FEATURE: Family Business: Fugees’ The Score at Thirty

FEATURE:

 

 

Family Business

Fugees’ The Score at Thirty

__________

ONE of the most important…

IN THIS PHOTO: Pras, Lauryn Hill and Wyclef Jean of Fugees/PHOTO CREDIT: Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic

and extraordinary albums of the 1990s turns thirty soon. The masterpiece second studio album from Fugees, the trio consisted of Ms. Lauryn Hill, Pras (Michel) and Wyclef Jean. I shall finish with a review for The Score. It is one of the biggest creative leaps ever. 1994’s Blunted on Reality is an okay album, but it only has moments of brilliance. The Score was a huge step forward. I think because it featured more of Ms. Lauryn Hill. Her voice seemed to be more prevalent. She would release one solo album, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, in 1998. Released on 13th February, 1996, The Score reached number one in the U.S. Production was handled by the Fugees, Jerry Duplessis, and Warren Riker. In terms of he tracks on the album, it features Ready or Not, Zealots, Killing Me Softly with His Song, and Fu-Gee-La. It also has incredible deeper cuts such as How Many Mics and Family Business. Fugees have performed together since The Score was released, though there has been nothing in terms of huge gigs or anything significant. I feel there are splits and tensions within the group. At the end of last year, Pras (Pras Michel) was sentence to fourteen years in prison for using money to peddle political influence in the U.S. It means that the trio will not reform or play any gigs together. It sort of gives The Score a more complex legacy than it would otherwise have had. Not that members of Fugees have been free from controversy through their careers. However, with the sentencing of Pras Michel, it does mean that any hopes of a fully-fledged tour or reform is now impossible. Certified seven-times platinum in the U.S. and one of the most popular and influential albums in Hip-Hop history, I do hope there is retrospective about The Score around its thirtieth anniversary. Controversy and splits within the group do not take away from the brilliance and importance of The Score.

In 2021, SPIN shared an article that they first published in April 1996. An interesting interview with Fugees, it must have been exciting seeing the trio release this amazing new album after what could only be described as a somewhat middling debut. The Score was the album they had been promising. Their second studio album would prove to be their last:

“In hip-hop’s cosmology, “hardcore” rap means a cantankerous MC kicking rhymes like bodies over harsh, skeletal beats. “Alternative,” on the other hand—singing, melodies, instrumentation, any sort of peace-and-love attitude—translates as “no skills.” So hip-hop trio the Fugees—Wyclef “Clef” Jean, Lauryn “L” Hill, and Prakazrel “Pras” Michel—aren’t at all pleased to be in this section.

“We are a hip-hop group, point blank,” says 20-year-old Hill, a doe-eyed gamine of startling beauty and as brawny and nimble a rapper as she is a rapturous soul singer. “‘Alternative’ is like saying ‘she’s attractive for a dark-skinned girl,’ a backhanded compliment. Just because we can play instruments, we can’t be real hip-hop? The reason I make the kind of music I make is to bring musicality back to the ghetto. It’s about being creative, and sometimes adding a motherfucker if it means getting my point across.”

The Fugees titled their sophomore effort The Score because it settles that issue the best way possible, with moody spaghetti-Western riffs, noodling jazz horns, R&B memories, Jamaican rude-boyisms, a radical reinvention of Roberta Flack’s “Killing Me Softly With His Song,” and the Refugee Camp’s own live instrumentation. The Score leads off with “Red Intro,” a street-corner poetry rant from Ras Baraka, son of poet Amiri Baraka. A flowing edit takes us to the Fugees, smoked out and ripping lyrics back and forth to sound an old-school battle cry. “I used to be underrated / Now I take iron / Makes my shit constipated / I’m more concentrated,” raps Hill.

“That gangsta shit is B.S.,” says Jean, the group’s live wire guitar hero and at 26 the oldest. “The real thugs and gangsters got the rappers saying that shit. The gangster to me is the guy who owns Sony [the Fugees’ label], the guy who owns SPIN, the guy who owns MTV. Hardcore is like being in the house with the eight of us, mom on welfare. That’s what I call hardcore. I don’t mean to sound preachy ’cause we’re a bug-out group.” “Hardcore for hard times,” says Hill more succinctly.

The trio met eight years ago at Columbia High School in South Orange, New Jersey, when Hill entered her freshman year. Haitian-American Michel, a junior and the son of a church deacon, asked her to sing on his rap tracks. They were joined by his older cousin Jean, a self-taught musical prodigy, himself the son of a fire-and-brimstone preacher who hated Jean’s “devil’s music” and once refused to sign a label contract his then-underage son was offered. In a gesture of proud defiance, they named themselves the Fugees for the Haitian refugees who were then washing up on U.S. shores.

Except for Salaam Remi’s straight-up hip-hop remix of “Nappy Heads,” the Fugees’ 1993 Blunted on Reality debut pleased music critics and confused radio programmers and hip-hop purists. No wonder: Jean cites as influences an eclectic mix ranging from Eek-a-Mouse and Peter Tosh to B.B. King, Thelonious Monk, and even the Pet Shop Boys and Yes. The classic-R&B-loving Hill, who worked as a teen cabaret singer and theater actress, today studies history at Columbia University. “In class, I’m always like ‘hey, does anyone else notice that this is the same shit that made it so conquest and subjugation was the basis upon which America and the West was built?’ You know what I’m saying? It’s always Machiavelli, Hobbes, Locke.”

As the album flopped, Hill’s featured appearance in Sister Act II inspired suggestions that she take up the mic solo. “I don’t find it a compliment when people say that,” Hill says heatedly. “These brothers are like members of my family. Families sing together and they blend. There’s something that we do together that makes perfect chemistry. It’s been perfect since I was 14 years old.” Jean raps his response in The Score‘s “Zealots”: “The magazine says the girl shoulda went solo / The guys should stop rapping vanish like Menudo / Took it to the heart / But every actor plays his part. / As long as someone was listenin’ / I knew it was a start.”

This time around, the Fugees produced the album themselves, creating the same impromptu spirit in their New Jersey Booga Basement Studio that they have in their dynamic live act, a revamp of an old-time soul revue that’s one of the best shows in hip-hop. Steering clear of “A” audiences, they’ve been playing to the hip-hop heads in the hoods, the “hardcore audiences, blunt smokers, weed smokers, gun toters, like kids on our block who we grew up with,” says Jean. “I can hold my guitar or sing, but it’s with a rebel voice.”

Their efforts seem to be paying off. In late December 1995, the Fugees won “The Battle of the Beats” on Hot 97 (a New York City hip-hop radio station) five nights in a row with The Score‘s “How Many Mics,” defeating the Wu-Tang Clan and “whatever is so-called hip-hop today,” says bass-voiced Michel, a tall, lanky 23-year-old not easily impressed. “Hip-hop is a culture—dance, lingo, style, music—and that’s what the Fugees is. Anyone can rap”.

In 2021, Consequence wrote a feature celebrating twenty-five years of Fugees’ The Score. For anyone who wants to understand the rawness of '90s Hip-Hop, they recommend that people listen to this album. One, they say, that remains an oracle twenty-five years after its release. A further five years later, and whilst its legacy might have changed or been affected by circumstances within the group and around its members, the power of the music remains undiminished. Maybe as powerful now as it was in 1996:

“Part of its lasting impact stems from the trio of Wyclef Jean, Lauryn Hill, and Pras Michel having released their classic sophomore effort in a year where the fabric of Black music was palpably changing. In 1996, the world would witness 2Pac’s last release (All Eyez on Me), the beginning of Jay-Z’s musical reign (Reasonable Doubt), and debut albums from game-changers Lil’ Kim (Hard Core) and Foxy Brown (Ill Na Na). Influential groups like Outkast and A Tribe Called Quest also released notable projects that year (ATLiens and Beats, Rhymes and Life, respectively), but the presence of women emcees in rap groups was practically nonexistent. Blunted on Reality, the Fugees’ vastly underrated debut record, had first introduced hip-hop audiences to Ms. Lauryn Hill and her New Jersey outfit back in 1994, but it would take the group’s groundbreaking follow-up a couple years later for them to gain widespread notice.

That punched ticket was 1996’s The Score, which rightfully cemented Fugees’ place in hip-hop history and boasts the hardware to prove it. The album was certified six times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. At the 39th Annual Grammy Awards, The Score won for Best Rap Album. The sonic eclecticism that set the group apart from their contemporaries stemmed from their Haitian roots. “Everybody seeks refuge,” Jean told Vibe magazine in 1996. “We find refuge in music.” The way the album infused Caribbean melodies and sounds with soul, reggae, pop, and R&B — in addition to their use of timeless samples and potent lyricism — made it an instant classic.

“Red Intro”, featuring an appearance from Ras Baraka (son of poet Amiri Baraka), acts as a gritty and dramatic harbinger for The Score’s esoteric and gripping themes regarding capitalism, identity, and the normalization of hyperviolent masculinity. The spoken-word dimensionality of “How Many Mics” reveals that Hill, who rips through the introductory verse with equal parts passion and skill, plays second fiddle to absolutely no one: “Laced with malice/ Hands get calloused/ From gripping microphones from here to Dallas/ Go ask Alice if you don’t believe me/ I get in her visions like Stevie /See me ascend from the chalice like the weed be.”

She continues to ride her own wave on the explosive “Ready or Not”, which boldly samples Enya’s “Boadicea”. Hill proves her mellifluous prowess as a vocalist and rapper and venomously declares: “So while you imitating Al Capone/ I’ll be Nina Simone/ And defecating on your microphone.” Jean’s precocious wordplay coupled with Michel’s knavish similes (“I refugee from Guantanamo Bay/ Dance around the border like I’m Cassius Clay”) showcases the chemistry that makes the Fugees such a formidable trio on The Score. Jean was the provocative mouthpiece that teetered between revolution and redemption; Michel was the stern, yet playful, poet who would often get enthralled with his own musings; and Hill was the unpredictable virtuoso that bonded them together so remarkably well.

“Zealots” playfully and boldly pays homage to the ’60s doo-wop era. “The Beast” treads into political territory with razor-sharp precision by bashing Republican figures like Newt Gingrich by name, calling out the disturbing regularity of police brutality and America’s racist prison problem. Jean’s poignant observation of how wealth won’t save him from discrimination since he’s still a Black man is piercing: “My inner conscience says throw your handkerchief and surrender/ But to who? The “Star-Spangled Banner”?/ Oh, say can’t you see cops more crooked than we/ By the dawn early night, robbin’ niggas for keys/ Easy, low-key crooked military/ Pay taxes up my ass/ But they still harass me.”

Hill effortlessly floats on its follow-up, “Fu-Gee-La”, as she interpolates Teena Marie’s 1988 hit “Ooh La La La (If Loving You Is Wrong)” for the chorus while adding a bit of her own pomposity: “Ooh, la-la-la/ It’s the way that we rock when we’re doing our thing/ Ooh, la-la-la/ It’s the natural la that the Refugees bring.” As the lead single from The Score, “Fu-Gee-La” epitomizes how the three artists aptly complement each other: Hill’s vocal lucidity is a perfect contrast to the ebb and flow of Jean and Michel’s forward-thinking verses.

However, the album’s signature moment remains when Hill takes center stage on the Fugees’ rendition of the 1973 Roberta Flack classic “Killing Me Softly”. It feels bare and extremely intimate even as the bass drops 90 seconds into the song. Jean’s adlibs (“One time! Two times”) add a little gusto on a record that is already perfect. In the UK, this famed cover was the biggest-selling single of 1996. It was massive in the States as well and hit No. 2 on the Hot 100. It also won Best R&B performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal at the 39th Grammy Awards ceremony. “Killing Me Softly” celebrated Hill’s powerhouse range, which remains entirely immersive whenever it is showcased.

From beginning to end, The Score is a cogent representation of the arduous, yet resplendent, nature of hip-hop. All of its complexities — which encompass poverty, sexism, institutional racism, and inter and intraracial violence — are harrowing to hear but necessary to know and understand. Fugees acted as truth oracles whose inventiveness went on to inspire generations of rappers to come. The Score has stood the test of time and is a necessary listen for those looking to understand the rawness of ’90s hip-hop. Reflecting on its impact 25 years later confirms something that the group knew when they started making music together: The Fugees were always ahead of their time”.

I am going to end with a Pitchfork review of The Score. However, in 2016, they marked twenty years of a Hip-Hop classic. They also spoke with those who collaborated on and affected the album, including the last great Roberta Flack (who recorded the original version of Killing Me Softly/Killing Me Softly with His Song). It is a fascinating read:

“From the group to the label to the producers to the guest stars, no one had predicted the impact The Score would have on the music world. Once the album landed on the Grammys stage in '97, where it took home two awards, it seemed like the Fugees had it all together. Internally, though, it was another story. The tumultuous romantic relationship between a very young Hill and Clef, who was married and six years her senior, reached its peak during the recording of The Score. L-Boogie would loosely document the affair in her 1998 opus, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, while Wyclef would be more blatant in his 2012 memoir. Specifics remains hazy and have evolved into urban folklore—everyone who touched the project has one story or another. Pras recounted one harrowing tale of Wyclef breaking up with Lauryn moments before she entered the booth to record "Ready or Not," Hill crying her eyes out as she sang the hook. Then there are the stories surrounding The Score's tour, where Hill and Jean briefly reconnected before Lauryn got together with Rohan Marley. And to this day, fans speculate that Hill’s suicidal thoughts on "Manifest" were because of Clef, but who really knows? What we do know is that the love child of this toxic romance became one of the best-selling hip-hop albums ever. Strip the love, the hurt, the bickering—strip it all, and you still have a masterpiece that made history.

Salaam Remi

Producer on "Fu-Gee-La" (The Score’s lead single), "Nappy Heads" remix (from Blunted on Reality), "Vocab," and "Ready or Not" remixes (from Bootleg Versions EP)

"Going into ’95, I was working on music for Spike Lee’s Clockers. I had [the Fugees] come down [where I was working], and we did a song that was supposed to be on The Score but never got on there, called ‘Project Heads.’ During the session for ‘Project Heads,’ which I was also trying to get into Clockers, there was a beat I had made for Fat Joe that Lauryn heard. She was like, ‘Look, where’s that Fat Joe beat?’ During that session, I played the beat on her request and Wyclef jumped up and pretty much spit his verse, ‘We used to be number ten, now we’re permanent one…’ What I did was—on my dime and my time—I recorded ‘Fu-Gee-La’ in my studio. That song was done, and then they went and got the budget for that second album. Then, they started working on beats. First David Sonenberg [Fugees’ manager] wanted me to produce the whole album along with them, but I wasn’t really with it at the time. So I was like, ‘Come to me if you need some advice and I will chime in here and there.’

"Basically, the vibe of The Score was based around ‘Fu-Gee-La.’ If you take away ‘Fu-Gee-La’ it’s there, but ‘Fu-Gee-La’ is The Score, so that’s why it ended up being the first single. With that, Wyclef had his verse, and Lauryn went through singing a lot of different things, from ‘Never Dreamed You’d Leave In Summer’ [which she would later sing on Common’s 'Retrospect For Life'] to Chaka Khan records to all types of stuff. When she finally hit that ‘ooh la la la,’ that was the hook. During that process, Lauryn probably recorded her 16 bars every day for seven days straight. She came back in every day to redo it, because she’s that level of a perfectionist.

"At one point Lauryn hit me and said she was doing a singing record on the album and wanted me to produce it. But at that time they didn’t really have the budget. So Pras calls me one day like, ‘Yo, let me ask you something. If we wanna do "Killing Me Softly," how would you approach that song?’ I was like, ‘Hmmm, I would kind of do it like "Bonita Applebum."’ He said, ‘Oh, that was the same thing I was thinking. I’ll call you right back.’ And there you go: They literally made ‘Bonita Applebum’ into ‘Killing Me Softly.’

"The combination: Wyclef was very eclectic, Lauryn knew every soul song under the sun—she’s like a jukebox—and then Pras. If you look at that album, it says the executive producer is Pras, co-executive producers are Wyclef and Lauryn. It’s because Pras has the pop ear. From my perspective, a lot of their process during The Score was, ‘What would Salaam tell us to do?’ It’s because we had gotten to that point where I mentored them into now taking their talent and molding it into a record that people liked..."

Roberta Flack

Fugees covered "Killing Me Softly With His Song," the most famous version of which—a No. 1 in 1973—was Flack’s.

"Honestly, I had not [heard of the Fugees prior to 'Killing Me Softly']. The Score came on us like a mighty wind, and I was totally blown away by the power of the group—their musicality, their political message, and their creativity. They wanted to change the lyrics [to 'Killing Me Softly'] to make the song about anti-drugs and anti-poverty. They were all about politics. Given their name and all, the (Re)Fugees, it made sense. It was more Norman [Gimbel] and Charlie [Fox] [the songwriters behind 'Killing Me Softly With His Song'] that wanted their song to not be changed. I feel that the meaning of the song changes depending upon the singer, depending upon the listener. They gave the song a new meaning and exposed it to a new generation. They invented a new version of the song, using some musical ideas from my version. I was surprised they picked that song to be included with the others on that album, as it didn’t have the political emphasis, but then again it depends on the frame of reference from which you listen, right?"

In 2021, The Ringer shared a compelling piece that argued how, on The Score, Fugees disguised resistance as art. This huge political statement as any Hip-Hop album of the decade, songs like Fu-Gee-La, are especially important when it comes to representing and putting into focus those displaced. Refuges and those oppressed. The Score gave voice to hose people. In some ways, The Score has a new relevance in the modern-day. In terms of asylum seekers and refugees who are being villainised and risking their lives to find safety. Those murdered by genocidal regimes. There is nothing in modern music like The Score:

“The Score matters because there are places where the blatant political statement, extremely effective as it is, cannot go. When I was 12, I was at a fairly conservative school where a Black friend was ordered to remove his Malcolm X T-shirt by a member of the staff. As my friend retreated to his bedroom to change, the staff member offered her verdict on the civil rights activist. “Horrible man,” she scoffed. However, if she had seen a T-shirt bearing the faces of the Fugees, she might not even have looked twice, even though their underlying message was just as radical as so many of Malcolm X’s speeches. The Fugees disguised resistance as art, the same way that enslaved Africans once hid martial arts from their colonial masters by pretending that they were a dance.

They needed this disguise all the more, particularly because—as historian and professor Tricia Rose has observed—this was an era when major radio stations and media outlets were aggressively promoting hip-hop that celebrated materialism, which generally made it harder for music with the content of The Score to cut through. So much of that period featured feuds that were aggressively stoked by outsiders, especially by media outlets seeking controversy: It is poignant to remember that, even at the height of the supposed Cold War between the East Coast and the West Coast, rappers from both of those areas hung out with each other—Pras, a friend of Tupac’s, was in touch with him shortly before the rapper was murdered. That the Fugees managed to fight their way through that toxic fog, and to show the world that their style of hip-hop was commercially viable—it sold 22 million copies worldwide—is an understated part of their legacy.

At the core of the Fugees’ resistance was their assertion that, contrary to most current and historical narratives, it was cool to be a refugee. The name of their group, chosen to honor the Haitian heritage of Pras and Wyclef, suggested that a refugee was an outlaw, a warrior-spirit; the name of the album, The Score, implied that the act of fleeing one’s country for another was as daring as carrying out a heist at a heavily guarded casino. (If anything, it is much more so.) This reframing of escape as a courageous act rather than a cowardly one spoke to those times, and it speaks to ours now.

When the Fugees released The Score, the West had just witnessed—and, if we are being honest, refused to prevent—two of the most horrifying human rights abuses in recent memory, both of which had led to the mass exodus of people from their homelands. In just a few weeks in 1994, hundreds of thousands of people were slaughtered by their fellow citizens—in many cases, their neighbors—in Rwanda. In 1995, over the course of just 12 days, the same thing happened to 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica. In the global consciousness, the stock of the refugee was therefore particularly low—people in conflict zones were meant to be killed and not heard. The Score arrived in that world, defiant and unashamed, daring and endlessly epic.

If we fast-forward to the present day, we see that the position of the refugee is similar, perhaps worse. When war came to Syria in 2011, the thousands of people who escaped were largely seen as part of a crisis, their suffering portrayed as a burden for the countries they ran to rather than a tragedy. When those people, along with others fleeing horror of similar intensity in Libya, Afghanistan, and elsewhere, started drowning in huge numbers as they attempted treacherous trips to Europe, the response of much of the European media and politicians was merely to mock them. In the most infamous case, a British tabloid referred to refugees as “cockroaches”—a description which drew a horrified rebuke from the United Nations’ high commissioner for human rights, who compared it to language used by the Nazis.

The Score recast these people, the most disposable of all humans, as mythical figures. “I, refugee from Guantanamo Bay / Dance around the border, like I’m Cassius Clay,” raps Pras on “Ready or Not.” And this album did not portray images of gentle souls, either. These were not the type of refugees who would arrive in a new country and live quietly and fearfully in their buildings, hoping that no one paid them too much attention. In other words, the Fugees were not “good immigrants.” Their work was a blend of heavenly melody and lethal wit. As Hill put it, they were “sweet like licorice, dangerous like syphilis.” Even their heritage was radical, with Wyclef hailing from Haiti—a nation long maligned for its poverty, but which in the early 19th century was the home of the world’s first successful revolt against enslavers”.

I am going to end with a 2021 review from Pitchfork. They awarded The Score 9.3 (and unusually high score for them!). Such a seismic and enduring album, they dissected and passionately discussed “a socially conscious blockbuster grounded by the realities of the immigrant experience”. I heard the album for thew first time at the end of the '90s. It had an impact on me. In years since, its significance has grown. It is one of my favourite albums of the mid-1990s. A masterpiece:

“Upon its release, few would believe that The Score would represent nearly a quarter of Lauryn Hill’s creative output. She had long been identified as the group’s breakout talent, fending off suggestions—and offers—to leave her group behind long before it eventually dissolved. She seemed to have been anointed for stardom from a young age; Before graduating high school she had already acted in an Off-Broadway play (Club XII, the hip-hop Twelfth Night), daytime soap (As the World Turns), and two feature films (Sister Act 2, King of the Hill), as well as releasing the Fugees debut. In the face of the undeniable talent on display on The Score, she grew tired of feeling that people (and press) assumed that her male collaborators were largely responsible for her—and the group’s—success, tired of being seen as Wyclef’s girl.

And while she would evolve into something bigger than hip-hop on her 1998 solo debut The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, her work on The Score remains unparalleled in the genre; no MC has ever sung with such soul, power, and grace, nor has any singer ever spit as hard as she does here. If that statement sounds histrionic, just try to come up with a list of her peers that sing and rap even remotely as well as she did. Cee-Lo? Pharrell? Drake? It’s laughable. There’s a reason why everyone freaked out when Azealia Banks dropped “212”; the skillsets just do not often intersect, despite the AutoTune crooners that have since flooded the pop charts. And even the OGs place her at or near the top of their best-ever MC lists. Yet even after all the praise and recognition, she still felt somewhat unseen, somehow unappreciated. This would manifest itself in Miseducation, both in its powerful expressions of vulnerability and in her tyrannical exclusion of her collaborators from that album’s writing and production credits.

The Fugees recording career barely lasted three years. Flooded with offers and opportunities in the wake of their multi-platinum opus, the group began to fracture. Wyclef began recording The Carnival, supported—both emotionally and creatively—by Pras and Lauryn, who both make guest appearances. But when Lauryn started writing songs for her own solo debut, Wyclef gave her the cold shoulder, a stinging rebuke in the wake of the many solo opportunities Lauryn had spurned in solidarity with her group. The dynamic was made all the more awkward by their clandestine romance, despite his marriage to another woman, and later, Lauryn’s with Bob Marley’s son Rohan. And when the birth of Lauryn’s first child became embroiled in a paternity scandal, the fracture became a fissure, ending hopes of a prompt reconciliation.

The Score was the product of chance alchemy, made by three artists whose independent visions coalesced just long enough to create something remarkable. In the process, they laid out a template for hip-hop’s cleared-sample era, where the curation of old records was more important than how you chopped it up and disguised it. Rappers and producers quickly realized that if you had to pay for it, you might as well make the sample recognizable to those that remember the orginal, and court that new audience in the process. “Killing Me Softly” exists across several decades: It borrows from the Roberta Flack version, which itself a re-arranged cover of the Lori Lieberman original; the Fugees version adds the boom-bap drum beat from A Tribe Called Quest’s “Bonita Applebum,” which itself samples “Memory Band” from Minnie Riperton’s Rotary Connection.

The Fugees managed to diversify the voice of the ghetto, one often depicted in a single dimension. They reclaimed pride for Haitians worldwide, a heritage maligned for its postcolonial poverty and strife but still remembered as the setting for the new world’s first successful revolt of enslaved people against their oppressors. Their sound was multifaceted because they were, too, their music diverse, just like the Black experience”.

Ahead of its thirtieth anniversary on 13th February, there will be new pieces and articles written around Fugees’ The Score. Not blunted by reality of the fact a third of the group is imprisoned, the significance of the music, the landmark album that it was the legacy it has is extraordinary. That is the main takeaway and thing to remember: the sheer brilliance of the music and the dynamic within the trio. I think Ms. Lauryn Hill’s growing role as a vocalist is what makes The Score stronger and more immediate than Blunted on Reality. The confidence in the group and the consistency is higher. After thirty years, few other Hip-Hop albums have such weight and importance. Its relevance is still so huge. Even though Fugees would not last much longer beyond 1996, The Score is an album that shows them…

AT the peak of their powers.

FEATURE: Spotlight: Naomi Jane

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

Naomi Jane

__________

THIS is an artist…

who not only makes incredible distinct, wonderful, uplifting, urgent, powerful and beautiful music. I think she is also so important and inspiring. In terms of how she uses her platform. I already have so much respect, admiration and love for Naomi Jane. I only discovered her recently, but her music, work and incredible words have already made their way into my heart and mind. In terms of what you need to know about Naomi Jane, this is taken from her official website:

“Naomi Jane is a rising singer-songwriter celebrated for blending soulful storytelling with powerful pop and indie influences. Hailing from a bicoastal upbringing between New York and California, she began honing her craft early – training as a classically trained mezzo-soprano and learning multiple instruments galoremag.com. Critics have drawn parallels between Naomi’s poetic lyricism and the emotional depth of icons like Joni Mitchell and Alanis Morissette​ mundanemag.com, a testament to the maturity and authenticity she brings to her music despite her young age. With a background in theater and film alongside music, Naomi’s artistry is truly multidimensional, rooted in both performance and songwriting.

Early Life and Artistic Foundation

Growing up bicoastal, splitting time between New York City and California, gave Naomi a diverse cultural foundation. She immersed herself in music from childhood, developing a three-octave mezzo-soprano range through classical vocal training​ galoremag.com. At the same time, she became a multi-instrumentalist, picking up guitar, piano, violin, saxophone and ukulele, which later allowed her to craft richly arranged songs as a solo artist. Before her pre-teens, Naomi was already showcasing her talents on stage – performing at prestigious New York venues like Feinstein’s/54 Below, The Players, and Green Room 42 . These early performances  laid a strong performance foundation for her music career.

Naomi’s love for storytelling led her naturally into acting as well. She landed prominent roles in theater productions, including portraying Young Teddy Trager in the award-winning musical Aussie Song, and even a gender-bent turn as Jack Kelly in Newsies. Other regional theater credits included leads in Legally Blonde, The Sound of Music, and Frozen​ broadwayword.com. Her screen debut came via a children’s music program on PBS Kids, followed by a part in the award-winning series Assisted Living. Notably, she also starred in a cult-favorite indie zombie film A Night with the Sheintops, adding film acting to her repertoire ​IMBd. This breadth of experience in performance – across singing, playing instruments, and acting – contributed to Naomi Jane’s distinct stage presence and narrative flair as she transitioned into recording original music.

Breakthrough: Songwriting and the Letterman Trilogy

In her mid-teens, Naomi turned her focus to original music, channeling her life experiences into songwriting. A major early milestone was her song “Little Miss,” an empowering pop anthem about self-worth, which went on to win First Place (Teen Category) in the 2023 International Songwriting Competition, outshining over 14,000 entries from 120 countries ​independent.com. This prestigious award put Naomi on the map as a songwriter of considerable promise, with judges praising the maturity and catchiness of her work.

Around this time, Naomi crafted what she calls the “Letterman Trilogy,” a trio of interlinked singles that narrate a journey of young love, heartbreak, and growth. The trilogy – comprising the songs “Pretty Boys,” “Little Miss,” and “Grown Ups” – uses the symbol of a letterman’s jacket as a through-line to represent stages of a teenage relationship. In “Pretty Boys,” Naomi candidly critiques the disillusionment of high school romance; “Little Miss” follows with a reclamation of confidence and identity after heartbreak; and finally “Grown Ups” concludes the arc by reflecting on coming-of-age lessons as adolescence turns into adulthood​. Wonderland Magazine praised Naomi’s ability to navigate “the emotional highs and lows of youth” in these songs with striking authenticity​. When the concluding ballad “Grown Ups” was released in late 2024, Billboard Argentina lauded it as a “masterful reflection” on the transition from adolescence to maturity​.

2025 Breakthrough and Recognition

If late 2024 set the stage for Naomi Jane, 2025 truly became her breakout year. The new year saw sweet talk continue to attract media buzz and industry accolades. Numerous publications highlighted Naomi as an “Artist to Watch” in 2025, impressed by her early achievements and artistic vision. Galore magazine’s annual spotlight on rising stars featured Naomi, emphasizing how her bicoastal upbringing and classical training contribute to music “rich with emotional depth and poetic lyricism”​ galoremag.com. Mundane magazine likewise listed Naomi among “2025’s Most Promising Emerging Artists,” noting that following the success of sweet talk, she was poised for an even bigger year with new videos and singles on the way ​mundanemag.com​ . “Naomi Jane is an artist you don’t want to miss in 2025,” Mundane wrote pointedly​, a sentiment that was echoed across the music press.

Crucially, Naomi’s rapid rise has come with broad critical approval. Wonderland Magazine applauded her authenticity in writing about youth, while Earmilk highlighted the nuanced way she tackles the struggles of relationships (particularly in her song “Pretty Boys”)​. Even international outlets have taken notice: in Argentina, Billboard spotlighted Naomi’s storytelling and described her focus on love and coming-of-age themes as resonating with both young listeners and a universal audience​ billboard.ar. Such praise from global music media, combined with the tangible streaming numbers and competition wins, have solidified Naomi Jane’s reputation as a multidimensional young talent with a voice beyond her years.

What’s Next for Naomi Jane

Six upcoming singles - summer hit worthy, euphoric “In the Moment,” dance‑ready “I Cry,” and four more - lead into Naomi’s first LP Dissonance (April 2026, co‑written and produced by multi‑award‑winner Adam Zelkind). “It’s alt‑indie‑folk‑pop at its core, laced with flashes of country and my theatrical DNA,” she says, promising to keep bending genre lines.

Beyond music, Naomi produces Broadway benefits against gun violence and advocates for equal‑access arts programs for youth. “I create worlds where listeners feel seen, safe, and empowered,” she explains.

As she balances new releases and performances, Naomi remains grounded in the storytelling that defines her artistry. EARMILK aptly summed up her current trajectory: “Naomi Jane is quickly making a name for herself with fans drawn to her confessional lyricism [and] hook-heavy choruses with rich storytelling. The creator is multi-talented and…has a background in theater, film, and television. With more music coming, we can’t wait to hear what is next from Naomi Jane.”​ earmilk.com  This excitement is shared by her fan community and media alike – Naomi’s journey is just beginning, and all signs point to a bright future for this young artist as she continues to evolve”.

What I also love about Naomi Jane is her official website. It is so comprehensive. It has so much information, all her social media links and press. I do hope that the incredible artist and actor plays in the U.K. at some point. On a section of her website called Why, there are these statements and reasons why she is in her. This is one that specifically caught my eye: “Activism isn’t an add‑on; it’s part of my creative obligation. I believe that art should serve, so I use my platform to advocate for universal access to arts and music education for youth and to press for meaningful gun‑violence prevention. Community service and good stewardship are how I pay rent on the privilege of having a stage. The wider my reach grows, the more room there is to invite others into that work - yet the heartbeat will always be the song itself”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Calli Cohen

I think that so few artists are politically and socially driven. In terms of protesting against and raising awareness of violence in the world, gender inequality and the cessation of women’s body autonomy in the U.S. to genocide in Palestine, it would be nice to see more artists speak out. I am looking forward to her album being released. I would urge everyone to go and listen to it when it comes out and follow her on social media. I am going to come to some 2025 press. However, before that, I want to take things back to 2024 and the Letterman Trilogy. Wonderland Magazine covered this wonderful work by Naomi Jane:

“Some of the greatest stories are written in the shape of a trilogy, and Naomi Jane’s collection of songs is one of them. Being only fifteen years old, Naomi Jane has written the “Letterman Trilogy,” a powerful narrative that explores love, heartbreak, empowerment, and the journey of growing up. Three interconnected singles are the chapters in the story, “Pretty Boys,” “Little Miss,” and “Grown Ups.” Together, they depict the challenges and victories of adolescence.

Naomi is a young prodigy about to become a shining star in the music industry. She received classical training in piano and as a mezzo-soprano, but she was self-taught in the art of pouring her heart into the notes in the shape of lyrics. This is what has become her signature sound and the reason why she is known as the “piano poet.” Her music is carefully crafted, while her storytelling is vulnerable and intimate. As a result, the LA-based artist has fascinated audiences of all kinds, gathering thousands of fans on her social networks, hundreds of thousands of streams, and even a prize at the 2023 International Songwriting Competition for “Little Miss.”

During the past months, Naomi has released a series of songs known as the “Letterman Trilogy”. Each song explores a distinct stage of emotional growth, offering a glimpse into the challenges and triumphs of adolescence. Individually, they are all beautiful masterpieces, but together they unfold an emotional story of learning and evolution.

“Pretty Boys” was the first release of the series. It delves into the unmet expectations in young love, and the pain in seeing naive beliefs fall apart. “Little Miss” focuses on the importance of reclaiming one’s identity, regardless of expectations and the insecurities of teenage years. Finally, “Grown Ups” is a reflection on what love and growing up truly mean, a mix of emotion and fear, and how fragile it can be.

Every song in the trilogy captures Naomi’s style and talent to tell a good story. The vulnerability and honesty she allows herself to express in her lyrics, being so young, is remarkable. Even though it might seem her themes are sad at first, a constant in the verses of her trilogy is the way she reclaims the protagonist of her own narrative. Self-empowerment, self-worth, and a resilient mindset are some of the lessons she has learned at a young age, which she now shares in the shape of songs.

The “Letterman Trilogy” is also a visual chronicle. Through three music videos, we see Naomi’s live emotions that range from love, loss, and self-discovery. A vintage letterman’s jacket is the unifying symbol that connects all the pieces as a metaphor for growth.

With the “Letterman Trilogy” complete, Naomi Jane continues to make her mark on the music industry. After listening to the collection, it is natural to want more from her, and she is working now to please her fans with the release of her next story, an EP with interconnected videos. We are eager to see her growing as a star and changing the music world”.

