Dork, February 2019

m k.co do r read 019 Feb ruar y2

ONLY IN DREAMS

The Japanese House + Fall into one of 2019’s most anticipated debut albums

Fall into one of 2019’s most anticipated debut albums.

The Japanese House.

THE 1975

5/5 Dork

(MFC)

THE NEW ALBUM 30 NOVEMBER

DH00325

DIRT Y HI T

A BRIEF INQUIRY INTO ONLINE RELATIONSHIPS

"A BRIEF INQUIRY INTO ONLINE RELATIONSHIPS ISN'T JUST A GREAT ALBUM - IT'S A GENERATION DEFINING MASTERPIECE"

February 2019 Issue 29

Ed’s letter.

We first put The Japanese House on the cover of Dork 24 issues ago. Since, more than two years have passed and even back then we were really, really ready to hear a full-length.

Thankfully, that wait is almost over. At the start of March, ‘Good at Falling’, Amber Bain’s debut studio album, will finally be released.

You won’t get our full review until next issue, but you can guess by the fact she’s back on the front of this month’s edition just how good it is. And as if that wasn’t enough, she brought her 10/10 dog chum Calvin to the shoot. Someone knows how to keep us happy.

So, as we scrape the mini Bountys out of the bottom of the last Christmas chocolate tub, all eyes turn to what’s coming in the year ahead.

There’s a lot on our personal buzz lists for 2019 - from the second part of The 1975’s Music For Cars extravaganza to debut albums from Billie Eilish and Sigrid. More on all that ‘soon’, but for now - Happy New Year, Dear Reader!

S tephen

Editor / @stephenackroyd

DORK

Index.

UPDATE 4. SUNFLOWER BEAN 6. SONS OF AN ILLUSTRIOUS FATHER 8. METRONOMY 10. BROODS 12. GIRLPOOL 14. KING NUN 15. MATT MALTESE 16. BANGERS HYPE 18. CREWEL INTENTIONS 20. ANOTHER SKY 21. ALFIE TEMPLETON 22. HATCHIE FEATURES 24. THE JAPANESE HOUSE 32. YAK 36. WHITE LIES 40. FIDLAR INCOMING 42. MAGGIE ROGERS 44. BLOOD RED SHOES 46. CHERRY GLAZERR 48. QUEEN ZEE GET OUT 50. THE 1975 52. CHRISTINE AND THE QUEENS 53. GEORGE EZRA 54. BRING ME THE HORIZON 54. LILY ALLEN 55. BAD SOUNDS 55. WOLF ALICE 56. THE GUIDE

3

BACK PAGE 58. THE MAGIC GANG 58. DORKSVILLE

Editor Stephen Ackroyd Deputy Editor Victoria Sinden Associate Editor Ali Shutler Contributing Editors Jamie Muir, Martyn Young Events Liam James Ward Scribblers Abigail Firth, Dillon Eastoe, Jamie MacMillan, Jenessa Williams, Jessica Goodman, Josh Williams, Liam Konemann, Rob Mair, Sam Taylor, Steven Loftin Snappers Gaëlle Beri, Frances Beach, Jennifer McCord, Jordan Hughes, Ryan Johnston, Sarah Louise Bennett Doodlers Russell Taysom PUBLISHED FROM

WELCOMETOTHEBUNKER.COM UNIT 10, 23 GRANGE ROAD, HASTINGS, TN34 2RL

All material copyright (c). All rights reserved. This publication may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form, in whole or in part, without the express written permission of The Bunker Publishing Ltd. Disclaimer: While every effort is made to ensure the information in this magazine is correct, changes can occur which affect the accuracy of copy, for which The Bunker Publishing Ltd holds no responsibility.

The opinions of the contributors do not necessarily bear a relation to those of Dork or its staff and we disclaim liability for those impressions. Distributed nationally. Message sent with concern that will never be addressed.

On The Stereo Drenge Strange Creatures

We’ve been waiting for the Sheffield bros’ third album for what feels like an indecently long time, but golly gosh, have they delivered. We’ve

already heard some of what’s on offer from last year’s ‘Autonomy’ EP and singles ‘This Dance’ and ‘Bonfire of the City Boys’.

The rest keeps up that high watermark and then some.

Indoor Pets Be Content

The start of 2019 seems to

DORK

RE AD D O RK. CO M

be packed with presents Dork HQ has been eagerly anticipating for what we scientifically refer to as ‘yonks’. The debut from Indoor Pets certainly comes up the top of that list, but their extended gestation period looks to have been well advised. With more melody than a whistle pop in the gob of a hyperactive

child, it’s the sugar rush high that’ll send the dark clouds away.

The Japanese House Good At Falling

Seriously, Dear Reader. Next issue, we need good warning to save up the universe full of stars we’re going to need for this one. Outstandingly good.

If it’s not in here, it’s not happening.

Or we forgot. One or the other.

4

KING KING OF THE OF THE DUDES DUDES They finished 2018 by dropping one of the best tracks of the year. Jamie MacMillan catches up with Sunflower Bean’s Julia, Nick and Jacob to find out more about their exciting new step, the ‘King of the Dudes’ EP.

R

ecovering back home after the triumphant finale to their ‘Twentytwo in Blue’ tour, one of our favourite New York trios, Sunflower Bean, are showing no interest in wasting time. Despite it being less than a year since that release, they have made sure that 2019 is going to get off to a flyer with their new EP, ‘King of the Dudes’. Four bangers for the price of one, it is the sound of a band taking off into the stratosphere - the exact moment where Sunflower Bean realised just how good they can be.

For some bands, it would have been tempting to keep four songs of this quality back for album number three. But Sunflower Bean aren’t hanging around, and with themes of gender equality and empowerment in the mix, these songs are so relevant now that it would be crazy not to let them fly the coop.

“We wanted to philosophically go in the opposite direction to some old-school single roll-out plan,” explains singer-slash-bassist Julia Cumming. “Thinking about how technology works, we want to get them into peoples’ ears however they want it. After all, why can’t we write about now, and what we want now, and what we want to do about it now, and have it come out… now?”

Following a tour which wrapped only a few

days previously, the band still took a little time to think about where they had come from.

“That was probably one of the most historic and important tours that we’ve ever done,” reflects Julia. “We toured with really strong, powerful women and it was momentous to wrap up ‘Twenty-two In Blue’ in the UK of all places.”

For all that album (and their 2016 debut ‘Human Ceremony’)’s strengths however, these new songs show it was all moving towards something bigger. The title-track exudes the New York cool that The Strokes used to be guardians of, all swagger and bravado as Julia asserts her authority.

“Being called the king of the dudes started as a bit of a joke from Nick, he perceived what I think of as just being friendly backstage with guys in other bands as actually being me coming to conquer,” she explains, laughing. “Which isn’t essentially wrong…”

Exploring that sense of female empowerment and male entitlement, the singer continues by admitting: “I disliked the nickname initially because I felt it was a misunderstanding of who I am, but through the writing, I realised it actually disempowers the powers of a king and brings it into a space where anyone can play with the strength. If ever there was a time

DORK

D OWN WI T H BO RI N G

to play with that word and claim it in your own way, that time is now.”

Best of all, ‘Fear City’ will take some shifting from the top of the bangers lists come year-end, it’s that good.

“We were working with that for a little while, then one night we had this weird conversation about politics and culture, and I got this sick feeling in my stomach and just wanted to get on my bike” explains Julia.

“It’s the first time that I’ve spoken about it… I wouldn’t say falling in love,” she hesitates, “but certainly an interaction with an addict and that kind of experience that a young person in New York City has, in a way that we haven’t covered on any other record.”

As well as a growing confidence in their songwriting ability, another big factor in their levelling-up is producer Justin Raisen (Charli XCX, Angel Olsen, Sky Ferreira).

“IT’S AMAZING WHAT YOU CAN DO IN SOMEONE’S GARAGE THESE DAYS” “We were in Justin’s garage in LA in the middle of the summer, exploring intent and purpose,” explains guitarist Nick Kivlen.

“Every idea with him is outlandish, you never just do something in an orthodox way. He was piecing together all these tracks; it was really elaborate and crazy.”

With all the instruments in one room, the spirit and energy of a garage rock band transferred easily into the recording. “It’s amazing what you can do in someone’s garage these days; he made us sound like a punk band playing in a stadium, all in his garage,” he continues. That relationship sparked up in a suitably modern way, Raisen getting in touch via Julia’s Instagram account. “He doesn’t hesitate, and I think that quality of not being afraid is like the spirit of the EP,” ponders Nick.

Whereas the three preceding tracks take an existing Sunflower Bean sound and develop it further, ‘The Big One’ sees them in a whole new light. “We were thinking about hardcore, that

DORK

RE AD D O RK. CO M

sort of Jesus And Mary Chain sound, wanting to sound tough in a way we hadn’t before,” reveals Nick about a track that ends with a full-blooded thirty-second scream from Julia. Primal and raw, like much of the EP, it was literally the final moment of a whirlwind recording. “After you’ve let it out like that, what more can be said?” laughs Nick.

Plenty, it would seem. These songs may land at a ridiculously turbulent period for the world, but the messages contained within still demand to be heard. “So much of our existence is online; there really is a general feeling of women feeling fed-up all over the world. We are tired of how things have gone,” explains Julia.

“This EP is for our times, but also of our times. These conversations that are being had, the fundamentals of gender and humanity, they are questions that we are going to have until the end of humankind. I hope that culturally, its the sign of a shift that we are trying to make, amidst fear and hatred and the things that really prevalent in American culture today. And it never ends, but that’s the beauty of human conversation.”

That conversation may never end, but this one sadly does as the band head off for a wellearned break after months of touring. With UK shows already planned for 2019, get ready for the return of the king (of the dudes). P Sunflower Bean’s EP ‘King of the Dudes’ is out 25th January.

5

SONS OF AN ILLUSTRIOUS FATHER SONS OF AN ILLUSTRIOUS FATHER SONS OF AN ILLUSTRIOUS FATHER SONS OF AN ILLUSTRIOUS FATHER SONS OF AN ILLUSTRIOUS FATHER

6

FATHER & SONS

M

usic is made to endure.

Every so often you can come across a song that feels like it’s speaking directly to you. Sometimes it’s a melody or rhythm that connects more than words ever could. Other times, it’s an earworm that you can’t shake no matter how badly you might want to. Whatever the method, music has a habit of sticking with you. Spread across a sofa on a dreary day in London, Ezra Miller, Lilah Larson, and Josh Aubin are prepared to go wherever the music takes them.

“I like to lube it, lube it, so I can move it, move it,” Lilah sings. “C’mon! That’s obviously what it should have been,” she laughs. Talking before the group play their first show on their European tour, the energy is understandably high. “It’s amazing. We feel very fortunate and very blessed,” Lilah enthuses.

“Also very tired – and confused.”

The trio might be feeling some confusion, but as the dates on their first European headline tour sold out ahead of them, it’s clear that their audience hold the group in enough conviction for all of them combined. Listening to their music, it’s easy to hear why they continue to be met with such

devotion.

“If I don’t die tonight, I’m gonna dance until I do, and if you’re not too afraid I wanna dance with you.” So begins ‘U.S. Gay’, the opening track on Sons Of An Illustrious Father’s second album ‘Deus Sex Machina: Or, Moving Slowly Beyond Nikola Tesla’.

Written in response to the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando in 2016, the song – like much of ‘Deus Sex Machina…’ – is at once as hopeful as it is hopeless.

“Both as people who are terrified for ourselves, but also as people who are acutely aware that we have the relative privilege of relative safety in many ways,” Lilah details, “we feel that it is our duty as turncoats to amplify liberatory messages.”

A genre-spanning cultureclash of a record, ‘Deus Sex Machina…’ feels to bare its hopes, fears, history, beliefs, and very identity on its sleeve. “When you are connected with your spiritual self, it’s hard to remove that aspect from anything you do. Especially when you’re in the process of creation,” Josh portrays. And creation is what the trio do best: melding an array of styles and sounds, singing of doubts and resolute faiths and so much more besides, theirs is music both of mourning and of renewal.

DORK

‘Actors from TV and film’ is def one of our fave genres of music at the mo. This month, Ezra Miller and his pals give us the lo-down on their band, Sons of an Illustrious Father.

Words: Jessica Goodman

“WE HAVE DONE A COUPLE OF DANCE ROUTINES...”

- EZRA MILLER

“Music is comparable to language in the way that the symbol can remain the same, but the association can shift over time,” Ezra describes. “I think the negative experience of that is becoming disassociated from the meaning or the emotional experience that lay at the root of the songwriting process.”

“The positive experience that we can have - and have had in a really special way with this album’s content,” he continues, “is that it feels like a process that is enriching and deepening to our connection to the song and where it came from.” In this everchanging and ever-tumultuous world in which we live in, it seems like that sense of connection has never felt more important.

The more time you spend with the collective – be that with their music, or at their shows – it quickly becomes apparent that Sons Of An Illustrious Father aren’t your average band. There’s no frontperson: the trio swap instruments and vocal duties like

D OWN WI T H BO RI N G

trading cards, playing to each other’s strengths in a way that could only come from profound familiarity.

“Often we’ll hit a wall and switch instruments. That sort of keeps the machine moving,” Lilah describes of their writing process.

“We lube the machine.”

“We move to move it,” Ezra affirms, before quickly amending his response. “We like to move it, move it,” he deadpans. “We like to...” he pauses, and the three chime in with a rallying cry of “move it!”

What started out as a schoolage friendship between Lilah and Ezra has developed into a soulmate-like bond completed by the addition of touring-bassistturned-fully-fledged-kindredspirit, Josh. “This band actually started as an acoustic duo that did pretty much exclusively folk, blues, country, and gospel covers for a few years,” Lilah recalls.

“So, if we observe the pattern,” Ezra continues, “we’re only a matter of years out from a heavy metal trio and a pop group that does dance routines.”

“We have done a couple of dance routines,” Ezra adds.

There’s no real way of knowing what the future holds, whether it’ll be bright or bleak. But right now, with their music Sons Of An Illustrious Father offer a soundtrack of rejuvenation within the chaos. Caught at the juncture between tearing it all down or building something new, the future is whatever they choose to make of it. As they sing on ‘U.S. Gay’, “if you wanna fuck shit up I’ll fuck with you, and if you want to fix it up we can do that too.” P Sons Of An Illustrious Father’s new album ‘Deus Sex Machina: Or, Moving Slowly Beyond Nikola Tesla’ is out now.

R R R R R

8 METRONOMY METRONOMY METRONOMY METRONOMY METRONOM METRONOMY METRONOMY METRONOMY METRONOMY METRONOM

DATE WITH THE NIGHT

Joe Mount is gearing up to celebrate ten years of Metronomy hitting the big leagues with a ‘Nights Out’ reissue, and new music on the horizon.

Words: Josh Williams

(FEVER)

DORK

D OWN WI T H BO RI N G

T

en years ago, near enough, Joseph Mount and Metronomy released their 2008 breakthrough album ‘Nights Out’, and to celebrate, the band are reissuing the record backed with a load of demos and b-sides. The one question is, why is it coming out in 2019?

“I’m always thinking ahead, and the label said to me like two weeks before the anniversary of the album, ‘It’s the tenth anniversary of ‘Nights Out’ in two weeks, we should do something!’ It crept up on us all a little bit,” Joe explains.

Recently, he’s been putting the finishing touches to the forthcoming as yet untitled sixth Metronomy album but has been getting nostalgic and thinking about the record that put Metronomy on the map.

“Ten years has gone quickly, and I feel like I’ve done so much in that period. When I listen to the record, it feels like a time capsule of that period in my life. I feel very proud of it as a record, and it feels like it had an impact on a number of people, which is quite something.”

Joe believes that the record is “much more rough around the edges” than the albums that have come since, but thinks “that’s kind of what you need. The thing is, it’s interesting because my perception of what you’re supposed to do as an artist, is you’re supposed to be professional.

I love the way ‘Nights Out’ sounds, and I realise now, since making my new record, that that sound was as much a decision as much as

“I’M FINISHING OFF A NEW RECORD, SO HOPEFULLY THAT WILL BE OUT IN 2019” what I was singing, and now I speak French so I can hear that it’s quite incorrect, but charming nonetheless!”

Despite it being the done thing at the moment as well for bands to trudge off on tour playing albums in full, Joe insists there are no plans for Metronomy to do so.

“I’m too busy thinking about the future! I’m making new music, which is really good. The thought hadn’t even crossed my mind, and then my manager was saying, ‘Maybe you could do a little oneoff playing it in full?’ I was like, honestly it would take so long for us to learn how to play the whole album, it’s such a waste of time when I’m literally trying to finish a new album. Maybe for 15 years?”

When pressed for information on the new Metronomy record, Joe reveals: “I’m finishing off a new record, so hopefully that will be out in 2019. If not, God I’ll be

DORK

depressed. It’s not very top secret; I’m just trying to finish it. Just trying to put it all into somewhere where I can talk about it concisely, and at the moment it’s a little sprawling, so I’m trying to reign it in a bit.”

Looking back, however, Joe believes he wouldn’t say anything if he could go back in time to speak to himself before ‘Nights Out’ was released.

“I’d just give myself a kiss! I think that would kind of ruin it in a way. I feel like part of what makes it nice is that it’s quite naive in certain ways. When I made it, I genuinely did have these huge dreamlike scenarios that I imagined for it, but at the same time there’s something about the age I was when I made it that I kind of hear, and I really like it.”P Metronomy’s tenthanniversary edition of ‘Nights Out’ is out 8th February.

RE AD D O RK. CO M

** THIS IS HAPPENING ** THIS IS HAPPENING ** THIS IS HAPPENING ** THIS IS HAPPENING ** THIS IS HAPPENING ** THIS IS HAPPENING ** THIS IS HAPPENING **

it was an aspect of the financial constraints.”

Apparently “it was a bit embarrassing” delving into the archives, but Joe explains: “If you think about the Beatles when they did the Anthology, and they released ‘Free as a Bird’ - it’s not very good! I can see why they didn’t release it. There’s this thing when you’re looking into your past, and of course, it was always there, but it wasn’t released cos it didn’t make sense at the time. It didn’t fit into the theme of the record.

“I guess with a bit of time passing you listen to it as a slightly different kind of person.

It’s music I would have made in between [debut album] ‘Pip Payne [(Pay the £5000 You Owe)]’ and ‘Nights Out’, but I was working out where I was going, so it’s kind of interesting.”

The most obscure thing Joe found was a French version of ‘Heartbreaker’. “It’s kind of a mystery why it had never been released. I remember recording it and taking a day to do that, and I don’t know why it never surfaced.

“We had this thing where ‘Nights Out’ was the first proper release in a way, it was the first record that got us somewhere in France, and then we had this strange connection with the French. They’re very big fans of Metronomy; we have a level peg in England and France, we have a similar audience.

“It’s this French version of ‘Heartbreaker’ which was done when I didn’t speak French. I sang it phonetically, reading the lyrics phonetically. I had no idea

CHARLI XCX has revealed that she’s planning to release a new album this year.

Posting her New Year’s Resolutions online, she has both “make an album” and “release it” on her to do list. The full-length will be her third, following 2013 debut ‘True Romance’, and 2014’s banger-packed ‘Sucker’. While light on traditional ‘albums’ lately, she’s dropped loads of tracks (and a couple of album-length mixtapes) since then, most recently teaming up with Troye Sivan for ‘1999’.

AMERICAN FOOTBALL have announced their new album,‘American Football (LP3)’. Their third full-length, it’s out on 22nd March via Big Scary Monsters, and features guest vocals from Paramore’s Hayley Williams, Land of Talk’s Elizabeth Powell, and Slowdive’s Rachel Goswell. “We put a lot of time and a lot of energy into it,” says vocalist Mike Kinsella of the full-length.

“We were all thoughtful about what we wanted to put out there. Last time, it was figuring out how to use all of our different arms. This time, we were like – Okay, we have these arms, let’s use them.”

LOWER THAN ATLANTIS have announced they’re calling it a day.

“After much deliberation, we’ve heavy heartedly decided to take a break from the band,” they explain in an online statement. “It wasn’t an easy decision to make but we feel that it’s definitely the right one and one we hope everyone can learn to accept and respect.”

They’ll say goodbye with a farewell tour next spring.

9

Is it something you get to do often?

No, it’s something that I do when I’ve got a little bit of time on my hands.

What kind of set up do you need to start making stuff?

You don’t need much at all. It’s very easy to go to a hardware store and get over-excited. The first time I went, I came out with three different saws. Two of them

Have you had any furniture making disasters or mishaps?

Almost every single one! I’ve not hurt myself, but I’m not very good at measuring, I’m very much a winger of things. They say ‘measure twice cut once’, I measure once, cut three times… P Broods’ album ‘Don’t Feed The Pop Monster’ is out 1st February.

FESTIVAL NEWS FESTIVAL NEWS

What’s the best thing you’ve ever made?

Probably some shelves. I made a coffee table once [pictured], but that was more of a reinvention of furniture rather than a makingfrom-scratch situation.

FESTIVAL NEWS

10

We hear you’re into making furniture, what first kickstarted your hobby?

My dad is a carpenter, so he always had tools around the house if anything needed fixing. I went to university to study product design because I wanted to be a furniture designer, but then someone offered me a record deal, so I left!

What’s the easiest bit of furniture to have a bash at for a beginner?

Shelves, for sure.

FESTIVAL NEWS

Hey Caleb, how’s it going? Did you have a good 2018?

I had an amazing 2018 - we finished a record, signed a new record deal, toured with Taylor Swift and played a sold-out show at The Dome in Tufnell Park.

are still in the box…

FESTIVAL NEWS

Musicians are real people, you know. They do stuff other than just create nice songs, like - erm - make coffee tables? Don’t ask us, ask Caleb from Broods.

