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

FEATURE:

 

 

From the Screen to the Studio

PHOTO CREDIT: The Standard

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

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IT is not unusual for actors…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Had you sung with the English National Opera Chorus before?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

THE adored Hannah Waddingham.

FEATURE: Spotlight: Lip Filler

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

Lip Filler

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A band with a dedicated following…

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

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

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

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

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

PHOTO CREDIT: Holly Whitaker

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

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

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

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

“Who or what are your biggest influences?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

PHOTO CREDIT: Richard Mukuze

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

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

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

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

TO the next level.

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Follow Lip Filler

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/lipfillertv

Twitter:

https://twitter.com/LipFillertv

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/artist/0hPY5LO0VQyjgop1JBsKfQ

YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqHeRGNPgKoK-TqOFiaBsVA

Bandcamp:

https://lipfiller.bandcamp.com/

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/lipfillertv/

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

FEATURE:

 

 

Restacking the Deck

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

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

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THERE have been plenty of features written…

IN THIS PHOTO: D.J. Rowena Alice

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

IN THIS PHOTO: Ruth Royall

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

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

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

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

PHOTO CREDIT: Yasin Aydın/Pexels

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

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

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

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

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

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

RESTACKING of the decks.

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

FEATURE:

 

 

Get Your Sh!t Together…

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

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

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I recently wrote a feature …

 IMAGE CREDIT: Max

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

ADDED to the list.

FEATURE: To Watch in 2024: Ego Ella May

FEATURE:

 

 

To Watch in 2024

PHOTO CREDIT: Jelani Pomell

Ego Ella May

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BECAUSE the mighty…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

‘Table For One’ feels a little more personal…

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

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

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

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

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

PHOTO CREDIT: Whistles

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

“How did you get into music?

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

The album that changed your life?

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

Have you seen him live?

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

How would you describe your sound?

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

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

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

Dream musical collaboration?

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

How do you stay motivated and inspired?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

GROW and grow.

____________

Follow Ego Ella May

Official:

https://www.egoellamay.com/

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/egoellamay/

Twitter:

https://twitter.com/egoellamay

Bandcamp:

https://egoellamay.bandcamp.com/

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/artist/7ANeFdhioipksT9lqg0Ay6

YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/user/egoellamay

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/EgoEllaMay

FEATURE: Spotlight: swim school

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

swim school

__________

THERE is quite a bit…

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

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

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

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

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

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

PHOTO CREDIT: Rory Barnes

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

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

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

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

PHOTO CREDIT: Rory Barnes

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

PHOTO CREDIT: Rory Barnes

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 PHOTO CREDIT: Rory Barnes

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

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

KILL YOU

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

DELIRIOUS

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

BORED

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

DON’T LEAVE ME BEHIND

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

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

OVER NOW

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

PHOTO CREDIT: Grace Equi

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

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

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

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

PHOTO CREDIT: Grace Equi

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

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

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

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

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

WE can all be very proud of.

____________

Follow swim school

 PHOTO CREDIT: Grace Equi

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/weareswimschool/

TikTok:

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

Twitter:

https://twitter.com/weareswimschool

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/artist/7hC74DRW4q3obXLB5lTq4F

YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyW4fU6YXtK2iglP1cb3djw

Bandcamp:

https://weareswimschool.bandcamp.com/

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/weareswimschool/

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

FEATURE:

 

 

Bells for Her, Cornflake Girl

Tori Amos’ Under the Pink at Thirty

__________

ONE of the best albums…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“YOU HAVE TO GO THROUGH IT TO UNDERSTAND IT”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

PRETTY good year.

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

FEATURE:

 

 

The Digital Mixtape

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

The MOBO Awards 2024: The Shortlisted Artists

__________

IT is that time of year…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Mobo award nominations 2024

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

Best female act
Flo
Jorja Smith
Little Simz
Mahalia
PinkPantheress
Raye

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

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

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

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

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

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

Best grime act

Bugzy Malone
Duppy
Flowdan
Manga Saint Hilare
Novelist
P Money

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Best producer
Info
Kyle Evans
M1onTheBeat
P2J
Steel Banglez
TSB

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

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

OF the year.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

K: That's just a heavy effect

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

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

I: You won't say?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I: Kind of scary.

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

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

K: That's right, yes.

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

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

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

A very special artist.

FEATURE: Spotlight: Fat Dog

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

Fat Dog

__________

I did recently write…

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

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

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

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

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

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

 PHOTO CREDIT: Sophie Barloc for Loud and Quiet

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

PHOTO CREDIT: Sophie Barloc for Loud and Quiet

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

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

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

PHOTO CREDIT: Sophie Barloc for Loud and Quiet

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

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

 PHOTO CREDIT: Ed Miles for DIY

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

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

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

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

PHOTO CREDIT: Ed Miles

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

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

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

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

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

KEEP things focused.

____________

Follow Fat Dog

Official:

https://fatdogfatdogfatdog.com/

TikTok:

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

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/fatdogfatdogfatdog_

Twitter:

https://twitter.com/fatdog_fatdog

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/artist/4DLjEphXbW7qIhX4iwmNEe?si=H_MPIUlPSQWM8joXHMN_QQ

YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuQ2huAXpuDM5D9CID2RITg

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/fatdogfatdogfatdog

Bandcamp:

https://fatdogfatdogfatdog.bandcamp.com/merch

FEATURE: Saluting the Queens: Hayley Williams

FEATURE:

 

 

Saluting the Queens

PHOTO CREDIT: Peyton Fulford for The New Yorker

Hayley Williams

__________

I have already featured a couple of artists…

 PHOTO CREDIT: Alex G Harper/WWD

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Why is that different at festivals?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

PHOTO CREDIT: Zachary Gray

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

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

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

PHOTO CREDIT: Alex G Harper/WWD

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

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

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

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

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

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

SALUTE her here.

FEATURE: Rebel Grrrl: The Iconic Feminist Punk Idol Kathleen Hanna

FEATURE:

 

 

Rebel Grrrl

The Iconic Feminist Punk Idol Kathleen Hanna

__________

LEADING a group who have…

 IN THIS PHOTO: Kathleen Hanna (front) on stage with Bikini Kill (Tobi Vail (drums) and Kathi Wilcox (bass) in 2019/PHOTO CREDIT: Debi Del Grande

had a huge influence and no doubt inspire modern artists like Charli XCX and The Linda Lindas, I did want to talk about Bikini Kill and the extraordinary Kathleen Hanna. Apologies if this seems a little random in terms of the information and structure. Rather than simply talk about some new news that is exciting and worth exploring, I wanted to expand a little. The news is, as Pitchfork explain, related to Kathleen Hanna releasing her new memoir, Rebel Girl: My Life as a Feminist Punk:

“Kathleen Hanna has announced a U.S. book tour in support of her new memoir, Rebel Girl: My Life as a Feminist Punk. The book is out May 14 via Ecco, and the tour begins in Brooklyn on the same day as the memoir’s release. The Seattle date on May 22 will be streamed live, and a portion of all ticket sales will be donated to the nonprofit Peace Sisters. Find the book tour dates below.

Just yesterday, Bikini Kill announced a benefit show for the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund. It takes place at the Capitol Theater in Olympia, Washington, on January 27.

05-14 Brooklyn, NY - Greenlight Bookstore @ Kings Theatre

05-15 Washington, D.C. - Loyalty Bookstore @ Lincoln Theatre

05-16 Cincinnati, OH - Joseph-Beth Booksellers @ Mason High School

05-18 Chicago, IL - Women & Children First @ Hermann Hall

05-20 Los Angeles, CA - Book Soup @ First Congregational Church

05-21 San Francisco, CA - City Arts & Lectures @ The Sydney Goldstein Theater

05-22 Seattle, WA - Seattle Arts & Lectures @ Town Hall Seattle

05-23 Portland, OR - Powell’s Books @ Revolution Hall

05-28 Boston, MA - Brookline Booksmith @ The Wilbur Theatre

05-29 Philadelphia, PA - Uncle Bobbie’s @ WHYY Studio”.

For anyone who does not know about Kathleen Hanna and what she and Bikini Kill created and gave to the world, AllMusic provide some detail and depth. You can feel and see the legacy of what the band left and how, reformed and in this new phase, they will shape music and female artists coming through. I shall come to that reformation in a little bit:

“The point band of the early-'90s riot grrrl movement, Olympia, Washington's Bikini Kill exploded onto the male-dominated indie rock scene by fusing the visceral power of punk with the impassioned ideals of feminism. Calling for "Revolution Girl Style Now," the group's fiercely polemical and anthemic music helped give rise to a newly empowered generation of women in rock, presaging the dominance female artists would enjoy throughout the decade.

Bikini Kill formed in the late '80s at Olympia's liberal Evergreen College, where students Kathleen Hanna, Tobi Vail, and Kathi Wilcox first teamed to publish a feminist fanzine, also dubbed Bikini Kill. Seeking to bring the publication's agenda to life, they decided to form a band, enlisting guitarist Billy Boredom (born William Karren) to round out the lineup. Led by singer/songwriter Hanna, a former stripper, the group laced its incendiary live performances with aggressive political stances that challenged the accepted hierarchy of the underground music community; slam dancers were forced to mosh at the fringes of the stage so that women could remain at the front of the crowd, for example, and female audience members were often invited to take control of the microphone to openly discuss issues of sexual abuse and misconduct.

In 1991, Bikini Kill issued their first recording, Revolution Girl Style Now, an independently distributed demo cassette. For their first official release, the quartet signed with the aggressively independent Olympia-based label Kill Rock Stars; the Bikini Kill EP, produced by Fugazi's Ian Mackaye, consisted largely of reworked versions of material from the first cassette. In 1992, the band issued Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, a split 12" released with the British group Huggy Bear's Our Troubled Youth on its flip side; a subsequent U.K. tour with Huggy Bear in early 1993 raised the visibility of the riot grrrl groundswell to unprecedented heights, and the movement became the focus of many media outlets on both sides of the Atlantic. When Bikini Kill returned to the U.S., they joined forces with Joan Jett, whom the band held up as an early paragon of riot grrrl aesthetics. Jett produced the group's next single, the bracing "New Radio"/"Rebel Girl," and Hanna returned the favor by co-writing the song "Spinster" for the Jett album Pure and Simple.

In 1994, Bikini Kill released Pussy Whipped; their most potent effort to date, it featured the songwriting emergence of both Vail and Wilcox, a trend continued on 1996's Reject All American. The group quietly disbanded in early 1998, and Vail, Wilcox, and Boredom went on to form the group the Frumpies, while Hanna released a solo project, Julie Ruin, before assembling the band Le Tigre in 1999. Hanna left Le Tigre in 2005, later revealing that she'd been struggling with Lyme disease. In 2010, Hanna had recovered sufficiently to launch a new band, featuring Kathi Wilcox, which they dubbed the Julie Ruin. The Punk Singer, a documentary on Hanna and her career from Bikini Kill to the Julie Ruin, opened in 2013, and in 2014 Hanna founded a new record label, Bikini Kill Records, devoted to reissuing the band's back catalog and associated projects”.

Bikini Kill were pioneers and an essential part of the Riot Grrrl movement. At a time when male bands were still being seen as essential Punk and Rock voices, Bikini Kill were essential alternative and progressive voices. They helped pave the way and affect change. Kathleen Hanna, as lead of Bikini Kill and Le Tigre, was one of the most important and powerful voices of the 1990s. Her impact is still hugely strong today. Before moving on, I want to source Molly Cooper’s 2021 words for Mindless Mag:

“Some people think little girls should be seen and not heard, but I think ‘oh bondage up yours!’” X-Ray Spex, 1977

The “best” punk bands: the Rolling Stones, the Clash, the Ramones, the Sex Pistols. All regarded as the greatest punk bands. All men. That’s what a group of college students in the US (United States) state of Washington thought in the 1990s. A group of people who came together against one thing: bigotry, and so began the revolutionary movement known as: Riot Grrrl.

"There was a lot of anger and self-mutilation. In a symbolic sense, women were cutting and destroying the established image of femininity, aggressively tearing it down." - Liz Naylor, manager of Huggy Bear.

Born out of necessity, the movement wasn’t “created”. It was forced under the boot of an oppressive

society. It was about empowering women, bringing notice to rape culture, and screaming loudly about homophobia. It brought people together who had been torn down by patriarchy.

Music was the root. It started with music, and that was its voice. Through the words of Bikini Kill, Bratmobile, and Heavens to Betsy, troops were rallied. That created a culture. A culture around music and DIY, around zines and activism. It was a revolution. The movement was more than its roots. It was society.

It was different. It was anger against what was dictated as normal, at what was “mainstream”. Riot Grrrl was not a conversation on legal obstacles or voting rights, it was pure rage. 

Grrls got s*** done.

They used everything they had. They used music and published their own manifestos and they weaponised their clothing.

How to dress to overthrow the patriarchy

“Stop always worrying about what you look like and what clothes you wear, 'cause in the end it's not important. What's important is friendship and being creative” Kathleen Hanna, frontwoman for Bikini Kill and Le Tigre.

With a subculture, comes a look. A fashion to go with values, but with the Riot Grrrl movement it was the very act of pushing against societal norms of femininity and consumerism that instead created a weapon: fashion itself.

There was no “Riot Grrrl” look.

The very idea of a specific “look”, went against the what the movement stood for. Grrrl’s didn’t have a style, they just expressed themselves, and how they were feeling.

But that didn’t mean fashion was completely void. Riot Grrrl’s used everything in their power, in their arsenal and that included fashion. More specifically how clothing made them feel.

In zines (small handmade publications handed out at shows which spread the movement) Grrrl’s wrote from their own experiences.

They wrote about the sexualisation of their bodies, and how the mainstream fashion industry relied on women being jealous of each other to sell their brands. There was an emphasis on self-expression, but also a move from reliance upon corporate industries and big brands in clothing.

Fashion to Riot Grrrl’s wasn’t just clothing, it was an attitude. It was the way clothes made you feel, and repercussions of male-dominated, female-focused industries. It was the use of clothing as policing of feminine bodies.

They wanted to dress how they wanted, it was as simple as that. Without the male gaze, without people telling them as feminists you “cannot dress sexy”.

It was gender expression. It was butch lesbians dressing without the risk of being attacked or called slurs. It was trans and non-binary people having a safe space at shows, to present their gender in any way they wished.

Riot Grrrl fashion is alive and well today 

The Riot Grrrl movement has had a resurgence of sorts, mainly due to online platforms like TikTok. The rising alternative subcultures of E-Girls and E-Boys have taken obvious inspiration from punk subcultures, like Riot Grrrl. The mixture of harsh blush and soft baby-dolls, with chunky black boots reminiscent of the mixture of femininity and resistance of Riot Grrrl’s. 

But it’s more than just clothing. As the original movement was, it’s a move from the male gaze. For people to control how they're perceived and to own their own sexualisation. The idea of girls and nonbinary people dressing how they choose to, it’s a political statement.

It’s a push for self-expression, and people making their own footprint in the world regardless of their oppression. It’s the girl on TikTok who made her prom dress from duct-tape. It’s punk and Riot Grrrl living on through them”.

Rebel Girl: My Life as a Feminist Punk is a book that everyone needs to pick up. Recollections and memories from one of the leaders and most influential voices from the Riot Grrrl movement. The Los Angeles Times spoke to Kathleen Hanna about the return of Le Tigre. On the road with Bikini Kill at the time of the interview, it was a time of looking back and forward for the icon. I can only imagine how amazing it is bringing this fantastic and powerful music to a new generation:

“Never one known for her eagerness to submit to interviews, Kathleen Hanna was happy, she admitted on a recent afternoon, to be talking to anybody at all.

