Dork, September 2021

DOWN WITH BORING.

ISSUE 58 · SEPTEMBER 2021 · READDORK.COM

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CHVRCHES Maisie Peters Sports Team Baby Queen Declan McKenna The Vaccines Sea Girls Shame Holly Humberstone Wet Leg + loads more!

Star Boy.

I THE DEBUT ALBUM “CHEW THE SCENERY” FEATURING “STUCK”, “21ST CENTURY HOBBY”, “WRITE ME A LETTER”, “YEAH!” & MORE OUT NOW

Index Issue 58 | September 2021 | readdork.com | Down With Boring

Editor’s Letter New music is the best.

Honestly, grumpy borings might try and make tired, jaded statements about the shallow, here-one-minutegone-the-next nature of the new music cycle, but they’re wrong. So, so wrong.

There’s no bigger hit than the excitement that comes alongside discovering something both currently great, and potentially even greater. It’s the reason why your beloved Dork (hi, yes, we’re great) always strives to steer towards those artists

who still have the potential to surprise, rather than simply deliver on solid expectation.

It’s also why we’re so delighted to score Conan Gray for his first Dork cover this month.

With a second album ‘on the way’, Conan’s breakthrough has already been secured. What’s exciting, though, is that doesn’t feel remotely close to the ceiling for an alt-popster who has that indefinable magic touch.

There’s a lot of that going round this month, from the fizzy, infectious energy

of Maisie Peters to long established Dork fave Baby Queen and ‘quite possibly the most exciting new band in years’ Wet Leg. When the future looks so bright, why would you bother looking anywhere else?

Stephen ‘Editor’ @stephenackroyd

Ø4 Intro 28 Hype 36 Features 66 Incoming 22.

If you were to ask us who All Time Low were going to collaborate on a single with this summer, it would have taken an awfully long time before we guessed Pale Waves, but here we are.

32.

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Conan Gray Debut album ‘Kid Krow’ made Conan Gray A Star. Now, with its follow up approaching, he’s determined to keep it real.

All Time Low

Glaive

With his new EP ‘all dogs go to heaven’ just landed and a heap more to come, Glaive has the potential to become one of hyperpop’s breakout stars.

44.

Priya Ragu

Priya Ragu is introducing a fresh take on R&B that’s entirely her own.

readdork.com

Editor Stephen Ackroyd Deputy Editor Victoria Sinden

Associate Editor Ali Shutler Contributing Editors Jamie Muir, Martyn Young Scribblers Alex Brzezicka, Connor Fenton, Dan Harrison, Edie McQueen, Finlay Holden, Jake Hawkes, Jamie MacMillan, Josh Williams, Liam Konemann, Melissa Darragh, Neive McCarthy, Phoebe De Angelis, Sam Taylor, Steven Loftin Snappers Aidan Cullen, Clark Franklyn, Dillon Matthew, Frances Beach, Jamie MacMillan, Jordan Curtis Hughes, Kevin J Thomson, Lani Parrilla, Nolan Knight, Patrick Gunning, Rory Griffin, Sarah Louise Bennett, Sebastian Mlynarski, Sirus F Gahan

PUBLISHED FROM

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46.

Wet Leg

Maisie Peters

They might just be the best new band to emerge in an age. Get to know Wet Leg before they take over.

With her debut album freshly inked with Ed Sheeran’s label, Maisie Peters is finally set to fulfil all that pop star potential.

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6Ø.

CHVRCHES

Baby Queen

Four albums in, and CHVRCHES have probably been through the toughest part of their story to date. They’re backing down for nobody.

Already making waves, Baby Queen’s brand new collection-slash-projectslash-what-do-we-callthem ‘The Yearbook’ is about to land with a splash.

52.

Orla Gartland

Dublin’s Orla Gartland charts the ups and downs of growing up and adjusting to adulthood (urgh) with a hefty dose of camaraderie and wit. Her debut album, ‘Woman On The Internet’ is really very special.

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Oscar Lang

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Chubby and the Gang

With his debut album, ‘Chew The Scenery’, Oscar Lang is proving just how far he’s come - but the journey is only just getting started.

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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.

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West London five-piece Chubby and the Gang are unabashed in addressing society’s ills.

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Intro THE BEATING HEART OF POP NEWS

Charlie from s Shame look glad to be ‘back’.

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THE BIG STORY

After nearly a year and a half without capacity crowds, packed venues and fields full of fans - live music is back! From old faves returning to the fray for the first time in literally years, to new acts suddenly finding themselves performing for packed audiences for the first time, your trusty pop scribblers and snappers have been down ‘the front’ to capture just some of the excitement.

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March 2020. That’s the last time that we could feel that live music in the UK was really, properly ‘on’. In that blissful preCovid world, few of us took a second to contemplate those last shows before lockdown could have to sustain us for 16 months or more. It’s not been easy.

Not easy for us, the fans. Not easy for the artists, either, or a music industry trying to work out just how to operate without one of its most important ways to connect. We’ve all innovated, adapted and tried new things, but those live-streams and socially distanced shows - while often fantastic in their own right - just aren’t the same.

So, as 19th July came and passed, we emerge blinking - cautiously but hopefully - into the light. It’s not all utopian - we know that. New variants still threaten what’s been so hard won, with the majority of the audiences who attend gigs and festivals still not fully vaccinated. Not every event we’ve been looking forward to is still on the calendar, too - a lack of communication, definitive advice or backed insurance from those in authority put pay to that. But still, it’s something. And we’ll take it.

Over the past couple of weeks, Dork’s intrepid writers and photographers have been returning to the frontlines too. A lot has happened over the past year and a half. Our established heroes have dropped new albums, debuted new material and pushed onwards. New hopes have emerged - some of them only just getting their first chance to perform live to a fanbase established during a time they couldn’t even be in the same rooms or fields. Are the bands we thought were great before still just as good now, or has absence made the heart grow even fonder still? Can that fast rising talent do it when it counts, away from the produced and polished studio recordings? We’re about to find out.

Over the next few pages, you’ll find updates, reports, interviews and glorious photography from just a couple of the shows we’ve caught since restrictions lifted. From the glorious fields of Suffolk for Latitude, to the are-you-sure-this-is-a-good-idea mayhem of Sports Team’s Margate extravaganza, Dork’s finest have thrown themselves back in the mixer.

What could possibly go wrong...

Stephen ‘Editor’ @stephenackroyd

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The best band on the planet rn, ‘FYI”

Latitude FEST IVAL S ARE BACK !

Henham Park, Suffolk

23rd - 25th July 2021

Wolf Alice take the headline slot we’ve been dreaming of for years, as festival season finally gets properly underway at Latitude 2021.

Words: Alex Brzezicka, Finlay Holden.

Photos: Frances Beach, Patrick Gunning.

FRIDAY 23RD JULY

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e’re back, baby. The biggest festival to take place in the UK for almost two years kicked off yesterday (Friday 23rd July) as Latitude threw open its grassy fields for a celebration of the best in British music. Sure, it was probably because no other country is currently allowed to travel to the UK, but that doesn’t take an inch of shine from how celebratory today feels.

And if we’re talking the best in the country, then it only seems right that WOLF ALICE finally step up and headline their first major festival.

When we spoke to them earlier in the year, vocalist Ellie Rowsell seemed unsure about the band playing huge venues like The O2, but there’s no hint of nerves as they run, dance and skip onto Latitude’s Obelisk Stage tonight.

Kicking straight into the gnarled, mosh-pit instigating ‘Smile’, Wolf

Maisie Peters: “No, really, my Lynks Africa works REALLY well!”

Alice bring a muchneeded dose of chaos to the fields of Henham Park. Without taking a breath, they pivot to the loving ode to friendship ‘Bros’. At one point, Ellie stands alone in the spotlight, in-ears out, and sings the refrain along with the crowd. It’s the sort of beautiful, unifying festival moment that most bands would keep for the closing moments of the set. We’re less than 5 minutes in here, though.

The rest of their 70-minute set bounces between rage and love as Wolf Alice tear through riff-laden rock anthems (‘Visions of a Life’, ‘Play The Greatest

Hits’, ‘Giant Peach’) and deliver tender moments that massage the ol’ heartstrings (‘Lipstick On The Glass’, ‘Don’t Delete The Kisses’, ‘Silk’). “I’m very fucking emotional right now,” declares bassist Theo Ellis before the band “try something sensitive” in the form of the twinkling cinematic ballad, ‘Safe From Heartbreak (Never Fall In Love)’. As soon as it finishes, he tells the packed field that this “feels like an absolute dream. It’s mega,” before he wants them to “fucking ‘ave it” for the soaring urgency of ‘Space and Time’. And ‘ave it, they do.

Earlier in the day, the next generation of superstars proves

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Dork’s intrepid snappers were on site all weekend.

Here’s some of what they saw.

↓ BLACK HONEY Sunrise Arena, Saturday.

Photo: Patrick Gunning.

↓ WOLF ALICE Obelisk Arena, Friday.

Photo: Frances Beach.

→ WOLF ALICE Obelisk Arena, Friday.

Photo: Patrick Gunning.

that time away hasn’t dampened their hunger.

LUCIA & THE BEST BOYS power through a slowburning, emo set that leans into the controlled cinema of their ‘The State of Things’ EP while LYNKS’ opens up the main stage with their unique take on dance music. Lyrical commentary on imposed life expectations draws in the young crowd before these edgy verses give way to heavy choruses that enable the first mosh pits in… well, it’s been a while.

Parents are quick to cover their young children’s ears.

The energetic show opens the floodgates of energy and prepares festival-goers for the cathartic weekend of a lifetime – an appearance from Shame’s Charlie Steen doesn’t go amiss either.

Later on the same stage, BEABADOOBEE shows off her strange magic. First, she makes the entire crowd clap along without uttering a word, then her warm vocals somehow chase away the clouds, bathing the entire field in glorious sunshine. Her set is just as warming, tearing through the blissful ‘Coffee’, the

Sp\tted.

Matty Healy, complete with a set of horns model’s own.

Greentea Peng - who obviously performed - at a petrol station on the way home, buying ciggies and a meal deal.

No confirmation on the make up of the latter.

Joel from Wolf Alice’s mum, who honestly is the only celebrity worth spotting. A legend.

heart-storming ‘Last Day on Earth’ and set closer ‘Cologne’ with an effortless cool that’s only broken by her beaming grin.

DECLAN MCKENNA slides onto the Obelisk stage with a rock star swagger, complete with The Best Jacket Of The Weekend, to give new record ‘Zeros’ its live debut. ‘Beautiful Faces’ sees the entire crowd singing their lungs out, ‘Be An Astronaut’ transports the field to a different time, drama and delusion free, while cosy new single ‘My House’ makes a field filled

with tens-of-thousands of people feel intimate and safe. That serenity doesn’t last for long, though, as the closing ‘British Bombs’ comes with a side-order of angst and an explosion of purple confetti.

Having recently received multiple bouts of acclaim from Taylor Swift, self-declared’ emo-pop girl’ MAISIE PETERS is gearing up to release her debut album, on Ed Sheeran’s ‘Gingerbread Records’.

It’s no wonder the crowd is so busy, especially with rumours Ed might make an appearance.

So, with everything to prove and a lot of eyes on her, Maisie runs onstage after a hype-building introduction, takes a breath and shouts into the microphone… “I can’t hear anything.” It’s not the smoothest of starts, but after the technical problems are fixed, she delivers a set of peak indiepop empowerment with a sound ready for the big leagues.

Someone already topping those big pop tables is MABEL. Having amassed hundreds of millions of streams, you’d continued on page 11 S

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“We’ve been more ambitious with the sound; it’s way bigger” One year on from their debut album, and Sea Girls are gearing up for round two.

Words: Finlay Holden.

Photo: Patrick Gunning

S

ea Girls are notorious for consistently delivering anthemic indie-rock bangers that discuss mental turmoil in the most energetic and cathartic way possible.

Following a long list of EP releases, they charted at Number 3 with 2020’s debut album ‘Open Up Your Head’, which certainly helped their spritely fanbase do exactly

that. While their tunes are synonymous with bouncing live shows, Latitude provides their first in a long time and finally gives the band a chance to show off some of these invigorating tracks.

As frontman and songwriter Henry Camamile gushes backstage: “This is the most we’ve ever looked forward to a show. We never knew we wouldn’t be allowed to play for so long, and we’re desperate to play songs like ‘Do You Really Wanna Know’ for the first time.” With the huge impression this song has made, it’s hard to believe that it’s only played in headphones behind locked doors, but this is far from an isolated case. Bassist Andrew Dawson notes that “probably two-thirds of the

album hasn’t been played live before, definitely at least half. We’ve not played some of our first album, ever!”

While the arena-ready nature of the record is instantly apparent from its bold, vibrant soundscapes, a lot of the songs on it are actually surprisingly personal, with Henry wearing his heart on his sleeve with tracks like opener ‘Transplant’ that explores blatant heartache.

The confidence to bear all on these songs, particularly in front of thousands, is instilled by a group of supportive bandmates and friends. “You know that no one’s going to frown upon your ideas in this band,” he imparts. “We’ve always loved just helping people have

a good time and making a room bounce. We’ve also always been quite emominded in our themes, not necessarily sad but quite heart-on-our-sleeves, yeah.

There’s always something to be sad about.”

On the balance between joy and sadness, introspection and energy, Andrew adds that Sea Girls are “letting people into our world when they’re listening at home, then giving them a really good time when they come and see the set.” After contemplating their roles as musicians, Henry explains: “The whole point of writing is to give something else that people can’t find in other aspects of life. It’s about putting more of ourselves into the world

than the regular person on the street; that’s our job.

That’s why people would listen to us: they see that we’re speaking about things that aren’t very cool and that – in its own way - is cool.”

Moving on from one period of reflection and into another, Sea Girls’ second album is now on its way.

With single ‘Sick’ recently making its appearance, teases of this new chapter are beginning to be unveiled.

On this first glimmer, Henry explains: “’Sick’ is basically me ranting - it’s something that we haven’t given people, something we haven’t said. It’s a unique song that doesn’t hold back, and again isn’t necessarily the coolest thing to say, but it needs to be said.” Andrew adds that, “it’s probably a bit different to the classic indie banger that people might expect, but that’s how we’re not letting people down – we’re keeping it interesting.”

It seems the ‘difficult second album’ is not dragging down the band’s ambitions at all, then.

“People sometimes say the second album is the scary and horrible one, but this hasn’t felt like that at all,” the bassist continues.

“We’ve been maybe even more honest.”

With a theme of promoting vulnerability as an essential criterion for growth continuing to unfold across an ever-growing discography, the walls of sound are also shooting higher and higher. “We’re still the same band, but we’ve been more ambitious with the sound; it’s way bigger,” Henry excitedly expands. “We’re not coming back around with the same songs, the same stories. We want to keep growing and surprising.”

With a UK headline tour slated for October, fans shouldn’t have to wait long to get a taste for these fresh flavours of indie-rock treats.

They’re also bringing rising star Baby Queen along for the ride across the country.

As a band who have recently risen from support act to headliner status, Sea Girls understand the importance these shows hold for such artists and empathise with the last year’s frustrations.

“To get out in front of people is amazing,” Andrew shares, “and so to help others do the same is even better. We had Foals do the same for us, so it’s great to pay it forward.”

As Henry succinctly contributes, “I feel sorry for those people that got stopped in their tracks, particularly young people who should be out starting bands, but just remember that the dream is still alive.”

How have they managed that so far? “Fuck knows,” Henry laughs. Andrew jumps in to say that, for them, “it comes down to simply entertaining people as best we can. If you do that well, hopefully, you’ll keep growing and get better.

Entertain, share moments with people, and they’ll keep coming back for more.”

If the Sea Girls fanbase has proven one thing, it’s that they are indeed always ready for more (pun fully intended). The present members are quick to gush over the passion of their listeners, and Andrew addresses them directly, announcing that the new record is “as much for you as it is for us. It’s been a weird situation for everyone, and we’re honoured that you continue to support us – it’s really helped.”

Henry declares a similar message: “We still love you!

We’ve had you in mind while making it. We feel so lucky to have fans that have stuck with us from song to song, lockdown to lockdown… this year, having our music to keep us together has been so great. Expect big things.” P

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“‘Back In Love City’ definitely isn’t a lockdown record” The Vaccines are back with their fifth album, treating fans to a sneakpeak at Latitude.

Words: Finlay Holden.

Photo: Patrick Gunning.

T

he Vaccines, other than being a punfanatic’s heaven in times of late, are a relentless live force that perfectly fit the bill for any show involving high octane fun, bright sun and a cold beverage of choice. Latitude today welcomes them back with open arms for a notso-secret set that marks the fourth show in Henham Park throughout a career that recently hit the decade mark.

However, after 18 months away from a crowd, Justin Young and Freddie Cowan express ambivalent attitudes towards their imminent return to stage. “On one hand, I’m relieved that we all got here and tested negative today,” the frontman notes, “but then I suppose there’s also some real anxiety pulsing through my veins right now.”

The anxiety is something that all festival-goers this summer will be grappling with, but it’s reassuring to note that walking into a crowd of thousands seems as cathartic as it is… normal? “It’s a weird paradox in that it’s extremely strange but also very familiar,” lead guitarist Freddie offers.

Justin adds that it feels “like waking up from a coma or something; everything’s just back to normal.”

While we all wish the gig blackout was but a bad dream, it’s tough for this group to not think about the larger impact this has had: “Our entire crew are our family as much as the band, we spend as much time with them as you do together,” Justin reflects. “We never thought it’d be so long until we see them again.”

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Both members struggle to recall the last fragment of a 2019 summer tour that would be their last outing until today, which is odd considering you’d expect this moment to have been replaying in their heads constantly. “Usually, with the last show of a long tour, we get off the bus, and our sanity is all over the place, which it is at the best of times – our things and people are physically and mentally trashed,” Freddie explains.

As an act with international roots, the five-piece departed from their studio in Texas in 2019, said a brief ‘see ya later’ at the airport, and then were not reunited until about three weeks ago. “We didn’t congregate again until very, very recently. We’ve all been on these crazy individual journeys since then,” Freddie says.

This is especially bonkers when you bear in mind the fact that The Vaccines were working on their fifth album, ‘Back In Love City’, behind closed doors. After the inconclusive farewell from El Paso, the band have been chipping away to perfect it for its September release. Although music in an introspective vein has flourished while music fans have been indoors, this album is one that feels like it had to be saved for a less restricted world. “When we finished it, it felt like a very fun, triumphant sounding record, and most of the ways we wanted people to enjoy it just weren’t possible during a lockdown,” Justin explains. “Be it road trips, festivals, parties, weddings, holidays… these situations where you create memories and connections with songs and friends were important to us. ‘Back In Love City’ definitely isn’t a lockdown record.”

This craving for energy and euphoria was unveiled with the first single from album five, ‘Headphones Baby’; a track that surprised

listeners with its ecstatic heights of production that build upon the textures explored through 2018’s ‘Combat Sports’. “It’s a bit of an outlier,” Justin says.

“That being said, it very much lives in the world of ‘Love City’ in terms of the writing, production and arrangements.

I think it will be reframed once people have heard the context of the whole record.”

As a band who recently celebrated the tenth anniversary of their debut album, this new step forward maintains their legacy while invigorating it with a fresh array of sounds. “The only way an album can be a failure is if you’ve failed to excite yourself in the process of making it,” Freddie theorises.

“We all have our own separate criteria for success, but a new album should always be something challenging, exciting and engaging.”

Justin adds: “The longer the band goes on, the more you feel this contractual obligation with your fandom and standom to give the people what they want while also refining what you’re doing, evolving, and finding new ways to both stay interesting and interested.”

If this incremental progression is intentional, the manifested results are at least obvious; the production ramp-up is actually only a slight growth from the aforementioned ‘Combat Sports’. By extensively touring the 11 songs on that LP, The Vaccines were able to interrogate themselves in order to discover where they wanted to move next.

“What worked last time?

What was fun? What ideas or processes do we want to explore further? What was too safe or didn’t work?” Justin queries. “The second you release music, the second you start getting feedback, you start pulling apart what you could’ve done differently or better. I don’t even mean

that in a cynical way; it’s just a natural thing for any creative to think.”

While their own views are at the forefront, the band can’t help but listen to fans; when touring, recorded versions of each track are left behind, and new relationships are formed with songs as they are played and reacted to each and every night – in normal circumstances, anyway. “This perfect little creation that no one’s sullied or tainted… the world

then receives it, and that completely re-contextualises your own opinions on it and feelings towards it,” Justin enthuses. “It doesn’t happen with blunt force; it’s something that happens very gradually over time.”

Freddie continues: “It’s a bit like having a belief system and then having to explain it to someone; you end up debating it, finding the holes and rethinking the fundamentals of how you’ve experienced that thing this

whole time.”

For ‘Back In Love City’, the only feedback so far has come from forced introspection, but even that has had a heightened impact in an isolated world – Freddie states that lockdowns caused The Vaccines to take “something quite band-y and made it even more technicolour.” With multiple tracks now unveiled live, the true vibrancy of this record will soon be put through the wringer. P

← LYNKS Obelisk Arena, Friday.

Photo: Frances Beach.

↑ BEABADOOBEE Obelisk Arena, Friday.

Photo: Frances Beach.

↓ MABEL Obelisk Arena, Friday.

Photo: Frances Beach.

← LUCIA & THE BEST BOYS BBC Sounds Arena, Friday.

Photo: Patrick Gunning.

expect the star to easily whip a crowd of every demographic into an ecstatic frenzy with her instantly recognisable pop tunes. Today all that was required was the unveiling of a silver ‘M’ and a few smoke machines. A flurry of instantly recognisable tunes dominates the arena as Mabel delivers, in her own words, “bangers on bangers on bangers”, backing dancers supplying the arena-ready spectacle.

Perhaps the most exciting band of the day, though, are WET LEG. Yes, the Isle of Wight duo have

one song to their name, but it’s so good, it’s got the 200-capacity Alcove full to overflowing. There’s a queue to get in, and one frustrated fan even tries to jump the fence to get a glimpse of indie’s brightest new stars.

Those inside the tent see Wet Leg, a five-piece live, charge through a set of weird, wonderful and wonky rock-pop anthems.

Every song feels like a hit as the band makes good on all that promise, while ‘Chaise Longue’ turns the packed room into a giddy, physical celebration. “It’s

so nice to know there are other strange people out there,” says the beaming Rhian Teasdale. “We’re not on our own.”

SATURDAY 24TH JULY

T

he morning after the night before, Latitude knows how to wipe away the cobwebs.

It’s not just the idyllic surroundings, the relaxing lake or the opportunity for a refreshing stroll through a literal dream forest. It’s the music, too.

Part of so-hot-rightnow pop collective NiNE8,

NAYANA IZ lacks no confidence as she struts into the Alcove, producer Angel Gabriel already running laps around the audience. With a balanced mix of chilled and hypeinducing tunes, she cuts her live teeth with plenty of new material. A barebones presentation gives a hint of where Nayana is heading next -one that demands a massive ramping up of the volume dial.

Over on the Obelisk Arena main stage, weary SPORTS TEAM would be forgiven for both mentally and physically limping

onto site after a chaotic day at their own Margate mini-festival. Not that that’s stopping Alex Rice - skipping in to Robbie Williams’ ‘Let Me Entertain You’ and diving straight into it, he’s clearly working to get his own veins pumping as much as those of the crowd.

Pints are thrown left, right, and centre, the quite obviously hungover group as spritely as ever - except band member Ben Mack who… well, who is about as enthused as always too, actually. Finally giving a well-earned airing to their

↑ WORKING MENS CLUB Sunrise Arena, Saturday.

Photo: Patrick Gunning.

infamously quite-wellcharting debut record, it’s a welcome return for an act sure to become a festival staple.

No festival line-up is complete without some fan favourite indie darlings.

This year KAWALA fit that role, trying to charm the crowd with their easygoing alt-pop. It works wonders, their crossgenerational audience falling into a groove during ‘Animals’ and ‘Moonlight’.

Fresh from releasing a new mixtape, they debut ‘Back Of My Head’ with a few tears spotted. They quickly continued on page 13 S

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Holly Humberstone is working towards a new EP, with plenty more to come...

Words: Alex Brzezicka.

Photo: Frances Beach.

A

nyone still dreaming about Bon Iver and Phoebe Bridges lovechild? Your prayers have been answered in Holly Humberstone. If you haven’t had a chance yet to convert into a follower of this 21-year-old doomindie sensation (and why not, she was on the cover a couple of months back!

I ask you - Ed), a new opportunity waits around the corner. After getting all the buzz, critical acclaim and heated hype from fans falling for her heartfelt lyricism, Holly is on the cusp of releasing a second EP. For those who simply can’t wait any longer, we meet Holly backstage at Latitude to talk about the new record, writing with Matty Healy and her soul-touching creative practices.

Hi Holly, how are you?

Excited to play tonight?

I’m just really happy to be back at the festival, and the atmosphere is really good. Everyone is just happy to be out and seeing live music again. I’m really excited about today.

Your second EP is coming out soon, can you tell us a bit about it?

I wrote the EP over the last twoish years, so a lot of it was put together throughout lockdown, and some of it was put together before. I feel like my first EP is a time capsule that I wrote when I was still living at home, just leaving school and going through those types of experiences.

This next EP feels like the next chapter and everything that came after that. I released the song ‘Haunted House’, which is about leaving home and also about moving to London and having a bit of a weird time in the flat in London. I guess the EP is just about things changing in my life, and I feel like I’ve been in a sort of in-between stage.

Between being a teenager and then moving out, relationships and things like that. Experiencing all of those things for the first time. Just working through all these weird emotions and feelings.

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Two songs are already out, ‘Haunted House’ and ‘The Walls Are Way Too Thin’.

There should be a song out - maybe, I can’t confirm or deny - in August, which I’m really excited about.

Hopefully, the rest of the EP will be out later in the year. I’ve just had loads of fun writing it.

Was the process of working on this record different than on your debut EP? It was a bit different because a lot of it was done over lockdown and finished over lockdown, but I tend to write in the same way. I wrote bits on my own and bits with a collaborator that I worked a lot with called Rob, who I really trust and feel really comfortable with and can be open with. It’s always really fun, going into the studio and writing with Rob. I’ve a lot of collaborations with other people that I really admire as well.