FESTIVAL NEWS

Caleb from Broods

FESTIVAL NEWS

Making tables with

FESTIVAL NEWS

Get a hobby

THE 1975, TWENTY ONE PILOTS, BASTILLE, PALE WAVES, BILLIE EILISH AND MORE - READING & LEEDS 2019 HAS ANNOUNCED ITS FIRST NAMES!

T

he first names have been announced for this summer’s Reading & Leeds festivals, with a couple of the least well kept secrets in pop confirmed.

The news confirms the longstanding rumour that The 1975 will headline, presumably with not just the forthcoming full-length ‘A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships’ to showcase, but also its much anticipated follow-up ‘Notes On A Conditional Form’ too.

Following up on 2017’s Latitude headline set, it sees them topping the bill at one of the traditional big two UK festivals for the first time.

They’ll be joined by Foo Fighters, who pretty much confirmed themselves by announcing a pair of Irish dates just days before. It’ll be the first time they’ve headlined R&L since 2012.

Twenty One Pilots will also be grabbing a Main Stage headline set in 2019. Fresh off the back of their new album ‘Trench’, they’ve been moving up the

Reading & Leeds line-up in recent years. The headline bill is completed by Post Malone, who pulled one of the biggest crowds of Reading & Leeds 2018 - something that’s sure to have paid a big part in securing top billing this time around.

Other names in the initial line-up announce include Bastille, who are set to drop their third album ‘Doom Days’ soon, Pale Waves, Sundara Karma, Blossoms, Billie Eilish, PVRIS and The Amazons.

There’s also room for Not3s, The Distillers, Hayley Kiyoko, Stefflon Don and more The full list of bands playing reads: The 1975, Twenty One Pilots, Foo Fighters, Post Malone, Bastille, Pale Waves, Blossoms, Billie Eilish, The Distillers, Juice Wrld, Stefflon Don, Sundara Karma, Not3s, Camelphat, Stefflon Don, Hayley Kiyoko, PVRIS, The Amazons, Crucast, Denis Sulta, Bowing For Soup, G Flip, Yungblud.

Reading & Leeds takes place between 23rd and 25th August 2019. Tickets are on sale now.

PHOTO: JENNIFER MCCORD

LET’S EAT GRANDMA

IRLPOOL IRLPOOL IRLPOOL IRLPOOL IRLPOOL IRLPOOL IRLPOOL IRLPOOL IRLPOOL IRLPOOL IRLPOOL IRLPOOL IRLPOOL IRLPOOL IRLPOOL IRLPOOL IRLPOOL IRLPOOL IRLPOOL GIRLPOOL GIRLPOOL GIRLPOOL GIRLPOOL GIRLPOOL GIRLPOOL GIRLPOOL GIRLPOOL GIRLPOOL GIRLPOOL GIRLPOOL GIRLPOOL GIRLPOOL GIRLPOOL GIRLPOOL GIRLPOOL GIRLPOOL GIRLPOOL GIRLPOOL

CHAOS THEORY Girlpool’s comeback tracks were some of the best of 2018; now with a full-length imminent, they’re ready to take on both the new year, and whatever life has to throw at them.

Words: Sam Taylor

A

cross their first two albums, Los Angeles duo Harmony Tividad and Cleo Tucker were disarmingly honest as they navigated all the ups and downs of growing up and trying to find their place amongst a world in flux.

Now approaching their third Girlpool full-length - following a string of tunes in 2018, including a collab with Dev Hynes - the pair return with an enviable assuredness.

12

Hey Harmony, Cleo. Y ou’ve described the period since your last album as a transitional time, how did that impact the album?

Harmony: I find myself coming into parts of myself I never thought I would. I can’t tell if this is growing up or just regular growth. Parts of myself I rejected for so long are being nurtured and strengthened, and I am learning to love new parts in myself.

Cleo: This transitional period of Girlpool is reflected sonically on the album; there’s different energy going song to song.

What is it that marks out ‘What Chaos Is Imaginary’ as a step on from your previous work?

Harmony: Cleo and I are breathing new life into our own voices and also helping uplift each other’s, rather than it being a project of unison I feel like now it has truly bloomed into one of mutual support. These songs are songs we each wrote separately, and we worked together to record and arrange. It feels good to embrace all creative aspects and essences in ourselves in this record.

Cleo: This album is more explorative and imaginary.

there… sometimes it does cause me to feel a bit disassociated from my home life. I think because I started to tour at a young and I now feel unbalanced without space away from home and with the music.

How aware are you of having a spotlight on what you do and say?

Harmony: I am not aware.

Cleo: Aware!

Have you been affected by the cynicism that can come with growing up and becoming more aware of the world around you?

Harmony: I wish cynicism could reach me more... I remain so bewildered and curious, sometimes to a fault. P Girlpool’s album ‘What Chaos Is Imaginary’ is out 1st February.

“THIS ALBUM IS MORE EXPLORATIVE AND IMAGINARY”

It must feel weird going from being teenagers to adults in the public eye. Are you more adept at dealing with the ins and outs of band life now?

Harmony: It was very weird.

We had no idea what we were doing and the whole uprising of Girlpool was shocking.

Cleo: I look forward to disappearing on tour for a couple of months here and

DORK

D OWN WI T H BO RI N G

PHOTO: SARAH LOUISE BENNETT

PALE WAVES

IRLPOOL GIRLPOOL

DECENT EXPOSURE.

KING NUN.

BACKSTAGE AT CAMDEN ASSEMBLY. PHOTO: SARAH LOUISE BENNETT.

JANELLE MONAE is set to headline the West Holts Stage at Glastonbury 2019.

Monáe will join Pyramid Stage headliner Stormzy and Kylie Minogue who will appear in the afternoon ‘legend’s slot’ - as the first names announced for 2019’s festival.

“We’ve got Janelle Monáe headlining the West Holts stage,” Emily Eavis said on BBC 6 Music’s new breakfast show, hosted by Lauren Laverne. Talking about her last appearance, she continued: “2015 was incredible, that show was really brilliant. You could have watched it with the sound off, and it would have been incredible. It will be quite a moment.”

** THIS IS HAPPENING ** THIS IS HAPPENING ** THIS IS HAPPENING ** THIS IS HAPPENING ** THIS IS HAPPENING ** THIS IS HAPPENING ** THIS IS HAPPENING **

SPRING KING have announced they’re to split (*sniff* - Ed). A statement reads: “After many years together, we have decided to call it a day Over the past 5 years we have toured around the world and along the way met many friends.

From our first show at The Castle, to performing live on Jools Holland or playing in numerous countries as close as France and as far as Australia, we have experienced so many incredible moments.

We are thankful for everyone that has come to our shows, screamed at the top of their lungs, bought our music and joined the spirit of the band in the pit. Your support was something we never took for granted and we are immeasurably grateful and will take that sense of positivity and energy forward into whatever we do next.”

The band have announced they’re cancelling their last two remaining shows in London and Manchester next year, saying “it would be a disservice to the music and to all of you if our hearts weren’t fully in it.”

MATT MALTESE Matt Maltese only released his debut album, what? Five minutes ago? Turns out, he’s already working on the followup... Words: Jamie Muir. Photo: Sarah Louise Bennett.

“I

don’t know where my brief, brief spurts of confidence come from…” ponders Matt Maltese. It’s just under a week since Matt wrapped up his final headline tour of 2018, one which showcased him at his fullest and most tongue-in-cheek.

Bartering back and forth with crowds, like a master of ceremonies in a packed pub full of friends and family, cracking jokes and crooning his earnest tales of love and devastating realities across the nation - it was a songwriter in his element and coming to terms with a momentous twelve months.

His debut album, ‘Bad Contestant’ burst into life in June, a collection of unmistakable and essential odes that made Matt stand out as a fresh voice for modern times, one unafraid to be upfront and honest about life’s ridiculous turns.

Since then, he’s played all over the place, growing into a real force and looking ahead to what comes next. “It’s a funny thing, confidence, isn’t it?”

Wasting no time at all, 2019 promises to be just as eventful with Matt in prolific form and a

“I’M TAKING WHAT I FEEL A BIT MORE SERIOUSLY” new album coming together.

“I had a real moment with it all, as it was such a big thing [to release the album],” Matt confides.

“The mix of overwhelming and underwhelming, there are so many amazing things happening but life goes on - and you’re still getting up every day trying to be as happy as you can be. That in its own way triggered a lot of songs.”

Written across the summer, they come from an “I don’t give a fuck place,” as Matt puts it, “which I think is a good place. The best way to talk about feelings is to not worry about them being too this or too that. Just saying, that the feeling is exactly this.”

Debuting a few tracks on his recent headline run, they certainly back everything up.

Bolder and bigger yet cutting right to the heart, it’s the next evolution of Matt Maltese as a modern-day bard of life going on around him. Frank and vital in his

observations.

“I feel like actually, the biggest contribution a musician can make is to talk about things everyone feels,” he points out. “To do that you have to be comfortable being vulnerable. Especially as I’m not preaching anger or whatever, I’m essentially preaching love - how cliche that is!

“I think if I do that, then I have to be comfortable in talking about sadness, happiness and romance, and this time around I do feel a lot more comfortable with those things.”

“I’m probably just a lot more confident in who I am, and what I do and not as...” Matt pauses.

“Not as self-deprecating about it.

I think I’m going through a period where I’m a little bit less taking the piss out of myself - to describe it simplistically.

“It’s important to take the piss out of yourself, and I’ll always keep doing that, but, for want of a really cliche phrase, I’m taking what I feel a bit more seriously.”

“Probably what I’ve learnt from the first album is to maybe not have any expectations,” he reflects. “I have ambition.

Obviously, I’m not going to sit here and say I want my album to be heard by five people, but I do just want to make another album I haven’t compromised on.”

In 2019, Matt Maltese is finding a new voice - and it’s one impossible to miss. Now that’s confidence. P

15

16

Lana Del Rey Hope Is A Dangerous Thing For A Woman Like Me To Have - But I Have It By this point, Lana Del Rey knows exactly which buttons to press to best showcase her considerable talents, and ‘Hope Is A Dangerous Thing...’ deftly taps them all.

Instrumentally understated, played against a single piano line, it’s LDR’s iconic vocal that drips like liquid velvet, punctuated by tossed away curse words and bittersweet constructs. Climaxing in breathy near-falsetto, it never develops the orchestral swell that might be expected, instead remaining defiantly singular.

It’s to its credit. While Lana’s biggest moments might be the fully formed radio-friendly singles, ‘Hope Is A Dangerous Thing...’ is as effective as any of them. A one-on-one confessional with an artist at the height of her powers.

Billie Eilish When I Was Older

The long wait for Billie Eilish’s debut album is nearly over, but first, we’re being treated

potential either. An expansion on an already full sound, it’s confirmation that whenyoung are a band on the move.

to ‘When I Was Older’, a track inspired by the film Roma.

Dripping with our Billie’s dark, deep diving pop, the teenage wunderkind has a palette that already instantly sets her apart.

While never reaching for the predictable big, brash moment, it’s a song that achieves the same effect from the shadows with texture and intimacy.

There’s little doubt that 2019 will be Billie Eilish’s year.

whenyoung Never Let Go

Sitting high up the buzz lists, whenyoung’s 2019 already looks set to stun. After twelve months that delivered a five star EP and a string of Really Very Good bangers, just keeping pace would be an achievement in itself. That their first offering of the new year actually ups the bar is something else entirely.

‘Never Let Go’ is an ethereal stomper. Soaring high but punching deep, it manages to sparkle and thunder in the same breath.

At times, ‘Never Let Go’ swings sharply into arena rock focus, echoing a vocal refrain off the rafters, but it never loses the energy of a close-up band filling a small venue with raw

Lizzo Juice

S Get the latest bangers at readdork.com, or follow our Brand New Bangers playlist on Spotify.

Check out all these tracks and more on Dork Radio now at readdork.com/ radio.

DORK

If, when we first heard ‘Batches and Cookies’ back in 2013, you’d have told us that come 2019 Lizzo would be strutting her stuff through a Bruno-Marsbut-better funk explosion, we’d probably have asked you to repeat yourself. With the dots between joined up, however, it makes perfect sense. And it’s obviously brilliant.

Bastille Would I Lie To You?

How many other bands would spend their downtime making mixtapes containing Charles & Eddie bangers from the early 90s (ask your parents - Ed), featuring Craig David? Trick question, there’s only one.

The latest instalment of Bastille’s ‘Other People’s Heartache’ - it’s part 4, ‘FYI’ - dropped late in 2018. If it passed you by, you can check out our chat with Dan Smith on readdork.com now. With a definite R&B / UK underground vibe, it’s yet another side to an act who have hidden depths.

D OWN WI T H BO RI N G

** THIS IS HAPPENING ** THIS IS HAPPENING ** THIS IS HAPPENING ** THIS IS HAPPENING ** THIS IS HAPPENING ** THIS IS HAPPENING ** THIS IS HAPPENING **

The best new tracks.

SLEATER-KINNEY have revealed they’ve been working on new music, produced by ST. VINCENT. There’s naff all information ‘out there’ at the mo, but the band have been writing the follow-up to 2015 comeback record, ’No Cities to Love’ for quite a while. “Now, just so you know, we’re going to do this very slowly,” Carrie Browntstein said of the record last year. “It’s an ongoing conversation.”

It looks like TWIN ATLANTIC may be on their way back with a follow-up for2016 album ‘GLA’. “Perhaps it’s time to come out of hibernation?” they suggested on Twitter.

The Scottish group are already confirmed for Glasgow’s Summer Sessions series in Bellahouston Park on 25th August.

FRANK CARTER & THE RATTLESNAKES are also making new moves.

A post on Facebook from the band informs “The End Is Near”, before asking fans to interact with a message bot to find out more. Upon doing so, that “The End Is Near” message is repeated, alongside a photo of a pair of feet and a pile of cables. “Stand by,” it finishes.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ KAREN O has dropped a new solo acoustic track, ‘Anti-Lullaby’. The short song runs to just 1 minute 20, and is taken from the soundtrack for Amazon Prime’s new series Hanna, which will debut in March.

MAGGIE ROGERS

PHOTO: JENNIFER MCCORD

Hype.

ESSENTIAL NEW MUSIC.

“I WEAR MY HEART ON MY SLEEVE, I ALWAYS HAVE”

It’s a good time for ex-Palma Violets - Sam Fryer filled us in on his new project Gently Tender a few months ago, and now we have co-frontman Chilli Jesson putting everything on the line with his new project, Crewel Intentions. Words: Jamie Muir

DORK

D OWN WI T H BO RI N G

CREWEL INTENTIONS CREWEL INTENTIONS CREWEL INTENTIONS CREWEL INTENTIONS CREWEL INTENTIONS CREWEL INTENTIONS CREWEL INTENTIONS

CREWEL CREWEL CREWEL CREWEL CREWEL CREWEL CREWEL

CREWEL INTENTIONS CREWEL INTENTIONS CREWEL INTENTIONS CREWEL INTENTIONS CREWEL INTENTIONS CREWEL INTENTIONS CREWEL INTENTIONS CREWEL INTENTIONS CREWEL INTENTIONS CREWEL INTENTIONS

INTENTIONS INTENTIONS INTENTIONS INTENTIONS INTENTIONS INTENTIONS INTENTIONS

CREWEL INTENTIONS CREWEL INTENTIONS CREWEL INTENTIONS CREWEL INTENTIONS CREWEL INTENTIONS CREWEL INTENTIONS CREWEL INTENTIONS

CREWEL INTENTIONS CREWEL INTENTIONS CREWEL INTENTIONS CREWEL INTENTIONS CREWEL INTENTIONS CREWEL INTENTIONS CREWEL INTENTIONS CREWEL INTENTIONS hilli Jesson CREWEL INTENTIONS CREWEL INTENTIONS is in good CREWEL INTENTIONS spirits. CREWEL INTENTIONS Beaming CREWEL INTENTIONS CREWEL INTENTIONS with the CREWEL INTENTIONS CREWEL INTENTIONS sort of pride CREWEL INTENTIONS CREWEL INTENTIONS and happiness that you’d CREWEL INTENTIONS CREWEL INTENTIONS expect a new father to dish

C

out, it’s pretty evident why.

Out of the charred embers of Palma Violets, Crewel Intentions are born from a songwriter discovering his calling home - a clear distillation of a time and a moment.

Now, after a year spent kicking about free shows and secret sets, Crewel Intentions’ grand reveal has been nothing short of stunning, a one-two of tracks that well and truly banish any notion that the best has already been and instead welcomes in a world of new influences and cinematic flourishes. Rightfully, Chilli is in a pretty good place.

“I’m ambitious,” he states, “but at this point in my life I was ambitious to just get out of the blocks, it stopped there. I couldn’t be more excited, man. It’s exceeded my expectations, and I’m fucking happy.”

After playing their first London show and witnessing first-hand the reaction and adoration already poured back (“people were singing back the songs, even songs that I don’t know how the fuck they knew”), it’s a few months that Chilli had long hoped for, an open invitation into the world of Crewel Intentions.

“I sort of spent two years away,” details Chilli. “I had this quite turbulent time.

Y’know, leaving a job or a relationship is quite uneasy at moments. Massive bouts of anxieties, highs and lows.

Early on, there was a bit of figuring it all out, but I was armed with quite a lot of songs, and as a songwriter, you’re only as good as your last song.”

Those two years found Chilli learning and looking to start again, a position he hadn’t really found himself in as an adult. Starting when they were only 17, Palma Violets were engulfed in a whirlwind of success, tours, recording and hype as a product of a new wave of bands shaking up an entire genre. A blistering run through shows across the globe and two albums, the Palmas reached their natural conclusion.

“Y’know, friends you had at school, you all head off and do different things - it was as

DORK

RE AD D O RK. CO M

The Facts + From London, UK + For fans of Nick Cave, Spector... Palma Violets? + Check out ‘Youth in Overload’ + Social @CrewelIntent + See them live: Watch this space (no, not literally this space). boring as it sounds,” explains Chilli. “I wish I could tell you there were guitars flying and we were shagging each other’s girlfriends but it just naturally came to an end creatively, and that’s that.

Being 17 then and being 24 now, you’d be a fucking idiot not to have grown in some way over the years.

“Maybe I should make something up next time to make it sound grander…”

Without a band, going through his own highs and lows and with a collection of ideas and songs beginning to formulate in his head - Chilli looked to where he could go next.

“The main thing for me was okay, I’m going to start this new group, I don’t know how it’s going to form, but my most important point was that I was going to start this from the ground up. I wasn’t going to jump ship; I wanted it to be proper.”

Teaming up with mate Marley Mackey, they began to lay the seeds of what Crewel Intentions would become, Chilli writing the sort of deeply personal songs that never made their way to the fore before, but now were emboldened as he turned to something new. If he was going to start a new band, he had one condition.

“For me, the most important thing was I wanted a band where nobody knew each other,” explains Chilli. “Me and Marley, we had these songs and realised, fuck we need to have a band now, and we found people through mates of mates.”

As Chilli explains further, “whatever line of work, even

if you’re in a pub and you get your mate along, it’s just going to be you two hanging out and if you can integrate together with other people that you may not know before, it forms a great bond.

I also had a lack of friends at the time, so that’s one way of bringing people together,” he laughs.

“Everybody was coming in fresh, and every new member was coming in with something different. Rudy [Rupert, keys] comes from this really blues background, wouldn’t say it’s my cup of tea, he can play Mozart on the guitar and all this stuff.

Marley loves this sort of communist beat.

“Jordan [drums] is the best drummer there is, and Leo [bass] is Greek, so he knows all this traditional Greek music. They’re just the best fucking band ever.”

Debut cut ‘Youth In Overload’ is a soaring warm number - a theatrical blend of Nick Cave and big-screen soundtracks that bursts like an instant classic from the first listen, while follow-up ‘Cruel Intentions’ is a menacing stand-off encapsulated in audio form - an opening statement of intent. What it shows more than anything, is the raw approach Chilli is taking to confront the darkest corners. “‘Youth In Overload’, it encapsulates those two years of really turbulent and emotional times. That sort of capsule of my life is there,” reveals Chilli, “and it’s all sort of worked itself out, some days are harder than others but having the freedom to express all of this stuff…” he tails off. “I wear my heart on my sleeve, I always have, and now I’m doing that in my music.

“I used to dress a lot of stuff in irony. If you dress things in irony, you can put your guard up and say, ‘Oh, that was just a joke’. Now it’s all out there, and it feels amazing, to be honest. Now is a really important time.

There’s not this massive stigma attached to mental health, and I think there’s real importance in being open about those thoughts and issues.”

An opportunity to be raw, to be vulnerable and to be open - Crewel Intentions are the band Chilli Jesson was born to front.

“I’ve always had belief,” Chilli admits. “I strive off confidence; it’s like a snowball effect for me. Once it starts, it doesn’t stop.” P

19

Hype.

ANOTHER SKY E

ach new year marks the start of another new band scramble to grab a seat on the hype train. With a run-up that starts well before the mince pies are on the festive table, come January, some are still left flailing to nip through the door as the warning beeps start to sound.

20

so that’s when I sold my BMX. I knew it was guitar or nothing.

Max: I was 6 when I first started playing djembe along with my dad and brother to Radio 1 mixes in the front lounge. I didn’t do much else except play drums and produce.

How did you get together?

Catrin: The band formed out of a mutual obsession with a Talk With a coveted slot on BBC’s Talk album titled ‘Laughing Stock’ flagship music show Later... off the which we discovered around the back of a couple of standout singles, same time. We ended up getting in Another Sky are far better prepared a room, jammed together and wrote than that. Their performance of a song straightaway, then burst out ‘Chillers’, packed with attitude in laughter like, “Where the fuck and a string section, was a genuine did that come from!?” moment. Add to that a twenty-date Naomi: I was in nine bands at the tour - including two Dork Live! time. My fingers were constantly shows in Norwich and Reading messed up, and then Jack would kicking off in February, and they’re be like, “We’re rehearsing twice a already well ahead of the curve. week.” I did it though We caught - I loved it because up with the we were just so band to find out Another Sky tour the UK diplomatic. There was more. from 1st February. no lead songwriter, February just jams that became Hey, you lot.

