DIY, December 2013 / January 2014 by DIY Magazine

DIY

free / issue 25 / DECEMBER 2013 / JANUARY 2014

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INSIDE

TOY KATY B WILD BEASTS JOIN TH E D OTS

2 014 ’ s HOT T EST ACTS INCLUDING

WOLF ALICE TEMPLES BONDAX BANKS ROYAL BLOOD THE ORWELLS THUMPERS FOXES MØ AN D LOAD S MORE

BACK ON A M IS S ION

IN T H E ST UDIO PLUS

ARCTIC MONKEYS ARCADE FIRE VAMPIRE WEEKEND THE NATIONAL QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE AN D MOR E

S CHO OL’S O UT

Chlöe HOWL AND T HE CL AS S OF 2014

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GOOD

evil

What’s on the DIY team’s radar? Victoria Sinden Deputy Editor good There are some proper good albums due at the start of 2014. Watch this space! evil Sadly DIY’s Ron Burgundy outfit arrived after the Arcade Fire dress up gigs.

EDITOR’S LETTER

Last year’s Class of 2013 - our annual watch list for acts who’ll go places in the next twelve months - consisted of ten bands. Not any old ten bands, either. Haim were in there, as were CHVRCHES, Bastille and Peace. It was a who’s who of who made it in the last twelve months. We’re all about moving with the times, though. The Class of 2014 includes more than forty absolutely essential acts. That’s why this issue is a bit special. Some of our regulars will return in February, taking a breather while we fit in a 58 page extravaganza. This class is going to need a bigger bus. Stephen Ackroyd

good It’s Chriiiiiiistmaaaas! (Unless you’re reading this in January, in which case, it isn’t. Sorry)

evil If I said there were

another fifteen new acts I could have fit into The Class of 2014, I’d be going too far, right?

this month IN numbers

7 50 10 43 1

Hours Sarah spent dressed as Ron Burgundy.

Maximum speed Minutes it took Gnarwolves’ van or Joff Wolf Alice to start would travel on getting naked the way to their during the #STANDFORSOMETHING gig. Slowly band’s photo shoot. There’s does it, boys. always one.

Bands in DIY’s Class Of…

Members of the Class Of... that requested DIY made their hair bigger via Photoshop.

Sarah Jamieson News Editor good Being sent costumes is always fun. If anyone out there is listening, when I was little I always wanted to dress up as Disney Princesses… evil Fake moustaches are a bit itchy. Jamie Milton Online Editor good Taking a gazillion new bands out for coffee as part of a whole month’s worth of interviews. evil I’m never going to be able to sleep again. El Hunt Assistant Online Editor good Pixies at Field Day ‘14. Where is my mind? I just don’t know, I’m that excited. evil I’ve been possessed by Hannah Diamond. I nearly sang ‘Pink and Blue’ in Londis the other day.

LISTENING post what’s on the diy stereo this month? WARPAINT S/T (Album)

Flood-produced second album from the LA four-piece is as brilliant as expected. ‘Love Is To Die’ wasn’t a red herring. EAST INDIA YOUTH TOTAL STRIFE FOREVER (Album)

William Doyle’s sound circuits techno influences and wields them into something direct and emotionally affecting. His debut is out in January. 3

contents

NEWs

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to y

1 0 # S TA N D F O R S O M E T H I N G 1 4 kat y b

class of 2014 18

C hl ö e H o w l 24

R adke y

2 6 Wolf A lice 3 0 banks 3 4 sohn 3 8 R o y al B lood 4 0 C irca Waves 4 4 T humpers 4 6 F r y ars

4 8 T he O r w ells 5 2 S uperfood 54 MØ 6 2 B onda x 6 8 T emples 7 2 G eorge E z ra 7 4 fo x es

56 76 4 thisisfakediy.co.uk

reviews 76

live

8 1 games

Editor Stephen Ackroyd Deputy Editor Victoria Sinden Reviews Editor Emma Swann News Editor Sarah Jamieson Art Director Louise Mason Head Of Marketing & Events Jack Clothier Online Editor Jamie Milton Assistant Online Editor El Hunt Contributors Alexia Kapranos, Andrew Backhouse, Charlie Ralph, Danny Wright, David Zammitt, Hayley Fox, Huw Oliver, Jack Enright, Kyle Macneill, Louise Amazing, Michael J Fax, Tom Doyle, Tom Walters Photographers Carolina Faruolo, Duncan Elliott, Laura Coulson, Mike Massaro, Sarah Louise Bennett, Sinéad Grainger For DIY editorial info@thisisfakediy.co.uk For DIY sales rupert@sonicdigital.co.uk tel: +44 (0)20 76130555 For DIY online sales lawrence@sonicdigital.co.uk tel: +44 (0)20 76130555 DIY is published by Sonic Media Group. 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 DIY. 25p where sold. 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 Sonic Media Group holds no responsibility. The opinions of the contributors do not necessarily bear a relation to those of DIY or its staff and we disclaim liability for those impressions. Distributed nationally.

NEWS

NEWS 6

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Join The Dots

Back wi t h t h e i r s econ d a l b u m , T OY a r e i n d u l g i n g i n s p o n t a n e i t y. W o r d s : T o m Wa lt e r s p h o t o : e m m a s wa n n

“We don’t lead particularly normal lifestyles.”

sychedelic music hasn’t been this popular since its heyday in the ‘60s. Australia started the comeback when Tame Impala burst into the spotlight with their debut album ‘Innerspeaker’, paving the way for a flurry of acts channeling their inner flower power and unleashing it in all sorts of obscure and, occasionally, earthshattering ways. TOY are taking full advantage. A powerhouse packing members of flash-inthe-pan indie rockers Joe Lean & The Jing Jang Jong, the band’s 2009 split has allowed Tom Dougall to lead the way in forming a new guise. “I got into psych when I was quite young,” Dougall, 25, explains. “I think we all did. When you’re teenagers and you’re just getting into your Beatles and your Stones, it’s kind of a natural progression.” When you compare a TOY track to a Joe Lean

single, it’s obvious where the creative differences lay. Here are a band that, while keen on having fun, are torn between continuing playing for a laugh or committing to switching things up. “That wasn’t our band – this is,” proclaims Dougall. TOY are better creatively, he explains, because there’s a greater sense of togetherness. “Before, there were a lot of disagreements.” Peel apart even TOY’s biggest sprawler though, and you’ll more than likely uncover a sugar-coated melody underneath. This is where they really come into their own: no matter how rough or rugged the riff, there’s a nagging pop sensibility that makes their music irresistibly enjoyable. Accessibility however, isn’t something the band has ever been conscious of. “We’ve always thought we could do whatever we liked,” Dougall clarifies. “That’s the kind of attitude we’ve had from the beginning. 7

NEWS

We like writing pop music, and we like melodic music, but we also like noisy music as well. Pretty sounds and pretty melodies… we always want to keep some of that in, one way or another. It’s not about being accessible to us, it’s about making something that sounds beautiful or eerie or, you know, strange. I think we just really like strong melodies - my favourite music is melodic in one way or another.” Take their latest single ‘Join The Dots’ for example. The first track to be unveiled from their forthcoming second record of the same name, it’s another huge, momentous piece of psychedelia that to the casual listener could prove daunting with a running time of eight minutes. Yet as soon as it starts crackling into life, the eeriness of it instantly entices. “There’s a guitar part on [‘Join The Dots’] that I completely improvised,” an excited Dougall remarks. Improvisation is something that the frontman thinks of extremely fondly. He recalls recording the track ‘Dead And Gone’ from their first record, during which members of the band would come in to the recording unplanned or they’d find their certain parts going off track. “We found our ways having to improvise our way to the end of that song,” Dougall laughs. “It’s fun to keep the

spontaneity, though.” It’s endearingly obvious that Dougall’s extremely proud of his band’s output this second time round. Does he look back on their debut with the same admiration? He recalls just being glad it was all over with. “When we went in to record the first one, we had the songs but we knew we had to do it in such a short amount of time,” he says. “We didn’t know how it was going to end up. I think when we got out of it, we were really pleased and relieved - we thought we’d done the songs justice. I think we’re all really fond of that record, it has good memories when I listen to it at least.” The progression from ‘TOY’ to ‘Join The Dots’ may be subtle on the surface, but Dougall assures that they’ve learnt a great deal since going back into the studio. “Technical aspects especially,” he says. “We learnt a lot about recording and effects, like how to shape layers of sound. I think we’ll always keep the same ideals of doing whatever we want. I guess we all don’t lead particularly normal lifestyles, and that might influence the sound we’re trying to make.” TOY’s new album ‘Join The Dots’ will be released on 9th December via Heavenly Recordings. DIY

“We’ve always thought we could do whatever we liked.” 8 thisisfakediy.co.uk

More cosmic, a bit more kosmische even, heading skywards and dragging you with it.

toy

Join The Dots

eeee Fast workers, TOY. Just over a year since their debut and now a second album has arrived. They’ve never really even disappeared from view during that period. No unexplained absences. No long holidays. Just a bunch of gigs. It does mean that presumably the list of additional experiences which could have informed this record must be quite small. It’s definitely the case that ‘Join The Dots’ sounds an awful lot like a band who’ve spent a huge amount of time recently listening to TOY. It has the same sense of momentum as the debut. Songs pound onwards, elliptical guitar lines wrapping round and round, and there’s an all encompassing feeling of travelling vast distances. Relentlessly, confidently and quite, quite spectacularly. There is something brilliant about Tom Dougall’s unimpassioned delivery next to the furious noise the band around him creates. On the title track there’s seven plus minutes of it: a call-and-response setup of multiple maelstroms of vapour-trail guitars that pause for appreciation, only to be met with another seen it all before verse. Seven plus minutes, it has to be said, that doesn’t drag for a second. ‘Endlessly’ is slightly pensive while still driving along on a krautrock rhythm. ‘It’s Been So Long’ straps a lovely melodic sensibility to a incessantly jackhammering bassline, while ‘Fall Out Of Love’ may be the best thing TOY have yet done, Dougall momentarily morphing into Marc Bolan, and his colleagues go glammy, before the whole thing climaxes in magnificent widescreen fashion. So while TOY may be fast workers, they’ve also got a faintly astonishing level of quality control. It’s fair to say ‘Join The Dots’ would have been worth a far, far longer wait. (Tim Lee)

NEWS

HOW WAS IT FOR YOU, LOWER THAN ATLANTIS? “It was like playing in a pub about four years ago when we started playing in a band. Everyone was going absolutely fucking mental and there was no barrier. All of our stuff’s broke, but that’s fine because everyone had a good time. We don’t care - we just had a really good laugh!”

HOW WAS IT FOR YOU, THE MINX?

HOW WAS IT FOR YOU, GNARWOLVES? “It was really good fun! It’s a nice venue and there was a nice intimate vibe. The crowd were cool and we had a lovely time. It was worth the journey. It’s always worth it! What else would we do? Sit at home? We’d always rather be playing a show than not playing a show, definitely.”

HOW WAS IT FOR YOU, NATURAL TENDENCY? “It was warm, which is always a good thing! I was sort of down on the floor with everyone, which was really cool because they made us feel really at home. It’s our first time in Nottingham and it’s been a really good show, we were really grateful to have the opportunity to do it.”

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tour 2013: nottingham

“It was really cool. It was our first time in Nottingham, we’ve never been here before, ever. So yeah, it’s been great.”

Lower than Atlantis Arrive In Nottingham For The #STANDFORSOMETHING Tour

inter may be fast approaching in Nottingham, but that doesn’t stop spirits being high this evening. Inside Spanky Van Dyke’s things are already beginning to heat up as Strummerville’s Natural Tendency offer up a bombastic slice of electrotinged rock. A five-piece that clearly draw inspiration from the likes of Enter Shikari, they may be young but they’re already brimming with a level of impressive stage presence and enthusiasm that quickly has the crowd voting in their favour. Next up are the insatiably boisterous Gnarwolves, who blast their way through a set filled with tastes from both their ‘CRU’ and ‘Funemployed’

EPs, wasting no time in causing havoc in the crowd. It’s the likes of ‘Community, Stability, Identity’ and ‘Oh, Brave New World’ that really get things going, and by the time the set closes with ‘Melody Has Big Plans’, the sing-alongs feel electric. It’s another truly triumphant outing for the three-piece; not even their broken van could succeed in slowing this lot down.

for any act tonight though, it was always going to be Lower Than Atlantis. Squeezing themselves (sort of) onto the low-but-wide stage, all lines are blurred between band and crowd as frontman Mike Duce makes quick work of diving in. Blasting through hits from their previous three fulllengths, their audience seems in the palm of their hand with every turn.

Shortly afterwards, The Minx take to the stage sporting t-shirts emblazoned with Bad Brains and Stiff Little Fingers. The Manchester band clearly wear punk on their sleeves – and chests - and tonight it shows. Their music is as apt of the genre as their mohawks, and their Ramones-style throwbacks reminisce loudly.

Offering up quick and witty renditions of ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star’, and – of course – Limp Bizkit’s ‘Break Stuff’, not a body stays still during the band’s stage time. In fact, most of the fans in attendance seem intent on crowd surfing their way to the closing track. Then, in a blur of mosh pits, broken pedals and hoarse sing-alongs, the set draws to an explosive close. DIY

If true chaos was reserved

next date: (rescheduled date)

22nd FEB

dry the river model aeroplanes + huevo & the giant

Glasgow - O2 ABC2 Keep updated On dRmaRtenS.cOm & tHISISfaKedIy.cO.uk

NEWS

NEws in brief HEY, IT’S HARD OUT HERE

Lily Allen is back, and not just with her quaint Christmas advert soundtracks. The singer has unveiled the first moves of her ‘mumback’ in the form of ballsy standalone track ‘Hard Out Here’. She’s also gearing up to perform at Glastonbury next year, if an interview on Radio 1 is anything to go by.

COMING BACK HAUNTED

Nine Inch Nails will return to the UK next May. Trent Reznor & Co. bring their impressive, Talking Headsinspired live show to our shores for six dates: Birmingham’s LG Arena (18), Glasgow’s Hydro Arena (20), Cardiff’s Motorpoint Arena (21), London’s The O2 (23), Nottingham’s Capital FM Arena (24), Manchester’s Phones 4U Arena (25).

MASSIVE MONKEYS

Arctic Monkeys are set to be busy next summer: they’ve already confirmed three humongous shows. In 2014 the band will headline T in The Park for the second time, following on from two huge shows at London’s Finsbury Park. They’ll take to the stage for 50,000 people on both 23rd and 24th May.

AGING GRACEFULLY

You Me At Six have confirmed plans to release their fourth album ‘Cavalier Youth’. The Surrey five-piece will unveil the follow-up to 2011’s ‘Sinners Never Sleep’ on 27th January. They’ll also play five UK shows next spring, ending at London’s Alexandra Palace. 12 thisisfakediy.co.uk

In The Studio: Wild Beasts

“W

e’re coming.” Two simple words that signal so much. The return of Wild Beasts is imminent, and it all began when they made a live return last month, pre-cursored by that tiny sentiment. 2013 was a quiet year for the four-piece. Having completed a rigorous touring schedule for their third album ‘Smother’ in December 2012, it was given a send-off when they performed it in full at ATP’s Nightmare Before Christmas. The next ten months marked a new era. “To be honest with you,” starts the band’s Tom Fleming, “I think with the last couple of records, they almost bled into one another. Certainly, the touring did, so we’ve been on the road for almost four years solid. I think we just wanted to go away and re-engage with what it is that we want to do. “We wanted to really decide where we were going and what we wanted to do; why we were still doing it, because not many bands make four records. When we started out, I was twenty and now I’m closer to thirty, so where can we go from here? What are we really interested in and what do we want to say? We almost justified our existence.” The process was key in the birth of their fourth album. What with the ever-constant rigamarole of touring, the band had become so accustomed to life on the road that it was difficult to pull back into the real world. Within the suspended reality that band life had become, Fleming explains, it was important for their feet to touch upon real ground again.

“While playing shows is an absolute joy, touring can be monotonous. It’s not a real world situation and you can’t really make music about the world if you live like that. You become this weird kind of tour-boy; there’s a temptation to believe that the world revolves around you because there’s this self-affirming echo chamber of me, me, me. “You’re going places and people are cheering for your songs and it’s great, but it’s not real. You’ve got to kind of live in the world to have anything to say about it. If you want it to be, it can totally be an extended adolescence. I think we’re all kind of been there, done that now, but it is an alternative reality.” That same idea - of getting back in touch with the outside world - has filtered directly into their forthcoming album, as Tom offers. “It’s a bit more about the world than about yourself. I think we wanted to sound like a gang again and shake off that slightly mournful, inward-looking feel of the last record. “I guess, where ‘Smother’ was quite a gentle record - quite textured and foggy - we wanted this to be more brash. When a synth comes in, it’s in; you can hear the joins a bit more. It’s weird because it’s a more electronic record, but we’ve tried to avoid that trap of being produced in that sense, being perfected and stuff. I think it sounds more like the band of ‘Limbo, Panto’ days than ever.” Wild Beasts’ as-yet-untitled new album will be released early in 2014 via Domino Records.

WRITTEN IN THE STARS

oseph Mount’s Metronomy have returned with a star sign-obsessed new song, aptly titled ‘I’m Aquarius’, along with news of their forthcoming new album ‘Love Letters’. The lead track stands as a bitter love feud about the song’s subject being “a Taurus” and Mount being an Aquarius. Essentially minimal and stripped back, it’s defined by “shoop doop doop ahhs” and the same lurking synths that loadedup the previous record. Following on from their Mercury Prizenominated full-length ‘The English Riviera’, ‘Love Letters’ is due to be released on 10th March through Because Music.

TRACKLISTING

The Upsetter I’m Aquarius Monstrous Love Letters Month Of Sundays Boy Racers Call Me The Most Immaculate Haircut The Reservoir Never Wanted

Recorded at London’s infamous Toe Rag studios, the ten-track effort looks set to marry up the chic electronics of classic Metronomy, with the rich, traditional method of analogue recording. The results however, will all be revealed in due time. To celebrate the release, Metronomy will also play two intimate dates at the turn of the year – at Brighton’s Old Market on 29th January and Paris’ Maroquinerie on 31st January. There’s also a full UK tour set for March 2014.

