Dork, March 2021

DOWN WITH BORING

ISSUE 52 · MARCH 2021 · READDORK.COM

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Index Issue 52 | March 2021 | readdork.com | Down With Boring

Editor’s Letter Dork loves a pop star. So much, so obvious, eh? I don’t mean in the way we refer to every single musician that passes through our doors in such terms - though we obviously do - but rather the Certified Megastars that will occasionally bless

Ø6 Intro

us with their presence.

Well, this month’s cover star Zara Larsson is certainly one of those. With her second album out this March, she’s embracing her true calling, too. ‘Poster Girl’ has no room for slow songs. Front to back bangers, it’s exactly the kind of sparkly, fun-fuelled triumph that we all need to cheer up our 2021. So that’s nice.

It’s not all great news this month, though. As we were finishing up this issue, news broke

of the death of musician, producer, DJ and pop genius SOPHIE. Responsible for so many of the very best records of the last decade, they were far beyond being just ‘influential’. It’s hard to imagine what music would sound like today without their influence. Our thoughts are with SOPHIE’s friends, family and all of those who knew them.

Stephen ‘Editor’ @stephenackroyd

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Zara Larsson Zara Larsson has already proven herself as one of pop’s main characters, but with album two, she’s embracing the fun.

42.

54.

Julien Baker

Dodie

We all need something to hold on to during these ‘difficult times’.

Thankfully, Julien Baker is back.

LOVE IT IF WE KERMIT

In this most darkest of timelines, dodie is back to remind us it’s okay to be grey.

14 Hype

2Ø Features 28

Wall Art

58 Incoming

Ø6. Architects Few bands have been through the things Architects have, but with critical acclaim and commercial success, the scene leading metallers are entering a new phase.

11. Tom Grennan With his appearance on our weekly radio-showslash-podcast Down With Boring, we run through the stuff we’ve learned about our Tom. 14. Gracey Having joined pop-writingphenomenons Xenomania at the teeny-tiny age of 16, Gracey has always been set for superstardom.

46. 24kGoldn With the runaway success of ‘Mood’, as he gears up for a debut album later this year, you could say 24kgoldn has a certain touch.

48. Claud With an ear for pop magic, Claud’s debut album is already one of the best of the year.

52. SG Lewis SG Lewis just wants to get back to ‘the club’.

Thankfully, he’s made an album to take us back there.

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Editor Stephen Ackroyd Deputy Editor Victoria Sinden

Associate Editor Ali Shutler Contributing Editors Jamie Muir, Martyn Young

Scribblers Abigail Firth, Alex Bradley, Alex Cabré, Beth Lindsay, Ciaran Steward, Connor Fenton, Jack Press, Jake Hawkes, Jamie MacMillan, Neive McCarthy, Phoebe De Angelis, Sam Taylor, Steven Loftin, Tyler Damara Kelly Snappers Alyssa Gafkjen, Benjamin Vnuk, Charlotte Rudd, Ed Mason, Harshvardhan Shah, Harvey Pearson, Jennifer McCord, Jeremy Reynoso, Maybelle Thieu, Patrick Gunning, Sarah Louise Bennett PUBLISHED FROM WELCOMETOTHEBUNKER.COM

UNIT 10, 23 GRANGE ROAD, HASTINGS, TN34 2RL

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

The opinions of the contributors do not necessarily bear a relation to those of Dork or its staff and we disclaim liability for those impressions. Distributed nationally.

A selection of Muppets that look like The 1975’s Matty Healy

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SOPHIE 1986-2021

“I think all pop music should be about who can make the loudest, loudest , brightest thing” thing” As this issue went to press, news reached us of the death of musician, producer and DJ SOPHIE. Responsible for some of the most influential, important and brilliant music of the last decade, they were a vital, visionary force who will be missed by many. Our thoughts are with family, friends, and all of those touched by their genius.

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THE BEATING HEART OF POP.

“I’m ready Few bands have been through the things Architects have, but with critical acclaim and commercial success overflowing, the scene leading metallers are entering a new phase.

By: Jack Press. Photography: Ed Mason.

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FYI

So it’s official. The 1975 have cancelled their 2021 touring slate, due to our old ‘mate’ coronavirus. That means their Euro tour and big Finsbury Park blowout this summer are off. It’s not all bad, though - they’ve also confirmed they’re at work on a new album. Ooooooh, etc.

STUFF YOU NEED TO KNOW THIS MONTH...

F

to go to

war”

ew bands could follow the death of their founding father and principal songwriter after a long-fought battle with melanoma with a critically-acclaimed genredefining album and headline not only Alexandra Palace, but Wembley Arena, too.

Architects have weathered the worst storms and transformed themselves from unlikely underdogs to the champions of British metal as we know it today. While their achievements were holding them high up on a pedestal for all the world to see, they were digging themselves deeper and deeper as they drove on to disguise their pain. So how does your brain react when the rollercoaster screeches to a stop, and you get off?

“It was a weird one really because we’d sort of been going since Tom [Searle] passed away. The only thing we knew how to do was be a touring band, and it felt like it was necessary for us to just carry on with what we were doing to help us heal,” explains Sam Carter, Architects’ longtime vocalist, at the start of a Zoom call that dives deep into the last four years of their lives.

“Obviously doing [2018’s] ‘Holy Hell’ was extremely difficult but touring it, man, we didn’t really take time to stop and think about it because it was so hectic. We got through making the record, and then it was ‘okay, let’s go’, you know? And we got back out on tour to what is our safe place, because we love being on tour. We’re best mates, and there’s nothing better than touring around the world and playing songs for people with your best mates, but, we didn’t really take in how big an album cycle it was until we stopped for a little bit and then it all came at once.”

As much as there was a perilous pit of pain to wade through, the band - completed by drummer Dan Searle, bassist Alex Dean, and guitarists Adam Christianson and Josh Middleton - were left consumed by the crippling anxiety of climbing the mountain of writing an album without any input from their

We’ve finally got an actual real life release date for Lana Del Rey’s brand new album ‘Chemtrails Over The Country Club’ - it’ll be with us on 19th March, ‘FYI’. She’s also dropped the title track from the record, which is Very Lana Indeed, so that’s nice.

principal songwriter.

“We were coming into a situation where we were having to be the songwriters for the first time, and we were having to take control of the beast that is Architects. Tom is such an amazing songwriter so to even try and do anything on that level was bold, you know?” ponders Sam, pausing before adding: “This record didn’t need to be ‘Holy Hell’ part two, because we’ve done that, and we’ve done that process of showing that side of us, and that pain. It’s kind of like our second record instead of it being our ninth, it was like ‘okay, we know that works, and that works, we can do that, so let’s expand on that and see what we can create’, and we wanted to have the time to go all in and create something special.”

“It’s kind of like our second record instead of it being our ninth” Sam Carter It’s a cliche to end all cliches, the concept of a band creating something special, but Architects’ ninth studio album, ‘For Those That Wish To Exist’ truly ticks the boxes of a modern masterpiece. Whilst those trademark blastbeats and breakdowns are barricading the beat in force as always, there’s a newfound electronic experimentation that lends itself to the industrial wasteland they’ve soundscaped. It may well have been one of the last songs they wrote, but they knew they had it when they let lead single ‘Animals’ out of the cage.

“It was something that we had spoken about with Tom when he was ill, about moving into this organic industrial world, and I feel like it was the

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Ben Howard has announced his fourth album, ‘Collections From The Whiteout’. Produced alongside Aaron Dessner from The National, the fulllength will arrive on 26th March and is preceded by new single and video, ‘What A Day’.

first time that we’d actually really managed to do that. We all felt it was something that he would love, and would love us doing, but it wasn’t really until we started showing people and they were like ‘woah’. You’re so deep in it that you don’t realise what an absolute banger it is, and also how different it is.”

With great power comes great responsibility, and when you’ve come from a scene as stereotypically stubborn as the metal world, standing out from the crowd can quickly cast you out to sea. For Architects, they’re far more concerned with redefining what it means to be heavy, and making magic with the music they’ve got pouring out of them, even if that means embracing elements of other genres.

“I think a lot of the time, bands can swing and miss by going in and losing a sense of what they have. I don’t know whether it’s through a sense of not wanting to have that, but we love being a heavy band, and we love that side of the band. I don’t ever not want to be that band, but it felt like we had to give each song purpose and do what the song needed rather than going ‘okay, let’s just put a breakdown here’,” he deadpans, before amusedly noting that while ‘Animals’ is Architects at their most distinctively different, it’s also their most successful single, with regular airplay across BBC Radio 1. “It completely blows me away hearing it on Radio 1 all of the time.

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Someone tweeted me the other day saying, ‘I was just dancing in my car to Steps and then ‘Animals’ came on’.

This is so weird, I love it so much. It’s so surreal because it was never written as a song that was supposed to be a rock anthem, it was just this song where we felt like we’d done Tom justice.”

In doing Tom justice and embracing a new era of the band, they’ve also bought in a star-studded cast of guest spots, including Parkway Drive’s Winston McCall, Royal Blood’s Mike Kerr and Biffy Clyro’s Simon Neil. Arguably some of the biggest frontmen of their generation, the artists bring their own unique styles to Architects vision, with the latter proving to be a ‘pinch me’ moment for the band.

“It’s a bit of a piss take, isn’t it? When I look at it, I’m like, ‘this is fucking cool’,” muses Sam, before collecting his thoughts, and enthusiastically continuing. “I think Biffy have always been a massive inspiration to our band, especially when we were younger. We have nine albums and no one really gave a shit until the last three, and people did, but it was still us struggling to make ends meet, but doing it for the love of it. Then you’d see bands like Biffy where it took them a few albums to really connect with people while they were still putting out credible music.”

The result of this passion is ‘Goliath’, a track as ginormous as its title suggests, which picks up your eardrums and slams them back down to

Aluna has released a new remix album featuring tracks from her debut, ‘Renaissance’. The full-length – which arrived last year via Mad Decent – now features reworks from the likes of Lady Bee, Austin Millz, TSHA, Bella Boo and UNIIQU3.

Earth euphorically. While Simon Neil’s trademark melodies are present and correct, it’s the earthquakeinducing eruption of energy his seismic screams deliver across the breakdown that shines through. For Sam, it was important to embrace their idols and their friends on their tracks, even more so with the death of Tom still very fresh in their minds. “It made sense to have that kind of friendship documented so that when we’re all dead and gone, someone will be drunk listening to the record and going, ‘that’s cool, I bet they had some crazy nights out’.”

The balance between being dead and gone and being the band who go on crazy nights out isn’t too far from the moral compass that makes up ‘For Those That Wish To Exist’ - an album that is as much about the hope humanity can carry itself on as it is about the dystopia we’re dictating our future to be. They’ve always been associated with raising their voices about the world around them, but Sam and co. feel it’s more important to simply shine a spotlight on it and let their listeners make up their own minds.

“There are far more important people than us talking about the issues going on in the world, and no one seems to give a shit, so I think with this record it was way more important to just put a spotlight on it rather than ask the question and be like, ‘why isn’t anyone fucking doing anything about this?’

Let’s just talk about what’s going on in the world because it’s impossible to talk about anything else. It’s like starting to write songs about things you’re impassioned about, so for us, we’re like, let’s start with Earth, because it’s fucking crazy what’s going on here at the moment.”

“Greta Thunberg is loved around the world for what she’s doing, but she shouldn’t have to be doing it, this should already be done” Sam Carter While they’re not directly delivering a message to move the masses by, they are looking for us to take a little accountability for our actions, or lack thereof, as they look towards the handful of people taking a stand.

“Greta Thunberg is loved around the world for what she’s doing, but she shouldn’t have to be doing it, this should already be done.

When she talks about people stealing her childhood, it’s like yeah, this should’ve been happening so long ago. It felt important to use it as a diary and document it and put it out there to be like, ‘well how do you feel?’ and it not being this straight-up ‘this is how you should feel’ record. There are some parts that are quite hopeful, and there’s other parts where you’re fucking walking into the sea - I think it’s important to challenge the listener.”

If challenging the listener was a lyrical influence, so too are the wars they’ve been waging on a daily basis with

Years & Years scrapped an album worth of songs when the coronavirus pandemic began last year, according to vocalist Olly Alexander. Don’t worry too much though – as well as appearing in the ace Channel 4 series It’s A Sin - he’s currently working on a new one.

the demons that haunt their heads and their hearts. So much so that for Sam, this divide between hope and despair is the very thing that comes to define their latest body of work.

“Sometimes I’m ready to go to fucking war. I feel like this is obviously the right thing because people are being hurt doing this, and I’m going to use my platform to discuss it. I don’t care who I’m going to piss off. Other times I’m like, ‘I can’t face this today’. I can’t do this because I know I’m going to get battered for it. I know people are gonna have a fucking go,” he asserts.

“We’re so worried about being shouted down and being cancelled that there’s no room for growth. If you’re out of the norm, people are like ‘what the fuck, I wouldn’t do that, so it’s wrong’. It’s a fucking weird world. Sometimes I listen to it, and I’m like, yeah, there’s hope, and we will get through, and we will create a place where if I ever have kids they’ll be able to live a full life and then some days, I’m like ‘well there’s fifty years left, so I’m probably not gonna have kids, fuck it’. It’s up and down, you know?”

Despite the darkness that envelops the band at every moment, there’s a light that perforates it. It’s this light that has allowed them to blur the lines between the boundaries their genre once held them down against, and it’s this light that has allowed them to create an album that not only honours their fallen brother’s vision, but cements their legacy as one of modern metal’s torchbearers.

Ultimately, for Sam, it’s important to find the light at the end of the tunnel.

“I think you have to find positives in life otherwise there’s no point, especially with stuff we’ve gone through with losing Tom, it would’ve been easy to have gone ‘we can’t do this’, and I don’t think anyone would have begrudged us for it. But, now we’re at a really great point in our lives, and we’ve worked really hard to get here, and sometimes you have to create a positive from a negative otherwise, everyone would just stop.” P Architects’ album ‘For Those That Wish To Exist’ is out 26th February.

** POP EMERGENCY **

A BEGINNER’S GUIDE TO

Olivia Rodrigo With her debut single ‘drivers licence’, Olivia Rodrigo smashed streaming records and topped the singles charts.

Already a bit of a star, if you find yourself asking ‘who?’, do your homework with our catch-up guide to pop’s next AAA lister.

The Stats 2,407,000 UK one day streams on 12th January 2021, beating Ed Sheeran’s record for ‘Shape of You’, which stood at 2.274m.

17,010,000 Global streams on 12th January 2021, beating the previous day’s total of 15.17m. That was already a Spotify record for the most streamed non-holiday song in a 24 hour period.

8 days Time it took to get to 100 million streams on Spotify. That’s quicker than the previous record, Ariana Grande’s ‘7 rings’, which took 9 days.

She came from the House of Mouse

Our Olivia is a product of that most wholesome of talent conveyor belts, Disney - starring in the brilliantly named Bizaardvark. Course, that’s probably not where you’d recognise her from first and foremost, that’ll be...

She’s also part of the HSMCU

That’s the High School Musical Cinematic Universe, which is definitely a thing now because we say so. She starred as lead Nini Salazar-Roberts in High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, which is on Disney+ right now. We watched it. It’s okay, but nothing is gonna compare to Zac Efron, now is it?

There’s obviously some drama

Who doesn’t love a good bit of gossip, eh? There’s a whole supposed backstory around ‘drivers licence’ and her HSMTMTS co-star Jordan Bassett - a man whose name also sounds a bit like a comedy talking dog.

You can read about such things ‘on the internet’ and decide yourself if it’s truth or PR magic. Either way, it’s drawn quite the attention.

It’s big on ‘the Tok’

Isn’t every hit these days? (Yes, yes it is). Still, our Liv has like 4 million followers over there.

That’s a lot.

HRH Queen of Cardigans Taylor Swift is a fan

Olivia is a major Swiftie herself, so when ‘drivers licence’ got a co-sign from the object of her musical affections, yeah, you can say that went down well.

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Yonaka are back (Back! Back!!) and embracing self-confidence with their new single, ‘Seize The Power’. Produced by the band themselves, it’s the Brighton group’s first single since the release of their debut album ‘Don’t Wait ‘Til Tomorrow’.

Bad Sounds and Broods have teamed up for new track, ‘Move Into Me’. It was born during January 2020, when Broods came over to the UK for some sessions. “The track itself is about growing closer with someone you love,” Bad Sounds explain.

Twin Peak

Long Division has moved dates this year due to the ongoing pandemic. Originally pencilled in for June, the Wakefield even will now take place on 25th September.

The news arrives with a teaser for some new projects, too, including the formation of the Wakefield Live Music Consortium.

Check out these guests on Down With Boring

Isaac Dunbar’s new EP ‘evil twin’ is a good ‘un.

Words: Sam Taylor. Photo: Harshvardhan Shah.

from July 2020-December 2020. On the records with other producers on it, a lot of the process involved emailing stems back and forth. It was honestly not a debilitating problem, just a challenge.

How have you found pandemic life so far? Have you used the extra downtime to pick up any new skills?

I really really do not like pandemic life at all. The one good thing that came out of this for me is a better sense of self, to be honest, I feel like I’m growing mentally at a rate that’s two times the normal for me. I’ve gotten into photography a bit too!

Has the upheaval of normal life impacted the kind of music you find yourself wanting to make?

Yes. A lot of the music on the EP is me longing for something. During the pandemic, I feel like we all just long, in every aspect, and it shows in the second half of the EP for sure.

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p-and-coming pop star, and very funny chap on ‘the Twitters’, Massachusetts teen Isaac Dunbar is kickstarting a whole new era with his third EP, ‘evil twin’. A super confident batch of tracks that ooze with attitude and jaw-dropping twists and turns, it’s about “all of the emotions that make up the concept of love,” he explains.

Hi Isaac! How’s it going?

What are you up to today?

Hello! I’m alright thank you for asking. I have to do homework and then get açaí packets from Trader Joe’s. I also have to record vocals.

Tell us about your new EP

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then - what inspired ‘evil twin’? It’s broadly about love, right?

My EP is about the two sides of me that conflicted during the culmination process of each song. The “evil twin” side of me wanted to flood the project with experimental, angry, and colder records, while the other side wanted to make melodramatic and lovey-dovey pop records, so I put the two together. I think the duality is really cool and breaks down the limitations of cohesiveness because that whole concept really brings me down sometimes.

How does this EP compare to your first two? The press blurb says it “kicks off the next era of Isaac Dunbar”?

This EP, I would say, gives you a better sense of the type of music I’m going to put out in the future.

“A lot of the music on the EP is me longing for something” Isaac Dunbar When did you write and record this one, did you have to contend with socialdistancing and whatnot?

I wrote and recorded this EP

Has putting together all these EPs been good practice for an album, do you think?

How are you feeling about a longer release?

Yes. I have a better sense of what works and what doesn’t in regards to sonics, songwriting, and production for me. I have a better sense of who I am as a writer and what my message is, I have a better sense of personal style... so yeah. I mean I’ve always wanted to make an “album”.

Just gotta wait for the right time.

Do you have many plans locked in for the rest of the year?

To be honest, no. Not until Covid is over. I have a lot of plans in regards to releasing more music, though!! P Isaac Dunbar’s new EP ‘evil twin’ is out 18th February.

Shame

Have you ever wanted to hear an epic Italian yarn, as told by Shame’s Charlie Steen? Well, Dear Reader, you’re in luck.

Goat Girl

With their really very good new album ‘On All Fours’ out now, Goat Girl joined us for a chat.

You can grab it on the podcast now.

Lynks

Lynks has officially described his chat on DWB as ‘quite funny’.

That - to us - counts as an award, and we’ll be updating our record of achievement to show this.

Sports Team

Sports Team on Down With Boring. What could go wrong, eh? It’s not like anyone is going to go for a whiz and then wander off half way through the chat, is it? Hmmm?

Hmmmm?!

Down With Boring.

Dork’s flagship radio show-slash-podcast ‘thingy’.

MONDAYS. 8PM. DORK RADIO. is the deeply confessional pop gem 2021 has been waiting for.