01 The Waterfront Studio, songs.

When did you Norwich (Dork Live!) first realise 02 The Fulford Arms, York To what extent do you wanted to 03 The Mash House, you feel musicians make music?

Edinburgh have a duty to weigh Jack: I have 04 SWG3 Studio in on sociopolitical only two loves Warehouse, Glasgow issues? of my life 06 Mc Hughs Basement Catrin: We all want music and Bar, Belfast escapism. There are BMXing. I broke 07 Upstairs at Whelan’s, my collarbone Dublin 10 Café Totem, Sheffield and couldn’t 11 Yes, Manchester play guitar for 12 The Soundhouse, months on end, Leicester 13 Hare & Hounds, Birmingham 15 Rock City, Nottingham 16 Purple Turtle, Reading (Dork Live!)

19 The Bullingdon, Oxford 20 Crofters Rights, Bristol 21 Clwb Ifor Bach, Cardiff 24 Strings Bar & Venue, Newport 25 Heartbreakers, Southampton 26 Komedia, Brighton 27 Portland Arms, Cambridge 28 Rich Mix, London

South-London foursome, Catrin (vocals), Max (drums), Naomi (bass) and Jack (guitar) introduce their band, Another Sky. Words: Sam Taylor.

The Facts

“WE ALL WANT ESCAPISM” arguments that entertainment should be a means for people to escape. It’s a luxury to escape, though.

We performed in Turkey recently, and the hotel wifi stopped me from following Pussyriot on Instagram.

Pussyriot activist Pyotr Verzilov had just been poisoned by the Russian government. In countries outside of Britain, writing sociopolitically can mean life or death. This might make it sound like the UK is safe... no, it’s not.

That’s a dangerous illusion.

I’m so lucky that I’ll never go to jail for promoting drugs with lines about LSD, but what if I grew up with my outlet being drill music, not a classical piano at Warwick Arts Centre? I might have a court order issuing me to never release music again. Perhaps that might happen one day... nobody is ever safe.

What would you guys sing about if all was right with the world?

+ From London, UK + For fans of Our Girl, Estrons, Sea Girls + Check out ‘Chillers’ + Social @anotherskymusic + See them live: They’re touring the UK this February - look down a bit and to the left for dates.

Max: Songs of praise.

Catrin: Joy as an act of resistance.

What are you working on at the mo?

Catrin: Getting a piano into a studio. Then we’re going to slam out songs.

Jack: We drove all over London to find it. There’s something special about pianos; they have souls.

What’s your favourite thing about being a musician?

Naomi: Playing live is the most fun part but writing and performing is an intimate process, and I love sharing that with the others. We’re all pretty different but so finely tuned in to each other; I think it comes from deep friendship.

What would you like to see happen in 2019?

Naomi: I want to see more people singing the lyrics back because that makes my head explode. P

ANOTHER SKY ANOTHER SKY ANOTHER SKY ANOTHER SKY ANOTHER SKY ANOTHER SKY ANOTHER SKY

ANOTHER SKY ANOTHER SKY ANOTHER SKY ANOTHER SKY ANOTHER SKY ANOTHER SKY ANOTHER SKY

Y Y Y Y Y Y Y

ALFIE TEMPLEMAN ALFIE TEMPLEMAN ALFIE TEMPLEMAN ALFIE TEMPLEMAN ALFIE TEMPLEMAN ALFIE TEMPLEMAN ALFIE TEMPLEMAN ALFIE TEMPLEMAN ALFIE TEMPLEMAN

ALFIE TEMPLEMAN

Impossibly young and on a charge to the top, Alfie Templeman is a name you need to know for 2019.

Words: Jamie Muir.

T

he village of Carlton is quite small.

Nestled in North Bedfordshire, it has two pubs, a school, some shops and not much else. It’s been hit by a tornado before. Everyone knows everyone - and naturally, it’s now the perfect home for a fresh new gleaming indie-mover to emerge. Enter Alfie Templeman.

“There’s not too much around here, but it’s a peaceful atmosphere,” points out Alfie. “I’d rather be here than anywhere else.”

While most of us at 15 were simply trying to make sure our homework was done

by Monday’s maths lesson, Alfie’s been busy on other fronts. With his debut track ‘Like An Animal’, the extracurricular studies have definitely made themselves known.

“It’s gotten to the point where I can turn on the radio, and I’m on there, and it’s such a surreal feeling,” exclaims Alfie, bubbling with energy. “It’s weird, but it’s a good feeling because a lot of people do stay up and listen to the late radio shows and the next day they’re like ‘ohh, here’s the local celeb’ and that, taking the mickey really!”

Utilising the joy of education while he still can, his days at school are spent hanging around the music rooms, jamming with his best mate and chatting away about music for hours.

“We’ve jammed together ever since we were young and we have good facilities at school, so we hang out every day, jam with other people. We like playing a lot

(CH)YES, (CH)YES

Alfie’s aligned himself with renowned label Chess Club, who’ve previously supported and put out tracks by Wolf Alice, Sundara Karma, Jungle and Swim Deep, amongst others. We dropped founders Peter McGaughrin and Will Street a line to see what grabbed their interest in Alfie.

“We came across Alfie after a friend of ours in LA sent us a link to his music having discovered him on Spotify. ‘Like An Animal’ is such a tune it only took one listen to know we’d come across someone very special.

“We were immediately hooked by his melodies, but when we found out he was only 15 years old and wrote/recorded everything himself it made the music all the more impressive. We went up to meet him and his parents one day after he finished school and thought he was the coolest kid so working together was a no-brainer.

“People will talk about Alf’s age and about how young he is, however, it’s his approach to songwriting which sets him apart from others for us. We love the way he builds all his songs around such undeniable hooks, and he’s so prolific.

He sends us two-three demos a week!

“It’s still early days for Alfie, but the reaction to his debut release has been amazing. We have a lot more music to come from him in 2019 which we’re really excited about. The sky’s the limit!”

The Facts + From Carlton, UK + For fans of Mac DeMarco + Check out ‘Like An Animal’ + Social @atemplemanmusic + See them live: Alfie doesn’t currently have any live dates ‘in the diary’

of funk stuff, so we’ve been playing a lot of that lately.

He’s the one who always listens to anything that goes on the radio, will listen to interviews and look into people and stuff.”

Alfie Templeman doesn’t follow the norm. With the sort of mind that jumps and flows with everything he hears, no matter genre, style or era - it’s more of an unstoppable reality that music was going to be at the core of everything he does than a question.

“I’m not interested in anything else apart from music, so my life does revolve around it,” he admits, looking back over the past few years. Growing up in a house where his dad’s instruments were everywhere, it was an unexpected source that first lured Alfie in.

“It’s odd,” he cracks, “when I was young, the first band that I got really into when I was about 7 was Rush. Quite a complex thing to start with, but I just didn’t have any expectations, and I dived right in. I wanted to see what it was like and it blew my mind. There’s so much going on, and watching them play live as well with there only being three of them… how is that even possible? It’s amazing.”

“I kept listening to other progressive rock bands,” Alfie continues, “bands like Yes and King Crimson, and it went from there.

It’s all really colourful. It’s progressive, all these time signatures and intricacies.

There are all these different flavours of music going on, all these influences - it just stood out as really colourful and full of all these different sounds.”

With one EP to his name, and word of mouth spreading, what makes Alfie Templeman all the more exciting is that he could do anything. Still 15 years old, with boundless enthusiasm and the sort of musical talent that’ll have you awe-

DORK

RE AD D O RK. CO M

ALFIE TEMPLEMA ALFIE TEMPLEMA ALFIE TEMPLEMA ALFIE TEMPLEMA ALFIE TEMPLEMA ALFIE TEMPLEMA ALFIE TEMPLEMA ALFIE TEMPLEMA ALFIE TEMPLEMA

“I’M NOT INTERESTED IN ANYTHING ELSE APART FROM MUSIC”

21

struck, his is a name that we’ll be referencing for years to come, as he forms a special new road. There really are no boundaries.

“I feel like… wherever I go, whatever I like or follow or whatever I hear - I feel like that should shape my music,” he confidently lays out.

“What I do might change, everything changes eventually, but really other people making new music is going to influence me to then make different genres. Looking around at other people and their interests, looking around

school and what people are listening to and seeing how I can use that to make music - that really will help shape what I make.”

He already promises his next EP will be “a lot more R&B orientated; there’s more of a funky element to it” while holding on to those cores of indie-pop and hints of jazz. If you didn’t think one of the most exciting creators of 2019 could come from a small village in Bedfordshire, well things are about to get exciting. P

Hype.

Being a pop star is a serious job. You can’t just HATCHIE HATCHIE walk through the door and HATCHIE HATCHIE get started.

You need to HATCHIE HATCHIE have a proper interview HATCHIE HATCHIE first.

This month’s HATCHIE HATCHIEapplicant is Hatchie.

The board will HATCHIE HATCHIE see you now.

HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE What can you tell us about HATCHIE HATCHIE yourself?

HATCHIE HATCHIE I’m Harriette, I’m 25, and I’m HATCHIE currently inHATCHIE Melbourne finishing up my first HATCHIE album.

HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE Why do you want to be a pop HATCHIE HATCHIE star?

HATCHIE I don’t wantHATCHIE to be a pop star! (Well, this seems like a bit of a mix-up HATCHIE HATCHIE then - Ed) HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE How would your bandmates HATCHIE HATCHIE describe you?

HATCHIE Depending HATCHIE on the day - laid back, frantic, sensitive, angry, tired.

HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE

ON THE GRAPEVINE

HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE

In the know

What are your best and worst qualities?

I’m thoughtful, but I overthink.

What is your biggest failure?

I can’t think of one, so I guess I still have that to look forward to!

What accomplishment are you most proud of?

Probably playing some of the lineups we’re on overseas next year. Even just playing shows outside of Australia is something I’ve been working towards for a long time.

Where do you see yourself in five years?

Maybe moving back to Brisbane to settle down after living elsewhere for a year or two.

What is your salary expectation?

I’ll take anything! P Hatchie will tour the UK with The Vaccines from 25th January.

There are always more bands - the biggest question is who do you listen to when it comes to recommendations?

Obviously Dork should be your first port of call, but there are others too.

This month we ask radio presenter and clubnight host, Phil Taggart.

First up are Irish band Inhaler, they have all the flower power swagger that was jauntily shuffling out of Manchester courtesy of The Stone Roses in the late 80s but with an added Dublin City edge.

On Sunday nights on BBC Radio 1, I have a show called The Chillest Show. I’ll spend all week searching out lil sonics to defrazzle your brain and one of my favourites this week has been a song called ‘Jetty’ by Tycho. It’s pretty twee

Jade Bird has announced her debut album, ‘FYI’ Jade Bird has announced her debut album. Posting on Twitter, she revealed that her self-titled full-length will be released on 19th April, with pre-order packages available now.

DORK

BBC Radio 1’s

PHIL TAGGART

HATCHIE

NEW BAND NEWS

22

HATCHIE HATCHIE So youHATCHIE wanna be a pop star?

HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE

Get more as it happens, every day at readdork.com

HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE HATCHIE

D OWN WI T H BO RI N G

electronica that could well have been made for the latest Zelda game. It’s straight up early January music; this will keep your brain between the cosmic hedges.

Speaking of January music, there is only one track that I will be sending back to all of the overeager emails I am getting this early into the shittest month of the year.

That would be ‘Go Fuck Yourself’ taken from TOUTS’ latest EP ‘Analysis Paralysis’. It’s everything you’d imagine it to be, a savage side-eye at the universal ball bag shithousing of that twat at the house party who nobody invited.

Speaking of uninvited twats. I’ve got a Slacker tour this February.

Headlining we will have The Magic Gang and joining them in support will be Derry punks TOUTS. Slacker nights are always an unhinged party, pop along! P The Slacker tour visits Southampton (20th February), Reading (21st) and Margate (22nd).

The Pale White are heading off on tour

Sigrid’s debut album is imminent

The Pale White have announced a new UK tour for February. The Newcastle trio will play loads of shows next spring, kicking off at the Garage in Glasgow on 24th February and winding up in Sheffield on 9th March.

Sigrid has revealed details of her hotly-anticipated debut album, with ‘Sucker Punch’ set to land on 1st March. The record kick-starts a busy few months, as she’s about to support George Ezra on his UK headline arena tour too.

THE NEW ALBUM

OUT JANUARY 25TH

WWW.BLOODREDSHOES.CO.UK

COVER STORY

24

After four exceptional EPs and a truckload of promise, the debut album from The Japanese House is one of the most anticipated records of 2019. As Amber Bain reveals to Jamie Muir, it’s also one of the most open and honest.

Photos: Jennifer McCord.

25

COVER STORY

I

t’s October 2016, and Amber Bain is at the offices of her London based label Dirty Hit. As The Japanese House, she’s just weeks away from the release of her third EP, ‘Swim Against The Tide’ - an evolution of a story that began with a spellbinding opening salvo of releases that left us speculating who The Japanese House even was.

Months after ‘Swim Against The Tide’, ‘Saw You In A Dream’ would land as her fourth extended player - a more open and direct collection of tracks that signalled an artist continuing to build. With critical acclaim, sold-out shows and unforgettable experiences, The Japanese House had arrived, but there was always that landmark on the horizon.

“I still don’t know what my album is going to sound like,” she notes, “I’m sure I’ll get a big kick out of doing it!” With that, she heads off for rehearsals, with the end of 2016 bringing huge arena shows with The 1975 and the promise of

more to come.

T

wo and a bit years later, and Amber is just back from America. A thrilling run of shows across the country to round out 2018, the trip marked her first live dates in over a year.

She arrives back with tales of escape rooms and rock climbing, which filled the gaps between gigs (“If I had it my way I’d do shows every single day”). Her dog, Calvin, is ecstatic to see her, bounding across the room and refusing to leave her side. There’s an unspoken bond between them as Amber shows off Calvin’s latest tricks.

“I’m so glad I have him, even though he stinks right now,” she says later, as he lays at her feet. “I honestly don’t think I would have moved for about three months without him. He’s someone to love, because I didn’t really have anyone to love. I was completely on my own.”

A lot can happen in the space of a year: people change, the world changes. What happens when

your world is turned upside down? It’s a question Amber found herself coming to terms with; a lifechanging twelve months of highs, lows and what happens next.

It’s all fed into an album Amber would never have been able to predict coming; one that strips away the mystery and shines a spotlight on the person behind it. From mental health and drinking, to heartbreak and the breakdown of a relationship, ‘Good At Falling’ is more than just one of the most anticipated debuts of recent years - it’s a raw snapshot that’s both personal and universal, finding solace and hope from a transformative time soundtracked by an artist soaring for the very top.

“You always think that if the worst thing you could ever imagine happening to you happens, then you’ll just die,” explains Amber. “You don’t. A lot worse things can happen to you than a breakup, but it was one of my worst fears because… you’re my person.

“It’s weird because you don’t just die, you move on. Like socially and musically, I’m a different person to who I was a year ago. I wouldn’t recognise myself.

“A lot of life changes have happened while making the album. Had I written the album earlier, it would have been completely different.”

“You always think that if the worst thing you could ever imagine happening to you happens, then you’ll just die”

26

Amber Bain DORK

D OWN WI T H BO RI N G

S

ince the very beginning, Bain has found a home in music. There was picking up the guitar when she was six years old, appearing in school plays and performing at assemblies where she gained that first confidence to really delve into music, writing her first songs when she was eleven at the computer in her bedroom.

Maybe here’s a reason.

One of the many highlights of ‘Good At Falling’, ‘Maybe You’re The Reason’ is sure to be pumping from the Dork office stereo all year. Here, Amber explains the multiple layers to what the track means to her.

In that solitude, she found a voice - one that has reached far and wide since.

It’s taken her out of the leafy “It’s basically talking about an Buckinghamshire hills, into existential crisis, and it’s not a new life chronicled with necessarily purely from my four mesmerising EPs, with head, it’s looking at everyone. each release unravelling a “There’s a line that goes new part of The Japanese ‘I’ve looked within, and I’ve House. Yet, what would read, but instead I keep on come next was always focusing on just how thin I something that could can get’. It’s something that change Amber’s approach I’ve done, but it’s talking to songwriting and music. about how someone can be “Even when I was writing the most well-versed person the EPs and throughout productive environment in literature and history or touring those, I still knew I working every single day and ‘woke’ or whatever, but at was doing this album, so I making “100 different versions the end of the day they’ll still had half my brain on that,” of the same thing, just going just scroll down Instagram she says. “It was constantly a bit mad and not feeling very hating themselves. It’s a in the back of my mind, no inspired.” weird juxtaposition that exists matter what I was doing, I’d Flicking through some of within a lot of people that I just think, ‘Ahh, I’ve got to her favourite albums, one know, and respect - the most do an album!’” name kept popping up intelligent people in the world, When the time came producer BJ Burton, who’s can be crushed by hating to wind down the touring worked with the likes of Bon themselves. around the last EP, that Iver, James Blake and Francis “It’s almost like this social thought came front and And The Lights. Amber world we’ve created on centre. reached out. the internet is designed to “We’d been touring for “It turned out that he had make you question and hate ages and then suddenly just asked his manager to get yourself and sometimes hate it was like, okay now the in contact with me because the other people. And that’s so album. So the touring band he was working on at the unhealthy, it’s just this weird stopped, and that felt…” time had shown him my stuff. world that I don’t understand.

Amber pauses. “It did feel It was this weird coincidence.

“The song also talks about like I’d stopped moving for a When we were chatting, he just not understanding the bit. That’s quite an intense was like, ‘Oh no, I asked to point of existence, which I feeling anyway, especially get in contact with you’, and I think anyone could fit and when you’ve been on tour was like, ‘No, I asked to get in relate to. The chorus, I wanted for basically two years, contact with you’.” to turn it into the weirdest going to then focus on one It fell together perfectly, and love song ever. This idea thing. after flying out to Wisconsin to that I don’t understand why I “I did feel pressure from test things out, it was clear that exist, but at least I have you myself mainly, but at the this was where The Japanese so maybe you’re the reason I same time, I was free to take House would form her debut exist? as long as I wanted which is album - in Bon Iver’s studio, “At the time it was quite a kinda why I was pressuring no less. specific person that song was myself. If I’m free to take as “Honestly I think I would about, my girlfriend at the long as I want, it’d take ten have dropped dead as a time Marika and now for me, years!”

16-year-old had you told me I it’s also a broad ting. Maybe With pieces of songs would be in Bon Iver’s studio,” people and our relationships. continually being worked she cracks. That excitement And that is the reason; maybe on, Amber set about getting still brimming from the time there isn’t a specific reason started with some solo spent there and how her as to why we exist but there time in the studio towards journey had brought her to is a reason we should exist the end of summer 2017, that very space. “I would have and don’t end it all, and that’s almost a throwback to those dropped dead! There were our connections with other initial days of carving out loads of moments where I was people.” the emotional songs and kinda in some sort of dream sounds in her childhood world.” bedroom.

Nestled in the woods with no phone signal, it With long-standing collaborator George Daniel found Amber focussed on music, away from the of The 1975 occupied with his own band’s next world and perfect for her terrible attention span bold step, Amber found the solitude a less than - “The only way I’m going to focus on something

DORK

RE AD D O RK. CO M

is if you put me in the middle of nowhere where I can’t leave,” she laughs - and with only BJ for company.

“There were so many moments where it was like, this is what my album is going to sound like,” she recalls. “I’ve never really worked like that before, well not for that amount of time.

Also, I reflected so much on myself in that period because it was just me and BJ, so I had this free time too. I had some anger issues and would freak out quite a lot, and I remember I was like, I’m going to change that about myself! I meditated every day, and I did yoga every day, and I worked out every day. I had the cleanest diet of all time.

“It’s very easy to not think about the rest of your life when you’re there,” Amber admits, gazing out of the window as if to transport her right back to that moment. “I think in a lot of ways I did do that. Sort of deflected…”

Spending large amounts of time writing lyrics, Amber realised that what was coming out was undeniably personal - a close-to-home expression that before may have been clouded in metaphor and description, was now laid out in black and white.

“I didn’t purposefully do that,” she notes. “I just started writing, and it would come out like that.

There were moments where I was like, I don’t know if I should use this, and then I kinda just let go of that.”

It was the first step in delving into what was going on in her own life, and what was to come.

A

mber Bain and Marika Hackman are embracing in front of a burning car.

One of the first shots you see in the video for ‘Lilo’ - an ode to that feeling of falling deeply in love - it’s not often that an artist shares a screen with the person who inspired the very song they’re filming for.

Honesty is a defining trait of The Japanese House and ‘Good At Falling’. Caught at a moment where reflection was at the forefront of Amber Bain’s mind, life as she knew it began to unravel.

A relationship that had been there for the whole of Amber’s adult life was starting to crack.

“My relationship ended, I got a dog, started living alone. All sorts of family stuff happened, and I sort of...” Amber takes a moment. “It

27

COVER STORY

“I was a wreck in the studio, being looked after

by The 1975 mothering me” Amber Bain

28

suddenly, after a couple of months, it all fell on me. I was completely crushed and didn’t know what to do with myself and was really struggling mentally and quite severely depressed and manic, it was just horrible.”

It was out in Wisconsin that the feeling of something not being right began. “I knew that it was over at that time, I don’t know if she did,” Amber admits.

The closed and distraction-free environment that she found herself in fed into those frank and open lyrics poured across ‘Good At Falling’ in a manner not seen before, a therapeutic outlet for what was going on and that constant questioning of what was happening.