LIARS, LIARS...

ollowing a string of teasers, each one approximately five seconds longer and ten times more interesting than the previous, Liars have confirmed that they’re not just messing around: they’re definitely releasing a new album. Mute Records have officially announced that the band will bring out the follow up to ‘WIXIW’ - DIY’s album of 2012 - in March 2014. “Instead of being doubtful, work on the new album has been immediate, fun, instinctual and confident,” the band reveal. “Creation for creation’s sake. No rules. No mistakes.”

NEWS

“Sometimes, I have these moments” K at y B ’ s o n a m i s s i o n w i t h h e r n e w a l b u m , ‘ L i t t l e R e d ’ . Words: Huw Oliver

“J

ealousy and passion and love and rage.” In a nutshell, that’s how Katy B would describe her forthcoming second album ‘Little Red’, an explosive trek through fiery emotions and poignant love stories. There’s even a ballad. There’s a song about blue eyes. There’s much less dance floor euphoria, and much less in-your-face bass. Clearly, things have changed. Back in 2010, we came to love Katy for her witty realism and incisive comments on youth culture. Debut single ‘Katy On A Mission’ revamped and remoulded chart music for good, initiating the crossover of underground dance music into mainstream pop. Songs like ‘Easy Please Me’ and ‘Perfect Stranger’ were irresistible slices of sparkling, catchy greatness. UK Funky was dug out and revived. Disclosure and Rudimental both had Number One albums. Jessie Ware broke America. Everybody danced. No pressure on the follow-up then, hey? “The first one was so relaxed,” she reminisces. “You know, I used to go to the studio after school, and after uni, and I’d be at Rinse [FM] maybe once or twice a week. It would just be kind of anything goes, really. First time around, I didn’t even have an advance on my album or anything like that. This time, the team is a lot bigger and I want to do good for everyone.” Whilst “being pushed to break boundaries” on a music course at Goldsmiths university, community radio station Rinse FM (and its record label offshoot) became her spiritual home and its founder DJ Geeneus was Katy’s “missing hand” and mentor. Offering first exposure for Dizzee Rascal and Wiley, Katy was the next on the list of Rinse success stories. “I think what makes them so special is that they’re all about new music and support new artists”, she says. “That hunger for what’s fresh makes them really

14 thisisfakediy.co.uk

important. With Rinse, I knew that they would bring the best out of me.” Geeneus, also a real-life genius, still co-writes songs and crafts beats for Katy. This was the case with ‘5am’, ‘What Love Is Made Of’ and ‘Tumbling Down’, her favourite song from the new album, which uses collapsing walls as a metaphor for head-over-heels infatuation. On songs like these, and others produced by bass legends like Joker, MJ Cole, Artwork and Skream, the songwriting process was free-flowing. “Sometimes I have these moments where the lyrics just start coming out,” she reveals. “I just want to describe things and I have this imagery in my head. It’s almost like a dream.” Katy has gone a little more serious, but so much the better. One clear role model for her change of tack was childhood hero (and co-vocalist on ‘Lights On’) Ms Dynamite. “She was like 19 when she won the Mercury Prize,” she explains admiringly. “I just thought that that was like incredible that she was that young, that she was writing songs that were questioning society and talking about real issues and things like that. I was like, I really need to pull my finger out and be writing about some important things.”

If this means less clubbing, then so be it. But her calendar is still crammed with nights out. 2014 is going to be huge, but first, she’s buzzing about one particular party: Rinse at London’s Fabric on Boxing Day. “I go there every year,” she says, perking up. “I go there with fifteen different friends or something and we just split up and then bump into each other throughout the night. And obviously there are all the DJs who we know as well, so it’s like being in one ginormous house party. I can’t wait to go. It’s the highlight of holiday season. The. Best. Night. Out. Ever.” Katy B’s new album ‘Little Red’ will be released in February 2014. DIY

NEws in brief

COMING BACK TO LIVE

St. Vincent has announced her live return, confirming seven dates for February 2014. Likely to be showcasing tracks from an asyet-unconfirmed album, she’ll play seven shows around mainland Europe, as well as Manchester, London and Dublin.

LOOK TO THE SKIES

DZ Deathrays have marked the first steps towards a second album by revealing a brand new track. Following on from their 2012 debut ‘Bloodstreams’, the Australian duo have unveiled ‘Northern Lights’ and you can have a listen to it now on thisisfakediy.co.uk

THIS IS ALL TOO MUCH

Maximo Park have announced details of their fifth album ‘Too Much Information’. The band will release the follow-up to last year’s ‘The National Health’ on 3rd February, before heading out on a twelvedate tour of the UK throughout March.

LONDON’S GOING ALL REFLEKTOUR

Arcade Fire may have just finished a quick jaunt around the UK, but they’re not done yet. The band will bring ‘Reflektor’ back to London’s Earls Court next year to continue the party: they’ll perform on 6th and 7th June, so you have plenty of time to sort out your costume.

“IT’S ALMOST LIKE A DREAM.”

WHAT’S THE STORY, MORNING GLORY?

After a relatively quiet few years, Beck’s got his sights firmly set on a prolific 2014, with not one but two new albums scheduled for release. The first, ‘Morning Phase’ has been announced for February 2014 and is set to be followed by a second full-length in the space of a year. 15

NEWS

CARRY YOU HOME

ombay Bicycle Club’s fourth album in five years has been confirmed, and it’s set to be released on 3rd February.

The first taste that we’ve had thus far is their brand new track, ‘Carry Me’. Taking the band’s conventional sky-reaching optimism and sending it somewhere darker, twitchier, it was first revealed via the means of an interactive video, which involves dragging a cursor on a screen to move the four handsome folk who make up the London band.

fter a surprise return to arms earlier this year, and a handful of UK shows, the new-look Pixies have set themselves another challenge: headlining next year’s Field Day. Newly expanded to cover an entire weekend at Victoria Park, the festival has confirmed that the alternative rockers will be closing the event on Sunday evening. The band, who recently completed a second visit to the UK this year - with a show at London’s Hammersmith Apollo amongst the highlights - will take to the stage to perform on 8th June. Saturday’s headliners are yet to be confirmed. Pixies recently released a new four-track EP, promising further material in the near future, after the departure of bassist Kim Deal.

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Following on from 2011’s ‘A Different Kind Of Fix’, the new record seems to bear a wider sphere of influence. Written when frontman Jack Steadman was travelling through India, Turkey, Tokyo and the Netherlands, to name a few, it was produced back at home, by Jack, in the band’s London studio. “I feel like we’ve found the balance between making it interesting and intelligent, but also not highbrow or elitist,” Steadman reveals. “More than on any of our other albums, there is a feeling of hopefulness.”

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM

LETTERS

The 2013

DIY

Dear DIY, Foals were my band of the year too (November 2013) - their set at Reading Festival was the best I’ve seen in yonks. Gemma, London

Readers’ Poll

Last issue we asked you to let us know what you thought of 2013 - from your favourite album, to the nicest person in music; from the best comeback, to the most WTF lyric. And you did, in droves. Find the results in the 9th December issue of DIY Weekly, available online and on iPad via Newsstand - there may just be a few surprises…

Dear DIY, Imma let you finish, but Kanye was clearly the artist of 2013. Dom, Sheffield

COMING UP

Come say hi at an upcoming DIY gig. This month, you’ll find us at:

December

06 Warm Brains, Sixty Million Postcards, Bournemouth

Visit thisisfakediy.co.uk for listings.

COMMENTS FROM THE SITE From: Veronica Re: Panic! At The Disco, The Picture House, Edinburgh “Oh to have been there! I’m having Panic! withdrawls!!!” From: Loretta Re: Kings of Leon Unveil ‘Beautiful War’ video “I dont know about a beautiful war..but those are some beautiful boys…” From: Michael Almond Re: The National, Apollo, Manchester “The Tuesday gig was amazing. It was the first time I’d seen the National live. No way did I expect it to be as energetic and atmospheric. Would love to see them again now!”

From: Curt Re: Arcade Fire hint at Glastonbury appearance “please, god, please!” From: Jessman Re: The Reflektors, Roundhouse, London “Yes yes yes yes!!! Utterly phenomenal gig, just incendiary. The new songs sound incredible, as good as anything on Funeral. “If you shoot you better hit your mark” Yes they did and so much more. Great gig, great review.” From: Andy Re: BANKS, Shoreditch Town Hall, London “I loved that the security guards were wearing suits. None of this fluorescent jacket and cotton t-shirt bollocks.”

Dear DIY, The new album from Arcade Fire is incredible, and I love what they’ve done to involve their audience at their gigs. Boo to all those people complaining about the costume rule - loosen up a little! I got to see the band in Glasgow last month and it was one of the best nights I’ve had in a long time, costume and all. Shirley, Linlithgow Dear DIY, Young Guns Bristol show was AMAZING! What a band. Hannah, Cardiff

SEND US STUFF

Want to send us a letter, or some presents? Here’s the address:

m DIY, ARCH 462, KINGSLAND VIADUCT, 83 RIVINGTON STREET, LONDON, EC2A 3AY You can also email us on letters@ thisisfakediy. co.uk, but it’s harder to send cake that way.

CLASS

2014 of

LAST YEAR WE TIPPED THE TEN BANDS WHO WOULD DOMINATE 2013. THIS TIME ROUND WE’RE BRINGING MORE THAN FORT Y ESSENTIAL ACTS READY TO BASH DOWN THE DOOR AND GET THE PART Y STARTED. TAKE COVER, HERE COMEs THE CLASS OF 2014.

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chlöe howl

It’s not just a ‘Rumour’, Chlöe Howl is set to become a s ta r . I t s ta r t e d o u t w i t h m a d e - u p s t o r i e s a n d A l i c i a K e y s covers. Now she’s holding all the cards. w o r d s : j a m i e m i lt o n . P h o t o s : m i k e m a s s a r o .

Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a card life being a superstar in the making, right ChlĂśe?

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er story might read ‘signed at 16, released a single, got massive’, but Chlöe Howl’s not the type to get wrapped up in ego. She’s been poking fun at herself since day one, from the poorly-placed diaeresis in her name to the fact that she’s finding it tough making friends when booze-related accidents become a day to day occurrence. That sounds dodgier than it actually is. In reality, sipping a really grim breakfast tea, she’s referring to the DIY Class Of… drama that’s played out in recent weeks. Every time she meets fellow alumni George Ezra, she spills a beer on him. Two meetings, three beers, covering the poor Bristolian’s face, back, whatever. “He’s pretty cool with it. I’m not sure how he feels about me really though,” Chlöe laughs. She’s speaking the day after her debut album’s been completely wrapped up. “We had one song we couldn’t get right - we were taking ages. And yesterday we were like ‘ehhhh’,” she says, reenacting a surreal, arms-in-the-air routine that looks a bit like a rain dance. This isn’t painting Chlöe in a particularly ‘cool’ light. In reality, she’s about as cool as they come for an eighteen-year-old chart-botherer. Debut single ‘No Strings’ put non-committal boys in the firing line. “Fuck your no strings / I hope I have twins” still stands out as the lyric of the year. In one split-second it threw caution to one side. ‘No Strings’ couldn’t give a flying toss about the fact that the subject of Howl’s baiting is probably sitting there, listening in and cringing until he sinks into the ground.

she was 9 years old. “This guy let me record a few tracks,” she recounts. “I still have them - ‘If I Ain’t Got You’, Alicia Keys, ‘Somewhere Over The Rainbow’ and ‘Get Out’ by Jojo. I was singing and I was writing stories at the same time, from a really early age. I didn’t realise you could put the two together until someone gave me a really shit keyboard. I guess that’s why some of my songs are storytelling. “I always told my mum ‘I want to be a singer’ and she was like ‘oh, alright love’.”

“Howl do you do?”

Her mum’s perspective might have shifted, but being signed didn’t change everything for Chlöe. “The main thing that changed was I just went: ‘I’m not going back to school’.” It was something she was prepared for, from the off. “I didn’t really see my friends a lot. I had to turn up at random people’s houses and write songs with them for two days. But it wasn’t a massive change - it wasn’t crazy. I’ve always wanted to do it and I always knew how it was going to be. I knew that it would be a challenge for me to go from a sheltered environment like school, to something like that.”

“I knew that it would be a challenge.”

Even from a very early age, Chlöe’s never been one to mince her words. “I’d be like ‘piss off’,” to anyone who dissed her freckled face and ginger locks. She shuns the odd Ed Sheeran comparison to this day, but she still gets listed as “La Roux” or “that girl out of The Parent Trap”.

“I think I was more bullied for being a weirdo,” she claims. “I was scrawny and pale and a little bit mean. But by the time I got to secondary school I was the hard man.” Raised in Maidenhead, she kicked school in after being signed in her teens. Her first studio experience - which had no bearing on her actually getting a deal - came when

What followed was ‘No Strings’, the ‘Rumour’ EP (which came out on her 18th birthday) and new single ‘Paper Hearts’. In between that; a gazillion festival slots, goodness knows how many interviews and tours with both Bastille and his “crazy fans”, and John Newman and his backstage “keyboard with ‘shit tunes’”. It sounds like fun, but it also sounds mercilessly hectic. That’s not quite the case. Chlöe’s pet hate is miserable musicians, proverbially calling in sick because they’re too tired of being told that they’re brilliant by everybody. “It pisses me off, because I want to be really busy!” she asserts. “I hate

lenty of enemies make their way into Chlöe’s songs. DJ Fresh, meanwhile is the celebrity punchbag that she likes to moan about on Twitter. “At the BRITS I had a couple of run-ins. DJ Fresh came up to me, fucked out of his head, and was just really arrogant. He was like ‘I’m so excited to meet you’ and I was like, are you sure? He said ‘yeah, you’re Pink, right?’” She’s made plenty of friends, though. None more so than MØ, who she tips for 2014 success because “she has a Moomin tattoo” and because she’s “got a really cool thing going on.” “I really like BANKS too - she’s amazing,” says Chlöe. “I don’t want her to be massive though. It’s such a dark sound.” 21

having time off. When I have two days off I’m just sat at home being restless. If I were in some people’s positions I’d be going out all the time, making the most of it.” There is the sense that 2014’s preparing something a whole lot bigger for Howl. If the past twelve months witnessed an endless supply of exciting activities, there’s an album round the corner. She’s lucky enough to cite playing with a band who’ve basically become best friends (“I always stay at their house when I’ve got nowhere to go”). Despite the nagging fear that her drummer might go off with Ellie Goulding (“he fancies her, but he’s not allowed to leave”), things feel grounded enough for an assault on 2014 to

commence. Fast-emerging as the most exciting pop star in the country, no-one comes close to Howl in terms of truth-preaching kicks to the teeth. Venomous cussfilled lines and a dodgy diaeresis - Chlöe’s not free of flaws, but that’s the bloody point. Her worst experience so far came when “some guys” at a gig “were asking me to sing a Jessie J song” in the middle of a set. Learning from that lowest of lows, it’s fairly clear that a quickfire, customary “piss off” would’ve done the trick as a response. From secondary school “meanie” to DIY’s Class Of… star pupil, we’re witnessing a pop prospect capable of just about anything. DIY

PAWWS

Mak i n g s ad n es s s o u n d p o s i t i v e ly j oyo u s , Paw ws ’ m u s i c i s an e m o t i o nal c o c k tai l t hat ’ s ab s o l u t e ly p o t e n t.

ucy Taylor’s music might glisten and gleam, but beneath the shiny projection is a history and a sense of determination that doesn’t reach every pop potential. Prior to Pawws, she guested on a track from Bloc Party frontman Kele, played flute on stage with MGMT, got picked out as a solo talent under her own name. But it wasn’t Pawws - so she started again.

“I hate having time off.” 22

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Apart from a “few questionable service station meals,” 2013’s been a perfect year for Taylor. Her debut show was one of the stuffiest in recent memory, her set on the DIY’s stage at Sŵn Festival raising the bar even higher. Sending Chromaticsstyle synth-pop through a glossy filter takes some doing, especially if it’s to remain convincing and exciting. On evidence of debut single ‘Slow Love’ and everything that’s followed since, it’s all part of a hard day’s work for Pawws. If your music was a cocktail, what would it contain and what would you call it? I’d call it ‘Upsetting Disco’ and it’d be a bit sweet and a bit bitter. Maybe coke, with lemon juice and loads of spirits. No, wait, that’s a Long Island Iced Tea isn’t it? A Wrong Island Iced Tea. And if you had to have a motto? This is probably a bit cliche, but just to feel happy and proud with what I’m doing. DIY

here’s nothing like being able to take your time. For 24-year-old Sampha Sisay, this has been everything. Initially enlisted as the main collaborator on SBTRKT’s breakthrough 12” singles and debut album back in 2010, life has since been a insistent whirlwind of creativity: work with Lil Silva, Jessie Ware, Koreless and Solange followed. Then came the sessions for Drake’s latest album, and finally the release of his long-awaited second solo EP ‘Dual’. A deeply intimate affair, it tackled loss, longing and uncertainty in turn.

understandable that people wouldn’t associate me with production. But that’s up to me, to kind of put out more sort of resource. With vocalists, you have your own perceptions of what they do. With SBTRKT, you know, he wears a mask. What you concentrate on is his music, not his past. It’s not anything else. For me, I have to change or cover up the public’s perceptions. I wouldn’t say I was misrepresented but I would like my production to take a bit more of the limelight.

sampha

F r o m D r a k e t o S B T R K T, e v e ryo n e knows there’s something about Sampha. Words: Huw Oliver, Photo: T yrone Lebon

What was it like playing with a personality as big as Drake? Your double A-side It was really cool. It was all release has just quite surreal, to be honest. come out. What was Even though Drake’s the impetus behind really quite down-to‘Happens’? earth and a humble guy, It’s a ballad about and a hospitable guy, connecting with someone. the whole scenario was Just being open to all quite… I wouldn’t say someone and just learning impromptu, but it was all how to keep a connection quite last minute and a going. It’s about learning bit overwhelming. It was from your past, basically. a great experience for me to have and, you know, What kind of musical I really appreciated the training did you have? fact that he invited me I had a few lessons when I to do the performance went to secondary school. with him. It was definitely I got up to grade 5 but I something I think I’ll look didn’t take it as seriously back on and think, ‘that as I should have done, was a great moment to regrettably. But I was have in my life’. more into composing and songwriting. I’d spend a Why do you make music? lot of my time learning For a whole load of other songs, and then I reasons. Sometimes, ended up writing my own I’m feeling frustrated or tunes. I was self-taught whatever, or I just want a lot. to have fun. I’ll just start doing something, not with In the public eye when much thought and it ends working with SBTRKT, up becoming something. I you were first and guess I just enjoy creating foremost a vocalist. Did and I enjoy having a you feel you weren’t vision, to be able to start being recognised as a creating something and producer at that stage? then just having the vision I guess, quite naturally, for it. Trying to craft and people wouldn’t have mould something, more recognised me as a than anything. And I producer because my guess I try to make the vocal was the most connection with myself instant, identifiable first, and that goes for sort of trait I had. It’s everything I do. DIY

