FEATURE: New Year, New Opportunities: Plans and Aims for 2024

FEATURE:

 

 

 

New Year, New Opportunities

PHOTO CREDIT: Anete Lusina/Pexels

 

Plans and Aims for 2024

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I shall keep this…

PHOTO CREDIT: Alessio Cesario/Pexels

mostly about music. We are at that stage where people are making resolutions. Or they are at least thinking of ways to make the year ahead better. I have recently been made redundant, so one of my big aims is to find a new job. Not only a job that I can do and will be okay going forward for some reason unspecified. Purpose I think is what has to define 2024. That goes for my music work too. Of course, other non-music priorities are very much in my mind – including a relationship and maybe (money-willing) some travel. In terms of this website, I think that it is unlikely that it is going to be monetised much. Not so that it can provide any real significant income stream. Rather than have it as a paid site, I will continue to make it free-to-access. In terms of the content, that is the most important thing. Not a great deal with change in terms of regular stuff. There will be a load of Kate Bush features. Lots about new artists emerging. Reacting to news in the world of music. Album anniversaries etc. That sort of thing. One of the most important parts of my blog is writing about gender equality. Women’s rights. I think that this is something that I want to go further with. Maybe it will take some capital to get it going. In addition to writing features around gender equality/women’s safety etc., I do want to get something going in the form of a body or charity. Maybe joining with existing organisations that are designed to protect women’s safety.

PHOTO CREDIT: MART PRODUCTION/Pexels

I also want to use that thought and desire to speak to more women through the industry. Conduct interviews and get their views regarding the climate in which they work. More and more, with each passing week, I am angered by the inequality and horrifying reports of sexual abuse perpetrated by a man in the industry. It is important that as much effort and passion is dedicated to this: helping to highlight what is happening but also trying to wake the industry up and get change. I know there are some amazing people doing this already. Lending my voice and resources is crucial. Together with that, there is also this thing about male allyship. In terms of those through the industry constantly discussing gender, women’s rights and really big issues, there is not a lot out there. Not many speaking out and writing about it regularly. I am not saying I am the only one…though it is very rare to see any vocal allies that are showing their support. That is worrying! I know that there are men in music who care about ensuring women are seen, heard and feel safe. It is that step between having that attitude and actually activating some form of engagement with the subjects. I am not sure how easy it is for there to be a change where journalists, label bosses, artists and all other available male mind looks at the clear issues in the industry and helps to do something. That is why it is important to me to do what I can in 2024 to make a difference.

PHOTO CREDIT: KoolShooters/Pexels

There are other things that I want to do in terms of fulfilling ambitions. I think that there are podcast opportunities. Maybe that will tie into my idea about gender equality and women’s rights. Maybe being able to monetise that through advertising, though also ensuring that a portion of those earnings go to women’s charities and organisations that support women’s rights and safety. I would like to pitch a music T.V. show. There is only one on the box at the moment, Later… with Jools Holland, so having something alongside that would be good. In terms of my Kate Bush work, either doing another podcast or writing something significant – maybe not a book but doing a project or self-funded documentary – would be a sensible next step. I also know how many great artists there are coming through. Ensuring that I get to highlight and speak to as many of them as is possible is a big aim. I have done a lot of that this year, yet there is opportunity to interview more people; go to more gigs and do some live reviews. It is difficult when I do not monetise my blog, though I hope to be able to budget a bit regarding that side of things. Make sure my blog is relevant and interesting. Putting in some audio and video now and then perhaps.

PHOTO CREDIT: Helena Lopes/Pexels

I would love to get to New York at some point next year. I am keen to do as much as I can to fulfil myself. To feel more valuable and purposeful. Do stuff I did not get round to doing in 2023. How achievable that is I am not sure. Losing a job puts some things into perspective. Maybe a chance to do something more meaningful and related to what I love to do. It is vital to me I can be as engaged with people as possible and write as much as I can. I also would like to focus on the personal and making sure I have enough social time as well. I guess everyone has similar aims for 2024. Putting it down on paper (or having it somewhere) is a way you can refer to that list and very much keep it in mind. Rather than them being resolutions, it seems bigger than that. It is about changing your life, however big or small, and really using a new year ahead to think about what is important and what you want to achieve. It has been a great year for my website. Lots of great people have interacted with my work. I have discovered a lot of terrific artists and made some important connections. Keeping that going into next year is crucial. I hope that everyone has a good 2024 planned. It is a chance to evaluate and think about aims and personal goals. A great chance to think about…

PHOTO CREDIT: fauxels/Pexels

WHAT you really want to do.

FEATURE: Kate Bush: The Deep Cuts - Feel It

FEATURE:

 

 

Kate Bush: The Deep Cuts

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1978/PHOTO CREDIT: Gered Mankowitz

 

Feel It

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THIS may be…

the last of this run I will do, there is one more song I want to include in the Kate Bush: The Deep Cuts feature. My favourite album ever is The Kick Inside. People will know that. They may not know all of the tracks on that album. People talk about Wuthering Heights and The Man with the Child in His Eyes. The album turns forty-six in February. I thought I had included this song already. It seems not! Maybe not as obscure as other Kate Bush songs – indeed, other songs on The Kick Inside -, there is something alluring about Feel It that means its streaming numbers are quite impressive. Even if Oh to Be in Love outranks it in that respect, Feel It is a song that has reached a lot of new ears. That comes off of very little radio play. This song is not one that you will hear spun much. It is a shame! It is a beautiful tack from Kate Bush’s debut album. I think that more people need to listen to this song. I am going to get to a feature that dives deeper into Feel It. First, here is a little bit of background:

“Song written by Kate Bush. Three voice and piano tracks were recorded on one day for Kate’s debut album The Kick Inside, of which only ‘Feel It’ made it onto the final selection.

Versions

There are two officially released versions of ‘Kite’: the album version and the live version from Hammersmith Odeon. However, a demo version from 1977 has also surfaced and was released on various bootleg cd’s”.

I will come to an excellent feature from Dreams of Orgonon. Even if some feel there are one or two songs on The Kick Inside that are not up to Kate Bush’s best – such as Room for the Life -, there is no denying the worth and sheer excellence of Feel It. A natural standout that should get a lot more focus and discussion around it:

“It’s long been remarked that Kate Bush’s primary instrument is her voice. Even when her melodies are idiosyncratic and sprawling and her albums’ productions demand an audience’s ear, listeners always talk about her voice first. Even an instrumental track like “Night Scented Stock” is guided by Bush’s vocals. Her most recent collection of new songs, 50 Words for Snow, takes a back-to-basics approach of voice-and-piano that Bush started her career with. While the Fairlight will guide Bush towards her best work, there’s hardly a more powerful duo in popular music than Bush and her piano.

“Feel It” is an exceedingly intimate affair, the only song on The Kick Inside to have no session musicians. It’s Bush alone at her piano, saying “no props this time, just hear me play.” “Feel It” is one of the more realist tracks on the album — rather than teaming with mysticism or high concepts, it has a fairly common down-to-earth situation: a one-night stand between two people who don’t know each other very well. “Well, it could be love/or it could be just lust/but it will be fun/it will be wonderful,” sings Bush.

It’s a song of pure hedonism, consequence-free and absorbed in the moment.

Notable is how “Feel It” takes The Kick Inside’s approach of youthful attitudes to adult subjects to its zenith. Its tone is secretive, subtextually whispering “be quiet — this is a sacred moment.” It’s relatively low tempo, with the piano guiding the song in a lugubrious, creeping G minor (with unexpected appearances of F minor and B diminished), almost laughing anxiously with an upward turn on “a little nervous laughter.” To hear a young female British singer to sing so frankly about matters like this in the Seventies must have been astonishing at the time. There’s a sense Bush is as nervous as she is giddy to be writing a song like this and putting it out on a major label.

As Zoey Peresman points out, “[Bush] stretches out the word ‘more’ with her inimitable voice for as long as she can, mimicking the sound of a woman in ecstasy.” Bush stresses the sexual nature of the song, punctuating the calls of “feel it” with sharp “ohs,” making it clear how far she’s taking this exercise.

For a Seventies song about love-making, “Feel It” is unusually explicit. Bush equates sex with music, using phrases like “synchronizing rhythm” and “keep on a-tunin’ in.” She marries her skill at crafting melodies to her love of the sensuous with remarkable ease, but adds an extra factor to the mix: bluntness. (For a similar song, listen to Tori Amos’ astonishing track “Icicle.” Really, play the two songs back-to-back. You’ll thank me later.) The clear references to penetration and other sex acts (“feel your warm hand walking around”) are startling by themselves, but Bush provides them with rhythm, quietly singing the verse and makes the chorus a burst of passion. By the end she trails off with “see what you’re doing to me,” as a song like “Feel It” must. It’s one hell of a track, an underrated Bush triumph of the Seventies. Let’s hope it surfaces on more “best of Bush” lists soon”.

Performed during The Tour of Life, it was a chance to see this erotic and sensual song come to life. It must have been quite strange performing it in front of a very large crowd every night! Feel It is a magnificent number that always has an impact when I listen to it. The second song on the second side of The Kick Inside – after James and the Cold Gun -, Feel It begins this run of love songs. It leads to Oh to Be in Love and L’Amour Looks Something Like You. From a teenage writer, there is something very mature and accomplished about the song. Mixing moments of juvenile lust with poetic thoughts, it is no wonder many people love Feel It. Kate Bush’s vocal is absolutely beautiful! Inhabiting the song fully, she brings you into things. Puts you in the scenes she is singing about. Such a powerful and passionate track, I hope that there is more coverage of Feel It next year. A Kate Bush song that ranks alongside her best deep cuts, I wanted to end this run of features with a true great. A gem on a debut album that cannot be compared to any other. Go and listen to the whole album, as there is this great build-up to Feel It. Such a beautiful song, I know the emotions that many experience when they hear it will hit. You will also…

FEEL it too.

FEATURE: Spotlight: Hinako Omori

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

PHOTO CREDIT: Luca Bailey

 

Hinako Omori

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THE latest album from…

Hinako Omori comes in the form of this year’s stillness, softness​.​.​. It is a remarkable work from an artist I must admit I was not familiar with until recently. I have seen her tipped by other sites, so I set out to find more about her. A remarkable talent, I think that everyone needs to get involved with her music. I am going to get to some interviews. First, from her Bandcamp page is some details about stillness, softness​.​.​. It is an album that everyone needs to seek out:

“For Hinako Omori, synthesisers are a portal to the subconscious. Far from being sterile or austere, “synths really do respond to how you’re feeling,” says the London-based artist, producer and composer. “There have been times where I’ve felt stressed and my synth would go out of tune. I took it to a repair place once, thinking that something was wrong with it, but it was fine; I think it was to do with my energy levels. So when I sit down and write something, whatever comes out is relevant to how I feel in that moment because the synthesiser is responding to it. The music really becomes a map of my emotions.”

If her highly critically acclaimed debut ‘a journey…’ (2022, Houndstooth) was about healing others with its soothing sounds, Omori’s next album unexpectedly became one of healing herself. Looking back at the lyrics to ‘stillness, softness…,’ “it was very much an inner journey of uncovering stuck points within myself and coming to a sense of peace with them,” she says. Omori was particularly taken by the idea of our shadow selves – the dark parts of ourselves that we keep hidden – and the need to reconcile with them in order to break free. “The relationship with ourselves is consistent, and when it's healed, wonderful things can come from that,” she adds.

Since 2022’s critically acclaimed debut album, ‘a journey…’, Hinako Omori has fast become one of the UK’s most compelling breakthrough musicians, blurring the lines between classical, electronic and ambient. A concept album inspired by the ancient Japanese ritual of forest bathing, a journey…’s lush textures, rooted in nature, were called “remarkable” by Pitchfork and received heavy rotation on BBC 6Music. Omori’s potent blend of therapeutic frequencies, drones and her ethereal falsetto connected: she has since supported Beth Orton, Anna Meredith and Ichiko Aoba, played with a 60-piece orchestra for BBC Radio 3’s Unclassified and, later this year, will join Floating Points’ esteemed ensemble at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles to perform Promises, his collaborative album with the late Pharoah Sanders.

‘stillness, softness…’ explores a new sonic range within Omori’s world of analogue synths – namely, her Prophet ’08, the Moog Voyager and UDO Super 6, an analogue hybrid synthesizer that creates binaural, 3D-simulating sound. The album is darker, more expansive and more noirishly theatrical than her previous work. Whereas Omori’s debut was largely instrumental, here the vocals are front and centre – “it’s more vulnerable,” she nods – as she opens up on themes of dreams versus reality, solitude, reconnecting with who you are and, ultimately, finding strength in yourself.

Omori calls ‘stillness, softness…’ “a collage of experiments” which she then pieced together “like a puzzle”, each song representing a memory room. The end result is seamless, a continuous cycle of 13 vignettes that flow in and out of each other, recorded and written between her bedroom in London and her grandmother’s house in Yokohama, Japan. “It was very DIY,” she laughs. “I was whispering into the microphone because I didn’t want to wake anyone up.”

Omori was born in Japan but grew up in south London and studied sound engineering at the University of Surrey. Her interest in machine music began before that, in college, thanks to a teacher who introduced his class to analogue synthesizers. “It sparked a curiosity in me,” says Omori. “I grew up learning classical piano, and the minute I came across synthesizers for the first time it completely drew me in. With a synth, you get to truly sculpt the sound: it opened up all these endless possibilities for expression that I had never even thought about before.”

After university, she joined the touring bands for both indie musicians and arena acts including EOB, James Bay, KT Tunstall, Georgia and Kae Tempest, the latter of whom Omori still plays with regularly. “I’ve learned so much from those experiences,” says Omori. “If it wasn’t for working with these wonderful artists, I don't think I would have had the confidence to do what I’m doing now.” Her confidence, she says, is still a work in progress, which is partly what the album speaks to. Its title might be ‘stillness, softness…’ but the album is actually about making yourself uncomfortable in order to grow. “It’s about embracing the things that we want to hide away from, and that we feel ashamed of,” she says.

The album on the whole is Omori’s most accessible yet, and one that evidences her true range as a composer, artist, arranger, vocalist and synth virtuoso. It closes with the title track, completing the cycle. “I wanted it to evoke a state of peace that you reach within yourself,” says Omori. “I think of it as a blanket of sorts, very gentle, very calming.” That softness, she says, is the ultimate strength – and one that will guide us through life with love and compassion for ourselves and others”.

I am going to come to some 2023 interviews with the amazing Hinako Omori soon. Before that, Fifteen Questions learned more about a stunning composer and artist. Someone who I hope gets so many more people heading her way next year. I have only recently found her. I am determined to follow her career closely. Omori is a singular talent of immense stature and gravitas:

“Name: Hinako Omori

Nationality: Japanese

Occupation: Musician

Current Release: a journey… on Houndstooth

Recommendations:  Backside of the Moon by James Turrell - I’m endlessly inspired by James' work. By some synchronicity, when we’ve been on tour I’ve ended up in cities with James’ installations without knowing they were there beforehand - it’s been a magical way to discover his work almost by way of synchronicity! My favourite piece of his is in Naoshima, Japan - you walk into a seemingly pitch black space, and after adjusting to the environment for a while you notice there’s been a light there all this time. It takes your breath away. /Trans-Millenia Music by Pauline-Anna Strom - the most otherworldly, magical sound worlds and sonic atmospheres imaginable. Completely timeless and boundless, and ever evolving. Every time I listen to it, I discover something completely new. In the liner notes for this album, Pauline-Anna wrote “I consider myself the ‘Trans-Millenia Consort’, by which title I wish to be known. This to me is a personal declaration that I have been in previous lives, that I am in this life, and that I shall in future lives be a musical consort to time.”.

When did you start writing/producing/playing music and what or who were your early passions and influences? What was it about music and/or sound that drew you to it?

I started learning the piano when I was 5 from a wonderful teacher called Anne Hodgkinson. I think there’s something so important about the connection with a teacher, and Mrs Hodgkinson was so inspiring, kind, caring and so patient with me.

I started experimenting with writing/producing much later on, perhaps around 4 years ago - mainly with small snippets of synth recordings which were saved away on a hard drive until I found a home for them in a song or piece. I’d become fascinated by synthesisers through my Music Technology teacher at college Lloyd Russell, who was in an electropop band at the time - he was a synth genius and definitely inspired me to delve into synths and the magical sound worlds you can create with them. He also suggested the sound engineering course I went on to study at University of Surrey, for which I’m very grateful for.

Tell me a bit about your sense of identity and how it influences both your preferences as a listener and your creativity as an artist, please.

As a listener, perhaps the identity side ties in in terms of where I’m physically based at the time and the music that’s being created or performed directly around in this physical space - I feel very lucky to be based in such a multicultural city as London, with an abundance of creativity that surrounds us.
As for the creating side of things, I’d be interested to hear from the listener’s perspective of what they feel from listening to my music - everything is subject to perception, and I’d love to keep things as open as possible without necessarily tying an identity to it, to allow space for it to be perceived by the listener in their own way.

 

What, would you say, are the key ideas behind your approach to music and art?

Experimenting with pieces of equipment has been the main starting point for the projects I’ve been working on - sometimes having no real plan or structure behind how something may turn out and seeing what comes naturally can take you on a fun and unexpected journey.
 
How would you describe your views on topics like originality and innovation versus perfection and timelessness in music? Are you interested in a “music of the future” or “continuing a tradition”?

That’s a really interesting question! I think my answer would be a nice balance of both. I guess perhaps there is sometimes an underlying element in things that are created now in which we are continuing a tradition, in a sense, by way of having been inspired by something we’ve seen or have learned in the past - so we’re holding the torch and continuing with this idea, honouring it. Of course that’s not to say that there are so many new things that will arise that haven’t been thought of or realised before, but it’s nice to think that there’s a magical thread piecing together the different journeys that each individual has been through to get to where they are now, and what has inspired them along the way.

The state of perfection is something that is very difficult to perceive - what is perfect to one person may not seem that way to another - and the same with timelessness - but perhaps in a sense if the creator is happy and satisfied with a body of work and releases it into the world, it becomes a timeless entity to which people can connect with indefinitely going forward”.

There are a couple of recent interviews that I want to bring in. In November, Magnetic Magazine spoke with someone who was capturing natural sounds. There are artists who blend this into their work, though Hinako Omori’s process and angle seems to be a little different. The way that she finds sounds that take her work to new places. Whether you call it strictly music or something else, this is a blend of the natural world and studio coming together perfectly:

“CAPTURING NATURE

Before the studio visit, Omori researched the area to find the types of natural sounds she wanted to capture. She was especially interested in the rustling of leaves in the wind and the cleansing qualities of water, and she made a point of scheduling a visit to the Chew Valley Lake to record aquatic movement for the song “Ocean.”

On the day, she and the studio’s head engineer, Katie May, drove to the nearby Mendip Hills, equipped with a Neumann KU100 binaural microphone shaped like a human head and designed to record 3D audio. “It allowed us to capture sound that felt like you were in the space, rather than just a stereo recording,” she explains. “It was a phenomenal, massive recording.”

But, even with a lot of pre-planning and research of the area, the art of field recording typically depends on the natural offerings of the moment. “It’s nature,” she says, “and you can’t predict what’s going to come out, what you can record.” It requires a lot of patience to capture the essence of a scene over time.

INTUITIVE COMPOSING

“It would have probably been a very different record had it not been for the invitation [from Real World],” she admits. There were only a couple of weeks from when she accepted until the studio date, so she had to assemble the music quickly to prepare for the session. Luckily, Omori’s approach to composition is rather intuitive – she gathers and makes sounds, rearranging and experimenting with them until they merge into a harmonious work, much like a collage.

“It kind of mapped itself out. I started piecing together the melodies and keys, and found that the next one was starting in that same key. It’s almost like the music was telling me which order to put them in. So I kind of just went with it.”

She employed the same approach when mixing the record and weaving in the field recordings. Other than the deliberately sought-out water sounds for “Ocean,” most of the audio she picked up was recorded instinctively and then allowed to fit organically around the existing work, “rather than specifying ‘oh I definitely want this sound here,’” she says. “Weirdly, it didn’t feel forced… And I didn’t want to change the sounds of nature in any way because it is a map of where we were. And so none of it’s [produced with] effects, there’s no processing on it. I just wanted to make it as it is.”

STORYTELLING

It might not be surprising that an artist with such a connection to the natural environment feels compelled to preserve it, too. “With music,” she explains, “I feel like we have a unique opportunity to directly connect with people’s feelings.” So, for a project with the BBC, she reimagined Vaughan Williams’ best-known work, “The Lark Ascending,” in an electronic arrangement to highlight the UK’s declining bird population. “I got the score of Vaughan Williams sent over from the archives and was lucky enough to have the space to experiment with that and create something new.”

She was careful to stay faithful to the original score out of respect for the composer. The innovative part of the project came from her choice of instrumentation – she used the field recordings of the lark’s song to recreate the original violin melody, which required a lot of careful, detailed editing. She was surprised by the variety that appeared from a recording that initially sounded like a series of simple tones. “Every millisecond has an inflection or a melody or something. You think it’s one note, and then you dive in and discover there are probably 50 notes in here. So that was a joy to sit with.”

Her contributions to Brian Eno’s charity project, Earth/Percent, were created with a similar goal. The organization encourages artists to pledge a small percentage of their income to be distributed between various climate interventions, including energy transition, climate conservation, climate justice, and policy change. Omori contributed works to the organization’s two most recent Earth Day compilations – first in 2022, with a vocal interpretation of Michio Miyagi’s “Haru no umi” [“The Sea in Spring”], which was composed for the Japanese instruments koto and shakuhachi in 1929”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Chris Almeida

I am going to wrap this up with an interview from The Line of Best Fit. They spent time with someone who, in their words, surrenders to the magic of the unknown. Even if you are not a fan of Ambient music, I think that Hinako Omori’s music definitely needs to be checked out. The beautiful and powerful stillness, softness… is too good to be ignored. I am interested to see what comes from her next year:

“These thoughts and each song on stillness, softness... represent what Omori coins as a “memory room”, connected by neural corridors. In making a continuous album, Omori shows how different memories can be accessed which inform another to emulate a stream of consciousness. While music is a collaborative experience for many, Omori is an artist who can only create alone. This solitary endeavour manifests as a pensive meditation, the sonic palette of stillness, softness being all at once melancholy and hopeful, before finding peaceful equilibrium. However, when it came to sharing the clutch of singles preceding the album, – the pensive “ember”, introspective shift of “foundation” and “in full bloom”, and the propulsive “cyanotype memories” – the prospect of vulnerability became daunting.

“When you start sharing it with other people, I have noticed that I definitely feel more vulnerable because there were more lyrics this time and that perhaps has a certain energy around these songs now,” Omori explains. “But, at the same time, there was something inside me that felt I needed to share this. We are all existing in this world together. It’s almost like a puzzle where we’re figuring out certain situations. There is a sense of togetherness; vulnerability can be a really beautiful thing.”

PHOTO CREDIT: Chris Almeida

While stillness, softness... deals with the healing of Omori herself, her 2022 debut album, a journey…, focused on the healing of others. Originally written for WOMAD Festival’s online programme during lockdown after receiving an invite by organiser and producer Oli Jacobs, whom Omori studied alongside at the University of Surrey, Omori explored ways to bring nature’s therapeutic qualities indoors. “In Japan, we have a phrase called ‘shinrin-yoku’, which is forest bathing. Time outside and within trees has such a beautiful, calming effect on us [and] our bodies; I wanted to make an aural representation of that.” Incorporating sounds from the scenic abode of Real World Studios, where the project was finished, its lightness is at odds with its successor.

Omori’s intuitive playing is propelled by the emotional connection she feels with her synth, a sentiment she first explored as a college student when her teacher leant her a classic 80s SH101. Adverse to manuals, she instead displayed an inquisitive naivety in learning its workings and describes the instrument’s dynamic range as a “treasure box” to explore, with a lot of love imbued into it by its creator. “What were they thinking and feeling when they made it? Each [synth] has its own sonic character; getting to know that is like getting to know a friend. The more time you spend with someone, the more intimately you get to know the inner workings.”

It is a curiosity that has never left her, but Omori finds comfort in not being tied to the outcome, and stillness, softness... has opened a lot of doors in her mind in regards to listening to her own intuition. “Ultimately, we have all the answers within; we can surrender to the unknown and have faith that things will unfold in the best way. There is magic in the unknown”.

I am going to end it there. Go and check out this incredible artist. She is someone who is truly remarkable. Having delivered a celebrated headline show at London’s ICA earlier in the month, it is clear there are a lot of supporters behind her. People who really connect with her music. For anyone who is unfamiliar with Hinako Omori, then do make sure that you follow her. Being drawn into her sonic world is…

AN unforgettable experience.

____________

Follow Hinako Omori

FEATURE: Anniversaries, Celebrations, and the Fans’ Hopes: Kate Bush and Possibilities for 2024

FEATURE:

 

 

Anniversaries, Celebrations, and the Fans’ Hopes

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush onstage in Copenhagen, Denmark on 26th April, 1979 for The Tour of Life/PHOTO CREDIT: Jorgen Angel

 

Kate Bush and Possibilities for 2024

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WE are almost in 2024 now…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1989/PHOTO CREDIT: John Carder Bush

and there is speculation what the year could hold relating to Kate Bush. I really can’t say too much about a new album. It could come at any moment you feel – or maybe not at all. As much as we would love to see an eleventh studio album, there is no predicting when it will happen. I have said before how there has been this momentum from the past couple of years that would have given heart and inspiration to Bush. New fans discovering her work. I do think that an album is an ambition that we may not see fulfilled for a little while. There are a couple of important anniversaries I want to revisit and approach from a new angle. I did mention recently how 2024 sees the thirty-fifth anniversary of The Sensual World. This is going to be quite a big occasion. Even though that album, alongside the rest of her ten studio albums, have been reissued recently, I feel there should be some special appreciation and spotlighting of The Sensual World. It has not really been given any expansion of deep diving. I am tempted to do a podcast episode on the album, as I still think it is one of Bush’s most underrated releases. There are singles from the album that would benefit from a 4K HD version. I would say this about all of her videos, though the fact The Sensual World and This Woman’s Work are especially stirring and epic means that it would be wonderful to see a thirty-fifth anniversary tie-in. I do wonder whether there will be more articles and books written about the album.

