INTERVIEWS
Sleigh Bells on Their Sixth Album Texis and “Breaking Old Patterns”
Sleigh Bells may have released their first album Treats over 10 years ago, but six releases later, they’re sounding as fresh and inspired as ever. With Texis, the NY-based duo’s new LP, Alexis Krauss and Derek E. Miller are taking bolder risks and crafting emotionally resonant music. A term they batted around while writing and recording Texis, out Friday (September 10th) was “nourishing,” which according to Miller “may not be a word that people associate with our band, but hopefully that will change when the record comes out.” Texis is an eclectic and charged collection of songs, full of grunge guitars and catchy melodies, all laid on top of frenetic drums and explosive synths. It’s both a quintessential Sleigh Bells record and a completely new look for the band — a dichotomy they seem to ...
Randall Poster on Dusting Off Woody Guthrie Songs, Soundtracking Wes Anderson’s The French Dispatch and More
Acclaimed music supervisor Randall Poster had a busy year. The award-winning music supervisor has worked on projects such as Pretend It’s a City and Questlove’s documentary Summer of Soul, not to mention his latest collaboration with Wes Anderson for the upcoming The French Dispatch. What’s more, he’s nominated for an Outstanding Music Supervision Emmy for his work on The Queen’s Gambit. But one of his most ardent passion projects this year is Home In This World: Woody Guthrie’s Dust Bowl Ballads, a re-interpretation of Woody Guthrie’s classic 1940 album Dust Bowl Ballads — a set of (eventually) fourteen songs set amid the economic and spiritual hardships of the Great Depression. It’s typically considered one of the very first concept albums, and tracks like “I Ain’t Got No Home In Th...
On No Way Out But Through Face to Face Channel 30 Years of Punk Rock Experience
It’s been 30 long years since Trever Keith founded Face to Face, and although he’s technically been the only original member since 1998, the band’s consistent punk rock sound has won over fans young enough to be his children — and possibly now grandchildren. With the release of their upcoming album No Way Out But Through (via Fat Wreck Chords) officially on the horizon, the California natives aren’t dwelling in the past more than they have to. They’re not going to sit around and pretend like people don’t want to hear the fan favorites from their first 10 albums, but Keith and the band are ready to show what they’ve got in 2021 after the longest break in the band’s history between new releases (if you don’t include the 2018 acoustic album or 4-year breakup in the mid-2000s). SPIN caught up ...
Lilly Hiatt Puts Her Pandemic Blues Behind Her on Lately
Alt-country composer Lilly Hiatt was justifiably proud of Walking Proof, last year’s New West Records followup to her 2017 breakthrough Trinity Lane. It even boasted cameos from some A-list well-wishers like Amanda Shires, Luke Schneider, and her legendary folk/rock dad, John Hiatt, on “Some Kind Of Drug.” Unfortunately, its release date of March 27, 2020 didn’t exactly help it — releasing just as COVID-19 locked down every concert venue where she could possibly promote it. Combined with a poorly timed breakup, Hiatt spent the early days of quarantine alone with her cat in her native Nashville, sometimes cruising in her van through once-bustling popular neighborhoods like Five Points. “[Nashville] was shut down pretty much, and it was really eerie,” Hiatt says. “I remember thinking, ‘Wow. ...
After 13 Albums, Low Has Come Full Circle
Low has been doing this for a long time. The now-duo of drummer-vocalist Mimi Parker and guitarist-vocalist Alan Sparhawk has been making music since the ‘90s, and they have 13 studio records under their belt, as well as various EPs, one-off singles, and live albums. Many artists have formed and disbanded in the time that Low has been making music, and Sparhawk considers himself lucky. “It took a long time to get there,” Sparhawk explains to SPIN over Zoom. “I feel lucky that we’re still doing it.” Their 13th album, Hey What, furthers the trajectory initially laid out on 2015’s Ones and Sixes. It marks their third consecutive album working with prominent indie producer BJ Burton, who has contributed to Low’s stylistic plunge into digitally altered soundscapes. Whereas the group’s earlier o...
How Singapore’s Zouk Group Is Parlaying Decades of Success In Las Vegas—And Changing the Fabric of Sin City
Zouk Group has only just begun to reap the rewards of its labor from seeds planted decades ago. With the industry relationships and wealth of experience needed to facilitate their mission of international expansion, the brand is a global household name in waiting. But until recently, most Western audiences have never heard of it. Originally rooted in Singapore, Zouk is now amplifying its illustrious portfolio in the U.S. for the first time, testing the waters in none other than Las Vegas, the entertainment capital of the world. Zouk’s arrival, part of Sin City’s new $4.3 billion Resorts World complex, became a highly publicized endeavor overnight due to its affiliation with the first major development on the Las Vegas strip in over a decade. Zouk Group’s R...