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radkey

B a b y - fa c e d b o y s t h e y m i g h t b e , but the Radke brothers aren’t t h e t y p e t o m es s a b o u t. Words: Kyle M ac N e i l l . P h o t o s : M i k e M a s s a ro.

or many upcoming bands, a first appearance on Jools Holland is a make or break situation. For Radkey, it was both. Make in the sense of them giving a bold first impression. Break in the sense that it was the kind of performance that can stop pacemakers, glue eyes to the screens like digital conjunctivitis and make cats spontaneously cough up furballs. “It was crazy, because we got to meet Franz Ferdinand. We were sharing beers afterwards - it was so cool,” reminisce the Radke brothers, who, in the last year, have seen their irascible brand of punk rock become more arresting than a naked policeman, capturing the worldwide music press (“It’s so good that our music is making people write all the crazy stuff about us”) and leading to huge performances at Download and SXSW. But where did it all begin? Lead singer Dee explains that after being inspired by cultcheesefest School of Rock, the band started with his ”younger brother [Isaiah] as a bassist, but he didn’t really play bass at all. I was going to cover him, but then he got kind of jealous that I was using his bass. No one believed that my youngest brother [Solomon] was going to play the drums.” After playing a stunning first live show, the brothers decided to continue the band. A wise decision, considering their Misfits-inspired, moshpitinitiating racket is one of the most exciting around. Based

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on descriptions of them, it might be easy to write them off as another threechord wall-of-noise - but Radkey’s music is extremely thoughtful. ‘N.I.G.G.A. (Not OK)’ attacks lazy racism (“There’s this kid that we know - he lets people call him the N-Word and it’s not cool, so we wrote a song about it”) over volatile guitars and thrashing drums, and their back catalogue wrings out an incredible amount of sounds and variety from a fairly sparing setup. But it’s still not enough. “I see [our sound] getting more intense. And, you know, having more energy, than the last songs. That’s what we’re going to try to go for.” Although this is extremely promising stuff for the eagerly awaited debut album, it’s probably also a massive headache for the safety sound-engineers at their forthcoming shows. As is the case with many sibling bands, the Radke brothers also boast a tight-knit closeness that makes their music sharper than a swordfish studying rocket science. “We were homeschooled, so we grew up really close, and we choose to sleep in the same room.” It gives their sound a fantastic organisedchaos quality; it’s tight and slick, but at the same time punchy and downright angry. Best of all, though, is the band’s explosive onstage presence. They transform from three very laid-back individuals into a fiery, electric unit that oozes swagger– proving that the Key to Radkey, is simply – being Rad. DIY

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Dee: Lead singer Dee boasts an intense hatred for milk – “Drinking milk on its own is just disgusting to me”. However, fear not, curdled goods; he does have a soft spot for cheese – “I can have stuff with milk in it. Stuff like that I can deal with” – proving that it’s no use crying over curdled milk. Hah. Isaiah: For Isaiah, the thing that really ticks him off is X Men 3 – “He’ll go on a rant

about it if you bring that up! One of the reasons is that Cyclops dies, which is kinda stupid. (And) Storm takes over – what the – what in the world, are you kidding me? They picked the lamest character to take over.” The rest can’t be printed. Solomon: Compared to milk and a film from the X Men franchise, Radkey drummer Solomon’s is slightly more rational – he hates flying insects with stingers. He is, however, obsessed with spicy food and beef jerky, so it’s not all doom and gloom.

DID YOU KNOW?

The Radke brothers have some serious pet peeves…

Ellieâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s re-creation of Carrie isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t what the rest of Wolf Alice bargained for.

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F o r W o l f A l i c e , l i f e ’ s a h o r r o r s h o w. G e t t i n g p e lt e d w i t h e g g s , f e n d i n g o f f c r a z e d fa n s … B u t t h i s b e i n g i n a b a n d business has its perks. w o r d s : j a m i e m i lt o n . P h o t o s : m i k e m a s s a r o

ancy being in a band like Wolf Alice? Figure it’ll be a laugh, a waltz through rock‘n’roll town, with unlimited booze and major labels bringing out the woo-factor? Think again. Life in Wolf Alice is an assault course of tragedies and near-death experiences. “I was walking home from a bar in Liverpool, with a cheese-burger in my hand,” innocently begins band bassist Theo Ellis, reminiscing about a life-shattering event during their recent tour with Swim Deep. “Someone passed by in a Ford Focus and threw something. I thought it was a bottle. I was like ‘Ah, no mate, now I’m dead’. “I looked down and was like, ‘oh, it’s just eggs.’” Theo seems to be designated anecdote-bringer for Wolf Alice. Getting a member of young, boisterous band Bloody Knees to run headfirst into a McDonalds toilet door is a particular highlight. His face is almost expressionless when he relays these events, like tour’s taken a part of his soul. But Wolf Alice aren’t exhausted. Not even close. Their past twelve months has been the opposite: enlivening. Culminating in a sold-out show in proverbial halls of residence Camden, 2013 began with a stuffy, winter blues-curing night in January at London’s Old Blue Last. It was a Neu Presents ‘Hello 2013’ show - days after the release of wide-eyed single ‘Fluffy’, the timing couldn’t have been better. Guitarist Joff describes the show as “literally the first gig” where people actually came to see his band. It

was a just reward for several months’ hard work. A folky two piece between Joff and vocalist Ellie Rowsell expanded into a full-band (“When we started, we wanted to go from cute quiet songs to the funnest music we could play live,” says Ellie), backed by taleteller Theo and drummer Joel Amey. “I think we’ve always expected stuff to happen - not in an arrogant way, but we wouldn’t have been doing it if we didn’t think there was some merit in it.” At the time, backstage, surrounded by creaking floors and a half-finished rider, none of the band were even half-considering the prospect of a record. But it’s snuck up quicker than they would’ve anticipated. “We’ve been working [on the album] subconsciously for ages,” says Joel. “When you mentioned that gig, I was thinking, what songs did we even play?”

“We’ve been working on the album subconsciously for ages.” 27

“We’ve always expected stuff to happen.”

Post-’Fluffy’ - which in itself was a grizzly gamechanger, a thrashing thump of a mission statement - the Wolf began to show its claws even more. Follow-up single ‘Bros’ is an uplifting tale of friendship, but it’s cast in a sharp, pointed frame. ‘She’ - the highlight from a recent EP - could be mistaken for thrash, at times. “‘She’ always sounds heavier than when I actually listen to it. I think live, again, it goes up a notch,” claims Joel. That’s a slight disservice to the band’s decibel-raising steps forward. And yet for all their raucous stances and unapologetic stabs of noise, the band are beginning to resonate with a different crowd. Kids, who might have previously just asked to

Joff: “I don’t remember Art Attack being this extreme…”

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be pointed towards Swim Deep’s Cav so that they could get his autograph - these are the people turning up to the four-piece’s shows. Ellie’s face is plastered all over Tumblr. This time last year the band could count hardcore fans on their collective hands. Today they’re on the brink of having to fend off crazed fanatics. That’s how it should be in the risky life of Wolf Alice. “I think if you’re an electronic act, then yeah you haven’t got to play Kilford,” says Joel. “You don’t have to cut your teeth.” Theo chips in about the group’s rough ride in 2013. “It’s a lot nicer now. Not that it isn’t fun, but it was scary. We had our fair share of times when things fell apart. To be fair, we still do have that but we learn how to deal with it.” “I think I’m more confident now, 100 times more than even halfway through the year,” asserts Joel. “Looking back at that OBL gig. It’s so funny.” In the past 12 months Wolf Alice have sharpened their tools, found their instincts, been pelted with eggs, of all things. This next step awaiting in 2014 looks set to be one similarly full of challenges, but what better band is there to topple them? DIY

Telegram Extravagant, mop-haired nostalgists freshening up rock‘n’roll staples.

hey might look as if they’ve stepped right out of the TARDIS following a blitzing trip through space and time, with a nifty stopover in a ‘70s barbershop, but Telegram have a refreshingly modern perspective on things. They declare hype to be “really just swathes of space dust orbiting whatever new body seems likely to sustain it for longest,” and their first gig was met with the kind of response that’d knock a new band for six. “A sour and bearded gentleman poured scorn all over the internet about how we should sell our instruments to someone worthwhile and kill ourselves,” they recall. “It seemed ill-advised at the time.” Had they stopped right there, deciding it wasn’t worth chasing rock‘n’roll goals if it resulted in death-laced hints, the world wouldn’t have witnessed ‘Follow’, the band’s only recorded track to date. Checking in at the nostalgia hotel, booking an extravagant suite just for the hell of it, it’s a track that waltzes through rock’s hall of fame, coming out the other side surprisingly freshfaced. It’s a good thing they’ve stuck around. What’s the best thing that happened to you in 2013? We were playing without a drummer until February, just meandering along, wondering if we shouldn’t just give up. Then Jordan popped up from somewhere and everything made sense. Up until then we’d been drawing the dot to dot dots in our picture book, and he connected them. Though of course the image wasn’t quite what we ever conceived, in a good way. …and what’s the worst? We were ejected from a hotel and forced to pay a huge bribe by the manager. It was exactly the amount of money we’d made from selling t-shirts on the tour thus far. And of course, we were deathly innocent. Not as bad, but more depressing, was finding out the manager of an un-named mildly successful, deeply mediocre, X Factor boy band had never heard of the Velvet Underground. DIY 29

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There’s more to this LA singer than m y s t e ry a n d m u r k y b e at s . W o r d s : J A M I E M I LT O N .

t’s fair to say BANKS’ debut London show goes for the jugular. On stage, LA singer Jillian Banks comes across starryeyed, overwhelmed. She has all the giddy energy of someone who’s just won a talent show. This feels like her crowning moment - except everyone in attendance knows how much more there is to come.

“When I started writing I felt lonely and hopeless.” Ten months prior to this, BANKS’ debut track ‘Before I Ever Met You’ gets its first play. Several thousand more follow. Every producer under the sun wants to work with her. SOHN - a regular collaborator - remarks that it feels like “the best business card any musician could hand out.” What follows is the ‘London’ EP, a mission statement if ever there was one. It’s an intensely-expressed trip through the singer’s most honest thoughts. SOHN, Lil Silva, Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs and Jamie Woon are all invited to help work on an individual track. Disparate parts - each one pitch-black,

lurking in darkness - are tied together by the singer at the centre of it. On record Banks is as candid as they come. But she’s never tweeted, she’s never posted on Facebook and she’s often been held up as something of an enigma. The opposite plays out during her London show, and the EP of the same name. “Sometimes I’ll be in a certain mood,” she explains. “I’ll be sad or dark but I won’t be able to put my finger on why that is. I almost discover what I’m feeling through writing songs. It’s a very personal experience.” It’s “not always music,” she asserts, but more often than not that’s her method for expression. “It’s a different form of language for me,” she says. “Talking and thinking requires more effort.” The project began on an ultimate low-point. “It’s something that I had to do,” Jillian states. “When I started writing I felt lonely and hopeless. I was in a really hard place, and I didn’t have anyone to talk to. But I was able to be alone in my room and express everything that I was feeling, in the most gritty and raw way.” As it plays out, ‘London’, and everything that’ll inevitably follow, offers up a strange, lurking take on pop. It’s dark-as-hell, maybe too grimlytold to set any chart records. But somehow BANKS’ sinking melodrama has caught on. It’s relatable, even if it does hone in at the sort of stuff that’s often stored away, bottled up. “It’s just me. The lyrics are me, the melodies are me. Everything has to be me. I have to write it. And I have my own point of view and way of delivering words. Even if you work with different people, it’s all coming from the same human,” she declares. And beyond everything, it’s the human behind the beat-laced darkness that people have latched onto. DIY

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D r i v i n g h e a d - f i r s t t o wa r d s p o p s t a r d o m a n d w e a r i n g t h e b i g g e s t s m i l e s y o u ’ l l e v e r s e e o n s t a g e . p h o t o : e m m a s wa n n

T stands for many things, apparently. That’s the brightfaced London group’s motto. Out of all the long-form versions of their name that could apply, “Massive Tunes” is probably the most appropriate. They played one of their very first shows at a DIY & Neu Presents ‘Hello 2013’ show at the Old Blue Last.

Sivu

Since then it’s been beaming smiles, joyous pop and bouquets of flowers on stage. Why do you think 2014 is going to be a great year for MT? Because every year is a great year! More specifically exciting things are afoot and we feel ready: Or as ready as

There’s no ‘Bet ter Man Than He’ when it comes to stirring fa l s e t t o - e d s o n g w r i t i n g .

we’ll be. If people were to listen to just one of your songs, which one would you hope it was and why? Of the songs that have been recorded to date I’d say ‘Alpha Romeo’. ‘Paranoid People Meet Me in the Middle’ comes a close second. DIY

ivu’s had his fair share of fortune so far. Working with Alt-J producer Charlie Andrew on his debut track, he was always bound to turn a few heads. Still - he’s backed up hype-gaining first steps with an assured approach to pop, one that circuits Wild Beasts style falsetto and some sweet, folk-tinged songwriting. He’s just quit his day-job, so 2013’s been as much as he could have hoped for. Next year looks to be a game-changer, though… What sort of things have you been cooking up in the studio with Charlie Andrew? The album is pretty much finished now. I’m so proud of what we’ve created. We’ve really tried to push ourselves throughout this whole process. I’m particularly excited about a track we managed to get Marika Hackman to sing on. I love her stuff, so I was over the moon when she said she was up for it. If you were to give yourself a motto, what would it be? I’d say follow your gut. There are always so many opinions and pressures, I just always make sure I go with whatever feels best to me. Which bands should people be looking out for in 2014? I think George Ezra is amazing and a lovely guy, too: I think he will smash it. Also Marika Hackman. I know her album is going to be very special. DIY

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RosiE Lowe

Pitch-shifting, a ‘ m a l e c o u n t e r pa r t ’ . . . R o s i e L o w e i s n o t yo u r av e r a g e R & B s e n s a t i o n . Words: Huw Oliver.

nderstated R&B has completely taken off over the past year or so, and Londoner Rosie Lowe is following the trend with her own compelling twist. ‘No Doubt’, her awesome house-y collab with DJ Lil Silva, was a promising introduction, but nothing matches her latest foray into pared-down, glitchy slow jams on debut EP ‘Right Thing’. Striking similar notes to Banks and FKA Twigs, her intricate vocals spellbound, while everything else comes skewed in proper James Blake, clicks-and-loops fashion. It’s golden from start to finish. On the title-track, she pitch-shifts between her own voice and that of whom she calls her “male counterpart”. This androgyny is central to her sound, melding male and female perspectives in an attempt to stimulate creativity and defy preconceptions. She explains: “Music becomes freeing for me, because it shouldn’t really be gendered. It doesn’t really make a difference whether it’s a male or female making music. But I found that when I pitch-shifted it, I could hear it in a different way. That really excited me.” Greatly inspired by her forbears Aaliyah and Erykah Badu (she loves a “real good groove and vocal”), the result is equal parts familiar and disorienting. Lowe roped in Kwes and The Invisible’s Dave Okumu to help with production with the EP. Informed by an eclectic array of sounds, the whole thing swerves from jazz through soul to hip hop without ever turning topsy-turvy. Most startling are ‘10K Balloons’ and ‘Me & Your Ghost’, which floors even after hundreds of listens. It’s brilliant, and her debut album promises more of similar beauty. But Lowe’s main aim? “To make music that touches people and be a great example to younger women”, she says. “That’s why I’ve got women in my band. They’re amazing musicians and I hope that one day an all-girl band will be the norm.” DIY

He’s sitting in the backstage area of London’s Electrowerkz before the second of two sold out shows in his second-home (he lives and records in Vienna, Austria). Days before, the album was wrapped up, four hours prior to edging over SOHN’s own self-enforced deadline. It came at the end of a fiveweek period where the musician - he goes by his artist name, occasionally being referred to as ‘Toph’ - spoke to nobody; his only interaction being the reverberation of his own voice against soundproof studio walls. If it sounds intense, it was. “I was eating really weird, next-to-nothing stuff,” he recalls, stifling a laugh. “A frankfurter on its own; a gherkin.” In person, he’s in all-black, topped with a half-jumper, halfcape. The darkness of the studio’s stayed with him in appearance, although it gradually becomes clear that he’s come out the other side with something he’s happy to put his name to. “In the end you get that magic thing you’re looking for.” Chances are he’s had time to get used to this debut full-length, prepped for a 4AD release in 2014. “I leave the studio and I listen to it all on my phone. First thing I do when I wake up is listen to it on my phone,” he says of his Vienna routine. The songs are probably still ringing round

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his head as he speaks. In SOHN’s relative downtime, if you could call it that, he works with a select few solo artists. There’s a proverbial queue from Vienna to London of aspiring musicians wanting to collaborate, but ‘Toph’ has stood tough. Up to now, he’s only recorded with BANKS and Kwabs. It’s arguably the thing that gets him most excited. “You realise, actually, that you’re a part of something really special,” he says of the studio sessions. “There are things which have come out in the last two years which you’d consider in your head massive and untouchable, and you realise; ‘Shit, that’s what we’re doing right now!’ You have a little double-take.” SOHN’s past twelve months have been a series of these: Double-takes. Ever since he put out the chopped-up dance number ‘Oscillate’, things took off. He landed a deal on 4AD (“I didn’t even really believe it until I was in the office and they poured me a glass of champagne”), came back from SXSW as the festival’s most talked-about name. Everything went his way. If this is a trajectory, it’s one he’s keeping track of. In order to do this, he uses intense routines, even if they end up in frankfurterstrewn tears. “It’s about an hour walk home from the studio to where I live in Vienna,” he says, running off his studio habits. “I was working overnight to make sure I didn’t leave. When it’s one o’clock, there’s no public transport; there’s no point.” It takes an intense kind of discipline - and indeed character - to get this far. SOHN’s only halfway there, but nothing’s going to cross his path. The guy ought to take the occasional nap, though. DIY

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all him a lunatic, but SOHN wants to get ill. It’s his last wish, a final bow to an album that’s taken him over a year to finish. “I want it to basically half kill me,” he says, with not a hint of sarcasm. “Then I’ll know I’ve given it everything I’ve got.”

