DIY, July 2023

WITH

TO THE EDGE AND BACK QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE

ON THE

JULY

While travelling to Halifax to witness our cover stars’ UK live return, we wondered: what’s the most unexpected place Team DIY have seen a massive band play?

SARAH JAMIESON • Managing Editor

Less location and more lineup: watching My Chemical Romance bring their high-concept ‘The Black Parade’ show to T in the Park in 2007 sandwiched between the rather ill-suited combo of Babyshambles and The Kooks...

EMMA SWANN •

Founding E ditor

A then-brand new Raconteurs in a back room of Phonica Records in Soho back in 2006, only realising who’d be performing once I was in the room...

LISA WRIGHT •

Features Editor

Watching Blur for the first time play a tiny rehearsal gig to about 400 people at Brixton back in 2009 will forever be the gig of my life.

Editor's Letter

Also ended up DJing before Dave Grohl when he popped up for a sing-song at Moth Club one eve. Weird times.

LOUISE MASON • Art Director

Suede playing Moth Club last year was pretty surreal, but Fontaines in the tiny hot castle in Sicily (Ypsigrock festival) was my favourite.

DAISY CARTER • Digital Editor

BE YOUR OWN PET - MOMMY

For as long as most of Team DIY can remember, Queens of the Stone Age have been worldwide festival mainstays, their swaggering riffs and doomlaced brand of rock on show for the more hedonistic among us. But the last few years began to see the band’s solid foundations rocked. Now, as they return with the defiant ‘In Times New Roman...’, we speak to Josh Homme and pals about some of their darker moments, and reigniting their love for life, music and everything in between.

Elsewhere we step inside Ashnikko’s new dystopian fantasy world, rendezvous with old favourites Be Your Own Pet and discover what Blur have in store for us with ‘The Ballad Of Darren’. Plus, there’s all the action from this year’s Glastonbury Festival, including *that* final Elton John set: what a night!

Sarah Jamieson, Managing Editor

Their days of adventuring on pushbikes might be long behind them, but the Nashville comeback kids’ third still boasts the kind of rambunctious charm that won us all over way back when (see p44 for more on it!).

KING NUN - LAMB

On repeat since long before we’ve been allowed to even whisper its existence, the Londoners’ second boasts the kind of dopamine-boosting hooks most would kill for atop moshpit-ready riffs and then some.

ELTON JOHN - DIAMONDS (PYRAMID EDITION)

Did we get our hands on the super-duperlimited 12” pressing of this? Of course not, we were still on a winding West Country road when it sold out. But the playlist is on repeat, while playing back those fireworks in our mind.

July playlist

Scan

From the Rocket Man’s final UK appearance, to some notso-secret special guests via a host of proper ‘pinch yourself’ moments - Lana! Rina! CMAT! - Glastonbury 2023 proved once again how it’s the world’s greatest musical show. Here’s just a taste of the action that took place on Worthy Farm this year. Photos: Emma Swann, Louise Mason.

BACK on

FRIDAY

hen you were at home in the pandemic, feeling bored and thinking about Glastonbury, isn’t this exactly what you were waiting for?” questions The Hives’ endlessly charismatic leader Howlin’ Pelle Almqvist midway through their sun-soaked Other Stage set that kicks off Glastonbury’s first afternoon proper. It may be one of a series of entirely unserious brags that the singer populates their show with, but actually, he’s completely right. The quintessential festival band who crack the balance of hits, wit and co-ordinated outfits like no others - even two decades in - the Swedes are masters of their craft.

Making their Glastonbury debut to a full to bursting Woodsies tent there’s not a hint of nerves as FLO take to the stage. The vocal talents of the London trio have never been in doubt but now, having played a handful more shows and with a wind machine, some on-point chairography and matching outfits all amping up the classic girl group aesthetic, the rest of the package is becoming more fully realised. Understandably for a new band, the production is still minimal, but you can already imagine what a FLO arena show might look like: give them a little longer and all the ingredients are there for the three-piece to join pop’s big leagues.

Over on the Other Stage, human ray of sunshine Carly Rae Jepsen has come dressed as IRL Barbie and has the utterly lovable, effervescent persona to match. Bounding around the shimmercurtained stage and breaking into some kitsch choreography with her backing singers for ‘Beach House’, it’s impossible not to get sucked in to the

“Wsinger’s heart-on-sleeve canon; whether uniting the crowd with the tentative excitement of ‘Call Me Maybe’ and ‘I Really Like You’ or declaring ‘I Didn’t Just Come Here to Dance’ “not just a pick up song but a life mantra”, her set feels like a romcom come to life.

The weekend’s worst kept secret, when The Churnups take to the Pyramid Stage and reveal themselves to be Foo Fighters there’s barely a surprised person on site. But nonetheless, it feels like a classy way for the headlining stalwarts to make their return following the passing of Taylor Hawkins.

Understated but undeniably ‘a moment’, the band power through a hour-long hits set with ‘Best of You’, ‘The Pretender’ and more, with Dave’s daughter Violet joining for an impressive duet on new song ‘Show Me How’. Only at the end, as they begin a closing ‘Everlong’, does Dave call out for the crowd to sing it loud for their bandmate; the emotions in the field are tangible but it’s a positive energy in the air, a collective sense of good will for a band who’ve weathered a storm and come out choosing positivity.

Judging by the sheer scale and makeup of the crowd here, it’s possible that everyone under the age of 25 is in front of the Other Stage for Fred again.., the producer’s intricately-woven euphoric sound a perfect match for golden hour hitting. His view is a sea of bucket hats, fans on shoulders and a stunning sunset; the headliner-sized audience in turn sees Fred’s visible joy as he taps away on his various pads and keys, passing the usual introductory messages on via text on the stage screens. He stops to verbally introduce a new song, sampling a home video of Obongjayar, his a creation in honour of his sister, the original written for the artist’s brother.

After a will they-won’t they few days of worry following a cancelled show due to laryngitis, there’s an even greater Arctic Monkeys step out to headline the Pyramid Stage for the third time. Where their debut was as young whip-smart prodigies and its follow up marked the first steps into their ‘AM’ imperial phase, this time around Alex Turner is a bona fide rockstar from the off. Starting the set with the subtle, moody stalk of ‘Sculptures Of Anything Goes’, it’s the ultimate marker of confidence, luring the crowd in before exploding into ‘Brianstorm’ and kicking off a near flawless setlist.

Arctic Monkeys can headline a festival in their sleep by this point, but there’s still something intrinsically special about seeing a band so tied to Glastonbury, who’ve grown up with the festival and marked the major milestones in their career on this very stage, come back all grown up and taking it so smoothly in their stride. By the time they conclude with ‘I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor’ and ‘R U Mine?’, via a setlist that cements their once-in-a-generation status, it’s hard to imagine that there were ever any doubts to whether they’d make tonight’s show.

Arctic Monkeys

FARM the

Kicking off a sweltering hot Saturday, it’s a testament to the excitement that The Last Dinner Party have created around just one song that their 11.30am Woodsies set is impressively heaving. Relishing the opportunity with a show that proves there’s all kinds of substance behind the style, ‘Lady of Mercy’ hits with a prowling bang whilst ‘Nothing Matters’ concludes proceedings with a celebratory flourish. As they leave, the stage’s compere tells the crowd theirs is the biggest gathering for that opening slot that the festival has seen.

If the poignancy of Raye’s early-afternoon Pyramid Stage appearance wasn’t already obvious –flanked by a brass section and flexing her impeccable vocals, with the crowd audibly following her every word, that anyone doubted her viability as an ‘album artist’ seems unbelievable – eagle eyes would spot a certain Louis Theroux looking out from the stage’s periphery with his trademark pensive stance. She’s teary from the off – a combination of catharsis and performing some deeply personal songs is sure to do that – but all smiles too, as she offers sage advice: don’t date rappers.

With the festival in full survival mode, people tucking themselves in the slivers of shade behind bins and ice cream vans, Maggie Rogers’ brand of cathartic pop makes for a rousing soundtrack, while on the Other Stage, Manic Street Preachers tread the line between crowd pleasers and uncompromising statements as only they can, flashing up Jack Kerouac quotes between the undeniable hits (‘Motorcycle Emptiness’, ‘You Stole the Sun From My Heart’ and more).

In a better world, Lizzo would have been topping the Pyramid tonight, and the enormous crowd that turn out for

the singer’s pre-headline set (more, it should be noted, than for actual headliners Guns N’ Roses) are easy proof. A full Vegas-style spectacular complete with multiple costume changes, a troupe of backing dancers and the sort of megawatt charisma that only true superstars possess, there’s a tangible sense of occasion in the field from the moment she enters. With her ‘love yourself’ ethos in full flow, ‘Rumours’ is dedicated to “the big girls, the piss-off-the-internet thick girls”, while her old friend Sasha Flute gets her time in the sun on multiple occasions; a completely unnecessary cover of Coldplay’s ‘Yellow’ complete with flute solo was surely not on anyone’s Glastonbury bingo card. Still, Coldplay aside, it’s wall to wall bangers from beginning to end, with a closing one-two of ‘Good As Hell’ and ‘About Damn Time’ creating as crowd-wide a sing-along as is possible.

Lana Del Rey might be half hour late because, in her own words, “[her] hair takes so long”, but when she does arrive for her Other Stage headline slot the wait becomes fully excused. Where her 2014 Glastonbury debut was a nervous thing, tonight she’s completely in control with a vision that’s fully fleshed out. During ‘Young and Beautiful’, she’s gently tended to by women doing her hair and make up as she sits at a dressing table in a bridalesque white dress; for ‘Ride’, backing dancers float their way over the stage on two flower-decorated swings. The whole thing is a gorgeous manifestation of the romantic, melancholy world that Lana has spent a career creating, with the singer on top vocal form, which makes the fact she’s unceremoniously cut off after ‘White Mustang’ all the more galling. That means no ‘Video Games’ - a travesty - but even though the night ends on a sour note, Lana still comes out triumphant.

Over on the Woodsies stage, Rina Sawayama did not come here to play. From the moment a backing video flickers on, showing a young girl slowly morphing into the singer herself before dropping into ‘Hold The Girl’, it’s evident that Rina has got a true show up her sleeve and the next hour acts as a completely nextlevel justification of .why she should be in pop’s true top tier. Split into sections complete with atmospheric lighting changes, costume changes and a visceral sense of drama, Rina is on razor-sharp form. Halfway through, it becomes even more clear why there’s a palpable electricity to her performance, as she overtly calls out Matty Healy by dedicating ‘STFU!’ to “a white man who watches Ghetto Gaggers and mocks Asian people on a podcast. He also owns my masters. I’ve had enough”. It’s a powerful move in a set that roars with intensity and polish throughout.

‘Glastonbury Moments’ come in many different forms, and a truly special one arrives as CMAT kicks off the festival’s final day in the Woodsies tent. It may only be 12.30pm on a Sunday but the crowd is heaving, and as the endlessly charismatic Irish singer breaks out a set that’s simultaneously hilarious, emotional, ridiculous and vocally brilliant, you can feel the entire tent get behind her more and more by the minute. Wearing a t-shirt emblazoned with ‘CMAT is a silly bitch!’, Ciara Mary Alice Thompson clearly loves a bit of camp showmanship; whether slowly sinking down into the splits midsong, spending a solid third of the set writhing around the floor, or indulging in some kitsch choreography with her band mate for a duet of ‘Where Are Your Kids Tonight?’, hers is a brand of entertainment with a capital E. But as she introduces a final ‘I Wanna Be A Cowboy’ with the admission that it was written at her loneliest ebb, before the entire crowd sing it back to her as she - very justifiably - breaks down into tears, there’s also huge amounts of heart here. Glastonbury, you sense, might be the moment that CMAT became a true star.

With the sun blazing once more – and Japanese Breakfast’s travel woes leaving their set cancelled - it’s up to Nova Twins to force Sunday into life. Last year, the pair made a handful of appearances on small stages, away from the television cameras’ gaze: a Mercury Prize shortlisting later, they’re with the big guns, and their clash of electronic sounds and heavy-hitting riffs is delivered with compelling stage presence.

Weyes Blood in the Sunday afternoon sun was always a booking that was going to make sense. With a sunset backdrop hung behind her and a sweeping white cape dress that twirls extravagantly, adding to the general sense of swoon, from the opening of ‘It’s Not Just Me, It’s Everybody’, her rich vocal tone and lushly arranged compositions are like a warm, nurturing hug (albeit one with some notably bleak lyrics). Natalie Mering is still up for some fun, however, and as she christens Glastonbury “the most pagan festival I’ve ever been to” before telling people that now is the time to take their remaining drugs - should they have them - the sense of humour

that populates her apocalyptic balladry is evident.

“This is your last chance to have fun at the festival unless seeing Elton John choke on a prawn is your idea of fun,” declares Viagra Boys’ Sebastian Murphy in surreal style before caveating: “I’m gonna be watching him but still…” Even the Swedish miscreants clearly have a soft spot for the closing headliner, but the crowd are evidently up for the challenge, moshing their way through ‘Ain’t Nice’ and ‘Punk Rock Loser’ before the frontman dedicates ‘Troglodyte’ to “the right wing who’ve ruined everything” - a sentiment that Glastonbury will always get behind.

Having popped up alongside Miley Cyrus during her 2019 Pyramid Stage set, Lil Nas X’s return to the festival is exactly the sort of huge spectacle

that you’d hope from one of music’s most culturally game-changing stars. From the angle of pure, stadiumsized entertainment, he’s decided to bring a zoo’s worth of enormous Lion King-style silver animals with him; throughout the set, we get introduced to a snake, an emu, a massive horse for ‘Old Town Road’ and, most bizarrely, a man in a minotaur outfit that quietly follows him around the stage. More than that, however, his is a proudly queer show that takes hold of its enormous platform and uses it to the full, with Nas and one of his all-male backing dancers sharing an on-stage kiss, alongside a set of choreography that brings in Vogueing and generally wears its sexual freedom loud and proud.

As Elton John takes to the Pyramid to bid farewell with one of the most anticipated sets in Glastonbury history,

That tonight is both Elton John’s Glastonbury debut and his final show on British soil feels equally surreal. But his Pyramid Stage headliner is less a goodbye and more a celebration of one artist’s singular place in the pop canon. Giant sunglasses, sequins and feather boas are plenty; festival goers in versions of his iconic Dodgers costume are in triple digits at least. Barely a word is missed during the two-hour singalong. He’s an exceptional songwriter but opens with a number he didn’t even write (‘Pinball Wizard’), before ‘Goodbye Yellow Brick Road’ - the song that gives his farewell tour its name - is slotted in early on. A national treasure for longer than most of those here have been alive, yet, his betweensong chat is dedicated mostly to others’ creativity: inviting The Killers’ Brandon Flowers on for ‘Tiny Dancer’ by way of recalling how he first heard ‘Hot Fuss’; thanking Norman Cook for reviving ‘Are You Ready For Love’, where he also sings the praises of Gabriels’ Jacob Lusk, who joins alongside the London Community Gospel Choir for a euphoric take. “An extraordinary talent… and one of my best friends” is how Rina Sawayama is introduced to take Kiki Dee’s role on ‘Don’t Go Breaking My Heart’. Meanwhile it’s not one of Elton’s many smashes that Nashville newcomer Stephen Sanchez joins in on, but his own ‘Until I Found You’. No Britney, or Harry, or Eminem, but instead (Brandon excepted) a look to the future, a passing on of the pop baton.

The only real backwards look comes late on, dedicating ‘Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me’ to George Michael on what would have been the late star’s 60th birthday. If that’s not enough of a tear-jerker (and, anecdotally, it is), then the first, solitary firework that’s set off during the closera joyous ‘Rocket Man’ - cements it. Emotions are overflowing as much as the field is by the song – and set’s – end. Forget a Glastonbury all-time great set, but an all-time great set, full stop.

you wouldn’t envy the task of going up against him. But Queens of the Stone Age’s hedonistic prowls of debauchery are powerfully up for the challenge. As Josh Homme peppers a mighty, meaty set with commands to get fucked up and dance these last festival moments to their fullest, there’s no ringleader who could better harness the final embers of the weekend and ignite them into one last party. As they begin closer ‘A Song For The Dead’, there’s so much energy in the crowd that Homme even has to tell the circle pit to wait - “I run this fucking place - you don’t go ‘til I say go”; inevitably, when the order is issued, it’s one of the most feral ends to the weekend Glastonbury has seen. (Lisa Wright, Emma Swann)

QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE

Coastal

The idea of Bethany Cosentino reinventing herself is a familiar one for those who’ve followed her from the start. As the voice and principal songwriter in Best Coast, she’s already been through a number of transformations in terms of both music and persona; having announced herself to the world as the quintessential California girl on debut album ‘Crazy for You’, penning paeans to the sun, surf, weed and her cat Snacks, she did away with the hazy, reverb-heavy aesthetic for Album Two - 2012’s polished ‘The Only Place’ - before turning her attention to cleareyed self-empowerment on 2015’s ‘California Nights’.

Her first record under her own name, though, involves changes of a deeper and more wholesale kind. They were inspired, in part, by the frustration surrounding the last Best Coast album - the endearingly poppy ‘Always Tomorrow’ - released in February 2020 and, accordingly, soon swallowed up by the pandemic.

“It got swept under the rug,” Bethany sighs on a Zoom call from her Los Angeles home. “Not that it was anybody’s fault. But I did start asking myself, ‘What more do I want out of my life? What do I want to do differently?’ And I didn’t feel like I could reinvent myself again as Best Coast; I felt as if I’d always be in a certain box under that name. So I thought I’d see what would happen without it, and the result of that experiment and that faith in myself is ‘Natural Disaster’.”

The title suggests that her knack for witty selfdeprecation remains intact, but nearly everything else is new. First, there’s the sound. Through all their reimaginings, Best Coast stayed true to scuzzy guitars of some description, whereas now there’s a country-folk

feel, encompassing acoustic and slide playing; it all revolves around a new sonic nucleus of Bethany’s vocals, which have never sounded as rich, confident and unadorned by effects as they are here.

Having always cited the likes of Stevie Nicks, Christine McVie and Linda Ronstadt as influences, never before have these musicians informed Bethany’s own songwriting as keenly as they do on ‘Natural Disaster’, where the songs have a classic feel pitched somewhere between Emmylou Harris and Sheryl Crow. “As corny as it sounds, I think stripping away the persona or identity that your stage name gives you means that you can bear your soul more,” she reflects. “I was giving myself permission to be Bethany Cosentino, and that involves channelling some of those influences more honestly than I had before, and it also meant being able to talk about all these things I was reckoning with and digging through.”

knew that I wanted to challenge myself, and get super fucking uncomfortable,” she explains. “And that probably meant that there were many different times in the process where I threw my hands up in the air and said, ‘What the fuck am I doing?’ That definitely happened, but I wanted to be really specific about the stuff that I wanted to talk about, which is why a lot of the album is just wildly vulnerable in ways I’ve never been before.

“I’ve been open before,” she goes on, “but as a 25-year-old, those feelings were really centred around angst and chaos. I was never ready to let myself be soft, and I still don’t know why that is. I think I was afraid that it would be seen as uncool or something. But as a woman in her mid-thirties, I don’t really care about what other people think any more. At the end of the day, I use music as a tool to express really deep and intense feelings and thoughts that I have, because it can be really hard to make sense of those things with conversational words.”

Now 36, Cosentino is no longer the fresh-faced stoner girl singing wistfully of doomed summer romances. With the plaintive pining of early hit ‘Boyfriend’ a thing of the past, she’s instead tackling bigger issues these days. On ‘Easy’, the kind of swooning piano ballad that would have been way out of bounds for Best Coast, she taps into the approach of another of her key California touchpoints, Gwen Stefani, ruminating on the future and potential motherhood in a manner reminiscent of No Doubt’s ‘Simple Kind of Life’.

