#I think I watched one interview with LP and that was that

[the-hilda-librarians-wife]

I love the relationship (or rather, the lack thereof) between the Hilda fandom and Luke Pearson. I don’t know if this is just me, but I feel like we’re just marginally aware that he’s A Guy and that he makes the thing we like and that’s as far as we care to go. You see fandoms researching their favorite creators and following them in every social media and looking for each of their projects and we just. We just want the stills and trailers. Some people care about what he has to say about the plot and animation. And that’s it. He’s just a dude whose name is in the opening and whose self insert shows up sometimes to Be Useless and we’re fine with that! The opposite of a parasocial relationship. We’re parallel playing in the same room

[mr-styles]

Harry Styles' Sonic Evolution: How He Grew From Teen Pop Idol To Ever-Evolving Superstar

Harry's House' not only gives Harry Styles his most GRAMMY recognition yet — it serves as a testament to how much he's expanded his sound over his already storied career.

GABRIEL AIKINS | GRAMMYS/JAN 25, 2023 - 12:02 PM

Watching 16 year-old Harry Styles walk onto the stage for his "The X Factor" audition in 2010, it's remarkable how little some things have changed in the following 13 years. Though his rendition of Stevie Wonder's "Isn't She Lovely" was rather unpolished — even receiving a "no" from judge Louis Walsh — his magnetic charisma and natural talent were more than evident. And at just 16, Styles clearly knew he was on the right path.

"Singing is what I want to do," Styles said in an interview before his audition. "And if the people who can make that happen for me don't think that I should be doing that, then it's a major setback in my plans."

Of course, so much else has changed in the ensuing decade. Styles was tabbed alongside other contestants Liam Payne, Louis Tomlinson, Niall Horan and Zayn Malik to form the group One Direction. As the band stormed the charts and captured the love of fans globally, Styles grew into his abilities — and now, he's achieved a rarified level of fame. 

Even after being part of one of the most successful boy bands of all time, Styles has reached new heights of superstardom in his own right. In addition to selling millions of albums and selling out arenas around the world, he's starred in four feature films and became the first male cover star of Vogue magazine. The depth of Styles' charisma and drive he's shown from that first audition have made him an all-encompassing star like few before him.

While Styles was a solo star as soon as he emerged in 2017 — selling out his first-ever solo tour and debuting his self-titled first album atop the Billboard 200 — he has dominated the 2020s. His second album, 2019's Fine Line, spawned his first No. 1 hit in the U.S. in 2020 with "Watermelon Sugar," which also earned him his first GRAMMY in 2021 for Best Pop Solo Performance. But 2022 was the year he took his stardom to the next level — and it all began with an invitation to Harry's House. 

The lead single of Styles' third album, "As It Was," became undeniable, debuting atop the Billboard Hot 100 and spending 15 weeks there — the most in history for a British act. And when Harry's House arrived less than two months after "As It Was," it was clear that 2022 was the year of Harry. 

The album, featuring smooth electronic beats and funky bass riffs, went platinum in the UK and US, put four songs into the Billboard Top 10 at the same time, and earned Styles the most GRAMMY nominations of his career. His six nominations for the 2023 GRAMMYs include his first in the coveted Album Of The Year, Song Of The Year and Record Of The Year categories; Harry's House also earned a nod for Best Pop Vocal Album and "As It Was" is up for Best Pop Solo Performance and Best Music Video.

If you ask Tyler Johnson — who has co-written and co-produced the majority of Styles' three solo albums — the GRAMMY nominations may just be Styles' biggest validation yet. "It's really the music community recognizing him as Harry Styles — [his time in the band] is just another part of his resume, it no longer defines him. And that's really exciting."

In reality, Styles hardly ever let his past define him. Even Johnson sensed Styles' star power upon meeting the singer in 2015. "When I first met him, I knew a lot about him from the band, but it was obvious he was a star," he recalls. "Especially how he performed in the vocal booth, it was very brave. I was like, 'Wow, this person has no barriers.'"

With no barriers comes a willingness to always try something new — which is why the Harry Styles of Harry's House sounds much different than Harry Styles of One Direction. The change was heard immediately back in 2017 on his first solo single "Sign of the Times," released ahead of his self-titled debut LP later that year. It's a rock track to its core, starting with hearty piano chords and building to a crescendo of wailing electric guitar and crashing drums. This initial offering was a sign of what was to come, as Harry Styles is built on these rock sounds from beginning to end. 

Even if reviews weren't outright surprised by this sound, they noted the seemingly brand new, well, direction. "Few people probably predicted the 23-year-old ex-One Direction superstar to drop the kind of album that makes your uncle or your mom perk up," read Variety's review. Pitchfork mused, "If you only know one thing about Harry Styles, it's probably that the album bucks the established trends governing bids for young male solo pop stardom." Styles becoming a rock star was something new, but looking back at the totality of his work, it's not quite as surprising as it might be at first glance.

When assessing the music of One Direction, the singles will of course stand out. Tracks like "What Makes You Beautiful," "Live While We're Young," and "Best Song Ever" are big and boisterous, with infectiously fun hooks. And while each of the group's five albums had rock influences — queue the Clash-like electric guitar opening of "Live While We're Young" — they're all pop projects at their core. And the writers and producers behind them were pop masterminds, too, including Rami Yacoub, Steve Mac, Ed Sheeran, and Ryan Tedder.

By nature of an essentially constant touring schedule and working with so many other people — especially the four other members of the group — there was simply less opportunity to write. Across the 86 songs in the band's discography, Styles has writing credits on only 21 of them, whereas he serves as lead writer on every track on each of his three solo albums. 

"I think it was tough to really delve in and find out who you are as a writer when you're just kind of dipping your toe each time," Styles told Rolling Stonein 2017, recalling some of the struggles of being in a band. "We didn't get the six months to see what kind of s— you can work with."

Listening to the songs Styles did have a hand in writing for One Direction, though, the throughline of his career becomes clearer. Even the earliest tracks he co-wrote include key elements to his later songs.

The chorus of Up All Night's "Same Mistakes" takes his penchant for lyrical repetition, creating a folksy call-and-response feeling and pairing it with powerful guitar chords; he uses a similar pattern on Harry Styles' opening track "Meet Me in the Hallway." Made In The A.M. ballad "If I Could Fly" is strikingly vulnerable lyrically and melodically minimalistic; this combination is seen on Styles' solo ballads, like Fine Line's "Falling" or Harry's House's "Matilda."

Styles' solo success also stems from his versatility. Alongside folksy ballads, he has an ear for rock songs to fill a stadium (and after completely selling out his 2021 and 2022 Love On Tour stretches, stadiums may be where he's headed next). "Where Do Broken Hearts Go?" is one of One Direction's most anthemic tracks, tailor made for karaoke or shouting alongside a crowd. It's no surprise Styles is the sole One Direction member on the writing credits for it, and you can hear that same exuberance on his solo rock anthems, from Fine Line’s ultra cool smash "Watermelon Sugar" to the funk rock-infused "Late Night Talking" on Harry's House. 

In a 2017 New York Times interview, Styles explained his rock influence — and really, his musicality as a whole — stems from his own musical tastes. "I really wanted to make an album that I wanted to listen to," he said of Harry Styles. "That was the only way I knew I wouldn't look back on it and regret it. It was more, 'What do I want to sit and listen to?' rather than, 'How do I shake up compared to what's on radio right now?'"

Judging by the elevated sounds on Harry's House, Styles' musical interests have grown as he has evolved as an artist. While there are hints of his previous writing and growth on the album, Styles incorporated so many new elements, and that's what makes Harry's House so interesting and so refreshing. 

Funk pervades the record, with synths and stylized loops fleshing out tracks like "Music For A Sushi Restaurant" and "Keep Driving." There's a constant sense of playfulness throughout all 13 tracks — something that was apparent to Styles' collaborators long before the world got to hear it. 

"Harry just said that he's never been more proud of anything, and Tom [Hull, better known as producer Kid Harpoon] and I are just there for the ride," Johnson says. "We didn't feel too caught up in the kind of reality of who he is and having to put out an album very specific to the commerce side of it. It was a lot of having fun and just kind of burying our heads in the sand and enjoying doing it. That was very different from Fine Line."

Styles can seemingly feel his evolution himself, too. In a wide-ranging interview with Zane Lowe upon the album's release in May 2022, Styles revealed that he tried not to take direct sonic influences on this record like he had in the past. "I kinda felt like you can reference things by the emotions that they evoke," he said.

The same interview points out how much more comfortable Styles has become with being flexible and fluid, both in his own writing and his collaborators. And now that he's found his right-hand men in Johnson and Hull, he finds it easier to bring his ideas to life. This has allowed Styles to continue to expand his writing, and that resulted in an album that launched his superstardom to even greater heights — and showcased Harry Styles simply having fun.

Now 28 (almost 29!), Styles has been a beloved star for nearly half of his life. In that time, fans have watched his musical abilities mature, morph and expand; he has shown a willingness to always have an eye on what comes next — and that forward thinking paid off in a big way in 2022. However he evolves next, it seems Styles will never lose the drive and endearing charm the world first saw on the "X Factor" stage over a decade ago.

"He's a very similar person. He's a very consistent, loyal, kind person, very focused. That is all the same," Johnson insists. "He's just doing what people do when they do it more and more — he's focusing in on who he is more, he's gaining confidence, and he's becoming more and more himself — which is a very potent thing."

via Grammy.com

[monsterintheballroom]

It´s more of a questionnaire than interview and it´s under the cut :-)

Penelope Wilton: ‘I was dyslexic. People thought I was stupid’

The actress on flower power, the Beatles and her star turn in Downton Abbey

First film I saw at the cinema

My mother used the cinema as her nanny. She had an arrangement with the usherette where she would go shopping and leave my sister and me at the cinema. When she had finished shopping she would come down the aisle and wave a white hanky — that was our sign to leave. Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot was the first film I remember seeing. Jacques Tati was such a great clown.

First time I cried at the cinema

I don’t tend to cry over films. Usually I cry in front of paintings or at concerts. I did, however, sob through the film Brief Encounter. It’s so terribly touching. I still get a lump in my throat every time I watch it.

First time I performed on a stage

My first job was at 20, as Tammy the tightrope walker in a Christmas show at the Nottingham Playhouse. Theatre is always anxious-making and it gets worse when you’re older. There have been some funny things happening while I’ve been on stage, though. One audience member heckled Ralph Richardson and me over bad language during the play West of Suez when we performed in Brighton. Another acclaimed actor, who will remain nameless, was embarrassingly drunk on the stage once, forcing me to say his lines and mine. It was madness.

First TV show I watched

We didn’t have a television for a long time while I was a child. I think we had one for the coronation but then it seemed to go. It wasn’t until I was a bit older that I became aware of television, and even now I don’t seem to have much time to watch things, mainly because I’m busy acting in plays and TV shows like Downton Abbey, which was a wonderful experience. It was a surprise to us all, including the writer Julian Fellowes, that it was so successful here and everywhere. It was particularly lovely to work with Maggie Smith because she was one of the actors I had always admired. I would be very keen to come back to the show if it were to return. I can hardly leave it now.

