and high-end home theater markets.
A self-proclaimed, life-long speaker fanatic, Daigler joins Celestion continuing his extensive career in the audio industry that started at Westlake Audio as a mechanical assembler, then production manager, eventually moving to HARMANowned Audax of America where he worked as a sales engineer. Daigler later worked in custom residential integration for Harrison Systems, Pro Design AV, and Logic Integration. He is an audio enthusiast with personal projects repairing and
modifying vintage speakers and hi-fi components.
“We are excited to welcome Matt to our team,” says Ralph Nichols, vice president of business development North America at Celestion. “His skills, passion, and experience will be major assets to our team at Celestion.”
“The strength of the Celestion brand, especially in the live sound and guitar world is legendary,” adds Daigler. “In those spaces, everybody knows the
speakers and what they sound like. While I am looking forward to helping Celestion to grow with more OEMS and in the custom integration and component speaker markets, what I am most excited about is being part of an amazing team of professionals who provide some of the best speaker technology.”
CELESTION.COM
LEAH MARTIN-BROWN STREAMING, SONGWRITING & STUDIO MICS
Step into the dynamic world of Leah Martin-Brown, where music transcends boundaries and genres. From her roots in the vibrant Australian music scene to rocking stages in Los Angeles with Evol Walks, her journey has been nothing short of electrifying. Venturing across continents to Stockholm, under the mentorship of Jens Lundberg, Martin-Brown has collaborated with industry legends like Robert ‘Mutt’ Lange and Tony Nilsson, shaping her sound into a seamless blend of rock grit and pop energy.
Debuting with Boys, Martin-Brown captured hearts worldwide with her fearless musicality, swiftly followed by the infectious beats of Hysterical Love, which stormed Spotify playlists. On her most recent single, Shush, Martin-Brown unveiled a darker, more introspective side – exploring pop territory without sacrificing the hardrock energy of her formative work.
Here, she reveals her favorite-ever singer, why Napster and LimeWire was the beginning of music consumers wanting free access to music, the advice she’d give to her younger self, and the AUDIX mics she relies on.
Can you share a favorite early memory of making music?
I’ve always really gravitated towards vocals and songwriting. I didn’t
know that I was a good singer until maybe fifth grade, when we had this assignment at school where each of us had to get up and sing.
“I sang the part, and my teacher reacted, “Oh, so you’re a singer?” I was, like, “I am? Why yes, I am!”
Then I got into choir and would write poems and try to sing to them. I had played the flute since early childhood, but that’s mostly not helpful for a singer-songwriter, so I first picked up a guitar when I was about 11. It took me about a year of learning before I wrote my first song on guitar — melody, lyrics, chords — and that continued all through high school.
Do you remember your first paying gigs?
I think I was maybe 14 and it was in the local music scene in the city of Gold
Coast, Australia. I went to university for music and did a bachelor’s degree in popular music, then a post-grad in contemporary vocal performance at the Queensland Conservatorium. I toured around Australia from age 20 until about 22, then moved to the United States, where I formed my second band — I had one before that called Lilly Rouge. This new band was a hard rock project called Evol Walks, and it toured parts of the U.S. and Europe as well as Australia. During the pandemic, I moved to Stockholm, Sweden for a year, where I was given the opportunity to work as a solo artist, with songs that had been co-written and produced by Mutt Lange Tony Nilsson, and mix engineer Tommy Denander.
When you first performed in the U.S., what struck you as different?
I think I was spoiled, because my first performance in the States was at SIR Studios in Los Angeles. Beautiful soundstage, great equipment, I could hear myself well. That was a big shift from pubs and nightclubs. And whereas the people I had played with previously were phenomenal musicians, they had day jobs. These were career musicians who did sessions and touring work all the time. It felt so cool to be working with them, because this is what I had wanted to do my entire life.
How did you first learn about AUDIX microphones?
I had always been aware of the brand, starting with knowing they made great drum mics. I hadn’t used any personally, but last year I got a call from [engineer and producer] Kevin Majorino, whom I’d met backstage at a show in Utah. He invited me to do some recordings at Studio 606, which is Dave Grohl’s private studio. We did
an acoustic version of my second big single, Hysterical Love. So, of course I went, and for handheld vocal mics we were working with what is now called the OMX series. I remember thinking, “These sound insane!”
