DIY, June 2015

SOAK

GENGAHR

BULLY

EVERYTHING EVERYTHING

set music free

free / issue 41 / june 2015

diymag.com

THE MACCABEES

I N C O L O U R

1

2 diymag.com

J U N E 2 0 1 5

“Congratulations, you are officially a member of Gryffindor!”

GOOD VS EVIL

WHAT’S ON THE DIY TEAM’S RADAR?

Victoria Sinden

Deputy Editor

GOOD Milifandom.

EVIL We’ve run out of tea

bags. Someone pop to the

shop, yeah?

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

Emma Swann

Associate Editor

GOOD I got to visit Damon

Albarn’s bar while in

Reykjavik. It looks a bit like

Dalston.

EVIL The election of, and

pretty much all plans by the

new Government.

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

Jamie Milton

Online Editor

GOOD Discovering a great

new band at The Great

Escape - Planet Vibes.

EVIL Tories.

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

Sarah Jamieson

News Editor

GOOD Can you believe that

Cadburys made a chocolate

bar with seven different

flavours in there? Willy

Wonka would be so proud.

EVIL I think I’m becoming

addicted to getting Ubers...

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

Louise Mason

Art Director

GOOD I really love

Gengahr’s album, glad that

falsetto is finally coming

back hard.

EVIL The most trouble

I’ve ever been in for a

photoshoot to date.

Way more trouble than

previous photoshoots with

machetes, fire explosions,

smokebombs, buckets of red

paint, etc.

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

El hunt

Assistant Online Editor

GOOD Festival season has

well and truly kicked off.

Bring on many months of

bum-bags, instant noodles,

and clashfinders.

EVIL David Cameron’s

stupid satsuma-shaped

face.

EDITOR’S LETTER

The first festival of the summer is done, and what a festival

it was. While Live at Leeds was all-round amazing, there was

one moment on the DIY stage that stood out. Magic Gang

on stage, Swim Deep, Bloody Knees, Spring King, Black

Honey and so many other amazing bands in the audience.

Something’s going on. There’s a scene brewing, and

something tells me next month, it will have something to

celebrate...

Stephen Ackroyd

GOOD Field Day is here! A festival within walking distance of

my front door with amazing bands and great food. Win.

EVIL 12 billion quid’s worth of welfare cuts to start...

LISTENING POST

What’s on the DIY stereo this

month?

BULLY feels like

Scuzzy, super catchy rock that

makes everything better.

REFUSED freedom

The album they said would

never happen. Except it has.

And it’s great.

3

C

O

N

T

E

N

T

S

NEWS

6 THE MACCABEES

6 FESTIVALS

16 FFS

18 HUDSON MOHAWKE

20 MAXIMO PARK

21 HALL OF FAME

22 DEFTONES

24 GIRL BAND

25 DESTROYER

26 YOUNG GUNS

28 POPSTAR POSTBAG

34

NEU

34 BULLY

36 SLIME

37 LA PRIEST

38 THE BIG

MOON

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,

Ali Shutler, Andrew Backhouse,

Danny Wright, Euan L

Davidson, Henry Boon, Jessica

Goodman, Joe Goggins, Laura

Studarus, Liam McNeilly,

Matthew Davies, Ross Jones,

Sean Stanley, Tom Connick,

Tom Walters, Will Moss, Will

Richards

Photographers Abi Dainton,

Carolina Faruolo, Mike

Massaro, Sarah Louise Bennett

40

60

FEATURES

40 JAMIE XX

48 EVERYTHING

EVERYTHING

52 SOAK

76

56 OF MONSTERS

AND MEN

60 GIRLPOOL

64 GENGAHR

48

68

REVIEWS

68 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 3632 3456

DIY is published by Sonic

Media Group. All material

copyright (c). All rights reserved.

This publication may not be

reproduced or transmitted in any

form, in whole or in part, without

the express written permission of

DIY. 25p where sold.

Disclaimer: While every effort is

made to ensure the information

in this magazine is correct,

changes can occur which affect

the accuracy of copy, for which

Sonic Media Group holds no

responsibility. The opinions of the

contributors do not necessarily

bear a relation to those of DIY or

its staff and we disclaim liability

for those impressions. Distributed

nationally.

Cover photo: Emma Swann

4 diymag.com

A LONDON EXCLUSIVE

NICK MULVEY

BEAR’S DEN / DAN CROLL / LEON BRIDGES

NATHANIEL RATELIFF & THE NIGHT SWEATS

HONEYBLOOD / RHODES / TOR MILLER / THE WALKING WHO

NENEH CHERRY

W/ ROCKETNUMBERNINE

ROOTS MANUVA / HIDDEN ORCHESTRA / ANDREYA TRIANA

SEUN KUTI & EGYPT 80 / IBIBIO SOUND MACHINE

5

news

glastonbury

preview

All down to Worthy Farm! It’s Glastonbury time again - prepare

yourself with The Maccabees, Wolf Alice, Gengahr, Death Cab For

Cutie, Young Fathers and more.

6 diymag.com

Rip it

up and

start

again

been in our studio for so long,

it’s very hard to imagine that there’s

a world outside of it,” laughs The

“We’ve

Maccabees’ frontman Orlando Weeks.

The band have been working on the follow-up to 2012’s

‘Given To The Wild’ for a long time, and are now finally

looking ahead to its release. One track is already out in the

world, but it’s not been the easiest journey to get this far.

“It got very claustrophobic,” he says, “to the point where it

was nice to play again just to take us out of recording.” He

pauses. “Yeah, we haven’t felt like time was a positive for a

little while, but I think it is now.”

After the release of ‘Given To The Wild’, the band settled

into the regular rhythm of any other group: play shows, play

festivals, begin writing another album… The snag came

when the London five-piece realised that they were writing a

record that just didn’t meet their standards.

From writing an

album, scrapping it

and starting over to

seeking inspiration

in the most squalid

of places, The

Maccabees have

spent a long time

holed up in their

Elephant & Castle

studio. Now they’re

ready to emerge.

Words: Sarah

Jamieson.

“We thought we had written the record,” Orlando reasons,

“or most of the record, within a year, but then when we

started recording we just felt like it wasn’t good enough, so

we sort of had to start again. That’s why it took so long; with

the way that we work,

it’s really important for

us to get a momentum

going and feel

confident, and I think we

just didn’t.”

“We wanted to make

something that was

a bit more direct,” he

goes on, explaining the

differences between the

two albums they had

written. “The last one

was very filmic and had

a lot of space in it, but

for this one, we realised

pretty early on that

we wanted it to sound

“We

thought

we had

written

the

record…”

- Orlando

Weeks

7

festivals 2015: glastonbury

more like the place we were making it, and Elephant & Castle

doesn’t have very much space in it, and it’s not filmic, not in a

Hollywood sense.

“What we thought was good about the last record was that it

made a world for itself, it lived in its own skin, so we wanted to

try and do that again but without using the same mechanisms.

That meant really figuring out how to do that, and that was

another reason why I think it took so long; trying to find that

kind of language for the record. It just took a long time to help

find its identity.”

The world the band have created on this record sees them

exploring their environment and unearthing secrets. “We were

[in Elephant & Castle] for a long time,” he emphasises. “I mean,

I don’t know if anyone would listen to it and, without being

told, hear that place in it but it just helped [the album] to take

on some kind of framework.

“Anywhere - if you scratch the surface - has its own sort of

fairytale or folklore. Since we started talking about it, I’ve

started to have conversations with people about the area and

discovered things. It’s a very nice process slowly uncovering

something which you only feel you know a little bit about.

“For example, I didn’t realise but a friend told me that there’s

actually a hidden river that runs underneath Elephant & Castle

called The Neckinger. It was in Dickens’ Oliver Twist; that was

where Bill Sikes was supposed to have hung himself. Dickens

called it ‘The Venice of Drains’ and it was always this squalid

place. There are lots of those kinds of things, and lots of

interesting people.

“I think it could’ve been made anywhere, but that’s the point;

our location just happened to be Elephant & Castle but really,

everywhere has its stories.”

The Maccabees’ new album will be released later this year

via Fiction Records. DIY

The road

to Glasto

Orlando and co. are

ready to hit the stage

On incorporating new songs into the set... “We’ll be doing

three or four new songs that stand up in the set. I think that,

after we’ve been away for such a long time, we’re feeling

confident about it. I’m excited as, for a lot of the record,

we made it in a room, playing together. Hopefully that

will translate well playing it live because that’s how it was

supposed to be.”

On being invited back to Glastonbury...

“It’s a very surreal place, isn’t it? Just to experience it, there’s

nothing else like it. I almost kinda dread it a little bit, leading

up to it as it feels really out of my comfort zone! But once

you’re there, you’re okay and it’s amazing.”

L

WOLF

ALICE

RETURN FOR ROUND TWO

ast year, Wolf Alice made their Glastonbury debut and,

judging by what the band’s Theo Ellis has to say, it was a

bit terrifying all round for the quartet...

“Glasto last year was definitely a baptism of fire for us,” he

admits. “It was probably the biggest outdoor stage we played

all year and the first on our summer run. It was easily the

most nervous the four of us have been - Joel was actually

completely fine. I can remember those nerves not fading

even as the set was finishing.” This year, however, they’ll be

taking their set a little more in their stride. “As a mildly more

experienced band it’s exciting to come back and see what we

can do.

“Being invited back is undoubtedly a massive honour,” he

goes on. “We like to keep our festival shows up tempo and

full of energy, so we’re planning a fast paced set including a

solid number of album tracks. We haven’t got any mad pyro or

production tricks up our sleeves.”

As for what he loves about Glastonbury distinctly... “My

favourite aspect of Glastonbury is the endlessness of the

site itself. We only had an evening last year, so I can’t wait to

explore. The idea of finally catching some other friends play is

what I’m most looking forward to. That and the stone circle.”

8 diymag.com


A LITTLE ADVICE FROM

GENGAHR

I

Wolf Alice will be bringing the flower power to Glastonbury.

t’s no secret that times can get a little bit crazy over at the Tor and sometimes,

things just get out of control, but if Gengahr’s frontman Felix Bushe can offer up

any tips, it’s, well, try not to almost die by dehydration.

“When we were at Glastonbury we had an amazing first night listening to Metallica

and stomping around soggy fields for hours trying to find friends,” he explains.

“However, in the morning I woke up to find I had spent every last penny I had. A

friend - who shall remain nameless - had lost his wallet the night before and so

I’d lent him half what I had. I couldn’t even buy a bottle of water so ended up just

having to leave to avoid death by dehydration.

“There are a few lessons to be learnt from that experience. Firstly at a festival you will

definitely need water, secondly you might want to take out a load before heading

to Glastonbury and lastly once you get there it’s every fucker for themselves. Being

nice wont get you anywhere.”

If you see Gengahr at a festival, give ‘em a sip of your water, yeah?

DEATH CAB

FOR CUTIE

A

PLAN THEIR RITE OF PASSAGE

fter releasing eight albums as

a band, it’s hard to imagine

that Death Cab For Cutie have

many firsts left to tick off their bucket

list. Yet, with new album ‘Kintsugi’

now firmly in their grasp, they’re

planning on treading some previously

unexplored territory for the band:

Glastonbury.

“We are very excited,” the band’s

Nick Harmer reveals, during some

downtime on a grey, rainy day in

Detroit. “Amongst our British friends,

attending Glastonbury has always

seemed like a rite of passage; they all

talk to each other about “their first

Glasto” or who they saw when, it’s

this huge cultural touchstone for all of

them, so it’s incredible to be invited to

share in a part of that.”

As for how things are panning out for

the band now their newest record is

finally out in the open, the now trio are

feeling positive. “I am incredibly proud

of this album,” he says, “it’s one of our

best, I feel, and I think the reaction has

been very positive overall. The songs

live are inspiring as well. The new

material has definitely elevated our

older material and having two new

players with us on stage has expanded

our energy and sound in powerful

ways.

“We’ll be playing some new material

for sure,” he goes on, referencing their

set plans, “but our final setlist is still

to be determined. Playing festivals

requires special attention to the song

selection, you have to be careful to

not play too many deep album cuts

but also make sure that longtime fans

have something to get excited about.

I’m confident we’ll curate something

memorable.”

9


YOUNG

FATHERS

pLAN ON BRINGING THUNDER AND DARKNESS

Y

oung Fathers aren’t shy when it comes to their performances

and, after appearing at the weekender last year for two sets,

they’ve been invited back for more.

“The second, non-publicised show at the Greenpeace tent was fun,”

the band offer up, thinking back to their time at the festival. “Kind

of what you expect from the good side of Glastonbury, which is

otherwise a strange tension between tourbus egos, a thinning hippy

ethos, sound meters, farms, shit and the BBC.”

Having released second album ‘White Men Are Black Men Too’ just a

few months ago now, you might be wondering how the new songs

are working alongside their older material. Needless to say, the trio

aren’t concerned. “They fit,” they assure. “As if they’re made for live -

they weren’t. The reactions are ecstatic, of course.”

As for the set itself, what’s due to unfold this time around, however,

might be a little darker than the regular Glasto punter is equipped to

handle in the middle of the day.

“It’s good to go back to a place where there are some genuine music

fans,” they continue. “Unfortunately, it will be in the blazing sunshine

of a late afternoon so the voodoo will need to be delicately massaged

in order to bring the thunder and the darkness. By ‘delicately

massaged’, we mean by screaming technology and bass frequencies

normally felt beneath the earth’s crust. If they let us.”

COURTNEY B!

hOW WAS GLASTONBURY FOR

YOU LAST YEAR?

“It was incredible. We went to watch

Blondie and it took like an hour to

get to the next stage afterwards. It

was a lot of fun, though I’ve never

seen so many people in one place.”

FANBOY ALERT

He may not be on the bill, but Bastille’s Dan Smith

has clearly already paid off his ticket

CLASH

OF THE HEADLINERS

As ever, Glastonbury has managed to secure itself

quite a selection of heavyweights when it comes to

the 2015 edition of the festival, but who’s going to be

drawing the biggest crowd? Who’s going to take the

crown as the must-see act? And who’s going to be the

headliner who has the most to prove?

FOO FIGHTERS

If any band are the solid, dependable choice to

headline Glastonbury, it’s the good ol’ Foos. Already

nicely warmed up after a slew of massive stadium

shows across the UK in June, there’s no doubting that

they’ll be on top form when it comes to closing the

Pyramid stage. Thanks to the inspirations behind their

new album, they’ll have all sorts of different genres

to touch upon – don’t forget those funky guitars on

‘Something From Nothing’ – while still boasting a

hefty back catalogue of hits to lean on. No ifs or buts

are necessary here: their set will be massive.

KANYE WEST

From dominating the O2 Arena with his performance

at this year’s BRIT Awards, to making a surprise, lastminute

appearance at London’s Koko just because

he fancied it, Kanye West is one unpredictable being

when it comes to live shows. That’s what makes

his performance at Glastonbury such an exciting

prospect. Will he bring along the entire UK Grime

scene to fill out the stage? Will he be covered in

crystals while firing off flares? The beauty is that no

one knows, and no one can predict what a musician

like Yeezy will do next.

THE WHO

Alright, so, The Who’s inclusion as this year’s closing

act may well be a bit of a taboo subject with some

festival-goers. Granted, there’s no denying that

they’re a band who can take on the slot – heck,

they’re already due to play at London’s Hyde Park this

summer – but they’re definitely a band who speak to

a different generation when it comes to the Glasto

audience. Then again, any band celebrating hitting

the 50th year of their career are sort of no-brainers

when it comes to the Pyramid Stage. It may even – if

the rumours are true - be the last time they play in

the UK, so it’s sure to be an occasion whether you’re a

diehard fan or not.

10 diymag.com

LA DISPUTE/

FUCKED UP

KOKO LONDON

TUE 26 MAY

ZHU

OVAL SPACE LONDON

WED 27 MAY

SHURA

MANCHESTER SOUP KITCHEN

WED 03 JUN

SAMM HENSHAW

THE COURTYARD THEATRE

HOXTON LONDON

TUE 16 JUN

WET

THE VICTORIA DALSTON LONDON

WED 17 JUN

ZIBRA

SEBRIGHT ARMS LONDON

WED 17 JUN

AQUILO

VILLAGE UNDERGROUND LONDON

TUE 23 JUN

FIDLAR

HEAVEN LONDON

TUE 23 JUN

TENTERHOOK

THE LEXINGTON LONDON

WED 24 JUN

MINI MANSIONS

OSLO LONDON

TUE 30 JUN

BRONCHO

LONDON DINGWALLS

WED 01 JUL

NOEL GALLAGHER’S

HIGH FLYING BIRDS

AT CALLING FESTIVAL

CLAPHAM COMMON LONDON

SAT 04 JUL

BILLIE BLACK

THE WAITING ROOM LONDON

WED 08 JUL

GEORGE THE POET

RESCUE ROOMS NOTTINGHAM SUN 04 OCT

BIRMINGHAM INSTITUTE THU 08 OCT

O2 SHEPHERD’S BUSH EMPIRE FRI 16 OCT

+ 9 MORE DATES

WALKING ON CARS

ELECTRIC BALLROOM LONDON

FRI 23 OCT

THE STAVES

NEWCASTLE UNIVERSITY SUN 25 OCT

BOURNEMOUTH O2 ACADEMY SUN 08 NOV

JOHN GRANT

EVENTIM APOLLO HAMMERSMITH LONDON

THU 12 NOV

TOBIAS JESSO JR.

O2 SHEPHERD’S BUSH EMPIRE LONDON

WED 25 NOV

@LNSource

Tickets | Exclusives | Win | livenation.co.uk

11

festivals 2015: Latitude

Latitude reveals

DIY Presents:

The Alcove StagE

L

ots of exciting new names have been

announced for this year’s Latitude, which

runs from 16th to 19th July.

Not only that - we’re also very excited to announce

details for the DIY Presents: The Alcove Stage

at the festival, which spans across the entire

weekend. Stevenage punks Bad Breeding,

London trio Real Lies and Aussie newcomer Josef

Salvat are all set to appear.

“I hope that I get to debut a few new songs,” Salvat

says of his appearance, “and maybe some new

dance moves. I made a vow with myself when I

came here that I wasn’t going to go to any festivals

until I played them. I’m really looking forward

to it.”

It’s not just playing that he’s got his sights set on;

there are a few bands he’s holding out to watch

too. “I really, really, really want to see Portishead,”

he emphasises. “They’re a big deal. Caribou will be

fantastic, and Ibeyi and James Blake.”

Also set to play on the DIY stage, we’ve got headturning

Londoner Nao, experimentalists Vessels,

Douglas Dare, Tor Miller, C-Duncan and loads

more.

Elsewhere on the latest list of additions to the rest

of this year’s weekender, Warpaint are leading

the way as the newest act confirmed to grace the

Obelisk Arena. Santigold will also be appearing,

alongside The Boomtown Rats and Badly Drawn

Boy (performing ‘The Hour of the Bewilderbeast’).

Over on the BBC Radio 6 Music Stage, The

Charlatans will be playing alongside Syrian

musician Omar Souleyman and NYC-residing

artist Kindness. Other additions include The

Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Mali group

Songhoy Blues, plus DIY favourites Ben Khan and

Rae Morris.

These new names join headliners Alt-J,

Portishead and Noel Gallagher’s High Flying

Birds. DIY is an Official Media Partner for Latitude.

DIY

Presents:

The Alcove

Stage

• Josef Salvat

• LoneLady

• Bad Breeding

• Jane Weaver

• Real Lies

• R. Selliog

• Douglas Dare

• Clean Cut Kid

• Tor Miller

• DMA’s

• Nao

• Max Jury

• C-Duncan

12 diymag.com

festivals 2015: FIELD DAY

PREVIEW

FIELD DAY

(6th - 7th June)

estivals aren’t always about packing wellies and a tent, jumping in the

car and scooting off to the nearest set of fields. Sometimes, they’re gems

Fburied in the middle of some of the biggest cities in the UK, just like this

year’s Field Day.

Heading into its second year as a two-day festival, this year’s edition of the

East London event will boast everyone from Caribou to Ride, Mac

DeMarco to Savages, Run The Jewels to FKA Twigs. It’s even going

to be the only place in the UK that punters will be able to revel in

Patti Smith’s performance of her seminal album ‘Horses’ in full.

“I’ve never been to Field Day, no!” Rae Morris is quick to admit.

Luckily, she’ll get the opportunity to visit when she appears

at Victoria Park this month. “It’s one of those events that

happens in London that you definitely feel sad to be

missing out on. I’m very excited to be on the same lineup

as so many brilliant artists and bands.

“I’m particularly excited to see Sylvan Esso live for

the first time,” she enthuses. “I’ve had that album on

repeat over the last few weeks. Then, Patti Smith

is one of my heroes, plus my friends Fryars, Jack

Garratt and Shura are playing so that’ll be fun!”

Fresh from completing her first set of headline

shows out in Europe, the Blackpudlian is ready

and raring to go when it comes to a summer full

of festivals. “My set is constantly developing and

changing,” Rae explains, on what she might be

including in her live show. “At the moment, since

the release of my album,

Shacklewell

Arms Stage in

association

with DIY

6th June

• Astronomyy

• Jack Garratt

• Rae Morris

• Fryars

• Ghost Culture

• LA Priest

• Jagaara

• Shura

• Sylvan Esso

• TÁLÁ

• Tei Shi

7th June

• Allah-Las

• Baxter Dury

• Gaz Coombes

• Ex Hex

• Hookworms

• Savages

• Viet Cong

it’s just been wonderful

to be playing the record

out to people.