Countles s musicians want to work with SOHN, but 2 014 could be the year he takes things into his own hands . Wo r d s : Ja m i e M i lto n Photo: Emma Swann

NEED TO KNOW FIRST HEARD: Channelling Thom Yorke on debut 2012 track ‘Oscillate’. LAST HEARD: Showing wisdom by detailing his ‘Lessons’ after signing to 4AD. SIMILAR TO: Atoms For Peace if all the band’s members were raised by snow leopards.

“You realise, actually, that you’re a part of something really special.”

The force is with this one: SOHN

Speedy Ortiz

Fa r f r o m b e i n g a s t r a i g h t f o r wa r d ro c k b a n d, S p e e dy O r t i z h av e s t r a n g e r influences than yo u m i g h t t h i n k .

Speedy Ortiz: Teaching bands how to be cool.

W o r d s : T o m Wa lt e r s

adie Dupuis has never been tempted to write in the style of Taylor Swift. She might’ve taught the star’s once-cutesy folk jams to her classes back when she worked at a summer camp, but now she’s focused on writing more off-kilter indie rock with her band Speedy Ortiz. Don’t pigeonhole them as ‘90s revivalists though, as there’s much more contemporary influences behind these lo-fi loafers.

Who do you consider influential on your music, which other people might not pick up on? The mid-’00s bands that we really love, like Liars or At the Drive-In or Menomena - they’re the big ones for me. Maybe Autolux. I think people have decided the ‘90s is the time to talk about when it comes to guitars, and they don’t want to go even five years later than that. When actually, that stuff has a huge influence on all of us.

One of your first singles was ‘Taylor Swift’ – how much influence does pop culture have on you guys? I think we all follow it. I used to work as a music writer and Mike [drums] as a DJ, and Darl [bass] used to work in live sound whilst Matt [guitar] teaches music to kids. A lot of what he teaches them is whatever’s popular at the moment, so it’s something we’re all in conversation with even though it’s not something we’re directly influenced by. DIY

gems

Glistening D C duo are ushering in the new ag e o f d r e a m - p o p. Wo r d s : Jac k E n r i g h t

ver the last year, Gems have been a band of infuriatingly sporadic output, with solitary tracks emerging unannounced and months apart. The recent release of their ‘Medusa’ EP has seen them buck that trend, and the wait has certainly been worthwhile. Even if such offerings are few, they make up for it in sheer promise - each of these four tracks is a delicately-wrought vignette of pristine electro-pop. But while these songs are remarkable in their own right, perhaps even more striking is the journey that brought them into being. “We’ve dabbled in a lot of different genres,” says guitarist Cliff Usher. “We were living in Eastern Virginia, and the scene there is very folky so we were playing folk music for a long time.” If the journey from folk to synth-laden pop ballads seems unlikely, it may well have something to do with Gems’ pointed disdain for any attempt to pigeonhole their creativity. As vocalist Lindsay Pitts explains, “when we write a song, we want to be able to play

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that song on anything. We don’t focus on the digital sounds and confine ourselves consciously, that’s just what we’ve gotten into over the last year.” Something Gems are keen to explain, in fact, is that their folk upbringing has helped their creativity far more than it’s hindered it. “One of the things about music today is that sometimes the production is really good, but there’s not much substance there” explains Usher. “We are really into the craft of songwriting, and making songs that really stand up on their own”. Gems’ sound has more to do with the duo’s fascinating artistic partnership, it seems, than it does with the genre they apply it to. For Gems, creating music and becoming romantically involved were all part of the same development, something that had huge repercussions on their artistic process. “This always sounds really weird but it actually is like a psychic connection,” says Usher, “we always felt we were able to finish each other’s thoughts, musically.” DIY

Luke Sital-Singh

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Inspired d oesn’t cover it - here’s a s o n g w r i t e r w h o f o u n d a n u n l i k e ly m u s e a n d d ec i d e d t o m a k e a g o o f i t.

t doesn’t take a covert operation to discover the album that brought Luke Sital-Singh to where he is today. Without any egging on, he’s happy to admit that the record inspiring him to make music is one all his friends actively loathe in the present day. Damien Rice’s ‘O’ isn’t exactly timeless, but its to-and-fro between “intimate” and “expansive moments” is the work that convinced him it was worth picking up a guitar and going for it. “Sometimes I almost feel a pang of embarrassment to mention it,” he admits. “It’s become so big; the stock thing for people to do covers of. Young singer-songwriters are still cracking out ‘Cannonball’. It’s become a bit cliche.” Luke struck lucky, in some senses, when he went to a music college in Brighton, where he met half-collaborator, half-go-to-producer Iain Archer, who was teaching there at the time. “I was a big fan of his before I’d even met him. So I stalked him and got as much time with him as possible,” goes the tale, striking up a partnership that’s led to three impressive EPs and what’ll eventually amount to a 2014 full-length. It was Luke’s own self-produced number, however, that got things started. ‘Fail For You’, in which Sital-Singh admits he was “literally copying Bon Iver” and his debut ‘For Emma, Forever Ago’, masters this intimacy he so actively seeks. “‘Fail For You’ fell out of me as this halfarsed song. And it turned out quite special.” DIY

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royal blood

T h i s B r i g h t o n d u o c r e a t e a wa l l o f s o u n d fa r b i g g e r t h a n y o u c o u l d p o s s i b ly i m a g i n e . W o r d s : E m m a S wa n n

Royal Blood didn't take that well to the idea of wearing an actual crown.

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“W

ord”. The first time DIY featured Royal Blood, the article was shared – with those four letters added – by Bring Me The Horizon frontman Oli Sykes. If the ear-shattering riffs of first single ‘Out Of The Black’ weren’t going to make this Sussex duo huge on their own, support from high places will definitely secure it. B-side ‘Come On Over’ (far too good to be relegated to such a position, of course) had Radio 1 DJ Zane Lowe elevating even his usual level of excitement for repeated plays. Oh, and they’ve just been announced as support for Arctic Monkeys at Finsbury Park in May. All from one single. “We’re gonna quit after this single,” vocalist / bassist Michael Kerr jokes. “You give us an inch...” The question as to whether he and drummer Ben Thatcher were on the way to having an album ready was tentative – this is, of course, ludicrously early in the band’s story – but it appears they’re further ahead than expected. “I don’t think it’s out of the question for an album to come out in May next year,” he boldly claims. “We pretty much spent this whole year writing music, and I guess we almost tricked ourselves into writing an album. It’s just a case of recording, actually.” For two-piece rock bands in the 21st Century, there are two main cliches to overcome, and yet for Royal Blood it’s almost as if they’ve embraced them. “We like most Jack White projects,” he says, unprompted. Of course there’s another more obvious name on first-time listeners’ lips. “...and most Josh Homme projects,” he adds. Mike’s snarl is not dissimilar from the Queens of the Stone Age frontman’s; a lot less American and a little more gritty, but when combined with the pair’s ferocious “heavy blues-rock” as he puts it himself, the comparisons are unmistakeable. He laughs. “They’re a massive influence on us.” They’ve also toured with fellow noise-makers Drenge, which makes a lot of sense. “They’re good friends of ours,” he adds. The other battle for a twosome

is making a racket. And, as Mike’s keen to point out, for him, it’s not about just hitting things as hard as possible. “My sound has taken

“The most important thing for us is that we’re writing good songs.” a long time to craft,” he explains. “I use three amplifiers at the same time, but that’s all I can really say. It’s a secret, I’m not about to give it away, it took me really long to make it sound as big as that! We don’t want to hide behind any insecurity of being a two-piece. I think it’s quite easy to go ‘right, let’s be as loud as possible because there’s only two of us’ and hide among that. But the most important thing for us is that we’re writing good songs.”

It also helps that he and Ben have been in bands together since their teens. “I think half the battle is already won with us,” he says, “because we’re really good friends, we know how to communicate with each other, and we have a very electric chemistry when it comes to writing music together. It’s weird, we don’t really talk a lot when we play, but we’re going in the same direction and we’re more than often on the same page.” That’s not to say they’ve adopted The White Stripes’ lack of set list, mind. “No, we’ll let Jack do that bit!” he laughs. “When we’ve got so many dancers and fireworks and pyrotechnics going off we couldn’t possibly be able to mix up the setlist.” He may (or may not) be joking about the pyro, but it’s not something that could yet happen. One single in, and it’s already a crazy 2013 for the pair. They founded label Black Mammoth to release the 7”, not wanting to interrupt how well everything was going. “And because we had a really good name, so we were like ‘let’s just do that’.” They’re off to SXSW where “it’s just going to be sweaty all round isn’t it?” and then yes, the small – read GIANT – matter of those Arctic Monkeys support slots. Mike has no idea how it happened. “I don’t know, really. It’s a huge honour,” he enthuses. “But that’s what this year’s been a bit like for us, we might go from a small venue to Finsbury Park in May, but we’ve also gone from having jobs we don’t like to not having to do them! Don’t get me wrong, we don’t take it for granted at all, but to carry on doing this would be great.” DIY

NEED TO KNOW

FIRST HEARD: Quietly announcing themselves with some rough-edged demos, which were subsequently taken offline as soon as fans got wind of their all-embracing noise. LAST HEARD: Channelling rock gods with double knockout single ‘Out Of The Black’/’Come On Over’. SEE THEM: They’ve a one-off date in home city Brighton (13th December, Bermuda Triangle) before playing two May shows in Finsbury Park with (just!) some bands called Arctic Monkeys and Tame Impala.

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Circa Waves

L i v e r p o o l’ s C i r ca Wav e s a r e l ay i n g t h e f o u n dat i o n s f o r a m a s s i v e 2 0 1 4 .

ewly signed to Transgressive and spitting out bold guitar-centred triumphs like it’s a dirty habit, Circa Waves have just released their debut single ‘Get Away’ via 7” on Transgressive and a Kissability cassette. This lead track is boldness defined, stringing familiar hooks into something so full of punch it’d turn the royal family’s pleasant Christmas dinner into a raving house party. And it’s just the start, explains guitarist and vocalist Kieran Shuddall. There’s not a great deal of information about you guys around, is there?

Making waves: The Liverpool boys are ready for stardom.

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Yeah, I put the band together about six months ago, roughly, and just started practising and stuff, you know? The songs were already written, so it was just getting all the songs together, really. We just locked ourselves away in a rehearsal room for a few months, just to get a set ready and stuff, and try to

ignore the whole record industry world. It was important to make sure the live stuff was all sorted before putting anything online? Yeah, I had started speaking to people and stuff, like labels and all that, and I wanted to get away from all that and get the live thing

sorted and have everything perfect before we went out in to the world with something, ‘cause we didn’t want to release something and not have a band ready for ages. It was quite important to have that all settled, ready to go. Is there an album on the way? I dunno... a lot of people are talking and stuff, about when it should be. I don’t really know, but I think we’ll record it as soon as possible, so maybe early next year, and then depending on how it all goes, hopefully have it released next year as well. That would be cool if we could do it towards the end of next year. So the songs are written, it’s just recording them? Yeah, we’ve got the album there, it’s all ready to go. We’ve got most of a second album as well, it’s just a case of planning on when people that make the album want us to put it out. That’s not a bad place to be. Yeah, absolutely. That’s why it was so good us just being on our own for a while and me writing a lot of songs early on. Now it’s started and the whole ball is rolling. We can go ‘yeah, we’re ready to do an album whenever’, whenever everyone else is ready. We’re completely ready to take on the album. It’s just a case of where and when and we’ll do it!

Do you have people in mind you’d like to work on it? We don’t really know yet. There’s a few names being told to us who people think would suit us, but generally we want to keep quite a bit of control with a lot of the early demos that I’ve done and stuff, I kinda know and have a vision of what the record should sound like. So we’re hoping to do a lot of the record ourselves, and produce it hopefully ourselves and just have someone, like a really good engineer to help us out. But that’s all what we’re figuring out over the next couple of months. We’ll see what happens. What kind of music are you all in to yourselves? As you’d imagine, 20-yearolds nowadays can listen to absolutely any music they want, so we’re all in to loads and loads of different things. I’m massively influenced by New York bands like The Walkmen, The Strokes, The National, and then we all love bands like Arcade Fire and The Maccabees and things like that. A lot of live-oriented bands, just generally energetic stuff. I don’t like bands who take themselves too seriously, but also the music is serious in itself. Bands like Vampire Weekend or Arctic Monkeys, they’re the most

professional and serious bands, but they don’t take themselves too seriously and I think that’s where we’d like to lie ourselves. That’s what it’s all about in the end, isn’t it? You didn’t mention any Liverpudlian bands... I’ve never felt any hindrance at all in being from Liverpool, but it’s such a small city and so closely-knit, it’s sometimes difficult to get away from The Beatles, and that sort of Coral-y, Zutons-y time. But people seem to be breaking out of that now, bands like Outfit and ourselves, taking influences from various places. Liverpool’s a cool city to be around, it has its pros and cons of anything really. It must be easier to hide away from the industry up there. Yeah, ‘cause people say ‘come and meet us’, ‘well I’m really far away so it’s alright, I’ll just stay up here’. For people to see your band, it does make it harder for them, which is almost a good thing I think. If someone really loves your band, if they drive or get the train a long way they’ve made the effort. And also yeah, you can be your own little bubble for a while, which is what we’ve done. Until it all goes a bit crazy. I’m quite scared, but it’ll be fine. DIY

Teleman

F o r m e r P i r at e s a b a n d o n i n g s h i p f o r an e xci t i n g s ec o n d l i f e .

Arthur Beatrice I Self-professed perfectionists put ting years into their striking debut album.

t’s a double-edged sword that Arthur Beatrice have the comforts of a studio to hang out in, day-in, day-out. Debut LP ‘Working Out’ is a product of perfectionism, slight tweaks being naked to the casual listener but startlingly clear to the artist behind the album. It’s enough to have driven any band insane. “It went on a bit longer than we planned,” they admit. “But we believe if it’d taken any less time it wouldn’t be the album it is, because that time was spent getting to know the recording process, and what didn’t work for us as much as what did.” Perfectionism pays off, then. If ‘Working Out’ gets the reception it deserves, it’ll all be worthwhile.

Is a do-it-yourself approach something lots of bands should aspire to? Are you lucky in the sense that you’ve been able to work in your own environment for so long? We’re amazingly lucky. Having a studio has meant that we could literally go underground and get everything feeling right before we released anything properly. The DIY approach has worked for us because we have such strong opinions on how things should sound, as well as a band member who is as passionate about the art of production as he is performing in Orlando. We wouldn’t recommend it to anyone with any less drive and talent than him, as the issues that we faced in the studio were pretty testing, though the result is all the better for them. Having a strong say on everything, from production to artwork, as well as the Open Assembly nights, means that we keep control of our output almost completely. DIY

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ringing together members of the now disbanded Pete & The Pirates, Teleman don’t invite comparisons to their former face. For one thing, they’re more difficult to peg in. Guitar frenzied uproar chucked to one side, they’re just as likely to write a softly-softly number as they are to throw in a saxophone solo, out of nowhere. Stephen Black of Sweet Baboo provides their latter on their forthcoming debut, and it’s a record that throws out curveballs in a constant, flummoxing routine. “Someone once said we sounded like Arthur Russell meets the Pet Shop Boys,”

recall the band. “It was a thrilling and very funny coupling, and probably not far off in some moments of the album.” Is there such a thing as being too hyped up? Can it overwhelm new bands? A certain amount of hype is probably helpful but too much can make you think you have achieved more than you actually have. Hype can also make a band lose perspective on what is real and what is good. It feels as if growing slowly and naturally creates a much stronger foothold.

Every day is summer in Team Mausi

Mausi

If you were to give yourself a motto, what would it be? Work faster. DIY

S i b l i n g s u n i t e t o l at c h o n t o a s u m m e r - r e a dy s o u n d, m i n u s t h e o v e r c r o w d e d b e ac h e s a n d 9 9 p f l a k e s .

omewhere in the world right now, a country is in the midst of a stupidly hot summer. That might seem completely incomprehensible, but it’s this thought that keeps Mausi’s blood pumping. Consisting of siblings Daisy and Thomas Finetto, plus Ben Brown and Benji Huntrods, the four of them met at university, which depending on levels of alcohol intake could be regarded as the ultimate escapist experience. Daisy claims the band latch onto a specific, good-times concept when it comes to conjuring up their sparkly pop. “We describe our music as the soundtrack to a young European girl’s summer,” she begins. “[It’s about her] jet setting around Europe, going to house parties and staying up till sunrise. An escapist summer with her friends on the Riviera.” Mausi’s music doesn’t require this precise backstory to convince people of its giddy, joyous intentions. It’s an audible trip round the world, light travel-bag strapped to its shoulder. Yes, it’s

jealousy-inducing; yes, it’s completely inappropriate when soundtracking foggy, barely-lit walks through the snow in the heart of English winter. But given a nudge towards, it prompts complete, unhindered escape. Why do you think 2014 is going to be a great year for Mausi? 2014 is the year of Mausi. It’s been decided. Tell your friends. What we have out there for everyone to listen to and see is only the tip of the iceberg, when it’s all out there it’s going to be magical. You’re part of DIY’s Class of 2014 - what was your favourite subject at school? We all had different favourite subjects. Benji’s favourite subject was Theatre, Thomas’s was Music, Ben’s was Politics and mine was Art. Ben always said that he would have loved music if it hadn’t have been for the teacher, who told him he would never be good at anything musical. Ha! Look at him now! DIY 43

John Hanson Jr. and Marcus Pepperell are music geeks. They spend ten minutes discussing the genius of Arcade Fire’s ‘Reflektor’, which “pushes the boundaries” of indie music and then some. They wax lyrical about Grimes (“It’s bedroom pop realised on this massive scale”) and former tour buddies CHVRCHES (“We have so many similarities to them. They were in bands before, they recorded themselves”). They could probably select an entire DIY Class Of… of their own making, completely unprompted.

thumpers

q u i c k ly h a lt e d m u s i ca l pa s t tau g h t t h ese t wo a lifetime’s wo r t h o f l essons. They’ve channelled it all into something d e d i cat e d t o f e e l i n g e xc i t e d.

