UK: get ready for an Australian invasion. With their new album Hoops, The Rubens are patiently strutting their way toward world domination – and any blues- and soul-oriented rock fans whose ears get bent by those eleven tracks are likely to find themselves swept away.
Produced by a behind-the-board team boasting Grammy wins and collaborations with Lana Del Rey, Coldplay, and The Strokes, it’s little surprise that Hoops sounds as big, flavourful, and vital as it does. Check out my full review here, and read on for an in-depth chat with The Rubens… Read more…
For those of you looking to get into a metal band headed for big things, look no further for now than Karybdis. A couple of months on from the release of new album Samsara (reviewed in full here), I caught up with Karybdis for a brief chat… Read more…
With her new EP Forbidden Desire, future electronic superstar Fifi Rong continues to go from strength to strength. Click here for a review of the full EP, and read on as I chat to Fifi about Forbidden Desire, her creative process, and her biggest project to date…
Your new EP Forbidden Desire is out on April 29. How’re you feeling today?
I’m feeling good thanks – I’m looking forward to hearing how this EP is received!
While you were writing and recording Forbidden Desire, what was your creative process?
The Forbidden Desire EP is basically an outline for a bigger picture, leading into the new album I’m making. These songs came from many demos to go into production.
There was a lot of drama and ups and downs producing and recording the EP, but everything flowed very Read more…
Way back in the day, a little band called Flipcycle were one of the best acts in my local area. Their sets marked some of the earliest times I was exposed to progressive-leaning music, something entirely different from the rap metal and boy-bands that were popular at the time. Even back then, Flipcycle guitarist Al Heslop was already incredible at placing the oddest riffs and licks in precisely the right places, a master of musical timing and tasteful composition.
Since then, Al’s moved on from Flipcycle (and the equally cool but sadly also defunct pilot.passenger) to form Heights – a band who boast not only none-more-prog album titles (their most recent being Phantasia On The High Processions of Sun, Moon And Countless Stars Above) and a trio format including über-bassist John Hopkin and Tesseract drummer Jay Postones, but also a style centred once more upon perfect timing. Every note counts when Al Heslop’s involved, and he’s also been busy making a name for himself as a producer for most of the past decade, running the Bracknell-based Creative Control Studio in the luxurious grounds of South Hill Park Arts Centre. Al’s worked with some of the UK’s most promising underground bands, including my own personal favourites Eschar and For Astronauts And Satellites, applying the same level of painstaking attention to detail to others’ tunes as he does to his own.
For this in-depth interview, TMMP caught up with Al to discuss his past, present, and future…
What’s your earliest musical memory?
I can remember mucking about on an old out of tune upright piano that my grandparents had at the time. I was probably about two or three at the time; I remember trying to write Read more…
Who says interviews have to be super serious? Behold these beautiful answers from Good Tiger’s own Morgan Sinclair…
You successfully crowdfunded your album A Head Full Of Moonlight seriously quickly – and now you’re working with Blacklight Media and Metal Blade Records. What thoughts and feelings are floating around the Good Tiger camp right now?
There’s a lot of ambiguity surrounding how much the human mind thinks. Some scientists argue that we process somewhere between 60,000 and 80,000 thoughts a day – so honestly, we’re Read more…
Metal bands tend to get a bad rap in more mainstream circles. However, beyond the negative stereotypes lie a group of people who, like everyone else, want to be heard and understood, and would prefer it if we could allow each other a basic level of respect.
With Cult Of Luna’s brand new album Mariner dropping on April 8, I talked to guitarist / vocalist Johannes Persson about the story behind the music, space, religion, and the easy way to respect performers at gigs…
Your new album Mariner is coming out this Friday. How’re you feeling right now?
I remember the period between delivering the master and the release used to be Read more…
Tech-metal fans have nine tracks of auditory win to look forward to come the end of this May, in the form of Visions’ sophomore effort, Shake The Earth. With that ear-watering fact in mind, I got talking to Visions bass-wrangler Dave Evans about all things Shake The Earth-related – and why not giving a fuck is the best policy…
Your new album Shake The Earth is coming out on May 30. What thoughts and feelings are going through your mind right now?
Excitement! It’s been so long since we’ve had new music out.
Our first album came out in 2011, but some of those songs were written way back in 2006, so this feels similar in the sense that we’ve been sitting on some of this material for so long without Read more…
Aliases are sitting on a one-of-a-kind album right now. Derangeable – due out on April 15 – is everything existing Aliases fans could possibly hope for, and more. It’s also guaranteed to bend the ears of many a future follower, provided they’re enamored of prime-cut techy metallic goodness.
Click here to read about how blown my mind was on first hearing Derangeable, and read on for a short but appropriately intense chat with Aliases guitarist Leah Woodward… Read more…
There isn’t another musician on Earth like Rémi Gallego. With The Algorithm’s new album (try saying that ten times really quickly) Brute Force dropping on April 1 after scoring 91% on TMMP here, and many ears awaiting its onslaught of labyrinthine synth lines and cortex-crunching grooves, TMMP caught up with Rémi Gallego via email to talk Brute Force, influences, creativity, and thoughtful neighbourly feedback…
Your new album Brute Force is out on April 1. How’re you feeling about it?
I can’t wait to finally unveil this album. It’s my proudest achievement so far and I’m excited that people can finally hear it!
While attempting to locate Project RnL for this interview, I spent so much time exploring the 800-capacity O2 Academy Islington that I felt like I was living this scene from This Is Spinal Tap. Eventually, thanks to the shining example of advanced technological wizardry that is Gmail, the plan came together. So began one of the most fun interviews I’ve ever done…
You’re nearing the end of a long European tour. How’re you feeling right now?
Or Lubianiker (Bass): We’re feeling pretty good, because we got this massive opportunity to take our music and perform it live for audiences, and get a lot of really positive feedback about what we’ve been working on back home in Israel, where our audience is very devoted, but not as diverse as you get when you go on the road.
You get to field-test both the band and the music – and to be honest, I feel like Read more…
