** PLUS **
SLEATER-KINNEY
MARIKA HACKMAN
FRANK CARTER & THE RATTLESNAKES
TATE MCRAE
DOWN WITH BORING.
Yard
THE LAST DINNER PARTY
+ LOADS MORE
ISSUE 84 · FEBRUARY 2024 · READDORK.COM
THE BIG ALBUMS FOR 2024.
WITH... CRAWLERS COURTING MGMT WHILE SHE SLEEPS BODEGA + MORE
Act.
FIRST UK APPEARANCE IN 20 YEARS
FINAL UK FESTIVAL
311 Alien Weaponry All Them Witches Alpha Wolf alt blk era atreyu bleed from within BRAND OF SACRIFICE calva louise Celestial Sanctuary charlotte sands Counterparts Crystal Lake deathbyromy defects Delilah Bon Dream State Dying Fetus Dying Wish Elvana Erra Fit For A King frozemode gel halocene Hanabie Harper Heriot HOLDING ABSENCE hoobastank HotWax Imminence karnivool Kelsy Karter & The Heroines KNIFE BRIDE lord of the lost MAKE THEM SUFFER MISSIO NOAHFINNCE OXYMORrONS PEST CONTROL Pinkshift RØRY Royal & The Serpent Scene Queen Scowl Shadow of Intent Silverstein SLAUGHTER TO PREVAIL Speed STORM The Blue Stones the callous daoboys Those Damn Crows tigercub Underside Until I Wake Urne VUKOVI wargasm zulu
PLUS MORE TO BE ANNOUNCED
downloadfestival.co.uk DONINGTON PARK 14-16 JUNE 2024
(SUBJECT TO LICENCE)
(BILL SUBJECT TO CHANGE)
INDEX.
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Issue 84 | February 2024 | readdork.com | Down With Boring
Hiya, Dear Reader.
As we step into 2024, we welcome you back to our pages as we get Really Quite Excited about some of the big records set to arrive over the next twelve months. From a possible second album from Wet Leg, an “almost finished” record from Billie Eilish, and a vague hope we may hear from Wolf Alice before the year’s end, there’s a lot to get excited about. Yard Act leap out of Leeds and into our hearts with their brilliant second album, ‘Where’s My Utopia?’. Building on the foundations laid by their acclaimed debut, they venture into new realms, proving they’re no one trick ponies. In the world of debutants, Crawlers stand tall. Their first album, ‘The Mess We Seem To Make’, is a raw and compelling journey through the labyrinth of self-discovery and empowerment. It’s a testament to the transformative power of music, and a bold statement of arrival on the global stage. Courting, ever the mavericks, dazzle us with ‘New Last Name’. Their album is not just a collection of tracks but a tapestry of creativity, weaving together a narrative that challenges the conventional boundaries of the music album. All three long-time Dork faves feature on our covers this month for the first time. Elsewhere, the enigmatic MGMT return with ‘Loss of Life’, a title that belies the optimistic pulse throbbing at the core of this album. Andrew VanWyngarden and Ben Goldwasser continue to evolve, embracing a message of hope and openmindedness, proving that their journey is as unpredictable as it is fascinating. We’re also checking out new records from Bodega, While She Sleeps and Another Sky, plus profiling loads of big hopefuls for the year ahead. But that’s not all. This issue is bursting at the seams with interviews that take you behind the scenes and into the minds of artists like Tate McRae, Sleater-Kinney, Sprints, L Devine, Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes, and Marika Hackman. We also dive deep into the freshest albums from The Last Dinner Party, The Smile, and Folly Group, among others. And for those who live for the thrill of live music, our reports from Chappell Roan, Ashnikko, Wargasm, and more will set you right. Best get started then, eh?
‘Editor’ @stephenackroyd
readdork.com Editor Stephen Ackroyd Deputy Editor Victoria Sinden Associate Editor Ali Shutler Contributing Editors Jake Hawkes, Jamie Muir, Martyn Young Scribblers Abigail Firth, Alexander Bradley, Ciaran Picker, Dan Harrison, Dillon Eastoe, Emma Quin, Jack Press, Finlay Holden, Jessica Goodman, Kelsey McClure, Minty Slater-Mearns, Neive McCarthy, Rebecca Kesteven, Rob Mair, Sam Taylor, Steven Loftin Snappers Barney Curran, Chris Hornbecker, Darina, Derek Bremner, Enzo Iriarte, Frances Beach, Jamie MacMillan, Jennifer McCord, Jonah Freeman, Patrick Gunning, Pooneh Ghana, Sarah Louise Bennett, Steve Gullick, Travis Shinn
Top Ten. 04 06 07
TALK SHOW SUM 41 THE RHYTHM METHOD
Intro.
24 26 33 34 38 44
WHILE SHE SLEEPS CRAWLERS ANOTHER SKY MGMT COURTING BODEGA
Features.
08 10
TATE MCRAE DORK’S NIGHT OUT
Hype.
46 50 52 56 58
12 13
JUNODREAM RATBAG
Incoming.
Big In ‘24. 16
YARD ACT
62 62
SLEATER-KINNEY SPRINTS MARIKA HACKMAN L DEVINE FRANK CARTER & THE RATTLESNAKES
REVIEWS THE LAST DINNER PARTY
63 64 65 65 66
FOLLY GROUP SPRINTS DEAD POET SOCIETY COURTING MARIKA HACKMAN
68 69 69 69
CHAPPELL ROAN VIVA SOUNDS WARGASM ASHNIKKO
70
THE VACCINES
Get Out.
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TOP TEN. GOLD THE BEST HAPPENING
STUFF N O W.
SOUNDS
TALK SHOW are finally ready to drop their debut album.
Words: Sam Taylor.
it’s more than worth the wait. We caught up to find out more. Hi Harrison! How’s it going? Are you up to anything fun today? I’ve actually had a really nerdy day. I went guitar shopping on Denmark Street as I’m currently looking for something new to play this album on tour. It’s a bit of a whirlwind on Denmark Street; sometimes, you instantly know what you’re looking for, and other times it’s much more difficult.
→ From the pulsating heart of South London, a new chapter is being etched
by the indomitable Talk Show. Initially making their presence known on the capital’s music scene before the madness of the pandemic hit, in 2024 they finally stand poised to unleash ‘Effigy’, their much-awaited debut album that promises to capture the raw intensity of their live performances and distil it into nine tracks of unapologetic boldness. Due on the 16th February via Missing Piece Records, lead single, ‘Gold’, is a testament to this. It’s a track that doesn’t just demand attention — it seizes it, with relentless drums and a
4. DORK
Tell us about your debut album ‘Effigy’ – when did you start work on it? What was your headspace like at the time? Writing pretty much started as soon as we came out of the studio from recording the previous EP. It felt like a pretty natural process aiming for something bigger and, on the whole, aimed to be a bit braver. I think that’s why we started to pull from a wider cross-section of influences. I’d been listening to a lot of Nine Inch Nails and Rage Against the Machine, stuff that was a lot harder and darker, with loads of textures and nuances. With NIN, it’s got so many different layers to it, which is what I really wanted to explore. How could we create an album that wasn’t one-dimensional and had a range of emotions? We talked a lot in the studio with Remi about the fact that there’s nothing interesting about screaming in a hurricane; it’s much more alluring and effective whispering instead.
"WE’VE BUILT AN EFFIGY TO A NIGHTCLUB, FROM THE What’s the album about? Who is the effigy for? MUSIC TO THE COVER" It’s not technically ‘about’ anything, but H A R R I S O N S WA N N
bassline that pulses with the lifeblood of the city’s night. Ready to make their grand opening statement, ‘Effigy’ is the sound of a band channelling their fire into an album that frontman Harrison Swann describes as bigger and braver than anything that’s come before. Trust us,
the main musical nods in the album, such as ‘Gold’ and ‘Catalonia’, are supposed to feel like you’re in a club. The main one we talk about a lot is the one in Blade, but the claustrophobia of the practical scene in Fallen Angels and Enter the Void played a massive part. I hate all the really reductive cliches about clubs, drugs, and ‘escapism’; in my eyes, they can also be really
.
TOP TEN
intimidating and unsettling places, and so it was important to have a sense of that juxtaposition. It’s why my vocals were mixed to feel like they’re either the voice in your head or the person standing right next to you jam-packed in a club. For the title, I suppose, in short, we’ve built an effigy to a nightclub, from the music to the cover. Also, the fact that effigies aren’t just hated and burnt but also worshipped, and I felt that fit perfectly for the album. It isn’t a romantic ode to a club, and it’s not a damnation either. How did you approach curating the tracklisting? We were pretty much all on the same page when it came to the track listing. We knew it had to start with ‘Gold’ and go from there. It needed to take you through this club space we’d envisioned in the music. Ending on ‘Catalonia’ was also a total given; it’s where we really tried to hone in on creating an atmosphere that you could feel, so it made sense to finish there.
THE LYNKS EFFECT → Lynks has announced their debut album, ‘ABOMINATION’.
They’ve also shared a new single, ‘CPR’, which follows on from ‘(WHAT DID YOU EXPECT FROM) SEX WITH A STRANGER’, ‘NEW BOYFRIEND’ and ‘USE IT OR LOSE IT’, and arrives ahead of a headline tour that kicks off in April 2024. “There’s this temptation to shrink yourself and make yourself seem all helpless and vulnerable with those guys, so they get to feel like some Big Strong Man protecting you. CPR felt like the perfect metaphor for that weird dynamic,” Lynks explains. “I first had the idea for CPR while doing a first-aid course at my old job. I was mid-chest compression on my dummy, and suddenly the chorus just came into my head over the rhythm of my hands on the doll. I quickly ran to the toilet to do a voicenote, then got back to saving imaginary lives.” Of the album, set for release on 12th April, they add: “I think on the EPs, I was trying so hard to get anyone to pay attention. Early on I was like, ‘Well, every song needs to be a hilarious concept’. Whereas this album, there’s quite a few of those, but there’s also songs that aren’t necessarily funny, or they’re exploring an idea rather than being really specific.”
Did you hit upon any unexpected challenges during the record’s creation? I wouldn’t call it an unexpected challenge, but once we were in the studio with Remi, it took on this new whole lease of life. Remi really helped us pinpoint all the dark corners of the music and accentuate all the breaks. It was all these millisecond notes or pauses that the detail really started to shine through. It became a cardinal sin to play over the top of each other, especially me and Tom. So that got pretty intense and pushed us pretty damn hard to get better at what we were playing. How does ‘Gold’ fit into the album? ‘Gold’ really helped pave the way for the rest of the album. Whenever we’ve played it live to crowds, the response is always instantaneous, and it made us clock pretty early on like, “Wow we’ve got something here”. I’m really fuckin’ proud of that song. Do you think anything about the album will be a surprise to fans? It’s weird, and it’s different, but I know it’s hands down the best thing we’ve ever written. What would you most like to achieve with the album? The thing I’ve always said is I want to take this band/the album as far as it will go. Take it to the biggest stages and play it to the biggest crowds. Getting to Glasto wouldn’t be too shabby, either. Are there any debut albums from other artists you’re especially looking forward to right now? A band called Maruja joined us on tour this year back in Spring. Without a shadow of a doubt, them – plus they’re sound as fuck Is there anything else we should know? We’ve got some pretty special shows lined up for the next year, so keep your eyes peeled. P Talk Show’s debut album ‘Effigy’ is out 16th February.
SUCH GREAT HEIGHTS → Death Cab For Cutie and The Postal
Service have confirmed their previouslyteased London show. The date is part of a
wider tour that will see them both performing albums in full – The Postal Service’s ‘Give Up’ and Death Cab For Cutie’s ‘Transatlanticism’ – with the London stop taking place on 25th August for All Points East. Lead vocalist and guitarist Ben Gibbard says: “I know for a fact I will never have a year again like 2003. The Postal Service record came out, ‘Transatlanticism’ came out. These two records will be on my tombstone, and I’m totally fine with that. I’ve never had a more creatively inspired year.”
TIME FLIES
→ Sea Girls have unveiled details for third album, ‘Midnight Butterflies’.
The twelve-track record will be released 14th June via the band’s new independent label Alt. Records, and features previous singles ‘Weekends & Workdays’ and ‘Young Strangers’. Frontman Henry Camamile says: “It feels and sounds like a fledgling band making their energetic untainted debut record. It’s super optimistic and euphoric. There was a huge freedom in making this record. It’s an exciting time for music across genres, and who wouldn’t want to be a part of that?” READDORK.COM 5.
FINAL FANTASY
END GAME
→ Bombay Bicycle Club have recorded a new EP, ‘Fantasies’. The four-track effort follows on from their recent album ‘My Big Day’, and sees them team up with Lucy Rose, Rae Morris, Liz Lawrence and Matilda Mann. It’s due on 23rd February. The band explain: “When we decided to hold ‘Fantasneeze’ back for its own release after the album, we kept working and finished off three other songs in short order. We think of this as a Bombay & Friends release because each song has a good friend of the band singing on it (Lucy Rose, Rae Morris, Liz Lawrence, Matilda Mann). Some are old friends with long-term, close associations to the band (Lucy Rose for instance) while Matilda Mann is a newer collaborator (having contacted Jack to do some co-writing initially a couple years ago). It’s also very much a continuation of My Big Day as it was recorded around the same time and mixed by Dave Fridmann.”
SUM 41‘s ‘Heaven :x: Hell’ masterfully melds nostalgic pop-punk with heavy metal, symbolising their evolutionary arc in what may be a farewell with an album that both surprises and satisfies.
"IT WAS ONLY ONCE I SAT BACK Up’ careens with weighty intensity and emotion, following the full-force pop-punk AND LISTENED of ‘Landmines’. These two slices of the grander two-disc TO IT THAT I FELT, project introduce its intended duality. While ‘Landmines’ is as anthemic as Sum 41 have YOU KNOW WHAT? sounded in yonks, a proper throwback to their output two decades ago, ‘Rise Up’ fits I’M ACTUALLY more neatly into their heavier modernday stuff. Both are as deliciously decadent GOOD TO GO OUT in their respective fields; just don’t ask THIS ONE" guitarist and vocalist Deryck Whibley where ON ‘Rise Up’ came from.
→ The second helping from Canadian punks Sum 41’s upcoming eighth album ‘Heaven :x: Hell’ is a hair-raising, metal-sheened, call-to-arms. ‘Rise
→ Bloc Party have booked a new London event. The band will perform their biggest show to date at London’s Crystal Palace Park on Sunday 7th July, joined by The Hives, Friendly Fires, The Mysterines and Connie Constance. Kele Okereke comments: “We’ve been having so much fun playing shows over the past year, so it makes sense to do something special for old and new fans, celebrating twenty years of Bloc Party. We heard from a lot of people that they couldn’t get tickets for the Silent Alarm gigs, so a one-off summer party playing that and the bangers feels like the right thing to do.”
6. DORK
Words: Steven Loftin. Photo: Travis Shinn.
PARTY TIME
“As soon as you asked me, I’m like, I don’t DERYCK WHIBLEY even know where it came from. I have no recollection of it. And I have a good memory, wait for us to hear what they’ve concocted. too!” he laughs. “Sometimes they come “I don’t think I could be more proud than I quickly, and you forget about them. I’ll go am right now about this record. And I’m through my phone looking for ideas I’ve sure people will have their opinions. Some written, and I will come across something will say it’s not the best record we’ve ever from a year ago, and it’s a fully written song.” made, some might say it is, or that it’s not ‘Heaven :x: Hell’ is set to be a twentyas heavy as they thought it was gonna be, song epic, with the two sides taking ten or it’s not as punk as they thought it would tracks each. “’Rise Up’ represents the be. But none of that can really touch me at second side,” Deryck explains. “The album this point. You can think whatever you like. I ‘Heaven :x: Hell’ has 10 songs on each side; think it is the best record. So, to me, it is.” the Heaven side is a pop-punk side, and And for any doubters about Sum 41’s the Hell side is our heavier, metallic, metalfinal countdown, Deryck offers this sage ish sound,” he confirms. This record is also outlook: “We were not intentionally trying billed as their farewell album after nearly to achieve [this], but we’re pleasantly three decades. surprised with the end, and feeling like it “I didn’t sit down to try to write an album,” was a gift. I’m so happy with it... everybody says Deryck. “I thought at first I was writing else is invited to the party, but the party is songs for other people because I was awesome whether you’re there or not.” ■ getting asked by managers and record Sum 41’s album ‘Heaven :x: Hell’ is out companies if I would work on music for 29th March. other people - and I didn’t have any music. So I thought, okay, well, I should probably have something just in case I end up working with somebody, and I started writing songs, but I ended up liking everything that I was writing, and I thought, I don’t really want to give this away.” There’s an anticipation that Deryck and co. can’t
WHAT’S ON TV? With their new full-length ‘Peachy’ due this March, THE RHYTHM METHOD are changing up their sound with widescreen ambition.
→ “I was just finishing scrubbing the floor at the shop I work at.” It is not the
“I WANTED IT TO NOT ONLY FAIL AT BUILDING A NEW AUDIENCE, BUT ALIENATE OUR CURRENT AUDIENCE… THAT’S WHAT A REAL SECOND ALBUM IS SUPPOSED TO DO”
→ Rough Trade is set to open
its largest UK location to date in Liverpool. This new store will
be the sixth in the UK for Rough Trade, joining its three London locations and stores in Bristol and Nottingham. The company also plans to expand into Europe, with a flagship store in Berlin slated for 2024. Situated at 50-56 Hanover Street in the city centre, it promises a dynamic event schedule featuring both national and local acts. The 6500 square foot space, scheduled to open in the early months of this year, will also include a bar and café, in collaboration with Signature Brew and Dark Arts, offering draught beers and fresh coffee.
J O E Y B R A D B U RY
truly could be. “We really wanted to go for it when it comes to making a second album,” says Joey boldly. “That classic idea of changing up your sound. We approached that in a tongue-in-cheek way, which is what we normally do anyway. I wanted it to not only fail at building a new audience, but alienate our current audience. In my mind, that’s what a real second album is supposed to do,” he laughs. With a brilliant second album set to be released, the challenge for the Rhythm Method now is to get back on that hamster wheel and balance their working lives with the glamour and glory of live performance and bringing The Rhythm Method to life. “I’m pretty certain we’re going to do some touring. It’s going to happen. There’s a lot of work I need to do to get back into it,” admits Joey. “It’s hard because a massive part of me doesn’t know if I want to do that. It’s an inherently unhealthy pursuit for validation from people I don’t know. I’m aware that without sounding big-headed, I am good at performing live, though, and I am very entertaining. It’s the thing I’m best at, so I should really jump on it. I’ve got to remember why we do this. It doesn’t need to be an unhealthy pursuit for validation; it can just be a bit of fun.” ■ The Rhythm Method’s album ‘Peachy’ is out 8th March.
RIGHT BACK TO IT
→ Waxahatchee has announced a new album, the first for her new label home ANTI-. ‘Tigers Blood’ is due 22nd March, and features collaborations with MJ Lenderman, Spencer Tweedy and Phil and Brad Cook. She’s also shared a new single, ‘Right Back To It’, with a video directed by Corbett Jones and Nick Simonite. You can check it out on readdork.com now.
Words: Martyn Young.
usual opening you expect when you speak to a pop star about their new record, but then again, The Rhythm Method have always occupied a unique space in the alt-pop firmament. The London duo of Joey Bradbury and Rowan Martin have been a cult act in the most traditional sense for a decade now. Adored by many yet reviled by some, above all else, the Rhythm Method are survivors, and their classic British pop eccentricity has endured to carry them into releasing their second album ‘Peachy’ four years after their engaging and ebullient debut ‘How Would You Know I Was Lonely?’. As Joey’s floor scrubbing would suggest, though, this journey has been challenging and with more than a few diversions as the duo try to navigate their way through a musical landscape that is becoming ever more difficult for any act not at the very top tier to prosper. “It’s very hard to make a living in music these days. It’s nice to have a real job,” says Joey. As the dream of the second album they created and completed at least a year ago finally begins to become reality, the duo are contemplating what it means to once again be The Rhythm Method. “I kind of came around to being okay with being a humble barber, so it’s been hard getting back into that headspace of having a public-facing role, but we’re getting there.” ‘Peachy’ is the sound of a new Rhythm Method. The playful spark, humour and irreverence are still there, but this time, it’s couched in a misty-eyed and wistful melancholy that makes the album supremely touching and moving in a way that their music has only previously hinted at. It’s a significant step up. If it feels like a different band, then that’s predominantly down to the marked change in circumstances in which the album was created. Dodging numerous Covid lockdowns between 2020 and 2022, the band decamped to West Kirby and ex-Coral member and producer Bill Ryder Jones’s studio to create their own mini version of a masterpiece in their own idiosyncratic image. The band were aware that they were going against some of the kitschy, playful exuberance of the rudimentary lo-fi quality of their earlier work, but it was about time that they finally realised what being in a band in a creative sense
TRADING PLACES
TOP TEN
READDORK.COM 7.
INTRO. THE BEATING HEART OF POP NONSENSE.
8. DORK
S
SHE’S A Tate McRae is a talent on the edge of superstardom. With her new album ‘THINK LATER’ out now, she’s ready.