The veteran punk singer and activist had just completed a 10-day stint isolating in a Maryland hotel room after contracting COVID while on the road with Bikini Kill, the foundational riot grrrl band that galvanized a generation with its radical-feminist anthems — and famously shunned most media beyond underground fanzines — then broke up in 1997 before reuniting three years ago.

Now, with Hanna, 53, due to fly to Poland the next day for another string of Bikini Kill dates, the singer was on Zoom from her home in Pasadena to discuss a second comeback: that of Le Tigre, the sly electro-punk trio she formed in New York in 1998 with Johanna Fateman and Sadie Benning (who was later replaced by JD Samson).

PHOTO CREDIT: Francine Orr/Los Angeles Times

“I’ve been so f—ing bored,” Hanna said with a laugh of her time in quarantine. “So, yeah — lovely to chat with you.”

This month Le Tigre will play its first show in over a decade as part of This Ain’t No Picnic, a two-day music festival set for Aug. 27 and 28 at Brookside at the Rose Bowl that will also feature LCD Soundsystem, the Strokes, Phoebe Bridgers and Beach House, among other acts.

A kind of bridge between New York’s electroclash and garage-revival scenes, Le Tigre layered fuzzy guitars and shouty vocals over chunky drum-machine beats in songs about queer visibility and institutional misogyny. The band, which released three LPs, wasn’t as impactful as Bikini Kill, whose classic “Rebel Girl” has been covered by both the Linda Lindas and Miley Cyrus. But it proved enduringly influential among DIY synth heads, and its pop smarts even led to a major-label deal for the group’s 2004 album, “This Island.”

Hanna, who’s married to Adam “Ad-Rock” Horovitz of the Beastie Boys and who recovered a few years ago from Lyme disease, talked about the band’s reunion, its legacy and touring in the age of COVID.

Why get Le Tigre back together?

Basically because I started playing with Bikini Kill again and was finally having fun singing. My health is so much better and my technical skills are way better. When I was playing with the Julie Ruin, which was the last project I did before getting back together with Bikini Kill, I was still really sick and kept having to cancel stuff. I was battling my illness to get onstage, and it just was not fun. It was a little bit of faking it. I remember playing a really bad show in Paris with Le Tigre. So now I’m like, I need to play Paris again and have it be a good show. It’s literally something that will keep me awake.

You’ve played — what? — thousands of shows in your life. But this one crummy gig sticks in your mind?

I’ve gone through a lot of permutations as a performer. When I first got into being onstage, a lot of it was: I didn’t get love as a child, and I was looking for love in all the wrong places. I wanted anonymous strangers to applaud me. That was the difference between Bikini Kill and Le Tigre. In Le Tigre it was about me outperforming myself rather than pleasing the audience. I wasn’t looking for them to validate me. I knew what I was doing was good. So when I say I need to go back to Paris and fix it, it’s not because I give a s— that Paris hates me. It’s that I know I didn’t do my best.

Say more about rediscovering the joy of singing.

With Bikini Kill at first I was like, There’s no way I can still sing like that — I’m too old. But then I got into the flow. We played the Greek Theatre [in April] and I felt like I was flying. All of the stuff that’s been pent up in me, it was like I was shaking all the demons out of my body. I feel like I just did a year of therapy from 10 shows.

IN THIS PHOTO: Le Tigre (L-R: JD Samson, Kathleen Hanna and Johanna Fateman)/PHOTO CREDIT: Dusty Lombard/IFC Films

What have you learned about your old songs by going back to them?

They’re catchy! Why does everybody always say we’re activists, not musicians? These are real songs. I get them in my head when I’m not on tour — and not in a bad Spin Doctors way. What’s been coming up with me performing live again is how often our musicality gets diminished. Is that a sexist thing, or does it happen to all bands? I don’t see people talking about Tame Impala the same way they talk about my projects.

I mention Tame Impala because I was just in the car and I was trying to listen to the Beyoncé record and Spotify kept switching to this playlist of MGMT and Tame Impala — all the indie hits of the 2000s. And it was all men. The only women on the playlist were, like, the two women in Arcade Fire. So I started having a contest to see how long I could listen before I heard a woman’s voice. Then I was like, Wait, this is keeping me from listening to Beyoncé.

Talk about Le Tigre’s decision to leave Mr. Lady, a tiny indie, and sign to Universal. These days nobody has any anxiety about that kind of move, but people worried about it back then.

Mr. Lady was wonderful, they just weren’t equipped to deal with a band of our size. So eventually you get to the point where you’re paying for all your own recording because the label just doesn’t have the money to do it. My whole career I would earn money from one band, put anything I could aside, and then I’d spend it all on the next band. And then I’d end up broke. I married somebody with money, so it’s totally different now. But in Le Tigre, after I spent all my money on the first record, I was like, I can’t keep doing this — I can’t raise $8,000 to make another album, which is how much it cost, and then cross my fingers that I’m gonna get it back.

What do you think of “This Island” now?

A lot of people disliked it, but when I listen to it I’m really happy with it. I mean, not all of it. But there are great songs on there: “On the Verge,” “TKO.” We always considered ourselves a conceptual art band. And so part of the art of that record was: What happens when three f—ed-up feminists get on a major label?

So what happened?

I remember one meeting where we were like, “Are you guys gonna put any marketing money behind what we’re doing? Is that what happens?” We were newbies in terms of all that. And they were just like, “Well, we’ve decided to put our marketing money behind JoJo’s new record.” Not JoJo Siwa — JoJo who had that song where she was all, “Get out!” I was like, “Ooookaaaay.” But, I mean, we already knew. We were all in our 30s. The fact that a major label was even interested in three women who weren’t 18 was kind of amazing.

Do you think Le Tigre’s sense of humor will come across to a Gen Z audience?

Yeah, but I think even more than that, sincerity is back. That was one really big earmark of us: We could be funny and sarcastic, but we were also just trying to make something positive in a really negative landscape. Part of the reason we weren’t considered a New York band is maybe that we didn’t have the veneer of coolness. There’s all these books and films and whatever coming out about the New York sound, and we’re never mentioned. We’re always the mashed potatoes, and they’re the steak.

You’re talking about the early-2000s moment with the Strokes and LCD Soundsystem and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

Which is weird, because James Murphy [of LCD Soundsystem], one of the first big things he ever did was a remix of [Le Tigre’s] “Deceptacon.” We were all hanging out. James stayed at our apartment and we spent time at his studio. We were breathing the same musical air. No one ever calls them Le Tigre for men, but we’re wannabe LCD Soundsystem feminists? That’s the placement it feels like we get.

Those other acts projected a very different image than Le Tigre.

We were f—ing dorks. We wore kooky costumes. We did dumb-ass dances. And we spoke directly in the mic to people. We weren’t trying to be a band of rock stars where people felt like we were a thousand miles away and they could never be us. We wanted people to see themselves in us. And I feel like people are receptive to that now because everything’s gotten so shiny and fake. People are going back to craft, people are going back to vinyl. We had a song where we labeled ourselves the New Sincerity, and now there’s articles coming out about the New Sincerity. 

When Bikini Kill reunited, it was impossible not to think about how relevant the band’s songs about sexual assault still felt. Is the same true for you of Le Tigre’s songs?

Definitely, which is horrifying.

Have you felt inspired to write new songs about what’s going on right now? “Don’t Say Gay,” the overturning of Roe v. Wade and so on.

I’m in another band that hasn’t recorded or played live yet, and I’m writing for them. But so much of my life now is taken up singing about political stuff. In Le Tigre and Bikini Kill we’re singing about the after-effects of rape and domestic violence. We’re singing about queer visibility and how sometimes the visibility feels invisible-izing, if that makes sense. Like, what happens when the visibility lets people think, Oh, it’s all solved? I know as a feminist, the more pictures of me there are and the more interviews I do that just get cut up to get clicks — it actually feels like I get smaller. That’s why I hate doing press”.

It is important that there is a new era for Bikini Kill and Le Tigre. At a time where women are still underrepresented and there is this toxicity that still exists through the industry, the continued words and music from Kathleen Hanna is essential. One of the most important artists of her generation. There will be new interviews closer to the release date of her memoir. Before I wrap up, I want to quote from this interview from Monster Children. They spoke with a figurehead of the Riot Grrrl movement. Someone who owns Tees4Togo, a T-shirt company that works alongside Peace Sisters, a non-profit that sends girls to school in Togo, West Africa:

“After the long hiatus of Bikini Kill, what brought the band back together?

We got asked to play a song to open for The Raincoats, in New York, to celebrate a book that was written about them by Jenn Pelly. I was on the fence about it because I live in California. Kathi [Wilcox] called me and was like, 'Tobi [Vail] is going to be here and we're going to do something,’ I was like, ‘I don’t want to go all the way out there.’ I hung up the phone and was like oh my god, I am so stupid; this is an opportunity to hang out with two of the people I love most on the planet. When a band breaks up, there are always hard feelings and weirdness, but here is an opportunity for us to hang out and celebrate The Raincoats, a band that we all really love. I called back and was like sure, let’s do it.

The funny thing was I ended up being the one who really wanted to play together more because it was so much fun and awesome for us to be together. Not only just as musicians, but as friends and people who went through this really strange experience, which was Bikini Kill in the 90s. There were only three other people that went through that and to be together with two of them was pretty remarkable and something I wanted to repeat.

The tour originally started in 2019 but was postponed due to covid. Was doing Australia and New Zealand stops something that was planned then?  

That was a newer thing. Once the US shows were successful and fun, we realized, we wanted to keep going, and we were like, we want to go back to Australia. As a band, we have always had a fun time when we went to Australia, and it was always a really important bonding time for us. Getting to travel and see old friends in Melbourne. It kind of relieves the stress because we don’t have the same scene dynamics and stuff over there as we do at home.

You guys were brought out to Australia by Steve ‘Pav’ Pavlovic in the 90s, (whose collection makes up the Unpopular exhibition). Do you have any memories of working with him?

Steve let us stay at his apartment, and he said to us, ‘You can stay here but don’t go through my stuff, and don’t wear my bathing suit.’ We were just like, what kind of gross person is going to wear your bathing suit, like, who do you think we are? Then the second he closed the door, we took out his bathing suit, and we all put it on. We took polaroids of each other in his bathing suit, and we left them all over his apartment [laughs]. I think they are in the exhibition, and I want to go there, take a sharpie, and if they’re on a wall, write the context next to them. Because I think it looks like we were taking these cute, sexy polaroids in his bathing suit. But we weren’t. It was just a total joke that we left for him, and he just happened to keep the photos, so they ended up in the show.

Is the mandress going to make a comeback on the current tour?

I wish, but I sold the mandress at a garage sale when I moved from Olympia. I don’t know who has it. But I have seen it on the internet. Someone had one and was wearing it. I would love to buy one. It would be funny to surprise my band by wearing it [laughs]

What’s your take on Twin Peaks now?

I still haven’t watched it, so I really have no business criticizing it [laughs]. It’s the arrogance of youth. The only reason I didn’t like Twin Peaks was because these people in our apartment building had a Twin Peaks party every night, and they didn’t invite us because we were the weird feminists who they thought would criticize everything. So, I made a song that criticized it, just so I could fit in with the stereotype that I was the mean feminist. So, be careful what you wish for, neighbors. Then we went up on the roof and unplugged their cables so they couldn’t watch it [laughs]. We were such jerks. I love that about us”.

For those here in the U.K., order Rebel Girl: My Life as a Feminist Punk here. It is a book that I think is going to be among the must-haves of 2024. It will be fascinating to read revelations and realities from an icon. The supreme Kathleen Hanna has undeniably made such a big impact on the music world. An influence that is strong today and will continue to connect with women in music for years to come:

“An electric, searing memoir by the original riot grrrl and legendary frontwoman of Bikini Kill and Le Tigre.

'Hey girlfriend I got a proposition, goes something like this: Dare ya to do what you want.'

Kathleen Hanna’s rallying cry to feminists echoed far and wide through the punk scene of the 1980s, ’90s, and beyond. Her band, Bikini Kill, embodies this iconic time, and today their gutsy, radical lyrics of anthems like ‘Rebel Girl’ and ‘Double Dare Ya’ are more powerful than ever. But where did this transformative voice come from?

In Rebel Girl, Hanna’s raw and insightful new memoir, she takes us from her tumultuous childhood home, to her formative college years in Olympia, Washington, and on to her first years on tour, fighting hard for gigs and for her band. As Hanna makes blindingly clear, being in a ‘girl band’, especially a punk girl band, in those years was not a simple or a safe prospect. Male violence and antagonism threatened at every turn, and surviving as a singer who was a lightening rod for controversy took limitless amounts of determination.

But the relationships she developed during those years buoyed her – including with her bandmates Tobi Vail, Kathi Wilcox, and Billy Karren; her friendship with Kurt Cobain; and her introduction to Joan Jett – and they were a testament to how the true punk world nurtured and cared for its own.

Hanna opens up about falling in love with Ad-Rock of the Beastie Boys and her debilitating battle with Lyme disease, and she brings us behind the scenes of her later bands, Le Tigre and The Julie Ruin. She also writes candidly about the Riot Grrrl movement and its decline, documenting with love its grassroots origins but critiquing its later exclusivity.

In an uncut voice all her own, Hanna reveals the darkest, hardest times along with the most joyful – and how it all fuelled her revolutionary art, from the 1980s to today”.

Ahead of the release of that must-read memoir, I wanted to highlight a hugely important artist who was part of the Riot Grrrl movement and was a key figure when it came to kicking against the sexism and misogyny that existed throughout Punk and beyond. As lead of Le Tigre and Bikini Kill, Hanna has been responsible for some of the most anthemic and potent songs of the time. She remains such a key cultural figure…

TO this day.

FEATURE: Revisiting… BC Camplight - The Last Rotation of Earth

FEATURE:

 

 

Revisiting…

BC Camplight - The Last Rotation of Earth

__________

I am looking back…

PHOTO CREDIT: Ashley Laurence

on some albums from this year that rank alongside the very best - but may not have been as played and dissected as much as they deserved. Those that warrant a place on most of the ‘best albums of 2023’ lists. An artist that very much is worthy of that honour is BC Camplight. Brian Christinzio is a New Jersey-born, Manchester-based artist who released his sixth studio album in May. One that I felt should have been nominated for a Mercury Prize – as someone who has resided in the U.K. for a long time now, I think that he is eligible -, everyone needs to check out this album. Three years after the superb Shortly After Takeoff, The Last Rotation of Earth offers similar brilliance. Another nine-track album packed with incredible moments and his distinct sound; I will wrap up with a couple of reviews for one of this year’s best albums. Before getting to some others interviews, I want to start with MOJO. It begins really interestingly. A moment when BC Camplight (I shall refer to him by his artist name and not Brian Christinzio) was preparing to be really open and real:

“How warty does MOJO like to go?” asks Brian Christinzio. “Because my story is pretty warty.”

For instance, there’s the state he was in in 2012. The New Jersey-born singer and songwriter (“don’t say ‘singer-songwriter’, that makes me think of James Taylor on a stool and I’m not that guy”) was squatting an abandoned church in Philadelphia, siphoning electricity from neighbours and selling equipment that he’d borrowed off friends. “I was an absolute scumbag,” he says, staring down at his coffee. “I was drinking, doing way too many drugs, losing friends and feeling angry and bitter.”

