Q magazine

20

Top music reviews from one persons opinion

Slipknot thier on going pain thier heart breaking journey thier astonishing comeback

Gorillaz Let’s make a party record for the world going nuts!

Florence and the Machine

Music saved me from the hurricane

musicmadind.indd 1

3/15/18 4:39 PM

Contents

Slipknot

Pg.4

h

t d n ce a

en r o l Pg.8 F Pg.1

musicmadind.indd 2

6

Gor

illaz

Pg.3

3/15/18 4:39 PM

Contents

Slipknot

Pg.4

h

t d n ce a

en r o l Pg.8 F Pg.1

musicmadind.indd 2

6

Gor

illaz

Pg.3

3/15/18 4:39 PM

Slipknot I don’t usually let people see me cry,” Slipknot percussionist Shawn Crahan says matter-of-factly. “It’s too hard. But when I heard what Corey Taylor sang on the song ‘XIX,’ I cried and cried and cried. It hurt so bad.”

“XIX” is the funereal dirge that kicks off .5: The Gray Chapter, the menacing metal screamers’ fifth studio album and first since the 2010 death of their friend and bandmate Paul Gray.

Crahan, best known for wearing a bloody clown mask and convulsing his body during the band’s frenetic concerts, had constructed the track as a three-minute eulogy for Gray, the group’s founding bassist who died of an accidental overdose of morphine and the painkiller fentanyl. Crahan spoke the song’s opening words, “This song is not for the living; this song is for the dead.” But it’s the lyrics that frontman Taylor wrote that drove him to tears: “Walk with me, just like we should

musicmadind.indd 3

have done right from the start.... Walk with me, don’t let this fucking world tear you apart.”

“I was trying to show that just when you think the hardest part is losing someone, it’s sometimes even harder to move forward.” — Corey Taylor For the first time in the four years since their bandmate died, the musicians – whose frightening façades belie deeply emotional men nearly crippled by the loss of their friend – were finally working together on new music. Ultimately, they made a record that paid tribute to Gray while maintaining the seething, heavy hostility their fans love – often at the same time. Where their previous albums found them pointing their middle fingers at the world, .5: The Gray Chapter is their most focused album yet. Also, because of everything they’ve been though, it’s often their heaviest – both musically and emotionally.

“It was always in my head that this was going to be the story of the last four years,” says Taylor, 40, whose stentorian, Midwestern accent suggests bold confidence even when he’s letting down his guard.

“We knew it was going to be heavy.

We knew we would be asking ourselves if we were prepared to be that honest.

But we allowed ourselves to get to that point.”

“Finally, after four years, we looked at each other and said, ‘Hey, we’re gonna cry. We’re gonna hurt. We’re gonna be angry,’” Crahan, 45, says. “We got it out, and it felt good.”

Prior to .5: The Gray Chapter, the emotion Slipknot did best was pure vitriolic anger.

When the group put out its first widely distributed album, Slipknot, in 1999, the band members came off like enfants

3/15/18 4:39 PM

Slipknot I don’t usually let people see me cry,” Slipknot percussionist Shawn Crahan says matter-of-factly. “It’s too hard. But when I heard what Corey Taylor sang on the song ‘XIX,’ I cried and cried and cried. It hurt so bad.”

“XIX” is the funereal dirge that kicks off .5: The Gray Chapter, the menacing metal screamers’ fifth studio album and first since the 2010 death of their friend and bandmate Paul Gray.

Crahan, best known for wearing a bloody clown mask and convulsing his body during the band’s frenetic concerts, had constructed the track as a three-minute eulogy for Gray, the group’s founding bassist who died of an accidental overdose of morphine and the painkiller fentanyl. Crahan spoke the song’s opening words, “This song is not for the living; this song is for the dead.” But it’s the lyrics that frontman Taylor wrote that drove him to tears: “Walk with me, just like we should

musicmadind.indd 3

have done right from the start.... Walk with me, don’t let this fucking world tear you apart.”

“I was trying to show that just when you think the hardest part is losing someone, it’s sometimes even harder to move forward.” — Corey Taylor For the first time in the four years since their bandmate died, the musicians – whose frightening façades belie deeply emotional men nearly crippled by the loss of their friend – were finally working together on new music. Ultimately, they made a record that paid tribute to Gray while maintaining the seething, heavy hostility their fans love – often at the same time. Where their previous albums found them pointing their middle fingers at the world, .5: The Gray Chapter is their most focused album yet. Also, because of everything they’ve been though, it’s often their heaviest – both musically and emotionally.

“It was always in my head that this was going to be the story of the last four years,” says Taylor, 40, whose stentorian, Midwestern accent suggests bold confidence even when he’s letting down his guard.

“We knew it was going to be heavy.

We knew we would be asking ourselves if we were prepared to be that honest.

But we allowed ourselves to get to that point.”

“Finally, after four years, we looked at each other and said, ‘Hey, we’re gonna cry. We’re gonna hurt. We’re gonna be angry,’” Crahan, 45, says. “We got it out, and it felt good.”

Prior to .5: The Gray Chapter, the emotion Slipknot did best was pure vitriolic anger.

When the group put out its first widely distributed album, Slipknot, in 1999, the band members came off like enfants

3/15/18 4:39 PM

"Every thing you feel is temporary" —Corey Taylor

terribles, hurling their bodies across MTV at the peak of nü-metal’s final crest, rapping and growling about hate and frustration on their breakthrough single “Wait and Bleed.” Although the nine-person group – whose members included Taylor, Crahan, Gray, guitarists Mick Thomson and Jim Root, percussionist Chris Fehn, sampler Craig Jones, DJ Sid Wilson and drummer Joey Jordison – came from Des Moines, their jumpsuits, homemade Halloween masks and songs like “People = Shit” rivaled any boogeyman Stephen King could concoct.

