FEATURE: Spotlight: Sotfcult

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

 

Sotfcult

_________

I have known about Softcult…

PHOTO CREDIT: Pearl Cook

for a little while now. I think that this year is going to be one where they truly capture worldwide attention. Where their music will go to new places. They have tour dates that take them through the U.S. and Australia. The Canadian duo consists of Phoenix and Mercedes Arn-Horn. Before getting to a few interviews from last year with Softcult, here is some biography about an incredible music force channelling Riot Grrrl music for a new generation:

“Softcult is siblings Mercedes (guitar/vocals) and Phoenix (drums/vocals/production) Arn-Horn. The band began dropping single tracks in early 2021, and released their first EP, Year Of The Rat, on April 16, 2021.

Citing Bikini Kill as a major influence, the band takes the ethos of the riot grrrl movement and mixes it with shoegaze, grunge, and dreampop influences. Squarely feminist, the music addresses endemic issues of abuse, assault, harassment, misogyny, and social and gender norms as well as mental health.

The band name is a call for awareness. “We chose Softcult because this band is all about social commentary.”, says Mercedes. “A soft cult could be anything from a church, a government, a family, a band even. It’s anything that you don’t really question where you follow your group of people. We’re all in soft cults in society that we don’t realize we’re a part of, we’re just willing participants because it’s a normalized thing at this point. It can sound a little harsh but it’s also meant to make you question which soft cults are you a part of”.

Softcult’s E.P., See You in the Dark, was released last March. It received a lot of praise. It was no surprise that it was also a time where many sites and publications highlighted them as a group to watch closely. A spectacular duo whose music needs to be sought out. Stereogum spoke to the siblings about their early life and path into music:

“Mercedes and Phoenix Arn-Horn are sitting on the floor of their hotel. The Canada-born twin siblings, who lead the post-punk/dream-pop/shoegaze project Softcult, are in a sleepy state of post-show bliss, having played a date last night the End — a venue on Nashville’s famed “Rock Block.” Today is a day off before heading to Memphis, and then, SXSW. How are they planning to spend the next 12 hours before hopping back on the road?

“First thing’s first: After this, we’ll probably shower,” laughs Mercedes (she/her). “Then definitely get some food and maybe see some more live music.” Speaking to Mercedes and Phoenix, even over a Zoom call with wonky WiFi, it’s clear the duo are currently active in the music industry in a way that suits their needs. No longer attached to a major-label system (the siblings have been playing together in various band formations for a decade), Mercedes and Phoenix (they/them) are not only writing hypnotic melodies steeped in political and social discourse (their third EP See You In The Dark is out Friday) — they’re building an empire.

This isn’t hyperbole. Together, Mercedes and Phoenix oversee nearly every aspect of the business of being Softcult. In addition to creating the band’s artwork, Phoenix runs point on production and engineering. Meanwhile, Mercedes directs and edits their videos. Both create and produce a riot grrrl-inspired fanzine called SCripture and participate in a Discord server where Softcult listeners from around the world can come together. “We made it because we thought it might be a cool thing for people — maybe they don’t live in the same area, they can’t all get out to shows, but they can still connect with each other. It’s another way to foster a community,” Phoenix says about the server.

PHOTO CREDIT: Pearl Cook

“We’re not on it all the time, but we do check on it, make sure everything’s above board, answer questions about the band, how we recorded something, or [made] videos,” Phoenix continues. “The cool thing about it is that the people have made it their own. They can kind of talk about whatever they want. Some talk about recording and producing, pedalboards and guitar tones. Some share personal stories: There’s a channel called ‘Trigger Warning,’ and it’s all them having a place to share what they’re going through and feel safe doing that.”

Growing up together in Ontario, the siblings were homeschooled by parents (their mother is an English teacher) who encouraged them to think independently and pursue their artistic inclinations. “I always feel like there’s two types of homeschoolers,” Mercedes says. “They’re either super religious and want to shelter their children from the world — that was not the case [with us], it was the opposite. I think [our parents] were like, ‘The school system is going to kill your love of literature.’ They just wanted us to experience the school of life. That was a huge gift when we were younger because it did give time to really focus on our music.

“Both [parents] had been teachers in their life at some point,” she adds. “So they were already really good at making sure we knew the things we needed to know, then also giving us space to work on our passions… It’s not a typical band story. I think maybe they thought we were going to be concert pianists or something, but they’re happy that we’re doing something that we love, and they are really supportive with that.”

Launching Softcult in 2020, in the thick of the pandemic and that summer’s Black Lives Matter protests, Mercedes and Phoenix channeled their own frustrations around current events into the music, addressing everything from financial and gender inequality to late-stage capitalism and their experience(s) with the entertainment industry. They soon released a 2021 debut EP, Year Of The Rat, and followed up with last year’s Year Of The Snake EP, which kicked off with a propulsive guitar track wryly titled “BWBB” (“Boys Will Be Boys”).

Their new See You In The Dark EP opens with a My Bloody Valentine-esque “Drain,” which finds the band taking on corporate greed and corrupt politicians that enable capitalist structures for personal gain. The upbeat, chanting “Dress,” meanwhile, addresses sexual assault, feeling unsafe while out with friends, and the lingering trauma when your space has been violated. “See you in the dark/ On thе street, following me/ Watch it flash before my еyes/ All the things that couldn’t happen to me,” they sing over a wash of winding guitars. “It’s a dress, not a yes/ Not a fucking invitation”.

There are a few interviews more that I want to get to before wrapping things up. The Alternative spent some time with Softcult in March. After the Ann-Horn sisters disbanded Courage My Love, they farmed Softcult and mixed Dream-Pop and something harder-edged. I do feel that the next couple of years will see Softcult take to big stages and get headline sets. In a music scene where many women still feel undervalued, they are creating impact and opening doors for women coming through. Definitely a duo to keep your eyes on:

“The EP features songs that were initially meant for their second EP Year of the Snake, released in February of last year. In the past, it wasn’t uncommon for them to go a couple years without releasing music, but Softcult have been prolific as they have continued to be inspired by the new music they’ve been working on. “We don’t like waiting too long in between releases to put something out, so I think there was a little pressure to just keep writing while we still felt inspired and not take a break. I feel like after putting out our first two EPs, we were ready to try some new things and really push ourselves to go out of the box. We wrote and recorded everything in our studio in between touring last year,” Phoenix says of this EP.

Alongside each track they release, they also create minimalistic grainy music videos that are edited and filmed by Mercedes for every single. Phoenix handles the production side of things as well as the engineering and visual artwork for their singles, EPs, and SCripture zines. From the music to the handmade zines, Softcult embodies self-empowerment through creative expression. Their SCripture zines take a closer look at the meaning behind their songs and highlights issues in society they feel compelled to shed light on. Cultivating a community with their fanbase, they also collaborate with their scene by including submissions of art and poetry from others and giving shout outs to organizations and charities that are important to them. Taking on this DIY mentality when it comes to creating their art, they are unmistakably inspired by the artists involved in the ’90s Riot Grrrl movement, and hope to continue passing on similar ethics while empowering anyone listening to them to do the same.

“Even though it’s definitely getting better all the time, the alternative music scene hasn’t always been the most welcoming to women, queer people, people of colour, pretty much anyone that isn’t a typical white guy in a band. It’s also unfortunately been a breeding ground for a lot of mistreatment of women and femme presenting people, especially minors, which obviously isn’t okay. It’s important that we keep paying attention to those problems in the scene, and keep trying to make it a safer place for everyone. The Riot Grrrl movement resonated with us as people that always felt a little on the outside looking in and had a hard time finding our place in the industry. We feel it’s just as important today as it was in the ’90s, and in our own small way we want to carry the torch so to speak,” Phoenix expresses.

Sometimes letting go and starting over allows us to move forward more freely and either reinvent ourselves or realize that growth isn’t exactly linear as we explore different facets of ourselves. In Softcult’s case, it’s a beautiful reclamation of themselves as artists and as women / femme presenting people. With the revival of heavy alternative rock that’s laced with thick fuzzed out tones and ethereal melodies, Softcult are making some of the most relevant and inspirational music out there. Their band name even stems from the idea that any group can be considered a “cult” and provokes listeners to think about what kind of soft cults they may passively be a part of. The best kind of music reflects on the world around us and asks us to question what we’ve known, sometimes serving up disturbing revelations about how we’ve been to each other or to the world. Softcult’s music is not purely self-indulgent as it seeks to reflect their experiences as people and the experience of humanity as a whole and hopefully in doing so inspires us all to move forward with a little more thought than before”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Pearl Cook

Another interview from March, Kerrang!. They discussed their new E.P. that highlights (among other things) climate crisis and toxic masculinity. They are definitely creating this genuine and essential new wave of Riot Grrrl. I know that Softcult are going to keep on releasing astonishing music for many years to come. If you have not heard them and checked them out then make sure you connect with them and listen to the music. They are a phenomenal duo:

“Said lyrics confront the perversity and prevalence of rape culture, especially on nights out that suddenly take a turn when a drink is spiked or someone is groped. In the five years since #MeToo, however, do Softcult think there is progress being made?

“I do think we made a lot of progress, because a lot of people weren’t even aware of how serious this issue is,” reckons Mercedes, becoming more animated the more she says on the subject. “I would bet every woman has experienced some form of harassment, whether they’ve come forward or not.”

Then again, #MeToo hasn’t come without backlash, and neither has Softcult’s own quest to raise awareness. “We get a lot of flak [from] people being like, ‘Oh, this band hates men.' It’s not true. I hate misogyny, I hate sexism, I hate rape culture, but I don’t equate that with being male.” Mercedes has, however, seen more men making an effort to listen to women’s experiences. “Men can be a part of the solution as much as women are. You’d also be surprised how receptive a lot of guys are when they hear that, they’re like, ‘That’s disgusting, I’d never do that, I’m going to be looking out.’”

Elsewhere, the darkly fuzzy mid-EP highlight Someone2me tackles a different angle on how misogyny manifests, but with a more personal slant, speaking of an incel who was harassing and threatening Phoenix and Mercedes online for three years. It scared them at first, but when they thought about it, they began to see through this person and wrote Someone2me as an attempt to cut them down to size.

“There was this turning point when we realised, ‘This person is so fucking sad,’” recalls Mercedes. “They have nothing in their life; their hate is what sustains them. They have so much time on their hands because no-one wants to be around someone like that.”

“Honestly, I think that the reason [incels] hate women who reject them is because they cannot accept the failure within themselves to actually be in a relationship with a woman,” adds Phoenix. “When you put the blame on someone else every time you get rejected, you miss the opportunity to be like, ‘What could I learn from this?’ [They think] it’s all women’s fault.” 

Another major issue that see you in the dark takes interest in is climate change, with opening track Drain coldly criticising the billion-dollar corporations whose activities are responsible for the bulk of humanity’s carbon emissions. “As an individual, sometimes the onus is put on you to make a change, but what can I as an individual do to change something that huge conglomerates contribute to?” Phoenix questions. “It feels like you’re screaming into a void.”

“The frustrating part is there’s been a climate emergency since our parents [were growing up]. Because of corporate greed, or maybe because it’s inconvenient, we don’t want to think about it,” adds Mercedes. “Fast forward 40, 50 years, we’re still talking about this shit. It gets scarier the older you get. Touring a van with no a/c in Arizona, you’re like, ‘Okay, I feel it, I can’t bear it one second longer.’ Imagine if your whole existence was like that!”

The alt. music world’s dialogue on climate change and how to respond to it is picking up in volume, with bands like Gojira, Architects and Enter Shikari acting as some of our scene's most vocal advocates. Never ones for empty words, Softcult are playing their part. They’re more than happy to pay a little extra for merch made from organic, recycled fabric; they don’t eat meat; they enthuse over the fact that UK venues are good at offering hospitality, so they don’t have to rely on takeouts and consume more single-use plastic.

Crucially, however, they know that saving the planet is too weighty a task to rest on just their shoulders. “Travel is the big one,” Mercedes asserts. “That’s on the corporations – they need to make it more efficient and greener. A band can’t be like, ‘We’re never going to fly anywhere.’ It’s on the companies to care about making it a greener ride or flight.”

The rest of see you in the dark muses upon more intimate subjects. The achingly delicate One Of A Million offers an antidote to the world’s division by suggesting that humans are more similar than different, while the EP’s final two tracks turn inward. The woozy Love Song delves into the simmering anxiety that accompanies falling in love, while Spoiled asks the critical voice in our heads why it’s allowed to speak freely, when we wouldn’t dream of treating anybody else with the same lack of compassion.

There’s a diverse array of subject matter on show, but the personal and political sides of Softcult are more closely intertwined than might appear. After all, the political, very often, is personal. As a species we’re drawn to fight against the injustices we’ve personally experienced, or witnessed others we know suffer against.

“Pointing the finger doesn’t do anything. To be able to relate to a message, you have to be able to see yourself in it,” Mercedes reasons. “If you don’t get personal with it, it’s in one ear, out the other, or you feel completely closed off from it.”

After all, when people change, society changes. “In order for the world to change, there has to be some change within yourself. Blaming everyone else for problems doesn’t solve anything,” says Phoenix”.

I am going to end with a new interview with Softcult. Messed Up Magazine published a really deep and extensive interview with the duo. I have selected a couple of sections that are of particular note. It is clear that there is this incredible fascination around a magnificent duo. They are such an important act. That is why I think their music should be played more widely. They have a fanbase in the U.K., though I think there are more stations that should include their music. Make sure that you follow them:

“We have a responsibility to the planet.

Among the many issues that threaten not just artists and young people, but those all over the globe – even the ones who deny it – climate change is a top contender for the most likely to end us all. Despite the axe ever balanced precariously above our heads, we have so many everyday worries to contend with first.

So, who is going to do anything about it?

Talking about your song Drain and climate change, I heard you say something that I don’t often hear from other artists, which is that a lot of these burdens of activism and widespread change isn’t really the individual’s responsibility, it’s instead on corporations to make these changes. I’ve certainly felt bad about not doing enough. That being said, what do you think artists can do to help? And do you think people generally do enough?

Mercedes: From my perspective, a big thing artists do have control over is their merchandise. Realistically, touring is not an eco-friendly thing – flying or driving every single day. But, those are the things we aren’t necessarily in control of, until companies make those methods of travel more sustainable. But, as artists who sell merch and put merch into production, you do have choices on whether it’s going to be ethically made – recycled fabric, sustainable, plastic or paper for your CDs. Those are things you do have within your control.

You may be seeing it on a micro level – “but it costs more to do it sustainably.” How can you criticise big corporations when you yourself aren’t ready to make that commitment, that small sacrifice?

So, we always try to print our merch on fabric that’s organic, so it’s got less of a bio footprint, and we generally do a paper sleeve for CDs instead of the dual cases which are the cheapest option. And it might not be the fanciest, but the merch definitely feels nicer, even if you don’t care about environmental stuff. It’s got that vintage feel.

PHOTO CREDIT: Courtney Turner

Phoenix: Yeah, so if you’re a vintage bro … (laughs)

Mercedes: I think that’s the biggest thing I can see artists standing up and doing. A lot of the time, even big touring artists will charge so much for their merch, and it’ll be printed on the shittiest, scratchiest fabric, and it’s not good for the environment. People wear it a couple of times and then, because it’s uncomfortable, they throw it out.

The future is mellow

Softcult’s outspoken songwriting takes a backseat for their latest release. Haunt You Still isn’t a detour from the band’s usual spooky sounds, but it does bring a slightly different, more mellow feeling to their seesaw of grunge and shoegaze.

“Do I haunt you still, in your memories? Do I reappear in your bad dreams? When you think of me, is it fondly? Or do I haunt you still?

Let’s talk about Haunt You Still. Lyrically, as more of a love song, I can draw parallels to those of your older songs. Can you talk about how it connects to what you’re doing now and what it’s about?

Mercedes: Sometimes, we’ll sit down and write songs, and there’s an issue that’s at the forefront of our minds and we really want to write a song about it. And then other times, these lyrics will just come out, and it’s not clear what the song is going to be about until we’re halfway through it. Haunt You Still was one of those, for me. I think I had some stuff on my mind, thinking about relationships, and not just romantic ones but friendships, too. And when they end, and the impact they leave … and maybe thinking about regrets you’ve had from how you handled situations. Like, “I wonder if, now, when this person thinks of me, do they think about the good times? Or is their first gut reaction a painful one.

I guess, that is what the song is about. But it’s also … I get really sick of these breakup songs demonising the other person, and I feel like there’s enough of that already. When it’s justified, it’s justified, but sometimes we can get in this mindset of having to suddenly be like, “Oh, my ex is crazy!” It’s not always like that – sometimes things just don’t work out, and it is what it is

Phoenix: And that’s okay.

Mercedes: We’ve written a lot of songs that are from a very specific point of view, so it’s nice to write something where, instead of us explaining it to people, they can see themselves in it. We always project meaning onto things, but I think it’s a mirror of what we’re going through in our own lives.

Phoenix: It’s a little more introspective as opposed to putting out a statement.

Mercedes: At least for me, and probably for you, too, as we get older, things that are so intense when you’re younger soften a bit. You think about them a bit more, and maybe you’re seeing the other person’s side a little more, and it’s not always so black and white. It’s a little more of a ‘real’ breakup song, in that sense.

I suppose we have however many centuries of literature exploring romance, and people trying to figure it out. I suppose it’s nice to hear a more balanced take.

Mercedes: And sometimes, those are the most painful breakups, because you can’t really understand why it didn’t work out. And you don’t hate this person. It can be like a defense mechanism, sometimes. At least for me, it’s so much easier to be angry than to be sad. I’d rather be filled with this righteous rage that empowers me than be … broken.

The fabulous Softcult have a busy 2024 ahead I am sure. In addition to tour dates, there will be new music and further developments. They will acquire new fans and, let’s hope, get closer to be a headline act at major festivals. The song, Heaven, was released in December. Another terrific cut from Softcult. They are an amazing duo that…

EVERYONE should get behind.

______________

Follow Softcult

FEATURE: Spotlight: Highlyy

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

  

Highlyy

_________

WHILST there are not that many…

interviews from her available online, that will change as we move through this year. The brilliant Highlyy is an Essex artist who has already amassed a huge and passionate following on TikTok and Instagram. Like a few of the artists I have spotlighted in the past day or two, Highlyy is a name that I saw elsewhere. I was not aware of her until fairly recently. A sensational Afro-Pop talent who is going to make big waves this year, make sure she is someone that you familiarise yourself with:

“With some of the cleanest vocals in the game, emerging UK songstress Highlyy has taken the internet by storm, easing her way onto playlists and rotations with only one single and a big promise of what’s to come.

What makes Highlyy so significant as an artist is her embodied fluidity. She’s able to transition from English to French to Yoruba in one breath, merging the different layers of her and the communities they signify. She’s a representation of culture and pride, which is simultaneously much bigger than music and yet exactly what it’s all about.

At only 18, she’s hit milestones many artists have yet to achieve, and she’s done so humbly. Collaborating with British rapper Tion Wayne on their breakout hit afrobeats-inspired track “Soldier,”  amassing millions of streams is only the beginning for the young talent.

All it takes is a quick scroll through Highlyy's comments to see the growing impatience for her follow-up, but she hasn’t succumbed to the pressures of an industry with little regard for process and marination. Her pristine vocals aren’t a gift to be rushed, and judging by her glowing confidence, it’s assumed that whatever is being cooked up won’t disappoint.

Free-spirited and inherently jovial, there’s a light she has that radiates from within. She’s trusting in the journey unfolding before her and you can tell she’s having fun, which many in her lane fail at feigning. From repping Essex all the way to Congo, Highlyy is free and for the people”.

With a few singles under her belt from last year, there will be questions whether an album, mixtape or E.P. will come. What next for this incredible artist. Even though she is a fan of Chris Brown and would like to collaborate with him one day – he is someone I hate and feel is a hugely problematic artist given far too much opportunity considering his abusive past -, I can appreciate why she’d love him for sharing her song, Soldier, on his social media. Apparently an E.P. could soon come about. It was suggested when Highlyy spoke with GRM Daily back in September:

“Highlyy’s musical journey began within a richly musical family, her Congolese heritage serving as the bedrock of her passion for music. Influenced by her father’s band and her mother’s choir singing, Highlyy seemed destined for a career in music. As a child, she sang in church and school choirs, quickly gaining recognition for her exceptional vocal talents.

However, it wasn’t until she stepped into a recording studio at just eight years old that she felt the call to create her original music. From that pivotal moment, Highlyy’s curiosity for writing and producing blossomed, propelling her to experiment with her unique blend of traditional African sounds and contemporary influences.

Now, with a burgeoning fan base and critical acclaim, Highlyy is evolving from a rising star to a visionary artist. Her music serves as a powerful medium to address issues relevant to her young audience, empowering them with her aspirational and honest themes, touching upon love, ambition, and the journey to success. She sat to speak exclusively with GRM about her journey so far.

We know that you come from quite a musical background. Tell us about your earliest interactions with music and how that all plays into your life and your interest in music.

“Okay, so obviously, my parents are very into music. My dad was in a band back in Congo. My mum was also a singer in a choir as were my grandparents. My parents bought me a microphone when I was younger. So I would always be making noise and singing in church. They would make me sing, so I joined the choir in church, and the choir in school, and everyone around was just telling my parents your daughter can really sing and you guys should pay attention to that. And, you know, here we are.”

So would you say that the musical ability that you have, has always been really nurtured for you to be able to pursue it?

“I would say that yeah, it’s always been there, you know, music is just around me. Has always been, and forever will be.”

Where does it turn around that you start writing your own music and where does that part come from? Because lyrically you are very strong, such a wordsmith…tell us more about how you started writing?

“My dad took me to a studio session for the first time when I was probably eight years old. My dad was taking me to the studio all the time, every weekend he would take me there to make songs.”

And if you were to describe your sound, how would you describe it?

“I would describe it as fresh, cool, Afro-pop, something new, something that you wouldn’t have heard before.”

Would you say your Congolese heritage influences that sound?

“Yeah, for sure. 100% I feel like it’s just something new. You haven’t heard it before. I don’t hear any artists like me. I’m not gonna lie. It’s something new and fresh. I feel like yeah, being Congolese definitely did play a big part in that.”

Is it important for you to showcase that?

“100% And that’s why I speak in different languages when I make my music so people feel connected in a different type of way.”

Have you managed to reach much of a fan base outside of Congo?

“Yeah!”

Have you been over to do anything yet? Or are there any plans to?

“Yeah, definitely . But you know what, I feel like I have a bigger fan base from Nigeria. But that’s because I do afrobeats and everyone thinks I’m Nigerian. When people realise I’m from Congo that’s when I feel like all of Congo will give me that love.”

Talk to us about the rest of the subject matter on the project and your writing process behind the different topics and how they relate. Is it super personal? Is it other people’s situations? Where do you place yourself when you’re getting into the mode to write a song?

“I feel like everything is personal, and everything just depends on how I’m feeling that day. If a situation just happened, I’ll talk about it. I’m like, let me not waste it. Because I feel when I write about my feelings, or what I’m going through, that’s when I make my best music because it’s really coming from the heart”.

I want to finish with an interview that goes back a bit further – to the summer of last year. Highlyy did mention an E.P. was coming out but, with singles following the interview, maybe it is slated for this year. In any case, there was special attention on the success of Solider. The fact that this is a song that connected with a lot of people. She also spoke about wanting to become a household name – which will happen in years to come I am sure. Wonderland. grabbed some thoughts and impressions from a brilliant and already complete young artist:

“19 years old and already taking the industry by storm, Highlyy is an artist with something to say. Following her global success of a debut single, “Soldier”, the emerging talent is showing no signs of slowing down anytime. Her infectious Afro-pop sound comes to life once more with “Time Like This”, the strong follow up single to her debut.

Growing up surrounded by a musical family, it was only a matter of time before Highlyy introduced her talent to the world. After studying at East London Arts and Music, finding a community of like-minded listeners on TikTok, and working to develop her unique sound, the stars aligned and her hard work paid off. With her all-encompassing, smooth vocals, she effortlessly transitions from Yoruba to French to English — blurring language barriers and creating something meaningful for a truly global audience.

I would love to hear about your single “Soldier” and the experience of it going viral before its release. What was that whole experience like and how has TikTok helped you to reach an audience and connect with your fanbase?

The whole “Soldier” thing, it’s crazy. I made the song at 4am in the morning. I was with my friends and a friend recommended the beat and everything. I made the song on my laptop and posted it on TikTok. It didn’t do anything on TikTok for like a month, so then I sped it up. I was like, “I might as well speed it up with TikTok. You never know what will happen”. So I sped it up and it literally went viral the same day. It’s crazy. TikTok is a very powerful tool for our generation. It really does help with music.

How did the music video come about? What inspired it and how did you create it?

With the music video, we were just like, let’s make it as authentic as possible. Let’s make it as relatable to me and as real as possible. So we used African props, Congolese culture, from the dancing to the food to the looks, everything. Even the little boy, he represented my little brother — and my little brother was actually in the video as well. It’s just authentic. It’s just real. It’s like real life. I feel like the song is a prayer. It’s a story of what I wanted. So I feel like the music video just takes us through my life.

You are building such an incredible community and fanbase. What do you hope your listeners take away from your music?

I just want people to be inspired. Like, I want anyone that goes through what I went through, or has dreams to just know that you can do it, as long as you put your mind to it and work hard. I just want people to really feel it. I feel like my music is very touching. As much as it’s a vibe, if you listen to the lyrics, it’s actually really deep.

Is there anything in particular that you’re really looking forward to, in the near or far future?

I’m looking forward to my EP — that’s gonna come out in July. I feel like that’s when people are really going to understand and know who Highlyy is. And, you know, it will put some respect to my name. I’m gonna have a household name. I want people to really know who Highlyy is.

Take some time out to discover an accomplished artist who is adding her own take and DNA to Afrobeat. Primed to have a very busy year, I can see her hooking up with some major artists on future songs. It is clear that there is this love out there for her. With more music in the ether, that will Highlyy played on more radio stations. Before long, there will be big gig demands and festival bookings. A major talent in the works, keep your eyes peeled…

FOR the sensational Highlyy.

____________

Follow Highlyy

FEATURE: Spotlight: brazy

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

 

brazy

_________

A staggering talent…

PHOTO CREDIT: tallulah.fx

that I must thank other sites and newspaper for, as they discovered her brilliance before me, it is about time to highlight the extortionary brazy! Whereas last year I was spotlighting a lot of new American artists to look out for, this year seems to be more about British-based acts. That is good! Homegrown pride and strength that is going to go into the international market and make a real impact very soon. There is no doubt brazy is ready for greatness. She is a spellbinding artist you all need to hear! I want to bring in a few interviews with her so that you can get an idea of this multilingual and multitalented queen. Her magnificent E.P., Afro Sexy, was released a few weeks ago. It shows that she is an artist that is very much here to stay! You can just tell that we will be talking about brazy for years to come. Earlier in the year, NATIVE spoke with an artist on the cusp of greatness:

“While female rappers have always been present in Nigerian, evident in the legacy of rap artists likes of Weird MC and Sasha P, their prominence within mainstream conversations is always overshadowed by the inherent dominance of their male counterparts. In recent years, more women—armed with braggadocios lyricism and standout vocals—have made it loud and clear that they are not to be sidelined. As they tell their stories unapologetically and spit the bars like no one’s looking, SGaWD, YTboutthataction, Daisy and more in the budding class of women in rap are taking up space. Another unforgettable frontrunner in this group of artists is Brazy.

Still a relatively new name to the scene, Brazy has been causing a stir since her debut on L0la-assisted “Siren” and one thing that’s remained consistent from the 2021 release till her Velli-produced breakthrough track, “Attends”, is the spontaneity of the craft. Preferring to go down the organic, easy-breezy route, most—if not all—of Brazy’s released tracks were recorded in one take. “I wouldn’t say I’ve started taking music seriously yet,” she responds rather honestly to the question of when she started taking music seriously. “It’s still very much about me chilling with my friends.”

As she takes her time figuring things out and going with the wind of her creative inclinations, Brazy still manages to standout out from the crowd for a number of reasons. Her self-assured lyrics and ear for beats that match her effervescent tone, mostly produced friend and collaborator Babyrixburger, as well as her ability to deliver something different on every track makes listening to Brazy refreshing each time.

Within reason, this drew the attention of alternative rap auteur and alté pioneer Cruel Santino. Sitting amongst many popular names like Koffee, Amaarae, Gus Dapperton and Skepta on Santi’s sophomore LP, ‘Subaru Boys: FINAL HEAVEN’, Brazy’s clutch performance on opening track “Matilda” offered a standout cut from the 21-tracker. Her airy, mellifluous vocals and memorable adlibs, paired seamlessly with Santi’s eccentric production and futuristic sounds, set the pace for what many would consider one of the best projects from 2022. Just like that, from making music as a hobby and fun activity with friends, Brazy was opening act for Santi’s Europe Tour and recording the soundtrack that rocked the sound waves of many end of year festivities in these parts, “Attends.”

If you couldn’t already tell from the witty pre-hook, “cheat on me and I’ll cheat on you,” Brazy is here for a good time. She’s experimenting different sounds and genres but one things for certain, Brazy’s songs are one of one. We caught up with the genre-fluid rap artist on what these moments have been like for her. She goes into detail about working with one of her major inspirations, recording “Attends” in 10 minutes, her new collaboration with UK artist Len, what the future holds and much more.

Our conversation, which follows below, has been lightly edited for clarity.

NATIVE: Let’s kick off with your name. What inspired the name Brazy?