“I haven’t yet played some

of my newer stuff from the

record at a festival so I

guess i’ll have to wait and

see. But I have a feeling

‘Morne Fortune’ will be

lots of fun. It always gets us

excited on stage so hopefully

that’ll translate to the audience.”

And as for the fact she’ll be sharing

the stage with her good friend Fryars,

it’s not surprising that fans are

wondering if a collaboration

might be on the cards. “You

know I didn’t even consider it

yet! Fryars has been away in LA

for a while so we haven’t yet

spoken. I would always love

him to sing on ‘Cold’ with

me. It’s not quite the same

without his voice.”

Rae takes her new net.

curtains everywhere..

13

festivals 2 0 1 5

Alt-J

head up new Reading & Leeds announcement

lt-J lead the new wave of additions for this year’s

Reading & Leeds Festival, taking place over this

AAugust’s Bank Holiday Weekend. The ‘This Is All Yours’

three-piece will be playing the Main Stage on Friday 28th at

Reading and Saturday 29th at Leeds.

They head up the latest announcement of more than 60 new

names, with the most exciting bookings including Drenge,

FIDLAR, Palma Violets and Against Me! for the Main Stage.

The Gaslight Anthem, Babymetal, Feed The Rhino and

Modestep have also been booked for similar slots.

On the BBC Radio 1 / NME Stage, Parquet Courts, Spector

and Ghostpoet have all been added. There’s also Twin

Atlantic, Nothing But Thieves, AWOLNATION, Kwabs and

The Skints. Elsewhere, Charli XCX and Liverpool trio All We

Are are on the BBC Radio 1 Dance Stage. There’s also Maribou

State, Jacob Plant, LANY, MK, Oliver Dollar and Kevin

Saunderson.

The Lock Up Stage will host Modern Baseball, PVRIS,

Ho99o9 and Black Peaks, while the Festival Republic

Stage has added Gengahr, Vaults, Black Honey and Bad

Breeding. See the full list of new additions on diymag.com.

Chromeo and

more join

Bilbao BBK Live

ilbao BBK Live (9th - 11th July)

has added six electronic acts to

Bits 2015 bill. Chromeo lead the

additions, Julio Bashmore will bring

his newly-announced debut album, and

Lapalux is also appearing, alongside

Monarchy, beGun and Buffetlibre.

These new names join Muse, Mumford

& Sons and The Jesus and Mary Chain

(performing ‘Psychocandy’). Other acts

confirmed include Alt-J, Disclosure

and Azealia Banks. Future Islands, Of

Monsters and Men and Kodaline have

recently been announced, too.

DIY is an Official Media Partner for

Bilbao BBK Live. The last remaining

three-day camping tickets are available

now.

Kendal Calling

confirm Gaz

Coombes and

Temples

az Coombes, Temples and Mark Lanegan

Band are three of the newest additions to this

Gyear’s Kendal Calling bill. They join the likes of

The Vaccines, Kaiser Chiefs, Elbow and Snoop Dogg, who

have already been confirmed to perform at this year’s edition of the event. The

Sunshine Underground, DJ Maribou State and Grades are also included in the

list of new additions to the line-up.

The full list of new additions to the weekender, which has already sold out,

is as follows: Gaz Coombes, Temples, Mark Lanegan Band, The Sunshine

Underground, DJ Maribou State, Grades, Kidnap Kid, Kim Churchill,

Propellers, Jesca Hoop, Habitats, Francisco The Man, Gramotones, New Palace

Talkies, Rhain, DRONE X VEED, Collectors Club, Steve Levine, Chadelics, Time

For T, Cactus Knife, Secret Company, Bruising and Loyle Carner.

Elsewhere on the full line-up, you’ll find the likes of Dutch Uncles, Bondax, The

Horrors, British Sea Power, Black Honey, and Kate Tempest. Kendal Calling takes

place between 30th July and 2nd August in Lowther Deer Park in the Lake District.

14 diymag.com

festivals 2015: best kept secret

FESTIVAL

NEWS

IN BRIEF

DOWNLOAD

(12th - 14th June)

LA garage punks FIDLAR have been added to

this year’s Download, running from 12th - 14th

June at Derby’s Donington Park.

TRUCK

(17th - 18th July)

Clean Bandit, Temples and Public Service

Broadcasting are the latest acts to be added

to the line-up of this year’s Truck. All We Are,

Summer Camp and The Magic Gang are also in

the newest list of bill additions.

PREVIEW

BEST KEPT

SECRET

19th - 21st June

Festival season is no longer

just about dealing with

drizzle in the murky depths

of the UK. Now, there’s an

endless list of new destinations to

discover when it comes to seeing

your favourite bands, and from the

looks of things, this year’s Best Kept

Secret is going to be one of the

major highlights of this summer.

Not only will this year’s weekender

be taking place in the beautiful

town of Hilvarenbeek, which sits in

the south of the Netherlands, but

it also boasts one hell of a line-up.

Whether you fancy watching Alt-J,

The Libertines or Royal Blood,

A$AP Rocky, Future Islands or

Noel Gallagher, it’s got just about

everyone covered.

One of the acts most looking

forward to appearing on the lineup

are those Danes in Mew, who’ll

be giving their newest album ‘+-’

its Dutch debut. “I’m looking very

much forward to that,” the band’s

Jonas Bjerre says excitedly, of their

upcoming performance. “It’s been

ages since we played any shows in

Holland, and I’ve heard really good

things about BKS.

“Festivals are cool because there is

a sense of being part of something

bigger. And you get to play your

music to people who might not

already be familiar with it. Plus,

we’re playing the same day as

Ariel Pink, which is a show I’m

hoping to see, really like his newest

album. Also, Jonny Greenwood

performing with an orchestra?

That’s something I wanna see and

hear!”

It’s not just Best Kept Secret that

the band are looking forward to.

After spending the last few years

being a little quiet on the live side

of things, they’re eager to get

back out on the road and throw

themselves into the deep end.

“Yes indeed, touring and then

more touring! That’s how we like

it! It’s been too long since we were

on the road; we’ve been cooped

away in writing and recording for

so long!”

POSITIVUS

(17th - 19th July)

Positivus have announced three new names:

Warpaint, Rival Sons and Ghostpoet. They

join Kasabian, Everything Everything, St.

Vincent, Jungle, Charli XCX and more at the

Latvian event.

HEVY FEST

(14th - 16th August)

Milk Teeth, God Damn and Protest The Hero

are three of the latest bands to be added to Hevy

Fest. The event has announced another twelve

acts including As It Is, Landscapes and Stick To

Your Guns.

GREEN MAN

(20th – 23rd August)

Over forty new names have been added to this

year’s Green Man, taking place in Wales’ Brecon

Beacons. Villagers, All We Are, Teleman, The

Antlers and Anna B Savage are just a handful.

LOWLANDS

(21st - 23rd August)

Lowlands has announced that Hot Chip,

Kendrick Lamar, AWOLNATION and Ben Khan

are amongst the eighteen new names added to

the line-up of the Biddinghuizen, Netherlands

event.

FESTIVAL NO. 6

(3rd - 6th September)

Metronomy have been confirmed as the final

headliner for Festival No. 6. The band will join

forces with Grace Jones and Belle & Sebastian

to close proceedings at Portmeirion, Wales.

15

Franz Ferdinand get caught robbing

Gringotts. How could they?

FFS.

A series of unlikely events led to one of the summer’s best new

pairings - Franz Ferdinand and Sparks. Words: El Hunt.

FFS, the new so-called

supergroup formed by Franz

Ferdinand and 70s art-rock

aficionados Sparks, has been

brewing for over a decade.

Since the former released ‘Take Me

Out,’ the two bands knew they wanted

to work together. They traded demos

over the years, but never committed to

anything concrete. It’s only now that

FFS are releasing their self-titled first

album - they’re very clear that this is an

entirely new entity, and a debut record

- and they put it down to a strange

combination of circumstances.

“As fate turned out, we bumped into

each other on the street,” says Alex

Kapranos. “Through some spectacular

mishap, I’d broken a molar. I can’t go

into the details, it’s too harrowing - all

we’ll say is the articulated lorry did

manage to get its bump-start,” he

smiles. “Our tour manager said, ‘Huey

Lewis has this great dentist, he’ll

sort you out,’ and then, lost in San

Franscisco, I heard this voice behind

me, saying ‘Alex, is that you?’ And it

was Ron and Russ. If I hadn’t followed

“If it wasn’t

for teeth and

moustaches,

w h e r e w o u l d

we be?” - Alex

Kapranos

my mother’s advice and eaten all those

sweets, I wouldn’t have broken my

teeth.”

“It’s taken us twelve years of searching

to find a moustache that meets the

expectations of our namesake,” Alex

goes on, referencing the well-groomed

facial hair of the actual historical figure

Franz Ferdinand, along with Ron Mael

of Sparks’ iconic ‘tache. “It eliminated

a lot of bands,” Russell Mael chips in.

“That band Theodore Roosevelt that

came to us one time....” adds Ron Mael,

tongue firmly in cheek. “It just didn’t

work out, you know?”

“If it wasn’t for teeth and moustaches...“

Alex muses, “where would we be?”

FFS is - even setting aside those teeth

16 diymag.com

and moustaches for a moment

- the result of chance, largely

because Franz and Sparks went

into the project with no planned

destination. “There was a real

purity to the collaboration along

the way, because it wasn’t that

we were doing it for a project,”

explains Russ. “It was done without

any preconception of what it was,”

agrees his brother and Sparks

bandmate Ron. “We didn’t know

how it was going to sound, either,

musically,” says Alex. “Particularly,

we responded to one another. I

guess it is quite an unusual sound,

this record.”

Unusual is putting it rather mildly.

Actually, the whole thing is a totally

bonkers mash of melodrama and

glam-rock. At times it’s a borderline

parody of both Franz Ferdinand

and Sparks’ respective signature

sounds. ‘FFS’ boasts an epic-length

rock opera song, ironically titled

‘Collaborations Don’t Work,’ and

their debut single together - in

a nod to FFS’ sweary textspeak

connotation - is called ‘Piss Off’. “We

want everyone to feel inclusive,”

says Alex, faux-sincerely. “It’s nigh

on impossible to plot the joining

point between the two bands, and

really, FFS sounds nothing like its

components.”

Having completely transformed

their sound on ‘No.1 In Heaven’

in 1979, with the help of Giorgio

Moroder, Sparks particularly know

all too well the power of a producer.

For this collaboration, John

Congleton was the ideal match.

“He was on the same wavelength in

wanting to make something new,”

says Russ. “He brought a sense of

newness to the project,” agrees

Alex, “and also an intensely crude

sense of humour.”

What’s going on with…

Frank Carter?

The former Gallows frontman has just unveiled his

new project, Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes.

Hello! You’ve just offered a first taste

of your brand new musical foray; it

must be a pretty exciting time for

you right now?

Yeah, very much so. Obviously it’s all

been a bit quick: we’ve only put it all

together in the last three months but

yeah, that means it’s still very exciting

for us and feels very spontaneous. It

feels like we’re completely focused on it

and we’re ready to go.

The last twelve months were

particularly quiet for you. After Pure

Love drew to a close, was it just the

right time for you to take a break?

Definitely. Essentially, after something

like that happens, you have no real

plans. For me, after Pure Love finished,

I just wanted to take some time and

focus on my family. My wife and I had

just gotten pregnant so we were just

building our home and making sure

that the baby was ready to come along.

I was actually trying to put music as far

away from me as possible. In my head,

I had sort of quit completely and I had

no plans of ever going back to it. The

problem with that, though, is if you’re

a creative person, it’s just bigger than

you. Regardless of what you want, you

have to do it or you feel so unsatisfied.

It feels like you’ve got something in you

that you’ve just got to let out, and it’s

only so long that you keep that down

before it boils over anyway.

So, how exactly did Frank Carter &

The Rattlesnakes come to life?

I guess that’s what happened towards

the end of last year. I was just pushing

and pushing it down, then I was like,

‘Okay, I have to do something. I have

to be in a band.’ I felt like I lost a lot of

my identity and that’s difficult to deal

with as well. I called a friend of mine,

and we’ve written music together for

a long time but none of it’s ever been

very serious. I said I had a ton of lyrics

and I needed to write more music and

was he interested. He said, ‘Yeah, yeah,

of course’ and I said, ‘I want to be in

a fucking violent punk band because

that’s where my head’s at.’ He sent

some songs over and it was just like an

explosion when I heard them; it was just

what had been missing in my life.

Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes’

debut EP ‘Rotten’ is out now. DIY

“We wanted to create this third

voice, and confound the listener’s

expectation,” Alex concludes. “It

sums up the whole approach we

had to making this record, and to

the band as well. We didn’t want

it to sound like either band, we

wanted to sound like something

completely new. We see FFS as

something distinct.”

FFS’ self-titled debut album

will be released on 8th June via

Domino. DIY

17

Shine a light

“I’m intrigued

to see what

people’s

reactions will

be.”

From collaborating

with Kanye West to

dominating festivals

with TNGHT, it’s

time again for

Hudson Mohawke’s

solo offerings

to take up the

limelight. Words:

Sarah Jamieson.

Since unveiling his debut ‘Butter’ in 2009, Glasgowbased

producer Hudson Mohawke has grown

infamous for his genre-bending turntable talents,

becoming one of Kanye West’s go-to guys. It may

have been a while since he offered up his last fulllength,

but no one can accuse him of resting on his laurels.

“‘Lantern’ is the first solo record that I’ve done for almost six

years,” begins Ross Birchard, the man behind the name. “I’m

intrigued to see what people’s reactions will be. I feel like a lot

of people have become more aware of me in the last couple of

years; they probably don’t know that there was a first album.”

Since ‘Butter’ landed, Birchard has turned his hand to many

a project. From signing up with Kanye’s label GOOD Music to

joining forces with Lunice for their festival-dominating TNGHT

project, he’s been a busy man.

“I’d like to have put it out sooner but at the same time,” he

explains, “I wasn’t consciously thinking, ‘Oh shit, it’s been

six years.’ I pretty much haven’t really stopped since the first

record came out, what with being involved in other projects

and doing the TNGHT thing, and working on other people’s

records. It hasn’t felt like that long, but obviously it kinda is.”

Unsurprisingly, without those experiences ‘Lantern’ just

wouldn’t have come to pass. “A lot of the collaborative work

that I’ve done over the past couple of years has made an

impact on how I’ve arranged this album, and the aesthetic,” he

continues. “Because that was my first record, it was a bit like,

‘Here’s loads of stuff that I’ve done, I’m just going to shove it all

in together’, whereas this record is more considered and I tried

to refine it a bit more. I put it together like an actual album,

rather than just a collection of songs. That’s something I’ve

learned through collaborating.”

The result, then, isn’t so much a departure from ‘Butter’ as a

honing of his talents. While his last effort was a sprawling mass

of different genres and sounds, ‘Lantern’ feels to have much

more of an ebb and flow. “Personally, I don’t feel that it’s that

different, but my approach to music-making at that point was

very much like a solo pursuit; in the middle of the night in my

mum’s house.

“Some of the stuff that was on that record happened around

a time when I was really into turntables. That was very much

about who can be the most technical, so a lot of the approach

to that record was me being like, ‘How can I make this sound

even more crazy, and more fucked up?’ Whereas with this

record I would take it down to the core elements rather than

being extra crazy and technical just for the sake of it.”

Hudson Mohawke’s new

album ‘Lantern’ will be

released on 15th June via

Warp Records. DIY

Hudson Mohawke will

play Field Day. See

diymag.com for details.

18 diymag.com

19

NEWS

IN BRIEF

DESTRUCTION

IMMINENT

With a new album in the works, L.A.

Skate-punks FIDLAR have announced

details of a one-off London show. The

group will play London Heaven on 23rd

June, a few days on from their 14th June

appearance at Download Festival.

IN THE DEEP END

Swim Deep have announced plans to

play a huge, one-off show in London -

it’s the biggest of their career so far. The

Birmingham group will play Camden

Roundhouse on 22nd October. Support

will come from DIY favourites The

Magic Gang.

Memory

Triggers

Ten years ago, Maximo Park made they mark with their debut ‘A Certain

Trigger’ and now, it’s about time they got to celebrate it.

FROM THE SKY TO

THE SCREEN

Sky Ferreira has confirmed plans to

release her own film, later this year.

As yet untitled, the production has

been self-directed alongside visual

collaborator Grant Singer and it’s set

to arrive alongside a new song. “It will

be a VERY cinematic [sic]” said Sky in a

Tweet to fans.

IT’LL HAPPEN

EVENTUALLY

Tame Impala have finally revealed

plans to release their brand new album

‘Currents’. The Aussies’ third album will

land across the world on 17th July via

Fiction Records. Another new taste of

the track – the fourth to be taken from

their album – comes in the form of

‘Eventually’.

Maximo Park have announced

details of a tenth

anniversary tour to mark

the release of their debut

album, ‘A Certain Trigger’. Taking place

in November, the shows in London,

Manchester, Newcastle and Glasgow

will be preceded by a limited edition

vinyl repress of the album, out 30th

October. The remastered new edition of

‘A Certain Trigger’ will feature a “special

selection of single tracks and rarities,”

as well as b-sides and demos.

“WE’VE NOT REALLY

LOOKED BACK UNTIL

NOW.” - PAUL SMITH

The real question, though, is can the

band believe their debut has been

around for a decade now? “Sort of,

because it definitely happened!” laughs

frontman Paul Smith, opening up about

their plans. “In another way, if anybody

tries to take stock of their life or look at

a certain time period, a lot things feel

very fresh in their minds. It’s really hard

to quantify; in some ways it feels like

[ten years]. We’ve put out five records,

we’ve been constantly moving on and

we’ve made a lot of music, and we’ve

not really looked back until now. It now

felt like a good time to take stock and

go, ‘Let’s go out and play some songs

and do the first album in there.’ It’s a

good way for us to rekindle that time in

our minds and just enjoy the songs.

“I think at the time, we enjoyed what

we were doing,” he continues, “but we

were also thinking very fiercely about

progressing, and we were nervous; you

don’t know where you are or if you’re

gonna make another record. You don’t

get the chance to appreciate it at all.

I can probably count the amount of

times I felt satisfied about it on one

hand! When I think back to that time, it

feels like a time of great possibility but

also a time of nervousness and feeling

awkward in ourselves. As we’ve gotten

older, we feel a bit more comfortable,

as a band and personally. I don’t feel

like it was just yesterday but it still feels

fresh.” DIY

MAXIMO PARK WILL PLAY:

NOVEMBER

17 London . Roundhouse

18 Manchester . Albert Hall

19 Newcastle . City Hall

20 Glasgow . Barrowlands

20 diymag.com

DIY HALL OF FAME

A monthly place to celebrate the very best albums released

during DIY’s lifetime; the fourth inductee into our Hall of Fame is

Brand New’s ‘Deja Entendu’. Words: Ali Shutler.

Brand New - Deja Entendu

In 2003 Brand New were just another

pop-punk band from Long Island.

Then came ‘Deja Entendu’. Smart,

sexy and bleak, it didn’t just push

the band into becoming the spotlightshunning

superstars that we both hate

and adore; it redefined a genre.

‘Deja...’ laid the groundwork for Brand

New to become what they are today

- a band that can sell a show out in

minutes, and send Twitter into a frenzy

with the prospect of new material. It’s

the quintessential Brand New album,

balancing the bubblegum angst

of ‘Your Favorite Weapon’ with the

grandness that shapes later releases,

‘The Devil and God Are Raging Inside

Me’ and ‘Daisy’.

While ‘Deja…’’s position as best Brand

New album is up for fierce debate, ‘The

Devil And God Are Raging Inside Me’

providing contentious opposition,

its effect on the genres that the band

traversed are obvious. Matching ‘Your

Favorite Weapon’s’ total sales figure

of 51,000 in just seven weeks, ‘Deja...’

made an impression from the off.

Over time though, its importance has

swelled. If a rock band wields the heavy

burden of personal, emotional lyrics,

odds are ‘Deja...’ inspired them.

Jesse Lacey’s ability to convey emotion

through song is one of the glittering

jewels in Brand New’s crown, and here

he sparkles with powerful, succinct

wordplay. From the obvious screams

of ‘Die Young. Save Yourself’, to the

mysterious charm of ‘The Quiet Things

That No One Ever Knows’, the band

tap into a deep-seated psyche that’s

relatable but open to interpretation.

Ask anyone what they think ‘Jaws

Theme Swimming’ is about and you’ll

receive one of many personal theories.

The release of ‘Deja...’ came at a critical

time for alternative music. Nu-metal

was in full swing, pop-punk had hit a

creative ceiling and major labels - who

still dominated the airwaves - were

polishing and packing as many bands

with an ‘edge’ as they could get their

hands on. Despite the title being French

for “already heard”, its potent cocktail

of youthful confidence violently shaken

against the pains of growing up came at

a time when people craved something

real. From the sombre reflect of

‘Tautou’ until ‘Play Crack The Sky’s’

deathly finale, ‘Deja...’ painfully delivers.

“Time goes by quickly, and the steps

our band has taken since recording

‘Deja Entendu’ have been significant,”

reads a press release from the band on

the ten year anniversary of the album.

“But it’s important for us to recognise

that in many ways this was our first step

down an important creative path. And

for many of you, it was the doorway to

an interest in our music. We hope that

we still have it in us to create something

that ten years from now, there will be

a reason to celebrate and remember.”