With stories to tell and the big leagues a-waiting for Tom’s next giant step, he stopped by our weekly podcast/show thingy Down With Boring to delve into the important subjects. Whether that’s waving like the Queen, playing a game about manners from around the globe, what to expect from ‘Evering Road’ or his focus to become the biggest act on the planet - it’s everything you could have wanted and more. And probably a bit less, too. (You don’t need to hear Dork’s ‘finest’ trying to jump on tour with Mr Grennan now, do you?)

Here’s a taste of some of the things we learnt….

Stuff we’ve learned about the pop star Tom Grennan

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hat happens after you’ve had a chartstorming debut album, toured the globe, headlined historic venues and become a sensation?

Well, with his second album ‘Evering Road’, Tom Grennan has his eyes set firmly on the big time - something that could only be achieved by opening himself up in ways nobody has seen before.

A collection of towering pop

that hits right in the feels, it’s guaranteed to have ya dancing, crying and smiling from start to finish. From the joyful bounce of ‘Something Better’, the roaring call to arms of ‘This Is The Place’ and the gospel-soaked power of ‘If Only’, to the ripped-raw ‘You Matter To Me’, the rugged bruises of ‘Amen’ and the mournful blues-Bond theme ‘Love Has Different Ways To Save Goodbye’ - ‘Evering Road’

‘EVERING ROAD’, IN A WEIRD WAY, FEELS LIKE A DEBUT ALBUM FOR TOM...

Uncovering a completely new side of himself, ‘Evering Road’ feels like the beginning of something completely fresh. “It’s strange. With my first album, I was kinda learning on the job, and when I was writing that album, I didn’t really know what I was writing about. Those songs have a meaning, but not as much as what this album is. I just feel like finally, I’m an artist now and I can actually say that.

I’ve grown into an artist, and I’m not just like a blagger!”

IT’S NOT A BREAKUP ALBUM, BUT IT ALSO KINDA IS… It’s a personal one for our Tom, looking back at a relationship which found a home on the actual, real-life ‘Evering Road’.

“It’s not one of those ones where it’s like, poor me, everybody feel sorry for me - actually I fucked up in this relationship. And I’m trying to say sorry, I’ve made mistakes, and I’m human. I’m a better man now for it. Even though I lost someone that I really loved during that time, I can see that in that mode and that relationship, I didn’t actually love myself and I needed to love myself before I could love anybody else.”

HE MAY HAVE BEEN WEARING THE SAME GREEN TRACKSUIT FOR

THE PAST FEW MONTHS, BUT TOM’S READY TO GET SUITED AND BOOTED...

“I read this thing the other day, and it got me quite excited. About 100 years ago there was the Spanish Flu, and people weren’t allowed out of their house really for two or three years. But when people were allowed out, it was the booming 20s. Everyone’s suited and booted, and that’s kinda got me excited. When everyone’s back out after this, everyone will be suited and booted, looking dapper and just loving life. I’m excited.”

BEING HONEST HELPED LIFT THE PRESSURE OF FOLLOWING UP THE SUCCESS OF HIS DEBUT...

“When I worked out exactly what I could write about, that pressure just went off me. When I was going into this second album, I was like, shit I’ve just got to write songs like I did the first album and the pressure was on me because - am I going to be able to do that again?

Now I’ve written these songs that mean something and have a story and actually paint a picture of what I was like and what that relationship was like - the pressure completely left.”

FROM SINGING IN A PUB FOR 20 PEOPLE TO PLAYING IN FRONT OF 70,000, TOM’S RISE IS A CRAZY ONE TO LOOK BACK ON...

“The whole journey is ridiculous, it’s just crazy. I don’t know how, don’t know why it’s happened to me, but it has. I was playing in a pub in Finsbury Park where I got signed, and then six months later I was playing actual Finsbury Park with Chase & Status. It’s been a mad, mad time, and now with this album coming out and when we can tour again, it’s just going to get madder.”

TOM GRENNAN IN 2021 IS LASER FOCUSED ON BEING AS BIG AS HE CAN...

“I wanna be the biggest artist in the world - if I could be, y’know? I want to be a level. I’m not here to play games anymore or mess about. Like, when I first went on tour and it was me and my mates we were just getting fucked up and

having a good time. This time it won’t be that; I need to focus and be the biggest I can possibly be. I don’t have time to mess around anymore, and yeah, I’ve got my head screwed on now.

No distractions.”

TOM HAS A PHOBIA OF ELBOWS...

We’ve never heard of it either, but basically don’t go rubbing your elbows in Mr Grennan’s space, yeah? “I don’t know where it comes from, but when I was younger, I hit my funny bone really really bad. I think that’s where it stemmed from, the trauma. But yeah I can’t, I can’t actually touch… like the inside of elbows are rank. If someone sticks their elbow out, I feel physically sick.”

TOM HAS A LEGENDARY DOG… CALLED MARMITE “Well, you see I was told that Marmite was going to be a small dog and mate, he’s an absolute horse. He’s a Romanian rescue dog”.

Photos are needed ASAP okay Tom. TOM’S IMPROVED HIS PUNCTUALITY THROUGH THE YEARS OF MUSIC FUN, BUT TAKE HIS ADVICE ON PARTY TIMING… “I wasn’t a punctual person until my manager drilled it into me that people are offended when you turn up late to things and I was like, really?! And then I got the whole concept of why it is a bit rude to turn up to things late, so I do understand it.

Be on time always, and if you can be earlier, be early.

It makes the person you’re meeting appreciate you more… but to a party? I’m not turning up on time! If you turn up to a party on time, you’re standing there talking to people that you don’t really know or like… urghhhh.” P Check out Tom Grennan’s special guest appearance on Down With Boring on Dork Radio at 8pm GMT on 15th February. You can also check it out after by searching for DorkCast on all the classic podcast ‘platforms’. Tom Grennan’s album ‘Evering Road’ is out 5th March. readdork.com 11.

Arlo Parks has announced a tour for November, including her biggest ever London show. Performing in support of her just-released debut album ‘Collapsed In Sunbeams’, she’ll host nights in Bristol, London - at O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire - and Manchester.

Billie Eilish has 16 songs for her new album. That’s what she said on a recent Instagram Q&A, anyway, when asked by a fan how many songs would be on the follow up to 2019’s ’When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?’

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard have released a new single, ‘O.N.E.’. The track is taken from the band’s as-yet-unannounced follow up album to ‘K.G. Stu Mackenzie’, which “is definitely not coming out in February”, apparently. Hmm. Expect it by the time this issue is out, then.

COLUMN

A Day In The Life Chloe Moriondo

LIFE LESSONS WITH MEZ GREEN FROM LIFE

YOU KNOW WHAT’S EASIER THAN FOLLOWING AROUND YOUR FAVE UP-AND-COMING INDIE-STROKE-POP STARS, DAY IN, DAY OUT, TO SEE WHAT THEY’RE UP TO? ASKING THEM.

9:00 AM This is when I normally wake up! Check email and lay in bed on phone time.

Usually, the thought of saying good morning to my puppy Sammy (he’s 9 but he’s a puppy) entices me enough to eventually get out of bed after probably an unhealthy amount of scrolling (which I’ve been trying really really hard to limit! For my mental healf!!!). I try my best to have something for breakfast every day even if it’s small. Peanut butter oatmeal or a yoghurt are usually the key to this time of day, and I’ve also been trying to take some vitamins w my medicine in the morning before brushing my teeth and washing my face n stuff! :) 11:00 AM Around now I start gettin’ FULLY ready for the day (cus I’m a lazy creature and I crawl around my house at astonishingly slow speeds).

I’ll get dressed and maybe put makeup on if I feel like it, then talk to my dad and tell him about plans for the day like recording or if I have any scheduled calls to get on. Sometimes I have remote writing sessions over Zoom or FaceTime, sometimes it’s more serious business-y calls that I get a little more anxious (but excited!!) about. Whatever it is, if it’s happening in the house and it’s soundsensitive, I definitely tell my dad pretty early in the day because I live with him and my older brother who sometimes have noisy things to do!

1:00 PM If I have scheduled recording or writing

12. DORK

sessions to do, this is around the time when I do em! I’m either on my laptop talking to a friend about making some new tunes/working on new albums(!!) or recording stuff in my car parked at a local mostly-empty church parking lot. I sometimes go to actual studio sessions in person, but for a lot of the time I’ve spent during COVID times, my trusty lil USB mic has done the trick for some of my favourite unreleased songs. If I’m not working on music

though I’m probably playing Pokemon, Stardew Valley, or Animal Crossing New Horizons (though I’ve been depression-slacking on ACNH). I try to fit in a good lunch around this time too. Usually, it’s some sort of noodle bowl or miscellaneous cheesy food that I inhale and then go back to either working or playing video games.

4:00 PM Writing, recording, and video games often bleed into this part of my day.

Around this time if I’m gonna make plans with my girlfriend or one of the few close friends I’ve hung out with in the past year or so I do it now, or I’ll just chill and wait for dinner!! If I’m out of the house around now you will likely find me with Samantha at H Mart getting snacks (strawberry bread fish and dango are my favourite), driving Aiden and myself to nature trails to be delinquents, or at Victoria’s house eating popcorn and playing Just Dance.

6:00 PM Dinner!! Gotta eat preferably before 7 or I will be UPSET!! I’m either getting Taco Bell or something Taco Belladjacent, at home with my dad and brother eating lasagna, or at my mom’s with her puppy Bug eating vegan stew.

8:00 PM Now is time to hang out, man!! Just vibe!! Play video games or write more songs or pet my doggy. I start gettin’ sleepy earlier these days, and since it gets dark so early, I’m like already almost ready for bed by this point.

10:00 PM This is prime lay in bed with colour-changing lights on time. I’ll usually have brushed my teeth and washed my face at this point, and some days if I’m lucky Sammy will sleep with me instead of my dad. I scroll on my phone for a little and maybe watch some ASMR and then BOOM I am passed out!! That’s my whole day!! P

THIS MONTH

Get Hiked; nature’s playlist Hikes, I’ve done a few; pikes, mountains, fells, tarns, peaks, dales, lakes, woods, wolds and recently, after completing Scaffel Pike, I got penetrated by a Tic which not only made me fearful of a slow death as my girlfriend scrubbed the bastard out of my arm with a penknife but it also got me reading about hikes and their drug-like dangers.

I have three hike books ‘A Walk In The Woods’ (Bill Bryson), Raw Spirit (Iain Banks) and Walking Home (Simon Armitage). Bill is currently sat next to me and the other two sit in my bookcase in my flat above an ice cream shop in Hull. What have I learnt from the books? I’ve learnt I need to get back out there; the great outdoors.

Get outdoors and never look back; it’s where beauty thrives and within meganature you realise just how small you are; paper thin against the wind; a fragile bag of bones against pre-historic rock. Time stops in its tracks as you track, route and climb above the city rot. No headphones needed.

No playlist feeding your imagination as you begin to shin peak; your bleak existence gets coloured like your girlfriend’s cheeks in the peaks; red and full of life.

And that’s that…but wait…what about normal life in my flat above the ice cream shop or on the streets of Hull? Nature becomes lost like treasure and to quench my thirst I need pleasure from the aural world. Headphones now needed to stop the bleeding as I escape down play-listed rabbit holes listening to essential new music from Viagra Boys, Dry Cleaning, Fleet Foxes, Do Nothing, Sleaford Mods, Soulwax v Fontaines DC, This is the Kit and a podcast about the Battersea Poltergeist featuring music from Nadine Shah. And what do I learn? I learn music still is the reason why we move with nature’s changing seasons; forever and always on the notes of a bar.

P Mez’s Sunday Lunch - every second Sunday of the month on Dork Radio with Jake Hawkes. Grab the podcast by searching DorkCast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or other major platforms.

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Bangers THE BEST NEW TRACKS

Billie Eilish

Lo Vas A Olvidar (with ROSALIA)

Billie Eilish and Rosalía have finally dropped their muchanticipated collab, ‘Lo Vas A Olvidar’. Featuring on a special episode of the show Euphoria, the largely Spanish language track comes after the duo started their teasing back in March 2019. In other Billie news, documentary film ‘Billie Eilish: The World’s A Little Blurry’ will premier globally on Apple TV+ on February 26th, and she’ll follow that up with her first ever “personal photo-filled book”, titled BILLIE EILISH, on May 11th.

queen. I first was introduced to her when I was trying to find ukulele chords to a Khalid song and found her cover on YouTube years ago.

She makes awesome music and her voice has such a cruisy timbre to it so I was thrilled to have her jump on Queen with me. She is also an avid croc lover and part of the LGBTQIA+ community, so obviously it just made sense!”

Curtis Waters Doodoodoo

Curtis Waters has shared his latest bop ‘Doodoodoo’, a song about taking a bath.

His first new music of 2021, it follows on from the release of last year’s debut album ‘Pity Party’, as well as his team-up with renforshort for a new version of ‘fuck, i luv my friends’.

Michelle FYO

The follow-up to the NYC collective’s previous hits ‘UNBOUND’ and ‘SUNRISE’, which both arrived last year, ‘FYO’ talks about their experiences growing up with mixed race identities.

Jamee Lockard explains: “’FYO’ is about belonging to different worlds but feeling rejected by both. Growing up as a mixed-race minority in the US, my self concept was warped by other people telling me what I am and am not, pushing and pulling me between identities.

Although my feelings of cultural dissonance still ebb and flow, now I have the vocabulary, support system, and perspective to unpack that inner conflict on my own terms. We should never give others the authority to

define who we are.”

Griff

Black Hole

Griff has dropped a brand new pop banger, ‘Black Hole’. “I wrote this song as a bittersweet heartbreak track,” she explains.

“I actually love how melodramatic it is, as there’s obviously not “a big black hole where my heart used to be”, but the melodrama of the lyrics – over a really interesting beat – keeps the song fun.”

Nasty Cherry Lucky

Nasty Cherry have shared their first new material of 2021. The band explain: “Lucky is a song we wrote for each other during the pandemic where the 6 weeks we got to spend together felt incredibly precious and introspective. It’s a reflective, sweet and spiky little song.”

So that’s nice, isn’t it?

Cavetown

Sharpener’s Calling Me Again (ft. Kina) Cavetown has teamed up with the electronic/ dance producer Kina for ‘Sharpener’s Calling Me Again’. A new take on his fan favourite track ‘Sharpener’, it’s the first taste of “much more music to come”, a press release explains, too. Oooo.

GFLIP x mxmtoon Queen

G Flip and mxmtoon have teamed up for new single, ‘Queen’. The track is produced by Rostam Batmanglij, and follows on from G Flip’s recent single ‘I’d Rather Go to Bed’ - plus her collab with Crocs - and mxmtoon’s ‘OK On Your Own (feat. Carly Rae Jepsen)’.

G Flip says: “’Queen’ was written about the strong women around me, the queens that raised me and the queens I’ve met through my years. My idea of a queen is not necessarily linked to gender; queens come in all forms and walks of life. To me a queen embodies power and strength; they embrace all they are fiercely yet gracefully.

“The song was written one sunny day in LA, I was chillin on Rostam’s lovely white couch and he turned around to me and said “how about we write a song about Queens” and I replied with “F@!K yeah!”.

“I’m also super stoked to have mxmtoon on the track with me, she is an absolute

Royal Blood Typhoons

Royal Blood have announced details of their third album, and dropped a brand new track ‘Typhoons’ to preview it.

Warning for those of a delicate disposition, it’s typically bombastic - which is obviously A Very Good Thing.

The full-length will also be titled ‘Typhoons’, and is set for release on 30th April via Warner Records. Vocalist Mike Kerr explains of the record: “We sort of stumbled on this sound, and it was immediately fun to play. That’s what sparked the creativity on the new album, the chasing of that feeling. It’s weird, though - if you think back to ‘Figure it Out’, it kind of contains the embryo of this album. We realised that we didn’t have to completely destroy what we’d created so far; we just had to shift it, change it. On paper, it’s a small reinvention. But when you hear it, it sounds so fresh.” P

readdork.com 13.

Hype ESSENTIAL NEW MUSIC

“Xenomania was a very odd first job...”

Gracey

Gracey Having joined pop-writing-phenomenons Xenomania at the teenytiny age of 16, Gracey has always been set for superstardom.

Words: Abigail Firth.

14. DORK

Do Nothing are back, with a brand new EP ‘Glueland’, due for release on 12th March via the band’s own Exact Truth imprint. They’ll also be hitting the road this September and October, fingers crossed, with a 19-date run that screams of ‘God just let us play some shows’. Too right.

“2

019 was a real hard year for me, so 2020 felt like a breeze!”

Gracey kicked off her career with every musician’s nightmare; losing her voice.

Shortly after releasing her debut single ‘Different Things’ in 2019, she underwent surgery to remove nodules on her vocal folds (yikes) and ended up taking her own mini, personal lockdown.

“It’s not the most ideal situation when you’ve just signed to a label, you’ve just put your first single out, and it’s got a great response, and you’re feeling happy and living the dream, and then you have to go have your voice operated on,” she says from her bedroom, where she now resides in national lockdown just like the rest of the UK. Gracey – born Grace Barker in Haywards Heath – got vocal nodules from simply working too hard. Plucked from obscurity at 16 and thrust into the pop world, she’s worked non stop ever since. Signing a publishing deal with Xenomania(!!) fresh out of school (the BRIT school!! She took musical theatre while Rex Orange County and Raye did music down the hall), music has been her life for a long time, so it’s no surprise singing took its toll.

“I’d basically been writing and singing at every opportunity I had when I was like 18 to 20, and I just used my voice really in the wrong way. I had to completely retrain my voice which I spent the whole of the year before doing, trying to salvage my voice. Then I was in LA, and I have the mindset that if you go away, you’ve gotta grind and do as many sessions as you can to try and get like the most out of the trips, but it got to a point where I wasn’t speaking unless I was writing a song, or singing a song, and it just made me like, well depressed, and it was the worst.”

Thankfully, she wasn’t held back too long, releasing a steady stream of singles in 2019 that’d make up the ‘Imposter Syndrome’ EP, as well as collaboration with fellow newcomer 220 KID ‘Don’t Need Love’, which would go on to hit the Top 10 in April 2020, a pleasant surprise during lockdown.

“I still find it really mental when I hear my music on the radio because obviously as a kid you’re just like *gasp*,” she says, making a shocked face. “I think with everyone being in lockdown, maybe like all of the other artists just didn’t release their songs yet, and we just like snuck through and got lucky I guess.”

Maybe, but it’s more like the

fact it’s a huge dancefloor banger (hitting the radio at a time when everyone and their dog needed a proper pick me up), and is anchored by Gracey’s history of writing big bops for various chart-toppers. Her penmanship can be found on tracks by Raye, Rita Ora, and Olly Murs amongst countless others, thanks to her time at Xenomania. She says, “Every melody that’s ever come out my head is probably on that computer. Sometimes I just get an email being like, ‘Oh, this song’s come out, and you did that when you were 16. You did the two lines of the pre-chorus, so you’ve got a cut on that’. Right? Cool.”

Working at the pop factory responsible for endless hits for the likes of Kylie Minogue, Girls Aloud, Sugababes, Pet Shop Boys, and Cher (TO NAME A FEW), taught her a thing or two about songwriting. While she says she wasn’t allowed near the lyrics (“I don’t think they wanted any more GCSE concepts”), she worked on melodies, after sneaking her way in through a girl band audition that she turned down to be a songwriter.

“It was a very odd first job. They have a whole team of people, and they would all do a separate part of the song. So if one, two, three writers did the melody on the track, and then they’d give it to another team of people that would do like lyrics and do a couple of lines each and then they’d give it to another person who would chop it up and rewrite the whole thing.

To me, that being the first thing that you learn at 16 was just a bit of a trip.

“Now I just go into a room with like, a producer or even I’ll just like, sit on my own and write by myself.

So it was a weird introduction to the music industry but still quite thankful for it because I think it made me better at melodies for sure.”

Her latest single ‘99%’ was one of the first songs she wrote, and the one she’d build her own sound off after writing for other artists. “It was almost like a pillar for my projects. I used to go into sessions that I would put aside for writing for myself, and ‘99%’ was one of the songs that I would like play, so the first couple of singles I released were probably due to the people I was working with being inspired by those sounds. It’s really mad that it’s out now.”

