Interviews
All of my published interviews to date.
Sonemic Interview: Maruja
Sonemic Interview: McKinley Dixon
Sonemic Interview: Stars of the Lid
Sonemic Interview: Black Country, New Road
Sonemic Interview: Good Night & Good Morning - RYM/Sonemic
Sonemic Interview: Elias Rønnenfelt - RYM/Sonemic
O: "Most drummers would be able to pick up juggling" | Loud And Quiet
O golly, O gosh, O boy, O wonder. O can perhaps be compared to contemporaries like Sons of Kemet, who mix their jazz training with thunderous songcraft to create music that is more about momentum and motion than melody and harmony. Indeed, despite connections in London’s fertile jazz scene, O have more in common with dozens of other genres than they do with jazz. “I did a lot of stuff that I’d say was more in the jazz world,” Keary says, having cut her teeth as part of the Tomorrow’s Warriors i...
Wu-Lu: community spirit, post-genre creativity, and rose-ringed parakeets - Loud And Quiet
Wu-Lu is Miles Romans-Hopcraft, producer, multi-instrumentalist, tamperer, but he doesn’t make all the music on his own. He’s the head chef, with a cast of chefs de partie in the wings. “Sometimes,” he says of his compositional style, “it will be me, in my bedroom, with the MPC, getting all close. That might transpire into something I’ll show to the band – they might play on top of it, or incorporate it into our set.“Or,” he continues, “I’ll get together with the guys, hang out, chilling and jam...
Thirteen Convulsions: Geordie Greep's Favourite Albums | The Quietus
Black Midi frontman Geordie Greep takes Cal Cashin through the thirteen albums that have gripped him the most, from the majesty of Bach to the mania of Léo Ferré Geordie Greep, frontman of precocious noise-rock combo Black Midi, has always been a somewhat elusive and mysterious character. He gives little of himself away in interviews, and his Twitter account is largely dedicated to boxing. This distance often comes across in his lyrics, as he masks himself behind absurdist narratives and cryptic...
If You Know, You Know: An Interview With Iphgenia Baal & Ben Graville | The Quietus
Compliances: A New Fear, from Toothgrinder Press, combines the apocalyptic imagery of photographer Ben Graville and the caustic prose of Iphgenia Baal. Cal Cashin talks to the pair about working together and the depressing state of publishinglife was like that already… now it’s the same only worse
That is the proclamation of London novelist Iphgenia Baal at the start of her latest book Compliances: A New Fear. Part faux-psychology textbook, part fictionalised journal (much like 2017’s Merced Es...
That is the proclamation of London novelist Iphgenia Baal at the start of her latest book Compliances: A New Fear. Part faux-psychology textbook, part fictionalised journal (much like 2017’s Merced Es...
“We pied the Oliver Cromwell Museum” – you have to have fun as a new band, say Lunch Money Life - Loud And Quiet
Apocalypse music. That’s what they called it. When Lunch Money Life released their lurching debut album Immersion Chamber in 2020, they were all too happy to label their bastard inversion of jazz as music for armageddon. But things are a bit more nuanced now.“It feels crass now, in hindsight,” electronics maven Jack Martin would later tell me, about what Lunch Money Life used to brand their work. “I believe in it to the extent that the world is fucked up, and we make fucked up music – not the mo...
Wok Ethic: EXEK interviewed | The Quietus
Albert Wolski's EXEK take the production burnish of early Eno, the invention of This Heat and the medicated funk of ESG as a starting point, says Cal Cashin, before heading off into psychedelic territoryEXEK by Sandra Mikołajczyk
"The studio as instrument” is a mode as old as time itself, yet it seems there is a dearth of guitar groups who adequately utilise this concept in order to harness maximum psychedelic power. Often groups strive to replicate their live sound, get an Albini in, and cross...
"The studio as instrument” is a mode as old as time itself, yet it seems there is a dearth of guitar groups who adequately utilise this concept in order to harness maximum psychedelic power. Often groups strive to replicate their live sound, get an Albini in, and cross...
Brassed Off: Emma-Jean Thackray’s Journey From Village Band To The Cutting Edge Of Jazz | The Quietus
Portraits by Matthew Benson
Emma-Jean Thackray’s singular brand of jazz is a heady and unique cocktail. Yorkshire-born, the musical polymath leads her band with virtuoso trumpet performances, mixing genres as though they’re fresh ingredients making up a potent solution.
Thackray’s own studies of jazz trumpet at the Royal Welsh College Of Music And Drama bring a tangible hard-bop element to them, whilst a love of Madlib and J Dilla colours her joyous approach to production. Thackray’s also spo...
