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Q Magazine|December 2018Backstage...One of the great privileges of editing a music magazine is that you can pay Sylvia Patterson money to write for you. And if she’s not there when you arrive, insist on her joining too. The reason for this is simple: she’s the best interviewer of musicians, and she’ll make your job easier.With that last sentence I have made many of the other brilliant music writers who contribute to Q feel furiously slighted. They shouldn’t. Her skills are so distinct, and so finely honed over time, that she is in a field of her own. For example, you probably wouldn’t send her to tackle any of the muck and nettles music writing work that all of us other hacks have to get on with just to survive. Anybody who has…2 Min
Q Magazine|December 2018Anyone Can Play Guitar“After watching the tutorials a few times, I feel like I can play the guitar anew.”You know how it is. One day you’re an excited teenager getting your first guitar and dreaming of superstardom, then before you know it, you’re 37 and being asked by your daughter if you can play that Justin Bieber song again for her.I stopped playing guitar (aside from the odd Bieber cover on a seven-year-old’s three-quarter-size version) about a decade ago. The dream died when I took mine into a musical instrument store, having not played for ages – and sold it.I’ve regretted it ever since, which is why I agreed to be Q’s guinea pig when it came to testing Fender Play to see if their new online learning platform could rekindle my interest…2 Min
Q Magazine|December 2018PEGGY GOU“Some people call it pop, but it’s not pop. I made it for the dancef loor.”Peggy Gou has had a busy summer. So busy, in fact, that her DJ pals started a hashtag called #prayforpeggy, prompted by the frightening intensity of the South Korean-born producer’s gig schedule. “It was very, very crazy,” the 28-year-old chortles down the line from her Berlin home, before describing the psychological impact of her current lifestyle via the medium of Tarantino’s Kill Bill: Volume 2. “You know the ending where Uma Thurman manages to kill Bill and she’s in the bathroom lying down, crying and laughing at the same time because she’s so happy? That’s me every day.”It’s unsurprising that emotions are running high for Gou; her passage from jobbing DJ to serious dance music…2 Min
Q Magazine|December 2018CAN I TAKE YOUR ORDER, MISS BLK?Favourite restaurant?“Nobu. Since I tried Japanese food, it’s become my favourite thing. I like Sexy Fish but Nobu know how to cook stuff better. My favourite is the black cod.”Culinary speciality?“I can cook, but I don’t enjoy it cos it’s such a fuss. However, I make the best spaghetti Bolognese. It is actually the best because I slow-cook it.”Dream dining companion?“Jay-Z. I feel like he’s such an intelligent person. And Barack Obama, just to hear his story.”Most hated foodstuff?“I don’t enjoy curries. It doesn’t do anything for me. British people really love Indian food, I just don’t.”…1 Min
Q Magazine|December 2018Cash For Questions THIS MONTH: Bobby GillespieAfter reinventing what rock music could be with their 1991 classic album Screamadelica, Primal Scream sought out a more traditional sound for their fourth album, decamping to Memphis and working with legendary producer Tom Dowd. When they got home and listened back to what they’d done, though, they got cold feet, and the songs were retooled and re-recorded for 1994’s Give Out But Don’t Give Up, the tapes of their Memphis versions gathering dust in guitarist Andrew Innes’s basem*nt.Throughout their successes since, that failure in Tennessee has always been in the back of frontman Bobby Gillespie’s mind. “For years, it was a creative wound,” he says, taking a seat in Cirque bar, East London. “We’d gone there and we had this great chance to make a great record, great bunch…12 Min
Q Magazine|December 2018THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JOHN…On the youth of today“They seem totally unflappable. You can throw anything at them. There’s one side, this zombie phone nation but then I also see some really incredible things happening in young people too. Think about the sh*t that they have thrown at them from an early age now, there’s no mystery about anything. It’s all right there all the time. There are no questions that need answering.”…On how life’s not that easy“It’s funny, you meet so many people who are like, ‘What’s wrong with you? Get on with things, what are worrying about all this sh*t for?’ I’ll meet people every day who are like, ‘What are you so sad about? What’s the f*cking problem? Everything’s great, you’re great, everything’s great.’ And you just think, ‘I don’t think…2 Min
