INTERVIEWS
The Blurry World of Billie Eilish
Filmmaker R.J. Cutler – best known for his work on documentaries such as The War Room, The September Issue, and Belushi – recalls that there wasn’t much he really knew about Billie Eilish when he was invited to meet her and her family at their L.A. home several years ago. And it didn’t matter. As he remembers the brief drive up the 101, he says he knew about “Ocean Eyes” – the 2015 song that Eilish and her brother, producer Finneas O’Connell, had uploaded to SoundCloud, catapulting the pair to millions of streams and the attention of record labels – and that she was local. But beyond that, he was going in relatively blind. Whether through some directorial instinct, brilliant luck, or some combination of the two, Cutler would spend two years, from 2018 to 2020, following and capturing...
It’s in the Stars
Celestial inspiration led to the latest Edie Brickell & New Bohemians album, Hunter and the Dog Star, which was released on Feb. 19. “I was reading about the constellations Orion and Sirius. I saw this phrase, ‘Hunter and the Dog Star.’ It struck me as so beautiful and poetic,” Brickell tells SPIN. “They call Orion ‘The Hunter’ and Sirius ‘The Dog Star.’ Orion is followed through the night by Sirius, and then Sirius is the brightest star in the sky just before dawn.” This concept was, she says, “so perfect for our band and what we’re trying to express.” The band recorded the album in 2019, during what Brickell calls “a dark time” due to the prevailing political and social unrest, so she says she and her bandmates made the deliberate decision to “focus on what makes us healthy and ...
Nine Albums in and Many More to Go, Architects Want to Be ‘the New Version of Bob Dylan’
It’s only been a little over 27 months since Architects released their deeply personal Holy Hell, but for the British metalcore veterans, that still marked the first time they’ve ever gone two full calendar years without putting out a new studio album. Now, they’re back with For Those That Wish to Exist (out Feb. 26 via Epitaph), a self-produced pandemic-recorded new take on the band’s tried and true hard-rocking formula. In addition to breathing some new life into their traditionally controlled chaos behind vocalist Sam Carter’s singing and screaming, the new album expands on the lyrical subject matter as well, taking on some of the planet’s biggest issues rather than focusing on personal losses and events. SPIN sat down with Carter via Zoom to chat about the upcoming release as well as t...
It’s a Boston Thing
Ken Casey and I are rivals. No, not really. But our high schools were, less than eight miles apart or about 20 minutes away—if you take 93 South, Route 1 South, 95 North or Route 128, as the locals still call it. It’s all the same freaking road, which may very well be the most Boston thing ever. Or maybe, quite possibly, the Dropkick Murphys are the most Boston thing ever: their accents, their influences, their continued devotion to community, defined by undying loyalty and a heart as complex and intricate as a Boston downtown cobblestoned street map. This Celtic punk band formed originally in Quincy, Massachusetts in 1996 is as Irish-Boston as they come, defined by their shit-kicking special brew of passion and sentimentality, even when they’re singing about getting drunk or punching you ...
My Morning Jacket’s Patrick Hallahan on New Cooking Show, Food-Themed Songs
As Patrick Hallahan calls up SPIN, the My Morning Jacket drummer is gearing up for a full-blown blizzard — 12 to 18 inches of snow are expected in his current home of Louisville, Kentucky within 24 hours. And where many Americans would devolve into a panic after a day without takeout, this dude’s prepared — with a fully stocked kitchen and the culinary skills to make good use of it. But one core message from his new cooking show, In the Kitchen With Patrick Hallahan, is that interesting dishes (and, by association, memories) are tucked away in our cupboards and rarely visited fridge drawers. We just have to seek them out — and, for the novices among us, embrace the unknown. “The biggest lesson to learn in life really is to push past the fear and challenge yourself to do some...
Serj Tankian on His Film Truth to Power, the Chaos Around Toxicity, and the Time He Feared for His Life
Serj Tankian’s life as an activist and musician is captured in the new documentary, Truth to Power. The just-released film offers a fascinating look at the singer’s journey inside and outside of his multiplatinum rock band System of a Down. Following Tankian’s path from his childhood to to his pre-SOAD band Forever Young to the present day, Truth to Power features testimonials by Serj and his bandmates, along with such associates as producer Rick Rubin and Rage Against the Machine’s Tom Morello. The film also uses archival video to tell Tankian’s story of activism, while also touching on the origins and highlights of System of a Down’s career. Interspersed are newly shot scenes that include the singer visiting his old high school in Hollywood and voyaging to Armenia during a revolutio...