Last year was a big one for Naomi Jane. In terms of what she achieved. Her debut E.P., sweet talk, was released. An E.P. that is catchy, deep, varied and distinctly her own work, few artists have written about the messiness and realities of love more succinctly and memorably than Naomi Jane. This is the type of artist that we need in music. I hope that other sites and journalists are tipping her for success this year, as she is going to go so far in the industry. SPIN assessed the remarkable sweet talk last January:

“The EP begins with an irresistibly infectious song titled “Heartbeat Melody,” a captivating and lively piece, pulsating with the exhilarating energy of new love. Here, Naomi’s voice really comes into its own and takes center stage as she captures with tremendous eloquence the exciting uncertainty that accompanies the early stages of a budding relationship. The song’s bouncy beat, with its catchy chorus, nicely establishes its status as an instant catchy song.

But “sweet talk” isn’t only about that euphoric, thrilling beginning of love that most people hold so dear. It also delves deep into the complex, multidimensional intricacies of relationships, which “Like Like Love,” one of the EP’s tracks, emphasizes. This song focuses on the fragile, sensitive struggle between light, carefree love and the deeper, more solemn devotion that can emerge later on. It captures the poignant moments when feelings begin to evolve, deepen, and take on unsuspected importance.

“TACOBELL” easily steals the show as the EP’s lead track, a cleverly observed commentary on the vast gulf between the exalted ideals of romance and the stark reality that most people face. It’s the neatness of Naomi’s lyrics. Her infectious melody is brimming with memorability and sets her above the rest. In terms of storytelling, this song highlights Naomi’s dazzling gifts for taking the most mundane details of everyday life and turning them into a compelling, golden song.

As the EP progresses and unwinds, the mood becomes thick with melancholy and solemnity. “Socks” is a heartbreaking ballad that perfectly describes the aftermath of a breakup, with perfect echoes of pain and deep longing that always resonate later when the loving relationship finally ends. She sings so raw, surprisingly vulnerable, and poignant.

“Press Send” is a standout track that wraps up the EP on a triumphant note, celebrating self-worth and independence. With Jane’s emotive powerhouse vocals and empowering lyrics, it becomes a cathartic anthem for anyone who has endured the pain of love.

“Sweet talk” highlights Naomi Jane’s incredible talent as both a gifted songwriter and a captivating performer. Her remarkable ability to craft music that speaks volumes—relatable, emotionally resonant, and thought-provoking—has connected with listeners of all ages and backgrounds. With infectious melodies, honest lyrics, and a compelling narrative, her work leaves a lasting impact”.

Busy with gigs and new music, Naomi Jane released a brilliant single, IDWK (I Don’t Wanna Know). Her output last year was remarkable, and there is a lot of exactment around an album. What it might contain and the tracks that will be included. I think this year is going to be best so far from the American artist. I know there are those in the U.K. that love her music, so it would be good to see her over here at some point. This article is about IDWK (I Don’t Wanna Know). Its video will be arriving shortly. If 2025 was the end of one chapter of her career, this year marks the next one. Perhaps the most important so far:

“Naomi Jane isn’t framing “IDWK (I Don’t Wanna Know)” as a casual brush-off or a quiet fade-out. In her own campaign language, the track is the “call before the shift” — a consciously chosen hinge between the world she’s already built and the one she’s stepping into next.

Released as a song on December 19, 2025, with an official video set for January 23, 2026, “IDWK” arrives as a moment of inventory: Naomi looking back at the Letterman Trilogy, sweet talk, and the broader “dawn” era, then naming the next question out loud. The line that anchors the release — “When you leave the party, where do you go?” — becomes less a situationship refrain and more a thesis about growth, endings, and what it costs to choose yourself.

Part of what makes “IDWK” feel positioned as a pivot is the sheer intentionality behind Naomi’s rollout. Since 2023, she’s maintained an aggressive, disciplined rhythm — roughly a new song and visual every six weeks — and the press release argues that “IDWK” is the first true crossroads of that long-game planning.

It’s presented as the twilight bridge between “dawn” (a tightly interlinked visual-and-song universe) and dissonance (a working-title debut LP era promised to lean into alt-indie / folk-pop with a country fringe, new instrumentation, and a shifted perspective).

Naomi describes the track as one of her most vulnerable, closing out a heartbreak storyline with a firmer sense of self-worth: she doesn’t want the confusion again, and she’s no longer romanticising weak excuses — a sentiment encapsulated in her favourite lyric, “I’ll drink up your spillin alibi.”

The campaign also treats visuals as a core part of the storytelling, not an add-on. The “IDWK” video is described as revisiting key “rooms” from past releases — including “Little Miss,” “TACOBELL,” “In the Moment,” “Lightning,” and “Mr. Incognito” — while planting Easter eggs intended to reward repeat viewing and fuel fan theories about what’s coming next.

That approach fits an artist who has built a catalogue where every release is meant to connect, and where new listeners aren’t simply catching a song — they’re stepping into a narrative system already in motion.

While the press release leans hard into momentum — citing major view counts, streams, followers, playlist stats, and songwriting accolades — the more interesting angle is what that momentum is being used for: a clear artistic reroute, not just a bigger version of the same.

The next chapter is framed as more organic, more textured, and more instrument-forward, with Naomi also positioning her platform around youth arts access and gun-violence prevention as part of her creative responsibility. If “IDWK” is truly the threshold song it claims to be, its success won’t only be measured in numbers — it’ll be measured in whether listeners choose to take her hand and walk into the unfamiliar with her”.

There is no doubt Naomi Jane is going to be in music for many years. She will play huge stages, tour around the world, and release a series of incredible album that will be talked about years from now. An important activist who knows the important of using her voice for good and to speak about issues that need to be discussed, it is no wonder Naomi Jane is so respected. Everyone needs to show their love and support for…

A modern-day queen.

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Follow Naomi Jane

Official:

https://naomivoigt.com/

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/naomijane_official

TikTok:

https://www.tiktok.com/@naomijaneofficial

Twitter:

https://x.com/naomijaneoffic

YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/@naomijane_official

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/NaomiJaneOfficial/

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/artist/24e3hF9IcHsGYNWMqwjIZv?si=ZWjgOt6KQq-3m7RIsqyaNQ

FEATURE: Call Me By My Name: Chesney Hawkes’s The One and Only at Thirty-Five

FEATURE:

 

 

Call Me By My Name

Chesney Hawkes’s The One and Only at Thirty-Five

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THERE is no doubt that…

PHOTO CREDIT: Celtic Manor

this is one of my absolute favourite songs from the 1990s. One of the best of the decade. If some simply see it as a great one-hit wonder, I think we should give much more respect to Chesney Hawkes and the phenomenal The One and Only. I think this is a song that still sound so affecting today. The passion in his voice and that incredible chorus! The single was released on 4th February, 1991, so I want to mark thirty-five years of this celebrated classic. There is a lot to discuss regarding the song. I love its video and how Hawkes is almost this matinee idol. Or more a cooler 1990s version of a legendary actor like James Dean. So cool and seductive, I was seven when it came out. I think I did hear it when it first came out. If some critics were a little snobby or dismissive of The One and Only, there is no arguing with its chart performance. Number one in the U.K., in years since, this song has been taken to heart by so many generations. Perhaps the production sound is very much rooted in the 1990s. However, I still get this rush when I hear the song played. It warrants much more than being seen as this novelty. It is an incredible strong song with so much to highlight. The One and Only featured in the comedy-drama film, Buddy's Song (1991), in which Chesney Hawkes starred as the eponymous Buddy, with Roger Daltrey playing his father. Spending five weeks at number one in March and April 1991, I remember when this track was dominating and everywhere. It was a time in U.K. music when perhaps Rave and Dance was more popular. Pop would perhaps reach a peak around 1993, 1994 or 1995. There was something about this song that connected with the record-buying public. The lyrics by Nik Kershaw do not only relate to the song. They definitely resonated with listeners. They are clever and timeless: “I've been a player in the crowd scene/A flicker on the big screen/My soul embraces one more in a million faces/High hopes and aspirations, and years above my station/Maybe but all this time I've tried to walk with dignity and pride”.

That sense that we have all had. That idea of being a minor player or being seen as minor but, in spite of doubts or being trying to put you down, walking with pride and dignity. I will come to a 2024 interview where Chesney Hawkes talked about the aftermath of The One and Only. How fame, in a sense, chewed him up. Maybe it was quite a feat to live up to. Being associated with this one song and living in the spotlight. The pressures and downsides of popularity. There is some debate as to its exact release date, though I am pretty sure that it was 4th February, 1991. It hit number one on 24th March, 1991. I am not sure how much this song will be written about around its anniversary. It is a song that I really like, so I wanted to focus on it. In 2017, for The Guardian, Chesney Hawkes and songwriter Nik Kershaw discussed the background to the song and what it was like putting out this chart-topping into the world:

“Chesney Hawkes, singer

My dad was in the Tremeloes. As a kid, I watched him – Len “Chip” Hawkes – in his leather trousers with his shirt open and girls screaming. “That’s what I want to do,” I thought. But without the leather trousers. By the time I was 17, I was in a band, writing songs and playing solo piano at weekends, in pubs or at weddings. It wasn’t quite the big time.

Then I had my wisdom teeth out. As I was waking up in the hospital bed, I saw the Who’s Roger Daltrey on GMTV. He was looking for someone who could sing and play guitar to portray his character’s son in a new film, Buddy’s Song. I opened my mouth and gurgled. My dad took me to the auditions.

Out of hundreds of boys, I got the part. There were already songs for the film and I wrote some, too, but the record company wanted a hit. Then a publisher friend of my dad’s played him some new Nik Kershaw songs that Nik was hoping to get recorded by other people. When dad heard The One and Only, he said: “That’s a smash.”

Dad played the demo through the speakers at Abbey Road, where we were recording. I was a huge Nik Kershaw fan and was desperate to meet him, but everyone else hated the song. Then a few days later a bloke from the record company rang to say: “I’ve listened to it a few times. Maybe it has got something.”

My 15-year-old brother Jody played drums on the record. Nik co-produced and played guitar, doing crazy things like playing it with a pencil. We totally hit it off, but the film only did OK and the song barely dented the Top 75. Then I was on The Little & Large TV show, which had a huge Saturday-night audience. The song started steamrollering. Before I knew it, we were No 1 all over Europe and in the US Top 10.

We were living the dream, girls camped outside the house and everything. People either loved the song or hated it. At the Brits, Phillip Schofield pushed a pretend me into hell using a pitchfork. That was a bit much, but the song still gets me gigs and I’m loving every minute of it.

Nik Kershaw, songwriter

I’d just finished a four-album deal with MCA Records and they didn’t want any more, so I was at a crossroads. By then I was tired and starting a family, so I wanted to be around for them. I decided to see if I could get another career going as a songwriter and producer.

The One and Only was pretty much the first song out of the bag. My string of hits in the 80s had rather dried up. I’d had a few knocks and was feeling a bit “nobody loves me”, so I wrote the song about self-respect. It came together quickly, but I didn’t think much more about it. Then, 18 months later, I got a call saying they were using it in the film.

Ches was a new, fresh face, like I had been seven or eight years previously. We had great fun in the studio, doing things like recording feedback and playing it backwards in a sampler. When the record company started spending money on the single, I knew it had a chance, but I never thought it was a potential No 1. Ches did all the promo. I sat in an armchair sipping merlot while it flew up the charts.

I don’t think many people realise I wrote it. The song has bought me a couple of houses, and Ches and I are still best mates. I sometimes wonder how it would have worked out for him if he hadn’t had to follow a No 1. He was nurturing his own career nicely until I turned up to spoil it with a hit that overshadowed everything. He’s hugely talented, but he never got a chance to prove it, because of that song”.

I will wrap up soon. However, I do want to come to an interview from The Telegraph that was published in 2024. Even if some have dismissed the song or see it as middling, I feel it is a true gem. One of those unique songs that had this incredible success and legacy. The fact that we are still talking about The One and Only and it gets radio play. Thirty-five years after its release, I feel greater respect needs to be given to this anthem. One you cannot hear without singing along, so infectious and memorable is it! If you have never heard the song then go and listen now:

“People think I must have made millions off The One and Only but I really didn’t. I always say I should write a book: Fame, No Fortune! Yes, I had a lot back then – you get advances, people throw money at you. But what you don’t realise is it goes really quick, and the label spend a fortune, so you have to pay that back before you see any royalties. It’s an age-old story: my dad got totally ripped off by his management and label back in the 1960s.

So as big as that record was, I didn’t break even for 10 years. I still couldn’t live on the royalties from it. It’s not like I’m making thousands every year. Nik got a much bigger cut as the writer – he got a couple of houses out of it.

Back then, I thought my career was over. I was chewed up and spat out. It was like being in the club in a booth in the VIP arena sipping champagne, being looked after, and then suddenly the bouncers come grab you and kick you out the back – the door slams and you’re in the rain. I was only 21 when that happened and I didn’t know how to deal with it. I’ve since done a lot of reflection, some therapy, and I look back and think “Actually that was a bit s---. It was a tough thing to go through, so it’s OK to feel emotional about it – let it out and cry a bit.”

It was strange because I really did everything the wrong way around. I had the fame, and then I started paying my dues afterwards. I went from travelling the world, being mobbed by screaming fans, to playing with bands in sh---y little clubs in Camden with five people watching us, and no one knew who I was. That was very humbling. Now and again there’d be some drunk at the back shouting “Do The One and Only!”. I experienced the biggest highs and then the real lows. I remember our amp blowing up because we couldn’t afford the right equipment.

It was also a weird feeling going from having all those girls outside the house to people not looking at me twice in the street – that took some getting used to, figuring out who I was without the attention. The press made it worse too: they built me up as the next big thing, everything was “Chesney this” and “Chesney that”, then the next minute they just loved knocking me down. It’s part of the British psyche. I went from being the It boy to dirt on the shoe – yesterday’s chip paper.

It was really heartbreaking, and there were definitely times where I didn’t know who I was and what would happen next. I wondered if my career was already over.

It’s terrible now with these reality shows – there’s been some awful treatment of kids who go through that process. I feel for them because I went through something similar and didn’t have any support after. Back then, it was “Therapy, what’s that?”. They get all this incredible hype, front pages, five minutes of fame, and if you don’t have the right support around you, you can buy into that crazy s---. But none of it’s real. I know that now – but you don’t understand it at that age. If you believe it, the good stuff and the bad, it really affects you. Now with all the social media comments too, it’s like arrows flying towards you on a battlefield. You can’t avoid it.

I’ve had that chat with my kids – they’re 19, 21 and nearly 23. But will they listen? I think you have to experience things to learn those lessons, and as a parent you’ve got to let them trip up here and there. I’ll be there to put an arm round them when they need it.

The funny thing for me is that I’m still defined by a three-month period in my life when I was a teenager. That’s strange for a 52-year-old man. People who meet me in the street, if they do recognise me, it’s all about The One and Only. I sometimes feel like saying “What were you doing when you were 18? Can you imagine being defined by that forever?”

But I’m very aware that that period of my life is what got my career started, and now I love that music. There was a time when I wouldn’t play The One and Only because I was an angry kid rebelling against what had happened to me.

Nowadays I do these retro festivals as well as my own headline stuff, and it’s so amazing to see people reliving their youth. That’s what music does, doesn’t it? It connects you to another time. I’m so honoured to be part of so many people’s lives. I’ve had messages over the years saying they played the song at their wedding or their brother’s funeral. So I can’t have any regrets or bitterness about that making me a “one-hit wonder”, because it’s so beautiful”.

4th February is when we mark thirty-five of Chesney Hawkes’s The One and Only. Even if he never achieved anything as monumental and successful as his debut single, he is this incredible artist who has had a respectful and long career. He released his latest album, Living Arrows, last February. He spoke to The Guardian about his career and his life now. Some artists who had hits back in the 1990s try to distance themselves from it or see it as another time. However, Hawkes definitely has some fond recollections and memories from the time – even if the impact of fame was not all great. This single was a rightful chart smash and made a lot of people happy. And that is something that we…

CAN’T take that away from him.

FEATURE: Kate Bush: Them Heavy People: The Extraordinary Characters in Her Songs: God (Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God)/’The Man with the Child in His Eyes’ (The Man with the Child in His Eyes)

FEATURE:

 

 

Kate Bush: Them Heavy People: The Extraordinary Characters in her Songs

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush during the photoshoot for Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God), the first single from her 1985 album, Hounds of Love/PHOTO CREDIT: John Carder Bush

God (Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God)/’The Man with the Child in His Eyes’ (The Man with the Child in His Eyes)

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WHEN thinking of which Kate Bush…

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1978/PHOTO CREDIT: Mirrorpix

characters to bring together for this instalment, I definitely wanted to include the first one from Hounds of Love. I have brought in characters from her other albums, yet her most acclaimed album has remained untouched. It contains so many different characters, and I will cover off some more soon. The first is the biggest and most powerful in all of her music. It/he is also the subject of her most-streamed song. One that has ridden high on various iTunes charts and continues to climb in terms of popularity. God is the subject here. I will talk more about religion and the significance of religion or the spiritual in her music. However, it is worth learning more about one of Bush’s most important songs. Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) has had this long influence and regard. It was originally included in 1985’s Hounds of Love. Its lead single, released on 5th August, 1985, it only reached number three in 1985. You may say this is a decent position, however, a song so instantly impactful and iconic should have got to number one. Though it was a great year for music, I am struggling to think of a single released that year as good as Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God). It did then get a new attention and popularity featuring its inclusion in Stranger Things. That meant that a whole new generation and fanbase and, with that, the song got to number one in the U.K. It meant it was a long overdue chart topper that should have captured more of the public love in 1985. Featuring in the final season of Stranger Things, it has meant that the song has surpassed a billion and a half streams. Among its recent honours, Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) reached the top of the European iTunes chart. It also placed in the top twenty of the Official ingles Chart. Doing well on the Daily Global Spotify Top 50, this song continues to have this extraordinary life! I do wonder how much further it can go. I am not sure if it will rise higher in the charts by the time this feature has been published or will dip.

I do like how a song from an album over forty years old can succeed at a time when we have these huge Pop artists and there are so many other artists. Testament to the quality and relevance of this song. I did say this last year when writing a host of features to mark forty years of Hounds of Love. How people could relate to the lyrics. It is this idea of the song’s heroine wanting to do a deal with God so that she and a man could swap places and walk in each other’s shoes to better understand one another. Such a universal desire, what if there was a way of doing that?! I will touch on religion. However, I want to discuss Generation Alpha, Kate Bush in 2026 and darker themes and issues that could apply to the song. Or its lyrics are pertinent in a way. However, before getting there, it is worth bringing in some interview archive where Kate Bush talks about the inspiration behind Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God). Thanks to Kate Bush Encyclopedia for the resource. They provide some background and interview archive:

“Song written by Kate Bush. The song was reportedly written in one evening in the summer of 1983. It was the first song recorded for the subsequent fifth studio album Hounds Of Love. The electronic drums, programmed by Del Palmer, and the Fairlight part were present from the first recording of the song. The lyrics speak of Bush’s impossible wish to become her lover, and he her, so that they could know what the other felt. Kate played the first versions of the songs to Paul Hardiman on 6 October 1983. He commented later: “The first time I heard ‘Running Up That Hill’ it wasn’t a demo, it was a working start. We carried on working on Kate and Del’s original. Del had programmed the Linn drum  part, the basis of which we kept. I know we spent time working on the Fairlight melody/hook but the idea was there plus guide vocals.”

The working title of ‘Running Up That Hill’ was ‘A Deal With God’. Representatives at EMI were hesitant to release the single as ‘A Deal With God’ due its use of the word ‘God’, which might lead to a negative reception. Bush relented and changed the title for the single. On the album and subsequent releases the title was ‘Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)’.

This song is very much about two people who are in love, and how the power of love is almost too big for them. It leaves them very insecure and in fear of losing each other. It’s also perhaps talking about some fundamental differences between men and women. (Kate Bush Club newsletter, 1985)

It is very much about the power of love, and the strength that is created between two people when they’re very much in love, but the strength can also be threatening, violent, dangerous as well as gentle, soothing, loving. And it’s saying that if these two people could swap places – if the man could become the woman and the woman the man, that perhaps they could understand the feelings of that other person in a truer way, understanding them from that gender’s point of view, and that perhaps there are very subtle differences between the sexes that can cause problems in a relationship, especially when people really do care about each other. (The Tony Myatt Interview, November 1985)”.

It is startling that A Deal with God had to become Running Up That Hill. The original title is more relevant than the one we know now. It is more about that spiritual deal than it is about this release. The heroine/woman running up the hill, running up the road – with no problem. If a deal can be done and two lovers could better understand one another, then it would be this revelation and freedom. Maybe it shows a shift today that there would be no issue using ‘God’ in a title. Even a more religious nation like the U.S., perhaps they are not as devour as they once were. In no way is there any blasphemy or anything anti-God. Bush was born into a Catholic family and I feel has retained her faith. She said how her career was a mission from God. She has brought religious figures into various songs through the years. I explored that when I wrote about Lily and four biblical figures that were included in that song. In terms of God. In future features, I am going to explore Them Heavy People. About religious teachings and figures like Jesu and the mystic George Gurdjieff, an early example of spirituality in Bush’s work. That song was included on 1978’s The Kick Inside. The Dreaming’s Suspended in Gaffa mentions God’s name, though it is a brief reference. The Song of Solomon from The Red Shoes is one I hope there is more information about, as I would love to know more about it. Hounds of Love’s Waking the Witch and 50 Words for Snow’s Among Angels also connect to religion and spirituality. However, Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) is the sole song where God is very much at the centre. It joins a select few classic Pop songs where one has to consider the personal and ecumenical. The divine and spiritual around the more humble. I do think that one of the strengths of Kate Bush’s music is her spiritual nature. I guess Madonna was another artist with Catholic roots who did bring religion and faith into her music. A fascinating connection between these artists. However, Madonna never wrote anything like this Kate Bush classic. Rather than focusing on the personal, Bush instead looked at how men and women in love can often make mistakes or there is this communication barrier. If a deal with the Almighty can be struck, then this could lead to harmony.

I think that the song could be updated for today. Many artists covered Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) after it topped the chart in 2022. Among those who have tackled it are Halsey and St. Vincent. I do feel the song is universal, though it is heteronormative. It is a straight couple. We are in a time of huge prejudice, discrimination and misogyny. What is powerful is this idea of two people being able to understand each other if they could swap places. Perhaps not something Kate Bush has ever considered, what is God could grant this wish now, but more to do with the toxicity and abuse that many women and members of the L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ community face. Would that ever help?! There is so much ignorance, transphobia and misogyny. Lives of women especially horrendous. They way they are viewed and treated by men online. Image-based abuse and misogyny are rife. I feel there is this epidemic that does require a lot more intervention from governments. Rather than reveal the shocking and disrupting extent regarding women’s safety online, at the base level, there is this need for greater understanding. No saying women ever should need to understand where men are coming from and why they do this. It is the other way around: men absolutely need to put themselves in the place of the women that they think nothing of abusing and degrading! If Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) resonates with people because that idea of swapping places and getting an idea of what someone else is thinking is so powerful and difficult to do, I also feel there is a more wide-reaching relevance. Rather than it being purely about lovers and cutting through tension and ignorance, think about the divisions we have today. In terms of those who spread hate and abuse women and the L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ community, what would happen if those responsible for causing distress and harm actually were the people they aim this at?! One feels that it would be a sovereign experience. New dynamics to a classic song. Would a loving and fair God stop such a universal and needed appeal?! Over forty years after the track was released, has it become easier for those in relationships to communicate and emphasise?

Before moving on, it is worth thinking about Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) and how it is spearheading this fandom and love of Kate Bush. Generation Alpha (those born in the rearly-2010s) are discovering Bush through this song. I wonder whether the nature of God and doing a deal with something unknown and invisible has affected them. I do think that the youngest and newest Kate Bush fans are among the most impassioned and curious., Bush set records when Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) reached number one in 2022 The longest time between number ones for an artist (forty-four years and eighty-three days). Bush became the oldest female artist to have a U.K. number one (sixty-three years and 342 days). In 2023, the song became the first solo recording by a female artist from the 1980s to surpass a billion streams on Spotify. Bush was sixty-four. Few female artists of that age are highly regarded and have the same opportunities as younger artists, so one would also hopes ageism could be tackled if those marginalising older women could swap places and see the damage that does. It is humbling and inspiring that so many young people are discovering Kate Bush. I hope that it is not a homogenised focus on Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God). I am an atheists, though I do feel that it is important to have faith, religion and spirituality explored through music. It is vital that music represents everyone. Religion less and less common in music. One powerful aspect of Kate Bush’s 1985-released work of genius is that Bush is turning to God. Rather than point the finger and tear the other person apart, she is reflecting on all the anger – “Is there so much hate for the ones we love?” – and wanting it to be resolved. This patience and different perspective that was not explored in music at that time. It is also not something you hear now. Taking these personal and intense emotions and almost praying for some sort of realisation and mutual understanding.  “Let me steal this moment from you now/Oh, come on, angel/Come on, come on, darlin'/Let's exchange the experience“. Rather than praying to God or invoke his name in a rather ordinary or familiar way, he is almost this arbiter and proxy. Someone who can help men and women – or lovers of all genders and orientations – put themselves in each other’s places so they can see the hurt they are causing. Such a powerful and timeless message and feeling.

If the first ‘character’ – it seems odd referring to God as such! – is mysterious and anonymous because he has never been seen and is this spirit rather than an actual person, the next character I want to bring in is anonymous and mysterious for a different reason, Because we do not really exactly know who the person is. The Man with the Child in His Eyes is the eponymous character in the song from The Kick Inside. The second U.K. single released from Kate Bush’s debut, there might be misconceptions around the title. I have previously written how Bush has this positivity for men. In music, there are few artists completely positive and understanding regarding the opposite sex. Men often torn apart and cast aside. However, Bush is someone who has always been positive towards men. The idea of the ‘child in his eyes’ is not to do with children or anything sinister. Instead, it is the way men retain this child-like curiosity and quality – if you could ever say this is positive?! – through their life. Bush had so much wonder for men and loved them. Found them very attractive and sexy. Growing up with two brothers and a very supportive father, she had positive male role models right from childhood. David Gilmour was her mentor and paid for her first professional recording session. Bush played almost entirely with male musicians, so there were very few moments where she was ever angry or accusatory towards men in her music. Here, we get some interview archive where Kate Bush discusses the inspiration behind The Man with the Child in His Eyes:

“The inspiration for ‘The Man With the Child in His Eyes’ was really just a particular thing that happened when I went to the piano. The piano just started speaking to me. It was a theory that I had had for a while that I just observed in most of the men that I know: the fact that they just are little boys inside and how wonderful it is that they manage to retain this magic. I, myself, am attracted to older men, I guess, but I think that’s the same with every female. I think it’s a very natural, basic instinct that you look continually for your father for the rest of your life, as do men continually look for their mother in the women that they meet. I don’t think we’re all aware of it, but I think it is basically true. You look for that security that the opposite sex in your parenthood gave you as a child.

Self Portrait, 1978

I just noticed that men retain a capacity to enjoy childish games throughout their lives, and women don’t seem to be able to do that.

‘Bird In The Bush’, Ritz (UK), September 1978”.

If the single version starts with the enticing and thrilling “He’s here!” echoing, the album version does not include that. It is a shame. This was one of three songs that was recorded at AIR Studios in London in June 1975. Bush was sixteen when the song was recorded. In terms of the lyrics she wrote and what she was talking about, it was exceptionally mature. I discussed Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) and how other Pop artists of the day were not discussing God or relationship compromise through the same lens as Kate Bush. In 1978, when The Man with the Child in His Eyes was released as a single, there was really nothing like this. A couple of points to note regarding the ‘Man’ from the title. Many people assumed that it was David Gilmour. It is not really a song about a particular relationship and this odd love. Think about how Buch weas writing about love for The Kick Inside and there is a lot that is quite classical. It could feature in centuries-old novels or older romantic fiction. Poetic, sensual, literary and gothic, we get this vision of a man “lost on some horizon”. Perhaps this explorer or sea-farer, this is not a conventional or run-of-the-mill song of desire or lost love. In fact, I think the song is more imagined. “I hear him, before I go to sleep”, “Nobody knows about my man”, and “Listening to a man I’ve never known before” seems to suggest an imagined man or this fantasy. Bush immersing herself in the pages of a book of poems. My favourite line is “And he’s so aware of all my situations”. What situations are these?! That specific phrasing is fascinating. “And when I stay up late/He’s always waiting, but I feel him hesitate”. Is that her literally in bed with this person and a physical hesitation, or is it this more detached and less personal viewpoint?

Others feel the song is about an early love of hers, Steve Blacknell. Dating him when she was a teenager, he did once have in his possession the original hand-written lyrics of The Man with the Child in His Eyes. In hot pink felt tip pen, it is something I would like to own more than anything. The lyrics were auctioned off and I wonder who has them! These lyrics are “lost on some horizon” themselves! It is not a new thing where people guess the identity of people mentioned in songs. Who was Carly Simon referring to in You’re So Vain? Tracks from high-profile artists where they mention someone who wronged them always gets people speculating. However, here, people knew very little about Kate Bush. She was not as high-profile as she would become, so the possibilities of options were limited when it came to this man. However, rather than it being a paen to a special lover, it is more a general look at men and the way they have this child inside them. Also, in terms of The Man with the Child and His Eyes, it would be problematic assuming it to be literal. As Bush was only sixteen when she recorded the song, if it was released today and we reads the lyrics to be about this girl who was waiting to her older lover to return, that could cause controversy. Another mystery around The Man with the Child in His Eyes relates to the age Bush was wen she wrote it. Many assume she was only thirteen when it was written, though Bush herself has said she was sixteen. There are some incredible female artists who wrote stunning songs of immense beauty very song. Can anyone claim to have written something as unusual, profound and poetic as Kate Bush at the age of thirteen?! So many major artists take years to write something this good. They work with collaborators and other songwriters. Even The Beatles were mostly doing cover versions in their early years. However, Kate Bush wrote originals and was writing in this extraordinary unusual way. Unusual in terms of how different she was to artists around her.

It makes me think about Kate Bush’s earliest songs and the critical impressions. In 1978, she was subjected to so much sexism, misogyny and patronisation. Critics dismissing her because she was young and a woman. Often highlighting her lyrics as being juvenile and weird, there has not really been this reassessment and reappraisal. People do not really discuss now how incredible these earliest songs are. It is ironic that critics in 1978 were harsh on Bush’s lyrics considering what was around then. The basic and rather one-dimensional Punk lyrics. The mainstream not exactly offering up songs that were so insightful, fascinating and rich with possibility. They were direct, largely unsophisticated and sloganeering. There were some amazing artists offering something different, but Kate Bush was so far ahead of her time. People also need to talk about how influential The Kick Inside is today. In terms of the artists who clearly take similar directions and perspectives. We discuss Hounds of Love and its influence, though The Kick Inside is such an important and influential album. The Man with the Child in His Eyes is such an accomplished work from someone so young. Bush proving her genius right from the off! If Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) is a song about a very specific inspiration who everyone has a different visual impression of, The Man with the Child in His Eyes is perhaps misconstrued. People assuming it was about a boyfriend or someone close to Kate Bush. Instead, it is more about all men. How Bush viewed them. Celebrating and cherishing their child-like innocence, the narrative has changed. How many artists discuss the opposite sex in this way? There is positivity in Pop, yet there is still a lot in the way of recrimination, disagreement, division and isolation. The Man with the Child in His Eyes is like poetry. Performed on SNL in the U.S. in 1978, it was her only appearance on the show. Considered to be one of her best songs, I would love to see this given a chance to appear on the small or big screen at some point. So many standout lyrics. “Maybe he doesn’t love me/I just took a trip on my love for him”. Almost psychedelic in the way she “took a trip on my love”. So much to dissect and discuss. It is an indescribably beautiful and moving song from…

A teenage prodigy.

FEATURE: One for the Record Collection! Essential February Releases

FEATURE:

 

 

One for the Record Collection!

Essential February Releases

__________

THERE are some…

IN THIS PHOTO: Hilary Duff/PHOTO CREDIT: Aaron Idelson for Vogue

must-own albums out next month that I want to highlight. Although a lot of the biggest albums are going to arrive in the spring and summer, there are some great ones coming out before then. I am going to start out with albums due on 6th February. An album from a wonderful band you should know about, Mandy, Indiana’s URGH is one I am looking forward to. You can pre-order it here. Out through Sacred Bones Records, here is some more information about an album that is among the highlights of the first quarter of this year:

“For Mandy, Indiana, the truth is the only way through. On their Sacred Bones debut URGH, the four-piece - vocalist Valentine Caulfield, guitarist and producer Scott Fair, synth player Simon Catling, and drummer Alex Macdougall - are a force of uncanny nature, grafting together a record that is as much a call to action as a parlay into oblivion and transcendence. Across the ten tracks, the band interpolate their own unconventional language into a mantra for self-determination and resilience, forging a template for a brighter future before it fades to black.

Much of the album was written during a residency at an eerie studio house in the outskirts of Leeds, then recorded across Berlin and Greater Manchester. It was an intense environment partially due to the health issues faced by Caulfield and Macdougall during the writing and recording process.

Yet Mandy, Indiana remain uncompromising. Caulfield uses her voice as a distorted instrument and a weapon, oscillating between playful and eviscerating. The throbbing siren-sound of “Magazine” stands alongside the cut-up vocal fry of “try saying” and the shapeshifting ferocity of “ist halt so,” which channels the urgency of protes movements, referencing resistance to the genocide in Gaza while speaking to struggles more broadly, while final track “I’ll Ask Her” is a deliberate directness calling out toxic boy’s club culture and a tenacious reckoning that hangs over the album at large.

Although there are still undeniable “bangers” (like the frazzled rap of “Sicko!” featuring billy woods), URGH often feels hewn with precise cinema. From the bristling techno of “Cursive” to the deconstructed feedback loops of “Life Hex,” the album moves between industrial catharsis and cinematic unease, threading a tension that Fair describes as “a remix of itself.” This contrasting palette is both a necessary aspect of the record as well as the underlyin connective tissue. Though deeply personal, URGH reflects the violent, fractured state of the wider world. Caulfield’s lyrics grapple with assault, systemic indifference, and the omnipresence of pain, while also insisting on moments of beauty and solidarity. URGH belongs in the physical world, and the artwork by Carnovsky, featuring an anatomical illustration of Andreas Vesalius, underscores the record’s visceral confrontation with the body and its limits. URGH is both otherworldly, and physical and cathartic, both a first step toward healing and a refusal to let the conversation die”.

Another album from 6th February that you need to check out is Puma Blue’s Croak Dream. It can be pre-ordered here. Though I am new to this artist, Croak Dream is an album that sounds fascinating and well worth investigating. In terms of their previous music, Puma Blue has taken a step into new territory by the sound of things. This is someone that you need to put on your radar:

“With his new record Croak Dream, Puma Blue (real name Jacob Allen) returns to the spectral intimacy that first won him a cult following, now reimagined with the raw, instinctive energy of his live band. The album fuses lo-fi jazz balladry with jungle breaks, krautrock textures and trip-hop atmosphere, drawing comparisons to Portishead, Jeff Buckley, and D’Angelo.

Written in solitude and brought to life in collaboration, Croak Dream was conjured from tape loop sessions at Peter Gabriel’s Real World Studios, co-produced and engineered by Sam Petts-Davies (The Smile, Frank Ocean) where the band improvised to fragments of Allen’s songs they’d never fully heard. The result is a dreamlike collage of baritone sax-drenched ballads and restless grooves: tender, feverish, and alive.

This record marks a daring evolution for Puma Blue, balancing bold sonic experimentation with raw emotional clarity, tailor-made for the stage”.

