FEATURE: Kate Bush: The Deep Cuts: Delius (Song of Summer)

FEATURE:

 

 

Kate Bush: The Deep Cuts

  

Delius (Song of Summer)

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I have not done a new…

Kate Bush: The Deep Cuts for a while. I thought, as so many of her most interesting songs are not played on radio, to give another great example of a song that should be better known and played. It has been a while since I talked about Delius - or, to give it its full title, Delius (Song of Summer). There are a few reasons for including this song now. The track is taken from Kate Bush’s third studio album, Never for Ever. There are a few big anniversaries next year. 1979’s The Tour of Life turns forty-five. Also, in September 1979, Bush began recording Never for Ever. I am thinking about that album and how, without much explanation, the reviews for the album were not that great. It is a beautiful mix between the more eccentric and unusual sounds of her first two albums (1978’s The Kick Inside, Lionheart) and something a little more ‘conventional’. This is explained and explored in Delius (Song for Summer). It has the sound and tone of an older track. Something choral that you might have heard centuries ago. Even so, there is that (then) modern production and Bush’s distinct vocal. A song I rarely hear played or discussed; it is one of the standouts on Never for Ever. I am going to give my personal thoughts about the song and why it is one that deserves a lot more attention and airing. Like so many of Kate Bush’s greater and most interesting songs, there is something unusual and rare when it comes to the inspiration for Delius (Song for Summer).

Before carrying on, and thanks to the Kate Bush Encyclopedia, here is some background information on the song and its music video. Not released as a single, it was a live video (Bush mimed to the song on a T.V. show). I think that Delius (Song of Summer) could have been a very interesting single. Such a shame that this song is not known more widely. It is a really beautiful and interesting one:

“Song written by Kate Bush as a tribute to the English composer Frederick Delius. The song was inspired by Ken Russell’s film Song of Summer, made for the BBC’s programme Omnibus, which Kate had watched when she was ten years old. In his twenties, Delius contracted syphilis. When he became wheelchair bound as he became older, a young English admirer Eric Fenby volunteered his services as unpaid amanuensis. Between 1928 and 1933 he took down his compositions from dictation, and helping him revise earlier works.The song was released on the album Never For Ever and as the B-side of the single Army Dreamers.

Music video

A music video for ‘Delius’ exists, which was shown on television at least twice: during a Dr. Hook television special on 7 April 1980 and during the Russell Harty Show on 25 November 1980. The setting is a quiet, lazy English riverbank filled with reeds and grass. By the bank is a wheelchair-ridden old man, his body covered by a throw-rug, his head obscured by a large yellow disk resembling a sun. This figure presents an image of Delius much like the one which was depicted in the BBC television film  by Ken Russell. Gliding along on the river is a young swan-girl, represented by Kate in a gossamer white gown with wings”.

Maybe one reason as to why Delius (Song of Summer) was not released as a single, played that much on radio, or indeed was taken that seriously by a lot of people, as some viewed it as pretentious or too arty. Maybe this odd Pop artists trying to step into Classical. There is evidence of this attitude when Kate Bush appeared on the Russell Harty Show in 1980 (as you will see in the video above). This clash of an original and bold young artist meeting stuffy and slightly ignorant views:

“Kate shows her video for Delius; and discusses the music of Frederick Delius with Harty, Eric Fenby and Julian Lloyd Webber.

The program begins with Kate meeting Harty on stage, hiding a large hammer behind her back, and slyly promising not to hurt him. {A reference to Harty being hit by Grace Jones - CDW}

Later the Delius video is shown, and afterward Kate joins the group discussion about the British composer. Fenby is pressed for an opinion of Kate's song, and politely suggests that Delius would have applauded Kate for "at least doing her own thing." Harty patronizingly accuses Kate of intellectual pretensions in her choice of subjects for her songs, to which she ably and devastatingly replies that "music is pure emotion." Unfortunately Julian Lloyd Webber does not join in the brief and hurried discussion”.

I have a lot of time and respect for the majestic and divine Delius (Song of Summer). Not only is it part of a group of very beautiful songs on Never for Ever (including Blow Away (For Bill); it is one that would have made people aware of English composer, Frederick Delius. Again, this is a songwriter whose influences were far from ordinary! Standing aside from her peers, this is a song that nobody else would have come up with. Even though she was twenty-two when most people heard that song, that is not to say she deserved to be patronised or seen as someone unqualified to talk about the composer and write music like that. Most of the eleven tracks from Never for Ever are not played much (or at all!) on radio. Or known wider afield. Delius (Song of Summer) is a terrific and beautiful track that everyone should know about. The second track on Kate Bush’s third studio album, this gem of a song is…

FIRST class.

FEATURE: Massive Impact: 2024: A Year for the Industry to Reduce Its Carbon Footprint

FEATURE:

 

 

Massive Impact

PHOTO CREDIT: cottonbro studio/Pexels

 

2024: A Year for the Industry to Reduce Its Carbon Footprint

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I know that there are…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Ron Lach/Pexels

so many people through the music industry that are tackling climate change in their own way. Trying to reduce their carbon footprints and think more ‘green’. There are a couple of recent music news stories that piqued my interest. Relating to the environmental impact of festivals and physical music. They are very different in terms of their tone - though they both raise points worth discussing. I think that, with more and more artists touring and there being this huge demand for live music, it is very hard to fulfil that and be as environmentally conscious as possible. In terms of festivals and gigs, it is almost impossible at the moment to put one on that is carbon-neutral. Between transportation of equipment and the energy needed to power everything, there is a fair bit to tackle and find alternatives too. You can read how festivals have impacted (positively and negatively) on the environment and how some, like Glastonbury, are taking steps already to do their part. I do think that there has been a lot of awareness and reaction to an issue that needs to be a top priority. With freak weather being more common now, the cost of adapting festivals is huge. At the moment, with many struggling to book big headliners and having to raise ticket prices, there is an extra cost in making things greener. Ensuring that, in the case of extreme weather, people are safe and the damage is as minimal as possible. It is a worrying time where so much has to be considered!

Last year, this article from The New York Times state how one festival, Nashville’s Deep Tropics, took steps to show how a festival can become greener. A smaller festival compared to America’s Coachella and Glastonbury here, how easy and affordable is it to follow in their lead?! I think that the more smaller festivals make changes and reduce their carbon impact, this will then spread to more of the larger ones. Of course, it is more difficult for major festivals to go as close to carbon-free as possible owing to their size and the amount of people they attract. Rolling Stone UK recently reported how Massive Attack are making a big impact. Reducing travel emissions/pollution and introducing new initiatives, let’s hope that this can roll out to many other festivals next year:

“Massive Attack have announced details of a huge new hometown gig in Bristol next summer, set to trial new advances in climate friendly live music events.

The gig at the Clifton Downs on August 25 is titled ‘Act 1.5: Climate Action Accelerator’, and aims to become the lowest carbon gig of its size ever held.

Initiatives at the gig include a presale of tickets for local residents with nearby postcodes to avoid extensive travel to the show, free electric-powered shuttles to train stations after the gig, the planting of a new woodland area in the south west and more. Find out more details here.

It comes after the band’s collaboration with the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, where they collaborated with climate scientists and analysts to work out ways of making live performance greener.

 IN THIS PHOTO: Massive Attack/PHOTO CREDIT: Warren Du Preez

They were set to trial these findings at a special show in Liverpool, but that was cancelled during the pandemic.

Speaking about the show and its aims, Massive Attack’s 3D said: “We’re chuffed to play our home city again and to be able do it in the right way. In terms of climate change action there are no excuses left; offsetting, endless seminars and diluted declarations have all been found out – so live music must drastically reduce all primary emissions and take account of fan travel.

“Working with pioneering partners on this project means we can seriously move the dial for major live music events & help create precedents that are immediately available.”

Professor Carly McLachlan from the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research added: “This is precisely the type of transformative approach that we need to see more of in the live music sector and indeed every sector; one that has the collaboration and vision to reduce emissions across all areas of impact and working beyond the areas you directly control to unlock the systemic change we urgently need to deliver on our Paris Agreement commitments”.

Alongside festivals and the impact they have on climate change – in a negative sense -, there is also the production of physical music. I am going to say outright how physical music needs to continue. There is no way that we can stick with digital music and be happy with that. People need physical products and, for artists and labels, it is unsustainable relying on streaming. Given the continued demand for vinyl and formats like C.D.s and cassettes still being bought, there is no question that physical music needs to flourish and be available to all. If we get rid of that, it will have devastating consequences for artists. Many are struggling to make money at the moment. A lot rely on the money from physical sales - so we cannot let that slide. It is clear that there needs to be alternatives in terms of the material of albums and how they are being distributed and manufactured. Something that made me angry was reading a recent NME feature. They reported how one music executive called out artists who are supposedly highlighting climate change and want to make a different, yet they continue to have their albums manufactured and sold (which does create some damage to the environment):

“A senior music executive has said artists who advocate for climate change and continue to produce physical records are “hypocritical”.

Sir Robin Millar is a senior record industry executive who has also produced albums such as Sade‘s ‘Diamond Life’ and Everything But The Girl‘s ‘Eden’. He is also the co-founder of management company Blue Raincoat Music, who currently lists Skin and Phoebe Bridgers amongst its clients.

In a recent interview with The Guardian, Sir Millar said he believed the production of physical records such as vinyl and CDs should be eradicated.

“I am baffled that no large record company has had the backing of a big-selling artist to stop making physical records,” he said.

Millar further argued that the quality of digital songs were equal to vinyl, and that artist tours – which also cause damage to the planet – could be screened online. Furthermore, vinyl and CDs are packaged with “chopped-down trees and plastic”.

“How can anybody stand up and say ‘save the planet’?,” he said. “Artists are awful for hypocritical bandwagonery.”

Back in 2019, NME examined how artists could tackle climate change, highlighting vinyl production as one facet of the issue. We spoke to Chiara Badiali, who works at London-based charity helping industries improve environmental sustainability Julie’s Bicycle. Badiali said vinyl “is actually such a small part of the industry if you look at the manufacturing footprint.” (In 2019, vinyl accounted for 3.6% of music sales worldwide.)

“People focus on it because it’s so visible and it’s a tangible thing. From a carbon footprint perspective the environmental impact doesn’t compare to the impact of travel. It’s so small that it’s basically a blip.”

However, she did see room for improvement in the sector regardless: “People are looking at how you’d reduce the amount of energy that gets taken in pressing a piece of vinyl. There are people who are experimenting with the actual raw materials of vinyl. But that’s where it’s really tricky because at the moment vinyl is one of the best mediums that we have found to do what we want it to. The biggest problem is: what happens to it at the end of its life?”

Since then, the likes of Bicep, Angel Olsen, and Black Country, New Road teamed up to feature on the first bioplastic vinyl release. R.E.M.‘s Michael Stipe also released music on the world’s first commercially available bioplastic vinyl in 2022”.

There are steps and developments where artists are finding ways to press to vinyl in a green way. NME recently reported how some bands are reissuing albums on eco-friendly vinyl. It is encouraging that there are shoots of good news - though I don’t think it will be easy to convert all vinyl to something more eco-friendly:

“Albums by Enter Shikari, Napalm Death and Carcass are set to be re-released as eco-friendly ‘Greenyl’ vinyl records.

Record shop Rude Cares has teamed up with Greenyl to release the album as part of a new Be The Change initiative, for which the LPs will be made at the first eco-friendly vinyl plant.

Enter Shikari’s ‘Common Dreads’, Napalm Death’s ‘Harmony Corruption’ and Carcass’ ‘Heartwork’ will be printed on PVC-free Greenyl, made from 99 per cent recycled plastic compound which has zero emissions during the production process.

Other bands taking part include The Dangerous Summer, Less Than Jake, Chiodos, Polyphia, Sydney Sprague and Graphic Nature. You can find release dates and links to pre-order here.

According to the Be The Change initiative, the records sound “perfect” and still have a “high-quality sound”.

“We’re on a mission to flip the script on vinyl manufacturing, launching a project that’s not just music but a message for our world,”  said co-founder of Greenyl and president of Rude Records, Ilich Rausa (per Kerrang!")”.

For a start, artists should not have to choose between having principles and being able to survive in the industry. They are quite right to back change and highlight climate change. It is not hypocritical still relying on physical sales. Major and smaller artists need to produce physical albums to make money. Fans demand it and want to keep that music on something they can play years from now. Not only does streaming have its own carbon impact, it is also ephemeral by nature. Various songs and albums can disappear at any time. When it comes to artists making a difference in terms of their carbon footprint, maybe travel and gig dates are more realistic. Perhaps performing more as close to home as possible or finding new and less damaging ways of traveling. Physical music is something they have very little say in. They are not making those albums and shipping them out. Rather than calling out artists and calling them hypocritical for being concerned about the environment and seemingly damaging it by making albums, the better approach is to realise that, in such a tough and demanding time, very few artists can rely on streaming revenue. We also do not know how long streaming sites will operate; therefore it is a less stable and long-term source of revenue. Physical music is a way of passing music through the generations. The better approach is to make bioplastic vinyl as affordable and available as possible. Maybe not as short-term reality, artists committing to finding alternatives to plastic.

 PHOTO CREDIT: cottonbro studio/Pexels

It does seem that bioplastic vinyl is going to help decarbonise. I am not sure how realistic and available it is at the moment. It is still an idea in its infancy. In terms of manufacturing, shipping and delivery, there are a lot of considerations. How to make the entire process and production cycle as carbon-free as is possible. At the moment, with there being relatively few vinyl manufacturing plants and it being quite expensive to buy vinyl albums, there is not this short-term and easy fix. I also think that bioplastic might be an even more expensive option to start. If it is making a more positive impact on the environment, will it sell less because it is not as ‘affordable’ as vinyl?! I know that there are costs involved producing vinyl though, with prices pretty high at the moment, we also need to think about consumers and pricing them out. There is a lot to absorb when it comes to physical music manufacturing and festivals next year. Two of the biggest and more difficult areas to tackle when it comes to pollution and climate impact, there are signs that things can change. From Massive Attack’s Act 1.5: Climate Action Accelerator – which is a really stupid name, but you can’t fault its importance! – to possible alternatives to traditional vinyl, even more commitment and innovation needs to occur in 2024. I know it is a gigantic thing to take on board! I haven’t even mentioned C.D. and cassette production and alternatives to them in terms of material. How realistic it is for artists to travel further afield more greenly. There is so much to take on board. We are all witnessing the effects of climate change. The music industry needs to – and I believe will – do everything they can to reduce its carbon footprint. The responsibility is everyone’s. Labels, artists, fans and venues need to pledge to a greener 2024. Striving towards a future where we can buy physical music and attend festivals whilst ensuring that there is as little impact on the environment as is possible. It is not only to keep music fans and artists happy. It is to ensure that we are all kept…

SAFE from harm.

FEATURE: Spotlight: Frex

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

 

Frex

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THERE are not too many…

interviews out there with the amazing Los Angeles-based Frex. She is a wonderful artist who I hope people check out. I think that next year is going to be her most successful one yet. It seems like a new project – whether an E.P. or album, I am not sure – is coming along soon enough. I have a few interviews that I want to include. Working up something quite recent. A standout name in a busy market, there is no doubting the fact Frex is going to take some big steps in 2024. I really love what she does. She has played in the U.K. before. The final interview I am sourcing is Frex speaking from a gig from Folklore Hoxton. I am quite new to her music, so I am working back a bit and catching up on things I have missed. I want to start my going back to 2020. Swidlife spoke with an awesome talent about a rising talent whose music was already standing out and turning heads. Her debut (and only to this point) album, Blu, came out in 2018:

“Frex has shown an artist on the rise, on the cusp of acclaim throughout the years. Having paid close attention to LA-based Frex for a while now, she continues to release some of the most enchanting songs we’ve heard thus far. A lot of music falls into relaxing or “chill” genres these days, but Frex’s more mellow moments are uniquely soothing, a trait not shared with much other music.

We recently had the chance to catch up with Frex for an exclusive interview to discuss all the music and everything that goes into it. Check out the full interview down below.

So let us begin with introductions. For those who don’t know, where are you from?

I’m from this small town in Pennsylvania called Mechanicsburg. Not much ever happens there [laughs.] Although Bret Michaels is from there, that’s pretty cool.

Let’s backtrack a little. How was it growing up in Mechanicsburg?

It was… hmm. There’s a straightforward kind of mindset where I’m from. You go to school, and college, get a job and have kids. Creativity isn’t encouraged, which led to me feeling misunderstood a lot of the time growing up. It’s a lot of farmland with a lot of narrow-minded people.

Is that when you thought LA was the best option for you?

Not quite. It took a little more time. I went to school for business in Philadelphia for a little bit before deciding it wasn’t for me. But when I was in Philadelphia, I met some people who also made music, which helped. That’s when I started coming out of my shell a little bit more.

Can you recall when you told yourself, “yeah, music is what I want to do”?

Oh, I always wanted to make music! Always, always, always. I just never thought I could.

What made you think you couldn’t?

The idea just seemed so impossible to me. As I said, I’m from a small town, so no one thinks that kind of stuff is possible. Plus, I didn’t get that much support from anyone for a long time.

Did you always think it was possible, or did being in LA and near the music industry put things into perspective?

Coming to LA changed everything. I visited in June of 2016, and that’s when I was like, “oh.. shit is different out here,” and after that, I started taking music more seriously. I never thought it was possible before, and it took a long time for me to believe in myself.

When did you officially decide to move out there?

January 2018. Funny enough, godchild and I moved out here by complete coincidence around that time.

Let’s talk about your last album, “Blu.” How did that album come together conceptually?

So at this point, godchild and I were both working remotely, only sending each other stuff instead of working in person. Crazy how it all came together because “blu” is only eight songs, and I probably only made like 15 songs for the project, way less than I would make now.

It was a cool time for me creatively because it was the first time I had a producer to work with at my disposal. It leveled up my sound. Luckily, all the songs we created on blu just felt cohesive to us.

The concept of “blu” was that most of the songs had pretty sad lyrics despite some of them sounding happy. “blu” was my sad-girl era. But, for “blu,” I made an effort to get in the studio and make finished songs. Until then, I was making pretty loosely structured songs, so I wanted to make something people could take seriously.

How do you push yourself out of your comfort zone sonically?

Pushing boundaries sonically became easier once I realized that not everything I create has to be released. That’s the beauty of making more and more music. If you’re consistently creating, you don’t have to worry about whether or not you’re making a hit. You can create what you feel at that moment, which opens up space to do something you usually wouldn’t.

Nowadays, when people talk about artists and artistry as a whole — it’s far more than just music, and it seems like you have the total package. Outside of just music — while staying true to yourself, how much attention do you pay to what else goes into being an “artist?”

There’s a lot that goes into it. For a long time, I felt tired of “branding.” It felt phony to try and cultivate an image for myself. Then I realized I was only hurting myself by running away from it. I started actively trying to improve my social media presence. It isn’t “uncool” to try. The only people who will tell you this are people who wish they could do what you’re doing. So yeah, as an artist, I feel like it’s about expressing yourself as much as you can, as authentically as you can. It’s not about trying to be cool. It’s about doing what you think is cool. There’s a difference”.

I will fast forward things to last year. With E.P.s and an album under her belt, there had been plenty of music and live performances from a wonderful artist. I feel 2024 is one where Frex will take things to a new level and release a follow-up to 2018’s Blu. RAYDAR chatted with Frex about her career path so far. Some of the artists who inspire her. It seems like acts such as SZA are really important to her. Let’s hope that they get to collaborate sometime soon:

“She made waves upon the release of “Out The Blue” and 2017’s White Sun EP—a pivotal start in her artistry. After refining her sound, Frex reintroduced herself to the world through enchanting singles “History” and “Homebody,” subsequently followed by her debut offering Blu. The eight-song project, which boasts a lone feature from FIH, is a thoughtful reflection on themes of self-identity, love loss, and the feelings that encompass those emotions. She further cemented her presence with 2020’s “Come Around” and “Don’t Wait,” as well as “Slide” and “Kill For You” the following year.

With her recent situationship-inspired and R&B-tinged maxi-single Mixed Feelings, two songs created in 2019, Frex embraces her abilities and steps into the limelight as an exciting name to keep a lookout for. Both the titular track and “Love For Granted” are produced by frequent collaborator Godchild and serve as a warm welcome to the singer-songwriter. With her obsession with the early to mid-2000s R&B vibe—as well as Rock and Alternative—that groups singers and rappers like Rihanna, Ne-Yo, Usher, and Gorillaz, Frex pulls from a variety of music icons which is evident in her songs.

Did you grow up surrounded by music? How did you discover your talent for songwriting and develop your expressive vocals?

I’m not from a musical family. Although, my grandpa played piano and sang. I also recently learned my great-grandpa used to play the banjo along the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania, which I thought was cool. My oldest brother also must’ve been an influence because he was in a band for a little bit and made like three songs, which I thought was crazy. I couldn’t even wrap my head around how music was recorded at the time, but this was like 2008 and I think that’s when recording equipment was just becoming more accessible to smaller artists.

Anyway, my brother got a new laptop and let me keep his old one, which had a few guitar loops he had played in GarageBand. I recorded myself singing over them through the laptop microphone. That was my first recorded song. I was probably like 10 or 11 at the time. Before that, I had always been singing, writing poems, and was always very intrigued by music. As time went on, I started playing acoustic guitar and making beats but ended up quitting for a few years for two reasons: I gave up on guitar when I couldn’t play a barre chord and the beats on Soundcloud were WAY better than anything I was making.

I started writing to beats I found on SoundCloud, which is where I ended up getting in contact with my long-time friend and collaborator, Godchild. I also started going to a “real” studio with an engineer, which is when I ended up making Blu. I think recording with an engineer really allowed me to get more comfortable with my voice and allowed me to try experimental sounds which I wouldn’t have been able to do on my own.

Who are some of your past and present musical inspirations?

My mom was always playing whatever was on MTV or VH1 in the early 2000s, so all of that music had a profound effect on me. Ne-Yo, T-Pain, The-Dream, Sean Paul, Gwen Stefani, Gorillaz, Rihanna, Norah Jones, Avril Lavigne, Ashely Simpson, Kelly Clarkson, Robin Thicke, Maroon 5, Usher. She also played her favorite oldies like Madonna, BeeGees, and Earth Wind & Fire.

My oldest brother in the band gave me his old laptop which had a lot of Rock and Alternative music on it. I listened to Death Cab For Cutie, Phoenix, Escape the Fate, The Used, Asking Alexandria, Saosin, Anthony Green, The Killers, Dance Gavin Dance, and so much more.

My other brother was always making mix CDs, which usually had a lot of rap on them like Snoop Dogg, Soulja Boy, Chingy, 50 Cent, Lil Wayne, and many more. My early inspirations were all over the place and I loved downloading artists’ discographies and listening to everything I possibly could. My list of inspirations goes on and on and on, but as far as current inspirations I would say Frank Ocean, The Weeknd, Don Toliver, Kenny Mason, Phabo, Kurtis Wells, Tierra Whack, Isaiah Rashad, Tay Iwar, and PartynextDoor. There are so many more though. These are people with projects I couldn’t stop listening to.

It’s been nearly four years since the release of your debut project, Blu, how have you grown as an artist since then?

Sheesh! Sometimes I forget people have only heard what I’ve released because I’m on the other side of it knowing everything I’ve made since Blu and everything I’m capable of. I think I recorded about 10 songs for Blu, and released 8 of those. Since then I’ve made somewhere close to 200+ songs. The amount of energy, hours, and research I’ve put into my craft since Blu is something that won’t go unnoticed.

I’ve gotten way better at writing and WAY better at singing. I’ve become more comfortable with my voice, and don’t always need so many layers or effects when recording. I’ve learned how to play guitar—even the barre chords—and am more comfortable with music theory. I’ve grown with Godchild, and we’ve had a countless number of sessions since Blu. I’ve educated myself by doing my research and listening to a bunch of older classics. I’ve stepped into my sense of fashion and started doing more research in that lane.

Most of all, I’ve learned so much about how the music industry works and what it’s really like to be an artist, even if it’s constantly changing. After all of that, I feel I’m finally ready to put myself out there in every sense.

As a musician, songs can be relatable and quite therapeutic to the listener—what do you want young women to take away from your music and journey as a whole?

Stay true to yourself and your vision. I know that’s basic, but it’s true. Remember who you are and where you come from, because more than anything, people appreciate authenticity. People don’t want perfection, they want realness. Don’t do anything that doesn’t align with YOU. Don’t let anyone, especially men, try and tell you who YOU are. Get comfortable with saying no. Be your biggest cheerleader even when no one sees you”.

I am going to wrap up soon. Back in September, Wordplay spoke with Frex after her headline set at Hackney Folklore. It does seem that the U.S. artist has a connection with the U.K. A growing and passionate fanbase here. There is a lot of love out there for her. Let’s hope that Frex comes and plays back here through 2024:

“You have recently played All Points East and had a headline show at Hackney Folkore in London. Could you tell us more about how it went?

Honestly I tried to manage my expectations before the shows just in case the whole thing ended up being a total flop, but it definitely went way better than I imagined. The festival had some people who knew every word to the released stuff, and then some people who I think stumbled across me just by being at all points east, and they were vibing. As for my headline show, I’m so happy and almost surprised at how many people showed up. one guy said he found out that same day that I was performing and travelled 2.5 hours to see me. Another girl told me ‘oxford circus’ inspired her to move to London. plus people were singing along and that always warms my heart. It was special.

If you could curate your own festival line up, which 3 artists would you have headlining?

SZA, Rihanna, then maybe a band like the Strokes or Tame Impala or something like that.

Who/what do you consider to be the biggest influence on your music?

Instead of telling you my biggest musical inspirations, because the big ones are sort of basic, I will just tell you that all of the songs I write are heavily influenced by real life situations I find myself in, involving people I am romantically delusional about. My music is influenced by romantic fantasies, heartbreak, connection, nostalgia, naivety, and harsh truths.

What’s the proudest moment to date for you as an artist?

Having the nerve to fly overseas for my first headline show and have it go as well as it did was pretty amazing. I feel like if I pulled that off I can do so much more. I feel like I really connected to everyone who attended the show, so to know my music has this far of a reach feels like a big accomplishment.

Do you have any advice for our readers who may be trying to play the mad game of music?

I know everyone says this, but focus on yourself. don’t focus on who isn’t supporting you, what artist or producer you can work with that you think is gonna make you blow up, or how you’re “not getting enough numbers”.  Stop focusing on the externals. Tap into the things you like, and use it. Do the internal work and self-discovery. More than likely the reason you blow up will not just be because of a feature or a retweet, but because of all of the hours of work you put into your craft that no one else witnessed but you. Also, don’t be afraid to show it to the world.

What have you got planned for the not so distant future?

I’m going to New York Fashion Week this year which I’m excited about. I also have a project coming out very soon, but like actually. I’ve said I have a project for years now but this is actually the one, so I’m excited to finally give people a body of work”.

There are a lot of great artists being tipped for big things in 2024. It can be easy to miss some and regret it later! I think that everyone can get something from the music of Frex. An interesting artist whose music definitely stands out from a lot of her peers’, next year is going to be one where she builds on her hard work the past six or seven years. Someone ready to release another project and showcase the next stage of her career. Though she is based in Los Angeles, the incredible Frex…

BELONGS to the world.

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Follow Frex

FEATURE: Groovelines: Paul McCartney - Wonderful Christmastime

FEATURE:

 

 

Groovelines

  

Paul McCartney - Wonderful Christmastime

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WHEN we think about…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Mary McCartney

the all-time best Christmas songs, there are some common choices. The likes of Mariah Carey’s All I Want for Christmas Is You and Wham!’s Last Christmas are in there. One that is divisive – though I never know why! – is Paul McCartney’s Wonderful Christmastime. Released on 16th November, 1979 following Wings' final album, Back to the Egg, it was recorded during the sessions for McCartney II (1980). Wonderful Christmastime is one of my favourite Christmas songs! I love the synth sound and the fact it does not incorporate the same musical elements and lyrical themes as others. More experimental than most, the messages are still positive and about togetherness. A joyful song that never gets the love it deserves, I wanted to dig deeper for the final Groovelines of the year. This article provides more details about a Christmas song that should nestle right alongside the most adored and played:

“It was recorded on August 30, 1979 at the end of the sessions for the upcoming McCartney II, which like its spiritual predecessor was a Pure Paul Project.

So, Paul wrote it all by himself, produced it all by himself and played keyboards, synthesizers, guitars, bass, drums, percussion and – of course – jingle bells, all by himself.