Over the next 15 years, the group – like peers Linkin Park and Korn – held its footing even as moshers’ interests drifted away from rap-metal.

From the start, Slipknot piqued their fans’ ears with aggressive, throbbing singles like “Duality” and “Psychosocial” and teased their curiosities with wild offstage tales about keeping dead birds in jars to facilitate easier mask-puking. With everything working in concert, Slipknot have sold more than 16 million copies of their four albums and several video releases, won a Best Metal Performance Grammy for the song “Before I Forget”

musicmadind.indd 4

and notched a Number One album with their most recent LP, 2008’s All Hope Is Gone.

For their entire career, the band had maintained an upward trajectory, but everything changed on May 24th, 2010, the day Gray was found dead in an Urbandale, Iowa hotel room.

The bassist had been open about his struggles with drug abuse over the years but at the time of his death he had appeared to be clean. The bassist’s widow, Brenna Gray, reported that he was drug-free in the months after his final gig with the band, on Halloween 2009.

She found a hypodermic needle the week before he died, alerted his doctor, and then found a bag of needles the day before he died, according to a court statement she made earlier this year. She confronted him on it and canceled his upcoming tour with the metal covers group Hail. But then his death happened quickly. “He was sick and none of us knew about it,” Brenna told Revolver magazine a few months after his death. “I think that was the most upsetting thing to me was that I didn’t know. ‘Cause I always knew, and I always brought him back when things were starting to take a turn. But this time I just couldn’t do it.... What

was going on in his life?

I have no idea, no clue.

The shock of Gray’s death overtook the group. “There are so many stages to dealing with grief,” Taylor says.

“There’s a goddamned avalanche, a roller coaster, that comes with it, where there are days that you don’t understand why you’re crying because you’re watching a fucking commercial about car insurance, and you’re just like, ‘What the fuck!’

You’re like, ‘Where did this come from?’ All of these things slowly but surely make their way to the surface.”

“I lost both my parents and it wasn’t as hard as losing Paul.” —Shawn Crahan “Paul taught me so much, he’s the bottom line,” Crahan says. “I lost both my parents and it wasn’t as hard as losing Paul, because you’ve got your whole life with them – you know it’s going to happen. With Paul being my best friend, I just didn’t see it coming.” a year. Finally, in June 2011, they were ready to reform as Slipknot

3/15/18 4:39 PM

"Every thing you feel is temporary" —Corey Taylor

terribles, hurling their bodies across MTV at the peak of nü-metal’s final crest, rapping and growling about hate and frustration on their breakthrough single “Wait and Bleed.” Although the nine-person group – whose members included Taylor, Crahan, Gray, guitarists Mick Thomson and Jim Root, percussionist Chris Fehn, sampler Craig Jones, DJ Sid Wilson and drummer Joey Jordison – came from Des Moines, their jumpsuits, homemade Halloween masks and songs like “People = Shit” rivaled any boogeyman Stephen King could concoct.

Over the next 15 years, the group – like peers Linkin Park and Korn – held its footing even as moshers’ interests drifted away from rap-metal.

From the start, Slipknot piqued their fans’ ears with aggressive, throbbing singles like “Duality” and “Psychosocial” and teased their curiosities with wild offstage tales about keeping dead birds in jars to facilitate easier mask-puking. With everything working in concert, Slipknot have sold more than 16 million copies of their four albums and several video releases, won a Best Metal Performance Grammy for the song “Before I Forget”

musicmadind.indd 4

and notched a Number One album with their most recent LP, 2008’s All Hope Is Gone.

For their entire career, the band had maintained an upward trajectory, but everything changed on May 24th, 2010, the day Gray was found dead in an Urbandale, Iowa hotel room.

The bassist had been open about his struggles with drug abuse over the years but at the time of his death he had appeared to be clean. The bassist’s widow, Brenna Gray, reported that he was drug-free in the months after his final gig with the band, on Halloween 2009.

She found a hypodermic needle the week before he died, alerted his doctor, and then found a bag of needles the day before he died, according to a court statement she made earlier this year. She confronted him on it and canceled his upcoming tour with the metal covers group Hail. But then his death happened quickly. “He was sick and none of us knew about it,” Brenna told Revolver magazine a few months after his death. “I think that was the most upsetting thing to me was that I didn’t know. ‘Cause I always knew, and I always brought him back when things were starting to take a turn. But this time I just couldn’t do it.... What

was going on in his life?

I have no idea, no clue.

The shock of Gray’s death overtook the group. “There are so many stages to dealing with grief,” Taylor says.

“There’s a goddamned avalanche, a roller coaster, that comes with it, where there are days that you don’t understand why you’re crying because you’re watching a fucking commercial about car insurance, and you’re just like, ‘What the fuck!’

You’re like, ‘Where did this come from?’ All of these things slowly but surely make their way to the surface.”

“I lost both my parents and it wasn’t as hard as losing Paul.” —Shawn Crahan “Paul taught me so much, he’s the bottom line,” Crahan says. “I lost both my parents and it wasn’t as hard as losing Paul, because you’ve got your whole life with them – you know it’s going to happen. With Paul being my best friend, I just didn’t see it coming.” a year. Finally, in June 2011, they were ready to reform as Slipknot

3/15/18 4:39 PM

It's a scorching, sweaty Texas night in early October, and Florence and the Machine are finishing a frenzied headlining set of whirlwind art rock at the Austin City Limits Festival with their driving breakthrough hit, "Dog Days Are Over." Midway into the tune, the group's indefatigable, perennially auburn-haired frontwoman, Florence Welch, has an idea to beat the heat.

"It's fucking hot, so take off something you don't need and wave it above your head like a flag," she orders the crowd midway into the tune.

Like a preacher, she exclaims, "Austin, you have been released!"