What did you like about the OMX-E mics?
The OMX-E picked up nuances of my voice I had literally never heard in an amplified context before. It really captured the midrange as well as lower tones, making them very smooth and caramel-y. There was simply this depth. It didn’t make me sound harsh or strident, which some mics can do on my voice if they’re not mixed carefully. Since then, I have also been using the OM5 and OM7, and just got a PDX720 (dynamic studio microphone) that I hope to be able to spend some time with soon.
With the OM and OMX-E series geared towards the stage, do you have a go-to vocal mic for the studio?
I have been using the A231 on all the covers and other songs I’ve done in the studio recently. I’ve previously used the German mic people most associate with studio vocals, but the A231 has been replacing it. It picks up so much detail and has such dynamic range. I can whisper into it, then back off and yell. It responds well to me changing my proximity as a performance technique. The real point is about the emotions. I find the A231 lets me capture any emotion in the booth, whatever the moment of the song demands. But to clarify, the OMX mics were first. They were the ones that turned me into an AUDIX user.
“YOU HAVE TO TRUST YOURSELF MORE THAN YOU TRUST ANYONE ELSE.”
Tell us more about the AUDIX session at Studio 606…
We were there for at least eight hours! We went through the acoustic version of Hysterical Love about a dozen times. It was me, the guitarist, and our keyboardist, and we did many different covers as well. It didn’t matter if we did something slow and lilting like Rhiannon by Fleetwood Mac or if we changed gears and I belted out AC/DC. When I was close on the OMX for softer passages it sounded full and rich, but lost nothing at all if I pulled back. There was hardly any post-processing on it, EQ at the board, anything like that. In my opinion, anything like compression should be an added extra, not a corrective measure. It should match with the singer and support them. For me, that mic is the OMX.
Your voice has an incredible dynamic and emotional range. Who are some of your influences?
Bon Scott of AC/DC was definitely a big one when I was younger. Let’s see. Joan Jett, and I love Amy Lee of Evanescence — she has the most incredible voice. I really love Chris Cornell, who is hands down one of the best singers I’ve ever heard. In terms of something super modern, I’d say Remington Leith from Palaye Royale has a very interesting tonal quality and charisma. I like Lizzie Hale. And of course, Janis Joplin.
Björk recently went on record calling Spotify the worst thing to happen to musicians. What is it like to earn a living as an artist in the age of streaming?
I have to say, I side with Lars Ulrich [Metallica drummer] on this issue. Did the internet create a downfall for musicians? Yes, but it happened in the heyday of Napster and LimeWire,
when some consumers realized they could get everything for free. Once you cross that line, it’s hard to get anyone to want to pay for anything again. I think a lot of people don’t realize that artists spend a lot of money even to make home recordings: you need the computer, the audio interface, the DAW, the mics, and so on. I also see the consumer’s side. In the 1990s and before, everyone had the experience of buying an album because they liked a single. Then, the rest of the album didn’t sound like the single and we went, “What have I done?” The truth is that today, being an artist is running a small business. You have opportunities to monetize your videos, you can create merchandise, you can tour, but all of this requires a baseline of startup revenue.
What advice would you give to your younger self when starting out, or to an artist who aspires to be like you now?
You have to trust yourself more than you trust anyone else. But also, have faith that some people you meet along the way really do want to help you, because they do. AUDIX certainly has.
Believe in yourself, but you’re going to have to work really hard, because you don’t get a song on the charts or score a slot at a festival by sitting in your bedroom and believing.
BERLINALE 2025 FILM FESTIVAL
STUDIO BERLIN
Studio Berlin recently completed a comprehensive modernization of its OB truck Ü2, integrating cutting-edge Audio-over-IP (AoIP) technology from Lawo. At the heart of this upgrade is a 48-fader mc²56 MKIII console, replacing the previous mc²66 mixing desk. Additionally, A _stage units have been implemented as I/O devices, along with the mc² DSP App, providing 256 DSP channels. The existing Lawo VSM system has been expanded to optimize control over the IP-based broadcast infrastructure. Headliner discovers how this technological upgrade was completed in time for the 75th Berlinale in February, 2025.