One of these collaborators was The 1975’s Matty Healy, right?

There’s a lot of bad things that came out of this last year, but also there were some positives as well because people that would usually be out, very busy touring the world and doing rock star stuff, have been at home. I was like, ‘you got free time because there’s a pandemic going on, so please come and write with me’, and he was really lovely. I feel like I’ve learnt loads from working with him and seeing how his creative process is.

It’s just been a really nice process, and I’m proud of everything that we made.

Is there any backstory to the song you co-wrote?

There’s not much of a story. The studio I was working at is one that he knows, and it’s kind of local. He was just down to write and to meet people.

He was like, ‘I like your music; let’s work together’.

I’m such a massive fan of The 1975. I love them. It was really surreal because I feel like quite a lot of these songs I’ve been listening to as I’ve grown up and had a lot of experiences with them. They have a lot of meaning for me, so it’s really special getting to meet him and see how he works. We just wrote a song. He’s got some crazy fans. There’s some way of finding a song that’s been registered to be published, registered to be released.

It was registered a few months ago, and they managed to find out what

“I feel like saying ‘I’ve got an album’ is a bit scary...”

the name of the song was and that we collaborated on the song and that we did the song together. I think I’m allowed to say because the cats are already out of the bag; it’s called ‘Please Don’t Leave Just Yet’.

Was there anything that you’ve been obsessively listening to while working on the EP, or anyone that kept on inspiring you?

Of course. Phoebe Bridges, always. I’m obsessed with her. Kind of in love with her. I remember her album coming out midway through the lockdown last summer. It just completely saved me. It was so inspiring. Just love her honesty and the brutality of her lyrics. She’s kind of savage, which I love. I’ve been really inspired by 80s music. I love Prince.

Talking about Phoebe Bridges, you share similar emotionality when it comes to your songwriting. It’s raw and in-depth. Does this vulnerable way of writing come naturally to you?

For sure. I feel like I’ve always written for myself, and I’ve always used writing as a way of working through things. A lot of the time, I’m not sure how I feel about something that I’m going through before I’ve written a song about it and then writing the song helps me work through the feelings but in kind of a simple format. The song is clear, and it’s me trying to filter everything I’m feeling and put it into a concise bit so I can understand a bit more. I’ve always done that. I can’t remember when I started writing, but I was really young. I was probably around seven or something. I used to write about things going on in primary school and boys I fancied and stuff.

It’s always been my safe space. My comfort zone.

I write for myself; that’s why everything seems really honest because I’m genuinely trying to figure out how I feel about stuff.

Is it a kind of self-therapy for you then?

Yes, it’s my safe space.

I’ve also found that a lot of this EP has come about in the last two years when I was going through a lot of changes in my life, like leaving home. Just so many changes that you go through as a young adult moving out of home and experiencing all of these things for the first time, and I feel like writing is my comfort zone, and it’s kind of like the one constant

that I’ve been able to come to with all of this confusing shit going on.

What are you working on now?

The EP is coming out in the autumn. It’s been done for a few months, so I kind of put that to bed, but I’m really excited about it coming out, and I’m just really enjoying having time to write songs and just experiment. I got time now because we can’t go abroad. We can’t really tour yet. I’ve been enjoying writing whatever I like to see what happens.

Not really going in with much of a plan. Just seeing what I want to do and messing about in the studio, which is really fun, and hopefully, maybe, I’ll start to put together an album, but I feel like that’s a big commitment for me. I feel like saying ‘I’ve got an album’ is bit scary, so we’ll see. We’ll see.

bounce back to their lighthearted selves for ‘Do It Like You Do’, though.

KAWALA are band-shaped sparks of joy, ready to cheer up anyone in need.

HOLLY HUMBERSTONE’s gentle chords and delicate vocals provide a low-key introduction amidst a short but sweet set that pulls the focus of the entire BBC Sounds tent onto a singular focal point.

Gliding between a baby blue guitar, synth pads and keys, Holly flexes a cohesive command over her own natural aura, ‘The Walls Are Way Too Thin’ proves Humberstone’s

and ‘Do You Really Wanna Know?’ they debut a new tune, ‘Sick’, about being fed up with this shitshow of reality and wanting to go back to childhood years. Instead, they stick around, smash ‘All I Want To Hear You Say’ and jump into the crowd. Class.

WORKING MEN’S CLUB suck us in instantly.

There’s no time to think, just dance in this cult of raging electronica and post-punk. Frontman Syd Minskey-Sargeant leads the way into the mayhem, manically jumping around the stage and occasionally down the barrier. With a strong hit of their new

stuff, mixed up with a few oldies, Working Men’s Club are genre-hopping and piss-taking professional visionaries.

SUNDAY 25TH JULY

I

f we could choose the way we start every Sunday, it might well be like this. Right of the bat, SELF ESTEEM takes over the Obelisk Arena.

Performing new single ‘Prioritise Pleasure’ live for the first time, complete with backup dancers, she’s giving off much more splendour and sparkle than we would expect at 1pm on Sunday. ‘Favourite continued on page 15 S

So many people have started to connect with your music on a deep level; what’s your response to the community growing around you?

I find it really bizarre. It’s been weird because I’ve only realised now that I’ve got back to playing again, I did a festival yesterday, and it was just weird seeing all of these people, few people on the front row knowing some of the words. It’s surreal for me because apart from over the internet and over my Instagram DMs or YouTube comments, I haven’t really been able to believe that it’s real because I’ve never seen anyone in real life. It’s weird because I haven’t met anybody really, apart from my family and my friends that really like my music.

You will definitely feel that love from your fans tonight.

I hope so. It’s really lovely to meet everybody. I feel like that’s kind of a new trend which is a good trend of young female writers that are just being really, really brutally honest and talking about things that people don’t really wanna share. Kind of oversharing.

It’s a really good thing, and people need to talk about how they’re feeling and mental health. Issues are probably intensified during this past year. They have for me anyway and people that I know. It’s important to talk about it, and it’s a good thing that people are being so vulnerable in their writing. P

career foundations have been laid firm.

Offering a fondness for detail that leaves no stone unturned, Holly can make a story about a house into a heartbreaking ballad with ease. Sincere meaning is expressed in her own awestruck way, a live presence established for an artist who has grown so much during the pandemic.

Like the bunch of hardcore indie rockers that they are, SEA GIRLS take the stage by storm.

Starting with ‘Call Me Out’, they don’t stop shooting bangers. After throwing energetic bombs ‘Violet’

↑ WALT DISCO The Alcove, Sunday.

Photo: Frances Beach.

↓ SEA GIRLS Obelisk Arena, Saturday.

Photo: Patrick Gunning.

→ DECLAN MCKENNA Obelisk Arena, Friday.

Photo: Frances Beach.

readdork.com 13.

“‘We’re not the new kids on the block anymore” you, do you want to do some vocals?’ I went down, and it was like, half an hour. They’re so good.

Shame are finally back on a festival stage, six months after the release of their new album.

Words: Alex Brzezicka.

Photo: Patrick Gunning.

L

atitude may be a family-friendly enterprise, but among all the festivities and glittered-up adolescent faces happy to finally go out big, there’s Shame. A band whose new album ‘Drunk Tank Pink’ puts to bed any illusions on the messed-up state of things and directs a stream of post-punk consciousness to society’s most vulnerable spots. Now, after they’ve victoriously come back from Seven Circles of Isolation Hell, Shame are taking a brief break on the bright side; in the sizzling hot sun, we catch up with them to get a full report on their recent voyeurs, new remixes, and kicks to come.

How does it feel to perform ‘Drunk Tank Pink’ live in front of no-distance audience?

Eddie Green: It’s great because it’s so frustrating to have a record released and not be able to really tour it or do anything live with it. We did a socially distanced tour, but it’s difficult to replicate the feeling of playing tour for a full-capacity, no-distance crowd. Very excited for tonight, looks like it could be a pretty big show.

Sean Coyle-Smith: Up to this point, we did one festival show yesterday at Standon Calling. We’ve seen a lot of friends’ bands playing at this festival, but also at the same time people having to pull out; we’re some of the lucky ones, being able to do that.

Looking back at ‘Drunk Tank Pink’, you really deep-dived

14. DORK

into the void and mirrored the worst parts of reality.

What does it take to tap into this kind of mindset?

How did the concept for the album start?

Charlie Steen: We made the virus while we were writing the album, and then we wanted to give it a 4D feel.

Sean: We were kind of ahead of the game. We saw it coming. We did write about isolation, and then everyone was forced, and we were like it worked.

Did you write it all before the pandemic, then?

Charlie Steen: We wrote the record before the pandemic.

The record was written after we finished on a long stretch of touring. I think it was kind of coming to resolve about being static again.

Sean: When we were in the studio, we had just been in Chicago for New Year’s Eve, and we were in the studio two days later in Paris.

When the news first broke, we were holed up in this beautiful mansion studio on the outskirts of Paris. We were lucky; I mean, if it had been delayed by a month or two months, it wouldn’t have happened.

Charlie Steen: We delayed the record; we were sitting on it for like, five or six months.

That was really frustrating, but now we can play. We wanted to be able to, and we did a socially distanced tour.

Three weeks around the UK, places we hadn’t been to before.

That’s great. Everyone now is thirsty for music live.

Eddie: Yeah, I think there was definitely a vibe that people were very grateful to be out again.

Sean: Also, we desperately needed the practice. I think up to a certain point until you play all those songs live, they’re not true. It was always like, ‘is it going to be weird playing our first album tracks

with the new album tracks?’

It’s become second nature but, on that tour, they came to their own. You need time because the way you end up living with songs is not just through recording them and then listening to them afterwards. It’s playing them live. You end up feeling like a lot of things you would have done differently, but at the same time, like you feel closer to the songs than you did.

You’ve recently released remixes of ‘Born in Luton’, can you tell us a bit about that?

Eddie: It was something we really wanted to do because it was probably one of the only songs with a kind of electronic backbone. Over the last few years, we’ve become friends with artists who delve into the more electronic side of things, so it seemed like a pretty obvious thing to do.

Charlie Steen: Big up everyone who did the remixes.

What are your plans for the near future?

Charlie Steen: We’re working backwards. We’re going to be hopefully touring the UK in November, which is going to be good. They’ll be some big shows. In 2022, if things hopefully pick back up, then it will all go back to the way that it was before. And we’ll be doing a lot of travelling. Tour of all the other continents, hopefully.

Charlie, on Friday, you joined Lynks on stage for ‘This Is The Hit’; how did that collaboration come about?

Charlie Steen: I’ve known them since I was like, 14.

They’re from South London.

They went to a different school, but then they moved down into a place called The Rising Sun. That’s next door to the nursing home I used to live in, where we wrote ‘Drunk Tank Pink’. Lynks just send me a message saying, ‘I’ve got this song video remix for

How is the community in London now that the music scene is a kind of going back to life?

Eddie: It’s interesting because the scenes are built on the live aspect around them, so having been in the absence of that for so long, it’s difficult to quantify where the scene is at right now. We’re so out of the loop. We’re not the new kids on the block anymore. People think we’re old now.

Since we’re at a festival,

what’s your weirdest festival memory?

Eddie: One time, at a festival in the Netherlands, we played on an island where there were no cars. After the show, I decided to cycle back to our hotel when I was no fit state to do so but rode it anyway.

I kept falling off the bike into the bushes, and these two people in hi-vis vests, picked me up, asking me why I was really drunk. I was like, ‘well, I’m at a festival’. They were being quite judgmental and a little mean. They walked me back to my hotel, and they gave me all these leaflets.

They turned around, and they had a weird logo on their high

vis vest. Turns out they were a cult. They were trying to indoctrinate me.

Sean: Me and Steen had a proper ET moment at that festival. We thought just because it’s a festival where it’s only bikes, we’re in the Netherlands, that we didn’t need to lock up our bikes. So, someone stole it, obviously, and we spent like three hours literally going around bikes to try and find one that was unlocked. We eventually talked our way back into backstage at four in the morning, and we got a bike. I had to sit on the handlebars, and Steen cycled me home. P

← SPORTS TEAM Obelisk Arena, Saturday.

Photo: Patrick Gunning.

↑ HOLLY HUMBERSTONE BBC Sounds Arena, Saturday.

Photo: Patrick Gunning.

→ SELF ESTEEM Obelisk Arena, Sunday.

Photo: Frances Beach.

↑ THE VACCINES BBC Sounds Arena, Sunday.

Photo: Patrick Gunning.

Problem’ only adds to the illusion, feeling like a Friday night hitting the streets with your most fun girlfriends to talk shit and drink yourself away. As cliche as it sounds, it can be purifying - a point Self Esteem proves well. Her noughties-flavoured pop rides on an unapologetic wave of confidence and star-like stage presence. A proper power move.

Fierce, fab and flamboyant. That’s all you need to know before a first encounter with Scottish sensations, WALT DISCO. James Potter doesn’t

→ BOMBAY BICYCLE CLUB Obelisk Arena, Sunday.

Photo: Patrick Gunning.

waste any opportunity to twirl across the stage, flirtatiously winking at the crowd as a warm-up to their most recent single, ‘Selfish Lover’. It’s an allinclusive deal with limitless nerve, talent and theatrics.

Finishing with a storming’ Past Tense’, Walt Disco leave us wanting for more in the best possible way.

GRIFF appears on stage to a live drum and keys backing that raises the volume while not being too harsh on the nasty Sunday hangovers. Declaring that she’s “never played to a crowd this big”, she’s is

in a similar position to many new artists stifled by restrictions. With them gone, she cements her status as an artist with a name to watch.

Testing the waters, Griff tries out the songs showcased on her recent mixtape while the sun glares down. Instilling a sense of promise for Latitude’s final day, she slays title-track ‘One Foot in Front of the Other’, exciting fans while introducing a new talent to the daytime crowd.

THE VACCINES make a glorious return with their

not-so-secret set in the BBC Sounds tent, riling up a packed out crowd with a definitive discography of indie rock belters. The key moments come in the form of glimpses at new material, though. Having played Latitude four times in the last 10 years, this time around, ‘Back In Love City’ - the title track from their upcoming fifth album - cuts through the anthemic soundscapes with pulsating pop production.

Ever a live force, they succeed in building cascading walls of

sound through thrashing guitars and new discorock elements. Peaking energy levels with ‘If You Wanna’ and spiralling into sprawling with ‘All In White’, The Vaccines succeed in providing a release for casual festival-goers while teasing their new chapter.

Surprise confetti bomb?

Twice? Why not, think BOMBAY BICYCLE CLUB when opening up with ‘Eat, Sleep, Wake (Nothing But You)’ from their most recent album ‘Everything Else Has Gone Wrong’.

After seven-year hiatus, any tricks are allowed

- even covering Selena Gomez’s ‘Lose You To Love Me’ in a beautifully funky way. A jazzed up ‘Feel’ and emotive ‘Is It Real’ really pop live. Bombay Bicycle Club’s buoyant indie to the setting sun is definitely something special.

SHAME have this weird effect on people that makes them go completely nuts. Tonight is no exception. A second after Charlie Steen takes over the BBC Sound tent, charismatic as ever, the crowd go wild. This isn’t a gig; it’s an exorcism, a long-awaited catharsis continued on page 17 S

readdork.com 15.

“Be more curious, stop worrying about what people think” With new material and loads of upcoming shows, Declan McKenna is back in business.

Words: Finlay Holden.

Photo: Frances Beach.

F

ollowing the release of his epic space-rock masterpiece ‘Zeros’ in late 2020, indie icon Declan McKenna is ready and raring to go backstage at Latitude.

After 18 months of feeling somewhat stuck in the water, he is finally able to debut the new material to a physically present crowd.

“It feels good to be here; playing live again has felt a long time coming,” he sighs with relief. “I fell asleep on the bus last night and woke up here – I just stepped out the door and straight into a festival.”

A well-stocked dressing room fridge indicates some nerves may be kicking around his mind, too? “I’m trying to stay relaxed because I don’t want to ruin it for myself,” he answers. “The more you build them up in your head… well, you’ve just got to take them as they come.”

While the light at the end of the tunnel seems to have finally arrived, we’ve all learnt to adapt recently, and so taking these opportunities as they come has become vital for music fans in 2021 - a time when a phone notification can cause huge cancellations.

This means Declan is fixated on nailing this set, his first chance to wow a crowd with fresh and exciting material, although he’s not entirely certain how it’s going to play out

16. DORK

or which new songs will connect.

“It’s hard to say; I think today will give us some idea. It’s been hard to pick a setlist because we have little live experience with these new songs to go off,” he admits. “It takes time to find those unexpected moments that everyone sings along to and everyone jumps on board with in a way that I can’t appreciate yet; those moments tend to shine through fairly quickly.”

There are certainly plenty of moments for fans to jump on board with after memorising lyrics at home – the epic scope of ‘Be An Astronaut’, the chaos of ‘Rapture’, or perhaps the tension within ‘The Key to Life on Earth’ all seem very well suited for a set as cathartic as this. However, an even more current release has presented itself with the naturally chaotic sprawl of new single ‘My House’, an early isolation bop that has just dropped alongside an ambitious visual accompaniment.

The track’s low-key flow is a deliberate contrast to the grandiose aura of his recent record, as he earnestly explains. “I wanted something more instantaneous. A lot of what you hear on this song is the first time I came up with it. It’s got out-of-tune guitars and is a generally bit off-kilter, but I really like to hear that rawness in music. Embracing that side of writing was integral to my music for a long time, just working with whatever I could use to make a song. Coming back to that approach after ‘Zeros’ felt really nice.”

‘My House’ feels like another fast reinvention for Declan, an artist who loves

to express his fondness for musicians who reinvent themselves constantly, like David Bowie – a trait he’s adopted himself. “I just like to reject my previous work! I got into a grand spacerock energy for a long time, then while I was stuck at home, I wanted to embrace this new energy instead. I actually felt a lot more comfortable championing my own production by creating through circumstance like that too.”

The glam-rock

icon has had a more literal influence on the young artist’s mindset moving forward, with a newfound perspective directly informed by a specific quote. “If we’re talking about Bowie, he said that your feet have to be just barely touching the ground for you to make something interesting; that’s so true,” Declan remarks. “I have to not know what I’m doing for the work to be interesting. We all need to be more like a child: be more curious, stop worrying about what people think. Just get out there and ask questions, don’t be afraid of yourself and what you actually want.”

This creative freedom is something that you can expect to translate to these exciting live shows also as epic scale is filtered through a sieve of raw expression that doesn’t try to overthink itself too much. “To some degree, I’m always expressing something important instantaneously. That’s what I’m now embracing with music, shows, videos… everything,” he confirms.

Speaking of live shows, if a slew of summer festivals isn’t enough for you to get your Declan fix, then you’ll be glad to hear of an extensive UK headline tour coming up in September. It’s one where you can not only catch the main man himself, but also some of his favourite rising stars including Wet Leg, CMAT, Alfie Templeman and Georgia.

“I can’t imagine starting out and not being able to get out there and engage with people, finally have that shared music experienced – that was so important for me, I toured religiously for years when I first started,” Declan reflects. “Now that I’m in a position to put on bands that I really want to support, I picked people that I’ve been following and am really excited about. It’s been a weird time for me to figure out what to do with myself, so I’m buzzing for these guys to get out there with me.” P

dripping in strangers sweat and spilt beer. ‘Alphabet’ and ‘Human, For A Minute’ cause mass hysteria, Steen joining his mad comrades in arms and crowd-surfing.

All built-up emotions purged, Shame are onto something big - and they know it.

With two headline acts out of the way, the final

push for Latitude 2021 comes from BASTILLE. With their Reorchestrated project providing reinvigorated energy to their previous material, frontman Dan Smith acknowledges nothing he says can surmise just what tonight means.

An orchestra infuses sombre songs with a

strengthened melancholy and big tunes with a fresh twist. ‘Blame’ mixes marching band vibes with a trap beat, ‘Two Evils’ evolves from a wallowing ballad into an introspective pop track, while more recent ‘WHAT YOU GONNA DO???’ transforms the group into a classic rock outfit.

Latitude’s finale is an expansive show incorporating multiple eras by a multifaceted act. With a new album expected before the end of the year, it’ll be as interesting as ever to see how Bastille choose to apply their talents next time around. P

↑ BASTILLE Obelisk Arena, Sunday.

Photo: Patrick Gunning.

← GRIFF Obelisk Arena, Sunday.

Photo: Patrick Gunning.

↓ SHAME BBC Sounds Arena, Sunday.

Photo: Frances Beach.

readdork.com 17.

Margate WE DO LIKE TO BE BESI DE THE SEAS IDE

Dreamland, Margate

23rd July 2021

Sports Team’s annual bus-based extravaganza has levelled up for 2021.

Words: Jake Hawkes, Liam Konemann.

Photos: Jamie MacMillan.

T

he important thing is, we don’t miss the bus.

Sure, it’s a very close call due to someone deciding to go to the bathroom at the most inopportune moment, but everyone makes it in time, and that’s what matters. The less said about a mad dash across Liverpool Street station carrying two cartons of Signature Brew, the better.

Longtime Sports Team Bus Trip fans will know that in previous years the in-bus temperature has been less than ideal. On the inaugural trip in 2018, there were casualties.

2019 saw a distinct improvement, and now, in 2021, we have two coaches with air conditioning. It putters along and doesn’t do much, but it exists.

Before the doors are continued on page 20 S

18. DORK

“It’s great here, isn’t it? Like a big prison for people who like us, and none of them are allowed to leave”

A

s we stand and watch Rob Knaggs and Alex Rice of Sports Team infamy attempt to roller-skate, we can’t help but wonder: what are we doing with our lives? And yet the hard work of the indie music scribbler never stops, meaning that after a very wobbly couple of laps of the deserted Dreamland roller disco, we finally manage to convince the two of them to sit down and talk to us.

“It’s great here, isn’t it?” says Alex. “Like a big prison for people who like us, and none of them are allowed to leave, which keeps capacity nice and high. This is literally my fantasy – theme park rides, people that love you and free beers!” With that last exclamation, he knocks his entire free beer over the table, coating our recording equipment in a fine film of lager (and we still can’t get rid of the smell – Ed).

“I really like Margate,” says Rob, watching Alex wipe the spillage onto the floor with his hand.

“Henry, Ben and I moved down here, and it’s much nicer than London. Loads of rides and chip shops and arcades, and everyone has a dog. Loads of bands and creative spaces, too – a real home away from home.”

Despite being nicely settled in the very place they were putting on a big gig, Rob, Henry and Ben were still forced by the rest of the band to get a train to London and partake in the ritualistic bus trip which bookends their annual event. “I was reluctant, but it was genuinely lovely,” he admits. “Everyone was having a great time, Bull were playing amazing cover versions of little known songs like Robbie Williams’ ‘Angels’, just lovely stuff. Also, a lot of free beers, and I got to sit at the front and pretend to drive. Plus, only one person smoked on the bus, which is a real win.”

“I was on the other bus,” says Alex, wiping the rest of the beer on his trousers. “The singledecker, a nice calm moment with my thoughts, away from it all.

Just me, Crazy Oli and Cool Ben. I just thought to myself: ‘I’m not going to go to bed later thinking I haven’t had enough fun, or I haven’t drunk enough hot lager on the bus down to Margate, so why not relax for a couple of hours instead?’” And what does he say to allegations that the rest of the band refuse to speak to him? “I had half the band!” He protests, pausing before adding. “Well, Al did leave my bus actually…” P readdork.com 19.

← SPORTS TEAM Rob Knaggs reckons he could take 40 bees in a fight. “I feel like you could get them with a tennis racket,” he brags.

Q+A

Courting How was your set?

Sean Murphy-O’Neill: It’s so nice to be able to get behind the stage after 18 months of doing absolutely nothing. Or on top of the stage, whichever is the correct term. I’m really badly sunburned, though, sort of tomato coloured, so that isn’t great.

Sean Thomas: But the sun was just our spotlight, shining on the gig.

Sean M: That is profound and beautiful; thanks for sharing.

Q+A

TV Priest

How was the gig?

Charlie Drinkwater: Yeah, it was great, really good. *laughs* I don’t know how to respond, I’ve been in my house for so long, and now I’m actually speaking to a person; it’s quite weird!

This is the third seaside town you’ve been to in the past week, what’s been your favourite?

Sean T: We went to Blackpool a week ago today…

Sean M: We went to Blackpool to celebrate my 20th birthday, and we experienced four levels of G-force on the Pepsi Max Big One. It was truly, truly exciting.

Sean T: And then we went to Crosby beach near us.

Less exciting, but a nice beach.

What’s been your highlight of the day?

Sean M: Lowlight was not putting suncream on.

Highlight will be putting moisturiser on this evening.

Sean T: I’m smarter than Sean. You know what I always say to him? Put on suncream. And you know what he doesn’t ever do? Put on suncream.

That doesn’t answer your question, though.

Highlight was probably playing the show; that was exciting. Our last shows were a year and a half ago, and in basements, so this is such a huge step up.

Sean M: You don’t get sunburned in a basement, though.

Sean T: You don’t, but you do get very sweaty.

It was just great today, to hear everyone sing along, and chant our name; that was pretty insane. They didn’t shout Sean, though; they shouted ‘Courting’, whatever that means.

even closed, though, Bull have got out an electric guitar, a snare drum and an assortment of the kind of percussion you might find in a primary school music class - and they’re singing ‘Wonderwall’. Swings and roundabouts, eh?

By the time the bus is weaving its way past the Docklands, a bright green trombone is in the mix.

No, we don’t know either.

Where does one even acquire a green trombone?

20. DORK

How was it being back on stage after all this time?

C: It was really, really fun; I had an absolute fucking blast. I cannot say enough superlative words about how good it was. It was nice to be playing with our friends and to just be with a load of other bands as well. That’s why I got into a band. It’s nice and fun and good.

↑ TV PRIEST TV Priest frontman Charlie Drinkwater admits then when it comes to birds, he “likes a chiffchaff”.