Q Magazine|December 2018THOU SHALT COVET THESE FIVE ALBUMSThe ClashLondon Calling“The album that got me playing guitar and realising I could save souls with it.”KissAlive!“This record made me love rock’n’roll and transported me out of my suburban existence to dream about a bigger, more exciting world.”Public EnemyFear Of A Black Planet“Chuck D, the greatest MC to ever hold a mic, was equally matched on this record by the revolutionary music backdrop that encouraged me to never play it safe when making tunes.”Jane’s AddictionNothing’s Shocking“The album that saved metal and injected intelligence, nuance and underground artistry into a conservative genre.”Bruce SpringsteenNebraska“This acoustic record, made on a humble four-track recorder, is as heavy as any album in the death metal genre. The lyrical power and truth speaks volumes.”…1 Min
Q Magazine|December 2018MODERN LIFE IS RUBBISHIrony is The Enemy“Modernity has failed us. Everything is deconstructed, ironic, it’s dehumanising. TV takes the piss out of TV, Family Guy, no solutions, it reinstates, ‘Hey, this is what life’s like. Isn’t it crazy? f*ck you’ and then leaves. Every time I say something sincere I apologise. And I haven’t done that on this record.”People aren’t their governments“Governments are so f*cked-up. People say, ‘You shouldn’t play here, the human rights are awful, don’t play Israel, boycott Russia.’ If I felt individuals were representative of their government, I wouldn’t go to the US. If our government can let a community burn in a tower to save money, I wouldn’t play in England. But if you live in a fractured place politically or socially, the one thing that you’ve got is…2 Min
Q Magazine|December 2018AGONY ANNEHow to survive on a tourbus:“I love a bus. I switch the air-con off cos my body temperature is three degrees lower than everyone else’s in the whole world. Everyone hates me cos they wake up sweating.”How to fill an afternoon off:“Get a piercing. f*ck it!” [She actually got a new ear piercing this afternoon.]How to be a woman in a male-dominated industry:“I’m upfront and outspoken. I have no problem telling people my ideas and what I think things should be like. Having that attitude makes me not fear that I’m a woman.”How to avoid being recognised:“I just wear sh*t clothes and I don’t do my hair, I don’t wear make-up and I wear hats and glasses. I don’t go out to be recognised. That makes me feel sick.”What to…1 Min
Q Magazine|December 2018BUMMED BY HAPPY MONDAYSTasked with recording the follow-up to 1987’s ramshackle, John Cale-produced debut Squirrel And G-Man Twenty Four Hour Party People Plastic Face Carnt Smile (White Out), the Happy Mondays couldn’t wait to get back in the studio. With a little help from former Joy Division producer Martin Hannett, and an unlimited supply of little blue pills, the album they cooked up connected indie rock to the coming acid house revolution – and confirmed them as the most exciting young band in Britain…Nathan McGough: Shaun [Ryder] was ambitious for the second album. I think he felt the band could be in a better place than they were after the first record. Shaun said to me, “We’ve got some really good songs.” Their debut was really cool, but had only sold 4000 copies.Mark…12 Min
Q Magazine|December 2018The Best Of JULIA HOLTER1 TRY TO MAKE YOURSELF A WORK OF ARTTragedy (2011)This dreamy, twitchy space-gem from Holter’s debut places her between Laurie Anderson and the early-’80s 4AD roster.2 IN THE SAME ROOMEkstasis (2012)A choral pop shimmer with an Oriental twist, drum-machine handclapping, and a slow, speckling fade-out. Gorgeous.3 MONI MON AMIEEkstasis (2012)Boasts a line filched from Frank O’Hara’s 1960 poem Having A co*ke With You, sung over a soft rev of harpsichord and twinkling synths.4 FÜR FELIXEkstasis (2012)There’s a tinge of German countertenor Klaus Nomi to this half-chanted, part-mechanical and deeply theatrical number. Which is a good thing.6 HELLO STRANGERLoud City Song (2013)A six-and-half minute cover of Barbara Lewis’s 1963 hit turns this well-worn classic into something lugubrious and filled with longing.5 HORNS SURROUNDING MELoud City Song (2013)Not since Kate Bush’s 1985…1 Min
Q Magazine|December 2018DIGITAL REVOLUTIONThere is enough here to suggest that Muse have found a new way forward.MUSESIMULATION THEORYWARNERS, OUT 9 NOVEMBEROver the past decade, Muse’s gigs have become more like an Expo for technological advancement in rock than regular arena shows. There have been floating acrobats, shifting towers, sci-fi lasers, huge pyro chimneys and a fleet of flying spheres. It has become an expected thing: Muse are a band that pushes the envelope, who will give you a spectacle you have never seen before, rock trailblazers who take risks and are constantly imaginative. So how is it that the same band’s musical output has stagnated to the point that you could argue they haven’t made a really good album in over a decade?That might seem hard on a group who have had a…7 Min