PHOTO CREDIT: Getty Images

It is such an important album. Between 1985’s masterpiece Hounds of Love and 1993’s The Red Shoes, it came in the middle an artist peak and an album that soon took her away from public attention for nearly twelve years. There is a lot to unpack and dissect when it comes to The Sensual World. There is another big anniversary that we celebrate next year. In fact, both of the remaining two big anniversaries I can see relate to Bush’s live projects. The Tour of Life will turn forty-five in April. Before the Dawn is ten in August. Alongside The Sensual World, they are both really important moments in her career that have huge anniversary approaching. I wonder whether there will be individual anniversary celebrations or a midway combination – perhaps something in June. The Tour of Life has not had an official DVD or album released. I have spoken about this before. The lack of high-definition videos of the tour. There were sets filmed, yet there is nothing that has been combined into a documentary. As The Tour of Life is forty-five next year, it would be great to have a new documentary or programme. This was Kate Bush’s biggest undertaking to that point. It was a live revelation and iconic thing. The same could be said of 2014’s Before the Dawn. Nobody felt that Bush would be back on stage. Well, some did…though they could not have predicted what was to come. With no DVD or anything filmed having been aired, there is only the live album. There is scope to have a tenth anniversary documentary of Before the Dawn.

Her two live ‘projects’ (a tour and residency) warrants much more exploration and expansion. Photos, interviews and fan reaction. There could be something in the form of a radio show that details each of the two. As The Tour of Life is coming up first, I think there should be some effort to make the forty-fifth anniversary of the first night – which happens on 2nd April (1979). There are book opportunities. As one of the most captivating live performers of her generation, scope for there to be documentaries that mix fan insight together with those who were involved in each – her band and collaborators from 1979 and those who were part of Before the Dawn. Together with that thirty-fifth anniversary of The Sensual World, there are a few exciting possible opportunities for Bush to say a few words or authorise a new release or reissue. Lionheart’s Wow is forty-five on 9th March. That will definitely be worth a few words. Enough to get our teeth into. Bush is not really someone who marks anniversary with reissues. Seeing as she has put back out her studio albums, and before a new studio album, there would be value in ensuring that the young generation who are discovering her music now get to know such important points in her career.

As much as anything, there will be desire to hear Kate Bush speak. She did talk with Woman’s Hour in 2022. After such an eventful and interesting past couple of years, a more extensive discussion with Kate Bush would be transfilling. It has been a time of retrospection in terms of her work. There does need to be something new. Even if it is a new release or packaging of her live material or an album like The Sensual World. Maybe there will be a new album. We will just have to wait! I am excited to see how people react to the upcoming anniversaries for The Tour of Life, Before the Dawn and The Sensual World. I feel 2024 is going to be another exciting and big year regarding Kate Bush and her music. As so many new people have found her music and America have embraced her in a way they hadn’t before, that will open up opportunities. Artists influenced by her work creating incredible work of their own. Perhaps the U.S. will show their affection with programmes and documentaries. There are going to be plenty of magazine specials and articles. A couple of books at least. There is also that air of unpredictability that means something extraordinary can come without warning. After a wonderful year where there has been some activity in the Kate Bush camp, I feel like some backlog and slate has been cleared. A path cleared in terms of reissues and older material. New ideas and a fresh phase is ahead. We all look forward to what Kate Bush treats…

2024 has in store.

FEATURE: Spotlight: Nukuluk

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

PHOTO CREDIT: Will Reid

 

Nukuluk

__________

THERE is a very interesting group…

PHOTO CREDIT: Will Reid

who I want to direct people to. There is no doubt that there are few that sound like Nukuluk. A five-piece who take their members from various parts of the globe, their most recent E.P., SUPERGLUE, is a terrific release that people need to check out. I am going to come to a 2023 interview with the band. Before that, there are a couple of older chats that are important. I think that they give more depth to a very intriguing musical proposition. I want to start with Fred Perry and their question and answer with the amazing Nukuluk:

“Nukuluk are an experimental hip-hop collective from South London. They release their new EP 'Disaster Pop' on 17th November followed by a launch party at The Windmill, Brixton a few days later on 20th November 2021.

“Name, where are you from?

Nukuluk (Monika, Mateo, Syd, Olivia, Louis), from London/Plymouth/Paris.

Describe your style in three words?

Mo: Discreet, branding, earthtone.
Ma: Out of touch.
S: clunky gruff lost.

What’s the best gig you’ve ever been to?

S: Goat (JP) at Oslo Hackney - such amazing ideas, tightest rhythms and a saxophone with a Coke bottle shoved down it. Sadly they aren’t on Spotify, so special mention to the legendary Das EFX who I somehow saw at the New Cross Inn.
Ma: Outkast at Bestival, big energy, real showmen.
O: GORILLAZ. It was just really good.
If you could be on the line up with any two artists in history?

Ma: Prince and Meshell Ndegeocello so I could learn a thing or two about playing my bass.
L&O: Definitely Up Doggy Dog and probably Radiohead.
S: Actress and Nearly God. Both sonic and emotional pioneers in what they do with music and an endless production inspiration.

Which subcultures have influenced you?

Mo: I was all hip-hop growing up, people looked like me and they were angry and rebellious and wanted more. Obviously, I realize now they weren’t telling my story, but I resonated with what they were saying.
S: I grew up around my parents’ punk and dub culture which was wicked - the values and the energy of it all. I think the approach to genre-mashing and collaborating is something that inspired me, as well as this idea of articulating a lot of truth through the songs.
L&O: Midnight Mass (seasonal), Soup Bible (also seasonal), Goldsmith’s Student Union, Londis, Group Therapy.

If you could spend an hour with anyone from history?

Ma: Andrzej Zulawski because I’ve fallen in love with his films recently and have many questions unanswered.
L: Dennis Hopper, I wanna see how horrible he really is.
O: Maya Deren is my favourite :)

Of all the venues you’ve been to or played, which is your favourite?

L: Royal Festival Hall is always fun, I like to dress up.
O: WORM, Rotterdam - Google the toilets.
S: Graham’s Arch near Ladbroke Grove station - an old wood workshop where I played my first gigs as a kid. Lots of smoke and hummus!

Your greatest unsung hero or heroine in music?

Mo: Francis Bebey. I grew up listening to his music, and love the mix of humour and sincerity in his writing. People in the UK tend to focus on his instrumental work because of the language barrier, and it annoys me to see very cool very serious DJs missing out on the light side of his music.
L: Stephen Malkmus - Melodically and lyrically my favourite artist, I was the perfect age when I got into his music and I still don’t understand a lot of the words to Pavement songs.
O: Paddy Steer - he builds all his synths and has a big fish head with a vocoder in it and it slaps.
S: Richard Dawson - obviously he’s got his fanbase, but I think he deserves more! I can’t see anyone’s lyrics that come close to how he depicts life in Britain. From touching upon this medieval generational trauma with his record 'Peasant' to the follow up '2020' about freelance graphic design work and Kurdish families getting bricks through their windows, his lyrics just embody the weird social nightmare of parts of life in Britain.

The first track you played on repeat?

Mo: 'Salomé' by Donny Elwood.
Ma: 'Boombastic' by Shaggy.
O: 'When I Come Around' by Green Day.
L: 'The Ketchup Song (Aserejé) - Spanglish Version' by Las Ketchup.
S: 'Lost In The Supermarket' by The Clash.

A song that defines the teenage you?

Mo: 'Suicidal Thoughts' by The Notorious B.I.G. I didn’t have any suicidal thoughts, I was just obsessed with the song.
Ma: 'Promises' by Fugazi. I remember it being very cathartic when I thought I was angry.
L: 'Femme Fatal' by The Velvet Underground, Nico.
O: 'Mote' by Sonic Youth but also just all of 'Goo'.
S: 'Untitled #8' by John Frusciante. My friend Anna showed me this record when we were kids and I’m pretty sure it ruined my life; proper gateway experimental music, beautiful guitar riffs you recognise from Red Hot Chili Peppers tunes surrounded by eerie tape delay and samples of laughter and conversation. I was a bit of a sad kid…”

I am going to move to another interview. This is from 2021. Even though it is a couple of years ago, we do get to capture this group who were near the start of their career. That excitement and buzz that was coming from certain corners. I still think there are so many people that do not know about them. CLASH spent some time with Nukuluk:

“It doesn’t make sense, does it? For a song to feel quiet, surely music is the opposite of quiet. But some moments in NUKULUK’s new EP 'Disaster Pop' feel delicate, gentle even. They nestle soundscapes to nest in between sporadic bursts of hip-hop power. Each song drips through each other. It collects in bodies then disperses. Even though the EP finishes on the song 'Rain', each track flows into each other like liquid. And it feels like all of the members drink from this liquid, and share it.

They are definitively a collective, with Louis playing drums alongside producing the drums, Mateo plays bass and makes the visuals to accompany the songs. Olivia plays the synth and sampler, adding vocals and producing. Syd does vocals, produces, plays guitar and sampler and makes videos, and Monika does vocals. Together they carve screeches into soundscapes, mangle field recordings of screams into sonic, claim them, turn them upside down and then power them up.

Some of their songs, like 'Feel So', feel like an awakening, or a realisation. Syd's voice laps with the waves of sonic that flow forth and back around them. Monika's voice cuts through the sonic like an arm through water, trying to swim. Followed by 'Nu Year', a song that flows and breaks, in a way that feels like floating over waves on a body of water, staring at the sky.

The synth sounds pauses and repeats like a glitch, unnatural movement, a suspension, feathered in the air. But if this EP is floating, 'Rain' drops it to the ground; a song that immediately strikes as nostalgic, studded with field recordings. This feels symbiotic, as pads of the member’s vocals pat like water joining the earth, a group, a ecosystem. A safe little world, NUKULUK are inviting us into a corner of themselves. And this is what NUKULUK is about really, inviting us in.

So, in this conversation Clash talks to Monika and Syd of NUKULUK about this process of creating as a collective, tempting disaster, and recycling and repurposing sounds, making something of what might be discarded…

NUKULUK seemed to pop out of nowhere with all of this finished stuff that's just so polished, so how did you form as a collective?

Monika: I had never stepped into a recording studio, I hadn't really written anything. But Syd had a lot of faith in me from the get go, even when I didn't have a lot of faith in myself and that I think is what really underscores the collective because I remember, and I don't think I can ever forget when the only two people really listening to the songs was me and Syd.

And then when Louie came, it was the first time there was an external voice that was actually gassed about the project. And he put a lot of care and affection and saying what he loves, that made a huge difference, that bond of the three of us just was very creative and helped us to finish the songs. When the whole collective formed, and we had made the songs, we were like, right, we have 12 songs, let's pick five, let's finish them and let's put them out. And then we pick the names together, and then we finish the songs. And there they are. And I think that's why they feel so finished. Because they're a real labour of love. Lots of layers of doubt, change, people coming in a resurgence of faith.

I want to know a bit more about the relationship of your lyrics to the music. How did they form? Was it you guys that wrote the lyrics? Or did you speak with each other about what you wanted the song to be?

Monika: Syd writes his magic on his own. And, I just find it extremely beautiful. 'Feel So' is the core example. I just listened to the melodies and what Syd was saying. I recognised him and I know what he's trying to say. And then I just felt like I had enough space to just go and be like, okay, what's my take on this emotion? When I feel this emotion, what do I want to say about it? And that's our why verses are so different. But they're very, very deeply connected.

Syd: You really have to believe in the world you're building or the environment you're addressing.

It was the start of the pandemic. I had loads of uncertainty. I could see that freelance artists were pretty low down the queue of who the government was gonna make any accommodations for. And I was really frightened. And then to have Monika, almost show the same pain, but from such alternate point of view. It was such an amazing form of communication. Sometimes my voice is kind of like a melancholic observer of a situation. And Monika's voice can then go into that situation and sort of be inside of it, and kind of confront it. So I'm sad boy far away. And he's some force driving through in the middle of it”.

I am going to end with an interview from DAZED. This is an interview from this year. There are not too many recent interviews. I hope that this changes as we look to next year. Regardless, every interview with Nukuluk is interesting and offers something fresh. There is no doubt that the quintet are going to be making some significant moves in 2024:

“It’s hard to label Nukuluk, but they like it that way. The South London collective – made up of vocalist Monika, bassist Mateo, vocalist and guitarist Syd, synth player Olivia, and drummer Louis – would prefer that you just enjoy the chaos. There’s plenty of it across their discography, with tracks like “Kick Snare” playing out as an abstract aural collage of the unfiltered human psyche, with outbursts of rage, confusion and loneliness. There are moments of intimacy and softness also, found in cyber-ballads that perfectly capture the band’s ability to execute a wide, dynamic range.

There is something distinctly robotic about Nukuluk’s sound, heard in the glitchy drums, contorted samples and cold soundscapes. Yet Monika’s emotionally charged vocals, paired with their white-hot live sets, show that there is still a very human band putting the pieces together. The band’s new EP SUPERGLUE marks their first extended release since 2021’s Disaster Pop, and sees them at their most experimental yet, mixing live instrumentals throughout alongside their established electronic sound.

The strength of the band comes from its separate and varied contributions. “We’ve been told a few times that we look like five people from totally different scenes that have all come together and are doing the same thing,” Olivia tells Dazed. Each member’s uniqueness is what makes the collective’s sound so eclectic, but also their obvious chemistry keeps things cohesive across their releases. Down below, they tell us more.

How would you describe the sonic landscape of your new EP?

Syd: We hadn’t really been playing live when we made the first EP. With this EP, we made it over the first year of us playing loads of shows and developing that live sound; there were no live drums on the last EP, for example. Our dynamics have shifted a lot more into that, our live show is quite punky sometimes and I think that comes through on the new record in a way that it really didn’t last time.

What is your approach to playing live? What do you want to translate to the audience when you play live?

Syd: It’s very theatrical, we go from being super intimate and vulnerable to super high energy.

Louis: That’s what makes [the band] so unique as well, you wouldn’t be able to make this type of music which we’re making with any other person. Everybody is so valued and so important, if we lost a member, it just wouldn’t translate at all. We’re playing with themes that people can relate to, something that people can have an emotional response to.

How would you describe your collective creative practice?

Mateo: We are an experimental group, and we don’t fit into a genre necessarily, and I don’t think we’re necessarily looking for a home either with that. We want to be able to push around and be in different scenes. One of the things for me that’s so exciting about this project is that we can metamorphose and become this different thing on the next record or in the next video.

Syd: We don’t have the resources to have a fancy studio, but we are quite adept technologically, so we can make that work in this weird, modern, digital, punky way.

Olivia: A lot of our production is quite spontaneous and we’re always finding horrible plugins to try and use.

Monika: There are also some really intentional elements. For me, with lyrics, I spend hours and days chewing over them, it‘s just my writing style. The music aspect, the rhythm and delivery over the beat get to be more spontaneous. Music is a lot like that: there are some things that you chew on for days and hours, you can be really intentional with them, and then maybe they happen in a flash on your first take.

What would be your funeral song?

Louis: If I were the first one to go, I’d like a four-piece Nukuluk performance.

Mateo: This George Clinton song called “Super Spirit” – it’s really upbeat.

Syd: I’d go with “Blank Expression” by The Specials because it’s just so fucking jolly.

Monika: I would go with “Soldier On” by Richard Hawley, which is one of my favourite songs ever. It’s really sad.

Olivia: Silence. I’d make it noise-cancelling in there.

What adjective would you least like to be described as?

Syd: Zany.

Olivia: Spunky.

Monika: Derivative.

Mateo: Scaly.

Louis: Reptilian.

If you could only listen to one musician for the rest of your life, who would it be?

Louis: Beach Boys.

Syd: Ryuichi Sakamoto.

Monika: Gil Scott-Heron”.

Having released the magnificent SUPERGLUE earlier this year, there are new eyes and ears on Nukuluk. I am new to them but, having read back at interviews and heard their older music, I am now going to see where they go next. I am excited to see a genuinely fresh and original force release such terrific music. Make sure you have them in your sights. They are primed for success…

AND worldwide recognition.

____________

Follow Nukuluk

FEATURE: The Digital Mixtape: Songs from the Finest Albums Celebrating Big Anniversaries in 2024

FEATURE:

 

 

The Digital Mixtape

IN THIS PHOTO: Madonna in 1984/PHOTO CREDIT: Eric Watson

 

Songs from the Finest Albums Celebrating Big Anniversaries in 2024

__________

I have already…

run a series of features combining songs from albums who have important anniversaries next year. Running down from those turning fiftieth. The final playlist related to the fifth anniversary albums. I wanted to do an ultimate playlist where there is a portion of each from those individual playlists on the one. It is exciting thinking about all the awesome albums that will have these big anniversaries next year. You will recognise most of them, though some might be unfamiliar to you. Below is a playlist with cuts from albums that have significant anniversaries next year. It makes for a rather epic and diverse…

LISTENING experience.



FEATURE: To Watch in 2024: Gretel Hänlyn

FEATURE:

 

 

To Watch in 2024

  

Gretel Hänlyn

_________

I featured the mesmeric and superb Gretel Hänlyn…

PHOTO CREDIT: Brennan Bucannan for The Line of Best Fit

in a feature before. Rather than spotlight someone who is very much on the way up and has had a successful 2023, I want to revisit an amazing West London-based artist who is set to have a tremendous 2024. She is one of the coolest and most talented artists on the scene. I would expect to see her playing Glastonbury and maybe thinking about an album. A person who is amazing solo, yet there is a guestlist of artists I can see her collaborating with. I am going to end with a new DORK interview. They tipped Gretel Hänlyn for big success next year alongside a range of other immense artists. In 2022, Hänlyn released the album/long-E.P., Slugeye. Head of the Love Club (another long-E.P.) was released back in March. As it is Christmas Day, I wanted to use this special day to talk about a very special artist. Someone who is so oriignal and instantly compelling. I am going to start out with an interview that I may have used last time around. Earlier in the year, The Line of Best Fit saluted a wonderful and hugely impressive young artist on the rise:

“Hänlyn, aka Maddy Haenlein, has taken time out of her afternoon to catch up at a pub in central London for a chinwag over a pint. She sips on her Guinness contently, feeling better after a nasty infection earlier in the week. But also coming in armed and ready with the prospect of new music, a run of live shows in April and a festival slot alongside the legendary Iggy Pop this Summer, her drink is sure to taste that extra bit sweeter.

“I feel really happy with how things are working out,” says Hänlyn as she reflects on her musical journey to date. She first cropped up in 2021 with her distinctively brooding vocals marking her adrift from her contemporaries.

The buzz around Hänlyn has only grown since. Her debut EP Slugeye gained her critical acclaim and this month she deliver its follow up Head of the Love Club. It’s a bold new body of work which showcases an evolving artistic persona with depth, vulnerability and a brazen edge that’s characteristically ‘Gretel’. Most of all, it’s a statement that showcases just who Hänlyn is.

“I wasn’t trying to please any majority,” Hänlyn assures. “A lot of the time during recording, I was messing around with different vocal lines and styles that made me go ‘eugh, I hate that, let’s do it!’. It’s often the things that are ugly and a little too honest that resonate with people rather than nice, romanticised lyrics. They’re the kinds of things that make people think about what’s going on in their lives.”

Hänlyn’s capacity to confront challenges in her own life as a 20-year-old adult has been resolute. As a teenager, she went through an illness which impacted her muscle growth. This particularly affected her diaphragm, meaning that she had to learn how to sing all over again. “Emotionless” is how Hänlyn says she felt during that time and the numbness she experienced then continues to pervade her today.

“This is a little heavy, but I remember the time when I’d just finished my GCSEs, my mum sat me down and she told me that she had cancer," Hänlyn explains. "I didn’t feel a thing. Nothing happened inside of me. A few weeks ago, my aunt died. When I was told that, I didn’t feel a thing. It’s so weird. It makes me think like ‘what is wrong with me?’ But I think music is how I process emotions. I don’t get that catharsis without having processed it through a song first.”

That cathartic release sprawls across Head of the Love Club, which fuses elements of Gothic fantasy influenced by her background in short horror stories with searing doses of introspection. From energetic lead singles like “Drive” to more pensive moments like “Little Vampire”, as well as the gloriously abrasive title track, there are a diverse range of soundscapes which paint the EP in a myriad of eerily dark and colourful tones. “When I go into a song, I don’t want there to be a reference track of what it sounds like,” says Hänlyn. “I had a clear idea of what of what I wanted and what I feel would impress me as a listener, which was how I approached the project.”

Her latest material has been essential for her to compose: “During the time when the majority of Head of the Love Club was written, I had quite a strange and unique relationship with someone who was a lot older than me,” she says looking down slightly nervously. “There was quite a strange dynamic; for around a year, I found myself being so confused and obsessed with this person that I felt powerless, like a little girl. So, a lot of the EP is me reflecting on that relationship and often how tiny it made me feel”.

You can check out Gretel Hänlyn’s music here. There was a lot of love out there for her during this year. As she relaxes today and enjoys some family time, I know there is a part of her that is also thinking about next year. Personal and career plans. I think she is going to be an artist who will take some big steps next year. I want to come to a CLASH interview from July. When it was mentioned that she is being compared to artists like PJ Harvey and Florence Welch, Hänlyn said that this was really cool:

“There was a very exuberant, extravagant young man dressed all in sparkly pink called Zack, who I promised I’d get a drink for because he was singing all of the lyrics, but I couldn’t find him afterwards. Zack if you’re out there!” laughs 20 year-old musician Gretel Hänlyn via Zoom. Real name Maddy Haenlein, Gretel is known for her powerful vocals and unique blend of rock, indie and grunge. The young singer-songwriter has built a dedicated fanbase since the release of her first single ‘Slugeye’ in September 2021. Despite a whimsical and offbeat musical persona, Gretel herself comes off grounded and self-aware, speaking with refreshing candour and warmth as we sit down to discuss writer’s block, the pros of being self-critical and creating your own fantasy worlds.

“I didn’t always sing like this,” Gretel explains as we discuss her commanding voice, “I had a developmental issue where I didn’t really have enough muscle especially in my diaphragm so I couldn’t sing very well, and it took a lot of energy to sing. So one of the things that made it a lot easier to sing was lowering my larynx […] I do consider that to be my singing voice, but with this next EP I’ve kind of allowed myself to use my voice as more of an instrument.”

The ‘next EP’ in question, ‘Head Of The Love Club’ is out shortly, but its creation wasn’t the easiest process for the young singer: “Before I wrote this new EP, I had really bad writer’s block for a while and everything that I wrote I absolutely hated, but I didn’t throw away the demos. [The EP] ended up being the songs I wrote in my writer’s block.” Gretel remarks how the EP cathartically tackles “themes of ongoing rejection, how it feels to have an obsession that you’ve mistaken for love.” When writing the EP, Gretel found she kept returning to the same subject matter: “I found that I kept on talking about this one character, who is based on a real person, who I refer to as the ‘Head Of The Love Club’. This was someone in my life and I was tackling a very unique relationship with him where I didn’t know where I stood. There was a lot of confusion and my age definitely played a big part in my own naivety in that situation.”

Entering the music industry at such a young age wasn’t without its struggles, however. “I remember when I first started entering the music scene and I think it was my Mum who said that I might get hate for being too similar to Ellie Rowsell. I mean she’s just another great woman in rock, why are we drawing these comparisons when there are so many dudes who sound exactly the same yet they have earned their own place?” Often placed alongside the likes of PJ Harvey and Florence Welch, Hanlyn seems proud of the comparisons. “I like getting compared to cool ladies!”.

I am going to end with that DORK interview that acknowledges Gretel Hänlyn as a wonderful artist we need to watch next year. Before I get there, I am going to bring in this interview for Head of the Love Club. If there is maybe a sense that the very best is still ahead, this long-E.P. (or is it technically an album with eight tracks?!) is a hugely strong release that showcases a London artist with a big future ahead:

“Gretel Hänlyn’s Head of the Love Club is a boundary-breaking addition to the indie-goth-pop icon’s unrivaled discography. Using occasional pop devices to fuel her punk-adjacent eccentricities, Hänlyn has written an EP made in heaven for lovers of Fiona Apple, Mitski, and Mazzy Star, and is a modern gateway to all things grunge.

“Dry Me” tells us everything we need to know. Raw, grungy guitars meet Hänlyn’s low resonance and half-spoken delivery for an avant-garde, '90s alternative-inspired opener. Subtle instrumental touches like a cascading acoustic piano and fitful drums welcome us to the rule-breaking dreamscape that is Head of the Love Club, where pop boundaries are smashed through with a post-grunge uppercut.

“Drive” keeps the ambiance alive as spiraling, looping electronic drums dance under distorted, hooky vocals. Meanwhile, “King of Nothing” is a work of lyrical finesse, punching cleverly crafted lines over dissonant chords. With nonchalance, Hänlyn spits out, “You’re the king of nothing at all, you huel-fueled diet / fake tan fucker...” “Wiggy” is the catalyst for the EP’s shift in pace, maintaining the blithe, grown-up-teenage-dirtbag tone but relaxing the arrangement. Hänlyn’s signature unbothered cynicism coins us the iconic line, “Falling in love isn’t weak it's gross...”

While “Little Vampire” flaunts its '90s grunge flair, title track, “The Head of the Love Club,” is a witchy standout on the lineup. A gritty, distorted guitar marches out the beat while ethereal background vocals set the moonlit, smoke-shrouded scene. It’s a love song, but Hänlyn-style—every twinge of desire is matched with scorn, ambling through Mitski-esque melodies.