Bethany knows better than most that change is always an ongoing process; shedding the skin she wore in the early days of Best Coast is something that has taken some time. “Ten years ago, for example, I was still very committed to being the version of myself that the public saw me as. I never put my own desires first. I was presenting myself the way that other people kind of wanted me to; as this girl who was writing about guys driving me crazy, or whatever,” she admits. “I was so much a people-pleaser, and over the last couple of years, I’ve done a lot of work on being much more of a Bethany-pleaser. Not in a selfish way, but more in the sense of realising that I don’t owe anybody else anything, but I owe myself everything.”

That, she says, is why she kept the record’s gestation secret from all but her nearest and dearest; it afforded her the privacy and freedom of expectation that she’d been denied ever since Best Coast took off when she was 22. “Something I’m working through in therapy is that I have horrible impostor syndrome,” she says. “And I always have. I’ve been performing since I was a kid, and I was always praised really heavily by my parents, my school teachers, whoever the audience was, but I always felt like they praised me for my talent rather than who I am, if that makes sense. There was never a separation between Bethany’s singing and songwriting abilities, and Bethany as a person.

“So making the album the way I did, it let me separate myself from those things, and just be Bethany for a while. I’m not sitting here telling you I’ve got it all figured out, obviously. I’m still figuring it out every day.”

As if to underline her constant evolution, Bethany gets engaged just days after we speak, and jokes on Instagram that it’s great free marketing for the record. She’s not the finished article, but a whole new chapter for the musician is definitively underway.

‘Natural Disaster’ is out 28th July via Concord. DIY

Coastal Erosion

“I was a peoplepleaser, but over the last couple of years I’ve done a lot of work on being a Bethany-pleaser.”

PARIS TEXAS Everybody’s Safe Until…

The final track in PARIS TEXAS’ recent trilogy of singles - and a release to celebrate the announcement of their forthcoming debut album - ‘Everybody’s Safe Until…’ takes the darkness of its narrative and mirrors it back via pulsing beats and ominous backing vocals. “There’s people trying to kill me / Other than me…” goes the mesmerising opening salvo, striking straight to the heart of both the track’s message and the band’s own anxieties about the world right now, in what’s one of the LA’s duo more vulnerable, but still powerful, moments. (Sarah Jamieson)

HAVE YOU HEARD?

SAM SMITH AND MADONNA Vulgar

First came the Kim Petras-featuring unstoppable horny hit of ‘Unholy’; then came a full arena tour that saw the singer cavorting around in a codpiece and devil horns; now, the evolution of Sam Smith has reached its final form with the mother of all collaborations (or should that be Mother). The ultimate baton-passing co-sign from one pop star who stoked the fires of the professionally offended to another, ‘Vulgar’ is a glorious celebration of all the above, a sweaty, sexy romp of a track with a straight-to-the-point message that shows neither Sam nor Madonna could give a shit about the trolls: “Say we’re ridiculous, we’ll just go harder.” (Lisa Wright)

OLIVIA RODRIGO Vampire

Where debut ‘SOUR’ managed to coincide with both pop punk’s resurgence and a less misogynist evaluation of a past generation of Disney icons’ musical output, while also pressing the shit-kicking, melodramatic buttons of most, if ‘vampire’ is indicative of anything else on forthcoming follow-up ‘GUTS’, Olivia Rodrigo is primed to soundtrack a post-Wednesday generation of teens, pre-teens and beyond’s dark sides. For while it eventually transforms into the kind of fist-pumping triumph-over-evil ballad that may or may not require copious amounts of fake blood, its inconspicuous piano-led start has more than a hint of Radiohead’s perennial outsider anthem, ‘Creep’, to it, with its ominous chord changes. In short, she’s gone straight for pop’s jugular. (Emma Swann)

THE LAST DINNER PARTY Sinner

Following up internet-igniting debut single ‘Nothing Matters’, ‘Sinner’ fleshes out The Last Dinner Party’s theatrical universe with religious iconography, operatic gang vocals and the sort of unashamedly bombastic fretwork that points to the vibrant live shows that got them noticed in the first place. Already, it feels very ‘them’, which is to say that the quintet’s melodramatic worldbuilding and renaissance Virgin Suicides vibe is creating something immediately recogniseable and distinctive, even from these earliest moments. ‘Sinner’ has nothing to repent for. (Lisa Wright)

BECK & PHOENIX Odyssey

There are enough AI-generated covers and collaborations floating around the digital ether that if one were to suggest ‘Odyssey’ were among them, it’d be entirely believable. Not that the song sounds unhuman exactly, but that it’s almost exactly what an imagined combination of Beck and Phoenix would sound like: the breezy, summery pop of the French outfit meeting the funky sonic collages of the chameleon-like singer-songwriter with a dollop of repetitive “yeahs”. There’s just a hint of the ‘80s to it too, suggesting their impending joint US tour would make for a buddy comedy. Just nobody suggest chartering a helicopter… (Bella

THE NEW ALBUM OUT 28TH JULY INCLUDES THE SINGLES

‘IT’S EUPHORIC’ & ‘GIVE IT UP FOR LOVE’

A Life In Full Colour

This month, the family of Frightened Rabbit’s late frontman Scott Hutchison are set to release a new book of his illustrations, Living In Colour: The Art Of Scott Hutchison.

Pulled together following the 2021 release of The Work - a Frightened Rabbit lyric book, which included late frontman Scott Hutchison’s hand-written lyrics alongside artwork from across the band’s career - Living In Colour has been brought to life alongside the band’s artwork designer Dave Thomas. The limited hardback book will not only include art made by Scott’s friends and family, but also some sent in by fans from across the world, after the band put a call-out on social media.

Ahead of the book’s release on 13th July, we spoke to Scott’s brother and bandmate Grant about the creation of Living In Colour, and above you can see some exclusive excerpts from the book itself.

How did it feel to be returning to Scott’s artwork?

There were a lot of mixed emotions there obviously. Whenever we do something like this there is always sadness attached to it as we’re reminded of the fact Scott is no longer with us but there’s real joy in it too. Much like his songs, Scott’s artwork is sprinkled with humour that is so unique to him and it’s important to focus on that too. What I was most excited about sharing with people was the work from his time in art school and non-band related illustrations. It shows a different side to him and I think he’d be proud to know that stuff is out there now.

Some of the artwork included - including the excerpts DIY are sharing - was obviously used throughout Frightened Rabbit’s time as a band; how was it returning to those pieces?

The band artwork was always a collaboration between Scott and Dave. We didn’t always see the full process of that so it was interesting for me to see some of the art that Dave had which he then turned into what you see on the albums. Scott would send him drawings, sketches, cuttings in the post and they would discuss a general feel for the artwork and Dave would create the final vision. It was a really important relationship for Scott and the band so it was vital to have him involved. I do remember

feeling that ‘Pedestrian Verse’ was quite a different feel as it was less ‘illustrative’ than the previous records and I think that’s reflected in the music too. That was probably our best recording session we did and our favourite album. Everything just clicked with it and I love the use of photography and imagery on that album’s artwork.

What was it like when you put the call out to fans for their artwork and got the reaction you did?

It was pretty incredible. I knew Scott had always sent out little cards and sketches to people but the scale of it was more than I imagined. It just confirmed even more how wonderful and kind a person he was. He knew that a small act of kindness like that could change the course of people’s lives and he took the time to make that happen and it’s a beautiful thing. Reading the stories that came along with the submissions was probably the best part about that. He was a very special human and to know that so many people around the world feel the same is something great.

What do you hope the book means to the people who connected with Scott throughout his life? Is there anything you’d hope for

Inspiration. Whether it’s music, art, poetry or anything else creative it should always be about inspiring other people to fulfil their hopes and aspirations. You don’t have to be a singular creative artist who just writes songs or just draws pictures. You can do what the fuck you want as long as you’re not hurting anyone in the process and you’re pushing your own creative boundaries whenever you pick up that pencil or guitar or even a drum stick!

Living In Colour: The Art Of Scott Hutchison is out on 13th July via Faber Music. DIY

Jessica Winter and Miss Tiny pack out London’s Paper Dress

Vintage for a celebratory evening with SON Estrella Galicia

The Spanish beermakers also kept guests fed and watered all night with a specially curated food and drink menu. Words: Lisa Wright. Photos: Alex Amorós.

In the blazing hot rays of London’s early summer heatwave, there are a few things at the top of the to-do list: find somewhere with an outdoor beer garden to soak up the sun. Crack open a cold bottle of something frosty to toast your Thursday evening after-work feeling. And locate a banging soundtrack while you’re doing both of the above.

Thankfully, for the third night of their partnership, Spain’s finest beer purveyors SON Estrella Galicia and Hackney’s quirky musical mecca Paper Dress Vintage have people covered on all fronts - and it’s a buzzy night packed with Estrella Galicia premium beers, bands and specially paired bites from local restaurant Yellow Warbler Coffee that’s on offer for those lucky enough to snap up a ticket.

With DJs in the outdoor garden maintaining the party vibes all night, upstairs in Paper Dress’ live room it’s up to Barcelona’s own Playback Maracas to kick off the live entertainment. Don’t let their name fool you, however; with a line in bouncing synths and retro-futuristic electronic pop that comes on like a Catalonian Metronomy, the band are thinking far more extensively than mere hand-held, old school percussion.

South London’s Miss Tiny - the new project from Speedy Wunderground producer Dan Carey and Ben Romans-Hopcraft of Warmduscher - may have only

THE IMPORTANCE of INDIE VENUES

released two songs under the name, but their extensive playing experience means they sound far from fledgling. There’s always something uniquely impressive about a singing drummer, especially one with Ben’s multi-tasking capabilities; intense yet loose and with an intrinsic swagger to his rhythms, he helms the likes of spidery debut single ‘The Beggar’, with Dan and bassist Adele Phillips knitting together like melodic bodyguards either side of him. ‘The Sound’, with its scratchy, muted fretwork, closes the set: a gnarly climax that suits the sweaty top room to a tee.

As bottles clink and the merriment continues, DIY Class of 2023 graduate Jessica Winter makes for a suitably effervescent headliner. Stripped down to her bra to combat the heat, her stage presence however is as cool as they come. In keeping with the forward-thinking pop of recent EP ‘Limerence’, she’s part infectious extrovert and part poised pop star in waiting - busting shapes while unleashing the buoyant explosion of ‘Choreograph’ or the skittish synths of ‘Funk This Up’.

With the aim of bringing British and Spanish culture together, it’s a night that shows the best of both: progressive, exciting new talents that leave the most refreshing of aftertastes.

Brought to you as part of our partnership with SON Estrella Galicia. DIY

Last month, DIY launched a new short video series where we invite a handful of artists to sit down with the managers and bookers of some of the country’s most beloved independent venues to highlight some of their achievements and challenges, and hear first hand what it’s like to be both an independent artist and an independent venue.

In our first video, Bob Vylan frontman Bobby chose to sit down with Ruby Horton of iconic London venue The 100 Club, after previously performing there back in 2021.

Our video series is brought to you in association with FREE NOW and Music Venue Trust. As well as sponsoring the 2022 Mercury Prize, FREE NOW recently teamed up with Music Venue Trust to provide some well-needed support to Grassroots Music Venues across the country, underwriting 120 gigs through to April 2023.

Head to diymag.com/bobvylantalkstothe100club to watch the video now - and keep your eyes peeled for forthcoming clips.

FESTIVALS

HOT HERE OUT Q&A BELAKO

Festival season is well under way and we can’t get enough! Still basking in the greatness that was this year’s Glastonbury, it’s now time to head back out into the open for what’s sure to be a scorcher of summer: whether that be in Spain, Slovakia, or just in the green fields of Derbyshire, we’re ready for some more action…

Mad Cool

6th - 8th July, Villaverde, Madrid

Could any other festival pull off having Robbie Williams take to the stage in the middle of Lizzo and Lil Nas X? Probably not! And that’s just one of the reasons that Madrid’s Mad Cool is sure to be one of this summer’s most memorable events. With a line-up packed with huge names (from Liam Gallagher to Years & Years, Rina Sawayama to our cover stars QOTSA), and the very real promise of sangria on tap, we can’t wait to head to the Madrid event’s new festival site in Villaverde.

What’s more, there’s also going to be a slew of Spanish bands out there to discover and dig into, including the brilliant Belako, who are also prepping their new album. Ahead of their slot at Mad Cool, we chatted to the band’s Cris Lizarraga…

You recently announced that you’re going to be releasing your new album later this year - how are you looking forward to getting the record out in the open?

We’re really excited about this one, it’s a pleasure to keep making new music; that and live performing is the only way to go further professionally in music, but most of all, emotionally. You need to be in love again and again with what you do or else you get bored.

Can you tell us a bit about making your new album ‘Sigo Regando’? What inspired you when writing it?

This is an album with a lot of intention but in a more subtle language. There are accidents and there is intentionally elaborated poetry. It’s still political, but it has more of what we’ve been experiencing lately with loss and existentialism. We are neo-romantics but we show a whole rainbow of diverse melodies and shapes. This might sound pretentious but I’m just trying to use all the words in English I can right now; it’s 1:37am now.

You’re also gearing up to play Mad Cool! Are you excited?

We played Mad Cool on its second edition in 2017, on the third stage after Savages and before M.I.A. - it was one of our most memorable concerts at a festival. We played at the same time as Kings Of Leon, but we still had a huge crowd, it was a dream. We are excited to be back, and are trying not to have our hopes too high (but it’s hard with a memory like that one)!

Are there any other acts you’ll be trying to watch at Mad Cool Festival? What’s your biggest piece of advice for people heading to the festival?

I’ll try to travel on Tuesday so I get to watch Lizzo, Lil Nas X, and King Princess, [and] on our day M.I.A. again because when will I ever have enough of M.I.A.? The answer is never. I hope I can catch Dora’s show as well!

Otherwise, stay hydrated with lots of water (not plastic bottles thank you, tap water in Madrid tastes delicious!) If you can, go to at least one concert completely on your own in the middle of the crowd, and go to the concerts with your loved ones and cry together to your fave songs. And above all, don’t fall in love with musicians.

Pohoda

5th - 8th July, Airport Trençin

Once again, the picturesque town of Slovakia’s Trençin will be taken over by music fans for this year’s edition of Pohoda, when a host of incredible acts descend upon the area. Whether your bag is more shimmying through the night to Caroline Polachek and Shygirl, or whipping up a pit with Viagra Boys and Shame, this year’s line-up has you covered.

Also making her first trip to the festival (and the country) will be Rozi Plain. Fresh from supporting Paramore earlier this year, and with new album ‘Prize’ in tow, we caught up with the singer ahead of her debut visit to Trençin…

Q&A ROZI PLAIN

It’s been almost six months since you released ‘Prize’ – how did it feel to get it out into the world and share it with people?

Good! It’s so strange working on things for months or years on your own with the people you’re making it with – on your own little reality tunnel of how it is and how it sounds and what it means. Even though I really love the recording and making process it feels very healthy to move on from that and shift your own relationship with it a bit into something a little bit more zoomed out. I like the feeling of not quite being able to remember how you made something.

Back in April, you supported Paramore on their UK arena tour; how was that as an experience?

It was a bizarre and brilliant experience. I’m so pleased we did it. I recommend it! It was very nice and reassuring knowing that Paramore had asked us to come along – it wasn’t some strange industry pairing or something or we hadn’t won a competition! But yes, I think I was a bit worried about what Paramore and Bloc Party fans would make of us but they’ve got such a lovely dedicated fanbase that they were really nice to us. It was so crazy to witness the insane operation that is the organisation of shows of this size. But their whole team and crew were so calm and kind it was a complete pleasure to be part of it.

Have you played in Slovakia before? Do you have any expectations?

No, I’ve never been to Slovakia before so I’m very much looking forward to it. Hmmm, expectations wise – I hope they won’t bust my guitar on the plane – I hate taking instruments on the plane, it’s so stressful!

Is playing festivals something you enjoy?

Yes, it is. Generally. I really like the fluid feeling of playing at a festival – roll on, bish bash bosh, roll off. I don’t mean you just churn it out but it sort of feels nice being part of a big rolling logistical feat. I mean, sometimes the logistical feat does feel completely ridiculous and you can end up thinking ‘What? why would we make this so almost impossible to pull off?’. But yes, there can be something so thrilling about playing at festivals when everyone can clock in with each other and have a special time.

Are there any other acts you’ll be hoping to watch at Pohoda?

Yes. Dry Cleaning! Sleaford Mods! The Orielles! Arooj Aftab!

Y Not

28th - 30th July, Pikehall, Derbyshire

A little closer to home, the 2023 edition of Y Not is set to be another big year for IndieHeads! From swaggering big-hitters Royal Blood and Kasabian, through to indie disco staples like Kate Nash, Mystery Jets and Bombay Bicycle Club - via CMAT, Phoebe Green, The Last Dinner Party and other new music royalty - the Derbyshire fest promises to be a veritable smorgasbord of pints-aloft singalongs and constant good vibes.

Holding up the heavier end of the line-up are rousing alt-rockers Yonaka, who are also getting ready to share their newest EP with the world. We chatted to the band’s Theresa Jarvis about the impending release of ‘Welcome To My House’, and their upcoming visit to Y Not…

Q&A YONAKA

How has 2023 treated you so far?

I’m well! This year has been so far a good year for growth. I’m learning new things about myself all the time and welcoming change even though it can feel scary at first but I’m riding the wave, everything is as it’s supposed to be.

You’re gearing up to release your new EP ‘Welcome To My House’ - can you tell us a bit about what you wanted to explore on the EP?

So, the EP has seven tracks on it: they kinda go all over the place in tempo, sound and emotion, it feels exciting and nothing sounds the same. Originally we wanted to do an album so we actually had to really carve out the EP but it works nicely. When writing for a body of work there will be a song that is a moment where you go ‘OK, this is where it is’ and that song was ‘Panic’ for the EP and we worked around that being the heart of it.

Do you have any anecdotes from making the EP that you can share with us?

We went out to LA to record the EP, but that didn’t quite go as planned as LA is way too fun a place to stay inside. We stayed in this house with a studio and our friend Barns Courtney stayed the whole time on the sofa. We would just hang out, drink and then make music, and we were jumping on each other’s tracks so you can hear him layered up with my vocals, in the middle eight of ‘Panic’.

You’re also getting ready to play a whole host of festivals this summer; what do you think you enjoy most about playing at festivals?

I love the fact that you don’t know what you’re gonna get. I like that people will just stumble across you and either hate you or fall in love. I also like being around and seeing all the other artists and like getting to enjoy being the punter too.

What should people expect from your set at Y Not? And will you be checking out any of the other acts on the line-up while you’re there? They can expect a lovely old show with new songs and some classics. I’m looking forward to seeing Sad Night Dynamite, Cassyette and Kid Kapichi.

PictureParlour

“The buzz thing is this badge of shame at the moment but all I’ve fucking wanted since I was [starting out] is buzz.”

- Katherine Parlour

It takes considerable balls, as the Scouse singer of a four-piece guitar band, to name your debut single after a track by the most famous Liverpudlians in music history. But chutzpah is clearly something that Katherine Parlour is not lacking.

Decked out in a ‘70s-cut leather blazer and neckerchief, a wide streak of blonde hair giving her the aura of Cruella de Vil if she’d had a thing for Marc Bolan, Katherine and co-conspirator, guitarist Ella Risi, are supping pints in the top floor of a Soho boozer, laughing about how they ended up calling their opening calling card ‘Norwegian Wood’. “It’s just funny to me!” the frontwoman chuckles. “When I showed Ella the song and told her what it was called, she was like, ‘It’s fucking not…’ But why not!?”.

