DIY, March 2015

pedestrian? nah mate
Courtney .
Barnett .
set music free
free / issue 38 / march 2015
diymag.com
+will butler.
the vaccines.
tobias jesso jr.
dutch uncles.
at home .
with... .
+
behind the scenes!
alt-j
wolf alice
& gengahr
at the o2!
laura
marling
“I was like, what the f**k am I doing .
with my life?”.
1

2 diymag.com
©2015 Vans Inc. Photo: Stefan Simikich

3

music. Here are some of the albums we’re excited about this month…
Father John Misty – I Love You, Honeybear
Moon Duo - Shadow Of The Sun
CD / Red Vinyl LP + 7”
“The repetition becomes mesmerising, the melodies
BADBADNOTGOOD ft Ghostface Killah –
Sour Soul
CD / LP+CD set
“This three-piece know their art inside out, and it’s
the balance of the unpredicted with the familiarity of
Dutch Uncles – O Shudder
CD / Red Vinyl LP
“Bookish Manchester band keep their surrealist pop
4 diymag.com
recordstore.co.uk
// @recordstore

M A R C H 2 0 1 5
GOOD VS EVIL
WHAT’S ON THE DIY TEAM’S RADAR?
Victoria Sinden
Deputy Editor
GOOD Festivals are
on top form with their
line ups this year - it’s
going to be a busy
summer.
EVIL Bloody press
conferences.
..............................
Emma Swann
Reviews Editor
GOOD ‘Sucker’ is
out. FINALLY.
EVIL Not on those
pretty picture discs
the Yanks got though,
eh. Boo.
..............................
Sarah Jamieson
News Editor
GOOD Learning that
El’s mum calls Gotye’s
2011 smash hit “the
creepy goblin song”.
EVIL When massive
bands decide to
announce massive
albums on print day…
..............................
Louise Mason
Art Director
GOOD Laura Marling
has the loveliest toilet.
EVIL Abusing my
power and tricking
Courtney into playing
ping-pong with me.
..............................
Jamie Milton
Online Editor
GOOD Everything
about DIY’s
Roundhouse Rising
gig. Girl Band, The
Magic Gang, Hooton
Tennis Club in one
sweaty space.
EVIL Knowing
I’ll never be as
handsome as Hozier.
..............................
El hunt
Assistant Online
Editor
GOOD First Sleater-
Kinney and now
Courtney Barnett -
2015, you’re spoiling
me with new albums.
EVIL Still having
nightmares about the
death-stare of Laura
Marling’s stuffed owl.
EDITOR’S LETTER
About eight hours before this issue went to print, Blur announced a new
album. Their first in twelve years. Before then, this note was going to be
about Laura Marling - how you could be a great pop star without giving
everything about yourself to the world. Unfortunately, I am now an excited
puddle on the floor. Send help.
Stephen Ackroyd
GOOD Blur are back. Did I mention Blur are back? And they’re sounding
ABSOLUTELY BLOODY AMAZING.
EVIL I’m yet to have it confirmed that none of the songs on ‘The Magic
Whip’ are ‘featuring Rita Ora’.
LISTENING POST
What’s on the DIY stereo
this month?
Drenge
Undertow
If you thought the Loveless brothers’ first
album was a firecracker, just wait until you
hear their second.
Palma Violets
Danger In The Club
Expecting the Palmas to calm down for
that difficult-second album? Not a chance.
Ramshackle, boozed up pop abounds.
W H O
SAID
“Justin Vernon
became a bit like
Gandalf, he was
guiding us hobbits.
Find out on p.17
5

C
O
N
T
E
N
T
S
NEWS
8 ALT-J AT THE O2
13 M I N I M A N S I O N S
14 CLARENCE CLARITY
15 DJANGO DJANGO
26
16 B L U R
17 THE STAVES
18 THE VACCINES
19 SPECTOR
20 SWIM DEEP
21 DIY HALL OF FAME
22 PEACE
26 M A R I N A A N D T H E
DIAMONDS
NEU
32 YAK
35 OSCAR
36 YUNG
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: Alex Lynham,
Andy Backhouse, Ali Shutler,
Ben Jolley, Carolina Faruolo,
Chris Bunt, Coral Williamson,
Dan Owens, David Zammitt,
Dominique Sisley, Euan L.
Davidson, Henry Boon, Huw
Oliver, Joe Goggins, Kate
Lismore, Kyle Forward, Kyle
MacNeill, Laura Studarus, Liam
McNeilly, Louis Haines, Martyn
Young, Matthew Davies, Nina
Glencross, Ross Jones, Sean
Stanley, Shiona Walker, Tom
Connick, Tom Walters, Will
Moss, Will Richards
38
50
Photographers Abi Dainton,
Carolina Faruolo, Leah Henson,
Mike Massaro, Nathan Barnes,
Sarah Louise Bennett
66
FEATURES
38 LAURA MARLING
46 TOBIAS JESSO JR
50 COURTNEY BARNETT
76
54 DUTCH UNCLES
58 WILL BUTLER
62 PURITY RING
62
REVIEWS
66 ALBUMS
78 LIVE
For DIY editorial
info@diymag.com
For DIY sales
rupert@sonicdigital.co.uk
lawrence@sonicdigital.co.uk
bryony@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.
6 diymag.com

7

news
An unforgettable
London triple-bill
spells out the future for
boundary-pushing UK
bands. Words: Jamie
Milton
Alt-J Conquer The O2 With A
Little Help From Their Friends
Riding The
(Awesome) Wave
“W
e’ve hit puberty. Raging
puberty,” says Alt-J’s
Gus-Unger Hamilton
when speaking to Zane Lowe, two days
on from his band’s colossal triumph
at London’s O2 Arena. Only now is it
beginning to sink in, both the size of the
occasion just gone and the sheer might
with which these three embraced it.
Here stands the UK’s most curious arena
stalwarts, a band whose ingredients
run almost counter to a big band status,
still managing to pull off sold out, giant
gigs without reverting to blurted-out,
Bono-style gusto.
And it’s not just any gig. Alt-J are
topping a bill that reads like a who’s
who of heavyweights both present day
and future. Themselves, Wolf Alice and
Gengahr sound nothing alike most of
the time, but they share a kinship in
giving a challenging new face to the
big time. Left-of-centre,
unorthodox, whatever
you want to call it -
these three aren’t cut
from the same cloth as
anyone else. That’s the
significance of tonight
- three groups who’ve
followed their own path
and always will, ending
up on the same great
stage.
“ W e ’ v e a c t u a l l y p l a y e d
at The O2 before, to nine
p e o p l e i n t h e c a f e . ” -
Ellie Rowsell, Wolf Alice
Wolf Alice - future O2 headliners?
8 diymag.com

“It’s not our gig, is it?” says Wolf Alice
drummer Joel Amey backstage, ahead
of the show, levelling the everyday
support act response. But there’s a
special thread linking together these
three, right up to opener Gengahr’s
curious ability to take on huge venues
at will. By the time the headliners cause
one final storm with ‘Breezeblocks’,
they’re undoubtedly a cut above. Two
albums under their belt, Alt-J have
embraced their colossal status
with ease, but there’s nothing
ruling out the supporting cast
being able to replicate the feat.
“We’ve actually played at The O2
before, but in the cafe. We made a
Vine outside saying ‘We’re playing
The O2!’ and it was actually Pink
headlining,” remembers Wolf
Alice’s Ellie Rowsell. “That was last
year. It was the Sundance Film
Festival, playing to nine people.”
Cut to a few months later and
Wolf Alice look every bit the
arena-conquerors. ‘Bros’ soars
through the almighty space,
which by this point isn’t far from
capacity. The difference between
‘Giant Peach’’s harsh aftertaste
and Alt-J’s delicate-as-can-be
‘Warm Foothills’ is glaring, and
yet somehow this is a bill that fits
like few others. There’s a palpable
excitement. “Everyone’s pretty
pumped,” says Joff Oddie. “I can’t
imagine how I’d be feeling if I was
headlining. I don’t think I could
comprehend it,” Theo backs up.
“They don’t seem nervous or
anything like that. I’d be crying,”
says Ellie, half-joking.
Gengahr, meanwhile, open the show
with all the confidence of seasoned
pros. Fresh from finishing their debut
album, there’s an added exuberance to
their every move. Feverish on record,
songs like ‘Powder’ scale upwards
in this kind of setting. “I don’t think
we ever dared dream we would have
the chance to play a venue like The
O2,” they explain ahead of the show.
Something suggests this won’t be the
last time - when they play the opening
note, everyone’s still finding their way
through the gates. As new material
filters through plucky favourites, there’s
little doubt these four have made an
impact.
Back in the day, Alt-J were far smaller
fare than Gengahr, pluckily penning
soon-to-be-giants in their student
residence. ‘Leon’, a track that goes
as far back as a previous band name
(Films), gets its first outing in four
years. “It was the least arena-thing
that we had,” says Unger-Hamilton,
post-performance. “The last time we
played it was at The Victoria in Dalston,
to about 100 people…” But as the song
stirs into action, it sounds like it was
always destined to settle into these
surroundings. They’ve mastered their
show, from the headrush of reluctant
smash hit ‘Left Hand Free’ to the blissful
interchange of ‘Something Good’. Each
track comes backed with a heady light
show, Thom Green drumming like he’s
trying to outplay Lars Ulrich. His role’s
so important that he’s even given
his own platform, while Gus and Joe
Newman stay perfectly static.
On paper, there’s still a large part of
Alt-J that doesn’t fit the arena mould.
The O2 doesn’t breathe fire, Newman
How Was it For You?
Alt-J:
“We’ve got the bug. We just
wanna do more [arena
shows].”
.Wolf Alice:
“It was really fun. It’s insane
to be on a stage like that. The
line-up is great.”
“ I c a n ’ t i m a g i n e h o w
I ’ d b e f e e l i n g i f I w a s
headlining.” - J o f f
O d d i e , W o l f A l i c e
Gengahr:
“It was such an incredible
experience for us. We will
be forever grateful for the
opportunity.”
9

doesn’t divert from the stage to
ride a giant banana, Miley-style.
If he did, it’d make for one of
the most unforgettable musical
moments in existence, but as
it stands, tonight’s show will
always have a place in the heart
of everyone in attendance. It
feels like a breakthrough in every
sense, both in Alt-J’s ability to
conquer spaces like this, and in
the realisation that they’ll be
repeating this feat for years to
come. “They only just sold out
Ally Pally a couple of months
ago. It’s like, ‘Let’s do another
one and double it’. And they’ve
done it,” Wolf Alice remark. It’s
a trajectory that’s surprised
almost everybody, not least the
band themselves, but it won’t be
stopping short anytime soon. DIY
Alt-J, Wolf
Alice +
Gengahr
The O2, London
T
he general feeling tonight
within the O2 Arena’s
cavernous canvas walls
is one of delighted disbelief.
All three of tonight’s acts are
surpassing everything anyone
could have thought possible of
them as little as a year ago, and yet all three are right at home.
Gengahr twinkle into audibility; timid whispered vocals and
groovy psych-pop soundscapes sound all the more magical
as they ring and echo in and around the early arrivals. Perhaps
Gengahr might be expected to be found in some distant
corner of a sunny festival field but tonight they still manage to
bring sunshine and whimsy to the dingiest corner of the O2’s
mighty arena.
As for Wolf Alice, almost exactly this time two years back,
fans throughout London were cramming themselves into
The Old Blue Last’s tiny walls. Now those same fans (plus
many, many others) find themselves blinking bewilderedly
in the bright lights of one of London’s biggest venues. The
tumultuous riffs which usually threaten to burst the walls
of smaller venues effortlessly fill The O2’s insides, carrying
to heights they were born to reach as Ellie Rowsell’s vocals
weave in and out, commanding their support slot with the
confidence and ability of a headline act.
The ethos of Alt-J is made for big stages, the emphasis on
colour and the powerful imagery they conjure through
bizarre metaphors and dexterous lyricism can only really
be fully portrayed through the kind of production values
available at the very top. As the background curtain drops
dramatically at the crescendo of ‘Fitzpleasure’ revealing
great bands of lights, it’s clear that this will be no ordinary
performance. Every detail of this is show is thought out,
every visual, every arrangement, every other freckle has
been honed to perfection by Britain’s most technically gifted
ensemble. Where big hits like ‘Left Hand Free’ fill The O2
effortlessly, the more tender moments of ‘This Is All Yours’
transfer equally impressively to a live show.
As final encore track ‘Breezeblocks’’ last gritty synth line
fades, Alt-J leave the stage as nonchalantly as they arrived.
Tonight is the reward Alt-J deserve for never settling for
making anything less than their best. (Henry Boon)
10 diymag.com

radkey
sundara karma
rag n bone man
night n day, manchester
fri 06 mar
port isla
sebright arms, london
tue 10 mar
toro y moi
waterfront studio, norwich
thu 19 mar
clwb ifor bach, cardiff
thu 26 mar
billie black
lexington, london
tue 24 mar
drenge
oval space, london
wed 08 apr
george the poet
the waiting room,
london
wed 08 apr
mt wolf
library, birmingham
sat 11 apr
SOLD OUT
scala, london
tue 14 apr
cecil sharp house,
london
wed 15 apr
seasick steve
tove styrke
echosmith
O2 academy, sheffield
thu 16 april
civic hall, wolverhampton
wed 29 april
stornoway
the junction, cambridge
tue 28 apr
jack garratt
O 2 academy2, oxford
sat 16 may
hare and hounds, birmingham
mon 18 may
academy3, manchester
tue 19 may
rescue rooms, nottingham
wed 20 may
thekla, bristol
thu 21 may
hoxton bar & kitchen, london
wed 22 apr
odesza
the laundry, london
fri 01 may
la dispute /
fucked up
koko, london
tue 26 may
O2 academy3, birmingham
wed SOLD 22 OUTapr
heaven, london
thu 23 apr
sunset sons
thekla, bristol
fri 01 may
waterfront studio, norwich
thu 05 may
O2 academy2, oxford
wed 06 may
scala, london
tue 12 may
john grant
eventim apollo,
hammersmith london
thu 12 nov
buy tickets at livenation.co.uk
11

The (Not So
Internal) Dramas
.of Blink-182
OK, WHAT’S BEEN GOING ON?
Last month the Travis Barker-programmed Musink festival in
California announced Blink-182 would play this year’s event.
But not the Blink-182 we know. As the poster stated, this was
Blink-182 with Matt Skiba of Alkaline Trio. At this point, the
rumours started: Tom wouldn’t be taking part. That same
evening, a syndicated story appeared on radio.com. In it was
a reported statement from the band that claimed Mark and
Travis had been told by Tom’s manager that “he didn’t want to
participate in any Blink-182 projects indefinitely.”
RIGHT. WHAT DID TOM HAVE TO SAY ABOUT THAT?
Mostly “I didn’t quit.” Cue tweets from people close to the
band suggesting it’s all nonsense, but counter claims from
journalists saying they’ve definitely had the statement from a
primary source.
BLIMEY. SO WHAT DID MARK AND TRAVIS SAY?
In a chat with Rolling Stone, Mark and Travis were not holding
back. Some edited highlights include:
Tom not quitting is a bit of a red herring. “We get an email
from Tom’s manager saying that he has no interest in
recording and that he’s out indefinitely,” Mark explains. “His
manager sends [an email] back saying, ‘Tom. Is. Out.’ Direct
quote.”
This might not be over yet. “There are legalities involved,”
Mark added.
WHAT’S ACTUALLY HAPPENED, THEN?
Tom DeLonge is out of Blink-182, and although Tom himself
states they’ve always been dysfunctional, this feels like those
not-that-nice interviews which came out of the last hiatus.
A day or so later, things seemed to be calming down - but not
completely. It’s evident that Tom is no longer a part of the
band, and despite initially posting a scathing tweet about
how he and Mark tried to oust Travis from the group last year,
he soon regained his cool.
TOM DELONGE RELEASES A STATEMENT.
Obviously, it doesn’t quite agree with what Mark and Travis
had to say and is quite long, but the gist is that - even after
putting in his best efforts to make the band work - Tom
was being forced to decide between Blink and his other
endeavours. “All of these other projects are being worked,
exist in contract form - I can’t just slam the brakes.”
CONTRACTS? WOW.
Yup. Contracts. Are you ever really a band if you’re not legally
obligated to be so in triplicate?
OK, BUT WHAT ABOUT THAT TWEET?
What, the one Tom tweeted and deleted? Well remembered.
Mark has addressed that one. In a much longer interview
with Alternative Press, he explained it was over an Australian
tour that Travis didn’t attend due to a fear of flying following
his 2008 plane crash. “Travis and the promoter got into a
Twitter argument that was very contentious and was a lot of
stress... After the tour, Tom was very upset about being put
in that situation. [He] was having these calls where he was
talking about ‘can we replace Travis,’ but it was really just Tom
blowing off steam.” So, that deals with that. Sounds less of a
big deal now, doesn’t it?
SO, REALLY, WHAT IS GOING ON?
As it stands - as far as we can tell:
Blink-182’s last two years sound all kinds of fun.
Tom DeLonge is not in the band anymore.
Blink will play Musink in March with Matt Skiba of Alkaline Trio.
That’s the only date on the calendar.
After that, Mark claims: “We’re very optimistic and excited
about the possibilities of continuing with Matt in some way” -
however, nothing is confirmed.
Mark and Travis seem eager to go back into the studio and
continue ‘being’ Blink-182.
Tom is set to unveil new music – what, we’re not sure – in
March.
But then again, who knows? Maybe Blink-182’s lawyers do. DIY
12 diymag.com

“We’re kind
of like
parasites”
Mini Mansions are releasing their second record this month, and they’ve
been sucking blood from all kinds of different genres in preparation.
Words: Sarah Jamieson. Photo: Emma Swann
ll sharp suits and
slicked-back hair,
A Mini Mansions aren’t
fooling anyone as they
wander into the East London
cafe adjoining DIY HQ. The
trio, who are gearing up to
release their second record,
look surprisingly fresh-faced
considering; just last night
they performed to a packed
out Lexington, for a one-off
headline show before a
lengthy run of support shows
with Royal Blood. They’re
also currently the talk of the
internet, after a rather special
guest joined them on stage.
“I mean,” bassist Zach Dawes
shrugs, nonchalantly, “it was
just that he was here. That’s
how it always has been, since
we did the tour with them,
and how hopefully it always
will be. If he’s ever in the same
town, he’ll come on, do a little
dance and have some fun.”
He’s referring to Arctic
Monkeys’ leader and touring
mate Alex Turner, who lurked
at the back of the venue
until his turn to perform
came along. He’s one of two
high-profile guests on their
forthcoming full-length, ‘The
Great Pretenders’, alongside
Brian Wilson.
“When we set out to do it, we
envisioned something else,”
Dawes says of the release.
Originally, the band were
set to follow up their 2010
debut with a handful of EPs,
before knuckling down on
their second effort. That all
changed when T Bone Burnett
heard some tracks. “He said
he would put out the record.
That gave us this opportunity
to finish them all and have it
turn into another thing.”
“Yeah, we definitely wouldn’t
have the songs that we have
now if we’d rushed earlier,”
agrees his bandmate, Michael
Shuman, also of Queens of the
Stone Age fame. “It all really
has fallen into place.”
As for what they hope their
music says of them now,
frontman Tyler Parkford
speaks up. “It’s a pretty crazy
world, as a whole, and as a
record,” he offers. “If anything,
for me, it feels limitless. We’re
kind of like parasites, we can
adapt and suck blood from
any type of genre we choose
to and it’s still ours.”
Mini Mansions’ new album
‘The Great Pretenders’
will be released on 23rd
March via Electromagnetic
Recordings / Fiction
Records. DIY
FAMOUS
FRIENDS
Just like opening your
box of McDonalds
chicken nuggets and
realising you’ve scored
seven rather than six,
unearthing an album’s
special guest can be
wonderfully satisfying.
Luckily, Mini Mansions
have supplied two for
their new ‘un.
“What they did was
exceptional and they
really made the songs,”
Michael Shuman
explains, of their
collaboration with both
the Arctics’ Alex Turner
and Beach Boys’ Brian
Wilson, “but they were
the icing on the cake.
They just really tie it all
together.
“I was gonna sing [Alex’s
part] at one point, when
we first started thinking
of the song, but it didn’t
really seem right. Then
Alex just happened to
be there when we were
talking through the track
and it was just like, ‘Oh,
there you are!’
and that
was it.”
Alex Turner
cake - “Fancy
a bite,
treacle?”
13

Clarence Clarity got out the wrong side of bed.
It’s no secret that
Clarence Clarity is an
enigmatic being, but
as he gears up to step
out and make his live
debut, he invited DIY
to have a glance into
his world. Words: Ali
Shutler. Photo: Emma
Swann
I’m equally
excited and
terrified
Emerging in a haze of neon noise and whispering truths,
there’s a mystery about Clarence Clarity. However, the
time to break cover is looming and boy, does he know
how to make an entrance.
With debut ‘No Now’ clocking in at twenty tracks long and his
first foray into the live scene, a support slot on an already highprofile,
thirteen-date Jungle headline tour looming, Clarence
is set to expose himself like never before. Meeting him at his
South East London rehearsal space, he’s ready to explain why
now is the right time.
The room is littered with instruments and an amplifier hums in
the background. Clarence excuses himself to turn it off, only for
another piece of equipment to emerge from the black. “When I
started, I just wanted things to be judged on their own musical
merits and to start building this story, the Clarence Clarity
world, and me working that out as I go,” admits Clarence. It’s an
ongoing process as he pauses, ponders and considers himself
several times.
“I’m hoping just going out as a live thing might be the missing
piece in the jigsaw for some people,” he states. “It could be that
it completes the Clarence Clarity universe, it’s been building up
to this point,” he offers, hoping for moments of clarity, if we’re
being crass. Both audience and performer will be united with
uncertainty on these dates. “I don’t necessarily know exactly
how it’s going to unfold on stage,” he starts. “It’ll be in your face
and a mess, where appropriate. I’ll definitely be harnessing the
chaos.”
“I’m itching to get out and play,” he says with a smile. “I drove
myself mad making this album and it’ll feel more complete for
it to exist in the world rather than in my head and my bedroom.
If you’re expecting to come and see exactly what I’ve recorded,
don’t bother,” he warns. He’s extended Clarence Clarity into a
four-piece band of friends and is set to bring “out some of those
elements that aren’t so obvious in the recordings.”
“I need some real people around me and to feel like I’m in a bit
of a gang,” Clarence explains; with a full drum kit before him
and a glint in his eye. “I just wanted it to be the biggest, boldest
statement that I could possibly make,” Clarence says of his debut
‘No Now’ before promising “An assault on the senses, twenty
tracks from every dark corner of my mind.”
With no tangible beginning to Clarence Clarity, and a diary filling
up with tour dates, single releases and potential collaborations,
there’s no end in sight either. “The future hasn’t happened, it
doesn’t exist and the past is a collection of memories that may or
may not be real or true. So why worry about anything,” Clarence
asks. “I’m equally excited and maybe terrified,” he admits of the
upcoming dates. “I didn’t want to play for the sake of it. I’ve been
waiting for it to feel like the right time and it is now.”
Clarence Clarity’s debut album ‘No Now’
will be released on 2nd March via Bella
Union. His headline tour kicks off on
7th April in Leeds; he’s currently on the
road supporting Jungle. DIY
Clarence
Clarity will play
The Great Escape.
See
diymag.com for
details.
14 diymag.com

