INTERVIEWS
![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...
Gone Is Gone Is No Mere ‘Supergroup’ on If Everything Happens For A Reason… Then Nothing Really Matters At All
Gone Is Gone may be billed as a “supergroup” of sorts, but the Los Angeles-based quartet sure doesn’t want the negative connotations that go along with the title. For bassist/vocalist Troy Sanders (Mastodon), drummer Tony Hajjar (At the Drive-In), guitarist Troy Van Leeuwen (Queens of the Stone Age) and multi-instrumentalist Mike Zarin (composer and founder of Sencit Music), the almost-cinematic rock group is just another project they get to work on when their dayjobs don’t monopolize their time. After announcing themselves with a self-titled EP in July 2016 and a debut full-length not too long after, it would’ve been understandable if the group decided their schedules would never allow for a second album. But four years later, they reunited for If Everything Happens For A Reason… Then Not...
![Charly Black on His Hit Single With Sak Noel: “I Wrote the Song for Dancing, for People to Be Happy” [Q&A]](https://www.wazupnaija.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/charly-black-on-his-hit-single-with-sak-noel-i-wrote-the-song-for-dancing-for-people-to-be-happy-qa-1050x600.jpg)
![Charly Black on His Hit Single With Sak Noel: “I Wrote the Song for Dancing, for People to Be Happy” [Q&A]](https://www.wazupnaija.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/charly-black-on-his-hit-single-with-sak-noel-i-wrote-the-song-for-dancing-for-people-to-be-happy-qa-80x80.jpg)
Charly Black on His Hit Single With Sak Noel: “I Wrote the Song for Dancing, for People to Be Happy” [Q&A]
EDM.com: Congratulations on your current single, “Diggy Dee” with Sak Noel. We’re really diggin’ the warm, bouncy vibe of this song! What was the story behind the making of this track? How did you and Sak Noel come together for it? Charly Black: I wrote this song long before I collaborated on it with Sak Noel. I actually wrote it a few years ago. I recorded for a producer before but he lost the file, then I recorded for another producer, Jazzy T. My manager sent it to Sak Noel, he heard it, loved it and put his twist on it and this is the result. It’s like a five-year-old song just coming to life! EDM.com: Where was “Diggy Dee” recorded? What was the vibe like in the recording studio? Were you and Sak Noel together in the same room, or did you bounce WAV...
Beyond the Boys’ Club: Brittney Slayes of Unleash the Archers
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. This month’s piece features an interview with Brittney Slayes of Unleash the Archers. Canadian power-metal band Unleash the Archers present a hard-charging sound coupled with creative songwriting and storytelling. Early in their career, the band was often lumped into the symphonic metal genre, simply because they have a female vocalist, but they’re really straight-ahead power metal act, with vocalist Brittney Slayes roaring from song to song. Unleash the Archers recently released a new album, Abyss, featuring stunning guitars and Slayes’ powerful vocals. Slayes chec...
The Curious Case of Marc Rebillet: How “Loop Daddy” is Making Absurdity Cool Again
While Rebillet’s art may seem crude on the surface, at its bedrock is individualism—one of the most important values not only of musicians, but also humans. Marc Rebillet wasn’t always like this. As a kid, Rebillet was reserved, messing around with music in his room with no intention of ever taking it beyond its four walls. With a personality like his, however, it was only a matter of time before his broiling charisma bubbled to the surface. Rebillet is like a soda can—too much action on the inside, and it’ll explode. With his madcap brand of absurdist music, the one they call “Loop Daddy” is America’s smuttiest sweetheart. More teddy bear than he is mad scientist, the magnetic Rebillet croons about life’s dirty fantasies with a comp...
Slash on His Love of Pinball, Making New Music While at Home
“The idea behind the whole thing was basically to recreate a full Not In This Lifetime concert experience,” Slash tells SPIN, then laughs. “You know, I sound like a fucking salesman now…” Perhaps so. But at least the product the guitarist is promoting is a pretty killer one — the new Guns N’ Roses Not In This Lifetime pinball machine. Make no mistake: While plenty of artists — everyone from ‘70s rockers KISS and Ted Nugent to more recent subjects like Metallica, Iron Maiden and AC/DC — have lent their names and likenesses to pinball machines over the years (Guns N’ Roses did it in 1994 as well), none of them jumped into it with as much enthusiasm and know-how as Slash and company have. A collaboration with industry leader Jersey Jack Pinball, the Not in This Lifetime table is a ridiculousl...
‘What I Do Is What I Do:’ Aesop Rock and Coro in Conversation
Editor’s note: Aesop Rock recently released Spirit World Field Guide, his first solo album in five years. Outside of a few videos, the 44-year-old rapper maintained a low profile in the build-up to the album. He didn’t do any interviews and hardly said anything about it outside his social media channels. He did, however, have a lengthy conversation with Coro, a digital artist who he collaborated on Spirit World Field Guide’s art direction. Below is a conversation the two had [that has been edited for length and clarity] where they talk about art, travel and the importance of honesty in your work. You can listen to the full conversation below. rhymesayers · Aesop Rock x Coro: the Spirit World interview Coro: All right, here we go. How close did this album end up? Compared ...
Alex Winter on His New Frank Zappa Doc, Why He Still Hasn’t ‘Cracked’ the Composer
In 2016, Alex Winter launched the grueling quest of his latest documentary with one clear question: “Who the fuck is Frank Zappa?” After four years, a record-breaking Kickstarter campaign, numerous interviews and a mind-boggling “deep dive” into the late musician’s archives, he’s still no closer to an answer. And he’s satisfied with that result. “I’m gratified that I’ve gone through this insane [endeavor] but feel like I haven’t cracked Zappa,” he tells SPIN. “Because he elicits such a strong reaction from fans and detractors, I’ve met so many people who feel like they’ve got his number. I don’t have judgment against them — I just don’t feel like I’m one of those people.” If an...