Brazy: It’s actually quite an uninteresting story. You know when finsta’s were a thing, my username was Brazybih and when I went to Uni I didn’t want people to know my real name. My Instagram was previously my full government name and when I went to school they butchered the pronuncialtion. I put my name as Brazybih on instagram and all my friends started calling me Brazy.

NATIVE: Lots of listeners don’t know Brazy studied engineering. Is this a career path you’re pursuing and how do you navigate that alongside the music?

Brazy: I studied Bio-medical Engineering at Uni and that’s when I was making most of my songs. I’ve always called myself a DIY queen. I’m always multitasking. When people find out that I studied Engineering or I speak Mandarin, they’re usually surprised. That’s what I enjoy doing. I like being able to have different sides to me. I will always purse dreams I have for myself alongside creative things. I’m actually not pursuing a career in Engineering because Uni was a scam. However, I am going to be working in sales at an investment bank from July. A lot of my music is based off the knowledge that I have and nothing is wasted. It’s a very integral part of who I am and if you don’t know those things about me then you can hear it in my music. We’re a package.

NATIVE: How would you describe your music to someone who’s never listened?

Brazy: I would say that my music is very, very fun. It’s full of personality. When you hear any of my songs, you instantly have a reaction and it’s normally a positive reaction. It would get you moving and you can really feel my personality in the song. All my songs are different so there’s not one way I can really describe it for now”.

NATIVE: So far, it seems like you’re on the cusp of something much bigger. What more can we expect from you? Any projects or visuals in the near future?

Brazy: The “Attends” video is hopefully coming out soon. I hope to record an EP and drop that soon. I’m just looking for the right people to work with. More performances and more features too. I love doing features. This is just the beginning.

NATIVE: How would you describe your average listener and what audience do you anticipate targeting in the future?

Brazy: My average listener is someone who loves to have fun and isn’t too stuck in their ways. They would listen to me singing on “Gingerbread” but they’d also listen to me giving dance music on “Attends.” That’s my ideal listener and that seems to be my audience. They’re very open minded. They love everything that I do. For the audience I anticipate targeting, that would be the nightclub scene. Songs that can be played over and over at parties and nightclubs. I have that with “Attends.” I could never perform it just once. I performed at a concert once and did that song back to back 5 times. An audience that wants to have fun and vibe just like me”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Obi Somto

Wonderland. spoke with the beguiling and sensational artist who was on so many people’s lips. For people like me who are catching up, it is amazing learning more about her! I think that his year is going to be the best of her career so far. The sublime and mesmeric brazy is an artist in her own league right now! I think she will release an E.P. and get involved with some big-name collaborations very soon:

“One of the hottest young talents emerging this year, Nigerian-born, London-based rapper brazy has been demanding an increasing level of attention with every passing release. Despite being merely 21 years old, there is confidence, charisma and craft oozing from her artistry.

Known for her multi-lingual approach to songwriting – rapping in English, Yoruba, French and Zhōngwén, the rising star blends the styles of afrobeats, amapiano, electronica and dance into a dynamic, coherent and progressive amalgamation of genre, self-coining the approach as ‘afro-sexy, afro-future’. She recently had a stint with Casablanca soundtracking Mugler, an indicator of her chameleonic and characterful ambitions.

PHOTO CREDIT: Obi Somto

brazy has returned with a new single, “omg”. There is something immediately undeniable about the track; she flicks between from English to Yoruba effortlessly, seamlessly spitting atop the energetic production from Parked Up. Augmenting her acclaim, brazy has the sound, skill and image to become a global force.

We caught up with brazy, discussing the impact of her cultural background on her creativity, her musical output, and what the future holds.

How has your cultural background shaped you as a musician and creative?

Growing up in Nigeria and around Nigerians has absolutely shaped my creative work. It’s where I got my confidence, my work ethic, my swag – have you ever met a Nigerian who cares about what anyone thinks? Not the ones I know, and that boldness radiates through my music. My love for studying other cultures and languages has also had a huge impact on how I create, I’ve unlocked a whole new range of sounds that I never would have if I limited myself to write in English alone – music is about the bounce, it really doesn’t matter what I’m saying.

How would you describe your essence as an artist? 

My essence is fresh, it’s new, it’s fun, sexy, it’s “what already exists is great, but why don’t we add to it with something even better”. I’m an innovator, I like to create new things – why not?

To you, what stands out to you as an artist? 

You really never know what you’re going to get with me – I’m full of surprises, whether it’s the genre of the song, the language I’m speaking on the song, how I speak, what I do in my free time… I’m the most random, spontaneous person and it definitely reflects in my art. I genuinely try everything, do whatever I want and let myself have fun with it all and you can hear it, that’s very rare”.

The more interviews I read from brazy, the more I love and respect what she is doing. Simply amazing! I am going to source quite liberally from NOTION’s interview from last summer. They chatted with a style icon, incredible young artist, and someone who is no doubt already inspiring so many other people with her creativity and fashion. A mighty and enormously important voice in music:

“For 2023, Brazy’s mission is growth. She’s collaborated with Nigerian Alté legend Cruel Santino [“Matilda”], UK rap whiz Len [“Addicted”] and the genre-bending Odeal [“Be Easy”] – sandwiched in-between stellar performances at Boiler Room and RECESSLAND.

Her discography is full of motivational anthems for the girls, making for the perfect addition to your summer playlists. The L0LA-assisted “Siren” is a serene trap-soaked offering. On the other hand, “Gingerbread” is a stick of bubble-gum pop-rap The Powerpuff Girls would probably listen to as they wallop Mojo Jojo. Describing her music as an uplifting reminder that women can do anything they set their minds to – Brazy is easily one of 2023’s most promising new artists.

On a sun-kissed Thursday afternoon in Hackney, for her first sit-down interview, we spoke to Brazy about her musical journey thus far, the difficulties of being an independent female artist and her fashion endeavours.

You’ve been making music since 2021. How has your sound developed since then?

My journey into music was very spontaneous. It was just me, hopping on beats my producer friends would make. She put out a song, and everyone thought it was crazy.

After that, people would ask me for features, so it was just based on demand. Now, my music is much more intentional. I like my new sound, and it’s still very experimental. The 2021 Brazy is still a part of me, though. I still have the high-pitched thing that I do, coupled with my Afro-type instrumentals from Selecta.

PHOTO CREDIT: Radhika Muthanna

Recently, you’ve worked with Len and Odeal. How did these collaborations come about?

Len was a friend. He just messaged me, and we crafted “Addiction” from there. It was a very cool process – it was random and spontaneous. When people hear “Addiction”, they must think, ‘Who are these two young sexy artists?’ [laughs].

I love working with Len. We make music in a similar same way. With “Addiction”, we worked virtually because I was in Lagos at the time. But this year, we had our first studio session and made four songs in a few hours.

When it came to Odeal, the process was different. He messaged me, telling me he loved my music. He told me he made beats and wanted to sample “Attends”. It worked out great because I’m a massive fan of Odeal, and the way he sampled my song was beautiful.

Do you feel pressure to use social media, especially as an independent artist?

I feel so much pressure, and it isn’t very pleasant. Social media is just not my vibe. As much as my social media looks put together, I’m all about face-to-face interactions. I like to meet people. I take cute pictures and post them, but I don’t really post with a purpose.

It’s so hard for me to find a balance. In this day and age, social media is so important. Even with “Attends”, the way it took off on Tik Tok showed me that if I push something, things can happen. So, with social media, it’s a real love-hate relationship. It can create so many blessings but also share many expectations.

PHOTO CREDIT: Radhika Muthanna

What other challenges do you face as an independent artist?

There are lots. I’m young and only 21 years old – people don’t take you seriously sometimes.

People always ask for validity. It’s hard to provide the evidence and say, “I am a good artist”. Just because I don’t have a label backing me doesn’t mean I’m not good. “They have wanted to (sign me); I just don’t want to”.

Your music is definitely for the girls, would you agree?

It’s funny because my music is for the girls – it’s empowering. It’s weird because I have a lot of male fans, too. It’s I love you guys, but it’s not for you. I’m joking, my music is for everyone, but I have the girls at the forefront of my mind when creating.

And finally, what’s up next for you?

Expect more visuals. I’m trying to merge Brazy the icon with Brazy the artist. An EP is definitely on the way too. Expect more performances and generally just more fun shit. That’s all I can say for now”.

I am going to finish off with an interview from The Face. They spoke with brazy in December. With Afro Sexy about to be released, this was an opportunity to speak with someone who was going from strength. One of these artists that you can well see taking over the music world and conquering the globe! She is more modest but, given the quality of the music she’s putting out, brazy should reach for the stars:

“It sounds weird, but I don’t really have a creative ​‘process’,” the 21-year-old says with a laugh, Zooming in from her home in London. ​“I go into the studio, and then me and the producer create a relationship first. Making the beat is the bulk of the session, I’m very involved in that. Then I just say the first thing that comes into my head. My process is based on vibes!”

The vibes in question: uninhibited sensuality and an ​“Afro-future, Afro-sexy” sound, as Brazy puts it. One of her latest singles, the compulsively replayable, super-smooth omg, nonchalantly flits between English and Yoruba; on Brazy Skank, she blends Afrobeats and baile funk rhythms with plenty of bravado and French lyrics.

Given the confidence with which Brazy approaches her music, it’s surprising that she’s only been releasing music since 2021. Having bounced around London and Nigeria her entire life, over the pandemic, she found herself hopping on friends’ tracks, which inspired her to make her own.

“Growing up in Nigeria had a huge, huge influence on my taste,” Brazy continues, ​“which then influenced my sound. There’s nothing I don’t listen to – techno, Afrobeats, American music, Chinese music, Indian music. I think that’s reflected in my music, which has no limits, no borders. It’s a blend of everything I’ve experienced and everywhere I’ve been.” 

“40% You rule the world for a day. What’s going down?

I’d lift travel barriers so everyone could go wherever they wanted to. Maybe remove financial barriers as well – so that if you went to a country, you could try any food you wanted, do whatever you want, any activities you want, so you get to experience a different space [with] no restrictions.

50% Love, like, hate?

I love travelling and experiencing new cultures. I like dancing. I hate when people are super negative and don’t give things a chance. I hate bad vibes, essentially.

60% What’s your dream holiday destination?

I would love to explore Africa and go to places that are unexplored – waterfalls, mountains, beaches, places you wouldn’t think to travel like Tanzania or Zanzibar.

70% What’s a bad habit you wish you could kick?

I’m super independent and I want to do everything by myself. I wish I could just relax!

80% If you could go back in time and watch any musician perform, who would it be?

This is a classic answer, but Beyoncé. I’ve watched her every single time she comes to London. Every single time. She’s so amazing. I love how much detail she puts into her shows.

90% Can we expect an album soon?

Expect a lot more singles, is all I can say! Then maybe a full length project next year…

100% What can artists do to help save the world?

Continue making great music. Music saves lives”.

Someone I have recently come across, I am playing catch up I know! I am not really invested in brazy and her world. I am in awe of her music and who she is. A really positive force in the music world, I am crossing my fingers this year gives her nothing but good fortune and love! Her fanbase is growing and, with every single, more and more notice her. The magnificent brazy is a rapper charting her own course. If you have not followed her already then make sure you do, as there are…

FEW out there like her!

____________

Follow brazy

FEATURE: Spotlight: Aziya

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

 

Aziya

_________

HAVING discovered her music…

through a great ‘ones to watch 2024’ list from The Independent recently, I have constantly connected to the music of Aziya. I wanted to bring together some interviews from last year where we get to know more about this stunning artist. Someone whose music you might label Rock or Alternative, she is in a scene/genre traditionally dominated by men. With women/female bands/duos like Nova Twins coming through, there is a bit of a shift. That said, there is still a skew and imbalance that artists like Aziya are striking against. Adding their incredible music to the mix. In the process, proving she is a future festival great with many years in the industry left. I am going to start with a short interview from Equate Magazine. This is an interview from 2021. It was published around the release of her E.P., We Speak of Tides. It starts with the story that Aziya was on Instagram showcasing videos of her playing cover songs. The amazing H.E.R. took notice of her. Aziya was selected from twenty thousand rising talents on a ‘Girls with Guitars’ livestream. Not long after, Aziya was signed by Warner Brothers Records. Quite a sudden rise for this spectacular musician who is one of the most distinct and interesting voices in new music:

“Aziya wrote her first lyrics and started singing around age ten. Soon the singer’s parents bought her a guitar to match her craft. “My mom could tell I was writing these songs and needed some form of a complement. So they got me guitar lessons when I was kid.” Raised in East London under a healthy plethora of music, Aziya’s ears were fed System of A Down to Patti Smith to A Tribe Called Quest. “There were so many different genres going on. I was never prevented from listening to anything. It was all at my dispense and gave me a fucked-up music taste,” she admits. The singer then graduated from the Brit School in 2018. The school helped her grow into a stronger producer, singer, and writer.

Aziya’s (nee Aldridge -Moore) self-produced 80s tinged rock single, “Blood”, is a ferocious anthem about bitter family relations as she hollers in the chorus “You’re my blood/it’s a word that you don’t understand/You’re my blood/write it off/cause you know that you can.” “Writing “Blood” was very cathartic for me. It was about a certain situation between a family member and me. I think it can relate to anyone feeling distant from loved ones even though you are blood related. I think it is a universal message even though it was a personal one for me,” she says.

“Blood” was musically inspired by the sounds of the New York City garage rock band scene of the early 2000s especially by The Yeah Yeah Yeahs. “I love Karen O. I wanted my sound to echo that gritty early guitar sound of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. You don’t have to love rock music to listen to my music,” the singer says bluntly. “A lot of my hunger comes from me wanting to change the norm and make it clear to the public that hear my music that it’s me writing and playing. I want to be the artist that I didn’t get to see growing up.”

With her long black locks of hair, her black leather ensembles, and her stylistic moves in the “Blood” video some might even compare Aziya to the late great R&B star Aaliyah, but her sound, even though it contrasts, is what Aaliyah’s was at the beginning of her career—refreshingly cool, exceptionally avant-garde, and stylistically like no other.

I sat down with the eclectic singer to talk music trends, her influences, and growing up in the social media age.

Read the full interview below…

EQ: Is it intimidating debuting on the music scene as a female rocker in a current dominated male field? 

A: It is challenging. I want the public to listen to the music that I am making. There are so many female guitarists that are not being recognized. My main aim is to completely disregard this whole stigma around it so you can listen to my music.

EQ: You were born right on the cusp of the social media age. What are the pros and cons of social media?

A: The pros of social media is that it brings back that punk sensibility. You can do it yourself and reach so many people. The cons are that it can suck you into this vacuum. People compare themselves to others by placing the best versions of themselves on there. If you are having anxiety from it, step away. My advice is to just stay in your lane.

EQ: We Speak of Tides is the new EP. Can you tell me more about it—lyrically and musically?

A: It’s about people, friends, family, lovers with the idea of connection and touch. Those are big themes throughout Tides and my music in general.

Musically the EP is rock music. If anything, I crave to hear the rock genre. There wasn’t any pressure to fill that void right now.

EQ: Your fashion sense screams Aaliyah. Is she a style icon for you, if not who is? 

A: I love Stevie Nicks, Debbie Harry, and June Millington. I was discovered as a musician first and fashion modeling came into play. My first love is music though.

EQ: What is the Aziya live experience like? 

A: I need to get to the States! I love to see people moshing and bobbing their heads. Just seeing people in real life singing to my lyrics is all I need really”.

Ahead of the release of her E.P., LONELY CASTLES, Aziya spoke with Wonderland. They asked her about the artists who inspired her, how she would describe her own sound, in addition to what we can expect from her approaching E.P. LONELY CASTLES is one of the most immediate and compelling E.P.s of 2023. It highlights a truly wonderful artist who stays in the mind the first time you hear her:

“Who and what influences you?

Debbie Harry, Santigold, Telecaster, Heartbreak, 2023 & Touring

How did you first discover your love of creating?

The first ever song I wrote and produced was called “Teen Face” – the fact that this idea I wrote could be made into something others could listen to felt like a weird super power.

From there, how did you begin shaping yourself as an artist?

That song (never released) had a guitar solo that was about a minute and a half long. Subconsciously I knew guitar music played a huge role for me and so the references started to become even more refined.

How would you define the essence of your sound?

Songs that I want John Bonham to drum, J Dilla to co-produce and Debbie Harry to feature on.

As someone who produces her own music, what is the significance of maintaining control of the whole creative process to you?

For me it’s like trying to become fluent in another language. You learn it so you can be a part of the conversation.

How do you feel reflecting on your debut EP, “We Speak of Tides”?

That’s my baby and I’m so proud of it, especially because it was done completely independently – from the artwork and visuals to the music. It laid the foundations of this journey I’m on sonically.

What can we expect from your upcoming EP?

Screaming, bizarre middle eight sections that sound like Grimes and Kurt Cobain had an AI song baby. A diary into what it feels like living in 2023”.

I am going to finish with an interview from DAZED. They spoke with Aziya in October. She took DAZED around East London around her favourite spots and explained why she wants to be the new face of British Rock – something that is entirely possible. I think this year is going to be a huge and really important one for Aziya. If you have not heard her music yet then make sure you follow her and listen to as much as possible. I wonder if this year will see a debut album come along:

“Born and raised in Hackney as the eldest of three, Aziya grew up in a household bustling with a vast array of musical influences. “My mom was playing a lot of Stevie Nicks and Patti Smith, but then also A Tribe Called Quest, and my dad was playing Outkast and J Dilla,” she explains, discussing the music she grew up listening to. ”But then in my car journeys to school, my parents would put on a System of a Down CD. So it was very varied, and there were no limits to what I was listening to. I think I really had an affiliation as a kid to guitar music, whether it was like Jimi Hendrix or No Doubt.” When she was ten years old, her mother spotted her affinity for guitar music and brought her first guitar to see how it would progress.

Over a Diet Coke, she reminisces fondly on the first song she wrote at the age of 11. “I thought I ate,” she says, with a laugh. “I tried to make this metaphor about a shower representing love and it was so poetic. It was so deep and I was like ‘Yeah it’s coming out’. It obviously never did.” Eventually, her growing passion for playing guitar and alternative rock music ignited her growing passion for playing guitar and her love of alternative rock music propelled her to pursue a fully-fledged career as a musician.

PHOTO CREDIT: Habi Diallo

During the pandemic, she began posting TikTok videos of her covers and eventually began gaining attraction from artists like Grimes and Florence and The Machine – the latter of whom she later toured with as an opening act. As it stands, she has almost 300,000 followers on the app and 4.9 million likes.

It’s no secret women in alternative rock music have been historically erased and shunned from mainstream history. While she grew up with a rich knowledge of alternative rock music, female role models were not as visible or known to Aziya. Instead, she recounts spending a lot of time countless hours doing research to find the women rock stars who, despite being overlooked, have undeniably paved the way for herself and her contemporaries.

The first female guitarist she found was Viv Albertine from the Slits. “What resonated with me was that she wasn’t classically trained,” she explains. “She didn’t know how to play guitar. She just had friends that were in The Clash and she was hanging out with the Sex Pistols so she naturally just picked up an electric guitar to try it and just like instinctively started playing. I think to me, that’s way more important than someone who's learned for years on end.” One discovery led to another and eventually, she found Sister Rosetta Tharpe. “I think she’s the Rock and Roll Queen,” Aziya says. “She was an amazing guitarist back in the 60s in gospel music and then from her, I found June Millington from the band Fanny. So there are women out there, but you really have to search for them. I just don’t want that to be the case in this generation.”

Two years ago, she released her first EP We Speak of Tides, a five-song record exploring human connection, coming-of-age and the tumultuous nature of relationships. Despite it only being a couple of years since the record came out, the growth that so often occurs during the late teens and early twenties is apparent in her latest project. “I think this EP was different because the first EP for me was working out where within guitar music I sat as an artist,” she says. “So on We Speak of Tides you hear psych-rock influences you hear like heavy guitar, grungy influences. And I think with this EP, it was more like, OK, we’ve gone on a journey. Now, this is where you are, this is your sound”.

There are quite a few features out at the moment that are tipping artists that will make an impact this year. Aziya is definitely among the strongest and most supremely talented. I hope that she gets a lot of radio airplay and love as we move through the year. With a new E.P. as strong as LONELY CASTLES out there, it all bodes well for an exceptional musician. Her music is something that…

NOBODY should miss out on.

____________

Follow Aziya

FEATURE: The Digital Mixtape: The Divine and Legendary Melanie C At Fifty

FEATURE:

 

 

The Digital Mixtape

PHOTO CREDIT: Conor Clinch

 

The Divine and Legendary Melanie C At Fifty

_________

IT might be a little insensitive…

IN THIS PHOTO: Spice Girls

to mention a woman’s age - especially if they are approaching an ‘important birthday’! In the case of Melanie C, she is such a legend and important music figure, that I needed to celebrate it. Melanie C is a terrific solo artist and, of course, a fifth of Spice Girls. I would love it if they were announced as Glastonbury headliners this year. Melanie C (Chisholm) herself is open to it. The group – Melanie Chisholm, Melanie Brown, Emma Bunton, Geri Halliwell (now Horner) and Victoria Adams (now Beckham) – formed in 1994. This year is a big one for them. There is a lot to love about Melanie C who, by the way, has always been my favourite Spice Girl. Someone who I admired (and, frankly, had a crush on) from a young age, she is such an impressive person! From putting up merchandise and interesting stuff up for auction for Shelter, to talking about her mental health in a frank and open way, you know she has inspired so many girls and women (and other people too). A true icon who is beloved and could well be a politician (someone who would attack the Conservatives and really speak for those alienated and ignored), there is so much to admire when it comes to Melanie C. Born on 12th January, 1974 in Whiston, Merseyside, Chisholm has co-written eleven U.K. number-ones. That is more than any other female artist in chart history. Chisholm remains the only female performer to top the charts as a solo artist, as part of a duo, quartet, and quintet. That is a staggering feat! With twelve U.K. number-one singles, she is the second female artist – and the first British female artist – with most singles at number one in the United Kingdom.

A true treasure and queen, here is some biography about the phenomenal Melanie C. I am going to end this feature with a playlist containing some of the best Spice Girls number, together with her amazing solo/collaboration work. I can’t really overstate how much I admire Melanie C. One of our very best people:

“The start of Melanie’s career really needs no explanation at all, as it is rather well documented…

After the iconic 1996 debut single ‘Wannabe’ topped the charts in 37 countries, Spice Girls’ debut album ’Spice’ went on to sell more than 31 million copies worldwide, becoming the best-selling album of all time by a female group. The girls went on to sell more than 85 million records, releasing three studio albums, 13 singles and winning a host of awards including a BRIT for Outstanding Contribution to British Music.

Melanie’s first solo venture was her featuring on the hit single ‘When You’re Gone’ with Bryan Adams. As a solo artist, Melanie has achieved over 3 million album sales, two Number 1 singles, and six Top 10 singles, including the iconic hits ‘I Turn To You’ and ‘Never be the Same Again’ featuring the late Lisa ‘Left Eye’ Lopez. In 2005 her track ‘First Day Of My Life’ was to become one of her biggest hits to date, selling over 400,000 copies in Germany alone. It also went on to chart at Number 1 in Spain, Sweden, Austria, Switzerland, and Portugal where it helped to propel the album ‘Beautiful Intentions’ to double-platinum status and kept it at Number 1 for 9 weeks.

n 2012, Melanie reunited with the Spice Girls for what she described as the highlight of their career as a group – performing at the Olympic Closing Ceremony in London. In one of the most anticipated appearances and in front of a global TV audience of billions, the world could never look at black cabs in the same way again!

2019 Saw the return of the Spice Girls on their sold-out Stadium tour, which served as a joyous reminder of the spell that ‘90s girl power still casts on pop.

Within days of waving goodbye with three nights at Wembley, Melanie was continent-hopping on a very different, if no less glamorous tour, performing at Pride parades with the LGBTQ+ club collective Sink The Pink.

From hosting a float in Sao Paulo – the first international artist ever invited to do so – and performing in New York’s Times Square for World Pride’s closing party to storming everywhere from Stockholm, Santiago, Amsterdam, London, Cologne, Berlin, Brighton, Belfast, and Dublin, the tour proved pivotal to Melanie’s future plans.   “Being a Spice Girl again was like a fairytale and I loved every moment,” says Melanie, “but being on that float in Sao Paulo, with three million people out in the streets, was like nothing I’d ever experienced before. It was one of those highs you hope never to come down from.”

Melanie released her latest album “Melanie C” in 2021, including bangers such as ‘In And Out Of Love’ also hits ‘Blame It On Me’ & ‘Who I Am’ and her very anticipated memoir “Who I Am, My Story” in 2022”.

Her debut album, Northern Star, turns twenty-five later this year. Spice Girls have that thirtieth anniversary this year. Ahead of her fiftieth birthday on 12th January, I wanted to spend some time with her music and career. I cannot include all the interviews and videos that people need to check out. I would recommend people check out Melanie C’s autobiography, Who Am I? It is a must-read. I am going to end with a quote about the book:

“When you're a woman, though, that power can be easily taken away by those around you, whether by pressure, exhaustion, shaming, bullying or a constant feeling like you aren't enough. I have been known as Sporty Spice, Mel C, Melanie C or just plain old Melanie Chisholm, but what you will read within the pages of this book is who I truly am, and how I found peace with that after all these years.

I have really enjoyed reminiscing and getting everything down on the page, and, though revisiting some of my darkest times was hard, I hope this book can be inspiring and empowering as well as entertaining and give you a bit of a laugh”.

Many happy returns to Melanie C. Even if Spice Girls are not announced as Glastonbury headliners – I have a sneaky suspicion they may be in the mix! -, 2024 is a massive year for them. I know we will hear new music from Melanie C and maybe podcasts/books and other things. She is always so busy, so do keep your eye out. On 12th January, one of our most adored and respected people turns fifty. I wanted to mark that. There is no doubt that Melanie C is dear…

IN all our hearts.

FEATURE: To Watch in 2024: JGrrey

FEATURE:

 

 

To Watch in 2024

PHOTO CREDIT: Leanda Heler

 

JGrrey

_________

I spotlighted her…

PHOTO CREDIT: Omar Khaleel

In 2020 but, as we are in a new year, and it has been four years since I last discussed her, it is high time I highlight the brilliant JGrrey. I am tipping her for big things this year. She is an amazing artist that everyone needs to follow. Real name Jennifer Clarke, this South London artist had a difficult start. It is clear that making music is the one thing that spoke to her. A true talent and direction. In 2019, in a year that saw her perform at Glastonbury, tour with Billie Eilish and release her debut EP, Grreydaze, there was clear direction and passion in the eyes of JGrrey:

“I grew up in around five or six different foster homes in south London. As a child, I was unsure a lot of the time, like I never knew what was going on. I remember being at a supermarket once and getting told off for walking away from everyone. I felt like I never knew the rules. I did what I wanted to do, and if someone told me off that’s how I’d learn I wasn’t supposed to do it.

‘When I met my adoptive parents, I assumed it was just another foster home, so I wasn’t that bothered. But I do remember thinking my dad was so big, the tallest thing I’d ever seen. During the first month of living there, I’d always ask for a drink or to go to the bathroom. My parents kept saying, “You don’t have to ask, this is where you live.” I slowly started to get it.

‘They lived in Edgware, and I remember on the way home with them I asked if that was London, because I didn’t want to get on a plane and go to a different country. I thought anything outside London was this whole other world; it’s always been a big part of who I am. We moved to Hertfordshire when I started secondary school, and the first thing I wanted to do was move back. Hertfordshire felt a lot more homogenous. I came from a school where my five best friends were Chinese, albino, black, Indian and white, and at my new school I was “the black girl”. My hair was weird, I was different, and that was strange for me. I didn’t know people were different, I thought people were people. I didn’t think about ethnicity or race, but when we moved to the countryside it was like, “Oh OK, that’s a thing here?”. Mum would always say, “People might be racist to you” and I was like, “Not me”. Now I’m 25, I understand that.

‘The only thing I know about my ethnicity is that my birth mother is Irish. Not knowing only fazes me if I really think about it or when I’m around people who are super connected to their heritage. My friend Caspar is half-Bajan, half-English. He can speak patois and has an amazing sense and understanding of both worlds. I have a lot of unanswered questions. My whole life is trial and error, but I think it makes me grow in different ways. I want to be at a comfortable place in my career and personal life. Right now, my focus is music.

‘When I was younger, there wasn’t one specific artist I was into, but I do remember listening to Adele’s album, 19, and thinking, “How are you singing like this?” “How are you writing like this?” “How are the melodies and the music so good?” I felt the same about Beyoncé. It’s her vocal runs; how the hell does her voice do that? I also started to fall in love with musicians like Amy Winehouse, Lauryn Hill and Erykah Badu.

‘I made my first song when I was bored one day with nothing to do. Me and my boyfriend at the time recorded it and put it online. I didn’t think anything of it, but it got all these comments, and somehow [Roll Deep’s] Manga Saint Hilaire reached out and invited me to a studio session. I went, and was so nervous, but something clicked.

‘I always knew I could sing. I never thought I was particularly good, but I think what made me go back to music after that initial session was the fact that I knew I could do it better. Still to this day, I listen to my earlier songs and think, “Why didn’t I do that part differently?”

‘I’m figuring out a lot more about myself through my writing. I don’t overthink it, it’s straight off the cuff. That means when I look back at my lyrics, I realise I’ve subconsciously written all this stuff. I’m then like, “Oh, that’s a thing I said? That’s something I need to address.” It helps me understand myself a lot better. There’s a song called “Happiness Seems A Hell Of A Guy” from my new EP, which really allowed me to learn about my emotions and relate to them more directly.

