DIY, December 2014 / January 2015

DIY

DIY

set music free

free / issue 36 / dec 2014 / jan 2015

diymag.com

+

readers poll 2014

the results

with

royal blood

st. vincent

george ezra

get ready. it’s time for ...

the class of 2015

years &

years

+raury. rae morris . kwabs . soak . slaves .

vaults. gengahr . lÅPSLEY . girl band+loads more

1

2 diymag.com

D E C 2 0 1 4 / J A N 2 0 1 5

GOOD VS EVIL

WHAT’S ON THE DIY TEAM’S RADAR?

Victoria

Sinden

Deputy Editor

GOOD I think

we may have

gone a little

overboard with

our excitement

for 2015.

EVIL SO MANY

BANDS, SO LITTLE

TIME.

..............................

Emma Swann

Associate Editor

GOOD I think

we can all agree,

2014 has been a

brilliant year for

music.

EVIL High

streets at

Christmas. And

new year returns.

..............................

Louise

Mason

Art Director

GOOD How

great everyone

was that we shot

for Class Of 2015.

Good people

good photos.

EVIL Still seeing

X’s and V’s

everywhere I go.

..............................

Jamie Milton

Online Editor

GOOD We’re

putting on four

free gigs in

January: Hello

2015, featuring

Girl Band, The

Magic Gang,

Demob Happy.

EVIL Basically

I’d like Christmas

to be over so we

can get on with

Hello 2015.

..............................

sarah

jamieson

News Editor

GOOD ’Tis the

season to drink

amaretto and eat

anything I can

get my hands

on, aka the best

season of the

year!

EVIL So, where

are these Fall Out

Boy UK tour dates

at, hmm?

EDITOR’S LETTER

Where does the time go? It was only twelve months ago we were inducting Royal

Blood, George Ezra and Wolf Alice into DIY’s Class of 2014. Now they’re picking up

prizes in the annual readers’ poll, while we usher in another batch of new blood. 2015’s

crew looks stronger than ever, from the brilliant Years & Years to the rambunctious

Slaves, the infectious Raury and more, there’ll be no shortage of ace new bands over

the next twelve months. That, and a debut album from our aforementioned vulipne

chums. 2015 - the year of the Joff awaits.

Stephen Ackroyd

GOOD Congratulations, DIY readers. You picked the right album of the year. Top marks.

EVIL Another year goes by where George Ezra refuses DIY’s advances to confirm him

as an official Indie Dreamboat. Spoil sport.

LISTENING POST

What’s on the DIY

stereo this month?

peace

happy people

It’s about time, guys. Peace finally get

round to releasing their second full

length. No shiny, hand holding REM

covers to be seen.

Dutch Uncles

O Shudder

It’s great when bands go away, then

come back even better than they’ve

ever sounded before. Spoiler alert:

Dutch Uncles agree.

W T F O F T H E

MONTH

Warning: do not watch

Bastille’s video for

‘Torn Apart’ if you don’t

want to see more of...

whatever this is.

3

C

O

N

T

E

N

T

S

NEWS

6 DIY PRESENTS TOUR

11ALVVAYS

12ANGELS & AIRWAVES

14#STANDFORSOMETHING

16SMASHING PUMPKINS

CLASS OF

2015

18YEARS & YEARS

22DEERS

24G E N G A H R

26VAULTS

28PRIDES

30LAPSLEY

34

32CLARENCE CLARITY

34RAURY

38SOAK

40SLAVES

44RAE MORRIS

70

76

48MARIKA HACKMAN

50GOD DAMN

REVIEWS

52SHURA

54GIRL BAND

76 ALBUMS

58KWABS

6

38

44

READERS

POLL

63ROYAL BLOOD

66ST. VINCENT

70GEORGE EZRA

78LIVE

Editor Stephen Ackroyd

Deputy Editor Victoria Sinden

Associate Editor Emma Swann

News Editor Sarah Jamieson

Art Direction & Design Louise

Mason

Head Of Marketing & Events

Jack Clothier

Online Editor Jamie Milton

Assistant Online Editor

El Hunt

Contributors Ali Shutler,

Charlie Mock, Danny Wright,

Dominique Sisley, Joe

Dickinson, Joe Goggins,

Martyn Young, Tom Connick,

Tom Walters

Photographers Carolina

Faruolo, Mike Massaro, Sarah

Louise Bennett

For DIY editorial

info@diymag.com

For DIY sales

rupert@sonicdigital.co.uk

tel: +44 (0)20 76130555

For DIY online sales

lawrence@sonicdigital.co.uk

tel: +44 (0)20 76130555

DIY is published by Sonic

Media Group. All material

copyright (c). All rights reserved.

This publication may not be

reproduced or transmitted in any

form, in whole or in part, without

the express written permission of

DIY. 25p where sold.

Disclaimer: While every effort is

made to ensure the information

in this magazine is correct,

changes can occur which affect

the accuracy of copy, for which

Sonic Media Group holds no

responsibility. The opinions of the

contributors do not necessarily

bear a relation to those of DIY or

its staff and we disclaim liability

for those impressions. Distributed

nationally.

Cover photo by Mike Massaro

4 diymag.com

‘68

borderline, london

sun 07 dec

first aid kit

dancing years

oslo, london

mon 15 dec

the weeks

james veck-gilodi

bodega, nottingham

wed 14 jan 2015

deaf institute, manchester

mon 19 jan 2015

arts centre, norwich

tue 20 jan 2015

bush hall, london

wed 21 jan 2015

louisana, bristol

thu 22 jan 2015

joiners, southampton

fri 23 jan 2015

mini mansions

symphony hall, birmingham

fri 16 jan 2015

city hall, newcastle

tue 20 jan 2015

rch, nottingham

wed 21 jan 2015

the nicks rayns lcr, uea, norwich

sun 25 jan 2015

eventim apollo, london

tue 27 jan 2015

the phantom band

the green door store, brighton

sun 18 jan 2015

O2 academy 3, birmingham

tue 20 jan 2015

the garage, london

thu 22 jan 2015

life in film

lexington, london

mon 19 jan 2015

saint raymond

lexington, london

wed 04 feb 2015

prides

castle hotel, manchester

tue 03 february 2015

hare and hounds, birmingham

wed 04 february 2015

scala, london

thu 05 february 2015

elliphant

insitute library, birmingham

mon 09 february 2015

koko, london

tue 10 february 2015

george the poet

heaven, london

thu 12 feb 2015

sundara karma

xoyo, london

wed 18 february 2015

institute library, london

thu 19 february 2015

brolin

the berkeley suite, glasgow

thu 19 feb 2015

O2 academy 3, birmingham

sat 21 feb 2015

oslo, london

mon 23 feb 2015

start the bus, bristol

tue 24 feb 2015

the haunt, brighton

wed 25 feb 2015

josef salvat

sebright arms, london

wed 25 feb 2015

ella eyre

ace hotel miranda,

london

thu 26 feb 2015

sunset sons

oslo, london

tue 03 march 2015

a place to bury

strangers

roundhouse, london

wed 11 march 2015

dingwalls, london

wed 11 march 2015

old fire station, bournemouth

fri 13 march 2015

temple, birmingham

sat 14 march 2015

oslo, london

thu 09 apr 2015

buy tickets at livenation.co.uk

5

news

DIY Presents

Tour 2014 in

association with

PledgeMusic

culminates with

London

all-dayer

NEWS

The DIY crew took over

The Laundry in East

London for the final

date of the DIY Presents

Tour 2014 in association

with PledgeMusic: an

all-dayer featuring a

bunch of our favourite

new bands, from

Brummies Jaws and

Spanish newcomers

Deers, to our tour

headliners Flyte and

scuzzy collective

Menace Beach.

6 diymag.com

JAWS and Deers backstage

Carlotta from Deers

and Joel from Wolf Alice

Swim Deep providing

the DJ soundtrack

There’s a grace to openers

Wyldest and their woozy

routine. Lights dimmed

and crowds trickling in, The

Laundry is a sea of intrigued onlookers

and DIY totes for this opening act.

Relative unknowns, the group were

picked out amongst hundreds of bands

who all applied via Bandwagon to open

the all-dayer. Once into their groove,

they stand out as newcomers capable of

climbing up a bill in no time at all. Think

Beach House without the American

twang, Woman’s Hour in their early

stages. It’s entrancing.

It’s the middle of the day, but The

Laundry’s underground setting says

otherwise. There’s a big crowd huddling

around in near-darkness for Palace, a

group of four Londoners specialising

in stately, slowly enveloping indie.

Bass creaks around the ceiling and the

concrete floors, with Leo Wyndham

leading his group through impressive

cuts on their ‘Lost In the Night’ EP. The

whole thing borders into a frenzy when

they showcase a new track, but it’s left to

the beyond gorgeous ‘Bitter’ to ease out

today’s second set.

“This is the last time we’re

going to play every single

song we’re about to play. This

will be the last gig we play

all those songs. It feels really

good to play it for the last

time tonight really because

we’ve been playing those

songs for two years.” Blessa

“We have fun with everything.

We’ve all been in bands

.before, and when we started

.this it was very much like,

.‘Let’s only do things if they’re

.fun, let’s only do gigs if they

.look like they’re going to

.be a good time and let’s not

.do anything shit.’ It’s quality

.rather than quantity. Pick

.[the shows] that sound fun

.and that will work best for

.the music you’re making.”

.Menace Beach

Cambridge’s most raucous new punk

export, Bloody Knees are tumbledrying

the hell out of The Laundry.

Frontman Bradley Griffiths leads the

relentless charge, snarling and gravelling

his way through a breakneck set. It’s all

skating along very nicely indeed; that is,

until the bass amp blows up and brings

things to a premature end. Bloody Knees

were succeeding in bringing the house

down - it’s a shame that the sound went

down with it.

Welcome to Menace Beach’s ‘Ratworld’,

a seething, snarling pit of energy that’s

always on the brink of boiling over

into amp-melting overdrive. As Ryan

Needham and Liza Violet run through

the best part of their debut album - due

out early next year - the Leeds outfit

“I’d like to see Spring King,

I really like the way those

songs sound on record so

I’m intrigued as to how it

is live. I’d like to see Deers,

and Blessa who we’ve seen a

couple of times at festivals.

Telegram at Field Day were

cool. We haven’t seen Jaws.”

Shy Nature

“We’ll hopefully go in the

studio in January and fucking

smash next year. Probably a

little single in January, and

we’re aiming album some

time next year.” Bloody Knees

7

couldn’t sound any sharper. They’ve been playing with various

outside musicians (members of Hookworms, Pulled Apart By

Horses, Slayer - you name it) but it’s the fizzing interchange

between the project’s two heads that’s most exciting.

Blessa have always been a captivating listen; mainly because

their music feels like a teetering emotional see-saw which

could veer wildly either way at a moment’s notice. That

balancing act is all the more pronounced live. Their melodies

might breeze and drift their way across The Laundry, but

there’s a disquieting intensity to lead singer Olivia Neller that

invites in an underlying layer of melancholy. In deft control

of their craft, the Sheffield band completely bewitch their

audience today.

Fresh from the free nationwide leg of the DIY Presents

Tour - a run of six shows with Flyte that included backstage

whiskey drinking and wrestling, apparently - Shy Nature

seem in remarkably good form. Showcasing tracks from their

forthcoming ‘Birthday Club’ EP, for a band just over a year

old they seem 100% aware of where they’re heading. Their

songs are designed for a higher calling, with ‘She Comes She

Goes’ mixing NYC circa-2001 guitar jams with a sharp, almost

jealousy-inducing catchiness.

Ladies and gentlemen - saxophone Dad. The real star of the

DIY all-dayer. The crown jewel in a night that’s stuffed full

of gems. Steve Darlington - remember the name. Pete from

Spring King’s Dad is the band’s secret weapon. He arrives for

a rousing, soulful, horn-tastic rendition that perfectly sums up

the madness of this set. Tarek Musa and co. never tend to hold

back. They’ve built their reputation on shows like these. It’s a

workout for everyone involved; a jumping, bouncing, rowdy

force of nature.

“It’s been really nice,

the tour. We’ve done

two UK tours before,

one with MS MR, and

one with Bombay

Bicycle Club, and both

times we were playing

to full rooms of their

fans. We were trying

to convince people

who weren’t there

to be convinced. We

did well of it, and I

think the fans that

came to this tour were

from those. It was

definitely a different

atmosphere, before

we were trying to win

them - now they’re

here to see us. It’s

a really gratifying

thing.” Flyte

“You can’t

imagine how

excited we are

for 2015, it’s

going to be

a crazy year.

We like big

stages and the

confetti thing

- we have big

plans.” Deers

But the workout doesn’t stop there; with London locals

Flyte taking to the stage, the Laundry’s now bustling crowd

is not allowed to rest on their laurels. The four piece take

an enthusiastic and enthralled audience for a spin around

a seamless set. Although relatively new to the world, their

music feels eerily familiar – the band’s most recent release,

‘Light Me Up’, receiving an impressive reaction from their

evidently increasing fan base. A true testament to top

musicianship, it all appears to come very naturally to them: a

definite “were you there when...” kind of show.

It’s just their third visit to the UK and already Deers are

progressing at a ridiculous rate. Place it on the arenas they

played with The Libertines recently, put it down to the

barrage of hype that’s come their way - there’s zero doubt

that tonight’s most in-demand band know how to handle the

hype. Every momentous punch of percussion meets headfirst

with a sudden killer guitar lick. ‘Bamboo’ into ‘Between Cans’

8 diymag.com

is unstoppable. And few things 2014 arrive as

catchy as the ‘Trippy Gum’ chant of “woo-oohooh”

times five.

Telegram don’t waste time. Their message - loud

and clear - is expressed with immediacy and

complete unhinged freedom. Glammed up, with

make-up strewn across their faces, Matt Saunders

and co. operate like the kind of band that have

learnt from their wealth of touring in 2014. Playing

alongside The Horrors, Temples and any other

psych-leaning heavyweight, their next step is

establishing a game of their own. It lands in the

form of ‘Follow’, a 2013 single that seems tighter

and more formidable when backed with new

material, seeking its own path with

malicious intent.

Closing the all-dayer is JAWS, a

band who’ve remained a staple

on these shores since day one.

In that space of time - since their

heady days of early 2012, B-town

comparisons ahoy - they’ve evolved

into a headliner. And this is only

the beginning. When they arrive, a

flurry of lights and vicious guitars,

they instantly morph into the

grungy prospect that’s always been

hinted at. Debut album ‘Be Slowly’

showcases moments of this kind,

but it’s clear this stands out as a vital

first step.

Connor Schofield and co. are

brought up on hardcore, punk - you

name it, anything with guts and

a raw vitality. Bit by bit they’re

applying this upbringing to their

previously glossy synth pop. Out

with the old, in with the new. At

times they sound like a completely

different band to the one arriving

with promising early singles ‘Gold’

and ‘Milkshake’, hype-gaining songs

that spread the word in a flash. Mostly, they mimic

a UK version of DIIV, a driven, total, fire-breathing

force that come off like the complete opposite of

the baby-faced beginners that first caught DIY’s

attention.

JAWS aren’t just a bit-part in B-town or a gurney

replica - they’re a force of their own, with ‘Be

Slowly’ acting as a vital first step. Closing the

all-dayer, they sum up today’s proceedings as a

whole; a bunch of fantastic new bands with insane

potential. DIY

Visit diymag.com for videos, interviews and

behind-the-scenes photos.

Words: El Hunt, Jamie Milton, Dominique Sisley, Joe

Dickinson. Photos: Emma Swann, Carolina Faruolo.

A saxy older man.

“There’s a lot of bands playing

that people keep telling me to

go and see – Telegram’s one

of them. Apparently they’re

top class. Bloody Knees, too.

I went to a house party to see

them once. Oh, and there’s

that Spanish band, Deers.”

Jaws

“One of the great things about these line-ups or

festivals in general is that, even when you have no

forewarning, you’ll walk out and you’ll see a great

band. It’s like ‘Wow, I’ve never heard this before.’ It’s a

real treat. It’s such a cliche of live music but it’s a

bunch of people doing what they actually want to do.

That’s what we’re doing.” Telegram

9

hop of the

pops

Mark Hoppus, Rivers Cuomo and Alex Gaskarth all lend a hand

on McBusted’s new album. No, really...

M

cBusted may firmly dwell within the confines pop, but take a listen to their

debut self-titled album or a glance at its tracklisting and all is not quite as

it seems. They may be a “pop band”, but they’ve managed to haul in a few

fairly sizeable names to join their ranks.

“What I think was really exciting,” offers guitarist Danny Jones, “is that we went back

to looking at who had really influenced us in the early days; the Blink 182s, the Sum

41s. There wasn’t any being caught up in whether this was gonna be played here or

there, we just made an album that six dudes having a laugh wanted to make.”

“We got amazing people involved as well,” adds James Bourne. “Mark singing on the

song on the album, that’s a dream come true.” That’s right: Blink 182’s Mark Hoppus

is on the McBusted album. Betcha didn’t see that one coming.

“The Mark thing was just a coincidence,” explains drummer Harry Judd. “Dougie had

met him earlier in the year and become friends with him.” “He’s totally the nicest

dude in the world,” continues Dougie Poynter, “and he writes the same way as we

do, just with acoustic guitars. He has fun lyrical ideas so it was just an awesome time.

Hearing him sing, as well, on the song is incredible.”

Well,

Hello

There

DIY has revealed the initial

acts set to be involved in

this year’s annual ‘Hello’

showcases.

E

very January, The Old Blue Last in

London opens its doors to chilly

post-Christmas punters, spent

on seasonal feasts but hungry for more

new music. DIY’s ‘Hello’ showcases

have previously witnessed Superfood’s

debut London show, one of Wolf Alice’s

first ever gigs, and early sights of JAWS

and Honeyblood.

We’re excited to announce the initial

bill for Hello 2015, headed up by Irish

terrors Girl Band. The four shows will

take place next January, with four

bands billed per gig. Each show is free

entry with 18+ admission.

Alongside Girl Band, Brighton bands

Demob Happy and The Magic Gang are

set to see in the new year. There’s also

Middlesbrough bedroom kid Corey

Bowen, the forward-thinking pop of

both Chloe Black and Oscar, plus the

relentless charge of Bloody Knees and

Prom, with further acts are set to be

announced in forthcoming weeks. DIY

JANUARY 2015

06 The Magic Gang, Corey

Bowen

13 Bloody Knees, Prom

20 Oscar, Chloe Black

27 Girl Band, Demob Happy

Hoppus isn’t the only guest either; All Time Low’s Alex Gaskarth and Weezer’s Rivers

Cuomo are also among the ranks. “Steve Robson, the guy who produced the album,”

says Judd, “is friends with Alex from All Time Low and he was over so we decided to

write with him.

“The Weezer connection was actually a couple of years ago; some of the McFly guys

wrote with Rivers which was a buzz at the time, so when we were making this, we

realised that that song would fit perfectly onto this album. Those are three of our

favourite songs on the album.”

McBusted’s self-titled debut album is out now via Island Records. DIY

10 diymag.com

Alvvays

and forever

Every UK gig they’ve played has been packed to the rafters, and in July they released one

of the albums of the year: Toronto five-piece Alvvays reflect on a mad 2014.

Words: Joe Goggins. Photo: Carolina Faruolo.

Given the kind of year they’ve

had, you’d be forgiven

for thinking that Alvvays

now have a slick operation

in place when they’re on the road;

unanimous critical praise for their

self-titled debut and rapturously

received shows across the world, you’d

have thought, would’ve seen to that.

Instead, though, they’ve just played

across Europe without a tour manager,

meaning things were just a little bit

chaotic. Today they’re playing the

second of two nights in Berlin, opening

for Foxygen; tomorrow they’ll fly back

to New York. “I think it’s about time,”

singer Molly Rankin laughs. “We’re all

starting to lose our minds a little bit.”

It’s pronounced ‘always’ - the spelling

is apparently down to somebody else

having beaten them to the correct form,

although a cynic might think it’s a little

bit of search engine optimisation - but

the Toronto five-piece haven’t been

around very long at all; they formed

out of the ashes of various other bands

two years ago. That said, it took what

felt like an age - to the band at least - for

them to actually put out a record; the

gorgeously fuzzy ‘Alvvays’ dropped in

July. “Normally I don’t think we would

have had any real expectations for the

record,” Rankin explains. “We’ve all

been in enough bands and projects

in the past that haven’t really panned

out to know that it’s probably best

not to place your hopes too high. It

took so long to get the album out

there though, that it was difficult not

to want to see people’s reactions to

it - which, thankfully, have been great. I

thought that maybe just a few Canadian

websites and magazines would cover it,

so it’s crazy to see it go over so well.”

“It’s crazy to see the

album go over so well.”

Molly Rankin

One of the perks of that attention has

been the opportunities for travel that

it’s afforded the band; in October, they

toured the UK properly for the first time,

opening up a superb double bill along

with Real Estate, and commanding

crowds almost as big as the headliners,

too. “It was nice to get the chance to

explore, finally,” says Rankin. “We’d only

ever played London and Brighton, for

some reason. There were at least a few

people at every show who knew all the

words, which felt like a huge bonus.

Seeing those crowds was inspiring; the

amount of people buying vinyl, too.”

They’ve already lined up another set of

UK dates for January, and the realities of

spending so much time on the road are

beginning to take their toll; the group

have given up their day jobs now, albeit

reluctantly. “It’s not that we don’t want

day jobs, or need them,” says Rankin,

who was waiting tables at a Toronto

pizzeria this time last year. “But we’re

just starting to reach the position of

not being able to have them. We’re

becoming neglectful employees! It’s

kind of a scary position to be in, to not

have anything to fall back on; this is

still a super close-knit operation, but

we’re all totally committed to the band

now, and you have to deal with that

uncertainty.”

Read the full interview on diymag.

com. Alvvays’ self-titled debut album

is out now via Transgressive. DIY

11

Tom and Ilan didn’t take well to losing the latest Apprentice challenge

Are We

Dreaming?

Angels and Airwaves have grand ambitions for their new album,

frontman Tom DeLonge tells Sarah Jamieson.

Aliens, conspiracy theories

and dick jokes; Tom

DeLonge’s career has been

littered with all sorts of

projects and all kinds of fixations. More

than anything, though, the Angels and

Airwaves frontman – who shares his

time with that other small-time band of

his, Blink 182 – has never been short of

ambition. Now is no different except,

with the band’s new project, things are

going to be that little bit bigger.

“Angels and Airwaves is part of a

company called To The Stars,” begins

Tom, “and To The Stars is creating

intellectual property that will hopefully

last for generations. These properties

exist to become mediums: feature

films, novels, graphic novels, albums,

soundtracks.