Q Magazine|December 2018TERROR VISIONSHow his distinctive melancholia will blend in on screen remains to be seen, but, as a stand-alone album, Suspiria works marvels.THOM YORKESUSPIRIAXL, OUT 26 OCTOBERThe listening party for Thom Yorke’s debut film soundtrack, Suspiria, convened last month beneath Clerkenwell Prison, a candlelit dungeon with projections dancing across the walls. Nobody had yet seen Luca Guadagnino’s remake of Dario Argento’s horror classic, and it mattered little. Who better to score an unseen supernatural flick than the abstruse Radiohead frontman, whose songwriting domain is nebulous threats, vague nightmares and a sense of impending fright?Yorke’s trademark paranoia finds new dimensions on this impressive soundtrack album. How his distinctive melancholia will blend in on screen remains to be seen, but, as a stand-alone album, Suspiria works marvels. Skeletal lullabies weave around mangled synth fantasias,…9 Min
Q Magazine|December 2018A LATE HARVESTThere are moments of glorious burning distortion, but its real riches are much more subtle.SMASHING PUMPKINSSHINY AND OH SO BRIGHT, VOL.1/ LP: NO PAST. NO FUTURE. NO SUN.NAPALM, OUT 16 NOVEMBER“We gotta make this happen,” sings Billy Corgan over the triumphant strings of Knights Of Malta, officially kick-starting Smashing Pumpkins’ re-reunion record. If he’s not referring to his own band here, he may as well be. Regardless of whether their latter-day albums have been excellent (Oceania) or inconsistent (Zeitgeist), ever since their first partial resurrection in 2007, they have struggled to capture imaginations like they did oh-so extravagantly in the ’90s. Last year, Corgan even intimated that he would potentially rather raze the Pumpkin patch altogether than face a continuum of indifference as its sole original member.Fortunately, a third option…1 Min
Q Magazine|December 2018Beta BackersOasisStanding On The Shoulder Of GiantsBIG BROTHER, 2000Noel Gallagher’s early Beta Band fandom surfaced on Oasis’s fourth album, single Go Let It Out’s lifting acoustic guitars straight from Inner Meet Me.★★★Badly Drawn BoyThe Hour Of BewilderbeastTWISTED NERVE/XL, 2000Damon Gough definitely drew on the example set by The Three EPs, as apparent in his folk-ish leanings and his habit of evoking the bohemian demi-monde.★★★★Django DjangoDjango DjangoBECAUSE MUSIC, 2012Drummer and producer David Maclean is the brother of the Beta Band’s DJ and keyboardist John, and you can hear the familial link in Django Django’s debut album which mixed arty depth with pop nous and a pleasing kind of eccentricity.★★★★…1 Min
Q Magazine|December 2018GADGETSI-BOX ELLIPSIS £59.99Alexa this, Alexa that, Alexa is a bloody attention-seeker, if you ask my opinion. Here i-box offer you another way to get in touch with everyone’s favourite artificial buddy. This is a nifty gizmo because it plugs straight into the mains, removing the huge stress caused by visible wires in the home. Phew. Alexa can you write my gadgets column for me, please? ★★★NURAPHONE £349There is a new breed of headphones currently emerging that cunningly tailor the sound to suit your hearing. Because all ears are different, see. Some are big. Some are small. Some are hairy. Some have little people living in them. These ones are really clever, adapting to your hearing in under a minute. The sound is excellent, too, so good job all round really.…1 Min
Q Magazine|December 2018Q MailMAC MILLER RIPAbsolutely shocked to hear the news of Mac Miller’s death. I was close to emailing Q after reading his “Albums That Changed My Life” [Q390]. I’ve loved his music for a while, but was really impressed by his great taste and articulate expressions of why he loved these albums. There’s been a lot of grief for classic artists whose best was really behind them, but Mac was getting better with every release, so it’s particularly sad to lose him at such a young age. Hope to see a fitting tribute in Q mag.Dez Brewster, via Q MailIndeed, Dez, Mac Miller was a talent extinguished far too suddenly. You might want to check out the four-page tribute we paid to him in the last issue [ Q391 ].MUSE GO…2 Min
Q Magazine|December 2018COLDPLAY’S DREAM SEQUENCE“I don’t know if Chris is 100 per cent sure that he ever wanted the film to be released. But he said, ‘Maybe now is finally the time to take stock.’”Mat WhitecrossA Head Full Of Dreams, a new Coldplay film from Supersonic director Mat Whitecross, begins with an incongruous transatlantic phone call between Chris Martin and the film-maker. “I was wondering if you’d had a chance to see the film yet?” asks Whitecross. Martin replies that he can’t bring himself to watch it. “I feel like if I see it, I might just want to remove myself,” says the singer. “If it’s OK with you, could I just trust you on it? We’ve known you for so long and we trust you.”That theme of friendship and belief sets the tone…4 Min