Despite that, the members of Wings popped in for the video, which was taped at the Fountain Inn in Ashurst, West Sussex.

When was 'Wonderful Christmastime' released?

Like 'Merry Xmas Everybody', while 'Wonderful Christmastime' was actually recorded in the summer it was of course held back until the runup to Christmas.

It was released on November 16, 1979, six months before McCartney II.

And the B-side? The incredible 'Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reggae'. Yes, really. A (thankfully) instrumental reggae-(ish) version of the Christmas classic.

Wedged between the release of two Macca albums as a standalone single, in later years it's been bundled into fancy reissues of both Wings' Back to the Egg AND McCartney II.

Wings toured the UK in November and December 1979, which was perfect timing, so while it was absolutely a solo Paul song, it was played live by the band during the shows.

What is 'Wonderful Christmastime' about?

Here's where audiences get a bit split.

Unlike the grand statements of John Lennon and Yoko Ono's 1971 classic 'Happy Xmas (War is Over)', 'Wonderful Christmastime' is about, well... simply having a wonderful Christmastime.

That's about it, really.

"The choir of children sing their song / Ding dong, ding dong / Ding dong, ding, ooh, ooh"

That's about the measure of it, and plenty of Twitter jokers have had some fun with the song.

But hey, after a faceful of mince pies and a load of mulled wine, maybe people don't want or need to be preached to about world hunger or the horrors of war when they pop on their Christmas playlist.

Where did 'Wonderful Christmastime' get in the charts and how much does it earn in royalties every year?

'Wonderful Christmastime' got all the way to number 6 in the UK singles charts. On Christmas week itself it was at number 7 – the distinctly unseasonable 'Another Brick in the Wall Pt 2' by Pink Floyd was the Christmas number 1.

Unlike some artists, Paul McCartney's Christmas hit is far from his sole earner, but it certainly doesn't hurt to have a seasonal smash in your back catalogue.

Way back in 2010 it was estimated that the song raked in $400,000-$600,000 a year (£300,000-£450,000).

In the era of constant streaming Spotify Christmas playlists, that's likely only increased”.

I can never get my head around any antipathy for this song. Wonderful Christmastime is so festive and amazing. I always feel more upbeat when I listen to it. I don’t think critics were objective in 1979. There was antipathy towards McCartney lingering since the breakup of The Beatles (1970). McCartney II was slagged off too. All these years later, I think more people are starting to approve and embrace Wonderful Christmastime. This Wikipedia article discussed the chart impact and reception to a Paul McCartney standard that splits opinion:

“Following its release as a stand-alone single in the United Kingdom, "Wonderful Christmastime" peaked at number six on the UK Singles Chart on the week ending January 5, 1980. In the United States, the single peaked at number 83 on the Cash Box Top 100 Singles chart (week ending January 12, 1980) and at number 94 on the Record World Singles Chart (week ending December 29, 1979), but it did not initially make the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

"Wonderful Christmastime" first appeared on a Billboard magazine music chart in December 1984, when it peaked at number 10 for two straight weeks on the magazine's special Christmas Singles chart. Its next appearance on a Billboard music came on the week ending January 6, 1996, when the song both debuted and peaked at number 29 on the magazine's weekly Hot Adult Contemporary chart.  "Wonderful Christmastime" finally debuted on the main Billboard Hot 100 chart in December 2018, at position number 47. It peaked at number 28 on the week ending January 2, 2021, following its 2020 chart re-entry two weeks earlier.

"Wonderful Christmastime" continues to receive substantial annual festive airplay, although some music critics consider it to be one of McCartney's mediocre compositions. Beatles author Robert Rodriguez has written of "Wonderful Christmastime": "Love it or hate it, few songs within the McCartney oeuvre have provoked such strong reactions."

Including royalties from cover versions, it was estimated in 2010 that McCartney makes $400,000 a year from this song, which puts its cumulative earnings at over $15 million”.

A beautiful and hugely spirited song recorded at Paul McCartney’s Lower Gate Farm Studio, I have heard it a few times already this year. With less than a week to go until Christmas Day, I hope that we hear Wonderful Christmastime a lot more. A song that deserves a chart relaunch. Get it to new ears. In spite of those who dislike the song, Wonderful Christmastime is still popular and is played every year. Last year, for his official website McCartney discussed the song. He was asked about the enduring legacy of Wonderful Christmastime and whether he ever thought it would stand the test of time:

“The party’s on, the feeling’s here... And a certain Paul McCartney holiday song is back in the charts! Written during the sessions for McCartney II, ‘Wonderful Christmastime’ didn’t make it onto the album but has since become one of Paul’s best-loved songs, making its annual return to radio and streaming playlists from November onwards. Whether you’re listening to the radio on your car journey home for the holidays or walking into a store to do some last-minute Christmas shopping, you’re guaranteed to hear that iconic synth intro at some point!

Over the past few years, we’ve shown ‘Wonderful Christmastime’ a lot of love. On the 40th anniversary of its release in 2019, we remastered the music video in HD, and last year it became the first Paul McCartney song to be released in Dolby ATMOS. Most recently, the single was reissued on 7” vinyl (with ‘Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reggae’ on the B-side) as part of The 7” Singles Box.

One thing we haven’t done, however, is ask Paul what he thinks of the track and its popularity now. So, as the temperatures dropped here in London, we grabbed a hot drink and chatted to Paul about all things ‘Wonderful Christmastime’; got the lowdown on his own family Christmas traditions; and found out whether he might release another Christmas song (or album) one day…

PaulMcCartney.com: When you first released ‘Wonderful Christmastime’, did you think it was going to be a Christmas hit that would come back every year? Or does it surprise you that it’s still so popular now?

Paul: I like the idea of Christmas songs purely because they only come around at Christmas! They remind us of the fun atmosphere of the whole season, and when I was writing ‘Wonderful Christmastime’ I was trying to capture that party aspect. I did hope it would keep coming back – which it has. Sometimes people will go into a shop and hear it a little too much, but I don’t care! I’m happy!

PM.com: We really wanted to ask you about this ‘Wonderful Christmastime’ fan theory that has gone viral on social media. The theory suggests the song is about people practising witchcraft, chanting ‘the moon is right, the spirit’s up’, and when someone walks in, they must play it cool and pretend they are ‘simply having a wonderful Christmastime!’. Is this theory true?

Paul: Oh yeah. Well, thank goodness they found me out. This is completely true and in actual fact I am the head wizard of a Liverpool coven. (Paul laughs) Either that… or it’s complete nonsense. And you know it’s the latter!

PM.com: This theory may have come from people mishearing the lyrics. Could you confirm if the lyric is ‘the moon is right’ or ‘the mood is right’?

Paul: It’s ‘the mood’! This is the mood; I’ve gathered together the witches and wizards... I’ve got ‘the mood’, which is what we in wizardry call it (laughs). The thing is about this stuff, it’s so easy to convince half the people in the world. You do have to be a little bit careful!

No, it’s ‘the mood’. And you know what, I’m thinking about Liverpool Christmas parties, that’s really all I’m doing with that song. “The mood is right, let’s raise a glass, the spirit’s up” – you know, all the stuff you do at Christmas. Particularly with my old Liverpool family parties.

PM.com: You’ve spoken before about singing around the piano at parties in Liverpool, and in ‘Wonderful Christmastime’ the choir ‘sing their song’ - but do you have any memories of going carolling at Christmas?

Paul: I can’t remember ever having done it, so I probably didn’t. The fun thing about Christmas carolling, that probably would have influenced my decision NOT to do it, was that my dad always used to make fun of them. He'd say, ‘Here’s a shilling to go sing in the next street’. He was not a big fan of Christmas carols. I quite like them!

PM.com: Are there any Christmas traditions from your childhood which you have continued into adulthood, and shared with your own children and grandchildren?

Paul: I have actually started some new traditions. When the kids were little, I suddenly thought there wasn’t the ideal Christmas record, in my opinion. There’s some great Christmas records like the Phil Spector one, and Nat King Cole and Bing Crosby on the old standards, but I just wanted an instrumental of all the tunes. So, I ended up recording one for the family in my studio. And Eddie Klein, my engineer at the time, helped me. I now have this album I pull out every year, and it’s a bit of fun for the kids when we’re carving the veggie roast. I’ll stick it on and it means Christmas is here. It’s quite a cute little record actually! But it’s just for the family.

PM.com: Some fans already know this exists, it’s part of the Paul McCartney folklore! I think they’re hoping to hear it one day.

Paul: I’ve often thought it’s good enough if people would like it released, and I’ve thought I could do it for charity or something, but never really felt strongly enough to make a decision. It’s just a family record, and I’ll pull it out again this Christmas.

My main job is to carve the roast. That was one of the things I liked when we became veggie years ago. I said it would be nice for me to able to do what I thought of as the traditional ‘dad’ job, so that’s the carving of the turkey in the old days, and now it’s the carving of the veggie roast. I normally do that – unless someone gets in there first, and I get miffed! Steady on!

So yeah, I put on the Christmas record, carve the roast, and then we do all the normal Christmas things. Christmas crackers and reading out all the terrible jokes and trying to really be happy with the little gift that comes inside, which is something you’re never going to use or keep. This is the spirit of Christmas! We mainly do all the stuff that everyone else does at Christmas time.

Well, we might not be any closer to hearing that secret Christmas record, but at least we know the story behind ‘Wonderful Christmastime’ – and we can hold out hope for a magic-inspired song (with the Liverpool coven on backing vocals) in the future!”.

A track that I have a lot of affection for, it is always part of my Christmas playlist rotation. It is in my top-five that is sure! I hope that, years from now, Wonderful Christmastime gets all the due love it deserves. Recorded at a difficult time where Wings were breaking up and MacCartney was recording a new solo album, it was turbulent and strange. He managed to create a unique and instantly catchy Christmas song that would give an indication of what to expect with the as-then forthcoming McCartney II. A magnificent sluice of Christmas magic from Macca, take some time out now and listen to…

THE simply majestic Wonderful Christmastime.

FEATURE: Spotlight: Aby Coulibaly

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

 

Aby Coulibaly

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MAYBE a name that is known to quite a few…

though there are those who do not know about the wonder that is Aby Coulibaly. Hailing from Dublin, she sources inspiration from her Senegalese heritage and day-to-day Dublin life to create music richly original and hugely impactful. I am keen to get to some interviews from the incredible and must-follow musical treasure. I will start with one that is from a few years ago. I have know about this artist for a while now. I am seeing people start to discover her music so, for this Spotlight, it is time to include Aby Coulibaly. A name that is going to be among those to watch next year. A truly remarkable artist who is already inspiring others in the industry. I want to start out with a chat from Flavour Mag. Back in 2020, with less material out there, there were some ahead of the curve that noticed the huge talent and potential of Aby Coulibaly:

“The 21-year-old singer-songwriter from Dublin first started recording the summer of 2019 with her friends and eventually ended up starting their own independent record label ‘Chamomile Records’.

At first, Aby was too shy to sing but gradually she started to gain more confidence and found her sound as she recorded in her room over YouTube beats. These demos would later be uploaded onto Soundcloud gaining her a bit of a cult following. The name Aby Coulibaly stirred up a buzz and she started performing shows in her hometown Dublin.

I chatted to Aby about her new single ‘Taurus’ and being an artist in 2020

What inspired you to create ‘Taurus’?

I was inspired to write Taurus after I had ended things with a guy at the time who I thought was wasting my time. It was a way for me to get out all the emotions I was feeling at the time. The song is really empowering and its focus is about self-love and putting yourself first.

What’s your songwriting process like? Do you feel like it’s a good way to deal with what’s going on emotionally inside your head?

Usually, I write the chorus first and then the verses next. Yes definitely! Writing is my way of getting out how I feel about whatever is going on in my life at that time.

How would you describe your sound?

I’d say my sound is kind of alternative r&b but not every song I make sounds the same which is something that’s exciting for me because you never know what I’ll release next.

Was there one moment you knew that music was something you wanted to pursue?

To be honest, there wasn’t one moment, I’ve been singing since I could talk and I’ve always known music was what I wanted to do since I was a kid.

Who would be your dream collaboration and why?

I’d probably say James Blake, I’ve been listening to him for time and I just love his production, writing and voice.

What’s it like being a female artist in 2020? Is there anything you would change about it?

I think it’s lit being a female artist in 2020, although I don’t feel like there are enough talented women who get recognition, especially female rappers. I would love to see more women dominating the spaces that are usually occupied by men.

What’s next for you? Can we expect more music this year?

Yes definitely, I’ve just released the official video for Taurus and planning to release my second single on the 30th October so stay tuned”.

There are some great and interesting interview with Aby Coulibaly. The Irish Times spoke with her in June. Like other mixed-race artists, that idea and issue of identify. If you have different cultures ruining through your blood, the hurdle and consideration of accents and which you sing with. That is something that Aby Coulibaly has wrestled with:

“It’s a fine balance Coulibaly treads, with one foot in Irish culture and the other in Senegal, the country where her father was born – something she finally became comfortable with in her late teens. Her mother, brother and sister are white, meaning her vantage point in the family was different.

“It took me time to feel okay dipping between two cultures, and to be secure in my place in the middle,” she says. “To accept my afro hair, to accept what I need from relationships, to find the sort of clothes or music or whatever I liked, that wasn’t just influenced by the people around me. Like I’d say or do things and people would say sh*t like ‘that’s such a white thing to say’ or ‘that’s so black of you’ and it took a long time to be able to think I can have any sort of mannerism I want, and that I’m happy and I can be both.”

Coulibaly popped up, seemingly fully formed, in 2019, as an incognito independent. The gambit paid off almost instantly. In 2020 alone, she was hailed as the next big thing by Nialler9, CLASH Magazine and FLAVOURMAG. It happened by accident, she remembers.

“I always had friends at school, but I kind of always felt like a lone wolf,” she says, looking up from her chair. “They never had the same interests as me, so I just accepted that it was going to take a while for me to find my people. Then MJ [Monjola] reached out to me after he saw some covers I uploaded to Instagram and asked me to come to his studio. I was sh*tting myself! I remember being the only girl in the room and terrified – I didn’t open my mouth for months.”

But the team kept trying. “They’d be so encouraging and be buzzing whenever I sang quietly in the corner but that freaked me out even more,” she laughs. “Eventually though, that got me into looking up beats on YouTube and singing over them, then something clicked.” The result is Chamomile Club, the creative collective formed by Monjola, his brother Moyo and Coulibaly.

“When you upload stuff to Spotify, it tells you to fill in your label – and we didn’t have one, so we just typed in Chamomile Records, because I’d always be drinking chamomile tea coming into the studio [here, Coulibaly informs me that the beverage in her takeaway cup today is a latté, with reishi mushroom powder and ashwagandha added for her anxiety].

“Then the track got picked up and Chamomile Records was shouted out on the radio. We couldn’t stop laughing! And then we kind of decided to just go for it – I don’t even know what our intention was. After a while we changed it to Chamomile Club though, because it’s not a label. It’s just a collective of people that make music and create. And now we have this as well,” she gestures to the third-floor space in which we’re sitting, with its white walls, a comfortable sofa, Red Bull minifridge and incense burning. “It’s nice now but when we first got it, it was terrifying. It looked like an attic. One that you’re not supposed to be in.”

Music has a tendency to exaggerate, soften or oversentimentalise, to put language into code. But with Coulibaly, her lyrics are as true as her spoken voice. In her music, she turns her gaze outward, exploring her frustrations with a culture that tethers itself to black art without sufficiently valuing its sources.

For Coulibaly, racial struggle manifests itself in small but profound ways. “I’ve experienced microaggressions in jobs and stuff growing up,” she says. “I think a lot of it went over my head before George Floyd to be honest. It used to really, really bother me but what can I actually do? I don’t want to be angry all the time, so acceptance has been my main thing. That said, as a mixed person, I also benefit from white privilege at times as well. It’s all about acknowledging the different circumstances of that situation.”

Coulibaly’s music is marked by its wisdom, painfully earned and not easily discarded. She seeks immediate thrills even though hurt is soon to follow – the mark of a true creative, with no signs of slowing down. So, what’s next? “At the moment, my time is entirely devoted to my EP, At the End of The Day, It’s Night,” she says with a smile. “It’s something I’ve always said, and like, at the end of the day, nothing really matters. So that’s why I named it that,” she says, sweetly but seriously. “I just can’t want to get a body of work out there. It’s been too long”.

I am going to come to an interview from Wonderland. Before coming to this interview, there are others such as this that I would recommend you seek out. I would urge everyone who has not heard about Aby Coulibaly to check her out. She is going to be a very big name in 2024. I am excited to see where her career takes her. Ireland has been producing amazing artists for the longest time. The past few years has seen some of the best ever spread to the U.K. and beyond:

“How did you first find your love for creating and writing?

I’ve sang since before I could speak properly so the love for music has always been there but it was in 2019 where I really gained the confidence to begin writing my own music through making new friends who constantly encouraged me which helped me so much!

Who and what inspired you to pursue a career in music?

I’ve never wanted to be anything other than a musician to be honest. I didn’t go to college because I didn’t have a passion for anything else. I’d say growing up the music both of my parents listened to and introduced me to had a huge impact on my love for music that was naturally there. Being friends with other supportive musicians pushed me to take it seriously and actually go for it.

How did you find your musical pocket?

I’d say i’m still finding my sound because I make a lot of different kind of songs but I guess I naturally leaned towards alt-R&B.

The UK and Irish soul scene has soared in popularity over the last few years, with so many highly talented artists doing through. How do you think you stand out from the masses?

I naturally stand out as a mixed Irish person but also because I just do me and have fun with it. I don’t want to release music for anyone else but myself and I don’t take myself too seriously.

How would you define the essence of your sound?

Most of my released music is in the R&B bracket but I have demos that are completely different genres. I love experimenting with sounds because there’s so many genres that I love. I definitely plan to be more experimental with my music in the future.

As someone from Ireland who has successfully impacted the UK market, how have you approached breaking into the scene?

To be honest I don’t have a crazy calculated plan on it. I just release music and hope it reaches the right audience/people no matter where they are and thankfully it’s starting to do that.

We love the new single “Patience”! Talk us through the creative process?

I wrote patience with another artist/ songwriter named Rationale, he’s super talented along with the producer maths time joy also! We had a long conversation before we began writing the song so we could get to know each other and just chat for a bit which is always really nice when you first meet rather than just jumping straight into making a song. After chatting for a good while we decided on what we wanted to write about and that’s when ‘Patience’ was born.

What are you trying to convey with the song?

The song is about escapism, watching the world go by but you don’t really feel part of it

What else is to come from you this year?

After my project a couple headline shows and some other bits!

Where do you want to take your artistry?

As far as I can, I don’t have any limits but I also don’t plan too far ahead. All I know is what I’m trying to do right now and when I execute that i’ll worry about further down the line”.

I am going to wrap things up now. This article recently discussed the latest single from Aby Coulibaly, Big Pharma (Withdrawal). It might be one of her finest yet. It all bodes well for next year and what we might get from this extraordinary and individual songwriter. Growing and building her sound over the past few years, I think next year will be one where she gets a lot more exposure:

“Brace yourself for the seismic impact of Aby Coulibaly's latest single, 'Big Pharma (Withdrawal),' as the fast-rising R&B sensation takes an unapologetic dive into the personal trenches of her struggles. Released today under the AMF Records banner, this standalone single follows hot on the heels of Coulibaly's genre-spanning debut EP, 'At The End of The Day… It’s Night,' unleashed just last month. The EP, featuring hits like 'Patience,' 'DYWS?' and 'Weekdays,' has already left an indelible mark on the musical landscape.

Aby's latest offering, 'Big Pharma (Withdrawal),' serves as a soul-baring exploration into her daily battles with Topical Steroid Withdrawal (TSW). This condition, a consequence of unknowingly ingesting harmful medication from a young age, propels Aby to share her raw and unfiltered emotions. With an aim to connect with listeners who may share similar experiences, the single unveils an intimate side to Aby's dextrous songwriting abilities.

Accompanying the release is a visually stunning illustrated lyric video that elevates the emotional depth of the song, providing a powerful visual narrative. In Aby's own words, "Big Pharma (withdrawal) is a song about a condition I have called TSW. It's something that affects me every day & the worst part is it was 100% avoidable. I was constantly given medication from a young age by my doctor not knowing how harmful it was."

The track boldly addresses the dual nature of the pharmaceutical industry, acknowledging its necessity while critiquing its potential exploitation. Aby remarks, "In so many ways, we need the pharmaceutical industry, but in many ways, it also takes advantage of us and makes us worse off, and that’s what this song is about." Despite the challenges posed by her condition, Aby remains resilient, determined not to let it hinder her artistic journey. She states, "It's a challenge doing what I do having this condition, but I'm determined to not let it stop me. Everything I go through ends up coming out through music. All of the good emotions but also the tough ones, and this is one of those.

Adding to the excitement, it was revealed this week that Aby will join Olivia Dean as the main support for her Spring 2024 UK and Europe headline tour, including two nights at London’s iconic Hammersmith Apollo. Aby Coulibaly, at the age of 24, is forging a dynamic musical path with a palette that seamlessly blends soul, R&B, and experimental soundscapes. Drawing inspiration from her Senegalese heritage and daily life in Dublin, she counts Erykah Badu, Lauryn Hill, and James Blake among her influences. Since her debut in 2020 with 'Taurus,' which quickly racked up millions of streams, Aby has amassed over 5 million streams and performed for Boiler Room, solidifying her position as a force to be reckoned with in the R&B scene.

Stay tuned for the resonating echoes of 'Big Pharma (Withdrawal)' as Aby Coulibaly continues to captivate audiences and etch her name in the annals of contemporary R&B”.

Oner thing I have not mentioned yet is that Aby Coulibaly released her debut album, At the End of the Day... It's Night, in October. It is a magnificent work that everyone should check out. It definitely stands alongside the best debut albums of the year. I have very high hopes for Aby Coulibaly next year. She is going to go on to achieve so much success and love. A familiar name to many in Ireland the U.K., I predict that Coulibaly’s music will span even wider and further. This is an artist that you…

NEED in your life.

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Follow Aby Coulibaly

FEATURE: After the Starter, the Main Course… Why The Last Dinner Party Are Set to Dominate 2024

FEATURE:

 

 

After the Starter, the Main Course…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Phoebe Fox for NME

 

Why The Last Dinner Party Are Set to Dominate 2024

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IT doesn’t seem like…

it was that long ago since I spotlighted The Last Dinner Party. You can follow them on their official website, Twitter, Instagram, Spotify and YouTube. When the London band had brought out their debut single, Nothing Matters, there was a mixture of excitement and those asking if they were industry plants. It suggested that the group had a label behind them giving them money and shaping their narrative. Rather than them being independent and unfunded in that sense. The amazing group, Abigail Morris, Lizzie Mayland, Emily Roberts, Georgia Davies, and Aurora Nishevci, release their debut album, Prelude to Ecstasy, on 2nd February. You are cordially invited to pre-order an album I can see being one of 2024’s very best. One sure to be nominated for the Mercury Prize. A group that had to respond to lies, criticism and general sexism have emerged with a string of wonderful singles and some incredible tour dates. I am going to write why we will see them dominate 2024. There are quite a few interviews that I want to bring in. With this being their first full professional year, it is impressive how many honours they have already scoped. In addition to winning the BRITs Rising Star 2024 award, BBC Radio 1 have included them in their shortlist of artists to watch next year have also tipped them for 2024 success. One feels that NME will announce them as one of their one hundred to look out for. After the likes of DIY spotlighted them as a standout act this year, the group have more than made good of that potential!

One big reason why I think they are going to be a name to watch in 2024 is that momentum they have already collected. It was unsurprising that The Last Dinner Party had to react to those accusing them of being industry plants. The Forty-Five asked why people are cynical of the female-led Indie wave that was happening last year and this. A group that had to battle sexism and almost prove themselves twice as hard as most, they will end this year with a lot of confidence and reassurance. It is the connection and closeness between the group members that makes them such a phenomenal proposition. One of the best live acts out there, reviews like this, this, and this show that The Last Dinner Party are a consistently brilliant from the stage. While the final review says that this year has been a wonderful one for women in Rock – a couple of the groups they mention I don’t think can be categorised as ‘Rock’ -, it is evident that female-led/female bands are ruling and showing they are festival-ready and hungry. Whilst there are many other artists that will add something brilliant to next year, I feel that the energy and talent that The Last Dinner Party has will increase next year. They will grow stronger and stronger.

I will round up with some thoughts. I want to source some interviews with The Last Dinner Party from the past couple of months. It has been a hugely busy year and one where they have achieved so much over these last couple of months. All signs point to them going global very soon. Square One Magazine spoke with an Art-Pop quintet that are producing music that is as original as anything I have heard in years:

“Being from London - the band found each other through meeting at University - plus gaining members such as Emily (guitarist) and Aurora (keys) through close friends introducing the band. The Last Dinner Party started as a live band: they played shows aiming to draw attention to themselves through word of mouth - which was deemed successful. When asked why the five-piece chose to build their status this way instead of the standard single, album, or promo roll-out - Aurora exclaims: “It felt like the natural thing to do. Start playing the music then figure out what the songs need to be, we wanted to let the songs live. Each time we play a song it changes a tiny bit and you learn something new. Once it felt ready we got in the studio. It is work-shopping essentially, it is so retro,” she jokes. She continues enthusiastically: “People cared about us despite not having music online”. This heartwarming reaction from the key player indicates the gratitude of The Last Dinner Party of people attending their shows despite the lack of streamable art.

If you attend a The Last Dinner Party show - the setlist is extensive - including the released singles and a catalogue of unreleased yet flawless material. Choosing the next single to be released is a principal thought for the band: “It is always difficult to decide what song we are gonna put out next,” Aurora ponders. “We have played these songs so much they have almost become different people with different personalities,” she adds. Aurora delves in and continues: “It is kinda imagining what we want people to sing along to next. When we go to the show what song do we want people to scream next.” Relating to the singles ‘Nothing Matters’ and ‘Sinner’ - the pianist describes them to be: “Quite poppy and dancey, I think they occupy a similar kind of space, but the rest of the album is a bit different, heavier.”

The Last Dinner Party hit the road on their all-most sold-out tour starting in October - performing in places such as Manchester, London, Glasgow, and Leeds - this band is no stranger to being on stage at this point and knows how to captivate a room of people - like a mythical siren call. “We are all excited to go see faces because it is all kinda new to us, we are so excited. We wanna go out for dinner and see the sights,” Aurora discusses. Swiftly adding in before the interview takes a turn, she exclaims: “I am so excited to go see Glasgow!”.

If anyone knows how to captivate a crowd and memorise thousands - while being covered head to toe in outrageous and theatrical costumes - it is Florence and The Machine - whom The Last Dinner Party had the honour of supporting in Ireland in June this year. “Oh my god! Yes!” the pianist yells when asked if the interview can take a b-line into that magical experience for the London five-piece. “She is such a role model. Her music, her aesthetic, and as a person, she lived up to it all. When we met her she ran towards Georgia and we were like do you know each other? Her advice was to follow your gut. What you think is good instinctually is almost always the right thing.” It is epically heart-warming to see such a powerful force as Florence Welch - guiding and supporting a group of five rockers in the right direction - and providing them with unforgettable advice that will undoubtedly shape The Last Dinner Party for the rest of their careers.

“From the beginning, we have given ourselves dress codes on stage, but before the band, I did not think much about style and fashion. But now I find it so freeing, it has allowed us to be creative and express ourselves,” Aurora explains when directing the band’s latest advisement for their audiences to come dressed up in specific dress codes for each show on their upcoming tour. These dress codes range from Greek Mythology, Victoriana and The Brothers Grimm. She adds: “I cannot wait to see everyone, I hope you all dress up,” a direct plea to anyone attending a show.

‘Nothing Matters’ has become a staple for the band - from the aesthetically and visually pleasing music video, combined with the ABBA / Bowie / Florence and The Machine-esque rhythm and lyrics - the success and admiration for the song has reached new heights, allowing The Last Dinner Party to get their foot in the door. While discussing what the song means to the group, Aurora claims: “It has always been the most joyful part of the set, it is just euphoria and joy. I cannot wipe the smile off my face seeing everyone singing and jumping along when we play it live”. It is a stand-out part of a The Last Dinner Party show - so if the opportunity arises - go scream: “And I will fuck you / Like nothing matters”.