“So, our goals were to set the company

up, get all of our resources together, get

a collection of artists together, elevate

the sound, change the direction of how

we’ve been writing songs and what has

really evolved the music, and to catch

people off guard with the complexity of

the art in all the different forms.

“Hopefully, when all of these things

come out together - the feature film,

the book, the music - the sum of its

parts will create a much bigger whole.

I think we’re accomplishing that. I think

when people hear this record, they’re

gonna say, ‘Oh my god, what a dramatic

evolution for the band. What is it that

these guys are attempting and how did

they pull off so many different things on

so many different mediums?’’”

“The sum of its parts

will create a much

bigger whole.”

Tom DeLonge

Angels and Airwaves are gearing up

to release a brand new album, going

by the name of ‘The Dream Walker’.

Following their previous doublealbum

project ‘Love’ and based upon

DeLonge’s fictional character Poet

Anderson and his sleeping patterns

– think everything from delving into

dreams and being faced by night terrors

– there’s also going to be an animated

film, a novel, a comic book and a feature

film.

“It’s satisfying in the sense that we’re

doing something that’s very complex

and things are falling into place,” says

Tom, of how it feels to be able to work

on such an expansive project. “I get to

work with really, really great artists and

it’s not just myself doing everything.

“With the way a band works, a band all

work together to write a song, it’s the

same with the writers: all these writers

work together to create a novel. We’re

operating as a team and we’re working

on something that’s transformative

for the music, film and publishing

industries.”

Angels and Airwaves’ new album

‘The Dream Walker’ will be released

on 9th December via To The Stars.

DIY

12 diymag.com

13

#STANDFORSOMETHING

WE ARE THE OCEAN +

ARCANE ROOTS

the Shipping Forecast, liverpool

Liverpool is infamous when it comes

to Saturday nights out, making it the

perfect destination for the Dr. Martens

#STANDFORSOMETHING Tour in association

with DIY.

Getting off to a loud start, Bad Grammar step up to

the plate with relish. There may only be two of them on

stage, but their set is turned all the way up to eleven

and then some, filling the bunker-esque venue with

thrashing guitars and pummelling drums. They’re one

heck of a rowdy pair.

Next up to face the packed confines of The Shipping

Forecast, Arcane Roots take to the stage looking as

dapper as ever. Their sense of style isn’t all they’re

bringing to tonight’s show: the trio are masters of their

craft. Their brand of intricate and jagged rock’n’roll

comes packed with an extra shot of adrenaline, and it

takes only moments for the band to throw themselves

into action, with frontman Andrew Groves switching

from melodic singing to intense screams with all the

ease of breathing. Quickly rallying the crowd with their

anthemic offerings, the three-piece’s set is potent from

the get go.

Finally, We Are The Ocean cram themselves onto the

tiny stage for the last set of the night. Bursting into old

favourite ‘Nothing Good Has Happened Yet’, the name

of the game is clear: there’s going to be lots of singing

along tonight.

Moving swiftly through different parts of their

discography, each song sounds massive - especially

new single ‘ARK’ - in the tiny room, and their audience

knows every word. Songs like ‘What It Feels Like’ and

‘Bleed’ come packed with an aggressive growl, before

‘Young Heart’ shows off frontman Liam Cromby’s

gorgeous vocals.

we are the ocean

Drawing proceedings to a

close as sweat drips from

the walls, Cromby picks up

an acoustic guitar for ‘Chin

Up, Son’ and the reaction is

incredible. Arms aloft, voices

raised, the last few lines are

sung by everyone in the room.

It’s enough to cause goose

bumps.

arcane roots

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TOUR 2014

JOHNNY FOREIGNER

los campesinos!

LOS CAMPESINOS! +

JOHNNY FOREIGNER

THE FLAPPER, BIRMINGHAM

It may take a while to navigate through the streets of

Birmingham this weekend, but head past the heaving

crowds at the German Christmas market and turn towards

the canals and there’s a treat hidden away from the eager

shopping public.

Tucked away at the infamous Flapper, that sits right by the

waterside in a more quiet part of the city, the basement

is packed with bodies awaiting the fourth show of the Dr.

Martens #STANDFORSOMETHING Tour in association with DIY.

one song to burst into

life, while the air sizzles

with energy. Singalongs

are already in full swing,

and the quartet’s

scrappy punk is glorious;

and they’re not even

the headliners: there’s

still more chaos (and

dancing) to come.

JOHNNY FOREIGNER

First up, Bella Figura have arrived

to warm up the gathered crowd

with their bluesy tendencies. A

little more rough rock’n’roll than

tonight’s bill probably lends itself

to, their set comes complete with

meandering solos and appreciative

head-nodding. An impressively

talented bunch.

When local heroes Johnny

Foreigner hit the stage, the

audience is already crammed tightly

into the room, standing on their

tiptoes and hoping to catch a better

view of the four-piece. As the heat

slowly begins to rise and frontman

Alexei Berrow steps out into the

crowd for their first offering ‘You

Can Do Better’, the venue takes just

By the time that Los Campesinos! take over, there’s sweat

dripping from the ceiling. The audience underneath couldn’t

care less. They’re more concerned with screaming along with

each and every lyric to come from Gareth Campesinos’ mouth.

The temperature of the room is as hot as the sun, but there’s

little that’s going to slow the Cardiff band down tonight.

Bounding through cuts from all five of their albums, there are

plenty of goose-bump moments to choose from: the soaring

pop sensibilities, the crowd mimicking the piano intro of ‘By

Your Hand’, Gareth engulfed by his adoring crowd, or even

just the last few lines of ‘You! Me! Dancing!’ being sung by

everyone from the front to the back of the venue.

Their set length, clocking in at around about 95 minutes, is

incredible and, despite joking that they can barely remember

how to play a handful of songs, there’s no messing about this

evening. It’s intense, it’s sweaty, but most importantly it’s fun.

There’s not much more to wish for on a Saturday night. DIY

15

anti

Billy Corgan is back with The Smashing

Nostalgia is worth big bucks.

If anyone knows that full

well, it’s Billy Corgan. The

only original member of The

Smashing Pumpkins left, he’s in part

responsible for ‘Siamese Dream’ and

‘Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness’

– two monumentally iconic albums.

From later Pumpkins albums ‘Zeitgeist’

and ‘Oceania’ to the short-lived Zwan

- Billy Corgan’s band with Pumpkins

drummer Jimmy Chamberlin, along

with Matt Sweeney and Slint’s David

Pajo - The Smashing Pumpkins have

seemed under constant scrutiny. It’d be

easy for Billy Corgan to silence everyone

with a new, formulaic record cooked up

from a sprinkle of melancholy, a glug of

melodramatic production, and a fuzzy

hint of debut album ‘Gish’. Billy Corgan

doesn’t believe in easy.

“I just wish someone would give me

a little bit of prop for costing myself

a gazillion dollars,” laughs Corgan,

sat in the middle of a slightly dated

hotel suite, which, according to him,

resembles a “granny flat”. “It’s the

mouldy death part that scares me,” he

continues. “I know what I was thinking

when I was 21 and I watched some

fucking old crustacean get up there and

plod around,” he laughs, exasperated.

“Here’s my theoretical brutality on it

all – if you can’t supersede what you did

before, you don’t belong out there.”

“It doesn’t sound dated,” says Billy

of ‘Monuments To An Elegy,’ “like

something from the past. I’ve been in

that position too many times. Pop is the

new pornography. It’s not Elvis shaking

his hips that you need to be worried

about, it’s Iggy and JLo rubbing their

butts against each other. Rock seems

very flat-footed to respond to the speed

and sensorial necessity of the crowd

to be titillated. I really don’t want be in

a corner of the world’s cultural market

that is making itself more and more

irrelevant by the day, and celebrating its

irrelevance. Do I wanna sit and look at

my old pictures for two hours? No.”

hero

Pumpkins’ eighth studio album.

“In 1984 when I started going out to the alternative clubs,

I had the ‘Robert Smith’,” he reflects. “That haircut. I would

go to wait for the bus at midnight, and guys would pull up

in cars and threaten me with my life - for the haircut. That’s

alternative. Kurt [Cobain] and Company made alternative

music big business,” continues Billy. “All I’m asking is don’t ask

me to wave a flag for something that doesn’t mean anything

anymore, and then don’t give me shit when I don’t want to

wave the flag, as if I’m being cranky.”

Intended as a conclusion to the expectation, tabloid gossip,

and petty ridicule that has followed Corgan around more or

less since ‘Mellon Collie...’ came out in 1995 and the original

line-up disbanded, ‘Monuments To An Elegy’ marks the final

backward look. True to name, it’s apparently something of an

abandoned memorial to the band’s muddy and complicated

history, too.

“There’s a sense

of futility, or

something being

lost…” Billy

begins, before

abruptly shifting

tact. “I’ll tell

you this story,”

he announces

suddenly. “I’m

walking along

and I see this

World War I

monument.

It’s all dirty

and there’s

garbage, but at

some point this

really meant

something to

somebody. Right

now it’s just

something that

people walk past

when they’re

GREEK

PHILOSOPHER

OR BILLY

CORGAN?

The Smashing Pumpkins’

frontman is many things

these days: a musician,

a wrestling promoter,

a tea curator, and

increasingly - judging

by his DIY interview,

anyway - an aspiring

philosopher. The

question is, can you spot

the difference between

classical Greek wisdom,

and Billy Corgan’s own

musings? Answers on a

scorecard please.

a “The commonality of

human experience tells

us that most people are

asleep.”

b “To be free means to be

truly free.”

c “The aim of art is to

represent not the outward

appearance of things, but

their inward significance.”

d “If it’s meant to die, it’s

meant to die, but there is a

transitional sorrow.”

e “People are like dirt.

They can either nourish

you and help you grow as

a person or they can stunt

your growth and make you

wilt and die.”

Answers: a. Billy Corgan, b.

Billy Corgan, c. Aristotle, d. Billy

Corgan, e. Plato.

16 diymag.com

NEWS

I N B R I E F

KILL ‘EM ALL

Metallica are one of the first acts

announced to appear at next year’s

Reading & Leeds Festival. Taking

place across the August Bank Holiday

Weekend in 2015, other artists to be

confirmed in the first wave of additions

include Refused, Run The Jewels,

Jamie T, Pierce The Veil, Wilkinson

and Manchester Orchestra.

What are you thinking, Billy?

looking at their cell phones. There’s a feeling sometimes, that with my life, or my

musical life, I did these great things. It’s no different than a plaque on a wall. Now it’s

all down to what Courtney [Love] said about Billy.”

Looking back over The Smashing Pumpkins’ long journey to ‘Monuments To An

Elegy’, Billy Corgan flatly says that he’s not happy with how things went down.

“Obviously I went on this weird journey for some reason,” he ponders. ”I would stick

by the statement that the original [Smashing Pumpkins] not staying together or

sorting out its issues was idiotic. I wish the band would’ve done what the band was

meant to do. We didn’t, through our own darkness, blow something up that was

quite magical – that’s the shame.”

Read the full interview on diymag.com. The Smashing Pumpkins’ new album

‘Monuments To An Elegy’ will be released on 8th December via Martha’s Music

/ BMG. DIY

AMERICAN BEAUTY

Fall Out Boy have announced details of

their new full-length, ‘American Beauty/

American Psycho’. The band’s sixth

studio album, it will be released on 19th

January.

The title track is a radical change in

direction for the band, described

by Pete Wentz as “turning left when

everyone expected us to turn right.”

Hear it on diymag.com now.

HAPPY PEOPLE

Peace have revealed details of their

second album, ‘Happy People’. Due

on 9th February 2015, it features the

singles ‘Money’ and ‘Lost On Me’, both

of which were released this year. They’ll

support the album with a UK tour, visit

diymag.com for details.

17

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A new year means hundreds of new bands, pushed blinking into the light

with the hope of becoming absolutely massive. Luckily for you, DIY has been

tracking the hottest new talent to bring you this, a definitive list of the acts

you need to know. Books out, pens ready - the Class of 2015 is in.

Battling convention, shunning acting,

quitting jobs in plush restaurants -

Years & Years’ story is one of sacrifice

and (imminent) success.

T h e Y e a r

O f

y e a r s .

& .

y e a r s .

How the three members of Years & Years ended up

here is anyone’s guess, but together they stand on

the brink of being 2015’s success

story. Frontman Olly Alexander’s

had his fair share of success in

xv

acting, shunning a similarly

promising path to focus on this

project when he had to choose

between the two. Bassist Mikey Goldsworthy

and gadget-wizard Emre Turkmen had to make

big decisions too. The former worked in a

Michelin star-rated restaurant, the latter studying

architecture.

And when you begin to consider previous bands

they used to be in, the story makes even less sense.

Goldsworthy was once in an experimental outfit

with fellow Aussie hype-magnet Oscar Key Sung.

“It was a weird Sigur Rós-inspired band. We used

to play the drums with a bow,” he lists off, current

bandmate Olly rolling his eyes and giving a very

frank “I hate you” verdict. “I’ve been in quite a

few,” he continues. “Some metal bands. Some jazz

bands. Some Argentinian tango bands… That

was with my dad.” None of these got very far, he

admits, except for one. But things unfortunately

and somewhat hilariously hit a wall because “I was

in too many bands!”

Words: Jamie Milton. Photos: Mike Massaro

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Sometime in January 2014, this

fragmented history took a backseat and

gave way to a bright future. A video for

‘Real’ (starring Olly’s actor mate Ben

Whishaw) began to take off, the song

itself even more so. “We thought, ‘Oh,

hopefully the video will get some hits!’

But the actual song - you could see it

on SoundCloud. The numbers going up

and up. That’s what started everything,”

says Olly. Within weeks they were

signed. Mikey remembers all three

members being in his old restaurant

digs when they first heard of interest. “I

don’t think any of us thought it would

happen,” he confesses. “It came out of

nowhere.”

From then on, things careered

skywards, towards the big-deal

support slots, the Jools shows and the

undeniably massive follow-up singles.

“As soon as we got signed, our manager

was like, ‘The hard work starts now’.

We were like, ‘Yay we got signed! We

can quit!’” Olly jokes. “It’s been way,

way more intense than I thought it

would be.”

Wait until they find out what happens

next. Years & Years have shot up into

public consciousness with singles

that build on ‘Real’’s heady, emotionjuggling

take on dance. ‘Take Shelter’

made playful pop come off like an

ominous siren, follow-up ‘Desire’

balancing its certified, Ibiza-ready

blast of energy with unhinged

invention. That’s the thing with these

three: they unite in their ability to pen

monster hits, but each contributes

a drastically different shade. Olly’s

vocals are a head-turning pitch, a

giddy glue to Emre’s production and

Mikey’s similarly complex dynamics.

There must be a temptation to dive

straight into chart-topping singles

for the hell of it (the ingredients

are there), but Years & Years seem

determined to forge their own route.

Now it’s just a question of keeping

their own heads. Fortunately, they’re

all rubbish at partying - they’ve had

one collective night out (“we had a

terrible time,” says Olly, Emre quietly

disagreeing), with Mikey sticking to

his roots by saying “I’m more of a

restaurant guy.” So there’s no danger

of the trio veering off course into a

drug-addled stupor. The extent of

their inter-band madness stops short

at the “Y” tattoos both Olly and Emre

decided to adorn themselves with on a

whim. Mikey didn’t get one. Again, all

about the restaurants.

Self-discipline comes into the equation

for the frontman especially. “I get really

paranoid about getting sick,” claims

Olly. “You never want to do a show

hungover. I feel terrible but it’s also not

good for people to see some hungover,

shambling idiot trying to sing. I’m such

a hypochondriac. I’ve read stories about

Jared Leto wearing gloves to touch

someone because he was so scared of

germs. I’m not that bad…”

He mentions Leto without being

prompted, which is interesting given

the actor-musician complex he’s quickly

been tagged with. There’s no traditional

route for these things, but when offered

the choice between a lucrative career

in acting and a good old fashioned slog

in the music business, most talented

individuals would opt for the former.

Olly was at a crossroads towards the

end of 2013. “It was all happening at

the same time,” he remembers. “I don’t

know what the right word is, but I got

a bit fed up of doing work that I didn’t

really believe in. And I wanted to be

with the guys making music. Towards

the end of last year I decided to focus

on music - I didn’t want to do any more

acting. And then early this year, ‘Real’

happened. That’s when I knew I didn’t

want to go back.”

TOO REAL?

Playing Jools Holland was a “real

milestone” for the trio, but frontman

Olly experienced a roller coaster of

emotions. Pre-show, he was “such a

mess” and had “never felt so physically

ill before” - “I couldn’t eat anything. But

I got it together for the live show. Had

a shot of whiskey, I was having fun,”

he says. Following the performance,

he picked up the best compliment

possible from Tune-Yards’ Merrill

Garbus. “She was like, ‘Boooy, you’ve

got some dance moooves.’” Talk about

a surreal first telly gig.

His bandmates then list off every actor

and musician combination they can

think of, Justin Timberlake and Billy Bob

Thornton being the highlights. Olly’s

career in acting wasn’t as high profile

as Years & Years are right now, although

appearances in Skins, US series Penny

Dreadful and Stuart Murdoch’s God

Help the Girl pointed towards a bright

future. It seems as if he’s made the right

choice, though. And he’s not ruling

out future roles. “It’d be cool to do

something else in the future. Maybe

make our own films.”

2015 is when things get serious. Talk’s

centred around an album for some

time, but now it’s truly happening. The

trio claim they’ve been in “album mode”

for months, but Olly admits they’ve had

to be “single-minded”, no pun intended,

with 2014 output. “It’s because of the

music industry, and the type of act we

are. But we all really love albums. We all

grew up listening to albums. And vinyl

is selling more than it has in the last

twenty-five years. People want a body

of work from an act they love.”

Asked if there’s anything that unites a

first record’s material, it’s the first time

Olly squirms in his seat. The answer’s

direct, though. “Unrequited love,” he

says. “It’s really a bitch. That about sums

it up. I really resent having to say they’re

all heartbreak songs. But they’re all

personal, lyrically referring to the last

three years of my life. It’s a personal

therapy.”

But nothing’s set in stone. A fulllength

will either consist of “ten power

ballads” or, in more serious terms,

a cohesive piece that showcases

something different. “Our live set is

always really uptempo. We want to

have a bit of variety,” Olly says.

If things got ‘Real’ with this year’s

breakthrough single, the opposite

followed. A series of surreal

experiences, one after the next, from

meeting Robert Plant at Later... With

Jools Holland to seeing singles hit

the million-plus listener count. But

there’s a sense that back in 2013, even

if they “never” thought they’d get a

record deal, this whirlwind experience

is something all three collectively

and subconsciously signed up for.

2014’s more than suggested that

they’re ready - 2015 looks set to be

the making of this brilliantly diverse

bunch. DIY

20 diymag.com

YEARS & YEARS,

NEED TO KNOW

Most likely to: Score a Top Ten single.

Least likely to: Lose their ‘Desire’ to hit the top.

Little known fact: Olly and Mikey met Emre

through findabandmate.com.

Listen: The unplugged version of ‘Take Shelter’

shows a new side.

See them live: Their first headline tour kicks off

in Birmingham, 26th February.

“ I t ’ s b e e n

w a y , w a y

m o r e

i n t e n s e

t h a n I

t h o u g h t i t

would be.”

O l l y

Alexander

2015’s bright sparks: Years & Years

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S p a i n ’ s h o t t e s t n e w e x p o r t

d e e r s

With more enthusiasm that you could vigorously shake a stick at,

Deers are taking on 2015 with gusto.

“We have big plans,” declares Deers’ Ana Garcia Perrotte,

her brow raised mischievously. “You can’t imagine!”

xv pipes up Carlotta Cosials, clapping her hands together

so vigorously she almost falls backwards, “it’s going to

be a crazy year!” The rest of the girls on the table nod in

agreement, before erupting into an explosion of infectious cackles and

excitable shouts. For those of you who are not privy to the ups and downs

of the internet’s hype machine – Deers are very much on the ‘up’ side of

things. Despite having barely a handful of demos available online, the

Spanish garage-pop quartet have built up a fan base that’s as excitable as

a Jack Russell with its face stuck in a Quavers packet – and for very good

Words: Dominique Sisley. Photo: Emma Swann

22 diymag.com

reason. They’re raw, rickety

and rambunctious, making

music that’s overflowing

with sangria-soaked alegría.

Originally a duo, Madrid’s

Ana and Carlotta met

through their ex-boyfriends

and have remained fiercely

close ever since. Opting for

the name Deers because of

the animal’s associations

with the ‘horns’ of adultery,

one can probably hazard a

guess at what threw these

two together. “We don’t

want to give details, it would

be rude,” Carlotta says with a

cheeky smile. “One year later

we met Ade [Martin] who

was the girlfriend of one of

my best friends, and then

we met Amber [Grimbergen]

inspiration behind several

of the tracks – “It depends.

’Trippy Gum’ is about fun

and [being] drunk. And

‘Castigadas en el Granero’

is about sisters… We want

to mix our life and a friend’s

life or her feelings with other

feelings.” Carlotta nods, “it’s

personal, but it’s very much

a shren, a shh, shrin…” – she

stops, trying to figure out

the right way to pronounce

it – “a sharing thing.”

So now it’s time for 2015

and the bright, shiny future

ahead for Deers. As soon

as the subject comes up,

all four of them burst into a

frantic hum of excitement

and dream scenarios. With

hopes to start recording

K i n g s O f G r i t A n d G r u b

d e m o b h a p p y

Geordie-bred, Brighton-based terrors racing

ahead via Royal Blood’s coattails.

One thrashing, Brighton-based force

defined 2014, and another are fast

xv approaching to take on the following

year. Demob Happy are of a different

ilk to Royal Blood, but they provoke

the same response.

On the bill alongside Girl Band for DIY’s beginning

of the year ‘Hello 2015’ celebrations in London,

Matthew Marcantonio and co. spent the best part of

2014 forging their own grit-laced path. Recent single

‘Succubus’ is QOTSA with extra spice, a venomous

embrace that’ll take some stopping.

“ W e ’ r e a b a n d , w e ’ r e

n o t a g i r l b a n d . ”

Carlotta Cosials

What’s your background?

Matthew Marcantonio: We’re all Geordies - grew up

in Newcastle, came down to Brighton four years ago.

I love Newcastle. There’s some really good bands

there. But there’s not a collective as much as you can

tell there is down here. It’s a shame really. There’s

good musicians but there’s not really the exposure.