On two albums as BC Camplight, Christinzio’s elegant and eloquent piano-based pop – equal parts Brian Wilson, Harry Nilsson and Lou Christie – had been met by critical bouquets but demoralising sales. Beset by an anxiety disorder, he reckoned he’d already “blown it”. Adding insult to perceived injury, he’d played piano on Sharon Van Etten’s album Epic and seen members of his live band, Dave Hartley (bass) and Robbie Bennett (keys), join The War On Drugs, both local favourites blowing up with the success he’d anticipated for himself.

“I was seething!” he says. “And mad at myself, like, What are you doing? Do something, or you’re going to drop to the bottom of the ocean. And if you stay in Philly, you die, or go to jail.”

Christinzio roused himself to ask his Facebook followers if anyone knew of a flat in London he could escape to. “I’d fucked up so much, I was running away,” he sighs. A journalist friend stepped in to offer refuge in Manchester instead, and four days later Christinzio was outside the Castle Hotel pub-cum-venue in the city’s Northern Quarter to pick up keys. Eleven years later, he’s still here. “Manchester represented a life,” he adds. “A place that meant that the old Brian was dead.”

The ‘old Brian may be gone, but  the ‘new’ Brian remains feisty and opinionated. Christinzio, now 43, meets MOJO at Manchester Piccadilly station, and walking through the concourse he spies a piano for members of the public to play. “There’s something so immediate and romantic about the piano,” he starts. “So, when I see people pounding on it, it makes me ill. It’s an instrument. You wouldn’t leave a dentist’s drill lying around in the middle of a train station. Playing bad music in front of people is just as dangerous.”

What first drew me to Manchester was the shit weather. It brings everyone down to my level.

Settling down to a full English fry-up at the Koffee Pot on Oldham Street – where he once washed dishes to make ends meet – Christinzio visibly relaxes, and begins to wax lyrical about his adopted home city.

“What first drew me to Manchester was the shit weather,” he says, “because it brings everyone down to my level. I remember walking down this street; I didn’t have five pounds in my pocket but I had the energy of new friends in a new city, and writing all this new music, which hadn’t happened in ages. What a relief that was. Anyway, I consider myself Mancunian now. I never felt American anyway, but more like an alien.”

Christinzio looks more like a bear than an alien, dressed in black except for a rust-coloured beanie with tufts of black hair escaping out the back. He’s jovial and garrulous, but it masks a history of unease. Young Brian would look at photos of family members and fret about when they would die. At the same time, he was obsessed with Jerry Lee Lewis, discovered in his mother’s record collection and encouraging him to stick with piano lessons (Frankie Valli and other high voices were a similar influence on his own).

Christinzio’s anxieties abated in high school – “I was captain of the football team, and my girlfriend was prom queen” – but exploded right after, “like a switch had been flipped.” Suffering overwhelming bouts of hypochondria and neurological disorders, he was hospitalised several times. A thyroid-related auto-immune condition has been diagnosed, but medication hasn’t worked. “It’s all just a big, muddy ball,” he sighs”.

Skipping to an interview with Silent Radio, they highlight how the music on The Last Rotation of Earth emerged from more than the triumph over adversity. It is a far less predictable and richer listen than that. His first album as a single man. His other albums were very much done with his other half providing inspiration and support. Maybe a strange experience creating The Last Rotation of Earth:

“Your lyrics were really direct on ‘Shortly After Takeoff’ and on this one even more so. Do you still feel that’s important, as I think a lot of people hide behind similes and metaphors and don’t say what they mean?

Well, I stopped doing that, so much so, that in one of my songs I start yelling at myself in the song for using similes!” (on the brilliant ‘It Never Rains In Manchester’). “Right, I’ll preface this by saying, I don’t give a fuck about what anybody thinks about my music” he laughs. “I’m glad that people like it, and when people do like it, they seem to be drawn to the directness of it, and I have noticed that. I, in turn, started to become more drawn to my own music, the more direct I was. When you make a song, I like to give each one of my songs its own little brain, its own little artificial intelligence, so when you create one of these songs, for me, it’s kind of a little living thing. I like making that little thing able to communicate in a way that it communicates with me, it communicates with the listener. I noticed on a few records back, the more I was trying to be clever, it was losing me, it was losing other people as well. So I thought stop being clever, teach these songs how to talk, and let them talk. People don’t listen to music cos they want to figure out a fucking verbal Sudoku puzzle! It’s like, they want to be spoken to, and felt heard, and that’s what I try to do with my music now. I just don’t have the time or the patience to be writing these awful deep metaphors and stuff, it’s just not what I do.”

This sixth album, the hugely anticipated follow up to ‘Shortly After Takeoff’ was shaping up to be a very different beast entirely. There was one problem though “It wasn’t very good.” Brian reveals. “I was terrified. If there was one good thing to come out of this break-up, it’s that my music doesn’t suck”! he laughs. “I was doing this album, and I don’t think it was as good as ‘Shortly After Takeoff’, I was like ‘fuck, I’m finally slipping backwards’. I was convincing myself ‘no, no, it’s good, it’s good’ and there was this voice in the back of my head going ‘it’s not as good’. I had a good day in the studio one day, I was feeling a little bit better about it, and came in, and then my partner handed me a glass of wine, and I saw that she was crying and I thought ‘uh-oh’, and then she left. Then I looked at that piece of shit record that I had been doing and was like ‘you’re leaving, you’re done!’ About ninety-five percent of it I just tossed, and then within two months I’d made ‘Last Rotation Of Earth’ from start to finish. It’s my stupid brain! There’s always a log jam and I have to have something to shake it loose and usually that something isn’t very pleasant!”

‘Last Rotation Of Earth’ feels like the album he should have made. It’s the perfect follow up to ‘Shortly After Takeoff’ which was supposedly the end of the ‘Manchester Trilogy’ as BC christened the three albums made since moving here in 2012 with’ How To Die In The North’, and ‘Deportation Blues’, preceding ‘Shortly After Takeoff’. The new album still retains a distinct Mancunian flavour running through its core with lines such as “I was struck by lightning when I was fourteen but I’ve been fucking mint since” from the the aptly titled ‘It Never Rains In Manchester’. However Brian is quick to play down the thought that this is now a quadrilogy of Manc themed albums. ”It’s not as catchy is it? Quadrilogy. You know, I’m always honest. I only thought of the Manchester trilogy as a way to sell the last record” Brian jokes. “I thought ’well, these are the three records I’ve made in Manchester, let’s call it a trilogy’ I didn’t really set out to do it, it wasn’t Star Wars! This is definitely  a totally separate animal. In some ways it’s less about my journey here in Manchester and all that stuff, and I feel it’s more about telling a story about another person, and some of the themes are, I think, a little bit more universal. To me, it feels different, and it’s the first album I’ve done in ten years, without the missus. So, those felt like the albums I did with her, I mean she didn’t do anything with the music, but they wouldn’t exist without her, she was kind of like my backbone, so this is the first thing I did on my own, so it doesn’t feel part of those at all”.

Prior to coming to some reviews for the brilliant The Last Rotation of Earth, I am going to bring in another interview. The Skinny spoke with an artist who performs a difficult trick: mixing humour and funny lyrics among direct and painful lines. Able to pull it off without the music being jarring or there being this uncomfortable blend and insincerity:

“Since relocating from Philadelphia to Manchester in what he describes as a lifesaving move, he has released a string of sparkling alt-pop albums, each one blighted by misfortune. He was deported from the UK two days before the release of 2015’s How to Die in the North; his father died days before the release of 2018’s Deportation Blues; 2020’s Shortly After Takeoff was released in the first month of lockdown.

That The Last Rotation of Earth is also defined by personal turmoil, then, seems to place it in the same tradition, although Christinzio sees this album as a substantial departure from his previous work. Like its predecessors, it contains several references to his beloved Manchester (Albert Square, the curry mile), but here the themes are more internalised and therefore more universal. What does remain, though, is his characteristic ability to throw in seemingly mundane everyday references, with Homes Under the Hammer and Faith No More among the pop culture potpourri getting a mention this time around.

“It’s just a device that I really enjoy,” Christinzio explains. “It puts the listener in a specific place. It’s a reminder that you’re listening to a person going through something, and I’m not trying to be Bill Shakespeare.”

Few songwriters of his generation sprinkle laugh-out-loud lyrics into their songs so successfully, especially while walking the tightrope of maintaining such heavy subject matter at the same time. “Music is just the instrument my brain uses to get its thoughts out,” is his typically self-effacing explanation for that. “You have to be mindful that you can’t just dump 3000 pounds of awful feelings onto people all at once. I enjoy having a reprieve and letting people breathe and reset. It’s more human; humans are very complicated people, and I think some people appreciate music that reflects the complexities of just how weird our brains are.”

Something else that sets The Last Rotation of Earth apart from his previous work is the expansiveness of its sonic palette; tracks like The Movie and Fear Life in a Dozen Years are positively cinematic in their scope, with members of the Liverpool Philharmonic being brought in to add grandeur to Christinzio’s arrangements (“I think I was just trying to convince one of these fucking music supervisors to let me do a film”). The album closes, meanwhile, on a disarmingly uncertain note with the drifting two-minute instrumental The Mourning.

“One thing that I don’t like about some musicians is that they assume that they have answers to things,” he explains. “I just want to be honest with people, I don’t know what the fuck’s going on, and I don’t know how any of this is going to turn out, but this is what I have to say, and I hope you come along for the ride”.

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I am going to come to The Skinny again. Big fans of BC Camplight’s work, they were full of praise for the majestic The Last Rotation of Earth. An album that did not get the coverage and expansive airplay I feel that it warrants. Maybe it would not trouble its author, yet so many fans would say there are many songs not played or known about:

“Brian Christinzio has been a writer reborn since, on a whim, he swapped Philadelphia for Manchester a decade ago, an act of desperation intended to put clear blue water between himself and the self-destructive tendencies that were engulfing him in his hometown. He’s found plenty more strife waiting for him on the other side of the pond since, but has always found a way to mine it for material, with his experiences of mental illness, deportation and loss coming to inform his Manchester Trilogy of How to Die in the North, Deportation Blues and Shortly After Takeoff.

Now, heartbreak has entered the picture; just 18 months after a triumphant adopted hometown show at Manchester’s Ritz that saw a crown-wearing Christinzio strut across the stage covering Prefab Sprout’s The King of Rock 'N' Roll, The Last Rotation of Earth sees him dethroned, rambling around Manchester in a haze after the collapse of a long-term relationship. He works his way through the pain in highly idiosyncratic fashion, exchanging niceties with a concerned Tesco cashier on the title track, chronicling the mundanities of the split on She’s Gone Cold, and uproariously finding gallows humour in it on the epic, sweeping The Movie ('Couldn’t you have done this three weeks ago? / Before I spent a million pounds on your air fryer?')

There is nobody quite like Christinzio, who finds room for brooding art rock (Fear Life In a Dozen Years), glorious melodramatic balladry (Going Out On a Low Note) and descents into impressionistic weirdness (It Never Rains In Manchester). His lyrics, meanwhile, imbue resounding sadness with rapier wit. On Twitter, Christinzio has repeatedly suggested this might be his last album. Bella Union boss Simon Raymonde is on the record as saying he wants to release Christinzio’s music forever. On the basis of The Last Rotation of Earth, pray that the former Cocteau Twin gets his way”.

Let’s round off with another really positive review for The Last Rotation of Earth. Loud and Quiet awarded it nine-out-of-ten when they spent time with it. A masterful songwriter and distinct voice in the musical landscape, it will be interesting to hear the next BC Camplight album. Make sure that you check out his current one. Such an accomplished, funny and open album from the Manchester-based legend:

“Brian Christinzio’s bad luck is legendary. If you thought things would be looking up for the Manchester-based Philadelphian songwriter’s 2020 album as BC Camplight, Shortly After Takeoff; written on the back of a deeply traumatic battle with the Home Office, followed in close succession by the death of his father, then you’d be wrong. If that record deals with the aftermath of being cruelly ripped from a home, then The Last Rotation of Earth, deals more with the wreckage of a relationship, detailing the slow, emotional end of a nine-year relationship, amid a backdrop of addiction struggles and mental anguish.

It’s not going to shock you then when I say that The Last Rotation of Earth is pretty bleak in its themes and motifs. Each song glides past like pictures in a scrapbook detailing the downward spiral of a love affair, with lyrics that feel like overheard snippets of bitter arguments and heartbroken reflections into a bathroom mirror. However, Christinzio, always the eager-to-please performer at heart, can’t resist finding the humour in the wreckage. The record is peppered with odd little vignettes that manage to capture the mundane ridiculousness of it all. Arguments with his significant other on how to correctly pronounce Theroux, sit next to sudden, depressing revelations that come when you find yourself watching David Dickinson in a fleabag hotel.

But, as the saying goes, when life gives you lemons, make lemonade. And this is pretty incredible lemonade. The subject matter might be dark, but the melodies make this pure, hook-laden pop. Finding influences from the last 60 years of popular music, every song honestly feels like its own self-contained masterpiece. From the luxurious, Talk Talk-style sophisti-pop of ‘Kicking Up a Fuss’ to the lush, orchestrated strings and soaring emotional arrangements of ‘Going Out On A Low Note’ and the scene hopping audio-verité of ‘The Movie’, every track seems to fizz and glisten with uncontrolled creativity.

Perhaps the most impressive thing about The Last Rotation of Earth, though, is just how emotionally honest it is. This isn’t a story about redemption, or someone finding a new lease of life. No, like the aftermath of most relationships, this is a record about coming to terms with feeling shitty and trying to move on. Dodging any clumsy attempt at closure, instead the album elects to just fade out with a song called ‘The Mourning’. A quiet requiem, the ghostly piano and haunting string encapsulate both a crushing sense of despair and a need to move on. It’s a feeling that anyone who’s ever been jilted, ghosted, or unceremoniously dumped will know intimately. Most of the time, it’s all you have to cling on to”.

You can buy The Last Rotation of Earth here. I feel that there should be so much love aimed at this album. There is, though, from such a mighty talent, some sites missed out providing their opinions on an album that sits comfortably among this year’s very best. The Last Rotation of Earth is unforgettable. Maybe you have not heard it since it came out in May. If that is the case then do make sure that you…

HAVE another listen.

FEATURE: Spotlight: Lindsay Lou

FEATURE:

 

Spotlight

PHOTO CREDIT: Dana Kalachnik

Lindsay Lou

__________

SOMEONE who is quite new to me…

I wanted to spend some time with Lindsay Lou. The child of a coal miner and millwright, she was born in Missouri and grew up in Michigan. It was here where she compiled her debut album, 2010's A Different Tune. I have only just discovered her music. I was compelled to dig deeper and find out more about her. Lindsay Lou is performing in the U.K. in February. A good chance to hear a remarkable artist. Lou released the new album, Queen of Time, in September. Someone who mixes Bluegrass with Folk, Americana and Country, there is this poetry, beauty and spirituality that comes from the music. I am going to get to some interviews with her. First, here is some background about the wonderful Lindsay Lou:

“I saw a literal manifestation of the sacred feminine, and had this profound sense that I was meant to embody it,” recalls celebrated singer-songwriter Lindsay Lou after journeying through a hallucinogenic ritual that would inform the way she processed waves of grief in the sea of change ahead of her. The loss of her grandmother, the end of her marriage, and the overwhelming turmoil of COVID lockdowns found the Nashville-based artist on a spiritual journey of self-knowledge and healing with this gift from the mystic swirl. On her new album Queen of Time (due September 29th from Kill Rock Stars), Lou explores that quest across ten tracks of tender, heartbreakingly beautiful music.