As Django Django get ready
to follow up their criticallyacclaimed
debut, Dave Maclean
admits that they aren’t the
biggest fans of change.
Creatures
Of Habit
With their debut, Django
Django changed the
name of the game.
Intricate beats laden
over experimental synth patterns was all
the rage and their melding of just about
every genre soon reaped the benefits.
Now, following their Mercury Prize
nomination and endless live shows, the
band are gearing up for its follow up,
and they’re pretty relaxed about the
whole thing. “We didn’t really worry
about what it was gonna be, or what it
HAVE
YOU
HEARD?
Django Django - First Light
‘First Light’ struts into earshot with a
shuddering bass line; one that gives
the impression of a record that’ll draw
heavily on dance music influences.
It emerges as much more, an almost
psychedelic offering of shimmering
vocals, airy synthesisers and ear
catching live percussion. On ‘First Light’
Django Django in fact shine in a new
light, searching beyond and beneath a
concrete landscape of post-industrial
consumerism, and conjuring striking
imagery in a search for enlightenment.
Its own exterior ditches the more
hectic elements that studded the
quirky Django shell and made them so
invigorating first time round. It gives
way to a sound that’s assured, sleek and
brimming with potential. (Liam McNeilly)
was gonna sound like,” drummer and
producer Dave Maclean offers. “We just
go in, muck around, a groove comes
out and we kinda follow that. We didn’t
change our approach really; we just let
the ideas take us.”
Having such a simple approach
has fed into their second album’s
creation. Granted, they weren’t in that
bedroom anymore, but they still found
themselves falling into old habits. “We
just have a certain way of working,”
Dave admits, candidly. “You know,
with the first record, it was made in
a bedroom and we had never played
live. We did learn and we tried to keep
that in mind, but it’s another thing that
comes back to not forcing things much.
In the studio, we had this big live room
but we ended up in a tiny room next
to it, almost recreating that bedroom
space. We’re creatures of habit, really.”
Needless to say, the last thing that the
quartet wanted to do was write the
same album twice, so there will be a
few changes when it comes to album
number two. “It feels a bit dancier,” he
explains, “and there’s a lot of guitars
and a lot of synths. The first couple of
singles that we’re putting out are a bit
more stripped-back and synth-y, but
the album’s not really like that. It’s like
version two, in a way. This was a big
learning curve. it feels like a step up.”
Django Django’s new album ‘Born
Under Saturn’ will be released on 4th
May via Because Music. DIY
Django Django are looking
forward to releasing their new
album, ‘I’m Tired And I Have
Orange On My Willy, Mate’.
NEWS
I N B R I E F
NATIONAL PRIDE
The National’s Bryce Dessner is set
to curate ‘Mountains and Waves’, a
two-day programme of events taking
place at London Barbican from 9th to
10th May. Dessner is curating a celebration
of “New American Music”, with
the guitarist putting on performances
“inspired by the landscape of the USA.
20th century classics and sparkling new
works.”
PASSIONATE PIT.
Passion Pit have offered up a first taste
of their new album, in the form of ‘Lifted
Up (1985)’ and ‘Where the Sky Hangs’.
The tracks feature on forthcoming third
album ‘Kindred’, which is due out 20th
April on Columbia and to celebrate
they’ll be playing a UK show at London’s
Electric Ballroom on 16th April.
15

TRACKLISTING
1. Lonesome Street
2. New World Towers
3. Go Out
4. Ice Cream Man
5. Thought I Was A
Spaceman
6. I Broadcast
7. My Terracotta
Heart
8. There Are Too
Many Of Us
9. Ghost Ship
10. Pyongyang
11. Ong Ong
12. Mirrorball
Blur
whip up a frenzy
It’s official: Blur are back with a new album ‘The Magic Whip’, set to be released in April.
It’s twelve years since Blur’s last
studio album, 2003’s ‘Think Tank’.
Twelve years. That’s not quite as
long as Guns ‘n’ Roses’ ‘Chinese
Democracy’, but it’s certainly getting
on a bit. It’s also a comparison that
holds some relevance: 2003, see, was
the Chinese year of the goat, and 2015
sees our furry friend’s time come round
again. It also sees the announcement of
a new Blur album.
Following a hiatus after Graham Coxon’s
departure early in the recording
of ‘Think Tank’, and then announcing
they were getting back together in
2008, the band have done a couple of
laps of the globe playing their greatest
hits. From Colchester Railway Museum
to Hyde Park, via Glastonbury Festival,
they even had time to record a few
new songs - including the standout
‘Under The Westway’. But with frontman
Damon Albarn working on solo albums,
musicals and the rumoured return of
both Gorillaz and The Good, The Bad
and The Queen, many thought a Blur
album would have to wait.
That was until a chilly Thursday in
February, when the band appeared
at a press conference in London’s
Chinatown. There, they confirmed their
eighth studio album, ‘The Magic Whip’,
will be released on 27th April.
Speaking of the record’s inception in
Hong Kong, Damon Albarn revealed: “It
was back to the way we recorded
when we first started recording. It
wasn’t a flash studio. It was pretty
claustrophobic and hot. We just went
in and knocked about loads of ideas.
We didn’t get anything finished.” The
band then headed back on the road,
and things seemed to have come to a
halt. “During that time, the whole thing
had dissipated; I thought that it hadn’t
happened, it was fun and a nice way to
pass a few days, but nothing concrete
had really come out of it.”
“It was casual, it was just something
we did off our own backs,” the band’s
Graham Coxon continued. “It was quite
an overwhelming prospect [to look back
at it]. There was quite a lot of stuff to go
over, so I said, ‘Damon, can I have a little
chat?’ I said, ‘Tell you what, I think this
is good and there might be something
worth looking at.’ I thought we needed
someone to organise it, so we slung
it over to [long term collaborator and
producer] Stephen [Street].”
Blur will also play London’s Hyde Park
on 20th June as part of Barclaycard
presents British Summer Time. DIy
HAVE
YOU
HEARD?
Blur - Go Out
Hearing Blur talk about their new
album ‘The Magic Whip’, the influence
of genius guitarist Graham Coxon is
obvious. A five day hardcore recording
session in Hong Kong seemed like
it would come to nothing before
Coxon took it to the band’s long term
collaborator Stephen Street and
worked it into something worthy of
becoming that long awaited comeback
album.
It’s that chemistry - the magic,
sometimes challenging, invisible line
that’s always run between Coxon and
frontman Damon Albarn - that bleeds
right through ‘Go Out’. The straining
feedback, squelching riffs and general
‘guitar stuff’ that so characterises
Coxon’s style runs through like a
particularly grungy stick of seaside
rock. There’s no conventional festival
anthem chorus, but instead a vocal
hook straight out of Albarn’s Big Book
of Britpop Eye Rolls.
Sitting somewhere between their selftitled
album and ’13’, ‘Go Out’ is both
experimental and immediate, direct
and obtuse, brilliant and most certainly
Blur. Welcome back, guys. You’ve still
got it. (Stephen Ackroyd)
16 diymag.com

The Staves, watching on as Justin Vernon
screams: “TO MORDOR!
Quest
to find the ring
The Staves divulge a few of the secrets behind their new album, ‘If I Was’.
Words: Sarah Jamieson. Photo: Mike Massaro
It’s no surprise that working on
albums is hard work. Just think
of the amount of time and effort,
blood, sweat and tears that get
poured into each and every record
that you open in iTunes or stick in
your CD player. On the odd occasion,
though, the stars align and everything
works out perfectly. That’s exactly what
happened for The Staves, when it came
to (accidentally) beginning work on
their second album.
“I think the timing was really perfect
because we were kinda getting to the
point where we had started going
a little bit crazy,” Camilla, one of the
trio of sisters Stavely-Taylor explains,
in between sips of camomile tea,
“and we desperately needed to write
something.” After almost three years on
the road in support of their debut ‘Dead
& Born & Grown’, it was an invite from
former touring mate Justin Vernon that
gave them the prime opportunity to get
away. Unbeknown to the band, it was
also the catalyst for their sophomore
effort.
“It’s great and we love touring,” she
continues, “but a lot of things have
changed in the two or three years
that we’ve been touring solidly. Our
personal lives have changed, we’ve
changed as people and we had a lot
that we wanted to say, and get off our
chests. When we went to Justin’s, it was
just the best timing to have those two
weeks. It was a breather, and suddenly
all of this stuff came out and all of the
little ideas that we’d had in our heads
for ages were able to grow.
“Justin Vernon became a
bit like Gandalf, he was
guiding us hobbits.” -
Jessica Stavely-Taylor
It wasn’t just getting away from their
comfort zone that helped: the backdrop
of Vernon’s April Base studio also
provided some inspiration. “The studio
was kind of in the middle of nowhere
as well,” adds in guitarist Jessica, “so it
felt like a bit of a sanctuary, or the safe
house as we called it. We just felt like we
could get up to stuff without anybody
really watching or knowing what we
were up to, and as a result, we just felt
really free to be uncensored. During
that first trip out there, it became really
apparent that it was a very important
place for us to come back to.”
“It was a wonderful backdrop for
creativity,” continues Emily, “it was
really inspiring and that alone is
exciting. I think people who live in
Wisconsin are probably a bit over snow,
because it sticks around for a year, but
for me, snow that you actually make
snowmen out of is a very, very good
thing.”
Unsurprisingly, the man himself also
had a key role to play in the making of
‘If I Was’. It just might not be quite what
you’d have expected from the Bon Iver
frontman... “He was a bit of a mentor, a
friend, a guru,” laughs Jessica. “He sort
of became a bit like Gandalf, he was
guiding us hobbits through the quest
to find the ring… No, to
make a record!”
The Staves’ new
album ‘If I Was’
is out now
via Atlantic
Records. DIY
17

Coming.
.Of Age,
The Vaccines are stepping away from their hard-and-fast pop of old for album
number three. “We started to feel a little constrained,” frontman Justin Young
reveals. Words: Sarah Jamieson
When The Vaccines first
emerged all the way
back in 2010, they had
their paths paved out
for them. Arena-prepped and ready,
they came complete with an album
full of bombastic rock’n’roll anthems.
It took only a few short years and a
second full-length to get them into the
hallowed halls of The O2.
So when the band made their shortterm
return with an out-of-the-blue
EP which was a bit of a departure
from their previous efforts, a fair few
eyebrows were raised.
“That was kind of the beginning step
on the journey to making the album,”
the band’s Justin Young reveals, over
the phone. The busy hum of the city’s
traffic lies in the background, while he
walks around London’s Oxford Circus.
“We had always kinda been held back,
essentially, by our own ethos: this
mantra of writing short, sharp, fast,
simple pop songs. I think, if anything,
with the last record we started to feel
maybe a little constrained by that so
making the EP was just an experiment.”
When the band released ‘Melody
Calling’ halfway through 2013, it
shimmered with Californian warmth,
all scuzzy guitars and blissful vibes. It
was exactly what we wouldn’t have
expected from The Vaccines and it
opened up the doorway for their third
record.
Now, as 2015 gets well underway, the
band are ready to go: having decamped
to upstate New York to work with Dave
Fridmann last year, ‘English Graffiti’ is
on the horizon. They’ve even unveiled
its first cut, ‘Handsome’, but Young
is adamant that their infectious new
single doesn’t offer too many clues.
“The song itself is, if anything, bridging
the gap. It’s probably one of two or
three songs that sound most like the
stuff that’s preceded it,” he confirms.
“They’re not all two minute, threechord,
fast-paced rock songs.”
Their forthcoming album is set to be
a more personal effort. Whilst Young
decided that he no longer wanted to
be as literal in his lyrics, he’s opening
the songs up to be more subjective by
exploring themes that many of us are
constantly facing.
“I was actually tackling it from a very
personal place,” he assures. “I sat
down and spoke to a friend about this,
18 diymag.com

but about a year ago, when we were
first really started writing the record,
I realised that - despite feeling so
connected on so many levels - so many
of us felt this disconnect. So many of
us are 26, 27 year olds approaching our
late twenties and thirties, we’re single,
and we’re a little bit lost.”
“They’re
n ot all
two minute,
three- chord,
fas t- paced
rock songs.”
Justin Young
“I think there’s obviously those themes
running through it,” he adds, on how
he hopes his listeners will perceive his
lyrics, “but the beauty is that really,
it’s a very subjective experience. With
this record it was really important
to me - although I am still pretty
on-the-nose about a lot of stuff - that
I didn’t just say things as they were. I
intentionally made verses a lot more
open to interpretation, rather than
telling people exactly what I want. It
was really important to try and hinge
songs around very strong, simple
choruses and then leave the verses and
everything else open to
interpretation.”
The Vaccines’
new album
‘English Graffiti’
will be released
this May via
Columbia Records.
DIY
The Vaccines
will play Liverpool
Sound City. See
diymag.com for
details.
What’s going on with
Spector?
Frontman Fred Macpherson fills us in.
Hello Fred! A little birdy told us that you’ve finished that second album of
yours...
We’ve finished the new album a few times, but you know, you can’t rush
perfection. We’ve had to go back and tweak it and dabble with it.
When did you realise it was going to take a bit longer than anticipated?
We first thought we’d get it out in a year. We thought, ‘Let’s do this, let’s do this’,
but halfway through the process we had the realisation that we really wanted
to spend time making an album that we 100% believed in. It was finished a
while ago but then we added songs and changed things, and then we probably
finished it at the end of last year.
And didn’t you go over to New York to work with Dev Hynes?
That was really fun actually. We got a lot of stuff done, but not much recording,
and it definitely added to the experience. First I went over there by myself and
we did about five or six demos in a week, and then the band came out. We were
up on the fourteenth floor near Times Square and there were these massive
windows. It was a great start.
So, this new record then…
I think ‘Enjoy It While It Lasts’ was of a time: it sounded like lots of other stuff,
but that was what we wanted to sound like. We had lots of imagery and kind of
a hangover of growing up, and of being teenagers and never getting the chance
to make this overblown indie rock album. Then, we got the chance to do it. I
think this one takes more of its cues from the electronic side of that album. Also,
we had a guitarist leave so inevitably, it ended up being less guitar-y. We didn’t
have a crisis of, ‘right, where do we go next?’ I think, had we put the first ten
songs that we had written, it could’ve been one of those second albums that’s a
bit of a mess because the band are still trying to figure out where to go next. I’m
really glad we took our time because it feels like we got to the right place.
Spector’s new single ‘All The Sad Young Men’ will be released on 23rd
March. DIY
HAVE
YOU
HEARD?
The Vaccines - Handsome
The Vaccines’ self-defined peppiness
has really come to the forefront with
‘Handsome’. Centred around a stylish
Kung fu cinema aesthetic, it’s all about
Phoenix-y guitar hooks and bopping
drums lifted from the most recent
Strokes stuff. It’s not only ridiculously
infectious and fun, but also manages to
perfectly fulfill what we really ‘expected
from the Vaccines’ all those years ago:
making their third album a handsome
prospect indeed. (Kyle MacNeill)
Spector will play
Live at Leeds. See
diymag.com for
details.
19

NEWS
I N B R I E F
OH SO CHIC
Having shared the first snippet of new
Chic material in years last month, Nile
Rodgers has gone on to give details of
the disco legends’ forthcoming album.
Writing on his website, Rodgers said: “As
with all Chic albums, this one’s based on
a concept. The album’s title is: ‘It’s About
Time’… because It’s About Time.”
ALL WASHED UP
Things haven’t quite gone to plan in
the new video from The Cribs: the
trio have found themselves a bit, well,
shipwrecked. In the clip for ‘Burning
For No One’, the band wind up basking
in the sunshine on a remote island,
surrounded by crystal clear water and
a family of friendly pigs. Watch it on
diymag.com
BEDROOM JAMS
Last month, Joanna Gruesome’s
singer and guitarist Alanna McCardle
took to Twitter to share a number of
old bedroom recordings. Entitling the
collection ‘Reticular’, McCardle also
covered Perfume Genius’ ‘Take Me
Home’ in amongt the originals. Listen to
the demos over on her Bandcamp page.
ON THE STAIRWAY TO...
Everything Everything have shared
the first few details about their
upcoming third album. ‘Get To Heaven’
will be released on the 15th June and is
set to include their new single ‘Distant
Past’, debuted last month. Go listen to
the track on diymag.com now.
Birmingham’s
Swim Deep have
unveiled the first
taste of their new,
second album - the
colossal single ‘To
My Brother’.
“I feel like we’re
all shaving our
heads and going
to war”
Following on from 2013 debut
‘Where the Heaven Are We’,
Swim Deep have recruited fifth
member James Balmont on
keyboards and in turn, they’ve arrived
with a sound ten times the size of the
previous LP. Having gained its first
play last month, ‘To My Brother’ surges
forward with nods to Hacienda-era
Manchester and a bonkers, psychedelic
streak barely evident in LP1. Speaking
about the new album, frontman Austin
Williams told DIY: “I feel like we’re
all shaving our heads and going to
war with this record,” addressing the
dramatic new direction.
This is a dramatic change. You sound
like a different band, at points.
There was never a conscious side of me
that was telling myself that I needed
to change or do anything different.
We had great fun. The first songs I
ever wrote in a band capacity were on
‘Where The Heaven Are We’. There was
never a need to change - I just wanted
to. There was a lot more influence
coming in from other places; the 80s,
bigger beats and a lot more depth in
what I wanted to put out as a band.
You’re making a statement on this.
Do you feel like you’re taking big
steps in directions people might not
expect?
Hopefully. There’s an ambition to
radicalise the charts, in a way. I’ve
HAVE
YOU
HEARD?
Professors,
librarians or just a
barmy
Birmingham
band? It’s
Swim Deep!
always had an interest in pop music,
whether it be a hatred for it or a love for
it. There’s a lot of pop songwriting on
there, just because it’s natural for me
when I’m writing a melody. The music
I’m listening to influences me, in a way.
There’s songs on the record that have
come at the peak of me listening to 60
Aretha Franklin songs on loop, for three
days. There’s a bit of a nod to that. It
feels a lot more connected, with me.
Swim Deep - To My Brother
Swim Deep’s debut album sounded like
it managed to have a cheeky snog with
the galaxy’s brightest star, all sun-kissed
melodies and sweetly delivered vocals.
With ‘To My Brother’, their sound has
been injected with a boldness and
size. It’s far closer to the 90s-nodding
influence touched upon in their first
album – Robbie Williams’ ‘Millennium’
and ‘Screamadelica’ in one package
– and basks gloriously in an ocean
of psychedelic guitars and synths
more baggy than the trousers in a
WeightWatchers Before-And-After
advert. Quit waiting: grab some roundlensed
goggles, shove on a pair of
kaleidoscopic flippers, and dive right the
hell in. (Kyle MacNeil)
20 diymag.com

Bloc Party -
Silent Alarm
A decade after the iconic
record’s release, DIY traces
what made Kele and co.’s first
foray so memorable. Words:
Tom Connick
It feels almost impossible that
we’re already celebrating ‘Silent
Alarm’’s tenth birthday this year.
Bloc Party – those perennial icons
of the indie disco – remain almost
every bit as vital in 2015 as they were
in 2005; it seems absurd to be looking
back on an album that has barely left
the headphones of many since its
inception. And yet as Groundhog Day
rolls around, so too does the ten year
anniversary of that chilling artwork,
and the post-punk revolution that was
housed within.
Bloc Party struck at the perfect
DIY HALL OF FAME
Come one, come all! We’re opening the doors on DIY’s Hall of Fame - a
monthly place to celebrate the very best albums to be released in DIY’s
lifetime. The first inductee is a real doozy…
moment. As the wave of post-nineties
guitar bands was about to hit breaking
point, they emerged from South
London with a refreshing alternative to
the Strokes and Libertines worshipping
du jour. Easy to lazily pin as ‘post-punk
revival’, and yet unequivocally born of
the 21st century, they bobbed along on
a wave of critical hype and whispered
word-of-mouth, before being snapped
up by indie super-label Wichita
Recordings for the formation of what
would become ‘Silent Alarm’.
While it was birthed from the bubbling
post-Strokes indie scene, ‘Silent
Alarm’ was far from a straightforward
guitar record. Built around an almost
obsessive love of rhythm and groove,
the subtleties of many of the group’s
inflections owed more to dance music
than the guitar-led scene they emerged
from. Iconic sticksman Matt Tong’s
stripped-back-yet-flourishing grooves
owe much to the four-to-the-floor
nature of club music, and gives tracks
like ‘Positive Tension’ a dancefloor
sensibility which – combined with
Kele and Russell’s combined love of
house and disco – offered a refreshing
alternative to their contemporaries’
efforts.
To this day, ‘Silent Alarm’ stands out as
an essential listen. Future endeavours
may have seen Bloc Party delve deeper
into their electronic tendencies, but
their debut still marks a line in the
sand of indie’s evolution. Its rhythmic
influence is undoubtedly threaded
through every British guitar band since,
and yet it houses a timeless quality that
has yet to be imitated with anywhere
near the levels of vitality ‘Silent Alarm’
possesses. For that reason, its achingly
21st Century outlook on music, culture
and personal frustrations looks set to
remain atop the listening pile for at
least another decade to come. DIY
On diymag.com
• Wichita talk signing the
iconic group
• Inside the artwork with
photographer Ness Sherry
• Tall Ships discuss the
band’s influence
.Bloc Party,
.delighted to be
DIY’s first Hall of
.Fame-ers
21

Popstar Postbag
Harrison Koisser, Peace
We know what you’re like, dear readers. We know you’re just as nosey as we are when it comes to our
favourite pop stars: that’s why we’re putting the power back into your hands. Every month, we’re going
to ask you to pull out your best questions and aim them at those unsuspecting artists. You don’t even
need to pay for postage! This month Peace frontman Harrison Koisser enters the firing line.
Peace have released the
ultimate video trackby-track
guide for their
album ‘Happy People’
online; here are some of
our highlights
What would you be most disappointed to win
a lifetime supply of? Conor, 20, Birmingham
DISAPPOINTMENT.
I just move the way I feel. And Bowie. He’s been
through everything. He’s just incredible. I will
love him forever. I love you Dave.
If your music was a food, what food would it
be? @williamjamesrea
Smörgåstårta. It’s a Swedish sandwich cake and I
once went on a d8 with a Swedish girl and when
she said it, it sounded like sooo sexy but turned
out to be a cake made of sandwiches.
What’s the weirdest/most disgusting thing
you’ve ever eaten? @INNERVISIONS
Dom once ate some jellyfish in Malaysia and
instantly threw it up on to his plate. It was at a
dinner with the promoter over there too. Classic
Boycie
Harry, who are your style inspirations?
@nadiadahanxo
What percentage of the new album is made of
glitter? @J_oey_M
About 10%. ‘O You’ has the sound of glitter over
the whole track. Not kidding.
If there were a movie made about your career,
what actors would play each one of you?
@femmanine
Michael Cera - Dominic Boyce because they share
such a vibe. Christopher Mintz-Plasse - Douglas
Castle because Doug is basically Mclovin from
Birmingham. Henry Lloyd Hughes - Sam. It’s only
fair the handsome one be played by the most
handsome man ever. Dave Franko - ME. I like the
cut of his jib.
What hair dye do u use, Hazza? Used Bleach
London ‘Tangerine’ on mine. @abbienirvana
You legend. I can’t remember. I was off my bloody
head when I dyed it.
Denim or fur? @CallumGegg
BOTH/EVERYTHING. You should always combine
denim and fur and everything you can find. My
ideal outfit has every material and texture all at
once.
When are you going to walk in fashion week?
Swim Deep’s done it twice now, c’mon lads.
@clairegraing
I am not a mannequin. When it comes to models I
draw the line at dating.
When sharing a cake or a pizza, who
gets the biggest piece? @Justdip
BOYCIEE. He’s the type of guy who
runs in and grabs the biggest
slice. Yesterday we were in Costa
Coffee Camden and he actually
grabbed - with his fingers - the
cream from my hot chocolate
and ate it before I could. Legend.
Next month:
Wolf Alice
Want to send a question to
DIY’s Popstar Postbag? Tweet
us at @diymagazine with the
hashtag #postbag, or drop us
an email at popstarpostbag@
diymag.com. Easy!
1. THE RECORD
COMPANY MEETING
Their boss at Sony
Columbia’s had a
brainfart. “Who is the
biggest band in the
world?” he barks, before
pointing the finger
at Mumford & Sons.
“FORGET MUMFORD &
SONS”, he announces.
“Funkford and grunge.
Any questions?”
2. EVERYTHING ABOUT
THIS MADE IN CHELSEA-
ISM
Harry’s “not alright,
mate”. Thus beginning
the greatest televised
scene in Peace’s history.
Even better than when
they were actually on
Made in Chelsea.
3. DOUGLASA CASTLE
Aka Noel Fielding aka the
most confusing part of
the track-by-track guide.
Is this a dig at Doug?
Who invited Noel? Why
is he calling himself an
“eskimo girl”?
Watch the whole thing
on diymag.com.
22 diymag.com

