INTERVIEWS
“Once You Rock, You Just Rock”: Composer Kevin Kiner on Capturing the Hair Metal Vibes of Peacemaker
If you’re watching a James Gunn project, you can expect a few things going in: An arch, darkly comic tone, characters as acerbic as they are morally questionable, and lots and lots (and lots and lots) of needle-drops. For Peacemaker, Gunn’s spinoff of last year’s endearing revamp of The Suicide Squad, his musically-literate mind zeroed in on one very specific genre: ’80s Scandinavian hair metal. After all, it’s pretty much the only type of music Christopher Smith, aka Peacemaker (John Cena) will listen to, the kind of thrashing, ballad-heavy stuff that fuels his flag-waving antihero. It’s suffused into every aspect of the show’s fabric, from Cena (in his thighty-whities) singing along to the Quireboys’ “I Don’t Love You Anymore” in Episode 1 to the stone-faced opening sequen...
Yard Act Break Down Their Debut Album The Overload Track By Track: Exclusive
Our Track by Track feature gives artists the opportunity to share the inspiration and stories behind each song on their latest release. Today, Yard Act frontman James Smith takes a deep dive into the songs behind their debut album, The Overload. British post-punk band Yard Act have unveiled their debut album The Overload today (January 21st). It’s safe to say that Yard Act are observers: The Overload is filled with statements that summarize our modern condition, both in their native England and the rest of the world around it. Led by frontman James Smith and rounded out by bassist Ryan Needham, guitarist Sam Shjipstone, and drummer Jay Russell, Yard Act are among the newest class of conscious rockers coming from across the pond. Every sound in The Overload feels deliber...
“By Artists for Artists”: How The Funk Hunters’ Nick Middleton Evolved From DJ to Music Exec
As a member of celebrated electronic music duo The Funk Hunters, the CEO of Westwood Recordings, and the co-founder of Midnight Agency, it’s not hard to tell that Nick Middleton has a passion for the music industry. Covering everything from music production to marketing and more, Middleton is involved in every step of the process. But that wasn’t his initial aspiration. In an interview with EDM.com, Middleton tells us that he “never really had music as a dream career” and he believed his passion was in film. Throughout high school and progressing into college, Middleton worked in film. He made documentaries, taught post-production, and even ran a film school on Galiano Island called The Gulf Island Film & Television School (GIFTS). It was his work at GIFTS...
Further Secrets of the Wu Universe
It feels like the Wu-Tang Clan has been around forever, and their rise to fame is certainly a well-documented one. Between group member autobiographies (RZA’s Wu-Tang Manual and The Tao of Wu, U-God’s Raw, Buddah Monk’s ODB The Dirty Version, Raekwon’s From Staircase to Stage) and documentaries (Showtime’s Wu-Tang Clan: Of Mics and Men and Hulu’s Wu-Tang: An American Saga) it might be assumed that every angle of the Clan’s story has been examined. The epic From the Streets of Shaolin: The Wu-Tang Saga (Hachette Books) proves that is decidedly not the case. (Credit: Alice Arnold) Billed as “the most three-dimensional portrait of Wu-Tang to date,” this revelatory book is the work of S.H. Fernando, a golden-era hip-hop journalist present for some of the Clan’s most legendary studio sessions, ...
Bridget Everett and Jeff Hiller on Their Infinitely Relatable New HBO Comedy Somebody Somewhere
Once you know the premise, you realize there’s no other possible title for Somebody Somewhere. The new HBO comedy, executive produced by the Duplass brothers and directed in part by Jay Duplass, stars Bridget Everett as Sam, a 40-something resident of small-town Kansas who’s mourning her deceased. sister, working a dull job, and in general feeling a bit lost in life — until, that is, she becomes closer to Joel (Jeff Hiller), an old high school classmate who helps reawaken in her a passion for music. The show is a sometimes sweet, sometimes sad, and more often than not very funny look at what it means to try to reawaken after years of sleepwalking through life, anchored by the deep and complex friendship between its central characters. During a recent press day, Consequence was lucky enough...
Peacemaker’s Steve Agee on Dancing For James Gunn and Hating His Beard
Every superhero, even one as unconventional as John Cena‘s Peacemaker, could use a little back-up — which is where Steve Agee comes in. The comedian and actor appears in the HBO Max comedy Peacemaker as John Economos, first seen working for Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) in The Suicide Squad and now investigating the strange goings-on that happen to coincide with Peacemaker’s escape from prison. “I tend to have parts where I’m in a scene and I say a line at the very end where we cut to the action,” Agee says about his past work on projects like New Girl and You’re the Worst. But while Economos is the sort of part that Agee plays nimbly as a character actor, he did value the opportunity to get a little deeper with the role in Peacemaker‘s eight episodes. Agee, as he explains in this one-o...