The group are ending their year supporting none other than Irish folk icon - Hozier - on his Unreal Unearth tour. Another staple artist support locked in their grasp. But what is next for The Last Dinner Party? Where is the album? “Album is coming next year,” Aurora secretly hints and adds: “It is gonna be full on from next year for us”.

I forgot to mention, when discussing the awards and honours that have gone the way of The Last Dinner Party, that they were also given the Rising Star Award at the Rolling Stone UK Awards. They spoke to Rolling Stone UK around that. They look ahead to their debut album and some big dates. You can see that their diary is already pretty packed. Their gig on 1st February at London’s Roundhouse will be their biggest and most important date yet:

“When the last Dinner Party finally emerged this April with debut single ‘Nothing Matters’, four years after their formation and 18 months since that first post-lockdown live show, the response was rapturous. A dramatic, catchy and raucous opening statement, it established Morris as a charismatic and thoughtful vocalist from the jump, taking cues from Kate Bush and David Bowie but presenting a singular voice at the same time. Its video saw the band dressed like a funeral from a period drama, establishing a clear and vivid aesthetic. “Wait… this is your debut single?” the video’s top YouTube comment reads, such was the level of accomplishment and ambition on display.

Later in the year, they followed up with second single ‘Sinner’, a track both catchier and at times heavier than its predecessor. High on drama, it tells the story of a loss of innocence while longing for a time with simpler priorities and emotions: “I wish I knew you before it felt like a sin.” Later in the song, they break into a rapturous, transcendent backing vocal which melts into a shredded guitar solo. This heaviness is explored further on third single ‘My Lady of Mercy’, which has tinges of Queens of the Stone Age in its sludgy chorus.

 “There is so much music online, and it’s difficult to digest,” Nischevi says. “If we released the whole album as soon as we recorded it, it’d be too much. Releasing singles gives people time to live with that and get ready for a bigger body of work.”

That will arrive in February in the form of debut album Prelude to Ecstasy. Recorded with James Ford (Arctic Monkeys, Florence + The Machine, Gorillaz and more) in the famous Church Studios in Crouch End, it expands upon the world built through the band’s formative live shows while keeping hold of the special energy created at those gigs. “He was a great fit because he’s not a producer that feels like he needs to put his stamp on things,” Mayland says. “He’s not trying to make it ‘a James Ford record’. He’s just so brilliant. He elevates it to a place that we never thought it could go.”

For Morris, the album isn’t a conceptual piece of work like The Last Dinner Party as a whole, but representative of “an elevated honesty”. She says: “The lyrics, the music, the way we look — none of it is an act or a character. It’s all us, but in our platonic form rather than a Ziggy Stardust-type of character. It’s us at our full capacity.”

IN THIS PHOTO: The Last Dinner Party backstage at the Rolling Stone UK Awards/PHOTO CREDIT: Kit Oates

Among the new tracks on the album is ‘On Your Side’, the band’s most uncomplicated, pure declaration of love yet. “When it’s 4am and your heart is breaking,” Morris sings with visceral emotion, “I will hold your hands to stop them from shaking.” Elsewhere, ‘Portrait of a Dead Girl’ has a grandeur reminiscent of Queen with a dash of Wolf Alice’s rock’n’roll snarl.

Throughout, Morris inhabits characters, tells stories and interrogates her own emotions with the ability and thoughtfulness of a songwriter decades into their career. Maybe most striking is ‘Beautiful Boy’, a flute-assisted slow jam about a friend of the singer’s. “I had a really clear thing that I wanted to say,” she recalls.

“It’s about a friend of mine, who is a very beautiful boy, and I remember I was talking to him once, and he was describing a holiday he had gone on on his own, where he just went off, hitchhiking around Spain. He lost his phone, had nothing — he was just relying on the kindness of strangers. Wherever he went, everyone adored him and took him in and gave him things, and it just made me think, ‘What’s it like to go around life being an exquisite man?’

“When you’re a beautiful woman, it’s a different thing that has a different kind of privilege, and also comes with its own horrors,” Morris adds. “Being a normal man has a different set of privileges, but what is it like to be not only a man, but a man that’s so beautiful no one would ever say no to you? He came to one of our gigs once, stole a bottle of rum from the venue, got caught, but then got let off because, and I quote, ‘What a handsome thief!’”

Such was the clarity of the artistic vision presented by The Last Dinner Party from the off that the band were inevitably boxed into certain corners. “We were seeing some interviews, even from the very start, where people would say, ‘Pride and Prejudice, Bridgerton, corsets!’ And that’s one aspect of what we like, but very quickly we realised that we don’t want to just be that one thing. We want to be able to do stuff that’s more modernist alongside that and keep evolving.”

For Morris, the present and future of The Last Dinner Party isn’t slowly moving towards a final form, but allowing themselves to change and grow, incorporating different styles and aesthetics and sounds while maintaining their core DNA. “We are what we are in each fully realised bit of the band’s history, and each fully realised bit will be different than the last one.”

“You want a thumbprint on all your music,” Nischevi offers. “A lot of the best artists, and the ones that stand the test of time, all have their thumbprint on everything, but they’ve also had a whole career’s worth of development and change. In among all of that, there’s something that’s cohesive about all of it. There’s something special in that”.

 PHOTO CREDIT: Phoebe Fox for NME

I am going to come to an NME interview from earlier this year. They were among those keen to speak with the band of the moment. One who might have an even more acclaimed and notable 2024 than 2023. Whether you see them as Art-Pop or Baroque-Pop, they are the most talked-about group around. Queens and monarchs who are in no danger of letting their feet off of the gas:

“This afternoon, the band ground themselves in another force amidst the chaos – each other. Just sitting around in the studio, they are an inexhaustible source of their own entertainment, with comedy bits, meme references and inside jokes flying around each conversation like stray bullets. “This is Georgia, our tall Australian prankster”, Morris grins as she introduces the bassist to NME. And don’t get them started on Mayland’s “scarily accurate” Mark Corrigan impression. “Being in this band is what I imagine it’s like to have siblings,” Morris says, to the tune of a circus theme.

From this whirlwind of big personalities and overlapping voices, it seems inevitable that a visual identity as striking and resplendent as theirs would form. “From the beginning, before we even had one rehearsal, we decided that our visuals would be just as important as the music”, says Morris. “We wanted the whole thing to be an entire spectacle.” Davies continues: “The glam rock, the historical fashion… It all comes from the ‘magpie’ visual culture we grew up with in the age of Tumblr. You’d be scrolling through this dispassionate list of random shit all the time, just this massive blob of stuff. It would go from Pride & Prejudice to David Bowie to Effie Stonem from Skins, and you could pick up anything that looked interesting.”

PHOTO CREDIT: Phoebe Fox for NME

The world of The Last Dinner Party – a “nebulous and ever-changing” place where theatrical stylings and ABBA meet The Secret History – manifests in live shows, where fans are free to indulge in their wildest aesthetic desires. Playing a sold out show in LA last month, the band were floored when fans showed up wearing hand-embroidered biker jackets. “It was so obviously ‘Last Dinner Party’, even if it wasn’t the most obvious iteration of our aesthetic”, Davies says. “There’s no set ‘dress code’ at our shows. It’s all about self-expression and community. There’s so much love in the room”, says Mayland.

The hotly-anticipated ‘Prelude to Ecstasy’ is testament to this: a collection that includes road-tested material from their live shows (including ‘Caesar On A TV Screen’ and ‘Beautiful Boy’), as well as new songs – a true culmination of their two-year anniversary as a band. Committed to the classical tradition in which they play, the album even features a musical prelude and a coda, each sprinkled with motifs from their other tracks. “Our whole mission statement is very theatrical,” Morris explains. “We love being intentional and indulgent. I mean, we have a composer! We want to flex that!” she says, gesturing proudly towards Nishevci.

PHOTO CREDIT: Phoebe Fox for NME

The band’s rapid, explosive success has led to them being the subject of continued online discourse, largely based around false presumptions that they are “industry plants”. They are frustrated by these comments, which seem a cruel and ironic punishment for being so polished and deliberate with everything they’ve done so far. “Do we have to address that?”, Morris asks candidly. She shares with NME that they’re trying to phase out this particular discussion point. Still, they ponder how they want to respond anyway. “We take it as a compliment”, Davies says, wryly, after some thought. “If people think it’s too good to be true, then all we can say is thank you.”

For now, The Last Dinner Party aren’t thinking about the doubters – or even how far they’ve come and how far they’ll go. They’re living minute-to-minute: checking their outfits in the mirror, charging their phones by the wall, huddling together to discuss where they’re going to fit rehearsal time into the next few days. Crucially, they’re making sure to enjoy every second. “No one else in the world knows what it’s like to go through what we’re going through,” Mayland concludes. “This is something that’s so precious to us”.

It would be too easy to say that the sheer quality of the songs is the reason as to why The Last Dinner Party have had such a massive year and will be runaway and unstoppable successes next year too. There is the friendship and chemistry within the group. Their take on Pop is refreshing at a time when there is a lot of same-sounding Pop. Artists coming from TikTok with something quite familiar and over-copied. Many smaller Pop acts having a very similar vibe. Massive Pop artists stealing a lot of focus. A breath of fresh air against all of this are The Last Dinner Party. There are very few others that sound like them and are doing that they are. They engage with fans on social media and seem a lot more relatable and accessible than a lot of Pop artists. Their live shows are legendary already. Various sites and sources have tried to explain what makes The Last Dinner Party so special. Their fashion choices mixes the elegant and gothic. Almost like rebellious outsiders at a fancy ball. Mixing something from the 19th century with modern-day chic, they have created a very eye-catching and distinct aesthetic. That extends to their music videos and artwork. They are extremely distinct and memorable. The Last Dinner Party are unique and different. Though there is this contemporary relevance that means they do not just appeal to a single demographic. They have such a wide fanbase. Their songs switch between energised and foot-tapping numbers to ballads. Some of their lyrics call for unity and togetherness. There is interesting instrumentation and moments in every song. Unusual progressions and unexpected twists combined with this distinct sense of harmony that runs throughout. Whatever the magic ingredient(s) is, nobody now can say that The Last Dinner Party are flashes in the pan of just a fad! They are very much here for the long-run. After some wonderful gigs including Glastonbury, there are plenty of great memories for the group to reflect on. The title of their debut album, Prelude to Ecstasy, might suggest that it is the foreplay and foreword to something explosive and epic. I would argue that has already happened - and that their hotly-anticipated debut will confirm them…

AS modern-day legends.

FEATURE: Rolling Stones Gathering No Moss: Has Rock Become More About Aesthetics and the Personal and Less Political?

FEATURE:

 

 

Rolling Stones Gathering No Moss

PHOTO CREDIT: PNW Production/Pexels

 

Has Rock Become More About Aesthetics and the Personal and Less Political?

__________

ABOUT halfway through its run…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Jacob Fortune-Lloyd (Jan) and Georgia Landers (Gillian/Magda) in Tom Stoppard’s Rock ‘n’ Roll/PHOTO CREDIT: Manuel Harlan

at the Hampstead Theatre, Tom Stoppard’s play, Rock ‘n’ Roll, has led me to wonder about modern Rock music and whether it is politically engaged and purposeful. Before I come to that, and for anyone wanted to take in this new work of brilliance from the legendary Stoppard, here are some more details:

“1968: Russian tanks have rolled into Czechoslovakia, and Syd Barrett has been dumped by Pink Floyd. Jan, a visiting postgrad at Cambridge, breaks with his old professor Max, a Marxist philosopher, and heads home to Prague with his suitcase full of “socially negative music”. Rock ’n’ Roll covers the ensuing 21 years in the lives of three generations of Max’s family while Jan is caught in the spiral of dissidence in a Communist police state. But it’s a love story too - and then there’s the music…

Tom Stoppard returns to Hampstead after the triumphant revival of Hapgood (2015). Winner of eight Evening Standard, three Olivier and five Tony Awards, Stoppard’s plays include Leopoldstadt; Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead and Arcadia.

Director Nina Raine also returns to Hampstead where her directing credits include her own play Tiger Country (2011 & 2014) and William Boyd’s Longing (2013).

“Triumphant! Rock ’n’ Roll is arguably Stoppard’s finest play.” The New York Times.

We are grateful to the Rock n Roll Giving Circle who have kindly supported this production:

Ken & Lin Craig

Melanie J. Johnson

David & Carole Warren”.

Tom Stoppard’s play is set in the past. A time when the intranational landscape was perhaps quite bleak. One that was seeing warfare, struggles, and civil rights leaders like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. assassinated. So much turmoil and bloodshed that was dividing the world. One could say that Rock music of the time was more political and reactive. It was too early for Punk music, through there were artists of the late-1960s that were producing political music. The Rolling Stones did. Bob Dylan too. I will come to The Rolling Stones again in a minute. I think that there was this need for artists to speak about what was happening around them. This was not something new. Billie Holiday talking about lynching and oppression against the Black community in the 1950s. There did seem to be this movement in the 1960s where there was a rise of politically-minded artists. Although Folk and Pop had its representatives (such as The Beatles), I think Rock music was leading the way in that sense. Is that the case now?! It is an interesting question. Tom Stoppard, when speaking with Rolling Stone recently about his play, Rock ‘n’ Roll, asked whether modern Rock was as political or revolutionary as it could and should be:

“The last line of Rock ’n’ Roll is Esme exclaiming that she doesn’t care (“I don’t care. I don’t care. I don’t care.”). It echoes a central concern of the play: whether or not music is genuinely political — and furthermore if musicians as figures of rebellion are actually political themselves or just want to be rock stars. In one off-hand scene, Jan explains why the police hate the Czech band The Plastic People of the Universe. It’s not because they oppose the official policy of the authoritarian state. What drives them crazy about the rock musicians is that they’re indifferent. “They’re not actually ideological, they just want to play their music and they don’t care about communism or anti-communism — they’re musicians, artists, pagans. The police resent them because they don’t care,” Stoppard explains, fully reclining on a sofa on an upper floor of the theatre, adding that, “This thing of ‘I don’t care, I don’t care.’ That is what every generation feels at a certain point.”

He may not be a rock star but in many ways Stoppard, who became an overnight success during the swinging 60s, is the Mick Jagger of theatre. He doesn’t look dissimilar for starters. In the years that followed, Stoppard was pictured in editorials with a shag haircut, snappy style and cigarette in hand, his love life was a hot topic in certain literary and media circles, and he was swiftly known for being prolific and immensely talented. Today, he is still best described as Daphne Merkin once did in the New York Times, looking “like a lounge lizard who reads Flaubert”. His plays are never simple: they’re impressive displays of discourse, a literary fight between science and philosophy, with characters typically existing to be a conduit for ideas rather than as part of human dramas in their own right. The likes of Arcadia and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead have been mainstays of A-level English courses, presumably picked for their brilliance in confusing teens across the country. Stoppard “matters”, Hermione Lee wrote in her 2020 biography of the man, “he will be remembered.”

Before writing for the stage, Stoppard was a freelance culture journalist, exchanging words for free nights out to plays and live music. One day, while he was working at a pop-culture title Scene Magazine, his colleague and future novelist Gordon Williams came into the office with black and white photographs of a little-known band called The Beatles. “It was like someone saying: ‘I have heard the future,’” Stoppard remembers. “Very shortly after that, one was listening to ‘Love Me Do’; before you knew where you were, it was ‘A Hard Day’s Night’ and ‘Help’. Before I knew where I was, I was married and listening to ‘Hey Jude’ in my own house outside London near Maidenhead where my wife worked, living a more suburban life.”

PHOTO CREDIT: Matt Humphrey

Despite his passion for music, Stoppard doesn’t have a musical ear and says he usually discovers music through personal recommendations. For instance, Pink Floyd — whose music is also played in Rock ’n’ Roll, and whose members are also now personal contacts of his — became one of his favourite bands after two of his sons continually played them at home when they were younger. “I’m always a bit embarrassed about me and music because I don’t have a musical brain,” Stoppard admits, adding that the speed with which people recognise what a particular song is on University Challenge baffles him. “It’s an odd one because you’d think that if you love something a lot, it will be because you understand what it is. Conversely, you might think if you get to understand something really well, it makes you love it. So, it’s a reciprocal thing, like a loop. But it’s not like that with me. I genuinely love the things I love but I couldn’t hum them, I don’t understand. If I’m actually watching music, I’m staring at the guitarist’s fingers trying to see what’s happening and I never can. Everybody’s got one thing that they wish they’d done, and for me, that’s what it is. Even going into a pub, and there’s somebody banging out music on an upright in a corner in a bar, I feel so envious of the ability to do that.”

Of all his plays, it feels culturally fitting that this one should get a revival in 2023. The vast majority of mainstream rock music over the past decade has been created for aesthetics and feeling rather than for any real engagement with politics and culture. There’s the fact that one of Rock ’n’ Roll’s themes is that of moral exhibitionism: posturing and demonstrating moral superiority has never been more prevalent than in a social media age. But Stoppard says this play is happening now simply because he wanted it to have another life. “Constantly what one gets is ‘Can you explain why this is still relevant?’ And I don’t give a toss about it being relevant,” he says casually. “It’s not the point for me. Theatre is recreational, it takes all kinds of stuff.” Yes, the play is about politics but it’s also about being human, eroticism, time, the poet Sappho, philosophy. Besides, Stoppard just really loves his play”.

You can say that Rock music is alive and well. It is evolving all of the time, so anyone expecting the sort of music that was popular in the 1960s to exist now need to understand artists blend in other sounds and take Rock in new directions. Brands like Rock bands The Last Dinner Party, Nova Twins The Lanthums, and The Snuts are all successful and adding something fresh. Some suggest that the tide is turning. Whilst it is clear that Indie and Rock are seeing new artists enter the fray and make their mark, venues closing and labels being risk-averse, tied to the dominance of Pop and a particular sound being favoured, does mean that Rock music is not as visible or popular as it once was. I do wonder, as the world is more chaotic and frightening than it has been in decades, whether there is a new place and need for a Rock revolution where climate change, the genocide in Gaza and so many other issues needs to be addressed. I am thinking about the band The Rolling Stone and a well-known saying. A rolling stone gathers no moss is a proverb that was first credited to Publilius Syrus, who in his Sententiae states: "People who are always moving, with no roots in one place or another, avoid responsibilities and cares”. It can also mean people pay a price for being always on the move, in that they have no roots in a specific place. Does this apply to music?! Artists releasing new music so often. Always trying to cover new ground and evolve. That word, moss, almost makes me think of model Kate Moss. How there was a period when she was the epitome or Rock chic. A coolness where bands like The Libertines and Razorlight were in vogue.

That sense of being cool and fashionable. All about the aesthetics. Modern Rock is delivering some excellent bands who will stand the test of time. I do worry that there is more concern with a certain cool and look rather than the depth of music. It is commendable that they want to be personal and connect with their fans. Maybe too many songs that are either personal or quite generic. It is great bands such as Nova Twins can address racism and sexism through their music. Big themes are being tackled in Rock. I worry, as Tom Stoppard does, that Rock has tolled to a place that is less about politics and discuss what is happening in the wider world. Maybe bleak to talk about, this year especially should have been a moment where Rock and Hip-Hop artists released albums that addressed concerns. That is not to say that Rock artists lack substance and politics. In terms of imagery and Rock being about the aesthetics, articles like this write how that was the case decades ago. Also, in terms of market, maybe things are not that broad yet. Modern Rock bands are bringing in more young women and girls, though it is the Pop market that still dominates their listening time. In a bid to broaden their fanbase, are artists being selective and focusing more on the personal and less on the political?! That would suggest that women are disinterested in political music. This is patently not true! Rock music is still male-dominated and white. A narrow representation means that you will get a narrow representation of the world. Things are improving in terms of race and gender, though Rock music might not seem like a genre many women feel they are embraced, accepted or seen as equals. There is also this tussle between Rock music being fun and it being serious.

If it too fun, then it is seen as insubstantial and wasting opportunities to speak about something important. It is hard to discuss politics and hard topics when people are not gripped by the sound. At a time when people might want something uplifting, can you pair something like that with dark lyrics?! It is a hard balance that might be a reason why modern Rock is less politics. Baring all of this in mind, I still feel that there needs to be a breakthrough. I can appreciate that there are all sports of reasons why modern Rock is less political than in decades previous. At a time when so many people need to speak out against some pretty weighty and horrific things, the modern Rock climate does not seem to be as attuned to this desire as it should be. Look at many of the artists already tipped for success in 2024 and they are heavily Pop-based. Bands really not getting as much spotlight as they should. Does the industry, labels and venues need to do something?! Do we need more funding for venues so potential political heroes can play and hone their craft?! That is definitely true! It is a little disappointing in such a horrific year that there has not really been much of a Rock revolution. I know songs cannot change the world and reverse oppression and genocide (unfortunately). They can definitely speak to people and engage minds in a way politics cannot. Let’s hope that things change in that sense as we look ahead…

TO a more stable and brighter year.

FEATURE: High or Low? The Struggle of Being Able to Match Established Pop Giants

FEATURE:

 

 

High or Low?

IN THIS PHOTO: Tate McRae/PHOTO CREDIT: BAETH

 

The Struggle of Being Able to Match Established Pop Giants

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I came across a review…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Dua Lipa

quite recently that made me think about those Pop artists who both change direction and are in competition with real heavyweights like Taylor Swift, Dua Lipa and Charli XCX. There is a top tier that have been in the industry for a long time and have their own sound. They have very large fanbases - and they do dominate the press. A lot of attention of particular artists. It is hard for those artists that are a bit lower down the popularity layer that will have a hard task on their hand. Maybe there is this split between the kind of Disco and Dance-inspired Pop or artists like Dua Lipa and something more emotional and dreamier that Lana Del Rey and Billie Eilish produce. The group and sector that Harry Styles sits in. I don’t think that the Pop market is as broad as it could be. Tate McRae has just released her second studio album, Think Later. It has got some great reviews. The Telegraph were impressed with biting of-the-moment Pop. It was a review from The Guardian that noted how the music was similar to what is in the mainstream, though it lacked a unique selling point or distinction:

“If you view a certain kind of current pop as involving a checklist of prerequisites, then the career of 20-year-old Canadian Tate McRae ticks virtually every box. A prehistory in kids’ television? Check, albeit as the voice of Spot Splatter Splash in the cartoon Lalaloopsy. Online celebrity translated into IRL musical success, aided by a co-sign from an established artist? Check: her transition from a YouTube vlogger was aided by Billie Eilish, who co-wrote, with Finneas O’Connell, McRae’s debut single Tear Myself Apart. Lyrics that deal in bad boyfriends, I-didn’t-ASK-to-be-born angst and loud declarations about not minding being recently dumped because he’ll come crawling back soon enough? Check: her oeuvre is heavy on tracks with titles such as Feel Like Shit, Hate Myself, Hurt My Feelings, We’re Not Alike, Exes and Go Away. Music that’s a three-way split between pop-trap, big ballads and guitars that go chugga-chugga in time-honoured pop-punk style alongside vocals larded with AutoTune or delivered in that accusatory mush-mouthed slur that somehow suggests the singer is performing with their bottom lip stuck out like a petulant four-year-old? Check.

And virality, absolutely – her recent single Greedy has not only frequently been the most listened-to track in the world on Spotify, it has soundtracked nearly 4m videos on TikTok, many of them featuring something called the “tube girl hair flip transition trend”, that it’s perhaps best not to explain in depth lest you take it as further evidence that culture as we know it is doomed.

It’s hard not to listen to McRae and think that there is an awful lot of this stuff about. Yet it’s clearly a formula with commercial life. Last week, as the UK charts were swamped by Christmas songs, Greedy – the latest in a string of gold and platinum hits for her on both sides of the Atlantic – remained one of the last redoubtable holdouts, a small corner of the Top 10 fending off the massed hordes of superannuated sleigh-bell shakers, armed with the power of the tube girl hair flip transition trend”

The quest for a USP doesn’t seem to have yielded a definitive answer: McRae is still fitting a lot of currently popular boxes without escaping them. There are highlights, but the overwhelming impression is of placeholder pop, filling space until something different comes along. How Tate McRae will respond when it does is anyone’s guess”.

It was those words (in the review) about a Pop artist having a formula or set background. Tate McRae is an example I am using, though there are a lot of Pop artists out there who have a similar sound and background. Maybe quite a few are deliberately trying to replicate sounds that are trending or popular. I think that is hard to distinguish yourself in a busy market. When it comes to Tate McRae, she has switched when it comes to her sound. More of a natural evolution, some might see her embracing something more biting as an attempt to stand alongside artists like Olivia Rodrigo. She explained more in an interview with Variety:

“Recently anointed Tater-Tots (her fandom name) met her explosive arrival with equal parts intrigue and skepticism. But anyone with a YouTube or TikTok account—and just the right algorithm—would know that McRae has been a songwriter, dancer and singer since making waves with 2020’s “You Broke Me First,” which now tallies 1.2 billion streams on Spotify. In the years that followed, she planted her flag as a moody, introspective analog to Billie Eilish, a diary-scribbler who wore it proudly with song titles like “Feel Like Shit” and “Don’t Be Sad.” But her recent reinvention secured her first bona fide smash with “Greedy,” which has been used in more than two million TikTok posts and topped the Billboard Global 200 and Spotify’s Global charts.

Much of it is because “Think Later,” McRae’s sophomore album that was released on Friday, is a rebirth. She wipes the slate of the more somber bedroom fare that largely drove her debut full-length, last year’s “I Used to Think I Could Fly,” and assumes a new form as a pop savant, one who bastes cutting pop production with raspy meditations on love and heartache. On opener “Cut My Hair,” she makes her mission statement known: “Couple years back, so sensitive yeah / Moving like that gets repetitive, yeah / Singing ’bout the same old stupid ass things / Sad girl bit got a little boring.”

“I was like, god, writing sad songs and being depressing, no one has ever seen a different side of me,” she says. “All they’ve seen is victim, depressed Tate. Sometimes you grow up and things change and I got bored of it. So I’m like, I want to switch this up, but it feels perfect because I think it’s fun to take a jab at yourself sometimes and your older self.”

When McRae began recording “Think Later” at the top of the year, she felt lost. She was coming off of an 11-month break—the longest breath she’s taken since she started pursuing dancing seriously as a teen—and was unmoored, unsure of who she was and what she wanted to say as an artist. Add to the fact that here she was, alone in Los Angeles after moving from her native Calgary, Canada at 17, navigating the music industry on her own.

“I’ve been a very intuitive person my whole life, and I totally lost that the past five years,” she says. “My intuition was so buried among so many voices. And I did a lot of self-work and meditating and was like, what the fuck do I want and who am I? I had no idea.” She looks back at “I Used to Think I Could Fly” and how she simply acquiesced to suggestions from songwriters to try on as many sounds and identities as possible. “It’s so drastic from this record that I made right now. I think the biggest thing was the look of it, my album cover art, I was put in a hot pink dress, and I was like, I don’t even like pink!”

 

Which isn’t to say she doesn’t respect the album and its statement. It’s just that “Think Later” was an opportunity for her to lasso creative control and chisel a spot for herself in the pop firmament. It began with mood boards and playlists (one “sonic,” another “inspiration”) that drew from early 2000s culture. She agrees that “Greedy,” for example, has shades of Nelly Furtado’s “Promiscuous,” and referenced the song’s producer Timbaland during the writing process.

What helped McRae narrow her vision was assembling a core team of writers who could crystallize it. OneRepublic’s Ryan Tedder, who serves as executive producer on “Think Later,” played a key role alongside Amy Allen and Jasper Harris. She and Tedder bumped heads in their first Zoom session—”I was like I have my writing ways, and he was like, ‘I have my writing ways'”—but they settled into a groove that yielded consistent returns. Throughout the year, she recalls, there were roughly 80 to 90 sessions to yield the 14 tracks that made the album.

“Think Later” is as much radio fish food as it is a personal manifesto. There are the sassy bops, like the swishy “Guilty Conscience” and boyfriend-stealing “Hurt My Feelings,” and then the more downbeat reflections like “Plastic Palm Trees” and “Calgary,” where she sheds her skin of a bad breakup and the insecurities that linger from her teenage years. That duality was front and center during her “SNL” performances: one of “Greedy,” full choreo on display, another of “Grave,” poised at the mic singing of loosening the shackles of a forlorn relationship. (Her appearance on the show resonated far: Eilish texted her after, Harry Styles sent her flowers.)

Listeners have taken notice, and she’s aware she’s under a microscope. Women in pop have historically been held to a higher standard, one that doesn’t actually exist, and McRae is no exception. But she doesn’t internalize it. Instead of doomscrolling through comments on social media, she instead chooses to focus on the things that matter, like perfecting her artistry and delivering her best”.