The Berlinale is a premier destination for artistic exploration and entertainment, standing as one of the largest public film festivals in the world. Every February, it attracts tens of thousands of visitors from across the globe, serving as both a cultural celebration and a vital industry hub for filmmakers and media professionals. With its dynamic programming and extensive networking opportunities, the festival is a key event in the annual cinematic calendar.
Founded in 1951 during the early years of the Cold War, the Berlin International Film Festival was conceived as a “showcase of the free world” for Berlin audiences. Shaped by the city’s post-war
turbulence and unique divided status, the Berlinale has evolved into a powerful platform for intercultural dialogue and critical cinematic engagement with pressing social issues. Today, it is regarded as the most politically engaged of the major film festivals.
The Berlinale not only brings global cinema icons to Berlin but also nurtures emerging talent. It provides a launchpad for filmmakers across all disciplines, supporting their careers, projects, and creative visions. Through its numerous industry initiatives, the festival drives innovation and serves as a significant economic force both internationally and within Germany.
Each year, the Berlinale showcases approximately 200 films spanning a wide range of genres, formats, and artistic styles. From narrative features to documentaries and experimental works, the festival invites audiences to engage with diverse perspectives, challenge their assumptions, and experience storytelling in fresh and unconventional ways. Beyond screenings, the Berlinale fosters an active dialogue with its audience through a rich selection of discussions, expert panels, and interactive events. This commitment to engagement and exchange ensures that the festival remains not just a cinematic event, but a vibrant cultural conversation.
This year, the Berlinale’s eight sections offered the audience a diverse film programme and around 340 audience discussions with film teams across approximately 1,000 public screenings during the Berlinale.
Studio Berlin’s Ü2 truck was responsible for producing both the international film festival’s opening
ceremony and the awards gala. These events were live-streamed and later broadcast with a time delay by the broadcasters Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg (rbb) as well as ZDF/3sat.
In collaboration with X Verleih, the opening gala and premiere film were also transmitted live to seven cinemas across Germany.
Beyond the console and stageboxes, a key component of this upgrade is the integration of the HOME mc² DSP App. This software-based solution enables highly scalable, decentralized signal processing, perfectly suited for modern IP-based production environments.
“With the HOME mc² DSP App, we can manage DSP resources flexibly and efficiently – an essential improvement for our workflow,” explains Mathias Heinrich, head of audio at Studio Berlin. “This is particularly crucial as we continue to upgrade and expand our
Virtualization eliminates the need for dedicated DSP hardware, which not only saves space but also provides exceptional flexibility in configuration and scalability.”
During the transition, it was critical to integrate the new technology seamlessly into Ü2’s existing 3G-SDI workflow. “The challenge was to replace a well-established infrastructure with emerging, continuously evolving technology,” adds Leonard Weißhahn, audio engineer at Studio Berlin.
“The HOME mc² DSP App has proven to be a solid, future-proof solution: it delivers the renowned Lawo quality and performance while offering a valuable learning and development opportunity for both Lawo and Studio Berlin.”
studio facilities and control rooms.
“THE
HOME MC² DSP APP HAS PROVEN TO BE A SOLID, FUTURE-PROOF SOLUTION: IT DELIVERS THE RENOWNED LAWO QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE.”
The full transition to IP technology required efficient routing of all relevant audio signals while ensuring seamless communication between the mc²56 MKIII console, A_stage units, and the redundant DSP App. Here, the existing Lawo VSM system played a crucial role, providing centralized control of the entire infrastructure and enabling intuitive workflow optimizations.
The new IP-based structure of Ü2 also significantly simplifies setup and adjustments for productions.
“Previously, modifying signal processing during large-scale productions was a challenge.
With the HOME mc² DSP App, we can make real-time adjustments
as needed without reconfiguring physical hardware, saving both time and resources,” Heinrich adds.
The upgrade process for Ü2 began with the delivery of new components. Thanks to the close collaboration between Studio Berlin and Lawo teams, installation, testing, configuration, and programming were completed efficiently, ensuring the truck was fully operational in time for Berlinale. This teamwork, extending throughout the production days, guaranteed a secure live broadcast of the Berlinale opening ceremony.
With this upgrade, Studio Berlin is setting new benchmarks in mobile
audio production. “We now have a production environment that meets current demands while being fully prepared for future developments in the broadcast sector. At the same time, we are gaining valuable insights together with Lawo as we navigate this exciting technological transition,” Weißhahn smiles.