Faithless Remain Blessed
In a decade since their last studio album, The Dance, renowned UK dance artists Faithless reemerged in 2020 with All Blessed, their seventh studio album and first project without their talismanic frontman Maxi Jazz, whose focus has shifted to the band he has since formed; Maxi Jazz & the E-Type Boys. Sister Bliss and Rollo Armstrong produced All Blessed. The absence of Jazz obviously sets All Blessed apart from previous Faithless records. However, it gives way for a more vocally collaborative experience, featuring multiple guest vocals from spoken word poet Suli Breaks and singer-songwriter Nathan Ball. Other collaborations include Caleb Femi, L.S.K, Gaika, Jazzie B, and Damien Jurado. Their lead single from All Blessed, “Synthesizer” (featuring Nathan Ball) serves as an ode to their p...
Madison Beer’s Moment of Truth Has Arrived
Madison Beer had been lying for way too long. She wasn’t trying to. It was completely subconscious. But for a moment in time, the now-21-year-old pop phenom didn’t believe the words she was singing. “I was only really putting out songs that were bad-bitch anthems or songs that were ‘get over your ex’ and ‘do your thing,’” Beer says. “Meanwhile, I’m sitting in bed crying over mine. So I felt like it was inauthentic. Especially being someone who’s so close with my fans. A breakup is so multifaceted. And life is so multifaceted. I really wanted to just encompass more of that.” On an afternoon call in early February, the Long Island-born vocalist, beaming with honesty, couldn’t be any further from that former version of herself. In just a few days, Beer unleashes her debut album, Life Support;...
How KSHMR’s Indian Roots Impacted Harmonica Andromeda, His Most “Magical” Body of Work Yet
Just two weeks before the release of Harmonica Andromeda, the anticipation for KSHMR‘s highly anticipated debut album is starting to bubble over. The album will symbolize his sonic growth from 2014 to now, and how his Indian heritage influenced his journey as an artist. Describing Harmonica Andromeda as “the most creative music” he has ever made, KSHMR is set to premiere his forthcoming debut album at Insomniac‘s Park ‘N Rave concert series on March 19th at San Bernardino’s NOS Event Center, his very first show since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Ahead of the album’s release, EDM.com spoke with KSHMR about the goals of his Dharma Studio, his dream collaborators, and how his Indian roots im...
Porter Robinson Speaks on SOPHIE’s Passing, New Music and “Nurture” Live Show in Recent Interview
Fans have been eager to hear more news about Porter Robinson‘s forthcoming album, Nurture. The music video for the album’s latest single, “Look at the Sky,” just dropped, and Robinson took to RADIO.com‘s New Arrivals with Bryce Segall to chat about it, his early days with Skrillex, all things Nurture, and more. Speaking on “Bring It Back,” Robinson’s first demo he ever sang on with Skrillex, he told Segall: “That probably put my career in writing songs back a good three years, but that tour with Skrillex put my career 10 years forward in other ways, so, you know, we call it even.” Segall went on to ask about the divide between Robinson’s alias, Virtual Self, and his current music. Robinson claims that he ...
Jimmy Eat World on the Phoenix Sessions and the Future of Streaming Concerts
A typical album cycle for Jimmy Eat World finds them playing about 150 shows. For their latest album, Surviving, they got in 27. They had a big summer trek all mapped out, but when touring shut down do the pandemic, what could they do? They, like everyone else, were stuck, and their fans would have to impatiently wait to hear the new material live. That opportunity finally came last month when the band launched their Phoenix Sessions concert film series (don’t call it a livestream) with a full-album performance of Surviving. Futures followed two weeks later, and this week on February 12th, they’ll close it all out with their classic Clarity. Each show came with a virtual pre-show, meet-and-greet opportunities, and exclusive merch, approximating the real concert experience as much as possib...
How bandits made woman widow barely a month after marriage
A housewife Ramatu Idris of Unguwar Malam Lamu, Tankarau, Dutsen Abba Ward in Zaria Local Government Area (LGA), has narrated how bandits made her a widow barely a month after her marriage with late Yusuf Suleiman. Idris told newsmen, on Thursday that the incident happened on Feb. 4, at about 12.45 p.m., 28 days after her wedding to Suleiman. “There were about seven of them (bandits). They forced themselves into our home holding guns and a stick. “My husband and I went to find out what was happening on hearing noises and shouts for help,but he was shot on the neck in my presence and he died on the spot. Idris, who has been traumatised by the incident, claimed those who killed her husband were the same criminals that raided the residence of Alhaji Abdulaziz Sani, Councilor representing Duts...