‘I usually write when I’m sad, because it’s all I want to do, and it helps me make sense of my feelings. “Pretty Insane’’ is about mine and my mum’s mental health: “My mother doesn’t believe in everything she sees. Sorry, it’s quite sad, we’re both going mad.” I don’t really talk about how I feel, which is ironic because now it’s out there for everyone to hear. I’ve had so many messages from people saying, “This is exactly how I feel”, and that can only be a positive”.

I am going to move to an interview from last year. In October, JGrrey released her mixtape album, If Not Now? It is a magnificent work from one of our most distinct artists. I am going to move to that. I want to get some background and run-up first. Before getting to some current press and love, I want to get to an interview with Off the Block. The Neo-Soul artist was definitely capturing the media imagination. Someone who can write a song out of everything, I don’t think there is anyone in music quite like her:

“How would you describe your sound?

I would describe my sound as laid-back, almost lazy at times, just smoky. Sometimes it can be quite fun, songs like “Pretty Insane” are fun in the production and the way that I’m writing, but then I have songs like “Feelings” or even “Something” which are lazier and more down-tempo.

When you have interviews like this, do you find that journalists want to describe you as an RnB or hip-hop artist? Do you find this to be self-serving?

Yeah, just to make it easier for them. I don’t know what my genre is. For the past year I’ve been non-stop making music and I’m at a point now where I could make two albums with the amount of music I have. “Don’t Fade” is such a different song to “Feelings” or “Growing” or “Ready 2 Die”. I’ll make any music I wanna make. Genre to me is completely fluid, it shouldn’t exist.

Who do you get compared to in the music industry?

I get compared to Erykah Badu because a lot of my stuff is really soulful, and the structure is quite similar. Lily Allen as well, just because I sing in an English accent, which is probably the only thing that draws us together.

I’ve heard a lot of people compare you to Jorja Smith as well, does that bother you?

I don’t think it’s a case of being bothered by it – it’s Jorja Smith. I work really hard on my songs, and when I write them they’re coming from a place that I thought only I knew. So it’s frustrating when someone says ‘that sounds like a Jorja Smith song’ because me and Jorja are two very separate people with very separate lives and two very different sounds and experiences. A lot of the time I think that comparison comes from being lazy, and that we’re both women of colour who write love songs at certain beats per minute.

Do you find that people try to pit you against other female musicians?

I very rarely hear in an interview with, for instance, a male grime artist, being compared to another male grime artist. You wouldn’t do that, it’s almost disrespectful. But with women it’s; ‘you kinda sound like’ or ‘you’ve got a similar style to’ and a lot of the time people do it with the intention to compliment, but actually it can feel like now that’s my direct competition, because you’re essentially saying that we are making the same music. So it turns into: who’s making the same music better? I don’t think it’s done intentionally, but the music industry is a harsh place to be.

That harsh environment puts a lot of women, particularly women of colour, off from putting themselves out there creatively. Throughout school even, girls are brought up in a culture of competition where we compete for opportunities or men, or that it’s desirable to not be a ‘girl’s girl.’ What advice would you give to women who want to put themselves out there but are apprehensive about the misogynistic tendencies of the music industry?

Speaking from experience, I know I could give the best advice in the world but if you’re in a place where can’t or you won’t, or you don’t want to, it’s not going to help. I feel like everyone has a moment, and you can be reluctant because of those [misogynistic] reasons, but if you can see a door opening, or a moment that is just looking to be taken, take the moment, open the door and let people hear your voice. I’ve been in situations where I’ve held back, and I think now ‘why did I not take that moment?’ ‘why didn’t I release that track?’ But of course, it’s easier said than done.

Do you feel like your COLORS session was one of those moments for you?

I very nearly didn’t do COLORS. If I didn’t take that moment I would have been such an idiot! But I did, and I’m very thankful for it. COLORS came out like two years ago, and I’ve only just now found comfort in performing. It was the most gut-wrenchingly nervous thing I’ve ever done. It was horrifyingly scary for me and that’s why I nearly didn’t do it – it’s easier to just not feel those emotions.

PHOTO CREDIT: Omar Khaleel

What’s your creative process like?

The more I’m writing, the more I’m surprising myself with my process. It used to be, when I very first started, finding an instrumental, then finding a melody and fitting words into it; simple as that. Whereas now, the process behind a lot of the songs on my EP has been really strange. For instance, ‘God’s House’ was a poem I wrote and the last track off the EP (‘Something’) was a voice note and the weirdest process ever. Now, I’m just always looking for the next process and how I’m going to surprise myself.

What’s next for you?

Right now I’m in a mindset, but not necessarily a position, because that would sound arrogant, where I can go anywhere with my music right now. I think that’s a really nice mindset to be in because I’m not a naturally optimistic person. The feedback I’ve had from my EP, the music I’m sitting on right now, the people I’m surrounded with and [those] who support my music make me genuinely feel like I can do whatever I want to do with [it]. As long as I can help my parents the way they’ve helped me, and live a happy life while I carry on making music, that’s the goal”.

Let’s get to 2023. On a rainy day back in October, DAZED spent some time plant-shopping with JGrrey in London. It was a relaxed vibe where we got to know more about an incredible talent. Maybe still rising and coming through, I hope this year is one where we see more press from an extraordinary person. I have loved her music for years. If Not Now? might be the best thing that she has ever released:

“What type of music did you listen to growing up and how has it influenced your taste in music?

JGrrey: I listened to a lot of Beyoncé. My dad is a DJ, so he would often be spinning his sets during the day for events that would take place in the evening. It depended on whether he was doing mobile DJ gigs, parties, weddings, or bar mitzvahs – you name it.

I remember being really young and listening to my dad’s music. He unapologetically blasted a mix of songs, including tracks from artists like Amy [Winehouse], Beyoncé, Frank Sinatra, Kelis, and many others. It was such a diverse range of music. Back in his DJ days, he had to do a lot of research to discover new music.

Where was the starting point for your new EP?

JGrrey: I remember when I was writing, there was a lot of ‘song and dance’ in my tracks. Similar to like ‘Dream' or ‘Pretty Insane’, ‘There’s13’ was freestyle. I heard the track and just pressed record, the track itself is my first scratch. I really like keeping as many scratch vocals as I can. Even in ‘Dream’, or my latest single, ‘The Bottom Line’ if I do say so, is a good scratch vocal, and it doesn’t make any sense. The lyrics are absolute nonsense, but it feels good. I’ve seen people listen to that song, they’re singing along with meaning. I don’t know what it means, it’s open to interpretation.

How different have you found working on this project to your past projects?

JGrrey: Really hard because I care about it. I think the setup in which I was making music previously was a setup around men who worked in the music industry. Now I am around women working in the industry and I think that that’s completely changed my perspective because I’m aware, now more than ever, that I, as a woman of colour, a queer woman of colour, need to continue to release music for people like me. I don’t need to write a song for the pop charts. I don’t need to write a song that’s got a great chorus that might go. I need to write songs that other people like me can listen to, feel empowered by, feel uplifted, consoled, reassured and see themselves in.

The cast for your ‘Sick of Me’ music video was made up of entirely women of colour, what was the process behind that?

JGrrey: So it wasn’t just the cast; it was the whole set, the whole everybody from the beginning of production, storyboarding, behind the camera crew, cast, everyone. It was something that I was really active in trying to get, and I did it. I think there are only two men in the whole process of the music video, and it’s not that I’m trying to stop men from doing anything. It’s that I’m trying to make a point. It took me three days to find one woman in the industry. It was really just trying to uplift anyone other than men because the song isn’t about men. The song is for Black women and non-binary people. It is for trans people who I feel like the whole world is against them at the moment with regard to the headlines and the things politicians are saying about their existence.

PHOTO CREDIT: Habi Diallo

When you did finally find all the people to shoot, how was it on set? What was the energy like?

JGrrey: Everyone was just saying, wow, what a difference it can make when the whole room is a community and uplifting one another safely. No one feels like they are a target, no one feels worried, and everyone understands that we are a community of respect. The energy in the room was so validating. All of these people came together just because I thought I was gonna do it and we did it. It was a beautiful thing – very validating.

What do you hope people take away from listening to this project?

JGrrey: I hope they listen to it and remember that everybody is so multifaceted. You know, even you and me sitting here now, I’m showing you one side of myself, you’re showing me one side of yourself. Hopefully, this project will remind people when they listen to it that they are not just one thing, they are everything. You can be whoever you want to be. You want to try anything you want to do. If it brings you joy and doesn’t harm other people, pursue your interests. There’s nothing you can’t do”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Habi Diallo

I shall finish off back at the mixtape. It is a wonderful work that you need to listen to. I feel that this year will be a very busy one for JGrrey. New Wave Mave Magazine got some details about a project from one of the U.K.’s finest young voices. An artist who will have massive worldwide acclaim very soon:

“If Not Now?” is a potent question that we all should ask ourselves, and apply when we have the moments hesitant before deciding whether we should do something or not.

For JGrrey, it’s holding herself accountable on whether there is something that exists called perfect timing and a question that holds itself in the air.

It is also, the title of her new mixtape and the signal of return since her last releases four years ago in an attempt to find the most daring and freeing expression through her limitations to voice what she couldn’t before.

Composed of 8 tracks, the Londoner distils thoughts and feelings with elegant transparency as her distinct, timeless and soulful tone takes you on an impressionistic venture.

The Beginning of the track opens up with the entrancing ‘When?', where JGrrey muses during the aftermath of a personal relationship ending, there is a fondness in her soulful vocals that is endearing but she cannot help but revisit the bad.

Each of the other tracks is unique and individual, on the shortest offering on the project, you can hear the raw live recording of the instruments on ‘Theirs13’ as they improvise on the track.

‘Superfly’ leans into the realm of neo-soul with blue feels and a carefree attitude; ‘Sick Of Me’ is a seductive ego-driven tinged offering and ‘Boys?’ is a typical British nostalgic-sounding track from the early rock 2000s, that taps into her justifiable anger at the action of boys.

There are also barely any features on the mixtape you can only find Brooklyn rapper Zombie Juice and Mercury-nominated Kojey Radical on the project. The latter features on the ‘May’, whilst the Brooklyn native makes an apparency on the jazz-influenced ‘Drream’.

Produced by Grammy-nominated producer Maths Time Joy, we close with the mournful ‘Marble Flaws’ as she likens her relationship to the dying summer, abandoning the pulsating jazz feel, you are kept in time by a gentle guitar and percussion drums and lulled to comfort by the Londoner’s uncharacteristic soft tone.

The music video is also self-directed and shot in Metropolis, featuring JGrrey getting talked down to by a boardroom official. The overall message of the video, however, is of fair inclusion and shows JGrrey choosing to live authentically.

Speaking on the project JGrrey says “I would like to think that my music does what it says on the tin, when I call a project if not now… then that's why I've released it, because I had to, because why not, because I can. I wasted a lot of time, so did you, we all did… and I’ve decided to start making my art unapologetic and without reason, because I can.

I’ve doubted myself for years, then the whole worrld closed and I tried my best to be as close to who I wanted to actually be as possible, an ode to myself, I made some huge changes, everything, I changed everything, I finally listened to what my soul/gut was trying to say.

My partner would ask me why I’d often set my self proclaimed ‘best work’ to one side and wait for the right time to release it? I moved into club36, she saved me.

A sacred place with sacred souls, people I’ve known such a brief time but found home in, we cried, we laughed, we questioned one another and had discussions about everything and anything.

My housemate Frraser would often look at me when I’d doubt myself, or question a big decision, assertively she’d say girl, if not now? And even though it was probably rhetorical, I knew the answer, when? And so if not now is just some prices of art, some things I had to say, and feel, for Uu”.

Someone I feel is going to ascend to new heights this year, we are going to hear a lot more from JGrrey. Such a magnificent talent whose voice and writing takes you somewhere special. She has that power and allure that melts together to create this heady brew. A musical cocktail that is both sweet and smoky, everyone needs this artist in their life. Go and check out JGrrey. Listen back to her older work, but do go and take a moment to listen to If Not Now? A brilliant mixtape from a staggering artist. One that is going to enjoy big success…

THROUGH this year.

___________

Follow JGrrey

FEATURE: Record High: The Unstoppable Rise of Vinyl Sales

FEATURE:

 

 

Record High

PHOTO CREDIT: Gabi Santana/Pexels

 

The Unstoppable Rise of Vinyl Sales

_________

WE are in the middle…

PHOTO CREDIT: RF._.studio/Pexels

of a vinyl revival and growth that I think we will see for many years more. The more we think of streaming and how little it pays artists, the more people are compelled to invest in physical music. I can understand why vinyl is booming and has this allure. I wonder why this year has been such a big one for vinyl. One could say that there is a new wave of listeners who are discovering vinyl. Huge modern artists being streamed but also having their albums bought. Classic albums keep on providing popular. It is magnificent to see! I will come to onto some theories as to why we are seeing such an upswing and continued appreciation of vinyl. First, Music Week reported on a record high year for vinyl sales:

“Vinyl LP purchases have risen for the 16th consecutive year in the UK in 2023.

While that’s not so surprising, what is perhaps unexpected is that vinyl sales are growing at their fastest rate this decade.

Following a 2.9% improvement in unit sales last year, the vinyl market in 2023 has experienced much stronger growth, with an 11.7% year-on-year rise to 5.9 million units.

The figures are based on analysis of Official Charts data by the BPI, and cover the period up to chart week 51.

The increase has been led by new releases from artists including Ed Sheeran, Lana Del Rey, Lewis Capaldi, the Rolling Stones and Taylor Swift. 1989 (Taylor’s Version) is the year's biggest vinyl seller with 78,767 units (up to week 50), followed by the Rolling Stones’ Hackney Diamonds (42,815 vinyl sales).

As well as the continuing popularity of independent record stores, the vinyl market’s strength was also reflected in HMV’s return to London’s Oxford Street after four years with a flagship store.

While more than 80% of recorded music consumption in the UK is now made up of streaming, demand for vinyl LPs continues to surge, with the market at its highest annual level since 1990.

Additionally, the CD market has sustained its smallest annual decline in nearly a decade this year as it moves closer to plateauing. Almost 11 million CDs were sold across the year, while sales of cassettes topped 100,000 units in a calendar year for the fourth consecutive year.

Led by vinyl, the resurgence of physical product underlines the resilience of the UK music market

Final figures for vinyl LP, CD and cassette sales in 2023 will be unveiled by the BPI on January 3, along with the total volume of audio streams for the year and the final year-end charts.

Dr Jo Twist OBE, BPI chief executive, said: “Led by vinyl, the resurgence of physical product underlines the resilience of the UK music market at a time when streaming consumption continues to hit record levels. Whilst LP sales have now been on an upward path for the past 16 years, it is encouraging to see a stabilisation in demand for CD, as well as new generations of music fans falling in love with the cassette. It is giving people more choice than ever in how they enjoy their favourite music."

New releases top best-sellers list

Seven of the 10 biggest vinyl LP sellers in the year to date are a 2023 new release, led by 1989 (Taylor’s Version) by Taylor Swift and also including her album Speak Now (Taylor’s Version), along with albums by Blur (The Ballad Of Darren), Lana Del Rey (Did You Know There’s A Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd), Lewis Capaldi (Broken By Desire To Be Heavenly Sent), Kylie Minogue (Tension) and The Rolling Stones (Hackney Diamonds).

Additionally, nearly half of the 100 most purchased vinyl LPs of 2023 were released in the past two years and include albums by UK artists such as The 1975, Depeche Mode, Ed Sheeran, Gorillaz, The Lathums, Liam Gallagher, Maisie Peters, Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, The Reytons, Royal Blood, Sleaford Mods and Sleep Token.

These were alongside big-selling vinyl releases by international artists, including Blink-182, Boygenius, Olivia Rodrigo, Paramore and Queens Of The Stone Age, as well as the soundtracks to the Barbie and Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3 movies.

IN THIS PHOTO: The cover for Olivia Rodrigo’s album, GUTS

Titles defined as catalogue continue to play an important role in growing the vinyl market, with 2023’s biggest sellers including Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours, which is set to be among the year’s 10 biggest-selling vinyl LPs for an eighth consecutive time.

Other successful catalogue titles on vinyl included reissues and collections by The Courteneers, De La Soul, Oasis, Pink Floyd and Wham!, as well as evergreen classics such as the original studio version of The Dark Side Of The Moon and Arctic Monkeys’ AM.

The vinyl market was also boosted by Record Store Day, which in April reported that its annual event had increased vinyl sales by 122%. National Album Day, which is organised jointly by the BPI and ERA, grew vinyl LP sales on the day of the event by 51%.

Brand new albums also lead the CD and cassette markets, with the 10 biggest titles in each market at this stage having been released in 2023. Take That’s This Life is the year’s top CD, having sold more than 100,000 copies on the format during its first week of release in November, while the other most popular titles include albums by Ed Sheeran, Lewis Capaldi, Pink, the Rolling Stones and Taylor Swift.

Olivia Rodrigo has the top cassette seller this year with her second album, Guts, while other popular cassette titles include 2023 releases from Blur, Inhaler and Kylie Minogue.

Further support for the physical format in 2023 came from increased distribution capacity, with Utopia Distribution Services and DP World opening a new warehouse for physical music in Bicester with a daily handling capacity of more than 100,000 units.

OFFICIAL VINYL ARTIST ALBUMS CHART 2023 – Official Charts Company

1 Taylor Swift – 1989 (Taylor’s Version)

2 The Rolling Stones – Hackney Diamonds

3 Lana Del Rey –  Did You Know There’s A Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd

4 Taylor Swift – Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)

5 Fleetwood Mac – Rumours

6 Blur – The Ballad Of Darren

7 Pink Floyd – The Dark Side Of The Moon

8 Taylor Swift – Midnights

9 Olivia Rodrigo – Guts

10 Lewis Capaldi – Broken By Desire To Be Heavenly Sent

OFFICIAL COMPACT DISC ARTIST ALBUMS CHART 2023 – Official Charts Company

1 Take That – This Life

2 Taylor Swift – 1989 (Taylor’s Version)

3 The Rolling Stones – Hackney Diamonds

4 Lewis Capaldi – Broken By Desire To Be Heavenly Sent

5 Ed Sheeran – Subtract

6 Pink – Trustfall

7 Foo Fighters – But Here We Are

8 Metallica – 72 Seasons

9 Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds – Council Skies

10 Kylie Minogue – Tension

OFFICIAL CASSETTE ARTIST ALBUMS CHART 2023 – Official Charts Company

1 Olivia Rodrigo – Guts

2 Ed Sheeran – Subtract

3 Kylie Minogue – Tension

4 Inhaler – Cuts & Bruises

5 Blur – The Ballad Of Darren

6 Lana Del Rey – Did You Know There’s A Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd

7 Sleep Token – Take Me Back To Eden

8 Lewis Capaldi – Broken By Desire To Be Heavenly Sent

9 Hozier – Unreal Unearth

10 The 1975 – Live With The BBC Philharmonic Orchestra”.

I love that breakdown of cassette and C.D. sales; which artists were most popular on each format. I think it is worth saying that not only vinyl that is seeing resurgence and success. Even though they are not at the same level in terms of sales, cassettes and C.D.s continue to be bought. With artists offering C.D. and cassette bundles, there is this option for fans. At a time in history when we can access everything on the move, people are drawn to a format that can only be heard when we are static. Maybe there is that opportunity for people to play an album and have that quiet moment. Being able to stand back and shut the world away. There is something emotional and special about listening to a vinyl L.P. You get the experience of taking the album out of the sleeve and the sheer excitement of holding something that impressive. It is a completely different experience to streaming. You have something that has that tangible quality. Something you can keep and enjoy for years. I guess a lot of fans are buying vinyl for new albums because it is their favourite artist. Lots of Taylor Swift fans buying her albums. That dedication and passion. Maybe some are buying albums they may not necessarily play a lot. Owning it because they can come back to it or add it to their collection. I do think most of the albums bought this year on vinyl are going to be played a bit. Classic albums reaching new hands and incredible modern albums being snapped up by loyal fans. Whereas some might assume fans would stream the albums instead, there is an appetite to have the physical version.

PHOTO CREDIT: Jorge Fakhouri Filho/Pexels

I wonder if we are reverting to a time when physical music was shared and swapped. People exchanging vinyl and discussing their purchases. If older buyers might have been buying vinyl for decades and are continuing to invest, there is this new generation that are saving up, buying vinyl L.P.s and have it to keep for years. Not in a bad way…there is this return to a past decade. Not that people are eschewing streamed music, though it is clear that there is more to vinyl that it being cool and collectable. There is the culture and buying experience when it comes to vinyl. A special occasion and wonderful experience. With vinyl, you also get the superior listening experience and that feeling of ownership. Maybe streaming sounds is like stealing or getting music too cheap. Vinyl lasts whereas streamed music is ephemeral and can disappear at any point. There is the amazing artwork. The fact you can detach from a screen and focus on the album itself without distraction. When streaming offers quick listening, easy access and a chance to skip through tracks, there is this rebellion. People enjoying a slower listen. If we listen to an album all the way through then that means the music goes deeper. It also compels us to buy other albums on vinyl. This U.S. article from earlier in the year highlighted how the vinyl sales success is not going to end anytime soon:

“This resurgence is just one chapter in a broader story about the growing popularity of older technologies. Not only are LP records coming back, but so are manual typewriters, board games and digital cameras from the late 1990s and early 2000s.

There are many theories about why records are making a comeback.

Most of them miss the point about their appeal.

PHOTO CREDIT: Mike/Pexels

Why records and not CDs?

One suggestion is that sales have been spurred by baby boomers, many of whom are now entering retirement and are eager to tap into the nostalgia of their youth.

Data shows this theory is not true.

First, the top-selling vinyl albums right now are current artists, not classic bands. As of this writing, Gorillaz, a band formed in the late 1990s, was at the top of the vinyl charts.

Second, data from the recording industry shows the most likely person to buy a LP record is in Gen Z – people born from 1997 to 2012.

Another theory is that records are cheap. While that might have been true in the past, today’s vinyl records command a premium. “Cracker Island,” the Gorillaz album that is currently topping the vinyl sales charts, lists for almost $22 – twice the cost of the CD. Plus, subscribing to an online service like Spotify for 15 bucks a month gives you access to millions of tracks.

A third explanation for the resurgence is that people claim records have better sound quality than digital audio files. Records are analog recordings that capture the entire sound wave. Digital files are sampled at periodic intervals, which means only part of the sound wave is captured.

In addition to sampling, many streaming services and most stored audio files compress the sound information of a recording. Compression allows people to put more songs on their phones and listen to streaming services without using up much bandwidth. However, compression eliminates some sounds.

While LP records are not sampled or compressed, they do develop snap, crackle and popping sounds after being played multiple times. Records also skip, which is something that doesn’t happen with digital music.

If you’re really going for quality, CDs are usually a superior digital format because the audio data is not compressed and has much better fidelity than records.

Yet even though CDs are higher quality, CDs sales have been steadily falling since their peak in 2000.

PHOTO CREDIT: Ron Lach/Pexels

The ultimate status symbol

In my view, the most likely reason for the resurgence of records was identified by an economist over a century ago.

In the late 1890s, Thorstein Veblen looked at spending in society and wrote an influential book called “The Theory of the Leisure Class.”

In it, he explained that people often buy items as a way to gain and convey status. One of Veblen’s key ideas is that not everything in life is purchased because it is easy, fun or high quality.

Sometimes harder, more time-consuming or exotic items offer more status.

A cake is a great example. Say you offer to bring a cake to a party. You can buy a bakery-made cake that will look perfect and take only a few minutes to purchase. Or you could bake one at home. Even if it’s delicious, it won’t look as nice and will take hours to make.

But if your friends are like mine, they’ll gush over the homemade cake and not mention the perfect store-bought one.

Buying and playing vinyl records is becoming a status symbol.

Today, playing music is effortless. Just shout your request at a smart speaker, like Siri or Alexa, or touch an app on your smartphone”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Matthias Groeneveld/Pexels

I think that vinyl sales will flatten in a few years and then rise again. Into next year and maybe 2025, there are going to be further rises. Massive artists with huge fanbases account for a lot of the success. There are reissues and anniversary releases of albums. Classics that are being re-bought and finding new appreciation. One thing that amazes me is how, even though vinyl sales are stellar, the prices are not coming down too much. It depends on where you buy an album, yet they tend to be over £20 for a single album. Maybe a little less. Let’s say between £18-£20 all the way up to £24 or £25. That may not sound a lot but, when you think about the ease of streaming and C.D.s and cassettes being less, it is impressive vinyl is queen. Also, if you keep the album for years, then that cost is worth it! Perhaps less breakable and brittle as a cassette or C.D., the pure heft of vinyl is a reason why people build a collection and invest in the format. Ending this year with a great slice of news, I wanted to give a salute to the wonderful world of vinyl! I predict that we will see this continued and amazing success sustain…

PHOTO CREDIT: cottonbro studio/Pexels

RIGHT through next year.

FEATURE: Kings, Queens and Pawns: The Idolisation of Legendary Music Figures and How Darker Truths Are Often Buried

FEATURE:

 

 

Kings, Queens and Pawns

 

The Idolisation of Legendary Music Figures and How Darker Truths Are Often Buried

_________

THE more that we hear about…

PHOTO CREDIT: Molly Champion/Pexels

accusations of sexual assault being aimed at men in the music industry – whether artists or those behind the scenes -, it makes me appalled at the fact these acts happened. How brave it is of the women who came forward; also how repulsive it is that these men were allowed to work and will probably not be as punished and tarnished as much as they should! How many of these men accused and found guilty are subjected to prison time rather than simply being fired or shunned by the industry?! It is also making me think historically. I was reading an old interview where Stephen Fry said that a lot of teenage girls who had sex with male artists decades ago would not see themselves as victims. This tone almost suggests they are not scarred or damaged by that experience. Even if there was a grubby culture of groupies which, thankfully, is almost non-existence, that is not to say that they were in control or are not victims. This feeling that was the way things are. It was a badge of honour for those girls. For a start, the way the media portrayed these men as gods was no doubt an allure for these young fans. The responsible adults in no way responsible or caring. A really seedy and disturbing past that we seem to largely ignore when we play and idolise these artists. I am guilty of it myself. Playing certain artists who have in the past indulge in the groupie lifestyle or who have definitely had sex with minors. It is that horrible sense of complacency we get. Almost conditioned to feel that, as they are remarkable artists and have achieved a lot, then we dare not mention their pasts. I am not besmirching their legacy and importance. I feel that there is this whole side of music worship where we almost shrug off or bury some of the darker and more sworded elements.

PHOTO CREDIT: cottonbro studio/Pexels

Whether people see it as a product of the time. Groupie culture being consensual and part of that lifestyle. It is that sense of entitlement male artists – for the vast majority of time; I have no doubt there were occasions of female artists and young male fans having sex – that really galls! Not doing anything to push against this. Whether it is legends like The Rolling Stones, David Bowie, Led Zeppelin or any other massive artist of the 1960s and 1970s, one can only imagine how many occasions there were when there was something exploitative happening behind closed doors (and inside tour buses). Before I go on and expand, I want to defend the use of the word ‘groupie’. Certainly today, and in the past, it is a celebration of fandom. The loyalty and passion fans have for an artist. In this sense, I am referring to occasions of young female fans engaging in sexual intercourse with older male artists and how one cannot excuse the artists who encouraged this. If it was a sense of liberation and freedom for many young women/girls, it is not something that should have been almost glamourised and allowed to happen. The Glasgow Guardian explained how the ‘groupie’ has changed. How that word is often sexist and misogynistic:

“The problematic groupie role may reflect the wider issues of sexism in the music industry, as it sustains the idea of musicians being male and fans being female, as well as showing women and girls to be fans of the people rather than the music. It is also an extension of the frustrating male gatekeeping of music endured by female fans and creates harmful female stereotypes. The most sinister dangers of the groupie idea came to the surface in the fallout of the #MeToo movement, with 2017 bringing about many allegations on social media of sexual misconduct from male musicians, particularly among men in the rock and indie scene in the UK and America. Allegations featured past encounters with young female fans, such as Jesse Lacey of Brand New, who, throughout his career, used his power as an idolised musician to manipulate young fans; and members of Nothing But Thieves who strongly deny accusations of sexual assault but admitted that, “a misuse of the imbalance of power may have occurred”.

PHOTO CREDIT: William Lovelace/Getty Images

With the role of the groupie tinged with the objectification of women and the manipulation of young fans, it seems impossible that it could continue to exist in the modern-day music scene. However, in the age of female sexual liberation, perhaps we would be too quick to judge groupies as sexual objects existing solely for the pleasure of male musicians. In general, it is the harmful stereotypes and the abuse of power in the groupie culture, rather than the existence of the groupie herself that causes the issues. Perhaps then, they can continue to exist, so long as the encounters are between consenting adults. This however raises further questions over the deep-rooted sexism problem of the entertainment industry as a whole and the differences in attitudes towards male and female stars. After all, why are there no male groupies?

