A conversation with Lost Under Heaven

“Quite a lot of the record, for me, is reflecting on breaking those mind-made manacles, being chained to things that just don’t serve you in life. And also the sense of transformation, to enliven yourself, to live as what I would regard as a more fully alive, higher potential lifestyle. I think Love Hates What You Become, follows the desire that we had with the first record, which was sort of a bit like a “how did you get here? why are you here? how do you get out of here?”; [this album] the questions are “are you satisfied? are you happy with the way in which you are existing on the micro and macro of the community and the planet?” - that’s in amongst all of it.”

Ellery Roberts and Ebony Hoorn, aka Lost Under Heaven, gave me the in-depth early scoop about their forthcoming album Love Hates What You Become - get involved over here

A conversation with Miya Folick

“I think it’s important after we express hurt and pain to have fun and to continue to live our own lives and not allow people to ruin our lives just because they have some issues. It’s important to turn towards the people that we love and say “OK, well let’s make something else together now, something positive.””

Miya Folick just released her wondrous debut album Premonitions, and she gave me a charming and candid interview all about it - have a read over on the 405.

Live Review: Phosphorescent at Shepherd's Bush Empire, London - 30.10.18

“Featuring all the songs from C’est La Vie, and reaching back over a decade for classic cuts, Phosphorescent pulled out all the stops for the final night of their tour”

I am delighted to report that Phosphorescent remain one of the must-see live acts on the planet - my full review of their end-of-tour blow out is over here.

Album Review: Pill - Soft Hell

“Pill’s music sounds like the city, and the varied lives lived within it; guitars, drums, bass and saxophone all seem to come at the songs from their own angle, collide in the middle and together form twisted, gnarled and python-like power punk songs. Pill are more interested in following this mutual path that their instruments are carving out for them – and the expressive flourishes that spark along the way make Soft Hell a simmering and passionate listening experience.”

Pill’s new album Soft Hell is one I want everyone to get behind - read more about my love of it in my full review

Album Review: Connan Mockasin - Jassbusters

“Connan Mockasin is musically following largely the same paths that he worked with on his LP, Caramel; dreamy, laid back and smooth songs, but Jassbusters comes from a more lovelorn and unkempt source. He shows hints of inspiration by entwining his richly beige rock with Pacific instrumentation, to great effect, but never seems to guide the songs to anywhere particularly memorable.”

Connan Mockasin’s new album Jassbusters isn’t up to all that much, in my humble opinion. The 405 has my full review.

A conversation with Julia Holter

“I was excited to listen to words for the sounds without immediately knowing the meaning. In fact, my whole thing with the record is sounds come first, and then the meaning always follows in this beautiful way; especially when I do a mesostic or a phonetic translation - like ‘Why Sad Song’ is a phonetic translation of a song in a different language.”

I totally geeked out when I had the opportunity to speak to Julia Holter, and she obliged with a pretty in-depth discussion of her new album Aviary - check it out

Album Review: Adrianne Lenker - abysskiss

“The perpetual motion of her moods is woven into the very fabric of the delicate but powerful abysskiss. Although the lyrics are often abstract, they document the personal travails of these times, and she described the completion of the album by saying “another skin is being shed.” All of this speaks to Adrianne Lenker’s preternatural gift (practically a necessity) for songwriting, and the way that she devotes body and mind to her music.”

Adrianne Lenker (of Big Thief) is some kind of wizard and an utterly magical songwriter - I tried to encapsulate my thoughts about her new solo album abysskiss in my review.

A conversation with Phosphorescent

“‘C’est La Vie’ kind of locked it in place for me as the keystone that reached out and gave all the other songs a place to live, a common thread. I think it worked as the first lyrics on there in a sense that I do think that this is a different kind of record than the ones before, and I think I wrote in a different way on this album. To me, it feels more direct than in the past.”

I got to speak to one of my absolute faves, Matthew Houck aka Phosphorescent, about the creation of his new album C’est La Vie - read up, read up!

Album Review: Viagra Boys - Street Worms

“Viagra Boys create post-punk songs in the ilk of The Men or Parquet Courts, but blues is also a distinctive vein running throughout new album Street Worms. This is infused through their ace-in-the-hole saxophone use and also Seb’s tales of woeful characters in each song– although these are not just down-on-their-luck losers, but mentally unwell societal outcasts.”

Sweden’s Viagra Boys are a darkly humorous lot, I tried to sum up their debut album in my review for The 405.

A conversation with Altopalo

“Sometimes we gel, sometimes we don’t, but we’re honest about that and willing to understand why something isn’t working, and always down to talk to each other as friends, and this influences our creative process with each other. So to answer the question, “are we experimental?”, the answer is we’re just family that loves creating, sharing, and being honest with each other. If this comes across as being experimental, then so be it, but to us, it’s just being who we are.”

The four members of experimental group Altopalo each gave me different angles of insight into their creative process in our email interview - check it out on the 405.

