INTERVIEWS
![Disciples on Their Ministry of Sound Debut, “I Got You” Hotline, and More [Q&A]](https://www.wazupnaija.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/disciples-on-their-ministry-of-sound-debut-i-got-you-hotline-and-more-qa-1050x600.jpg)
![Disciples on Their Ministry of Sound Debut, “I Got You” Hotline, and More [Q&A]](https://www.wazupnaija.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/disciples-on-their-ministry-of-sound-debut-i-got-you-hotline-and-more-qa-80x80.jpg)
Disciples on Their Ministry of Sound Debut, “I Got You” Hotline, and More [Q&A]
2020 has been a tough year all around, but the platinum-selling UK trio Disciples has not let that slow them down. Not only did they drop “Only the Gods / Better on My Own,” the massive collaborative double-single release with Hot Natured‘s Lee Foss and Anabel Englund, but they also can now celebrate their debut on the iconic Ministry of Sound, “I Got You.’ “I Got You” is one of those tracks that warms you from the inside out, combining bright piano chords and dynamic drums for the ultimate feel-good record and a much-needed dose of positivity in our lives. It also features the signature vocals of the trio’s very own Duvall and Luke Mac. With everything going on in the world, Disciples came up with the most thoughtful and creat...
Filmmaker of the Year Steve McQueen: “All We Have Is Our Morality and Our Sense of Justice”
It’s November 5th, two days after Election Night 2020, and Steve McQueen and I look no worse for wear. Even through the Zoom screen, yet another way the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way film journalists do business, we understand that other, urgently important things are going on. It’s the middle of a hellish week where the world would collectively gnaw on its fingernails hoping for someone, anyone, to declare the next president of the United States. (Besides the guy trying to steal it, of course.) But even amid the strain and trauma of that week, just one of 52 that would offer no small amount of pain to everyone this year, there was still cause for celebration. While theaters are closed and the fate of mainstream moviemaking lies in a precarious limbo, McQueen’s latest works — the f...
The Flaming Lips’ Wayne Coyne on the Band’s Space Bubble Shows: “It’s Safer Than Going to the Grocery Store”
As our Annual Report continues, we’ll be taking several looks at how live music changed in a year where most of the world was in lockdown. Today, we share our conversation with Wayne Coyne about his current plans for space bubble shows. A year ago, no one could have predicted that a trip to the grocery store could be life-threatening and dangerous. But here we are at a time where buying vegetables can be anxiety-inducing and unsafe. Concerts mostly apply, as well, but Flaming Lips vocalist Wayne Coyne devised a way to transform live music into a safe process. Coyne is no stranger to performing in what he calls a space bubble. He’s famous for rolling out into crowds, but the thought of putting the entire band and audience in their own respective bubbles was a thought that came to him at the...
Vicky Cornell Opens Up About Chris Cornell’s New Covers Album
When Chris Cornell died in 2017, fans all over the world mourned the loss of a voice and talent gone way too soon. That outpouring of love and continued support helped the family he left behind — wife Vicky Cornell and children Toni and Christopher — who are emotional but proud to keep the memory of her husband and their dad alive via No One Sings Like You Anymore. Cornell’s first full posthumous release is a 10-song gem that takes on hits and lesser-known songs from artists still with us, along with long-lost legends. While Cornell’s version of Guns N’ Roses’ “Patience” and Prince’s “Nothing Compares 2 You” are well-known to fans, stellar new covers included on the album are Lorraine Ellison’s powerhouse “Stay with Me Baby” and the Janis Joplin-popularized “Get It While You Can,...
An Oral History of The Clash’s “The Magnificent Seven”
“It’s perfect,” Joe Strummer insisted about The Clash’s fourth album, the sprawling, 36-song triple album set, Sandinista!, over beers in an East Village bar back in the early 1990s. While Strummer’s tongue was firmly in cheek, he wasn’t backing down on his claim. He loved his former band, and Sandinista! loomed large in the legend about everything they stood for – the good and the bad, planting feet firmly in the future while still honoring the past, not to mention both their collective creativity and rock star excess – and still stands today as a remarkable, if beguiling, achievement. Featuring forays into everything from jazz and gospel to hip-hop and rockabilly, Sandinista! was the ultimate rock and roll indulgence by a band that had only just started to crack the big time after releas...
Less Than Jake Blend Energy and Maturity on Silver Linings
It’s been 25 years since Less Than Jake released Pezcore and became staples of the ska-punk community. Now, the Gainesville rockers are back with Silver Linings (Dec. 11 on Pure Noise Records), the band’s ninth studio album and first since 2013. But while Silver Linings still has plenty of the fast-paced catchy tunes that turned albums like Losing Streak, Hello Rockview, and Anthem into classics for the Warped Tour crowd, it also shows a different and more mature side of the band. It’s still clearly Less Than Jake, but it’s Less Than Jake dealing with the problems of an adult in 2019 (which are obviously quite different compared to the problems of 2020) rather than as a college-aged kid in the ‘90s. The result is probably the most complex album the band has ever put forth, showing the lyri...