“Easy Peeler” is fringed with delicacy, a gentle sort of sadness that Head of the Love Club doesn’t reveal to us on other tracks. The acoustic fingerpicking lilts over the distorted bass line in a satisfying contradiction—soft meets steadfast. “Today (Can’t Help but Cry)” rounds out the EP with a hopefulness that masterfully balances the bitterness we begin with in “Dry Me.” A wistful guitar riff loops over droning synths, evoking a bit of '80s, The Cure-style nostalgia. The light arrangement lets Hänlyn’s voice soar, and listeners will finish Head of the Love Club with an addictive blissfulness”.

Let’s come to the Hype List inclusion from DORK. Fans of the majestic music Gretel Hänlyn is putting out, they spent time with an artist reflecting on an important year. It is clear that there is nobody out there like her! I can also see her having this T.V. or film career, as she has a natural magnetism and cool that you love to see on the screen. Go and follow this astonishing artist:

“Her songwriting and storytelling abilities and knack for bewitching wordplay mark Gretel as a special talent. It’s a craft she’s spent years honing and is forever evolving. “I’ve been going into rabbit holes left, right and centre and trying to find that thing that I want to have when I’m writing,” she explains. “I’ve definitely almost had it, but I’m trying to refine it and find the purest form of writing I possibly can.” There’s a constant desire within her music to take things further, either musically or thematically. In 2023, she felt like all the pieces that make Gretel Hänlyn so exciting were falling into place on the back of the most productive year of her career so far. “It’s been a year of artistic discovery,” she smiles. “Just before going on tour, I finally came home to myself as an artist. I feel like I really understand myself and the fundamental values of what I want as an artist. I want to enjoy writing and get some catharsis from it. It doesn’t have to be anything other than pure writing. It doesn’t have to be clever. That’s what 2023 has been for me. Discovery and building, building, building.”

 PHOTO CREDIT: Sarah Louise Bennett

The thing that Gretel is building, is music in its most primal form. Powerful emotions distilled to their purest qualities. The realities of trying to make it in the music industry, though, often force artists to second guess themselves or subconsciously work against their natural impulses. As her nascent career has progressed, Gretel’s development as a writer has seen her fully realise that those early impulses are most potent. “It’s so interesting because when I first started writing, it was what I think of as really pure, just feeling your way through the dark type of writing,” she reflects. “Feeling it out and using instinct. That’s when I first started going to the studio and challenging myself with writing parts for instruments other than just guitar and vocals. As my musical tastes developed, I naturally put more pressure on myself to be smarter with my songwriting. Even copying certain sounds or certain atmospheres for songs and getting inspired by other things but feeling my way through the dark around it. I went down a rabbit hole of feeling like nothing was right, and nothing was ever enough. I was never clever enough, and it wasn’t leftfield enough. That’s the rabbit hole I went down this year, and I’ve come out the other side and I’m back to feeling my way through the dark and not knowing or trying to force my writing anywhere. I’m not pressuring myself to compare myself or my career to other artists that are maybe the same age as me or have a similar sound.”

PHOTO CREDIT: Sarah Louise Bennett

There might be some artists out there who have a similar sound in that they also make music primarily focused on guitar, but there’s no one out there quite like Gretel Hänlyn. Distinctive and singular in a way that makes her stand out, she’s continuing a lineage of women making exciting indie music while also forging her own path. “I always had obsessions growing up with artists in the same way that a lot of quite young women obsess over a certain band or another female artist or a boyband, or an emo band. I always had those obsessions, and I would deeply follow the characters,” she remembers. “I don’t think it actually clicked with the writer inside of me until I started listening to Wolf Alice. Female-fronted guitar bands. I looked at it, and I was like, wow. That sounds absolutely incredible, the amount of energy and female rage. I found it all very impressive. I was also getting into a lot of folk music when I was 14, and that inspired me to start writing. It was a combination of having that representation in female guitar bands plus the songwriting inspiration of people like Tim Buckley and Nick Drake. Nico was a big influence earlier on because she had a low voice, just like me. That encouraged me to feel allowed to sing. It was that musical and songwriting element, plus I was writing a lot of gothic stories at the time, as well inspired by Nick Cave. It all had a bit of a folky beginning, and then I got into the studio and started using other instruments, and it all got a bit grungier and full band-y.”

Those gothic stories are what became the heart of Gretel Hänlyn; from her debut EP ‘Slugeye’ to the grand flourishes of her latest work, it’s all there. It’s not just despair and sadness, though; despite the emotional resonance of her music, often it’s playful and funny and engaging. There’s a gothic underbelly which allows her to take her songwriting stories to wonderful places. “It’s a bit cheeky,” she laughs. “It’s just being real because one thing that I love is the beauty and the humour in the grotesque. It’s making jokes about something bleak because nothing is ever black or white; nothing is ever just completely shit. There’s always something funny; there’s also always something depressing about something really happy that’s happening. There’s always something incredibly pretty about something horribly ugly. It’s using the contrasts to make people smile or cry if they feel like they shouldn’t be smiling.” It’s these amplified emotions crashing into each other that make her songs such rich tapestries. “Exactly! Black looks blacker next to white, and white looks whiter next to black.”

PHOTO CREDIT: Sarah Louise Bennett

As the world of Gretel Hänlyn becomes more expansive, she’s looking for ever more elaborate ways to take things further. This may or, intriguingly, may not involve a debut album in 2024. “I’m currently working on a body of work, and I’m deciding what I want it to be,” she says. “Whatever it is, it’s the final milestone of me building the base of what my music is going to stem from. This is the last chapter of the beginning. It’s a mixture of both challenging and really great, well-written music, and then from there, the main thing for me is touring and playing music live. That’s my favourite part of all of this, playing live and travelling.”

In 2024, Gretel’s main ambitions are to continue building and reaching new heights. She’s already played her biggest London show this year at Village Underground and is looking to step up to the next rung on the way to her ultimate goal of headlining a stage at Glastonbury. But what about some of the new music she’s working on right now? “I’m not sure yet that this is the debut album. All I know is that I’ve got loads of songs, so it probably is. When I was writing it, I was thinking it’s a cult classic,” she laughs. “It’s a collection of songs; some of them have some really gnarly parts. Each song is quite fearless. Each song sticks out like a sore fucking thumb. I love it.” She also excitedly teases what might be her best song yet, “I have written a six-and-half-minute track that feels brutally Gretel. It’s called ‘Shame’.”

At one, with herself as an artist and the world that she’s inhabiting, Gretel Hänlyn is setting a marker for other new pretenders to try to reach. Good luck. “I just want to release loads of music and just throw shit at the wall and see what sticks. I’ll use that to write a big body of work. This is the first chapter of this next bit where I’m fucking Gretel Hänlyn”.

Go and check out the brilliant Gretel Hänlyn. She is, as you see there, entering a new chapter. Beginning this new phase. With support from stations including BBC Radio 6 Music, there is a lot of love behind this unique and promising artist. I am looking forward see where Gretel Hänlyn heads next. She is one of my favourite artists around. I know 2024 is a year where she will…

ABSOLUTELY smash it!

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Follow Gretel Hänlyn

FEATURE: Divisive Yet Extraordinary: Kate Bush’s February-June 1981

FEATURE:

 

 

Divisive Yet Extraordinary

  

Kate Bush’s February-June 1981

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THIS is another Kate Bush feature…

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush poses at East Wickham Farm in September 1978/PHOTO CREDIT: Chris Moorhouse/Evening Standard/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

that is about a particular time period. I think that there are some pivotal moments and months. One time period that was about moving from the release of one album to another. There was this moment when public opinion was still split. Alongside celebration and awards, there was also this lack of complete embrace from the public. I want to bring in a timeline that starts off in February 1981 and takes us to June. A short period of time, there is a lot of change and development. I will stop and various points and expand. I wanted to choose this period of time, as Never for Ever (released in September 1980) was still being talked about and there was this interest. Maybe Kate Bush has moved on and was very much engaged with The Dreaming (released n September 1982). There was this thing where she would still be promoting one album and another one was being worked on:

“February 1981

Kate's childhood home, East Wickham Farm, which has at its core a 14th-century hall, is listed as a building of special historic interest.

Kate does some session work on a cover version of her song Them Heavy People by new EMI artist Ray Shell.

February 21, 1981

Kate is voted Best Female Singer of 1980 in the Sounds poll.

March, 1981

Kate is making demo tapes of the material for her next album at her own demo studio.

April 1981

In a special Sunday Telegraph opinion poll Kate is voted "most liked" and "least liked" British Female Singer.

That period here is intriguing. Because of its history more than Bush’s association with it, East Wickham Farm gets this honour. Preserved as a building of special interest. Even though Bush does not live there and her siblings are based elsewhere, you can still see East Wickham Farm in Wickham St, Welling. It is pretty much as it would have been in the 1970s and 1980s. It is emotional thinking about Kate Bush recording there. In 1981, it would have been quite a moment for her parents, Hannah and Robert, that their home was deemed as this significant historical artefact. A building that could not be torn down or changed dramatically. Not long after that happened, Bush won that Sounds poll. It is strange that, whilst one corner of the industry was celebrating her, that Sunday Telegraph poll must have been confusing! Definitely a divisive result, how did that impact an album like The Dreaming? Was that sense that some did not like her compel her to make an album very much different to what came before.

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1980/PHOTO CREDIT: Brian Aris

Never for Ever was a bit experimental and different, though The Dreaming is more layered and darker in many senses. It can be a dense album that maybe reflected a changing musical landscape. After a first three or four months of 1981 where songs were being written and there was at least some recognition from the industry and fans, it would have given her momentum when she headed into the studio. Not long after Bush headed into the studio to start recording The Dreaming, its first single, Sat in Your Lap, was released. It was a very quick recording process that was born out of a moment of urgency and inspiration (a case of Bush having a bit of a creative block, she saw Stevie Wonder play in London and was influenced to write a song). There was a bit of a strange start to recording:

May 1981

Kate goes into Townhouse Studio with Hugh Padgham as engineer to begin the recording work of The Dreaming album. The backing tracks for three songs are put down before Nick Launay takes over as engineer. In a session that lasts until the end of June more backing tracks are laid.

The fact that Hugh Padgham was not really committed and one of the few people who was not completely happy to be around Kate Bush’s music. It would have been strange to go into a variety of studios – as she did for The Dreaming – and work with new personnel. Those outside of her family circle; people that might not be aware of her past music. They were just coming in as professionals without being confirmed fans perhaps. If Never for Ever was a happy time where there was more highs than lows, The Dreaming did seem to be more of a strain. A different type of work regime. Maybe more intense and longer hours with little time to relax and joke around.

I think 1981 is one of her most varied years. In terms of projects offered and the sort of stuff she was doing. There were the BBC TV programme Looking Good, Feeling Fit, later in 1981. Bush had a little break in October up in Scotland. A chance to unwind for a bit before being immersed once more in the recording process. In August, Kate Bush headed into Odyssey Studios with Paul Hardiman as engineer to record the overdubs on all tracks in a four-and-a-half month session. It was a really intense year that was punctuated by some nice diversions and moments. One of the great things that happened in 1981 is that, in May, she was offered the role of the Wicked Witch in the T.V. series Worzel Gummidge. Bush was offered a lot of film and T.V. roles. Nearly always having to turn them down, it would have been fascinating to see what could have been if Bush turned to the screen. Maybe too much of a distraction from the music and main passion. I always think that Bush, with more exposure and experience, she would have been a fine actor! I am going to finish off soon. I will take things up to June 1981:

June 1981

The video for Sat In Your Lap is made at Abbey Road.

June 21, 1981

Sat In Your Lap is released. A pivotal point in Kate's career”.

This really exhaustive and different way of working. Bush was solo producing for the first time, so maybe she was not giving herself enough time out and break. Look at what she did in 1981. There was the recording, though she also had some interviews and assortment of media appearances. 1982 was when The Dreaming was released. It was much more about getting the music finished and it promoted. 1981 was this balance between time in studios and some ‘outside’ time. Consider Never for Ever in 1980 and how it sounded and it was received. The next album was very different! The whole background was different too. When it was released into the world on 13th September, 1982, Bush’s career and the public perception of her would…

CHANGE in a radical way.

FEATURE: From the Screen to the Studio: Could the Next Step for the Beloved Hannah Waddingham Be a Debut Studio Album?

FEATURE:

 

 

From the Screen to the Studio

PHOTO CREDIT: The Standard

 

Could the Next Step for the Beloved Hannah Waddingham Be a Debut Studio Album?

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IT is not unusual for actors…

to have a separate career in music. As I have said in different features, actors do step into music and can find success. The other way around is more common I think. Artists such as Lady Gaga going into acting. Maybe it is more natural and easier from that experience of live performance and videos to transition into acting. Maybe actors need an extra level of experience to go into a studio or adapt to music. I guess there is a natural connection between the disciplines. An attraction that means we see some awesome artists take to the small and big screen. To me, it is harder and more appealing when actors go into music. It can be harder to get it right. Perhaps there is more pressure on their shoulders or that emphasis on the voice is more than you have on artists and their performances. I did hear that Florence Pugh was releasing an album. That was reported a while ago now. Let us hope that this happens next year. With an amazing voice that is quite deep and smoky, she old head in various sonic directions. Whether she is going to be more Folk and Indie or goes in a more Jazz and Soul direction (or splices them together), I know that it will be fantastic. When it comes to an actor born for thee studio, there is one that spring to mind. Hannah Waddingham, in addition to being a great actor and comic force, is someone who can definitely hold a tune!

Hannah Waddingham: Home for Christmas was shown in November. It is available to stream here. I am going to come to a review of it. Even if one might think Hannah Waddingham is suited more for Opera or maybe showtunes, I think that there are no limits when it comes to her music potential. It does seem, in the interview for Hannah Waddingham: Home for Christmas, the actor was looking to talk more about her music influences. I didn’t see any questions asking whether she would be interested in an album. I can see a studio album coming. Waddingham will get offers for stage work and musicals. I think an album that does not necessarily have to be theatrical could come to light. She could go in any direction. I want to start with an interview with Gay Times they were keen to find out more from one of the most loved humans in the world. Someone who is a national (British) treasure:

“Thank you, Hannah! Home for Christmas feels quintessentially you, which I can imagine is quite hard to do with Christmas because the genre has been rinsed to death. When creating this special, how did you make sure that it would scream Hannah Waddingham? Or rather, Wadders?

Because I think when you’re just off 50, you know who you are, and you know who you’re not. So, Apple were very kind listening to me and my manager and we wanted it to be exactly what we wanted it to be. They were totally along for the ride and really facilitated that. When we would have meetings, even in the first pitch I said, ‘It’s very important to me to have the London Gay Men’s Chorus because I’m a patron of theirs.’ I love the idea of them flooding the stage. I said, ‘It’s important that I acknowledge my mum and why we’re there. If I could have the English National Opera chorus, who have been uncles and aunties to me all my life, that would be an amazing privilege. And my guests have to be people that I have a connection with, regardless of whether they’re known or not. And I have to have a live, beautiful big band and I don’t want anyone on that stage who can’t cut it live. I want everything to be done so that we go back to a bygone era of live performances.’

Christmas is ruled by pop divas. We love the men, but not as much. Did you take any inspiration from any pop divas when doing this special?

No, basically! I really didn’t. I would never. That’s why I contest the whole “Queen of Christmas” thing because I think I’m a very different beast. I come from the acting world, the theatre world. And I think there’s room for all of us. I was very clear in my pitch that I wanted it to be, at its heart, a theatrical production because that’s in my bones. That’s all I’ve ever known. So, for my television audience to meet the theatre audience that I’ve come from and for it to be encapsulated on Apple TV+ as a platform to, hopefully be a hearty perennial, that’s all I really wanted. I wanted people to just forget their troubles, come in and feel like they’ve been absorbed into this glamorous, opulent environment.

I was absorbed. And you’re right, there can be multiple queens. Why does there have to be one?

Yeah, we’re all very different. I would never say that Mariah Carey was any more important than Kelly Clarkson or Michael Bublé. There’s room for all of us. All the food groups are represented.

When did you first notice the LGBTQ+ community’s support? You are huge with queer women, when I told my best friend who’s a lesbian, and my sister who’s a lesbian, that I was interviewing you… They went nuts.

I don’t know why I am! I really don’t know why I am. I mean, I’m here for it. I think probably in musical theatre, I would get a lot of letters back in the day, which is just so lovely and why I was so thrilled to do Eurovision as well. It was so lovely coming out on the stage and being engulfed by this gorgeous wave of support from the gay community”.

I am going to move onto Los Angeles Times and their interview with Hannah Waddingham. The more I read her words about the Christmas special, the more I think he infectiousness of performing live in a big show will compel Waddingham to go into the studio and maybe record some original material. It is clear that there would be big demand for an album from Hannah Waddinghgam:

“You become emotional at a couple of points, including when you talk about growing up in the theater and having your daughter, who was 8 at the time, in the coliseum watching you onstage at the same age you were when you watched your mother perform.

There was my little girl in the box I’d always been in — the most glorified, beautiful, stunning little toddler pen for me, where I would be left safely, and she was in there at exactly the same age. Then my mom was sitting at the back of the auditorium with my dad, but my mom has Parkinson’s and is in a wheelchair. When I was putting this together, I didn’t know whether either of my parents were going to make it through to see that day, and it got me. But I wanted to keep a lid on that, because it’s not good for your voice, and I had to sing “Oh, Holy Night” completely clean.

Why did you dedicate that specific song to your mom and daughter?

It’s my favorite beautiful, traditional Christmas song. Often Christmas specials are about the show, and I wanted it to really be a moment of quiet and focus. I wanted to let my guard down and sing for my mom and my daughter. I wanted to just be center stage, mike stand, no bells and whistles, and just say to people, “This is why I’m still here. I can still strip it back.” It was unbelievable the silence in the auditorium for that. I don’t know how I got through it, but it’s the best I’ve ever sung in my life.

Had you sung with the English National Opera Chorus before?

No. When the English National Opera Chorus heard that I was doing it at the coliseum and why, some of the opera singers from my mom’s era who are still there offered to come and sing with me. When they came to rehearse, they ran on the stage and were hugging me and crying going, “We couldn’t be more proud of you! We all watch everything you do!”

Tell me about some of those song choices and musical guests.

I didn’t want famous people for famous’ sake. I wanted people who mean something to me. Luke Evans and I have known each other since we were 20. Sam Ryder I think is just one of our greatest talents. “Please Come Home for Christmas” was on Leslie Odom Jr.’s album, and it made my head go dizzy. I thought, “I have to sing that with him.” Also, I said to my little girl, “You choose someone,” and before I even finished the sentence, she said “Leslie Odom Jr.!” She’s obsessed with “Hamilton”.

I am going to wrap things up soon. The Independent were among those who showed a lot of love for Hannah Waddingham: Home for Christmas. After a huge last few years that has seen her appear in huge shows like Ted Lassso, it must have been quite an event being at the London Coliseum:

“Hannah Waddingham must be knackered. The West End legend slash one-woman beacon of joy started off 2023 by saying goodbye to Ted Lasso, the big-hearted Apple TV+ football comedy that earned her legions of fans on both sides of the Atlantic. She returned to theatreland to preside over this year’s Olivier Awards, then earned national treasure status in the UK during her stint co-hosting the Eurovision Song Contest. It was a perfectly pitched performance in more ways than one: a classically trained singer, Waddingham hit all the high notes in musical segments and leaned into the competition’s inherent camp. And – move over Mariah – she’s just put in a double shift as the new Queen of Christmas, lending her megawatt grin to festive ad spots for M&S and Baileys.

Her last hurrah before clocking off for the festive season? Hannah Waddingham: Home for Christmas – an all-singing, all-dancing extravaganza for Apple, filmed at the London Coliseum. It’s reminiscent of those Audience With… specials that used to crop up on ITV’s Sunday night schedule – look closely and you’ll spot that channel’s poster boy Dermot O’Leary in the audience – but with some additional big-budget gloss (Waddingham and her guests are bathed in a glorious golden glow throughout). The perks of working with a megabucks tech giant, presumably – although Waddingham is definitely giving Apple its money’s worth. From the moment her cab pulls up outside the Coliseum, she’s belting out a festive ditty, charisma turned up to 11.

Once inside, she’s greeted by a receiving line of adoring Ted Lasso co-stars as she makes her way through the corridors; the effect is a bit like a very glamorous remake of Peter Kay’s “(Is This the Way to) Amarillo?” video. There’s just enough time for a sweet pep talk from her young daughter Kitty before Waddingham sweeps onto the stage, resplendent in a sequinned gown straight out of Dreamgirls (her dress code, she quips later, is “Christmas business casual”).

What follows is essentially an old-fashioned variety show. The musical numbers are interspersed with a smattering of physical comedy (spare a thought for poor Nick Mohammed, aka Ted Lasso’s Coach Nate, who spends much of the run time suspended from the rafters after being “hoist by his own petard”, as Waddingham puts it) and a few sketches that double up as Richmond AFC reunions. Her Lasso co-stars put in a game performance, mugging for the cameras like court jesters while dancing on stage in tailcoats and brandishing candy canes, although some of their skits seem to be more of an excuse to trade compliments and “love you’s” rather than punchlines.

There’s also the obligatory appearance from 2022 Eurovision runner-up Sam Ryder, plus duets with Hamilton’s Lesley Odom Jr, matching Waddingham’s sartorial splendour in a quilted silver suit, and with Beauty and the Beast’s Luke Evans (the pair share a friendship going back two decades). Phil Dunster, who plays Ted Lasso’s Grealish-like Jamie Tartt, also gets the chance to soft-launch a potential side hustle as a Bublé-esque crooner when he gatecrashes a rendition of “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”.

Waddingham is full of effusive praise for her guests (“I love you to bits and bits and bits!” she exclaims to Dunster and singing duo The Fabulous Lounge Swingers, after their song) – of course it’s a little luvvy-ish (what did you expect, darling?) but the overall effect is one of winning sincerity. The Coliseum is a venue weighted with emotional significance for the star. Her mother, the aptly named Melodie Kelly, was a mezzo-soprano in the English National Opera, she tells us, and the young Hannah would spend hours watching her perform there. No wonder she gets a bit weepy when she dedicates “O Holy Night” to her parents and her own daughter”.

We have seen great examples of actors who are natural musicians. That they have this awesome voice or a natural affinity for music. From Jeff Goldblum to Zendaya, there are these cases of actors naturally taking to music. I do think that Hannah Waddingham could be a classic case of an acclaimed and established actor going the studio via acting and theatre. Maybe people have their ideas of what her sound would be. She is someone unpredictable in terms of her roles, so you couldn’t really guess where she might head. After the hugely positive reception of Hannah Waddingham: Home for Christmas, there is that curiosity and desire. Maybe 2024 is a year when we will see a debut studio album from one of…

THE adored Hannah Waddingham.

FEATURE: Spotlight: Lip Filler

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

 

Lip Filler

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A band with a dedicated following…

and live shows that definitely set them out for greatness, I wanted to spend time with Lip Filler. The five-piece consist of  Jude Scholefield, Nate Wicks, George Tucker, Verity Hughes and Theo Pasmore. The band’s eponymous E.P. was released back in May. It is a fantastic release from the extraordinary quintet. I cannot wait to see where they head next. I am going to end with a review from one of their recent shows. Before that, it is worth getting to some interviews. So that we can learn a bit more. Mancunion spoke with Lip Filler earlier in the year. With their lead having the same kind of vocal sound and swagger of Jamie T, I was intrigued from the start. However, the more I learn about the band’s history and dynamic, the more compelled I am to dig deep:

“We recline on backwards-arcing, blood-red chairs in one of Dot to Dot’s many hand-picked venues, as singer/keyboardist George Tucker reflects on their previous show in Bristol with a zealous glow: “Honestly, last night went f*cking smoothly… We actually came off stage with no complaints or issues, it was great. We even said before coming up here, we may as well get pissed beforehand ‘cos we played so well last night.” The mop-haired singer’s disbelief at the lack of on-stage issues speaks wonders about Lip Filler, a band equally inspired by the D.I.Y mentality of punk rock as by the uncontrollable spiralling of The Libertines.

The frontman’s tongue-in-cheek proposal for a day of drinking before the gig is quickly mediated however by guitarist/singer Verity Hughes, seemingly the level-headed one behind Lip Filler’s organised chaos: “Nah, we’re gonna play well tonight. Give the people of Nottingham their due diligence … We’ve checked out the venues here, and it’s nice … I like the street where Black Cherry Lounge is … there’s some nice little venues tucked neatly around there.”

Lip Filler seem happy to be out of their native sphere of the London music scene – a scene which I gather through their insights to be equally suffocating as it is stimulating: “Gigs in London are cliquey as f*ck”, the quiet, but barbarously witty, Nate Wicks (drums) asserts. I, somewhat shamelessly, ask if this is another way of saying that all the bands in London sleep with each other: “Well, we are figuratively in bed with each other.”

In a genre full of pretension and attempted crypticness, it’s refreshing to see a group of indie rockers express a childlike enthusiasm for travelling to new cities (even if it be a Midlands one), and a grateful disbelief at strangers singing along to their tunes. Lip Filler are truly a band in their heyday, with no sign of youthfulness fading: “Well, if it was anything like last night… we’re gonna have fun”, Theo Pasmore, Lip Filler’s shaggy-haired bass extraordinaire, states with a humble confidence.

PHOTO CREDIT: Holly Whitaker

Lip Filler take pride in their D.I.Y approach, not just to their music, but to every aspect of the group’s image and admin: “There was this Instagram ad that we put out when we dropped ‘Haircut’… this video of me and Jude in the kitchen… just, like, pissing about. Really hyperactive, really skitty… I think that got out to a lot of people somehow. […] We just get crazy ideas for ads… I’m confident that we’re more involved with the advertising side of things than most bands are. Every visual aspect of our band… I’m sure most bands are very hands-on with their marketing, but I feel like we must be more involved with it, surely? I’ve edited all the music videos we’ve put out. We’re really full-on about it.” This is echoed succinctly, with a dry self-deprecation, by George’s drummer: “We pride ourselves on our… skits.”