We might consider the “stan” to be the modern groupie, as many social media fandoms obsess over band members and artists in similar ways. Nowadays though, female musicians are idolised to the same extent and, for the most part, this is increasingly less sexual. Stans do still fantasise about meeting their idols but are much less vocal about actually wanting to have sexual encounters with them. While the power may still lie with the musicians, social media allows for celebrities to remain accountable and the rise of cancel culture, despite all the negativity it may bring, might be enough of a threat to stop bands from exploiting fans, even if it was acceptable in the seventies”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Fernando Ortiz P/Pexels

The music scene has changed in the wake of #MeToo. I know a groupie culture can mean women who consensually hung out with artists and D.J. and hooked up. There is the darker and more disturbing application that links to underage girls and this sense of status to be had with hooking up with a famous artist. It is a complex area to tread into. Different sides that debate as to whether a groupie is a good word or not. Articles like this provide their own dynamic and interpretation. I am both glad that the modern use of the word is something more about fandom and something less illicit and illegal. I bring this up because a new film, Priscilla, is out. It is about Priscilla’s relationship with Elvis. The King of Rock and Roll. Written and directed by Sofia Coppola, you can see the plot here. The film does not shy away from some of the tougher moments. Abuse and sexual assault. Some of the more torrid elements of the relationship. Whilst Elvis Presley felt a lot of love for Priscilla, there is also that aspect of her being a pawn at times. A queen who deserved nothing but respect, she was often subjected to cruelty and negligence. It made me think about the music culture decades ago and attitudes towards women. From young and underage fans almost being encouraged to engage in debauchery with male artists who, in turn, did very little to stop it, to cases of stars who were unsavoury and violent towards women. I am sure we can all think of many artists who this applies to. What is angering is how this side of the artists is almost seen as minor compared to their musical legacy. That argument of whether we can separate the artist from the art. Priscilla is based on the 1985 memoir, Elvis and Me, by Priscilla Presley. It very open, moving and shocking at times. How much of this do we consider when celebrating and enjoying the music of artists?! Should their personal lives impact how we see their legacy?!

PHOTO CREDIT: Ketut Subiyanto/Pexels

It is something that applies to male artists more. The disposability of women. Whether they are seen as ‘muses’ and, therefore, are treated cruelly because they inspire their music – ‘muse’ is another horrible and dismissive term -; or there s a sense that stardom means they are free to do what they please, I think about this a lot. So many artists played on radio and seen as heroes. When you think back to their past and some of their behaviour, you do wonder why this is not called out. Is it ancient history?! I do struggle with that. As much the criminality and depravity that was hushed, accepted or seen as desirable then. That has not totally gone away. There is still some of that practise happening today with some bands. Even Matty Healy of the 1975 – who I do mention a lot, but for good reason – kissing female fans onstage seems exploitative and icky! Willing or not, it seems less about artists being grateful and showing fans compassion. It is that entitlement and seeing women as objects. Young girls and women’s fandom and support often does not get talked about. How important they are to moulding artists. Their role in music history. I think they were often exploited and seen as prizes rather than people. The music history book is littered with occasions of women being abused and tormented by male artists. With new revelations and allegations coming out almost by the week, it causes me to think where we have come from. How women were viewed. Objectified, vilified; seen as disposable and subservient. So many huge artists engaging in some truly awful behaviour. How much do we think about those women and how important they were. How strong they were. Their stories are not often heard. Their importance not celebrated and spotlighted. Reading about Priscilla and some of the moving scenes that people will see compelled me to address the music culture. The misogyny and abuse that has been present for years.

Maybe we have come some way in that respect now, though we still blindly idolise these artists and their music. Many male artists and industry figures today engaging in the same deplorable way as artists of the past. And, still, women not being believed or feeling fearful of coming forward. We are stricter now on men who are accused. In the sense that we will not forget or allow them to profit and live as they did going forward. How much do we look back and reassess the value and purity of some of these almost God-like figures?! Is there an internal balance and conversation where we weight things up, or are we told that a lot of what happened was consensual and okay?! That it was part of the scene. I know I said the ‘groupie’ is often applied in a sexist way. Women liberated and huge fans of artists rather than this seedy and exploitative viewpoint. Even so, there are plenty of occasions of male artists taking advantage of their stardom and infallibility. Do films like Priscilla change how we see someone like Elvis Presley?! Does knowing that underage female fans were in bed with certain groups and male artists change our perception of their music?! Whether you argue against some of my points and have different perspectives, it is clear that power and control has been used in dark ways. Artists using their pull in a very grubby way. It is okay for fans to judge how they view an artist and see their music but, the more we hear about the darker and more abusive sides of some artists and the women/girls who were victims (again, whether you classify them as such is your prerogative), the more we need to step back and take stock. We idolise the artist and mark their contributions and importance. I wonder how much time we take to see the women. Either those impacted by abuse and exploitation, or those who made the artists what they were – either through their loyalty and fandom or being their inspiration. In admiring and lionising the kings, we definitely cannot disregard or overlook…

THE queens.

FEATURE: Saluting the Queens: Layla Benitez

FEATURE:

 

 

Saluting the Queens

PHOTO CREDIT: Layla Benitez

 

Layla Benitez

_________

A resident at…

Club Space Miami, D.J. Layla Benitez is someone that you need to know. You can follow her on Instagram. A few of my Saluting the Queens features are going to be about women D.J.s. Those who are extraordinary and important that might not be getting the same spotlight and column inches as some of their male peers. After playing a New Year’s Eve gig at Proper NYE, Layla Benitez closed off a busy 2023 in style. I think that she is a D.J. that deserves more interviews and press. Making her mixes available and widely shared. I am going to come to some interviews and features with Benitez. She is an amazing D.J. who has travelled the world and inspired so many club-goers. No doubt inspiring other D.J.s coming through, it is going to be exciting to see where she goes in 2024. Before getting to interviews, I will start with some bio from a few years back. It gives us a good background and impression of a phenomenal talent:

“Her sound is as diverse as it is radically distinctive, delivering a freshly curated narrative flow to her audience. Layla has an admiration for classic and cutting-edge melodies that she bridges together in reimagined ways. Channeling an eclectic mix of deep house with percussion, world harmonies and soul sounds, Layla takes you on a journey of uplifting and energetic beats grounded by dark undertones with groove foundations.

From playing the Tribeca Film Festival’s official galas, to underground parties in Mykonos and Ibiza, to the events of Miami Music Week and Art Basel, she brings her dynamic vibrations to music lovers around the world.  Her most notable appearances in NYC include “Babel”, “Kuna”, “Sonara”, “White Lodge”, “Disturbed”, “Playroom”,“Memoirs", “Funkbox”, "Love Medicine”, "Sonic Jungle” and “Bang On’. Other memorable gigs worldwide such as Soundtuary in Miami, Soy Ser and EK Guardians in Tulum, Deep Space in LA, The Watergate Release Tour in Tel Aviv, and Done N Dusted in London have defined her as an international artist. She was the resident DJ of Good Behavior’s “Dreamland” at the Made Hotel in New York from 2017-2019. She spent the summer of 2019 as a resident DJ at Sommer Klein in Alacati, Turkey, whilst touring Europe and The Middle East.

Layla is a classically trained piano player and grew up with rhythm in her blood; her father is renowned producer and DJ, Jellybean Benitez. He helped to define the unforgettable nightlife scene of New York in the 80’s. He was a resident of iconic clubs such as Studio 54, The Limelight, and Palladium. She carries the heart-warming energy of this history into her mixes. Constantly intrigued by the experimental electronic landscape, Layla brings genre-bending imagination and a future-focused playfulness to every set. She is currently preparing her first EP, set for release Summer 2020”.

I am going to go chronologically in terms of interviews. Miami New Times spotlighted the amazing Layla Benitez in 2021. A natural -born D.J., she learned at the feet of her father, John ‘Jellybean’ Benitez. I think, over the next few years, Benitez is going to go down as one of the greatest D.J.s of her generation. She is already shaping up as a club legend:

“A DJ's progression from novice to superstar can often trace a linear path, starting with informal sets among friends, moving on to residency at a nightclub, and eventually earning their stripes and traveling the world.

DJ/producer Layla Benitez prefers more of a zigzag approach.

A club residency often serves as a stepping stone to a career, but the 28-year-old Benitez initially leapfrogged that step and went straight to playing shows around the globe, her penchant for Afro and deep house motivating the world's dance floors.

Yet like virtually everyone else, when the pandemic put an end to bookings, Benitez had to recalculate.

We are counting on the support of our readers to help us continue our mission and prepare for a new year of local coverage.

In November, she packed her bags and flew to Miami from New York City.

"I was only supposed to stay for a week or two, but everything was shut down in New York, and the events were canceled for the upcoming month," Benitez tells New Times. "I was getting a lot of bookings down here, so I stayed down here for a little longer and set goals. I [wanted] to be a resident DJ at Club Space."

PHOTO CREDIT: Ro Orozco

After connecting with Space co-owner David Sinopoli, she was given the opportunity to open for the Brooklyn-based duo Bedouin at the club's outdoor venue, Space Park, in January. Benitez kept the music and vibe in harmony during the event and officially assumed a spot on the Club Space roster.

Still, she soon learned that she had to readjust her way of thinking behind the decks. A resident DJ must never outdo the headliner; their task is to keep the music steady and maintain the flavor of the main act.

"Before I became a resident, I was like, 'I'm an Afro-house DJ. If you hire me, you're getting Afro-house,'" Benitez says. "After playing Space, I learned a value in adaptation, realizing I need to be more open as an artist."

By the time Benitez opened for Italian tech-house DJ Marco Carola, she'd updated her library with thousands of new tracks. She also brought a positive mindset to capture Carola's patented sounds.

"I needed all new music. Nothing I had was going to work," she says. "Now, every time I play, I'm going into a set with a fresh perspective. I'm discovering that I do have a passion outside of Afro-house. I'm able to find my voice in every single genre."

Few clubs go to the lengths Club Space does to spotlight their resident lineup. After shifting to new ownership in 2016, the club expanded its openers and closers, mixing back-to-back sets among veteran residents like Ms. Mada and Danyelino with cameos by fellow locals like Nii Tei.

After the Bedouin event, the owners wanted Benitez to play back-to-back with all the Club Space residents — the better to build rapport and understand each DJ's method.

"I was nervous the first time I played with Danyelino," Benitez admits. "I went into it not knowing what to expect, but after playing with him, I was like, 'I need to go home and buy more music and be more prepared next time.'"

A graduate of the Parsons School of Design, Benitez continues to refine her practice with every set.

"I'm learning how to mix breakbeat. A lot of the residents have been helping me with that," she says. "There was one day where I met with [fellow Space resident] Bakke, and he showed me all these different ways to end a set."

Benitez has only been DJ'ing for four years, but her appreciation and skillset trace to her first teacher: her father, the dance-floor trailblazer John "Jellybean" Benitez.

"When I was around 12 years old, my dad would teach my sister and me how to DJ," she recalls. "He also taught me how to play on vinyl.

Jellybean held residencies at institutions like Studio 54, the Funhouse, and Palladium. In the '80s, he took New York City club culture mainstream and remixed songs for the likes of Michael Jackson and Madonna. Jellybean is also regarded as the first DJ to have signed with a major label (EMI)

"My dad would bring me wherever he was traveling and I was able to go into the club — even if I was just staying in the booth with him," Benitez recalls. "I got to experience the life early. I have memories of falling asleep behind the booth."

With life slowly returning to normal, Benitez looks to continue her sonic evolution — and to keeping the dance floor moving and grooving”.

In 2022, NYLON spent some time with a D.J. who began playing bat mitzvahs at aged thirteen, to getting booked for Coachella. Her music and amazing connection with her crowds has always been so natural and electric. That lineage. Her father, who worked with artists like Madonna and Whitney Houston, has seeped into the D.N.A. and blood of Layla Benitez. You know that she is set for a similar sort of stardom and legacy:

“How did you first get into DJing? It seems like you had a relatively fast rise.

I actually learned to DJ when I was 13 years old, my father taught me. I started off playing friends birthday parties, and bat mitzvahs/bar mitzvahs. My first CDJ's were Pioneer 900s and I had to burn CDs and there was no cue button! In college, I picked it back up and played very casually for friends events.

About four years ago, a friend of mine who was throwing massive events in New York City came to me because one of his opening DJs wasn't able to make it. He asked if I could fill in opening up for Guy Gerber. After my set here, many people started reaching out to me about playing other events and it just kind of snowballed. It was a huge rush because I was thrown into the world quickly. Every event for the first few years I received through word of mouth from someone who heard me play, and I truly feel the music speaks for itself. I definitely feel like I have found my purpose.

I know you went to Parsons. Does your art background inform your DJ work at all?

I did go to Parsons, and graduated with my BFA in Photography. I had to take all different kinds of art classes as requirements while studying. But I would say one of the most important lessons I learned there was the creative process.

Your father was a renowned producer and DJ — how has he influenced you?

From a young age, I spent a lot of time with him at home and at his office absorbing what I could. I was always very interested in the industry. I would sit and listen to the thousands of demos that artists would send, and stick around for his meetings. He spent a lot of time trying to educate me about music as well as the business side of it. My ear was exposed to some of the best music from the '70s/'80s, as well as the house music world he was moving into at the time. I think my sound completely stems from being around this. There is a lot of ‘80s influence in the tracks I play and create.

What’s the craziest party you played this year?

The craziest party I played in 2021 was probably iii Points x Secret Project last spring. I played on the main stage in front of thousands and it was an incredible energy.

How does it feel to DJ post-lockdown vs. before? Is there a different energy in the air?

I think the energy is different because I think the lockdowns really made us think about what we take for granted. Music is such a powerful medium of expression, whether you're listening, creating, or playing. I think it really put into perspective how much we need this outlet to feel alive”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Alive Coverage

I am going to finish off with a feature from NOTION. There was not a great deal of press last year. Having played in a variety of settings last year, this NOTION interview was at a truly distinct and extraordinary setting. I do have a great feeling about this year and where Layla Benitez is headed:

“DJ and producer Layla Benitez takes us along for her set at Mexican festival Day Zero Tulum 2023.

"What an incredible experience playing my first Day Zero, I was truly honored to be a part of one of the best events in the world."

"Although this was my first time playing, this was not my first time attending. We arrived right before the sun rose, and it was amazing to see the jungle transform once again from night to day around us."

"I started playing at 9AM in the club room after a phenomenal set from Danny Tenaglia."

"It is always magical to interact with and feel the energy of the amazing people who come out to these events from all over the planet."

PHOTO CREDIT: Alive Coverage

"At this point the sun was shining and it was the perfect temperature, and it was just an incredible feeling!"

"Red Axes came on after me, and they are actually some of my favourite producers."

"This is my best friend Apu. It's always so special to me when I'm able to share these major moments with some of the most important people in my life."

"My mood after playing my first Day Zero! It was really such a dream come true. Until next time in the jungle..."

Closing off a remarkable year in style, Layla Benitez will have a brief rest before being thrust into a busy diary. There will be a lot of demand for her around the world. One of the world’s best D.J.s, I think that we will hear a lot of great things from her this year. One of the very best in the industry, we should all salute…

A D.J. queen.

FEATURE: Beautiful Longview: Green Day’s Dookie at Thirty

FEATURE:

 

 

Beautiful Longview

  

Green Day’s Dookie at Thirty

_________

ORIGINALLY released on 1st February, 1994…

PHOTO CREDIT: SPIN

Green Day recently released a thirtieth anniversary edition of Dookie. The U.S. band’s third studio album is one of their masterpieces. Seen as their very best by many fans, there is no denying that in a legendary year for music, Dookie stands out as one of the very best. Including iconic songs like Basket Case, Longview and When I Come Around, this is an album that stands up to this day. With lyrics by the band’s lead, Billie Joe Armstrong, and the band themselves – Mike Dirnt and Tré Cool – in outstanding form, Dookie is a classic! Thirty years after its release and I can hear how it has influenced artists who have come through since. Released by Reprise and co-produced by Rob Cavallo, this was Green Day taking a big step after 1991’s Kerplunk. I want to bring in a few features around the (im)pure genius of Dookie. I would recommend people check out Billboard’s 2014 track-by-track guide to Dookie. There is no doubting how important this album is. Dookie received massive critical acclaim upon its release. It received a Grammy Award for Best Alternative Album in 1995. Dookie peaked at number two on the Billboard 200 in the United States. It also reached top five positions in several other countries. Dookie has gone on to sell over twenty million copies worldwide - making it one of the best-selling albums worldwide. No doubt one of the greatest albums of the '90s, it also one of the most influential Punk-Rock/Pop-Punk albums ever. I want to get on to some interesting features…

In November 2022, Guitar.com took a look inside the magnificent Dookie. If some see 1997’s Nimrod as the peak of Green Day’s career – or their major breakthrough -, there is no denying that Dookie took them to new heights! From an emerging band to something legendary and commercial, Dookie was this very timely release. At the start of 1994, when Grunge was still around and Britpop was starting to form and evolve, Dookie’s distinctly American sound was very different to what we were listening to in the U.K. 1994 was a fascinating year where so many different genres and movements sat alongside one another:

“Green Day’s credentials as key instigators of the mainstream uptake of pop-punk is well documented, yet the band’s major label debut, 1994’s Dookie, bore little resemblance to the crude, freshman antics of the genre’s later key players. While the album’s cartoonish cover (and scatological title) might have signalled a carefree, blazed humour, the depths of the fourteen songs within revealed a band with world-beating potential.

Prior to pop-punk’s American Pie-ification, Billie Joe Armstrong, bassist Mike Dirnt and drummer Tré Cool were penning songs that drew on the darker side of both their internal and external lives. Dookie was primarily set within a broken landscape, rife with dropout-ridden slums and penniless destitution, balanced with a heady quantity of apathy and self-loathing.

Formed as teens back in 1986, Green Day had already found cult success on the Bay Area punk scene, but after Nirvana’s Nevermind exploded its way into the mainstream consciousness, major labels were eagerly hunting for the next troupe of guitar-toting chart-invaders. As adherents to the scene’s DIY ideals, the band had typically shrugged off any major label interest. Until A&R man and producer Rob Cavallo offered to both take them on, and record them for the Warner-owned Reprise Records.

It all keeps adding up

Controversially ignoring the punk fundamentalists, the three opted to take a chance with Cavallo, who had earned their respect. Green Day tracked their major label debut at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley, California over a three-week span. In the vein of the Ramones and The Sex Pistols, Armstrong’s guitar approach prioritised swerving major chords, often rhythmically palm-muted, while Mike Dirnt’s dexterous bass work melodically augmented his adroit chord sequences.

An early, striking example of Dirnt’s melodic centrality could be heard on the fourth track – and the band’s debut single – Longview. A laconic walking bass-line in E formed the verse’s bedrock, over which Armstrong delivered a self-deprecating lyric, decrying his own boredom and lack of motivation, all leading up to a hard-hitting power chord assault in the chorus.

Search the world around

Armed with this tougher guitar sound, Armstrong was keen to revisit a highlight from their previous album Kerplunk, and fattened-up the springy favourite Welcome to Paradise. Its buzzsaw central riff was a repeated, crowd-pleasing refrain that punctuated a tale that documented the grim underbelly of West Oakland, based on Armstrong’s own experiences after leaving his parents home.

While still evolving into the band who’d go on to dominate alternative culture with 1997’s fifth LP Nimrod and 2004’s politically-leaning crossover smash American Idiot, Dookie firmly indicated that Green Day were reaching far beyond their punk ethos-adhering contemporaries. The off-rhythm, palm-muted rhythm guitar of the rollercoaster breakthrough single Basket Case was thrillingly edgy. It reflected Armstrong’s lyric, wherein the 21 year-old thoroughly stripped himself bare, questioning his own grip on sanity. When it cut loose into its myriad back-and-forth power-chord waves, Basket Case roared to ebullient life.

Elsewhere, the pained When I Come Around revealed their emotional articulacy, as Billie Joe delineated his commitment issues atop a cycle of four stadium-sized chords. The songs’ cinematic breadth now a far cry from the lo-fi trappings of their independent work”.

I want to come to a 2019 Consequence article that goes deep inside of Dookie. An honest record where there is this raw honesty and vulnerability, many might perceive it as quite a dirty or ‘teenage’ album. Something smutty or of its time! I don’t think that is the case. Even though some of the lyrics have not aged well, there is much more to Dookie that many assume:

“Dookie landed as hard as it did, with as many young people as it did, because Green Day’s lyrics, and the delivery mechanism of truly melodic punk, tackle a whole heap of emotions with a wry self-awareness and tenderly brazen honesty, and they dare the listener to be creeped out while also suspecting (knowing, deep down) that these fundamental personal experiences are universal.

Indeed, unlike a lot of other rock bands in the ’90s, Green Day is not remotely macho; they say as much in a 1995 televised interview with Much Music. “I don’t think we’re capable of being macho to tell you the truth … It’s pretty disgusting,” Armstrong says. The singer has also spoken multiples times about how the heartfelt Dookie song “Coming Clean” (With lyrics like “I finally figured out myself for the first time/ I found out what it takes to be a man/ Mom and dad will never understand/ What’s happening to me”) is about his journey to understanding his bisexuality.

In October 2018, the members of Green Day posted several photographs on Instagram of their early years in which they are wearing dresses, skirts, and makeup, and an unsourced but very popular quote attributed to Billie Joe Armstrong goes as follows: “What do you mean we walked around in girls clothes? We walked around in dresses, and they happened to be ours!” (Fellow Green Day fans, help me out! I know you can find out where that quote came from.) In later years, the band would write the song “King for a Day” about crossdressing.

And the romance, oh the romance. On many of Dookie’s tracks, Armstrong and crew carried through with the complementary themes of love and self-loathing; the brutal torrent of physical suffering (“broken bones and nasty guts”) described in the love song “Pulling Teeth” serves as a perfect example. “She”, one of the Buzzcocksier songs in Green Day’s extremely Buzzcocksian ouevre, asks questions to the subject, inquires about how she’s feeling (“Are you locked up in a world that’s been planned out for you?”), and offers real, sincere listening: “Scream at me until my ears bleed/ I’m taking it just for you.” Love is sacrifice, and sometimes girls need a safe place to scream. That’s some insightful punk rock right there, especially considering that at the time of Dookie (long before American Idiot), the punk scene looked askew at Green Day for the absence of politics in their lyrics.

Ultimately, the album layers all kinds of embarrassing feelings like this one on top of another, ultimately providing a type of liberation that comes from airing out your dirty (crusty, stinky, hand-me-down) laundry. What could be more charming, more vulnerable, than the conceit of “Sassafras Roots”, which acknowledges that Armstrong and the object of his affection are both “wastes” with “nothing else to do,” but still asks in the most winkingly bashful tone, “May I waste your time, too?.

A lot of times when I go back and listen to a punk or rock album I used to love, I realized the lyrics are grossly chauvinistic, and I feel alone and betrayed. Listening to Dookie, I have the opposite experience. This, for me, is one of the crucial reasons why Dookie works so well. It’s angry but not malevolent, guyish but not masculine, horny but not misogynist, and ejaculatory, but — astoundingly — not masturbatory”.

I am going to end with a 2017 review of Dookie from Pitchfork. An album with anthem and big hooks, it was a real move up and progression for Green Day. Pitchfork called it the “greatest teenage wasteland albums of any generation”. It is a magnificent and iconic album that ranks alongside the best of the 1990s:

“What set Dookie apart from the grunge rock bellowers of its day was Armstrong’s voice, foggy and vaguely unplaceable. “I’m an American guy faking an English accent faking an American accent,” he teased at the time. Though Armstrong’s tone was bratty, his phrasing had that lackadaisical quality that left room for listeners to fill in their own interpretations. On Dookie, Armstrong channeled a lifetime of songcraft obsession into buzzing, hook-crammed tracks that acted like they didn’t give a shit—fashionably then, but also appealingly for the 12-year-old spirit within us all. Maybe they worked so well because, on a compositional and emotional level, they were actually gravely serious. Sometimes singing about the serious stuff in your life—desire, anxiety, identity—feels a lot more weightless done against the backdrop of a dogshit-bombarded illustration of your hometown by East Bay punk fixture Richie Bucher.

“Longview,” Dookie’s outstanding first single, smacks of the most extreme disengagement: a title taken from Longview, Washington, where it happened to be played live for the first time; a loping bass line supposedly concocted while Dirnt was tripping on acid; and a theme of shrugging boredom that placed it in the ne’er-do-well pantheon next to “Slack Motherfucker” to “Loser.” Adolescent interest may always be piqued by lyrical references to drugs and jerking off, the way a 5-year-old mainly laughs at the Calvin and Hobbes panels where Calvin is naked or calling Hobbes an “idiot.” But as beer-raising alt-rock goes, this is also exceptionally bleak, with the narrator’s couch-locked wank session transforming into a self-imposed prison where Armstrong semi-decipherably sings, per the liner notes, “You’re fucking breaking.” No motivation? For a high-school dropout hoping to succeed in music, that mental hell sounds like plenty of motivation.

The other singles mix Armstrong’s burgeoning songwriting chops with deceptively lighthearted takes on deeper topics. The opening line, “Do you have the time/To listen to me whine?” is endlessly quotable, but the self-mocking stoner paranoia of the irresistible “Basket Case” was inspired by Armstrong’s anxiety attacks. As late as 1992, Armstrong still had no fixed address, and “Welcome to Paradise” reaches back to those nights crashing at dodgy West Oakland warehouse spaces. It also brashly embodies punk’s trash-is-treasure aesthetic at its most American. But the closest Armstrong came to a pop standard, one that any guitarist who knows four power chords can play at a home and a more established star could likely have made an even bigger hit, was the midtempo “When I Come Around”—a smoldering devotion to the then-estranged lover who would become the mother of Armstrong’s two children. They’re still married.

Elsewhere, the bouncy, brief “Coming Clean” is from the perspective of a confused 17-year-old, uncovering secrets about manhood that his parents can’t fathom; Armstrong has forthrightly related the song to his own youthful questions about bisexuality. “Seventeen and coming clean for the first time/I finally figured out myself for the time,” he declares, in one particularly sublime bit of wordcraft. Teenage angst pays off well: Now he was bored and almost 22. Likewise, the rest of the album tracks often further showed what an accomplished songwriter Armstrong had become. “I declare I don’t care no more,” from breakneck slacker anthem “Burnout,” would be a classic first opener on any album, even though by now we know it contains an element of false bravado. The contrasts that made up the band’s identity also helped elevate Dookie above its shitty name, couching anti-social childishness in whip-smart melodic and lyrical turns. When, on the last proper track, the nuke-invoking “F.O.D.” (short for “fuck off and die”), Armstrong vents, “It’s real and it’s been fun/But was it all real fun,” it’s his Dookie-era way of saying he hopes you had the time of your life.

Critics have been kind to Dookie, but not overwhelmingly so. It’s tempting to wonder how many of these lyrics could’ve been influenced by Robert Christgau’s two-word, two-star Village Voice review of Kerplunk!: “Beats masturbation.” Still, he gave Dookie an A-, and the album made it onto the Voice’s 1994 Pazz & Jop year-end critics’ poll at No. 12. But the backlash against Green Day in the pages of Maximumrocknroll was real and visceral. The June 1994 cover showed a man holding a gun in his mouth with the words, “Major labels: some of your friends are already this fucked,” with Yohannan sniffing inside, “I thought it was oh so touching that MTV decided to interrupt playing Green Day videos to overwhelm us with Nirvana videos on the day of Kobain’s [sic] death.” At Gilman, where major label acts were banned, graffiti on the wall proclaimed, “Billie Joe must die.” So it’s an album many people adore, but like loving the Beatles, proclaiming your adoration for it doesn’t necessarily win you any special recognition. Oh, you were in seventh grade and learned every word of a Green Day album? Duh.

Time has worked on Dookie in strange ways. Most blatantly, the post-grunge alt boom allowed an album like this to exist in the first place. Green Day were masters at pulling stoner humor out of malaise, and that is what the so-called alternative nation needed. One of Dookie’s great light-hearted touches, the image of Ernie from “Sesame Street” on the back cover, has been airbrushed away from later physical editions, ostensibly due to legal concerns. Among the many things streaming has ruined was the old ’90s trick of including hidden tracks on the album buried without notice at the end of the CD, so all digital releases treat Tré Cool’s novelty goof “All By Myself” as its own proper track. The unfortunate “Having a Blast,” about wanting to lash out with a suicide bombing, is understandably absent from most recent Green Day setlists”.

A classic album that was released on 1st February, 1994, there is so much love and respect for Dookie. It was heralded as a work of brilliance in 1994 - though some did dismiss it and were not kind. In years since, it has definitely inspired so many artists. Influencing a new wave of Punk-Rock and Pop-Punk sounds, I think that Dookie will keep on inspiring artists and reaching new listeners. Rather than see it as a '90s classic and something that was important then, when it comes to Dookie, we should all be…

TAKING the long view.

FEATURE: With God on Our Side: Bob Dylan’s The Times They Are A-Changin’ at Sixty

FEATURE:

 

 

With God on Our Side

  

Bob Dylan’s The Times They Are A-Changin’ at Sixty

_________

ONE of the most important album…

IN THIS PHOTO: Bob Dylan in 1964/PHOTO CREDIT: Getty Images/Douglas R. Gilbert/Redferns

of the 1960s, Bob Dylan’s The Times They Are A-Changin’ turns sixty on 13th January. Forgive me if the date is wrong but, like nearly all classic albums, different sites have different dates – which is extremely annoying (why can’t there be a website that has the correct release date for every album?!). In any case, it seems like 13th January, 1964 was the official release date for Bob Dylan’s third studio album. Whilst his eponymous debut and The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan featured mainly covers, The Times They Are A-Changin’ was original compositions. Produced by Tom Wilson, and recorded between August and October, 1963, there is an urgency to Dylan’s third studio album. At a time of unrest and change – including the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963 -, it was only natural that a conscientious and political songwriter like Bob Dylan would react to the turbulence and tension around him. Dylan tackles poverty, racism and political upheaval that was in the air in the 1960s. As a documentation of the time, it is one of the most powerful and poetic. I also think that The Times They Are A-Changin’ holds power today. Not only because the songs sound fresh and powerful. There is also a relevance to the lyrics now. Another time period where there is racism, social change and upheaval. I think we can learn a lot from what Bob Dylan is singing through his 1964 album. How much have we learned and changed since then?! Sixty years after this hugely important album was released, its words should act as warning and lesson to everyone.

