It's Important To Put Back Into The Scene: Introducing The Jazz-Flecked Style of Oscar Jerome

Photo: Dashti Jafar “I am a strong believer that if you go into making art with a predefined idea of what you want it to be,” Oscar Jerome says. “Your art will never achieve its full potential.”

Written by: Milly McMahon | Date: Monday, 24 September 2018

New Faces, New Sound: How Federal Charm Moved Forwards on 'Passenger'

Imagine being in a rock ‘n’ roll band with two albums under your belt and a fistful of big-name support slots in the bank. Imagine you spent the best part of a decade building a fanbase. Then, just as you’re preparing to make that all important third album, imagine waving goodbye to half the group. Do you wallow in self-pity? Wave the white flag and call it quits? Or recruit two new members and bounce back with your strongest album to date.

Written by: Simon Ramsay | Date: Tuesday, 18 September 2018

Stop Standing Still: The Goon Sax Evolve On The Rich, Ambitious 'We're Not Talking'

Photo: Ben O'Connor Louis Forster keeps forgetting something. He’s at his band’s rehearsal room picking up some gear. They’re going on tour; landing in London and moving on to an opening night in Glasgow after the long trip over from Brisbane. They’re pretty much good to go.

Written by: Huw Baines | Date: Monday, 17 September 2018

Grin Through The Dark Stuff: The Dirty Nil Return With The Mighty 'Master Volume'

Towards the end of Pain of Infinity, one of the singles from the Dirty Nil’s new record ‘Master Volume’, Luke Bentham drawls “and another thing, baby...” before ripping a guitar solo. He gets back to the microphone in time to yell: “I never loved you and I hate your friends.” The frontman is inconsiderately handsome, and has been known to play a Gibson Les Paul mid-knee slide while chewing bubblegum and wearing a star-spangled denim cowboy shirt.

Written by: Huw Baines | Date: Tuesday, 11 September 2018

Living Their Best Lives: Idles' Joe Talbot Talks Their New Album 'Joy As An Act Of Resistance'

Crackling through a speakerphone, Joe Talbot’s voice is calm and level. “I don’t feel any pressure to do anything,” he says. “It’s up to me. I genuinely don’t care what anyone else makes of what I do. It’s up to me to be as honest to myself, and truthful to the band and our art, as possible. The rest is up to you.”

Written by: Laura Johnson | Date: Thursday, 30 August 2018

Green Man: We All Had A Lovely Time (Again)

According to the weather forecast, we’re getting lows of 12 degrees and frequent showers, which isn’t what anyone wants to hear in the days running up to a festival. Particularly as we’ve just sweated through the hottest summer since 1976. Mac and wellies at the ready (with the suncream left at home in protest), stepping through the door was an exercise in mentally preparing for a long weekend of feeling soaked to the bone. But Green Man doesn’t allow for moping.

Written by: Helen Payne | Date: Friday, 24 August 2018

From Blues Boy To Next Big Thing: The Making of Dan Owen

It’s easy to question the authenticity of any young musician who stirs up a super-sized buzz. Are they merely a record company’s latest marionette? Yet another superficial media darling destined for 15 minutes of fame? Dan Owen certainly generated significant plaudits before his debut album, ‘Stay Awake With Me’, had even been released, but the finished product revealed a special singer-songwriter who, after years of grafting for his shot at the big time, is being lauded for all the right reasons.

Written by: Simon Ramsay | Date: Thursday, 23 August 2018

I Guess I'm Dying Old: Twenty Years In A Day With The Lawrence Arms, The Menzingers and Lagwagon

td#right {display:none !important;} Illustration: Samuel Davies There’s this great indie-rock song going around called Hope You Like Getting Old. It’s by the Seattle band Subways on the Sun and its video is full of stuff that used to clutter my shelves when I was a kid - a VHS copy of The Empire Strikes Back, an Optimus Prime figure, a lava lamp like the one my girlfriend got me for my 17th birthday. Watching it is to submit to that addictive, rose-tinted sadness that’s so hot right now. It’s Proust with power chords.

Written by: Huw Baines | Date: Wednesday, 22 August 2018

Staying High and Staying Focused: Fliptrix Talks 'Inexhale'

When we last spoke to Fliptrix nearly two years ago, he described the UK hip hop scene as being “in the best place it's ever been”. It was obvious why he was in a buoyant mood: in the space of 12 months, he'd worked with legendary producer DJ Premier on a track for his Four Owls project and signed chart-busting up-and-comer Ocean Wisdom to High Focus, the underground label he runs from London. But having released six stellar LPs over 10 years, the one thing he deserved more recognition for was his own music.

Written by: Jonathan Rimmer | Date: Tuesday, 21 August 2018

Life In A Whirlwind: Mt. Joy Discuss Their Startling Rise

Until a certain streaming service turned their lifelong musical fantasies into a reality, the members of folky Americana quintet Mt. Joy were on a very different path indeed. To retool an old saying, life as they know it happened while they were busy living other best laid plans.