First book I loved

I was dyslexic as a child, at a time when dyslexia wasn’t diagnosed. You didn’t get much help — people just thought you were stupid. My dyslexia seems to have got better with age, but when I was younger I was read to by my mother and my older sister rather than reading myself. The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame was a favourite.

First album I bought

Please Please Me by the Beatles. Growing up I listened to romantic music like Dionne Warwick on the radiogram in our sitting room. Nowadays I listen to more classical music, but I still have a soft spot for the Beatles. Sadly I lost that LP when we moved houses.

First concert I attended

The 1812 Overture by Tchaikovsky at the Royal Albert Hall when I was about ten. They had real cannons that went off. I only started going to concerts when I was older. My late husband, the [Roads to Freedom] actor Daniel Massey, was a great classical music fan. He taught me a lot about music, in particular jazz and Erroll Garner.

First pop-inspired fashion trends I adopted

Hotpants and thigh-length boots in bright pink suede. Once you went to drama school, you didn’t have any money and could do what you wanted looks-wise. It was all flower power then, so we would walk around with no shoes on, throwing flowers at each other. It was alternative but lovely.

First actor I admired

Michael Redgrave. I saw him give the most tremendous performance in Uncle Vanya at Chichester in 1963 when I was 17. Laurence Olivier was the Doctor. Together they were funny and heartbreaking. Redgrave was a wonderful actor and, more importantly, a wonderful man.

First moment I realised I wanted to be an actress

I went to a pantomime once and there was a whoosh and the curtain went up. There was this bright light and warm air came out. I thought, “I don’t know why I’m sitting in the dark here. I’d like to be up there.”

First famous person I met

Jonathan Miller when he came to Nottingham Playhouse to direct King Lear. I was a bit starstruck then, but meeting the royal family is the only time I get truly anxious.

First moment I realised I’d made it

Even at my age I don’t think I have. If you started, you wouldn’t be very good. So I will continue to try.

[basementdoll]

CAN THE EARTH WITHSTAND THE ATTACK OF,,, THE FRANKENSTEIN DRAG QUEENS FROM PLANET 13

Interview by Monkey Motherfucker

This is a talk with Wednesday, guitar player - vocalist from the Frankestein Drag Queens from Planet 13, the last band to have been endorsed into the COS…

GD-  Please tell us a brief history about the beginning of this sordid mess called Frankenstein Drag Queens from Planet 13…

WD- We started the band in March 1996. The image was drawn from Alice Cooper, and horror films. Our primary goal was to attack, offend, and destroy anything in our path.

GD- I’d be a mongoloid if I didn’t ask you how much horror movies and imagery have been a strong influence for the band… what are your faves? What do you think about modern film industry?

WD- Horror films are as much as an influence to us as music, probably even more. Texas Chainsaw Massacre 1 & 2, Dr. Phibes, Phantasm, Dawn Of The Dead, The Shining, are some of my personal favorites. I just always wanted to see a rock band that looked like a horror movie. All the twisted ideas we get are from all of our favorite movies. The transvestite thing comes from Leatherface, I just found it so God damn funny that Leatherface thought he was attractive when he dressed up as a woman. We try to look as unattractive as possible.

GD- I think you remind more of some artists such as Kiss, Alice Cooper, Twisted Sister than the usual punk ones… what can you tell me about your influences?

WD- We never claimed to be a punk rock band. Our influences are so out there you get a little bit of everything. I love everything from Alice Cooper, Twisted Sister, The Sex Pistols, Jayne County, and Motley Crue to James Brown and Creedence Clearwater Revival. We are just a horror rock and roll band.

GD- Now you have been officially endorsed by the Confederacy of Scum… what does it mean for you? I know you were good friends with the guys in the COS, since you have opened the 1998 Supershow…

WD- I have known Jeff from Antiseen since 1995 and he helped us a lot from the very beginning of the band. We opened the COS show in 1998 and was inducted into the COS in 1999. I think it is great to be in the COS, it’s a group of bands that have said Fuck You to everyone and done things on their own terms. It’s all about attitude, a lot of the bands are different musically, and I think adding us into it added even more of a variety to it.

GD- By the time people will be reading this interview, your new LP will be finally out… can you tell me more about this?

WD- The new record is called “Songs From The Recently Deceased.” It is the darkest thing that we have done so far. It differs a lot from the “Night of…” musically. It has more of a variety of songs on this and all of the songs are horror related this time. It still is very much FDQ13, but it shows we have more than one trick up our skirts.

GD- One of your songs is called “Rambo”; is it true that you were a teenage Rambo-wannabe?

WD- No, I never was a teenage Rambo wannabe. When I was a kid 8 or 9 years old I wanted to be like Rambo. I love the movies and still watch them on a regular basis. I could not possibly at any point in my life look like Rambo, as a kid I was a blonde hair skinny weirdo and now I’m a 6ft tall skinny weirdo.

GD- Your lyrics seem to be taken out from b-movies’ dialogues… what would you tell to people?

WD- Our lyrics come from movies 99% of the time. My life is boring and I choose not to write about it to bore the audience; I have wrote songs from personal experiences in the past, for example “Let’s Go To War” was about a couple people from our past. So from time to time a song will come about from a personal experience.

GD- I know you’re married and you’ve got a daughter; what does your wife think about the band and your drag-dressing? Is it difficult to keep a band and a family going on?

WD- It is tough to do anything and keep a band going strong. My wife helps with a lot of the band stuff so without her help it would be even more difficult. She doesn’t mind the dress and make-up thing at all. My daughter is the greatest thing I have, she keeps me human and sane.

GD- What do you think about drugs?

WD- I don’t do drugs and believe it or not, I never have. I drink occasionally and that’s about it. Some people can handle drugs and some cannot, I just choose to avoid them all together because I am fucked up enough as it is.

GD- You come from North Carolina, where the great band ANTISEEN moved his first steps in punk rock history… how’s the actual musical scene? Have you been influenced from that great band?

WD- There is no scene, unless you are a rap metal trend band. As far as Antiseen being an influence to us musically, no not really. I just admire them for what they are and what they have done. Don’t get me wrong, I love their music and they are a great live band, it’s just Jeff is like a big brother to me, and he helps me out with a lot of things, he is the person I ask for advice. So I would say they are an influence to me as what you can achieve by doing your own thing and not following trends.

GD- What’s the coolest thing about being a Frankenstein Drag Queen?

WD- The coolest thing is that no one recognizes us off stage. We can walk around all night after a show out of costume and hear everyone talk about us and hear what they really think. It’s a whole Jekyll/Hyde thing for us, we become these creatures when we hit the stage and we become human when we’re done.

GD- You released a 7” in Germany and recently a German label re-released your second album… are you interested in European music business and scene? Do you know some band comin’ outta the Old Continent? 

WD- I would love to tour Europe, and it is looking possible later next year with Antiseen. I don’t know much of the scene in Europe.

GD- You recorded with Jamie Hoover a lot of stuff… is it a case or you wanted to have him on the mixer? I know he made a hell of a great work with the latest ANTISEEN albums…

WD- Jamie Hoover is a great guy. He has done all of our recordings so far and he has a great studio and is a lot of fun to work with. Jeff Clayton turned us on to him.

GD- How’s people reaction at your show? Do they like three glammy-punk “chicks” on the stage?

WD- The reaction is different all the time. Some places that we play just don’t get it at all, they leave in disgust. Other places we play they love it and don’t want us to stop. I think we are providing people with a little bit of the best bands ever. You can see a little Alice, Kiss, Twisted Sister and the Plasmatics in our show, but it’s not so much that it’s a ripoff. It is definitely on its own and when we are compared to those bands it is a huge compliment. We are just carrying on the tradition.

GD- What’s your fave position doin’ sex?

WD- On my head.

GD- Tell me something about the Planet 13 and the number 13 in general…

WD- Well, Planet 13 is a world that we created with our own standards and rules. The number 13 has been used throughout history as a bad luck number, that’s why we chose Planet 13 instead of Planet 14 or 15. I guess the main reason we use the number 13 is because the Munsters lived at 1313 Mockingbird Lane. The coolest family ever, you can’t go wrong with that.

GD- Are you big in the USA? Can you tour with the band or is it difficult?

WD- We are known in parts of the USA, but definitely not big by any means. We can tour, but it is very difficult and not profitable. 

GD- Are there some weird gig stories about the Drag Queens? Tell me almost one…

WD- One time we had a chicken on stage and we had it in a bird cage suspended by a rope. Seaweed and I would kick it back and forth at each other while we played through the set. Feathers and shit were flying about the stage and it caught the eye of an animal rights activist. The person later threatened us after the show with all kind of legal shit. We just told him to go cry to the Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant down the street. We were well on our way to more trouble.

GD- Future plans?

WD- To keep playing live and making records, conquer the earth and fight Godzilla in our first motion picture.

GD- Ok, that’s all by now, tell what do you want to our readers…

WD- I want to tell your readers, go to school, read the Bible, brush your teeth and comb your hair. Because we are coming and you will wish you had listened to what I said.

The Drag Queens (704) 932-3280

www.geocities.com/queenthing13

†

[This is a rare Italian underground magazine from 2000 transcribed lovingly by BasementDoll, who fought tooth and nail through what turned out to be one of the most grammatically confusing interviews he'd ever seen. Little was edited in the process.]

[magxit]

Every time Matty Healy opens his mouth, somebody gets annoyed. Long before his rumoured relationship with international sweetheart Taylor Swift, Healy, the lead singer of the massively irritating pop band The 1975, had mastered the art of winding people up. He has a supple singing voice and is a decent songwriter: but his true vocation, across his decade-plus career, has been treading on strangers’ toes. He’s the Bob Dylan of raising your blood pressure.

Until recently, this was an accepted fact, and nobody cared that he was a bit of an idiot. It was his calling card. You went to see The 1975 because you were partial to their slick, saxophone-fuelled pop – imagine if Radiohead woke one morning and decided they wanted to be a Level 42 covers band – but also because there was a fair chance Healy might do something ludicrous. As he did when he brought his tour to Dublin earlier this year and, in response to an annoying audience chant of “Olé, Olé, Olé,” told 14,000 Irish fans that they were “a simple people”.

Nobody booed; if anything, the crowd lapped it up. Later in the show, Healy, 34, had a slight meltdown and started swinging the mic stand around. In a world where many male rockers want to be a variation of Chris Martin – the colour beige in human form – how refreshing to see a vast, preening ego imploding for our entertainment.

You were reminded that Healy grew up in an acting family: his father, Tim Healy, starred in Auf Wiedersehen, Pet and Benidorm, and his mother, Denise Welch, is best known as Natalie Barnes from Coronation Street. She’s also done panto – and clearly, some of that knockabout energy has filtered down to her son.

What a rollercoaster ride it was watching him in concert. In between these two extremes of sneery git and man-falling-to-pieces, Healy had briefly addressed the audience. “There’s a story [in the papers] calling me a Nazi tomorrow,” he said. “This is true.”