Then the already barefoot singer joins them, removing first her white vest and then her golden shirt, until she is wearing only white bellbottoms and a bra. She leaps offstage and disappears into hundreds of outstretched hands in the causeway running through center of the audience.

musicmadind.indd 5

The next morning, the 29-year-old Londoner describes her state of mind as "a little shell-shocked," typical of the waking hours following any wild show, though she seems cheerful and relaxed, prone to mixing big belly laughs with astute and sobering observations about herself.

Looking back on the night before, she clearly remembers why she stripped and made a cannonball for the crowd. "It's about jumping off the cliff because you want people to feel free from judgment," she says.

"Rather than being anything titillating, it's symbolic of letting go of inhibition and of being unashamed. ... And it's funny to see if security can keep up with me." She laughs. To her, it's scary, funny and joyous, all at the same time.

in something that wasn't working," she says. "Making the record and writing about it, I freed myself." It's a liberated feeling that has translated to her fans, and not just the nudists in Austin. The album's deeply woven, lilting tales of doomed romance and redemption struck a chord with listeners, and the LP became Florence and the Machine's first-ever U.S. Number One, an integral part of what has become Welch's biggest year ever.

Bill Clinton even recently told her he was her fan.

“There’s something about the magic of love that opens that opens you up to the whole world,” Welch says.

Now her tour, which wraps Friday with a headlining set at Voodoo Fest in New Orleans, is more like a victory lap, and thanks to Welch's dynamic stage presence, it's proof that Florence and the Machine are one of rock's best live acts.

In Austin, as the 11-person Machine pumped out cin-

Earlier this year, Welch issued her own declaration of individuality, How Big How Blue How Beautiful, her third album, which contains powerful songs like the pounding "What Kind of Man" and urgent "Ship to Wreck," both about her real-life frustrations with a breakdown of a relationship. "I felt stuck

3/15/18 4:39 PM

It's a scorching, sweaty Texas night in early October, and Florence and the Machine are finishing a frenzied headlining set of whirlwind art rock at the Austin City Limits Festival with their driving breakthrough hit, "Dog Days Are Over." Midway into the tune, the group's indefatigable, perennially auburn-haired frontwoman, Florence Welch, has an idea to beat the heat.

"It's fucking hot, so take off something you don't need and wave it above your head like a flag," she orders the crowd midway into the tune.

Like a preacher, she exclaims, "Austin, you have been released!"

Then the already barefoot singer joins them, removing first her white vest and then her golden shirt, until she is wearing only white bellbottoms and a bra. She leaps offstage and disappears into hundreds of outstretched hands in the causeway running through center of the audience.

musicmadind.indd 5

The next morning, the 29-year-old Londoner describes her state of mind as "a little shell-shocked," typical of the waking hours following any wild show, though she seems cheerful and relaxed, prone to mixing big belly laughs with astute and sobering observations about herself.

Looking back on the night before, she clearly remembers why she stripped and made a cannonball for the crowd. "It's about jumping off the cliff because you want people to feel free from judgment," she says.

"Rather than being anything titillating, it's symbolic of letting go of inhibition and of being unashamed. ... And it's funny to see if security can keep up with me." She laughs. To her, it's scary, funny and joyous, all at the same time.

in something that wasn't working," she says. "Making the record and writing about it, I freed myself." It's a liberated feeling that has translated to her fans, and not just the nudists in Austin. The album's deeply woven, lilting tales of doomed romance and redemption struck a chord with listeners, and the LP became Florence and the Machine's first-ever U.S. Number One, an integral part of what has become Welch's biggest year ever.

Bill Clinton even recently told her he was her fan.

“There’s something about the magic of love that opens that opens you up to the whole world,” Welch says.

Now her tour, which wraps Friday with a headlining set at Voodoo Fest in New Orleans, is more like a victory lap, and thanks to Welch's dynamic stage presence, it's proof that Florence and the Machine are one of rock's best live acts.

In Austin, as the 11-person Machine pumped out cin-

Earlier this year, Welch issued her own declaration of individuality, How Big How Blue How Beautiful, her third album, which contains powerful songs like the pounding "What Kind of Man" and urgent "Ship to Wreck," both about her real-life frustrations with a breakdown of a relationship. "I felt stuck

3/15/18 4:39 PM

ematic art rock, the frontwoman belted huge choruses, struck ballet poses and stalked the stage. By her own admission, it had been a long road to get to this point, but now she can look back at it with a new perspective.

In the period leading up to the recording of How Big How Blue How Beautiful, Welch was confused. Florence and the Machine had put out their platinum-selling second LP, Ceremonials, in 2011, scored a ubiquitous hit with "Shake It Out" (thanks to its infectious, singalong-ready "whoaah-oh" chorus) and relentlessly conjured the record to life on the road, including a few U.S. stadiums with U2. But when it all wound down, the singer had to find herself again.

The "freedom to drink as much as I wanted" caught up with her, so she pressed pause on partying. Then she had to confront the detritus of the crumbling on-again, off-again relationship

musicmadind.indd 6

she felt stuck in. When she and her boyfriend at the time ultimately broke up, instead of going "kamikaze" on a bender, to use her word, she stayed on the wagon and forced herself to do something that felt unnatural: write about herself.

"I feel like I broke myself," she says now.

"And I perhaps broke something that I really cared about, and I had a chance to make something rather than break something again. So it was a quiet time of reflecting. I was fucking sad."

When she met with producer Markus Dravs, who has produced Grammy-winning albums for Arcade Fire, Mumford and Sons and Coldplay, she still felt shattered. "He had been expecting this Valkyrie with flaming red hair to ride in on a chariot, and what he got was a crying girl in leggings," she says with a slight chuckle. "I couldn't even get dressed at that time. It took every ounce of creative energy just to make the record." Despite Welch's fractured state, the producer pushed her and forced her to confront

her feelings.