Even though George is undoubtedly the frontman, he’s more than happy to share the stage with his bandmates Jude and Verity. Lip Filler are a band with three singers – think Fleetwood Mac but without the failing marriages. “I respect these guys so much… I used to go to the Straight Faces’ [Jude and Verity’s teenage band] gigs all the time, like, I’d watch their gigs when I was a kid. I love the sounds of these guys’ voices – and with ‘Monster Truck’, I wouldn’t have it any other f*cking way. It’s so great how we bounce off of each other the way we do.”

Jude expands on this democracy: “I think all of our creative decisions are only in the best interest of the track. When you first start playing, I think you’re all in this state where you’re like ‘right, f*ck – this is my part’, like you’ve got to be heard individually. Whereas now we’re all at this stage where we can take a step back.” There’s a competitive element here, but not one between the bandmates themselves: ‘The competition is to find the best idea. In that respect, you’re not competing with anyone” Nate judiciously outlines. There is a genuine affection beneath the bandmates’ interactions, a mutual respect for musical projects both old and new – and, impressively for an indie rock frontman, an eager encouragement towards other bandmates taking the lead on vocals”.

There is a load of buzz and love around Lip Filler. The Indie Scene sat down and spend some time with the band about their new E.P. and where they want to head from here. They are quite new out of the block. I think that what they have produced on their debut E.P. stands them aside for, other bands coming through. Next year will be a big one for them:

“Who or what are your biggest influences?

Always a tough one as it’s a big old melting pot. We each tend to have our own individual influences then some shared ones too — if that makes sense. Nilüfer Yanya, Radiohead, LCD Soundsystem and Blur to name a few.

Congrats on your recently released EP. How long did it take to make and did this include any long, late night studio sessions?

All the instrumental tracks we recorded in more or less two days at Narcissus Studio in West London; we had a good few nights doing vocals and tidying things up with St Francis Hotel at his studio. Never too late though as we’re very sensible kids.

Which song within the EP was the most satisfying to make?

Tough question, you’ll probably get different answers from all of us. Gotta be between Cool and Monster Truck though. Cool because it was the first song we released as a demo and Monster Truck because it was the latest song we’d written at the time. So, even though they’re completely opposite reasons: one because we knew it like the back of our hand and the other because it was super fresh and exciting to work on.

Any festivals you’d like to be on the bill for in the near future?

I mean there’s one festival that starts with G that any band would say at this point. Apart from that I guess any and all really, the fun thing about festivals is being able to cut a tiny little slice of whatever city you’re in, ram it in ya gob then you’re off. That’s the fun bit, exploring the country and making weird memories.

What’s next for you guys? Can’t wait to see what’s on the horizon!

We’re constantly writing, recording, making demos and all that good stuff so I guess we’ll have to see. If we come up with anything good we’ll let you know”.

Ahead of a run of dates that happened earlier in the year, FORM got some insight from the band about how being based out of London affects their sound. Lip Filler were preparing to perform gigs in South, North, West and East London. It was a great way of spreading the gospel of Lip Filler. It is clear that their live shows set them out as future legends:

“Ahead of their first of four headline shows across London this summer, we had a little chat with Chess Club’s latest signees Lip Filler about their inspirations, how their live show compares to Madame Tussaud’s and why they decided to play in each corner of the capital this year.

1.     WHAT MADE YOU DECIDE THAT ONE LONDON SHOW WASN’T ENOUGH, AND YOU ABSOLUTELY HAD TO GO ROUND THE COMPASS ON YOUR UPCOMING X4 DATE TOUR OF THE CITY?

In a democratic vote we discovered that the band like the number four more than it likes the number one. We got a bit excited by this and went all out and booked four venues. Later that night right we found a compass, realised it had four points and just laughed in complete disbelief then thanked god

2.     YOU’VE TOUCHED ON THE OVERSTIMULATION OF LONDON LIFE IN PREVIOUS INTERVIEWS, HOW WOULD YOU SAY THIS HAS AFFECTED LIP FILLERS’ SOUND?

I mean when you’re all cooped up in the same place together, I think creative processes can maybe become overstimulating too and I feel that’s kind of reflected in the songs we write. Whether it be structurally or just some wack ass noise thrown in randomly, I think Lip Filler wouldn’t be fillin’ if we weren’t overstimulated 24hrs a day, 7 days a week, 4 weeks a month, 12 months a year, 10 years a decade.

3.     LIP FILLER IS STILL VERY YOUNG, BUT YOUR TWO RELEASED SINGLES (‘COOL’ AND ‘HAIRCUT’) ARE ALREADY DISTINCTIVE WITH YOUR SOUND. DID YOU HAVE A CLEAR IDEA OF WHAT YOU WANTED LIP FILLER TO SOUND LIKE WHEN FORMING?

Haha, not at all. We don’t even know what we sound like now, let alone when we started. We’re still figuring that one out but the best way to do so is just to continue writing bangers. Bangers. Yeah. Mash. Bang.

4.     WHAT DOES THE FUTURE LOOK LIKE FOR THE BAND?

The future looks bright with a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow; a rider with pineapple juice, a pack of Sauvignon Duals and pre-cooked Richmond sausages. We also got a busy summer so follow us on Instagram and keep an eye out for our festival dates.

5.     FOR SOMEONE WHO HAS NEVER HAD THE PRIVILEGE OF ATTENDING A LIP FILLER SHOW, WHAT SHOULD PEOPLE EXPECT FROM YOUR UPCOMING LIVE DATES?

Expect: impeccable timing; smiles and fun for a straight 40mins; incredible support acts; George’s frontman-ship; umm pyrotechnics and an all round unforgettable experience comparable to Madame Tussaud’s”.

I am going to finish off now. I know there will be more interviews with the group in 2024. They have had a pretty busy year all in all. Some memorable and killer live sets that have been well received and brought in new fans. On 30th June, from the Shepherd’s Bush flat where the band formed and all live, NME caught they play an intimate gig that was made to sound pretty epic:

“To gain access to Lip Filler’s final date of their Double Decker tour, first you have to meet them in the pub. Fans who have purchased tickets to previous dates of the tour – which encompasses north, south, east and now west London – have been invited to a special secret show in Shepherd’s Bush. When you spot the buzzy, excitable five-piece, they then lead you down the street, into an alleyway, through the store room of a chicken shop and up the back stairs into the flat where they all live and write music together.

Inside, the band treat their humble abode like it’s The O2. A pop-up merch stand (a piece of A4 detailing prices for a few items) is set up in the kitchen, before guitarist Verity Hughes leads NME upstairs to the “cinema room,” which is looping the band’s music videos, tour diaries and more on the TV. “This is the room where we formed,” she tells us, delighting in creating the band’s own folklore at such an early stage.

Across a small number of live shows in the capital and a self-titled debut EP released in May, Lip Filler have developed a reputation as a rowdy, sunny-side-up indie band imbuing their sound and their shows with pure chaos. Inside guitarist Jude Scholefield’s bedroom, they begin their set with ‘Cool’, a track that positions frontman George Tucker as a Jamie T for a new generation, rowdy but thoughtful and always energetic. On ‘Monster Truck’ though, he’s closer to King Krule, sitting on the grubby end of the indie spectrum and letting darkness take over.

PHOTO CREDIT: Richard Mukuze

Across seven songs, including an encore because – miraculously in 2023 – the neighbours haven’t complained yet, drinks are thrown and cigarettes are burned into the carpet in a set of unbridled energy that rarely feels possible in this age. It also helps that Lip Filler want to play way, way bigger venues than this room.

“All the way to the back!” Hughes shouts out of the bedroom and to the cluster of people watching from the landing to encourage a singalong on ‘Monster Truck’, like she’s on the Pyramid Stage. “We’ve been very extra,” a sweaty Jude tells NME with a smile on the back stairs after the show. “We got a smoke machine and a strobe light!”

In August, Lip Filler will move out of the flat that birthed them and disperse across London. With new music coming, this show, which serves as the end of their first era, is a tantalising glimpse into their ambitions for the future”.

A debut E.P. and a growing reputation means that Lip Filler are going to among the groups tipped for big things in 2024. They have already provided their live chops. With songs that are perfect to get crowds going but are also primed for some of the best radio stations around, there is no telling how far they can go! If you do not know about Lip Filler, then do make sure that you check them out now. Next year is going to be one where the five-piece transition…

TO the next level.

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Follow Lip Filler

FEATURE: Restacking the Deck: Whilst There Is Greater Exposure for Women D.J.s, There Is Still a Bias and Imbalance That Needs Addressing

FEATURE:

 

 

Restacking the Deck

IN THS PHOTO: Peggy Gou is one of the world’s most renowned and talented D.J.s

 

Whilst There is Greater Exposure for Women D.J.s, There Is Still a Bias and Imbalance That Needs Addressing

__________

THERE have been plenty of features written…

IN THIS PHOTO: D.J. Rowena Alice

and testimony from female D.J.s like Annie Mac, we hear that her and her peers are often dismissed. There is tokenism or the sense that they are less talented than their male peers. I am going to come to a feature that DJ Mag published where they listed the one-hundred top D.J.s. You can see that, among their hundred names, there are very few women! I am going to see how gender discrimination exists when it comes to women D.J.s and whether they are being included and celebrated. Whilst there is greater progress regarding the success of and focus on transgender and queer D.J.s - and women D.J.s playing in gay clubs -, is that the story across the board?! If things seem a bit bleak in some regards, the fact that female D.J.s are playing twice as many gigs as their male counterparts suggests that the industry is opening up to their talent and drive. Does this reflect a rare moment of progress and opportunity…or is it the fact that women feel like they have to grind and push that much harder to get enough exposure to get similar recognition to men?! I personally think that the latter is true, though some would say that there is now an improvement regarding recognition of female D.J.s. NME recently reported the figures around the gig ratio between men and women:

“According to a new study, it has been reported that female DJs play twice as many shows as male DJs.

The study from music tech company A2D2, made by using data from DJ Mag’s Top 100, revealed that women may have to work twice as hard as men in order to reach the same recognition as them. A2D2 reported that although only 11 female artists appeared on the list, they account for 40 per cent of the top 10 hardest-working DJs.

A2D2’s research read: “Delving further into the data, we identified that on average female DJs gig nearly twice as hard as the men on the list.”

It continued: “The average number of gigs for a male DJ was 13 in 2023, whereas the female DJ’s average was 23, quite a considerable difference. This speaks volumes about their determination to make a mark in an industry historically dominated by males.”

The data also determined that house and techno were the UK’s most dominant genres in 2023, while German and Belgian DJs were rising in popularity. The music tech company said that their analysis “further identified the dominance of House and Techno in the UK’s EDM landscape as over a third of the DJs analysed specialise in these thumping tunes”.

Like all my features regarding gender equality, I don’t want it to become simply about gender. What I mean is that female D.J.s do not want to be labelled ‘female D.J.s’. They just want to be ‘D.J.s’. Of course, as we are talking about women and opportunities, I want to highlight the fact that there is inequality. Some incredible women D.J.s do need to be given opportunity. Rather than it being tokenism or box-ticking booking a woman to D.J., it should be a case of recognising the wealth of talent  out there. Have things moved on from some dark and sexist days?! I am looking back to a couple of features from 2022 (this, from 2021, spotlighted women D.J.s and music industry figures battling gender discrimination). The first, from The Guardian, talks about Dance festivals and line-ups. I know there are different aspects to D.J.s and where they play. Whether in gay clubs or mainstream festivals, there is a range in fortunes and diversity when it comes to the D.J.s. In 2022, Jaguar spoke about her experiences as a D.J. and how club and festival lineups are overwhelmingly dominated by male artists.

“In the 1970s and 80s, dance music was born from minorities – the LGBTQ+ communities and Black and Brown people in Chicago, New York and Detroit – as a means of escapism and freedom from a world that was not built for them. The disfranchised created a microcosm to express themselves and feel safe. If you look at top-tier DJs and festival lineups in the UK in 2022, however, this doesn’t add up. Calvin Harris, Fatboy Slim, David Guetta – white men dominate the modern electronic scene, mirroring the world we live in, and those not part of the canon face many challenges.

My report, Progressing Gender Representation in UK Dance Music, is a deep dive into the gender disparity among artists within the UK electronic music scene. The seeds of the report were sown during the pandemic, when I became a DJ with no gigs. In a period of reflection, inspired by the Black Lives Matter protests, I questioned what I really wanted from my career.

I found my purpose. On my BBC Radio 1 shows, championing minorities was already a priority, but I wanted to do more to make UK dance music a more equal place for the next generation. In 2020, I launched Future1000 with Virtuoso, a free, online initiative where women, trans and non-binary people aged 12 to 18 can learn to DJ, in an accessible way. While researching the report I couldn’t find many official resources with data about gender in dance music, so the Jaguar Foundation was born and we decided to create our own research and provide solutions to gender inequality.

Through interviews with UK dance music artists, industry heavyweights, and those already lobbying for change in this area, we put together a strong narrative around what the challenges are, and what we can do to accelerate existing progress. This was backed up by plenty of data analysis, looking at festival lineups, radio airplay and the gender of ticket buyers at club nights.

Just 5% of dance songs in the charts were made exclusively by women and non-binary artists. On radio it was 1%

The findings show a lack of diversity in dance music’s live ecosystem, both on lineups and behind the scenes, and how women and – even more so – trans and non-binary people fall victim to not fitting into the “boys’ club”. For me, the most shocking results were linked to more mainstream representation. When we analysed data from the Official Charts Company, just 5% of dance songs were made exclusively by women and non-binary artists. On radio – and this breaks my heart – it was 1%. And regarding electronic festival lineups in 2022, we found that only 28% of the artists are female or non-binary; at larger festivals that shrinks to 15%. How many of those women or non-binary people are the headliners? Hardly any – just look at major festival lineups this summer, where big male headliners still dominate.

One solution we provide in the report is that of the inclusivity rider: a booking contract clause stating that the artist will only play on a lineup if there is least one other woman, trans or non-binary person, or a person of colour, playing alongside them. If everyone had one, especially dominant male DJs, we would see accelerated change. The big male DJs would still get booked, but the lineup becomes more diverse. Diverse lineups lead to diverse audiences; stats show that ticket buyers reflect who’s on the bill.

An inclusivity rider is also important when it comes to safety for women and non-binary people. As a DJ, you’re travelling around at unsociable hours, often alone. Not everyone has a tour manager, booking agent or someone to accompany them. I’ve been in situations where I’ve felt uncomfortable when travelling. I know a DJ whose drink was spiked in the green room at their own show. In the report, DJ Ifeoluwa talks about being punched in a club. They reported it to the bouncer who did nothing. Many of the women and non-binary DJs we spoke to experienced having men jump into the booth and start playing with their mixers. Now some of these artists have a safety clause in their contract stating that no one can be behind the decks during their set.

There are other challenges for women and non-binary people too, such as the added pressure of how they look. Too often I’ve read comments referring to the success of some women DJs being down to their attractiveness. I have friends who dress androgynously when they DJ – or do anything front-facing – because they’re afraid to oversexualise themselves and be judged. During a DJ live stream my friend didn’t wear a bra and all the comments were about her nipples, rather than her performance. It negatively affected her mental health and confidence. It’s exhausting to have to battle through all this every day. When I did my first Boiler Room session this year, I was so nervous – not about the gig, but about what trolls were going to say in the comments.

I hope that Progressing Gender Representation in UK Dance Music becomes a launch pad to make positive change. I would love for CEOs of record labels, venues, or booking agencies to read it and start to question everything, especially the male gatekeepers in our industry. Ask yourself: are the acts on my roster diverse? Am I doing enough to welcome minorities? Are the women and non-binary colleagues being treated with respect? I need you to really look inside, acknowledge the findings, start again if you have to, and do the work”.

If many festivals and clubs still have a long way to go, it is clear that the queer clubs and queer club nights are embracing women. In an industry where female D.J.s have been seen as less technically skilled as men and able, then there are a new wave – such as Peggy Gou, Charlotte de Witte, Arielle Free, Rowena Alice, and Carly Wilford etc. – who are incredible D.J.s and artists in their own right. This article from The Guardian highlights how women D.J.s are getting their dues in some safe and embracing spaces:

“In recent years, there have been greater efforts to establish equality through initiatives such as Smirnoff’s Equalising Music campaign; this year the He.She.They collective are supplying Ibiza’s only lineup with a 50/50 gender balance. Despite this, there are still concerns about the gender pay gap. Every Forbes list of highest-paid DJs since 2012, which also accounts for endorsements and record sales, consists solely of men. “You have the Blessed Madonna working with artists such as Dua Lipa, but financially she’s not getting a look in, and we have to ask ourselves why,” says Paulette, who longs for a “female equivalent to Carl Cox, Pete Tong and Calvin Harris”.

IN THIS PHOTO: DJ Paulette/PHOTO CREDIT: Lee Baxter

The assumption that women are still underappreciated, though, is arguably a heteronormative one: in queer scenes, they’re thriving. McDermott is still heavily involved with Manchester’s queer scene, on Suffragette City, a non-profit night that raises funds for women’s refuge and trans support charities, and all-inclusive festival Homobloc, an extension of longstanding party Homoelectric. “To see such a mixture of young and old, to see all our trans siblings and non-binary kids … I didn’t imagine I would see it in my lifetime,” she says emotionally. “There are still battles to be had, but it’s incredible.”

Paulette has historically been welcomed with open arms in the queer scene with mainstream clubs playing catch-up. “For years I didn’t work on the straight scene at all,” she says. “There were two separate circuits going on.” McDermott thinks this disparity partly comes down to the way women tend to DJ. “Women will often play what they want to dance to, or enjoy, rather than have their heads down and only think about technical stuff,” she says, identifying “an openness about the passion that sometimes doesn’t cut through with [straight] guys.”

In recent years, in part due to livestreaming of DJ sets, there has been an increased emphasis on DJs’ technical ability, and women have often been scrutinised and subjected to sexist comments. Murphy recalls worrying about online abuse in the lead-up to her first Boiler Room set, and even DJs who have emerged in the age of social media are similarly wary. DJ and broadcaster Jamz Supernova, who all three women highlight as someone leading the charge for the next generation, points to a minor mistake she made in a live stream for DJ Mag. “I had one clanger and my thought instantly wasn’t on the people who were there vibing and who didn’t seem to notice, but on the comment section,” she says.

There is also the pressure, often driven by social media, to remain “relevant” to a young audience – but these older DJs refuse to be cowed. “Ten years ago, I was told that no promoter will ever employ a Black female DJ with grey hair,” Paulette says. “I just thought: I’m gonna grow the biggest fucking grey afro and I’m going to work better than I have ever worked in my entire life.” Jamz Supernova says that it’s particularly important to her to be a mother figure to younger artists. “When I was going to raves, [I thought] there were no women,” she says. “Now I’m working my way back historically: it’s not as if they weren’t there, they just weren’t in my periphery.”

Is there yet more work to be done? “We should keep striving forward,” says Supernova. “I’m loving all the amazing south Asian and trans DJs who are appearing more on lineups.” All the women hail the very real change that has been happening in club culture. “There’s been a lot of advancement in the last five years,” says Murphy. “People who have been around for decades are starting to get more notice.” McDermott agrees: “The next generation has got it. I think they’ll be all right”.

There are incredible women out there. From amazing Black women D.J.s to a list of the women D.J.s too good to be ignored, there is definitely a lot of talent out there! That new finding about women playing many more gigs a year than men shows that there are opportunities. Does that indicate the fact they still have to push that much harder just to be heard, or is it more of an improvement?! There is no doubt of the calibre out there in terms of club D.J.s. From Rowena Alice and Peggy Gou, through to Charlotte de Witte and Alison Wonderland, through to the queens that are succeeding in the gay club scene, I wonder why we still have features like this - and those that seem to suggest men are dominating when it comes to quality. As an addressment and tackling of gender inequality, there are female collectives. This is aimed at ensuring bills do not have just one woman – a ‘token woman’ –, and that there is more balance. Something I have not mentioned too is that, when you have gender imbalance and one female D.J., there is that lack of protection. I recently reacted to a song by Georgie Riot, Something Something and Ruth Royall called Dark Days. It is a song that talks about violence against women. Experiences so many women D.J.s have faced. There is still so many cases of women being sexually assaulted whilst they perform. In such loud and often packed spaces, it hard to police these crimes - and yet they do not to be confronted. D.J.s like Rebekah are fighting against this through Dance music. In addition to inequality, there is also that danger women face during and after their sets. Mingling or working their way through the crowds, they are vulnerable to abuse.

IN THIS PHOTO: Ruth Royall

This article states why there need to be collectives for women. So that there is not a sole woman D.J. on a line-up at a club or festivals. There is also that protective nature. A chance for collaboration and demonstration of the incredible and varied talent that is out there:

“But why is this the case? Seemingly, other areas of the music scene do not display this same level of sexism. Yet as a whole, the backbone of the industry is certainly male-dominated, with females making up a mere 2.6% of music producers, hence why female DJs remain so under-represented. This has led to the perception that there aren’t actually many women interested in DJing, when in reality the industry is not actively trying to give these women visibility.

The result has been a drive for all-female collectives. Paving the way for this collaborative stance was Nancy Noise and Lisa Loud in the UK’s Second Summer of Love in the late 80s. With the rise of acid house and the electronic scene, these DJs stood out as two of the few women visible within this culture.

Rather than being a lone DJ, a trend has emerged where women’s success as DJs is dependent on these collective strategies.

PHOTO CREDIT: Yasin Aydın/Pexels

Female collectives seek to be an empowering force, focusing on diversity and inclusivity for women in the scene and highlighting the importance of strength in numbers for representation. These collectives have initiated conversations that have been crucial to change yet also highlight the sad reality that they are needed in the first place.

This need for female collectives can be contrasted to the unspoken collectives which male DJs partake in. Whilst male hegemony has meant male collectives are not a necessity for their visibility, male DJs nonetheless form gender-based alliances. Upholding their dominance in the scene, these DJs tend to publicly support their male friends, which contributes to all-male set lineups. This exclusivity has been acknowledged by many female DJs who claim these unspoken male collectives are what dominates the field. Often, being a DJ proves to be about who knows who, and an unwillingness to branch out in recognition of new female talent.

In light of these all-male lineups there is an overwhelming need for balance as it is not enough to just have one girl on a lineup where they become the ‘token’ female DJ.

MC Lioness has spoken out on this issue. As one of the leading ladies in grime, the self-named Lioness argues that although her skills match that of any of her male counterparts but in being one of the only female MCs she is often presented as a ‘token’ female MC.

To be the singular woman on an otherwise all-male lineup is not only daunting but leaves these DJs exposed to verbal and sexual harrassment when performing. London born-and-raised Sherelle exemplifies the need for collectives in order to battle this tokenism and to feel safe and supported when playing events. Until recently Sherelle was part of 6 Figure Gang, a collective joined together by friendship and a mutual affinity for all things bass. It is this collaboration which helped Sherelle to find her own voice in the scene”.

There is a lot to unpack still. It is evident there are so many incredible women D.J.s. Of course, it shouldn’t be able gender and dividing. However, at a time when there is still imbalance and less recognition compared to male D.J.s, there needs to be changes. Polls are being published that still list male D.J.s as superior and essential – whereas women are in the minority. For so long, the decks have been stacked against women. Environments where they are subjected to abuse and assault. One or two women on a bill. With news that women are getting more gigs than men and there is this drive and determination, perhaps things will change soon. It shows that there is this culture where women have to fight and play longer. An industry still imbalanced. Let’s hope that next year is one where there is a…

RESTACKING of the decks.

FEATURE: Get Your Sh!t Together… Issa Rae’s Power Critique of the Music Industry and the Way It Debases Black Women

FEATURE:

 

 

Get Your Sh!t Together…

IN THIS PHOTO: Actor Issa Rae’s series, Rap Sh!t, both celebrates and highlights the razor-sharp wit and warmth of Black women in Hip-Hop, in addition to showing how they are debased and consumes them/PHOTO CREDIT: Cass Bird for ELLE

 

Issa Rae’s Power Critique of the Music Industry and the Way It Debases Black Women

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I recently wrote a feature …

 IMAGE CREDIT: Max

around rapper Megan Thee Stallion and how there was a lot of misogynoir around her when she said she was shot by Tory Lanez (who is serving a ten-year sentence for shooting her). The fact that many thought she was lying. This sort of questioning of credibility is something that a lot of women face daily. It is rife in the music industry. Being belittled, gaslight and abused. Black female artists face it more than anyone else. There seems to be this discrimination and unflinching misogynoir that has been present through Rap and Hip-Hop for a while now. It seems that there is no rest for Megan Thee Stallion. Someone who is always being called out and discredited. She is not the only example of a Black woman in Rap getting this sort of treatment. In a music scene that treats Black female rappers often as side characters, the confident and incredible powerhouses like Megan Thee Stallion and Trina are influential and empowering women around the world. I will come to some research and words I might have already used for that Megan Thee Stallion feature. This may not seem like the most festive feature – as it is Christmas Eve! -, though it is important to tackle misogyny and misogyny through the music industry. It is my thoughts again as actor Issa Rae (who recently appeared in Barbie) highlights the insidious nature of the music business. The way Black women, especially throughout Rap, are debased dehumanised, disbelieved and demeaned. Rap Sh!t shines a spotlight (or blacklight, given the grubbiness on display) on an industry that needs to clean itself up and tackle its discrimination and disrespect against Black women. From the start, it is important to point out that is a drama/comedy and not a documentary. It features fictional rappers and their story (though I think there is a touch of City Girls to them), though it is an accurate and relatable portrayal of what Black women in Hip-Hop face. Written by and starring Aida Osman, there are episodes directed by Amy Aniobi and Ava Berkofsky (and starring RJ Cyler).