So Gracey The Artist’s journey started with ‘99%’, and along the way, she found inspiration in other alt-pop artists like Sia and Lorde.

Colchester’s Anorak Party are probably a bit fed up of people going ‘ooooh aren’t they young’, but that’s only because they keep putting out stuff that belies their relatively young years. They’ve just dropped a new single, ‘Irate’, via ultra-hip label Nice Swan, and it’s Really Very Good Indeed.

“’99%’ was kind of a moment where I could imagine where I would sit as an artist, and I think that came from other artists. I remember listening to ‘Chandelier’

by Sia when I was revising for my GCSEs, and I was like, oh, this girl is really cool because it’s kind of dark, weird pop, and love huge choruses as well. And then Lorde was another one, ‘Pure Heroine’ is one of my favourite ever albums, ‘Melodrama’ as well to be honest.

I was inspired by other amazing female artists that came about around the time I was writing, and then I just fell into it. When you write a song and you find it really hard to imagine someone else singing it, that’s when you know it’s time to give it a go as an artist.”

The song appears on her minialbum (EP) ‘The Art Of Closure’, released late 2020; seven tracks that give us a peek into Gracey’s brand of sadbanger. Also featured are ‘Empty Love’ a duet with Australian singer-songwriter Ruel that was written about the social media rut she got into during her post-vocal-surgery downtime, disco-infused Alexander 23 pair-up ‘Like That’, and breakup anthems ‘Alone In My Room’ and ‘Don’t’.

Sadly, she’s not been able to get out and perform any of it properly yet, what with taking 2019 off for a vocal rest and 2020 for, err everything else rest. She did squeeze in one show at London’s Laylow early last year before having to resort to livestream performances and socially distanced gigs for the rest of 2020.

“It was small, but it was like really crazy to even see those people like reacting to my song,” she says of the gig. “I think we all get really caught up with follower counts and how many likes and this that, and the other and you forget that the number of likes is actually humans.”

For now, she’ll be working on some more music in her room and on Zoom, and hoping the universe isn’t against her for the third year running. There are bops on the way – she says she wants to get us all dancing, even if it’s just in the kitchen, so watch out Sophie Ellis-Bextor – as well as some sad slowburners too.

“Obviously 2019 I didn’t get the chance to fully go for it, and last year, I felt like I kind of grew into the artist that I was wanting to be so, I’m just exploring that little bit more. I’ve got a couple of like collaborations coming as well which I’m really excited about. So just kind of evolving into the next stage of my life.” P

readdork.com 15.

MAY-A The latest hot newcomer from Down Under, MAY-A is a pop prodigy in waiting Words: Martyn Young.

Photo: Maybelle Thieu.

A

ustralian newcomer MAY-A might only have less than a handful of officially released songs, but the 19-year-old is primed and ready to take her beautifully considered, witty and heartfelt songs about relationships, friendships and true emotional connections to a wider audience. An audience which she’s been craving as her musical journey progressed through her teenage years. “I started writing songs pretty young, when I was about 12,” says Maya. “I was just listening to a lot of Taylor Swift and writing music that way. When I was about 14, I met my manager at a studio that he ran in Randwick right near my house. I happened to walk past it, and I met him. I ended up falling into an artist programme where they help you write songs, and you become an artist. I did that every week until I was 17 when I signed a contract with my manager.”

It took a little while though for Maya to realise that people were going to actually listen to her songs and would like them.

“Even at that point, it was like, this isn’t real,” she continues.

“This isn’t a real job. It wasn’t until I realised how many other people were invested and wanted to know more about me that I realised maybe I can

Fresh off being the cover star of our 2021 Hype List, Bella’s latest track “is probably the most important song I’ve released to date because it’s the song that catalysed the sound of Baby Queen.”

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A-MAY-A ZING FACTS

do this for real.”

For Maya, songs are just one small part of the package that makes her a compelling artist, as with her tender breakthrough song ‘Apricots’.

“I always wanted to make different singles and different releases really special,” she explains. “Lots of people write lots of music, and they just want it to be out, but I think taking your time and making the feeling for the song, not only what it means in a conventional sense but giving people an idea what it felt like to write it. The next single I’m releasing we’re doing photoshoots around the single just for Instagram about how I felt when I was writing it and what I was going through. Even before I released any music, that was something I always wanted to do. It makes it feel really human.”

“I started writing songs pretty young, I was about 12” MAY-A Constantly online and engaged with her growing community of like-minded idealistic dreamers Maya is determined to put herself out there. “People have told me they’re more drawn to the song because if you follow me, you don’t have an option to check it out as everything I post is about it,” she laughs. “You’re constantly reminded that it’s there.”

TOP OF THE BOPS Baby Queen - Raw Thoughts

5

#1 Maya is a big fan of cooking pasta, putting it in the fridge and having it cold the next day. #2 She’s obsessed with coffee.

Making it, drinking it, travelling to new places to drink it. She’s all over it. #3 She really loves skateboarding and learning new tricks. #4 She recommends you watch her first Australian school vlog on her very entertaining youtube channel heyit’smaya.

“That video best captures me and that period in my life. It was fun to make and it was me saying goodbye to my last year of school. #5 If anyone is inspired to try an apricot for the first time after hearing her ace song of the same name she says, “ They’re peachy but more dense and a little less fruity.”

While she was influenced by gold-standard songwriters like Taylor Swift, Frank Ocean and Lorde, MAY-A also takes influence from the introspective lyrical wordplay of artists like Dave. “I have a stream of consciousness approach,” she explains of her songwriting process. “I like to keep it as honest and real as possible. People can see authenticity and gravitate towards things that are real.”

She cites this year’s massive Number 1 hit ‘drivers licence’

by Olivia Rodrigo as an example of how a song using her approach can make a massive impact. “The reason that song has been going so crazy is everything that she says is real. Obviously, there’s a lot of drama surrounding it, but it’s so dramatic because people can pinpoint the point the moment it was about because she publicised everything.

That’s something that I’ve always thought about. I want to make sure that everything I say I can back it up.”

At its core, Maya’s music is super vulnerable and rich in emotion. “The reason that my music feels emotionally open is that I’m not very good at being super open in real life,” she laughs. “I’m not good at getting a point across to say exactly what I feel. Songwriting has always been an escape.

Songwriting never felt like a thing that I’d have to try to do. It’s been like a diary. It has helped me to be vulnerable and cope with my emotions.”

While Maya is now focusing on her flourishing music career she’s not forgotten her past in the riotously fun, endearing and frequently hilarious videos that can be found on her YouTube channel, recently reactivated after a couple of years break. “I very

5 songs from new artists you need to hear this month

Yard Act - Dark Days Their last single before heading off to record a debut album, ‘Dark Days’ is released via Yard Acts’ own label, Zen F.C., and is yet another acerbic blast of social commentary and sharp, incendiary guitars.

Deb Never Someone Else

‘Someone Else’ was written and recorded in London, where Deb hot tailed to for five months of writing in the middle of last year after hitting a creative dry spell in LA isolation.

beaux - what’s the point?

beaux says: “‘what’s the point?’ is a focus on the positive aspects of my life in the past year. “ Yep, Dear Reader, at least someone had some! There’s an EP out now, too.

Joey Maxwell leaves blow over

A 1 minute 31 slice of addictive, blink-and-you’llmiss-it pop, ‘leaves blow over’ arrives alongside news of a new YouTube series, Trying Not To Deep It, filmed in Joey’s flat.

much associated that channel with my high school years,” she remembers fondly. “That was an important part of me establishing myself. I really wanted to do something. I wanted to make things, and I wanted people to see them, but I didn’t really care how it looked. I wanted to be funny, not that I ever really was that funny. I’m grateful that all those videos are there because I learnt so much about myself.”

With plans to create more content in a multitude of different forms, MAY-A is aware of the opportunities to capitalise on her growing audience who relate to her and hang on her every word.

2021 promises to offer much for them to look forward to.

“The one thing I can guarantee is there will be just more of everything,” she laughs. P MAY-A’s single ‘Time I Love To Waste’ is out 18th February.

Dork fave Rachel Chinouriri has dropped a brand new single. Titled ‘Darker Place’, she says it’s “about the battle between light and darkness”. “I don’t fear darkness and believe that in the right circumstances, every human being has the potential to do anything,” she explains. So there you go.

Former Dork cover star Tate McRae has dropped a brand new track. Titled ‘rubberband‘, Tate explains: “snapping a rubberband is a way to get over something…. sometimes even a person. this song means a lot to me, i hope you guys love it.”

Talking of former Dork cover stars, our mate Alfie Templeman has been forced to cancel his live run for this April and May for ‘obvious reasons’. “I’m desperate to see you all and play live,” he explains “so I’ve been hanging on in the hope that things might improve... but sadly it’s looking impossible”. Sniff.

Abbie Ozard A

good meal does wonders. Yeah, it’s the sort of quote that you’d expect to hear from relatives as you tuck into your evening supper and yes, it’s the sort of obvious, everyday fact that doesn’t really need explaining - but that doesn’t mean it isn’t bangon, right?! It’s something everyone turning up at the Ozard family cafe knows, a melting pot of different lives and surroundings all taking a moment out to tuck into another hearty meal. It’s also where you’d find a young Abbie Ozard serving up meals and coming across all sorts of different personalities - but only on

the nights where she didn’t have a gig on, of course.

“I could jump around different shifts and stuff which was lucky,” Abbie recalls, thinking back to days of having to flag those spare nights when a last-minute show would pop up. “I loved being a waitress, talking to all these people and meeting some right weird ones. It was an inspiration, really. Like when you’re stuck in a room, you’ve got to find stuff to write about, but when you’re busy serving good scran…”

The result is that Abbie Ozard isn’t serving up just good scran anymore, but dazzling indie-pop gems too.

In just over a year, Abbie hasn’t just made an opening

impression but scrawled her name across playlists and new music ears in big letters for the world to see releasing track after track of confessional brilliance that signals the arrival of a new favourite artist for many.

“It’s just been really cool and nice to see people like what I’m doing,” says Abbie.

“I wanted to comfort people I guess, I dunno… I don’t want just to release music for selfish reasons.”

Bottling teenage angst into sharp but dreamy anthems that you could imagine scribbled across diaries and scrapbooks, there’s a certain magic that comes with everything Abbie Ozard touches. Whether it’s the hazy sunshine of ‘Pink Sky (Endless Summer)’ and it’s endless possibilities, the ripping open-top drive of ‘True Romance’ or the overflowing wrap that is latest number ‘Breakdown’ - every track manages to sound both of another world and yet distinctively of our own at the same time. Tackling crumbling relationships, romanticising times that may never truly be as we describe, finding comfort in an online world or taking yourself to daydreams every now and then - it’s a recipe that’s bound to steal hearts.

Surrounded by the sounds of the 80s, David Bowie and The Cure growing up in a family home in love with music, Abbie’s first steps to stardom involved stepping into… a cathedral? “Yeah, like a cathedral choir,” she laughs.

“It was classical music at the start but then as I got older, when I was 13, I was like fuck it, don’t want to do any of this classical stuff anymore. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind whacking a bit of it on now, but I started kinda listening to folk-y music and that, and it went from there.” A love of artists including Bon Iver and, in particular, Bombay Bicycle

Club soon followed and it became the base for Abbie’s early forays into songwriting.

“When I’m dead happy, I find it really hard to write.

Please, someone have a go at me” Abbie Ozard That “base of folk” as Abbie puts it poured together in no time. “I’ve realised that when I’m dead happy, I find it really hard to write, like it’s so frustrating. PLEASE someone have a go at me, get me out of this happiness!”

Songs began to flourish from the emo poems she’d write down after school. “I was 17 and had my first breakup, and I didn’t know what to do,” Abbie remembers. “I wrote and wrote, and it helped me make this product out of me just being a mess.”

2019’s ‘Growing Pains’ EP was a bubbling introduction to a songwriter having fun with the world around her.

Combining lo-fi bliss with pure pop sensibilities, it was an early sign that Abbie was a voice bound to make a mark. Last year’s standout croon ‘TV Kween’ is the track Abbie points to as a perfect snapshot of where she is now. “Before, the whole genre wasn’t really solidified. With ‘Growing Pains’, it was like right okay - I’m going to make a little EP that’s a chapter on everything’s that happened in that year and the pains

Serving up perfect pop, Abbie Ozard is hot stuff.

Words: Jamie Muir.

Photo: Charlotte Rudd.

of growing up basically.

It was a little experiment really, compared to what I was doing before. With this next EP, it’s basically that on steroids”.

“Like ‘TV Kween’ was done over Zoom, and that’s been my favourite one so far. After that I was like, right, I love this vibe. I wanna stick with this for a bit and see where it goes. Like it feels like I’ve found my sound, though saying that I’ll probably end up getting bored and trying something different in the future, which is fine. That’s the fun of music, you can do what you want.”

While those live moments that the ‘Let’s Play Pretend’ EP scream out for may be on pause, there’s no doubt that Abbie’s future seems destined for those grand occasions. Early nights supporting whenyoung are ones Abbie can directly point to as inspiring her to write songs that “absolutely slap live”, but with a wealth of material that also pulls from those early folk routes - predict what comes next from Abbie at your peril. “I have this SoundCloud playlist of all these sad demos that I just haven’t released,” cracks Abbie. “I keep thinking that nobody can ever hear these, just so sad and no laffs at all, but I may slip a few of these in next time…

“I just want to get to a place where every day can be music, and things to do. To play a show, eat some pizza and then get back on it again.

I want to meet people who love music and chat to them.

I want to make people feel better with whatever people are going through. That’s the aim really, to make people feel better.”

Abbie breaks out another smile. “I don’t think I’ll ever stop… don’t really have a choice! Might as well have a listen, eh?!” P Abbie Ozard’s EP ‘Let’s Play Pretend’ is out now.

readdork.com 17.

Charli Adams has dropped a new track, ‘Maybe Could Have Loved’. Teaming up with Nightly‘s Jonathan Capeci (who is actually Charli’s housemate, ‘FYI’), it’s the first collaboration to be taken from the Nashville singer/songwriter’s forthcoming debut album ‘Bullseye’.

18. DORK

Squid have announced their debut album. Produced by Dan Carey, ‘Bright Green Field’ will be released on 7th May via Warp Records, with the news arriving alongside a video for lead single ‘Narrator (Feat.

Martha Skye Murphy)’.

Bull have announced their debut album, ‘Discover Effortless Living’.

Released on 26th March, the news arrives alongside a stop motion video for ‘Eugene’, created by members of the band as well as artists and animators from their circle.

Master Peace Everyone wants success, but Master Peace is out to do it on his own terms.

Words: Martyn Young.

“I

didn’t know if I wanted to be a pop star or a rock star,” says Master Peace. Well, why not be both? That’s exactly what Peace is going to do as he plots his way to superstardom in 2021. Master Peace is an artist determined to do things his way. He can be a pop star one day and rock star the next.

Whatever he is doing though is guaranteed to be exciting and formed in his own wonderfully singular image.

“I didn’t really want to be a musician as I didn’t really understand it like that,” says Peace of his early days making music in London in late-2017. “I didn’t understand how to really get through it. If I wanted to be a musician, then I want to do it my own way. I didn’t want to be like everybody else,” he adds confidently. “Especially being a Black musician and making the type of music that I make; I didn’t want to be the stereotype that everyone puts Black musicians in.” The impetus to forge his own path and subvert people’s expectations of him came from a desire to look within himself and his emotions to find a personal approach to making music. “I started writing stuff.

I was going through a weird time in my life, and every time I would feel stressed, I would just write things down, and it would make me feel better,” he explains.

A musical pivot would provide the catalyst for the

genre-fluid artist that Peace has grown into today. “I started off making grime,” he says. “I went to radio sets and was a grime MC when I first started.

I never released music though as a grime MC. The reason why I started in grime was because I enjoyed it at the time and also all my friends liked it. It was something that we all did.

I knew I didn’t want to be a grime MC though, I was just doing something that I didn’t really want to do so I was like, let me start being the person I want to be.”

“I didn’t want to be like everybody else” Master Peace Master Peace knew he wanted his music to be honest and open and show a vulnerable side which you can hear is his dreamy indie-pop vignettes with a subtle edge.

It was something that crept up on him almost by surprise.

“I had broken up with an exgirlfriend at the time and went to the studio on that day,” he starts as he tells a story of his musical awakening. “I was properly down about it. I started writing a song about the relationship. I sang it, and I kind of yelled it in a sense. It was like a chant. My producer at the time was like ‘Oh My God, I like how raw your voice is when you sing. It’s like you’re not actually trying to sing. It’s really rough and ready and down and dirty’. When I heard that it was like maybe this could actually work because

not many people sound how I sound on that song.”

Indeed Master Peace’s distinctive voice immediately stands out. While his music is distinctive and idiosyncratic, the themes he wants to explore are based on universal connections. Master Peace has no interest in being a niche concern. He wants to connect on every possible level. “My whole objective was for people who are like me to relate to me,” he proclaims. “In school, I wasn’t the guy who had the latest clothes or the latest shoes. I wasn’t the popular guy. I always wanted to get noticed in my own way. When I started making music, I wanted to make music for people like that who are going through a hard time in a relationship or feel that nobody understands them. That’s why my music is so honest. I want Jack from Middlesbrough or Stacey from Brighton to understand.”

“The average person doesn’t have a car or the best trainers or all the glitz and glamour,” he continues. “I can admit that I don’t have the best things, but what I do have is truth and honesty. On my most recent ‘Love Bites’ EP people said I was so relatable and when they were in a relationship they felt the same way too, and they connected with the songs. That’s what I care about the most. Making people feel that they’re on the same level as me. I’m not any better than them.”

It’s an exciting time for Master Peace as he readies a new EP and single. “I’m just having a bit of fun with it at the moment,” he says. “Everything is starting to connect more than I thought. This year could be very interesting.”

Right now there’s supreme confidence within Peace as he hones his songcraft built from a listening experience

INFO DUMP

5 things you may like to know about Master Peace

He really really loves ‘The Big Bang Theory’

He likes fitness and working out

It might be cool to say you don’t really like the Big Bang Theory. Nope. That’s it. But Master Peace likes it, so that’s nice isn’t it?

(Yes, that is nice)

It’s good to stay active, isn’t it, Dear Reader? Yes, we know, we’re sat on our sofa riding out lockdown surrounded by Penguin wrappers too, but we’ll go for a run soon.

He’s not a party guy

Indeed, Mr Peace prefers staying in and making amazing pop bangers instead of drinking and smoking. What a wholesome fella he is. And really, who needs ‘booze’ when you have bops?

His new single ‘Overdrive’ is a banger He made it in the style of one of his fave childhood bands.

“This is my Busted song! It reminds me of Busted and McFly with Blink 182 and Sum 41. I’ve always loved that sort of music.”

that traverses from genre to genre from hip-hop and indie to R&B and pure pop. “I feel like the way I listen to music is a gift,” he explains. “Certain harmonies, drums or guitars that the average listener wouldn’t hear, well, I can hear.

I feel like a doctor. I dissect every song. I listen and think if this was my song, how would I make it a Master Peace song?”

“In school, I wasn’t the popular guy; I always wanted to get noticed in my own way”

FIRST ON Check out these new names

Miss Grit

Miss Grit, the project of Korean-American musician Margaret Sohn, has just dropped a really very good EP ‘Impostor’ (yes, the spelling is deliberate). “I’ve gone my whole life feeling really uncomfortable defining myself,” Sohn says. “I realized that a lot of the time, I’m more comfortable with other people defining me and making up their mind about who I’m supposed to be.” So there we go.

Master Peace You can hear his genre mashups in the way his songs act as little musical melting pots. “I was heavily influenced growing up by Justin Timberlake and Nelly Furtado, but the music I liked making was indie music so I’d try and implement some of their influence in the backing vocals to enhance my music,” he says.

“I get a lot of inspiration from hip-hop and indie rock music.”

It’s been a three-year musical journey for Master Peace as he experimented and slowly but surely found his way.