I
f you’re a fan of big understatements, here’s one for you. It’s been a big year for Tate McRae. Her music, with its blend of heartfelt lyrics and infectious energy, has resonated with quite literally millions of listeners worldwide, putting her as a serious contender for the AAA-list top table. “It has been an absolute whirlwind,” she exclaims. In truth, with her epoch-defining megabop ‘greedy’ dominating playlists and airwaves wherever it lands, it’s been more like the pop culture equivalent of Deep Impact for a superstar that was only ever waiting for the right moment to explode. “I feel so lucky – Saturday Night Live was a real ‘pinch me’ moment,” she says, on the eve of the release of new full-length ‘THINK LATER’. “I’m just so happy the album is finally out.” McRae’s evolution from her debut to ‘THINK LATER’ is marked by a desire to find a more focused form, a vision brought to life with the guidance of Ryan Tedder. “My first album felt very all over the place to me musically,” she admits. “I knew I wanted my sophomore album to feel very cohesive - that is one of the reasons why I was so grateful to have Ryan Tedder as my executive producer. He was able to help me make sure all songs felt like they belonged to one collective body of work sonically.” The success of ‘greedy’ would be a defining moment for any star, bolstering confidence for what’s to follow. Having one of the biggest songs on the planet will do that. “Putting out music that is so personal
INTRO
“I HAD THIS WHOLE OTHER MAJOR SIDE OF MY PERSONALITY – A PLAYFUL, MORE FEISTY SIDE – THAT NO ONE GOT TO SEE!”
for this new era. “We all genuinely enjoy spending time together, too. Set days, shoots – it’s all been so fun. I feel so creatively free around my team to share my most insane and wild ideas.” Tate hasn’t shied away from surprising her audience, especially with the title-track. “It’s important to constantly evolve,” she states. “’Think Later’ the song is so different and at first that made me a little bit nervous – but what I’ve realised is that fear means I’m on the right track of pushing myself,” she asserts, embracing the challenge of pushing her creative boundaries. Of course, it’s far easier to try big things if you have a good coping TATE MCRAE mechanism to embolden the risktaking. For Tate, that’s her on-stage she adds, acknowledging the role of and vulnerable is always a bit scary,” alter-ego Tatiana, channelled when her experiences in shaping her music. Tate explains, “but I feel really she needs to add a bit of swagger. The creation of ‘THINK LATER’ grateful that people have responded Starting out as a bit of a joke among was a journey of self-discovery, with so well to what they have already fans, she’s definitely a real presence the final piece, ‘exes,’ bringing a sense heard.” now. “I have this one lyric in ‘cut my of completion. “The last song I wrote In ‘THINK LATER’, Tate showcases hair’ that says ‘sad girl bit got a little for this album was ‘exes’. Before ‘exes’, boring’. That is absolutely Tatiana a maturity and ambition in her I felt like I was still missing elements music, revealing different facets talking,” McRae explains. “I wanted to of my pop self. Once I finished ‘exes’, I of her personality - one she refers channel Tatiana in the studio because felt like I had said everything I wanted I really wanted a tonal shift and to to as “my pop-leaning era”. “For so to say. I felt fully complete,” she shares, lead with more confidence.” long, my music was very ballad-y emphasising the album’s authenticity. and sad,” she says. “I had this whole There’s been a lot of said about “That was such a satisfying feeling.” other major side of my personality - a how Tate has been bringing back that McRae’s creative vision was playful, more feisty side - that no one early 2000s pop-girl energy. McRae’s got to see! I also really wanted to make paramount, created on her own connection to the era is both a tribute terms, but with a team around her music that I could dance to as I’ve and a personal joy. “It’s such an playing a crucial role in realising always been a dancer.” honour. I take a lot of inspiration from it. “I think what has been the most McRae sees songwriting as a Christina and Britney,” she remarks, satisfying about ‘THINK LATER’ is therapeutic process, a way to gain celebrating the blend of past styles that everything has been entirely clarity on her life experiences. with modern creativity. “It’s a ton of my vision,” she says, praising her “Writing is totally a form of therapy,” fun for me to bring back past styles team’s collaborative spirit. “When she reflects. “It’s always easier to find and get to dance amongst some of the I shot the ‘greedy’ music video, I perspective on things when I can greatest dancers in the industry.” distinctly remember feeling like that write about it and break it down in my Combining music and dance has was the first time my creative vision head. I turned 20 this year and feel a been a fulfilling experience for McRae. was perfectly executed exactly how lot more comfortable in my skin. I’m “For the longest time, I couldn’t figure I imagined it. I am so grateful for my a lot more sure of myself in the studio out how to make music that I could now and I think that comes through in entire creative team around me,” she dance to. I feel like I finally cracked affirms, paying special attention to this album,” she states, highlighting the code,” she says. “It makes me so her personal and professional growth. shout out creative director Bradley J. excited. I’ve already started thinking “I really believe everything happens Calder, director Aerin Moreno, stylist about tour next year – I’ve never Joanie Del Santo, and choreographer for a reason. Everything I’ve been wanted to perform my music more through has helped inspire my writing Sean Bankhead. live than I have for this album!” “The entire team is so collaborative,” today. I truly feel I needed to go As Tate prepares to bring ‘Think she says, clearly emboldened by the through this past year to realise how Later’ to stages worldwide, that supportive environment around her important it is for me to trust my gut,” excitement is palpable. “I am so excited to tour the world next year. I am so grateful I get to do this for living,” she says, her journey from talent-in-waiting to a pop sensation a testament to her artistic brilliance and authenticity. “There is no better feeling than connecting with fans live and in person.” P
(SUPER) READDORK.COM 9.
PANIC STATIONS INTRO
Panic Shack. Lambrini Girls. The Itch. Name a better Christmas list.
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PHOTOS:PATRICK GUNNING
hat’s the most important day in the festive calendar? Yes, okay, 25th December may be quite high up the list, we’ll give you that – but here at Dork HQ, Dork’s Christmas Night Out has become an MVP in jingle bell fun. Serving as both the perfect farewell to the year that was, while getting very merry with some Dork favourites – it once again falls to the famed 100 Club in the heart of London’s busiest shopping street for a script-flipping celebration. Panic Shack. Lambrini Girls. The Itch. Name a better Christmas list. Roaring with vitality and with no songs out, The Itch have become a word-of-mouth live band packing in shows across London and beyond, and tonight sits as a true statement of intent. Sticking the disco ball into a blending wall of sound that touches across alternative, club and feverish punk in equal measure, the jam-packed 100 Club bears witness to a scorching set that sets the tone for the party to come. At times hypnotic and always electric, it’s an immediate crowd-pleasing starter course that signals a 2024 where The Itch are on everyone’s lips. From the moment Lambrini Girls take to the Dork’s Christmas Night Out stage, they’ve one goal: to turn The 100 Club on its head. Ripping firmly into frame, it’s an in-yourface reminder of how they’ve been turning heads all year, emerging as one of the most in-demand live bands going and stepping into an era where everyone has no choice but to dive into every circle pit and sweaty punkrock eruption. With both Phoebe and Lilly from the band regularly diving into the crowd, it’s a searing mix of unpredictability and danger that revels in the chaos it brings. A visceral shot in the arm, the likes of ‘Terf Wars’ and ‘Lads Lads Lads’ are met with rapture as Phoebe surfs across the room, jumps up on grand pianos and turns The 100 Club into her own personal playground. More than just the fun, the set is filled with callouts rallying against JK Rowling, the government and sweaty nonces. By the time ‘Boys In The Band’ and ‘Craig David’ wrap up proceedings, Lambrini Girls have seized yet another night. A
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glorious live phenomenon with a vital message and purpose, there’s no choice but to dive in. For many, wrapping up an evening already drenched in blow-away moments would seem impossible, but not for Panic Shack. Their reputation as a towering on-stage force has taken them across the globe, with tonight serving as a prime example of the tidal wave of spinning punk energy that makes them a band you’d happily follow into battle. ‘Meal Deal’, ‘Mannequin Man’ and ‘Jiu Jits You’ swing across The 100 Club, complete with synchronised dance moves and an allencompassing spirit that pulls everyone closer. At the forefront of it all is that welcoming warmth (even when there are pogoing pits and scream-along hooks galore) that has come to define what Panic Shack are about: having fun and making every single person gathered feel like they’ve been mates with them for life. It’s an Xmas celebration of the highest order. With new tracks making their way across the set, it serves as a moment to toast a year which has seen Panic Shack become an undeniable sensation. With singalongs and beaming smiles, they’re a punk band twisting and turning punk into whatever they see fit, and as ‘The Ick’ and ‘Who’s Got My Lighter?’ put the festive cherry on top, The 100 Club sits in awe. The greatest gang in town prove those credentials and more. It’s a Panic Shack world now (not just for Christmas). JAMIE MUIR
S
YOUR ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO THE BEST NEW NAMES.
Words: Finlay Holden. Photo: Barney Curran
JUN ODR EAM 12. DORK
With their debut album, dreamrock four-piece Junodream set out on an odyssey through space, sound and humanity.
ratbag them yet, but I will. I will. I like to collect things to stick in my journal, like old spiders and stuff. I like many things, but I feel as though I should stop at some point.
With a team of fictional monsters for bandmates and a wild, brilliant imagination, ratbag is anything but average → New Zealand-based musician, artist, dinosaur
sprinkles enthusiast and all-around superstar ratbag is building her own immersive visual and sonic world. With the help of her (whisper it) ‘fictional’ bandmates and co-conspirators, a team of monsters called Deemo, Eugene, Slug and Fritz, she’s spinning a new project that encompasses everything from sculptures, drawings, photography and fashion. Her debut EP ‘why aren’t you laughing’, out now, is a joyous manifestation of her boundless imagination. Hi, ratbag! How’s it going? Good morning. I am pretty good; I
H
just had a bowl of cereal and sat in the garden to write some words. Today, I’m going to practice with my band and maybe introduce them to my mum, though I will keep them on a leash still. Tell us about yourself – who are you, what do you like? I am ratbag, I’m also Sophie. I’m 20 soon, which feels bizarre. I like a lot of things; I like to draw, write, and make sounds. I like the colour blue, and also the colour red. I like to go for walks, but not if they’re uphill and not if I’m gonna see anyone I know. Love sprinkles. Chocolate, rainbow, doesn’t matter, down the hatch. I’m on the lookout for dinosaur ones. I haven’t quite found
ailing from their adopted home of London, space-rock quartet Junodream have steadily etched their name in the music scene since adopting their moniker in 2018. Their monumental debut album, ‘Pools Of Colour’, juxtaposes human emotion with the vast expanse of space, marking a stride forward six years in the making. Initially exploring various musical paths, the band eventually honed a more defined direction by sharpening their craft as a unit. “We needed a fresh band identity,” recalls singer Ed Vyvyan of those early days. “A new name, music we’re truly proud of; thoughtful, considered and deliberate rather than impulsive creations formed from anything that came out of our guitars and mouths.” Guitarist Dougal Gray adds that they “gained thick skin and learned what we really wanted to do by doing a lot of stuff that we didn’t.” With an extreme dose of potentially deluded passion, the group set forth a new vision that only their close collaboration would enable. “We feel like brothers or even a four-way marriage. Maybe both?” Junodream began as a DIY endeavour out of necessity, and that attention to detail has helped them curate a holistic
What first attracted you to making music? One day, I thought to myself, “Wouldn’t it be cool if I wrote a song right now?” So I sat on my bed with my dad’s ukulele and wrote a full song in one sitting. After I realised I could do it, I wrote more and more, and now it’s my favourite thing in the world. Can you remember the first song you wrote? Yes, and it will never see the light of day. How has your music evolved since then? My music has just become more ‘me’, to put it simply. My roots are always visible in my songs, which I think is cool. My production skills have grown greatly since my first produced song, but my love for mayhem and chaoticness in music has remained. What’s been the highlight of your time as a musician so far? Probably being able to sit back and watch my world seep into this
“DOES AN ANT KNOW WHAT A MOTORWAY IS? PROBABLY NOT” ED
VYVYAN
and fleshed-out universe. “We’ve always been in the trenches, ,” Dougal says. “At the end of the day, it’s down to our ideas and dedication. Not solely within the music, but everything around it as well.” With guitarist Tom Rea educating himself to become production lead, the band were empowered to steer their recording into new areas of discovery, and 2021’s ‘Travel Guide’ EP offered an excellent example of their self-sufficient abilities. With ‘Pools Of Colour’, though, Junodream recruited Simon Byrt to add a new level of urgency to their “crossshed” record. “We do think about stuff a lot, and when you overthink things, it can inhibit moments of magic. Simon was great at refining our specificity without losing spontaneity.” Stand-out single ‘Death Drive’ demonstrates the enchanting work of all
HYPE
"THE FACT THAT PEOPLE ACTUALLY LIKE HOW CRAZY AND CHAOTIC MY MUSIC SOUNDS IS SURPRISING TO ME" RATBAG
world. And to watch as people join in on whatever I’m doing. It’s cool. Has anything about being a musician or getting your music ‘out there’ surprised you? The fact that people actually like how crazy and chaotic my music sounds is surprising to me. But then again, it makes sense. Most people’s brains are loud like mine; some of you are just better at hiding it. You’ve got some fictional bandmates, right? Who are they, and what do they do? There’s Deemo (on the bass), Fritz (on keys), Eugene (on drums) and
involved parties and quickly introduces multiple themes that will twist and turn across the album. “It talks about a wide open space, i.e. Earth, but then focuses on a kid getting angry at you for getting their McDonald’s order wrong. The duality of that is so bizarre,” Ed points out. “We are floating in nothingness, yet there are these people who are determined to make someone else’s life a living hell. There is conflict in every corner of our planet.” “It happens on every level,” Dougal chips in. “From backrooms of the internet to full-scale conflict, there is this horrible destructive thing in all of us that seems to be manifesting alongside the rise of technology in the 21st century. This is one dystopian, doom-running universe.” It’s not exactly the happiest of tunes, then, but the groove it brings lets listeners shake off that pent-up frustration. The ten-tracker offers a fascinating balance of broad, existential topics (‘Fever Dream’, ‘Pools of Colour’) alongside finely detailed personal stories (‘The Beach’, ‘Happiness Advantage’), with some tracks miraculously managing to combine both (‘Sit In The Park’). The zoom setting constantly shifts, but far from dizzying the LP’s through line, it conjures a distinct pastiche of wholly human questions and weaves a tapestry of deep introspection.
Slug (on guitar). They play my songs for me so I can sing them. And, in return, I brought them into this world, although I haven’t let them out of the house yet, so they aren’t exactly happy to be here right now. You’ve just released your debut EP – what’s it about? Where did it come from? Was it an easy birth? ‘why aren’t you laughing?’ is your invitation into my world. I’ve opened the door just a crack, enough for you to see the beginning of what’s going on. These four songs had been brewing in a big ol’ bowl of soup in my head and are now ready to be eaten by you. It feels quite scary to hand over my songs, like I’m handing pieces of me to the world, but I think it’s equally as exciting. How did you approach curating the EP’s tracklisting? I wanted to start and end the EP on a mistake. ‘dead end kids’ starts with a guitar riff I recorded in my room. While recording, I dropped my pick and fucked up the take. And at the very end of rats in my walls, I play the wrong chord on the organ. I kept my frustrated grunt in there, too. I don’t know why I like mistakes, but I just do. I thought it would be a nice way to go about my first-ever EP. What does being a successful musician look like to you? Hmmm. I’ve brought my world into this world, and in doing so, I’ve had people join in and become invested. So, I guess I already feel a sense of success, to be honest. But from here onwards, I would love to keep building this world and collecting the people interested in it. What else are you working on right now? More songs. More art. More of everything. I’m very excited to keep peeling off slices of my world for you to see. Do you have big plans for 2024? My plans for 2024 are to find dinosaur sprinkles. ratbag’s debut EP ‘Why Aren’t You Laughing?’ is out now.
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HYPE
"THIS RECORD IS ABOUT FINDING THE DAISIES GROWING THROUGH THE CONCRETE" ED
VYVYAN
“Depending on what scale you’re thinking about something, the amount that you care becomes more intense, or the amount that it’s significant melts away,” Ed elaborates, using the record’s penultimate offering as a sample. “’Lullaby’ is about being stuck in your bedroom in London - you can hear everything going on outside, and it’s really affecting you because of the tightness of that context, the small space you’re in. ‘The Oranges’ expands more into pondering-the-universe territory, so it has to be matched sonically as well. ‘Lullaby’ is tight and dry, ‘The Oranges’ is the opposite.” Total thematic and sonic synchronicity makes for a cohesive and transformative journey, with the first lyric wiping the slate clean (“This is a new day”), the aforementioned lullaby putting you – hopefully metaphorically – to sleep before the album closer spirals inside lucid dreams that represent a new-found state of being. In particular, Ed describes that tune as “a congruence of all that we talk about on the record. In lucid dreams, you’re in a tight physical place, but the possibilities are infinite, and you completely transcend the issues you’ve faced elsewhere. Nothing matters. Where you might seem insignificant in other areas, you become fully significant in the dream world.” Such a broad but simultaneously in-depth examination of modern life is a step up from even the finest of Junodream’s previous ambitions, and the focused thought behind it is apparent. “We decided to take stock of where
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we are in the world through a couple of different lenses,” Ed shares. “Spatial, societal, and emotional. Things are hurtling at a million miles an hour, and looking at the news, you see AI revolutions, medical breakthroughs, and events unrelated to and frankly beyond most people’s day-to-day experiences.” “We’re talking about how weird things have become. Does an ant know what a motorway is? Probably not. Equally, do we know what’s going on around us on a societal and spatial level? Probably not, either. That knowledge gap is spiralling out of control. This record is about finding the daisies growing through the concrete. Even though everything looks grey, if you look close enough, there are pools of colour.” Although Junodream do touch on the darker aspects of life, acknowledging shared anxieties is a point of reference for other people to relate. “We’re not telling people to look at all the bad parts of the world; we just want people who do see them to know that they’re not alone. I feel a sense of overwhelming doom quite often, but when you put these ideas into a song and see what people resonate with, it makes you feel less isolated as well. We’re helping people to identify why they might feel insignificant.” This four-piece have clearly put considerable emphasis on writing and recording this batch of material, but out of the last few years has arisen a strong desire to build a tangible community that exists in the flesh, not only on the internet. By hosting a “meet-and-greet slash art installation slash piss-up” in London, Junodream have started doing precisely that, and their upcoming UK tour aims to deliver on this promise. “The album is partially commenting on a lack of connection between people, and that’s something we want to act against more and more,” Ed declares. “That’s crucial when there are so many artists online, 100,000 songs being added to Spotify every day. When you spend money on a CD or vinyl, you’ve committed to liking this artist, and you can take some ownership over that, but that’s dissipated when you pay for all music ever with a tenner. We have to create our own ways to connect with each other now.” “We want everything we put out there to build on the idea of the band; it should add to the character of Junodream. It’s a pain to be more deliberate with each move to develop that cohesion, but putting in that effort makes that more of an enjoyable journey instead of listening to a bunch of boring blokes on a stage somewhere.” “You’ve got to think about art as holistically as possible,” Dougal says. “If you apply that to every touchpoint that fans interact with, you start building a fingerprint, an identity. Who knows if it’ll work, but it makes it far more enjoyable than it might’ve been otherwise.” That high-reaching aspiration will never truly be complete, but there is undoubtedly much more yet to come. “The striving never stops; it accentuates every year. Every time we do something, our ambitions level up, and we get that drive to do something even bigger. Having finally done this album, which we waited for our whole career, we’re ready to go right onto the next one.” P
Junodream’s album ‘Pools Of Colour’ is out 26th January.
THIS
MONTH
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NEW MUSIC GREEN
LIGHT
→ Scout has teamed up with Phoebe Green for a new version of ‘Who’. The track arrives ahead of Scout’s upcoming debut EP ‘Everything Will Make Sense’, out 1st March via Sweat Entertainment. Speaking of the collaboration, Scout says: “Phoebe is someone I’ve looked up to a lot as an artist and a songwriter for a while so finding out she was down for a collab was so cool, especially with “Who” being my second ever release. Things fell into place really easily once that initial connection was made and I wanted to let Phoebe do her thing. She came to the studio with this beautiful idea for a second verse and I was like “that’s it, don’t change a thing”.
BIG
DOGS
→Fat Dog have released a new single, ‘All The Same’. Out via Domino, the track follows on from their debut ‘King Of The Slugs’, as well as their first-ever headline tour at the end of last year which included a night at London’s Scala. A limited edition 7” of “All The Same” will be released on 22nd March.
SINK
OR
SWIM
→ SNAYX are kicking off 2024 with a new single, ‘Sink Or Swim’. It’s from their upcoming EP ‘Better Days’, set for release on 9th February.“We’re poked and prodded into conventional shapes and forced to fit,” says frontman Charlie Herridge. “‘Sink or Swim’ is about rejecting social pressures and finding comfort in being different. Embracing your true identity and being able to block out the maelstrom of voices and opinions writing you off and holding you back. In a time where it feels like ‘nothing ever changes’, it’s important to reflect inwards and find comfort in your uniqueness and the simple happiness in being ‘awake and alive’.”
2024
UK TOUR
SUPPORT FROM
LOW TICKETS 05 FEBRUARY SOLD OUT 06 FEBRUARY SOLD OUT 07 FEBRUARY
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O2 INSTITUTE, BIRMINGHAM ACADEMY, MANCHESTER ROCK CITY, NOTTINGHAM
DATE ADDED DUE TO DEMAND
TROXY, LONDON TROXY, LONDON DREAMLAND, MARGATE LEAS CLIFF HALL, FOLKESTONE O2 GUILDHALL, SOUTHAMPTON O2 ACADEMY, BRISTOL O2 ACADEMY, OXFORD DOME, BRIGHTON
UK Tour
VENUE CHANGE, ORIGINAL TICKETS VALID
19 FEBRUARY 21 FEBRUARY SOLD OUT 22 FEBRUARY SOLD OUT 23 FEBRUARY
OCTAGON, SHEFFIELD O2 ACADEMY, LEEDS BARROWLAND, GLASGOW NX, NEWCASTLE
A CROSSTOWN CONCERTS, SJM & DF PRESENATATION BY ARRANGEMENT WITH WASSERMAN MUSIC
BY ARRANGEMENT WITH PRIMARY TALENT INTERNATIONAL
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TOBY SEBASTIAN SOMETHING ROMANTIC TOUR 2024
Thu 21 Mar Wed 27 Mar Thu 11 Apr
BRISTOL The Louisiana MANCHESTER YES (Pink Room) LONDON Bush Hall
CENDE
PLUS SPECIAL GUESTS
& HANDcuff ● MARCH
BRIGHTON CHALK
MARCH 26
● LONDON VILLAGE UNDERGROUND
by arrangement with Midnight Mango
T I C K E T S
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BIRM H 27 HARE &INGHAM HOUNDS
MARCH 24 ●
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MARCH
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LEEDS ● BRUDEN ELL SOCIAL CLUB
COVER STORY
As we charge headfirst into a new year, we’re already getting rather excited about some of the big albums we’re expecting to arrive over the next twelve months. Here are some of the best. 16. DORK
YARD ACT
When Yard Act found themselves locked in a battle for a Number 1 album at the start of 2022, it felt like an impossible dream. As they talk to Jake Hawkes ahead of its follow up this March, this time, they’re searching for Utopia. photography by DEREK BREMNER.
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elcome back, Dear Reader, to a new year full of promise and potential. Kicking us into 2024 with a bang is the second album from Leeds’ favourite band, Yard Act. Kicking off our chat with slightly less of a bang is the DIY going on in the pub we’re speaking in, which is loud enough to cause ripples in our drinks (on the menu: non-alcoholic Guinness for frontman James, alcoholic Guinness for drummer Jay, Fosters for bassist Ryan and an orange juice for guitarist Sam). Loud noises and eclectic drink choices aside, the band are here to discuss their new album ‘Where’s My Utopia?’, a wide-ranging and Really Rather Good follow-up to 2022’s debut ‘The Overload’. If album one saw them graduate from backrooms and basements, album two seems set to catapult them to a level that most bands spend their whole careers trying to attain. With this in mind, it’s a little bit odd that ‘Where’s My Utopia?’ was very nearly a concept album about… a U2 roadie? “The first draft of the album was even more in character than the debut,” says James with a laugh. “It was all about this roadie abandoning his son to go on tour with U2, but we decided that
Fisherman’s Friends
→ Did you know that Fisherman’s Friends (yes, the weird medicinal mint they sell in newsagents) is absolutely MASSIVE in Thailand? Neither did we, but Yard Act claim it’s true. We asked them to rank all the flavours they tried so you can be prepared if you ever visit. James: Before we start, can I just ask a technical point - is the sweet the friend of the fisherman, or is the brand the friend who makes the sweets? Ryan: It’s a guy who makes sweets for his fisherman friends, not some kind of living sweet who keeps fishermen company. Number one: Mandarin Ryan: Mouthfeel was the same as all the others, but they nailed the flavour on this one - it was explicitly mandarin, not generic citrus. Jay: I got slight cleaning product vibes, to be honest. Number two: Cherry James: Again, same mouthfeel, but with the essence of cherry. Ryan: This one suffered from tasting a bit too much like a cough-sweet. Number three: Peach Ryan: As always, same mouthfeel (Yes, we get it lads - Ed). James: Peach and mint just don’t work together, so this one was the weakest. Ryan: Imagine having loads of chewing gum, brushing your teeth, then eating a peach. Honourable mention: Original James: Original is still the best one, but Mandarin gave it a run for its money, which is impressive.