With this new vision of womanhood in mind, Lou began to see a throughline from her grandmother, to herself, to the art she was creating. Her 2018 release, Southland (recorded with her former band, The Flatbellys), felt like the first chapter to a greater story that was unfolding; with this release, the theme deepened. “It started with my grandma. She was the unattainable woman in a way,” Lou explains. “She had 12 kids and ran homeless shelters and was always taking people in. She felt that her calling was to be a mother to everyone – this communal caregiver – but it also meant that in belonging to everyone, she also belonged to no one. I realized that this is the catch-22 of anyone who is a woman unto herself. Women, first and foremost, belong to themselves, so nobody can really have them; but, there's also this element of self-sacrificing and giving to the idea of the feminine.”

Lou’s vocals are a powerful companion to her songwriting. “In an era when style and trends can become genericana, [Lou] focuses on the song,” said No Depression. “It is infectious and joyful, soulful even.” The undeniable centerpiece throughout Queen of Time, Lou’s voice is a molasses-sweet instrument equally capable of clarion ache, slicing deep into the soul. The daughter of a literal coal-miner and millwright, and the granddaughter of a teacher gone Rainbow Gathering healer, Lou honed her honest and resonant style with her bluegrass-inspired band, Lindsay Lou & The Flatbellys, and Michigan supergroup, Sweet Water Warblers (Rachael Davis, May Erlewine), excavating elements of bluegrass, folk, Americana, and soulful pop for their emotional depths. The Warblers’ debut album, The Dream That Holds This Child (2020), was dubbed “a testament to the trio’s range” by Billboard, running the gamut of blues, gospel, soul, and Appalachian folk.

On this latest record, Lou has refined those gemstones to a brilliant luster, holding the listener’s hand on the path filled with heartbreak, discovery, and resilience. On “Nothing Else Matters” (co-written by Nashville musicians Maya de Vitry and Phoebe Hunt), Lou blends those emotions into one vibrant present. The track features GRAMMY® Award winner Jerry Douglas, his immediately recognizable dobro work helping Lou tap into her bluegrass roots while she unravels this new vision of the world. “There is something incredibly iconic to Jerry’s playing; it’s unmistakable,” says Lou. “Like every touch of his bar to the string speaks exactly to the heart of the song. I feel really honored to have his musical voice among the players.”

Lou explores the continued theme of duality on lead single and album namesake “Queen of Time”, her limber, golden vocals backed by a suite of acoustic guitar, psychedelic synth and an energetic rhythm section. The song’s lyrics play out like zen koans. “I’ve spent years at this point, listening and reflecting on this record. ‘Queen of Time’ seems to embody the entire work’s theme of self-discovery in a way that almost feels like a wake up slap in the face; like if it was a snake, it would have bit me,” says Lou. “And I think that’s kinda the nature of self-discovery. It’s discovering something you knew all along.”

On the radiant “On Your Side (Starman)”, Lou sings to a loved one through rose-colored glasses, as if they were her hero. “You can be the starman/ The lightning in the sky/ I will be a shelter/ ‘Cause I am on your side,'' she sings, a lithe mandolin bolstering her serene offer of support. Bathed in harmonies and supported by a honeyed troupe of pedal steel, guitars, and a splashy percussion section, Lou sounds like a heroine herself, a gleaming bastion of strength and love.

Elsewhere, “Nothing’s Working” finds Lou dueting with GRAMMY®-winning guitar virtuoso Billy Strings on their co-write. (You can hear String’s version of it, accompanying Lou, on his 2020 release Renewal). “This was another track that came together over the course of a few years; it lived as the first verse alone for a long time,” recalls Lou. “A suicide in our community stirred me to finish the lyrics, and pandemic gave Billy and I some extra time at home to flush it out.”

The message comes through in the lyrics as Lou sings, “Take time to listen to the quiet ones/ Watch how the rain gives up a chance to swim/ Burn the broken bridges and build them up again,” the duo crying out for change in the face of the endless pain and violence in personal lives and spread across the media. String’s flat-picked guitar ripples and writhes, a deep purple smoke pervading the track.

“I’ve been fortunate to have spent formative years surrounded by immensely talented friends and collaborators, who, like Billy, feel more like family at this point.” explains Lou. “Having them lend their voices to this record is very special to me.”

Lou’s devotion to understanding where she came from plays a central role not only in the ethos of Queen of Time, but in its sound. “I have 27 hours of conversations that I recorded with my grandma, her telling me her story and explaining how she developed her unorthodox, somewhat radical, somewhat fringe philosophy,” Lou says with a wistful smile. Snippets of those recordings are infused into the album, as in the delightfully Calypso-flecked “Love Calls”. And as the album nears its end, another call to grandma helps exorcize the pain of death. “Nothing can stay bad forever,” Grandma Nancy reminds us, and you can feel the tears being wiped aside and replaced by something new—hope and resilience.

Named among NPR’s “12 Best Live Performances” in 2015, Lou has long been beloved as a live performer, from Telluride Bluegrass Festival to Stagecoach, Celtic Connections to Australia’s National Folk Festival, and a “Can’t Miss Act” at AmericanaFest—not to mention acclaim from PBS, No Depression, Billboard, Holler, Paste, and The Bluegrass Situation, among other outlets. But on Queen of Time, Lou captures a new arc of haloed beauty, becoming unattainable in her own way—a vibrant, powerful woman who can share herself with the world, and yet define a mystic sense of inner self as well”.

I am going to move on a second. Before I do, there is a really interesting interview from Holler. that I want to include. We get to learn something new about Lindsay Lou. Such an interesting artist that I do feel everyone should follow and experienced:

“Another event that has informed this album was a hallucinogenic episode you had a few years back. Tell us about that - how did it impact your creative outlook and process?

It actually happened just before I recorded Southland, but it was sort of the beginning of my journey to understanding this notion of the sacred feminine. I did two DMT trips in the summer of 2016 with Billy Strings. He’d had similar psychedelic experiences so I asked if he could join and be my guide. We sat down in my backyard with a couple of books and I began reading Alan Watts’ The Wisdom of Insecurity: A Message for an Age of Anxiety.

The first time I tripped I didn’t really go anywhere. The second time I did it I still didn’t leave my body, but I did see a really intense visual of this cat figure that eventually morphed into this goddess. Afterward I tried drawing the vision out on a piece of paper, but I couldn’t do more than a couple lines. Then this line about an unattainable woman from the Watts book popped into my head that brought it all together, so much so that I nearly named the album Unattainable Woman.

A couple of days later I went to my friend Maya de Vitry’s house and told her about what I’d seen. She gave me this Sue Monk Kidd book called The Dance of the Dissident Daughter that further led me down this path of understanding the sacred feminine.

Then in 2021 I had another, drug-free, psychedelic experience where I saw this vision again and realized that I am that goddess. This whole record is a lot about self-discovery, understanding and knowledge, and it’s my purpose to see and embody that. The tripping experience set me on a course of understanding femininity within the scope of divinity. It’s a snapshot of where I am at this point in my story. It set me on this path to understanding myself and understanding the spiritual narratives that I lean on in times of both hardship and joy.

Speaking of Billy Strings, what was the writing process for ‘Nothing’s Working’ like and what made you want to put your own spin on the song?

We started writing that back in 2016 or 2017 not long after we both moved to Nashville from Michigan. We wrote the first verse and it sat in the voice memos on my phone for years before I finished it in 2019 when I was on a plane traveling to a benefit concert for Jeff Austin in Denver. In 2020 Billy and I got back together again, finally putting the words to music and adding a couple instrumental parts to it.

When it came to me wanting to record the song, I reached out to Billy to ask about recording a stripped-down duet version of it, similar to how we recorded early versions of ‘Freedom’ [a co-write included on Strings Grammy winning album Home]. He immediately replied, “Hell yeah!”. It feels nice giving people a look into how the song came to be and what it sounded like when it was being workshopped. Back in the day, if a song was great everyone would record it, but I feel like we’ve been getting away from that.

For example, on [de Vitry and Phoebe Hunt co-write] ‘Nothing Else Matters’ I really thought that song was written specifically for me, because that’s what a good song does. It’s nice to have different versions because it's reflective of the true nature of a song when it's doing its thing, living many lives. For that reason, I was glad that Billy was so encouraging in recording my own version of the song.

One of my favorite moments on the record comes on your Billy Swan cover, ‘I Can Help’. What made you want to include that song and how do you feel it fits into the album’s overall narrative?

Sierra Ferrell actually showed the song to me one day when we were headed out to the river. We were doing a lot of kayaking early in the pandemic and she put it on the radio. I may have heard it before, but hearing it then was just what I needed at the time.

My producer, Dave O'Donnell, was actually the one who asked about including the song on the record because he had recently heard me perform it during a live session raising awareness for musician suicides. I played the song there because I thought it would be an appropriate fit for the event and love how it fits into this album as well.

The song ‘Shame’ sounds different from the rest of Queen of Time. Was its angsty feel a result of your divorce, the pandemic and everything else thrown at you in recent years, or something else?

It’s kind of like my punk rock song. ‘Everything Changed’ was my punk rock song on [2015’s] Ionia. Punk was such a huge part of my musical experience growing up, so it feels proper to have that included in anything I do. As far as what inspired the song, I’ll leave that up to interpretation from the listener because I don’t want to ruin it. Sometimes it’s best to not know.

What has music taught you about yourself, especially in terms of Queen of Time?

It’s taught me that I'm exactly who I thought I was all along. I plan to spend the rest of my life continuing to figure that out in different ways”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Dana Kalachnik

Someone I may have otherwise missed; I am glad I get to discuss Lindsay Lou. She is such a brilliant songwriter. A voice that is so distinct and filled with so many colours, shades, emotions and layers. Regardless of your music tastes, she is someone who I would recommend. The Bluegrass Station spoke with Lindsay Lou around the release of her latest studio album:

“On Queen of Time, Lou welcomes herself to that new identity (and all who care to follow), doing so with a fresh sound and some old friends. Featuring Billy Strings and Jerry Douglas, 11 thought-provoking tracks infuse her bluegrass roots with atmospheric folk, back-porch psychedelia, and more, as lyrics and voice weave together into something like a sonic dreamcatcher – snatching ethereal truths from the cosmos and translating them in ways the mind can just begin to process.

Recently, Lou spoke with BGS about this heady transformation, working with her friends, and how her “teacher-turned-Rainbow-Gathering-healer” of a grandma helped shape her radical spirituality.

BGS: Tell me how you’re feeling about music making these days? I know this album comes after a lot of change in your life, personally and professionally. Has the way you feel about making music changed, too?

Lindsay Lou: It felt like the most freeing recording endeavor that I have ever set out on. Working with [producer] Dave O’Donnell was really great. He held a ton of space for me creatively and emotionally and just in all the ways. So it was really nice. I brought in all of my friends, and what drew me to music to begin with was jams that my family would have, so feeling among my chosen family, being able to bring in the people who I’ve been jamming with in living rooms and on stages for the last several years, was really, really sweet.

Honestly, I’m feeling really inspired and just really happy about music. All of the tours have felt like they were in really good flow, and spiritually, it just feels very open and satisfying. I sort of blew up my life a few years ago, and the last three years or so I’ve been gestating and rebuilding my path. It was rebuilding on the foundation I had laid down with the Flatbellys and the Warblers, so it wasn’t out of nowhere, but it felt like there was a lot of unknown – and there were times where I felt there’s just some fear that goes into it. But now I’m on the cusp of watching all of this be born and come to life, and it feels so good. It’s like everything that I could have hoped for.

Seeing the record in the hands of people and hearing all the stories they send me about how it’s touched their lives has been very, very fulfilling. And I’m watching the album chart and watching different things on the horizon, different gigs and stuff – it’s just really inspiring, and I feel really excited to follow this new path that I’ve laid out for myself.

I know your grandmother had a big part in influencing the record. But on top of everything else she was to you, did she also help you get into music?

I guess in a roundabout way, she did. Her greatest influence on me was spiritually. She was a preacher woman, and she lived her life the best that she could in the literal footstep of Jesus. So she took everyone in and she welcomed everyone. She was always preaching that [unless] you have not sinned, don’t cast the first stone and really strongly believed that no one will be left behind. Like if God said the greatest commandment was to love God and to love your brother, then she spent her whole life practicing that. Now, I call myself a praying atheist. I don’t necessarily connect with any institution of religion, but I do connect with the practice of spirituality and of love. Even Christianity says that God is love. So in my mind it’s like, “Well, then let’s just get right to the heart of the matter and call it love!” If we’re living in love and if we’re thinking critically and we’re following our radical truth, then we’re doing it right.

I noticed a lot of hard bluegrass influence on tracks like “Rules,” and along with Billy you have a collab with Jerry Douglas. Do you still feel like you can be creative in the bluegrass form these days? Or is it harder to do that as you grow as an artist?

Bluegrass gave me a lot of tools and a home. It gave me a place to belong and an opportunity to hone my craft, just in terms of tightening up rhythm and getting better at playing the guitar – and having an entire world of people I can get together with anytime, anywhere, and play any one of the many songs in the bluegrass canon and sing three-part harmony, like we’ve been a band our whole lives. It gave me so much, but I didn’t grow up in a family or a community that played bluegrass music. It was something I found in my early 20s. I’ve never been like people like Billy and Molly [Tuttle] – [bluegrass] is not just a part of their history, it’s like their earliest memories.

I grew up doing acoustic music, so there’s always going to be some element of that in my music. And I’m so grateful to have bluegrass now as a tool of expressing myself. But I don’t think I find it harder as I get older. I just find it easier to connect more authentically with my own voice, and bluegrass is a tool of doing that – but it’s not the only tool”.

In an extensive and deep interview, Atwood Magazine gave us new insight and perspective of an artist who should be known to us all. Such is the quality of her music. I am looking forward to seeing what might come from Lindsay Lou next year. An exciting artist that already has a busy tour diary. Taking her latest album to the fans:

“Queen of Time feels like a whole new beginning for the Nashville-based singer/songwriter, whose roots have grown over the years in the bluegrass and Americana worlds. Produced by Dave O’Donnell (James Taylor, Sheryl Crow, Heart) and featuring collaborations with Grammy Award-winners Billy Strings and Jerry Douglas, Lou’s first full length solo release in five years – since 2018’s critically acclaimed Southland – focuses on her ability to bring a song to the table and see it blossom with a full band or guest appearance.

What a thrill it is to not be needed

What a drag it is to be all thrills

I’m a wishing well, I’m a wishing well

Check it out, here’s a moment to be still

Call it loneliness, call it what you will

I’m the queen of time, I’m the queen of time

Who are you? Who are you?

Who are you?

– “Queen of Time,” Lindsay Lou

Born in Missouri and raised in Michigan, Lou relocated to Nashville in 2015, and has found not only a home in Music City, but also a nurturing environment that has enabled her to embrace her voice and take her musical talent to a whole new level. Whether she is “picking” with friends on a front porch or in the studio, she brings a song to life and makes it her own.

Queen of Time is a particularly intimate album that finds Lou diving deep into herself and her emotions, exploring her spiritual being in depth.

“I lost my grandmother, I got divorced, and went through the pandemic, sort of had this rebirth of myself, within myself,” she tells Atwood Magazine. “There’s a lot of hope and grief, in the whole transition. Losing my grandmother and getting a divorce is very heavy; this record has a lot of emotional value to me”.

ATWOOD MAGAZINE: WHO WAS THE FIRST SINGER SONGWRITER THAT MADE YOU WANT TO DO THIS AS A CAREER?