Thirteen years on, artist and audience

are still trying to match it. ”Never to see

any other way!” DIY

“Look, guys, a dinosaur!”

Read more on

diymag.com

21

in the studio

Deftones

From giving

themselves more

time and space

to becoming the

most prolific

they’ve ever been,

the next album

from Deftones is

set to be just as

potent as ever.

eftones just seem to get better with age. With their

most recent offering - 2012’s ‘Koi No Yokan’ - they

Dyet again proved that they possess the most brilliant

sleight of hand when it comes to experimental metal, so it’s

really no surprise that they’re still keeping things organic

when it comes to work on its follow up.

“It’s been great, you know,” begins drummer Abe

Cunningham, as the band draw to a close on the recording

of their newest offering. “I mean, it wasn’t much different

than we’d normally go about things. We really never have

a plan, for better or worse - and we’re still here today so I

guess we’re doing okay - but in terms of concept records and

stuff, we kinda just go in and see what comes out. It’s all very

reactionary. No one ever goes in with full songs; it’s never

been that way. It’s about us feeding off each other’s ideas.

The only real change that the band had made to their stellar

formula was to give themselves a little more breathing room.

While Deftones is, of course, a huge priority for the group,

it’s no longer their sole one. Whether it be down to other

musical projects, or simply wanting to spend more time with

22 diymag.com

their families, the decision was made to work over shorter

periods, which led to them being more creative.

“Yeah, we did things a little bit differently this time,” Abe

explains. “We actually got together in little slots of time,

rather than, you know, ‘Here’s your time. Here’s a month

and a half, go and write a record.’ That was the way it’s

always been for us. This time, there were little chunks of

writing, broken up by a few shows here and there, and

some time at home before going back in for a week or so.

We did that over the last year and it was really a nice way

to do it. We were able to live a normal life, which is very

important for us to do what we do. It’s been a very creative

experience, and we’re pretty happy with that, especially at

this point in, you know, our learning.”

“We wrote

more songs

than we had

ever before.” -

Abe

Cunningham

With a more relaxed attitude, came more intuitive ideas

that the band had the space to explore. “It was definitely

about getting in a room together,” the drummer goes

on. “It’s a brotherhood, you know? There are five strong

opinions but really, it’s based upon us undergoing that

process. As I said, rather than going in and having to be

creative, we had a lot more time which, really, was more

freeing and let us be open. We had such cool writing

sessions that we wrote more songs than we had ever

before.”

The band also recruited Matt Hyde to oversee proceedings,

after he played an integral role in their previous

full-length. “So, the last two records we did with Nick

Raskulinecz, but with ‘Koi No Yokan’, it was Nick and Matt,

who have worked together for many, many years,” he says.

“Matt was brought in more as engineer, you know?” Then,

as fate would have it... “Nick was busy when we were ready

to go, and we had really enjoyed working with Matt; he’s a

veteran at making records, but he’s also a great person to

have around. He’s easy to work with and the opportunity

just fell into our laps like that.”

Spread over the course of a year, it’s easy to wonder if time

might work to dilute their heady mix of genres. But, while

the newest effort may be their eighth full-length together

as a band, there’s no risk of the quintet giving anything

other than everything they can.

“I mean, like I say, we didn’t really

have a plan and we hadn’t discussed

it,” Abe concludes, “but we’re open

to anything. A long, long time ago,

when we were figuring out how to

do this, we just wanted to be able to

incorporate any kind of sounds that we

wanted, from whatever music. A lot of

bands, they have their sound and they

do it well so they never stray from it,

and that’s fine too, but we’ve always

wanted to do anything we wanted. I

think there are people out there that

enjoy our music for different reasons;

some people like the heavier sides, some people like the

lighter, more mellow stuff. We will always try to make an

entire album because we come from that generation.”

Deftones’ new album will be released later this year

via Reprise Records. DIY

23

in the studio

“And they called it puppy

lo-o-oo-ve” - Girl Band cover

some classics.

Girl Band

They may have been planning to try and

squeeze in recording a rock opera while in the

studio to create their debut, but luckily ‘proper

work’ got in the way. Words: Tom Walters.

Photos: Mark McGuinness.

Dublin quartet Girl Band have almost wrapped up

their highly anticipated debut album for Rough

Trade - but that wasn’t all they were planning to

do with their recent time in the studio. “We had an

idea that if we had incredible amounts of free time,” bassist

Daniel Fox chuckles down the phone, “we’d write a rock opera

while we were there, but we actually got distracted with doing

proper work which is probably for the best!”

Having self-released a handful of EPs and singles since 2012,

Girl Band have rocketed in notoriety over the course of the

last year, turning heads with their full-throttle post-punk that

translates into ferocious, unforgiving live shows. They’re an

untamed beast, a rare force of originality.

“I know this is really vague, but I wanted to capture the

intensity of the live show,” says Fox, who also headed up

engineering duties on the record alongside two friends. “But

not exactly what it’s like, you know? Mix-wise, it’s still a head

trip. Purely from a recording perspective, I wanted to make it

sound as good as we could make it sound.”

Girl Band’s live show has been evolving over the course of the

last year, with trips around Europe and America allowing the

band to flesh out their set with newer material - none of which

has been available to hear on headphones yet, but most of

which will be featuring on the album. Fox confirms that all the

material they’ve got down is brand new, and that the likes of

‘Lawman’ and ‘De Bom Bom’ will remain as singles.

Those familiar with the singles will know that Girl Band have a

habit of drip-feeding material to their fans, and guesses that

the album was still a way off wouldn’t have been unfounded.

“It kind of just came to the stage where we had enough songs

to do it, and we were all feeling good about it,” he says on

the decision to head into the studio on Good Friday. “It was

like, shit - actually, yeah, we’re totally ready for this. Let’s go in

while we’ve got a good momentum going.”

Confirming that there’s nine tracks in total - with “a good few

of ‘em” stretching over the seven-minute mark - Fox says that

while that doesn’t sound like a lot of songs, it all makes sense

in the context of the record. “It’s like your standard album

length you know,” he divulges. “We haven’t gone and done a

twenty minute album or anything like that!”

So when’s it out? “It’ll be this year,” he excitedly reveals. “We

haven’t nailed down an exact release date yet, there’s still

mastering to do and getting it sent off to press, which we’ll do

straight away. Things aren’t 100% nailed down.” Whenever it

comes, you can rest assured that it’ll come storming through -

the debut album by Girl Band promises to be one of the most

exciting records of the year.

Girl Band’s debut album will be released later this year via

Rough Trade Records. DIY

24 diymag.com

in the studio

If you’re Destroyer and you

know it, clap your hands!

Destroyer return

later this year with

new album, ‘Poison

Season’ - and once

again, they’re trying

something new.

Words: Danny Wright.

Destroyer

“My intention was

to wait so long

before putting out

another record that

people would forget about ‘Kaputt’ and

Destroyer altogether. That’s kind of my

goal: to start from scratch every time.”

When Dan Bejar’s ninth record under his

Destroyer alias, ‘Kaputt’, was released

to critical acclaim in 2011 it brought

him to a larger audience than he’d ever

expected. It wasn’t hard to see why. The

album’s quasi-ironic-sounding synth,

drum machines and sax-filled songs

along with Bejar’s wry wordplay made it

an album that you kept going back to. It

was a sound you could almost describe

as kitsch, sliding between soft rock,

smooth jazz, and new romantic pop. It

was brilliant.

But now four years later he’s returning

with ‘Poison Season’ – and things have

changed again. For one thing, the drum

machines have been packed away to

make way for a live band. He’s even

been writing string arrangements for

the first time.

“I knew I didn’t want synthesisers and

drum machines. And I didn’t want

to stare at a computer for 18 months

like I did for that. I mean there are

still similarities – a lot of the band are

the same. The big difference is the

rock’n’roll drummer and the presence of

full-blown rock’n’roll piano player.

“I didn’t want

to stare at a

computer for

18 months.”

“This way of working was kind of new

to me. Just recording music live off the

floor is not something I’ve done very

much and that felt pretty good. I’ve

never done much work with strings

either so that was pretty interesting.”

He pauses. “But I should add, none of

those things have any value whatsoever

unless it’s good.”

And ‘Poison Season’ is very good –

mixing lithe rock tracks with lounge

strings and a gloomy yet tender heart.

“There were two things I wanted to

do: one was to capture a romantic but

doomed quality with these strings;

there’s a song called ‘Girl In A Sling’

which really crystallises this idea. And

then there are a couple of songs where

I really just wanted to show off this

awesome band.”

Though it was recorded quickly, Bejar

had the record brewing in his head

for a long time before going into the

studio. Letting it ferment helped him

to make more sense of it. “When I was

younger it was just non-stop activity. I

was constantly writing songs and doing

music and that’s not the case anymore.

“There are records now that I still shake

my head at. Not that they were bad, just

the fact I can’t believe we just went for

it. I feel the more you do something the

more confused about it you become –

or you question things more, at least.

And I think that’s useful.”

Destroyer’s new album ‘Poison

Season’ will be released later this

year via Dead Oceans. DIY

25

The gift

of time

With their forthcoming album, Young Guns are trying

something new - taking their time. Words: Sarah Jamieson.

In late 2013 Young Guns were about

to start work on the follow-up

to second album, ‘Bones’. After a

trip to North America however,

things started to heat up for the

Buckinghamshire five-piece. Drawing

attention to themselves Stateside, it

wasn’t long before the album’s title

track was being played across US radio,

and climbed to the top of the Billboard

Active Rock charts. The ball had started

to roll and it was better for the band

to strap themselves in than to stop the

ride, so their immediate plans were

adjusted.

“I think at this point,” says frontman

Gustav Wood, “because we recorded

this album back at the end of last

summer, excited isn’t the word. Now,

I’m just like, ‘God, can we fucking get it

out already?!’” He laughs. “I am excited

for what comes afterwards; touring

again, playing festivals again. The

whole process of being a band is about

to start again and that is really exciting.”

Over the last three years, a lot has

happened for the band. Not only did

they spend much of last year trying

to squeeze in time to work on their

new record while nurturing their

rising profile over in the States, but

they signed a deal with Virgin EMI for

good measure. Luckily, the time that

they were afforded to spend on their

forthcoming effort ‘Ones and Zeros’

worked in their favour.

“I think that, sometimes in the past,

we’ve had to write an album in a

month and record it in a month, and

we haven’t had time to reflect on

anything,” the frontman offers, from the

other side of the Atlantic. The band are

currently pulled up outside the venue

they’ll be playing later in the day, over

in Joliet, IL. “You end up thinking, ‘Okay,

well, I’m glad of what we did with that

album but I wish we could’ve done this

or could’ve done that.’ I think that’s

kind of inevitable within the creative

process, but it is very much a snapshot

of where you are and who you are at

that point, so you’re always able to look

back on it. This time, it felt like we were

able to take a little more time on it - not

through choice, of course - but it was

good that we were able to do that and

that we were able to have time to figure

out what we did and didn’t want to do

on there. But on the other hand, no

matter how long we spend on a record,

26 diymag.com

“We really

wanted

t o d o

something

we hadn’t

already

done.” -

Gus Wood

I always hope that I’ll go back and wish

I’d done something different; I think

that’s the best part about growing and

evolving as a songwriter.”

With their newest record, the band had

one objective: to tread new ground.

Having spent the majority of their

career so far leaning towards the classic

arrangements of rock bands, ‘Ones and

Zeros’ gave them the opportunity to

explore different musical elements. “It

wasn’t really about sitting down and

going, ‘Okay, what can we add to make

this cool and new?’” he says, referencing

the dark electronics that have found

their way embedded into the fulllength.

“It was more about the idea that

we really wanted to do something we

hadn’t already done. We have always

written around piano - I write most of

my melodies on piano - and then it’d be

about how to build on that with guitars.

This time, we were just like, ‘Why do

we need to do that so much?’ There’s

nothing wrong with it and again, it was

partly down to having more time.

“When we began writing, we were

writing stuff that maybe could have

gone on the last record and we realised

that that was really uninspiring for us,

and we don’t want to repeat ourselves.

Mentally, we have tried to get out of

that thinking and just do what we

wanna do. We just decided, ‘Let’s write

what we want to write and have a little

bit of faith in that.’ That’s all we’ve ever

done and it’s gotten us to the position

we’re in now, so it was just really a

logical continuation of challenging

ourselves and trying to look at things

in different lights to try and write in a

way that was interesting and exciting

for our band.”

Young Guns’ new album ‘Ones and

Zeros’ will be released on 8th June

via Virgin EMI. DIY

THIS MONTH ON

‘THE INTERNET’

So swish.

SPOTTED

WHO did our News

Editor quiz for

directions when a bit

lost at Leeds Town

Hall? (He was a great

help too - what a

sweetie!)

Blur have gone all

Magic Whippy.

Remember that time Indie Pete

found his way onto the set of

A Peace video?

Not even Shura herself could believe

that Mumfords left the banjos out of

their ‘2Shy’ cover.

Things could’ve gone so well

for Rat Boy…

WHICH swimmingly

good band were

bopping along at

the Brudenell Social

Club during Live at

Leeds, complete with

their infamous fancy

coats?

WHO was it that ran

around a certain

East London office

block spreading

gold glitter just

about everywhere

imaginable?

WHICH superstar

singer was seen at

the front of a recent

Tobias Jesso Jr. show,

laughing at all of

his between-song

#banter?

27

Popstar Postbag

Marmozets

We know what you’re like, dear readers. We know you’re just as nosy 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, Marmozets are taking on the challenge.

Is it THE Marmozets or just

Marmozets, or are both acceptable?

Corey, London

It is just Marmozets; when we first

started seven years ago it was ‘The

Marmozets’ but just before we released

our debut EP we decided to take away

the ‘The’.

Which bands have had an influence

on you, from you wanting to get into

the music career? Jade, Suffolk

When we were growing up our parents

listened to a lot of Pixies and the White

Stripes and Big Black, just loads of

bands like that so that has had a huge

influence on us, but our parents were

very musical in their own right too so

they taught us how to play.

Raised by wolves or marmosets?

Alistair, York

Or raised by Marmolves? That’s what

we think. A mixture of both because

we were hungry to be the best band

possible, but then always trying new

and weird things to make everything

we do the best it can possibly be.

Whether it be the live show or the

music, it doesn’t matter. We just want to

be the best.

What’s the worst prank that you’ve

pulled on another band? Marcus,

Stoke

At Reading and Leeds festival last year

we took all the plants in the backstage

area and put them in Royal Blood’s

dressing room, then set them up for

a dinner for two with a mango and a

bottle of red. We did it again to them

at a festival in France as well. We took

everything - sofas, trees, plants, tables,

chairs - in this huge indoor back stage

and crammed it all into their dressing

room while they were on stage. They

saw the funny side.

What advice would you give

teenagers who would like to follow in

your footsteps? Tom, Suffolk

Start a band but, most importantly,

enjoy it. Don’t intend to ‘make it’ or

whatever. That’s not the sort of thing

that just happens if you force it.

If you had to capture the rest of the

band, Scooby Doo-style, what traps

would you set? Marcus, Cardiff

I’m not too sure to be honest. Oddly I

haven’t really thought about it before

and it’s been so long since I watched

Scooby Doo so I honestly can’t

remember any of the traps or even the

baddies. What I do remember though

is the food...

What can we expect from the

Marmozets in the near future? Any

news on another album? Tom, Suffolk

Expect an even bigger and better

Marmozets. We’re pushing everything

up about 10 gears. As far as when

the new album is actually coming…

We’re in the early stages of writing but

nothing more than that at this point.

What’re the weirdest and the

most wonderful things that have

happened to you on tour? Alicia,

Kent

When the airport lost our guitars

and all our luggage... That wasn’t so

much weird but actually really more

annoying. A wonderful thing is the

venue Exeter Cavern because, for

some reason, every time we play there

something amazing happens. It all

comes together and a good time is

had by all.

Marmozets will play Best Kept Secret.

See diymag.com for details.

NEXT MONTH: LOWER THAN ATLANTIS

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!

28 diymag.com

Goldenvoice Presents

goldenvoice.co.uk

SEPTEMBER 2015 TOUR

16 BRISTOL O 2 ACADEMY

17 BIRMINGHAM INSTITUTE

19 GLASGOW ABC

21 NEWCASTLE UNI

22 SHEFFIELD PLUG

23 SOUTHAMPTON O 2 GUILDHALL

25 MANCHESTER ALBERT HALL

26 LONDON BRIXTON O 2 ACADEMY

WOLFALICE.CO.UK

DEBUT ALBUM ‘MY LOVE IS COOL’ OUT JUNE 22

GENGAHR.COM

DEBUT ALBUM ‘A DREAM OUTSIDE’ OUT

15TH JUNE ON TRANSGRESSIVE RECORDS.

HEALTH

9 JUNE

TUFNELL

PARK

DOME

DEATH MAGIC OUT AUGUST 7 / FICTION RECORDS

17 SEPTEMBER

ELECTRIC

BRIXTON

WEARESHURA.COM

14 OCTOBER

SCALA

THISISALLWEARE.CO.UK

PLUS

22 OCTOBER

SWIM-DEEP.CO.UK

29

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.

Tame Impala - Eventually

Something’s flowing on

Tame Impala’s ‘Currents’.

On the songs showcased

so far from the group’s

forthcoming third album,

they span from emotiondrenched

disco to quickfire

lo-fi production, right

through to straight-up R&B

ballads. It’s a juggernaut in

the making. A twisted take

on break-up songs, this

latest cut sees Kevin Parker

delivering direct rejection

over sweltering synths.

Boiling over with regret, it’s

another lesson in precision:

if there’s any running thread

currently swimming through

‘Currents’, it’s the sound of

Parker exerting more control

than ever.

have you

heard

The best new tracks from the last month.

Metric - The Shade

Given the three years Metric

have been away, it’d be

easy for their electricallycharged

sound to grow stale.

We’ve gone from dodgy

smartphones to iWatches

during their time away - their

previously modern sound

has a lot of catching up to do.

But as Emily Haines claims

“there’s no better time” for

their return, this is the sound

of a group re-enlivened.

Playful synths switch gears

for fun, while Haines barks “I

want it all!” with demanding

clamour. This is a song on a

mission, a bright statement

of intent that puts Metric

firmly back in the foreground.

Years & Years - Shine

For a minute there, it looked like Years

& Years might have overdone it on the

pingers. From ‘Desire’ to ‘King’, this

was a trio only going upwards - both

in the charts and in terms of bonkers

dance-pop euphoria. They’ve simmered

down a touch on ‘Shine’, but that doesn’t

prevent this from being any less of an allout

giant. ‘Shine’ is taken from an album

called ‘Communion’, but instead of

togetherness, loneliness and heartbreak

seem to be the overriding themes of

Years & Years’ debut. Olly Alexander

deals with the heavy topics better than

most, flipping grim reality on its head,

switching torment to triumph.

30 diymag.com

Swim Deep - One Great Song And I Could Change The

World

Like with the severe turn ‘To My Brother’, ‘One Great Song…’ is

a bolshy, focus-shifting song possessing one simple message:

things can get better, blue skies are ahead and there’s zero

point in getting bogged down in reality. “Is this love?” asks

Austin Williams. “Have I said why I love the sunrise? It’s ‘cause

it’s only gonna get lighter.” Speaking to DIY at the turn of the

year, the frontman said we might be on the brink of a “summer

of love”. Sounds farcical, but if anyone’s going to force the

change, it’s these guys. Hippie gear at the ready.

Jaws - Bad Company

It shouldn’t be a surprise that Jaws had this stashed in their

locker – you need only look at their t-shirt collection to know

they’re fans of something heavier – but to return with a casual,

off-the-cuff statement is nothing short of ballsy. Jaws are

playing with untapped versatility here – a versatility that,

before their debut has even left the room, makes the prospect

of a second record all the more enticing. It’s a new dimension

that might not be up everyone’s street, but with the way that

Jaws pull it off, it’s difficult to not sit back and think, ‘fair play

lads. Fair fucking play’.

Oscar - Beautiful Words

Oscar Scheller’s take on pop is anything but nostalgic. He’s

more likely to throw a modern-day curveball than hark back

to a 90s obsession. But that doesn’t make him incapable of

thinking back to at least one golden age. On ‘Beautiful Words’,

he shuns emoji culture and text speak for something more

poetic, crying out for some kind of Shakespeare figure to

swoop in and save the world. Romance works best when it’s in

fancy prose and on a crumpled up piece of paper, he claims. “I

just wanna hear beautiful

words returning,”

Refused - Elektra

he sings, hugging a

Seventeen years is a hell of a thesaurus like it’s his only

long time for a band to leave friend.

between new material, but

any suggestions Refused’s new

album ‘Freedom’ is a gamble

quickly disappear within thirty

seconds of opener ‘Elektra’.

Those explosions of noise and

moments of relative quiet, the

riffs, guitar lines, thumping

beats all tie together into one

all-out assault. A baton dropped

back in the late nineties is

scooped up without even the

slightest break of stride. This is

no reanimated corpse of a band

best left buried, but a singular

voice able to do what others

simply can’t.

Meredith Graves - Took the Ghost to the Movies

The momentum’s still going for Perfect Pussy’s gut-wrenching

debut ‘Say Yes to Love’, but frontwoman Meredith Graves is

wasting no time in going it alone. Solo debut ‘Took the Ghost

to the Movies’ is a twisted and tangled take on loneliness and

desperation. It borrows aspects of Graves’ day-job - searing

guitars, a faintness that can’t quite be grasped - but for the

most part, it rips up the rulebook. Set to a driving, relentless

pulse, it has more in common with a My Bloody Valentine

piece than storming, blink-and-you-missed-it post-punk.