LAWO.COM
Credit: Harry Elletson
Words bY aLICEGUST A F NOS
NATIONAL YOUTH MUSIC THEATRE STARS OF TOMORROW IN THE SPOTLIGHT
The National Youth Music Theatre (NYMT) in London has already won numerous awards for its musical theater and musical productions. What makes it special is that the actors are all teenagers and young adults between the ages of 11 and 23 who are cast during extensive auditions. The list of famous graduates is long and ranges from Jessie J to Idris Elba and Jude Law. Headliner discovers how Cameo lights are shining a spotlight on the next generation of talent…
The National Youth Music Theatre has a rich history that began in 1976 in Edinburgh. The first production, The Ballad of Salomon Pavey, won a Fringe First Award at the Edinburgh Fringe, putting the new company immediately on the map.
Since then, NYMT has staged countless shows across the UK and internationally. For half a century, NYMT has played a pivotal role
in nurturing young talent and premiering new musical works, becoming a respected cornerstone of youth theatre in the UK.
In the 2024 summer season, the NYMT performed three musicals at London’s Southwark Playhouse Theatre: Into the Woods, Catastrophe Bay , and Our House
Three different lighting designers
were in charge of the lighting design – all of whom share the joy of working with young people on and off the stage – and a Cameo lighting rig.
As the three musicals were performed virtually back to back, the three lighting designers – Jamie Platt (Our House), Beth Gupwell (Catastrophe Bay), and Aaron J Dootson (Into the Woods) – had to devise a common basic lighting rig that would work for all productions: from the fairytale musical classic Into the Woods, to the folk musical Catastrophe Bay and Our House with its numerous scenery changes and uptempo numbers.
Aside from using the EVOS W7 as wash moving heads, the lighting designers also leveraged the combinability of the AZOR series: while the AZOR S2 spot moving heads were placed on the two rear trusses, the AZOR SP2 spot profile moving heads were used as front lights for gobo and aerial effects.
PIXBAR 400 IP G2 IP65 RGBW LED bars, which were used as backlights on the floor and in the rear wall, rounded off the lighting rig.
“Whether as a classic rear wall light or for backlighting door openings, the PIXBAR 400 IP G2 really impressed me with its output and uniform lenses,” explains Platt.
“This project is different from most other productions,” adds Gupwell, lighting designer for Catastrophe Bay. “The most important takeaway is giving young people the opportunity to get an insight into what we do and understand how a production of this kind works.”
For Gupwell, the direct support from experienced colleagues is invaluable for young, up-andcoming talent: “I studied lighting and design, it’s true, but I believe the in-kind support I was given outside of university was just as important. That’s why I am interested in projects such as this one, in order to try to pass on my knowledge similarly.”
“The NYMT is a fantastic platform for particularly talented young artists who are in no way inferior to their famous West End colleagues when it comes to passion, energy, and professionalism,” confirms Platt. “Not forgetting all those involved backstage – the stage managers, musicians, and technicians, who also work here at the level of major musical productions.”
The Cameo lights for the productions at the National Youth Music Theatre were supplied by Palmer Lighting, based in Eastleigh, Hampshire.
Credit: Harry Elletson
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GUSTAFSON
RICK ALEXANDER FROM THE SPEEDWAY TO THE STRATOSPHERE
For over four decades, Rick Alexander has been capturing the sounds that bring stories to life. From recording music legends like Rod Temperton to mixing audio for NASA launches and ESPN documentaries, his career has spanned industries, innovations, and iconic moments. A longtime Lectrosonics user, he has relied on his wireless kit in everything from hurricane coverage to high-speed race tracks.
A Lectrosonics user since the early 1990s, he maintains a Digital Hybrid Wireless kit that’s ready for anything. It includes SMV, SMQV, and SMWB transmitters, UCR411a and SR-series receivers, and LT-LR pairs for hops and communications. In situations where RF transmission is simply impractical, a PDR timecode recorder rides with the
subject. Here, he shares insights into his journey, the evolution of production sound, and why his gear has never let him down – even in the harshest conditions.
How did you get your start in production?