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was too high concept and probably not emotionally charged enough. Also, I got to a point where I realised that I was writing an album about a man joining a band and abandoning his son for a myriad of complex reasons, which basically means it’s about me. I got my dream job, and what that actually meant is I had to leave my family to do it, and it wasn’t as simple and victorious as I’d imagined in my head for all those years.” By stepping away from Bonoadjacent theatre, ‘Where’s My Utopia?’ has inverted the first album’s formula almost completely. Whereas ‘The Overload’’s eponymous first track sees James putting on the little-Englander costume of a pub landlord imploring the band to “Play the standards and don’t get political”, ‘Where’s My Utopia?’ instead opens with him quietly asking ‘Right, do you wanna know what I think?’ That’s not to say it’s all sincerity and depth - there are still asides about novelty fridge magnets, stupid fish, and the terrors of being buried alive at the bottom of a lake. But as with ‘Tall Poppies’ and ‘100% Endurance’ on the debut, this surreal humour is balanced against a genuinely emotional core. “I’ve just reached a point where I’m comfortable letting my guard down a bit more,” acknowledges James. “I never sat down and decided to move away from writing about characters; there wasn’t some grand intention when we started on album two. I think really the costume of other viewpoints stemmed from not being able to be comfortable with talking about myself. Probably my entire adult life has been a journey towards being more emotionally open - which is true for most adult men who are trying to undo a childhood and adolescence of
YARD ACT
“Humour is a constant part of real life - even in quite dark places” RYAN
silly or inappropriate or dark things in the same conversation. Even when I’m depressed, I laugh. “Before Yard Act, I’d never put that humour into my music or my lyrics, and it didn’t resonate because of that. It felt unnatural because it was. To me, humour is like a coin toss. Dropping a joke at a serious point is like the coin spinning in the air - will everyone be annoyed, or will it defuse the tension and make everyone feel better?” Retreating from caricatures and eccentric character portrayals may have resulted in an
album with more emotional heft, but as the initial impulse to write a roadie-focussed concept piece shows, that wasn’t the impetus behind the switch. The success of the first Yard Act album not only allowed the band to quit their day jobs, it also meant an intense schedule of touring, which entailed long periods away from home. This would be a difficult tradeoff for anyone, but with a young son at home, James found himself reflecting more and more on how being a dad changes your perspective on things.
NEEDHAM
being told to explicitly avoid talking about their feelings. I’ve still got my guard up; it’s still a jokey, standoffish way of discussing my feelings, but I’m slowly getting there.” This push-and-pull is the dominant energy which drives the album. ‘The Undertow’ sees James questioning the value of guilt “if you do nothing with it”, while ‘Down By The Stream’ morphs smoothly from absurd musings about the origin of childhood friend Johno (“I think his dad came over from somewhere else or something / some time in 85 or 86 / or maybe he was from Milton Keynes”) to a stark admission of adolescent cruelty and the long-term impacts of being bullied. It’s deeply personal and packs a punch that shows the huge amount of growth since tracks like ‘Fixer Upper’, without sacrificing the wry smile and sarcastic humour that make Yard Act such a distinctive band. “I think it connects because it’s human,” says Ryan. “It’s an honest representation rather than being forced or contrived in some way. People make jokes in all situations, and humour is a constant part of real life - even in quite dark places.” “I don’t really think about it that much, to be honest,” adds James. “Everyone in the band and everyone I’ve ever been friends with has a good sense of humour because it’s the foundation of all of my relationships. To me, it’s a natural part of life that you deal with heavy, real, and raw subject matter and still laugh multiple times at
READDORK.COM 19.
“Ever since ‘Fixer Upper’ went rogue and opened all those doors for us, we’ve followed our intuition” JAMES
SMITH
“I’m less and less certain of myself,” he explains. “And that means I have less and less energy to tell other people they’re wrong. Honestly, I know it’s a cliché, but having a kid changed me - I’m way more empathetic and way more tolerant to the human experience than I was. That certainty that I had is gone, and the self-assuredness that everybody has in their
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own opinions of right and wrong is quite scary to me now. I’m more comfortable not knowing or even trying to know how everything is supposed to be, but what comes with that is that the only thing I can still talk about with any degree of stability is myself and my own experiences. Ultimately, people use stories as an excuse to talk about themselves anyway, so it just means I’m not dancing around the subject matter any more.” Lyrically, the album may be more personal, but musically, its influences are far more diverse than the debut, a direction hinted at by the sprawling non-album release ‘The Trenchcoat Museum’, which the band refer to as a ‘bridge’ between the projects. Writing and recording as a four-piece from the get-go (the debut was sketched out by James and Ryan before Jay and Sam joined the band), as well with as a confidence gained from the reception to the debut, meant a freedom to experiment which has paid off in spades. “We got into quite a good rhythm, the four of us,” says Jay. “We all complement each other well in our pros and cons, so it felt like a pretty well-balanced way to write and record. I’ve got a history on the engineering side of making a record, too, so for us to be able to get together as a four-piece and not necessarily rely on studio time or external involvement gave us a lot of freedom to develop our ideas before we took it to a third party.” Ryan nods in agreement. “And we also laid the groundwork on album one,” he adds. “We
had ‘100% Endurance’ at the end, which left the door open for where we could go with the next record. It created this open-ended feeling because it deviated from the rest of the tracks and left a Disney-esque ending, which may have surprised people a bit. To me, it felt like quite a bolshie thing to do, but it worked.” “I remember when recording ‘Dark Days’, we didn’t want anything but four-piece instrumentation on it,” says Sam. “But then when we started recording ‘The Overload’ and ended up adding layers on layers on layers, I feel like a difference appeared there; I don’t think it started on this record. We also only added bits during the recording process on the first album, but having Jay at the helm on this one, way
YARD ACT
Yard Act’s Duty-Free Christmas
→ There are certain perks to being in a band - free festivals, adoring fans, the chance to speak to Dork for an hour or two. But the biggest of all is tax-free airport shopping, especially around the festive season. Here’s what Yard Act’s loved ones were treated to this year. Jay: I got my dad a Damascus steel Japanese knife for Christmas because the last time I went, I got myself some, and he got jealous. You’re welcome, Dad. James: I got my wife a Polaroid camera from Japan. Me and Ryan got matching Polaroid cameras for our partners, but then Ryan gave his to his girlfriend early because he wanted to use it, so it made it look like I didn’t get my wife anything because she’s getting it in December. Ryan: Every time I try to give up smoking, we go somewhere where cigarettes cost £4 a packet, so I got my partner 200 cigs and a Polaroid camera. Sam: Duty-free perfume, and I always go to all the witchy shops when we go to places that have them and buy stuff there.
before we were in the studio, we were already doing so much more.” “I think ever since ‘Fixer Upper’ went rogue and opened all those doors for us when it was meant to be a B-side, we’ve followed our intuition,” says James. “By the time ‘The Overload’ came out, we were already in a place of refusing to second guess ourselves, and that’s why we didn’t try to make ‘Fixer Upper’ again, and that’s why the new album isn’t trying to make ‘100% Endurance’ again. You can’t make those songs cynically. We can’t sit down and decide to write songs like that; we haven’t really got any control over it - it’s up to everyone else to decide. “When you do interviews, and you put the album out, that’s when you start thinking about the impact it’s going to have, but actually, while that’s important for ticket sales and end-of-year lists and convincing your label to let you make another album, it’s not on your mind when you’re writing. It’s great collecting songs and having them all under your arms to dole out, and it’s amazing to go all around the world and see that people have been impacted by the songs we’ve put out there, but it isn’t something you can control.” That sense of increased scope is something the whole band are aware of, especially after touring most of the world in 2023. Last November alone, they played Iceland, the USA, Mexico, Thailand, Hong Kong, and Japan - not bad for a group whose first album campaign was lowkey enough to include an edit of the Sean Bean Yorkshire Tea advert which Jay made on his phone. “I was well chuffed with it; that’s probably my best work!” he protests, to laughter from the rest of the band. “Playing abroad is always pretty vibey,” says James. “It’s too good to not enjoy it, even if it’s a smaller show than usual - the feeling of turning up somewhere like Baltimore and somebody coming up to say how much they love your music is incredible.” “New Orleans was my favourite,” adds Ryan. “Probably → ‘Where’s My Utopia?’ shares vocal duties between James and a handful my favourite place we’ve ever been, and also maybe the of seemingly random audio samples smallest show on that tour - it’s just so good being able to play from elsewhere - snippets of sermons, somewhere like that and have genuine fans come along who concerned parents, and a little boy from know every word. It feels unreal. On the other side of things, it Burnley. But it turns out that sharing the spotlight with others isn’t as easy can be quite punishing. In Hong Kong, I saw a hotel room, the as it first seems: stage, then the hotel room again - but the gig itself was great.” James: Originally, a lot of those were “It was mad, what the fuck!” says James. “What are all those genuine found samples, but we had people doing in Hong Kong waving their arms from left to to replace them with voiceover artists right just because I told them to?! Honestly, I went full Robbie to avoid using the original content. Williams at that gig; I loved it. The first one is actually Nish Kumar pitched to sound different. Basically, “The thing is, we’ve got our foot in the door with the UK I was frantically ripping old records now. It’s like a game show - ‘you’ve got the UK, that’s in the and sticking them on the end of songs bag, but do you want to try for the rest of the world?’ - and at such a rate that when we sat and it turns out that the rest of the world is really far away, and listened back to everything after we’d finished recording, we couldn’t pretty big too,” he laughs. “It’s not a bad problem to have, but remember where half of them had come it does feel like a lot of places we’ve never been before want a from, so we couldn’t even try to get slice of the Yard Pie. copyright clearance on it. “What is nice though is that we’ve now attained a level of Sam: I love how they link two songs success where we can tour at a level which technically every together in a really satisfying way, like human being doing a job deserves,” he adds. “Because the the one with the little northern lad. music industry doesn’t seem to function under human rights James: We got clearance on that one; laws, that isn’t a given. Instead, you have to do shit stuff that’s it’s from a BBC show - a mate bought me this vinyl years ago called ‘BBC really hard for ages and ages, and then - if you’re lucky - you Children Talking’. It’s from like 1962, and get given what you want on your rider. For us, that’s Quorn each track is split into the region it’s in, ham, hummus, eight non-alcoholic Guinness, and some and then in brackets, it says what the whiskey for Sam. Now, that’s luxury. Maybe album three will conversation is about - that one is from ‘mashed potato’, and it’s a little boy mean we can relax and breathe a bit more, but for now, I’ll from Burnley, who we found out Aphex settle for the ham.” P Yard Act’s album ‘Where’s My Utopia?’ is Twin has also sampled at one point as out 1st March. well, so it’s clearly in musical circulation.
Free Samples
“A lot of places we’ve never been before want a slice of the Yard Pie” JAMES
SMITH
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Idles.
TITLE: TANGK RELEASE DATE: 16TH FEBRUARY 2024 LABEL: PARTISAN RECORDS
→ In a move that could solidify their position at the vanguard of contemporary punk, Idles are back with their fifth studio album, ‘TANGK’. Set for release in February it promises to be more than just a collection of tracks; it’s a manifesto of transformation and an ode to the power of love. ‘TANGK’, a title that phonetically juggles between a ‘tank’ and a hint of ‘g’, is more than a name. It’s an onomatopoeic tribute to the band’s raw guitar sounds, evolving into a symbol of living with love and gratitude. This album marks a significant shift from Idles’ previous themes of confronting societal issues and personal demons. Instead, it embraces a brighter, more affirmative outlook, focusing on love, joy, and the essence of being. The album, co-produced by band member Mark Bowen, alongside notable collaborators like Radiohead’s Nigel Godrich and hip-hop maestro Kenny Beats, is an 11-track journey. It features the already acclaimed singles ‘Dancer’ and ‘Grace’, showcasing the band’s exploration into a more nuanced sonic palette. The inclusion of LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy and Nancy Whang adds an intriguing layer to the album’s vocal texture. Frontman Joe Talbot describes ‘TANGK’ as their “album of gratitude and power,” emphasising that every song is a love song. It’s a declaration of the magic found in giving love to the world, a sentiment that resonates deeply in today’s times. With a world tour on the horizon, Idles are not just releasing an album; they’re igniting a global movement of love and gratitude. Get ready to be a part of it.
Wet Leg. TITLE: TBA RELEASE DATE: TBA LABEL: DOMINO RECORDS
→ Wet Leg are known for their deadpan humour and selfdeprecating wit, so it’s no shock that some of the info they’ve hinted about when it comes to their second album may be taken with a pinch of salt. At one point, they claimed it would be ‘death metal’, while at the Mercury Prize ceremony in 2022, they playfully suggested that their new material is already taking shape, promising it to be “longer, bigger, better, faster, stronger, and more fluorescent” than their debut. If this year actually does bless us with a second full-length from the duo, it’s that latter statement that will probably prove the most accurate. With their unique ability to blend pop culture references and cheeky jokes into their music, it’s fair to say most are eagerly anticipating what Wet Leg will deliver next. After a run on tour with Harry Styles and a stint alongside the Foos due this coming summer, they’ve developed a lot since they arrived with a bang. Whatever that second album delivers, still shrouded in their characteristic mystery and fun, 2024’s potential second coming of Wet Leg could well be one of the most anticipated events of the year.
Matty...? TITLE: TBA RELEASE DATE: TBA LABEL: DIRTY HIT, PROBABLY?
→ We need to talk about Matty. Or maybe we don’t, but we’re going to anyway. With The 1975’s most recent album hosting a constantly developing circus centred on the band’s never shy frontman, there’s been much said about some of the personal creative choices made over the past 18 months that at times threatened to overshadow what remains a brilliant album in the form of ‘Being Funny In A Foreign Language’. Is it performance art? Is he just being a bit of a dickhead? What is real? With the band going on a little bit of a hiatus, apparently, we’re expecting some extra-curricular activities from the individual members. There have been hints of Matty working on solo material for a while - is 2024 the year that Truman Black fully takes the wheel? And left to his own devices, what comes next? Lord, help us.
Blossoms.
TITLE: TBA RELEASE DATE: SUMMER 2024 LABEL: ODD SK RECORDS
→ Blossoms are poised to make a grand return with their next album, set for release in Summer 2024. The new record will apparently see them ‘collab’ with both Jungle and CMAT, with frontman Tom Ogden sharingthat this time round is the most they have “spread their wings” in terms of collaboration.The first full-length on their own label ODD SK Records, it follows their successful 2022 release ‘Ribbon Around The Bomb.’ The band has been actively working on this album over the past year, with a massive outdoor concert at Wythenshawe Park in Manchester for August 2024 - the biggest show of their career so far.
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Bleachers.
BIG IN 2024
TITLE: BLEACHERS RELEASE DATE: 8TH MARCH 2024 LABEL: DIRTY HIT
→ Bleachers’ new self-titled album is slated for release on March 8, 2024, via their new home Dirty Hit. This fourth studio album from the New Jersey-based collective, led by the multi-faceted artist Jack Antonoff, is already creating a buzz. Described as a rich tapestry of emotions laid out in vibrant, soulful technicolour, ‘Bleachers’ is Jack Antonoff’s unique interpretation of the bewildering array of sensory experiences and cultural positions in modern life. The album promises a diverse soundscape, from melancholic melodies to joyous anthems, encapsulating music that’s perfect for a wide range of moments - whether it’s driving down a highway or dancing at weddings. Its underlying message is clear: amidst the chaos of contemporary times, it’s essential to stay grounded in what truly matters. With a guest showing from regular collaborator Lana Del Rey already out in the wild, the next chapter for Bleachers looks like it might just be the biggest to date.
English TITLE: TBA RELEASE DATE: TBA LABEL: ISLAND RECORDS
→ Of the many exciting debut albums set to arrive in 2024, the first full-length from Leeds’ English Teacher is high up the proverbial list. Signed to Island Records - home to The Last Dinner Party, Yard Act and Sports Team - they’ve left a string of impressive singles matching musical invention with smart lyricism. With the big pay off expected to land in the first half of the year, they may not be smoothed round the edges in a way that marks them out as the most obvious Next Big Thing, but be prepared for a wave of adoration all the same.
Teacher. HAIM.
TITLE: TBA RELEASE DATE: TBA LABEL: POLYDOR RECORDS
→ HAIM have had quite the few years. Not only was their last album, ‘Women In Music Pt. III’, a gangbuster smash, but one of their number even started gathering the award noms for their acting work. Very showbiz. After a TikTok clip showing Danielle and Este dragging Alana back to the studio, quite literally, we know work is underway on the follow-up. While we don’t know for sure we’ll get it in 2024, it’s already one of the most eagerly anticipated records on the must watch list.
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FEATURE
While She
Sleeps. W
hile She Sleeps are hurtling into 2024 with a new lease of life. The Sheffield group’s sixth album, ‘Self Hell’, is set to be an explosive return after the release of their fan-focused fifth outing, ‘Sleeps Society’, in 2021. This time, they’re shaking their
foundations. “We’ve gone 17 years without an ounce of hate, and it’s been lovely,” guitarist and producer Sean Long says, smiling. “But we’ve never stirred the pot in any way because we just do what we do, and people love it. So there is for me a huge excitement - not to piss our fans off in any way - but just to get a bit of movement going and some talk and to stretch our legs so that we can do what we want and to remind people that we won’t be making the same stuff all the time. That excites me more than pleasing the masses.” Admittedly, they weren’t quite aware of what they were making when they were in the studio. Sean - along with guitarist Mat Welsh, vocalist Loz Taylor, bassist Aaron McKenzie, and drummer Adam Savage - only came up with the first single and title-track once all the others were done and dusted. But now, in the cold light of day, the group are gleefully reckoning with having found their fan base a bit divided by the brash nu-metal of it all. “I don’t think it’s divisive,” Sean says of the encompassing album. “I think ‘Self Hell’ was divisive, but it wasn’t a conscious choice,” he reckons. “This is just the way it turned out. And I think, in retrospect, everything we write is always a surprise to us at the end. When I listen to ‘Self Hell’ now, even I’m like, you know, this is something different for us. There are so many conscious decisions in the studio, but in retrospect, it’s an unconscious process that creates this entity.” While the rest of the album remains an enigma, the two following singles offer a bit more of a glimpse into what’s to come. ‘Down’ is a titan of a track featuring Malevolence’s Alex Taylor (“Keeping it local,” Mat nods), which also contains what Sean refers to as “potentially one of Loz’s best screams he’s ever done in his career.” It’s a brutal slab of melodic rock that swings its hips as much as it bangs its head, and its release is designed to keep fans on their toes. “I don’t think anyone will understand the record until you have it,”
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Sean reasons. “And I generally think that’s what Sleeps have done from the beginning. Every song complements the next, which creates the album in itself.” Moving forward from ‘Sleeps Society’ involved upping sticks. While the band have built a studio setup (Six Audio) in Sheffield, this time around, they decided to take themselves out of their familiar environment. Heading to Metropolis Studios down in London, Matt explains, “It was a proper revisit of that feeling of when we first went to a studio over 10 years ago. When we went from making a record ourselves in a practice room to going into a proper studio, it’s feeling a bit more like you’re actually a musician.” Reckoning with imposter syndrome crops up on their latest offerings, but given the band’s rise in recent years - including their largest headline show at London’s Alexandra Palace - it would seem the lads are at least doing something right. “It feels like we’re finally making real headway,” Sean acknowledges. “And what we’ve been working for for our entire careers. It’s so many people, it’s 10,000 people, and all of our peers that we look up to have already done it, and they’re fucking touring arenas and all this stuff. So to have that behind us while making music, it just makes you feel legit. It makes you feel like your hard work is paying off in the studio and in the physical world when you’re doing gigs and stuff. So it’s definitely a driving force behind the record.” Taking all of the above into account, a part of the band’s reticence to lean into any form of ego from their success is because, as Sean mentions, “I think we’re a weird band! I really do. The music that we make is weird. I don’t think that we’re professional. And I think this is what’s been resonating from the very beginning of our career.” This facet translates into ‘Self Hell’ and its surrounding singles never feeling trite. As it unfolds, this new era of While She Sleeps bleeds with authenticity, an honourable move given it would be just as easy to kowtow to fads and pressures in the name of success. But that’s not how While She Sleeps operates. Even if they wanted to, they’d find the formula of the five of them turning whatever they throw into the mixer coming out with their jagged-tooth touch. “Even when we’re talking about our own songs, I’m aware that there’s something that we do when we put it all together; it just makes this weird sound
With a new album, ‘Self Hell’, set for 2024, Steven Loftin gets the lowdown from While She Sleeps - the selfconfessed “weird” band. photography by ENZO IRIARTE.
- and it is weird,” Sean laughs. “There’s something about this imperfection and the elements of imperfection in it, which is, I think, what resonates with our fans because instead of putting out this polished fucking turd all the time, the structures are always a bit weird, or we might have forgotten to do an ending. It’s this combination of this weirdness that I lean into more now, rather than like, how do you have the right kind of professional song that everyone else is doing, that’s doing really well? Because we can’t do that, we can only do this thing that turns out a little bit weird. And that’s what I love about it,” says Sean. Mat adds: “If we made something super digestible, really easy to understand on the first listen, then it just wouldn’t sound like us. We take time, and you listen to it again, you understand a bit more, and there are so many layers in the songs that as you listen to, you learn more.” The While She Sleeps story is rooted in the idea that “we got into this shit, probably subconsciously, because we all wanted to be free. We didn’t want to do the normal life,” Sean explains. And they’ve done a commendable job, turning five rapscallions into a formidable figure of UK rock. “We had this vision, and we wanted to do this together. But as you get older and you have responsibilities, and you’ve got to make money, you’ve got to pay your bills. It’s important to me now for all of us to make sure that we are keeping some spirit of expression alive within us when we’re making stuff.” This is why making the process of ‘Self Hell’ as collaborative as possible between the five of them was one of the most important aspects. “We’re quite conscious now that we’ve blinked and gone from starting in the band and getting a little bit of traction, to suddenly being like, ‘Oh, this is going well’ to being like, ‘Holy shit, we’ve been here 17 years!’ and so on. I mean, we’ve done it more of our lives than we have been not doing it. And we’re all like, in our 30s,” Mat marvels. “We need to make sure when we’re playing gigs that you’re enjoying it, and you’re drinking it in, and because suddenly 15 years have gone by. I mean, how long are you going to do it? So we’ve had that approach living in our heads a little bit in the writing and recording process that we’re like, let’s make sure we’re not saving anything for the next one because what if we can’t be arsed to do next one or what if we just don’t want to? Let’s make sure this has everything.” P
While She Sleeps’ album ‘Self Hell’ is out 29th March.
WHILE SHE SLEEPS
“I don’t think anyone will understand the record until you have it” SEAN
TITLE: TBA RELEASE DATE: TBA LABEL: POLYDOR
LONG
Sam
→ Sam Fender is set to release his third album next year. He has already begun teasing the record with mysterious QR codes in Newcastle, revealing a link to pre-orders. There were special commemorative picture discs of the album available for pre-order around his huge 2023 shows at St James’ Park, despite the fact that we don’t even know what the record will be called yet. Still, Fender has been preparing for the release, with 20 songs written as potential material for the album. Clearly a future Glastonbury headliner in waiting, this could well be the record that secures Sam as an all-time icon.
Fender.
READDORK.COM 25.
COVER STORY
26. DORK
CRAWLERS
The 2023 Hype List alumni are ready to make 2024 their own. by ALI SHUTLER. photography by DEREK BREMNER.