Lindsay Lou: They both happened around the same time. It was two women who I was in a band with called The Sweet Water Warblers. Before I was in a band with them, I was a really big fan of theirs.  It was a very transitional period of my life in East Lansing, Michigan when I was attending college. Their names are May Erlewine and Rachael Davis. Their music totally changed my life because I always wanted to be a singer and be a part of music. The way I grew up you were either a pop star or you just jammed at home with your family. I wasn’t sure if “pop star” was the thing for me, I was a punk rocker. I turned my nose up at fame and the sort of commercialism. I loved science so I went to college to become a doctor (pre-med). When I was in college I met May and Rachael along with The Flatbellys. That’s when I finally saw myself being a part of this world, the bluegrass world, making this my life. That’s exactly what I did.

WHEN LISTENERS HAVEN’T HEARD FROM AN ARTIST FOR A COUPLE OF YEARS, SOME DON’T KNOW WHERE THEY ARE EMOTIONALLY.

Lindsay Lou: Even though it’s been since 2018 since I’ve released a full-length, I did have three “A-Side + B-Side” singles and a four song EP, so I’ve sort or released a whole record just a couple songs at a time. All of the songs on the new record are not going to be versions of those. They’re all new songs, like “Nothing’s Working,” another tune I did with Billy Strings who he put on his record that we wrote together.  I get “demotitis,” attached to the demo version of how it sounds, with Billy playing the guitar part he had written and the me singing the lyrics I had written.

I remember our two bands were playing a gig at a theater in Wisconsin. They started to do some really shreddy metal things, with my drummer Alex doing the hi-hat really fast and Billy was doing the really metal guitar. I wanted my version of “Nothing’s Working” to embody that. Dave (O’Donnell) helped me craft that with the band. They (the band and Dave producing) really helped my vision come to life. A couple of friends have written songs that speak to my heart so I have some of those songs on the album, with some co-writes.

DO YOU HAVE ANY ADVICE FOR YOUNG ARTISTS IN THE BLUEGRASS / AMERICANA SCENE?

Lindsay Lou: Some high schoolers (who just graduated) stopped me in a coffee shop the other day and asked me if they could interview me.

They asked me “If you could tell your younger self what would it be?” It was a difficult question because you can’t really tell your younger self anything because you have to go through everything to get to where you want to be. I had to go through everything to be able to get here. I would tell myself to have faith and everything is going to be alright.

The best advice is giving people their own space for their own emotions. Emotional over-involvement hit me like a ton of bricks. I’m a very emotional person, and there’s a serious line between being creative with the human spirit and their emotions. Don’t take it upon myself. It’s one of those simple things: Don’t confuse someone’s bad day with anything that you’re doing. Realize where that boundary is and respect it. Have your own emotions and performance; don’t try to control someone else’s perspective. If you’re doing your job, you’re going to get exactly what you need”.

I want to end with a review for Queen of Time. No Depression provided their thoughts. Although it did not really penetrate the mainstream music press in the U.K. – they tend to focus too heavily on certain genres and overlook others -, it is well worth seeking out and playing Queen of Time. A stunning album that I have visited a few times:

“On Queen of Time, her first album without the Flatbellys, Lindsay Lou tracks her progress through recent turmoil and grief that led to songs of hope and realization. In this album of self-discovery, she addresses the competing tensions women face.

In the title song, she explores the paradoxes:

What a thrill it is to not be needed

What a drag it is to be all thrills

. . .

I have learned to love the work that I do

I have not yet learned to love it when you make it harder

Throughout the album, though, the messages of her lyrics prove more universal: People need to listen to each other, to take care of each other. “Love Calls” opens with a calypso-inspired beat. A synthesizer and an array of world music instruments — caxixi, pandeiro, djembe — augment the more traditional guitar and mandolin. Lou’s voice itself rings like an instrument in the song, a foil to her late grandmother’s voice reproduced here from fragments of recordings of their phone calls. In the song, the older woman tells Lou about chance encounter with a man at a gathering who later tells her she saved his life. The lyrics describe a strong woman, presumably Lou’s Grandma Nancy, then the repeated phrase:

Love calls, you’re gonna answer.

Love calls, you’re gonna answer.

Near the end of the album, the grandmother speaks again, preparing Lou for loss, reminding her, “This too shall pass.”

Queen of Time contains a carefully curated collection of songs matched to Lou’s clear, powerful voice. It opens with “Nothing Else Matters,” setting the tone of loss and acceptance. Phoebe Hunt, one of the song’s co-writers, recently included a stripped-down rendition of the song on her recent album, which shares the song’s title (ND review). Lou’s version, featuring dobro master Jerry Douglas, has a fuller instrumental background and harmony, softening the plaintive tone.

Billy Strings also joins Lou on vocals and guitar on “Nothing’s Working,” a song they co-wrote during the pandemic and finished after a tragedy in the neighborhood they share. The song advocates “taking time to listen to the quiet ones.” Strings included the song on his 2020 album Renewal (ND review). He also plays on “Shame,” a song challenging the idea that that emotion has any value.

While most of the tracks were written or co-written by Lou, she gives a fresh spin to Billy Swan’s “I Can Help.” Her rendition sounds more like a genuine offer of help than a pick-up line. Throughout the album, in fact, Lou offers her presence and reassurance. In “On Your Side (Starman)” she repeats, “Time is on our side … I am on your side.”

On Queen of Time, Lindsay Lou sounds like a woman who has taken control of her future. She’s looking back, but not letting what’s behind her weigh her down. “Rules,” she declares in the track by that name, “are made for breaking.” She looks back at where she’s been, noting, “I’ve been a long time gone.” Looking forward now, she adds, she’s “wondering what’s home”.

There are so many artists we should keep an eye out for as we go into the new year. Lindsay Lou is someone I am invested in now and will follow. An experienced and awesome songwriter whose words and songs have an incredible power and importance. I love Queen of Time. Such a rich and rewarding album that will reveal something new each time you pass through. If you have not discovered her yet then go and…

FOLLOW her now.

____________

Follow Lindsay Lou

PHOTO CREDIT: Dana Kalachnik

Official:

https://www.lindsayloumusic.com/

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/lindsayloumusic

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/artist/6yULqqTzvfwsEonNzu7iJQ

YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_A74z7aS38

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/lindsayloumusic/

FEATURE: 3×3 = Nein! Is There An Overkill of Unnecessary Reissues, Special and Anniversary Editions?

FEATURE:

 

 

3×3 = Nein!

IMAGE CREDIT: Capitol Records

Is There An Overkill of Unnecessary Reissues, Special and Anniversary Editions?

__________

I remember an article…

from The Guardian back in April. They were reacting to the fact that there were a spate of five-year anniversary released. Should the minimum length of time an album has to mature and age is ten years in that sense?! I agree that a ten-year anniversary edition is okay. Most albums released from the past five years are not that epic in terms of getting an anniversary edition out! I guess there is a need to reaffirm that excellence and maybe introduce the album to new listeners. Is it a case of cashing in and devaluing something that could be quite significant? The fifth anniversary have taken advantage in the continued rise in vinyl sales:

“Keen to make the most of a seemingly steady revenue stream, labels have begun increasing production on limited and deluxe repressings of popular albums. Anniversary reissues – once only common to recently remastered records, or albums several decades old – are now becoming popular for releases that are just five years old, such as Cardi B’s Invasion of Privacy, Phoebe Bridgers’ Stranger in the Alps, Lucy Dacus’ Historian and Idles’ Brutalism. They’ve all been repressed in coloured formats or with alternate sleeves in the past two years, often at a slightly increased price point to standard black discs.

It’s in keeping with a frantically shortening nostalgia cycle that’s seen frenzied media coverage of supposed emo and “indie sleaze” revivals and music publications churning out cheap anniversary content – although these repressings seemingly offer little to the consumer other than a coloured disc. But Hannah Carlen and Ali Murphy – marketing directors for heavy-hitting indie conglomerate Secretly Group, which released Bridgers’ album – insist that fifth anniversary pressings allow artists to “give new fans something, and say ‘you’re welcome here too – you don’t have to be a day one fan’,” says Carlen.

Bridgers’ album hadn’t been repressed on coloured vinyl – demand for which vastly outstrips black vinyl – since 2019. In the intervening years, she broke through to the mainstream with her second album Punisher and found a swathe of new fans thanks to collaborations with Taylor Swift, SZA and Paul McCartney. Last year, it was rereleased in a run of 10,000 “galaxy-coloured” records. An anniversary “acknowledges that there’s been a lot of new fans over that span of time, and maybe they haven’t gotten access to something special, or when they’ve looked for it on eBay it’s $200,” says Carlen. (Original coloured pressings of Stranger have sold for upwards of £600 on the vinyl resale website Discogs.) “We don’t want to relegate people to a crazy inflated secondhand market.”

PHOTO CREDIT: cottonbro studio/Pexels

Lawrence Montgomery, managing director of Rough Trade record shops, concurs: anniversary pressings with alternate covers or vinyl colours, he says, are in tune with “demand from customers for unique vinyl pressings”.

“I think it’s about the reaction to streaming and digital consumerism,” he says. “Streaming is really good for vinyl sales because people can discover artists much more easily than they could in the past – when you then want to buy something to reaffirm your love of an artist, you want something more special.” During Covid, he says, many consumers began to use money they would have once spent on gig tickets on vinyl; at the same time, collectors have become “very savvy about finding what the best variant in the market is”.

In a crowded market, a limited edition repressing can also help a record get noticed by music shops with limited stock space. With a different barcode and catalogue number to a standard repressing, distributors can resolicit it for distribution. “The timeline of a record has changed so drastically,” says Ali Murphy. “Twenty years used to be the span of time in which people were celebrating a record, and now it’s got so much shorter, not only due to the quickness of everything coming out.”

For millennial music fans, the boom in anniversary content may feel like an exploitation of their recent youth. But Montgomery says that a younger contingent of fans is rivalling audiophiles and DJs as a significant market for vinyl, thanks to pop artists like Taylor Swift and Lana Del Rey, who turn their albums into collectibles through the release of multiple alternate album covers or disc colours, and #VinylTok, a TikTok tag that creators use to showcase their collections and obsess over special editions. “We’ve done really well this year with Boygenius, Lana Del Rey, Caroline Polachek, Taylor,” he says”.

There does seem to be an increase in reissues. The anniversary releases are predictable I guess, though there are also the special editions and different-coloured vinyl options. When we get good news about vinyl sales, of course that will compel artists to reissue albums and deluxe versions. You wonder how much it is to do with satisfying demand from fans and artists taking advantage on a willing revenue stream. It is mainly something that major artists do. If the five-year anniversary gap seems a little exploitative and far too premature, then how about a third anniversary?! Even though I have nothing but love for Paul McCartney, the fact is that he is reissuing his 2020 album, McCartney III, has caused eyebrows to rise:

“Paul McCartney is set to celebrate the third anniversary McCartney III with the limited run vinyl version of McCartney III — 3×3 Edition, to be released December 15 on Capitol Records.

McCartney III — 3×3 Edition will be released in three randomly distributed configurations, each featuring one of three unique combinations of multi-color vinyl and prints of Paul’s handwritten draft lyrics or of his hand-drawn album artwork sketch: the Tri-color vinyl + “Pretty Boys” lyric draft; the Three-striped vinyl + album artwork sketch; and the Swirl vinyl + “The Kiss of Venus” lyric draft.

Additionally, all copies of McCartney III — 3×3 Edition will feature new cover art and will include a poster of Ed Ruscha’s hand-sketched draft for the original McCartney III album artwork.

Originally released on December 18, 2020, McCartney III is the third in a trilogy of home-made self-titled albums that began with Paul’s milestone 1970 solo debut McCartney, and continued in 1980 with the bold, experimental McCartney II.

All three albums were written, performed, and produced by Paul in varying states of isolation, all showcasing his unique creativity and inspired spontaneity. Recorded in “Rockdown” in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, McCartney III saw Paul turn unexpected time on his hands into an opportunity to get into the studio on his own. An intimate and revelatory record, McCartney III features Paul’s melodic gift at its forefront throughout. Upon release, McCartney III charted at No.1 on both the UK’s Official Album Charts and Billboard’s Top Album Sales Chart”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Pixabay/Pexels

Out today (15th December), I guess there is something convenient if you missed the original release. Order details are here. I am not sure how long stocks will last but, only three years after its release, is it a step too far?! The excess of only giving a three-year gap before reissuing an album! It has been a busy year for Macca-related content. The Beatles’ final single, Now and Then, came out earlier this year (and made it onto vinyl). There has just been the fiftieth anniversary reissue of Wings’ Band on the Run. There are always reissues in McCartney’s world, however the short time between his most recent studio album being released and then reissued without much extra seems a bit like a cash-grab! I know that he is a prolific artist who always wants to bring in new fans. I wonder whether the release of the 3×3 album is taking things too far1 It is not only Paul McCartney who is fully riding the opportunity of the vinyl wave. Alongside fifth anniversary reissues comes the ever-growing cycle of special editions. Extra tracks and some added artwork. Maybe adding to an already-successful album. There is the issue of overinflating the market. Maybe newer releases get overlooked. Smaller acts might not have the option to put out their album on several colours of vinyl. There is a collectability to having various reissues and colours of vinyl. I can understand why a new studio album should have a few physical options, though artists putting out recent albums again seems excessive! In some incidents it is a case that the original pressing has limited availability and there is a demand for a new pressing.

A group like De La Soul who recently reissued their back catalogue after a contract/label issue that also meant their music was not available on streaming platforms. Steely Dan put out their albums recently too after scarce availability. Kate Bush did likewise in 2018. There was some criticism this year after she reissued her studio albums again; this time with different colours and designs for each vinyl. It also came with a Baskerville edition of 1985’s Hounds of Love. Many fans feeling it was her capitalising on the recent success and new fans after the success of Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) and its appearance in Stranger Things last year. Even if many fans are willing to shell out money for special editions or reissues of albums that are quite new or already been released and are available, there is a worthiness of reissues when there is availability issue or an album is harder or more expensive to find. I hope that there is not a trend of artists putting albums back out after only a few years or so. There is a limit of vinyl manufacturing plants and resources, so there should be priority for new artists and ensuring original material gets out there. I agree that big-anniversary albums are worth a reissue. I struggle to find much value to fans when an album gets an extra lick of paint or some extras. Even if the songs are remastered, is there much of an improvement on the original?! A lot of fans will buy the 3×3 Edition from Paul McCartney but, considering there was also the McCartney III Imagined (other artists tackling its songs) in 2021, it has provoked some backlash! Let us hope, next year, that we see fewer unnecessary reissues and more space for new artists and their albums. I fail to see why any new reissue of a new album offers something…

THE original doesn’t.

FEATURE: To Watch in 2024: Abby Roberts

FEATURE:

 

 

To Watch in 2024

Abby Roberts

__________

I have already included some artists…

PHOTO CREDIT: Otto Masters via ENFNTS TERRIBLES

in Spotlight, so rather than repeat artists who are coming through and will make big moves soon, I am popping some in a new strand. Features around artists to watch in 2024. I have featured Abby Roberts before, though I feel that she is someone who, since I included her on my site in 2022, has reached new heights. There are so many incredible artists that I will cover between now and the start of next year. I think that Abby Roberts is one that everyone needs to look out for. I will reintroduce her before coming to some interviews from this year. Here is some background to the remarkable artist – and one set to blow up in 2024:

“Abby Roberts is an up-and-coming artist, singer and songwriter from the United Kingdom. Born in 1999 in London, Abby has been singing since she was 7 years old. At the age of 13, she began writing her own music and has been actively performing in various venues across the U.K. ever since.