It was indeed true. Healy had been waving his arms earlier in the tour, and a few tabloids had decided he was giving a Hitler salute. The controversy was ludicrous and flamed out. But another online storm has followed Healy around - and has been intensified by his supposed romance with Taylor Swift. It concerns the New York rapper Ice Spice, whom Healy is accused of mocking in a podcast.

He addressed these claims in a new interview with The New Yorker, which seems to have been commissioned not because of The 1975’s streak of decent albums but because he’s been in the audience of Taylor Swift’s US tour (with Swift having joined The 1975 in London in January).

The singer hadn’t insulted Ice Spice but had laughed when the podcast hosts described her as an “Inuit Spice girl” and a “chubby Chinese lady”. The 23-year-old rapper is, in fact, of African-American and Dominican heritage. The details are obviously irrelevant: it’s self-evidently unacceptable to turn someone’s ethnicity or appearance into a punchline.

Healy had, as was only proper, later apologised publicly – saying he didn’t want Ice Spice, real name Isis Naija Gaston, to think he was a “d---”. But that horse had bolted.

He’s shallow, then – but he has depths. Healy is blisteringly honest about his mental health on The 1975’s 2022 LP, Being Funny In A Foreign Language album as well as reflecting on his years of heroin addiction and his romantic split from singer FKA Twigs.

“Oh, I don’t care if you’re insincere / Just tell me what I want to hear,” he sang on All I Need To Hear, a ballad about his need for human support and connection following a reported breakdown. Later, the Cheshire-raised singer said that it was easier “as an English northern person, to be sardonic in the face of something sincere”. The argument he makes on the new LP is that it’s okay to be corny and fake, if your motives are pure.

He has also gleefully played with ideas of masculinity. On the group’s latest tour, Healy sings against briefly projected images of Prince Andrew and of controversial kick boxer-turned-influencer Andrew Tate, whose toxic machismo Healy appeared to skewer.

But in the New Yorker interview, Healy made the broader point that most of the online controversy he has whipped up over the years has been illusory. In an uncharacteristic display of humility, he explained that people don’t think about him that often.

“It doesn’t actually matter,” he told The New Yorker. “Nobody is sitting there at night slumped at their computer, and their boyfriend comes over and goes, ‘What’s wrong, darling?’ and they go, ‘It’s just this thing with Matty Healy.’ That doesn’t happen.”

What about those people who were genuinely offended, wondered The New Yorker? “You’re either deluded or you are, sorry, a liar. You’re either lying that you are hurt, or you’re a bit mental for being hurt. It’s just people going, ‘Oh, there’s a bad thing over there, let me get as close to it as possible so you can see how good I am.’ And I kind of want them to do that, because they’re demonstrating something so base level.”

Swift and Healy have yet to go on the record with their romance – though Swift has gone public with her admiration for Ice Spice, with whom she recorded a new version of her single Karma. But even without confirmation, the very idea of Swift being with an unreconstructed wind-up merchant of Healy’s calibre has vexed a segment of her fanbase, who have urged her to “actively engage in this process of personal and social transformation”.

This touches on the wider issue of how much say fans should have in the personal lives of pop stars (answer: none at all). It also confirms that Healy is a throwback to an older kind of pop star. There was a time when being outrageous wasn’t a career killer – it was part of the job description. Whether it was Ozzy Osbourne biting off the head of a bat or the Gallaghers launching jibes at Blur (before they turned their artillery on each other), part of the fun of being a pop fan was waiting for your favourite artist’s next outrageous outburst.

Healy understands this is part of his job and hasn’t been found wanting. He’s good at it too. In an age where pop is increasingly a story of the bland leading the bland, it is a talent for which he should be praised rather than pilloried.

[if-tomorrow-never-comes]

The Libertines talk being clean and connected: “We just want to write beautiful songs in the moment”

Watch Carl Barat and Pete Doherty talk to NME about 'All Quiet On The Eastern Esplanade' – an album inspired by Margate, war, the refugee crisis, dead birds, and Queen Elizabeth – who'd play who in a biopic, and becoming the band they were always meant to be

ByAndrew Trendell

19th October 2023

The Libertines have spoken to NME about how a sense of sobriety, togetherness and the desire “to write beautiful songs” helped shape their long-awaited new album. Watch our video interview with the band above.

Announced last week with the launch of the single ‘Run Run Run’, ‘All Quiet On The Eastern Esplanade’ arrives in March as the long-mooted follow-up to 2015’s ‘Anthems For Doomed Youth’.

With the opening lyrics of ‘Run Run Run’ describing “a lifelong project of a life on the lash“, singer Carl Barat described the track as a somewhat “self-referential” statement about where The Libertines are today, ahead of their fourth LP.

“I was trying to work out if it’s a song of hope or a song of fear,” Barat told NME. “I think it’s a song of hope. It’s saying that even though time has moved on and this person has stayed in the same place, he’s still able to do what he does and he’s going to be who he is regardless of times changing. I don’t know if that’s a sad thing or a good thing.”

Asked if he feels more hope or fear now, Barat replied: “I’m eternally hopeful, and eternally afraid.”

NME sat down with Barat and co-frontman Pete Doherty to talk about being drug-free, becoming the band they are meant to be, who’d play who in a biopic, and penning an album inspired by Margate, war, the refugee crisis, dead birds, and Queen Elizabeth.

Hello, Libertines. You’ve felt very present since the last album. Does it feel surreal to finally be back with some new music?

Barat: “Yes, we’ve got a reason to be here now! It’s a monumental day for us.”

Doherty: “We’re fully behind the record. That’s not just the official line.”

What, if anything, does ‘Run Run Run’ tell us about the new album?

B: “It’s a bit of a red herring really. The whole record isn’t like that. Maybe it’s just getting a nod to the past out of the way.”

D: “There are three or four songs on the album that are that sort of tempo and guitar-driven. There are probably only one or two songs that are any punkier. It’s like an old melodic pop song like [Elvis Costello’s] ‘Oliver’s Army’. As a songwriter, it’s difficult to present good, classic-sounding songs. Call me old-fashioned, but that’s what I love. I love little diversions and mad jazz odysseys, but I love it when bands like The Coral and their new album… James Skelly just keeps writing incredibly beautiful songs with little twists, but still with that ‘60s melody, strength and solidity.

“I’d say ‘Run Run Run’ has got that, but I’d say there isn’t too much of that on the album. It’s probably more eclectic than we would have hoped for or would have done if we’d just done it by ourselves. The geezer who produced it – Dimitri Tikovoï – we gave him quite free reign.”

Speaking of eclecticism, Pete told us back in 2019 that you were looking like you’d be going in a similar direction to The Clash’s ‘Sandinista!’ – a little bit of rap and a little bit of everything. At what point did you shake that off and come up with this more cohesive batch of songs and new vision?

D: “When we heard my rapping!”

B: “The ‘Sandinista!’ thing was just the idea of having everyone involved. When we hadn’t written anything and we were a bit scared. The idea of ‘Sandinista!’ is that you can just do whatever with no particular expectations. It might have started in that way, but we ended up refining it because we realised what was there.”

So what happened when you went to Jamaica that made everything gel? 

D: “It wasn’t a waste of time, because it really was an opportunity for us to spend a bit of time together. We just sat back and watched the Coronation. Or was it the funeral? Yeah, it was Lizzy’s funeral. At the time, we were well impressed with what we’d done. Then we got back and sat and played it to everyone…”

B: “It was essentially to get it out of the way. It’s better to do it there than to get everyone in the room, feel the pressure and not get anywhere. It was an essential part of the journey.”

Does Queen Elizabeth haunt the songs?

B: “A little bit, yeah”

D: “It was really strange. We were in this glass cubicle on a hilltop during a full-on hurricane, just watching the funeral and not really knowing what we were feeling. She does pop up in the song ‘Shiver’, which might be coming out as a second single. ‘The day they boxed all Lizzy away… The last king of every dying empire, just let it die/ Sit back enjoy the ride/ The last dream of every dying soldier/ I’ll see you there, flowers in your hair.’

“So this glass cubicle, they polish it like maniacs every day so the birds can’t tell that they’re flying into glass. Every so often, especially when it was very windy, you get these incredible little golden parrots and yellow hawks just going, ‘THWACK’ suddenly. It scares the fuck out of you.”

So the queen is dead, all the wildlife is dying…

D: “Yeah. It feels like the end of the world, doesn’t it? We [did] have a few apocalyptic songs that were a bit more boisterous than I could handle. I kept going to bed every time Carl started doing his big apocalyptic numbers. They were terrifying.”

Carl, you said that the first album was born of the “panic and disbelief” that you could do this, the second of “total strife and misery”, and the third of “complexity” – and this one is more of unity and connection?

B: “Yes, on this one we were all facing in the same direction.”

D: “All we want to do is write beautiful songs. That’s what we’ve always wanted to do, but we got distracted – mostly by ourselves. On this occasion, we followed the pattern of writing songs that we believe in but there was nothing else to say; no fanfare, no cacophony. This is the album we’re proud of.”

Do you feel like The Libertines are now the band you were always meant to be without the distractions? 

B: “There’s plenty of ramshackle baked in still. I don’t think we really know what kind of band we want to be; we just want to write beautiful songs in the moment. It just so happens that at this moment, we’re all facing the same direction.

“There’s been a lot of focus and everyone’s been working on finding their own personal place in the world as well. Everyone has very different lives and we managed to find something to unite over. That’s what The Albion Rooms has been really good for – having that in bricks and mortar, and co-owned by everyone. It feels like it’s part of this journey that’s been going on for a while now.”

D: “The other albums were basically written before we went in the studio. This time it was a case of people presenting really strong ideas, and then everyone else just tucking in, putting their bibs on, rolling up their sleeves and chewing the fat. There were so many times on this album where I thought I knew what the song was, and then it became completely different for the best.

All four of you are credited as writers across the album. How did the spirit of the record change when John and Gary got involved?

B: “It was moments like Pete just described with everyone being there and having confidence. There was a flow state that gave us the confidence to go to places that we wouldn’t normally have gone in if we weren’t on the same page.”

D: “I remember being sat in John’s bedroom 24 years ago, and he had a song called ‘Annabelle Lee’. We never used to do it in the band – not because we didn’t want John to sing, but we both secretly loved the melody and thought that maybe one day we could worm our way into it. That’s what’s happened now. We turned it into ‘The Man With The Melody’ and we’ve all got a verse on it, and Gary sings on the chorus. It’s a completion and a full stop.”

Lyrically, what would you say you’re mining on this record?

B: “It’s one of those things you realise what things are about after the fact.”

D: “The most stressful times of the writing were the morning where we were sat with the pads getting told by the producer that songs needed vocals. We’d just been ad-libbing for most of the songs, so there were these frantic sessions which became a little bit stretched out where we couldn’t get it together with the lyrics. Then, they just sort of appeared out of nowhere.

“It’s fair to say it was pretty stressful finishing some of these songs, lyrically – which is what makes it even more precious as it was touch and go for a couple of them. We couldn’t let it go half-arsed.”