I usually quote chunks from articles. On this occasion, as The Guardian’s feature about Rap Sh!t has so much important detail, I will leave it unedited. It is alarming learning what Black woman through Hip-Hop have to endure. How they are perceived. A lack of respect. Maybe the scene is not as bad as it was years ago. It is clear there is still a very long way to go:

“Actor and writer Issa Rae once called the music business “probably the worst industry I’ve ever come across”. In a 2021 interview with the Los Angeles Times, Rae criticized the business as “abusive”, full of “crooks and criminals”.

“I thought Hollywood was crazy. The music industry, it needs to start over,” Rae said.

Rap Sh!t, Rae’s latest series since her critically acclaimed Insecure, acts as a fable on the music business’s insidious nature. The dramedy, following two emerging Black female rappers, is a razor-sharp and hilarious study on how Black women navigate the industry and the cost of carving out space for one’s self. Now in its second season, Rap Sh!t provides a stinging critique of how the music industry consumes and debases Black women, while also offering a hilarious and heartfelt story of two underdogs pursuing their dreams.

The show follows two up-and-coming female rappers from Miami, navigating the underbelly of the music industry while figuring out early adulthood. Shawna (Aida Osman) is a hotel receptionist, trying to build a legitimate rap career. She is frustrated on multiple fronts: the stagnation of her artist following and the pressure she faces to use her sexuality to inspire attention.

While talented, clips of her delivering socially conscious raps in a mask only garner pithy likes. “I want people to focus on the lyricism,” Shawna quips, when asked why she hides her face.

Mia (KaMillion) is a single mother working three jobs, including a popularish OnlyFans. Compared to Shawna’s sanctimoniousness, Mia embraces her sexuality and the pleasure that comes with it. But she struggles with her own feelings of being adrift, especially in the face of balancing parenthood and her aspirations. When the two reconnect on a night out, they write the ever-catchy song Seduce and Scheme. Once it goes viral, Shawna and Mia embark on a tour with tour manager and sex work manager Chastity (Jonica Booth).

Rap Sh!t emerges as Black female rappers continue to dominate the airwaves, from Miami duo City Girls to Megan Thee Stallion. Their music is empowering and fun, with lyrics that embrace the freedom of being sexual, feminine and dominant as the world tries to dictate otherwise.

Spliced with videos from Instagram and Tik Tok, season one focused on the currency of clout as a tool (and detriment) for emerging artists to be seen. But season two sinks into an even darker terrain. Having now achieved the “dream” of a tour, Shawna and Mia are met with the rotten core of the music space.

The writers of Rap Sh!t confidently touch upon a kaleidoscope of issues, including clout, cultural appropriation and misogyny within rap. Reina (Kat Cunning), a white rapper, gains more notoriety than Shawna and Mia, despite having less talent. She is able to cosplay as Black, hairstyle and all, a wink to known racial chameleons like Iggy Azalea.

Music producer Francois (Jaboukie Young-White), who invited both women on the tour, treats them as pawns, grabbing on their coattails to ride their wave of success while passing them off as soon as another opportunity emerges.

The show also continues Rae’s legacy of delivering hilarious, realistic portrayals of Black women. For five seasons, Rae starred in Insecure, which followed the daily lives and romantic relationships of Issa (played by Rae) and her best friend Molly (Yvonne Orji). The show was rightfully described as groundbreaking for its rejection of cliche and its attention to the everyday disappointments that mark real life.

Rap Sh!t also includes Rae’s attention and reverence of Black female friendship. Shawna and Mia are frequently each other’s last defense against the toxic treatment of the music industry, especially in the face of abusive men. Between stops on tour, they share details of their sexual and romantic relationships, sleepover-style.

But the show also includes grittier topics of poverty, abuse, and mental health. Shawna, Mia and Chastity all struggle to make ends meet while embarking on what is supposed to be a life-changing tour. Even those who have “made it” are notably miserable as their turn with fame and success proves to be poisonous.

Rap Sh!t feels ever more relevant amid the real life degradation of Black female talent, including the assault of Megan Thee Stallion and the subsequent mistreatment of her. It acts as a mirror and interrogation of these events, an engaging and funny depiction of how the music industry really “works”.

We live in a time when I think a lot of women in Pop are less sexualised and expressive than before through fear of abuse and misogyny. Being judged, shamed or criticised for being explicit or simply confident. This is definitely happening in Hip-Hop! Affecting incredible Black female rappers who are using their music to feel liberated and celebrate their bodies. Linking to Rap Sh!t and the misogynoir in the industry, I can bring in this feature from earlier in the year. Alongside this wave of Rap queens defiantly embraced their sexuality comes those who turn it against them:

“Women in rap have been making music about their bodies and sexual endeavors since its inception. In a new era of sexual liberation and body positivity, contemporary female rappers ranging from Megan Thee Stallion and Latto to Sexyy Red and Sukihana are channeling the fearless candidness of their predecessors, unapologetically expressing their sexuality and desires on tracks that have also become some of rap’s biggest hits in recent years. Despite this, it’s been unfortunate and frustrating to see some people use these artists’ hypersexualized personas against them, particularly in excusing abuse and unwanted sexual advances from men.

This problem came to a head this week, when videos surfaced of YK Osiris forcing himself on Sukihana for a kiss at the Crew League basketball tournament in Atlanta. In clips shared online, it’s clear that she’s shocked by his advances and is trying to dodge them, but no one helps her. Amid these clips going viral, a video from a three-month-old episode of Kandi Burruss’ Kandi Koated podcast surfaced, with the clip showing Burruss’ co-host A1 making aggressive sexual advances toward Sukihana.

Although visibly uncomfortable in the interview, Sukihana tries her best to navigate it, laughing off A1’s advances and even telling him he’s being aggressive. Still, the co-host doesn’t get the hint, instead continuing his advances and arguing that Sukihana liked them, with no one coming to the rapper’s defense.

In 2022, Latto shared how she dealt with sexual harassment leading up to the release of her debut album, 777. During an appearance on Big Boy’s Neighborhood, the rapper alleged that one of the people featured on her album initially wouldn’t clear the song because she wouldn’t respond to his advances.

“It’s a feature on my album that was difficult to clear. They’re trying to drop their nuts on me because I won’t respond to a DM,” she said. “We think like, ‘Oh, well that just comes with the game being a female rapper.’ No it shouldn’t, though. You know you ain’t doing that to your fellow male rappers!”

Although she never revealed who harassed her, many speculated that it was Kodak Black who she was referring to (he appears on the track “Bussdown”), who denied it was him on social media. Shortly after this, Latto suggested that she regretted bringing up the matter during an appearance on The Breakfast Club, saying: “You hear, like, ‘Oh, female rappers have it harder.’ But I really wanted to give a little insight as to what specifically makes it harder for a female rapper. I didn’t want it to distract from the music or anything, so I kind of wish, in a way, I didn’t say that.”

But women in this industry and beyond shouldn’t have to be afraid or regret speaking a necessary truth, and calling out wrongs done to them. It’s clear that there’s still a double standard when it comes to women rappers who are autonomous in their sexual expression, with their hypersexualized personas seen as a justification for the abuse they face. But, as Sukihana succinctly put in an Instagram post following the incident with YK: “I am human, a woman, a mother and daughter before I am an entertainer. No matter what my lyrics express, I still have boundaries and a right to have them”.

I am going to wrap up soon. Tying this to the theme of misogynoir and abuse Black female Hip-Hop artists face – and the fact the industry is not really acting on it -, it is worth coming back to Megan Thee Stallion. A case of a high-profile artist who faces so much scrutiny and doubt regarding her version of events and story during the Tony Lanez trial. A stereotype of Black women pervades. That they are promiscuous, deceitful and teasers. It is worth reading this Vox article from August. The pain and critique that Megan Thee Stallion faced and suffered. How the trail is over – her pain is very far from over. The music industry have to answer a lot of questions and make efforts to implement #MeToo and a campaign against abuse and misogyny aimed at Black women:

“Megan is also being scrutinized. Whether it’s the pause she took before she answered Gayle King’s question about whether she was intimate with Tory Lanez or people questioning why she was on the cover of Forbes or why she wrote an op-ed in the New York Times or why she went out partying “too soon” after she was shot, her every move in the past two years seems to be watched and policed. Can you talk about the level of scrutiny she’s been receiving since she made the allegations?

The criticism she received for pausing after Gayle asked her that question is an extended metaphor. Why can’t she have a pause? Can she have a moment? Everything she’s doing at this moment is being examined. She’s not the one on trial. She’s not the one that’s being brought before the criminal legal system. He is. And yet, every single movement, blink, gesture, or decision that she is making is under this very powerful microscope has the ability to reshape the narrative.

The pause in that moment, I think she might have just been caught off guard by the question. And having to disclose your sexual life — it really is no one’s business. Because even if she were intimately involved with Tory, even if she had said yes, there’s nothing that changes about what that violation is. And had she said yes, that would have been a confirmation for folks of all of these other narratives that she’s jealous and lying. The conundrum that a lot of Black women victims and survivors of intimate violence face is that, no matter the outcome, they will forever be under this microscope. And not only that, folks will make jokes, and malign and vilify these women to make these women the ones who are accountable for harm, and not the person who harmed them.

I’d like to talk a little more about the stereotypes about Black women that we’ve seen emerge in this case that are being put onto Megan. We’ve already talked about some of them, like Black women as hypersexual jezebels. And then there’s also the idea that she is aggressive and angry, aided by her “Black” facial features and skin complexion. I’ve seen people argue that Megan had to have done something to provoke Tory, whether that was to hit him or berate him. Megan has even had to come out and say she didn’t first assault Tory that night. How has this stereotype factored into how this case is being treated?

The stereotypes abound in this case. It’s a terrible storm of these racialized gender stereotypes of Black women. It’s about her size, Blackness, and womanhood that are being put on display here and being used to say that she is the aggressor. We heard that with Chris Brown and Rihanna — that because she’s a West Indian woman, she had to have been beating on him first. With Megan, we’ve heard the “she’s so big and he’s so small” narrative that plays into this physicality argument that’s being made about her. Even with her saying this is what happened that evening, people latch onto these problematic narratives that are rooted in stereotypes that Black women are loud, angry, and they put their hands on you. People have claimed that Tory was just defending himself. These stereotypes about Black women endure, and there’s no grace or compassion.

And there’s no sense that Tory could be lying. We don’t even have a framing or a term for how we think about distrust of men in the way that we do for women. There is this framing of women as irrational and emotional, which is viewed as a negative. At the same time, it’s impossible for the general public to imagine Tory having an emotional response that night and acting out of that emotional response. His emotionality isn’t put on trial. No one is really asking, why do you think the gun even came out? Or what does it mean for him to be in that space? What is the emotional geography of what happened in that car?

IN THIS PHOTO: Megan Thee Stallion/PHOTO CREDIT: Getty Images

And in thinking about Tory’s emotional response in that way, it seems like the public also doesn’t have the range to fathom that such violence could have actually happened to Megan. It seems that people can’t process or aren’t even trying to process the allegation that someone could have just pulled a gun out and shot at another person’s feet, saying “Dance, bitch!” according to an LAPD detective. This, despite the many examples of this kind of violence taking place against Black women and despite Megan showing photos of her foot with bullet fragments, among other evidence that’s so far available to the public. What do you make of that?

When I talk to people about the data around the prevalence and pervasiveness of violence against Black women, their jaws drop because they don’t really conceive of it as an everyday occurrence. But it’s something that’s a part of so many Black women’s experiences that it becomes very easy to dismiss this case as spectacular. And so they treat it as something to choose a side on. That’s a misguided approach because the side that we all need to be on is ending interpersonal and intimate violence. We don’t want anyone harmed. And there are more layers to this; not only are some people saying Tory wasn’t the one to harm Megan, but they are also saying she just wasn’t harmed at all.

The broad consideration here is that 40 percent of Black women at some point in their lifetime will experience some form of physical violence, quite often in an intimate or interpersonal context. That is a significant number. Megan has now become part of a club no one wants to belong to — the club of millions of Black women historically and contemporarily who have faced non-fatal assaults, and in some cases fatal assaults. I think getting people to understand the gravity of this problem, the reality of interpersonal violence, and its frequency is an important part of this work.

This case comes at an interesting time in our country, in which Me Too backlash is real. What final thoughts can you share with us about where we are as a culture when it comes to violence against women and violence against Black women? And what might this case’s outcome mean for discourse going forward?

It’s important to note that these are artists of a particular generation, so everything is online. Megan came forward with what happened to her on Instagram Live. That is a marker of the times. This is also happening post-Me Too, so of course there is backlash and the idea that we have gone too far. We are seeing that retrenchment in real time, and it’s occurring alongside the growth of incel movements. We tend to think of that movement as white, but we are seeing Black men in these spaces who are committed to this hatred of Black women and women more broadly. This case sits at a nexus of these various movements, both progressive and regressive colliding. The outcome of this case and the responses to it will tell us a lot more about where we are and what it means to go forward.

Watching this case unfold, I’m sure it’s only made Black women and girls less assured of coming forward given what’s at stake. But this might also move some women to come forward, since Megan came forward despite the onslaught she has faced. Those are both possible. The outcome of this case will also further reveal our very ambivalent and complicated relationship with the criminal legal system, guilty or not guilty. The way we respond in this moment is very telling. There is a selective way that we deal with the criminal legal system when we want it to dole out what we believe is justice. Because there is a Black person on both sides of this, the faith we have and the lack of faith we have in the criminal legal system will be put on display in a very robust way”.

Isaa Rae’s words, “I thought Hollywood was crazy. The music industry, it needs to start over,”, really sting and are powerful. Rap Sh!t does explore and highlight abuse that women face. It also highlights how there is this supportive and wonderful friendship. The vibrancy and vivid personalities that add so much colour and brilliance to conversations and the music. That is what needs to be celebrated and prioritised. Black women across Hip-Hop not judged when they are sexual and confident. This toxic attitude that is levied at them. You can see from the video above why the #MeToo movement has not reached Hip-Hop. Not much allyship at all from men happening. That initial thought of a Hip-Hop #MeToo was five years ago. There needs to be new support and call for one! Rap Sh!t, in addition to showcasing bonds and the amazing relationship between Black female rappers, you also get the darker side of the industry and how they are treated. There are so many things that need to happen next year regarding women in music. In terms of parity, opportunities and the way they are treated, more needs to be done to protect and listen to women. Help bring about changes in the way they are (mis)treated and represented. Misogynoir and abuse against women in Hip-Hop is a real problem. Tackling that is something that needs to be…

ADDED to the list.

FEATURE: To Watch in 2024: Ego Ella May

FEATURE:

 

 

To Watch in 2024

PHOTO CREDIT: Jelani Pomell

 

Ego Ella May

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BECAUSE the mighty…

Ego Ella May has been on the scene for a little while now and I already know about her music, rather than include her in Spotlight, I thought it is best to highlight her as someone who will make big steps in 2024. The music she has put out already is absolutely stunning! Her latest E.P., FIELDNOTES PT III, is one of her very best. She is a supreme talent that everyone should know about and listen to. I am going to start with an older interview and come to something more recent. First, here is some biography about Ego Ella May:

“Ego Ella May is a British-Nigerian award winning singer-songwriter and musician. Hailing from South London, the critically acclaimed artist has an all-encompassing love of music, which she channels into her own genre blending R&B, neo-soul and contemporary jazz compositions.

At the heart of Ego’s writing is a deep passion and respect for jazz. Touching on her writing process and her connection to her craft, she explains: “Everyone’s ears are so different, so I let them be the judge, but the root of it all is jazz. I write what’s on my mind, or if I have a burning desire to write. My favourite quote is “you have to read, to write” so I spend a lot of time reading novels, poetry and books about my history”.

Ego Ella May has a high level of admiration for people who show their vulnerabilities through music, and uses this as a source of inspiration; “It’s so easy to lie to yourself and others, so I really admire people who have the audacity to be truthful”. Her songwriting takes influences from equal measures of reflective moments of solitude and conversations with friends which she demonstrates with effortless power in each unique voicing.

The fast rising talent is quickly building a noteworthy catalogue of releases including her impressive debut LP HONEY FOR WOUNDS, a soul-tingling blend of Jazz, R&B and Neo Soul vocal musicality. Incredibly honest self-penned, personal and observational lyrics are laced with tales of self-healing, protest, love and loss, global issues and more. This is all set to a sonic backdrop crafted with some of the most exciting creatives including Alfa Mist, Theo Croker, Eun, Melo-Zed, Oscar Jerome, Joe Armon-Jones (Ezra Collective), Wu-Lu, Eddie Hick (Sons of Kemet), Maralisa (Space Captain), Tom Excell, Andrew Ashong and more.

This release led to her taking home the Best Jazz Act award at the 2020 MOBO Awards, and also made an impressive debut on COLORS TV, performing “In The Morning” and “Girls Don’t Always Sing About Boys”). Tracks from ‘Honey For Wounds’ have been featured in Issa Rae’s ‘Insecure’, Netflix’ ‘Sex Education’ + ‘Dear White People’, Oprah Winfrey’s OWN series ‘Queen Sugar’, BBC comedy ‘Dreaming Whilst Black’ and many more.

Following the release of the deluxe release of her debut album in June 2021, a win at the 2021 JAZZ FM Awards (Best Vocalist), several features + writing credits for the likes of Ari Lennox, Theo Croker, Kojey Radical and many more as well as a sold out headline UK tour, Ego also released 2 parts of her critically acclaimed EP series - FIELDNOTES (FIELDNOTES PT II received a 5 star review in the Telegraph newspaper)”.

Honey for Wounds is one of my favourite albums from 2020. At a time of lockdown and separation, the music of Ego Ella May was very important for so many people. I thought it was worth going back to then and her chat with CLASH. I think it was 2020 when I discovered her music. I was instantly struck by it! A distinct and hugely powerful voice that infuses the senses. Another reason I am featuring her now is I believe that 2024 will be her best year yet. Many still do not know about her music. Honey for Wounds is a good starting play if you are new to Ego Ella May:

“Do you still feel the album is a suitable vessel for your creativity?

100%. It’s a collection of songs, isn’t it? One that focusses on how you’re feeling a certain period of time. I think albums are super-important, still… although I guess that could be argued, given how many people opt for singles! But I do think having an album as that body of work and collection of songs is still super-important, and it can convey who you are… as one thing. This one project can be like: this is me, here you go… please listen to it!

The album itself feels very defined. You used the phrase ‘music to heal to’, in fact.

I think particularly on this project I really had to focus on it. But then again, I’ve found music really healing for me. I’ve always been a fan of music, just an active listener from when I was super-young. I’ve just always known the power that music has – to heal you, to inform you, to make you cry, to make you happy. So many different emotions that music can spark. For my album, I really think it definitely changed me as a person. It definitely contributed to my healing journey, and it’s important for me to say that because – and especially now – a lot of people are looking for an escape or a way of healing, and I think the album may help with that. I’m happy it came out in this time. People have found it calming, and that’s the effect I want.

There’s a number of guests on here – how to do you choose who to bring in?

Well, luckily everyone that helped me with this album are just friends of mine. It’s been an interesting process because some of the songs are actually years old… and it was formed with me going to the studio with one of the producers, and we’d sit there and be like: OK, what do we want to talk about today? It was a really organic process.

Some of the times where I’m starting out on a guitar, they’ll step in and help me to develop it. Sometimes we’re literally jamming… like, there’s a whole band in the room and we’re singing what we can come up with, and we’re topping up the best bits and working with that. Other times, it’s like an actual beat that I’m working with… so I have to stick to the beat! But it just varies.

One of the things I love about this album is that they’re no set way of doing something. Each song has a different story, and a different way of being made… and that was important, as well, it was nice to do things in a different way each time.

Is the process really about being truthful to the song, then?

Oh completely. It’s nice to not exactly have a set way of doing things, it’s more about being true to it. Let’s just make this song happen in the way that it’s supposed to, but we’re not going to force it in any way. It was very free.

Do you think as a creator you’re always tapping into some form of psychic energy?

I do think of it as psychic energy, yes. To be fair, I’m very tapped into what’s going on in the world. Well, sometimes… and sometimes I have to take myself away from it because I do find it overwhelming. I’m an over-thinker, so I tend to think about the state of the world, and also self-care.

All these things that pop up into my mind that then turn into songs… I find that when I release then it really holds weight with a lot of listeners because it’s so honest, and it’s my truth… which isn’t far off from the collective truth, I suppose. It’s always a topic of discussion.

It was the same sort of thing when I wrote ‘Girls Don’t Always Sing About Boys’ or ‘How Long Til My Home’. All of my singles have come at the perfect time! It’s been very strange, but it’s also made me engage in the conversations we’re having right now.

‘Table For One’ feels a little more personal…

It’s the one that’s always going to be closest to my heart… just because of how it came about. And it was just all of us getting into the studio – me, Joe, Oscar, Eddie, and Wu-Lu – and we were just jamming. We just said: let’s go studio, jam, and see what happens. And then afterwards me and Miles chopped up the best bits of the jam, and ‘Table For One’ was this beautiful instrumental right in the middle of the jam, and I wrote around it.

That’s how it came about – it was about trying to find your independence after being forced out of a relationship. Trying to find a way to do all the things that you usually do as a duo, but then doing it by yourself. It’s such a different self. Even ordering for yourself as a restaurant – it’s so daunting, but also a really independent thing to do. It’s about navigating the steps that come after being in a relationship. It’s about being by yourself and being OK with that.

To wrap things up, where do you go from here?

I feel like I can definitely wrap up this chapter in my life. I’ve always wanted to make an album, release it on vinyl… and I’ve accomplished all that. It’s been ticked off my bucket list now!

So now I’m embracing a lot of the feedback and continuing on with more songs, and making a plan down the line once I have more finished songs. I have quite a few that are in demo stage, so it’s hard to say what I’m going to do with them. I’m just taking my time, enjoying make music, and letting people enjoy the album!”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Whistles

I will soon come to her new material and some of the press around that. There have not been that many new interviews from Ego Ella May. Most of them have been from 2020 and 2021. I hope there are more chats with her next year. One of the best artists we have right now. Someone who has many years ahead of her. I was interested in this interview from Whistles. There was an emphasis on Ego Ella May’s style and fashion - though there was some query and curiosity around her phenomenal music:

“How did you get into music?

I have always been a huge fan of music and my dad was really into it – there was always music in our house. I started experimenting with SoundCloud and things naturally progressed from there. I built up a following and then I released an EP – I took it slowly. After the EP, I took a step away from music for three years before returning.

The album that changed your life?

It would have to be Hotter Than July by Stevie Wonder. He’s been my unofficial singing teacher. I used to listen to his music over and over again, taking note of the riffs and everything he does with his vocals.

Have you seen him live?

Yes! It was unbelievable. I saw him in Hyde Park in 2010 and he was headlining this festival. I went to queue up at 6am and tickets were around £50, which would never happen now.

How would you describe your sound?

Alternative, soul and jazz – those are my favourite genres and I think my music dips into them all.

Where does your inspiration for lyrics and melodies come from? Are you influenced by current affairs, literature and culture?

Definitely, all of those things. A lot of my inspiration for lyrics comes from conversations I’ve had with people though, which has been challenging in the past year. I’ve missed those organic and interesting conversations that keep me inspired. I’m also constantly reading and that always influences how I write.

Dream musical collaboration?

I want to say Frank Ocean but I don’t know where he’s gone? He always disappears! I would say him though, if I could find him. He’s very mysterious, isn’t he?

How do you stay motivated and inspired?

Nowadays, mostly, I just try to accept when I’m not feeling motivated or inspired. That helps me much more than trying to force motivation, as that can lead to frustration. I try to just accept those moments and wait for them to pass.

I’ve never heard anyone say that before when I’ve asked about staying inspired and motivated – it’s very refreshing to hear.

Honestly, it’s a game-changing shift of mindset”.

One of my favourite singles from this year has been Undone. Taken from FIELDNOTES PT III, it is a beautiful and wonderful song. We can relate to its lyrics and inspiration. CLASH got the inside track around this brilliant cut. Again, if you are someone unfamiliar with Ego Ella May, then do ensure that she is a priority artist. One that you will keep close to your heart:

“South London musician Ego Ella May marks the end of her ‘FIELDNOTES’ collection with the towering soul of new single ‘Undone’.

Produced by Lvther, ‘Undone’ is a musical safe space gesturing forward to new beginnings. Inspired by the book I May Be Wrong by Bjørn Natthiko Lindeblad – a Swedish business executive who swapped his career to become a Buddhist monk for 17 years – Ego memorialised its core message of lucid living and reinvention.

Ego says: “It’s about letting go of control, ditching the facade that so many of us find ourselves latching onto, the question of what would happen if we simply left it all behind and started again…it’s possible! When I read that book, it opened up so many possibilities and helped me remember that I can start again whenever I choose! This song marks a new beginning for me and simultaneously the closure of FIELDNOTES in a way as I wrap up this chapter, and I knew I wanted to lead with this one”.

I don’t think enough people reviewed FIELDNOTES PT III. An incredible E.P. whose songs should be played across radio, she has been continuingly championed and featured by the likes of BBC Radio 6 Music. I do know that 2024 will be a busy one for touring. Taking this new music to the people. This DJ Mag article highlights some words and personal insight from Ego Ella May about the final FIELDNOTES E.P. It is such a fabulous work that I would recommend to everyone:

“Ego Ella May has released her new EP, ‘FIELDNOTES PT III’.

'FIELDNOTES PT III' was preceded by the 'Higher Self' and 'Undone' singles, and 'Take It Easy (Miles' Song)', produced by Wu-Lu. This new EP marks the final instalment of the British-Nigerian artist's 'FIELDNOTES' series.