‘Why not?’, in fact, seems to be something of a motto for the pair. Why not try and start a band in the middle of lockdown when there’s no live music to be found? Why not pack your bags and move to London on a whim in pursuit of your dreams? Why not dress like you’re auditioning for the remake of Shaft on the first blisteringly hot day of the British summer heatwave? The answer to the latter is obvious; a visual extension of the loungey, melodramatic world that ‘Norwegian Wood’ cracks the musical door open to, Picture Parlour are a band with an eye for the seductively cinematic. And as for the former two questions? It seems that destiny and alchemy essentially made the decision for them.

Both studying in Manchester having come from similar working class Northern backgrounds (Ella is a North Yorkshire native), from the moment the pair met for a trial jam session, the sparks began to fly.

“You answered the door with a Jamesons in hand and I thought, ‘This is going to go well’. And that first day we wrote ‘Moon Tonic’, which is what we now finish our set with,” Ella recalls. “When we first started writing together, it was almost like finishing each other’s sentences, but musically.”

“Usually, in the moment you don’t realise things, but even after we’d written the first three songs I remember thinking that everything I’d ever wanted to do musically was happening here,” Katherine continues. “I was gonna move to London anyway and I didn’t wanna let it go, so I just said to Ella, ‘What do you wanna do?’”. Ella grins: “And I decided to come.”

Despite making their London debut at Brixton’s Windmill - a place that’s become something of a stage home ever since - there’s nothing about Picture Parlour that fits in with the straight-faced post-punk scene most associated with the area. Citing the likes of Father John Misty, Pulp and “strong female leads like Patti Smith, Joni Mitchell, Joan Baez” as influences, the pair (now joined by bassist Sian Lynch and drummer Michael Nash) instead lean into theatricality and an Alex Turnerlike penchant for lyrical wordplay, with their female bond playing a pivotal role at the centre. “Not to say that men and women can’t make incredible music together, obviously they can, but it was a comfort for me to meet you and for there to be no ego in the room and nothing to prove,” notes Katherine.

The two songwriters, they joke, are like “good cop, bad cop”. “I don’t have a filter and you do, so sometimes I need Ella to rein me back in but then sometimes she needs me to be like, ‘Go on!!” the vocalist enthuses, shaking her bandmate with rallying gusto. Mutually, however, there’s clear ambition here - with the scope and scale of their debut’s stadium-sized swagger only a taste of what their current live set has to offer. “It’s ambitious, sonically. It feels big to me, and it’s emotive and has a punch,” suggests Katherine of the track, while Ella has a stance on their current MO as a whole: “We write with the intention of wanting to make something big and ridiculous and anthemic. That’s the aim.”

When they first started writing their set, says the singer, “it was like putting on a really good pair of shoes and feeling like you’ve got a skip in your step”. “That’s the music that we enjoy where, when you watch a show, you leave and you feel fucking cool,” she grins. “That’s what, to a degree, it’s about to me - about doing something where you can go out and look people in the eye and feel confident.”

Before they’d even released a note of music, the strut of Picture Parlour’s live wares had already earned them a considerable amount of hype. At May’s industry-centric Great Escape, their midday set was packed to the brim with a queue snaking down the road; this month, they’ll support Bruce Springsteen at Hyde Park; the day we meet, their radio plugger informs the band that both BBC Radio One and 6 Music are confirmed to spin ‘Norwegian Wood’ on release day.

Following mere months after The Last Dinner Party became the latest targets of the online ‘industry plant’ accusation brigade, Picture Parlour are aware of the double-edged sword of being a buzz band. But they equally - brilliantly - are just as positive and can-do about it as they are about everything else.

“The buzz thing is this badge of shame at the moment where everyone’s scared to be called buzzy because it means there’s a question mark over you. But all I’ve fucking wanted since I was this big is buzz,” Katherine says, her hand indicating her childsized former self. “It’s so early so we don’t wanna get too excited but call me buzzy, I’ll be buzzy. It’s what we want because it means people’s ears have pricked up. We want to be musicians, so bring it: I’ll be the buzziest bee in Soho.” DIY

With debut single ‘Norwegian Wood’ immediately laying down the gauntlet of ambitious, anthemic intent, Picture Parlour are opening the doors to their world of magic and melodrama. Words: Lisa Wright. Photos: Ed Miles.

The rising US act dedicated to supporting local drag artists, making gigs financially accessible and dropping sugary, hyperbolic pop hits. Words: Otis Robinson.

“I care about what every drag queen cares about: putting on the best show,” says Chappell Roan

- aka Kayleigh Rose Amstutz - amid snowballing reputation and a fastearned promotion to queer icon. “Drag queens open for me at each show. The celebratory aspect of queerness is something I [hadn’t] found anywhere else.”

For Chappell, raised Christian in the American Midwest, this metamorphosis into a sparkly, loud, queer pop star surrounded by cabaret and drag, was unexpected but overdue. “There was a period where I thought, ‘Fuck pop music’,” she says. But Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Lana Del Rey, Lorde and Rihanna -her pop maximalism forebears - forced Chappell to reckon with a long-repressed side of herself. “Pop was shining a light on a part of myself that I was trying to dim. But it was always deep down inside. I was just scared to be that version of myself - it seemed too big and loud.”

Her alter-ego, Chappell Roan - “the drag version” of Kayleigh - is overtly queer, amalgamating the rebellion of drag with preppy, melodramatic, fruity pop. Highlights include blow-up coming-out track ‘Pink Pony Club’, the puppy love of ‘Naked In Manhattan’ and the untethered ‘My Kink is Karma’. Each release acts as a contained piece of storytelling (“None of this ever happened,” she confesses), yet rings with unabashed honesty and a celebration of her community.

“There’s nothing more exciting than a drag show - I want to recreate that and create a safe space for queer people,” she says. “But that also means donating [percentages of ticket sales] to trans charities [such as For The Gworls], making sure my ticket and merch prices are as low as I can put them, making it accessible. What’s the point in making a pop project where your main audience is queer if you’re not giving back? The whole point is to have a party - but queer people need to pay their fucking rent too, right?”

Each performance spotlights drag queens, gaudy dress codes for fans “who can be the most extra,” and songs with hot-under-the-collar descriptions of cunnilingus that she says, with a laugh, she felt obligated to cut from her set when opening for Olivia Rodrigo’s SOUR tour last year. That tour also acted as an underscoring of how ready the singer is to step up to the plate. “I got offstage and was like, ‘I don’t feel any different than I did before’. So to me, that was a sign that I was already prepared mentally and emotionally for that,” she nods. “It was more like, ‘OK, I actually can do this. I’m ready for this’.”

It’s early days for Chappell, however as she readies her debut album for release in autumn, things are finally boiling over. “It takes fucking years. You can’t solidify an identity after only a year without looking inauthentic,” she says. “The project is based on two things: Does it give me butterflies? And is it a 100% yes? If it’s not a yes, it’s a no. You can’t fucking compromise.” The result is a big, confettismeared pop project, designed for gay bars and listless teens. Chappell’s is a debut that’s set to be wonderfully large, a little unhinged, and entirely contradictory; a recipe for devotion, if ever we heard one. DIY

NEU

ChappellRoan

“What’s the point in making a pop project, where your main audience is queer, if you’re not giving back?”

EAVES WILDER

ENDEARING INDIE-ROCK THAT COULD SOUNDTRACK A COMING-OF-AGE FILM.

“You wear a wedding dress on the biggest day of your life and we did!” Fresh from playing Glasto - white dress and all - Eaves Wilder has the kind of wide-eyed enthusiasm that you can’t help but embrace. The Londoner’s debut EP ‘Hookey’ is a diaristic journey through Wilder’s tumultuous adolescence, with each track contributing an answer to the question of why she always bunked off school. Determined to only sign a record deal once she turned 18 (to save the embarrassment of her mum doing it for her), we’d say Wilder’s ‘90s-flecked shoegaze and distinctive vocal delivery was worth the wait.

LISTEN: ‘I Stole Your Jumper’ is a rallying cry against mean boys everywhere.

SIMILAR TO: The vocal tone of The Sundays’ Harriet Wheeler with Breedersesque riffs.

DUMB BUOYS FISHING CLUB

THE NEW PROJECT FROM DAN D’LION AND HAVELOCK THAT’S REALLY CAUSING WAVES. Despite having only launched their debut single a matter of days before their set at The Great Escape in May - on the DIY Stage, no less - the riotous reaction that greeted the relatively unknown Dumb Buoys Fishing Club bordered on unbelievable. But dive into their watery world and it’s easy to see why they’re already causing a storm: riffing off the likes of Beastie Boys, Outkast and Gorillaz, their energy is insatiable and their use of conceptual fishrelated puns, second to none. The fact they’ve got Brockhampton’s Merlyn Wood on board too, makes it all the more intriguing.

LISTEN: New single ‘FORMULA’ featuring Merlyn and Joe Unknown has just dropped.

SIMILAR TO: Hip hop meets the seaside chip shop.

SNÕÕPER

RAUCOUS PUNK THAT THRIVES IN A LIVE SETTING.

The moniker of Nashville duo Connor Cummins and Blair Tramel, you’d be forgiven for thinking that Snõõper is a collective of ten, such is the noise that they make. Intentionally unpolished but instrumentally tight, they’ve gained a cult reputation for shredding, speed, and, erm, papier-mâché puppets. With a live show guaranteed to send crowd members bouncing around the room like a pinball machine, their three recent singles show this energy being committed to wax once again.

LISTEN: New track ‘Powerball’ is a 100mph ride guaranteed to shake you awake.

SIMILAR TO: Early Parquet Courts played at double time.

NEU

Recommended

TOWA BIRD

INFECTIOUS ALT-POP GUITAR EARWORMS FROM THE LA NEWCOMER.

ASTRA KING

ONE OF PC MUSIC’S FINAL BUZZY EXPORTS. Having first popped up as part of PC Music’s lockdown Appleville livestream event in 2020, Astra King has been a quietly-murmured name on the lips of the electronic label’s loyal devotees ever since. Now, they’ve finally released their debut single proper, the A.G. Cook co-write ‘Make Me Cry’, and it’s a tender opening that leans into the emo end of the label’s spectrum; a debut EP ‘First Love’ is due before long.

LISTEN: For the real OG experience, that Appleville track ‘Silver’ is also available to stream.

SIMILAR TO: Bedroom hyperpop with all the feelings.

With only two songs out in the worldApril’s debut ‘Wild At Heart’ and the following month’s ‘Boomerang’ - it’s already clear what sonic space Hong Kong-born, LA-based Towa Bird is wanting to occupy. One filled with fizzing hooks and instantly catchy indie-pop guitars, it makes sense that Towa has been writing alongside ‘00s indie-poppers The Naked and Famous; both clearly celebrate a heart-on-sleeve sentiment cut to a danceable bop.

LISTEN: ‘Boomerang’ is a far jauntier number than the long distance relationship pains it describes.

SIMILAR TO: Heartache you can bust a move to.

HotWax

Glance down the list of HotWax’s upcoming gigs and it’s hard not to be a little in awe. Whether hopping overseas for a handful of hefty festivals, opening for The Strokes and Yeah Yeah Yeahs at their upcoming All Points East show or heading across for North America dates with Royal Blood, the Hastings trio are set to spend the rest of 2023 ticking off some major life goals, all while still in their late teens.

Kicking off the summer with not one but four appearances across this year’s Great Escape, their brand of scuzzy-round-the-edges rockcomplete with electrifying live show - fast saw them become one of the festival’s most talked-about acts. “It’s been crazy, it’s been so fun,” somewhat underplays Tallulah Sim-Savage, reflecting on their past few weeks. “It was just very surreal because it was so full on.” Her bandmate, and best friend, Lola Sam picks up. “It was really good weather too, so it kinda felt like a nice little holiday,” she laughs. “The last gig at Chalk was at 1am after Dream Wife so we were quite scared, but it ended up being really good and [the room] was full so that was really cool.”

For HotWax, there’s refreshingly little that seems premeditated. First born when Tallulah and Lola were paired up together by a music teacher in secondary school aged 12 and 13, the development of the trio - completed by drummer Alfie Sayers in 2021has been a truly intuitive one. “At school there weren’t many people who were into guitar music or anything,” Tallulah explains, “and Lola was the only other person in our school [into it] so we kinda had to do it! We just really, really clicked musically and friendship-wise - we’ve always been best friends - so that always just felt really right.

“When we started out, we were a lot more instrumental and a lot more

psychedelic because I’d never really sung, and so I kinda wanted all the songs to be instrumental!” she laughs. But as the trio’s collective tastes have changed and grown, so has their remit continued to expand; something reflected in their recent, ambitious EP ‘A Thousand Times’, which manages to channel the likes of The White Stripes, Hole, Wolf Alice and more across its five tracks. “Every time we write a new song, we obviously want it to sound like a collective - for it to sound like HotWax - but we want it to have a different sound,” says Tallulah.

What’s currently inspiring them is primarily the prospect of playing more shows: “I think we just write what we wanna play live,” Lola confirms. “Is this gonna be fun? How is this gonna sound?” And with such a packed diary for the coming months, there’s going to be a lot of opportunities

Sam

for inspiration to strike. “I think we all try not to overthink things too much, otherwise we’ll all start freaking out,” Tallulah says, “but we’re just so excited to travel around and play on different stages and go to new places.”

HotWax play this year’s Mad Cool - where DIY is a media partnerwhich takes place from 6th to 8th July. DIY

“I think we just write what we wanna play live.” - Lola

LUNA LI

THU 6 JULY

SERVANT JAZZ QUARTERS

GIRLPUPPY

FRI 21 JULY

FOLKLORE

LOKKI

TUE 25 JULY

SERVANT JAZZ QUARTERS

BOYGENIUS

SUN 20 AUG

SOLD OUT

GUNNERSBURY PARK

CAT CLYDE

TUE 22 AUG

THE OLD CHURCH

STOKE NEWINGTON

ROUGH TRADE RECORDS PRESENTS 15 YEARS OF THE QUIETUS

TUE 5 SEPT

ELECTRIC BRIXTON

THE NATIONAL

TUE 26 SEP

WED 27 SEP

ALEXANDRA PALACE

SKINNY

PELEMBE

WED 11 OCT

SCALA

HAND HABITS

MON 16 OCT

OMEARA

BONNY DOON

TUE 24 OCT

THE LEXINGTON

MANSUR BROWN

SAT 28 OCT

LAFAYETTE

COUCOU CHLOE

MON 30 OCT

VILLAGE UNDERGROUND

BLONDSHELL

WED 1 NOV

LAFAYETTE

ART SCHOOL GIRLFRIEND

THU 2 NOV

ICA

DOG RACE

THU 9 NOV

THE WAITING ROOM

EGYPTIAN BLUE

THU 9 NOV

100 CLUB

KETY FUSCO

SAT 11 NOV

ICA

DEVENDRA BANHART

WED 15 NOV

TROXY

BC CAMPLIGHT

THU 23 NOV

O2 SHEPHERD’S

BUSH EMPIRE

MOIN

WED 29 NOV

STUDIO 9294

YVES TUMOR

WED 29 NOV

O2 FORUM

KENTISH TOWN

GEORGIA

THU 30 NOV

THE COLOUR FACTORY

GILLA BAND

MON 4 DEC

FABRIC

YEULE

MON 11 DEC

OUTERNET

LAURA MISCH

TUE 12 DEC

HACKNEY EARTH

LANKUM

WED 13 DEC

ROUNDHOUSE

JOCKSTRAP

THU 14 DEC

BARBICAN

With a Matador-signed double EP landing this month, meet the fertile Chicago punk scene’s brightest new hopes. Words: Matthew Pywell.

Lifeguard

Home to bands such as Friko and Horsegirl, who released their celebrated debut album ‘Versions of Modern Performance’ in 2022, the music venues of Chicago are currently a hive of DIY activity. And the newest prospect making waves far beyond their homeland? Lifeguard.

The trio of Kai Slater, Asher Case and Isaac Lowestein this month release a composite of two EPs; ‘Crowd Can Talk’ and ‘Dressed In Trenches’. Together they are a searing fireball propelled by unrelenting, youthful energy. The band met through playing in various projects in their hometown scene, and the surrounding culture has helped them to thrive. “It’s magical to connect with people at shows and through ‘zines and being at the same concerts,” says Kai. “You can’t replicate that over the internet, just playing with other people.”

There’s a tendency by some to see younger musicians as terminally online, glued to phone screens, making and consuming art solely in their bedrooms, but that simply isn’t true. Lifeguard are proof that young people are just as involved in live music as any other generation has been. “I think we’re naturally drawn to connecting,” Isaac begins. “Actually seeing live shows, buying vinyl, I do think there’s a natural need - especially with creative stuff - to see it and feel it.

“The internet is an interesting medium, and I’m in support of people who can make it work, but for us specifically making loud punk music, it’s important

to have a physical connection,” he continues. “You can’t replicate live shows, it’s always going to thrive,” agrees Kai, nodding to the recent upswing in AI technology. “There are always going to be people that want to make music because people are naturally creative”.

At one point in today’s conversation, Isaac sets out a very simple mantra: “If they can dance to it, it’s punk.” It’s an effective summary of the band’s ethos, where across ‘Crowd Can Talk’ / ‘Dressed In Trenches’ you’ll hear songs that are much denser than their Chicago contemporaries. Excitement fizzles out of labyrinthine riffs, and you can feel the spontaneity translate from the sessions into the recordings, where each drop of intensity is met with an even higher leap into bursting, ecstatic territory.

For Lifeguard, punk music is all about the expression of young people. “Punk is a mindset of youthful energy and loudness. Kids making music has always been a thing; three people in a room making music is always relevant,” Kai says. For Asher, it’s a medium for inclusion. “Is it inclusive or is it exclusive? Inclusive music is friendly and for anyone who wants to be a part of it, which is maybe a better description of what we do or what all of Chicago is trying to do.” And for Isaac, it’s about spreading this ethos as far and wide as possible: “This scene continues everywhere. It’s always exciting to see young punks showing up regardless of state.” DIY

“Kids making music has always been a thing; three people in a room making music is always relevant.”Kai Slater

BuzzFeed NEU �

SHARING IS CARING

Ahead of the release of his debut album later this month, glaive has confirmed details of his first ever headline UK and European tour, set to take place this November.

The North Carolina star releases ‘i care so much that i dont care at all’ on 14th July and to celebrate, he’ll be playing eight shows in the UK and Europe later this year.

He’ll be making stops at Glasgow’s SWG3 Studio Warehouse (11th November), Manchester’s Academy 3 (12th), London’s Electric Ballroom (14th), Amsterdam’s Tolhuistuin (16th), Brussels’ Le Botanique (17th), Paris’ Les Etoiles (19th), Cologne’s Luxor (20th) and Berlin’s FRANNZ Club (21st).

IZZY WHIZZY, LET’S GET FIZZY

FIZZ - the musical collective made up of dodie, Orla Gartland, Greta Isaac and Martin Luke Brown - have confirmed details of their debut album. ‘The Secret to Life’ will be released on 15th September.

Alongside the news, the mysterious four-piece band have also shared the first single, ‘High in Brighton’. Speaking about the track, FIZZ have said, “Real life is boring. ‘High In Brighton’ is a psychedelic yearning to escape to a fantasised seaside town complete with a key change, honky tonk piano, high speed drums and even a clarinet solo. “So f*ck it / I’m leaving / I’m out of here / I got a one-way ticket to heaaaven…”

“For legal reasons, the band state that the lyrical reference to being ‘high’ refers to paragliding on Brighton Beach.” Listen to it over on diymag.com now.