← COURTING If Sean Murphy-O’Neil, frontman of Courting, could bodyswap with any person from a day, it would be Elsa from Frozen. Not sure what we do with that, really.

And why does the lead singer of Bull know how to play ‘Valerie’ on it?

These are the big questions that must be asked. Nevertheless, all the big singalong hits are present and accounted for - ‘A Message To You Rudy’, ‘Mardy Bum’ and, erm, ‘Will You Go Lassie Go’.

We won’t say it’s a blessing when the buses pull into the services at last, but it is worth noting that even the smallest members of the party hit their heads in a rush to get out. Those Signature Brew boxes are looking conspicuously empty though, so perhaps it’s just the pressing need for a comfort break causing the exodus.

M&S salads and Greggs sausage rolls in hand, the Bus Trip attendees mill about inside the services and cluster on the grass outside for some good old fashioned summer fun.

Bull get an increasingly theatrical game of frisbee going. Someone holding a

“Our greatest threat is from Courting. Little known fact is that they were created by the label just in case at any point we’re incapacitated. They’d dress Courting up, and nobody would ever know” ROB KNAGGS, SPORTS TEAM microphone asks a nearby labradoodle for comment.

Sports Team’s Alex Rice confidently informs a fan they have another twenty minutes before the bus leaves. No such schedule exists.

Back outside in the sunshine, someone notes there’d be no way to tell if anyone got left behind.

There are no headcounts, no names to tick off on a clipboard. Team Dork make another ill-timed trip to the

bathroom, and are lucky disaster does not ensue.

The buses press on.

As the convoy of two rattles into Margate, the Bull-led singalong reaches a truly piss-taking volume.

The driver loves us.

Then the atmosphere changes. Even with the windows closed, you can sense the sea air. Someone - in their defence, not a member of the band themselves - plays Sports Team’s ‘Margate’ through

a minuscule speaker. The bus rounds a corner, and then there it is. The sea.

What a sight for sore eyes.

The hordes are released on Dreamland. The rollercoaster is closed, but never fear, Dear Reader.

We’ll get by on the thrill of pure, unadulterated live music alone.

Also, the dodgems are open.

BULL kick off the afternoon, somehow not worn out yet despite having played for an hour and a half on the drive down. It’s very normal that the singer drapes a tea towel over his head while playing. It is!

Now, at this point, it’s worth mentioning that this is not just Sports Team’s Ego Trip. We are here by the grey English seaside to watch some bands, yes, but also to support those in live music who haven’t been able to work during the course of the pandemic. For those who let us rock, we salute you.

Right. Back to the

Why didn’t you get the bus down?

C: I had a hard veto from my wife, who called it ‘the Covid wagon’, so I drove a fan full of gear over instead. But I’ve been twice before, so I feel I’ve had the bus experience. I feel like that was a past life for me, which I’m happy for, but I’m now older, maybe wiser, who knows?

But I’ve progressed now to air conditioning.

How’s being down at the seaside?

C: Normally, I’m just north of London, so I’m loving it. Loving it large, as they say. Haven’t actually seen the sea yet, or maybe I have once? Staff here are lovely as well, four stars on TripAdvisor.

What’s been your highlight of the day?

C: Meeting bands, meeting people, seeing people play.

Something niche though, really into the Formica tables that we’ve got here.

I’m into it. It’s a wipe-clean surface, you can get different colours, it’s nice.

Any plans for the future?

C: We’re writing another album as we speak.

Literally, as we speak this interview will be an ambient track for it. We’re still on Sub Pop, which is great, but we’re doing all the recording ourselves.

We’re just getting ready to play lots, hopefully.

But the new album is really exciting; I’m hoping it showcases some different… motifs? Vibes, let’s say that.

Subscribe to Dork.

Get every issue direct to your door. readdork.com bands.

After JALEN N’GONDA helps everybody chill the hell out with some soothing soul, ENGLISH TEACHER rock up to play latest single ‘R&B’. And others, obviously. Having spent most of their life so far as a band during pandemic times, English Teacher feel so fresh it’s like they’re practically brand new out the box, but that doesn’t mean they don’t know what they’re doing.

Elsewhere, after pints and pizzas and with the sun peeking out from behind the clouds, posses are assembled to take on the dodgems. Rumour has it Sports Team’s Alex Rice was hiding in there alone to avoid talking to Dork, but those reports go unconfirmed. Are we being lied to? You be the judge.

Meanwhile, the sun is shining on COURTING. Maybe a little bit too much for their liking, actually, as frontman Sean

is wearing a vest and can be heard bemoaning his horrifically sunburnt shoulders for the rest of the evening. They don’t get much sun up there in Liverpool. Their energy is irrepressible, though, and alongside ‘Grand National’, Courting play two new tracks - bangers both, naturally.

As DEEP TAN take the stage with their modern new wave, members of Sports Team and Courting engage in some definitely Dreamland-sanctioned backstage roller disco.

The backstage bar is looking a little depleted at this point, so we’ll leave you to draw your own connections there. Then it’s on to TV PRIEST’s sharp-set and some instrumentals from LOS BITCHOS, as the sun starts to go down and the breeze picks up.

Finally, the hour is upon us. Cometh the Bus Trip, cometh the band.

For all we like to tease, SPORTS TEAM

just never disappoint. It helps that they’ve got bangers for days. Kicking off with ‘Here It Comes Again’, Sports Team barrel through recent single ‘Happy (Gods Own Country)’ and the requisite ‘Margate’ with fizzing energy, Alex Rice bounding back and forth across the stage like a wind-up toy.

When Rob Knaggs steps up to deliver his vocal on ‘Long Hot Summer’, Alex “tries something out” and slings Rob’s guitar strap over his head, strumming away.

And he does pretty good, you know? We can’t fault him. Nor can we fault the unmitigated hit parade that forms the rest of the set, from the anthemic ‘Camel Crew’ to snarky ‘Here’s the Thing’ and closer ‘Stanton’. By the time the lights go down, everyone is sweaty, and hoarse, and happy. Who could ask for more?

Live music is back in business, baby. P

“I’m a huge fan of Pale Waves; I love their music, and I love what they do”

22. DORK

The shortlist for the Hyundai Mercury Prize has been announced. The award for the best British album of the year includes a third appearance for Wolf Alice, plus Arlo Parks, BC,NR, Celeste, Laura Mvula and more. The winner will be revealed on 9th September.

Reading & Leeds (28th-30th August) has made a few line-up changes. New acts include Biffy Clyro, who are at the top of the bill, plus Inhaler, Bakar, Holly Humberstone, and Gender Roles, while QOTSA, Wallows and Tate McRae are among the dropouts.

Poppy has announced her new album, ‘Flux’. Produced by Justin MeldalJohnsen and set for release on 24th September via Sumerian Records, the follow-up to last year’s ‘I Disagree’ is described in the press blurb as “another artistic leap”.

If you were to ask us who All Time Low were going to collaborate on a single with this summer, it would have taken an awfully long time before we guessed Pale Waves, but here we are. Words: Steven Loftin. Photo: Nolan Knight.

T

he news of two acts coming together in the name of creating glorious bangers is always - ahem music to our ears. Indeed, the meeting of US pop-punk titans All Time Low and Dork faves Pale Waves couldn’t come at a better time. Finally, the world’s opening up and the sun is shining, but closer to home for Alex Gaskarth and co., they’ve been continually making waves since releasing their eighth album ‘Wake Up, Sunshine’ back in March 2020, as well as dropping recent surprise single ‘Once In A Lifetime’.

Now, with Heather Baron Gracie tagging along for their new track ‘PMA’, we nab Alex for a chat to find out a bit more about how and why these two worlds collided.

And sausages rolls. Obviously.

stemmed from that. That’s where we landed with what the song was about, and because of that, I thought it would be cool to share the crux of the song about loneliness and disconnection, and feature someone else from our world.

The feature came together really well. I’m a huge fan of

We were both vaccinated, and things were starting to lift and return to a little bit of normalcy, so we got to finish the song coming out of quarantine. We got together in the studio out here in LA with our producer Zach; we got to go through everything together in a room, which was my first time since everything

Hi Alex, you’re back! Again!

Another new track, what’s that about?

We’ve been writing for what feels like a body of work.

We still haven’t fully figured out what we’re going to do with that body of work yet, or when it’s going to come out, or in what form, but at the same time we’ve been plugging away making new music, and ‘PMA’ was kind of born of the same, or around the same time as ‘Once In A Lifetime’.

Lovely. What was the decision in getting someone to jump on it?

We realised early on that it would be a really cool song to get someone else involved, and I sort of heard it as a duet. It’s about loneliness and experiencing everything that transpired throughout the pandemic in the lockdown.

I was hesitant to write that song at first because I felt like it was a little bit too easy and a little bit gimmicky.

There are lots of artists writing songs about the pandemic and lockdown, and in some ways, it feels a little bit old hat, and this story has been told, but at the end of the day, these are my unique experiences, and these are my feelings and my thoughts going through it. A big thing was about speaking to the isolation of it all and how disconnected it made everybody feel, and the rising levels of anxiety that

“We actually ended up writing another song together, starting something else...”

ALEX GASKARTH Pale Waves; I love their music, and I love what they do, but we’d never met or worked together on anything before; it was just this beautiful moment. We managed to get in touch because we had some mutual friends in the industry, and I found out that she liked our band, and I obviously loved their band.

It was that nice moment of being like, yeah, this is cool, this is something to work on together. What was really nice was the timing worked out great by the time we got around to actually having her come in and cut the song.

shut down, working with another artist or another band in person. It felt really good.

What was it about Pale Waves, and Heather, that felt like the right fit?

For me, Heather has such a unique voice and brings such a cool thing to anything she lays her hands on. She sounds like no one else; that’s a really cool, unique thing. I have a real soft spot for everything she does in music. I think she’s just super talented, and her band’s great. At the time we were making this music, I was listening to a lot of Pale

Waves’ new album, and it was one of those things where I was just like, I’m a huge fan, we’ve got to work together.

Did you have a moment of mutual admiration then?

It was really fun, we both sat there, and kind of gushed to each other about how much we liked each other’s music.

We gassed each other up so much that we worked on the song, and then we actually ended up writing another song together, starting something else. I think music that’s born of really natural connections and ties like that is always really fun and interesting, so it was cool to dive in and write something together. There’s more in the chamber, and I think we’ll have to go back and finish that at some point, but it was really fun, and the creativity was flowing.

What’s your fave Pales Waves song?

Oh my gosh, we were just talking about this yesterday.

I absolutely love ‘When Did I Lose It All’ from their first record. I was talking to Heather about this, and she was like, ‘Oh that’s cool, nobody ever says that song!’

But I think it’s one of those things where to me, it’s got this quintessential like 80s ballad vibe to it. It just feels like such a moment in time. It feels like it should be on some classic 80s film soundtrack during a sad scene, and it paints such a great picture. I love that one, and then ‘She’s My Religion’ is such a wellcrafted song. I love those two so much.

Did Heather mention her fave All Time Low song?

She did, actually! She texted me the other day, I guess she was diving into our back catalogue for whatever reason, and she sent me a little screenshot of ‘Break Your Little Heart’, and she was like ‘Oh my God, when this record [2009’s ‘Nothing Personal’] came out, I loved this song so much, she was like gassing me up, I felt cool Weirdly, it sounds like recording ‘PMA’ was actually the opposite of what the song’s about?

Yeah, 100%. I thought that was a nice juxtaposition with the themes of the song

and feeling isolated and lonely, and anxious in your loneliness. This whole song is about just sitting around and stewing in your own thoughts, your own swirling anxious thoughts, and in that sense, it was nice to break the fourth wall in certain ways and make the song collaborative and a reflection of getting through those tougher times.

In the song, you mention wasting time watching “Jeopardy and late night tv” - that sounds familiar.

I would find myself just sitting there watching something I knew that I didn’t even care about. I fell into this hole of not watching a series that I actively want to watch; I’m just sitting here watching late-night TV and being like this is really cheesy and telling myself that and be like, I’m not even enjoying this, what am I doing? It’s that sense of killing time, you know what I mean? It felt very purposeless, and I was just floating from moment to moment and finding something to stare at while I was doing that, but it wasn’t necessarily about actually engaging and investing my time wisely. In the second verse, there’s this line about ‘I don’t mind the fireworks that keep me awake’, and like back in 2020 at the beginning of lockdown there was all this weird stuff - at least in the US news, I don’t know if it was happening in Britain as well? but there were all these weird accounts of people hearing fireworks at night, and there was no reason. It went on for a few months; I was like, why are there fireworks going off in the morning on a Tuesday?

We did not have that!?

You’ve got to Google it; I don’t think that anybody figured out why they did. People just got collectively bored and looking for something to do, again, in lockdown, and caused by the isolation.

But it’s just all these little moments that hark back to that first feeling of, wow, we’re really disconnected, and we really are just kind of killing time here.

What was the epitome of killing time for you, then?

It was kind of early on, to be fair. It was when I got halfway through Tiger King, I was like,

this is absolute trash; what am I doing?! On this weird societal level, it kind of spoke to the whole moment. The entire world was talking about Tiger King, and at the end of the day, when you look back now, it was so dumb.

You’re back on our shores soon, exciting!

I know, it’s unbelievable. Even up to this point, it’s all been sort of a moving target. We’re taking it day by day because obviously, the situation in the UK is different from the situation here in the States and realistically speaking, it all feels fairly tumultuous still. But you know, everything we’re being told is that by then we should be good to come over and we should be good to play these shows. I hope people continue to get vaccinated, and we can make this as safe as possible, and yeah, I’m looking forward to it. We don’t go long without coming to the UK for shows, and it’s been over a year at this point, and I’m jonesing. I miss my homeland, and I miss the energy of those shows.

It’s nice to see that people are so excited and as ready as we are.

What have you been missing about the UK? Oh, man. Gregg’s sausage rolls, big time. Again, the energy of the shows, the UK has always really been not even a second home, like a first home. We got bigger in the UK than anywhere else first; the UK took us in and made our careers something special, and that’s something that we’ve really placed a lot of importance and emphasis on. It feels like coming home. I mean, for me, it literally is, but when we go over and take a stage there, it feels like we’re landing where we’re supposed to be, and that has always felt very special to me. I’m looking forward to seeing my family when we get back over there; most of my family still lives in the UK, so it’s always like a great opportunity for me to pass through everybody’s hometowns and say hi. What else… I mean, a good cold Carling is always a welcome friend in my life. So, sausage rolls and beer! P All Time Low’s single ‘PMA (feat. Pale Waves)’ is out now.

readdork.com 23.

COLUMN

LIFE LESSONS WITH MEZ GREEN FROM LIFE

for an hour or so. Then we come back, I feed her, feed myself and then get showered and sorted to do some writing.

1:00PM During lockdown, I found this was my ideal time to start writing or demoing, so at 1PM, you can usually find me with a guitar in my hand looking at a blank Ableton project. If I’m writing for Vistas, I tend to spend a day on the writing of the track and then a day on the demo. I spend a good few hours working away on stuff till I’ve got something I’m happy with, which I’ll revisit later in the day.

THIS MONTH...

It bangs like a buck...

Gigs, I’ve done a ton, but last week was the first in 16 months. You can’t negate live music. You can’t drum it out of the world. My body was convulsive and jerking like a continual dream of junk. I sunk into the stage and bounced back up like a rocket taking off. I closed in on the mic like a thirsty goose ready to cut loose with my best friends; who scissored the air with their limbs and noise-drenched instruments. The crowd; fizzing like a shook-up bottle of pop. The air is humid as it cloaked us all like a warm damp cloth. The recharge was completed. Music was back, and it banged like a buck from a double-loaded shotgun.

Gigs, I’ve done a ton, but last week felt like it did all those years ago; it was feral, joyous and oozing with excitement. The chatter, the hum, the community and the noise; it was like water over rocks. The intake of faces through rapid eye movement was bliss as everyone lit up like lanterns. Hands turned, as souls danced like fireworks with never-ending fuses. The recharge was completed. Music was back, and it banged like a buck from a double-loaded shotgun.

Gigs, I’ve done a ton, and I can’t wait to do a ton more, so open up the gates and let live music bolt like a wild pony running for the first time. I want to hear the floors vibrate and the walls shriek in ecstasy because their fabric has been sex starved for far too long. I want to see it all ignite and burn bright, with such a euphoric fever that the flame can never be doused. The recharge is complete, music is back, and it bangs like a buck from a doubleloaded shotgun. P Listen to 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.

24. DORK

5:00PM Try to do a bit of exercise if I can muster up the willpower! I’ve never ever experienced a runners’ high, and I’m convinced it’s a myth, but I do what I can. I do think it makes a difference for clearing your head when you’ve been looking at a screen all day and helps me sleep better.

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF...

Vistas 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. Here’s what Prentice Robertson from Vistas’ day looks like.

8:30AM The soothing sound of Apple’s Springtide alarm tone attempts to pull me out of sleep and usually get snoozed till 9ish.

I try to switch up my alarm sound every few weeks, so I’m really into

the back catalogue of alarm presets now. Then I’ll nip downstairs and rub my dog’s tummy and get some coffee brewing.

10:00AM This part of the day is usually spent doing

all the non-rock’n’roll parts of being in a band. Emails, looking at promo plans, sorting out your diary etc. Recently what’s been quite exciting is actually booking hotels for tours again; it’s

funny what you miss in lockdown!

11:30AM I usually take my dog out around this time. I live next to a massive forest, so we head in there where she can run riot

7:00PM Time for some scran. I’m not the best cook, so I’m mainly on the dishes (which, weirdly again, I actually really quite like doing).

9:00PM This is when I’ll revisit what I’ve been working on that day because I get a bit of a second wind after dinner. So I’ll listen back to the voice note/demo of what I was working on and then spend a bit of time tweaking wee parts and making notes of what I want to change when I’m back at my computer the next day.

11:00PM Watch a bit of TV or play some PS4, and then fall asleep with my bedside light still on because my eyes shut without me realising.

Vistas’ album ‘What Were You Hoping To Find?’ is out 20th August.

Bangers.

THE BEST NEW TRACKS

Bloxx

Sprints

A tune that includes what Fee Booth describes as “the best bass riff I ever wrote”, ‘Magnet’ is wonderfully retro in a glam 80s rom-com way. The titular magnet is a metaphor for a dysfunctional relationship, where you clash but are still hopelessly attracted. Which sounds awful, to be honest. Probably better to give that one a swerve, guys. Keep an eye (ear?) out for Bloxx’s upcoming EP, ‘Pop Culture Radio’.

You know who gives good sass? Karla Chubb from Sprints. The band’s recent EP ‘Manifesto’ is one of 2021’s best opening gambits, and now they’re following it up with ‘How Does The Story Go?’. A track about the sacrifices you make to pursue a career in the arts (“Friends are emigrating, buying houses, growing older and maturing, whatever that means”), it’s two and a half minutes of being well and truly fed-up, but in a way that doesn’t leave you in a mess on the floor come the end.

Magnet

James Blake Say What You Will

The best thing about James Blake is when he does something a bit funny, like the video for ‘Say What You Will’. The track itself - an early-ish teaser from new album ‘Friends That Break Your Heart’ is all fine and what have you, if a bit bleak, but the accompanying clip? That’s a good ‘un. It stars Finneas repeatedly getting in the way and obliviously stealing James’s thunder, you see - he’s not even safe at the urinal. Brilliant.

How Does The Story Go?

Remi Wolf Liquor Store

It’s our fave, Remi! The lead single off her debut album, due later this year (!!!), ‘Liquor Store’ is straight up there in our ‘top seven Remi Wolf songs’ list. Which, granted, sounds a bit shit, but it’s only because she’s released SO MANY bloody good songs.

And we haven’t said where in the top seven it is, have we?

No. It’s a wonderfully sweary cut (yes, we do always say that) about grappling with sobriety that’ll have you smashing the repeat clicker like no one’s business.

Caroline Polacheck Bunny Is A Rider

According to our Cazza, ‘Bunny Is A Rider’’s titular character is “slippery, impossible to get ahold of”.

She can’t even be located via satellite, and goes AWOL on Thursdays. Bunny definitely is the one who deals with paying the invoices, isn’t she?

Still, her song is pretty damn good, we’ll give her that.

Bastille

Give Me The Future

MAY-A

Central Station Wonder from Down Under MAY-A’s latest is all about a missed connection on a train - musing about what could have been with a hot stranger. Obviously, she’s never heard of those creepy letters in the commuter free-sheets. “I saw you on a train when I was supposed to be texting my girlfriend.

I think I prefer you, though, and am sure this anecdote isn’t at all making me sound a bit like an utter rotter.

Drink?”

Who doesn’t love a good all-encompassing concept?

For their next chapter, Bastille are looking to the future, and we’re very here for it. Futuristic new coats?

Check. Futuristic new sounds? Check. Including the word “Future” in a song title? Check. It’s so much more fun than when bands are like, “this one’s about my recent break-up.” Yawn.

No wonder they left you, mate. Dan Smith explaining that “the spaceship sound at the start? It’s us crash landing in the future”?

Perfect.

Lorde

Stoned At The Nail Salon

Holly Humberstone Please Don’t Leave Just Yet

Being honest, it doesn’t really sit that well with our loose moral code too much to spend a whole track write up talking about how a song is co-written with some himbo from a band or whatever. Safety wink here. So for once, let’s not. No offence, Matthew.

Holly Humberstone yet again manages to pull the emotional strings like an experienced master of the arts. She’s special. So’s this.

Coldplay Coloratura

The latest taster of Coldplay’s new album is over ten minutes long.

Coldplay. More than ten minutes. TEN MINUTES. Coldplay! COLDPLAY! Over ten minutes! Of Coldplay!

Ten! One Zero! Ten! Of Coldplay! Five minutes, and then another five minutes, and then another 18 seconds! Of Coldplay!

The band Coldplay! Over ten minutes of them! Coldplay!

COLDPLAY! COLDPLAY!!!

Lil Nas X

INDUSTRY BABY (ft.

Jack Harlow)

We’re going to take issue with ‘INDUSTRY BABY’, Dear Reader. While it may be concerned with Lil Nas X’s journey in ‘the game’, it’s in no way representative of life in the music industry. 0% of the lyrics are about emails, follow-up emails, follow-up to follow-up emails, or passive aggressive social media posts about someone not responding to emails.

It’s still very good, obviously - you should check it out, ICYMI. Get back to us.

At the ‘time’ of ‘press’, we as in Dork, the magazine you are reading - haven’t heard Lorde’s new album ‘Solar Power’. By the time you read this, you might have. It’s out a week after this issue drops, anyway. Still - it’ll probably be good, right ?

Has to be. It’s Lorde. The second taster of the record, ‘Stoned At The Nail Salon’, is obviously a lovely time - less direct and immediate than the album’s title track - a solid gold sunshine bop, but a very nice thing to have all the same. Nailed it. (Sorry)

The Linda Lindas Oh!

Ok, so, this is going to sound a bit weird when you first read it, but our descriptive powers are absolutely, 110% spot-on, and it will all make sense one you’ve heard the track.

‘Oh!’, the new single from teen punk darlings The Linda Lindas, is basically Lil’ Chris through a riot grrrl filter. Which, just to be clear, is a compliment of the highest order. It’s bratty, filled with hooks, and absolutely impossible to dislodge from your brain-radio once you’ve given it a spin.

readdork.com 25.

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. The thing about Martyn, you see, is he’s not swayed by your safe, sanitised opinions.

He’s living his best life, loving what he loves, unconcerned by your boring, identikit truths. 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.

PLEASE NOTE: All opinions are those of Martyn Young and in no way represent Dork as a whole. We’re very sorry.

This month...

The top 10 ‘frontpeople’ in ‘bands’.

2. Karen O. Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

Now we come to a true legend of the indie-rock game. You don’t need me to tell you why Karen O is so amazing. A true force of nature who will provoke every emotion under the sun, she has mastered whip-smart punk aggression, and tender heartbreaking laments with ease while leading her band Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Oh, also, while I’m here, please come back Yeah Yeah Yeah’s. We need you.

1. Ellie Rowsell.

Wolf Alice.

When you’re creating lists, there are lots of factors that go into it. For example: Who fits the rules? Who can I remember? Who has a strong legacy? Who will annoy fellow members of the Dork team the most (this one’s not true.

Maybe.)? But ultimately, perhaps the main consideration is what is happening right NOW, and right now, there is no greater frontperson in all of music than Ellie Rowsell. Ellie is the leader of the greatest band on the planet at the moment, so she rightly takes her place atop the frontperson mountain where she can oversee everyone while Wolf Alice go on to ascend new heights.

26. DORK

3. Matty Healy.

The 1975.

Yes, it’s him again. One day there will be a list that he doesn’t make it onto, but it can’t be this one.

Obviously. If he swapped places with Ross, though?

Yeah, maybe.

7. Alex Rice.

4. Gerard Way.

Sports Team.

A modern-day folk hero and two-time Dork cover star along with his Sports Team partners, Alex Rice is an enigmatic conundrum that is both chaotic, charming and unexplainable in equal measure, but we love him for it. He also has particularly lovely luxurious long hair. Just wait until the pop star haircuts slot comes along, Ricey. Your day on top will come.

My Chemical Romance.

There was a time not so long ago, three years and seven months to be exact, when I did not truly believe in the talents and wonders of Gerard Way and his band My Chemical Romance. I just thought ‘Welcome To The Black Parade’ was a good song. Oh, and ‘Teenagers’ too. That’s a really good song. How foolish was I? Gerard is obviously a legend, and he represents a new breed of frontman. Electric onstage and thrilling on record Gerard is constantly compelling and firmly deserves his place in the Top 5.

WTF? Okay, so we don’t all agree. Here’s some official challenges to this month’s list.

5. Hayley Williams.

Paramore.

Hayley is a modern-day icon responsible for influencing almost every band who ever read about in these hallowed pages. And rightly so. Her band Paramore’s legacy both endures and grows stronger by the year, while Hayley herself has branded out to do her own solo stuff while working strictly on her own terms. An inspiration to us all.

In many ways, Martyn is not too far off here. Karen O is The Best, but second spot to Ellie is okay, and leaving out the pre-millennial sacred cows is just fine by me.