23

have you heard
The best new tracks from the last month.
A lot happens over
the course of a month
in the mad world of
ace music. You’re
busy people, we get
that, so we’re here to
help. Catch up with
the most amazing,
exciting or generally
‘WTF m9’ new songs
that have surfaced in
the last few weeks. No
need to thank us. No,
really, it’s fine.
Hot Chip - Huarache Lights
As the solemn robotic speech
rolls out the welcome mat on
Hot Chip’s return, it’s clear that
this song is all about kicking off
your heels. The opening track
to ‘Why Make Sense?’ sees the
band slowly flood the room
with glitching electronics. What
starts off as a one-two shuffle of
summer vibrations quickly swells
into dancefloor abandon. Chirpy,
upbeat and cascading, ‘Huarache
Lights’ is a reminder that while
many young pretenders vie
for their throne, Hot Chip are
irreplaceable. (Ali Shutler)
Death Cab For Cutie - Black Sun
‘Black Sun’ is a melting pot of everything Death Cab have
put their name to. The electronics that dwarfed ‘Codes
and Keys’ have been pulled back, shimmering under the
instantly recognisable plucked guitar-work. Ben Gibbard,
as ever, is the band’s chief conductor, weaving the
undulating influences around his coy lyricism with ease.
The barbed solo thrashes like the final throes of Death
Cab’s exorcism. (Tom Connick)
La Priest - Oino
Gone are the days when Sam Dust’s Late of the Pier backdropped
Skins soundtracks and house parties. He might
be operating in a different zone with LA Priest, but his
post-LOTP project possesses the same cheek, attention-todetail
and most importantly, back-breaking hooks. ‘Oino’
is intelligent as sin, a masterful blend of funk, Egyptiannodding
samples and muted guitar lines that makes Jai
Paul look like something of a pretender. (Jamie Milton)
Drenge - We Can Do What We Want
In many ways, it’s the same old Drenge. ‘We Can Do What
We Want’ is still the sound of two cool-ass brothers making
ridiculously grimy riffs that snake every-which-way like a
punk viper. It all pivots on elephantine dirty hooks, and
lyrics that tell the #haters to fuck right off, along with a
newfound swagger. Not only can Drenge do whatever the
hell they want, whatever that is, it’s bloody fantastic. (Kyle
MacNeill)
Palma Violets -
Danger In The Club
It might’ve been two
years since Palma Violets
released their rip-roaring
debut album, but with
new track ‘Danger In The
Club’ the four-piece are
proving as bold and brash
as they ever were. Chiming
guitars and dissonant riffs
unfurl in the wake of Sam
Fryer’s drawling vocals,
instantly distinctive
against a hazy backdrop
of refrains. As the song’s
chant-a-long chorus
drifts into focus you can
practically smell the elated
intoxication.
“He’s bad to the bone”
Fryer and Jesson repeat,
sultry and smooth
mixing with spirited
and sharp. Rousing and
rambunctious, the final
chorus draws in a soaring
harmonica solo before
meandering away into
quiet. ‘Danger In The Club’
is inebriation, distilled.
Boisterous, clamorous,
and addictively confident,
it’s a perfectly appetising
first taste of the band’s
forthcoming second
album. (Jessica Goodman)
24 diymag.com

Speedy Ortiz - Raising The Skate
Speedy Ortiz’s return is a swipe fired
squarely at every guy who’s called
his ex-girlfriend “a crazy bitch,” every
online comment section loiterer who
wastes time haranguing successful,
confident women. Hissing cymbals
tick angrily along, giving a vital pulse
to those fretboard-scaling riffs, and
eventually a pummelling wall of
fuzzy chaos takes over. There’s a vital
message in ‘Raising The Skate’, and at
the same time, Speedy Ortiz are busy
raising the bar ever-higher in the lead
up to their second album. (El Hunt)
Kendrick Lamar - The Blacker The
Berry
‘The Blacker The Berry’ shows off a
different corner of Kendrick Lamar’s
repertoire, directly and forcefully
addressing race and inequality in
America, spitting lines such as “you
hate me, don’t you / you hate my
people” over haunting production from
Boi-1da. Lamar himself has said that no
single track will fully represent what to
expect from his new album, but ‘The
Blacker The Berry’ can only be seen as a
statement of intent. (Will Richards)
Joanna Gruesome - Last Year
Breaking the front door down and
proceeding to run rampant all over the
house is ‘Last Year’, the first single to
be lifted from Joanna Gruesome’s new
album ‘Peanut Butter’. Presumably as
they trash the place, they’re excitedly
searching for the spreadable delight of
the same name - or at least this highoctane
entrance suggests so. ‘Last Year’
sounds bigger, brasher and heavier, yet
retains the jangly sense of euphoria and
melody that makes Joanna Gruesome’s
output so addictive in the first place.
(Tom Walters)
Young Fathers - Rain Or Shine
Fresh from winning the Mercury Prize,
Young Fathers aren’t resting on their
laurels. The almost-industrial sounding
‘Rain or Shine’ blunts the edge of Death
Grips’ intense volume, and turns an
influence into something decidedly
more pop. This is a track of dark and
light. That “I’ll be there rain or shine”
refrain sounds optimistic, but there’s an
inherent grittiness that makes it truly
compelling. (Euan L. Davidson)
East India Youth - Carousel
It’s a brave and ultimately triumphant
step to see William Doyle lay himself
bare in the manner he does on
‘Carousel’, his voice taking centre-stage
above a stripped back ebb-and-flow of
choral synths. It’s remarkably sparse,
Doyle laying aside his bottomless Mary
Poppins-esque bag of tricks in favour
of a cascade of organs that sound lifted
straight from a cathedral, rather than
the bedroom in which – as with ‘Total
Strife Forever’ - his upcoming second
LP ‘Culture Of Volume’ was produced.
(Tom Connick)
Everything Everything -
Distant Past
‘Did you pack your bag or did
somebody pack it for you?’ It’s the sort
of question that security always asks
at airports, and for some reason the
natural human response is always mild
panic. Even though everyone knows
full well that you did indeed pack the
entire bag yourself, with no help, it
throws them. It’s also the question that
Everything Everything chose to pose
ahead of releasing ‘Distant Past’, the
first single from the band’s new, third
album ‘Get To Heaven’, which’ll be out
in June this year.
Just like those nothing to declare gates
and body-searches, ‘Distant Past’ does
initially catch you off-guard. It’s heady
and pounding like the beginnings of a
3am head-fuzz taking hold in a sweaty
European nightclub, and Everything
Everything’s sharply pointed elbows
are blunted; their angular, tricky to
pin-down rhythms in clearer focus.
As Higgs put it, talking to his fans, “if
you put out a record this year and it’s
all smiles, then I think you’re a liar,
basically.” Considering that Higgs
goes on about bleeding monkey chins
and sawing off his own stinky legs on
‘Distant Past’ - given extra sinister welly
by robot backing vocalists - it’s safe to
say Everything Everything have taken a
darker turn, despite the initial euphoric
sheen. (El Hunt)
neu
PICKS
Everything you need to know about the
past month’s #buzz.
At the turn of the year, barely anyone
knew a thing about Amsterdam punks
St. Tropez, and they’re still keeping
cards close to their chest. The “facts” so
far - they’ve been recording with Spring
King’s Tarek Musa, they’ve a studio in
an abandoned “dodgy” sauna and their
self-titled debut EP is an exhibition in
riotous rock ’n roll. Heads are turning
for lead track ‘I Don’t Wanna Fall In
Love’. The same goes for new Matador
signings Algiers. Their self-titled debut
is out this June, and it’s being led with
‘But She Was Not Flying’, a showcase
of “doom soul” fronted by Deep South
vocalist Franklin James Fisher. Very few
things match his signature prowl. On
that note, try finding another band who
sound remotely like Cloud Castle Lake.
The Dublin group have been loftily
compared to Sigur Rós and Radiohead
- good luck matching that, guys - but
frontman Daniel McAuley tends to
mimic a squealing alien or a castrated
cat - one of the two. That doesn’t make
what they’re doing any less startling.
New single ‘Glacier’ premiered on
DIY and it’s picking up serious steam.
Elsewhere this month, Black Peaks
have been causing waves with their
‘Glass Built Castles’ single. The reaction’s
been insane, Zane Lowe acting as the
band’s biggest champion. With a tour
with Arcade Roots around the corner,
the hype’s already in overdrive. And if
you think the buzz around Spain’s new
wave of scuzzy punk’s stopping short
at Hinds, think again - Lois is a musician
hailing from Madrid. Best buds with the
city’s finest, his ‘Bedroom Recordings’
debut sits somewhere between Mac
DeMarco and Sean Nicholas Savage.
2015’s got off to one hell of a start.
25

“I’m equal parts
nervous and
excited.” - Marina
Diamandis
Next month, Marina
and the Diamonds
will go all fruity on
us when she releases
her third album
‘FROOT’, but in the
meantime, she’s got
a surprise up her
sleeve - an intimate
DIY Presents show.
Everything’s
Peachy
With her last album,
Marina Diamandis
wrapped herself up in
electro-pop, recruited
an alter-ego and became her own fullyfledged
Electra Heart. Three years on,
she’s casting off her the echoes of her
former self.
“Writing-wise, I felt very unrestricted,”
she reveals, of her forthcoming third
effort. “‘Electra Heart’, because it was
conceptual, was quite limiting in a way.
I started writing it about two months
after ‘Electra Heart’ came out and I
knew that I wanted to write it on my
own this time. About a year later, I was
almost finished with writing and I went
into a studio, and that’s where I decided
I wanted it to be more of a live album
than an electronic one. In the past, I
had done a lot of programming and
electronics on the production side.
“I think lyrically, I’ve always maintained
the same vein,” she continues, “‘Electra
Heart’ was very open but in a different
kind of way about relationships,
whereas with ‘FROOT’ it’s got a different
tone. It’s a bit more introspective, and
talks about general issues and just what
it’s like to be human!”
With her forthcoming record bearing
a much more live feel, Diamandis is
already excited about heading out on
the road. “I am thoroughly excited,” she
laughs. “I actually haven’t performed in
two years: I took a proper break which
I haven’t done before in my career so
it’s going to be really interesting to go
back with an album which is so different
sonically, and with a different frame
of mind.
“One of the main aims of the album was
Marina and
the Diamonds
play a DIY Presents
show at Oslo in
London on 11th
March
HAVE
YOU
HEARD?
Marina and the Diamonds -
I’m a Ruin
A haunting pop confession in three
parts, ‘I’m A Ruin’ sees Marina
Diamandis at her most aware. From
the opening realisation that she
“can’t have it all,” there’s a delicate
acceptance to her plight, hidden
behind dark glasses and a coy smile.
The sparse heartbeat that cuts
beneath Marina’s glitz is a subtle,
yet looming presence. Despite the
darkness, Marina twists ‘I’m A Ruin’
into an ethereal display of light
movement. There’s a glitter to the
stifled tears and an unflinching
confidence that sees her glaring at a
bright Froot-ture. (Ali Shutler)
26 diymag.com

to sound like a band. I said to my producer, ‘I want you to produce me as if I’m a band’.
I always felt frustrated that the sound that I love when I perform live, and the energy,
was never translated onto record so now I’m really excited to showcase these songs in
a different way.”
Here’s the best bit though: while fans may have thought Marina would be making
her live debut over on the other side of the world during SXSW, that’s not actually the
case: she’ll be taking to the stage for a special, intimate DIY Presents show at Oslo in
London, on 11th March.
“I’m equal parts nervous and excited because it really is my first show back!” she
confirms. “I’m just like, ‘Holy shit!’ The main thing is creating an atmosphere that’s
really welcoming, both from the audience and me. It’s gonna be a trip! It’s gonna be
really amazing to be in such a small space with so many hardcore fans.”
Marina and the Diamonds’ new album ‘FROOT’ will be released on 6th April via
Atlantic Records. DIY
#INDIEPETE
First he follows DIY, then he
discovers Future Islands, now he’s
going nuts about Peace - tallest
man on earth Peter
Crouch’s indie
adventures
are the stuff
of legend. Are
you a celeb
reader of DIY?
Get in touch on
Twitter at
@diymagazine.
SPOTTED
THIS
MONTH
ON ‘THE
INTERNET’
Gus from Alt-J warns Alana from Haim
about her new mates…
It wasn’t us. Swear down.
Hayley Williams, Private Investigator,
strikes down hackers with her powers of
deduction.
Sleater-Kinney give St. Vincent a nifty
new nickname.
WHICH up and coming
pop star ignored safety
rules and nearly doomed
a British Airways flight
last month by getting
out of her seat early
and trying to retrieve
her luggage? “Oh shit!
Sorry!” she exclaimed,
upon realising - someone
sure needs to pay more
attention to the seatbelt
lights.
WHO was clocked at a
supermarket in South
London without his two
bandmates, purchasing
not one, but two
four-packs of Strongbow
cider? We’re guessing that
there was just no other
time to grab the booze,
but at least it was probably
on BOGOF.
WHICH Hollywood actor
was spotted rubbing
shoulders with indie
royalty at the aftershow
party of Alt-J’s recent
show at The O2? You’d
have to be a true detective
to work it out.
WHICH set of rude boys
got all Crazy ‘In Love’
at a special Rihanna vs
Beyoncé club night spectacular
in Birmingham
last month? You can bet
they were wearing some
snazzy jackets, that’s
for sure.
Win
£200 of
Vans
Product
T
hanks to the lovely folk
at Vans, we’re giving one
lucky DIY reader £200
to spend on vans.co.uk. To
be in with a chance of winning
it, simply tell us who DIY beat
at ping-pong this month: the
answer’s somewhere in the
magazine. Send your guesses to
competitions@diymag.com,
or tweet @diymagazine
using #pingpongpros (and
#betheoriginal for an extra
entry, if you like).
27

Bloody Knees? More like
BLADdy Knees.
DIY Presents
DIY doesn’t just exist
on the the paper you’re
holding in your hands, and
the internet… well, that’s
everywhere: we do gigs
too. Come see us sometime.
Photos: Carolina Faruolo
Hello 2015, The Old Blue Last, London
The Magic Gang,
Corey Bowen, Felt
Tip & Realms
Limbs flailing, The Magic
Gang triumphantly close
DIY’s first Hello 2015 night,
adding more fuel to their
status as the UK’s best
unsigned band. Two songs to
the good, there’s not a great
deal of mystery surrounding
the band: they’ve fast
become a reputed live
force, with various lo-fi
side-projects spilling out.
Balancing 90s crushes with
an everyday, DeMarcoapproved
swagger, they’re a
prospect like few others.
Bloody Knees, Prom,
Crows & Our Girl
Tonight is one of the most
promising, well-rounded
showcases of guitar-centric
talent in years. Bloody Knees
were never going to get
drowned out by a strong
supporting cast, though.
Add their name to an Old
Blue Last bill and chaos is
confirmed. Members of Wolf
Alice and Abattoir Blues
throw themselves off stage
for a continuous crowd
surf, and that’s within the
opening twenty seconds.
What follows is a bonkers
thirty-minute set, surely one
of the band’s finest. Without
a hint of irony, at one stage
Griffiths and co. hand out
cans of Stella to the crowd
before covering Oasis. Is this
lad rock? Is this real life? One
thing’s for certain. Bloody
Knees capture the madness
of the nineties - from the
height of teen angst to pop
punk obsessions - and they
do it brilliantly.
Oscar, Black Honey,
Fossa & Chloe Black
School’s in, January Blues
rule the roost, but there’s
hope yet in 2015. Oscar,
and his brand of brightfaced
pop, welcomes in the
‘Daffodil Days’, the kind of
refreshing kick in the teeth
this year requires.
Their set - closing the night
- seems to bring together
aspects of everything that’s
preceded. He has the pop
nous of Chloe Black, the
woozy quality of Fossa and
the hard-hitting zing of Black
Honey.
Newly signed to
Wichita, there’s a
celebratory mood
in the air, one
that enhances the
headliner’s quickwitted,
charming pop.
Drum patterns and
bright singsongs
define the set,
which peaks at the
masterful, instant fix
‘Sometimes’.
Girl Band, Demob
Happy, Ex’s &
Bruising
When they started out, there
was a nonchalance to Girl
Band’s delivery; now Dara
Kiely and co. look like they’re
beginning to grasp just how
far they can truly go.
A grip-like power over the
crowd defines their set. At
times it’s like witnessing
a public meltdown. By
the end, it feels like being
put through a spike-laced
washing machine - only
you want more, Nothing
compares to the experience.
28 diymag.com

DIY PRESENTS...
MARCH
Theo Verney, Kancho and
Gang, The Old Blue Last, London
Kancho kickstart the evening. The stage is awash
with red light as Gang launch straight into their doom
western chronicle. The Brighton three-piece, and the
crowd before them, are a blur of banging heads and
physical contact. Gang are not to be anticipated. It’s
an ethos they live by as songs are blended into one
another, whirling, twisting and falling away without
warning. A doth of the hat, and a glance at the badge;
there’s a new sheriff in town.
“I’ve successfully fried me amp,” Theo admits
midway through the set. “I hope you’re happy,” he
says through a smirk. A brief pause and Theo Verney
seems intent on taking noisy vengeance for his fallen
amp. A frantic rendition of ‘Sound Machine’ precedes
a rattling run through of ‘Brain Disease’ and the
confession
05 Alex G, Soup Kitchen, Manchester
11 Marina and the Diamonds, Oslo, London
27 Dutch Uncles, The Ritz, Manchester
APRIL
04 Errors, The Deaf Institute, Manchester
09 Bipolar Sunshine, O2 Academy, Oxford
18 Menace Beach, Old Blue Last, London
MAY
01 Ice Age, Hare and Hounds, Birmingham
that changing
amps has left
the Brighton
thrasher
little room to
manoeuvre.
It’s ok though,
the crowd
has made its
choice and
lost itself to
movement.
HOXTON SQUARE BAR AND KITCHEN
THU 27 & FRI 28 FEB SOLD OUT
FRI 13 MAR 7.30PM 18+ £10.00
REBEL BINGO
THE INTIMATE SHOWS
TUE 03 MAR 8PM 18+ £6.00
ZELLA DAY
SAMM HENSHAW + DAN COOK
WED 04 MAR 8PM 18+ £6.00
ILMC SHOWCASE
W/ STORMS + BEASTS + ASYLUMS
+ MOVIE
THU 05 MAR 8PM 18+ £9.50
DIAGRAMS
SPECIAL GUESTS
SUN 08 MAR 8PM 18+ £8.00
AXES
CLEFT + ALPHA MALE TEA PARTY
MON 09 MAR 8PM 18+ £6.00
TOR MILLER
APRIL TOWERS
THU 12 MAR 8PM 18+ £7.00
ECHO LAKE
SPECIAL GUESTS
TUE 17 MAR 8PM 18+ £8.00
RONiiA (DARK DARK DARK)
SPECIAL GUESTS
FRI 27 FEB 10PM–2AM 18+ £5.00
SUPPER CLUB
SIREN DIPITY
SAT 28 FEB 9PM–2AM 18+ £5.00
DJ ODIN
AARON WALKER
WED 18 MAR 8PM 18+ £10.00
NORTH ATLANTIC
OSCILLATION
BLOODFLOWER + TINY GIANT
THU 19 MAR 8PM 18+ £6.00
ATTAQUE
SPECIAL GUESTS
WED 25 MAR 8PM 18+ £12.00
ANDREW
MONTGOMERY
SPECIAL GUESTS
TUES 31 MAR SOLD OUT
WED 01 APR 8PM 18+ £12.50
BO NINGEN
FUFANU + GRIMM GRIMM
THU 02 APR 8PM 18+ £5.00
KNOWER
THEM & US
TUES 07 APR 8PM 18+ £6.00
AMATORSKI
ANTENNA HAPPY
THURS 09 APR 8PM 18+ £8.00
CLARENCE
CLARITY
SPECIAL GUESTS
FRI 06 MAR 9PM–2AM 18+ £5.00
WE WERE
EVERGREEN(DJ SET)
HUTCHIO
FRI 14 MAR 10PM–2AM 18+ £5.00
ELLE & JAY
DJS EVERY WEDNESDAY – SUNDAY UNTIL LATE
Hoxtonsquarebar
GIG LISTINGS
CLUB NIGHTS
HoxtonHQ
HoxtonSquareBar
2-4 Hoxton Square, London, N1 6NU
Tickets from hoxtonsquarebar.com or 0844 847 2316 (24hr)
HOXTONSQUAREBAR.COM
27/3 - BRIGHTON - CONCORDE 2
28/3 - BRISTOL - THE FLEECE
29/3 - LEEDS - Brudenell SOCIAL CLUB
3o/3 - SHEFFIELD - LEADMILL
31/3 - NEWCASTLE - UNIVERSITY
o2/4 - glasgow - ART school
UK Tour 15
o3/4 - MANCHESTER - GORILLA
o5/4 - NOTTINGHAM - BODEGA
o7/4 - cambridge - JUNCTION 2
o8/4 - NORWICH - WATERFRONT
o9/4 - London - electric ballroom
New show added due to demand
1o/4 - London - electric ballroom
SOLD OUT
Seetickets.com / Ticketmaster.co.uk / Venue Box Offices
New album out on March 23rd COURTNEYBARNETT.COM.AU
A Metropolis MUSIC and Friends presentation by arrangement with X-ray
29

