INTERVIEWS
Celebrating 25 Years of Psytrance: Infected Mushroom Talk Virtual Reality, NFT’s, and New Album
After two decades of pioneering the psytrance genre, Amit “Duvdev” Duvdevani and Erez Eisen of Infected Mushroom are somehow just getting started. Having formed in 1996 at the height of the electronic music boom, Infected Mushroom have since released over a dozen albums and earned a reputation as one of the best-selling groups in Israel and the dance music scene at large. Over the years, we’ve heard high-profile collaborations with Lady Gaga, Steve Aoki, Matisyahu, Paul Oakenfold, Jonathan Davis of Korn, Ray Manzarek of The Doors, and many more. Now the two are scheduled to head back home to where it all started to celebrate 25 years as a group at Israel’s Yarkon Park, in an annual gathering with their hometown fans. “We love going back to Israel where we started produc...
James Blake Wants You to Feel Something
Ten years ago, James Blake released his debut album. The English songwriter-producer has a self-described analytical brain, which he uses to examine his old music and improve upon it. Within that past decade, Blake has slowly earned his spot as one of the most prominent indie-pop musicians out there. His list of collaborators includes Frank Ocean, Kendrick Lamar, Bon Iver, SZA, Travis Scott, and many others. He’s an artist that, despite his sparse compositions, only grows in stature. Now, with his fifth album, Friends That Break Your Heart (out on 10/8), he’s taken the time to look back at his career and scrutinize what’s changed. Regardless of his long and impressive résumé, the biggest difference that Blake notices between then and now is his self-esteem. “I’m just more confident,” Blake...
Al Jourgensen Looks Forward to a Spring Tour, America’s Continued Political Awakening—And the End of Ministry
Between massive creative highs and cold hard realities, it’s hard to believe Al Jourgensen hasn’t jumped out of his densely inked and pierced skin. In his 40th year as chairman of industrial-rock progenitors Ministry, “Uncle Al” is probing both sides of his yin-yang harder than ever. The light: Ministry’s politically bracing and sonically engaging new album, Moral Hygiene, was recorded under strict pandemic protocols in Jourgensen’s home studio in Southern California. These sessions also yielded material that could herald the return of Lard, his summit meeting with punk provocateur Jello Biafra, as well as the majority of a follow-up LP which the frontman describes pretense-and-irony-free as “the best music I have ever made in my life.” The dark? The tour celebrating the 30th anniversary o...
Todd Rundgren on Working with Kanye West, Skipping His Rock Hall Induction: “True Halls of Fame Are for Retirees and Dead People”
If you live in Maui, like Todd Rundgren does, you do not have to apologize for just chillin’ your way through the pandemic. Rundgren, though, has done anything but that. The veteran multi-hyphenate — producer of landmark albums for Meat Loaf, Grand Funk Railroad and others, as well as his own robust repertoire — has been characteristically hard at work and, save for being off the road, has not slowed down a great deal during the past 19 months. He even went “on tour” earlier this year with a series of virtual concerts, performed from Chicago and targeted to specific cities. Rundgren has also released four singles during the past year or so, slated for his next album, Space Force. That includes collaborations with Weezer’s Rivers Cuomo (“Down With the Ship”), Narcy (“Espionage”) and, most r...
Hovvdy on ‘Good Vibes’ of New LP True Love: ‘We Threw Being Cryptic Out the Window’
“Lake June” is a precious little highlight on Hovvdy’s radiant fourth album, True Love — a lightfooted shuffle of barely more than a few strummed chords and brushed drums, before Will Taylor sings “I love you so much” in falsetto. It’s only fair to ask these guys where Young Thug fits into all of this. The duo of Taylor and Charlie Martin namedropped Thugger as a primary influence during the creative process of True Love, and they stayed true to their word. Sorta. Aside from the occasional smear of Autotune — and, befitting a band with two former drummers, the “slow bounce” — Hovvdy draws less from the unpredictable vocal modulations or linguistic invention of Young Thug than his uncanny creative energy. As Martin clarifies, “I feel compelled to turn up to ‘Lake June’ the sa...
The Regrettes: New Song Is ‘Great Representation of What’s to Come’
An hour before their set at Ohana Fest, The Regrettes are upbeat and ready to go on a dreary Friday afternoon. Meeting me in a nondescript area far from view, we exchange pleasantries and sit down at a somewhat quiet area on a park bench. “It kind of feels surreal that it’s actually happening now,” singer Lydia Night says. Little does she know that something surreal is about to happen literally 20 seconds later. I get a tap on the shoulder from the band’s tour manager that it’s time to wrap. Confused, we all look at each other before we hear a blaring announcement about thunder and lightning in the area. We shrug and go our separate ways. Once the fest was given the green light, we decide it would be best to wait until after Lydia Night and her bandmates perform. It’s a wise decision. In t...