I want to bring in a couple of reviews/features about The Times They Are A-Changin’. Albumism celebrated the album’s fifty-fifth anniversary in 2019. It is evident that a lot of what was discussed and covered can apply to modern-day events. Because The Times They Are A-Changin’ is so relevant, it is going to be one people will play and explore for decades more:

“Happy 55th Anniversary to Bob Dylan’s third studio album The Times They Are A-Changin’, originally released January 13, 1964.

Possibly one of Bob Dylan’s most overlooked records as a whole, The Times They Are A-Changin’ is his most overtly political. Released 55 years ago this week, the songs and ballads were timely then and the topics resonate in our climate today.

The Times They Are A-Changin’ takes Dylan’s political beliefs many steps further than The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, released the previous year. For The Times it’s plainly recorded: Dylan is on acoustic guitar, harmonica, and vocals. The only other personnel listed is his longtime producer Tom Wilson. This record has a stripped-down nature, which makes the stories feel close and the emotion raw.

The album cover matches the traditional sounds: a black and white portrait of a scowling Bob. The Times They Are A-Changin’ has no vanity. Dylan would grow into his own brand of narcissism later in the ‘60s, but he was still a folk hero in 1964 because of this LP. The Times They Are A-Changin’ tackles racism, poverty, and social changes: the America brand.

It goes without saying that this record opens with the title track, one of Dylan’s most famous songs covered by dozens of artists across genres in every decade since its release. No song is born popular. This one became so because of its content.

For me to discuss it here is to assume you’ve never heard it before, which is ridiculous. Most people in the English-speaking world have come across “The Times They Are A-Changin’” at one point or another. To call it an anthem of change is cliché, but it’s exactly that. It’s one of Dylan’s most deliberate moves as a songwriter. It matches the phrasing and pacing of others on the record reminiscent of Irish and Scottish ballads that build up one verse at a time. Only “The Times They Are A-Changin’” is chorus-heavy compared to the others. Consider it an American hymn written by one of America’s finest religious fanatics.

The Times They Are A-Changin’ is one of the few Dylan records full of songs written for and about other people. On the seven-minute “With God On Our Side” he dissects God’s role in everything from the genocide of Native Americans to World War II to Vietnam. “North Country Blues” is, simply, a song of tragedy. “Ballad of Hollis Brown” is a fictionalized song about a South Dakota farmer who murders his family and then kills himself because of poverty. There isn’t much sunshine here.

“The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll” pays real tribute. Carroll was a 51-year-old black woman killed by rich, white 24-year-old William Zantzinger. It’s a monotone chronicle of Carroll’s life as a mother of ten and “Billy’s” initial booking for murder. Zantzinger’s connections to Maryland politics through his family’s tobacco farms helped him get a slap on the wrist and only spend six months in jail, the charge changed to assault. Truthfully, this story sounds like it could happen in 2019.

“Only A Pawn in Their Game” is about the assassination of civil rights activist Medgar Evers. It opens side two. Dylan’s lyrics suggest his murderer, the poor, white Byron De La Beckwith, was a pawn to rich white elites planning Evers’ murder. Beckwith was a Klansman and active on a “White Citizens Council” that opposed racial integration in southern schools. Today, Dylan’s lyrics here are worth a closer listen. Both Evers and Beckwith are pawns in Dylan’s eyes, but with 55 years of retrospect, it feels hard to believe and painful to sympathize with a White Supremacist. (Beckwith spent life in prison and died there at age 80.)

We should be celebrating Medgar Evers who was a champion of integration and protested to successfully integrate the University of Mississippi. He boycotted and protested across his home state of Mississippi, organizing for civil and voting rights in the early 1960s. The street I live on in Brooklyn shares a name with him, “Medgar Evers Way.” My apartment building is two avenues from CUNY Medgar Evers. Luckily his legend lives on. For some reason, Dylan didn’t name him in the title and I wonder if he still believes in both men’s innocence.

The songs on The Times They Are A-Changin’ are somber. Listening to the LP now provides a clear image of Dylan as a Folk Singer. Recorded a year before its release, by the time it came out Dylan was distancing himself from the image the LP created. It’s his earliest face: a fingerpicking everyman telling stories of love (“Boots of Spanish Leather”) and hate. What he chose to write about is why so many fell in love.

A lot of Dylan’s history surrounds this LP before it was even released. Just a month after it was recorded in 1963, Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas. Three weeks after that the Emergency Civil Liberties Committee awarded Dylan the Tom Paine award for his contributions to the civil rights movement. Dylan’s acceptance speech is a diatribe against the display of rich whites and capitalism he faced in that Washington, D.C. ballroom. Notably drunk, he told the crowd among many things that he “saw himself in Lee Harvey Oswald.” After a forced apology he retreated and, my theory is, never spoke openly and honestly again.

Two years later he was still getting booed. In 1965 he plugged in at Newport and nearly cut himself on the edge he created with Bringin’ It All Back Home. Recorded and released by the time his electric show at Newport happened, the crowd was not ready. Expecting his infamous acoustic ballads from his previous records, including 1964’s Another Side of Bob Dylan (featuring “Chimes of Freedom,” “Ballad in Plain D,” and “It Ain’t Me Babe”), they were met with “Like A Rolling Stone,” and that’s that. Information (and sound) traveled a lot slower back then.

The Times They Are A-Changin’ is a rigid stance of a record. Listening to it now is all the more sobering. Our political landscape is much wider than it was 55 years ago. Now the lies are bigger and while the information is still free, it’s hard to know who to trust. These songs are an inspiring, genuine act of a Dylan long gone. When the Nobel committee awarded Dylan the prize for literature in 2017, I believe they were honoring him for this trilogy of records: The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, The Times They Are A-Changin’, and Another Side of Bob Dylan”.

The Guardian reacted to fifty years of The Times They Are A-Changin’. In 2014, the potency and importance of the album was still very much clear. Bob Dylan managed to combine the political and personal. As a songwriter in his twenties, it is an amazingly matured and accomplished album! Even if fans think he released better albums, there were few as important as The Times They Are A-Changin’. As The Guardian called it, (the album) was “Bob Dylan's stark challenge to liberal complacency”:

“As a collection, the album is one of the high watermarks of political songwriting in any musical genre. These are beautifully crafted, tightly focused mini-masterpieces. And they have a radical edge, a political toughness, that one rarely finds in the folk music of the period. Abstract paeans to peace and brotherhood were not for Dylan; the songs are uncompromising in their anger and unsparing in their analysis.

The album includes the two songs Dylan had sung at the March on Washington, six months earlier. But while Martin Luther King appealed to an inclusive future, Dylan struck a very different note: When the Ship Comes In was a revenge fantasy whose joyously vindictive climax is a vision of the total destruction of the oppressors; the other song, Only a Pawn in Their Game, was written in response to the assassination of the civil rights leader Medgar Evers in Mississippi, in June 1963.

The subject of this song, however, is not the martyred activist, but the man who killed him. And rather than a villain or psychopath, Dylan portrayed him as the product of a system: a system that set poor white against poor black for the benefit of an elite. A South politician preaches to the poor white man / "You got more than the blacks, don't complain. / You're better than them, you been born with white skin," they explain.It was a class analysis of white supremacy, made at a time when this was a fringe idea even within the civil rights movement – though that would soon change.

In The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll Dylan again situates an act of racist violence within a larger system of social hierarchy. It's a story told with the deliberation of constrained outrage, leading to a devastating payoff in the final verse, which reveals the complicity of the state, and society at large, in the crime. "Now," Dylan scolds us, "is the time for your tears." Unusually for the time, Dylan does not allow his audience to wallow in moral superiority. At every turn, he challenges liberal complacency.

The album's treatment of the cruelties of class is stark. In Ballad of Hollis Brown, a farmer is driven to the destruction of his family and himself by the relentless pressure of poverty. North Country Blues chronicles the fate of an iron-mining town in Minnesota when the owners shift production to "the South American towns, where the miners work almost for nothing". It's a story of de-industrialisation and globalisation, written long before those terms entered the lexicon.

With God on Our Side, a sweeping survey of American warfare from the genocide of the native population to the nuclear standoff of the cold war, is a radical revision of the authorised version of American history (decades before Howard Zinn). In this centennial year, the verse on the first world war stands out: The reason for fighting / I never got straight / But I learned to accept it / Accept it with pride / For you don't count the dead / When God's on your side.

Where did the politics come from? Woody Guthrie had been Dylan's first connection to the radicalism of the 30s, and in New York he met other veterans of the half-forgotten Popular Front era, including Pete Seeger. In the Greenwich Village folk scene he mingled with socialists, anarchists and pacifists. You wouldn't know it from the film Inside Llewyn Davis, but this was a milieu buzzing with political argument and radical ideas. But the spark was surely the upsurge in youth activism, most notably in the sit-ins in the south, where young people had engaged in a direct challenge to power and succeeded in redefining the boundaries of the politically possible. Their boldness supplied Dylan and others with the self-confidence to "speak truth to power".

The album also includes three intimate, enigmatically personal songs. Boots of Spanish Leather and One Too Many Mornings are both evocatively equivocal. Restless Farewell, the album's finale, is mainly of interest in hinting at Dylan's imminent departure from what he'd come to see as the protest-song straight-jacket. "So I'll make my stand / And remain as I am / And bid farewell and not give a damn."

As for the anthemic title song, even in its day many found its naivety and generational self-righteousness irritating. And yet, in articulating in such broad rhetorical strokes the belief that epochal change was possible and imminent, Dylan left us with a precious distillation of a historical moment. Over the decades the song has acquired an elegiac patina as the millennial hopes that produced it recede into a distant past. But just as the injustices challenged by Dylan's songs are still very much with us, so too is the need for the all-embracing emancipatory aspiration of The Times They Are a-Changin'”.

On 13th January – forgive any error with that date in terms of the official release! -, we mark sixty years of Bob Dylan’s masterpiece. After a couple of album with cover versions on, this was his first where his extraordinary lyrical voice was laid bare. Something that would grow and evolve through the years. One of the greatest lyricists ever, the public got the first real glimpse of that with The Times They Are a-Changin'. I think that it is one of the most important albums ever released. Capturing a particular mood that was in the air in the early-1960s, there is this gravity to The Times They Are a-Changin' that is hard to ignore. Sixty years later, the album acts both as this glimpse of a the time in which it was written. It is also strangely powerful and relatable now! That is testament to the…

POWER of Bob Dylan’s songwriting.


FEATURE: And Went Looking for a Woman: Joni Mitchell’s Court and Spark at Fifty

FEATURE:

 

 

And Went Looking for a Woman

  

Joni Mitchell’s Court and Spark at Fifty

_________

IN the first couple of months of this year…

we are going to mark some huge album anniversaries. Celebrate truly great releases that are adored and studied to this day. One of them marks its fiftieth anniversary on 17th January. That is Joni Mitchell’s sixth studio album, Court and Spark. Coming off a fabulous run of albums that began with 1970’s Ladies of the Canyon and then moved through 1971’s Blue, and 1972’s For the Roses, this was a genius songwriter at a creative peak. Maybe 1976’s Hejira – which arrived a year after Court and Spark’s follow-up, The Hissing of Summer Lawns – was the biggest musical departure (and divided critics more than the four of five albums that came before). Court and Spark provided a bridge between the Folk albums that came before and the more Jazz-orientated sound that would be evident through Hejira. Her most successful album, and one that was an immediate commercial success, Court and Spark reached number two in the U.S. The album was met with a raft of hugely positive reviews. I would advise anyone who does not have Court and Spark in their collection to add it. You can steam the album on Apple Music but, as Mitchell removed her albums from Spotify, you may have to go to YouTube to get access/free access to the songs (and I have included most throughout the feature). Released on 17th January, 1974, Court and Spark was instantly taken to the public and critical bosom. Music that lodged into their heads, hearts and souls! Some of the most powerful and beautiful songwriting from a peerless artist. Voted as the best album of the year for 1974 in The Village Voice Pazz & Jop Critics Poll; inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2004, there is no denying the legacy and importance of this album.

To mark its fiftieth anniversary, I felt only right to write about a mesmeric and magnificent album. To add depth and weight, there are some reviews and features about Court and Spark which shed new light and insight. Albumism provided a retrospective in 2019 on its forty-fifth anniversary:

“Joni Mitchell remains one of the greatest feminist artists of all time. She leads the way in freedom and is “too busy being free” for anyone to hold her down these days, even at 75. Her catalog is a collection of innovation in music, wondering aloud what it is to be a woman in love and on a journey through skepticism and delight. Mitchell’s 1974 album Court and Spark turns 45 this week.

Recorded after a year-long hiatus from releasing any music, the first time Mitchell did this since her 1968 debut Songs To A Seagull, Court and Spark is her most successful album. Many fans favorite her magnum opus Blue (1971) but Court and Spark is a completely different animal. After having changed record labels in 1972 to Asylum, Mitchell started experimenting with jazz, a genre she’s since become famous for renewing in her own way.

The title track opens with subtle piano. Mitchell is credited to all the piano and acoustic guitar on the record. She co-produced Court and Spark with Henry Lewy, who also produced and collaborated with her in-studio on four of her next five records. Traditionally, Mitchell produced and controlled the production of all her LPs, remaining in control whether it’s with the instruments or the mastering of her albums.

 

Her power is exemplified by her distinct vocal performance. Unmatched by her range, the pause and punch of Mitchell’s delivery helps turn her songs into stories, her lines to poetry. Move with them swift and slow and feel her sway with you.

“Court and Spark” is about a passing encounter with a busker on the street. Mitchell has a unique ability to take random moments of life and turn them into prolonged experience by relating to them. She exists in these songs, as if no other medium made quite as much sense to her (although painting arguably represents a close second).

Court and Spark is home to two of Mitchell’s biggest radio hits, “Help Me” and “Free Man In Paris.” The textures of these songs, the first with saxophone, the second with bass played by Wilton Felder, co-founder of L.A. jazz group The Crusaders, are what make them memorable and endlessly playable. Also in the background on “Free Man In Paris” are vocals by David Crosby and Graham Nash. They’re so subtle it almost sounds like Mitchell’s vocals layered upon themselves. 

On “Free Man In Paris,” Mitchell shapes her lines take when she breathes and suspends through them are her own. To imitate her vocal sound is to struggle. No other vocalist can take on her vibrato, accompanied of course by unusual guitar tunings and open piano work.

On “People’s Parties” she manages to sing about herself from a distance. “Laughing and crying / you know it’s the same release” she sings about the woman at a party who’s makeup is running down, as she’s crying on someone’s knee. Mitchell echoes “laughing it all away” to close out the track before the piano comes in. First it sounds like the end, and then it’s just the beginning of the next song, “The Same Situation.” A song that sounds as if it starts in the middle, “The Same Situation” is another selfless look at herself: “I said ‘Send me somebody / Who’s strong, and somewhat sincere / With the millions of the lost and lonely ones / I called out to be released / Caught in my struggle for higher achievement / And my search for love / That don’t seem to cease.”

As the decades pass, Joni Mitchell fans are harder to come by. The vocal vibrato, slides, and range have notoriously turned people away from her records. Sonically, she isn’t for everyone, but her ethos of individuality is a flag women everywhere fly high. (Lucky for me, I grew up with parents singing along to every word on every record, and with a sister who idolized her through high school. Mitchell’s records are like home.)

Mitchell’s place in history as a songwriter and composer is outside the realm of “normal.” And Court and Spark is anything but. If you’re new to her, consider it a starting point. You’ll find yourself gliding all over her records soon enough“.

In 2012, Pitchfork looked at Joni Micthell’s studio albums released between 1968 and 1979 (inclusive). It was a year when her first ten studio albums, released during an 11-year span, were gathered in this import box-set. Even though Joni Mitchell was not particularly underground or niche in 1974, Court and Spark was a commercial breakthrough that took her more into the mainstream:

“Her 1974 commercial break-out, Court and Spark, found her backed by first-call jazz session cats L.A. Express. It was her official severance from folk music. Court is her most pop album and gave her three chart hits, going gold five weeks after its release. Mitchell's production features heavy and sudden multi-tracked swells of her voice that spike melodies like a choir of accusing angels and mimic strings and horns. Her arrangement on "Down to You" (aided by Express bandleader Tom Scott) is stunning in its complexity, yet it never shakes you; it is still utterly a pop song.

Now six albums deep on the topic of love and loss, Court has a marked cynicism. It's a grown up album about arriving at the intractable issues of adult love. "Help Me", which was Mitchell's only top 10 hit, is reluctant about romance; she's "hoping for the future/ And worrying about the past." The refrain is pocked by the dawnlight realizations of that post-free love era: "We love our lovin'/ But not like we love our freedom." For the largeness of her band (which included Joe Sample of the Crusaders, and Larry Carlton, soon to be of every memorable Steely Dan guitar solo) they are nimble throughout; their finesse suited her own.

To explain how and what happened next in Mitchell's career-- how much her The Hissing of Summer Lawns was viewed as not a stylistic departure but a betrayal-- we must first look at the run up. While promoting Court, what could easily be defined as the commercial and artistic high-water mark of her career, Mitchell went to go see Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue tour and wound up joining. At the time, she was a peer of Dylan, commercially and as a songwriter, she was also tight with tour member Robbie Robertson of the Band. She had a song in the Billboard Top 10-- and she was opening. When Mitchell recounts this in later interviews, she talks about how being on the tour was a matter of constantly having to subvert her ego to the men around her.

At this same time, many of her peers were headed further toward the mainstream, towards syncopation, towards rock, towards retro revivalism. Mitchell saw there was not much of a place for her amongst the new talents and the Peter Pan-ing crew she came up with, as a woman in her early 30s, and she saw jazz as a genre that would allow her to age gracefully and expand as an artist-- and so there she went. She was trying to find or develop a place to belong”.

I am going to finish off with one of the most detailed reviews for Court and Spark. Jon Landau shared his thoughts for Rolling Stone in February 1974. It was clear, as was true than as it is now, Court and Spark is a very special album that hits you the first time you hear it! I have listened to it countless times and I am always affected by it:

“ON FIRST LISTENING, Joni Mitchell‘s Court And Spark, the first truly great pop album of 1974, sounds surprisingly light; by the third or fourth listening, it reveals its underlying tensions. The lyrics lead us through concentric circles that define an almost Zen-like dilemma: The freer the writer becomes, the more unhappy she finds herself; the more she surrenders her freedom, the less willing she is to accept the resulting compromise. Joni Mitchell seems destined to remain in a state of permanent dissatisfaction — always knowing what she would like to do, always more depressed when it’s done.

Joni Mitchell has composed few songs of unambivalent feeling. Even her most minimal work suggests a need for change and skepticism about its potential results. On Court and Spark she has elevated this tendency into a theme: No thought or emotion is expressed without some equally forceful statement of its negation.

The actual opposites of Court and Spark — the thrill of courtship modulated by the fear of emotional commitment — suggest a series of choices that Mitchell touches on, passes through, and defines with astounding compression — the alternatives of love and freedom, trust and paranoia, security and rootlessness, concern for herself and for others, compromise and pursuit of perfection, and even sanity and insanity.

Her boldest fears come out in her songs about madness, the last two on the album. Her own “Trouble Child” and Lambert-Hendricks-Ross’ “Twisted” deal with it in strikingly different ways: The former is tragic, the latter is a piece of comedy with an hilarious punch line that plays on the very notion of schizophrenia. Together they flirt with insanity from a distance safe enough to show she can control even so threatening a concern.

On For the Roses, Joni Mitchell’s best lines were: “I’m looking way out at the ocean/ Love to see that green water in motion.” Here she uses water to evoke the breaking of another’s spirit:

Some are gonna knock you Some will try to clock you It’s really hard to talk sense to you Trouble Child Breaking like the waves at Malibu.

It is a song of infinite compassion, but although she has externalized her feelings by writing about another person, the song is ultimately introspective. For that reason, the quick move into “Twisted” seems almost desperate. To me she says: Now that we’ve taken a look, let’s get out of here — there’s nothing left to do but laugh.

But if Joni Mitchell is capable of subtly edging around the notion of breakdowns, she’s unable to keep the same distance when singing about the men who dominate the album. She never seems to know where she wants to draw the line in love, or if a line exists at all. But it is precisely on the songs about love that the new lightness in her music makes so much sense.

The album achieves its ethereal and lyrical quality with even more instrumentation than any of her other recordings — including horns, strings and a full rhythm section. Blue, her best album, defined a musical style of extraordinary subtlety in which the greatest emotional effects were conveyed through the smallest shifts in nuance. On Court and Spark the music is less a reinforcement of the lyrics and more of a counterpoint to them. An album about an individual struggling with notions of freedom, it is itself freer, looser, more obvious, occasionally more raunchy, and not afraid to vary from past work. It is also sung with extraordinary beauty, from first note to last.

Still, her boldest musical stratagem is not the most successful. On “Car on the Hill” she changes tempi and inserts choral passages between verses, using voices that literally sound like ladies of the canyon. She then brings the performance back to its initial fantasy — the anticipation of waiting for a man. The cut attempts a contrast between very specific lyrics and dreamy musical interludes. Striking in its own way, it suffers from a possibly too literal conception.

“Down To You” is every bit as intricate but works much better. It’s the album’s best love song — sophisticated, subtle and complete in itself. As good as melody, vocal and arrangement are, the lyrics overshadow them, with intimations of the album’s opposites: “Everything comes and goes . . . You’re a kind person/You’re a cold person too . . .”

Simple songs like the title tune are almost as fulfilling. “Court And Spark” is about a drifter who suggests the possibility of her severing all inhibiting connections. She successfully (but depressingly) resists the temptation to make too much of a casual affair. But in the following song, “Help Me,” she reverses herself — the strength is gone and love becomes a threatening force that one copes with rather than surrenders to.

On “Free Man in Paris” and “People’s Parties” she moves from love to her other favorite subject: fame and its demands. She sees it as a further complication in the process of sorting out values. “I’m just living on nerves and feelings . . .” she sings in “People’s Parties.” The song, musically related to the delightful “You Turn Me On (I’m a Radio),” is at once her least ambitious and most affecting work.

Some of Side Two is more playful and suggests a wish to gradually surrender everything to emotion. “Raised on Robbery” is pure release: She ducks every issue for an exhilarating fantasy. But then on “Just Like This Train” she uses some fantasy imagery to define a relationship between freedom and time: “I used to count lovers like railway cars.” Now she doesn’t count anything and just lets things slide. Jealous loving makes her “crazy,” and so she now equates goodness entirely with the heart: She can’t find the one because she’s lost the other. The album’s most haunting song hangs on the deceptively simple line, “What are you gonna do about it/You’ve got no one to give your love to.”

On “People’s Parties,” Joni Mitchell sings, “Laughing and crying/You know it’s the same release.” The special beauty of Court and Spark is that it forces us to do both, and that it does so with such infinite grace”.

An album that, upon initial listening, might sound like Joni Mitchell albums that came before, Court and Spark has a depth and slow-burning magnetism and wonder what is revealed after several trips through. A staggering meeting of genius songwriting and Joni Mitchell’s distinct and captivating voice, Court and Spark deserves a lot of celebration and love before its fiftieth anniversary (on 17th January). Some say 1971’s Blue is Mitchell’s greatest work. Others might say Ladies of the Canyon (1970). To many, and with little reason to argue against them, Court and Spark is the peak of…

JONI Mitchell’s golden career.

FEATURE: The New Power Generation: A Need to Push Towards a Music Matriarchy

FEATURE:

 

 

The New Power Generation

PHOTO CREDIT: August de Richelieu/Pexels

 

A Need to Push Towards a Music Matriarchy

_________

NOT something that could happen instantly…

PHOTO CREDIT: LinkedIn Sales Navigator/Pexels

it seems that there needs to be a radical change in the music industry. It is divided and distinct in two different ways. On one side is the output and the best music around. I would say objectively that the best albums from the past few years at least have mostly been from women. The biggest and most inspiring tours of this year have been from women. Most of the new acts tipped this year to succeed were women. Something that is being mirrored in new features coming out at the moment – for those names to watch out for next year. Also, think about some of the very best broadcasters, D.J.s, label bosses, journalists and those right throughout the industry and I feel most of the power and influence is from women. People might challenge that though, when you do the figures and do the research, modern music is ruled by women. This is most definitely true when you think about music itself. The absolutely brilliant material we have received this year. On the other side is those who hold power. Still, from boardrooms to executive positions, right through to bodies in professional studios and those deciding festival bills and making big decisions in the industry, most are still men. One can tiptoe around the word. I think the music industry is patriarchal. Society is patriarchal. There are few sections and areas where that is not true. It is a sad fact that we hope will be tackled and reversed in our lifetimes. Even if a landmark EU agreement set a quota that women account for 40% of those on coporate boards, I ownder wehtehr this has transitioned to music and whether, in spite of those steps, it is quite enough. A patriarchy is essentially relating to or denoting a system of society or government controlled by men. Nobody can deny that music is even, equal or has any consciousness of parity and progress. Those making most of the move towards progress and recognition are the women being affected.

IN THIS PHOTO: Mitski released one of this year’s best albums with The Land Is Inhospitable and So Are We/PHOTO CREDIT: Ebru Yildiz

One might say it is not good having a patriarchy or a matriarchy. If a system is dominated by men or women alone then that does not lead to balance, discussion and togetherness. I would agree to in principle. My point relating to music is that, literally since music was invested, it has been controlled and guided by men! Even if there was not the same dominance of women decades ago – mostly down to an industry built on sexism and misogyny unwilling to create opportunity and equality for women -, that has radically shifted. In lieu of a coalition of way of ensuring that there is true gender equality regarding power and influence, there is a definite case to be made to suggest that a music patriarchy would lead to incredible change and evolution. As things stand, yes, there are small movements towards equality across many areas. Some are still seriously lagging – getting women into professional studios; festival headliners act. -, though we can see small shoots of potential. I don’t think that things will be addressed right across the board and ‘solved’ for decades. Again, whether it is campaigning for change, speaking out against discrimination and highlighting the ongoing sexism in music, it is mostly women doing the work. I do feel genuinely that an industry led by women would not only be decades overdue and deserved. It would also lead to much more rapid change! Not using this power to close men out or attack anyone, instead, you would see growth and prosperity that has never been there. It is amazing to see how casual those in power across all creative industries – and society at large – are when it comes to this power dynamic and the insanely slow pace that change is occurring.

PHOTO CREDIT: Andrea Piacquadio/Pexels

Power should be in the hands of those most deserving. The best person for the job. In an industry where women are towering, this is not being reflected and rewarded. Rather than the music industry being a meritocracy, it does seem to still be built around an ingrained and natural bias that has always been there. It may be pie in the sky, a fantasy or a desire without consideration of practicalities. I genuinely think that the industry has changed drastically in recent years where we are at the point women’s creative output outranks that or men. Not that it is a competition! Though, for an industry that is still a patriarchy, why should this be when so much of the very best music and work being done is from women?! I guess there is a challenge overhauling something so huge quickly. You only need to look at something as basic as radio playlists to see how natural it is for stations to stack their playlists with male artists, in spite of the embarrassment of riches from women. It is this casual and unconcerned sexism and bias that is not being addressed. I do feel, if more of the industry power were in the hands of women, then that this would lead to greater balance. It is also assumed that the best we can do is balance. Why would it be weird if more women headlined festivals than men?! If more women were on playlists compared to male artists?! It is this feeling that fifty-fifty is a big effort and almost impossible. As I say, listen to the music that has come out these past few years. Celebrations like Women in Music Awards 2023 highlights incredible and influential women who are making a huge difference.

PHOTO CREDIT: Sound On/Pexels

I think that next year is going to be one of small improvements and steps forwards. Things like festival bills will get less male-heavy. Radio playlists might get close to balance too. There is still a big wave of sexual assaults and attacks against women. Imbalance and discrimination throughout the industry that is either not being challenged by men in power and the industry as a whole, or it is mainly women speaking out. I can feel natural flow towards something largely patriarchal to an industry that is moving closer to blending and balance. Still, in terms of decisions and change-making, there is still that disproportionate gender imbalance. In the sense that men have more power and impact. Many might challenge my views or say that it is misguided or overly-ambitious. Many might say that things do not need to change or that, if things are not broken, then why fix them?! You only need to read reports of discrimination, misogyny and gender imbalance to see that more needs to be done. Even with more women in positions of power through music, there are still barriers and too many hurdles imposed that mean things are not going to change quickly enough. It has been a truly terrific year for music. I just feel, the more and more we know about continued and slowly-reducing imbalance, the more there needs to be a major shift and reassessment. Like all creative industries, a move towards matriarchy would obviously lead to greater parity through music. Inspiring and incredible women are already out there doing amazing work. The industry has too many cracks for it to be left like it is. Rather than there being this revolution, it is clear that embracing more female voices and ensuring there are more women in positions of power will vastly benefit the industry. That said, I can’t find any argument against…

PHOTO CREDIT: Christina Morillo/Pexels

A music matriarchy.