Somehow, these two have kept positivity running through their veins. Instead of being bogged down by what they adore, geekdom’s kept them going. “You can really dull your senses in this industry. There’s a tendency towards cynicism. It kills you and you don’t realise it’s happening,” says Pepperell,

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in part reflecting on his time in former band Pull Tiger Tail. Their previous band occasionally catches up with the two. “On this last tour,” remembers Hanson Jr., “one guy talked about having seen us five times. He said ‘You were way ahead of your time!’” “Nah,” barks Marcus. “We were so in our time!” Revived as Thumpers, they share very little with their past. Gone are the guitar bursts, in comes choral chants, synths raised up to the ceiling. Above everything

else, cynicism has been swept aside. Their debut album’s called ‘Galore’, for crying out loud. Giddy, triumphant pop is on the agenda. Standout song to date ‘Unkinder (A Tougher Love’) was written on New Year’s Eve by Pepperell. “I watched Carrie and Rushmore, so somewhere in the middle that song came out,” he says. “It was so pop,” John remarks on the track, “but it was still wrapped in this tongue-tied chorus. I remember thinking how fucking cool it was. ‘Can we do this? Can we do this?!’ I thought.”

By pushing the boat out and belting out words faster than they can think (“You really have to stutter it. It’s such a brilliant jumble”), they’ve channelled their excitement into something worth holding onto. Few others retain this sense of jubilance in both their music and their day-to-day conversation. It’d tire out the average joe, leave them sinking into a selfpitying slumber, but when Marcus states that “you want to be coming from a place where you’re excited to make music,” there’s every reason to believe Thumpers have hit the bullseye. DIY

THUMPERS

ON THEIR DEBUT ALBUM

“We knew we didn’t want to make a record full of twelve singles. We couldn’t make another 8 ‘Unkinder’’s. We wanted to be so clear that this was our mission statement. I fucking love pop music but this band is not about chasing the radio or chasing anything, in fact.” - John Hanson Jr.

bipolar sunshine

Adio Marchant marches on with the heady heights of the charts in his firing line…

he worst piece of advice anyone ever gave Adio Marchant was when “someone told me that it’s impossible to get signed to a major label again,” he says. Back in the day (as in, really not that long ago), Adio called it quits on Kid British. Shortly after that he got to work on his own project, presenting a couple dozen songs to whoever fancied giving him a deal. It didn’t take much convincing. His glistening, forthright take on songwriting blends countless genres before landing on its own two feet. Half-uplifting, half-emotional as hell, Bipolar Sunshine is a project that lives up to its name, clashing highs and lows at every opportunity. Is there such a thing as being too hyped up? Can it overwhelm new bands? I only think over hyped is a problem when the artist can’t back it up. I think it can overwhelm you but you gotta keep your circle tight and only have people around that you value the opinion of.

Cleaning up music’s dirty sheets: Thumpers.

What’s the weirdest thing anyone’s done at one of your gigs? Someone gave me a baby cactus. You’re part of DIY’s Class of 2014 - what was your favourite subject at school? Geography. DIY

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fryars

Ben Garret t’s second album looks s e t t o b e t h e o n e t h at ’ l l d e f i n e h i m . W o r d s : j a m i e m i lt o n . P h o t o : E m m a S wa n n .

ven minus the capital ‘Y’ that used to strike up in his title, Fryars is probably one of the more familiar names to feature in DIY’s Class Of… The music Ben Garrett currently flexes might as well be coming from a completely different project and guise to the one that released 2009 debut ‘Dark Young Hearts’. Garrett himself has nothing to hide. There’s a big difference between the warped, oddball pop of his beginnings and the strutting electronic style of his current material. Still, it’s all part of the progression, as he readily admits. When you were 17, playing on stages, did it seem like a daunting prospect? It really did vary from thing to thing. I don’t have a clear memory of everything. Most gigs have paled into the distance now. By and large I think that age has nothing to do with it being daunting. Some people waltz on stage at eight years old in a school play and they’re lapping it up. That’s not in my nature. I definitely felt, this time around, a lot more comfortable. I’m more comfortable with the fact that it’s really good, incredibly well rehearsed and arranged. Comparing four years ago to now - you decided against changing your name. Do you still have a proximity to your old stuff? I was talking about this the other day. Luke [Smith, producer] called me up and said ‘Oh, I

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was listening to the first record, ‘Dark Young Hearts’. I hadn’t heard it in years. It’s a pretty crazy record.’ Coincidentally I’d come across it on a different website that same week. I don’t have it on my iTunes and I haven’t listened to it in years. It’s was quite cool, in a weird way. You don’t usually listen to your records once it’s finished. For me, it’s a record of a particular time. I would never be embarrassed about what’s been done musically. There’s really interesting things about that record. I guess I thought it was a bit of a copout to change the name, when it’s really just me. I’ve seen so many friends change their name and come back way better. In a way it’s this endless process, the same people moving around to different bands and changing names. Did you take time out in between the debut and deciding to write this second record? Essentially, I’ve never stopped writing. I’ve been writing more for others than producing, actually. They’ve mostly gone hand in hand. I wound up touring the first album very quickly. It didn’t feel like there was too much point to doing it further, so I went back to the drawing board. I felt like the thing had run out of steam a bit - not that I didn’t think it was a great record. I kept writing, and some of the things I wrote early on have made it onto this new record. A lot of what I’ve written has ended up on other people’s records. I try not to stop writing. DIY

“A lot of what i’ve written has ended up on other people’s records.” 47

Dropping out of school isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t fun, honest.

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the orwells

Ch icag o k i d s r ai s e d on b or e d om ar e on t h e b r i n k of b r e a k i n g b a d . w o r d s : j a m i e m i lt o n . p h o t o : e m m a s wa n n

he Orwells are sitting in the most unrock‘n’roll location in the entire country; the bar of a Maidstone Hilton. It’s the day before their Jools Holland performance, in which frontman Mario Cuomo kicks a stage light and gets called a “dick” by YouTube commenters. A big occasion, but arguably it’s just another step in the Chicago band’s long list of riotous achievements. Now signed to Atlantic, since leaving school their lives have been one big, drunken mess. But they’re enjoying it. Did you ever grow up watching these chaotic television performances, like on Jools? Mario Cuomo (vocals): I saw At The Drive-In. That was badass. My favourite though was The Vines. It’s fucking crazy. He breaks a bunch of shit and pushes over all the amps. Matt O’Keefe (guitar): They make it through like 45 seconds of the song before throwing off his guitar, going ‘I don’t want to play this song anymore’. Mario: He almost takes his drummer out with his guitar. That was amazing. Since 2001, has there been a bit of a drought of showmanship? Henry Brinner (drums): I don’t know. I think in between The Strokes and like… There hasn’t been a lot of successful, cool rock bands. There’s been loads of less successful ones. Mario: The last crazy motherfucker was Jay Reatard. Matt: I can’t really remember but I think the last ones that totally put their balls to the

wall was The Hives and some early White Stripes. When Jack’s crawling out on stage, taking his guitar off. Since then I don’t think there’s been a big band you see on talk shows and live television. Are hip-hop artists inspiring when it comes to playing live? Mario: It’s different. It’s hard for someone with a guitar in their hand to aspire to be Tyler, the Creator. Henry: I don’t think that’s true at all. What I’m trying to say is you can still take influence from something and not be able to do it. Mario: There’s a freedom in having a microphone and being able to connect with the crowd and do whatever the fuck you

Mediafire, Soundcloud and stuff. I think some people hated us at school. Matt: Some of the bands realised we could maybe open a gig, shit like that. But when we did ‘Remember When’, my dad was like ‘What the fuck?’ At first it was like oh yeah, we’ll make a bunch of noise in the basement. After we did that LP we started figuring stuff out. Grant: It was like nothing was happening, but we made a music video for ‘Mallrats (La La La)’ and it spiralled. When you left school did you just take off? Matt: Our friends knew, I guess. Grant: Everyone was like, ‘Where are you going to college’ and we were like ‘Nowhere..’

“I bragged about getting signed. People thought I was gonna be a bum.” Mario Cuomo

want. Dominic Corso (guitar): When we started out, [Mario] used the mic stand. Mario: It took me like fifteen shows to get rid of it. There was one show in a garage, in our suburb. It was a turning point. I realised that’s where I should go with it. It was just in some kid’s garage. Tom Peter’s garage. I let loose for the first time. Did you used to give out your albums at school? Grant Brinner (bass): Yeah, on

Henry: I personally didn’t want to tell many people, because then you’re just like the douche. You’re that douche. Mario: I bragged about [getting signed]. I was like, ‘My fucking band got signed’. People thought I was gonna be a bum because I don’t have a high school diploma. I was like, ‘No, I’m gonna get paid to have a bunch of fun.’ So fuck all you. When I got my dropout sheet I wrote that my band got signed. Teachers were like ‘Oh, really?’ Fuck yeah. DIY 49

New York’s at the heart of their debut, ‘Manhattan’. Rather than picking out the glitz and the shopping precincts of the city, they channel the dark undercurrent, the gutters and the gangs. Every dream metropolis has its ugly side, and Skaters strike a clever balance between a glossy high-life and a grizzly alter-ago.

Skaters

Chasing the American dream by channelling indie r o ya lt y.

races of indie-circa-2005 still show up in NYC’s Skaters. Guitarist Joshua Hubbard has experience in The Paddingtons and Dirty Pretty Things. Rather than rooting towards a bygone era however, SKATERS link up the groups still making noise in their beloved city of choice. From The Strokes onwards, their era-meshing frenzied take on things is only a few steps away from Cerebral Ballzy.

jaws

What’s the worst piece of advice anyone’s ever given you? Smoke weed before every take when you’re making a record. What’s the weirdest thing anyone’s done at one of your gigs? A half naked dude swinging a skateboard in a mosh pit. You’re part of DIY’s Class of 2014 - what was your favourite subject at school? Lunch! DIY

B i r m i n g h a m b oy s d o i n g e v e ry t h i n g i n t h e i r p o w e r t o av o i d s l a c k i n g o f f.

on’t go calling JAWS slackers. They might have their own range of tie-dye tees and yes, they do occasionally tweet about FIFA and being bored etc. But behind the baggy clothing stands a bunch of guys gradually getting used to the idea that they fancy being a band fulltime. “I want a girlfriend! That’s why I started this band,” yelps frontman Connor Schofield. “Instead, when I started this band I lost my girlfriend.”

enjoy your holiday!’” The misconceptions don’t stop there. “Just because me and Brad Pitt go out sometimes to the Royal London in Wolverhampton does not mean we’re a big deal,” goes bassist Jake Cooper. “Jesus christ guys.”

Do all your mates think you’re famous? Jake (bass): Our mates don’t want us to talk about it. Connor (vocals, guitars): We’ve As if being dumped wasn’t enough, got to a level, like. We’re on some TV JAWS get lumped in with a slacker shows. To me, I’m the same guy. But image. It might have something to do to a lot of people their perception of with their songs (just a guess), which me has changed. Singer of a band, hone in at escape and beaches and knob head. chasing vibes. “Everyone looks at us Eddy (drums): My mates ask me and goes ‘he looks like a smackhead’,” about it sometimes but I think it’s jokes guitarist Alex Hudson. cool they don’t take it seriously. Alex (guitars): I have no mates Schofield pipes in. “I’m not saying this anymore. is the hardest thing in the world, but Jake: I have a free space for a best it’s a lot of hard work. I tell friends I’m mate that’s on offer, if anyone’s going on tour and they’re like ‘Oh well interested. DIY

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recision is in JUNGLE’s blood. Two singles to the good, their funktastic approach is big, all-encompassing on the outside. Within these songs however is finite, cutting detail. It’s an ethos that “T” and “J” (JUNGLE’s founding members - they’re a collective by nature) stick to, even if in conversation they claim this project’s just a bit of fun. They’re not lying, exactly. Half of this interview consists of asking questions via emoticon, discussing the merits of Gnarls Barkley’s wardrobe, laughing at will.i.am becoming creative director of Intel. The only time they get serious is when “T” goes off on one about technology and its relationship on the individual (“It’s a comfort, it’s a blanket. We’ve got an interesting future ahead of us”). It’s great that they don’t give a stuff about the hype, the chatter that surrounds their rising stock. But behind the good-times glaze is an exactitude to reckon with. Those pictured, below, are Rudi and Antro, part of the live band. The founding members share an official anniversary (“between 26th January and 2nd February - both of our birthdays”), and despite claims that they’ve been “fucking around since then,” landing on an intense, genre-

meshing form of future-pop takes some doing. Whenever they come close to sounding serious stating “the whole jungle thing is a metaphor”, for instance - they throw out a follow-up statement like “obviously we have to fucking pick a name at some point.” They spend half their time giggling like goons. It’s refreshing, given just how precise, disciplined they inevitably have to be in their palmtree lined studio.

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DON’T MESS WITH JUNGLE

For all their lighthearted chit-chat, JUNGLE have one massive vendetta. Phones at gigs. “I wonder how they’d react if I got my phone out and held it out at them for the whole show,” says T. “I’m just going to film you Tricky to pin down, impossible to photograph, even lot. So that we’ve got an accurate memory harder to pigeonhole musically - JUNGLE’s two of the occasion at leaders avoid admitting that they’re elusive sods, any point. With the but it’s all part of the mentality. If they were to be live shows, we want told they were the UK’s most exciting new band, it to be a real world they’d throw out a cuss and run amok in giggles. experience without Good on them. DIY the distractions of a click-happy society.” After a heady first few months - sold out singles on Chess Club Records, a whole UK tour met with insane anticipation - JUNGLE still have one ridiculous goal in their sights. Working with Kanye West is “one for the bucket list,” they say. “If we were to produce a track for Kanye, you want to do something he’s going to love. You want him to come in and go ‘Yeah man, that shit cray’. You’re waiting for that moment.” Cue fits of laughter.

JUNGLe

A couple of o b s e s s i v e m a s t e r m i n d s o r t w o av e r a g e b l o k e s t h a t h a p p e n t o b e g o o d at m u s i c ? I t ’ s a n yo n e ’ s g u e s s .

words: jamie milton

Rudi and Antro: Part of JUNGLE’s collective spirit.

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SUPERFOOD

B r i n g i n g B r i ta n n i a b a c k , t h e B i r m i n g h a m way. p h o t o : e m m a s wa n n

irmingham’s recent heyday isn’t the stuff of legend. Peace and Swim Deep’s 2013 rise was as colossal as expected: festivals raised their collective arms and waved flags to both bands’ pace-setting debuts. But the city’s not done just yet. Its latest manifestation comes in the form of Superfood. This time last year “Superfood” was just a word being spouted out by health junkies and, on a much smaller level, obsessive new music fans. Peace sent out a quick word that there was a band out there in the big wide world getting ready to break big. Cut to January and the four-piece of Dom Ganderton (lead vocals/guitar), Ryan Malcolm (vocals/ lead guitar), Emily Baker (bass) and Carl Griffin (drums) arrived for their debut London show, a Neu Presents ‘Hello 2013’ show at the Old Blue Last. Upstairs in the venue Connor from JAWS was airing out one of Superfood’s demos, keeping this act of lunacy so ‘hush-hush’ that it was as if he were leaking top secret government information. Downstairs, few in attendance had heard a single note emerge from this hotly-tipped Birmingham prospect. It was a ludicrous situation, a bit like religious followers being told to visit Aldi in case Jesus turns up. There was little reason to believe that Superfood were actually going to be any good. Still, the room was stuffed and people turned up to witness a flooring set, albeit one that defied expectations. Ganderton and co. burst forth with such ‘90s-infested zest it wouldn’t have been surprising to learn that they’d been stored up in some kind of locker after Blur had their last #1 single, fed on the same diet of raucous guitars and ludicrous hooks that so defined the previous decade. “I was in Subway up the road,” recalls Dom of the night that his band finally stopped being some strange myth,

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“It’s not our main aim to be ‘90s.” SPICE UP YOUR LIFE

Superfood’s ‘90s diet doesn’t stop short of dodgy calendars. Emily: The dream is to be the Spice Girls. Dom: France 1998 was my big ‘90s memory. I just remember the little chicken. I remember seeing that everywhere. Emily: My uncle bought me back a football from France. Dom: And the coins with the footballer’s face on them.

Ryan: And the total eclipse. We lived with that that’s mental. Dom: And what happened to the millennium bug? My sister had a millennium bug pencil case. And I saw Cliff Richard light the millennium flame in the centre of Birmingham, and it just didn’t light! He was standing there, hopelessly.

talked up to the heavens. “I was sat in there, two guys in backpacks eating Subway and they were like ‘are you going to see Superfood?’ I was like fuck. They’re going to see our band.” They’d been together for three months at the time, surprising considering how tightly-packed their nostalgic trip of a debut set ended up being. The ‘90s influence was clear as day. They might as well have invited the Fresh Prince of Bel Air on stage with them. “Some of the bands around in the ‘90s were the last, great British bands,” claims Dom, before claiming their obvious nod to a previous era might not be the actual sum of Superfood’s parts. “When we release our album, they might see it’s not our main aim to be ‘90s,” he says, without going into too many details. It’s clear that pretty much ever since that early London show, with plenty scattered in between now and then, Superfood have been working on their full-length. “That’s all I’m thinking about at the moment,” enthuses Carl. “Everyone’s like ‘ah, congratulations on getting signed’,” Dom echoes out. “But it’s going to be so real. I’m just going to get lots of hot chocolate. What else do you take to the studio?” “Hot pants!” Carl shouts. It’s only been a year, but their longterm plan is already ironed out, set in stone. An ultimate goal is to release calendars, following in the legacy of Cliff Richard (“The other day he was wearing a checkered shirt with a v-neck t-shirt under it. Impressive,” remarks Emily). Apart from extravagant merch, the band are intently focused on this debut. It’ll prove a lot of people wrong, if their initial declarations are anything to go by. One thing’s for certain: if anyone’s bringing back neon hoodies and giant mobile phones, it’s Superfood. DIY

They’re so ‘90s, Superfood’s Carl Criffin can’t stop doing Joey from Friends impressions. “How YOU doin’?”