There are a few albums from 13th February that are well worth pre-ordering. One is Ásgeir’s Julia. You can pre-order it here. This is an artist who I have been following for a little while, so I am excited to see what comes from Julia. The Icelandic artist is truly terrific. He is another artist I would recommend people check out. Julia is going to be a real treat. Rough Trade provide some details of what we can expect:

“On his fifth studio album, Julia, Icelandic singer-songwriter Ásgeir enters intriguing and uncharted territory. After years of engaging translators such as John Grant and working with the poetry of his father, Einar Georg Einarsson, Ásgeir has penned his lyrics by himself for the first time in his long and celebrated career. The result is a deeply contemplative body of work, steeped in nostalgia, that sees Ásgeir meditating on his past regrets as well as his hopes for the future, guided by the spectre of the album’s title character.

Ásgeir has long been lauded for his intricate folk-pop, lush production, and wistful, emotive falsetto. Julia marks a shift toward not just lyrical self-reliance but cathartic directness, songs that feel not just exquisitely performed, but lived in. “This was kind of the first time I was writing lyrics totally on my own,” he shares. “It was scary. I’m still trying to find myself within that. But I tried to open myself up and I learned a lot through that process, and it was definitely therapeutic for me.”

This new sense of vulnerability threads through the album’s ten tracks, written and recorded over the course of nearly two years. Many of the songs were first composed on guitar, with Ásgeir aiming for simplicity, prioritising melody, clarity, and meaning. The production, co-developed with longtime collaborator Guðm. “Kiddi” Kristinn Jónsson, remains organic and understated, allowing Ásgeir’s voice, and importantly his voice as a writer, to come forward”.

I would not normally highlight a soundtrack album as one to buy. However, as Charli xcx is providing the songs for Wuthering Heights, it is definitely one that everyone should buy. Available on beautiful black and green marble, you can pre-order it here. We have heard a couple of songs from it, including the incredible House featuring John Cale. Again, there are not really many details out there for the music and what the album will sound like. However, when news broke that Charli xcx would be providing original songs for the soundtrack, there was this positive and excited online reaction, as Grazia report:

“The first look at Emerald Fennell's adaption of Wuthering Heights has dropped and it's everything we could have hoped for - especially with cultural icon Charli XCX on board.

Yes, you heard that right - the official teaser of the film reveals that Charli will be contributing original songs to the film. Posting the clip on Instagram, she wrote 'new original songs by me for Emerald Fennell’s “Wuthering Heights” starring Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi. in theatres february 14th. happy early valentines <3'

Naturally, fans went into meltdown over the news, with many commenting on what a dreamy collab this is. 'Two of my fav artists together. This is insane,' wrote one. Another penned 'this insane crossover omg.' A third wrote 'Emerald Fennell, Charlixcx AND Margot?! I'm soo obsessed.'

They have a point. Both Emerald Fennell and Charli XCX have achieved huge cultural recognition with their respective projects, Saltburn and Brat. The two coming together to work on what's set to be one of 2026's most talked about films is genius.

Like Fennell's Saltburn, the film is set to be divisive, with the adaption anything but conventional. On release, the film was described as 'a compound of vulgar depravity and unnatural horrors.' Just last month, reports from a test screening found that viewers allegedly called it 'aggressively provocative and tonally abrasive' with one scene of a public hanging in which the 'condemned man ejaculates mid-execution.' But Fennell is never one to shy away from a fiery public debate - and neither is Charli.

When Charli's set at Glastonbury was met with criticism for using Auto-Tune and her style of dancing, she had the perfect response. Taking to X, she wrote that 'the best art is divisive and confrontational' and that she enjoys the discourse. 'like the idea that singing with deliberate autotune makes you a fraud or that not having a traditional band suddenly means you must not be a “real artist” is like, the most boring take ever. yawn sorry just fell asleep xx,' she wrote.

Like Fennell, she doesn't shy away from being too loud and her music pushes the boundaries of pop - yet her lyrics always manage to capture something of the zeitgeist. In fact, Charli has even commented on how much she admired Fennell in the past. In a 2023 interview, Charli spoke about how watching Saltburn 'triggered' her to her upbringing. 'Emerald Fennell IS the devil in the details,' she told The Line of Best Fit. 'Emerald's flair for delicious specifics really transports the audience back to THAT time.'

One thing's for sure - this could be pop culture's most fiery collab yet”.

Two more albums to cover off before getting to albums from 20th and 27th. I want to move to Chet Faker’s A Love for Strangers. In order to get a bit more context and insight into this new album, I am highlighting this article. You can pre-order the album here. For some reason, Rough Trade are not stocking the album until April, and the release date has not been pushed back as far as I know, so I have included a link from HMV. In any case, this is an album that I am looking forward to, as Chet Faker is a remarkable artist. It seems like A Love for Strangers is going to be among his very best work:

“Nick Murphy, better known to many as Chet Faker, has announced a new studio album, A Love For Strangers, due February 13, 2026 on BMG, and has released a buoyant lead single, This Time For Real, to whet appetites. The single arrives with a playful, kinetic video that follows Murphy as Chet Faker tearing through New York City by jet ski, sports car and pedicab, a jaunty visual that matches the song’s anthemic, self-aware charm.

This Time For Real finds Murphy at his most immediately catchy, pairing an earworm chorus with lyrics that tip a hat to the pressures and pleasures of artistic success, all delivered in that warm, slightly sardonic voice that made him a global surprise after Built On Glass. The track’s swagger-free confidence is a neat scene setter for A Love For Strangers, a record the announcement frames as Murphy returning to the restless curiosity that birthed Chet Faker in the first place.

A Love For Strangers follows Hotel Surrender from 2021, and it arrives after a period of reflection marked by the 10 year anniversary of Murphy’s breakthrough, Built On Glass.

That 2014 record vaulted Chet Faker into the spotlight, blending soulful songwriting, electronic textures and a beautiful looseness that made songs like Smoke And Retribution and Talk Is Cheap fixtures across playlists and festival stages. Since then Murphy has alternated between releases under his stage name and work under his own name, including the more experimental instrumental Music For Silence, plus high-profile collaborations with artists such as Flume and Marcus Marr, showing a restless creative life that refuses to settle.

The announcement frames A Love For Strangers as a coming-full-circle moment, a project born of personal rediscovery and the recalibration that followed a decade of attention. Murphy’s trajectory is unusual, in that he has repeatedly shifted between the persona and the person, testing how far a stage name can carry new ideas, then stepping back to experiment away from expectation. That tug-of-war between identity and invention is audible in This Time For Real, which balances anthemic hooks with cheeky self-reference, and promises an album that looks outward, while reckoning with the burden of looking back.

Fans will recognise familiar strands in Murphy’s approach, the marriage of classic songwriting instincts with modern production smarts, but the tease suggests A Love For Strangers will also nudge into fresh territory. If Built On Glass announced him to the world, and Hotel Surrender broadened his palette, this next record sounds like an attempt to reconcile the two impulses, to make songs that hold immediate appeal, while rewarding listeners who follow the twists in his career”.

Two incredible Pop artists release albums on 20th February. One is the American icon, Hilary Duff. I am looking ahead to luck… or something. Available on C.D. and tape, I would advise people interested to get it on vinyl. Duff is an incredible artist. Promising something truly special and personal, you can pre-order luck… or something here. I do really like her music, and I think her forthcoming album will get a lot of critical love. And it will be a big commercial success:

“Multiplatinum global icon, Hilary Duff returns to the pop world with her sixth studio album, luck… or something, her boldest and most self-assured project yet. Co-written by Duff and her husband and Grammy®-winning songwriter/producer Matthew Koma, the album features 11 brand new tracks, including the critically acclaimed single “Mature”.

After rising to fame as the titular star of the Disney Channel blockbuster, Lizzie McGuire, Duff first kicked off her music career with 2003’s 4X platinum Metamorphosis (featuring the Top 40-charting “So Yesterday” and “Come Clean”), then released her platinum-selling 2004 self-titled LP and 2007 autobiographical dance-pop collection Dignity.

With those three albums alone selling a collective 15 million copies worldwide, she also established herself as a producer, entrepreneur, philanthropist, and New York Times-bestselling author, all while continuing to deliver standout performances in TV and film, including her award-nominated turn on Darren Star’s Younger.

Recently signed to Atlantic Records, Duff is now launching a thrilling new chapter and sharing her first new music since 2015’s Breathe In. Breathe Out”.

Not only one of the most anticipated debut albums of this year, Leigh-Anne’s My Ego Told Me To is going to be remarkable. The former Little Mix member is a phenomenal solo artist. In terms of albums that will define this year and be among the best-reviewed, I do think that My Ego Told Me To is going to be right up there. You can pre-order the album here. Even if you are not aware of Leigh-Anne or consider yourself a fan, this is an album that I think you need to hear. One of our most important Pop artists, there is going to be a huge critical reaction when this is released:

“Leigh-Anne Pinnock is ready to reintroduce herself. After conquering the pop world with one of the biggest groups on the planet and stepping out as a solo artist, she has reached a new clarity: no more compromises, no more limits.

With the introduction of her debut album My Ego Told Me To, Leigh-Anne isn’t reinventing herself, she’s restoring the woman she always was. Bold, unapologetic and free, this album is the purest expression of her artistry to date and musically reflects every facet of Leigh-Anne Pinnock, unfiltered, independent and finally on her own terms. “Everything that has been in my heart, everything I’ve wanted to do, I’m doing now. It feels like freedom. It feels right”.

February is a bit of a quiet one for new albums, but there are some tremendous ones coming out. I am moving to 27th February and Bill Callahan’s My Days of 58. You can pre-order a copy here. This is what Rough Trade say: “Bill Callahan continues to open uncanny depths of expression, blazing one of the most original singer-songwriter trails out there. Applying the living, breathing energies of his concerts to this album production, he sharpens his slice-of-life portraiture to cut deeper, releasing a stream of singalong consciousness: poetic, cinematic, novelistic, comedic – and above all – musical”. The Quietus ran an article in November when news of the upcoming album was announced:

“Bill Callahan has shared details of his first studio album since 2022’s YTI⅃AƎЯ.

Spanning 12 tracks, My Days Of 58 was made by Callahan together with the band that backed him on his last tour in support of his previous LP: guitarist Matt Kinsey, saxophonist Dustin Laurenzi and drummer Jim White. The experience of touring with the three musicians showed the artist “that they could handle anything I threw at them,” he said.

Going into further detail, Callahan added: “Improv / unpredictability / the unknown is the thing that keeps me motivated to keep making music. It’s all about listening to yourself and others. A lot of the best parts of a recording are the mistakes – making them into strengths, using them as springboards into something human.”

To mark the announcement of My Days Of 58, Callahan has shared lead track ‘The Man I’m Supposed To Be’”.

The final album I am highlighting is Swet Deth by Crooked Fingers. You can pre-order the album here. Though this is an album new to me and I have had to do a bit of reading and listening back to Crooked Fingers, I was instantly intrigued. I do feel that Swet Death should be heard by everyone. One of the most interesting releases of next month. Well worth getting the album:

“One afternoon, Eric Bachmann’s son returned from school with a sheath of pictures he’d drawn, all of them macabre. “There were crows and sinister figures with scythes and tombstones,” he recalls. On one, he had written ‘Deth, Sweet Deth,’ and everything clicked in my head.”

Swet Deth, Bachmann’s first album under his Crooked Fingers moniker after a 15-year hiatus, organized itself around the image: its songs are about death, yes, but there’s a sweetness to them, a wry sensibility to his lyrics that comes from having experienced many kinds of death and the life that follows in its wake.
“Crooked Fingers” is a historically slippery concept — no two albums sound alike or feature the same lineup in studio or on tour. Hearing parts in these songs that called for instruments he didn’t play or vocals that weren’t in his register, he found himself expanding the roster of guest musicians further than he had on any album in his catalog, including Sharon Van Etten (“Haunted”), The National’s Matt Berninger (“From All Ways”), and Superchunk’s Mac McCaughan (“Cold Waves”). But first he started with family, friends, and frequent collaborators. Jon Rauhouse plays pedal steel. Bachmann’s wife, Liz Durrett, contributes vocals, as do members of his touring band, Skylar Gudasz and Avery Leigh Draut (of Night Palace).
There is a freedom to this collection of songs, a groove to them that would belie their agonies and anxieties were mere death the album’s point and not what comes before. For Eric Bachmann, that has been growth, as a musician and as a man. Like the tree sprouting from the graveyard on its cover, Swet Deth is surprising and lush, a shock of color against its morbid landscape, proof of life in the shadow of its opposite. “RIP Eric Bachmann,” one tombstone reads. As Crooked Fingers, he’s never felt more alive”.

Even if more albums will come out towards the spring, the ones I have spotlighted above are all worth seeking out. I am particularly excited by Leigh-Anne and her debut solo album, though Charli xcx, Hilary Duff and Robbie Williams are going to put out big albums, alongside some treats from smaller artists. A varied month with some great music due, I hope the recommendations above…

HAVE been of some use.

FEATURE: Spotlight: Adult DVD

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

Adult DVD

__________

EVEN if the amazing…

Adult DVD put out their debut single in 2021, I do think they are considered a rising band. Perhaps unusual for a band who have been together for a while, all of the original members remain. The Leeds sextet consists of Harry Hanson (lead vocals), Greg Lonsdale (synth/vocals), Danny Blackburn (guitar/synth), Jake Williams (synth), Jonathan Newell (drums), and George Manson (bass). Since their Next Day Shipping E.P. in 2024, the band have been busy. With a run of amazing dates ahead, 2026 s going to be a packed one. I want to bring in a few interviews with the band from last year, as they are a sensational prospect. I think this year is going to be their best so far. Perhaps an album will arrive at some point. Even though they are a band who firmed during lockdown – ort at least emerged and released music then -, last year was one where they were truly on the radar. Mancunion spoke with the group last March:

“Adult DVD emerged from lockdown boredom: at first it was Harry Hanson and Greg Lonsdale (who plays synth and provides backing vocals) “writing tunes via the internet to each other”. He would start by using a Roland TB-303 Synthesiser, a synth originally designed to simulate bass guitars. The sound of this synth is iconic and gave rise to genres such as acid house and techno. The sound originated from Hanson growing “bored of regular indie guitar music” citing an influence of early Adult DVD as “indie bands with electronic elements” such as LCD Soundsystem. The band’s song-writing process differs from many other contemporary bands as they have four synth players, a unique element that most would find difficult to utilise. The layers of the song are built up gradually; the band has “never written a tune altogether in a practice room”. The songs that the group writes are curated carefully to make listeners dance and they ensure that the many instruments all get their chance in the spotlight.

Next, Hanson spoke about how their approach changed from writing and recording the first EP Fountain of Youth compared to their newest EP Next Day Shipping. He says there is “an element of trying new things on Next Day Shipping now that the band knows what we’re doing, now we have time the sprout new ideas”, giving credit to his bandmates Jake Williams and Danny Blackburn on their increasingly great ability to mix songs, stating this as a clear reason that they can experiment more now. It is evident that the camaraderie of this band is an essential element to the way they create music; each member brings something unique to the table to keep making the “dance music with guitars” that they love and excel at making. The band is sticking to its roots of making fun guitar music to dance to, even while their sound is evolving to become more “technical as we learn to get better at the synth”. Hanson says that when the band first started, they were “struggling to get a noise out of it”, now the band is doing even bigger things and can project an upward trajectory with their immense amount of talent.

In the current music climate, it can be difficult for new bands to be discovered and even harder for them to make a profit touring. With stations like BBC Radio 6 Music focusing on new artists, it can help these bands push through to the mainstream. He says that Emily Pilbeam has “championed us from the start” with her BBC Introducing mixtape, going on to say that “if she wasn’t supporting us as much as she has done, we probably wouldn’t have had the 6 Music backing”. In days when it is increasingly harder for bands to sustain a music career due to the cost of production and touring, it is good to hear that the music industry is still supporting up-and-coming bands”.

I want to move to an interview from the autumn. The Line of Best Fit spoke with a six-piece who “excel in tales of both the niche and the quotidian, set to music that bashes together rock and rave”. There is still a huge focus on artists from London. It is clear that things are shifting. More focus on cities away from the capital. With the Mercury Prize going to two non-London acts in succession, there is more recognition and celebration of artists from other parts of the U.K. Adult DVD are one of our brightest young bands:

“The breadth and flexibility of Adult DVD’s lyrics provides them with a freedom to expand their sound more, adds Hanson. “I don’t feel like we have to stick to anything, especially because we haven’t done the first album yet.”

One thing that is constant in Adult DVD’s music, however, is energy. It’s mirrored as much on record as it is in live shows, with some reports applauding the band’s ability to getLeeds’ allegedly motionless crowds dancing (Hanson disagrees, believing it to instead be Londoners). They’ve even added matinees to meet demand for their high energy shows.

Speaking on his bandmates’ behalf, Hanson says that performing live is their favourite part of being in Adult DVD. Regardless of flailing limbs and "embarrassing dancing – none of us can dance”, Hanson says, an Adult DVD show is all about “letting loose” and “not worrying about what you look like”. It’s partly why the band writes about whatever bizarro or banal thing has piqued their interests. “Because the music’s so uplifting and dancey,” Hanson adds, “it kind of doesn’t matter what we’re saying.”

Adult DVD formed during the pandemic after members from previous Leeds-based bands joined up for a new project. Leeds native Hanson met Adult DVD synth-player and backing vocalist Greg Lonsdale while doing bar work at the Brudenell Social Club. Lonsdale introduced Hanson to his Uncle Buzzard bandmates at the time: George Manson (now bassist in Adult DVD), Jake Williams (synths) and Danny Blackburn (guitars/synths). Jonathan Newell (drums) was in Hanson’s former band, Glass Mountain.

PHOTO CREDIT: Titouan Massé

Newell is originally from Bradford and Williams is from Shrewsbury. The remainder hail from near Teesside. Hanson aside, the others adopted Leeds as their home when they arrived there for higher education. Hanson pursued music production at Leeds Conservatoire – formerly Leeds College of Music – coinciding with fellow Leeds band and the 2024 Mercury Prize-winners, English Teacher, who were also enrolled at the institution.

If that all sounds rather tight knit and collaborative, well, it is. The music scene in Leeds is “very supportive” and close-quartered, explains Hanson. “Partly it’s ‘cause it’s so small that if you slag a band off they’ll probably see you around the corner, know what I mean?” Hanson says, smirking. In recent years English Teacher have placed fresh attention on the city. So have caustic, comical post-punkers Yard Act and jungle revivalist Nia Archives.

“The scene definitely seems to be really bubbling,” Hanson says. “There’s loads of new stuff, especially in dance music.” He lists DJ Subaru and Farwell Moscow, as well as electro-noise outfit Bathing Suits. “As clubs are shutting, there seems to be a scene rising.”

Leeds is fortunate to have a host of celebrated music venues – from the Brudenell to Hyde Park Book Club. But it’s not immune to the struggle of keeping venues open. The Old Red Bus Station, for example, shut in January this year, citing an “unassailable” rise in operating costs. In 2023, 13% of shuttered grassroots music venues were in Yorkshire.

The band’s immediate ambition is to play more shows abroad after an “amazing summer” ticking off several European festivals. Hanson says it felt “like a holiday” they never wanted to end. The bucket list UK festival was Glastonbury where they playing the BBC Introducing stage, no doubt bolstered by early support from Leeds’ “legend” of a BBC Intro presenter, Emily Pilbeam.

As for the future, the band are looking forward to finally revealing their debut album. “That’s what l’m really focused on now,” says Hanson. “And I want to come back to that album five years later and think, ‘I'm still really proud of that.’” We have every confidence”.

In December, Adult DVD were interviewed by Rolling Stone UK. Making this joyful and distinct Dance-Punk music, a Soulwax and LCD Soundsystem-influenced group who demand to be heard. I think that the arrival of their debut album is going to be a big event. Whilst solo artists are still favoured and given the most focus, there are these incredible bands that are being highlighted:

“Was this musical style quite intentional from the beginning? Was there something here that you didn’t get from previous bands?

I’ve gotten a lot more into electronic music in the last few years, and Greg was feeling the exact same. We wanted it to be prominently synths, but we like a lot of indie and rock music, so we wanted to bring that to it as well. It evolved into what it is now naturally – it wasn’t forced or pigeonholed.

How has the band and your creative process changed since your formation in lockdown?

When we first started, none of us could really play synths… like at all. The way we write music is quite odd anyway. We’ve never been in a room all together and wrote a song. We do it in twos. That idea started because it’d have been such a painful thing to listen to six people trying to play synths with a live drummer in a room when we’re not very good at playing synths. It’d probably have sent us all insane. Three of us have got little home studios and we go between them over the computer. It’s never six of us in a rehearsal room with everything set up. It meant that when we started playing live, it was sort of like doing karaoke.

Your lyrics come from an abstract and somewhat absurd place – tell us about how they come together…

I played in bands before where the music was quite shoegaze-y and I was listening to a lot of sad music. As I came out of that band, I was no longer an angsty teenager. I was like, ‘Oh, wow, there’s actually music that you can smile to’. I think because of that, I’m writing music that’s upbeat and gives people a good feeling. Because dance music has a lot of repetition and is music-driven, the lyrics [are] just a hook. It’s not actually about the lyrics. Because of that, we can be silly with it. As long as it’s a pounding drum beat and people can dance to it, we can just say the most ridiculous things, and people will probably never notice that. If you broke it down, you could easily be like, ‘What are these lot on about?’, but I kind of like that. That’s cool”.

Go and follow the remarkable Adult DVD. They are a truly phenomenal act that are going to have a wonderful year. Last year was one where they got more live experience and built their reputation. This year is ready for them to take their next steps. If you are unaware of this Leeds band, then make sure that you…

LISTEN to their music now.

____________

Follow Adult DVD

Official:

https://adultdvd.band/

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/adultdvdmenu/

TikTok:

https://www.tiktok.com/@adultdvdmenu

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/artist/1lT3vDbjqz299SxePec6ZG?si=4oIngW3JQrObkY9qR9tV5w

YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmGiw0z6dRClNlIFMCnS8Zw

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/Adltdvd/

Bandcamp:

https://adultdvd.bandcamp.com/

FEATURE: Groovelines: Corinne Bailey Rae - Put Your Records On

FEATURE:

 

 

Groovelines

Corinne Bailey Rae - Put Your Records On

__________

THE remarkable…

Corinne Bailey Rae’s eponymous debut album turns twenty on 24th February. Its standout second single, Put Your Records On, is twenty on 20th February. A song that is still widely played to this day, I wanted to spotlight this gem ahead of its anniversary. Reaching number two in the U.K., it was this instant hit. A song that still sounds wonderful twenty years later. Written by Bailey Rae, John Beck, and Steve Chrisanthou, it is a world away from her most recent work. If you listen to her 2023 album, Black Rainbows, it is quite a departure. However, it is natural for artists to evolve. I can remember there was a lot of excitement around. In 2006, Leeds artist Corinne Bailey Rae was tipped for big things. With the release of the instantly infectious Put Your Records On, there was a great deal of discussion around her sound. Maybe different to what was around in 2006, it was something much needed. The BBC spoke with this rising artist:

“Corinne's soulful voice has been compared to some of the great female singers of all time, including Billie Holiday and even Tina Turner!

She says: "I sometimes feel embarrassed because I wouldn't really associate myself with people who are as great as that. But I think it's nice to be compared to people who are successful and have individual-sounding voices and have a more intimate style which is a style I like to perform in.

"I guess you just hope that one day people will recognise your voice for just you."

Despite the fact that much of her work now takes her to London and travelling all over the world (the video for Put Your Records On was filmed in South Africa), Corinne is keen to remain based in her home town.

"I really feel part of a community here, especially a musical community. I've played at the Wardrobe and the HiFi Club so may times and so many of my friends are graduates of the music college and people who've come here to seek their fortune and work and write music and all that...

"So much of what I've done has been influenced by the people around me, so I want to stick around here."

Having such diverse and popular music acts like Corinne and the Kaiser Chiefs flying the flag for the Leeds can only be positive for already thriving live music scene.

Corinne agrees: "It's amazing to see bands like the Kaiser Chiefs do so well. No one could have predicted it. It's amazing to know that you could start off in your home town and become an international band and a household name in just a year's time.

"I think it gives a lot of hope to bands on the local scene to stay here and to put some time into the scene and develop their own sound."

The single is released on Monday 20 February and Corinne will be paying special attention to the following Sunday's chart. That Sunday is a special date in her calendar for more reasons than one - she'll be hoping for a high chart position as a birthday treat”.

With an amazing B-side in the form of Another Rainy Day, I think that Put Your Records On is a classic. One of those songs that seemed to define an age. Even if Corinne Bailey Rae might have put some distance between herself and that song, it is still a fan favourite. One that is very important. I will move to this review of Put Your Record On. I remember when it came out and I was instantly intrigued. I followed Bailey Rae and have been a fan ever since. Her eponymous album one of the standouts from 2006. Black Rainbows one of my favourites from 2023:

“As it opens, the guitar and bass parts through the first verse and pre-chorus seem almost insultingly simplistic. The trite lyric “The more things seem to change / The more they stay the same,” while applicable to the song, did little to encourage me. Though the doe-eyed delicateness of her delivery was oddly engaging, I was ready to switch it off, likely forever.

Then the first hook-laden chorus jumped out at me and, well, I was hooked. The production pops and soars, but still gently, with Bailey Rae’s voice finding fresh potency and an entirely different personality.

“Girl, put your records on / Tell me your favorite song”

…and then, reaching an unexpected new octave..

“You go ahead, let your hair down”

Even once the song returns again to the comparatively smooth, peaceful verse, I remained sold for good.

As the second chorus nears I’m now anxiously awaiting it, and notice for the first time how it’s ushered in with the short snap of a snare drum fill and the gathering swell of horns and backing voices present to colorfully fill out the sound.

While the tune moves to a pretty, extended bridge, I could barely wait for one more chorus. And the third one delivers even more, beginning with an enticing two-beat mini breakdown, followed by the lovely reward of Bailey Rae’s multi-tracked vocal improvisations extending and ascending over the now fully enlivened mix.

When, finally, over chimes and tickled keyboard, she whispers the closing line – “Ooh, you’re gonna find yourself somewhere, somehow” – I’ve gotta say, I truly believed her”.

Put Your Records On earned a GRAMMY nomination for Song of the Year and Record of the Year in 2007. There have been occasions since when Put Your Records On has been mentioned and Corinne Bailey Rae has talked about its legacy. I want to quickly include a section from a Radio Utd and their chat with Bailey Rae around the release of Black Rainbows. Anyone who has not heard Put Your Records On needs to play it:

“Brie Haynes: So I do want to know what it was like writing an album that was so different from your previous works? Especially in the sense that it’s pro-Black.

Corinne Bailey Rae: It was really different. The main difference is obviously the subject matter and the sounds’ different. And the sound is in response to the subjects I guess. You know, with erasure, it just felt like an aggressive guitar song.  I wanted it to be like, 50s film soundtracks that then gets interrupted. Transit Queen really reminded me of those 90s Riot Grrrl posters when I saw her 50s photographs. But I thought it was a side project for all the time I was making it. So I felt really free. I thought, it doesn’t have to be like anything I’ve done before. It’s me and I’m spreading my wings. I’ll call it something—it won’t even have my name on. So that felt really good, and then I guess as it’s come out, I felt more responsibility to claim it as my own and show that this has been my interest and obsession for the last seven years. I think there’s a throughline between what I’ve done before and you know, even “Put Your Records On”, which is kind of my most popular and lightest song, still has that emphasis on self-acceptance and a Black self-acceptance. It’s kind of a big heart of the story. When I’m singing “plum red lipstick, Black hair kinking”, it links back to “gotta love that afro hair-do, go ahead let your hair down.” They link, they make sense to me. As well as, you know, I was in an indie band when I was a teen so that all makes sense to me”.

Put Your Records On has gained a whole new life. Its legacy is incredible. This article from 2024 highlights how this incredible song reached a new sales peak. It continues to reach new audiences. A magnificent song that still sounds uplifting, I wonder if anyone will write about it on its twentieth anniversary. Maybe Corinne Bailey Rae will write some words about it:

“Corinne Bailey Rae has achieved a new certification from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

Her 2006 breakout single, “Put Your Records On,” has been upped to 3x multi-platinum by the RIAA, selling more than three million equivalent units.

The relaxing groove, produced by Steve Chrisanthou and Jimmy Hogarth, has more than 735 million streams on Spotify; it’s her most streamed song from its self-titled parent album (more on that later).

Bottom of Form

Meanwhile, the official video has surpassed 57 million views on YouTube.

“Put Your Records On” appears on the English singer/songwriter’s debut album, Corinne Bailey Rae, released June 20, 2006.

The acclaimed single achieved top 10 placements on Billboard charts, reaching No. 6 on Adult Contemporary and No. 8 on Smooth Jazz Airplay, respectively. It also peaked at No. 64 on the Billboard Hot 100.

In 2007, at the 49th Grammy Awards, “Put Your Records On” was nominated for Record of the Year and Song of the Year. Bailey Rae was also among the Best New Artist nominees that year”.

In 2019, U.S. artist Madison Beer covered Put Your Records On. Putting her own spin on it, GRAMMY covered this as part of the Reimagined series. It is evident that Put Your Records On ahs reached a new generation. There is something in the lyrics and messages that seems to connect with people. The third song on her eponymous 2006 debut album, there is so much to admire and love about this track. I still hear it played on the radio all the time. Always popular with listeners:

“The next installment of ReImagined, featuring rising vocal powerhouse Madison Beer serving up a powerful cover of British R&B/neo-soul songstress Corinne Bailey Rae's "Put Your Records On," is officially here!

You can watch the L.A.-based, New York-born singer take on the GRAMMY-nominated 2006 feel-good bop. "Put Your Records On" was Bailey Rae's second single, which charted in both the U.K. and U.S., from her self-titled debut album. The uplifting track was nominated for Record Of The Year and Song Of The Year at the 49th GRAMMY Awards, where she also got a nod for Best New Artist.

Beer has a debut album of her own on the way this year to follow up her 2018 EP, As She Pleases. She released the LP's catchy lead single "Dear Society" in May. The 20-year-old is one to watch—back when she was just 13, Justin Bieber discovered her YouTube covers of icons like Etta James, tweeting about her to his huge fan base and helping connect her with a record deal”.

In March, Corinne Bailey Rae puts out her debut picture book that shares the same title as her most famous song. PUT YOUR RECORDS ON looks like it is the start of a new side of her career. I did not know about the picture book. We can learn more about the book on Bailey Rae’s official website. I know that it will be a big success:

“Corinne Bailey Rae, Grammy® Award-winning singer, songwriter and musician, will publish her debut children's picture book with Rocky Pond Books, an imprint of Penguin Young Readers. Inspired by her award-winning hit song and featuring magical illustrations by Gillian Eilidh O'Mara, PUT YOUR RECORDS ON celebrates the emotional resonance of music and the power of song to transform any moment-and to comfort, hold, and accompany us like a trusted friend.

In this story we watch a young Bea's world expand when her great aunt Portia introduces her to her cherished record collection, hidden away in the attic. Together, the two listen, dance, and laugh through a range of songs, leaving Bea excited to continue learning about herself and her world through music. The book is slated for release March 3, 2026 with an announced first printing of 150,000.

Corinne Bailey Rae said, "When I was a child, music helped me find myself. Through songs I discovered that others felt what I felt. Playing music grew my confidence and writing and performing my own music allowed me to fully express myself. I want every child to know that they have music in their heart and a voice that should be heard."

Lauri Hornik, President & Publisher, Rocky Pond Books added, "Corinne Bailey Rae is a singular talent, including now as a picture book author - her lovely story speaks volumes about the importance of both music and family to comfort and inspire”.

On 20th February, the gorgeous Put Your Records On turns twenty. Even though Corinne Bailey Rae has released four studio albums, and Black Rainbows is markedly different from her 2006 debut, there is still a lot of love for that album and its second single. Put Your Records On is one of the defining songs of the 2000s. It introduced Bailey Rae to the world. Still this divine record twenty years later. Corinne Bailey Rae’s Put Your Records On is…

A truly stunning song.

FEATURE: Life Thru a (Retro) Lens: Bringing a Different Side of the '90s to the Small Screen

FEATURE:

 

 

Life Thru a (Retro) Lens

PHOTO CREDIT: KoolShooters/Pexels

Bringing a Different Side of the '90s to the Small Screen

__________

I hope that she won’t mind me…

IN THIS PHOTO: A shot of Camden, North London/PHOTO CREDIT: Artūras Kokorevas/Pexels

invoking her name, but there is an Instagram video posted by the amazing Elizabeth McCafferty, shot on a camcorder (see below) – filmed in and around Hackney – of ordinary and everyday street scenes. If you look at her Instagram, there is this incredible blend. Personal photos that have a degree of gloss, and an aesthetic that are wonderful of course. What one might associate with Instagram. However, there is something charmingly lo-fi or lower resolution that seems to be the antithesis of Instagram and social media. Look at big accounts of high-profile names and there is this emphasis on shine, filters and everything being very beautiful, idyllic and high-resolution. Shiny happy people! I have to do it to an extent as a music journalist, but I do not really post photos of myself too much, as I am pumping out so much work. As someone who I think will direct short films and bigger work in the future, McCafferty is a producer and journalist whose account is fascinating. In terms of what she films, the people she interviews and features. You can check out her published articles. She films and focuses on the more unconventional. Areas that the media does not really cover. I think, with her journalism, photos and videos, she wants people to connect more with those from different walks of life. Rather than just those that are popular, famous or more conventionally popular/appealing. I love her photography and her incredible recordings. I think that we will see her on the screen a lot more in the future in acting roles too. Go and check out her Paranormia podcast. I think what struck me most when it comes to applying to this to music is how, whether it is a magazine spread, interview, biopic or music film, everything is very bright and ‘perfect’. In terms of the quality of the picture/visual.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Elizabeth McCafferty (@elizabethmccaff)

Rather than it being anti-cinema or basic, what hit me about Elizabeth McCafferty videos – the one particular one I saw -, is that it took me back to my childhood in the 1990s. I live in Hackney myself, so I could relate to a lot of the scenes and what made the clip so relatable. I spend as much free time as possible in Camden. I shall come to that part of London soon and why it is relevant. When I was young, I was taking pictures from a disposable camera. I was listening to music through a Discman or a boom-box. I had a small camcorder at some point and would use that. Things were simpler and less technology-driven. And, whilst it might seem primitive and flawed now, many people are actually going back to ‘brick phones’, cameras and things that we thought we had disposed of years ago. Rather than this being a rebellion against technology and the way we are obsessed with being online, there is something more physical and emotion-provoking when we take pictures through an actual camera. I can imagine this is a reason why McCafferty, and those like her (though there are not too many), find beauty and something deeper in this, rather than shooting in HD or making things very polished for social media. Even if she does blend styles and resolutions, it is the people she captured and speaks to and a more retro/older-fashioned aesthetic that is so distinct and appealing in this day and age. I was thinking about the new resurgence of 1990s music and culture. After Oasis’ reunion of last year and many other bands from that time getting back on stage, plus long-lasting bands from that time (like Suede) releasing career-best music, I do wonder whether this will be translated to the small screen. There aren’t many music-based shows. I waxed lyrical about Riot Women from last year. More about original music and the modern-day, it is about middle-aged women forming a band to get their voice heard. It is a brilliant Sally Wainwright-penned series. I also loved Mix Tape. “Years on from their teen romance in 80s Sheffield, music brings them back together - was this the love they were meant to have? Romance and heartbreak with a banging soundtrack”. Whilst both exceptional series’, they were rare in a schedule packed with reality shows and favourites. I do wonder whether anything ‘90s-based will surface this year.