“This is the third and final part of the FIELDNOTES project that I started in lockdown, and so much has changed. So many lessons have been learnt and put into this music, but the best part is that I’ve been lucky enough to work with my friends on this project; Dougie Stu, LVTHER, Sam Posener and Wu-Lu.

"I’ve co-produced three out of the four songs and I’m incredibly proud of that.
It’s about coming back to yourself time and time again, it’s about love, it’s about growth pains and it’s about listening to your inner voice. God speaks in whispers. I can’t wait for you to hear this!” she says”.

An artist I have liked for a long time now, I feel that next year will be among her most successful. A treasure of an artist that sounds like nobody else. Do follow Ego Ella May. I am looking forward to see what she has in store for 2024. With the incredible talent inside of her and that wonderful music under her belt, this captivating artist will…

GROW and grow.

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Follow Ego Ella May

FEATURE: Spotlight: swim school

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

  

swim school

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THERE is quite a bit…

to unpack and explore when it comes to swim school. One band that are bound to be big names in 2024, I have only recently discovered their brilliance. The trio make such phenomenal music that sort of blends in some '90s sounds and older touches with something fresh, vibrant, urgent and nuanced. A stunning cocktail that is a big reason as to why they are being heralded and championed as ones to watch. They have been on the scene a while now but, as a band who were making their early steps during the pandemic, they have really started to get into focus and the spotlight this past year or so. One change is that they are now a trio after starting their life as a quartet. I cannot really include old promotional photos for that reason (I would recommend checking out their cover version of a brilliant Deacon Blue song from a while back). Before carrying on, here is some more detail regarding the incredible and must-hear swim school:

“Based in Edinburgh, Swim School are a 3 piece, indie-pop band made up of Alice Johnson (Vocals/Guitar), Lewis Bunting (Guitar) and Matt Mitchell (Bass). Announced in 2019, but having originally formed at the end of 2018, Swim School already host an eclectic collection of songs featuring the inspired tones of The Cure, Wolf Alice and The Night Café.

They dived into Scotland’s burgeoning indie scene with their debut single ‘sway’ which turned heads and attracted the attention of both Vic Galloway and Janice Forsyth at BBC Radio Scotland, Tenement TV, Record of the Day, The Sun Newspaper and Jim Gellatly at Amazing Radio. Since then Swim School have released the singles ‘take you there’ and ‘too young to know’ which have been equally accredited”.

I am interested in this interview, as Alice Johnson discussed swim school’s duality E.P. She was also revealing how she experienced misogyny at gigs. How there still is this poisonous attitudes towards women. DORK got more insight from an amazing lead and one of the most captivating voices in new music. Part of a band who are going to have a very busy and successful year ahead:

“You’ve just released your new single ‘Delirious’, about misogyny – what is it that drew you to putting those experiences into a song?

We had a busy festival season last year, so we were constantly working with new sound engineers and people who work in music, and I had more bad experiences than good. I encountered a lot of sexism, rude comments and lack of respect from the men we worked with. As a woman in the music industry, I have experienced misogyny before but never so consistently over a short space of time.
When we would show up for festivals, I would feel so excited yet so anxious about how I was going to be treated each time. Constantly being disrespected and talked down to started to have an effect on me – it got to the point in which I felt like I wasn’t good enough. 
The turning point was when I was in the hotel room with the boys after one of our festival sets and just feeling so angry – I’d had enough. I knew that I deserved to be on that stage as much as the boys in my band, so I said to them, “I want to write a really angry, heavy song about misogyny so I can channel all my anger into it. I also want to put my guitar down and just be on the microphone, as that would be a statement.” And, of course, they were keen, so we started writing when we got back to Scotland the next day.

PHOTO CREDIT: Rory Barnes

Was it important for you to tackle the issue head-on? Now at least you have something to play in soundcheck if someone is being a dick, right?

For me, it is so important to tackle these issues that affect me because I know that they affect others. There is something comforting in hearing that someone else is and has gone through what you are going through. I truly believe that sharing your experiences can help others overcome similar experiences. When it comes to sexism and misogyny, there is no easy way to avoid it. I noticed at times, these men would come up to me when the boys weren’t close so they could make their comments whilst I’m alone and in a vulnerable situation. It is never a nice experience; at first, you feel like crying, then you have this anger, but also the moment’s passed, so there’s not much you can do. The sad thing is that it felt like a routine for me – but now I have a song to show for it and to show that they will never stop me from doing what I love.
It’s funny because now if we ever have a bad experience with a sound engineer during soundcheck, I turn to the boys and say that, “‘Delirious’ is going to go off tonight”. A positive in getting pissed off before playing that song live is that it makes the performance even more energetic and angry – it feels therapeutic. It also feels good to take a bad experience and channel it into something productive rather than letting it destroy you and your confidence.

Are there any songs by other artists that tackle similar issues that have resonated with you?

I actually think writing ‘Delirious’ was the first time I didn’t have a song that I wanted to use as reference – all I knew is that I wanted big guitars, big drums and heavy synths. The fact I had all this anger built up already meant we wrote the song so quickly. I wrote all the lyrics in the space of 10 minutes – they came so naturally.
One song that I could have taken inspiration from would be ‘Rebel Girl’ by Bikini Kill when it comes to the song’s energy, anger and passion. The song is about the support and inspiration you feel from other women, and that is an aspect I want to include in the music we write.

PHOTO CREDIT: Rory Barnes

It’s from your new EP, ‘Duality’ – how long have you been working on it for? What was the timeline like?

I actually wrote the chords and lyrics to our first single from the EP, ‘Kill You’, in my bedroom last February. I showed it to the boys, and they loved it, so we finished writing it together with the plan to release it as a single. We then started writing more songs, and before we knew it, we had a body of work that we loved, so we decided to postpone the release of ‘kill you’ and record the EP.
We created it with producer Iain Berryman – we can’t put into words how amazing and talented Iain is. He brought out a new side of swim school’s sound, and we can’t thank him enough. We recorded the whole EP in London which felt so surreal for us and felt like a massive step up – we honestly loved every second of the experience, and now we can’t wait for it to be out.

You’ve got two angry songs and two love songs on the EP Which do you find easier to write?

Definitely the angry ones. ‘Kill You’ was the first love song I had ever written, and then I wrote ‘Don’t Leave Me Behind’ after. Both these love songs share the aspect of feeling vulnerable whilst being and falling in love, yet I feel so vulnerable releasing songs about being vulnerable. I get embarrassed writing about love songs, yet I find it so easy to write about mental health – I’m not sure why, haha”.

I will come to some more detail and depth regarding duality. First, that METAL interview that I mentioned. It is a fascinating discussion. Against, that discussion around misogyny and sexism cropped back up. Something important to tackle in music. It is also something more men in the industry should speak up against. It is being mainly left to women to highlight:

“Congratulations on your recent releases – your second EP, Duality and newest single, Bored. How has it been since these songs dropped?

It’s been crazy! We really pushed ourselves in the studio and worked hard to get these songs to sound the way we envisioned them. We worked with Iain Berryman, who is so insanely talented, and he brought out a new confident side to Swim School which you can hear in the EP.

Bored was released as a surprise single. What about the song made you want to keep it a secret until its release?

The EP was basically finished, we went into a songwriting session with Bored and fell in love with its meaning and sound. After talking with management and our label, we decided to add it onto the EP, and I’m so glad we did!

PHOTO CREDIT: Rory Barnes

Furthermore, it was released about two weeks after Duality was. This seems so soon to be putting out new music after the release of an EP. Why did you choose to do this instead of including Bored in the initial EP?

So Bored is technically part of Duality, but we liked the surprise aspect of putting it out after we released the EP. As a band we like to keep things interesting and keep our fans on their toes, which is why our songs never sound the same. We love changing up sound and bending the rules, we never want to be just one genre.

Do you think the later release of Bored took away from people to give the proper time to appreciate Duality?

No, not at all. Like I said previously, it keeps everything exciting. Our fan base has grown so much this year, and they have been so supportive that we thought why not, they deserve another song. I personally think it went down so well with the fans.

Bored is somewhat of a song that builds upon ideas talked about in the song Delirious, one of the tracks in Duality. There’s a clear correlation between the single and the EP. Could you tell us more about it?

Our songs represent events that have happened in our lives over the year. Delirious was so relatable to so many of our fans that it actually empowered me to continue to stand up against misogyny and sexism. With Bored, I wanted it to have a more positive outlook on the situation. I wanted it to be all about confidence and empowerment.

One motivation for your music is the inner-industry misogyny. Are there specific instances or social patterns that you’d like to share that inform the kind of music you create in response to this injustice?

The main inspiration behind Delirious was the constant sexism I encountered from male sound engineers during festival season last year. Although it’s mainly a middle finger up to sound engineers, to me, it has evolved to be about misogyny and sexism in general, not just the music scene. When I’m writing lyrics, I try to be direct with the subject, but also not too detailed, so the listener can relate to the lyrics with their own personal experiences.

Your style is obviously very indie-infused and pop-influenced. Additionally, it seems somewhat anger-driven, rightfully so. From your first EP to now, you are strongly leaning into that indie pop, punk rock type feel. How would you describe your style? And how do you see it evolving further as you continue to create?

We are definitely less pop-influenced than when we first started the band. In our early stuff you can hear that heavier side to us whether that’s in the middle section of Sway or the intro of Too Young to Know. I think it’s always been within us, and we have found that confidence to create this sound we love. For me personally, I found my voice through certain experiences in my life, and I feel confident enough to write about them and perform them, and that’s probably why they are anger-driven.

How do you see the music you like inform your own approach to songwriting?

The reason our sound as a band is so diverse is that we each have our own personal music tastes and preferences, but we also share the love for so many bands. This means when we are writing we can agree on what we love, yet bring our own unique elements to the songs”.

 PHOTO CREDIT: Rory Barnes

Going to another DORK feature, and we got a rundown and exploration of duality from swim school. Giving us the stories behind the songs. There is no doubt that they are going to conquer loads of incredible stages next year:

“I saw the quote, “Duality is a situation in which two opposite feelings exist at the same time”, and that described the EP perfectly. The songs are based on experiences that I have gone through. The fact that you can feel contrasting feelings at the same time can be confusing and take its toll on you mentally, but I find that writing is the best way to cope with it.

KILL YOU

‘Kill You’ is about being in love and wanting to spend the rest of your life with someone. It’s about the confidence you feel when you are in a good relationship, and you feel comfortable enough to show your vulnerability. I didn’t want it to be your stereotypical love song either, which is why I chose the title ‘Kill You’ – it almost contradicts what the song is about.

DELIRIOUS

2022 was our busiest year yet as a band as we travelled the whole of the UK playing new venues, cities and festivals. Playing all of these gigs meant we were constantly meeting and working with new sound engineers, but not every encounter was good. I experienced a lot of sexism; I was constantly disrespected and patronized, which led to me feeling like I wasn’t good enough. Instead of letting it get to me, I decided to write ‘Delirious’ and reminded myself that insecurities are the root of sexism.

BORED

‘Bored’ is a follow-up to ‘Delirious’ – the way I see it is that ‘Delirious’ is talking about experiencing sexism, and ‘Bored’ is what I’ve learnt and the confidence I found when I finally started standing up for myself. It’s a powerful song which is a middle-finger to others who don’t support you and talk behind your back. Again, the song is very much tongue-in-cheek lyrics, making something positive out of the negative.

DON’T LEAVE ME BEHIND

We wanted to write our own version of those cheesy, early 90s love songs, and I think we nailed it. It contains a lot of synth, which gives that floaty, loved-up feeling. The gang vocals at the end is one of my favourite parts of the song as it adds to that 90s feel.

‘Don’t Leave Me Behind’ is the emotions you feel when you meet someone you have a genuine connection with, but you don’t know where you stand with them. You think that they feel the same as you, yet you aren’t sure, and your mind can’t stop thinking about them.

OVER NOW

‘Over Now’ is about someone toxic finally leaving your life and them not having a hold over you anymore. The person promised you the world but ended up treating you badly. It’s about telling them that you finally see them for who they really are, that you no longer need them and how much better you are now.

The repetition of the words “it’s over now” is you not believing that it’s really over, and you are trying to convince yourself by saying it over and over. The song ends with the same dynamic it started with – it starts soft and with just vocal and guitar and ends with just the vocal too. The repetition gets harsher and anger as it builds, yet it comes down to just one vocal at the end, representing that alone feeling after the toxic person has left. The song goes through a lot of different emotions- anger, relief, sadness and happiness”.

There are plenty of massively positive reviews for duality. Here is DORK giving their views. It is one of the best E.P.s of this year for sure. There is a review from Atwood Magazine that I want to bring in before getting to some new buzz and celebration for an amazing band. If they are not on your radar then they really should be. I really love what they are putting out:

“Swim school, the Edinburgh hailing trio consisting of frontwoman Alice Johnson, guitarist Lewis Bunting, and drummer Billy McMahon, recently released their third EP, titled duality.

And it is honestly genius, as it works to dissect themes of love and life in four songs. What might be the most genius thing about this EP is that while it is a dip into an utterly dreamy landscape exploring love and life, the collection holds two anger driven songs and two more lighthearted tracks. Splitting the album perfectly and living up to its namesake.

Leading off the EP is “kill you,” and with Alice Johnson’s angelic vocals paired with the atmosphere generated by the backing instruments, this little tune envelopes you in a safety blanket. With a bright twinkling sound and large spacious guitars ebbing and flowing behind and around Johnson’s vocals the landscape story that is told in this song is utterly beautiful.

Looking at the lyrics, this track tells a story about the security of knowing that you have someone to grow old with no matter what life throws at you, “Ooh, I wanna have you with me / When days are old, our looks have faded / If you’re not there, well, I’ll be waiting.” It is lovey-dovey in the best way, shedding a positive light on the prospect of growing old with someone you hold dear. Additionally it may be noted that in following the theme of duality, the band juxtaposes violence with kindness as the song states in the first verse, “And if you were to go and leave me on my own / I think I’d kill you in the nicest way I could”.

I am going to end by, once more, returning to DORK. They are huge fans and supporters of swim school. No surprise they just inducted them into their Hype List 2024. This is their picks for artists set to dominate next year. It is clear that swim school are going to be among the most exciting and promising groups making big steps throughout 2024:

“How do you even begin to describe the year that Swim School have had? Support slots for Pixies, Lovejoy and Inhaler, slammed-out festival tents, releasing one of the best EPs of the year in ‘Duality’ – and all while working day jobs. Their year is far from done, too, as they take to the road again in December with The Amazons across the UK. Guitarist Lewis Bunting is chomping at the bit to get out there. “Their first album was so important for me musically, and we’re getting to go to a whole load of places we’ve never been before, so I can’t wait!”

Swim School aren’t the first band to work multiple jobs while trying to find time to write and play live, but it’s hard to think of anyone working as hard as them right now. “We get back home mid-December; we’ll probably take a few days off then be back in the studio,” levels frontwoman Alice Johnson. “It’s the Hannah Montana lifestyle,” she jokes. “We don’t care about making millions; we just do it for the love of music, and if we can do that full-time, then that’s the dream, really”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Grace Equi

There are so many signs that their gruelling schedule is paying off, especially with regard to the band’s confidence in their ability and their trajectory. Not only have they personally been through a rollercoaster of a twelve months, but they’ve had to put up with a lot of external pressures that they frankly wouldn’t get if they had a male lead singer, particularly when it comes to comparisons with other female-led bands. “I get less of it now,” Alice reveals, “but it’s like women can’t be original or talented in their own right. It’s just such lazy misogyny, it’s like, ‘Oh, you must be inspired by them because she’s a woman’.” The fact that these comparisons are dying off, though, shows that Swim School are now icons in their own right.

Confidence is oozing from this band, more so now than at any other time in their history and it’s reflected in both their writing and live shows. 2024 promises another new body of work, their fourth multi-song release in as many years, but this one brings with it a real sense of ownership and self-assuredness that can only spell great things for the new year.

Struggling to not give too much away, Alice teases that “it’s more inspired by 90s shoegaze. It’s more energetic, heavier, more mature, and more genuine.” Lewis agrees, adding: “It’s just us saying what we want, the way we want to do it. It’s the music we’ve always wanted to release.”

“We don’t want to be the next ‘insert female-fronted band here’. We want to be the first Swim School.”

PHOTO CREDIT: Grace Equi

Their newest work will not only feature a super personal, stripped-back moment but also harks back to the band’s roots by re-releasing an earlier track. “We went into the studio when we originally released the song and weren’t comfortable enough to say ‘no’ to producers. But now, we’re using the original room record, so it’s the way it’s supposed to sound.” Taking their cues from Alice’s long-time idol, Taylor Swift, they’re not only taking charge of their own future, but they’re also entering their superstar era.

Outside of the studio, their nonstop live schedule will kick back into top gear, with a UK headline tour on the cards. “We’d love to get back over to Europe. We had so much fun over there, and of course, we’re manifesting Glastonbury and Reading & Leeds!” says Alice. Festival season this year gave the band a host of “pinch me moments”, not least making a main stage debut at Glasgow’s TRNSMT Festival, with their family and friends in the front witnessing them take the leap into the upper echelons of today’s immensely exciting guitar-rock scene. “It’s so hard to imagine what’s next. Everything’s so good already; how can it get better?”

So, basically, 2024 is going to be another huge year for Swim School. Alice knows that “all my lyrics are really depressing”, but at the band’s heart is a genuine love for what they do and for each other, which allows them to be bold, brash, and brilliant.

“We don’t want to be the next ‘insert female-fronted band here’. We want to be the first Swim School.” If 2023 was the confidence boost Swim School needed to climb up to the high board, then 2024 will be the year they dive off it into stardom”.

They raise interesting points regarding gender. It does seem like a lot of people mentioned ‘female-fronted acts’ like it is tokenism. A novelty. Something special. As they say: they just want to be a band, without gender being the issue. It is important to highlight, though, that they are fronted by Alice Johnson, as festivals still struggle to include enough women. So too do radio playlists. For that reason, then there does need to be focus around the fact that there are great bands led by amazing women. In all other senses, swim school should be highlighted because they are a brilliant and tight group making the best music you’ll hear. It will be an exciting year for them coming up. After a stellar 2023, they will have some time to recharge before heading back onto the road. Out into the crowds next year. Summer festivals, new music and so much to look forward to. If you have not discovered this amazing Edinburgh trio, then do go and investigate further. The brilliant duality is a wonderful E.P. that everyone needs to hear. No doubting the fact that swim school are on their way to becoming legends. Nothing is going to stop that. A terrific and hugely talented young band that…

WE can all be very proud of.

____________

Follow swim school

FEATURE: Bells for Her, Cornflake Girl: Tori Amos’ Under the Pink at Thirty

FEATURE:

 

 

Bells for Her, Cornflake Girl

  

Tori Amos’ Under the Pink at Thirty

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ONE of the best albums…

in one of the best years for music, Tori Amos’ second studio album, Under the Pink, was released on 31st January, 1994. I think it is a perfect start to a truly historic and remarkable year. Following the successful 1992 debut, Little Earthquakes, Under the Pink showed even more sides to one of music’s true originals. It was prefaced by its first single, Cornflake Girl, on 10th January, I wanted to spend time with a classic album. Recorded between February and October 1993, a truly wonderful thing was released into the world in 1994. To mark thirty years of Tori Amos’ remarkable second album, I wanted to go deeper inside. I will bring in a couple of the many impassioned reviews. Amos produced the album alongside Eric Rosse. Including some of her best-known songs – among them, Pretty Good Year and God -, this is an album that is still being played and talked about to this day. It is baffling to see that there were a few mixed reviews for Under the Pink when it came out. Maybe a backlash against an album whose sound was very different to anything around in 1993/1994, it is almost impossible to fault the remarkable music. Even deeper cuts like Cloud on My Tongue are startling and brilliant. With Tori Amos being this singular songwriter who was not embraced by quite as many people as she should have been in 1994, some even think Under the Pink is underrated or forgotten. I would not say that…yet there is an argument to suggest Under the Pink is not as revisited and celebrated as much as other albums from 1994.

Maybe not as concise as Little Earthquakes – Under the Pink is fifty-six minutes long -, it moves away from tackling the patriarch towards female betrayal (the way women betray one another). If most diehard Tori Amos fans favour her debut to sophomore album, there are a lot of wonderful reviews and praise for a really important album. Taking Tori Amos fully to the mainstream. A distinct and established artist who would continue to release amazing album. She is still recording to this very day (her most recent album, Ocean to Ocean, was released in 2021). There are some articles about Under the Pink out there I want to bring in. I shall start with a 2012 feature from Spectrum Culture. They write why this stunning album deserves a second look:

“Tori Amos’ 1992 solo debut, Little Earthquakes, served as the first step in a revisionist negation of her beginnings with Y Kant Tori Read. That synth pop outfit offered occasional hints of how she might develop: “Heart Attack at 23” has a sweet piano intro and features Amos’ expressive phrasing. But the band’s pop veneer was too thick and both the music and the band experience chafed. While Little Earthquakes offers more musical depth and expressiveness than Y Kant Tori Read, her second solo album, Under the Pink, is where Amos truly defines her artistic voice.

In particular, her piano steps forward, enveloped in richer, orchestral arrangements and she perfects an oblique writing style that hints at the stories behind the songs rather than telling them outright. Where Little Earthquake’s “Me and a Gun” told a straight narrative with a powerful simplicity, the songs on Under the Pink are cloaked in metaphor, augmented by the music. On “Bells for Her,” the dark, hollow sound creates a sense of doom and inevitability. The lyrics acknowledge this, “Can’t stop what’s coming/ Can’t stop what’s on its way,” but otherwise the thread of the story is hard to unravel. In interviews, Amos has said that the song refers to a break with a good friend that never healed. Rather than explain that overt message, the arrangement conveys the feelings behind the story with a brittle vocal and chiming tones that are vulnerable with regret.

This use of masking has become central to Amos’ writing style. On the one hand, her voice is deeply expressive and the songs feel like private gems of personal experience. But even as she confesses or exposes herself, she cloaks the revelation in metaphors that soften the focus on the details. It’s never clear whether this is to give the songs a broader stage or to distance herself from conflict or pain. Outsiders perceive that disconnect as a kind of shallowness. They dismiss her as a less experimental version of Kate Bush and it’s true that both women are singer/songwriters with a history of classical piano. But fans appreciate that Amos hasn’t shielded her internal perspectives as much as Bush. They find a sense of depth in the layers of metaphor. They surrender themselves to the emotional truth of the songs and accept that the lyrics may never deliver clarity.

Aside from developing her artistic voice, Under the Pink explores themes that confront gender role and religious expectations. This is another aspect that alienates some listeners. Amos takes a strong feminist position in her writing, but rather than becoming strident, she generally finds ways to surprise. So, on a song like “Baker Baker,” she reverses the stereotypes. Instead of the man, she’s aloof and unable to commit and it’s costing her the relationship: “And he tells me I pushed him away/ That my heart’s been hard to find.” But even as she describes herself in that situation, her perspective is more nuanced. She’s torn and regretful about the loss even as she accepts the truth that she couldn’t have faked her way through that commitment. The track is overtly sentimental, with Amos’ tortured, emotional vocals and the orchestral accompaniment, but the song survives the schmaltz.

By contrast, “God” jolts the listener with casual blasphemy. Condescending to God, she compliments His daisies but scolds Him for His absence. The funky groove crosses Steve Miller’s “Fly Like an Eagle” with “One Thing Leads to Another” by the Fixx. Spiky shards of guitar chaos rip loose in the spaces around the choruses, like a guilty voice in Amos’ brain reacting to her heresy. This kind of feminist response to patriarchal Christianity becomes another common thread throughout her work. Unlike “Baker Baker,” the risk isn’t about her feelings; it’s about making her disdain public.

Much like her first solo album, Under the Pink establishes a soft-loud dynamic shift, alternating from song to song. But even the softer tunes have their jarring moments. The first track, “Pretty Good Year,” eases in gently. The delicate piano and Amos’ aching voice are wistful and the added strings increase the poignancy. Still, the piano hints at darkness every now and again by toying with the song’s key signature. Just as the tune seems to fade down to an open, twinkling piano line, angst spews out like a lanced wound: “What’s it gonna take,’til my baby’s all right?” This blindly grasping frustration is the heart of the song’s undercurrent of loss. Amos clearly chose her opening track carefully to lull the listener with pretty piano and strings only to disrupt complacency with that hot flash of tension. When the sweet sound returns, it can’t be fully trusted. This becomes Amos’ stage persona as well. Loose and flowing, attractive and talented, Amos nurtures hidden edges and darkness underneath which she allows to surface periodically for effect”.

Maybe Little Earthquakes is more instant in terms of its revelations and meanings. Under the Pink is a more complex album that requires you to immerse yourself in it. An affecting and moving album that lingers long in the memory, Dig! explored why this album has such a lasting and huge impact. A fascinating album where Tori Amos explored the inner world. Rather than what is happening on a surface level, she explores something deeper. Revealing, honest and personal, I am still blown away by Under the Pink:

“If the raw, confessional Little Earthquakes was a diary, Amos considered Under The Pink, which was released on 31 January 1994, to be closer to an impressionistic painting. Or, in another analogy she used, if she offered herself “naked” to the world in Little Earthquakes, Under The Pink involved putting on some clothes. That’s not to say her second album – which went on to hit the top spot in the UK charts and has sold more than two million copies – is not deeply personal. “If you ripped everybody’s skin off, we’re all pink, the way I see it,” Tori told Performing Songwriter in 1994. “And this is about what’s going on inside of that. That’s what I’m really interested in, not the outer world but the inner world.”

To tap into the inner world, Tori and Eric Rosse – her then producer and partner – headed to New Mexico to record the album, where they set up in an old hacienda they called The Fishhouse. “Thanks to Bösendorfer for making the best pianos in the world, for sending one special ‘girl’ out to us in the desert,” Amos wrote in the album credits.