FESTIVALS
2015
It’s time to dust off your
wellies.
B I L B AO
BBK LIVE
DIY hooks up with
Bilbao BBK Live 2015
DIY is very excited to
announce an official media
partnership with this year’s
Bilbao BBK Live.
Taking place from 9th - 11th
July 2015, BBK is entering
its tenth year, with big
anniversary plans yet to
be announced. We’ll be
bringing you the excitement
from the July weekender,
from backstage interviews
to reports on all the action.
So far, 2015’s bill includes
Muse, Alt-J, Azealia Banks
and a full performance of
The Jesus and Mary Chain’s
seminal ‘Psychocandy’.
Future Islands, Ben
Harper, Counting Crows,
The Ting Tings, Zoot
Woman, Delorean, Zea
Mays, Arizona Baby,
Novedades Carminha, The
Cat Empire, The London
Souls, Triggerfinger,
Sheppard and Kodaline
are also confirmed for the
fest, which takes place on
top of a hill surrounded by
mountainous regions.
2000TREES
2000trees announces first
acts: Deaf Havana and Pulled
Apart By Horses
The first batch of bands for
this year’s 2000trees Festival
has been announced.
The initial eighteen bands
for the Cotswolds-based
event include Deaf Havana,
Kerbdog, Pulled Apart by
Horses and Arcane Roots.
They’ll be joined by Solemn
Sun, Rob Lynch, Big Sixes,
Allusondrugs, Nothing But
Thieves and Milk Teeth.
The Computers, The
Cadbury Sisters &U&I,
Thrill Collins, The St. Pierre
Snake Invasion, Bridges,
Lonely Yourist and Rozelle
will also perform on the
Thursday early entry night.
2000trees takes place
between 9th - 11th July at
Upcote Farm, Cheltenham.
L I V E AT
LEEDS
Eagulls, Hookwooms and
Swim Deep to play this
year’s Live At Leeds
The line-up has been
announced for this year’s
Live at Leeds, taking place
from 1st - 4th May 2015.
With the all-day music event
running on 2nd May, big
names have been confirmed
in the shape of local heroes
Hookworms and Eagulls.
In addition, Tobias Jesso Jr.
and Oceaán are on the bill,
with Swim Deep - finishing
off their second record,
due out this year - also set
to play.
Elsewhere, exciting names
include thrashing duo
Bruising, Nashville punks
Bully, Brighton newcomers
Black Honey and big guns
Dutch Uncles, We Were
Promised Jetpacks, Dry
the River and The Thurston
Moore Band.
30 diymag.com

T H E G R E AT
ESCAPE
The Great Escape announces Alabama
Shakes, Tobias Jesso Jr., Girl Band and
more
Brighton’s The Great Escape has
announced its first batch of names,
with Alabama Shakes set to play the
festival’s biggest stage, Brighton Dome.
Having now completed recording
on their new album, the Southern
rockers head up a bill that also includes
songwriter Tobias Jesso Jr. and Dublin’s
Girl Band, who also recently played
DIY’s stage at Roundhouse Rising.
Other highlights in the first wave arrive
in the shape of London trio Real Lies,
Gengahr, Bully, Jack Garratt, Oceaán,
Django Django, Flo Morrissey,
Menace Beach, Slaves and Soak.
There’s also The Magic Gang, Tei Shi,
Lapsley, Kevin Devine, Banofee, Yak
and Pins
The festival takes place from 14th - 17th
May.
SPOTLIGHT
ON... ALT-J
There’s no understating the pulling
power of Alt-J. The trio have always
managed to draw quite a crowd, most
recently filling arenas like The O2. Fancy
checking out what the fuss is all about? Here are
just a few places you’ll be able to spot them this
summer: Coachella, California (10th - 12th April /
17th - 19th April); Best Kept Secret, Netherlands
(19th - 21st June); Flow Festival, Finland (14th
- 16th August); Bilbao BBK Live, Spain (9th -
11th July); Melt! Festival, Germany (17th
- 19th July); Longitude Festival,
Ireland (17th - 19th July).
R E A D I N G &
LEEDS
Mumford and Sons to headline Reading
& Leeds 2015
The cat’s out the bag: Mumford and
Sons will return to Reading & Leeds
Festival to headline the Main Stage.
The band, who last performed at the
weekender back in 2010, have risen
through the ranks and will now join
previously-announced headliners
Metallica as two of the acts due to
close proceedings.
Thunderous duo Royal Blood (playing
third from top on the Main Stage)
and the chart-bothering boys in
Bastille have also been confirmed to
make massive appearances during
the festival along with DIY favourites
Years & Years and Wolf Alice also due
to perform during the August Bank
Holiday weekend.
Elsewhere on the line-up, deadmau5
and Rebel Sound (featuring members
of Chase & Status, Rage, David Rodigan
and Shy FX) have been confirmed
to appear, along with Catfish and
the Bottlemen, Pretty Vicious,
Jack Garratt and Hannah Wants,
who complete the most recent
announcement.
They join Metallica, Jamie T,
Manchester Orchestra, Pierce The
Veil, Wilkinson, Run The Jewels and
Refused, who were announced to play
this year’s event back in December.
Reading & Leeds Festival takes
place from 28th - 30th August.
FESTIVAL
NEWS
I N B R I E F
PRIMAVERA SOUND
27th - 30th May
Primavera Sound 2015 has announced its
line up for this year’s edition. The Spanish
festival, held at Parc Del Forum, will play
host to the likes of The Strokes, The
Replacements, The Black Keys, Belle
and Sebastian, Ride, Sleater-Kinney,
Patti Smith, Run the Jewels, Alt-J,
Interpol and James Blake.
ARCTANGENT
20th - 22nd August
Deafheaven, The Dillinger Escape
Plan, 65daysofstatic and Rolo Tomassi
are amongst the first acts to be confirmed
to play at this year’s ArcTanGent Festival.
They’ll be joined at the Bristol weekender
by Her Name Is Calla, Talons, Tangled
Hair, Helms Alee, Marriages and Black
Peaks.
BEST KEPT SECRET
19th - 21st June
53 acts have been confirmed for this
year’s Best Kept Secret Festival: Alt-J and
Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds
lead the first wave of acts, with The
Libertines, Royal Blood and Death Cab
For Cutie also confirmed to play, along
with The Vaccines and Future Islands.
Kendal Calling
30th July - 2nd August
The Vaccines, Elbow and Snoop Dogg
have been confirmed for Kendal Calling,
alongside Kaiser Chiefs, James, The
Horrors, British Sea Power, Palace and
Kate Tempest. The Lake District festival,
which is celebrating its tenth anniversary
this year, has also confirmed plans to
expand to a four-day event.
END OF THE ROAD
4th - 6th September
End Of The Road Festival is gearing
up to celebrate its tenth birthday this
year and they’ve now revealed their
three headliners: Sufjan Stevens,
Tame Impala and The War On Drugs.
Elsewhere on the line-up, you’ll find the
likes of live favourites Future Islands,
Django Django, Pond and Alvvays.
31

NEU
Bump into this free-minded trio while they’re on tour and you’ll end up in a wild anecdote - Yak’s
adventures are just beginning. Words: Jamie Milton. Photo: Emma Swann
yak
32 diymag.com

“ I l i k e
r e p e t i t i v e ,
s t u p i d m u s i c -
beans music.” -
Oliver Burslem
London trio Yak are already so experienced
with this touring business, they’ve got
their own favourite service stations. “We
get up to all sorts at those places,” jokes
frontman Oliver Burslem, mischievously.
“I couldn’t possibly go into it…”
All the talk surrounding Burslem, bassist Andy Jones
and drummer Elliot Rawson - and there’s a lot of it -
circuits around their live reputation. Fierce, far-flung
shows go into the deep beyond by default. Walls
shake, floorboards rattle and lured-in onlookers go
cross-eyed. It’s absorbing to an extreme. But that’s
just the half of it.
It’s when Yak get off stage that things begin to
take a life of their own. A hazy-effect video for
debut single ‘Hungry Heart’ probably overstates
the acid-like trip of it all, but it’s not far off. Among
the various stories that Burslem lists off, best of
all is “going to a metal night and meeting some
guy from Ghana”, partying with Bristol gig-going
legend Big Jeff before “going back to the hotel
and playing backgammon” and Jones getting lost
in a Sunderland casino. Every city brings a new
escapade, and with support slots on forthcoming
Peace and Palma Violets tours around the corner,
Yak aren’t going to keep quiet.
The group formed on a whim, according to Burslem,
who’s known Jones since they were both twelve.
“We gave up playing, and then a year ago we
thought we’d get together and have a bit of a bash.
Elliot sent us a message saying, ‘Do you want some
drums?’ We said, ‘Are you any good?’ and he said
‘Yes’.” Simple as that.
When it comes to the true bare bones of these
three, the backstory isn’t as unpredictable as their
tour anecdotes. Sonically, there’s no fancy stuff, no
gimmicks to latch on to. “‘Hungry Heart’ is about
two notes. It’s not rocket science. I love simple
music. I like repetitive, stupid music - beans music,”
says the frontman. “We’re used to doing work. This
isn’t work - this is just a big holiday, really. As long as
the offers come in, I’ll play every night.”
“For any bands who say it’s hard work, it’s fucking
bullshit,” Burslem adds. “We went and played
Glasgow, I drove all the way there, played the gig,
drank all night and made our way to Sunderland,
piece of piss, woke up the next morning. It’s really,
really easy,” he claims, rocked up in the back of
the band’s knackered but loveable tour
van, lightbulbs hanging from the roof
by a single, struggling wire. It’s not
paradise, but it’s clearly where Yak
belong. Now the live game’s been
honed to the nth degree, expect this
journey to go onwards and upwards.
DIY
Yak will play The
Great Escape. See
diymag.com for
details.
33

HONNE’s music career is going better
than the cereal cafe.
NEWS
I N B R I E F
THE ALMOST RETURN
OF LATE OF THE PIER
It’s not the actual comeback of beloved
late ‘00s nutter Late of the Pier, but
it’s close. LA Priest is the new project
of Sam Dust, loopy lead vocalist for
the group. He’s signed to Domino,
with a debut track (‘Oino’) streaming
now. A bundling together of psychnodding
synths and tightly-wound
guitar patterns, it’s not the full “Late
of the Pier never left” effect, but it’s
undoubtedly the next best thing. Listen
on diymag.com.
BEST FRIENDS
ANNOUNCE DEBUT LP
Sheffield garage punks Best Friends
have signed a deal with FatCat,
announcing their debut album in the
process. The brilliantly titled ‘Hot.
Reckless. Totally Insane’ is out 18th
May. It includes fan favourite ‘Happy
Anniversary’ and the bonkers ‘Shred
Til You’re Dead’, which premiered on
DIY. New song ‘Fake Spit’ goes even
further into the murky depths - listen
on diymag.com.
HONNE
topple the hype at sold out London show
neu
The capital’s Electrowerkz hosts a showcase in smoky soul
Lake District duo Honne played just their second London show to
a sold out Electrowerkz crowd. Going on first name terms (Andy
and James) the past few months hasn’t exactly been all smoke and
mirrors for the duo, but tonight’s showcase is all about clarity.
First off, it’s a show defined by slick, IRL instrumentation - a big feat, given every one
of Honne’s showy soul tracks sound digitised to an extreme. Detailed production
finds a perfect home on stage, Andy’s vocals being the kind that could break glass
or at least change mood lighting, on demand. Seductive so and sos, their already
heated-up tracks fit snugly into a packed out setting. Best of all is ‘The Night’, a
brutally honest, slick-as-hell showcase of just how far these two could go. Expect
them to be right at the front of every 2016 tip list.
WHO IS HANNAH
DIAMOND?
Back in 2014, Hannah Diamond came
off like the most hyper-real, digitised
strand of internet label PC Music. Cut
to twelve months later, and she’s the
complete opposite, evidenced in a
new four minute video where she tells
fans everything they need to know
about her creative inspirations. In ‘Who
is Hannah Diamond?’ - the first of a
series of HDTV videos - the London
newcomer talks about her interests and
her working relationship with PC Music
head A. G. Cook. She also says there’s
something in the works with SOPHIE
that’s a “really special project.”
MOURN
Catalan Captured Tracks signings are readying their first LP.
neu
Carla Pérez Vas and Jazz Rodríguez Bueno form half of MOURN,
a duo who met in school and immediately bonded over anger,
boredom and a love of ironic criticism of their schoolmates. That,
and “90s sounds and punk”. The next logical step then was to start
making music. It all amounts to their first full-length, a riotous self-titled album. It
arrives with little to no build-up, just a selection of no-bullshit, brutally raw punk
tracks. In an interview with DIY, Pérez Vas lifts light on how the group came to be.
Alongside explaining the decision to write and sing in second language English, and
why she didn’t think the band would get everywhere, she reveals that there’s a new
EP on the cards.
Read the full interview on diymag.com.
34 diymag.com

The world
according to
Oscar
Whether it’s meditating, hanging out with his dog or writing songs for MKS, Oscar
Scheller gives the impression of a guy who’s got the world solved. Words: Jamie Milton.
Photo: Emma Swann
Oscar Scheller is just as likely to be glued to
a screen or in the doldrums as the rest of us,
neu
but his sunny-aesthetic pop brings a new
perspective. By the close of his headline set
at DIY’s Hello 2015 show, beaming smiles are
replicated from stage to crowd. The songs
he sports don’t glaze over sad stuff and nasty reality, but the
‘Daffodil Days’ are near - Oscar wants the world to know.
Given his history, it’s mad that it’s taken so long for this North
Londoner to find the spotlight. Now signed to Wichita, for the
past couple of years he’s been uploading quick-witted pop
songs online, progression marking every move. But beyond
that, his old band had an EP produced by near-neighbour and
PC Music head A. G. Cook, Scheller penned a song for MKS
that lost out to Dev Hynes, and he found solace from rejection
in various dub-inspired side-projects. The guy’s been around
- only now are heads truly beginning to turn. “I guess there’s a
lot of R&B-infused electronic stuff that’s super popular. It ticks
boxes and it’s sad and sexy. The music I’m making - I don’t
think you could call it sad and sexy,” he says, trying to explain
2k15 trends and blog hype. “I don’t really understand that
world. I don’t think I ever will.”
Don’t label him old fashioned, but Oscar has a thing or two to
say about this generation’s screen-tapping default mode. Part
of his university dissertation was on “how spiritually bereft
the 21st century is.” He’s not alone in digesting music with
scatterbrained, everything-at-once enthusiasm. Pretty much
everyone in their twenties
has ten tabs open and a
Spotify playlist at the ready.
“It’s a Tinder ethos to life,”
he reflects.
There’s a couple of solutions
to that. First is the songs
Scheller’s put to his name,
which tackle heavy topics
with a day-glo, anthemic
mood swing. When it
comes to Oscar’s own
personal means of escape
from the online world, he’ll
always opt for music and
meditation. One thing’s
for certain - there needs
to be an escape. “It’s so
quick, the turnover. There’s
a trend, another article,
another Vine,” he lists off.
Or another buzz act - but
Oscar’s got more behind
his wings than everyday
hype. His music doesn’t
sit in one defined era or
bracket, leaving him free to
go just about everywhere,
FLATLINED
Oscar’s big ambition is to
write massive pop songs
for other artists. He came
close in 2012 when a post-
Sugababes MKS had to
choose between a song by
him or Dev Hynes, when
deciding how to launch
their new career. “I wrote
them a sassy UK garage
track, very English. It would
have got them back on
the map,” he says. Instead
they went for ‘Flatline’ and
a Kendrick Lamar cover,
and the rest is soon-to-beforgotten
history.
be it meditative dub or clickhappy,
perky pop.
Now the wheels are
turning, Scheller’s referring
to a couple of trusty routines
in order to stay grounded.
“Scrubbing the kitchen
floor” and “picking up your
own dog shit” are his two
picks. “My dog is the best
thing in the world. He looks
stoned and dopey most of
the time. That’s why dogs
are so good for humans.
They’re so basic, in a way. If
only we all lived like dogs.
They don’t have to check
Facebook or anything.”
Oscar’s new single
‘Daffodil Days’ / ’Caramel
Brown’ is out now via
Wichita Recordings. DIY
35

YUNG
neu
Yung preach from the same sheet as disillusioned post-teens from any
part of the world, not just Scandinavia. But already they’re being billed
alongside fellow punk stalwarts from that side of Europe, Iceage and
Lower. Part of this stems from their hectic live shows - a guaranteed source
of refuge.
Frontman Mikkel Holm cites the group’s debut show as a turning point. Throwing a release
show for his own label, Shordwood Records, it was a “landmark” moment, he says. “It was
at that show I realised that there were endless possibilities.” And given their clattering
first work, they sound like they have the potential to go anywhere.
He cites hometown Aarhus’ “large forest areas” as a big inspiration for escape. “I wouldn’t
have been the same person if I hadn’t grown up in Aarhus,” Holm says. “The people I’ve
been surrounded by in the scene have moulded me.” It’s here where Yung have built a rep
as one of Denmark’s brightest forces.
“For a long time I didn’t want to play music simply because I didn’t want to be like my
dad,” he says, but at the age of sixteen he formed his first band. Cut a couple of years
forward and he admits he’s writing songs “to escape from the banal aspects in my
everyday life,” and it’s blazingly evident on ‘Alter’, a release that paves the way for
something even bigger.
Yung’s new EP ‘Alter’ will be released on 2nd March via Tough Love. DIY
WHEN WE
WERE YUNG
Mikkel Holm discusses his
early days.
First musical crushes: “I grew
up listening to New Model
Army, Adam and the Ants,
Killing Joke, Bad Brains, Abba,
Nirvana, Gorilla Angreb,
Weezer, New Order.”
First musical experience: “I’ve
always been surrounded by
music; pretty much everyone
in my family is in someway
involved with music. When I
went to kindergarten my dad
used to pick me up on the
way to his rehearsal space. I
remember sitting in the back
of the room at another drum
set pounding along, while his
band were practicing.”
LITTLE LABEL
Neu takes a look at the record labels responsible for breakthrough releases, big or small.
Steak Club is a newly-fashioned
imprint devoted (so far) to one brilliant
band. Boston trio Krill prove that it
takes just one act - and one record, ‘A
Distant Fist Unclenching’ - to get the
label wheels turning. We spoke to Joe
Parry about starting Steak Club up
with Blood and Biscuits’ Simon Morley.
How long have you been wanting to
start a label and how did Steak Club
come together?
I’d always wanted to start releasing
records, but it wasn’t until I heard Krill
that it made sense. I was attempting to
get Simon and after chatting to him over
some Wetherspoons pints, Steak Club
was born. We both loved Krill so much
that we just couldn’t do nothing.
What would be your biggest tip for
anyone looking to start something up
like Steak Club?
You have to love everything you do,
start small and do your research! You’ll
soon realise there are a lot of boring
parts of running a label, so it’s important
you are passionate about what you’re
doing, otherwise it gets old quickly. it’s
also really easy to waste money in the
wrong places.
What’s next? Any new releases in the
pipeline?
There’s a few things we’re looking
into at the moment, so keep your eyes
peeled. We’re thinking about doing a
split/compilation which should help
to further define what it is we’re all
about. A release show for that would be
amazing.
36 diymag.com

neu
RECOMMENDED
THIS
MONTH IN
EPS
Baby steps or bold next
moves, there’s a bunch of
exciting new releases out
this March, from disco-led
nostalgia to raucousness
defined. Here’s our pick of
the bunch:
London
O’Connor
A space invading, genre-hopping rapper like few others.
London O’Connor’s burst out of nowhere as a multi-talented bolt out of the blue. The guy can
direct his own videos, skate like a pro and make music that links up with Raury in being rap-led
before steering off into countless directions. His first ever track, ‘OATMEAL’, was about a fictional
uncle who did nothing but eat. Second self-produced number ‘love song’ upped the stakes,
diving between Frank Ocean-style sentiment and spacious electronics. “This song is about
romance,” reads a description, like this guy is ever the type to stick to one subject.
Listen: ‘OATMEAL’ is available to listen to in video game form.
For Fans Of: Sedated trips into the future.
Diet Cig.
.the
.moon.
.Savoir.
Truth-spitting, brutally honest garage punk.
Diet Cig don’t fuck around. Take ‘Harvard’, for example, a song
that has Alex Luciano damning a dick ex-boyfriend with an
“Ivy League sweater” for choosing a boring girl over her. “FUCK
YOUR IVY LEAGUE SWEATER, YOU KNOW I WAS BETTER” she
bursts, in turn announcing her band as one of 2015’s most
forthright names around.
Listen: EP ‘Over Easy’ is out now on Father / Daughter.
For Fans Of: Interventions, being sassy on social media.
Clattering into view, one reality-check at a time.
Last month, Our Girl stood out as one of the best acts to play
DIY’s Hello 2015 showcases. It’s not the only project Soph
Nathan’s putting her name to. She’s also in The Moon, a
London-based, fully-charged prospect. ‘Eureka Moment’’s
fuzz-inclined sound recalls early PJ Harvey, but The Moon’s
revelations arrive in a dastardly, devilish form.
Listen: Debut ‘Eureka Moment’ is a special epiphany.
For Fans Of: PJ Harvey.
A bright spark from the other side of the world.
Something’s stirring Down Under. Savoir are a trio of
producers and experimental pop addicts, striking fast with
a groove-led debut release. They’re led by Mei Swan, whose
own solo material recalls Björk on her first ever Arca binge.
Together, with James Ireland and Andrew Sinclair in tow, they
make for a transformative project worthy of obsession.
Listen: Debut track ‘Zinli Rhythm’ remains a standard-bearer.
For Fans Of: Peaking Lights, dub-led pop.
Formation
Young Ones
One sold out white label to
the good, South London
duo Formation are one
of the hottest prospects
around. Their nostalgialaced,
strutting take on funk
does everything but directly
look back to the past. On
new EP ‘Young Ones’, they
successfully channel disco
fever while showing the way
forward. It’s out 23rd March.
ElEL
ELEL
Eight-piece
group ELEL
give off a deranged, tribal
effect on their debut EP, a
self-titled first work with one
foot in summer camp and
the other firmly on the gas
pedal. This bunch like to look
forward, as evidenced on
their delightfully unorthodox
first work, out 3rd March on
Mom + Pop.
Y u m i
Zouma
II
Following one
of last year’s most hyped first
releases, airmile-racking trio
Yumi Zouma’s second work
is a similarly glossy, dreamabsorbed
take on pop. Out
10th March on Cascine,
honesty is countered with
glassy-eyed synths and
arms-wide-open melodies.
37

Travelling around
America, weathering
a hurricane and nearly
joining a cult; Laura
Marling has had a hell
of a couple of years.
Now she’s back and
comfortably settled in
London, about to release
her fifth album, ‘Short
Movie’. El Hunt popped
round her house to find
out more…
Photos: Mike Massaro
38 diymag.com