In my last mention of Elizabeth McAferty, I have been thinking of that slightly grainer or lo-fi lens. The people, sides of life and culture that are not really explored and seen as media-worthy or desirable. In terms of music of the ‘90s, I feel there has been a re-focus on Britpop and a particular scene and time. The title of this feature refers to Robbie Williams’s debut album, Life Thru a Lens, that was released in 1997. I recently wrote about The Prodigy’s Firestarter, which was released as a single in 1996 and turns thirty fairly soon. Maybe that side of things is what I am thinking about. Tying into Camden and a slightly scuzzier or more authentic look at life in the 1990s – maybe 1996, 1997 or 1998 -, it would be great to have a series or one-off programme that might mix elements of Mix Tape and Riot Women, that is based in Camden and follows the lives of a group of friends trying to make their way and find success/realise their dreams. Maybe comedic in tone, it would also have some darker or edgier moments (violence, drug usage and sexual references). However, the way it looks and is filmed would be the focus. I am not sure what cameras are used to shoot most modern shows. That look that is very glossy/polished. Not to suggest the thing would be shot on camcorder or something as expensive or trickly as Super-8, but it would be great to see the slightly dirtier, odder, wilder or less-discussed areas and sides of 1990s music and culture shot authentically. There are articles that chart the evolution of camcorders, and others that tell us not to bemoan its death. If the nostalgic charm of camcorders is enticing more and more couples getting married, could its appeals sustain to a longer-form film? In a recent episode of Miranda Sawyer’s Talk '90s to Me podcast, Adam Buxton discussed the use of handheld cameras during The Adam and Joe Show (a 1990s sketch series with Joe Cornish that was homemade and quite D.I.Y.) and some of the downsides, in terms of the visuals. However, the revival of digital cameras and handheld options has been happening for a few years. That aesthetic and feel that is warmer and maybe a little less ultra-bright in a modern online age that is so intensely bright, polished and blemish-free. It makes me yearn for a show where the modern and slightly older can coexist. With an amazing soundtrack, there are actors that I have in mind who would be brilliant. I do think that music is generally under-represented on screen. Maybe the expense of clearing songs or a perceived lack of demand. There would be a reservoir of possibilities when it comes to modern artists and documentaries/films where they are united or an original film featuring music from wonderful artists of today.

 

However, as last year especially was a big one for reviving the' ‘90s, I do fear that there will be very little translated to the screen. There have been podcasts and books, yet no new drama or comedy where we can see those iconic or rarer tracks brought to life. For me, there are many reasons for wanting to have a project like this realised. Not only to show a different side to the decade with a soundtrack that is not all Oasis, Blur, Pulp – featuring more women in the mix for a start! -, and also doing something different in terms of the storyline. Tackling issues and prejudice that exist today that are not often tackled on screen. More than anything, it is the aesthetic and look of things. A distinct romance. I do love shows with a particular definition. It is what we are used to and what is seen as preferable. However, even if it was a small part of the show/series, getting a genuine feel of the handheld or nostalgic. No longer obsolete, many people are picking up camcorders and older kit when filming, as it does look amazing and has this feel that is hard to put into words. A lot of what was once current or normal was discarded and replaced in the rush of technology and modern evolution. However, with vinyl being huge and older phones, cameras etc being picked up again – and not to be seen as cool or following a trend -, this is not really represented on the screen. Not in the U.S. either. It is strange. Two of my favourite series from last year had music at their hearts, but the 1990s and a different side to it is long overdue some appreciation and oxygen. It does make me emotional looking at older photos and seeing footage on a camcorder. Some of the most complete memories of my childhood are of me being filmed on a camcorder. Whether during a birthday party or at home, it is an emotional release when I see these videos. There is this strange romance and something so evocative about it that seems to be the opposite of what we see on social media and the media at large. Featuring some brilliant tracks from 1996, 1997 and 1998 perhaps, set in North London and really thinking about the look and visual feel of the series/show, I think it could prove popular.  It is a shot and slice of '90s life…

THROUGH a different lens.

FEATURE: The Great American Songbook: Jennifer Lopez

FEATURE:

 

 

The Great American Songbook

Jennifer Lopez

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PERHAPS the biggest reason…

IN THIS PHOTO: Jennifer Lopez (J.Lo) in a publicity photo for SNL in 2001

I am including Jennifer Lopez in this The Great American Songbook is that one of her best albums, J.Lo, turns twenty-five on 16th January. I was seventeen when the album came out and was aware of Jennifer Lopez following her incredible 1999 debut, On the 6. Singles like Love Don’t Cost a Thing and Ain’t It Funny are among my favourite songs from her. Although there is a slight blackmark against the album, in that Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs is a producer and is currently (and fortunately) in prison – and I am not including any tracks he has a writing credit on -, I think it is one of the most underrated albums of the early-2000s. Many critics a bit lukewarm and sometimes critical. Given the power and popularity of the singles, tied to some great deeper cuts, we should nark twenty-five years of this gem of an album. I wonder whether Lopez will. Even though Jennifer Lopez’s 2024 album, This Is Me... Now, celebrated as rekindled romance that unfortunately ended in divorce – from one of her previous loves, Ben Affleck -, it is a remarkable album, so I hope she will not mind me including music from it in this mix. Entering a new phase of her career and personal life, I do hope we get a tenth studio album from her. What form will it take? A liberation or independent woman looking for love or someone reflecting on the politics of the U.S. under Donald Trump? Maybe a more reflective album following her divorce? Or something that nods back to her earliest days? Maybe more of the latter. I think we will hear a revitalised and energised Jennifer Lopez put out an album that is heartfelt and personal, though one that sits alongside the sound, confidence, sexiness and brilliance of modern day Pop queens.

Between 6th and 28th March, the icon is performing the second leg of Jennifer Lopez: Up All Night Live in Las Vegas in The Colosseum at Caesars Palace. The residency looks phenomenal! Kicking off an amazing opening show on 30th December, Lopez joked about her divorce history, but she also told the audience what she has learned and how she is in her ‘happy era’. Of course, Lopez faced ageism and misogyny when she was criticised for her choice of outfits and showcasing her stunning physique. Sexy, confident and dazzling, she hit back and dropped mic on those who dared to criticise her! Even as one of the most successful artists ever, she still has to face criticism, ageism and sexism. I do wonder if we will ever reach a moment when women over the age of forty will be respected and not constantly exposed to scrutiny about their age and whether they are dressed appropriately. The Bronx-born artist is one of the most influential of her generation. Inspiring the trajectory of music in the 2000s and being cited as an influence (or being seen as impacting) artists like Selena Gomez, Lady Gaga, Miley Cyrus, Ricky Martin, ROSALÍA, and so many more, Lopez helped bring about a Latin music explosion to the mainstream. I remember when she came through in the late-1990s and all the excitement round her music and promise. She did really make an instant impact on music. Something that was hugely important and different. Adding much needed dynamics and sounds to the scene.

A hugely successful artist whose albums have sold millions and her fanbase has grown with each album release, there are few artists are important and influential as Jennifer Lopez, in my humble opinion. For this The Great American Songbook, I am collating a twenty-song mix of Lopez’s best songs. Some deep cuts too. Showing how consistent she is. Although she has never gained the critical kudos and respect she deserves and is long overdue, her success and the quality of her music will remain and endure for decades. Before getting to that mix, I want to include biography from AllMusic:

“Jennifer Lopez has seamlessly transitioned from actress to pop singer and back again repeatedly over a long career that has seen her flourishing in both of her chosen fields. She launched her music career with On the 6, a 1999 album that featured the number one single "If You Had My Love." The first in a string of successful neo-disco singles that kept her at the top of the charts throughout the 2000s, a period of time where she racked up such achievements as being the first woman to simultaneously claim the number one album and number one film in the U.S. when her second album, J.Lo, appeared the same week as The Wedding Planner. As she maintained a presence on the silver screen, Lopez branched out into other ventures, such as fragrances and clothing, while also spending a good portion of the 2010s as a judge on American Idol. All this activity pushed her recording to the background, but she resumed her pop career with great fanfare in 2024 with the release of This Is Me…Now, a sequel to her 2002 hit album This Is Me…Then. Along with a tour and the single "Birthday," 2025 saw Lopez star in the big-screen adaptation of the musical Kiss of the Spider Woman.

Jennifer Lynn Lopez was born in the Bronx, New York, on July 24, 1969. After starting out in musical theater as a child, she made her film debut at age 16 in the little-seen My Little Girl, but she was later tapped to become one of the dancing "Fly Girls" on the television sketch comedy series In Living Color. A recurring role on the TV drama Second Chances followed before Lopez was thrust into the limelight co-starring with Wesley Snipes and Woody Harrelson in the 1995 feature film Money Train. Smaller roles in pictures including My Family/Mi Familia, Jack, and Blood and Wine followed before she landed the title role in 1997's Selena, portraying the slain Tejano singer. The resulting acclaim for Selena included a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress. Co-starring opposite George Clooney in 1998's acclaimed Out of Sight, Lopez became the highest-paid Latina actress in Hollywood history. The following summer, she returned to her musical roots with her debut pop album, On the 6, scoring a major hit with the single "If You Had My Love."

Lopez didn't waste time perfecting a sophomore effort, the appropriately titled J.Lo, which was issued in early 2001. The following year, Lopez released J to tha L-O!: The Remixes and This Is Me...Then, which spawned another hit single, "Jenny from the Block." The album reached number two on the Billboard 200. Although her high-profile romance with Ben Affleck created more headlines than her recording career, her follow-up, 2005's Rebirth -- released just after she married singer Marc Anthony -- debuted at number two on U.S. album chart. The Spanish-language album Como Ama una Mujer followed in 2007, peaking at number ten on the Billboard 200 while remaining at the top of the Latin chart for seven consecutive weeks. In October of that same year, Lopez put out a more "traditional" pop album, Brave, followed by an accompanying tour. It peaked at number 12. Love?, another pop album, was released in April 2011, a few months after Lopez debuted alongside Randy Jackson and Aerosmith's Steven Tyler as one of the judges on American Idol.

Love? proved Lopez's biggest hit in years, no doubt benefiting from her role as an Idol judge. Lopez stayed for two seasons. Just as the news of her 2012 departure arrived, so too did news of her divorce from Marc Anthony. Her first hits collection, Dance Again...The Hits, appeared in July 2012 and entered the Billboard album chart at number 20.

Lopez returned to American Idol for its 13th season in January 2014. During its run, she started to tease her new album, releasing its first single, "I Luh Ya Papi," in March; it peaked at 77 on the Hot 100 and seven on the Hot Dance Club Songs chart. After the season wrapped, she released her eighth album, A.K.A., which was also her first record for the Capitol label. In 2015, she voiced a character in the animated feature film Home, and also contributed the single "Feel the Light" to the movie's soundtrack. Lopez kicked off an extended live concert residency at the AXIS at Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas in January of 2016. That same month, she premiered in the role of NYPD detective Harlee Santos on the NBC series Shades of Blue.

Several months later, she made a return to Epic Records after a six-year absence from the label with the release of the single "Ain't Your Mama." Lopez also premiered the song with a live performance on the finale of the 15th season of American Idol. In July 2017, she released the single "Ni Tú Ni Yo," which was co-written and executive-produced by ex-husband Marc Anthony. "Amor, Amor, Amor," featuring Wisin, followed that November, and a bilingual single titled "Dinero," featuring DJ Khaled and Cardi B, arrived in May 2018. Shades of Blue aired its final episode that August. "Limitless," her contribution to the soundtrack of romantic comedy Second Act, followed later in the year. She also co-produced and starred in the film.

In 2019, Lopez appeared in the independent crime-comedy Hustlers, portraying strip-club dancer Ramona. It led to best-supporting actress nominations at the Golden Globes, the Screen Actors Guild, and the Independent Spirit Awards. Alongside Shakira, Jennifer Lopez co-headlined the Halftime Show at Superbowl LIV in 2020, an event she later chronicled in the 2022 documentary Jennifer Lopez: Halftime. That September, she released two songs with Colombian singer Maluma, "Pa' Ti" and "Lonely," both of which were later included on the soundtrack to Lopez's 2021 romantic-comedy film Marry Me. She also released the solo track "On My Way" as a single from the film. Later that year, she teamed up with rising Puerto Rican star Rauw Alejandro for the single "Cambia el Paso."

After releasing a pair of films in 2023 -- Shotgun Wedding arrived in January, The Mother appeared in May -- Lopez revived her recording career as part of an ambitious project called This Is Me…Now. Conceived as a sequel to 2002's This Is Me…Then, the album was inspired by her reunion with Ben Affleck, whom she married in 2022, roughly 18 years after they called off their first engagement; the couple divorced in 2025. Accompanied by a full-length film and featuring the lead single "Can't Get Enough," This Is Me…Now appeared in February 2024, cracking the Top 40 of the Billboard 200. In July 2025, on her actual 56th birthday and while still headlining her Up All Night: Live in 2025 tour, Lopez delivered the swaggering and club-ready single "Birthday." Also in 2025, she returned to acting, starring in director Bill Condon's big-screen adaptation of the Broadway musical Kiss of the Spider Woman”.

If On the 6 was this amazing actor moving into music in 1999 with a confident and wonderful debut, she adopted something different with its 2001 follow-up, J.Lo. This moniker and name that many would refer to her for years – I am referring to her as Jennifer Lopez -, her second album was a breakthrough. In spite of the multiple studios, raft of studio and songwriters, the album is very much powered and defined by Jennifer Lopez’s incredible performances and distinct sound. The album was certified quadruple platinum in the United States, making it her highest-selling to date, and became the sixth-most successful album of the year worldwide. On 16th January, J.Lo turns twenty-five. I wanted to celebrate that by including songs from that album and other Jennifer Lopez albums for this amazing mix. A salute and celebration of this…

MUSIC goddess.

FEATURE: Top of the City: The Spine-Tingling Power of Kate Bush’s Before the Dawn Live Album

FEATURE:

 

 

Top of the City

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush during the shooting of the video for And Dream of Sheep, a track that forms part of her suite, The Ninth Wave, which is performed during Act II of 2014’s Before the Dawn. The live album was released in 2016/PHOTO CREDIT: Trevor Leighton

The Spine-Tingling Power of Kate Bush’s Before the Dawn Live Album

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THERE are not many…

big Kate Bush anniversaries this year. A couple of singles are celebrating big birthdays, though nothing in the way of albums. However, on 25th November, it will be ten years since Bush released the live album of her 2014 residency, Before the Dawn. I was one of the unlucky ones who was not there to see her perform. However, I did get the vinyl of Before the Dawn when it came out in 2016. I have also got the C.D. version and am listening to it at the moment. I wanted to revisit and re-examine the album as it has had this effect on me. I am not sure why Kate Bush does not want to make Before the Dawn available on Spotify. It is on Apple, and people have uploaded tracks from the album onto YouTube. It is a shame that we cannot enjoy this live album on Spotify. Also, in terms of its availability, getting the vinyl new is a challenge. You can see more about Before the Dawn on Kate Bush’s website, though when you follow the link to buy the four-vinyl set, it is extortionately expensive. It begs the question, when she has remastered her studio albums and even brought out Best of the Other Sides, why her stunning live album has not been brought back onto vinyl? Maybe it would be expensive to do so though, for those who could not see Before the Dawn, hearing it and getting a sense of what it was like relies on physical and digital formats. Few will buy the C..D or buy it from Apple, so you do really need that vinyl option available. I shall come to a review for the live album, as it is clear how much hard work Bush put into it. In terms of producing and mixing, it was something that dominated a lot of her time and focus. Matt Everitt of BBC Radio 6 Music spoke with Kate Bush in 2016 around the release of the album. Since then, she has done quite a lot. Reissued and remastered her albums. Aerial was reissued and she has released her book of lyrics. The whole Stranger Things sensation – twice, in fact – and that 2024 hint that she is ready to work on a new album. Two years after that seismic residency and everything associated with that, she released the live album through her Fish People album. Aside from the inclusion of Never Be Mine – a track rehearsed but not included in the setlist -, it was short on surprise inclusions. Instead, a pure and captivating replication of what thousands flocked to see in Hammersmith in 2014. Before the Dawn stunned me when I first heard it. I had the house to myself and played the vinyl through and lay on the floor with my eyes closed and tried to imagine I was there. I think the first time around, I was trying to project myself into the crowd and immerse myself in the whole thing. The fact I am revisiting it is because I am viewing the album in a new way and focusing on Kate Bush’s vocals.

Before I get there, a bit of background and detail about the album. In the linear notes for Before the Dawn, this is what Kate Bush observed about an experience that must have ranked alongside the most important, memorable and happiest (and nerve-wracking) of her career. I do wonder if she will ever perform live again:

“It was an extraordinary experience putting the show together. It was a huge amount of work, a lot of fun and an enormous privilege to work with such an incredibly talented team. This is the audio document. I hope that this can stand alone as a piece of music in its own right and that it can be enjoyed by people who knew nothing about the shows as well as those who were there.

I never expected the overwhelming response of the audiences, every night filling the show with life and excitement. They are there in every beat of the recorded music. Even when you can’t hear them, you can feel them. Nothing at all has been re-recorded or overdubbed on this live album, just two or three sound FX added to help with the atmosphere.

On the first disc the track, Never Be Mine, is the only take that exists, and was recorded when the show was being filmed without an audience. It was cut because the show was too long but is now back in its original position. Everything else runs as was, with only a few edits to help the flow of the music.
On stage, the main feature of The Ninth Wave was a woman lost at sea, floating in the water, projected onto a large oval screen – the idea being that this pre-recorded film was reality. The lead vocals for these sequences were sung live at the time of filming in a deep water tank at Pinewood. A lot of research went into how to mic this vocal. As far as we know it had never been done before. I hoped that the vocals would sound more realistic and emotive by being sung in this difficult environment. (You can see the boom mic in the photo on the back of the booklet. This had to be painted out of every shot in post-production although very little of the boom mic recording was used. The main mic was on the life jacket disguised as an inflator tube!) The rest of the lead vocals on this disc were sung live on stage as part of the dream sequences. The only way to make this story work as an audio piece was to present it more like a radio play and subdue the applause until the last track when the story is over and we are all back in the theatre again with the audience response.

Unlike The Ninth Wave which was about the struggle to stay alive in a dark, terrifying ocean, A Sky Of Honey is about the passing of a summer’s day. The original idea behind this piece was to explore the connection between birdsong and light, and why the light triggers the birds to sing. It begins with a lovely afternoon in golden sunlight, surrounded by birdsong. As night falls, the music slowly builds until the break of dawn.
This show was one of the most exciting things I’ve ever been involved in. Thank you to everyone who made it happen and who embraced the process of allowing it to continually evolve”.

What makes the residency/live album so fascinating is how Bush mounts Hounds of Love’s The Ninth Wave. The conceptual side of the 1985 masterpiece is epic and must have been exhausting to rehearse and put together. So much about its drama and this story of a woman lost of sea that gets rescued, its dynamic, look and energy is very different to the second disco of 2005’s Aerial, A Sky of Honey, which is about the course of a summer’s day. In terms of pairing these and Bush having the skill, stamina and vision to realise these sites perfectly and nail the performances every night is testament to her undiminished brilliance! Maybe taking her back to 1979 and The Tour of Life, the demands on her to deliver these high-concept shows and sings as she is also acting out these incredible visions and scenes, I feel, inspired directly huge live shows that would follow. You could argue that some of the highest-grossing and grand-spectacle extravaganza from the likes of Taylor Swift, Kylie Minogue and Beyoncé can be tied back to Kate Bush. Some might say Madonna got there first, though remember The Tour of Life was before any Madonna tour, so you can say Bush influenced that and, by extension Madonna’s live shows throughout her career. Act II was Hounds of Love and The Ninth Wave. Act II is Aerial and A Sky of Honey. The encore of Before the Dawn is 50 Words for Snow’s Among Angels and a Hounds of Love classic, Cloudbusting. Two very different songs to end the set. Act I was dedicated to songs from different albums. Lily (The Red Shoes) opens things. That leads to Hounds of Love (Hounds of Love), Joanni (Aerial), Top of the City (The Red Shoes) – Never Be Mine from The Sensual World is on the album but not in the set -, Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) and closing with King of the Mountain (Aerial).

That final Act I song, about Elvis Presley, fame and I think Kate Bush and the media speculation around her and calling her a recluse, seems like the perfect song that then leads us back twenty years before that song came out to The Ninth Wave. Astronomer’s Call, Watching Them Without Her (dialogue) and Little Light are all newly-written pieces. For Aerial’s suite, there is actually a new song. One suspects it was for Albert McIntosh. Or Bertie. Someone who helped convince her back onto the stage, I suspect this was written to give him a singing part. He does appear during A Sky of Honey, including The Painter’s Link, but this is a fascinating new song for him. In terms of chronology, Tawny Moon is after the dusk. Seeing the moon rising and being able to represent that through song. There were some interviews from 2016, where Kate Bush discussed her thoughts on those live shows two years before. Plus the live album that she was putting out. This FADER interview is one I would recommend. I wanted to draw in some extracts from this interview from The New York Times:

“The “Before the Dawn” shows were phantasmagoric spectacles, involving video, choreography, lighting and puppetry. They were filmed, but early ideas about releasing both audio and video of the concert gave way to the current audio-only release. At the moment, Ms. Bush said, there are “no plans” to release the film.

“It was designed as a live piece of theater,” Ms. Bush said, “and I think that film is such a different medium from being in the presence of people onstage and among an audience. It’s such a completely different experience. I think in a lot of ways that a live album is more representative of what we’ve done.”

Ms. Bush became a hitmaker in Britain when she emerged in 1978, still a teenager, with the single “Wuthering Heights.” At the height of British punk, the song retold the Emily Brontë novel in an odd, arresting tour-de-force of piano filigree, continually unfolding melody and stratospheric vocals.

That introduced a career of constant transformations. “I do want to push,” Ms. Bush said. “I want to push the people that work with me, and I want to try and push the music somewhere. Each time I start a new album, I want it to be different from what I’ve done before.”

In Britain, Ms. Bush’s songs have reached the Top 10 from 1978 to 2012. In the United States, she’s best known for the 1985 single “Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)” and her radiant guest vocal on Peter Gabriel’s “Don’t Give Up,” but she has a devoted following that includes many songwriters, among them Tori Amos and Maxwell. Through the years, Ms. Bush’s music has encompassed operatic agility, folky delicacy, hard-rock power, cabaret guile and global rhythms, while her lyrics have featured or alluded to characters from history and literature (Joan of Arc, Molly Bloom from “Ulysses,” Peter Pan) as well as anonymous but affecting archetypes: parents, children, dreamers, mystics.

Among them, who is she? “I can’t say that I can think of any of my songs that are really at all autobiographical,” she said, “and yet at the same time, they have to be personal, because you’re throwing yourself into them. I guess it’s the same for any artist: It’s not necessarily them, but it’s got them in it.”

She added: “It’s a bit like when you’re reading a story out loud and you have to put on the voices for the different characters. I don’t know if I really identify with them, but you have to find out who’s telling the story.”

She opened the “Before the Dawn” shows with “Lily,” which invokes the protection of angels. “It starts with a prayer,” Ms. Bush said. “I wanted the whole room to be with this prayer that would protect us all throughout the journey.”

Returning to live performance was “very scary,” Ms. Bush said. “I didn’t know if I would be any good. That was really the fear factor. The thing of putting the show together, though it was daunting and challenging, it was something that I felt I could do. Whether it would be any good or not was another story. But stepping into it as a performer was really pretty terrifying.”

She had been thinking about performing again after making her 2011 album, “50 Words for Snow.” She also wanted to work with her son, Bertie McIntosh, then 16, who urged her to “push the ‘go’ button,” she said.

Once she got started, “there was a real sense of it wanting to happen,” she said. “Sometimes when I’ve started projects, from everywhere you get obstacles flying in. But with this, people that I wanted to get on the team, who’d said ‘I’d love to do it but I can’t,’ would suddenly get a project canceled — and they could.”

There were other coincidences. Ms. Bush had decided to perform “Joanni,” her song about Joan of Arc, in the opening section of the show — a concert presentation before the dreamlike theatrical experience to follow. Her keyboardist had recently recorded cathedral bells in Rouen, France, where Joan was burned, and he played them at rehearsal. Ms. Bush had changed the key to accommodate her aging voice, and “the first thing we all said was, ‘My God, they’re in tune!’” she recalled. “If we hadn’t taken the song down in pitch, they wouldn’t have been in tune”.

All of this gives more context to Before the Dawn. It also makes me wonder why the vinyl is not available and whether it will ever come to streaming. However, over Christmas, I was listening to the album on C..D. in my car. Whilst perhaps not as idyllic as listening to the vinyl in a warm room, I experienced it from a new perspective. Rather than closing my eyes and imagining myself at the Evetim Apollo in 2014 – not advisable if you are driving! -, I was concentrating directly on Kate Bush and her vocals. Many people have criticised Kate Bush’s vocals on later albums like 2011’s 50 Words for Snow. It is an ageism that so many artists have to face. I actually think that Before the Dawn features Bush’s voice at its best. Though deeper and rawer, I think it is more powerful and evocative than ever. I also see Before the Dawn like a second instalment of Director’s Cut. That is where Bush re-recorded songs from The Sensual World and The Red Shoes. Many critics did not like the album because of the vocals. I do think that Before the Dawn’s vocals are extraordinary and we get to hear some well-known songs in a new context. Tracks such as Top of the City especially stirring and emotional. Nearly ten years after the live album was released, it is still affecting me. I am not sure how people who did see her perform and listen to the album compare the experiences. For me, I am perhaps less disappointed that I was not there, as I get so much from the album. Bush is not only in tune throughout. She is at the top of her game throughout. At the top in the city of London. At a venue where she both saw the final Ziggy Stardust concert in 1973, and ended her run of The Tour of Life in 1979.

“Of course, raw is an adjective one uses relatively, when considering an album that features a band of blue-chip sessioneers, celebrated jazz-fusion musicians and former Miles Davis sidemen: you’re not going to mistake the contents of Before the Dawn for those of, say, Conflict’s Live Woolwich Poly ’86. But, unlike most latterday live albums, it actually sounds like a band playing live. There’s a sibilance about the vocals, a sort of echoey, booming quality to the sound, the occasional hint of unevenness: it doesn’t feel like a recording that’s been overdubbed and Auto-Tuned into sterility. Given their pedigree, you’d expect the musicians involved to be incredibly nimble and adept, but more startling is how propulsive and exciting they sound, even when dealing with Bush’s more hazy and dreamlike material. It’s a state of affairs amplified by Bush’s voice, which is in fantastic shape. On King of the Mountain or Hounds of Love, she has a way of suddenly shifting into a primal, throaty roar – not the vocal style you’d most closely associate with Kate Bush – that sounds all the more effective for clearly being recorded live. Furthermore, there’s a vividness about the emotional twists and turns of A Sea of Honey, A Sky of Honey – from the beatific, sun-dappled contentment associated with Balearic music to brooding sadness and back again – that just isn’t there on the studio version, great though that is.

PHOTO CREDIT: Ken McKay/Rex Features

That answers the question about what the point of Before the Dawn is: like 2011’s Director’s Cut, it’s an album that shows Bush’s back catalogue off in a different light. And perhaps it’s better, or at least more fitting, that her 2014 shows are commemorated with an album rather than a film or a Blu-ray or whatever it is that you play inside those virtual reality headsets people are getting so excited about. They were a huge pop cultural event, as the first gigs in four decades by one of rock’s tiny handful of real elusive geniuses were always bound to be, but they were shrouded in a sense of enigma: almost uniquely, hardly anyone who attended the first night had any real idea what was going to happen. Even more unusually, that air of mystery clung to the shows after the 22-date run ended: virtually everyone present complied with Bush’s request not to film anything on their phones, and the handful that didn’t saw their footage quickly removed from YouTube. Before the Dawn provides a memento for those who were there and a vague indication of what went on for those who weren’t, without compromising the shows’ appealingly mysterious air: a quality you suspect the woman behind it realises is in very short supply in rock music these days”.

Let’s hope that the vinyl is reissued and we can buy that (affordably). Maybe it will never come to Spotify, though its tenth anniversary on 25th November may move Kate Bush to reconsider. The incredible voice that runs from Lily – this mantra and prayer that guides the audience on the quest they are about to have – to the final notes of Cloudbusting are so extraordinary. I have been moved by other live albums and artists’ vocal performances, but Kate Bush’s Before the Dawn set hits me in a way…

THAT no other does.

FEATURE: Don't You Know You Might Find… Oasis’ Don’t Look Back in Anger at Thirty

FEATURE:

 

 

Don't You Know You Might Find…

Oasis’ Don’t Look Back in Anger at Thirty

__________

EVEN if…

I spend time marking the thirtieth anniversary of Oasis’ (What's the Story) Morning Glory? last year, its fifth single, Don’t Look Back in Anger, turns thirty on 19th February. I was eager to revisit Oasis and this song, as it is one of their most loved. This is their second-most streamed track behind Wonderwall. It was the case that songwriter Noel Gallagher said he could either sing lead on Wonderwall or Don’t Look Back in Anger. As it was, Liam got to sing on Oasis’ most-streamed song, and Noel took lead on Don’t Look Back on Anger. I want to step inside the eye of its mind. Get to grips with this song. One that took on a new life and meaning as Oasis toured last year for their reunion dates. A whole new generation are also discovering Don’t Look Back in Anger and the iconic album it is from. Such was the popularity and momentum of (What's the Story) Morning Glory?, the band were still putting singles out from it in 1996. Don’t Look Back in Anger was the final single from the album that was available in the U.K. as, for some reason, Champagne Supernova was not released in the U.K. – only Australia and New Zealand. That is perhaps the band’s defining song, so maybe a big missed opportunity that it was not a single here. However, Don’t Look Back in Anger was a success (it was a number one in the U.K.). There is a lot of mystery, or there was, regarding why the ‘Sally’ was/is in Don’t Look Back in Anger. Noel Gallagher did say in interviews how the name was picked up at random, as he did not know any Sally’s. The name and its sound seemed to fit. In a 2018 interview with WXPN, Noel Gallagher explained: "It started off as a song of defiance, about this woman: She's metaphorically seeing the diary of her life pass by, and she's thinking, 'You know what? I have no regrets.' She's raising a glass to it”. That idea about not being upset or angry about the past and things you should have said or done.

Maybe that holds relevance considering how Oasis got back together to tour and did not dwell on the turbulent past. Still holding so much power all these years later, I want to look ahead to the thirtieth anniversary of a classic from that decade. By February 1996, I guess Britpop was still going, though it had past its peak. Or at least other bands were entering the scene. For those who associate Oasis at their best with Liam Gallagher and his vocals, having Noel lead on Don’t Look Back on Anger might have felt odd. Not right or proper Oasis. Some did take against the song. Ted Kessler wrote a review for NME when the single was released in February 1996 and said this: “‘It’s a bit like Newcastle United without [les] Ferdinand: full of Noel’s Beardsley-esque artistry, but lacking Liam’s free-scoring attack. It seems out of place with the rest of ‘…Morning Glory?’”. In 2016, marking twenty years of Don’t Look Back in Anger, NME provided the story behind this anthem:

“Saturday, April 22, 1995, Sheffield Arena: a momentous Oasis date for two reasons. Sadly for Tony McCarroll, it was his last ever gig drumming for the band. But when one thing ends another begins, and it was in Noel Gallagher’s acoustic set that night that he played ‘Don’t Look Back In Anger’ for the first time, sandwiched between ‘take Me Away’ and ‘Talk Tonight. “I only wrote this on Tuesday,” he told the crowd, before sort-of dedicating it to The La’s frontman Lee Mavers: “You’ve not heard this one before, mate.” The original inspiration for the song came from Noel Gallagher visiting Paul Weller at The Manor studios in Oxford to play on the track ‘I Walk On Gilded Splinters’. While there, Weller played his song ‘Wings Of Speed’, and that was that.

Things were less simple in the recording studio. It began when Noel played both ‘Wonderwall’ and ‘Don’t Look Back In Anger’ to Liam, and asked him which one he wanted to sing. Liam chose ‘Wonderwall’, which was committed to tape without a hitch. When the time came to do ‘…Anger’, Liam wasn’t needed so went to the pub. Friendly man that he is, he proceeded to invite around 30 pissed Monmouth locals back to the studio from local boozers The Old Nag’s Head and The Bull. Noel turned up a few hours to find, according to Alan McGee, “half of fucking Monmouth” in his room, and “complete strangers playing with £30,000 worth of guitars”. He adds: “one of them asks him for the number of a cab and Noel kicks them out. A punch-up ensues, and Noel chases Liam out with a cricket bat.”

As Owen Morris tells it: “The next morning, Noel had left. The band was over. The album dead. No one knew if he was coming back. We were all gutted.”

A couple weeks later Noel did come back, and the band got back to business. But the question remains: do any versions of Liam singing ‘Don’t Look Back In Anger’ exist? Opinions differ. When quizzed by David Huggins of the Oasis Recording Info website, Rockfields Studios engineer Nick Brine said in an email: “My understanding is that Liam did record a vocal on the album version, but I think it was just one run-through for a bit of fun really.” Owen Morris refutes this claim: “Liam absolutely did not sing ‘Don’t Look Back In Anger’ at any point. Nick Brine’s memory is incorrect”.

But, intriguingly, Noel Gallagher said this to MOJO in 1997: “When I gave [Liam] ‘Don’t Look Back In Anger’ he’s singing ‘But don’t back in anger, not today’. I’m saying, It’s ‘don’t look back in anger’. ‘He’s saying, ‘Well, that’s not what’s fuckin’ written ‘ere, Chief.’” Whether anything was recorded, and whether it will ever be released, Noel only knows”.

There are other features and reviews I want to come to. In 2017, Noel Gallagher spoke to Radio X about Don’t Look Back in Anger and its legacy. CLASH shared a post concerning that interview and Gallagher’s memories and thoughts now. Little did he know that Oasis would be taking this song around the world in 2025. I can only imagine how emotional it was for fans young and older united when hearing the track played:

“Noel Gallagher has spoken about the continuing appeal of 'Don't Look Back In Anger'.

The songwriter turns 50 this weekend, and took time out to chat with Radio X presenter Jon Kennedy.

The conversation turned to the Oasis classic 'Don't Look Back In Anger', prompted by an emotional rendition earlier in the week.

Following a minute's silence held for the victims of the Manchester Arena terrorist attack the crowd gave an impromptu rendering of 'Don't Look Back In Anger' – an incredible moment, in a week filled with so much sorrow.

"Honestly as the years have gone by, it’s like that song is now more important than I’ll ever be," he explains. "You know, there’s footage on the internet now of people singing it in Manchester with candles and all that and you know, it’s kind of, it is incredible to think that a few generations now have attached some kind of importance to that song."

"There was mine, and it was passed on to another generation and that song now has become a hymn to something or other. You know I still play it – whether I play acoustically to 100 competition winners or I play it to 70,000 people at a festival – it still works. There’s not many songs you can say that about. I certainly can’t say that about all my songs."

"And you just sit there sometimes and think, ‘you know, I probably only have to introduce it and play the first chord. I could probably walk off then and nobody would notice’. You know, because there’s just people with their eyes shut, crying and stuff, and it’s like a… It’s an amazing thing. It’s something I never kind of take for granted either, you know." Asked if he felt humbled, Noel replied: "It makes me feel – is it proud, the word I’m looking for?"