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“W
e’ve already had so much success without releasing an album that there is this huge pressure around ‘The Mess We Seem To Make’,” starts Crawlers vocalist Holly Minto. “People keep telling us that as soon as we release it, things will really start for us, but what the fuck have we been doing this whole time then?” she continues with a smirk. Taking the explosive theatrics that have made Crawlers such a must-see live force over the past few years, the band’s debut album now comes with a newfound sense of self as the once-self-
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described “silly eyeliner band” come into their own. It’s a record that doesn’t need to worry about chasing the latest trends in guitar music or fitting into a wider world ‘cos people are undoubtedly going to flock to the one Crawlers have built. “The nerves come from pride,” Holly tells herself. “My feelings towards the album are very back and forth, but that’s only because we care so much. We put our whole pussies into this record, and everything’s going to change when it’s released,” she continues. Crawlers formed in 2018, with guitarist Amy Woodall, bassist Liv Kettle and vocalist Holly playing their grunge-inspired rock’n’roll in whatever North East venue would have them. They developed a loyal following from the back of Amy’s Fiat Punto, but the inclusion of drummer Harry Breen and the release of ‘Come Over (Again)’ in 2021 quickly changed the band’s trajectory. The following year, they supported childhood heroes My Chemical Romance at Warrington’s Victoria Park, played before Maneskin at the Montreux Jazz Festival and put in dominant showings everywhere from Reading & Leeds to Community and The Great Escape. A sold-out UK headline tour, a run of shows around North America and their ‘Loud Without Noises’ mixtape rounded out a year which Holly could only describe to Dork as “a bit silly”. 2023 was more of the brilliant same, but that hasn’t stopped Holly from feeling physically sick about the release of their debut album, occasionally checking in to see whether her old job at Nando’s was still hiring. “It’s more anticipation for me,” adds Liv. “I’ve enjoyed every single moment that has led us here. I’m excited to see where the album takes us next.”
“We put our whole pussies into this record, and everything’s going to change when it’s released” HOLLY
MINTO
The first proper idea for ‘The Mess We Seem To Make’ was written in 2020 and became the shimmering ‘Call It Love’. By the time it came to actually sit down and pull the record together last year, Crawlers had a “disgusting” stack of 190 demos to try and make sense of. “Which are the ones we really care about?” explains Liv of their process, with the resulting twelve tracks perhaps not the most obvious choices. When they first started writing, the group were inspired by Smashing Pumpkins’ ‘Melon Collie And The Infinite Sadness’, Pixies’ ‘Doolittle’ and Nirvana’s ‘In Utero’. “Just these amazing 90s alternative bands that wrote these incredible songs and managed to dress them up while still maintaining a rawness,” says Holly. That fuzzy rage can be felt across Crawlers’ back catalogue and continued to shape what would become the album’s prologue, angsty standalone singles ‘Messiah’ and ‘That Time Of Year Always’. But as the process continued and the band continued to chase that feeling of excitement, their influences broadened. Amy got more into production, with Yeah Yeah Yeahs an important touchstone, while the joyous fury of Boygenius’ ‘The Record’ also inspired ‘The Mess We Seem To
CRAWLERS
Make’. There were times Crawlers had to tell their label to trust them, especially with the nu-metal meets Bjork-inspired ‘Better If I Just Pretend’, but the end result brings new colours and dynamics to the band’s world without destroying anything that’s come before. “We’ve really been allowed to spread our feelings on a page with this album,” says Holly. “The first song that we wrote that wasn’t typical for us was ‘Come Over (Again)’, and that one did alright,” grins Liv, with their breakout
track currently sitting at well over 50 million streams. “We were really nervous about releasing it all those years ago, but we quickly realised that the excitement it made us feel was far more important. That energy has carried on through the mixtape and into this album. It might not be what people expect Crawlers to sound like, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t us.” “The point of ‘Loud Without Noise’ was that it felt like an actual mixtape. It wasn’t coherent; it was just all our different influences on the same
record. Sonically, a lot of the songs on the album are still really different,” explains Holly, pointing at the Adele-esque ballad ‘Golden Bridge’ that sits neatly alongside the heavy ‘Better If I Just Pretend’. “It all works together, though. We made sure it felt like the same world, and all our different influences help paint this collective vision,” she adds. “Everything’s elevated.” “We are just in a place now where we are a lot more comfortable with who we are as individuals and as a band. The album definitely screams that,” says Liv. “There’s this unspoken mantra now that we are okay with ourselves. We are who we are, and we’re not going to apologise for that.” It’s a far cry from the dark, furious and occasionally uncomfortable songs that Crawlers have shared in the past, with that shift happening over the course of creating the album. “Originally, people wanted us to release an album after the EP, but I knew we weren’t ready,” says Holly. The band hadn’t toured properly, they hadn’t spent much time in the studio, and they were struggling with the demands of childhood dreams quickly becoming reality. “I was in such a bad headspace,” admits Holly. “There was this unspoken pressure to enjoy every moment, but really, a lot of it was me just sitting in my own feelings or having meltdowns because I’m neurodivergent, and I wasn’t prepared for what touring would do to me.” Trying to make sense of what was happening, Holly poured her fears into lyrics. “For the mixtape, I was basically exploiting my own feelings to make music because that’s what had worked for us in the past,” they explain. “But trauma doesn’t create great art.” By contrast, ‘The Mess We Seem To Make’ offers reflections rather than reactions. “Most of these songs started out as an excuse to slate myself. I was able to sing the things I was scared of saying out loud, hidden behind the guise of poetry or hyperbole,” explains Holly, who was able to talk about self-doubt, self-hate, drugs and sexual politics. “It was this naïve outpouring until it wasn’t that naïve anymore.” “Because we’d become so known for our lyrics, I was writing things for the album to shock rather than using music to heal,” says Holly, who was swiftly called out by her bandmates. “It’s why
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being in a band is the best thing in the world,” they add. “They can pull you out of the darkest places, and you never need to explain yourself because you’re all in it together.” “With their help, I knew I had to dig a little deeper. I’ve changed so much over the past couple of years, and when we revisited the songs, I realised there was more to it than just simply owning up to how I view myself, my body and my relationships. It was more about being content in who I am and how I’ve been able to grow,” says Holly, who believes the album now feels like a “well-rounded trip” that ends with the lush, selfreferential ‘Nightime Affair’. “We always knew that song would be the album closer, but it just didn’t have a resolve, which left everything feeling unfinished,” explains Holly. She ended up rewriting the track to include lyrics like, “Can you kiss me, can you love me? I am worthy, and you don’t deserve me”, which were eventually sung by all four members of Crawlers. “I was bestowing myself LIV the contentment of where I was in that moment in time. I was no longer yearning for something; I was fine with what I had,” she explains. “It was this beautiful moment where I was stood around the microphone with the people that I trust the most, singing these words of self-affirmation. I really needed that,” Holly continues, hoping the vulnerability sparks a similar sense of peace in the listener. “All our songs offer us therapy,” adds Liv. “There were plenty of times when Holly’s lyrics had the entire room in floods of tears, but it still felt more hopeful than anything we’ve done before. Whatever we were talking about, there was this sense of positivity to it.” As much as ‘The Mess We Seem To Make’ is a reflection of Crawlers’ increasing sense of camaraderie, the undeniable hope is also a reaction to how fervently their fanbase has responded to their music. “A lot of our songs have spoken about trauma or horrible experiences, and the fact so many young people relate to them is kinda heartbreaking,” starts Holly. “We were worried because of how many of our very dark songs resonate with very young people,” continues Liv. “We felt like we needed
“It might not be what people expect Crawlers to sound like, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t us”
30. DORK
to let them know that it doesn’t stay dark forever. I know I’ve had moments with my own mental health where I think I’m never going to escape how low I feel, but it never lasts. There are always moments of pure joy to be found. As cliché as it sounds, it always gets better, and that’s something all of us have learnt over the past few years. Wounds do heal, and we really wanted to shout about that with this record,” she continues. KETTLE “That’s why ‘The Mess We Seem To Make’ just made so much sense as the title,” adds Holly. “You can make the sort of mess that doesn’t seem like it’s ever going to get fixed, but really, no mess is too much. For me, this album is about looking back at the worst moments in my life with hope, understanding and the support of my best friends.” Despite the expectations that come with a debut album, the only things Crawlers feel like they have to prove with ‘The Mess We Seem To Make’ are to themselves. “There was a moment where I started feeling anxious about how successful Billie Eilish’s ‘When We Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?’ and Olivia Rodrigo’s ‘Sour’ were because they completely shattered every expectation of what a young, female-presenting artist could do, and there is this inherent competitiveness that comes from being in a non-male band, but my only competition is myself,” says Holly, another lesson learnt in recent months. Still, shortly after the band announced they’d be signing to Universal’s Polydor Records, Holly read a comment that’s been nagging them ever since. “Someone said that Crawlers were probably going to stop doing political music now, and I found that really
CRAWLERS
“I want our fans to feel like they can be exactly who they are; bands like My Chemical Romance did that for me” HOLLY
MINTO
harrowing. I know when an independent band signs with a major label, people assume they’ll lose their edge, but the reason we did it is so we could afford to keep existing. We’ve still got total creative control.” The different members of the band are allowed the space to explore different aspects of artistic expression, including fashion and visual media. “All that’s changed is the angle of our politics,” continues Holly. “I’d rather uplift educated people than play the role of the white saviour, but what I am very aware of is where I’ve stood with my sexuality and what happens when a working-class woman suddenly finds themselves in the entertainment industry, where drug use is normalised, and depression is exploited to create art. I think there’s a lot of political conversations across this album that are the results of our lived experiences.” The topics of sex, drugs and empowerment are “always” going to be political, especially when women and non-binary people are leading the conversation, continues Liv. “There’s always going to be political discourse because of where we sit within the patriarchy.” As much as Crawlers’ debut album is the end result of six long years of self-growth, self-acceptance and messy realisations, the ambitions behind the band remain surprisingly unchanged. “We wanted to have fun. We wanted to put our little stamp on the world and try to make a difference,” says Liv. “We still do it because we love it.” “Two years ago, we’d never toured,” Holly explains. “We were playing gigs at Liverpool’s Heebie Jeebies or playing shows in Warrington to our photographer and Liv’s sister, just hoping that we’d get to do the things we’re doing now. The band who started in a shed in Warrington can now tour the world. We’ve done all these incredible things, and it still feels like this little Crawlers world is getting bigger every day.” She hopes the band can offer people a soundtrack for selfexpression. “I want our fans to feel like they can be exactly who they are, or who they want to be, and feel supported by our band and the community that comes alongside it. Bands like My Chemical Romance did that for me, and the fact we can offer that to a new generation feels really exciting. Being a part of this community has definitely healed something in me that nothing else could.” “I would love for Crawlers to be a safe haven,” continues Liv. “Growing up, the only queer spaces that I had were at gigs. I knew I could go see a band and just exist. I could forget everything that was waiting for me outside that room, and all that mattered were the songs that were being played by my favourite artists and the communal vibe that came with it. Regardless of gender, sexuality or political standpoint, everyone was united by music, and that’s what I want Crawlers gigs to be. That, and the promise that it’ll always be a fun night.” “I feel like 2024 is going to be another year of Crawlers chaos,” Liv grins. Her goal for the next twelve months is simply “more”, with the band’s ethos quickly becoming one of “yes, and…” “We saw what happened after we released the EP and the mixtape, and that was all so crazy that I’m so excited about what the hell this album is going to lead to.” P Crawlers’ album ‘The Mess We Seem To Make’ is
out 16th February.
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Chinouriri. Wolf Alice.
TITLE: TBA RELEASE DATE: TBA, MAYBE LABEL: COLUMBIA RECORDS
TITLE: TBA RELEASE DATE: FIRST HALF OF 2024 LABEL: PARLOPHONE RECORDS
Rachel
→ We’ve already had our first taster of Rachel’s debut album, in the form of last year’s brilliant ‘The Hills’. She reflects, “I wrote ‘The Hills’ about the feeling of not belonging and being out of place. I was in LA having a pretty terrible time.” This sense of alienation, both musically and personally, became the impetus for her songwriting. It was in these moments that Rachel found clarity about her true sense of belonging, realising, “the UK truly is my home.” “Despite how alienated I’ve felt at times because of my race, battles and experiences, in that moment I realised where I enjoyed being was around my friends and loved ones in London,” she shares. Good job too, because with her biggest headline show to date at KOKO planned for March, and that first album expected not too long after, we’re definitely going to want to keep hold of one of our most promising indie pop talents.
Billie Eilish. TITLE: TBA RELEASE DATE: TBA LABEL: POLYDOR
→ Billie Eilish is on the brink of releasing her eagerly anticipated third album. While a specific release date hasn’t been confirmed, in her own words, the album is “almost finished” and expected “soon-ish.” This statement came during her appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon in December 2023, where she teased, “At some point you will know more, but I’m not going to say anything.” Her brother and collaborator FINNEAS has also confirmed the record is “85 percent done” - so chances are we’ll be hearing something new later this year.
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→ Do we know we’ll be getting a new album from Wolf Alice in 2024? Nope. But we do know the mechanisms around it are starting to turn. Following their last record ‘Blue Weekend’, the band shifted over from their previous label Dirty Hit to ink with Columbia Records. Marking a new chapter, it feels like their next record is about due, given this summer will mark three years since their third full-length landed. Effectively, we’re including this because we’re always excited by the idea of more Wolf Alice. Manifesting is real, guys.
Declan TITLE: ‘WHAT HAPPENED TO THE BEACH?” RELEASE DATE: 9TH FEBRUARY 2024 LABEL: COLUMBIA RECORDS
→ Declan McKenna’s new album ‘What Happened To The Beach?’
encapsulates his growth as an artist. He explains, “It’s a much more sensitive record. It’s quite exposing and sonically quite vulnerable. I wanted the sounds to be vulnerable and smaller... very raw and very loose, with rough edges.” It’s a different approach, focusing less on complexity, more on the essence of his creativity, but it’s no less brilliant than what came before. The end of an era for our favourite indie prince, and the beginning of a new, exciting reign.
McKenna.
BIG IN 2024
Another Sky have a whole new vision. PHOTO: DARINA.
Another Sky are back with their second album, ‘Beach Day’. A record that saw the South London quartet both scrap a bunch of material during lockdown in favour of a new vision and have to deal with building a whole new studio, it’s an optimistic effort inspired by fighting for freedom and finding happiness within yourself. Following up on a showstopper of a debut that remains one of the best in recent years, it’s fair to say that hopes are high. We caught up with the band’s Catrin Vincent and Jack Gilbert to get the lowdown. Hi guys, how’s it going? What are you up to today? Catrin Vincent: I’ve sung ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star’ six times, taught guitar, then gone to my friend Sona Koloyan’s gig at the Servant Jazz Quarters. Jack has been quite the professional, mixing a very cool live album. I know who I’d rather be… Jack Gilbert: Who? Catrin: Me. ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star’ is a jam. Will there be many songs on the record that fans will already be familiar with? Jack: ‘Psychopath’, ‘Uh Oh!’ and ‘A Feeling’ will all be on there. We change it up from January onwards – we enter a new ‘era’, as people say these days. Catrin: Two eras on one album; who do we think we are? How did you find making ‘Beach Day’, did you hit upon any unexpected challenges? Catrin: We found it great, to be honest. We have our own studio, we just made whatever we wanted to make. I’m sure it’ll be critically panned, but that’s what a second album is for, right? Jack: It took us a while to work out what we were going to do, didn’t it? Catrin: Yeah! Jack: But once we got going, we had a really good time. Because we were fully in control, we just flowed. Catrin: Flow state. Important. You built a whole new studio in a crypt, is that right? Tell us more about that? Jack: Our friend knew about the crypt because his mum ran a nursery in the church once, so one day, I phoned the vicar out of nowhere and asked him if we could build a studio there. It’s really big, made of bunkers. A lot of it is unusable because it’s 200 years old, but we’ve got two tunnels down there, great for drums. My dad came down to help build it with us. Catrin: The vicar is really cool. Big IDLES fan. On a scale of 1-10, how haunted was it? Catrin: It has an anthrax family buried in lead coffins in the walls. It is 100% haunted. Jack: I actually accidentally fell asleep late one session down there once, and in my nightmares, saw “slime-man”. A man with melting skin slithered over me, flopped onto the floor, and then I ran away. And woke up. You’ve said the record deals with both anger and freedom; do you feel free? Catrin: Like Kae Tempest said, it’s a cycle of despair and love, constantly restarting. I really do believe anger is just despair dressed up in defence. And it’s freeing to know it’s a cycle, to allow anger to exist but confront it differently, to not bury it down until it explodes beyond control, but instead, sit with it and allow it to teach you something about yourself. Jack, do you feel free? Jack: Er, yeah. I feel free to express myself in any way I want because life is too fucking short. How does the Another Sky on this record compare to the Another Sky on your debut? Jack: We’re a lot more confident and less fearful of trying to be successful, I would say. We’re just in it for the good times now. Catrin: We’re ten years in; we’re different people now. We’ve changed a lot. I think we’ll change every single album, to be honest. What’s your most outlandish prediction for 2024? Jack: Everything will magically go back to how it was in 2010. Better times.
TITLE: TBA RELEASE DATE: TBA LABEL: POLYDOR → Maggie Rogers is on track to drop
her third album in 2024. She’s finished recording it, describing the process as emerging quickly and organically: “This record came quickly over the span of five days over the holiday break. One song after another. Two songs a day. Like water on the table. It all just came spilling out.” While the album’s completion is a significant milestone, Rogers noted that it still needs some finishing touches: “In exchange for the promise that it will be yours soon, lend me just a bit more patience to make it as close to perfect as I can get”
TITLE: TBA RELEASE DATE: TBA LABEL: WARNER → Dua Lipa is gearing up for a 2024 release of her highly anticipated third album. The follow-up to her acclaimed 2020 record ‘Future Nostalgia’ is shaping up to be an exploration of new musical territories. In a bold move away from the disco and house beats that characterised hits like ‘Physical’ and ‘Hallucinate’, Dua is diving into a sound inspired by “1970s-era psychedelia.” We’ve already had a taster with the smash hit ‘Houdini’, and with the success of her contribution to the Barbie soundtrack, which garnered Grammy and Golden Globe nominations, expectations are high for yet another pop masterpiece.
Dua Lipa.
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FEATURE
D by FINLAY HOLDEN. photography by JONAH FREEMAN.
MGMT navigate positivity, partnerships, and the idea that love conquers all with their new album, ‘Loss Of Life’.
GMT.
ipping in and out of the mainstream zeitgeist at a whim, US psychpop duo MGMT have long been challenging to pin down. With their fifth album, ‘Loss of Life’, Andrew VanWyngarden and Ben Goldwasser are outrunning their shadows to push forward a message of optimism and open-mindedness. MGMT’s last full-length effort, ‘Little Dark Age’, saw a resurgence in popularity for the group, with the widespread title track becoming the soundtrack to social activism within online platforms and racking up streams to match the status of their iconic debut record. However, far from capitalising on this unintended success, Andrew and Ben simply watched it unfold from the sidelines. No longer the ambitious but satirical stage performers they were when they met in college 20 years ago, the pair have found freedom in the more unseen parts of the craft. “There has been a flipping over the course of our long friendship and career as a band,” Andrew observes. “As we’ve progressed over the years, we’ve gotten more comfortable being in the studio, making sounds and recording. Last time we were touring, I loved it, and we had a lot of great times, but I don’t really talk a lot on the mic. I can say for myself, I don’t feel like an entertainer anymore.” Instead of putting on a front for crowds, the guys put more emphasis on entertaining themselves and their
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MGMT
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friends, something that sits at the core of their formation. “Part of the ethos of the band early on was this tongue-in-cheek thing; we were playing in people’s living rooms but acting like rock stars,” he recalls. “That was the whole gimmick. Flash forward to 5 years later when we’re signed to a major label, we still had this urge to do this thing, but suddenly, we’re on David Letterman and playing Coachella. We quickly had to reconfigure ourselves.” “It was peak irony in terms of popular culture at that point in time, too,” Ben chips in. “There was a little internal backlash; we don’t want to be ironic when everything is about being ironic. Things soon got a bit more legit than what we’d been doing before. We wanted to challenge ourselves by taking it seriously.” Since then, they have challenged themselves and their listeners through years of dynamic, captivating and exploratory releases such as 2010’s surf-fuelled ‘Congratulations’ and their declarative self-titled LP in 2013. A consensus seemingly arose that MGMT were rejecting their success and popularity, but that wasn’t quite the truth. If anything, they were simply trying to make songs and leave the pretences behind.
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“We’re excited by experimentation and not doing the same things over and over; we’ve always been like that, even from the early projects we did. We want there to be a slightly challenging element to our music and performance, although our roots are mostly in 80s pop music,” Andrew states. “When you have an outside perspective, it’s easy to construct a narrative, but when you’re in it and you’re the artist? We were just doing whatever we felt we should do in each moment. Pretty much every album only came together properly after we did something that made us crack up and fall to the floor laughing. That’s the root of our friendship and the basis of our music.” Removing themselves from those conversations and keeping on going in their own lane, their noisy and chaotic approach once again aligned with the mainstream – only for MGMT to abandon the world of major labels and step out alone for the very first time. However, with multiple producers, writers, instrumentalists and musicians featured, the duo were not isolated but instead unrestrained. As Andrew explains, “Even if it’s not the classic evil label trope, you still have another level of
“We wanted to come from a place of friendship and gettinginspired and excited together” BEN
GOLDWASSER
MGMT
approval hanging over you. It just makes you think about things that aren’t even related to the music. We didn’t have that at all here; it felt way more liberating and allowed us to be more open to collaborating - it felt natural to do that.” “That’s never really happened for us in our whole career,” Ben says of shopping around an LP they had pieced together themselves with infinite opportunity and no constraints. “It was as exciting as challenging, but we’re in a much better place to be able to do only the things that we want in order to promote this record. That is a luxury.” With the solid grounding of long-time collaborator Dave Fridmann and ‘Little Dark Age’ producer Patrick Wimberly, familiar footing allowed these multi-instrumentalists to wander into new spaces with ease, seeking fresh partnerships to ride forward with. The most obvious of those is Christine and the Queens’ Redcar, who joins the world of ‘Loss of Life’ for MGMT’s first-ever feature track. “When this song was still taking shape, there was a moment where it became more of a duet,” Andrew shares. “His incredible voice was something that immediately came to be a fit for the song. It happened really easily and quickly; it’s a great creative partnership that we’ve started. When you hear someone who can sing sing, it’s like, oh shit, that’s different.” The first track from this album to come out the gate, though, was ‘Mother Nature’, which quickly transported the band from their previous hypercritical era into a surprisingly happy vibe. “Not to sound super pretentious, but we feel like the world needs some more positive, uplifting, non-cynical messages out here,” the frontman smiles. “It was a conscious choice thematically that we wanted this album to be positive in contrast to the title, which sounds like we’re going into a goth-metal album. Actually, I think it’s the most sincere and positive album that we’ve made, and also least self-conscious by far.” Part of that positivity was enabled by simply stepping away from music for a bit, compartmentalising that section of their lives away from the domestic reality. “Not having active conversations about what we were planning next and focusing more on our home lives, mental health, and stability meant that when coming back to this, it was pretty clear to both of us that we only wanted to come from a place of friendship and getting inspired and excited together,” Ben divulges. “It felt like a lot of the heavy stuff washed away. Any tension in our relationship, which sometimes comes with touring, was easier to let go of.” After 20 years of companionship, the chemistry and cooperation at the core of MGMT burns as bright as ever. “We’ve steered clear of cocaine habits and split everything 50/50,” Andrew remarks. “It’s always been extremely mutual; we’re doing this together no matter what. We’ve managed to stay close friends and have a great creative relationship, which I think is rare for a longstanding duo – I’m looking at Hall &
“It’s the most sincere and positive album that we’ve made” ANDREW
VANWYNGARDEN
Oates right now.” Recent single ‘Bubblegum Dog’ shows the pair’s vision of what happens when you do let spite snowball for too long. “While being in a goofy song with a silly title, the lyrics deal with this feeling of not being able to run away from things,” he begins. “It’s sort of a psychedelic notion too. When you’re on psychedelics, you’re confronted with everything; there’s nowhere to run, and you can’t escape. This song is about feelings of shame from your past, things you did that you cringe about now. The Bubblegum Dog is this force of reckoning that you cannot escape; it will always catch up to you somehow.” Whether in fear of this self-created entity or for more holistic reasons, MGMT have brought a new ethos into their multi-faceted world once again. Despite juxtaposing this search for joy with layers
of cutting irony, Andrew and Ben are coming from a genuine place. “It’s difficult to believe that love conquers all and talk about it in a way that doesn’t make you seem like a weirdo religious fundamentalist person, but I believe it,” Andrew admits. “We had fun dealing with that theme through these songs and trying to do it in an MGMT way. We are truly wrestling with sincerity; we’re these super ironic guys that grew up loving Beavis & Butthead, and now we’re 40 years old and wanting to make music that benefits the world in some way.” Fans have been benefitting from the band’s output for a long time already, and that’s not something that goes unappreciated. “We’ve watched other musicians get to points in their career where they’re on some plateau looking back with some bitterness of something they thought they might have at that point, or something they used to have but don’t anymore,” Ben notes. “I feel grateful to be in a position where we’re not thinking about any of that. We are the freest that we’ve ever been from it all, and it feels a lot easier to come at music from a pure headspace.” ‘Loss of Life’ is a record that touches on the darker sides of human existence but never forgets the value of positivity. As Andrew concludes, “At any given moment, there are a million of the most terrible, awful things happening in the world, and that’s never going to change. Knowing that there is a constant of love that can’t ever be touched – playing with that became our muse.” P MGMT’s
album ‘Loss Of Life’ is out 23rd February.