We couldn’t afford to move to London, so we moved

to Brighton.

via Facebook. She had a

profile picture playing

drums, so we added her as a

friend.” Ana laughs, raising

her canned energy drink

in salute – “we’re modern

lovers!” However, despite

their near-constant joviality,

the group almost spit out

their drinks when the term

‘girl band’ is mentioned as a

potential description. “No,

no, no! No please.” Carlotta

exclaims, waving her hands

wildly. “We’re a band, we’re

not a girl band. It’s like a boy

doing music; it’s exactly the

same. We are doing music as

boys do music.”

And what music it is, by

the way. With a lot of

comparisons already being

drawn to Phil Spector’s

girl groups of the 60s,

Deers’ harsh melodies and

heartfelt lyrics slide woozily

between the then and the

now – without straying too

far into heartbreak territory.

“They are love songs, but

not sad ones,” Ana stresses,

before reeling off the

their first album in April,

the main priority before

then is to polish up their live

shows – something they’re

particularly enthusiastic

about. Do they have any

big ambitions? “I think our

music will never be in a

stadium,” Ana ponders, “I

really think that this kind of

music never gets a stadium

full.” Instead, they talk

about their decidedly less

elegant live experiences

with a hopelessly romantic

sparkle in their eyes. “Oh,

it’s so cool! We have no tour

manager, no driver – it’s just

us,” Carlotta explains. They

laugh merrily, but it’s clear

that they are genuinely a bit

enamoured by it all. “We’ve

had a lot of fun, and we’ve

learnt a lot about – not only

music – but life. You learn

a lot from the people you

meet. You learn a lot. We

learn from the streets.” And

there’s not much doubt

that 2015 will see all those

lessons become a lot more

thrilling – and a lot more

fun. DIY

Do you feel like you’re doing your own thing in

Brighton?

MM: From the outside, people would think there’s

a scene. They see the correlation, the guitar-based

music coming out of the same space. But it’s kind of…

For me, it’s a competitive thing that it provides. Some

people might see a scene as bands helping each other

out, but there’s so many bands it’d be impossible for

everyone to hang out with everyone.

MOST LIKELY TO: Be a must-see at Reading & Leeds.

LEAST LIKELY TO: Serve coffee in their converted

cafe-turned-studio basement.

SEE THEM LIVE: DIY Presents: Hello 2015 - London’s

Old Blue Last, 27th January.

Words: Jamie Milton

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“Morning people” Gengahr make music in sharp, determined

bursts, with zero distractions. Next up? The O2.

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F a r m i n g U p A S p e c i a l

D e b u t ,

g e n g a h r

’ s W a y

W i t h T h e W i l d e r n e s s

Anyone crossing Gengahr’s path live tends to get sapped in, shaken

around and spat out in one satisfied ball of muck.

These four have a habit of causing a stir on stage, and their first big

test of 2015 will be a Not That Intimate date with Alt-J at London’s

O2. On record there’s a determinist streak to their music, a vicious edge that pierces

the surface of a crackling psych mentality. Live, however, is an experience that

takes some beating. They’ve spent the

past few months honing their trade

(frontman Felix Bushe is still counting

the number of shows they’ve played,

nearing the hundreds) and that looks

set to continue, despite there being

the lowly matter of a debut album on

the cards.

The severity and venom of Gengahr’s

music is a slow-burner. On the outside,

early single ‘Bathed in Light’ / ’Powder’

comes off relatively soft, gentle in

its easeful approach. But out steps a

sudden jolt of energy, a minute-long

crashing wave of guitars from John

Victor. It has to stem from somewhere,

and together they collectively agree

that they joined the band in late 2013

with a serious desire to make things

happen.

“I think we’ve all been in failed

projects,” admits Bushe, who played

in a band called Zen Arcade alongside

bassist Hugh Schulte. “The big one is

whether you’re ready for it yourself.

Words: Jamie Milton. Photo: Mike Massaro

GENGAHR, NEED TO KNOW

Most likely to: Rule 2015’s festivals.

Least likely to: Settle after album number one.

Little known fact: Guitarist John Victor’s Dad is a local commentator for Leyton Orient - a very public

fan of the band, too. “I told him to stop doing it,” he says of his old man’s social media antics. “As a

headmaster, you don’t want to be retweeting our fourteen-year-old fans.”

24 diymag.com

Personally, I don’t think I was ready to

be mature enough, in a good enough

creative mindset which was worthy of

people’s credit.”

“And you’ve got to have everyone as

focused as each other,” backs up Hugh.

“Often that never happens, but I think

we’ve found the right dynamic.”

This explains the pack mentality that

follows the band’s every move, on stage

and off. For their first recording session,

they wound up with five songs in a

matter of hours. Nowadays, claims Felix,

they’ll do three hours “relentlessly” and

then they’ll “take the rest of the day off.”

They all “jump in”, with the exception of

studio local Hugh, who lives round the

corner. “It’s like the kid that lives across

the road from school - always the last to

turn up,” jokes drummer Danny Ward.

Sessions for their debut record have

been taking place in a distant farm in

Devon, where phone signal’s a no-go

and there’s barely a bar to check into

for a quick break. “We work best without distractions,” says Felix. “There’s very little

to do other than just crack on. When we’re on a farm we do sixteen hour days as a

minimum. You get up straight away, you’re in there, and you stop when your ears go

dead.” Speeding by at their current rate, they reckon they’ll have the album done by

Christmas.

Early demos landed Gengahr a deal on Transgressive, a home that’d likely be happy

to give the band their own time and space to press - but these four aren’t the type to

sit still. “We clicked with them straight away,” says Hugh, who describes the deal as

“a big relief, actually.”

“That period of time is so difficult,” agrees Felix. “You don’t know what’s going to

happen next. Someone could be like, ‘Yeah, we’re going to set you up with this

producer over here’. These are the bands we want you to sound like. You can create

all the worst case scenarios in your head and you can never be sure of the reality

ahead. When we met Transgressive it seemed very obvious that they were going to

let us do our own thing. And they were happy with what we’d already done. They

weren’t going to tamper with it.”

It’d take some guts - and foolish intentions - to meddle with Gengahr’s current route.

It’s difficult to think of a band that’s gone from debut casual demos to the O2 in such

a short space of time. But it’s this assured, confident pack mentality that’s fuelling

momentum. “I think it’s just a level of maturity as well,” says Felix, again referring to

previous projects. “At some point, you realise you can only fuck things up so many

times, before it escapes you completely. Without being dramatic, it felt like this was

the time to buck up a bit and not act like an idiot.” DIY

“ A t s o m e

p o i n t

y o u

r e a l i s e

y o u c a n

o n l y

f u c k

t h i n g s

u p s o

m a n y

times.”

F e l i x

Bushe

Genghar have never been to a

rave before. Never again, either.

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B a r b a r a

W i n d s o r ,

“ S p a c e T i t s ”

a n d t h e m a d

w o r l d o f

a u l t s

Blythe, Barney and Ben

are responsible for 2015’s

rousing soundtrack - how

they got here is anyone’s

guess.

xv

Vaults’ journey from 2014 hopefuls to 2015 dead-certs has

been anything but average. It’s a process that’s included

stripping, discovering instruments that nobody’s ever

played before, and avoiding local dogging hotspots. Who

said being in a band was easy?

In order to stand out, the three ‘B’’s - Blythe, Ben and Barney - arrived

sporting sophisticated synth pop tracks that live in a peaceful world

between Portishead, Massive Attack and Radiohead at their most romantic.

Support dates for London Grammar in 2014 made plenty of sense, too.

They first struck gold at a debut festival show in Henham Park for Latitude

2014. Locals to Suffolk, they drew a huge crowd in an early afternoon slot,

the big draw being this weird, bobble-y instrument that stood centre of

the stage.

Its technical term is an aluphone, but Vaults prefer to nickname it “Space

Tits”. Sometimes they’ll call it “Babs,” too, named after Barbara Windsor.

“Apparently it was made by a Danish farmer. He was hitting a gate post and

it made a really nice tone, a bell-type sound,” explains Barney, himself and

Ben responsible for making these “Space Tits” work. “We were thinking of

dressing it in bras on stage, but it might take away from the integrity we’re

aiming for.”

The trio’s music comes off as quite serious - and it is, emotionally-wrung

tracks don’t tend to get made by shiny happy people - but the stories

behind the project are anything but. For their debut ‘Lifespan’ video, they

ended up visiting a local hotspot for ‘dodgy stuff’ just to make the whole

thing happen. “We filmed it on the Epping Forest boating pond, run by

these geezers,” remembers Ben. “And it’s a real hotspot for dogging. We

scared them all off with our lights and stuff.”

“The local ice cream van went home!” Blythe laughs, with Ben adding: “It’s

so popular for dogging there’s an ice cream van

that sells burgers all night. He turned up, saw all

our lights and just turned round again.”

Once the ‘Lifespan’ video was over and done

with, similar experiences occurred in North

London. “I got my baps out for the whole of

Camden,” Blythe jokes, referring to the bareback

photo that dons recent EP ‘Vultures’’ art.

“Loads of people kept stopping and taking

photographs - not of me, but there was some

kind of artwork on the wall of the Hawley Arms.

They just didn’t see me at all, I was too high up.”

Ben turns to Blythe. “Well, we talked about the

idea of you being the ‘Vulture’, surveying on top

of a cliff. Without sticking feathers on you.”


26 diymag.com

Vaults practice their best vampire deterring moves

FROM

THE

VAULT

TO THE

CLUB

“It was more of an abstract thing,” says Blythe. “Just put a load of grease in my hair and run around the

rooftops of Camden!”

On stage, beside “Babs”, things tend to get more sophisticated. Recent headline shows and dates with

Paolo Nutini saw the group surrounding themselves in tiny LED lights, Blythe donning a crown of litup

wires. “I’m a theatre person,” she says, citing a degree in set design. “For me, the visual side of a

performance is half of why I do it. You get so much out of immersing people in a world.

“I said that I want some kind of mobile outfit. Originally I wanted something that would move. But we had

to scale it down,” she admits. “My stylist basically came up with the idea of using this luminous plastic. We

ended up attaching LED lights to the end of material, which shot light through the plastic. It illuminated

itself, but it would also catch the light from the stage.”

“I got my baps out

for the whole of

Camden!” - Bly the

Pepino

This world of Vaults’ might sound strange on the outside - maybe a little too nude-friendly for some - but

it’s undeniably universal. These songs belong in high places, reaching out and speaking on a big level with

no hesitation. Just don’t try dissing Barbara Windsor in front of them. DIY

Blythe lists off

the best places

for a night out

in London.

“Plastic People.

Because I

live South,

sometimes

I struggle

to go all the

way North

and come

back. Corsica

Studios, as

well. Or just

the living

room! A little

home rave.”

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Having already clocked up quite the list of achievements this year, the future for

Prides is guaranteed to be huge.

U p h o l d i n g t h e G l a s g o w n a m e

p r i d e s

Selling out their

first headline tour,

xv performing at

Glasgow’s humongous

Hampden Park as part

of the Commonwealth Games Closing

Ceremony and soundtracking an advert

for neon-coloured booze; if the last six

months are anything to judge Prides by,

there’s nothing they can’t do.

Having already gotten off an impressive

start, it could be assumed that the

trio – made up of Stewart Brock, Callum

Wiseman and Lewis Gardiner – might be

getting a little ahead of themselves, but

nah. So far, their year ahead boils down

to two goals.

“Sell some albums,” states Callum, with

just a hint of that wonderful Glaswegian

humour, before Lewis finishes their

statement. “Play some gigs.”

“In all seriousness, those are the two

things!” laughs Stewart, frontman of the

three-piece. “Getting the album out is

obviously the biggest priority and then,

just playing as much as we humanly

can.”

For a band who were only formed back

in 2013, they’ve already made rapid

progress; since the release of their ‘The

Seeds You Sow’ EP in February, they’ve

supported some of their childhood

heroes - Blink 182 at Brixton Academy

- almost put their debut album to bed,

and shaken off that ol’ Scottish band

curse during their recent touring stint.

“You know, as a Glasgow band,” offers

Stewart, “you don’t really expect to

turn up to Birmingham for a sold out

room full of people going mad. So, for

so many of the dates to sell out; we just

really wouldn’t have expected it…”

Words: Sarah Jamieson. Photo: Mike Massaro

28 diymag.com

“I don’t think any of us expected it to be

rubbish,” continues Callum, “but we’ve

been in bands before where we’ve

maybe done quite well in Glasgow and

then gone to other places and it’s been

like, ‘Where are all the people?!’”

That’s not been the only surprise for the

band when it comes to the live sphere.

Whilst they had claimed to be more of a

studio act, with their offerings leaning

towards synthpop and electronic

elements, their performances have

definitely had an effect on their writing.

“It has become a big focus for us,

playing live,” Stewart explains, “I don’t

know that we particularly thought it

would when we started out, but it’s

become such a good part of what we’re

doing that I quite like that it does inform

the recording. It feels like it’s the right

way around. We like playing live and we

like writing songs for other people to be

able to interact with.”

They’re under no illusions either: they’re

the latest in a long line of Glaswegian

bands and they have a reputation to

uphold. “Being an electronic sort-of

band,” he goes further, “you do have to

work a bit harder to make something

work live but it’s well worth it. Then

there’s coming from Glasgow. If you

can’t play live and you’re from Glasgow,

just get in the bin! You’ve got the

Glasgow name to uphold!”

More than anything – regardless of high

profile performance slots and red carpet

appearances at the MTV EMAs - Prides

are a band who already know that

they’ll have to work hard. After already

spending most of their youth playing in

bands, they’re prepared for it.

“I don’t think you can be a band,”

confirms the frontman, “especially not

“ I f y o u

c a n ’ t

p l a y

l i v e a n d

y o u ’ r e

f r o m

G l a s g o w ,

j u s t g e t

i n t h e

b i n ! ”

S t e w a r t

Brock

a “successful” band, without going over

all those hurdles that you do as young

guys trying to play tunes. It seems very

idyllic and it seems all lovely and perfect,

but actually you really do have to work.

I think most people get into music

because it’s fun and because it’s easy,

but, while it is fun, it’s not easy. You’re

gonna be away all the time, especially

begin a touring band, and you have to

get used to that kind of lifestyle. We’ve

all done our time.”

“We still on pretty much a weekly basis

go, ‘Oh, yeah, we should’ve known

better than that’,” says Callum, of their

past mistakes. “They’re just the small

things but we’ve definitely learned from

all that.”

With ample experience and drive

already on their side, let’s be honest,

there’s probably no stopping this

lot. Better yet – outside of their two

goals outlined earlier - their intentions

remain simple. “There are quite a lot of

milestones that we hit this year,” Stewart

concludes, “especially looking back at it,

you go, ‘Oh god, yeah, we’ve been quite

busy’. Now it’s all about next year for us,

and about how we get out to as many

more people as we can. It’s about how

we make sure that we can put together

the best album that we can and try to

get it out. We’ll just see where we get to

really. Keep our heads down and keep

on trucking.” DIY

t Ā l Ā ‘ s f i v e -

S t e p G u i d e T o M a k i n g

F u t u r e - L e a n i n g P o p

This London producer’s burst onto the scene

with crazed early tracks, steeped in world

influences. Here’s how she’s done it.

xv

1. Imagine the track first:

“Generally I’ll have a vision in my head that probably

makes no sense to anyone else - but to me, I’m onto

something.”

2. Travel far for inspiration:

“It’s like a sonic soundscape that you’re absorbing, and then you

take it back with you. All those memories. I’m going to go back the

day after Boxing Day to Thailand. I need a holiday so I wanted to go

again.”

3. Don’t rule out possibilities:

“Every song’s different. With ‘The Duchess’, I had these weird vocal

layers I was building, and I’d make a little loop around them. It

eventually progressed into what it is today.”

4. Allow others into the process:

“When it gets to that stage of going mental, I can have that opinion

of other people to go ‘That’s enough. This is sick. Leave this alone’.

Sometimes that perspective really helps.”

5. Ignore prejudice:

“I don’t really know why there’s this image of being a guy. When

I didn’t have an image or whatever, it’s not associated with being

a girl. And I don’t know why. It’s probably because it’s a male

dominated industry.”

LISTEN: The ‘Alchemy’ EP, out on Aesop Label.

MOST LIKELY TO: Go beyond the big SoundCloud plays.

LEAST LIKELY TO: Do anything straightforward.

Words: Jamie Milton

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F r o m s c h o o l p u p i l t o

p o p s t a r

L å p s l e y

This Liverpudlian electronic

muso played her first gig at

Glastonbury and scored a deal

with XL Recordings all while,

you know, just finishing her

A levels.

xv

For most

teenagers

reaching

the end

of their A-levels,

it’s a time of relief.

Sometimes an excuse

to get hammered

for a couple of

days straight. For

Låpsley, that wasn’t

quite the case...

“Glastonbury was my

first performance,”

she laughs, “and I had

three days to prepare

because my mum

wouldn’t let me do

any music before my

A-levels had finished.

They finished three

days before Glasto

so I had three days, I

grabbed two mates

and put together

this set, which

obviously wasn’t a

representation of me,

or of Låpsley, but it

was something that

I’m proud of.”

Queen of

multitasking, Holly

Fletcher may only

be 18-years-old but

she already has a

Words: Sarah Jamieson. Photo: Emma Swann

30 diymag.com

wealth of experience. Having taken up lessons in piano, guitar and oboe

while younger, she began songwriting when she was just twelve years old.

Since then, an obsession with dance music has led her to find her feet in the

production world, where she’s keen to blur the lines where classical and

electronic meet.

“Electronic and classical were very separate things in my life,” Fletcher

begins, thinking back a few years. “Around the age of 13 or 14, I’d go out into

Liverpool and I was obsessed with techno and I’d go to rave to watch DJs. I

wouldn’t even get messed up or anything, I’d just sit by the side and watch

people DJ or watch people do live performances. It just intrigued me at how

different it was to the classical stuff that I did back home. Then I really got

into James Blake and Ghostpoet and I realised that the songs I was writing

on piano and guitar, I actually wanted to translate in an electronic way.”

While it was her

knowledge of notation

and melody that

allowed for Fletcher

to listen to electronic

“ I h a d t h r e e d a y s music differently to

those without her

t o p r e p a r e f o r

background, it was

through a lack of

g l a s t o n b u r y . ”

experience with certain

music softwares that

Låpsley

helped her to craft her

own more spacious

style. “When I was

listening to electronic

music, I was listening

to it in a way where I

dissected it and took

it straight back to the melodies that are used,” she explains. “I saw it in a

musical way because that’s how I’ve always been taught to look at music.

Being introduced to all this deep house stuff, I saw it in a different way to

people who maybe don’t have a classical background.

“I was just experimenting with the concept of repetitive melodies in dance

music and taking it in a more chilled, electronic way. I’ve had a lot of years

to develop my own writing, but with my production, it’s something I’ve

only started this year. My limited knowledge of production has meant that

I’ve kinda forced myself to work with the skills that I’ve got, which are quite

small. It means I can’t really do much on the software, but what I can do, I try

to make the best of it. I often work with the spaces rather than working with

the layers. It takes me a long time and it’s quite hard to execute space, but

hopefully it’s slowly working.”

Never afraid to learn or ask questions (“It’s a bit scary but I’ve gotten over my

fear of being like, ‘what the hell does this button do?!’”) Låpsley’s first mark

on the musical world came in the form of ‘Station’, a slow-burning dual-vocal

affair, but now she’s gearing up to release a new ‘Understudy’ EP which she

claims will provide the world with a much more realised view of what the

project is all about.

“It took me about a week to write the EP which was quite quick. I do work

long hours; I’m not one of those people that’s like, ‘Oh, I can only work

between 9 and 3am with soy chai lattes!’” she laughs, putting on a silly voice

for the impression. “I literally just worked my arse off for a solid week and I

made it and got it mastered. They’re quite personal songs and I suppose my

production level has increased; I’ve experimented with different sounds and

different layers. There are quite a few ambient moments, but then on a few

tracks, they’re quite a bit more dance-y. I’m just really excited, it’s a lot more

up-tempo than ‘Station’ and ‘Painter’, it’s quite different to that, but I feel like

people will have a more rounded view of what Låpsley is and my style after

hearing this EP.” DIY

K a y t r a n a d a

Nothing’s stopped this Montrealbased

gadgethead’s ascent.

Brixton awaits.

If Kaytranada has some

kind of musical bucket

xv list, he’s probably

running out of boxes

to tick. Remix Janet

Jackson? Check. Sign to XL Recordings?

Check. Book a headline gig at Brixton

Academy? Sure, that too.

Born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, he’s grown

up in Montreal, starting production

at the age of fifteen before fast

fledging into the go-to name of today.

Kaytranada’s rep boils down to one

thing: Bass. Somewhere, he must have

some kind of switch that makes every

boiling-up beat sound just that tincy

bit fresher and more throbbing than

anything others put their name to.

Expect Brixton’s walls to shake just that

little bit more come 2015.

LISTEN: Recent single ‘Leave Me Alone’

(feat. Shay Lia).

WATCH: His Montreal Boiler Room DJ

set from 2013.

DID YOU KNOW: Between 2010 and

2012, he put out nine hype worthy

releases under the Kaytradamus

moniker.

Words: Jamie Milton

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c l a r e n c e c l a r i t y

t h e m a n , t h e m y s t e r y

Since he first emerged in the summer of 2013, Clarence Clarity has been the subject

of many frenzied whispers across the blogosphere.

Words: Dominique Sisley. Photo: Malvin Mosaics

Other than a couple of

distorted press shots

xv and a scant collection of

surreal music videos, very

little is actually known

about Clarence Clarity. He’s an enigma – a

conjuror of freakish and impenetrable

waves of sound that are both wildly

disconcerting and bizarrely poppy. So

really, it makes a lot of sense that he

would choose one of the most unsettling

places imaginable for his first face-to-face

interview. Parked up on the top floor of a

deserted Peckham car park, he opens the

passenger door of his super slick vintage

Ford and beckons me in. “I didn’t want it

to be a statement,” he says, almost a bit

embarrassed. “I just don’t like crowded,

public places for conversations like this.“

In actual fact, he’s nothing like what you’d

expect (whatever that is). Dressed in smart,

dandy-esque attire, he’s relaxed, friendly

and self-deprecating. It’s strange to think

that this is the same person who kept

things so quiet for so long. “I never set

out for this to be an anonymous, mystery

thing,” he says, rolling his eyes. “It wasn’t

calculated. People interpret it like that,

but it was more just to put the music first.

I want people to judge it on its own merits

before they worry about trying to find out

who I am. It shouldn’t necessarily matter.”