Album Review: Amnesia Scanner - Another Life

“The Berlin-based Finnish duo’s debut album could be said to be protest music, but the words that infest their tracks are sparse – it’s more just the sound that speaks to their fury. Another Life comes across like a rallying cry to an underground resistance against the current state of affairs in Western society, and its uniquely blaring drill-and-bass meets air-raid-rave can reach such extremes that it would immediately turn off the majority of people.”

Amnesia Scanner’s debut album Another Life is quite a trip - read my full review on The 405

A conversation with Frøkedal

“To many people’s great confusion, I remain good friends with my exes. Perhaps that is why I find the transition from having someone as your nearest and dearest – to turning all of that upside down when the relationship ends, so interesting and heartbreaking. This person that you now despise is still the same person that you once thought the world of and chose to be your partner. Then again, certain people can do you real damage. I have witnessed people I care about in unhealthy relationships, and I think I borrowed some of their brokenness and resentment. And added my own heartfelt anger to it.”

I had a great email interview with Anne-Lise Frøkedal about her wonderful new album - read it over here.

A conversation with Interpol

“We weren’t overthinking it, but we were excited by what was happening. I think he’s definitely more confident playing the instrument, and I think it helps him that we want him to be on bass. It feels like a new chemistry for the band.”

Dan Kessler of Interpol told me about the exciting creation of their new album Marauder - check it out on The 405

Album Review: Oliver Coates - Shelley's On Zenn-La

“This use of sounds that are familiar but just slightly and eerily off is the characterising feature of the ambitiously forward-thinking tracks that make up Shelley’s. Chief among these is the constant popping and burbling, both from the percussive and melodic elements. Coates truly makes it feel like we’re in an atmosphere where sound does travel in more globular shapes, or gliding ones that ooze through the rounder sounds. Female vocals are often in the mix, but actual words are rarely distinguishable; instead the voices are used teasingly, mingling with the beats and pushing through them in ways that are alluring like the call of Vonnegut’s Sirens of Titan.”

I absolutely adore Oliver Coates' new album Shelley's On Zenn-La - my review is my attempt to get you all interested

Live Review: Camp Cope at Tufnell Park Dome - 04.09.18

“The night was always building towards their airing of the polemic ‘The Opener’, which they smartly saved for last. Similar to ‘The Face Of God’, even knowing well the song and its anti-masculinity themes in advance could not have prepared us for the power of the song when played live. ‘The Opener’ doesn’t really feature a proper chorus, but is a constant build in fury, and you could feel the audience’s muscles and jaws tightening throughout the performance; by the time of the incendiary final verse, everyone seemed to be shouting along with as much passion as if they had personally faced the affronts that Camp Cope detail in the song.”

Camp Cope put on a stunning show - read my review.

A conversation with Wild Nothing

“It’s a much bigger sounding record, just in terms of how clear and crystal the production is.”

Jack Tatum aka Wild Nothing gave me a very open and earnest interview about his new album. Check out the feature on The 405 with great pictures by Carolina Nikotian.

Album Review: IDLES - Joy As An Act Of Resistance

“IDLES both speak earnestly about their own experiences on some songs, or caricature the anti-immigration bores that supposedly infest the country on others. It’s not all tongue-in-cheek on Joy As An Act Of Resistance though, as IDLES have long been proponents of speaking out about mental health, and have created a handful of genuinely affecting moments on here too. They’re here to prove that, more than anything, it is finding value in the quotidian and being open to new experiences that is the ultimate weapon against the ubiquitous gloom.”

IDLES' second album Joy As An Act Of Resistence is a vital and important album, I had a go at summing up why in my album review for The 405.

A conversation with Her's

“Ste: They weren’t anywhere near that world. They were genre-less basically [laughs]. Vague pop. It was like “go and write a protest song.”

[Audun laughs]

Ste: We were singing about “all the cogs in the machine” and stuff like that.

Audun: So bad.

Ste: Really dramatic melodies and all this stuff. It was pretty nuts.

Like a teenager who’s just been turned on to Pink Floyd.

Ste: Yeah, you could say that.

Audun: We don’t have much protest in us, do we? We’re pretty mellow. We also got tasked to write a suicide song!

Ste: Yeah, “write a suicide song, that’ll be great...””

Probably the most amusing interview I've ever done with Ste and Audun of Her's can be read over here.

A conversation with Mitski

“The cowboy in my mind is powerful in that he’s free; free that he’s able to ride into town, wreck shit and then leave without thinking about it. There’s a strange power in not caring. I’m interested in that idea of power.”

Mitski gave me a fascinating interview about her new album Be The Cowboy - check it out here.

A conversation with Dizzy

“Charlie: I think it goes kind of unspoken; there’s not much trying to match the vibe or mood, we know well enough our sound at this point, because we’ve spent a lot of time carving it out.

Katie: And I think once the lyrics go over the top it’s easy to kind of steer it in the direction of where it should go. Because we usually don’t touch something too much until the lyrics are pretty much there.

Alex: Before then most of it is just “temporary vibe creation.”

Charlie: It’s true, the songs go through a lot of different phases.”

I had a fun time sitting down with intriguing Canadian quartet Dizzy - read our conversation.