Interview: Porcelain Raft

By Antonio Tzikas

Porcelain Raft is the new project from Italian born Mauro Remiddi, a man with a vast and eclectic musical background ranging from scoring films and fronting indie bands to working with traditional music in North Korea. His debut ‘Strange Weekend’ has been garnering acclaim the world over after its release in January is currently being toured throughout Europe. He talks to Musos Guide’s Antonio Tzikas about the success of his release and life on the road.

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Interview: Doug Stanhope

By Charlotte Gay

Doug Stanhope has been doing stand-up comedy for over 21 years. The American’s style ranges from “true-life” graphic perversion to “volatile social criticism”, but whatever he chooses, you can guarantee it will be an alcohol fuelled evening for both Doug and the audience. Before hitting the road, Doug took some jet lagged time out to speak to Charlotte Gay about his upcoming tour.

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Interview: Seth Lakeman

By Charlotte Gay

Folk singer-songwriter Seth Lakeman, most famous for his Mercury nominated album Kitty Jay, has returned back to the scene with a new found freedom from corporate record companies. His soon to be released album, Tales from the Barrel House, is something quite different, with the recording of one track taking place in the heart of a coal mine. The Devonian musician took some time out from his bow shredding antics to chat to our own Charlotte Gay before his upcoming gig at The Old Firestation in Bournemouth.

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Interview: We Are Augustines

We Are Augustines by Julia Stryj

By Julia Stryj

I arrive at the Picturehouse in Edinburgh to interview We Are Augustines just after their sound check for their gig as support to Frightened Rabbit. When I meet the “lovely and beautiful” (I am sure that is how bassist Eric Sanderson described her very correctly in an interview I listened to) Arwen, their manager, she apologises right away and tells me that everything is running behind schedule. The band hasn’t even started their sound check yet. Billy McCarthy (vocal/guitar) comes up to us to say hello and to offer me to help myself to a drink from their room. Arwen and I talk about the band and other music related matters and watch the sound check. The band had to borrow some equipment from fellow support band Fatherson as a lot of their own gear is in a van on its way from Brussels to Milan (two of the places where they are supporting the Maccabees), so a good sound check is crucial. Bringing the gear over to Scotland would have been too expensive as they already had lots of excess luggage. This is one of the signs where the band stands financially. But missing an opportunity to perform live wouldn’t have been an option.

Shortly after Arwen shows me the band’s dressing room, Bill enters and I find myself asking him the first of my questions as we are talking about accents and picking up regional dialects, him as a Californian in New York and me as a German in Scotland. … Continue Reading

Interview: Sondre Lerche – “It’s a ritual of loneliness and it’s very frustrating and ultimately very rewarding, so I’ll stick with it”

Sondre Lerche

Norwegian singer-songwriter Sondre Lerche has been releasing albums now for over a decade – since 2001′s Faces Down, he’s released six albums plus a soundtrack for the film Dan In Real Life. Earlier this year, he released his latest, self-titled LP. He recently took some time to answer questions from our very own Charlotte Gay – he discussed the musicians who helped him bring his newest record to fruition, early inspirations and his song-writing process. … Continue Reading

Interview: Breton – “Writing electronic music and then getting humans to play it can sometimes have really interesting results”

Breton

Breton have been impressing us with EPs and live shows since 2010 and the band are currently gearing up to release their debut album early next year on Fat Cat and embark on their first UK headline tour. The South London-based act a little more like a collective – living and working together, creating film and visuals to go alongside their music – in both instances, they seem to overflow with ideas. Jane Corcoran recently put a few questions to band member Roman Rappak for us. … Continue Reading

Interview: Jono McCleery

Jono McCleery

By James Blake

An air of anticipation fills the charming basement venue at the Queen of Hoxton in East London. Soaring strings silence the audience as Jono McCleery takes to the stage to launch his new album There Is. The crowd have already been soothed by Jess Bryant and treated to a rare bluesy-acoustic set from fellow singer songwriter Jamie Woon. Before excitement levels had reached this climatic peak, I caught up with Jono to discuss how the album was put together and what the future holds for the London based artist. … Continue Reading

Muso’s Guide vs. CocknBullKid

We caught up with the brilliant, brilliant CocknBullKid at Latitude festival, to talk about her writing for popstars and her own album, Adulthood:

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Interview: EDM on collaborations, influences and Night People

EDM

By Charlotte Gay

EDM – the band formerly known as Early Day Miners – release their new album Night People on September 5th on Western Vinyl in the UK and Europe. As they geared up to release a record that has seen not just a name change, but also seemingly a change in approach to the way they write and record their music, the band answered a series of questions from us via email. … Continue Reading

A bit chat with Dave Hyde

By Paul Brown

For a few months now, I’ve been excitedly looking forward to Slow Down, the debut album from Hyde and Beast, the North East super-group of sorts, comprised of Futureheads drummer Dave Hyde and former Golden Virgins member Neil Bassett. The record came out on August 15th, and as Dave tells us, has been a long time in the making: “We’ve known each other for twelve years or something, and we’ve been pretty good friends for a while, but a few years ago I was really busy with the Futureheads and kind of lost contact. We were doing our own things for ages, and then a few years ago, he was running a studio in Sunderland, and it seemed pretty perfect ‘cos I just lived round the corner from it!, We never intended to do an album at all, it was just that I’d had these few songs for years and years that I just wanted to get down.” … Continue Reading