So she wrote simple songs like "Various Storms & Saints" and "Long & Lost," exposing her inner self. She wanted to write tunes with big finales — and those would eventually make their way onto the record in the form of impressionistic horns on the title cut and the space-rock evaporation of final track "Mother" — but Dravs insisted that the more emotionally threadbare tracks, ones she'd written in five-minute bursts of frustration and despair, were important. "Some of them were wordfor-word what was going on at the time," the singer says. "Markus encouraged me to be more vulnerable, but it was scary."

When the time came to sing the songs, they argued about the layers of echoey reverb she'd hoped to cloak her voice in; he asked her to dial

“I’m an orchestrator of my own destruction and chaos.”

it back and put herself out there.

Welch filled the album with allusions to bad romance and deliverance.

“Ship to Wreck” questions her self-destructive proclivities, the excoriating “What Kind of Man” blasts a wishy-washy lover, “Queen of Peace” declares “all that’s left is hurt,” “Delilah” finds Welch pulling down pillars, the elucidating “St. Jude” finds solace in the patron saint of lost causes, “Third Eye” finds her wanting to change and “Mother” is a prayer for relief. Despite the tumult, she nevertheless considers How Big How Blue How Beautiful a positive experience on the whole. “The record cocooned me,” she says.

“I could take the songs out of the wreckage of that time and make something from them.

3/15/18 4:39 PM

ematic art rock, the frontwoman belted huge choruses, struck ballet poses and stalked the stage. By her own admission, it had been a long road to get to this point, but now she can look back at it with a new perspective.

In the period leading up to the recording of How Big How Blue How Beautiful, Welch was confused. Florence and the Machine had put out their platinum-selling second LP, Ceremonials, in 2011, scored a ubiquitous hit with "Shake It Out" (thanks to its infectious, singalong-ready "whoaah-oh" chorus) and relentlessly conjured the record to life on the road, including a few U.S. stadiums with U2. But when it all wound down, the singer had to find herself again.

The "freedom to drink as much as I wanted" caught up with her, so she pressed pause on partying. Then she had to confront the detritus of the crumbling on-again, off-again relationship

musicmadind.indd 6

she felt stuck in. When she and her boyfriend at the time ultimately broke up, instead of going "kamikaze" on a bender, to use her word, she stayed on the wagon and forced herself to do something that felt unnatural: write about herself.

"I feel like I broke myself," she says now.

"And I perhaps broke something that I really cared about, and I had a chance to make something rather than break something again. So it was a quiet time of reflecting. I was fucking sad."

When she met with producer Markus Dravs, who has produced Grammy-winning albums for Arcade Fire, Mumford and Sons and Coldplay, she still felt shattered. "He had been expecting this Valkyrie with flaming red hair to ride in on a chariot, and what he got was a crying girl in leggings," she says with a slight chuckle. "I couldn't even get dressed at that time. It took every ounce of creative energy just to make the record." Despite Welch's fractured state, the producer pushed her and forced her to confront

her feelings.

So she wrote simple songs like "Various Storms & Saints" and "Long & Lost," exposing her inner self. She wanted to write tunes with big finales — and those would eventually make their way onto the record in the form of impressionistic horns on the title cut and the space-rock evaporation of final track "Mother" — but Dravs insisted that the more emotionally threadbare tracks, ones she'd written in five-minute bursts of frustration and despair, were important. "Some of them were wordfor-word what was going on at the time," the singer says. "Markus encouraged me to be more vulnerable, but it was scary."

When the time came to sing the songs, they argued about the layers of echoey reverb she'd hoped to cloak her voice in; he asked her to dial

“I’m an orchestrator of my own destruction and chaos.”

it back and put herself out there.

Welch filled the album with allusions to bad romance and deliverance.

“Ship to Wreck” questions her self-destructive proclivities, the excoriating “What Kind of Man” blasts a wishy-washy lover, “Queen of Peace” declares “all that’s left is hurt,” “Delilah” finds Welch pulling down pillars, the elucidating “St. Jude” finds solace in the patron saint of lost causes, “Third Eye” finds her wanting to change and “Mother” is a prayer for relief. Despite the tumult, she nevertheless considers How Big How Blue How Beautiful a positive experience on the whole. “The record cocooned me,” she says.

“I could take the songs out of the wreckage of that time and make something from them.

3/15/18 4:39 PM

ts

ain S d s an m r Sto s u o Vari

ull was f saints r i a the and And orms treet t s s es riou ak Of va ying in th an to bre g t Pra ks be roes of i e n a b h e h t As th ’m in the belly of t I e d An in th here east e w e on m b l Som l o t ur gly ok yo ver willin o t u o o But y ve myself old on me and h a st So I g you got a on’t just Id Oh, m how w o screa to be n d k n t ’ a de how I don outsi yself m g in teach free a memory I am f d ent o your hea m u n o in ur The m r it down untain yo o a e m You t ake the y m ad enem ere inste of Don’t p th ont get u s out in fr , t u Get o the star ch aw you o tou you You s t t o gn ed mptin h it shock blood e t o To ug our s n tho ctric in y e v selve e m e t l e u e h B t ’s untie thing Some ople just pe And