Madi Diaz Has Built Herself Back Up Again
For Madi Diaz, the journey of History Of A Feeling has been a long one. She can hardly believe it herself. “2014…how is that simultaneously two seconds and like 5 million years ago?” she asks SPIN over Zoom from her Nashville home. Diaz, who is perched on her red and white couch, glows as the sun pierces through the window behind her. It makes sense that she’s embraced such tranquility, considering she was “white-knuckling a Zen approach” to everything early on in the pandemic. “I didn’t have a publishing or label deal or any sort of foundation there at that point,” she recalls. “So it was tough, and it was scary, but it was also very strange the way that the cards started to just naturally fall.” And they did. In February, the singer-songwriter signed to ANTI- Records. And sev...
The Robots Are Coming and They Like to Rave: What We Learned From Interviewing Sensorium’s AI Avatars
When Sensorium’s virtual PRISM world finally opens its doors to concert-goers later this year, don’t be surprised to find yourself striking up a conversation in the crowd—with an AI-driven avatar. It’s no secret AI has been a pillar of Sensorium Galaxy’s overall development strategy, but the technology—developed in partnership with Mubert—has been kept vastly under wraps. When it comes to AI, Sensorium’s computer-generated avatars serve multiple functions. Some are artists with the potential to produce an endless stream of electronic music in a live performance setting. The remaining AI personalities—each possessing unique behavioral traits and professional and personal backgrounds—are residents of the Sensorium ecosystem. They have the “freedom” to navigate t...
Beyond the Boys’ Club: Willow Smith on Embracing Rock, Her Mother’s Influence, and Opening for Billie Eilish
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 Willow Smith. Many music acts take an entire career to churn out four studio albums, but Willow Smith has already achieved that feat at the age of 20. If you count her collaborative LP (The Anxiety) with Tyler Cole, then it’s five albums, plus a handful of EPs. Willow recently released a rock-inspired new album Lately I Feel Everything, featuring a raw, alternative vibe with heavy guitars, punky rhythms and powerful vocals...
Inside Chubby and the Gang’s Retro Evolution
If you listened to Speed Kills, Chubby and the Gang’s bloody-knuckled 2020 debut, the British hardcore bruisers’ new record should feel plenty familiar. For a while, at least. But about halfway through The Mutt’s Nuts, all those throttling guitars and volcanic drums suddenly cease as the album morphs into something more methodical, more nuanced. Retro power-pop bleeds into American doo-wop, like Elvis Costello writing for The Chantels. What’s this, has Chubby gone soft? No fucking way, says frontman Charlie “Chubby” Manning-Walker — just “three-dimensional.” “I don’t want to be a band who just has 12 tracks of 200 miles an hour,” Manning-Walker tells SPIN. “We sort of did that with Speed Kills and I don’t want to make the same record twice.” After 15 years spent grinding on the U.K. hardco...
From Fan to Family: How Discord Gave Artists a Platform to Connect With Purpose
The social media landscape has changed over the past few years. Myspace took the world by storm when it launched in 2003. Then came Facebook a year later, revolutionizing the way that we connect with friends, family, and loved ones. But now Facebook’s imminent doom lingers like a roadkill stench, and other platforms are swooping in to pick up the slack. Twitter created a platform that allows people to share bite-sized pieces of information and join conversations from all around the world. YouTube has provided creators with a podium to share their stories and build their brands. TikTok has replaced Vine and filled the void of video memes millennials and Gen Z’ers yearned for during a global pandemic. While every social media platform has a unique position within the online social community,...
We Interrupt This Programming for an Important Message
The Interrupters have a decade together and three albums under their belt and are a musical force. Aimee Interrupter and the Bivona brothers, Kevin, Justin, and Jesse, met in 2009 while on tour with Sugar Ray and Dirty Heads. Aimee was a solo act and The Bivona Brothers were then with The Transplants. Following the tour, Aimee and Kevin started writing together. Soon thereafter Kevin’s twin brothers were brought in to form the band that would eventually be The Interrupters. Oddly enough, The Interrupters’ name was created after Aimee met the Bivonas’ mother, and said, “Your mom is an interrupter, isn’t she?” Hopefully, that fence was mended! The Interrupters’ three album releases between 2014-2018 were produced by Tim Timebomb, of Rancid fame, and released by his label, Hellcat records. In...