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MØ

B r a s h b e at s a n d p l ayg r o u n d p u n k a r e i n K a r e n M a r i e Ø r s t e d ’ s p a s t, b u t s h e’ s c o m b i n i n g t h e t wo i n o r d e r t o b e c o m e a s u p e r s ta r .

photos: MIke massaro. =words: jamie milton

aren Marie Ørsted, aka MØ, is a tricky individual to figure out, initially. Sitting in a London hotel room with a sleeveless top, she reveals a couple of tattoos; a Pacman ghost on one arm; an infinity symbol on the other. There’s also the

“I don’t know if you ever know who you really are.” mask of the Pussy Riot group. On the inside of her index finger, there’s just a question mark. While she reinforces the statement again and again that within her music is a pure expression of who she is and what she represents, there’s the sense that she still has plenty more to reveal. But it’s not like she’s hiding anything. MØ’s music is only ‘pop’ in the loosest sense. By definition it’s popular and it’s a chart-stormer by nature. Within

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it, however, is a crazed fusion of punkafflicted chants and bedroom beats. Aspiring kids could attempt to replicate it, but the essence of this sound is the person behind it. Growing up in the Danish countryside, Ørsted, now 25, was exposed to a culture that she describes as “spoiled”, where the country’s people are so “free” that they “get depressed and have all kinds of diseases in our heads.” She claims to sing about the youth, but not in the conventional sense. This isn’t about the struggles of lie-ins or one hangover too many. It’s not even about boys and girls and stupid nagging, self-conscious thoughts. It goes further than that. “Everyone is trying to make themselves look better than they are,” she says, about the pressures of growing up. “Everybody wants to stand out. You either want to be a superstar, doctor or lawyer. It’s such a self-centred culture we live in.” Karen didn’t come close to becoming either a lawyer or a doctor. Instead, she landed on the third option - “superstar”. MØ’s music has gone stratospheric. From Avicii guestspots to recording with Diplo, she’s selling out shows worldwide, performing with the kind of verve that only strikes a pop star who knows

they’re on to something. How she actually ended up on her bouncing, beat-ridden approach is anyone’s guess. She spent time in a punk duo called Mor, channelling Peaches and getting (relatively) big off the back of a track titled ‘Fisse I Dit Fjase (Pussy in your Face)’, released back in 2009. Not the average chart-bothering upbringing, then. During this time, she started getting more confident about singing. Recording scrappy beats with no real end point, she eventually collaborated with Ronni Vindahl - who remains her partner-in-crime - and it was here that she sang a cappella for the first time. “It was all about attitude to begin with - it was easy to hide behind it,” she admits. Also stressing that “I would love to play in a punk band again,” it was Vindahl who opened up the possibility of working on something shinier, giddy to the point of explosion.

What followed was a series of do-it-yourself video recordings. Most of them show MØ glaring at a camera with her headphones on, chopped-up visuals collapsing in on themselves. “I’ve always been about how the music and visuals have to fit together and it have to be true,” she stresses. At the time, they worked in perfect sync. Bedroom pop (comparisons to Grimes were, and still are, prominent) found its visual match. This was a bored kid making batshit crazy songs, completely unbounded. Things have since gone up a notch in the budget stakes. But that hasn’t stopped MØ in her tracks. It’s still the same person singing these songs. The youth remains the focus. “You can’t see anything because you have this teen filter in front of your eyes,” she recounts. “I can still feel the ghost of that, what it was like to be that way.” Memories of fucked-up thoughts and nagging doubts are keeping her grounded. Despite possessing the confidence of someone capable of selling a million records - all on the back of this projection of self - she still admits, “I don’t know if you ever know who you really are.”

complete picture just yet. It’s a process of discovery that’s steering her forwards. “Like everybody, I’m filled with contrasts. There’s a more mellow side but then there’s the “weaaah! side,” she says, arms flailing, tongue pointed outwards. In a quest to become the biggest thing on the planet, MØ’s not holding back in any way. “I put my heart as much in a ballad as I put it in a song where I’m more like YEAH!” she screams, sticking her middle fingers into the air at nobody in particular. Punk’s in her blood, so is pure pop. Goodness knows what else is in the system. One thing’s for certain: She should never change. DIY

She’s not as full of complexities as the tattoo collection might suggest. But she’s also not a

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Any thing but a product of c o l l a b o r at i o n , Welsh is doing every thing in her power not to remain ‘Undiscovered’.

Laura Welsh

n paper, foolish chancers might think it’s possible to put any old codger in the studio with Dev Hynes and expect magic to happen. Hynes’ track record puts gloss over the fact that it takes two to musically tango. Beyond the MKS’ and the big name productions, one track emerged from his studio head and shoulders above the rest: Laura Welsh’s ‘Undiscovered’.

The product of years in and out of the spotlight, it spelled the beginning of a bright new start for Welsh. Previously writing and performing in bands Laura and The Tears and Hey Laura, 2013 has been about a fresh new start. Working alongside both Hynes and Rhye’s Robin Hannibal hasn’t stopped Laura from doing the same as BANKS, essentially, and stamping her own mark all over every speck of territory. The songs she writes today come from a dark place, too (“Being pulled apart by

betrayal,” apparently) and it’s this grim reality that defines her heady, R&Bnodding early singles. What’s the best thing that happened to you in 2013? Creating music and working with musicians that have allowed me to get that bit closer to the sounds in my head. If people were to listen to just one of your songs, which one would you hope it was and why? ‘Ghosts’. Its a song that means a great deal to me. Its more of the time it was written and the space I was in. Fundamentally it’s about making a decision to walk a certain line without fear. Living it out without compromises. Which other bands should people be looking out for in 2014? Jungle, Woman’s Hour and Lion Babe. DIY

woman’s hour

This London four p i e c e k n o w e x a c t ly w h a t t h e y wa n t and where they’re h e a d i n g . photos: mike

massaro

oman’s Hour - Fiona and Will Burgess, Josh Hunnisett and Nicolas Graves - exist today as a band whose debut full-length can practically be heard ringing out already. It’s less a distant siren, more a distinct clarion call. Two years of practice, exactitude, perfectionism has paid off. They stand as a group ready to take on 2014 with every step mapped out like one of Stalin’s five year plans, only maybe a little less sinister. They’re four musicians working on exactly the same wavelength. It’s one entity, few interruptions. That’s the impression, at least. In reality they reveal themselves to be a group thriving on tiny mishaps. “Sometimes it’s the beautiful mistakes,” says Will Burgess, speaking ahead of one of the group’s many late-night practices. “It’s the moment when your finger slips on a filter. There is no definite answer it’s whatever works.” Compared to the precise detail that carries over on Woman’s

Climbing the ladder: Woman’s Hour.

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Hour’s two singles CLASS to date - their softlyof softly approach to pop a constant - this kind of statement might seem a little blase. But therein lies the magic. Set aside the perfectionist streak and lying deep within is a vulnerability, an anxiousness that translates quite brilliantly. “We push things as far as we can and then bring it back,” Fiona says of their approach to songwriting. They compare it to a sculpture, whittling away until something colossal comes into being.

2014

Two years back Woman’s Hour were a different band, thrown into the spotlight with a debut single on Dirty Bingo. They were promising, but they soon retreated. “We kind of decided to take a long break and just make songs that felt right and felt like music that we were really proud of,” explains Fiona. “I think as a band you get a lot of pressure and it’s just made us able to say no a little bit more. It’s so empowering, we didn’t realise how good it felt. And so we learnt a lot from that. Now we all feel a lot happier with where we are.” What Woman’s Hour soon realised was that given time, one singular idea could speak volumes and outlast any scatterbrained approach tempting new bands. Instead of running amok, they discovered the advantages of reining it in. It was about fewer possibilities, rather than everything at once. “Now, we’re putting stuff out in a much more knowledgeable way,” affirms Josh. Will follows it up by stating: “If it’s a narrow focus, it works. You don’t have to be the best at everything.” It’s clear they’ve thought a lot about this. Coy about album releases, when asked about a 2014 full-length they offer a shy “we hope so”, followed by nervous laughter. Of course there’s a masterplan. They just haven’t shared it yet. Because Woman’s Hour are a very rare example of a band willing to shake off previous false starts, try again and go for the jugular without tripping up on their own two feet. There’s every reason to believe what’s been revealed to date is only a small fragment of something way more ambitious. DIY

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Josef Salvat A “ m o o d k i l l i n g ” Au s s i e w h o i r o n i c a l ly m a d e t h e b i g m o v e t o L o n d o n i n a n at t e m p t t o see the sunny side.

fellow Aussie he might be, but Josef Salvat differs big-time from Say Lou Lou. A selfprofessed miserable bloke dealing with the morbid stuff, throughout 2013 little rays of sunshine have seeped into his music. Breakthrough single ‘This Life’ set the stall - since then, there emerged a voice ten times more interesting than his home city, “politics and prostitution capital” in-one, Canberra.

SayLouLou At l o n g l a s t, t h e S w e d i s h - Au s t r a l i a n t win sisters are making gains on the m a i n s t r e a m . Wo r d s : H u w O l i v e r

he charms of Say Lou Lou are positively international and 100% of-the-moment. Currently based out of a Stockholm cellar, the enviously stylish pair – also known as Miranda and Elektra Kilbey – are burrowed away, “trying lots of different suits on” in rather hectic recording sessions. But their long-awaited debut album is finally in sight.

“I’m an ‘expressive’ dancer. People find that entertaining,” he says, of any potential party tricks he might have up his sleeve. “If there’s a piano around I’ll play something I wrote, usually fairly sombre and mood killing. I stopped getting invited to parties a while ago.” He’s probably being hard on himself. New single ‘Every Night’ is a timeless triumph, skewing soul samples with some newly-found falsetto. Something suggests he’s a little more in demand than he gives himself credit. You put out a song at the very beginning of 2013. Can you sum up what happened next? Did it beat all your expectations? I think what happened next is still in the process of happening actually. What did surpass my expectations is that I could quite quickly start letting go of that other life I had stored away, just in case everything went to shit. What’s the worst piece of advice anyone’s ever given you? Be realistic. DIY

The sprawling epics of Charlotte Gainsbourg’s latest record and Arcade Fire’s back catalogue have inspired the most recent stages of their journey, but it turns out this record has been in the works their entire lives. “We’ve always been making music,” Miranda explains. “But Elektra and I never thought we’d end up recording it professionally. Now it’s happened, we can’t believe it’s true.” In an irritating turn of events, the duo were obliged to change their name from Saint Lou Lou to Say Lou Lou last year due to a lawsuit from a similarly-named artist. But hang on a second – who even is Lou Lou? “Our Great Aunt, who we only met once on her death-bed, and an old family legend,” they explain. “She was quite bitter and angry. We always thought that the really beautiful, sweet name together with her personality was quite funny.” The sisters have previously self-released music through their own record label, appropriately titled À Deux, but the hype got too much – they’ve recently signed a deal with Columbia. “We’re really excited and eager to get this record out,” Miranda says. “We’ve been making it for too long now. It would be good to get some closure on it and get it out and see what the response is and what sort of impact it has on people.” DIY 59

“D

etroit gave me gospel, Houston gave me trill and Minneapolis gave me the weird and I think it all came together on the record,” Detroit-born rapper Lizzo sums up the effect the cities she’s resided in have had on her. But there are so many other surprising influences and musical stages that have shaped Lizzo as an artist and have contributed to her debut solo album, ‘Lizzobangers’, in an obscure way.

“I always think about being better than the last thing I did.”

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D E T R O I T- B O R N L I Z Z O i s H i p h o p ’ s n e w e s t s ta r i n t h e m a k i n g . W o r d s : H ay l e y f o x .

She’s GRRRRRR-eat!

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With the view of going to the Paris Conservatory to play flute and then “wait for someone to die” so she could audition for the symphony, Stravinsky and Tchaikovsky were on her playlist through her childhood. Then she “went into pop,” discovering S.U.C before her sister started introducing her to Radiohead “before they were hip and indie” and Björk. With her dad listening to Elton John, Stevie Wonder and Queen, Lizzo was the only person in her family who listened to rap. It’s an intriguing fact considering it’s the skill she uses most nowadays. Beyoncé is also someone who she has a great admiration for. “I look up to her musically, personally I love her and spiritually I just feel like I connect with her.” She revels in her words. “I watched her grow into this and I feel like I was on that journey with her from when I was 15, I’m just proud.” Lizzo has dabbled in R&B / rap girl groups like The Chalice and GRRRL PRTY – the latter which she is still part of now with new projects on the

horizon – as well as progressive rock outfit Elypseas. “Music was always a driving force, but I never thought I would be able to sing and perform for a living because I didn’t sing until I was 19. When I was rapping, I was like this could be something cool and I started to rap when I was like 13, I never thought it was something realistic.” She’s passionate and animated, barely ever stumped for words. But when asked about her proudest moment on the record, Lizzo takes a long pause, before eventually deciding on ‘Faded’. “I had been fighting with that one for a while, a song with this girl Manchita from GRRRL PRTY, the L to the I to the Z.Z.O, is that verse and I put it on ‘Faded’,” she recalls. “‘Faded’ I feel was one of the challenges I overcame and I’m very proud of that.” Her feisty rapping makes for a confident record that sounds so distinctive and holds swagger of the good kind. Lead track ‘Batches and Cookies’ is a banger, featuring her GRRRL PRTY bandmate Sophia Eris. Lizzo explains the sassy story behind its killer hip-shaking hook. “I had this thing called ‘batch’, get a batch. I was saying it to every girl like ‘get a batch’ or dog. Anything that walked past that was getting it. I was walking down the street with Sophia and I was like, ‘I got my batches and cookies’ and she was like that would be such cool song.” Touring with Har Mar Superstar, it’s her first time in the UK. “When you go to a show and you’re like, this is my favourite song, and meet that person. Hopefully I’ll be able to do that for some people,” she says. “To be received by people who I’m relatively new to is humbling.” Lizzo is certainly taking everything as it comes, whilst still conscious about looking ahead. “It’s limitless for me right now, you’re your own little enterprise, it’s like it’s my own business.” ‘Lizzobangers’ certainly feels like the record she’s always wanted to make with its class is headed up by her excessive musical experiences and her concrete selfbelief. “I want to be the best Lizzo and if means that someone thinks I’m better than Nicki Minaj or Beyoncé or Busta Rhymes, Missy Elliott or anybody that’s on them, but my mindset is being the best me.” DIY

SamSmith E ‘ L at c h ’ - i n g o n t o p o p s ta r d o m , o n e s t e p at a t i m e . ssex boy Sam Smith is done with the guest spots. Not that he harbours any regrets about appearing on Disclosure’s ‘Latch’ or Naughty Boy’s ‘La La La’. Number One singles aren’t something to pour scorn over. 2014, however, is the year where he asserts himself. “I get to release a body of work,” states the impressively-quiffed songwriter. “I can’t tell you how excited I am to tour and do festivals and

be insanely busy.”

Post-guest spots, Smith’s own solo exploits became something to take seriously as soon as he released ‘Nirvana’. Technically it’s a ballad. But it carries just as much emotional punch as ‘Latch’, and Sam claims it’s the only song he’s ever listened to after finishing recording. Thousands are listening alongside him. What’s the weirdest thing anyone’s done at one of your gigs?

Luckily the people who come to see my shows are all really lovely. One guy had his two hands in the air for the entire 40-minute show. That was odd. He didn’t put them down once and I’ve got some mellow songs. I was worried he was losing blood, if I’m honest. What’s the best thing that happened to you in 2013? I fell in love. …and what’s the worst? I fell in love. DIY

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Bondax

S h u n n e d i n c o l l e g e a n d a l m o s t r u i n e d by b ac k s tag e r i d e r s , B o n d a x h av e s e e n t h e l i g h t . W O R D S : J A M I E M I LT O N . p h o t o s : m i k e m a s s a r o

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llow Bondax to introduce a winning formula. They’ve hit jackpot, stumbled on the holy grail. Between the two of them - Adam Kaye and George Townsend - they’ve worked out that if you take two completely opposite genres and mix the two together, you end up with a smash hit. Their evidence? Avicii. “It’s terrible, but the idea of it is why it went well,” George says, of the Mumfords-meets-dubstep collision ‘Wake Me Up’ that so defined summer 2013. It shouldn’t work. It doesn’t work, really. But it turns heads, it sells records. Not that Bondax need any advice on getting big. In the past twelve months they’ve been called ‘the next Disclosure’ and goodness knows what else, as danceoriented songs have soundtracked sweaty, seedy clubs, more innocent house parties and maybe even the drudgery of a commute. It didn’t begin in such rosy circumstances, however. Their first show came when they were both aged 18, DJing for the princely sum of a rider that contained a full bottle of vodka and a free bar. “Never wise,” as Townsend wryly admits. “I have no idea what happened [but] after that we realised we were going to chill out a bit. We’d reached our rock’n’roll peak.” Back in the day, Townsend and Kaye were sending out songs to friends, anyone who’d bother to take notice. “No-one gave a shit,” claims George. “Our parents weren’t really supporting it. They were good in saying ‘you can do it. Go and do it.’ And I was trying to convince them that there was something in it.

“Our album is basically the Bondax version of ‘24’.”

“We believed in it - not to the point we were overly cocky about it. But you’ve got to have that bit of belief.” Adam backs this sentiment up. “You have to explain that what the Sex Pistols were to them, and how strange it was at the time, is how this might be to our parents today.” Bondax aren’t cocky by any stretch of the imagination, but there’s a mentality behind their tracks that hints at a pair of producers still discovering their limits. Although in terms of intoxication they hit the fence from day one, musically they’re only just crafting an amped-up, excitable pop-dance mesh that they can call their own. “Now’s the first time in our careers when we’ve had tracks to choose from,” claims Adam, as the two take a break from a constant shift in their East London studio. “In college, music wasn’t our priority. We usually took a month on each song.” George elaborates: “It was a good way of doing it, because you were never in that point where you get lost in your music and you think it’s the shit. At the time, it was quite private.” 2013’s been a process of discovery. Writing for an eventual full-length got off to a rocky start. “For six months we were making bullshit really,” claims Townsend. Raised in Lancaster, they’ve both been thrown into things, half-living out of studios while avoiding gluttonous riders by taking on festival after festival. Disclosure comparisons might seem a little steep, and indeed reductive when you’re considering two young, dance-centric producers. But

CHANCE HAPPENING Bondax’s biggest fan of recent times comes in the form of fellow 2014-hopeful Chance the Rapper. “We went over to visit him in his hometown, in Chicago,” George enthuses. “That was so sick. We played an hour warm-up set before he did his thing. It was cool though, because he takes DJ Rashad and Spinn with him. They’re legends in America, but he took them off and put us in instead of them. He was really nice to us about everything. We chatted and he was a fan, which was crazy.”

there’s a similar chatter surrounding their name. Consider that this time last year Disclosure hadn’t unveiled ‘White Noise’, their astronomical single. There’s the slight sense that Bondax have something similar up their sleeves. Not that either of them are paying too much attention to the hype. “At points we’ve been overly conscious with what other people are doing,” admits Townsend. “If you start thinking too much about it, it can go the other way; you end up making some weird left-field shit.” They cite Soundcloud, constant new discoveries as their muse (“How do you get new ideas if you’re never listening to anything else?”) In actual fact that’s how they began collaborating with vocalists, like Joe Janiak, who sings on ‘Gold’ and who also joins Bondax in the studio on the day of the interview. At first, the album became weighed down by the fact that “we weren’t finding the right vocalists,” but they’ve since settled into a rhythm.