I know that female artists especially are put under the microscope more and subjected to more scrutiny than their male counterparts. I think there is that attempt to be relatable. Tate McRae and her young peers are writing music that is going to be relatable to their fanbase. Popular on sites like TikTok and Instagram, it does seem like a lot of Pop artists at the moment are making music that is aimed at teens and young people in their twenties. The subjects, as The Guardian wrote in their review, are “Bad boyfriends, bedroom-door-slamming angst and friendship group drama”. Some would say that this is what a Pop audience want. That said, with quite a few artists doing the same thing, it is going to be really difficult for any new artists to make an impression and stand out. If there is a demand and familiar sound, it is only natural for them to incorporate that. Look back decades ago and there was a broader Pop scene. I wonder whether social media is damaging the potential variety of the genre. A distinct sound and type of music that is used on TikTok, for example. This article argued how massive artists like Taylor Swift and her ubiquitousness means that there is a narrowness and repetitiveness in the industry. It is clear there are a lot of talented artists who are grinding away and working hard. It is hard enough for artists being accused of being industry plants. Something that particularly is levied at women. I feel that the reason many artists are seen as box-ticking is that there are a number of factors happening at the moment that are contributing to a certain staleness. Earlier this year, Billboard asked why more Pop stars are not being born (that stand out and are distinct). There is a lot to unpick:

“It’s All TikTok’s Fault

The most common reason given for the scarcity of new pop stars was TikTok, which was blamed for all but killing traditional artist development.

“They need to stop signing people based off of a couple viral tiktok videos, churning out fast food music and work with real artists with longevity,” wrote @internetmaeve on X. “like Olivia didn’t blow up overnight she was a disney kid?? s– takes time.”

The ephemeral nature of the short-form video platform — a significant change from a radio-dominated business, when songs in rotation on Top 40 stations were inescapable — was cited as a factor by Reddit user @anneoftheisland, weighing in on the r/popheads channel where the article was shared: “TikTok isn’t set up to boost artists, it’s set up to boost individual songs…In the radio era, if a hit broke out, labels had significant sway to get that artist’s second and third songs in front of you … they couldn’t force you to like those songs, but they could force you to listen to them. But that’s a lot harder to do in the streaming/TikTok era. If you hear a song you like on TikTok, there’s a large chance you won’t hear that artist’s second/third singles unless you seek them out yourself.”

On the same Reddit thread, @Interesting-Ad9838 said that artists who break through on TikTok simply don’t have the cross-generational impact as in previous eras, thereby limiting their influence. “The general audience don’t know who these artists are anymore,” they wrote. “If my grandparents know who you are, then you definitely made it.”

Record Labels Are Too Risk-Averse

Another common theme, which ties in with concerns about TikTok, is the complaint that labels are increasingly risk-averse, preferring to sign artists with preexisting fanbases rather than putting the time, energy and money into developing them from the ground up.

“Mind you there are artists on…labels right now probably begging to have full label support and funding for their projects,” said X user @waylojan. “The problem is they’re looking elsewhere instead of bolstering the talent they have.”

“The industry wants quick and fast and isn’t giving, in my opinion, some people who could really do this the right chance,” added Reddit user @moxieroxsox on the r/popheads thread. “It took Rihanna 3 albums before she skyrocketed. Taylor Swift wasn’t taken seriously until what? Speak Now? Red? Ariana did Broadway and TV before she started music and she has the voice of a literal angel. Beyoncé spent years tailoring her sound, not to mention all the years she spent developing her abilities in Destiny’s Child.” 

PHOTO CREDIT: cottonbro studio

Record Labels Are Doing This On Purpose

Provocatively, a Reddit user (who has a rather provocative handle we won’t name here for reasons of decorum) positioned the pop star drought as something engineered by labels to avoid paying the kind of money they gave superstars like Janet Jackson and Madonna in the old days.

“When you have stars that have a lot of momentum behind their career, and they have a lot of prestige, and they have a large and solid fanbase, they get to demand more from labels,” they wrote. “If you have stars with much shorter careers…and shorter reigns in public interest, you don’t have somebody who can walk into a negotiation, and demand more on their side of the deal with the label.”

Our Attention Is Too Fragmented

Audience fragmentation, precipitated in part by the rise of social media influencers, was also a theme hit upon by several commenters.

“It’s probably hard when everyone can be famous now on TikTok,” said X user @kariwarburgon. “It’s like that one quote from The Incredibles ‘Once everyone is super no one is.’”

With so many platforms to release and consume music now, Reddit user itsyagurlb says public attention has simply become more diffuse — making it more difficult for artists to achieve stratospheric levels of fame.

“As someone else here has mentioned, we no longer have ‘smash’ hits from major pop stars that are inescapable, and so even with the rise of streaming, it’s much easier for people to tune out of today’s ‘hit’ song,” they wrote. “We consume music differently now which also impacts how pervasive a song can be because of how individualized our streaming choices can be. Even in the age of iTunes, hits were more impactful because if you wanted to hear the hot new song, you might pay for it. Now? I can listen to a minute of the song on spotify without any real investment and move on if I dont vibe with it, and there’s been no ‘sale.’”

Added Reddit user @BronzeErupt, citing one of the most powerful promotional vehicles of the late ’90s and early ’00s: “There’s no modern equivalent of TRL where a song can be deliberately played and suddenly everyone knows about it.”

Music Is Boring/Bad Now

Predictably, some social media users slammed the state of modern popular music. “I want to blame TikTok for this, but truthfully I think the root of the problem is how boring, dull and unoriginal modern-pop music sounds like,” said Reddit user TuffyTenToes. “They aren’t popping off because there is nothing to be popping off for. Perhaps I’m doomposting but it truly feels like pop music is in an all time low, creatively speaking.”

“Too many people mistake tik tok earworms for musical talent,” added @LSX3399 on Reddit. “No albums anymore, no concepts, no risks. Over-saturation of mid.”

It’s Taylor Swift’s Fault

Is the real problem…Taylor Swift? According to Reddit user @LifeOfAWimpyKid, the uber-popstar of the 21st century is simply taking up too much space in the conversation for other artists to break through.

“I feel like Taylor Swift has singlehandedly saturated the pop market to the point where the entire industry has become boring as s— and not fun for other artists to participate in,” they wrote. “Taylor is not without merit, but now it’s just Taylor, Taylor, Taylor all the time. Her fans are very vocal and active too and dominate the conversation, and all the other opinions just get drowned out. This was hardly the case a decade ago, when you had multiple acts coexisting at the top, such as Rihanna, Katy Perry, Bruno Mars, Ke$ha, Lady Gaga, David Guetta, Britney Spears, Justin Bieber, Calvin Harris, and Eminem”.

If new and young Pop artist want to stand out and establish a career built on originality and accessibility, there are so many challenges and questions. If they want something relatable that speaks to their fans, then that means a lot of the same subjects are repurposed. Many of the good reviews for those albums and songs might be very positive, but is that because they fit in with what is popular? The sort of music that modern Pop giants are producing? If they want to be more revealing and sensitive, then there are other better-known artists already doing that. I think that artists such as Tate McRae are very impressive and worthy. They have their own stories and direction, yet it is quite easy to draw a line through them and bigger names like Olivia Rodrigo. This blend of so many artists packing into the scene balanced against a select few artists dominating the airwaves means that it is extremely hard to stand out. I wrote recently how Pop music is dominated by some big names and might lack fizz. By ‘fizz’, rather than it being generic energy and something upbeat, maybe that originality and blend that is missing at the moment. We have so a selection of tremendously promising Pop artists coming through. I wonder how many are being heard and getting airtime. It also seems that, the more there is a desired or go-to Pop sound for success and social media connection, then the more we will hear this from artists. 2024 could be a year for refreshing and updating. I am not sure how easy it is for artists to break a certain malaise or overfamiliarity. It might well be a time where we see diversification and…

SOMETHING new.

FEATURE: The Duchess, The Queen: The Influence of Katherine Ryan

FEATURE:

 

 

The Duchess, The Queen

PHOTO CREDIT: James Gilham

 

The Influence of Katherine Ryan

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THERE are a few reasons…

why I wanted to focus on Katherine Ryan. I am going to do some housekeeping first. I will bring in a couple of reviews from last year. With one of the most impressive and busy C.V.s you can imagine, the Canadian comedian, actor, writer and author is someone who has made a big impact on me. I am a music journalist, though occasionally I do divert – being neurodivergent, it is very in keeping with tradition! – and focus on women outside of music who have impacted me. Aisling Bea, Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie are recent examples and feature heroines. I am going to get to hopes/predictions relating to Katherine Ryan in 2024. First, she is in my mind because I was rewatching her BBC interview with Louis Theroux in 2022. I find her inspiring, formidable, and enormously impressive anyway! Someone I have always respected – even when I have not liked or bonded with some T.V. projects she has been involved in -, she is one of the most important voices in comedy and culture. As someone who considers themselves a pretty passionate feminist – and that being unusual and rare for a male music journalist -, I am always learning from amazing women. We all remember the Dispatches documentary earlier in this year where Russell Brand was revealed to be this decades-long predator and abuser. Someone literally abusing and being inappropriate with women in plain sight, Katherine Ryan revealed to Louis Theroux how she knew about his crimes all along. She did not name Russell Brand, though she said she mentions this famous male comic who is a sexual predator. When allegations came out, there was new focus on Katherine Ryan. As she said, it was not her story to tell. She just knew that the stories she heard were true. That bravery to talk about it and help bring about progress and justice (as I write, 9th December, 2023, Brand has not been imprisoned and legal proceedings and police investigations continue) was really stirring.

IN THIS PHOTO: Katherine Ryan hosted GLAMOUR's 2023 Women of the Year awards in Gyunel Couture/PHOTO CREDIT: Holly Molloy for GLAMOUR

I was interested in the Louis Theroux interview, as Katherine Ryan spoke about feminism. How, as she worked at Hooters and got breast implants at the age of twenty, could she ever consider herself a feminist?! She has presented a dating show, made a lot of money and has a really nice home. A successful and wealthy success story, that presumption that she is someone fake or inauthentic. The reality is that this sort of attitude seems to pertain to a rather stereotyped or false-minded view on feminism. That a woman needs to be a certain way and have a particular journey. It was angering to hear that she has been judged and criticised. Someone who has forged a successful career on her terms and can be free and frank on stage, but she is also sensitive, a proud mother and someone who stands for women and is a feminist, one can never call into question her ethics and stances! For me, as someone always keen to be more educated and aware when it comes to feminism and challenges women face in the music industry, Ryan’s strength and amazing talent has moved and connected with me. I am a member of The Trouble Club. As I have written about a few times (most recently here), it is a member’s club made up mostly of women. Though there are a few men. It is open to all. They are there to create ‘trouble’ in terms of passion, activism and advocacy. Holding events where amazing and important women discuss their careers, books and industries, I have learned so much from the events. Always in great London venues surrounded by some incredible, very warm and compelling women (from being moved and teary to heartbroken and (romantically) stunned; it has been a really emotional and eventful time there so far). I think that Katherine Ryan would make a perfect guest and speaker for them next year! I am not bold enough to suggest her myself but, maybe alongside fellow comics like Aisling Bea and Caitlin Moran, she could discuss her career in comedy/writing. I would love to hear her speak!

 PHOTO CREDIT: Justin Downing for Only Natural Diamonds

2022 was one where she put out her book, The Audacity: Why Being Too Much Is Exactly Enough. A hugely successful debut book from her, it allowed her to go beyond the panel shows we know her from. Away from that circuit – where female guests are still in the minority and it is still imbalanced -, Ryan is honest and fascinating throughout the book. This review shows why it such a must-buy and important book:

“From the star of the hit Netflix series The Duchess comes a brilliantly funny, fiercely honest, and dangerously astute handbook of life instruction.

Detailing Katherine Ryan’s journey from a naive ex-Hooters waitress fresh off the boat from Canada to comedy megastar, The Audacity combines Katherine’s unerring ear for the perfect line with the warmth, compassion and hard-won wisdom that makes up a life on and off stage.

IT WAS HARDLY THE TIME OR THE PLACE FOR A MUM LECTURE, BUT I FELT QUITE PASSIONATELY THAT THEY SHOULDN’T BE SO BLASÉ WITH THE NEXT CALLER FACING AN INTRUDER. I HAD PAID A LOT OF TAX THAT YEAR AND I THINK I WAS MOSTLY FRUSTRATED WITH THE CONSERVATIVE PARTY AND THEIR BUDGET CUTS. THE WHOLE SITUATION WAS SOOOO LIBERAL-ELITE: A SHOELESS WHITE WOMAN HOLDING A GLASS OF MERLOT WHILE CRYING IN THE STREET ABOUT CUTS TO GOVERNMENT FUNDING AND TRYING TO BE POLITE ABOUT HER HOUSE BEING ROBBED.

I don’t often read celebrity memoirs, but I’ve always really liked Katherine Ryan. She’s funny, fabulous and I absolutely adored her Netflix show The Duchess. After all, a gal who appreciates the comfort and sheer style of Sleeper feather-trimmed pyjamas is a gal after my own heart.

From watching her stand-up, I was already familiar with a few tidbits recounted in The Audacity, such as her time working at Hooters and her visit to the Playboy Mansion, but Ryan really lifts the lid on her life. She discusses everything from cosmetic surgery to miscarriages. The Audacity is obviously hilarious and Ryan’s sardonic humour is ever-present, even in those darker moments. Yet, I was stunned by how honest and heartfelt it is. It’s a little bit all over the place in terms of structure and is perhaps less linear than we expect from an autobiography – hopping back and forth between Ryan’s upbringing in Sarnia, her current life with Bobby, Violet and Fred and her past diabolical relationships – but I was too engrossed by Ryan’s authentic and humorous voice to really mind. Rather than tell a straightforward narrative from birth to comedic superstar, Ryan breaks the book down into ‘How-to’ chapters that focus on a particular time in her life. For example, ‘How To Get Started In Comedy’, ‘How To Nearly Be In A Music Video’ and ‘How To Be Crowned Miss Hooters Toronto’.

Ryan’s sarcastic, no-nonsense style won’t be for everyone. However, there are some tender moments and reflections from Ryan in The Audacity that are really interesting. Her musings on adolescent insecurity, toxic relationships and sexism within the comedy industry and healthcare were particularly insightful and relatable. I admire Ryan’s take-no-shit attitude and left The Audacity feeling empowered and at times very seen.

Not everything in The Audacity was a hit for me. While I can get onboard with Ryan’s #girlboss persona, the chapter dedicated to ‘cancel culture’ felt, in part, as a way to justify her own offensive behaviour in the past. Ryan acknowledges her mistakes and has very clearly grown and matured both personally and professionally, but the excuse of ‘it was the early 2000s’ or ‘that’s just how it was back then’ feels a bit wishy-washy and does leave a bit of a sour taste.

That aside, Ryan’s lived a heck of a life and it makes for great reading. As someone who used to be an avid panel show fan, the anecdotes about the British comedians she’s friends with were particularly enjoyable. I have a newfound admiration for Jimmy Carr, even if he did glare at me once for running to catch my train and nearly bulldozing him in the process. Pls invite me to your parties with Kourt Kardash, Jimmy xoxo

Cheeky, brash, brazen, inspiring, empowering, heartwarming, raw, beautiful and downright audacious. The Audacity will leave you wanting to be as glam-and-not-giving-a-damn as Katherine Ryan”.

Last year also found Katherine Ryan on tour. Missus – an account and exploration of her unexpected marriage to her childhood sweetheart, Bobby, and their surprisingly traditional new life together – is quite a change of pace from her usual style. If many feel Ryan’s comedy is bracing, very open, challenging, provocative and impersonal, this is a more intimate and ‘toned-down’ (though that sounds offensive!) show. The Guardian shared their reaction to a truly amazing comedy set from one of the industry’s very best:

“Be your authentic self!” I don’t love it when standup sets end with self-improvement homilies for the audience. But at least Katherine Ryan seems to be practising what she preaches. The Canadian made several successful shows off the back of a steely, self-loving and showily cynical persona – brilliant in its way, but never quite transcending caricature. Her new and best outing, Missus, is quite the departure, as Ryan loosens and softens up, dedicating the 70 minutes to an account of her unexpected marriage to childhood sweetheart Bobby and their surprisingly traditional new life together.

 It’s a story that finds Ryan inhabiting a more fully human – and even self-deprecating – character without stinting on the tart, high-quality jokes that made her name. The story it tells is rooted in an episode of the genealogy show Who Do You Think You Are?, which sent Ryan home to Canada – where she hooked up with her first boyfriend. Bobby follows her back to the UK, where his unworldly antics and struggles with the local accent (“he’s not shouting at you, he’s just from Belfast”) supply some fruitful fish-out-of-water comedy.

The productive line Ryan treads here is between naked adoration for her new beau and horror at finding herself living conventionally and shackled to a straight white male. There’s a fine gag trading on the coincidence, timing-wise, of her marriage and the restrictive first Covid lockdown. There are set pieces, both starring Bobby as a backwoodsman from central casting, about Ryan’s house being burgled, and the not-as-planned birth of her second child.

The Ryan that emerges here is blindsided by her life, not in control of it, and prey to a lively array of emotional responses – which makes for animated and sympathetic comedy. That doesn’t at all undermine her command as a performer, on show here in some expert crowd-work when a couple in Row B divulge intriguing details of their not-quite-relationship. Additional material invoking tolerance for anti-vaxxers, and toying with the cultural downsizing of straight white men, flesh out an excellent show. Missus feels like Ryan in three dimensions, a richer, more sympathetic (authentic, even?) persona, albeit with acerbity very much intact”.

Often pitted against other women – though that is an experience many women go through! -, I don’t feel like the world has embraced and given Katherine Ryan the true respect she deserves. Going back to that Louis Theroux interview. She said how she spent years on the poverty line (or near it) living in London. She was in an office job and struggling. I am in that same situation in terms of finance and occupation. I am about to be made redundant next week, so the fact that she found success and has come from something stressful and horrible to where she is now is providing (however brief and small) hope. More than anything, Katherine Ryan’s mix of feminism and incredible comedy is something I am always learning from. A hugely admired women who attacked panel show Mock the Week in 2020 because of its sexism (she quit the show, partly to give way for other female comics; also the rife and toxic nature of the show it seems) -, I know that Ryan’s influence extends beyond comedy. No doubt pioneering when it comes to greater female representation on panel shows and through the industry, I keep in my mind how she always knew about Russell Brand and how she have strength for women to speak out. Ryan was attacked by some after it was revealed she knew for a long time. It is heartbreaking to imagine what she had to read! She is a feminist superhero that is a huge inspiration to me. I don’t know if that would surprise her – she is never going to read this, so I will never know! -, but there are not mainly out-and-out and active men who feminists in the music industry, let alone journalism. I often look around to see whether there are other men writing about gender inequality, sexism, misogyny and sexual abuse through music like I do. I have not experienced it myself, though it is important to be an ally and to highlight this.

I think there is still a reluctance among many men to embrace something more feminist and feminine. In researching this feature, I am reading through online editions of GLAMOUR. I often read websites designed more for women. Same with articles, magazines and other outlets. I find more enriched and rounder by doing this. If there is this rightful perception that Katherine Ryan is loved by women (most anyway!) and has this blend of boldness and huge strength with something more tender and emotional, she is also reaching people like me. I continue to take from her when I write about gender issues and harrowing subjects. Before rounding off, I want to bring in a 2022 article from GLAMOUR where, when at their Women of the Year Awards, she discussed the ‘shame’ of single motherhood:

“Discussing the most significant thing she has overcome in her career, Katherine explained: "I feel like its really crucial that I overcame shame. To do what I do, you have to be shameless, and when I came to this country, I was a very young single mother, very vulnerable, and was miles away from anyone who loved me. I did feel shame about that - the narrative was I was damaged goods. Everyone was like, 'why did he leave you?' And I was like, 'because I asked him to'. Soon I started feeling good about myself and enjoying the privilege that it was to have that time with my daughter and be a single mother to my daughter. It was then wonderful things started coming into my life.

Katherine also said that the most radical thing she had done in the name of feminism was to be "the only person standing in a room with a microphone allowed to speak", as it's "considered to be very masculine".

However, Katherine Ryan explained that she thinks that action is actually alpha. "It's only recently that we started recognising alpha behaviours as feminine and non-binary as well. My lifestyle is very alpha, so I hope to inspire young people with the things that I say, and anyone who feels not good enough or dishearted, you can be the alpha in any room”.

For me, feminism and addressing subjects other male music journalist do not address regularly is not a flex or virtue-signalling. It is not an act! I may not be as versed and authentic as many of my female peers, though I think that I am in an industry – if you can call a non-professional male music journalist in the ‘industry’ at all! – where there are so many issues and evils to battle and redress. Most of the campaigning and writing comes from women. Ryan recently spoke to Lauren Laverne on Desert Island Discs about why she spoke out against Russell Brand but did not explicitly name him. She got pushback about her stance. It must have been an ethical wrestle for Ryan. Her actions and attitude always amazes me. Someone I respect hughley. Her entire career and life has directly influenced my journalism and approach to women and feminism. A reason why I am becoming more invested and want to be as ‘good’ – in terms of getting things right and not being a ‘bad feminist’ – a feminist as possible. She is a mother to several young children (her third child is one I believe) and has recently, like me, turned forty.

There are decades ahead for her. I wonder whether Ryan will be used for Hollywood films. Someone obviously a screen natural, she would be incredible, not only in comedy films but a range of genres. As an actress and writer. Same for T.V. I would love to see her both in great and arresting dramas and a range of comedies. I can see her in U.SA. productions too. I am sure Ryan is thinking more about a new tour and perhaps another book, though she should realise that she is a magnetic personality and a tremendous talent. Her filmography shows that are reality/panel-based. I loved her time show, The Duchess (which was on Netflix in 2020) deserved to run for longer. Katherine Ryan would be a sensational actress, truly. I would love to speak for The Trouble Club, as the ‘troublemakers’ (as we are known) would love to hear her speak (maybe at a venue The Ned or Allbright). She would make a phenomenal guest - but, as I say, maybe bold of me to suggest it directly to its director, Eleanor (Ellie) Newton (even though we know each other fairly well by now). As much as anything, for all that she has done and all she will do, I wanted to salute the duchess and queen Katherine Ryan and offer up immense…

THANKS and love.

FEATURE: Endless, Nameless: Cassie Workman’s Aberdeen, and the Influence Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain Had on the L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ Community

FEATURE:

 

 

Endless, Nameless

IMAGE CREDIT: Cassie Workman/Brett Boardman

 

Cassie Workman’s Aberdeen, and the Influence Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain Had on the L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ Community

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I am just down the road…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Jake Bush

right now from where a must-see play, Aberdeen, is running. It is open until next Saturday (16th December). Staged on the Soho Theatre on Dean Street, there are a couple of reasons why I wanted to spotlight this play. Tickets are still available for the remaining dates. I am going to come to interviews with the late great Kurt Cobain. Where he spoke about L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ rights. Where he gave his voice and support to the community. I understand that, in the 1990s, the term would most likely have been ’L.G.B.T.’ - but, because of Aberdeen as its significance on its author and performer, Cassie Workman, it is important to be as inclusive as possible. Workman is an Australian-born comic, actor and writer who came out as transgender in 2017 and began transitioning. You can find more out about her here. Kurt Cobain was born in Aberdeen, Washington (hence the play’s title), in 1967. Next year marks thirty years since Cobain took his own life. In many ways, Aberdeen seems timely and timeless. Remembering the legacy and importance of Cobain in terms of his voice for the L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ community. How he was this advocate and refreshingly tolerant, embracing, accepting and kind-hearted male figure in a Rock and Grunge scene where one would not expect that. Maybe that is stereotyping. Even so, just look at a lot of the toxicity that has blighted these scenes for decades. How male bands in the mainstream are problematic and bigoted. Cobain was an idol who was not ego-driven and concerned with controversy and himself. He was troubled by demons and depression, though he was this incredibly powerful and influential songwriter and lead who inspired a generation.

IN THIS PHOTO: Kurt Cobain/PHOTO CREDIT: Koh Hasebe/Shinko Music/Getty Images

I am going to come to some archive relating to Kurt Cobain. Importantly, NME posted about Aberdeen. Sourcing words from Cassie Workman. I think the play (or maybe more a performance piece or monologue) will make people think more deeply about Kurt Cobain as an advocate. Almost rebellious when you look at the attitudes of his male peers:

“The creator of a new play about Kurt Cobain has explained how the Nirvana frontman “made a huge difference to the LGBTQ+ community”, and how her work is a reflection on “depression, alienation and detachment”.

Aberdeen opened at London’s Soho Theatre this week, receiving its press night last night (Thursday December 7) after receiving critical acclaim at the Edinburgh Fringe. Penned and acted out by writer and comedian Cassie Workman, the one-woman poetry play is a homage to Cobain as she “traverses time and space in a bid to save the life of her hero, in his US hometown of Aberdeen, Washington”.

“I’m transgender, and transgender people go through a second puberty,” Workman told NME. “During that time, you look back on your first adolescence and the things that were important when you reassess them from an adult perspective. One of those things was Nirvana. Looking back as an adult on Kurt Cobain and his life and how deeply that affected everyone in my generation, I thought it was really interesting grounds for a story. I became obsessed with it. 

She continued: “I started writing, then I decided to go to Washington to research where he lived and see the places where he hung out and where he died. While I was there, standing under the Young Street Bridge, I had this epiphany that I should turn it into a poem. The entire show is in rhyming couplets.”

Cobain and Nirvana were renowned advocates for gay rights and spoke out against homophobia during a time that was rife with prejudice off the back of the AIDs epidemic of the ’80s. In the liner notes for the 1992 B-sides compilation album ‘Incesticide’, Cobain wrote: “If any of you in any way hate homosexuals, people of different colour, or women, please do this one favour for us: leave us the fuck alone! Don’t come to our shows and don’t buy our records”.

Workman explained how moves like this meant a lot to her throughout her life.

“It was very hard to be queer back in the early to mid ‘90s, or even just being an ally would get you a lot of negative attention,” she said. “He definitely made a huge difference to how the LGBTQ+ community was perceived. The coolest person in the world was saying, ‘This is OK’ – and that really means something. As a queer icon, he’s incredible. He deserves all the credit that he gets and he was certainly a big influence on me.”

Speaking of how the genesis of the play came to be, Workman explained how she travelled to Aberdeen and discovered Washington to be “a really magical and spiritual place”.

I am keen to come to some reviews that have come in for Aberdeen. It has scooped a lot of acclaim. Critics left teary and moved by the words of Cassie Workman. A play that will definitely incentivise and compel others to reframe a musician who has had an impact on a community or movement we might not know about. Maybe people do know about Kurt Cobain’s advocacy though, when articles are published about him, it is about Nirvana and their music. The Soho Theatre gives us more insight about Aberdeen. It has got some kudos from, among others, Phoebe Waller-Bridge:

“In 1994 the world lost one of its most beloved musicians; grunge icon, Kurt Cobain. Part eulogy, part fantasy, part biography, Aberdeen, is an in-the-round conversation with Kurt, about life and death, taking place across Washington, including his hometown, of Aberdeen. Traverse time and space as multi award-winning comedian and storyteller Cassie Workman races in a desperate bid to save the life of her hero, by attempting to manipulate time itself.

Aberdeen is an epic, about loss, music, and memory; an extraordinarily heartfelt love poem, to the voice of a generation”.

“I was captivated from start to finish... Cassie is a phenomenal storyteller. I could practically feel the rain that she conjured. We were lulled by the elegance of her writing and wit into an unforgettable story of raw pain, fury and fragility. It is a howl of a poem. I was floored'

Phoebe Waller-Bridge”

 IN THIS PHOTO: Phoebe Waller-Bridge/PHOTO CREDIT: Dylan Coulter/The Guardian

There have been some amazing reviews for Aberdeen. The Play Is the Thing UK provided their take on an amazing and deeply moving play that is both obviously personal – yet it is something that will speak for so many people. It will resonate with so many people:

“Fresh from a successful run at the Edinburgh Fringe, Cassie Workman brings her lyrical 55-minute poem to the intimate upstairs space at the Soho Theatre. A spoken-word performance of uncommon intensity, it tells the fictional and fantastical story of the narrator traveling back in time to try to save Kurt Cobain from committing suicide. It touches on additional, more universal themes and issues however, so it isn’t just for the Kurt Cobain fans to enjoy.