Written by: Simon Ramsay | Date: Wednesday, 15 August 2018

Beginning, Middle and End: Ash's Tim Wheeler On Crafting 'Islands'

Once we had survived a punishing winter that would have made even your average White Walker cling to their hot water bottle, it came time to talk ‘soundtrack to the summer’. As ever, the conversation pretty much started and finished with Ash. Possessing a typically enchanting feelgood factor that belied the heartache at its core, the Northern Irish trio’s new album ‘Islands’ was tailor made to accompany bright blue skies and long lazy days topping up your tan.

Written by: Simon Ramsay | Date: Tuesday, 14 August 2018

'It Feels Like A Landmark Album For Us': Delta Sleep Discuss The Expansive 'Ghost City'

Photo: Paola Baltazar​ Much like prog before it, math-rock hasn't always appeared the most accessible of genres. As a form, it's designed to keep listeners on their toes, directing and misdirecting with syncopated rhythms, jagged melodic progressions and non-standard time signatures. That might not seem like a recipe for commercial success, but if there's one thing Brits can get behind it's art that's awkward, intelligent and self aware.

Written by: Jonathan Rimmer | Date: Friday, 10 August 2018

'I'm A Boy Staring Up Into Space': Jay Forrest Talks The Return Of Hopesfall

Photo: Natalie Bisignano Few bands have enjoyed a career as varied and colourful as Hopesfall's. Forming 20 years ago in North Carolina, they emerged just as metalcore and other forms of moody hard rock were beginning to take off. However, they aren't remembered for their contributions to the scene as much as how they subverted its tropes. Drawing from screamo and psychedelic space rock in equal measures, their releases 'No Wings to Speak Of' and 'The Satellite Years' to this day stand up as classics of the genre.

Written by: Jonathan Rimmer | Date: Wednesday, 08 August 2018

Birds of a Feather: How The Magpie Salute Flocked Together

Throughout our lives the majority of us will make meaningful and lasting connections, forging relationships that, at their most natural, seem impervious to time and distance. Paths can diverge and years fly by, but once we’re back in each other’s orbits the old rapport immediately returns. That’s something Rich Robinson, formerly of the Black Crowes, will certainly attest to after a one-off gig with some former collaborators swiftly turned into a brand new band with over 30 years of shared history.

Written by: Simon Ramsay | Date: Tuesday, 07 August 2018

Fresh Start Fever: The Evolution Of You Me At Six

A decade ago you couldn’t spend a night in a rock club without hearing Save It For The Bedroom. You Me At Six’s breakthrough hit arrived when UK pop-punk was about to crest its mainstream peak, with its bands sharing sweeping fringes and lofty ambitions with the emo groups who were also making their way onto the radio.

Written by: Laura Johnson | Date: Thursday, 02 August 2018

It's About Being Strong For Everyone Around You: Kyle Fasel Talks Real Friends' 'Composure'

Kyle Fasel chooses his words carefully. As well he might, because that’s how he makes a living. He plays bass and writes lyrics for Real Friends, the Illinois pop-punk-emo band who are helping close out Warped Tour for the final time.

Written by: Jennifer Geddes | Date: Thursday, 26 July 2018

There's Something About You: The Beths Strike Pop Gold on 'Future Me Hates Me'

The Beths are learning Welsh. It’s a little after 10 at Le Pub in Newport, and the New Zealand indie-pop band are parroting back a few reliable words and phrases shouted from the crowd. They try cwtch and iechyd da on for size before Elizabeth Stokes draws a line under it. “We’re butchering this,” she says. “Let’s do a song.”

Written by: Huw Baines | Date: Wednesday, 18 July 2018

On Writing: Ellis Jones Takes Trust Fund Into Reflective Waters With 'Bringing The Backline'

History tells us that writers love to write about writers, and writing, and cafés, and corner tables in dive bars, and coffee and whiskey, and notebooks and typewriters, and muses and boyfriends and girlfriends and crushes.

Written by: Huw Baines | Date: Tuesday, 26 June 2018

Download Festival 2018: Ageless Anthems And ​Stunning Sunshine At The Ultimate Metal Party

Photo: Matt Eachus So, Download is over for another year. After days of glorious sunshine (!), 100,000 people are now slowly readjusting to life outside the hallowed gates of Donington Park following another edition of one of the biggest rock, metal and punk parties in the world. Until we do it all again next summer, all that’s left to do is talk about the memories.

Written by: Jon Stickler and Dave Ball | Date: Wednesday, 20 June 2018

'It's About Departure; Burning Bridges And Not Regretting It': Zeal & Ardor On 'Stranger Fruit'

Photo: Manuel Gagneux A crow caws. There’s the sound of crunching and snapping. “I’m in a graaaaveyard,” says Manuel Gagneux. But he isn't really in a graveyard.

Written by: Alec Chillingworth | Date: Wednesday, 13 June 2018