P*W*R UP

Grove has announced details of their new EP ‘P*W*R’, which will be released later this month on 19th July.

Alongside the news, Grove has also disclosed the new single, ‘Stinkin Rich Families’, which features Bob Vylan. Listen to the track over on diymag.com now.

The three-track EP will also feature appearances from EJ:AKIN and James Storm. Speaking about the release, Grove has said: “’P*W*R’ is the 1st half of a double EP that explores power in all its forms. The 1st half explores the murkier end of power; the power that people believe to only be achievable through exploitation and immorality - seeking to remind people that the truest and most potent form of power lies within us all and is activated through community & organisation.”

THE PLAYLIST

Every week on Spotify, we update the Neu Playlist with the buzziest, freshest faces. Here’s our pick of the best new tracks:

STONE - I GOTTA FEELING

STONE are channelling all their rollicking frustrations and agitations into the burst of gloomy noise that is ‘I Gotta Feeling’. Black Eyed Peas feel-good tune this is not, as it rumbles to life with an Oasis-ready rock’n’roll riff, and vocalist Fin Power starts to reel off everything currently pissing him off. He takes aim at toxic masculinity, culminating in a defeated grumble of “Shout out to the writers of Peaky Blinders / You inspired the new ages of wankers”. A leap around chorus, an irate siren of a whoop, and a hissing breakdown later, STONE are done for the minute. But not for long, you expect…

MISO

EXTRA - SPACE JUNK

Laden with lavish, otherworldly beats and a vocal performance that flows and fizzes, Miso Extra’s latest offering is a tight teaser for what her upcoming EP ‘MSG’ is set to bring. Deftly arranged, with bright production and excitable, exuberant textures, ‘Space Junk’ is Miso Extra’s abstract version of a breakup song: instead of overtly bluesy lyrics or minor chords, Miso crafts a mood with her sinking synths and nods to classic R&B rhythms, in a future-facing package.

PABLO BROOKS - BOY DON’T CRY

There’s a certain thing that Lorde does very well - going from hushed, innocuous beginnings into an explosion of a gigantic chorus in one fell swoop - that you sense Dusseldorf’s Pablo Brooks has probably been studying quite intently. He’s clearly a top set student too; taking the problematic phrasing of its title and throwing it back into a rotten ex’s face, ‘Boys Don’t Cry’ is like if ‘Solar Power’ swapped its chill beach spirit for some hot pop revenge.

SWIM SCHOOL - BORED

Following on from their recently-released ‘Duality’ EP, the latest offering from Edinburgh’s Swim School is a scuzzy but biting delight. Continuing the narrative theme of previous track ‘Delirious’ - which saw the band’s Alice Johnson square up to the misogyny she’s faced within the music industry - ‘Bored’ is a defiant shutdown (“Do I intimidate you, are you telling the truth? / Please waste your time, I’ve got nothing to prove”) of a track with powerful sonics to match.

Want to stream our Neu playlist while you’re reading? Scan the code now and get listening.

for Lust

Life

For the past five years, a shadow has hung over Queens of the Stone Age and their indomitable frontman Josh Homme that, for a while, seemed like it might suck the band up for good. This is how the swashbuckling renegades of rock came back fighting.

Words: Lisa Wright. Photos: Andreas Neumann, Jenn Five.

Josh Homme is recalling a time not so long ago when he felt good. Standing at the helm of Queens of the Stone Age, the band he’s fronted since 1996, midway through one of their first shows back following the most turbulent halfdecade of his life, he remembers looking up at the moon and having a moment of clarity. “The temperature was wonderful, and everyone was smiling and people were dancing, and I just thought, ‘Fuck I wanna live so bad’,” he says. “And I think that fuel is such a great fuel to run on. I’ve run on so many different types of fuel, on various octanes of negativity or happiness or anger or whatever, but right now I’m just glad to be here.”

It’s a sentiment that comes imbued with the heavy weight of all too much experience. In the time since he and Queens last graced the world’s stages, the frontman has been surrounded by spectres: the death of a series of close friends including former bandmate Mark Lanegan, Foo Fighters’ Taylor Hawkins and actor Rio Hackford; a messy and unwittingly public divorce from ex-wife Brody Dalle; his own cancer diagnosis (he underwent surgery, and is now back in good health). But returning with new album ‘In Times New Roman...’ - a brutal, discomfiting yet strangely playful record that leans into the black humour of grief as only those that know, know - there’s a levity to the frontman that’s pure hope.

“I think I’m waiting for the doorbell to ring and for there to be some guy with a clipboard and a bunch of people in hazmat suits and I say, ‘What’s up?’ and he says, ‘Uh, no one likes your music anymore, it’s over’ and I say, ‘That was a long time though… That was pretty good’,” he rallies with himself (he is, in conversation, a big fan of the ‘bit’).

“It’s not even imposter syndrome,” he continues, “I just think that everything comes to an end. I don’t feel like an imposter. I know that this is how I chase my ideals, this is how I stay romantic, and this is my religion - how I worship things, how I unload my baggage. The songs are my confidantes, so I feel solid about how I do this and why I do it, but I also feel like I’ve experienced so many endings of things and I want to be an accomplished acceptor of what is real. I wanna get good at saying: ‘That was so wonderful and now it’s done’ and be OK with that. So that’s why, if they did come to the doorbell, I know what I’m ready to say.”

For a period of time before the band revved into gear again with their latest, it almost seemed as if the doorbell had indeed rung. Last year, having announced a short few festival dates across Europe, all were quietly cancelled with no fanfare. When we catch up with the band a few weeks later in Halifax at the first of their UK warm-up shows, guitarist Michael Shuman answers in no uncertain terms as to whether the future felt rocky: “Yes”. End of sentence.

“Until it’s done, it wasn’t done,” picks up keyboardist / guitarist Dean Fertitia of the band’s eighth LP. “We had a lot of false starts. There’s no guarantees with any of it, but we’ve always been dedicated to each other and to the idea

“Years ago I wrote ‘A Song For The Dead’ - life’s a study of dying, right? - but at all the funerals I’ve been to, the one message I’m getting is that dying reminds you that you need to live,” he affirms. “You’ve got to live. You’ve just got to.”

The first time we meet Josh is over Zoom from his home in Malibu, where he recently celebrated his 50th birthday: a wholesome affair with his family and dogs and home-cooked food on the porch that he swings his camera around to demonstrate. Having emerged first as a teen with stoner-rock cult heroes Kyuss and then with Queens, before going on to start the rock’n’roll circus of Desert Sessions, front supergroup Them Crooked Vultures, and produce landmark albums for Arctic Monkeys, Iggy Pop and more, it seems unsurprising that he’s made it this far. He’s one of music’s lifers, but recently he’s been coming to terms with the fact that this life doesn’t last forever.

that we’re gonna do this, and nobody walks away from a situation without knowing that they’ve tried everything possible. If there’s a positive side to this, then to me it was that everybody was really there for each other in a way that you couldn’t have been without the circumstances being so heavy.”

Josh saunters in and sits himself down, 6 feet 5 inches of red leather jacket, leopard print slip ons and Satan-adjacent facial hair. “When you know in advance something’s not gonna be easy, then you know. Even the drive to the studio was an hour every day and an hour back; from the outset it was like, ‘Oh my god…’ and you just know it’s gonna be difficult,” he says. “Sometimes it’s hard to be someone’s friend. Sometimes it’s really not easy…”

“Gallows humour is how I live my life. I love making fun of something because it’s making fun where there was none.”

- Josh Homme

Homme’s Story Time

Josh, it transpires, loves a wildly verbose analogy to get his point across. Regardez…

...ON BEING THE SEASONING OF DESERT SESSIONS

I love the chance to be 2.3% of something that’s really great. I love to have almost nothing to do with why something’s great - I’ll just make tea for that moment. Becoming like salt - salt, you must have, but if you have too much you’re fucked. Being the right amount of the seasoning for this recipe for something good, that’s fucking bitching, that’s a great exercise. It’s a great emotional exercise and this is all emotional callisthenics.

...ON THE QOTSA PIRATE SHIP

It sounds silly but I use the pirate ship analogy because we’re sort of sailing into port, taking as much as we can, giving as much as we can. But once you’re out on the ocean, there is no role that’s more or less important. If your cook fails, you die; your navigator fails, you die; captain fails, you die. When it’s a problem is when someone says, ‘Fuck I wish I was the navigator’ - but you’re the cook! When you have role envy, that’s when there’s a problem, but when everyone understands the vitality of their role then it’s a really great environment.

...ON BAKING AN ALBUM

You’re making something alone and you have no idea - you know you like it but it’s kind of like making a dessert. You make a dessert because it’s a luxury item for yourself, but then someone turns around and [wants it too]. And because making a record is such a luxury item, you really end up making it for yourself because it’s fucking impossible to think of what other people want. You just can’t understand what Sheila in fucking Melbourne wants.

Friendship lies visibly at the heart of Queens of the Stone Age. Theirs is not a ‘separate tour buses’ type of band and, having chopped and changed line-ups over the first portion of their career, the incarnation that’s been steady for the last decade looks unlikely to alter any time soon. When Josh was stuck in the mental mire, then, it was his band mates that “pulled [him] by both arms out of the chair” and back into the studio. “I was trying to do everything possible not to, that’s for sure,” he notes.

For a man who lives and breathes music, who readily admits that he “has no other hobbies” and who answers his own question about becoming a lockdown gardener with a snorted “Fuck no! I’d fucking murder a houseplant; I can’t take vitamins two days in a row”, the saddest thing is to hear how, for a period, he just wasn’t interested. “I think these difficulties in my own life in the last five years have [made me realise] I only have a few things that I need,” he says. “You get surrounded and inundated with the static of stuff and ambitions and things, and they all get peeled away and you only have a few things left. And I had a little trouble getting music to be back in those few things.”

Across the lyrics of ‘In Times New Roman...’, vultures and voyeurs pick their crooked paths through the detritus. On the sombre majesty of ‘Carnavoyeur’, Josh finds some sense of peace: “When there’s nothing I can do / Accept, enjoy the view”; the gnarly stabs of opener ‘Obscenery’, meanwhile, are distinctly less zen as he quips of “voyeurism-jism” and an “empty hole where empathy used to be”. Having had his private life raked over by the tabloids, in March of this year he issued his first public statement: “In light of the continued falsehoods, the repeated invasions of the children’s privacy and the resulting emotional harm, it is time that the truth be told.” It’s an experience that he’s evidently still trying to wrap his head around.

“How’s the best way to say this?” he begins, after a lengthy pause. “It’s not my job to go door to door and convince people not to hate me if they want to jump to that conclusion. It’s my job to show the little people in my house what to do when that happens. The world has become increasingly more about gossip, and gossip is so strong and prevalent it’s like the waves crashing in the ocean - you think it’s receded and then another wave crashes again. But honestly, what should I do? What would you do? What do you do when people say things about you that are wildly untrue, what do you do? I don’t fucking say anything. I turn around and say, ‘That’s not my concern’.

“I want to be good at surviving because as you get better at surviving, withstanding, enduring, getting knocked down and getting back up - as you get better at that, and after the five years I’ve been through, I’m actually so thankful because now something mildly rocky happens and I think, ‘That’s way below my paygrade, I couldn’t give a shit’. And it also binds you together

“It binds you together with your people, these tough times, because you don’t know somebody ‘til everything goes wrong.” - Josh Homme

“I piss on the algorithms. I’ll go with the rhythms I like, thank you very much.”

- Josh Homme

with your people, these tough times, because you don’t know somebody ‘til everything goes wrong. But I know my people, and I know my babies, and we’re welded together forever and ever. So in that sense, it couldn’t be better at how bad it was. What should I do? I made a record and I made it as real as I can, and some people will listen on the way to the shops while they’re riding a bicycle and that’s OK - but if you wanna listen to it the 50th time, you’ll hear something new and you’ll know I mean business.”

The Josh Homme that steps up on ‘In Times New Roman...’, then, is one who’s left it all on the field. Queens of the Stone Age’s eighth is a world away from the light-footed touch of its Mark Ronsonproduced 2017 predecessor ‘Villains’ because how could it not be. But it’s also an album that laughs in the face of adversity, that finds bleak humour in the darkest of corners and that embraces the oncoming apocalypse with a swagger that only they know how.

“This album is very much like: Rome is burning, the Titanic is sinking, and that’s totally OK but I’m just asking what do you wanna do with your time that you have left? Because all I see is there’s a free bar, there’s raw oysters and the band’s gonna play so let’s tango. Hit it, boys!” he grins, flashing a gold tooth and clicking his fingers in command like the ringleader of the last band on earth.

It’s a spirit that also steps onto the stage of Halifax’s Piece Hall later that night. A stately square in the West Yorkshire market town, it’s an unlikely place for one of America’s most beloved rock bands to make their return, but that’s exactly the point. “We’re outsiders. We look for outsider places to play,” says Dean. “Doing things that are a little uncharacteristic and sharing that with people that have been showing up for years, it just makes it better for everybody.” Josh grins widely throughout, the happiest he’s looked on stage in a long time, while Michael sums up the mindset in camp neatly: “I’m feeling more like myself than I have in five years - just as a human being.”

Amongst the undeniably bleak narrative that hangs around the last portion of the band’s history, it’s notable just how much pleasure they’ve managed to still wrangle from the process. As Josh says: “I think life is what you make of it and you will not escape the hardships. I have scars all over me and it’s guaranteed. But I feel like… yeah, but can’t we giggle through this? My last words would be a joke, certainly. Maybe it’d be like, ‘I drank WHAT?!’ Gallows humour is how I live my life. I love making fun of something because it’s making fun where there was none.”

Where, on 2005’s ‘Lullabies to Paralyze’, many of the tracks came imbued with ideas snatched from the Brothers Grimm, and ‘Them Crooked Vultures’ saw the record populated by animals, on ‘In Times New Roman...’, Josh became fixated with making up phrases. ‘Paper Machete’, ‘Emotion Sickness’, ‘What the Peephole Say’ - there’s barely a title on the record that’s not rooted in wordplay.

“I love words, I’m making up words and on a surface level they’re puns so you can be like, ‘It’s pun-tastic! Wacka wacka, I’m here all week!” he goofs, drink in hand. “But the truth is Bill Shakespeare made up words: elbow, impossible, untenable, inexcusable and on and on. English is so great, we just take other words and go, ‘Entrepreneur - that’s mine’, ‘Los Angeles - that’s mine’. The angels, we’ll call a city The Angels, we’ll just take it. And it’s funny, these entendre-isms, the -isms, the -esques, they’re so quintessentially English.” He pauses, eyebrow raised. “There’s not shit tonnes of that in Germany, I don’t know if you know that…”

Over his tenure on the frontline of rock, Josh has found a language - literal, musical, metaphorical, sometimes made up - that makes sense of the world. “So much of the time, I have no idea what to say. I wish my face could make the sounds that would fix the people I love and help them, but I just can’t do it,” he admits. “But I can play you something; I could get way closer.” It’s the thing that provided a life raft when he was cast fully out to sea, that pushed its way back into his life - with a little help from his friends - even when he tried not to let it.

“When everything is burning but you have one thing in your life where you don’t even say, ‘Is this good enough?’” he nods, “the exercise of being 100% honest, the process of making something with a romanticism of chasing your ideals extinguishes these fires around you and shows you a clear pathway to get out.”

Returning to the fold with a summer of festival headlines and a winter UK arena tour lined up, it’s notable how these stalwarts of the scene don’t actually feel like that at all. Sure, ‘No One Knows’ will always hit any set like

Thor’s hammer, but Queens of the Stone Age are resolutely a band in the now, pushing forward, doing what they do. “Most people make a record to promote a tour, whereas what we did was put on blinders, tunnel vision, and make the best piece of art we could possibly make,” says Michael.

“How do you stay vital even when you’re an old fuck? I don’t feel old, but I’m 50 and that sounds old,” picks up the frontman. “I think you have to just not give a fuck, and not rest on what you’ve learned. The landscape is always changing and we’ve already played a few festivals where I’m like, what the fuck is all this? But our goal is to be pulled through the eye of a needle and make it, so that when the line up changes and it’s all strange then we’re still there and it’s still vital and that’s definitely happening now to us, for us, with us. I didn’t know who half the bands were before anyway in any other landscapes, but I did drink a lot…”

In a world full of algorithms, Josh and his band of merry men are the rock’n’roll pirates drawing their swords and fighting the good fight for something altogether more raw and true. Mention the robots to the frontman and it’s like you’ve spat on his grave. “I piss on the algorithms. I’ll go with the rhythms I like, thank you very much,” he smirks. “People’s fascination that a robot can do it, I’m like, I’ll sodomise that robot. AI will come for me last, cos I wanna find my dumbest things and turn them up, and I love that, I think it’s sexy. It’s the black eye of AI and that’s why, the first chance I get, I’m gonna piss on that parade.”

Fiery, feisty and funny as hell, Josh has weathered a storm that could have viably floored many and almost took him under too, but he’s emerged more sure than ever of what life is really all about: giving a shit to the people

and places that matter, being true to yourself, warts and all (or warts, especially), and throwing absolutely all your chips on the table.

“I feel like, if I don’t risk anything then I’m fucked. I love insurmountable odds. Tell me there’s no chance and I’m in. That’s my love language,” he laughs. “I used to say life is hard because it’s worth it, but I recognise that hard slog as being like, ‘Oh we’re going somewhere good’. I recognise the late nights as trying to make the most of a night that’s wonderful. I’ve been thrown out of some of the best places in the world and, for me, that just reconfirms that, with so little time left, I’m gonna fucking explode. I wanna be a fireworks finale at all times.”

‘In Times New Roman...’ is out now via Matador. DIY

Queens of the Stone Age play this year’s Mad Cool - where DIY is a media partner - which takes place from 6th to 8th July.

“It’s not my job to go door to door and convince people not to hate me if they want to jump to that conclusion.”

- Josh Homme

DON’T CALL IT A Comeback

FULLY TAKING THE REINS OF PVRIS AS A SOLO PROJECT FOR THE FIRST TIME, ‘EVERGREEN’ IS LYNN GUNN FOLLOWING HER INSTINCTS AND FIGHTING AGAINST THE ALGORITHMIC TIDE. Words: Ben Tipple. Photos: Ed Miles.

Musicians often have it harder than other artists when it comes to stepping away from what’s expected of them. It’s a theory that PVRIS’ creative powerhouse Lynn Gunn is musing on while folding laundry and occasionally interrupting to question the odd behaviour of her cat; typically existential for the Boston-born musician, it also feels particularly pertinent in the run up to her fourth studio album ‘EVERGREEN’, one that has sparked conversation around a shifting style since the unveiling of dual lead singles ‘ANIMAL’ and ‘ANYWHERE BUT HERE’. The first, a digitised and defiant rager, harks back to the fury of 2014 debut ‘White Noise’, while the second embraces a more natural sound, in keeping with the greens and earth tones that run throughout the record’s wide-ranging visual aesthetic. Subsequent singles have played with the two directions further, not least ‘LOVE IS A…’’s nod to ‘Anti’-era Rihanna.

This topic of conversation is one that Lynn has been confronted with before. Each of PVRIS’ albums, running in parallel with line-up changes and Lynn’s more recent decision to approach the project as a solo effort, have pushed the boundaries of what the outfit sounds like. Similarly, each time Lynn has felt a need to defend her shift in direction - no matter how subtle. However, on ‘EVERGREEN’, she’s firmly cementing the thread that in her mind pulls the band’s vibrant and varied, decade-long career together: creating what feels right and making sure to have fun whilst doing it.

