INTERVIEWS
The Reclamation of Jessie Baylin
Jessie Baylin has been on the periphery of fame for more than half her life. At 19, she had the “it” factor as a singer-songwriter in L.A. A publishing deal with Sony, an audience with famous musicians like Justin Timberlake and John Mayer. At 22, she was engaged to a drummer, Nathan Followill, who she met at a music festival. At 25, they were married the same year his band, Kings of Leon, were conquering arenas around the world on the strength of hits like “Sex on Fire” and “Use Somebody.” In 2018, Baylin’s primary songwriting partner and producer Richard Swift died, which was a blow to the Nashville music community, as Swift was one of those peripatetic forces. He had ties to the Black Keys, the Arcs, the Shins, and more. But for Baylin, Swift was her musical lifeline, the person w...
Brett Morgen Knows That His David Bowie Doc, Moonage Daydream, Is a Great Drug Movie
Moonage Daydream, a cinematic trip into the psyche and legacy of the iconic David Bowie, has been out in theaters for a week now, and director Brett Morgen confirms that mind-altering substances are being enjoyed in those theaters. “It’s happening a lot,” he tells Consequence via Zoom, a few days after the unconventional documentary’s IMAX premiere. “I’m having people come up to me at the end of screenings lit and tripped out.” Officially authorized by the Bowie estate, Moonage Daydream uses decades of archival footage to craft a visually-driven look at Bowie as an artist, from the Ziggy Stardust days to the more grounded, yet still ethereal, man he eventually became. Given the beautiful visual soundscapes designed by Morgan, blending animation and music and color to capture the essence of...
Nikki Lane Softens Up… a Little
Nikki Lane isn’t making music right at this very moment, but, technically, she is working. It’s afternoon in downtown Nashville and Lane is at the Hotel Indigo, a location of the chain that is being converted into a much cooler, more curated version of itself called “The Countrypolitan,” with Lane tapped to oversee the lobby store and sundries. Lane has camped out here for the day, in a Wonder Woman-goes-twang onesie covered in white stars, rolling joints, and eating lobster rolls while she admires the layout of some vintage jackets and gets her bearings. It’s a lot to take on right before the launch of her fourth album, Denim and Diamonds, but Lane doesn’t exactly think small: She also just booked her release party in New York City to be on, of all places, a boat scooting around the Hudso...
Kelsea Ballerini’s Best Is Yet to Come
Seated in a sunny suite in downtown Nashville, Kelsea Ballerini starts the conversation like we’ve known each other for years and are meeting to catch up over lunch. “Where are your earrings from? Do you need a water? What part of town did you come in from?” Some of that energy is the Nashville way, and some of that is a window into Ballerini’s warm and incredibly open nature. The pop-country singer-songwriter — arguably the preeminent female artist in that space at the moment — is on the verge of releasing her fourth studio album, SUBJECT TO CHANGE, available Friday, September 23rd. She’s barefoot and wearing a bright blue dress that she explains is the same color palette as the album artwork. “Because I’m a crazy person,” she jokes. The album is a cyclical journey of fifteen tracks, all ...
Flatbush Zombies Answer the Consequestionnaire: 15 Years of Performing on Tables, Growth, and Singing Jason Mraz
It’s Consequence’s 15th anniversary, and all month long we are featuring a series of retrospective features and essays encompassing our publication’s history — as well as the entertainment landscape at large. We’re also giving some of our past CoSigned artists a chance to look back at the last 15 years with our Consequestionnaire; today’s respondents are Flatbush Zombies. One of the best parts of our Consequence: 15 Years of Sound celebration has been catching up with some of our favorite artists. We sent out our Consequestionnaire to a number of our former Artists of the Month and CoSigns to see what they had to say about the last decade and a half, and how their career has grown since we gave them our stamp of approval. Today, we reconnect with Flatbush Zombies, who we CoSigned way ...
Starcrawler’s Family Affair Is Anything But Dysfunctional
Onstage, with a coltish appeal and arms akimbo, Starcrawler singer Arrow De Wilde exudes a punk power akin to a mutant offspring of Debby Harry, Michael Monroe and Iggy Pop. At 23, she’s the real deal, an old soul whose actual lineage and creative family is just as cool as any imagined DNA from rock ‘n’ roll icons. Starcrawler’s third album, the 10-song collection She Said, sees a maturation and fuller rock vibe compared to the raw power of earlier tracks like “I Love L.A.” or the L7-esque “Pussy Tower.” Starcrawler inspires Gram Parsons’ comparisons for the country/rock/alt lilt of the shimmering “Broken Angels.” While “Midnight,” explains De Wilde, was inspired by dark desert driving scenes from David Lynch’s Wild at Heart. The speedy spurt of the album’s first cut, “Roadkill,” took “hug...