Abby's music style is a unique blend of soulful R&B and Pop. Her catchy melodies and heartfelt lyrics make her songs stand out from the rest. She has written several singles throughout her career that have been featured on Spotify and Apple Music playlists. She is also currently working on an upcoming EP that is sure to be a hit with fans of all ages.

Abby has collaborated with a number of other artists over the years, including Grammy Award-winning producer James Fauntleroy. She has also been featured on tracks by fellow British artists such as Skepta, Dave, and Loyle Carner.

In addition to her studio work, Abby has performed live at many venues across the U.K., including festivals such as Glastonbury, Reading & Leeds, Bestival, and Latitude. She has also had the privilege of opening for renowned acts such as J Hus, Lady Leshurr, and Ray Blk”.

Following the release of her debut album/long-E.P., Ashes, last year, Roberts released some incredible singles since then. Including this year’s Imposter Syndrome and volatile, she is an artist who I think will get worldwide touring dates next year. Maybe another album will come out. Definitely someone primed for huge festival stages very soon. Last year, I wrote about this promising artists taking her earliest steps. A year or more later, a lot has happened in her career. I am keen to get to some interviews with Abby Roberts. I want to start with an interview from Wonderland. They spoke with Roberts about her new single, Imposter Syndrome, and what is was like touring with Halsey:

“Hey! Congratulations on the upcoming release! Could you tell me a bit about your background and how you’ve gotten to this point?

I feel like I’m still very new to music. I started making it about three years ago now, but releasing only at the start of last year. And doing shows and everything, that was only the start of last year as well. So it feels like it happened very quickly, which can be quite overwhelming at times. But obviously, I was doing social media for such a long time before this — since I was 11 years old. And I felt that music was the creative release that I needed after doing the same thing for such a long time. I’m loving it.

How have you found that transition from sharing makeup videos to your own music?

I think the main difference is music feels like such a more slow-paced kind of media. With social media, you make the video and post it the day of. It’s that instant gratification. Music has been such a game of patience. A lot of the [current] stuff we’ve written a year or two years ago. So it feels like you’re sitting on this older version of yourself. And then when you release it, it’s like, you’ve already mentally processed it and gotten over it. But now it’s new for everyone else. So it’s an entirely different creative process, I think, which has been a bit of a learning curve to get used to, for sure.

Did you write “Impostor Syndrome” with Halsey while on tour? Or how did that happen?

No, we kind of just became really good friends off the back of the tour. Which I think is really nice, it’s not always that. Sometimes you’re kept really separate from the artist. But like I said, I feel like Ash just took me under her wing and wanted to help me in any way possible. And I’m just like, “thank you. I don’t know why you want to help me, but thank you.”

And we said that we should jump in a session together sometime. I don’t think we ever knew what that was going to be like, but it was just an amazing experience to get to watch someone so well versed in the studio and see that process. And it was the weirdest session ever.

I went out to LA for this writing trip last November and I’d been doing all these sessions and this was one of my last ones. I was stressed and a little burnt out. I felt like I didn’t deserve to be on this trip. I was doing these sessions with all these amazing producers who had worked with artists that I love, such as The Wallows. “Imposter Syndrome” was done with Sammy, Harry Styles’ producer. And then jumping in the session with Halsey as well, I was like, “oh my God, how did I get here? What if she thinks I’m shit?” I was so scared. But I think that was this idea of imposter syndrome in my head. So I kind of wanted to channel that idea. And me and Ash had kind of spoken about feeling that as well, because they said that they still feel it. Which was crazy. So yeah, I’d written all these ideas down before I went to the session — lyric ideas about imposter syndrome. And what was so weird was that me and Ash didn’t even speak about what we were going to write, and she came with the same idea… to write about imposter syndrome. I was like, “what the fuck?” Then we wrote the song and it just came about so quickly. It was really effortless.

She was really encouraging in the session as well. I felt really intimidated at first, but I think that so quickly went away, because there was just no judgement. If things messed up, there was no judgement. So it was just really nice to get to spend that time with her.

Do you have any other dream collaborators, either producers or artists?

I would absolutely love to work with Dan Nigro. I think he’s amazing, but he’s booked and busy right now. I love The Neighbourhood. I think my voice and their kind of mood would sit well together. But Lana Del Rey is my ultimate.

Can you tell me a bit more about your songwriting process? Do the lyrics come first?

I’m very lyrics first, and very chronically over prepared every time. I will keep a little diary in my phone on ideas and themes and whatnot, and write pages and pages of little notes before a session. Then when I get to the session, I’ll piece it together. I always have ideas that I need to write down.

How are you feeling stepping into this next chapter of your music? How does this song set the scene for a new era?

I’m just so ready for something to be out because it’s been such a long time, literally years. I’m just like, “please get it out into the world.” It’s nice to hear people’s feedback on TikTok already. I feel like I’ve been teasing a little bit and stuff and people are going crazy, which is so nice. I couldn’t hope for anything more.

I’m just excited to tour again and maybe do some headline stuff. I’ve done a lot of support stuff over the last year, so I’m ready to do some sweaty little gigs again”.

Before coming to another interview based around Imposter Syndrome, there is one from NOTION from September where Abby Roberts does discuss the single. She also talks about her early music memories, plans for the months ahead, plus her less-than-traditional path into the music world. She is an artist who now commands scores of fans. Someone who is hugely influential:

“The rush to early stardom didn’t come without its challenges, though. As the burgeoning musician explains when we speak, the stigma that came with her beauty-influencer-to-pop-rock-musician arc wasn’t something she could simply brush past. “People say ‘Oh, your music’s actually good’,  like they’re expecting it to be a cash grab,” she explains. Another setback? Imposter syndrome: something she felt so strongly that it ended up being the focus of her Halsey co-written new release, the aptly titled ‘Imposter Syndrome’. Channelling darker themes and ‘80s-inspired rock via acts like The Cure, we see Abby step into herself with this new release as she opens up on feeling out of her depth. To celebrate, we caught up with the artist to discuss the record, as well as her love for Lana Del Rey and the Barbie soundtrack.

Let’s kick off with ‘Imposter Syndrome’. Could you talk me through the tracks and the themes? Or the personal meaning behind that?

I wrote ‘Imposter Syndrome’ when I was out in LA on one of my first writing trips late last year. And I just felt so out of my depth, like, “Oh my God, I’m in these rooms with all these amazing producers that have worked with people like Harry Styles”. I just felt like I didn’t deserve to be there – and that feeling wasn’t new to me, either. A lot of the events and situations that I’m in, it feels as though I haven’t earned the right to be in that situation. I was talking to Ash (Halsey) about it – because we became quite good friends after our tour last year – and she explained that the feeling was imposter syndrome. I’d never heard of it before, but she said she even feels it at her level.

PHOTO CREDIT: Sophie Buckley

Looking at ‘Imposter Syndrome’ next to some of your earlier singles and debut EP, how do you think this release marks a change or evolution?

There were a lot more slow songs on that first EP, and, being on tour, I got to see how an audience reacted to my music for the first time. When I was writing that first EP, it wasn’t something that I’d considered; that people were going to react to it in a live way. Obviously when you’re playing heavier rock bangers and stuff live, it goes off in a different way: the crowd is loving it, everyone’s moving and jumping. That was how I wanted to make music going forward. I wanted to make something that’d feel really amazing to run across a stage singing. ‘Imposter Syndrome’ is definitely more of a vibe than the bedroom pop stuff in my first EP.

Do you have any early musical memories or anything that sticks in your mind from childhood?

My dad introduced me to Lana when I was maybe 10. I remember he played her debut album to me in the car one time. And I was like, “God, I love this woman”. So I feel like she’s kind of been stuck with me ever since. I’ve always idolised her.

Other than Lana Del Rey, were there any artists you admired growing up that have shaped your sound today?

I mean, Arctic Monkeys. They were always playing at house parties and stuff growing up. I love ‘90s music as well, Mazzy Star is a big inspiration. The Neighbourhood. I really love moody alternative music.

PHOTO CREDIT: Sophie Buckley

You’re a Yorkshire girl, right? Did you find much inspiration musically from the rich music scene there, or was it more the internet that you gravitated to?

Honestly, it was definitely more the internet. I don’t think I discovered my personal taste in music until my late teens, to be honest. And discovering new music through TikTok – as cringy as that sounds, that’s definitely the common experience these days. I find so much new music through TikTok.

What’s exciting you right now, whether that’s beauty-related, music, fashion? Is there anything outside of what you’re doing right now that’s giving you inspiration?

I’m really excited about Olivia Rodrigo’s new stuff. I’ve been obsessed with ‘bad idea, right?’. It’s so early ’00s movie makeover scene. Billie Eilish I’m always loving. And the Barbie soundtrack. Charli XCX.

Last up, what’s the big plan? What’s this year consisting of, and where are you hoping to end up?

Right now, I just want to do more headline tour stuff. I did loads of supports my first year, and now I want to work on my headline stuff and figure out my visuals in a live setting. That’s what I’m really excited for. But, to be honest, I’m really impulsive and I don’t plan super far in the future”.

 PHOTO CREDIT: Sophie Buckley

There are a couple of other interviews that I want to come onto. EUPHORIA. chatted with Abby Roberts last month about a successful and busy year. Someone both in the public gaze but also still coming through in music, it must be quite an odd world for her. That need to communicate with her fans and get out there. How much privacy does a modern-day ‘TikTok artist’ (though I wouldn’t label her as that) get at all?! I know Roberts is an artist who will have her own headline shows and festival headline slots next year:

“Having grown up in the gaze of millions, Abby Roberts’ teenage years were exposed under the white light of her ring light and captured, condensed, and well-edited into a matter of minutes for all to see. At only 11 years old she began filming YouTube videos, expressing her creative streak to the world, which has now exploded into a multitude of careers, music being her most recent venture as she prepares to embark across Europe supporting Gus Dapperton on his “Henge” tour this week.

“I am so chronically online it hurts,” she laughs, kicking off our interview in classic Gen Z fashion and making a statement that many can relate to. “I think it shaped the way I grew up, to be honest. Like, all of my music taste comes from social media and, people might find this next bit a little cringy but, TikTok made me who I am,” she continues before delving into online presences being perceived in many ways. “I think it’s weird to think that we were all being perceived in different ways online from such a young age. You know, being subject to negative comments about yourself from the age of 11 is not good for anyone’s mental health,” she slightly laughs, almost like she’s shaking it off. “I think those experiences gave me really tough skin. Having to deal with that for such a long time really helps you develop methods of not letting it get to you,” she admits. “None of that fazes me as much now.”

PHOTO CREDIT: Sophie Buckley

She’s been a makeup artist for over a decade now, and an entrepreneur for just as long, but the switch over to music didn’t come without its worries. “There was definitely a stigma at first,” says Roberts. “I think there were a lot of opinions and thoughts that I was just doing the TikTok to music pipeline because I did branch out into music around the same time loads of others who got their start on TikTok did,” she states. “I also thought people’s interpretation of me going into this would be like oh my god, another TikToker going into music, how cringe, but I feel like I’ve really proven myself,” she shares. “I felt like I had to for quite a while and it has definitely taken this past year for me to get to a place of where people are almost accepting of it,” she opens up before shining light on other things she worried about when switching from makeup to music. “I was totally worried that my audience wouldn’t follow when I made the switch,” she admits. “I think, you know having an audience that followed me primarily for makeup, it was a case of will they ditch me or not now that I post a bit of everything,” she says, the entrepreneur in her popping out. “I feel like a lot of the makeup stuff carries over into the music world too though,” she exclaims. “Like, it’s all been a big part of this experience so I’m lucky to still have quite a lot of the same audience hanging around. Since I began doing live shows, a few people only know me for music and didn’t have a clue about all my makeup ventures which is weird but new and fun.”

She knows what people are thinking. She’s nothing but self-aware as she reflects on how she got here and on her journey to music. “I was quite late with getting into music, to be honest,” she notes. “I had already been doing social media since I was around 11 years old and I was so dedicated to that; when TikTok started blowing up, I made that my main focus,” she continues. “I was doing makeup looks every day, like four videos a day, for three years and I became creatively burnt out. I felt like I had done every type of makeup look in existence and I didn’t feel like it was fuelling me creatively to keep going,” she apprehensively admits with love for the art form still evident across her face. “I’ve always been the type of person to like a challenge,” she switches up. “I need creative challenges to keep me interested and music was something that was always at the back of my mind but I never really had the time to pursue it,” she adds. “Off the back of doing social media for so long, I managed to make a lot of friends, some within the music scene, and they helped me start off in terms of helping me experiment with different styles and see what I liked,” she proclaims. “I was actually writing and creating music for two years before I released anything because I didn’t want to put out the first thing I made. I wanted to sit back and learn different things before I took that step,” she discloses. “Looking back, I hope those first few songs I created never see the light of day. They were terrible!”

Unlike previous steps in her career, you can tell that her music wasn’t made with a specific audience in mind. You can tell that she’s making it for herself and herself only. “I’m always changing things around. Like, if I could change a song and make adjustments forever, I absolutely would,” she starts off. “At some point though, you’ve got to realize that it’s as done as it’s going to be and you need to get it out before the time for it has passed,” she discloses. “I think my own music adapts to what I’m listening to at the time so when I was writing ‘Imposter Syndrome’, I had lots of ‘80s sci-fi and gothic influenced music on,” she shares.“ I had The Cure on so much and I feel like you can hear some of those vibes.”

“It was quite interesting going into that session but I think it kind of manifested itself in terms of the meaning behind the song,” Roberts begins. “I was going to all these sessions in LA and it was my first time out there; being with all these industry professionals, I started feeling like I was a bit out of my depth and that I couldn’t be in those rooms with them,” she vulnerably admits. “The imposter syndrome was kicking in so I started talking to Halsey about it who expressed how they still feel the same way at times, even as successful as they are,” she exclaims, almost like she’s still in disbelief about the latter. “Like all these years down the line and they still feel like that sometimes, it really helped me decide to hone in on it and express it within my music,” she notes before sharing how the collaboration came about. “Ashley and I became good friends last year. They kind of took me under their wing and is now my music mother. I love them to bits,” she confesses. “We, obviously, stayed in touch and they became so invested in my career that we thought it could be fun to work on something together,” she adds. “For me, it was such a learning experience to be in that studio and pay attention to how the professionals do it in a session,” she continues. “It also made me feel a lot less intimidated because of how chill it was. There was no judgment,” she states. “I could say what I want and do what I want without any pressure,” she beams. “We had some good takes, some bad, and nothing was criticized. It was one of the weirdest but most fulfilling writing experiences ever, almost like it was meant to be because we had the same brain,” she expresses. “We were on the same wavelength the whole time”.

@abbyroberts

⚠️6 DAYS TIL VOLATILE⚠️ presave in 8!oooo

♬ VOLATILE chorus - Abby Roberts

I am going to finish off with an interview with Rolling Stone. Abby Roberts was speaking with them about her new single, volatile. It pertains to the end of a friendship. Messages and a theme that many of her listeners will connect with. It is another tremendous release from one of our brightest young artists. Someone who is adding something a little different to Pop:

“It’s essentially me telling the story of this friendship, breakup and the whole kind of aftermath of that and my feelings surrounding that. And I really wanted the lyrics first of all to really represent like that situation as accurately as possible. And I think I was quite nervous for people to hear that when I started teasing it and eventually releasing it and people are reading into that. So that’s been something that I really have spent a lot of time going over for sure.”

She went on: “It’s about this ex best friend, which I’ve explained in shows when I performed it before. Which is worse than a relationship breakup because we were best friends for a very long time and things ended in a really very messy way, as I think as you can tell by the lyrics in the song.

