Fat Dog live at Project House review – barking mad dance-rock is a treat
7
Jun

The much-hyped band crowned a breakout year with a bangers-only 45 minute blitz in Leeds, packed with mammoth riffs and thunderous bass lines. Even the band’s photographer couldn’t resist the pull of a vintage mosh pit.

Twilight on a moody November evening by the canal in Leeds, and the leaking locks are hissing harshly behind a gloomy row of trees. At 8 p.m. it’s still just about bright enough to make out the passing clouds, oddly glowing with light pollution against navy skies. I’ve only just arrived, but I already feel exhausted – with the murky recent weather, a cold going round and a certain election result, I can’t have been the only one approaching Project House feeling weighed down by November blues. I walked towards the reassuring thud of live music – the muffled sounds of what turned out to be a rather dreadful support slot from Truthpaste – hopeful the music might provide some catharsis.

As it happened, few bands do reckless, enthralling catharsis quite like Fat Dog. Like Black Country, New Road and Black Midi, they were borne out of the fertile left-field music scene centred on the legendary Windmill venue in Brixton, making a name for themselves in recent years solely through notoriously wild live shows. Fat Dog’s unique sound is charged with an impulsive energy that makes it easy for audiences to be swept away by it all even without prior exposure. Remarkably, one scant album into their career, Fat Dog have already carved out a distinct stylistic niche – aggressive industrial dance music with thunderous unisons riffs, scuzzy saxophone and yelped, barely coherent vocals about impending doom. Think somewhere between Madness and Daft Punk, but with more lyrical references to slug invasions. It’s unlike anything I’ve heard before.

You could forgive Fat Dog for being exhausted themselves – they’ve essentially been on tour for their entire career so far, including a marathon four performances on various small stages at this year’s Glastonbury. Emerging onto stage to a volley of drums and a tremble of deep synth bass, frontman Joe Love was a wonderfully enigmatic figure, his eyes barely open beneath a canopy of curly locks and a white Stetson. Vocally, he made no sense either, producing a manic yelp of “It’s Fat Dog baby!” at the start of the concert, sounding more menacingly deranged than comical.

Such is the unique appeal of Fat Dog, a band who on paper sound jokey – drummer Johnny ‘Doghead’ Hutch has a penchant for performing in a German shepherd mask, sadly not donned in Leeds – but in reality sound like credible harbingers of the apocalypse. It didn’t take long for the audience to start colliding with each other to the sounds of Vigilante, an album opener which brilliantly pairs a mammoth hook with a haunting, vaguely Eastern European folk melody. Gone were the intricate details of the studio recording – most notably a melodramatic spoken word passage, and a gigantic-sounding string orchestra carrying the hook – but in Leeds an additional percussionist was let loose on an arsenal of bongos and cymbals, more than plugging the gap. The result was an intoxicatingly heavy three minutes that had an instant, drug-like effect on the audience, who duly threw their arms – and beers – up in the air.

Joe Love’s performance was intimate for those in the front row.

It was enthralling – but then again I’m bound to say that, since Love spent a majority of this brief gig right next to me, close enough I could have nicked his hat. He leaned against the barriers for song after song, singing directly to his devotees like a young Nick Cave, only with less heartfelt hand-holding and more woofing into the microphone. It was a thrill to be in the mix of bodies with their arms reaching up towards him, but I doubt the people a little further back from me – spending most of the gig looking at a largely empty stage – would have agreed.

From my fortunate vantage point amidst the mosh, the only possible downside of Fat Dog’s set was that each song was almost too exhaustingly compelling. Seven-minute opus King of the Slugs was a marathon of industrial beats, particularly in its propulsive second half where the tempo was ruthlessly dialled up a notch. Wither similarly took off like a rocket, Jacqui Wheeler’s restless bass riff and Love’s oddball intonations of “You better wither, baby, before you die” whipping up a frenzy in the crowd. The bedlam was so irresistible that, in one exquisite moment of rock ‘n’ roll, even the hired photographer camped out beside the stage in front of me felt compelled to down tools and leap into the crowd, practically landing on top of me. A few seconds later I watched her drift off to the dim recesses at the back of the venue as Morgan Wallace’s saxophone squealed like a wounded pig.