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Cour -ting COVER STORY
With their debut full-length, Courting set themselves up as indie-pop’s plucky new disrupters. As they return for its follow up, ‘New Last Name’, they’re playing a much bigger game. by NEIVE MCCARTHY. photography by DEREK BREMNER.
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A
ll the world’s a stage, but Courting are not merely players. No, though they are about to deliver the performance of a lifetime, the Liverpool four-piece are directors in their own right. A band well-versed in making their own rules already, as they return with their second album, ‘New Last Name’, Courting are the ones pulling the strings more than ever. They’ve never been ones for following convention, and on the follow-up to ‘Guitar Music’, they prove this with every unsuspecting beat. ‘New Last Name’ is an act of reinvention, but not in the conventional sense – it’s an alternate world to its predecessor, reinventing genre and long-settled rules and the very concept of an album itself.
g.
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“There’s depth hidden within this album; we’re just not spoiling the fun of finding it” SEAN
MURPHY
O’NEILL
Through this avenue of newness, Courting more closely define who they are and their own capabilities at the core of this project. “As a band, you’re never allowed points for style,” frontman Sean Murphy O’Neill says. “It always has to be like, ‘This is an album, it can’t be viewed as anything else’. In most Wes Anderson films, it’s a movie in a book in a play in another book. That does absolutely nothing for the plot apart from being an interesting stylistic framing device. As an album, you don’t get the benefit of the doubt that a lot of forms of art get with framing devices. If you watch a really interesting movie that did that, it would be considered high art. Unless the music you’re making is inherently really experimental, it is considered more of a lower-class type of art – it’s not as respected as a craft. Our idea was that as an album dealing with pop culture and being sillier and more playful, how can we inject a theme to the record that doesn’t take it away from being an album or turn it into a concept album but allows an extra frame to how the art is received?” Sean, along with bandmates Josh Cope, Sean Thomas and Connor McCann, discovered an answer to that question somewhere along the way. ‘New Last Name’ takes the form of a play within an album – a cast of characters, hints and nods to a plot, cleverly packaged in a way that points to that theatricality without ever forcing it upon its listener. Citing the likes of ‘good kid, m.A.A.d city’ as an example of a conceptual album that doesn’t hammer home that concept, the band found a means to extend a hand into a more immersive world without dragging their listener in headfirst. “No one’s forcing narrative on you,” Sean
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explains. “You can choose if you want to be a part of it. The point is that you know this is meant to, in some way, be a theatrical play, but we’re not giving you any more information. It’s now up to the audience to interpret how they feel about whatever narrative they want to create through the album. The whole purpose of us doing that is to add a layer of depth. We wanted people to really read into this album. There’s definitely depth hidden within; we’re just not spoiling the fun of finding it.” It’s, in a way, a natural follow-up to their debut while simultaneously being a complete departure. ‘Guitar Music’ was an exercise in maximalism and extremity, pushing things to the brink and seeing how long it would take them to tip over. ‘New Last Name’ is more refined and sees the band utilising far more restraint in each track. That common thread, however, is a commitment to keeping
things new and fresh. ‘Guitar Music’ traversed uncharted territory, and ‘New Last Name’ continues in that trend. “If you can predict a song, I don’t think it’s very well-written,” reflects Sean. “For us wanting to make pop music, our thought was, how can we make a pop song that has repeating sections but remains unpredictable and interesting to the listener? We wanted to keep people on their toes. The aim was to write pop songs with interesting structures that people couldn’t predict.” Lead single ‘Flex’ follows a structure the band favoured a lot on the album, where the song begins with multiple separate parts and continues to take them away bit by bit. The track riffs on ‘Mr Brightside’ breezily quiet to a hush before amping up once more. It’s all left turns throughout the track and the album as a whole. From the strings on ‘Flex’ to the pop-punk riff of
COURTING
What are Courting excited for in 2024?
“As a band, you’re never allowed points for style” SEAN
MURPHY
O’NEIL
‘Throw’ to the pulsing synths of ‘Emily G’, there is no through line to follow – it’s a constant question of where they might go next. Entering a conversation with old loves and trying to rein in the maximalism they favoured prior, tracks like ‘Throw’ became an opportunity to find a means of reimagining and repurposing. “The premise with ‘Throw’ was in the wave of bands taking pop-punk cliches from the 2000s and writing around that. Rather than being part of that cycle of nostalgia, we wanted to interpolate a cliché into an almost regularsounding song. We wrote a song that was quite normal for us, the rest of the track, then we thought, how, 2 minutes 30 into a 4-minute song, do you completely change the tone? It was the thought of having that restraint and bringing in the riff there rather than writing a whole song around that riff. It could have been two songs, but instead, it gives a standout to
Sean T → I’m having fajitas next week, and I can’t lie, I’m so excited. Peppers, onion, sour cream, cheese, cayenne pepper, smoked paprika, garlic. Aw man, I’m hyped. → Steamboat Willie goes into the public domain. Let’s show that mouse who’s boss. → Christmas. It’s the most wonderful time of the year, and it’s coming this December. Better get your stocking ready. → Really looking forward to all the new cats I’m gonna meet this year. Little ones, big ones, orange ones, spotty ones - send any one of those little guys my way, and I’m ready to be their friend. → Getting a new boiler. It’s new boiler season, baby, and I’m living the dream. Gonna pretend I’m on a tropical island. Sean M → Looking forward to Dune 2 (others as they have Dune 2 me). → Having fun with my friends, travelling to many, many countries. → Really looking forward to the new MGMT release. One of my favourite bands of all time and I’m really excited to see what they bring to the table this time. → I recently purchased a new Oral-B toothbrush; it has an app that ranks my performance twice daily. I am truly thrilled to unlock the gaming side of dental hygiene this year and see how I score by the end of 2024. → Working alongside our friends at DORK. They have always been there for us. Thanks. (£10 is in the post - Ed) Josh C → Recently, I dipped my toes into the extravagant world of cheeseboard making, and after having acquired a set of cheese knives for Xmas, I’ve officially gone pro. Hit the big time. Prestige 5. Time to take the cheeseboards on tour and procure some fancy and hopefully stinky European cheese. The smellier, the better. → Continuing with my endeavours into fancyhood, I’m looking forward to indulging in more foreign cuisines and beverages - especially orange wine. That stuff is great. It’s the Tame Impala of wines; it’s really underground, and you’ve probably not heard of it, but it’s pretty nice. Hey, did you know that it’s just one... <sniiiiip - Ed> → Competing for the title of sleepiest guy ever. I’ve been the reigning champion now for 22 (and 10 months) straight. In recent months, our dear friend and touring guitarist Seb has proven himself a worthy adversary. Hoping to retain my crown as king of Snoozeville. → So, I got this new scarf, and it’s bloody brilliant. I intend to wear it for as much time as possible throughout the year, even into the warmer months, at the risk of a very sweaty neck. It’s ace. If being fashionable (albeit a bit clammy) is a crime, then Your Honour, I am guilty. → Another year with the best four dudes on earth, rocking out and crushing beers alongside some occasional tomfoolery and mishaps. Love u guys; here’s to 2024, aka the year of Courting. Proost! (Say it back, please.) Connor M → Lots of change for my new piggy bank I got for Christmas; it’s time to save big in 2024. → Kung Fu Panda 4 - “Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift, that is why it’s called the present.” → Our UK and European tour; I’ve really missed the tour life and a European tour?!? Call me Mr Worldwide. → Having another lovely year with my girlfriend. Ready to do and see so many new things; I know 2024 will be a special one for us. → Facebook’s 20th anniversary. Wouldn’t be here today if Jesse Eisenberg didn’t push Andrew Garfield out of the company.
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the B section, and it gives the song a more multifaceted way of being looked at. We thought that was really interesting. Instead of recycling an idea, how can we recontextualise an idea as casual relief in a song? I think the song is quite dense, and then when it breaks into something that’s almost a little childish, a little bit stupid, it’s like instant gratification.” There are moments of near-whiplash trying to keep up with where they might go next, but that’s part of the goal for Courting. Keeping people
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guessing, invested, and admiring even when they’re in shock is integral to what ‘New Last Name’ sets out to do. “It’s to indulge what you really want to hear,” muses Sean. “No matter how pretentious of a music fan someone is – and I’m the first to say I’ve probably got quite a pretentious music taste – but if you’re listening to a really serious song and there’s something quite cliché or silly that happens, it catches your ear a lot more. The first song from the second IDLES album where it has the really slow post-punk section and ridiculous double-time bit at the end; I remember listening to the first part and thinking it was cool, but then the silly bit happens are you’re like, ‘Fuck, yeah, this is great’. I really liked that contrast. You can have the more pretentious elements and make people go, ‘This is an interesting concept for a song; this is clever’. Then, when someone’s guard
“How can I write a pop song that’s really good, fun and clever?” SEAN
MURPHY
O’NEILL
is down, strike them with something really stupid. It’s almost like they can’t not appreciate it because they’re in on the joke.” Getting into the heads of their listeners and pre-determining what might blindside them meant they had to position themselves in that role. What would they most like to hear? They pursued the things they loved and enjoyed, what might take them by surprise, what might elicit a laugh from their end. Centring themselves in the process proved crucial. “It’s like pulling the rug out,” Sean continues. “We want to surprise people. A lot of it is just for ourselves, and I think if we’re doing anything that is meant to pull the rug out from under someone’s feet, the intention is that it would pull the rug out from under our feet if we were listening to it. We write with ourselves as the audience in mind. When I write songs, I write songs that I want to hear, and I think that’s the best way to do it. If you try to meet or defy anyone’s expectations of you, you fall into a lot of different songwriting traps. If all you’re doing is writing songs you want to hear, the only game is hoping that people share a music taste with you. A lot of our fans hopefully do.” Courting quickly got to work on the album before their first release was even out in the world, ensuring any outside opinions had minimal opportunity to filter in. That choice allowed them to fine-tune the album, sitting in those audience seats and critiquing it for as long as they felt necessary. It allowed them the space to create tracks like ‘Happy Endings’ – “probably us at our
COURTING
“We want to surprise people” SEAN
most us” – with its ferocious, fast-paced guitars and drum-and-bass leaning style, whilst still finding space for tracks like ‘Babys’ to sit alongside it. ‘Babys’ is coloured in shades of country but sits next to an early-2000s indie styled ‘The Wedding’. With each side of them shown, Courting become more confident in their ability to make deeply complex, capricious tracks. Though mostly self-produced, they did enlist the help of Gary and Ryan Jarman of The Cribs, a band they have long loved but also found a kinship with. “When you’re shitting yourself about whether
your record is bad and a band you’ve liked since you were younger say, ‘No, it’s great, don’t worry’, well if they like it, then it is good. It makes you feel a lot better. They inspired us to just keep pushing on what we wanted to do. As bands, we both come from slightly different angles of the same idea: how can you write complex and interesting songs that are still melodic and pop-friendly? Seeing pop songs as an art form rather than a commodity – how can I write a pop song that’s really good, fun and clever? I think they’ve always done that. Out of that 2000s scene of bands, The Cribs’ songs always feel really clever and complex, but they
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never abandon having a great chorus.” Courting have echoed that in their own distinct way. Though they have similarities, they are unavoidably on their own path. They shift so quickly but retain qualities that are unmistakably Courting. The constant touchstones of pop culture they hark back to, the ferocity of the guitars, the fine line walked between laughing in raucous fun and carefully considering every move – they all have come to mark a Courting release for the better. The album’s narrative is one that perhaps only they could achieve; the kind of outlandish, meticulously thought-out world is one only they could have made. Creating that world meant the visuals had to play a huge part, which has always been the case for Courting. With music videos of auditions and behind-the-scenes footage, and the paparazzi photos that opened this era, layer after layer was added, and the world of ‘New Last Name’ truly came to life. The fictional names for each character came from a bit the band embarked upon on their 2022 tour, a fitting representation of this play itself – it’s embedded in the intricacies of Courting as a band, spiralling out from there in an impressive feat of innovation. “The little inside jokes that make us work as a band and fuel how we actually conceptualised this record infiltrated the process,” concludes Sean. Where ‘Guitar Music’ sonically went to the edges of what was doable, ‘New Last Name’ goes to the edges of what an album can be. It’s a formidable second album from a band willing to put so much of themselves and ambitions into something new, exciting and refreshing. Whether another band could’ve pulled off such a feat is up to interpretation. Courting, however, do it with ease. P Courting’s album ‘New Last Name’ is out
26th January.
READDORK.COM 43.
Bodega. FEATURE
Revisiting previous work under a different guise, BODEGA are back to poke at the sometimes suspiciously shiny underbelly of alternative music culture. photography by POONEH GHANA.
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YC indie-rock trailblazers BODEGA are back with a new record... sort of. ‘Our Brand Could Be Yr Life’ due 12th April via their new label, Chrysalis (Laura Marling, Liz Phair) - sees the endlessly inventive group revisit Ben Hozie (guitars, vocals) and Nikki Belfiglio’s (keys, percussion, vocals) old band Bodega Bay’s one and only album for a complete overhaul. A thematically rich concept piece about corporate mentality infiltrating underground scenes, the new set sees them take those initial ideas and expand on them in new and exciting ways. It’s teased by early single ‘Tarkovski’ (“A pun on the famous Russian director and skiing,” Ben explains), out now.
Ben, you’ve got a new album! Congrats. The concept sounds really interesting, it’s a rework of a previous project? How much of the original is still there?
We’ve been thinking about this project as a ‘remake’ in the same way a director might remake one of their earlier films (or adapt a novel, etc.). The original 2015 thirty-three-track album was twofold: 1. It was sort of a concept album about the current state of American indie rock, and 2. A compilation/collection of what I thought were my best songs from 2012-2015, which is when I feel like I found my BODEGA songwriting voice. Almost all of the songs are originally from the Bodega Bay album, but in many cases, we completely rewrote the arrangements, riffs, and lyrics to reflect our current interests.
Do you spend much time reconsidering your work, generally?
I think so. Painters get to rework the same image(s) from multiple angles, and I don’t see why bands cannot. I never really think of a particular recording as the ‘canonical’ version; rather, it’s just a document of where the band is at this moment. We recycle many of our themes, images, and progressions. Style = self-plagiarism.
How have you guys changed since that first release? Have you experienced much personal evolution?
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The more I learn about music/making records, the less I feel I know. That’s good, though. I like constantly being a student. Replaying these old songs feels both like revisiting old friends but also revisiting older states of mind. The ‘Ben’ who wrote these songs is not really who I am now, but I like summoning him as a reminder of the original intent/ideal of the band.
And musically, what have been the key lessons you’ve learnt since then?
I’ve always been invested in a certain type of pop formalism, but lately, I’m more interested in melody and chord changes than the rhythmic single-note hooks of the minimal post-punk style of our last two records. This so happens to coincide with the kind of power pop (Beatle moves + punk ‘tude) I was writing for ‘Bodega Bay’. For example, the opening track ‘Dedicated To The Dedicated’ has some nice modulations that I think follow the emotional arc of the song well. It’s sort of a milestone track for me BEN personally because it uses the literary/ wordy ‘Broken Equipment’ songwriting approach but is less static harmonically/texturally. Nikki and I have also been conscious of using more negative space in our tracks. Because of how dense our songs can be text-wise, we realise it’s quite good to allow for more instrumental blissout moments, such as the extended outro in ‘Stain Gaze’ and the jam in ‘Tarkovski’. We’ve done a lot of live extended instrumental improvisation in the past but have never really pulled it off on record until now. Dan Ryan’s guitar playing has really elevated these tracks in that regard. The lead improvisations he does over the drone jam in ‘Tarkovski’ and the guitar/piano work in ‘City is Taken’ are some of my favourite parts to be on a BODEGA disc.
at the broader political and personal ramifications on ‘Endless Scroll’ /// ‘Broken Equipment’ was an attempt at locating the origins of the cultural consumer’s consciousness (historically, philosophically, personally).
Have you seen much change in the corporate mentality of underground/indie rock since the project was first released? How have the themes aged?
The technology has changed. People often talk about how technology is this blank tool that can be used for either good or bad. We’d have to be incredibly naive to not realise that technology is also built with a specific ideology in mind. For example, if you build a weapon, its function is to maim/ harm. That’s it. Web 2.0 was designed to control consciousness and encourage low-labour content creation. Social media ‘content creators’ and the new HOZIE 9-5 worker drones. That’s not a conspiracy. It’s hard to use these tools without being ‘used’ in the process. I’m not against social media, absolutely. We must reveal the scaffolding before we can imagine new ways of being.
“The ‘Ben’ who wrote these songs is not really who I am now”
You’ve described ‘Endless Scroll’, ‘Broken Equipment’ and ‘Our Brand Could Be Yr Life’ as forming a trilogy of thematic unity - how does the narrative lay out across the releases?
On ‘Our Brand’, we are introduced to the cultural consumer and his disillusionment with the corporate mentality of millennial youth culture /// the cultural consumer goes online and is shocked
You’ve emphasised a departure from ‘postpunk’ to become more ‘genre-fluid’. Was this a natural evolution or a conscious decision?
On tour, I found it way more rewarding to sing our melodic songs (such as ‘Jack In Titanic’ or ‘Charlie’) than to bark/shout some of the others. I like a bratty, in-your-face shout vocal, but I’d like there to be more balance. I’m as influenced by Paul McCartney as Mark E Smith.
You work a lot of humour into Bodega’s music, is there a line or concept you’re particularly proud of including on this album? The skits always crack me up. There are several discarded BODEGA songs that the cultural consumer comes across on the radio (in the skit after ‘Cultural Consumer III’) that always make me smile. An underrated life experience is making yourself laugh. Bodega’s album ‘Our Brand Could Be Yr Life’ is out 12th April.
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BODEGA
READDORK.COM 45.
ON a Sleater-Kinney’s return marks a renewed commitment to urgency, authenticity, and the unpredictable path of rock. by ALI SHUTLER. photography by CHRIS HORNBECKER.