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“You’ve got to have that bit of belief.”

“We’ve got a theme the whole way through it actually,” says George. “It’s through the course of a day, and the tracks fit into different hours. It’s basically the Bondax version of ‘24’.” Expect explosions, dramatic closing scenes and enough ‘God dammit!’’s to warrant an ‘Explicit Content’ sticker. “I think the whole album has a level of accessibility. They’re songs, you know? It’s not so weird that you’re going to be freaked out by it.” Far from being thrown off by their spiralling past twelve months and way out of the loop on just how far into outer space their eventual debut could take them, after a faulty start Bondax have struck ‘Gold’. Just don’t let them near a banjo or a free bar. DIY

LuluJames

From busking in Newcastle to touring with Ellie Goulding, South Shields’ newest m u s i c a l h o p e h a s h a d a w h i r lw i n d f e w y e a r s . W o r d s : D av i d Z a m m i t t

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he most important thing to me is connection. As long as I keep doing that I feel I will be recognised and appreciated as an artist, which of course is important.” Lulu James is reflecting upon her recent commercial successes, having penetrated the iTunes soul charts in Ireland and Denmark in the last few of weeks. While she’s grateful for the recognition, however, it doesn’t necessarily come as a surprise to a young woman who’s nothing if not supremely confident in her abilities. “Yes and no, because I wrote ‘Sweetest Thing’ with my audience in mind, however it’s always amazing to receive a great response especially from further afield.” Listening to the slick electronic soul of early singles ‘Closer’ and ‘Sweetest Thing,’ you’d be forgiven for mistaking its oozing self-assurance for the work of a well-established artist. At just 22, however, it has – unbelievably - only

been “two or three years,” since James began writing her own songs. Since then, things have ramped up rapidly. “I started off with all of the festivals this year, then the Ellie Goulding tour and now I’m touring with Annie Mac.” While she admits to a touch of fatigue, she dismisses any tangible effects. “It’s been really fun.” Indeed, as much as she’s enjoying the current live shows, simply being part of the tour isn’t enough to cause her to rest on any laurels. “I should hope the next tour I am on will be my own.” With an album looking likely for a spring release, James has no reason to look back. But what would she have done if things hadn’t worked out the way they have? That unbridled confidence bubbles up again. “I think I would have probably done something in the entertainment business as a hobby. However, I’ve always been intrigued by forensic science and would have pursued a career in or around that. Worlds apart I know!” DIY

Lonely the Brave

This Cambridge five-piece are on the edge of becoming one of British rock’s biggest contenders.

“T

here was just loads of smashed people trying to grab guitars off us!” Mark Trotter laughs. Lonely The Brave’s appearance at this summer’s Reading & Leeds Festival was a challenge - in more ways than you might consider. “We were all stupidly excited about Reading. If we hadn’t been playing, at least four out of the five of us would’ve been there anyway. It’s a massive thing for us to have done and it was great fun. Apart from when we had to cart our gear from the middle of the site, where the BBC Introducing Stage was, back to our van. It was a nightmare!” The thing about Lonely The Brave, is that they’re already poised for big things. Fresh from releasing their ‘Backroads’ EP last month, the fivepiece – made up of guitarists Trotter and Joel Mason, vocalist David Jakes, bassist Andrew Bushen and drummer Gavin Edgeley – have managed to whip up four of the most passionate, spine-tingling rock songs, with just the

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right amount of anthem thrown in for good measure. It only seems fair that people are finally beginning to pay attention. “We’ve been going for what? Three and a bit years, I guess,” explains Mark. “I mean, this line-up is probably only a year old because Joel joined us later on second guitar, but how we got together is probably the same as most bands. Music is just really incestuous! Everybody knows everyone, we’d all been in bands before and we had all played with each other in old bands through the years, just in and around the town where we’re from. That’s how we formed, which I guess is the natural way for most bands really.” Nowadays three years before a debut might seem like a long time, but for Lonely The Brave, it was just about getting it right first time around. “In terms of band is that a long time? I dunno. To get a decent body of songs, I guess you’ve gotta work on it for a little while. For us, we wanted an album that really hung together and

for us to get that to work properly and do what we wanted it to do, it took a little bit of time I guess. We’re used to slogging it like everybody else, and it’s amazing that things have now, hopefully, started to move.” The most special thing about this band seems to lie in the reaction they’ve managed to provoke so far. Their first official headline show sold out months in advance, and they already have people attending multiple shows. People sing along with frontman Jakes – who infamously prefers to stand towards the back of the stage, learning lessons in confidence as each show goes on – with such passion and conviction that it’s genuinely difficult to not be taken aback. That seems to be a sentiment echoed by the band themselves, too. “We’re really lucky, we’ve had some amazing support from people. We’ve got people how come to every single show and it’s incredible. You can’t ask for any more than that. When people start singing those songs back, it’s the most incredible feeling in the world.” DIY 66

izza, skateboarding and having a good time; if popular opinion is to be believed, they’d stand as the holy trinity of Gnarwolves. But there’s so much more to this band than first meets the eye. Forget the gimmicks because this lot are here for the long run, and judging by the past twelve months, they’re going about things the right way. It was a mere eighteen months ago that Gnarwolves took to the stage in Brighton’s Hydrant and offered to a sparse crowd their scrappy brand of punk rock. Performing as part of the Alternative Escape in 2012, their early evening slot was witnessed by just a handful of festival goers, but the energy that exuded from their set that night was unquestionable. To think, back then, the band were just a few months old. Meet Gnarwolves today and they’re not much different. While drummer

Max Weeks is now sporting a rather impressively huge beard - which his brother Thom assures is his first attempt at growing facial hair - they’ve still got boards clutched in their hands and a penchant for making friends. Now, their discography boasts three EPs, and they spent the summer playing festivals. Things have never looked so good for the band. Like so many great bands before them, Gnarwolves seem to be experts at one thing in particular: connection. Thanks to their down-to-earth nature, and upbringing within punk, there’s a sense that everyone’s invited to join the Gnarwolves Cru. “I think we’re always quite eager to meet people and make best friends with them,” confirms Charlie. “We’ve always loved going to shows to see bands, so I’ve made a lot of mates just from doing that.” The next real chance for them to make their mark now inevitably lies with their debut album, a project that has seemed

both exciting but daunting for the guitarist. “I was scared before,” begins Thom, “but now I think it’s gonna be awesome. Regardless of whether we’re gonna plateau or go up, or everybody hates us, we’re gonna put out a record that we’re really proud of. That’s the best thing ever.” With their first full-length tentatively due for 2014, there’s a more pressing issue to hand in the meantime. This December, the three-piece will head out on their first official headline tour. “It’s one of those things that,” reminisces Thom, “when you start out, you never start a band thinking, ‘In a year’s time, or a couple of years time, we’re gonna go on a headline tour’. That’s never what you think about; in fact, when this first started, we said we were gonna play some gigs in Brighton, and that’ll be fun. Then it turns out, two years later, we’re doing this.” “It’s overwhelming,” finishes Charlie, “isn’t it?” DIY

Gnarwolves

“There’s more to what we’re doing than silly jokes and pop punk.”

Hairâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a lot of fuss being made about Temples.

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ames Edward Bagshaw is very close to his fans. Literally. “I’m basically next to the queue,” he explains casually from Manchester – before adding hastily “but I’m hiding behind the door as I speak to you.” It’s a good job he is. You see, with a name like James Edward Bagshaw, his parents must have always known he was destined to be a star. But, as frontman of Temples, they may have got a little more than they bargained for. It’s no little known fact that tonight’s headline show at Manchester’s Gorilla - part of the band’s UK-conquering tour - is one of the hottest tickets in town. Over the last twelve months, Temples’ holy trinity of singles (‘Shelter Song’, ‘Colours to Life’ and ‘Keep in the Dark’) have attracted many a loyal disciple, even dragging Manchester’s indie stalwarts off their computers to join the queue that’s snaking round the block. But perhaps tonight’s turn-out isn’t simply down to Temples’ arsenal of singles; Temples landing in the indie Mecca of Manchester is like dipping chicken in a sea of piranhas, because – yep, you guessed it – Temples are a guitar band. “There’s a massive gap for bands and guitar music,” insists James. “There’s not really that many people doing it.

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temples The best band to come out of Kettering since… erm... Wor d s : an dr e w back ho u s e .

“There’s a lot of folk singersongwriters – then there’s a lot of crappy pop – as there’s always been. You can’t download a concert, and what better at a concert than guitar music? Pop musicians generally play over a CD with a band miming: people are clocking on to that, and I don’t think people really like it; I think it’s very fake. “There’s a lot of drivel that major labels sign and give them this false sense of brilliance, then years down the line they get dropped. You can hear it in the music: it’s very taken-off-thesupermarket-shelf.”

“What will be, will be.” This might make James sound like the coffee-breathed, hiking-booted old fart at a gig you should be unlucky enough to find yourself stuck in conversation with - the kind that moan on about the ‘glory days’ of Oasis. Ironically, Noel Gallagher recently criticised Radio 1 for not playing enough of Temples. But as you’ll discover through these pages, and as James enthuses, guitar music is alive and kicking more than ever, professing his lovesickness for Charlie Boyer and the Voyeurs, Splashh, and touring compadres Telegram – all bands with “great tunes and something very authentic.” But James must find it frustrating? Isn’t it about time the 70 thisisfakediy.co.uk

Romans were kicked out of Rome? Should 2014 be the year guitars finally reclaim the charts? “I’m indifferent about it,” he shrugs. “What will be, will be. There’s droughts in guitar music, but like everything - it goes in circles. The people listening to the radio, generally, don’t want to hear that kind of stuff; builders on a building site just wanna hear something that gets them through the day. You can’t change things over night.” Or maybe you can. While building sites, offices and school buses are deprived of Temples’

psychedelic delights - for the night owls amongst us, it’s a different story. James doths his hat to Radio 1 and their keepers of new music - Zane Lowe, Phil and Alice - for their unprecedented support of Temples, calling them “brilliant accolades” to the station, but it’s Huw Stephens James reserves his ample respect for, as he puts it, “keeping the hope alive.” “It doesn’t necessarily mean guitar music; he plays some electronic music that’s actually very good: stuff that’s actually got an identity.” It’s not out of the ordinary for a band to have Huw Stephens singing their praises so early on – but Noel Gallagher?! You’re

probably wondering what the big hoo-ha is all about, and the answer: three singles. But my god, what singles they are. You can stroke your chin and talk endless poetry about the nostalgia surrounding Temples - but that’s not the reason you’ll fall in love with them. It’s all about the choruses. On first listen to any of their singles, it soon becomes apparent the James Bond franchise was born to be soundtracked by their TOTP2style psychedelic, light-filtered pop. Mirroring 007’s 2012 reimagination ‘Skyfall’, Temples are unashamed to revel in their sixties foundations while remaining ostentatious, cutting-edge and now. February will finally see a full-length from Temples, ‘Sun Structures’, followed by another UK tour. A busy diary of festival appearances are inevitable, but where next for Temples? What if a Bond soundtrack were on the cards; would they accept the mission? “I would only do it depending on who was playing Bond,” he laughs. “Personally I’d absolutely love to write the theme.”

the evergreen Heavenly Records however, we know - come February 2014, and they finally release their long-awaited full length - gospels and choirs will rejoice. Even if 2014 isn’t the year Temples become the chartbotherers they deserve to be, the infrastructures of the band show no sign of crumbling for a long time yet. “Everybody in the band likes the music. We all really like what we do, artistically, and we’re very proud of it. It sounds obvious but it’s why some bands don’t work, because you’ve got people pulling in different directions. I feel like we’re often – not, sometimes, on the same page – but we’re always in the same book. We’re only ever a few pages away from each other.”

“You can’t change things over night.” But in the midst of all this, it’s easy to forget that – to date – we’re basing our excitement on relatively little. It’s like getting the ring out after seeing a few photos on a dating website. Signed to

We would say we can’t wait for the next chapter, but the truth is you’re only reading the blurb. Temples are on their way, and we can’t wait to see where the story takes us. DIY

The Wytches Forcing fuzz into the system with thrilling ease.

t might sound like a ridiculous statement, but it’s rare for a band as noisy and unashamed as The Wytches to sell out a 300-edition debut single. Raw thrills are in niche demand, but these Peterborough-raised, Brighton-based terrors are looking to change the agenda. Beginning the year filling out 2013’s fuzz quota by playing alongside METZ, they continued by rinsing ears out with the doom-drenched ‘Digsaw’ debut and follow-up ‘Robe For Juda’. Initially pegged in as psychpeddlers, they’ve since shaken off any flower power that might’ve infiltrated early efforts. Work’s continued in the form of an intense album recording session alongside Bill Ryder-Jones at Toe Rag studios. If The Wytches can come up with anything as remotely intense as The White Stripes’ ‘Elephant’ - conceived in the same four walls - they’re on the brink of making outrageous decibel levels a thing of regularity. If people were to listen to just one of your songs, which one would you hope it was? ‘Wide at Midnight’ - it has elements of all our key sounds. Is there one festival you’ve got your eyes on playing in particular? Coachella, because it’s cool and it’s not in England. What’s the weirdest thing anyone’s done at one of your gigs? Harry Styles had a birthday party in the same venue whilst we had a show with METZ back in February. That was weird. DIY

george ezra

F rom l ag e r - lo u t s t ude n t to k i ng of t h e o p e n m i c s . N o w, t h i s B r i s t o l b o y i s l i v i n g t h e d r e a m - h e ’ s e v e n ta k e n a b at h at A n dy B u r r o w s ’ h o u s e . W O R D S : J A M IE M I LT O N . p h o t o : e m m a s wa n n

t was only at the beginning of 2013 that George Ezra was hosting his own, self-started shows at Bristol venues packed to the brim. Cut six months before and he was a guy studying music with an extraordinarily dubious haircut. Six months forward, and he’s being talked about as the next guitar-wielding, whiskeyvoiced troubadour this side of whichever Dylan-soundalike has appeared over the past few years. This guy’s the real deal. And he’s packing humour alongside his newly-fledged, excitable songs. A lot can change in 12 months. Just imagine him come the end of 2014. The Bristol residencies were those your own little showcases? I’m gonna miss those. I’d work with the promoter and they’d bring an act, and I’d bring a friend each time. It started with me going ‘please can you come’ to my mates. I was putting on the night and it was scary. ‘If this flops, I’m the fool’, I thought. The first one was almost horribly heaving, but I loved it. What did you study in Bristol? I did music for a year. And it was really cool. It got me to meet a load of like-minded people. But if you could’ve seen me. I was just going out on cheap lager. It does terrible things - it really does. I used to shave my head from time to time because it was fun, it feels good. I woke up one time, I was really hammered and I was like ‘shit, my hair’s gone!’ I was staying at my mum’s and she said, ‘George, you look shit.’ I’d hit the low point. And then everything changed! After that, later in the year I started gigging on my own. I remember having a realisation of ‘shit, this is what you need to be doing. You need to be gigging’. I was king of the open mics, jumping on any support. I feel like I’ve benefited from that so much. Open mics are awesome.

The DIY Class Of… 5 a day scheme doesn’t best please young George.

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You’ve been tweeting a lot about Miley Cyrus. Me and her go way back. I’m really fascinated about it. There’s a few things she could have done

different, in my mind. This spliff on stage. If you’re doing it, walk on smoking it. Snoop Dogg would strut right on there, already lit. You can’t deny, if I’d written ‘Wrecking Ball’ I’d be a very happy man. I think chart music went through a bit of a dry spell, whereas now there’s a lot of good stuff out there. Just embrace a tune. Oh man - I did something so stupid the other day. In Rise Bristol, I was buying some CDs and [Jay-Z’s] ‘The Black Album’ was sticking up. I’d never heard it before, so I took it home. It got four tunes in and not one instrument had been played. I was like, ‘this is really ballsy’. And then it got further in and ‘Encore’ played, and there was nothing but vocals. I’d bought the a capella version of the album. What a fucking idiot. Do you have any secret skills? The diablo. I’m actually pretty good at it. I’m a dab hand. I got one when I was di-average diablo purchasing age. Most people don’t see it through… Summer was always spent on the common. Everyone would just take a weird bunch of stuff down. And yeah, I got alright at it. Even this summer - I went and bought a paddling pool for eight quid, filled it with water and then when I was too warm, I’d diablo a bit in the shade. Is that where you took your Twitter profile picture? That looked more like a bath. That was at Andy Burrows’ house. I was staying at his on the sofa. We woke up and we were going to go into the studio. He said ‘do you want a shower?’ And I was like ‘yeah, yeah, yeah, I’ll be down in a second’. And then he went ‘fuck it, do you want a bath?’ I love baths. He called up, ‘George, your bath’s ready!’ which was really weird. That photo makes me laugh so much. What an idiot. DIY

Childhood T h e k i d s a r e a l r i g h t i f t h e s e f r e s h - fa c e d n e w c o m e r s a r e a n y t h i n g t o g o b y. P hoto : L aur a C o ul s on

“We all know what we want to achieve.”

ast time DIY checked in with Childhood was during Reading Festival. They’d just played one, early afternoon set but they were in the knowledge that, several hours later, they’d have to close the BBC Introducing Stage. Given they’re in their early twenties, this was a challenge for sobriety. Not only that. Little did he know at the time, but guitarist and vocalist Leo Dobson stumbled through the day with appendicitis. Leo “put it down to indulgence” during the weekend. Inside the studio, Childhood are a little more professional and aware of their faulty systems. Playing together as a four-piece for just over a year (bassist Daniel Salamons was introduced to the rest of the band by producer Rory Attwell), Dobson’s keen in stressing that they’re beginning to “feel like a unit.” The pack mentality is in full swing. These children are on the move. “We feel well placed to actually make this [debut album],” says Dobson. “I think people will see new ideas we haven’t explored before. It’s gonna be a nice mix of the old and the new, the surprising and the unsurprising.” Dobson himself is fairly new to the band game altogether. In fact, he only wrote his first song when vocalist Ben Romans-

Hopcraft persuaded him to pluck up the courage. Both were back in Nottingham when Leo penned something for the first time. That song happened to be ‘Blue Velvet’, which to this day stands out as Childhood’s loosest, most wild and exciting song in their locker. The average songwriter would stay awake for weeks on end trying to come up with something as good as that. “We all know what we want to achieve as a band,” Dobson states firmly. Burst appendixes probably aren’t top of the list. Give him time to recover and he could be releasing one of the year’s most hotlyanticipated debut from a new British band. Are you still proud of the stuff you wrote when you started out? We’re in a different place now but we still love ‘Blue Velvet’ and ‘Solemn Skies’. And ‘Blue Velvet’... It’s weird to still be playing that song. We’re still enjoying it as much. Did you all collectively pluck up the courage to write songs? Ben had been toying with the idea of writing tracks, but I’d never written in my life before. Ben was like, ‘You should try’. I came up with some appalling demos but then ‘Blue Velvet’ came and I was like, ‘Ah yeah, I can actually do this’. At the moment we’re all writing separately quite a lot. DIY

â&#x20AC;&#x153;I definitely talk too much.â&#x20AC;?