“YOU HAVE TO GO THROUGH IT TO UNDERSTAND IT”

While Little Earthquakes found Amos wearing her heart on her sleeve, listeners might have to work harder to deduce the meaning of Under The Pink. In a liner note for the 2015 deluxe release, Noah Michelson writes about the songs’ “intimately coded and sonically experimental mazes”. As Amos explained to Keyboard magazine: “I had this whole thing going where I liked codes and going with your senses. It was a bit of a maze, and you as a listener had to work to find out where we were going. Little Earthquakes was a bit more voyeuristic. You could sit back and watch this girl go through this stuff. You can’t on Under The Pink; you have to go through it to understand it.”

Cornflake Girl – the album’s biggest hit – is a case in point. With its catchy chorus, the earwormy track might sound deceptively cheerful, but it was born from a conversation about female genital mutilation. “How women behave toward each other within the global culture of patriarchy is the discussion that the song Cornflake Girl wanted to take part in,” Amos wrote in her book Resistance. “My friend Karen Binns and I were talking about the idea of betrayal,” she explained in a liner note to Under The Pink’s reissue. “Raisin girls were the girls that wouldn’t let you down. Cornflake girls were the mean girls.” Released as Under The Pink’s first single, in 1994, and featuring gospel singer Merry Clayton on backing vocals, the track reached No.4 on the UK singles chart, establishing itself as one of the best Tori Amos songs in the process.

“YOU DON’T REALLY KNOW WHAT MY ROLE IS… I FOUND THAT REALLY FUN”

Amos’ second Top 10 hit in the UK, Pretty Good Year was another multi-layered song with enigmatic references to Lucy – the skeleton discovered in 1974 who became a household name – and Greg “who writes letters and burns his CDs”. Speaking to The Baltimore Sun in 1994, Amos recalled how the song was inspired by a missive from a fan in the UK: “It was a pencil drawing. Greg has kind of scrawny hair and glasses, and he’s very skinny and he held this great big flower. Greg is 23, lives in the North of England, and his life is over, in his mind. I found this a reoccurrence in every country that I went. In that early-20s age, with so many of the guys – more than the girls, they were a bit more, ‘Ah, things are just beginning to happen.’ The guys, it was finished. The best parts of their life were done. The tragedy of that for me, just seeing that over and over again, got to me so much that I wrote Pretty Good Year.”

It’s a song that starts demurely, with the cascading crystal-clear notes of Amos’ Bösendorfer piano, but transforms, as so many of Under The Pink’s songs do, into something angrier and more personal when Amos sings: “Well, hey/What’s it gonna take/’Til my baby’s all right?” “You don’t really know what my role is,” the artist mused. “Am I Lucy, or am I that eight bars of grunge that comes out near the end where I express, and then nothing, everything else is Greg’s story? I found that kind of really fun.”

“THOUGH I CAN’T CHANGE WHAT HAS HAPPENED, I CAN CHOOSE HOW TO REACT”

While her first album took on the patriarchy, Under The Pink turns its attention to the way women betray each other – not only in Cornflake Girl, but on songs such as The Waitress and Bells For Her. “So I want to kill this waitress,” begins the former, unequivocally. “She’s worked here a year longer than I.” Amos is too interesting an artist to ever be one-note, though; there’s humour in the almost-shrieked chorus: “But I believe in peace/I believe in peace, bitch.”

In Bells For Her, Amos reassesses a female friendship: “And now I speak to you, are you in there?/You have her face and her eyes/But you are not her.” In an interview with the Dutch music magazine OOR, Amos said the song marked “one of the most emotional moments on the record, because it handles the end of a friendship”. The track was, as Amos revealed to Creem, “written and recorded exactly as you hear it. The lyrics came in that moment. It was almost like a trance, how that song came.” It was also the only song on Under The Pink not to be recorded on the Bösendorfer, but instead “an old upright that Phil [Shenale, string arranger] and Eric [Rosse] demolished or made better, I’m not sure,” Amos noted in an album credit.

She explores female pleasure, too, in songs such as Icicle, another track with a seemingly-innocent opening that explodes into something else entirely: “And when they say, ‘Take of his body’/I think I’ll take from mine instead/Getting off, getting off/While they’re all downstairs/Singing prayers…” It’s not the only song on the album that sees the daughter of a Methodist minister return to challenging the religion of her childhood. Famously, the single God garnered plenty of controversy with its shrieking guitars and rat-filled video, but Amos’ lyrics are almost friendly when she sings: “God, sometimes you just don’t come through/Do you need a woman to look after you?”.

There are some reviews I want to highlight before I finish off. In 1994, Rolling Stone were perhaps not quite prepared for that mix of challenging and raw mixed with the more intimate. With very few artists around like Tori Amos in 1994, it must have been an unexpected and unusual experience tackling Under the Pink. You can see how this album has impacted artists in the years since. Many who have taken influence from Under the Pink:

“Under the Pink, Tori Amos‘ second solo album, continues the singer/songwriter’s exploration of her life’s journey from the confines of a strict religious upbringing to personal and artistic freedom. She is armed with an attention-grabbing mezzo-soprano and lyrics that can kill with a turn of phrase. And Amos is still unsatisfied. God, parents, boyfriends, girlfriends, herself: No one escapes judgment.

Once again, Amos accompanies herself on piano, with drums, bass and guitar assisting; the occasional string arrangement or synth is added for not-so-subtle effect. Amos’ piano, more often than not, is deceptively soft; her voice drips with bitter disappointment or fills with paranoid self-awareness, as on the opener “Pretty Good Year,” an apparent paean to idyllic childhood in which Greg, the young protagonist, “writes letters with his birthday pen/Sometimes he’s aware that they’re drawing him in.” Her acoustic bent is well served on the album: The piano is not hidden beneath grandiose group arrangements as it was on her previous outing Little Earthquakes (1992), and her quirky hesitations and sudden shrieks are more in tune with the emotional states of her characters. Under the Pink still doesn’t match Amos’ riveting, piano-only live performances, but it sure comes close.

Amos acts as narrator throughout the album’s 12 vignettes, switching from first person to third person and back. The strength of her convictions (or the terror of her lack of them) can be off-putting, but typically her lyrics are more intimate than intimidating. On “God,” one of the album’s (relative) rockers and its first single, she proclaims simply: “God, sometimes you just don’t come through/Do you need a woman to look after you?” “Bells for Her” has a vaguely yuletide air (the piano notes ring like chimes), but it is anything but cheery. Girlhood friends face the adult games of love, war and death with a strange, existential hope. There is fantasy violence (on “The Waitress,” Amos wants to murder a flirting, inattentive waitress); molestation and rape (“Icicle”); deception (“The Wrong Band”); and expectation and anxiety (“Baker Baker”).

Under the Pink is Amos’ honest reporting of a life fraught with turmoil and disappointment. Can it take her beyond her devoted cult to greater popularity? Possibly. The album is focused, the lyrics quirky and personable, the melodies eccentric enough to entice and simple enough to be catchy. Those qualities — and her emotional fearlessness — make Tori Amos a musical find to treasure”.

I will finish with AllMusic and their impressions of Under the Pink. On 31st January, 1994, Tori Amos followed up an album that was a success in the U.K. but less so in the U.S. Under the Pink reached twelve in the U.S. It went to number one in the U.S. Perhaps audiences here more embracing and understanding of Tori Amos’ sound and vision:

“Tori Amos' second full-length solo effort has often been considered a transitional album, a building on the success of Little Earthquakes that enabled her to pursue increasingly more adventurous releases in later years. As such, it has been unfairly neglected when in fact it has as good a claim as any to be one of the strongest, and maybe even the strongest, record she has put out. Able to appeal to a mass audience without being shoehorned into the incipient "adult album alternative" format that sprang to life in the mid-1990s, Amos combines some of her strongest melodies and lyrics with especially haunting and powerful arrangements to create an artistic success that stands on its own two feet. The best-known tracks are the two contemporaneous singles "God," a wicked critique of the deity armed with a stiff, heavy funk-rock arrangement, and "Cornflake Girl," a waltz-paced number with an unnerving whistle and stuttering vocal hook. While both memorable, they're actually among the weaker tracks when compared to some of the great numbers elsewhere on Under the Pink (other numbers that more openly misfire are "The Waitress," a strident and slightly bizarre rant at such a figure, and "Yes, Anastasia," which starts off nicely but runs a little too long).

Opening number "Pretty Good Year" captures nostalgia and drama perfectly, a simple piano with light strings suddenly exploding into full orchestration before calming again. "Bells for Her" and "Icicle" both showcase what Amos can do with prepared piano, and "Past the Mission," with Trent Reznor guesting on gentle, affecting backing vocals, shifts between loping country and a beautifully arranged chorus. The secret winner, though, would have to be "Baker Baker," just Amos and piano, detailing the story of a departed love and working its cooking metaphor in just the right way”.

Recorded in Taos, New Mexico in a hacienda and at Westlake Studios, Los Angeles, there was mixed fortunes for the singles on Under the Pink. Cornflake Girl went top five in the U.K. and was a worldwide success. God did not perform that well (though it hit number one on the US Alternative Airplay (Billboard) chart. Pretty Good Year went to seven in the U.K ., though it looked like it did not chart in the U.S. Past the Mission was top-forty in the U.K. The fact that Under the Pink was a commercial success and is still discussed and loved to this day proves that it has incredible nuance and importance. It has the unenviable task of standing alongside the best albums in 1994! Such a breathtaking work from an iconic songwriter. When it turns thirty on 31st January, I know there will be new inspection and consideration of Under the Pink. I think it definitely stands out as one of the very best albums from a…

PRETTY good year.

FEATURE: The Digital Mixtape: The MOBO Awards 2024: The Shortlisted Artists

FEATURE:

 

 

The Digital Mixtape

IN THIS PHOTO: Little Simz is nominated for several MOBO Awards (including Best Female Act)

 

The MOBO Awards 2024: The Shortlisted Artists

__________

IT is that time of year…

where we are starting to get award ceremonies announcing shortlists for 2024. One of the most essential dates in the calendar is the MOBO Awards. Taking place in Sheffield on 7th February, they celebrate some wonderful and hugely important artists across multiple genres. Although there are some genres and categories not represented – Ambient, Reggae and some sub-genres deserve a little more love -, there is a good balance and sense of scope. In spite too of some notable omissions this year (Lorraine James missed out; Hak Baker should be in there), there is a mix of wonderful established acts and newcomers standing alongside one another. What I wanted to do is finish on a playlist with songs from most of the artists who have been shortlisted. There are entertainment categories as well - but, as this is a music blog, I shall stick with a music playlist and let that be my main focus. Maybe a separate feature on that in the coming weeks. The Guardian provide details of who has been nominated in all categories:

“Little Simz and Stormzy have topped the nominations for the 2024 Mobo awards, which celebrate Black music in the UK and beyond.

Each of them are up for album of the year with LPs that bring symphonic, gospel-infused heft to rap: Stormzy for his heartfelt and ambitious This Is What I Mean, and Little Simz for her surprise-released No Thank You. Both are nominated in the gendered best artist categories, while Stormzy has a nod for video of the year and Little Simz is one of 10 nominees for best hip-hop act.

Pop artist Raye’s career renaissance continues – after she was left in limbo for years by a major label, she released her album My 21st Century Blues independently and to huge success, with the track Escapism reaching No 1. She is also nominated in artist, album and song of the year categories. J Hus (another album of the year nominee), PinkPantheress and Central Cee also get three nominations each.

Ezra Collective, the jazz ensemble who won this year’s Mercury prize, could make it a brace with a nomination in the album of the year category. Rounding out the category is Potter Payper, whose album Real Back in Style reached No 2 in the charts while the rapper was jailed at Pentonville prison in London – he has since been released.

A vintage year for the song of the year category sees four all-star team-ups – J Hus and Drake, Central Cee and Dave, PinkPantheress and Ice Spice, and Raye and 070 Shake – go up against Stormzy’s Hide & Seek and Jorja Smith’s summer anthem Little Things. Smith is also nominated for best female act alongside Raye, PinkPantheress and Little Simz, plus R&B singer Mahalia and girl group Flo.

Central Cee and Dave face off against each other in the best male act category despite releasing a hugely successful collaborative EP together, topped with global hit Sprinter. As well as J Hus and Stormzy, the category is rounded out with rappers Nines – who has hinted at retirement – and D-Block Europe.

The award ceremony will take place in Sheffield for the first time. Awards founder Kanya King said: “What makes Sheffield unique is that there is a rich underground scene with talent yet to break through, and with the community outreach the Mobo awards always does, the hope is to engage with and elevate that underground scene.”

The awards, founded in 1996, will take place on 7 February, with highlights broadcast on BBC One.

Mobo award nominations 2024

Best male act
Central Cee
Dave
D-Block Europe
J Hus
Nines
Stormzy

Best female act
Flo
Jorja Smith
Little Simz
Mahalia
PinkPantheress
Raye

Album of the year
Ezra Collective – Where I’m Meant To Be
J Hus – Beautiful and Brutal Yard
Little Simz – No Thank You
Potter Payper – Real Back in Style
Raye – My 21st Century Blues
Stormzy – This Is What We Mean

Song of the year
Central Cee & Dave – Sprinter
J Hus – Who Told You (ft Drake)
Jorja Smith – Little Things
PinkPantheress & Ice Spice – Boy’s a Liar Pt 2
Raye & 070 Shake – Escapism
Stormzy – Hide & Seek

Best newcomer
Ama Lou
AntsLive
Debbie
Jayo
Nippa
No Guidnce
Rimzee
Strandz
Tamera
Tunde

Video of the year
AntsLive – Number One Candidate (dir Tom Emmerson)
Enny – No More Naija Men (dir Otis Dominique)
Jords – Dirt in the Diamond EP1: Mobay ft Tay Iwar / Stay Close ft Kranium (dir Renee Maria Osubu)
Little Simz – Gorilla (dir Dave Meyers)
Stormzy – Mel Made Me Do It (dir Klvdr)
Tion Wayne – Healing (dir Wowa)

Best R&B/soul act
Bellah
Jaz Karis
Mahalia
Ragz Originale
Sampha
Sault

Best hip-hop act
Avelino
Clavish
Digga D
Enny
Fredo
Giggs
Little Simz
Loyle Carner
Nines
Potter Payper

Best grime act

Bugzy Malone
Duppy
Flowdan
Manga Saint Hilare
Novelist
P Money

Best drill act
Central Cee
Headie One
K-Trap
Kwengface
M24
Russ Millions
TeeZandos
Unknown T

Best international act (US)
Doja Cat
Drake & 21 Savage
Travis Scott
Ice Spice
Latto
Lil Uzi Vert
Nicki Minaj
Sexyy Red
SZA
Victoria Monét

Best African music act
Adekunle Gold
Asake
Ayra Starr
Burna Boy
Davido
Libianca
Rema
Tyla
Uncle Waffles
Wizkid

Best Caribbean music act
Byron Messia
Destra
Kabaka Pyramid
Popcaan
Shenseea
Valiant

Best jazz act
Blue Lab Beats
Cktrl
Ezra Collective
Masego
Reuben James
Yazmin Lacey

Best alternative music act
Alt Blk Era
Arlo Parks
Deijuvhs
Kid Bookie
Skindred
Young Fathers

Best electronic/dance act
Aluna
Nia Archives
PinkPantheress
Salute
Shygirl
Tsha

Best producer
Info
Kyle Evans
M1onTheBeat
P2J
Steel Banglez
TSB

Best gospel act
Annatoria
CalledOut Music
Guvna B
Limoblaze
Tofunmi Adorna
Triple O”.

If you are unfamiliar with the MOBOs and the great work they do, you can follow their Twitter page. Also on Instagram. There is a stellar selection of artists in the running for this year’s MOBO Awards. I have put together a playlist of songs from the vast majority of those who are in contention. It just goes to show you what quality and calibre there is out there! It also highlights that the MOBOs is one of the strongest and most worthy music award nights…

OF the year.

I: Your music and lyrics do show you as a very emotional person. Like you're always thinking... there's always something churning inside of you. I would describe you as a serious person on that account. Is this correct?

K: I think I'm quite analytical and I think that's definitely what comes out in a lot of the songs. It's the analyzing of emotional situations. I think I"m an emotional person - I think that's what motivates me. Definitely from some writing point of view, even in political situations when people say, "You've written this. This is quite political." But for me, it's the emotional content of the political situation that effects me. I think that most people that are sort of intrigued by writing or creating on some level are sensitive to the emotional side of things. That's in a way perhaps what makes them write... A kind of insecurity.

I: Listening to the background vocals on Hounds of Love, they sound agonized, plaintive, and sometimes they're screams. The whole second side of the album, which you call "The Ninth Wave," reminds me of waking at night in a cold sweat, you know, always thinking, "What is the meaning of life?" Seems like you tend to ponder on that.

K: I think that side is about that and that's great if you feel that. It's not what I experience myself, thank God, but it is very much about someone trying to make it through the night in the water - alone, scared, and not really knowing what's happening, but going through the experience and hopefully coming out the other side with an appreciation of what's really going on. So it's quite good if you get that image.

I: What songs on this album, or parts of songs, were inspirational flashes. You know, a lightning bolt hit you. What took work?

K: It's very much like that. You get a big burst and then it will all slow down and it gets very slow. And then you get... Uh, let me think... Well, "Watching You Without Me" was very quick. That was all done in two days, I'd say, the whole thing except for the orchestra that we put on during an extra session. But all the songs were put straight to master. I was actually writing in the studio, so there was no demo in the process. It was all being written straight onto master tape. So if that initial thing was good enough, it would be taken from there. It was incredibly quick. Some songs were written on the piano, so again they were quite quick, instead of me having to round up [a line was repeated here so their appears to be missing line here] the slow processes were technical. Technical things that slowed you down, or just trying to make ideas work that you thought could but didn't happen as quickly as you hoped, and you just had to be patient.

I: Your songwriting is self-taught. I've read where you went to the library to find books that would try to teach you how to put word to music. How did you finally learn, just by doing? Trial and error?

K: Well, I think from the word "go" it's been just a gradual process of teaching myself what worked and what didn't. It's just through practice, really. Any time you're writing a song, you're learning about some aspect of songwriting.

I: Regarding the types of sounds you get, how did you get that little part on "Running Up That Hill" that comes in first at the start of the song, after the drums and before the vocals?

K: That's the Fairlight and that was actually what I wrote the song with. That was what the song was written around.

I: And what about the altered voice at the end of the song, where you're singing, "If only I could, keep [she actually says "be"] Running Up That Hill"? How was that done?

K: That's just a heavy effect

I: What effect is on there? Do you remember?

K: I guess I'll put "I won't say."

I: You won't say?

K: No. It was just a combination of the engineer and myself. I think it's part of the thing of recording and there are so many limitations to what we do, to discover something interesting that perhaps people aren't really using... It's so quickly that people imitate things. You've got to hand onto them, I suppose. If you want to use them again.

I: Can you explain to me, as non-technical as possible, what the Fairlight is and how you use it?

K: For me, what is so good about it, is it's a machine you can sample any sound you want into it. Say, you can sample a car horn or a violin, and then just play it on the keyboard. It's useful not only for when you're writing a song, but also for any arrangements. For instance, if I want a brass arrangement in a song, I can play around on the Fairlight and get an idea of what I want by actually using a sound like brass.

I: I can see how it helps a composer, particularly you, you've got a studio in your home and you just go right in... but what do you think this technology will do to the recording industry and the making of albums in general?

K: I think it's a good thing and I think it's going to develop very much in the next couple of years. I think everything really is advancing to get superior sounding things so that there's as little noise as possible. I think it's probably going to have quite an effect. But I think synthesizer did. When synthesizer were introduced, music was so inspired by it, that the synthesizers were over everything. IT was quite a stampede, because yo have the medium, and I think probably the same thing will happen with the Fairlight.

I: Technology is certainly bringing good sounds and sophisticated features to keyboards in an affordable range. Do you see this as a whole big revolution? I mean, it's started now, but...

K: Yes. I think technically right across the board, not just in music, we're going into another stage. There's no doubt that things are just gonna go... You know, you think even in the last ten years things have really developed, that I think we're actually just on the front of a whole new world of technology.

I: Kind of scary.

K: I think all change is scary. And I think change can be very positive.

I: But it's still that unknown quantity, whether it's good or bad.

K: That's right, yes.

I: The reason for this inquiry is that I think your comments are particularly relevant, because you've been using this technology, the Fairlight, for years now. You were at the tip of the iceberg. I mean, I think you're one of the first people I knew who used it.

K: I think it's one of those instruments too that you'd learn to use hopefully in a separate way. There are some sounds on the Fairlight that are used so much now that most producers would steer away from it. Particularly people in the business know straight away - there's a kind of corny edge to it”

It is interesting to read and listen to the interviews Bush conducted for U.S. shows and publications in 1985 and 1986. It was expected that, after such a huge album came out in the form of Hounds of Love, that she would discuss it. Perhaps more used to a certain lack of complete understanding or appreciation from journalists at this point, the way she explains her process and music is fascinating. A country that had never seen anyone like her were understandably a little new and unsure of how to approach such an artist. I was interested in this interview because of the exchange. The way Bush deals with questions and provides something unexpected. A lot of patience with some of the questions! I am glad that, decades after Bush came into music, the U.S. has finally connected with the music of…

A very special artist.

FEATURE: Spotlight: Fat Dog

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

  

Fat Dog

__________

I did recently write…

about modern Rock and whether there is much personality and punch as there should be. Whether the Rock artists around now are engaging with politics and important issues. Maybe we will see more of that in 2024. I hope so. What is apparent is there are a few Rock bands who are engaging and worthy live bands who will develop into a complete and professional studio band. Maybe Fat Dog are not quite there in terms of having enough fully-formed songs to record an E.P. yet. A live set more built on energy and the performance rather than song cohesiveness and tightness, that is not to take anything away from their electricity and buzz. They are clearly one of the U.K.’s best live bands of the moment. I think next year will be one where they work on a few songs showcased at shows, work them up in the studio, and then release an E.P. I am spotlighting them because there is this hope and buzz around and on them. Their debut (and sole to this point) single, King of the Slugs, shows that they definitely have promise. An edge and USP that, with studio discipline and some dedicated time there next year, will produce a solid and original E.P. This is an occasion of highlighting and championing a group in their infancy. Those exciting first steps. Led by Joe Love, it is clear that Fat Dog have big opportunities ahead. Epigram spoke with a band who seemed to have arrived at a good time. Captured a particular mood:

“It’s hard to know what to expect with Fat Dog. With a reputation for immense live shows and an ever-growing cult following, they are one of the country’s most talked about bands. Yet a sense of mystery remains; outside of a few YouTube videos, information is scarce. To understand it all, or even catch a glimpse, you really have to be there, in the right place and at the right time.

So, the irony was not lost on me when I turned up to interview them, in both the right place and at the right time, and the band were running late. Soundcheck had run over as they tried to convince the sound engineer at Strange Brew that the audience should feel the noise as well as hear it. Neither party seemed fully convinced by the final outcome. When that was over, lead singer Joe accompanied by Johnny (drums) and Chris (synths) decided it was time for a pint, and at their request we went to the Hatchet, leaving the other members of the band behind. As such, this felt less like an interview and more like a conversation between friends that I happened to be overhearing.

‘We’re sort of lazy, sorry, perfectionist’ Chris jokes when I ask about their approach to building up their reputation and audience over the past year or so. ‘It was just about getting people down to the live gigs’ explains Joe. A simple approach maybe, but one that’s clearly worked. ‘It happens sometimes in the Windmill scene’ Johnny tells me, referencing The Windmill in Brixton, the pub and venue that has been home to Fat White Family, Black Midi and Black Country, New Road amongst others over the years, and for which this current post-punk scene is named. Although Johnny says the band are wary of being ‘lumbered in too much’ as he puts it, to the Windmill scene, they also recognise that they owe it a fair bit - ‘the Windmill’s big for that, they gave us a chance’.

But there is also more to Fat Dog than The Windmill, after all this is a band that managed to bag a national tour with Sports Team without being signed to a label or having released any music. In particular, the band tell me the quirks of touring Europe and Chris attempts a German accent to tell me how ‘you realise cultural differences especially in Europe. It’s like if they like it they won’t do anything they’ll just stand there and stare and you’ll be like “oh no” but they come up to you afterwards and be like (mimics German accent) “that was a really good gig”’. It’s not all like that though, and Johnny points out that, in Holland in particular, ‘they really love and appreciate the music and don’t mind showing it, often quite ferociously’ as he tells stories of parents holding babies next to the mosh pit in Rotterdam.

This sense of chaos and intense audience interaction is what is so intriguing about Fat Dog. Go to any of their gigs, especially those early London ones and in between the constant moshing, you’d see at least half the crowd singing along to an entire set of unreleased songs. It’s chaotic, not least because you’ll never know what you’re going to get from the band themselves, but it’s exciting and it’s no wonder the hype was built so quickly. Theatrics are something the band have always encouraged. Joe tells me ‘we always wear this stuff’ when I ask about the band’s penchant for costumes; Johnny wears a dog mask as a homage to former Windmill dog Lucky, whilst Joe is often found in a Judo outfit with a cowboy hat and Chris has a whole routine with a cloak, although they tell me ‘we don’t come up with theatrical songs so that Chris can do a backup dance’. They may be downplaying it, but it’s all part of the plan: ‘the dancing is part of the music, the plan is to encourage people to dance, there’s nothing worse than a gig where someone’s not dancing so to try and encourage that is great’”.