ROPE
H
aving released ten brilliant albums over the past thirty years, SleaterKinney are undeniable indie-rock legends. Essays have been written about the impact of 1997’s breakout album ‘Dig Me Out’ while the clear musical chemistry between Carrie Brownstein and Corin Tucker has constantly pushed the band from riot grrrl and beyond. In 2015, a ten-year hiatus was brought to a close with ‘No Cities To Love’, an album that was as urgent and vicious as anything that had come before, but despite SleaterKinney’s sprawling and influential legacy, the band really aren’t that interested in it all. “I need to feel like I’m doing something meaningful, even if it’s only meaningful to me,” CARRIE explains Corin. Sleater-
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Kinney have never done an anniversary tour, and the closest they’ve come to revisiting old albums was their 2022 ‘Dig Me Out’ covers record, which saw the likes of St. Vincent, Self Esteem and The Linda Lindas put their spin on the iconic album. “Nostalgia is a very satisfying feeling to luxuriate in, but there is a cynicism to it,” continues Carrie. “You’re basically saying the present is not as good as the past. It can be corrosive to not believe that right now is worthwhile.” Live, Sleater-Kinney still celebrate every corner of their back catalogue, “but we’re really trying to embrace who we are now and what the world is, for better or worse,” says Carrie. This brings us to eleventh album ‘Little Rope’, perhaps the perfect introduction to the spiky, melodic might of Sleater-Kinney. “You never want a new BROWNSTEIN record to be met with an eye
“SO MUCH O F S L E AT E R K I N N E Y IS ABOUT CONNECTION. IT’S ABOUT C O M M U N I T Y. IT’S ABOUT A SHARED EXPERIENCE”
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FEATURES
roll, and ideally, every one feels like its own entity,” Carrie continues. Still, ‘Little Rope’ has been described by the band as the start of a new era. Corin says making the album saw the pair make a “renewed commitment” to one another, while Carrie describes it as a “restart” following 2021’s “insular, isolated pandemic album, ‘’Path Of Wellness’.” “So much of Sleater-Kinney is about connection. It’s about community. It’s about a shared experience. After making something more introverted, we wanted to embrace the perennial restlessness of Sleater-Kinney,” continues Carrie, with the pair chasing urgency at every turn. They spoke about their love of punk rockers The Clash and Queen of Funk Chaka Khan, but it was more about energy than sonics. “We have such a unique way of playing together that no matter what we’re inspired by, it always ends up being funnelled through the landscape of Sleater-Kinney,” says Carrie. “I don’t take for granted that there is a uniqueness to what we do. We’re a hard band to emulate.” “I love that ‘Little Rope’ conjures the things central to Sleater-Kinney,” she CORIN continues. “It has an urgency and a rawness familiar to us, but we can’t always get there authentically. It’s a really great hybrid of all the things I love about Sleater-Kinney while also sounding new.” From the opening roar of ‘Hell’, a renewed anger rattles through ‘Little Rope’. “We want to reflect what’s going on in the world,” explains Corin. “We find purpose in writing about things that we feel are important, that we wish were different and that we are going through personally.” “Everything is confusing right now,” continues Carrie. “Our goal is that these songs, written in moments of despondency or fury, connect with others. I do think people will feel seen by this record. It captures a lot of things that many of us are going through.” A lot of ‘Little Rope’ deals with the
precariousness of life, she continues. The album sees the band on a precipice, “straddling light and dark, or sorrow and joy. The songs really explore the discomfort of being neither here nor there, whether that’s because of your own sadness, other people leaving, being forced to retreat, or not being able to access something that seems shimmery and joyful,” Carrie adds. “There’s a lot of just sitting in the mess.” Still, “it’s not totally dire,” promises Carrie, with ‘Little Rope’ also championing moments of levity and joy. Music videos for singles ‘Say It Like You Mean It’ and ‘Hell’ feature actual dancing, and there’s a blossoming, undeniable resilience across the album. “ I wouldn’t say it’s hopeful, but it has desire and faith. It’s that freedom of getting to the other side of something,” says Carrie. “The freedom of letting go, the freedom of reckoning with the messy truth of things.” “There’s a joy in being able to understand what you’re going through, have a name for it, and call it out,” continues Corin. “We have faith in the power of music.” Sleater-Kinney reunited in 2015 after ten years of pursuing other projects. “We just felt like there was still something to say,” says Carrie of the band’s ambitions back then. “When you stop, sometimes you assume something will come TUCKER along that takes the place of your band, but it didn’t feel like that for us. It felt like there was still space for SleaterKinney, and the story was unfinished.” From the outside, every album that followed saw the band out to prove something, from working with St. Vincent to produce 2019’s ‘The Center Won’t Hold’ to recording without longstanding drummer Janet Weiss on 2021’s ‘Path Of Wellness’. “In some ways, I think you need something to prove. I don’t know how to approach an album without that feeling,” says Carrie, who’s set out to “defy expectations and prove you’re still worthy of continuing” with every record. “We’ve always wanted the same thing, which is to be considered a good band,” she explains. “Even back in 1995, people were trying to pigeonhole us.” The band have always focused on chasing
“ I N E E D TO FEEL LIKE I’M DOING SOMETHING MEANINGFUL, EVEN IF IT’S O N LY MEANINGFUL TO M E ”
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SLEATER-KINNEY
“OUR MUSIC H AS T Y P I CA L LY A P P E A L E D TO OUTSIDERS, AND T H AT ’ S O K AY F O R U S . WE LIKE THOSE P E O P L E ” CARRIE
BROWNSTEIN
what felt most inspiring, and their noisy, guitardriven, angsty album comes as rock is very much back in the mainstream. “When you’ve been around long enough, it’s obvious that everyone is ready to declare rock dead before resurrecting it, but it feels like the younger generations really just appreciate music,” explains Carrie. “It doesn’t feel like you’re put out to pasture the second you hit 50 anymore, and there’s a real openness by them to listen to everything.” “We’ve always just felt very attached to guitars and the loudness of what we do musically. Sometimes we will be out of fashion, and sometimes we’ll inadvertently ride a wave,” says Corin. Still, as much as she wants to “reintroduce the band with this album,” they’re not aiming for a breakout moment. “We’re not mainstream, and that’s okay. We’re not for everyone, and I think we have always known that. Understanding that we are different gives us a freedom to really do things our own way that is ultimately very satisfying.” “There’s something too weird about our band,” continues Carrie. “Our music has typically appealed to outsiders or people who sometimes feel at odds with the world, and that’s okay for us. We like those people.” “And what is great is that people are just discovering us now,” she adds, with ‘Little Rope’ getting positive comments across social media from fans new and old, with a similar scene playing out at gigs. “It’s a wonderful feeling to play live and have the first couple rows populated by teenagers and people in their early 20s. It’s a huge privilege to have a multi-generational audience because it means the songs transcend demographics or scenes. They just speak to people, and that’s what we’ve always hoped for. Our goal is always to feel relevant. You want to be assessed as your present self.” “It’s always been part of our ethos to not necessarily offer up exactly what people imagined Sleater-Kinney would do next,” she adds. “That can be a little treacherous, but it also keeps things exciting.” P Sleater-Kinney’s
album ‘Little Rope’ is out 19th January.
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FEATURES
Sprints are hurling themselves into the limelight with their deliciously dark debut album, ‘Letter To Self’. by CIARAN PICKER
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SPRINTS
"I
feel like in the last eight months I’ve aged about six years,” Sprints’ frontwoman Karla Chubb admits, and no wonder. 2023 has been a massive year for these Dublin garage punks. Since the release of single ‘Literary Mind’ at the tail end of 2022, they’ve been hammering away, carving their name into the mind of anyone who has had the good fortune of seeing them live. From supporting Suede in the spring to playing almost every festival going in the summer, it all culminated in a first-ever gig in the US, a soldout gig at London’s Scala, and a homecoming at Dublin’s Button Factory, which was “absolute insanity”. Not bad, eh? Nonetheless, it’s the little things that mean the most to Sprints. “At the New York gig,” bassist Sam McCann reminisces, “some guy came over and said: ‘I flew from Chicago to come and see you guys!’ Like, what the hell is going on?!” Karla agrees, “I remember listening in to the first spin of our single on the radio whilst in the States eight hours behind; it’s the spark of joy you need to keep going.” The endless touring, alongside working fulltime jobs and trying to write new tracks, helped to create the atmosphere of debut album, ‘Letter to Self’. A searing punk record, it embodies the anxiety that’s been swirling in Karla’s mind throughout her life. Thrash guitar and layered drums mirror the imminent and unstoppable arrival of a midnight panic attack, with Karla screaming for salvation through spat-out, unleashed vocals. “We gave you 30 seconds of peace and then 41 minutes of chaos,” Karla chuckles. There is much to enjoy about this album, but what really shines through is that Sprints just don’t care what you think anymore. Where they may have restricted themselves on previous projects, not wanting to make too much noise or cause too much of a fuss, this LP has seen them not just loosen the reins but take them off altogether – and then set them alight. “We had a few reservations about it being so heavy and aggressive from the start,” Karla admits, “but like, it’s a debut: you’ve got to make a statement.” Sam concurs: “There is a build for about a minute in the first song, but if it had been soft, people would’ve just been annoyed, especially if they’ve seen us live.”
He’s not wrong. Sprints have made a name for themselves for the exact anger-fuelled swagger that makes this record so impressive. The first three songs on ‘Letter to Self’ – the brooding opener ‘Ticking’, the aptly named ‘Heavy’, and explosive anthem ‘Cathedral’ – are a celebration of a DIY punk scene overflowing with talent. Musically, they contain all the elements of a classic punk record, but tuned up to the max, with more experimental, thumping drumbeats fighting tooth and claw alongside driving basslines and brash guitar licks. “We would spend days playing with songs, just adding parts to make songs feel fuller and explore more textural spaces,” making this the most polished and professional body of work that Sprints have produced. These sonic choices were all by design, mimicking the subject matter of the album. “The whole thing is an anxious spiral,” Karla says candidly. “It’s lying in your bed, not being able to sleep, slowly feeling your heartbeat race, the panic start, and the descent into madness.” This is where modern punk bands separate themselves from the more superficial, stylised bands of the 1970s and 80s, writing from the heart about genuine trauma that brings in a crossgenerational crowd. The album is immensely personal, referencing Karla’s German upbringing, Catholic guilt, and her sexuality and gender identity, but it also speaks to wider societal flaws. “Everyone’s feeling it, living paycheque to paycheque, with so much going on in the world, it just felt right to capture that fear KARLA on the record, and it helps you to process it a bit more.” This process dragged Sprints away from another hackneyed cliché of punk by introducing softer moments on the album to break up the noise and create a bridge between their previous EPs and this new chapter. Scattering acoustic guitars throughout the album, most notably on ‘Shadow of a Doubt’ and title-track ‘Letter to Self’, represented the point post-spiral when you can finally catch your breath. Not only does it highlight Karla’s talent for observational and vulnerable writing, but it emphasises just how far the band have come with regard to understanding their own instruments and how they fit into the wider Sprints soundscape.
To have done all this while working full-time jobs is no mean feat. Sure, they’re not the first people to have jobs alongside being in a band, especially in today’s social media-and-streambased industry. What is exciting, though, is that they are now officially full-time, professional musicians. “I’ve thought about it every day since I was six years old,” Karla says, “and we owe it to ourselves to make a proper go of it. Look at what we’ve done so far; imagine what we’ll do next year with only music to focus on?” The next twelve months look to yet again be huge for the band, with their upcoming album tour seeing them undertake their first proper US and European tours. In true Sprints style, though, they’re not content with just doing the shows and hoping they go well; instead, they are using their platform to keep chipping away at bias in the music industry. “90% of questions I get are about being a woman in music; it’s like it totally detracts from any aspect of me being an artist. Like, we want it acknowledged so we can solve the problem, but you’ve got to actually do something about it.” To that end, they’re bringing visceral Leeds outfit VENUS GRRRLS along with them for their UK tour, curating a truly 21st-century punk experience. So, what are Karla and Sam’s hopes for 2024? “A Top 10 album”, Sam says instantly. Karla is slightly more hesitant in her agreement, “Yeah, I want to say the same, but I don’t want to jinx CHUBB it! I think I basically just want the album to be received well, for people to sit with it and appreciate how much of ourselves we’ve put into it. Oh, and a support slot for a sick band!” Based on the strength of this album, this is well within their reach. “I don’t have to take the path that was carved out in front of me”, Karla sings on title-track and closer ‘Letter to Self’. If Sprints have proved anything during their rise to the top, it’s that they are in full control of their journey. From the darkness of their past to the iridescence of their future, Sprints are lighting the way for punk – and long may it continue. P Sprints’ debut album ‘Letter To Self’
“ W E GAV E YO U 30 SECONDS OF P E AC E AND THEN 41 MINUTES OF C H AO S ”
is out now.
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FEATURES
Marika Hackman’s new album ‘Big Sigh’ is an exercise in catharsis it’s soul-baring, vulnerable, and melds together all of her previous works to create something with an identity entirely of its own. by REBECCA KESTEVEN photography by STEVE GULLICK
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ou’re staring at a blank piece of paper or screen and desperately wishing something creative, cool, or even mildly interesting would pop into your head… but nothing comes. Writer’s block might be one of the most frustrating things to happen to a writer, and there’s nothing quite like emerging out of a lengthy bout of anxious introspection off the back of COVID lockdowns to hammer the nails into that lyrical coffin. Marking a welcome return to the music stage after a four-year hiatus (minus 2020’s ‘Covers’ - a creative ten-track reimagining of songs from artists from Grimes to Radiohead), Marika Hackman describes her fourth LP ‘Big Sigh’ as the hardest record she has ever made. Written over a two-and-a-half-year period, she compares songwriting to carving a sculpture out of ice, which you slowly chip away at until a song reveals itself - except this time, sitting in her studio in London, it felt like everything had frozen over for good. “It was so much harder to break through like the muscle had been rested, and it just didn’t feel as close to the surface as it had before.” That was until one night in 2021 in a pub toilet (of all places). Sneaking off to re-listen to a demo she’d recorded earlier that day, the Londoner realised with relief that the writer’s block which had iced over her ability to write songs for so long had finally begun to
“ It ’s re al l y im p o r t a n t to not le t vu ln e ra b ilit y b e c o m e a fe ar ” MARIKA
HACKMAN
thaw. “It was mainly the fact that I was even listening back to it - like, sneaking off to go and listen to it - it showed me that I was excited about something that I’d done. The main feeling was just relief; I felt like I’d broken through the writer’s block. It didn’t mean that the rest were all then easy to write; it was just proof to me that I could still do it… which,” she laughs, “is quite an important thing to hold onto.” That demo would become ‘Hanging’ - a delicate piano-led track about processing the end of a relationship, which crescendos into a roar of grungy guitars. The track mirrors what the album’s themes would also come to be: a clashing of opposites. Using different sonic dynamics, which err on the uncomfortable at times, Marika explores the tensions between loud versus quiet, the industrial inner city versus the pastoral, and childhood versus adulthood
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MARIKA HACKMAN
“‘ B ig S i gh’ has ta ke n u p my fo cus , my l ove, and my h ate fo r t h e l as t fo ur ye ars , an d I c an ’ t re al l y p ut t h at to o n e s i d e unt i l i t ’s ou t ” MARIKA
HACKMAN
- which she ties to having spent so much time over lockdown at her family home in the rural countryside. “I just wanted to play with more organic and pastoral-sounding things while flexing a bit more into an electronic, heavy dynamic. Those two sounds very much represent, to me, the cut-off point from childhood - in the countryside, freedom, lack of responsibility, and feeling nostalgic and wistful about that - combined with my adult, anxiety-laden, clanging capital city kind of life, full of responsibilities.” And for Marika, ‘Big Sigh’ was “really just capturing that in a cinematic, audio way. Because then I felt like lyrically I was really free within those parameters to explore my usual topics.” Indeed, her 2019 album ‘Any Human Friend’ had seen her enter an era of a proud assertion of sexuality and the power to be found within that. With loud and direct guitar-led instrumentals to match, Marika found her lyrical edge in exploring personal experiences, relationships, and the corporeal - blood, sex, sick, and guts. This thematic thread also weaves itself into ‘Big Sigh’, yet there’s a clear shift towards something more reflective and raw - and we’re “emotionally lurched around” with songs such as ‘No Caffeine’, which throw us into the eye of an anxious storm as she lists ways to help stop a panic attack. Her words are just as eloquent in conversation as they are in her songs, as she talks about the importance of honesty and not being afraid of vulnerability. “It’s really important to not let vulnerability become a fear. Because, as soon as you start being scared of that kind of stuff, you run the risk of creatively limiting yourself.” There’s a fine line to walk, though - because being so real about your experiences also runs the risk of pulling others into it, Marika explains. “The only thing I don’t ever do is hurt or upset someone or make someone feel like it’s not just me talking about my experiences. I dig into my own personal memories and feelings, and I try very much not to drag other people too heavily into it, to keep it fairly open. That’s the time where I’d check myself.” But fundamentally, it’s this honesty and the image-laden poetic vignettes about both life’s lightest and darkest moments it creates that make her the songwriter she is. “Being honest is what people connect with, and I think if you get the sentiment really honest, you can then create imagery with the language that’s more poetic.” ‘Big Sigh’ also marks the first time the songwriter has also been credited as primary producer (with additional input from Sam Petts-Davies (Warpaint, Thom Yorke) and Charlie Andrews). “It’s not necessarily something I’ve always wanted to do; it’s something that I’ve kind of been doing without realising… I had no formal training in anything; I’ve just grown into it naturally. I’ve always self-produced whether or not those iterations or songs have ended up on records, so when it came to ‘Big Sigh’, it was just a case of getting the record done and then
just working backwards.” Marika cites the inspiration for her stripped-back production style from the latest Alex G record - “He’s got a real rawness to his music that I think I was also trying to achieve” - as well as the PJ Harvey demos. “It was those more stripped-back elements that were peaking my interest. I don’t like holding onto stuff too much when I’m in the studio; everything’s always quite open-ended, but that was definitely a starting point.” On top of all this, she also played all the instruments on the record herself (with the exception of the strings). “I demo stuff quite heavily and go very much into arrangement when I’m doing that,” she explains. “So predominantly, there was a lot of just re-recording parts I’d already written, which makes it very plain and simple when you’re in the studio. I do love serendipitous play, but we didn’t do that so much on this record - and I think that’s why it sounds so raw. It was all quite pre-determined, and a part of that is because I’m playing everything.” This rawness is certainly translated, and the songwriter has truly translated herself and what she’s been through directly into song - each track feeling like a window into her mind. There’s a real sense that a new chapter is beginning with the release of ‘Big Sigh’. “This album is very much more aligned with my earlier work, but it feels like a grown-up iteration of that. It’s a real mark of how I’ve progressed as a human getting older and as a songwriter.” And this sense of development, as well as making sure each release has its own separate identity, is important to her. “I’ve always said I don’t want to make the same record twice. I find the idea of having a fanbase and then being scared that they’re gonna leave you if you shake it up a silly way of thinking. I like to drag people along on a journey with me. It keeps me excited about what I’m doing, which, it sounds selfish, but is ultimately the main thing. I mean, I don’t want to listen to an artist’s work if they’re not excited about it. It’s very important.” Just as its name might suggest, Marika Hackman’s long-awaited return thus marks a moment of cathartic relief both for her and for her fans. “It’s going to be such a relief when it’s out there. I haven’t been connected to any listeners for such a while. I also feel like once it’s out, I can finally shut the door on it cause that’s the final stage. It’ll get me in a good headspace. ‘Big Sigh’ has taken up my focus, my concentration, my love and my hate for the last four years, and I can’t really put that to one side until it’s out.” As well as playing a run of record store shows and an EU tour locked in, the experience of writing ‘Big Sigh’ - both its highs and its lows - has simply ignited a desire to write another record. “I’m intrigued to start struggling again, falling in love with something again, and seeing what happens. That’s what’s making me the most excited of all.” P Marika Hackman’s album ‘Big Sigh’ is
out now.
READDORK.COM 55.
FEATURES
Unfiltered and unapologetic, L Devine dives into the depths of selfdiscovery with ‘Digital Heartifacts’. by ALI SHUTLER.
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L DEVINE
W
e’re a few weeks away from the release of L Devine’s brilliant debut album ‘Digital Heartifacts’, and Liv is trying to decide which song she’s most excited for everyone to hear. At some point during the conversation, she mentions every track by name. Still, she ultimately settles on ‘Hater’, a vibrant, shimmering number that tackles selfdoubt, identity, and broken dreams with cartoon violence. “The lyrics are funny but worrying. It’s peak L Devine,” Liv grins, knowing she’s finally embodying the sort of anti-pop pop star she’s always wanted to be. There’s the same swaggering confidence and trembling uncertainty across the rest of ‘Digital Heartifacts’ as well, with Liv refusing to second-guess her own big moves or quiet revelations. “All the songs might be about second-guessing myself, but I’m pretty sure of the fact that I secondguess myself,” she adds with a laugh. Still, despite a back catalogue of huge pop bangers and years of justified hype, L Devine’s debut album almost didn’t happen. When she walked away from her major label after the release of 2021’s ‘Near Life Experiences Part 2’, Liv reached out to several industry contacts for advice about her next move. A lot of those people supposedly in the know said that her time as a pop star was over. Perhaps she could focus on writing songs for other people instead, they offered. “I didn’t want to, but I really started to believe that it was the end of the road for that chapter of my career,” she explains. “I figured it was time to be realistic.” Then she started writing the songs that would become her defiant debut album ‘Digital Heartifacts’. At first, she did what she’d always done. “I was just trying to write the biggest pop song possible,” she shrugs. But hidden beneath all that polish was this “self-deprecating character who was talking about deep things, but deflecting it all with humour. I just saw so much of myself in those songs,” she continues. “This album helped me get my confidence back.” “It feels like this album doesn’t give a shit about what other people think, and I reckon that’s so cool,” Liv explains, which makes sense considering she felt like she had “nothing left to lose” making it. “If you look at my career as a whole, I was definitely in a down period when I was writing this record, but honestly, that was the most freeing place to be.” “It made me realise I still had something important to say,” she continues with a grin. “As a 26-year-old woman who’s been making pop music for a long time, and as someone who was with a major label and has gone independent, I hope this new era proves that it isn’t an end. This is the beginning,” L Devine promises. “I want to represent that staying true to yourself pays off.” L Devine has never felt like she fit neatly into the world of major label pop. Yes, the likes of ‘Like
It Like That’, ‘Panic’ and ‘Die On The Dancefloor’ are all stone-cold bangers, but an identity crisis was never far away either. “To be honest, I’ve never known what music I wanted to make,” she admits. As a kid, she’d perform Sugababes songs in front of the bedroom mirror with a hairbrush microphone, but she never thought it would get any bigger than that. “In the 00s, a pop star was still someone doing full dance routines with the Britney Spears headpiece microphone. It was super feminine, and that was something I was struggling with,” says Liv. Instead, as a L teenager, she started dabbling in indie, house, and electronic music around her local scene. Even when she packed her bags and moved to London, it was to become a writer rather than a star. That’s when she got signed to Warner and started polished pop anthems of her own. “I’ve always been redefining what being a pop star means to me, though,” she says. “I’ve always been trying to do things on my own terms.” ‘Digital Heartifacts’ combines the best of both worlds. “I love hooks and have an instant, emotional response to big pop songs. All the best songs in the world are pop, in one way or another, because they’re just undeniably good,” says Liv, but there’s also a scrappy, lo-fi feel to ‘Digital Heartifacts’ that gives the record a sense of warmth. “I tried to unlearn some of the things I’d learnt over the past few years. When you first start writing songs, it’s instinctive, and you’re constantly pushing yourself out of your comfort zone. It just makes for better music,” she says. A lot of L Devine’s biggest swings so far have been drenched in female empowerment. “I have made some sick pop songs, but I was always shooting for those universally succinct messages that everyone could relate to,” she explains. “I’d put out a song like ‘Girls Like Sex’, and sometimes that would feel so incredibly empowering, but then other times it would give me an identity crisis because I don’t always feel like that girl,” she adds. By contrast, ‘Digital Heartifacts’ drops the bold, universal, feel-good messages for something less sweeping and more personal. “A lot of the themes on this album are about the longing to be genuinely understood by someone. It’s also about feeling disconnected in an overly connected world,” says Liv. “It might sound antiempowerment at times, but it felt incredibly empowering for me to do that.” The result is intricate, complex and very queer. “I spent the majority of time in High School
pretending to be someone I wasn’t. Then, I went into an industry where it’s best to be anyone but yourself. It feels like most of my life was this identity crisis. I’m still unpacking that, but over the past few years, I’ve come into being truly, consistently myself,” says Liv. She explores that across ‘Digital Heartifacts’, with recent single ‘Misscommunikaty’ including raw lines like “I was fucking ashamed since 2008, I felt wrong”, summing up her experiences as a young, queer woman. “That was the year I went to High School, and I was really confronted with the fact that I was gay because everyone was DEVINE starting to talk about sex. High School just comes with this whole load of shame, and that’s the biggest reason I have problems communicating and telling people who I am and how I feel now,” she offers. Elsewhere, ‘PMO’ is the spiritual follow-up to L Devine’s early hit ‘Daughter’. “That was the first song where I felt like a proper songwriter. ‘PMO’ is very different, but I felt like I needed to write another song about a queer experience that was really specific to me,” says Liv. It’s about misogyny and the sexualisation of lesbian relationships, but it also finds space for rage. “The place I’m coming from is fraught, jealous and insecure,” she grins, not wanting to project images of perfection. “There is a lot of self-deprecation on this album,” she admits. “There’s a lot of me giving a voice to the inner chatter of self-hate, but I didn’t ever want it to become too negative.” Yes, it’s been a struggle for Liv to get here, but “I never wanted to be ‘woe is me’ because I would cringe so much,” she explains, with humour a constant throughout the record. “It’s very self-aware, I guess.” “It has really helped me, though, and I hope it helps the people that listen to it,” says Liv, who’s spent years wanting to be genuinely understood by others. “I hope it makes people feel like they’re not alone in how they see themselves. I hope they can heal through it.” “There isn’t actually a hopeful song on the entire record, but that’s what was real to me at the time. Going from those empowering pop songs to this pretty sad album, I hope people aren’t too worried about me,” she continues. “This album is the real me, and there is such joy in that. It’s probably the most revealing stuff I’ve done lyrically. It was fulfilling to just be unapologetically myself. This album might be a hot mess, but I guess I’m pretty messy as a person.” P L Devine’s album ‘Digital Heartifacts’ is out 2nd
“THIS ALBUM H E L P E D ME GET MY CONFIDENCE B AC K ”
February.