“Before, I didn’t feel as comfortable talking about certain things or didn’t have the tools to talk about those things. I think, yeah, on the earlier songs, I didn’t want anyone else to know what was going on in my life. There was a form of

expression in metaphor that helped me release certain things without being completely open.”

Returning from Wisconsin at Christmas with a vast array of lyrics and songs together, Amber reunited with BJ Burton in Brussels on New Year’s Day, with that uncertainty of the unknown growing more vivid in her mind, and her personal life blurred on what was going to happen.

After a few weeks spent focused on the final elements that would make up ‘Good At Falling’, Amber returned home before heading out to Oxford to work on the final vocal parts, reunited with George Daniel and The 1975. It was then that her uncertainty reached a definitive end.

“Going out to Oxford to finish up the album with George, that was simultaneous to when we broke up,” Amber details, “so I was a wreck in the studio, being looked after by The 1975 mothering me. I had four boys to baby me for a few weeks, and I’m so grateful they were there at that time. I was not in a good state.”

When things fell apart, Amber was suddenly adrift, tackling a range of issues that had been steadily building for a while.

“After being in a relationship and living with someone for three years, it’s a big shock” lays out Amber. “I was not doing well with drinking and stuff.

I’ve always been a heavy drinker without realising it because our culture is just so normalised to drinking heavily. Especially with my job, it’s very normal to drink every day. I took a step back from that.

“Another thing which was fucking me up was that I broke out badly. I’ve always had bad acne.” Amber pauses. “Which is quite a weird thing to talk about in a music interview, but it’s a huge thing for me having terrible skin growing up and then when I was depressed my skin just got terrible.”

Spending months in bed, only rising to take Calvin out for his walk three times a day, Amber knew something had to change.

“There was a moment where I was like, okay, my

DORK

D OWN WI T H BO RI N G

whole life has completely turned upside down, but now I’m going to deal with it rather than laying in bed.”

Amber cut drinking out completely, and “after a couple of months of not drinking I suddenly realised - oh, I’m going to change myself and start learning to not hate myself.”

“Learning to love yourself is harder than learning to not hate yourself,” explains Amber, digging into an important few months that have truly changed her life. “It’s two very different things, and I’m trying to do the latter, but I’ve learned to not despise myself, and that’s a big step.”

T

here’s an openness to even the darkest of moments Amber has experienced over the past year. When such a crucial foundation falls away and a succession of challenges raise their heads, it can be daunting, but it’s laid out for all to see across ‘Good At Falling’.

Moving from devastating heartbreak, loss and anxiety to almost joyous and swooning snapshots of love in full flight, the album is a breathtaking confirmation of the importance of The Japanese House. Brought together through the prism of everything Amber was going through, it’s nothing short of stunning and revels in its unmistakable sincerity.

“It’s weird,” admits Amber, acknowledging how some songs and lyrics were almost prophetic, coming together during time spent in Wisconsin before actual real-world events caught up.

“A lot of lyrics and stuff I was finishing in Oxford - like the last filter for the album was me at that moment, and it made a huge difference.

There are loads of songs I was finishing as I became single, and I can hear it in ‘Lilo’ - the decision to keep everything so direct was aided by my sudden realisation that I was on my own. I didn’t have anyone to hide things from, which is depressing.”

With ‘Good At Falling’, there’s a bold confidence not just lyrically but musically, an amplified range of influences and styles. There’s the string-led emotion on the re-worked ‘I saw you in a dream’, the almost hip-hop styled ‘Wild’, and the rolling grooves of ‘Follow My Girl’. Warm Tom Petty sunshine envelops ‘You Seemed So Happy’, contrasting the heavy engulfing darkness of ‘Everybody Hates Me’ and the orchestrated aura of ‘Marika Is Sleeping’ - a song which came to Amber while she slept one night and cuts devastatingly to the bone.

It’s a record full of different bows, each revealing something different as a rich guide to an artist tapped into what they want to say and do. There’s a light that shines throughout, reaching for the future with the boppingfreedom of ‘Worms’, and the long-distance heartache of wanting to be near the one you love on ‘f a r a w a y’. The sheer scope of emotions and moments in time perfectly wrap together romance in the smiles and tears it all too often signifies. By allowing those direct emotions to lead, she’s created one of the most exciting debut albums of recent years.

“I’ve become a lot more open and frank and honest about my opinions and feelings because it’s just easier,” explains Amber. “Because I’ve written these songs, I’m now much more open in conversation about all those topics because I’ve written quite a direct song about it.”

Take ‘We Talk All The Time’, a track built on galloping beats and swirling electronic flourishes, that goes straight to the core with lines like: ‘We don’t fuck anymore, but we talk all the time, so it’s fine / somebody tell me what I want because I keep changing my mind’.

“I talk quite directly about the lack of sex in a

COVER STORY

relationship or drinking problems or depression.

It’s a huge relief when you finally let go, because I realised that I have zero desire for privacy.

There’s no point in me trying to be private about certain stuff because I’m spelling it out in songs.

“Anyone who’s listening to my music knows that I am a gay person who’s recently split up with someone and has struggled with drinking and all these things, I’m very open; it’s freeing.”

It’s a fearless quality; one Amber has found empowering, bolstered by an age where being open about previously tucked-away subjects is at the forefront of people’s minds.

“There’s politeness in privacy,” she reflects. “You don’t want to make anyone else feel uncomfortable, so you step back and go, ‘Oh okay, I won’t be that person, I’ll just skirt around things’. I stopped giving a shit about that kind of thing.

“When other people are being frank and open, it makes me feel more relaxed. In the last few years there’s been such a rise and push for people to be more open and talk about these things. Talking about things like mental health, being gay, drinking, or wanting to kill yourself - it’s important, and it’s important to talk about that in music.”

It all comes together on a debut that ignores expectations, the sort of deeply personal record that resonates far wider than its original scope. The best of albums provoke thought and reflection. ‘Good At Falling’ captures that perfectly - like a collection of polaroids laid out one after the other.

Thinking back to those first EPs and now with an album set and ready for the world to hear, Amber can see the path that’s brought her to this moment.

“Growing older you become more confident, and that’s what it is,” she notes. “I’m far more confident in terms of being open of course, and also musically with my abilities in production and writing. Just a far more confident person than I was when I was writing ‘Swim Against The Tide’, for example. There’s still a fragility and vulnerability in the lyrics, but it’s just not as much naivety I think, and that’s just a reflection of me and who I am.”

T

hat next chapter of presenting ‘Good At Falling’ to the world has been a welcome one.

“I’m not good at having moments,” Amber details. “I hate days off on tour,” she laughs. “I hate them. I hate sitting in a hotel or just not doing anything. I don’t want a break or time to reflect, or I’ll be rock climbing or making teacups.

Doing freaky stuff!”

Being back on the road has been an enriching time for Amber. With an album mixed and set, and coming after months of life-altering crossroads, it’s been a time where she’s discovered her ambition. “When I started touring I struggled with it. I think because I was fighting against this…” she pauses. “I wanted in my head to have this idea that I was this introverted, modest character who didn’t like the showing off part of being on stage. Whenever I was talking to fans and touring I would have this conflict of, ‘but this isn’t me’.

“I started accepting that I am extroverted and have a desire to show off, and I want to be loved

by a crowd of people. Before I’d want to stand on stage and hide. If you look at the first shows I did where I was cowering in the corner, if I’d had my way I’d have been put behind a curtain in the corner.

“Now I’m just like nope, I just want to connect with audiences and talk to them all afterwards and be that person and as soon as I admitted

“If I’d had my way, I’d have been put behind a curtain in the corner” Amber Bain DORK

RE AD D O RK. CO M

that, touring became so much easier. Honestly, I love it.”

“Like,” continues Amber, Calvin raising his head on the floor below, “you know that Bohemian Rhapsody film? There’s a moment where he’s talking about the in-between moments, and I was like I completely get that!

I’m sure everyone relates to Freddie Mercury - or wants to relate to Freddie Mercury but I genuinely do relate to that!”

Amber begins to crack with laughter. “I’m basically Freddie Mercury,” she erupts. “In fact, when I came out of that film I had a bit of a crisis because I was like, I don’t dance like that or perform like that… does that mean I’m a bad performer?

Is that what is meant to be special?

Maybe I’m not special? And then I think I even said aloud; I’m my own kind of Freddie Mercury!”

The laughs ring out once again.

“But I want the same kind of things,” Amber picks up. “I want to engage that much, and I want to be loved as much, and I’m not afraid of admitting that I have goals now. Before I’d be like, ‘no, I have no goals’. No, I want to be successful, and I want to keep doing this.”

The idea that everything happens for a reason couldn’t be bigger than with The Japanese House following a year that shook up the world she knew. Now on the other side, ‘Good At Falling’ stands as the moment where she firmly takes her place, with an instant classic that pushes the boundaries for her peers.

“It’s important to look back and imagine how you would react to things that are happening to you now,” chats Amber. “It’s important to remind yourself that okay, you’re doing this now and had you known this before you started making music or right at the beginning you would have lost your shit. This would be like you’ve made it. I remember being like, oh my god if I ever supported anyone at Scala or KOKO - that’s all I want!

And now after that, I want the next thing.”

Calvin continues to jump around.

He’ll be with Amber when she heads to the studio in January, meeting up with BJ in Oxford to work away at new material (“I’m procrastinating from my rest by doing another album immediately afterwards,” she cracks).

“I want it to sound fucking insane, like nothing else that has ever existed. That’s usually my goal,” details Amber. “The main difference is going to be musically, there’s going to be more flashes of like the initial stuff like the first EP, but then it’s going to be a lot more mature than that.”

“I’m probably the worst judge as to what it’s starting to sound like, but I think it sounds weird.

There are bits that are more classic sounding…” she trails off.

“To be honest, I have no idea what it sounds like. It sounds like me, to me.”

There’s no rest now, as Amber and Calvin head off into the chilly day. Later, she’ll be over at Marika’s for dinner - still good mates after sharing such a huge part of their lives. Then after returning to the studio, her moment well and truly begins.

Sometimes life needs to let you fall in order to fly, and Amber Bain is well and truly taking off.

P The Japanese House’s debut album ‘Good At Falling’ is out 1st March.

31

YAK

Oli Burslem pulled himself back from the brink to create Yak’s second album ‘Pursuit of Momentary Happiness’.

“There’ll always be chaos,” he explains.

Words: Martyn Young.

Y

ak thrive on chaos and disruption.

Ever since they emerged with their 2016 debut ‘Alas Salvation’, Oli Burslem and co. have made a career of living on the edge.

As they came to make their second album though, the band threatened to spiral out of control.

Remarkably they channelled their upheaval into one all-or-nothing document of two years of calamity and have ended up with an album that is pure Yak in sound, spirit and attitude.

“We probably did lose control,” admits a reflective Oli as he looks back on the creation of ‘The Pursuit Of Momentary Happiness’. Despite everything that was going on, it gave the frontman a feeling of clarity as he had no option but to just write songs. “It’s quite honest and open. It came to a point where I was like, fuck it. Just say it how it is.”

In many ways, it’s a miracle that Yak are still here. The story of the album’s genesis is one of confusion, mishap and flying by the seat of their pants. It was recorded and written in fits and starts across the world as Oli flitted from idea to idea ultimately ending up back here, homeless,

33

YAK

broke and in need of salvation.

That divine inspiration arrived in the form of a chance meeting with Spiritualized’s legendary leader Jason Pierce who became something of a guiding light for

the album. From there, Yak could finally see a way forward.

Perhaps the catalyst for the band’s flux was the departure of Oli’s childhood friend and bassist Andy Jones, who decided to move to Melbourne, Australia after the first album.

“After we finished the first record I went off to Japan and then went to Australia and did some recording there,” says Oli. “We were just trying to keep everything together. By

DORK

the time I got back to the UK, I was completely broke. I was like, oh shit. I had no house, two bags and a £205 car.”

A trip to Perth to record at Jay Watson of Tame Impala’s studio crystallised in Oli’s mind that things weren’t quite right for the band. Despite being in the throes of despair back home, at least he had a vision.

“We went there for ten days to bash out some three-piece rock’n’roll stuff,” explains Oli. “We did do that, but it dawned on me that I didn’t want to make a record like that. There are lots of intricate little pieces in recording that I wanted to involve. Maybe the first record was louder or heavier sonically, but I wanted to test myself a bit more and make

D OWN WI T H BO RI N G

it sound quieter in a way that was more courageous and heavier than just banging out rock songs.”

Oli put every ounce of effort he had into creating this record.

“When we were doing it I wasn’t living at a fixed abode and couldn’t see any future,” he confesses. Did he ever wonder whether it was worth it?

“It’s hard to say because it wasn’t a choice; it just had to happen,” he answers firmly. “I thought maybe I should do something else, but then you realise I can’t do anything else.

I’ve been doing this since I was 12.

All my eggs are in the one basket.”

If Yak were entirely comfortable and living a life of luxury, it’s hard to fathom how they would have made an album as compelling as this one. Filled with a primal

“I WASN’T LIVING AT A FIXED ABODE AND COULDN’T SEE ANY FUTURE”

intensity and a live-by-the-sword attitude, it’s the sound of a band forcing themselves to the next level.

“It helped the situation in the way that there was one goal,” says Oli. “Because my whole existence was around this one thing. My whole ridiculous existence was 45 minutes of music.”

Despite talking about two years of trauma, the frontman shrugs it off with customary insouciance.

Chaos is all he’s ever known really: “It is what it is.”

The death or glory attitude you can hear on the album is something Oli puts down to their famed live shows.

“When we play live a lot of it is just questioning yourself, is this good or not?” begins the singer. “It

gets to a point when we’re like, well, we’re here now, so you’ve just got to give it your all.

“There are many times live when we’ll smash something up and go, fuck this, this is a pain in the arse. It’s a great gig, but I have that feeling to smash it up, and you’re like, well, that’s it done, let’s move on. Give it a month when you get the engineer trying to glue the guitar back together you feel different. That’s just the way it is, I suppose.”

Despite all the hardships Oli and the band experienced during the making of the album, there’s no sense of pity from the singer or a feeling that it was a depressing period.

“I was pretty out of it for most of it, so it wasn’t all doom and gloom.

DORK

I was raving and partying and not thinking too much about it. If I were thinking too much about it, I probably would have just stopped, but I was in the moment.”

The Citroen estate car that was the measure of Oli’s existence for a period provides a helpful metaphor for the frontman’s entire ethos.

“I drive my car, but I always seem to drive with the fuel light on,” he laughs. “It doesn’t feel like I’m motoring unless the fuel gauge is on, and I think it’s the same with the band.”

He needs some sort of adversity and constant challenge to stimulate himself.

“I could help myself, but I’ve always been like that,” he admits.

“Especially when someone says you can’t do something. That spurs me on. I have ideas like I want to record it myself, I want to go to New York. People said, but you’ve got no money, so I borrowed some money, and I’m in New York with my backpack going, fuck!

“After putting so much into it, I can now sit back and say, whatever people think, I definitely couldn’t have done any more.”

As the band slowly pieced things back together and got a foothold on the album, they needed one final piece of inspiration to take it to the next level. They found that with Jason Pierce.

“I was in a pub during the period when it was a bit all over the shop, and we booked two days to demo songs in the studio,” begins Oli. “J Spaceman came in and was like; I’ll pop down. On the second day, he came in and was in the control room and said, y’know, they’re great.

“I was a bit in disbelief, so that was a turning point. I’m a big fan of Spiritualized and Spacemen 3, so it was nice to talk to someone who’s been through the same process.

When you realise you’re not on your own.”

Oli made a strong connection with the enigmatic Spacemen 3 and Spiritualized leader that you can hear throughout the album and its bruised tenderness.

“When you speak with these people about how they made these great records it’s not about chord sequences, it’s the feelings and belief that go with it,” explains Oli. “If you’re going to do something as RE AD D O RK. CO M

regressive as play rock music you should put as much heart into it as possible.”

The album’s epic closing track, ‘This House Has No Living Room’ is perhaps Yak’s finest moment yet and the culmination of their time with Jason Pierce, helped as well by esteemed Italian producer Marta Salogni.

“I wrote that quite a while ago, but we hadn’t figured out how to do it,” says Oli. “We did it with some keys, playing the guitar and done loads of versions that didn’t quite work. When we were in RAK Studios, we had a bit of spare time.

Marta [Salogni] who produced it had a drum machine so we went in and got the organ and I just mapped it out in my head. I wanted salvation brass on it, and I wanted Jason to sing on it. One of my best friends’ dad passed away on the same day we did that song, and maybe it added a bit more heart to it.

“It’s really hard to write about a subject that says ‘what is this all about?’, so I was most proud of that one. It’s about mortality and your whole existence. So much went into that song. It all clicked into place.”

Looking back on an album that at one point they couldn’t foresee making, Oli and the band are left with a feeling of baffled pride. What just happened and how did we get here?

“All you can hope for is for something special to happen when you record it,” says Oli. When you finish it, you want to surprise yourself and sit back and think, how the fuck did we do that? It’s an honest document of those two years. There’s a lot of dark humour in it; for those two years, I was pretty off my head. All those songs are linked to a specific time but could be about anything, so it’s become a complete mystery to me. I just hope that people get something out of it.”

For now, Yak are newly signed to Virgin Records and have a firm line up with the addition of new bassist Vinny Davies. As ever though, you never know what’s going to happen.

They definitely aren’t settling for a quiet life.

“There’ll always be chaos,” admits Oli. “We tried not to have any on the last tour, but it ended in debauched fucking nonsense. As much as we try not to do that it can unravel pretty quickly.”

The two years that comprised the making of ‘The Pursuit Of Momentary Happiness’ were the weirdest and most challenging of the band’s career, yet Yak have emerged from the other side stronger than ever.

“The attitude is still the same.

There’s still an intensity. I like the idea of chaos and being up against it.” P Yak’s album ‘The Pursuit Of Momentary Happiness’ is out 8th February.

35

WHITE LIES

White Lies have battled their share of industry bullshit to reach what they describe as a mile stone record - fifth album, ‘Five’.

Words: Josh Williams.

36

ALIVE

DORK

D OWN WI T H BO RI N G

I

ndie almost-veterans White Lies have returned with their fifth album appropriately titled ‘Five’, and in a North London pub, Harry McVeigh and Charles Cave are in unanimous agreement that the last track on the album, the epic ‘Fire & Wings’, is their favourite from the album.

“It’s a good achievement for us, that song. It’s a departure a little bit from stuff we’ve done before, and it’s kind of got a great complexity and depth to it and atmosphere to it,” Harry explains.

“It’s a track I’ve gone back to a lot since we recorded it and I’ve enjoyed it much more than I thought I would.”

Charles, unsurprisingly, agrees: “When we were working on it in a demo stage, I was a bit wary of it. It’s one of those songs that requires to be executed properly and quite professionally. It’s not a song that sounds very good as a demo cos I think when you’re recording or writing a song with really distorted heavy guitars, you need really good distorted guitars otherwise everything just starts sounding like shit!

“When we were listening back to the demo I was like, is this tasteless? But we managed with

the help of our trusted engineer and obviously Alan Moulder as well to make it sound amazing.

I can’t think of any better mixer in the world to mix that specific song, but then again I don’t think anyone could do a better job than him so luckily we had him on board!”

After 2016’s ‘Friends’, the group found themselves without a label.

“I guess there was a little bit of pressure, we self-funded it so after we recorded the record we were thinking, ‘Oh fuck, are we actually going to get a record deal?’” Harry explains.

“It was all a bit weird,” Charles believes. “We didn’t get too involved with it, we kind of didn’t get dropped in a way. BMG were like, ‘We have to drop you cos the German investors that own our company say we have to drop acts that don’t break even, but then we wanna re-sign you!’ We were like, ‘Well how does that work?’ But we just didn’t pursue it. We knew it would take too long to sort it out, so we just went elsewhere.”

However, while the group weren’t worried, they felt lucky they “were able to find another label who are great, PIAS.” Seven-minute epic ‘Time To Give’ was the first taster from the record, and Charles insists: “It was

DORK

never intended to be that long! We wrote a four-minute version of it, the demo that we made, which had that chromatic kind of passage in the middle, and again at the end.

But when we went to work on it with [producer] Ed Buller, he was like, ‘I really like this section but what you could do is you could keep changing key. Basically, you could keep going up then after four or three repeats you then go back. You’re back where you began, but it doesn’t sound like that because people’s brains don’t remember where you started’.

“The way it started was we got our little four-part sequence for the outro, and we just copied it like eight times or whatever.

The idea was we just fade out on this cool outro, and then when we started recording it we hadn’t programmed a fade out at all, and we were all recording and playing, and playing, and playing.

“Jack just kept playing like, ‘I’ll just play to the end whatever’, and then at one point I said, ‘Y’know we should really figure out how this song is gonna end because at the moment we don’t have an ending’, and Harry was like, ‘Let’s just do the whole thing! Just leave the whole thing’. We really never ever planned it.”

“One of the last things we did in

RE AD D O RK. CO M

the studio was record the vocals on the outro,” Harry advises, to which Charles admits: “I was writing the lyrics for that outro at like 10pm on our last night, it was the last thing we wrote and the last thing we finished.”

Harry explains: “Live that song is gonna be a challenge! We actually played it the other day on Dutch radio and even doing it that way was quite difficult. God knows how long it’s gonna take us to learn!” As Charles continues “I’d like to open the set with it when we start touring just so it’s out of the way. It’d actually be a very good opener, but also we could all just relax after we play it. Like, if that goes well, then the rest is gonna be a breeze. I don’t want to save that for the encore, like the whole I’m just gonna be like, ‘Fuck! Gotta fucking play that! Gonna fuck it up.”

Charles believes the song is “a great achievement and the fact that, yes albeit in Holland, it’s been playlisted on their national radio in the way that a Dua Lipa song is playlisted here just speaks volumes about it.”

“Without an edit as well” Harry interjects.