“The DNA of PVRIS – what we use in the studio, and the sounds that I gravitate to - are always the same, I just choose to accentuate them in certain songs and pull back in others,” she says, tracking the throughline from 2012 to now.

“The tastes are still the same. I love aggressive things; I love dreamy things; I love finding the ways that those balance together. I love synthetic sounds, I love organic sounds, I love heavy distortion, and I love clean sounds. It’s just finding ways to make them interact in different ways. It’s using the sounds that I love, and being intentional about how each one fits into the mix and the composition of each song.”

That intention has been hard-fought. Before this album, PVRIS parted ways with Warner, and have opted to team up with alternative stalwarts Hopeless for the release of ‘EVERGREEN’ - a step that, on the surface, sits at odds with Lynn’s deliberate push away from the pop-punk scene that first fostered the band, but in practice has given her the freedom to rediscover her enjoyment for her art. “I know all the things that I don’t want to do,

just because they don’t feel natural to me at this point in my life,” she continues. “Really my only goal here as an artist is to create something that I hope connects with people. For that to be a thing, I felt like I had to go back to my roots as a kid, and what it was like to make music. To me it was about what felt exciting to make, and not to think about the consequences, boundaries, or restrictions of that. Just what feels fun, and what feels exciting.”

That clarity has also been heightened by stepping back from the digital world, removing herself almost entirely from online spaces in a personal experiment of sorts. Spawned from the pandemic’s full reliance on digitisation to stay connected, Lynn has undertaken a full 180, with PVRIS’ socials now only used for sporadic formal announcements. It’s come, she says, with mixed feelings. “Ironically, the longer I was offline and not creating content on a regular basis, I felt like every day I was ruining my life or PVRIS’ career,” she says. “But I just know I’m not here to do [the social media conveyor belt], and I don’t think a lot of us are here to do that.

“I’m ten years into this, and what we’ve done is very much based on tangible experiences and connections, and going out into physical spaces rather than creating a livestream or playing in the

metaverse,” she continues. “I think the pace in which we consume and create art has all shifted too, so how do you make something that transcends that or stands up against it, and still find a way to connect with people when everything is disconnecting further? The longer I was offline, no matter how busy I was working on the album, I felt really anxious. It felt like at any second the world might have moved on, even with just the small amount of capital we take up. It’s really sad that’s where we are in the world. That was a big conscious thought the entire time of making ‘EVERGREEN’: What is going on? What’s happening? How do I fit into it? Do I fit into it? And are we even made for this?”

The battle between feeling anxious to leave but unable to stay within that level of digital connection underpins much of ‘EVERGREEN’’s two halves. Thunderous opener ‘I DON’T WANNA DO THIS ANYMORE’ tellingly launches with Lynn’s digitallyenhanced vocals, leading into a brilliantly despondent chorus that clearly lays out her frustrations with how things are unfurling. “Something doesn’t feel right,” she laments.

“Am I losing my mind?” Whether deliberately split down the middle or not, ‘EVERGREEN’ presents a journey from the dangerous dysfunction of a purely online existence to an alternate life within the expanse of nature. It’s a narrative arc that suggests there’s still hope to be found. “It’s going from that feeling that I simply don’t want to be doing this anymore, to that I want to keep doing this for as long as I can and am supposed to,” Lynn notes.

Having consistently spearheaded the band’s creative vision across ‘White Noise’, 2017’s ‘All We Know Of Heaven’ and 2020’s ‘Use Me’, ‘EVERGREEN’ marks yet another chapter for PVRIS, but one in which Lynn is flying fully solo. A question on

“I felt like I had to go back to my roots as a kid, and what it was like to make music [then]

Lynn Gunn

how the change has developed her artistry is politely but quickly shot down. “It’s important to note that was never really an issue,” she states succinctly.

Instead, and arguably more excitingly, ‘EVERGREEN’ is the continued work of an artist unafraid to push boundaries whilst remaining true to themselves, keeping a throughline that has seen the project move from strength to strength, even when faced with unexpected adversity. “Making the album, I just crossed my fingers and closed my eyes and hoped that this would translate outwards,” she recalls. “I know that it feels fun for me, and that’s the best that I can do at this point in time. The crowds for this next chapter so far have been really amazing and supportive. It feels like a new energy, and it feels really exciting; a really positive and welcome space for people going to the shows.”

Undeterred by external expectation, and encouraged by fan reaction to date, Lynn presents ‘EVERGREEN’ as a poignant reflection of herself and her personal realisations over the past few years. No longer feeling a need to justify her decisions, and backed by a supportive team of like-minded individuals, the concept of PVRIS is stronger than ever. It sees Lynn push against the algorithm, channelling the creative freedom afforded to and celebrated by artists beyond music, deliberately detaching from the zeitgeist that is seeing more and more pop artists venture into the pop-punk world and swapping major label support for a proven independent.

“To me, what PVRIS is and always has been, is just about focussing on what feels exciting and doing that as fearlessly as you can within whatever circumstances you are in,” she says. “That’s the throughline.”

‘EVERGREEN’ is out 14th July via Hopeless. DIY

PVRIS: THE STORY SO FAR…

White Noise (2014) Their Rise Recordsreleased debut cemented PVRIS as an alternative trio, propelling the band onto stages at Warped Tour as well as support for Bring Me The Horizon, Fall Out Boy and more across the globe.

All We Know Is Heaven, All We Need of Hell (2017) Leaning more into darker territory, PVRIS’ expansive second album hinted at Lynn’s bubbling desire to stretch their sound, blending pop with stadium-ready anthems.

Use Me (2020) For the first time, PVRIS’ major label debut listed Lynn Gunn as co-producer, placing her front and centre to further embrace pop influences, featuring collaborations with the likes of Raye and 070 Shake.

EVERGREEN (2023)

The result of Lynn’s complex relationship with

“What PVRIS has done is based on tangible experiences and going out into physical spaces rather than playing in the metaverse .” - Lynn Gunn

OMEARA

BEAVERTOWN PRESENTS:

TALK SHOW + HUMOUR + WYNONA

MADELINE EDWARDS

BOWEN*YOUNG

JOSEPH LAWRENCE

TREVOR NELSON’S SOUL NATION

SUMMER PARTY

SIAN ELERI PRESENTS TONNA’:

WASIA PROJECT + B-AHWE + HANA LILI

FEEL

BEAVERTOWN

HURRAY FOR THE RIFF RAFF (DUO ACOUSTIC) OSCAR

THE SOUTH LONDON SOUL TRAIN

CHRISTIAN LEE HUTSON

DANIEL

Following

Words: Max Pilley.

Having broken into wider public acclaim with Mercury Prize-shortlisted second album ‘Seeking Thrills’ in 2020, Georgia should reasonably have been primed to attack its follow-up with an air of unassailable confidence. But as the musician sat on a plane to Los Angeles, bound for a world far beyond her familiar surroundings, she could barely mask the swirl of insecurity and uncertainty that was churning inside. The London-based producer, who made ‘Seeking Thrills’ and her 2015 self-titled debut single-handedly within the confines of her home studio, had harboured an inner ambition for Album Three to take her beyond her safety net. Once confronted with that reality, however, it all seemed a little daunting.

“I’m resistant to change, so getting on that plane was quite hard for me,” she says. “I had never lived anywhere else other than London, and I was leaving all that behind. I did feel vulnerable. But that was the adventure I was after.”

However, judging by the resultant album ‘Euphoric’, Georgia’s trepidation was soon quashed by the wellspring of new artistic opportunities that the City of Angels had to offer her. The record shimmers with an irrepressible pop enthusiasm; a bold, assured stride into the glare of the spotlight. Where previously, her songs still had their tendrils clamped around Georgia’s underground roots, here they grasp fearlessly at the stars.

“It’s a little bit more a stamp of the music that I want to make,” she says about her new melody-driven work. “I love ‘Seeking Thrills’, obviously, but it’s very nostalgic for the Chicago house thing, whereas this one feels like it’s really new and doesn’t sound like anything else.”

What brought her to Los Angeles was the promise of co-producing alongside Rostam Batmanglij: the erstwhile Vampire Weekend keyboardist turned go-to pop producer. He had heard ‘Live Like We’re Dancing’, Georgia’s 2020 Mura Masa collaboration, and immediately contacted her to tell of his admiration.

“He sent me a message that basically said, ‘I just think that your voice is so incredible’,” Georgia recalls. An avowed Rostam fan, she couldn’t have been more excited, and when she found herself in LA for a show, she reached back out

the success of ‘Seeking Thrills’, Georgia is stepping into her pop star era on a ‘Euphoric’ new wave.

to him. The next day they were writing and recording together in Rostam’s home studio and within hours, they had created the final version of single ‘It’s Euphoric’.

‘It’s Euphoric’ is emblematic of Georgia’s transformation - a heady dancefloor jam that springs with elastic pop joy. Alongside the infectious groove of ‘Give It Up for Love’ and ‘All Night’, these new tracks place Georgia’s voice front and centre, and they reap sprightly, fizzing rewards. Rostam’s first message to Georgia would seem to have been the tipping point in this shift, the nudge needed to unleash her inner pop star. “I think I’ve been a bit lazy in the past,” she reflects, with unnecessary contrition. “I’ve never felt truly happy enough with my vocals before this. On ‘Seeking Thrills’, a lot of the vocals were processed through effects units, but on a lot of these new songs, they are quite dry. That felt like a really massive development for me, and I think it’s because I was taking the risk of doing the process differently.”

‘Euphoric’ strides with full-chested confidence, and while its crossover credentials are rock solid, it retains Georgia’s commitment to sonic invention. She cites Rosalía and Billie Eilish as examples of artists charting similar waters between accessibility and esoterica, a hinterland that feels like home to Georgia. “I think it’s been hard for people to place exactly what my music is, and I like that,” she says. “I see myself as a pop artist that is pushing the boundaries a little bit, a bit left of centre, not afraid to introduce new sounds within the pop framework. That’s always been the music that I like and have been inspired by.”

It speaks to the fertile underground scene in London from which she emerged in the early 2010s, where it was typical to see James Blake DJ alongside Mica Levi or Jamie xx in an abandoned factory. Indeed, Georgia’s own start came via her drumming for artists like Kwes and Kae Tempest, and she remembers fondly the sense of collective excitement among her peers when new landmark tracks from Jai Paul or Burial would drop, redefining what they saw as the possible future.

Bring up the question of whether her city has retained that spirit, though, and the mood changes. “I think London is in serious trouble at the moment,” she says. “It doesn’t feel as creative or free as it did ten years ago.”

She admits that the thought of permanently relocating to Los Angeles entices her, identifying the same artistic freedom there that she now sees dwindling in her own city. “It does feel like the cost of living has kind of priced artists out,” she says. “People have had to move further and further out of London, which is just going to have a knock-on effect on the creative output of the city.”

She accepts that the current difficulties can partly be ascribed to the natural cycle of peaks and troughs, but Georgia is nonetheless clear where the blame lies. “It reflects the political, socio-economic situation, really,” she continues. “People here are really struggling, and the division between the rich and the poor has got so severe that people haven’t got enough money to take risks and go to little gigs or try to be pushing things forward.”

For her own part, though, Georgia’s appetite for artistic growth is stronger than ever, and with ‘Euphoric’ only weeks away from release, it’s obvious that she feels the wind in her sails. “I want to be known as someone with something to say that is weird and wacky, and this album has been the perfect opportunity for that,” she concludes. “I want to be seen as a singer; I have the confidence to say that now. I’m ready.”

‘Euphoric’ is out 28th July via Domino. DIY

“London is in serious trouble. It doesn’t feel as creative or free as it did ten years ago.”

Holding

Back with a stunning new album alongside an enormous stadium tour, Blur’s Graham Coxon and Dave Rowntree tell us why Blur are still the least nostalgic reunion band around. Words: Lisa Wright.

on for

For a band whose sporadic reunions consistently provoke gleeful fan furore, whose back catalogue sits objectively within the top tier of Britain’s best and who sold out Wembley Stadium’s 90,000 tickets in literally two minutes for the first date of their current comeback run, Blur have never been interested in being a nostalgia outfit. Their last gettogether in 2015 brought with it ‘The Magic Whip’ - the band’s first album since 2003 - and now comes ‘The Ballad of Darren’: a melodically-rich addition to their canon that continues to push the quartet’s story forward.

“We like to have something out if we’re gonna do shows otherwise it’s like we’re doing it for the money or something - which is not true actually,” says guitarist Graham Coxon, aggressively ruffling his hair as if trying to expel even the notion of a reunion cash cow from his head. Joined on Zoom today by drummer Dave Rowntree, it’s not that the pair aren’t proud or interested in their past, but they’re just far more invested in the present. As Dave puts it: “We’re not wistful people. We don't sit around going, ’Remember that time…’ We’re rather more in the moment than that.”

As such, ‘The Ballad of Darren’ is marked by a relatively speedy conception period that saw the band working hard and fast to meet the deadlines sprung upon them. Having secretly had the Wembley shows in the works for a number of years, a series of pandemic-based delays meant that, even as recently as last autumn, their viability was still up in the air. “It was a longstanding plan to do Wembley and I

thought this year it wasn’t going to happen again - maybe it would be pushed to next year - but then suddenly the venue released some new dates and we got this phone call from our agent going, ‘It’s on but we’ve got to put the tickets on sale tomorrow!’” recalls Dave.

“So it wasn’t really much time to make an album. To do that, we had to start immediately and everything had to work,” he continues. “There wasn’t any time to fiddle around, we had to get going and it had to be good and it had to happen now. None of that was guaranteed and it never is, so the stars aligned really. Sometimes you’re playing tennis and your tennis racket seems twenty feet across and every shot goes in, and your opponents applaud at the end of every point. It kind of felt a bit like that. Everything just worked.”

Starting life as a series of demos written by Damon Albarn while on a recent tour with Gorillaz, ‘The Ballad of Darren’ finds Blur working together as four musicians relying solely on each other - and a little help from producer James Ford. It’s a back-to-basics album in a way; one written with limitations in mind (the initial demos would have no strings, no brass) that instead puts all its chips on Damon’s intrinsic way with a melody and the band’s longstanding chemistry. On ‘Russian Strings’, layers of backing harmonies and richly

chiming guitars create the heavenly backdrop; ‘Barbaric’ is all choppy, poppy tempos, while recent single ‘St. Charles Square’ harks back to the band’s scrappy youthfulness in a way that feels magical. There’s no tricks, it’s just Blur doing what only Blur know how.

“When you listen to a lot of things these days it’s very embellished, there are a lot of choral arrangements and vibraphones on some types of music and it’s polishing a turd, it really is, because the song underneath is as flimsy as it gets,” argues Graham. “So I think the limitation we had of it just being us four to begin with was a good decision.”

Describing the sessions as ones that were less chat and more “pick up your instruments and get on with it”, Blur began work on their ninth in January and finished it just two weeks before releasing lead single ‘The Narcissist’ in May. Embracing the vibrancy and fertility of ideas that came from this shortened timeframe, it’s the unexpected moments that also make the record such a fresh listen. “There’s what I would call mistakes or things that didn’t go to plan - especially with the guitars, like when I lost control or lost my place,” recalls Graham. “On ‘Goodbye Albert’, it was like freefall, but then those parts took on a life of their own; that’s why I like working fast.”

30 years on from second album ‘Modern Life is Rubbish’, there are parallels of Blur in 2023 that hark back

“When you listen to a lot of [music] these days it’s very embellished, and it’s like polishing a turd.”

- Graham Coxon

COMEBACK KIDS

Since initially going quiet following 2003’s ‘Think Tank’, Blur have been the gift that keeps on giving in terms of reunions. Here’s how they’ve played out so far…

2009

Blur announce their first shows back together as a quartet in December 2008, following Graham Coxon’s departure in 2002. Headlining the first of Hyde Park’s British Summer Time shows and that year’s Glastonbury Festival, they also kick off with a warm up run including a gig at alma mater Goldsmiths College.

2012

Round two comes with a AA side single of new material - the elegiac ‘Under the Westway’ and altogether weirder ‘The Puritan’alongside another Hyde Park headline, this time to close out the London Olympics.

2015

Releasing their first new album in 12 years, ‘The Magic Whip’ brings the quartet back together for a world tour including, yep, Hyde Park #3.

2023

Following their longest ever stint away, a huge sigh of relief is breathed by one and all when, in November 2022, Blur announce their first ever Wembley Stadium shows. ‘The Ballad of Darren’ follows a few months after.

to that game-changing time. ‘Modern Life…’, says Dave, was a “sink or swim” record for the band. “The head of the label was so disgusted by it that he said if it wasn’t successful he was gonna dump us. So it was a leap off into the abyss,” the drummer remembers. And while there are no such pressures these days, a similar sort of instinctive musicality seems present, of going against the predominant radio landscape into “something that was a lot more traditional… when instruments just sounded like instruments”. “It’s a good album,” decides Graham of their second before adding: “It’s great that, 30 years later, people are celebrating it so much because they didn’t back then…”

Though both Dave and Graham note that the public have a far greater appetite for these sort of anniversary celebrations than the quartet themselves (“It’s an interesting way to feel old,” summarises the drummer of his feelings towards the matter), there have nonetheless been plenty of recent opportunities for romantic reflection, should they have wished it.

In May, the group kicked off a short run of warm up dates at Colchester Arts Centre, in the town where Graham, Dave and Damon all grew up before forming the band properly - alongside bassist Alex James - in London. It was, says Dave, the venue where he first met Damon “after a gig of his in some other band, so it was quite surreal [to come back and play it] really”. “I remember how big it looked as a teenager,” he continues with a chuckle, “and thinking, ‘Wow imagine if you could sell enough tickets to sell out this place…’”

There’s still a lingering trace of those young musicians, embarking on an uphill battle to success, present when they talk about their forthcoming fixtures too. “The idea of a band like us at the ‘Modern Life is Rubbish’ time playing Wembley Stadium is almost laughable,” says Dave. “I remember there being a column in the NME making fun of our lofty ambitions to want to be anything more than a tiny little miserable indie band still signed on the dole, making fun of the fact that we might even be successful. And it genuinely was funny, the idea that a little indie guitar band would ever be in the charts; they used to have the Independent Chart to make it look like people were doing something and we weren’t even in that.”

They might prefer to be firmly focussed on what’s next, but the members of Blur are clearly aware of their singular trajectory; that, 35 years on from those first steps, to still be this beloved by so many is a fate bestowed on only the very, very few. As long as people keep offering them exciting new opportunities, says dave, the band could still keep going. “There must be some kind of shady committee somewhere - the Blur Carrot Committee - that meets every five years to dangle something tempting in front of us,” he laughs.

“I didn’t even think into next week when I was 21 or 22, so to be approaching middle-50s and have this going on…” Graham smiles quietly, “I’d have been quite amazed.”

‘The Ballad of Darren’ is out 21st July via Parlophone. DIY

“The idea of a band like us at the ‘Modern Life is Rubbish’ time playing Wembley Stadium is almost laughable.” - Dave Rowntree

HEAVY

“I’M AN ADULT NOW, AND I’M COMFORTABLE WITH MY SEXUALITY, BUT I’M THE ONE IN CONTROL.”

-

Jemina Pearl

Back after 15 years away with a new album that embraces the powers and nocturnal pleasures of adulthood, BE

are all grown up and ready for Round Two. Words: Rhian Daly. Photos: Ed Miles.

YOUR OWN PET

I“s that necklace new?” John Eatherly asks Jemina Pearl, pointing to the gold chain that sits around her neck. “Yeah, they made it for me,” she grins, touching the red letters that hang in the middle of it and read ‘MOMMY’. “Damn, it looks cool,” the drummer replies as the Be Your Own Pet frontwoman turns to show her new statement piece to DIY.