“It took me quite a long time to get heard,” he says. “A lot of people knew about Master Peace, but they didn’t really KNOW.” Well, 2021 should be the year to change all that as Master Peace looks to spread his own brand of knowledge to the masses. P

He’s got a new EP on the way with maybe some plans for an album

He’s been working with George Reid aka George from AlunaGeorge. Isn’t that exciting? Love a bit of George.

Bored At My Grandma’s House

Bored At My Grandma’s House - that’s the musical guise of one Amber Strawbridge, ‘FYI’ - just dropped a really very good debut EP ‘Sometimes I Forget You’re Human Too’.

Apparently it’s about “the realisation that everyone is the same.

In the sense that we are all human, everyone has issues and problems to face, everyone makes mistakes and has success.” Too true, Amber. It’s also really very good indeed.

LOVA

The latest prodigy to come out of Sweden, LOVA just released a debut album ‘Grown-Ish’ which is packed to the rafters with the kind of playlist ready, shiny modern pop we’ve come to expect.

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COVER STORY

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ZARA LARSSON

Zara Larsson has already proven herself as one of pop’s main characters, and with album two, she’s embracing fun.

By: Abigail Firth. Photography: Benjamin Vnuk.

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COVER STORY

Z

ara Larsson was born for the stage. She knew at six years old that she wanted to sell out stadiums and by ten she was on national television, winning Sweden’s answer to Britain’s Got Talent.

By 17 she had an international smash hit to her name and still she was just getting started.

Now, at 23, she’s about to release her second album ‘Poster Girl’, four years after debut ‘So Good’, and it’s a roaring disco spectacular that puts its foot down on track one and doesn’t let up for the whole ride.

“I just want the bangers!” she says, revealing herself as a pop star who truly understands Dork. “I want the bops. And I want it to be pop and fun. I fucking love pop, and I’ve always loved pop. It takes me somewhere in my head where I can just live out my fantasies of being super powerful, and very glamorous, and just kind of escape every day. Still, at 23 years old, I stand in front of my mirror, and I put on makeup, and I feel like a bad bitch, and I sing songs, I dance, and I pretend I’m performing. Like I still do that. And I’ve been doing that my whole childhood.”

The central idea behind ‘Poster Girl’ is the two sides of Zara. There’s Zara Larsson the pop star, glamourous, confident and world-famous, she’s the one up on the wall in the cover art. Looking wistfully off-camera is the

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other side of her, the one who isn’t afraid to admit she’s not perfect, and that’s the one we chat to today. She’s in Stockholm when we ‘meet’, where she’s been living for the past year, sitting in the corner of her couch (that’s where she’s been, specifically, for the last year), caught a little bit off guard when the front camera comes on.

She’s in her workout gear, opening a parcel that turns out to be her dad’s Christmas gift arriving way too late (a classic in the Larsson household according to her), and trying to order a burger because it’s lunchtime in Sweden; if we’d have known better, we’d have brought a snack too. Perhaps one of the best things about this Zoom interview era is getting to see celebrities entirely decelebrified, and in this case, it feels really appropriate for the album promo.

It’s been a long year for Miss Larsson, who wrapped up her album last March just before the world shut down. “It’s weird because when I think about my life, I always think I don’t really do anything,” she says from the floor of her living room. “It doesn’t matter if I’m literally on tour, I will think, why does nobody have me working? So I said, oh, 2020 was definitely me sitting on my sofa. It really wasn’t, but that’s how I feel because I don’t feel like I’m working.”

Obviously, 2020 is accounted for, but what about those other three years

since ‘So Good’? There have been singles since 2018 – two of which are featured on the album – but nothing fell into place properly until much later.

“It’s really hard to say what took so long because the truth is, the majority of these songs, even though I’ve been working on my album [she half air quotes and rolls her eyes] for four years, the majority of the songs I wrote the last week of writing the album. So now, when I look back at it, I’m like fuck, this could have been my third album or my fourth. But it’s very easy to be to look back at something and say, oh, I should have done this like this, but I think whatever happened led me to this point, and I’m really proud, I’m very happy with how it turned out and how it sounds.”

Feeling the pressure to live up to the sales and accolades of ‘So Good’ (which became the second moststreamed debut by a female artist on Spotify and earned her four BRIT nominations) and getting caught up in a ‘better = more streams’ phase, and letting that go to express herself properly took time. She says, “Sometimes, just because something is more popular, it’s not objectively better, but when you do mainstream pop, then it’s hard to ignore that part, you know? Of course, I want my albums to be successful, but I think I am also in a state now where I feel very proud and very involved in

everything I do, and when you are, it becomes more about the actual art than the numbers. But I would lie if I said I didn’t care.”

“I want it to be pop and fun. I fucking love pop” Zara Larsson The hold up was also probably slightly down to the fact she doesn’t seem that bothered about making an album. Not in a way where doesn’t care about the final product (clearly she does considering it’s bloody brilliant), but she’s just very Gen Z in how she consumes music. She notes that the only full albums she really listens to are Beyoncé’s ‘Lemonade’ and Frank Ocean’s ‘Channel Orange’, but she’s a singles and playlists girl at heart.

With that in mind, it makes sense why she’d brush off the ballads in favour of back to back bangers. Her selection process is as follows: “Could this be a single?

Yeah. Could this be single?

Yeah. Could this be single?

Yeah. I feel like every song has the single material.” She’s right BTW. “Obviously I would love people to listen through

my album track by track, but I think how most people listen to songs is like, ‘this song’s good, yeah, let me add that to my playlist’. I mean, hopefully they’ll just add the whole album to their playlist.”

When we quiz her on why 2019 singles ‘All The Time’ and ‘Don’t Worry Bout Me’ didn’t make it onto ‘Poster Girl’, her solution is genius.

“Sometimes I’m like, guys, ‘All The Time’ is out there, like you can listen to it if you want! It’s not like I took it away! Just make a playlist of the whole album, put it on the end… ta-da!”

On ‘Poster Girl’, Zara gives us total escapism, the kind she sought out as a child. Much like Dua’s ‘Future Nostalgia’ and Gaga’s ‘Chromatica’ of last year, it’s pure pop relief and a flicker of light in what’s looking to be another dark year.

The record is deliberately optimistic. From the opening lyric “never thought I would love again, here I am lost in love me land” built around gigantic vocals and a pulsing, string-led beat, to the closer ‘What Happens Here’, which wraps a story of selfassurance and a free-spirited fling up in Carly Rae Jepsen sized euphoria, there’s no way you’re feeling down for the whole listen.

“I think that’s how most of my songs are, even if it’s a sad song. The delivery of it is usually quite happy. It’s the same with ‘Never Forget You’, it’s very uptempo and fun, but if you listen to the lyrics, it’s kind of sad. Or even ‘Ruin My Life’, it doesn’t feel like a sad song to me, it feels like hey, let’s go dancing.”

It’ll be a travesty if this album doesn’t hit clubs and stages as soon as physically possible. It’s made for dancefloors and belting out with your besties. Arriving well into the second half is one of ‘Poster Girl’’s biggest tracks, ‘Look What You’ve Done’, who’s title suggests it’ll be a crooning, heartbroken ballad, but instead it plays out, lyrically like ‘thank u, next’, and sonically like a 21st Century iteration of ABBA. The title-track finds Zara feeling out of character as she develops a crush, again backed by glittery disco production and falsetto vocals you’ll struggle to hit on the karaoke machine. Even the more relaxed tracks like ‘Need Someone’, which has an airy, easy-going vibe, builds into a much funkier, bigger anthem, tied together by a groovy bassline reminiscent of Tame Impala’s ‘The Less I Know The Better’ and a

ZARA LARSSON

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COVER STORY

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ZARA LARSSON

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COVER STORY

twinkly piano line.

“I think pop is so great because it’s so accessible and it doesn’t have to be absurd like, ‘oh, no, you wouldn’t get it’,” she says of the album’s sound. “I wanted it to be fun and easy and accessible. I think that’s why I love pop because anyone could join in.” As soon as those clubs open we will be joining in! But for now, we’ll have to sing into our hairbrushes in front of the mirror for our pop star moment.

As an artist who thrives on stage, Zara is desperately missing performing in front of a crowd. Of course, live streaming shows are a common thing now, but the really special part is experiencing the music and joy together with others, and as we know by now, that just can’t be captured properly when you’re not there in person.

“Performing is my number one thing. Everything else is just a bonus to that. I also don’t really see myself as a writer particularly, even though I do write and I’m pretty okay at it, I don’t, you know, sit in my bed and write lyrics. I stand in front of the mirror, and I pretend I’m on stage, I’ve always been like that.

“Being in the crowd standing around all these people singing the same song, that’s really powerful.

It’s the same with sports; sports, and music are the only things that will really bring people together like that, and when you root for someone, or like, you sing along to your favourite artists because you love this song, because you had so many memories to this song, or that artist was just a part of your life or whatever it might be, that’s what makes it so special.”

Nothing about Zara feels diva-ish. Yes, she’s perfectly preened in her Instagram pictures, but often her captions tell another story. During our interview, she’s putting her socks on, chomping a cinnamon bun and getting ready to go workout, she never seems

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If you pass through the check outs without buying one of these, you have superhuman willpower.

Well done.

concerned with how she comes across because she knows it’s authentic. Her charm is in her off-the-cuff humour and openness – a similar kind of congenial and relatable energy that’s made someone like Cardi B so popular – and her head is firmly screwed on. She tells a story about her experience working with Scandipop God Himself Max Martin, and sounds totally starstruck but also explains everything she took away from the interaction.

“Girls are being taught that sex is something that happens to you, and not something that you’re a part of” Zara Larsson “He’s so funny, man. He’s funny,” she says of the icon.

“Like, I was in the studio, here in Stockholm, working on ‘Don’t Worry Bout Me’, and he came down like, ‘Hey, what’s up? Can I sit here?’

And I was like, first of all, it’s your fucking studio. And you’re Max Martin. You can do whatever you want. But he’s so humble and sweet, he kind of like, sits on the floor, then we started working on ‘Stick With You’, and he was like, ‘Could I please say something?’ And I was like, yeah? You can do whatever you want!

“As a writer and as a human, he’s always down to listen. And I think that’s why he’s still so relevant. Because he’s not like, oh, I wrote like a Number 1 20 years ago, and I’m the shit. He’s always like,

‘Tell me, what do you think?’

He’s very tuned in, and he’s someone you just want to be around to write with.”

She also talks about her vulnerability in the writers’ room, even for songs that don’t sound so deep, being creatively assertive doesn’t come easily.

“When you’re sharing your thoughts, I have to feel comfortable in that, because you feel a little naked in a way like, ‘Hey, what do you

think about this?’ Someone has to be the judge of that.

It’s very important to be with people that you feel comfortable with, and that you can share whatever you might think, because there are no bad ideas, but still in my head, I’m like, should I tell them what I’m thinking? Oh, maybe that’s such a bad idea.

Maybe it’s not a good idea at all. And then someone says the exact thing to what I’ve been like thinking about, and

everybody’s like, that’s great, let’s go with that, and I’m like fuck! I should’ve said it!”

Despite how she might feel about sharing her thoughts in the studio, the result is remarkably vulnerable at times. On ‘I’m Right Here’ she pleads ‘Why do I even try?’ and ‘Why can’t you look at me?’ over the chorus, while the verses are open in a different manner, as she sings ‘I could be naked at dinner and touching the

Yes, we’re using the fact Zara is Swedish to list our 5 fave things you can eat from IKEA. We’re not sorry*.

Meatballs

The Swedish are well known for their meatballs - so as Brits we’re happy to keep up this tradition of culinary excellence by buying them almost exclusively from a retailer of reasonably priced flat pack furniture.

Daim cake

Daim - the Swedish chocolate bar with crunchy almond caramel - is a top tier sweet treat. Add that to a chocolatey, almondy tart-stroke-cake and you’re in heaven. Get it from IKEA for authenticity.

Ikea breakfasts

In no way has any member of the Dork editorial team ever driven for an hour and a half just to have an IKEA breakfast on a Saturday morning. But if they had, they’d be an absolute bloody legend, right?

Ice cream

While the hot dog is the headliner of the IKEA check out food counter, the ice cream is the must-see undercard. You even get to swirl your own from the machines! Don’t tell us you don’t go back for seconds.

* this is not a sponsored feature. We’re just really hungry.

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ZARA LARSSON

part of. It doesn’t happen to you, you are equally a part of this. Hopefully, you want it like you’re horny, you want to have sex, and that’s it. So if you want to talk about it, that’s fine on me, I don’t care.

I wrote that because, when I first got together with my ex, we were in school, and he was like, I don’t have to tell anyone about it. I was like, what? I was really confused. I get now that he was trying to be nice, you know, people will call you slut or whatever. But at that point, I was like, why not? Like, I don’t care.

“I’ve worked with so many men that don’t know shit about shit” Zara Larsson

waiter… it wouldn’t even get your attention’. Similarly, on ‘I Need Love’, she belts its title as the refrain. The contrast is that on a lot of these songs, Zara is the one in control.

“I do think being, quote, unquote, weak is also in a sense, not weak. I think being vulnerable is a sign of strength. And to say, like, I’m fucked up, or like, I’m really sad. I think there’s something strong about that. But also, traditionally, girls have always been seen to need a man or like, you need this and this and this to be happy, which is not the truth. So a for little bit of [those songs] I was like, well, actually, I’m fine without you, I don’t need you, but I want you,” she says raising her eyebrows.

Since the start of her career, she’s been known for being outspoken, particularly on topics surrounding feminism and politics (in

one iconic tweet, she said: “Feminism and man-hating are two different things. I support both”). We know her lyrical choices aren’t exactly revolutionary, but they’re empowering in their own way. When she starts telling the story of ‘What Happens Here’, it becomes clear that these tracks are in fact a little more vulnerable than their perfectly polished shell might suggest.

“On ‘Look What You’ve Done’ it’s like I’m shining without you, I’m glowing, I’m on fire. ‘What Happens Here’ is really powerful too because it’s like if you want to talk about me and what we did, that’s cool for me, because I was down with it. I wanted you just as much as you wanted me. Sometimes we, in society, like girls are being taught that sex is something that happens to you and not something that you’re a

“My views on things in the world don’t really get talked about in my music. I hope that people who listen to me know what I’m about.

They know where I stand politically. They know what I think about things. But I would love to incorporate some of that into what I’m singing about as well.”

Even though Zara is technically a child star, winning Swedish reality show Talang at the age of ten and going on to release her first single ‘Uncover’ at fifteen, she’s remained very humble, and thanks her Nordic roots for that. She describes herself as attention-seeking a few times, but it seems to come from a good place, adding that she always wants people to have a good time and feels like it’s on her if they’re not.

“I’ve been very lucky considering that not only do I live in Stockholm where nobody cares about celebrities – like it’s kind of a personality trait for Swedes to be very chill about all that kind of stuff, ‘oh I give you attention so you think you’re better than me’, it’s very Swedish – so I had a very normal childhood.

“But I was fucking thriving when I got attention because I think that’s what my whole life is about, to get attention from people, especially strangers,” she laughs. “I don’t know why I’ve always been like that, I don’t know where it’s come from because

my parents loved me a lot growing up and they gave me a lot of love and attention and affection, but I’ve always been a people pleaser.”

Zara Larsson is a picture of what it is to be a pop star in 2021. An accumulation of the Rihannas and Beyoncés who’d inspired her growing up (Beyoncé took the prime spot on her poster wall as a teen – she notes that she’d pull posters out of magazines for other stars but was always willing to cough up big bucks for Queen B), with the sensibilities of someone who’s already been in the industry for a decade and isn’t afraid to stand her ground, plus she’s super switched on about the rapidly changing music world, tactfully adding ‘WOW’ to the album’s tracklist after it blew up on TikTok, and recognising how the streaming habits of herself and her friends would contribute to the record’s success. Add in that she’s equal parts candid and comfortably relatable, and there’s your recipe. On ‘Poster Girl’ she acknowledges that she’s done a lot of growing in the time she’s been in the public eye, but she’s still got further to go.

She mentions how she wants to get more into

directing after spending the whole year watching movies and TV and ends up talking about how she had a hand in directing the video for lead single ‘Talk About Love’. Her approach towards it speaks so well to both her work ethic and her character.

“Fucking honestly, I’ve worked with so many men that don’t know shit about shit. And they come in with this big confidence like they could do anything, and they’re like, ‘Yeah, I could do that’, and then people are like, ‘Okay, cool. So we’re just going to give it to you’. And then they really can’t. That gave me a little confidence to be like, you know what, I’m going to stop doubting myself and thinking I can’t do things and being shy about like saying I actually want to be part of this and I want to be part of that. Because if they can do it, then I can do it or at least allow myself to learn. I’ve definitely realised that if I want to do something, then I should just go for it.

I’m never afraid to ask. I think that’s one of my best traits, that I’m very curious. I am not afraid to show people that I don’t know everything, but at least I know some things. You’ve just got to put yourself out there.” P Zara Larsson’s album ‘Poster Girl’ is out 5th March.

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Wall Art

PULL ‘EM OUT, STICK ‘EM UP.

WOLF ALICE

DAVE

CHVRCHES

MAGGIE ROGERS

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THE BIG MOON

ALFIE TEMPLEMAN

EVERYTHING EVERYTHING

FONTAINES D.C.

BILLIE EILISH

CAVETOWN

Photo: Sarah Louise Bennett.

Photo: Sarah Louise Bennett.

Photo: Sarah Louise Bennett.

Photo: Sarah Louise Bennett.

Photo: Sarah Louise Bennett.

Photo: Patrick Gunning.

Photo: Jennifer McCord.

Photo: Sarah Louise Bennett.

Photo: Sarah Louise Bennett.

Photo: Sarah Louise Bennett.

JULIEN BAKER

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JULIEN BAKER

Faith Healer We all need something to hold on to during these ‘difficult times’. Thankfully, Julien Baker is back to show us we’re not alone.

By: Neive McCarthy. Photography: Alyssa Gafkjen.

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JULIEN BAKER

“I

t’s been an eventful morning!” Julien Baker laughs over Zoom. It’s only 10am, but after an incident involving a hot kettle and some lost hair, eventful certainly seems fitting. Her musical sound has long been characterised by its warmth and intimacy, and that quality seems to translate directly to the artist herself. Diving into the world of her third album, ‘Little Oblivions’, it’s easy to get a glimpse into the songwriter’s enigmatic character. She’s enthused and infectiously passionate, and as her music takes a more experimental turn, those traits encompass her sound. It’s pure magic.

Starting her musical journey in some heavier bands, Julien’s departure to her delicate, acoustic sound seemed worlds apart. ‘Little Oblivions’ is the equilibrium.

Opening with the darkly atmospheric ‘Hardline’, it’s clear from the first seconds of the album that this is a new world. “I always try to make things overintellectualised and have a philosophical meaning, but I think sometimes it’s okay to just say, ‘I think that makes a good opener on the record because it’s jarring’,” Julien muses. “The noise at the beginning is so distorted and unexpected that I kind of liked the idea of spooking people a little bit, if the record was to come on or in a live set. It’s so different from the music I usually made, which is slow and gentle – I thought it was a good introduction to the tonal shift of the record.”

That tonal shift is explosive. Whilst her music never loses the gentility it’s beloved for, there’s an embrace of chaos and the new that is completely transformative. Having headed back to college to finish her degree, this album signifies a new chapter, a fresh start after a muchneeded circuit-break. “I had been on tour for so long, so I had spent a very long time trying to be the most excellent performer and be

BAKED GOODS Julien Baker

Obviously our Julien makes the list, otherwise we wouldn’t have given her a four-page feature in this very magazine, now would we? A songsmith of the highest order, she’s as great as a cinnamon bun.

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a better songwriter every day, and I hadn’t done a lot of work on the unobserved inner portion of my life,” Julien admits. “It felt good to go back and be engaging in conversations that just pertained to this entirely other facet of my life without having much bearing on my music or career. It was good to see myself in a new context and remember that I can return to music with the wholeness of my experience,

and use it again as something to document my life instead of this all-consuming channel where I have to put all of my ideologies and all of my passion into this one thing.”