musicmadind.indd 7

s feline youri l g n i e rl y Uncu ust forgiv e wa orld v i g j w could self the t u e lace e o e d i y f If ts e, nt p e l u e b l O o m i v tu av you s ay ms a had to h id l l e i t e s s a w u ud But give rld seems ut yo d so yo let B o an ou ew him, things y live d lace ide th Outs violent p e him, an e o u Som order t hav o t d yo n i n d u a o h o g d ou oray u di ll ar But y ile a ings sw d, so yo let go in h W u u ild gs yo live e bu it out lo ay n h i t h t d l i u o is w ing Some der t you the b ou s de us th edY d le o ma ou’re b okay aroun way h l l w a y s ho e While ings ud, w know you’ll b eart, o I l t u h o , but to your fe ng it this way g i s n i t u Yo us on g, bu it sa made re bleedin Hold ’ll keep r heart u u’ you o yo w yo l be okay you’ll t o n n k o I you’l ur heart, Hold o y on to p it safe ’t Hold , don t r kee a e ur h to yo away n o it sing Hold give oftop to a ro l find from l ’ u nce o Y to da to y a w all ge d a h ed no ed n fi r e O n on’t from your You d cling re, it’s in he rt is t ds a e er h han forev Your e k i l e eems like an ag s t i r w I kno it seems ill be ove w w y a his I kno day t so far aw me n o t the But s no ar it’ just untie e w s I le peop selves And es lifelin e yourg n i l r Uncu ust forgiv j ould elf c u o eet s If y ble, f m u t us till yo s t u B

3/15/18 4:39 PM

ts

ain S d s an m r Sto s u o Vari

ull was f saints r i a the and And orms treet t s s es riou ak Of va ying in th an to bre g t Pra ks be roes of i e n a b h e h t As th ’m in the belly of t I e d An in th here east e w e on m b l Som l o t ur gly ok yo ver willin o t u o o But y ve myself old on me and h a st So I g you got a on’t just Id Oh, m how w o screa to be n d k n t ’ a de how I don outsi yself m g in teach free a memory I am f d ent o your hea m u n o in ur The m r it down untain yo o a e m You t ake the y m ad enem ere inste of Don’t p th ont get u s out in fr , t u Get o the star ch aw you o tou you You s t t o gn ed mptin h it shock blood e t o To ug our s n tho ctric in y e v selve e m e t l e u e h B t ’s untie thing Some ople just pe And

musicmadind.indd 7

s feline youri l g n i e rl y Uncu ust forgiv e wa orld v i g j w could self the t u e lace e o e d i y f If ts e, nt p e l u e b l O o m i v tu av you s ay ms a had to h id l l e i t e s s a w u ud But give rld seems ut yo d so yo let B o an ou ew him, things y live d lace ide th Outs violent p e him, an e o u Som order t hav o t d yo n i n d u a o h o g d ou oray u di ll ar But y ile a ings sw d, so yo let go in h W u u ild gs yo live e bu it out lo ay n h i t h t d l i u o is w ing Some der t you the b ou s de us th edY d le o ma ou’re b okay aroun way h l l w a y s ho e While ings ud, w know you’ll b eart, o I l t u h o , but to your fe ng it this way g i s n i t u Yo us on g, bu it sa made re bleedin Hold ’ll keep r heart u u’ you o yo w yo l be okay you’ll t o n n k o I you’l ur heart, Hold o y on to p it safe ’t Hold , don t r kee a e ur h to yo away n o it sing Hold give oftop to a ro l find from l ’ u nce o Y to da to y a w all ge d a h ed no ed n fi r e O n on’t from your You d cling re, it’s in he rt is t ds a e er h han forev Your e k i l e eems like an ag s t i r w I kno it seems ill be ove w w y a his I kno day t so far aw me n o t the But s no ar it’ just untie e w s I le peop selves And es lifelin e yourg n i l r Uncu ust forgiv j ould elf c u o eet s If y ble, f m u t us till yo s t u B

3/15/18 4:39 PM

It actually became really hopeful. It’s a really ‘up’ record.

It deals with things that are difficult, but it’s almost a reaction to it in an uplifting way.”

One of the more heartening songs on the album is How Big How Blue How Beautiful’s ornate title song, though Welch traces its inspiration way back to a feeling she had on the Ceremonials tour. When she sings, “Between a crucifix and the Hollywood sign, we decided to get hurt” — a lyric that belies a song about finding the gumption to move on — she’s thinking of the sky over the Hollywood Bowl, where she wrote it.

It was a happy time.

“On that tour, it felt like things were really connecting with us in the States,” she says. “It was a time of falling in love, and it’s about how when you fall in love, everything around you, every place you go is exciting and every person you meet, you love them,

musicmadind.indd 8

too. There’s something about the magic of love that opens you up to the whole world.”

Welch spent a lot of time writing songs for the record in L.A., avoiding what she calls the city’s darker side (“I personally have definitely been involved in that,” she says with a laugh) and finding its “hippie side,” where she meditated and got herself right. “I needed to be just in nature with the bigness and blueness of the sky,” she says, noting that her current stage setup features an LED sun and moon because it needed something based in nature. “The warmth seeped into the record. I took it back with me to rainy London, and I still have these visions of these big, blue skies and listening to Neil Young and Nick Cave while driving around L.A.” (Aside: When asked why she recently covered Jack Ü’s Justin Bieber collaboration “Where Are Ü Now,” she says that when she’s not listening to Neil Young, she loves pop and EDM. “That song,” she says, “is a really good dance song.”)

Now when Welch looks at the album, she sees how far she’s come with 20/20 hindsight. “I’ve learned that I’m an orchestrator of my own destruction and chaos,” she says with a laugh.

“There’s a calm side of me and a very chaotic, self-destructive side. I learned there’s a way to use that energy, which I did on ‘Ship to Wreck’ and ‘Delilah.’ There’s this side of me that just wants to crash the whole thing into the ground. I can use those feelings.”

3/15/18 4:39 PM

It actually became really hopeful. It’s a really ‘up’ record.

It deals with things that are difficult, but it’s almost a reaction to it in an uplifting way.”