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FEATURES
Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes continue their exploration of silliness, selfcritique and identity with their new album, ‘Dark Rainbow’. by JACK PRESS
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FRANK CARTER & THE RATTLESNAKES
"T
his is where I’m doing my healing; if I see something, I’m trying not to be reactionary,” says Frank Carter. On a miserably wet Monday, the frontman of The Rattlesnakes is practising blue sky thinking and turning over a new leaf. “If after 10 minutes I still wanna call someone a cunt, then I will, because at least then it’s 10 minutes, and that’s still a shitty thing they’ve done, and I fancy getting into it.” Scrap that; we haven’t lost the punk rock renegade just yet. ‘Dark Rainbow’ ushers in a new era for Frank Carter and Dean Richardson, aka Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes. Whereas 2020’s ‘Sticky’ poured pop hooks into post-punk, ‘Dark Rainbow’ languishes in the lounge-pop multiverse Arctic Monkeys made a reality on ‘Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino’. Since sharing singles ‘Man Of The Hour’ and ‘Brambles’, the duo have gone toe-to-toe with the internet trolls. “I’m defending it now because it’s fun. It’s not fire with fire, it’s silliness with silliness, cause all I’m getting online is ‘What is this shite’, and I’m like, ‘It’s just a song, it’s not complex’.” “I could sit there and explain to them what it means to me and why I wrote it, but they don’t give a shit,” proclaims Frank, who’s felt like he’s been hit by a tonne of bricks daily by fans. “What they want is rage, not because they’re angry with me, but because they’re frustrated with themselves, and I was an integral part of their process in the way that they dealt with life, and now I’m gone,
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FEATURES
“ It ’s a c le ar, considered ‘ T h is is wh o I fe e l I a m’ m o m e n t , an d t h at ’s b e a u t if u l” FRANK
and they don’t know what the fuck to do.” Trading in the type of dramatic irony only music can conjure, ‘Dark Rainbow’ mirrors the mental warfare Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes are constantly fighting. As their fans nosedive into nostalgia, searching for the star they idolise, Frank’s flirting with the way we present ourselves. “That became a theme throughout the record, of the avatars of people, how we wear our skin and how we look and present ourselves and the way that influences people.” While that theme flows through ‘Dark Rainbow’ as subtly as blood trickles through our veins, it becomes a flash flood of nosebleeds on ‘Queen of Hearts’. A dark and brooding number, Frank likens it to “some bleak British drama movie”, a “war of attrition; the whole point of that is that both sides lose so much, like no one ever actually wins in the end.” On the flip side, for his songwriting partner in crime, Dean Richardson, ‘Queen of Hearts’ was anything but a war. “We both won that day; there was no wrestling with each other,” he says, constantly swishing his pen as he considers
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every word and gesture. “We’re at the point now where you don’t overthink that; you don’t need to question whether it needs more. It came together in one session, in one day, almost exactly the first way Frank sang it, and it stayed. You can’t have it all like that, some of them take fucking ages, but that was a beautiful song in the formation.” Like the butterflies that fly through Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes’ back catalogue, many of these songs were caterpillars in chrysalis. Much of the album predates 2020’s ‘Sticky’, so while “everything is linked”, according to Frank, the two records “couldn’t be further apart, they couldn’t be from more distant places”. “’Dark Rainbow’ was made with such clarity of mind,” Frank says with a sigh of relief. “My intent in the writing and the lyrics, the selfcritique and analysis of what I was trying to do, was the clearest it’d been for many, many years, and ‘Sticky’ was the opposite of that; I was languishing in myself for a few years, I was very stuck.” By coming unstuck, Frank and Dean could dig through the rubble and unearth the gems they
CARTER
FRANK CARTER & THE RATTLESNAKES
had buried in the chaos of ‘Sticky’. “Nothing is ever dead to us, so when you hatch a moment like that and have the confidence and the bravery to say this isn’t for now, that’s an amazing moment; I always look forward to the album that ends up uncovering itself, and these songs end up being a foundation stone of this new sound.” New sound is an understatement. Frank and Dean are no strangers to interpolating the meaning of punk into pop culture movements, and ‘Dark Rainbow’ does away with ‘Sticky’’s explosions of spontaneity in favour of toppling dominoes to strip their sound back to the way they like making music best — ultimately, it’s an identity-discovering album. FRANK “When you look at ‘Sticky’, it’s a caricature record of us,” laughs Frank. “It’s the most out there, wildest, funnest, fucking life of the party, rock star versions of us, and that whole period of time for me is so fear and loathing; there’s always someone close up to the fucking camera breathing in your ear.” “That was three years of our fucking lives just being paranoid, and now you get into this time of ‘Dark Rainbow’, and it feels like an identity record. It’s a real clear, considered ‘This is who I feel I am’ moment, and that’s beautiful,” says Frank, whose path of thought is tread instantaneously by Dean. “We were not consciously driving. ‘Sticky’ is the sound of no one at the wheel; we worked really fucking hard on that record, but it was a very unusual circumstance, whereas this record is much more conscious, this is what we wanted to make.” ‘Dark Rainbow’ is a delicate album. It spends much of its time languishing in lavish space, letting individual instruments breathe as if living organisms occupying a soundscape of worlds. Whether it is restraining drumbeats until the right moment or holding notes a second longer, everything is meticulously thought out and a world away from what’s come before. Just don’t call it a departure. “The thing I find interesting is the word departure because it’s definitely getting closer to an accurate portrayal of who we are as artists and musicians,” admits Dean, aware of the selfdiscovery they’ve done since ‘Sticky’. “What we’re trying to do is find something else out about ourselves, and that’s why audiences enjoy it, but that will mean that we keep changing because that’s the goal, to learn something and get closer to what it is that speaks to us, but it can be really jarring for people.” Like everything in Frank and Dean’s lives, it always comes back to what came before. The spectre of Gallows and of the Rattlesnakes’ first record, ‘Blossom’, watches over their quest for creative freedom, haunting their every step. “It’s interesting for them to know our goal is the same
goal it was on the record they loved. We’ve not changed; we’re just getting better at it. It’s like a weird, flawed irony where if that’s not what they want, it is what they wanted.” “’Blossom’ was the closest thing to what they’ve been missing from me,” adds Frank solemnly. “They really wanted this return to Gallows, and ‘Blossom’ came, and it was like, ‘Fuck, is it going to happen?’, and very slowly they realised, ‘Maybe not’.” For Frank, it’s become a sticking point. “I’ve never understood why they can’t just champion it. It happened, we made ‘Blossom’, and it was beautiful, and those shows were fucking carnage and as pure, unfiltered rage as they CARTER could be,” he admits before revealing the plot twist that’ll put a few feathers out of place. “But that is just unsustainable. I’m not willing to do something like that for long periods of time because I wouldn’t survive it; I wouldn’t be here still”. ‘Blossom’ era Rattlesnakes was a ticking time bomb effortlessly exploding and being rebuilt to relive that experience night after night. It had its place, it had its time, but for Frank, it’s not who he is now, nor who he wants to be. “If I ever was to write anything that heavy again, I would have more control of it now than I have had in the past, but the reality is I enjoy the music we’re making now so much, there just isn’t time. We try our best to pull this tune into something that’s got more kick, but if we had our way, I think we’d just write 50 ballads every week.” ‘Dark Rainbow’, then, unlike those four albums that came before it, is “one step closer to being the band we want to be”, as they’re just “not happy being fully spontaneous, reactive people”. For Frank, you “lose a lot in those moments; those moments of clarity and taking the time to think and process the emotions and feelings you’re having is where the real magic happens when you make really bold choices.” For the two Rattlesnakes, ‘Dark Rainbow’ does different things. For Dean, he likens it to “an empty arena; there’s a grandeur to it, but there’s still a tension”, whereas for Frank, when listening back, he finds himself “sitting on top of a mountain”. Ultimately, it comes back to why he’s set on defending ‘Dark Rainbow’ so valiantly. “When I listen to this record, what I feel is comfortable; I feel I’m taking steps closer to a space in myself that I want to occupy, and I haven’t allowed myself the time or room to occupy that space yet,” says Frank, showing flashes of uncharacteristic, yet welcomed, vulnerability. “I get a very calm feeling from listening to it. It’s just really hopeful and very serene. It’s outside, like fresh air, and I’ve been battling for that a long time.” P Frank Carter &
“ If we h ad our way, I t h in k we ’d ju st wr ite 50 b allad s eve r y we e k ”
The Rattlesnakes’ album ‘Dark Rainbow’ is out 26th January.
READDORK.COM 61.
INCOMING. THE NEW RELEASES YOU NEED TO KNOW
WHAT DO THE SCORES MEAN? ★ Rubbish ★★ Not Great ★★★ Fair ★★★★ Good ★★★★★ Amazing
THE LAST DINNER PARTY Prelude to Ecstasy
★★★★★
We’ve had the buzz. We’ve had the hype. Now, THE LAST DINNER PARTY are serving up one of the most confident, brilliant debut albums in years.
→ The Last Dinner Party were a buzzword long before their debut track graced the airwaves. Featured prominently in 2023’s music tip-lists and whispered about on London’s live circuit, they’ve stood tall, their flair for drama and occasion heralding a sky-high ambition. Their first single, ‘Nothing Matters,’ arrived amid a storm of anticipation, crackling with electric takes. They quickly became a potential best-in-class standout, where loving them or not became a statement of intent. Amidst the inevitable backlash of toxicity, misogyny, and grumpiness, The Last Dinner Party emerged as that rarest of gems - a band seemingly perfectly formed from inception. Their debut album, ‘Prelude to Ecstasy’, solidifies this impression. Overflowing with opulence and fully realized ideas, there’s no sense of scavenging through pop culture’s leftovers here. Much like fellow footsoldiers of hype Wet Leg, who confidently navigated their initial buzz to dominate the discourse of the last wave of débutantes, The Last Dinner Party’s presence is already undeniably iconic. From the word go, the record unfolds as a grand narrative. Starting with the expansive introduction of ‘Prelude’, it’s a
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journey of escalating ambition and artistry. Tracks like ‘Burn Alive’, ‘Caesar On A TV Screen’ and ‘The Feminine Urge’ continuously one-up each other as they elevate the stakes. The latter, an infectious, strutting stand-out that glistens like diamonds, is right up there with the very best - an instant repeat with a hook made by silk-spinning earworms. Yet, the album’s breadth extends beyond these potent future anthems. How many other new bands would have the confidence to have their keyboard player front an Albanian-language song about not being fluent in her native tongue? It is hardly the stuff of a cynical industry masterplan targeting the easiest-to-swallow fare. Experiencing The Last Dinner Party live is to witness a palpable energy, a chemistry that translates impeccably into their recorded work. In Abigail Morris, they have a frontwoman who commands attention, audibly stalking her way through each song with a mix of vampiric charisma and dramatic flair. From the epic ‘My Lady Of Mercy’ to the swooning ‘Beautiful Boy’, it’s telling when that attention-grabbing debut single ‘Nothing Matters’ can be deployed one track from the end, and it not feel like a long tease. If you think a buzz band is marked out by a lack of substance, The Last Dinner Party don’t fit the tag. One of the most exciting new prospects in a decade or more, if this is just a prelude to ecstasy, what comes next could be epochdefining. STEPHEN ACKROYD
INCOMING
FOLLY RELEASES GROUP RECOMMENDED The albums out now you need to catch up on.
PinkPantheress
Heaven knows ★★★★★
→ The artists who can score such consistently viral hits and maintain their critical acclaim are few and far between, and for PinkPantheress to be of that calibre on her debut album is no mean feat. An entirely limitless record, it’s always been impossible to put a finger on what her’ sound is, but on ‘Heaven knows’, she blows the doors off.
Dove Cameron
Alchemical: Volume 1 ★★★★
→ Dove Cameron’s debut album ‘Alchemical: Volume 1’ is laser-focused pop with a modern sheen. A short debut lasting only 22 minutes but packed with dynamism and light and shade, it leaves you tantalisingly wanting more from an artist on the precipice of pop glory.
Spector
Here Come The Early Nights ★★★★
→ After supply chain issues delayed 2022’s aptlytitled ‘Now or Whenever’, new album ‘Here Come the Early Nights’ is another fitting title for Spector’s latest record; it’s a more reflective affair than the onslaught of bangers we’ve become accustomed to from the quartet, ruminating on the tension between the rock’n’roll lifestyle and the more adult concerns of fatherhood, property and balding.
Oscar Scheller
Coming Of Age ★★★★
→ Dreamy, swirling pop deliciousness. The latest release from Oscar Scheller is a beautiful, romantic pop album reminiscent of Y2K pop icons like Natasha Bedingfield and Jordin Sparks. Listening has never been so easy as he floats through each celestial track, and Oscar’s exceptional production skills shine throughout the excellent composition; no instrumental is out of place, establishing a cohesive yet explorative sound few artists can master.
Down There! ★★★★★ → Folly Group’s previous EPs were clear signs of their musical ability and promise. With another two years of diligent experimentation under their belts, their post-punk potential has morphed into delectable debut album, ‘Down There!’. ‘Down There!’ is a product of collaboration between four unreal musicians. Bringing together relentless Afrobeat drum rhythms, oppressively dark 90s electronica, and classically indie-rock guitar lines, Folly Group have created a world you’re desperate to be a part of. Using both traditional and more offbeat media – hitting chair legs with a stick, for example – has made for wondrous soundscapes that combine the darker intent of ‘Awake and Hungry’ with the more polished production of ‘Human and Kind’. If you wanted a feel-good start to 2024, this probably isn’t it. They capture the crushing pressure of modern society in a bleak but real way, with opening track ‘Big Ground’ animating the desire to just crawl underground and lay in the dark, whilst ‘Nest’ represents the feeling that you don’t know who you are anymore. The rival styles of co-lyricists Sean and Louis allow Folly Group to make both incisive social comment in ‘Strange Neighbour’, and to retell personal experiences with exquisite detail in ‘East Flat Crows’ and ‘Freeze’, forging a deeply relatable and impressively fearless record. Whether through expertly crafted metaphor or starkly honest vulnerability, Folly Group have brought together threads that just shouldn’t work and made it into an ‘Album of the Year’ contender. Perfect. Five stars. 10/10. No notes. CIARAN PICKER
The Vaccines
Pick-Up Full Of Pink Carnations ★★★★
→ Coming off the bubbling highs of their recent extraplanetary ventures, indie mainstays The Vaccines have jumped the rocket ship and hit the road once again for their Americana-infused, retroinfluenced sixth LP, ‘Pick Up Full of Pink Carnations’. One of the main barometers for the success of a new Vaccines album is: does it introduce new live favourites? The answer here is absolutely yes. A British group thrust in the Californian sun, the foreign light shines nicely on this ten-tracker and exposes more full-hearted unison than fragmentation. The Vaccines may talk about disillusionment, but ultimately, their latest record demands that we keep dreaming. FINLAY HOLDEN
Everything you need to know about...
FOLLY ALBUM
BIG GROUND As a band with two drummers in it, we’ve always dreamt of a dual kit setup, so this song was our first attempt at having two whole drum kits going at the same time, as well as a drum machine in a song. After much rumination, we decided something was realised from the track… so we added a third kit for the choruses and a hybrid fire extinguisher/chair combo percussion rig for the breakdown. That did the trick. STRANGE NEIGHBOUR The original demo file of this was named ‘Neymar to Chelsea’, as it
Alkaline Trio
Blood, Hair, And Eyeballs ★★★★
→ After a couple of middling efforts, pop-punkers Alkaline Trio bounced back in 2018 with the brilliant ‘Is This Thing Cursed?’ and have followed it up with the equally sublime ‘Blood, Hair, And Eyeballs’. Much here will be instantly familiar to longtime fans; it’s the sound of a band returning to the peak of their power by doing what they do best. But that’s not to say ‘Blood...’ is comfortable. There are a few surprises sprinkled throughout – jump scares, if you will – timed perfectly to grab attention. Alkaline Trio have aged somewhat better than many of their peers, and there’s a verve here that elevates ‘Blood...’ to the upper echelons of their discography. ROB MAIR
GROUP’S DEBUT ‘DOWN THERE’ by Louis Milburn (and Sean Harper)
was during a brief period a couple of years ago when this slightly bizarre rumour was touted. And I think that really comes through in the music. PRESSURE PAD When I started writing the song, it was initially about being the protagonist in a video where you’re constantly falling into traps set by some unforeseen malevolent force. Then Sean wrote a chorus and second verse that seems to be about the Sea? I have no idea what this song is about, in truth. It was the last one written for the album, and we were really out of time…
Sleater-Kinney
Little Rope ★★★★
→ Experimental, decadent and seductive, Sleater-Kinney’s new album ‘Little Rope’ is a feast. Revisiting the raucous sound explored within their seminal 1997 album ‘Dig Me Out’, floods of aching, charged vocals and forceful instrumentals add another accolade to the esteemed band’s career. Underpinning this album, and the group’s wider discography, is a fever-like urgency, creating a sound that’s addictive and all-encompassing. Every lyric is fuelled with power, landing like missiles amongst delicious guitar riffs. ‘Little Rope’ is an absolute artistic and stylistic feat, but with Sleater-Kinney’s accomplished track record and longstanding magnetism, that should come as no surprise. EMMA QUIN
[Sean here, just to chime in: I think the ‘feel the sea crash down on me’ thing was an extension of that trapdoor metaphor of being swallowed up. Maybe, then, this tune’s about the pitfalls of collaborative lyricism? In any case, do let us know if you work it out.] FRAME ‘Frame’ is a reflection on the surreal passing of time once your adult life starts. Unframed by a career, education or any sort of idea of what you’re doing, it’s quite easy to let time slip away without appreciating it. One minute, you’re in your early twenties; the next, you’ve just spent 37 minutes listening to the album “Down There!” by Folly Group, and you’ve barely even noticed. I’LL DO WHAT I CAN This song was written as an extension of a chorus that just struck me from the other realm whilst showering, as all good choruses do. Sometimes, you just can’t make other words fit the hook and the strange vocalisations you use initially to flesh out a vocal part. That was the case here. As such, the immovable “It’ll take some adjusting, but I’ll do what I can” dictated every other line and, therefore, the song’s entire direction. It came to be about a head vs heart battle over whether you’re ready to forgive someone: your head knows it’s the overwhelmingly correct thing to do, but the pit of your stomach won’t let you feel that yet. I suppose then there’s an element of being bad at trusting your gut feeling because you don’t even know what it is. Folly Group’s debut album ‘Down There!’ is out now.
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INCOMING
SPRINTS
Letter To Self
★★★★★
Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes
Dark Rainbow ★★★
→ The venom spitting Rattlesnakes have been skinned on ‘Dark Rainbow’ to find the real Frank Carter underneath. There are flashes of that killer instinct, of course, but for the most part this album exudes a quiet confidence instead. Often crooning through meandering ballads backed by strings and a piano, it’s as if Frank Carter had checked himself in to the Tranquility Base Hotel for a dirty weekend. Progress sometimes looks like shedding your skin to start again but ‘Dark Rainbow’ is, unfortunately, also somewhat toothless. ALEXANDER BRADLEY
Junodream
Pools Of Colour ★★★★
→ ‘Space-rock’ devotees Junodream have been building momentum for a few years, releasing heavily atmospheric tunes that have steadily established a formidable discography. The ten tracks that define ‘Pools of Colour’ divulge into varying thematic territories, with personal reflections and commentary on global systems arriving as poignantly as each other. A sense of confusion with and frustration at the modern world binds them together into a powerful vision well worth exploring. As ambitious a record as longtime followers had ever hoped they could pull off, it’s difficult to comprehend how much this four-piece has still to give. FINLAY HOLDEN
A debut album that kicks off the new year with a bang. → Since their beginnings in 2019, Dublin four-piece Sprints have shown a real knack for transforming turmoil into witty, brazen, powerhouse punk; and their debut album ‘Letter To Self’ encompasses all the elements that make this band one of the most exciting around. The album feels like a lyrical acknowledgement of everything vocalist Karla Chubb has been through in her life. Subject matters are heavy - anxiety, sexuality, religious guilt, suicidal thoughts - yet there’s a force and energy throughout that makes it feel like a real reclamation of power. The heartbeatlike drums of opener ‘Ticking’, a slow builder delving into feelings of shame and fear, mirrors an emotional spiral with its unsettling guitar riffs and thrashing climax. ‘Cathedral’ is suitably gothic sounding (there are also gothic elements in ‘Can’t Get Enough Of It’), with Bauhausreminiscent verses and cacophonous choruses in which Chubb unapologetically examines her experiences as a queer woman.
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‘Shaking Their Hands’ has a more post-punk vibe and shows a softer side to Chubb’s vocals, while ‘Adore Adore Adore’ is an infectiously catchy, thundering track which calls out the unfair standards that women in music are held to. Chubb is her most vulnerable in the unsettling and more instrumentally sparse ‘Shadow Of A Doubt’, a song which details suicidal thoughts, yet power is never lost demonstrated by the anthemic and bright ‘Literary Mind’, the witty sarcasm of ‘Up And Comer’, and the celebration of autonomy of the jumping titular track. Sprints are an unapologetically honest and authentic band, which is what makes them so great. ‘Letter To Self’ is an important and unpretentious exploration of pain, trauma, and above all else, perseverance. Chubb has an amazing ability to convey emotion through her voice, and the album as whole is a ferocious sonic force which shows defiance and determination. It’s a record to which many listeners will be able to relate their own experiences to and find community in the catharsis it creates, as well as having a hell of a good time jumping to it in a mosh pit. A remarkable debut. REBECCA KESTEVEN
The Smile
Wall Of Eyes
★★★★★
→ When The Smile released their debut album last year, it was hard to imagine that it could get any better than that. Yet somehow, it has. Finding unique paths through familiar Radiohead terrain, Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood along with drummer Tom Skinner musicians of the calibre that they are - have created what could only be described as a masterpiece with ‘Wall Of Eyes’. An 8-track-long emotional rollercoaster that lands in a space between the uncomfortable and the serene, as a whole it makes you simultaneously want to curl up and weep, yet also lay in a field somewhere admiring the world’s wonders. From its opening note to its last, ‘Wall Of Eyes’ sets the bar sky-high for the music of 2024. REBECCA KESTEVEN
INCOMING
Q+A
DEAD POET SOCIETY → Los Angeles rock foursome Dead Poet Society are putting it all on the line with their revealing second album, ‘FISSION’. It’s a record that sees them wrestle with some pretty dark themes to undergo a brutal but necessary period of self-growth. “Life gives you challenges, pain, suffering, and that forces you to change; no one can hide from that,” frontman Jack Underkofler reveals. “That’s not necessarily a bad thing. With the right mindset, it turns you into a person worth being. But there’s no escaping that change.”
Hi Jack! Your second album is nearly here - when did you begin working on it, and what was your headspace like at the time? We started working on it immediately after our first album. I can’t speak for everyone in the band, but personally, my headspace at the time was pretty rough. I had just gone through a pretty bad break-up; I found out my mom had cancer, and because the pandemic made everything harder work-wise, I was bouncing around between friends’ houses and my rehearsal space, basically couch surfing. Not fun times. That type of hardship, though, can allow you to build yourself as a person, and it forces a lot of self-reflection, which I think lends itself to art, so it helped with writing the album. Tracks like ‘I hope you hate me.’ and ‘How could I love you?’ sound very revealing, how do you tap into that mindset? With ‘I hope you hate me.’, my break up was still very fresh, so it was just a matter of us putting pen to paper. Guitarist Jack had been through a pretty similar break-up in the past, so he and I worked through a lot of the initial lyrics for ‘How Could I Love You?’ together. Have you had any response from the people or person they’re about? Hahaha, no. What was the biggest thing you learned about yourself during the making of the album? That separating yourself from the outside voices regarding what your art should be is hard but necessary to keep yourself true to who you are and where you are in your journey. Did you hit upon any unexpected challenges while putting it together? Yeah, quite a few. Mostly, the constant internal, bi-polar dialogue of whether I loved or hated everything we had written. Ultimately, I landed on this being the best album and group of songs we’ve ever written, but it took some time separating myself from it to look at it objectively. Where do you hope this album takes you? As high as high goes. Dead Poet Society’s album ‘FISSION’ is out 26th January.