Fittingly haunting, this is an exciting debut that sets Graves

apart as a genuine star.

Disclosure - Bang That

As an interim between records, Disclosure’s ‘Bang That’ is

the sound of the UK’s biggest dance duo embracing their

shameless side. Built around an obscure sample (Detroit

producer Shamou’s 2002 track ‘Pass Out’), it’s a no-stringsattached,

twerking and shaking blast of dirty house. By no

means the best track in the Lawrence brothers’ locker, it still

has them finding influence in unlikely sources and lending

a spotlight to something different. And regardless of how it

came together, it’s set to be a dramatic staple of Disclosure’s

2015 live shows, culminating at their very own Wild Life

festival.

HEALTH - New Coke

‘New Coke’ is stark, yet glistening. With hi-hats that sound like

machine gun fire, there’s a knowingly frantic sound. “Let the

bombs explode” is sung so casually - laconically even - over

brassy synths and tribal snare, and like Fuck Buttons on ketamine,

it’s propelled by Death Grips-esque production, and

careers wildly from relative calm to utter panic. This is a nightmare

over two minutes; urgent and screaming with flicked spit

and neck veins like ropes. This, fundamentally, is HEALTH at

their most frenetic, which is an achievement in itself.

31

DIY LIVE

REPORT

MENACE BEACH BRING RECORD

STORE DAY TO A ROWDY END AT THE OLD BLUE

LAST

L

eeds two-piece Bruising are on first, bulked up by the

addition of two extra members, and their head-rattling

scuzz is much more potent for it. The vocal harmonies

cut through their noisy rhythm with finesse, acting as a

constant pendulum swing that grounds the whole affair. It’s a

rowdy marriage that fits the Old Blue Last like a glove.

Simmer on the other hand keep the crowd at arms length.

With a four tap count in, the Cheshire four-piece dive into

‘Douse’ and don’t really come up for air until they finish. As

they bring things to a close, they haven’t wasted a second of

their time onstage and they’re not going to start now.

It’s a feeling that’s echoed as Menace Beach take to the

stage and fall into ‘Tastes Like Medicine’. From its opening

kick, the mood of the packed Old Blue Last changes into one

of celebration and Menace Beach are in their element. Their

debut album ‘Ratworld’ is only a few months old but already

the band are straying from its beaten track. The tightly wound

pace is relaxed in a live environment as the band toy with

contrast, giving the polished, jangling abandon some teeth.

A closing one-two of ‘Drop Out’ and an extended ‘Lowtalkin’’

sees the band lead the room in an eye-closed wander through

atmosphere before they explode with screaming vocal loops

and bratty reckless snarls, highlighting their dynamic wonder

and bringing Record Store Day to an end in superb fashion.

(Ali Shutler)

REPORT

ICEAGE CAPTIVATE BIRMINGHAM WITH

ENTHRALLING PACKED-OUT SHOW

A

fervent excitement litters the street outside the Hare

& Hounds on a Friday night. The reason? Danish punks

Iceage are about to play to a packed-out room. With

a capacity of only 150, as the venue fills out it’s impossible to

ignore the sense of the show’s oncoming storm.

As Iceage take to the stage, it’s as if everything else

evaporates. The only thing that matters is the here, the now,

and the shambolically melodic punk that emanates from

the front of the room. As the first chords resound through

the speakers, the atmosphere becomes electric – people

screaming along to every word.

Frontman Elias Bender Rønnenfelt takes it all in his stride –

pacing and swaying across the stage front, glaring out from

under his fringe, and stepping up on the speakers to howl his

lyrics closer to the audience. The crowd lap up every moment.

Iceage cast their spell over the Hare & Hounds barely even

breaking a sweat, and with barely a word it’s over, leaving the

room both entranced and exhausted. (Jessica Goodman)

DIY PRESENTS

Coming up…

MAY

24 Tall Ships, The Lexington, London

SEPTEMBER

02 Ought, Deaf Institute, Manchester

10 Mac DeMarco, The Institute, Birmingham

OCTOBER

16 Speedy Ortiz, Sound Control, Manchester

32 diymag.com

Goldenvoice Presents

WAND

+ SWEDISH

DEATH CANDY

24.05.15

OLD BLUE LAST

YAK

25.05.15

SEBRIGHT ARMS

OSCAR & THE WOLF

26.05.15

HOXTON SQUARE

BAR & KITCHEN

SILICON

26.05.15

POWER LUNCHES

MATT AND KIM

+ GET INUIT & IRIS GOLD

28.05.15

HEAVEN

ALGIERS

02.06.15

MIRANDA AT ACE HOTEL

THE STRYPES

02.06.15

BOSTON MUSIC ROOM

JUNGLE

02.06.15

BOURNEMOUTH

O2 ACADEMY

HEALTH

09.06.15

DOME TUFNELL PARK

NATASHA NORTH

09.06.15

SERVANT JAZZ QUATERS

10.06.15

SERVANT JAZZ QUATERS

BLUR

SOLD OUT

SOLD OUT

SOLD OUT

09.06.15

GLASGOW

BARROWLAND

10.06.15

BLACKPOOL

EMPRESS BALLROOM

11.06.15

LLANDUDNO VENUE

CYMRU ARENA

SOLD OUT

SOLD OUT

SOLD OUT

YEARS & YEARS

12.06.15

02 SHEPHERD’S BUSH

EMPIRE

13.06.15

02 SHEPHERD’S

BUSH EMPIRE

METZ

16.06.15

UNDERWORLD

SOLD OUT

SOLD OUT

LEFTFIELD

11.06.15

BRISTOL O2 ACADEMY

12.06.15

THE FORUM

13.06.15

THE FORUM

18.06.15

MANCHESTER ALBERT

HALL

19.06.15

SOLD OUT

SOLD OUT

SOLD OUT

SOLD OUT

GLASGOW

BARROWLAND

WHILK & MISKY

08.07.15

BIRTHDAYS

SHURA

02.05.15

BRIGHTON BLEACH

17.09.15

BRIXTON ELECTRIC

WOLF ALICE

16.09.15

BRISTOL 02 ACADEMY

17.09.15

BIRMINGHAM INSTITUTE

23.09.15

SOUTHAMPTON O2

GUILDHALL

26.09.15

BRIXTON 02 ACADEMY

BEN KHAN

01.10.15

CAMBRIDGE JUNCTION

02.10.15

BRIGHTON CONCORDE

GENGAHR

06.10.15

BRIGHTON KOMEDIA

07.10.15

BRISTOL EXCHANGE

08.10.15

SCALA

13.10.15

NORWICH ARTS CENTRE

ALL WE ARE

14.10.15

SCALA

EDITORS

13.10.15

EVENTIM APOLLO

16.10.15

BIRMINGHAM

O2 ACADEMY

21.10.15

CAMBRIDGE JUNCTION

SPEEDY ORTIZ

21.10.15

DOME TUFNELL PARK

SWIM DEEP

+ THE MAGIC GANG

22.10.15

ROUNDHOUSE

ALABAMA SHAKES

18.11.15

SOLD OUT

SOLD OUT

BRIXTON O2 ACADEMY

19.11.15

BRIXTON O2 ACADEMY

PUBLIC

SERVICE

BROADCASTING

29.11.15

BRIXTON

02 ACADEMY

MAY – NOV

goldenvoice.co.uk

goldenvoiceuk

33

NEU

bul

Honesty is the only policy for Alicia

Bognanno. Her Nashville-based band

deal exclusively in upfront shocks to

the system. Words: Jamie Milton. Photo:

Emma Swann.

Bully’s album ‘Feels Like’ is a lesson in

uncompromising force. Going for the gut, giving

absolutely no breathing space, it’s the result of

two solid years where Alicia Bognanno and her

Nashville based group have been nothing if not

direct.

“It’s a personal, honest record,” says Bognanno, midway

through the band’s first ever UK tour, where they convert

cynics to enlivened new fans in a matter of minutes. “Writing

that way comes with age, for me. I used to hide behind my

lyrics all the time. It’s not like an ageing thing, but as I’m

maturing as a songwriter, I’m finding it more important to say

what I mean rather than hiding behind it. There’s nothing to

lose. And I guess I appreciate it more. It’s harder to be honest

and open - it’s easier to avoid that.”

The project started when Bognanno - who at the time spent

spells in another band, King Arthur, while engineering

at local studio Battle Tapes - showed her own material to

drummer (and boyfriend) Stewart Copeland. Everything

spiralled from there, bassist Reece Lazrus and guitarist

Clayton Parker backing every bolt of upfront energy with

similarly unrelenting noise. It’s been a staple since day one.

Bandcamp’s go-to band for 2014, a couple of self-released 7”

singles were compressed into a debut EP by Sony offshoot

Startime International. Copeland cites conversations with

other labels “where it was like ‘Yeah great, we’ll get another

34 diymag.com

ly“ It

was a

s h i t - t o n

of work.”

- A l i c i a

Bognanno

single, work it with another EP’,’” whereas Startime founder

Isaac Green recognised the sheer momentum backing Bully.

“They were just like, ‘Guys, go make the fucking record. Let’s

do it. Let’s put it out’. And that was exciting to us. Alicia knew

she had a record,” says the drummer.

With that, Bognanno went to familiar territory to record ‘Feels

Like’. She booked three weeks in Chicago’s Electrical Audio, a

studio owned by the legendary Steve Albini. Previously, she’d

spent a summer there interning, in-between working the

sound desk for venues, getting the knowhow for production

and engineering that’d end up contributing hugely towards

the self-produced debut. “It was a shit-ton of work,” she

readily admits. “Even preparing for it. I went down with all

my mics I was gonna use. Everything was planned out. There

wasn’t a lot that was easy about it. But the process itself went

pretty smoothly. No horror-story road bombs that happened

along the way. Except for the last week where I felt like I was

losing my mind a little bit, just from being in there.

“I really love everybody that works there,” she says of

Electrical Audio, where the band holed up for a freezing cold

November. “The studio in Nashville that I’m most comfortable

with - I could have done it there. But I just wanted to get out

of town. I didn’t want to have to take a break for lunch and run

into people I know. I’d think about my dog all the time, too. I

mean, I still did. But there’s nothing I can do about it when I’m

ten, twelve hours away.”

The end result is a record that takes Bully’s initial rush and

goes several steps further. Thrashing, no-bullshit punk

remains the game, but these initially-adored rough cuts have

been reshaped into something bigger. Bognanno pierces

every fuzz-drenched storm, breaking through the clouds

with serious meaning. Every note is sung like her whole life

depends on it. It’s the making of a genuine star. DIY

35

“I DON’T THINK ANYONE MAKES MUSIC

FOR OTHER PEOPLE.” - WILL ARCHER

Will Archer has been turning

heads with disorienting

electronic music for years, and

now he’s putting his name to a

debut LP. Words: Jamie Milton.

slime

Sitting somewhere on the outskirts of Gold

Panda’s sample-heavy early recordings and

neu Bonobo’s lulling horn-led material is Slime, a

lesser-known but equally exciting producer.

Real name Will Archer, he put out a handful of

exciting early tracks back in 2012. And despite

a swell of attention, he decided to retreat, re-emerging years

later with a debut album, due out this summer.

Archer’s relationship with electronic music doesn’t exactly

take the standard route. He used to stand nearby a local

record shop in Newcastle, with a placard pointing customers

the right way. In return, he received payment in white labels

and LPs. A group of friends in the area started putting on

nights, but Archer swiftly left his hometown for a degree in

Sound Design, when he turned eighteen. Right now, however,

he’s stuck in Paris. “There’s fuck all happening here,” he quips.

“That’s probably my complete ignorance. But I’m counting

down the days to go back to London.”

A move to France’s capital came about because he “fancied

a change,” but since relocating he’s been handed a “solitary

deal.” Few friends for

company, he’s used the time

to make music that’s “less

formulaic” than the material

on his debut. Already

thinking several steps

ahead, isolation has left him

recording “pots and pans”

sounds as field recordings

and making music that’s “all

over the place.”

The record he’s about to put

out is otherworldly enough.

Horn sections splatter,

hushed vocals simmering in

and out of consciousness.

It’s an album that places

soul inside electronic

music, rather than bridging

any kind of gap. “I’m not a

recluse or anything,” Will

says, “but I make music

for myself. I don’t think

anyone makes music for

other people, unless they’re

in it for a different reason.

Anyone who’s artistic in

any way, they do it for their

own self-gratification. It’s

their source of well-being.

It’s a necessity rather than a

job. It’s just a way of feeling

good. It’s one of the very

few things that makes a big

effect. If that’s not going

well, then nothing’s going

well. They’re completely

dependent on each other.”

Slime’s new 12” ‘My

Company’/’In One Year’ is

out now via Weird World.

DIY

36 diymag.com

“I DON’T

THINK WE’LL

EVER REACH

MATURITY.” -

SAM DUST

La

Priest

Years on from Late of the

Pier’s mind-flipping debut,

Sam Dust is making up for

lost time on his own terms.

Words: Jamie Milton.

Photo: Emma Swann.

“I don’t think you can just make a new sound

on your own. You have to develop that with

neu an audience. They need to build up a context

for the next thing,” says Sam Dust, the brains

behind LA Priest. And few new projects arrive

with quite so much context. Dust was - and

still is, depending on how you view the situation - a member

of Late of the Pier, beloved post-nu rave gems with an eye for

flipping pop on its head. Their debut album ‘Fantasy Black

Channel’ remains their only effort to date, and the group

are up there with Jai Paul in the ‘where did they bloody go?’

stakes.

Dust doesn’t see things as quite so black-and-white. “We’re

all doing our own things,” he claims, his thing being an

experimental project that tests the boundaries of dance and

pure pop. “So we can come and work together on things -

which we have done a lot. We kind of did it for fun really, since

that record. Maybe people will be cool with it, if we keep

releasing our own things and showing that we’re actually

making some of this together.”

As LA Priest stands, it dives way further into oddball extremes

than Dust’s previous day job. The night before speaking to

DIY, he plays his first show in a tiny converted shed, housing

thirty people. Samplers and otherworldly pedals sit atop a

dancefloor that mimics his every move with unpredictable

flashes. The walls are decorated with glow-in-the-dark

cave paintings, and outside sits a hot tub which, if the show

ended up going any longer, would have been filled to the

brim with dance-ravaged punters. His set begins in a timid,

stop-start fashion, but it finishes as an enlivened beast, more

James Murphy or Simian

Mobile Disco-stamped

than anything LotP. “I saw

some fans from six or seven

years ago, and a lot of them

haven’t really grown up,”

he enthuses, the next day.

“They’re eternal teenagers.

And that’s something we

all share. I don’t think we’ll

ever reach maturity, a lot

of us. I think this would

have been different if

everything was happening

in the 70s or 80s. Styles and

tastes were changing so

fast. What I’ve done is only

possible because of this

strange cyclical process.

It’s somewhat static. But

if things are like that, then

you’ve got something to

push against.”

LA Priest’s ‘Inji’ debut is

round the corner, and it

combines newly-penned

numbers with tracks halfformed

some five years

back. It’s an album that’s

taken Dust from London

to Greenland, where he

studied a region’s “electromagnetic”

frequencies.

In future, he wants to

make records that “study

a certain discipline,” Brian

Eno-style, but for now he’s

reintroducing himself to

loyalists and giving himself

a platform to experiment

further. Regardless of how

this project evolves, it

carries a flavour of fun-first

abandon that’s been missing

even since Late of the

Pier ignored demand and

quietly faded out. “When I

see people that are treating

themselves as clones, that

upsets me,” he says. “One of

the worst sides of humanity

is that we seem to copy

each other a lot, for social

reasons. I’m just trying to

battle against that.”

LA Priest’s debut album

‘Inji’ will be released on

29th June via Domino. DIY

LA Priest will play Field Day.


37

The Big Moon

Fresh from a ‘Eureka Moment’, this London group are howling their way to the top.

Words: Jamie Milton. Photo: Emma Swann.

“We’re not wasting time / I’m with you for

life,” sings The Big Moon leader Juliette

neu Jackson on her band’s debut single, ‘Sucker’.

It’s a neat, fitting mantra for the group’s first

steps. Two songs to the good, the London

four-piece capture timelessness in a way

few newcomers achieve. Faster than lunar patterns tend to

change, they’ve swiftly become a huge prospect.

Back in February and initially going by the name The Moon

(presumably they added a ‘Big’ because they’re going to be

massive), debut track ‘Eureka Moment’ flew into the spotlight.

“It’s a good song to put out first because we’re like, ‘Kaboom!

Eureka! The Big Moon’s here!’” jokes Jackson. “It’s choppy,

weird - it’s so silly.”

The response was instant - and a bit overwhelming. “I had to

turn off my emails because I was freaking out a bit. Having a

little bit of a panic attack,” says Jackson. “It was two days of

people saying ‘Who are you? Where have you come from? Do

you need a manager? Do you need someone to do your hair

and make-up?’”

Day one of being a band and they were getting hair and

make-up offers? “It’s like ‘What, do you think we look ugly?’”

pipes in bassist Celia Archer.

“But I suppose if you’re a

make-up artist, that’s kind

of your way to do it. It’s not

cool, but they’re gonna

jump on a female band,”

says guitarist Soph, who

also plays in Neu favourites

Our Girl.

Besides the outlandish,

somewhat offensive offers,

the very idea of putting

themselves out there was

almost a bit much. “Showing

anyone what we sounded

like was kind of weird,” says

drummer Fern Ford. “It’s all

so precious and tentative

in those early stages. We

wanted to handle this in the

right way,” backs up Jackson.

Following the revelatory

‘Eureka Moment’ is

‘Sucker’, a more precise

and structured glimpse of

what to expect from The

Big Moon. It boasts the

kind of stone-cold classic

songwriting Alex Turner

wouldn’t sniff at, and it’s

enough to spur them on to

a full-length. Soph Nathan

says there’s one in the

works. “These songs work

together. We wrote them

all in a similar time. It feels

like a set. We have enough

to choose from.” Expect this

heady rise to continue at a

ridiculous rate.

The Big Moon’s new single

‘Sucker’ will be released

on 15th June via Hard Up

Records. DIY

38 diymag.com

THIS

MONTH IN

EPS

Three Neu favourites return

with some key releases this

month. From soul-skewed

R&B to manic synth-pop,

June has it all for exciting

next steps. Here’s a roundup

of our favourite EPs

demanding attention right

now:

neu

RECOMMENDED

NAO

February 15

Future-R&B newcomer NAO

started out by collaborating

with Jai Paul’s brother, but

she’s since gone it alone

with dazzling results. Before

playing DIY’s Alcove Stage

at Latitude, she released

‘February 15’ - out now on

Dummy and her own label

Little Tokyo Recordings.

Ben Khan

1000

22-year-old

DIY favourite

Ben Khan goes

for broke on

his second

release. A lesson in

meticulous pop, the followup

to breakthrough ‘1992’

trades the pure pop of his

debut for something more

unorthodox. He remains

a ridiculously exciting

prospect. ‘1000’ is out now.

Alex Burey

Family Stone

The smoky

soul of Alex

Burey’s early

work can’t be

replicated.

Never quite ready to come

to terms with reality, his

is a space-age take on

songwriting. Second EP

‘Family Stone’ arrives ahead

of dates on Soak’s UK tour.

Okay Kaya

Gravity-defying New York talent, on Jamie xx’s speed-dial.

Signed to XL’s Hot Charity imprint, Okay Kaya pens dusky, free-thinking pop songs. Existing

somewhere between the Deep South’s open roads and New York’s busy, lit-up skyline, her

‘Damn, Gravity’ was the first to catch attention. Since then, she’s been asked to provide music

for this month’s cover star Jamie xx and his score for ballet ‘Tree of Codes’.

Listen: ‘Damn, Gravity’ is music for astronauts.

Similar to: The Twin Peaks soundtrack re-interpreted for 2015.

The

Japanese

House

.inheaven

.Show

Me The

Body.

Vocoder-hugging Londoner who

made Zane Lowe’s last ever Hottest Record.

Amber Bain is a 19-year-old songwriter whose ‘Pools to Bathe

In’ EP reinterpreted gloomy pop. Her glitchy first tracks like to

stop, start and run in circles before getting to the point. And

that’s the fun with The Japanese House - she seems to exist

on a different planet. Her ‘Still’ track was also Zane Lowe’s last

ever Hottest Record. It’ll forever remain searing-to-the-touch.

Listen: ‘Pools to Bathe In’ is a highlight from the EP.

Similar to: Imogen Heap if Kanye was at the production desk.

Fuzz-addled force giving distortion a new name.

It wouldn’t be a surprise to learn that INHEAVEN pen simple,

easy-on-the-ear pop songs before coating every last undying

second in distortion. Their debut ‘Regeneration’ single is a

lesson in force, and it arrives faster than those empty, glossy

blocks of flats that seem to be hogging up London’s skyline.

Listen: The ‘Regeneration’ 7” is out now via AMF Records.

Similar to: (Whisper it) The Big Pink, with more spite in their

locker.

Hardcore will never die if these guys

have anything to do with it.

What’s that sound? A gruesome, sludgy jolt to the system,

delivered by Queens, New York punks with a big mission

on their hands. On early recordings, they blister the senses

with a combination of Death Grips-like howls and grimy, earpiercing

guitars. It’s thrash, delivered with a vital new spin.

Listen: ‘SMTB’ is out now via Kaya Kaya.

Similar to: Fingers-in-the-mains fear.