“
A n y o n
e
f o
h u m m
r
u
s
or a while, I thought I wasn’t going to come
back to music,” states Laura Marling, taking
a drag of a cigarette, before tossing her
lighter off to one side to provide dramatic
emphasis.
“I really
thought
that.”
Aged just
16, Laura
put pen
to paper,
signing a
?
fivealbum
contract
with
major label Virgin Records. Music quite
literally became her life. Over the next eight
years she travelled and played huge iconic
venues across the world in several drawnout
stints of touring, and released four
albums; three of which were nominated for
the prestigious Mercury Prize. A staple artist
on the folk scene by the time she turned 20,
she seemed to have everything. Everything,
that is, except roots.
“I was so exhausted and out of touch with
the pace of normal life,” Laura says, sitting
crossed-legged, surveying her Bethnal
Green living room. She’s watched back by
a quizzical-looking stuffed owl on a table
across the room. “I was dealing with a lot
of shit, and feeling like I wasn’t part of the
planet in any way. I was like, what the fuck
am I doing with my life? I had to think, am
I interesting? If I took the music away, and
the travel away, and I had to sit down and
actually chat to somebody, would I be able
to do it? The conclusion that I came to is
that I would. But I don’t need to. It makes
me really grateful that I do what I do. It fits
me pretty perfectly.”
She might be gladly back in London now,
but Laura’s vague wandering search
for belonging took her to a peculiar
destination; the thronging, neon-lit
39

dreamland of Los Angeles. While she was there she took up “a fairly odd, specific kind of transcendental
yoga,” and she adopts a theatrical faux-whisper for a second, “marijuana. Psychedelics and stuff.
But that was only very occasional,” she hastens to add. “I was pretty close to joining a cult,” she says
casually, as an aside. “If you aren’t attached to anything, you can dangerously teeter on the edge of
becoming a professional vagrant. It feels a huge relief to be back. I found LA liberating, and actually too
much, in the end.”
“And,” laughs Laura, continuing, “I quit smoking for eight months. A lot of stuff comes up when you
don’t have a cigarette in your hand.” She pauses to blow a puff of smoke out of the window as if on cue.
Evidently she’s over being straight-edge these days.
Throwing herself into LA life and occult extra-curricular pursuits, in the middle of what she dubs her
quarter-life crisis, Laura didn’t end up over-doing the wacky-baccy and wandering round barefoot in
white robes - though she points out that, in LA, that would probably be acceptable. She didn’t end up
finding spiritual enlightenment, either. “Psychedelics, transcendental yoga, silent retreats - whatever
takes you to see the face of God - that’s cool. But you have to be able to take it into modern life. I
started to feel that this isn’t the way, or the answer. Nature isn’t good or kind. People have darkness
in them. The message in that, and all of the occult stuff, is just be human.”
“It’s given me such a fresh love of people,” she concludes. “I value human connection now,
above all other things. My criteria for judgement of other people, and myself, has changed.”
Connection, context and rewriting your own narrative is the crux of Laura
Marling’s fifth album, ‘Short Movie’. While travelling around the East Coast
of America and touring fairly anonymously “on my tod”, she befriended
an old hippy in Mount Shasta, where “a lot of hippies moved in the 60s,
because they believed that an alien spacecraft lived at the top of a mountain. It’s
on Wikipedia.” Her new acquaintance apparently bookended almost every farfetched
tale with “it’s a short fucking movie, man.” It became, explains Laura, “the
over-riding sentiment of what was driving me to do what I was doing,” and it
tellingly became the bookend of her own record, too.
“I just got really into the idea that the life we live, as contemporary humans, is
constructed,” she expands. “We build our reality, and give ourselves a story.
We tell ourselves who we are in context to where we’re born, or what we do.
I took myself out of that, and gave myself a new context. Human life is so
short, and silly, and insignificant, in an enormous and incomprehensibly
expansive universe. I still feel really strongly that I can get really dark, and
at that time,” she says, referring to the last two years, “I was really dark.
But I need to believe that there is fantasy; a surrealness to life beyond our
control... a creative force in the universe.”
Since returning to England, Laura’s been reading lots of occultist
literature, she says, brandishing an arm to wave roughly in the direction
of Gurdjieff’s Collected Works; a ridiculously proportioned book the size
of a very square-looking cat. It’s currently acting as a doorstop. ‘Gurdjieff’s
Daughter’ - a song where she recites mantras like “don’t be impressed
by strong personalities” and “never give orders just to be obeyed” - is
inspired by the writing of Chilean spiritual guru and avant-garde film-maker,
Alejandro Jodorowsky. She tosses this into conversation lightly, as if referring
to her personal recipe for guacamole. “He was tracked down by [the mystic,]
Gurdjieff’s daughter. She shoved him into a taxi after the premiere of one of his
films, took him off to a hotel room, and...” she hesitates, attempting to form the
right words, “did some... acts, upon him,” she coughs. “It’s really weird stuff that
they were doing, and she was proving her capacity for sexual - and therefore,
creative - power,” she goes on. “She said, I’ve tracked you down because you have
to learn these moral values and put it into your art form, get it into the world.”
Flitting between tiny American towns, in a car stacked up with old records from
1969 (“I just noticed I was buying a lot of records from that year,” she shrugs) and
textbooks by mystics, Laura had a sort of existential revelation, and eventually she
returned to writing with a new outlook. She allowed herself to “fall in love” with a
1959 Gibson 335 electric guitar, and in doing so, had to adapt to a totally new way of playing.
“Shaking it up a bit, and rolling the dice again,” opened her eyes to music again; she stopped
feeling weary and contractually obliged to write. “I’ve got the joy back,” she smiles.
“I think my reality bounds got taken down to an extent where I felt like I wasn’t constricted to
40 diymag.com

“I need to believe that there
is fantasy; a surrealness to
life beyond our control.” -
Laura Marling
41

“I was like, what the fuck
am I doing with my life?”
Laura Marling
anything,” she adds. “I don’t think I
took a particularly wide step out of
what I was doing before, but I made the
beginnings of a step. I hope to expand
on that.”
“Complete insignificance is really
liberating,” she nods emphatically.
Laura says she takes herself less
seriously these days, and she openly
admits that in the past being a musician
felt a little too ego-driven. “[The last
two years] took away my own selfimportance,
and lightened me up a bit,
made me a bit more playful,” she says,
“‘Short Movie’ is less Romantic. The
pursuit of Romanticism didn’t appeal
to me anymore, and I mean in a poetic
sense. I wasn’t trying to make gods of
men anymore, or poetry of situations.
I was just observing.” She pauses. “It’s
allowed me to take myself less seriously.
But,” she adds as a disclaimer, ”not to
the extent that I’m a complete goof.”
It’s safe to say that Laura Marling
is in no danger of being a goof.
Between albums she applied for a
poetry course in upstate New York,
under a pseudonym, and was flat-out
refused admission. “I thought it’d be
the perfect thing to distract me from
actually having to sit still. I worked
really hard for it, but I didn’t get in.”
She shrugs, and throws her lighter up
in a somersault. “It was a challenge to
myself, to see if I could be vulnerable in
a different way. And I was vulnerable,”
she concludes.
For the first time Laura took up a seat in
the production chair for ‘Short Movie,’ a
transition which she openly admits was
daunting, too, “because I didn’t want
to waste people’s time, I didn’t want
to dither.” ‘Safe As Milk’ by Captain
Beefheart, she says, is a huge influence
on this record. “They went mental
with panning - they have a kick drum
up here, and snare drum down there,”
she enthuses, picking random points
42 diymag.com

in the air. “When you listen it’s like he’s
in the middle of your brain. It’s really
disorientating and brilliant. We were
playing with panning a lot on this.”
“[Producing] really took away the
mystery, in a good way,” she adds.
“Who’s the guy with the beard?” she
asks, moving towards the window for
yet another smoke. “Rick Rubin. He’s the
ultimate mystery.” It helped her to get
right underneath the song’s skin, then?
“Yeaaah,” she says slowly, turning the
question over. “Under the song’s skin. I
was like, ‘oh, you don’t know anything’,
Again, proving to myself that I don’t
know anything.”
Laura has a reputation for
being fiercely guarded about
her personal life, both in
interviews, and as a songwriter.
Today, though, not so much. On her
last album, ‘Once I Was An Eagle’ she
transformed herself into a bird of prey,
a master hunter, and the water spirit
Undine. ‘I Speak Because I Can’ - a song
she released aged 18 - was delivered
through the voice box of an aging,
“poor and lonely wife.” It would be
wildly exaggerating to call ‘Short Movie’
- or indeed Laura Marling - a totally
open book, but the arm with which she
holds back her audience has grown
shorter. “Definitely,” she laughs, “yeah.”
‘False Hope’ she explains, is her most
patently autobiographical song, a
panning camera following three days
that she spent trapped in a New York Air
BnB during Hurricane Sandy. “Is it still
ok, that I don’t know how to be alone?”
she asks, and it soon transforms into
“is it still ok that I don’t know how to
be, at all?” She’s fearful, upfront, and
unmuddied by complex imagery. On
‘Short Movie’ Laura Marling doesn’t
speak because she can, she speaks
because she needs to know that she’s
not alone.
43

Laura’s Mardy
What gets
up in Laura’s
grill?
Herself
“Anybody who
reminds me of
me. People who
threaten my
individuality.
That’s definitely
the most
annoying
thing.”
When the feng
shui’s off
“I have a habit
of constantly
rearranging
furniture. I
don’t think
I’ve ever been
happy with an
arrangement
of furniture,
anywhere. I’m
not happy with
this right now.”
Going to huge
gigs
“I hate going
to big venues. I
really don’t like
shows in that
environment,
I want to feel
special in the
audience.”
A distinct lack
of marriage
offers
“No marriage
proposals yet
on this tour. I
must’ve lost my
edge.”
“I was with a boyfriend who I’d only just met, and we were stuck
in this tight, dark apartment,” she says. “At the end of the street
there was a Trader Joe’s [grocery store], and there was a queue
round the block to get in, and there were only candles. There was
this woman,” she says, “who was downstairs, and not with it at all,
and she came and knocked on our door. She was just terrified. We
checked on her a lot. I didn’t like the idea of someone living in this
horr..” she stops herself suddenly. “Harsh, not horrible. Not being
looked after. It had such an effect on me, those three days. They
did what they did in the movies, they fucking cut off the bridges!”
she exclaims. “We had to get on this dodgy mini-van that was
leaving to the airport. I think we went to Canada, because... oh, he’s
Canadian! Escape to Canada.” She laughs to herself. If her old friend
from Mount Shasta was here, he’d undoubtedly be shaking his
head, and adding “it’s a short fucking movie, man.”
“I think I could get away with saying only half what I say, no?” asks
Laura on the title track, over grating strings, gathering motion,
eventually deciding “I don’t mind”. Her convoluted journey to this
record took her from Hollywood and the Flintstones landscape
of Joshua Tree, to mountain carparks for UFOs and finally, back
to London. Along the way “I lost my shame about being afraid,
or being lonely, or being weird,” she says. “It’s probably the most
important thing that I’ve learnt so far.” For the first time, Laura
Marling seems to have written an album that she hopes liberates
other people as well as herself. “I hope that, should anyone have
experienced anything similar to what I’ve experienced, that they
feel comforted by it, or liberated by it, and unashamed of anything
to do with the darker sides of being human.”
“Right,” says Laura, rising from the sofa and making for the kitchen.
“I’m hungry. Crisps and hummus?”
Laura Marling’s new album ‘Short Movie’ will be released on
23rd March via Virgin Records. DIY
“Nature isn’t good
or kind. People have
darkness in them.” -
Laura Marling
44 diymag.com

45

46 diymag.com

He’s six foot seven, one record to the
good and his serious 70s songwriter
style doesn’t hide a goofy ‘Goon’ behind
the wheel. Words: Jamie Milton. Photos:
Emma Swann
MeeT
T o b i a s J e s s o J r .
Tobias Jesso Jr. doesn’t mess around. He’s
about as direct as a suckerpunch to the
chest, from songs to sense of humour.
As tall as Peter Crouch (#indiepete), as
likeable as your next best friend, his early
days were defined by smoky demos, detuned pianos
and just enough mystique to lure in a loyal crowd.
Now the cards are on the table, first album ‘Goon’
being the most pronounced, heartbroken debut
since Bon Iver dusted the snow off his laptop and
cried in a cabin for several weeks straight.
Serious isn’t his style, mind you. The draw of Tobias
Jesso Jr.’s music is the honesty factor, truths flung
out song after song. Emotions are wrung dry, the
odd tear guaranteed, but behind the music is a
good-humoured guy just looking to get by. Case in
point: A new video he’s thought up by himself to
help promote a tour in Asia. “It starts with a marquee,
saying “Tobias Jesso Jr. plays live tonight” in Japanese
writing,” he begins. “It shows everyone running away,
screaming, bursting out of the marquee. And then it
shows me and I’m taller than the buildings.”
The punchline? “It goes: ‘Tobias Jesso Jr. - he’s huge
in Japan!’”
By this point he’s guffawing, almost rolling on the
floor in fits of laughter. “Huge in Japan!” he repeats.
“That’s so funny. I love that stuff. That’s just silliness.”
He’s serious in saying that it’s being commissioned.
Going on the music alone, it’s an instinctive reaction
to imagine Tobias as a slightly reclusive, torn up soul,
someone who can only project his true thoughts
in song. Nobody would have known better when
things started out a few years back. So the story
goes, following an unsuccessful fame chase in LA, he
moved back to home town Vancouver to help look
after his mother, who was ill at the time but has since
recovered. During that period, he started penning
songs on piano, scratchy demos recorded in one
single take, which he then sent on to Chet ‘JR’ White
(formerly of Girls). It was this that helped put a music
career in motion. Back he went to LA to record what
would become ‘Goon’, a fuller-sounding, direct-ashell
introduction that topples the hype. Now he’s
hanging out with Haim, picking up praise from Adele
47

and being dubbed as a potential songwriter of his generation.
TOBIAS OR
NOT TOBIAS
Beyond ‘Goon’, the Canadian’s
already thinking big for future
plans.
Working with Haim?
“We’ve been sitting down at
the piano a couple of times. I’ve
written a couple with Alana. But
they’re totally able to write their
own songs and you realise that
when they’re all sitting in the
same room. They work in a crazy,
mysterious way that I don’t quite
understand. It doesn’t really lend
to my style of writing. I like to sit
at a piano and work out a certain
part. Theirs is very much about
you playing something and they’ll
riff and riff and riff and come up
with something. I would just play
the same three chords over and
over, they’d come up with a million
ideas and I’d wanna stop and
focus on one thing. And they’re
logging them all, playing their
little recording devices. We’ll see
- maybe. I could only hope to god
that they’d do something at some
point.”
Meeting Adele?
“She’s top of my top. When I saw
her tweet about me, it was a
winning moment. It was like, ‘Oh,
can I talk to her?’”
More songs?
“I had forty-five, forty-six songs
written for the album. I want to
get them all on flexis, and put
them into LPs at random, as we
print them out. People could start
trading them, you know? And
since the first album there’s been
another fifty. I don’t know what I
want to do.”
It’s a sentiment that he shrugs off. Compared to Randy Newman
and 70s stalwarts from day one, Tobias says he “can’t compare to
those guys - they’ve had the time to wear into people’s hearts.”
The parallels crop up, he says, simply because his producers were
sending him seventies classics at the time of recording. “I’m not
gonna lie about the music I grew up listening to,” he starts. “I’m
not gonna go, ‘My parents played me Bob Dylan when I was three
years old.’ No - I was listening to Vanilla Ice. Sum 41, Goldfinger,
Blink-182, Red Hot Chili Peppers - that’s what me and my friends
were listening to.” Shunning the seventies for a second, the one
song he’d always play in the studio as a reference point was
Britney Spears’ ‘Toxic’. “I was like, ‘This is it. This is the one. That’s
got it’.” The guy shouting “How could you babe?” in sky-reaching
hysteria? The songwriter who says he thinks he’s “gonna die in
Hollywood” over gloomy minor keys? That’s one side of Tobias
Jesso Jr. - here’s the rest.
Those early songs, penned way back when in the Vancouver days,
became a source of refuge for anyone discovering Jesso Jr. online.
Creaky, intimate takes, they’re a huge reason why the Canadian
is where he is today. Listening to a song like ‘True Love’, which
didn’t make the full-length, it sounds like someone’s peering
into a stranger’s living room, hearing him pour out his soul like
nobody’s watching. With that in mind, ‘Goon’ is a risk. Tobias
ditches the demo quality for something richer, backed by strings
and booming horn sections. “I’ve seen it already, people asking
why I’ve added more to songs they already like,” he says. “People
going, ‘I think he’s mucked it all up’. These guys might get demoitis.
And it’s a way of saying, ‘I was listening to the demos before
you’. But I was proud of how the record came out. Same with JR,
same with the mixer. And if the label likes it, fuck it, people don’t
have to like it.”
There’s a surprise in store for anyone approaching the album like
they know Tobias Jesso Jr. inside out. And it’s easy to get that kind
of impression from someone who writes so honestly as a default
mode. That’s not to say ‘Goon’ isn’t as heart-on-sleeve as early
material. “I thought this was my last shot,” he says, referring to
the second trip to LA, when things finally began to come good. “I
thought things might just blow into smoke and disappear all of a
sudden.” With that, there’s an anxiety to the record, an urgency
that sweeps up the demo cobwebs and produces a nervous,
excitable debut.
For the first time in memory, he seems to know where he’s
heading. Since recording the debut, he went straight into writing
fifty more songs. One of these is called ‘Where Will I Be’, a selfexplanatory
extension of the album’s self-doubt. “It’s something
that for me was a big issue when I had no idea of where things
were going. I was 27 and I had no idea. I think a lot of people
feel that way. So a song that goes into that is a pretty universal
theme.” Now, things are falling into place. “I kind of know what
my next year looks like,” he understates, still buzzing from just
hearing the news that his first London show sold out in an hour.
“If we have to grow the venues already, I don’t know what I’m
gonna do. I’m just getting used to playing for thirty, forty people.
I don’t want to play for three-hundred yet. I’m just making sure
it’s good enough to stick by it for a long period of time. I’m
playing my first tour solo, just because I don’t want these people
coming to see this big band with huge expectations. I’m
introducing people to me first.”
Tobias Jesso Jr.’s debut album ‘Goon’ will be released on
16th March via True Panther Sounds. DIY
Tobias
Jesso Jr.
will play Live
at Leeds and The
Great Escape. See
diymag.com for
details.
48 diymag.com

WHAT’S IN A
NAME?
Tobias explains the meaning
behind ‘Goon’’s title.
“I just came up with a word in
my head. It’s a nice word. I like
the ‘G’ and the ‘o’’s. It was so
small. It was something I knew
I would never say in a song,
either. Strictly a title. I thought
of “fool” as well, but I might
say that in a song. I could never
call it “love”. I tried to think of
a meaning for it, and it’s about
a thug who just simply cannot
express love. And there’s the
reference to the Goonies, which
I loved as a kid. They’re these
lovesick teenagers in this fantasy
world. So I thought it worked.
But realistically, it was just a
word I liked. When I told JR the
title he was like, ‘I love that, it’s
making fun of yourself’, which I
suppose it is.”
“ F u c k
it, p e o p l e
d o n ’ t h a v e
to like it.”
T o b i a s
Jesso Jr.
49

PEDESTRIAN
AT BEST
Courtney Barnett adopts
a defensive mentality for
table tennis.
50 diymag.com

With her dry wit and knack for self-deprecation, Courtney Barnett is anything but pedestrian. Words: El Hunt. Photos: Mike Massaro
There are lots of things that Courtney Barnett
claims she’s not very good at. Anyone
who’s seen the video for ‘Avant Gardener’
from 2013’s ‘The Double EP: A Sea of Split
Peas’ will know she’s rubbish at using inhalers and
smoking bongs, not to mention that her two-handed
backhand shots leave more than a little to be desired.
As evidenced by the video for ‘Pedestrian At Best’ -
the first single from her debut album - clowning isn’t
her ideal profession, either. She can’t make balloon
animals, and she has a tendency to misfire water
pistols. Fair enough. “I’ve got such a bad memory,”
she says. Later on she concedes “sometimes my brain
doesn’t work with words,” along with “I’m not a great
artist or anything.” Now she’s just being very selfdeprecating.
“ I t ’ s l i k e
t u r n i n g
m y b r a i n
i n s i d e
o u t a n d
s h o w i n g
i t t o
e v e r y o n e . ”
C o u r t n e y
B a r n e t t
She might not enjoy sitting on a pedestal, but Courtney Barnett is wrong on that last point. She
is a great artist, as it goes; though she deals in words and killer guitar lines rather than standardissue
paints. Her music regales bizarre, witty little stories in brief snapshots. Her album opener
tells the story of a man who’s sick of his 9-5 job and dreams of being an elevator operator (with
clear skin) instead. When he stands on the roof of Melbourne’s Nicholas Building watching
the ants below, he’s mistaken for somebody contemplating suicide. Really, he’s just skiving off
work, and he’s never been happier. Elsewhere, on ‘Dead Fox’, her thought-tracks wildly career
from nicotine-injected apples to taxidermy kangaroos lying at the side of Hume Highway - the
ten hour long freeway that links her hometown of Melbourne with Sydney - in the space of a
couple of sentences. She’s an artist, alright. She might not have a natural flair for tennis, or in
fact ping-pong, but when it comes to serving up wry observations she outplays everyone else
on the clay.
“It’s like turning my brain inside out and showing it to everyone,” laughs Courtney Barnett,
speaking with the same meandering drawl that characterises her music. “I try to keep my eyes
open and take it all in when I see things. Even if I do see something I love, I forget I walked by
it straight away, but I always remember the feeling that things give me. I keep a little book and
write down absolutely everything,” she says. “A lot of the songs and ideas come from those
ideas, and my drawings. I work on them, and…” she hesitates, tracing a shape on the table.
“What’s the word? Elaborate. Yeah, I elaborate on them more, and they turn into something
else. That ‘Dead Fox’ song grew from taxidermy kangaroos, that one line. It took me another
year to figure out the rest.”
That one line, indeed. “Taxidermy kangaroos are littered on the shoulder / a possum Jackson
Pollock is painted on the tar / sometimes I think a single sneeze could be the end of us.” It’s a
bizarre, macabre mirror image, but it’s disconcertingly funny, too, like a warped hall of mirrors
in an episode of Happy Tree Friends. “So much roadkill!” cackles Courtney, before scrunching
up her face in an unconvincing effort to look more reverent. “So many dead animals, it’s so sad.
But then you see all these stiff…” she grins again, thinking back, “… and I just thought it was
the funniest line. And the possum, Jackson Pollock, as well,” she smiles, “it’s so fucking gross
because there’s blood all over the highway from a dead animal, with gaps everywhere, and
crows eating it.” She laughs, “No, it’s sad.” She falls silent for a moment as if paying her respects
to Jackson. “I thought it was good imagery.”
It’s just one still from the flickering stop-motion book of ‘Sometimes I Sit and Think, and
Sometimes I Just Sit’. “All those different pictures, even though they’re so simple, you can sorta
51