This is a stark departure from Workman’s normal stand-up comedy performances, and is clearly deeply personal. Within this framework of the play, Cassie draws parallels between her life in the titular Aberdeen, and Cobain’s in Seattle. An absorbing tour of Cobain’s iconic life and tragic death commences. The show is moving and at times witty, and with some theatrical flourishes in such a involving the lighting that are a surprise in such a small venue. The rhymes and iambic pentameter of the text’s rhythm really work to showcase the poetry in the piece. Some of the more intense descriptive passages are hard to watch, especially when they describe Kurt’s suicide and death.

Ending with a good portion of the audience wiping a tear away, this is a lovely and worthwhile production dealing with difficult yet important topics. Hopefully it is a show which has a strong future and long life ahead of it”.

Prior to coming to some Kurt Cobain press and interviews, I want to bring in this interview. Yet more love and respect for a play that must have been cathartic and challenging to write. Having transferred from Edinburgh’s Fringe, I wonder whether there will be a short film or further adaptation of Aberdeen. I can see it working as a short film. Maybe backed by Nirvana songs or archived words from Cobain. I am sure that his widow, Courtney Love, would definitely approve:

“Multi-award-winning comedian and storyteller Cassie Workman takes the audience on a poetic journey through the space time continuum on a mission to save Nirvana’s former frontman and member of the ‘27 Club’, Kurt Cobain, from himself in Aberdeen.

Workman is an accomplished storyteller and spoken word artist, wheeling the audience away from the blank space of the undecorated set to the grim, rain-drenched Aberdeen, Washington - childhood home of Cobain.

Workman’s poetry is hauntingly and desolately beautiful, with creeping echoes of the master of American horror, Edgar Allan Poe. Workman matches the isolation of young Cobain with the bereavement and anger of the generation of lost souls he left behind. This elegiac piece moves from powerfully evocative scene-scaping to angry dialogue between the poet and her hero in an attempt to understand what drives people to take their own lives.

Like many myths and legends, Aberdeen proves that fate is immutable, and the show is shadowed with the dreadful inevitability of Cobain’s demise, the ‘patron saint of suicide’, whose life and legacy have been indelibly marked by his death. Workman poses questions around the responsibility of artists towards their fans, the painful irony of inspiring figures and voices of their generation losing their own voice and will to live.

Workman’s verse is dense, intense and unrelenting. If you don’t know anything about Kurt Cobain, that won’t stop you appreciating this heartbreaking tribute to a broken hero.

Engaging, beautiful and poignant – a staggering hour of spoken word”.

Back in 2019, Washington Post ran a feature about how Kurt Cobain was a gay rights hero. Writer Aaron Hamburger described how, as a teen in Midwestern America, being closeted and maybe not having anyone who was life-changing and provided strength; Cobain’s advocacy and openness was revelatory and possibly life-saving:

“Though Cobain might not be the first name you think of when it comes to gay rights, his band was never shy about its politics, especially where LGBTQ issues were concerned. In 1992, Nirvana played a “No on #9” benefit concert and issued a public statement opposing Measure 9, a statewide anti-gay citizen ballot initiative in Oregon that would have required “all governments” in the state to treat homosexuality as “abnormal, wrong, unnatural and perverse.” And in the liner notes of their album “Incesticide,” released that December, they warned: “If any of you in any way hate homosexuals, people of different color, or women, please do this one favor for us — leave us the f--- alone! Don’t come to our shows and don’t buy our records.” The liner notes to their next album, “In Utero,” echoed that admonition: “If you’re a sexist, racist, homophobe or basically an a--hole, don’t buy this CD. I don’t care if you like me, I hate you.”

Cobain himself repeatedly and publicly affirmed his pro-gay stance. In a 1993 interview with the Advocate, which I remember reading breathlessly in a Borders bookstore with the cover folded over so no one could tell what I was holding, Cobain called himself “gay in spirit” and revealed that as a teenager, he often questioned his sexuality and sprayed “God is gay” graffiti in the small town of Aberdeen, Wash., where he grew up. (The line “God is gay” later popped up in the Nirvana song “Stay Away.”) During the end credits of a “Saturday Night Live” episode in 1992, he made out with bandmate Krist Novoselic. And in 1993, Cobain appeared on the cover of the music magazine the Face wearing a dainty flower print dress.

All this played out in the early ’90s, when AIDS jokes and the word “fag” were common, ideas about allowing gays to openly serve in the military were considered radical, and politicians were waging culture wars over “family values.” Sure, there were rumors about the complicated sexuality of R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe, but Nirvana’s pro-gay gestures and its iconoclastic sound were remarkable for any popular music act. Guitar-smashing rock bands on MTV and mainstream music stations (Warrant, Poison) were generally uber-macho hair-metal acts, and even Hüsker Dü’s Bob Mould was in the closet at the time — not to mention wholly off my radar. The idea that you could make music that was aggressive, hard and loud and be an ally to the gay community seemed revolutionary, especially for me, a closeted prep school graduate from Detroit’s suburbs.

By the time Cobain killed himself at the end of my junior year of college, I was coming out to my friends and family. Having found my own confidence in his unapologetic approach to life, I didn’t fully appreciate just how insecure Cobain was until more than 20 years later, while researching a novel that pays tribute to his influence. The rock star I idolized was just one aspect of a real human being who created great art but also suffered great pain, both physical and emotional. And yet, during his relatively short life and career, he spoke with a clarity that inspired me to do the same, creating a kind of role model for me to follow”.

Before wrapping up, in 2019 (twenty-five years after Kurt Cobain’s death), Advocate revisited their 1993 interview with Cobain. With In Utero, Nirvana’s final album, a darker and rawer alternative to 1991’s Nevermind, it was towards the end of the band’s time together. A year before Cobain’s suicide, it is fascinating reading this interview:

“The world still dearly misses Kurt Cobain, the brilliant, genre-smashing guitarist and lead singer of Nirvana. Today marks a quarter-century since he died by suicide, haunted by depression, drug addiction, stomach pain, and an aversion to the fame machine. His legacy endures -- not just for the brilliance of Bleach, Nevermind, and In Utero, but for the way he changed the definition of "rock star."

Before Nirvana hit it big with their single "Smells Like Teen Spirit" in 1991, the male rock star was epitomized by Guns N' Roses' Axl Rose and other hair-band lead singers. These men were proudly sexist and homophobic (Skid Row's Sebastian Bach famously wore a T-shirt that read, "AIDS Kills Fags Dead").

Cobain, on the other hand, was sensitive and effeminate -- someone who regularly spoke out for minorities and called out racism, misogyny, and homophobia. While many remember Cobain and his Nirvana bandmates wearing dresses and kissing in videos and live performances, virtually forgotten is the fact that Nirvana performed at a gay rights benefit in Oregon in 1992.

While promoting Nirvana's late-1992 compilation album Incesticide -- which included the following statement in its liner notes, "If any of you in any way hate homosexuals, people of different color, or women, please do this one favor for us: leave us the fuck alone! Don't come to our shows and don't buy our records" -- Cobain spoke to The Advocate, granting the LGBTQ publication his only interview at that precarious time.

At the time, Cobain and wife Courtney Love were still reeling from a Vanity Fair article from the previous year, where the writer described the two as heroin addicts and Love as using the drug while pregnant with their daughter.

In the Advocate article, Cobain displayed comfort in speaking with an LGBTQ publication and a familiarity with gay culture, often using terms like "homophobia" and "misogyny," appreciating the description of Love as a "fag hag," and recalling the time he saw the Village People in concert.

Here are some of the choicest quotes from the interview with journalist Kevin Allman.

The Advocate: I read the liner notes you wrote on Incesticide. I've never seen somebody on a major label say, "If you're a racist, a sexist, a homophobe, we don't want you to buy our records."

Kurt Cobain: That's been the biggest problem that I've had being in this band. I know there are those people out in the audience, and there's not much I can do about it. I can talk about those issues in interviews -- I think it's pretty obvious that we're against the homophobes and the sexists and the racists, but when "Teen Spirit" first came out, mainstream audiences were under the assumption that we were just like Guns N' Roses.

These were his words: "You shut your bitch up, or I'm taking you down to the pavement." [Laughs] Everyone around us just burst out into tears of laughter. She wasn't even saying anything mean, you know? So I turned to Courtney and said, "Shut up, bitch!" And everyone laughed and he left. So I guess I did what he wanted me to do --be a man. [Laughs]

Does he remind you of guys you went to high school with?

Absolutely. Really confused, fucked-up guys. There's not much hope for them.

When he was singing about "immigrants and faggots," people were excusing it by saying, "Well, he's from Indiana --"

Oh, well, that's OK then. [Laughs] Insane. Later, after we played our show and were walking back to our trailer, the Guns N' Roses entourage came walking toward us. They have at least 50 bodyguards apiece: huge, gigantic, brain-dead oafs ready to kill for Axl at all times. [Laughs] They didn't see me, but they surrounded Chris, and Duff [McKagan of Guns N' Roses] wanted to beat Chris up, and the bodyguards started pushing Chris around. He finally escaped, but throughout the rest of the evening, there was a big threat of either Guns N' Roses themselves or their goons beating us up. We had to hide out.

Well, when we played that No on 9 benefit in Portland, I said something about Guns N' Roses. Nothing nasty -- I think I said, "And now, for our next song, 'Sweet Child o' Mine.'" But some kid jumped onstage and said, "Hey, man, Guns N' Roses plays awesome music, and Nirvana plays awesome music. Let's just get along and work things out, man!"

And I just couldn't help but say, "No, kid, you're really wrong. Those people are total sexist jerks, and the reason we're playing this show is to fight homophobia in a real small way. The guy is a fucking sexist and a racist and a homophobe, and you can't be on his side and be on our side. I"m sorry that I have to divide this up like this, but it's something you can't ignore. And besides they can't write good music." [Laughs]

You know, you were probably taking money from people who were voting yes on 9 [an antigay ballot measure] -- but they really wanted to see Nirvana.

[Laughs] Right! Chris went to a Guns N' Roses concert when they played here with Metallica a couple of months ago, and he went backstage, and there were these two bimbo girls who looked like they walked out of a Warrant video. They were sitting on the couch in hopes of sucking Axl's dick or something, and one of them said, "Chris, we saw you at that No on 9 benefit! We're voting yes on 9! You kissed Kurt on the lips! That was disgusting!" [Laughs] To know that we affect people like that -- it's kind of funny. The sad thing is that there's no penetrating them. After all that, after all the things those girls had seen us do, that was the one thing that sticks in their minds.

You used to push people's buttons like that in high school, didn't you?

Oh, absolutely. I used to pretend I was gay just to fuck with people. I've had the reputation of being a homosexual every day since I was 14. It was really cool, because I found a couple of gay friends in Aberdeen [Wash.] --which is almost impossible. How I could ever come across a gay person in Aberdeen is amazing! But I had some really good friends that way. I got beat up a lot, of course, because of my association with them.

People just thought I was weird at first, just some fucked-up kid. But once I got the gay tag, it gave me the freedom to be able to be a freak and let people know that they should just stay away from me. Instead of having to explain to someone that they should just stay the fuck away from me-I'm gay, so I can't even be touched. It made for quite a few scary experiences in alleys walking home from school, though.

You actually got beat up?

Oh, yeah. Quite a few times.

IN THIS PHOTO: Kurt Cobain’s mugshot in 1986 when he was arrested for spraying the words ‘GOD IS GAY’ on trucks

And you used to spray-paint GOD IS GAY on people's trucks?

That was a lot of fun. The funniest thing about that was not actually the act but the next morning. I'd get up early in the morning to walk through the neighborhood that I'd terrorized to see the aftermath. That was the worst thing I could have spray-painted on their cars. Nothing else would have been more effective.

Because people thought you were gay and you had gay friends, did you ever wonder if you might be gay?

Yeah, absolutely. See I've always wanted male friends that I could be real intimate with and talk about important things with and be as affectionate with that person as I would be with a girl. Throughout my life, I've always been really close with girls and made friends with girls. And I've always been a really sickly, feminine person anyhow, so I thought I was gay for a while because I didn't find any of the girls in my high school attractive at all. They had really awful haircuts and fucked-up attitudes. So I thought I would try to be gay for a while, but I'm just more sexually attracted to women. But I'm really glad that I found a few gay friends, because it totally saved me from becoming a monk or something.

I mean, I'm definitely gay in spirit, and I probably could be bisexual. But I'm married, and I'm more attracted to Courtney than I ever have been toward a person, so there's no point in trying to sow my oats at this point. [Laughs] If I wouldn't have found Courtney, I probably would have carried on with a bisexual lifestyle. But I just find her totally attractive in all ways”.

That is maybe a bit more non-personal context to Kurt Cobain and his influence on the L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ community. It is important that a play/piece like Aberdeen exists. The fact is its voice, Cassie Workman, has been deeply affected and moved by Cobain and his advocacy. How Cobain felt he could have been bisexual. Someone who deeply respected women and was always supportive and kind. A spirit and soul whose importance and legacy extends way beyond the music, the fact that we have plays and creative projects with Kurt Cobain at heart shows just what a cultural icon he is. I would urge anyone near Soho to go and see Aberdeen. I think that it will have life beyond the stage. It runs for another week. The reviews have been really positive. A project definitely important to Cassie Workman, I was moved to write about it. As I say, I am around the corner from Soho Theatre. I am about to walk past it, so I will see the poster and get a sense of how people will feel waiting to see the play. Spotlighting Aberdeen has given me a deeper appreciation of Nirvana. Even in 1992, they were pushing back against homophobia. There was this hugely accepting nature about the band. A message that they would not tolerate any form of discrimination based on sexuality. That extended to women and misogyny that was rampant through music when they were coming through and famous. The band, as they have sung on record and preached in their interviews, urged all their fans to..

COME as you are.

FEATURE: A Brilliant Start to 1979… Kate Bush: Best New Artist of 1978

FEATURE:

 

 

A Brilliant Start to 1979…

  

Kate Bush: Best New Artist of 1978

__________

AS we are near the end of the year…

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1978/PHOTO CREDIT: Brian Aris

there is not much news on Kate Bush to expect. Not many anniversaries to look into. I am going to look to one that is happening on 6th January, 1979. Forty-five years ago, Bush was rounding off her first professional year in music. Lionheart, her second studio album, came out in November. Even if December saw Bush doing a bit of promotion – on 9th December, 1978, Bush performed in the U.S. on Saturday Night Live -, she was wrapping up and looking ahead to Christmas. In a year when she put out two studio albums, Bush was thinking ahead to her tour in 1979. It was inevitable that, after such a busy 1978, there would be plaudit and congratulations. On 6th January, 1979, Kate Bush was voted Best New Artist of 1978 in the Record Mirror annual poll. In a previous feature, I did look at the events that happened in December 1978 and January 1979. I wanted to focus on 9th January, 1979, as this was a date where quite a lot of important things happened. It is especially notable this honour, as many still saw Kate Bush as a curio. Someone who was a novelty act. Remember, a month before that Record Mirror honour, Bush was in the U.S. on Saturday Night Live! That performance was pivotal in the sense it was U.S. exposure. However, I don’t think the American audience had seen anything like that. It was this introduction of a unique artist who would take a while to penetrate the market there. A month later, Bush was nodded to as a serious artist. Someone who could not be ignored in the U.K. This run of success continued. She would get the same award in 1980. Bush was voted Best Female Artist in the Record Mirror poll, Best Female Singer in NME. She was also voted Best Female Singer in Sounds. In addition, Kate Bush won Top Female Artist in the Music Week Annual Awards at the Dorchester Hotel, London; Top Female Singer at the British Rock and Pop Awards (later the BPI Awards) at the Café Royal (also London). At the Capital Radio Awards ceremony at the Grosvenor House Hotel (London too), she was presented with the award for Best Female Vocalist.

I think that 1979’s award was the start of this run. Approval that she was a worthy and brilliant artist. That was not always the case. Throughout 1978 – and far beyond -, there was a lot of mockery. Journalists not taking Kate Bush seriously. 9th January, 1979 was a packed day! Not long after Christmas, Bush was back on the promotional trail. She was guest of honour at the San Remo Song Festival in Italy. This is screened in most of Europe but not in the U.K. It was still a period where Bush was promoting two albums at the same time. I can imagine she was a bit tired of the two crossing over! There was focus on Lionheart, as that album came out a couple of months before. Bush performed live more extensively throughout 1979. Appearances like the one on Italian T.V. were important. I think the international performances were tricky in terms of translation. Not only Bush trying to navigate her way through interviews. There was also that thing of audiences trying to understand the words Bush was singing. If you though that American audiences were confused because of the originality and unusual nature of the music, it was extra hard to break through an extra layer – an audience whose first language is not English! She managed to (to an extent) in 1978 when she visited Japan. I think, on that trip, there was confusion and a sense of acceptance. A mixture that resulted in quite a strange and wonderful period. The Italian audience are quite warm regarding Bush’s performance - though you can tell that this was not a type of artist they were used to.

More importantly, on 9th January, 1979, Bush was proactive and hitting the grounding running! As I said in the previous feature, she was starting earnestly. There were sketches and ideas of what she wanted. Between this date and the first date of The Tour of Life – 2nd April, 1979 -, quite a lot had been achieved. Bush was also still recording and writing. Never for Ever was released in 1980. She was putting together various songs before that. For The Tour of Life, Bush would have been inspired by various live performances. She was at the final Ziggy Stardust (David Bowie) performance in 1973. No doubt channelling some of David Bowie, her dance concepts and training were planned to be supervised by Antony Van Laast (he appeared with Kate in the video for Hammer Horror). In Bush’s sketches and notes, she will be backed by a seven-piece band. At the centre is Paddy Bush (mandolin, backing vocals), Del Palmer (bass), and Brian Bath (rhythm guitar) of the KT Bush Band, supplemented by Alan Murphy (lead guitar), Kevin McAlea (keyboards, saxophone), Ben Barson (keyboards), and Preston Heyman (drum). Thanks to this invaluable source for providing the essential information. I think about that transition between the end of 1978 and the start of 1979. Bush was still working quite hard until the end of December 1978. She had some time with family over Christmas. Soon enough, there was this new wave of promotion and creativity. Getting that award honour from Record Mirror, combined with a performance on Italian T.V. meant that, right from the start of 1979, Bush was very much still in the spotlight and keeping momentum going! Whilst many people were slowing getting into 1979 after the Christmas downtime, there was no stopping Kate Bush! 1979 would see Bush go on her only tour; she released singles (The Kick Inside’s Strange Phenomena was released in Brazil in June; Wow was a huge success; Symphony in Blue was released in Japan and Canada); Bush started to record Never for Ever in September. Starting 1979 with success and some new exposure, that would kickstart a year that was…

A huge step in her career.

FEATURE: Rediscovering America: A Modern Icon, the BBC 100 Women 2023 List, And a Need for a Music Equivalent

FEATURE:

 

 

Rediscovering America

 IN THIS PHOTO: America Ferrera/IMAGE CREDIT: BBC

 

A Modern Icon, the BBC 100 Women 2023 List, And a Need for a Music Equivalent

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I may have covered this…

 IN THIS PHOTO: America Ferrera alongside BBC Radio 6 Music’s Lauren Laverne on 8th December, 2023/PHOTO CREDIT: BBC

in other features. In terms of recognising the important women in music. There are occasions and ceremonies where influential women are celebrated and recognised. One of music’s most influential and successful women, Taylor Swift, was recently named TIME’s Person of the Year. There are annual events like Music Week’s Women in Music Awards. Some might say, when these exist, then why add another?! It is the same reason as to why award ceremonies like the BRITs have expanded categories so that women are included. The same reason as to why festivals need to act and not be stubbornly male-heavy. It is because the talent is out there and there are some incredible women not being heard and recognised. We are still in a time when there is an immense amount of incredible work by women in music that is either not acknowledged or is not highlighted as much as their male peers. It is really baffling that those in power in the music industry are not really tackling imbalances and discrimination they have created. An apathy or ignorance, progress is pretty slow! There are glimmers of hope, though. We all hope that 2024 is a year where genuine change is seen and felt across all corners of the industry.

IN THIS PHOTO: Taylor Swift/PHOTO CREDIT: Inez and Vinoodh for TIME

This thought of mine regarding women being recognised in music was reignited and repurposed after hearing America Ferrera speak on BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour today (8th December). It was a fascinating discussion: “America Ferrera is an award-winning actress, a director, producer and activist. She shot to stardom with her roles in Ugly Betty and The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants, but you'll most recently have seen her playing Gloria, an assistant to the chief executive of Mattel, in the blockbuster Barbie film, who delivers a powerful monologue on the double standards of being a woman. America joins Anita to talk about how she didn't "set out to be a role model, or to break barriers, or to have a career about defying the norm”. Also today, America Ferrera spoke with Lauren Laverne on her BBC Radio 6 Music show. Not only was Ferrera speaking about Barbie and her role in it. She also reacted to be included in the BBC 100 Women 2023 list. A hundred influential and inspiring women from around the world.

When it came to Entertainment & Sport, America Ferrera was top of the list. T.V. presenter Georgia Harrison was also in the list. In Culture & Education, great women like U.S. student and social entrepreneur, Sophia Kianni, were included. There was not really any musical representation across the one hundred names. That is fine. Culture was covered. Politics, art, society, science, health and beyond. It is important that women across all corners of society are named and highlighted. It is an amazing and important feature that I would urge people to look at in full. America Ferrera’s inclusion particularly caught my eye, as Barbie is my favourite film of the year. Her role as Gloria was amazing. I was not quite aware of all the activism and important work she has done outside of acting. Such an inspiring human who is using her platform to help improve the lives of Latinas. To see more representation for women on the screen and throughout her industry. Very commendable. To be fair, Barbie colleagues like Margot Robbie could also have been included. Maybe there would be different if there was a music-based equivalent of BBC 100 Women 2023. Their names are women who are changing society and making a big difference. Not necessarily relating to their field/profession. I guess a music version would include some of that, though it would be amazing to recognise women right across the industry rising and established who are making change and inspirational.

 IN THIS PHOTO: Sophia Kianni

Taylor Swift seems like an obvious inclusion. Producers like Catherine Marks. Broadcasters, D.J.s, those at labels and venues. Journalists and writers. Rather than having categories and prizes, this is the same as the BBC does. It could be broken down into sections, though there would not be this element of shortlists and narrowing down you get with awards. Instead, it would be a hundred names that could partner with programmes like Woman’s Hour and music publications and websites. Rather than a trophy or prize being given out, instead, it would be this feature online. Maybe links to websites and their work. Next year is one, I hope, that there is greater gender balancer and equality right throughout music. There are so many influential and important women in the industry that are affecting change. From massive artists to journalists and those we may not often see; it is important to show the wealth and depth of female talent throughout the industry. It is not only something that is overdue and would be welcomed. I hope that it also helps speed up progress and recognition through the music industry. Inspired by the BBC’s hundred women who are changing the world, there are so many phenomenal women throughout music – of all ages and nationalities – who should be combined. With the BBC naming one hundred influential women across so many sectors and walks of life, it made me think more widely about changes and impact women are making in so many different and important ways. It is something that the music industry should adopt, celebrate and incorporate. We all know of worthy women who could and should be…

AMONG the one hundred.

FEATURE: Bad Actors, Reset the Stage for a Sisters Act: Hopes That Female Dominance in 2023 Will Result in Great Progress and Opportunities Next Year

FEATURE:

 

 

Bad Actors, Reset the Stage for a Sisters Act

PHOTO CREDIT: Luan Nunes/Pexels

 

Hopes That Female Dominance in 2023 Will Result in Great Progress and Opportunities Next Year

__________

AS I seem to say each year…

PHOTO CREDIT: Pixabay/Pexels

this one has been dominated by female artists. If you look at the best of 2023 albums lists, you can see women riding high in every mix. Whether it is a list from Time Out, Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, or The New York Times, most of the highest positions are taken by female artists. The same goes for singles and tracks. Some of the biggest and highest-grossing tours have been from female artists. Stations like BBC Radio 1 have announced their longlist of artists to watch in 2024. Even so, these stations still are struggling to balance their playlists - even if their 2024 list is female-heavy! It has been another year when musical excellence and progression has come, in my opinion, mostly from women. We are in the middle of various sites sharing their take on which rising artists will define 2024. Again, in so many cases, women feature heavily. That has been the case for years now. I think 2023 has been particularly queens-heavy. So many remarkable albums and singles coming from women. Not to take anything away from other genders at all. This is not about divisiveness at all. I am simply observing how, inescapably, one cannot deny the power and importance of music coming from women in the industry – whether they are established and legendary or fairly new. There has been this dominance for a very long time. It is wonderful to see of course. I am not sure what accounts for this phenomena. I feel, after years of women being denied festival bills and radio playlist inclusions, the more that are included and are get attention, the more we are hearing about them in a wider sense. Perhaps a particularly rich time period in terms of the music coming from music. In actuality, there is no secret or explanation. A natural evolution and progression that means female artists are overtaking their peers.

 PHOTO CREDIT: Jorge Fakhouri Filho/Pexels

I don’t think that this trend is something that will be bucked and reversed anytime soon. If websites and various magazines etc. are recognising wonderful albums from women and highlighting female artists as ones to watch next year, I don’t think that this same love and widespread coverage is being reflected yet across the industry. I listen to a variety of radio stations. None of them seem to have playlists that are regularly 50-50 (women and non-binary artists against male acts). BBC Radio 6 Music for a lot of the time, but even this great and progressive station cannot get a consistent and solid balance! The situation is far bleaker when you look at commercial stations. After so many years of women across multiple genres producing stunning work, why are radio stations not honouring this?! Some radio stations are genre-limited which might make consistent gender balance quite hard. Nealy all commercial stations are broad and cover lots of types of music. Alongside continued ageism, there is this gender imbalance on playlist. No plausible or real explanation is given as to why this is. If anyone in the industry know if there are limits or reasons why this still happens then let me know! It is not long until new reports come out that show the gender breakdown across stations in the U.K. and EIRE. I think we are going to see another year where some stations – BBC Radio 6 Music among them - who are close to balance. Sadly, most will have only made tiny steps from last year. It makes me wonder whether there is room for another digital station or BBC station that is dedicated to diversity; one that can affect and commit to balance. What we are seeing from commercial stations – BBC and non alike – is that gender equality is not hugely important to them!

 PHOTO CREDIT: Anderson Cavalera/Pexels

Looking at the festival playlists that have been published already, I think we are not going to see too many of the huge ones striking a balance regarding women. Maybe most of the smaller ones will though. Just think about how many female artists will be announced as headliners at the major festivals, it is going to be another frustrating year! A report earlier this year discussed the situation with gender inequality on radio playlists. Think about gender inequality at festivals. The fact that women are seen as too risky by some when it comes to booking headliners. Just consider gender inequality in terms of chart music and representation. Put into the mix the fact that there is still so much sexual harassment in the industry, imbalance across many award ceremonies’ categories, and misogyny that is relatively unchecked but is being challenged. There is this really grim landscape. On the one hand, we have all these amazing and inspiring new female artists standing proud with established artists who have paved the way. Most of this year’s best albums are from women. NME confirm this, as do The Ringer. Even though festivals are still guilty of not doing enough, many of the most intimate, electrifying or simply wonderful sets have been from women. All this light and joy is slotted together with this darkness, ignorance, sexism, misogyny and abuse. I guess an instantly remedy where everything is balanced and sexism is ended is a realistic achievement. One of the issues is so many positions of power are occupied by men. A big thanks to My Girl the River (Kris Wilkinson is a Louisiana singer/songwriter based in the U.K.). She shared her experiences and thoughts when it comes to imbalance and gender inequality that still exists through the industry:

“Different genres play the gender game in different ways. But suffice to say that you only need to look at festivals (or country music) to see a massive imbalance. And a lot of doors don’t open to women, especially older women, whereas if it were a man they might be invited in. A lot of small labels and agencies have a heavy weighting towards men. And let’s face it, women don’t want to be part of the boys club, they just want to be taken seriously and appreciated for their craft. Americana is better but not completely innocent. Pop seems to have a balance on radio but live dates or festivals don’t always reflect it.

Art should be art - it shouldn’t be ‘best female artist’ or ‘female singer songwriter’, it should be irrespective of gender”.