Q Magazine|December 2018WHAT WE KNOWDue: 18 January, 2019Title: Remind Me TomorrowRecorded at: Sargent Recorders, LAProducer: John CongletonSong Titles: I Told You Everything, No One’s Easy To Love, Memorial Day, Comeback Kid, Jupiter 4, Seventeen, Malibu, You Shadow, Hands, StayFascinating Fact: Remind Me Tomorrow’s lack of guitars has forced Van Etten to radically overhaul her performance style. “I don’t know what to do with my hands!” she laughs. “I feel like I’m trying to conjure up every ounce of Joan Jett or Pat Benatar in me to really make these songs powerful.”Influences: Suicide, Bruce Springsteen, Portishead…1 Min
Q Magazine|December 2018ON THE STEREOTHE LIMIÑANASTHE GIFT (ANTON MIX)Much of French psych-pop duo The Limiñanas’ new collection of rarities and unreleased material is even better than their most recent studio LP, as evidenced on this Anton Newcombe remix of 2016 Peter Hook collaboration, The Gift.Out: 30 November, on Because Music.SAM EVIANIDGAFAs the frontman of New York’s Celestial Shores, Sam Owens makes frantic psych-rock, which may explain why there’s such an easygoing vibe to his work away from the band as Sam Evian. This sprightly folk song nails his music’s breezy, man-on-the-porch vibes.Out: now, on Saddle Creek.SAM FENDERDEAD BOYSThe North Shields singer-songwriter turns what could be an insular ballad about male suicide into a stirring indie-rock anthem.Out: now, on Polydor.JULIA JACKLINBODYThe first track to be released from Jacklin’s second LP is an ambling five minutes…2 Min
Q Magazine|December 2018WHAT'S ON Absolute Radio THIS MONTHRICHARD ASHCROFT LIVE SESSIONAbsolute Radio, 25 October, 9pmNatural Rebel, Ashcroft’s fifth solo album, has received glowing reviews and been compared to the The Verve at their majestic best in the ’90s. The launch shows duly sold out within minutes and a run of big gigs has been added for 2019. This visit to Absolute Radio’s studios sees Ashcroft playing a much more intimate Live Session in front of a handful of lucky prize-winners and also chatting to Absolute’s Pete Donaldson.HALLOWEEN CLASSIC ROCK PARTYAbsolute Radio, 27 October, 7pmClaire Sturgess provides rock fans with their Saturday night soundtrack each week – and this time round on the Rock Party it’s a Halloween special, with seasonal symphonies from the likes of Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, AC/DC and Metallica.TOM ODELL’s ’70s SHOWAbsolute Radio, 28…2 Min
Q Magazine|December 2018JODIE WHITTAKER“I’d love to be able to sing like First Aid Kit, rather than the drowning rat that I actually sound like!”ALANIS MORISSETTEJAGGED LITTLE PILL (1995, MAVERICK)“When I first got into music in my teens, I loved making cassette mixtapes so I’ve always been more into songs than LPs. So choosing albums is a f*cker! But when I first saw Alanis Morissette’s You Oughta Know video on MTV, even though I was only 12, I felt that it talked to me. The music was so un-selfconscious – plus it had rude words on it! Me and my best friend Rach learnt all the harmonies and recorded ourselves – if only I could dig that tape out! But back then big indie music was so male-dominated, so this stood out to me…4 Min
Q Magazine|December 2018“I AM QUITE JAZZ”In London’s Westbourne Park, green space with high brick walls, there’s a stunning graffiti-art exhibition: b-boy characters, a perky Pink Panther and the huge, kaleidoscopic bubble-words: LOVE PEACE UNITY AND HAVING FUN. Dotted throughout these positive vibes, there’s now the jarring, freshly-painted slogan: Justice For Grenfell. We’re around the corner from Neneh Cherry’s home, 10 minutes’ walk away from the Grenfell Tower horror, smoke from which she could smell last summer in her own garden. “One of the heaviest days I’ve ever experienced,” sighs Cherry, who volunteered at the nearby Acklam Village venue, set up as community hub in the days afterwards. “And the council are trying to take it back, surprise,” she withers. “Oh, they’ll put a little shopping centre there or something. Just what we need. More sh*t.”…12 Min