Have to be honest, though whatever vendetta is keeping out chief Monkey Alex Turner is a nonsense. If the job of a good frontperson is to command the limelight, that shifting crossAtlantic accent alone deserves our respect. The man is box office.

Stephen Ackroyd, Editor

8. Olly Alexander.

Years & Years.

Dearest Olly is such a good frontperson that earlier this year, he took over his band and became Years & Years all on his own. They’re all still pals, though, don’t worry. It wasn’t anything dodgy. It makes sense for Olly to be at the front on his own, though because he’s a) incredible and b) he has been forging a new way for the last decade for how to be a pop frontman and do it with impeccable style while looking like you’re having the most fun of anyone ever in the world

Ignoring the fact that buggering off to launch your own (very successful) solo endeavour probably actually makes you not the best frontperson when you really think about it, this list is missing a super obvious icon that has changed the shape of both rock and pop throughout their lengthy career: Gwen Stefani.

Felicity Newton, writer Martyn’s forgotten Beyonce was in a band, hasn’t he?

Sam Taylor, writer Disagree? Email your own suggestions, or abuse to us at toptens@readdork.com. We’ll include the best ones in next month’s issue.

9. Calvin Harris.

Not a frontperson, I hear you cry! Well, hear me out.

If it was Acceptable In the 80s, it’s also acceptable in Dork. Calvin is his own frontperson. And he used to have a band back in the day. C’mon, Calvin, get back to the front of the stage. Where you belong. Oh, and make some of those funny YouTube videos as well.

Look them up. Dead good.

6. Ricky Wilson (and his dog).

Kaiser Chiefs.

Ah, the tricky number 6 spot.

Always a difficult one to fill. There’s woaaaahhhhhhhnly one man who can rise to this challenge, and it’s the frontman of Kaiser Chiefs and ex-star of The Voice Ricky Wilson. In many ways, Ricky is the ideal frontman. He’s gobby, ridiculous and has an at times questionable dress sense.

As you’ve seen at festivals this summer, he also is still great on stage and can still command a crowd. Most importantly, though, and this is a game-changer, he has an incredible dog. Look at the size of his dog. Amazing.

10. Jake Shears / Ana Matronic.

Scissor Sisters.

Two front people for the price of one to finish off and what a pair they are. Scissor Sisters at their prime were amazing and well overdue for a comeback. If you don’t feel like dancing, then maybe you should listen to some Scissor Sisters, or maybe you can take your mama out instead and show her what it’s all about.

readdork.com 27.

NEW ARTISTS. NEW MUSIC.

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Jany Green is about to drop a new EP, with ‘Lost In Love’ set for release on 20th August. The news arrives alongside ‘Magic (w/ Kenny Beats)’, of which Jany says: “I’ve admired Kenny Beats for a long time. Working with him was a real a goal of mine.”

The nominees are out for this year’s Rising Star Award at the Ivor Novello Awards. Vying for the prize are Allegra, Holly Humberstone, Kamal., Rachel Chinouriri and Willow Kayne. The winner will be announced on 21st September.

Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard have a new show planned at Cardiff Castle on 27th August as part of the city’s post-pandemic recovery plans. Frontman Tom Rees says: “It feels only right that we should make a massive overstep and play the biggest venue we could get our hands on.”

Wet Leg

Need your musical muffin buttered? With quite probably the debut single of the year already on their scorecard, meet indie’s Next Big Thing™.

Words: Jake Hawkes. Photo: Frances Beach.

I

t’s been a bit quiet for new bands of late.

We’re not sure why, but there have definitely been less of them around, cluttering up the function rooms of local pubs and the basements of sweaty venues. It might be because lockdown rules made it illegal for existing bands to practise together, and impossible for new people to meet. Or it could be because the complete lack of gigs over the last 18 months has meant no income and no end-goal for a new group to aim for (hint: it’s all of those things.)

With this in mind, we were even more excited than usual when Isle of Wight duo Wet Leg announced themselves to the world, seemingly fully-formed and ready to remind the world just how exciting new music can be.

First off, they’re signed to Domino, home of niche but well-loved indie rapscallions Arctic Monkeys, among others. Added to this, their debut track ‘Chaise Longue’ is one of the catchiest, smartest songs we’ve heard in a long time, and we hear a lot of songs. So, like the giddy fans we are, we decided to give them a ring and find out a bit more about the Isle of Wight’s latest and greatest musical export ahead of their first gig since lockdown began, at Latitude Festival.

“We did actually form before everything shut down,” Rhian Teasdale, one half of the band, says when she picks up the phone on the first day of a heatwave the Met Office later labels as ‘extreme’. “I was doing

Wet Leg’s favourite furniture.

Here at Dork, we’re always asking the big questions, drilling deeper than any other publication dares to. So of course when a band releases a song called ‘Chaise Longue’, we had to ask them what their favourite items of furniture were…

Chaise longue Hester: “We have one in the flat, but it isn’t actually very comfortable because it’s so old.

Rhian: It also has loads of mic stands underneath it, although I don’t know if it’s them that make it uncomfortable or if it’s just lumpy. A chaise lump.

A stool Hester: I like a stool because you can stand on them to reach the top shelf in the cupboard. I’m quite short, so it’s very beneficial to have in your life.

1970s brown velvet modular sofa Rhian: I got one of these for £100 on Wightbay, which is like eBay but for the Isle of Wight, obviously.

It’s practical, it’s comfortable, and it’s very good.

some solo stuff, which started to not be very fun, and someone suggested that I ask Hester [Chambers, the second half of the duo] if she’d come and play with me, but I just didn’t think she’d want to do it. Then I had these festivals I was meant to go to on my own, and driving around on your own, being there without anyone else, it just isn’t very fun. So I asked Hester, she said yes and then we had the most awkward band practice of all time where we were both just really scared of each other.”

“Rhian terrified me!” laughs Hester.

“I think we had maybe five gigs before all of this madness happened, and four of those were on the Isle of Wight,” continues Rhian. “We managed to record ‘Chaise Longue’ just before lockdown, and then somehow along the way, we got signed to a huge label? It’s all very hard to internalise. Very weird, and very nice! Honestly, I think we’re both looking forward to playing Latitude so that we can finally rip the band-aid off. There’s been so much chat and hype, so it’s very exciting and making us very nervous. It’ll be nice to go to one of the first festivals in over a year though, it’ll have a really interesting energy.”

“Plus, we get to have fun and go to gigs, all in one go,” Hester chips in.

The excitement to see other bands play isn’t just a result of lockdown, but also a lifetime spent on the Isle of Wight. Cut off from the mainland by the most expensive ferry trip per

“I keep looking at our schedule and waiting for someone to pinch me” HESTER CHAMBERS mile in the world, it may be geographically close to the rest of the UK, but for a teenager with limited funds it may as well be in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.

“I think it works out at an extra twenty quid or so for the ferry if you want to see a gig,” says Rhian. “That doesn’t sound like too much, but what sixteen year old has forty quid to spend on a gig ticket and transport? I definitely didn’t.”

“Plus, if you wanted to get the last boat home, you’d have to leave the gig early,” adds Hester. “It’s definitely a strange place to grow up because of that sense of disconnection. But I do think that the music scene is a very wholesome thing. It’s full of wonderful young people and, because there’s not much to do here, people get pushed together through music. A lot of different and lovely stuff comes from that, and it’s always been like that for us growing up. So the island has influenced us in that

way, as well as through the isolation and inconvenience.

Having said that, we’re also influenced by a lot of bands who aren’t from here, so we do have to go across the water occasionally.

“There is one good venue actually, it’s called Strings, and it’s in Newport.

It’s a good place to play, a good place to see a band, and most importantly, it looks like the Bronze, the nightclub in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. So the options are travel to the mainland or try to convince bands that Strings is a worthwhile touring spot.”

“Either that or wait for them to play the Isle of Wight festival,” laughs Rhian. “We have to get our fix of music for the year in that three-day period, and then there are no more gigs for another twelve months.”

If the gigs won’t come to you, the only alternative is to go to them – which seems to be exactly Wet Leg’s plan, if their touring schedule is anything to go by. A slot at Sports Team’s Margate bus trip was pulled due to a clash with Latitude, but supports for Declan McKenna and Jungle are still set to go ahead. “I keep looking at our schedule and waiting for someone to pinch me, if I’m honest,” says Hester. “We’re a little baby band, and we’re trying to wrap our heads around being asked to support all these bands that are up on this pedestal as far as we’re concerned.”

Despite the modesty on their part, there’s no question in our eyes that Wet Leg are soon going to be a Very Big Deal Indeed.

We know, don’t count your chickens before they hatch and all that, but with a debut single as cracking as theirs, it really does feel nailed on. It seems we’re not the only ones getting excited, with Chaise Longue getting regular radio airplay and blanket coverage which even reached publications in New York. In true rock’n’roll style, this unexpected success was celebrated with… a beach barbecue.

“It was an eventful barbecue, though!” says Rhian. “After it was done, we wanted to make a little campfire, and I decided to tip out the hot coals onto this pile of wood we’d made, to really get it going. So I pick up the barbecue, and I’m all full of myself like ‘this is a pretty cool idea’.

I charge over to the wood holding the barbecue and just put my foot in the sand where the barbecue has been for several hours, and when I turn round to see why my foot is so hot, I realise I’m just in this glowing red sand! So yeah, we had a pre-recorded Radio 1 interview, and I listened to it with my foot in the sink for about four hours, hoping I hadn’t permanently crippled myself.”

“It was so gnarly!” says Hester. “Rhian was so cool about it, real rockstar stuff.”

“I’ve actually got fresh skin coming through now, which looks more beautiful than my skin has in years,” says Rhian. “So if the band doesn’t work out, I’m going to become a beauty therapist and get people to walk on burning hot sand.

No pain, no gain.” P readdork.com 29.

Swim

Swim School are breaking out of Edinburgh with their debut EP. Words: Finlay Holden. Photo: Patrick Gunning.

Steam Down Described as “a collective, a club, and a genuine movement”, London’s Steam Down formed in May of 2017, born of founder Ahnansé desire to find a way to reconnect to a community.

Based around a railway arch bar in South London - soon home to a weekly jam-night - it developed to become a lightning rod for a whole group of artists, set to release a new EP ‘Five Fruit’ on 24th September.

N

ew kids on the block Swim School bring together an anthemic indie grounding and an atmospheric dreampop glaze that makes their newest offering, the ‘Making Sense Of It All’ EP, an emotionally charged masterclass of new-rock dominance.

Working out of Edinburgh, each of the four members offers their own dish of finely cultivated experience - including new drummer Billy McMahon, who was recently pinched from another act to bring over not only his skills but a unique perspective.

Watching your future bandmates from the barrier must be a strange memory to reminisce on?

“I’m the only one in the band who’s seen Swim School from the fan’s perspective. They’ll never see themselves from the barrier,” he chuckles. “Their first gig was supporting my last band, and I’ve seen them buzzing around the Scottish music scene… they were a band that just strolled on and were unbelievable live.”

Guitarist Lewis Bunting also appreciates the sense of ambition from within Swim School, as the sheer scope of their sound stands tall.

On what sets them apart, he opens by jesting that, “one big difference is that people

30. DORK

School

actually like Swim School, which is a great place to start.”

The third member of our Zoom call, frontwoman and singer Alice Johnson, is still discovering her own abilities as part of her first-ever band.

“I wasn’t even a singer before this,” she reveals. “I used to go to all these gigs and see soundchecks and just soak it all up. I thought it was so cool and knew I’d love to be part of this scene.”

With punchy vocals that permeate through gorgeously reverb-soaked landscapes on recent singles like ‘Outside’ and ‘Anyway’, showings of immense prowess brush aside a low gig count. “If you listen to our last song before the new chapter of Swim School, the vocal change on the newer stuff is massive,” she adds, and it is clear that the last 18 months have had a big impact here. “It pushes your confidence if each time you write a song, you’re questioning: can I pull this off?”

Even with experience, it can be difficult to discover a collective identity with

internal and external events persistently reshuffling the cards to play with, and pushing boundaries has led to a transmutation of the Swim School singularity. “It was always an indie-pop band,” Billy notes, “but we knew the next chapter was going to be naturally quite dark. We released ‘Let Me Inside Your Head’ at midnight and woke up categorised as a rock or grunge band.”

“We’re a completely different band to what we were when we first went into lockdown,” Alice chimes in.

“The way we sound, the way we look, even our line-up; it’s all paid off. It feels like Swim School’s just started.

Are we a rock band now?” she laughs.

As with any group starting out, a lot of the same comparisons - or ‘for fans of’ suggestions – are likely to crop up; here, Foals and Wolf Alice seem a good place to start as any.

“Basically, we’re Tesco Value Wolf Alice,” Alice snickers.

“Ellie [Rowsell] is the reason I’m even in a band; I owe everything to her.”

“Basically, we’re Tesco Value Wolf Alice” ALICE JOHNSON

The ‘Making Sense Of It All’ EP explores the rollercoaster journey of mental health through specific events of the last year, with responses to significant moments constructing a time capsule for this second chapter in the quartet’s career to date.

“We went through lots of ups and downs as a band,” they collectively disclose. “That’s just life in general, isn’t it?

Nothing goes according to plan, but that journey is what helps you develop.”

Employing the chaos of life as fuel for the fire of progress is just one example of the dedication committed by all four musicians in Swim School, and they’ve worked tirelessly alongside exhausting jobs in various public-facing roles to pay the bills (how relatable, huh?).

With the foursome destined for imminent glory, this effort seems worthwhile.

“As people, we are hard

workers and are driven by the fact that this is what we want to do with the rest of our lives – we put every single ounce of energy we possess into this band, and it pays off,” Alice enthuses. “If you’re working on something and you don’t think it’s the best you’ve done, or you’re not even particularly keen on it, what’s the point?”

Maintaining this mindset sounds tiring, but she says that, “for every song I question how we’re going to top it, but I’ve always been proud of the result. In all honesty, we never know what we’re going to write.

Whenever we go into a room, we come out with the complete outside of what we expect. We have no idea what songs going to come next, and that’s probably the most exciting part of being in this band.” P Swim School’s ‘Making Sense Of It All’ EP is out 20th August.

Evann McIntosh 17-year-old singer-songwriter Evann McIntosh wrote and recorded their new project ‘Character Development’ largely in their own suburban Kansas bedroom. A mix of R&B, alt-pop, hip-hop, jazz and funk, it’s a sparky, fresh and unique collection that centres itself around growth and change. “I’m always evolving, and this project is the sound of that transformation, of one version of myself giving way to the next,’ Evann explains.

You can check it out yourself from 27th August.

Magdalena Bay LA-based indie popsters Magdalena Bay are setting up well for the release of their debut album ‘Mercurial World’ this October. At the time of press, they should just have dropped a brand new track, ‘Secrets’, and had co-signs from the likes of Pitchfork, The Fader and The New York Times. Enough of the industry ticksheeting, though - real life couple Mica and Matt make the sort of dreamy, high definition, modern pop music that exists in the present but echoes in the future.

Lowertown have announced plans for a brand new EP. Titled ‘The Gaping Mouth’, the new release will arrive on 16th September via Dirty Hit. “It’s sort of about looking into that darkness, that scary place,” Olivia Osby from the duo explains.

L’objectif are celebrating the release of their debut EP ‘Have It Your Way’ with two new headline shows, including their debut London billtopper: Leeds’ Hyde Park Book Club on 30th September, and London’s The Fiddler on 27th October.

Fletcher has made some changes to the UK leg of her 2022 tour. The rising popster has announced new dates in Birmingham and Liverpool, as well as a second London show at O2 Forum Kentish Town and an upgrade of her Bristol date. Visit readdork.com for the details.

Dylan Fraser

Scottish teen Dylan Fraser is a fan of mixing it up.

Words: Finlay Holden.

Photo: Rory Griffin.

D

ylan Fraser is Scotland’s latest music export destined for nationwide domination, but his arrival is certainly not as sudden as it might seem.

Hailing from a suburban town between cities, Dylan grew up in Bathgate, something of a musical trench that forced him to turn inwards for inspiration.

“The best thing about growing up here was the space and time I had,” he calmly reflects after a year of bouncing between London studios and his childhood bedroom, a situation experienced by musicians across the globe this past year.

This pursuit of the big city has been a lifelong ambition for the young artist; while Dylan had to turn to the internet to find his influences, this life online allowed him to selfmanifest a career in music and propel his ventures forward.

“I started my own social media company when I was in college, and I used the money I was making from that to come to London,” he humbly reveals.

“I started taking any studio session I could get, networking and meeting people - labels started to take notice of the music I was making, and it all started to spiral from there.”

Capitalising on his own drive has allowed Dylan to realise the dreams of his three-year-old self, not only establishing himself as a promising young musician but in fact exploding onto the scene with 2020’s debut single ‘Vipers’, a track from his thrashing ‘The Storm’ EP. In a year of inactivity for many, Dylan had his busiest one yet in terms of industry experience, releases and focused growth. Going into the pandemic (won’t mention it again, promise) as a kid chasing his dream, he has blossomed into an expansive and progressive new artist on the block. He confides: “I’ve

played gigs in the past, but it was just me and my guitar, and for the most part, I was just singing other people’s songs, none of the new stuff I’m releasing now.”

A ‘Wonderwall’ cover act seems a world away from the multi-faceted creative speaking to us over Zoom.

Not conforming to any specific sound, Dylan has eluded the stamp of any one individual identity across his discography to date, which already flexes propulsive electronic beats, shimmering and subdued guitar moments and even deeply hypnotic pop environments that he carefully trims like a delicate gardener of soundscapes.

“I didn’t intentionally set out to explore a bunch of different genres; it just happened. One day I wanted to do a folk song, the next,

I wanted a Nine Inch Nails track,” the 19-year-old reminisces. “I can’t seem to tie myself to one sonic. My music is always just a bunch of thoughts and feelings; it’s a big brain fart of everything I’m going through and everything I want to talk about.”

Grasping at pillars of influence as appropriate for each track, Dylan’s initial steps are introspectively informing thematic commentary in his grand, newfound reality. Genre abandonment is allowing these deliberate musings to radiate a timeless feel, one not bound by the scene of 2021 in which they are dropping. As Dylan

“My music is always just a bunch of thoughts and feelings; it’s a big brain fart” DYLAN FRASER

explains, “the most timeless songs are emotions, feelings and thoughts that everyone could relate to and still can now. If you’re honest and real, there are going to be people out there that feel the exact same as you.”

One unforeseen benefit of this unbound perspective is an aura of intrigue, which Dylan picks out as a key characteristic of his musical heroes. “My favourite kind of artists are the ones that make me stay up until midnight to hear their new track because I

have literally no idea what it’s going to sound like,” he observes. “The best artists show all sides of themselves; it’s not like they can just do one thing. I want to do the same. I never want to be predictable. One of my favourite things to do is just play around and see what works and what doesn’t.”

Tremours of tension are perhaps the one foundational element that is consistent across Fraser’s efforts so far, which he justifies with a quick rebuttal: “I am pretty intense!”

This much is obvious, as recent track ‘Nightmares’ – the first glimpse of a new EP – lays out. An accompanying video instils the sense of unease that the song is brimming with; uncertainty and desperation is expelled from the driving and anthemic chorus that clearly serves as an act of catharsis for the songwriter.

“The song is about me feeling this anxiety that just builds and builds and builds, then suddenly I have one week where I’m all over the place,” he describes. “It’s about one of those weeks where I’m totally out of it but still have things coming at me from all angles; it’s just overwhelming, and I don’t know how to process everything going on around me. It all seems chaotic – like a nightmare.”

A claustrophobic scene shows Dylan trapped within some sort of anonymous, sterile facility that keeps him trapped in a loop. “I’m stuck in a cycle that I can’t escape from – like in my head,” he unveils with a smirk. “I really tried to make this one a journey by introducing different sounds at the right time. A lot of my favourite artists like Radiohead do that; the songs are more than just a song, they take you through all these different places – I describe it as an experience, just like a movie.”

Evidently, a passion for

imagery is as present and nurtured as the attention put into the sonic elements of this track. Running a string of Instagram photography and meme accounts has evolved into a mature appreciation for fashion and sharp visuals. He perks up with excitement at this topic. “It’s really important for me to be able to piece together my work as a whole – being an artist is all about the art, and that encapsulates music, fashion, imagery, videos… all of it. I love doing it, and it all comes quite naturally.

Sometimes you start making these things, and the first draft isn’t quite what you’re going for, but you have to trust the process and keep refining. It always works in the end!”

Confidence is shown in abundance here, although the lyrics of this freshest offering disclose anxieties to be expected from an artist as vigorous as Dylan. “I think every creative experiences things pretty intensely,” he explains. “We all go through similar thoughts and anxieties.

That’s why I love songwriting; it gets these thoughts out of my head onto paper – it makes it less chaotic up here and gives me more room to focus. This industry is pretty confusing and lonely, so it’s really refreshing to meet other people going through the exact same things.”

A new master of e-meetings, Dylan has now fortunately been able to physically meet some peers who, despite grafting through similar circumstances, all seem to find their own uniquely strange method of paving their musical career. “There’s no rulebook to creative industries,” Fraser declares.

“You have to learn as you go, and everyone’s path will be completely different, so it can be really difficult and confusing when you compare yourself to other people – you can’t replicate anything that anyone else does. In the music industry, it’s impossible to have a plan because things always happen that you don’t expect.”

P Dylan Fraser’s EP ‘THE WORLD ISN’T BIG WHEN YOU KNOW HOW IT WORKS’ is out 10th September.

readdork.com 31.

Glaive

With his new EP ‘all dogs go to heaven’ just landed and a heap more to come, Glaive has the potential to become one of hyperpop’s breakout stars.

Words: Martyn Young. Photo: Lani Parrilla.

“I

’m obsessed with music.

Everything about music is the best thing in the world.”

These are the words of a young kid for whom the whole world of possibilities and inventions and hopes, dreams and inspirations is spilling out in front of them. Glaive is only 16, and he’s not concerned with the baggage of the past or conventional wisdom of how you should do something. No, no, Glaive has only one concern.

To be the absolute best musician he can be making exactly the music he wants to make. There are no boundaries and no sound, no matter how strange is off-limits. Welcome to the new generation.

Glaive’s passion for music has taken him from making experimental beats in his bedroom to well, making more expansive and mindbending alt-pop songs while still in his bedroom.

But his bedroom is of central importance. “This is where I do everything,” he exclaims. “It’s crazy.”

Indeed, Glaive’s bedroom in his North Carolina home has been turned into a full-time creative hub. For a start, it’s massive and is illuminated by a number of LED strip lights that give it a piercingly bright glow. The walls are covered with writing and weird art, and general ephemera.

There are cameras and of course, the obligatory computer and workstation.

Glaive, aka Ash Gutierrez’s, whole creative world is encompassed within these four walls. He started out just making music, but this has snowballed into something pretty big pretty fast. “Everything creative has become an obsession,” explains Glaive as he talks in a super endearing mile a minute way. At first, I just did music, and then

32. DORK

everything else would be figured out. If I wanted to do merch, somebody else would do the design. Now I’m like, I have to do the merch, every design that’s come out recently I’ve done. It’s just me sitting in my bedroom doing all of it, including the cover art.” “It’s annoying for other people because I’m doing everything creative that surrounds my stuff, ‘’ he laughs infectiously.

“I love creating so much.

I have Photoshop on my computer, and I’ll just sit there for hours creating. I like designing stuff for fun.”

With school just broken up for the summer, Glaive

the first instance in the last year of the pandemic. The only thing you state with certainty is that life won’t be the same for him again.

“It’s been life-changing,” he says, talking about the last 18 months. Even that sells it short. This has been the best year of my life.

Music went from zero to a hundred. Recently I’ve been doing things that are gonna take it to a whole new level.

I’m very excited.”

The next level stuff he’s talking about is his forthcoming EP ‘All Dogs Goes To Heaven’, which follows last year’s acclaimed ‘Cypress Grove’ release and the huge

“These songs are more fuck you, I’m doing amazing now, I’m feeling great” GLAIVE has a decision to make now as to whether he leaves now and leaves his school days for dust or carries on. He is in the third year of high school in North Carolina. Over her, that is the equivalent toi the year you can leave when you basically have something better to do. We think it’s fair to say that Glaive definitely now has something better to do. “Do I have enough time as I’m starting to do shows now?” he ponders out loud. “The first week I’m due back, I have a festival.”

It’s easy to understand how school suddenly took a backseat. Glaive’s rise up the alt-pop world has been swift and striking. He is now seen as a figurehead of the thriving hyperpop movement, but in truth, you can’t really put a label on the music that he’s making as it’s changing all the time. He only started making music properly in

number of tracks and sonic experiments that he has been dropping online on platforms like SoundCloud along the way. Being online and part of a collaborative community of like-minded artists, musicians, and fans is central to Glaive’s work, and it’s exciting now that things are opening up again for that online buzz to translate into real face to face excitement.

“Online was such a big part, and only now is it becoming a real thing that I can feasibly see,” he says.

“Now I’m going outside, and I’m being recognised, and it’s crazy to see. Online is different, they are just people on the internet, and it’s easy to connect with them, but in real life, you’re able to see what people really are, and it’s cool to see that people like your music and support what you’re doing. That’s been a big thing for me. Wow, it’s translating to real life

5 things you need to know about Glaive...

He has really lovely curly hair His next EP is called ‘All Dogs Go To Heaven’. He says that if there was one dog waiting at the gates to heaven, it would be his dachshund Frizzy.

He says he makes alternative pop music or alternative rap music, but if you want to say he makes hyperpop music, that’s ok too His mum is English and from the Lake District.

He doesn’t know where but says it’s near “the mountain shaped like a saddle” He recommends you watch the Netflix show ‘Love Death Robots’.

“It’s very poignant.

There’s a robot that cleans the ground automatically and then slowly turns into almost killing her.” He also thinks that maybe robots might now be a good thing.”

really well.”

Glaive’s music is a genre-fluid expression of a desire to do things differently. A desire to shake things up and forge your own path. Sometimes the harsh electronic sounds will clang and rub against each other abrasively, and sometimes they will sound sweet and blissed out.