“I think it was like a build up of a lot of things, that had been happening in this friendship caused by this person, dragging me into dramatic situations and I was like, I don’t need this drama in my life anymore.”

On production duties, meanwhile, is Rob Milton – who has previously worked with the likes of The 1975 and Holly Humberstone.

“His production is a lot more stripped back and that allowed me to be more vulnerable with my lyrics and we worked together to figure out how we could do this song in a way that doesn’t come across as bratty and petty, because there was definitely a lot of real meaning behind what I was trying to put out there,” she said.

Going forward, Roberts explained that the anthemic sound of the track would inform her future output.

“It feels like I’m now only just letting people into this world that I’ve like been in for such a long time,” she said.

“I just think performing that kind of music in a live setting is so much more fun than doing the slow ones. Like, I love a good hair flip. I love running about the stage and like expressing that in a performance. So you can expect a lot more high energy stuff I think from my next project”.

Having already featured Abby Roberts last year, I wanted to end this one by celebrating someone who has built on all that momentum and promise and is now in a position to look at 2024 will big ambitions. Having already played some big gigs and supported Halsey, she has this run of material out there that marks her out as an impressive talent. As her portfolio grows even more, we are going to see Abby Roberts compared to some of the biggest artists of the day. She is someone that should be on everyone’s radar as we…

HEAD into next year.

_________

Follow Abby Roberts

PHOTO CREDIT: Morphe via DAZED

Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/abbyroberts

TikTok:

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

Twitter:

https://twitter.com/abbyrartistry

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/artist/11260Smss09lExMicvRPeO

YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/c/abbyroberts

FEATURE: In Response to a Potential #MeToo Music Movement… The Need for the Music Industry to Support Women Experiencing Domestic Abuse

FEATURE:

 

 

In Response to a Potential #MeToo Music Movement…

PHOTO CREDIT: Marina Pechnikova/Pexels

The Need for the Music Industry to Support Women Experiencing Domestic Abuse

__________

I realise that this is not…

IN THIS PHOTO: Alex Scott is a sports presenter, pundit and former professional footballer who is ambassador for the domestic abuse charity, Refuge/PHOTO CREDIT: GLAMOUR

the most Christmas-appropriate feature I can run. It is important to discuss important and tough subjects, even if they are quite upsetting and challenging. I saw a recent article from GLAMOUR, where Alex Scott discussed her role as ambassador for Refuge. They are a charity that offers specialist support for women and children experiencing domestic violence. You can donate to them. We know that domestic abuse impacts so many women and children. I do appreciate that men experience domestic violence. I completely sympathise with them. It does happen with men in the music industry, so I would never discount that or minimise it. However, when it comes to domestic violence affecting those in the music industry, the vast majority is against women. In fact, when we do think about those women affected by something so horrific, maybe we look at those outside of music, film and other industries. For want of a better word, the more ‘everyday’ women. That is not the case. I wanted to look at the issue wider afield, as it an important thing to talk about. Ending domestic abuse and protecting women (and children). I know there are women within music – whether artists, those working through the industry or even music fans – who are affected by domestic abuse in some way. A vital charity doing really important work. Alex Scott, as someone who has experienced domestic abuse, has this first-hand insight and impact. I know that there will be women in the music industry and associated who are involved in abusive relationships or victims of domestic abuse. Alex Scott’s words can definitely provide strength:

“GLAMOUR: Hi Alex! Thanks for speaking with GLAMOUR today. Can you tell me about why you wanted to be an ambassador for Refuge?

Alex Scott: Honestly, when my book came out – where I detailed my upbringing, my life and what I'd been through with domestic abuse – I wasn't thinking about what next or how I could help or be an ambassador for anyone. That wasn't the case. During my Women's Hour interview on BBC Radio 4, I realised that I didn't want anything from the book, but if I could use the proceeds to help anyone else who's gone through what my mum did or what I kind of experienced as a kid, I wanted to do that.

I remember going away thinking, well, where do I look? Where should all these proceeds go? I did a lot of research, and it just felt right; something within my gut told me that I wanted to work with Refuge. 

PHOTO CREDIT: GLAMOUR

Do you think that there is more scrutiny on you when you support a cause like this? Especially when it's a cause about an issue that specifically impacts women. I know people are quick to ask, ‘What about the men?’ even when we have stats like the one you mentioned – two women a week are killed by a current or former partner – that show we need to have these conversations about women.

As you said, there will always be those people who are like, 'Oh, it's not only women that go through it,' and we're not saying that is the case, but as I said, it just goes back to me knowing what I went through. I saw my mum go through it. I connected with Refuge because I know that's the side that they specialise in and they try and help. That's the side that I lent to, but that's not saying I'm disregarding anyone else and the work that they're doing or saying that you don't matter and it doesn't count. It's me just trying to raise a voice in this certain area because of my experiences.

In a dream world, how could society better support survivors of domestic abuse?

Oh God. Well, that's the thing. It's a societal issue. And we all need to come together to tackle that. It's excellent that GLAMOUR's covering this issue and that we're talking about it because it needs to be acknowledged that it's a serious crime. We need to tackle the myths around domestic abuse – it's not going away. How can we continue to let it happen?

There are so many women who look up to you. Maybe some of these people are going through a similar situation. Maybe they're watching their parents deal with domestic abuse. Maybe they're experiencing it firsthand. What would be your message to them?

You are not alone. I know that you can feel that you are isolated, but support is available. I know I think back to my mum thinking that she was a coward and she didn't do enough. When I see my mum and all the women who have gone through this and are survivors, you are superwomen! Everything you've gone through to protect yourself and your kids – and the fact that that's stripped of you – but I think you are absolutely incredible, powerful women, and it's just getting that courage back to see that in yourself. You're not alone, and there is help out there. You can call Refuge's National Domestic Abuse Helpline on 0808 2000 247”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Pixabay/Pexels

As I say, it is perhaps not the most Christmassy thing to post at the moment! It is quite tough and dark…yet it is a time of year when many are going to be together and there will be this unity. Happy homes and families coming together. There are those who will not have the same Christmas as a lot of people. Women living in fear and trapped in abusive homes. Subjected to the most horrific domestic abuse. It is important that Refuge is out there and doing amazing work. We are in a time when many men in the industry have been accused of sexual assault and abuse. GLAMOUR asked recently whether the #MeToo movement is finally coming to the music industry. It is a time when there is reaction to this wave of abuse and assault. Women standing up and telling their stories. There is a long history of domestic abuse in music. The industry called out time and time again for not doing enough. Will we see changes in 2024? Things as they stand are not good:

“Domestic violence against women in the industry is nothing of the past, as there have been many cases of it within the past year. One of the most publicized cases in 2022 was the trial of Meghan Thee Stallion and Tory Lanez. According to an article from the New York Times, on July 12, 2020 Meghan Thee Stallion was shot multiple times in both feet after leaving a party with Tory Lanez. She needed surgery to remove the bullet fragments from her feet. Three months later, Meghan Thee Stallion spoke out about the incident and claimed that Tory Lanez was the one who wielded the gun. Rather than being supported and believed by the internet, he was met with a large amount of criticism from his fans. The trial ensued during December of 2022, where Meghan Thee Stallion took the stand and testified about how the controversy over the encounter had made her depressed and hurt her career, as she was the target of many hateful comments on social media. The jury found that Tory Lanez was guilty on three felony counts and he faces more than twenty years in prison and the possibility of deportation. No matter how successful a woman is in the music industry, this case proves how they are still not safe from domestic violence. 

Future of the Issue 

Although people have become aware of the domestic violence women face in the music industry following the #MeToo movement, there does not seem as if much will change in the future. Women may be able to speak out against violent incidents, but they are not shielded from the incoming flood of hate from the internet and are still silenced by powerful executives. There are no laws being put in place by anyone in the music industry in order to protect women either. According to an article from Gem, his kind of violence is an issue across the globe for women of every race, age, and background. With the amount of domestic violence accusations within the past decade, musician FKA twigs begs the question, “How long can the music industry go on without a #MeToo style movement?” and “How will the industry enact positive change and tackle the larger problem?”.

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

A lot of strong and brave women have spoken about their experience with domestic abuse. It is a different case for every woman. Different situations. Musicians’ Union offer support for victims of domestic abuse. It does obviously impact men and non-binary people - though the majority of cases relate to women being the victims. Whilst we know of the more high-profile cases of women affected by sexual abuse, there are many cases of domestic abuse behind closed doors. Not only involving artists. Many other women across the industry will be affected. There are terrific resources out there. I was moved by Alex Scott’s words for GLAMOUR. It made me think about the music industry and how there has been this ongoing issue addressing of domestic abuse and sexual assault. Something that, in an especially prolific year regarding cases, more needs to be done about. At a time of year where so many of us are looking forwards to relaxing and being in this safe and warm space, we need to think about women who are in very unsafe homes. Every article and interview that comes out is helping to bring more awareness and hopefully affect change. It is quite slow in the music industry. Maybe not enough knowledge and understand about the fact that it is a very real thing that affects a lot of women. There is help out there.

PHOTO CREDIT: Karolina Grabowska/Pexels

In addition to tackling inequality, discrimination and increased sexual assault through the industry, there also needs to be measures to protect women who are impacted by domestic abuse. It can take various forms. It is not always the case women can speak out or tell their stories. This is especially true in music, given the prominence and position of some artists. Recent programmes like Taking Back Control - that showed on Ireland’s RTÉ - will no doubt inspire other women. New conversations around #MeToo in Pop and Hip-Hop will obviously help regarding the issue. In an industry that traditionally silences women who experience sexual abuse, there is little recognition and support for those who are victims of domestic abuse. 2024 needs to be a year of much greater engagement and support. Not silencing women. Instead, ensuring that they are safe, believed and find justice and space. We have just been told that former Kasabian frontman Tom Meighan is now eligible for a BRIT Award. A high-profile ceremony that is very respected making this ridiculous decision. Seemingly, if a man in the industry is accused of domestic abuse then they are let off of the hook. No ban from ceremonies or further punishment. As Mel B said in a statement to The Independent, it is a terrible move from the BRITs. It also send a really terrible message. Artist slowthai (who has been accused on two counts of rape) may be eligible for BRIT honours:

“Mel B has hit out at former Kasabian member Tom Meighan being eligible for the 2024 BRIT Awards, despite him being convicted of domestic assault.

The Spice Girls singer voiced her disappointment in a statement to The Independent – saying that she feels let down by the decision to have a singer convicted of abuse being eligible to win a BRIT Award.

It comes after Meighan was among the acts included on the form for the voting academy for the 2024 edition.

Meighan parted ways with the Leicester group in July 2020, shortly before being charged with assaulting his partner Vikki Ager – who he married the following year. He was sentenced to 200 hours of unpaid work.

The BRIT buzz comes following the release of his solo album, ‘The Reckoning’, and he is eligible for Album of the Year, British Rock/Alternative Act, and Artist of the Year at next year’s ceremony.

“I am deeply disappointed that an organisation so highly respected within the music industry should make a choice like this,” Mel B told the outlet.

IN THIS PHOTO: Mel B/PHOTO CREDIT: PA

“You have to think what kind of message are you sending out to people when crimes of violence against women can be committed and then that person could be rewarded as part of a massively high profile awards event. It’s shocking to me.”

Mel B’s comments against Meighan come following years of work campaigning against domestic violence. She has also voiced her own experiences of alleged abuse in the past – sharing claims of domestic violence during her marriage to Stephen Belafonte in her memoir Brutally Honest. Belafonte has repeatedly denied the claims against him, and the two reached a private settlement in 2017.

“I am not only a Patron of Women’s Aid but I have just completed three new chapters of my book, Brutally Honest, which charts my journey through abuse and the six years it has taken me to deal with the trauma of that abuse,” she added. “I am still dealing with that trauma and I know I am not alone”.

Going back to Alex Scott’s interview with GLAMOUR, there is this amazing work being done. Incredible charities like Refuge. Musicians’ Union support those in the industry here. Thinking about the Christmas period ahead and how so many women will be experiencing something miserable and awful makes it evident that tackling domestic abuse in the music industry needs to be…

PHOTO CREDIT: MART PRODUCTION/Pexels

ANOTHER big priority.

FEATURE: Limited Run Time: Empowering Feminist Broadway Musicals and the Role of Modern Pop

FEATURE:

 

 

Limited Run Time

IN THIS PHOTO: Jordan Dobson (left) as Prince Sebastian and Linedy Genao as Cinderella in the musical, Bad Cinderella, at the Imperial Theater in Manhattan/PHOTO CREDIT: Sara Krulwich/The New York Times 

Empowering Feminist Broadway Musicals and the Role of Modern Pop

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I was struck by a feature…

IN THIS PHOTO: Lauren Zakrin (second from left) as the Little Mermaid gets her voice back upon reading The Feminine Mystique in Once Upon a One More Time/PHOTO CREDIT: Sara Krulwich/The New York Times

from The New York Times. It relates to music but is more concerned with Broadway musicals. It got me thinking about feminist music and whether there are many examples in the modern Pop market. I am going to sample quite heavily from the article. I think it adds context, not only to musicals on Broadway perceived as feminist and whether the retelling of classics is progressive and meaningful or is lacking. Also, whether Pop and Pop music written by men can provide useful form of feminist discourse:

“During the first act of “Once Upon a One More Time,” the Broadway jukebox musical that grooves to the Britney Spears oeuvre, a fairy godmother arrives with a present for Cinderella. A gown? No. Glass slippers? No. Cin has enough already. Instead, her godmother gifts her a copy of Betty Friedan’s 1963 best seller, “The Feminine Mystique.”

It’s a clumsy gesture in the show, which plans to close next month. (Feminist thought has advanced in 60 years!) And arguably emblematic of a recent spate of Broadway musicals that set feminism to a pop beat, including “Six,” a zippy modern retelling of the lives of Henry VIII’s six wives; “& Juliet,” whose protagonist, miraculously alive, embarks on a girls’ trip of self-discovery; and “Bad Cinderella” (now closed), a chaotic rejiggering of the classic fairy tale. Aimed at girls and women (historically the majority of Broadway ticket buyers), these shows may be sincere attempts to engage with women’s issues — or they’re hollow efforts to capitalize on calls for change. Empty political gestures on Broadway? To quote a song used in two of these shows: “Oops! … I did it again.”

On a recent morning, Laura Collins-Hughes, contributing theater critic and reporter; Salamishah Tillet, critic at large; and Lindsay Zoladz, pop music critic, gathered to debate facts and fairy tales. They discussed how narrowly these shows define empowerment, if they define it at all, and why Prince Charming gets the best song. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.

Why do you think we’re seeing these shows now? Is it a cynical attempt to appeal to female ticket buyers or something more organic?

TILLET These shows, despite their best intentions, seem limited by their source material. There was a lot of Cinderella this year! The publicity appeal of anything Cinderella is obvious, so for Broadway theaters struggling to get audiences back into the theater, of course it is a ploy.

COLLINS-HUGHES “Bad Cinderella” could have been so much more than it was. It is a messy show, it’s always been a messy show, but in London it was actually fun. It had a bit of substance to it. And magic. The feminism, which was so clear and so dramatically propulsive in the London version, was wiped away for Broadway.

I took my daughter to “Bad Cinderella” and afterward we had a conversation about the show’s messaging, which was confused at best.  Is it asking too much of a musical to also have great messages?

COLLINS-HUGHES This question makes me think we all live in fear of that riposte that often greets girls and women who won’t laugh along at a joke that’s not funny: “Where’s your sense of humor?” It’s perfectly legitimate to recoil from a show whose message bugs you, and all the more if it’s at odds with its girl-power, you-be-you marketing.