Q Magazine|December 2018The 50 Worst Decisions In Modern Music1 Preston's nothing out of the OrdinaryIndie quartet The Ordinary Boys were trundling along nicely when frontman Samuel Preston baffled fans by partaking in Celebrity Big Brother in early 2006. They were puzzled further when Preston, a bookish indie lad, and Paul Weller and Morrissey nut, embarked on a fling with fellow housemate and Essex glamour model Chantelle Houghton. The pair married six months later, divorced a year after that, and his band’s reputation never recovered.2 Weller's house Darts fiascoWith 1989’s Modernism: A New Decade, Paul Weller’s Style Council aimed to explore Chicago house music. Unveiling this fresh direction at London’s Royal Albert Hall, The Modfather, sporting Bermuda shorts, was greeted by boos. A disillusioned Weller duly split the band, taking time out before going solo in ’91.3 E17 Harvey's…21 Min
Q Magazine|December 2018THE 1975 COLLECTOR’S EDITION!The 1975 and Q have teamed up to bring you a hugely limited-edition package that celebrates the release of their brilliant new album, A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships.The set includes a beautifully produced heavyweight 7-inch black vinyl single, featuring a double A-side of Give Yourself A Try and Love It If We Made It, from their latest album, and is housed in a specially-produced sleeve (see above). The package also includes a unique edition of Q magazine with a bespoke cover designed by The 1975 themselves (see above).This 7-inch-and-magazine extravaganza, priced at just £10.99, is super-limited, and is only available via: www.The1975.com/store.ORDER EXCLUSIVELY AT: WWW.THE1975.COM/STORE…1 Min
Q Magazine|December 2018CASH RULES EVERYTHINGTommy Cash made his rap debut in a friend’s flat, a late-night freestyle delivered in good company, stoned but otherwise sober, during a teenage holiday in Barcelona. His craft was unrefined – “you rhyme ‘cat’ with ‘the hat’, with ‘bat’ and ‘brat’,” he recalls, smiling – but didn’t lack passion. Backed by a homemade GarageBand loop, he spat some fledgling verses and, when he was done, looked at his girlfriend, who scanned his face for sanity. “What the f*ck is this?” she asked. “You should stop, this is awful.” He began to suspect she wasn’t joking. “It will never happen,” she went on, and – for good measure – “you should never do it.”Like countless outsider artists before, the Estonian rapper thrived on rejection. In the years since, he’s masterminded…9 Min
Q Magazine|December 2018Who's WhoShaun Ryder (singer)Happy Mondays frontman and band’s driving creative force. Formed Black Grape when the original line-up split in 1993.Paul Ryder (bass)Younger brother of Shaun Ryder and founder member of Happy Mondays. Nickname: “Horse”.John Spence (engineer)Experienced studio technician brought in to work alongside Martin Hannett at Slaughterhouse studios in Driffield.Bez (percussionist, dancer)Drafted into the band by Shaun Ryder, Mark Berry’s “freaky” dance moves and maraca-shaking antics made him the Pied Piper of Madchester.Gary Whelan (drummer)Childhood friend of Shaun Ryder and founder member of Happy Mondays. Nickname: “Gaz”.Pat Carroll (designer)Cousin of Shaun Ryder and co-founder of Central Station Design alongside his brother Matt and Karen Jackson.Mark Day (guitarist)Founder member of Happy Mondays. Nickname: “Cow”. Was still working as a postman in Manchester when the band recorded Bummed.Nathan McGough (manager)Longtime friend of…1 Min
Q Magazine|December 2018ALL MY LIFEFOO FIGHTERSCAL JAM 18, GLEN HELEN REGIONAL PARK, SAN BERNARDINO, CALIFORNIA SATURDAY, 6 OCTOBER, 2018★★★★Now in its second year, Cal Jam 18 is Dave Grohl’s own festival. Part rock bonanza, part backyard cookout, it’s a place where he gets to dictate the line-up, the barbecue and the afterparty. During the day you’ll spot him in a cowboy hat running between stages, catching his friends’ sets. Come nightfall, he lets his mane down and straps on a guitar for three hours. There are other bands here, of course, but this is very much Grohl’s party.To be at Cal Jam is to ruminate on the journey rock’s had since Grohl was sat on the drum stool for Nirvana. Even the most devout rocker wouldn’t argue that guitars have the same relevance in…7 Min
Q Magazine|December 2018ALSO OUT...THE BEATLESTHE BEATLES (WHITE ALBUM)APPLE/UMC, OUT 9 NOVEMBER The seven-disc story of The Beatles’ 1968 double.Traditionally, The White Album is seen as the beginning of the slow death of The Beatles. This 50th-anniversary edition partly tells a different story: that although they sometimes recorded separately, it was very much a band effort. The studio out-takes are where the real action is: a strummy Julia sounds like it could have been on Rubber Soul, the Take 17 version of Helter Skelter is thrillingly raw and there’s a spectral early take of While My Guitar... The Beatles were clearly having a ball here. ★★★★★ TOM DOYLETHE KINKS...ARE THE VILLAGE GREEN PRESERVATION SOCIETYSANCTUARY, OUT 26 OCTOBER Ray Davies’s 1968 masterpiece revisited.While everyone else was either still looking across the Atlantic or opening their…3 Min