"I don’t ever sit there and think that I wrote that, you know. I think it came from somewhere else. I think it was a song that was there somewhere, and if I hadn’t have written it, you know, Bono would have written it. You know, it’s like those great songs, ‘One’ and ‘Let It Be’ and yeah, I did just compare myself to Paul McCartney there. You know, they’re there. If they fall out the sky and land on your lap, then lucky you”.

Music in Notes analysed the lyrics and demystified this hallowed classic for a feature in 2015. I am not going to include the whole article, but it is a really fascinating dissection. I wonder what new Oasis fans make of the song. I remember when I first heard Don’t Look Back in Anger in the 1990s and was instantly a fan of it. I love Noel Gallagher’s vocal on it:

“Musically, for most of my teens, I was all about the Sixties. The late night DJ on the local oldies station thought it was hilarious that someone my age would call in to request songs or enter trivia contests…and win them. I became convinced I was born in the wrong decade. I loved the Beatles and the flood of other British Invasion artists who came after them, especially the Dave Clark Five, the Hollies, and the Kinks, as well as seminal American bands like the Byrds and Creedence Clearwater Revival. Well, before the really wigged out, psychedelic stuff, which I didn’t get or like at all. (I still remember hearing ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ weird tape loop for the first time and being horrified, and then getting horrified again when my brother pointed out John Lennon singing “cranberry sauce.”) If it wasn’t British Invasion or Led Zeppelin (the one holdover from my years of being around an older brother), I didn’t want to give it the time of day. I couldn’t even tell you what was on top 40 radio back then, because I wasn’t listening to it.

My cousin Chris, about a year older than me, came to visit with his family as they always did every summer from Taiwan and showed me the CDs he’d brought with him. He was eager to impress on me his musical taste, but usually I was unmoved and entirely underwhelmed with what he had on offer. That particular summer, he had three he wanted to show me. The first two met my usual eyes glazing over as we played them on my dad’s then top of the line hi-fi: Blues Traveler’s ‘four’ and the Notorious B.I.G.’s ‘Ready to Die.’

The third was far more interesting. It was the second album from Oasis, ‘(What’s the Story) Morning Glory?’ I think he knew subconsciously I’d “get” Oasis because of my being such a huge Beatles fan and the obvious Beatles references Noel Gallagher added into the song. But you have to remember that back in 1996, it wasn’t like we were all on the Internet, and certainly we didn’t Google at our disposal. I did remember talking to Chris about Oasis being from Manchester. Like Liverpool had become for me with the Beatles, in my head I had this grand idea Manchester was this amazing faraway land, and one day I would see it for myself. (It didn’t disappoint. I would get my chance a decade later, making my first trip to England, Manchester being my first port of call so I could see Morrissey gig there three times over 3 nights.)

Now, the analysis:

There are a lot of interesting bits in ‘Don’t Look Back in Anger,’ even if Noel says he wrote the lyrics when he was stoned and they mean nothing, and fans have come up with lyrical meanings that ring very personal to themselves. That alone is a sign of a very well-penned pop song. To me, the themes in this song that speak loudest to me are those of innocence, regret, and hope.

If we take the song and lyrics at their most basic and view it in the context of what nearly all pop songs are about, a romance between a boy and a girl gone sour, a lot of it seems pretty literal: this girl Sally is waiting for a reconciliation with her greatest love that will never come. I remember thinking as a teenager, and one who had never had a boyfriend yet by this time in her life, that this song was so sad, so tragic. Be still my heart! The pain of young love! Oh, how innocent hearts get it all wrong.

The two verses are dreamy, ambiguous. I look at the lyrics to verse 1 as if the singer is telling Sally to meditate, to go to a better place by using her mind (“don’t you know you might find / a better place to play“) and banish any bad thoughts using the meditation (“you said that you’d never been / all the things that you’ve seen / will slowly fade away“). This positive slant reminds me of a favourite song of mine in my blogging career, ‘Dreaming of Another World’ by Mystery Jets. The singer also says later in verse 2, “take me to the place where you go / where nobody knows if it’s night or day,” as if he wants a means of escape or probably more likely, a utopia, a place where such things don’t matter. When night falls, some things become final, and in the light of day, they become obvious in their permanence. In both verses, it’s not clear to me if the voice of the singer is the object of Sally’s affection, but for the sake of argument, let’s say the voice isn’t.

Gallagher has admitted that the lines in the pre-chorus “gonna start the revolution from my bed / ‘cos you said the brains I had went to my head” were lifted straight from a spoken word tape of John Lennon’s, and because they don’t make a whole lot of sense to me in my overall interpretation, I’m going to leave them. That leaves the rest of the pre-chorus, which is pretty perfect to me. “Step outside ‘cos summertime’s in bloom / stand up beside the fireplace, take that look from off your face“: stop pining, stop wallowing, get out of the shadows and into the sunshine and enjoy life, and turn that frown into a smile. Why? Because summertime is in bloom, life is wonderful, and life is out there for the taking. I’m on the fence about the line “‘cos you ain’t ever gonna burn my heart out,” because it’s sung sweetly, not angrily, and rather melodically (well done, Noel), even though the sentiment seems to be, “look, I know you’re angry with me/him, but that’s not going to solve anything.” This makes sense in the context of trying to get Sally to look on the bright side of things, to refocus on better days.

A brief aside on why I find the mention of “please don’t put your life in the hands / of a rock ‘n’ roll band / who’ll throw it all away” amusing: I can’t begin to tell you how many times I’ve been told as a woman to avoid getting involved with musicians at all costs. Ask me in 20 years’ time how it’s going…

The choruses are slightly different each time, with either the emphasis of “she’s walking on by” (Sally alone) or “we’re walking on by,” presumably Sally’s ex stepping out with a new woman. However, in all cases, the chorus ends with “‘but don’t look back in anger,’ I heard you say,” with someone telling Sally or Sally herself hearing within herself that she shouldn’t live in regret. I remember watching this video on MTV and at the end, with Noel singing the last few words as he looked out of the back of the car driving away from the house, “‘But don’t look back in anger, don’t look back in anger,’” his voice slightly cracking as if getting emotional himself. Cue sobbing.

The parting words “I heard you say, ‘at least not today’” seem pretty beautiful to me too. Every day is a snapshot of the whole of our lives, isn’t it? I think the voice of the song was meant to be thoughtful and caring towards Sally. He is aware of her pain, of her regret of what once was and what can never be again. But he also knows that one day Sally can come to acceptance of what’s happened and she won’t look back in anger. He’s hopeful, though, that through his healing words, he can get her through this one day and to the next one”.

I will finish with some legacy and stats about the single. In 2021,. Fatherly noted twenty-five years of Don’t Look Back in Anger and argued why it is their defining song. Why we should be listening to this song now. I feel it is an Oasis track that will be discussed for many years more:

“On February 19, 1995, exactly 25 years ago, Oasis released the song “Don’t Look Back In Anger,” which, I’m sorry to say to all your “Wonderwall” or “Live Forever” fans out there, is by far their best song. Infamously, the leader of the band, the younger Gallager brother, Liam, doesn’t sing on this song at all, which makes his presence in the music video pretty hilarious. In the ’90s, it seems that your job in a band could actually just be to sit around scowl. But, “Don’t Look Back In Anger” isn’t just awesome because it trades the acerbic vocals of Liam for the more middle-of-the-road Noel, it’s a timeless ’90s song because it’s a total confluence of what ’90s soft rock eventually became.

Somewhere, Noel Gallagher is furious that I’m calling “Don’t Look Back In Anger” soft rock. But it totally is. This is why the song is so excellent. With an opening piano riff outright stolen from John Lennon’s “Imagine,” the song doesn’t try to just connect with the youth of the ’90s, it also strives to be a respectable song that your parents could dig, too. If Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” is one-half of alternative ’90s male-driven rock, then Oasis’ “Don’t Look Back In Anger” is the other half. “Smells Like Teen Spirt” was saying FUCK YOU MOM AND DAD. “Don’t Look Back In Anger,” was saying, the kids are, in fact, all right.

“Don’t Look Back In Anger” is the best song of the ’90s because it sounds like a soundtrack from what kids were feeling. It has a nonsense curiosity about the ’60s, complete with Beatles-eque imagery like “they said the brains I had went to my head,” but there’s also the sense that a perpetual breakup is happening, all the time, just one that you can’t really commit to. Sally is waiting, but she’s also walking on by. She’s both done with your bullshit, but she may come back. It’s pretty classic pop-song-faux-romance-stuff, but there’s something slightly more interesting going on. With this song, the ’90s has one foot out of the door of the ’60s, but one foot still firmly planted there, too.

For my parents, the music and culture of the ’60s was a revolution, a complete rejection of what their parents liked. But, the ’90s wasn’t like that. I would argue that kids that came of age in the ’90s were among the first generation of kids who actually agreed with their parents about music more than they didn’t. The Beatles are the obvious touchstone here, but there’s even something a little Elton John about “Don’t Look Back In Anger” that makes it equally viable for a Disney movie that I just made-up in my head. (The Lion King came out a year before “Don’t Look Back In Anger,” never forget!) This may sound like hyperbole, but I actually remember a moment in 1998, sitting in my friend’s kitchen, listening to him play “Don’t Look Back In Anger” on his acoustic guitar.

His mom said, “Is that the Beatles? or Did you write that?” My friend lied and said he’d written it, but that he was inspired by the Beatles. His mom believed him, and I didn’t correct either one of them. The thing is, everyone was right. “Don’t Look Back in Anger” transcends Noel Gallager and Oasis, which is why it’s the greatest song of the ’90s. By the time you heard it, you already felt like you’d heard it a million times before.

In 1995, we put our life in the hand of a rock and roll band and threw it all way. It turned out just fine”.

Taking this from Wikipedia, we can see the legacy of Don’t Look Back in Anger: “In a 2006 readers' poll conducted by Q magazine, it was voted the 20th-best song of all time. In May 2007, NME placed "Don't Look Back in Anger" at No. 14 in its list of the "50 Greatest Indie Anthems Ever". In 2012, it was ranked number one on a list of the "50 Most Explosive Choruses" by NME, and the same year it was voted the fourth-most-popular No. 1 single of the last 60 years in the UK by the public in conjunction with the Official Charts Company's 60th anniversary. In 2015, Rolling Stone readers voted it the second-greatest Britpop song after "Common People" by Pulp. In 2016, AU Review rated it at number 88 on their list of 101 best songs of all time”. On 19th February, it will be thirty years since Oasis released the penultimate single from the globe-conquering (What's the Story) Morning Glory? From there, it would be a year or so until their third studio album, Be Here Now. Things will shift and change but, to me, that album is a bit messy and overhyped. In some ways, Don’t Look Back in Anger was the end of this golden period for them. Few could imagine that Oasis would ever play together after their final studio album, Dig Out Your Soul (2008). Last year saw the Manchester band reform – if only for live dates – and deliver some of their all-time best songs to adoring crowds. Thirty years after the album it came from was released, fans of all ages got to hear Don’t Look Back in Anger live. It must have been…

SOMETHING to witness.

FEATURE: Spotlight: Georgie Riot

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

Georgie Riot

__________

I have made a couple of omissions…

as I assumed I had included Georgie Riot in my Spotlight feature. I have included her in other features as I really love and admire what she does and have so much respect for her. Someone who is an incredible D.J. and one of the best in the world in my view, I know this year is one where she wants to reset and focus on her mental health. Or she mentioned in a post how 2025 was a year when she was been managing her mental health and it has been tough. My heart always goes out to her, as she has been open about her mental health and struggles. So many of her fans and those who see her sets will resonate and relate. I am definitely making that a priority too, as my mental health took a battering last year. Georgie Riot has such passion and energy for what she does, though you can imagine the demands and comedown after a D.J. set is quite decompressing and might create emotional and psychological extremes and imbalance. Georgie Riot is an amazing artist too. Her E.P., Without You, saw her collaborate with Tsuki, Grace Van Brunt and others. It is phenomenal. Another omission I made is forgetting to include Georgie Riot in a recent feature, where I highlighted gender inequality for female D.J.s and issues that pervade. I suggested there be a huge festival featuring female D.J.s only. Like a Summer of Love where all these diverse D.J.s can play together, I suggested an interview series, where female D.J.s can be paired together to discuss their careers, favourite tracks and experiences. Of course, Georgie Riot should completely be part of that. She is one of the queens of the scene. A remarkable D.J. who I have been following for a while and will continue to follow. Even if this year is one where she is going to put herself first, I do hope there are some festival dates and new music, as she has a growing and admiring fanbase.

There are some dates in her diary, but I will definitely catch her if she comes to London. This wonderful D.J. and artist deserves massive success and personal happiness. She did write this in her final (and powerful) post of last year: “2025 was a tough year for me. As you all know, managing my mental health and emotions has always been a challenge. I struggle to acknowledge my achievements because of that voice in my head saying it's never enough. I wasn’t planning on doing a 2025 recap post because I felt like I hadn’t done enough, but looking through my photos last night made me realise I've accomplished a lot. I put out music, performed at shows, travelled, and achieved a lot of personal milestones. It’s wild how we set high standards and overlook our actual accomplishments. In today’s world of constant distractions and the habit we’re in of seeking that next dopamine hit, it's crucial to reflect on our experiences and celebrate ourselves. Life's tough, and making it this far is something to be proud of in itself. Thanks for being here with me. Sending love and wishing you all an excellent 2026”. I hope that this year is one of her happiest! I am going to get to some slightly older interviews, as I feel it is beneficial to know more about Georgie Riot. I am dropping in new videos and tracks, so you get a sense of her complete career. I shall start with this biography from Resident Advisor from 2024:

“Georgie Riot is an English DJ, record producer, songwriter, and label owner who broke into the scene in 2020. Known for her creative double drops, fast-paced mixing, and energetic live performances, she has quickly built a strong brand and gained global recognition. Since 2021, Georgie has been producing various styles of drum and bass, from melodic dancefloor to high-energy jump-up. She transitioned from a career as a professional model and booking agent to pursue music full-time, gaining mass attention for her work. Her debut drum and bass single "Take Over," released in August 2022 on UKF, gained over 100,000 streams in under two weeks and was heavily featured on BBC Radio 1. Currently, standing on over 3 million streams on Spotify alone.​ A dedicated DJ who ditched her career as a professional model and agent for a life in the music industry, this is everything she’s pursued since her first drum & bass rave: from handing out flyers and sneaking into venues underage, to playing drums in a band and studying music technology.​ Georgie has released music on labels such as Atlantic, UKF, DNB Allstars, Tomorrowland, Bassrush, Rampage, Viper, and her own Riot Records, placing 3rd as "Best Female Producer" in the Drum & Bass Awards 2023. Whilst further performing at major festivals across Europe, such as Tomorrowland, Let It Roll, Rampage, Bassfest, Leeds Festival, NASS, Dreamland, Tokyo World, alongside multiple successful tours across New Zealand, Australia and North America. In September 2022, she launched Riot Records, which was named Beatport's "Label of the Month" in early 2023. Georgie also hosts a monthly radio show called “Causing A Riot” on KOOL FM, hosted by RINSE FM. With a string of sold-out shows and major festival appearances 2025 promises to be an exciting year for Georgie, as she continues to make significant waves in the drum and bass scene. Driven by her experience in male-dominated fields like drumming, music production, sound engineering, and DJing, she is committed to reaching new heights. Advocating for equal support and representation for women in the industry and hope to inspire other women to purse their career within music”.

I am going to come to a feature that I have sourced before, about a very powerful and important collaboration between three incredible D.J.s/artists on the song, Dark Days. I want to head back a bit to an interview from UKF. I think I first heard of Georgie Riot around the time of this interview and was checking out her stuff. Right from the off, this is someone that you bond with and root for. So honest and open, it is part of the reason why I have so much admiration for her:

“Georgie Riot had just dipped her toe into the DJ game before covid-19 barged in and remixed all our lives.

Undeterred, she embraced the time off she had from her intense career and threw herself into the thriving streaming culture and learning production. 18 months, countless streams, two high profile mixes for the likes of Kiss and Rinse FM and her debut single later; Georgie’s graduated from lockdown university with a whole host of major league bookings this summer alongside the likes of Chase & Status, Kings Of The Rollers and Netsky and a very bright future beyond…

Her background has been equally bright: a drummer who was brought up by very cool-sounding raver parents who introduced her to club culture at the source, Georgie has also been a model for over 10 years and runs her own modelling agency.

Now applying her same level of energy and ambition to her music, she’s developed a DJ style that flips dynamically between big dancefloor arm-raisers and gully underground face-melters by way of a constant slew of doubles. Her productions showcase a similarly exciting range, too; So far we’ve enjoyed her big bassline bruiser debut single Dance and there’s also been a cheeky jump-up free download on her Soundcloud.

Loads more is expected to land in due course but, already seasoned in one highly competitive industry, Georgie knows how to play the long game. She’s only just warming up…

Your musical mission started with you drumming, didn’t it?

Yeah that’s right. I did music GCSE and learnt the drums. I really wanted to be a rockstar and was in a band but, as I got older, I realised that wasn’t going to be a thing so I did a BTEC in music technology. Music’s always been there, but I didn’t think it would be a reliable source of income so then I went and studied health and social care with a view to becoming a nurse.

Wow, that’s a switch!

Yeah, a bit of a change in direction! But then I had another change and developed my modelling career, which I’d been doing off-and-on since I was 14. I dived into that and did it fulltime, but I always kept coming back to music.

I imagine the modelling industry is very high pressure and probably quite comparable to music. Intense, creative, volatile, competitive.

Totally! I didn’t think they’d be so similar. I thought the music scene would be more relaxed but they’re very similar. A lot of self-doubt, stress and competition. You’ve got to get through it, though, haven’t you?

 

You do. The self-doubt is universal.

Yeah. But I feel like with modelling it’s less of a talent. You’ve still got to know what you’re doing, but in modelling I didn’t feel I had a chance to showcase what I want to do or be that creative. But with music I can do that.

Had you thought about DJing before?

When I was in school, back with the drumming, I had a few ideas about it. But I have to thank my mum. She always wanted me to be a DJ and, when I was a kid, my dad got me this tiny little toy DJ controller. But as I got older, I just thought it wouldn’t be possible. It wasn’t until I met my boyfriend, who is an artist himself under the name Tsuki. He gave me a kick up the arse and said ‘Why can’t you do it?’ I’d always say ‘No it’ll just be for a bit of fun, even if I do it, no one will want to listen.’ He said ‘Just do it’. I needed that kick!

There was something Sabrina said in a recent interview about commenters on streams and how they won’t be there on the dancefloor. It’s a shame people who’ve put themselves out there online get that negativity…

Yeah there’s definitely that element. I mean most people are very supportive, but you do get the odd hateful comment. When I put out my first tune Dance, I posted about it on Instagram and within three minutes of posting I had someone commenting something nasty about it. People say things and I just ignore them. You can’t let it get to you.

It’s the difference between internet life and real life. You did a really awesome honest post about that recently with a picture of you with no make-up and one with make-up.

Thanks, I want to post more of those. It’s too easy for me to post modelling image or things from sets and being on shoot where I look good and it’s important to make the effort to post real things as well. Everything online is edited, everything is filtered and we have to portray the reality too.

Especially for younger people looking up to you.

Yeah. I’m always very conscious of what I post anyway. Before the DJing, most of my followers were friends and models I know through the industry who have become friends anyway. Now there are a lot more people I don’t know following me and that does leave you feeling exposed. Because of this I’ll overthink everything I post to the point my boyfriend is like ‘You’re overthinking! Just post it!’ Even down to what I wear. Someone commented on my top on the stream. It was a general crop top and a girl posted something nasty about me. Which always confuses me because you’d think fellow women would be supportive. So since then I’ve thought too much about what I wear. Do I have to wear baggy clothes all the time now because people will say something? It never ends. So I try not to think too much or too little”.

I do wonder to come to a 2023 interview with Georgie Riot, Something Something and Ruth Royall. 1 More Thing chatted with these queens about Dark Days. A track with a vital message, I do hope that they work together on an E.P. or other tracks. Like Georgie Riot, Something Something and Ruth Royall and phenomenal D.J.s and artists that are among our absolute best. Let’s get them back together again soon:

“Georgie Riot, Something Something, Ruth Royall… When it comes to UK new-gen collaborations, it really don’t get much more on-point right now. Complete with a song that packs an important message and you’ve got something much more meaningful and powerful than many current bangers put together.

The track in question is Dark Days, a commanding dancefloor missive that reminds us that violence against women, and those who identify as women, is still tragically rife. Urgent and heavyweight, Georgie Riot and Something Something’s beats carry Ruth’s poignant message with clarity.

“The intention of the track was to spark conversations,” says Ruth. “I feel like we’ve done that and I’m proud that three women have been able to put out such a powerful message together.”

Released on Georgie’s Riot Records – first exclusively on Spotify earlier this month, now fully available from today August 18 – it’s their first collaboration together but not likely to be their last. We found out more about it…

Proper powerhouse collabo!! How did Dark Days come about?

Georgie Riot: I started the track over a year ago now, it didn’t have a name and it was very different to what we ended up with! I sent a rough instrumental to Ruth and she hopped on board and began writing and recording vocals. The first draft of Dark Days was born.

Ruth Royall: It was a proper buzz when Georgie got in touch. I’ve been a fan of hers for a while so when she reached out and asked to collab I was super keen. I first sent back my first draft to Georgie, I was actually worried it was a bit much. That in itself is a conversation, women often feel too much, too loud for speaking their mind, but Georgie immediately put my mind at ease. She loved the subject and felt it was an important thing to speak about. She then brought Something Something on board, another lady I’ve been a big fan of. It was then that the trio was born!

It’s absolutely gutting you’ve had to address such an awful topic as the message. What was it that led you to deciding this would be the message of the track?

Ruth Royall: The song was a bit of a word vomit. The words just kind of came out, my friend had recently had an awful experience at a club in Bristol so I think it was on my mind. I myself had a pretty horrific experience of sexual assault as a child which has very much shaped my adult experience and sense of fear in certain situations. Myself and most women I know can relate on some level, which sucks and shouldn’t be the case. This song highlights violence against women and also the fact that it’s still there. One very short experience can change your whole life, it did for me.

That’s awful. I worry society is getting worse in many grubby, self-serving ways. The fact you still have to call out any type of predatory or abusive behaviour this day in age backs up this feeling.

Ruth Royall: I disagree. I think it’s getting better in lots of ways, I think it’s easier to call this stuff out and be heard. Yes there are still lots of situations where we feel unsafe but the general sense of having back up is better than it ever used to be.

Georgie Riot: It’s a shame that most women, and those identifying as women, still feel unsafe and often uncomfortable in both the music scene and life in general. I feel there is still a long way to go to make things safer, equal and fairer. It’s not something that one song or one article can change, and it’s not something that will happen overnight, it’s so much bigger than that, and this is why we feel strongly about spreading the message of unity.

Ruth Royall: I think what I wanted to get at in this song is how the fear of violence and the act of violence can stay with you forever. Victims of sexual assault carry trauma with them for the rest of their lives and the highest percent of these people are often women or female identifying. I don’t know a single women who hasn’t walked home with their keys between their fingers because they feel unsafe. It may actually be getting safer but the fear doesn’t go away.

IN THIS PHOTO: Ruth Royall

How can we moved forward?

Ruth Royall: Give space. I had an amazing experience when I was out in New Zealand. I was touring with an all-male touring group (fairly common in D&B), they were the loveliest and most gentle men may I add. We were out for a drink with the promoter of one of the shows and his lovely partner.

We had all had a few beers and got on to the subject of violence against women, intense I know for a few beers down the pub! I started getting quite impassioned and my voice started raising as I spoke on the subject. I realised after a few minutes of gesticulating that the whole table was silent and listening, they were respectful of my lived experience, they didn’t interrupt or give their opinion and I realised I didn’t need to shout. I felt like I was being listened to and this made a massive difference. Stuff like this helps, it gives victims who carry trauma and who often feel like they are being ‘too much’ or ‘dramatic’ when they talk about their experience space.

Is the track raising awareness or funds for a particular charity or can we highlight one as part of your message?

Georgie Riot: The track is to raise awareness for women in the scene, and most importantly the important message of promoting unity. Dark Days can be interpreted and related to in many ways, and I think everyone will interpret this song in a different way. As well as the important message of feeling unsafe or unheard, the track also is relatable in that we all have dark days.

We all have days where we feel sad. Whether that’s in regards to our careers as musicians, our relationships with others, or just life in general – everyone has those days where we don’t feel good, and it’s so important to stick together, to just be as kind as possible, especially in this day-and-age where it is so easy to make others feel bad about themselves now that social media exists! I know that Dark Days has a different meaning for each of us – myself, Steffi and Ruth.

Amen to that. What happens next? Are the three of you getting on more tracks in the future?

Georgie Riot: I hope so, it would be great to work on something together again in the future because we worked so well as a team!

Ruth Royall: I hope so! I love the girls work and they are both a dream to collaborate with.

Something Something: This is my favourite collab so far, from workflow to just getting each other and what our visions for this song were. It was absolutely amazing working with the girls and hopefully we will get together again”.

IN THIS PHOTO: Georgie Riot with Something Something (left)

I am going to end with another interview soon. Sticking in 2023, Beat Portal shone a light on Riot Records. In a busy year, this was another incredible events and moment from someone who I think is going to have a very settled 2026. I do think that her career highs are just around the corner. Anyone who has not encountered the work of Georgie Riot needs to look at her videos and tracks on streaming and YouTube. I hope there are one or two interviews with her this year:

“Originally from the UK’s West Midlands musical region (which in previous eras was better known for rock and metal), Georgie Riot is something of a juggernaut and a force of nature. This hyper-active, hyper-powered drum ‘n’ bass DJ has been turning heads for a minute, but her label Riot Records has finally hit its stride. A producer and curator as well as a fast-rising DJ, Georgie broke into the scene in 2021 and has been making heavy, seismic waves across the globe ever since.

While best known for her creative double drops, fast pace mixing and energetic live performances, Georgie has been producing all kinds of drum ‘n’ bass since the start of 2021, from melodic and uplifting dance floor to high-impact, energetic jump-up jungle. And that’s where Riot Records comes in, with her own productions and those of her production peers, who include OHKAY, Toddlah, Captain Bass, German producer Feed The Fire and more. And while the label has only been around for a couple of years (the first release was the upper-cutting, jump-up Gouki collaboration – “Street Fighter II”), this is clearly the beginning of a beautiful friendship with further releases in the bank and plenty on the proverbial horizon. Over to Georgie with the overall label ethos: “As an artist I’ve been releasing a lot of dance floor myself, but as many know I play a lot of jump-up in my live sets and I know a lot of fans who come to see me play live have been eagerly waiting for me to drop some heavier music of my own and I’ve been teasing a lot of heavier tracks of my own on social media for some time. So now the time has finally come”.

The last couple of years have been really busy for Georgie Riot. 2024 was a packed one, as EDM Identity explored in their interview. She spoke with them ahead of a big U.S. tour, how Riot Records was going, and her thoughts on the current Drum and Bass scene. I do hope that Georgie Riot has some more dates ahead in the U.S., as it seems there is a lot of love over there for her:

“The past few years have been huge for Georgie Riot as she’s established herself in the scene and grown her faithful following by dropping off some fantastic releases. Her tunes have landed on labels like UKF, DNB Allstars, Atlantic Records, Bassrush Records, and Tomorrowland Music, but where she’s really flexed her production skills has been on her imprint, Riot Records.

Releases are only one part of the equation for Georgie Riot. Appearances at festivals like Rampage Open Air and Shambhala further solidified her ascent in the scene, not to mention her shows elsewhere in Europe. And finally, after years of US fans craving to catch her live, they will get their chance to catch this DnB phenom take the stage when she heads to Raleigh, Baltimore, and Atlanta’s Jungle Bells for a quick four-stop tour.

This year is marking an extra special occasion as you’ll close it out with your first-ever run of shows on US soil! What excites you the most about finally making it to the States?

I’m so excited for this US tour. I’m excited to try some proper American food; I heard you guys do it the best! I’m super excited about my shows – Raleigh, Baltimore, and two Atlanta shows. Really gassed for Jungle Bells, that’ll be a wicked end to the run of shows! This tour has been such a long time coming. I’ve had so many people on socials asking when I’m coming to the US, and I’m so happy we’re finally making it happen. I actually got my visa in December 2023, and the tour was supposed to be Q1 2024, but the first run of shows didn’t end up happening, so we went for the end of the year instead.

It can be a pretty long process for artists from outside the US to obtain their visas, get booked, and finally take the stage. Can you share your experience with others who have aspirations to make it here?

The visa process wasn’t too bad, it was just a lot of collecting documents, filling out forms and putting together a portfolio to prove who you and why you should be allowed to perform in the US. That was the first step anyway. Then you pay the fee, I think was just over £3000, submit your application and wait to be offered an interview.

I then had to travel to London to the US embassy for my interview, which was interesting. They ask a couple of questions and check you out. I remember the last question they asked fully threw me off… The interviewer said, “Explain to me what makes you extraordinary?” – I just stood there for a couple of seconds trying to think of a decent enough answer; it was kind of funny! I must have done something right, though, because here we are now! I’m grateful for my fab US agent, Stu, at Corson. He’s working really hard to get the next tour booked, too.

Let’s talk about your label, Riot Records. There are already some remarkable releases on the imprint. Can you speak to the growth that the label has experienced over the past two years?

Starting my own label has been great. It’s been two years now, and I’m loving every second of it. It’s refreshing to see how much raw talent is out there. I love listening to demos and supporting artists as they build their careers. It feels like a little musical family!

We’re dropping a killer jump-up album on December 6. It’s called Venom: Vol 1 and it features 10 tracks from various artists, fresh new talent as well as some established names. I’m really excited about this album, it’s had excellent reviews, with support from Andy C, Macky Gee, A.M.C, Koven, and loads more, so keep your eyes peeled for that!

As someone who has been involved in many different aspects of the drum and bass scene, what are your thoughts on its current state?

Okay, so this is a delicate question. There are two ways of looking at this. From one perception, the drum and bass scene is thriving; there’s so much new talent, tons of new sounds, and more new acts are breaking through and building a fan base.

Looking at the other side of things, I’d say that in the UK, there are some issues; there are many similar-sounding songs lacking originality, and there are many big labels and events companies taking over the scene and, in a way, gatekeeping. There are too many lineups with all the same acts at each show. It seems that promoters are scared or unwilling to take a chance on different artists. Something seriously needs to change, in my opinion.

Finally, what goals do you hope to achieve in 2025?

Primarily, I want to work on my mental health. I think, firstly, I need to get that in check so I can reach my full potential with my career. I touched on this briefly earlier on, but I’ve been struggling for a long time with depression and anxiety, and recently, I’ve been diagnosed with body dysmorphia. I’ve been struggling with all of this for the best part of 10 years, but in the past two years, it’s become really difficult, and it’s impacting my creativity and passion for music and just life in general, really. I want to get back to feeling 100% to put my all into music.

Apologies for oversharing, but I feel it’s time to be more transparent with my fans. At the end of the day, it’s all well and good for me to sit here talking about all the great things that are happening, but it’s only one small part of me. What’s going on behind closed doors is more real, and I know this will resonate with a lot of people”.

I shall wrap things up there. A truly wonderful human who is one of our greatest D.J.s and one we should be very proud of, this year is going to be a great one. Even if she will not want to push herself too much, I feel Georgie Riot is going to have some incredible times. Label owner, artist, D.J. and prouder, there are few as multitalented and incredible as her. This superstar is going to have…

A stunning year!

___________

Follow Georgie Riot

Official:

https://www.georgieriot.com/

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/georgieriot/

Twitter:

https://x.com/GeorgieRiot

TikTok:

https://www.tiktok.com/@georgieriot

YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/@GeorgieRiot

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/GeorgieRiotUK

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/artist/658we9fIJkrorlUIcDzsHi?si=_Cwh_ph9SuK2WW7Bwe2Skg

FEATURE: Spotlight: TTSSFU

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

PHOTO CREDIT: Brennan Bucannan for The Line of Best Fit

TTSSFU

__________

THERE are so many artists…

that I want to write about, as this year is going to be another very busy and eclectic one. TTSSFU is an artist I have known about for a while but I feel is going to receive a lot more attention this year. Her latest E.P., Blown, was released in August, so there has been some recent promotion with her. I will come to that. I am going to start with an interview from this time last year. After a breakthrough 2024, TTSSFU had a big 2025 ahead. The Wigan artist is one of these names that should be played on every station. I do think that she is going to be in the industry for years, or perhaps decades. Still Listening urged us to start listening to an artist who had transcended from bedroom and D.I.Y. recordings to these bold and unforgettable performances:

“Hailing from Wigan and now taking Manchester’s vibrant music scene by storm, Tasmin Stephens, better known as TTSSFU, has carved out a unique space in the dream pop and shoegaze genres. From crafting tracks in her bedroom on GarageBand to signing with Partisan Records and supporting renowned acts like Soccer Mommy and Mannequin Pussy, 2024 was nothing short of transformative for the artist. In this Q&A, TTSSFU opens up about her creative process, the emotional resonance of her music, and the unexpected journey that led her to the next chapter in her career. From her introspective DIY roots to the electric energy of live performances, TTSSFU’s world is as raw and compelling as her music.

For those unfamiliar with your music, can you tell us who you are, where you’re from and about the music you make?

I’m Manchester based, originally from wigan lol the home of Richard Ashcroft, I’m Tasmin stephens Aka TTSSFU and I make dream pop /shoe-gaze.

Congratulations on signing with Partisan Records! What does this partnership mean to you, and how did it come about?

It came about after me releasing I hope you die, I got a message of interest from Matthew Howes who works for partisan, I was extremely confused and at the time and low-key thought it was spam so I half arsed responded because at the time I had a-lot of emails and messages from a-lot of people and some of it being said spam, but with further investigation I saw in his bio “partisan records” so I screenshot and sent it to the guys who play in my band and was like guys.. wtf and then we did a few calls and Matthew would travel to Manchester to come to shows and I sort of knew that this was gonna be the people I was gonna work with in the future from the start, I got such a warm and welcoming vibe from them all as I met the team throughout the period of getting to know everyone, and me and my manager Maria knew it was the right choice. Was a crazy time for me as id only just done my first show as TTSSFU then released my first ep through a label instead of self releasing and then suddenly had all this interest after years of nothing, was sort of unbelievable for me, and still is.

Your new video for "Studio 54" explores Andy Warhol’s complicated relationship with Jed Johnson. What drew you to tell this story, and how does it connect with your own experiences?

I guess the video is my interpretation of loneliness that lurks In party scenes, nightlife is fun but also scary and to me holds lots of sadness, its a form of escapism and this can make people lose themselves, this is what I read on the end of Jed and Andy and it reminded me of how id handled relationships in the past sort of just pushing people away and lost to chaos.

You’ve been steadily rising in the Manchester music scene, playing festivals and supporting big names like Soccer Mommy and Mannequin Pussy. How have these live experiences influenced your music?

Soccer mommy is a household indie name, it was a honour to support her and her band are lovely was a super rewarding experience, Mannequin pussy was the first tour we did as a band and what a tour it was, playing the Scala on your first ever tour is such wake up moment, I feel like we all was kinda like what the hell on that day, was also the day I signed my contract to partisan, but I learnt so much that tour of the Mannequin pussy crew, Missy is a power house performer and “Romantic” by them has been one of my favourite songs for years, felt like a real movie moment seeing them end the set with that every night, also just small thing with both these tours such as going for dinner with soccer mommy or getting given a spare bottle of tequila from mannequin pussy, we felt pretty cool.