39

40 diymag.com

Jamie xx is a unique position. With the

world watching, he can turn in just about

any direction, shaping thousands of people’s

tastes in the process. Debut album ‘In Colour’

sees him finally grasping that role, reaching

the realisation that he’s one-of-a-kind.

Words: Jamie Milton. Photos: Emma Swann.

41

42 diymag.com

here isn’t anybody else

remotely like Jamie xx.

This 26-year-old - real name

Jamie Smith - is in one of the

world’s most adored bands with

The xx. And at the same time, he’s a

go-to voice in the electronic world. Few

take on this kind of balancing act, and barely

anybody embraces the challenge quite like this

man. Obsessed with niche movements and

revivals, he’s just as happy DJing a new night

to thirty people as he is closing out a stage at a

gigantic festival. He wouldn’t have it any other

way, but it’s taken one hell of a journey to get

here.

“Not a lot of people get to be where I am,” he

admits, jet-lagged and trying to count the hours

since he last slept. Two days back in his beloved

London haven’t provided any sense of routine.

Post-Coachella he’s been in a daze, and his only

response - ignoring sanity altogether - has been

to go out more, see more things. That’s been

the case since the age of 17, when his shy, stage

fright-struck band were whisked off with a

more normal lives - his friends were starting

university. Alone, he’d lose track of time

immersing himself in the sounds coming out

of dingy London clubs. He remembers “weird

spaces with loads of dudes stood around, hoods

up.” Was he ever one of those? “Occasionally…”

Jamie’s discovery of electronic music was a

reclusive one. And from the beginning of The

xx, he’s been the guy at the back (“it didn’t really

matter if I looked miserable or not”). Debut

album ‘In Colour’, however, is his way of getting

personal. A manifestation of the way he thinks

and feels, some songs have been hanging

around for years, lurking from his early twenties

to where he is today. “Going from being 17 to

26 - that’s one of the biggest parts of your life,

in terms of how you shape as a person,” he says,

and ‘In Colour’ documents this coming-of-age

story, one that’s impossible to replicate.

G

oing it alone, early days were spent at

these stranger-filled club nights. But

he wasn’t clubbing, strictly speaking.

Instead of stuffing himself full of uppers,

It’s an easy way out, to get other

artists to appear on your record.

- Jamie xx

debut album that helped shape one of the most

surprising success stories in a decade.

Any time off from touring, he’d spend

nestling up next to a speaker somewhere in

a dark corner of the capital. Nobody else was

around because they were all leading boring,

ordering two WKDs for £4 and making a new

best friend every ten minutes, he was listening.

At nights like Plastic People, he’d wait for Four

Tet’s set to finish before approaching Kieran

Hebden and having a conversation. “I wouldn’t

take drugs or anything like that. It was just

about going to these nights and discovering

43

new stuff,” he remembers. “It just felt like a really exciting time

to be missing out on, if I stayed at home.”

When things went stratospheric for The xx, the Londoner

would spend his spare hours getting homesick. Not just in

the sense of checking Facebook and sending sentimental

messages - he’d dose up on UK garage documentaries,

videos of kids skating in the capital, episodes of the Top Boy

drama (which ends up being sampled on one of his tracks,

‘Girl’). “Being away from London that long every year and the

people you grew up with - it’s hard,” he says. Fragments of

home appear in everything he does. Last year’s ‘All Under One

Roof Raving’ was a forthright tribute to the country and all

the musical movements it’s spawned. With his recent ‘Loud

Places’ video, he and bandmate Romy-Madley Croft ride

skateboards while getting covered in confetti. “Before we

made music together, from the age of like 13, Romy and I used

to go out and skate,” he remembers.

London was the source of ‘In Colour’ actually happening in

the first place. In summer 2014, with The xx’s third album

beginning to shape, Jamie had a dozen half-thoughts

swimming around in his head. He “had to finish it,” he says. “I

felt like I needed to get rid of it. It was lingering, and I wanted

to have a fresh head. It was just ideas, not even songs at the

time. And I needed the force of an album to make me finish it.”

Instead of launching back towards club culture for inspiration,

he locked himself inside, in 30 degrees heat. The city’s scene

was a “little stale” at the time, he felt. “But that might have

been because I was also trying to make my album.”

The breakthrough moment hit when he made opening

track ‘Gosh’. The last song he started from those sessions, he

can pretty much be heard bouncing off the walls. All those

UK garage videos he’d watch while on tour burst out in full

bloom, and a hook that wouldn’t look out of place on The

xx’s debut floats in from another dimension entirely. It’s a

song that sums up the producer at his best, melding opposite

worlds that few would think to combine. It might be raised on

a diet of revivalism, but it’s also inviting and all-inclusive. He

says the title ‘In Colour’ is a play on people’s perception of The

xx as dark, gloomy figures. But this full spectrum approach

also represents inclusiveness, the notion that nothing should

be ruled out completely. He might be a know-it-all, but few

producers have this ability to invite strangers into their world.

scene. “When you’re actually in the studio, it’s amazing. But

there’s so much other shit that you have to deal with - record

labels and other producers. Everybody just thinks the more

producers you have on a record, the better the record’s going

to be. I would love to do a record with Drake, just me and him.

But I don’t think anyone else in that world sees it that way…”

His solo break, in many ways, arrived through another

collaboration. After The xx’s debut, he was asked by XL’s head

honcho, Richard Russell, to rework Gil Scott-Heron’s ‘I’m New

Here’. “I wasn’t thinking about even the fact somebody else

would hear it. I was just so excited to be able to make this

music,” he remembers. Between days where he simply hung

out with the Chicago legend, he was let loose on a bank of

material with which he could do just about anything. New

tools at hand, he was a kid in a sweet factory.

“If I was doing that album now, I would drive myself mad,” he

says, in-part referring to Scott-Heron’s death - he passed three

months after ‘We’re New Here’’s release. “It kind of felt like it

was going to happen, when I was hanging around with him,”

he admits. “The gravitas was already there: just being able

to sit with him and hear his stories, and when it did happen

obviously it was very sad. But by that point I’d realised it was a

very special thing to be a part of, that record.”

If there’s one thing Jamie xx learnt from those two distinct

experiences - working on his own terms, or being surrounded

by big-wigs - it’s that he’s more in his element when he’s close

to home. That’s partly why a third of ‘In Colour’ consists of

collaborations with Romy and Oliver Sim. The results were so

good, his bandmates wanted to nab songs for their own, third

LP. “I have the same problems,” he says. “Every time you make

something that you like, you worry that you’re not going to be

able to make anything else like that.”

He had the option of flooding the debut with high-profile

guest spots. “But I think it’s an easy way out, to get other

artists to appear on your record,” he claims. “It’s something a

lot of people have been doing recently. You get their fans and

they get your fans. But I just wanted to make something that I

was comfortable with and that represented what I was doing.”

One song on ‘In Colour’ breaks this rule. At first, ‘I Know

There’s Gonna Be Good Times’ is so drastically out of place,

it sounds like guests Young Thug & Popcaan barged into

the record without getting Smith’s permission. “That’s me

I would love to do a record

with Drake, just me and him.

- Jamie xx

It’s hard to think of anyone less-suited to the glamour-clad,

rich and famous Hollywood lifestyle, but that’s essentially

where Jamie xx ended up before making ‘In Colour’.

He worked closely with Alicia Keys (they’re buddies on

WhatsApp) and Drake (“We’d hang out. But I don’t know if I

know him that well”), where he’d be in the production chair

for high-profile collaborations. “I loved doing some parts,”

he says. But “that world”, as he refers to it, wasn’t exactly his

showing that I can do that kind of thing, if I want,” he says,

this pill-popping, berserk hip-hop outlier being the perfect

example of where Jamie xx exists in the big picture. Nothing’s

out of limits.

“But I wanted it to be a quite personal record,” he says. “I

would send [Romy and Oliver] music and then ask them to

write something, or ask them about a demo they’d already

44 diymag.com

AND WE KEPT IT BALLET

P

ost-’In Colour’ and with the small distraction of a new xx record, Jamie xx is

turning his attention to ‘Tree of Codes’. A contemporary ballet - think Billy Elliott,

and then think of the complete opposite - Smith is on scoring duties.

Time’s been spent meeting choreographer Wayne McGregor and visiting rehearsals. “I

didn’t think I would be as moved by the dancing as I am,” he says. “It might be because

I’m literally in this small rehearsal room with twelve very muscular people, dancing

around me and so close to me they’re almost on me.

“I started listening to weirder music on purpose, but a lot of it isn’t that weird - which

I’m ok with. I didn’t want to be making weird music for the sake of it, just because I

have seventy-five minutes to fill. I wanted to make music that I’d still listen to.”

As well as ‘Tree of Codes’, Jamie’s also getting

arty by working alongside the National Portrait

Gallery. “I’ve chosen a painting that’s hanging

in the gallery and I’ve got a room to make my

own sound installation for the painting. It’ll

be there for three months. People can come

and go into the room, look at the painting and

listen to what I’ve played.”

45

sent me. We’d go into the studio together and talk

about it, one on one. And then I’d finish it on my own.

It was different, but that’s also ended up influencing

how we did things as a band again, this time round.”

He’s supposed to be focusing on his solo

release, but it’s clear attention’s already

turned swiftly towards the next xx record.

It’s three years since their last work,

‘Coexist’. The year before making the LP, Jamie was in

the midst of his partying stage. “I went pretty hard,”

he says, squirming slightly. “It probably didn’t help me

creatively…”

Talk turns to a “glorious summer” in 2011 where

he’d go out, night after night. “It’s good to have

done that, to know my limits; what inspires me and

what doesn’t. It’s great to have fun, but those were

fleeting moments of fun, rather than satisfaction and

being happy.” What followed was the period around

‘Coexist’. 2012’s summer was “terrible”, he says,

“basically a comedown from that last year.” The band

locked themselves away and didn’t share new music

with anyone. “That was really intense,” he says. “But

looking back, we sort of did it to ourselves. We were

bouncing it off each other, getting a bit lost. We were

probably too focused on a certain aim. We should

have been a bit more free.”

Cut to the present day, and the experience is “a lot

more fun.” This time they’re sharing material.

“There’s less rules and we’re being a lot more

open about it. We’re playing it to everyone.

We’re happier, too,” he says. “We know

ourselves a lot more. And also musically, our

tastes have broadened so much. Most of the

music I listen to now is super cheesy disco.

Whereas before I was a moody teenager.”

‘In Colour’ spans across those wildly different years,

from all-black-sporting beatsmith to acclaimed

electronic staple. He doesn’t take on disco

(unfortunately), but ‘Loud Places’ and ‘Gosh’ represent

where he is today. On the flipside, ‘The Rest Is Noise’ -

a track that’s been hanging around since the xx debut

days - seems to stampede across the entire period,

from mopey youth to an established voice.

At the end of a bonkers journey sits this record. Each

song represents a different stage in Smith’s strange,

unpredictable career. And now he’s finished, he never

wants to hear the thing again. “I last listened to it

when I finished mastering it, and even then I didn’t

listen to the whole thing,” he quips. Safely strapped

in for the next chapter, he’s ready for anything. “I’m

happy to be here - it’s a unique place,” he admits. “I

get to take influence from the underground - and

play a lot of small clubs, play with my favourite DJs

- and then I get to play Coachella on a big stage. It’s

awesome.” Finally it looks as if Jamie xx understands

where he exists - at a strange in-between that nobody

else can get close to.

WHAT’S NEXT FOR

LONDON?

J

amie xx spent years going to Plastic

People with Four Tet and Floating Points,

but it’s one of many nights and clubs that’ve

had to close in the last year, due to London’s

drastic regeneration. Instead of getting

bogged down in what’s been lost, however,

the producer’s looking at things from a

positive perspective.

“With all the added security… It had to go

eventually. And it’s left a gap for loads of

things, actually,” he says. “Because it was such

an eclectic place. You’d have a psych rock night

there, a dubstep one the next, a techno one

after that. Now that it’s gone, there’s room for

lots of places, and hopefully one place that

can bring that sort of eclecticism back. These

places being closed, it’s definitely making me

go to places that aren’t clubs. I’m more excited

about going to them. London’s such a creative

city, it’s not going to get stale.”

Jamie xx’s debut album ‘In Colour’ will be released

on 1st June via Young Turks. DIY

46 diymag.com

HOXTON SQUARE BAR AND KITCHEN

GIG LISTINGS

THU 14 MAY 8PM 18+ £6

DMA’S

POPSTRANGERS + PROM

+ SCARLET RASCAL

FRI 15 MAY 8PM 18+ £8

KADEBOSTANY

LIONFACE

MON 18 MAY 8PM 18+ £8

PITY SEX +

CREEPOID

PUPPY

TUE 19 MAY 8PM 18+ £8

SHAKE SHAKE GO

LOUIS BAKER

WED 20 MAY 8PM 18+ £8

ATTAQUE

SPECIAL GUESTS

THU 21 MAY 8PM 18+ £11

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FRI 15 MAY 9PM-2AM 18+ £5

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FRI 22 MAY 9PM-2AM 18+ £5

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CLUB NIGHTS

MON 25 MAY 8PM 18+ £16

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TUE 26 MAY 8PM 18+ £8

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THE WOLF

SPECIAL GUESTS

FRI 29 MAY 7:30PM 18+ £6.50

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MON 01 JUN 8PM 18+ £6

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JERRY WILLIAMS

WED 03 JUN 8PM 18+ £10

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SELECTON LIVE

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SAT 30 MAY 9PM-2AM 18+ £5

DJ ODIN

DJS EVERY WEDNESDAY – SUNDAY UNTIL LATE

Hoxtonsquarebar @HoxtonHQ @HoxtonSquareBar

2-4 Hoxton Square, London, N1 6NU

Tickets from hoxtonsquarebar.com or 0844 847 2316 (24hr)

HOXTONSQUAREBAR.COM

September

16 LEEDS O2 Academy

17 GLASGOW O2 ABC

18 NEWCASTLE O2 Academy

19 MANCHESTER Ritz

23 PORTSMOUTH Pyramids

24 LONDON Forum

26 BIRMINGHAM O2 Academy

27 BRISTOL O2 Academy

TICKETS: KILILIVE.COM / SEETICKETS.COM

BLUETONES.BAND

PEACE

PLUS VERY SPECIAL GUESTS

AND

SEPTEMBER 2015

24 LIVERPOOL O 2 ACADEMY

25 MIDDLESBROUGH EMPIRE

26 GLASGOW ARCHES

OCTOBER 2015

01 MANCHESTER ACADEMY

02 NOTTINGHAM ROCK CITY

OCTOBER 2015

03 CARDIFF GREAT HALL

05 CAMBRIDGE JUNCTION

06 LEICESTER O 2 ACADEMY

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10 WOLVERHAMPTON CIVIC HALL

SEETICKETS.COM / TICKETWEB.CO.UK / TICKETMASTER.CO.UK / VENUE BOX OFFICES

A METROPOLIS MUSIC, SJM CONCERTS, DHP AND DF PRESENTATION BY ARRANGEMENT WITH 13 ARTISTS

NEW ALBUM ‘HAPPY PEOPLE’ OUT NOW PEACEFOREVEREVER.CO.UK

47

“Honestly lads,

Quidditch practice starts

in five minutes.”

With their new album, Everything Everything are standing

firm. “We wanted to sound angry,” they tell Sarah Jamieson.

Photos: Mike Massaro.

48 diymag.com

“I

wanted to go really far into One Direction

territory.” If there were any words that you

wouldn’t expect to fall from the mouth of

Everything Everything frontman Jonathan

Higgs, it’d probably be those. “So I could join

One Direction.” He stops, laughs, and continues, “and I hoped

these guys would accept it and make it into a band thing,

because I knew what I had made wasn’t but I really liked it.”

Thankfully for Everything Everything fans, Higgs isn’t

talking about replacing Zayn Malik, but the band’s “club

banger” single ‘Distant Past’. “I think,” assures guitarist

49

Alex Robertshaw, “it was

unashamedly, a club

banger.” “Yeah, the original

demo was,” Higgs continues

his train of thought, “and I

knew it just wasn’t gonna fly.

But, you know, we wanted to

say we’re not afraid of being

like this.”

If the band are anything

on their new record ‘Get

To Heaven’, it’s unafraid.

Unafraid to try new things,

unafraid to tread new

ground, the boundaries

were well and truly broken

by the time work was

completed on their third

album. Like all good things,

though, it wasn’t without

hard work.

“I think we were probably a

bit too relaxed after ‘Arc’,”

explains Alex, on the point

their second album ended

and the third picked up. “We

should’ve kept writing a

bit more. Getting back into

the swing of it was quite

difficult; it took us a while.”

“It was easy enough to do,”

throws in Higgs, “but the

material was just crap for

ages.”

They pause to think before

Jonathan picks back up. “But

it was always a certain type

of show that we gave,” he

explains, “because there was

such a lot of slow songs on

‘Arc’. Not necessarily slow

but quite steady, hip-hop

tempos. That’s what we’d

set out to do with that

record but we found that

our live shows needed more

energy. We were scrabbling

around to find things that

had enough energy to keep

ourselves going live, rather

than making everything into

these big, rather majestic

sad shows, we wanted it to

be fiery.”

“I think the impulsive nature

that we had writing this

record is a really strong

thing,” adds Robertshaw.

“We’ve laboured over music

a lot in the past and for the

first time, we’ve used very

instinctual behaviour in

terms of writing and I think

it shines through. Even as

the songs become more and

more complicated, there’s

an impulsiveness, wanting

to move to it and I think that

cuts through.”

For the second record, I was

probably too acute and I felt

like I sounded a bit vague;

too all-encompassing. I

knew I wanted this to sound

like I was angry and I wanted

to say lots of things without

being preachy or alienating.

I think all of the things that

I learned from the second

record, about addressing the

listener - asking questions

rather than trying to answer

them - all of that stuff brings

people in more. It feels a lot

more honest that way.”

Whether it’s the current

troubles in the Middle East,

or the ripples of unrest

marching through North

America, if it’s been in the

world news over the past

eighteen months, it’s gone

into informing ‘Get To

Heaven’.

“It surrounds us, it surrounds

everything all the time,”

Higgs says, on the violence

and turmoil that news

outlets are reporting every

day. “We didn’t do anything

for a year apart from writing,

and I read a lot of media

and that media’s skewed

in a certain way that makes

you feel bad and makes you

feel just awful. I do have an

interest in world news and

what’s happening. A lot of

what came out of me was a

reaction to that. A lot of last

year was just so intense in

terms of the violence and

horrible events so it was very

“Yeah it was,” the vocalist

relays, nodding. “We wrote

an awful lot and improved,

rejected, reworked, demoed

things.” “Argued.” “Yeah, lots

of arguing. Lots of different

lives for everything. There

were lots of new things

really; just new ways of

doing things.”

After an album like ‘Arc’, it

seems unsurprising that

the band craved change.

Granted, their second effort

saw them garner more fans

and play bigger live shows,

but it was towards the end

of its campaign that the

four-piece began to feel

restless with the musical

direction they had headed

in. “We knew off the back

of touring that we found

that record - to tour - wasn’t

always…” Higgs pauses. “It’s

hard to put into words.” “It

was good,” his bandmate

adds in, “it was great...”

“We set out purposefully to

make the new record have

no downtime at all and

just be as up as possible.

It’s eleven tracks; we didn’t

wanna stick around for too

long. All the tracks needed

to be high energy, basically,

and that’s what we did

in the end. We wanted to

sound angry and we wanted

people to react to it rather

than close down. We want

it to be a great live album,

and be fun and bright and

colourful and powerful.”

It’s not just the music that

the band wanted to be

high octane; the lyrics see

Higgs digging his teeth into

more honest, more brutal

songwriting about the

current state of the world.

“Well, I mean,” he starts,

on his decision to use this

set of songs to really say

something. “On the first

record I was very obtuse.

50 diymag.com

“The media’s

skewed in a way

that makes you

feel bad; a lot

of last year was

just so intense.” -

Jonathan Higgs

reactionary.

“It’s easy to forget lots of the things that are going on in the

world; a lot of people do, but there’s no possible way that

you can take it all in. If you try, you end up getting torn apart

and I think that’s what’s happening on the record. Someone

is trying to comprehend all of the stuff and becoming quite

tainted by it. It’s about trying to get through it, trying to get

above it, without ignoring it.”

Yet, even through its impulsive nature and political

sentiments, ‘Get To Heaven’ is – at its core – still an Everything

Everything record. While they’ve not shied away from politics

or experimentation in their previous offerings, this seems their

most distilled, more complete effort and it’s exactly the step

that the band need to take next.

“I feel like we’ve finally found our feet on this record,” Alex

agrees. “I think it’s really exciting to play for us, and I can

imagine we could tour it for a long time. It’s kind of edgeof-your-seat.

I think we learned from ‘Arc’ and we’re making

things more direct, maybe more understated. It’s interesting:

I don’t know if I could go back to making a record ‘Arc’ or

maybe even ‘Man

Alive’. I think this is

the right balance.

“I don’t think we

could have ever

released an album

any different than

this. I don’t think we’d

have let ourselves

do anything not

confrontational or

provocative.”

“It feels really, really

right,” the frontman

concludes. “Friends

of mine who have

heard it have said it’s

the most Everything

Everything record

we’ve ever done and

that’s a really good

thing to hear. I don’t

think that means

we’re repeating

ourselves but it

means we’ve found

where we sit best, and

what we do best.”