It’s an amorphous, everchanging experience. For Glaive, though, one thing is at the heart of it, and that’s the emotional resonance of his songs and words. These are not sonic experiments but songs rooted in deep impulsive feeling. “I think the words are immensely

important,” he explains.

“I’m not a writer. I don’t sit down and write anything.

I have a song called ‘1984’, and there’s a line where I say, “I wasn’t lying when I said you meant everything to me”. I had that on my phone in May 2020. I wrote that down in my notes and didn’t use it until May of this year. I’ll jot down notes here and there, and whenever they fit in a song, they fit in a song. I’ve never sat down and written anything, but I’ll just go line for line and think up something on the spot. When I’m in a creative flow, I’m not thinking about how deep the lyrics are just making something that feels good.”

His earliest musical grounding was in the brightest and most expressive pop music, and you can still hear that in his music today, albeit in a rather more warped fashion. “I grew up on pop music. Just whatever my mother was playing on the radio. Very catchy sounds, and I think that definitely comes into my music today.

It’s music that gets in your head. I’ve been trying to do that. I got into EDM on youtube when I was 12. I got into SoundCloud through Lil’ Peep. I got really into 100 gecs, and they were a big inspiration. I’m wearing Yung Lean merch right now. Yung Lean was very inspirational with the way the beats were. All that stuff culminated into my music.”

He’s already had some experiences where some of his idols have been in touch with him. “I was a really big fan of the rapper Young Bans. That was my era of Soundcloud. Cole Bennett got in touch with me. I feel like everyone who likes music knows at least one Cole Bennett video.

He’s a legendary guy,” he says excitedly. One celeb connection, though, stands

head and shoulders above the rest. “Avril Lavigne DMing me was cool!” he cries. “I posted a question on my Instagram story, and they asked me if you could make a song with one person in history who would it be and I said Avril Lavigne. She responded and said ‘Who’s that?” I love her so much.” which Avril song is his fave, though? “’Sk8ter Boi’ is obviously a classic, and everyone knows ‘Complicated’.

Maybe the whole album ‘Let Go’. I would say the entirety of ‘Let Go’. It came out in 2002, and my dad had it on his iPod. That was the first time I heard Avril Lavigne.”

Looking ahead to the future, his next EP marks a significant moment for Glaive. “It’s a huge step up,” he proclaims. “’All Dogs Go To Heaven’ is on a different level. ‘Cypress Grove; was more indie pop and a little bit more romantic. These songs are more fuck you, I’m doing amazing now, I’m feeling great. They’re not super uptempo happy songs, but they’re more hard-hitting.”

It’s an exciting time to be a musician operating in the experimental sphere that Glaive works in. A new audience is finding their new heroes. “It’s definitely getting to a place where people are not going to listen for a certThere areng,” he says. “There’s obviously kids who are only into one kind of music, and that’s how it’s going to be forever, but I think we’re getting to a place where people want to hear stuff that’s not as conventional as stuff that’s on the radio.

When I was growing up, music was all very similar chord progressions. It was conventional. Very well made, written and produced. People my age want to hear something a little off-kilter and a little different.” P

London alt-rockers Weird Milk are working towards a new EP. Already teased with lead single ‘Vienna’, out now, ‘We Were Strangers’ is slated to arrive this autumn. They’ve also announced a UK headline tour, including a stop at London’s Omeara.

Bristol punk trio Grandmas House have announced their self-titled debut EP, due 15th October via Brace Yourself. They’ve also shared a new single, ‘Golden’, plus some new tour dates - catch them on the road for, well, the remainder of the year really.

binki

binki has an interesting story.

Starting out in Pennsylvania, he initially studied acting at UNC Greensboro before moving to New York, where he began dropping the kind of catchy, instantly likeable singles that soon picked up a cult following. Having now inked a deal with Fader Label/Caroline, he’s showing what he can do on debut EP, ‘Motor Function’.

Photo: Aidan Cullen.

Hi binki! How’s it going? What are you up to today?

I’m well! I’ve just had lunch. I made myself a salad drenched in Caesar dressing, paired with some Tyson chicken nuggets.

It was awful. Before that, I went skating in the park. Still just starting, but I’ve been practising a lot lately. Think I’ll go thrifting in a bit, and I’m supposed to link some friends in Brooklyn later tonight.

What first sparked your interest in music?

My interest in music really started to blossom in college.

I’ve always been a music fan, but live music was never a part of my life. Until college. I was a theatre major, and we would link with the music kids, so I would just find myself at house shows more and more. It would be me front row enjoying it way more than was warranted for how good the bands were. I just wanted to be playing gigs.

Essentially, I started making music so I could play house shows.

How did you make the transition from listener to musician? Was there a specific point where you realised you could have a go at it yourself?

The first time I started writing was on a long road trip.

Through sheer boredom, no doubt. Noodling around on my jailbroken iPod touch, I just started making my own

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“I’m not a very musical person at all; I have terrible rhythm” BINKI

lyrics to whatever song I was listening to at the time. The product was not good, but I do remember feeling like, “Oh, this is a thing I can just do.”

It demystified the process of making a song for me.

Tell us about your debut EP - what’s ‘Motor Function’ about? Where did it come from?

‘Motor Function’ came from the depths of an incredibly discouraging and fruitless period of time in the midst of the quarantine. It’s truly a miracle I came out with an EP. A good bit of the ideas and sounds surrounding the project came together on a trip to LA I took last August. I had writing sessions every day. I think the second day I met with Nate and we made ‘Revolve’. That one really encapsulates a lot of the ethos of the project.

After we had that down, I could kinda see where to go from that. I had more sessions back in NYC with Slaters, and then Chasen would send me beats periodically, and eventually, I felt like we had something that felt like a project. We sent the demos to Justin and Jeremiah, and they really took these songs to the next level. I’m so happy with how it all came together.

Do you have a favourite location to write music?

Where do you feel most inspired?

I really love to be active or at least on the go when I’m writing. So like biking, walking, or even just in the back of a car or subway. I think something about having stimulating things going on around me is just conducive to my process.

Are you creative in any other non-musical ways?

I’d actually say I’m not a very musical person at all. It’s never come easy to me, like I have terrible rhythm. I’m not great at drawing or like painting either, although I want to start

painting more. I’m like a jack of no trades. However, I’d say it gives me a leg up in certain ways. My nativity keeps me flexible, and I’m very open to collaboration.

Is the music community very different from the acting one?

I’d say they’re very similar communities. And historically, there’s a lot of crossovers. I think the music community is a bit more pretentious and closed off, though.

What prompted your move to New York? Did you already know people there?

I wanted to move to NYC shortly after I started doing plays in high school. I moved a few months after graduating college, and I didn’t really know many people, although my brother Brian was living here at the time. I knew I had to move quickly before I got too wrapped up with life back home.

What’s your favourite thing about the city?

My favourite thing about NYC is the people. New York will always shift, and neighbourhoods will become wack, but the people will always be interesting. It just draws a particular type of person I feel.

What do you do for fun?

As of late, I really like taking walks by myself. Also, going to the movies alone. Sounds kinda sad, but that’s really how I want it to be.

What are you working on at the moment? Do you have lots of plans?

I’m heading back to LA for a few weeks, and so we’ll see what happens! Also been doing auditions more, so I’m trying to get back to the acting stuff. I have a lot of free time. P binki’s debut EP ‘Motor Function’ is out now.

New York art-punks Gustaf. will release their debut album ‘Audio Drag For Ego Slobs’ on 1st October via Royal Mountain Records. The drop coincides with a US tour alongside IDLES (October), and a bunch of UK dates with Pillow Queens (November).

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Conan Gray.

DEBUT ALBUM ‘KID KROW’ MADE CONAN GRAY A STAR.

NOW, WITH ITS FOLLOW UP APPROACHING, HE’S DETERMINED TO KEEP IT REAL. WORDS: ALI SHUTLER. PHOTOS: DILLON MATTHEW.

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Features.

y life is extremely bizarre,” says Conan Gray. “I can’t imagine a lot of the things that I do day to day are very relatable.” He’s right. A few minutes ago, he was packing for a last-minute trip to Italy (business, not pleasure). When he later posts highlights of it on Instagram, over a million people like the clips of him at high-end luxury fashion show Saint Laurent. Then there’s the obvious oddity of being interviewed for the cover of a magazine. “There are a lot of things that I do that would be strange for most people,” he continues.

Despite the shift to multi-million streaming cover artist who can count the likes of Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo and Billie Eilish as fans, Conan Gray is still the sort of musician who can jab at your heart with a ballpoint pen. Debut album ‘Kid Krow’ came early last year, establishing him as a relatable Gen Z superstar, while the three very different tracks that we’ve heard since see him just as honest, just as vulnerable, and still talking to us like a best friend.

“A lot of the things that have changed in my life are things that have made me so self-conscious, nervous or really introspective about life. Other things have been really joyful and made me want to dance around. The emotions are very much the same as what I’ve always written about. I don’t think it matters what your life is like; everyone relates to just being a human, and I’m just another human in very strange circumstances.”

Conan Gray has always found himself out of his comfort zone, though. With his parents divorcing when he was three and his dad in the military, Conan moved homes twelve times throughout his childhood. “Do I look like I ever fit in?” he asks us today before admitting that, “I’ve tried so hard my whole life to chameleon. I got as good at it as I could have for my racial circumstances. I was one of very few Asians at my school in the middle of Texas, so automatically, no matter what I did and no matter how much Hollister I wore, I was not going to fit in.” To answer his own question, “I’ve never fit in. I’ve always been the new kid, and it’s funny to me now (though probably wasn’t at the time) because in school, people used to think I was mean because I was so standoffish. I still hear people say that today, but I’m not mean; I’m just terrified of you. It’s just social anxiety.”

Despite his best intentions, “I do a really bad job of fitting in, so I’ve just accepted the fact that I look like a walking mop, and I’m bad at socialising. That’s just what I am, and that’s fine.”

That isolation is why Conan turned to the internet as a

Conan Gray.

“I’M YOUNG, AND WHEN YOU’RE YOUNG, EVERYTHING FEELS SO OVER THE TOP AND SO RIDICULOUS” CONAN GRAY

teenager. At the start of 2013, he uploaded a short clip entitled Let Me Introduce Myself to YouTube.

Other videos followed that showed off his baking (5 Minute Chocolate Cake), his family and his day-to-day life. There were Ukulele-backed covers of Adele, Ariana Grande and The Beatles alongside original songs. Over three years after he started, he reached 100,000 subscribers, but it was never about being famous.

“It was always about wanting to be less alone. I was a very lonely kid, and I didn’t have many friends growing up just because I was always moving around. But the internet was a consistent place where I could talk to people. I just grew up online.”

According to his mum, Conan started singing when he was two and never really stopped.

When he was 15, he had to stop talking about his dream of one day getting a record deal (“maybe everything I’ve ever wanted my entire life”) during a YouTube video because it was too overwhelming. Again though, it was never about fame, fortune and megastardom.

“I’ve always felt strange, and one of the main reasons why I started writing music was because I never knew how to relate to people. I never knew how to get people to understand how I was feeling, but writing music suddenly became this way that people could understand me.

For the first time, it felt like I was heard.” Music, Conan explains, “was a language that I knew how to speak. It’s funny how many

times I sit down to write a song and say something that I didn’t even know I was feeling until it came out of my mouth. I write music to relate to other people and to understand myself.”

Despite years plugging away on YouTube, the first time Conan really connected with others was ‘Idle Town’. Released in 2017, it was recorded in his bedroom and was initially written as a love song. “I was really into this person, and the song [then called ‘Stay ‘Til Midnight’] was very sappy. It basically said, ‘I have such a big crush on you’, but then that person destroyed my heart and made me feel like a sack of burning shit.” But from those faecal-laced flames rose a bedroom pop phoenix.

“I was so sad, so I changed all the lyrics with a real ‘Fuck you, this song isn’t about you anymore’ energy. It’s now a love song for all my friends in my hometown.

It’s a love song about being from the suburbs, being a normal kid and loving your friends and the shenanigans you get up to.” He put it on the internet, not caring if anyone liked it, “but it was crazy to see how many people related to that song about growing up in a small town. Even if you don’t think people will relate to your music, there’s a chance they might.”

The song saw him sign a record deal with Republic Records and was one of the first times that Conan believed he could write music beyond a high school hobby. “It was one of those moments where I thought maybe making music was doable. It

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changed my life.”

Today though, despite being a lifelong Swiftie, he isn’t sure if he wants that same level of stadium attention that she inspires. “It seems really intense. Legitimately, my only mission with my career is to make good music that people relate to. I just love to make music, and I’ll do whatever I need to do in order to do it for the rest of my life. I’ll always write music, though, even if no one cares.”

People do care, however. After debut EP ‘Sunset Season’ came in 2018, Conan released his debut album ‘Kid Krow’ in 2020. Written about just three people, its confessional lyrics and brooding cinema pop soon resonated with a world in lockdown.

He finds it weird it’s only been out 16 months because of how long he’d spent making it. “Some of those songs I wrote when I was still a teenager, so it’s interesting.

I feel like my life has changed so much since I wrote those songs, and the world has obviously changed so much as well.”

Going into his debut, Conan “wanted the album to be a representation of who I was at the time. In the end, the album ended

Conan Gray.

“THE MUSIC IS VERY INTROSPECTIVE AND ABOUT THINGS LIKE LIFE, FATE AND SOULMATES BECAUSE I CAN’T STOP THINKING ABOUT THOSE THINGS” CONAN GRAY

up being about growing up, being young and figuring your life out as well as those first experiences of love and heartbreak. I didn’t really have a plan, and there’s not really a theme with that album; it’s just like a series of diary entries.” “[The album] is just as honest as I could possibly be,” explains Conan, who thinks that’s why it’s connected with so many people.

“The music that I enjoy is real and truthful. I just tried to be honest with myself and with the music.” It also resonated because Conan never diminishes his emotions. Critics might call it melodramatic, but they’d be forgetting how apocalyptic those teenage heartbreaks can feel.

“That’s just how I am; I feel things a lot. I’m young, and when you’re young, everything feels so over the top and so ridiculous. Every small thing feels like your life is ending because a lot of the time, it’s your first experience feeling that emotion.”

‘Kid Krow’ took a lot of influence from the underground world of emo and alt-rock but didn’t shy away from big pop moments either. “I try not to restrict myself too much when it comes to genres. I don’t think people really care too much about genres anymore, anyway. The album is very all over the place, and it’s been my intention with all my music to just make each song exactly what it needs to be. Maybe one day I’ll make a really cohesive project, but that won’t happen in the near future.”

The two breakout songs from ‘Kid Krow’ sit at opposite ends of what Conan creates.

‘Maniac’ taps into the uptempo, tropical pop that’s been Justin Bieber’s bread and butter in recent years. “It’s such a fun song, and the reaction was unlike anything I’d experienced before. I started to think maybe people just want fun songs from me.”

A few months later, though, “the most horribly depressing, painful song outperforms it”. ‘Heather’ was written about unrequited love and jealousy to the point that Heather has now become slang for someone prettier, more talented and more liked than you.

The song doing so well “was actually really cathartic and validating because it was so special and so personal to me. I’ll have these moments where I really lose faith in the music, where I know none of it matters and think it’s all contrived, but then a song like that will connect, and I’ll think maybe there’s still some truth and real emotion in this world.”

Following the success of those very different tracks, Conan is free to carry on doing whatever he fancies, knowing that people will respond. It has, however, made things even more confusing. “Now I just have to do stuff and see what sticks.” With his new album, “I’m still in that middle ground of not quite knowing what I want to do, so I think I’ll just end up doing the same thing, where I do it all.”

Now, a moment of your time to address the elephant in the room. Conan Gray’s new

album? Still not finished. Despite what some hardcore Coneheads (not the official fan name by any stretch, but we think it’s fun) think, Conan is not leaving clues across his social media teasing its imminent release.

“The reason why it’s not out yet is because it’s not done,” says Conan. He knows people expect some pop acts to churn out a new album every year, but for them and their teams of songwriters, an album is the same as curating a playlist. Conan isn’t doing that.

“I’m tearing pieces of my soul out to write these songs. It’s going to take a little while.

[A finished record] isn’t too far off, but I’m still in it. I’m deep in the middle of the process right now.”

The new material that Conan has been working on since his debut “does feel different. I think you can tell how much my life has changed, but otherwise, it’s still me writing.”

Despite all that’s changed between ‘Idle Town’ and now, the way Conan writes hasn’t.

“Everything’s exactly the same. I still sit in bed, write songs and text them to my friends.”

That energy is also how Conan decides which songs get released. For ‘Kid Krow’, he wrote over 200 songs, but when it came to narrowing them down, he says: “It was about which songs my friends and I were still humming months later or which ones really affected us. They’re the deciding factors, and I think that’s how it’ll always be. That’s just how I make music.”

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“I’M CONSTANTLY AFRAID OF BEING OUT OF TOUCH” CONAN GRAY

t the start of the year, Conan released his first new music since ‘Kid Krow’. ‘Overdrive’ inspires the sort of joyful escapism that would make Carly Rae Jepsen want to get involved and felt like a fresh start. “I needed to release that song because the year before it had been so horrible that I just couldn’t add to the compound misery. ‘Overdrive’ was me shaking it out and saying that some things are just supposed to be fun. It was a song that cheered me up and made me feel good every time I listened to it. It’s what I needed at that time.”

Conan released what he accurately describes as “the most painful song ever” a few months later. “’Astronomy’ was my way of saying, ‘by the way, I’m still so sad, and I’ve been excruciatingly deeply sad all year, just like everyone else’. It’s been a really hard almost-two-years now, and that song was very much a journal entry. The lyrics are thoughts that I was having about life, about growing apart from people, and about growing up. I just needed to say what was on my mind.”

With those two extremes ticked off the ol’ Conan Gray checklist, new track ‘People Watching’ is perhaps his most pop moment yet. On it, Conan thinks about all the lives he could live. It’s nostalgic for possible futures and is so overwhelmed by all the possibilities that it stays in the same place.

“I do this thing where I go to a college campus” - usually UCLA, the place where he studied filmmaking before dropping out to pursue music - “and just stare at people as they walk by. I wonder what alternate lives I could have lived, what would have happened if I’d gone to school instead of releasing music. Would I have been happier?

Would I have fallen in love? Would I just feel unfulfilled?

Everything that’s happening to me is so crazy; it’s hard to accept that this is what my life is.”

But the song is about one couple in particular that Conan used to see time and time again. “The guy was this average brunette dude, and the girl was really cool with tattoos and platinum blonde hair. I picked up little pieces of their life because I’m a creep who eavesdrops, but they were perfect and really cute together. I see couples like that all the time that look like opposites but are perfectly

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Conan Gray.

matched, and I can’t help but wonder, what if I was them? What if I was average brunette dude?”

“I’ve been very introspective this year. Nobody on earth should think about themselves this much,” Conan reflects. “The music is very introspective and about things like life, fate and soulmates because I can’t stop thinking about those kinds of things. I’m single, so it’s not like there’s a bunch of love songs. Maybe I will fall deeply in love before the album’s out, and that will change,” he says, before adding, “but I don’t think so,” with a grin.

Despite the emotional vulnerability across his music, Conan’s songs always come tongue-in-cheek or with a roll of the eye. “I’ve always taken life very seriously, but I’ve always tried to write it off as not as bad as it really was,” he explains. “I like to joke about things; it makes me feel better. How Gen Z copes with traumas is just by joking about it, it’s a very generational thing. I don’t like to get too serious, but how I deal with pain is with a little bit of humour. It wasn’t funny in the moment, but it can be funny later.”

We’re talking to Conan a few days before the release of ‘People Watching’ and he’s been nervous for weeks. “I lose my mind before I release every song because it’s so scary.” Despite the success, “it’s only gotten scarier to release music because I’m constantly

afraid of being out of touch. I would hate for someone to be like, ‘what is this kid singing about, because nobody has experienced this in their entire lives and Conan Gray is an idiot’, so I’m horrified.”

He doesn’t think there will ever be a point where he feels totally confident releasing new music.

“I’ve always been a perfectionist; I’ve always needed to do things as well as I possibly can because I’m so scared of not being good enough. I’m afraid of letting people down. That’s just who I am, and it’s affected my life drastically.

But, it’s also a mistake to stop questioning your music. I think that’s when really bad art starts getting released.”

“There is a lot of pressure,” admits Conan, but it’s all coming from within. “I really don’t want to let the fans down. I’m not trying to make music that’s necessarily catchy and cool; it’s more about ‘I’ve felt like this, have you felt it too?’ It’s always been that question for me. What I’ve always done is write music that I’m trying to understand myself through, that I’m also trying to understand them through. It’s always been about that connection. I’m constantly afraid of upsetting them, so I have to make music that feels genuine to me. Fans see right through anything else, so I have to be real.” P Conan Gray’s new album is coming soon.

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Features.

P

romising Swiss-Tamil performer Priya Ragu has dazzled audiences with her unifying and empowering tunes that redefine pop and merge a diverse array of influences into a fresh new sound – with a debut mixtape on the way, can she win the hearts of British crowds?

With her first UK live show under her belt, the already resounding answer is: yes, most definitely.

Latitude provides the perfect opportunity for Priya to flex her musical muscles, and she clearly laps up the much-needed feeling of connection. “We had such a good time! 30 minutes felt like maybe 10?” she celebrates.

Indian percussion, guitar and keys flesh out a broad stage presence alongside Priya’s brother, Japhna Gold. “That experience actually makes it even crazier,” she notes. “My brother produces and is also in the band on bass and vocals. It just creates another level of energy on the stage. His ad-libs create a different dynamic to it.”

The road to this point has not been an easy or simple one for the artist. Her uplifting R&B has been a project kept behind closed doors for a long time while musical ambition took a backseat to career progression.

Playing open mic nights alongside working as a technical purchaser, Priya worked hard at sculpting her direction into something hard-hitting; something both joyous and reflective.

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“It’s been such a crazy journey so far. I mean, I just signed during a pandemic,” she laughs. “Now I’m in this momentum, and things keep happening - things that I never expected to happen. I needed some time to really grasp it.”

A collaboration with electronic duo Jungle on their third studio album is perhaps one of these striking moments for the singer-songwriter who was already a big fan. “’Casio’ was already on replay all day long. I was told ‘Josh from Jungle wants to get into the studio with you’, and I was super nervous,” she shares. “We were not planning to work on his album or mine. He was just like, come on in, let’s jam.

And we did end up with a couple of songs coming out of it, so that was amazing.”

This experience has served as a moment of international validation for an artist that wasn’t sure she would be able to draw in Western audiences. With Tamil heritage, a Swiss upbringing and global aspirations, trying to please all parts of herself was a ride of internal division that has only recently felt somewhat resolved. Battling expectations from those around her – including her parents – was the first step down the path to mental freedom. “I had to fulfil my parent’s expectations, and then also society’s expectations. I felt like I had to meet everyone at a certain level, but at the same time, I had to do what I wanted to do. I finally got here; it just took me a long time.”

Flourishing through the mystery of the pandemic has enabled this growth to be cemented; Priya draws on her background to annihilate expectations, allowing her to dive fully into the pursuit of this project. “I was at the point in my life where I had to decide what I really wanted to do. Music was always in the background for me - it was just a side thing, a hobby,” she recalls.

“But then, eventually, the voice inside got louder and louder… I just had to listen.”

Chasing this feeling has now obviously made a big impact on both Priya and Japhna’s lives, but the effects span further than just altering some day-to-day activities. “I was also on a spiritual journey when I decided to start creating music; my spirituality and music have evolved together,” she professes. This culminated in a songwriting expedition to New York, an exploration of her independence and identity. As she explains: “I wrote down three pages every day about anything going through my mind.

I was trying to figure out what I like, what I don’t like, what I want to do, who I want to be, where I come from, where I’m going… all this big stuff, you know?”

After a fundamental and comprehensive reassessment of self, Priya feels ready to step forward with a strong notion of who she is, what she’s about, and the empowering message she wants to thrust into listeners hands; an informed message of self-belief and opportunity. “The universe

tries to give you a sign, whether it’s through people, your inner voice, things that happen… you just have to realise it, grasp it and trust it blindly,” she advises.

“Trust in yourself and in your talent.”

While some successes may appear to occur overnight – and, of course, sometimes they do – prospective artists must first place emphasis on development away from the limelight. As Priya divulges, “you have to take that time to explore your talent; sometimes you don’t know what you’re capable of. I found it important, out of respect to my talent, to give it a space, time and a place to evolve.”

Upcoming mixtape ‘damnshestamil’ is the proud result of this period of blossoming maturity; a genre-bending cauldron of sounds defining her own fluidity, the 10-track ‘Raguwavy’ release explores bright environments, lush and vibrant soundscapes, all with a pure heart that transcends the literal and metaphoric cultures that Priya aims to unite. “I’ve got to stay true to myself and create authentic music, and then the more it connects with people, the better, the more fulfilling it will be for me,” she rationalises.

There are some specific impressions she’d love to make with this first foray into expanded releases too. “There are a couple of different messages here,” she begins. “One is to follow your own instincts and don’t let society bring you down.

Know that it’s okay to break out of a certain circle and do

what you want to do.”

“The second thing is: family values are very important,” she adds – with her brother producing and playing alongside her, this blood connection is vital to Priya’s art but also heart. “For me, family is everything; more than success or even music.

Family comes first, and you can hear that in my songs.

There’s even one song that my parents wrote on this mixtape,” she reveals – bonus track ‘Santhosam’ is a true passion project that proves these messages are not simply ambiguous claims but beliefs driving this entire mixtape and project.

Despite the mixed origins of these sounds and themes, the overall delivery hits universally.

“It’s something super familiar,” she agrees.

“It’s something that you know, but then suddenly it takes you somewhere else. I hope to evoke some curiosity within you.”

2021 truly seems to be an era of change, and is the perfect year for such a unique piece of art. Inspiration happened to strike at the right time and, as she acknowledges, “it’s also the right time to release music like this. I feel that people are more open to new sounds, new languages, something that’s maybe unfamiliar. And I feel like, yeah, it’s always nice if we can keep evolving as human beings.”