It manifests in this refreshing take on her sound: tracks like ‘Ringside’ lean into gratifyingly euphoric percussion. Whilst her previous releases have been endowed with a comforting reverence, ‘Little Oblivions’ bids farewell to the comfort

zones that might hold you back. Instead, it hurtles full throttle into a world that’s all release. “I think it was a natural progression that I had in the back of my mind that I always wanted to happen, but maybe had unnecessary apprehensions about including percussion, and experimental synths and distortion,” Julien reflects.

“I really think playing with Lucy [Dacus] and Phoebe [Bridgers] was a catalyst to

shitting those apprehensions – recognising that the limitations of what people will allow and respond positively to in music is wider than I thought it was. And it’s completely inconsequential if I’m not happy with the music I’m making. Genuineness seems to be the ruling quality of the music I like, not stylistic similarity. I had always wanted to move in that direction – there’s a couple of singles and B-sides

The best 5 bakers, in no particular order

Cheryl Baker.

You probably don’t know who Cheryl Baker is, do you Dear Reader? Ask your parents.

Cheryl was part of Bucks Fizz, who won Eurovision for the UK, and had a morning cooking show Eggs & Baker.

In on that pun alone.

Matt Baker

Honestly, we’re just struggling to remember famous people called Baker at this point - but Matt was on The One Show and did Blue Peter, so he’s at the very least flexible. Also good with a dog.

Greggs The Bakers

Bakery heaven, Greggs is a utopia of sweet treats and perfect pastries.

Who amongst us can say we’ve never stopped in for a cheeky sausage roll - vegan or otherwise - or a custard doughnut? Not us.

Anyone but Paul Hollywood

Don’t trust him. Look at that goatee beard. The stench of a man who owns too much leather. Those handshakes - who knows what you’re agreeing to.

Nope. Bring back Mary.

JULIEN BAKER

where there’s percussion, but I had never just gone for it, and it feels good.”

The embrace of ambition and abandonment of doubt is infectious: the album still has its tender moments, but they’re liberating. Her boygenius bandmates lend their vocals to ‘Favor’, and it’s completely enchanting – the driving percussion propels its self-examination to a new level. Julien has a knack for plunging to the root of an experience and dissecting it bit by bit, and the frantic questioning on ‘Favor’ is a perfect example. The honesty and earnestness this brings is precisely where the freeing nature of the album lies. “I try to be as honest as I can because I don’t have a skill for writing in character like many other artists do, so I just try to distil the actuality of whatever it is I am feeling or experiencing down into

a song, honestly to help me figure out what I feel about what is happening or what has happened. There are times on the record where I would text my friends who are songwriters and be like ‘this line is kind of cringey, I would cringe if I heard this line I don’t know if I should put that in there’. One of my friends, Nick Carpenter, he’s a songwriter, and he said: ‘the lines you’re afraid to put in there, you should probably leave most of all.’ Maybe those are the times where you’re hitting on something especially vulnerable, or a thought that’s particularly repulsive or disgusting to you – that is the meaty part of human emotion. It really requires the attention and the sifting through.”

The baring of the soul lyrically can, of course, be daunting, but on ‘Little Oblivions’, it offers a source of comfort and reassurance. There’s a relatability stemming from her earnestness, and an encouragement to embrace yourself in the full flux of your flaws. “These are literal things that happened to me, and I don’t know how people are going to feel about them. I had a lot of fear about releasing this record just because some of the things were so painful, and they were admissions about my own self-destructive behaviour, or negative qualities of mine, or painful things that I felt so much shame around. I was conflicted that I was projecting that onto a prospective audience.” Julien considers this. “Maybe now that I have a put a couple of songs out into the world, it seems more like I was trying to make a record that was an advertisement for me being the shittiest person alive, and it was just me admitting a lot of common, normal things.

It was encouraging, and also freeing.”

To own who you are, both good and bad is easily shied away from. One listen to ‘Little Oblivions’, however, and you’re ready to walk into the fire. There’s a steady solidarity to the open-armed acceptance of the raw brutality of who we are embedded in the album and it’s mesmerising. Honing in on deeply personal, niche moments in time to craft her vivid stories, its sincerity stirs something in each listen regardless of how close to your own experiences the lyrics are. Every emotion is distilled into her words and soft vocals – even when she

writes on her touring life, something which few can relate to, it’s evocative. “I was in Cologne, Germany, playing this show, and thinking: is there a limit to how therapeutic it is to re-tread the same traumatic memories every day if I don’t have control over the emotions that I’m feeling connected to them onstage? On one hand, I want to revisit that place and have a genuine sense of ‘this is important to me, this is what I still feel and this is the music I’m passionate about and the words I’m passionate about still saying.’”

‘Repeat’ details this conflict amidst mystifying rise of distortion. It’s fervently chaotic and enveloping. “That song is about kind of having a self-fulfilling prophecy – if I make a career out of saying all these painful things and digging into hurtful memories day after day in order to try and apply some sort of symbolic meaning to them for myself or for an audience, does that not end up manifesting all my fears. I was like, man, I sing about painful things and end up bringing pain to myself by meditating on it so much.” The track’s slow fade into total distortion leaves you to contemplate that cycle.

“I had a lot of fear about releasing this record, some of the things were so painful” Julien Baker In the same way that many people turn to music to reflect their own feelings and situations, the making of it for Julien can be as therapeutic. As a songwriter, crafting those narratives contributes to the freedom of it. “At this very tumultuous time in my life, where pretty much every detail about my personal life, my career, my emotional life – everything about it was being uprooted and changed, and these are the songs that I wrote to try and organise my feelings.

This is the channel that I processed all those emotions through.” Julien pauses, contemplating the album’s trajectory. “For me, all of

the songs are associated with these hyper-specific moments in time – like, that’s when this fucked up thing happened, that’s when this other fucked up thing happened. I don’t want the record to be just a litany of scars and stories and ‘look how crazy my life is!’.

It’s more just an admission that alright, these things transpired, and I don’t know what to do with the aftermath of them now.”

Acceptance and admission carry the album throughout.

Sometimes, life isn’t great, but that’s okay – each track is a soothing balm to get you through the not-so-great times. From the animated, exalted moments prompting you to let loose to the more stripped-back moments of pensive quiet, it feels like a journey that you’re with Julien on every step of the way. ‘Song in E’ is especially entrancing: with Julien’s vocals at her most rousing, the lowkey piano-led track is easy to wrap yourself up in. “That was the first song that I wrote in a very long time after ‘Turn Out The Lights’ that I was proud, really authentically proud of. it was one of the very first songs I wrote for the record, and that understanding of resenting kindness from a really hurt place kind of is a good jumping off point for understanding the point of view of the speaker in the rest of the songs,” Julien explains.

Shrouded in warmth and affection, it’s an album that assures it will be there for you, through its every high and low. Culminating in the hazily mystical ‘Ziptie’, it’s as

though the album breathes one last sigh of relief. There’s a lot to contend with over the course of the album, so by its completion you feel like you’ve been on a bit of an emotional rollercoaster. “I hope that people see a hyperidealistic person who failed a lot and failed themselves a lot – I failed myself so much over the course of making that record that it made me more patient with myself. Also, it made me infinitely more patient with other people. I hope that people see it as a narrative of what it feels like to be truly self-deprecating and how counter-productive it can be when the hurt part of yourself is demanding and begging you to have some kind of mercy, that ultimately you and your psyche are in control of bestowing. I hope people are more patient with themselves, and after they’re more patient with themselves they’re more patient with other people,” Julien ruminates with the same careful thoughtfulness that makes her lyrics so enamouring. “This was written completely separate from the experience of the pandemic – everything was mastered and finished.

Now I feel like maybe in a backwards way, it’s falling on a more fertile environment for self-forgiveness and having patience with yourself.” If you’re looking for your musical equivalent of a cosy hug and a gentle nudge towards acceptance, look no further. ‘Little Oblivions’ has got you covered. P Julien Baker’s album ‘Little Oblivions’ is out 26th February. readdork.com 45.

24KGOLDN

With the runaway success of ‘Mood’, as he gears up for a debut album later this year, you could say 24kGoldn has a certain touch.

24K

MAGIC

By: Steven Loftin.

46. DORK

24KGOLDN

“I’M TRYING TO CREATE A WORLD FOR MY FANS TO LIVE IN, AND INTERACT WITH” 24kGoldn

W

hen 24kGoldn - real name Golden Landis Von Jones - swept his way to the top of the charts with ‘Mood’, reaching dizzying billions across streaming services, there’s no way he could have seen it coming. But that’s not to say the idea of being one of the biggest artists in the world hasn’t been there from the word go.

Right now, he’s a busy bee. Understandably, given that with success comes the avalanche of opportunity that can feel a bit blink ‘n’ you’ll miss it. Finally pinning Golden down, the Californian is sitting in a coffee shop after a “cup of tea”, he says with a cheeky put-on British accent.

When he quit college and moved to LA to truly become 24kGoldn, the plan was “to be the biggest artist in the world!” he explains. “I didn’t know how - I didn’t know what to do; how to get there but I knew if I just keep doing what I’m doing, I think it’s gonna work out.”

As with most things, “by meeting the right people, learning the right things and being open to new experiences,” it did happen. “Technically you know when it was Number 1 on the Spotify global and everything, I was the biggest artist in the world for a little bit!”

But as happens with most who travel to the top of the highest mountain - how do you deal with conquering the reasonably unconquerable?

“That’s the most important thing to me; I realised once I got all these accolades… it didn’t make me fully happy,” he ponders.

“Like, alright, we got to Number 1, and we got all these plays, but what was more special to me was this song hit a chord with a lot of people - my goal wasn’t to make the number one song.

My goal was to make a real impact.”

When they say there’s no

rest for the wicked, the same goes for the virtuous. With his debut album proper, ‘El Dorado’, in the works, Golden is ready to take the 24k world to the next level.

“Historically, mythologically El Dorado is recognised as the lost city of gold, right?” His excitement at the explanation is palpable. “It also means the Golden One, and that was my nickname by my mom and her co-workers, you know, as a kid. Because my name is Golden - I’m the Golden One!” Hard to dispute given the success that seems to continually appear from wherever his name appears; there’s ‘Mood’ (featuring iann dior), his feature on Clean Bandit’s ‘Tick Tock’ along with Mabel, and most recent single, ‘Coco’ (featuring Da Baby) - all turning Golden into the goose that lays… well, you know the rest.

“IF ANYBODY TELLS YOU THAT MAKING AN ALBUM IS EASY, THEY’RE A FUCKING LIAR” 24kgoldn But, trying to get the world of ‘El Dorado’ out of the mythological and into the musical, especially with the world watching, is no easy feat.

“If anybody tells you that making an album is easy, they’re a fucking liar location switch up!” He says amidst laughter. Sweeping out of the coffee shop, he jumps into a cab.

“Especially for the first

one,” he continues as buildings blur past. “At least if they’re making a good album, because it’s not hard to put ten songs together and then release it, but I’m not trying to put ten songs together. I’m trying to create a world for my fans to live in, and interact with. And I think that [with] this album you really feel that you feel like you’re stepping into another world.”

In constructing the world of El Dorado, or at least to understand where Golden wants to go with it, you have to take a look at what he achieved on his debut EP, ‘Dropped Out Of College’. An interlacing collage of genres, including another of his smash hits, ‘City of Angels’, with its slacker-guitar riff and dosing of imagery of heaven, hell and the LA in-between.

“I would say my first project was an experiment of sorts. You know, it was figuring out. Can I make a rock song? Can I make a trap song? Can I make an emo-rap song? Can I make a pop song? And the answer is, yes!” He bursts out into a laugh.

“But now that I’ve done all those different genres I don’t want to just make different genre music, I want to make something that’s cohesive.

This is my album - my debut album - so I want it to be a blend of all the different things I learned while making those other types of music.

It’s got a unique sound to it that you’re not going to be able to hear anywhere else.”

Golden’s pop bangers are perfectly suited for an escapist world; they’re coated in the truth of his voice while never take things too seriously; there’s always a beat to latch onto, or a hook to sing continuously for days on end. However, Golden wants to be a part of that escapism for his fans, hence the construction of his new world in ‘El Dorado’.

“The internet has been a gateway for me to connect with my fans on a more personal level than ever

before,” he says. “Like, no other time in history has any artist been able to press a button on their phone, and instantly connect with thousands of their fans in live time and have their fans watch them give a review of a chicken sandwich!”

Sarnies aside, he knows that it’s important especially in these crazy days - because “it allows people to remove themselves from whatever situation they’re in temporarily and just vibe with me. My good energy rubs off on them because it’s contagious! Even through the computer screen.”

But how far does this energy go when you’ve achieved one of your career aspirations at such an early point - and young age to boot?

“It was bittersweet,” he sighs. “It’s like, if I had worked for ten years and got it, that’s one thing, but literally like I did it so early on in my career, and so young. I’m like, fuck, what do I do now?!”

A very good question that we have to wait for an answer for as he’s just hopped into the elevator in his hotel.

A couple of minutes later, glitching back to form, the answer turns out to be giving back - as well as making the “best music [he] can possibly make”. Obviously.

“I want to inspire the world with fashion too because that’s something that I’m really passionate about,” he continues, “and just give back in a more literal sense. It’s one thing knowing you could do something, but actually doing it? I know that I would not be in this position, if it wasn’t for scholarships, if it wasn’t for, you know, my mom’s union paying for me to have daycare as a kid so that my parents can work to put food on the table.

“If it wasn’t for these free after school programmes I could have had a very different life path. I know how big of an impact something like that can make, so I just want to keep feeding into

that and pay it forward for the next generation.”

It’s not hard to see Golden as someone with a deep sense of humility. He’s barely turned 20 and had one of the biggest songs of the last year, continually racking up plays like a broken Tesco meat-counter ticket machine; and he’s still ready to give back.

“You can blame my mom for that because she is the sweetest woman ever,” he earnestly smiles. “She’s literally a saint. I have no idea how she does it, but that’s like sank into me since I was a little kid, so I’m always looking at the glass is half full. I give a lot of credit to my parents, they’re probably top five best parents of all time!”

He’s also someone with innate confidence - which surely being given the name Golden was in itself a sign of things to come. Thinking back to a visit from one of his old high school pals, the serendipity of it all sitting with him even now he recalls: “He came and visited me back when I moved to LA, a couple of years after stuff had already gone well, and I asked him, ‘Yo, how did I change since high school?’ and he said, ‘Honestly, bro, you didn’t really change that much. You were all this always this confident, and nobody knew why, but now, I guess it kind of makes sense’.”

Undoubtedly whatever the future holds for 24kGoldn, it all seems to have been written for him already. He’s the one with the golden touch, and in his own way, he sees it as written in the stars.

“I’m a big believer in alignment, and you know, manifesting and faith and making this happen because I have so many blessings in my life,” he says with more humility. “I would be very ungrateful if I was just like ‘Yeah that was on me.’ It’s never all you.” P 24kGoldn’s debut album ‘El Dorado’ is due later this year. readdork.com 47.

CLAUD

Super Monster With an ear for pop magic, Claud’s debut album is already one of the best of the year.

By: Martyn Young. Photography: Jeremy Reynoso.

48. DORK

CLAUD

readdork.com 49.

CLAUD

W

hen indiepop star Claud was a child, they had a love of turtles. They had two turtles, in fact - Samuel and Jake. While Claud thought that their two little turtles were young and vibrant, the reality turned out to be a little different, as they explain. “I took them to the vet years later, and they were 70-yearold women! I had no idea.

They were so old.” In a way Claud’s experience with their turtles explains how reality can be quite different from perception and the feeling of forging your own path despite people’s perceptions has been a key part of Claud’s life. How has the turtle experience influenced Claud’s songs? “Oh, everything is about them,” they laugh.

2020 was obviously a difficult year for everyone, and while they might have been expecting to be gearing up to the release of their debut album by crisscrossing the world playing shows and meeting different people, instead Claud is at home in a cramped small house with her mum in California conducting interviews outside while the birds sing and flutter punctuated by the odd passing monster truck shattering the blissful calm.

As we approach the release of ‘Super Monster’ though Claud is gearing up to release their defining statement after years paying their musical dues and navigating their way through a formative musical journey. It’s an odd time of excitement and trepidation.

“It’s hard to tell if people are listening from where I’m sitting in my house,” they explain. “I guess I was being played on NPR radio quite a bit and my mum was reached out to a bazillion times by her friends because that’s who listens to NPR the most. That felt really surreal because now I was like ‘Wow! Now my mum really believes me!’”

Claud had already been making music for a number of years from their project with childhood friend Josh under the name Toast to various other musical excursions. Even now as a star in their own right Claud is part of another musical collective, Shelly, the band they formed with Clairo.

Everything previously though has led up to the coming of age expressionism of ‘Super Monster’.

“From the two projects I’ve had, and also now with Shelley, I’ve managed to stay within the same genre and realm,” says Claud before explaining their issues with the musical term

50. DORK

most people have attached to their music. “People always call me bedroom pop, but I don’t really understand that. That was a subculture that Reddit probably made up. I never related to that title. I used to think of myself as more indie rock, but I really have a pop writing style. I prefer guitars and the instrumentation of rock music, but it’s fluid for me.”

“People always call me bedroom pop, but I don’t really understand that” Claud Working within an indierock framework but with the creative impulse to take on all manner of different musical flights of fancy, there’s an awful lot to pack into Claud’s tender, witty and super melodic songs. The impulse to make idiosyncratic indie rock was nurtured at an early age for Claud. “In the US there’s this thing called School of Rock which is an after school music programme,” they reminisce.

“I took a trial keyboard lesson.

The teacher said, ‘Your voice with the way you talk and hum along sounds a bit like Feist.

Do you like Feist?’ I was 11, so I said I’ve never heard Feist before. He taught me a Feist song on the keyboard, and I thought I really want to write songs like this. I really want to make music like this. That led me down the rabbit hole of indie rock. I forced myself to write songs on a little plastic keyboard.”

Soon Claud’s tattered pink notebook was bulging with songs, and they were well on their way to following the path that would define their life.

The process was beautifully simple. “The best songs that I write come out of me really quickly. If I can’t seem to figure a song out after sitting with it for a while, I get really sick of it.

I usually tend to lean towards the songs that come out like vomit.”

The 13 songs collected on ‘Super Monster’ highlight just how effective Claud’s instinctive approach is. “The album feels like a collage of the past few years of my life,” they said. “My childhood and upbringing influence my art.

I feel like I talked a lot more about the whirlwind of the past few years. Leaving my parents house and turning into a young adult and navigating that.

Every time I share a song and people relate to it I’m like wow, I feel like the only person in the world sometimes but other people get it too and are going through the same thing.”

The importance of being super honest and vulnerable while actually talking and writing like a relatable human being is key to Claud’s work. Their songs are never shrouded in mystery or metaphor or wilfully obscure references. Instead, they are direct and crushingly powerful emotional gut punches or doubled over in laughter expressions of joy and humour.

Sometimes both within the same song. “I like to emphasise really normal stuff, “ states Claud. “There’s a song on the record called ‘Pepsi’, and there’s literally bubble sounds and a can opening. The lyric is “If I’m Pepsi you’re Coke’.

We’re not the same, but people compare us all the time. I find it more interesting to write about too real stuff rather than stuff that’s more obscure.

It’s really important to me, to be honest, but I try not to think about it too much.

If I think about the way that people perceive me, I’ll get too in my head about it. So I just do it and try not to think about it.”

While the songs are primarily written in an instinctive burst of inspiration, the enforced shutdown of

the pandemic allowed Claud the space to finally tune and develop their musical craft to create the layered and compelling final versions. “I’ve become more of a producer,” they explain. “All I really used to know how to do was record my guitar and my vocals. I feel like I’ve reached new limits and a lot of the songs on ‘Super Monster’ came out the way they did because I got to spend so much time in my room last summer, finetuning my vocals and playing with vocoders and different keyboard sounds and that really expanded my writing.”