Despite that, he is still fiercely private.

Although chatty and forthcoming for

most of the interview, any questions about

where he comes from are greeted with

a slight wince. “Is it really relevant?” He

shuffles a bit. “I don’t have a problem with

talking about my life and what’s going on,

but it just feels a bit unnatural to me.”

With an album soon to be released on

Bella Union and a stint supporting Jungle

lined up, the hype is only building. So

why is he hiding behind an alter ego?

“[Clarence Clarity] is not an alter ego,” he

states. “I just like the idea of having this

perfect clarity to everything I do. When I

started doing this I had this mantra that I

had stuck on my wall – ‘clarity’. I wanted to

be concise and focused. It’s just having this

focal point.” His eyes drop a bit bashfully;

clearly very aware of the words he is

choosing. “The music is really dense at

times, but it’s organised chaos. That’s what

I’m going for – chaos theory. The idea that

something can be complex but ordered at

the same time.”

Dense is certainly one way of putting

it. Clarity’s songs are bubbling over –

squelchy synths, Bhangra-style hooks

and ghostly samples are all squeezed

together and boiled to within an inch of

their lives. “[I like] something that just

feels a bit wrong, something that makes

you want to move in an unconventional

way,” he explains, mulling over each word.

It’s a sound that is uncannily familiar,

but any questions about his potential

influences are met with another awkward

shuffle. “Any name that I drop will just

get duplicated. A couple of people have

picked up on a sort of Backstreet Boys,

Justin Timberlake kind of thing. I love

it. I definitely embody some of that

disgusting, packaged thing when I do

vocal performances,” he laughs. “It’s all

meant to be part of the surreal picture that

I’m painting, really.”

So from the looks of things, 2015 is set

to be the year that things get much

more surreal – both for Clarence himself

and his listening audience. Despite the

fact that there is a lot to be nervous

about, he shrugs it all off with an air of

admirable nonchalance. “The only way I

can be creative is being in my moment,

and if I think about what anyone else’s

expectations are of me it all falls apart.

When I’m in the zone with music it

transcends all that.” He stops himself

and gives another slightly embarrassed

wince, but it’s clear he’s being sincere. “It

sounds a bit cheesy, but if I want people

to get anything out of my music I guess

that would be the most flattering

thing to hear – that it takes them

out of themselves.” DIY

“ I n e v e r

s e t o u t f o r

t h i s t o b e a n

a n o n y m o u s ,

m y s t e r y

t h i n g . ”

C l a r e n c e

C l a r i t y

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W h o a r e y o u ,

a l l w e

a r e ?

Who We Are

Guro (bass): We see

xv ourselves as more

psychedelic boogy than

funk.

Rich (drums): There’s

an atmosphere to the tunes, an

expansiveness. People might call it

psychedelia, but it’s more a depth.

How We Are

G: We really like just going off, the three

of us. All our gear, all our recording

equipment, and loads of booze! We lock

ourselves in and enter this All We Are

world, and just write. We’ll come out of

it and be like ‘Woah, there’s an actual

world out there’. This is weird. We have

to go back to civilisation.

R: It’s been quite cool, doing an album

and having that opportunity becoming

a reality. We got to a point where we felt

really ready to go into the studio. We

had a fucking load of fun.

Clarence Clarity - not mysterious, honest

Carey, Awh

G: [Producer Dan Carey, who has worked

with the likes of Bat For Lashes, M.I.A

and Kylie bloody Minogue] is such a

legend.

Louis (guitar): He’s amazing. We all came

out of it as new people. Even spiritually.

It was really special.

Words: El Hunt

33

34 diymag.com

“ E v e n i f y o u

d o n ’ t t h i n k

I k n o w w h at

t h e f u c k

I ’ m ta l k i n g

about, j u s t

k n o w t h a t

s o m e t h i n g ’ s

g o i n g o n . ”

Raury

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A G e n i u s ? A M a n i a c ?

r a u r y A n d T h e P o w e r

O f S e l f - B e l i e f

This Atlanta teen says he wants to

change the world - and he means it.

xv

Of all the ballsy statements on 18-year-old Atlantan Raury’s

debut mixtape, ‘Indigo Child’, the standout is probably ‘God’s

Whisper’’s repeated refrain: “I am the saviour! We are the

saviours!” bellowed loud and proud, for everyone to hear.

That’s not all. The “project” - three years in the making - opens

up with the chant: “We are the truth / we are forever / we are the youth / we are

together.” In this scattered, short attention- spanned, gutsy debut, there’s one

running thread: An unbelievable amount of self-belief.

Raury says he’s hoping to inspire the youth, and he truly means it. This is an

artist who’ll sign autographs in between songs at gigs. Every piece of praise is

retweeted. When shows are over, he’ll take fans out for ice cream, because he

wants to “get real” with them. In a short space of time spent with the newcomer

during his visit to the UK, he runs around a park singing, scales a couple of

climbing frames and bounds around with the energy of a thousand affectionate

puppies. He’s one of a kind.

It’s easy to think the guy might carry a serious ego. He says it’s the opposite.

“I’m not this all-powerful, untouchable being,” he claims, first off, before calling

himself “foolishly humble”. He doesn’t care about “money, what kind of girl you

can get, how much you can pop in a club” - his focus is on the people around him.

“I want to empower my generation,” he claims. Just watch him try.

DO MEET YOUR

HEROES

While hosting an impromptu

outdoor Q&A with fans (as you do),

Raury’s hero, Kid Cudi, turned up

a couple of hours past midnight.

The latter’s ‘Man on the Moon’

debut is cited as the album that

inspired Raury to make music.

“I was happy, so happy,” he

remembers. Naturally, instead of

talking music, they decided to have

a conversation on park swings to

see who could go highest. “I don’t

know who won - I think I won,

‘cause I did a backflip off. You’ll

see the video one day. We got

footage.”

A lot of what Raury says sounds fantastical, potentially batshit. One

statement sums him up particularly well. “Even if you don’t think I know

what the fuck I’m talking about, just know that something’s going on.”

In an age of the Internet and limitless knowledge, Raury’s big message

is that people should seek out their own truth. This generation has

everything on their fingertips, but they could easily go astray. “I’m no

politician. I wouldn’t say that I’m a philanthropist or humanitarian,” he

says, but he’s dead set in spreading word that those growing up have

all the potential. This isn’t Russell Brand-stamped nonsense. There’s

no ulterior motive. It’s the antipathy of apathy that Raury believes in.

“Beyond just being an artist, if you wanna be the best gardener or

whatever, the best chef - when you’re nine, you can start looking this shit

up before you go to college. By the time you’re seventeen, you can be the

equivalent of me in chef form. I just wanna put the idea out there, and

you can formulate your own truth about whatever the hell I’m talking

about.”

At the age of eleven, he taught himself guitar by looking up videos on

YouTube. Music was his full-time passion from fourteen onwards, and

‘Indigo Child’ took three years to put together. “I was listening to all

different types of music that gave me all these influences because of the


35

“ O f c o u r s e

I ’ v e b e e n

s m o k i n g ,

d r i n k i n g ,

d o i n g w h a t

I ’ m n o t

s u p p o s e d

to do - b u t

h e y , t h a t ’ s

life.” Raury

GETTING

HIGHER

internet. I wasn’t trapped by the radio or my local area. Not just the big names from

Atlanta.

“What you listen to and what your mind digests - it becomes who you are,” he states.

“Five or ten years from now, I don’t care about having a Grammy or anything like that.

I want just a million, five million, ten million people to say ‘I have accomplished my

dream. My life is a lot simpler and easier because I heard this album’.”

One of the biggest draws of ‘Indigo Child’ is a collection of four, real conversations he

had with his mother when at a crossroads between taking things easy and becoming

a big deal. “You need to rest, don’t burn yourself out,” goes one. “If you made it big,

your head would be so fucking big that there would be no room for nothing else,” is

another.

She might have a point. There’s a hint of Kanye in the grandiose statements Raury

makes - but that runs hand in hand with the (whisper it) genius he might also possess.

“I felt like I wanted my project to be a peephole into my real life,” he says, of these

conversations, which he recorded on his phone presumably without permission. “I’m

really glad that it just came out where neither one of us really looked bad. We didn’t

2014 saw Raury

collaborating on ‘Higher’,

a track from SBTRKT’s

latest LP ‘Wonder

Where We Land’. “We

had a really good long

conversation, and I

realised how much I like

him and how humble he

is about music,” he says,

calling Aaron Jerome a

musical “Spiderman” for

wearing his ubiquitous

mask. “He provided a lot

of great direction. He has

a lot of expertise. I think

I grew a lot. How he does

his albums: It’s kind of

like the Justice League of

production.”

36 diymag.com

lose the argument, we just talked to

each other about what was going on

in that moment. People ask me like,

‘How are you and your mom now?

Are you guys alright?’ The thing is, we

probably went to Applebee’s like two

hours later!”

As per parental instructions, Raury

says he knows “not to feed my ego.”

He makes big claims like wanting

to “change a million lives, not sell a

million records,” but these statements

are his currency. Without them, he’d

not exactly sink without a trace, but

it’s difficult to imagine ‘Indigo Child’

taking off the way it has without these

undaunted end-goals. At no point

does he claim to be perfect. The ‘God’s

Whisper’ video - his breakthrough

moment - shows today’s youth

smoking, snorting coke, going offcourse.

“We peer pressure ourselves

and feel like we have to act a certain

way. I showed myself doing the same

things because I’m no saint,” he says. “I

don’t ever want to portray myself as the

image of perfection. Of course I’ve been

smoking, drinking, doing what I’m not

supposed to do - but hey, that’s life.”

He’ll be the first to admit that ‘Indigo

Child’ isn’t a definitive mission

statement. In the four years that he’s

been making music, he’s gone from

a “heavy rapping” style (getting

comparisons to Kendrick Lamar on the

way) to the acoustic-led, singing-first

approach defining his first project.

“After every show, I’m kicking my own

ass about something that went wrong.

Even with this project, I see a bunch of

things that could have been better,”

he claims. This scatterbrained, clearly

faulty first release is more about riding

a wave, one of Raury’s own making.

There’s every chance that when things

take off, haters will arrive in their

droves. How that affects his confidence

will be the big test of 2015.

For now, he’s winning over more fans

by the second, one trip to the ice cream

store at a time. “I know I’m not the only

one making music of this calibre,” he

says. “This is a whole new era. There’s

gonna be a lot of other people coming

out in the next five years that can do

a million things and do them at a very

high, respectable calibre. Real music

is coming back on top. And it’s thanks

to your Kendricks, all the people that

open doors for the world to be ready

for artists like me and what we have to

say.” DIY

H o w

T o b i a s J e s s o J r .

W o n T h e H e a r t O f H o l l y w o o d

xv

“I don’t know if I could make it / I think I’m gonna try

in Hollywood,” rings the bridge of Los Angeles-based

songwriter Tobias Jesso Jr.’s heartbreaking song for the

hills. By all accounts, he looks set to be one of the year’s

breakthrough solo names. It was never going to be easy,

though. Here’s a timeline of the twenty-something’s

journey to the top.

First love

“I first came to LA when I was visiting

a girl that I was interested in, when

I was eighteen years old. That was

the first time. It was an amazing

experience!”

Second time unlucky

“I got the opportunity to move

down to LA to play as a bassist in a

back-up band for a pop singer that

no-one’s ever heard of. I took the

opportunity, moved down and lived

here for three and a half years. My

dream in my head was I would go to

LA, somebody would find me and

say, ‘Play me a good song and show

me what the melody will be and

then I’ll write the lyrics’.”

Back home

“I moved back to Vancouver to

spend time with my Mom, who was

sick. My sister had left her piano at

home. I’d left all my guitars in LA.

That’s really when I started. This is

about two years ago now. ‘Just a

Dream’ was the first time I wrote a

song, sang a song I was proud of. I

dove in and started playing all the

time.”

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Big break

“I’d finished the ‘Just a Dream’ demo

and a couple other songs. And I

had Chet ‘JR’ White’s email in a

bank from a blog that had put it up

accidentally. It was just round the

time Girls broke up. I was a big fan

of Girls, a big reason being because

of Christopher coming out as sort of

an anti-singer. That really inspired

me. So I emailed JR, said ‘Sorry to

hear about the band. I’m a big fan of

your production’. After that, just two

hours after, he wrote back and said:

‘Please call this number’.”

Hello Hollywood

“I have a tentative plan to live here

until I figure out where I should be in

my life. The record’s coming out and

I’ll do a tour. It’s sort of like planning

after that. I do have a place here

and a great little community with

friends. It’s a strange thing to have

two separate lives going on. One is

in LA, with a team and friends who

know about my music. And then

Vancouver, with the people I grew

up with and never really shined for

them at all.”

Words: Jamie Milton

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I t ’ s I n H e r B l u d

s o a k

A star so tiny she likes to hide in bins - SOAK is

a dinosaur-loving, skateboarding, heartfelt

songwriter whose stock is set to soar.

SOAK, NEED TO KNOW

MOST LIKELY TO: Win the ‘George Ezra Award For Best Musician Twitter’ In 2015.

LEAST LIKELY TO: Sack it off and go on tour with The Hoosiers.

LITTLE KNOWN FACT: All of her friends think they’re in a skate punk band. “I would compare them -

without the music - to Gnarwolves.”

38 diymag.com


On her song ‘B

a noBody’ - one

xv of several direct,

emotional tracks to

be penned by SOAK

since she turned

thirteen - she writes about friends

in limbo, scratching their heads

about their future. They’re in a rut,

stumped on where to go. Bridie

Monds-Watson, however, now aged

eighteen, gives the impression of

someone who was practically born

a songwriter. Keen industry-types

had to be warded off from Bridie’s

parents while she was taking her

GCSEs, so the tale goes. Interest

travelled to hometown Derry and it’s

been by her side for several years.

But SOAK’s story isn’t as black and

white as that might suggest. Yes,

it’s true she played a gig and took a

biology exam in the space of twenty

minutes, but “I wasn’t going to pass

that, anyway,” she insists. There’s a

lot more to Bridie than music.

Dinosaurs, for instance. Her Twitter

handle is currently “SOAKOSAURUS”,

for no other reason than if you add

“saurus” to the end of a word, it

sounds “badass”. While claiming that

“all your life lessons” can be taught

through dino-cartoon ‘The Land

Before Time’, she also has tattoos of

her favourite prehistoric friends. “But

they’re stupid. Don’t ever do it,” she

protests. “It’s kind of ridiculous.”

By default, Bridie’s besties usually

find themselves the subject of SOAK

songs, whether they like it or not.

These days, they won’t even be

informed of when their travelling

musician mate is returning from

tour. Nope - she’ll just surprise them.

“I like to pretend I’m not coming

back and then I just arrive out of

nowhere,” she laughs. “I’m like, ‘Hey

bitches!’” One time, for reasons

unbeknownst to everyday sanity,

she hid in a bin. It was parked next

to a cafe that became a de-facto

hangout spot for her group of

friends. So one friend asked the other

to take some litter outside, and there

began a particularly unhygienic

homecoming. “In the moment, it was

like ‘What can I do?’”

Parts of her miss home, but for the

most part Bridie is enjoying the wave

she’s riding. Her parents no longer

take a front seat in management,

and friends are still - for the most

part - the same. “The only part I don’t

like is coming back and so much has

changed,” she says.

For the past couple of years,

there must have been a slight, if

subconscious, awareness of what

was coming next. “When I was

young, I wasn’t really like, ‘I’m gonna

be a singer!’” she says, but by the

time publishers were travelling to

Derry to make a connection, she

knew something was happening.

Especially when CHVRCHES put her

straight on the map by releasing her

‘BLUD’ single on their own imprint,

Goodbye Records. That’s when heads

began to turn in their thousands. She

comes from a “very creative family”,

but despite her father being a Jimi

Hendrix-loving guitar wizard, he

never forced music into the equation.

“My big brother got a guitar for

Christmas when we were… ten?

And I was like, ‘Ooh, how can you do

that?’ And I asked my Dad to teach

me a few songs. I surprised myself in

how addicted I got to it.”

There’s music, and then there’s

skateboarding, Bridie’s other passion.

“I didn’t come out of the womb

skating,” she has to stress, but she’s

been on a board as long as she can

remember. Videos for early singles

see her scouring Derry’s more

deserted areas, but she had to give

up “properly” skating due to a nasty

injury (“shit got bad”). “I can’t really

do it right now while on tour because

I’d break my wrists and… People

would be angry at me,” she admits.

Skating’s been dropped, friends

require bin-based surprises and the

family are watching her career go

skywards from a distance, but Bridie’s

not sacrificing too much. A debut

album - set for 2015 - puts together

present day numbers with

songs she penned from the

very beginning. “This being

my debut and the fact I’ve

been writing for so long, it

shows such a span. You can

tell the songs that are older

than others, and you can tell

there’s an actual experience

within them. Whether they

sound incredible or not, it’s

important to have them on

there,” she says. In what’s

been a mad journey, defined

by unprecedented but

deserved attention, SOAK’s

fairly happy with the idea of

being a somebody. DIY

O c e a n s A p a r t

F r o m O b s c u r i t y

c o a s t s

Bristol band make no bones about

their big ambitions. “You only really

get one shot at making an impact,”

they claim.

There’s no point hiding

it - Bristol five-piece

xv Coasts want to be

huge. Arenas await,

fans in the thousands

screaming in unison. “Huge” doesn’t

have to be a process of losing sight of

original aims - for these guys, it’s about

the “impact”.

“The first show we played together was

amazing, all our friends came down

and it was packed and everyone was

chanting our name and having a great

time,” they remember. “I think we all

thought this being in a band thing is

pretty easy. But, then, like every band

you go on to play lots of gigs to rooms

with just a handful of people in over

the next few months. I think that’s all

part of the growing process.”

“Hopefully 2015 is going to be a big

year for us,” they start, cautiously.

“We wanted to create quite an instant

album that people can connect with

easily. We try to write music that will

connect with people and evoke a

reaction, whether that’s happy or sad.”

A debut’s scheduled for the beginning

of summer, just in time for these

extreme, emotional reactions to take

hold. DIY

Words: Jamie Milton

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T h e y ’ l l T e a r Y o u A p a a a a a r t

s l a v e s

Well actually, if you’re a dad they’ll make you dance, if you’re a mum they’ll

get a tattoo with your name and if you’re Bono, they’ll weird you out.

Words: Jamie Milton. Photo: Emma Swann

xv

There’s no hiding from Slaves. The duo from Kent - Isaac Holman and Laurie Vincent - will either be found

chasing strangers down poorly-lit streets in their music videos, or when they’re on stage, provoking batshit

reactions. Be it bewilderment or plain frenzy, no Slaves show is the same. Holman’s often found running on the

spot, smashing a minimal drum set-up like it’s designed to take off. Vincent cuts a more restrained figure, but he’s

the one kickstarting the chaos.

It’s been a slog of sorts to get here. Slaves have been gigging solidly for just under three years, starting off in local pubs before

joining Jamie T in arenas. “I always relay this, but there’s a really good Cribs documentary, where Ryan Jarman says, ‘You’ve got

to do your two years’ service,’” begins Vincent. “We pretty much did two years and then got signed. Without those two years,

people don’t take you as seriously. We did the shit shows… If you can’t do those shit shows and maintain friendship, then you’re

not gonna last the long run. We’ve already had our rocky relationship. Now we’re on the home strait. We’re the fully in love

married couple with a couple of kids.” The “kids” in this scenario being a couple of albums, he clarifies.

Material for their debut - set to land in early 2015 - has been drawn up from the past three months. There’s no vast back

catalogue to draw from, but the duo are intent on keeping things fresh instead of riding the same wave. The timing of their

ascent seems fitting. Already, though they sound nothing alike, comparisons to Royal Blood are buzzing around simply because

both sport two guys capable of breaking out with a vicious sound, one that dwarfs their on-paper size. “I think all that stuff’s

rubbish,” says Vincent. “At the end of the day, there are some really good four-pieces and five-pieces that are breaking through as

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S p e e d i n g B y A t 1 0 0 M p h ,

T r y C a t c h i n g U p W i t h

s p r i n g

k i n g

In 2015, this bright-eyed Manchester pack are

promising loads of records, loads of all-thrills shows

and a supply of intense garage rock capable of filling

any void. Here’s how they intend to do it.

Have you started thinking about an

album?

xv Tarek Musa: I kind of wanna do a few

albums. It depends - at the moment I’m

still writing the songs. So I’ll show them

to the band and see what everyone else is enjoying and

go with those. I really don’t know what’s good or bad

because you spend so much time listening to the songs.

I’d like to get maybe two albums out next year - that

would be cool.

How many tracks do you end up discarding?

T: There’s still loads, so many songs. It’s not that I’m not

feeling it, it’s just that I’ve heard them so many times.

Any songs I don’t put out now will end up on some

massive b-side compilation, like 100 tracks long. These

tracks, everyone’s played on them now. I remember

recording ‘Demons’ with Andy in the dark, just in the

toilet. His guitar solo brought the track alive.

well. You’ve got The Wytches, a three-piece. Peace blew up a

while ago. Wolf Alice as well, and all these other bands people

forget to mention.” The only real benefit of being a duo, he

says, is that neither of them had to purchase a tour van. “It’s a

bit frustrating that people try and put it in a genre. But when

bands like Royal Blood are paving the way, it shows kids that

actually, you don’t need to wait around for loads of members.”

You bring such an insane energy to shows. Where

does that come from?

T: Recording is enjoyable but live is where we wanna be,

we just want to constantly be on the road. That shows

- our eagerness and impatience comes across. You wait

around all day to play 30 minutes and then smash it out.

I think we’re all vented up with energy, ready to go. I’ve

thrown up on stage in the past - we don’t know how to

pace ourselves.

Talk centres around the shows, but on record Slaves are a

different prospect. Recent single ‘The Hunter’ is a bare-bones

monster, a slick, blues-nodding onslaught disguised as a

gentle soul. Fire-starting rock’s rarely sounded so minimal, or

coined from such simplicity. Their goal is to “make music that’s

different, listenable and skilful,” they state, and from an early

stage they knew they were on to something.

“We knew we were doing something quite different,” says

Vincent, citing energised early sessions in a mate’s practice

room. “I think when we first got on stage, we were trying

something different. You don’t have members to hide behind.

The more ridiculous we are, the harder it is to be embarrassed

about it,” he says. And it’s this attitude that runs from the

stage to the studio, right up to Isaac’s “official” tweets from

the band account, full of made up fibs, like the time they met

Sonia from Eastenders at a BP garage. “Nonsense,” he says,

shaking his head. But from the off, Slaves have done their very

best to stand out in a crowd. If this equates to being terrifying,

best keep those doors locked for the time being. DIY

Words: El Hunt. Photo: Emma Swann

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A l l r o a d s l e a d t o .