 PHOTO CREDIT: Sophie Barloc for Loud and Quiet

The South London band are getting love from some very big sites. Rolling Stone UK spent some time with Fat Dog in October. Beyond the buzz and all the hype are a band who have the stamina and determination to be here for the long run. I know that they will be on the radar of many as we head into 2024:

“Fat Dog are all about the vibe. The latest group to emerge from South London’s fruitful alternative hub, their chaotic live show – a rabble-rousing cacophony of dance, punk, klezmer and just about everything else, designed for maximum madness and kept in time by a drummer in a latex dog mask – has built them one of the most excitable word-of-mouth reputations since the pandemic. Picked up by Domino Records (home to Arctic Monkeys, Wet Leg and more), their recent debut single ‘King of the Slugs’ proved they could also bottle the party successfully on record. But even when it came to finalising their line-up, a priority of spirit over seriousness was front and centre.

Speaking today from a hotel room in Sheffield, midway through a current headline tour that’s already seen them sell out London’s Scala, vocalist and main instigator Joe Love explains that now-keyboard player Chris Hughes was originally hired when he volunteered as the band’s violinist. “I told them I played the violin and the next day I went out and bought a violin. I gave myself a week to learn it,” Chris laughs. “It was the worst fucking thing when he came to practice,” Joe groans. “Violin is not the sort of instrument you can learn in a week. But I liked the confidence.” “And that’s why I’m in the band,” Chris concludes.

Having started Fat Dog both as a visceral reaction to the pent-up frustration of lockdown and as an antithesis to the self-serious bands surrounding him in the South London scene, Joe’s vision for the outfit has always been to make something designed for letting loose. “When I was making the demos in my room, I was making songs that were a bit too ridiculous, that weren’t music,” he chuckles. Now, the quintet have distilled that energy down into something that just about resembles the shape of a series of songs, but Fat Dog’s uncontainable spirit is still howling free, as Joe and Chris explain…

You’ve been called every genre under the sun from rave to punk to electronic and more – how do you see your music?

Chris: I always just say it sounds like rabbis on ecstasy, but I don’t know…

Joe: I think that’s a perfect answer. You listen to stuff and you put pieces together, and you steal a lot of shit: stealing is a massive part of it. I think musicians should be a bit more honest and say, ‘I’ve just stolen everything’. If you steal 13 songs in one song, then no-one can realise.

There’s a klezmer (traditional Jewish folk music) influence that’s unusual; where did your love of that come from?

Joe: From video games. I just played Serious Sam 2 a lot, where you’re in the pyramids and you’re shooting loads of tentacle aliens, and I was listening to the soundtrack from that. I use the same scale in all my songs, I should probably change it up…

Your gigs have become the stuff of rowdy legend – can you remember the first?

Joe: There were lots of sitting down ones [during the socially-distanced period] but I remember the first standing up one at Laylow [in West London]. When people started moving, I got so gassed that I went into the audience and slipped over, sprained my ankle, and I couldn’t walk for two weeks. There’s videos of me just falling flat. It’s very embarrassing. You look around the room thinking, ‘Has anyone seen that?’ And then you realise you’re playing live and a lot of people have definitely seen it”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Sophie Barloc for Loud and Quiet

I am going to move on now to Loud and Quiet’s live assessment of Fat Dog. They played the Big Top at End of the Road festival earlier in the year. Even with some chaos and some lacking focus during the set, they were impressed by the reputation the band have. The love that is clear from the audience. Already live legends, it is now a case of this band getting into the studio and honing their songs. Even if some are not fully on the Fat Dog bandwagon, it is clear that the band are getting a reaction and are one of the most interesting around. Coming into the industry with a definite bang:

“The only way I can think to explain the monstrous, frenzied crowd that gathers, barely out of their PJs, at this 1pm Fat Dog set is with some philosophical bullshit about our perverse desire for all the ugly, nihilistic terror of the world to be reflected back to us through music. Please tell me it’s that. Otherwise, I am stumped.

It tells you all you need to know about Fat Dog, a rock band (sort of?) out of South London’s Windmill scene, that their first – and, at the time of writing, only – single is seven minutes long and titled ‘King of the Slugs.’ My first thought is, will they play the one song people know first, or last? The answer is neither – it comes halfway through – which tells you even more about Fat Dog.

PHOTO CREDIT: Sophie Barloc for Loud and Quiet

Namely, they know how to curate a live show. In fact, the absolute chaos that unfolds seems carefully put together. The band’s entrance is prefaced by an air raid siren and a booming voice counting down – “one-minute warning,” “ten-second warning” – not to mention by the whoops and hollers of the bucket hatted crowd who are positively aching to get slugged, or dogged (I’m not sure of the best verb form there). And when the bassist, dressed like an off-duty hedge fund bro in a pressed white shirt with his sleeves rolled up, indicates that he would like us to form a circle pit, not only does the crowd oblige, but it feels like they knew in advance.

I’ll hand it to Fat Dog: the live show is exceedingly fun (for most people) and exceedingly strange. They traverse the standard antics – making us crouch low to the ground before springing back up in time with the music; a wall of death, or two – but there’s also a synchronised, slapstick dance by the saxophone player (yes, they have a saxophone player) and sampling/keys guy, who’s adorned in a yellow Sou’wester hat. There’s a lo-fi projection of a chrome dog perpetually spinning behind them. The frontperson, Joe Love, wearing his own band’s merch, holds his arms out by his sides like some kind of Christ figure or king (of the slugs, I guess). But you kinda want them to crack a smile, as if to acknowledge that they’re in on the joke – that this is weird; that they’re not actually serious – otherwise it’s all a bit pretentious and gross”.

 PHOTO CREDIT: Ed Miles for DIY

I will come to DIY and their features. They included Fat Dog as part of their Class of 2024. Although there are differences between Fat Dog and a group like The Last Dinner Party, both are phenomenal live acts. Gaining such buzz from one single. That sense of anticipation. I think that Fat Dog are going to keep growing and building on this promise. How their live shows translate into the studio and whether a debut E.P. or album will be lose to their shows or a bit more disciplined we shall see. Whatever they go with, there is a passionate army of fans already behind them. This will expand as we head into next year and the band play more shows:

“One might imagine that penning a deal with Domino, who boast the likes of Arctic Monkeys, Wet Leg and Hot Chip among their roster, would come alongside expectations of a certain step-up in professionalism. “No, not really,” Joe laughs. “We’ve been losing stuff along the way.” “Professionalism dipped, if anything,” Chris remarks. “I’ve lost the pedalboard in the airport, and I’ve left the flight case full of keyboards in a venue.” Both members of the band - completed by bassist Ben Harris, saxophone player Morgan Wallace and drummer Johnny Hutchinson - audibly scoff at the notion that they’d have staff on the team to take care of such matters, instead offering a shoutout for their tour manager, Johnny Ray, and the white van in which they schlep to and from shows.

Industry buzz, however you might define it, may be hard to substantiate whilst you’re in the middle of it, but both present members of Fat Dog carry themselves without any visible pretentiousness, cracking jokes throughout with the ease of any normal chat. Normal, that is, with a dash of slightly unhinged kookiness about them, like two strangers you’ve built a rapport with at a house party where there’s a mattress on the floor.

One tangible perk of the band’s rise has been the opportunity to work with producer James Ford (Gorillaz, Kylie Minogue, Florence + The Machine) on their debut album, albeit in a manner which is typically Fat Dog-ian in its casual nature. “He’s just a nice guy,” Joe says. “We were doing tracks in his house, in a little bedroom studio, it’s pretty chill.” “Yeah, it was homely,” Chris agrees. “There was a bit of, ‘You can’t play drums after a certain time because it’ll wake up the neighbours’.”

PHOTO CREDIT: Ed Miles

The tracks that will make up Fat Dog’s eventual debut LP are mostly songs that have grown from the band’s live outings, put together by Joe on his computer before being beefed up by his bandmates. “We’re trying to follow the demos as much as we can,” he explains. “I took what we had over to James [Ford] to thicken everything up.” Does this imply that Fat Dog’s inaugural album is on the horizon? “The album is nowhere near done,” he continues, after a long, excruciated noise from Chris that implies that the subject is a sore one. “I should be in the studio now but I’m taking pictures with a gold man,” he shoots a look at Chris. “I have about four weeks to make six tracks.”

“Domino have been nice. They’ve said, ‘We like the songs that you’ve written so just go for it’,” Joe continues, touching upon the artistic freedom that accompanies life at an indie label. “To be honest, I’m doing a lot of talking about songs which I mostly haven’t actually made at this point. I’m happy with the first single, though.” “And that’s a good one,” Chris concurs.

To call Fat Dog’s debut single, August’s ‘King Of The Slugs’, a “good one” is an understatement. The most ambitious opening statement from an artist since LCD Soundsystem announced themselves with ‘Losing My Edge’ in 2002, ‘...Slugs’ is the sound of a band setting out their stall with intent. Clocking in at over seven minutes, the track opens with a murky electronic soundbed before an Arabian riff enters proceedings, descending into something akin to a nightmarish, amphetamine-fuelled snake-charming exercise. “I’d probably suggest that putting a seven minute long single out is fucking stupid,” Joe says of the bold release. “But in retrospect, it was probably a good idea.” “The fans wanted us to put ‘King Of The Slugs’ out,” Chris notes.

When a fanbase has done as much heavy lifting for a band’s early notoriety as Fat Dog’s, it seems only fair to grant them their choice for the first single. Numerous members of the Fat Dog faithful have already followed the band across multiple shows on the same tour, and handfuls of audience members fondly remember the days when the Monsters Inc. theme tune was still a cornerstone of the Fat Dog setlist”.

There is this new wave of interesting and fresh acts who are plying their trade and releasing music. Taking shape and sitting alongside one another. There is no doubt that Fat Dog stand out. Rightly hailed as one of the most exciting live bands you will see, King of the Slugs is a nice taster of what is to come. So long as they marshal that potential and can dedicate a portion of next year working over songs and getting them into shape – halfway between tight and radio-worthy and a bit rambling and live-sounding – then they are going to be this long-running concern. They are undeniably an act that are worth a lot of attention. Live legends already. The guys of Fat Dog need to keep that energy up – but they also need to…

KEEP things focused.

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Follow Fat Dog

FEATURE: Saluting the Queens: Hayley Williams

FEATURE:

 

 

Saluting the Queens

PHOTO CREDIT: Peyton Fulford for The New Yorker

 

Hayley Williams

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I have already featured a couple of artists…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Alex G Harper/WWD

for Saluting the Queens. A reason I want to come to Hayley Williams is because I think she is one of the most inspiring artists of her generation. A solo artist and lead of Paramore, she is an incredible artist and songwriter. Someone always speaking out against sexism, inequality and injustice. A modern icon that is loved by so many people. You can follow Hayley Williams on Instagram. I want to bring in a few interviews from this year. Rather than highlight Paramore’s recent album, This Is Why, and why it is one of the best albums of  2023, I want to focus on the brilliant Hayley Williams. I want to begin back in February. The New Yorker highlighted an artist who left the South but someone still searching for home, her PTSD diagnosis and the impact of her divorce (she divorced artist Chad Gilbert in 2017). Six years on from After Laughter, the beloved Paramore were back:

“Mississippi is so central to the history of American music and literature, to the civil-rights movement, to so many things. I’m curious how the culture of the place—its particular Southernness, and the way you escaped it—shaped you, if at all?

I think it shaped me more than I was willing to admit for a very long time. I changed my accent pretty quickly. I got made fun of, and then I was, like, I’m done with this. When I was in school in Meridian, the music that I was drawn to was gospel music, Motown, R. & B. My granddad was obsessed with Elvis, so I listened to a lot of Elvis. And I was very focussed on the fact that one of the Temptations—David Ruffin, who doesn’t have a sparkling reputation—was from Whynot, where I went occasionally as a kid. When I think of Mississippi, I think of my Black friends; I remember learning about D’Angelo from my friend Sheena. We would get back from basketball practice and go to third period, and she would still be in her basketball shorts, putting shea butter or cocoa butter all over her legs. Class would start, but she would just be drawing D’Angelo. I’d be, like, “Who is that?” As an adult, I’m putting together why I get really swept up in amazing singers like Aretha, or Etta James. I think Black history—which is American history—was placed in me while I lived in Mississippi. The people who were very helpful to my mom in the early days, when she was going through this horrible marriage to my first stepfather, were Black women. I remember them being honestly heroic to my mom. And they were heroes for me as well. I don’t get to talk about this a lot, and it doesn’t usually feel appropriate to bring this up. But I think that’s what Mississippi is to me. It’s like a connection to a really rich history, some of which I have no part of now. But it’s in there.

I sometimes hear unexpected blasts of Motown and R. & B. in Paramore; I think it’s certainly present in the way you exist onstage. I’m interested in what you were saying about the generational trauma in your family—your mom, your grandmother, all the women before that—and how that has somehow seeped into your DNA, into your blood. I would think there might be some inherited trauma from the landscape, too.

Yeah, totally. I feel really thankful to be from the South, as much as I get frustrated by the typical political point of view in the South, or how Nashville is just a little blue dot in a red state. My mom’s family were from Slidell and Baton Rouge, Louisiana. So I spent a ton of time in both places. There’s just something. There’s an incredible grit to all of it.

Does it feel as though Nashville is where you belong now?

Yeah. The guys and I were just talking about this yesterday, because Zac [Farro] finally got a studio space here. We work in L.A. a lot. But it’s hard to describe the sense of community a person can find in Nashville. Even with all the tourists and all the shit that we don’t love, the artistic community and the people we’ve found a home with here—it’s not like any other creative community in any other city. I love it, man. And our families are here. My family and Zac’s family live south, in Franklin, and Taylor [York]’s family lives in the city. So it is home.

You’ve been incredibly open about your P.T.S.D. diagnosis. I’ve very recently found myself struggling with P.T.S.D., too—I’ve had to figure out a way to not believe everything is going to fall apart at any second, though sometimes I believe that so thoroughly that I very nearly manifest it. “C’est Comme Ça” addresses some of the tedium of that work. How have you found a way to keep at it?

I’m still figuring some of it out. I don’t know if everyone’s experience differs, or if we can all commiserate on this, but it was my physical body that started demanding that I pay attention to choices I was making and ways I was living my life: people I was around, my past relationships. All those things that I ignored—my body didn’t want me to let it go. So it kind of broke down on me. That looked like an adrenal crash, and I had to manage my cortisol levels. I got very good at science, suddenly—I was really enjoying reading science books and learning shit about the human body, trying to understand what burnout is on a scientific level. We can talk about it, and there’s plenty of think pieces about it, but in my life it has manifested as deep exhaustion. And when I get scared, when I have those moments like what you’re talking about, where you feel like you’re about to basically just manifest everything around you falling to pieces . . . I used to describe it as waiting for the piano to fall, like in a cartoon. I had to start actively looking for ways in my daily life [to treat it]—whether that be talk therapy or physical therapy. All this shit becomes physical if it doesn’t start out physical. I’m always on the lookout for people I can relate to about it, because it tends to feel isolating when you’re thirty-four but you just want to be cozy in bed, always. I’m just always expecting that something bad will happen. You’ve got to find support; you’ve got to find people that can relate or empathize in some way.

Writing “C’est Comme Ça” was me laughing about it. I think you have to laugh about it at a certain point—you have depression, and you’re just, like, Oh, my God, my lens on the world is a fuckin’ Leonard Cohen poem. Everything has got this dark heaviness to it. But there’s also levity in those moments—or maybe that’s just my dark sense of humor. But what else are you supposed to do? There’s mass shootings weekly in America. There are new articles all the time about how if it’s not an asteroid that’s going to hit the Earth, it’s a cyberattack in two years. You’ve gotta find rhythm, and for me, because of P.T.S.D., my rhythms are that I have to do some type of Pilates or movement, at least a couple of times a week, and I’ve got to not drink coffee as much. If that means having a little bit more of a boring life but I can stay healthy and enjoy it, then that’s great. I don’t need to be a rock star.

You’re such a joyful, magnetic performer. For a long time, we didn’t see that so much in rock bands—for decades, the reigning idea was that serious music required a kind of reserved, almost tortured performance. Have you always enjoyed being onstage?

I’m reserved and tortured offstage. [Laughs.] Up there, it’s so freeing. It’s interesting that you can be in front of that many people and feel safer. We wanted to do a run of theatre shows [last fall] because of the intimacy. We just wanted it to feel beautiful and close and sweaty. We’re gonna open for two of Taylor [Swift]’s shows in Arizona, for her “Eras” tour. I know I’ll be nervous, but when I get up there I feel so free. I’m with the people that I trust most in the world. My bandmates are family. We’ve grown up together.

On the fall run that we did, it was tough—a lot of us got covid. I was getting over covid when I had to sing “All I Wanted” at the Vegas show. I was, like, What am I doing? Why did I say yes to this fucking song? Aside from the health stuff, it was just weird to be back on the road again. I had some days that were pretty tough. But, as soon as we got onstage, I felt so comforted by all those faces. Our crowds, thankfully, are super diverse. They really reflect the world that I would love to see. That aspect also made me feel safe. It made me feel like—all right, well, the news sucks, but there are still these beautiful faces, and these people that are getting through things, too. We all just need a release. We need to feel safe together for a moment. That’s what brings me joy”.

There are a couple of other interviews worth highlighting. The reason for me bringing them together is to show the various sides of the extraordinary Hayley Williams. An incredible lead and modern-day icon. Someone who is inspiring other artists and is one of the queens of modern music. Rather than focus on This Is Why and the album itself, The Cut looked more at Hayley Williams’s on stage attitude and etiquette. Someone who feared that she would face sexist comments on stage if she dares to play guitar, there are still these toxic attitudes around women in music. As you will read, Hayley Williams is as compelling and magnetic as any of her male peers. A wonderful musician:

“You’ve been an advocate for abortion rights and LGBTQ+ rights, and Tennessee has unfortunately been a leader in political attempts to control people’s bodies. What does it mean to advocate for others, and do you have any personal rules you follow knowing the position you hold as a celebrity?

If you are paying attention, it’s maddening. I try to stay off of social media. I really never watch the news. I have other places I get my news from that I trust and that I feel, like, a little less overwhelmed by. It should be absolutely normal for any of us to want what’s good for our neighbor. I’m tired of that being edgy and cool. Whatever I can do to normalize having a healthy respect for all humans and a healthy disrespect for people who don’t value every human as an equal, that’s the guide, or the gut feeling that I try to follow. What I want for our city is just equity for everybody.

My heart goes out to all the people who are organizing here in town and definitely the Tennessee three. There’s still a lot of young people showing up at the courthouse day in and day out trying to get the attention of the policy-makers.

Do you have any personal rules for etiquette onstage and offstage when you’re performing?

Offstage is the real world. Onstage is when there’s no rules, and I spit all over everything. My crotch is out half the time because my skirts are too short. It’s a space where all of the margins of being a girl kind of disappear. The first time you get that experience of really letting go, and catharsis, it’s amazing how the inhibitions go, and there’s not really rules, and you’re just raw energy.

There’s absolutely no reason to have any sort of manners onstage other than … I will say, if I ever spot people fighting at a Paramore show in the crowd, I become like the worst teacher that you’ve ever had, because I will embarrass you and make you feel like what the fuck are you doing here?

Do you approach performances differently at music festivals versus on tour, and do you see a difference in audience etiquette?

When we play festivals, my brain always goes to Bonnaroo 2018. It was a really large crowd. I knew that all those people were not big Paramore fans. They were still giving us their attention. I was like, “Okay, well, there’s headliners after us. So what can we do to make them feel a part of this?” It happened to be the day that Anthony Bourdain had passed and I was struggling with my own mental health. So I kind of just sat down and was like, “Can we talk for a second?” Recognize the humanness of the thing that you’re doing, which is cramming together and sweating on each other, and being expected to have a good time. We probably will never be with this group of people again, so how do we try to be as present as possible in it?

Why is that different at festivals?

I feel that more at festivals because I know that I’m not preaching to the choir. I know there’s a lot of people that have never seen Paramore before or they’ve been on the fence about us. Maybe they’ve only heard a couple of singles. So how do we give them a snapshot of all of it and still be human together? At our shows, even in the heavy songs or the heavier moments, I always can spot someone in the front few rows that I know, and it kind of feels like an inside joke. A Paramore show is a much more intimate reunion”.

Before I wrap things up, there is a bit more to bring in. Interested to discover what Rolling Stone asked in October. I always love hearing what Hayley Williams says about herself and the creative period. It is amazing to think that Paramore released their debut album, All We Know Is Falling, in 2005! They have faced obstacles and challenges. It seems like Hayley Williams is more settled and secure than she has been in a while. Very much present and optimistic:

“This Is Why asks a lot of questions, often unanswerable ones. What’s something that you learned about yourself while making this record that surprised you?

That I am capable of sitting with a whole lot of discomfort. I’m always seeking comfort. Some of it is family of origin shit. Growing up there was so much love, but it was a very broken-family-home-type situation. As I’ve gotten older and especially as Paramore was able to find success, I was able to afford [to say], “Okay, I’m going to create a home for myself. I’m going to make it feel safe.” One of my core values is security. It doesn’t have to look like much, but it needs to feel safe and secure. So I’m constantly seeking out, “Well what’s the most comfortable route?” And it has not always served me. In fact, I would say more than not it keeps me from growth.

Towards the end of the tour, you developed a lung infection and tried to push through before making that decision to cancel so you could get better. What kind of dissonance did that create between your mind and your body?

Oh man, it was devastating. Being on tour is hard on the body, it’s hard on the brain. But those two hours that you get with those people that are there at the show, it’s like nothing else. Especially when the world feels like it’s quite literally crumbling around us, to be able to experience people’s joy each night is a real gift because you can very easily forget that that type of joy exists when you’re just online or you see the news. That was really healing for me and I think it probably got me through more shows than I should have gotten through, even the last show before we ended up ultimately having to pull off the road.

I knew that I felt horrible, but I walked out with the guys during the intro and the minute that I saw the people in the front — some of which I recognized very quickly — I was like, “This is fine. I’m gonna get through this.” And I found myself coughing a lot, I was trying to speak and I was struggling. It’s funny how you can really disconnect from that. The physical and spiritual experience that you get on stage is somehow simultaneously the most present that I ever am in my body, and then at the same time, it’s this out-of-body, wonderful soul experience that you can’t duplicate doing anything else.

PHOTO CREDIT: Zachary Gray

Have you gotten any closer to understanding the distinction between selfishness and self-preservation?

I’m still trying. I was talking to Zac and Taylor about this recently. Sometime in the middle of this tour, we all started getting really excited about making new music again. We’re just ready to be back in the studio. And we still have plenty of shows — we’re going to do the Eras tour next summer, we have the New Zealand/Australia run, there’s a couple of dates happening early next year. But there’s something that we all are metabolizing finally, about the last few years of the band, but also existing. There’s a lot of lessons that have sat on the surface, like when you try to rub lotion in and it just sits on top of your skin and you’re like, “Gross.”

But I think that now there’s things that are sinking in that couldn’t have before. I’m excited that we can actually go forward knowing more, or being more than you were before. I’m ready for that and I feel it. Every day is like, “Gotta be present. Gotta be here.” There’s amazing things happening every single day, whether it’s work or whether it’s just being with my dog and going on a big walk, you know? I need to be here now”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Alex G Harper/WWD

I am going to finish off now. WWD spoke with her back in September. Spotlighting a music fashion icon who, at thirty-four, is a different performer than she was as a teen. Maybe more need and priority to set time aside and not burn out. Still able to deliver the most captivating performances and highlight why she is a queen; she has learned some lessons and truths through the years. Someone who, with her band, are at a new and exciting creative peak:

“At 34, Williams feels like she’s a completely different performer than she was as a teenager; when the group first started, she was one of the only women in a sea of male metal bands, and as a 17-year-old in that space, felt the need to create and armor for herself

“I really created such a hard-core version of myself. And I feel so much softer and more open now, and that because of that, I feel like I’m allowed to be more myself. It’s nice because I do think that our band has always kind of championed people having their own unique thing, being different or being a space for people who have felt outcast in some way or all of that. That was just important to us,” she says. “But it’s interesting because at the time, being a teenager, I don’t think that I was fully present in myself because it was just, it’s scary. The world’s scary, and you’re 17 and you’re doing all these new things for the first time in front of the world. And I think that now there’s just an ease to being wherever I’m at, not feeling like I have to puff myself up and be really tough to get through something.”

Her approach to onstage fashion has also undergone a transformation, and for this current tour, she wanted to juxtapose the “anxiety” of the album with more feminine silhouettes and pieces. Her favorite decades of fashion are the ’60s and ’70s, so she looked to the style of people like Jane Asher and Debbie Harry as inspiration.

“Every now and then, we’ll play a song and I’ll be really present, not only the being with people aspect, but I’ll be really listening to the lyrics, I’ll be like, ‘oh my god, I can’t believe I can’t believe I wrote this.’ I remember we were playing a song called ‘Misguided Ghosts,’ which was on our third album, and it’s one of my favorites because I think it reflects some of the music that we were listening to more in our acoustic [stage]. And we were playing it somewhere, and it was the first time that I really paid attention to what I was saying in a long time, and it was so emotional,” she says. “I just felt like, ‘god, man, we’ve been through so much as a band. We should not still be here. There’s no reason that we should still be here.’ I joke all the time that we’re like a cockroach. We just won’t die. I’m so grateful”.

One of the most inspiring and respected women in modern music, Hayley Williams has definitely made a massive impact. Someone who has so much love for her fans. Another big reason why I wanted to highlight Hayley Williams is because she turns thirty-five on 27th December. Ending a brilliant years where Paramore have released a career-best album, she looks ahead to a new year and new opportunities. Even if Williams and Paramore have faced criticism and accusations of misogyny because of the track, Misery Business, there is no doubt that Hayley Williams has faced huge oppression and discrimination through her career. A passionate feminist, if not a perfect one. She is an amazing artist who is clearly influencing so many young artists coming through. To me, she is a role model for so many people around the world. A source of strength for so many women. That is a big reason as to why I wanted to…

SALUTE her here.