Everything

Everything’s new

album ’Get To

Heaven’ will be

released on 15th

June via Sony RCA.

DIY

Everything

Everything will

play Positivus. See

diymag.com for

details.

51

It’s been a whirlwind year for SOAK. “I’m really

lucky to be in the position that I’m in,” she tells

Laura Studarus. photos: mike massaro.

52 diymag.com

H

o w

t o

d r e a

m

2014 was big one for SOAK. With only

a scant three songs and a Chvrches

remix to her name, Bridie Monds-

Watson was signed to Rough Trade and

appeared in countless ones to watch

lists. For some that could point to flash in the pan,

overnight success, or perhaps the product of a

legacy musician with rich industry parents.

Monds-Watson is none of those things, but rather

just another teenager from Derry, Northern

Ireland with a penchant for skateboards and

dinosaurs. (“Oh, I’m a big fan of the stegosaurus,”

she jokes. “I appreciate a good Tyrannosaurus

Rex, but I feel like that’s too easy of a choice”).

Biographical facts fall away when listening to

her music, a blend of soft-spoken folk that has

garnered comparisons to everyone from Lykke Li

to Cat Power. Her light touch on tough subjects,

from identity, to love, to bitter fights, is the basis

of her debut full-length ‘Before We Forgot How

to Dream’, a collection of fourteen tracks that

sounds like the work of someone who has been

there, done that, while still managing to skirt

bitterness. On album track ‘Reckless Behaviour’,

an ode to youthful living and advice stolen

from online poetry, Monds-Watson is self aware

enough to even take herself to task, singing, “I

know better.”

53

54 diymag.com

“People get

surprised when

young people talk

coherently about

anything.” - Bridie

Monds-Watson

At the moment though, she sounds

more like an eighteen-year-old

than wise troubadour.

“I think it’s a super lazy tag. It’s

classic,” Monds-Watson moans.

Here she’s talking that descriptor,

the one that manages to worm its

way into nearly every review and

interview - and could potentially

be tattooed across her forehead

until she hits 30 if she’s not vigilant.

“‘Oh we’re writing an article about

a teenage singer-songwriter:

‘Wise beyond their years!’’” she

continues. “It automatically gets

added on. It’s a bit boring to write

that. I do get where people are

coming from. But I do think people

should just write ‘wise’. Young

people can be wise! I think I’m a

bit wise. When I’m with my friends,

people wouldn’t say that. When I’m

with my friends we’re pretty stupid

and immature and hyperactive.

Lyrically, with my songs and stuff,

people call me wise.”

At this, she pauses, her mild

annoyance transforming

into amusement. “People get

surprised when young people talk

coherently about anything,” she

muses. “I think that’s where that

comes from.”

For Monds-Watson, childhood and

music were intertwined. After all,

she points out - when your father

gives you a guitar at thirteen and

sign your first deal at sixteen,

not much time is left for playing

what-ifs or mapping out a plan B.

She approaches any discussion

of the past with a good-natured

incredulity.

“This just happened for me,” she

says. “I’ve kinda been doing it since

I was in school and would have

been choosing other occupations.

So I never really followed up with

anything else. Now I have no idea

what I would do. I would be a bit

stuck.”

Given how quickly her music

took off, it would be easy to paint

Monds-Watson with a broad

brush - perhaps assigning her a

role as the preternatural, poetrytoter.

Her single ‘B a noBody’

practically declares her as the kind

of student who mainlined both

Emily Dickinson’s verse and e e

cummings’ casual relationship

with capital letters. But she assures

that’s not the case. If anything, it

was the exact opposite.

“I was a pretty hyperactive kid,”

Monds-Watson admits. “I spent a

lot of time making videos and stuff

with my friends. I hung around

with the emo kids, but I didn’t have

an emo phase. I had a phase of

searching really hard on YouTube

and stuff to try and find really

obscure and weird music, in order

to be to my friends, like, ‘Have you

heard of blah blah blah?’ ‘You’ve

never heard of them probably.

They’re really cool.’ I did that.”

Youthful angst, she says, did play

an active role in her songwriting

at first. But soon the process

opened up to everything she was

experiencing. From her parents’

fights - a topic she breezes over

in conversation but documents in

the heartbreakingly upbeat single

‘Sea Creatures’ - to questions of

identity, to growing up surrounded

by an army of friends, everything

served as fertile creative soil.

Where other kids spent time with

their journals, she confessed to

her guitar.

“I started writing in a way that was

the easiest way to explain and

understand things myself,” she

says. “And also a way that when I

wrote a song and shared it, that’s

the way I could express myself

and share thoughts and feelings

without having to directly sit down

and have a conversation about it.

The whole idea of that made me,

ugh, I just didn’t like that at all.”

Monds-Watson describes her home

town, where she still lives with

her mother, as an idyllic hamlet. In

realty, Derry is the second largest

city in Northern Ireland. But to hear

her tell it, the village vibes, from

living five minutes from the city

centre, to being within arm’s reach

of her friends, heavily informed

her musical development. It still

continues to be a factor. Despite

logging extensive touring miles,

with no end in sight, she has no

desire to move to a larger city.

“I gigged extensively since I was

fourteen in the city,” she says.

“A lot of people have helped me

out. I’ve made a lot of really good

friends. The small town vibes

have done me good. I’ve played

pretty much everywhere. I think

they’ve really watched me grow

and helped me along the way.

Every time I go home, my friends

are pretty much waiting in my

room for me to get there. I have

ten or fifteen really close friends

that I’ve grown up with. So we just

mess around. We’re all really fun

together. So we mess around and

have parties in my basement and

chill in my room. It’s really good.”

It was that forward momentum,

being taken seriously as a musician

at home, and the support of the

people around her, that inspired

Monds-Watson to move forward

with her career. Sure, she still looks

the role of a skater kid - her arms

covered in tattoos and her ears

stretched with black plastic rings.

But she’s seeing the world a lot

differently these days.

“I feel when I was in school and

stuff I matured really late,” she

admits. “Then I feel like from

sixteen onwards I matured

really really quickly, just because

I’ve been in this industry and

surrounded by adults. Signing

contracts that are going to decide

the next 20 years of my life… I

think I’ve been really lucky and

really blessed being able to do

what I’m doing as a career. All the

opportunity itself. I’m really lucky

to have the friends and the family

that I do. And to be in the position

that I’m in all together. There’s not

much I could fault. It would be

ignorant not to acknowledge it.”

SOAK’s debut album ‘Before We

Forgot How To Dream’ will be

released on 1st June via Rough

Trade. DIY

SOAK will play Latitude and Positivus.


55

Of Monsters and Men celebrate the hottest day

of Iceland’s history in appropriate clothing.

Skin

deep

56 diymag.com

Of Monsters and Men exploded

with their debut album,

beating chart records set by

their Icelandic compatriot

Björk in the progress. But as

we meet them in their home

city of Reykjavik,

“w

they couldn’t be more

chilled. Words & Photo:

Emma Swann.

e were playing Sasquatch!,” reminisces Of

Monsters and Men guitarist Brynjar Leifsson.

The band are sat in an impossibly cool hostel

in the band’s home city of Reykjavik, Iceland

on what’s nominally the first day of summer

here – something the locals take very seriously.

(“It’s a reason to celebrate, when it’s cold all

year long, but everyone pretends it’s hot,”

laughs vocalist Ragnar ‘Raggi’ Þórhallsson,

“and throws outside concerts and wears t-shirts

although they’re freezing really and everyone

gets pneumonia…”) “I got this ‘what the fuck’

moment. It’s an outside festival in Washington, in the States, and there

were maybe four or five thousand people already watching us play, and

then we began playing ‘Little Thoughts’ or something, and there was a hill

in the distance, and people just kept coming running over the hill, and I

was like ‘what the hell is happening?!’. It was a funny moment, and for me

that was when I realised were were probably doing something good.”

‘Probably’ could well be an understatement. By this point, the band’s

debut album, ‘My Head is an Animal’ had reached #3 in the album charts

here in the UK, and #6 in the US – where their first week sales amounted

to achieving the best chart performance for an Icelandic act in US history,

usurping that of Björk’s ‘Volta’ in 2009.

“We didn’t experience it as everybody would think,” suggests bassist

Kristján Páll Kristjánsson. “It just kinda happened, and we were in the

middle of it.”

“We were busy,” adds Raggi. “So the tour just got bigger and bigger, and

longer, and the shows started piling up, and all of a sudden we were

getting TV spots and stuff like that.”

Kristján finishes his sentence. “We went with the flow.”

eneath the Skin’ is nothing if not a different beast to its

predecessor. While there is a smidgen of glockenspiel to be

‘B found under the multiple layers of ‘Human’, and for the most

part it’s all still heavily percussive (take the closing moments of ‘Thousand

57

Eyes’ or opener ‘Crystals’, for example),

if ‘My Head is an Animal’ was made

in glorious Technicolor, this second

record is shown in grainy, contrastheavy

monochrome. Iceland’s endless

winters might be the cause of constant

references to wind, cold, storms and

water – but the guitars are amped up,

the rhythms more ominous and then

there’s the brutal intimacy of ‘Organs’,

Nanna Bryndís Hilmarsdóttir’s vocals

given minimal backing as she sings lines

like “I cough up my lungs ‘cause they

remind me of how it all went wrong”.

Unsurprisingly, Nanna describes the

lyric-writing process as “very weird”. “It’s

just me and Raggi,” she explains, “we

figured out that in order for us to take it

all the way, we had to go all the way, we

had to allow it to be what it is, and not

hold back, and we definitely did that,

and it was weird but kind of nice. It is

weird, though, working with someone

and being so personal. We write it all

together. Sometimes there’s an idea or

whatever, but we go and sit down for

hours, or days, and sometimes we’re

completely quiet for a while, and other

times we talk and talk and talk. Nobody

else can be around us, because it’s

probably very weird for someone to be

there and hear someone like ‘LUNGS’!”

She laughs.

“More mature” is how Kristján would

describe the new record’s sound, and

at almost the same moment he says

that, Raggi spills water over himself.

“Not me, obviously,” he laughs. “I’m still

doing this.”

“It’s been almost five years since many

of the songs were written on the last

album,” he adds, with a slightly more

straight face, “so maybe to our fans

it feels like the first album is us, but

we’ve been doing stuff for five years

so we think about music and writing

differently to then, you know?”

“We know our fans wouldn’t want

anything totally different,” says

Drummer Arnar Rósenkranz Hilmarsson,

“that is in the back of our heads, we can’t

just go and make a techno album or

something!”

‘Beneath the Skin’ was recorded partially

in Iceland – between Sundlaugin, the

former swimming pool converted

by Sigur Rós in Mosfellsbær, on the

outskirts of Reykjavik, and Alex Somers’

studio in the city itself – and at Rich

Costey’s Eldorado studios in California.

“I think it was very helpful,” says Nanna

of splitting the work between locations.

“It got us to think differently,” adds

Brynjar, “we were getting too focused

and too isolated in one studio, and we

got to LA, ripped out of our natural

environment, and it gave us a new

perspective on the recording process.”

“Even when we were going back and

forth to Mosfellsbær,” continues Nanna,

“and then we went to Alex’s studio,

even that was a big part. We only spent

a week at Alex’s, but there’s so much

sound [on the record] from there,

because we went in, and there were all

these new instruments and we started

to think differently.

“I think it’s a good trick,” she laughs,

“I think next time we’ll do it in ten

different studios! It totally makes sense

to do that.”

“We love this

album and

that should

be enough.” -

Nanna Bryndís

Hilmarsdóttir

Their intention had been to finish the

album in a month in LA, but unlike the

rest of the process, which all say went

smoothly, they spent twice as long there

– and only finished hours before they

had to leave. “It definitely dragged on

a bit,” confesses Raggi. “The last night,

you [he points at Arnar] had to be at the

airport at like 8 or something, and we

were there until 6.”

“I hadn’t packed my bags,” laughs

Brynjar.

“We were in the studio going ‘No, it

should end like this, and not like this!’,”

adds Nanna. “It was crazy, and we had

to figure it out right there, it was just

ridiculous.”

Brynjar continues, “It was a big moment

for us, because it was probably the first

time we’d argued as a band.”

“Yeah, we didn’t argue about anything

on this album, we just trusted each other

to know what’s good. I think it was also

the pressure of, you know, you’re leaving

the album. It could’ve been anything, it

was that moment of ‘my god, we have to

catch a flight!’. And I wasn’t ready.”

“It’s really hard to stop,” agrees Kristján.

“There’s always something that

somebody thinks needs tweaking,”

continues Brynjar, “like sometimes there

are guitar parts and I hear something I

don’t like and the others don’t hear it, so

I have to go, if they don’t hear it then it’s

probably OK.”

“It’s probably not there,” adds Nanna.

“Like, when we were mixing it, we got

to a stage where we had listened to

it so much that we started hearing

things that seriously weren’t there.

It’s a dangerous process, because you

can’t over-analyse your work, you

have to allow it to be what it is. So it’s

important, I think, not to have all the

time in the world, because you’ll censor

yourself too much.”

“I

t’s weird,” says Nanna. “I didn’t

feel pressure. Of course there

was pressure, but we just

ignored it, because you can’t let it affect

you too much. And if you start making

something because you’re afraid of

what people... then you’re just catering

to what you think people want to hear,

and you’re not...

“You’re not being honest with the

songs,” Brynjar continues. “You can’t let

it affect you, people’s opinion. You can’t

have it affect what you’re doing.”

“And it’s good to freak out about later!”

laughs Nanna. “Like right now, and it’s

done, and like, pow!, and you guys come

over to listen to it and then I’m like...

fuck! I forgot how hard it is to make an

album. If we were gonna make a new

album tomorrow, I’d be like, ‘oh what the

fuck, god!’. But we at least feel like we

did something that we love, we love this

album and that should be enough.”

Of Monsters and Men’s new album

‘Beneath The Skin’ will be released on

8th June via Island Records. DIY

Of Monsters and Men will play Best Kept

Secret, Open’er and Bilbao BBK Live. See

diymag.com for details.

58 diymag.com

59

It’s a big world

out there

60 diymag.com

As if 2015 – the year in

which Harmony Tividad

and Cleo Tucker are to

release their debut album

and take it around the

world on tour – wasn’t

going to be big and

transitionary enough

for Girlpool, the two Los

Angeles-bred friends

decided to kick it off by relocating to the

other side of America.

Since moving to Philadelphia at the

beginning of January, Tividad and Tucker’s

debut ‘Before The World Was Big’ has been

completed, polished and recorded by Kyle

Gilbride of Swearin’, and is due for release

in June. Speaking on the phone during

a gruelling car journey from their new

home to New Mexico, where they begin an

extensive tour with new Philly neighbours

Waxahatchee, the pair are trying to take all

this change in their stride.

A h e a d o f

t h e r e l e a s e

o f t h e i r

d e b u t

a l b u m ,

G i r l p o o l

a r e t a k i n g

i n a s m u c h

o f t h e i r

e n v i r o n m e n t

a s t h e y c a n .

W o r d s : W i l l

R i c h a r d s .

“We thought it’d be cool to try something

different,” explains Tucker. “It’s not a

complete jump into the unknown, as

we’ve met a lot of people from this area

previously while on tour, so we knew it

would be a positive move for us before we

actually did it. It’s hard to fit straight into

an established scene when you’re moving

across a whole country, but we’ve met a lot

of brilliant people and have been made to

feel very welcome.”

While the final two songs from ‘Before The

World Was Big’ were finished in the week of

their arrival in Pennsylvania, Tividad soon

plays down the influence of geography. “I

feel like, with Cleo and I, there’s always a

similar tempo and route to our songwriting,

61

regardless of circumstance or location.”

The group’s debut EP, released on

Wichita in November of last year, was

lauded for its painfully personal, honest

lyricism, and while Tividad and Tucker

can pick out differences between the

release and the upcoming full-length,

its honesty is something they hope

they have recreated. “Harmony and I’s

relationship is always changing and

evolving, but the intention is always the

same, which is to be present and honest

with each other. We feel the album

shows a change of emotional taste,

representative of the growth Cleo and

I have experienced emotionally before

and during the writing of the album. I

couldn’t pinpoint one reason for any

change that comes about in our lyrics,

it’s a combination of everything that’s

happened to us inside and outside of

this band.”

Addressing any potential pressure they

may be feeling ahead of the album on

the back of such a successful debut

release, the pair cite only one reason

to feel nervous. “The only thing that

matters is internal fulfilment. The

catharsis is very real.”

The pair constantly finish off each

other’s points, consistently on the

same wavelength, weaving in and out

of conversation. It’s a sign of a duo

who, although constantly changing

and evolving, are tackling everything

together. “In the past, there was a little

bit more in the way of us bringing

separate ideas to the table that were

more developed, but currently we

almost exclusively work together”,

explains Tucker. “Within the past eight

or so months, the writing process

has become intensely collaborative”,

finishes Tividad. “But it’s taken us time

to get to that point with each other.”

Since meeting, forming and playing

their first shows in Los Angeles’ DIY

scene, Girlpool has taken the pair all

around the world on tour, including

two trips to the UK inside the last six

months. “We were overwhelmed by the

hospitality of everyone, and that we

“We thought

it’d be cool to

try something

different.” -

were asked back so soon after playing

here. Being so far away from home stirs

something up in us internally, and helps

us explore other parts of ourselves

which come out when we’re out of

our comfort zone and somewhere

unfamiliar.” After playing their first UK

show in support of Alex G in November,

the pair then headlined (and sold out)

London’s Lexington in February, with

two more shows in the capital set for

June, and a regional tour to follow

in September. “To be asked to play

anywhere other than LA was amazing

for a while, and now we’ll have been to

Europe four times in a year!”

“We’re constantly taking in our

environment in a way that’s very

absorbing. We’re like sponges!

We’re constantly talking about our

experiences in our songs, and I don’t

think anything that we do can be ruled

out from potentially forming ideas for

new songs. Everything is happening

around us and we’re always conscious

of every last bit.” With countless months

of touring ahead after they roll into New

Mexico, Girlpool are set for countless

new experiences to soak up and ring

out into whatever comes next.

Girlpool’s new album ‘Before The

World Was Big’ will be released on

1st June via Wichita Recordings. DIY

Cleo Tucker

62 diymag.com

63

engahr supported Alt-J at the The O2 Arena before they got their first headline gig.

Gengahr have played to hundreds of

thousands of strangers in their short

lifetime. But the only thing on the

London four-piece’s wishlist is a few

tiny headline gigs. These have been

in short supply for a group who’ve taken the unusual

route with their first steps. Only this March did they

play a show of their own. That followed tours with Alt-J

and Wolf Alice, plus high-profile slots at Latitude and

Glastonbury. For a handful of onlookers, they’ve been

one of the most exciting bands to come out of the UK

for quite some time. For others, they’ve been a second

thought, that band playing in the distance between

drinks orders and a quick festival lie-down.

Perhaps that’s why debut album ‘A Dream Outside’

comes out all guns blazing. It’s the sound of a group

aligning their stars without letting anyone else get a

word in. Such is the sheer force behind the majority of

this LP, Felix Bushe and co. had to make an instrumental

track last minute, just to give everyone a breather. And

even then, the tightly-wound ‘Dark Star’ demands

64 diymag.com

D r e a m i n g

Debut album ‘A Dream Outside’ looks to shift the story. No longer are they going to be the supporting cast.

B I G

Words: Jamie Milton. Photos: Mike Massaro.

65

attention.

“Instead of trying to win people over,

it’s gonna be a different thing,” claims

drummer Danny Ward. Before, says

frontman Bushe, they could “get away

with murder, do whatever we want,”

because nobody was paying too much

attention. This is a full-length that goes for

the gut, however. Zero warning, no time

to get a quick cup of tea - it’s a ferocious

statement of intent. Gengahr are making

their introduction.

The prospect of being the centre of

attention is “more nerve-wracking,”

says bassist Hugh Schulte. Headline

gigs are “much more scary than the

O2.” Everyone’s in agreement. John

Victor - the band’s guitarist, whose

razor-like technique has him compared to

Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood - lets out a

slight tremor of fear at the very thought of

having all eyes directed at his band.

“Sometimes you

can tear apart

a song ten times

and start again

before you get

anywhere” - F e l i x

Bushe

“We’ve got the bug for headline shows now, though,” says

Bushe, the opposite of a reluctant frontman. “Even if it’s a fifty

cap venue. We’ve been playing for so long without having

that kind of thing - now we want it. For over a year, you’re

playing to other people’s crowds and you’re trying your best

to persuade them that you’re not shit. And now you get to

the stage where you can suddenly say you’ve got some fans.

That’s a better experience than doing any of the support

stuff.”

f it hadn’t been for one effortless recording session two

years ago, Gengahr might not even be considering this

Idilemma. Going by the name RES, they met up for the first

time to put down rough ideas and see if there was anything

worth keeping. “We had three or four strong songs from the

very start, and that allowed us the confidence to carry on,”

says Bushe. With those early efforts, they had a blueprint,

which might explain why an album’s come round so quickly.

“That first demo session was the benchmark for us. Having

those tracks rather than just one, where everyone’s like ‘We

really like that song’, then you might not have anything else

to offer. We had at least a couple, and that gives you that

respite to not really feel too much pressure. When we were

writing, we had a relaxed attitude.”

What followed was a game of probability. Month by month,

they’d visit the studio with new songs at the ready. If just

one sounded complete by the end of that session, it’d be

tallied up towards the album. “And luckily, every so often

two or three of those songs ended up working,” notes Ward.