R h o d e s .

It took him a while to feel comfortable

picking up the mic, but now he has

there’s no stopping Rhodes.

Every so often a voice comes along and

smashes through the hubbub like a barista

xv bursting abruptly into an Earl Grey conference

and halting proceedings. Last year George

Ezra shook things up when he unexpectedly

emitted the booming bluesy tone of a Louisiana fisherman,

and, well, you only have to look at the continued popularity

of reality singing competitions to know that we all love a

surprise. Hertfordshire singer-songwriter Rhodes might

seem quietly spoken, and he willingly admits that live shows

still scare the bejesus out of him. Appearances can deceive,

though, because when Rhodes opens his mouth, gigantic,

moody ballads like ‘Breathe’ come roaring out.

It’s all the more surprising to hear such an assured voice

bursting out from Rhodes considering that he only started

singing 18 months ago. Even belting out a bit of Whitney in

the shower was off-limits, he says, and as for crooning away

over the ironing, never in a million years. “I had this really

intense fear of it,” he says. “With your voice, because it’s

coming from inside you, you feel exposed. I was in bands and

stuff before, and I never even sung backing vocals. That [fear]

was the reason.”

One day, though, Rhodes did suddenly decide to start singing,

out of the blue. “Nothing else was going well at the time, so

I thought why the hell not,” he reasons. As it goes, the vocal

that emerged was tinged with blue emotion, too, crisper and

more vivid than the identikit t-shirts he was folding for his day

job at American Apparel. “I started writing my own songs,” he

continues, “and I showed my girlfriend. She said ‘Why don’t

you just do this?’ My Dad convinced me too, and bought me

a microphone.” Rhodes quickly discovered that when he was

squirrelled away in his bedroom for hours, with complete

control over every single take, he had found his comfort zone.

After finishing work on Friday, the bedroom door would shut;

by Sunday, Rhodes would have a new demo.

Things quickly began to take off when Rhodes uploaded his

music to BBC Introducing, and he’s grateful for their initial

involvement. “I’m playing at their Christmas party,” he laughs,

“I’m pally with them.” Starting out with local sessions and early

sets at festivals, things quickly spiralled into national radio

play. “I had just got into a taxi with my manager, and we were

rushing somewhere,” recounts Rhodes. “My friend texted me,

like, ‘Oh my god, you’re on Radio 1’. It was a good feeling,” he

adds. “I’m my own worst critic, but it was fun to listen and be

like ‘Shit, it’s on the radio, this is crazy!’” DIY


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Words: El Hunt. Photo: Mike Massaro

I t ’ s w r i t t e n i n

t h e s t a r s

S i n e a d

H a r n e t t

From collaborating with Wiley and

Disclosure to touring with Rudimental,

North London native Sinead Harnett is

working her way up.

“I was playing a

valium-addicted

xv wife of a gay

man,” casually

recounts Sinead

Harnett. “[Tony Kushner’s]

‘Angels in America’ was my last

performance at uni. Afterwards

we were having celebratory

drinks of wine, and I’d just got

Twitter. I checked it and I saw all

of these mentions… from Wiley.

I spoke to him that night, and he

was in Jamaica. He was like, ‘I’ve

got this tune for you, come over!’

I thought, well, no, I’ve got to

graduate! Send it to me and I’ll

work on it.”

It’s been three years since North

Londoner Sinead Harnett’s

notifications suddenly got taken

over by the so-called Godfather

of Grime. Her collaboration with

Wiley made its way to BBC 1Xtra,

and in doing so, opened the

door. After that Sinead lent her

vocals to Disclosure’s ‘Boiling’,

just as they were making their

own breakthrough. She featured

on ‘Baby’, by Rudimental, too,

and ended up on their tour as a

vocalist. It’s been something of an

intensive crash course to say the

least. “Before this becomes your

job,” she reflects, “you’re just that

little girl singing into hair brush, in

the mirror – you think it must just

happen overnight.”

Sinead’s debut EP ‘Now’ quickly

established her as an artist in

her own right, though. Despite

the euphoria, there’s also a

soulful and personal undertone to everything Sinead does, like a

Deep Meaningful Conversation on a crowded dancefloor. Released

in August, ‘Now’ marked “the start of me doing my own thing.

Everything that’s happened since then in terms of my confidence, it’s

gone up,” she says. “I’m excited to see how the path that I’ve started

unfolds. I always want to be the best version of myself as an artist, to

inspire others to be the best versions of themselves. I don’t know if

that’s cheesy?”

The debut album, Sinead explains, is all done now bar “finishing

sprinkles”, and will be out “hopefully middle of 2015.” While

meticulously perfectionist when it comes to music, she can’t settle

on a final album name. “I’m so about living in the moment,” she

justifies. “I’m really bad with decisions because I’m a Libra.” What

happens next is “up to the universe,” but she’s not too worried about

the course her path will take. No musician, she reasons, ever really

breathes a sigh of relief anyway. “I don’t think Beyoncé is very calm

right now,” she shrugs. “It’s the end of the marathon bit for me, now.”

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“ I d i d n ’ t w a n t

t o b e t h a t

p e r s o n w h o

s i g n s a n d

t h e n l e a v e s

e v e r y t h i n g

b e h i n d . ”

Rae Morris

“This mosquito net

just won’t do, to be

honest.”

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L i g h t i n g u p B l a c k p o o l

R a e M o r r i s

From Yamaha to Rechtshaid, Rae

Morris isn’t in Blackpool anymore...

xv

Choosing the perfect career can be a bit of a challenge.

Flashback to school workshops and visits from career advisors

and it’s enough to induce even the most self-assured of

students to a quivering wreck. For Rae Morris, on the other

hand, there was no umm-ing and ahh-ing when it came to

making that all-important decision: she already knew what was

awaiting her.

“It’s interesting because I think I was gently forced into doing music by my

parents.” She stops to laugh, before reiterating that there was nothing too

pressured. “Not in a pushy parent way! It was just always something that my

brother and I did. We had piano lessons - like Yamaha workshops - together, so

it’s been a very family affair. I think that’s where I got my first musical tendencies

and because of that, it just felt like it was in me. I always knew that I would do

something, I just wasn’t sure what it would be.”

Words: Sarah Jamieson. Photos: Mike Massaro

FAMILY FORTUNES

You might think that Rae is all

about writing songs about love

and heartache, but that’s not

entirely the case. Her family aren’t

also one of her most important

musical inspirations, they’ve also

become the subject matter of a few

of ‘Unguarded’’s ditties. “My latest

single ‘Closer’ has been the one

that really had a very key theme. It

was about my relationship with my

brother as siblings, and I thought

that was a really important part of

everything. He’s a big part of my

life, so that was the most specific

point I wanted to make. Then,

literally one of the last songs that

I put onto the album a couple of

weeks ago, is about my parents’

marriage - and my brother has just

got married - so it’s about those

worlds. There’s been this whole

other family element that’s come

towards the end which has been

really important.”

What followed was Morris deciding what to explore within music. First she gave

being a band a go - “I could never really sing, that was never what I was doing,

I was always just a very bad keys player” - before deciding it wasn’t quite for

her. “I think because I’m a bit of a control freak, I always felt a bit

weird being in a band. I think - it sounds quite selfish, but - when it

comes to music, it definitely felt better to do it on my own.”

In fact, it wasn’t for another few years that she would discover

her underlying talent as a songwriter. “It started to all make

sense when I decided to just do it as me,” she explains. “I wrote

one song, the first song I had ever written.” That was the turning

moment. “I had toyed with things before, like when do GCSE

music and you have to write a song. I had done things like that

and always felt really uncomfortable with it and unsure what I

was doing. Then, I wrote this one song called ‘Wait A While’ and

I realised that this was different and this was something I didn’t

have to think about. It just happened.”

Since then, it’s been a bit of a whirlwind for the young

Blackpudlian. Signed by Atlantic Records after a chance spotting

on MySpace, Morris soon went on to collaborate with the likes of

Bombay Bicycle Club and chart-botherers Clean Bandit, but that

wasn’t before testing the water of her hometown. “I think when

I first started gigging, Blackpool was perfect,” she offers. “There

were a few open mics and this upstairs bar - West Coast Rock Cafe

- so there was a whole little scene.”

Morris doesn’t underestimate the importance of where she comes

from. Whether that be down to the family that surround her or

the place she grew up, she wasn’t prepared to be sucked in by

the industry. So she decided to stay in Blackpool that little longer

to give herself the room to grow. “I was very wary after signing

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a deal; I didn’t want to be that person who signs, or has

something big happen, and then leaves everything behind

to move to the big city. I didn’t want to be that stereotype

because it’s not always the answer. I’m really glad that I

stayed in Blackpool for two years while I was still touring

and understanding what it was that I wanted to do. It was

definitely important to stick around while I was figuring that

out.”

That’s not to say the singer isn’t well-travelled. While she may

have chosen to stay closer to home at first, she soon found

herself headed straight to the USA, where she would go on

to meet the man that would help piece together her debut

album.

“I was definitely more daunted about America than him,” she

laughs, opening up about Ariel Rechtshaid – the man behind

albums from Haim, Sky Ferreira and Charli XCX - who would

go on to produce ‘Unguarded’, “just because I had been

over there quite a few times to figure out which producer - if

anyone - would work. So far, I’d had no luck and it felt like

America was just a bit too far away from home.” As it turns

out, the pair got along instantly, with Rechtshaid telling her

“to chill out basically”. “It was a massive relief. I think I was

at that point where I had made a lot of EPs and it was quite

imperative that we made the album now; it was the right time.

He could sense that I was quite panicked about getting it

right, so he told me we were going to get it right. I definitely

needed somebody to tell me it was gonna be okay, and then

for us to just forget about it.

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A q u i l o

O f

L a n c a s t e r L a y s

“I’m so

relieved

that I don’t

have any

regrets.”

Rae Morris

As for ‘Unguarded’

itself, there’s a

richness to the

record that’s

remarkable. The

juxtaposition

of Rae’s vocals,

sometimes raw and

sparse, against dark instrumentation

and layered synths gives the fulllength

an inviting warmth, which

Morris claims she owes to an

obsession developed during the

recording. “We were in these amazing

studios with very rich, organic

sounds. They were these old studios

that had, like, Frank Sinatra record

in there, so we had the old and then

the best new technology as well. I

was fascinated with really colliding

those worlds and just the way that we

could play with the organic and the

synthetic. We had so much time to

experiment that I got obsessed with

making it as weird as possible in its

own way.”

Having now had the album complete

for a while, Morris is more than eager

to let the world get their hands on it.

Looking ahead to 2015, she’s in good

stead: having recently completed a

tour alongside the UK’s golden boy

George Ezra, she’s already made firm

live foundations after testing the

waters with her ‘Closer’ EP. More than

anything, though, she’s excited to

finally get her first full-length out in

the open. “I can’t believe it’s coming

around!” she laughs. “Because it’s

taken so long and when I was out

making it, I expected it to come out

straight away but there was a lot

of work tying the final pieces together. Now, I’m really glad

that happened because I’ve got to add a few new songs that

were imperative to the puzzle. I’m excited for people to hear

it, but it is like releasing a baby into the world. You just hope

that it has a good time!” She falls into laugher again, before

composing herself for the conclusion.

“I do feel like I’ve done as much as I can do now,” she smiles,

assured she’s finally in the right place at the right time, “and

I’m so relieved that I don’t have any regrets about anything

because we’ve really gone back and made sure everything is

perfect. It’ll be nice that it’ll last forever.” DIY

D o w n T h e G a u n t l e t

Aquilo of Lancaster sounds

a bit like a clan in Game

xv of Thrones. As it goes, the

duo did arise from a good

old fashioned local rivalry;

both members were in competing bands in

Silverdale, and then one day they decided

to form an alliance, fleeing their grunge and

metal projects in search of quieter climes.

Tom Higham and Ben Fletcher probably

aren’t likely to get all Joffrey on anybody who

doesn’t like their music, though. Shaping

stunning compositions around experimental

production that fits round the melody like a

snug fleece, there’s little to dislike anyway,

and their latest track ‘Human’ is their most

ambitious yet. Aquilo’s first release ‘Calling

Me’ admittedly hinged on its in-vogue

production, but as of late teetering fragility

is making way for a self-assured aesthetic,

along with an increasingly notorious live

show that’ll probably make you cry yer lil’

eyes out.

LISTEN: ‘Human’, ‘I Gave It All’.

EXPECT THEM TO: Give you pimples of the

goosey variety.

LEAST LIKELY TO: Become the next

‘Northern Disclosure’.

Words: El Hunt

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MY FIRST

SHOW

A l w a y s o n t h e l o o k o u t f o r D e m e n t o r s

M a r i k a H a c k m a n

After years of build-up, the only thing capable of stopping this musician in her

path is a soul-sapping, fantastical phantom creature.

It’s becoming a bad habit. Marika Hackman often gets distracted by the stare of a

stranger when she’s playing live. Sometimes it’s not an issue, like when she’s supporting

xv Alt-J, performing to tens of thousands of people in arenas (“it’s so vast that it becomes a

sea of bobbing heads”) but in intimate digs, attention diverts. Anyone could be watching

on. “Scaling shows down to three-hundred people, it’s like ‘Ah, humans having opinions

about me!’” she quips. “And then you hit a duff note and you can see everyone flinch.” It’s important to

maintain focus. No more staring. “I could always catch the eye of a Dementor, so I avoid it,” she says.

There’s no doubt it’d be a massive shame if now, after all this time, the Devon via London songwriter

suddenly had her soul sapped out by a hooded, cold-blooded monster that fancied seeing Marika play

live. A debut album’s round the corner, the gloomy, dark but beautifully open-ended ‘We Slept At Last’.

It’s a first full-length that follows years of build-up and promising EPs. Hackman calls the record “less of

an experiment or a lesson” than previous releases. “It’s not like I’m trying to find a new sound. It feels

more grown up and more mature. It just sits better in itself.”

Still just 22, Hackman’s early years as a musician took in countless shows, first steps being followed with

serious intrigue. She’d send demos to her parents, and her progression’s mapped out in perfect detail

through the promising, neat ‘Sugar Blind’ EP and ghostlier, more affirmed follow-on ‘Deaf Heat’. ‘We

Slept At Last’ “feels like it was a long time coming because of the amount of growing I had to do,” she

says. The record’s title is very literal, too. “After the journey through the album, everything that’s going

on - the ups and downs - it’s the feeling of relief. The relief of getting a record done, actually.” There’s also

the fact that Marika’s favourite thing in the world is sleeping, so the title works in several ways.

If she’s prone to a cheeky nap while in her Brixton studio, fortunately Marika has a “genius” by her side

in the form of Charlie Andrew. Her partnership with the producer struck up after she heard Alt-J’s ‘An

Awesome Wave’. Since then, she’s become part a small pack of musicians (“The little Charlie Andrew

gang,” she calls it, referring to Alt-J and Sivu, especially) working with him side-by-side.

Marika

remembers the

fear and the

door policyshunning

drama

of her debut gig.

“I was sixteen. At

the St Moritz Club

in London. They

thought I was

eighteen. I was

playing with a girl

who played the

cello and another

girl who sang

for me. We were

waiting around

backstage, and I

think they offered

us some beer

and out came

the fact we were

sixteen. But they

decided not to

tell the manager

so I wouldn’t get

kicked out. It was

just some shitty

little band club

night, but I can

remember it so

well. Mum and

dad were at that

one, actually. It

was so much fun.

Utterly bizarre - I

was absolutely

petrified.”

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“He is the nicest

man in the world.

No-one has ever

said a bad thing

about Charlie,”

she beams. “We

have very similar

ideas. I trust him

innately and I

think he trusts

me as well. I can’t

even identify the

process we have,

because it’s so

natural. It feels

like what I’d be

doing at home on

my own, only I’ve

got him in there

working with

me.”

Post-recording

the debut,

Marika’s in a

good place.

She’s an outlier

in some senses,

given she’s been

around and

in the public

consciousness

for three solid,

promising years.

Nothing’s been

rushed, in terms

of getting a

record out. She’s

still holed up in

her room most

days, writing and

recording, still

sending demos

off to parents

or close friends.

“It’s good to

bounce songs off

someone,” she

says. “Even if it’s

for them to say

they don’t like it

and you respond,

‘Well fuck you, I

like it’. You end

up more assured

about what you

like.” Nothing’s

changed

dramatically

with ‘We Slept At

Last’, but these

twelve previously

unheard songs

look set to begin

a brave new

chapter. DIY

Leeds collective Menace Beach have admirable goals for the year

ahead: primarily, to “not do anything shit.”

Have you ever wondered what would happen if the great musical minds

of Yorkshire joined forces? Maybe you’ve wasted entire afternoons just

xv fantasising about the ultimate Leeds-based super group, only to cry silently

when you realise that all those dreams may never actually come true? Don’t

worry – we’ve all been there. Thankfully though, it looks like 2015 could

mark the end of all that heartache. Enter Menace Beach – a raucous scuzz-rock five-piece

that includes (or has included) band members from Komakino, Sky Larkin, You Animals,

Pulled Apart By Horses and Hookworms. “We’re not really a super group,” drummer Nestor

Matthews stresses. “We don’t want to make the best band in the world. It’s just because we’re

all friends already, so that’s who you call on to play music with.”

Named after an early 90s video game, Menace Beach are tied to the grunge era in more ways

than one. With their enthusiasm for fuzz pedals, woozy melodies and lurching guitars, the

comparisons in sound are inevitable – though not necessarily welcomed. “I don’t know. I grew

up listening to music in 96, 97 – the back end of Britpop – that’s when I first got into music,”

lead singer Ryan Needham says with a shrug. “But it’s just weird, innit? It’s just a guitar song.”

Nestor nods in agreement – “it’s very innocent and organic… there’s so many of us that you

can never point a finger at any particular [era].” The songs are written mostly by Ryan, and

often during the very early hours of the morning. It’s a process that rapid and relentless; with

Ryan taking full advantage of the creative daze that comes with the chronic exhaustion. “I’ll

go to work, finish work, stay up all night until 6 or 7 in the morning and just write,” he says

nonchalantly, before being cut off by bassist Matt Spalding. “Ryan is fucking magic at writing

songs. There are just so many… I’ve never known anybody to write as ridiculously.”

With their excellent debut album ‘Ratworld’ due for release in January, the results of all that

late night binge-writing have obviously paid off. However, their ultimate goal for the year

ahead is a surprisingly straightforward one. “Not do anything shit,” says Matt, with an air of

pure pragmatism. “It was good to pick and craft this album out of a load of madness. We’ll

see how it goes – it’s going to be a very interesting year, I think.” DIY

D o n ’ t c a l l t h e m a s u p e r g r o u p

M e n a c e B e a c h

Words: Dominique Sisley. Photo: Carolina Faruolo

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Words: Emma Swann. Photo: Mike Massaro

M o v e o v e r O l l y M u r s , i t ’ s

g o d d a m n

“My dad was a George Formby impersonator.”

Things you knew about God Damn: two

xv men, lots of hair, noisy rock’n’roll, from the

Midlands. Things you didn’t: they’ve taken

musical cues from Britain’s best-known banjowielder.

Thom Edward (guitar, vocals) is also a dab hand at the

instrument himself. “I can play ‘When I’m Cleaning Windows’,”

he reveals with a giggle, “I can do the voice and everything, I

got indoctrinated into it.

“It’s not an influence on my music. Although...” he pauses.

“Actually, there’s like a weird strumming pattern on the album

which is very much George Formby.”

After a year of gigging, gigging and then gigging some more

(“ah fuckin’ love it,” sighs drummer Ash Weaver in his broad

Black Country accent), the pair are gearing up to release

their debut album next Spring. It was largely recorded at

Metropolis Studios in London with Xavier Stephenson, “the

hardest working man I’ve ever met in my entire life,” remarks

Thom, “space scientists don’t work as hard as that guy does.

Not that our album’s a polished turd or anything...”

Choosing to record in a “pop factory”, as Thom describes it,

rather than the lo-fi surroundings of Toe Rag (“initially we were

going to do it there, but we realised the record we wanted to

create couldn’t be done there”) did have some unexpected

consequences. And not just meeting a Pussycat Doll - and her

lapdog.

“We kept getting sacked off for David Guetta,” laughs Thom.

“And Olly Murs! They delayed our album for about three

weeks. Also Jimmy Page’s daughter works there, and was in

there when I was doing guitar takes, that was quite weird.

50 diymag.com

Intimidating. I was like, ‘Can you

bring your Dad in and he can do

this properly, that’d be good!’”

It’s a record which, the pair both

say “could be played by two - or

ten people.” God Damn didn’t start

out a duo – a recent Facebook post

officially confirmed the departure

of founding member Dave Copson

who hadn’t played live with them

for some time. “It’s not something

that we specifically did to be

‘in’,” says Ash, “that’s just what

happened.” “It’s the worst time to

be a two-piece band, ever!” laughs

Thom. “In the history of music!”

“We didn’t go in the studio and

think, ‘Right, there’s two people

who’ve written this album, so

let’s make a two-piece album’, we

wanted the best album we could

make,” Thom explains. “So we took

the album where it needed to go,

you might see more people coming

on stage to play it. We can play it

as a two-piece, but we’d probably

prefer to play it as a three-piece,

maybe a four-piece, stuff like that.

We might be a ten-piece one day,

who knows?!” DIy

T h e P u k e A n d T h e A n t i -

P e r f e c t i o n O f

Ryn Weaver ’ s E x c i t i n g

F i r s t S t e p s

The events aren’t directly linked, strictly speaking, but in the space of

xv a few hours, Ryn Weaver posted her debut track ‘OctaHate’, everyone

on the internet went nuts, Hayley Williams from Paramore tweeted

her, and the LA via NYC musician was promptly sick. Some experiences are too

overwhelming to handle. This was one of them.

“It was a jolt of nerves, I mean… ” Ryn says, attempting to make sense of events.

“When she tweeted back, there were so many people tweeting all of a sudden.

The numbers started to jump, ten thousand every five minutes. I was really

overwhelmed and I started getting these phone calls from everyone I know. And

even people I don’t know, people who haven’t been a cool person to me, calling me

and being like, ‘Hey, what’s up!’” And she freaked.

For a good twelve months preceding this dramatic turn of events, Ryn had been

sitting on her ‘Promises’ EP, tinkering with things behind the scenes alongside

a team containing Benny Blanco and Cashmere Cat. “The way I process things is

bizarre. Like working with all these people - it took me so long to realise all this

great stuff that was happening,” she says.