FEATURE: Spotlight: Current Affairs

FEATURE:

 

 

Spotlight

PHOTO CREDIT: Matthew Arthur Williams

  

Current Affairs

_________

NOW in a new year…

there are lots of new artists coming through people have their eye on. In a sea of competition, it can be hard to decide which are worth sticking with. One band that everyone needs to be aware of are Current Affairs. Even if their name might not stand out too much, then their music certainly does! Comprised of stalwarts of the music scene, Joan Sweeney, Gemma Fleet, Andrew Milk and Sebastian Ymai, everyone needs to check out this amazing band. They are getting a lot of buzz and salutes from the music press. Ones that will definitely make a mark through this year. I am going to get to some interviews. First, The Guardian proclaimed Current Affairs as one to watch last year:

"Post-punk and new-wave blending outfit Current Affairs is an assemblage of veteran musicians: Glaswegian frontwoman Joan Sweeney (formerly of bands Aggi Doom and the Royal We); bassist Gemma Fleet (the Wharves, Order of the Toad, Dancer); drummer Andrew Milk (Shopping, Pink Pound); and on guitar Sebastian Ymai (Comidillo Tapes, Pissy, and Anxiety). With diverse roots – Ymai is from Chile and now based in Berlin, while Fleet and Milk are from London – it’s Glasgow, with its celebrated, longstanding DIY music scene, that the stalwart alt-rockers have claimed as their own musical nucleus.

A version of the band first emerged in 2019, releasing the EP Object and Subject, but it was only after Ymai launched Spite House, an initiative created to highlight female-led and queer music, that today’s iteration of Current Affairs was born. Ymai was driven to launch the project in response to the masculine vibe that proliferated in Glasgow’s gritty live scene at the time. “The motto was: ‘Everyone’s welcome, but don’t get it twisted’,” Sweeney said in an interview with Loverboy magazine. “I think that sums it up quite well.”

Their forthcoming debut album, Off the Tongue, promises an unpredictable, 10-song ride, beset with sudden lane changes and hairpin turns. “Current Affairs is where I can burn the world down one minute and then push for brighter things the next,” says Sweeney. “It’s not always bad to rage, cry or be a Pollyanna.” Perhaps there’s wisdom in this whiplash”.

I am going to come to a review for their must-hear new album, Off the Tongue. It follows 2019’s Object & Subject. Whether you class them as Post-Punk or categorise them in another genre, it is clear that Current Affairs are having an impact on the Glasgow DIY scene. What they have put into the world so far is really distinct and amazing. With so much attention on London artists, it is good to shine a Spotlight elsewhere. Snack Mag in July. In the four or so years since they released their early material, they have developed as a real force and district voice. Such a tight-knit and stunning band that will make big steps this year:

“Since releasing their first collection of tracks in 2019, Current Affairs have leaned into gothic new wave undertones that colour their raucous post-punk. After a Covid-enforced break, working together through the Spitehouse Collective – a Glasgow project promoting LGBTQ+ and female music-makers – they are getting ready to release their debut LP, Off the Tongue, and embark on a UK tour.

SNACK caught up with Joan Sweeney (vocals, keyboard), Andrew Milk (drums), and Gemma Fleet (bass) to chat about their restless new album, Glasgow’s DIY music scene, and what it means to be post-punk.

Since you were working on Off the Tongue for quite a long time, how did you ensure that the music still felt fresh and raw and spontaneous?

Joan: I think one of the things that was interesting about doing it this time was that little snippets were getting sent around, like little phone recordings and things, and then nothing was really fully done until we could practise together again. Then, when we could practise together again, we had a couple of weeks to get things together properly, go and record them and then it was done! So maybe that’s why: it all just came together at the last minute.

Andrew: Yeah, I think the sound that you get is probably us still feeling quite new to the songs ourselves when we were recording them. Because usually you’d have maybe a year of playing stuff live to really get down to what you want it to sound like on record. And part of the spontaneity might be the fact that we couldn’t go out and play them live.

I’m interested in the role that location plays in your music. Do you feel that Glasgow or Berlin or any particular place has had an influence on you as a band?

Gemma: Glasgow is really accommodating for making music. For me, it just seems like people are up for doing it which is a novelty! Getting a practice space isn’t a really hard thing, it doesn’t cost millions of pounds like it does in London. And there’s a real passionate commitment to music, so people are going out and doing it in their week. Whereas everyone has to work so much just to simply live in London, that’s quite hard to do.

Joan: There’s always connections [with Glasgow and Berlin]. But there’s also connections here with DIY circuits around the world. We put on gigs, other bands in Glasgow put on gigs, we put on people from abroad, and they put us on abroad. It’s always been more about finding like-minded people from wherever they are, rather than right on your doorstep.

You’re often described as a post-punk band. And that’s a label which you hear all the time these days about lots of different kinds of bands. Do you feel that it’s overused? Do you feel it’s an apt description of what you’re trying to do with your music?

Joan: We’ll all probably have slightly different opinions on this. I’ve always thought about post-punk as basically just being ‘after the first wave of punk’. So to me, it’s when people are going a little bit deeper into their influences, or getting a bit better at their instruments. But it’s still got the punk ethic of ‘just give it a go’. So I don’t mind it. And a lot of my favourite bands would probably come under that umbrella, even though they don’t necessarily sound like each other.

Gemma: I think genres are so broad but sometimes they’re helpful for people, because we’re absolutely bombarded with music everywhere. And it’s sort of annoying as a musician, but if people can say ‘it’s post-punk, for fans of…’ then you sort of have a bit of idea whether you might like it, and probably helpful when you’re trying to navigate the absolute tonne of music available in the world!

Andrew: I don’t feel like it’s necessarily an overused term, I think it’s used accurately. There is just that breadth and that amount of bands that would fit under it. I mean, that’s why post-punk as a genre is never-endingly inspirational and brilliant to dive into, because it is everything post… punk!”.

Before getting to a review for Off the Tongue, The Skinny chatted with Current Affairs. As they prepared to tour the U.K., they were discussed the tracks off of a sophomore album that stands alongside the best of last year. Dividing their time between Glasgow and Berlin, this scintillating quartet are accruing a wave of new fans. Their music is that which needs to be heard:

“Current Affairs' new album Off The Tongue is, as they put it, "the kind of music you can shriek and dance around your bedroom to". The Glasgow-and-Berlin-based four-piece fuse dark, gothic sounds with new-wave pop sensibilities and plenty of post-punk edge – the result is 10 tracks that will have you out of your seat shouting about the injustice of it all one minute, and bobbing your head back and forth the next.

With Off The Tongue out now and a UK tour kicking off in Glasgow this weekend, the band – Joan Sweeney, Sebastian Ymai, Gemma Fleet and Andrew Milk – talk us through the album track-by-track.

Introducing Off The Tongue

"Off The Tongue took a long time to get itself out there and at the same time seemed to happen pretty urgently for us. We started writing the album during lockdown, writing and sharing parts over voice memos, but it didn’t fully come together until we could. Over a couple of practices and few days recording with Ross McGowan at Chime, that was when they took their shape, made sense and got exciting. In fact, most of the band hadn’t even heard the final vocal melodies until recording; Ymai and Gemma were so shocked they burst out laughing. I think there’s a life to the album because of that, that we didn’t tend to labour on the elements too much. Not to say we’re flippant though, we care very much.

"The sound of the album switches and changes a bit, but overall we want it to be the kind of music you can shriek and dance around your bedroom to. Our influences come through naturally from the music we listen to and learned our instruments from (which isn’t always exactly the same as each other) and I think that’s what makes it our own rather than sounding like a cover band, although it is admittedly retro. For me [Joan], writing the album was a chance to flesh out my feelings, give them purpose and find them some community. Different songs had different intents, but across them all is a wanting to build something more in a new way. If we’re witnessing the end of our present conditions, then there could be hope in that for people who think like we do. And if you do, we’ve got you!”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Catriona Clegg

I will finish with a review for Off the Tongue. The Quietus gave their impressions of a remarkable album that I would recommend to everyone. Even if I only discovered Current Affairs last year, I am committed to seeing where they head next. One of our bets rising bands. Make sure you follow this band on social media. Check out their music. A fascinating group whose music really sticks in the mind:

“After years of releasing singles and EPs and making tweaks to their line-up, Current Affairs are solidifying around their debut full-length. Off the Tongue is a scrappy slice of post-punk from beginning to end. Energy is the watchword, with scraping guitar and yawping vocals, anchored by strong, rubber band snapping bass lines throughout the album.

Despite starting off with red herring sci-fi electronics, Off the Tongue makes a quick shift to guitars whose sound borrows heavily from the late 80s. While it’s tempting to conclude that this is a guitar band, it’s singer Joan Sweeney’s vocals that feel like the main catalyst – they are equal turns sharp, defiant, encouraging, and like they might start some fires along the way.

This brash aesthetic comes through loud and clear on ‘Casual Radicals’; even with one of the spikier guitar lines on the album, Sweeney’s vocals still lead the charge, channeling a tone similar to Siouxsie Sioux on lower-fi recordings. The attitude in her vocals conveys a real feeling of power that can also be heard in ‘Regardless’, where a subdued but insistent rhythm provides a tense background to her pointed delivery. “Take your time / but don’t waste mine” she sings – and it’s easy to imagine her target as an ex-lover or a prolific naysayer – before the synths bubble up behind an excited chorus.

Even though there is that feeling of power emanating through the songs, it doesn’t stop a bit of sass or fun from peeking their way through. Current Affairs have found a way to fuse a low-key positivity into their songs without it ever becoming cloying.

The height of this joyous, high energy abandon is ‘Get Wrecked’. Its stomping verses extolling the value of starting from scratch careen into a guitar-driven chorus where Sweeney demands “Turn your wits about!” The frantic pace is kept up on a taunting outro where the guitar and keyboards pull focus from each other like they’re trading insults.

Album closer ‘Her Own Private Multiverse’ is the most muted song on the album, with ringing guitars and a more earnest, less boisterous vocal from Sweeney. Even then, she’s still coaxing and assuring: “you’re an original / a stellar individual”. There’s more of a cool detachment than some of the frenzy or rallying cries of the rest of Off the Tongue, but the album closes out with the feeling that band are firmly in your corner”.

I am excited by all of the artists who are emerging and releasing some truly amazing music. I feel that Current Affairs are going to have a very busy year. If they are not on your radar then do make sure that you follow them. Following the release of Off the Tongue, Current Affairs are a band on…

MANY people’s lips.

__________

Follow Current Affairs

FEATURE: They Told Me I Was Going to Lose the Fight… Kate Bush’s Wuthering Heights at Forty-Six: The Battle to Release an Iconic Debut Single

FEATURE:

 

 

They Told Me I Was Going to Lose the Fight…

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

 

Kate Bush’s Wuthering Heights at Forty-Six: The Battle to Release an Iconic Debut Single

_________

ON 20th January, 1978…

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1978 for the Wuthering Heights single cover shoot (Bush was unhappy with the selected image so another one was chosen, delaying the single release by a couple of months)/PHOTO CREDIT: Gered Mankowitz

a debut single was released that changed music. It introduced the world to the phenomenal Kate Bush. Even so, many knew about Wuthering Heights before it was released in 1978. It was leaked and played before the official release, so there was some awareness of this beguiling and unique song. I have written about Wuthering Heights a lot. Here, I want to discuss the battle with EMI to get it released as her debut single – one of the most important releases of her entire career. EMI's Bob Mercer wanted to release the more conventional James and the Cold Gun. Kate Bush did not feel the same. A song never released as a single, she knew that she had a more fascinating and impactful song that would be a much better introduction. I will look at the track and its background, in addition to the reason Wuthering Heights made some people reassess and more deeply examine the novel it was inspired by. The only novel from Emily Brontë, it was first published in 1847. Brontë was also born on 30th July. Bush was born in 1958; Brontë in 1818. Bush clearly felt this natural connection to the author. Someone whose life and writing somehow resonated and was similar to hers. Before going into the song and this struggle she had with EMI to get Wuthering Heights released as her debut single, let’s find out more about her magnificent and spinetingling number one debut:

“Song written by Kate Bush, released as her debut single in January 1978. She wrote the song after seeing the last ten minutes of the 1967 BBC mini-series based on the book ‘Wuthering Heights’, written by Emily Brontë. Reportedly, she wrote the song within the space of just a few hours late at night. The actual date of writing is estimated to be March 5, 1977.

Lyrically, “Wuthering Heights” uses several quotations from Catherine Earnshaw, most notably in the chorus – “Let me in! I’m so cold!” – as well as in the verses, with Catherine’s confession to her servant of “bad dreams in the night.” It is sung from Catherine’s point of view, as she pleads at Heathcliff’s window to be allowed in. This romantic scene takes a sinister turn if one has read Chapter 3 of the original book, as Catherine is in fact a ghost, calling lovingly to Heathcliff from beyond the grave. Catherine’s “icy” ghost grabs the hand of the Narrator, Mr Lockwood, through the bedroom window, asking him to let her in, so she can be forgiven by her lover Heathcliff, and freed from her own personal purgatory.

The song was recorded with Andrew Powell producing. According to him, the vocal performance was done in one take, “a complete perfomance” with no overdubs. “There was no compiling,” engineer Kelly said. “We started the mix at around midnight and Kate was there the whole time, encouraging us… we got on with the job and finished at about five or six that morning.” The guitar solo that fades away with the track in the outro was recorded by Edinburgh musician Ian Bairnson, a session guitarist.

Originally, record company EMI’s Bob Mercer had chosen another track, James And The Cold Gun as the lead single, but Kate Bush was determined that ‘Wuthering Heights’ would be her first release.  She won out eventually in a surprising show of determination for a young musician against a major record company, and this would not be the only time she took a stand against them to control her career.

The release date for the single was initially scheduled to be 4 November 1977. However, Bush was unhappy with the picture being used for the single’s cover and insisted it be replaced. Some copies of the single had already been sent out to radio stations, but EMI relented and put back the single’s launch until the New Year. Ultimately, this proved to be a wise choice, as the earlier release would have had to compete with Wings’ latest release, ‘Mull of Kintyre’, which became the biggest-selling single in UK history up to this point in December 1977.

‘Wuthering Heights’ was finally released on 20 January 1978, was immediately playlisted by Capital Radio and entered their chart at no. 39 on 27 January. It crept into the national Top 50 in week ending 11 February at No.42. The following week it rose to No.27 and Bush made her first appearance on Top of the Pops (“It was like watching myself die”, recalls Bush), The song was finally added to Radio One’s playlist the following week and became one of the most played records on radio. When the song reached number 1, it was the first UK number 1 written and performed by a female artist”.

Imagine a still-teenage artist so determined to get a particular song released as a debut single. It is natural and lazy that a record label would push for a Pop-sounding and more radio-friendly song for the debut. Thinking more about chart positions and sales, their insistent would have backfired. James and the Cold Gun would likely not have gone to number one. I would have been interested in a music video, though the song is not as nuanced and standout as Wuthering Heights. Instead, following this magical discovery of the novel (via  T.V. mini-series) and the way she composed the song, coupled with the vocal being recorded in a single take, Bush would have felt like it was destined for a single release! Something that could not be kept on the album alone. Maybe it would have been a single eventually though, if fortunes had been different were another song released as the debut, maybe there would not have been commercial demand for Wuthering Heights. As some see it, Bush was so determined that Wuthering Heights was being dismissed as a debut single, tempers flared and she cried. This is something that did not happen. What is clear that things were getting tense and there was almost something more explosive about to take place. Whilst in a meeting with the label and others to discuss the single and her career, a man popped his head around the door saying he loved Wuthering Heights and it should be the single. That was perfectly timed and shut down the debate! EMI backtracked and said Bush isn’t a singles artist so it wouldn’t matter. They were more worried about the album. That sounds like pouting, as they seemed pretty clear of James and the Cold Gun being the debut single. When the second single was planned, Bush won another fight – where The Man with the Child in His Eyes was favoured and won over EMI’s choice.

Even if Bush knew which song should be her debut single, there were mixed blessings when it got to number one and was successful. She had to perform the song numerous times. After a disastrous and miserable debut appearance on Top of the Pops (as a solo artist, Bush was not allowed to play with her band and had to use the studio musicians/backing; something she hated, and a big reason she did fewer Top of the Pops appearances after), it was a rocky start to her T.V. live career. Bush’s debut T.V. appearance was in Germany on 9th February, 1978. She would find herself performing on T.V. around Europe. There were interviews further afield. It was a bright and extraordinary young artist really hitting the ground running! I will come back to the fight with EMI and why it was a huge moment when Bush won and was proved right. First, an article from 2020 discussed female hysteria, melodrama, and racial complexity within Wuthering Heights. There are some interesting observations:

“There’s a delicious aspect of utter ridiculousness to the song, a melodrama as self-aware as it is sincere. I wonder if that multiplicity is what draws so many people in, while of course still scaring a few away. It mirrors Emily Brontë’s novel in this way—a book that shocked critics upon its publication, even though she wrote under a male pseudonym out of fear that audiences would judge her harshly for being female. With its unique plot structure, severe setting and tone, and unscrupulous characters, Wuthering Heights was a literary anomaly for its time.

Bush and Brontë, in their respective moments of creation, were attempting to produce and disseminate their art through apparatuses dominated by men—the publishing industry for Brontë and the music industry for Bush. Brontë was unable to lay claim to her work publicly and never saw the greater impact her book would have on the literary world, as she passed away only a year after its release. Friend and teacher Constantin Héger once described Brontë as such:

She should have been a man—a great navigator. Her powerful reason would have deduced new spheres of discovery from the knowledge of the old; and her strong imperious will would never have been daunted by opposition or difficulty, never have given way but with life.

Despite her sharp intellect and expansive knowledge, Brontë’s gender posed a fundamental barrier to achievement and acclaim. Fast forward over a century, and Bush fought an uphill battle against male recording executives to preserve her artistic vision as a young female musician, finding vindication in the way her audience overwhelmingly embraced the effusive and gleeful strangeness of her music.     

I first read the novel Wuthering Heights as a teenager, assuming that I would love it due to its status as a literary classic and all the adoring reviews I had heard over the years. Instead, the deeper I trod, the more confused and repelled I felt. I had never encountered anything quite like this book and the selfish, abrasive,  malevolent characters who populated it. Some of my reaction resulted from the fact that up until that moment, I had mostly read books with at least one likeable character, retaining a solid moral center even when the universe around them was cruel or unfair. But in Brontë’s etched-out world of bleak moors and shuddering winds, characters consume the cruelty they experience and spit it back out at their loved ones and the most vulnerable people around them.

The women of Wuthering Heights are neither deified nor meant to serve as moral cautionary tales, unlike the heroines of many literary works published at the time. They take up substantial space in their caustic, expansive splendor, never close to being perfect, but always compelling in their strengths and faults. In inhabiting the narrative voice of Catherine Earnshaw—the flighty, arrogant, and tragic female protagonist of Wuthering Heights—Bush gives a platform to the remarkable heights of passion that define this character, whose internal monologue is never explored in the novel.

The Cathy that Bush brings to life in her music is possibly even more demanding and incandescent than in the source material. Interestingly enough, at the point in the narrative that the song relates to, Cathy is already dead, now a ghost tormenting her former lover. But rather than silencing her, death emboldens Cathy—in it, she gains a measure of agency and clarity of thought not present in the anguished confusion of the last years of her life. No longer bound by human constraints on behavior, both in the novel and the song she fully reveals the naked longing and emotion that she had once kept controlled in her pursuit of wealth and higher social status. After all, what use is rationality to a ghost?

Bush and Brontë both evoke women overcome with hysterical emotion, laying claim to that hysteria for their own artistic works and wrenching it from the hands of creators and critics who would use the notion to denigrate and doubt women’s abilities. I wonder if, for the both of them, there was a measure of freedom in respectively creating and identifying with the character of Cathy—a woman who is openly selfish and demanding, who refuses to suppress her desires or bend to the wills of the men around her. For these female creators who must have necessarily felt a pressure to be on their best behavior in order to navigate the patriarchal structures in their lives, I imagine there to be a kind of joy in inhabiting the character of Cathy, unmitigated passions and selfish desires and all”.

The more one reads articles and interpretations of Wuthering Heights and Kate Bush translating the novel into a song, the more one wonders why EMI were ever reluctant to release it as a single! As it turns forty-six on 20th January, we can look back all these years and how the song has taken on a life of its own. The Brontë Society objected to Wuthering Heights when it was released as a single. In years since, Bush’s single and video have been used in classrooms. More people discovering the novel because of Kate Bush. Another huge reason why Kate Bush’s fight with EMI was significant. This article looks deeply at Bush’s radical reinterpretation a classic source material. Something few artists today would imagine doing – which begs questions about modern inspiration and lyrical content:

“But as Bush borrowed from the dialogue, she made a crucial transposition in the point of view. When she sings, “You had a temper, like my jealousy / too hot too greedy,” the my refers to Cathy and the you to Heathcliff, the novel’s brooding protagonist/antagonist/antihero/villain (depending on your point of view). But the novel itself never inhabits Cathy’s consciousness: she is seen and heard, her rages and threats vividly reported, but everything we know about her comes from either Nelly Dean, a longtime housekeeper for the Earnshaw and Linton families, or through Lockwood, a hapless visitor to the Yorkshire moorlands and the principle first-person narrator of the novel (most of the novel consists of Nelly’s quoted speech to Lockwood, who is eager to hear the complete history of the inhabitants of Wuthering Heights and its neighboring property, Thrushcross Grange). Although the novel spans decades and multiple generations of Earnshaws and Lintons, Kate Bush’s shift into Cathy’s point of view centers the song entirely on Cathy and Heathcliff—which is fittingly how Cathy, in the novel, views the world. She and Heathcliff share one soul, she claims; everyone else, including her husband Edgar, is little more than scenery.

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

With this choice, Bush gives voice to a female character who—though an electric presence in the novel—is denied the agency of self-narrating, or even of being narrated through a close third person. Nelly may be presented to us by Lockwood as a simple, transparently objective narrator, but the novel is littered with moments where Nelly complicates the lives of those around her by revealing or concealing what she knows. Bush’s musical interpretation of the novel makes visible the questions that surround point of view: who does the telling? What is their agenda? Who can we really trust?

By opening up these questions, the song situates itself in the tradition of other so-called “parallel texts” that respond to or reinvent earlier, often canonical works of literature: think Jean Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea and Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre, or Kamel Daoud’s The Meursault Investigation and Albert Camus’s The Stranger. In each pairing of “parallel” and “source” text, the later work privileges characters narrated about, but never before narrated from within.

Like the novels by Rhys and Daoud, Bush’s song demonstrates how art can respond to art, and points to the ways in which crucial reevaluations of past works take place not only in scholarly articles but in one artist grappling with the erasures and silences of an earlier age. Rhys and Daoud both insist on a voice for a silenced, maligned, or dismissed colonial subject. Their aim is not to create a work that merely amends (or acts as a footnote to) the earlier text, but to produce a narrative that calls into question the primacy, and even the authority, of the earlier text”.

I often muse about Kate Bush’s career and how it would have changed and gone on a different course if a song other than Wuthering Heights was released as her debut single. James and the Cold Gun would have gone top twenty. Bush might have been able to get Wuthering Heights out as the second single. Would it have got to number one in 1979 or later in 1978?! Things would have been drastically altered. Some artists in the 1970s would not have had opportunity to decide which of their songs would be released as singles. Whilst clearly talented, a teenage Kate Bush might have been expected to trust EMI and go with their single choice. The fact Bush and her KT Bush Band performed James and the Cold Gun at pubs and venues around London shortly before she headed into the studio would have given them a sense that song was particularly important to her. That it would be a single she’d bond with. Not discounting James and the Cold Gun, Wuthering Heights was a rare and almost divine moment of synchronicity and inspiration too good to leave. That urgency needed to be realised. Perhaps the Top of the Pops debut dampened some of Bush’s enthusiasm for the song. She took it around the world. It was part of the encore for 1979’s The Tour of Life. It is also a track that is one of the most-streamed on Spotify. I think back to the stress Bush would have felt thinking Wuthering Heights would not win the fight for her debut single. When it did and it went to number one, few could ever doubt Kate Bush again! The determined and brilliant Kate (whose birth name is Catherine; the same as Wuthering Heights’ Catherine Earnshaw) stood firm. Not letting anyone deny the power of Wuthering Heights, she declared “It’s me…

I’M Cathy”.

FEATURE: A Long Time Coming… New Drink Spiking Laws and the Safety of Women at Live Music Events

FEATURE:

 

 

A Long Time Coming…

PHOTO CREDIT: MART PRODUCTION/Pexels

 

New Drink Spiking Laws and the Safety of Women at Live Music Events

_________

IT seems unbelievable…

PHOTO CREDIT: cottonbro studio/Pexels

that it has taken to now for laws on drink spiking to change. To make it a criminal offence. It will have a big impact on society as a whole, though there is also that sense of greater safety in music. Crimes connected with drink spiking – such as rape and sexual assault – are obviously illegal, though there has been this leniency and ignorance regarding the laws around drink spiking. The damage it can do physically and psychological. How someone can have their drink spiked and get into great danger. It is shocking that we live in a world where something like drink spiking was seen as relatively minor until now. I want to talk about it in terms of the music industry and women’s safety. Obviously men do get their drinks spiked and are impacted. It is mostly women who are affected. Drink spiking is not only a huge problem and danger at nightclubs where D.J.s might play. It is also something that one will see at music festivals and gigs. I am going to come onto that. Here, from Sky News are the plans to modernise laws around drink spiking:

“Plans to modernise spiking laws will be set out in the coming days.

Ministers have come under pressure to make needle and drink spiking a specific offence, with campaigners and opposition parties calling for tougher action.

The Home Office has said it will amend the Criminal Justice Bill and update the Offences Against The Person Act 1861 to make clear that spiking is illegal.

Spiking is when someone puts drugs into another person's drink or directly into their body without their knowledge or consent.

Officials said there would also be separate statutory guidance that will provide a "clear" and "unequivocal" definition of spiking.

This is expected to take the form of an update to the guidance issued under Section 182 of the Licensing Act 2003.

She told Sky News it was important to train door staff to spot the difference between someone who is drunk and a person who may have been spiked.

Ms Read-Pitt said: "Apparently, they [security] carried me outside the club and said 'we need some help, they're in a bad way', and she [staff member] said 'leave them in the gutter, that would teach them a lesson'."

The boss of a company providing spiking test kits to some bars in Shrewsbury, Vince Dovey, said the "vast majority" had come back negative, "but people do feel safer" knowing they are available.

He said the trial scheme had only been going a few weeks and it was too soon to spot any trends on spiking cases.

Home Secretary James Cleverly said: "The public should be under no illusion - spiking is a serious offence and I urge anyone who suspects they have been a victim of this to contact the police now."

The Home Office said the changes would form part of a wider package of measures to protect women and tackle spiking.

Mr Cleverly added: "This government has already gone further than ever before to protect the public from harm, and ensuring that women and girls can live their lives free from fear is one of my top priorities as home secretary."

Spiking is currently covered by several different areas of legislation but there is no single dedicated offence under which to prosecute perpetrators.

Nearly 5,000 cases of needle and drink spiking incidents were reported to police in England and Wales in the 12 months to September 2022, according to National Police Chiefs' Council figures.

Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said action was "long overdue".

PHOTO CREDIT: reni/Pexels

It is bad enough that it has taken until 2023 for laws around drink spiking to be reviewed and updated. A man responsible for the safety of women, Home Secretary James Cleverly – with one of the most ironic surnames ever! – felt fit to make a joke about spiking his own wife. It rightly was met with outrage and disgust. It shows that there is not only misogyny in the music industry and wider society. Many of our MPs are also clearly unconcerned when it comes to women’s safety and rights. The BBC explained more:

“Home Secretary James Cleverly has apologised for making an "ironic joke" about spiking his wife's drink at a Downing Street reception.

He reportedly said the ideal spouse was "someone who is always mildly sedated so she can never realise there are better men out there".

According to the Sunday Mirror, he also mentioned Rohypnol - a so-called "date rape" drug.

Senior Labour party figures have described the comments as "appalling".

Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said spiking - putting alcohol or drugs in someone's drink or body without their consent - was a "disturbing and serious crime which is having a devastating impact on young women's lives".

"It is truly unbelievable that the home secretary made such appalling jokes on the very same day the government announced a new policy on spiking," she added.

And charity Women's Aid said political leaders were relied upon to "take action to end violence against women and girls, and the misogyny that underpins it".

"It is vital that spiking survivors see ministers treating the subject seriously and not downplaying the reality so many women face," it said on X.

Another women's rights organisation, the Fawcett Society, called on Mr Cleverly to resign, asking: "How can we trust him to seriously address violence against women and girls?"

In a statement, it said: "It's sickening that the senior minister in charge of keeping women safe thinks that something as terrifying as drugging women is a laughing matter”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Nadin Sh/Pexels

In terms of the music industry, it can be really difficult policing and monitoring drink spiking. At festivals especially, there are thousands of people around that means it is nearly impossible to check everyone. It is important that, despite changes in laws, as much money as possible is provided to venues and festivals that means staff can be trained to detect the signs of drink spiking. There are signs that they can look out for and act accordingly. This article lists a couple of methods to help when it comes to drink spiking and reducing the risk:

“How can we help ourselves?

Detection Kits: Drink Detective kits have now become wildly available so that if your attendees feel at risk and believe they have had their drinks spiked, they are able to test their drink at the time. The Undercover Colours is real time test, which works within 30 seconds so that guests are able test for Xanax, Valium and Flunitrazepam which are the most common drugs used to spike drinks.  These tests however do come at a cost. It is the events managers decision to decide, how to integrate the cost into the music festival. One way of doing is selling them along side the drinks cost, or alternative a convert method is to include the kits in with the ticket price, so that they can be given out freely at the event. For more information on Detective Kits: Click Here.

KnoNap: The KnoNap is a more discreet testing method which is being developed. The napkin will change colour if drugs are found present in a drink. This is a subtle way for attendees to check their drinks if they are being watched by the perpetrator. By supplying the KnoNap as an alternative to the cocktail napkin you are automatically making your attendees feel safer at your festival. Use this link to find out more.”.