Now the

intangible and enigmatic ‘damnshestamil’ is finalised and ready to go, Priya is content and ready to get whirring up some new beats.

“I did my work. You know?

I’m gonna just trust the universe, and it will spread out to the right people,” she concludes, basking not in the attention of listeners but the appreciation of those closest to her. “At the end of the day, if you’re successful and you want to share that with somebody, who else would you want to share it with more than your family?” P Priya Ragu’s debut mixtape ‘damnshestamil’ is out 3rd September.

Priya Ragu.

Priya Ragu is introducing a fresh take on R&B that’s entirely her own.

Words: Finlay Holden.

Photo: Patrick Gunning.

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Maisie Peters.

SIGNED. SEALED. DELIVERED. The latest signing to Ed Sheeran’s own record label, it’s debut album time for singer-songwriter Maisie Peters.

Words: Neive McCarthy. Photo: Patrick Gunning.

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T

here are periods in your life that can only be described as messy. Things aren’t always smooth sailing – sometimes there’s heartbreak and confusion, and it’s all slotted inbetween moments of love and affection and dancing with your friends. Maisie Peters’ debut album, ‘You Signed Up For This’, is an ode to that glittering magic quality there is to life’s messiness – it’s an ode to the glimmers of hope, to naïve youth and the sage wisdom that comes with growing up a little bit. This is Maisie Peters’ comingof-age, and it’s one that is rich in nostalgic detail and drenched in wit. Would you expect anything else?

The album opens with the titular ‘You Signed Up For This’; a twinkling soundscape with some notso-twinkling admittances of flaws. She might not be the person she has the potential to become just yet, but she pleads that you stick around long enough to find out.

“The entire point of the song is to be like ‘this is me, as I am now’. It’s almost like a snapshot or a freeze-frame of me where I was at the time – I was 20, I hadn’t got my driver’s license, I was just about to move to London and live with five girls who I didn’t know. It was all kind of in the air,” Maisie reflects over Zoom. All her cards are on the table, and it’s in your hands whether you shy away from that.

At one point in the track, Maisie laughingly remarks, “shout if we fell apart / actually don’t, it’s my narration”. It might slide by easily amidst synth-heavy beats, but that need to take things with a pinch of salt and recognise that this album is solely Maisie’s is a grounding factor in the album as a whole. “It’s very much my version of events.

I used to struggle with that a little bit in songwriting because it felt unfair. I think, in saying that in the first song, it says it how it is – it’s like, well, this is actually my story, and this is my album, and this is how I’m going to say it, and that’s what’s happening here for the next fourteen songs.”

That level of autonomy and ownership precedes the album. Maisie is refreshingly self-assured when it comes to her own tracks. ‘Love Him I Don’t’ was one track that

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Maisie Peters.

“PEOPLE ARE MULTIFACETED; I’M MULTIFACETED, MY MUSIC IS MULTIFACETED” was the subject of debate with her producers. “Joe [Rubel] and John [Foyle] were saying, you know, maybe it’s not a song about somebody necessarily being bad. Maybe it’s about growing apart. But I was like no – I knew what that song was about. I knew the second I did, that this was what I need to write. It wasn’t even necessarily how I felt at the time, but I think sometimes you write songs, and they come true. That song definitely was written and came true. It was a statement, it was what I wanted, it was how I wanted to feel, and it was one of those things where sometimes you have to write that to try and pretend you do.”

In many ways, it’s a successor to earlier tracks like ‘Look At Me Now’, only from a matured perspective.

While her younger narrator might’ve been helplessly delivering an ex’s postcode to taxi drivers instead of her own, this version of her narrative sees her walking away and choosing the route that hurts the least.

Retrospective reflection is healing, and this often filters into Maisie’s writing. “I love

nostalgia – I find it really hard to write in the present tense; I never write in the present tense, literally ever. I think everybody does dissect the past, and because I like telling stories so much, in storytelling and most stories you read, most novels will be in the past tense because then you have a bird’s eye view of the whole thing. I like that in songwriting, as well. If I’m talking about the past, I have all of the memories, and I am able to go over them and pick which one and have everything at my disposal. Whereas, if you’re talking about the present, it’s very hard to do that.”

That nostalgic veil falls over Maisie’s writing like an old film filter, blurring it into a gut-wrenching, maudlin montage. “I love the written word, and I’m big on seeing cool words or ideas or concepts and taking them with me and writing songs with them. The way I write is influenced a lot by reading and telling stories and really setting the scene and using a lot of those visual scenes.” It’s because of this that ‘You Signed Up For This’ feels as though it exists in its own unique

universe – one with all the hallmarks of the years where you’re first standing on your own two feet and learning how to be this new version of yourself. From drinking cheap wine and enduring shattering heartbreaks to drunken embarrassment and running from red flags, they are recognisable experiences brought to kaleidoscopically vivid life.

Arguably the best moment of this comes in the form of ‘Brooklyn’. Tenderly pianoheavy yet effortlessly elated, it recalls a holiday with her sister to New York so intricately you may as well be dancing down 42nd alongside them. It epitomises that affectionate but infuriating bond with a sister, deadpanning “I hate your tracksuit / sister, I’ve missed this” in the very same breath. “There were a couple of times where people tried to take it off, and they were like, it’s too niche, it’s too specific. But I was like, no it’s not, and if it is, that’s a good thing, I think. I like the idea that this album has moments that aren’t just about love, or relationships, or boys. I really like that there was a song that wasn’t about that at all. I’m readdork.com 49.

Features.

really excited for it to come out – I hope one day I’ll play in Brooklyn. The moment when I sing ‘if you’re looking for the girl of your dreams, she’s in Brooklyn with me’ will be so, so fun.”

Her lyrics may be incredibly specific in their ability to freeze moments in time, but that relatability never fades. ‘Hollow’ is a shattering account of a

breakup, but its melancholic harmonies capture a shared feeling of gutting emptiness in navigating that world. “’Hollow’ is super sad,” Maisie laughs. “I remember someone at the time was like ‘I think this is too sad’, but I was like ‘no!’.” Shying away from the full weight of emotion is unheard of in her music, regardless of the visceral wince they might

evoke. Not every aspect of life can be wrapped in synth and bundled in joy, and Maisie documents those slightly less pretty moments just as much.

She strikes an impressive balance, though. ‘Hollow’ follows directly from the laughing, electric duo of ‘Psycho’ and ‘Boy’ – it’s a jolting adjustment. “You want an album to ebb and

flow – I wanted to have those ups and downs. ‘Boy’ into ‘Hollow’, when I did that I was like, is that too much?

But I was just like fuck it, let’s see what happens. I think that’s so funny. I like the idea that those feelings do co-exist, and you can feel both ways. People are multifaceted; I’m multi-faceted, my music is multi-faceted.

It’s nice to see those two

distinct, different sides close together.”

Written with Ed Sheeran, ‘Boy’ is an absolute standout. Dripping in early 2000s influences and primed to accompany a Love Islander walking away from a white skinny-jean clad boy and discovering her worth, it relishes every sarcastic moment. “It was so funny, because it was

“I DON’T TAKE MYSELF TOO SERIOUSLY; I’M REALLY SUPER UP FOR THE JOKES”

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Maisie Peters.

Ed, and me and Joe, and Ed’s friend called Nick. As a 20-year-old girl, I was giving them insight into the dating scene, and I was teaching them what a fuckboy was and what a softboi was.

I was telling them all the traits, and they’re like, oh my god, we should write a song about this! It was basically savaging left, right and centre. I remember when we did the lyric ‘you say you have a lot of enemies, and you claim your dreams are always lucid / but you’re just high and can’t tell the difference’ – I remember literally wheezing with laughter, because it’s so true! That’s not what a lucid dream is! I thought it was the funniest thing.”

The unflattering portrait she paints on tracks like ‘Boy’ sees Maisie at her most biting and witty. “A lot of the album, some of the songs, I’m just like super immature, which I’m obsessed with!

I think that’s so fun – ‘I’m Trying’ and ‘Boy’ get super immature, but they own that, which I love.” It’s that unashamed acceptance of the slightly pettier lyrics that is so amusing; they might be blunt comments, but they’re accurate ones. There’s a light-heartedness to Maisie that shines through these tracks, and it makes each listen more fulfilling.

It helps, too, that the cutting remarks are set to some of the most delicious pop in years. ‘Psycho’ plays on the ‘good for her trope’ of a scorned woman vindicated, but it does so to an ABBA-esque guitar line and shimmering synthenthused strings. It’s made to dance away any thought of those who’ve wronged you. “I was writing it and thinking, can I say this? Is this too far? And everyone was like hey, yeah do it,” Maisie recalls. “That song was a really fun way of me taking a narrative on its head. ‘Psycho’ was a fun moment, and that was really important too. I’m somebody that doesn’t take myself too seriously, and I’m really super up for the jokes, and I’m up for dancing and Carly Rae Jepsen, and I wanted that on the album.

There’s something in the air in 2021 where there’s a lot of amazing art which takes itself very seriously, which is so great, and I love that! But I miss the eras of ‘Call Me Maybe’ and Girls Aloud and all those songs that were just fun and good times; I wanted to contribute to that.”

“I MISS THE ERAS OF ‘CALL ME MAYBE‘ AND GIRLS ALOUD” Luckily, as versatile as she is, she manages to lead the album down slightly more politicised routes whilst allowing those inhibition-free moments of euphoria. ‘Volcano’ may have the illusion of a soft, acoustic-led track, but it’s the most incendiary moment on the album. “’Volcano’ came out of a very personal situation to me. There’s so much simmering rage and resentment under that song.

It’s sort of about people who you feel never pay the consequences for their actions. A lot of that song is very rooted in the fact that you can be a young, 20-year-old woman, and there’s a lot of situations you go through where you can never say how you feel, and nobody ever holds anybody to account, especially men holding other men to account. That song has that feeling of being like, this felt like it was really bad to me, but nobody else seems to think that? The whole song centres around this idea of ‘you just say nothing’ and what that does to you as a person, the mark that leaves.

I have a really close friend called Gretta Ray, who’s an Australian singer-songwriter and is amazing. I got her to sing harmonies on it,

which felt amazing because she’s a really close friend of mine, and she’s somebody that I talked about a lot of the stuff with, so to have her singing on it was really, really cool.”

Following the increased discussion and outrage around women’s safety and men not doing enough earlier this year, ‘Volcano’ undoubtedly will resonate with a lot of young women.

Its barely contained disbelief is an all too familiar feeling, but when documented in this manner, it has the potential to spark further conversation.

The deep-rooted understanding of what it is to be a young woman is fundamental to her music.

It’s also largely why her relationship with her fans, for whom every release is treasured, is so special.

Just a few days before we speak, two of them have set up a page called ‘@ mazziememes’ (“It’s the funniest thing you’ll ever see in your life, I really recommend you check it out”) and a pink cherry print jumper worn in the video for ‘Psycho’ is repeatedly dipping out of stock on ASOS. “I fucking love them.

We’ve all just grown up together. I’ve been making

music now for a few years, and so I’ve gotten to really experience a lot of life with them. We’re all similar ages, similar people, we go through similar things, and they’re all really funny and good vibes. It’s really easy to have a good relationship with them because they’re all just wonderful.”

It’s hard not to be a fan of Maisie, either. Being in your early twenties can be rocky at times – you can experience every emotion under the sun. Across the album’s fourteen tracks, Maisie acknowledges that and allows you to feel each one in glorious depth. Her more flawed moments are there for all to see, but so are the moments where she shines and emerges victorious and exhilaratingly happy. It’s mature enough to acknowledge what went wrong, but it still bubbles with vitality and sparkling life. Each track feels like a love letter to who she has been and who she is yet to become, sealed with a healthy dose of synth and classic, bubblegum pop. ‘You Signed Up For This’, Maisie Peters warns. In the end, you’ll be glad you did. P Maisie Peters’ debut album ‘You Signed Up For This’ is out 27th August. readdork.com 51.

Features.

Dublin’s Orla Gartland charts the ups and downs of growing up and adjusting to adulthood (urgh) with a hefty dose of camaraderie and wit. Her debut album, ‘Woman On The Internet’ is really very special.

Words: Finlay Holden. Photo: Patrick Gunning.

52. DORK

Orla Gartland.

rla Gartland seems relaxed and happy, chilling in her dressing room backstage at Latitude, waiting to soon unveil multiple new tracks from her forthcoming debut album ‘Woman On The Internet’ to a packed tent. Observing the much-missed hustle and bustle around her, she smiles calmly and sighs – “It’s so nice, isn’t it? So wholesome.” While punters are in for a treat with the return of live music, it is the sight of crew backstage that hits her most – after being pushed to retrain into other jobs, they can finally get back to what they know and love. “Just seeing it is so emotional. I cried just now; like, oh my god, live music is back.”

Fortunately, the reduction of progress to a slow crawl through virtual environments came at an opportune time for Orla, as she was already planning to take a step back to perfect her much-anticipated debut album. “Last year was always going to be a writing year for me; it’s the kind of year I would have had anyway, except with all the trimmings cut off. It gave me nothing but time to hyper-focus,” she notes. Diving deep into the nitty-gritty is something she expresses a keen fondness for: “I love poring over little details in songs… I can spend the whole day on one verse and just tweak drum sounds all day. I just love having the time to do that. I don’t think I would have had it otherwise, so that was actually a really good thing.”

This optimistic perspective did not present itself immediately, though. When a daunting task suddenly became even more formidable, Orla’s first response was to shut down. “The last thing I wanted to do was

O

write songs. I wasn’t like, ‘get me to the studio’. I was fucking panicking.”

When she rented a studio, she was granted a haven that became an important part of this record’s journey to completion.

“It’s mentally so amazing to have another place to work, a degree of separation, and that obviously became an absolute godsend for life in lockdown,” she recalls.

Physical disconnect was never going to be a completely solvable problem, though. It is only back in the company of strangers that Orla can once again truly revel in her experiences. She explains: “What’s so nice about being here in person is that, until now, my whole campaign has felt so abstract because… it just feels like it’s happening off somewhere over there,” she gestures ambiguously. Never mind the sheer quantity of Zoom calls, the budding musician has had to deal with music videos, recording and mixing – just the whole shebang, really - from her little studio. Luckily, she’s been steadily building these skills over the years and was well-placed to adapt to the times. “I think a lot of artists struggled who aren’t massively selfsufficient,” she observes.

“You have to wear so many hats now as an artist; even in a non-Covid world, you’re wearing long pants.” Clothing metaphors aplenty, then.

Orla finds joy in wearing these many ‘hats’, but she is adamant that it is, in fact, always her wearing them and getting across her individual stories and experiences.

“I didn’t want my first album to be about anyone else,” she professes. “I’ve waited for this moment and worked towards it for so long; I just wanted to be about me.” While her songs have introspective tendencies, ‘Woman On The Internet’ is not mean to be heavy or sad – it would’ve been only too easy to come out with ten songs about being inside.

“That’s exactly why I didn’t want to do that,” she grins. “I don’t want this to be the soundtrack for a sad time; I want it to be a soundtrack of life.

“I DON’T WANT THIS TO BE THE SOUNDTRACK FOR A SAD TIME,; I WANT IT TO BE A SOUNDTRACK OF LIFE” This time. The glimpses of hope that are so special.

It’s sunny and upbeat, and that was very deliberate.”

That being said, the songs, of course, do hold personal connections, and the studio room quickly became an environment of catharsis. “It definitely became ritualistic to go into that weird little room and just pour my heart out. It also became pretty maddening. So, at the end of the whole process, I had this finishing chunk where I got the band in.

Everybody wanted it to be like a summer camp,” she reminisces. “We went to the country to a really fun, remote studio, slept in bunk beds, all recorded our separate parts – we even got a whiteboard with all the song parts on it!”

Devon’s Middle Farm Studios provided the perfect summer camp experience to inject the eleven tunes with some vital reinterpretation in the final stages of their construction. “I’d say 70% of the work was done going into production,” she judges, “but I needed that chaos at the end. I’m pretty good at demoing stuff now, so I just need the last bit of like madness and guidance, really it’s hard to have that perspective on your own.”

The unique environment at this miniRockfield helped to instil a raucous element, and producer Peter Miles’ touch contributed too.

“Pete made it such a fun experience because he’s this mad Wizard of sound.

He’s got the whole place rigged up to record, so you want to do vocals in the bathroom? Let’s do vocals in the bathroom.

Then let’s set the drum kit up in the kitchen. Why not? He brought the

chaos I needed because, with just me in the room, I have too much control.”

The big, bad debut record is something that Orla is staying fairly calm about (“it holds less weight than it did a couple years ago, and that’s a really good thing”) as she has embraced the opportunity at a time that feels right for her. “I knew I was ready after the last EP; we did five songs, and I just wished it was longer,” she says, although she acknowledges that smaller, consistent releases may work better for some artists. “Some people will stay in EP land forever; at one point, I thought that I would too.

Always a bridesmaid, never a bride… always an EP, never an LP. A lot of pieces of the puzzle take a long time to come together, like all these little islands that you have to get going. Well, you don’t have to, but I’m glad that I did.”

There are two main islands that Orla has ramped up for this release, the first being a fundamental revaluation of her perspective on songwriting. “I realise now that you don’t need to share the exact same experience as the person who’s saying something to relate to it. This year, and maybe every year, people just like to see themselves in songs. I used to think the key was to stay really and general and vague because then you don’t alienate anyone, but I found Pheobe Bridgers’ language to be so specific while also remaining conversational and accessible, and that taught me something.”

The second island is production, and this is where excess time proved useful once again; Orla found that while production is increasingly accessible, online sample archives left her originality feeling stunted. The solution? Hit everything you find and record the noise it makes to generate your own. “The search for the perfect sound is like an endless ‘how long is a piece of string?’” she exclaims. “If you confine yourself to real sounds you have, it’s a good way to focus because then you’re straight back into writing. It was practical, but also just fun.”

Orla has been hesitant to label herself as a producer in the past, but is starting to own it now.

“I’ve probably struggled in the past because there aren’t a lot of girls in that space, honestly,” she admits. “I know so many female artists that are producing themselves, and they almost don’t even know that they are.

If you’re recording your vocals plus harmonies, processing those vocals, adding other elements… that is production.”

Not all artists necessarily want to take on every responsibility of their work, and that’s fine too. “It’s good to own the skills that you have, but also know what someone else could do better – that delegation was important to this record. That’s what being an artist is: a perfect blend of self-sufficiency and delegating to people you trust. If you find that balance, it can be a beautiful thing.” P Orla Gartland’s debut album ‘Woman On The Internet’ is out 20th August.

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54. DORK

CHVRCHES.

Four albums in, and CHVRCHES have probably been through the toughest part of their story to date.

Returning with their new fulllength ‘Screen Violence’, they’re backing down for nobody.

Words: Ali Shutler.

Photos: Sebastian Mlynarski & Kevin J Thomson.

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A

fter CHVRCHES finished their fourth album ‘Screen Violence’, vocalist Lauren Mayberry had one worry. “I just hope I wasn’t supremely negative about everything. I mean, the record opens with the line ‘I don’t want to say I’m afraid to die’, so it’s not exactly a chart pop album. There is a lot of heavy subject matter, but what we’re doing is trying to figure a way through it all.”

The last time we spoke to the band, it was backstage at Reading Festival 2019, where all three members, Iain Cook, Martin Doherty and Lauren, were adamant that for the first time in the band’s history, they needed some time off. After distancing themselves from ‘Here With Me’ collaborator Marshmello after he chose to work with legally convicted abuser Chris Brown, the band had spent the majority of that year getting death threats.

The ongoing media coverage saw places that had largely ignored CHVRCHES existence suddenly start using photos of Lauren doing her job, followed by quotes about how she was terrified of the trolls and the rape threats that came from Brown’s toxic fanbase. “That fallout, or the way abuse is spoken about in general, it’s all part of this grotesque, obsessed enjoyment of misogyny.” It’s just one aspect of Screen Violence that their new albums questions.

The worst of the abuse came in Spring 2019, but the band decided to carry on touring and promoting ‘Love Is Dead’. “Stopping would just show weakness, so we carried on,” says Lauren, who believes that perseverance “is a good part of my personality because we get a lot done, but on the flip side, the wheels are bound to fall off that bus eventually.” Reading was meant to be the end of the cycle, but things got extended due to the success of both ‘Here With Me’ and followup single ‘Death Stranding’ from the video game of the same name.

Three more months of touring and “people talking shit” followed before the band could finally take that break and escape the fishbowl.

CHVRCHES managed about three months away. Lauren headed home to try and “fix her brain a little bit” while Martin set about building a new studio. There was no fixed date to come back. “When it feels right for everybody, you get a text,” says Martin, who explains that there’s never a discussion about making a new album. Instead, the three-piece just started trading ideas. “It goes from ‘should we talk about music’ to having written 6 songs pretty quickly.”

Still, listening to ‘Screen Violence’, there are hints that perhaps the band could still be on the verge of splitting. Opening track ‘Asking For A Friend’ sees Lauren sing “I’m no good at goodbyes, I can’t apologise. If I don’t stop now,

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“I would never want to quit this band. You will have to pry it out of my cold, dead hands” LAUREN MAYBERRY

will it follow me down. I guess I have to try. It’s the art of getting by,” while ‘Final Girl’ is a lot less subtle.

“Don’t want to find your daughter in a body bag, so I need to get out now while most of me is still intact.

It feels like the weight is too much to carry. I should quit, maybe go get married.”

“Maybe it’s a metaphor for somebody that wasn’t me,” starts Lauren before admitting that the line about quitting was something she’d written in her notebook in May 2019. Back then, “it was a lot more expletive and wasn’t as succinct.

Consciously, I would never want to quit this band. You will have to pry it out of my cold, dead hands. I will be touring those toilets until I’m 95, but it was a strange juxtaposition where something you love so much had become distorted into this other thing. Suddenly the band had grown an extra head, and I didn’t know what to do with it.” It’s why they wrote ‘How Not To Drown’.

The track, which features a guest appearance from The Cure’s Robert Smith, sees Lauren losing faith and deciding to just stay silent in the face of injustice. When it was released earlier this year, Martin took to social media to talk about his depression for the first time in a note that ended with the message “if you feel like giving up, don’t.”

“I’ve never had the urge to write anything like that before, and I probably won’t ever again,” he explains, saying how it felt authentic to him at that moment. His discomfort about opening up is still present today, but there’s something empowering about it. He’s not a spokesperson for mental health.

He’s just a bloke who’s struggled.

“I do think it’s weird how men don’t talk about their mental health. I struggle, but like everyone else, especially in Scotland, you’re told to suppress your feelings. The point of writing that wasn’t for people to feel sorry for me. It was about offering people a little bit of hope.“ That same glimmer of optimism can be found across ‘Screen Violence’. “You can’t have hope without all the terrible stuff,” starts Lauren before Iain admits that “yes, the record is intense, and there’s a lot of darkness, but ultimately there’s hope through perseverance and community.”

The record takes the stadium pop lessons learnt from working with Greg Kurstin (Adele, Liam Gallagher, Foo Fighters) back

to the home studio that gave us ‘The Bones of What You Believe’ and ‘Every Open Eye’. The result is something that feels punk and scrappy, delivered by glistening synths and, in the bands own words, “sexy instrumentation”. It’s different to what’s come before, but it’s an evolution rather than a reinvention.

The trick, according to Martin, is “don’t think about the past or the future because if you get caught up in either of those things, you’ll probably make bad decisions.”

Perhaps more importantly, CHVRCHES aren’t reactive. There was criticism about the idea of the band going pop on ‘Love Is Dead’ (most of it coming before the album was released), but Lauren feels like that album “was the controlled experiment to see how far we could push things into that pop space without losing what the band was.”

Of course, there’s a pressure to keep things going, to reach more and more people, “but there’s a tipping point. How far can you go into the pop stratosphere without losing what it is that is special about the band?”

She’s quick to point out that one of the best things about the band is that it’s a fan-driven thing.

That started with their blog-driven breakthrough moment early in the band’s career, and that relationship continues to this day. “People do feel an ownership of the band, which is a really great thing, but before that record even came out, some fans felt like we had betrayed their idea of what the band was.”

“Fuck that,” says Martin. “Who fucking cares? We’re never trying to disappoint fans, but we have to do our own thing because otherwise, we might as well just write ‘The Mother We Share’ twenty more times.”

“As much as that’s a special song, if you do the same thing over and over, it’s not going to make anyone happy,” adds Lauren.

It didn’t help that she felt like CHVRCHES were at a “weird crossroads where loads of people had so many opinions about what the band was and where it could go.

It felt like everybody thought, ‘well, if they really put their minds to it, they could be this massive pop act,” even if she disagreed.

“It’s important that one doesn’t start imposing rules upon oneself.

It’s a perception thing. If you start thinking ‘I can’t do this because this is what I represent’, that’s actually a

CHVRCHES.

really negative outlook. If you start closing doors, you might miss the best thing you ever do,” says Martin. “Why shouldn’t we be allowed to do whatever we want, whenever we want?”

And practising what they preach, instead of following up ‘Love is Dead’ with something more gnarled, aggressive or stripped down to appease their fans, the band released the absolutely huge ‘Here With Me’.

Describing it as a good and bad mental health exercise, Lauren explains how “it was nice to have it proven that we could do a big pop song like that.” People had constantly said ‘if they only had that another gear, they could be more successful’ and “we do have that gear, clearly, but it’s not what we want to do, day in, day out with our actual art.”

When writing the song, the trio knew they were sitting on a big one, and that scared them. Martin encouraged the band to see ‘Here With Me’ through to the end with nothing more than a look. “I knew you were telling us to forget any ideas about what we as CHVRCHES can or can’t do, and just focus on the song,” explains Iain.

The original plan was to give it to another artist. Martin used to run a pop club night in Glasgow so that music has “always been a part of his DNA” while Lauren grew up on Top 40 Radio. “I came of age on All Saints, Atomic Kitten and Spice Girls. I clearly love pop. I just don’t know if that’s where we are as writers,” she continues, explaining why they didn’t follow that shiny pop road on this new album.