Dead Poet Society
Fission ★★★★
→ Dead Poet Society’s second album, ‘Fission’ is an introspective endeavour that explores the inevitable pain of growth while prowling bass lines and guitars fuzzier than Velcro sound off in the background. Jack Collins’ signature fretless guitar, tuned deeper than Marianas Trench, is the record’s pulsating heart, giving true freedom to produce thunderous riffs and licks outside. Finger-pointing, anthemic track A infectious blend of rumbling garage rock and progressive indie, ‘Fission’ brings a more refined approach to the swaggering sound they are known for. KELSEY MCCLURE
Flat Party
Flat Party EP ★★★★
→ Flat Party once again bring their Blur-esque brilliance to nonchalant stories of youth and loneliness. They’re fun, bolshy and unbothered; each track on their new self-titled EP feels lackadaisical yet is produced precisely, with the soft cosiness and sharp humour that make their tiny yet superb discography a total dream. Each track feels mistily nostalgic, full of tenderness cloaked in irony and humour. Quirky tracks like ‘Aching For Living’, where synths bring a topsy-turveyness that feels evocative of the group’s fun, haphazard nature. Undoubtedly a cynic’s delight, Flat Party prove that good music can be fun, too. EMMA QUIN
L Devine
Digital Heartifacts ★★★★
→ We’ve had to wait a hot minute for the proper, fully fledged debut album from L Devine. After a series of projects that more than hinted at pop promise, a pandemic-era rethink and an escape from London back North have offered a full reboot. Where once the ‘mutual parting of ways’ with a major label would have been a kiss of death, not for the first time it feels more like potential unlocked and set free. From pulsing, pulsating opener ‘Eaten Alive’ through the ice-cold cool of ‘Worship’ and the brilliant ‘If I Don’t Laugh I’ll Cry’ - a song that the reformed Girls Aloud would eat up - this is modern pop at its fizzy, fabulous best. The sound of an artist firmly rediscovering their vibe. STEPHEN ACKROYD
Katy Kirby
Blue Raspberry ★★★★
→ ‘Blue Raspberry’, the second album from New York-based Katy Kirby, feels fresh, inviting and charming. With otherworldly instrumentals, Katy confidently moves at her own rhythm, subtly playing with traditional formats to create something truly special. Her vocal range is admirable, moulding anew to the demands of each track. Single ‘Cubic Zirconia’ is gentle and bright as her vocals dance atop delicate strums. Yet, such light, airy vocals do not move without certainty, as her poise shines through tracks like ‘Hand To Hand’. Unflinching and farreaching, this is by no means an artist unaware of their skill, and Katy’s quiet confidence radiates throughout. EMMA QUIN
COURTING New Last Name
★★★★★ One of the most inventive, playful bands to burst out of the UK underground in recent years, for their second act, COURTING are dialling that ambition up to eleven. Chaos abounds.
→ On their incendiary debut ‘Guitar Music’, Courting introduced themselves as one of the most creative and ambitious bands around. They also established a very important fact: they’re utterly bonkers. On their follow-up ‘New Last Name’, chaos once again reigns supreme. The four-piece have no shortage of confidence, and all this is shaped into their own distinct and idiosyncratic world, a world full of pop culture references, wild tangents and a sonic freedom to take their music in any direction their creative whims fancy. ‘New Last Name’ brings all this madness together, shaped by production from indie legends Ryan and Gary Jarman from The Cribs. This gives the record a cohesive backing to allow the band to indulge in all their wild flourishes. Most importantly, though, they have returned with more hooks than ever before - raucous fuzzy rockabilly on opening track “Throw’, breezy indie
pop with an electro sheen on the shimmying ‘We Look Good Together (Big Words) and even a jazzy lounge ballad on ‘Babys’. Nothing is off-limits. What could feel scattergun and aimless, though, feels perfectly right and perfectly natural. There are more straight-ahead moments here, like the riffy and buzzing indie rock of ‘Happy Endings’ where they are most explicitly channelling the spirit of the Jarman brothers, but while they possess the DNA of British indie of a previous era, Courting are a product of the boundless genre breaking pop age of 2024 where anything goes. Imagination and ambition are pop’s ultimate currency. One of their primary influences is pop auteur Charli XCX, and you could imagine this being some of the music Charli might make if she spent all her weekends down the Windmill. ‘New Last Name’ is the sound of the band proving they can distil all the madness and experimentalism of their debut into something even more fulfilling with deeper lyricism, wittier asides, killer hooks and a desire to be nothing but themselves. In the upside-down world of 2024, Courting a band to be cherished. MARTYN YOUNG
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INCOMING
COMING
SOON What’s out in the next few months you should have on your radar.
Bombay Bicycle Club
Fantasies EP
→ Bombay Bicycle Club have a lot of pals, and their new EP ‘Fantasies’ sees them team up with Lucy Rose, Rae Morris, Liz Lawrence and Matilda Mann. Released 23rd February 2024
MARIKA HACKMAN
C Turtle
Expensive Thrills
Big Sigh
★★★★ MARIKA HACKMAN proves she always delivers with an album of real depth and emotion. → Marika Hackman is no stranger to tackling emotionally complex subject matter with 2019’s ‘Any Human Friend’ tackling queer relationships and female sexuality. Her latest effort, ‘Big Sigh’, ventures further into this complicated world as she goes through the motions of anxiety, sadness and, ultimately, relief from the woes of the world. For some, bigger might mean better - not for Marika. Save for the brass and strings and production help from Sam Petts-Davies and Charlie Andrew, ‘Big Sigh’ is a testament to her artistry, with her carrying the majority of the creative process out
alone. The result means ten tracks of well-thoughtout instrumentals and some of the best lyrics of her career so far. ‘Hanging’ reflects on being trapped and unable to grow in a past relationship, while ‘Slime’ operates at the other end of this scale, mapping out the exciting new beginnings of love and physical connection through the instrumental as it builds to an almost frantic point. Every one of her releases seems to end the same way, with two utterly gut-wrenching takes that leave Marika’s vocals to do all the talking. ‘Please Don’t Be So Kind’ continues the theme of a relationship at its end, and ‘The Yellow Mile’ is the perfect stretch of calm at the end of a record so fraught with deep emotion. MINTY SLATER-MEARNS
→ Lo-fi indie-rock quartet C Turtle have already dropped two tracks from their upcoming album - ‘Have You Ever Heard A Turtle Sing?’ and ‘Shake It Down’ are loads of fun, and see the band throwback to icons like Pavement and Beck. Released 8th March 2024
Waxahatchee
Tigers Blood
→ Her first album for new label home ANTI-, Waxa’s ‘Tigers Blood’ features collaborations with MJ Lenderman, Spencer Tweedy and Phil and Brad Cook. Released 22nd March 2024
Lynks
Das Body
True Vulture ★★★★
→ Chic techno indie-poppers Das Body demand your attention. The Norway-based group pull from a hodgepodge of influence, drawing upon Europop, indie and electronic elements, resulting in a delicious genre-bending experience. Undoubtedly, they’ve created their own world - idiosyncratic, tender and a bit weird. Shining instrumentals make listening a true delight; the breathy lyricism in ‘Ordah’ is entrancing, while within ‘Baby, You Know I’m A Stranger’, the feverishness of the vocals feels intense and techno-futurist. Das Body have bared their souls for this record; there’s a lot going on, with parts feeling a bit like a fever dream, but in the absolute best way. EMMA QUIN
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NewDad
Madra ★★★★
→ ‘Madra’ is a soul laid bare. Vocalist Julie Dawson’s openness regarding the few ups and many downs of her youth is certainly a daring approach to songwriting, but it’s one that pays off ten times over. Her ability to acknowledge the love of those closest to her while also feeling like a burden in opening track ‘Angel’ sets you up for an album full of nuance, soul, and vulnerability. She manages to find beauty in brokenness with the heartshattering ‘White Ribbons’, but equally finds the strength to look to the future, most notably in ‘Nosebleed’. Emulating their lifelong inspirations The Cure, NewDad nonetheless stand tall as their own magnificent entity. CIARAN PICKER
ABOMINATION
→ Lynks’ long-awaited debut album ‘ABOMINATION’ is a deep-dive into dating in your twenties, dragging topics like hook ups and feeling old into the spotlight with a healthy dash of humour. Released 12th April 2024
Sea Girls
Midnight Butterflies
→ Spring already?? Sea Girls’ third album ‘Midnight Butterflies’ is coming this June via the band’s new independent label Alt. Records, featuring previous singles ‘Weekends & Workdays’ and ‘Young Strangers’. Released 14th June 2024
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GET OUT. LIVE MUSIC, FROM THE FRONT
HEAVEN, LONDON, 7 DECEMBER 2023
the fuzzy indie disco stomp of ‘HOT TO GO!’ comes with its own dance routine. Yes, every corner of the room gladly takes part. It’s a big pop Chappell Roan’s ‘Femininomenon’ performance, underlined by a giddy cover of Lady Gaga’s ‘Bad Romance’ is one hell of an introduction. that’s as fearless as it is fantastic. The brash pop banger weaves As much as tonight indulges in over-the-top excess, it’s all grounded conversational empowerment in lived experiences. “My songs are about dating and falling in around defiant Setlist love,” Chappell tells the crowd, before revealing how difficult confrontation before the snotty cry of “Dude, can you play a that was as a gay teen in North America’s Midwest. “Growing song with a fucking beat” truly kickstarts the party. Add in Femininomenon up, there were all these weird rules,” she continues, before lashings of melodrama alongside a self-aware silliness, and Red Wine Supernova After Midnight shattering them all with the snarling ‘Super Graphic Ultra it’s easy to see why Chappell is the year’s breakout pop star. Picture You Modern Girl’. Later, she admits that being onstage comes with The pulsating attack of ‘Femininomenon’ starts the Casual voices in her head telling her she’s not pretty or talented enough. sprawling brilliance of Chappell’s debut album ‘The Rise Super Graphic Ultra Modern Girl “This song is an exorcism. I get that bitch out,” Chappell grins & Fall Of A Midwest Princess’ and it kickstarts tonight’s HOT TO GO! before the glorious revenge anthem ‘My Kink Is Karma’. She’s not celebrations at London’s Heaven as well. Sticking to Guilty Pleasure the only one using tonight as a purge either. the script, the celebratory country twang of ‘Red Wine Coffee Kaleidoscope “Not only am I grateful for who you are, I celebrate you Supernova’ follows next, with the entire room belting out Bad Romance wherever you are, whether that be in a low place or maybe you’re the super-specific lyrics. “This is giving me leading Youth Naked in Manhattan doing the best you’ve ever done,” she adds, before the stripped Worship,” Chappell grins, shortly after trying out a comically My Kink Is Karma back ache of ‘Kaleidoscope’. “You are meant to be here,” she extravagant fake British accent Encore: continues, bringing the community even closer. So much of Chappell’s music is larger than life, pulling California from the likes of Lana, Rina and Gaga, and tonight is a Kicking off the encore, ‘California’ is warm and delicate before Pink Pony Club similarly overblown affair. The dress code is Slumber Party the shimmering escapism of ‘Pink Pony Club’ closes things out Kissin’ in honour of urgent, synthpop number ‘Naked In Manhattan’ in fashionably euphoric fashion. There might be heartbreak across ‘The and support comes from two local drag queens, Inga Rock and Bones. Rise & Fall Of A Midwest Princess’ but tonight is nothing but a glorious The songs don’t back down from the challenge either. From the lusty celebration. “I’m going to keep on dancing” sings Chappell before leaving ‘After Midnight’ to the deliberate romance of ‘Picture You’, each track the stage, fighting for joy at every turn. She might be 2023’s breakout star, sounds gigantic with Chappell backed by a drummer and guitarist while but the Chappell Roan party is only just getting started. ALI SHUTLER
Big, bold and brilliant, CHAPPELL ROAN is just getting started.
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→ As opening tracks songs go,
Photo: Frances Beach.
CHAPPELL ROAN IS ICONIC
GET OUT
Photo: Patrick Gunning.
VIVA SOUNDS SEES GOTHENBURG SHOWCASE SOME OF THE MOST EXCITING TALENT ON OFFER VARIOUS VENUES, GOTHENBURG, SWEEDEN, 1-2 DECEMBER 2023
Talk about starting the festive season the right way. → On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me, a music festival in Gothenburg city. Sure, music festivals are events more typically reserved for the summer seasons, but what would the most wonderful time of the year be without music? Held over two days, Viva Sounds sees Gothenburg venues open their doors and showcase some of the most exciting talent the live circuit has to offer. Attend a conference to learn all about the latest goings on in the music biz and wander the city to take in Christmas markets with theme park rides by day, then (carefully) stroll snow-covered streets between venues and see hyped bands and musicians by night. Talk about starting the festive season the right way. Kicking things off in wonderfully frenetic style, Kerosene Kream are a punk lover’s dream. With hyped-up energy, deliciously scuzzy guitars, and screech-along choruses a plenty, it’s easy to see why. For fans of action rock, Gothenburg’s very own Upploppet have anthems in spades. Searing guitar solos? Swaggering attitude? Catchy chorus hooks? Check, check, and check again. Winners of the Welsh Music Prize twice over, Adwaith’s accolades speak for themselves. On stage, they’re every bit the success story you might’ve heard. Armed with pop hooks, shoegaze sonics, and punk sensibilities, they take every moment in stride – and the crowd are with them every step of the way. Easily one of the most ferocious bands around right now, never mind on this line-up, God Mother
bring night two of Viva Sounds to a joyously cataclysmic start. From 0 to blow-your-eardrums-off in the time it takes for them to play their first note (not advised for the faint-hearted or the hungover), they bring to life highoctane hardcore punk of the very highest order. Ten minutes up the road, the energy is something entirely different. When it comes to bewitching psych rock, there are few on the circuit doing it better than The Hanged Man. Initially the solo project of Rebecka Rolfart and now something of a supergroup including members of Viagra Boys and Dungen, the group drift between meandering melodies and darkly driving refrains, spellbinding their audience every step of the way. Across the street, Gothenburg’s only preserved wooden townhouse is far from a typical gig venue. But then again, the shows held here over the course of Viva Sounds are hardly typical shows. Next to her name in neon lights inside a room littered with postcards, Eliën’s set is as much performance art as it is a musical showcase. Returning to the festival for the second time, this time to draw the weekend to a close, KÅRP are a sonic sensation, and an allout dance party rolled into one. This is The Knife meets Grimes: danceable and dark, electric, energetic, and euphoric in equal measure. KÅRP make music to move and be moved to – and as the clock strikes twelve and the party shows no signs of stopping, what more could you ask for? JESSICA GOODMAN
METAL WOULD BE A LOT MORE FUN IF MORE BANDS WERE LIKE WARGASM SHEPHERDS BUSH EMPIRE, LONDON, 15 DECEMBER 2023
It makes for one gloriously entertaining gig. → Wargasm dabble in charged politics, they toy with fantastical and sci-fi escapism, but their music mostly takes the form of lightning-in-the-bottle fury. When they first erupted onto the scene in 2019 with the charged ‘Post-Modern Rhapsody’, the pair described their music as Angry Music For Sad People, and that mission statement has never wavered. In fact, it’s proudly displayed on a giant backdrop behind them as they headline London’s Shepherd’s Bush Empire. Before Wargasm can even get to the snarling chorus of set-opener ‘Venom’ though, the first of countless crowdsurfers is heading for the stage as the standing area erupts into a swirling mass of limbs, pints and lost shoes. It’s sheer carnage, and that energy never lets up for the duration of Wargasm’s relentless set. The band demands the biggest circle pit this ornate venue has ever seen for the urgent, dystopian nightmare of ‘Pyro Pyro’ while the screaming purge of ‘Sonic Dog Tag’ twists heartbreak into something more communal. As nu-metal titans Dropout Kings say during their own ferocious support slot, “Everyone here has been through some bullshit this year. It’s time we work through that bullshit together.” Later, the band’s Eddie Wellz joins Wargasm for ‘Bang Ya Head’, a ferocious party anthem that knows how outrageous this all is. Likewise, ‘Feral’ and ‘Outrage’ gleefully make things as heavy as possible as the crowd rages together. It’s a gloriously entertaining gig that offers more than just a good time.
RAGE AND SOFT LOVE REIGN SUPREME WITH ASHNIKKO
ALEXANDRA PALACE, LONDON, 30 NOVEMBER 2023 Tonight, Ashnikko proves she is a one-of-a-kind star. → Ashnikko starts her headline show at London’s Alexandra Palace, emerging from an egg in the middle of a desolate wasteland before launching into flawless choreography. Towards the end, she brandishes a sci-fi welding tool as she fights against unseen tyrants while two backing dancers wield giant bone clubs. “I love doing my silly little things,” she laughs before a cackling run-through of the swaggering, celebratory ‘Daisy’. They’ve never shied away from doing things their way, but tonight, Ashnikko proves she is a one-of-a-kind star. Normally, that would cast the sort of shadow capable of killing the excitement around the support act, but there’s already something special about hemlocke springs. Taking to the stage to the synthpop hammer of ‘heavun’, she leans into the glitching escapism of her music for tonight’s set. Straddling the worlds of nu-rave, garage rock and futuristic, vibrant video games, her urgent 30-minute set pulls heavily from debut EP ‘going… going…GONE!’. ‘stranger danger’ and ‘train to nowhere’ are gnarled but fearless while the likes of ‘gimme all ur luv’ and ‘POS’ are far more lush and deliberate. Refusing to stand still, it’s a giddy party that keeps everyone guessing but remains warm and welcoming throughout. That energy continues through Ashnikko’s emotionally charged set. The snotty, punk thrash of ‘You Make Me Sick!’ feels like a cathartic, guttural purge, while early cut ‘Invitation’ is a reminder of Ash’s journey on learning how to say no. “Are you ready to rage,” they ask before the industrial fire
of ‘Chokehold Cherry Python’ while the likes of ‘Cry’ and ‘Tantrum’ keep the collective fury stoked. There’s more to anger and vengeance on Ashnikko’s debut album, though. “There’s definitely a through-line of striking back against someone or something causing you extreme harm, but at the same time, I was trying to inject a feeling of hopefulness in there,” she told Dork earlier this year. “I wanted that sense that things can get better.” Inspired by a short story, ‘Weedkiller’ is an entire world, and tonight’s gig leans into that escapist, confrontational fairytale. A huge video screen cycles through dystopian hellscapes and neon-tinged woodland while Ash breaks up the set with twisting, fantastical stories about frog romance and hypnotic beasts, while sprawling songs are performed with demanding choreography. The show is a huge step up in every way. But it never stops Ashnikko from being the smirking hellraiser that demands attention. “Y’all are so far away. I wish we were closer,” she tells the front row ahead of the melodramatic ‘Don’t Look At It’, while the likes of ‘Working Bitch’ and ‘STUPID’ feel as wonderfully playful as ever. There’s a lot going on throughout Ashnikko’s sprawling 90-minute headline set, but it all makes a wicked kind of sense. ‘Weedkiller’ is a forward-facing alt-pop album that sets up an ambitious future, with tonight’s gig only adding to that promise. It’s an awe-inspiring show from an artist who continues to do things their own way. ALI SHUTLER
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ANY OTHER QUESTIONS? THE VACCINES What strength Nandos sauce Yes, Dear Reader. We enjoy those ‘in depth’ do you order? interviews as much as anyone else. But - BUT - Timothy: Medium when I’m alone, hot when I’m in front of we also enjoy the lighter side of music, too. We mates. simply cannot go on any longer without knowing If you could learn one skill that Justin from THE VACCINES doesn’t like instantly without needing to practice, what would you eating dead snakes. pick?
definitely beat the other members of The Vaccines at? Justin: Football. They’re all terrible. Timothy: Chess.
on end; I think it’s called Thalassophobia. Justin: Loss of control. I’m scared of so many things, but I think, in reality, it all comes back to that.
How punk are you out of ten? Timothy: 2.
What have you got in your pockets right now? Timothy: My grandmother’s car keys.
What’s your biggest fear? Timothy: Deep unknown water, like those pictures of divers cleaning the hulls of enormous ships, makes my hairs stand
Why are you like this? Justin: I’ve spent a lot of time and money trying to answer this question, so I’m not giving it to you for free.
What is your earliest memory? Timothy: Eating soap in the bath. What’s your breakfast of choice? Justin: I love smashed avocado on white sourdough with salt, pepper, chilli flakes and olive oil. Nothing beats it. Timothy: I will always take a version of a big breakfast; I don’t want to feel like I could have started stronger. Have you ever been banned from somewhere? Timothy: Never. Justin: I was banned from Southampton Joiners with my sixth-form band. It was our last gig, so all our friends rushed to the venue, and a few people came in through the fire escape on the roof. The Vaccines played a benefit show for them a few years ago, though, so hopefully, all is forgiven. Have you ever been mistaken for someone else? Timothy: Myself and Josh Hayward from The Horrors regularly at parties; his mates nicknamed me ‘fake Josh’. What’s the silliest thing you own? Timothy: I bought a red clip-on bowtie for a party once; now, it can be used to spoil any outfit in my wardrobe. What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever eaten? Timothy: Probably ants in Mexico City, though I do remember a market in Thailand trying some sort of yellow stuff covered in flies, but I have no idea what it was. Justin: I filmed a TV show in Indonesia a few years ago, and they asked me to eat a bunch of mystery foods on camera. I took a reluctant bite out of most
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things and later found out that one of them was cobra. Turns out I hate dead snakes as much as I hate the ones that are still alive. What was the last thing you broke? Timothy: My watch, and before that, my other watch. Who was your favourite musician or band when you were 14? Timothy: I LOVED Franz Liszt. While other kids were listening to blink-182, I was replaying ‘La Campanella’ on my parents’ record player. Have you ever had a crush on a fictional character? Justin: I had a massive crush on Joey from Dawson’s Creek. Marissa Cooper from The OC, too. I’ve never been attracted to a cartoon, though, if that’s what you’re getting at. Timothy: Sailor Moon (I was young). Do you have any hobbies? Timothy: I am borderline obsessed with basketball. We take a ball on tour, and I try to convince the other guys to play in every city we can. Have you ever seen a ghost? Justin: I saw a ghost in my childhood bedroom once. Timothy: Yoann [Intonti] - after his 27th birthday, we had a show the night after and picked him up from Brussels train station; he was making his way to the next world. Are you good in a crisis? Timothy: Not really; I avert crisis at all costs. What is the most irrational superstition you have? Justin: I have to hold my breath just as the plane hits the tarmac. Not entirely sure why? Timothy: That Alec Baldwin’s wife, Hilaria Baldwin, is pretending to be Spanish.
Justin: I wish that I could play piano. I think being able to play piano well is basically the key to everything. What’s one thing you can
The Vaccines’ album ‘PickUp Full Of Pink Carnations’ is out now.
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