One of the more heartening songs on the album is How Big How Blue How Beautiful’s ornate title song, though Welch traces its inspiration way back to a feeling she had on the Ceremonials tour. When she sings, “Between a crucifix and the Hollywood sign, we decided to get hurt” — a lyric that belies a song about finding the gumption to move on — she’s thinking of the sky over the Hollywood Bowl, where she wrote it.

It was a happy time.

“On that tour, it felt like things were really connecting with us in the States,” she says. “It was a time of falling in love, and it’s about how when you fall in love, everything around you, every place you go is exciting and every person you meet, you love them,

musicmadind.indd 8

too. There’s something about the magic of love that opens you up to the whole world.”

Welch spent a lot of time writing songs for the record in L.A., avoiding what she calls the city’s darker side (“I personally have definitely been involved in that,” she says with a laugh) and finding its “hippie side,” where she meditated and got herself right. “I needed to be just in nature with the bigness and blueness of the sky,” she says, noting that her current stage setup features an LED sun and moon because it needed something based in nature. “The warmth seeped into the record. I took it back with me to rainy London, and I still have these visions of these big, blue skies and listening to Neil Young and Nick Cave while driving around L.A.” (Aside: When asked why she recently covered Jack Ü’s Justin Bieber collaboration “Where Are Ü Now,” she says that when she’s not listening to Neil Young, she loves pop and EDM. “That song,” she says, “is a really good dance song.”)

Now when Welch looks at the album, she sees how far she’s come with 20/20 hindsight. “I’ve learned that I’m an orchestrator of my own destruction and chaos,” she says with a laugh.

“There’s a calm side of me and a very chaotic, self-destructive side. I learned there’s a way to use that energy, which I did on ‘Ship to Wreck’ and ‘Delilah.’ There’s this side of me that just wants to crash the whole thing into the ground. I can use those feelings.”

3/15/18 4:39 PM

On the top floor of his west London studio, “13”, Damon Albarn is sitting at a small wooden table that his dad made sometime in the 1970s. In front of him are a glass of nettle tea, some freshly squeezed juice in a union jack mug and a single cigarette. He’s in a good mood, and he is talking about Gorillaz, the cartoon band that he formed with Jamie Hewlett almost 20 years ago.

ic. It’s very unruly. You can go anywhere and do anything, and that’s the whole point of it. There’s no agenda. I’ll go with what’s exciting, and I’ll make it work, because I can pretty much lend my hand to anything, musically. Also, I could keep knocking out tunes for the next year or two. So, just look at this album as the nucleus of something much bigger.”

sure what his lyrics are about.

There’s just so much to be learned from being sensitive to other people, you know? There’s so many flavours…

Let’s talk about his everyday life for a bit, instead.

On Saturday night, Albarn and Missy, his 18-year-old daughter, went out to I make a face. celebrate the 17th birthday of Jamie’s Albarn says, “You know, a younger son, Rocky. lot of things don’t make They drank sake.

Unfortunately, he is not sense at the moment.

Missy told Albarn she being clear. I’ve just This is just another one thinks she could drink asked him if the music of those. It’s very à la as much as him; he that he makes on the mode!” didn’t want to disillunew album – soulful, sion her. (Her mum, urban, with contributors Grr. He can be a frustrat- his partner, Suzi including Mavis Staples, ing interviewee, because Winstanley, is teetoPusha T, Jehnny Beth he doesn’t like unpicktal.) He’s on his own and Benjamin Clemen- ing his creative process, with Missy for a week tine – marries up at all talking the magic away.

– “She’s really interwith Hewlett’s drawings This is what he says ested in politics and of 2D, Murdoc, Russel about his lyrics on the film. One of the most and Noodle, the cartoon new Gorillaz record: “I heartwarming things members of the band. get my chords and then for me is, occasionI improvise the words in ally, when it’s not one take. It’s a subcontrap music booming Sign up for the Sleeve scious thing, so I think of out from her room, Notes email: music my language as somehow I hear Radio 4. And news, bold reviews and connected to the future I think: Ah, you are unexpected extras or the past. Untethered to my child!” – and is Read more now. And with this record, vaguely wondering “Well, I don’t think that I mostly left the words how much he should matters,” says Albarn, as they came out.” He be parenting her. cheerfully. “Gorillaz isn’t doesn’t want to explain, about anything specif- because he’s not really

musicmadind.indd 9

3/15/18 4:39 PM

On the top floor of his west London studio, “13”, Damon Albarn is sitting at a small wooden table that his dad made sometime in the 1970s. In front of him are a glass of nettle tea, some freshly squeezed juice in a union jack mug and a single cigarette. He’s in a good mood, and he is talking about Gorillaz, the cartoon band that he formed with Jamie Hewlett almost 20 years ago.

ic. It’s very unruly. You can go anywhere and do anything, and that’s the whole point of it. There’s no agenda. I’ll go with what’s exciting, and I’ll make it work, because I can pretty much lend my hand to anything, musically. Also, I could keep knocking out tunes for the next year or two. So, just look at this album as the nucleus of something much bigger.”

sure what his lyrics are about.

There’s just so much to be learned from being sensitive to other people, you know? There’s so many flavours…

Let’s talk about his everyday life for a bit, instead.

On Saturday night, Albarn and Missy, his 18-year-old daughter, went out to I make a face. celebrate the 17th birthday of Jamie’s Albarn says, “You know, a younger son, Rocky. lot of things don’t make They drank sake.

Unfortunately, he is not sense at the moment.

Missy told Albarn she being clear. I’ve just This is just another one thinks she could drink asked him if the music of those. It’s very à la as much as him; he that he makes on the mode!” didn’t want to disillunew album – soulful, sion her. (Her mum, urban, with contributors Grr. He can be a frustrat- his partner, Suzi including Mavis Staples, ing interviewee, because Winstanley, is teetoPusha T, Jehnny Beth he doesn’t like unpicktal.) He’s on his own and Benjamin Clemen- ing his creative process, with Missy for a week tine – marries up at all talking the magic away.