I freelanced at a PBS studio in Louisville [Kentucky] and the place was huge, practically a soundstage. You could divide it in half and do two productions at the same time. I was getting into broadcast, doing things like the Kentucky Derby. When I moved to Florida to attend Full Sail recording school, I first worked at NPR in Orlando. Full Sail got a call looking for a monitor engineer for the country artist John Conlee. Doing that gig, there was this guy standing over my shoulder. Turns out, he owned a sound company that had a contract for some major nightclub venues, and they were turning over front-of-house engineers like crazy. This was before places like House of Blues, so these clubs were getting all the big acts.
I went in and just listened for two or three weeks without anyone knowing I was there. I wound up doing half a show for Edgar Winter, who had just fired almost all his crew.
When did you pivot into production sound for films and television?
One big tipping point was this: Johnnie Wilder of Heatwave had been paralyzed from the neck down in a car accident in 1979. In the 1980s, they shot a spot for PBS showing how Johnnie could control his Macintosh computer with a headset that read facial movements. It turned into this fiveminute sort of pitch-deck video. We sent it to Apple, and Alan Brightman, who was their VP of Accessibility at the time, loved it. They invited us to film their exhibits at conventions like Closing the Gap, a big trade show about assistive technology. That got us into mixing sound for video of live events.
A business reason I moved into production mixing was that chains like House of Blues and Hard Rock Café started inking exclusive deals with artists to play only their venues in any given city. That killed the scene for the kinds of clubs I had been working in. I didn’t want to go on tour, so I looked for corporate A/V work in the area. Television Mobile Resources was a company in Florida, and with them I did a lot of trade shows and government work, including at
Kennedy Space Center from 1997 on. We’d cover rocket launches, patch into NASA’s robotic cameras, and do internal news segments for aerospace contractors. Then I hooked up with the Golf Channel, and all their wireless was Lectrosonics. Later, I had been doing a lot of freelance ENG [electronic news gathering]. I also had my own kit, finally — eight channels of Lectrosonics. I had the SRa and SRb receivers, then the SMV transmitter and the SMQV, which was the double-battery version, and a tiny one called the SMa.
Your ENG work included stormchasing. How did your gear hold up?
I was with [reporter] Matt Gutman from ABC covering hurricane Irma when it hit Fort Myers. I had him on a DPA lavalier mic under his raincoat, but the network wanted viewers to see the ABC mic flag on the handheld, so we used a plug-on HM transmitter. Despite the rubber seal it has around the XLR barrel, and it being inside a protective sheath, we’re talking about 100-mileper-hour winds and rain going sideways, so some water got in there and it shut off to protect itself. I put Matt on a cable and kept going.
A couple of days later, we were headed to a nice neighborhood that got hit hard, and I knew I’d want the HM. I had put it in a bag of rice, but now I took it out, opened the battery door, and just put it on the car dashboard to let the sun dry it. It dried out completely, I put batteries in, and it just fired up and worked like there had never been an issue. That’s been typical of other Lectro transmitters on the rare occasion they’ve taken water. I’ve never had to send anything in for a replacement. What’s great about it is, the housing is metal. You can throw these things against a wall, and they’ll still work. Now, we’re not really going to do that, but you know how it is — a lot is going on, you drop them, the talent drops them, a hop falls off the camera. Especially when you’re running around under crisis conditions, not working on a controlled set.
What is in your Lectrosonics rig now?
A lot of older stuff, frankly, because they got so much right the first time. I’ve historically used LMa transmitters for my boom operators’ hops, and equipped them with R1a receivers for IFB and communications. In my bag is an LT transmitter with a battery eliminator. I use it to send camera hops — one channel for reference is all they [camera operators] need. For talent, I have a handful of the SMWB wideband transmitters. I’d like to try some of the newest digital wireless Lectro makes, but just haven’t had the opportunity yet. Also, a sleeper piece of gear I love is the little time code recorder, the PDR.
What’s your application for the PDR?
Let’s say you’re getting dialogue or reaction from someone on a ride at a theme park. If the ride has a lot of movement, you need to bury a device very deep on them. Between that, the metal the ride is made of, and all the RF in the air the park uses for control and communications, it’s challenging to get signal from someone inside a ride. I put the PDR on them, get a bit of them with the boom at the beginning and end, then let the PDR record and write time code and give it all to post when we’re done.