Acclaim and vomit swiftly put to one

side, the next step in the newcomer’s

stratospheric journey has been getting

used to comments, criticisms and plain

haters. When ‘OctaHate’ dropped, she

took time to clarify to specific people

that she wasn’t some manufactured

bolt out of the blue. “I wanted to set the

record straight. Nobody knows who I am,

so this is it - the manifest,” she explains.

“I’m too busy for that

now. If people wanna

hate, go ahead if you

have the time.”

BREAKING

THE RULES

TOGETHER

The perfect meeting

of minds, Ryn

recently worked

in the studio with

Charli XCX. “We

actually write very

well together.

She’s the queen of

melody. And I throw

my melodies in here

and there when they

were needed,” she

says.“ It’s a really

quick process. We’re

both very confident

women.”

If anything defines her

scatterbrained tracks

so far - produced by

Blanco, Passion Pit’s

Michael Angelakos,

amongst others - it’s

a don’t give a fuck

attitude. “I don’t care

about looking moody

and wearing all black

and sitting in the corner

and having cool lights,”

she says. “I don’t really

care about trends. I’m

just happy being the

person I am. The coolest

thing that person can

do, is not give a fuck.”

DIY

Words: Jamie Milton

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i t ’ s a

s h u r a

t h i n g

Madonna comparisons rife, and video hits rising into the millions, Shura’s climbing the pop

ranks faster than a monster attacking in Alien Isolation. Not that it’s much concern for the

‘Touch’ star; she’s more fussed about making her debut album and getting a cat.

Ah, the infamous and

oddly beloved ‘Mr

xv Brightside’. Love it or

loathe it, it’s a staple

preserve of sweaty end

of night dance floors

worldwide, and one particular line gets

roared with extra gusto. “It started out

with a kiss, how did it end up like this?”

It’s a question that perhaps weirdly

applies to Shura.

It did start with a kiss after all; or more

specifically, a whole steamed-up film

packed full of the things. Shura made

her first music video on a modest

budget of £900. Thanks to her “‘Touch’

brigade” of willing friends, most of that

just about covered studio rental and

smoke bombs. Done with the shoot,

and having roughly assessed that she’d

got a pop banger on her hands, Shura

put it online. Not even Luna Lovegood

could have predicted the insane

response. At time of print, ‘Touch’ has

racked up over three million views, and

is fast becoming a dancefloor staple in

its own right.

Two more releases, ‘Just Once’ and

‘Indecision’ followed, to similar

amounts of hysteria, and soon

afterwards Shura found herself signing

a deal with Polydor over breakfast. “It’s

real!” she laughs, “I saw it on iTunes! I

bought my own songs, to make sure,

and underneath it says Bsessi Ltd, which

is my company. It means ‘my boobs’ in

Arabic, which I think is just so fucking

funny.” Shura gives a gleeful cackle. “My

boobs, licensed to Polydor.”

“It doesn’t change anything except

it changes everything,” she reasons.

“Everyday, though, nothing changes.”

With the added clout of major backing,

she says, she wants to set herself up

with a “self-sufficient studio”, and

if possible, to fulfil her wildest sci-fi

dreams. “Basically, I really want to be in

a sci-fi film, but I’m not an actor, so I try

and shoehorn it into all of my music so I

can swan around in cool costumes with

lasers and fight aliens,” admits Shura

readily.

The album, she explains, is “just going,

I guess. I’ve got half an album that

I’m happy with, but [the songs] aren’t

finished.” With her debut due next

year - all being well - Shura has some

exciting studio sessions pencilled in. “If

you had told me I’d be doing sessions

with these people a year ago I would

have said ‘shut the front door’,” she

laughs, before quickly exclaiming that

she can’t give anything else away.

Expectation will only grow weightier

around Shura from now on, and it

is becoming increasingly surreal

as she starts to think about bigger

shows at venues like London’s Village

Underground. “I’ve got this banner of

my face,” she laughs. “It’s ridiculous.

Unnecessarily large. Imagine being

the person who has to steam that – it’s

probably going to be me!” DIY

“ I t d o e s n ’ t

c h a n g e

a n y t h i n g

e x c e p t i t

c h a n g e s

e v e r y t h i n g . ”

Shura


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t a k i n g

F l y t e

Headliners of the DIY Presents

Tour 2014, Flyte.


xv

Flyte are gathered round a table looking

on in mild disbelief as their guitarist and

keyboard player Sam Berridge performs a

quick rendition of Cher’s ‘Believe’. It’s one

with a difference, too, because Sam’s picked

up a technique from recent

tour mates Shy Nature, and he’s hitting

himself repeatedly in the throat to try and

recreate autotune. It’s hard not to be a

little perturbed. “That was actually quite

good,” admits frontman Will Taylor, after a

moment’s silence.

First emerging with ‘Over and Out’ - a jangly,

fully-cooked slice of fidgeting pop with more

than a hint of Electronic Light Orchestra

colouring the vocal harmonies – it’s often

remarked that Flyte are a band who already

sound complete.

“’Light Me Out’ particularly was a statement

of intent,” agrees Will, “and now we’re going

to go, take that, and that, and that and how

about this. The album will come maybe half

way through next year, we’re thinking about

it is as an album of singles. No filler, like Lady Gaga. Does she

have album tracks?” “The introverted b-sides of Lady Gaga?,”

scoffs bassist Brad Hill. “Nah.”

Out on the road, topping bills and filling out rooms is still

a novel and exciting experience for Flyte, though the way

“ I t ’ s

h a r d t o

g a u g e

t h e b u z z

w h e n

y o u ’ r e

i n t h e

s t u d i o . ”

B r a d

Hill

things are going, it surely won’t be new to them for long.

“We’ve toured with Bombay Bicycle Club before, and we

were playing to full rooms of their fans, which is lovely, but

you know,” says Will. “You’re trying to convince people who

aren’t particularly willing to be convinced. Because this [latest

tour was] our first time headlining, we didn’t

really know what to expect. The first night was

Brighton, and there was a holding of the breath

moment, but the room was full. It’s like, are you

guys all ok? Do you know it’s our gig, are you

supposed to be here?”

“I think it can’t be overstated; the chasm of

disbelief and self-hatred,” Will goes on, being

somewhat melodramatic. “There’s a loss of

perspective when you’re in the studio for a

long time, and it’s easy to slip into the realms

of madness.” “It’s hard to gauge the buzz

when you’re in the studio, too,” Brad adds. “It’s

something that going on tour and actually

being there has shown us. All that work has

paid off.”

A new-wave sensibility and a touch of kitschy

lyricism is clearly Flyte’s forte, and they’re

clearly focused on where they want to go next, too. Songs like

‘We Are The Rain’ and ‘Light Me Up’ sound like fully fledged

clout-wielders already, and it has set them in good stead for

posing their takeover of 2015. Otherwise, their ambitions

are set on a rather unlikely collaboration. “I’d like to jam with

Bach, says Sam. “He’d be playing the organ, I’d be riffing.” DIY

53

“It’s all really, really

worked out.”

Alan Duggan

E v e r y t h i n g ’ s c o m i n g u p

With just three

singles, this

heady Irish

four-piece are

already one

of the most

powerful tour

de forces in

Europe right

now.

G i r l B a n d

xv

Ireland’s Girl Band have played in sixteen countries and they don’t even have an album

out. It’s just one of the many feats the relentless four piece have achieved over the last

year, including becoming renowned for a live show that could quite possibly be the most

exciting to conquer these shores.

Chaotic yet very much calculated, they’re thoroughly unpredictable: the dribble of new material released

in 2014 have each been their own individual surprise, with everything from six-minute sprawlers to

wildly interpreted Beat Happening covers. Speaking to guitarist Alan Duggan, the band never necessarily

intended to tease us all so painfully slowly, but he admits that it’s ultimately been the best course for them.

“We haven’t had to rush into anything, with every choice we’ve taken our time,” he says. “We’re just happy

that [the band]’s getting attention now, as things are exactly as we want them to be portrayed.”

Identity and portrayal are incredibly important to these guys, and while their live shows seem unhinged

and cataclysmic, underneath all the noise isn’t a band who have improvised anything - it’s all meticulously

worked out. “We don’t actually improvise at all!” Alan laughs when the idea’s suggested. “It’s all really,

really worked out. We’ve seen bands who can [improvise] and we love them but we just can’t jam. We

spend so long working on the sound that if we improvised it would all sound too mushy.”

Words: Tom Walters. Photo: Carolina Faruolo

54 diymag.com

It makes sense. At shows

while eccentric frontman

Dara Kiely pummels

audiences with his

scratchy, Pavement-esque

nonsense, the rest of the

band are all wonderfully in

sync; conjuring up a clatter

that leaves everyone in

awe. Although at times

they come across as fearful

and brooding, one of the

best things about Girl

Band is the dark humour

that flows underneath.

Lyrics cover everything

from football teams, to

looking crap with your

top off, right up to Nutella,

and it’s hard not to be left

with a huge grin when

the ferocious, 21-second

‘The Cha Cha Cha’ reaches

its abrupt but painfully

excellent end.

“We’ve always loved

putting out short, punk-y

songs, and that one just

seemed kind of funny!”

Alan explains of ‘The

Cha Cha Cha’’s creation.

“It always gets a laugh.

We played a show in

Rotterdam with all

these punks, and we

headlined but I don’t

think a lot of people

knew our songs - they

were just checking us

out for the first time.

Anyway, we ended with

‘The Cha Cha Cha’ and

a big mosh pit broke

out… it was hilarious.”

Having toured extensively over the last year, surely the

momentum has reached such a point where they’re ready

to head into the studio for an album? Well, not exactly.

“We haven’t had a lot of time to write because we’ve been

touring so much,” says Alan. “We have a couple of ideas

we want to work on, so we’re going to continue working

on those until around May then just head in and record

a bunch of tracks and pick whichever works best.” Like

everything Girl Band do, it’s going to take a while to get

to the end result but the payoff will inevitably be worth it.

“We do want to keep it around the 40 minute mark, I know

that much!” he chuckles.

T h e R i s e O f

J a c k

G a r r a t t

Cutting his teeth on the web-waves, blogs gave Jack

Garratt his first boost after several years of perfecting

his writing unnoticed. These days, though, he is far

more than just a blog darling. Building up a formidable

reputation for himself this summer, out blazing the live

trail, here’s a look back at Jack Garratt’s rapid ascension.

THE GUITAR SOLO THAT STARTED IT ALL

“Stevie Ray Vaughan’s guitar solo on ‘Pride and Joy’ is what

got me into guitar playing. My dad had a VHS at that show

and we burnt the tape. I could not understand how someone

could play guitar like that. Later on when YouTube was a thing,

I watched his videos and taught myself how to play guitar by

watching those.”

THE BLOGS THAT BACKED HIM

“That’s the beauty of the internet. No matter what you’re

doing, you can get it out to people. It’s a very important thing,

just for people to have the opportunity to hear new music

and make their own decision about it. That’s something that’s

gotten lost slightly - giving younger generations the chance

to decide what they like. Personally I’m fed up of the idea that

kids can’t make a decision for themselves about music.”

THE MANIA THAT FOLLOWED

“The reaction has been - for me - really unexpected and all

a bit crazy. The great thing about what we’ve done so far is I

can watch it in real time. Put a track up and it’s gone from 75

to 1000 plays. That’s been the amazing thing. Getting over

100,000 is the cherry on top of the cake. To have it out and

people responding to it is enough. And it keeps me up at

night which is really good fun. So stressful.”

Words: El Hunt

They’re also definitely set on returning to the same studio

in Ireland where they’ve recorded everything to date. It’s

important for Ireland to remain the home base of the band,

and even though it can be a pain in the arse travelling. Alan

reveals that they feel most comfortable there and wouldn’t

want to make the record anywhere else. “For us, it’d mean

making a progression’s easier as it’s somewhere we’ve

been before. This is much more of a natural thing and we

don’t have to make such a big deal out of it.” DIY

55

class

of

2 o 1 5

mmxv

A M e t h y S i t u a t i o n : H o w

t h e d i s t r i c t s

E s c a p e d S p o o k e d S t u d i o s

W i t h A S p e c i a l R e c o r d

All the hype around this US four piece has

surrounded their live show - now they’re putting

everything to the test with a new LP.

Word’s been spreading about Pennsylvania-bred fourpiece

The Districts ever since they sped towards these

xv shores in the beginning of 2014. Brighton’s The Great

Escape hosted memorable performances, Reading

Festival being their shining moment. Rob Grote and co.

also rose to prominence Stateside through a live session

video. It’s all down to the shows. Talk on their recorded sound has been

fairly muted - 2015 is the year they put that right.

With new album ‘A Flourish And A Spoil’ around the corner, the four of

them have arrived with their strongest work yet (following self-released

debut ‘Telephone’) and a few trusty stories in their locker, too.

Small town Cannon Falls played host to the recording, its main

attraction being the Seedy Underbelly Studio itself. Formerly known as

the Pachyderm Studio, the place came under new ownership because,

in bassist Conor Jacobus’ words, it “got weird and kind of methy.”

“The previous owner invited all these these crazy meth hippy dudes,”

Rob, the band’s frontman, elaborates. “I think the studio definitely had

a weird vibe just because of that stuff.” The house overlooking the place

was built by a family with a successful cereal business, which only added

to the off-the-wall oddities of the place. “Kind of creepy but kind of

not,” is how Grote describes the experience. “It was definitely good for

keeping mentally alert.”

Words: Jamie Milton. Photos: MIke Massaro

This might explain the drive of their new record, which spends half

its time speeding off into vast empty space, destroying the scenery.

Dodgy but well-intentioned working titles were scrapped too - ‘4th

and Roebling’, named after a Brooklyn interchange, used to be called

‘Slayers and Dragons’. There’s always next time.

Now firmly under their belts, ‘A Flourish And A Spoil’’s had its time to

settle into the collective system. The title is about “how as a person you

flourish, but then there’s the inevitable fall,” Rob says, “I guess how all

beautiful things end up falling apart, but that’s beautiful all the same.”

“It’s a distinctly human record, one that people can relate to. Hopefully

they’ll hear a song and they’ll go, ‘I get that. I feel and I know.’” DIY

PROFILE

LISTEN: ‘A Flourish And A Spoil’ is out 9th February 2015 via Fat Possum.

MOST LIKELY TO: Headline festivals four albums to the good, Kings of

Leon-style.

LEAST LIKELY TO: Turn to meth.

56 diymag.com

T r y T e a c h i n g T h i s O n Y o u T u b e : T h e F o r m u l a T o

B e n K h a n ’ s B o l d P o p

Whether it’s downloading new tools or working with old school methods, this London

producer’s work is anything but ordinary.

Ben Khan is part of a generation that could

absorb and apply information in seconds.

xv All the tools are at our disposal, and it’s

something that links this Class of 2015 alumni

to someone like Raury, or Ryn Weaver - young

talents who rely less on old methods, more

on modern instinct. Anyone can download a copy of Ableton

and go nuts with beat patterns. Samples can be downloaded

from pretty much any source. It’s what these producers and

musicians do next that makes the difference.

The Londoner finds himself embroiled in one of the biggest

issues facing today’s youth. Are we “intelligent”, informationloaded

beings, or are we “shells” moving from screen to

screen? “You can be negative and positive about it. I have my

ups and downs some days,” he says, having recently moved

from a bedroom set-up into a proper studio. He cites an

Einstein quote (“memorising things you’ll rarely use is time

wasted”) when stating that “maybe the rest of the space in our

heads is there to create new things from that information.”

This is appropriate because it does feel like Khan is among

a handful of producers absorbing all the countless genres

and ideas exposed to the average twenty-something, before

applying it to his own scatterbrained pop. It’s there in his

‘1992’ EP, a documentation of wild youth that pours every

inspiration into a bubbling-up melting pot.

Cards are still being kept close to his chest on some issues, like

an album (“I wouldn’t put any labels on it. I’m just working,”

he quips), but as for everything else, Ben’s open about how he

works. “The thought process always happens before I go into

the studio, whatever it is that’s inspiring me,” he says, citing

trips to his father’s birthplace of Kashmir as a source for new

ideas.

Words: Jamie Milton. Photo: Emma Swann

Time’s been taken on a follow-up to ‘1992’ because that’s

Khan’s default mode, fretting and fixating over tiny details.

He knew he wanted to be a musician for a living since the

age of sixteen, and since then he’s “studied the game for a

while,” worked out how to announce himself in the biggest

way possible. “Artistically, people need to take time with what

they do,” he states, clearly deadly serious about his output.

“My favourite movies are from people who’ve really fucking

thought about it. I watched the Shining the other day...

People who go to those lengths - they’re the best.

That’s what I aspire to. That’s what I want to be. I’m

not there yet, at all.” DIY

NEED TO KNOW

• Debut track ‘Drive (Part 1)’ premiered on DIY in 2013.

• He’s still yet to play a live show, with a Maida Vale BBC Radio 1

session to his name.

• The only instrument he can “really play” is the guitar.

57

Everyone else is chasing Kwabs’ shadows

Words: Sarah Jamieson. Photos: MIke Massaro

“ I f e e l

l i k e m e

a n d m y

m u s i c

a r e o n e

a n d t h e

s a m e . ”

Kwabs

58 diymag.com

class

of

2 o 1 5

mmxv

S u s p e n d y o u r

p r e c o n c e p t i o n s w i t h

K w a b s

Having already been

a bookies’ favourite

for the Mercury Prize

without an album

to his name, Kwabs

looks to be on the

right road to success.

xv

Listen to any song by Kwabs and it’s hard not to be drawn into its

soulful melodies. Whether it be in the funky beat of ‘Walk’, the

swelling fragility of ‘Pray For Love’ or the sultry comfort in ‘Wrong

Or Right’, there’s one thread that ties his work together: each track

feels like it comes from within.

“Music kinda found its way to me,” begins Kwabs - full name Kwabena Sarkodee.

It’s clear that music has always been so much than just a hobby to the singer. “I

don’t really feel like I was ever really looking at it from a distance. It always felt

like a part of what I did. I had always sung so I think music as a career, one way or

another, always felt like it was gonna be the next step, even when I thought I was

going to do other things. So yeah, that law degree, or that medical school didn’t

look so fancy or so appetising once I had found my voice and my musical journey.”

Since he was a small child, he’s used music as a means of expressing his emotions.

“I think I’d probably sooner have sung than had a temper tantrum or gotten

upset or started crying,” he says, without a hint of embellishment. “As strange as

it sounds, it was my way of letting out any emotion that I was feeling when I was

younger. It continued to be completely bonded with my emotional and physical

demeanour and character. I feel like me and my music are one and the same.”

The few songs that we’ve been treated to so far in his career confirm as much.

Having already worked with the likes of SOHN and The Invisible’s David Okumu, he

isn’t, however, just another singer songwriter bearing all with just a guitar in hand.

While his lyrics and voice are quite obviously important to him, he’s keen to try

and realise the bigger picture; experimentation is high on his list of priorities.

“As a new artist who was finding his feet and learning what he wanted to do

musically with a first statement as an artist, I had to learn,” he comments of

his collaborative partners. “I had to acquire. For me, I had to be around people

who knew what they were doing and who I could learn from and glean a bit of

inspiration and knowledge from. I think if you find people who get what you do,

get what you’re about and really understand what you’re trying to say, then that is

a really good thing.

“I think it’s important to be incredibly fluid with your process and not think that

any one way has to be the way that it’s going to work,” he continues. “Otherwise,

you’ll find yourself stuck, or rather unstuck by being too rigid about it. So, my

mantra towards songwriting is to be ready for your approach to change and

be ready for tomorrow to be different. How you write today might not work

tomorrow, and you’ve got to throw in a different set of ingredients and use

different tools and see how those come out.”

Having already quickly made quite the mark on public consciousness – after

all, Kwabs was a bit of a bookies favourite for this year’s Mercury Prize, without

even having released an album – he’s also more than prepared for the challenge

of merging alternative and mainstream. With such an incredible voice and

invigorating production to match it, he hopes that his music will be able to

59

infiltrate both musical

spheres.

“ I d o n ’ t h a v e

a n y a g e n d a

t o b e N u m b e r

1 , b u t I ’ m n o t

s a d a b o u t

t h a t b e i n g a

p o s s i b i l i t y . ”

Kwabs

“I’m proud to do that

because I think good

music can reach a lot

of people and it can

still be deep, it can

still come from a very

heartfelt place, and

it can have a bit of an

edge to it. Sometimes,

the things that break

through after often

the things that people

aren’t expecting

to. They’re kind of

maybe a bit strange,

or a bit odd or they

come from a slightly

different slant. Yeah,

I feel good about

that. I don’t have any

agenda to be Number

1, but I’m not sad

about that being a

possibility. Lines are

being pushed and

distorted between

what is expected

to progress and

travel where. I think

it’s making people

suspend their sense

of expectation and

their preconceptions

about what is gonna

do what.”

Now, it seems as

though Kwabs-fever is

catching on (best not

to get that confused

with any other more

serious ailments

though...) with the

singer having already

played a whole

summer’s worth of

festivals earlier this

year, before rounding

the year out with a

sold out show at the

grandiose venue of

London’s Koko.

“It was very cool,” he

relays. “Obviously

it was the biggest

headline show that

we’ve done so far,

and I think that we’ve

done a really good

job of making every

London gig that we

do really special. In

terms of scaling up

and getting more

60 diymag.com

people on board, and

we always save the

best for that show;

the newest material,

the slickest show. It

just felt good to come

home and have that

many people there on

my side and to be in

that venue... It’s one of

my favourite venues,

so I’m chuffed.”

As for 2015, it’s set to

be a big year for the

Londoner. Having

recently blown away

punters during a

intimate hush-hush

performance in

November, there’s

little not to love about

his soulful offerings.

“I mean, I just really

want a lot of people

to hear this music,”

he says, delving into

what he hopes the

next twelve months

might hold. “There

are one or two songs

on the album which

mean so much to

me, so I would just

love for them to get

the exposure and

the love that I think

they deserve. Not just

because I made them

but because I feel

like they could really

touch a lot of people. I

think only time will tell

whether that works

out or not, but I have

high hopes for that

music travelling far

and wide. My mission

is to touch loads of

people. I wanna travel

more. The honest

truth is that I don’t

actually know what’s

ahead so I’m just

gonna pick whatever

opportunities are

thrown at me and not

be too precious about

them. I think if I’m to

really make this next

year special, I’ve just

got to throw myself

into it and see what

it throws at me. To

enjoy it the entire way

through. That’s the

ideal.” DIY

E V E R Y T H I N G

E L S E T O G E T

E X C I T E D A B O U T

I N 2 0 1 5

Whether it’s a baby step or a

big leap forward, countless

xv acts outside of this year’s

Class Of have the potential to

make a big impression. Few

more exciting than Shamir, a Las Vegasresiding

XL signing, springing into life with his

rudely catchy ‘On the Regular’ single, the most

immediate cut of bass-heavy pop since Azealia

Banks spat truths on ‘212’. All things vibrant

and bonkers belong to him, although on these

shores, Meanwhile’s Prince-esque dazzles

will take some topping.