– “She’s really interwith Hewlett’s drawings This is what he says ested in politics and of 2D, Murdoc, Russel about his lyrics on the film. One of the most and Noodle, the cartoon new Gorillaz record: “I heartwarming things members of the band. get my chords and then for me is, occasionI improvise the words in ally, when it’s not one take. It’s a subcontrap music booming Sign up for the Sleeve scious thing, so I think of out from her room, Notes email: music my language as somehow I hear Radio 4. And news, bold reviews and connected to the future I think: Ah, you are unexpected extras or the past. Untethered to my child!” – and is Read more now. And with this record, vaguely wondering “Well, I don’t think that I mostly left the words how much he should matters,” says Albarn, as they came out.” He be parenting her. cheerfully. “Gorillaz isn’t doesn’t want to explain, about anything specif- because he’s not really

musicmadind.indd 9

3/15/18 4:39 PM

Albarn famously keeps working hours at his studio: 10am-5pm every day. He cycles there from his house (he lost his driving licence 18 years ago, and never bothered to get it back), and before he does anything, he shoves vegetables, fruit and ginger into the studio’s industrial juicer and hands the juice out to anyone who’s about. For the past three years, he’s added yoga into his routine. He started with a teacher coming to his home, but soon realised he likes the friendliness and surprise of classes.

He tries to go to a class every day, no matter where in the world he finds himself: Jamaica, Japan, the US. The only place he couldn’t find one was Bamako, in Mali.

He’d like, he says, and it’s only partly a joke, to write a Lonely Planet guide to the world’s best yoga classes.

He catches himself and starts laughing. “Listen to me,” he says. “International yoga guide.

Who’d have thought?”

inal Gorillaz lifestyle.

The band started at the end of the 1990s, when Albarn and Hewlett lived together in a gadget-packed, boy’s own first-floor flat in Notting Hill. Then, Albarn was known as the singer and songwriter of Blur; Hewlett as the co-creator and artist of the comic book Tank Girl. They were both heartbroken (Damon over his split with Justine Frischmann, Jamie over his with Jane Olliver, Justine’s friend – though he and Jane got back together for a time and had two sons) and they bonded over lost love and silly toys. Despite their upset, their flat was a fun place to be. When you visited, there was always something in the background making an unexpected noise: a robot, a watch, something digital or musical.

Jamie Hewlett and Damon Albarn circa 1997.

Jamie Hewlett and Damon Albarn circa Yoga, juicing and be1997. Photograph: ing untethered to now Via Pixbear weren’t part of the orig- They had a big telly

musicmadind.indd 10

and watched a lot of MTV. The original idea for Gorillaz came about because they thought so many pop groups made lame interviewees, and because Albarn wanted to make hip-hop, which he could never do with Blur. He needed to be anonymous in order to experiment: “People weren’t meant to know it was me,” he says. “Even now I think, during the gigs, I’m going to be able to go off, go backstage and make myself a drink and a hologram will take my place for a couple of songs.” (This has not yet happened.)

I saw that day Lost my mind Lord, I’ll find

Gorillaz was, unexpectedly, a huge success. In the US, the first album outsold the whole of Blur’s output. People loved the band. And so, over the next 13 years, Albarn and Hewlett worked and partied and made two more Gorillaz albums, plus Monkey: Journey to the West, an opera created for the Manchester international festival in 2007.

3/15/18 4:39 PM

Albarn famously keeps working hours at his studio: 10am-5pm every day. He cycles there from his house (he lost his driving licence 18 years ago, and never bothered to get it back), and before he does anything, he shoves vegetables, fruit and ginger into the studio’s industrial juicer and hands the juice out to anyone who’s about. For the past three years, he’s added yoga into his routine. He started with a teacher coming to his home, but soon realised he likes the friendliness and surprise of classes.

He tries to go to a class every day, no matter where in the world he finds himself: Jamaica, Japan, the US. The only place he couldn’t find one was Bamako, in Mali.

He’d like, he says, and it’s only partly a joke, to write a Lonely Planet guide to the world’s best yoga classes.

He catches himself and starts laughing. “Listen to me,” he says. “International yoga guide.

Who’d have thought?”

inal Gorillaz lifestyle.

The band started at the end of the 1990s, when Albarn and Hewlett lived together in a gadget-packed, boy’s own first-floor flat in Notting Hill. Then, Albarn was known as the singer and songwriter of Blur; Hewlett as the co-creator and artist of the comic book Tank Girl. They were both heartbroken (Damon over his split with Justine Frischmann, Jamie over his with Jane Olliver, Justine’s friend – though he and Jane got back together for a time and had two sons) and they bonded over lost love and silly toys. Despite their upset, their flat was a fun place to be. When you visited, there was always something in the background making an unexpected noise: a robot, a watch, something digital or musical.

Jamie Hewlett and Damon Albarn circa 1997.

Jamie Hewlett and Damon Albarn circa Yoga, juicing and be1997. Photograph: ing untethered to now Via Pixbear weren’t part of the orig- They had a big telly

musicmadind.indd 10

and watched a lot of MTV. The original idea for Gorillaz came about because they thought so many pop groups made lame interviewees, and because Albarn wanted to make hip-hop, which he could never do with Blur. He needed to be anonymous in order to experiment: “People weren’t meant to know it was me,” he says. “Even now I think, during the gigs, I’m going to be able to go off, go backstage and make myself a drink and a hologram will take my place for a couple of songs.” (This has not yet happened.)

I saw that day Lost my mind Lord, I’ll find

Gorillaz was, unexpectedly, a huge success. In the US, the first album outsold the whole of Blur’s output. People loved the band. And so, over the next 13 years, Albarn and Hewlett worked and partied and made two more Gorillaz albums, plus Monkey: Journey to the West, an opera created for the Manchester international festival in 2007.