Take a quick scroll through social media and it won’t take long until you come across the word ‘daddy’. But what about their female counterparts? Where is their recognition and visibility? That’s a question that Pearl has been contemplating, and one that informs the band’s triumphant comeback album, fittingly titled ‘Mommy’.

“There’s such a culture around the term ‘daddy’ – this dom-like, authority figure,” she explains, sitting with her bandmates in a Hackney hotel, flanked by tall, leafy plants and stripy upholstering. “I feel like, sometimes, mothers get a little forgotten and disempowered in life, and because of that role you’re invisible. So, why can’t ‘mommy’ be this powerful word, just like the term ‘daddy’ is?”

After 15 years apart, Be Your Own Pet are back and ready to reclaim not just the idea of what a mommy is or can be but… well, just about everything. In their first stint together – from 2004 to 2008, when all four members were teenagers – they became cult garage-punk heroes, exorcising teen angst and fury at the world in songs filled with tales of murder and violence, and with one of the most chaotic, exhilarating live shows around.

But the rock’n’roll dream quickly became a nightmare. They burned out from a whirlwind of touring and the hard partying lifestyle they felt expected to keep up, just two albums in. Jemina, in particular, also had to run the gauntlet of being a young woman in the public eye, and was constantly sexualised, despite being a minor.

A comeback did not seem likely but, in 2021, she and guitarist Jonah Stein began wondering if it was possible, inspired by seeing other bands from their time reuniting. They called up John and bassist Nathan Vasquez, regrouped in a practice space in Nashville that December, and immediately

reignited the spark that made the band burn so brightly the first time around. “Enough time had passed where none of the bullshit [from before] mattered,” Jemina says. “It just felt like, ‘I’m hanging out with my three best friends again’.”

Although he’s fully on board now, Nathan was hesitant at first to get back together. For the last nine years, he’s worked as a web developer – a world away from the life of a touring and recording band. “It just felt like the biggest existential shift,” he recalls now. “We all separately had established our own lives and I had walked into a rigid regiment and routine that really worked for me.”

Hours after the band’s first practice, however, they got an offer that cemented their plans to return to the stage. While at Third Man Records’ Christmas party, head honcho Jack White invited them to support him at some shows the following April. BYOP accepted but, instead of making their big comeback at a cavernous arena, they opted to play a small, secret warm-up gig in a sweaty, 150-capacity club.

“I have never been more nervous for a show in my life than the one that we played at this tiny club,” the frontwoman laughs. But as soon as they stepped out in front of the crowd, she felt like everything was as it should be, and a few songs into the set, she got further confirmation when she looked over at her husband. “He had never seen us back in the day and he was like…” She drops her jaw and widens her eyes in thrilled surprise. “I think it kind of blew his mind!”

One of the things that convinced Nathan to give Be Your Own Pet

2.0 a go was the agreement that the band’s return wouldn’t just be a nostalgia trip – new music would be produced too. They almost instantly honoured that deal, each bringing one idea to the rehearsal room after their initial hang and jamming them out together. “It was very casual, low expectations,” Jemina says. “But it was really fun.”

You can hear that fun on ‘Mommy’, a confident and commanding return that feels true to the band who lit up the early noughties, but also refuses to relive past glories. It opens with ‘Worship The Whip’, in which Jemina embodies the record’s titular character: domineering, sexy, full of sneered instructions to “Lick it up, baby / Lick it clean”. It immediately subverts what you might expect from an album named after another word for mother –especially given how society tends to strip people of their sexuality once they’ve entered that phase of their lives.

“That was definitely part of it,” Jemina explains of the idea behind the racy song. “I felt very sexualised when we were doing Be Your Own Pet when I was a teenager, and I was very uncomfortable with it. I look back on things

PETTING

THE RUBBERIST

On the album cover and at the band’s shows, you’ll find Jemina wearing outfits of black latex – another example of her reclaiming her identity from the trauma of the past.

When I was younger, I didn’t want to wear anything too loud on stage because I wanted people coming to our shows to see themselves [in me] and to be approachable. And I also felt so uncomfortable – I would wear a dress and people would be taking upskirt shots of me. Now, I don’t really care because I just feel in control of the whole thing, so I’m like, ‘Yeah, let’s get sexy with it’.

people wrote about me and it’s kind of insane what they were saying about a 17-year-old girl. I’m an adult now, and I’m comfortable with my sexuality, but I’m the one in control.”

The album as a whole has helped the frontwoman reclaim not just her sexuality, but her voice and identity too. “I got to write the lyrics – the guys helped me, but they let me go for it and say what I wanted to say,” she smiles. “I had put the Be Your Own Pet persona away and felt like I really needed to focus on being a mum and being really nurturing –which is all good, but getting to sing in this voice again feels very, very right to me. I feel like a full, complete person now and I can be both things at the same time.”

Lyrically, the album also finds her in complete control, dissecting her life in the way that she wants to. ‘Bad Moon Rising’ deals with her experiences with bipolar disorder, turning that illness into a tough punk anthem. On the fiery, rousing ‘Hand Grenade’, she takes back her own power by defining herself, defiantly singing: “I’m not your victim / I’m my own person.”

The siren-laced, pummelling riffs of ‘Big Trouble’, meanwhile, enter the fray of politics. “I want wages for housework / I want childcare for free,” she declares towards the end. “I want on-demand abortions / Full body autonomy.” BYOP’s old songs might course with anger, but now,

Jemina knows where she’s directing her fury.

“I didn’t fully understand why I was so pissed off [back then],” she says. “I had a hard time putting those political ideas out because I didn’t have the vocabulary for it. Now that I’m older, there’s so many reasons to be angry. And I also just wanted to say ‘I want on-demand abortions’ in a song – especially with what’s going on in America right now, where it’s quickly becoming impossible to get.”

Now a mother to two kids, and sharing that she has had an abortion in the past, Jemina notes that there are two sides to achieving “full body autonomy”: “We need support as mothers, and we also need the support to make a choice for when we want to become mothers.”

Still angry and still incredibly vital, Be Your Own Pet’s future thankfully looks bright. Although they haven’t had any conversations about next steps – or records – they’re confident there’s plenty more left in the tank. “I feel like if we’d had two more weeks [of writing and recording], we very easily could have had another album, or a double album,” says John. His bandmates nod in agreement as Jemina shrugs: “It’s fun now, it’s changed.”

‘Mommy’ is out 25th August via Third Man. DIY

“Why can’t ‘mommy’ be this powerful word, just like the term ‘daddy’ is?”Jemina Pearl

Do Nothing

’s long-awaited debut is finally here. ‘Snake Sideways’ is the result of a band letting go and finding a new sense of themselves. Words: Louis Griffin. Photos: Emma Swann.

JUKEBOX JURY

When you’re writing an album, influences can pop out in all kinds of strange places. During a tour of Do Nothing’s subterranean studios, vocalist Chris tells us about their grab-bag of odd inspirations for ‘Snake Sideways’.

YVES TUMOR

‘Parody’

Yves … Tumour? Not sure how you say it, but their new album is sick. All over the place.

Loads of it is weird rock, and loads of it is bizarre shit. I always want to DJ it, but it’s a bit full-on.

LEONARD COHEN

‘Tower of Song’

I’ve listened to the classic acoustic stuff, but I really like this era. The lowest voice ever, and really shitty drum machines.

FIEVEL IS GLAUQUE

‘The River’

It’s this guy who writes all this crazy jazz shit, and this French lady sings over it – it’s fucking sick. All their live sessions are crazy, like [mimes interpretive jazz solo].

PAUL MCCARTNEY

‘Temporary Secretary’

It’s the one all the cool kids like. You can see it in his eyes on the album cover, he’s fucking lost it. It doesn’t sound like him at all, it’s fucking great.

MARGO GURYAN

‘16 Words’

I just find this one so funny. It’s called ‘16 Words’ because there’s only 16 words in the song: “The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa”. Fuck’s sake, man…

“The album itself ended up being a bit of a weird, self-referential freak-out about pressure and album-writing.”

OCTOBER ‘23

Weeding Out the Competition

Having spent the last three years cementing her status as one of music’s most unique and uncompromising characters, debut album ‘WEEDKILLER’ is here to underscore Ashnikko as an alt-pop artist like no other. Words: Nick Levine.

If you already had Ashnikko down as an alt-pop artist of rare imagination, then debut full-length ‘WEEDKILLER’ is about to raise her own fantastical bar into the ether. Based on a short story written by the visionary singerrapper, it’s an enthralling “half-concept album” set in a dystopian realm populated by “fae-like” people called Nym. “They have a beautifully symbiotic relationship with the trees and all the plants in the forest,” she explains, speaking over Zoom from Prague where she’s about to play a festival. “It really is one big breathing community and entity.”

This idyllic-sounding realm becomes dystopian because of a destructive force that could be interpreted allegorically; certainly, the story’s antagonists sound like a representation of very contemporary concerns surrounding technological progress and the impending environmental disaster. “To simplify the story,” Ash continues, “the forest is kind of mown down and has all life sucked out of it by biomatter-eating machines called Weedkillers.” These machines don’t view the Nym as a community, Ashnikko says, but simply as “something to harvest and be controlled.”

Whatever you take from the album’s overarching narrative, though, there’s no denying it makes for bracing and uncommonly evocative music. An inescapable sense of doom and destruction looms large on the menacing title track, which features the sound of cocked guns followed by shot after shot. “We always knew it would come to this / That I would be the one to eliminate you,” Ashnikko sings, presumably giving voice to the malevolent Weedkillers.

An avid devourer of fantasy video games, graphic novels and books, as well as the dystopian literature of Margaret Atwood, Ash says she has

“always been fascinated by apocalyptic stories” like the one she weaves on her debut. “For me, it’s the ultimate test,” she says. “I like writing about the creativity and survival instinct that people have in those moments.”

Where much of the record sits within this narrative, she explains that others made the cut for the record because “they just made me feel very in touch with my roots”. Born in North Carolina, the area gave the musician a deep appreciation of nature that clearly informs the storytelling on her debut. “I grew up in the countryside, playing in the creek and climbing fruit trees and stuff,” she recalls. “So yeah, I definitely love being outside – I grew up in the mud.”

In recent times, she admits that her nature-loving side has “faltered” due to the pressures and stresses of becoming one of the alt-pop world’s brightest new stars. “But I think I’ve definitely come back to that,” she adds. “Like, my love for the outdoors and just reminding myself that I’m an animal has circled back for me in the past three or four years. And [it makes me] feel like a kid again, in a way, which is nice.”

As such, the fantasy world she creates on ‘WEEDKILLER’ is informed as much by her bucolic childhood as it is her fondness for the apocalyptic. In the middle, where the beauty of the natural world and the ravage and rampage of our modern one battle each other, seems to be the sweet spot where the singer most keenly sits. “I grew up making little fairy houses in my backyard out of sticks and moss, and pressing flowers on my notebook and writing little fairy stories,” she says. “I’ve always been fascinated with both [of those things], so I put them together in one story.”

“I am a creative person, through and through.”

dance naked through the forests and swim in streams. That’s how my ideal year would pan out.”

As a teenager, Ash moved with her family to Estonia and then to neighbouring Latvia, where she was the only American student in the public school system. In June of this year, she wrote an incredibly moving Pride Month love letter to the LGBTQ+ community, in which she spoke about the cumulative impact of growing up in the Bible Belt and a “notoriously homophobic” Baltic state. “Being queer in those environments is one of the greatest heartbreaks of my life,” she wrote. “It will stay with me forever. I have sanded over the rough edges of it, made it hurt less, but the weight of it still sits in my chest, a smooth marble.”

When she was 18, she

relocated to London, by herself, to pursue music. It was here, she wrote in that letter, “that I started to find my people in the queer community, that I let the roots take hold and my growth began”. Since December 2021, she has been in a relationship with another musician, the Mercury Prize-winning singer-songwriter Arlo Parks.

When DIY asks if London now feels like home, Ash says she’s still figuring it out. “That’s a question I ask myself all the time,” she says. “I’m definitely kind of caught in the middle. But I’m happy having two homes. It’s all about the people. And I have such a beautiful community of family and chosen family all over the world. So yeah, I feel at home in multiple places.”

“I would

Ever since she dropped her fabulously-titled debut EP, 2017’s ‘Sass Pancakes’, Ashnikko’s music has pulsed with a plain-spoken potency. She dares to say things on record that other, less fearless artists wouldn’t. ‘You Make Me Sick’, the visceral first single from WEEDKILLER’, harnesses the musician’s rage but also showcases her brutal sense of humour. “You fucking loser / Red meat deadbeat, you fucking tumor,” she raps over a buzzing industrial beat. “Can’t believe I let your hands inside my bloomers.”

Ashnikko says she wrote the savage banger “about an ex, in classic ‘me’ form” and likens it to “releasing a toxin”. “I just really wanted to scream. I just wanted to have a little explosion [and] a little catharsis and kind of be a little cruel,” she says. “I wrote it, and then the feeling of resentment I had dissipated. It was a huge release for me. And I love that song; it’s really fun to play live.”

This sentiment has been a running theme. On 2019’s ‘Stupid’, a swaggering number with Atlanta rapper Yung Baby Tate that became her first viral hit, she taunts a deluded “stupid boy” by rapping: “I know you think about me in the shower... think about me with your hand down your trousers”. In addition to collaborations with Grimes (‘Cry’), Princess Nokia (‘Slumber Party’) and the genius use of a Kelis sample (‘Deal with It’), 2021’s ‘Demidevil’ mixtape then included the alt-pop smash ‘Daisy’, which has now racked up 446 million Spotify streams. “Fuck a princess, I’m a king / Bow down and kiss on my ring,” Ashnikko raps with casual confidence.

Today, she’s on far calmer conversational form, but admits that she has “always been a very laser-focused person” who knew she wanted to be a musician from her teens. Where does this drive come from? “Capitalism,” she replies with a knowing laugh. “I don’t know; I really have a very obsessive personality.” Interestingly, she also suggests that her ability to take failure well has been a key ingredient in her success. “I just keep pushing onto the next [thing]. I don’t really register it as failure,” she says. “And I think that has been quite helpful for me.”

Ash also hints that this ambition could be channelled into other avenues at some point in the future, with a love of short story-writing currently keeping her busy during her brief moments of down time. “I just always wanted to do something in the creative realm, and I think maybe that will evolve outside of music to new mediums,” she says. “But definitely I am a creative person through and through.”

Having thrown herself fully into the pop star job since emerging at the turn of the decade, the inherent ironies of the music industry – one that conflates art with chart positions and turns soulbaring into salary slips – are hardly lost on the musician. “I have had successful songs and the pressure to follow up with ‘even better, more and more’ is super-high,” she says. “Music is magic, and to profit off of it is kind of the antithesis of what music is for. And, yeah, I think

putting numbers on something that is so intrinsically tied to who I am... it feels wrong sometimes. But I’m grappling with it.” She views her purpose as a musician as being “just to make art and express myself”. Fundamentally, the aim is to “connect to different people and share in the ineffable magic.”

Other ‘WEEDKILLER’ tracks will show Ash’s more vulnerable, reflective side - an opportunity for her fans to see the sensitivity behind the strength. On the frenetic, deceptively peppy ‘Cheerleader’, she crisply eviscerates the unrealistic beauty ideals of the social media era by rapping: “Filler, snip and glue / Am I fuckable enough for you?” She says this song was sparked by the hopelessness of “feeling that the world is just so obsessed with youth”.

“No matter how much self-love I engage in, no matter how much work I do, there’s still an onslaught of messages every day that there’s something else that I could be doing better,” she continues. “There’s always some other way for me to change how I look.” Is this feeling exacerbated from being a high-profile musician with a sizable Instagram following?

“Yeah, it’s definitely exacerbated because of my career path,” she replies. “But I mean, you see the effects of impossible beauty standards affecting everyone who lives part of their life online.”

When DIY asks what her ideal year might look like, Ashnikko evinces a very relatable yearning for a more simple, offline kind of life. “I would go live inside of a little tree and eat little acorns and drink little little cups of honeysuckle nectar,” she says, playfully riffing on her reignited love of nature. “And I would dance naked through the forests and swim in streams. That’s how my ideal year would pan out.”

It might not be an entirely realistic plan for right now; from September through December, she’s got the North American and European legs of the ‘WEEDKILLER’ tour to focus on, including a huge headline show at London’s 10,000-capacity Alexandra Palace - her biggest in the UK to date. But even away from the fairies and the Nym of her own imagination, there’s plenty in the real world that Ashnikko’s embracing too. “Being able to meet the people who support me and listen to my music, and to share that very human interaction of playing music and singing together, that’s really beautiful,” she says. “Being on stage is my favourite thing in the whole world.”

‘WEEDKILLER’ is out 25th August via Parlophone. DIY

“Music is magic, and to profit off of it is kind of the antithesis of what music is for.”

Older, wiser and more reflective.

 Blur

Darren (Parlophone)

The announcement back in May of a new Blur album came as something of a surprise. With a smattering of festival appearances and stadium shows on the books while the clock struck 30 years on ‘Modern Life Is Rubbish’, it seemed the band were destined to be bringing only anniversary celebrations to the table. Yet while many of their one-time contemporaries are indebted and imprisoned in the decade from whence they came, Blur have shimmied out of the woodwork armed with new material a number of times, firstly with single ‘Under The Westway’ in 2012 and LP ‘The Magic Whip’ in 2015 which crackled with energy and invention. There’s a feeling of unity in the aging process across ‘The Ballad Of Darren’, with the four-piece all now in their mid to late 50s; the group’s ninth album is christened as a nod to people of their generation. Damon Albarn starts out on the bouncy singalong ‘Barbaric’ noting “I have lost the feeling I thought I’d never lose”, but by the end of the track that ‘I’ becomes ‘we’. Among his band mates of three decades, he’s able to tap into a perspective that rarely makes itself known in his Gorillaz universe.

The rose-tinted lenses are slipped on during gorgeous opener ‘The Ballad’, led by piano and flourishes of strings where the frontman professes “the words are hitting him in a full-on assault”. Glimmers of memories gone-by slip through the cracks in Graham Coxon’s backing vocals: “I met you at an early show,” he sings. “We travelled round the world”. ‘St Charles Square’ shakes the cobwebs off with a chugging glam blitz which mines the more raucous sides of ‘Parklife’ proving they can still manifest a screamer. Damon’s roars bookend the pre-chorus among Graham Coxon’s off-kilter riffs which hold the askew cabaret of classic Blur.

Musically, the gentler side of Blur slips into frame more frequently to accompany the album’s more wistful energy. This works beautifully on ‘Russian Strings’ which extends a handout to the warring country - “Where are you now? / Are you contactable?” - and the fragile acoustic-plucked strings of ‘The Everglades’. ‘Far Away Island’ may trail off into cookie-cutter Damon melancholia, but new fields are plowed on ‘Avalon’ - a brass-led stomper indebted to a little Motown - and ‘Goodbye Albert’ which bobs atop a pulsating synth-bass.

