This week’s short and surreal Q&A comes from Dan Spooner, vocalist with emerging Smoggy indie-prog outfit Dirty Weekend: Toonwaves: Firstly, how are things going? Dan Spooner: Things are going in different directions all the time, but mainly hanging slightly to the the left. TW: Tell me about Dirty Weekend. How did you get together? DS: Much [...]
For this week’s Q&A Toonwaves caught up with Hazel Wilde, singer with shimmering Tyneside psych-pop outfit Lanterns On The Lake before the band headed down to Glastonbury for their set on the BBC Introducing Stage tomorrow (June 26). Toonwaves: Firstly, how are things going? Hazel Wilde: Swimmingly, thank you. TW: Tell me about Lanterns On [...]
Our quickfire interview with Nick Tomlinson, guitarist with hard-hitting North East power-pop four-piece Styles Make Fights: Toonwaves: Firstly, how are things going? Nick Tomlinson: Great thanks, we’ve just started working on a follow up to our EP from November last year ‘While You Can, When You’re Young’, and we’ve been getting really good feedback from [...]
Words: Casey Spence Whatever tickles your musical fancy this year, make sure you catch The Villeins. This Geordie five-piece (comprising three local lads and two adopted Tynesiders) are making waves through Newcastle and beyond with their own brand of vibrant rock. Loud, proud and unquestionably talented, The Villeins are not to be missed. TW: How [...]
Borne out of a shared appreciation for Death Cab For Cutie‘s Transatlanticism LP, North East-based three-piece The Winter Hill Transmission are yet to play any gigs but their beautifully layered acoustica has already found them favourably compared to Odessa-era Bee Gees by Narc Magazine. Named after a television and radio transmitter in singer-guitarist Ben Holland’s [...]
It’s going to be a great summer for go-getting North East indie starlets Retriever. They’re opening The Baltic Square Stage on May 31 at this year’s Evolution Weekender and have a hotly anticipated support slot with punk legends The Slits at The Star & Shadow Cinema on May 8. Toonwaves caught up with bass-player Graeme [...]
Naming your band after Newcastle United terrace anthem “The Blaydon Races” is bound to win you plenty of fans round these parts. And so it is with Tyneside psych-prog outfit 1862. Lifting their moniker from the second line of Geordie Ridley’s folk classic, the band’s riff-heavy pyschedelia is already building a groundswell of support around [...]
I’ve been singing the praises of Grandfather Birds for some time. Their Grizzly Bear-infused indie-prog sets them apart from most of the North East mainstream and recent track “Grandfather’s Bones” was one of my favourite entries for this year’s Evolution Emerging. I caught up with frontman Matt Saxon to for a quick chat about the [...]
Man, I love Air To Achilles. When one of their demos landed in my inbox a few weeks ago I was knocked out by the scattergun blast of Passion Pit-meets-Thin-White-Duke-era-Bowie indie-pop. So who better to feature in the first of my new weekly Q&As? Here’s what singer and bass player Andy Bell (no, not the [...]
Teesside-based four-piece Jimmy & The Sounds deliver the kind of melody-laden post-punk labels like Domino have been falling over themselves for in recent years. Marrying the matter-of-fact North Easternness of Maximo Park, Field Music and The Futureheads with an enviable knack for writing chart-friendly pop hooks, the band look set to join The Chapman Family [...]