Despite not actually planning to release an album, slowly as the summer progressed Claud realised that they finally had a fully formed

“I like overromanticising my life; rom-coms were always my favourite thing in the world growing up” Claud

CLAUD

MONSTER MASH Cookie

When it comes to archetypal pop culture monster - while many may opt for Frankenstein’s horrific creation, Cookie Monster is all of us. After all, which of can deny we did it all for the cookie.

record in their hands. Perhaps the circumstances allowed it to truly flourish. “I realised a big part of my process is isolating myself,” they laugh.

Taking inspiration from another major part of their childhood Claud looked for ways to subvert expectations through their writing. “I like over-romanticising my life

our official ranking of the five best monsters... ever.

Mike Wazowski

With one eye and a whole heap of personality, Mike Wazowski is the everymonster icon. A blue collar, grassroots beastie, he’s smart and easy to identify with. A true working class hero.

sometimes,” they said. “Romcoms were always my favourite thing in the world growing up. I was always like, none of these people are me. I don’t relate to any of these characters. When I realised that my life was so customisable and it didn’t need to look like a rom-com, then I leaned into that.”

Comedy also plays a

Munch

Pickled onion Monster Much. Do we need to say more? Little packets of heaven. While others may contain more scares, they’re nowhere near as tasty. Impossible to beat.

subtle but striking role in Claud’s music. “I have a really dry humour,” they laugh.”

Sometimes I’ll write a joke in a song and send it to a friend, and he’ll be like wow that line is really honest, are you ok? And I’ll be like, no I was joking! And he thought it was this beautifully honest lyric. People always interpret

Energy Drink

Try going to the bar (remember them?), ordering a double vodka Red Bull, and being presented with a Monster instead. Good luck getting to sleep later, Champ. A truly terrifying thought.

my lyrics differently from what I intended. I would never tell anybody that their interpretation of my lyrics is wrong, though.”

The beauty of Claud and their music is how many people resonate with it and respond in a heartfelt and inspiring way.

They tell the story of how a fan was lovingly recreating their

THE TEXTBOOK DORK ANIMAL QUESTION Yes, we are going to keep asking pop stars what animals they’d have in their dream band. This is serious journalism, people!

We’ve already established Claud’s love of animals but which animals would they have in their animal band?

“I would be a miniature poodle with big poofy ears and sing and play a little bit of guitar,” begins Claud. “My bass player Josh would be a giraffe as he has a really long and beautiful neck.

On Halloween last year when we opened for The Neighbourhood in Florida I dressed as a monkey, my keyboard player was a penguin and my drummer was a banana so my keyboard player would be a penguin again and even though a banana is not an animal, I’m sticking to that answer.” You’re right Claud a banana is not an animal, but it’s our magazine and our rules, so we’re accepting it.

Loch Ness

Some say Nessie doesn’t exist, but there’s some compelling documentary footage from the mid-80s that suggests, actually, there’s a whole family of them hiding away north of the border.

song ‘Soft Spot’ through finger painting as well as the inspiring responses they have received from people who recognise something of themselves in Claud. “My friend sent me a screenshot where one of her mutual friends had messaged her about my music,” they explain about a recent message. “It was a mum talking about her 8-year-old and how her 8-year-old is non-binary and has dyed hair like me and loves to watch my music videos and listen to my music because they see themselves in me. First of all, I was like, that’s amazing, parent of the year award, and that makes me so happy. I love having all-ages shows because there really are young people out there who know they’re non-binary and need to see that validation.

They have a long life ahead of them and need to know that they’re not this weird person and not completely alone.”

Someone else who felt a kinship with Claud was Phoebe Bridgers, and Claud’s debut album is being released through Phoebe’s Saddest Factory record label.

The importance of signing with someone who truly understands and empathised with what it’s like making music in the modern age was a key factor in Claud signing to Phoebe’s label. “She started her label a couple of years ago and reached out to me a year and a half ago. I guess she heard my music somehow and really loved it and resonated with it,” says Claud. “We had so many meetings and conversations about how the label would work, and it came together really nicely.”

Claud has always had a relentless work ethic and as well as their own album is planning on work with Shelly and even has ideas to expand into visuals. “I’ve always wanted to write a TV show,” they say excitedly. “A dramedy.

Most likely it would be set in a town like I grew up in or a city I’ve been in like New York,” Whatever they come up with there’s lots more to come from Claud who is now firmly established as a compelling songwriter and artist distinctly in their own image. P Claud’s album ‘Super Monster’ is out now. readdork.com 51.

SG LEWIS

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SG LEWIS

Times Like These SG Lewis just wants to get back to ‘the club’. Thankfully, he’s made an album to take us back there.

By: Alex Cabré. Photography: Harvey Pearson.

“I

would cut my left arm off right now to hear some music I hate and pay 14 quid for a drink. I’d take anything.

Sticky floors, busy toilets... all that shit. I cannot wait for it all to come back.”

As he reminisces on life before Covid, it’s clear that SG Lewis - Sam, as he introduces himself over Zoom - misses nightclubs more than most. Since discovering a love for dance music while at uni (“it felt like something I’d been missing my entire life”) the 26-year-old has quickly become known as a multi-threat talent: songwriter, instrumentalist, producer, and DJ are all fitting labels. On a string of releases over the past few years, he’s developed a crisp, unique style of his own, often meshing futuristic elements with a rich analogue aesthetic. It’s a style he shows off to the max on ‘times’, his forthcoming debut long-player which pays tribute to those fun nights he misses so badly. ‘times’ (stylised in lower case because, y’know, cool) is a love letter to the communal hedonism that can only be found on great nights out. He explains of its conception: “It’s about the experiences and the moments you share with people connected to music, whether that’s on a dance floor or in a live environment. I looked back at my life and the things that I care about, so many of my favourite experiences, some of my closest relationships were formed in those

environments.”

Escapism is a word Sam uses a lot when talking about ‘times’. Across its ten tracks, you can hear why, as he pays homage to the world of ‘70s disco, bringing new life to a classic sound.

“The last thing I wanted to do was to make a pastiche disco album that replicated things that I heard because it wouldn’t feel genuine or exciting to me. It was about taking the parts of those records that I loved and seeing if I could put them in a new context,” he explains, of his surprisingly studied approach. This meant taking little elements of that sound, “a string sample, the way a bass line moves, even just chord selection”, and splicing them into his own modern style.

“There’s a history of electronic artists and fulllength albums not necessarily marrying that well,” he muses. “I didn’t want to throw together ten songs just because it felt like I should be making an album. I had such a strong idea of what ‘times’ should sound like, what its references were. Once I started writing, it was like the lines were already there and I just had to fill in the colours.”

Collaboration is integral to Sam’s process. In his short career so far he’s already worked with an impressive list of names - Disclosure, AlunaGeorge, and Clairo to name a few (he calls the latter “one of the best songwriters alive”). On ‘times’, he upped the ante by securing a musician

synonymous with the disco sound he wanted to recreate.

“Nile Rodgers, yeah. I hardly even have to say it, you know. He’s the godfather of so much of this music I’m talking about.” On Sam’s slinky jam ‘One More’, the real-life guitar hero’s riffing is unmistakable. So how exactly does one get Nile Rodgers to feature on their debut album?

“If you’d asked me a couple of years ago to sing on a record, I would have told you to do one” SG Lewis “He did a week of sessions a couple years back with artists from the UK, and I was one of the lucky people who got to write with him. We got along, and he was like, ‘Let me know if you ever want to do anything in the future’. A year later I had this song ‘One More’ which had this groovy, disco-y bass line. I was like, ‘how can we elevate this record?’”

When manager Grant suggested sending it to Rodgers, Sam was reluctant

- “I was like, what? Nah. Even though I’d met him!” - but they gave it a shot and got a yes straight back. “I went down to Abbey Road Studios and played him the record.

He plugged his guitar in, hit record, and just started ripping over the top of it for probably 30 minutes. I got to just sit there and watch in awe.”

Nile isn’t the only bigname feature on ‘times’.

‘Impact’, the album’s booming, sweaty climax, gets its soaring chorus from pop superstar Robyn, the result of a successful drunk text.

“It was more like a drunk email,” he corrects, casually rattling off the story of how a bunked-off session with US rapper Channel Tres came to give the record one of its crowning moments, when they polished off a bottle of tequila and left the song unfinished to go out partying. Realising they still needed a chorus, Tres, who had been on tour with Robyn, suggested she might be a good fit. “If I could get anyone in the world to be on this record, it would be Robyn. I’m such a huge fan of hers and thank god, she was into it,” Sam grins.

‘Chemicals’ is another of the record’s huge moments, which Sam performed the vocal for himself. Normally more comfortable in the control room than the vocal booth, it was a challenge, but one he embraced. “If you’d asked me a couple of years ago to sing on a record, I would have told you to do one. It was really scary to me.

But it’s become my favourite thing to do because I get the most fulfilment from doing things that feel out of my comfort zone then owning them.” The reception to the track, he says, which has become one of his most streamed to date, has been “very affirming”, and signals that there may be more of his dulcet tones on future releases. “I’m in the studio at the moment singing more and more. I’ll always be a collaborator because I love sharing a moment with someone where you realise you’ve created something great, but also I’m enjoying pushing myself to be at the front of that music too.”

Looking to the future, you can bet that ‘times’ will provide the soundtrack to the sorts of blissful moments it was inspired by, when social distancing is a thing of the past. “In every fantasy in my head of post-pandemic partying I have this image of playing ‘Impact’ at those LA parties and just watching sweat rise up above the crowd,” Sam smiles, blatantly itching to get back out to those spaces which he loves so much. “I’ve been lucky enough to go to some amazing parties over the years as a punter and as a DJ. I just want to take this album around the world and throw some really great parties. I want to get some great rooms, get a load of really great people together and have a really fucking great time!” Now that’s a plan.

P SG Lewis’s debut album ‘times’ is out 19th February. readdork.com 53.

DODIE

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DODIE

back In this most darkest of timelines, dodie is back to remind us it’s okay to be grey.

By: Abigail Firth.

readdork.com 55.

DODIE

D

espite all the delicate and ethereal moments on her debut album, dodie wants you to know she is no angel. On ‘Build A Problem’, she unpacks every aspect of her life, pulling back the curtain to reveal the darker parts of her that’d previously been polished and sanitised before airing them online.

“I’m looking forward to releasing this and hopefully bringing a little more grey into everyone’s vision of me,” says dodie, “because I am a human being, I’ve said it so many times. My last record was called ‘Human’. But what does it really mean to be human?”

She’s chatting to us from her studio flat in London, a place she hasn’t actually been all year because she’s been combatting her loneliness by living with a friend down the road. “I actually still am lonely though just because the pandemic creates a lot of loneliness,” she adds. “I feel like the world all moves as one in terms of moods.”

It’s a particularly gloomy day on both ends of the call – snowing on our side and raining on hers – and coming towards the end of a very long week, where the whole UK went back into lockdown, so what better time to talk about a pretty melancholy record, ay?

We’re joking of course, dodie’s been primed and ready to get this record out for a long time. Usually used to the instant gratification of being able to craft a song and put it straight out into the world via YouTube, ‘Build A Problem’ has been ready to go since autumn last year, and she’s very ready to get it out there.

“It’s not too new now, but it still is like, almost an uncomfortable feeling to make something and be like, right, I guess I’ll hold on to this for a while. It’s tough to know when to stop adding and changing, like, I think this is it, I think I love it? I’ve not listened back to mixes like a year later and been like oh no!”

It might come as a surprise to those who’ve come to know dodie primarily as a ukulele wielding teenager that some of the tracks on ‘Build A Problem’ are these huge orchestral landscapes.

She’s dipped her toe into the cinematic style of her debut in previous releases, most prominently on 2019’s ‘Human’ EP, but also on 2016’s live version of ‘When’

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that appeared as a bonus track on otherwise pretty peppy debut EP ‘Intertwined’, and now fits perfectly on her debut album five years later. Funnily enough, it’s a track about longing and time passing you by, “I knew it was gonna be relevant, like, the literal lyric is ‘it’ll be over, and I’ll still be asking when’ like, I’ll be at the very end, and this will still relate to me. And I’m like, yep, six years later, it still does.”

‘Build A Problem’ salts the same wounds that Taylor Swift’s ‘folklore’ and Phoebe Bridgers’ ‘Punisher’ did last year. Confessional and introspective with the occasional quip for a touch of irony. It’s stripped back and rarely percussive, her vocals are feather-light and ASMR-esque most of the time, occasionally cracking into something grittier. dodie really feels everything she’s

singing, and it’s wonderfully translated.

It took her a long time to warm to the sound she’s curated today. Initially scared off by the idea of drowning her small voice in huge pop production and coming out of sessions hating what she’s made because producers have done exactly that. It wasn’t until she met producer Joe Rubel (known for working with Tom Grennan and Maisie Peters, plus this little unknown indie artist called Ed Sheeran) and started using a video editing software to splice together clips of her singing and playing different instruments that she got used to writing less acoustic tracks.

“It has been interesting to hold on to it for so long because I’ve moved on from who I was when I wrote it, as you do you. You grow. It’s strange to still be talking

about these topics and feelings even though they’re always going to be relevant to me because I wrote them and as with any lesson, you take them with you.

“For a while, I battled with what kind of an artist I was. Am I sort of an indie singer-songwriter bedroom artist who writes very small acoustic songs, or am I like this pop queen who’s trying to get on the radio, and I couldn’t pick and, and then suddenly I had the realisation I can do both. I think this album is such a great combination of that.”

She’s still very fond of the ukulele though. It appears on most tracks on ‘Build A Problem’, and she’s incredibly proud of her roots with the instrument. In her room, she’s sitting in front of a wall of ukes, we ask her to pick her favourite one, and she struggles, but plumps for a

suave black model that’s a replica of the first one she ever had, which got smashed on tour. The deluxe version of the album honours her past by including several demo tracks she’d written in lockdown.

As a person who’s put a lot of her life online, only in recent years dialling it back and shielding herself by channelling her experiences into the music instead, the album release is a huge relief, if a slightly nervous one. She mentions that all her music takes artistic licence so of course parts are exaggerated and others too vague and poetic to let listeners too far in, but it’s still very intimate.

She’d also dropped her surname when she started releasing music properly, going mononymously as dodie, which sort of feels like another layer of protection.

“I haven’t shared in so

DODIE

100%; it’s just the nature of the internet, but it gets twisted into a different vision.

See, I can try to be as myself as I can, but obviously, you have to protect yourself. It’s just a really weird dynamic, and such a weird thing to navigate and I think it’s why I’ve like strayed away for a while. The older I get, the more difficult it gets as well.”

She’s shared so much of her life, deeply personal parts of it at that, with virtual strangers since 2011, sometimes getting too real and often speaking candidly about her battle with her mental health, particularly her depersonalisation disorder that’s proven hard to manage and treat, along with discussions about her bisexuality after coming out in 2017, and familial and relationship issues.

I’m a fucking seemingly sweet angel girl doesn’t mean that I can’t write about this stuff.

I’m not an angel. It feels like I almost want to like go against that. Maybe that’s why I did it. So I could like push that boundary.”

Although she wants to challenge other peoples’ perceptions of her, it does seem like sometimes it gets a bit too uncomfortable for dodie too.

“It does get tricky when you cross topics that you’re still going through, like you’re still processing like you’re not really sure how you feel about it. There’s a song on there that called ‘Guiltless’, and it’s about a relationship I had with someone I don’t talk to anymore now. I was in a soundcheck, and I was

feeling really sad about it, like triggered by something, and I went to have a big cry.

And then I heard somebody just whistling it down the corridor, and I was like, that is so fucked up. Like, I can’t believe you were just whistling this that I wrote about this deep, deep trauma that I have.”

It’s different when it comes to fans telling her how these songs have changed their life, or helped them out of a tough situation. dodie says she knows what that’s like and sometimes it’s hard to truly express her gratitude.

“It is no small thing when someone says, I relate to this song, I relate to this feeling of something that I’m going through in my life and like, their situation is probably

incredibly complex and like, so different to mine in so many ways, but it doesn’t matter. It feels good to know that we all connected.”

She signs off our chat with the best descriptor for ‘Build A Problem’ and in a way that’s pretty damn humorous considering the record’s subject matters. We ask who the album would be dedicated to, and she says “Oh my god. For anyone who feels like their life’s a hot mess. Not because it will help. It won’t.”

Yeah, it might not help, but we all need a good cry sometimes, and on this album, dodie can definitely give you that. P dodie’s album ‘Build A Problem’ is out 5th March.

“Just because I’m a fucking seemingly sweet angel girl doesn’t mean that I can’t write about this stuff” dodie

long. I haven’t shared music in so long, I haven’t shared in videos for so long. And I’ve been so scared of the internet. I feel like people build up an image of me, like a perception of me that I am not. The amount of times that people have called me an angel and I’ve just thrown my phone away because I’m like, no! It makes you feel so guilty, like, so disgusting, like a liar,” her face scrunches up and she squirms, clearly bothered by this.

But are the dodie that appeared in vlogs for years and dodie the artist two different people? Are they both different from dodie in real life?

“I think I was always being myself. But when it’s edited and put out there, and people apply a certain… they bring their own stuff to you. It’s also easy to see that 1% of my life that I’ve shared as

Of course, lots of that plays out on ‘Build A Problem’ – the clue is in the title, taken from a track titled ‘Hate Myself’ – as she processes years’ worth of experiences. ‘Rainbow’ is an uplifting dedication to her bi-ness, while ‘Special Girl’ dissects her difficult approach to relationships.

Then there’s the middle track ‘Four Tequilas Down’, a story of an illicit affair sandwiched between two instrumentals.

“I remember, I wrote it, and my friend Sammy was like, ‘You really want to put this out? Like, are you sure?’

And I’m like, I think so? I think it’s probably the right thing to do,” she says of the track. “It’s tough, and a lot of people are like, why are you romanticising this thing? And I’m like, not romanticising it, I’m processing it! I’m putting it on display. If other media can explore like feelings that are problematic, then surely music can as well, surely I can? Just because readdork.com 57.

ALL THE NEW RELEASES YOU NEED TO KNOW (AND SOME YOU DEFINITELY DON’T)

REQUIRED LISTENING

Pale Waves Who Am I?

eeeee On album two, Pale Waves are working out who they really are.

Pale Waves only have one song.

You’ve heard that one before, right?

It’s a refrain that’s (rather unfairly) been repeated by some from the point they had more than one track to their name, carried through to their debut album and beyond. The truth is far more complex.

What Pale Waves excel in, Dear Reader, is a command of aesthetic.

Their central pairing - Heather Baron-Gracie and Ciara Doran have always had a strong sense of their own sonic identity - a unifying filter laid heavy across everything they do. It’s a strength, not a weakness, and one which elevates their second album ‘Who Am I?’ considerably.

A record that feels to be as much about the band’s self-discovery as people as it is their artistic evolution, a hard left swing into late-90s alt-pop wouldn’t have felt like the most obvious route to take, and yet it works brilliantly. While many will reach straight for comparisons to cultural touch points like Avril Lavigne, there’s a much broader, more organic heart to ‘Who Am I?’. ‘Fall To Pieces’, ‘Tomorrow’ and ‘You Don’t Own Me’ are all huge definitively Pale Waves but with a grungier, bubblegum heart. With a confessional tone but a wide open heart, the sweeping ‘Odd Ones Out’ nails the leftfield power ballad, while the closing title track pulls at the heartstrings with guile.

‘Who Am I?’ is a lot of things. It’s a pop record from the recent past, an album that looks deep within but projects strongly outwards too. But what it most certainly isn’t is a one trick pony. Pale Waves were always better than that. Stephen Ackroyd

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Here’s a bunch of 90s and 00s alt-pop gems in the vibe of ‘Who Am I?’

Avril Lavigne

I’m With You With a melodic similarity to the vocal hook of ‘Odd Ones Out’, this is probably the most striking Avril comparisons on ‘Who Am I?’. Both are brilliant.

Meredith Brooks

Bitch Confident, strident and unrelenting, ‘Bitch’ is one of the defining 90s altpop hits. Electro-acoustic verses, gigantic shouta-long choruses - what more can you ask for?