“THEY COULD HEAR EACH OTHER ON THE PLAYBACK BETTER THAN WHEN THEY WERE ORIGINALLY TALKING!”
Between theme parks and aerospace shoots, has range ever been a challenge?
I did sound for a documentary at the Daytona International Speedway. It was about the Ford GT-40, the car that beat Ferrari at LeMans. Did you ever see that movie with Matt Damon, Ford v. Ferrari? Well, this was a documentary about the same subject. I was up in the stands with my SRc receivers and a bow-tie antenna, and production wanted incar audio for a vehicle that had a bunch of GoPro cameras on it. When the car is on the far side of the track, it’s almost a mile away, and there’s a building in between where they have the media center. I affixed an SMQV transmitter where the A-pillar of the car meets the dashboard and pumped it up to 250 milliwatts [output power]. Even when the car was at its farthest point away from me, and even when it was blocked by the building, I had clean audio that didn’t degrade even when the RF meter dropped to one bar. I took some phone video switching between the car and my receiver and people couldn’t believe it. This was the first firmware version for the SMQV, no less.
Another occasion where the SMQV saved the day was a production involving a motor glider, which is a glider airplane that has a small engine and propeller as a backup. They wanted conversation inside the aircraft and asked me to put a field recorder in there — this was before the PDR was made, by the way. I told them, “No way. You’re going to hear nothing but noise.”
Instead, I miked the pilot and passenger with DPA 4071s, which have excellent background rejection, and once again used SMQVs at 250 milliwatts. My receivers were UCR411a. With the glider about 2,000 feet up, we got crystal-clear audio. I played it back for the talent when they got back on the ground, and they were blown away. They could hear each other on the playback better than when they were originally talking!
Has your experience mixing music in recording studios informed your approach to mixing for picture?
There are two big ways I think it has. First, I start paying attention to gain staging with the transmitter. That’s the equivalent of beginning with the mic preamp in the studio, and it’s an old-school approach — the device closest to the microphone should be hottest, then you need progressively less gain as you go down the signal chain. I see a lot of younger mixers just leaving the transmitter at whatever setting it was at and ignoring it. Second, I don’t like compression — though the companders in the Lectrosonics stuff are very transparent, I have to say, especially their newer gear. Instead, I’ll ride the faders on my recorder during a shoot. Not too much of course, but I’m always paying attention to peaks and being a subtle human compressor, and I get feedback about it that my mixes have this extra X-factor of sounding natural.
What is it about Lectrosonics gear that has seen you rely on it for decades?
As I said, I’ve been using Lectrosonics since that PBS station in the ’90s. Nothing is more solid when it comes to audio quality and RF performance. Clients who aren’t professional sound people know the brand — I’ve put in bids where the client had a budget for rental gear and stipulated “Lectrosonics only, none of that other s***”! Any electronics can get stressed in the Florida heat and humidity, but I’ve never had a problem I couldn’t solve by cooling a piece down or drying it out. When I need everyone on the same page in a high-stakes production, I’d never use anything else.
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DIAS
HOW TO IMPROVE YOUR ODDS OF SECURING THAT ENDORSEMENT DEAL
MIKE DIAS
In his latest Headliner column, pro audio executive Mike Dias breaks down the dos and don’ts to improve your odds of securing an endorsement deal with a manufacturer.
As a manufacturer, I am always being asked to endorse this or to sponsor that — to pay for this and to buy that. And of course, everyone always promises the sun and the moon and that they will deliver unimaginable results. Except that it never really works like that. Never.
So how do I gauge what is real and what is hype? How do I plan for success and what criteria do I use when deciding which initiatives to pursue? After doing this for more than 20 years and having seen and done it all — with many more misses than hits under my belt — I have
some real solid insights to share.
After having seen literally thousands of pitches over the years, here’s the best advice that I can give to any artist, engineer, company, studio, or creator who wants to engage a manufacturer directly. It all boils down to this: how you make the “ask” matters. I mean, it really, really really matters.
“WHEN SOMEONE VOUCHES FOR YOU, YOU HOLD THE FUTURE OF THEIR REPUTATION IN YOUR HANDS.”