What’s clearly potent here is the chemical constitution of the four-piece. Written for the most part on a Gorillaz tour last year, never for a moment does it feel like the group are trying to ape another sound or reclaim parts of their younger selves; it’s the same energy which still rampantly fills the air around them - but it’s older, wiser and more reflective. A wonderful surprise album whose existence in 2023 actually makes perfect sense. (Sean Kerwick) LISTEN: ‘St Charles Square’

 Grian Chatten Chaos For The Fly (Partisan)

It’s safe to say that Grian Chatten has long proved his lyrical eloquence, spending his past few years at the helm of rollicking post-punk phenomenon Fontaines DC. Debut solo record ‘Chaos For The Fly’, then, serves only to demonstrate his prolific pen with more force. Mining the depths of his inner psyche, the album is a step away from the sonic canon of his day job, towards a direction much more intimate that overflows with poeticism and melodic texture. The collection feels like a bleak glimpse into the darkest recesses of his mind; Grian’s ‘no frills’ approach allows each song to stand in its most raw form, rooted in feelings of isolation, anger and loss of faith in the world. The pianoled ballad ‘All Of The People’ encapsulates this weariness and is particularly beautiful, dipping in and out of minor melodies in a way that compliments the song’s glowering lyrics. ‘I Am So Far’ and ‘Last Time Every Time Forever’ mirror this sonic beauty, the latter’s strings weaving together with lilting guitars and piano as if to create a brooding atmospheric wave lapping on a stony, isolated shore. ‘Bob’s Casino’ is a fever dream, its surprisingly bright horn-led melody and eerie casino-esque sounds swirling on the periphery; Grian’s low register feels reminiscent of Leonard Cohen as it intertwines with partner and guest vocalist Georgie Jesson’s ethereal counter melodies. ‘Salt Throwers off a Truck’ is a prime example of the album’s traditional folk-leaning tendencies, and closer ‘Season For Pain’ leaves the project on a slightly sinister note with its heavier guitars and jarringly dissonant piano.

‘Chaos For The Fly’ seems to exist within its own bleak, fragile, yet unmistakably beautiful realm. With every note played and word uttered, pastoral vignettes of life - tales of different imaginations, views, romances, hardships - are painted so vividly and often with such gloom it’s difficult not to feel moved. It feels like a cathartic purging of real pain, yet there’s also a sort of brightness that becomes clearer with every listen. A striking solo debut. (Rebecca Kesteven) LISTEN:

‘Bob’s Casino’

Bleak, fragile, yet unmistakably beautiful.

ALBUMS

 PVRIS

Evergreen (Hopeless)

All dials are turned up to eleven for PVRIS’ fourth album. ‘Evergreen’ generally favours chunkier, harder sounds over intricacy, particularly where its maximalist-leaning production is concerned, to the extent that it feels like a thick, silvery fog hangs over most of its songs. Sometimes it means they possess a heaviness not found since the outfit’s rockier days of old, such as in the industrial clatter of ‘HYPE ZOMBIES’, but it may be an acquired taste, and occasional moments feel overcooked, such as on the juddering early single ‘ANIMAL’. Elsewhere, however, are a plethora of cast-iron, genreless bangers, some of which are the catchiest tracks Lynn Gunn has put her name to. She stands taller than ever on the effervescent and anthemic ‘GODDESS’, which flaunts a guitar-driven groove and snappy couplets (and the brilliantly sassy one-liner “I’m a motherfucking brand!”), while ‘TAKE MY NIRVANA’ (featuring production from one Mike Shinoda) sparkles with its addictive rhythms. The art of subtlety isn’t totally lost, however – ‘SENTI-MENTAL’s soulful piano trills and gentle, warm guitar tones are refreshingly organic, as is the hushed acoustic ballad ‘ANYWHERE BUT HERE’. Lynn has never sounded quite so bold. (Emma Wilkes) LISTEN: ‘GODDESS’

The Japanese House

In The End it Always Does (Dirty Hit)

The Japanese House’s discography is so full already it seems hard to believe that ‘In The End It Always Does’ is only the second album from Amber Bain. And with such a distinct artistic voice continuously present since 2015 EP ‘Pools To Bathe In’, some might wonder if she has room to branch out. Her standard sonic palette is definitively present, with ‘Touching Yourself’ offering those trademark floating vocals above a sad disco groove and dreamy synths, and ‘Indexical Reminder Of A Morning Well Spent’ featuring pretty acoustic guitars and ambient wisps. Perhaps half the album’s runtime is taken up by music that could belong on any other Japanese House release, but the more experimental nature of the other makes the album really worthwhile.

‘You Always Get What You Want’ is a Ben Howard-like collage of guitars living in a Katie Melua pop suite, while ‘One For Sorrow Two For Joni Jones’ is a meandering solo piano backing a vocal that pulls Joni Mitchell’s trick of never feeling authored, but rather as if newly spoken. This album brings innovation just when The Japanese House began to need it, and hopefully points to more creative exploration in the future. (James Hickey) LISTEN: ‘You Always Get What You Want’

 Queens Of The Stone Age

In Times New Roman... (Matador)

If you glance at the track listing for the eighth studio album from Queens of the Stone Age, it’s not hard to surmise ‘In Times New Roman...’ won’t be an upbeat beacon of positivity. With words like ‘Machete’, ‘Negative’, ‘Straight Jacket’, ‘Peephole’, ‘Voyeur’, and ‘Sickness’ scattered across the ten songs - it’s not a stretch to assume QOTSA are bringing their moody, dark rock back to the forefront. And you’d be right. ‘In Times New Roman…’ is by far Queens of the Stone Age’s most direct and angry record in years. Their sound remains instantly recognisable: the fuzzy guitar, the buzzy bass, the echoey off-kilter drums, some time signature fun, and of course, the frontman’s iconic vocal tapestry, from whispers to falsetto.

On albums past, Queens of the Stone Age have always made an ambitious and significant leap away from what came before. From the masterpiece ‘Lullabies to Paralyze’ came ‘Era Vulgaris’, perhaps the ‘Physical Graffiti’ of their catalogue. Then ‘…Like Clockwork’ was followed by ‘Villains’, where the group brought in superproducer Mark Ronson to produce a playful, dancier Queens.

But on ‘In Times New Roman…’, the leap is less of a daring stab at new ground and more a stripped-back defiance. Josh has historically transformed his eerie, hard rock sound into radio-friendly smash hits with the help of a catchy melody, a rare and challenging balance. Here, however, the melodies are less sprightly, more gnarly and rough. ‘In Times New Roman…’ delivers more of a cathartic experience than a meticulous songwriting process.

The emphasis is on loud, raw, bare, and unpolished sounds that correlate to the chaotic and emotional world surrounding the band in recent years. The clever playfulness that infused their past work is gone and to be replaced with an angry stare. Take, for example, ‘Paper Machete’, which makes reference to 2005 single ‘Little Sister’, a driving three-chord progression that wastes no time. However, this time, there is no wailing guitar melody placed on top to turn it into the Top Twenty hit its predecessor became. There’s a restraint, a concentration on moving forward quickly. The lyrics here (and very present across the album) are pissed off and blunt: “Now I know you’d use anything, anyone / To make yourself look clean / So long, my love is dead.”

There are further breadcrumbs from the past: ‘Sicily’ is a classic stomp, and the album closes with a quintessential extended track in ‘Straight Fitting Jacket’. But the record’s highlight sits smack-dab in the middle with ‘Made To Parade’, designed to give a hungry QOTSA fan all its food groups: a fun tight groove with the rawness and large chorus complete with memorable vocal hook. It borrows from the rest of the album to make its most prominent sound. Where does ‘In Times New Roman…’ leave us? What does it mean for the band and its trajectory? How does this alter the legacy of a band with its own unique perch in the rock landscape? The record doesn’t signal an answer to any question, and that’s the point. It stays in the moment; emotionally cleansing, paying angry tribute to the pain of the past, and with its attention turned to nothing more than the here and now. (Sam Eeckhout) LISTEN: ‘Made To Parade’

Less a daring stab at new ground, more a stripped-back defiance.

ALBUMS

 Do Nothing Snake Sideways (Exact

Truth)

Missed the boat on some the best albums from the last couple of months? Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered.

 BULLY Lucky For You

Gloriously grungy riffs atop earwormy pop - and all with gut-wrenching emotionally-charged lyrics.

After having released two terrifically snarling EPs, Do Nothing found themselves face-to-face with the one thing all who put pen to paper, or fingers to string fear: writer’s block. While the band’s post-punk revival contemporaries were all finding their own angular rhythm, all frontman Chris Bailey could see was the end of the band. And it’s all that anxiety, those frustrations that are channelled into debut album ‘Snake Sideways’. “They’re gonna fire you in the morning,” sings Chris, as he opens the record on ‘Nerve’ with an almost peaceful state of acceptance. ‘Snake Sideways’ is Do Nothing at their most introspective. The sound of a brain fizzing with worries purged via frenzied free association. These are raw nerves laid bare, but catharsis sits delicately alongside it all thanks to Do Nothing’s brand of everyday unusual: ‘Happy Feet’ is about finding comfort in a penguin-filled musical after all. It also finds the Nottingham outfit fully embracing melody. ‘Hollywood Learn’ with its harpsichord, twinkling piano and lolloping bass finds an unusual beauty amid cries of “There goes my last chance / To chicken out”. In an unlikely twist, ‘The Needle’ even flirts with the early ‘00s pop rock of – whisper it - Keane. But there’s just enough of their early spikiness to keep things interesting. A gurgling guitar line here. A prettily pulsing synth there. It’s a far cry from the days of their breakthrough ‘Lebron James’ funk, but it all works to bring a sense of hope in the face of the frontman’s despondency. But he needn’t worry. If ‘Snake Sideways’ is anything to go by, the end of Do Nothing is nowhere in sight yet. (Chris Taylor) LISTEN: ‘Hollywood Learn’

 Olivia Dean Messy (EMI)

DREAM WIFE Social Lubrication

The trio’s third sees them deliver sticky dancefloorready bangers, still with cutting lyrical sopcial commentary.

LA PRIEST

Fase Luna

Sam Eastgate’s third under the moniker sees him balance new and old with precision.

If nothing else, the timing of Olivia Dean’s debut - during the warmest weeks of the British meteorological calendar - is ideal: with its nods to neo-soul and jazz, its bright sounds are exactly the kind reached for when opting for sun-drenched barbecue soundtracks, or to blast from speakers while travelling towards the coast. On the likable summery pop front, Olivia Dean has it made, sitting somewhere alongside the less disco side of Jessie Ware, or the more subdued songs of early Adele: it’s perfectly pleasant, and like those predecessors pulls from a wide spectrum to avoid sounding dated. But what ‘Messy’ delivers in shimmering soul-pop songs, it’s not until closer ‘Carmen’ that much of Olivia herself seems to be heard: the line “Stronger than I’ll ever be / Never got a Jubilee” saying more in its few syllables than the singer seems to during the other eleven tracks combined. In fact, it’s what seem to have been included as throwaways - interlude ‘Getting There’ and the shortbut-sweet ‘I Could Be A Florist’ - that prove the record’s more interesting offerings. For a record titled ‘Messy’ it could ironically do with being a little less neat and tidy. (Bella Martin) LISTEN: ‘Carmen’

 Claud Supermodels (Saddest Factory)

If 2021 debut ‘Super Monster’ found Claud still finding a voice beyond their bedroom pop beginnings, then this, the singer-songwriter’s second, ‘Supermodels’, sees them utilising it in ever more confident ways. It’s obvious from the off why they were picked by label boss Phoebe Bridgers as her first Saddest Factory signee - the sheer specificity of a reference to arguing over Regina Spektor at a bar on ‘Every Fucking Time’ is something the indie-rock behemoth might herself manifest. However, it’s Claud’s willingness to inject humour and playfulness into an ultimately ambitious record that makes ‘Supermodels’ work. Is it coincidence that while ‘Supermodels’ was written on a newly-purchased acoustic guitar, the opening chords of that same song bear uncanny resemblance to ‘Wonderwall’? The album is peppered with killer choruses - on opener ‘Crumbs’ alongside a wholly American 1970s FM radio sound, on ‘Climbing Trees’ emerging almost stealth like. It takes confidence to turn what could become a huge pop moment into something quite so understated in production. There’s epic, toocloser ‘Screwdriver’ channelling the kind of epic melancholy that The National have so popularised. Best of the lot, though, is the ‘90s alt-rock of ‘Glass Wall’, where windy, awkward Weezeresque guitars meet something a little grungier, and another of those huge choruses. Claud has not only found their voice, but knows just how to use it. (Louisa Dixon) LISTEN: ‘Glass Wall’

For someone who writes from a personal perspective, has it changed anything second time around, knowing there’s an audience who are already aware of who you are?

I don’t think so. It definitely makes it more nerve-racking releasing it, but I try really hard to make sure it doesn’t affect my writing process.

How was making your video directing debut for ‘Every Fucking Time’? It was so life changing. I had such a specific vision for this video, and it felt like the perfect opportunity to put on a new hat. And I couldn’t have done it without my co-star [comedian and actor] Grace Kuhlenschmidt, she is so talented.

You’ve already supported a fair few huge names and are set to continue that into 2023: what’s been the most ‘pinch-me’ moment so far? Opening for Paramore was a major moment. I’ve been a fan of theirs since before I can even remember. My drummer is also a huge fan and we asked if she could play drums on ‘Misery Business’ and they said yes, so seeing her drum with them was really emotional and amazing.

Lauren Auder

the infinite spine (True Panther)

To co-opt a much-memed quote from one Mr Styles, the thing about Lauren Auder’s debut album is it really sounds like an album. Though there are a multitude of directions that the British-French artist takes ‘the infinite spine’ - from the claustrophobic grandeur of opener ‘33 & golden’ that harks to These New Puritans’ densest work, to the cathartic pop bombast of ‘city in a bottle’ to the pounding, WU LYF-esque exorcism of the Mura Masa-produced ‘the ripple’ - all feel cut from the same collection. There’s a sense of gravitas and weight both to Lauren’s vocal, the intensely personal subject matter regarding her life and transition, and the way it’s presented that acts as a unifier. “Hardly what they do to you / But how they make you feel like it’s deserved,” she sings painfully on highlight ‘730kingfisher’; ‘the infinite spine’ isn’t always an easy listen, but it’s a raw and beautiful one for it. (Lisa Wright) LISTEN: ‘730kingfisher’

PJ Harvey

I Inside The Old Year Dying (Partisan)

Extended pauses between albums are par for the course for PJ Harvey nowadays, but there’s still the sense that genuine recalibration was needed during this latest eight-year layoff.

‘The Hope Six Demolition Project’ was a peculiar thing, and seems even stranger now when viewed through the prism of ‘A Dog Called Money’, the making-of documentary that followed in 2019. She travelled to Sarajevo, Afghanistan, the housing projects of Washington D.C. She saw inequality up close and howled against it in the sound of her last album, all angry brass swells and strident vocal delivery. Her lyrics, though, didn’t match, being as they were scattered, diffuse, lacking a clear target. In the years since, PJ has focused more closely on her words, with Orlam, a collection of gorgeously weird poetic meditations, surfacing last Autumn. Thematically, this new LP - her tenth - makes a point of adapting them for song, resulting in what feels like a loose concept album thin on literalism but rich on eerie embraces of old English folklore, with the action - if you can call it that - largely focused on what secrets the Dorset woods she grew up in the shadow of might be keeping. The music follows suit. It is wispy and scratchy and unsettling, and beautiful at the same time. Atmospherically, it’s a return to the ghostly uneasiness of ‘White Chalk’ and ‘Let England Shake’, but sonically it’s new territory entirely, a lush blend of acoustic guitar and twinkly synthesisers that feels, at times, as inscrutable as her words. ‘I Inside the Old Year Dying’ will likely take some time to fully unravel, but on the surface, it looks like a daring return. (Joe Goggins) LISTEN: ‘I Inside The Old I Dying’ 

glaive

i care so much that i don’t care at all (Interscope / Polydor)

If the title ‘i care so much that i dont care at all’, complete with its lower-case delivery and grammatical rebellion seems a melodramatic affair, that’s precisely the point. There’s little surprise in knowing glaive, still yet a teenager, found an audience online during the early months of lockdown: if there’s one takeaway from his debut, it’s that he feels. A lot. But where his angst-fuelled predecessors had a tendency to lash out lyrically, sonically he takes most from Midwest emo, Y2K pop-punk and their environs - genres whose words have not dated as well as their sounds. Throughout, glaive’s gaze is fixed inward. “I know it doesn’t look like I tried,” he muses, for example, on ‘im nothing thats all i am’, a self-flagellating breakup tale. And while the emotions are big, the choruses are even bigger: ‘the good the bad the olga’ begs for a cathartic moshpit, while ‘pardee urgent care’ is a definitive phone-torchesin-the-air moment. (Elle Barton) LISTEN: ‘the good the bad the olga’

 Lifeguard Crowd Can Talk / Dressed In Trenches (Matador)

The merging of two EPs recorded and released in two separate sessions within the space of 12 months repackaged for their signing with Matador, ‘Crowd Can Talk’ / ’Dressed In Trenches’ is riled-up and rambunctious. Hammered out here in dazzling light are honest, sweaty thrills of dingy basement rock; the timeless joys of high-octane youth having intangible-yet-urgent points to prove. From the besieging thrusts of ‘I Know, I Know’ or ‘Typecast’ or the darker rumblings heard on ‘17-18 Lovesong’ or ‘Ten Canisters OFB’, parcelling all this energy is an impressively wild production. As the vocals strain through the untamed swarms of fuzz, the bass crunches through the speakers, and guitars clang with all Beelzebub’s fury, it’s not hard to picture that - if this were the Scott Pilgrim universe - a tiger’s form would emerge from these swathes of static and rage forward into the fray. It’s nothing short of pure, menacing excitement. (Elvis Thirlwell) LISTEN: ‘Typecast’

 Bethany Cosentino Natural Disaster (Concord)

Bethany Cosentino isn’t exactly a stranger to wearing her heart on her sleeve, but on solo debut ‘Natural Disaster’ we really get a window into who she is now. Shedding the more scuzzy surf-rock that informed her early years within Best Coast, here, she plays with a richer, more confident sound inspired by the likes of Stevie Nicks, Christine McVie and Sheryl Crow. The nerve-touching ‘Easy’ comes led by piano and her gloriously warm vocals, while country-pop and classic rock references pepper the record as a whole. It’s not just a new sonic palette that’s on offer; lyrically, Bethany is at her most vulnerable and open, exploring the conflicting tangle of expectation and loss, of womanhood and aging (“Growing up is easy when you’re 17 / Now I’m 35 and I don’t quite know what it means”). It’s also an album unmistakably rooted in the present, pondering the current state of the world (“This is the hottest summer I can ever remember / ‘Coz the world is on fire” goes the title track’s chorus) and whether our personal worries are all just futile regardless. A rich, multifaceted insight into contradictory nature of growing up and older, this is Bethany’s finest move yet. (Sarah Jamieson) LISTEN: ‘Easy’

 Georgia Euphoric (Domino)

Where second album ‘Seeking Thrills’ saw Georgia manipulate and force ecstasy via party escapism, follow-up ‘Euphoric’ relinquishes control in favour of surprise: the pang in Georgia’s chest is sudden, unplanned, immediate, nauseating and uncontrollable. It’s a happening of romance and heartbreak that fills the musician with euphoric joy and exhilarating pain. And the pop is brilliant, colourful and saccharine, too – there are goosebumps galore when listening to the masterful way she plays with pop tradition, crafting a gut-wrenching image of infatuation as though her pen had dipped in sunlight - even despite the occasionally paint-by-numbers lyrical content. Its sense of freedom is vast, illustrated by the fact that this is the first time she’s collaborated with an outside producer, Rostam Batmanglij, for her own music. Narratively, it’s an A-to-B, step-by-step instruction on How to Get In and Out of a Relationship While Feeling All Your Feelings and Recovering Fine, which suits well to Georgia’s brand of effortless electronic pop. Standouts include the persuasive, alluring ‘Give It Up For Love’ which provides true pop euphoria; the glittering, uninhibited ‘Some Things You’ll Never Know’; ‘Live Like We’re Dancing (Part II)’, its repurposing of her 2020 Mura Masa collaboration a flex in her production prowess; and the heart-shredding ‘Keep On’, a musing on perseverance after love dies. Finally, closer ‘So What’ sees her dive right back in again, making ‘Euphoric’ an endless loop, a maddening romantic fable about hopeless devotion and eternally searching for the one. While serial monogamy might be ill advised, ‘Euphoric’ is grand, inspiring and convincing - and feels like summer love bottled up. (Otis Robinson) LISTEN: ‘Give It Up For Love’

ALBUMS

 Palehound Eye On The Bat (Polyvinyl)

There aren’t many contemporary rock records that manage to be fresh without throwing the genre’s core sense of fun out of the window. Yet on ‘Eye On The Bat’, Palehound’s droll songwriting draws all manner of influences into a captivating sonic palette and still never loses its sense of identity. While ‘Independence Day’ has a buoyant energy that channels the countryadjacent slacker rock sound of Kurt Vile or Courtney Barnett, ‘U Want It U Got It’ echoes the lo-fi crash of The Vaselines, and standout track ‘My Evil’ registers as a truly timeless song that evokes the saloon sleaze of 1960s Bob Dylan. On paper, these seem wildly disparate, and yet they all sit within El Kempner’s voice as genuine songs of experience, part of their self-dubbed genre of ‘journal rock’. Perhaps most importantly, ‘Eye On The Bat’ always has a sense of fun bubbling underneath: as sad as the songs can be they were written by people who enjoy playing them, with the resultant performances marking this as a bonafide rock album. In a landscape that often places image over genuine attitude, here is a consistently solid record with its fair share of gems. (James Hickey) LISTEN: ‘My Evil’

Absolute (behind the) scenes!