PHOTO CREDIT: Getty Images/iStockphoto

There are things venues and festivals do but can increase. Searches of those entering to ensure there is nothing on their person that can be used to spike a drink. People can boycott venues that are not doing enough, though that can seriously damage the live music sector. I think greater resources and training is a best first step. At a wider and deeper level, the dangers and real seriousness of drink spiking needs to be taught across schools and colleges. Campaigns run that mean those attending live music know the statistics and how to detect if someone has had their drink spiked. I will end by discussing why there is still a big issue with drink spiking in music. There are statistics that highlight a very bleak situation. For those who want to know more about drink spiking and its symptoms, here is some important information:

“What are date rape drugs?

The most common date rape drug used according to the NHS is alcohol , however Rohypnol (Roofie) and Gamma Hydroxybutyrate (GHB) are also common, acting as an extremely strong sedative. Other recreational drugs such as Ecstasy, LSD, and Ketamine are sometimes used to spike drinks. With the risk of effects such as nausea to heart failure.

How can I/ we spot the symptoms of spiking?

Loss of balance

Visual impairment

Confusion

Nausea

Vomiting

Unconsciousness’

What are we told to do in the situation of spiking?

Tell a bar manager, bouncer or member of staff

Stay with them and keep talking to them

Call an ambulance if their condition deteriorates

Don’t let them go home alone

Don’t let them leave the venue with someone you don’t know or trust

If possible, prevent them from drinking more alcohol, as this could lead to serious problems”.”.

Do we really need to get tougher when it comes to enforcing laws around drink spiking?! In short, yes. Not only are reported cases very high. The number of reported incidents that lead to prosecution are dropping. Maybe it is becoming harder to find evidence to prosecute. The reality is that women being drugged and assaulted is seen as less important than other crimes. Maybe a lack of resources and training needs to happen until we see figures change, yet I feel there is this existing misogyny that means drink spiking is seen as minor. Many thinking it is a woman’s fault if she does not watch her drink and is not ‘careful’. In October, The Guardian reported on a worrying trend when it comes to drink spiking and how many lead to criminal charges:

“Drug-spiking incidents reported to the police have increased five-fold in five years, yet the proportion leading to a criminal charge is falling, freedom of information (FoI) requests show.

Almost 20,000 reports of spiking were received in the past five years by 39 police forces that responded to FoI requests sent out by Channel 4 for a documentary.

Yet the proportion of the reports that were investigated and resulted in a criminal charge dropped from 1 in 25 in 2018 to 1 in 400 in 2022. Channel 4 found just 54 cases where a suspect had been arrested and referred to the Crown Prosecution Service.

The documentary, part of the Untold series, is calling for a change in the law to make spiking a criminal offence, rather than having to use other pieces of legislation, such as the Sexual Offences Act or Offences Against The Person Act.

Barrister Charlotte Proudman, who is interviewed in the show, said: “At the moment the law is not a deterrent because there’s no specific criminal offence for spiking, so it’s not recognised as a crime in and of itself in its own right.

“In terms of sending out a key strong message that spiking is a crime that will not be tolerated, and to use the law as a deterrent, there is nothing in the statute box that makes that crystal clear.”

She said this would be analogous to other specific crimes enshrined in law, for example, female genital mutilation or forced marriage. 

She told the Guardian: “It’s not common but it’s becoming more common. Part of that is the recognition that the laws we live under, some have been made centuries ago. The Offences Against The Person Act used in some spiking cases goes back to the 1800s and it’s Victorian legislation. It’s about making sure the law is up to date with the modern times we live in”.

Obviously, as there are so many venues and festivals that serve alcohol, drink spiking is a huge risk. Given the noise and chaos that happens at live music events, it can be easier for those who want to drug women to do so. At its most minor, drink spiking can lead to minor physical harm to a woman. At worst, it can lead to rape and lifelong psychological devastation. It is an extremely serious issue that hopefully will be addressed and focused on more now that new laws are being proposed. It takes me back to that remark (‘joke’) by James Cleverly. Someone almost poking fun at women having their drinks spiked. It is sickening that these attitudes exist in our highest office! They are also mirrored elsewhere. I don’t think drink spiking is considered to be a serious problem. So many women who attend live music have either witnessed someone having their drink spiked or been a victim of it. Realising the severity of drink spiking needs to be a big priority now. Ensuring that there is not better education and awareness; there need to be more prosecutions and convictions. Drink spiking most definitely is…

NO laughing matter!

FEATURE: Saluting the Queens: Loreen

FEATURE:

 

 

Saluting the Queens

PHOTO CREDIT: Azazel for Rolling Stone UK

 

Loreen

_________

IN a future part of this run…

PHOTO CREDIT: Azazel for Rolling Stone UK

I am going to include a great British D.J. I am celebrating and highlighting terrific women D.J. - so it will be timely including her. That will come in a week or so. Today, I want to include an inspiring artist that some might not know about. This feature is about the Swedish artist Loreen. Lorine Zineb Nora Talhaoui has represented her nation twice at the Eurovision Song Contest. She won it in 2012 and this year. For this year’s contest she performed the song, Tattoo. She is the second performer (after Johnny Logan), and the first and only woman, to have won the competition twice. Even though I am not a big Eurovision fan, I understand the importance and significance of her double win. Also, as an artist who has come out as bisexual, she is an icon and hugely important figure in the L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ community. A queen of the industry who has this distinct legacy already. I am going to come to some interviews with her from earlier this year. You can follow Loreen on Instagram. There will be those who want to see a third studio album from Loreen. Her second album, Ride, came out in 2017. An artist who is giving voice and strength to so many people, I felt compelled to include her for my Saluting the Queens feature. The Moroccan-Swedish icon is harnessing the power and importance of her Arab heritage. Representign Arabic women in music and around the world, Loreen is this extraordinary cultural figure! I am going to start with an interview from The Guardian. She spoke about human rights, finding purpose, and her life in Sweden:

“On that: she was born Lorine Zineb Nora Talhaoui in Stockholm and both her parents were first-generation immigrants from Morocco. Her mother arrived in Sweden at 14 with nothing, fleeing an arranged marriage. She met a man and had Loreen, the eldest of six, when she was 16. Loreen hares off briefly to tell me about her great-grandmother: “Her husband got killed in the war, she was beautiful, she was also very young. The family wanted her to remarry. She didn’t want this. So she dressed up as a man, took her two children and fled to Algeria.” At this point Loreen is using her hair to mimic a litham, the face covering of the nomadic men of north Africa. “She raised her children, still dressed up as a man. I have a picture of her with a gold tooth. The women in my family fought really hard to get me to where I’m at.

PHOTO CREDIT: Corinne Cumming 2023/Charli Ljung

Back to Stockholm, 1989: her mother now has six children and is still only 22, and Loreen’s parents split up. “I had to grow up pretty fast,” she says, “because we had to help each other out. We didn’t have any family in Sweden. There are so many things I didn’t understand because I was raised by a child myself. Still, today, I won’t know: is Christmas the 24th or the 23rd?” It was a hard scrabble and the family was very poor. There were upsides, though: “The beautiful thing when you’re raised by a young person is that it’s hard to be judgmental because nobody’s taught you how, you know? ‘That’s wrong’ or ‘that’s right’.”

When Loreen was 13, her mother married again: “He came in with this very weird energy. You’re raised by a single mother, this is a very powerful, determined woman. And then this big, soft, Swedish Santa Claus arrives. My mother was all about surviving. My stepfather was more like, ‘Maybe we should just calm down a little bit. Relax, enjoy the small moments, this connection, here. Everything doesn’t have to be a struggle.’ I think he taught us how to show love.” That was really not the direction I was expecting, from “very weird energy”.

IN THIS PHOTO: The moment that Loreen won the Eurovision Song Contest in Liverpool earlier this year/PHOTO CREDIT: Dominic Lipinski/Getty Images

One sibling is an artist, another a surgeon, another works in marketing, another has his own business. She makes a pretty indisputable points about migrants and refugees, grounded in first-hand experience. “You want to have a purpose as a person, you want to feel like you matter. You don’t want to sit around and not do anything. When we have our immigrants coming in to Sweden, we just make them sit there and wait. Let them have a purpose. Let them be a part of this society. This is really important. Otherwise there’s segregation. How do you build up a confidence, where people think, ‘I earned this. I did this’?”

Singing, in the bathroom and in church, was the only way Loreen found any moments to herself as a child. In the melee of five siblings, “it was a sanctuary, something I had for myself.” So when she took her voice to Swedish Idol in 2004, “it was so painful”, she remembers. “Somewhere I knew it was necessary, I guess – I didn’t even know how a microphone worked … I didn’t know what it was like to be judged, singing was so private. But that shock, what came out of it, I realised I needed to understand all of this. As a woman, you have to know your stuff. Otherwise people will come along and say, ‘Darling, we’ll fix this for you, you don’t have to worry.’ I want to be in control.” She’s still very much the self-taught maverick and doesn’t understand why people do vocal arpeggios before they go on stage. “If you were going boxing, you wouldn’t exercise for a couple of hours before,” she says. “Your body would say, ‘Come on, give me a break.’”

In 2005, she released her first single, The Snake, and presented a show on Swedish TV. “I wasn’t that good, I honestly sucked at it.” She then spent a number of years as a segment producer and director for reality TV shows before entering Melodifestivalen in 2011, a song contest almost as old as Eurovision, which determines Sweden’s entry. It does this quite effectively – they have now won seven times, to make them, jointly with Ireland, the contest’s most successful country. “I was shitless scared. But I did it, because I knew it was necessary. If you look at my performance [in Melodifestivalen], I was hiding. This is the subconscious mind: the big dress, the body language, people were like, ‘That’s very artistic’, which it was, but I was hiding. The moment I feel fear, I have to go in. Because I don’t want fear to control my life.”

To return to the politics of Eurovision, one thing it’s been incredibly good at is establishing international norms around LGBTQ+ visibility: from Paul Oscar, the first openly gay contestant in 1997, to Dana International, the first trans performer, who won in 1998, to Krista Siegfrids kissing her female backing singer on stage in 2013, there has long been a very clear message that nobody was going to hide to spare the feelings of bigots. Turkey, according to its broadcaster, no longer enters Eurovision because of its gay and transgender contestants. And while the Hungarian broadcaster hasn’t said as much openly, Hungary has been absent since 2020, which is coincidentally when Viktor Orbán intensified his open persecution of the LGBTQ+ community, instituting a ban on LGBTQ+ content in schools or kids’ TV the following year. Loreen came out as bisexual in 2017, although “the reason why people know about that”, she says, “is because a newspaper asked me a question, and I answered, ‘Love is where you find it.’ The journalist said, ‘So, you’re bisexual?’ And I said, ‘I guess I am, because love is where you find it. Love is love. It has not much to do with this [gestures towards to her pudenda] so much as this [clasps heart].’ She thinks she might subconsciously have been drawn to Eurovision because of the “acceptance, because I love the values of Eurovision. I love the fact that it doesn’t matter what background you have – as long as you come with love and respect, you’re allowed to be there”.

Let’s move onto a recent interview from Rolling Stone UK. They highlighted and saluted a wonderful and inspiring artist who comes from a family of warriors. Strong and powerful women who no doubt helped to shape and move her. It is a fascinating interview to read. Loreen is definitely an incredible strong artist and voice who is speaking to fans and giving them strength too:

“There is such a strong sense of purpose that ripples through everything Loreen does. When she competed in Azerbaijan back in 2012, a country marred by its questionable human rights record, she was the only entrant to meet local human rights activists. She told reporters: “Human rights are violated in Azerbaijan every day. One should not be silent about such things.” An Azerbaijan government spokesman responded critically, calling for the contest to not “be politicised”, and demanded the EBU (European Broadcasting Union) prevent such meetings. But Swedish diplomats stayed firmly on her side. They replied that the EBU, the Swedish broadcaster SVT and Loreen had not acted against the competition’s rules.

PHOTO CREDIT: Azazel for Rolling Stone UK

“What I experienced in Liverpool, I didn’t experience in Azerbaijan,” she explains. “The vibe was completely different. Azerbaijan was tense. The dictator [Ilham Aliyev, who’s been in power since 2003] was so annoyed by me [laughs].” She’s absolutely loving looking back and remembering how she upset the higher powers of the 2012 host country. Her whole delegation was put on an effective house arrest. “My security said, ‘We think you should stay in the hotel’, because [Aliyev] was very annoyed by me doing all these things. Me and my producer, we celebrated. All of us in the delegation just said, ‘Is he annoyed? Cheers!’” as she mimics clinking glasses. 

Loreen is publicly bisexual, coming out in a TV interview in 2017. Eurovision and the LGBTQ+ community have strong ties, too. Previous LGBTQ+ contestants and winners such as trans star Dana International, drag queen Conchita Wurst and Duncan Laurence have all found success in the competition. She loves her queer fans dearly, too. The ‘Euphoria’ singer told TV host Renée Nyberg at the time: “Many people are so focused on sex, on sexuality. Love is so much more. I usually say ‘Love is where you find it’”. When asked to clarify whether this meant she identifies as bisexual, Loreen said she “quite simply” was.

PHOTO CREDIT: Azazel for Rolling Stone UK

Unsurprisingly, she has LGBTQ+ fans messaging her all the time. “I absolutely love that. Queer or not queer, I don’t see that, I just see us as people with certain attributes. That’s why I say these are my people. We have the same mindset. The thing is, if somebody asked me, ‘What is freedom, what is feeling free?’, that is just doing exactly what you feel like, expressing yourself exactly the way you want to express yourself. Clothe yourself the way you want to clothe yourself, talk the way you want to talk. Don’t care about what other people think. This is true freedom.”

She goes on passionately: “This community, we know what freedom is about and what that feels like. If you compare it to another community where there are rules and regulations… where someone says, you need to talk like this and be like this, that’s a f**king jail! I cannot do that. For me, when somebody says, ‘You are weird’ to me, that’s [them saying] that I’m free.”

There’s the underlying influence of strong women in abundance in her family, too. This sense of fight from within feels destined to have left a dramatic mark on Loreen’s trajectory before she was even born. Her parents are both Moroccan and moved to Sweden in their teens. While Loreen was born in Sweden, her Moroccan heritage is extremely important to her. It’s taken a while to appreciate her rich cultural history in its fullness, but it opens up the chance for the most incredible part of our interview.

“The women from my mother’s mother’s side, these are real warriors. Historically, the women from my tribe, they’re called Berber.” She explains that this word comes from ‘Barbarian’, and adds: “They were called Barbarians by the Egyptians because they were so aggressive. The women were so aggressive. Isn’t that interesting?” She smiles: “The women from my tribe, they weren’t so interested in monogamy, but being in a relationship. Historically, they went out to the village in search of a man. ‘You’re coming with me,’ right? They did whatever they wanted to do. Then they said, ‘Ta ta,’ and they raised their children by themselves. This whole concept of husband and wife was never a concept. They used these women in war, because they were like, ‘Ahhhhhh!’”

It’s not just the women in her family who provide inspiration, but “all women within the industry that stand their ground”, she tells me. “You can tell when women are standing their ground and not buying into that whole concept of what a woman’s supposed to be. I’m not saying that women aren’t supposed to be sexy. Grace Jones, for instance, she owns her sexuality. She can run around naked. She’s still doing it! There are so many, not even just in the industry. All women [inspire me] because they’re taking positions for the next generation, they’re balancing things up. It’s necessary and it’s inevitable. It’s going to happen. The shift is going to happen, and men will take a step back. The thing is, they’re longing for it, because they’re messing things up…”.

 PHOTO CREDIT: Charli Ljung

I am going to end with an interview from Gay Times. The interview was published before Loreen won the Eurovision Song Contest for Sweden. She also discussed how the L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ community welcomed her after coming out as bisexual. Her story will no doubt resonate with fans of all genres. Not only an incredible artist who created Eurovision history, Loreen is a strong and influential woman who has a huge fanbase. Someone who, hopefully, will release some new music very soon (Is It Love came out recently, suggesting a new album might arrive). Who knows. Maybe a third Eurovision win in the future! Someone who is determined to make a mark and inspire fans around the world:

“Was Tattoo written for Eurovision or did it become that later?

It was a normal song because they hadn’t popped the question yet. Although I sensed that I was going to do something with this song. Not only me, but all of us in a way, but I didn’t know how. Then, [Eurovision producers] said, ‘Would you be interested to be in the competition?’ I’m like, ‘No! No, no, no.’ That was what happened, that was the instant reaction. You think you know what your path is going to be, but you don’t. You ask yourself, ‘Universe, what is going on? There is this match. Am I supposed to present it here?’ There’s a lot of questions going on. But, my navigation was that, whenever I said ‘No, we should do something else with this song’, the energy went low around me. Even in me. Whenever I said ‘maybe there’s a chance’ you could feel this high energy within and outside of yourself. That’s how I navigate it, ‘Maybe this is my path. Could it be that I’m going to do this again? Is it possible?’ Now look, I’m sitting here with you.

PHOTO CREDIT: Charli Ljung

I have to touch upon Euphoria because, like many other queer people, it is one of my favourite Eurovision entries ever. Why do you think LGBTQ+ people connect to it so much?

Wow. That is a good question. I think it’s because, like myself, we’re not afraid to feel because it’s a very cinematic, dramatic song. It does the work. It’s about existing. When you sing out loud like that, it’s like standing on top of a mountain. It’s also a feeling of freedom. It has a purpose. It does things to people, whether you will admit it or not. But in this community, we know this and we want this. We want to feel and we know it has a healing process because we let go of things. Sometimes, we limit ourselves. We do that and we don’t want that. We want the full spectrum. That is maybe one of the reasons why because it represents something within ourselves. I think all of us have it, but in this community we’re not afraid to feel it. This is my community. It is not a community. This is my space. This was the community that accepted me for who I am. I have been a seeker trying to find my home. ‘Where is my space?’ I came into this community and they were like, ‘Do you know what? We’re digging you. We like you just the way you are. We appreciate you. We know what you’re going through.’ Can you imagine? This is my home. It is ours”.

I am going to end there. A modern music queen whose past and heritage is unique and fascinating, her legacy and importance extends beyond Eurovision and the record she has set. Loreen is definitely empowering. You only need to read interviews and hear her speak to detect that passion and meaning. There are so many reasons why Loreen…

DESERVES a salute.

FEATURE: New Verse, Chorus, and Coda: Greater Visibility and Respect for the Trans Community – and How the Music Industry Can Help

FEATURE:

 

 

New Verse, Chorus, and Coda

IN THIS PHOTO: Munroe Bergdorf is an English transgender model and activist. She appeared in the video for ANOHNI’s track, It Must Change/PHOTO CREDIT: Jordan Rossi for Rolling Stone UK

 

Greater Visibility and Respect for the Trans Community – and How the Music Industry Can Help

_________

THIS year…

PHOTO CREDIT: Lisett Kruusimäe/Pexels

has been one of the most extreme and horrifying one for division and ignorance. In terms of specific groups of people being attacked and abused. Take aside the genocide happening in Gaza, think about how there has been an escalation of extremism and racism. It is notable that there is still so much ignorance and hatred still aimed at trans people. The L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ community have always had to face discrimination and abuse. This year, it is still very much alive. On social media, I am seeing so much ignorance aimed at the trans community. One would think that the appalling murder of Brianna Ghey would prompt greater awareness and respect for trans people. Regardless of such a horrific and senseless act, you still see so much bile and harassment against trans people. I follow people like Katy Montgomerie, who is a trans-identifying woman – and the fact she has to field wave of abuse and ignorance from people. A community still very much vilified and seen as inferior and immoral. It is angering to see. Next year needs to be one where trans people do not have to face abuse and attack from so many people. High-profile transphobes like J.K. Rowling, Sharon Davies and Graham Linehan spend so much of their day attacking trans people. How trans women are men. How trans people are the sex they were assigned at birth. It is incredibly stupid and ignorant. But, when you consider how many trans people will read these posts, they will feel alienated and alone. There are quite a few celebrated and loved trans artists in music. That said, I feel there are many more coming through who might feel fearful about revealing the fact. Identifying as trans in an industry where there is not a great deal of representation (compared to other members of the L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ community, there are not a huge number of trans artists) is quite challenging.

IN THIS PHOTO: ANOHNI/PHOTO CREDIT: ANOHNI with Nomi Ruiz/Rebis Music

I will come to how the music industry can be more embracing and open regarding trans artists and why more artists need to speak out against transphobia and a community who are literally being murdered for being themselves. I want to start with an interview from Rolling Stone. Recently, for International Transgender Day of Visibility (which happened on 31st March), they interviewed Munroe Bergdorf. She is an English model and activist. She has walked several catwalks for brands including Gypsy Sport at both London and NYC Fashion Weeks. Bergdorf was the first transgender model in the U.K. for L'Oréal but was dropped within weeks after a racial row. In February 2018, she was appointed as an LGBT adviser to the Labour Party, but resigned the following month. Bergdorf appeared in the Channel 4 documentary What Makes a Woman, which aired in May 2018.

PHOTO CREDIT: Jordan Rossi for Rolling Stone UK

An activist and important voice for trans rights, Munroe Bergdorf answered questions from some well-known names about her work. How, given the debasement of trans people by sections of the media and society, changes can be made. How greater awareness can be raised:

“Now more than ever, trans people are under attack, whether with their identity being ‘debated’ in the media or by extreme right-wing groups actively working hard to remove their right to live their life authentically and peacefully.

The UK Census 2021 revealed that only around 48,000 people (0.01% of the population) identified as trans men with the same number identifying as a trans women. The trans community is a small minority, and yet it is one that is grossly and disproportionately targeted by people with openly prejudiced views. And the generational divide is evident: 91% of baby boomers identify as straight, compared to only 71% of Gen Z. One thing is certain: the future is undoubtedly progressive and inclusive when it comes to sexual and gender diversity.

One of the UK’s most outspoken champions of trans rights, Munroe Bergdorf’s unapologetic and outspoken attitude to justice has seen her attract her fair share of enemies. Reassuringly, for every negative voice on social media or in the press, there is a growing number of allies prepared to stand beside a community that is under extreme threat, both from within society and through government policy. Here, Munroe takes questions from some of the biggest names in film, TV, politics, publishing, music, radio and beyond to commemorate International Transgender Day of Visibility, tackling issues as diverse as how to be a trans ally to the joys of embracing your authentic identity.

PHOTO CREDIT: Jordan Rossi for Rolling Stone UK

NICOLA COUGHLAN: We’ve basically seen in media over the last couple of years, the erasure of trans people and this sort of idea that trans people have been around for only like 10, 15 years. And its sort of a ‘new thing’, when we know that’s not the truth. What I’d like to know is, do you have a trans figure from history who is someone that has been really inspiring to you, or that you feel like the world needs to know about?

There are so many incredible trans people that have contributed towards society and history. And so much of it has been buried. From religion to law making to just bigotry in the same way that what we’re seeing now, it’s really been a tough road for our community. And I think that often our contributions are downplayed or erased or overlooked. But the amazing thing about being in this industry, especially the fashion industry, is that I’m really living out the dreams of my ancestors. And that’s such an incredible honor that I don’t take lightly. And hopefully I’m also pushing the envelope further so that what I don’t achieve, those that come after me will be able to achieve it because I pushed it that further as well. So, I like to think of it as baton passing.

There are so many other transwomen that have come before me in the fashion industry, such as April Ashley, Caroline Crossley, Tracey Africa, Octavia St. Laurent. All of these women really inspired me. Especially at the beginning of my transition, because they had such big dreams, and it encouraged me to dream big as well and to go for what I wanted to achieve. And I wouldn’t have gone for it if I hadn’t have seen them. If I hadn’t seen Octavia in Paris Is Burning, if I hadn’t learned about April Ashley’s life and everything that she was put through. Same with Caroline Crossley.

We all owe them so much. All of these incredible women are such unsung heroes. They just haven’t had the recognition that they deserve. They really walked so we can run. We wouldn’t be seeing all of these conversations happen if it hadn’t have been for their stories and their resilience.

PHOTO CREDIT: Jordan Rossi for Rolling Stone UK

NICOLA COUGHLAN: We get to hear so much about the struggles of trans people and the amount of adversity you face unduly in society. But I would love to hear about your joy, something about the trans experience that you think is superhuman and brilliant and that people don’t get to see.

The joy of being trans is that you have access to a community that is so strong. And not just strong because of what we need to deal with in society, but strong enough to do the exploration of self in order to be happy. And I just think it’s an incredible feat to ask yourself questions about what do you really want? Who are you really? Rather than what do I need to do to fit in? How can I make people see me, rather than how can I see myself? And anyone that makes the decision to transition… Because being trans isn’t a decision, but the decision to transition… Anyone that is strong enough to make that decision and to explore that act of love for themselves, I’ve got so much respect for. That is the most incredible thing, regardless of whether or not it’s about being trans or making a difficult decision for yourself and exploring something that is a tough truth.

That’s why I wrote my book, Transitional, because I wanted people to understand that all of these tough decisions that we make for ourselves, that they are transitions in themselves because it’s taking the non-easy option. It’s asking yourself the tough questions. It’s confronting and healing from what you’ve been through in order to get to the place that you want to go.

PHOTO CREDIT: Jordan Rossi for Rolling Stone UK

EDWARD ENNINFUL: What advice would you have for people who want to turn the tide on this attitude?

That really starts with educating yourself on what is actually going on. And it isn’t about concern for women-only spaces, and the violence that is happening to women and girls worldwide, because it isn’t coming from the trans community. It’s coming from cisgender men, mainly. So, there’s deflection happening.

We also need to be aware that transphobia within the conservative space is very en-vogue, in terms of trying to prove who is more hardline. A lot of the policies are discriminatory. They aren’t really about making life better. It’s about how can we stop this? How can we change this? How can we push back on change rather than how can we fix society? A lot of it’s about voting and the impending elections on both sides of the Atlantic.

There’s literally a list that is longer than my body of reasons why we are seeing what is happening. And I think that it’s really about understanding the nuances and just continuously staying abreast of what’s going on, because it’s until the elections are over, it’s going to be a snowball. Unfortunately, I don’t think that it is got as bad as it’s going to get. And that in itself is a call to arms because we are going to need support. We’re going to need allies. We’re going to need people speaking up on our own behalf. We’re a very small percentage of the population and we can’t do it alone. 

TOM RASMUSSEN: Beyond visibility, what gives you hope?

We have seen this all play out before, in terms of how gay men were treated in the 1980s and where gay men are right now. I think that we’ve got a lot to look forward to. And we’re going to look back at this time in history, and a lot of people are going to really struggle to answer why they thought it was okay for a cross-section of society to have their human rights stripped away, to be banned from public spaces. Just in the same way that they look back and understand the segregation was wrong, that Jim Crow was wrong. They’re arguing for the same things.

This needs to be a turning point. This can’t just be something that’s erased from the history books. This is a pivotal moment in history. It’s going to be a fight, especially with the election coming up. But I just think that our community has never been more visible. We have never been able to communicate like we do now. We have more resources than before. And although this moment in time is tough, I don’t think it’s going to be this way forever. We’ve got a fight on our hands, but I really think that we’re going to win”.

There are some terrific and influential trans artists such as Kim Petras and Ethel Cain. Of course, in interviews and through their music, they can discuss trans rights and use their platform. I wonder how much acceptance and flexibility there is from the industry as a whole. It is only in recent years where there has been greater visibility and exposure of L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ artists. More artists coming out as queer. There are a lot of Pop queens and kings who identify as queer or bisexual. In terms of there being a similar explosion and celebration of non-binary and trans artists, is there still too much ignorance and not enough awareness for this to happen? I feel that, whilst there are some awesome trans artists, there is perhaps not the same level of engagement and spotlight from the media. This interview from Rolling Stone with Munroe Bergdorf should inspire spotlighting of trans artists. In a year that has seen unabated hatred and attack of the trans community, I do think it is essential that trans artists coming through are supported and feel like they are heard, seen and understood. Maybe, given what is happening in the media and online, this might not be instantly possible or smooth. There are some trans role models in music but, the more the industry celebrates trans artists and there is more celebration and highlighting on the L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+ community as a whole, the more that will affect and resonate with trans people around the world.

Trans people who want to see idols and people like them in the mainstream. I wrote a feature a while ago where I stated how there are virtually no artists today influenced by and channelling Steely Dan. I came up with a theoretical album with titles and song ideas in the mould of The Dan. Mixing deep and important subjects with the sort of incredible compositions Steely Dan are known for…where is that in modern music?! My wider point is that few artists are really challenging political and social issues that need addressing. More are reacting to climate change and its impact, but what about the terrorism and genocide in Gaza?! Queer and bisexual artists celebrating their love and freedom. There are not many non-trans artists discussing the rights of trans people and their importance. There are magnificent and powerful queer artists writing amazing anthems. In 2021, this article was published by an American journalist that observed trans awareness was increasing through the country. That there was more celebration than ever. The writer observed the lack of trans anthems and asked whether it matters. He noted how few societal anthems change the world. How, if we are seeing trans people visibility and highlighted, why write songs about them?! Joseph P. O’Brien is a trans person, so he was coming from a position of understanding and personal relevance. He said that, whilst there were very few trans anthems, the most important thing was that trans people and their rights are talked about.