Slash: New Guns N’ Roses Pinball Machines Are “Way Beyond My Expectations”
A couple of months ago, Guns N’ Roses announced a series of “Not in This Lifetime” pinball machines, modeled after the band’s mega-successful reunion tour of the same name. The arcade games were co-designed by Slash, who caught up with us to discuss all things pinball and his involvement in the creation of the machines. The “Not in This Lifetime” machines are manufactured by Jersey Jack Pinball, and are available in three editions — Standard, Limited, and Collectors — each with a different design on its body. The machines feature a 21-song soundtrack that closely mirrors the setlists that Guns N’ Roses played on their “Not in This Lifetime” tour, which saw the return of classic members Slash and Duff McKagan. As we learned from Slash while speaking with him about the machines, his love of ...
![One Year, Two Children and a Global Pandemic Later, Anna Lunoe Is Back [Interview]](https://www.wazupnaija.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/one-year-two-children-and-a-global-pandemic-later-anna-lunoe-is-back-interview-1050x600.jpg)
![One Year, Two Children and a Global Pandemic Later, Anna Lunoe Is Back [Interview]](https://www.wazupnaija.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/one-year-two-children-and-a-global-pandemic-later-anna-lunoe-is-back-interview-80x80.jpg)
One Year, Two Children and a Global Pandemic Later, Anna Lunoe Is Back [Interview]
“What are you going to do once you’re done with all this music stuff?” If you’re a musician, you’ve almost certainly been asked this question, whether by a journalist, friend or parent. It’s fair game—the demands of touring and releasing new material make it particularly difficult for full-time artists to maintain and pursue meaningful relationships or goals outside of their musicianship. But what happens if all of the so-called “music stuff” never has to end? Australian DJ and modern house music aficionado Anna Lunoe is living this dream, somehow making her lifestyle as a mother of two fold into her storied career as a kick-ass producer and celebrated DJ. This precarious work-life balance has become a part of everyday life for Lunoe, whose latest release, “Ice Cream,” pr...
Jerky Boys Creator Johnny Brennan on First Album in 21 Years
Listening to the first new Jerky Boys album in two decades, I was nearly in tears. But not from laughter. I was sad in that mopey Generation X way where it suddenly hits you that 1990 was 30 years ago, even though it seems like yesterday. But you can’t stop the ‘90s nostalgia juggernaut. And so we now find the Jerky Boys, those most notorious of merry pranksters who raised crank phone calls to an art form during the Clinton years, back after a 21-year hiatus. The good news: The new, self-titled Jerky Boys album is funny. But the kind of telephone theater that Jerky Boys creator Johnny Brennan perfected decades ago sounds dated in today’s mad world dominated by call centers, airtight phone scripts and people getting pissed when you call instead of text. In 2020, the human element has almost...
Sabrina Claudio’s New Holiday Album LP Is a Jazzy Gift
This Christmas, you’ll get to sit around a socially-distanced household and take in the smoothest, sexiest, and most soulful holiday songs that you’ve ever heard thanks to singer Sabrina Claudio. The wistful Miami-born singer whose breakthrough, About Time, was released in 2017, reveals over Zoom that her latest body of work wasn’t planned and was spurred on by a conversation with her manager, Wassim “Sal” Slaiby. “I was supposed to be on tour and that didn’t happen because of the virus,” she says happily as she reflects on the experience. “I was just completely uninspired and didn’t really want to do anything with music. And he [Sal] just threw out there, ‘Oh, you know what? You should just release a Christmas song this year, just because,’ and so I took that idea and I ran wi...
Meg Myers on Getting Sober, Writing Her Most ‘Honest’ Album Yet
Coming off tour in late 2018, Meg Myers was depressed and disillusioned, feeling like she’d traded too much of herself in exchange for her two exhilarating LPs, 2015’s Sorry and 2018’s Take Me To The Disco. “I didn’t make a lot of my own choices,” the alt-rock songwriter tells SPIN. “Unconsciously, I allowed myself to be manipulated a lot. I was in a really dark place for a long time.” Bad habits didn’t help. Myers was drinking and smoking too often; she’d even gotten hooked on chewing tobacco during a visit to see family in her native Tennessee. (She finally stopped after six months spent packing her lip like a baseball player. “It was so disgusting,” she says.) CREDIT: Courtesy of Big Hassle The singer, then 32, had lost control and desperately needed a change. She began medi...
Stardust Stars Marc Maron and Johnny Flynn on Bowie Film, the Music That Made Them
Let’s get this out of the way first: None of David Bowie’s songs appear in Stardust. This might seem like a cinematic Achilles’ heel, particularly given the movie’s time frame: just before the birth of Bowie’s most famous alter ego, Ziggy Stardust. However, not resorting to the jukebox musical techniques, or forcing actors to sing lesser-than covers, might be the film’s greatest strength. It’s set during an ill-fated tour behind The Man Who Sold the World, where, thanks to a work visa, Bowie (played by a swaggering Johnny Flynn) is allowed to do everything but perform. Instead, the iconic singer, still more of a star on paper than in reality, is reduced to listening: Hunching over a radio in a Midwest hotel room, becoming a deer in headlights at a Velvet Underground show, clutching a...
