New Music Interviews
10 Questions for Musician Martin FryMonday, 23 May 2016
It was in the long-ago year of 1982 that Martin Fry and ABC released The Lexicon of Love, a feast of addictively lush pop-soul swathed in Anne Dudley's orchestrations and producer Trevor Horn's sparkling electronic innovations. Fry bestrode it like a knowing nouveau-glam mastermind, treading in the ironic footsteps of Bryan Ferry and David Bowie as he effortlessly juggled camp, kitsch and sardonic wit. Read more... |
10 Questions for Musician Tinchy StryderSaturday, 14 May 2016
Tinchy Stryder (b. 1986) has had a successful pop career since 2009, including two chart-topping singles (“Number 1” and “Never Leave You”). Born Kwasi Danquah in Ghana, his family moved to London’s East End when he was nine and, in the early years of the new millennium, he established himself as a rising talent of the grime scene and member of the Roll Deep Collective. Read more... |
10 Questions for Musician Debashish BhattacharyaFriday, 29 April 2016
Debashish Bhattacharya (b 1963) is India’s leading lap steel guitar player. Equally happy in the worlds of Indian classical and West-leaning fusion music, it’s no exaggeration to say he changed the way his instrument is regarded, at home and abroad. Read more... |
10 Questions for Musician Beth OrtonThursday, 21 April 2016
Beth Orton (b 1970) is a singer-songwriter who first came to prominence via her collaborations with the Chemical Brothers, at the start of both their careers. She recorded an album with the producer William Orbit in 1993 but it was her 1995 album, Trailer Park, a canny amalgamation of folk and electronica, that really put her on the map as a solo artist. Read more... |
10 Questions for Musician Graham NashThursday, 14 April 2016
It was in August 1968 that Graham Nash, then still a member of The Hollies, took a cab from LAX airport in Los Angeles to Joni Mitchell's house in Laurel Canyon. He was just embarking on a love affair with Joni, but also about to blast off on a different kind of adventure with the two musicians who greeted him at her house, David Crosby and Stephen Stills. Read more... |
10 Questions for Composer Errollyn WallenWednesday, 16 March 2016
Errollyn Wallen is celebrated both as a singer-songwriter and for her rigorous and communicative contemporary new music. Her works include 13 operas and a plethora of orchestral, choral, chamber works, solo and ensemble piano music and concertos, as well as award-winning music for film and TV; her Principia and Spirit in Motion were featured in the London Paralympics opening ceremony in 2012. Read more... |
theartsdesk Q&A: Musician YouthSaturday, 12 March 2016
Youth, AKA Martin Glover (b 1960), is a renowned music producer and bassist in the post-punk band Killing Joke. He achieved his first success with the latter in the late Seventies and has often been at the forefront of innovation and development in British music since. Read more... |
'Paul said he would like orchestral instruments. John couldn’t be bothered'Wednesday, 09 March 2016
A decade ago I was sent to interview George Martin and his son Giles about Love, the remarkable remix of the Beatles catalogue which they created for Cirque du Soleil’s Beatles show in Las Vegas. After the interview proper, in which both talked about collaborating with each other and with Paul, Ringo and the widows of John and George, I asked Sir George Martin if we could talk about an area of particular interest to me. Read more... |
10 Questions for Songwriter Carla Marie WilliamsTuesday, 08 March 2016
Carla Marie Williams is a songwriter, artist mentor and founder of writing collective NewCrowd. She has written for stars including Beyoncé, Girls Aloud, Kylie and Rudimental, with a BRIT Award for her contribution to Girls Aloud’s single "The Promise", and Beyoncé’s recent hit "Runnin". Read more... |
10 Questions for Jazz Quartet EmpiricalTuesday, 16 February 2016
Described by Courtney Pine as "the most exciting jazz band to come out of the UK" and hailed in the press as the new young lions, Empirical broke cover in 2007, topping album of the year charts with their self-titled debut and picking up wins at the prestigious EBU/European Jazz Competition and the Peter Whittingham Jazz Award all within a few months. Read more... |
Pages
latest in today
Picnic at the Castle review - entertaining mixed bill
Of all the outdoor spaces being utilised to keep live performance going in this maddest of years, Warwick Castle is surely among the most striking...
Nocturnal review - an impossible love
The most painterly and ominous sequence in Nocturnal naturally occurs at night. Until recently strangers, 33-year-old Pete (Cosmo Jarvis...
Album: Alicia Keys - Alicia
Alicia Keys is a puzzling mixture. On the one hand she’s the hyper-achieving, multi-platinum, 752-Grammy-winning...
Rocks review - impressively well-crafted neo-realist drama
Rocks is a beautifully made slice of neo-realist filmmaking which deserves to get a wide audience but may well slip off the radar in the...
GogolFest:Dream review - the best music festival of the summ...
GogolFest:Dream in Kherson, somewhere near the Crimea in...
Igor Levit, Wigmore Hall/Hill Quartet, Bandstand Chamber Fes...
An early hero of lockdown, livestreaming from his Berlin home in terrible sound at first, Igor Levit is a supreme example of how adaptable...
The Devil All The Time review – a test of faith in a Souther...
There’s no denying the Faulknerian ambition to the construction of Anthony Campos’ latest feature Devil All the Time...
Eavesdropping on Rattle, the LSO and Bartók’s Bluebeard
One source of advance information told us to expect a reduced version of...
Album: Fish - Weltschmerz
"This party's over" snarls Fish on Weltschmerz, and, this time, it seems the big man really means...
Alban Gerhardt, Markus Becker, Wigmore Hall review - long sh...
It wouldn’t be true to say I’d forgotten what a solo cello in a...