Raury’s genre-hopping pop will be a defining

sound of 2015, but hot on the tail is London

O’ Connor, a similarly-minded newcomer

whose debut single arrived in the form of a

video game. Plugged in and reaching high

scores of their own is Kero Kero Bonito, a

buzzy trio led by Sarah Bonito, whose distinctive

vocal style leaps between English and Japanese.

2014 saw talk centred around hyperactive

alt-label PC Music. If anyone affiliated with that

www. pack looks likely to break through, it’s

KKB. Or SOPHIE, who’s apparently working

with Madonna and Nicki Minaj. Internet

sensations tend to be fleeting, but equally,

there’s something special about Spooky

Black, a ghostly R&B talent that bears few

comparisons.

D.D Dumbo - a big name for the future

Snapping back to reality, there’s a pack of bands

with every intention of setting stuffy venues

alight. The Magic Gang, Black Honey

and Bloody Knees represent a tight, bolshy

bunch. Get Hot won’t keep quiet, either.

Stranding off from that scene is Kid Wave,

daydreaming fuzz-fiends of the finest kind.

‘90s-obsessed hedonists Real Lies claim

to hate bands, so expect them to either selfdestruct

or forge a brilliant path of their own.

There’s also DIY favourites Palace. Currently

unsigned, they’re sure to continue welcoming in

the hype. Dublin’s Cloud Castle Lake are

similarly intriguing. Their Sigur Rós-chanelling

madness sends chills down the spine. Over in

the States, there’s little doubt that Bully’s

blink-and-you-missed-it punk will storm both

SXSW and the UK’s showcase fests. The PJ

Harvey-isms of brutal force MOURN could also

leave a huge mark.

Australia’s scene is always in bloom. Mostly,

Down Under seems to be a turn-to-gold

breeding ground for serene, experimental pop,

like that of cousins Klo. Things can get a little

weirder, though. The Harpoons bring a

curious, arty alternative, while pedal-master

D. D Dumbo works wonders with loops and

soaring harmonies. Support slots on Jungle’s

recent UK tour upped his profile hugely. Aussie

blog favourites will be competing for space with

U.S. gems like NYC’s Wet, and the increasingly

exciting Tei Shi, who recently worked with

Glass Animals’ Dave Bayley.

There’s no sign of 2015 being a ‘quiet one’, and

that’s mostly thanks to producers Lxury

and Oceaán, two UK hopes twisting the

wheel and emerging with strange hybrids of

electronic pop. It’s very early days for both, but

Lxury’s already collaborated with Disclosure

and played Reading’s Dance Stage - there’s

plenty more to come. Big gigs aren’t new to

Sweden’s Seinabo Sey and Benjamin

Clementine, either. Both got their big break

via performances on Jools Holland, with sombre

piano ballads doing the talking. Once - and it’s

an if, not a when - London’s Shivum Sharma

gets a similar opportunity, don’t be surprised to

see his name spread everywhere. DIY

61

READERS POLL 2014

Last month, we asked you - dear readers - to let us know what you think of the last twelve

months. The best bands, albums, videos, festivals and more. You did us proud, so without

further ado, here are the results of the DIY Readers Poll 2014. Every one a winner.

62 diymag.com

BAND OF THE YEAR

1

roya l b lo o d

2 Future Islands 3 jungle

Meet the duo who’ve topped the charts, dominated festivals and

become both DIY readers’ Breakthrough Act and Band of 2014

Words: Sarah Jamieson

There was always something special about Royal

Blood. From their first carnal offering, all guttural

riffs and pounding drums, they drew the attention

of the masses. Their first headline tour gave us

another clue; fights broke out, carnage reigned

supreme and rooms were packed tightly, sweat dripping from

the walls.

Over the last twelve months, things have grown bigger

and more tremendous for the Brighton-based duo. From

dominating the city festivals to commanding one of the

biggest crowds of the weekend at Reading & Leeds, theirs is

a juggernaut that’s been impossible to slow down. Whoever

said that rock was dead? “We’ve just been going a million

miles an hour,” agrees drummer Ben Thatcher, “and ‘I’m not

sure how we’re managing to go at that speed.”

Since first releasing debut single ‘Out Of The Black’ late last

63

year, Royal Blood have scored a Number 1 album – which consequently went

on to sell over 100,000 copies - played Finsbury Park (twice) and sold out a

whole UK tour in about twenty seconds flat. Not to mention the fact that

they’ve been heralded as the new British kings of rock’n’roll in the process.

And how did Ben celebrate the news of their chart-topping debut? “I can’t

actually remember…” he pauses. “I did something really normal, like I think I

went to get petrol...”

Despite his choice of celebration being a little less rock star than some might

expect, their success isn’t lost on the duo: they just find the hyperbole a bit

surreal. “We know that not many people get to be in our position,” he offers,

“but we don’t take it too seriously either. You can have people say you’re

the saviours of rock’n’roll and you can have people say you’re bringing back

rock music, but all of that, to us, seems a bit funny really. We’re just two guys

who enjoy playing rock music. We’re not saviours of rock’n’roll, or this, that

and the other. We’re just two quite normal people who enjoy listening to

and playing music. To have people say things like that, it’s very nice and we

appreciate it, but for Mike [Kerr] and I, we’re just two regular dudes who are

made for playing music.”

“ W E ’ R E J U S T

T W O G U Y S W H O

E N J O Y P L A Y I N G

ROCK MUSIC.” B E N

THATCHER

Regular guys they may well be, but that hasn’t stopped a slew of invitations

and accolades being slung their way. While ‘Royal Blood’ was nominated for

this year’s Mercury Prize (“It was pretty strange, as you obviously don’t join

a band to get nominated for awards!”), the band themselves were invited

to perform at this year’s MTV Video Music Awards, because, well, why the

hell not? “That was a very surreal experience for us, because it was the MTV

EMAs!” he laughs. “You’ve got your Nicki Minajs and your Ariana Grandes

and then you had us; just two guys from Worthing, going and performing. It

is a bit strange but we had a really good time there actually, and it was really

funny to be there amongst such crazy people.”

Despite the evening being that much more pop than they might be used

to, they did get to bump into Ozzy Osbourne on that same evening. “It was

great to meet such a dude! He’s the Prince of Darkness! It was just a complete

mixed bag of artists which made it even more funny and surreal I guess. I

was like, ‘What’re you doing in a room with Ozzy Osbourne and Nicki Minaj?!’

There’s no other situation where you could see that happening.”

With 2014 drawing to a close, their star is still on the rise: the two-piece have

just been confirmed to support Foo Fighters when they return to the UK next

year for five mammoth stadium dates. “They’re very exciting,” says Ben of the

dates. “To get to play with Foo Fighters is one of our biggest aspirations and

we never thought that that would ever happen. To be even in the same room

as a legend like Dave Grohl… We look up to those guys so just being a part

of that will be amazing.”

As for whether or not the band have any particularly favourite moments of

the past twelve months, well... “No, it’s just all been ridiculous,” says Ben.

“Everything that’s happened this year have been things that we never ever

thought we’d do so I could not pick one moment that’s been a standout.

There’s one every other day for me.” DIY

64 diymag.com

BREAKTHROUGH ACT

e1

r oya l b l o o d

2 George Ezra 3 wolf alice

65

BEST ALBUM

e1

st vincent - st vincent

2 Royal Blood - Royal Blood 3 Jungle - Jungle

This year the album to win the hearts of DIY readers came early: released back

in March, it’s St Vincent’s new full-length, ‘St Vincent’.

Annie Clark is on a crackling

phone line, and her old

seaside hotel, she calmly

explains, is “probably

haunted”. Speaking

largely in drawn-out yawns – “I’m

doing this interview before I eat food,

which has to happen three hours

before the show or else I’m sleepy on

stage,” clarifies Annie – she doesn’t

seem especially fearful of any creaking

doorways or dark spirits that might

be lingering in the corner ready to

pounce. Instead she’s been spending

her day “walking by the ocean,” reading

a book about 80s computer game

music composer Rob Hubbard, and

poking around dusty junk shops. “I’m

pretty obsessed with oddfellows and

freemasons, cults and secret

societies,” she says, “and

England is a good place to

be on the look out for that.”

Annie’s interest in closedoff

gatherings and her

total indifference towards

spooky goings-on in the

hotel makes sense, really. If

there’s any one word that represents ‘St

Vincent’ - from initial conception to live

show and realisation - it is fearless.

‘St Vincent’ is an album about running

away from Texan rattlesnakes in the

nuddy-pants, and then snorting

lines of coke with His Royal Majesty

of debauchery and gender-bending,

Prince Johnny. There’s a hat doff given

to American writer Lorrie Moore on

that same song, and then two songs

later behaving in a fairly careless

manner takes centre stage again; this

time throwing a television out of a

window. That’s without mentioning

the notorious “take out the garbage,

masturbate,” on ‘Birth In Reverse’-

delivered with a flippantly Bible-belt

baiting nonchalance - or any of the

other surreal images that her fourth,

self-titled album draws on. Despite

the varied and scattered directions ‘St

Vincent’ takes, at the helm, Annie Clark

manages to pull every reference point

together into a strange and wonderfully

weird universe of her own design.

“You become more

comfortable in your own

skin and grow more yourself

with time,” starts Annie

Clark, before breaking

into sudden laughter.

“Honestly, it’s nice,” she says,

composing herself slightly,

“not to give a fuck - it’s a

really great place to be. Kim

Gordon said famously that people go

to rock shows to see somebody believe

in themselves for an hour,” she adds. “I

think that’s right on.”

Anybody who has ever witnessed a St

Vincent live show will know that Annie

Clark really isn’t exaggerating when she

claimed she doesn’t give a fuck about

Words: El Hunt. Photos: Mike Massaro

66 diymag.com

convention any more. Peppered with choreographed

dance routines, sudden bursts of improvised

physicality, and odd little rehearsed speeches that

identify and tap into people’s quirks in the same way

as a Buzzfeed listicle might, the show self-consciously

distances as much as each shredding riff throws itself

across the room.

“It became a question of what is it that I’m trying to

get across with this tour,” explains Annie, “and a lot

of that is that dialogue and disconnect between the

analogue and digital world. It felt very empowering

to be able to use the most obvious tool at my

disposal, which is my own body.” As evidenced by

the smudges of blood down one cheek that she

posted on her instagram, St Vincent doesn’t hold

back on that front. “I broke my foot stage diving,” she

tosses into conversation with trademark disregard,

“yeah, that happened. I’ve got a sort of permanent

indentation in my left thigh from banging up against

the guard rail, too”

“ I K N O W W H A T

I T ’ S L I K E T O

B E A M A S S I V E

F U C K I N G F A N

A N D H A V E

R E C O R D S

C H A N G E Y O U R

L I F E , A N D

S A V E Y O U R

LIFE.” - A N N I E

CLARK

Whether tumbling down her pink staircase, or rolling

around the mud in a nicked flat cap at Glastonbury,

St Vincent’s live show is like nothing else. Annie Clark

today, though, is faux-outraged at the suggestion

that she steals people’s hats. “Oh, I give them back!”

she exclaims, adding “my tour manager makes sure of

that. I’ve stolen crutches, head bands, scarves. I stole

this one girl’s glasses expecting to be impaired by

the lens and see the show in a totally different light. It

turned out they were fake,” she laughs. “I tried to give

the security guard a hickey the other day,” she adds,

“I think I just ended up licking his neck. I didn’t do any

real damage.”

One of Annie Clark’s personal highlights this year is

fronting Nirvana for a performance of ‘Lithium’ back

in April at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. “Nirvana has

meant so much to so many people - I’m not excluded

from that,” she says, without a hint of archness. “They

were a band that came along at a really pivotal time

in history, and also in my life. Suddenly I saw that

the weirdos were the heroes, and right around the

time that I figured out that all I wanted to do in the

world was play music, they were that guiding light.

It’s something I don’t know how to process because

it feels too immense in the meaning of my life. I’m

incredibly grateful,” she concludes, “grateful to the

legacy, grateful to Kurt, Dave, Krist and Pat.”

The suggestion that ‘St Vincent’ might become

part of the legacy too, Annie Clark finds an equally

humbling prospect. “It’s not something that I blithely

and callously take credit for,” she says. “Music has

meant so much to me; it’s been my whole life. I know

what it’s like to be a massive fucking fan and have

records change your life, and save your life. I just feel

grateful to give back to this collective consciousness,

one little fraction of what it has given me.” DIY

Visit diymag.com for DIY’s Albums of 2014.

67

BEST COMEBACK

e1

D e at h f r o m a b ov e 1 9 7 9

2 jamie T 3 Kate Bush

ou have

Ycomebacks,

then you have

Death From

Above 1979.

Ten years they

waited, with only

one near perfect

album under

their belts. They’d

reformed to play

live, sure, but new

material? ’The

Physical World’,

their second full

length, was a

gamble. It paid

off, though. A

barnstorming

work of sheer

aggression, their

legacy remains

untainted. What

a band.

e’re in agreement, then.

Years & Years head up

W DIY’s Class of 2015, and this

month’s cover stars are also firmly at

the front of expectations for readers.

Olly Alexander and co. have spent

2014 raising the bar with one huge

single after the other. In terms of bands

capable of stealing the charts with

invention-lined pop, there’s no finer

choice.

NEW ACT MOST LIKELY TO

BE AMAZING IN 2015

e1

y e a r s & y e a r s

2 deers 3 girl band

There’s also Deers - stars of the DIY

all-dayer - and Irish group Girl Band,

ready to take on 2015 with the first step

being a headline set at our Hello 2015.

Two of these bands are still unsigned,

which makes next year seem even more

exciting.

68 diymag.com

BEST TV APPEARANCE

e1

Future Islands (Letterman)

2 Years & Years (Jools Holland) 3 Slaves (Jools Holland)

T

he raised arms, eyes-in-theback-of-the-head,

hustling

and thrusting joy of it all: no

television performance in 2014 came

close to Future Islands. Big hopes are

placed on debut TV gigs, and some

new bands often get thrown into

the expectant, plasma-screened pit

without a second’s notice. Future

Islands had time on their side. Four

albums in, they had a frontman in

Samuel T. Herring who hadn’t exactly

been shy of this kind of bravado

beforehand. But in 2014 LP ‘Singles’,

they crucially recruited a new member

on keys, giving Herring licence to roam,

prowl and in the words of Louis Walsh,

“own the stage.”

Their performance of ‘Seasons Change

(Waiting On You)’ provoked what might

rank as the most hysterical Letterman

reaction to date, with the soon-to-retire

host replicating every disbelieving

reaction that struck the other side of

the screen. Hours after their Letterman

gig took place, up went the view count.

Bands big and small tweeted “this is

how it’s done!” in unison. It’s a magic

that goes beyond the hype-gaining

performance. Every gig for Future

Islands then got bigger, their stock

suddenly up there with the biggest

names around.

69

BEST VIDEO

e1

G eo r g e E z r a - b l a m e i t o n m e

2 peace - Lost On Me 3 FKA Twigs - Video Girl

George’s commentary on DIY readers’ Best Video, his very own ‘Blame It On Me’.

“I don’t know why it has a parental advisory warning. Maybe purely because kids think it’s cooler. I was really

worried about this, I didn’t know how it was going to come out. The story is about Mr. Cocky Geoff. Look how

knackered I look. We filmed it at the end of the day, and I felt awful.”

“I’m not wearing any

.pants here. We had to

.shoot this so many times

.and I got so wet, that the

.shot we used had me not

.wearing any pants.“

“This kid is a prat

.in real life. His

.mum was dodgy.

.He wouldn’t

.fucking do it,.and

.I was like, ‘Come

.on mate’.“

.“They were all lovely.

.I got whiplash from

.the rugby shot. On the

.penultimate one we

.did. My knee went into

.his bollock at the start.

.And at the end, his knee

.went into my bollock.

.The main guy is a stunt

.expert. That is a genuine

.look. It’s a really scary

.experience.“

“This dog was shit. I

had this bar in my arm

and he was meant to

bite it but he’d jump

up for a second and

come off.“

“And that policeman.

He fancied me. He kept

winking at me when I

walked past. He was like,

‘Make sure you look in

my eye’.”

70 diymag.com

Words: Jamie Milton

Life In Hi-Rez:

How George Ezra

Won 2014

fans: it’s been a helluva year for George Ezra.

Before 2014 really got going, George Ezra was the

guy with a few good songs and one brilliant Twitter

handle. He took various pictures of himself in

baths. #Petan - his hashtag of choice - was only just

beginning to spread. Now, that made up word graces the

front of a drumkit that finds itself on some of the country’s

biggest stages. “This year, I did the Lexington in January,” he

says, trying to place a marker on how things have gone. “And

now a year on I’ll be in Brixton Academy. It’s mental.”

Debut album ‘Wanted On Voyage’

has sustained popularity like very

few other records this year. That

could be down to the train journeys

with fans, his ability playing live,

or even his sheer persistence at

creating half-decent hashtags - the

guy’s had one hell of a year.

He cites a recent appearance on The

a r e

Graham Norton Show as a clincher

for that coveted UK Number One Gandalf’.”

spot, even though things didn’t go

G e o r g e E z r a

quite to plan. “I fucked up Graham

Norton. I thought you just did the

song and went to the couch. I finished the song, started

skipping over to the couch - they had to mic me up.” Sat next

to Denzel Washington and Peter Capaldi, he saved another

From tiny London pub gigs to celeb

“ I w a s l i k e ,

‘ W e l l , i t

d o e s n ’ t

r e a l l y w o r k

l i k e t h a t I a n .

E v e n i f y o u

awkward moment for the third guest, Gemma Arterton. “She

was really pretty. And I kissed her on the cheek politely. She

went in for one and I went in for two. It’s on the footage. So

my friends laughed at me.”

Given the way he describes these situations, George gives

the impression of someone who’s managed to balls up the

last twelve months. It’s hard to imagine it going any better,

though. Part of it’s down to the crowd that flocks his way

(“adults, students, mums,” he sums up). Celeb endorsements

help too, like Sir Ian McKellen’s appearance on the

‘Listen to the Man’ video. “He said to me, ‘Are you

playing in London anytime soon?’ I told him about

Shepherd’s Bush. And he said, ‘Can you play any nearer

my house?’ I was like, ‘Well, it doesn’t really work like

that Ian. Even if you are Gandalf.’

“He was lovely,” George remembers. “I knew him from

watching Lord of the Rings only four years ago. I had to

act with him, but you can tell he’s an actor. Watching it

back, you can tell that he’s nailing it.”

Some of 2014’s sprung up as a surprise, but there’s

enough perspective to see where things are heading

in the future. “How I see it is, Christmas is coming,”

he excitedly observes. “Next Christmas, this will be

petering out. America at the moment feels to me - and I

could be completely wrong - like where Europe was a year or

eighteen months ago. If that goes to plan at all, then I’ll be

there.” DIY

71

george ezra’s

gogglebox

Voted DIY readers’ favourite video of 2014 with ‘Blame It On Me’, George Ezra

has a gander at a few of the other contenders, Gogglebox-style.

72 diymag.com

“I’m not very patriotic at all, but I’m happy to share

with these guys. They’re all great guys. It’s national

pride, Gogglebox burning up inside me.”

These words were once uttered by George Ezra about

his favourite show on the telly. So what better way

to celebrate the year’s best videos than by getting

George to sit down and watch them all, mostly for the

first time?

and they’re all different pop singers, and they all start giving

her beef. I don’t recognise any of them yet, though. Well she

can’t dance either. Good. Isn’t she a country artist in America?

Someone told me I’d been added to an alternative playlist in

America - I looked at the playlist, and Avicii was on it!”

From ‘Anaconda’ to Jungle being better than Britain’s

Got Talent, here he delivers a verdict on 2014’s most

viral vids.

Future Islands - Seasons

(Waiting On You) on Letterman

Iggy Azalea feat. Charli XCX - Fancy

“I like Charli XCX. Is this the video? I’ve never seen this.

Clueless? Does it work better if you have seen Clueless? She’s

from Hertfordshire as well, isn’t she? And Sam Smith. I’ve

never met her. This girl is Australian though, isn’t she? She’s

the one that can’t crowdsurf anymore! Who dat, who dat! I’ve

got the gist. I feel like I’ve missed out because of the whole

Clueless thing.”

“Oh he’s the dude that dances. He wouldn’t look out of

place in Talking Heads, would he? Aww. I think he’s great.

He obviously means it. He’s into this. There’s no way you can

mean it every time, though. I get a bit of hip movement going

on, onstage. Not this though. Aww. But it is really nice, when

you watch people do their thing. It’s great.”

Sia - Chandelier

Nicki Minaj - Anaconda

“Nope, haven’t seen this. She’s got a really big bum and a

small waist, hasn’t she? Or is it the other way round? Huge

beer belly. You think about the budgets in these things. I do

like the way she delivers things though. I’ve only heard a bit of

this. Ah, I’ve seen a picture of this Drake bit! His hands…”

“Again, not something that I could do. She’s very talented

though. Ahh! No, can’t do that. I don’t even know if I could do

the hand movement. Do you know what my problem is? I’ve

got such a short attention span. I know what’s happening.

She’s gonna dance, in this building. I bet. That’s what’s gonna

happen. Wait, is she looking for her keys? Is that the twist at

the end? I just get impatient. After half of that, when she was

still in the same place, I knew where this was gonna go.”

Jungle - Busy Earnin’

Taylor Swift - Shake It Off

“She’s meant to be really nice, isn’t she? We could duet? I don’t

like duets. This is the one where she does all famous videos,

“Is it a big made up sport game? I’ve heard about this. Oh

maybe not. They all dance? Britain’s Got Talent vibes. So

these guys - are they in another video? The dancing is very

impressive, isn’t it? I couldn’t do that. Again, the hips. I haven’t

got the physical rhythm. It’s better than Diversity on Britain’s

Got Talent. It’s less about doing a robot to a Michael Jackson

remix.”