What a racquet! Courtney’s new
album doesn’t hold back
Aussie
quickfire
see what they
mean,” says
Courtney. “It’s
nice being able
to say so much
with so little.
Sometimes it
takes a while to
figure out what
a song’s about,”
she adds. “The
songs off the last
two EPs [‘I’ve Got
a Friend Called
Emily Ferris’ and
‘How to Carve
a Carrot into
a Rose’] have
grown into totally
different things
over the last two
years. They reveal
themselves in
different ways,
I reckon. It’ll be
interesting to
see where these
songs end up.”
Letting her songs
grow into wild
little roaming
creatures that
make their own
way through
the world,
Courtney Barnett
is a relentless
documenter,
and she’s more
interested in
capturing specific
moments than
big floating
concepts.
Everything, she
agrees, is in her
songs already.
Her lyrical
stream-ofconsciousness,
and her unfussy
approach to
tidying up a
recording’s
edges means
she’s received
comparisons in
the past to antifolk
outsiders like
Daniel Johnston
and Jeffrey Lewis.
Courtney Barnett,
though, has
found her own
distinct voice; an
unpolished and
52 diymag.com

acutely observational vernacular.
“When I sing I try to keep my own [first-take]
vocals, but sometimes they’re shit so I have
to re-do them,” she laughs. “But yeah, I try to
capture that moment of the songs coming
together, and those small imperfections. I’m
not too precious about my vocals. I only do
them two or three times - and actually it’s the
same with everything. I try not to let anyone
get too precious about stuff. Otherwise it gets
way too polished and perfect. I only showed
the guys [in Courtney’s backing band] the
songs a week or two before, so it was all fresh
and new. I think it comes across that way,”
she says decisively, “to me it does. It feels like
there’s energy, and everyone’s kind of on the
edge of their seats, wondering if they’re gunna
fuck up or not.”
“I’m happy with the energy that we captured,”
she concludes, laughing. “I’m really annoying
in the mixing process. I’m like, nah! Make it
shitter! I want it to be kind of shit!”
Despite her relaxed approach to recording,
Courtney Barnett’s been busy sharpening up
elsewhere; namely Milk! Records, the label that
she runs, and uses to release all of her music.
“It’s going really well, actually!” she enthuses.
“We re-grouped and tried to write a business
plan...” She stops mid-sentence. “Business
plan?” she asks herself with some disgust,
“gross. It’s more like a manifesto. We’ve found
more clarity. I feel this year it really dawned
on me what Milk! Records is. It’s this amazing
platform that has been created, that we can
produce art from without any of the bullshit, or
people wanting money, or all that other boring
stuff, y’know?” Frequently Courtney Barnett
is asked why she decided to start up Milk
Records!; when really, she agrees, the question
should be ‘why the hell not?’
Above everything else, there’s a sense that
Courtney Barnett likes to keep things grounded
and importantly, in the moment. Last summer,
she says, her and her band ended up running
around the hazardous and watery streets of
Venice, because they only had two hours to
look around the whole city. “It was like express
Venice,” she grins. “We went to the Grand
Canal, or whatever, we got in a gondola, did a
quick ride, headed to the square, and then ran
into another boat. Then we left. I was like, what
just happened? Is that real?”
Though she’s played on radio waves worldwide
these days, Courtney still runs things herself,
as much as possible. She still draws her own
artwork like she did at the very start, and
she releases her own records on Milk! too,
along with all her other musician friends from
Melbourne. Touring last year was the first time
that Courtney had ever travelled outside of
Australia, and the wacky old world of jetlag
played a big part in ‘Sometimes I Sit and Think
and Sometimes I Just Sit’.
“It fucks you up!” she exclaims. “Everyone used
to talk about jetlag, and I was like, whatever.
Stop whinging. But yeah, ‘Illustration of
Loneliness’,” she says, referring to an especially
dazed song on her record, “that’s very jetlaggy.
It really messed me around, I have always
worked to a weird time, with weird hours, but
it’s so spacey, it feels like some other world.”
Courtney Barnett first started writing for
the same reason that lots of people start
writing songs; because it felt like the most
natural way to express herself. What began
as “mucking around and experimenting with
different ideas,” has grown into something
far greater, and her inner thoughts resonate
with a lot of people; not just in Melbourne,
but across the world. “It’s very surreal,” she
agrees. “It definitely gives you a happy feeling
inside. Everyone’s so nice, they know what
I’m talking about, and they get the humour,
and come and talk to me. I feel like I’ve got
quality over quantity of audience,” she says
with a smirk. “I’d way prefer a small amount of
awesome people to like my music. Rather than
a thousand redneck idiots buying my records,
and being like,” she giggles, “derrrrp!”
“ I t ’ s n i c e
b e i n g a b l e
t o s a y s o
m u c h w i t h
s o l i t t l e . ”
C o u r t n e y
B a r n e t t
“I feel like I’ve achieved so much
already,” says Courtney Barnett,
looking back at her whirlwind year.
“Songwriting wise, and musicallywise,”
she adds, “is that a word?
It was a new experience and it
feels like I’ve already achieved
something. Hopefully people
will find something in there that
means something.”
Courtney Barnett’s debut
album ‘Sometimes
I Sit and Think, and
Sometimes I Just Sit’
will be released on
23rd March via Milk!
Records. DIY
Aussie quickfire
Who would
you rather
fight against, a
Tasmanian devil
or a kangaroo?
Kangaroo. It’s
more my size. I’d
feel bad being
in a fight with a
Tasmanian Devil!
He’d probably still
savage me, but I
love Tasmanian
devils, they’re
so precious. I
wouldn’t want to
hurt it anyway,
but a kangaroo
would be a fairer
fight.
Ok, ding ding,
next round.
Kangaroo or
emu?
A kangaroo,
still. Emus are
fucking scary.
They can run as
fast as horses, but
they can’t walk
backwards.
And finally,
the biggest
philosophical
question of all.
Vegemite or
Marmite?
Vegemite. It’s way
better, it tastes
better, and it’s
Australian.
53

“ A l o t o f t h e
a l b u m ’ s a b o u t
s e x t h i s t i m e . ” -
D u n c a n W a l l i s
54 diymag.com

D O N ’ T S I T B A C K
With their fourth
album ‘O Shudder’,
Dutch Uncles are
growing up. “That’s
our response to trying
to make a mature
statement: we’re
shuddering at it,” the
band explain. Words:
Andy Backhouse
ntrepidation. You might not have
heard the term - in fact, we may
have made it up - but you’ve
probably felt it. It’s those
butterflies of anticipation
and trepidation in the pit
of your stomach when a
band you love is coming
back. It’s when that band
re-emerges from the
blackness of the studio,
blinking and rubbing their eyes at the
sun, with their new album in hand. But
never mind the sandstorm-hype in
the media, or the band’s indifference
because they’re-making-music-forthemselves-and-if-anyone-else-likesit-that’s-a-bonus
- will you love the
album? The greater an artist’s body of
work is – sure, the more you anticipate
their new ventures – but with that,
there’s the cold dread it’ll be a dead
dud. Should you have bundled them
back into the studio and thrown away
the key?
“Four albums in is a long time,”
states Duncan Wallis, the frontman
of returning Manchester popologists
Dutch Uncles. “We know it’s a long
time. We feel like it’s four albums, and I
think we want to come across as more
mature and more relaxed about doing
things. But then again, to say that
55

defeats the whole notion of being like that! Which is kinda where the
whole album title comes from; ‘O Shudder’ – it makes me cringe to
think we’re trying to make a mature statement, but we are.”
So it’s not about sex? With tracks like ‘In N Out’ and ‘Babymaking’,
Dutch Uncles are, erm, up against the wall. “A lot of the album’s about
sex this time,” confesses Duncan. “I had it on the brain. For example
the song ‘Drips’ is all about getting the chance to re-do a sexy fumble,
but the idea of getting the drips at the end of the sex dream is a bit of
‘well, be careful what you wish for’.”
Seeing as Dutch Uncles’ ambition is to “make [their] dads proud”,
despite the album’s bawdy humour, they might just get away with it.
In the same way that Roald Dahl can smuggle barbaric murder into
bedtime stories about chocolate factories, Dutch Uncles’ dancefloor
dynamite deal with death and incest. “That was an idea when we first
started Dutch Uncles,” states Duncan. “The idea that it would be a bit
bouncy, but I would be a bit sick with the lyrics.”
For any dads still reading, bass player Robin Richards is the McCartney
to Duncan’s Lennon. “If there was a song that sounded particularly
happy, then Duncan would try and do the complete opposite.”
“I don’t know why I did that,” frowns Duncan. “We looked at the
meaning of Dutch Uncles, where people basically criticise others to
educate them. But I think nowadays – with the newer material – if it’s
dark, it’s just the soul, baby!”
Dutch Uncles aren’t making life easy for themselves. From their
self-titled debut to ‘Cadenza’ to ‘Out of Touch in the Wild’ – picking
up fans such as the godfather of minimalism Steve Reich and popsmattered
emo-kids Paramore - Manchester’s maestros of minimalistopuses
have set the bar of expectations dizzyingly high.
But no matter how high the expectations, Dutch Uncles pole-vault
over them. The florescent orchestral swarm of ‘Babymaking’ kicks ‘O
Shudder’ into life, displaying all of their joie de vivre at its classiest.
Four albums in, you’d forgive a band to indulge in their signature
sound. Not Dutch Uncles.
Being the magpie-minds they are, Robin has
plundered his music library - from Kate Bush
to Japan to Stravinsky - to unlock new doors in
his songwriting. Duncan, meanwhile, has been
studying John Cooper Clark and Ian Dury for his
frontman showmanship. But don’t expect Dutch
Uncles to do a Sam Smith anytime soon. “Those
styles don’t come across on the album, because I
didn’t want to try and emulate them whatsoever.”
For Duncan to copy-cat such alpha-males of the
flamboyant frontman game would be selling ‘O
Shudder’ short. In Duncan Wallis, we have one of
the most electrifying live performers in action right
now. “They’re gifted with having very gritty, natural
voices,” credits Duncan. “I feel like I was being very
tight on the last album, and soft, and safe, and I
didn’t want to worry about being complementary
to the music this time.”
While many an artist will insist they don’t care what
people think about their music – that they only
make music for themselves - Dutch Uncles aren’t
afraid to admit they read their own reviews. “We
know we shouldn’t, but we still will.”
After four albums, six years of grinding graft, in the
weeks leading up to an album’s release, it only takes
56 diymag.com

“ I w a n t e d t o w o r r y l e s s
a b o u t b e i n g i n t u n e . ” -
D u n c a n W a l l i s
Pristine pop doesn’t get.
tougher than this - Dutch.
.Uncles try out Masterchef.
one crusty critic to puncture
the parade - and they can’t
do anything about it. “That
was a very bad day,” Duncan
laughs, recalling a scathing
review of their second fulllength,
‘Cadenza’. “I won’t
say what magazine it was,
but it was written like a one
out of ten. It was given a five
out of ten, which was a bit
annoying, because it just
meant people wouldn’t even
read the review. The opening
line of that review was ‘shut
up about time signatures!’.”
And their response? Release
a pop song about it.
But we’re not talking
Frankee/Eamon’s pop spat.
Dutch Uncles are far too
smart for that: they smuggle
their dark lyrics in a Trojan
horse of infectious pop, so
it would only make sense
to respond with a cover of
Grace Jones’ ‘Slave to the
Atypical Rhythm’. Not only
did it fight the good fight
for Record Store Day in 2013;
it was a middle finger up to
the naysayers to ‘Cadenza’.
“That’s why we did that
song,” Robin grins, referring
to its myriad time signatures.
“It’s a kind of pisstake.”
But Dutch Uncles are one of
the few bands to take their
criticism on as constructive.
“People said we sounded like
Hot Chip. And at times, I have
to agree - but at other times,
I was annoyed at myself for
almost whispering some of
those songs. I wasn’t opening
up my voice enough.”
Thanks to advice from fellow
frontman, Manchester citizen
and tourmate Jonathan
Higgs from Everything
Everything, Duncan realised
the best remedy for this. “He
said we sound best when
we’re really trying to sing
loud,” recalls Duncan, “and I
really wanted to try and get
that out on the record more.”
He pinpoints ‘Face In’, the
single from Dutch Uncles’
2009 self-titled debut that
propped them firmly on the
map. “That’s when I bellow
out, and that’s when we
sound like a rock band for
three minutes, as opposed to
new wave math-pop geeks.
I wanted to worry less about
being in tune all the time.”
This time round, it only
seems fair that Dutch Uncles
should have a voice. If they
had our desks for the week,
what would Dutch Uncles
write about ‘O Shudder’?
“I’d probably lie about the
meaning of every song, so
everyone’s left on the other
foot; they’d have to figure
out what they like about
every song and what they
think it’s about.”
Okay. Maybe there’s a good
reason to feel antrepidation.
Dutch Uncles’ new album
‘O Shudder’ is out now via
Memphis Industries. DIY
Dutch
Uncles will play
Live at Leeds, The
Great Escape and
Liverpool Sound City.
See diymag.com
for details.
57

From one of the
biggest bands in the
world, to his solo
debut: Arcade Fire’s
Will Butler is forging
his own path. Words:
Nina Glencross.
As an integral member of one
of Canada’s more illustrious
exports, Will Butler has always
been a bit of a maverick when
it comes to Arcade Fire’s live
shows. Playing anything he can
get his hands on, the multi-instrumentalist will
often get so lost in the music, he’ll throw himself
around the stage with reckless abandon night
after night. So, it was only a matter of time before
this rather eccentric individual tried his hand at
going solo.
“It was something that I knew I would do at some
point, for a long time,” he explains, “but I only
actively thought, ‘Let’s do this,’ from about a
year ago.”
“This” would eventually become ‘Policy’, Will’s
debut album as a fully-fledged solo artist in his
own right. Its eight tracks hop between genres
and influences as effortlessly and unabashedly as
Will’s onstage antics, from bright guitar
pop, through dark, experimental synth
numbers, to quaint yet heart-breaking
minimalist piano ballads.
“It’s just how it is these days,” Will says.
“Everyone just listens to such different
stuff all the time that it really is just
natural to be like, ‘Jingle jangle! Now,
basic synths! Now, warm and human!’ It’s just
how modern folk music is, it’s all over the place.”
There were points, however, when Will had
actually considered containing things a little
more. “I was like, ‘Let’s sonically focus this,’ and
it just didn’t work,” he admits. “Everything I did
58 diymag.com

59

ended up going in a completely different direction,”
he adds, citing ‘Something’s Coming’ as a song which
did not “sonically cohere” within the album, “but it did
feel appropriate.”
In the initial stages of ‘Policy’, Will was still touring
with Arcade Fire, regularly playing aftershows
with bandmates Tim Kingsbury, Jeremy Gara and
Richard Reed Parry, where they’d perform the
likes of Neil Young and Devo. Along with listening
to a lot of Violent Femmes and WWI podcasts at
the time, he explains. “Playing all that music was
definitely influential in a way that, listening to
stuff, it’s just so different to play it.”
When it comes to lyrical themes, however, things
are a little more consistent. The majority of his
songs illustrate some sort of struggle and a feeling
of insecurity, from trivial to extreme, with religion,
relationships, and the human experience in general.
Take ‘Son Of God’ and ‘Something’s Coming’, for
example. The former sees Will plead for a sign that
there’s more to life than the here and now. “If the
son of God would write it down for me in his own
handwriting then oh, then I’d be good,” he beseeches.
The latter is a little more distrustful, with the line “The
Lord, the Lord is watching, but he’s not your friend”
clashing against the omission of the word ‘Hell’ from
the chorus. He admits these lyrics do reflect his own
personal struggles with religion to a certain extent,
though is careful to stress he doesn’t feel it quite as
acutely as the songs suggest. “There’s definitely a sad,
lonely, desperate vibe in there. It’s not reflective of my
reality, necessarily, but reflective of, I think, all of our
histories.”
To make things more interesting, Will cleverly balances
these negative feelings with a good dose of dark
humour. In ‘What I Want’, an innocent romance turns
sinister when Will offers to buy his new love a pony
before suggesting, “We can cook it for supper, I know
a great recipe for pony macaroni.” And
that’s just one song; there’s a generous
sprinkling of sarcasm and irony throughout
the album. “I like the line in ‘Take My Side’,
‘If I could fly, I’d beat the shit out of some
birds’,” he reveals nonchalantly, as if he’d
definitely consider it, given half the chance.
So where does this dark humour come from? “All the
literature I love is super jokey, at least the literature
that’s closest to my heart,” he reveals, citing the likes of
Herman Melville’s Moby Dick and Fyodor Dostoyevsky.
“There’s always an irony but not in a detached sense,”
he explains. “There’s a separation but it’s like a
terrifying, warm, human separation.”
Keeping this in mind when listening to ‘Policy’ creates
a whole new experience, one in which the musician’s
multi-instrumental eccentricities are juxtaposed with a
grounded human perspective.
With around half of the songs that would
eventually make ‘Policy’ at his disposal, born
from ideas almost ten years old, Will was invited
by Tom Elmhirst, a resident producer and
mix engineer at New York City’s Electric Lady
Studios, to record the album upstairs
in Jimi Hendrix’s old living room, an
opportunity Will leapt on. He had
spent time at Electric Lady during the
mix and overdub sessions of Arcade
Fire’s 2013 monster ‘Reflektor’, so
knew the studio well. But to use the upstairs living
room was very special indeed. “It’s beautiful,” he
describes. “It’s on the third story, looks out over the
West Village, and there was me and the engineer Ben
Baptie just in the room, no control room or anything.”
Besides his engineer and a few featured musicians,
Will was largely on his own in the studio, with full
creative control from arrangements to production.
Having grown accustomed to working within a much
larger group, the pressure was on. “Arcade Fire has
six or seven, maybe eight really artistic voices and it’s
amazing, it’s really awesome to work with
that,” he says. “But to be the only ‘boss’, it
was very different to have there be one voice
in the end.”
This isn’t to suggest his family of music
makers played no part in the creation of the
record. “We were on tour at the time so I was
playing songs on the bus and I would get
feedback,” he recalls. With fellow bandmate Richard
Reed Parry having just released his classical album
‘Music For Heart And Breath’, Will explains how it felt
like, “a big artistic community of people working on
new music.” Arcade Fire drummer Jeremy Gara and the
band’s touring saxophonists Stuart Bogie and Bauder
all contributed to the record, the latter of which will be
opening for him on his solo tour.
Speaking of which, it’s clear the shows he’ll be playing
on his upcoming UK tour will be wildly different to
the arenas and festival stages he’s used to these
days. “Normally some people are looking at me,
some people are looking at Richard, some people are
looking at Win, some people are looking at Regine,” he
explains. “Even when we were playing for six people in
Rhode Island, the audience was just looking all over, or
just dancing. But to have all eyes on you is a
very different experience.”
Not that he’s fazed by this at all. “It’s not
particularly alienating because I’m obviously
used to being on stage at this point and
doing stupid things in front of tons of
people,” he says. “I’m used to tripping over
electrical wires and falling on my face in
front of five thousand people, thinking ‘OK,
whatever!’” Forget all that talk of a “warm,
human separation,” and “grounded perspective”.
Will Butler is a peacock who just wants to show off
his feathers. ‘Policy’ does
just that.
Will Butler’s new album
‘Policy’ will be released
on 16th March via Merge
Records. DIY
60 diymag.com

“ I ’ m u s e d t o t r i p p i n g
o v e r e l e c t r i c a l w i r e s a n d f a l l i n g
o n m y f a c e i n f r o n t o f f i v e
t h o u s a n d p e o p l e , t h i n k i n g
‘ O K , w h a t e v e r ! ’ ” - W i l l
B u t l e r
61

p u
62 diymag.com

s h
A lot has changed in the
world of Purity Ring.
With their new album, “it
was kind of like starting
a new band,” they tell
Dominique Sisley.
Photos: Emma Swann
“ I t t o o k s o m e
t i m e f o r u s
to a c t u a l ly
l e a r n h o w t o
w r i t e s o n g s
l
together.” -
Corin Roddick
l
It’s been a long and
lonely three years since
we were last sucked
into the galaxy of Purity
Ring. With their debut
album ‘Shrines’, the ethereal
Edmonton pair showed 2012
a glimpse of their brave
new world – a windswept
paradise comprised of
magical melodies and crisp,
circuitous production. A
lot of people called it the
sound of the future, but
– as is often the way with
time – it all ended up going
by in a bit of a flash. After
a beguiling few moments
here on earth they decided
it was probably best to
pack up their synths and
rocket back into their own
Canadian cosmos.
Until now, that is. Back
with new album ‘another
eternity’, Megan James and
Corin Roddick have returned
from another galactic
adventure with even more
of that forward-thinking
charisma. And today, having
chosen what should have
been an inconspicuous
landing spot amongst the
bustle of East London’s
Ace Hotel, they still seem
light years ahead. Dressed
in leather jodhpurs, an
impressively huge hat and
with an unidentifiable
skeletal sculpture pinned to
her t-shirt, vocalist Megan
looks like some sort of
super-svelte space cowboy.
“I guess we write really
slow, but why not?” she
says, her big doe eyes wide
with enthusiasm. “It’s like,
‘Let’s just start and see what
happens!’”
Although the pair met
as teenagers in their icy
63

hometown of Edmonton, it was only after they graduated
high school and moved to opposite ends of the country
(Megan to Halifax and Corin to Montreal) that Purity Ring
began to find its feet. Consequently – and pretty bizarrely
– their first record ‘Shrines’ was constructed almost entirely
over email: Corin would send across his backing track, and
Megan would then begin working on a responsive vocal
demo. As Corin explains the elaborate ins and outs of their old
system, he starts to laugh – “’Shrines’ was just us each doing
our own thing and then smashing it together.”
With ‘another eternity’ though, the game changed. After a
solid 18-month break from writing together, the two began
to experiment with actually being in the same room. Corin
would fly back to Edmonton especially, and the two would
force themselves to collaborate face to face only. “It was
totally different. It was kind of like starting a new band,”
Megan remembers. Corin nods sharply. “It didn’t work
immediately,” he adds, firmly but fairly. “It took some time
for us to actually learn how to write songs together. I think
that’s probably the same for any new band, though. It really
took us a while to get started, but it was like real
songwriting as opposed to just laying a vocal track
on top of a random beat. The thought went into
it to give each part of the song its own space to
shine. That was a big thing.”
This mad old novelty of ‘working together’ has
added a new layer of intimacy that is evident all
throughout ‘another eternity’. There’s a sense of
fun, frivolity and freedom that wasn’t necessarily
present on ‘Shrines’ – and also a dollop more
bravery. Megan is feistier; her voice is louder and
her lyrics more personal than ever. “I feel like
‘another eternity’ is, like ‘Shrines’ was, a phase
of my life in the form of an album,” she explains.
“The lyrics came from the same place, and I think
we’ve both changed so much. We were really
young when we wrote ‘Shrines’. Not that we’re
old now, but you change a lot in your 20s.” She
looks at Corin who nods vigorously in agreement.
“’Shrines’ was really my first attempt at producing,
too. The first single we released was the first track
I ever made really. That whole album was very
much a learning experience, whereas on ‘another
eternity’ enough time had gone by to build
up more confidence as a producer, and just feel like it was
something that I could do. So I think that definitely affected
the way that it sounded.”
It’s not like the sound really needed to change, though. When
‘Shrines’ came out in 2012, it was greeted with a barrage of
fawning fans and critical acclaim. There were suggestions
that this strange, extraneous pop could well be the sound of
the future – the direction that all music was destined to head
in. How do they feel now about trying to recreate that same
fevered feeling of innovation? Corin gets a little bashful at
the thought. “It’s just finding unique ways to use things,” he
shrugs. “That’s something that we always aim to do: our goal
has been to make futuristic, forward-thinking pop music. We
felt that ‘Shrines’ was futuristic in 2012, and now our goal is
that ‘another eternity’ is futuristic currently.”
A big part of that forward thinking is their otherworldly
visuals – with the childlike and fantastical illustrations of
Tallulah Fontaine scrawled across their album covers, and
the DIY designs of Megan herself draped across their bodies,
there’s no denying the importance of aesthetics to their
overall persona. “A band is like a brand,” Megan asserts. “It’s
about streaming or listening to it the way most people listen
to music right now. You don’t pull out the CD and look at the
pictures then put the record on. You’re watching shit the
whole time. Björk even did an app with ‘Biophilia’, but it was
just too soon... She’s way ahead of her game.” At the mention
of the Icelandic icon, both of their eyes glaze over dreamily
and Corin sighs – “That’s the amazing thing about Björk, but
the people weren’t quite ready for it yet.”
It’s an adoration that’s not exactly surprising, especially when
you take into account how similar their music actually is –
comparisons between the two almost feel inevitable. Megan
has openly spoken about the significance of the strong female
and the overwhelming feminine influence in her songwriting
– much like Björk herself. “I’m definitely a feminist, definitely,
100%. I have to be or I would lose too much,” she says,
delicately. “It’s a world of people getting called out – it’s not
a very sensitive and kind landscape right now, but it can be
and I believe in that.” Does she hope to inspire those sorts
So THAT’S where James .
Bay’s hat went..
of beliefs with her songwriting? “That’s not my intention
from the outset, but I can’t not imply what I believe when I’m
writing something that’s very personal and I feel very genuine
about. I hope that it doesn’t mean that our music is for women
– it isn’t by any means. I hope that people find what they look
for in music across the board. However they identify.”
So with the long-awaited release of album number two
just around the corner, is there anything they’ll be sure to
do differently this time round? There’s barely a second’s
hesitation before Megan chimes in. “We need to keep writing.
It took too long to get back into it, and I think the only way to
maintain our confidence in what we’ve gained in the last year
is just to keep going.” Corin agrees, his leg starting to twitch
with urgency. “Yeah... After we finished writing for ‘Shrines’
we didn’t write anything again for over a year and a half! It was
difficult to get started again. Looking back on it, it’s like, why
did we stop? There was no reason to.” He shakes his head. “I
don’t want to go a year like that again.”
Purity Ring’s new album ‘another eternity’ will be
released on 2nd March via 4AD. DIY
64 diymag.com