Working DIY in your bedroom studio, do you feel a sense of freedom, or are there limitations that challenge you creatively?

Yeah I’m so free, might start recording naked and see if it helps me write better, jokes, but even though I am at home I do take it very serious and work in long hours, I will hold my wee for ages or put off food for hours or stay up all night until I have recorded a guitar line right, its very important to me, limitations would be my own knowledge, I want to know more and be better at producing/mixing”.

Tasmin Stephens is one of our most compelling and distinct artists. As TTSSFU, she brings this explosion of tones and colours together. Not hailing from a musical family, there was always this desire to make her own music. Maybe hard for her family to relate to that, Stephens did want to be in a band. However, as a solo artist, this is very much about her and her unique voice. I think a band dynamic might shift attention to other members. In July, The Line of Best Fit spent some time with TTSSFU. Ready to step into the spotlight and share this incredible E.P., Blow, this stunning artist was making “brooding, reverb-drenched anthems that reconfigure shoegaze for a new generation”:

“Stephens remembers having her mind blown in her early childhood when she first listened to The Beatles. Whilst The Fab Four have no bearing on her sound now, the impact of her adolescent infatuation with Nirvana front man Kurt Cobain and the ‘90s grunge scene is undeniable. “I think Kurt Cobain was definitely one of the first to make me think ‘I wanna do this. I wanna make music’,” she shares. “I knew from a very young age that it was a great way of expressing yourself. I thought ‘this is what I need to do.’ I think I might have manifested it in my head [then].”

Discovering The Cure was another formative music experience for Stephens: “My sister’s four years older than me, so she was a proper goth,” Stephens smiles. She used to watch videos of the iconic British goth rockers talking about how they became successful, analysing every word that they said and learning how to be in a band herself.

Years of manifestation, musical idolatry and a yearning desire to be seen and express oneself have also shaped Stephens’ aesthetic and live performance. Adorned in silky slip dresses, heavy eyeliner and often sporting a crucifix around her neck; Stephens embodies a raucous, unpredictable, yet sultry energy; reminiscent at points of Hole’s formidable front woman Courtney Love. When I last saw her play – at a Brighton show – she introduced her song “Cat Piss Junkie” by deadpanning the crowd and stating “this is about the time I drank cat piss.” When asked if there’s any truth to this statement, Stephens emits another infectious laugh.

“I mean, that definitely didn’t happen,” she shares. “I feel like my songs are quite serious and I’m scared of being taken too seriously sometimes, because it’s not really who I am. So I try to just say something odd at least once during the set and that was the one that came out that time.” Her wicked sense of humour serves a more practical purpose too. “I find it funny to make people uncomfortable,” she continues. “It stops your nerves if you can embarrass yourself a little bit or act a little bit weird. It’s like an extended version of yourself that you’re doing and then you can walk away from - that kind of thing.”

Stephens has learned over time to lean into her silliness, admitting that she spent a lot of time when she was younger being unnecessarily concerned with who or what was considered “cool”. “As soon as I let all of that go and started really pushing myself, it didn’t feel like I had anything to be worried about any more,” she reveals. “I’m just trying to be as honest as I possibly can and to be present. I think that’s very important to me. It’s very obvious to me when people aren’t authentic. I think it really rings out.”

Stephens’ movements are also informed by hard earned caution though. Whilst cutting her teeth playing live in her the predominantly female Duvet as a teenager, she was confronted with the unsettling reality of the entitlement of some older male audience members in gig spaces. Now, as TTSSFU, she is directly in the spotlight, backed solely by her male bandmates. The male gaze of the older fans in the front row can often be intense, which is why Stephens enjoys moving amongst the crowd and creating her own space.

“It’s an odd one,” she reflects. “You don’t want to put everyone in a box. Everybody can enjoy music, I think that’s important. But I also think people need to understand personal space and boundaries. It’s hard as a woman, because I feel like if you’re too nice to someone, it could be a dangerous situation, and if you’re not nice - you’re just a bitch,” that last comment is followed by another laugh. “I definitely believe that when I’m doing those kinds of things in the crowd, that there’s a wall all the way around me. If you have that in your head, you sort of give people that feeling to not fucking come near you.” Another mischievous laugh punctuates Stephens’ last comment.

“I’m really sentimental with all of my work, even if I think it’s crap,” she laughs. “I like documenting everything that I do. I like learning from stuff. I thought 'Everything' was overly simple at the time, but I knew that it had something to it. I think it achieves what a lot of my favourite artists do.” When asked to elaborate, she shares that she admires artists like Alex G: “Anything that’s emotional, it keeps me focused on it,” she reflects. “It’s so painful, but that’s what I count as being good”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Brennan Bucannan for The Line of Best Fit

Before finishing on an interview from NME, I want to move to CRACK and their chat with an artist I hope that everyone discovers. Tasmin Stephens is this phenomenally special artist. The sort that comes along every now and then. I have heard her music played on BBC Radio 6 Music, and a few of the broadcasters from the station have shown her love and recommended people check her out. CRACK noted how Manchester-based TTSSFU “situates her bratty alt-rock firmly in the unchecked messiness of life in your twenties: romance, friendship and, of course, regrettable nights out”.

“On Stephens’ latest EP, Blown, woozy shoegaze guitars and driving drums are layered with husky vocals, mostly recorded in her bedroom. The result is a relatable kind of rock star, with TTSSFU “a character based off all the it girls, like Courtney Love and Sky Ferreira. It’s just who I wanted to be.” The songs are distinctly unvarnished – “honest” is the word Stephens uses – but also effortlessly cool. “I ended up just writing about what I was experiencing, being realistic. I got into thinking people want happy songs, but I was literally listening to Silver Jews and Xiu Xiu.”

Despite being seen as part of a rising generation of Manchester-based groups, alongside oddballs like Bathing Suits and Yaang, Stephens’ hometown looms large across Blown. Its title is a Wigan-ism for feeling emotionally bruised, and that mood – down-but-not-out, emotionally resilient – runs through much of Stephens’ work. It echoes the romantic squalor of Patti Smith, though she admits her experiences are “less Just Kids, more Dirty Girls”, referencing the documentary about mid-90s teenage riot grrrls ostracised by their preening peers. “The world of Blown is just sort of ‘keep pushing on’,” Stephens shares.

Stephens speaks warmly about Wigan but isn’t immune to its foibles: “There’s lovely aspects, but it’s also kind of scary and chaotic,” she reflects. “The people and the community around there are so friendly and really want to help each other out. But I’d say, on a night out, you really do come across some interesting characters.” A primary spot for these antics was the now-closed club Indiependence – known to regulars as Indie. “A really good venue. Well, it weren’t really good, but that was what was good about it. It was the hub for anyone who was into alternative music or whatever, to hang out. There was a squad of people and they’d all act like they were famous. It was kind of epic, to be fair”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Henry Collier

Let’s finish off with NME and their interview from August. A name that I have seen being tipped for success this year, what does 2026 hold in store for TTSSFU? I can see some big tour dates and some of her best music coming along. The Partisan-signed artist reflected on a wild and eventful eighteen months. I think her best days lie ahead. Her progression and evolution has been so interesting to learn about:

“TTSSFU first started picking up thanks to Stephens’ other project – the dreampop band Duvet, in which she plays guitar – getting signed to FOMO Records. From there “industry people” started taking an interest in her solo work, landing her support slots with the likes of Mannequin Pussy and Kim Deal. Her childhood dreams of “getting anywhere else” besides rural northern England were swiftly becoming a reality, and it was a lot to process.

“I really needed to push myself to be as open as I can be, because that’s where I find the best music”

“I was incredibly overwhelmed when I first got noticed. All of these incredible things I’d always wanted to happen were happening, but I barely remember any of it.” Suddenly, she was being told by Kim Deal “to wear shoes otherwise you’ll get electrocuted” and Missy from Mannequin Pussy was giving her advice to avoid burnout (“learn that you can say no, learn that there’s boundaries, and once they’ve been crossed you can say, ‘that’s enough.”).

Having always suffered from stage fright, being thrust in front of giant crowds was not only a great bit of exposure therapy, but also gave Stephens the opportunity to experience her music in a new context – outside of her bedroom.

“Performing with a live band transformed the music and made it something completely different, and the songs sounded exactly how I wanted them to sound,” she says, which made her aware that her own skills could only take her so far. With this newfound realisation, she decided to bring in an extra pair of hands for ‘Blown’, and approached producer Chris Ryan (NewDad, Just Mustard) to help her along.

If one thing’s clear, it’s that almost every action she takes is a “massive step”. Her journey so far has involved giant leaps of faith and facing fears head-on, trusting she’ll be able to pick herself up if anything goes awry. That’s the prevailing theme of ‘Blown’, too. It’s the product of a young artist breaking through all the boxes she’s locked herself in by experimenting freely and slowly coming into her own”.

Actually, I want to finish with this review for Blown. Writing about, essentially, what it feels like to be young – it all its chaos, wonder, fun, messiness and vulnerabilities -, this is a release that took her to a wider audience. Watching videos and reading videos, you get this sense of someone so authentic and relatable. Small wonder she has been taken to heart by so many:

“Opening up the EP, ‘Cat Piss Junkie’ immediately establishes TTSSFU’s tension between quiet introspection and explosive expression of distain. Ethereal vocals float over the guitar melody, creating this hushed, introverted take on indie rock. The verses feel almost antagonistic, lingering in your mind like a nightmare you can’t escape, but captures something addictive nonetheless. Lines like ‘I’m just spinning round and round’ perfectly encapsulate the swirling, obsessive thoughts carried throughout the track. Her vocals hover at the edge of the track's mixing, with the drumbeat driving the energy forward. When the absence of this isolates her vocals right at the end, it becomes even more haunting, like a lingering thought. The final moment, in the form of hysterical laughter, feels like a true peek into Tasmin's creative mind, and it leaves something unsettling to keep you invested in the project. Every element feels intentional, yet spontaneous and free.

We experience an emotional pivot in the form of the second track, ‘Forever’, as she drifts from something eerie and tense into a more airy, dreamy space. Lyrically, it is simple, laying bare the longing for everlasting connection with lyrics like ‘please don’t leave me / we’re in this together / I wanna be with you.' The repeated ‘forever’ communicates both simultaneous yearning and insecurity, evoking the same platonic intensity Wolf Alice captured on 'Bros' where this friendship actually feels tangible to the listener. Something seemingly carefree but layered with emotional weight is created, with happiness and nostalgia practically embedded in the lyrics and sound.

'Sick' leans into a slower, more shoegaze-infused sound while maintaining that built-up momentum. This is a track that feels like the collaborative lovechild of Kurt Cobain and Pale Waves. The track builds slowly, with a haunting story unfolding, and culminates in an explosive guitar riff that feels both cathartic and confrontational for not only us but Tasmin too. The climax that follows mirrors the aftermath of the narrative, and the raw imagery pulls us deeper into the memory that she has illustrated. It allows the listener into that same reflective space, and it permits us to see the art for what it is.

With ‘Everything’, the EP dives even further into intensity and extremity. The lyrics flit between moments of tenderness with ‘am seeing stars / everything with you by my side’ and stark, visceral imagery with ‘so romantic / I need you frantically / rip out my organs / I see them in your teeth’. We witness the coexistence of obsession and vulnerability, where ultimately, desire can dominate your entire existence. It even veers on feeling like life or death, reflected by the cries of ‘will I survive?’ and ‘I will die without you’. TTSSFU balances the delicate with the dramatic, and it makes every track so enticing.

'Call U Back' feels like a high-speed chase of unrequited attention, capturing the desperation of chasing someone who remains just out of reach, leaving you to look like a fool from your efforts. Lines like ‘I’ll call you back / can I stay at home with you?' and ‘everything we had burnt in the fire that I know you made’ convey this fear perfectly as she lays out how far she is willing to go to make it work, yet they ignite the flames of what could have been far too easily. Ultimately, this is relentlessly breaking the illusion she has lived in. The composition of the track is messy, energetic, and matches the chaos of trying to pursue a requited connection. It keeps listeners on edge and fully engaged as the pace picks up in the latter half of 'Blown'.

On 'Weekend', TTSSFU reaches a point in the project where the wheels are coming off and emotions are at their highest point, culminating in a state of reflective disarray. It portrays the whirlwind of being a twenty-something girl, the intensity of emotions, and the rapid pace of life. There is a tangible sense of spinning out, which sets the stage for the final track to hit with even more sincerity and impact. 'Being Young' closes the EP with a vulnerable and comparably more tender perspective. Tasmin strips back the production and reverb, letting her lyrics breathe and resonate as she reflects on the loss of friends and family, both physically and to illness, fleeting time, and the challenges of growing up. She captures the idea of tackling this, along with the voice in the back of your mind reminding you that time is fleeting and a lifetime passes by in an instant, you want to cherish what matters, but things can become so hazy along the way. Through the track, she taps into the question that feels like the thread connecting each song on this project: Is this what it feels like to be young?

'Blown' is impossible to pin down to a single story, emotion, or genre. TTSSFU draws inspiration from all over and captures it into a cohesive, personal body of work. It is electric, edgy, and raw, yet moments of intimacy and honesty enhance it even further. She makes music absolutely on her own terms and does not care for outside approval. If it is any consolation, we love it!”.

Go and follow TTSSFU. After a wonderful 2025, this year will see things go from great to astonishing. Currently on tour, I forgot to get a ticket for her Brixton gig on 28th January, so I am not sure if there is availability still, as I can imagine she is a wonderful live performer. However, I will go and see her soon for sure. If you are looking for a complete artist who has the promise and talent to remain in music for years, then you need to watch out…

FOR the amazing TTSSFU.

___________

Follow TTSSFU

PHOTO CREDIT: Brennan Bucannan for The Line of Best Fit

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/ttssfu/

Twitter:

https://x.com/ttssfu

TikTok:

https://www.tiktok.com/@ttssfu

YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/@ttssfu

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/TTSSFU/

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/artist/4u0g598Mtg9ch4HgEP2DFG?si=WwnY24xwQHCx8xmalJhbNA

FEATURE: Spotlight: Daria Kolosova

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

Daria Kolosova

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AS I have been including…

a lot of female D.J.s in my Spotlight feature, I wanted to keep that ball rolling. One of the reasons is because there seems to be steps back when it comes to gender equality for D.J.s. In terms of inclusion on bills and opportunities. I wanted to highlight as many great D.J. queens as possible. One that you should keep your eyes out for is the sensational Daria Kolosova. A world-respected, successful and captivating Ukrainian-born D.J., I feel like this year is going to be a gigantic one. I do wonder whether Kolosova will put out any tracks or mixtapes. A lot of D.J.s are also artists and have their own albums and E.P.s. It does seem like Kolosova could well follow that path. As she is playing at Fabric in London on 7th February, it is a good time to spotlight this astonishing D.J. I will come to some interviews with her, starting with one from a while back. However, before getting there, I want to bring in some biography:

“Daria Kolosova’s 14 years of experience as a DJ, combined with her deep passion for electronic music, have shaped her into a remarkably versatile and proficient artist. Daria was born in the small town of Lutugino in eastern Ukraine. Her love for music was instilled by her father and her devotion to electronic music began at the age of 9 when she first heard “Diesel Power” by The Prodigy. Her passion for music deepened when her mother sent her to music school, where she studied piano. Yet being drawn to DJing from an early age, Daria embraced her vocation which led to her first performance in February 2010. Following this debut, she continued to actively perform in clubs across Lugansk and other cities while also organizing her own parties. After being inspired by Kyiv electronic scene and absorbing the vastness of electronic music genres, Daria honed her taste and recolated to Kyiv.

There, she became a resident DJ at Keller, performing under the alias Dar:k and co-launched the party series Materia UA. After actively being involved in the electronic music scene for some time, Daria started to use her own name, leaving her Dar:k moniker aside as an experimental project. She began headlining most of Kyiv’s underground nightclubs like K41, Closer, Otel and began expanding her reach internationally, performing outside of Ukraine and securing her place on the global stage, with bookings at high-profile events and venues across Europe and beyond. Currently, Daria is one of the most actively growing names in the techno scene. She has played some of the world’s most renowned institutions, with frequent bookings at Berghain, Bassiani, Fabric, London’s Fold and festivals like Tomorrowland, Junction 2, Awakenings, Time Warp and played at Amnesia, Hi and DC10 in her first Ibiza season. As a DJ, Daria never aims to deliver what is expected of her, but rather tries to convey her personal narratives through music. Daria views music as the most genuine method of communication, empathy and unity - a tool that helps her transform her distinctive energy into a story that can be shared with people on the dance floor. She desires to not only provide a danceable and enjoyable set but inspire and introduce people to something fresh and daring. Daria’s style is rooted in hard and groovy techno, often infused with elements of breakbeat, electro, hardcore, or jungle, making her performances rich in variety and unpredictability”.

It is worth going back a bit, so that we can see this progress and evolution. There are not many recent interviews with Daria Kolosova, so I am heading back a bit further. System 108 spoke with Kolosova about her work and career. This is a Techno D.J. but not one that is one-dimensional or limited. You never know what to expect from her. Someone that I hope to see play soon. From everything I hear about her, and listening to mixes she has put together, this is someone who is among the greatest D.J.s in the world:

“Do you remember the first track that you listed to that made you think "Oh yeah, this is techno"? What did it make you feel.

It was Das boot by U96. Back then I didn't know it was techno, I thought it was just some type of electronic music. But that track was different in terms of thrust and crazy energy. I heard it when I was about seven years old. My Dad was a big fan of electronic music and I found it listening to one of his tapes. It was a real revelation.

Have you played it in your sets?

Actually no! Its pretty slow and I haven't tried speeding up the bpm. Maybe I should? Ive never thought about it. (laughs)

After watching a lot of your interviews and listening to a lot of your sets I feel like limiting you to techno alone would be wrong. Do you yourself identify as a techno DJ?

Its obvious that I define my main genre as techno, while it can be quite diverse - from melodic to rough and groovy. But it has always been important to me that im not associated with only techno music. Thats why I like experimenting in my sets, I can play brake-beat and electro, then try some jungle or ambient, downtempo or house in an atypical slot for myself. People know I'm a techno-DJ, but they never know what to expect from me.

You left the "Culture of sound" school because of your tight performance schedule?

I temporarily stopped teaching about six months ago. At some point, it became difficult to combine active touring with teaching at school. At first, the idea of teaching DJing came to me as a side effect of quarantine. There were few performances, I wanted to occupy myself with something, and then I got an offer from the school. Moreover, I git the offer from the guys at "Culture of Sound", at whose events I performed several times, and they themselves are very involved in what they're doing. I loved their approach. I taught at the school for about a year, I liked doing it. I can definitely say that the experience was very interesting. It turned out that I'm not a bad teacher. (laughs)

And you're not only good in practice, but also a great theorist?

Yes, it's one thing to be able to play, but another thing to be able to share your knowledge correctly and easily, to teach someone. When you start teaching, you overestimate your knowledge, you start looking at it from a different angle, wow, it turns out I know so much.

And your students? What kind of people were they? Those who are eager to conquer the industry, or those who are just looking for a hobby?

They were all very different. I probably had the most active flow of students out of all the teachers in the two schools (one in Kharkov, the other in Kiev). That's why I had the opportunity to choose my students. The first lesson at school is introductory. The student meets the teacher, tells him about himself and why he came to school, the teacher shares what will happen in the learning process, and eventually they decide whether they are suitable for each other or not. That was very important to me. I didn't want to waste my knowledge. I collected all my experience bit by bit, and wanted to share the information I got over the years with the most motivated people. Of course, there were some students that came to me and said, "I want to tear up dance floors , I want swarming crowds of fans." So what they needed first of all was fame and Instagram followers. I told them "I'm sorry, but we have different paths". That approach isn't really about culture and music. We are the "Culture of Sound", and thats exactly what we're about. But there were also some students who shared touching and motivating stories about how they got to know music, about their love for it. I was happy to take on training those people. There were also those who came and said directly: I don't understand DJing, I've only just started listening to electronic music, but I'd like to try and see if it will work or not. Thats also an honest position and I was also ready to work with such people.

Can you name two or three moments in your career that you consider crucial for yourself?

The first such moment occurred in 2014 or 2015, when I decided to quit commercial music, and I was invited to perform in Krasnodar for the first time under the new nickname Dar:k. Then I indicated to myself that I wanted to move in a different direction and play techno. The second gig was my cooperation with Nastya. She offered to perform back2back, and for the first time we played in that format at the Arma17 birthday party at the Funkhaus in Berlin. And the third turning point was my performance at the Berlin HOR. I don't understand how or why, but this video has gained 670,000 views. I just came there for fun and played music that I really liked.

Haven't you started writing music yet?

I have! Seryozha and I were listening to music at home, just fooling around, and he says, "Why don't we write music together? That would be fun!" Yes, l agree. But in this area I feel his advantage and so far I'm a bit shy. Therefore, I want to focus on production again, to tighten up my knowledge. Seryozha constantly works at home, for example, right now he is finishing work on remixes, and he inspires me very much. On the other hand, I have a very active touring activity right now, and it's extremely difficult to find time to write. I sincerely admire people who tour a lot and still have time to write music. I don't understand how they do it.

Who inspires you?

Seryozha is certainly one of my favourite producers and DJs. I also like the creativity of Blawan — he's very talented. Lately I've been digging more into techno from the 90s and 2000s and I'm more interested in artists whose names are unfamiliar to me. I discover new names, a new sounds. I am inspired by what comes to me at the moment”.

NTS 2024-2025 · DARIA KOLOSOVA 080125

I would be interested in reading something new with Daria Kolosova and how the Russian invasion of Ukraine has affected her and her home nation. In terms of playing in Kyiv and whether that is possible. I am staying in 2023 when it comes to interviews, as there does not to have been much written since then. I will head to Resident Advisor. Kolosova was asked about the invasion of Ukraine and how that has impacted her. Or she shared her views on the invasion and why it has impacted her especially hard. I do think that this year is going to be one where she release music, plays some of the biggest venues and festivals of her career, and collaborates with fellow D.J.s. It is a really exciting point in her career:

“Before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Daria Kolosova was one of the brightest stars of Kyiv's incredible techno scene, when the city was among the best places for the genre anywhere in the world (and remains so, even under duress). Now living in Berlin, Kolosova's style and sound feel both timeless and progressive. She's been DJing since she was a teenager—after falling in love with dance music via her dad's collection—and has built up a style that has taken her to the world's most renowned techno clubs and festivals. In spite of her popularity, Kolosova does things differently to many of her peers. She's spoken about her respect for and recognition of techno's origins, and her DJing style pays homage to the genre's history. Her sets span eras and continents, with a '90s bent that encompasses not just hard, rolling techno but breakbeats, electro, IDM and prog. Her RA Podcast is a brilliant collection of old and new, from Goa trance to Julia Govor, expertly mixed with a storyteller's hand.

What have you been up to recently?

Lately I've been quite busy with touring around the world, besides my gigs in Europe for the last three months I did tours in Australia, US, South America. On the one hand I'm grateful to be able to travel again and do what I love after two years of the pandemic, but at the same time I've started to feel the need to find a healthy balance between my tours and personal life because it can be super exhausting at times. So I'm learning how to take care of myself, doing yoga, cold exposure and trying to dedicate more time to new projects and studio in the future.

What's one club or party that had a major impact on you as an artist? Playing at Berghain was a dream come true. It made a huge impact on me because I used to travel a lot from Kyiv to Berlin to go there to experience it and learn from bigger DJs. Lately I've enjoyed playing at BASEMENT in New York so much that I literally didn’t want to finish my set. I'm eagerly looking forward to being back. What's one social or political cause you want the world to pay more attention to? There are many things going on in the world, but the war in Ukraine is the most painful topic for me. Unfortunately there's not much news and updates about Ukraine anymore, and the lack of information makes people believe that the war is almost over or the situation has become better. It has also become more complicated to share information about the war on social media as it could be deleted or statistics of views would be significantly low. I just want to remind everyone that the war in Ukraine is going on and we need your support”.

This is a rare case of including older interviews for someone I am spotlighting. I do hope there are 2026 chats with Daria Kolosova. I feel this is a crucial point in her career and we will see big things from her. I do want to finish with another 2023 interview from Fabric London. In it “Nastia and Daria Kolosova give an insight into Kiev’s burgeoning electronic music scene”. This was published nearly a few years ago, so I am aware they are referring to Kyiv as ‘Kiev’:

“Something special is happening in eastern Europe. While artists like [a:rpia:r] have been the key proponents for a stripped-back style of house in Bucharest since the mid-2000s, in recent years there’s been a new electronic music scene developing in Kiev. The city’s favoured style is house and techno, a sound that’s frequently championed at parties like CXEMA and Ukraine’s premier nightclub, Closer. Few artists have done more to put the city on the electronic music map than Nastia. As well as being Ukraine’s biggest techno DJ, she helps run Strichka, the beloved annual festival from the Closer team that brings together a killer cast of local talents and international guests. Recently she’s found a sparring partner in Daria Kolosova, another Kiev selector who’s frequently found spinning colourful techno and electro alongside Nastia. Ahead of the pair’s upcoming head-to-head in Room One, they told us more about their musical backgrounds, how they first met, and why electronic music is thriving in their hometown right now. What styles of music were you exposed to through childhood? Nastia: I was born in 1987. My sisters were listening to pop music at the time, but from what they had I liked Enigma. Then The Prodigy, Chemical Brothers and Fatboy Slim came out. I used to collect movie soundtracks too – that was my passion. Daria Kolosova: My passion for music came from my father. He was a bassist in a rock band, and used to be a DJ. He took me to rehearsals when I was only 3. I grew up on my dad’s records – stuff like Pantera and Metallica, or electronic music such as The Prodigy, Groove Armada and Crystal Method. I went to musical school for piano classes, and DJing became the next natural step in my relationship with music. How did you first discover electronic music in Kiev? Nastia: For me, it happened in around 2005 or 2006. I started to travel from Donetsk to Kiev to party. There were several clubs, which I would now consider places playing mainstream music. There was also an underground scene, but I was removed from that. I was living in Donetsk, and started DJing in February 2005. Before that I was a dancer, and met all the local DJs who showed me this wonderful lifestyle. 

 

Daria Kolosova: In 2010 I came to Kiev from my hometown Lugansk. I visited Cinema Club with my friends. It was a huge underground club playing big techno, hard techno and drum & bass. This was a super new experience because there’s nothing like this in my hometown. My second time was a Sunday daytime party at Closer. I’d just moved to Kiev, and this was a revelation for me. Beautiful people, amazing vibe and music. One of the residents dropped Call That Love (Rob Rives remix) by X-press 2, which I’ll associate with Closer forever. How did you obtain records when you first started collecting? Nastia: I started to collect records quite late, in 2010. I was travelling a lot and mostly going to record shops. I also used to order from online shops, but it would take three weeks to receive them. Nowadays it’s easy – I adore Discogs for that. At the moment there’s also Closer Record Store, which is run by serious diggers. Daria Kolosova: I started to buy records when I was travelling – from small no-name music stores to big ones like Spacehall Berlin. There are a few vinyl shops in Kiev. My favourites are Closer Record Store and Diskultura. Closer is a super cosy place with new releases and rare items, perfect for “diggers”. Diskultura is the oldest multi-genre store in the city with a big collection of old-school techno, electro and more. It seems like electronic music is going through a golden period in Kiev at the moment. How would you describe the scene right now? Daria Kolosova: It’s a really historical moment happening in Ukraine now. The post-Maidan financial crisis helped the discovery of a generation of local talents, because organisers didn’t have the money for big names. That’s why we have such a strong local scene. For example, at the recent CXEMA x Boiler Room rave, 4,000 people came for a local line-up. Young ravers are open-minded and educated, they don’t want to hear something expected. This builds to a raw phenomenon in Ukraine, and we are very lucky to be part of it. Nastia: Golden period – it’s true. Ukraine finally got on the map of the worldwide electronic music scene. It’s been a fast rise: in 2013 Closer club opened its doors, and by 2014 we had Strichka Festival, CXEMA, Rhythm Bureau and a few more local promoters. Now it’s huge, fresh and amazing. People here really dance, I don’t see people express themselves like this anywhere else. The club community is educated, curious, united and cultural. Strict face control at Closer helps keep the vibe on a high level. CXEMA keeps it raw with local artists. Brave! Factory and Strichka are the best festivals right now. I must admit we have very good residents: most of the time they are better than the international guests. People’s tastes and those who run the scene are always stepping forward. For me, Ukraine is the most interesting clubbing spot at the moment. We’ve travelled to the city a few times specifically to spend the weekend at Closer. What do you think makes this club so special? Nastia: The team behind it. You can feel they do it for themselves – not for people or business, but for themselves to be able to live the life they want, and do something for the history and culture. They were the ones who built the scene in 2013. The team used to do parties before, but everything started seriously with the club. I don’t know any stronger family-style relations than them. In five years, I’ve never seen any conflict in their group. They are just perfect”.

Most of my Spotlight features have new interviews and we can give a sense of where an artist is heading. However, with D.J.s, there is perhaps less in the way of continual interviews, unless they put music out, though Daria Kolosova is one of the world’s most important D.J.s, so I wanted to spotlight her. Given the continuing violence in Ukraine and Russia’s invasion, I thought it especially important to discuss a Ukrainian D.J. Go and follow her on Instagram and keep up with her mixes on Soundcloud. I really do feel this year will see Daria Kolosova creating some of the best memories and experiences of her life. If you do get a chance to see her play then please do. Among the queens of the decks, the fabulous Daria Kolosova is…

NTS Latest · DARIA KOLOSOVA 061125

ONE of the absolute best.

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Follow Daria Kolosova

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/dar.key/

Soundcloud:

https://soundcloud.com/dar_key

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/kolosova.ua

FEATURE: Spotlight: Clara Kimera

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

Clara Kimera

__________

PERHAPS not known…

PHOTO CREDIT: Louise Sauvard

by everyone, Clara Kimera is someone you will want to follow as we go through this year. The French musician is the co-founder of the duo, Agar Agar. As a solo artist, she is inspired by the chimera, reflecting the dreamlike nature of her music. At the start of last year, Kimera released her debut solo E.P., Dial 8. There have been a couple of collaborative E.P.s. Working with notinbed, unknown reasons came out in August. I Pray 42 with helen island arrived last month. I am going to start with an interview from Glamcult from early last year. They spoke with an artist making her first big move as a solo artist. Talking about Dial 8, Clara Kimera said “I refuse to be in the madhouse of the inhuman. I refuse to live with the wolves of the market place”. Even though she is a music veteran and has been around for a while, her solo work is a new venture and chapter. Glamcult was ready to introduce “her soul and subconscious to a synesthetic world”:

“Please tell us about Dial 8!

Dial 8 is my first solo EP. I spent a few years working on it, trying to be as sincere as possible and to find my true musical identity. It’s not like I found it, but it was my first try ! I love experimenting and I loved working on music on my own. The subject is therefore more personal, it deals with my most profound fears, OCD and gentle creepy pasta creatures.

“I can be whoever I want to be,” you powerfully enunciate in the album’s opening track. Is the jester, also seen on the cover art, an archetype you resonate with?

I love the history of the jester. I am intrigued by the paradoxical and ironic image of what he stands for. He’s fooling around and joking, but deep down, he is full of sin and sorrow. This cynical aspect of him is very modern in our society. It really talks to me. I also love the Middle Age imagery.

You commission a lot of your cover art from artists, tattoo artists, graphic designers, and digital artists – what is your vision for the visual representations of your music? Where and what mediums do you get inspired by?

I love collaborating with different artists because it brings a visual dimension to the table that is so attached to the music. I am very passionate about image and art, and that’s why I always want my musical projects to have a very strong identity. I love to control everything in terms of image because I usually know what I want pretty easily. I get inspired by old manuscripts from the Middle Ages (seeing one irl is so crazy), manga drawers such as Asumiko Nakamura and Kazuo Umezu, painters like James Ensor, and movies by Gus Van Sant.

Distortion and grain tint the album with an element of haunting, a hypnotic eeriness lingers in the hard-hitting bass line – even on the last track, “Drive Safe,” which is initially linguistically more about an element of care. How does the tension of the familiar and the unfamiliar, creepy or eerie, inform this project or your music generally?

I love to have a tense instrumental with a very soft subject, or the contrary. I love how words can melt into something different than expected. To sing words that reassure with a distorted guitar

Turning back to the first track, who do you want to be? How have you constructed your identity as a musician and an individual?
I want to be as sincere as possible. I think that’s the main thing I want to convey. Sometimes musical projects are so built and flawless I can’t seem to relate with them. I like dusty shelves and imperfections. I like when it’s palpable. I want to be relatable.

I can’t not mention Agar Agar – I actually got to see you guys perform in Istanbul in 2023, and it was amazing – how do you sonically separate Agar Agar from your solo identity as Clara Kimera?

I think it’s pretty simple for me to separate both as Agar Agar’s set up is analogic and electronic and I come from a more acoustic background. Grew up with lots of shoegaze, cold wave, and folk artists like Slowdive, Joy Division, Sybille Baier… Going solo made me go back to a more organic approach, hugging the guitar and putting a lot more of my influences in it. It felt really natural”.

I am going to move to COEVAL and their interview with Clara Kimera and notinbed around their collaborative E.P., unknown reasons. It is amazing how Kimera can collaborate with others and produce this variety of music so seamlessly. However, I think her most important moments through this year will come when she is working solo. I just feel she is at her strongest when her voice and vision is at the front:

“How do you find the music scene in Paris?

Notinbed: Cool. The last few years it’s been growing. It’s the first time in a while that it’s been a cool scene in France.
Clara: I think there are some cool people to make music with, but not enough independent labels in my opinion! The scene is fun though.

What do you feel like caused the shift in the French music scene?

Notinbed: There’s a new rap scene that’s developed in France. In France, rap, two and a half years ago became way more open and open to new types of beats. It became more open with club and experimental stuff so that opened people up, like producers, to different types of music, and gave different people a place to shine. The club scene has gotten cooler; there are more cool events - the scene isn’t just rap anymore. It’s transitioned from rap to more of a club scene. Most people coming up have the same objectives and are a similar age, so it feels like a team. It didn’t feel like that before.

How do you find the French music scene compared to those other cities?

Notinbed: The French scene is very precise, kind of intellectual - it can be less fun than English music, and a bit more serious.
Clara: I feel like it’s still very traditional, meaning it’s still pretty hard to make it there if you don’t sing in French.
How did you initially meet and start to collaborate?

Notinbed: Clara contacted me because she liked one of my songs, so she wanted to work together. I knew her from her band and she messaged me about a new project and then it really just flowed from there. For example, normally with an artist you throw away most of what you do to keep the best tracks for release, but with Clara, they didn’t have to throw away anything.

What message do you want to relay with your sound?

Notinbed: For me, it’s just about trying to give emotion. Music is the best way to make anybody feel better, so the more people that my music touches, the more people that I hope to make feel better. It’s like a plaster for the brain.

Clara: I don’t think it’s a message that can be translated with words. I think it’s just sharing some things that we put all of our heart into with the hope that it can be understood”.