Even I Am the King, the unconvincing ballad lodged in the middle of the band’s debut album, sounded gripping in Leeds, the shimmering backing of strings given new urgency by Hutch’s rapid hit-hats ticking away like a time bomb. “I am the king… and it means nothing at all,” Love repeated again and again with rising desperation, the swirl of synths rising around him like floodwaters. Yes, Love has penned plenty of silly lyrics (his first words in his debut album are “Granny’s tights on my head”), but this was a moment of genuine artistry and the evening’s only opportunity for pause and reflection.

It all came to ahead with an electrifying rendition Running, a stupendous single and one of the very best songs from any band this year. It’s a masterclass in tension and release, evident in Leeds when it triggered not one but three mosh circles (where fans clear an area of the floor then rush into the space when the chorus hits). The lengthy bridge in particular was excruciatingly tense, and by the time the eventual payoff came – a panoply of winning hooks, all neatly foreshadowed earlier in the song – bodies were circulating in the crowd as if swept up in a fast-moving lazy river.

An encore of noughties rave classic Satisfaction – a perfect riff for Wallace to attack on her saxophone – wrapped things up before the clocks struck 10 p.m.. Too early to call it a night perhaps, but I’m not sure if I had the physical fitness for much more, and the revellers around me looked like they’d been worked to exhaustion too. In the end, the crowd simply barked in unison instead of asking for one more song – if Fat Dog had indeed imbued their strange music with some sort of magic potion, it had worked a charm.

New Music Notes: Indie, Jazz and Electronic Sounds to Keep Close
3
Jun

Indie jazz and electronic music desk collage

The most interesting listening right now is happening between categories. Indie records are borrowing the patience of ambient music, jazz players are leaning into club rhythms, and electronic producers are making tracks that feel more handmade than programmed. That middle ground is where a lot of the best music lives.

Indie music is getting quieter and stranger

The strongest indie songs at the moment are not always the biggest ones. Many of them work through restraint: dry drums, close vocals, guitars that sound like they were recorded in a room rather than polished into glass. That intimacy gives the songs character.

Jazz keeps moving outward

Modern jazz continues to thrive when it treats tradition as a starting point rather than a museum. Groove-led playing, electronic textures and shorter song forms can all sit comfortably beside improvisation. The result is music that feels serious without becoming sealed off from everyday listening.

Electronic music is embracing warmth

There is still plenty of maximal electronic music around, but the warmer end of the spectrum feels especially rewarding. Dusty percussion, imperfect synth tones and patient arrangements are giving producers more emotional range than the cleanest possible mix ever could.

For Music Boats, that combination feels like the right direction: thoughtful listening without losing energy, and genre coverage that follows the sound rather than the label.

10 Tracks for the First Warm Nights of Summer
31
May

Warm sunset playlist scene with turntable and speaker

The first warm nights of summer call for music that does not rush the moment. The best tracks for this part of the year tend to balance lift with ease: enough rhythm to make the evening move, enough softness to let the light fade slowly.

1. The opener with a soft pulse

Start with something that moves gently rather than announcing itself. A light drum pattern, warm keys and a vocal that leaves space can set the whole tone for the night.

2. The indie-pop reset

A bright guitar line still does a lot of work when the weather turns. The trick is avoiding songs that feel too polished. Slight looseness makes the track feel lived in.

3. The jazz-leaning groove

Late evenings suit rhythm sections that breathe. A bass line with swing and a drummer who leaves room around the snare can make a track feel relaxed without becoming passive.

4. The electronic slow-burn

Not every summer track needs a huge drop. Sometimes a patient synth pattern and a steady kick create more atmosphere than a chorus built for instant release.

5. The closer

End with something reflective. The best final track should feel like walking home after the noise has settled: still rhythmic, still alive, but already turning into memory.

The real ranking is less important than the shape. A good warm-night playlist should move from open-window brightness to late-hour calm without losing its sense of pulse.