NGHTMRE’s “DRMVRSE” Album Is a Hallucinogenic Matrix: “We’re About to Send You On the Craziest Trip of Your Life”
No blue pill or red pill can replicate the mind-bending matrix of NGHTMRE‘s DRMVRSE. NGHTMRE released his long-awaited debut studio album on September 9th after eight years of cranking out hits such as “REDLIGHT” and “GUD VIBRATIONS.” The album is just one bright star in the deep expanse of DRMVRSE. The cinematic project is a methodical piece of fiction with music, animation and narrative components—and that’s just scratching the planet’s surface. DRMVRSE tells the story of a fictional NeuroTech company that discovers a sonic frequency called “Unsound,” leading users through gateways to other physical planes of existence. A DMT-dose of portal-jumping and epic battles are the status quo inside NGHTMRE’s playground. “It s...
Tim Burgess’ New Solo Album Is Anything But Typical Music
Like many musicians, Tim Burgess had big plans for 2020. The Charlatans frontman was slated to showcase a forthcoming solo album, I Love the New Sky, in an appearance at the New Colossus Festival in New York City and at SXSW in advance of the LP’s May release. Things didn’t go quite as planned, of course: Although the New York City gig went off without a hitch, SXSW and the rest of his proposed promo activities were canceled—and Burgess headed home to England trying to figure out what to do next. Somewhat unexpectedly, Simon Raymonde of Cocteau Twins—who founded and oversees Burgess’ label, Bella Union Records—suggested Burgess might like to write another album. “And I thought, ‘How do you do that?’” Burgess says today. “I’ve never written anything without an experience of the previo...
See How They Run: Director Tom George and the Film’s Killer on Crafting an Original Murder Mystery
[Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers for See How They Run.] So, as stated above, this article will reveal the “who” in the new Searchlight Pictures whodunnit See How They Run, which may or may not be sooner than director Tom George likes. “I strongly believe in no spoilers, but I believe that spoilers should have a statute of limitation, and we can discuss what that length is,” George tells Consequence. “I don’t think people can expect you not to hold on to a spoiler indefinitely throughout time. But yeah, don’t spoil the ending, you want people to have that same buzz you had the first time you watched it.” George knows this from personal experience, after a friend of his spoiled The Sixth Sense for him. “We were watching the trailer on TV, he had seen the film, and I said, ‘Wha...
The Rings of Power Star Cynthia Addai-Robinson on Episode 4 and What It’s Like to Be Queen
[Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers for The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, Season 1 Episode 2, “The Great Wave.”] Because of the huge amounts of secrecy surrounding The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power throughout its production, star Cynthia Addai-Robinson tells Consequence she didn’t know what role, specifically, she was auditioning for during a “very long and up-and-down process, to eventually get to be a part of this amazing series.” But once she knew a little more about Queen Regent Míriel, and the character’s place in the lore of J.R.R. Tolkien’s epic fantasy universe, “I was very, very excited to get the opportunity to play a character that has a really interesting backstory,” she says. “It was also a chance to do something I felt like I never really done bef...
Los Espookys’ Bernardo Velasco and Cassandra Ciangherotti on Season 2 and Making a Bilingual Comedy
There aren’t really any other shows like Los Espookys on television right now. The HBO comedy focuses on a group of friends who create an unconventional event planning service, delivering ghoulish twists on quinceaneras and building haunted houses from scratch. But the story is bigger than that, thanks to the eclectic cast, including Bernardo Velasco, Cassandra Ciangherotti, Ana Fabrega, Julio Torres, and Fred Armisen, and the wild journeys each character is on. In Season 2, the Los Espookys crew is back to create yet more spooky mayhem, while dealing with the repercussions of Season 1’s relationship dramas. Below, transcribed and edited for clarity, series stars Bernardo Velasco and Cassandra Ciangherotti, who play founding Los Espookys members Velasco and Ciangherotti, tell Consequence a...
Joe Strummer’s Widow Lucinda Tait Discusses the New Mescaleros Box Set: Interview + Stream
A new box set celebrating Joe Strummer’s work with his post-Clash band The Mescaleros has just arrived. To mark the occasion, Heavy Consequence caught up with the late punk legend’s widow, Lucinda Tait, to discuss the collection. Joe Strummer 002: The Mescaleros Years includes all three of the band’s studio albums — Rock Art and the X-Ray Style (1999), Global A Go-Go (2001), and Streetcore (2003) — along with a brand-new compilation of 15 B-sides and rarities titled Vibes Compass. It’s available as a 4-CD set with a 72-page book or a 7-LP set with a 32-page book. Strummer’s sketches and handwritten lyrics appear in both the book and on the album sleeves. Tait, who was married to Strummer from 1995 until his passing in December 2002, worked with Dark Horse Records’ David Zonshine to sort th...