Why Violence Fits So Well Into the World of The Righteous Gemstones
Comedies don’t typically include a body count. But right from the beginning, The Righteous Gemstones has defied a lot of expectations. Not only has the HBO series, created by Danny McBride, taken on the often tricky topic of religion, specifically Christianity as preached by a megachurch family, but it’s done so with its own unique blend of pitch-black comedy and serious stakes. “I wouldn’t say we are like Game of Thrones, where someone dies every week,” Edi Patterson, who plays Gemstone daughter Judy, tells Consequence in a recent Zoom interview. “But anything can happen, that’s for sure,” “Wealth and power give these bigger stakes to a family drama, a family comedy,” adds Tim Baltz, who plays Judy’s ever-loyal partner. Advertisement “I’d be so upset if Judy ever died,” says Patterson. No...
Vein.fm Return With Twice the Darkness and All of the Power on New LP
To the best of our knowledge, the members of Massachusetts hardcore outfit Vein.fm aren’t known for their psychic abilities, tarot-throwing skill or tight connections to the universe’s day planner. Their impending album, This World Is Going to Ruin You (out March 4 on Closed Casket Activities) had been written a few months before the world went into pandemic lockdown. The band’s synergy of antisocial rage and despair essentially telegraphed the greater world consciousness getting the fear of COVID-19. “It’s been done for almost two years, like a year and a half, essentially,” frontman Anthony DiDio reveals on the phone with SPIN. “It’s funny: This album was conceived before the COVID shit. A lot of the lyrical, visual and art themes dealt with shutting yourself inside. Being inside a house...
How Johnny Klimek and Tom Tykwer Infused EDM and Orchestral Music to Bring “The Matrix Resurrections” to Life
This feature was co-authored by Bayleigh Bogan and Sara Schulmann. The Matrix Resurrections was everything the Matrix faithful could have wanted and more. Following 2003’s The Matrix Revolutions, the new film stars Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Jonathan Groff, and Jessica Henwick. Together, the cast brought a whole new story to the iconic franchise that feels deeply intimate and thrilling. Viewing the franchise across its 20-year history, these films are arguably some of the most influential bodies of work in the 21st century. The three films to date (not including this latest release) have grossed more $3 billion across the box office, home entertainment sales, video game revenue, soundtrack album sales, merchandising, and more. Keanu Reeves and Ca...
LUNAX Opens Up About Launching a Career During the Pandemic, Her Rise as a DJ, More
At only 19, fast-rising DJ dance music producer LUNAX has a blindingly bright career ahead. With over 65 million streams on her music, she has emerged as one of the most recognizable names in the slap house genre. Her versatile sound also dabbles in hyperpop and even psytrance, creating something unique that has clearly caught on in the international festival circuit. After launching her career in music around four years ago, LUNAX broke through in 2020 after gracing the covers of a number of large playlists on streaming services such as Spotify, Apple Music and Amazon Music. She has already been featured on the cover of Europe’s largest dance music playlist on Spotify, “Main Stage,” three times. The talented German producer also already has a slew of top-notch relea...
ATB Reflects On His Timeless Sound: “It’s Always Been a Goal for Me to Make Melodies That Survived Over the Years”
A quick scan of the crowd below offered a blurry vision of bodies moving to the beat of the melody. Every so often, the masses would erupt as a familiar guitar riff would sprinkle throughout the performance, teasing fans eager to listen to the 1998 classic. Finally, after tormenting the audience for an hour, ATB unleashed the global hit rework of his nostalgic record, “9 PM (Till I Come).” The time-honored track is a staple in dance music. However, it wasn’t the roaring cheers from the crowd when that song was played that took us by surprise as we watched over the dancefloor. Instead, it was the outpouring of emotion, sheer joy and happiness as the entire venue cried out the lyrics to “Ecstacy.” It’s been over two decades since the iconic ...
Beyond the Boys’ Club: Johanna Platow Andersson of Lucifer
Beyond the Boys’ Club is a monthly column from journalist and radio host Anne Erickson, focusing on women in the heavy music genres, as they offer their perspectives on the music industry and discuss their personal experiences. Erickson is also a music artist herself, recently releasing the song “Eternal Way” with Upon Wings. This month’s piece features an interview with Johanna Platow Andersson of Lucifer. Lucifer craft a unique brand of music, combining the dark, sludgy sounds of ’70s hard rock with a dose of modern doom metal. The band was formed in 2014 by singer Johanna Platow Andersson and has since performed hundreds of shows around the world, from the Kiss Kruise to Psycho Las Vegas to Sweden Rock. The band released its latest album, Lucifer IV, in October via Century Media. For He...