The Return of Patient Listening
26
May

Quiet listening corner with headphones and records

Music culture moves quickly, but listening does not have to. The constant flow of new tracks can make everything feel disposable, even when the songs themselves are carefully made. Patient listening is a quiet refusal of that pressure. It means giving a record enough time to become familiar before asking whether it matters.

Discovery is not the same as attention

Streaming has made discovery easy. Attention remains difficult. Finding a song takes seconds; living with it takes longer. The difference matters because some music is designed for instant recognition, while other music works by slowly changing the listener’s sense of mood, rhythm or memory.

Patient listening does not require abandoning playlists. It simply asks for a different habit: return to the same album over a week, listen without skipping the middle tracks, notice how sequencing changes the meaning of individual songs. These small choices make music feel less like background and more like a conversation.

The slow listen is coming back

There are signs that listeners still want depth. Vinyl culture, album-listening clubs, long-form music podcasts and detailed fan essays all point to the same desire: people want to spend time with music, not just pass through it. The format may change, but the need is old.

Patient listening is not a purist stance. It is a practical one. Some songs give everything immediately. Others need room. The pleasure is learning which is which.

Why Guitar Bands Still Make Sense in 2026
21
May

Electric guitars and rock rehearsal room atmosphere

Every few years someone declares guitar bands finished, and every few years a loud room proves otherwise. The format keeps surviving because it does something very direct: it turns physical movement into sound. A drummer lifts the room, a bass player locks the centre, and guitars create pressure, colour and release in a way that still feels immediate.

The appeal is physical

Rock gigs work because the audience can read the performance almost instantly. You can see where the sound is coming from. You can feel when the band is pushing ahead of itself or pulling back into control. That visible effort matters. It gives the songs a body.

Modern rock bands do not need to pretend nothing has changed. The most interesting ones borrow from pop structure, electronic texture and post-punk repetition without losing the core appeal of a band on a stage. The point is not purity. The point is impact.

Small rooms keep the format honest

In a small venue, a guitar band cannot rely on distance. The sound either connects or it does not. Riffs need weight, choruses need shape, and slower songs need enough tension to stop the room drifting. When it works, the result is still one of the most reliable live music experiences available.

The reason guitar bands still make sense is not nostalgia. It is utility. They remain one of the simplest ways to convert shared attention into shared energy, and that still counts for a lot.

What Makes a Small-Room Gig Feel Huge
16
May

Intimate small live music venue atmosphere

Some gigs feel bigger than the room that holds them. You can see the low ceiling, the scuffed floor and the cables taped down near the monitors, yet the sound seems to push past every physical limit. That kind of show is not only about volume. It is about compression: the crowd, the band and the room all sharing the same pocket of air.

Proximity changes everything

In a small venue, there is nowhere for the performance to hide. Mistakes feel human rather than catastrophic. A drummer adjusting the tempo, a singer laughing between songs, a guitarist stepping back from a pedalboard with relief after nailing a transition: these details become part of the night rather than interruptions to it.

That closeness also changes how songs land. A quiet bridge can hold the room still because everyone can feel the restraint. A chorus can feel explosive because the audience is not just hearing it through a system; they are physically inside the reaction. The best small-room gigs use that intimacy instead of fighting it.

Energy beats spectacle

Large shows often rely on production to create scale. Small shows have to find scale in momentum. A well-paced set can make a modest venue feel enormous by moving from tension to release with purpose. The opening song sets trust, the middle run builds heat, and the encore only works if the room has already become part of the performance.

That is why a small-room gig can stay with you longer than a polished arena date. It is not perfect, and it should not be. Its power comes from the sense that something temporary happened in exactly one place, with exactly those people, and could not be repeated in quite the same way.

Electronic Albums That Reward a Second Listen
12
May

Abstract electronic album artwork with synth textures

The best electronic albums rarely explain themselves in the first ten minutes. They invite you in with texture, rhythm and movement, then reveal their real shape after the second or third listen. That is part of what keeps the format alive in a playlist-heavy era: a single track can introduce a mood, but an album lets that mood develop, fracture and return with more meaning.