Let’s look at some other bangers on the record. ‘Have A Friend’ seems like a song that speaks for itself about unity?

B: “Yeah, in the face of war perhaps.”

D: “It was [originally] called ‘The Ballad Of Bakhmut’. There’s still a lot of that going on. The world is basically at war.”

‘Merry Old England’ is quite beautiful in the way it discusses the refugee crisis. What are you trying to invoke with that song?

D: “I love that song so much. I think it’s unfathomably beautiful. You can’t hold me back, I’m going to climb your cliff, scale your fence, and take over your country. I don’t think there’s any question marks at all. One man’s end-time capitalism London is another man’s playground of dreams where anything is possible – the mythical city that you finally reach after trying to break out of your miserable town and fulfil your dreams.

“For all the cynicism and talk of being pushed out of town, there’s another generation that will come and find a way to bring it alive again or find a way to make it their own; despite the weight of the fucking world.”

B: “The song is more of a montage than banging a drum, particularly.”

D: “It’s weird. I’ve tried playing it acoustically to people and some of the lyrics are strangely provocative. Even to say, ‘Syrians, Iraqis, Ukrainians, welcome to Merry Old England – how are you finding it?’ To start singing about visas, dinghies, the cliffs once white now grey; you can see people from both sides get excited. It’s just asking this kid on the corner of Margate who has landed there, kicking his heels and not really knowing what to do, how he’s finding it.”

After being scattered all over the world, how does it feel to be back in your old playground of London?

B: “We were driving down Old Compton Street where we used to work in the theatres and…”

D: “We felt like a couple of old gits!”

B: “We did. You can dial back the time in your mind and see all these different incarnations of the city. It’s the most magnificent organism of a place. ‘The city’s hard, the city’s fair’. It’s so alive. It’s quite beneficial to have perspective on that through time. I feel like it never leaves me. I feel a part of it even though I’m not living here.”

D: “It’s a bit too much for me. I’m a bit overstimulated because I lead quite a quiet, rural life now. I’m just doing the promotion work and then getting back to the wife and the dogs. You could quite easily fall for it all over again.”

Pete, when you released ‘The Fantasy Life Of Poetry & Crime’ with Frédéric Lo, you talked about how being drug-free and living a serene life in France had helped shape that record. How did you find approaching a Libertines record from that different perspective?

D: “I don’t know. It’s just an everyday scrap, really. It’s proper toe-to-toe with the demons, but because I believe so much in Carl, Gary, John and this record, it’s a pleasure. I just want to do my bit, be as professional as I can, let people hear the songs, and then go and play them. If not, we try again maybe or just crack on with the hotel and see if we can do anything with that.”

The first time NME came down to The Albion Rooms, Carl spoke about it being like Warhol’s Factory – a band HQ where creatives could come, go and feed off each other. Now you’re talking as if, for this record, the hotel almost became the fifth member of the band?

B: “It is our tangible embodiment of what we do. When we live in three different countries and only see each other through touring schedules, we need something. It’s essential that we have something to find us.”

Pete, there’s a new film about your life made by your wife and collaborator Katia de Vidas coming out soon. How does it feel to have your life under the microscope at a time like this?

D: “I’m really happy for Katia, really. It’s been finished for quite a while. I just hope the world gives her the credit she’s due. Now we’re thinking about the next project for her. She wants to do a fiction film. Hopefully if this does well and she can get the money together for the next project, it’ll be amazing. I’ll just be made up for her.

“It’s quite heavy watching a lot of that stuff, but it is a different time. The fuzz, forcefield and camouflage of the drugs I was taking at the time meant that I wasn’t arsed about what people thought or how I looked.”

Is this film drawing the curtain over that part of your life?

D: “Yeah, I still feel really connected to that fella up there on the screen. I can see it’s me, but I don’t think I’ll be able to watch it again, to be honest.”

Have you seen it, Carl?

B: “I have. Anything like that is hard to watch. She’s been making it for 10 years, and I think it’s a beautiful portrayal. It’s through her eyes, and I think she’s done a great job.”

Would we ever see a Libertines biopic?

B: “We’ve talked about it, but then we always have a row about who’s playing who!”

D: “We even tried to sit down and write some screenplays for it, but it always turns into some farcical comedy. There was a musical made in Korea called The Likely Lads. They said it was going to run and run, but it closed after two nights.”

So who would play who?

D: “Now with all this AI, you can just play yourself. We’d be playing with ourselves, as usual.”

How does the future feel right now? Does another album seem more likely than before?

D: “It would have nothing to do with whether we were relevant or getting fat, it would just be whether or not we had any decent songs. That’s the only way I can look at it. I just still get off on writing wicked tunes. Carl recently said to me, ‘I don’t care about being cool any more – I just want to write beautiful songs’. I was like, ‘That’s what we’ve always done’. Apparently not!”

B: “You just reminded me that I wasn’t cool.”

Are there any Libertines bucket list moments left to tick off, or is it just for the thrill of existence?

D: “I’ve got a new batch of songs on the brew that I’d really like Carl to hear and see what he can do with them.

B: “I’m always striving for the perfect song myself. I don’t know if you ever find it. It’s a bit Sisyphean, isn’t it? We’ll get there, or not.

So it won’t be another eight years until we get a new Libertines album?

B: “Maybe it will, you never know. We’re trying not to put that pressure on ourselves at this stage. I’d like to get in a flow state where songs just come out, but I find it quite hard work.”

The Libertines release ‘All Quiet On The Eastern Esplanade’ on March 8.

Fans who pre-order the album will be offered the chance to purchase tickets for ‘All Quiet On The Eastern Esplanade – described as “two days of special acoustic and electric live shows by The Libertines” at the 500-capacity Lido in Margate on Saturday 9 and Sunday 10 December.

A new documentary about Doherty’s life, Stranger In My Own Skin, will hit cinemas on November 9.

[theageoftheunderstatement]

Big Issue Exclusive: 7 things we learned from Alex Turner about new Arctic Monkeys album The Car

By Adrian Lobb, 29 Sep 2022

Arctic Monkeys release their hotly-anticipated seventh LP The Car on October 21. Expectations are high. This is an album people have been waiting four years to hear.

Ever since Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino, their lush, mellow, sci-fi concept album that was such a departure from its barnstorming predecessor AM became the band’s sixth consecutive number one album in 2018, fans have been speculating about the follow up. Six number ones in a row. That’s some record. Thankfully, so is The Car.

Arctic Monkeys invited the Big Issue and our star guest, Line of Duty actor Martin Compston, to join them on the road in Budapest for a global exclusive interview to announce that The Car was arriving soon.

We got a close-up view of the band and were able to assess the state of the nation’s finest band. As tickets go on sale for next year’s huge stadium tour, here’s everything we learned – about the new songs on The Car, about who and what inspired Alex Turner’s songwriting this time around, and about where Arctic Monkeys are heading as a band.

1. The Car is Arctic Monkeys’ most cinematic sounding record yet

That’s the verdict of everyone who has heard the album so far (including the Big Issue), according to Turner.

He told us: “It’s a response I’ve had to other things we’ve composed, this idea of something sounding ‘cinematic’ – I never completely subscribe to it – but it’s louder this time. In the early responses from people.

“You get all these ideas people have that there should be some kind of visual reflection for that reason. I don’t necessarily agree – it’s still just a record to me. But if it evokes these kinds of things that make you think…”

When our interview was originally published, many picked up on Turner saying: ‘It’s louder this time’ and assumed it was a reference to the music on the record. Not so. Turner was talking about the voices of people saying the music is cinematic. The melancholy, downbeat, orchestral arrangement on There’d Better Be a Mirrorball – the first track released – is reflected across the whole LP.

2. Alex Turner has been reading about film production and editing

Turner has long been a cinephile and talked in our interview about potentially directing a film one day. He’s also been more involved than ever in the videos for this new LP.

But, he told us, his burgeoning interest in editing, in finding a path through recorded material to produce the final piece of work, filters into the lyrics as well as the music.

“Are there images in my head when I write? Absolutely. And in the past, I’ve been able to point out exactly what they are more easily,” he said.

“But I’m so practised in doing it that for this record, I know what I was watching and listening to or reading but I can’t draw a line quite so easily to what exactly that became in the record.

“Maybe I’ve drawn too much of a direct line to things in the past so I’m more reluctant to do so. But it’s hard to watch or read anything and keep it separate from what you’re creating. For instance, I was reading a book called In the Blink of an Eye by a film editor called Walter Murch.

“He was the editor on Apocalypse Now and a bunch of other cool stuff. It’s a short book about editing. But the ways he puts it across there goes way beyond that. There’s a bunch of interesting ideas that he’s speaking about. And that feels connected to the process and also the feel or lyrics on this new record.”

3. Turner kept coming back to film production as an inspiration

Perhaps it is because he was discussing his art with actor Martin Compston, but Turner mentioned this a lot.

“Butley Priory was more like the shoot and then the other stuff in France was like the edit. The way Walter Murch describes the edit in this book – he talks about meeting some friends of his wife and one of them says: ‘So you’re the guy who cuts out all the bad bits, then?’. Initially he is offended, but after all these years, he came around to thinking: ‘Well, yeah, that is actually what I’m doing’. But the question is what constitutes a bad bit…

“There’s a great bit where he’s talking about the discovery of a path through all this material that you have, and how there’s a million different ways to get through it. That feels more like the way this record was put together, perhaps. More than other records I’ve done in the past.

“I feel like the word producer means a different thing in music to what it does in a film. Some of my favourite records are by David Axelrod. He did a lot of theme music and stuff. He’s a record producer, but the terminology really ought to be perhaps director.

4. One key song didn’t make the final cut of The Car

Turner talked at length about editing the LP, piecing the tracks together, creating the sound. And he also explained how the songs on The Car were created more in the edit than on previous LPs.

“Sometimes a line will end up finding its way into another song. Things move around a lot more freely than they did in the beginning,” he said.

“For this record, there’s a song that didn’t make it which I feel is really important. It was supposed to be there all along. And it’s not in the end. Not to keep going back to the book, but one more time – I’ll fill the Walter Murch quota! – Murch talks about how on Apocalypse Now there’s the splice they would do to put the film together. But for every splice there’s 15 or 20 what he called “shadow splices”, where you make the cut but then undo it the next day. I like his idea that they’re all still sort of there. It has a knock-on effect. We undo it and then there is a new path through it.”

Look out for The Car’s missing song on the next LP, at a future live show, or on an expanded edition of the LP one day soon.

5. Alex Turner has been feeling nostalgic for the early days as the band begins its third decade of playing together

We asked whether it felt like 20 years since they began rehearsing in a garage in Sheffield – and Turner revealed that the lyrics on new track Hello You are directly about his teenage years.

“It probably does feel about 20 years ago. But that’s an interesting one, isn’t it? Because sometimes you feel like you could walk through a door and be right back there. I’m trying to scratch a little bit of that feeling we are describing here on the new record. It feels like a long time ago, but it can be right behind you. Something reminds you and it takes you back.