IN THIS PHOTO: My Girl the River

You can research further but, over recent years, there have been articles asking how far have we come regarding sexism and inequality. Maybe there has been improvement. You only need to listen to your radio, talk to so many women in the industry about opportunities and how they are viewed compared to their male peers etc., to know that there is still a very long way to go. As I am going to explore in several other features leading up to the end of the year, there are so many incredible women who are being tipped for greatness in 2024. Whether that is a group like The Last Dinner Party - who were recently named as The BRIT Awards Rising Star for 2024 - or artists starting to put out their first track who are sensational, there are huge options for every festival when it comes to talent. The immense wave and variation of female talent is not being met with commitment and deserved opportunity from the industry. It is infuriating. It extend to radio playlists too. Age limits and barriers still exist. Many festivals and stations unwilling to take risks or do enough to promote women. We are almost at the end of 2023. I don’t think any rational person can say there has been a massive step forward regarding equality since last year. Nor can they say that there are no issues regarding sexism and festivals continuing to book male artists over women (especially when it comes to headliners). One of the top priorities that the music industry needs to commit to is ensuring that we are a big step closer to…

 IN THIS PHOTO: The Last Dinner Party/PHOTO CREDIT: Press

TRUE gender equality.

FEATURE: The Digital Mixtape: Songs from Underrated Albums of 2023

FEATURE:

 

 

The Digital Mixtape

PHOTO CREDIT: Karolina Grabowska/Pexels

 

Songs from Underrated Albums of 2023

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IT is a subjective measure…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Mick Haupt/Pexels

but there have been some underrated albums from this year that deserve a bit more spotlight and love. Everyone will have their own opinions as to which of 2023’s albums are best and most worthy. Not many are highlighting those which did not get the reaction that they warranted. These albums might have been celebrated by a few but not been on the radar of so many others, criticised or got mixed reviews or, in some cases, flown under the radar altogether. I am putting together a selection of songs from albums that I think did not get the full amount of kudos that they warranted. My album of the year, Iraina Mancini’s Undo the Blue is also in there (it got positive reviews but so many music websites missed it out). Below is a strong playlist with cuts from some albums I hope that people pick up and spend time with. I have consulted a few different sources (including this) in terms of gauging those albums that were underrated. In a hugely strong year for music, I think that there have been some albums that…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Andrea Piacquadio/Pexels

WARRANTED a bit better.

FEATURE: Hands to Myself: The Need for Unity and Greater Respect in 2024

FEATURE:

 

 

Hands to Myself

IN THIS PHOTO: Selena Gomez/PHOTO CREDIT: Shane McCauley/WWD
 

The Need for Unity and Greater Respect in 2024

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RATHER than this being a Christmas message…

 IMAGE CREDIT: Pop Base

it is more of a hope for 2024. At the moment, the world is as conflicted ands ravaged - as it has been for a very long time. With genocide happening against Palestinian people and this only being one of several horrifying news stories that are causing so much upset and distress daily, it is a moment when many people want to retreat and find sort of comfort and quiet. I can also appreciate that others want to react to the horror we are seeing and the evil happening around the world. It is a terrible time. I think there is a certain pressure on artists to take a stand. In fact, there are a couple of reasons why I wrote this feature. Both sort of relate to U.S. artist Selena Gomez. One of Pop’s biggest names, she has been criticised for not having a say about the conflict happening in Palestine. Not calling out Israel or having a statement to make. Gomez recently confirmed a relationship with music producer Benny Blanco. There is this whole thread as to how fans react when female artists get into relationships with men and how the fanbase reacts. How there is judgment. Gomez has mentioned her relationship and there is excitement around that, yet some have noted a lack of commentary and opinion about the genocide afflicting Palestinians. There are a couple of things to unpack. First, and prompted by this post (also see above), where Gomez was criticised for a seeming lack of awareness or care, I wanted to expand further. Gomez,  as you can see from the post and reaction, is taking a pause on social media. Some fans have been miffed. Feeling Gomez is prioritising her relationship and can speak about that and her music – yet she is choosy when it comes to something more important.

 PHOTO CREDIT: Xach Hill/Pexels

There is this sense of fans becoming too invested in the relationship of artists. If it is Taylor Swift, Selena Gomez, Demi Lovato or anyone else, a lot of judgement and obsession regarding the people they date. I know fans are protective and want the best for the artists they love, yet there does seem to be this intrusion and double standard. Fans are quick to call out an artist for speaking about their personal life and happiness yet, if that artist does not go beyond the personal, then they are attacked and made to feel unhappy and trolled. An irony I guess. I know Selena Gomez has new music coming out but, rather than her focus being cynical or ignorant of political events, it is her doing what she needs to do. Keeping her hands to herself. Or keeping them in the personal rather than the political. I do know that artists who are seen as uncaring or unconcerned with hugely upsetting things like what is happening in Palestine actually care a lot! They may have their own stand and opinion. It can be divisive sharing that. Also, an assumption that a post on Twitter or Instagram can make things better. That is will magically end the bloodshed! I know Pop artists are influential, though they do not have the potential or influence to end wars. I have said before how it is important that more artists speak about these things and engage with conflicts and important subjects. That is not to say that every one of them should. In fact, at such a horrifying and upsetting time, it is perfectly okay for Selena Gomez or one of her peers to stand back or focus on what she wants to. Taking care of herself. There was some backlash against her from some fans. Whereas some feel that Gomez is being self-centred or support Israel with her ‘silence’, other rightly point out that she should be left alone and is entitled to privacy and do what she wants.

 IN THIS PHOTO: Taylor Swift

There is this toxicity online where, if an artist does not comment and take a stand on something like the genocide happening, that they are complicit and on the ‘wrong side’. That is the thing too. If an artist does support one side, then they can divide people and risk offending others. It is not about choosing sides and division. The truth is that artists like Selena Gomez and Taylor Swift want things to end and there to be peace. Not political or attacking one country. Simply compassion for those losing their lives in such a heartbreaking way. It does make me think that, next year, there needs to be much more togetherness and compassion for artists. Not being too intrusive and judgemental. Letting them have a private life and love – even if their choices are seen as unwise or risky. If an artist wants to speak out against something important then they should have that platform and chance. If they do not, then they have their own reason for that and should not be criticised for that! Piling onto an artist or calling out their priorities is a reason why so many take social media breaks. Having to deal with the slews of negativity and personal attack is going to be detrimental for their mental health. Next year is one where a universal resolution needs to be committed to. For people to treat artists better!

 IN THIS PHOTO: The 1975’s George Daniel and Charli XCX recently became engaged, prompting division from fans/PHOTO CREDIT: David M. Benett/Jed Cullen/Getty Images

Not assuming they are the answer to world problems and have the influence to stop things. They are human beings with success. And, whilst it is good that there is a powerful voice speaking out and that engages a lot of people, many do not want to commit or risk dividing people or getting it wrong. Also, as I may explore in a separate feature, why do fans/everyone else feel entitled to judge who an artist dates?! I am baffled why Charli XCX recently got engaged to The 1975’s George Daniel – as I find their frontman Matty Healy reprehensible -, but it her decision. It is no one’s business whether it is a wise choice or whether it will last. People’s personal life should remain just that. Fans do not control that. Maybe a naïve sentiment, I feel that there needs to be more respect and privacy given to artists who are not obliged to do what politicians around the world should do and are failing to – which, right now, is ensure that Palestine is free and the fighting stops. There is going to be a lot of absorb and tackle next year. Artists should prioritise on music, yet it is also inspiring when they do discuss major problems and things that need to be raised. It can be brave it there is a commercial risk in doing so. Pummelling and pointing fingers at artists who want to choose how they handle things should be a priority. It is very clear and important that 2024 is…

A year of unity and understanding.

FEATURE: The Kate Bush Interview Archive: 1983: Voc'l (John Reimers)

FEATURE:

 

 

The Kate Bush Interview Archive

PHOTO CREDIT: Trinity Mirror/Mirrorpix/Alamy

 

1983: Voc'l (John Reimers)

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I think that I have sourced…

almost everything that is available through this incredible website. The interview I want to highlight today was conducted by John Reimers of Voc’l. There are a couple of reasons why this interview stands out. I shall come to that soon. In terms of the person who interviewed her. John Reimers spoke with Kate Bush in late 1983. Marking forty years of a really interesting chat, he was someone who became a friend of the Bush family. An American publication that was highlighting an artist, at that point, not well known in the country, it is really interesting to consider how American audiences reacted to the icon. I like the fact that an artist who would release Hounds of Love two years later was not embraced or particularly appealing to those in the U.S. That corrected took a while to come. A year after The Dreaming came out, Bush was still discussing it. In late 1983, she had already planted the seeds for Hounds of Love. A home studio constructed and demos worked on. After unwinding with family at point during the year and detaching from the suffocation of recording and promoting, 1983 was not without interviews and releases. The fact that she did this interview seemed like a nod to the American market. Maybe an attempt to get her name out there more. If American listeners were not quite embracing of her music and sound, perhaps more personal insight was what was required. Getting to know the woman behind the music.

There are large parts of the 1983 interview I want to focus on. It goes into detail about The Dreaming and its tracks. There is also a question asked (of Bush) about her lack of commercial appeal and success in the U.S. Her maybe explaining why audiences there had not embraced her music in ways they had in the U.K., Europe and beyond:

“The Dreaming is perhaps Kate Bush's most ambitious effort to date. Utilizing the Fairlight CMI (computer musical instrument), she creates a rhythmic, experimental sound with a truly haunting, yet human, quality.

With a new album already on the way (and increasing interest expressed by EMI-America, which once felt her music was somewhat unmarketable here), Kate Bush is more than ready to break into America's pop music market. Nineteen-eighty-four may well be her best year yet.

At the time, what were your feelings on the success of Wuthering Heights?

"I was very surprised. It's not something you really take in. I was obviously very excited. It was such a wonderful thing to happen after having just finished my first album--when you're not sure how things are going to go."

The Dreaming was released in late 1982, some two years after Never For Ever. Why did this album take so much longer than the previous ones?

"Well, I don't know about other people, but I find that I've always had to work hard in order to get something good. I don't think I could just do something quickly that would be marvellous. I have to work hard at it just to make it right. But I think I am quite critical of my work, and it just takes me a long time anyway. I think things come quite slowly for me. So, I do have to work hard in order to come up with something.

"I always seem to be behind myself. I should have had an album out already this year (1983), but because of how I work, I can't do it. So, I suppose, because I'm always behind..."

How much time is involved in the actual writing of the songs?”.

"I think nearly everything I do takes me a long time. I find it quite hard to get things the way I want them. And I think the only time I've ever written ten songs quickly was the last album, The Dreaming. But then we spent ages in the studio. And part way through the album, I stopped going to the studio, and just spent a couple of months working on the lyrics. That was very hard, but I think it was worth it.

"For a total album, I felt more pleased with those lyrics than with any of the albums before. There have always been a couple of songs that I thought were, perhaps, a bit weak. But I worked very hard on The Dreaming."

How important a part did the Fairlight play in The Dreaming?

"I think on this album it played an incredibly important part. I didn't have one when I was writing the songs for The Dreaming, but I had it very much in mind. As soon as I went into the studio, a couple of weeks later, I actually bought one so that I could have more time to work with it.

"It's an incredible thing. For those songs it was really perfect. A great deal of effort went into trying to create an emotional effect for the atmosphere of the songs, and I find that the Fairlight is a very understanding instrument in those areas."

Was producing The Dreaming a new creative outlet for you?

"Yes, and I think very much an outlet that had been in motion before, but I hadn't had complete control. It was very exciting for me and also very worrisome, because it was something new and something that held a great deal of responsibility.

"I really did enjoy doing it. But, it was also much more demanding and intense than I had expected. The songs actually started to change once I got in the studio, and it became a very emotional thing. It became very tiring emotionally, but very satisfying.

"I think when you put that amount of effort into something, you feel a great deal of satisfaction when it starts working out the way you want it to. I would never consider going into the studio without a very good engineer, though. I think that is such an important part of an album--someone who can get you a really good sound and personality.

"It's also very important to have someone to get feedback from. You need that. And you obviously get very close with someone who's working on the same project with you, so you want them to like it. It's good if you're all enjoying it and there's a nice relationship among the people you're working with. That really helps a lot."

In the title track of The Dreaming, it is virtually impossible to be aware of all the sounds and voices at the same time. This seems to hold true for much of the album.

"I think, especially with that track and Get Out of My House, that was--well, hopefully--what we wanted to happen. It was very much working in layers.

"The idea was that the third or fourth time a person listened to the record, they would start hearing things they hadn't heard before. I think that's really my favourite kind of music. The best examples are some of the Beatles records. I still listen to them, and am still amazed at the quality of the songwriting. It still stands up today. I mean, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and Magical Mystery Tour -- there just isn't a bad track on them, every one is brilliant, and there are so many ideas in each song. Maybe each time you listen you pick up on a different area of what is going on. And I really wanted to create something a bit like that, so that, as people listened to it more, it would somehow grow.

"What I suppose worries me, are the people who aren't prepared for music you really have to listen to. Perhaps they find it a bit confusing because it's not all there on the surface. It's something that you do have to give time to, a bit like a book. But if it's actually getting through to some people, which it obviously has from the feedback, then that's fantastic."

What does The Dreaming mean?

"It's an aboriginal term that was also called Dreamtime. The Dreaming and Dreamtime are the same thing: the time of creation that the aborigines believe in. It's a very ancient religious thing for them."

One track from The Dreaming, Leave It Open, has a backward masking at the end, under the chorus.

"Yes. We actually have a thing going in this country (England), where there are people who write in every week with a new version of what they think has been said at the end of the song, and no one has gotten it yet.

"I think there are only about three or four people who actually know what has been said there. I really like that, though--the idea of all these people sitting and listening over and over to the ending and wondering what's being said. It's lovely, like a game."

I suppose the obvious question at this point would be, "But what does it say?" But, bypassing that one, how important is it for the listener to understand your intentions while listening to one of your records?

"It means a lot to me if people are interpreting the music in the way that I originally wanted it to be done. But, I do feel that music is a bit like a painting, in that when you buy a painting, it's because you like it. And what is important is your interpretation of what it means. That's why it means so much to you. I think that applies to records as well.

"But, as long as people are getting enjoyment out of them, I don't think it matters to me. It doesn't worry me if they don't understand the way that I'd hoped they would. But of course it's always nice if they do."

Why do you think your music is so greatly ignored in the U.S.?

"I don't think the music automatically fits into categories. So, I don't think it's easy for it to fit into the majority of radio programming in America.

"I also think it would have helped a lot if the record company had actually released the albums in the U.S.! Apart from the first album, The Dreaming is the only other album they've released in America. So, in many ways, there hasn't been that much for people to buy or to hear. Apart from that, I can't say why."

A promotional trip to the U.S. was cancelled this past spring.

"I was due over in June, and was very excited about it. I was really disappointed because I had been getting some very positive feedback from America, especially from the press-- reviews and articles. There are people who really seem to like the album. It looks now like I'm probably not going to be over until I have a new album. But it was disappointing for me. I was greatly looking forward to it."

Will you be touring at all in the near future?

"I do want to. Quite honestly, until last year I couldn't start thinking about doing a show because I needed two albums clear of the last show to have enough new material. I was hoping to be able to start thinking about a show in 1983, but I got into time problems, because nearly everything I do takes me so long.

"If I had done a tour, I probably wouldn't even be writing songs for a new album until much later. And the general feeling was that it was too long a gap. So, I really just want to get this album out, and then I can start thinking about doing a show.

"But that's going to mean a lot of organizing. I won't even know how far, or where we'll be taking it until we've got an estimate on the cost. One of the big problems is money. The last show I did really did cost a lot. But, if a tour seems practical, I would love to bring it to America”.

Such an interesting interview, 1983 was a year where Bush was wrapping up promotion for The Dreaming and looking ahead. People did not know what was to come. Bush would make appearances and there was the odd between late-1983 and 1985. Maybe not as prolific as other Pop artists around the time, there was rumours Bush had quit music or there was some personal crisis. She did come back with a triumphant album in 1985. A complete shift from The Dreaming, I am interested reading how Bush reacted to her fourth studio album in the months after it came out. Seeing out 1983 and looking back on a hectic past couple of years, Kate Bush was at this amazing and important juncture of her career. Very soon…

EVERYTHING would change.

FEATURE: Dark Blue Hour: The Desire for New and Challenging Music Documentaries in 2024

FEATURE:

 

 

Dark Blue Hour

PHOTO CREDIT: Ketut Subiyanto/Pexels

 

The Desire for New and Challenging Music Documentaries in 2024

__________

THROUGH this year…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Donald Tong/Pexels

I have been writing features about gender inequality and discrimination. I have written about it in the past couple of weeks, in fact. It is another year when there is this imbalance still across the industry. I do feel that there needs to be more action from the industry when it comes to ensuring that female artists are provided bigger stages and more acknowledgement. That they are not overlooked when it comes to festival slots and the headline places. In terms of radio playlists and production studios, there are issues there regarding equality. To different degrees, obviously! There is a lot of work to be done - though there are always tiny steps being made. It needs to be tackled harder and faster. A definite priority for next year. The fact that so many in the music industry and tipping a wave of female artists for success in 2024 shows that the talent there is ready to go! Is that going to be mirrored when it comes to opportunities, festivals etc.?! You would hope there are no excuses now. Who knows! I just hope the music industry wakes up and stops dragging its heels regarding balancing things. Women still being sidelined in a lot of cases. It got me thinking about ways in which quicker progression could be made. Maybe awareness needs to be raised through a documentary. I know there are those in the industry that could come together and talk about their experiences. The statics are out there and we can put that in features and podcasts. I just wondered whether there needs to be something more visual. I don’t think there have been many music documentaries in the past decade or so regarding gender inequality. Pairing that with women who are ruling music and dominating. Asking why things are still as they are.

 IN THIS PHOTO: Annie Macmanus/PHOTO CREDIT: Stephanie Sian Smith

One of the more disturbing things we are noticing is more and more cases of sexual assault and harassment. From Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs to LA Reid to Michael Greene, there are prominent men in the industry being accused of assault or rape. The U.K. Government is asking women who have been victims of sexual assault in the music industry to come forward. Artists such as Axl Rose have also been accused of assault. It is not only a case of prominent men being accused. There are still issues at music festivals. Hard to police and monitor fully, there is a lot to consider and address. We know of cases that are reported, as women are coming forward and telling their stories. There are many more afraid of not being believed or feeling that there would not be justice or a prosecution. It is a complex subject that we need to ensure is addressed. There is, as I have written before, a massive issue. Annie Macmanus recently spoke to the House of Commons committee about a tidal wave of abuse cases in music. It is a moment when as much is being done by women to get progression and ensure that the industry is not rigged against women. That they are not silenced. It got me thinking about documentaries. Maybe something that is already in progress, it does seem like the recent cases of high-profile men in the industry being accused provides an opportunity to hear from women and those in the industry who have experienced assault and abuse.

 IN THIS PHOTO: Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs/PHOTO CREDIT: Jordan Strauss/Invision/Associated Press

One of our best documentary makers who has experience with bringing very difficult conversations to screen is Zara McDermott. Currently on Strictly Come Dancing, there is this side to her career that many might not know. Beyond Made in Chelsea and Love Island. Zara McDermott: Revenge Porn was announced in February 2021. This was an emotion and raw documentary where McDermott discusses sexting and her experiences of revenge porn with fellow victims. Many might not have expected her to turn to documentary making. Someone who might have otherwise been in tabloid columns and paid for an exclusive interview and gone down that route instead brought out an acclaimed and powerful documentary. Credit to her for the bravery to do what she did. This is what i said when they reviewed the documentary:

“The morning after Zara McDermott left Love Island in 2018, she was informed by a press officer that explicit images of her had been widely shared.

“I wanted to die,” she said, in the documentary Zara McDermott: Revenge Porn. Initially the show hit the expected beats as the reality TV contestant described her guilt, shame and anger, and explored the collateral damage to her distressed family and friends.

But it is the revelation that this was McDermott’s second experience of revenge porn – the first came when she was a bullied 14-year-old schoolgirl – that allowed the documentary to really excavate how this particular crime can annihilate someone’s sense of self-worth. It was heartbreaking to hear her ask: “How could I have been such an idiot… again?”

The show covered the many ways in which revenge porn stories can play out. There was McDermott’s narrative of building a career based on total control of her image; there was Sarah, whose ex-boyfriend was convicted for secretly filming and distributing images of her; and there was the devastating story of Damilya, who took her own life after an abusive partner threatened to share a video of her.

Commendably, the programme engaged with nuance around the issue, particularly the idea that some victims are more deserving of sympathy than others. Still, it would have been interesting to see a little more scrutiny of the judicial process and how common a conviction actually is.

McDermott herself was impressive, smartly engaging with the perception of her sexy image, movingly discussing the school incident with her parents for the first time and bravely attempting to contact the men who shared her image (neither responded)”.

In more recent times, she has made a documentary, Zara McDermott: Disordered Eating. McDermott discussed trolling she received about her body when she was in Love Island. She met with numerous young people suffering from eating disorders. I think one of her most important and enduring documentaries was Zara McDermott: Uncovering Rape Culture. Broadcast in 2022, it was another acclaimed documentary. Bringing her own experiences in together with a compassionate approach to those who have been through similar things, it is no wonder that it was lauded. The Independent said this:

“In her documentary Uncovering Rape Culture (BBC Three), McDermott is speaking publicly about the assault for the first time. She is on a mission to find the root of sexual violence against women and girls. McDermott thinks her “freckly, boyish” attacker – who was never found by police – could only have been about 15. Her first port of call, therefore, is schools.

McDermott is a compassionate interviewer. She meets dozens of schoolgirls who have been pressured by their classmates into sending nude pictures and told they are “frigid” if they don’t. She holds the hand of one survivor of sexual assault, Mary, who was left with internal bruising after unwanted touching at a house party aged 15, and comforts a mother whose 12-year-old daughter, Semina, took her own life after being raped.

The reality star is intrepid, too. In her interviews with children, one word keeps coming up: porn. Schoolboys tell her they started watching pornography as young as 11. At the time, they say, they had assumed it was a healthy, realistic depiction of sex. But, as shown in this programme, a seemingly innocent search on Pornhub brings up violent videos tagged with words like “destroy” and “barely legal teen”. McDermott wants to ask the company why they don’t stop children watching their content. Unable to get through on the phone, she tracks down the HQ of MindGeek, the tech company that owns Pornhub, and turns up at their offices. They’re on the edge of a roundabout opposite a Kwik Fit. She is dismissed from the premises”.

That may seem roundabout, but my intention is to show that we have talented documentary makers like Zara McDermott who could help bring to life a documentary exploring something dark and toxic in the music industry. Toxic masculinity and assault. Harassment women face online. Maybe her interest might not extend into music though, as she has helped bring to life such important documentaries that have resonated with many people, she would be a point of call. A source of influenced in terms of tone and scope of a documentary. There are other documentary makers that could be considered. It does not necessarily have to be a woman. Also, when it comes to abuse and assault in the industry, I also know that men and non-binary people experience it too. Perhaps to a lesser extent, there are still quite a few cases. Body-shaming and judgment is also something that is aimed at so many women. Again, features are written and some artists discuss their experiences. Billie Eilish shared her experience of being body-shamed online. I think, particularly, it is a rise of sexual assault and abuse claims that is worrying. A point where we need some action and activation. I know it will take more than a documentary to have a huge ill and evil quashed and under control. There needs to be a multi-limed approach in terms of educating and informing men. Ensuring that organisations like Safe Gigs for Women are highlighted. The great work they do. With sexual harassment still rife in music, many women are afraid or hesitant to report. There is insufficient protection and safeguarding available. I think a powerful and uncompromising documentary would bring to life vividly the stories and statistics which should give pause for thought. As we end a great year for music and a time when so many women are being tipped for success next year, we also thank those throughout the industry who are so valued and essential. On the other side of the coin, women are also being assaulted, abused, threatened, harassed and made to feel unsafe. It is cleat that how things are right now cannot…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Is Zara McDermott a perfect choice to help bring to screens a documentary about abuse through the music industry?/PHOTO CREDIT: Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images

GO on for much longer.

FEATURE: Saluting the Queens: The Forty-Five

FEATURE:

 

 

Saluting the Queens

PHOTO CREDIT: Bobbi Rich for The Forty-Five

 

The Forty-Five

__________

IN the final two Saluting the Queens features…

PHOTO CREDIT: Louise Mason for The Forty-Five

of 2023, I am going to dedicate some time to a great broadcaster, and a fantastic photographer who is doing some really incredible work. I am also going to spotlight journalist Hannah Ewens next year (she is offline until then it seems). It is an unusual situation when I am featuring someone/something who is not an artist or broadcaster. The reason is there are very few words from them in terms of interviews. In fact, rather than highlight a single person, I want to shout out a team. Well, a publication/website in fact! Comprised of some terrific female journalists who are highlighting amazing women in music, this Saluting the Queens is all about The Forty-Five. A terrific U.K.-based website. Rather than pull in interviews from those who write for The Forty-Five, I will instead drop in some of their recent features and interviews. I still feel we are in a situation where women in music journalism are not afforded the same opportunities as their male counterparts. Maybe not as respected. Things have changed from years previously, though there is still a way to go. The Forty-Five not only celebrates incredible female artists. There are some wonderful journalists working passionately and having their voices heard and seen. Before I come to some examples of their amazing work, Music Week spoke with The Forty-Five’s founder, Charlotte Gunn, in 2020.

“Charlotte Gunn has told Music Week that she hopes to change the landscape of music journalism with the launch of new online platform The Forty-Five.

In an exclusive interview, the former NME editor has opened up about the thinking behind her new publication, which will launch its first monthly digital cover story on June 17 and has an all-female base of contributors.

“The mission of The Forty-Five is to give female creatives a platform, tell untold music stories and to help connect fans with their new favourite artist,” said Gunn of the website, which will house interviews, reviews, opinion and playlists.

The site was developed by Gunn’s former NME colleague Jo Weakley, while journalists including Leonie Cooper, Rhian Daly and Jacqui Swift are among its contributing writers. Jenn Five – who recently photographed The 1975 for Music Week’s cover – is among the photographers.

“Long-term, I want it to be a trusted destination for music fans around the world, providing hyper-local coverage about the scenes they’re immersed in,” said Gunn. “But for now, I’m just excited for people to see what I've been working on.

The Forty-Five will focus on new music and in-depth editorial rather than music news, while Gunn has assembled a team of tastemakers to curate weekly playlists, and is running a podcast series called Trash In The Attic.

Here, Gunn opens up about her new project, reflects on her time at NME and looks ahead to the future… 

“The percentage of women working in music journalism is still embarrassingly low and it stands to reason that if music has been critiqued from a predominantly male perspective for decades, it's played a part in creating the male-dominated artist landscape we see today”

What are the driving factors behind starting The Forty-Five?

“I’ve pulled together a network of talented female journalists and photographers who make up The Forty-Five. Its aim is to tell music stories, through a different lens. The percentage of women working in music journalism is still embarrassingly low and it stands to reason that if music has been critiqued from a predominantly male perspective for decades, it's played a part in creating the male-dominated artist landscape we see today. Things are changing for the better, but within my corner of music, it's still a boys’ club, with sexism, bullying and an under-appreciation of female voices being the norm. Battling that is exhausting – it exhausted me – and gets in the way of the creative output. I wanted to make a platform where young female writers can be heard, have opinions and speak freely without all that bullshit. I am proud of the success I’ve had despite these challenges. I want to see a new generation of female writers achieve even more without age-old sexism holding them back.”

What kind of music media landscape are you entering into?

“It's incredibly challenged with publications and jobs under threat every day. A lot of publications that were once solely music-focused have diversified into new areas to try and attract more readers. There are a lot of blogs and zines run by brilliantly talented individuals, but they are lacking the industry experience to take them to the next level. I think we've found a niche. We're an entirely independent youth publication, with a slick aesthetic and a focus on trying to rebalance the industry. We've also identified the best journalists in music media to write for us and the best tastemakers to curate our playlists. Although there's an important message behind what we're trying to do, music is supposed to be fun, so we don't take ourselves too seriously.”

Several music publications are under threat at the moment, can you bring some good news?

“I hope so. It's hard to see peers struggling and I really hope everyone gets through this. Music media needs a diversity of voices and opinions otherwise it's pointless. I can't pretend to have all the answers. Quality journalism needs funding and we are no different, paid-for content is likely something we'll be moving towards long-term. For now, we are interested in working with brands aligned with our vision.”

 How do you want The Forty-Five to impact the music business?