Why patience matters

Electronic music is often judged by immediate impact. A bass line either hits or it does not; a hook either sticks or disappears. Albums ask for a slightly different kind of attention. The opener sets the palette, the middle stretch tests how far the artist can bend it, and the closing track usually tells you whether the idea had enough emotional weight to justify the journey.

That is especially true for records built around minimal percussion, ambient passages or slow harmonic shifts. On first listen, they can seem restrained. On repeat listens, small choices become central: a synth line that returns in a lower register, a kick pattern that disappears for a whole verse, a vocal sample that stops sounding decorative and starts sounding like the point of the song.

The album as a room

A strong electronic album feels less like a queue of tracks and more like a room you learn how to move through. The best ones create contrast without breaking their own atmosphere. They know when to make the floor shake, but also when to let the air thin out. That sense of space is what separates a good release from a collection of useful tracks.

For listeners, the reward is simple: give the record time before deciding what it is. Let the quieter transitions do their work. Let the repeated motifs become familiar. If the album is built well, the second listen will not simply confirm the first. It will change it.

“They’ll definitely blow your mind”: five of the best female rock bands on the rise
28
Apr

To celebrate International Women’s Day, Alex Walden takes a deep dive into the world of alternate rock music to showcase some new female groups on the rise who are definitely worth keeping an eye on.

It’s safe to say that the genre of rock is way out of its golden era. Long gone are the days of kids wanting to be rockstars after being completely in awe at the appeal of sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll. However, if you think that means that rock has simply vanished, you’d be dead wrong. While the days of mass media constantly gazing upon the culture of rock gods have passed, it can be argued that the uniqueness diversity and overall creativity of rock music as a whole is on a completely different level to that of the 80s as these female acts prove. So, strap yourselves in because while artists such as Joan Jett, Stevie Nicks and Pat Benatar are iconic women who paved the way for female rock, they’ve got nothing on these girls.

Honourable mention: Christina Michelle of Gouge Away

Ok, I know what you’re thinking, and yes I know that Gouge Away are not an all-female band. However, I felt that they just had to be mentioned. It was on a complete whim that I discovered gouge away. Usually, I have a story of how I discover artists but, as weird as it is to say, I just sort of found them one day, and I’ve been hooked ever since.

Gouge Away have a sound that’s a blend of shoegaze and hardcore punk which works really well. It gives you that classic punch of that hardcore sound mixed with the sombre tones of shoegaze, giving their songs a slightly unsettling nature.

I remember showing Gouge Away to a friend of mine who said to me something along the lines of “you can tell that they really attack those instruments”. Considering this, it makes an undoubtably difficult task for vocalist Christina Michelle to essentially match the chaotic energy of her bandmates and essentially fight for her vocals to be heard over the thrashing of her bandmates and boy can you tell she goes for it.

Her vocals are so powerful and intense that it just brings something out of you

I think a commenter on a video one of Gouge Away’s live performances described it best with the quote, “this singer’s voice is mesmerizing. So unique and she doesn’t give in.” It can be difficult to bring the ferocity required to make a good hardcore track but rest assured that whatever it takes, Michelle’s got it.

If the aggression of that hardcore sound isn’t really your style, or you’re just discovering the genre and want something a bit more on the side of shoegaze, then Gouge Away have got you covered too. I recommend the songs Dallas and Stray/Burnt Sugar for the easy-going fans and the songs Fed Up, Can’t Relate and Ghost for those who want that bit of extra oomph in their ears.

5.Dream Nails

Up next we travel back to England as we look at the punk band Dream Nails. Originating from mutual friends as well as run-ins at drag shows, Dream Nails are slowly attracting their target audience with their feminist anthems. I first discovered Dream Nails after I heard through word of mouth that they were performing near me. Being down for anything music related I decided to check them out and upon reading the title of their most streamed song, Vagina Police, I immediately thought to myself “ok, these girls clearly have a message they want to send… I’m in.” After conducting some more research, I became hooked to their songs such as Good Guy, Joke Choke and DIY which are these incredibly fast-paced thrash punk tracks containing messages about completely destroying patriarchal values and throwing classic social societal values completely out the window and to that I say power to them.