 Mahalia IRL (Atlantic)

“They say it takes 10 years to make a girl get bigger / Then another 10 to secure your position,” opens Mahalia on ‘IRL’, the title track of the Leicestershire singer-songwriter’s second full-length. She’s singing here about her own journey, following with the tale of her mother driving her around as a child to chase her dream, but with renowned DJ Trevor Nelson claiming earlier this year that R&B is the hardest of sells to the UK market, perhaps there’s a little more behind her words. It might be hard to imagine in this current climate, genre leader SZA having played two sold-out nights at the O2 Arena mere days ago, but for Mahalia’s MOBO Award wins, BRIT and GRAMMY nods alongside peer recognition from Adele, Little Simz, Burna Boy and more, 2019 debut ‘Love and Compromise’ only scraped the Top 30. But with its nods equally to a Y2K sound - the immediate chorus of ‘Terms & Conditions’, the closing synths of ‘Goodbyes’ in particular - and more up to date textures, ‘IRL’ has more chance than most at breaking the apparent curse. Mahalia has also collated here a cast of collaborators ready to back her mission up. In front of the mic, they include Kojey Radical, noughties icon JoJo, and Stormzy, whose pared-back singing on ‘November’ creates a gorgeously tender moment, weaving around in contrast with Mahalia’s own voice; behind it, Raye (‘Terms & Conditions’) and MNEK (‘Cheat’) are on writing duty. Striking a perfect balance between familiarity and unpredictability, immediate choruses coexisting with a relaxed, breezy sound, ‘IRL’ is a delight. (Elle Barton) LISTEN: ‘Cheat’

 ANOHNI And The Johnsons My Back Was A Bridge For You To Cross

(Secretly Canadian / Rough Trade)

ANOHNI’s vocal has always had the ability to resemble a tearful cry, to cut through and pull at even the coldest of heartstrings, regardless of her message - which, it should be said, is more often than not an important one. But here, on her first record back with ‘The Johnsons’ moniker for over a decade, it’s the sonically softer side that hits harder, somehow. That a key reference for ‘My Back Was A Bridge For You To Cross’ is Marvin Gaye’s 1971 ‘What’s Going On’ may surprise some of her more arty, obtuse followers - but mere seconds into opener ‘It Must Change’ and it’s clear what ANOHNI, and producer Jimmy Hogarth were after. Her voice less an instrument here than vessel, atop a smooth soul backing her repetition of the song’s title intensifies, oscillating between mantra and plea. Similarly, as ‘Can’t’ reaches its gospel-adjacent crescendo, one hears the influence of the blue-eyed soul of childhood heroes Boy George and Alison Moyet. Sonically, it’s an easy listen for an artist who’s often embraced the abrasive: only ‘Go Ahead’ flirts with the sonically abstract as it combines an almost-punk guitar line with almost-pretty vocals. But these aural niceties - see the croonlike backing of ‘Sliver of Ice’ or warm closer ‘You Be Free’ - only allow for a more direct gut punch. As she repeats the line “You’re my scapegoat / It’s not personal” on ‘Scapegoat’, on an album that features a photo of LGBTQ+ rights activist Marsha P. Johnson on its sleeve (from whom ANOHNI took the project’s name way back when) and with that uncanny ability of hers to convey such emotion with her voice - that it is, in fact, personal is crystal clear. Expect to cry - then get fired up. (Ed Lawson)

LISTEN: ‘It Must Change’

 Bloc Party The High Life (Infectious

/ BMG)

Given the sheer level of praise given to debut ‘Silent Alarm’ on its release - and the following two decades, usually at the dismissal of anything the band have released since - it’s little wonder that Bloc Party might have had a complicated relationship with their back catalogue. ‘The High Life’ - a four-track self-styled ‘stop gap’ between full-length recordshowever, pleasingly sounds as if they’ve reckoned with the past, present and are eagerly anticipating the future. The title track - premiered during their stint in arenas earlier this year with Paramore - is a full-circle moment, its upbeat - and most importantly, fun-filled - funk bounce not dissimilar from that of the Americans’ own ‘After Laughter’ after they cited the Londoners as a key influence on latest ‘This Is Why’. KennyHoopla, whose early math-rock indebted tracks and deadpan delivery was often compared to the foursome injects energy into ‘Keep It Rolling’, while ‘Blue’ manages to recall the sprawling epic of ‘So Here We Are’ without nostalgia. As intricate, emotional and dextrous as ever, it seems being a little less serious suits Bloc Party after all.

(Bella Martin) LISTEN: ‘Blue’

Yonaka Welcome To My House

(Lava / Republic)

Two years on from their ‘Seize The Power’ mixtape, we find Yonaka choosing to sharpen their focus: the result is a smoother, more straightforward collection of songs. However, the likes of the title track and ‘PANIC’ are perhaps straightforward to a fault, coming off as overly glossy run-ofthe-mill radio rock, and the ultra-shiny production also dilutes the potency of frontwoman Theresa Jarvis’ raw lyricism. Despite this, however, the second half of the EP considerably redeems itself. The driving electro-rock of ‘I Don’t Care’ is compellingly feisty, with a more organic, gritty feel that some of the EP’s earlier songs were crying out for (and Theresa’s rapping is also considerably tighter this time around), while the playful ‘Hands Off My Money’ fizzes with punky energy, proudly wearing the crown for the EP’s most moshworthy moment. It closes out an EP that’s eager to cover plenty of ground – perhaps one of Yonaka’s greatest strengths – but hasn’t quite mastered the skill of consistency. (Emma Wilkes) LISTEN: ‘I Don’t Care’



Delilah Holliday Invaluable Vol. 1

(One Little Independent)

By its very nature, an EP tends to be a truncated window into a vision, however even across only six tracks, ‘Invaluable EP1’ seems thin on the ground in terms of ideas. There’s a hazy, fleeting quality to the London musician’s latest, where tracks pass in and out without really going anywhere; opener ‘Steel Charmed’ is pleasantly trip-hoppy but largely one-note, while ‘Silent Streets’ repeats its hook until close. The isolated components are interesting, but it’s like listening to chunks of demos rather than fully fleshed-out final pieces. The exception comes with ‘Everything I Ever Wanted’, which maintains the dreamlike state of the EP as a whole but finds dynamics within it, building from tender beginnings to a subtle but satisfying drop at the end. But largely, it’s hard to find that much to hold onto here. (Lisa Wright) LISTEN: ‘Everything I Ever Wanted’

 Ciel Make It Better

(JAZZ LIFE)

‘Somebody’ is such a blistering introduction to a record - in this case, the second EP from Brighton-based newcomers Ciel - that it’s all too easy to get hopes up for more of the same. A power pop riff and almost effortless earworm of a chorus, it’s as if it’s been plucked right from the post-Britpop era. Yet while the outfit’s knack for a hook remains - particularly on closer ‘Jealousy’ - the execution leaves the remainder a little lacking. The drums may lean industrial, or at least in the vague direction of Butch Vig - but they lack impact, as if a hazy filter is dampening the view (or one’s forgotten to remove sunglasses when returning indoors).The riff that threatens to give the title track an injection of adrenaline too, never quite hits the right gear on an otherwise catchy song. There’s promise aplenty, of course, and that opener is stellar.

 Fräulein

Pedestal (Submarine Cat)

‘Pedestal’ all but reinforces Fräulein’s status as a vital component in the ever growing landscape of contemporary shoegaze and grunge. Loaded with fearsome menace, devilish seduction and provocative lyrics

- “Wrap me up in plastic / My whole body’s here / Ready to be sold,” Joni Samuels elliptically moans in ‘Brand New’ - ‘Pedestal’ offers four succinct packages of alternative rock. They impress most for their immaculate, barebones interplay between Joni’s guitar and the precision drumming of Karsten Van Der Tol’s which are so inseparably interlocked as to reject any need for extraneous embellishments. Depositing itself less in the quarries of ‘90s nostalgia as predecessor ‘A Small Taste’, while still nonetheless indebted to the power chord fuzzes so tied to that era - the choruses of ‘Big Cool’ and ‘Pet’ are examples of that exact phenomenon - ‘Pedestal’ unequivocally feels like an update, charged with the urgent forces of ‘now’. Recalcitrant, shit-kicking, electric. (Elvis Thirlwell) LISTEN: ‘Big Cool’

ComingUp

OLIVIA RODRIGOGUTS

The singer will follow up her world-conquering debut ‘SOUR’ on 8th September.

Miss Tiny

DEN7

(Speedy Wunderground)

The product of a longstanding friendship between producer Dan Carey and musician Benjamin Romans-Hopcraft (Childhood, Warmduscher, Insecure Men) Miss Tiny’s debut EP presents an understated collaboration between two giants of their craft. Created with a process Dan himself dubs “anti-recording” - that is, recording purely for fun – the loose, bare-bones slacker rock of ‘DEN7’ seeks to dissolve any pretension. This five-song set is ever reaching for something greater than the sum of its minimal parts - vaingloriously driving for maximal rock euphoria while restricting itself only to the genre’s elemental principles. Bass, drum, crunchy guitar and detached vocal, each part is laid out bare and dry, given plenty of room to dance and shimmy and lock in and out of each other’s grooves. Its pieces teeter constantly on the precipice: whether it’s the more sinister creepers like ‘River Hands’, ‘The Beggar’ or ‘The Sound’ - repetitive, slowly churning riffs snake malevolently through time, growing ever more wicked and venomous. And as shown on ‘Sailing’ - “I’m just another Black man in the wild” sings Benjamin – it also showcases the voice of a Black performer in a white-dominated landscape. (Elvis Thirlwell) LISTEN: ‘The Beggar’

BRING ME THE HORIZON - POST HUMAN: NEX GEN

The Sheffield behemoths continue their series with this full-length out on 15th September.

FIZZ - THE SECRET TO LIFE

The buzzy supergroup’s debut will be released on 15th September.

BOMBAY BICYCLE

CLUB - MY BIG DAY

The indie stalwarts’ sixth is a guest-heavy record, with Damon Albarn and Jay Som among them. Out 20th October.

LIVE

HARRY STYLES

Wembley Stadium, London. Photos:

There’s a sense of deja vu to tonight’s proceedings. It’s not solely down to the warm-hued sparkles that litter Harry Styles’ choice of outfit, the Freddie Mercury-aping crowd participation call, or even the ceremonial nature of a fan’s request for help coming out, although all undoubtedly contribute, as all happened almost a year to the day, when this same tour first visited Wembley Stadium. Love on Tour - announced originally in 2019 for the star’s second album ‘Fine Line’ - has been running since September 2021. To put this lengthy term into perspective, it has been running for about as long as the UK has been out of lockdown. If that’s exhausting to even think about, its consequences for those on the giant stadium stage aren’t obvious. He does occasionally opt against aiming for the highest notes of his register, and there’s an additional rasp to his voice towards the end of the set. But the majority of the two-hour show is little different from last year’s outing: the three-sided catwalk stage that aids in making the

90,000-capacity stadium slightly less cavernous; the near-acoustic segment that tonight offers ‘Little Freak’ and ‘Matilda’; a euphoric ‘What Makes You Beautiful’; Harry and band going all out on closer ‘Kiwi’, the song’s classic rock augmented by the firework show overhead.

The disco vibe of a handful of Harry’s songs is cemented by a brass section which brings the genuine article: ‘Cinema’, ‘Music For A Sushi Restaurant’, ‘Treat People With Kindness’ come peppered with the iconic intro to ‘YMCA’ and a snippet of ‘Young Hearts Run Free’. There’s almost a hint of prog, too, via guitarist Mitch Rowland’s intricate solo closing ‘Fine Line’ cut ‘She’.

Given that it’s not particularly newsworthy that Harry Styles is a man who sells a lot of tickets (he’s quite literally here all week, performing four nights this time around) and successfully entertains those who’ve made said purchase, the most notable aspect of the evening comes during the encore. Deep cuts are most often met with longer bar queues at even medium-sized venues; ‘fan favourites’ usu-

It’s the as-yetunreleased ‘medicine’ that gets the night’s loudest reception.

ally deemed so by a vocal subset of fans. ‘Medicine’ is an as-yet officially unreleased song, and yet one which not only recieves the loudest reception all night, but a near-capacity singalong.

A filthier sibling of ‘Kiwi’, perhaps, its riffs echo Black Sabbath’s ‘Paranoid’ or Queens of the Stone Age’s ‘No One Knows’, while its lyrics hold little back (“Tingle running through my bones / The boys and the girls are in / I mess around with him / And I’m okay with it”).

Performed directly after ‘Sign of the Times’, it’s perhaps self-evident why the song wasn’t included on his 2017 solo debut, but on this showing, if there are any more rock bangers hiding on Harry’s hard drives he’d do well to fish them out.

(Emma Swann)

SAM FENDER

“It was a joke. It was supposed to be a joke…” Sam admits as he remembers how his younger self would talk about one day playing St James’ Park, the home of his beloved Newcastle United. He takes in the sea of black and white in front, over fifty-thousand people (mostly fellow Geordies) all there to watch his wildest dreams transition into a very present reality.

It’s not just the stadium and the team merchandise that conjures an atmosphere similar to that of a home game here. Anyone who’s attended before would recognise the significance of ‘Hey Jude’ followed by a crowd singalong to Geordie folk song ‘The Blaydon Races’ before a saxophone rendition of Mark Knopfler’s aptly-named ‘Local Hero’. It ends with a new addition: the Champions League theme, just as Sam and his band take to the stage. Though the football-centric setup may not be to everyone’s taste - especially those supporting opposing teams - there is little heed paid to this criticism inside the walls of St James’ tonight. The atmosphere is electric and one that’s unique for a musical event, with a clear sense of regional pride echoing around the stands.

In terms of the setlist, Sam sticks to his blueprint, opening with ‘Will We Talk?’ and closing with ‘Hypersonic Missiles’. In between comes an almost two-hour long selection from all points of the 29 year old’s fast-paced career. The singalong choruses of tunes like ‘Getting Started’ and ‘Spit of You’ are placed alongside the softer sounds of ‘Wild Grey Ocean’ and ‘Mantra’, as well as the defiant heavier riffs of ‘Howdon Aldi Death Queue’ and ‘Spice’. Despite a technical mishap causing a short break halfway through, his strong musical repertoire soon reignites the crowd’s energy. For the fifth song of

the night, Sam welcomes to the stage his older brother, Liam, also a musician, to perform a powerful rendition of Springsteen’s ‘I’m On Fire’.

One of the most impressive moments of the evening comes with ‘The Dying Light’, a song Sam introduces as being “about where we’re from”, referencing both band and crowd. The track - much like ‘Dead Boys’, performed earlier in the show - is another poignant nod towards the alarmingly high male suicide rates in the North East, and comes dedicated to ‘all of those who didn’t make the night’. Sam takes to the piano for the first time of the night, beginning the first verse alone, before picking the guitar back up again to rejoin his band for the crescendo of a dramatic instrumental, amplified by fireworks that complement the music perfectly. While most of the night is an extravagant celebration of local culture, the shift of emotion experienced here serves to remind us of the struggles the region so often faces.

Soon, the evening is brought to a close by the anthemic run of ‘Saturday’, ‘Seventeen Going Under’ and ‘Hypersonic Missiles’. Showing no signs of fatigue, it’s here where the crowd is at its loudest. And even after the lights at St James’ have long been turned back on and Sam leaves the stage - closely embracing each of his bandmates before doing so - the crowd can be heard singing through the streets of Newcastle.

Tonight is a celebration of what lies at the very heart of music, North East culture, and even sport: community. From a Greggs outlet in the city centre temporarily becoming ‘Fenders Unplugged’ and hosting performances from local bands and artists, through to Newcastle Westend Foodbank organising collection points outside the venue, this evening showcases a region at its best, coming together to support one of its own. (Rebecca Alexander)

VENUE: SOMEWHERE IN ICELAND

I would have it in Iceland - maybe Greenland, but probably Iceland. I would want it to be out in the open in between a glacier and a mountain. That would be my vibe. It would be more natural for me to do it in a desert since I’m a nomad but I can’t stand the warmth! It would be fucking exhausting.

OPENER: WHITNEY HOUSTON

I want the support to be Whitney Houston, back in her good days; you know, back when she did The Bodyguard? Oh my god, yes!

SUPPORTS: BJÖRK ROSALÍAAND

There’s so many, but maybe I’d have Björk, but not with the material she’s doing now. I’d have the ‘Jóga’ Björk, I’d have that! And maybe Rosaíia, too. That’s a huge step from Whitney to Björk!

HEADLINER: KENDRICK LAMAR

I’ve already seen him but yeah, maybe Kendrick Lamar. I saw his tour last year and it was amazing, and I love his songs but I also love his narratives. I feel like, apart from just listening to him, I’m actually learning something from him. I’m like, ‘Oh really?!’ I should be like that in my life.

WHO ARE YOU GOING WITH?

I think it would be some friends; a lot of friends so that we can go wild. You don’t want your partner with you there. If you wanna fuck around or something you can’t do that with a partner, like, ‘Oh, I’m just going out for a drink…’ Ha!

ARE YOU DOING ANYTHING BEFOREHAND?

I’d probably want dinner at a nice restaurant somewhere where it’s just us, then I want my car to come and pick me up because I’m not going in high heels anywhere! Then I want my VIP area where I can stand and dance like a crazy person. That’s what I would do with my friends before.

WHAT ARE YOU DRINKING?

A spicy margarita! Just spicy margaritas that are very, very spicy. I’m terrible with remembering specific drinks so [I just want] the best ones we can get.

IS THERE AN AFTERPARTY?

If I watched Kendrick, I’d maybe have some more drinks with my friends where we’re at. We’d probably have a medium or a healer there and we would discuss Kendrick’s album and what just happened, while drinking wine at the same time. I would probably wanna do that, just listen to people and have discussions about life. You won’t see me in a club! ‘

‘Tattoo’ is out now.