And yet if a show is successful enough in other ways, the messaging may not matter. That was my delighted experience of “& Juliet.”

TILLET This was definitely my favorite pop feminist musical of the year. I was genuinely intrigued by the conceit of what happens if Juliet doesn’t die. What life does she make for herself beyond the formula prescribed for her? The musical opens up possibilities for her as a protagonist. And with its thoughtful casting of Lorna Courtney as a Black Juliet and Justin David Sullivan as the nonbinary character, May, it enables us to see Shakespeare differently, too.

COLLINS-HUGHES When it has a top-notch cast, “& Juliet” is a blast. But I am baffled that people perceive it as feminist. It really is not.

ZOLADZ Say more!

COLLINS-HUGHES I don’t mean that it’s anti-feminist, but I don’t think it’s particularly female-centered — not on Juliet, nor on Anne Hathaway [Shakespeare’s wife], who gets one of the subplots.

With the exception of “Six,” these shows are largely created by men. Does that explain anything?

COLLINS-HUGHES Of course. It’s not that men can’t and don’t write women well or can’t imagine women’s lives. And it’s certainly not that artists should stick to writing only about people just like them. But they are writing from the outside. That can come with a lot of blind spots and a lot of misapprehensions.

All of these musicals use a pop vernacular, “Bad Cinderella” somewhat less so. Is pop, particularly pop written and produced by men, a useful form for feminist discourse?

ZOLADZ Something I’ve been thinking about regarding “Once Upon a One More Time” and especially “& Juliet,” which uses the songs of the massive millennial hitmaker Max Martin, is the lyrical limitation of a lot of modern pop music. Martin and the generation of pop architects who followed him treat lyrics almost as an afterthought. Martin has referred to his method of songwriting as “melodic math.” “& Juliet” was fun and more cleverly written than “Once Upon a One More Time,” but a lot of that had to do with the ironic distance between the lyrics themselves and the winking, metatextual way the characters employed them — like when “I Want It That Way,” by the Backstreet Boys, becomes not so much a love song as a narration of an argument between Shakespeare and his wife, who have conflicting opinions about how his latest play should end.

TILLET I hated a lot of those pop songs and found them anti-feminist when they originally came out, but when I sang along with the “& Juliet” audience and my tween daughter, I found that they aged better than I had expected. Or maybe, because I’m now middle-age, I’m mistaking nostalgia for progress.

COLLINS-HUGHES Inattention to lyrics is a limitation of jukebox musicals, but it doesn’t hold for original pop songs, which can be whatever the writer makes them. It would help, though, if more of the songwriters getting musicals produced were women.

ZOLADZ I generally pay more attention to pop music than Broadway musicals, so I found the sound of these shows to be quite striking. Modern pop’s influence is everywhere, especially in a show like “Six,” which is full of electronic beats, hip-hop cadences and direct nods to artists like Beyoncé and Ariana Grande. Is that a trend you have observed over time? And given that this is such a golden age for female pop stars, do you think that crossover appeal has something to do with the rise of these empowerment musicals?”.

 IN THIS PHOTO: Lindsay Zoladz

There was a lot to think about with that article and interview. I know a bit about Broadway musicals. I was not aware of feminist takes and retellings of classic texts and fairy tales. You can see how diversified feminism and roles celebrating female empowerment have become on Broadway.  A lot of additional points were raised in that article from The New York Times. The fact that the storytelling is not completing and impactful. Many of the Pop songs used in musicals not empowering or their messages are dated. A question was raised regarding the Barbie movie and whether that will impact Broadway. It did mix modern Pop songs into a film that is feminist. Songs that do ask important questions. Even though the tracks were varied and excellent, maybe it was more the film’s messages rather than the songs’ that created that impression and impact. It is fascinating trying to transform and evolve modern Broadway so that its feminism is effective and useful and can fully engage and inspire its largest audience. As an article from The New York Times in 2019 noted: maybe it is the men who write shows that need ‘fixing’ and not the women:

“Empowering the female lead may be a celebratory hook for selling a show, particularly given that women buy the bulk of Broadway tickets. But on closer inspection, it is rarely the women that require revision. The streetwalking Vivian Ward, stage-dominating Lilli Vanessi and hardscrabble Eliza Doolittle are not lacking in grit. An additional injection of strength risks turning them into bland, uncomplicated superwomen.

No, the real problem with these stories is the men. They are terrible, and yet they have the audacity to believe they can teach these women lessons, and to come out on the other side looking like plausible romantic leads. A modern production’s success rests on how it tames its man”.

There are a lot of interesting discussion and questions. If Broadway musicals do have feminist tales and takes, is it still stuck on the traditional ideas of liberations and emancipation in terms of romantic relationships and love?! That feeling that empowerment comes through getting out of a bad relationship or independence?! Few that discuss careers, politics and anything outside of that. There are a few examples that buck that trend, though I wonder whether too this mixture of modern Pop beats and stories coming into Broadway musical is lacking something. Are there enough feminist anthems today? There was once upon a time, yet the trend and demand has maybe moved away from that. I guess there are examples from the past few years of diverse and empowering Pop songs. Representation of women behind the scenes has always been quite poor. I do wonder whether there are still too many imbalances when it comes to women writing Broadway musicals. In the technical crew and working behind the scenes. If representation on stage has broadened and increased, is there enough of a drive to create these meaningful and compelling stories of female empowerment and independence?

I wonder about the role modern music can play and whether we are enough choices when it comes to songs that can bring a story to life and drive the narrative. Also, and going back to the original source of The New York Times, there are even problems highlighted with the Barbie film. That the Kens are quite bland. They also get the big dance numbers. That ‘Broadway moment’, rather than being women in the spotlight, features the Kens. I know the Barbies have their awesome raging party scene where it is interrupted by Stereotypical Barbie’s (Margot Robbie) thoughts of death. Many feel that musicals squarely aimed at women or singularly about women are not interesting enough to appeal. I feel that there are modern successful women at the forefront of music – such as Beyoncé – who write empowering songs and have these careers that are not about power and commercial success. Many feminist Broadway music and plays that discuss and focus on female empowerment leave it there. No nuance and discussion around the way power can corrupt. Maybe Broadway itself has an issue when it comes to sincere and purposeful musicals about feminism and empowerment due to empty gestures and clumsy politics. I wonder whether the music used is there as backdrop or drives the story. Too much a case of the musicals being Pop concerts - and not a perfect balance of powerful female-led musicals with Pop effectively used as a score.

Lindsay Zoladz noted (regarding modern Broadway feminist examples) that “the overarching problem with these musicals is the way they fail to define terms, presenting “empowerment” and “feminism” as given, unexamined virtues”. I do not have the answers. It is clear that many modern Broadway shows and musicals narrowly define empowerment. Is this also the case in music?! The majority of empowering songs from women about love and getting out of relationships?! I do think that Pop music has some modern and original feminist examples that go beyond bad love. If Broadway and Pop can connect effectively and there is a meaningful show that engages with the need for change (and the messaging is clear). Broadening the source material. Songs written by men can work as a feminist anthem in a Broadway music, though there is that desire to bring women to the front and ensure there their voices and words are being highlighted. If some Broadway musicals are benefitting from modern Pop’s inclusion and women’s voices scoring scenes, there is still that disconnect when it comes to casting and diversity. Many of the shows written by men and from their viewpoint. A need to review and balance things. The demand for feminist musicals and shows might react to the fact that its largest audience is women. The way incredible modern women in music are so influential and successful. Maybe not enough examples of musicals and plays that get that blend right when it comes to the music, casting and messaging. There are some incredible modern female Pop and R&B artists. Great women in Rap whose music can brilliantly work in Broadway musicals. Some amazing actresses who are coming through. A diversity and embarrassment of riches that will be realised soon enough. Ensuring that female writers are promoted and given space and opportunities. Broadway musicals that are empowering and whose feminism is purposeful and has meaning. If that is realised – however gradually but with commitment – then that will be…

A potent combination.

FEATURE: SAULT in the Wound? The Balance Between Artists Covering Gig Costs and Not Overcharging Loyal and Eager Fans

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SAULT in the Wound?

The Balance Between Artists Covering Gig Costs and Not Overcharging Loyal and Eager Fans

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I think that there is something exciting…

about a mysterious act coming to the stage for the first time! We do not really have that sense of theatre and hype in music much. There have been some great acts coming through the past decade or so. Few match the quality and consistency of SAULT. Not very much is known about the group, as there are not promotional photos and a load of interviews. Fronted by, we know, the tremendous Cleo Sol (who is a successful solo artist in her own right), their latest album matches their very best. They are such a varied group who are writing really important and powerful songs. Few would have thought an early treat would come from them. They have announced some gigs. The first, on Thursday (14th), takes place at Drumsheds in London. It is making news for another reason. A large venue for sure, it is hardly in the centre of London. Out in N18, it is a bit of a trek for some. Even a bit for fans who live in London. The debut gig for SAULT comes with some ‘savoury’ notes. For fans who haver waited a long time and have had the stress of saving up for Christmas, is it a bit like pouring SAULT in the wounds (do not excuse the pun!) for the loyal fanbase?! In fact, a lot of the diehard fanbase are priced out and going to miss on an event that should have reflected a difficult time for many. I am not saying tickets should have been £20 or £30. Even if you are a tremendous group and there is this anticipation and build-up, think about artists like The Last Dinner Party and the fact there is plenty of momentum behind them. Their ticket costs are far lower than what SAULT are charging for their London gig this week. CLASH explains more:

“Earlier today – December 11th – tickets went on sale, priced at an eye-watering £99, and that’s before booking fee. One fan described themselves as “gobsmacked” while another commented “frankly, you’re just being plain greedy”.

The timing doesn’t help. The run up to Christmas leaves many of us drained financially – trips to see family have to be booked, there’s a work Christmas party to fork out for, and the list of presents grows longer each year. There’s commitments in place that a show in, say, March, don’t have.

There’s always been an implicit message of accessibility in Sault’s art – hosting a WeTransfer featuring five albums, for example, the price of admission being a password saying ‘GODISLOVE’. A £99 entry fee cuts away much of that, and prevents some of their longest fans from being able to attend.

Furthermore, the comms have – for once – been slightly messy. The build-up ramped up expectation, no doubt to create demand; but idents on social media describing ‘Africa’ as a country felt rushed. Alongside this, Sault insisted each ‘country’ would get one show each – the United States gets two, one for each coast.

Much of this wouldn’t matter, however, if it was anyone else. Put simply, Sault mean a lot. The mystery counts for a great deal of this – to this day, fans aren’t 100% who is even in Sault. The project is reputed to hinge on the imagination of Inflo, a generation-defining producer who has worked alongside Adele, while Cleo Sol – the two are married – is speculated to be the primary vocalist. Guests include Little Simz and Michael Kiwanuka, and that’s before we even attempt to break down Inflo’s orchestral manoeuvres.

But all that talent means that the margins are tight. To book a big enough venue in London – their home city – in December requires a lot of planning. To do so on an independent basis, means that no one is there to under-write the risk. It’s not as though Sault pop up on Coca-Cola commercials – if the art is paramount, then the commercial asks made of them have to be made in other ways.

It’s cruel, but the climate we’re operating in is far from fair. Sault made their name by placing their music on streaming – open, easily accessible, but ultimately not a great deal for artists. The vinyl drops may be a means of fans to show support, but the rapidly increasing cost of the physical artefact itself means that even this isn’t a perfect mode of exchange. The burden falls on the fan, but it also falls on artist – to do without, to persevere, and to make the economics work”. 

CLASH make good points in their article. There is a massive cost of hiring a venue, doing the promotion and publicity. Then there is the crew and technical team. SAULT have to consider all the musicians and the fact they have orchestration and quite a big set. I shared the tweet by CLASH when they posted their article. Some rightly pointed out how we do not know what form the show will take in terms of the staging and length etc. There is also the fact that SAULT, largely, are a digital band. In the sense they release music digitally mostly – or have been putting a lot out for free. Even so, you can pre-order albums on vinyl now. I think that this is admirable when it comes to making their music accessible and affordable. I think this is more a case of the band wanting to keep some mystery and distance, rather than it being about the fans’ pockets. More change you’d need to promote an album if it came out physically? I see that they are in a difficult position. Costs in general are very high. Venues need to pay increasing rents. They are fighting to stay open. I know that many fans’ living costs are going up and they have less to spend on live music. It is a bind and quandary that has no easy solution. SAULT could lower the ticket price but compromise their structure and set. The venue also misses out too. I doubt there will be merchandise or any stalls set up so fans can buy the albums afterwards. Maybe keen to keep that mysterious aura and still give fans music, that will all be blown apart on Thursday.

It makes me think that the next move will be for SAULT. There is call and demand for physical release and a closer relationship with fans. They do not need to do TikTok videos and loads of interviews but, after this build-up and hype, they are so loved and popular that there is little chance they can keep anonymous and distant. I am not sure why they were more keen on digital releases. The fact that this might account for a high ticket cost is as good an argument against avoiding the physical market. In any case, it will be a huge event for fans who go and see them! Aside from some promotion and messaging that is a bit messy and flawed, the group will get a lot of love when they play Drumsheds. There is going to be undeniable quality on that stage. World-class singers, musicians and talent, there is richness and reward for those lucky enough to go! It is close to Christmas. So, in a hard year, this is a relief for so many. Something to look forward to! After all this time wondering who the group are and supporting their music, there will be this wonderful moment and night to remember! They are playing all-new music from an album nobody has heard yet. There is that exclusivity and rareness that might account for the ticket price. Maybe too the price will come down the more they perform. There is no magic ticket price. Whilst some artists can do a smaller set and thus impose lower prices, the more complex and full your stage is, the more that will cost artists – who need to pay a lot of people and pocket enough for themselves too. It is a year when ticket prices have been making news. Bad enough that ticket resale sites are charging extortionate amounts. Major artists who do these worldwide tours are charging three-figure sums for fans to see them. You have to balance the experience and costs involved versus the fact that many of the artists are making immense profit and could afford to lower the ticket prices.

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A post shared by SAULT (@saultglobal)

SAULT are hardly on the same global level as some of the artists I am sure you know who I am referring to. I am glad that there will be this sort of ‘unveiling’. There has been some backlash against SAULT. I reacted angrily at first. I felt that, actually, this is a case of hype and them taking advantage of the fans. I still feel they had wiggle room to take the ticket price down a tad yet, if you consider who takes cuts from those ticket costs, how much goes to SAULT?! The venue gets some. There is taxation and all sorts of layers and people to pay before anything comes to SAULT. They may take a small piece of that £99+ ticket cost. When you factor all of that in, maybe they are not really the issue. It reflects more on the harshness of modern touring and the expense of hiring venues and putting on a memorable show. How many bodies go into making a gig when you think about it. Sadly, rising costs and people having less disposable income means there is this anger and disappointment. A feeling of being gouged. We cannot blame artists for the high costs. I am not sure how much say they have in pricing their own tickets and making that call. Rather than focus on SAULT as an example of a group taking a liberty, the revelation of their ticket prices opened up greater consideration around the point of artists’ pay. How much of a ticket sale goes to them. How many people get a cut. The realisation and reality is that that they have sold out their London show. Many will take that small financial sacrifice. It means that we do need to look closer at the live sector. Venues closing down and many struggling to remain afloat. There being this disparity when it comes to artists and ticket prices. In SAULT’s case, you have these supreme artists who will no doubt throw surprises and spectacle into their show on Thursday. It is going to be…

A night to remember.