“We’re open to working on new ideas and formats to tell artists' stories. First and foremost, we are fans too, and we want to celebrate musicians we like and showcase acts who are getting overlooked by traditional media. If you can offer us access, we can create unique and beautiful content with your artists that isn’t swamped by ads and clickbait links. I am not pretending this is the only outlet for women to write about music, but aside from the editorial output, I want to create a supportive environment for female creatives to learn from each other. I’m excited to see how the conversation and focus start to shift.”

What are your main goals going into the launch?

“It’s simple, really: to connect with music fans and create content that they enjoy. For the labels and artists, I hope The Forty-Five becomes an outlet they want to be a part of and support. And for my contributors, to provide some faith there are still some people who value your work.

Does music journalism need to change?

“Yes. It needs to put music discovery and fandom at the forefront of everything it does and be more adaptable. There’s also an obsession with print being the holy grail. I get it – I like seeing my words on a page as much as the next person and I understand that reading an article on your phone will never be the same as reading a magazine. I really do get it. But we do need to move past it because young music fans have. There is still a place for print media – and it's something I'm considering – but as so many titles are proving, great journalism is great journalism, whether printed or on screen. Being adaptable is key and, as boring as it sounds, so is living and dying by the data. What are people reading? What are they not reading and what can you do better next time? My challenge is to make the emerging artist I know is something special interesting to people skimming headlines on a page. It’s something that often takes a few tries but when I’m passionate about something, I keep trying”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Koto Bolofo

It is hard to include all of the best work produced by The Forty-Five. I am going to select a few examples from different journalists. Before that, go and follow them on Instagram and Twitter. Apologies for the length of this feature. It is just that The Forty-Five do such great work, I wanted to represent that with a selection of some of their incredible recent work. Every writer they have on staff is amazing – so apologies for any I have missed out. I am going to start off with an interview Lisa Wright and her amazing interview with Corinne Bailey Rae. Her latest album, Black Rainbows, is one of the most powerful and best of the year. A sound very different to what many would associate with Bailey Rae, it is extraordinary how there seems to be this element of freedom in her music. Not concerned anymore with writing radio-friendly hits and chart positions. An artist liberated:

“Across the game-changing record, Bailey Rae goes from futuristic robo-pop on ‘Earthlings’ to vitriolic rage on ‘Erasure’; the eight-and-a-half minute ‘Put It Down’, meanwhile, moves through transcendental neo-soul to a throbbing dance pulse. Throughout, the 44-year-old singer sounds enlivened and completely reborn. On aggregate site Album of the Year, it is the second highest rated from the whole of 2023 so far, with an average review score of 9.1 out of 10.

Undoubtedly, ‘Black Rainbows’ will live as the record that, 17 years after her debut, changed the Leeds singer’s career trajectory entirely. Which makes the fact that she initially deemed the album a commercially un-viable side project all the more telling.

“Having been on labels for a really long time, I’d definitely started to police my own ideas as I created,” Bailey Rae explains, Zooming in from a hotel room in Nashville, midway through tour. “I’d sit there and come up with something and I’d say, ‘Well there’s no point even finishing that because it’s not gonna be three minutes long, it doesn’t have a catchy chorus, it’s not gonna get played on the radio…’ I’d started to think like an A&R person.

“I think that [mainstream success] was definitely the expectation after the first record did so well – which was not what I imagined would happen because I saw it as an indie-soul record. And I was thrilled, and I got to fly in a private jet to Oprah and play at the GRAMMYs, and it opened the door. But it’s like that Coen Brothers film [The Ballad of Buster Scruggs] that’s about a musician in the ‘60s,” she continues. “He plays this beautiful ballad to a man for criticism, and it’s a magical moment, and then at the end the man just says: ‘I don’t hear money here’. And I got that response a few times where I’d have the beating heart of a song and they’d go, ‘Yeah it’s good but it’s not a single…’”

 PHOTO CREDIT: Koto Bolofo

Bailey Rae recalls the process for 2016 third album ‘The Heart Speaks In Whispers’ being one where she “almost made several records and had a load of it rejected – either by the structure or by myself – before I’d even finished it”. An unsustainable path, when it came to starting her next work, she decided to think of it as something away from the constraints of what a Corinne Bailey Rae record ‘should’ be. “I think the side project [notion] was a good place to escape to because I thought, let me completely disregard all of those aims that I’ve been trying and failing to achieve and just MAKE,” she nods.

The catalyst for what would be made came when Bailey Rae discovered the Stony Island Arts Bank in Chicago. A broad and deep encyclopaedia of Black history, the building and its contents were a revelation like no other. Over the past seven years, she would visit as often as possible and describes feeling like “all roads lead back [there]”; “I just felt like it was speaking to me,” she says.

The bank comprises more than 26,000 Black literature books on every aspect of history and society dating back more than two hundred years, as well as vast collections of items both celebratory and problematic. There’s an entire vinyl collection from house music godfather Frankie Knuckles, but then 16,000 “derogatory objects, anti-Black propaganda stuff” that forms the Ed Williams collection – an attempt to remove the items from public circulation whilst also highlighting the generational depth of the issue.

“I’d read all the Black books in my school library and a good amount of them in my University, and I had wider questions, but when I spoke to other people they’d say it’s kind of oral tradition so it wasn’t written down,” Bailey Rae remembers. “Or they’d say those stories weren’t documented, or people weren’t literate or the documents had been lost. So I had this thought that so many of the things I’m interested in were just lost to history, and then to walk into this bank and see the volume of literature on these subjects… that just blew my mind.”

A keen researcher, the discovery not only whet the musician’s appetite on an intellectual level, it also finally started to redress the balance of Black representation (or the lack thereof) that she had encountered her whole life. “I remember school history books where there’d be two or three photographs [of Black people] in the book, and one might be Martin Luther King but the other one – I distinctly remember it – was the charred body of a victim of racial violence; someone who’d been lynched and set fire to,” she recalls. “I was 13 or 14 and this was in the school textbook. And I understand why it was in the book, but there was no sensitivity to the fact that there were Black children in the class, and also there was no balance.

“I describe [what was presented then] like a circus mirror,” she continues. “It’s white-imagined Blackness. But at the same time, as a Black person, there was so little visibly reflected back in the culture that you would – one would, I would – stare in that circus mirror to try and see my reflection”.

 PHOTO CREDIT: Charlotte Gunn

I will stick with interviews and actually come to one from The Forty-Five’s founder, Charlotte Gunn. She chatted with the amazing Blondshell (Sabrina Teitelbaum) in October. Blondshell’s eponymous album was released earlier in the year. It is among the best of this year. A phenomenal work from an artist that everyone should know about! I do like the conversations and questions you get from an interview by The Forty-Five. Bringing something from artists that others have not:

“You finished up your first headline tour a little while ago. I know that you wrote much of the album alone. What was it like having these quite personal songs, sung back to you?

Surprising? I knew people were gonna go to the shows, because I was privy to ticket sales but then it’s a different thing when people actually show up. It’s one thing getting to talk to people on social media, which is still nice. But then it’s another thing to be in the room of people who have connected to the music. It’s really special.

The album touches on a lot of heavy themes. Do you manage to disassociate from the traumatic memories associated with them when you’re performing the songs live every night?

I don’t feel like I’m always singing about the thing that I wrote it about, right? So if I’m singing any of the songs on this album, more often, I’m singing about the stuff that happened that day, or whatever’s on my mind. I’m not thinking about that breakup, or that person or whatever it is – I think it would be difficult for me to try to conjure that up. Someone told me a long time ago that it’s easier to just put whatever you’re actually genuinely feeling now into the performance rather than trying to find an old emotion.

You’re about to release a deluxe version of the album including three new tracks – ‘Street Rat’, ‘It Wasn’t Love’, ‘Cartoon Earthquake’ – and two demos of ‘Kiss City’ and ‘Tarmac’. Where do these songs fit in the Blondshell story?

I wrote ‘Street Rat’ the day after we finished recording the album so I wanted to put it out because it’s very much part of the same world. There’s a version of ‘Tarmac’ on the deluxe version that’s coming out on the Deluxe that’s really gentle. That’s the one I’m most excited about because it shows a different side to the song.

‘It Wasn’t Love’ was later. I think the album feels like: ‘Isn’t this what love is? It’s painful and it’s really hard and yeah, it can be horrific’. But that song is about looking back and saying, ‘I thought that that was love but that’s not what that is.’ It can be a little painful, but it doesn’t have to be this twisted thing. That’s its own kind of heartbreak, in a sense, looking back at a relationship and realising you weren’t in love.

I loved your cover of ‘Charm You’ by Samia. It seems that a common theme in both your and Samia’s music is saying the ugly thoughts out loud – sharing things that others might be ashamed to say. I wondered if that was something you’d bonded over?

I don’t remember talking about that but something I do remember talking about with her recently is, when you’re someone who’s written about heartbreak so much, how do you continue to write songs when you’re in a stable relationship? She and I are both in relationships, but then I realised, well, [Wilco frontman] Jeff Tweedy has been married for so long. And they put out an album every year, so…

I think women get a harder time with that. People want you to fit into a Sad Girl box.

They don’t want you to be on a beach, loving life. But they also don’t want you to be devoid of any joy. It’s a hard balance. There’s not a lot of joy in the songs on my album because I was having a hard time when I made it. I could understand if someone felt like maybe there should be some more uplifting songs. That’s why I was so excited to cover ‘Charm You’. You it felt like such a fun opportunity. It felt like a joyful song. But the biggest thing for me, when I was writing this album was just that I had to take all these things seriously. I was allowed to feel really intensely”.

Prior to getting to some features, there is another interview worth spotlighting. The brilliant Olivia-Anne Cleary was in conversation with Sophie Ellis-Bextor in June. Chatting about her remarkable new album, Hana, and what comes next, it is a brilliant interview that you need to check out in full. I have included sections (of the interview) where Ellis-Bextor discusses family and music. The importance of that connection. It is interesting reading about her earlier years in music and some of those experiences:

“For now, however, Ellis-Bextor’s attention is firmly on the release of her seventh studio album entitled ‘Hana’, the Japanese word for “Blossom.” It’s her third and final offering with collaborator Ed Harcourt. The record holds a great deal of sentiment and purpose, documenting a journey of adventure, loss, and renewal. “For want of a better word, it’s quite a ‘sweet’ album. It’s melodic. It’s got quite a lot of synths, it’s quite foggy in places, a bit psychedelic. It’s a dream world I wanted to go into,” she explains. “Thematically, there’s a lot about sunshine… a bit of being gentle to yourself as you go into a new chapter. Then there’s a song about aliens, just for the hell of it [laughs].” Tracks such as ‘Lost In The Sunshine’ and ‘He’s A Dreamer’ certainly exude the warmth and dream-like qualities Ellis-Bextor envisioned during the creative process.

In early 2020, during the beginning stages of writing the album, Ellis-Bextor took a trip to Japan, which proved to be a transformative experience. “My eldest, Sonny, was supposed to go with my mum [TV presenter Janet Ellis] and my stepdad [John Leach], but my stepdad was being treated at the time for lung cancer, and when it came to it, he couldn’t travel. I was drafted in last minute,” she admits. “It was three generations, and there was an undercurrent of knowing it was a really special trip, with sadness around the edges, because of what was happening with my stepdad.” Shortly after the family returned to England, the world went into lockdown, and the trip became the epicentre of the album’s creation. “Japan was this rich, inspirational landscape to go to in our heads, which took on more significance when we suddenly couldn’t go anywhere.” 

In July of that year, Ellis-Bextor lost her beloved stepdad, and the grief, along with a desire to celebrate John’s life, added a whole new layer of retrospection to the album. One album track entitled ‘Until The Wheels Fall Off’ includes lyrics taken from a letter John left behind. “He said to my mum that he had all his best adventures with her and how they had travelled, laughed, and loved until the wheels fell off. I just thought that was really gorgeous,” she recalls. “The song is a tribute to their marriage, because they were very happy together.”

When it comes to her own marriage, Ellis-Bextor works closely with her husband of 18 years. “It’s always Richard,” she tells me, when I ask who gets the first listen of her new tracks, “When I was younger, I’d play all my demos to my girlfriends. Now, I’ll bring the music home and play it to Richard and the kids. He’ll play stuff to me from his band, as well. We’re both really curious about what the other thinks.

Music is very much a family affair for Ellis-Bextor, who has her brother Jack as her drummer. The community aspect of having a band in the studio and on stage is a big draw for the singer. She credits this to her early days singing lead vocals in her band Theaudience. Despite enjoying success with their first record in 1998, they were dropped before a second album materialised. For Ellis-Bextor, the experience served as a reminder to enjoy her successes when they come. And she did just that when she featured on Spinner’s hit track ‘Groovejet (If This Ain’t Love)’ in 2000. “That song lifted me out of feeling blue and gave me back a career. I was learning about this whole new world of pop music and I realised that I can do a bit of everything. I can have my indie roots and lean into dance. I’ll forever be grateful for that.”

Reflecting on those early years, Ellis-Bextor notes that the music industry wasn’t always the friendliest of spaces for female artists. “When I was writing my [2021] autobiography, I was looking back at old diaries and press cuttings, and I was like, ‘Oh, it wasn’t in my head. It actually was quite a toxic environment in lots of ways.’ After I spoke about it, I found that a lot of my peers had felt exactly the same way,” she reveals. The musician feels that people are now able to express themselves in a way artists previously were not. “I didn’t really have the language to articulate what wasn’t quite right. It wasn’t binary — being treated well or badly — it was those things in the middle,” Ellis-Bextor tells me. “We’ve got much better language now about what makes us feel good and what doesn’t. We’re encouraged to articulate those boundaries in lots of different ways.”

For Ellis-Bextor, social media has played a big part in helping her reclaim her voice. “It’s double-edged, but I like the fact that I can have a clear stream of communication between me and the world,” she explains. “When I started out, everything had to go through all the press teams. You might hope to get something [a message] out there in an interview, but it might be twisted or you could be misquoted”.

 IN THIS PHOTO: Victoria Monét/PHOTO CREDIT: Amy Sussman/Getty Images

Throwing it forward now to last month. The fabulous Jenessa Williams, like most of her colleagues who writes for The Forty-Five, also writes for other publications (including NME and DIY). She has written some great features this year (including this brilliant piece). I loved her piece about Victoria Monét scooping a load of GRAMMY nominations. How this is her moment in the spotlight. And how these nominations have come at the best time. Monét’s much-anticipated extraordinary debut album, Jaguar II, came out in August to huge critical acclaim. Take a look at this feature, as there are some brilliant perspectives and words that celebrates one of modern music’s queens:

“A day that gets everyone scrolling through aeons of tiny font and gnashing their teeth at the absence of their favourite, The 2024 Grammy nominations are out, in all their pomp, glory and categorical complexity. This year’s reveals were mostly business as usual, with both SZA and boygenius reigning high at the top of the leaderboard, as well as the ritualistic snubs of K-pop and regional pop that have become sadly familiar in recent years.

There was one triumph in particular though which felt like a real treat: R&B singer-songwriter Victoria Monét scoring seven nominations (tied for second-most overall), including Best New Artist, Record of the Year for ‘On My Mama’, Best R&B Performance for ‘How Does It Make You Feel’ and Best R&B Album, for ‘Jaguar II’.

Being close to Monét also appears to pay dividends: longtime collaborator and producer Dernst Emile II (known as D’Mile) has been nominated for Non-Classical Producer of the Year for the second year in a row, whilst Monét’s two-year-old daughter, the impossibly cute Hazel, has become the youngest ever Grammy nominee for her appearance on the song ‘Hollywood’, featuring both her mama and R&B legends Earth, Wind & Fire. Blue Ivy, it’s time to set up that protegé training scheme…

In many ways, this level of recognition for Victoria feels like true vindication, a sign that the mainstream can no longer ignore what those in the know have argued for years — a woman with the skills and catalogue to be remembered as one of the most influential players in our current R&B ecosystem. Though she has long has ambitions of being a front-and-centre star, her early success as a songwriter for other artists has seen her pen some of the most memorable recent hits of the genre — ‘7 Rings’ and ‘Thank U Next’ by Ariana Grande, ‘Do It’ by Chloe x Halle, and ‘Ice Cream’ by BLACKPINK and Selena Gomez.

When she finally did make a real solo go of it in 2020, The Forty-Five were right there with her, learning about how her experiences of being in girl bands and working with others all led to the quality and confidence of her debut E.P, ‘Jaguar’.

“Everything happens in the right time – a lot of the things I do in my artist career, I’ve learned from seeing other artists operate,” Monét said in an interview with us. “It’s been a long but necessary journey.… I didn’t feel comfortable to say what I really wanted to say for a long time…but I’m also trying to encourage other people to kind of skip over some of the hesitations that I originally had.”

When it comes to musical self-empowerment, Victoria Monét’s work shows none of that early uncertainty. Her best songs swing with a loose, carefree energy, the sonic equivalent of a friendly pick-me-up right. In a genre that often relies on simple metaphors to explore common tropes of love, loss, confidence or infidelity, her pen feels refreshingly playful, capturing a true sense of how millennials (particularly millennials borne of black culture) speak with each another. Whether it’s ‘On My Mama’s insistence that “I’m so deep in my bag/Like a grandma wit’ a peppermint”, or ‘West Coast’s observation that it “feel like a Thursday, how I’m throwing it back”, she reminds us that the best musical humble-brags are often silly as well as sexy, leaving room for personality to shine through”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Constantine Spence

A couple more reviews/features to include before I wrap things up. Holly Humberstone is one of my favourite artists. An amazing British talent whose debut album, Paint My Bedroom Black, came out in October. Turning twenty-four on Sunday (17th December), it has been a big year for her. One where this anticipated album has come to light. Announcing her as one of our very best young artists. Rhian Daly shared her thoughts in a thoughtful and incredible review of an album that sits alongside the very best of 2023:

“Some things are worth the wait. When Holly Humberstone was named the recipient of the BRITs Rising Star award back in December 2021 – and then appeared on every ones-to-watch list going a month later – it seemed like things could be about to snowball for her. They have, but she’s also shown restraint and stayed true to who she is as an artist, waiting for her debut album to be just right rather than rush it out with undercooked songs that don’t represent her.

‘Paint My Bedroom Black’ arrives nearly two years after that victory and, largely, it is just right. It’s a cohesive statement of the Grantham-born singer-songwriter’s artistry – vivid, dark, almost made for sharing confessions under the safety of night – and full of brilliant, electronic-tinged pop songs.

Of course, having received such a groundswell of attention early on meant that Humberstone had to write these songs on the road and between seemingly never-ending tours. It’s a lifestyle that has fed into her creations, these songs allowing her space to process the extreme highs and lows of a life on tour and all the emptiness and guilt that comes with that. On ‘Ghost Me’, she begs her friends not to forget her, recalling “singing ‘Angels’ at karaoke on the most chaotic night” before throwing down her challenge: “And if you try to ghost me and quit being in my life / Don’t you dare.”

The soft acoustic strums of ‘Room Service’ offer a deal to those friends – when this whirlwind pauses, Humberstone will bring flowers and a calendar packed full of plans. ‘Elvis Impersonators’, minimal in layers and melancholy in tone, changes its target to one of the artist’s sisters, now living in Japan. “I can’t be without you,” she sighs longingly, depicting her sibling with “cherry blossom in your hair” in the early hours in Tokyo.

The 23-year-old is at her best when it feels like she’s fighting for something. On ‘Lauren’, that’s an old friendship to be revived, even if maybe that person shouldn’t have trusted “a girl who sleeps on a mattress on the floor / And has a thousand unread messages”. The sombre ‘Antichrist’ finds her fighting with herself, regretful over the way she treated an ex and wondering: “Am I the antichrist? / How do I sleep at night?”

Best of all, though, are ‘Flatlining’ and ‘Kissing In Swimming Pools’. Entirely opposite from each other, the former battles the spectre of an old lover over electronics collaged to mimic a heart monitor. The latter, meanwhile, fights for a more positive thing – to be able to spend as much time as possible with a new love. In it, Humberstone details those first rushes of romance in stunning, relatable, small detail: “I’ll steal a glance as you’re singing your heart out to something embarrassing / I wanna know if you think about me that way.”

The star’s lyricism is the crowning glory of ‘Paint My Bedroom Black’, her descriptions often supremely evocative. On ‘Into Your Room’, she projects herself standing outside someone’s window in the rain “with a freshly ripped human heart from my ribcage and a boombox”. One song later, on the brighter-sounding ‘Cocoon’, she likens her inability to get out of bed and tend to chores to becoming “a taxidermy version of myself”. At times, though, she does become repetitive – there are several references across the record to needing to be next to someone or wanting to fix them.

As debut albums go, Humberstone’s is a triumph – one that perfectly captures her sound and distils her experience of musician life in a way that doesn’t make you want to pull out a tiny violin. ‘Paint My Bedroom Black’ is majestic and should serve as the first step in a very illustrious career”.

 PHOTO CREDIT: Beth Garrabrant

There is one particular feature I want to finish off with. Written by the amazing Celia Almeida, it concerns, perhaps, the artist of the year: the sensational Taylor Swift. Almeida, like many, was sceptical when Swift announced in 2019 she would be re-recording her first six studio albums. These new ‘Versions’ releases are Taylor Swift making the albums she always wanted to. Free from the label, rights and any sort of control issues. An artist now in a position to have full say in what her albums sound like and how they are released. Ceilia Almeida shared her take in July. Someone who has not fully come around to the newly-reissued/recorded early albums from the legendary Taylor Swift:

“THE VAULT TRACKS

Calling these albums re-recordings doesn’t tell the whole story. Though most of the songs on the records have been familiar to fans for the better part of two decades, Swift’s decision to include unreleased tracks on Taylor’s Version albums was a mastermind move. Releasing new songs has elicited interest outside of Swift’s hardcore fanbase, and it’s added some worthy entries to the list of her best songs.

Swifties know she has a habit of relegating some of her best songs to deluxe versions of her albums (see evermore’s ‘Right Where You Left Me’ and 1989’s ‘New Romantics’). The Vault tracks showcase some of the finest work she left on the cutting room floor during previous eras. On one standout, ‘Nothing New,’ off of ‘Red (Taylor’s Version)’, Swift recruits Phoebe Bridgers to elucidate her fears of fading relevance in an industry that prioritizes youth, particularly when it comes to women. “And someone else lights up the room,” Swift sings, lamenting, “People love an ingénue.”

Other fan favourites from the Vault include ‘Fearless (Taylor’s Version)’ track ‘Mr. Perfectly Fine’ and ‘I Can See You’ a paean to repressed adolescent desire and immediate standout on ‘Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)’.

FULL-FLEDGED ALBUM CYCLES FOR YOUNGER SWIFTIES (AND LATECOMERS)

Some of Swift’s younger fans weren’t yet born when she made her debut back in 2006. In fact, the youngest Gen Zers were born four albums into Swift’s career, during the ‘Red’ era. These fans have benefitted from her full-fledged re-recorded album rollouts, which include new album art, previously unreleased radio singles, and Vault track music videos—precisely the kinds of experiences that make the most impactful albums of our youth so indelible.

‘Red (Taylor’s Version)’ was particularly fruitful in this regard: The twangy, Aaron Dessner-produced country kiss-off ‘I Bet You Think About Me’ was released as a single, with a music video directed by Blake Lively. But the highlight of the release was the short film for the 10-minute version of ‘All Too Well’, starring Sadie Sink and Dylan O’Brien as Her and Him, a couple doomed by an age gap and differing stages of maturity; and Swift as the older version of Her, an author who uses the experience as inspiration for her writing.

MATURING VOCALS

‘Mean’, the sixth track on ‘Speak Now’, was famously written in response to a critic (believed to be Bob Lefsetz) who disparaged Swift’s undeveloped singing voice. “At that time, it levelled me,” Swift writes of the critiques in the vinyl liner notes for Speak Now (Taylor’s Version), adding she “underwent extensive vocal training” ahead of recording the original version of the album. For those for whom Swift’s teenage vocals were an impediment to digging deeper into her early songcraft, the ‘Taylor’s Version’ recordings are a welcome redux.

While there are charms to the impassioned, eager vocals of her early catalogue (and some idiosyncrasies that simply can’t be replicated, such as Swift’s bated breath on Speak Now’s ‘Last Kiss’), Fearless (Taylor’s Version) songs like ‘Change’ and sleeper bonus track ‘Superstar’ greatly benefit from Swift’s smoother, deepened vocals. The same can be said of Red (Taylor’s Version) highlights ‘State of Grace’ and ‘Treacherous’. With imperfect, immature vocals no longer an obstacle, Swift sceptics will appreciate lyrical gems like, “Nothing safe is worth the drive.”

A CONVERSATION BETWEEN TAYLOR (ADOLESCENT VERSION) AND TAYLOR (ADULT VERSION)

Speaking about her All Too Well short film at a Tribeca Film Festival screening last year, Swift expounded on one of the major themes in her songwriting. “I really do write about girlhood a lot,” she explained at the time.

Indeed, one of the most thrilling aspects of Swift’s re-recordings has been listening to the interplay between the older, wiser Swift and her adolescent self, with ‘Fifteen’ being the clearest example of this dynamic. Swift was just 18 when she first released the cautionary tale about her friend Abigail, who “gave everything she had to a boy who changed his mind.” It’s always been a heart-rending song, but her words carry even more weight on the re-recording when Swift, now in her 30s and at the apex of critical acclaim and popularity, sings, “I didn’t know who I was supposed to be at fifteen.”

‘Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)’ offers two poignant examples of Swift in conversation with her younger self, on ‘Dear John’ and ‘Innocent.’ Swift was 32 when she re-recorded the album—the same age Mayer was when he dated a 19-year-old Swift, and the same age Kanye West was when he famously interrupted her at the MTV Video Music Awards, prompting her to respond with ‘Innocent’.

Vault track ‘Castles Crumbling,’ about a public fall from grace, paints a more complete picture of the story of the album. Listening to it in conjunction with ‘Innocent’, it becomes clear that when Swift sings, “Wasn’t it beautiful when you believed in everything/And everybody believed in you?” she’s not just singing to her former nemeses—she could just as easily be singing to herself”.

I was eager to show some appreciation for The Forty-Five. Though many music websites and magazine feature underground and established female artists, The Forty-Five is all about female (and non-binary) artists. With interviews, features and reviews from women. It is providing this amazing platform that everyone should know about. An indispensable bounty of phenomenal writing about some incredible artists, you support them on Patreon. It is essential that we support music journalism and ensure that we do not lose valuable sites and magazines. I would say that The Forty-Five is among the very best and most important. Some incredible journalists giving us wonderful work. Follow them on social media, share their journalism and, importantly, check out the artists they feature! From single picks to interviews with legends, there is always something intriguing and must-read coming from The Forty-Five. Every success for them in 2024! A website celebrating queens run and featuring journalist queens, I really love what they do – and I have been following them for a long time now. I wonder if its founder Charlotte Gunn knew, back in 2020 when she set up The Forty-Five, it would become this hugely respected and known source. From an interview with Self Esteem (let’s hope that Maddy Smith writes more for The Forty-Five soon!), to Hollie Geraghty’s 45s of the week features, there is an array of exceptional content waiting to be discovered! If you are unfamiliar with the brilliant The Forty-Five, then go and check them out and discover…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Jenn Five for The Forty-Five

SOMETHING truly wonderful and irreplaceable.

FEATURE: Spotlight: Memphis LK

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

 PHOTO CREDIT: Jack Craig

Memphis LK

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IF you have not heard…

of the amazing Memphis LK, then make sure that you follow her. The Australian artist fuses Dance/Electronic. She is a wonderful artist and D.J. True Love And Its Consequences is her latest E.P. That came out in November. A remarkable work from an artist that will be on a lot of people’s minds as we head towards 2024. She is someone that I am new to though, instantly, I was intrigued by her music and story. Memphis LK is an extraordinary vocalist, songwriter and producer from Melbourne. She was influenced by the early sounds of Chicago House, in addition to U.K. Garage and Detroit Techno and Breakbeat. The young Memphis LK was raised on the music of strong female artists. R&B legends and Pop queens from the 1990s. Bonding with Synth and Electronic music has led her to this moment. I am going to bring in a few interviews with this amazing artist. Music Tech featured her back in February. It is interesting that, growing up, she would try to sleep but would hear kick drum and the pulse of a club/Electronic event. Years later, she would understand the cultural significance. Something that enticed her so young is now what she does as a career:

“Having grown up in an industrial part of Melbourne during the late-90s/early-2000s rave scene, Memphis LK developed a unique insight into electronic music from an early age. “I remember being really young and I could hear this pulsing four-to-the-floor kick drum every night, and I could never sleep,” the producer, vocalist, songwriter and DJ says. As Memphis got older, she understood and appreciated the cultural relevance of her experience: “It must have been such an interesting era of dance music… and I just had no idea that it was going on right next door!” This early exposure to club sounds helped to shape the artist that Memphis would go on to become. “Maybe, on some weird level, that’s infiltrated into my psyche and made me love dance music,” she says.