“Yeah! Bands and artists that are working with any kind of manager or label are told if you

37

WHITE LIES

38

are intending to make popular music, you’re best off writing a three-and-a-half-minute song to release as a single, and it really ought to have a chorus before the first minute, and all these kind of things. It should do this, should do that. It reinforces that that is actually a crock of shit, at least in the Netherlands!

“I really do think a band that has these kinds of things in their career at any point, you do you absorb that fact. You absorb that kind of encouragement, and it means that next time you come to write a record, you push yourself a bit more and you feel freer to do different things.

“Like, if the formula did work, and you wrote a three-and-a-halfminute song that was a massive smash, I just think it would be a pretty sad place to be because then the next time you come to write a record you would go, ‘Oh we know it works, shit I guess we just have to do that’. Whereas when Harry and I go to write the next record, we’ll sit down and be like, will anything we write end up playlisted on Dutch daytime radio? What more could you ask for?”

The record sounds more like classic White Lies compared to the previous record, and the group returned to working with producer Ed Buller who in Harry and Charles’ own words was “under house arrest.”

“He couldn’t leave the country cos he was applying for a green card, so we went over to LA and spent a couple of weeks with him,” Harry explains. “We always wanna work with Ed, we know what he can deliver for us because he, more than anyone else, understands what our music is about. We get along quite well, and it’s probably fair to say most bands would struggle a bit with that cos he’s quite an eccentric character. He can be quite difficult to work with I suppose, as can we I imagine.

“Basically, we contacted him and said do you wanna work with us for a few weeks on the songs?

Not actually on recording or

any sort of production, but just literally songwriting in a room and arrangement and figuring out just how to get another ten or twenty percent out of the pieces of music that we’d written.”

“It’s weird this album has just been very effortlessly attracted people to wanna work on it which is an alarmingly good sign,” Charles explains. “Alan [Moulder] was very keen to work on it, we

DORK

have a great history with him.

When I emailed and said we’d like to maybe work together on this record, I sent him the demos, and he basically replied like, ‘It sounds like you’re making your best album yet let’s do it’, and then was very very accommodating in figuring out how we could make it work.

“The whole process of making this album was so encouraging, and everyone that was involved really wanted to be involved. We didn’t feel like anyone that was involved was just there like cos it was just a job. People were going out of their way to be involved in it and compromising.

“Given that we were selffunding it, things like that only happen if the music’s good so we have to remain very encouraged that our fans will have a similar reaction.”

2019 doesn’t only see the release of ‘Five’ but is also the tenth anniversary of the group’s debut album ‘To Lose My Life…’, will they be celebrating it at all?

“It would be madness not to do at least a few shows in celebration

D OWN WI T H BO RI N G

of that album,” says Charles. “We are like very aware and totally supportive of the fact it’s still a lot of our fans favourite record and represents a very special time. It’s the kind of record I can imagine does have quite a strong effect because it’s very teenage and quite dramatic and emotional and cinematic sounding album.

“It’s a very potent album. I’m not saying that’s not necessarily a good thing, but I can see why it’s stuck with a lot of people. Our fans would love us to do something to celebrate it, whatever we choose it won’t be that much but if we can play a bunch of shows in the cities that have always been good to us around Europe for example and maybe we’ll get to Mexico or the States as well that would be wonderful! If we could do that, that would be great. We’ll try, we’ll just have to see what happens.”

Charles does admit, however, that he’s not listened to ‘To Lose My Life…’ in quite a while.

“We were in Australia, and clearly someone working at the restaurant had recognised us and just put the first album on. While

“TO BECOME AN ARENA BAND, YOU HAVE TO BELIEVE YOUR OWN SHIT SO MUCH” - CHARLES CAVE we were eating dinner from start to finish and we were sort of like ‘Ah fair enough nice to hear it!’”

“We all love that record,” Harry is keen to point out. “I love all of our records in a way, they all mark a moment in time. With the first album being ten years old, I suppose we’ve thought a lot about what mindset we were in when we were recording that and how we felt when we were making it.

“It’s nice to think back on all of that cos we were still so young and naive and with Ed Buller looking after us, steering through all of that. It was a good time for us, everything fell into place, and we’re all very grateful for that record cos it’s given us everything.

It’s the reason that we’re here now.”

Of course in those ten years, the group have picked up a lot of fans with some moments sticking out more than others. Harry thinks the weirdest thing a fan can do is get his autograph tattooed.

“I’ve signed people’s arms before, and they’ve got it tattooed onto them afterwards. It’s so weird!”

But Charles disagrees: “I don’t find it as weird when people are trying to invite you to their wedding and stuff.”

Harry continues on this tangent though, saying: “My autograph is incredibly hideous. I don’t know why anyone would get that tattooed on them, and the most annoying thing is whenever anyone gets that done they’re like, ‘Can you sign my arms?’

DORK

and you’re like, ‘Yeah, sure’, and I’ll just scribble something on… but then it looks like shit cos y’know it’s quite hard to sign on human skin! Then the next time you see them, they’re like ‘I got it tattooed!’”

Charles believes the band have a “very good relationship with our fans,” and continues: “It’s very flattering, but we don’t have much of an ego. We don’t believe our own shit, we would far sooner pick holes in our work than we would like bang on about how great it is.

“I think to really enjoy that kind of intense fandom, you need to love yourself, and you need to really love your shit, whatever you’re peddling. For us, we’re so English about it. We’re so selfdeprecating and pessimistic in some ways. I certainly find it very uncomfortable when people are intense after shows, cos I know what that feels like, but I just don’t understand how you can think that about our music!

“I would get worried if myself or any of us were starting to be like, ‘Yeah I’m really hot shit’ or ‘Everything I do is amazing, RE AD D O RK. CO M

people should worship it’. Maybe that’s why we’re not a stadiumlevel band.

“When it boils down to it, I do believe that we write good songs, songs that are better than a lot of songs cos we work very hard on it, and I do think they’re fantastic, but to become an arena band, you have to believe your own shit so much.

“Even the thought of tweeting some of our lyrics fills me with cringing sensations and it probably shouldn’t! It just does. Maybe that’s the reason we are where we are, which is in a wonderful position where we’re able to kind of tour around Europe, relatively anonymous in our day to day life like walking out and about, but play to 2000 people every night - it’s fucking wonderful!

“If it was a choice between that or playing arenas but having to be a bit of a dick, and suck yourself off the whole time, I think I would pick where we’re at right now.”

“There are a lot of arena bands that don’t do that,” Harry is keen to stress.

“Like who?”

“Arctic Monkeys?”

“Alex Turner definitely enjoys himself!” Charles roars.

Harry disagrees though: “They take the piss out of themselves all the time! They’re very selfdeprecating, I’d say they’re very English about it.”

Some fans do stick out more than others though, as Charles explains: “There are some diehard fans that are die-hard in the nicest possible way. There’s this Polish guy, he comes to all of our Polish shows with his entire family. He speaks about the same amount of English as I speak Polish, which is very, very little, but he’s always on the barrier at the front of the shows and with his two daughters and wife, and he knows every single lyric! Like phonetically clearly, and as far as I can tell watching him, he’s fluent in English. He just loves it, he just obviously loves White Lies, and he’s probably forced his family to love White Lies, which is great!

“He turned up to a festival we did in Austria. He was just there.

He’d just driven down, and it’s wonderful that, for me. That is the most incredible level of dedication and fandom where someone that doesn’t speak English has learned and listened to your music so much they know all of your lyrics and dragged their family around Europe to come and watch you play.

“After a show, he just wants to shake your hand, pat you on the back and maybe have a photo.

It’s just wonderful, that’s as good as it gets for me and makes it all worthwhile.” P White Lies’ album ‘Five’ is out 1st February.

39

FIDLAR

There’s never a boring day in camp FIDLAR. Frontman Zac Carper and guitarist Elvis Kuehn spill the beans on the punk band’s freewheeling third record, ‘Almost Free’.

Words: Jamie MacMillan.

ROCK AND ROLL MUSIC RIGHT NOW IS

FUCKING BORING” “THE STATE OF

“T

he state of rock and roll music right now is fucking boring.” Zac Carper, frontman to LA-based punk band FIDLAR isn’t messing around. “In hip-hop, in R&B, these people are making music for the future, they’re not looking back. But modern rock has been looking back its entire existence!”

Attempting to tear that up, their third album ‘Almost Free’ is untethered and unbothered by any traditional rock cliches. Working with super-producer Ricky Reed, it is a riot of sound and influences, a finely balanced mix of garage punk riffs and hip-hop beats, and it launches FIDLAR into a whole new period.

The intervening period between 2015’s ‘Too’ and today hasn’t exactly been a quiet or peaceful one for the world, and the aftermath of those tumultuous times are ever-present in the new record. “There is so much craziness going on in our lives; the world is in chaos.

Every time we went to Europe, there was a fucking terror attack in the same country!

You end up like, wow, this shit is happening everywhere,” explains Zac. With mass shootings in their homeland (“It’s almost hard not to get desensitised to it, otherwise how do you get through the day when it happens all time?” asks guitarist Elvis Kuehn), the increase in nationalism and just Donald Trump in general, staying positive dayto-day has become a slog at times.

Travelling the world, the band noticed a pattern beginning to form. The worse it got, the more people withdrew and disconnected from reality, finding comfort in the warm embrace of their phones. That observation informs much of ‘Almost Free’.

“It feels like the internet, and this information age, has caused something,” ruminates Elvis. “It just grows the fear and paranoia about people who are different; it keeps people in their bubbles. You just keep yourself there, see what you wanna see and read only the stuff you wanna read.”

Zac puts it more simply, explaining the album title at the same time. “We’re free, but we’re not free!”

Further compounding Zac’s mood, a relationship break-up caused him to start drinking for the first time in several years, an occasion that led directly to the riotous ‘By Myself’.

“All they had in the studio was fancy cider,

I couldn’t even have a beer!” he laughs, the distance allowing him to find the funny side of his relapse now.

Forget what you think you know about FIDLAR, ‘Almost Free’ shows an adventurous side to the band throughout. Album opener ‘Get Off My Rock’ kicks the doors down with a bass Beastie Boys-style beat, a clear homage to a group that are still a huge influence on them - as well as sharing a reputation in their early days for being a care-free party band.

Like them, there is an ease now to their shifting of style and genre, a reluctance to get pinned into one box. Adventurous, yet still stripped back to the bare essentials - as Elvis puts it, “You don’t wanna make something that’s too different, going all over the place to the point where it’s not cohesive, y’know?”

Reed was integral. Zac explains: “He comes from the pop world, but he is one of the most punk rock dudes we’ve met. We take a rock song, and then it’s like, okay, how do we make this different to grow?”

Inspiration was found in the unlikeliest of places. “Before ‘Flake’, I was listening to Gary Glitter. It evolved from there.” Just audible across a transatlantic phone line is the sound of Zac facepalming desperately at this point, “Hey, I can separate art from artists!”

“GODDAMMIT ELVIS!” shouts Zac, before they both fall into fits of laughter.

Zac explains their collaboration with K. Flay for one of the album highlights ‘Called You Twice’. “I had just broken up with my girlfriend, K called and said, perfect timing!

We ended up going to a bar next door, got really drunk and came back to the studio and just made it there and then.”

With the two equally excited about ‘Can’t You See’, the first song that features both of them singing, talk turns to the year ahead and the challenges that a rock band, even one as future-facing as FIDLAR, face in 2019.

DORK

RE AD D O RK. CO M

“Everything is shifting towards grime, pop, that Post Malone-style of music right now,” worries Zac. “There’s not much room for fucking rock bands at these festivals any more, and that’s just the truth. Not just the UK, everywhere in the world!”

This isn’t a case of tired old rock star criticising the festival bookers, just the reality of (in their eyes) a stale rock genre.

“We played with Odd Future in LA, that was cool to find a different audience,” smiles Elvis.

“We definitely need new music,” continues Zac. “It’s like trap music is the new EDM. A few years ago, that was fucking everywhere.

Everybody was like, ‘We’ve got to have this sound’, and now it’s all about hip-hop and stuff.”

Fully aware of the risks in shifting their sound on from their established past, it is the bands’ willingness to approach music with eyes (and ears) wide open that has perhaps allowed FIDLAR to keep going where many of their peers have faltered. The final thoughts belong to Zac. “I think that when people hear this, they might get thrown off at first. Which is fine, we’ve always been a band that people get thrown by!” he chuckles. “But it’s more about growing, and not being scared of trying new shit.”

Free from worries, free from pressure, free to explore - and definitely never, ever boring.

FIDLAR have got their eyes on the future, and it’s up to everyone else to keep up. P FIDLAR’s album ‘Almost Free’ is out 25th January.

41

Incoming.

Your New Music Fridays, sorted.

18th January - 8th February 2019

42

DORK

D OWN WI T H BO RI N G

Incoming 18th January 2019 FEVER 333

MAGGIE ROGERS

STRENGTH IN NUMB333RS

RELEASED: 18TH JANUARY

eeeee

Heard It In A Past Life

Maggie Rogers’ debut album sees her shoot straight for the alt-pop A-list.

eeeee LABEL: POLYDOR RELEASED: 18TH JANUARY LISTEN TO: FALLINGWATER, GIVE AT LITTLE, ON + OFF, LIGHT ON

O

n her major label debut album, Maggie Rogers plays a nice game of ‘find the flaw’ with the listener.

Spoiler: we all lose.

She’s a master storyteller, and this record is a novel, with no cliffhanger. The story really starts with the album’s first single ‘Fallingwater’ (a genius move releasing that first BTW), the earth-shattering, tempochanging, reflective track that sits comfortably in the record’s second half.

Change is a common theme on ‘Heard It In A Past Life’, translating most acutely on the title(ish) track ‘Past Life’ – a Regina Spector-ish piano ballad – and the closer ‘Back In My Body’. The latter is a kiss-off to a particularly rough patch, and the perfect climax of an otherwise cathartic record.

MAGGIE IS EXPLOSIVE, EMOTIONAL AND VULNERABLE. SHE’S NOT THE FOLKSY NATURE GIRL SHE WAS ONCE KNOW AS, SHE’S A STAR TO WATCH WRITING CONFESSIONAL POP THAT COULD RIVAL THE BIG LEAGUES That’s not to say there isn’t bangers on here though.

‘Burning’ is a jittery, cowbell infused bop, ‘Say It’ is a slow dance heartbreak anthem, ‘Give A Little’ is a bright and hopeful opener.

While we’ve heard a fair few of the tracks before – ‘Alaska’, the song she whipped up in 15 minutes for her viral NYU master class, and ‘On + Off’ – they slide into the tracklist perfectly. “Take me through this wild ride” she sings on ‘On + Off’; funny how that already mimics her fast-rising career.

She might spend most of this record looking back, but she still sounds like the future. On ‘Heard It In A Past Life’, Maggie is explosive, emotional, and vulnerable. She’s not the twee folksy nature girl she was once known as, she’s a star to watch, writing confessional pop that could rival the big leagues.

Taylor, Robyn, Lorde – Maggie’s here to join you. P Abigail Firth

BRING ME THE HORIZON

Amo

RELEASED: 18TH JANUARY

eeeee On 2015’s ‘That’s The Spirit’, Bring Me The Horizon cast off the shackles of expectation. Long held as British radio’s mainstream heavy band of choice, the Sheffield five-piece supersized their evolution, creating a record that punched through the ceiling and sent them spiralling to the steps of festival headlining nirvana. For anyone still hoping to see Bring Me ‘return to their roots’, look away now. Though that grit still shakes underneath ‘amo’, it’s mostly restrained, replaced with a modernist sheen with few boundaries. ‘Ouch’ glitches and bubbles like a broken radio, almost as much Chase and Status as Bring Me The Horizon, while ‘Medicine’ cruises down the pure pop lane. It’s ‘Nihilist Blues’ where the most attention lies, though. Teaming up with the once sacred Grimes, it’s a song that’s possibly skewed more towards her end of the musical universe. Initially a shiny banger, it’s only when the Canadian polymath truly arrives in a creepy whisper that it descends into the darkness. Skulking in the shadows, it transforms into something far more sinister.

Combine the rawness of their past with the musical scope of their present, and Bring Me The Horizon’s future could be very bright indeed. P Stephen

Ackroyd

Rock isn’t dead, but it has been having a crisis of confidence. In an era of streaming where, statistically, louder bands haven’t been hitting the big numbers, some have chosen to reinvent themselves in a more genre-fluid guise that, while scoring success, lost some of the fire within. There’s no such identity crisis for FEVER 333.

Formed around the charismatic lightning rod of former letlive. main man Jason Aalon Butler, they’re a pocket rocket revolution. ‘Prey For Me’ thunders, while ‘Burn It’ is a collar grabbing attention stealer.

‘One Of Us’ might start like Panic!

At The Disco dragged from beyond the grave, but quickly descends into something far more visceral, while ‘Am I Here’ flirts with melody. FEVER 333 are an undeniable force. P Stephen

Ackroyd

PEDRO THE LION

Phoenix

RELEASED: 18TH JANUARY

eeeee No one tells a story quite like David Bazan.

‘Phoenix’ – his first album under the Pedro The Lion moniker in nearly 15 years – is a powerful return, filled with sketches of still life frozen in time. Much of ‘Phoenix’ sees Bazan in quiet contemplation and exercising past demons.

‘Yellow Bike’ tells the story of a childhood Christmas and the freedom granted by a little yellow bicycle. Elsewhere, Bazan’s gravelly tones sound like they’re carrying the weight of the world’s problems. ‘Lived in’ doesn’t do it justice, but considering Bazan already sounded like a weathered soul back in 1998, there’s little doubting the authenticity of ‘Phoenix’s intimate stories.

Indeed, it possesses all the marks and scars of life’s mistakes, abandoned dreams, and crushed desires. And yet ‘Phoenix’ feels like an appropriate title; a rebirth and a fresh new start. P Rob Mair

43

Incoming 18th January 2019

Incoming 25th January 2019

BLOOD RED SHOES

Get Tragic

SHARON VAN ETTEN

Remind Me Tomorrow RELEASED: 18TH JANUARY

eeeee

44

Sharon Van Etten has certainly been busy since 2014’s ‘Are We There’. In those four years she’s had a child, started studying for a degree in mental health counselling, taken up acting with roles in The OA and Twin Peaks: The Return, and even written music for film and TV. That’s a lot of life lived and, as someone who so evocatively captures those little moments in between the big ones, Van Etten had a lot to work with.

With all that change also comes a need to break the

THE TWILIGHT SAD

IT WON/T BE LIKE THIS ALL THE TIME RELEASED: 18TH JANUARY

eeeee After over a year crisscrossing the globe as opening act for The Cure, Scottish outfit The Twilight Sad hunkered down in a studio for their fifth album.

The influence and tutelage of Robert Smith hover over the record, from its chiming guitars and prominent basslines. After years of graft, The Twilight Sad are standing tall with a record that affirms that they truly deserve to be here. P Dillon Eastoe

mould. To refresh, reset and start again. For her fifth album, ‘Remind Me Tomorrow’, Van Etten put down the guitar and laid down the bones of the album on keys. It may have just been an attempt to break out of a writing rut, but it’s also transformed Van Etten’s sound to a place she’d only previously dipped her toes in.

Opening track ‘I Told You Everything’ gives us a taste of this shift, but it’s all the more apparent in ‘No One’s Easy To Love’. The twinkling synths, skittering drum beats and thumping bassline feel more Beach House than they do Van Etten. It makes it feel as though we are viewing the revelations of the song’s character from an elevated position, floating somewhere among the darkness below rather than on the ground with them.

Sometimes change is good.

In ‘Remind Me Tomorrow’, it’s electrifying. P Chris Taylor

** PLUS ** Deerhunter Why Hasn’t Everything Already Disappeared?

Late Of The Pier Fantasy Black Channel (Reissue) Toro y Moi Outer Peace Cane Hill Kill The Sun Papa Roach Who Do You Trust?

Steve Gunn The Unseen In Between

After some time away, Blood Red Shoes have returned with a new album that’s anything but tragic.

eeeee LABEL: JAZZ LIFE RELEASED: 25TH JANUARY LISTEN TO: HOWL, NEARER, FIND MY OWN REMORSE, BANSAR

I

t’s been almost five years since Blood Red Shoes released their last album but new album ‘Get Tragic’ dispels all myths that the duo were finished.

The record sees an expanded library of sounds from LauraMary Carter and Steven Ansell along with collaborations from some unexpected faces. Songs like ‘Howl’ and ‘Bangsar’ are tighter and more polished than their previous work but still maintain that core that makes Blood Red Shoes so good whereas ‘Nearer’ featuring Brighton group ‘The Wytches’ sees the duo embrace an unexpected yet quality vibe.

The album’s high point comes with ‘Find My Own Remorse’ which sees the band embrace their electronic side with help from producer Clarence Clarity to great effect; indeed Ansell’s vocals tie everything together on this track over fragmented percussion, swelling synths, and Carter’s comforting guitar.

Overall, it is an excellent comeback from the band that sees them explore new territory while keeping what made their earlier records so engaging. P Josh Williams

W

hen Blood Red Shoes finished touring their 2014 self-titled album, they didn’t foresee such a long break between records.

“Did I expect it? No, not at all!” guitarist and vocalist LauraMary Carter explains. “It’s been years; I didn’t expect it. It was needed that we had a break, but it ended up being much longer than we anticipated.

“There was a point where for ten years straight we were on the road and making records every two years. An album would come out, and then we’d tour again for two years. It just got to the point where it was like, ‘I can’t carry on like this anymore, because we’re gonna lose passion for it’.”

The duo’s brilliant fifth record ‘Get Tragic’ comes five years after their last, and it’s safe to say both Laura and bandmate, Steven Ansell led different lives in the downtime.