“There’s a lyric on Hello You that says: ‘I could pass for 17 if I just get a shave and catch some zzzs.’ Maybe that’s barking up that tree a little. Well, a lot. I’m thinking about going to the snooker club with my granddad and it feels like we were just there. But, wait a minute, there’s all this time in between.

6. Turner is aware of the hopes and expectations of fans for the new album – but the band are ploughing their own furrow

“If the idea was to do something that met these expectations, hypothetically, it’s hard for me to even know what that would be,” he says. “You have to follow your instincts in the same way you did in that first place. In that way, it does all feel like it’s connected to us 20 years ago in the garage when it was pure instinct.

“It’s certainly not coming from us trying to be contrary. If anything, I was more contrary then. You have this idea, I suppose, of what that expectation is. But it’s more you follow your instinct. I think that’s always been the case on every record, really.

“It’s about everything having its own space and not all shouting at once. There is room to use all the things from the factory. And there are times I’ve used the wrong tool for the job, probably. But you learn from that. This time, we’ve kept more of an eye on the performance.”

7. Turner can draw a line from his recordings with The Last Shadow Puppets to The Car

“On the [Last Shadow] Puppets all the score, all the orchestra stuff was composed by this guy named Owen Pallett,” he told us. “We will make points on it but that is his part of that project.

“But there are strings on the Monkeys records and those I was involved in the composition of, with the producer James Ford and Bridget Samuels, who’s a string arranger. James and I came up with the melodies. You can write it on the piano and hear the melodies in your head the same way I would hear a vocal melody. Sometimes that’s how you’ll write a keyboard or a guitar line. But there’s definitely a dimension that you get from real strings playing together that can’t be emulated with anything else. Which is magic.

“I think we’ve got closer to a better version of a more dynamic overall sound with this record. The strings on this record come in and out of focus and that was a deliberate move and hopefully everything has its own space. There’s times the band come to the front and then the strings comes to the front.”

…And Arctic Monkeys are still enjoying playing the old stuff

The new songs might be cinematic and orchestral and melancholy, but watching them play from the side of the stage, there was no doubting the love they retain for the early songs, that blistering energy and big noise.

“We’ve been playing View From the Afternoon a bit in these last few shows. And when I’m doing that it feels like it would take more than a shave and a sleep to be 17!” says Turner.

“I keep looking back over my shoulder at [drummer Matt Helders]. ‘You still there, pal?’ Nah, he’s fine. I’m the one who is huffing and puffing. He seems all right. I feel like we’re building it and the sets have those more explosive sections and then he gets to lean back and just be on two and four for a bit while I swan around!

“So everything gets unwound for a minute and then we wind it back up. In those days, I remember the way I used to wear my guitar was really high. Everything was just tight. Trackie top on and everything was zipped up. Now I think, loosen the guitar. Take the guitar off, even. Take a minute. Everybody relax.”

And on the ever-evolving setlist, which now features track two from The Car, I Ain’t Quite Where I Think I Am? Fans buying tickets for next year’s tour will likely see songs from across the full 20 year recording career.

Here’s Alex Turner’s response to Martin Compston suggesting their squad of songs is now like Manchester City’s squad of footballers, with two equally strong, world-class line-ups available.

“It’s quite mysterious, to me, the setlist and what the order of that should be,” he says. “This time has passed and certain things don’t feel the way you expected them to anymore.

“That sounds sad, but it’s not. Certain songs represented certain moments in the past and now feel like something else, so they should be somewhere else.

“I’m still working it out. It’s exciting to perform again but we are still shuffling the deck on the setlist. The old ones – some are better at evolving than others. Some get left behind. You try and reintroduce them but some are more adaptable or fit into where you’re trying to go.

“So it doesn’t feel like Manchester City… but hopefully it will.”

[samyelbanette]

In May 2021, I saw some random shitpost saying “Finland’s Eurovision act is giving the emo kids everything they want.”

Being an MCR stan at the time, I was like hm? well, I’m an emo kid. let’s see what this is about.

I was pleasantly surprised to discover that I could watch the recording of the Semifinal, legally, on Peacock. I had watched ESC once before, in 2016. But for years after that, there was no way to watch the contest in my country (at least, not without a special cable television package that I obviously didn’t have 😭). It’s never been a popular show in the United States. But.

I saw Blind Channel perform Dark Side and I immediately thought omg, they sound just like Linkin Park. I tend to think of LP as a nu-metal band, and not an emo one. But I went through a huge LP phase back in high school, so ofc I loved the song.

I demanded that my friend (who, like most Americans, had never heard of ESC up until that point) come over and watch the Grand Final with me. He went out and ordered a copy of Violent Pop the next day.

….Ironically, it took me longer to get into BC. Like. The day after ESC ended, I watched the Died Enough For You MV on YouTube, and I thought it was great. But my mind was (hyper)focused on someone else.

Måneskin won ESC 2021, and I developed an immediate special interest in them (along with a huge crush on Damiano lol). This house was in a Teatro D’Ira lockdown. I had no interest in listening to anything else but that - and Il Bello Della Vita - on repeat. I watched all the interviews and obsessively worked on a Damiano/Reader fanfic.

But then in August, something happened. My laser focus on Må began to fade. Balboa was released as a single. BC performed at Allas Sea Pool. And suddenly I was reading Niko/Joonas fics every day.

My one-track mind had switched to a different track. And there was no going back.

In October 2021, I wrote Flufftober With Blind Channel (a huge reader-insert oneshot collection). As of rn, that’s still my #1 most kudos-d fic on AO3. 😅 And then in December, I wrote my first Joeleksi fic, as part of a holiday gift exchange.

I watched Blind Channel perform on Finnish television for New Year’s Eve. And when February came, I watched them perform again at UMK 2022. I cheered for The Rasmus when they won the competition, but they never stole my heart. BC still owned it.

On March 3rd, 2022, I finally saw BC live for the first time. It was in Warrendale, Pennsylvania, on Day 1 of their tour with From Ashes To New. Their first performance on American soil.

And then on April 11th, 2022, I saw them again, at their headline show in New York City. I had the honor of meeting one of my fellow fanfic writers, pastlink! And then I met Niko and Joel after the show. 😍

It was one of the best days of my life.

Time continued to pass. ESC 2022 came and went. Kalush Orchestra were…fine. They deserved to win, but they didn’t stay on my mind after the credits rolled. Not like BC did.

LOTSAD dropped in July 2022, and it was everything I’d hoped it would be.

In October 2022, I wrote Flufftober With Blind Channel 2, this time focusing on M/M relationships.

On November 18th, 2022, I saw Måneskin live for the first time (ironic, given that I loved them first). It was at this show that I had the honor of meeting another BC writer, lnights, in person. 🖤

Then, in December 2022, I moderated my first ever fandom event - BC Blood Mass. There was some controversy in the beginning, but it ended up being a huge success. I’m still so grateful to everyone who participated.

On May 13th, 2023, the ESC Grand Finals came around again. And I finally got to do something, that I hadn’t been able to do in 2021 (or 2022): vote for Finland. 🇫🇮

On May 16th, 2023, I saw BC live for the third time, when they returned to the US and opened for Lacuna Coil. This time, I got a picture with Joel, Joonas, Olli, and Aleksi. It ended up on Joel’s Instagram story, and when I checked my notifications the next day, I got emotional.

Dozens of people from Finland and Germany and other places around the world, who I would’ve never encountered without this silly band, were saying:

Look. That’s Kelley. We know her. She’s our friend.

….And now it’s September. Goddamn. I’ve been in this fandom for two years now. I’ve written thirty-four BC fics. And I’ve made so many amazing friends. There have been many times where y’all have been kinder to me than my own family. I’m so happy to have gotten to know all of y’all.

…And there’s still more to come!!!

BC Blood Mass is coming back for December 2023. BC’s fifth album is going to drop sometime in 2024.

I can’t wait to see where this Wolfpack takes me next. 🐺🇫🇮🖤

[smileymoth]

8, 20, 21, 22

Plus a random number without looking at the questions, hmmm....

You get: 86

8. movies or tv shows? MOVIES. i suck so bad at watching tv shows because i always get sooo scared about wasting my time so i rather just watch a 2 hour movie and get it over with. this is also why i never get thru tv shows. i still havent properly watched all of star trek TOS....even when i was properly obsessed with it.

20. preferred place to write (i.e., in a note book, on your laptop, sketchpad, post-it notes, etc.)? i honestly really prefer my laptop. notes are good but i make so many typos bc i type so fast. in class i take notes in my sketchbook. and sometimes i write down like little story segments in my sketchbook as well when i dont feel like typing it up on my notes app.

21. obsession from childhood? cats (is it obvious), ancient egypt, LPS, warrior cats, hollywood undead. in that order. probably

22. role model? i don't think i have one, there's people who have influenced me and how i behave (like my mom and dad. obviously.) but there's never been anyone who i like... look up to??? the same way that idolization is such a weird and foreign concept to me because everybody is fucked up and you can't take 1 person to be the end all be all because... well... you know. you'll end up disappointed. there's never going to be anyone who you agree with 100% or sb that you condone all the actions/behaviours of. + if its someone who you dont know personally like a celebrity or some author or fuckall whatever, You dont know them, how can they be your role model?? like it doesn't fit in my head, it's too "end all be all" title to give to someone, even if its your family member.... you get what im talking about?

i could write a longer post about my thoughts on "idolization" and "role models" in the web scene because im so sick of people getting disappointed bc their lovely internet crush did something weird that they didnt like. sorry this got derailed.

my role model is uhhhhhhhh lestat from interview with the vampire bc hes a cunty whore bitch who kills people and manipulates his gay boyfriend who doesnt want him

86. cookies or cupcakes? im in my "pastries are scary" era rn but uhhh cookies. i guess

[pikespendragon67]

And Now, The Long Awaited "Pikes Check-up" Fall 2023 Edition!!

Decided to make it a habit to type out my current interests/progress in life in case I find it difficult to jump into conversations with friends

Let's begin, shall we?

Current Life Events

It's been over a month and I still haven't had my annual review at work so if I don't get it by the end of December I may go nuts. Need to either get a better position in this firm, get better payment, or probably find a job somewhere else because wow working 8 hours (which is essentially 10 due to traveling & 1 hour lunch break) is not worth $20 an hour [i'm in CA so that's like barely above minimum wage & i gotta keep other expenses in mind].

On that note, I do have an interview for a state job next Friday (though I hope my coworkers/supervisor don't find it odd that I dress as usual on casual Fridays) and I keep getting calls from legal recruiters, so that's a good sign. Might try a probate firm since I enjoyed being a loan signing agent.

Brother and sister-in-law are hosting Thanksgiving this year! This will be the first time in decades where my parents don't host (and even then, it's mainly just a few family friends instead of actual blood relatives when they host. Think the last time I've been to a family Thanksgiving was when I was 7?) I get to properly meet my niece-in-law instead of just seeing her at the wedding. Sadly no nephews-in-law, so I might need to cut back on the gaming talk

Next party event for me is White Elephant with IRL friends, then for Chrimbus my parents & I are gonna go see my godparents for a week. Finally a week vacation (I need better hours too OTL)

With every passing day I think of gender being wonky so hopefully one day (when I'm financially stable to be on my own comfortably and without the fear of losing things) I can figure it out. Right now I'm thinking of using Bishop as a secondary online name but we'll see if that sticks.