Q Magazine|December 2018CHOICE CUTSTOM DOYLEQ WRITER“I totally devoured Q writer Simon Goddard’s 1 THE COMEBACK, the story of Elvis Presley’s 1960s told in a vivid, hyperreal style with tales of The Pelvis’s crap films, pill-popping, neglected chimp and rock’n’roll rebirth. Similarly brilliant and tragic are RICHARD SWIFT’s posthumous album The Hex (especially his one-man Smokey Robinson and The Miracles act on Broken Finger Blues) and THE DEUCE, The Wire creator David Simon’s brutal and funny look at the skin-flick trade of the ’70s. Elvis Costello’s This Year’s Girl over the title sequence of season two has never sounded better.”MARTIN BOONSUB EDITOR“While I may have gone into the Bradley Cooper-directed remake of A STAR IS BORN fearing the ripest slice of cinematic cheese, I emerged from it irritably assuring my girlfriend that I just…3 Min
Q Magazine|December 2018Caption CompetitionQ has teamed up with the good people at Audeara to give readers the chance to win a pair of A-01 headphones, worth £299.The Audeara A-01, recently awarded four stars in a Q review, are the world’s first full-fidelity headphones with a built-in hearing test that has revolutionised the listening experience. With active noise-cancelling, Bluetooth connectivity and up to 65 hours’ battery life, the Audeara A-01 headphones give you everything a headphone should – plus more. The A-01’s were created by a group of Brisbane doctors and engineers and feature the only in-built hearing test in personal headphones.The first time the headphones are worn the user performs a hearing test, the results of which are then stored in the headphones themselves. Every person hears differently and your left ear hears…2 Min
Q Magazine|December 2018SLAVESHello, Slaves, where are you right now?Laurie Vincent: In the venue’s production office in Copenhagen.Is Isaac with you?Isaac Holman: Yeah, sorry, I’ve just got a mouth full of tuna sub.Is it nice?IH: Yeah, it’s alright. It’s on an artisan crusty bread.Now that you’re on your third album, has the quality of sandwiches on tour improved with each release?IH: Noooo.LV: Because we still play very small venues around the world we’re used to all sorts of varieties of snacks and sandwiches. We had no snacks in America, but today we had great snacks.Do you know the difference between a vol-au-vent and a canapé?LV: A vol-au-vent is a pastry shell which you put something inside. And then, isn’t a canapé anything small served on a plate in a party?I think, technically, a…3 Min
Q Magazine|December 2018SHARON VAN ETTEN’S SYNTH OVERHAULThe cover of Sharon Van Etten’s fifth album features two children in a toy-strewn bedroom: a little boy plays serenely among the mess, while his sister has concertina’d herself into a small plastic box, wearing nothing more than a tiara and an oversized necklace. The picture – and children – belongs to the musician’s friend, director Katherine Dieckmann, who showed it to a newly pregnant Van Etten in 2016 when she was panicking about her ability to combine parenthood and her professional life. The message was: it will be chaotic, but you’ll figure it out. “She showed me that photograph and I felt really at peace,” recalls Van Etten. “I felt like everything was going to be OK.”In the meantime, the 37-year-old musician has been living the reality behind that…4 Min
Q Magazine|December 2018RAY BLK“I thought law school was gonna be like Ally McBeal. It was so boring and dry.”I feel like maybe I should’ve picked a more chilled-out place,” says Ray BLK, settling into her seat inside the over-the-top opulence of Sexy Fish, a Japanese restaurant in Mayfair, London. Garish art pieces hang from the walls. On the bar, two mermaids designed by Damien Hirst stand guard underneath illuminated fish sculptures by celebrated architect Frank Gehry. “I love the ceiling,” she says, looking up towards a giant coral reef mural. “The rest of it feels a bit too much. Slightly tacky. It’s a bit extra, isn’t it? Very extra. But I like it!”These are the sort of extravagant surroundings the 25-year-old Nigeria-born South Londoner has been getting used to over the past couple…4 Min
Q Magazine|December 2018THE SUNDAY NIGHT MUSIC CLUB IN ASSOCIASTION WITHNight Music Club host Danielle Perry celebrated Absolute’s 10th anniversary…“We recently celebrated our 10th anniversary as a station and threw a gig to celebrate.Our long-term and downright legendary friends the Manic Street Preachers took the headline slot at the O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire with George Ezra and Blossoms in support. As myself and Breakfast Show don Dave Berry wandered backstage, we were humbled by the amount of talent that has graced this stage over the past few decades. It’s a glorious theatrical corner of West London, and one I hope has a secure future. Setlists and photographs adorn the walls – one in particular caught our eye, written in a jaunty Comic Sans font (so wrong!) for a Who gig. What was their tour manager thinking of?All the performances were…1 Min