Michelle Branch

Everywhere Just alternative enough to pass in baggy jeans, ‘Everywhere’ is one of those songs that matches massive pop chops with the thinnest of grungy overtones. It’s also impossible to not love it.

Alisha’s Attic

Alisha Rules The World One of the great unappreciated 90s pop acts, Alisha’s Attic’s calling-card bop is timeless.

Hepburn

I Quit Would we be Dork if we didn’t try to make you listen to a turn of the century pop-rock four piece that played a couple of Radio 1 Roadshows and only sixteen people remember? Exactly.

Claud

Super Monster eeeee

Architects

For Those That Wish To Exist eeeef It’s hard to not feel a bit angry these days, what with ‘everything’ going on.

Luckily, Brighton five-piece Architects are ready with some energised catharsis to help us all out. Now on their ninth outing, the metallers are fully loaded with a determined snarl aimed squarely at the state of the world, and ‘For Those That Wish To Exist’ is the conduit for such mammoth messages. Cohesive, coherent and demanding of us an explanation, ‘For Those’ shall not relent until wrongs have been righted, and being this righteous never sounded so good.

Steven Loftin

EUT

Party Time eeeff EUT’s second album encompasses their rebellious pop energy: ‘Party Time’ is all about lust, sex and loneliness, creating a world full of heartache, ecstasy and going against the grain. Harnessing a raw energy, ‘Had Too Much’ feels like a hit of something stronger, while ‘Cool’ offers momentary respite, lightheartedness masking something deeper and darker. ‘When I Dive’ tries to drown out emotional words with a noisy breakdown, but EUT’s pop veneer is a Trojan horse for the frustrations and disappointments of transitioning into adulthood.

Phoebe De Angelis

Tash Sultana

Django Django

‘Terra Firma’ has a meditative quality to it; there is something quite reflective in Tash Sultana’s music. ‘Crop Circles’ shows this effortlessly as honeyed vocals melt into the smooth instrumentals to create an unwinding, relaxing melody.

Sultana builds layer upon layer in multi-dimensional jams like ‘Coma’, creating a truly hypnotic wall of sound.

Playing with a combination of soul, funk, RnB, folk, rock, and hip hop, ‘Terra Firma’ is a true mix: “Aretha Franklin meets Bon Iver meets John Mayer meets whatever,” they explain. With such depth, it’s an album that both reveals and rewards.

Phoebe De Angelis

Starting with a mammoth build of ‘Spirals’, Django Django’s fourth LP ’Glowing In The Dark’ is a tripped-out extravaganza that feels a mash-up of a live show, subversive experience and mind-melding bangers tailor-made for switching reality off. It’s the opening salvo that lingers longest in the memory, but there’s no shortage of differing sonic vignettes that make up the band’s most expansive album to date.

It’s an undeniably forwardthinking release that pays homage to musical greats like Serge Gainsbourg as it leaps out into the unknown.

Ciaran Steward

Claud’s debut album ‘Super Monster’ is a record dealing in universal themes and deep emotional connections.

There’s no mystery or illusion here, just Claud writing supremely relatable, often hilarious and always super melodic indie rock songs.

Relationships and how we spend our lives, especially our formative teen years, are central to the album’s charms. Claud’s songwriting is perceptive and sharp as they combine cutting matter of factness with playful wit, before delivering an emotional suckerpunch out of nowhere. Where songs like ‘Soft Spot’ are deftly beautiful, the album really flies with the lush, gently groovy pop of ‘Cuff Your Jeans’ and the uproarious whipsmart kiss-off of ‘That’s Mr Bitch To You.’ Claud can do it all; ‘Super Monster’ is the realisation of a long appreciated yet underrated musical talent flourishing.

Martyn Young

Katy Kirby

Mush

RECOM -MENDED RELEASES

Katy Kirby’s sweet-likehoney voice is enough reason to listen to ‘Cool Dry Place’. While she sings about memories of days gone by, the soft and tender nature of her vocal entices listeners to yearn with her about love, loss, and mint sweets. ‘Eyelids’ sets the tone with melancholy lyrics that dig deep; ‘Juniper’ takes a much more light-hearted approach, while ‘Portals’ is a unique moment of reflection. It’s a collection of beautifully Phoebe Bridgers-esque songs that on the surface are upbeat, but underneath tell deep-rooted tales of life in the modern world. Beth Lindsay

At the moment, it’s hard not to feel as though if you don’t laugh, you’ll cry. Luckily, Mush are channelling a steady stream of bizarre punk-satire with ‘Lines Redacted’. Brimming with equal counts comedy and catastrophe, they aren’t giving you a chance to get comfortable with the weird way the world has changed; they use this album as a retrospective for the last year of mayhem and to remind us that things aren’t usually this ridiculous, are they? There’s an undeniable feeling of currency that makes ‘Lines Redacted’ feel as though it belongs precisely in the here and now. Connor Fenton

Terra Firma eeeef Genesis Owusu

Smiling With No Teeth

eeeef Genesis Owusu’s long-awaited debut arrives as a daring declaration, an honest documentation of the black experience, transgressing genre every step of the way. The album is layered and carefully nuanced, filled with zany samples, raps and quips that are both as humorous as they are eloquent. Take the upbeat and feelgood experimental electronica of ‘On The Move!’ that sets the tone of the record, or the manic and poetic ‘The Other Black Dog’ that goes speeding at a million miles per hour. Easing off the accelerator, sensual laid back grooves make their mark on ‘Waitin’ On Ya’, the soulful slow jam ‘Gold Chains’ and ‘I Don’t See Colour’ the latter of which unleashes some epic spoken word moments which are the Ghanian-born, Canberra-based artist’s most impressive and commendable aspects of his artistry. Though the album itself could have been cut down to at least half its size, Genesis Owusu’s first full-length is a triumphant beast.

Jasleen Dhindsa

Cool Dry Place eeeef

Glowing In The Dark eeeef

Lines Redacted eeeef

MAKE SURE YOU CHECK OUT THESE ALBUMS.

Shame

Drunk Tank Pink

Packed with energy, snark and absolute bangers, it goes above and beyond what their debut managed.

Goat Girl

On All Fours

An evolution to celebrate, they’re well on their way to being the greatest their name suggests.

Arlo Parks

Collapsed In Sunbeams

A sublime body of work from the kind of artist who is meticulous in all aspect of her craft.

Julien Baker

Little Oblivions eeeef Sonically, ‘Little Oblivions’ is more expansive than debut ‘Turn Out the Lights’; consciously layered with synth, banjos, mandolin and drums to avoid any familiarity with the stark, vulnerable sound of Julien Baker’s previous work.

The hardest-hitting moments of deep selfreflection are sometimes cushioned by the extra commotion. But, when joined by her boygenius compatriots on ‘Favour’ and in the closer ‘Ziptie’, the colour added to the tracks has moments of magic. It’s a bold step forward, and also a reminder that sometimes, less is more. Alex Bradley

Woom

Into The Rest EP eeeff A four-piece concept-choir that includes members of Babeheaven, Jerkcurb, Arlo Day, Hester and Thidius, WOOM’s indie folklore debut ‘Into The Rest’ is an EP like no other.

A perfect composition of original material alongside reworked covers, it’s almost as if these songs knew they had new lives that needed to be lived.

From Outkast’s ‘Prototype’ to Angel Olsen’s ‘Unfucktheworld’; it’s hard to know what’s more impressive, the seamless meshing of their vocals or the fact they recorded the entire EP in just one take, capturing their unique live power. Phoebe De Angelis

readdork.com 59.

ARTIST’S GUIDE

Blu DeTiger How Did We Get Here? EP Blu tells us what’s what.

FIGURE IT OUT This song just poured out. The first verse and chorus were written in about 20 minutes. It was one of those songs that I didn’t even realise what I was writing about until it was finished. I always believed in this song, but didn’t expect it to resonate with so many people in the way that it did. There was a poetic timing with its release.

I didn’t plan it to be like this, but it ended up coming out at the very start of the pandemic when I, along with so many, suddenly had a lot to figure out. It went viral, became my first song on the radio, etc. I’m really so grateful. It’s a song about “figuring it out”, and that’s exactly what it ended up forcing me to do. It put me on the right path and opened up a bunch of new doors for me. It also begins to answer the question of the EP: ‘How Did We Get Here?’ You figure it out.

VINTAGE The bass creates the movement on all the songs on the EP; this track in particular bounces from the start with only bass and drums. It’s bumping for real.

This song was loosely inspired by a person I was seeing, and some of the characters I’ve run into in NYC. I’ve always thought of myself as a “vintage girl” because I take so much influence from the past. I listen to a lot of disco, 70s funk; I’ve DJ’d house, techno classics, and every pop hit from the 50s until the present day; and I’ve also practised every jazz standard in The Real Book. I want someone to match my vibe and

60. DORK

Blu DeTiger

How Did We Get Here? EP

eeeee A seamless debut.

Blu DeTiger might be infamous as ‘that bassist from TikTok’, but she’s been an integral part of the NY scene for years – to the point where she was able to bag a DJ spot at the infamous CBGB before she was really old enough to get in. It’s no surprise that Blu’s debut EP is a series of vignettes that transport the listener to a Manhattan skyline at sunset. Permeated with that unexplainable sense of vogue that seems as easy as breathing, she transmutes 70s

funk and retro-pop into 21st century bangers that brush upon modern icons such as Nile Rodgers and Robyn as she explores the multitudes of longing (‘Toast With The Butter’), the messiness of being in the feels (‘Cotton Candy Lemonade’), and unexpected fun in the city (‘Night Shade’).

‘How Did We Get Here?’ is a seamless debut that will open doors for an artist who turns heads wherever she goes.

Tyler Damara Kelly

aesthetic, and in the basic sense of the song, I want a “vintage boy” to accompany my sick outfit. Lyrically I really go in on what a “vintage boy” type would be. I’m making fun of him, but at the same time, I’m admitting that I’m kind of into it. It also twists the traditional gender roles to be that I am the one who wants the guy

to be MY arm candy (rather than the other way around). I think it’s empowering.

TOAST WITH THE BUTTER I wrote and produced this song with my brother, Rex, in the early quarantine days. The drum and percussion layers groove hard, and the drum fill almost

comes out of nowhere (it goes from 8th notes to triplets). The bassline drives the music and gives the song motion.

After the chorus, there’s actually a tempo change where I do a bass lick and a bass harmony. When I was working on this song, I was in such a flow.

All the weird moments and quirks in the song came to me in a sort of “aha” moment where I was like “oh I’m hearing a tempo change right now let’s try it.” I have a lot of character in my voice on this song, especially the first line of the verse “Yeah, I’m freaking out.”

When I went to track this song, I wanted to up the stakes a little and add more drama and lust to the performance.

You can even hear shortened breaths in the vocal takes. It’s a cheeky subject with innuendo and me singing unashamedly about how much I want this person.

DISCO BANGER BUT YOU’RE CRYING IN THE BATHROOM During quarantine, I sometimes found myself in the “sad disco” headspace. I was listening to “Love Come Down” by Evelyn “Champagne” King, a song I would often spin in my DJ sets. I was remembering how amazing dancing feels and how much I missed the dance floor, so the refrain became “I miss that feeling...” and then “ooh ahhh... where do u wanna go?” I wrote and produced this one just myself and my brother as well, and we turned it into something about this moment of transition — and you’ll notice it acts as an interlude/transition point on the EP. It’s cinematic and meant to take the listener through the moments of hearing

the song throughout the club, then behind the walls of the bathroom, and finally back to another room. The title says it all…

NIGHT SHADE Rex and I had a musical idea going and played it over facetime to my good friend Chi. We were reminiscing and immediately started coming up with melodies and lyrics to match the way we were feeling thinking about how the summertime used to be... and imagining going to a random rooftop party/ hangout on Canal Street in Chinatown. The song takes you through a night in New York — floating around, meeting new people, flirting, dancing, and then maybe dissing the person you were low-key vibing with to dance with yourself and your friends. The title ‘Night Shade’ is a double meaning. It’s a type of plant that can grow in the shadows, and that’s kind of what a night out is like where you can come alive and even blossom. It’s also about perhaps having to throw a little shade to the person who you thought was cool at first… There’s a mishmash of musical influence in this track: bongos, funky bass, tight 16th note hi-hats, hip hop off-beat “hey” chants, Nile Rogers style guitar groove, etc. and I’m utilising the higher register of voice in a slightly different way than the other songs.

The vocals have a lot of layers and “moments” — adding punches of character to the story and song in general.

COTTON CANDY LEMONADE More so than the others, this was a song that directly came out

of my emotions and feelings caused by the quarantine. I was staying up till sunrise every night, working on music and reminiscing about a different time. I was feeling that I wanted to get lost - lost with a special person or caught in a feeling or lost outside in a new place. I love how the word “lost” can be both positive and negative: “I wanna get lost with you / cause right now I’m lost without you too” (meaning I want to get lost in a good way, because right now I’m lost in the bad way). The production and arrangement makes me feel like I’m getting transported to a different place by the end of this song.

KINDA MISS YOU I was about to leave for a trip to Paris when I wrote this song. I was fantasising and hoping I would meet a cute Parisian on the trip and have a romantic fling abroad (who doesn’t?).

I had this phrase “one week wonder” written down in my phone for a few weeks, and I kept coming back to it. I thought it was a cool way to talk about “a short and hot fling” - someone who you were into for a week but you two could only exist in that time. The song poured out from that original concept. It’s a 4 on the 4 groove which makes it feel upbeat and housey, but it also has a lot of sadness to it. Sometimes you really do miss those people, wish you saved their number, and think to yourself: what could have been? Then you find yourself searching through Instagram usernames and going blind trying to make out if it’s them in the mini private profile pic. P

Weezer

Tom Grennan

There should be some standard boiler plate copy music scribblers can just copy and paste to the start of every review of a new Weezer album. Blah blah early albums great blah blah all went a bit downhill blah blah ‘Raditude’ blah blah who knows what we’re getting now. Writes itself.

But while Weezer’s discography was at one point a downward curve, over recent years it’s introduced a far more distressing element. Hope.

2016’s’ ‘White Album’ may not have been their very best, but it certainly came out on the side of ‘good’.

The same is true of ‘OK Human’, too. Far from perfect, it’s packed to the brim with Rivers Cuomo’s innate warmth and heart.

Sometimes dumb, often goofy, it’s not ‘Pinkerton’, but it’s more than enough to crack a smile to.

Stephen Ackroyd

The second album from Tom Grennan is a powerful plea for honesty. A deeply reflective and personal body of work, it’s a therapeutic outlet. Named after the East London address Tom shared with

OK Human eeeff

Evering Road eeeff

his then-girlfriend, ‘Evering Road’ relives their love and plays out the heartbreak for a shot at redemption.

Grennan’s vocal radiates raw emotion in its gravelly tones and soulful depth which climax in opening track ‘If Only’, operating as a war-cry in its strength and intensity: “You can’t break me, I’ve got my freedom / Found my roots, and I dig them deeper.”

Inspired by self-betterment, it is no surprise that the album is Gospel-tinged throughout, stylistically

encapsulating both the emotional and uplifting. In his awakening, Grennan takes us to church with ‘Amen’, but in his own way. Speaking about lost religion, Grennan says: “I’m not a religious man, but we all believe and find our release in something! Be it family, friendship, freedom, football.” He hopes that showing his scars will help others who have endured similar emotional hardships, and there’s little more relatable than redemption.

Phoebe De Angelis

Abbie Ozard Let’s Play Pretend EP eeeee

There’s something about Abbie. Seriously.

One of those EPs that runs front to back with genuine five star bops, ‘Let’s Play Pretend’ doesn’t have to resort to the realm of fantasy to reach for the stars.

Based around the idea of romanticising your own life, in truth, many of Ozard’s missives sound far more like speaking

into truth. Take standout ‘TV Kween’. By her own explanation, it’s a song about “pretending I’m this main character that I’m completely not” - yet it’s delivered with such vibrant, scene-stealing brilliance, how could she be anything but?

‘True Romance’ fizzes with the bright primary colours of 90s alt-pop, while ‘Breakdowns’ shows that innate ear for a bop works just as well when turned inwards.

Whatever world she’s living in, Abbie Ozard is a star. Stephen Ackroyd

Maximo Park

dodie

SG Lewis

Maxïmo Park have changed considerably since breaking through with ‘A Certain Trigger’ way, way back in 2005.

Their first release without original keyboardist Lukas Wooller, on seventh outing ‘Nature Always Wins’ there’s an increased reliance on Duncan Lloyd’s guitar for riffs. Opening track ‘Partly Of My Making’ sounds produced for The Enemy’s ‘Music For The People’, but ‘Versions Of You’ is straight out of the traditional Maxïmo Park playbook and from here on through to the sprawling closer ‘Children Of The Flatlands’ it’s pretty clear these songs couldn’t have been made by anyone else.

This is exactly what diehard fans will have hoped for, stacked with catchy art-pop singles and far too close to home dystopian visions. Ciaran Steward

With two Top 10s under her belt as well as many sold-out shows, it’s hard to believe ‘Build a Problem’ is dodie’s debut. Showcasing an exceptional writing style, delivered through her haunting vocal ability, the album’s intimacy is like a series of diary entries. Her lyricism’s brutal honesty addresses everyone’s shared fears, and that gut-wrenching feeling of speaking the unspeakable makes dodie relatable on a universal scale. It speaks to overthinking and creating problems where there might not be any. Still, she reassures listeners to not apologise for being themselves - and to learn from mistakes. Seeking to lighten the burdens of everyday life, dodie’s affecting style across ‘Build A Problem’ is a salve to soothe widespread worries.

Phoebe De Angelis

There’s always one specific moment at a festival when everything seems inexplicably magical. The sun is setting, distant beats are felt underfoot, and everybody is descending into total merriment. On SG Lewis’ debut album, he’s somehow managed to successfully bottle that up. Every moment is slick and visionary, and each track is similarly hypnotic.

The pure exhilaration is a testament to Lewis’ immense production skills. There’s something intensely feel-good about ‘times’ – its unspoken encouragement to throw caution to the wind and embrace pure joy is irresistible. There’s an unshakeable sense that SG Lewis is grabbing your hand and dragging you straight to the centre of the dancefloor – leave your inhibitions at the door.

Neive McCarthy

Nature Always Wins eeeff

Build a Problem eeeef

Zara Larsson Poster Girl

eeeee Pop perfection.

Pop will prevail. That’s the mantra that runs through Zara Larsson’s much anticipated second fulllength. After the wild success of her 2017 debut ‘So Good’ - still apparently the second most streamed album by a female solo artist on Spotify, dontcha know - ‘Poster Girl’ isn’t letting up in the slightest. This is strictly a ‘no ballads allowed’ zone.

By going for front to back bangers, Larsson is playing to her strengths. With that Swedish high-def pop heritage, every song could be a chart smash. In context, they complement too. Previous single ‘Ruin My Life’ remains an

earworm of the highest order, while opener ‘Love Me Land’ is achingly cool. Some of the newbies are total scene stealers, though - none less so than the brilliant ‘FFF’ (that’s Falling For a Friend, ‘FYI’). A massive pop banger with a sky high chorus and an instrumental break that sounds like it could perfectly soundtrack that dancefloor scene in The Inbetweeners movie, it’s ridiculous fun. In embracing music’s most rewarding artform, Zara Larsson has yet again affirmed her place on the brightest of billboards.

Pass the blu-tack. Stephen Ackroyd

times eeeef

readdork.com 61.

Ashnikko

Isaac Dunbar

Danny L Harle

After a bit of release date shuffling, it feels like we’ve been waiting for Ashnikko’s much-heralded ‘DEMIDEVIL’ for forever.

That heightened sense of anticipation is part of the magic, though. Anything but boring, the skittish, fast moving nature of its arrival only speaks to the raw energy of the artist behind it. Big, brash and bold, Ashnikko never pulls a single punch.

Deliberately and joyously provocative, her genre free, magpie tendencies are perfectly pitched but never desaturated.

‘Deal With It’, sampling Kelis’ iconic ‘Caught Out There’, manages to be both melodic and right up in your face, while ‘L8r Boi’ - yes, a reworking of Avril’s ‘Sk8r Boi’ - is ludicrous in the best way.