DO YOUR HOMEWORK
First things first. I am both elusive and yet super easy to find if you know where to look for me. The same goes for all my peers making these same decisions at their respective companies. So if you just send in a random email to the general hotline, that is a giant red flag that you don’t know this game at all. And if you don’t know the rules of engagement, then your odds of delivering something that I need are slim to none. There is a much faster and more effective way to go about it all. Do your homework and find me directly because that’s the first filter that I’m going to use and the lens that colors all future interactions. How you find me matters almost as much as how you ask.
There are two paths to take to get in touch with me. PATH #1 — you either have a trusted mutual friend broker the introduction or PATH #2 — we don’t share any readily overlapping friends because we are not on the same level.
I’m a solid mid-level manager guy and you might either be way above me and my peer group or you might just be starting out and we haven’t yet had the chance to work together. Both of these situations occur all the time and both are easily solvable.
If we’re going down PATH #1, if the friend who brokered the connection is already on the ins and has a history of bringing me wins (why would any friend on the ins have a history of bringing me losses?) then the YES is the foregone conclusion. It was a given before it even happened. That’s the whole point of playing the favor game. Following this single simple step takes you from an almost certain NO to an almost always YES. Just like that.
Though perhaps it’s not as simple as it seems. Because if you blow it and really don’t deliver, you didn’t just prune that future branch and all those future opportunities for yourself, but you nuked them for your friend too. When someone vouches for you, you hold the future of their reputation in your hands. You either make them look stellar for making the intro or you help tip their scales into the toxic zone. There’s no real way to call this one. The best advice I can share here is that as people climb through the ranks, their track record speaks for itself. So be that person. Be that person who just always over-delivers at everything and the entire world opens up for you and for everyone you know.
When it comes to PATH #2, if you’re way above me and at the level where you don’t need the intro and you’ve got the goods to just come and ask, then your work and reputation already speak for themselves. And that YES is also a foregone conclusion. It is my job and my responsibility to know those that come before me and above me. You know that and I know that, and that’s one of the best parts of this great dance.
If you’re just coming up but you’ve taken the time to do this all properly, you are already eight steps ahead of everyone else. Now just give me a reason to care. Be a human about it and let your personality and intent shine through in that initial email. You’d be amazed by how realness and sincerity cut through everything else and make me want to bet on you. And here’s a great tip. Keep the stakes low so that it’s an easy bet to make.
Here are a few other things that I look for when evaluating opportunities:
Who Is Your Targeted Community?
It’s not always about numbers or reach. It’s about impact. Help me understand how you can help me achieve my goals within the communities that I care about.
Upside Versus Downside
I hinted at this before, but give me an easy way to say yes or at the very least, DON’T make it easy for me to say no. Ridiculous asks are an easy no. Especially if we don’t have history together; approach me in a way where there is very little for me to lose and everything for me to gain.
Personal Bias
What I like absolutely influences my decisions. I am paid to be a tastemaker for the companies that I represent and so I’m the first litmus test. Is your project something that I want to support? Is it creative, fun, engaging, and just all around rad?
Because even if all the other metrics are not exactly in place, sometimes this point is enough of a driver for a YES. The other ones just make it easy for me to tick the boxes in case I need to justify my decisions to my bosses and finance teams.
If you hit all of these (or even just two of these) you will drastically improve your chances of nailing it. But still, most of it is just performative. It mostly all goes back to your initial ask and to your reputation.
Mike Dias writes and speaks about Why Nobody Likes Networking and What Entertainers Can Teach Executives. He is one of the few global leaders in Trade Show Networking and he helps companies maximize their trade show spend by ensuring that their teams are prepared, ready, and able to create and close opportunities. This column will be an ongoing monthly feature because Mike loves talking shop and is honored to give back to the community. If this article was helpful
and useful in any way, please reach out anytime at Mike Dias Speaks and let Mike know about what you want to hear more about next time.
Mike Dias writes and speaks about Why Nobody Likes Networking and What Entertainers Can Teach Executives. He is one of the few global leaders in Trade Show Networking and he helps companies maximise their trade show spend by ensuring that their teams are prepared, ready, and able to create and close opportunities. This column will be an ongoing monthly feature because Mike loves talking shop and is honoured to give back to the community. If this article was helpful and useful in any way, please reach out anytime at Mike Dias Speaks and let Mike know about what you want to hear more about next time.
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