Q Magazine|December 2018THE ROUGH WITH THE SMOOTHFor is 50th birthday, John Grant decided he wanted to go to Cedar Point with his siblings. A huge amusem*nt park in Sandusky, Ohio, the self-appointed roller-coaster capital of the world was where Grant used to go as a kid. Some of the singer’s happiest memories were forged in that park, darting from ride to ride. And so, in July this year, Grant and his brothers and sister retraced their steps for a roller-coaster bonanza, sampling the new breed of strata coasters and giga coasters, hanging out and making each other laugh.It was a reminder of when life was a care-free breeze and Grant was a buoyant youngster with everything ahead of him. Over the next three-and-a-half decades, there would be depression, bullying, death, hom*ophobia, drugs, alcoholism and HIV to…12 Min
Q Magazine|December 2018Tom Morello“I realised at a young age that when it came to certain ethical matters, my compass was different.”1 DON’T WORRY ABOUT YOUR GUITAR TONEThis is anathema to guitar players who slavishly work away at particular tones. I tried for years to find this magical tone that was in my head and I finally just gave up and played with the crappy tone I had and said, “I’m never gonna worry about it another day in my life, I’m just gonna make music that sounds good with the tone I’ve got” and that ended up being Rage Against The Machine.2 CONFRONT INJUSTICE AT EVERY TURNThis was something that was embedded in me by my mom when I was four years old. Some older kid at daycare was doing some racial name-calling…4 Min
Q Magazine|December 2018MATTHEW HEALY COMES UP FOR AIRJUNE 2018, Angelic Studios, Northamptonshire. In the tranquil surroundings of the sun-parched English countryside, Matty Healy is fidgeting on a sofa in a fog of cigarette smoke, bleached-out hair on end, wearing what appear to be rags: a shredded artwork T-shirt, floral trousers and manky no-longer-white hotel slippers. He’s talking at three times the speed of average humans.“You have to go to rehab because when you’re not on drugs, the only thing you can think about is getting the drugs,” he’s racing on, spelling out the thought process which took him to Barbados on Halloween 2017 to rid himself of the daily heroin smoking habit he’d acquired over the course of the previous four years (the majority of The 1975’s visible life). He chose Barbados “because it’s a long swim…21 Min
Q Magazine|December 2018On The Verge“Fackin ’ell!” howls Essex singer Anne-Marie when reminded that she’s here on the 10th leg of Ed Sheeran’s latest world tour – the same tour he was on when headlining Glastonbury in 2017. “That’s mad, innit.” Sheeran’s support act and pal has just arrived from her own tourbus which is steaming across America’s East Coast. Last night she stopped over in Syracuse (or “sir-a-goose”, as she pronounces it) en route from a headline gig of her own in Columbus. Tonight we’re in Boston as she’s performing another headline show in Brighton Music Hall, a dingy college bar. Wherever Anne-Marie goes, she is unfiltered. That’s the 27-year-old’s selling point. Her debut album, Speak Your Mind, is aptly titled. Hers is a world without pretence. It’s rapidly intimate. She’s prone to oversharing.“I…12 Min
Q Magazine|December 2018The Story of Tommy Cash in 5 VideosEUROZ DOLLAZ YENIZ (2014)A Russian gangsta fantasy backdrops this satire of money-obsessed commercial art. Tossing bills in the air, he shows off his spoils: babies, chickens, guns. What does it matter when you’re rich?LEAVE ME ALONE (2015)Cash juxtaposes luxury with Estonia’s working-class reality, bathing outdoors in a remote slum as an elderly lady peels his potatoes and, jarringly, polishes a gleaming trophy collection.WINALOTO (2016)Inspired by Renaissance paintings – though you might not guess it – this carnival of exposed skin cemented Cash’s infamy as an outcast, highly meme-able prankster.SURF (2017)Full of phallic champagne explosions and women blasting hairdryers up their skirts, Cash weaves a string of visual innuendoes illustrating a world where everything points to sex.puss* MONEY WEED (2018)Aside from his uncomfortable scenes dancing in a wheelchair, Cash perfectly realises…1 Min