Emma-Jean Thackray’s singular brand of jazz is a heady and unique cocktail. Yorkshire-born, the musical polymath leads her band with virtuoso trumpet performances, mixing genres as though they’re fresh ingredients making up a potent solution.
Thackray’s own studies of jazz trumpet at the Royal Welsh College Of Music And Drama bring a tangible hard-bop element to them, whilst a love of Madlib and J Dilla colours her joyous approach to production. Thackray’s also spo...
Another Affair: Piercing Jockstrap's Harmonic Core | Clash Magazine Music News, Reviews & Interviews
London outfit Jockstrap are one of the most exciting propositions in British music today.
On 2018’s stellar ‘Love is the Key to the City’ EP, they established themselves as electronic enfants terribles, juxtaposing several seemingly disparate elements in perfect harmony. This month, the band release their second EP, ‘Wicked CIty’, through Warp.
At the core of Jockstrap is the duo of Georgia Ellery, who is also in Black Country, New Road, and Taylor Skye, who is an acclaimed young producer in hi...
On 2018’s stellar ‘Love is the Key to the City’ EP, they established themselves as electronic enfants terribles, juxtaposing several seemingly disparate elements in perfect harmony. This month, the band release their second EP, ‘Wicked CIty’, through Warp.
At the core of Jockstrap is the duo of Georgia Ellery, who is also in Black Country, New Road, and Taylor Skye, who is an acclaimed young producer in hi...
Black Midi are the most progressive guitar band in London right now - Loud And Quiet
The UK music press is still talking about “the South London scene”, but for many the periscopes seem to be permanently facing the likes of Shame, Goat Girl and HMLTD. If you’ve spent any amount of time eavesdropping in the smoking areas and live rooms of the capital this year, though, the name Black Midi will have cropped up more than any other, as they’ve garnered themselves the title of London’s most compelling new band. They regularly play at venues like The Windmill in Brixton, but are infam...
Musical Fluidity: Locean Interviewed | The Quietus
Ahead of their performance at Raw Power this weekend, Cal Cashin talks Paradox, poetry and the pleasures of improvisation with Lauren Bolger and David McLean of Locean“Most the experimental musicians in Manchester have been in either Gnod or Locean”, the bassist, David McLean, of the latter tells me. Locean are a psychedelic collective that, since 2012, have existed with a revolving cast. They tap into a singular, powerful sound. The group are a truly elemental force – and whilst their tenure as...
In Conversation: Lee Ranaldo | Clash Magazine Music News, Reviews & Interviews
In 2012, SPIN magazine unveiled their list of the greatest guitarists of all time. Not topped by Hendrix, Jimmy Page, or Keith Richards, the list was instead topped by Lee Ranaldo, and his Sonic Youth bandmate Thurston Moore. Perhaps to some this was a provocative choice, but to those in the know, the often discordant, energetic, thrashy guitars that decorated Sonic Youth’s 30 year career will eternally feel unparallelled.
2017, six years since Sonic Youth threw the towel in the ring, and Ranald...
2017, six years since Sonic Youth threw the towel in the ring, and Ranald...
Sensory Excursions: Avey Tare Interviewed | Clash Magazine Music News, Reviews & Interviews
Animal Collective have been a huge band for over a decade now, brightening the musical landscape with technicolour psychedelic pop that combines childlike imagination with virtuoso song-smithery.
The project buzzes around the hive mind of four individuals who go by the monikers Avey Tare, Panda Bear, Deakin and Geologist. All highly prolific solo artists in their own right, July sees the former, the band’s primary songwriter Avey Tare, release new solo album 'Eucalyptus'.Arriving last week, 'Euc...
The project buzzes around the hive mind of four individuals who go by the monikers Avey Tare, Panda Bear, Deakin and Geologist. All highly prolific solo artists in their own right, July sees the former, the band’s primary songwriter Avey Tare, release new solo album 'Eucalyptus'.Arriving last week, 'Euc...
Next Wave #782: Shame | Clash Magazine Music News, Reviews & Interviews
In music circles, talk of the South London scene is rife with the likes of HMLTD, Goat Girl, and Childhood making some of the most interesting music the country’s heard for a very long time.
Leading the charge is five-piece garage rock band Shame. A fresh take on the guitar music template, Shame are a politically-charged, full frontal attack. Rumbling, frenetic basslines and thick, urbane wall-of-sound guitars lay the perfect platform for the enigmatic performances of frontman Charlie Steen, who...
Leading the charge is five-piece garage rock band Shame. A fresh take on the guitar music template, Shame are a politically-charged, full frontal attack. Rumbling, frenetic basslines and thick, urbane wall-of-sound guitars lay the perfect platform for the enigmatic performances of frontman Charlie Steen, who...