Possibly maybe could go to Japan in April? Mom said she's organizing an event with my brother's old high school and she might be able to get my dad & me to join. Though I'd be a complete weeb, so I feel like I'd be rude to folks in Japan, I'd still love to go.

What I'm Playing

As much as I love Sea of Stars, I was getting antsy to play something else. (Especially when I heard the requirements for the true ending). SO, I decided to swap over to Digimon Survive since my brother got it for me for Chrimbus last year. I would've played it at launch but of course Xenoblade 3 came out at the same time and then I got lost playing Pokemon Scarlet then Hi-Fi Rush then Octopath 2 then replaying 999 then Ghost Trick then Sea of Stars-

But yeah I'm loving the character writing so far in Survive (I'm on part 3 most likely going to end with the moral ending) and the Digivolutions keep me on my toes. I don't think there's a branching system like in the Zero Escape franchise/AI The Somnium Files, so I'm not sure if I'll do a repeat playthrough. Gameplay itself has an isometric camera like FF Tactics so it can be a bit wonky placing your units to attack enemies. Plus I like how this game actually tells me what path I'm taking (hint hint Triangle Strategy before New Game+)

I also just got Super Mario RPG but the timing for action commands feels off? I press when the exclamation point appears but apparently I have to wait for the attack to actually connect. Weird

Then for games I'm watching through LPs because of time/funds/my wrists being god awful so it's hard to play games, I just finished watching Judgment and I think Yakuza Like a Dragon still holds the award for the game that made me cry the most but damn this also had good moments.

I'm also now watching P5 Tacticia (might get it if I can get used to Xcom gameplay) and man I can really make a babygirl meter based on the older dudes in P5 (going from Kasukabe to Sojiro probably)

New PFP that I've named Hattagan c:

Finally, man I might want to sell my PS5 despite it being my graduation gift from 2021. It's uncomfortable to play it with my current chair (as I like to usually play games lying down to help my back), and with me working full-time now, it's difficult to find motivation to play when I get back home. I'd need to connect to my work's Wi-Fi to take advantage of remote play, unfortunately. And while I could get a longer USB cord to keep the controller charged or get a bean bag or something, my room's way too small for that configuring & I'd have to keep unplugging the console when we clean every other week. Most of the games I want to play are already on Steam and are playable on the Deck, so I might use that instead. (Though I pray Ghost of Tsushima and Gravity Rush 2 get ported, then Yakuzas 4-6 are made playable for Deck).

Current Collection Wants So Far

Ever since I've garnered my own funds, I've made a habit of collecting fan things. It usually boils down to plushies (mostly Pokemon, but now favorite characters as well), games to collect (currently Switch, GBA, DS, 3DS, and Vita since I'm not really playing my PS5 for PS4 games anymore), Fire Emblem Cipher cards, and now DVDs for series/movies I like because I can't trust streaming services these days. Don't know if I'll be able to do Pokemon cards because I just collect for art & characters I like. Plus with how the Paul brothers ruined that market, I'd prefer to not dip my toes in that. When I get my own place, hopefully I can get other consoles to collect for. (Also I'm not planning on getting everything; mainly just games that pique my interest).

What I'm Watching

Last week, I saw the new Digimon 02 movie dubbed. Glad that Davis, Veemon/Ken, and Hawkmon reprised their roles. The only real issue I had was Armadillomon having the Stitch voice instead of the usual Texan accent. Other than that, Digimon's movies has this weird air of trying to market to nostalgic fans by telling them to move on from Digimon. I get folks didn't like the ending of the original 02 for shipping reasons, but the DigiDestined still had their Digimon as adults so I think it's a bit mean to say adults can't have Digimon or that they should stop having them. On that note, I felt like the "villain" could've been more terrifying if they actually showed how messed it up it was. (Like you're expecting me to believe it created Diaboromon just by it saying it watched the events on TV?)

So along with me nearly finishing Scott Pilgrim Takes Off (just have 2 episodes left since I decided to binge last night), here's what I'm watching in the fall 2023 anime season

needless to say i am going insane so i'll at least give some highlights

Paradox Live: I got into the series for Saimon back before the anime came out (I think it was a few months before Buraikan were officially revealed?) and wow the songs are great. You might've noticed me posting some of the groups like TCW, AKYR, etc. So far the animation for the series is self is pretty good, though they're changing a few story beats from the audio dramas. Like man we're getting starved on AKYR content. In terms of my favs, they're Saimon, Haruomi, Hokusai, and Shiki with Anne getting an honorable mention as well

Undead Unluck: I love the fast-paced humor and animation. I think the director for the Monogatari series is working on this and it's paying off in spades.

I'm dreading next week's episode of Jujutsu Kaisen and I'm praying that when Hiromi's in the anime that he'll get a good casting for both sub and dub (my hopes are Akio Otsuka and Joe J. Thomas, but that's personal bias talking). If he ends up dying I might drop the series.

Black Jack appeared in episode 1 of Pluto and that got me so stoked. Like I know Black Jack and Astro Boy are both Tezuka, but still.

Everything else is great, mind you, but my mind can only process so much. I'm also hoping to see Boy & The Heron when it comes out because Robert Pattinson actually voice acts in it, so here's hoping he gets other opportunities like that.

I'll most likely edit this post to add some other things, but yeah, that's my current status atm!

[pidge-poetry]

In-Flight Edibles, Rowdy Aussie Crowds & The “Sonic War” Of Their Next Album – Here’s Our Foals Interview

Gotta pass that plane time somehow.

Words by Amar Gera | December 6, 2023 | Life without Andy

We catch up with guitarist Jimmy ahead of their trip Down Under…

British rockers Foals are a rare sight in todays music world. The ability to craft commercial and festival-pleasing heaters while maintaining artistic integrity is a feat few pull off, a one that fewer actually make enjoyable. However, it seems Foals have perfected the art of the festival crowd anthem, and thankfully, they’ll be bringing their talents back to Australia over the NYE period for a bunch of shows around the country.

Slated to play the likes of Heaps Good Festival, Lost Paradise, Fortitude Music Hall and more, the run of shows will see the honorary Aussies bring their latest LP Life Is Yours (and its companion piece, Life Is Dub) across the country. Judging by our interview with lead guitarist Jimmy, this could very well be the the last time the album will be played out in its entirety, with Foals’ upcoming album seemingly already in the works. Which makes it all the more important that you catch them at the upcoming batch of shows.

To celebrate their upcoming Aussie shows, wee caught up with Jimmy from the band to talk Life Is Yours, their tips for flying to Australia and more. Check it below.

It’s a pretty busy time for you right now. You’re capping off a year of shows, a new LP, and a pretty crazy festival season. How are the energy levels?

Yeah, they’re pretty good right now. I think it’s because we’ve just had a bit of time off since September. So, we’re okay. We’re ready to do another LP and everything, I think.

Obviously, you’ve been playing music on this level for quite a long time now. After all these years, is the chaos of nonstop flights, shows, and so on, where you feel most comfortable?

I mean, post-COVID stuff is more annoying, like flying, airports and all of that. But yeah, we’re pretty used to it now. The show is such a tiny part of what the actual tour is. It’s all the hustle and bustle, and then a lot of time doing nothing.

Australia is pretty far removed from the rest of the world, which got me wondering, how do you kill time on that mammoth plane ride?

Just movies. If I’ve got my laptop, I might work on a song or something, that’s always pretty good. But then, the battery will always die in like an hour. So, yeah, generally I just take some edibles and watch some movies and enjoy it.

Edibles on a plane?

Yeah, I highly recommend it. I wouldn’t do it for the first time on a flight to Australia. I think that would be horrific if it went wrong.

Are you a window or aisle seat kind of guy?

If it’s below four hours, I want a window. If it’s above, I have to have an aisle because I can’t stand waking people up to go to the toilet.

Speaking of Australia, you’re playing a bunch of festivals and shows Down Under, including Heaps Good. How are you feeling for it?

I don’t know how long it’s been since we’ve been to Australia, but it’s been a long time. So, we’re pretty psyched just to be coming down. And yeah, also Aussie midsummer again, it’s pretty good. It’s a good time to come visit. And yeah, those lineups are pretty good as well. I’m really excited about The Avalanches, I’ve never seen them. That’s going to be cool.

International artists always seem taken aback at how rowdy Aussie crowds are. In your personal experience, how do we compare to the rest of the world?

Yeah, you guys are surprisingly rowdy, considering the tropical setting. Aussie crowds bring this crazy European energy, like the stuff we see in the UK. But yeah, it’s good. I mean, I remember it was pretty surprising the first time we came and played in Australia. We were like, “Oh, shit. They’re actually pretty into it.”

Are there any specific memories from that first time in Australia that stand out?

I always just think of our first show, which was in Adelaide. We played a festival in Switzerland and then flew for two days or something, and then played in Adelaide the night we landed. Then, the same night, Edwin, our keyboard player, had a DJ set as well. And I remember the crowd went nuts for that set. That crowd was basically the only thing that got us through it all.

I also want to chat ‘Life Is Yours’. It’s been a year since that record entered the world. How has your relationship changed with it since?

I’ll tell you what, it’s been a quick year. I’m a bit bummed though. We haven’t played the whole record live, and I don’t know if we’re going to get to it. We’ve only got Australia left to do it. But I wish we could have played more of Life Is Yours.

I think it was a really necessary album for us to make, certainly because of COVID and all of that that was going on. I feel like it was the right thing to do. It felt nice to take our foot off the adventurous gas. We weren’t too pressured on ourselves about making the record. But I see it as a little calming record before whatever’s coming next, which I presume will be an all-out sonic war.

It’s pretty interesting that you followed it up with ‘Life Is Dub’, given that it’s pretty rare for artists to rework a new album to that extent. As a group, what was the reasoning behind it?

That was Dan Carey, one of the producers of Life Is Yours, and one of the guys we work with the most. He’s got his studio in South London and never leaves. It’s kind of a dream. I idolize him in a way because I want to live like that. I want to have my studio in the bottom of my house with my family up the top. But yeah, he was like, “I want to do a dub version.” And it was great.

Actually, I wish he’d gone a bit more out there on it. I haven’t seen him since it was released. But yeah, I really love it. Because I know that he’s got the capabilities to go really far out. I guess he doesn’t want to scare anybody though. But yeah, I thought it was really cool. I want to do more things like that, just in terms of weird releases and alternate versions of stuff we’ve done.

If ‘Life Is Yours’ and ‘Life Is Dub’ were two characters sitting at a bar, what would they be and what would they be talking about?

Life Is Dub probably wouldn’t need to drink any alcohol because it would already be so high. So, Life Is Dub would be on sparkling water or a Coca-Cola and would probably be talking about, I’m not sure, a new piece of musical equipment or maybe a tin hat conspiracy theory. One that doesn’t offend anybody, but it’s just a mystery.