Q Magazine|December 2018JULIA HOLTERIt was some while ago that Julia Holter came across The Book Of Memory, the American academic Mary Carruthers’s study of memory in medieval culture. Today she rhapsodises about it as she sits drinking Earl Grey tea in a Clerkenwell bar – its profound effect upon our understanding of medieval culture, how through it she learned that medieval communities saw “the mind as like a birdcage, as a storehouse for images and memories, so you have this gathering of things in the mind, almost it’s a way of composing…” Behind her as she talks stands a taxidermy cat in a dress. Ella Fitzgerald plays across the empty bar.Holter is not your average singer-songwriter. Wisconsin-born, Los Angeles-raised, Michigan-educated, since her 2011 debut, Tragedy, she has established a reputation not only for…10 Min
Q Magazine|December 2018INSIDE THE VIRTUAL WORLDMissy ElliottMiss E… So AddictiveELEKTRA, 2001Missy Elliott revolutionised the sound of hip-hop with her first three albums, made with Simulation Theory collaborator Timbaland. The producer brings shades of her third record’s voodoo beats and static sampling to Muse’s eighth. ★★★★Daft PunkTron: LegacyWALT DISNEY, 2010Synths have always lurked at the edge of Muse’s music, but on Simulation Theory they take centre-stage. The LP’s mix of electronic and classical, particularly on opener Algorithm, seems to take its cue from the French duo’s excellent soundtrack for a rubbish film. ★★★★Taylor Swift1989BIG MACHINE, 2014The album that elevated Taylor Swift to the status of global superstar was co-produced by Swede Shellback, who won a Grammy for his efforts, and has now attempted to bring some of that record’s electronic pop glow to Muse’s new record.…1 Min
Q Magazine|December 2018SWEET SPOTHoney pushes Robyn’s fascination with sadness even further.ROBYNHONEYKONICHIWA, OUT 26 OCTOBERMissing U, the lead song from Robyn’s first solo LP since 2010’s Body Talk, didn’t immediately suggest a comeback of fan-shocking reinventions. With its slow builds and reveals, its gaps and hollows – “The space where you used to be/Your head on my shoulder” – it was on melancholy brand, weeping on the same dancefloor where With Every Heartbeat or Dancing On My Own were working through the pain.Honey, though, pushes Robyn’s fascination with sadness even further, a deconstruction of heartbreak pulling out all the emotional cogs and catches with the precision of a watchmaker. Human Being is all nerves and wires, the pulse making it sound like somebody using sonar to find another warm body.The stripped-out, muscle-memory disco of…13 Min
Q Magazine|December 2018GREAT CONTENDERSTHE BETA BANDTHE THREE EPsBECAUSE MUSIC, OUT NOWBy the high summer of 1997, the commercial frenzy known as Britpop was dwindling away. Oasis’s overcooked Be Here Now was about to serve notice that even for the era’s kings, everything was entering the call-the-taxis phase. With Blur having already taken a left turn with their self-titled fifth LP and Radiohead’s OK Computer working its wonders, there was a rising sense that the commercial ecosystem built around midweek chart positions, daytime radio play and Chris Evans’s garish TV show TFI Friday was something not to aspire to, but to somehow leave behind.This was the moment that The Beta Band’s debut EP Champion Versions tumbled into, not much more than a year after they were formed. The métier of these three Scots and…3 Min
Q Magazine|December 2018BOOKSAt a purely mechanical level, Lily Allen’s autobiography 1 My Thoughts Exactly (BLINK, ★★★★) is an easy read, page after compelling page blazing past in a firestorm of honesty, including vibrator recommendations, celebrity “feuds” and that time she thought she had passed her kids’ threadworms to A$AP Rocky. What’s harder to sail through is the pain and trauma here: her self-obliterating drink and drug use, the fight to convince police she was being stalked, and most powerfully, the loss of her son at birth.She begins with her woefully untethered upbringing – dad Keith Allen’s idea of childcare was stashing his kids in a room at The Groucho Club while he went out – before fame smashed an even bigger hole through her sense of self. She is piercingly sharp on…2 Min
Q Magazine|December 2018“ I used to think I’d be good on Bake Off. ” Stefflon DonWhen did someone last call you Stephanie?Whenever somebody says that, I straightaway look at them like, “Oh my gosh!” Because nobody calls me Stephanie, apart from my mum.When did you last get inspiration for a song?Last night, actually. I was around the kitchen table with my mates, freestyling. I recorded it onto my phone so now I’ve just got to go into the studio and lay it down.When did you last get nervous?I don’t get nervous very often, but I do get nervous imagining meeting Lil’ Kim. We’ve not met, but we do talk via messaging. To me it’s just crazy you see someone like her when you’re a kid and growing up and they’re still around now and you can actually interact with them. She’s such a legend.When did…4 Min