It’s a pattern that continued right up into the final days

of LP recording in a remote South Devon studio. Album

closer ‘Trampoline’ stepped out from nowhere. As did the

re-worked ‘Dark Star’, a glitchy, Battles-channelling exercise

in restraint. It sounds like child’s play, few brick walls to

contend with. Although Bushe admits that “sometimes you

can tear apart a song ten times and start again before you get

anywhere.”

The only stumbling block arrived when it came to mixing

the record. “It was only difficult at the end, because our own

lack of ability made us have to make loads of mistakes,” says

On their recent tour with Circa

Waves, Gengahr were joined by

Essex upstart Rat Boy. He spent

the entire time tweeting the

band and trying to make their

acquaintance. Was he a pest,

or a future best mate? “I think

it’s a bit like what kids do at

school, when they fancy a girl. They’re

constantly trying to get their attention,”

jokes Bushe. “But we actually really like

those guys. Everyone was like, ‘They’re

going to be so annoying, you’ll hate

them’. But they were just nice. They’re

very young and excitable. That was their

first ever tour. And I think we all agreed

that we’d be more annoying and worse

than them if we were in that situation.”

“They were charming,” says Schulte.

66 diymag.com

Bushe. “As soon as we got past that

exciting stage, it was just that final little

bit…”

Gengahr don’t possess a perfectionist

streak (their ‘see what sticks’ approach

will attest to that), but from day one

they’ve had a big sense of control.

Schulte designs all the sleeves, and

each of their videos - ranging from

child stars to witch hunts and seances

- have been put together with the

band involved. “I think there’s the

worry that the further you go down the

line, the inevitable will happen where

you end up with less control, and you

have less time to do these things,”

explains Bushe. “While you have the

opportunity, it feels important to do

what we want to do. And hopefully we

can create enough of an identity where

if we did, god forbid, end up having less

time, then we could work with people

who knew what we were aiming for,

instead of random artwork and random

videos for a band.

If there’s one mantra Gengahr go by,

it’s summed up by Bushe when saying:

“If we feel like we can do it, we’ll do it

ourselves.” Without getting distracted

by the O2 lights or playing second

fiddle to the big guns, quietly - without

giving too much of the game away -

they’ve forged their own path. If ever

a new band needs an example of how

to start off the right way, this should be

it: Perfect the live game, have enough

songs to make a go of it, and keep

everything on your own terms.

Gengahr’s debut album ‘A Dream

Outside’ will be released on 15th

June via Transgressive Records. DIY

Gengahr will play Best Kept Secret and

Latitude. See diymag.com for details.

Hugh! Mate! Camera’s this way!

67

Algiers / Drenge / Everything Everything / FFS / Florence + The Machine / Four Year Strong

Deck / Hudson Mohawke / Jaakko Eino Kalevi / Jamie xx / Kid Wave / Live At Leeds / Major Lazer /

Dance School / Rolo Tomassi / Sauna Youth / Shamir / Slaves / Soak / Summer Camp / The Darkness

‘How Big...’ couldn’t feel any more

eeee

FLORENCE

+ THE MACHINE

How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful (Island Records)

Think of Florence Welch, and you’ll think of that voice.

As trademarks go, being able to belt it out isn’t a bad

one, but with ‘How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful’

that’s not the only thing going large. While our Flo

has never been a retiring character with her music, on her

third album - even for a bona fide superstar - she’s turning

everything up a notch, not just the volume.

When talking to Zane Lowe earlier this year, Florence spoke of

“a bit of a nervous breakdown” during her year off between

records, while a press statement talked of an album about

“trying to learn how to live, and how to love the world rather

than trying to escape from it.” For most artists, that would

mean a low key, introspective album, but ‘How Big...’ couldn’t

feel any more massive if it tried. Instead of turning in on

68 diymag.com

/ Fucked Up / Gengahr / Ghostpoet / Girlpool / Hit The

No Joy / Of Monsters and Men / Outfit / Pins / Prinzhorn

/ The Story So Far / The Vaccines / Young Guns

massive if it tried.

herself, her trademark scale is mixed with moments of raw

emotion. It’s a brave move, but one that works.

Take ‘What Kind Of Man’. One of the first tracks to drop, if

you’ve had your radio on at any point in the last month you’ll

already be well acquainted. A song that draws the listener in

with what feels like an understated beginning, within sixty

seconds it’s thrown it all on the bonfire and gone full on

stomper - it’s huge. Elsewhere, ‘Delilah’ thunders with its tale

of “a different kind of danger”, already feeling like another

future hit. Whatever the lyrical content, musically every move

feels like an affirming one. You’re never more than a short skip

from something gigantic.

Occasionally though, the personal and bombastic meet. The

brass and strings outro of the title track, for example - a rising,

stratospheric moment that feels both absolutely gigantic, and

oddly intimate - like a triumph on a personal level. ‘St. Jude’

and ‘Various Storms & Saints’ always feel as if they may be

about to explode, but never go for the kill - they’re stronger

for it too. ‘Long & Lost’, taking the vocal volume down and

setting it against a lilting, sparse guitar groove, is possibly the

strongest moment of all.

It’s there that Welch’s true self really bleeds through, and

where the heart of the album lies. Getting personal in her own

way, on her own terms, ‘How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful’

could well be Florence’s finest hour of all. Things are only

going to get bigger from here on in. (Stephen Ackroyd) Listen:

‘Long & Lost’, ‘Delilah’, ‘What Kind Of Man’

69

eeee

ROLO TOMASSI

Grievances (Holy Roar)

To describe ‘Grievances’ as a

return to Rolo Tomassi’s roots

would be a misrepresentation of

the changes the band have gone

through; the riffs and melody

lines alone are far removed from

what came before, but what has

perhaps returned is a greater

vigour, a more raw approach that’s

reflected in harsher mixes that

nevertheless feel less compressed

and more dynamic than those for

previous album, ‘Astraea’.

No doubt some old fans will

continue to decry this latest

chapter in Rolo Tomassi’s

seemingly endless search to

scratch their inner itch, but make

no mistake; this is a confident

return to form. (Alex Lynham)

Listen: ‘Stage Knives’

“‘Grievances’ is, by a long way,

the darkest record we’ve ever

made. It’s something that just

seemed to emerge right from

the very beginning of the writing

process; we knew we wanted

to release something that, for

the first time, we felt prioritised

emotional engagement over

the technical stuff we’ve been

known for in the past. I’ve often

felt like that sort of thing comes

across as just being for show,

and as a result, it sometimes

doesn’t have a meaningful

impact on the listener. I was

listening to a lot of stuff that’s

very different to our own music,

like Grouper and Nils Frahm,

but also certain hardcore bands

that are very different from us

- Planning for Burial and Wreck

and Reference, especially. It’s

not like I wanted to rip on those

bands or make our music sound

exactly like that, but the feel

and atmosphere is something I

find compelling, and that’s what

we’ve tried to replicate on this

album, in our own way.” - James

Spence (keyboards and vocals),

Rolo Tomassi

Not for the

faint-hearted.

eeeee

GENGAHR

A Dream Outside (Transgressive Records)

Gengahr have an eye for the fantastical. Frontman

Felix Bushe will swamp sentiment in metaphors, doing his absolute best to ditch

reality. Across their first work, they cover all sorts - witches, phantoms, poltergeists

and deep sea animals. ‘A Dream Outside’ threads together this free-flowing outward

thinking. And it’s easy to detach from the fact that across this debut, Gengahr might

exist on another planet, but they have a habit of sounding soaringly, vitally real.

A record worthy of catapulting these talents into the stratosphere, it’s a first

step that never compromises. It’s a remarkable debut. Just when Gengahr look

to be settling into a rhythm, they showcase something different. By no means a

‘something for everyone’ full-length (it’s too devilish for the faint-hearted), it’s still

a work that’s defined by its own dynamism. Anyone following these guys from the

start won’t have doubted their capabilities, but that doesn’t stop ‘A Dream Outside’

from dwarfing expectations. (Jamie Milton) Listen: ‘A Dream Outside’

eeee

PINS

Wild Nights

(Bella Union)

The fact that

‘Wild Nights’ was

recorded in quick-fire fashion augured

well from the off, but it ultimately isn’t

quite the freewheeling punk effort

it might have been - instead, it’s a

brilliantly crafted run through both the

noisier side of Pins and the unabashed

pop influences that have been at their

core from the very beginning. There’s

no shortage of catchy hooks - notably

on ‘Curse These Dreams’ and ‘Young

Girls’ - but there’s experimentation,

too. This feels like a step forward for

Pins; they’ve played to their strengths

in genuinely self-assured fashion. (Joe

Goggins) Listen: ‘Oh Lord’

eee

FFS

FFS (Domino)

‘FFS’ plays like

some kind of

musical Breakfast

Club. Who

knew that a detention could bring

different cliques together? Who knew

that shoving alliterative phrases like

“paranoid paratrooper paramedics”

into tightly wound riffs could sound so

cool? While some moments are clearly

domain of a single entity - Franz or

Sparks - the six-headed monster don’t

always make it that easy, blurring their

sensibilities into a playful, dance rock

smear. Let this be a lesson for all of us:

we’re all pretty bizarre. Some of us are

just better at hiding it, that’s all. (Laura

Studarus) Listen: ‘The Power Couple?’

70 diymag.com

eee

NO JOY

More Faithful

(Mexican Summer)

It’s no accident that the

release of No Joy’s third

studio album ‘More Faithful’

coincides with (hopefully) the start of summer.

Instantly conjuring images of rolled down

windows and Instagram filtered sandy beaches,

’More Faithful’ knows its market. The majority

of the album is the band’s fastest, heaviest and

most complex to date. The intricate layering of

warped guitars and echoing vocals is all well and

good, but for No Joy to go further, ‘More Faithful’

relies on its intimate moments. They’re sparsely

scattered throughout, and they’re just enough

to take ‘More Faithful’ beyond the status of

being a half listened-to soundtrack for road trips.

It’s an album with heart. (Henry Boon) Listen:

‘Everything New’

eeee

JAMIE XX

In Colour (Young Turks)

Stempeding

into the

future.

The sleeve for Jamie xx’s first full-length has a lot to say about the

producer’s career so far. In five years, Jamie Smith’s work has spanned

from convention-shunning remixes to star-studded studios. He’s

produced for Drake and aligned himself with the UK’s underground,

without over-committing to one particular world. Each shade on ‘In

Colour’ is meant to represent the various strands to Jamie xx’s work, and

it’s no surprise that this debut is a wildly varied introduction.

But above anything else, it’s an arrival. From the moment he picked up a

steel drum and strung out parts for ‘Far Nearer’, there’s been a thirst for

this LP. That doesn’t stop it from being a revelation. Across eleven tracks,

Smith hot-foots from tense electronics (‘Hold Tight’) to wild hip-hop (‘I

Know Where’s Gonna Be Good Times’). Familiar numbers like ‘Girl’ slot in

alongside 2015 anthem ‘Loud Places’, and the thread running through is

the man himself, an ability to stamp his trademark in any environment.

Pinch yourself, but at times it sounds like Jamie xx is showing off. A

showcase of his ability and the things he loves most (Romy and Oliver

Sim’s guest spots are a vital part of the LP), it’s the most confident he’s

ever sounded. Neatly tying together his early years, ’In Colour’ also

pushes forwards. ‘The Rest is Noise’ in particular gives the impression of

progression, stampeding into the future. No producer around can match

the momentum backing Jamie xx’s every move. (Jamie Milton) Listen:

‘The Rest is Noise’

eee

JAAKKO EINO

KALEVI

Jaakko Eino

Kalevi (Weird World)

With layer upon layer of

vocal, groove, and percussion, ‘Jaakko Eino

Kalevi’ is a reminder that pop can be both for

your head and your feet. The cocktail strut of

‘Say’ and the infectious bop of ‘Night At The

Field’ are just two examples, though ‘Hush

Down’ neatly ties the concept together best.

Album opener ‘JEK’ is a coronation of Jaakko’s

own kingdom, a celebration of the self delivered

in his native tongue. The reality is that Jaakko

Eino Kalevi is never in danger of being lost in

translation, because it is only him that occupies

this realm. (Sean Stanley) Listen: ‘Night At The

Field’

eeee

MAJOR LAZER

Peace is the Mission

(Mad Decent)

What Major Lazer has

created in his third outing

is no mere concept, no

experiment - it’s a damn blueprint. Returning to

the eternal springs of reggaeton and dancehall,

Diplo has added half his enviable phone book

and a thick smoothie of the best bits of Baauer,

TNGHT and Crookers. On paper it’s a fairly easy

sell but in practice it’s an even more forceful

proposition.

It’s so ludicrously colourful and loud and just

the right side of ridiculous and whatever the

mission may be, domination is the likely result. He

may be leaving Diplo behind to be a major, but

Thomas Wesley Pentz is still the king in this game.

(Matthew Davies) Listen: ‘Be Together’

71

eeee

KID

WAVE

Wonderlust (Heavenly

Recordings)

It’s hard to believe that

‘Wonderlust’, the debut album

from Kid Wave, was recorded in

the depths of a dark English winter.

A bright, shimmering album, the

band explore the worlds of 90s

indie rock, shoegaze and dream

pop over the course of eleven tracks

that are full of youthful yearning

and glistening guitar lines. They

succeed the most when they go

huge on the hooks and choruses.

‘Gloom’ for example is straight

out of the Pavement textbook,

but there’s a lush quality to Lea

Emmery’s vocal and a scale to the

driving melody that makes it sound

poised for bigger things. ‘Sway’,

one of the more tender tracks, nails

that nostalgic feeling of longing for

escape. With ‘Wanderlust’, Kid Wave

are proposing a summer that lasts

all year long, but they’re willing

to enjoy a few nights of twilight

along the way. (Tom Walters) Listen:

‘Gloom’

An

Awesome Wave

Vocalist Lea Emmery discusses Kid Wave’s debut album, ‘Wonderlust’.

Words: Sean Stanley.

I

n 2011, an 18-year-old Lea Emmery left

her home town, Norrköping, Sweden

for London. With a one-way ticket

to the UK, Emmery’s story reads like a

familiar tale of rock’n’roll folklore; in a

sense, the beginning of Kid Wave is as

inevitable as most teenage dreams, and

just when she was about to give up, a

series of small serendipities caused her to

stay put. “I definitely considered giving it

up. The record deal was a turning point

for me,” she says. “I was pretty lonely and

going through a rough patch.”

Prior to this decisive moment, Lea sent

demos to Heavenly Recordings (and

nobody else), as a possible ultimatum,

while her family continued to ask “when

are you going to start your real life?” on

the brief occasions she visited home.

Fortunately, Heavenly liked what they

heard and signed Lea immediately. All

that Lea needed now was others who

shared the same dreams: enter Mattias

Bhatt, a guitarist from back home, bassist

Harry Deacon, and drummer Serra Petale,

who Lea met at a music college.

Recorded in November 2014, Kid Wave’s

album ‘Wonderlust’ was produced

by Dan Austin (Cherry Ghost, Doves).

Staying at the Eve Studio commune near

Stockport, Emmery et al nailed “ten songs

in twelve days”, though singles ‘Honey’,

‘Gloom’, and ’All I Want’ were written and

recorded prior to the sessions. “They were

really long days but Dan was always so on

it. When we were stuck he could see the

different options when we were so blind

to it,” she says now. “It was that third view

that can hear the quality and draw it out

of the demos that gave the album its

point of difference. He totally understood

what we wanted for the sound.”

With its whimsical lyrics and swelled

sound filled out with guitars and analog

equipment, a cursory listen to debut

album ‘Wonderlust’ indicates that Kid

Wave’s sound is a formula rooted in early-

90s alternative rock. Favourably likened

to Lush, The Breeders, and Dinosaur

Jr., the irony of the comparisons is that

sonically the album was a found sound.

“I don’t mind the comparisons, but

I’ve never listened to any of them,” Lea

laughs. “I was asked by someone to state

my favourite album by Dinosaur Jr. and I

had to Google them - I was so ashamed.”

She states that her family have no musical

persuasions, that she arrives from a punk

background, a seemingly obvious start

heard in ‘Wonderlust’’s upfront lyrics

and fizzing sonic energy. “I was aiming

for experimental noisiness but it came

out a little differently. I’m probably

more influenced by my friends’ bands

in Sweden... if anything, I was probably

aiming for Sonic Youth.”

Read the full interview on diymag.

com. DIY

72 diymag.com

More than another brick in

the wall: Soak.

Wry, everpresent

humour.

eeee

SOAK

Before We Forget How To Dream (Rough Trade)

In everything that SOAK does, a wry, self-aware and ever-present touch of humour prods

at the ribs of even the most serious first intentions. ‘Sea Creatures‘ reluctantly tries its

hand at loved-up sun and moon cliches, lyrically reprimanding itself by the time the first

verse is out. ‘Before We Forget How To Dream’’s opening track is a one minute haze of faint

crackling sounds and discordant notes. Rather amusingly, she’s titled it ‘My Brain’.

Bridie Monds-Watson is in possession of a potent and distinct voice. For all of ‘Before We

Forgot How To Dream’’s subtle touches of production, it’s SOAK herself who stands out

the most. She understands what it’s like to grow up, experimenting with wearing phoney

clothes and navigating boredom, confusion and love, and she writes astutely about it with

believable, all-absorbing honesty. (El Hunt) Listen: ‘Sea Creatures‘

eeee

OUTFIT

Slowness (Memphis Industries)

As opener ‘New Air’ ends, Outfit have

already submerged the listener in

some artfully flowing keyboard lines

and disembodied floating vocals. The

album meanders stylistically, between

an icy pop aesthetic, more abrasive

textures and a straight up dancefloor

shimmer and the song structure reflects

it. The thrilling excursions of ‘Happy

Birthday’ and ‘Genderless’ are arguably

the album’s two greatest highlights

beyond ‘New Air’. ‘Slowness’ doesn’t

surrender its wonders easily. But when

it does, and there’s no guarantee it

will for everyone on every listen, it can

be perfect. (Matthew Davies) Listen:

‘Happy Birthday’

eeee

HUDSON MOHAWKE

Lantern (Warp Records)

Having crafted beats for the latest and

greatest in modern hip-hop, Hudson

Mohawke seems to be the producer du

jour, and it’s no wonder why. HudMo is

making some of the most progressive

yet accessible beats out there at the

moment, each track equally as suited

to the dancefloors of Fabric as they are

to a night spent in with a pair of cheap

headphones and your laptop.

‘Lantern’ is this duality between

experimental and easily-grasped

embodied. Unsurprisingly, it is the more

left-field elements to the production

that are the most intriguing. Coming

soon to a discotheque near you. (Will

Moss) Listen: ‘Lil Djembe’

eeeee

FUCKED UP

Year of the Hare EP (Deathwish)

‘Year of the Hare’ is punk-rock in the

extreme: a swaggering, expansive,

wandering record, which - at half

an hour long and consisting of two

tracks - picks apart the construct of

song writing. Parts of this record sound

like a piano suite. At other times, it’s

acoustic guitars riffing off of each other

playfully. Even then, when it’s not

blasé prog, it’s the typical Fucked Up

sound (if there is such a thing) – caustic,

visceral hardcore bleeding out of every

pore. This is a record that doesn’t make

sense. This is Fucked Up having a shitton

of fun, and making no apologies

whatsoever. (Euan L Davidson) Listen:

‘California Cold’

73

An album

looking

inwards.

from the past few months

Recommended

eeeee

Drenge - Undertow

“A band finding their feet

before taking to the skies.”

(Jamie Milton)

eeee

The Cribs - For All My

Sisters

“For everything that’s come

before, this feels like another

step up.” (Stephen Ackroyd)

eeeee

Metz - II

“Terrifyingly effective and

immaculate in execution.

You’d be foolish not to buy

in.” (Matt Davies)

eeee

OF MONSTERS

AND MEN

Beneath The Skin (Island)

“In despite of all my fears, I can see it all so clear,” sings Nanna Bryndís

Hilmarsdóttir on the unfurling album opener of ‘Crystals’. All self-discovery and

lit exposure, Of Monsters And Men go straight for the chest. From ‘Human’s’

pleas of “Let the human in” to the wrenching internal mutilation of ‘Organs’,

‘Beneath The Skin’ is an album looking inwards. “We set the fire and we let it

burn,” they admit as the curtain falls, fear, pain and glorious self-belief lighting

up their own endless horizon. It’s not a cry for attention but Of Monsters And

Men can’t help but demand it. (Ali Shutler) Listen: ‘Organs’

eee

SLAVES

Are You Satisfied? (Virgin EMI)

Starting with the familiar notes of ‘The Hunter’, Slaves’

opening gambit is strong. Already a fan favourite, the

satisfying crunching of guitars teamed up with Isaac

Holman’s screamed vocals introduces ‘Are You Satisfied?’ with a frenetic

energy. The real charm of this record though comes in its additional moments

of character; from the sarcastic advice of ‘Cheer Up London’ to the ridiculous

high notes of ‘Feed The Mantaray’, there’s a humour that sets the pair apart

from their peers. (Sarah Jamieson) Listen: ‘Cheer Up London’

eeee

PRINZHORN DANCE SCHOOL

Home Economics (DFA Records)

Recorded as the band bounced between numerous flats in

their hometown of Brighton in a bid to capture the moment

rather than recreate it, the third album from Prinzhorn

Dance School is awash with motion. Six tracks long but never feeling rushed;

‘Home Economics’ is a bolshie swagger through the urban landscape that

shaped it. The streets of home are always going to stir emotions but rarely

does that cocktail of loneliness and belonging get articulated with the gutfelt

precision that Prinzhorn manage. And while that tug of war dictates the

majority of ‘Home Economics’, it’s the gritted teeth demand of “I’ll survive, I’m

alive,” on ‘Education’ that defines the journey. (Ali Shutler) Listen: ‘Education’

74 diymag.com

Accomplished,

left- field pop.

eeee

SHAMIR

Ratchet (XL Recordings)

Fittingly for a personality so erratic, Shamir Bailey’s first solo album is best described

as a patchwork. Stitching together the furthest threads of dance and pop music’s

numerous incarnations, ‘Ratchet’’s greatest achievement is maintaining its identity

amongst all the madness - but in doing so, Shamir and his production cohort Nick

Sylvester have created one of the year’s most accomplished, left-field pop albums.