65

ATARI TEENAGE RIOT / BJORK / BL ACK YAYA / CANCER BATS / CHEATAHS / CL ARENCE CL ARIT Y /
UNCLES / ECHO L AKE / ERRORS / EVANS THE DEATH / FALL OUT BOY / FYFE / GANG OF FOUR / GET
L AURA WELSH / MAD ONNA / MAT THEW E. WHITE / MENACE BEACH / MINI MANSIONS / MODEST
PUBLIC SERVICE BROAD CASTING / PURIT Y RING / OF MONTREAL / SLIPKNOT / SPECTRES / THE
Charli XCX has found her voice.
66 diymag.com

COLLEEN GREEN / COURTNEY BARNET T / THE CRIBS / DAN DEACON / DRAKE / DRENGE / DUTCH
INUIT / GHOSTPOET / THE GO! TEAM / HINDS / INVENTIONS / K ARIN PARK / L AURA MARLING /
MOUSE / MO ON DUO / NIC HESSLER / NOEL GALL AGHER / PALMA VIOLETS /THE POP GROUP /
STAVES / TOBIAS JESSO JR / TORCHE / TRAVIS BRETZER / VESSELS / WAXAHATCHEE / WILL BUTLER
eeee
BJÖRK
Vulnicura (One Little Indian)
TRACKLIST
1. Stonemilker
2. Lionsong
3. History of Touches
4. Black Lake
5. Family
6. Notget
7. Atom Dance
8. Mouth Mantra
9. Quicksand
Hand Björk a topic on Mastermind, give her a few weeks of research time, and she’d come
back the most unchallengeable of experts. Zero holes spoil her theory and form of
expression.
Previous LP ‘Biophilia’ was a bonkers attempt to detail Mother Nature in just under an
hour. Follow-up ‘Vulnicura’ tackles a tougher topic: heartbreak. As with anything else
she entangles herself in, Björk doesn’t so much embrace the subject as become a part of it. The artwork
shows a jet black, alien-like figure standing paralysed, her chest carved open beyond repair. Bon Iver’s
wood cabin saucy warbling is old fodder compared to this. Does the world need another break-up album?
‘Vulnicura’ dodges cliche and creates its own ground.
In the album’s liner notes, every song comes with a date, putting a timestamp on the brutal bust-up.
“I better document this,” she sings on opener ‘Stone Milket’, and there couldn’t be a more thorough
exploration of the soul’s most troubled subject. New lows are hit on the stop-start gruesome twist of
‘History of Touches’, the total combustion of ‘Notget’. Throughout, Venezuelan producer Arca executes
scattered beats in collaboration with the Icelandic star, each dagger-sharp blow to the system sounding
more real than the last. ‘Vulnicura’ is by no means Björk’s most groundbreaking work, but it’s arguably her
most beautiful, undoubtedly the most close-to-heart. 2001’s ‘Vespertine’ was the counterpoint, another
electronically-led, minimal record that detailed every heated-up moment of intimacy. Its arch nemesis was
always going to be messy.
Closer ‘Quicksand’ doesn’t hold back on the madness that precedes. It’s the final burst of frustration, a
swift conclusion to an emotionally-fraught tale. ‘Vulnicura’ is a no-bullshit, unbelievably tough portrayal
of an experience that shouldn’t require repeating. But on goes the cycle, ‘Quicksand’’s broken beats
sounding incapable of stopping short. Dense to the extreme, a thick fog of emotions that concedes
nothing, this is as uncomprtomising and potentially definitive as a break-up album could ever be. (Jamie
Milton) Listen: ‘Notget’
Leak-gate
Didn’t see this one coming, did
you? Following a leak less than a week after the album’s
announcement, Björk released ‘Vulnicura’ via iTunes in late
January, with the physical versions of the record following
later this month (March) as originally planned. “I am so grateful
you are still interested in my work,” Björk said on Facebook. “I
appreciate every little bit.”
67

eeee
DUTCH UNCLES
O Shudder (Memphis Industries)
‘O Shudder’ is the sound of a band ensnared in a latetwenties
crisis, fretting about a future of family-planning,
job-hunting and “settling down”. Thematically oppressive,
you might think, but all this semi-autobiographical talk of
adulthood makes for Dutch Uncles’ most direct and userfriendly
album yet. 2015 could be the year the band break out.
They have a knack for powerful choruses. Quite often, the lyrics change on
each iteration, morphing, evolving as the songs progress. There’s a total lack of
regularity. ‘Babymaking’ (whimsical in sound, serious in message) shapeshifts
to a backing of luscious string arrangements and piano tinkles; ‘Upsilon’ speaks
of the perils of social media with Duncan Wallis’ sensuous, constantly changing
vocal once again providing the defining thread; ‘Decided Knowledge’, meanwhile,
intertwines chanting backing vocals with Wallis’s lead, narrating the mental knockon
effects of a botched job interview. Throughout, the rhythms are complex, the
falsetto unpredictable, the melodies unconventional. Dutch Uncles have exhibited
a sluggish and rigid rise to fame, similar in that respect to Future Islands. But ‘O
Shudder’ could well be the album to break them. Prone to captivating body-jerking
himself, Wallis may become this year’s Samuel T Herring and acquire his own hiptwisting
dance meme. Well, we can hope. Someone get Letterman on the line. (Huw
Oliver) Listen: ‘Be Right Back’
eeee
OF MONTREAL
Aureate Gloom
(Polyvinyl Recs)
Like 2013’s ‘Lousy
with Sylvianbriar’, Of
Montreal’s ‘Aureate
Gloom’ was recorded
directly to tape, imbuing
it with a warmth and a
distinctively live feel. It’s
all the more impressive
given the complexity
of the structures on
show: every song seems
to journey through a
multitude of genres and
eras, at the same time
remaining coherent.
While never wanting to
wish despondency on
anyone, it’s difficult not to
when it sounds as good
as this. Hopefully Kevin
Barnes can find some
solace in the fact that
it’s thirteenth time lucky
with this Technicolor epic.
(David Zammitt) Listen:
‘Apollyon Of Blue Room’
Q&A
eeee
ERRORS
Lease Of Life (Rock Action)
Instantly striking, ‘Lease of Life’ is a
record packed full of ambition and
imagination, uncovering new ideas
around each corner. It’s a journey that
unmasks new landscapes as it unfolds
before looking back over a rich tapestry
of sounds that are as accessible as they
are impressive. (Liam McNeilly) Listen:
‘Genuflection’
ee
LAURA WELSH
Soft Control (Polydor)
On ‘Soft Control’, Laura Welsh’s debut,
her voice is the clear focal point. There’s
no doubting her vocals: tracks like
‘Ghosts’ and ‘God Keeps’ show her
full range and capabilities. Lyrically
she deals with heartache and the
confessional, expressed as muted
euphoria. Sadly for an album which
features a list of impressive producers,
it feels as though one of them should
have worked on the album as a whole
to give ‘Soft Control’ cohesion and the
platform for Welsh to jump from. (Sean
Stanley) Listen: ‘Break The Fall’
Considering the year he’s just had, it would be
understandable if Kevin Barnes wasn’t in the mood
for talking. However, Of Montreal’s principle creative
force is in notably chirpy form as he talks to DIY’s
David Zammitt.
What’s it like taking stock of making thirteen albums
in a career?
I don’t really keep count. I don’t really think about it like
that. I’m always just motivated to make something new
for some reason so I don’t really carry the other albums
with me. I’m just thinking about what I want to do next.
Do you always try and hit a unique style with every
album?
My mind works in that way. I tend to gravitate towards a
collage style of writing because I have a short attention
span but for it to have some sort of cohesion is important
as well.
How do you keep going, this far into a career? Especially
with touring.
I think I can get into just a good groove with that sort of
stuff. Every day you just push the boulder up the hill. And
I have all these people helping me so it’s fun. It doesn’t
feel too difficult or exhausting. I’ve been doing it long
enough now that I don’t have any serious issues with it.
I can cope and I typically get into this emotional hibernated
state where you’re not really thinking or expecting
that much out of your day.
68 diymag.com

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MINI MANSIONS
The Great Pretenders
(Fiction Records))
Should time-travel ever make the quantum leap from fantasy to reality, Mini
Mansions have earned themselves a ticket back to the birth of psychedelic pop
with dreamy second album, ‘The Great Pretenders’. Playing like a soundtrack of the
future as imagined by a baby-boomer brain, they repay their debt to pop with a
release that brings as much to the table as it borrows. It’s the guest list though that
really gets the flashbulbs popping – Brian Wilson and Alex Turner are both Fairly Big
Deals, and it’s a relief that neither of them sound like they’ve phoned it in. Here we
have eleven songs of depth, colour and excitement that grow more vivid with every
listen. (Chris Bunt) Listen: ‘Freakout!’
eee
THE GO! TEAM
The Scene Between (Memphis
Industries)
What do you do when you’re getting
older? Especially when you used to
be so bright – when you made pastels
look like the silent era? And when
it was popular, very good, and you
want to get back to the easel? The Go!
Team’s first album in four years, ‘The
Scene Between’, grapples with that. It
might not be conscious but it’s obvious
– you just have to hear the familiar
bright sounds and the incongruous,
Graham Coxon-circa-’99 guitars. This
is a record trying to bridge light and
dark. It’s got moments that sound
like life, whatever that might feel like.
With so many materials used to build
it, ‘The Scene Between’ is pretty close
to collapse. But hey, if it falls, at least
it’ll look pretty on the way down. (Kyle
Forward) Listen: ‘The Scene Between’
eee
THE STAVES
If I Was (Atlantic)
The Staves continue to impress with
their touching harmonies, bolstering ‘If
I Was’ even further by their increased
use of strings, electric guitar and
drums. You can’t help but hear the
wintry influence of recording in Justin
Vernon’s isolated Wisconsin studio.
Despite the boost in sound coming
from the addition of delicate synths and
electric guitars, the trio keep a steady
connection to their roots in folk music,
tethering themselves nicely.
‘If I Was’ is a reflective album, with
incredibly emotive tracks like ‘No Me,
No You, No More’, ‘Let Me Down’ and
‘Damn it All’ capturing that strange inbetween
feeling that happens during
or after a relationship breaks down.
It sees the sisters continuing to make
good music which suits their talents.
(Kate Lismore) Listen: ‘Teeth White’
eee
TRAVIS BRETZER
Waxing Romantic (Mexican
Summer)
Travis Bretzer is all loved-up. The
awkward 25-year-old slacker from
Canada has delivered lo-fi pop,
influenced by his trials and tribulations
with romance since the release of his
first EP, last year’s ‘Making Love’. The
songwriter has now moved on from
recording in his bedroom, but is still
inspired by his romantic escapades.
The album sees Bretzer replace his
familiar lo-fi aesthetic with a slick,
pop sensibility, each track a stand-out
inspired from crate digging for his
parents’ 70s records.
‘Waxing Romantic’ is Travis Bretzer’s
much-needed calling card. Exhibiting
effortlessly strong songwriting with
infectious hooks, he’s matured into an
amorous connoisseur of alternative
pop. (Ross Jones) Listen: ‘Lonely Heart’
eeee
MATTHEW E. WHITE
Fresh Blood (Spacebomb Records)
32-year-old American singer,
songwriter, producer, musician and
label head Matthew E. White is a
man deeply in love with music: this
much is evident. Everything White
makes has a clearly defined and pure
sound. With his second album ‘Fresh
Blood’, he revels in the sheer joy and,
at times, heartbreak of music and life.
He expands on his critically acclaimed
debut ‘Big Inner’ not just in the
album’s breadth of sounds and eclectic
nature; a delicate balance between
encroaching darkness and blissful
splendour is at play. This is the kind
of album that harks back to music’s
glorious history but does so in a way
that remains fresh and compelling.
(Martyn Young) Listen: ‘Feeling Good
Is Good Enough’
69

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LAURA MARLING
Short Movie (Virgin EMI)
With ‘Once I Was An Eagle’, Laura Marling earned her stripes as one of the
key folk artists of her generation: it was a complex, intense, and hugely
accomplished record. It came from a place of questioning loneliness, too.
She openly admitted several times that she was considering packing it in
altogether.
Marling’s fifth album sees her falling back in love with music after a long bout
of urban alienation in LA. ‘Short Movie’ has a cinematic, wide-eyed joy, and
Marling’s writing seems freer, and less rigorous. ‘False Hope’, inspired by the
experience of being trapped in a New York Airbnb during Hurricane Sandy,
swirls round in a sea of electric guitars. ‘Gurdjieff’s Daughter’ pulls a huge
chorus out of its back pocket with the ease of somebody producing a lighter.
There’s a strain of playfulness, too. ‘Strange Love’ sees Marling adopt the
kind of stilted, burring delivery that should come free with a bit of wheat to
chew on. “I don’t love you like you love me, I’m pretty sure that you know,”
she shrugs, sardonically and then, just when it seems like she’s messing
about, the sincerity returns with one flawless high note.
‘Short Movie’ is wonderfully unlike anything Marling has attempted
before. An expert in holding her audience at arm’s length, transfiguring
her experiences into water spirits and
soaring birds of prey, for the first time
she seems to explicitly crave connection.
Undoubtedly this will not be the last
time that Laura Marling rips up her own
rulebook. (El Hunt) LIsten: ‘Gurdjieff’s
Daughter’
‘Short Movie’
has a cinematic,
wide-eyed joy.
Laura Marling perfects the
‘just got hit in the nuts with a
football’ look.
eee
PUBLIC SERVICE
BROADCASTING
The Race for Space (Test Card
Recordings)
PSB have been raiding the BFI’s
archives, and by focusing their
attentions on a small but intoxicating
part of the age of extremes that was
the 20th Century, they, like Sputnik did
for space exploration, are pushing the
boundaries of what rock music can be.
(Will Moss) Listen: ‘The Race for Space’
ee
CANCER BATS
Searching For Zero (Noise
Church Records)
Cancer Bats have worked hard to build
upon their already-solid sound while
exploring some new avenues. For the
majority of tracks, they succeed in
their goals. When looking back at the
whole picture however, somehow the
pieces don’t quite appear to fit. (Sarah
Jamieson) Listen: ‘Cursed With A
Conscience’
eee
BLACK YAYA
Black Yaya (City Slang)
The solo project of Herman Dune’s
David Ivar, for Black Yaya he gathered
his guitar and recording equipment and
travelled to California. With the help
of his partner Mayon’s vocal, David’s
freedom and natural creativity seems
to have flourished thanks to the move.
An impressive debut. (Ben Jolley) Listen:
‘Flying On A Rocket’
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VESSELS
Dilate (Pias)
Vessels capriciously blur the line
between instrumental headphone
electronic music and post-rock.
Resisting the twin urges to
oversimplify or over-complicate where
inappropriate, they have succeeded in
making a smart and beguiling album.
(Alex Lynham) Listen: ‘Echo In’
eee
INVENTIONS
Maze Of Woods (Bella Union)
Just as varied, but perhaps more
experimental than Inventions’ previous
work, ‘Maze Of Woods’ is never short
on ideas. Throughout there’s an
impression of wandering through
the wilds: a vivid, gorgeous, and
multifaceted release. (Louis Haines)
Listen: ‘Springworlds’
70 diymag.com

This is peak
Cribs.
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THE CRIBS
For All My Sisters (Sonic Blew / Sony
RED)
You don’t get many bands like The Cribs.
How many others can walk a line between
critical acclaim and a sense of fun without
falling down the cracks into irrelevancy or
self parody? For over a decade now, they’ve
been producing albums of such consistent
quality, you’d struggle to imagine them even
capable of a bad song. They’re not about to
break that record, either.
But still, for everything that’s come before,
‘For All My Sisters’ feels like another step up.
The first taster to hit the airwaves, ’An Ivory
Hand’, sold it well. Moving away from their
former indie label home to work with a major
hasn’t seen the walls of the Jarmans’ bunker
torn down so much as beefed up. That lilting,
off chord melody remains. There’s no move
to mainstream their DIY pop brilliance;
instead it’s embraced firmly, ‘Burning For No
One’, ‘Different Angle’ and ‘Finally Free’ all
packing illicit ear worms early doors. ‘Simple
Story’ strips everything back, ‘City Storms’
builds it back up - this is peak Cribs, a distilled
version of everything that’s made them
arguably Britain’s best band over the last ten
years. (Stephen Ackroyd) Listen: ‘Different
Angle’
Artattack
The man behind The Cribs’
new artwork, Nick Scott
discusses the process, and
his inspiration.
The Cribs and I have worked
together for ten years now
and this time the band were
keen to do something with my
screen printing as somehow
we had never managed to
find the right record for it.
We all agreed we wanted to
do something which placed
the band firmly in view after
the previous two records
not featuring them on the
cover. To me, I was trying to
both bring to mind the debut
sleeve, the ‘New Fellas’ sleeve,
and the ‘Men’s Needs’
(single) sleeve, whilst
opening up a new era
of the band. Everything
on the sleeves for the
album and singles have
been printed by hand.
I was lucky to hear the
music very early in the
process, and I found
it to be very intense
and direct. Because of
this I wanted to make
something that was
visually claustrophobic
and confrontational: a
sleeve that stares back at you
and sucks you in. Initially the
sleeve was going to involve
a shoot in a pool with water
distorting the band (an idea
lost in logistics), so the interior
of the record was an extension
of that idea. I used prisms
in my re-photographing of
portraits we commissioned
to create these confusing
compositions. These then
they became the foundation
for more fluid & expressive
print experiments. Designing
stuff for the Cribs is like
walking a fine line between
obsessive attention to
details and free emotional
expression. Something I think
we’ve managed on this one.
71

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DAN DEACON
Glass Riffer (Domino)
Like us, Dan Deacon has probably lost
count of the number of his releases over
the past decade. Unlike many of his
contemporaries, however, his music is
not necessarily serial. ‘Glass Riffer’ is just
as stupendously mad as a standalone
than in comparison with previous
works, and demonstrates Deacon’s
mind-boggling ability to find order and
brilliance in chaos. Sounding like an acid
trip in Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory
gone right, it fizzes with neon colour and
chemistry-experiment aesthetics. (Will
Moss) Listen: ‘When I was Done Dying’
eee
COLLEEN GREEN
I Want To Grow Up (Sub Pop /
Hardly Art)
Is growing up just a trivial bit of maths
or all about maturing? That’s the –
ahem - age-old question that pop-punk
cool-girl Colleen Green attempts to
tackle with a scrum of fuzz guitar riffs
and distorted vocals. Now with a full
backing band, the hooks are meatier
than a pirate devouring a rack of ribs.
Paradoxically, it’s the tracks that don’t
centre on the growing up motif that
grow on you the most. (Kyle MacNeill)
Listen: ‘Deeper Than Love’
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ECHO LAKE
Era (No Pain In Pop)
Echo Lake have managed to take a
slew of barely-original touch points
and make something genuinely
intriguing. Woozy, melodic dream
pop is once again order of the day, but
there’s something considerably more
expansive about the band’s approach
this time out; where debut ‘Wild Peace’
felt intimate and self-contained, ‘Era’’s
soundscapes look outward and reach
further. (Joe Goggins) Listen: ‘Waves’
What a
charmer.
eeee
WILL BUTLER
Policy (Merge Records)
Having been in one of today’s
biggest bands for over ten years,
Will Butler has earned a reputation
as one of Arcade Fire’s most creative
and passionate members. Whilst it’s
unfair to make harsh comparisons
between his debut solo effort and
his band’s material, it would be naïve
not to recognise certain similarities.
‘Policy’’s eight genre-hopping, multiinstrumental
tracks clearly illustrate Will’s talent
and versatility. The upbeat, sing-as-thoughyour-life-depends-on-it
guitar pop of ‘Take My
Side’, ‘What I Want’ and gospel-esque closer
‘Witness’ is closest to what would be expected
of him as a solo artist. But the deep, lamenting
piano ballads, ‘Finish What I Started’ and ‘Sing To Me’, as well as the more
experimental, 80s synth efforts, ‘Anna’ and ‘Something’s Coming’ reveal
a different side. It’s often the most upbeat tracks that possess Will’s dark
humour. Struggle is something which stands out throughout the album,
whether it’s with religion, relationships, the human experience, the past
or the future. “The Lord, the Lord is watching / But he’s not your friend,”
he declares in ‘Something’s Coming’. Whilst in ‘What I Want’, he croons, “I
can feel my heart beating out of my chest / I apologise if I get heart blood
all over your nice floral dress.” What a charmer.
For such a short album, ‘Policy’ covers a hell of a lot of ground. Every
song has its own character, with each one further clarifying Will as a great
musician and songwriter in his own right,
as though there were any doubts.
(Nina Glencross) Listen: ‘What I
Want’
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SPECTRES
Dying (Sonic Cathedral)
For Spectres, the thrill of ‘Dying’ is all in
the chase. Opening with a shudder of
white noise and the confidence of the
undefeated, they veer from post-rock
infused soundscapes to twisted chunks
of noise-pop and back again without
a single, fleeting glance over their
shoulder. The four-piece from Bristol
know exactly what they want: luxurious,
audible excess. (Ali Shutler) Listen:
‘Dying’
72 diymag.com

Photo: Mike Massaro
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COURTNEY BARNETT
Sometimes I Sit and Think, and
sometimes i just sit (milk)
Courtney Barnett’s skill is in making the
pedestrian sound poignant. Everyday
observations and mundane afterthoughts
become focal points. From elevator
dings to pressed-metal ceilings, tiny
things hog the limelight on debut album
‘Sometimes I Sit and Think, And Sometimes I Just Sit’. The real star, however,
is the storyteller. She announced herself two years back with a double EP of
dry wit and heady rock’n’roll. On her full-length proper, Barnett arrives as
a longstanding voice, someone who’s going to long outlive the characters
she writes about. Across the record, she’ll flick between bold, ragged chants
(‘Pedestrian At Best’) to sluggish jet-lagged drawls (‘Kim’s Caravan’, where
she sounds close to collapse). Aspects of her own life filter into focus. Some of
the names are autobiographical. The rusty tour sprawl is most definitely real.
But more often than not, the spotlight’s reserved for strangers. Whether it’s
a barely-enthused prospective first time buyer checking out ‘Depreston’, or
‘Elevator Operator’’s contemplative office worker who’s bunking off, everyone
has their place in this record. Make no mistake - this is
a debut like few others. In fact, the only way we’ll ever
get another record like ‘Sometimes I Sit and Think,
And Sometimes I Just Sit’ is if Barnett hits Groundhog
Day. It’s beyond bonzer, mate. (Jamie Milton) Listen:
‘Pedestrian At Best’
Beyond
bonzer,
mate.
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CHEATAHS
SUNNE EP (Wichita)
A band capable of disarming versatility,
Cheatahs’ ‘Sunne EP’ comes more as a
kiss than a punch, taking nods to Big
Troubles as much as it does s/t era My
Bloody Valentine. Yet, Cheatahs have
harnessed their own sound. At only
four tracks in length, contemporaries
will struggle to compete with records
twice as long. (Euan L. Davidson) Listen:
‘Controller’
eee
KARIN PARK
Apocalypse Pop (State Of The Eye)
Over the course of eleven tracks, Karin
Park manages to both call herself a cunt
and warn a suitor that “You shouldn’t
fuck with my mind.” But she doesn’t
just wear these different emotional and
sonic guises - she owns them. Sinner,
saint, even goth, Park tackles them with
grace. (Laura Studarus) Listen: ‘Opium’
eee
THE POP GROUP
Citizen Zombie (Freaks R Us)
It would be difficult for any band to
return with new music after 35 years
of absence, but with ’Citizen Zombie’
The Pop Group have succeeded in
creating something vibrant, urgent
and necessary. This is a sound both like
you remember, and distorted almost
beyond recognition. (Martyn Young)
Listen: ’Mad Truth’
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ATARI TEENAGE RIOT
Reset (Digital Hardcore Recordings)
ATR’s fifth album ‘Reset’ with its
venomous attacks on government,
censorship and humanity, speaks a
maligned truth. The lyrics are spat,
spoken, shouted and sung: both
revolutionary and approachable. One
more reason to stand up. (Ali Shutler)
Listen: ‘Erase Your Face’
eee
GANG OF FOUR
What Happens Next (Membran)
Despite a continued focus on dense
political issues, Gang of Four have
always kept one eye on the charts.
‘What Happens Next’ is no different:
a collage of nails-down-a-chalkboard
slogans and textures that has arrived
at a watershed moment for the
disenfranchised. (Dan Owens) Listen:
‘The Dying Rays’
73