“I don’t think everything needs to be doom and gloom all the time, but when we talk about bands who we admire and would love to emulate, it’s acts like The Cure who have these really melancholic, introspective moments as well as these really big moments as well.

I just feel like there’s an honesty to that. If you feel like that, then write it. if you don’t, then don’t.”

“It used to feel like a strange thing about our band, that we fell between these two worlds,” says Lauren.

Coming from a DIY punk background but sounding like a pop act, “it confused people. Now though, it’s a really positive thing that we can be the band who writes a song with Marshmello but also has a song with Robert Smith.” Name another band that does both.

F

or as long as CHVRCHES have been doing interviews, Lauren’s been answering questions about gender and feminism.

“It is something I feel passionately about, but literally every interview becomes about that. It feels like a lot of the media coverage of it is ticking a box.”

She’s glad to have used her platform to talk about her own experiences, to advocate for equality, to stand up against online misogyny “because there are now a lot of other people being more vocal about those things, who really fucking weren’t at that time. However, it is odd that I spent a decade of my career not really talking about anything to do with the work.”

It wasn’t intentional, but ‘Screen Violence’ fixes that problem. For the first time, Lauren uses her lyrics to talk about abuse of power, misogyny, and vastly differing gender standards.

“Of course, I’ll write different things as a 32-year-old than I did as a 22-year old, but when so much of the conversation about the bad has been about gender and your own existence, it will fuck with your head enough that you will eventually write about it in songs. Now when people talk to us about it, we can point them back to a record and let that answer the question. Maybe it’s life experiences informing our work, maybe it just felt like the right time.”

Whatever it is, “it’s nice to try different things because we will all be dead eventually,” says Lauren Mayberry, not supremely negative, just finding a way to persevere.

“This band is an unlikely story in a lot of ways,” and it’s not finished yet.

“Proving that I was good enough used to be the driving force behind everything I did,” explains Martin. “I used to care so much about what other people thought of me, even if I never admitted it. Now though, I just want to respect the opportunity I’ve been given in life. We’re still a band ten years in, and I have twice as much to say musically as I ever have done.”

“Not everybody’s going to like you,” continues Lauren.

“I’m more comfortable with that now than I ever used to be.” P CHVRCHES new album ‘Screen Violence’ is out 27th August. readdork.com 57.

Features.

TIKTOKSCAR LANG

With his debut album, ‘Chew The Scenery’, Oscar Lang is proving just how far he’s come - but the journey is only just getting started.

Words: Jamie Muir.

Photo: Jordan Curtis Hughes.

“I

’ll be honest,” grins Oscar Lang. “I’ve no idea how on earth I’ve become a songwriter. I’m sure this shouldn’t be happening!”

Cracking into laughter, it’s the perfect introduction to the fully-formed world of Oscar Lang.

It’s one packed with an inextinguishable zest for life and technicolour moments that’s ultimately led to this very moment.

One that understands the importance of what’s going on around it but searches for the joy in spite of it all.

To dive on in is like falling into a swimming pool full of jelly beans.

“Fuck,” he says.

“Younger me would be so fucking gassed at this all.

He would be so amazed at how far it’s come.”

Since the very first moment he opened his box of bops (an actual trademarked thing, we promise), it’s seemed like the dawning of a new jukebox genius was a matter of when, not if.

‘Chew The Scenery’, Oscar’s debut album ‘proper’, is that exact moment. A wonderfully bold and warm release that takes you on a ride across the grandest fireworks and warmest campfires in equal measure, it’s bound to reach out exactly when you need it to. There’s something special about Oscar Lang, and ‘Chew The Scenery’ is undeniable proof.

Behind the sounds that move effortlessly from

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jubilant indie-stompers to mesmeric Beach Boysesque pop with ease comes a record yearning to connect and a dreamer looking to make sense of the world. “It’s funny because my mates know me as a bit of a savage person, really, because I just cut around the bullshit,” explains Oscar. “I like to tell people how it is because I don’t like lying to people or messing them about. I think that comes through in the songs. I just want to be truthful and tell people how I feel, and I just hope that people can relate to it and feel better. I know personally when I’ve been going through my roughest periods, what makes me feel better is knowing that other people are going through rough shit too.

Everybody goes through these things, and it’s just so important to recognise that.

I just hope that something I do, big or small, can help someone.”

It’s the core next ingredient to the fun and all-encompassing energy Oscar Lang brings to the table. Songs packed with twisting turns cut through with tales that speak to the concerns and obstacles life in the modern world brings, whether it’s the pains of growing up, love, heartbreak, loss or loneliness (alongside a lot more). The result finds ‘Chew The Scenery’ as an album packed with unmistakable depth. As Oscar lays out, “this album was born out of me sort-of growing up, and I think in lockdown, a lot of people have had the time to think about themselves and things they’ve done - me especially. It’s about caring for other people and caring for yourself as well.”

This vital and vibrant heart should be no surprise for those who have followed Oscar since day one. With music flowing in his blood, there really was never a question that it would lead the way in every decision and move he made. From singing along with his Dad in his office to discovering piano through old keyboards played by his Grandad, or figuring out GarageBand at school, getting lost in making beats and sounds from the getgo; it’s fair to say that music has been there for Oscar for every high and every

If you haven’t been checking your feeds lately, then WHAT ON EARTH ARE YOU DOING?! One of Oscar Lang’s first ever songs has been blowing up on the ‘Tok, so get with it, yeah?!

“Honestly, I go on TikTok, and I just see people fucking crying their eyes out to my song like - ‘he doesn’t love me anymoreeeeee’. It’s actually really, really sweet and endearing because it’s like, wow, people understand how I felt at the time, and this song allows them to feel that pain and feel that emotion and get it out! There’s never a better feeling than that!”

low. “It’s such a huge form of therapy for me. It really is,” says Oscar. “I have this desire when I feel really sad to pick up a guitar or go on my piano and play something, and I get lost in the music and shut myself off from the rest of the world. I will often sit there at night just playing piano, closing my eyes and getting lost.”

From YouTube covers to a fateful meeting with Beabadoobee, everything developed one after the other. Thriving with a determination and passion for what he was doing, every new step was one Oscar enthusiastically took. Producing and writing with some of the best doing it right now, Oscar’s remarkable run of EPs (including ‘Antidote To Being Bored’ and ‘Hand Over Your Head’) confirmed just how unstoppable his rise was going to be. They played an essential role in shaping the road to ‘Chew The Scenery’; ‘Overthunk’ proved to be a big turning point.

“Honestly, making ‘Overthunk’ - I really fucking struggled with that,” says Oscar, taking a pause as he remembers that time and how important the effects of it were to what came next for him. “I had been making music in my bedroom or from my bedroom for years without any formal training. That

EP was the first time it felt like a real struggle to get things right, like recordings songs multiple times to get it right… and after that was the moment my manager was like, ‘let’s try a session with another producer and see how things go’.”

Teaming up with producer Rich Turvey in Liverpool proved to be a masterstroke. “I had a little bit of self-pride in that before I just wanted to impress people by ‘doing it all’. I wanted to make music because of people like Kevin Parker; that idea of ‘oh the guy in Tame Impala is just one person’ I saw as the fucking coolest thing.

What a genius, now I want to be that person! It took its toll though on my mental health, and after meeting Rich, I was like - this guy gets me so much, he’s basically me just older!”

With a newfound freedom and helping hand to help execute Oscar’s vision, it helped form his final EP ‘Antidote To Being Bored’ and then, in turn, his debut album to come. Inspired to create heavier edges and more-punchy bangers (‘Stuck’, ‘Headphones’, ‘Yeah’) as well as more lush pop diamonds (‘Are You Happy?’, ‘21st Century Hobby’, ‘Quarter Past Nine’) and heart-wrenching ballads (‘Write Me A Letter’ and the jaw-dropping ‘Final Call’), the result is one of the most well-rounded debut albums from a songwriter in a long time.

Bursting with ideas and recorded with some of his best mates in Liverpool, there’s a sense of collective power that only comes from a tight-knit band coming together.

“I remember turning up in Liverpool and feeling a little bit stressed,” Oscar says, “but then we locked ourselves in the studio and simply being somewhere else with my friends was just incredible. Like because of everything going on, I’d only seen them five or six

times in a year and a half, so we actually got to spend time together and be there for one another. I think you can hear that come through on the album.”

It’s a long way from those early days forging away in his bedroom on GarageBand and sending beats around. “After getting songs together one by one, bit by bit - this time it was like, right: I’m getting in the studio for a month and a half. Lock me in there. Just get me in there. Let’s make some music,” he jumps. “It was the first time I’d spent that time making a whole project, and it was just sick.

We got in there just out of lockdown, and it was me and my mates, and Rich - who cuts some quality banter, by the way! It was pure laughing the whole fucking time!”

‘Chew The Scenery’ is a dazzling reminder of a generation of artists bubbling away from the bedroom to the world and a sign in the ground that Oscar Lang’s milkshake of glorious indie-pop fun and stunning songwriting is primed to be more influential and impactful than ever. Always moving, there’s already talk of what comes next and where things could go from here. “Just going to keep becoming more of a rock star, right?!” laughs Oscar. “Seriously though, my main ambition really is just to keep changing my sound. I want to be known as someone that never stays in the same place.

You’re always going to hear something different, something you didn’t hear before. That’s a big goal of mine - and maybe y’know, run a small label or studio or something.”

With a debut album like that, you can guarantee those are goals he’ll be seeing a lot more of. It’s a Lang way to the top if you want to rock and roll, but for Oscar Lang, he’s already there. Now time to bask in its sunshine. P Oscar Lang’s debut album ‘Chew The Scenery’ is out now.

Oscar Lang.

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Features.

60. DORK

Baby Queen.

Baby Queen was already making waves at the start of 2021, when she fronted our annual Hype List. Now, she’s dropping ‘The Yearbook’ - a new collection of pop perfection.

Words: Finlay Holden. Photos: Clark Franklyn.

I

f you have yet to stumble upon her kingdom, regal jester Baby Queen has dutifully arranged her own wondrous world of glossy anti-pop for your compulsive consumption.

Bella Latham has had one hell of a rapid-fire year, dropping glazy anthem after another and easily cementing herself at the top of the league of promising popsters with more than enough potential to change the game. Baby Queen herself is known as much for her bubbling, addictive soundscapes as for the signature pessimistic

commentary buried within, and fusing these two opposing elements into such a compact package is bound to leave you exhausted. As she only half-jokingly laments through her phone, “if I could sleep for the rest of my life, I would.”

This authenticity and openness is a staple of the project, with an array of songs jumping bravely into heavily personal topics that let fans see reflections of their own insecurities. It seems that the honesty is only becoming more and more unflinching with each offering, but on the

most sensitive topics to date, Bella divulges: “’These Drugs’ was very soul-bearing and kind of a touchy subject which I was scared to broach.’

Pretty Girl Lie’ is about body image, which was very close to home because of how much I’ve struggled with that growing up. Those two were pretty spiky, but I like being honest – those two were diving deep.”

Revealing that she is now keeping a list of raw statements to encourage herself to open up even more (!), it becomes obvious that these intimate themes

readdork.com 61.

Features.

are being navigated in a very poetic way. Poetry is, in fact, where her lyrical development began, before she discovered the Trojan horse of music in which such cutting topics can be inconspicuously delivered. As the Queen of babies herself agrees, “it’s a fun mix to put this raw honesty into a disguise of sweet pop sounds; that felt really interesting, and I enjoy the juxtaposition. It’s cool to get messages out to a larger audience who might not know the true extent and depth of what the lyric is saying until they listen a little bit harder. I like the battle and contrast between those two sides.”

Baby Queen’s music has truly landed at the perfect time; in an era that is ripe with division, uniting audiences with shared fears has been the unforeseen crux of her success, fulfilling the dormant desires of unknowing listeners in the current era. “In this specific moment in pop music, there’s a lot of demand for satirical, ironic social statements,” she observes. “I don’t

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think it’s a direction that you consciously or deliberately take; the climate was just right at the time for the music I was making. Hopefully, I can grow with something like that, that seems very reflective of the time - I hope I can grow with the people who are listening.”

Growth is something that Baby Queen is grounded in, as Bella herself claims to have had, “a few ‘eras’ of my writing before I found this tone and voice that defined what Baby Queen is – a tone that worked for me.” The way artists write is, of course, ever-evolving, and so she considers herself very lucky to have experienced such catalytic moments at a time when she was ready.

“I can’t imagine where I’d be if something had worked out when I first moved here; those years of development alongside the same producer was huge; we never thought I’d get signed; we were just making music and growing in the safety of that - away from all of this… “ ‘All this’ refers to the

almighty cogs helping the British music industry to keep spinning, and jumping into that machine can be a risky venture.

On this, Bella adds: “that changes it quite a bit; you have to redefine your ability to be creative within a space that is a lot less safe than in the beginning.”

In such a dangerous environment, with the eyes of the world watching, there are fine lines between pressure and prosperity, between admiration and idolisation. As someone who claims that aesthetic promotion is damaging but also endures pressing insecurities all while inflating a career, Baby Queen is no stranger to such a balancing act.

“Image… fuck. It drives me insane,” she resigns ruefully. “One thing is the music, and another thing is existing online.

Ultimately, when you’re putting an identity online, it’s very difficult to put across a true reflection of who you are – how do you even begin to do that?

I just reached this point of acceptance that you just have to be yourself,

because that’s the person who’s writing this music and can get their message across. If you pretend to be anything else, it’s not going to connect.”

The necessity for genuine connection is all that more powerful in the pop sphere, where layers of pumping production can often serve to obscure the human responsible for the art itself. Despite reigning this arena, it is actually not a calling Baby Queen felt from the beginning but rather grew into overtime. “Pop music has a reputation of being unauthentic, of being vapid, of being devoid of raw authenticity. Pop just means popular; it’s not even a genre thing,” she exclaims. “To fear popular is a bad idea; you should instead fear a lack of substance, and those things are associated but very different. You can have something that’s popular and appeals to a mass group of people that does not lack substance; there can often be more substance in pop music than in alternative rock music.”

Pinpointing this identity took time but moving to London was a unique gift, with an exposure to diverse voices not forcing Bella to adapt but instead giving her the freedom to carve her own path.

Reminiscing on the geographical journey, she says, “growing up in South Africa or really any small town, you develop into this mould of the person you’re expected to be; you never have the freedom to become who you should have been. London gives you that chance because there’s a willingness to try something new. Where I came from, anyone who steps out of the box is considered to be quite strange, whereas here you’re encouraged to do that.”

Baby Queen’s new mixtape ‘The Yearbook’ is a somewhat fictional, somewhat biographical recounting of this venture

through adolescence. “It’s an American coming-ofage film,” she definitively states. “The music felt super adolescent and coming of age, and as a person, I have multiple characters; multiple differing personalities.

It’s a characteristic of growing up, and so I wanted to get across that explorative feeling. The character of me is always behind it, though. It’s the same person speaking to you, and that’s what makes Baby Queen – the words.”

Expressive verses and an established sonic home do serve to define a familiarity with Baby Queen, but she is not an artist happy to bathe in comfort, instead preferring to traverse the uncomfortable for the sake of her later self.

“That’s a huge part of my personality – never being satisfied with where you are and what you’ve done, always looking forwards,” she agrees. “I find it really hard to live in the present; I’m stuck living in the future. There is another element to it that as a songwriter, you do genuinely get better – that’s proven. Fuck, I hope you get better!”

Bella jests.

Feeling lost in the pursuit of her own direction defines the all too relatable attitude of Baby Queen’s core ethos, and as her thematic discussion has proven, she’s never afraid to admit being a mess. “I’m more of a mess now than I was when I first admitted to that,” she declares. “I’m a fucking hopeless mess, seriously.

Being alive is hard; being a human being is hard. I didn’t ask to be born. I’m a super pessimist, but really, no one has their shit together. No one was it figured it out.” And that, ladies and gents, is the sympathisable appeal of Baby Queen. P Baby Queen’s mixtape ‘The Yearbook’ is out 3rd September.

Baby Queen.

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Features.

West London fivepiece Chubby and the Gang are unabashed in addressing society’s ills.

Words: Jamie MacMillan.

Photo: Sirus f Gahan.

I

t’s a few days after Latitude, and the text from Chubby and the Gang’s frontman pings in.

“I’m getting a Covid test,” it reads, politely (and sensibly tbf) asking to push our interview back a bit. As a little post-festival snapshot of this weird summer of 2021, it’s pretty fitting. We’ve already missed a couple of chats, once down to the actual ‘rona and the second due to a combo of Dork getting stuck on a motorway and the band still being ‘on one’ from a performance the night before.

But a short while later, we finally catch up with Charlie ‘Chubby’ Manning-Walker to talk all things Mutts and Nuts.

Because their new album’s called ‘The Mutt’s Nuts’ you see, not because we like dogs and snacks. Anyway.

When their debut ‘Speed Kills’ landed last January, it was an explosion of riot and rage that tantalisingly promised ridiculous live scenes to come. It was carnage, and it was fun, a parcel of rapid riffs and social justice wrapped up in songs that raced past at the speed of light. But when you-know-what also made an appearance a couple of months later, and the world went to sleep, it seemed to take on new life as the world looked for something to raise the pulse in a life of lockdown.

With the band signing to Partisan Records later on in the year, an air of mystery still seemed to hang around them as people still waited to catch their first glimpse of the band. High profile live streams might have followed, but it was still a weird time to

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be in a hardcore-meets-punk band that’s breaking through.

Even now, with Chubby and the Gang moving straight into the festival circuit, things haven’t settled down into any sort of normality. For Charlie, someone who’d never even been to a big festival before this year, it’s still something to get your head around.

“It is so weird,” he begins.

“The first ten shows we did were pre-Covid, and it was all sweaty backstreet bars, basements and squats. And then a long period of empty rooms with cameras in them.

And now we’re playing to fucking 6,000 people and Download. I feel like we’re yet to cut our teeth really as a live band, but people seem to be like, ‘oh that was amazing’, so I’ll take it.” He finishes with a laugh, pretty obviously taking all the praise and plaudits in his stride with a healthy disinterest.

“Success and failure, you’ve gotta try and take it as the same thing, you know? Not get too ahead of myself, and be like ‘oh, I’m amazing’,” he says with a shrug. “It’s all circular. The amount of people I’ve met who gas themselves off of doing ten songs or something. Come on, mate? No!” Still bemused at fans approaching him with any idea of who he is, he laughs that it took him a while to realise it was because the label was paying for adverts.

Did he feel pressure to live up to that this time around?

“Nah, man, not bothered.

It is what it is,” is his straightforward answer.

He soon might find he has to deal with the praise even more, though, because if speed kills, then so does standing still for this band.

‘The Mutt’s Nuts’ takes everything about that debut, and turns the dial even further. A ferocious and vital record, it takes the UK hardcore and punk scene as a starting point, switching the gears through 50s doo-wop and classic rock, folk-punk and beyond. Go in expecting your expectations to be messed with and blown away.

Of course, the last year

Chubby and the Gang.

has hardly seen society’s leaders step up in any meaningful or positive way, so it’s no surprise that this socially aware band have certain elements in their sights. Inequality, police brutality, in-built societal injustices and racism are the fuel that fires the band, as well as a disarming and obvious love for their city.

London almost becomes a character itself, the hidden dangers and beauty that reside in the parts of town that the majority live in and will recognise, coming to the fore.

It’s not the picturepostcard stuff, nor is it the cartoon violence you find in Guy Ritchie movies. It’s realer, somehow, capturing the edgy moments in time when you can feel, almost see, the tension hanging in the air like a knife and know it could kick off at any point. Far from glorifying the violence, it is simply the truth of life in the boroughs. “I’m not saying that it is good or it is bad; it’s more that it happens,” he agrees.

“People can misconstrue tracks like ‘Someone’s Gonna Die’, but it’s not about that. It’s about the tension beforehand rather than a threat.”

But, in the earliest stages of writing, Charlie wasn’t sure he knew what to write about.

“I was talking to a few friends, and I was like ‘I don’t know what to write about, I don’t think I’m very interesting?’,” he explains. “And they were like, ‘you drove a mini-cab for five years, you should talk about some of the stories on that’.” ‘On The Meter’ and ‘Beat That Drum’ were born

from those experiences, the former almost tenderly telling of the romance of moonlight on London’s streets before the gut-punch of the latter strips all of that away. For the frontman, driving a cab was the best way of juggling ‘life’ and being in the punk scene for years - not that he’d recommend it. “It’s not good, mate, but I can see why people are lifers in it,” he says. “I just wanted to get out. When you grow up in the punk scene, then you’re a lifer in that, and you build your life around what allows you to do that.”

Our chat drifts naturally on to being your own boss, something that Charlie has always chased. “Noone’s fucking dragging you because you’ve got a fucking tattoo or whatever,” he states, warming the swear-box up nicely. “I just fucking don’t want a boss telling me what to do. Retail’s hard; they expect the world from you. I don’t fucking CARE whether you break even; I’m still getting paid fucking minimum wage regardless.”

Once you get the frontman onto subjects like this, it’s a case of just having to hold on tight and try and take in everything he says.

Talking about ‘I’m Gonna Pay’, a track about how capitalism is pretty crap actually, he puts it simply. “Don’t fucking throw all your time into your job, because without time, your money is useless! Do all the overtime, stack up loads of money. Fine. But you haven’t got a day a spend it, so then what?” he points

out. “You work ten hours, and your labour produces you two hours worth of your value, so you’re not given the right amount of money, and some cunt who’s NOT doing the work is? Shit rolls downhill, and we’re standing at the bottom of the hill. There’s gonna come a point when you’re tired of just being the shit.”

Dismissing outright the view that Chubby and the Gang is a political band, he reckons it is more about getting his views on everything across rather than ascribing to any political science. “Politics is almost some science shit that people came up with, and it’s not how I view the world. It’s just, if I’m getting exploited for my labour, it’s a very, very simple equation. I WANT MORE!” he laughs.

Whether he likes the label or not, Charlie’s tendency to speak up and call bullshit where he sees it does mark him out as much more politically aware and active than many of his peers.

He might get mad, but he breaks each subject down so perfectly and so quickly that you are left with no doubts about the truth of what he says. Previous single ‘Coming Up Tough’ details the challenges facing society where some areas seem to have a ready-made pipeline from school to prison. Written about a family member, it’s a stark portrayal of how the current system is built to cage rather than rehabilitate.

“He went in as a kid and was given a sentence longer than

the life he’d lived,” Charlie says angrily. “Where’s the justice in that? Something happens, and then all of a sudden, you’re away for fucking twenty years. It’s not fair.”

Railing at the use of ‘joint enterprise’ sentencing in the courts, something that disproportionately affects young Black men, he continues with another example. “A kid in my school got done for a murder, just because he was there at the time. Imagine walking down the street, and all of a sudden someone you know happens to walk past at the same time,” he says. “They’ve just stabbed someone, and you’re just there. What does that mean? It’s bullshit; it’s just another way they can round people up.”

At this point, Dork makes the mistake of mentioning Boris Johnson and his suggestion of putting antisocial offenders in high-vis vests while they carry out community service. Chain gangs, anyone? This was apparently brand new news for Charlie, and the temperature of our chat reaches boiling point.

“Fucking cunt! Fuck that.

I’m fucking anti-social, but don’t put me in a fucking high-vis chain gang shit.

Fuck that. Fuck them! What does anti-social even mean?

This fucking lot…” He’s not finished yet. “These people, family values this and family values that. Listen to what they say, because what they’re saying is a whole other thing. It’s nothing about being anti-social. They mean people who oppose the government. When they talk

about family values, basically they mean some anti-LGBTQ stuff. It’s all bullshit.” He’s still not finished. “They fucking hide their prejudice in soft language, and it fucking drives me up the wall. Priti Patel and shit, good God, man. I don’t know where these people come from.

Recently when they were all like, ‘oh, it’s up to the football fans if they want to bend the knee’ and then loads of fucking racist shit happens, and they’re like, ‘oh why did that happen?’ YOU fucking stoked the flames! You literally told people it was up to them, and they could do it.” He takes a long breath, and then adds, somewhat needlessly, “I could talk about this all day.”

It’s not just politicians who have pissed Charlie off.

On ‘White Rags’, he calls out those artists who didn’t speak up during the Black Lives Matter protests, snarling “Where are all the singers?

They’re quiet, that’s strange / When it comes to talk of some real change” at the song’s climax. It’s obviously something that still winds him up. “Fucking too right man, I remember when it happened, and all the singers were just waiting. I was like, ‘oh man, you’ve been so fucking loud before’,” he spits, naming no names. “And then they get up and are like, ‘hey, racism is bad’. Is that where it ends for you? I don’t want to tell people what to do, but at least fucking amp it up when you’re needed. Because people were just being like ‘ah yeah, it’s bad. The end.

Oh, and our album’s out next week’. Fucking give it a rest and stand up for shit.”

He admits that he is ‘quite sceptical’ about whether many of the artists who put black squares on their Instagram were as bothered about it as they seemed. “I just find it a little bit seethrough when you get certain artists saying ‘yo, buy our album and also, racism’s bad’,” he points out. “And no expansion on that. ‘It’s bad that racism is there, isn’t it?’

Jesus, mate. Can’t we just say that the Metropolitan Police Force is racist or whatever?”

Talk eventually drifts back to the summer to come of festivals and a proper tour to come later in the year. Those live teeth are gonna get cut real quick. For Charlie, he is still taking it all in his stride - seemingly permanently bemused that people are paying attention, his heart still in the underground scene that Chubby and the Gang sprang from. “People have been deprived of this for so long; they’re buzzing for it,” he says excitedly. “I like doing all these big music festivals and stuff, it’s cool, and I’m so appreciative to be asked and to be there. New life experiences and shit.

But give me fifty people in a basement in Tottenham.

That’s my thing.” Whatever the size of venue, whether it’s in the basements and bars or the biggest stages, Chubby and the Gang are back in town, and that’s our thing.

P Chubby and the Gang’s album ‘The Mutt’s Nuts’ is out 27th August.

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

CHVRCHES Screen Violence

eeee Out: 27th August 2021.