It’s considered but charming, the intricacies of Sylvester’s production adding to the

fun-factor, rather than drowning it in technologically minded bore. It’s not hard to

imagine the studio awash with balloons and party poppers, bunting and discarded

Haribo packets. Tambourines, horns and that ‘On The Regular’-defining duo of

cowbells all make frequent appearances amid the neon electronics, lifting things

off the studio screen and onto the makeshift dance floor. It’s crossover appeal which

forms ‘Ratchet’’s ultimate success. In a year that’s seen the heavyweights of the

industry fannying about with abstract release plans and bickering over streaming

services, Shamir has swept through and delivered a record that schools every one of

them in the art of purest pop. (Tom Connick) Listen: ‘Hot Mess’

eeee

GIRLPOOL

Before The

World Was Big

(Wichita)

Girlpool’s debut

album doesn’t find its impact in

immediate, visceral punch like you’d

perhaps expect. Instead it quietly

confounds expectations, sneaks

into view, and certain lines stick like

emotional superglue. The Moldy

Peaches, Daniel Johnson and their

musical antecedents Beat Happening

all tinker around in the background of

‘Before The World Was Big’ as influences,

but Girlpool are firmly leading their

own new wave of anti-folk. With a

sourcebook as infinite as personal

experience, Girlpool are an unstoppable

force. (El Hunt) Listen: ‘Cherrypicking’

eeee

SAUNA

YOUTH

Distractions

(Upset the Rhythm)

Having developed a distaste of modern

life and the “technology age” as we

know it, Sauna Youth return with their

second record and a point to make.

‘Distractions’ is a tense and utterly

incensed album, a controlled racket

that doesn’t hang around for a second

longer than it needs to. Each hook and

strained vocal withholds a considered

approach that is testament to the brittle

nature of the music that Sauna Youth

create. The record begins as it could

finish, ‘End Loop’ typifying life stuck

on repeat, displaying the cleverness

in their delivery before they’ve even

begun. (Ross Jones) Listen: ‘Abstract

Notions’

eeee

FOUR YEAR

STRONG

Four Year

Strong (Pure

Noise Records)

Self-titled records are becoming a genre

of their own but from opener ‘I Hold

Myself in Content’ it’s painfully obvious

why Four Year Strong have named their

fifth studio album after themselves.

It sees the Massachusetts four-piece

at their most refined, eleven tracks

that not only succinctly sum up their

fourteen year history but confidently

remind the world at large that they’ve

still got something to offer. Conviction

and assurance, this is something to live

by. (Ali Shutler) Listen: ‘I’m A Big Bright

Shining Star’

75

The audition for gogglebox was

going well.

Mad

Sounds

Summer Camp share their

recent listening.

eeee

SUMMER CAMP

Bad Love (Moshi Moshi Records)

You know what ‘they’ say. To keep ‘em keen,

leave ‘em hanging on something huge.

‘Bad Love’’s closer, the claustrophobic, runaway train of ‘Keep Up’ comes

from absolutely nowhere. Sure it’s still obviously Summer Camp, but with a

wicked streak. A challenge to not loop straight back for another play, it’s the

moment that best encapsulates just why musical trends and quick burning

fads will never diminish the quality of a bona fide indie pop hit.

And that’s what Summer Camp are all about. From the pleasingly woozy

synth of the title track through to the driving ‘Catch Me’, even their most

cutting jibes have a spoonful of sugar. For those of the correct persuasion,

their slightly fuzzy, often fearsomely smart earworms still do exactly what

they should. You can’t ask for any more than that. (Stephen Ackroyd) Listen:

‘Keep Up’Tony Levin.

eee

YOUNG GUNS

Ones and Zeros (Virgin EMI)

While their second offering saw Young Guns ruffling

the fringes of stadium-sized rock, ‘Ones and Zeros’

sees them taking a much bigger leap towards those

huge stages. Within its eleven tracks, dark electronics

creep their way into songs and synthesisers are no

longer looked down upon. Their effect sees the band sounding bolder, with

the textures of songs like ‘Daylight’ and ‘I Want Out’ working in harmony with

their earworm choruses. With an album sounding this insatiable, it shouldn’t

take long for those massive venues to become a reality. (Sarah Jamieson)

Listen: ‘Speaking In Tongues’

Letters To Cleo - Cruel To Be Kind

We’re about to put out our third album, the

writing of which was heavily inspired by

teen horror movies and Point Horror books

from the 90s. While this cover of the Nick

Lowe classic is more famous for its use in 10

Things I Hate About You which isn’t a horror

film (although it does make us very sad to

watch Heath Ledger), the darker lyrics over

a poppy guitar-led melody are definitely a

combination we’re always trying to write.

This song is about a very dark relationship.

Nick Cave - Red Right Hand

Did you know, readers of the excellent DIY,

that this song is used on the OST of the

first three Scream films? It wasn’t used on

the most recent one, the FOURTH Scream

film and personally I think that is why that

film is really bad. That and they got into

using little webcams everywhere so people

could see the murders happening. I think

webcams should have stayed where they

belong, in the American Pie franchise.

D’Angelo - She’s Always In My Hair

Another Scream 2 OST track (sorry) but

we love D’Angelo. The man is a genius. His

second album ‘Voodoo’ is one of the best

albums ever written, it’s perfect, and its

success freaked him out so much it took

him fourteen years to release his third

LP. Good news is that he is exceptionally

consistent, and his latest album ‘Black

Messiah’ is well worth a listen. Or a Spotify

account. I don’t know how you hear music.

Probably with your ears.

76 diymag.com

Everything

Everything

find a new

gear.

eeeee

EVERYTHING EVERYTHING

Get to Heaven (RCA)

From the snarling rage of ‘To The Blade’ to the ecstatic bliss of ‘Warm Healer’ – pop

explorers Everything Everything have finally discovered their utopia. With music this

innately hypnotic, EE could get away with singing in Simlish. It seems, since their

international tour with Foals, they’ve returned to their experimental roots - only this time,

there’s a new-found swagger. ‘Spring/Sun/Winter/Dread’s sassy semi-rap of “you did it to

her, and you did it to him” isn’t a world away from the barbershop Destiny’s Child vocals

that adorned their debut. And yet this is in a new gear. Forget everything you’ve just read –

Everything Everything have sculpted a masterpiece. ‘Get to Heaven’ may well have slipped

from the clouds. (Andrew Backhouse) Listen: ‘To The Blade’

eeee

THE STORY SO FAR

The Story So Far (Pure Noise

Records)

The Story So Far at once embrace

the pop-punk stereotype and turn it

on its head, they know exactly what

the fans want and give them ten

times more. Every line is memorable,

frontman Parker Cannon’s crisp, clean

vocals ringing out over fast-paced,

gritty riffs with all the passion and

assurance of past outings. The pace is

fairly relentless, racing around wildly,

retaining a chopping and changing yet

always rapid pace for its majority. With

The Story So Far continuing to write

unapologetic good time bangers, poppunk

is very much alive. (Henry Boon)

Listen: ‘Scowl’

eee

ALGIERS

Algiers (Matador)

‘Algiers’ is a foreboding, uncomfortable

listen, doom-laden choirs filling what

empty space dares to exist between

the pounding bass and scattered drum

machine work. Never is this more clear

than on ‘Blood’, a track which drips

with classic menace lifted straight

from a Hammer horror film, handclaps

and booming percussion stabbing

through the droning backdrop. The

record’s constant hums and oohs at

times whitewash even Algiers’ loftiest

intentions, but the moments of clarity

amongst all the murk mark the trio out

as something staunchly individual.

(Tom Connick) Listen: ‘Irony Utility

Pretext’

e

THE DARKNESS

Last Of Our Kind (Canary Dwarf

Records)

Everything on ‘Last Of Our Kind’ is a

straight rip of something executed

far better elsewhere - from guitar

tones that at times evoke the reverbier

moments on ‘Undertow’ (sorry Drenge

lads, still big fans of what you’re doing)

during ‘Open Fire’, through to Pantera’s

cutting room floor being swept up for

‘Mighty Wings’, it’s an audible timeline

of every teenage garage band and

their shoddy imitations of influences.

The Darkness were always a pastiche,

but fifteen years into their career,

there seems to have been a conscious

removal of tongue from cheek. (Tom

Connick) Listen: ‘Open Fire’

77

live

LIVE AT

LEEDS

various venues, leeds

photos: emma swann

bully

78 diymag.com

As is the yearly

tradition, it’s

impossible to

go five minutes

in Live At Leeds

without hearing a

chorus of “Leeds!

Leeds! Leeds!” or “Yooooorkshire!”

(and repeat). Local pride swells up

in the streets and couple-of-dozen

participating venues. The surest test

of success at the event, then, is if these

customary chants get replaced by band

names. 2015 sees familiar faces and

baby-faced newcomers getting the

treatment, from “Cribs! Cribs! Cribs”

to “Yak! Yak! Yak!” By the end of play,

bands are sharing the spoils with the

city’s very own rep.

Leeds Beckett, Leeds Met,

whatever we’re calling it these

days, it isn’t long before it’s

packed for Menace Beach.

On their own turf, it’s easy to

see why. A year before, they

played the same venue, prealbum,

and smashed it out of

the park. With a full-length

the cribs

now behind them, they’re even better

- scuzzy but catchy rugged gems at

every turn.

The clue’s in the name for The Big

Moon. Every one of their tightly-wound

songs contains at least one werewolf

howl, Juliette Jackson letting out an

“ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh!” without warning.

If Jackson’s gone a bit doolally, she’s

not the only one. It’s early days for

these four, but they have a bright

spark, a dynamic that doesn’t strike

mere humans. They even manage

to transform Madonna’s ‘Beautiful

Stranger’ into a rabid beast. Nothing’s

standing in the way of these curious,

howling newcomers.

Yak’s Oliver Burslem wouldn’t stop

playing if he had the choice. Like

a puppy wading through a sea of

chewy treats, he’s never more at home

than when he’s on stage. A beaming

grin spreads wide across his face

throughout, while bassist Andy Jones

and drummer Elliot Rawson follow the

frontman’s every move. Half the time it

looks like Yak are making it up on the

spot. Spontaneity serves them well, in

that case. They deliver one of Live At

Leeds’ defining sets.

The hype machine is only really getting

started in earnest with Black Honey,

but from the looks of today, they’re

ready for it. After a 2014 shrouded in

secrecy, in 2015 they’ve arrived. More

robust live than on record, Izzy B

Phillips’ occasional pitch perfect

yelps showcase the kind of talent

that most bands would fall flat

with if they dared try it on stage.

Bloody Knees, on the other

hand, just want to get on with it.

Demanding the Brudenell crowd

gets closer, they’re determined to

start a party.

As if that wasn’t enough, they’re back

in the audience, starting a pit to make

sure it goes off for The Magic Gang

too. The fact that The Magic Gang

aren’t the sort of act to strictly need a

pit matters not. Fresh off the back of

touring with Wolf Alice, both bands find

themselves front and centre of a scene

of new bands itching to break through.

Elsewhere in the audience are members

of Swim Deep, Crows and Black Honey.

Every song sounds like a not-too-far-inthe-future

anthem.

Nashville group Bully are a must-see

May festival staple. A stopover in their

first ever UK tour, tonight’s Beckett set

is a lesson in force. There’s purpose

in Alicia Bognanno’s every move, her

voice seething with as much venom

as the band’s thrashing power chords.

‘Brainfreeze’ and ‘I Remember’ are

maniacal bursts of energy, but Bully

have a brilliant habit of making the

extreme seem effortless.

There’s no time for a breather by

the time Spring King arrive at the

Brudenell. Not even after frontmanslash-drummer

Tarek Musa’s desperate

requests. “Can we do a jazzy one or

something?” he asks his band as they

relentlessly race through bratty garage

punk like there’s some kind of timer

that’ll self-destruct instruments if they

play any slower. Usain Bolt would have

trouble keeping up with this. Straight

out the blocks and surging to the finish

line, jazz numbers will have

to wait.

There are no ifs or buts about

it: tonight, really, all that

most of Leeds want to do is

watch The Cribs. That much

is evident from the one in-one

out queue alone. There’s

magic in the air tonight as

the brotherly trio take to the

stage at Leeds Town Hall for

the first time in a decade.

Unsurprisingly, they’ve come

prepared: whether showcasing

new material or running

through the golden oldies, the

crowd meet their every turn

with roars of approval.

yak

It says a lot about the reception for

Slaves’ Brudenell-closing set when

Laurie Vincent can ditch his guitar and

crowdsurf between songs. No music

and just rabid chants of local pride

would do the job, but that doesn’t

stop the two-piece from living up

to headliner status with a relentless

set. Twenty seconds in and Isaac

Holman’s decided it’s too stuffy for a

puffa jacket, so it’s sleeves up, drum

sticks out and off they fly. A mix of the

theatrical and outrageous, this is a set

that proves these two are where they

deserve to be. And it can only end one

way - in a boozy, celebratory medley

of “Yorkshire!” “Leeds!” and “Slaves!”

chants. (Stephen Ackroyd, Sarah

Jamieson, Jamie Milton)

79

DRENGE

Electric Ballroom, London Photo: Emma Swann

iding high off the release of their DIY 5-star rated

second album, Drenge are brimming with confidence

Ras they fill Camden’s sold-out Electric Ballroom with

the menacingly reverberating riff of ‘Undertow’’s opener

‘Running Wild’. Eoin Loveless barely conceals a grin as he

delivers the first echoing vocals of the night and the first of

many delighted crowd surfers tumble over the barriers. With

‘Undertow’ under their belt Drenge have fully arrived as a

staple of British live music, and they know it.

Drenge have always been flawless live, at times perhaps

overly so; their live show recreating the record down to every

crashing symbol and crunching riff. Post-‘Undertow’, with new

bassist Rob Graham in tow and a increased vocal split between

the Loveless brothers adding depth and body to everything,

Drenge now have both the confidence and the freedom to

‘do what they want’. The freedom to tinker with tracks both

old and new brings subtle changes to pitch, tempo and

composition adding a new dimension.

Despite the more than enthusiastic reception for new material

the set ends as always in the one-two-punch of ‘Fuckabout’

and ‘Let’s Pretend’, the singalong appeal of the former

combined with the slow, commanding build of the latter

too perfect to be sacrificed as of yet. With no encore the

resounding feeling is one of assurance, Drenge know how to

deliver a flawless live show and with an arsenal of new material

behind them are as good as they’ve ever been. (Henry Boon)

Justin Young from The Vaccines gets

down to introducing his hip-hop project.

THE VACCINES

Electric Brixton, London Photo: Carolina Faruolo

rixton on a Wednesday night,” smiles Justin

Young onstage at Brixton Electric, sixteen songs

“B deep into the evening. “Who’d have thought it,

eh?” From the baiting introductory cry of “Brixton,” and the

thundering romp of ‘Teenage Icon’ that surges forth, The

Vaccines are flush with assurance. Hands aloft, pints airborne

and every corner of the room bouncing, their swagger is

justified.

The impatient stomp of ‘Bad Mood’ manages to find a new

level of chaos within the crowd while the looming ‘Post Break-

Up Sex’ sees the band wide-eyed and direct. It’s the weight

of ‘Handsome’ that leaves the biggest impression. Welcomed

with the excitable embrace of an old friend, its frantic drive is

already a cause for celebration and as Freddie Cowan joins the

front row for its fraught conclusion.

Taking to the stage before a sea of spotlights and deafening

roars, The Vaccines leave under the same circumstances.

Voices exhausted and answers found it seems impossible that

this is just the start, but scrawled on to the 1800-strong crowd

is the phrase ‘English Graffiti’ and it means one thing; The

Vaccines are back. (Ali Shutler)

80 diymag.com

GHOSTPOET

Electric Brixton, London Photo: Abi Dainton

pener ‘Better Not Butter’ maps out

Ghostpoet’s new trajectory in the finest

Oof fashions, positively soaring with the all

the potential that a full live band affords. In short,

it sounds pretty enormous, and there’s no doubt

that what’s to come is his most expansive voyage

to date. As he relishes in the time away from his

control panel and the new streamlined simplicity

that his vocal delivery is afforded, Ejimiwe’s given

himself an inch, but taken a mile for all its worth.

Ghostpoet’s renewed focus is as clear as it could be

tonight, and in a set dominated by ‘Shedding Skin’

material it comes as a bit of a surprise when the

first emergence of the string quartet is for ‘Peanut

Butter Blues’ cut ‘Survive It’. A mid-set lull is a tiny

blotch on an otherwise stunning showcase, and

serves to make everything that sits either side of it

all the more impressive. It’s no truer than of ‘Cash

And Carry Me Home’, another glimpse into the

Ghostpoet of old as he comes leaning across the

barrier in his signature mumble.

“There was a lot of nonsense going on in my head, I

wondered if I could make a third album,” he says in a

touching address, visibly moved before embarking

on the vanquishing ‘Nothing In The Way’. Any prealbum

self-doubt seems resoundingly washed away

and with good reason. On tonight’s evidence his

“Nothing in the world can stop us” mantra has never

been more fitting. (Liam McNeilly)

HIT THE DECK

Various venues, Nottingham Photo: Sarah Louise

Bennett

F

estival season may just be stirring from its slumber but

from the jilted dance of Canadian four-piece JPNSGIRLS

to the fiery passion of frnkiero andthe cellabration,

the Nottingham leg of Hit The Deck, bringing together a heady

mix of off-kilter rock, wastes no time in setting the circuit off in

style. The likes of Allusondrugs and Black Peaks both put in

charged, visceral performances that should echo throughout

the summer while the slanted pop smirk of Tellison’s return is

more refrained but no less cutting. Brawlers’ gruff, glittering

punk is delivered with frantic energy and gleaming grins,

holding the packed crowd in their clenched fist.

With third album, ‘There Is Only You’ behind them, The

Xcerts have never looked more at ease on stage and they

soon find themselves screaming from the top of a podium.

It’s a position Cancer Bats are used to as they discover polish

in their abrasion, commanding the room with their metallic

punk while a headline slot from frnkiero andthe cellabration is

less defined, less considered but absolutely glorious. There’s

energy and chemistry around every gnarled turn, resulting

in stunning moments of togetherness that overflow into the

evening and set an intimidating precedent for the upcoming

festivities to try and match. (Ali Shutler)

81

INDIE DREAMBOAT

Of the Month

TAREK MUSA,

SPRING KING

Nicknames: My family used to call

me Taz because I was a right cheeky

little kid. I was a bit manic like the Taz

the Tasmanian Devil cartoon.

Star sign: Libra. Apparently I like to

be around people, which is very true.

I also just did a Wikipedia on Libras

and it came up with “What it’s like

to date a Libra man” which is good

reading if you want to laugh at how

ridiculous horoscopes can be.

Pets: Not anymore - but in the past

I’ve had pet parrots and dogs. I’m

a dog person for sure. I’m also a

dolphin person but I don’t have any.

Favourite film: Difficult question.

Somewhere between Naked Gun and

City of God. So basically nowhere.

Favourite food: Thai Fried Rice - I

love Thai and Vietnamese food.

Drink of choice: Havana Club Rum

and Coke (lime if possible).

Favourite scent: Lavender.

Favourite hair product: That crap

stuff you’d get as a kid. It was always

blue or green hair gel. This kind of

stuff that would make your hair super

spikey. Man, 90s hairstyles were shit. I

had curtains for a long time.

Song you’d play to woo someone:

If I had to perform one it would be

‘Crazy Love’ by Van Morrisson but I’d

have to do it with the band because

I definitely can’t woo anyone on my

own.

Chat up line of choice? Hello.

DIY

82 diymag.com

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JOE MCALINDEN (LIVE), IAIN FORSYTH & JANE POLLARD (FILM) / GAZELLE TWIN (LIVE) & CARLA MACKINNON

SHEFFIELD DOC/FEST PRESENTS KURT COBAIN: MONTAGE OF HECK (FILM) / GAMES / EMILE BERNARD

WHITE MINK PRESENT SWINGROWERS, GYPSIES OF BOHEMIA, AFTER HOURS QUINTET, DJ NICK HOLLYWOOD, THE BEES KNEES, SWING PATROL, DEPT OF BRILLIANT

MARK LAMARR’S GOD’S JUKEBOX WITH HORACE ANDY, SISTER COOKIE, GERAINT WATKINS & THE MOSQUITOS & MORE

SPECIAL GUESTS: CHILLY GONZALES & KAISER QUARTETT

MUSIC / COMEDY / THEATRE / DANCE ON THE WATERFRONT / FILM / POETRY / LITERATURE / CABARET / SCIENCE / ART / LAKE SWIMMING / SOLAS

CALLS COST 10P PLUS NETWORK CHARGES. BILL SUBJECT TO CHANGE

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DIY, June 2015

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