After abandoning her childhood dream of becoming a marine biologist, she started focusing on making her own music. Inspired by the likes of Four Tet, Burial, Overmono and Bicep, she started making loops on GarageBand and singing over them.

“I had all of these sounds in my head that I wanted to be able to make, but I didn’t know how,” she says. Although she’d performed in indie bands as a teenager, Memphis adds: “[indie] music was fun, but it was never the music that I really wanted to make.” However, everything changed when a friend got her onto Ableton Live. “I got a crack of it and was like ‘whoa, this is crazy’.”

Watching tutorial videos and teaching herself the basics six years ago was a big turning point for Memphis. “I was like ‘this is it. This is what I’m supposed to be doing.’ I realised that I could literally make any sound on my computer, and I didn’t have to rely on other people. That was a really exciting moment for me, and I started taking music really seriously.”

Three years later, when COVID-19 lockdowns hit, Memphis had another realisation. “I was pretty good at production and getting my songs to a point where I was happy, but not quite satisfied with them because I was always handing them off to another producer,” she says.

“I guess I just had this idea in my head that ‘I’m a girl, so I can’t finish my songs’, which sounds so ridiculous when I say it out loud.” Memphis says this thought process was “holding me back, and I think it’s something that holds back a lot of people. But I thought to myself ‘there’s no reason that I can’t be as good as the people that I admire; I have all the time right now to do it, and the only thing that’s holding me back from doing that is myself’.”

It’s exciting that genres from the 90s rave era are having a resurgence and people are reimagining them in new ways. And I think it’s cool that, although TikTok can be kind of annoying, it can be a way for people to discover music they might never have heard before.”

Memphis is also part of the Australian rave scene’s new generation, which also includes producers and DJs JamesJamesJames and Pretty Girl. “The dance and electronic scene right now in Australia is just going crazy,” Memphis says. “There’s a real vibe; so many artists are doing really cool things and it feels like people really want that kind of music right now. I’m not sure why, but everyone wants to be at the club and have fun”.

Urban List chatted with Memphis LK in February too. An artist that gives back and has shared her knowledge and skills with women in her community, here is this amazingly giving and inspiring artist who is setting such a fine example. That collaborative and bonding nature comes through in her music. Sounds that are designed to get people together:

“Can you tell us a little bit about your music journey to date?

When I was like 15, I started discovering artists like Four Tet, James Blake and Burial and became obsessed with electronic music—particularly the more experimental stuff. I started out making loops in GarageBand and singing over them. Then when I was about 18, I found out about Ableton (a music production software) and realised I could create literally any sound that I wanted all on my own, without having to rely on anyone else and it blew my mind. I was in a couple of bands before I started releasing solo music in 2019. I spent pretty much all of 2020-2021 working on my production (in lockdown) and feel like I’m in a place now where I’m so confident in what I’m doing. My EP is coming out in January and it feels so good to be releasing music I’m really proud of.

What has been your most memorable or rewarding moment so far in your career?

The day after I released my track, 'Whip', I played a show and people were screaming the words and I nearly cried on stage. Also, the messages from people saying my music inspires them will always be an amazing feeling.

Music runs in the family, have you always wanted to create your own music?

I’m lucky that I grew up in a house where creativity was encouraged, so music always felt like it was an option for me—that’s something I’m really grateful for. I’ve pretty much made music in some capacity since I can remember and really became extremely obsessed with it when I started producing my own music. That was the moment everything clicked and I was like, 'oh, okay—this is what I’m meant to be doing'.

Your music is a captivating mix of dreamy lyrics and fast-paced layers, does this contrasting combination reflect how you see the world?

When making dance music I’m drawn to sounds that have conflicting moods. I like to contrast the hard and the soft, the dark and the light. I’m a Libra and quite sensitive so I guess I feel a lot of the darkness in the world but I also feel the light—corny. I  also feel like that’s probably just my personality too, a little bit nice and cute but don’t mess with me.

Who or what has been your biggest influence in creating your unique sound?

Four Tet. I’ve always been so inspired by how he is able to put so much emotion into dance music.

Walk us through the music writing process for you; are you a creature of habit,  or do you thrive in spontaneity?

I’ve learnt over the last few years that my creativity thrives through routine and repetition so I try to be pretty disciplined with it. The spontaneity and magic are more likely to arise if I set myself up properly to receive it.

You’ve already given back so much to your community, organising free DJ  workshops for women and gender-diverse folks in Melbourne and playing  Mildura’s first pride event—how important is giving back to the community for you?

It’s really important to me, and I can only speak from my own experience, but as a young female in a male-dominated industry it’s so easy to think you’re not good enough, or you’ll never have the skills to be at that top level, so I’ve always wanted to help people build those skills and that confidence in any way I can. On a  broader note, I feel like community is something that’s taken a bit of a backseat in general. Our society feels pretty “me” centric, people seem to focus a lot on themselves but often aren’t extending that care and compassion to others. I hope we can get back to a place where we all value community and connection more”.

I am going to stick with interviews from February. That is when Memphis LK was promoting her E.P., Too Much Fun. I am sort of playing catchup in a lot of ways. Listening back to older work and discovering this artist with such amazing command and depth. Purple Sneakers spent time with Memphis LK and asked her about her transition from the earliest days to now:

“When was the moment you started to begin to love the energy and power of dance music? What were the experiences that made you feel like I want to make this type of music?

It was when I started discovering more experimental artists. People like Four Tet, Burial and Nicolas Jaar. Even early Grimes. The way that it was electronic but more experimental. The thing I love about those artists is how much emotion they can put into dance music. That’s always something that I’ve strived to do with my music. That was the moment for me that was most inspiring to me. It was the most inspired I’d been listening to music.

How did that transition to music making?

I started from there playing around with looping stuff on Garage band and singing over it. From there I was shown Ableton and that blew my mind. Oh my god, this program can do everything. Despite playing in bands before I started producing, I always had a certain sound in my head that I wanted to be able to make but I didn;t know how. That was the moment where I realised I could make this music now. It was such a cool feeling because I realised I could do it all myself without having to rely on other people.

That was also the moment that I decided I wanted to do music. If I can make it work, this is it.

In 2021 you dropped your first solo EP 1 which really introduced your sound well but it feels like with Too Much Fun you’ve taken that musical foundation and perfected it. How do you reflect back on 1 now?

It was definitely a necessary step in involving my project. I definitely look back on those songs and to me, that was a full on exploration phase for me. I had no idea what my direction was or what my sound was. I was just trying all these different things and seeing what would stick. That was also a period of time where I wasn’t so confident in my production. I was getting my songs to a certain point and getting another producer to finish them for me.

The years that followed that were COVID and lockdowns and that time I didn’t put any music out. I just wanted to get really good at producing so that I don’t need to give my songs to other people then not being happy with the result. Too Much Fun is where I’ve come out the other side with so much clarity in my sound, confidence in my production. I had to take all of those steps to get to where I am now so I’m really grateful for that time. It’s so important to have that stage of exploration and just figuring stuff out. It helped me grow.

How challenging was it to find that balance between pop and dance on Too Much Fun. Was it completely off instinct or was it something you consciously had to balance?

A lot of it is just based on instinct and the sounds that I like. I’ve always loved songwriting and telling stories through songwriting. I want my music to make people feel things. I’ve also been very involved in the club scene and being very inspired by underground sounds. That’s the music that I listen to. So it makes sense my production veers towards those sounds, with the rave and club influence.

On that though, I feel like a song doesn’t feel finished until it evokes an emotion. That’s when I know whether a song is worth following through with, when I’ve found a chord progression, melody or lyrical idea that I’m feeling emotionally.

The project lands at such a perfect time in the context of global dance music. People have become really accepting of underground dance influences in pop music. What do you think has triggered that? What’s changed in the water?

I feel like it is the aftereffects of lockdowns. People want music that makes them feel great. People are craving fun. That’s been my mindset as well with making music. I just want to make fun music that people can have a good time with. Obviously TikTok is a big factor in dance music. It has benefitted so much from it. The whole 90s dance/rave culture sounds and feeling has been blowing up on TikTok for the last couple of years.

The title for me is definitely a double meaning. At first glance it’s very Oh so fun! but when you listen to the music, there’s some obvious shit going down. Too Much Fun on face value has been my approach to making music in the last year or so. Just having so much fun with it, making music that I enjoy and not overthinking it.

Supporting Tove Lo must have been a crazy experience. What did seeing an out and out pop star like her perform and kill it on stage teach you about making and performing art generally. What were your reflections after walking out of those shows?

It’s so inspiring seeing a big pop artist do their thing. To have a live show that is so dynamic, well thought out, high energy is just so inspiring and something that I want to have at some point with my live shows.

Also the crowds were really lovely and supportive. That made those shows so much fun. I was pretty nervous for those shows because they were all sold out and when I walked out on stage I had never performed for a crowd that was so attentive. Being used to performing clubs and stuff like that and then to go onto a stage and see everyone silent, watching and present. I was not used to it. It was really cool.

You were the spotify EQUAL ambassador for January, which led to you having a Billboard in Times Square. You spoke extensively while entering the industry about the lack of representation in dance music and now that advocacy has led you to the most visible you’ve ever been. How do you reflect on having the billboard for that reason? How does it make you feel?

I can’t believe it. I still feel like that photo is Photoshopped. It’s surreal. It feels really amazing having put in so much work over a long period of time and a lot of the time it feels like despite putting in that work you don’t get a whole lot back. It can be extremely hard to keep pushing. As I’ve said in other interviews, there can be a lot more self doubt when you’re a woman or non-binary person in the industry for a multitude of reasons. Both from a lack of representation and visibility on the artist side but also the lack of belief in those artists. We are wired to assume that a man has produced a female’s work for some reason.

For that reason I feel really grateful and happy and proud I kept pushing through and now it is the ultimate blessing”.

I am going to finish up with some of the most recent press. There are not really any interviews around the release of True Love and Its Consequences. We might get some more interviews with Memphis LK soon enough - but, for now, here is some background and detail about one of the best E.P.s of the year. It is a phenomenal work that everyone needs to listen to. An incredible aural experience, it is clear that Memphis LK is primed for big things next year:

“Idiosyncratic producer and DJ Memphis LK releases her second EP of the year titled True Love And Its Consequences via Dot Dash / Remote Control Records, a true lesson in beat-making set to cement her at the forefront of Australia’s dance scene.

The addictive focus track ‘Black and Blue’ leads the omnibus which offers an angelic soundscape that dissolves into her signature driving beat paired with her most unique production yet, utilising space and classic piano elements with euphoric electronic elements.

True Love and Its Consequences sees Memphis LK at her most concise and developed, sitting comfortably at the intersection of underground club and bubbly pop music. Conceptualised between the UK and Australia, True Love and Its Consequences is Memphis’ second EP for the year, channeling pure feeling and boisterous fun over five tracks of emotive dance music ranging from the introspection of Burial to the brightness of Charli XCX. That sense of instant euphoria is abundant on ‘Closer To You’, a true love ballad echoing the nostalgia of dance music from the early 2000s. The duality of love is expressed in full through the duality of Memphis LK, her artistry communicating a range of feeling through her unique approach to music.

As a producer, songwriter, vocalist, and DJ, Memphis’ approach echoes the bedroom pop sentiment of the 2010s with an intentional dance spin, a DIY artist in full control. Memphis is part of a diverse new wave of pop artistry, inspiring those around them and the next generation with artistic agility and plurality. She seeks to elevate femme voices like her own, who deserve to be seen for all that they are without being boxed in as women in dance music often are”.

Go and check out this Australian treasure. I hope that she gets to play around the U.K. next year. There is a lot of love for her here. It is wonderful seeing how she has grown and where her music has traveled to. Regardless of how you’re feeling and what sort of mood you are in, there is something about the music of Memphis LK that puts you…

IN a better frame of mine.

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Follow Memphis LK

FEATURE: Saluting the Queens: Kara Jackson

FEATURE:

 

 

Saluting the Queens

PHOTO CREDIT: Lawrence Agyei/New Yorker

 

Kara Jackson

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I have featured…

PHOTO CREDIT: Brennan Bucannan for The Line of Best Fit

the amazing Kara Jackson before. I feel, as an artist, she is someone worthy of further spotlight and love. This feature salutes queens of music. Whether they are an inspiring and important artist, a woman doing incredible work on radio, production, at a label, organisation or anywhere else in the music industry. I am going to select a few artists for special consideration. The previous inclusion, Little Simz, is a British Hip-Hop icon and modern-day idol. Kara Jackson hails from Illinois. In various features, I have highlighted albums by women. The strongest work of the year from some of the best female artists around. I realise, in the course of my writing, I have not given enough space to a tremendous artist who I feel is one of the most distinct and important voices in modern music. Whilst some label Kara Jackson’s music as ‘Folk’, I think it is much harder to pin down. I shall come to a couple of reviews for her stunning debut, Why Does the Earth Give Us People to Love?. That was released on 14th April through the label, September. As a producer and writer of all the tracks, there is so much of Kara Jackson in the sound and the songs’ themes and tones. She is an exceptional artist I just had to salute! In the next couple of features, I am looking more at broadcaster and those behind the scenes. In the case of Kara Jackson, she is someone who is at her most powerful and impactful when it front of people. Delivering that incredible music to adoring and captive fans. I think that her fanbase in the U.K. has grown through this year.

Recently, The Line of Best Fit named Why Does the Earth Give Us People to Love? as their favourite album of the year. For those who do not know why Kara Jackson is such an important artist whose music is must-listen, I hope that this feature helps in emphasising and augmenting a music queen. I shall come to some sections of the interview The Line of Best Fit conducted with Jackson in regards them honouring her stunning debut album. I am going to come to the incredible recent interview from The Line of Best Fit. As we are almost at the end of the year, many people are putting out their albums of the year lists. Kara Jackson’s Why Does the Earth Give Us People to Love? is worthy of riding high in every single one of them! I want to bring in first some of an interview The Guardian published back in October. They say – as does Jackson – that many female songwriter are labelled ‘confessional’. That their music is diaristic. It seems rather cliché and a little sexist that this tag is always applied. Kara Jackson refutes and refuses this idea that her music is confessional:

“Critics have long labelled female writers, artists and musicians as “confessional”. It was once the case for Kara Jackson’s idol Joni Mitchell and it is now the case for Jackson herself. “I push back against this idea that what I’m doing is diaristic,” she says, suspicious of the gendered framing. “A lot of women are pigeonholed by this idea that they’re confessing. Mitski talks a lot about that. She’s like: ‘I don’t just draw something in my journal and sing it. I construct verses.’”

PHOTO CREDIT: Lawrence Agyei for The Guardian

While each song of the US folk musician’s debut album Why Does the Earth Give Us People to Love?, sung in her uniquely cavernous voice against somber guitar arrangements, does feel like the distillation of a deep memory or emotion, Jackson is more often a narrator than a protagonist. From dates to funerals, she is a master of world-building and creates landscapes and narratives that feel immersive and soberingly real. As a result, the record has rightly become one of the year’s most critically acclaimed. “As much as people think I’m being so vulnerable, sometimes I listen back to the album and think, ‘I’m actually not really giving away that much,’” she says, wearing pink braids, jeans and a face mask as we chat in her label’s office in Notting Hill, west London.

Born and raised in Chicago, Jackson got her first guitar for her 11th birthday and learned to play piano: “My mom had a rule that we had to play piano before we left the house at 18.” Raised on Jim Croce and Charley Pride, Jackson fell in love with folk music as a child. “Folk has a big history of political commentary,” says the 23-year-old. “My mom works for a labour union so I learned a lot of my favourite folk songs from protesting with her. Pete Seeger [and others].” Nina Simone and Joni Mitchell, she says, are the “blueprints”.

Jackson joined a spoken-word club in high school and began taking part in poetry slams. She released her debut poetry collection, Bloodstone Cowboy, in 2019 and served as the US national youth poet laureate from 2019-20. “I’m not as prolific as a poet now, but I do think that it provided a foundation. I love how concise it can be. How nonlinear.” That poetic foundation seems especially apparent in the rhyme pattern of the album’s striking opener Recognized – “some people get high to be recognised / some people roll dice to be recognised” – that makes it more poem than song. “A lot of people are really struck by the non-traditional structures of the songs. I’ve been accused of not writing choruses, but that’s just me. I’ve never really thought about those formalities.”

There are many years ahead for this young talent to stretch into, and Why Does the Earth Give Us People to Love? offers a rich introduction to her vision and voice. Though Jackson tells me her next project is going to be “a little different”, here’s hoping it retains the essence and beauty of folk that she has mastered so authentically. “I come from people in the south. There’s something really spiritual about folk music to me. Where it comes from. The way that it brings people together. The acoustic pulled-back aspect of everything. I’ve always loved the way that it feels to hear someone just singing and playing their guitar”.

There is no doubt in my mind that Kara Jackson is a name that we will be hearing about for many years to come. In future features, I may explore and highlight contemporaries like Jamila Woods, boygenius, and the wonderful Mitski. I am going to come to The Line of Best Fit’s interview with the magnificent Kara Jackson. I feel she is an artist that deserves a lot of focus. The way she writes. Her experiences and inspirations. Having released one of this year’s finest albums, I feel that 2024 will be another huge one for her. The Line of Best Fit caught up with Jackson as she was booked to play a sold-out performance at Pitchfork Festival in London:

“The debut album of Chicago singer-songwriter Kara Jackson is negotiated out of that old pact between love and loss; it bears the weight of those unwelcome lessons and endures despite it all like a flower rising from cracks in concrete, a defiant act of humour. Why Does The Earth Gives Us People To Love? – that central question around which everything orbits – is not a manifesto of grief as much as it is a receipt of her love.

Jackson’s tools are simple. Her voice, exceptionally rich at a low simmer, belies her twenty-three years; when you listen, you feel like she knows, heavy with the kind of experience we call ‘soul’. Her guitar is more of a light sketch, shaded with only occasionally with meandering piano and strings which seemingly creates more space for Jackson than they take up. And then there are her words: the sharp, funny, devastating things that seem to find her like iron filings to a magnet.

PHOTO CREDIT: Parri Thomas for The Line of Best Fit 

She's here in London to play a sold-out performance at Pitchfork Festival; two nights ago she played Pitchfork Paris. The applause at her London show stretched out longer than the we might have instinctively let it, caught a second wind that teased a bashful smile on Jackson’s face. People are paying attention.

“I’ve always been an introvert, but I feel like since the album has come out, I’ve been more introverted, honestly,” she tells me. After shows, she prefers to be alone. “Sometimes,” she admits, “I just want to blend in and be normal.” There’s a sense of visibility following the release of the album that borders on over-exposure: “I didn’t know if it was gonna reach anybody. I’ve had to start considering myself as a public figure, in a way, which is strange because I’ve been so used to just doing my own thing and just being a jokester on Twitter, or whatever. People interact with me as their perception of me from the album.”

Jackson has had to navigate presumptions and combat comparisons that are as baffling to her as they are ill-fitting. “The weirdest part about putting my album out is people’s random opinions about it that just feel based on nothing. I’ve had so many comparisons to Frank Ocean, and I don’t know why. Someone commented on ‘no fun / party’ and said something like, ‘The Frank Ocean production style needs to end’ – and no hate to Frank Ocean at all, but I’m so confused.

"Or, people always compare me to Tracy Chapman, which I think is lazy. She’s someone I respect, but my songs don’t sound like hers at all. I feel like the way people engage with Black artists who are women is so different. The standards and random formalities are so ridiculous: looking a certain way, talking a certain way; ‘We don’t want to hear your political opinions’, or, ‘Don’t bring race into it all the time’. But people do project a lot, and that is the nature of the game,” she says shrewdly. “Also, you know, I feel like people are just really unwell these days, on a mass scale. People are looking for places to put their hurt, and that’s fair. Times are hard.”

PHOTO CREDIT: Parri Thomas for The Line of Best Fit

Jackson’s music, at first, was met with caution. “I feel like my label was very nervous about my album; they made me feel insecure about my songs because of their length, or because I can’t market them on TikTok, or whatever,” she recalls. “It’s been interesting to see the reception in real time, though, and know that people have engaged with these really thoughtful things that I didn’t think anyone was going to give a shit about. I feel like something is happening. People are hungry for something real. We’re on the verge – if not in the thick of – a folk resurgence. People are getting into the earthiness of their music. Because as much as I love hip-hop and pop music, I think people are becoming really alienated from the same message. It’s like, ‘Hey, I’m with your bitch!’, or whatever, and that’s all there is. People want real stories from straight-up real people. The cult of celebrity is dying. In 2020, people got really fed up: when people were dying, celebrities were complaining about how bored they were in their mansion. People want something real."

PHOTO CREDIT: Parri Thomas for The Line of Best Fit 

In the Black experience, Jackson tells me, their grief has always been conflated with transactional entertainment. “It’s particularly true in the United States,” she shares. “There’s our history with minstrelsy in the United States and people expecting Black folk to exist for amusement. Even in our death, people would watch lynchings for entertainment and bring their children. I think in every facet of our lives, we’re performing. But I also refuse to be the kind of artist who stays silent just to make people comfortable. My friend McKinley Dixon, he also has struggles presenting his stories of loss,” she shares, “and I feel like Noname’s most recent album [Sundial] articulates it in a better way than I ever could, this idea of voyeurism from a white audience. I’m very lucky to have a community of Black artists and friends where we can commiserate together and lean on each other – it’s something I think I really needed.”

When I ask Jackson how this year, this album, have changed her life, she tells me: “I’ve prayed more than ever.” Growing up has given her a certain kind of grace, and more than that, gratitude. Already, Jackson has appeared on Kevin Abstract’s latest album Blanket alongside MJ Lenderman on the tender closing track “My Friend”, her name appearing in spaces beyond that which she carved for herself. For now, though, she is studying; she is watching and learning. “I’ve forgiven myself a lot more, and I’ve learned to accept my limitations as strengths,” she shares. “I know that I don’t have to prove myself to anyone. I’ve always been concerned with the doom of life, but I’ve never felt more optimistic”.

I will end up with a couple of reviews for the essential and unforgettable Why Does the Earth Give Us People to Love?. There has been so much love aimed in the direction of an album that everyone needs to listen to. Loud and Quiet shared their thoughts when they spent some time with Kara Jackson’s debut album:

“Every man thinks I’m his fucking mother,” bemoans Kara Jackson on ‘Therapy’, with the bluntness and sardonic wit that defines the Illinois musician’s debut album.

Recorded in her childhood bedroom during the pandemic, much of the material retains a lo-fi quality. Opening with the sound of a cassette being clunked into a deck, an acoustic guitar or simple piano note are often the integral backing. This is despite her subsequently reaching out to friends such as Nnamdï and Kaina to re-record the demos, shape the production, and add strings to several tracks.

Largely sidestepping conventional verse-chorus-verse structure, there’s a focus on words that’s to be expected from someone who served as the third US National Youth Poet Laureate. Influenced by poets Sharon Olds and Lucille Clifton as much as Fiona Apple and Megan Thee Stallion, the arrangements shift around a world-weary delivery that was designed for cheap bars and cigarettes.

There may not be any big choruses, unless you count devastating one-liners that double as self-help manuals, but this music has substance. There are alt-country slide guitars on ‘Pawnshop’, jazzy piano ripples on ‘Free’, and ‘Dickhead Blues’ twists into a Broadway number halfway through. The astute use of instruments to emphasise lyrical delivery is typified on ‘No Fun/Party’, which turns on a knife edge from strings to sparse banjo for its dénouement.

A collection of songs about love and relationships, the album is also about self-discovery. She’s not far wrong when she has the revelation that, “I am pretty top-notch”.

I am going to finish with Pitchfork’s review for Why Does the Earth Give Us People to Love?. Undoubtedly one of the most original and accomplished modern artists, it is going to be so exciting seeing where Kara Jackson heads next. It is clear that her debut album has really impacted people. Everyone has not heard it needs to listen to it as soon as they get the chance:

“Kara Jackson doesn’t just wear her heart on her sleeve, she offers it to you in her palms after cutting it from her chest. In the music video for “no fun/party,” the lead single to her debut record, Why Does the Earth Give Us People To Love?, the 23-year-old Chicago native and former National Youth Poet Laureate straddles a double of herself and pulls the organ from the doppelganger’s body. “Isn’t that just love?” she sings ironically, placing her heart, still slick with blood, delicately on a table of makeshift wires. It’s a striking visual that speaks to Jackson’s commitment to painful vulnerability, her recognition that agony and adoration must stem from the same source.

That love and suffering often go hand in hand is conventional wisdom by now, and one that Jackson herself tackled in her 2019 EP, A Song for Every Chamber of the Heart. On her latest record, the singer-songwriter has both refined her musical capabilities and pushed her existential questions into rockier terrain. Why Does the Earth Give Us People to Love? is an album about love, certainly, but none of its tracks are love songs. The music is neither sweet nor loving; many of the songs are harsh and disorienting, probing and uncomfortable. Where others might posit that it’s better to have loved and lost, Jackson argues that love is loss.

Her storytelling is masterful, filled with earnest lyricism and a knack for arresting imagery. On “no fun/party,” she describes the banality and repetition of finding the one: “It’s hard to have patience when you’re waiting on luck, like a postal truck, like a postal truck…” Jackson also flexes her wide vocal range to drive home the emotions behind her words. “Don’t you bother me,” she warns her ex-lover on the meditative, breakup ballad “Free,” the deep rumbling of her voice adding a menacing edge. On the title track, Jackson pitches her voice high and childlike, almost as though her philosophical questioning—“Why does the earth give us people to love then take them away from our reach?”—soars toward the heavens.

Jackson is a guitarist whose instrument functions not as an appendage to her words, but the very skin that holds her music together. On “no fun/party,” she rarely deviates from a five-note lick which cradles her lyrics and maintains the song’s pensive undertones. These songs introduce lusher arrangements—piano, banjo, xylophone—and a few hometown guests—KAINA, NNAMDÏ, Sen Morimoto—into her repertoire, which let her melodies shift and meander; just when you think you’ve grasped one, it wiggles out of your fist. On the outstanding “Dickhead Blues,” her lackadaisical guitar changes shape when layered with frenetic drums and then disappears altogether, drowned by the layered voices of a choir.

The cost of love comes up repeatedly on Why Does the Earth, and it’s never clear if it’s one Jackson feels is worth paying. “Have you thought about the price of my mouth?” she asks her lover cheekily on “Free.” On “Rat,” Jackson sings of a man who “couldn’t buy compassion cause it’d cost him 40 dollars.” “Price,” “cost,” “bargain,” “pay”; her frustration with transactional relationships is palpable, as is her desire to devote herself to someone without giving away parts of herself. The record captures the dangers of living with an open heart at a time of diminished personal connection, massive overwork, incessant productivity, and constant grief: To prioritize love one must give up something else.

But real love is never free. bell hooks said it best in her landmark 1999 text, All About Love: “To be loving is to be open to grief. To be touched by sorrow, even sorrow that is unending. The way we grieve is informed by whether we know love.” Throughout these 13 songs, Jackson never answers the question she poses in the album’s title. But she does have some breakthroughs. At the end of “Dickhead Blues,” as she finishes recounting her tumultuous love affair, she affirms the value in herself in a way her partner never could. “I am pretty top notch, I’m useful!” Jackson cries, her layered falsetto drifting into the ether. Though much of the loss that accompanies love is outside of our control, there is one thing Jackson’s certain of: She will not lose herself”.

Affirmative, inspiring, emotional, open, strengthening, always remarkable and moving, Kara Jackson’s Why Does the Earth Gives Us People to Love? is dedicated to her childhood best friend, Maya-Gabrielle Gary – who sadly died in 2016 after a brief battle with a rare muscle cancer. Someone I was never going to leave out of my Saluting the Queens feature, everyone needs to know about Kara Jackson. Follow her on Instagram and Twitter. You can buy her debut album and experience something truly transformative. There are some fine wordsmiths, poets and lyricists in music. You only need to read and hear the words Kara Jackson sings throughout Why Does the Earth Gives Us People to Love? to understand that she is one of the finest songwriters…

OF her generation.