Greetings and salutations, with only 201 days to Christmas I felt it might be prudent to publish a quick update on the year so far.
I haven’t been too active on here of late. There’s so much music and yet so little time. However, I am very active elsewhere, be it through my photography or writing for other publications. Most of my longer music-related pieces can be found for Under the Radar Magazine, both in print and online
Here’s a quick roundup of what I have been up
I interviewed the emerging UK band The Last Dinner Party “We were a new band without any representation. After that video went online, our email inbox started blowing up! We were getting correspondence from labels, managers, PRs—all of them referencing this one video they’d seen on YouTube.” – The Last Dinner Party
Read the full interview HERE.
I went to the Neighbourhood festival, primarily to see Pulp and THIS happened Click HERE.
I reviewed Australian band Body Type’s marvellous second (dare I say it, sophomore) album HERE.
I also interviewed Body Type HERE.
“I think the real change started to happen after we went overseas for the first time in 2019 at SXSW and when we supported Fontaines D.C. It seemed to have a subconscious effect in the sense that when we came back and began writing songs for the debut album, our sound had kind of shifted.” – Body Type
Check out the video, which really does capture the band’s exuberance brilliantly
I interviewed the fantastic Heartworms HERE.
“there’s a bit in the video where you see a close-up of my feet trying to get a grip and scrambling in the mud, I actually fell over at that point and cut my hands, and thought, ‘This will be great for the video!’ It turned out so well, it was exactly as I’d imagined in my head. It’s like watching my own mini-war movie.” Jojo Orme – Heartworms
And I went to see the fabulous Caroline Polachek at Liverpool’s newest venue CONTENT see HERE
“Some might consider it a tad hyperbolic to label Polachek a visionary pop polymath genius (which she clearly is). But after witnessing her performance at CONTENT, a brand new venue in Liverpool, if you remained unmoved, either your sensory processing isn’t fully functional or you’re a Miles Kane fan.”
My review of Blondshell’s fantastic debut album can be found HERE , and I also interviewed her for the last Under the Radar print edition. ““Music brought me such relief, but after a while, I began to think if other people’s songs make me feel like this then it might feel even better if I write songs of my own.” – Blondshell
My latest podcast ponders what’s the point in music journalism HERE
And here’s a track I meant to write about, which is a real slow-burning grower. The more I hear it, the more I love it. It’s incredibly evocative and radiates absolute beauty and it’s become one of the best singles of the year. It’s from Art School Girlfriend (aka Polly Mackey ) and is from her forthcoming album “Soft Landing’ which she describes as a series of “small euphorias”. Fun fact me and a chum JK put Polly on at the Zanzibar Liverpool many years ago and it was apparent then what a huge talent she had.
Normal service and “elitist” nonsense may be resumed here soon, but if you’re interested, you can follow my work here, my photography here, my podcasts here, and my playlists HERE
Oh yeah, and I shot the Eurovision Song Contest here in Liverpool, for the week, which I have to confess was one of the most fun things I’ve been involved in.