Mad
Sounds
Ghostpoet shares his
recent listening.
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GHOSTPOET
Shedding Skin (Play It Again Sam)
It’s hard to imagine an artist more befitting of their
surroundings than Ghostpoet. It’s not just that
rough and ready South London drawl which reeks
of his home town – everything Obaro Ejimiwe stakes his alias to comes throbbing with that
same hypnotic pulse of every major city. But where previous incarnations of Ghostpoet’s
work have been characterised by the jarring electronic soundtrack of a city’s digital
revolution, ‘Shedding Skin’ sees him map out his stories over an organic, live band canvas
for the first time; in doing so, Ghostpoet has created a record that feels timeless in a way his
scratchy bedroom productions could never have dreamed of. “It’s what I believe,” he repeats
at the record’s close, and it’s that conviction that marks out ‘Shedding Skin’ as Ghostpoet’s
masterpiece – with this amount of creative vision and determination to draw upon, surely
nothing in the world can stop him. (Tom Connick) Listen: ‘Shedding Skin’
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CLARENCE CLARITY
Not Now (Bella Union)
Clarence Clarity is “ready to die”; so says his note shared
alongside the debut album ‘Not Now’. Notorious
B.I.G. elegy aside, on SoundCloud he also claims to be
omnipotent, intense stuff before even clicking play.
Once you’ve listened to ‘Those Who Can’t, Cheat and
‘Meadow Hopping, Traffic Stopping, Death Splash’, the impression you get with
Clarence Clarity (a misnomer) that “uneasy lies the head that wears a crown”. ‘Not
Now’ is fully loaded, but more in a sonic sense than a philosophical one. Not since
Late of the Pier’s ‘Fantasy Black Channel’ has there been something in the same
scope or executed so confidently on a debut. If they are his closest contemporaries,
then it shows that Clarence Clarity is currently without an equal. (Sean Stanley)
Listen: ‘Bloodbarf’
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
- Push The Sky Away
Saw the video for Jubilee
Street and was instantly
drawn in. Nick Cave has
such a way with words and
this album sonically engulfs
your soul.
TV On The Radio - Dear
Science
Such a wonderful album, the
whimsical experimentation
throughout appealed to me.
Interpol - Antics
Discovering this record was
the lightbulb moment really.
It made the new direction I
was heading in make sense.
Sumptuous stuff.
The National - Trouble Will
Find Me
Such a emotional listen,
this LP encouraged me in
the in the dark days when
creativity abandoned me.
74 diymag.com

A songwriter
from the top
of his class.
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NOEL GALLAGHER
Chasing Yesterday
(Sour Mash Records)
Britpop titans of the mid-nineties are
still, in many quarters at least, the
big beasts they were back then - few
new acts emerge with the character to deliver that knock out
blow. Noel Gallagher, though. That’s one hell of a personality
to replace. Only a man with the sarcastic chutzpah of Oasis’
former schemer-in-chief would have the brass to name his
album ‘Chasing Yesterday’. In the most part, he’s living up to
the name, too. The first acoustic stabs of opener ‘Riverman’
can’t help but mirror the iconic intro of ‘Wonderwall’, while
‘Lock All The Doors’ - originally written in 1992 - unsurprisingly
has something of the aforementioned Mancunian mega group
about it, echoing the raw bombast of ‘Morning Glory’. Despite
that, to write off Noel as a mere echo of the past would be a
big mistake. Thieving like a magpie from his own box of tricks,
there’s no denying Gallagher is a songwriter from the top of his
class. ‘The Dying of the Light’ has the woozy, neon lit vibe
of so many Oasis b-sides - far from a criticism, they
were often where the band’s best work took place.
(Stephen Ackroyd) Listen: ‘Lock All The Doors’
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DRAKE
If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late
(Cash Money Records)
Surprise! The word wasn’t uttered by Drake but the release
of ‘If You’re Reading This...’ certainly was. By far Drake’s most
dense and complex album, with a title hinting at suicide and
beats more akin to his pre-‘Take Care’ era it could be viewed
as Drizzy closing a chapter, letting off some steam. Drake
goes after those holding him back or down, showing his teeth
on a release that reminds the world he’s a rapper first, artist
second. (Sean Stanley) Listen: ‘Legend’
ee
MOON DUO
Shadow of the Sun (sacred bones)
Bestial is an appropriate word to describe
Moon Duo’s ‘Shadow of the Sun’, their fourth
release since Wooden Shjips member Ripley Johnson teamed
up with Sanae Yamada. Now joined by John Jeffrey on drums,
the album is a result of an uncomfortable rest period, with
what the group describes as a beast that emerges from a
dark Portland basement. Sadly compared to their previous
releases ‘Shadow of the Sun’ is a beast that appears to be
tamed. (Sean Stanley) Listen: ‘Slow Down Low’
eee
TORCHE
Restarter (relapse)
Torche have never been your typical
metalheads. Over the past ten years, their
melting pot of pop hooks and sludgy metallics has served
them well. ‘Restarter’ reverberates with a satisfying sludgy
weight. Their newest full-length isn’t by any means leaps and
bounds from what they’ve done before, but when they’ve
got their brand of pop so well-honed, why would we hope for
anything else? (Sarah Jamieson) Listen: ‘Undone’
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NIC HESSLER
Soft Connections (Captured Tracks)
On ‘Soft Connections’, Nic Hessler sounds
vitalised. The indistinct showers of haze that
drove 2010 single ‘One By Words’ have been dramatically
transformed, displaying sharp clarity through power-pop
progressions. While the album holds a strong-element of
cohesiveness through its tone, each single stands on its own
with ease. Hessler’s songwriting is a passionate compliment to
70s FM and 90s mop-top Britpop, an accomplished tale from a
troubled artist. (Ross Jones) Listen: ‘Hearts Repeating’
75

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PURITY RING
another eternity (4AD)
‘another eternity’ is - like ‘Shrines’
before it - a record about strange
love, all-absorbing obsession
and fusing body parts, though it
frequently turns away from the
ready-to-snap tension of Purity
Ring’s debut in favour of highreaching,
trilling sawtooths on ‘dust
hymn’, and the rib-shudderingly
euphoric chorus of ‘push pull’. It’s a
trade-off that on the whole gives way
to a warmer, more idealistic side to
the band after the bitter chill
of their debut. There’s, perhaps
disappointingly, an absence of
chilling grandmothers drilling
little holes into people’s
eyelids, and bizarre inventive
Jabberwocky-esque language
is thrown out in favour of
clarity. Much of ‘another
eternity’ has a detached and
wide-eyed romance to it,
stumbling out of a club as the sun
comes up. After a debut that spent
much of its time slinking like crawlers
out in the shadows, it’s intriguing - if
slightly disconcerting - to see Purity
Ring in a warmer light. (El Hunt)
Listen: ‘push pull’
Detatched and
wide-eyed
romance.
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MODEST
MOUSE
Strangers
to Ourselves
(Epic)
That 2007’s ‘We Were Dead Before the
Ship Even Sank’ was Number One in the
US might explain the pressures that led
to Modest Mouse taking seven years to
put a new record out. They cancelled a
tour in 2013 to finish it; there were even
rumours that Big Boi might appear.
All the ingredients you want are here;
showcasing what makes them so
unique as well as feeling like it’s looking
back to what they’ve created before. It’s
long – a 15 song double LP – but that
means it takes you through some sonic
side streets you might not have exactly
expected. ‘Strangers to Ourselves’
might have been a long time in the
making but listening to it, it doesn’t
feel like it has – and that’s a good thing.
Bruised and brilliant, idiosyncratic and
anthemic, sloppy and heartfelt. It’s an
album only Modest Mouse could make.
(Danny Wright) Listen: ‘Of Course’
(Fortuna Pop)
eeee
EVANS
THE
DEATH
Expect
Delays
Evans The Death’s second album picks
up where their self-titled debut left off
– the latter’s melancholic closer, ‘You’re
Joking’, serves as a neat predecessor to
the first 30 seconds of ‘Expect Delays’’
opener, ‘Intrinsic Grey’.
After that first 30 seconds though,
the guitars and drums kick in, and
Katherine Whitaker’s vocals become
less delicate and more of the angry
yowling sort – in the best way. As
she sings about never being enough,
it’s hard to tell who she’s angrier at –
society or herself.
Whether it’s advice to others or to
her self, Whitaker ends things on
a forgiving note – “Give yourself a
chance.” While you’re at it, give this
band one too. (Coral Williamson)
Listen: ‘Idiot Button’
eeee
FYFE
Control
(Believe
Recordings)
Fyfe’s newest
work doesn’t
aim to challenge the status quo, even
if it does come part and parcel with
album art featuring his 100-yard paint
covered stare. But while the form may
feel familiar (think: a glitch-pop kissing
cousin to Rufus Wainwright’s days as
a balladeer, or a soft-shoe version of
Patrick Wolf’s orchestral manoeuvres) a
promising left-of-centre choice sets Fyfe
apart from the pack of crooners. Even
when attempting the most ambitious
of pop statements (see: ‘For You,’ which
contains the sincerest sax solo this
side of Kenny G) his lyrics are scattered
with lonely nights, broken hearts, and
melancholia—usually with him cast
as the schlub diving headfirst through
it all. A divine celebration of ordinary
heartaches, ‘Control’ is sure to raise
Fyfe’s profile. Here’s hoping he doesn’t
recast the central character for round
two. (Laura Studarus) Listen: ‘St Tropez’
76 diymag.com

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TOBIAS JESSO JR
Goon (True Panther Sounds)
There’s a fragile voice ringing
out in the scratchy, Vancouver
home demos Tobias Jesso Jr.
made his name on. It might have something to
do with the circumstances - these are first takes,
penned while the Canadian was looking after
his sick mother, following a less-than-successful
year in LA where fame couldn’t feel further away.
He’d been through his fair share of tough luck by
this point. On ‘Goon’, a near whimper is replaced
with a booming, character-crammed declaration
of intent. His storytelling takes some topping:
nothing quite resonates like ‘Just a Dream’, Tobias’
perspective on what he’d tell a newborn baby
about the world if he had just a few hours to live.
“There’s a thing called hate and there’s a thing
called love too / Like the love I have for your mum
and for you,” is as no-frills and honest as this
songwriter gets, and it’s his finest moment by a
country mile. (Jamie Milton) Listen: ‘Just a Dream’
eee
GET INUIT
001 (Alcopop)
e
MADONNA
Rebel Heart (Interscope)
A booming
declaration of
intent.
Kent’s Get Inuit pen anthems for fun. Their first EP, ‘001’,
suggests this could be the first of at least 100 releases, which
is no surprise, really, given the rate at which they’re churning
out monstrously huge tracks.
It’s an affirmed debut that, at times, sounds like Paul Simon fronting future festival
heavyweights. Sounds ridiculous on paper, and there’s certainly something
curious to Get Inuit’s strand of anthemia - brutishly big but unorthodox in every
other sense, it’s a special introduction. (Jamie Milton) Listen: ‘Coping With Death
In A Nutshell’
Over the course of her thirteenth album, Madonna compares
herself to: the Virgin Mary, an ‘Unapologetic Bitch’, Joan of
Arc, and even her previous career highlights - ”strike a pose,”
anyone? ‘Rebel Heart’ largely consists of unhinged and
egomaniacal rubbish, all set to an unbearably relentless 4/4 club beat. The finest
moments stand out, not for their levels of accomplishment, but for comedy value.
Being an unapologetic bitch is all very well, but ‘Rebel Heart’ just doesn’t pack the
punch to back up its lofty promises. (El Hunt) Listen: ‘Holy Water’
Recommended
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Charli XCX - Sucker
“After years of being
synonymous with the prefix
‘ft.’, Charli XCX has found her
voice.” (El Hunt)
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Menace Beach - Ratworld
“’Ratworld’ has more to love
than others find in a whole
career, never mind a single
album.” (Stephen Ackroyd)
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Peace - Happy People
“A record chock-full of
invention, a pursuit of the
new and - most importantly
- gigantic songs.” (Jamie
Milton)
e77

live
Hinds
Boston Arms, London Photo: Carolina Faruolo
H
ave you ever felt the urge to pick up a guitar and form
a band? Hinds’ (FKA Deers) unstoppable formula is
guaranteed to tickle almost anyone’s musical bone.
These bubbly Spaniards grew up listening to latter-day surf
garage (Black Lips, Dead Ghost), but have also carefully studied
60s pop and extracted all those fun choruses - and have
claimed them as their own with their ridiculously engaging
charisma.
This show at the Boston Arms has been sold out for months,
the hype might have helped them sell tickets, but when it
came down to the live performance they’re as infectious and
refreshing as you’d expect them to be. Headbanging, dancing
around and smiling at each other, Ana, Carlotta, Ade and
Amber go over their (still) small catalogue, throwing catchy
riffs in the air and creating a vibrant unique atmosphere both
on and off stage.
‘Trippy Gum’ and ‘Bamboo’ get the biggest cheers, but also
“LEMME TAKE A SELFIE”
new songs like the beach-ready ‘San Diego’ are received as
future classics. Hinds’ skills and dynamic have been honed
since their first London show only a few months ago, but
there’s something else different about tonight. The crowd sing
most of the lyrics back at them and you can tell the quartet
feel very emotional about it. “We love coming down to play
here, it’s like playing to a big family,” singer Ana says with a
huge smile.
The final song, a contagious take on Thee Headcoatees’ ‘Davey
Crockett’, triggers a massive stage invasion, and even though
the ladies try to explain they have no more songs to play the
fans aren’t ready to leave yet. “OK, lets play ‘Bamboo’ again
then?” An impromptu encore with a chaotic version of their
debut single finishes off the proceedings on a remarkable
high. For Hinds this is only the beginning of an amazing year,
rest assured that the future of carefree rock and roll is in good
hands. (Carolina Faruolo)
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DRENGE
The Deaf Institute, Manchester Photo: Leah Henson
weeping up adoring fans and
critical acclaim comes naturally to
Sthe Loveless brothers who make
up the tornado that is Drenge. Their
swirling winds have even drawn in a
bassist. It’s these sort of bold, brave and
slightly unexpected decisions that look
set to secure the future of a flame that
could have as easily flickered out as it
raged into an inferno.
It’s lucky Drenge are boasting some wise
heads and broad shoulders as it seems
they’re bearing a the weight of a whole
new generation, The Deaf Institute
tonight hosting a young crowd. With
attempted moshing soon becoming
repeated falling, the high octane crowd
are greeted with unreleased opener
‘Running Wild’ crashing into a snarling
fan favourite, ‘Gun Crazy’.
Rory Loveless’ drumming is positively
machine-like as he deftly adds the light
and shade to riff after riff from brother
Eoin, that pummel and constrict the
audience. A cleverly constructed, if
slightly formulaic, setlist adds room to
breathe for the real peaks. ‘Nothing’ and
‘Face Like A Skull’ find themselves neatly
spaced between unreleased songs. It
guarantees a certain relentless march,
never being far from the next onslaught.
As Drenge approach the final stretch,
‘Bloodsports’ is unleashed on the eager
mass, a song which has to rank as one
of the most achingly brilliant rock songs
released in the past year or two.
They’ve gained a bassist, rounded out
their sound and cut the fat from an
already muscular act. And no matter if
they’ll sing about nothing other than
disappointments, Drenge represent
nothing more than incredible promise.
Pound for pound they’re a formidable
live act, and an increasingly important
one. (Matthew Davies)
WAXAHATCHEE
St. Pancras Old Church, London Photos: Carolina Faruolo
T
he stunning St Pancras Old Church in London is
scattered with illumination. Candles, fairy lights
and a bedside lamp have transformed the aged
venue into a warm and inviting space, making it the perfect
place for Katie Crutchfield’s Waxahatchee to preview her
upcoming third album ‘Ivy Tripp’.
Also making the trip from Philadelphia is Radiator Hospital’s
Sam Cook-Parrott. Between songs, Sam busies himself
staring at his fingers and feet. This uncomfortable shape is
quickly dismissed as, eyes closed and standing tall, he sings
at the heavens with harrowing goose bump beauty. Allison
Crutchfield joins Sam for a few songs, countering his gruff
earnest with delicate flight that manages to lift the sublime
performance even higher.
While Sam shirks the
spotlighted microphone,
Katie relishes it. Taking to the stage with an energetic skip in
her step, she wastes no time in turning those spine-dancing
shivers into slack-jawed looks of disbelief. She is breathtaking.
Bookending the gig with ‘Catfish’ and ‘Noccalula’ from debut,
‘American Weekend’, Katie threads her set with the familiar.
Their simple acoustic melodies draw attention to the potent
lyrics as a room full of people give her their upmost attention.
There’s magic in the air.
It’s the second Waxahatchee show of the evening but
every moment feels unique as Katie shines a light on both
past and future with unflinching verse. The stage is lit but
Waxahatchee’s star couldn’t shine any brighter. (Ali Shutler)
79

Billy Corgan’s had
better days
SLIPKNOT
Wembley Arena, London
Photo: Carolina Faruolo
T
onight was always going to be a
spectacle. Having last performed
in the UK two years ago, there’s
no way that Slipknot’s show at Wembley
Arena would be anything less. That’s a
promise they make good on.
As expected, their stage set-up is
massive: an ornate devilled figurehead
sits at the top of their backdrop, which
is strewn with ever-changing fairy
lights. There’s fire at every suitable
opportunity, while both Chris Fehn and
Shawn Crahan’s drum risers stand proud
on either side of the stage, constantly
rising and falling, twisting and turning
with each of their drumming blasts.
Centre stage, Corey Taylor commands
all proceedings. Boasting a mask that
looks closer to an extra from Lord of the
Rings than his earlier frightful efforts,
there’s a more human element about
his presence tonight. His chants are still
littered with expletives and passion, but
there’s no animalistic roar in his throat
until he’s singing.
There’s not a voice in the house that
isn’t hoarse by the end of their set, and
that’s what makes tonight a triumph.
After weathering the storm that has
been their past five years, Slipknot
may not quite be the same men they
once were, but their place in the higher
echelons of metal just can’t be denied.
(Sarah Jamieson)
FALL OUT BOY
Islington Assembly Hall, London Photo: Sarah Louise BennetT
I
t’s an eclectic crowd in Islington’s Assembly Hall - young and old(er) mix
in a comfortable atmosphere, sharing the common thrill that they’re the
lucky few to see an arena-worthy band in an intimate setting debuting new
material.
Kicking off with ‘The Phoenix’, the crowd turn from relaxed individuals into
a frenzied collective, jumping to the beat with such vigour the floor can be
felt vibrating. Vocalist Patrick Stump commands the stage with flair through a
versatile mix of tracks from their 2003 offering ‘Take This To Your Grave’ right
through to new tracks like ‘Irresistible’.
New track ‘The Kids Aren’t Alright’, which has the crowd whistling through
from start to finish. The set rounds off with ‘My Songs Know What You Did In
The Dark’ before an encore of recent single ‘Centuries’ – that has the crowd ‘do
do do’-ing along to the clever sampling of Suzanne Vega’s ‘Tom’s Diner’ - ‘Thnx
Fr Th Mmrs’ and fan favourite ‘Saturday’.
It may have actually been a wet and windy Wednesday night, but safe to say,
the crowd left feeling as euphoric as if it were anything but. (Shiona Walker)
80 diymag.com

PALMA VIOLETS
Sebright Arms, London Photo: Carolina Faruolo
acked to the brim, as part of Independent Venue
Week, the Sebright Arms turns into a pool of sweat and
Pexcitement as soon as the Lambeth quartet step foot on
stage with an up-tempo version of ‘Rattlesnake Highway’. At
the front of the venue, the regulars, salivating with each new
track, jump up and down recklessly only supervised by one
(very defenceless) security member whose first day on the
job he’ll never forget. At the back, the curious observe from
a distance but find it impossible not to get involved in the
chaos.
While there isn’t much verbal communication with the
audience throughout the evening, front-men Chilli Jesson
and Sam Fryer’s interaction with each other is engaging and
powerful.
‘Best Of Friends’ sits comfortably mid set, preparing the
mood for a couple of newbies, the Nick Cave-y ‘Matador’ and
‘Danger In The Club’. By the time they get to fan favourite
‘Step Up For The Cool Cats’ Chilli is bouncing between the
fans like another punter and probably the only reason why he
isn’t crowd-surfing was cause the ceiling is too low.
As if the night isn’t memorable enough, the live debut of
‘English Tongue’ finishes off what feels more like a comeback
gig than a pub show. Palma Violets 2.0 is officially ready to hit
the road. (Carolina Faruolo)
MENACE BEACH
McClusky’s, Kingston Photo: Abi Dainton
t’s just days after the release of debut album ‘Ratworld’
when Menace Beach take to the stage at Banquet Records’
INew Slang club night. And so, sensing a crowd who aren’t
necessarily there to hear their innermost thoughts, frontman
Ryan Needham keeps interludes brief. A quick thank you
between each song is all, before Nestor Matthews cracks his
sticks together to instigate the next salvo.
Opening with ‘Drop Outs’, all woozy cool and hair pushed
behind ears, by mid-set the audience are drawn in, as the
distinctive personalities on stage serve up their appealing
catalogue of fuzzed out gems. Needham’s quirky, jerking
lead role contrasts with Liza Violet’s detachment, as they
execute their music with a precision that belies the sound.
‘Tennis Court’, ‘Come On Give Up’, and ‘Fortune Teller’ ooze
with sloppy nonchalance, the irony of slacker anthems being
delivered to an audience of students evaporating as they waft
out of the speakers. They tear into each song like they have a
point to prove.
Back in December they said their aim for 2015 was to “not do
anything shit”. Well, Menace Beach have stayed true to their
word. (Louis Haines)
81

INDIE DREAMBOAT
Of the Month
OWEN
PALLETT
Full name: Owen Pallett
Nicknames: O-Face, OP, Swan.
Star sign: Virgo, Libra rising.
Pets: None, but I visit a lot of pet
stores and play with the shibas and
give them names.
Favourite film: En Kärlekshistoria by
Roy Andersson.
Favourite food: Blueberries, soft
tofu, eggs, oysters.
Drink of choice: I’m easy, but mezcal
if it’s time for liquor, sparkling wine
if it’s not.
Favourite scent: It’s a highly guarded
secret.
Favourite hair product: Depends
on the season but right now it’s just
argan oil.
Song you’d play to woo someone:
If you get me tipsy and excited I’ll
probably put on something dateending
like Bartok or US Maple and
get really tomato-faced and happy
about it while you look at your watch.
If you weren’t a pop star, what
would you be doing now: When
my stack of pop star chips has
depleted I will likely take up
film scoring full-time.
Chatup line of choice: “I…
want to kiss you!”
DIY
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83

THE NEW ALBUM MARCH 16
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