Prior to getting to an interview from November, I want to get to The Line of Best Fit and their spotlight of Clara Kimera’s eye 2 eye single. If anyone reading his has not heard the music of Kimera and what she has put out as part of a duo, solo, or with other artists, then do go and explore her work. She is this fantastic visionary and creative who we will hear a lot more from soon:

“Kimera draws on a constellation of influences, including Hans Bellmer’s uncanny doll photography. She’s also deeply shaped by manga and anime, particularly Soul Eater, Tsutomu Nihei’s Blame!, and the dreamlike spirituality of Mamoru Oshii’s film Angel’s Egg, where emotion takes physical form. “I love how Atsushi Okubo illustrates emotional spaces [in Soul Eater] like fear, anxiety, pain in vivid landscapes,” she says.

“There’s invisible places in our heads that can make us evil: a long infinite hallway of stairs, two people slowly dancing to a weird jazz tune.” She likens the song’s themes to Twin Peaks’ extradimensional realm The Black Lodge, “it’s like the thin world between life and death…[in the Lodge] there is a person talking to you backwards and you’re just casually sitting on a chair. I like the fact that we can make images out of these spiritual projections.”

The song inhabits a liminal plane, while its video – directed entirely inside The Sims by Kimera – builds a world to match. Kimera has been modding the game since childhood, once running a Sims blog that recreated MTV shows like Room Raiders and Pimp My Ride. “The visual possibilities are endless, I’ve always felt like the director of my own film.” As she grew older, her builds became more elaborate; discovering the global modding community unlocked a new realm of collaboration. “It’s one of my favourite things about the internet. Meeting people that truly get your POV and artistic references,” she explains.

Kimera’s own universe continued to expand to the electronic community. Recently featured on Canadian trance auteur TDJ’s debut album, with single “On and On (You Lie)”, it placed her alongside genre heavyweights like Hannah Diamond, Danny L Harle, and 8485 – a significant arrival into the orbit of hyperpop and dance music.

For “eye 2 eye”, she stages scenes of horror, sorrow, and longing inside the simulation. The video oscillates between eerie and playful with uncanny digital choreography mirroring the track’s tension. Still, the single feels like a distillation of her own evolving identity that is darkly whimsical yet entirely her own. “I never really know where I’m headed,” she admits. “But this feels like the natural evolution of finding more and more of myself and what I want to share”.

I am going to end with Church Electronic and their interview from November. Talking about her upcoming projects, Clara Kimera did mention Pray 42 with helen island and working with him. That has come out. She also said this: “And my next EP is almost ready. I just have to finish one song. It's like seven songs, and it's really inspired by Japanese Shoegaze, LA, and horror movies”:

“Some fruit trees take four years to bear their first fruit—whether it’s due to insufficient sunlight, incorrect watering, root constraint, a tree takes time to mature. One could liken Clara Kimera’s trajectory to a tree that has been steadily rooting. Earlier this year, the artist debuted her first project outside of the Parisian electronic duo Agar Agar. With a decade in the music industry under her belt, she’s exploded back on the scene with two EPs and a handful of singles in a new, raw direction. Drawing inspiration from early internet culture, tarot, creepypasta stories and the sincerity of the jester, enter Clara’s world of mischief where anything goes.

The first song, “King Jester,” off of Clara Kimera’s solo EP, Dial 8,  closes with a sample from an early 1996 Youtube documentary Dirty Girls:

It’s a sample from a documentary that appears through Clara Kimera’s EP Dial 8, released earlier this year. This interpolated sampling lends a voice of sincerity that only adolescence can replicate: of blindly trying to find oneself in a world fraught with those who seem to already carry an opinion. The documentary, an early Youtube cult classic, centers on a group of 13-year-old Los Angeles-native riot grrrls—part of the 1990s underground feminist punk movement, inspired sonically by Joan Jett and Siouxsie Sioux and politically by anti-establishment ideals and challenging the then-male-dominated punk scene. A purveyor of early internet archival works, Clara Kimera’s tongue in cheek choice of sampling paired with downbeat and post-apocalyptic chords create an atmosphere that’s not unlike the feeling of pirouetting at the edge of a very, very steep cliff. These early ideas from riot grrrl permeate the EP: of plainly being true to oneself despite the world telling you that you should act and be a certain way.

Her new EPs this year are the maxim of Clara’s artistic transformation in a new direction. Where Agar Agar was polished and almost glossy in production, Clara Kimera’s latest works are raw and driven by acoustic elements. It’s one that is characterized by sweet-but-threatening complex rhythmic structures and angular phrasing, drawing on her ability to create haunting layered melodies on “aside” and her latest single “eye2eye.”

This latest release, co-produced with 888rks, is centered on two beings in the mise en abyme of life and death, as they are listening to the track that killed them. With eye2eye’s music video accompaniment being visualized completely within the Sims, it draws on the artist's love for the video game, apparent from her middle school blog dedicated to recreating early 2000s MTV shows like Room Raiders, Made, and Pimp my Ride in the aforementioned meta-human simulation.

You produced a few things with notinbed this year. How did that collaboration come around?

I was just randomly digging music two years ago, and I ended up just really, really digging that song where he sampled this really famous old French video about this little kid that just lost his goldfish, and the goldfish name is Mustache, and the kid is so sad and it’s devastating.  He's filming the aquarium, and he's like, ‘Mustache is dead. He's going to Goldfish Paradise.’ And this video is soul crushing, but so funny, but really, really devastating, and I love this video so much. It's really, it's just so sad. This little kid is realizing what death is.

And so he sampled this video, so I was just randomly listening to music and it struck me, and it was like, who sampled this? Who sampled Mustache? It was with ambient songs. It was so sad. And I was like, this is genius. This is so good. So I think I just messaged him on Insta and I was like, ‘Hey, I love Mustache.’ I was like, this is so out there. And so we just collaborated really quickly. It was just very intuitive, the two of us working on songs together.

Where did you record your latest project?

I mostly did everything in Paris, and in LA actually. But, I've been going to LA every year since I was 18. I met these girls back then. They were my besties and I was living at their place. They had an art gallery in Highland Park, but it was my first time there. I was so fascinated by LA. I loved it so much. And then my best friend, who's French, got married there and is living there. So I go once a year at least for a couple of months, and I love it there. It's kind of my second house. I don't have my license though, so I'm being passively driven by people.

It's definitely special. If I stay there for too long, my brain kind of explodes, but at the same time,. It's just so different from everything I've ever seen or grew up with. It is just very touching to me. Probably the fact that it's just so spacious and European cities tend to be so tiny, so restrictive, so narrow, and this space, this amount of landscape, and it makes me want to breathe really fresh air. Just the whole aesthetic, I guess it really influenced my music and just me as a whole.

On the songs that you've released this year, the vocals have almost become the beat on, no one belongs here, or aside, that acapella keeps developing.

No one belongs… it’s kind of crazy. I think I was feeling really tired that day, and it was nighttime, and I like night sessions. But not too late, I’m kind of a grandma. I like to wake up really early and read some stuff in my bed. I am really an early person. I want my day to be very, very long, I guess. So I was really tired and I didn't really want to be there. And I don't know what came out of me, but I started screaming my lungs out because the instrumental was so good, and something happened that day.

I don't know, I kind of went out of my body. I recorded one time, so there's no lyrics. It doesn't mean anything. It's just like this scream of the heart and that's it and we never ever touched it again afterwards. So it's really a one shot thing where I just scream so hard, but I don't even think I can do that again. I think it's really a one time experience type shit.

You have a really distinct sound and intentional aesthetic going into this new era. Do you know what kind of world you're looking to build or any key visual or musical inspirations?

What I’ve been listening to right now, definitely what influenced me recently is I love Shoegaze Japanese music these days. I've been really, really listening to Plastic Tree a lot. Worldpeace DMT, bod and this guy Neo Lapse. my dead girlfriend, all of these dudes, I've been obsessed. Obsessed. Yeah, these three bands I've been really listening to. My next project is really influenced by that, for sure”.

Such a remarkable artist, you feel influences from cinema and art in Clara Kimera’s music. I guess working with different artist brings all these new elements and influences into her own work. I am interested to hear her new E.P. and what she has in store this year. A distinct talent who we all should be aware of, go and listen to her stuff. It is incredible, and I guarantee that you…

WILL be hooked.

___________

Follow Clara Kimera

PHOTO CREDIT: Leá Hasbroucq

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/clarakimera/

TikTok:

https://www.tiktok.com/@clarakimera

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/artist/4sQzCc8XZTTmnuSH770IBr?si=S50y0SmpRiSlh78nykeLig

YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZHS6nCIMJO10jOZUgXx3ew

FEATURE: Spotlight: Prewn

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

PHOTO CREDIT: Silas Ray Burns

Prewn

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ONE thing I would say…

PHOTO CREDIT: Harry Wohl

about Prewn prior to highlighting her as an artist to watch this year, is I hope she gets her own dedicated YouTube channel. As I type (1st January), there is on the explodingunderground channel and there is not a lot in the way of independence on that front. She does have a YouTube channel, technically, though her music videos are not on there. Just the basic tracks.  I know artists who do have videos on a label’s site or someone else’s but, as an artist being tipped for major success, there will be that desire for a dedicated Prewn YouTube channel where everything is pulled onto it. In any case, she is on the bill for Dot to Dot 2026. A chance for U.K. festival-goers to see this amazing American artist in the flesh. At the end of last year, there was a lot of excitement around Prewn. Many tipping her as someone who is going to be hard to ignore. Prewn is Massachusetts-based Izzy Hagerup. Her new album, System, came out in October. Even though this is her sophomore album, many people are just discovering her now. I want to start out with an October interview from Post Thrash. As they say near the top of their interview: “She’s reaching for a sensation, a thing that she can’t shake out of her head, an obsession with the shape of music, of her music, of just the right note that clicks the right emotion or feel in her body and soul”:

“Izzy Hagerup, who makes music under the name Prewn, released a new album earlier this month on Exploding In Sound Records. A Hampshire College graduate originally from Glen Ellyn, IL, she spent years in the Pioneer Valley in Western Massachusetts, before recently relocating to Los Angeles. The ebb and flow of bands in the Pioneer Valley has given the area a reputation for musical fecundity. When I lived there I learned that Dinosaur Jr. is from the area, even once spotting them casually playing on the lawn of the Amherst Common. They just set up with no stage, kind of under a tree, and in the grass. They just felt like playing. It wasn’t a crazy crowd, and I don’t even know if they promoted it. I feel like in that moment, they reflected a large part of the attitude of artists in the Valley; they wanted to just play, and fueling that obsession was an essential proclivity to exist. That’s what Prewn’s sophomore album System feels like to me.

JE: Can you tell me a little bit about the place or places you grew up and how you grew into your relationship with music?

IH: Yeah. I grew up in suburbia in Chicago. It's called Glen Ellyn. It's a fine town, it's suburbia. I started playing cello when I was in second grade, and my mom was kinda like, you gotta play until like eighth grade. I was like, whatever, this is stupid, I don't wanna lug this big cello everywhere. I was late to orchestra every morning. I didn't really feel like I fit into the classical world, and wasn't good at practicing, but I stuck with it till eighth grade, and then I was like, okay, I'm gonna play guitar now.

I had a pretty rough period, I don't really know why, in my freshman year of high school, and I  stopped going to school. It was a whole thing. That's when I got into playing guitar just for fun. My dad was a musician my whole life, growing up, just more on his own. So that was around me, but I abandoned the cello. Got into guitar and then I moved to Northern California because I got shipped out there 'cause my mom was like, I don't know what to do with you.

JE: You were causing havoc or something?

IH: I think I was just like so depressed and not getting better, and I think I was probably causing some havoc. I was always the easy child, but something picked in at that time. It's a blur, just being a bad girl, and I think, yeah, I moved in with my aunt in Northern California for a couple of years.

I was playing guitar more, and I took some guitar lessons. I wrote one song in high school, but I was definitely not taking music seriously, like something I would ever do.  I'm getting used to that idea now, but it was a surprise. Then I moved to Western Mass for school. I went to Hampshire College. I worked on it more, and then I was in my first band called Blood Mobile with my friend Tuna, and that was my first experience tapping into a DIY scene.

It was more like silly, I wanna die rock, some type of music, but yeah. Then over time I got more familiar and close to the people in the music scene, and realized I could make my own band. It's been like a very slow burn of hesitantly, starting to take music more seriously and face all the things that are scary about it like being seen in that way.

JE: So you solely wrote and recorded System, the album during stretches of bedroom sessions. When did you know you were recording an album, and how did you commit to the idea of creating an album?

IH: Yeah. It actually was after the fact that I decided that this was gonna be an album. I was just looking through [the songs], and I was like, that's so many pieces in the air. What do I have now? I do want let things go, so I can have more emotional mental space for the new. I was looking through all my songs that I hadn't really taken seriously as stuff that could go out. Then I made a collection that got narrower and narrower of these songs, and I'm like, it'd be cool to redo these in some way, but I don't think there's a way that I could do them like this again. I like them like this. They just became this bundle of songs. I kind of make sense of most things and my songs after the fact. When I'm writing, I'm often like, “I don't know.” Then afterwards I'm like, “Ohhh, I see, I can connect these dots and I'm gonna run with it.” So I see now after making what the album is I see the connection and that came from different sides and faces of the same experience I was having, which I think is just a reflection of being in my mid-twenties and fucking making mistakes and learning from them and being childish and being wise and getting wiser and making mistakes again and struggling and feeling lost. I think it's a reflection of my experience. Becoming an adult or something [laughs].

JE: How important is it, was it for you to record mostly alone? Though you've said that you might wanna go into a studio in the future. But for this record, you pretty much recorded all by yourself.

IH: Yeah. One of the most rewarding times when I get into the zone and I’m creating a song or writing something like that is simply the highest high for me. It just feels so good. I think I'm just at a point in my life where accessing that place and that level of freedom and creativity is just something I can only really do alone. It's something I'm working on, and I think it's the same way I operate, just in general.

I'm gonna close up a little bit with other people. I think with my first album, I also did that all alone. I think I had more of a pride of I did this album myself! Now this album I'm at a point where I see so much value in being able to collaborate and work with people and give up a little bit of control. That now is a scary challenge I would like to take on. I get very attached to demos and I just do feel like there's an energy in them that I often find really difficult to recreate. 'Cause when you're recording something, there's just the magic to it that when you're trying to recreate, it always loses something for me, but I really wanna get to the point where I can recreate something and feel like it's gaining something. That also takes practice and getting comfortable with giving up control and working with other people creatively.

But I now see how that's such a beautiful way to let something blossom, even more. I'm just also very attached to how good it feels to be completely alone and like time disappears and everything's happening just very intuitively, and it just feels like one of my favorite things ever to do”.

Perhaps one of the most difficult things with Prewn is whether they are a solo artist or band. 2023’s Through the Windows was a full band effort. However, System is Izzy Hagerup on her own. The Big Takeover ran an interview with Prewn at the end of December. I am new to her work, so I am trying to piece everything together. This amazing sound and a brilliant album with System, I am looking forward to seeing what this year holds in store:

“So, in 2025 is Prewn you, or is Prewn a band?

IZZY: The first album, I started Prewn and it was a band. It was with my ex-boyfriend and Mia. I had already made and recorded Through the Window. All the songs existed before I made the band. The band kind of fell apart for various reasons. We all love each other, it’s all good, but I think Prewn essentially is my baby. It’s my one main outlet. At this point, it’s a band, but it’s a shifting band. I’m the one that stays. I’ve been stretching my muscles a lot and learning a lot in the process of making new bands. Now I moved across the country, of course, and I’m just kind of trying to keep it a little bit open. I’m gonna make a band in Berlin for the Europe tour. At its core, making the music that is part of the Prewn project is the process that I’m addicted to and, on a soul level, need to do: make these songs and record them all in isolation on some level. I wanna be part of other projects more, I wanna collaborate as Prewn more, but it is the one thing that is deeply personal to me. Maybe I have some commitment issues, too. Being in a band with people, shit happens, and I’m like, this needs to forever be a thing, and I know that I can count on myself.

You did an album release show recently. Are the people that played with you at that show who you consider to be the touring band or were those just people who were available to play the release show with you?

IZZY: The band in Western Mass has been as it is for a year, give or take. I love everyone in the band so much; they’re so sweet and so good. They did both the shows on the East Coast. I’ve been putting myself in this situation of having to figure it out, and I’m figuring it out as I go, but I’m actually gonna fly them out to do this West Coast tour because it’s just feeling so good. I don’t know what I’m doing most of the time, but I am excited. Seeing different people’s interpretation of the music is so cool and exciting. There’s just so much to learn from people, and being in a band is like being in a relationship on some level. There’s just this intimacy.

Are you the type of person to continuously write? The songs on System have been around for a little while, do you have another record already in mind or even started?

IZZY: Kinda. I have so many songs that haven’t been recorded yet. When I’ve tried to record, there’s just such a nuance; I’ve recorded a lot of songs, but I’m still just like, “That’s not it.” The thing with this album that does feel so special is a lot of the songs were made in the moment. The recording is from the night they were created. I feel like there’s this energy that I can’t replicate. I’m starting to look through my stuff and it’s growing, but I definitely want to approach the next album in a different way and push myself. I guess I have this idea that bands go to a studio and it’s a really thought-out thing, but there’s a magic to spontaneity. I don’t really know how to do it otherwise. Maybe I need to start leaning into what does work for me instead of trying to do what I think I should do. I’m always feeling like I’m doing something wrong, but what if I stop doubting everything all the time?

Is there a particular time of the day that you like to record?

IZZY: Definitely. I always want to get right into it, and I think that mentality isn’t helpful sometimes. No matter what time I get there, it’s really not until 10 or 11 PM that anything’s happening. Sometimes I need to be there for 8 hours to feel aimless and stuck, but there’s a magic in the night. I wish it worked otherwise. Maybe I just need to leave the mornings for practicing or learning some new solo, but the creativity seems to come when everyone’s asleep and I’m as isolated as I can possibly be.

As the year winds to end, what are some of the highlights of 2025 for you?

IZZY: I want 2026 to be more “tapped in.” 2025 was so absorbed in my own changes and the move. But the Burlington scene is amazing—*Greg Freeman*, Robber Robber, and Dari Bay all put out music. Something magical is happening up there”.

In highlighting Prewn as an artist to watch this year, is how there is no real certainty regarding her future output. I shall not put this interview in this feature, but I would recommend everyone check out Stereogum and their interview, where Prewn tells the story behind every track on System. These words stood out: “The 28-year-old musician talks about her work with equal frustration and awe. "It's been a slow burn," she says of her music-making journey. In second grade, she started taking cello lessons and as a teenager moved to the guitar. She wrote her first song when she was 15 and didn’t return to songwriting until college. She studied psychology and writing, but never expected to be a musician. Even now, as she’s in the thick of it, it all seems like a mystery to her. "I don't know how I'll ever write a song again," she says, revealing she currently has no writing process. "I really feel writer's block all the time, especially right now. But, I know I'll get through it,” she says. She speaks about her artistic tension as something both inevitable and insatiable. It's the same hunger that fuels her songs”. Born in Chicago, this is an artist very much in demand in the wider world. With a European and U.K. tour scheduled for later in the year, I may see if I can catch her in London in May. The Guardian highlighted Prewn as one of their artist to watch for this year. Laura Snapes interviewed Izzy Hagerup/Prewn about her “bitterly optimistic indie-rock of Prewn”:

“Hagerup is self-deprecating and wildly expressive – her first espresso has just kicked in – and occasionally talks in circles around her latest album, System. To write, she says, she has to not necessarily know what she’s writing about: from opening song Easy, “I was sniffing a flower but I snorted a bug” is the kind of emotional trap door she sketches so well. Looking back on what the album might mean now, she sees “moments of struggle” as well as bird’s-eye views of the challenges of living in intentionally oppressive systems.

“In the moment, I didn’t realise I was depressed – it’s like watching your hair grow, you don’t realise you’ve gotten to a place that isn’t how you like to feel,” she says. “I would have a lot of shame about feeling so depressed when there’s so much beauty in the world. But then that’s just another way to judge yourself when you’re already low.”

The making of System sounded pretty painful: Hagerup staying up all night, forcing herself to write until some scrap of muse appeared to her. Looking back, she thinks it’s a result of the “immense pressure” people put themselves under in their mid-20s as they figure life out. “Hopefully as I’m getting older and more comfortable, I can approach music from less of a desperate … ” she mimes wrenching something out of the ground. “A lot of fear got wrapped up in it, but now it feels back to how it used to, like music is for the joy of the moment.”

Hagerup came of age musically in the famed western Massachusetts scene, where she stuck around after college far longer than she had planned. Kim Gordon and Thurston Moore used to live there; J Mascis of Dinosaur Jr was a regular sight on the bike paths near where Hagerup lived.

“He wears his helmet!” she says. “I love this area so much. It’s beautiful but it doesn’t have enough going on to be distracting. I hadn’t been in a DIY scene before I moved here. I was like, what, we just get together and make this happen on our own?! Seeing all the work that went into the community was so beautiful. It totally changed the course of my life, and it gave me a lot of courage to do music on a more serious level.” Nevertheless, she moved to Los Angeles in the summer: “I was like, what if I went somewhere that I could never imagine myself?”

Since releasing her debut, Through the Window, in 2023, Hagerup has become used to her growing fandom seeming shocked by the darkness of her music. “I think the most powerful music is the most honest music,” she shrugs. “If it’s getting a little dark in here: well, chase that.” But as much as she sings about giving in, System is full of reminders not to fear “the sound of your broken, beating, dripping, heaving heart”, as she sings on Don’t Be Scared.

“That’s another thing I really value about music,” she says. “If you’re not going deep into the dark side, I don’t know how you can go deep into the light side”.

I think that this year is going to be a very busy one for Prewn. Even if Izzy Hagerup is never 100% sure how much new music will come and what is next, I do feel we will get another album and there will be a lot of activity from her. System is a brilliant album that has picked up some positive reviews. Go and check out this amazing artist. You will be hearing a lot more from Prewn as we…

MOVE through 2026.

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Follow Prewn

PHOTO CREDIT: Silas Ray Burns

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/prewn_music/

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/artist/1Sm5PqM25CcIBtKSvZz9iS?si=erpwyBthTWSD_xjhbK4f9A

YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiYi1KphA9EgLmIo7uxrg-Q

Bandcamp:

https://prewnmusic.bandcamp.com/album/system

FEATURE: Spotlight: False Reality

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

False Reality

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IT is interesting seeing…

PHOTO CREDIT: Rachell Smith

the dates False Reality have coming up. The London Hardcore band formed in 2023, and I must admit, they are new on my radar. I am instantly struck by them, and I know many others are tipping the band for great success this year. Consisting of Rachel Rigby (vocals), Dave Connolly (guitar), Joe Cornwell (bass) and Louis Dale, I think a lot of the artists recommend for this year are Pop are genres around that. Hardcore bands that mix in Metal and Thrash are seen as niche or not mainstream (translation: palatable). I do think that False Reality are such a refreshing and interesting band. Last year was a big one for False Reality. Releasing their debut studio album, FADED INTENTIONS, in November, I shall end with a review of it. Rather than put out a string of singles and some E.P.s, the band are putting out complete works. Their debut E.P., Path of Self Destruct, came out in 2024. Honing their craft on the road and then bringing that into the studio then back to the road, I do feel like this year is going to be one of their busiest. In terms of festival dates and music sites that spotlight them. There are four or so interviews I want to come to. Last year was such a successful one for False Reality, where so many people were picking up on their music. With an incredible debut album out in the world, it was a big statement from one of the best Hardcore bands in the country. Kerrang! spoke with False Reality “about the importance of community, getting the nod from Speed, and ’80s metal tour bus sing-alongs”. They listed ten reasons why you need to follow the band. I am going to narrow it to five:

“They’ve been into hardcore since they were kids

Discovering the London hardcore scene at a young age was a formative experience for the members of False Reality

Rachel Rigby (vocals): “When I was literally a toddler I was loving ZZ Top! As I grew older, heavier gigs started happening in Colchester, and through YouTube I found TRC and started going to a lot of London hardcore shows from a young age. When I was 19, I started putting them on myself, and that was so fun.”

Dave Connolly (guitar): “The first hardcore band I ever saw was Strife, opening for Sepultura at Brixton Academy in ’96, which was Sepultura’s last-ever show with Max Cavalera. I was very young – 13 or 14 – and that was a gateway for me. I started checking out all the bands on Victory Records at the time, and all the bands on their ‘thanks’ lists, and eventually someone said, ‘You do know there’s a scene going on in London, don’t ya?’ And then that was that – it just ruined my life!”

They’ve got a real melting pot of influences

There are several album tunes that draw from ’90s grunge and post-hardcore to give an extra flavour to their sound

Rachel: “When we’re driving in the tour bus, Alice In Chains will come on and we’ll all be loving it. That’s a part of our personality that we want to use in our music. It’s the same with Deftones. We’ve got so many influences from different veins of alternative music, not just hardcore, that there’s a little bit of something for everyone in our songs.”

Joe Cornwell (bass): “When I was living in Liverpool I was producing electronic music and doing a lot of DJ residencies, supporting some quite cool leftfield, ambient housey acts. I used the moniker GhostChant, from the Poison The Well song – that was a little nod to hardcore. There’s a couple of the riffs I wrote on this album where there’s a little subtle ambience there, and I think there’s always going to be some element of that aesthetic to False Reality.”

They’re finally done with walking on eggshells

The frustrations of other people’s expectations and prejudices fuel Rachel’s fire

Rachel: “COST OF SPITE is about trying to appease other people, and trying to live quietly and tread on eggshells, rather than living to your actual true potential, and finally just thinking, ‘Do you know what? I’ve had enough of this, I need to be myself.’ I’d rather ruffle some feathers doing what I need to do than go through life not being true to myself. We’ve also got a song, EVERY GAZE, that’s about having your hard work pulled back due to your gender, your sexuality, your skin colour…”

PHOTO CREDIT: Jon Sugden

They’re all about community

Hardcore unity is a guiding principle

Rachel: “The hardcore community is such a small space. Everyone knows everyone, everyone meets everyone at some point. We’re all doing it for the same reasons, we’re all here to shout the same message, we’re all here because of the passion and the love for it. We’ve all grown up in it, and we love seeing new people come in and experience it for the first time. We all remember our first show and that feeling that it gave us, just the dream and the love of that moment and that memory, and the beauty of hardcore. One of the best things about going out and playing live is getting to meet people, and having that interaction.”

They’re seriously proud of what they’ve done on FADED INTENTIONS

False Reality can’t wait for you to hear their all-killer, no-filler new album

Louis: “Nothing’s written to be an album track. But that makes choosing singles difficult!”
Rachel: “Like Louis said, everything that we’ve written for this new album is intended to be played live and with high energy: lots of two-steps, lots of guitar solos, lots of sing-along bits. We love it, it’s our baby and there’s been a lot of blood, sweat and tears put into the new album, quite literally!”.

Actually, I might come to two interviews and then wrap up with a review of one of the most explosive and important debut albums of last year. I think people associate Hardcore with being aggressive with no depth or musicality. That it is all about rage and violence. Instead, the scene is so diverse and you cannot pigeonhole or easily define bands. At the end of December, The Guardian included False Reality in their New Music for 2026 section:

“As a DIY sound that thrives off hungry newcomers, hardcore, in principle, doesn’t tend to over-prioritise legacy. But the cumulative effect of False Reality’s previous bands and their years being steeped in the sound gives Faded Intentions a real edge. After playing and moshing at thousands of shows between them, the four of them have an ear for what makes a track rip through a room with maximum impact, and a learned musicality that goes beyond the classic three-chords and beatdown formula of some of the tougher music they grew up on.

Faded Intentions is full of playful, dynamic shifts. For metalheads, there are thrash guitar solos reminiscent of early Metallica, Slayer and Arcangel, and for hardcore lifers, there are plenty of two-step parts. The music’s toughness is charged by Rigby’s ferocity. On Cost of Spite, her lyrics tear through the noise: “Suffer, set it off, trapped in unequal life.” She says it’s about “feeling anger when your hard work and passions are boiled down to your gender, skin colour or sexuality, but then breaking from that, not diluting yourself to make others comfortable.”

The most distinctive, surprising element of their music is how they bring shoegaze into the mix. Shoegaze can be crushingly loud, of course, but it’s not necessarily heavy. On tracks such as Sonder, they flood the beatdowns with distortion and melodic vocal chains. “We love that Deftones sound and worked it into our world,” says Dale. “Having an interlude is one thing, but turning shoegaze into a False Reality song is another. We want to subvert expectations of what a hardcore band should be doing. We wanted to come out with something unexpected on our debut album – and we’re proud of it”.

Out of Rage crowned False Reality their Artist of 2025 and spoke with them. There are parts of the interviews that I want to come to. Even though False Reality have this incredible energy and are such a punchy and powerful band, there is also this cool and groove to them. A swagger almost that fits alongside this teeth-baring and muscular sound:

“With the band citing bands like NINEBAR and COLD HARD TRUTH as some of the best UKHC right now, there is no doubt that the scene is in capable hands. However, amongst it all, there is an emphasis on how much this translates to the entirety of hardcore. Perhaps it’s too early to see the full extent of the recent revitalisation of the genre in the mainstream yet, but the band emphasises the need for more people to attend hardcore shows to start a resurgence. Here, an influx of new blood may seem daunting, but as Dave states, “a good crowd is all you need to make one of the best shows of all time. If the music and the people are bumping, you have all the ingredients.” It seemed only fitting to catch the band at one of their album release shows, including at the newly refurbished Boom, where OOR took the photos for this cover.

Regardless, the band are aware that the next step is to take their sound further afield, as Joe says, “I mean, as it stands, the goal is still just to play as many shows as we can and get new ears on our stuff.” In France and Germany this summer, alongside MPF, No Play and Burn It Down in the UK, FALSE REALITY came into its own during festival season. No doubt this paved the way for their debut slot at HellFest next summer.

However, the biggest wildcard booking came from the call from Pennsylvania rockers CKY, who were on the lookout for the best heavy live bands to tour with them across the country. Dave mentions the influence of the band growing up, “Like through the culture of skateboarding and Jackass, it’s a really exciting opportunity.” Again, the conversation turned to the influence of punk and hardcore on modern culture, with bands like DRAIN, END IT, and SCOWL finding their place on the soundtracks of the new Tony Hawk Pro Skater and Skate games.  What is evident here is that both hardcore and FALSE REALITY are measured in mentality rather than sound. Whilst some conventions shape the genre, opening up to experimentation is a key part of its tenacity and malleability.

So much of Faded Intentions is disordered by confrontational lyrics, divebombs and thrashing, the ferocity of the record is tamed by the impressive Sonder. Dead-set in the middle of the record, it unexpectedly throws elements of a shoegaze sound into a calming lull. Rachel says, “Sonder is a kind of love letter to the other adjacent genres of hardcore. Post hardcore, shoegaze, alt rock kinda vibe. We don’t necessarily wanna be pigeon-holed as one kind of sound, and it could definitely be a place that we visit again in future”.

Working with Stephen Sears Jr., producer for the sound behind GALLOWS and TRC, the band entrenched their identity in the raw energy of the UK underground. Louis comments, “He’s one of those people who just gets what we’re about and the kind of sound we’re trying to go for. There were a couple of times through recording where he’ll bring an idea for us, and it made the final cut”.

Even if you are not a Hardcore fan or feel you cannot bond with False Reality, I would encourage you to take a listen to FADED INTENTIONS. It is a terrific album with many highlights. I really like MIRROR and CRANIUM. Going back to Kerrang! and their positive review of an album from a band that they are throwing their weight behind. One that are going to be making some interesting and important moves through 2026:

“Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face. That’s how False Reality get you. Diversification in hardcore has seen the genre expand in bold and unexpected directions over the last half decade, so much so that the London gang’s unapologetically old-school fistful of steel catches listeners off guard to leave teeth scattered over the floor.

Picking up where they left off on last year’s Path Of Self Destruct EP, debut album FADED INTENTIONS is an exercise in wall-to-wall ass-kicking – to the extent that even the 133-second INTRO packs enough riffs for a substantial ruckus. FROZEN immediately calls to mind the grandiose brutality of Trapped Under Ice, but you can hear a love for metal legends like Metallica and Sepultura in the high atmospherics and weave of guitar solos around sledgehammer riffs. MIRROR bends from 100-mph mosh mayhem into a distended prog-metallic squeal, before SNAKE EYES wipes out with a viciously simplistic beatdown.

Vocalist and lyricist Rachel Rigby grew up amongst the spin kicks and circle-pits of the capital’s HC community, and a learned love of the music can be felt in both organic meld of mood and sound here, and the refusal to chase trends. REALITY SLIPS is a headspinning slide along the downward spiral that still maintains momentum. SONDER dips right into shimmering alt.metal without compromising on heft. OUT OF TIME offers a shreddy mid-album adrenaline rush, then WORTH IT injects affirmation Hatebreed would be proud of.

Packing each of these 12 songs with gut-churning mosh fuel and unselfconsciously straight-faced explorations of betrayal, empowerment and revenge, FADED INTENTIONS could be a lot to stomach for the uninitiated. But as the THE FURTHER unleashes a full force artillery barrage to blow listeners into thrillingly cathartic closer EVERY GAZE, anyone with a taste for carnage will be licking their lips at the vibrant violence False Reality are ready to unleash.

Verdict: 4/5”.

I will finish things there. I would recommend everyone keep an eye out for False Reality. A tremendous London Hardcore band whose members have been in music for a while, yet as a force, they are still considered quite new and ‘rising’. However, with an acclaimed debut under their belt and critical kudos behind them, they are going to grow bigger and bigger. The tremendous False Reality…

DESERVE massive success.

___________

Follow False Reality

PHOTO CREDIT: Rachell Smith

Official:

https://www.falserealityhc.com/

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/falserealityhc

TikTok:

https://www.tiktok.com/@falserealityhc

YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/@FalseRealityHC

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/artist/2UzhploNTDxWtJkr5BE3cm?si=S1mvlEP2QZ2WFHJFUhYscg

FEATURE: Kate Bush: Something Like a Song: Never Be Mine (The Sensual World)

FEATURE:

 

 

Kate Bush: Something Like a Song

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1989/PHOTO CREDIT: Guido Harari

Never Be Mine (The Sensual World)

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THERE are not too many songs…

I can include in this feature without repeating myself. The thing is that a lot of Kate Bush songs have little written about them. However, I have been fascinated by her deeper cuts. Those songs that are not exactly obscure, yet they do not get talked about a lot and people are not going to highlight them much. One is Never Be Mine from 1989’s The Sensual World. Its title might suggest a basic love song. I think some people (Graeme Thomson for one) criticised The Sensual World for burning at a lower heat than Hounds of Love. How it is less extraordinary than that 1985 album, and there are songs that are inessential and Kate Bush is not at her (expected) best. I have seen Never Be Mine highlighted as one such song that falls short of expectation and previous standards. I know that Never Be Mine was a possibility for Bush’s 2014 residency, Before the Dawn. A recording of the song, supposedly from initial rehearsals, is included on the C.D. and L.P. versions of Before the Dawn. On the physical versions of the album, you hear Never Be Mine after Top of the City in Act I. It is an extraordinary and powerful vocal from Kate Bush that should put some eyes back on the original. Although it is one of the most-streamed songs from The Sensual World on Spotify, it is still just over three million. It is quite low. I feel Never Be Mine could have been a single from the album. Love and Anger is great but, if we think of strong songs that were not brought out as singles, Never Be Mine and Deeper Understanding spring to mind. In terms of articles written about Never Be Mine, there is not a whole lot. However, it is a fascinating song. Its positioning on The Sensual World is interesting. On the second side after Between a Man and a Woman – one of the lesser cuts from the album – and before the extraordinary penultimate number, Rocket’s Tail – which I have explored for a future feature, and is a natural highlight from The Sensual World -, Never Be Mine was perhaps a song Bush felt less sure about. Wanting to positioning it lower in the album.