I

t’s weird to think of Chvrches about to embark on their second decade. On the one hand, they’ve very quickly become part of the accepted order of things, delivering three albums of innovative, forward-thinking pop music.

On the other, they’ve always been a band that feels a step ahead of their own shadow, untethered from the trends and fads around them.

Perhaps, then, their fourth full-length ‘Screen Violence’ is a gateway to something not so much new, but definitely evolved. From opener ‘Asking For A Friend’, it’s a record that could come from nowhere else, and yet wrapped inside those clipped beats and twinkling synths is something altogether darker. After battening down the hatches following a 2019 social media storm, there is both frustration and almost visceral anger - but also, perhaps more importantly, that vital spark of hope too. For every line about “getting out” or finding a way out, there’s that cinematic vista that waits at the other side. What could so easily come across as doom-laden negativity actually becomes the empowerment of sticking the course.

From the fist in the air of ‘Good Girls’ to ‘Final Girl’, and its strength to push through self-doubt to reach the end credits, ‘Screen Violence’ is a record that understands the lows to appreciate the highs.

Just like the band that made it, it’s that ability to last the distance that counts in the end. STEPHEN ACKROYD

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ing Chubby & The Gang The Mutt’s Nuts

Partisan Records Out: 27th August 2021

eeee After a debut that felt like being strapped to the front of an out-of-control rollercoaster, Chubby and The Gang have wasted no time in coming straight back for more with ‘The Mutt’s Nuts’. Once again merging hardcore and punk with a ton of other spicy flavours, it is immediate proof that this gang are much, much more than just a moment of excitement exploding amongst the monotony of a lockdown.

Fiercely wearing its politics from the off, it’s a vital and ferocious beast; a record that manages to be chaotic, exciting, exhilarating, scary and fierce all at the same time. This gang is fast becoming one you wanna be in. JAMIE MACMILLAN

Villagers

Fever Dreams

Domino Out: 20th August 2021

Recommended Releases

Little Simz

MAKE SURE YOU CHECK OUT THESE ALBUMS.

Sometimes I Might Be Introvert (Age 101)

eee

Amidst all the chaos and uncertainty, Villagers are back to bring us solace with their fifth studio offering ‘Fever Dreams’. Across ten tracks, the album takes a journey of dreamy euphoria.

As calming and restorative as taking a warm bath, the deeply intelligent composition remains tender and thoughtful. Like many things in life, the subtle nuances may easily pass you by, but their overall effect leaves a powerful impact. A welcome break from the outside world, ‘Fever Dreams’ offers a contented expanse; Conor O’Brien has created a beautiful, open, and honest piece of work in which he exposes his very soul – and invites you to do the same.

MELISSA DARRAGH

Out: 3rd September 2021

eeeee Wolf Alice Blue Weekend

(Dirty Hit) A near-perfect album arriving at the nearperfect time, Wolf Alice’s imperial phase has finally dawned. .

Inhaler It Won’t Always Be Like This

(Polydor) With a debut album that silences any remaining doubters, Inhaler might always be a band with a certain legacy, but they wear it well.

Hearing the first few notes of an album and immediately knowing that you are about to listen to something beyond ground-breaking is a very rare experience. Yet, from the opening fanfare of Little Simz’ ‘Sometimes I Might Be Introvert’, there’s a resounding sense that what you’re about to hear is incomprehensibly enormous.

The flourishing opener ‘Introvert’ is a battle cry: a striking, blazing announcement of Simz’s presence. Then, from the blissfully soulful ‘How Did You Get Here’ to the delicious 80s synth of ‘Protect My Energy’, each

Warner Records Out: 3rd September 2021

L Devine Near Life Experience: Part 1 (Warner) You Signed Up For This Gingerbread Man Records Out: 27th August 2021

.

eeee Whatever Maisie Peters thought she was signing up for, chances are the reality has left her expectations a million miles away. Celebrity tweet endorsements, getting signed to Ed Sheeran’s record label, excitement, ridiculous hype levels; she’s taken it all in her stride. And now, with her debut, she’s proven more than a match for all of it. ‘You Signed Up For This’ should come packaged with a noise warning, because

that deafening din of hype is about to become a sonic boom. Pinballing wildly in mood between heartbreak and lovestruck, it’s as much of a rollercoaster ride as real life is at this age. Everything is either the best thing ever or the worst thing ever, so yeah it’s pretty much the perfect Dork album in that way. Bring on summer and sunshine and dancing and all the good stuff. What a start. JAMIE MACMILLAN

Charli Adams Bullseye (Color

Self-released Out: 20th August 2021

eeee Edinburgh’s exciting and energetic quartet Swim School fuse the sweet tones of indie rock with an explosively atmospheric combination of grunge and dream-pop to form a revelatory sound that you can’t afford to miss on their debut EP, ‘Making Sense Of It All’. The band have utilised the space of the pandemic to bring a new level of scope to their previously indie-pop brand, with comparisons to Wolf Alice being aptly drawn - a feat that few acts can accomplish. This huge step forward flexes a perfect balance of dynamics, tone and texture that signifies promise and potential from a band that is destined to become so much more.

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damnshestamil

A significant step forward in L Devine’s ascension to pop greatness.

Making Sense Of It All EP

FINLAY HOLDEN

Priya Ragu

Maisie Peters

track is complex and searing with wit. Simz’ talent is so pronounced it almost feels like a blow – it’s completely unparalleled.

This album is absolutely Little Simz’ magnum opus, it’s earth-shatteringly beyond what has come before. It showcases a fascinating duplicity – chronicling the workings of an introvert whose rich inner world expands beyond most people’s imaginations.

“Only the strong will survive,” warns Corrin at one point. ‘Sometimes I Might Be Introvert’ makes it unshakeably clear that Little Simz is the strongest we have. NEIVE MCCARTHY

Swim School

Theory) ‘Bullseye’ cements Charli Adams’ star potential, covering all bases while still giving the impression that there’s even more to come — a perfect debut record.

Meet Me @ The Altar Model Citizen EP

eeee

Fueled By Ramen Out now

There once was a time when an artist would stick to a well beaten path.

Couple of singles, maybe an EP - then an album.

Not today, Dear Reader. ‘damnshestamil’ is the debut mixtape from fast rising popster Priya Ragu.

Created alongside producer (and brother) JaphnaGold, it’s an introduction to an artist that pulls influence from everywhere to offer up something vibrant and fresh. Previous single ‘Chicken Lemon Rice’ remains a standout, a crosscultural bop of the highest order. From slow jams to pop gems, each is delivered with a vocal and musical dexterity which pushes beyond the norm. As potential goes, Priya Ragu has the lot. DAN HARRISON

Pop punk. It’s very ‘in’ right now, don’tcha know?

But while most of those so-called scene resetting breakthroughs seem to feature a potential pop kid wailing in the vague vicinity of blink-182’s Travis Barker, Meet Me @ The Altar are something different.

Something, dare we say it, better. Signed to label of note Fueled By Ramen, their debut EP ‘Model Citizen’ is rammed to the rafters with day-glo, razor sharp future anthems that both recall the legends of pop punk past, but also herald in a new, more fitting era. We’ve had so many column inches devoted to the death of rock - Meet Me @ The Altar could be the ones to give it life once more. DAN HARRISON

eeee

The Killers

Pressure Machine EMI Out now

eee The great thing about The Killers has always been their sense of showmanship. From that bombastic run of first tracks on ‘Hot Fuss’ through to the hip swinging ‘The Man’, they’re a band who have never been better than when they’re giving it the ol’ razzle dazzle. So how do we approach ‘Pressure Machine’, an album which sees Brandon and co. take things more ‘low key’. Based around home, and stories of the people found there, it’s every but the blue collar love letter you’d expect from the noted Springsteen enthusiasts. It’s got value, too - ‘Quiet Town’ swells the heart, while the appearance of the currently omnipresent Phoebe Bridgers works shockingly well. It’s just without that sequin swagger, it’s good - not spectacular.

STEPHEN ACKROYD

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Khartoum

Summer Heart

Wings of Desire

binki

Young Poet Out: 20th August 2021

Icons Creating Evil Art Out: 3rd September 2021

WMD Recordings Out now

Fader Label Out now

Vultures EP

Baby Queen The Yearbook

Polydor Out: 3rd September 2021

eeeee At this point, any attempt to deny Bella Lathum’s status as an emerging powerhouse seems futile at best. Last year’s debut collection ‘Medicine’ might have fizzed with potential-to-come, but the ten-track ‘The Yearbook’ arrives with an even louder bang. Assured, confident and with an almost unnerving ability to find a subtle vocal hook or unique flourish, Baby Queen isn’t about following the crowd - but more creating her own just slightly off the well-lit path. Bright, bubbly and filled to the brim with self-aware brilliance, ‘American Dream’, ‘Dover Beach’ and standout ‘You Shaped Hole’ prove the power of direct, immediate pop music. ‘Narcissist’, on the other hand, runs like an understandably bitter stream of consciousness, dripping with not even barely concealed disdain. Carefully staying clear of the ‘album’ word, yet still delivering a significant body of work that feels rammed to the rafters with certified bops, Baby Queen is only just getting started. Bow down. STEPHEN ACKROYD

The Joy Formidable Into The Blue

Hassle Records Out: 20th August 2021

ee For a band on their fifth album, it’s difficult to expect something that isn’t more of the same. Here, The Joy Formidable just about meet expectations with their new album ‘Into The Blue’. There’s not really any new ground tread, with everything sounding as you’d expect. The only difference is bassist Rhydian Dafydd taking the lead on vocals in conjunction with Bryan.

At times, the record feels disjointed with songs such as ‘Chimes’ and ‘Gotta Feed My Dog’ sounding like each part was written in isolation with only a vague idea of what the other parts of the song sound like. There are some moments on the album to sit up and listen to, such as ‘Interval’ or the titletrack, but on the whole it’s very much everything that you’ve come to expect from the trio. It won’t win many new fans but it’s probably just about enough to satisfy the older ones. JOSH WILLIAMS

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Insecurities EP

Motor Function EP

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eee

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Lead single ‘Vultures’ sets the tone on Khartoum’s new EP; a rambunctious concoction of age-old indie sensibilities mixed with a dash of punk attitude.

Although the mood may shift, the energy doesn’t falter in ‘Took It All Away’.

‘Benny’ and ‘Internet Lover’ follow with the same mantra, full of observations of life in the modern age - “nothing is real when you go online”.

Described by the band as “music to help you forget the clusterfuck of this year”, they couldn’t be more spot on. PHOEBE DE ANGELIS

By somehow tapping directly into the exact vibe of hazy summer days, Swedish pop songwriter Summer Heart has proven he’s a savant of creating songs that are equal parts neurotic and carefree. His new EP ‘Insecurities’ is a sprint of distinct vocals, suave electronic composition and an instant catchiness that sticks every chorus firmly into your brain. It’s a great sample of Summer Heart’s seemingly effortless debonair and relentless endeavour to pump out good vibes. CONNOR FENTON

Shedding their previous guise as members of INHEAVEN, Wings of Desire launch forth with their second EP, ‘Amun Ra’. Packed full of hazy, cinematic touchpoints and driving 80s beats, the EP breezes through four songs in a sweet tornado of road trip soundscapes and blue-sky indie. Setting grey, office-job vocals against a starry, summery backdrop of soaring guitars and pounding drums, the EP contrasts drilling lyrical refrains with freefalling, expansive indie pop. EDIE MCQUEEN

Attitude is everything.

That’s the lesson we’re getting from the latest batch of new alt-popslash-rock-slash-funkslash-whatever-you-like potential superstars. To those ranks, add binki, a talent that clearly deserves the shiniest of gold stars.

His ‘Motor Function’ EP may not stay around for a long time - all four tracks clock in satisfyingly under three minutes - but there’s a blast to be had along the way. Vibrant, excitable and impossible not to love.

STEPHEN ACKROYD

Artist’s Guide

Connie Constance Prim & Propa EP Prim & Propa

This song is about owning community culture, family and friendship. It’s about looking at that big white house and the perfect grass and saying, ‘Yeah, nah, not for me, mate - not without my people enjoying it with me’. It’s an anthem for everyone that feels betrayed and let down by this country. It’s for the single parents, the people that work their arses off every single day and can barely get their head above water. It’s a reminder that we’ve got what’s important right here with us: ‘When you want more then look around, if you’ve got love you know you’re good / Cause when the grass is greener, the people are meaner.

Orla Gartland

Woman On The Internet New Friends Out: 20th August 2021

eeeee Your twenties can feel like you’re walking a tightrope.

You don’t feel completely different from your nineteenyear-old self, but you’re definitely more mature, right? On ‘Woman On The Internet’, it’s as though Orla Gartland has reached into your mind and grasped every anxious thought about whether you’re doing things right. Her biting selfexamination resides at the core of every track and lays her every flaw and insecurity for all to see. It’s viscerally uncomfortable at times – her self-doubt and worry hold a universality to it. Despite that, it’s inherently soothing to have that vocalised so earnestly. She searches desperately for reassurance in this recurring, shadowy ‘Woman On The Internet’ figure who has her life together and an endless supply of support to offer.

What Orla perhaps doesn’t realise is that this very album will offer that exact reassurance to her listeners.

It’s an impressive debut album. NEIVE MCCARTHY

Amun-Ra EP

Connie Constance Prim & Propa EP

Jump The Fence Out: 2nd September 2021

eeee The past year has given us all a chance to get in touch with ourselves. Connie Constance is no different.

Taking the time to tap into her upbringing, ‘Prim & Propa’ comes from a desire to combine the Nigerian folk and rock of her upbringing with the British guitar music she grew up on. It’s brilliantly effective too. The EP’s opening title-track shows it best, a crashing, climactic

banger that sounds fresh and exciting rather than a simple retread of what’s come before.

Elsewhere, ‘Kids Like Us’ finds a spark of light in the darkness, while ‘Electric Girl’ rattles around with an infectious confidence. A collection that has a bit of everything, its the sheer propulsive positivity that punches through. Affirmingly brilliant. DAN HARRISON

me through seasonal depression because she’s impenetrable, unstoppable, and a powerhouse of energy! She is our superhuman mum; she’s endurance and power!

Not an image of some societal perfection. There are no beauty standards that apply to this fierce force as she is a queen in her tracksuits and a star in her bedroom. She’s the drug with no comedown.

Serotonin, but make it sexy. ‘Electric Girl’ is here to wake you the fuck up and get your dreams manifesting into realities.

Gran Torino

This song is when you first meet someone, and you’re so excited about them. Who they are, their dreams. And it’s basically saying, please don’t shy away from this; I Kids Like Us want us to dream together.

I was in a pretty dark space But the reality is they make when I wrote this, I can’t lie. you really nervous and It’s really that raw moment act a bit out of character when you know you aren’t with how much shit you’re getting someone back, and willing to take from them they were that person that just because you want it to kinda made everything work out. seem better when you’re I originally wrote it after at your worst. The chorus being in a situation like is saying I’m meant to feel this, and I had just watched all of this and open to this the movie Gran Torino; journey. I hope that people looking back, I can’t can feel the seeds of hope remember what sparked in this song. the inspiration other than my own love life. Perhaps I Electric Girl need to rewatch the movie ‘Electric Girl’ was now I’m no longer in that born, and she got entanglement. P

Jade Bird

Different Kinds Of Light Glassnote Out now

eee

Billie Eilish Happier Than Ever Polydor Out now

eeee Normally, an album which features an artist bemoaning the less brilliant parts of fame wouldn’t exactly be top of our wishlists. It’s testament to Billie Eilish’s considerable talents as a writer that while ‘Happier Than Ever’ is most certainly a very different record to its predecessor - it never gets to the point where it sinks the ship. Instead, there’s a bite to her bile, a sense of sardonic control able to wither the big, bad wolves at the door with a simple sneering lyric.

Sure, this is a different Billie to the one who changed shifted the axis

of pop culture with 2019’s ‘When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?’. She’s been through the A list fame game - and it’s changed her. But while subjectively there may be a yearning for some of the direct hits that saw her break through with such strength, objectively there’s a different, deeper quality at play. Title track ‘Happier Than Ever’ builds and explodes into a growling, disquieting rock song, while ‘Oxytocin’ pulses with a dark, disquieting heart.

Billie Eilish is growing up, but she’s not quietening down yet. STEPHEN ACKROYD

Blending Americana textures and alternative fringing, singer-songwriter Jade Bird is back with her second album, ‘Different Kinds of Light’. The record is ephemeral and atmospheric, playing with dark and light as much as the title suggests. Pairing softly swinging country tones with delicate pianos and whiskey sweet guitars, it moves through moods and atmospheres with a gently cinematic touch. From the driving jazz bassline of ‘Open Up the Heavens’, to the breezy pop pacing of ‘Trick Mirror’, the album paints a range of genres in Jade’s own idiosyncratic sonic blend. It evokes the feeling of watching dust motes, suspended in a shaft of light, wondering if they’re fairies – and if the album sounds like watching them, its titular track feels like you’re up there with them, spinning through the air.

Confidently summoning forth alt-rock licks and sweet folk, ‘Different Kinds of Light’ showcases a version of Jade Bird who is all the better for her new-found maturity, encapsulating wide skies and wide eyes with an admirable sense of self-assurance and a touch of tender fragility. EDIE MCQUEEN

Coming Soon

FIVE RELEASES YOU SHOULD START GETTING EXCITED ABOUT NOW

Hippo Campus

Caiola Out now

Grand Jury Music Out now

Loving In Stereo

Good Dog, Bad Dream EP

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British music collective Jungle return with their third record ‘Loving In Stereo’, an LP that reinvigorates an already successful sound with a fresh perspective across 14 expansive, graceful tracks that continue their legacy as one of the country’s most exciting electronic duos.

A great balance of vintage instrumentation and modern beats generates a timeless feel to the dynamic texture of the album; these simple combinations manage to create a surprisingly irresistible tone with undeniable swagger.

‘Loving In Stereo’ proves to be a triumphant pursuit of elegance resulting in a decadently transportive record that finds celebration in the unbridled joy of music. FINLAY HOLDEN

Minnesotan indie-rock five-piece Hippo Campus embrace sonic chaos on ‘Good Dog, Bad Dream’. As usual, the group do not try to replicate past projects and instead shift from introspective deep-dives to external exploration, with each member pushing their creative boundaries. An audible display of millennial confusion, this release is a sharp and concise forward movement that runs in parallel with the experience gained from side-projects like Lupin and Baby Boys; specifically, the alt-pop approach and maximalist production has been infused with their established indiepop-rock melodies, merging the irrefutable appeal and addictive draw of both infectious elements. FINLAY HOLDEN

What Were You Hoping To Find?

Retrospect Records Out: 20th August 2021

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Sam Fender Seventeen Going Under

Out: 8th October 2021

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Spector Now Or Whenever

Out: 1st October 2021 .

Vistas found themselves in the weird and not-sowonderful position last year of having the perfect summer festival album at a time when summer, and festivals, were cancelled.

The Edinburgh band have wasted no time though, and have bounced straight back with ‘What Were You Hoping To Find?’, a record that sees frontman Prentice Robertson on the brink of achieving everything he ever wanted but finding that the big questions still remain.

Whether deliberate or not, it’s very much a companion piece to ‘Everything Changes In The End’, both in sound and in topic. The same big pop hooks, the same festival-ready vibes, the same wrestling with anxieties and doubts. That, in truth, is both its big selling point and its big obstacle. They might not get away with the same trick a third time, but this time round it just about does the job of giving us what we hoped to find. JAMIE MACMILLAN

Oscar Lang

Chew The Scenery Dirty Hit Out now

eeee After bouncing around the bedroom pop scene unleashing tune after tune, EP after EP, Oscar Lang has finally unveiled his debut album proper. Blending psychedelic rock, indie tones, a bedroom feel and even orchestral elements, ‘Chew The Scenery’ serves as a confident display of self-growth both in terms of lyrical themes and sonic progression. Curating the plethora of moods brings a real mixtape feel which is only exaggerated by analogue interludes and intermissions that flesh out the scope. It’s clear Oscar has thrown everything he’s got at this album, and the collaborative production effort has led to his boldest and most vivid effort yet. He doesn’t repeat the innocence of ‘bops etc.’, the sweet melodies of ‘Overthunk’, the bright richness of ‘Hand Over Your Head’ or the stomping garage feel of ‘Antidote to Being Bored’ – all of these characteristics are woven into one luxurious listening experience. FINLAY HOLDEN

Courtney Barnett Things Take Time, Take Time Out: 12th November 2021

Jungle

Vistas

Dylan Fraser

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The World Isn’t Big When You Know How It Works EP Atlantic Out: 10th September 2021

eeee Following on from a banging 2020, rock-influenced altpop up-and-comer Dylan Fraser is back to knock your socks clean off your feet with his second EP, ‘The World Isn’t Big When You Know How It Works’. With a wide range of influences, Dylan presents seven tracks, each one with a different personality and approach from the other. Whether setting up sinister tones with foreboding synthetic drums or pumping chirpy tunes to the nature of life, this EP manages to land every shot it takes thanks to its pristine producing and excellently executed vocals. It’s impossible not to get drawn into whatever Dylan Fraser is laying down.

CONNOR FENTON

Bleachers

Zuzu Queensway Tunnel

Out: 12th November 2021

Self Esteem Prioritise Pleasure

Out: 22nd October 2021

Take The Sadness Out Of Saturday Night RCA Out now

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eee Jack Antonoff is a genius.

That’s less an opinion, more the kind of stated fact we all take as read now. His work as a producer of note for half of pop’s A-list has made him one of the most in demand names about - something which has only increased the profile of his front of house job as Bleachers.

And let’s be clear, here.

Bleachers as a project has - to date - been no runner’s up prize. While it’s impossible to deny that, musically, Antonoff belongs to that growing list of acts beholden to Bruce

Springsteen’s blue collar brilliance, it’s a trick that works.

Most of the time.

When at full blast, it’s stunningly effective - ‘Stop Making This Hurt’ is a Bleachers bop that fits alongside the very best. But elsewhere it’s more good than great - something best shown by the album’s closing track.

‘What’d I Do With All This Faith’ is not without merit, but in turning inwards it loses that infectious, fist pumping energy that makes Bleachers so easy to love. DAN HARRISON

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Any Other Questions?

This month...

Remi Wolf.

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 that Remi Wolf once had to wear an eye patch as a child and has clearly spent at least some time looking at cow testicles. Here’s some off-topic questions to find out ‘more’.

What was the first record you bought?

My parents bought me a bunch of CDs, but I think the first record I ever bought for myself was ‘A Salt With A Deadly Pepa’ by Salt-N-Pepa.

What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever eaten?

Cow testicles.

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

Dodo birds.

What did you last dream about?

Two nights ago, I dreamed about Doja Cat. What’s your breakfast of choice?

Eggs, bacon and toast.

Classic American.

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

World Peace, reverse climate change and unlimited free lattes.

What was the last thing you broke?

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My glasses.

What’s your biggest fear?

Never being happy.

Have you ever sold your own CD or merch on eBay? No. What’s the best song you’ve written or played on?

‘Liz’.

Which defunct band would you most like to reform?

Maybe Fleetwood Mac. What’s your favourite smell?

Le Labo Santal 33.

What do you always have in your refrigerator?

Butter.

Have you got any secret tattoos?

Nothing really secret. I have a wolf on my hip, which I don’t think a lot of people really see.

What is your earliest memory?

I have two early ones, I

don’t know which one came first. I went to this pre-school in San Francisco when I was 2 or 3, and I remember we had this insane day where we made miniature fish tanks for Swedish fish out of tiny baby food jars, and it was like my favourite thing that ever happened to me in my life. I was so hyped.

Also, the same day, we did a donut eating contest where they hung donuts from a bar, and we all had to try to eat the donuts on a string with our hands tied behind our backs. That was a big day.

Also, same pre-school, it was nap time, and I got poked in the eye by this kid DT. I remember having to go to the hospital, and I had to get a patch on my eye because he scratched my cornea.

Who is your favourite member of One Direction?

Harry Styles.

What is your most treasured possession?

My dog.

If you had to be on a TV

gameshow, which would you choose?

Survivor.

What’s your favourite sandwich filling?

There’s this sandwich in Echo Park, where I live; it’s a Smoked Salmon Bahn Mi. It’s my favourite sandwich I’ve ever had in my life.

Do you believe in aliens?

Yeah, I guess so.

What is the best present you’ve ever been given?

This German chefs knife.

Really good knife.

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

A house.

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

The first tattoo I ever got was a backwards treble clef on accident.

How punk are you out of ten?

I feel like I don’t look punk at all, but I feel like my ideology is kind of punk, so I’m going to give myself a 6.

What’s your worst habit?

Popping my pimples.

Have you ever seen a ghost?

No, but I wish I had so badly.

If you had a pet elephant, what would you call it?

Bongo.

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

Flying.

Who would play you in a movie of your life?

Zendaya.

What’s the naughtiest thing you did at school?

Cheat on tests.

Why are you like this?

My mother. P Remi Wolf’s single ‘Liquor Store’ is out now.

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Venus Grrrls / Katie Spencer / Hadda Be / Galaxians / Crake / Home Counties Sunflower Thieves / Langkamer / Treeboy & Arc / Knuckle / Mt Doubt Weekend Recovery / Jodie Nicholson / Adore//Repel / In The Morning Lights Priestgate / Reardon Love / Hannah Willwood / Cowgirl / Lemon Drink Mayshe Mayshe / Mt Misery / ODAS / The State Of Georgia / The Bleeding Obvious Georgia Meek / Rumbi Tauro / The Wind Up Birds / La Rissa / August Charles Bunkerpop / JJ Swimsuit / Macroscope / Dear Friends / The Last Programme Dan Greaves / Chloe Juliette Beswick / Emily Parish / Brad Jack

longdivisionfestival.co.uk

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The Futureheads Glasvegas The Anchoress The Lovely Eggs Beardyman She Drew The Gun Brix & The Extricated Lanterns On The Lake Roddy Woomble Beans On Toast Big Joanie Peggy Sue Hands Off Gretel Mush Low Hummer BDRMM The Lounge Society Too Many T’s

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Across Wakefield City Centre

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