73

BEST SONG

e1

C h a r l i XCX - B o o m C l a p

2 St Vincent - B i r t h I n R e v e r s e

3 Royal Blood - Figure It Out

W

ith an almighty ‘Boom

Clap’ 2014 was the

year that Charli XCX

really flung down her statement

of intent onto pop’s crowded

buffet table, crushing all manner

of lesser foodstuffs in the process.

Initially arriving nestled in the

soundtrack of one of the year’s

biggest blockbuster films, ‘The

Fault In Our Stars’, ‘Boom Clap’

grew into a force that unleashed

completely from its beginnings. A

summer anthem worthy of being

bawled on the streets and belted

out into a hairbrush whether the

neighbours like it or not (they

probably do, secretly), Charli XCX

really is living the dream like a

London Queen now she’s taken

the Best Song crown for herself.

Besides, this song kickstarted the

wildfire phenomenon of “boom

clap, I’m in me mum’s car,” which

deserves proper recognition in

and of itself.

BEST COVER VERSION

MOST WTF LYRIC

e1

e1

M Ø - S ay Yo u ’ l l B e T h e r e

(Spice Girls)

A lt-J -

Every Other Freckle

nly the brazen and slightly reckless souls of this

world dare to attempt taking on the Spice Girls. It’s a

O dangerous game to mess with a Posh, Ginger, Baby,

Scary and Sporty classic, but undeterred by the high stakes

Denmark’s finest pop export MØ took on ‘Say You’ll Be There’.

Slowing down the upbeat original into a laggy,

sharp-hooked re-imagining, it’s a duty that

she takes entirely seriously. No questions of

‘who do you think you are?’ here. After this

stellar effort, it’s clear MØ’s some kind of

superstar.

T

here could only be one victor for the readers poll

‘Most WTF Lyric’ category, really. Alt-J’s batshit crazy

‘Every Other Freckle’ stole the trophy by an absolute

landslide. The weirdest love song written in quite some time,

the most notable couplet of all has to be “I’m gonna bed into

you like a cat beds into a beanbag/Turn you inside out and

lick you like a crisp packet.” When we asked frontman Joe

Newman about the inspiration behind this particular line, he

said: “[Alt-J Drummer] Thom [Green] was talking about how

a spider was bedding into his brain, and I was like… wow,

bedding.” Well. That clears that up, then.

74 diymag.com

BEST LIVE ACT

e1

Wolf Alice

2 drenge 3 Eagulls

ith each gig they play, Wolf Alice are summoned upon bigger, more bloodthirsty crowds, fans leaping from the

dozens to the hundreds to the thousands. 2014’s been a series of next steps, and there’s zero doubt the next twelve

W months will provide many more. DIY readers most likely had their 2014 defined by huge headline nights at London

haunts Scala and Heaven, while appearances at Glastonbury and Reading & Leeds rank amongst the band’s finest to date. Fellow

champions of the festivals Drenge and Eagulls complete the top three, both specialising in pummelling, head-bursting levels of

noise that consume every speck of attention.

R

BEST FESTIVAL

e1

(OR ‘FESTIVAL LIKE EVENT’)

Reading & Leeds

2 Glastonbury 3 Latitude

eading & Leeds is never short of surprises. Just when a band looks to be on top of the world, cruising to a main stage slot,

wind behind their backs, it’ll throw up another almighty challenge which, in 2014’s instance, a group like Paramore could

only conquer. This year, the weekender remained the definitive gauge of just how big a band can become. In the case of

Royal Blood, one week ahead of their chart-topping album, they left little doubt that give or take a couple of years, they’ll be

next in line to the headliner throne. Drenge already looked capable to going that extra gear, and with the help of some Cobainchannelling

dresses they did just that. Joining the top three: Glastonbury and Latitude. The former swept storms across Worthy

Farm and witnessed unforgettable sets from Arcade Fire and St. Vincent. The latter brought beautiful forests to life in greenerylined

paradise, performances from Jungle, Parquet Courts, Slaves and a last-minute Lily Allen topping all expectations.

75

eee

AZEALIA BANKS

Broke With Expensive Taste (Prospect Park)

Cussing, cocksure, crazed to the extreme - Azealia

Banks’ debut album is everything 2012’s kickstarting

‘212’ single promised. With one exception: it’s

actually here. The past two years have been a

reckless runaround of false dates, letdowns and label disputes, bringing

a huge amount of initial hype down to planet Earth. With its

unexpected arrival, the Harlem rapper’s first work

encompasses the bonkers journey she’s travelled

since she first started upon the scene. Nothing makes

sense. Songs don’t flow, they come from different

worlds. Sax sections mingle with woozy verses from

Ariel Pink. It’s the craziest debut to grace 2014, but it’s

an album that can only belong to Azealia.

‘Broke With…’ follows zero rules. Its opening section

sees ‘Gimme a Chance’ doing the tango, ‘Desperado’

blending flute sections with a tight garage pulse, ‘Wallace’

samba-ing its way into infinity. With the instant blast of

‘212’ thrown in for good measure, there’s nothing at all

normal about this opening statement.

And yet despite this debut’s maddening inability to

settle into a groove, it’s hard to imagine ‘Broke With…’

getting by without its healthy supply of crazy. ‘Nude

Beach a Go-Go’ - a song penned by Ariel Pink - isn’t just

a bolt out the blue, it’s a golden hit from a completely

different universe. The kind of song that wouldn’t sit

pretty on any record, it’s moments like these that Azealia

will eventually become cherished for. As much as the past

two years have documented nothing but false promises,

it’s unlikely that anything will change when it comes to an

eventual second album (provisional release date: 2025).

(Jamie Milton) Listen: ‘Nude Beach a Go-Go’

“WHAT DO YOU

MEAN I HAVE

TO DELAY THE

RELEASE DATE”

eeee

SMASHING PUMPKINS

Monuments To An Elegy (Martha’s Music / BMG)

If there’s one thing in the Smashing Pumpkins leader and

alt rock icon Billy Corgan’s 25 year career that has remained

constant, it’s his absolute conviction and determination

to follow his own path despite all manner of criticism. This

strength of character has helped make him an enduring and divisive presence. After

a tumultuous career peppered with incredible highs, excruciating lows, fallouts,

tantrums and rebirths, it’s a testament to the man and the band that has defined him

that ‘Monuments To An Elegy’, the Pumpkins’ tenth studio recording, is a triumph.

There’s a sense throughout songs like the graceful yearning pop of ‘Run2Me’ and

‘Drum+Fife’ that Corgan has found a way to make music that is still packed with

grandeur while dialling down the tendency to fall into overblown pomposity.

Elsewhere, there are frequent moments that hark back to Pumpkins’ previous

glories. ‘One And All’ has a wonderfully satisfying guitar crunch while closing track

‘Anti-Hero’ could be a relative of ‘Zero’. There is no sense though that the band

are short of ideas and falling into pastiche. Instead, there’s simply an air of a great

songwriter returning to the things that work and the things he does best.

‘Monuments To An Elegy’ is an accomplished rock record that’s a very welcome

addition to the band’s enduring history. (Martyn Young) Listen: ‘Anti-Hero’

ee

ANGELS &

AIRWAVES

The Dream

Walker (To The

Stars Records)

As a band Angels

and Airwaves have always faced an

uphill struggle. Forever destined to

life in the shadow of Blink 182 - and, in

the eyes of many, the catalyst for their

childhood-ruining break-up – their

ambitious space-rock has found itself

the butt of the rock world’s joke for

nearly a decade. It’s not always been

a fair critique – DeLonge and co. have,

in their time, penned more than a few

tracks worthy of the arenas their sound

so clearly strives for. However, as ‘The

Dream Walker’ lumbers into view with

76 diymag.com

DeLonge the only remaining original

member of the once-supergroup, it’s

becoming increasingly hard to see it

as any more than a vanity project - a

mid-life crisis put to tape in the wake of

discovering U2’s back catalogue.

You can’t fault DeLonge’s ambition; ‘The

Dream Walker’ is the third record in a row

to be accompanied by its own featurelength

film, and this time round he’s also

pairing the record with a novel and an

animated short. It’s an ultimately vapid

endeavour though, as when taken as a

band rather than a brand, Angels and

Airwaves have mutated into little more

than an extended yawn of spacey synths.

‘The Dream Walker’ comes laced with the

feeling that, of all the various multimedia

forms that make up the project, it’s sadly

the music that is the weakest link. (Tom

Connick) Listen: ‘Kiss With A Spell’

eeee

BASTILLE

VS. (Other People’s Heartache Pt. III) (EMI /

Virgin)

To most, Bastille are the band with the massive debut album. Actually,

the talent of Dan Smith and co. goes much deeper. Before said full-length

came a couple of mixtapes: arguably amongst the band’s best work. ‘Vs.’

is another high water mark. This time it’s all original material, with even

bigger names on board. Haim bring their west coast sheen to ‘Bite Down’,

MNEK revolutionises ‘bad_news’, but it’s Lizzo’s cameo on ‘Torn Apart,

Pt.II’ that steals the show. (Stephen Ackroyd) Listen: ‘Torn Apart, Pt.II’

eeee

PARKAY QUARTS

Content Nausea (Rough Trade)

‘Content Nausea’ is Parquet Courts (here, Parkay Quarts)

second release of 2014 after the excellent ‘Sunbathing Animal’. Pitched

as somewhere between an LP and an EP, its ramshackle 35 minutes -

including a cover of ‘These Boots Were Made for Walking’ - features more

than enough ideas and sublime moments to justify itself. It’s a collection

of songs that reflects anxiety and paranoia, a distrust of the present but

also belief in their own ability. Parkay Quarts have delivered some great

#content. (Danny Wright) Listen: ‘Uncast Shadow’

eeee

LITTLE BOOTS

Business Pleasure (On Repeat)

“You think I’m pretty, well I can be pretty tough. Push me

a little. I can get a little rough.” This is the assertive and confrontational

message that concludes ‘Business Pleasure’. Serving as a preview to her

upcoming third album, Little Boots clearly has a few things to prove.

From the track titles through the lyrical content nestled within, ‘Business

Pleasure’ is a colourful and daring marriage of opposing ideas. Little

Boots’ next chapter is going to be her most exciting and daring yet. (Ali

Shutler) Listen: ’Pretty Tough’

eeeee

LÅPSLEY

Understudy (XL Recordings)

‘Understudy’ is Låpsley’s cup of tea effect; steamy,

warm notes sit comfortably with simplicity of structure, bitter-sweet

sentiments blend their way evenly throughout. Like a good brew, its

reassuring tones drown out the drabness of 21st century life, reality

banished beneath Låpsley’s soothing lullabies. Whether it’s the

fragrant ‘Falling Short’ or the candied ‘Brownlow,’ the vivacious ‘8896’

or forthright ‘Dancing’, ‘Understudy’s’ mélange of flavours provides an

antidote to all affections. (Charlie Mock) Listen: ‘Falling Short’

eeee

CREEPER

Creeper (Palm Reader Records)

EPS

There’s a lot more than aesthetics at play with Creeper’s

vampiric styling. Formed out of the demise of UK punk pedigree Our

Time Down Here and Hang The Bastard, their debut EP is a gravedodging

exercise in reanimation - both of the members’ musical

prospects and of a scene that constantly appears in danger of stagnation.

While it may not be breaking any drastically new ground, that’s not

always the point. This is perfectly executed punk rock, and an exorcism

that hints at one hell of an afterlife. (Tom Connick) Listen: ‘Novena’

77

live

Charli XCX

Heaven, London. Photos: Sarah Louise Bennett

78 diymag.com

Anybody walking unawares around the

Charing Cross area at around 10pm

last night would have been in for a bit

of a fright ahead of Halloween. A fairly

regular example of Thursday evening

descended into barely-contained chaos in about a

second flat. It began with a pop. Then another three.

Then twenty, forty, seventy balloons all stamped on at

the same time like firecrackers. Chased by the neverending

frenzy of popping echoing devilishly after

them, hordes of bellowing teenagers suddenly came

spilling out of an underground railway arch, knocking

past stunned commuters, clutching onto rescued

balloons and bright pink tour posters. Luckily there’s

a decent enough explanation for all this tomfoolery

that doesn’t involve any dark magic. Charli XCX has

unleashed the Angels from London’s Heaven.

“Now we’re coming up the stairs, we’re acting

shameless, so outrageous,” sings Charli prior to all this

hoo-ha, on-stage and flanked by an all-girl band and

a diamante tiara. ‘Famous’ might be a song from her

postponed new album ‘Sucker’, but it hardly shows.

The crowd has quickly mastered the art of bellowing

out the vocal lines, and Charli XCX is delighted,

patrolling the front of the stage in her cheerleader

costume. Bratty, audacious and demanding every

last gram of pure pop energy out of every melody

line, Charli’s brought along a deliberately pastichey

melting pot of yé-yé, Nineties girl-power

pop, and straight up punk. Brand new ‘I

Need Your Love’ – all faux-innocent music

box chimes and coy, high-pitched choruses

– hits on the balance that Charli XCX is

increasingly perfecting. Pop, when done

properly, haughtily toes the line between

darkness and frivolity like a naughty injoke

embedded in a Disney film. ‘Caught in

the Middle’, another song from ‘Sucker’, is

another such example.

Brat t y,

audacious

and

shameless.

Slight glimpses of a more subdued Charli

might return during older songs like ‘Black

Roses’, but parading towards her guitar

players, throwing back her crimped hair

and declaring “you’re turning me on,

you’re turning me off,” there’s little hint

of pastel-hued safe-playing left. ‘Break The Rules’ is

the starting gun for an absolutely ludicrous amount

of balloons, and they pour down from the ceiling like

party invites fluttering down an American high school

stairwell in a culty teen movie. The encore obviously

starts with ‘Fancy’ – what else - but this is far from the

preened, chart-ready, Iggy Azalea led version. Charli

XCX’s own ‘Fancy’ tonight, in fact, would probably get

censored from the radio anyway, because she’s taken

the liberty of inserting a dance breakdown during

which she repeatedly shouts the word “pussy”. With a

‘Boom Clap’, it’s all over. The balloon grabbing begins,

and the Angels spill outside, many of them singing

‘Boom Clap’ well after the gig ends and the PA goes

off. Forget industry-pressed air fix assembly artists

with no real clout, Charli XCX has smashed out of the

mould that held her back before. She’s shameless,

outrageous, and she’s probably going to get a lot

more famous once ‘Sucker’ eventually drops. (El Hunt)

79

FUTURE

ISLANDS

Shepherd’s Bush Empire, London.

Photo: carolina faruolo

A

s dynamic as Future Islands

sound on record, live they

morph into an altogether

different beast. Much of this comes

down to their frontman’s absolutely

crackers persona. If Samuel T. Herring

were a sim, he wouldn’t need to practice

his charisma skills. If he were starring in

the next instalment of the Step Up film

franchise, he wouldn’t need training

up. A tirade of euphoric hand clasping,

chest-thumping, guttural roars, slightly

uncomfortable pelvic thrusting, and

even mime routine, it’s safe to say he’s

one of a kind.

“I was trying to decide whether to

be reverent because this is such a

beautiful place,” he tells the audience,

“or whether to just be like, ‘What the

fuck.’” At this point Future Islands

haven’t played a single musical note.

He might appear spontaneous and

slightly unhinged, but his awareness of

the room is fascinating. The melodrama

only explodes outwards with the

likes of ‘Balance’ and ‘Light House’.

Future Islands’ ‘thing’ is monumentally

ambitious new wave synth-pop that

occupies a strange middle ground; a

weird new universe hiding in the middle

of Ultravox, Tears For Fears, Bruce

Springsteen, and General Public.

Tonight’s headline set marks another

milestone in the band’s career. With

their days of tiny arts venues well

behind them, Future Islands’ next big

moment will be a packed two night

stint at London’s Roundhouse next

March. Witnessing Future Islands

tonight proves nothing except that this

untouchable band have earned every

last drop of acclaim. (El Hunt)

GERARD WAY

Koko, London. Photo: Emma Swann

L

ondon’s Koko is filled to the rafters. Raise an eye towards

the ceiling and there are fans lined across the upper

most level of the old theatre, all leaning further forward

to catch a precarious glimpse of tonight’s headliner. Currently

closing his first full tour of the UK – at least, as a solo star - it’s

obvious that Gerard Way still possesses quite the draw.

For some fans this evening is a first chance to see the former

My Chemical Romance frontman in the more intimate confines

of a room like this. The arenas behind him, his band seemingly

a lifetime away, his set tonight is much more restrained and

stripped back than his previous visits to ours shores. He is

however, just as potent.

Dressed in his increasingly recognisable blue suit, salmon pink

shirt and matching hair-and-tie combo, and stood in front of

his backing band, The Hormones, there’s little embellishment

when it comes to the stage set up. It’s his own flair and flourish

that does the work; shifting from perfectly poised balladry to

jagged tearing vocals, while keeping the audience squealing

at his every move, he’s the epitome of showmanship.

Despite having only one album to his name thus far, Way still

manages to throw the odd curveball. Halfway through the set,

after the frantic ‘Juarez’ and dreamy ‘Drugstore Perfume’, he

slides Japanese b-side ‘Television All The Time’ into the mix

and still gets a rabid response. There’s a full-on, watery-eyes

piano rendition of ‘The Water Is Wide (O Waly, Waly)’, before he

quickly shifts back up a gear with the wonderfully bouncy 90s

tendencies of ‘Get The Gang Together’.

While nowadays he may be channelling his inner Jarvis more

than he was able to before, there’s still that look in his eyes,

that fire in his belly. He’s still the adored hero of legions of

fans. Gerard Way has come into his

The epitome of .

showmanship..

own as a solo star; it’s not hard to

wonder if those arenas might be

somewhere in the distance once

again. (Sarah Jamieson)

80 diymag.com

New

weaves

seamlessly

with old.

I

DEATH FROM ABOVE 1979

Electric Ballroom, London. Photo: Emma Swann

f there’s ever a band great at leaving people wanting more, it’s Death From Above 1979. Jesse F. Keeler and Sebastien Grainger

went a whole decade before releasing the follow-up to that seminal ‘You’re A Woman, I’m A Machine’, so playing neither of

their two biggest hits – ‘Blood On Our Hands’ and ‘Black History Month’ – tonight? Well, that’s just small change.

Of course it’s in stark contrast to the last time they were in London, apologising for running out of songs. Now there’s ‘The

Physical World’, and it’s from this second full-length that most of tonight’s set comes. And, as new weaves seamlessly with old –

Sebastien finding ways to squeeze in that holy scream in to the newbies; ‘Gemini’ encouraging as many crowdsurfers as ‘Little

Girl’; ‘Government Trash’ proving itself every bit as thrashy as ‘Going Steady’ – it’s left to Jesse to remark, almost grinning, “I hear

you singing along, and it makes me very happy.”

Happy seems to be the theme – the pair sharing the odd smirk; Jesse looking like a wizard or mad scientist, skipping between

playing towards his bandmate, the audience, his amps and keyboard, while Sebastien looks to relish being able to actually sing.

Not even recurring sound issues, vocals disappearing now and then appear to bother them, and as they reappear for an encore,

the crowd chanting “DFA! DFA!” as sweat drips from every orifice of the Camden venue, a smoking Jesse smirks, “I’m not sure

how we’re gonna chant back at you”. Sebastien’s feeble “Eng-er-land” isn’t really needed, as they launch in to debut cuts ‘Cold

War’ and, met by screams, ‘Romantic Rights’, before the impossibly epic ‘The Physical World’ sounds even bigger and more

brilliantly ostentatious than on record. Those missing songs? Yeah, not really missed at all. (Emma Swann)

WOLF ALICE

heaven, london. Photo: Emma Swann

“W

ho wants to have a party?” asks bassist Theo Ellis, oddly towards the

end of Wolf Alice’s set at the jam-packed Heaven. The answer is clear

– whether it’s fans riding on each others’ shoulders, mosh pits, or

crowd-surfing attempts – the sold-out crowd tonight do.

It’s not all mayhem; there’s every evidence Wolf Alice have been planning this

as their watershed moment for some time. The new songs are quiet, brooding,

introspective; counterpoints, say, to the energetic grunge of ‘Moaning Lisa Smile’,

‘Storms’ or ‘Bros’. There’s even room for some male lead vocals. They’re all decked

out in near-matching sequinned dress.

And there’s a little less of that playfulness that has been a mainstay of the band’s

summer festival slots. Not that the crowd seem to care; ‘Jam’, the slightly-oldernewbie

that had Zane Lowe audibly gasping on air is met with easily as much energy

as ‘Moaning Lisa Smile’ or ‘Bros’. And by the time breakthrough number ‘Fluffy’ kicks

in, it’s left to Theo to quip, “you’re all crazy”. (Emma Swann)

81

INDIE DREAMBOAT

Of the Month

GUS UNGER-

HAMILTON

alt -j

FULL NAME Augustus Figaro

Niso Unger-Hamilton

NICKNAME On tour I am known

to some as ‘Ungy’.

STARSIGN Leo

PETS None, but I’d really like a

whippet...

FAVOURITE FILM A tough call

between There Will Be Blood and

Bridget

Jones’s Diary.

FAVOURITE FOOD I have a

morbid addiction to Melton

Mowbray pork pies.

DRINK OF CHOICE I love

negronis, and maintain that I

liked them before they were

trendy...

FAVOURITE SCENT Terre

d’Hermès if we’re talking bottled;

walking in a wet wood if we’re

talking natural.

FAVOURITE HAIR PRODUCT

I just discovered sea salt spray:

game changer.

SONG YOU’D PLAY TO WOO

SOMEONE Probably something

by Nick Drake. Sensitive.

IF YOU WEREN’T A POP

STAR, WHAT WOULD YOU

BE DOING NOW? Well just

before the band started

to look like it might work

out, I was applying for

the Waitrose graduate

scheme, so maybe that!

CHAT- UP LINE OF CHOICE

“Would you like to see my Ivor

Novello?”

DIY

82 diymag.com

ROUNDHOUSE RISING

DISCOVER NEW MUSIC

19—22 FEBRUARY 2015

STAY TUNED FOR LINE-UP

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

WWW.ROUNDHOUSE.ORG.UK

WWW.DIYMAG.COM

#RISING2015

83

"BIG, BIG ROCK SONGS"

ROCKSOUND

"ABSOLUTELY FL AWLESS"

BRING THE NOISE

THE HIGHLY ANTICIPATED NEW ALBUM OUT NOW ON RAYGUN RECORDS

CD / LP / PICTURE DISC / DOWNLOAD

www.thexcertsband.com

www.raygunmusic.com

84 diymag.com

DIY, December 2014 / January 2015

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