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foxes

Louisa Rose Allen makes everyday emotions sound gigantic and inclusive she’s on the verge of something ‘Glorious’. Words: JAMIE MILTON.

xpressing big, bold feelings and not giving a damn who listens in isn’t something exclusive to Foxes’ music. The London songwriter real name Louisa Rose Allen - tells her family and friends exactly the same stuff, in gory detail and all the trimmings. “I don’t think I could ever keep something to myself. I find it really difficult. I definitely talk too much.” This is handy, because Louisa has plenty to say about a year that’s included breaking the States and collaborating with Fall Out Boy. 2014 is undoubtedly the time when she asserts herself as a solo artist, but if things all went to tatters at the final hurdle, she wouldn’t be shedding any tears. “Whatever happens now I wouldn’t have ever dreamed of having this past twelve months,” she asserts. “They keep me going. However successful or not successful it gets, they’ll always stick there. I’m not going to let myself believe that if this album doesn’t do well I’m not going to make another record. I’m going to keep making music.” Fans have stood by from day one. Allen released stirring single ‘Youth’ as a casual upload online

back in 2011. Two years on and it’s only just breaking into the charts. Those who were there from the beginning have stayed loyal, getting more frenzied by the day. There’s not a certain ‘type’ of Foxes fan either. Not on the basis of a recent encounter. On her last UK tour, Louisa had a grown man coming up to her after the show. “He was so normal and casual,” she begins. “But he said ‘I just wanted to let you know I’ve had a really bad week and your music has completely brought me out to the other side’. And he started crying! And then I started crying! It’s otherworldly to be able to connect with people on that level.” When it plays out, Foxes’ music goes for the jugular. It’s all grand messages and soaring choruses. It’s honesty defined, with not a second spared in sharing emotions. Tears are inevitable. If debut ‘Glorious’ does indeed end up where it deserves, tissue sales will go through the roof. Glimpses of superstardom could’ve easily turned heads. It’s very easy to get wrapped up in a bubble once everyone wants to know your name. “My friends say I’m more successful than I realise,”

she claims, but she’s also keen to stress that “we’re all human beings. It’s good to come across as not perfect.” Perhaps that’s where the loyal fanbase stems from, the emotional outpourings too. Louisa’s songs attempt to project a genuine reflection of who she is and where she is in any given time. That’s not necessarily a given when it comes to chartbothering songwriters, and it didn’t come easily to Foxes herself when she started out. She looks back, recalling a time when “I went through a stage where I couldn’t write about myself… I used to write stories, and for some reason the music was never working.” After some kind of eureka moment, things “just clicked”, she says. “It became so easy. It’s worryingly easy because I’m putting myself out on a plate. If you write honestly people will always sense that. I always think that about Adele. She’s just so honest and so real - with music, you can sense when it’s not real.” Realities aren’t best expressed by everybody. But it’s in Foxes’ DNA to take something personal and make it sound gigantic, something that’ll apply to just about anybody. DIY

THIS AIN’T A SCENE, IT’S A GOD DAMN COLLAB

Foxes’ highlight of 2013 came when she was invited to collaborate with Fall Out Boy after they heard ‘Youth’ and went crazy with excitement. “They are such real musicians. I’m so overwhelmed by how much they love what they do. Nothing else fazes them. They said it can be a struggle sometimes. It’s so good for people to be honest like that. I think I’ve learnt that to avoid being up in the clouds and not being too into yourself - that’s the most important thing.”

reviews

arctic monkeys Earls Court, London

Photo: Carolina Faruolo

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live Magnificent. Big, bold, confident.

“We’re going on a journey, come with me London,” implores Alex Turner surveying the crowd at the start of Arctic Monkeys’ Saturday night show at Earls Court. And they seem ready to do whatever he says. Yet halfway through ‘Don’t Sit Down Cos I Moved Your Chair’ the song is suddenly cut short because the crowd’s over exuberance means people are being crushed at the front. Alex’s appeals to the crowd in his

dulcet tones. “Take a step back guys. When I said come with me I meant it figuratively.” Tonight he has them in the palm of his hand right from the moment they start with ‘Do I Wanna Know?’, its muscular backing beat taking the crowd in its arms and whisking it away from the gloom outside. And the crowd are ready to go. Looking down from the seats you can see circles of mosh pits throughout the crowd, rippling waves of people smashing against each other. The band enter to flashing lights and suspense, a massive A and M lit large behind them. This is not the T-shirt wearing scamps from Sheffield who made ‘Whatever People Say I Am…’. Tonight Alex is dressed in a tuxedo jacket and keeps running his hand through his perfectly coiffed quiff (you could conceivably write a whole review on the architecture of his hair). He swaggers and prances across the stage – he very nearly Dad dances – while the rest of the band pound out the tunes behind him, Matt Helders offering falsetto backing vocals. The only hint back to those days is the 0114 on Helders’ drum kit – Sheffield’s dialling code and a reminder of more innocent times. It means tracks like ‘Dancing Shoes’ and ‘I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor’ seem faintly strange – these are men performing them not boys. But they sound magnificent. Big, bold,

confident. And that comes through on every song. The set is a fine mixture of every one of their records but tonight ‘Favourite Worst Nightmare’ reveals itself as a very real contender for their best album. ‘Brianstorm’ is blasted out early, backlit by a sea of red light while ‘Teddy Picker’ bounces around the walls of the arena and ‘Fluorescent Adolescent’ is showstopping. It’s ‘Old Yellow Bricks’ which may be the biggest surprise – it’s an irresistible gallop and the Knight Rider sounding guitar solo only adds to the spectacle. The LA via Sheffield new album provides the grooves. ‘Why’d You Only Call Me When You’re High’ and ‘One for the Road’ mix falsetto and proto-funk while ‘R U Mine?’ provides a rousing, rumbling finish. It’s their take on John Cooper Clarke’s ‘I Wanna Be Yours’ which is the spellbinding moment, as Turner pleas for love in the most poignant terms as glitter cannons explode all around us. That most of the songs tonight pound and pulsate so vociferously means some of the subtleties of their Beatles-esque ballads are nearly lost. The silver lining to this is that on an almost acoustic version of ‘Mardy Bum’ emotions are felt even more keenly. Even if Earls Court is demolished tomorrow that heartwarming feeling will still be reverberating around the rubble. (Danny Wright) 77

Photo: Sinéad Grainger

It’s a tough crowd at the new Glasgow venue for Ezra Koenig and friends to win over.

vampire weekend SSE Hydro, Glasgow

acing a cavernous new venue, Glasgow’s SSE Hydro, one could be forgiven for expecting Vampire Weekend to balk at the challenges provided by these new heights. However, the surprising effect that this mammoth has is not on the band, but on the crowd. While Ezra Koenig and the rest of the band remain effortlessly cool throughout their biggest Scottish performance yet,

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the crowd are strangely muted and uninspired in their support of such antics. While they’re by no means silent, and in fact display their enthusiasm repeatedly during the more pacier songs, it’s left to the band themselves to consistently attempt to spark the crowd into life. It’s testament to their quality then to say that they do in fact manage it: hits like ‘A-Punk’ and set opener ‘Diane Young’ inspire a raucous response as expected, the audience

are also drawn out of their shells for deeper cuts like ‘Horchata’ and ‘Campus’ too. Though the atmosphere is often one of slight ambivalence, the ability to bring even these tougher crowds back from the dead shows that Vampire Weekend do belong in a venue of the Hydro’s magnitude. Although bands are often reliant on their audience to feed their enthusiasm, despite it only coming sporadically in Glasgow tonight they are still able to put on a fantastic show. (Charlie Ralph)

it’s not ‘just’ a reflektor after all.

The Reflektors, The Roundhouse, London

rty, fake, whatever their own faux declarations might claim, Arcade Fire’s new incarnation is not a sham. It’s perfected performance. There’s a great science behind the surges of guitar, the punk sirens that line the seams of these newly showcased songs. But from a distance it’s like peering into a movie. Nothing feels real, from the crowd’s sequinned costumes to the drama that actualises on stage. That’s until you look a little closer. There’s an emotional heart to these songs, and indeed the way they’re played. It helps Arcade Fire that they litter a beautiful ‘Crown of Love’ and (a snippet of) ‘My Body is a Cage’ within their new album-centric set. But living within their debut, right up to this theatrical giant that is ‘Reflektor’, is a collective heart that puts itself to the test. It rises out of Haiti and swarms the Roundhouse. The masks and new identities are a sidepiece - it’s still the same group of misfits playing these songs, and it hasn’t been that clear until now. It’s testament to ‘Reflektor’ that, upon its release, even loyal fans were uneasy about the colossal length of it all. Live, tonight’s show feels like it’s cut short even though it spans an equivalent amount of time. Seconds and minutes fly past, with ‘Joan of Arc’ and ‘Here Comes The Night Time’ reaching a genuine, powerful carnival spirit. The Reflektors is a progression. Everything is snarlier, instruments hit harder, from debut material to the dense wall of noise that defines this extraordinary new record. There’s no doubting a show like this will be amplified in scale and noise tenfold when it hits world tours and festivals, but The Reflektors’ grand unveiling tonight feels like the cementing of Arcade Fire’s most spectacular chapter yet. (Jamie Milton)

SETLIST

Reflektor, Neighborhood #3 (Power Out), Flashbulb Eyes, Joan of Arc, You Already Know, We Exist, It’s Never Over (Oh Orpheus), Afterlife, Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains), Normal Person, Uncontrollable Urge, Here Comes the Night Time // Crown of Love, Haïti

The National o2 Apollo, Manchester

The National’s Matt Berninger is an odd frontman. Tonight, at Manchester Apollo he looks like a bearded History teacher, as he puts on a convincing performance of a man undergoing a turbulent personality crisis, flipping from sophisticatedly sipping from a wine glass to knocking his microphone to the ground like a possessed punk. On Alligator’s ‘Abel’, he lets rip “My mind is not right” like Donald Duck on 40-a-day before taking it down a notch or few to grapple with the confessional romance on ‘Slow Show’. His band may be at times intense and emotive, but their live show is by no means a theatre of doom and gloom. It’s easy to get excited at laugh out loud moments, of which there are a fair few, such as Berninger stretching his mike cord to take the final chorus of ‘Mr. November’ from the Apollo toilets. By the time the band pulls out their final song, the giant theatre space shrinks to an intimate candlelit mass with all eyes worshipping the stage. (Alexia Kapranos)

Photo:Duncan Elliott

reasons to be cheerful pt. (o)2.

Josh Homme pulls no punches.

queens of the stone age o2 Apollo, Manchester

Photo:Duncan Elliott

“Don’t act like you’re too cool to clap your motherfucking hands.” Declaring from the get go that his doctor’s given him a “shitload of drugs” and he’s feeling “pretty fucked up”, Josh Homme pulls no punches in tonight’s performance in Manchester. Openers ‘You Think I Ain’t Worth A Dollar, But I Feel Like A Millionaire’ and ‘No One Knows’ swiftly kick the crowd onto their feet. The ‘…Like Clockwork’ cuts provide a fresh gust of raw power, with the grinding riffage of ‘My God Is The Sun’ and sleazy guitar groove ‘If I Had A Tail’. The last time Queens of The Stone Age played Manchester, they were headlining the Student Union Academy. Three years later, they’ve proved that the Arena throne is theirs for the taking. (Alexia Kapranos)

reviews:live

Not headphone music.

nick cave and the bad seeds hammersmith apollo, london.

The lunatics have taken over the asylum.

the Dillinger Escape plan

falsetto effortlessly lights up the room, ‘Panasonic Youth’ turns it into a snake pit of flailing limbs and the eponymous track from that recent full length threatens to lift the roof off the place KOKO, London with the force of its chorus. “HEY! HEY BITCH! UP HERE! By the time Ben Weinman YOU’D BETTER NOT DROP ME”. follows his burly colleague The Dillinger Escape Plan’s Puciato into the arms of the Greg Puciato is up on the waiting audience, he’s already balcony of KOKO and about spent 20 seconds windmilling to take a stage dive into the his guitar round his head by crowd some 10ft below. He its strap. Apparently some isn’t the first person to do people think punk is dead it tonight and he won’t be it’s alive and well and utterly the last. Bedlam reigns; the embodied in this band. (Tom lunatics have taken over the Doyle) asylum. ‘Black Bubblegum’’s

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Photo: Carolina Faruolo

Photo: Sarah Louise Bennett

f this is the age of the cult personality then Nick Cave has enough of the stuff to start a thousand. The lighting creates two enormous skeletal Cave shadow puppets either side of the venue, mimicking every gliding vampire-like move. Switching between monitor hip thrusts and the intense delicate piano solos, there’s a bizarre juxtaposition of the forceful yelps and hypnagogic jerks of The Birthday Party projected over mature grown up ballads. This isn’t the gang racket of Grinderman, this is theatre, religious poetry, spoken word. With The Bad Seeds on such amazing form tonight it’s easy to understand why they are about to release their fourth live album. You suspect however that if you are trying to bottle their performance you really need to not only SEE it but also TURN IT UP LOUD to uncomfortable levels: this is not music for headphones, you need to feel it in your guts. 13 songs in, just as it could start to get comfortable, ‘Stagger Lee’ jumps up the volume to gun shot level - clanging metal and smashing glass echoing round the venue at ear splitting volume. Intensity doesn’t slip for a second - if this is all an act then it’s a performance so immersive that you are left with no option but to be swept along with it and wait for the curtain call. (Louise Amazing)

games

2014

may sound like the future, but it’s just around the corner, if you subscribe to the theory that time is made up of corners like a fancy yoghurt. Regardless of your thoughts on time, 2014 is coming, right? Not like some sort of unstoppable army, but just with the slow inevitability of decay or... look, we’re getting really bogged down in this. All that aside – 2014 is here! And it’s a year where developers and distributors will be releasing games fervently for two generations of consoles, so there’s a lot to play for. But what should we be looking forward to the most in the world of gamey games? Well, here’s a few ideas. Words: Michael J Fax

WATCH_DOGS

(UBISOFT) PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, XB1, Wii U Release Date: TBC atch_Dogs was supposed to be a launch title for the next-gen of consoles, but Ubisoft had to delay release. Speculation that this was to ensure all coverage included the superfluous underscore in the name is speculation alone. Regardless, be sure to check out this cyberpunk Assassin’s Creed wherein you can hack an entire city and use it as a weapon like the most cumbersome knife ever.

Quantum Break

(Remedy) XB1 Release Date: TBC ere’s a dubious synergy between TV series and video game about time manipulation from the makers of Alan Wake. Remedy reportedly consulted scientists at CERN regarding the story to make sure it was based on real scientific theories, just like how you can kill ghoulish creatures with torches in Alan Wake.

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

(Konami) PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, XB1 Release Date: TBC fter awaking from a coma, bandana-clad Snake returns to form a new mercenary group in order to track down those responsible for the destruction of the MSF. In contrast to previous MGS titles, Kojima Productions have removed the strict barriers of stealth gaming, allowing open-world freedom for maximum sneakage. Just think how many boxes there’ll be to hide under!

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt (NAMCO BANDAI) PC,

PS4, XB1 Release Date: TBC eralt of Rivia, the white-haired witcher (now sporting a hipster beard) returns to a world of anachronistic swearing and sword-swinging in the conclusion to his story, which is set to offer the ‘largest open world in gaming history’ along with a complex, multi-thread story. A bit like Eastenders, really.

Plants Vs Zombies: Garden Warfare (EA)

PC, Xbox 360, XB1 Release Date: 20/02/14 ho would’ve thought the gloriously fun puzzler Plants Vs Zombies would’ve eventually become a third-person shooter in which you play a plant? This is more about curiosity than anticipation, can this be quite as bad as The Bureau: Xcom Declassified?! After the micro-transactions that sadly marred PVZ 2, can turning this inventive IP into a shooter save its roots, or are we just applying pesticides to a failing crop?

DARK SOULS II (NAMCO BANDAI) PC, Xbox 360, PS3 Release Date: 14/03/13 repare To Die. Again. The sequel to 2011’s furiously frustrating, yet unbeatably addictive dungeoncrawler is set to get you all prepared to die again. But don’t actually die, that’d make a terrible news story and people would make dreadful jokes in the comments thread.

I ndie D re a m b o a t of the M onth

Cav McCarthy, Swim Deep

The poster boy of B-town, Cav is just as likely to pull off a daring turtleneck as he is a magnificent bass solo.

Nickname: All my family call me Buster. Star sign: Pisces

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Pets: Two cats called Bluey and Scampi and two baby tortoises called Julian and Albert (named after The Strokes of course). Favourite food: I love Vietnamese food, if I’m not at home I eat it every night. Favourite fragrance: I never use aftershave ever... Is that bad? Chat-up line of choice: Are you related to Yoda? Because yodalicious.

DIY

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