That being said, Kate Bush did re-record Never Be Mine for 2011’s Director’s Cut. That would indicate she was not happy about the production sound or feel of the original, but that she did like the song enough to take the effort to do that. I think the Director’s Cut version is fine, though the superb version on The Sensual World is the best. I think it is absolutely wonderful, so maybe Bush re-recorded it to give it some attention or a new focus. In terms of the lyrics and its story, it would make sense she would re-approach it as an older woman. Just in her thirties when it was released on The Sensual World, Bush was fifty-two when the Director’s Cut version was released. Even though it not a massive streaming success, Never Be Mine has a rare distinction of being included on a studio album, Director’s Cut and Before the Dawn. Few other songs can claim that honour (pub trivia territory if you can name any other songs!). Bush did her best with the original, but she wanted to come back to it for Director’s Cut. Keen to bring it to the stage, I am curious about the decision not to include it in the set. However, it does make me think that this is a track more people should know about. I am going to discuss it further. However, I want to come to the Kate Bush Encyclopedia article about Never Be Mine and some interview archive, where Kate Bush talked about the song’s background:

“It’s that whole thing of how, in some situations, it’s the dream you want, not the real thing. It was pursuing a conscious realisation that a person is really enjoying the fantasy and aware it won’t become reality. So often you think it’s the end you want, but this is actually looking at the process that will never get you there. Bit of a heart-game you play with yourself.

Len Brown, ‘In The Realm Of The Senses’. NME (UK), 7 October 1989

I wanted a sort of eastern sounding rhythm. I wrote it first on the piano, though the words were completely different, except for the choruses. I did it on the piano to a Fairlight rhythm that Del programmed – I think that maybe because of the quality of the sounds, it was harder for Del to come up with the patterns. And I was more strict – he found it much harder. I think the pattern in ‘Heads We’re Dancing’ is really good – really unusual, the best he came up with. But ‘Never Be Mine’ was kind of tabla based. We got Eberhard (Weber) over to play bass and he played on the whole song. When we were trying to piece it together later we kept saying it just doesn’t feel right, so we just took the bass out and had it in these two sections.

Tony Horkins, ‘What Katie Did Next’. International Musician, December 1989”.

There is so much to unpack when it comes to the lyrics. These lines are especially intriguing and stirring: “I want you as the dream/Not the reality/That clumsy goodbye-kiss could fool me/But I’m looking back over my shoulder/At you, happy without me”. I am not sure if they were written about Del Palmer – who Bush was in a relationship with at this point, though I suspect it was breaking down (I am never 100% sure if they broke up around 1993 or at the end of the 1980s), or if it was not based on anyone. Singing it in 2014, it would have taken on new meaning. Memories and reminiscence rather than something that held as much meaning and emotion than back in 1989. What makes Never Be Mine so enduring and compelling is its richness and simplicity. In terms of musicians, it is not packed to the rafters with bodies. You have Davy Spillane on Uilleann pipes that adds this Celtic/Irish beauty and yearning. Wonderful bass from Eberhard Weber. The Trio Bulgarka providing vocals. That clash of countries, cultures and sounds. It is a mix that works wonderfully! That idea of wanting someone in a dream but not a reality. We can all relate to that. “The thrill and the hurting/I know that this will never be mine”. You can hear genuine hurt in Bush’s voice…making me wonder whether it was based on her relationship at the time. Although she had revealed her hurt and opened her heart on previous albums, The Sensual World has a few songs where she does this. As potently as on Hounds of Love or any of her other albums. I have seen a review that called Never Be Mine a “haunting exploration of desire, fantasy, and the emotional complexity of unattainable love”. Is it unobtainable love or something that seems ideal in your head, but the reality is not as desirable as hoped?! That first verse where she sings “My life that might have been/Your face just ghostly in the smoke/They’re setting fire to the cornfields”. Poetic, stark and devastating, I see those lines as the embers of a long-term relationship where maybe Bush foresaw a different ending or future. However, there is tension and division, so the person that she thought she might spend her life was is not that person anymore.

Just prior to getting to a feature about the song, I want to move to some critical snapshots and opinions of Never Be Mine (the version on The Sensual World). In an extremely generous and adoring review from Pitchfork - who still don’t give many albums high kudos; this 2019 review seemed like someone had spiked the water supply! -, this was observed: “To hear someone recall formative childhood truths (the lush grandeur of “Reaching Out”) and lingering romantic pipedreams (the longing of “Never Be Mine”) is like being given a reel of their memory tapes and discovering what makes them tick”. The Quietus marked thirty years of The Sensual World in 2019 and put this in their sub-headline/by-line: “Burning fields, black November nights, the swirling beauty of the Uilleann pipes…”. That could apply to the title track, though it ticks all the boxes for Never Be Mine. They add that “Kate Bush made the perfect soundtrack to autumn”. Never Be Mine seems very autumnal. The leaves have fallen and the nights are drawing in. That sense of loss or impending separation in the chill. Such an evocative song! Their opening section of the review spotlights Never Be Mine:

“They’re setting fire to the cornfields/ as you’re taking me home" So sang Kate Bush thirty years ago on the majestic ‘Never Be Mine’, a forlorn ballad of yearning that radiates from its parent album, The Sensual World with understated autumnal grace. It is a song that still conjures the same images for me every time I hear it – an early evening sunset in October, birds departing a harvested field, the sunlight low and fading on the horizon. Eberhard Weber’s bass has a throbbing beauty that weaves around Kate’s piano like a cloak, while the strident vocals of the Trio Bulgarka merge with the melancholic Uilleann pipes to evoke all sorts of emotions – sadness, hope, reflection, loss, longing. Beginnings. Endings. It doesn’t matter when I hear it, what time of year, or in what context – it is immediately transportive…

The smell of burning fields / will now mean you and here," she sings. Well, quite. Autumn, for me anyway, encapsulates all of these things. It’s both a beginning and an ending, a time of reflection and anticipation; it bridges the warmth and joy of summer and the barren starkness of winter. Music is an art that can suggest a sense of time and place like no other – and has there ever been an artist who so emotively captures the mood and texture of the seasons as Kate Bush?”.

Five years before that mention of Never Be Mine, The Quietus looked at Kate Bush’s best and most revealing songs beyond the hits. Tying it to Before the Dawn in 2014, Lisa Jenkins observed the following: “Never Be Mine’ is a thing of beauty which showcases Bush’s amazing vocal range in its entirety, and has the ability to make the hairs at the nape of your neck stand up. The lyrics are heart wrenching, full of unrequited love and yearning, suited to my angst ridden fifteen-year-old self at the time, the song itself like a fire coloured painting with nature, love and lust intermingling. The album in general is one of her strongest, and bought teenage girls and boys of the 90s screaming into their own, individual, sexual awakenings”. Pop Dose spent some time with a Kate Bush work of brilliance in 2008:

“Never Be Mine” is just what the title suggests: the story of a woman who still pines for a lover who’s moved on. The chorus is the song’s biggest hook, where Kate lays it all on the table by admitting, “This is where I want to be, this is what I need / But I know that this will never be mine.” However, she does something even more clever in the first verse:

I look at you and see, my life that might have been
Your face just ghostly in the smoke
They’re setting fire to the cornfields, as you’re taking me home
The smell of burning fields, will now mean you and here

By associating a sensory perception with a memory, she has guaranteed that people will do the exact same thing with this song. Music of all kinds always reminds people of a time and a place, and Kate is basically doubling down that you will do the same. And she’s dead right. I, for one, cannot hear this song without thinking of a specific time — and person — every time I hear it, regardless of how much time has passed since the year and girl in question. That’s powerful stuff, kids, and it doesn’t hurt to have the fabulous Trio Bulgarka doing the heavy lifting with the backing vocals.

The opening lines to the second verse have a certain brazen honesty to them as well: “I want you as the dream, not the reality.” Is she saying that she understands why she and her beloved are not together but still pines for the pipe dream anyway? Wow. Show me a pop song today with that much self-awareness and maturity. Okay, I’m kidding, stop looking. It doesn’t exist”.

Even if Pop music has matured since 2008, and modern-day artists might be able to match Never Be Mine, it is amazing that some critics in 1989 and since overlook or look down their noses at The Sensual World when one of its deep cuts is Never Be Mine! Alongside the best-known songs – The Sensual World and This Woman’s Work -, there are some phenomenal gems that do not get exposed enough. Both heartbreaking but relatable, Never Be Mine is this song that started out in 1989, was reworked in 2011, then almost made its way into the set list for 2014’s Before the Dawn. It did get onto the 2016 live album, so has enjoyed this span of twenty-seven years. I’d like to think that this song will feature in a future chapter of Kate Bush’s career, as it really is…

ONE of her best.

FEATURE: Spotlight: Revisited: SOFIA ISELLA

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight: Revisited

SOFIA ISELLA

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SOMEONE who I…

spotlighted in 2024, I wanted to reproach SOFIA ISELLA (she styles her name in all capitals, so that is what I shall do throughout), as she did a lot last year. An incredible Mexican-American singer, songwriter, and violinist defined by  her unique sound, blending Pop with deeper themes, gaining traction for her music and opening for major acts like Taylor Swift. Last year, ISELLA put out the I’m camera. E.P. and some brilliant singles, so there has been some movement and evolution regarding her sound since I spotlighted her. ISELLA has some tour dates booked for this year, including some U.S. dates with Florence + The Machine. This amazing artist will be in the U.K. in May, so that will be exciting. One thing you do get with SOFIA ISELLA is amazing value. In terms of the spread of photos on her social media, there is so much to choose from. She is so prolific and releases loads of music. There are regular and great interviews, and a wide range of social media accounts. This is an artist who ticks all the boxes, so I will revisit her and bring in some 2025 interviews. I am going to lead with an intervbiew with The Independent from last August. Ahead of her U.K. headline tour, Hannah Ewens spoke with SOFIA ISELLA. “The alternative musician spent last year riding high after supporting Taylor Swift on the Eras Tour. But the 20-year-old poet is no pop princess”. It is a fascinating conversation:

“I got called demonic by someone online for the first time the other day,” says the alt musician Sofia Isella, who is not annoyed but in a blissful reverie. “There were other compliments within her message: I have ‘the most ominous aura she’s ever seen in her life’.”

I wouldn’t say these things about the 20-year-old LA native goth at all but I might say she’s mysterious. Across the cafe table from me, she’s completely obscured by a big hood and steampunk glasses. I’m trying to interview her but every question I ask is countered with a softly spoken question. ‘Do you remember what you learned in math class?’ ‘What is your least favourite modern word?’ ‘But what do you think about that?’ As she calmly knits herself a fingerless glove – while wearing it – all I can think is that I’m not surprised that this curious person is a curiosity to 1.7 million people on Instagram. She likes to learn about other people, she says, although this sometimes comes across as passionate debate. “I’m going easy on you…” she adds.

In person, Isella is gentle and thoughtful, but that spikier side exists in her music: acerbic whispered poetry set to Nine Inch Nails-style beats. On the distinctive piano-led track “The Doll People”, she is a dark Regina Spektor, explaining in ironic ASMR tones why women are best enjoyed beautiful and mute: “Art does not interpret itself / There are men with a day to save / We are paintings with legs”.

Isella thinks it might have been her elegant rant “Everybody Supports Women”, about how women inevitably get torn down from every angle, that got the attention of Taylor Swift, who chose her to play at Wembley Stadium on her Eras Tour. Or at least, it was that song that was mentioned in a handwritten letter Swift gave to the singer. “It’s easier to play Wembley than it is to play a bar with two people,” Isella says, shaking off any idea that she might’ve needed some extra nerves to scale up her intimate live sets so dramatically.

Her most recent (very unsettling) EP I’m camera – all confrontational images against industrial soundscapes – feels like a musical museum of taxidermied oddities. “Crowd Caffeine” is a creepy track about how we sanitise the human experience with overuse of technology and has Grimes (another notable Sofia Isella fan and follower) listed as a songwriter. She technically didn’t have a hand in writing it but Isella was heavily inspired by something the electronic musician posted online in 2024: “The machines want to be like humans / humans r trying be like machines / I’m sure we can work smthn out”.

While she’s mostly interested in writing about the experience of women, one song, “Man Made”, is for her male counterparts. “It’s an empathetic approach to them shooting themselves in the foot with masculinity demands,” she explains. When she was 15, she asked lots of her friends the question, “What is the biggest pressure that society puts on you?” The girls said beauty standards. “The men – kind men – all said they felt pressured by other men to talk s*** about women, to be mean to them, to not be a ‘simp’ or whatever that word is… to not love women.” This surprised her, but then human beings are constantly surprising her.

Around the time we speak, she’s preparing to return to the UK to play Reading and Leeds Festival – which took place this weekend – and a short headlining tour. “I’ve always known that this is definitely the world that I sacrifice myself to,” she says of pop music, as though it’s the most normal thing in the world. “Because every world is a sacrifice. You gain something but everything you say yes to, you are sacrificing something else.” Take a Taylor Swift, for example. “Somebody at those big levels, we see their highlight reel, but they’re always sacrificing something.” At present, Isella can walk out into her crowds and hold hands with fans, have meaningful conversations with them even. “I’m small enough now that people still see me somewhat as human.” But it may not be long before she’s seen as less human, more icon, more machine”.

IN THIS PHOTO: SOFIA ISELLA performs at the House of Blues in Orlando on 2nd November, 2025/PHOTO CREDIT: Nicolita Bradley

Though I am not fan of when artists put titles all in lower case or upper case and do that sort of mix, you cannot deny the quality and genius of SOFIA ISELLA. Look at her social media accounts and where she played last year. Such incredible live photos, you can feel the electricity and love from the crowd. So captivating and this physical experience, she is one of the greatest performers in modern music. A sensational live act that everyone needs to see. I will head to a November interview from Los Angeles Times, as we get some background on this incredible artist. If you have not heard her before, you really need to connect with this superstar-in-waiting. Someone who will be as big as artists like Taylor Swift:

“Isella grew up in Los Angeles in a family with enough entertainment-biz acclaim to make being an artist feel like a viable career. Yet they still let her be feral and freewheeling in developing her craft. Her father, the Chilean-Danish American cinematographer Claudio Miranda, won an Oscar for 2012’s “Life of Pi” and shot “Top Gun: Maverick” and the recent racing hit “F1” (Her mom is the author Kelli Bean-Miranda). Looking back on her bucolic childhood in L.A., Isella recalled it as being filled with music and boundless encouragement, worlds away from her social media-addled peers.

“I’d been homeschooled my whole life,” Isella said. “My mom would leave little trails of poetry books for me to find, and my dad would set up GarageBand and leave me for hours with all the instruments and nothing but free time. I didn’t even have a phone until I was 16. When I first was on TikTok, I saw everyone had the same personality, because they had been watching each other for so long. Being around kids my age was so strange, because I’d grown up around adults — like, ‘Oh, these kids are so sweet and kind and adorable, but they think I’m one of them.’”

After her family temporarily moved to Australia during the pandemic and Isella began self-releasing music, it became clear that her talents set her very far apart. Drawing on her early background in classical music and a fascination with scabrous rock and electronic music, she found a sound that melded the Velvet Underground and Nico’s elegant miserablism, Chelsea Wolfe and Lingua Ignota’s doom-laden art metal and the close-miked , creepy goth-pop of Billie Eilish’s first LP.

Her early music showed a withering humor and skepticism of the culture around her (“All of Human Knowledge Made Us Dumb,” “Everybody Supports Women”), but singles came at a rapid clip and translated surprisingly well on the social media platforms she loathed (she has 1.3 million followers on TikTok). It all got her onto stages with Melanie Martinez and Glass Animals and, eventually, Swift. (A Florence + the Machine arena tour opening slot is up next.)

Her newest material (and her subversively eerie, Francesca Woodman-evoking music videos like “Muse”) feel perfectly timed to the apocalyptic mood in L.A. and the U.S. now, where an inexorable slide to ruin feels biblical. “Out in the Garden,” from September, hits some of the Southern gothic moods of Ethel Cain, but with a sense of acidic pity that’s all her own. “That there’s a small part of me that’s envious / That you fullheartedly believe someone is always there,” she sings. “That will always love you, and there’s a plan for you out there.”

Even at her bleakest, there’s a curdled humor underneath (her current tour is subtitled “You’ll Understand More, Dick”). But if this little sliver of young fame has taught Isella anything, it’s that even when everyone wants a piece of you, no one is actually coming to save any of us.

“There’s nothing with weight, nothing that’s meaningful, to blind faith,” Isella said. “On this next record, I’m about to go really angry because religion really pisses me off, it inflames me. But it’s the most beautiful placebo to imagine that there’s a father that loves you no matter what you do. I’m a really lucky person in that I’ve always been safe and protected, but if you’ve had a rough life, that is insanely powerful to imagine that and believe that”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Nicolita Bradley

Even though this interview is mostly photos and that takes up more space than the words, there are some interesting takeaways and responses from SOFIA ISELLA in this FADER interview. Spotlighting this “20-year-old inspired by Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton, and who has already opened for Taylor Swift”, I do think that this year is going to be another massive one. I am going to end with a review of I’m camera, as it was one of the best E.P.s of last year. I do think, if there is a debut album soon, it will be one of the most anticipated of that year:

“Describe the best show you’ve played this year so far.

Montréal was such an incredible crowd that for the first time, I felt like it was hard to keep up with their energy . They really pushed me . I love that .

What’s your favorite song to play live right now and why?

Above the Neck . Because I take my pants off . That song is out now .

What’s a motto that you think everyone should live by?

Be bored . Boredom has given me creativity and it’s a fight to be bored in this world .

What’s the worst advice you’ve ever received?

Don’t be political . I was told early on to not divide my audience .

What’s the best thing you’ve bought yourself recently and why?

Books . I was in the bookstore and I overheard someone behind me saying very loudly “Is that Sofia ? Isella ? Could be . Maybe not .” I’m not sure if they wanted me to confirm . I’m currently reading The Martian .

I will finish off with this review from Hive Magazine and a simply stunning E.P. Though the tone of the E.P. is darker and moodier than you’d get from most Pop artists in the mainstream, SOFIA ISELLA is not trying to follow them. She is as compelling as the best Pop artists, though I think she offers something deeper and more interesting. Perhaps more in common with Billie Eilish or Florence + The Machine. However, it is hard to directly compare her to another artist. ISELLA is unique. I am excited to see what this year holds in store:

“Moody and atmospheric are words that get thrown around a lot to describe indie music that spares a second to think about itself — SOFIA ISELLA’s second EP, I’m camera. is an example of a record that really fits that bill, and it does so beautifully. Opening track ‘Muse’ is a meditation on the violence of being possessed by inspiration. Backed by an ominous plucked guitar, building into a choral descent into madness, Isella discusses the horror of being a female artist in a deft and stylish authorial voice. She discusses how her work feels like an imitation of her personhood — “a shadow mimicking [her] slightly wrong.” The muse is transmuted from an inert force to a “gun,” holding her hostage but simultaneously making her “scared to die.” Isella captures the intensity and enormity of this dilemma, and manages to pull gold out of what I’d argue is tired material: the stress of stardom, the glare of the spotlight, the challenges of being creative in front of other people.

‘Josephine’ is a low-pitched, rumbling nightmare that climbs, crests, and fans out into a. Isella’s voice is delightfully intense, soaring to gorgeous falsetto and falling to a growl. She puts a clever twist on the “I’m a star and you, someone who doubted me, are not” revenge song by illustrating the darkness hiding in the cracks of that comparative, competitive mentality. As always, Isella takes well trodden ground and treads it in a new way.

‘Dog’s Dinner’ is one of my favourite types of songs: it’s about having bad sex that makes you feel awful. It’s a song about receiving overly enthusiastic cunnilingus from someone you’re slowly coming to be disgusted by. It’s a bitter, cruel little track, and I enjoyed every seething, sardonic second of it. If I’m recommending one track from I’m camera., it’s this one.

While most of Isella’s music wraps a blunt message in poetic, avant garde style, ‘Crowd Caffeine’ has the subtlety of a sledgehammer. It’s a track about phones, technological dependency, and dopamine addiction. It doesn’t quite thread the needle on combining this subject matter in a way that doesn’t sound like evangelism. My reservations aside, the squeal of the guitar before the final bridge made my hair stand on end — like the rest of the EP, it’s sonically sumptuous, something to sink your teeth into. It’s just a bit naff when you compare it to everything it’s surrounded by.

‘Man Made’ is Isella’s most impressive vocal showcase; she sounds better on this song than anything else she’s ever released, and my God, Isella can sing. There’s a cowboy jangling spurs-ism to ‘Man Made’ that works beautifully. It’s an anti-masculine, anti-gender anthem that fits into Isella’s artistic oeuvre, and cements her place (at least in my mind) as the indie music scene’s feminist poet laureate.

‘Orchestrated, Wet, Verboten’ begins with ambient sound that blends into a more striking guitar line than anything else on I’m camera., There’s actual energy here; ‘OWV’ grabs an uncomfortable set of feelings and pulls them until they unravel. It’s about wanting to be wanted in a way that destroys you and the person wanting you. “I want you to take my breath and merge your own” is one of the most achingly horrible bits of verse I’ve heard in a while, and it captures exactly what makes Isella a stand-out musician.

I’m camera. is a brilliant EP. It’s clever and angry and bitter and ironic, and considering how meteoric Isella’s rise has been so far, I hope it's another boost upward. While I have my issues with some of the writing, I think it’s a great record on the whole, and I’d highly recommend it”.

Coming back to an artist I was excited to spotlight in 2024, last year was such a huge one for SOFIA ISELLA, I had to come back. She is being tipped by people for success this year. Still a rising artist, she has this incredible live experience that you can feel in her music. Brilliant photos, wonderful music and these stunning live performances, SOFIA ISELLA is in her own league. Look around music and there are…

FEW are as good as her!

____________

Follow SOFIA ISELLA

Official:

https://www.sofiaisella.com/

TikTok:

https://www.tiktok.com/@sofiamfisella

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/sofia_isella/

Twitter:

https://x.com/sofiamfisella

YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0eAt21KrRiYwLu3cs1qe6A

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/artist/40Aif8AfzbNGA2s52ESEE2?si=y5zu85BZTsqX7tNqKFHNuA

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/sofiaisellaa/

FEATURE: Spotlight: BIIANCO

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

BIIANCO

__________

ANOTHER incredible D.J. that…

I feel people should know about and is going to have a phenomenal 2026, BIIANCO is someone whose work I have known about for a while. I am going to come to a couple of 2025 interviews with her. However, I will head further back to start out. They are an amazing D.J. that I do think is going to have a very busy year. Before getting to this must-know artist and D.J. who has overcome challenges to become one of the most respected and influential modern-day D.J.s, I want to bring in an interview from 2024. The partially blind, proudly queer and inclusive BIIANCO spoke with Broke Magazine about their new music and why it is important for them to represent diversity and queer identity through their work:

“BIIANCO is an artist who recently skyrocketed into viral attention last December with the hit track ‘Against The Wall, gathering an impressive 10 million views, over 500,000 shares, and gaining 150,000+ new followers across socials. These crazy numbers very soon led to international chart inclusions on platforms like Apple Music, iTunes, and Beatport as well as earning coveted spots like a Danny Howard Mini Mix and Jack Saunders’ Next Wave pick.

This dynamic talent—partially blind, proudly queer, and identifying as femme (they/them)—is back with a new dance-floor summer hit titled ‘Got Me Like’. The track has wasted no time leaving its mark, with the Instagram teaser raking in a staggering 1 million views and 40,000 likes in just five days.

But even before the viral explosion, BIIANCO had been carving out a niche in the industry with their high-energy trance sound and musical prowess. Their live performances, often featuring multiple instruments and vocals showcased to their dedicated fanbase through Insta and TikTok, have allowed them to champion inclusivity within the music scene.

Tell us about your upbringing and journey into music…

Honestly, music has been the most constant thing in my life.  I grew up outside of NYC and was a classically trained pianist since age 5.  Learned guitar, bass, and voice lessons and started producing music on a very old Mac by age 15.  I ended up going to UCLA for music and then was in a band for many many years after graduating.  I don’t think there’s ever been in a time in my life when I haven’t been making music.

Who do you draw the most influence from?

I have two pillars of inspiration for BIIANCO music — the first is emotional intensity.  Whether it’s euphoria, rage, dejection, or limerence, I am a person who naturally feels things on 10 and I’ve always wanted my music to reflect that.  A lot of dance music can be very surface-level emotionally, which is wild to me because people experiencing it in these spaces usually feel so much emotion!  So, I’ve always wanted to stay true to that.  The second inspiration is the 90s / Y2K trance culture.  I love the combination of speed, melody, high-octave energy and emotion in that music.  I think that’s always going to be my biggest sonic inspiration.

You’re known for your mad scientist tech skills in music production. Can you share a bit about your creative process when you’re in the studio?

I try to write at least 3 songs a week.  I’m at a place now where I feel like I really know my sound so my palate of tones and musical elements to choose from is super specific.  But honestly, what’s been happening lately is I’ll be out watching people perform or I’m going for long runs listening to people’s mixes and inspiration strikes and I go in the studio with a very very specific idea and execute it.  This happened to me the other day when I was listening to a FJAAK set.  I was like I need a song that dynamically moves its energy like that — that’s what’s missing from my set.  And I went home and made it.

It’s amazing how you’ve overcome challenges like losing sight in one eye and continued to pursue your passion. What keeps you motivated during tough times?

Well, I feel like I was just on the brink of discovering my sound and was just starting to gain traction.  So, when the accident happened I was like absolutely not this is a VERY inconvenient time to be interrupted and have this fire lit to move forward as quickly as I could.  It meant very very long hours of relearning to play drums and instruments that really do require full eyesight.  Only years later now, does the grief of losing my sight and learning to live with a disability fully hit me.  I’ll find myself crying sometimes and be like oh what a delayed impact.

As a champion of inclusion in the industry, how important is it for you to represent diversity and queer identity through your music and platform?

To be honest, I’ve been queer my whole life so it’s really all I know.  I think it comes naturally because if I’m being true to myself that’s just what I’ll choose.  However, if I’m thinking with intention, I think it’s so important to represent diversity and queer community very fluidly.  I think we’re all a bit exhausted of only being included when there’s a “diversity”, “queer” or “femme” title attached.  True inclusion is seamless.  I feel very passionately and intentionally about breaking down the performance of inclusion and helping build a music community where it just simply is”.

The first of two interviews from last year I am including is from DJ Mag. Taking us into BIIANCO’s studio, they guided Mick Wilson and “talked through their setup, creative process, and approaches to sound design, as well as transferring this into a live setting”. It is a fascinating interview with one of the most distinct and awe-inspiring D.J.s in the world:

“BIIANCO is a London-based, LA-trained producer, DJ, and multi-instrumentalist. Known for their high-energy releases, live sets and studio skills, their sound pulls from high-octane acid, trance and techno as confidently as it does from house and luminous pop.

A champion of inclusion in the music industry, BIIANCO also proudly shares their experiences of navigating clubland as a queer, neurodivergent and disabled artist, helping to blaze a trail for others to embrace their authentic, creative selves in the process. It’s a theme the self-proclaimed synth head regularly explores within their releases, including unleashing body positive club bangers with Marlon Hoffstadt, and October’s techno-leaning single, ‘Get You Out’ on Ultra Records, which wrestles with questions of identity amidst a whirlwind romance.

While touring the globe with their thrilling live and hybrid DJ sets, BIIANCO took us through their innovative approach to on-stage performance during an IRL edition of DJ Mag’s How I Play Live series at ADE last October — diving into sequencing, building energy, DAW-based and DAW-less options, and the art of balancing live and DJ elements. Below, they invite us into their studio as part of our new series, taking us through their setup, creative process, and approaches to sound design, as well as transferring this into a live setting.

Your music has a distinct sonic identity. How do you approach sound design in the studio? What tools or techniques are essential in shaping your sound?

“I think the most important thing you can do for building a distinct sonic identity is to know what you want to sound like and then to understand the history and musicology of that sound and what tones, synths, characteristics make that sub-genre. I really try to abide by this. I spend a lot of time studying the original authentic trance, acid, rave and hard house synths of the ’90s and early 2000s so I can incorporate those elements into my music.

“I also try to use real 303 acid synths to make my acid layers, to enhance that authentic sound. Most importantly, over the past year-and- a-half, I’ve been extremely particular about the BPMs I’m making my music at 140-150bpm, always. As a percussionist, I know this means the drums — especially the kick and bass patterns — must stay within some constraints to avoid them sounding chaotic. I think all these intentional decisions are the building blocks to the BIIANCO sonic identity.”

How do you channel personal experiences into your studio work? Is there a specific process you use to translate feelings into sound?

“As a neurodivergent person, I feel emotions very strongly and always have — therefore, music became a utility for me to process them at a young age. So, music has never existed for me without emotion. I have classical training, and that comes in handy when trying to translate my emotions into musical elements. For example, in a song conveying heartbreak, I’ll lean heavily into certain minor key progressions or timbres that can evoke that psychological response. I try to marry the emotion to the musical theory. This is a technique we studied heavily at university in our film scoring and composition-focused classes.”

How do you translate your studio work into a live setting, especially with a hybrid live set? What elements do you keep from the studio, and what changes to adapt to the energy of a live audience?

“I try to preserve the sounds I spend so much time crafting in the studio when going into a live environment, so I love tools that allow me to bring in my sounds. That’s why the Roland TR-8S sequencer is so clutch for performing drums and bass, as I load and sequence all those patterns with my original studio elements.

“For acid, I play the 303 live and in the studio specifically, so the tone is consistent no matter the environment. A lot of the acid people hear on tracks is super hard to recreate with real hardware, so I try to stay away from falling into that trap so I can give audiences authentic experiences.

“I tend to very slightly adjust my song formats to give myself padding in live settings that may not exist in the original song structure. For example, if I need to bring up the fader on the bass, hit the synth at the top of the phrase and start singing all at the same time in the original form, that would be super unrealistic in a live setting. So, I might adjust the structure to stagger the start. I basically finesse the structure so I can deliver a precise and powerful performance where I’m not overthinking what I need to do, and can get lost in the moment.”

hat are the biggest challenges you face when performing a hybrid set compared to a traditional DJ set or a full band performance? How do you overcome these challenges?

“Introducing any live elements means introducing risk into the performance, so an assessment of risk vs reward is the most important first step. For every risky live decision you make, there is extra hardware you need to bring, maintain and set up. Live also requires exponentially more rehearsal. I always tell people, ‘You want to use live elements, then be prepared to practice, practice, practice’. You need to be prepared for every single problem to occur at least once, and you can only do that when you know what could potentially occur. If I am doing live sampling in a performance, I will practice those live movements hundreds of times until it is muscle memory I can do with my eyes closed. That is the only way everything is as clean and smooth as loading up a CDJ with a pre-recorded track.

“A good example of a live challenge occurred when me and Marlon Hoffstadt recently performed our song, ‘Touch My Body’, at Amsterdam Dance Event. I was sampling the vocals while he DJed the instrumental track, and there’s a really cool part in the track where everything drops out but the vocals for a few bars. In a studio setting, this sounds awesome, but it poses a challenge in a live setting without a click track, because you want to drop back in perfectly in time with the track but have no way to know when that is. We could have added some hi-hats to the silence in the track to keep time, but honestly that sounded so blah, and we preferred to find a cooler solution. So after rehearsing it a few times, we figured out I could lean into a repeat roll effect using an RMX-1000 if we matched the tempo of the CDJ with the tempo of the roll. It worked perfectly to help us preserve the timing and even elevated the dynamics in the live performance. It just required us to decide ahead of time what BPM we would play the track at during the set and stick to that decision”.

How do you utilise sampling and looping in both your studio work and live performances? Are there any differences in how you approach this technique in each context?

“Studio performances are actually really different to live setting performances. For example, a lot of my TikTok loops are done with an entirely different method than what I would do on a real stage. Studio looping leans more heavily into controlling Ableton than my live stage elements. With my social media loops, I’ll set up an Ableton session and automate exactly how many bars I’ll be recording the MIDI before it starts looping. I can also set up the session to immediately quantise the loop after it records. So most of what I’m doing in studio loops is arming a track, performing the audio or MIDI live, then I’ll loop it based on my Ableton session, and I’ll also write in automation like fader cuts.

“Sometimes with studio loops based around the Maschine+, there is no prep work that goes into Ableton and I’m really just using the Maschine+ as the performance brain for tempo and recording its master out into Ableton. In a stage setting with both decks and live elements, I try to keep it completely DAW-less and lean into the Maschine+ and hardware only to create the performances. I usually just beat-match the loops into the mix like you would a vinyl or CDJ element”.

I am going to finish with Magnetic Mag and their interview with BIIANCO. I am going to recommend people check out sites like this, where you can hear episodes featuring their music and mixes. Back in June, they published an interview with an artist and D.J. who was coming off the back of some high-octane sets. Their newest single, Bassline Vandal (released via Ultra Records), is absolutely fantastic and demands to be heard. As Magnetic Mag say, “It is the kind of track that makes you move first and think later”. BIIANCO’s work is tied to movement and their body – as is also noted -, so this aspect was spotlighted. The physicality and mobility of their sets and work is vitally important:

“Do you move around a lot during sessions, or are you more locked into your chair once you’re in it?

I have my hardware located around the studio so there’s some natural movement when I’m working out of my personal studio. But lately, I’ve been doing a lot more sessions while on tour, and with those I tend to sit stationary for far too long. I do like to stand in the best spots in the studio sonically so I can hear the mix once it’s ready, and during that I’m always dancing.

Have you found that certain gear setups encourage more physical interaction or flow?

I think the best setups are ones that are in a U shape with the DAW and computer at the center because the movement becomes very circular – allowing you to move fluidly from synth to synth. I am a huge fan of hardware and synths in my production, so I nearly always make my music in my studio with my hardware.

When you’re physically tired, do you notice your music sounding different?

When I’m physically tired I’m more indecisive about creative choices in producing. It creates a brain fog, and I tend not to finish those songs in one sitting. If I’m rested and thinking clearly, I can finish a working mix of a song in one session.

Do you think movement helps you make decisions faster—or slow things down to be more intentional?

This is an interesting question. When writing, I think at first being too intentional works against the writing process and impedes the stream of consciousness flow. I try not to have too much intention in the beginning of the songwriting process. That comes out later when I am cleaning everything up and mixing things down.

So most likely, I am not moving a lot at first but towards the time I start getting more intentional with the mixing, I start stepping back and moving more”.

As we are into a new year, there is going to be a lot of emphasis on artists and their promise. Those who are D.J.s and artists are perhaps not given as much oxygen. BIIANCO is a tremendous and inspiring D.J. I am actually writing this on 29th December. As I write, BIIANCO actually has a New Year’s Eve set in Utah. They play in the U.K. later this month (as in January). A combination of British and European dates, it is a busy start to 2026. I am excited to see what the summer holds for BIIANCO. It is going to be thrilling to see…

HOW far they will go.

____________

Follow BIIANCO

Official:

https://www.biianco.com

TikTok:

https://www.tiktok.com/@itsbiianco

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/itsbiianco/

YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/BIIANCO

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/artist/4Axsf7QVnPabbam5y6NwLt?si=a4qUTDcIRdanWrwfx7zjpA

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/itsbiianco/