“We’ve been in this band for a long time together; I was a teenager when we started, and my tastes and personality have changed quite a lot over the years. It’s same with Steve. I started writing with other people and trying out new things, and started liking different styles of music, and

FIDLAR

“AT EIGHT IN THE MORNING, WE HEARD THIS BASHING ON THE BEDROOM DOOR…” had been privatised so you could Airbnb it. It was all so weird!

“As I got there, I had a really bad feeling about it, but we kept with it. There were these two weird men that lived in it. We were told we’d have the whole place. We were meant to have a bedroom each, and they were like, there’s only one room; they had no beds.

“Then at eight in the morning we hear this bashing on the bedroom door. It was like half the town had keys to this place and were just shouting at us.

“What we hadn’t realised was this community centre had been bought over the summer; no one had been told in the community, so they all still had keys, and they thought it was still their community centre. They didn’t listen to us. We were like, ‘We booked it on Airbnb!’ and they were like, ‘What’s Airbnb?!’

“We rang up our friends Pulled Apart by Horses. They have a studio in Leeds, and they let us use it. We went there, and then a few days later I broke my arm. I think that was just the beginning of a series of disasters.”

Laura insists that her injury had a positive effect on the album, though.

“It forced me into a place I maybe wouldn’t have gone if I hadn’t broken my arm. There’s stuff written before and after, but some of the more synth-y ones were written around that time.

“It seems so long ago now; it took me a long time to heal. I did some more writing, and then I just went away to LA and just healed because we had shows coming up.”

The duo were worried that after such a long time away, they’d come back and no one would care.

“Things in music change very fast, how you put music out, online stuff, and also fans grow up and they might not like the music anymore, or their tastes have changed or they forget about you. There’s always that worry, but that’s the music industry.

As long as you are true to what you’re doing, and you believe in what you’re doing, that’s all you can do. It’s all you can ever do; just put it out and see what happens.” P

PUPPY

Almost Free

The Goat

RELEASED: 25TH JANUARY

RELEASED: 25TH JANUARY

eeeee

eeeee

You get the feeling FIDLAR have had some weapons-grade hangovers.

Their first two albums, ‘FIDLAR’ and ‘Too’ are the musical equivalent of a booze-induced existential crisis. Surely these guys can’t take any more? But on their third record, ‘Almost Free’, FIDLAR are cracking on with tracks like the ‘what it says on the tinnie’ single ‘Alcohol’, and the ramshackle lament to solo drinking ‘By Myself’. In some senses, they haven’t changed their ways; elsewhere though, the band have experimented.

They’ve cleaned up their production values and branched out, but the new directions can feel misplaced. The shiny ‘Scam Likely’, for example, wouldn’t be out of place on a Noel Gallagher album - it’s ‘fine’, but place it with the extended panic attack of ‘Too Real’, and the house starts to fall down. ‘Almost Free’ is a mixed bag, but when FIDLAR are good, they are still very good indeed. P Liam Konemann

It feels like Puppy have been riffing their way around festival bills for years, and yet 2019 sees them finally release their debut. Embracing diverse tours with Creeper, King 810 and doom metal act Conan, Puppy aren’t afraid to mix and match their influences.

The result is a refreshing blend of rock that caters to fans of both muscular guitar histrionics and emotive confessionals, carving out a unique niche in the British rock landscape. P Dillon Eastoe

SUNFLOWER BEAN

King Of The Dudes EP RELEASED: 25TH JANUARY

eeeee

Words: Josh Williams.

playing different styles of music.

“I’ve been doing a solo project which is an alt-country thing, completely different to anything we’ve ever done. Steve got really into producing, doing a lot of electronic and hip-hop stuff.

It played a part in this album; us discovering what we liked individually and trying out music with other people changed how the album came out.”

Laura retreated to LA during the downtime and began collaborating and writing for other people: “I was writing pop songs, and top lines, and collaborating with some heroes, which was pretty cool.” The duo then came back together when Laura invited Steve to LA to write together again.

“I said to Steve, ‘Come here to LA and let’s start writing’. It was a new environment for us; I was like, ‘I’ve got a garage we can do some stuff in’, so we did and we started writing.

“Then Steve didn’t wanna be in LA, he went back to England.

We ended up doing some writing there, but most of it was in LA.” When they returned, the duo initially decamped to a small village in Wales, from which they were banished by the village elders…

“We were like, let’s do like a twoweek stint somewhere we’re away from any distractions. We found this Airbnb in Wales which was an old community centre that

Not ones to mess around, Sunflower Bean return less than a year after ‘Twentytwo in Blue’, doubling down even deeper into their obsession with the sound of 1970s US drive-time rock. If that record felt like a band closing in on something special, it is clear straight away with ‘King Of The Dudes’ that they have found it and embraced it. Packing more melodies and banger-level hooks across twelve minutes than most bands do across a whole record, it simply couldn’t sound bigger if it tried. First single ‘Come For Me’ sounds like a call-to-arms, Julia Cumming swaggering her way through offers (or promises) of alleyway violence, just one of a quartet of tracks of startlingly high-quality.

Not here to mess around lyrically or musically, these are four moments that confirm that the New York trio have fully hit their stride. P Jamie MacMillan

RAT BOY

Internationally Unknown RELEASED: 25TH JANUARY

eeeee Rat Boy has no time for conforming to rules. In truth, his debut album ‘SCUM’ was significantly more polished than might have been expected.

That’s one trait that can’t be levelled at follow up ‘Internationally Unknown’.

Working alongside Rancid and Transplants man Tim Armstrong the influences are clear, but keeping Jordan Cardy to any single artistic thread remains a herculean task.

Madcap mayhem, it’s lightning in a bottle. Watch out for sparks.

P Stephen Ackroyd

** PLUS ** Dave Keuning Prismism Tom Walker What A Time To Be Alive Rudimental Toast To Our Differences TOY Happy In The Hollow Say Anything Oliver Appropriate Press Club Late Teens

45

Incoming 1st February 2019

CHERRY GLAZERR Stuffed & Ready

Cherry Glazerr embrace intimacy on their stunning new album.

eeeee 46

LABEL: SECRETLY CANADIAN RELEASED: 1ST FEBRUARY LISTEN TO: DADDI, STUPID FISH, PIECES

C

herry Glazerr are not messing about.

Their new album ‘Stuffed & Ready’ is a sharply-tuned exercise in exposure, as Clementine Creevy turns her gaze inward and sifts through her own guts for inspiration. The result is a crystalline, searingly honest record that feels as broad-reaching as it does intimate. After all, in the two years since Cherry Glazerr’s second album ‘Apocalypstick’ dropped on Trump’s 2017 inauguration day, the personal has become more political than ever. There’s a keen sense of loneliness throughout ‘Stuffed & Ready’, a reflection of a young person who feels somewhat adrift and out of place in the culture, she has found herself in. On ‘Self Explained’, for example, Clementine sings about spending a lot of time by yourself, and feeling that people don’t like you in an embarrassed sort of way - as if it makes you broken, or weird, or hateful. ‘Stuffed & Ready’ doesn’t shy away from intimacy, but revels in it.

Cherry Glazerr aren’t messing around. They mean business.

P Liam Konemann

LOS ANGELESBASED TRIO CHERRY GLAZERR, LED BY 21-YEAR-OLD FRONTWOMAN CLEMENTINE CREEVY, ARE ON THE VERGE OF DROPPING THEIR FOURTH ALBUM, ‘STUFFED & READY’.

Hey Clem, how’s it going? How’ve you guys been since ‘Apocalipstick’, any major life events?

It’s going great!

Hm, well I recently discovered that my photo is in the display case at The Gaylord on Wilshire Blvd, this old apartment building I used to live in when I was a kid. I feel like it’s one of my greatest accomplishments.

Your line-up’s constantly evolving, how does that affect the vibe of the band?

I feel like I am the driver

of a musical float where new people can jump on and throw some magic into the mix. I write all the lyrics, guitar parts, vocal melodies, and other main melodies that the sound is kind of based around, so I feel like the changes in the band are just natural shifts.

Are there any musicians you’d like to bring into the fold that you haven’t nailed down yet?

This year I got to collaborate with one of my favourite artists, Delicate Steve. That was truly inspiring and cool as hell. There are so many cool musicians and art makers I plan on collaborating with in the near future. Very exciting shit.

How were you feeling when you first started working on ‘Stuffed & Ready’, and what were

you looking to achieve?

I was feeling excited to record, having had loads of inspiring studio experience over the past few years. But I was also feeling isolated and searching, pretty angry with the state of the world and with myself for not being better. I beat myself up a lot. I was hoping to create something honest. As honest as I could get myself to be.

You’ve said the album focuses on exploring your own feelings, what was the most notable thing you learnt about yourself during the creation process?

That I am afraid of growing up.

Are there any lyrics you’ve penned during your time in Cherry Glazerr that resonate more with you now than they did at the time?

‘Stupid Fish’ is a song where I really experimented lyrically, with this idea of singing about a philosophy - the philosophy that I know nothing and neither do you, and we’re all just a bunch of talking monkeys hurling through space and we’re all just blubbering idiots pretending to have the answers to difficulties in

our lives. So it would be, “hairy people trying not to die.” That’s us!

Do you have a favourite song on ‘Stuffed and Ready’?

‘Distressor’. Because of the emotion wrapped up in those two main guitar melodies.

How did you whittle down your initial batch of songs to the final ten?

How likely are we to hear the ones that didn’t make the cut?

We essentially recorded two albums. ‘Stuffed & Ready’ only has a few from the first session and the rest I was writing in between them and even during recording ‘Stuffed & Ready’. I wrote most of ‘Wasted Nun’ the day before recording. It was hard to whittle all the material down; we had so much fun doing it though. I write like a madman. Most of it bad. I’d like to think we keep the good stuff.

How likely is it that we’ll share the stuff that didn’t make it? Hm, fairly likely. Fairly likely.

Where would you like life to take you over the next few years?

Everywhere and anywhere. I’m down for all of it, everywhere is worth going. P

BROODS

GIRLPOOL

SPIELBERGS

WHITE LIES

RELEASED: 1ST FEBRUARY

RELEASED: 1ST FEBRUARY

eeeee

eeeee

This thrilling debut sees Oslo three-piece Spielbergs harness the power of pop rock, and mix it into a rich palate of shredding slacker rock guitar riffs, melodious harmonies and heart-swelling choruses. An incredibly accomplished first record, it pays homage to the giants of the genre without ever being enslaved to their tropes.

Dropping in ambient interludes and moments of post-rock world-building, there is far more to them than initially meets the eye. Spielbergs make it look easy.

P Jamie MacMillan

”Over fifteen years, we’ve talked about it all...” sighs Harry McVeigh on the opening ‘Time To Give’.

While he may be referring to relationships, the need to keep things fresh is just as true for White Lies. Thankfully then, ‘Five’ attempts to shake things up without losing their distinctive sound. That opener is a bold start, seven minutes of early-Depeche Mode style synths stretching at the parameters of their traditional style. For the most part, ‘Five’ sees the band succeed in finding new ways to have those conversations after all. P Jamie MacMillan

Don’t Feed The Pop Monster

What Chaos Is Imaginary

This Is Not The End

RELEASED: 1ST FEBRUARY

RELEASED: 1ST FEBRUARY

eeeee

eeeee

Given Broods’ third outing is entitled ‘Don’t Feed The Pop Monster’, it does a bloody good job of serving a delectable buffet of euphoric choruses, infectious melodies and otherworldly pop flavourings. There’s a fresh heartbeat to the New Zealand duo who have found a new lease of life - in case you couldn’t tell by the elated chorus of ‘Peach’ (“everything’s looking peach now”). Even when things might not have seemed so bright, there’s a wistful hopefulness that still carries them high. P Steven Loftin

You could be forgiven for thinking that Girlpool are a totally different band on ‘What Chaos is Imaginary’. Since 2017’s ‘Powerplant’, Cleo Tucker and Harmony Trividad’s project has weathered immense change. As the duo find confidence in individuality as well as duality.

Cleo’s vocal on ‘All Blacked Out’ especially is a testament to this, as the song skirts towards Elliott Smith territory. No mean feat. It’s been a time of transition, and both journey and destination sound good from here. P Liam Konemann

Five

THYLA

What’s On Your Mind RELEASED: 1ST FEBRUARY

eeeee While there’s no shortage of brilliant, exciting new bands, there are few that can pull themselves above the fray and truly take flight.

Thyla can, though. Opener ‘Only Ever’ has the glint in its eye that Wolf Alice first flashed before their debut album. There’s no higher compliment than that. P Stephen

Ackroyd

** PLUS ** Andy Burrows & Matt Haig Reasons To Stay Alive Tiny Ruins Olympics Girls Beirut Gallipoli Nina Nesbitt The Sun Will Come Up, The Seasons Will Change Jealous of the Birds Wisdom Teeth EP

47

Incoming 8th February 2019

QUEEN ZEE Queen Zee

“I’M SICK OF THIS BLAND WAVE OF APATHETIC CRAP”

eeeee LABEL: SASSTONE RECORDS RELEASED: 8TH FEBRUARY

48

W

ith their visceral and vital live performances generating a huge wordof-mouth buzz, Queen Zee’s debut album sets out to show that they are far more than just a good night out. Singer and lyricist Zee’s growing prominence as a queer icon helps to shine a light on a world of which far too many are unaware.

With blood-red raw stories of transphobia and domestic abuse, this could easily be just a ‘worthy’ listen. But the punk band’s inherent understanding of the power and potency of the genre transform it into a vital one too. They start off in top gear with ‘Loner’ and hardly let up in the following half hour or so. ‘Lucy Fur’ sounds like a riot in St Pauls, Zee’s vocals threatening to

turn into a Manson-esque sneer at points - leaning further into that on the pummelling ‘Idle Crown’, warning that “we are ballerinas dancing on broken glass.”

Live favourites like ‘Porno’ and ‘Victim Age’ get an upgrade here, losing none of their vicious bite - in fact, the whole record is a perfect capture of their live essence. But it is the likes of ‘Boy’ and ‘Sissy Fists’ that will resonate the most.

These songs demand their messages be heard, showing the reality and effects of transphobia, allied with the sort of surging riffs that are going to see some serious moshpit action. 2019 has only just started, and we may already have one of the most important records of the year in our arms. P Jamie MacMillan

LARGER-THAN-LIFE MERSEYSIDE NOISE-PUNK OUTFIT QUEEN ZEE ARE PUTTING THE SHOW BACK INTO, WELL, SHOWS, AND NOW IT’S TIME FOR THEIR DEBUT ALBUM. Hey Zee, how’s it going? Ready for a big 2019?

It’s hectic, and I’m a bit daunted by what I’m going to be putting my body through in 2019.

Was there a particular vibe you wanted to achieve with your debut album?

This is our flag in the ground moment of ‘this is Queen Zee. Look at me.’ We wanted it to be brash, and rude, and raw and make your boyfriend blush.

What do you think Queen Zee do better than other bands around at the mo?

I’m sick of this bland wave of apathetic crap. It’s depressing that in the totally obscure and absurd world that is 2018/9, these bands still have nothing to write about and no passion to write it with. It’s minimalism to the point it’s nothing at all.

Queen Zee is the antidote to that: it’s colour; it’s chaos, it’s community and passion.

How are you finding releasing on your own label?

I love having control over everything we do; there’s no compromise, this is 100% our doing.

Is building up the label as a hub for upcoming bands important to you?

We’ve worked a lot with Zand this year, who is smashing it, as well as a few more releases for 2019 pencilled in. Really, I just want to create a home for artists who share our ethos, who want to create an antidote to the drab generation. I see Sasstone of more of a collective than a label.

It’s not so much about releasing records, its more how we act and interact as artists.

How much time do you spend working on the Queen Zee aesthetic, and where do you look for inspiration?

I don’t really spend time working on it as such; I’m just from that world. I think it comes across quite stylised to people who haven’t met my mother. But what’s wrong with colour? If I’m going to walk out onstage, why the hell wouldn’t I dress up?

It’s bizarre to me. I’m here to put on a show. What happened to that line of thinking? I grew up watching the total insanity of The Cramps, Lux dragging

EMAROSA

himself around the stage dressed as Frankenstein while Ivy throws herself around in nothing at all. It stimulated all the senses.

You’ve previously mentioned that you’re working on album two already, where are you headed next?

Every time I write music, I just wanna write the best I can. I never sit down like “okay, let’s go drum n bass”. So really I think it comes down to how I measure what the best music is. I heard old school punk and now Radio 6 DJ, Tom Robinson say that he has to listen to something and it make him go, “Wow what the fuck was that?!” For him to be drawn to it. That’s the best way I can describe my attraction to music: originality, authenticity, a bit of bite to it and a whole lot of honesty. So album two will be me trying to push Queen Zee forward, so it doesn’t sound like album one, it sounds fresh and new. Yet is still just as raw.

Do you have ambitions to get it out fairly sharpish, or are you just super prepared?

Ideally, I’d release music constantly, it wouldn’t be album cycles, it would just be a continuous stream of output.

It worked for the Beatles, and I heard they did alright.

What do you think is the biggest challenge facing new bands right now?

There are loads; I think culturally we’re in a shift.

Technology changed the playing field for the generation of bands before us; now it is the playing field for our generation.

So we live in this world where there isn’t really anything to reference in terms of a band’s lifespan. There are no rules anymore; bands are getting pumped full of money, with the best PR, the best teams and falling on deaf ears. Then we have The Chats posting ‘Smoko’ on YouTube and exploding.

Idles are getting a Top 5, with an aggressive punk record fuelled with political rage and plenty of swearing. Yet radio darling indie is struggling to match it.

There is no set path to success anymore; you just have to be yourself, create your art and be as authentic and hardworking as you can. It’s daunting and liberating in equal measures.

What’s the most exciting thing you’ve got in your diary?

Our debut album is coming out, which should be everyone’s most exciting thing of 2019. Or maybe even entire lives. P

DORK

CAS MCCOMBS

Peach Club

Tip Of The Sphere

RELEASED: 8TH FEBRUARY

RELEASED: 8TH FEBRUARY

eeeee

eeeee

Music has no boundaries.

Not anymore, anyway. Where once the tribal barriers stood like open fields of possibility, and it’s through that expanse that Emarosa skip on their latest full-length. ‘Peach Club’ sees the previously solid rockers spiral off into a neon glow that thinks it’s oh-so-very the 1975-y, but could actually be more Olly Murs. Except, it sort of works.

Opening ‘Givin’ Up’ is riotous fun, all brassy bombast and sassy strut, while ‘So Bad’ rides a disco wave.

It’s either bad or brilliant, but never boring. P Stephen Ackroyd

After the inauguration comes the aftermath. If 2016’s ‘Mangy Love’ reflected a world on the brink of chaos, ‘Tip of the Sphere’ takes place bang in the centre of it all. Recorded in one rapid session rather than in his usual unhurried manner, it has revealed a far more experimental side to McCombs than on previous records, and is all the better for it. The quickfire recording process has led to by far his most consistent, and finest, record to date. P Jamie MacMillan

YAK

PANDA BEAR

Pursuit Of Momentary Happiness

Buoys

RELEASED: 8TH FEBRUARY

eeeee

eeeee Things were getting desperate. So much so that YAK frontman Oli Burslem found himself broke and living out of his car as this second album came to life.

That sense of fragility from a band who had always sat at the rowdy end of the indie table then came to find a natural bedfellow with production coming from Spiritualized’s Jason Pierce, no stranger to hard times himself.

Sharing a similar genre scattergun approach with their producer, ‘Pursuit Of Momentary Happiness’ moves on from the garage and punk of their debut, and presents a record with many faces. There are moments of 60s loungepop, the title-track and ‘Words Fail Me’ in particular finding Burslem almost horizontal in his delivery.

At times they turn into unnecessarily extended Alex Turner impressions, yet songs like ‘Blinded By The Lies’ and ‘White Male Carnivore’ turn that calm approach on its head for the musical equivalent of walking into a bar fight - all garage rock riffs and thundering, pulsing beats. Moments like the fire and brimstone climax to ‘Layin’ It On The Line’ or the squalling riff-laden ‘Pay Off Vs The Struggle’ tip the scales in their favour on a bold, ambitious but flawed record. P Jamie Macmillan RE AD D O RK. CO M

RELEASED: 8TH FEBRUARY

Do not adjust your headphones - the year is 2019, and all synths have been replaced by waterdrops, as disconcerting as they are ASMR-style satisfying. Having spoken of his desire to resonate more with a younger audience, with ‘Buoys’, Noah Lennox makes a clear play for generation-z with the use of double-layered, autotune vocals, and a clear indebtedness to Trap, albeit a sad-eyed, indie-boy version of. It appears this Panda may just thrive in his new habitat. P Jenessa Williams

** PLUS ** Busted Half Way There HEALTH Vol. 4: Slaves Of Fear Jessica Pratt Quiet Signs Xiu Xiu Girl With Basket Of Fruit ​The Lemonheads Varshons 2 Beast In Black From Hell With Love Said the Whale Cascadia

49

Get Out. IF IT’S ON STAGE, IT’S IN HERE.

50

The 1975 are wild, unpredictable and untouchable at their live comeback show

T

his is it. The return of The 1975.

Forget billboards, posters and hype, tonight is where ‘Music For Cars’ finally becomes real. It’s their first show back in over a year, they were last seen headlining Latitude Festival to close an album cycle that saw them grow comfortably arena sized, and for some reason it’s in an old cinema that’s now a nightclub in Zone 6 of London. Leave your expectations at the door though, this band will always do things their own unique way.

From the moment Matty, George, Adam and Ross walk onto the stage, it feels spectacular.

There are cheers that go on and on, instantly transforming the place into something magic and as the whirring jangle of ‘Give

Words: Ali Shutler. Photos: Jordan Hughes.

Yourself A Try’ blares out, The 1975 are unleashed once more.

Most bands want their comeback to feel safe. They want the familiar, the belief that it’s like they’ve never been away but tonight, it’s obvious The 1975 have changed. They bellow it from the rooftops; this is something new. And it suits them.