Beyond the Boys’ Club: Emily Armstrong of Dead Sara
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 Emily Armstrong of Dead Sara. Los Angeles rockers Dead Sara spent much of the lockdown period working on their Warner Records debut (and third album overall), the just-released Ain’t It Tragic. With recording sessions set to take place smack dab in the middle of the pandemic, the new album brought some challenges for the band, but it was nothing they couldn’t face head-on, as demonstrated in their triumphant new single, “H...
“I Want It to Wipe The Slate Clean”: How Feed Me’s New Album Resets an Influential Career
Starting over isn’t easy, especially when you’ve cultivated a fiercely loyal fanbase over the course of a long and storied career. Feed Me, however, embraces challenges head-on. The renowned electronic music producer’s latest full-length album, which arrived by way of his own Sotto Voce imprint, is his most cohesive yet. From the funky, triumphant intro of “Big Kitten” to the electro-infused sound of “If It Bounces,” Feed Me is a complete change of pace from what fans have come to expect from the UK beatsmith. The record is bold and fluid, eschewing digitized production in favor of analog instruments and synths. The expanse of instruments utilized throughout the album speaks to the acute attention of detail Feed Me had while writing ...
The Unlikely Renewal of Billy Strings
Billy Strings is smoking a bowl in the back of his tour bus, parked in Spokane, Washington, where he’s performing the next night. “I don’t know how the fuck I ended up here,” Strings tells SPIN, with a humble intake of breath. We both know he’s not talking about Spokane. Strings is a 28-year-old Grammy-winning bluegrass virtuoso. Few people in music today can pluck strings like Strings; his fingers are like cheetahs sprinting up and down the neck of his guitar with the appetite of a forest fire. If you listen to any of Strings’ music, hints of his past are even more evident with understanding his demons. And for someone who once spent their days lonesomely walking the streets, his third record Home won the Grammy for Best Bluegrass Album last year. Renewal is Strings’ fourth record, and wa...
Nile Rodgers on His Enduring Production Philosophy: “You Want to Touch a Person’s Soul”
Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards released their first album as Chic, arguably disco’s greatest band, in 1977. In the decades since, Rodgers has charted a remarkable path as a producer and songwriter, with chart-topping songs by David Bowie, Madonna, and Diana Ross, among others. He also continued to lead Chic after Edwards’s death in 1996, releasing the band’s comeback album It’s About Time in 2018, and extending his run of hits with Daft Punk’s 2013 smash “Get Lucky.” Now, the busy superproducer has a hand in yet another new venture; on Monday (September 27th), Fender is launching a global campaign called Player Plus Studio Sessions, for which Rodgers will serve on a panel and judge submissions from aspiring musicians. Advertisement Related Video Winners will be awarded with Fender instru...
William Shatner Gets Personal on His Autobiographical New Album, Bill
Before we could get anywhere near talking about his new album, Bill, on our scheduled Zoom call, William Shatner was already marveling at my beard. Now, it’s not the first interview to be disrupted by my ample facial hair, but it’s not exactly how I was planning to start my chat with the man behind Captain James T. Kirk, dozens of other characters from my childhood, and some of the most memorable cover songs in history. Always the storyteller, Shatner gleefully launched into a memory of when he was once performing live and there was a man with a large beard in the audience. “He was standing up, and I turned to his wife sitting next to him, and I said, ‘Do you like that beard?’” Shatner recalls in his now-legendary almost-hushed voice. “She looked at her husband and said ‘No!’ Obviously, in...
Lakeyah Breaks Down New Gangsta Grillz Mixtape My Time Track by Track: Exclusive
Our Track by Track feature offers artists the chance to share the inspirations and stories behind each track on their new album. Today, Lakeyah offers insight into her mixtape, My Time. Quality Control rapper Lakeyah has dropped her new mixtape My Time, the latest installment in DJ Drama’s groundbreaking Gangsta Grillz series. Stream it below. Led off by the Milwaukee native’s hard-hitting Tee Grizzley collaboration “313-414,” the 11-track project brings Lakeyah to the next level, as she deftly balances boastful raps and effortless flows with R&B-influenced songs like “A Letter to You.” Other featured artists include Moneybagg Yo, Tyga, and fellow QC signee Bankroll Freddie. Advertisement Related Video Not even at drinking age, Lakeyah has come a long way since she caught the attention...