Tying things back to Munroe Bergdorf, who appeared in the video for It Must Change, ANOHNI talked to The Guardian about her experiences as a trans woman. How, in her words, Britain is among the most misogynistic nations on Earth. We have these amazing artists speaking about realities that need to change. The music industry at large needs to join trans artists and attempt to affect change and progress:

“A lot of people don’t feel much safer in Britain,” she says, shortly. “This anti-trans nightmare is being birthed in the UK. The UK is one of the birthplaces of loathing gender variance. It’s one of the most misogynist, woman-hating countries in the world. It was since I was a child, because I remember how it affected my mum, how it affected my sister, how it’s affected my family, how it affected me.”

Anohni launched Hopelessness with the single 4 Degrees, an angry indictment of climate inaction released to coincide with the 2015 UN climate conference in Paris. Yet she sought to avoid didacticism on My Back … and its measured engagement with hot-button topics comes off as a reaction to the “us v them” mudslinging of contemporary discourse. Anohni finds this kind of binary thinking of little use. “I was raised to believe in light v darkness, yin v yang, male v female,” she says. “It’s this hideous infantilised [idea]. It’s stripped of its own empirical reality.”

She hopes, instead, that the ecological themes of My Back … will offer a road map out of conflict. “We’re connected to life on Earth; all those creatures of the world are our family,” she says. “And we have to account to our family right now. An aspect of this record is to give people one version of a blueprint for how to talk to oneself through some of these painful truths that we’re all immersed in.” That’s the bigger project, she adds: “It’s a gift to know a little bit more about what life on life’s terms is really about, because that gets me a bit closer to nature. It gets me a bit closer to the tree that falls in the forest, the fox with a broken leg stumbling through a coalfield”.

There is TransForm Music in Wales. This is a space for transgender and non-binary artists in Wales. This 2019 article explored how there is great respect for and visibility of queer artists. Trans artists are still being left behind. Is the industry doing enough to create a platform and highlight their music?! I would disagree with the assumption that trans anthems are not necessary. Definitely in the U.K., with so much anti-trans sentiment and abuse out there, positive anthems and songs that highlights trans people’s experience is vital. Non-trans artists need to speak too. The music industry, mobilised and unified, could make a difference. I disagree with those who say music cannot change worlds and make a difference. Whilst it may never reverse ignorance around trans rights, there is the possibility to both raise trans artists in music, make it is a scene that has more visibility, together with there being the possibility of attitudes being reversed or at least challenged more. Trans people have to face such abuse and stupidity from others. I feel music has an important role. At its strongest when it is more diverse and inclusive. More songs should come from non-trans artists. In my hypothetical Steely Dan-inspired album I envisaged a song, Katy’s Switch, there was this dialogue between an online transphobe and a trans person. Wordplay and stinging criticism, it would be a way to highlight transphobia but do so in a musical setting that was digestible, accessible and inspiring. It should not be the case that, after a year when trans rights have been in the news and the community face so much prejudice, the industry can do more. We all hope that next year is one where…

THIS finally happens.

FEATURE: Our Queen’s Speech: In Reaction to Kate Bush’s Christmas Message

FEATURE:

 

 

Our Queen’s Speech

IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush received the Editors Award at the Evening Standard Theatre Awards at the Palladium, London, on 30th November, 2014/PHOTO CREDIT: Alan Davidson/Rex/Shutterstock

 

In Reaction to Kate Bush’s Christmas Message

_________

AS is typical of Kate Bush…

IMAGE CREDIT: Kate Bush

her Christmas message was very much about other people. Rather than talk about the music or necessarily reflect on a successful year where she reissued albums and more people discovered her work, like our former Queen, our music Queen looked at the state of the world. A heartfelt and emotional reflection of what is happening in Gaza. The atrocities and savage genocide that is on the news every day. The planet burning and in real trouble. Like all of her messages, there is also hope and that warmth. Thanks to Kate Bush News for sharing her post, as I was asleep when it was put on Bush’s official website. I woke up to it this morning. Longer and more reactive than any of her previous messages, Bush very much showing her disgust at what we all are having to process right now:

“I hope you’re all looking forward to Christmas – just around the corner now. I wasn’t much looking forward to it, but in the last few days, I really am.

I was very excited to see the positive feedback about the reissues and the redesign of the website. It’s been a lot of work, but when you see such lovely comments, it all makes it worthwhile. It really does. Thank you so much.

What a year it’s been. I’d always hoped that the human race would become more spiritual, gentle creatures as we moved into the future but it has proved to be the absolute antithesis.
The world is at war while the planet burns…. What is going on?

I‘m among a group of friends who don’t watch the news any more. It now seems to be a global trend. Of course we want to stay informed but sometimes elements of the visual reporting feel horrifically voyeuristic.

I’ve tried to write this piece three times so far, looking for something positive to focus on, but that’s been hard to find.

I stand in awe of running water. Especially hot, running water. It is a miracle. You turn on the tap and hot, clean water gushes out of the tap. A miracle! Yes, but then I think about the people caught in the many wars that are raging right now and at the very heart of these are the children caught up in the wars. They don’t always have clean water and they really need a miracle. Christmas is a time for little children: a time of wonder and the promise of magic… looking towards a new year, to a future.

It makes me feel so lucky that we can celebrate Christmas in the way we do, but also so sad. The effect of war on all people is massive, but on children…

It’s so incredibly important that charities like War Child, UNICEF and the NSPCC are there to support and help children. Their incredible work might be more important than it’s ever been when the modern world seems to make few concessions for children at the hands of evil created by adults.

I hope you all have a really wonderful Christmas, with the promise of magic, and let’s all pray for a year ahead that brings us some opportunities to talk about happy things.

Best wishes,

Kate”.

There is a lot to take from that message. Bush has always been a big supporter of charities. Donating so much money and her time to various charities, it is no surprise that she would share the name of War Child, UNICEF and NSPCC – charities that can provide support and aid to children. The start and end of the message – the bookends – are positive and talk about her work. That opening, “I was very excited to see the positive feedback about the reissues and the redesign of the website. It’s been a lot of work, but when you see such lovely comments, it all makes it worthwhile. It really does. Thank you so much”, is a thanks to her fans and all the changes that have happened. I think her website being redesigned and relaunched has made her music more accessible. It looks tremendous! Thinking about the fans and the wonderful reception they have provided her. These reissues are quite a big deal too. You can check them out here. I was initially down on them and thought that they were a bit of a cash-in. Actually, considering they are helping to promote independent record stores and Bush is always thinking about her fans, it is less about cashing in and more about ensuring that new fans can access her previous albums, albeit with a new twist. Bush has designed the vinyl so that each album has its own colour scheme and look. Together with the website, we now have this incredible archive and resource!

 IN THIS PHOTO: Palestinians inspect a house after it was hit by an Israeli bombardment on Rafah/PHOTO CREDIT: Fatima Shbair/AP (via NPR)

Bush stated in her message how she does not watch the news anymore. It is always going to be heartbreaking. Seemingly no end in sight when it comes to the conflict and destruction in Gaza. This section struck me: “What a year it’s been. I’d always hoped that the human race would become more spiritual, gentle creatures as we moved into the future but it has proved to be the absolute antithesis. The world is at war while the planet burns…. What is going on?”. Bush has always been connected to the planet and the importance of peace and consideration. Someone in touch with the natural world and people, it must be especially devastating for her. As I will write later, this sense of dismay at the human race, I feel, will impact what we see from Kate Bush in 2024. Bush tried to write her message a few times and found few positives to state. The past few years have seemingly been a wave of bad news and division. From COVID-19 of 2020 and 2021, through to the Russia-Ukraine conflict last year, 2023 seems like the worse! Of course, last year was when Bush’s Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) topped the chart and she had this new wave of success. Bush’s Christmas message was very much centred at children. Those in Gaza who are being murdered. Those who are being wiped up in the name of insanity. Genocide and unfiltered violence. With few artists making big statements and using their platforms to talk about it, huge credit to Kate Bush for doing so! Whilst she does not necessarily condemn Israel and point fingers, her heart is very much with those affected. Though you know how angry Bush is with those responsible for the killing!

PHOTO CREDIT: Alfo Medeiros/Pexels

Kate Bush is not someone who takes something essential as water and heat for granted. In spite of her success, she knows how lucky and incredible it is that we in privilege countries have running water and safety: “Yes, but then I think about the people caught in the many wars that are raging right now and at the very heart of these are the children caught up in the wars. They don’t always have clean water and they really need a miracle. Christmas is a time for little children: a time of wonder and the promise of magic… looking towards a new year, to a future”. Thinking about children that are being displaced and suffering right now. Bush then sharing names of charities; how important it is that we donate to them: “It’s so incredibly important that charities like War Child, UNICEF and the NSPCC are there to support and help children. Their incredible work might be more important than it’s ever been when the modern world seems to make few concessions for children at the hands of evil created by adults”. Using this message to think of others and ensure that we do everything we can to put others first. I think many of us tomorrow, when we would normally celebrate and consume food without pause, will take time to think of those who are not as lucky as us. It is quite sobering to think about!

PHOTO CREDIT: Jeswin Thomas/Pexels

The end does give some nice sign-off and hope: “I hope you all have a really wonderful Christmas, with the promise of magic, and let’s all pray for a year ahead that brings us some opportunities to talk about happy things”. Different to her messages from the past few years, this is a more serious and less work-reflective one from what we have seen. Our Queen has spoken. And, with it, so many comments have been posted to Kate Bush News on Instagram when they shared the post. We have a lot to absorb reading Kate Bush’s words. There is also a lot to look ahead to. I think Bush will push more and more to raise money for charities. Whether she will auction off more rarities and her music to raise funds or organises an event of some sort, this will be firm on her mind. I wonder why we have not had a Band Aid-style fundraising concert or single this year. Maybe it would be seen as too political and divisive?! How, at a time when we all need to end the horror and do something, has there not been something unified and huge from the music industry?! I have a feeling Kate Bush will do something. Help to organise people together and get some money raised. She no doubt donates her own money to charities too, but she will go further in 2024. Even though it was not the right moment for Bush to talk about new music and possible developments in 2024, you get the feeling that something will come from her.

 PHOTO CREDIT: Markus Spiske/Pexels

No doubt, when she said how she’s praying for happier things in 2024, that means there will be more engagement with fans. I think this is a moment when Bush will release a new album. Ignoring the news and no doubt anxious thinking about what is happening with the planet and in war-torn nations, she would have funnelled a lot of this anxiety into writing and recording. There are big anniversaries happening in 2024. The Sensual World turns thirty-five. The Tour of Life is forty-five. Before the Dawn is ten. I have written about those in a separate feature. Whereas there will not be reissues and more retrospection from Bush, no doubt there will be a slew of magazine celebrations, books, articles and even podcasts. It would be insensitive to ask for new music at a time when Bush is putting others first and using her Christmas message to show her upset and dismay at what is happening around us. Even so, she knows that 2024 needs to be a year for positivity, togetherness, and greater humanity and love. This will provoke something inside of Bush. She knows how much her fans appreciate and respect her, so it would be surprising if no new music or good news from Bush arrived next year! It is wonderful to hear from Bush, as her Christmas messages are always so heartfelt and considered. The time she took to craft 2023’s just shows that. Whilst quite sombre, there is also that element of hope for a brighter future. Her words will stick long in the mind! As we go into Christmas and spend time relaxing, we also must hold in our thoughts those whose day will be very different to ours. We also must come together and wish for…

PHOTO CREDIT: Kate Bush

A happier and more peaceful year ahead.

FEATURE: A COMPLEX Debate: Does Rap Still Have an Issue with Sexism and Platforming Women?

FEATURE:

 

 

A COMPLEX Debate

IN THIS PHOTO: London-born Rap legend Estelle

 

Does Rap Still Have an Issue with Sexism and Platforming Women?

_________

RATHER than undermine something beautiful…

IN THIS PHOTO: Little Simz/PHOTO CREDIT: Jackie Nickerson for DOCUMENT

and celebratory, there was an interesting takeaway from COMPLEX’s recent feature ranking the best fifty British rappers ever. It was shared a week ago. The results highlighted some incredible British Rap talent. One alarming aspect of the top fifty was the lack of women. In all, only six women were included! Estelle came in forty-third:

“Only four Black or mixed-race British women have ever won a Grammy: Estelle Swaray (2009) follows Sade (1986) and Corinne Bailey Ray (2008) and precedes Ella Mai (2019). The success that the Hammersmith rapper/singer created cannot be understated, particularly in America but also especially when we consider just how difficult it is for Black British women to make a mark in British music (let alone the US), something Esetlle has been rightfully and politely vocal about during her career. Starting out behind the counter at the iconic Carnaby St record store Deal Real, the budding rhymer initially featured on records by Skitz and Blak Twang before attracting her own audience with 2004’s utterly endearing “1980” from debut album The 18th. She quickly courted the attention of then-unknowns Kanye West (who she met outside a Roscoe’s in LA) and John Legend, signing to Legend’s Home School label three years later. In 2008, Estelle dropped Shine, an album that still stands up tall today. Soulful and joyful, it may have featured Sean Paul, Swizz Beats, Mark Ronson and Kanye, but Estelle’s compelling storytelling was far from overshadowed; her talent truly shone through. Her achievements now include a Grammy, a Silver Clef award, MOBOs, BRIT and Mercury Prize nominations, a Top 10 UK album (Shine) and No. 1 UK single (“American Boy”), as well as a Top 40 Billboard album (Shine) and Top 10 Billboard single (“American Boy”). To reiterate: this isn’t easy for anyone to do, but especially for Black British women who are historically underpromoted, poorly marketed and ignored by mainstream media. It’s worth noting here that Estelle’s campaign at Atlantic Records UK was driven by Black and POC women. She has since released three further albums, including 2018’s reggae-based dedication to her parents, Lovers Rock, and hosts The Estelle Show every weekday on Apple Music. —Hattie Collins”.

NoLay was in thirty-eight; So Solid Crew were in thirty-fifth. A mostly male collective that featured Lisa Maffia, they appeared one place behind Ms. Dynamite. Without doubt one of thew pioneers and queens of British Rap, it was good to see her included:

“Where barring is concerned, Niomi Mclean-Daley—aka Ms. Dynamite—has always been in her own lane, becoming one of the few mic-wielding stalwarts revered across a plethora of genres. From the earlier days of pirate radio sets and her residency at FWD>>, where the then-unlabelled dubstep and grime was the order of the night, she merged reggae influences for something far more hard-hitting. Delivering technical verses that always slapped when it came to UK garage (“Envy” will continue to destroy any UK dance for years to come), her own Sticky-produced debut, “Booo!”, a now-dependable club classic, gave Ms. Dynamite the platform to push forth a new strain of Black female empowerment, still felt today. Winning the Mercury Music Prize in 2002 for her debut album, A Little Deeper—while notably on more of an R&B tip, it landed her two BRIT Awards (including British Female Solo Artist) and three MOBOs. Despite largely stepping back from the limelight after the birth of her son and second LP, Judgment Days, in 2005, collabs with Magnetic Man, Katy B, DJ Fresh and her 2011 single with Labrinth, “Neva Soft”, have always demonstrated the talents in abundance. Having made her live show a family affair over the years, Ms. Dynamite is still a regular on the circuit, landing headline festival spots (as well as an MBE for services to music in 2018) and showering down corporate industry parties; big up YouTube and their Legacy Party, which celebrated 50 years of hip-hop with a standout performance from Ms. Dynamite this year. —Chantelle Fiddy”.

Only two women appeared in the top twenty-five! This seems fuck*ng insane! Taking that twenty-fifth place spot is the phenomenal Lady Leshurr. She is an undeniable Rap great who has inspired so many other women to come through:

“Born and raised in Birmingam, Lady Leshurr secures her position among rap royalty through her distinctive fusion of articulate, rapid-fire flows and impeccable wordplay. Throughout the late-00s and early 2010s, her dedicated fanbase was built off the back of her unwavering work-rate; her unadulterated authenticity took centre stage in 2011 on the Friggin L mixtape, while her remix of Chris Brown’s “Look At Me Now” saw her display her cheeky humour and bright singing voice, and boy did she give Busta a run for his money with her own fast-paced verse. The rapper, singer and songwriter solidified her name in London’s buzzing music scene early on by bringing her magic to every live show and radio set she could, consistently dropping projects and collecting video freestyles on platforms like SBTV (see: F64s) like shiny Pokémon cards. Lady Leshurr’s 2015-launched freestyle series, Queen’s Speech, took her name international and showed the potential to be unlocked in UK music’s relationship with social media—something we often see now on TikTok but was a rare thing back then. Lady Leshurr’s 10,000 hours were instrumental in not only breaking down barriers within a male-dominated scene but also helping to establish the building blocks between 0121 and London. Miss O’Garro deserves all her flowers. —Hyperfrank”.

The top ten featured one female rapper. Little Simz was named our tenth-best rapper. That is a well deserved honour. When you consider twelve percentage of the rappers in the COMPLEX feature are women, that raises questions about the genre. I think that a U.S. equivalent might reveal more women in the pack. Missy Elliott, Cardi B, Megan Thee Stallion and quite a few contemporaries could mean that there’d be less of a divide (I’d predict they’d select maybe twelve to fifteen women). Even if a U.S. version of that feature was less male-dominated, it still shows that Rap and Hip-Hop both make it harder for women to get noticed and raised like the men. It also mean there are those not being as celebrated and spotlighted as they should. COMPLEX had their view and rightly championed some Rap greats. Even if it is subjective, one wonders how many other features in the U.K. about the top rappers would include more women. One feels that there would be similar issues. Rap is a mighty genre where some of the greatest music ever has emerged from, there is always this discussion around misogyny and exclusion. Are women as embraced as they should be?1 Things have markedly improved from very dark and toxic days we have seen. Even so, I wonder if Rap and Hip-Hop is an environment women naturally look to as attractive and inclusive. Think about Pop and how women dominate there. This recent feature names the fifteen best female rappers ever. There is the new and established talent out there. Women who have changed the game and opened doors.

This 2018 feature observed how the patriarchal nature of Hip-Hop and music in general saw (and sees still) women in Rap being pitted against one another. Compared rather than commended and appreciate in their own right. Something I still think is happening in 2023, yes:

“It could all be so simple, but we’d rather make it hard. In the 45 years that hip-hop has been around, the lack of representation of women in the industry has become a circular conversation, pointing out the gross misogynistic behavior that was there since birth amongst other things; yet whenever a woman enters the ring, she can only stand alone — at least that’s what the field’s competitive nature has led everyone to believe.

Women empowerment and hip-hop are two concepts that many have been trying to marry for as long as the genre has stood and it seems like they can’t coexist all the way — as of yet. In a sea flooded with prominent male hip-hop figures who have sustained longevity in an ever-changing business, women in hip-hop who are on that same level are few and far between, almost always leaving room for only one to hold that title over a certain period of time. Why is that? The answer is pretty obvious: the hip-hop industry has diversity issues and similar to what many female professionals face in the workplace environment, women often deal with sexist behavior that is a direct reflection of the man’s need to always be in power.

In 2018 alone, listeners are witnessing a new era of female rappers coming to the forefront. Tierra Whack, Saweetie, Rico Nasty, Kash Doll, Maliibu Miitch are just a few of the newcomers making waves this year, but the one making the biggest splash of all is Cardi B. Over the past year, the Bronx native has earned Grammy nominations and quadrupled her fan base thanks to her music and larger-than-life personality. The industry hasn’t seen a female rapper reach this kind of commercial success since Nicki Minaj entered the scene about 10 years ago. Has Nicki met her match or is hip-hop making room for more women to rap”.

That COMPLEX feature I opened with, appropriately, does raise a complex debate. They are not saying there is a lack of women in Rap. They feel that most of the top fifty best British rappers are men. That is problematic in its own right. America might not be as regressive as the U.K. regarding highlighting female MCs and making the genre more accessible and less sexist. I do think any feature that ranks the best rappers and includes so few women – only two in the top twenty-five remember! – does hint at issues in Rap that have not really moved on and been eradicated.

If things are moving on slowly each year in terms of inclusiveness and recognition of women in Rap, struggles and discrepancies being highlighted five years ago are largely true today. Is the apparent lack of visibility and recognition of British Rap queens down to continued patriarchy and the assumption that the genre is a man’s territory?! That the best and most important rappers are men?! The Guardian published a feature in 2018 that explained that female MCs are not being heard and given their dues:

“Yet it’s worth talking about women MCs, because the commercial gap between male and female artists is a chasm. In the same way that rising gender equality in the workplace overall doesn’t negate the fact that fewer than 5% of Britain’s top companies have a female CEO, or that so few of the BBC’s top earners are women, so it’s true that while there a huge number of female MCs out there, almost none are breaking through to the top tier of the music industry. Apart from Nicki Minaj, who is undoubtedly a global superstar and the exception to the rule (although even her last album only charted at 22 in the UK) it’s been a long time since a female MC broke the Top 10 or played near the head of the bill at a UK festival.

For Little Simz, the muted reaction to Stillness left her faced with a question she had always tried to avoid: would things have been different if she were a man? “She did everything perfectly,” says Caroline SM, the founder of the UK rap collective New Gen and an A&R at XL Recordings. “I think she was just ahead of her time. Four years ago, grime, rap, whatever it is, was not getting a look-in at all – men or women. It’s taken so long even to get to this point. Our scene is so slow.”

It’s true that many of the British men who are currently on top, artists such as Giggs and Skepta, have been releasing music for well over a decade. But even among relatively new artists like Stormzy, J Hus, Nines and Section Boyz, it seems as if the path to success has been fairly straightforward.

Lady Leshurr has asked similar questions about her own career and says that one of the reasons male artists do better is that they look out for each other. “In grime, there’s a circle of people that all support each other and, guess what, they’re all male: Stormzy, Skepta, Wretch 32. They’re people that will always support another person’s music. When you look at the females, there’s not really that collective of people who will show love. If more female rappers in the UK were more supportive of each other it would be completely different.”

She says the picture is further complicated by race. “In my opinion [the issues are about] gender but it’s also the colour of your skin. It can be harder if you’re a dark-skinned girl trying to make it in this industry because it’s always been hard.”

Leshurr has found that while in some ways the situation for women has improved, the double-standard about physical appearance, and skin colour in particular, has gotten worse. “For men it doesn’t really matter what you look like. Ed Sheeran, for example; I’m not saying he’s ugly, but you’d never think he’d be the biggest pop star in the world. Whereas for women, it’s still based on image, and men will always think about what the female looks like before they hear what she’s gonna say. It’s always going to be ‘She’s ugly’ or ‘Look at her hair’. Whereas guys can just put a hoodie and a snapback on and record something and everyone will be like ‘Yeah they’re sick’.”

IN THIS PHOTO: Lady Leshurr/PHOTO CREDIT: Alec McLeish for FADER

Both Leshurr and Caroline SM believe that these problems are particular to the scene in the UK at the moment, and that the recent success of male artists will eventually open the door for female MCs too. But discrepancy in fortunes between men and women stretches back a lot further than that. Ms Dynamite, probably Britain’s most famous female MC, managed to combine critical acclaim with chart success on her debut record A Little Deeper, which went on to win the Mercury prize in 2002. She was unable to turn that initial success into a sustained career as an album artist – her second record didn’t chart in the top 40 and eventually she went back to her first calling: singing verses on club tracks. Seven years later another female MC, Speech Debelle, won the Mercury prize, but she was even less able to build a career from the exposure. She’s now working behind the scenes, as a music relations manager for Arts Council England.

“Somebody needs to change the formula. The way people approach music,” says Angel Haze, an artist from Detroit. A few years ago, Haze was the belle of the music press: an incredible MCing talent with a horrendous story, overcoming sexual abuse and life in a religious cult. She was interviewed by everyone, reliving her awful childhood experiences over and over again. Then she released her debut album, Dirty Gold, which charted at 196 in the UK.

“You don’t get the recognition based on what your music sounds like, it’s all about the hype around you, who said what about you. But it’s this reality TV generation, everyone has a 30-second attention span and on to the new shit, and only the craziest of people survive.” What’s strange is that it’s a cycle that no one can seem to get out of, artists and press playing their dutiful roles, unable to stop history repeating itself. Just last year, Young MA had a Billboard Top 20 hit with her track OOOUUU. The record, a brilliantly blue ode to cunnilingus, was one of the most open celebrations of same-sex relationships in mainstream hip-hop. Talking to the Fader in August last year, she said that the song’s success motivated her to do more. “Let’s keep it moving now. Let’s keep giving ’em this fire and let’s not stop this,” she said. But one year on, she has released an EP to little fanfare. It charted at No 166 in the US and another hit has not emerged.

It would perhaps look foolish now to suggest that this could all be about to change, considering how often that prediction has been made in the past and been proven to be wrong. Yet everyone I speak to seems to believe the first superstar female MC of the 2010s is just around the corner. There’s Ray BLK, who won the BBC’s Sound of 2017 poll and combines R&B singing with MCing. Cardi B, who found fame on the American reality show Love & Hip-Hop, but whose brazen personality and track Bodak Yellow have meant that, unlike every other person on that show, she is now being taken seriously as a star.

“I feel like there was a glass ceiling before, but this new generation of people coming out are changing things,” says BLK. “We can more easily connect with our fanbase – things are spreading a lot further because of that.” Among this new wave, though, there is one name that everyone is saying is going to be the person to finally shatter the ceiling: Stefflon Don. “We haven’t seen someone like her before. Not in my lifetime. Not in the UK,” says Caroline SM. “We really haven’t seen someone like that. She’s a gangster. Boys are scared of her and she’s sexy. She came through on the Section Boyz remix, she rolls with rappers. She’s one of a kind”.

I hope that attitudes soon change! That radio stations include more female rappers. That the problems of misogyny and sexism that have always existed becomes negligible. That the modern queens are given their rights and space. That women are not pitted against one another. The COMPLEX feature did not include many ‘contemporary’ female rappers compared to the men. Little Simz, Estelle and Lady Leshurr. So half of the six. Hopefully things will change in years to come and we see a less divisive genre. It is strange that there is not this recognition happening, considering how women are redefining Hip-Hop and Rap. Medium explored this for a feature in 2021:

“The biggest way women have tried flipping the script on hip hop is with their bodies and their sexuality. This idea has been very controversial in today’s media as more women follow in this direction. Many feel that it is still distasteful and just plays into the sexualization and objectification that was happening before. Various people find this even more demeaning, while others argue that it is sexually liberating. It’s seen as empowering because these women are doing it to themselves rather than letting others force them into it. It’s a step in the right direction — women are getting more of a say in their content and how it should be portrayed. “…Women artists have been able to define themselves within the constructs of male domination, eschewing the tendency to play an accommodating role to men” (Balaji, 8). Especially in today’s music, women have made it a priority to speak sexually about themselves as a means of not allowing men to do it for them. When that happens, there’s typically a degree of objectification that occurs, resulting in women not being taken seriously. When men are in control of what women do and treat them like trophies, it perpetuates the idea of violence towards women. On the other hand, when women do it, they reclaim that power that men once had. “Similarly, Kistler and Lee (2010) discovered that male college undergraduates who viewed highly sexual hip-hop music videos expressed greater objectification of women, sexual permissiveness, and stereotypical gender attitudes than male participants who viewed less sexual hip-hop videos” (Aubrey et. al, 364). This being said, it can be discouraging and seem like a bad way to empower others as this could promote violence towards women, especially women of color. Our society has to realize that women can’t be accountable for what men feel when seeing imagery that is sexual.

While this can appear as if it is a setback, many new-wave feminists see it as an opportunity for empowerment. Ever since the release of “WAP” by Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion, this topic has been widely debated as the music video and lyrics are based upon self-sexualization. It makes many women around the world proud of themselves and their bodies, and even gives a sense of confidence. “Today’s contemporary hip hop from women paves a space for these women, instead, to become the representative, as they have been increasingly able to compete and succeed with the men in the same genre” (Kim). Although black women have a rich history of being sexualized and objectified, artists are making their own definition of being a confident woman. Artists like Cardi B, among others, want to create a more equal playing field between men and women in the industry by making their mark. They are letting everyone know that they are important and deserve the same respect as their male counterparts. So, although it may seem as if it is a hindrance towards equality, it’s breaking new boundaries and questioning society’s ideal woman.

Women have also shown their dominance by telling their stories and letting others know what it’s like from their perspective. As musicians, making music and telling a story are the most obvious ways of making change. This idea was first executed by Roxanne Shanté when she released the track “Roxanne’s Revenge.” This song is a very important contribution to hip-hop feminism, because it questions what had never been questioned before. Her song is in response to “Roxanne, Roxanne” by UTFO. It is inspiring, because she heard the song and how demeaning it was, and created her own spin on it. This song launched the start of her career and became just as popular as the original. What was most impressive about her is that she dared to question male artists at least twice her age”.

The COMPLEX feature sparked something in me. Wonderful to see some great British rappers ranked and highlighted! Shaming and sorry that there were six women among the fifty. It does emphasis the fact that, regardless of the innovation and talent from female MCs and Rap queens, there is still less airplay and opportunities for them. Fewer festival bill slots. Less in the way of commercial acclaim. That may be less true in the U.S. It does seem like the British Rap scene has more work to do. Some may say that it is all down to quality. If women are not included in the list then they are not good enough. That is patently not true! There are so many out there who have either been overlooked, are ‘honourable mentions’, or have not been deemed ‘worthy’ enough. With the waves coming through the past few years, the balance will start to shift more noticeably. The future of music is female. I think that there are genres that are disconnected and deaf to that. Maybe history and the fact there is so much work that needs to be done in Rap means we will not see things change for a long time. In any case, greats like Little Simz are breaking barriers and clearing the way for their sisters coming up and through. Even if features like COMPLEX’s seem to paint British Rap’s best as male-heavy, there are amazing women who should be named and given their propers! Let’s hope that this rather one-sided view of a terrific genre is shifted…

AS soon as possible.