3/15/18 4:39 PM

Florence and the machine cosmic love “Cosmic Love” is a song by English indie rock band Florence and the Machine from their debut studio album Lungs (2009).

Cosmic Love

Do I wanna Know?

Deadcrush

Green Light

Elastic Heart

Bad Romance

Sulfur

musicmadind.indd 11

El’Manana

Gorillaz El Mañana” (Spanish for “The Future”) is a song by British Alternative Rock Band Gorillaz. It was released on 10 April 2006 in the United Kingdom as a double A- side

Arctic Monkeys Do I Wanna Know?” is a song recorded by English indie rock band Arctic Monkeys for their fifth studio album AM (2013).

Thrice “Black Honey” is a song by American rock band Thrice.

The song was released on April 27, 2016 as the lead single

Alt-J “Deadcrush” It is the fifth track single on 12 July 2017 Infectious Music and Atlantic Records.

Lorde Contemporary critics received “Green Light” with acclaim and praised its musical style, and Lorde’s vocal delivery. .

Coheed and Cambria the Last Supper: Live at Hammerstein Ballroom, a concert DVD from rock band Coheed and Cambria 31, 2006.

Sia In 2014, Sia re-recorded a solo version of “Elastic Heart” for her sixth studio album 1000 Forms of Fear.

Lady GAGA “Bad Romance” is a song by American singer Lady Gaga from her third extended play, The Fame Monster (2009).

Slipknot This was the last Slipknot video to feature bassist Paul Gray, who was found dead on May 24, 2010.

Final Cut

Chaos Chaos On October 7, 2014, Chaos Chaos released another EP, Committed to the Crime.

Do you feel it?

More to Luv

Maps

Minnutes Their version of the Tony Jackson ragtime classic Pretty Baby was featured in a 2008 Dove commercial.

Yeah,Yeah,Yeahs “Maps” is a single by Yeah Yeah Yeahs from their debut full-length album, Fever to Tell (2003).

3/15/18 4:39 PM

Florence and the machine cosmic love “Cosmic Love” is a song by English indie rock band Florence and the Machine from their debut studio album Lungs (2009).

Cosmic Love

Do I wanna Know?

Deadcrush

Green Light

Elastic Heart

Bad Romance

Sulfur

musicmadind.indd 11

El’Manana

Gorillaz El Mañana” (Spanish for “The Future”) is a song by British Alternative Rock Band Gorillaz. It was released on 10 April 2006 in the United Kingdom as a double A- side

Arctic Monkeys Do I Wanna Know?” is a song recorded by English indie rock band Arctic Monkeys for their fifth studio album AM (2013).

Thrice “Black Honey” is a song by American rock band Thrice.

The song was released on April 27, 2016 as the lead single

Alt-J “Deadcrush” It is the fifth track single on 12 July 2017 Infectious Music and Atlantic Records.

Lorde Contemporary critics received “Green Light” with acclaim and praised its musical style, and Lorde’s vocal delivery. .

Coheed and Cambria the Last Supper: Live at Hammerstein Ballroom, a concert DVD from rock band Coheed and Cambria 31, 2006.

Sia In 2014, Sia re-recorded a solo version of “Elastic Heart” for her sixth studio album 1000 Forms of Fear.

Lady GAGA “Bad Romance” is a song by American singer Lady Gaga from her third extended play, The Fame Monster (2009).

Slipknot This was the last Slipknot video to feature bassist Paul Gray, who was found dead on May 24, 2010.

Final Cut

Chaos Chaos On October 7, 2014, Chaos Chaos released another EP, Committed to the Crime.

Do you feel it?

More to Luv

Maps

Minnutes Their version of the Tony Jackson ragtime classic Pretty Baby was featured in a 2008 Dove commercial.

Yeah,Yeah,Yeahs “Maps” is a single by Yeah Yeah Yeahs from their debut full-length album, Fever to Tell (2003).

3/15/18 4:39 PM

Hilsong United “Oceans (Where Feet May Fail)” is a song by Australian worship group Hillsong United.

Oceans Live “Lightning Crashes” is a song

by American rock band Live.

Lightning crashes Sound Garden Black Hole Sun. “Black Hole Sun” is a song by the American rock band Soundgarden.

Black hole sun

Black Creep

Pearl Jam Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder had been a fan of American Music Club for years.

Radio Head “Creep” is a song by the English alternative rock band Radiohead, released as their debut single in 1992 Weezer “Say It Ain’t So” is a song by the American rock band Weezer.

Say it aint so

Somewhere only we know

musicmadind.indd 12

Keane “Somewhere Only We Know” is a song performed and composed by English alternative rock band Keane

3/15/18 4:39 PM

Hilsong United “Oceans (Where Feet May Fail)” is a song by Australian worship group Hillsong United.

Oceans Live “Lightning Crashes” is a song

by American rock band Live.

Lightning crashes Sound Garden Black Hole Sun. “Black Hole Sun” is a song by the American rock band Soundgarden.

Black hole sun

Black Creep

Pearl Jam Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder had been a fan of American Music Club for years.

Radio Head “Creep” is a song by the English alternative rock band Radiohead, released as their debut single in 1992 Weezer “Say It Ain’t So” is a song by the American rock band Weezer.

Say it aint so

Somewhere only we know

musicmadind.indd 12

Keane “Somewhere Only We Know” is a song performed and composed by English alternative rock band Keane

3/15/18 4:39 PM

20

Top music reviews from one persons opinion

Slipknot thier on going pain thier heart breaking journey thier astonishing comeback

Gorillaz Let’s make a party record for the world going nuts!

Florence and the Machine

Music saved me from the hurricane

musicmadind.indd 1

3/15/18 4:39 PM