And then, I feel like Life Is Yours would be quite positive and maybe reassuring Life Is Dub about their worries. Definitely would having a couple of drinks, maybe a cocktail. Looking slightly more ’80s than Life Is Dub, I would say. That’d be quite an interesting duo.

Your music’s pretty perfect for crowd singalongs. It’s a really moving thing to see in your lives videos. In terms of songwriting and instrumentation, is there a secret to crafting tracks that resonate so hard?

Yannis does all of the lyrics, but I would say that when you’re writing, there’ll be even just part of a sentence that pops out. And you’d probably be like, “That’s what they’re going to sing.” Because what we always naturally pick up on is slogans or catchphrases that pop out. And sure enough, there’ll be one at the end of a sentence, which the whole crowd will sing. It’s really cool. And then, similarly, they’ll just pick up on something that we haven’t even thought of, and sing that back at us, which is really cool.

You’re also playing a show in Brissy at The Fortitude Music Hall with Declan McKenna, Sycco, Felony and so on. How do you differentiate between festival and the more concert sort of set?

I don’t think we’re doing any sideshows so I’m glad that the Brisbane show is like a sideshow, because they are different. You can play for longer at a sideshow and you can play hard and fast with the set list, just because it’s like a no-pressured scenario. I think sideshows are more for having a bit of fun and connecting with your fans, whereas a festival show is more of a proper show, and it’s got to be a more crafted set list. Also, it’s got to fit into whatever allocated slot you’re playing.

It is a funny thing that I find interesting about festivals and I think its really impressive that all these bands actually manage to pretty much play for the allotted time and figure it out. Like we’ve gone over a few times. We’ve had sound cut by festivals and stuff, and I just find it so brutal that they invite these musicians to come all the way over and if they go a minute over because they’re enjoying themselves, that’s it. They’re like “How dare you?” How dare you encroach on The Killers’ headlines time?” So, yeah, I like the sideshows just because they’re a bit looser.

You’re gonna be ringing in the New Year with us. What are your plans for the big countdown?

I don’t know, but I remember last time we did it in Melbourne we were at a festival. But it was actually quite depressing because we came back off stage really pumped, and there was just nobody around. Everyone had gone into Melbourne. So, we all just want to make sure that doesn’t happen again this time. Hopefully we’ll find a party, you’d think.

Lastly, can you give us a summary for Foals’ trajectory in 2023 and for the year ahead?

It’s all the things. Words like “Exploration” and “Oblivion” are popping into my head. But yeah, we’re just going to have a lot of fun.

Foals are returning Down Under at the end of this year. Be sure to cop tickets to their upcoming Aussie shows here.

[disgusting-semla]

INTERVIEW WITH DEAD, DONE BY EVIL FROM MARDUK. IT IS FROM SLAYER MAG 101994

HOW COME YOU LEFT MORBID AND MOVED TO NORWAY TO JOIN MAYHEM?

As everyone know…or should now is that Morbid never was a real band. However after the"December Moon" demo the band kinda split up. I don’t know the reason why, but we were all very different and couldn’t compromise on how Morbid should be or sound like. What’s most mysterious to me is how everybody could change so much. When I and John formed the band the band was looking for some members for the band and asked them about the thought of having a Black Metal band as Black Metal should be, but it never turned out that way. They all seemed to be totally into the idea at first, but…well…I must say that I don’t think the 2nd Morbid demo is in the same vein as the first. But why the hell do I talk about Morbid in an interview when the band never should have been featured? I talked to Euronymous on the phone and heexplained how his view of how the most brutal stage show would be and we discussed the problem that everybody wants everything to be so normal, boring and wimpy. And we totallya greed on that, I should come over and try out some rehearsals, to find out how I would fit in the band. And I guess I do fit ‘cos I’ve been singing here ever since. But the problems was that short after I joined the band we were out of rehearsal places…

 YOU HAVE SAID THAT THE “DEATHCRUSH” MLP WILL BE RELEASED AGAIN, WHAT ABOUT IT?

We want to release it again, but we just don‘t know how the hell we can afford it. It was wrong to limit it and now the copies are being sold for far too much money and that wasn’t the idea at all. Those who want it can’t get it unless they are millionaires. We will never release anything limited with Mayhem again.

TELL ME ABOUT YOUR NEW LP “DE MYSTERIIS DOM SATHANAS”. WHEN WILL IT BE OUT? ANY OLD MAYHEM SONGS ON IT?

Good question…I wish I knew when! It’s planned to contain 8 tracks and to be released on D.S.P. as anti Mosh 003. When the 2nd edition of the Merciless LP has sold out and paid, the next band will go into studio (Imperator from Poland). When their 1st edition has paid we’ll go into a studio and record our LP. After the tour we have planned, if it doesn’t fuck up, we will have a session of concentrated work on the material that is missing for the LP. I can’t say muchmore about the release.

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE A GIG WITH MAYHEM, WITH ALL YOUR EFFECTS?

We haven‘t had a real gig yet, 3 shows in Norway, but only one with parts of our stage show.We had some impaled pig heads, and I cut my arms with a weird knife and a crushed cokebottle. We meant to have a chainsaw, but the guy who owned it, had left when we came to go get it. That wasn’t brutal enough. Most of the people in there were wimps and I don‘t want them to watch our gigs! Before we began to play there was a crowd of about 300 in there, but in thesecond song “Necrolust” we began to throw around those pig heads. Only 50 were left, I liked that! The non-evil wimps shall listen to our music. We had a great time throwing  the heads on each other. I got angry at some idiots who had their heads up in the air, so I wiped the blood onmy arms all over again, We wanna scare those shouldn’t be at our concerts, and they will have to escape through the emergency exit with parts of their body missing, so we can have something to throw around. Some imagine for some weird reason that Death Metal is something normal and available for everyone. Unfortunately they are right… If you have seen pictures of bands like Defection, Benediction or Righteous Pigs etc. you know what I mean. If you go into an ordinary school, you will surly see half of them wearing Morbid Angel, Autopsy and Entombed shirts, and once again I will vomit! Death Black Metal is something all ordinary mortals should fear, not make into a trend! Some years ago it did not exist at all. When Morbid had it’s first gigs almost no one had heard that kind of music before. Metallica or VNA… But hopefully those who jumped on to Death Metal will leave it soon to the real people who have always listened to it. It took some years or so till the trendy HC bands jumped over to Grind. It took shorter time till Grind was out, and I hope it won’t take long before they leave Death Metal to us who do not choose music after fashion. That’s one reason for having a stage show. The wimps will not ever understand it, and I won’t explain it to them either. But they got pissed off at our shows and that is what we want. If someone doesn’t like blood and rotten flesh thrown in their face they can FUCK OFF, and that’s exactly what they do. We are trying to turn the scene back to what it once was, when no Death Metallers were wearing Adidas shit and looked totally normal. The hassle is of course to bring stuff from the slaughterhouse to gigs abroad.

Part 2

[seafood-33]

2014-03-28

Two interviews after 2014 worlds, Javier talked about Yuzuru, how skating after Yuzuru, and about Yuzuru giving him wearing OG gold medal in TCC.

Interview by Canon (translation from echotpe in goldenskate forum)

Q: Congratulation to your bronze medal. Did you feel regrettable the result while you were second in SP?

J: Indeed, I was somewhat careless in LP. Machida performed great in both program. Yuzu is a super star with potential, as we have known. Although he was third in SP, I could not guess the finale result.

Actually, I aimed to get another color of medal (besides bronze). But with such strong competitors on same rink, I was satisfied with the results.

Q: The order of appearance made Javier unease?

J: It was quite unease in order of appearance this time. I didn’t watch the performance of Machida on the field. But I knew his status was great. And then, I saw Yuzu got very high scores in LP.

While competing in Japan, I experienced very nervous after Yuzu. The audience excitedly cheered for him. I needed to go on ice with many flowers and gifts on the rink. I almost kicked one child this time.

But suddenly, the audience was quiet to let me focus and applauded while announcing my name. When I finished the LP, 18,000 audiences stood to applaud for me. Wow, I felt flattered. I do love Japanese audience!

(In fact, the behavior of the audience is directed by Yuzuru. Watch this video)

Q: How to jump a quad easily like you?

J: It might need some talent. (joke) There are two Quad jump factions. The Russian one relies on spins, and the North American one focuses on speed. For myself, I use normal speed to lead the jump. If the speed is over, it won’t be successful of a quad.

On the other hand, muscle portion is various by individual. For example, Yuzu looks slim, but he has all muscles needed. The way he jumps don’t need the large muscles, and it is same to me.

Q: As an athlete, sometimes your ambitions is seemed not enough?

J: Well, I know the necessity of ambition in competing career. However, I am glad to see supporters (fans) cheered for my well performance. The sharing cheer with them is more important than the winning itself.

Once a day, when nobody comes to watch my performance and cheer for me, I will definitely retire. The audience’s applauds and flowers are part of a competition, which let me feel the existence. It is more important than the scores themselves and make me happier.

Q: Any words to Brain Orser coach?

J: I would thank him for never giving me up all the time. He is so patient and nice to mentor my motivation and believe that I can achieve to goals one day. As an athlete, sportsman and person, Orser coach is a father of my Toroto days; I respect him in all ways.

Q: And how about Yuzu?

J: His talent, hardworking and passion to skating are such outstanding, which encourage me. And his team also works hard in any ways. Yuzu always focuses on ice training, as it is reasonable to do so.

He does not change a bit even he got the Olympics gold medal. He didn’t become lazy, take excuses or become complacent. It’s a way I think a world champion should be.

When he came back to Toroto after Sochi Olympics, he gave me to wear his heavy medal. And then, I make my mind to aim the gold medal in PyeongChang Olympics 2018.

.

Interview by Sports Hochi

(SP) 3rd place Yuzuru Hanyu scored 191.35 with stable performances such as deciding the first quad Salchow of the season. He took first place with a total of 282.59 points, winning his first gold medal and becoming the second Japanese in four years to win a gold medal in the event.

（ＳＰ）３位の羽生結弦は、今季初の４回転サルコウを決めるなど安定した演技で１９１・３５点。合計２８２・５９点で１位となり初優勝、日本人４年ぶり２人目の金メダルを獲得した。

Yuzuru Hanyu: "(The reason for winning) is willpower. It was willpower and spirit. （I was very tired (at the end). I haven't won a World Championships since 2002, when I became an Olympic Champion. I hope I was able to get a little closer to the athletes I admired."

羽生結弦「（勝因は）意地です。意地と気合だった。（最後は）かなり疲れていた。五輪のチャンピオンになって世界選手権で優勝したのは２００２年のヤグディンさん以来。憧れていた選手たちにちょっとでも近づけたかな」

Javier Fernandez: "I am happy with the bronze medal. Yuzuru (Hanyu) gave an even better performance. Winning the Olympics and the World Championships is amazing. He is the best of the best."