The band quickly dive into a clutch of tracks from the verysoon-to-released ‘A Brief Enquiry Into Online Relationships’ and the pace is astonishing.

‘Give Yourself A Try’ crackles with hopeful, resilient energy.

‘TOOTIMETOOTIMETOOTIME’ sees the band pop and whizz, as autotuned vocals float above rainbow excellence before the crystal clear gaze of ‘It’s Not Living (If It’s Not With You)’ bursts with light. “I remember

DORK

this,” beams Matty before admitting, “It might not be a slick set. We haven’t done this in a while and we’re a bit fucking scared,” but that nervous energy gives ‘Sincerity Is Scary’ a kaleidoscopic beauty.

The 1975 are wild, unpredictable and untamed.

They never mention they’ve got a new album out in a few hours, instead using brief pauses for intimate conversations or to help return lost shoes. They bounce between stadium-sized ambition with songs like ‘It’s Not Living’ born for shared voices and kindred spirits, and rag-tag bedroom abandon. ‘Love It If We Made It’ is loud, messy and glorious. It cares so much but is utterly fearless. It’s a stance The 1975 take again and again.

“This is a greatest hits set, I suppose,” reasons Matty but the

D OWN WI T H BO RI N G

band still do what they want.

Ignoring the expected, they enjoy the adventure as it unfurls. ‘You’ and ‘fallingforyou’ twinkle and stutter, making their own space count against the undeniable roar of the big hits. The back to back run of ‘Girls’, ‘Chocolate’, ‘The Sound’ and ‘Sex’ sees the band unstoppable and ever-changing before they bring the curtain down with the heartfelt, all-ornothing promise of ‘Robbers’.

Fireworks, feelings and frantic, electric brilliance, tonight is a hint of what’s to come and a reminder that The 1975 can make the gigantic, intimate, the intimate, choral, and the everyday, magic. There’s big and bigger things on the horizon and The 1975, unafraid, bold and brilliant, are charging full steam ahead. It’s their first show back and The 1975 are untouchable. P

DORK

RE AD D O RK. CO M

Get Out.

Christine and the Queens is breaking ground for modern pop at London’s Eventim Apollo

I

Words: Jamie Muir. Photos: Gaëlle Beri.

t’s rare that an artist can redefine what a live show - or a pop star, in fact - can be. In the wake of a world shutting down borders and hiding behind safety nets, Christine And The Queens has become a beacon.

From popping up on primetime telly to a fearless devotion to art and creativity, it’s something that many thought couldn’t be done. The very nature, however, of Christine And The Queens means that it simply had to happen, and the results are undeniable.

52

It’s easy to say that an artist is ‘vital’ or ‘important’, or that a show stands beyond simple meanings and expectations - but in the case of Christine And The Queens, it’s in this space that everything combines into a flourishing reality. A modern renaissance trailblazer firmly in her element, tonight as London sits in awe is a captivating line in the sand as the game changes in the course of one evening.

For all the music and all the hits, it’s live where Christine And The Queens struts with vigour and stylistic charm.

“I spent years and years trying to fit in,” she states midway during the set, “and then I stopped trying.”

That freedom bubbles and pulsates throughout, with a crew of dancers on point and a stage show that meticulously picks and celebrates to form a night that isn’t just a gig, but a theatrical production emboldened by the vision she’s created.

The funky weaves of ‘Comme Si’ and ‘Girlfriend’ are a party-starting combo that kicks the sold-out room into her world, one full of hope, freedom, expression, unabashed experiences and level-playing immediacy while retaining that bullet to the core feel of an artist who’s been through those moments and has come out the other side. Each track tells its own tale, both in movement on stage and delivery, acts if you will of a night that packs standout moments and charismatic twists into each step.

There’s incredible joy and fluid disco-grooves. ‘Doesn’t Matter’ finds Chris and a dancer swapping and flexing tilting moves and ‘Damn (What Must A Woman Do)’ lifts into life with the sort of punchy ease that’d make you wonder if Michael Jackson had passed on his crown of

sizzling pop perfection. ‘Tilted’, ‘iT’ and ‘Science Fiction’ are greeted like devoted anthems of countless lifeaffecting personal experiences from a crowd that feels and connects to the inclusive bond played out in front of them.

This is a show primed for the West End yet born in sweaty clubs and 21st-century life, a production of modernity in all its highs and lows, and because of that not a moment slips by. Ripping things raw, ‘Nuit 17 à 52’ finds Chris alone in the spotlight, performing a capella and swarming a mass choir from a crowd devoted and jaw-dropped by every motion and in ‘Paradis Perdus’, the bolding motions of the Kanye West-samples build to an emotional crescendo. ‘5 Dollars’ sees dancers run around her as the stage shifts once again to form brand new spaces and backdrops to play off the themes and feelings of a set carefully orchestrated for devastating realness.

It’s a full-on artistic journey and one that simply reconstructs what you could expect out of a gig and delivers something that only a handful could even come close to matching.

There are moments of isolation.

There are moments of slow motion expression that pulls together physical movements and soaring pop perfection. There’s delicate falling white confetti that lands like snow on the ground for Chris and her show to roll through on ‘Goya Soda’. It’s a pop spectacle that picks from the best of those before her, yet breathes with vitality and freshness. As Chris reflects on characters being built on top of scars, it’s a game-changing celebration of ripping apart the rule book and offering up a safe space for all. To experiment, to fall, to fail, to celebrate, to change, to grow - it’s everything Christine And The Queens represents and more.

Taking to the balcony for ‘Saint Claude’, which sees tears flow down countless faces, and a pumping closer of ‘Intranquillité’, it’s the sort of closer for a night and a show that has it all.

One that needs to be witnessed and captured in every person’s mind, this is showmanship of the highest order for an artist not content with simply ‘doing this music thing well’. With the confidence and platform to create and explore more, the possibilities are truly endless. P

CHRISTINE AND THE QUEENS CHRISTINE AND THE QUEENS CHRISTINE AND THE QUEENS CHRISTINE AND THE QUEENS CHRISTINE AND THE QUEENS CHRISTINE AND THE QUEENS CHRISTINE AND THE QUEENS CHRISTINE AND THE QUEENS CHRISTINE AND THE QUEENS CHRISTINE AND THE QUEENS CHRISTINE AND THE QUEENS CHRISTINE AND THE QUEENS CHRISTINE AND THE QUEENS CHRISTINE AND THE QUEENS CHRISTINE AND THE QUEENS CHRISTINE AND THE QUEENS CHRISTINE AND THE QUEENS CHRISTINE AND THE QUEENS CHRISTINE AND THE QUEENS CHRISTINE AND THE QUEENS CHRISTINE AND THE QUEENS CHRISTINE AND THE QUEENS CHRISTINE AND THE QUEENS CHRISTINE AND THE QUEENS CHRISTINE AND THE QUEENS CHRISTINE AND THE QUEENS CHRISTINE AND THE QUEENS CHRISTINE AND THE QUEENS CHRISTINE AND THE QUEENS CHRISTINE AND THE QUEENS CHRISTINE AND THE QUEENS CHRISTINE AND THE QUEENS CHRISTINE AND THE QUEENS CHRISTINE AND THE QUEENS CHRISTINE AND THE QUEENS CHRISTINE AND THE QUEENS CHRISTINE AND THE QUEENS CHRISTINE AND THE QUEENS CHRISTINE AND THE QUEENS CHRISTINE AND THE QUEENS CHRISTINE AND THE QUEENS CHRISTINE AND THE QUEENS CHRISTINE AND THE QUEENS CHRISTINE AND THE QUEENS CHRISTINE AND THE QUEENS CHRISTINE AND THE QUEENS CHRISTINE AND THE QUEENS CHRISTINE AND THE QUEENS CHRISTINE AND THE QUEENS CHRISTINE AND THE QUEENS CHRISTINE AND THE QUEENS CHRISTINE AND THE QUEENS CHRISTINE AND THE QUEENS CHRISTINE AND THE QUEENS CHRISTINE AND THE QUEENS CHRISTINE AND THE QUEENS CHRISTINE AND THE QUEENS CHRISTINE AND THE QUEENS CHRISTINE AND THE QUEENS CHRISTINE AND THE QUEENS CHRISTINE AND THE QUEENS CHRISTINE AND THE QUEENS CHRISTINE AND THE QUEENS CHRISTINE AND THE QUEENS CHRISTINE AND THE QUEENS CHRISTINE AND THE QUEENS CHRISTINE AND THE QUEENS CHRISTINE AND THE QUEENS CHRISTINE AND THE QUEENS CHRISTINE AND THE QUEENS CHRISTINE AND THE QUEENS CHRISTINE AND THE QUEENS CHRISTINE AND THE QUEENS CHRISTINE AND THE QUEENS CHRISTINE AND THE QUEENS CHRISTINE AND THE QUEENS CHRISTINE AND THE QUEENS CHRISTINE AND THE QUEENS CHRISTINE AND THE QUEENS CHRISTINE AND THE QUEENS CHRISTINE AND THE QUEENS CHRISTINE AND THE QUEENS

ON TOUR BOOKING NOW!

SELF ESTEEM

Ramsgate Music Hall (9th March), Nottingham Bodega Social (10th), Birmingham Hare & Hounds (12th), Newcastle Upon Tyne Think Tank?

(13th), Manchester Yes (14th), Glasgow Stereo Cafe Bar (15th), Sheffield Plug (16th), Southampton Joiners (18th), London Village Underground (20th), Bristol Thekla (21st), Leeds Belgrave Music Hall (22nd)

THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE QUEEN

Norwich Uea (12th April), Cardiff University Great Hall (13th), Sheffield Octagon (15th), Manchester Albert Hall (16th), Liverpool Eventim Olympia (18th), London Palladium (19th)

‘S

hotgun’ was the feel-good hit of this summer but tonight, as George Ezra plays a sold out show at Wembley Arena, he proves that he’s the man for every season.

His debut album ‘Wanted On Voyage’ saw things snowball, while this year’s ‘Staying At Tamara’s’ saw his sunny side up outlook and thirst for adventure blossom and bloom. Tonight, at his biggest ever headline show until his already sold-out tour next year, he’s on fire.

It’s a family affair, too. There are generations throughout Wembley Arena, and George’s little brother Ethan is in support.

As Ten Tonnes launches into the stuttering determination of ‘Born To Lose’, he’s not stood in anyone’s shadow. The fuzzy stomp of ‘Cracks Between’ hangs in the air, confident and collected while the sideways slide of ‘Better Than Me’ turns inward but never

shies away from the spotlight.

Through the horizon gripping ‘Lucy’ and the colourful explosion of ‘G.I.V.E’, Ten Tonnes performs with a weightless joy.

Despite the size of the venue, George Ezra makes tonight feel intimate. Friends huddled together to share stories, smiles and daydreams, he never looks out of his depth and there’s a charisma that’s impossible to avoid, even from the nosebleeds at the back. There’s a spark in every song that dances about the stage and the hand-crafted wit ebbs and flows. It’s all very lovely.

George is now an actual, certified pop star - and he knows it.

Sure, ‘All My Love’ sends shivers down spines but from the moment ‘Don’t Matter Now’ kicks things off, every moment is huge and unapologetic. ‘Paradise’ is all starshine and over the top promises, ‘Hold My Girl’ is a candle that lights a roaring fire and ‘Budapest’ is as wide-eyed, beautiful and beaming as it ever was.

As ‘Shotgun’ comes bolting from the gates to bring the curtains down, it remains freshfaced and earth-quaking. Glitter, gold and grins, George Ezra has embraced the spotlight and leaves tonight as your friendly neighbourhood superstar. P

53

BLOXX

Milton Keynes The Craufurd Arms (3rd April), Birmingham The Castle & Falcon (4th), Cardiff Tiny Rebel (5th), Bath Moles (6th), Tunbridge Wells The Forum (7th), Reading Facebar (9th), London Dingwalls (10th), Leicester O2 Academy (11th), Middlesborough Westgarth Social Club (12th), Glasgow The Garage (13th), Newcastle Northumbria Institute 2 (15th), York Crescent Community Centre (16th), Liverpool Phase One (17th), Derby The Venue (18th), Cambridge The Portland Arms (19th)

IDLES

Sheffield Leadmill (26th March), Cardiff Tramshed (27th), Norwich Nick Rayns Lcr Uea (28th), Brighton Dome (29th), Belfast Empire Music Hall (1st April), Dublin Vicar Street (2nd), Manchester Albert Hall (3rd), London Electric Ballroom (4th, 5th, 6th), Dublin Iveagh Gardens (11th July)

GET THE LATEST TOUR NEWS 24/7 AT READDORK.COM

George Ezra brings heat to Wembley Arena Photo: Sarah Louise Bennett.

Get Out.

B

Words: Ali Shutler. Photo: Frances Beach.

ring Me The Horizon are on the cusp of being a properly big band. They’ve been doing arenas since before the release of their last album but they’ve yet to properly crossover.

‘That’s The Spirit’ took them all the way to the edge, selling out The O2, Ally Pally, The Royal Albert Hall as well as dominating festival sets at Reading and Glastonbury, but still, they’ve never quite been as big as they want to.

That looks set to change with sixth album ‘Amo’.

It’s not out yet but the band have already announced a festival headline slot at All Points East and they’re back with twice the sold out dates at Ally Pally as before, with only two new songs to their name. The band aren’t just repeating what they’ve done before though. That’d be too easy. Tonight’s show is very different to anything they’ve done recently, switching

Bring Me The Horizon are ready to take the next step Lily Allen is at her hard-hitting, vulnerable best as she brings ‘No Shame’ home

T

Words: Ali Shutler. Photo: Sarah Louise Bennett.

hanks to ‘No Shame’, and her autobiography ‘My Thoughts Exactly’, 2018 saw the proper return of Lily Allen - and thank goodness.

Tonight she brings that record home to London, for her second sold-out show at The Roundhouse.

Starting with the vulnerable, confrontational ‘Come On Then’, Lily bundles up all the tabloid nonsense that follows her every move, then sweeps it away in one effortless flick. Fresh page at the ready, she spends the rest of the evening writing her own story.

‘Waste’ is a boisterous break free that leads into the endless horizon stretch of ‘LDN’ perfectly.

‘My One’ and ‘What You Waiting For’ fall in and out of love, while ‘Knock ‘Em Out’ wants nothing more than to be left alone.

Old and new are played back to back without awkward division or jarring skips. Lily has always cut and paste from whatever caught her eye, a pop magpie with the whole world to draw from, and tonight is a giant scrapbook of excitement.

There’s sadness, dejection, loneliness, hope and fury. ‘The Fear’ and ‘Apples’ are scared of a future that’s already happened, while ‘Not Fair’ and ‘Family Man’ are selfish and frustrated, but through it all, Lily attempts to find answers - and she does with the closing one-two of the night.

‘Trigger Bang’ sees her starting anew, “goodbye bad bones, I’ve got bigger plans”, before ‘Fuck You’ rounds out the evening with a barbed reply to anyone who wants you to change for them. Twelve years in, and Lily is as necessary as she’s ever been. P

DORK

D OWN WI T H BO RI N G

out huge video screens and pantomime encouragement for an industrial sparseness and community takeover.

It’s not just their stage show that’s changed. Bring Me The Horizon now perform with an easy confidence. Whereas before, they made a point time and time again to prove that they know how to command a room of this size, this evening they let the music lead the way.

Of course the likes of ‘Shadow Moses’, ‘Happy Song’ and ‘Antivist’ have the place up in arms, but an old school medley turns out to be an unexpected highlight as the band throw things back but maintain their pop star prowess while an acoustic reworking of ‘Drown’ exposes the vulnerability and tenderness within. A closing one-two of ‘Doomed’ and ‘Throne’ sees the band at the peak of their undeniable power and as they leave, with confetti still falling from the ceiling, there’s the promise that when they return, they’ll be even bigger. P

Wolf Alice threaten even greater things at Brixton Academy Words: Ali Shutler. Photos: Sarah Louise Bennett.

Delivering big with debut album ‘My Love Is Cool’, Wolf Alice’s next move has been covered in their own identity, and now they sit amongst the great bands of modern times. They’re no longer ‘just another guitar band with promise’, but one leading the charge.

Despite feeling grander and bristling with accolades, they’ve never lost sight of who they are and what they want to achieve.

Tonight is a celebration of it all - dipping across their entire career for a night that doesn’t feel like a necessary nod to the success of ‘Visions Of A Life’ but more of a moment gathering mates in one space to revel and look how far they’ve come. On stage, they’re more powerful than ever, a dedication to the world they’ve created full of jawdropping heights and vulnerable lows that pull you in on every track. Ripping into ‘Yuk Foo’ and ‘You’re A Germ’, it’s a thrilling ride across their career - dropping into rarities such as ’90 Mile Beach’ and ‘Storms’ in a manner which elicits devotion and singalong euphoria in equal measure.

‘Visions Of A Life’ is the star of the show, a dense and rewarding showcase of how far they’ve come, defying expectations in a similar vein to how ‘My Love Is Cool’ lifted them above and beyond. ‘Planet Hunter’, ‘Sky Musings’ and ‘Formidable Cool’

With more jingle bells than a jingle bell factory, Dork’s Xmas Party at The Old Blue Last in London is once again the hub of all things festive, with a lineup of Dork faves and Hype List risers.

Violet shimmer with style and class; their smoke-filled blend of shoegaze, Peace-like magic and measured power is a mesmerising sight, driving through an accomplished set that confirms where their ambitions are pointing, bringing a menacing glint at a huge 2019.

Bounding onto stage with a grin and infectious party-vibe, Spinn are more than up for a festive knees-up. Their sparkling bright indie-pop may sound like a snapshot of summer, but it thrives no matter the season - full of bouncing gears and shimmering guitars.

With one of the biggest, brightest and boldest live shows going, Bad Sounds are the ultimate jukebox for a party. Noting that the Old Blue was where they played their first ever London show, they return tonight as a rainbow of celebration. From front to back, their set has the Dork Xmas Party jumping, waving and screaming along to every hit.

When you think things can’t get any better, they end the night with a ripping cover of The Darkness’ ‘Christmas Time (Don’t Let The Bells End)’. Now that’s a gift Santa can’t leave under the Christmas tree. P

Words: Jamie Muir. Photos: Sarah Louise Bennett.

FESTIVE FUN WITH BAD SOUNDS

jump between ripping punk fury and heartbreaking vulnerability with ease - while ‘Don’t Delete The Kisses’ lights up the capacity room in a serenading bliss which finds Ellie front and centre on stage as the congregation sends every word back.

As ‘Moaning Lisa Smile’ segues into ‘Giant Peach’ and a confettisnow fall - Wolf Alice are done with the year. They’re arguably done with an entire space in time, one which has taken them from critical darlings to an awardwinning force. What Brixton Academy proves is that they’re now more than a band. They’re a symbol of an entire generation, one which captures every human emotion - even when they or the packed crowds gathering to see them don’t want to scream and shout about it.

The essence of what makes them great, is that they’re simply being who they are, and in a world of fake news, false pretence and nonsensical decisions, maybe that’s the most important trait of all. Whatever they do next, it’s sure to be essential. P

55

THE GUIDE ALL THE SHOWS YOU NEED TO SEE THIS MONTH, AND SOME YOU PROBABLY DON’T.

56

FRIDAY 1ST FEBRUARY Bedford, Sheafs, Esquires Birmingham, Enter Shikari, O2 Academy Birmingham, Her’s, Sunflower Lounge Bournemouth, Frank Turner, The BIC Brighton, Bastille, Brighton Centre Bristol, White Lies, SWX Cardiff, Heavy Lungs, Clwb Ifor Bach Cardiff, The Vaccines, Cardiff University SU Edinburgh, Cancer Bats, Le Belle Angele Glasgow, Hayley Kiyoko, SWG3 Glasgow, Swearin’, Nice N Sleazy Guildford, Swim Deep, The Boileroom Hebden Bridge, Pigs x 7, Trades Club Leeds, Drug Church, Key Club Leeds, Steve Mason, Belgrave Music Hall Lodon, White Room, Oslo London, Death Cab For Cutie, Eventim Apollo London, Low, Barbican Centre London, The Dandy Warhols, O2 Academy Brixton London, The Wombats, SSE Arena London, Trail Of Dead, The Garage Manchester, Gorgon City, Albert Hall Manchester, Kaiser Chiefs, O2 Apollo Manchester, Peaness, YES Manchester, The Wave Pictures, Soup Kitchen Norwich, Another Sky, Waterfront Southampton, SHVPES, The Joiners Stowmarket, Pip Blom, John Peel Centre Worthing, Tim Burgess, St Paul’s Art Centre SATURDAY 2ND FEBRUARY Aberdeen, Cancer Bats, Lemon Tree Bedford, Estrons, Esquires Birmingham, Kaiser Chiefs, O2 Academy Birmingham, Trail Of Dead, The Castle & Falcon Brighton, Phobophobes, Komedia Brighton, White Room, The Haunt Bristol, Heavy Lungs, The Louisiana Cardiff, Frank Turner, Motorpoint Arena Cardiff, The Wave Pictures, Clwb Ifor Bach Cheltenham, Get Cape.

Wear Cape. Fly, The Frog And Fiddle Exeter, The Vaccines, The Great Hall Glasgow, Drug Church, The Garage Guildford, Black Futures, The Boileroom Hebden Bridge, Pip Blom, Trades Club Leeds, Black Midi, Brudenell Social Club Leeds, Enter Shikari, O2 Academy Leeds, SHVPES, Key Club Leeds, Swearin’, Brudenell

Stoke, Kaiser Chiefs, Victoria Hall Tunbridge Wells, Jamie Lenman, The Forum SUNDAY 10TH FEBRUARY Bristol, allusinlove, Rough Trade Cambridge, And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead, Storey’s Field Centre Dublin, White Denim, Whelan’s London, Bastille, O2 Academy Brixton Norwich, Kaiser Chiefs, UEA Norwich, The Joy Formidable, Norwich Arts Centre Portsmouth, Black Peaks, The Wedgewood Rooms Sheffield, Another Sky, Cafe Totem Southampton, Juanita Stein, The Joiners-

.BASTILLE. S .