As introductions go, it’s certainly memorable.

Stephen Ackroyd

Isaac Dunbar is a pop genius. That’s the kind of bold headline statement that’s worth making when it comes to an artist with such a deft touch. For a couple of years now, Dunbar has been dropping relatively undiscovered gems but his latest collection ‘Evil Twin’ feels like a significant step up. More abrasive and forthright, at times - like on the brilliant ‘pink party’ it’s almost gloriously unhinged. Elsewhere, ‘intimate moments’ soars on clouds of dry ice, while ‘kissy kissy’ is a bright, primary colours bop of the highest order.

There’s no one string to Isaac’s bow - more the underlying ability to pick and choose from several pots to mix an aesthetic hue all of his own. You can’t teach that talent.

Stephen Ackroyd

Danny L Harle has always operated within a different musical dimension, and now with his debut album this bonkers sonic explorer blasts off into a whole new stratosphere. You see, ‘Harlecore’ isn’t just Danny. No, it’s also more than just an album.

It’s a truly immersive experience helmed by the four resident DJs at the producer’s imaginary club that acts as the location for the album. DJ Danny, MC Boing, DJ Mayhem and DJ Ocean all combine their talents to supreme effect on a record that is exhilarating, dizzyingly inventive and offers a vivid snapshot of a dreamlike world to escape into. Everyone is welcome in Danny L Harle’s electronic funhouse and ‘Harlecore’ is a truly thrilling creation. Martyn Young

beaux

Miss Grit

The story around beaux is the thing of legend finishing up his GCSEs and A-levels early before heading off to see The 1975 at Reading 2019, a chance DM after to their manager and Dirty Hit boss Jamie Oborne was enough to get him signed. But what seems like a romantic tale is actually more of an open goal. Making the kind of fresh, oh-so-now alt-pop that needs total authenticity to pull off well, there’s a touch of the Troye Sivan to ‘a love letter to the moments spent outside’. ‘what’s the point?’ - a tale of the better parts of the last year - in particular bubbles with a much needed dose of sunny positivity. Definitely one to watch. Stephen Ackroyd

If you took St Vincent’s signature guitar riffs and threw them into a cement mixer with Phoebe Bridgers’ morose lyricism and Kim Deal’s hushed, breathy vocals, you’d be getting close to the new self-assured version of Miss Grit that is portrayed on ‘Impostor’. “If you think you’re somebody / you’ll have to prove you’ve got what they want,” she sings in ‘Buy The Banter’.

It’s a sentiment that follows her around as a Korean-American who has always felt as though she’s had to try harder to fit in. Playing with an overwhelming barrage of textures in ‘Dark Side Of The Party’, she essentially stitches two different songs together and stumbles into the fact that you’re at your best when walking your own path. Tyler Damara Kelly

DEMIDEVIL eeeef

a love letter to the moments spent outside EP eeeef

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Evil Twin EP eeeef

Impostor eeeef

Harlecore eeeef

Foo Fighters

Medicine at Midnight

eeeee You know what you’re getting.

There once was a point, Dear Reader, where we’d have described Foo Fighters as genuinely exciting.

That’s not to be deliberately mean about the band in their current, twenty-five year deep iteration, but rather to suggest that time changes us all. What once was thrilling, cutting against the grain with a violent thrust, eventually becomes the establishment. In 2021, Foo Fighters are more The Man to rally against than the rebel forces outside the gates.

That’s the problem which has plagued so much of their recent offerings. Dave Grohl and co are so obviously great at what they do, but what they do now feels so achingly predictable it seems stuck in a different era. As rock‘n’roll spirit becomes less defined by riffs and distortion, and more about a

Celeste

Not Your Muse eeeff A tale of two tones, Celeste’s latest album release uses an almost perfect split of strippeddown, sultry jazz tracks and pop-leaning songs full of soul-inspired energy, all unified by the singer’s

youthful attitude and raw, brightly drawn aesthetics, the whisky soaked bombast of denim clad middle aged men feels progressively less dangerous and increasingly passé.

While Rock’s Nicest Dad Ever may still be undoubtedly one of its most iconic faces - a musician of fearsome reputation and undoubted talent - ‘Medicine at Midnight’ is a record that, even with the best intentions, would offer up nothing to a career highlight reel. Though at times they push their own tightly drawn boundaries, that experimentation feels so far from the horizons others inhabit they only emphasise what Foo Fighters have become: a classic band, for fans of the good old days. There’s nothing wrong with that, but perhaps it’s time for someone new to sit upon rock’s throne. Stephen Ackroyd

staggeringly smooth vocals.

‘Not Your Muse’ flawlessly sets the scene of a smoky cabaret, giving us equal opportunities to watch in contemplation or stand up and dance.

Celeste holds jazz traditions close by applying a warm dose of strings and piano to the album that give a timeless element to the likes of ‘Strange’ and the titular track alike. Simultaneously, she innovates the sound by using funky guitars and even looping what sounds like a piano track from a

Brubeck tune on ‘Somebody Stop This Flame’. It’s an excellent marriage of something old, something new, something borrowed and alternative rhythm and blues.

Ultimately, the album is a glistening product of excellent composition, intelligent producing and unerring vocal talent. As Celeste’s first release since being named BBC Music’s Sound of poll winner, ‘Not Your Muse’ leaves no doubt that she befits the title.

Connor Fenton

Chase Atlantic Beauty In Death eeeff

In some regards, Chase Atlantic are regarded as a ‘rock band’ - but then, are they? And what is a rock band in 2021 anyway? In a world where tired old genre boundaries seem unfit for purpose, ‘Beauty In Death’ is very much ‘a vibe’.

Drawing alt-pop and R&B influences into a neon haze, it’s a record that very much feels like it belongs in the now. Pitched perfectly to the prevailing sonic winds, ‘Slide’ slips down without effort, while ‘I Think I’m Lost Again’ is a high-definition bop. If there’s a criticism to be had for this pick-andmix attitude, it’s that Chase Atlantic are willing to easily slip into a prevailing sonic mood, meaning tracks can start to bleed a bit after time, but ‘Beauty In Death’ is still an album more interesting and current than so many of their peers.

That alone is worth respect.

Stephen Ackroyd

COMING SOON

5 releases coming up you should start getting excited about.

London Grammar

CHAI

Royal Blood

Drive Like I Do

Pixey

Dinner party approved epic balladry with a jaw dropping, show stealing vocal - London grammar’s new one will be perfect for post lockdown classy soirees.

Released: 9th April

“With this album, we’re winking at you,” the band explain. “We’re living freely and we hope that when you listen, you can wink and live freely, too.”

Released: 21st May

Big, bombastic riffs ahoy!

Royal Blood’s third album sees them mix up the formula a bit. We’re pretty sure someone suggested it was, erm, sexy? Blimey.

Released: 30th April

Are we getting a Drive Like I Do album? Are we?

Really? Do we believe Matty Healy and suggest it may even be out by the time this issue drops?

Released: Hmmm.

The debut collection from one of our very favourite newcomers, you can even get this on a jolly yellow vinyl. Result!

Released: 26th March

Californian Soil

Wink

Kings of Leon

When You See Yourself

eeeee Keep safe.

In their earliest days, Kings of Leon were a ramshackle band of brothers (and their cousin) who always felt thrillingly close to coming off the tracks. For a while, they rattled around with joyous abandon in the name of good fun.

It was glorious.

And then, at some point, things got serious. Not that serious is bad - serious is fine, someone has to be a grown-up - but the more mature Kings of Leon were a different band. It made them one of the biggest groups on the planet, a mainstay of the radio airwaves and a household name, but they lost something too.

Because while serious may not always be a reasonable criticism, safe most certainly is. ‘When You See Yourself’ feels like a record that’s very self-aware of its own position. Worried about colouring outside the lines, instead it feels to keep well within Kings of Leon’s latter-day boundaries at all times - often to the point of a lack of definition. ‘The Bandit’, for example, is fine - it’s a decent enough Kings of Leon song and all - but what that means in terms of continued relevance in an era of teenage prodigies and genreless expression is debatable at best.

Kings of Leon will continue to be a big deal, but who they’re speaking to is important too.

Increasingly, they feel like a band with the doors to entry closed, ageing out with an audience no longer looking for something new. That’s okay for them, but they’re capable of so much more.

Stephen Ackroyd

Typhoons

Dunno. Lol.

Free To Live In Colour EP

TOP 5...

CLASSIC KINGS OF LEON BANGERS Kings of Leon *do* have some absolute bangers. Here’s 5 of ‘em.

Molly’s Chambers See - this is Kings of Leon at their best.

Fast, frentic and totally off their rockers, you could argue they never really topped ‘Molly’s Chambers’.

Wasted Time

Another jolly good hoe-down, ‘Wasted Time’ isn’t mucking about. Nor should it. Slow songs are for the borings.

The Bucket

Album two saw Kings of Leon evolve slightly - taking on more of that New Rock Revolution cool. ‘The Bucket’ in particular has a touch of The Strokes to it. Iconic.

Four Kicks

Four kicks is a bar room brawl set to music.

Not just because of its brilliant video, but also its stuttering, Vic Reeves club singer verses.

Gloriously nuts.

On Call

By album three, Kings of Leon were flirting with the arena rock that would follow, but ‘On Call’ finds the sweet spot.

Epic, smouldering and atmospheric, it’s proof that they can do more than just thrash through the hits.

And never, ever, ever Sex on Fire Jesus christ.

readdork.com 63.

Top 10 MARTYN YOUNG’s

Everyone loves a good list, right? Well, Dear Reader, not compared to Dork’s Listmaster General Martyn Young you don’t. Each month, we’ll give him a new musical category to rank, then you can send in your rage-filled missives about just how wrong he is. It’s all good fun.

THIS MONTH IT’S...

THE BEST BRITISH BANDS OF THE LAST DECADE

(i.e. a British band with a debut album released between 12th Feb 2011 and 12th Feb 2021) PLEASE NOTE: All opinions are those of Martyn Young and in no way represent Dork as a whole. We’re very sorry.

Formidable cool

2. Wolf Alice

Well obviously

1. The 1975 Try to imagine the last decade of music without The 1975. Pretty boring isn’t it? Less amazing songs, less ridiculous haircuts, less saxophone, less handsome bearded bassists, less weird electronic rave ups, less guitarists with surprisingly beautiful hands, less bad fashion mistakes, less ill advised hair dye jobs, less beautiful lyrics, less wildly ambitious and fantastical album release plans, less engaging activity to try and create a more positive and inclusive planet, less environmental awareness, less selling petrol, less nappies, less stupid insensitive statements on social media, less lyrics about Guy

64. DORK

Debord (even he needed spectacles you see), less dancing and less nonsense. Yes, The 1975 have done it all over the past ten years, from the sleek and smooth pop of the debut to the neon explosion of ‘i like it when you sleep…’, the existential modern day magnum opus of ‘A Brief Inquiry...’ and the scattergun brilliance of ‘Notes On A Conditional Form’. Matty, George, Ross and Adam have been right at the heart of everything amazing about British music with a beating ambitious heart that makes them a cut above the rest, taking their rightful place at the top of the list as the best band of the decade

As amazing as The 1975 are there’s one thing they don’t have that this next band does. Yes, that’s right, it’s the Mercury award winning legends that are Wolf Alice. Back in the old days of the noughties indie rock was a bit more of a boring and sedate place. There were nice things happening but someone needed to shake things right up, and Wolf Alice did just that. It’s impossible to truly state just how important Wolf Alice are. They are the catalyst for almost all the amazing bands you’ve read about in Dork over the last 5 years.

The sonic alchemy and sheer chest bursting power they have is unmatched and as we enter 2021 we are practically salivating at the prospect of a brand new Wolfies album to save us all.

It’s in their DNA

3. Little Mix Little Mix are the best pop band in the whole entire world. Now a trio (we love you Jesy) Perrie, Leigh-Anne and Jade have strode across the pop universe like queens since 2011 when they became the first group to win the X-Factor, defeating such luminaries as Nu Vibe and the quietly underrated 2 Shoes. In years since the girls have gone on to amass an iconic string of hit singles, with banger after banger arriving at a thrilling frequency.

They were even at number one just last month with their latest hit ‘Sweet Melody’.

Still at the top of their game, Little Mix reign supreme.

WTF?

Best boyband ever?

Okay, so we don’t all agree. Here’s some official challenges to this month’s list. Send us your own, and we’ll publish the best next month.

4. One Direction Paving the way for the likes of Brockhampton and a new generation of boy bands, One Direction reinvented the age old concept for the 21st century and launched the career of now global superstars like HARRY!, ZAYN!, NIALL! LOUIS! and Liam. The boys are a true phenomenon, attaining levels of success that British acts could previously only dream of. While some have gone on to enjoy huge solo success, the memories of the glory days of 1D still burn bright. Hopefully one day they will reunite to reclaim their place as the best boyband of all time.

Rather unusually for our Martyn, the scamp, this list contains little to get too worked up about Peace might feel a bit put out, given they kicked off so much of the mid-2010s indie revival that most of this lot benefited from. Alt-J and Glass Animals probably deserve a shout too, as acts that can legitimately play the biggest stages all around the planet.

Stephen Ackroyd, Editor

Game, set and match

5. Sports Team From one incredible band to another it’s Dork’s band of 2020. Sports Team are one of those bands who should be doomed to failure. Scrappy, haphazard and with a questionable taste in clothes and haircuts, they have managed to overcome all this to become the most exciting indie band of the moment. They’ve done this by sheer force of personality as well as having, y’know, some good songs. Lots of them in fact. At least nine! Never afraid of an outlandish statement and aware of their own ridiculousness, Sports Team are everything that makes up an exciting and uproariously fun band wrapped up in one beautiful bundle.

Time lords

6. Years & Years Years and Years are the sound of summer. The perfect band to have a dance floor celebration or a quiet little cry in the corner next to the vape machine and the lollipop dispenser, whichever one you prefer. Their debut album is a perfect collection of dance pop tunes that run the full range of emotions from ecstasy to heartbreak. If you’re looking at inspiring new pop icons of the modern age then look no further than Olly Alexander. Not only is he an amazing pop star he’s also so multi talented that he’s currently starring in fantastic new and very vital telly drama It’s A Sin which you should watch right now (or as soon as you’ve finished reading this magazine, anyway - Ed).

As usually happens with Martyn’s lists, he comes close to being right here before wildly swerving off course and crashing sadly into a pond of misguided opinions at the sight of a strangely charismatic guitarist in his pants. No, I’m not having a flashback and yes, I’m talking about IDLES. Love them or hate them, there’s no disputing their importance as spiritual leaders of an entire scene and generation of post/postpunk/angry rock *delete as applicable* bands. Embrace your inner man in pants Martyn. Jamie MacMillan, writer and photographer Martyn’s list isn’t terrible, but as this part is all about manufacturing outrage, there is one glaring omission. It might seem hard to fathom now, but back in 2012, there was a real shortage of shouty bands from London. Enter Palma Violets, the band who kicked in the door of the long-since abandoned house of ‘crowdsurfing while topless and still somehow singing’ and set up a new scene from the debris. You might not enjoy being coated in a frontman’s sweat as he launches himself over the top of your head, Martyn, but for god’s sake don’t try to erase an entire scene with the stroke of your poisoned pen. Jake Hawkes, writer and Down With Boring ‘presenter’

Disagree?

Email your own suggestions, corrections or abuse to us at toptens@ readdork.com.

We’ll include the best ones in next month’s issue.

Let us pray

7. Chvrches Chvrches’ brand of twinkling synth pop has long established them as Dork faves, and when it comes to their thrilling live show complete with shiny lasers and effects they are unmatched.

Equally as important though is their ability to make rush inducing pop bangers with a sharp lyrical edge. Oh, and they’re back this year as well. Isn’t that exciting?

In bloom

8. Blossoms Blossoms have, erm, well, blossomed into the ABBA of the North of England with the seventies pop odyssey of last year’s ace album ‘Foolish Loving Spaces’. A record that marks them out as some of our best pop songwriters taking guitar music in wonderful and joyous directions, it’s helped them stealthily climb to the top of the indie tree.

What a...

9. Shame The two time Dork cover stars are a little bit seedy, a little bit dangerous and a lot of raucous fun as they document the idiosyncratic, weird and wonderful underbelly of 21st century society. Full of confidence and assured of their talents they offer a darker alternative to day-glo pop where you can wallow in the grime like a pig in muck.

Deep divers

10. Swim Deep Swim Deep were there right at the mid 2010s indie renaissance, and have gone on to great success with three killer albums that mark them out as unquestionably the second best band in history from Birmingham behind Simon Le Bob’s boys (ask your parents - Ed).

Let’s all Save A Prayer for Swim Deep. readdork.com 65.

ANY OTHER QUESTIONS? THIS MONTH IT’S...

JAWNY

Yes, Dear Reader. We enjoy those ‘in depth’ interviews as much as anyone else. But - BUT we also enjoy the lighter side of music, too.

We simply cannot go on any longer without knowing what JAWNY has in his pockets.

So we asked. And we kinda wish we hadn’t.

Who’s your favourite pop star?

Dolly Parton.

If you had to be on a TV game show, which would you choose?

I legit don’t know a single TV game show off the top of my head, I’ve not had cable TV in 10 years. I want to be a professional wrestler, though. That would be sick.

How tall are you?

6’9 and growing by the day baby.

What was the last thing you broke?

I broke my cutting board two weeks ago on accident, and I still haven’t recovered from the loss.

What’s your biggest fear?

My dog running away bc I’m 6’9 and growing and I’m scared she will soon think I am a giant and run.

If you could have a superpower of your choosing, what would it be?

I want super perfect white teeth that I never have to brush, and my breath always smells beautiful.

Do you believe in aliens?

Absolutely. I got the scars on my stomach to prove it.

Have you ever seen a ghost?

I have not, and I plan to

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keep it that way because I believe in those too.

What have you got in your pockets right now?

Absolutely nothing I’m ass naked rn answering these and my skin is pocketless.

If we gave you $10, what would you spend it on?

50 fake Twitter followers to retweet and favourite this article, so it looks like people actually give a fuck about little ole me.

What did you last dream about?

I had a terrible dream that I don’t even want to begin to try to explain. Just know it :) wasn’t :) fun :).

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

In middle school I was walking around the track after lunch, and somebody pulled my pants down, and everybody saw my willy, and then I panicked and pulled up my boxers, and those were embarrassing too, so I basically got double embarrassed. If only they could see me now. Still ugly and still wearing embarrassing underwear.

If you weren’t a musician, what would you be doing?

Professional badminton player. Easy. Next question.

Have you ever been banned from somewhere?

I think I might be banned from a venue in New York City for bringing like 30-40 people on stage for my last song because they specifically asked me not to.

treasured possession?

If my house was burning down and I could only save one thing it would probably be a promo sweater I have for the first season of Seinfeld.

They sent it out to all the channel stations to promote the show when it came out and I can’t part ways with it.

If you could form a supergroup of your choice, who would be in it?

Me. I don’t want anybody else in my supergroup.

I’m 6’8, and it would only make me look taller standing next to other people. :(

If you could bring something extinct back to life, what would you choose?

Food. I haven’t eaten a meal in over 11 years since it all went extinct.

I’m absolutely fucking starving.

What is your most

How punk are you out

of ten?

Punk enough that I am answering these interview questions at quite literally the last possible minute before the deadline even though I was given them at an appropriate time yet I still somehow managed to have terrible time management / 10.

What’s one thing you’ve always wanted to try?

I want to write a TV show really bad.

What’s your breakfast of choice?

I told ya earlier I haven’t eaten food in 11 years.

I would kill for some breakfast right about now.

It’s a shame all food went extinct, and I’ve been

surviving on slugs and twigs.

If a genie granted you three wishes, what would you ask for?

Infinite wishes. Boom. I fucking win.

What’s one thing people don’t know about you?

I unironically listen to Jonas Brothers - Burnin Up because it is a fucking jam.

Why are you like this?

Bc I am a big fucking loser, and I’m ok with it and sleep fine at night.P Jawny’s project ‘For Abby’ is out now.