ハビエル・フェルナンデス「銅メダルはうれしい。ユヅル（羽生）がさらに素晴らしい演技を見せた。五輪と世界選手権で優勝はすごい。彼はベスト・オブ・ベストだ」

Source

Canon interview Javier Fernandez

(English translation in goldenskate)

日刊スポーツ：2014年3月29日付

2014 世界選手権 フリー（会場音）

優勝後のインタビューと+表彰式

Full list from 2011 to present

[midsummersky]

Arctic Monkeys’ Alex Turner shares details of new album The Car in Big Issue exclusive

Alex Turner lifts the lid on new Arctic Monkeys album The Car in an exclusive interview with the Big Issue ahead of their return to UK live performance.

Arctic Monkeys singer Alex Turner has lifted the lid on the creative process of new album The Car in a global exclusive interview with The Big Issue.

The Sheffield band have announced their seventh LP will be released on October 21, picking up where 2018’s jazz-inspired, intergalactic Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino left off. But “on this record, sci-fi is off the table. We are back to earth”, Turner hinted.

“I think we’ve got closer to a better version of a more dynamic overall sound with this record,” he told The Big Issue. “The strings on this record come in and out of focus and that was a deliberate move and hopefully everything has its own space. There’s time the band comes to the front and then the strings come to the front.”

After six straight No1 LPs – from 2006’s phenomenon Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not to 2018’s cinematic Tranquility Base Hotel and Casino – singer-guitarist Alex Turner, drummer Matt Helders, guitarist Jamie Cook and bassist Nick O’Malley hope The Car will be their seventh straight UK number one album

The record was made with the band’s regular producer James Ford at Butley Priory, a converted monastery in rural Suffolk, in the summer of 2021. The decision not to go to a regular recording studio was inspired by some rock-and-roll legends, Turner said.

“There’s a bunch of Led Zeppelin and Stones records where they were in this house in the country and then they went and sorted it all out and overdubbed it elsewhere,” Turner revealed. “We went there in the summer, took all the equipment, got the raw material and then took it on elsewhere.”  

The release of The Car comes 20 years after the band’s formation as teenagers in Sheffield in 2002. Although the sound may have mellowed and evolved beyond the raw power of 2006’s Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not — the fastest selling debut album in UK chart history — Turner says they’re still staying true to their roots.

“You have to follow your instincts in the same way you did in the first place,” he said. “In that way, it does all feel like it’s connected to us 20 years ago in the garage when it was pure instinct.”

The Big Issue enlisted Martin Compston, star of BBC1’s Line of Duty and Arctic Monkeys superfan to interview Turner. Over the course of a weekend at Sziget festival in Budapest, Hungary, he got to know the band before sitting down with Turner then watching their set from the side of the stage.

The new album, said Compston, is “fucking class”.

“Hello You is a belter. And [There’d Better Be A] Mirrorball? Wow,” he said, calling it a song with “Bond villain overtones”.

“It’s a response I’ve had to other things we’ve composed,” replied Turner, “this idea of something sounding ‘cinematic’. I never completely subscribe to it, but it’s louder this time.”

Before then, the band return to the UK for their first shows on home shores for four years, headlining Reading Festival on Saturday August 27 and Leeds on Sunday August 28.

The setlist has been evolving during a string of summer festival performances, their first in three years, with new song I Ain’t Quite Where I Think I Am sending online fan forums ablaze with excitement after it was played in Switzerland on Tuesday.

And with the announcement of the new LP, speculation is growing that more of the 10 new songs — There’d Better Be A Mirrorball, I Ain’t Quite Where I Think I Am, Sculptures Of Anything Goes, Jet Skis On The Moat, Body Paint, The Car, Big Ideas, Hello You, Mr Schwartz, Perfect Sense – could be unveiled during their headline sets at this weekend’s Reading and Leeds Festivals.

“It’s quite mysterious, to me, right now, at this moment in time, the setlist and what the order of that should be,” Turner mused, such is the strength of their back catalogue.

“This time has passed over the last few years and certain things don’t feel the way you expected them to anymore. That sounds sad, but it’s not. There are just certain things that represented certain moments in the past that now feel like something else, so they should be somewhere else. I’m still definitely very much working it out.

“It’s exciting to perform again,” he added. “But we are still shuffling the deck on the setlist.” 

The full, wide-ranging interview will be in The Big Issue magazine on sale from Monday August 29 and is available for pre-order now from the Big Issue Shop.

x

[justapayneaway]

I posted 11,987 times in 2022

384 posts created (3%)

11,603 posts reblogged (97%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@anditwentlikethis

@lilacdreamland

@stars-bean

@tisdae

@liam-93-productions

I tagged 11,873 of my posts in 2022

Only 1% of my posts had no tags

#lmao - 1,083 posts

#art - 746 posts

#liams - 742 posts

#rita's book club - 524 posts

#bookclub - 475 posts

#lewis - 467 posts

#true - 459 posts

#kinnporsche - 450 posts

#book - 434 posts

#sporting cp - 310 posts

Longest Tag: 90 characters

#but you could also mention of sporting's fans left everybody speechless with their support

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

I haven’t watched the Logan Paul interview yet but what was so disappointing about it besides the drinking? X

I 👏 need 👏 your 👏 reaction to LP on that Logan Paul podcast. So many thoughts.

_

Sigh... so many thoughts and like 99% of them not good ones!

I knew it was going to be a bit shitty, but I wasn't expecting it to be a complete mess from start to finish. From the drinking while recording (which was like noon there), to the kind of drunk confessions till the end. All the talk about being wasted most of his life and a bit of cringy stuff about his own mental health that were a bit scary to me. Last year he was so self aware of his problems during the podcast he did with Steven Bartlett, now it's like he doesn't give a flying fuck of how his public image is affected by all of it.

Then all the mentions about wanting to fight people were super weird to me. The fact that he and Steve (his manager) apparently have a lot of physical fights... that doesn't seem to be a very healthy relationship in my opinion!

And don't get me started on the whole "I dislike Zayn" narrative that they now seemed to think was a good idea! The only thing that kind of made sense through that whole rant was that he will always understand Zayn because he knows what he has been through.

In conclusion, all of it seemed super cringy and so weird. Showing a very fake persona that didn't seemed okay at all. I'm a bit speechless but definitely don't recommend this shit to anyone.

Btw this could be my covid brain making me a bit harsh, but I didn't like it at all!

126 notes - Posted May 31, 2022

#4

Well Germany losing against Japan and Argentina losing against Saudi Arabia weren’t on my bingo card for the World Cup... but here we are !

134 notes - Posted November 23, 2022

#3

Is there a photo of Liam or Zayn that you really want to know the story behind it?

Oh god there are so many moments that I need an explanation for!!!

Why are you sitting in the same chair?!

Why are you sitting on Zayn's lap when you have a perfectly big couch right there, Leyum????

See the full post

137 notes - Posted February 19, 2022

#2

Happy birthday to our biggest sunshine - Liam Payne ☀️

303 notes - Posted August 29, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Happy 29th birthday Zain Javadd Malik ✨ Our Greek God with the voice of an angel!

303 notes - Posted January 12, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[arcticpuppeteer]

Arctic Monkeys singer Alex Turner and actor Martin Compston share a laugh during their conversation in Budapest. Image: Lewis Evans

Arctic Monkeys’ Alex Turner shares details of new album The Car in Big Issue exclusive

Alex Turner lifts the lid on new Arctic Monkeys album The Car in an exclusive interview with the Big Issue ahead of their return to UK live performance.

Arctic Monkeys singer Alex Turner has lifted the lid on the creative process of new album The Car in a global exclusive interview with The Big Issue.

The Sheffield band have announced their seventh LP will be released on October 21, picking up where 2018’s jazz-inspired, intergalactic Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino left off. But “on this record, sci-fi is off the table. We are back to earth”, Turner hinted.

“I think we’ve got closer to a better version of a more dynamic overall sound with this record,” he told The Big Issue. “The strings on this record come in and out of focus and that was a deliberate move and hopefully everything has its own space. There’s time the band comes to the front and then the strings come to the front.”

After six straight No1 LPs – from 2006’s phenomenon Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not to 2018’s cinematic Tranquility Base Hotel and Casino – singer-guitarist Alex Turner, drummer Matt Helders, guitarist Jamie Cook and bassist Nick O’Malley hope The Car will be their seventh straight UK number one album.

The record was made with the band’s regular producer James Ford at Butley Priory, a converted monastery in rural Suffolk, in the summer of 2021. The decision not to go to a regular recording studio was inspired by some rock-and-roll legends, Turner said.

“There’s a bunch of Led Zeppelin and Stones records where they were in this house in the country and then they went and sorted it all out and overdubbed it elsewhere,” Turner revealed.

“We went there in the summer, took all the equipment, got the raw material and then took it on elsewhere.”  

Pre-order the magazine with the global exclusive interview from the Big Issue Shop now

The release of The Car comes 20 years after the band’s formation as teenagers in Sheffield in 2002. Although the sound may have mellowed and evolved beyond the raw power of 2006’s Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not — the fastest selling debut album in UK chart history — Turner says they’re still staying true to their roots.

“You have to follow your instincts in the same way you did in the first place,” he said. “In that way, it does all feel like it’s connected to us 20 years ago in the garage when it was pure instinct.”

The Big Issue enlisted Martin Compston, star of BBC1’s Line of Duty and Arctic Monkeys superfan to interview Turner. Over the course of a weekend at Sziget festival in Budapest, Hungary, he got to know the band before sitting down with Turner then watching their set from the side of the stage.

The new album, said Compston, is “fucking class”.

“Hello You is a belter. And [There’d Better Be A] Mirrorball? Wow,” he said, calling it a song with “Bond villain overtones”.

“It’s a response I’ve had to other things we’ve composed,” replied Turner, “this idea of something sounding ‘cinematic’. I never completely subscribe to it, but it’s louder this time.”

The full, wide-ranging interview between the pair will be in The Big Issue magazine on sale from Monday August 29 and is available for pre-order now from the Big Issue Shop.

Before then, the band return to the UK for their first shows on home shores for four years, headlining Reading Festival on Saturday August 27 and Leeds on Sunday August 28.

The setlist has been evolving during a string of summer festival performances, their first in three years, with new song I Ain’t Quite Where I Think I Am sending online fan forums ablaze with excitement after it was played in Switzerland on Tuesday.

And with the announcement of the new LP, speculation is growing that more of the 10 new songs — There’d Better Be A Mirrorball, I Ain’t Quite Where I Think I Am, Sculptures Of Anything Goes, Jet Skis On The Moat, Body Paint, The Car, Big Ideas, Hello You, Mr Schwartz, Perfect Sense – could be unveiled during their headline sets at this weekend’s Reading and Leeds Festivals.

“It’s quite mysterious, to me, right now, at this moment in time, the setlist and what the order of that should be,” Turner mused, such is the strength of their back catalogue.

“This time has passed over the last few years and certain things don’t feel the way you expected them to anymore. That sounds sad, but it’s not. There are just certain things that represented certain moments in the past that now feel like something else, so they should be somewhere else. I’m still definitely very much working it out.

“It’s exciting to perform again,” he added. “But we are still shuffling the deck on the setlist.”