Social Club London, Parkway Drive, Alexandra Palace London, Snow Patrol, SSE Arena London, The Murder Capital, Shacklewell Arms London, The Rifles, The Borderline Manchester, Rival Sons, Manchester Academy Manchester, Steve Mason, Manchester Academy Newcastle, The Faim, Think Tank?

Nottingham, Gorgon City, Rock City Stowmarket, Beans On Toast, John Peel Centre York, Another Sky, The Fulford Arms SUNDAY 3RD FEBRUARY Birkenhead, Pip Blom, Library Birmingham, The Howl & The Hum, Sunflower Lounge Birmingjam, Hayley Kiyoko, O2 Academy Brighton, The Murder Capital, The Albert Bristol, Swearin’, The Crofters Rights Edinburgh, Another Sky, The Mash House Leeds, Cancer Bats, Key Club Leeds, White Lies, O2 Academy London, Frank Turner, Alexandra Palace Manchester, Bastille, O2 Victoria Warehouse Manchester, Drug Church, Star & Garter Manchester, Enter Shikari, Academy Manchester, The Faim, Rebellion Nottingham, This Wild Life, The Rescure Rooms Southampton, Black Midi, The Joiners Southampton, The Vaccines, Guildhall MONDAY 4TH FEBRUARY Brighton, The Howl & The Hum, The Albert Cambridge, Beans On

Toast, Junction Glasgow, Another Sky, SWG3 Glasgow, SHVPES, King Tut’s Leeds, Rival Sons, O2 Academy Leeds, This Wild Life, Key Club Leeds, Trail Of Dead, Brudenell Social Club Leicester, Drug Church, The Cookie Llandudno, Kaiser Chiefs, Venue Cymru Manchester, Bastille, O2 Victoria Warehouse Manchester, Hayley Kiyoko, Academy Newcastle, Cancer Bats, Think Tank?

Newcastle, Enter Shikari, O2 Academy Newcastle, White Lies, Boiler Shop

The Brickyard Edinburgh, Brian Fallon, Usher Hall Glasgow, Bastille, O2 Academy Leeds, Llovers, Lending Room London, Eloise, Aces & Eights Saloon Bar London, Hayley Kiyoko, O2 FOrum London, Rival Sons, Roundhouse London, Tusks, Omeara Manchester, Beak>, Gorilla Manchester, Trail Of Dead, Academy Newcastle, The Murder Capital, Exchange Norwich, Cancer Bats, Epic Studios Reading, Kaiser Chiefs, Hexagon Stoke, SHVPES, The Sugarmill

TUESDAY 5TH FEBRUARY Bath, Kaiser Chiefs, The Pavilion Bath, Trail Of Dead, Komedia Birmingham, Rival Sons, O2 Academy Birmingham, The Murder Capital, Sunflower Lounge Brighton, Valeras, Last Music Bar Glasgow, The Faim, King Tut’s Glasgow, White Lies, QMU Leeds, Beans On Toast, Brudenell Social Club Leicester, The Vaccines, O2 Academy London, The Howl & The Hum, Omeara Manchester, SHVPES, Star & Garter Nottingham, Cancer Bats, The Rescue Rooms

THURSDAY 7TH FEBRUARY Cambridge, Cancer Bats, Junction Dublin, Gorgon City, Olympia Theatre Glasgow, Bastille, O2 Academy Glasgow, The Murder Capital, SWG3 Glasgow, Trail Of Dead, The Art School Guildford, The Vaccines, G Live Liverpool, White Lies, Eventim Olympia London, Anna Calvi, The Roundhouse London, Beak>, Islington Assembly Hall London, CHVRCHES, Alexandra Palace London, Estrons, The Scala London, Hayley Kiyoko, O2 Forum London, Steve Mason, EartH London, The Faim, The Underworld London, This Wild Life, Union Chapel Manchester, Brian Fallon, Albert Hall Manchester, Kero Kero Bonito, Gorilla

WEDNESDAY 6TH FEBRUARY Belfast, Another Sky, McHugh’s Bar Birmingham, The Faim, O2 Academy Bristol, This Wild Life, Thekla Carlisle, Beans On Toast,

DORK

D OWN WI T H BO RI N G

Southampton, Drug Church, The Joiners FRIDAY 8TH FEBRUARY Birmingham, CHVRCHES, O2 Academy Bristol, Kero Kero Bonito, Thekla Bristol, Steve Mason, The Fleece Coventry, Valeras, Kasbah Edinburgh, The Murder Capital, Sneaky Pete’s Glasgow, Beans On Toast, Stereo London, Brian Fallon, Union Chapel London, Drug Church, Boston Music Room London, Gorgon City, Printworks London, Kaiser Chiefs, O2 Academy Brixton London, The Vaccines, The Roundhouse Manchester, White Lies, Albert Hall Milton Keynes, Cancer Bats, The Craufurd Arms Oxford, Trail Of Dead, O2 Academy Southampton, This Wild Life, The Joiners SATURDAY 9TH FEBRUARY Bedford, And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead, Esquires Bedford, Valeras, Esquires Belfast, White Denim, The Limelight Birmingham, Chvrches, O2 Academy Brighton, Steve Mason, St Bartholomews Church Glasgow, Kero Kero Bonito, SWG3 Glasgow, The Lemonheads, SWG3 London, Bastille, O2 Academy Brixton London, Cancer Bats, 100 Club London, The Vaccines, The Roundhouse Manchester, Thyla, YES Milton Keynes, Black Peaks, The Craufurd Arms Nottingham, White Lies, Rock City

MONDAY 11TH FEBRUARY Brighton, And You Wil Know Us By The Trail Of Dead, The Haunt Bristol, Babeheaven, Exchange Edinburgh, White Lies, Liquid Rooms Glasgow, Fur, Broadcast Leeds, The Joy Formidable, The Key Club Manchester, Another Sky, YES Manchester, Spielbergs, Jimmy’s Manchester, Wild Nothing, Gorilla Newcastle, The Lemonheads, Wylam Brewery Nottingham, Chvrches, Rock City Southampton, allusinlove, Heartbreakers TUESDAY 12TH FEBRUARY Birmingham, Wild Nothing, Mama Roux’s Bournemouth, allusinlove, The Anvil Bournemouth, Chvrches, O2 Academy Bristol, Valeras, The Louisiana Bristol, White Denim, O2 Academy Cambridge, Kaiser Chiefs, Corn Exchange Glasgow, Spielbergs, The Garage Glasgow, The Joy Formidable, King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut Huddersfield, Black Peaks, The Parish Leeds, Alex Tracey, Oporto Bar Leeds, Queen Zee, Hyde Park Book Club Leicester, Another Sky, The Soundhouse London, Babeheaven, The Jazz Cafe London, Hey Charlie, The Lexington Manchester, Fur, The Castle Hotel Manchester, The Lemonheads, O2 Ritz WEDNESDAY 13TH FEBRUARY Belfast, Toy, The Empire Bar & Music Hall Birmingham, Another Sky, Hare & Hounds

Birmingham, Valeras, Sunflower Lounge Birmingham, White Denim, O2 Institute Brighton, allusinlove, Komedia Bristol, Queen Zee, Rough Trade Cambridge, White Lies, Junction Jungle, Norwich, UEA Leeds, The Lemonheads, Leeds University Union Leeds, Wild Nothing, Belgrave Music Hall London, ISLAND, Islington Assembly Hall London, Thyla, The Lexington Manchester, Babeheaven, The Deaf Institute Newcastle, Spielbergs, Think Tank? Underground Nottingham, Kaiser Chiefs, Rock City THURSDAY 14TH FEBRUARY Birmingham, Alex Tracey, The Bristol Pear Birmingham, Spielbergs, Sunflower Lounge Brighton, Night Flowers, Komedia Bristol, Doe, Exchange Cambridge, The Lemon Twigs, Lending Room Glasgow, Wild Nothing, Stereo Guildford, Ed The Dog, The Boileroom Leeds, Hey Charlie, Lending Room London, Avi Buffalo, Oslo London, Fur, Omeara London, Queen Zee, The Lexington London, White Lies, O2 Forum Manchester, Chvrches, O2 Victoria Warehouse Manchester, Hippo Campus, O2 Ritz Milton Keynes, Valeras, The Craufurd Arms Newcastle, The Joy Formidable, Think Tank?

Nottingham, Bodega, The Rescue Rooms FRIDAY 15TH FEBRUARY Birmingham, Art Brut, Hare & Hounds Birmingham, The Lemonheads, O2 Academy Birmingham, White Lies, O2 Institute Brighton, Fur, Patterns Brighton, Queen Zee, Hope & Ruin Exeter, Kaiser Chiefs, The Great Hall Glasgow, Babeheaven, King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut Glasgow, Bodega, The Art School Glasgow, Hippo Campus, The Garage Lincoln, Black Peaks, The Engine Shed London, The Dity Nil, Moth Club Manchester, Chvrches, O2 Victoria Warehouse Manchester, Jungle, Academy Manchester, Night Flowers, Hive Bar Manchester, The Joy Formidable, Gorilla Manchester, Toy, YES Manchester, White Denim, Albert Hall Newcastle, The Hunna, O2 Academy Nottingham, Another Sky,

Rock City Oxford, Doe, The Wheatsheaf Reading, Valeras, The Facebar Southampton, Thyla, Heartbreakers Tunbridge Wells, allusinlove, The Forum SATURDAY 16 FEBRUARY Bexhill, Razorlight, De La Warr Pavilion Brighton, Avi Buffalo, The Green Door Store Brighton, Thyla, Hope & Ruin Bristol, Art Brut, Exchange Bristol, Fur, Rugh trade Dublin, Wild Nothing, The Button Factory Glasgow, Chvrches, The SSE Hydro Glasgow, International Teachers Of Pop, Broadcast Glasgow, Toy, King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut Leeds, Babeheaven, Brudenell Social Club Leeds, Jungle, O2 Academy Leeds, The Orielles, Belgrave Music Hall Manchester, Doe, Soup Kitchen Newcastle, Hippo Campus, Riverside Newcastle, White Denim, Northumbria Institute Southampton, Kaiser Chiefs, Guildhall TH

SUNDAY 17TH FEBRUARY Cardiff, Art Brut, The Globe Cardiff, Razorlight, Transhed Edinburgh, International Teachers Of Pop, Sneaky Pete’s Glasgow, Doe, Broadcast Glasgow, White Denim, SWG3 Leeds, Toy, Brudenell Social Club Manchester, Bodega, YES Manchester, Hey Charlie, Gullivers Norwich, allusinlove, Waterfront Southampton, The Lemonheads, Engine Rooms Southampton, Valeras, Hearbreakers Southend, Kaiser Chiefs, Cliffs Pavilion MONDAY 18TH FEBRUARY Birmingham, Hippo Campus, O2 Institute Bristol, The Lemonheads, SWX Bristol Cambridge, Kathryn Joseph, Junction Leeds, Doe, Brudenell Social Club London, Wild Nothing, Village Underground London, Yo La Tengo, EartH Newcastle, Chvrches, O2 Academy

.CHVRCHES. S .

Newcastle, International Teachers Of Pop, The Cluny Oxford, allusinlove, The Jericho Oxford, Art Brut, The Bullingdon Portsmouth, The Joy Formidable, The Wedgewood Rooms TUESDAY 19TH FEBRUARY Belfast, Chvrches, Ulster Hall Belfast, Jungle, The Limelight Birmingham, Du Blonde, Hare & Hounds Birmingham, Hey Charlie, Sunflower Lounge Birmingham, The Orielles, Hare & Hounds Brighton, Petal, Hope & Ruin Brighton, Toy, Patterns Brighton, Wild Nothing, Komedia Bristol, The Joy Formidable, The Fleece Glasgow, Avi Buffalo, Broadcast Guildford, Valeras, The Boileroom Leeds, Bodega, Brudenell Social Club Leeds, White Denim, O2 Academy Liverpool, Art Brut, Jacaranda Records London, Kathryn Joseph, Union Chapel London, The Lemonheads, O2 Forum Manchester, International Teachers Of Pop, YES Margate, Kaiser Chiefs, Winter Gardens Nottingham, Catfish and the Bottlemen, Motorpoint Arena Nottingham, Palace, Bodega Oxford, Another Sky, The Bullingdon WEDNESDAY 20TH FEBRUARY Aberdeen, Fatherson, Lemon Tree Belfast, Razorlight, The Limelight Bexhill, Kaiser Chiefs, De La Warr Pavilion Bristol, Another Sky, The Crofters Rights Bristol, International Teachers Of Pop, Exchange Bristol, Psychedelic Porn Crumpets, Thekla Edinburgh, Art Brut, Sneaky Pete’s Glasgow, Du Blonde, Broadcast Glasgow, Queen Zee, The Garage Glasgow, RY X, Saint Luke’s Leeds, Avi Buffalo, Brudenell Social Club Leeds, Palace, Belgrave Music Hall Liverpool, Vinyl Staircase,

South Food And Drink Liverpool, White Denim, O2 Academy London, Bodega, Scala London, Petal, The Islington London, Toy, Village Underground London, Valeras, The Garage Nottingham, allusinlove, Bodega Plymouth, Catfish and the Bottlemen, Pavilions Reading Kathryn Joseph, South Street Arts Centre Reading, The Orielles, The Facebar Southampton, The Magic Gang, Engine Rooms Swansea, The Joy Formidable, Sin City THURSDAY 21ST FEBRUARY Birmingham, Avi Buffalo, Hare & Hounds Birmingham, The Joy Formidable, O2 Institute Brighton, Kathryn Joseph, Unitarian Church Bristol, Hey Charlie, The Louisiana Cardiff, Another Sky, Clwb Ifor Bach Dublin, Chvrches, Olympia Theatre Edinburgh, Palace, The Mash House Edinburgh, Razorlight, Liquid Rooms Glasgow, Art Brut, Stereo Huddersfield, Fatherson, The Parish Leeds, Psychedelic Porn Crumpets, Brudenell Social Club London, Hippo Campus, O2 Shepherds Bush Empire London, International Teachers Of Pop, Oslo London, Jungle, Alexandra Palace Manchester, Du Blonde, YES Manchester, RY X, Cathedral Manchester, The Lemon Twigs, O2 Ritz Newcastle, Queen Zee, Think Tank?

Nottingham, The Orielles, The Rescue Rooms Reading, The Magic Gang, Sub89 FRIDAY 22ND FEBRUARY Bristol, Petal, The Crofters Rights Dublin, Chvrches, Olympia Glasgow, The Lemon Twigs, Saint Luke’s Hull, allusinlove, The Polar Bear Hull, Razorlight, University Leamington Spa, Fatherson, The Zephyr Lounge Liverpool, Valeras, Jacaranda Records London, Catfish and the Bottlemen, The SSE Arena London, Massive Attack, The O2

London, The Joy Formidable, The Garage London, White Denim, The Roundhouse Manchester, Art Brut, YES Manchester, Avi Buffalo, Night & Day Cafe Manchester, Mothers, Soup Kitchen Manchester, Palace, Band On The Wall Margate, The Magic Gang, Dreamland Newcastle, Psychedelic Porn Crumpets, The Cluny Nottingham, Queen Zee, Bodega Preston, The Orielles, The Ferret Sheffield, International Teachers Of Pop, Leadmill SATURDAY 23RD FEBRUARY Brighton, Art Brut, The Haunt Brighton, Brian Fallon, St George’s Church Brighton, RY X, Dome Bristol, Hippo Campus, SWX Bristol Coventry, Hey Charlie, Kasbah Falmouth, Ider, Performance Centre Glasgow, Mothers, The Hug & Pint Glasgow, Valeras, Broadcast Hull, Catfish and the Bottlemen, Bonus Arena Leeds, allusinlove, Hyde Park Book Club Liverpool, International Teachers Of Pop, District London, Vinyl Staircase, Moth Club Manchester, Psychedelic Porn Crumpets, YES Manchester, Queen Zee, YES Newcastle, The Lemon Twigs, Riverside Southampton, Ed The Dog, Heartbreakers St. Albans, Fatherson, The Horn SUNDAY 24TH FEBRUARY Bath, Brian Fallon, Komedia Brighton, Hippo Campus, Concorde 2 Bristol, RY X, Trinity Bristol, The Orielles, Exchange Dublin, Massive Attack, 3Arena Edinburgh, Valeras, Sneaky Pete’s Glasgow, The Pale White, The Garage Leicester, Fatherson, The Shed Lincoln, Avi Buffalo, The Engine Shed Manchester, Demob Happy, Soup Kitchen Newport, Another Sky, Strings Bar & Venue Southampton, Gus Dapperton, Engine Rooms MONDAY 25TH FEBRUARY Birmingham, Demob Happy, O2 Institute Brighton, Gus Dapperton, Concorde 2 Brighton, Ider, Green Door Store Cardiff, Brian Fallon, Tramshed Edinburgh, The Pale White, The Mash House Leeds, Mothers, Belgrave Music Hall Leeds, The Lemon Twigs, LUU Manchester, Kathryn

Joseph, YES Manchester, Petal, Gullivers Oxford, Psychedelic Porn Crumpets, The Bullington Oxford, Sea Girls, O2 Academy Southampton, Another Sky, Heartbreakers TUESDAY 26TH FEBRUARY Birmingham, Ider, Sunflower Lounge Birmingham, Mothers, Hare & Hounds Birmingham, Sea Girls, Hare & Hounds Birmingham, The Lemon Twigs, O2 Institute Birmingham, Troye Sivan, O2 Academy Brighton, Another Sky, Komedia Brighton, Psychedelic Porn Crumpets, Green Door Store Bristol, Gus Dapperton, Thekla Dublin, Catfish and the Bottlemen, Olympia Edinburgh, Demob Happy, Sneaky Pete’s Leeds, Petal, Oporto Leeds, Press To MECO, Hyde Park Book Club London, Palace, Village Underground Manchester, Brian Fallon, Albert Hall Nottingham, While She Sleeps, Rock City Southampton, Fatherson, The Joiners York, The Orielles, The Cresent WEDNESDAY 27TH FEBRUARY Bedford, Fatherson, Esquires Belfast, Catfish and the Bottlemen, Ulster Hall Birmingham, Twenty One Pilots, Resorts World Arena Brighton, The Coral, Concorde 2 Cambridge, Another Sky, The Portland Arms Carlisle, The Pale White, The Old Fire Station Edinburgh, Sea Girls, The Mash House Glasgow, Petal, Hug & Pint Glasgow, While She Sleeps SWG3 Hull, The Orielles, The Welly Club Leeds, Ider, Headrow House Leeds, Kathryn Joseph, Brudenell Social Club London, Mothers, Oslo London, Psychedelic Porn Crumpets, Dingwalls London, The Lemon Twigs, The Roundhouse Manchester, Billie Eilish, Academy Manchester, Press To Meco, Jimmy’s Manchester, The Twilight Sad, Gorilla Newcastle, Demob Happy, Northumbria Institute THURSDAY 28TH FEBRUARY Glasgow, Billie Eilish, SWG3 Glasgow, Press To Meco, SWG3 Leeds, While She Sleeps, O2 Academy London, Another Sky, Rich Mix London, Gus Dapperton, Oval Space London, The Twilight Sad, Electric Ballroom London, Troye Sivan, Eventim Apollo Newcastle, Sea Girls, Northumbria Institute Norwich, The Orielles, The Waterfront Studio Sheffield, Fatherson, Leadmill Stockton, The Pale White, Georgian Theatre

57

ANY OTHER QUESTIONS?

THE

MAGIC GANG

Asking about the usual stuff is so boring. Why would you want to do that, when you could ask about dinosaurs and Nandos?

What was the first record you bought?

The Marshall Mathers LP. I heard it in the playground and was drawn in by the swearing.

How tall are you?

6 ft 1 to the press, but a humble 6 ft in reality.

What strength Nandos sauce do you order?

Medium.

I’ll say yes.

Have you ever had an imaginary friend?

Nope.

If you won the lottery, what would you spend the cash on?

I’d take all my friends on holiday.

What was the last thing you broke?

I broke my glasses on tour while playfighting our tour manager.

What’s the most embarrassing thing that’s ever happened to you?

I fell off stage at a festival last summer. That was quite bad.

What’s your biggest fear?

Falling from a great height, closely followed by loneliness If you could bring something extinct back to life, what would you choose?

A diplodocus. Or if Diplo ever went extinct, then him.

What have you got in your pockets right now?

Nothing... really, nothing.

Have you ever been to a showbiz party?

Yes, they’re not all they’re cracked up to be.

Do you believe in aliens?

What would you do if you were Prime Minister

58

for the day?

I think it’d be quite a rough day to be prime minister. Probably run and hide. Get on a train somewhere nice and just stay out the way for a bit.

Tell us a secret about yourself?

Never.

What’s your fave TV show?

I really like this show called Pawn Stars. It’s a reality show about a pawn shop in Vegas.

Have you ever written a fan letter?

I haven’t.

How punk are you out of ten?

What even really is punk anymore?

I think that’s quite a punk answer.

Have you ever sold your own CD or merch on eBay? No, but someone sent me a link to a signed one for £50 which got me thinking.

Do you have any interesting scars?

I have a big scar on my knee, from the stage thing.

Have you ever been thrown out of somewhere?

Yes, there’s a bar in Brighton where I’m on first name terms with the bouncer.

Why are you like this?

Blame the parents, as they say. P The Magic Gang will play the Slacker tour in Southampton (20th February), Reading (21st) and Margate (22nd).

DORK

D OWN WI T H BO RI N G

DORK readdork.com