4.Dream Wife

Staying in the UK, next up we have Dream Wife the London based punk trio who combine punk, pop and indie all in one. Considering the similarity to the name of the previous act, you’d be surprised to know that I discovered Dream Wife the same way I discovered Dream Nails. After hearing they’d be performing nearby I decided to check them out through their KEXP live performance and I’ve got to say, after just two songs (Social Lubrication and Love You More) I was hooked on the high-pitched screeches of the guitar that clash against those smooth bass lines and vocals. I could clearly see their indie and pop influence on just their first two songs. However, after discovering their song Let’s Make Out I was completely dumbfounded. Alice Go had transformed her role on guitar by switching to these filling chords that practically swallow the whole song if it wasn’t for the lead vocalist Rakel Mjöll fighting back with her amazing screams for the chorus.

Whether it’s a nice relaxing indie sound, some feedback heavy punk or just a cool image to follow, this band have something for you.

3.L.A. Witch

For my next entry we head to California for rock trio L.A. Witch. If I had to bet on any of the bands mentioned in this article obtaining a substantial amount of popularity in the near future, I can comfortably say I’d put my money on LA. Witch.

Originally founded in 2011 by guitarist and lead vocalist Sade Sanchez and bassist Irita Pai due to an ex-boyfriend forbidding Sanchez from playing in bands with other men, L.A. Witch has taken its feminine identity and kept it at the forefront of their band’s image.

The word ‘witch’ to us is like a cool way for us to hint that it was our feminine-type energy

Sade Sanchez
L.A. Witch have a very woozy-sounding garage/punk rock sound witch I think has great potential. While I think that punk is an awesome genre, having every single song go at over 200 bpm with blaring loud instrumentals and intense screaming can get not only repetitive, but also tiring on the ears. Not everyone wants to thrash all the time. Sometimes people want to listen to punk in a relaxed manner. Producing songs sounds with sound while also staying within the punk genre is a difficult task, however, L.A. Witch in my opinion are one of the few bands who have properly mastered it. They still have overdriven guitars that give off feedback and fast drums, but it still has a slightly relaxing feel to it, especially within their latest album Play With Fire. Ever since I discovered it, I’ve not been able to stop listening to it. Due to its well roundedness as a rock project, it’s become one of my essential albums for every occasion.

As with most bands, L.A. Witch’s sound has improved incredibly, and you can hear it throughout their discography. Granted it’s probably through years of practice finally paying off, but it feels like you can hear them becoming more confident in their sound and playing ability as you work your way from beginning to end. All I can say is that I’m super excited for what they’ve got planed for the future.

2.Otoboke Beaver

Next up we take a trip even further across the pond to the Japan for punk rock group Otoboke Beaver. You know that classic cartoon troupe where they give a kid coffee, or some other highly caffeinated drink and they just go absolutely wild? Yeah, Otoboke Beaver is the musical personification of that exact scene.

Best described by rock legend Dave Grohl who said “it’ll blow your mind, dude. It’s the most fucking intense shit you’ve ever seen,” Otoboke Beaver are quickly on the rise due to their ability to blend fury and finesse to construct a fast paced, high intensity punk rock that sounds the musical version of a perfectly executed boot to the face. I first discovered the band after hearing S’il vous plaît and I was instantly hooked to it’s extremity of the sound, yet it had such a high degree of delicacy to it, it almost felt cute somehow; it was a well-made song but it also had that degree of aggression and rebellion that that came with punk and it kept me interested. I decided to look further into their discography to which at this point I discovered the video for Don’t light my fire, which completely blew my mind.

It’s been about a year since I first watched that video and I still think that I haven’t seen a music video with as much authenticity and raw energy as that. The almost hostile levels of power in their songs can be heard to the point where if they don’t blow your speakers, they’ll definitely blow your mind.

The almost hostile levels of power in their songs can be heard to the point where if they don’t blow your speakers, they’ll definitely blow your mind.

At the time of this article being published, Otoboke Beaver are embarking on a US tour on which I’m sure they’re making a name for themselves, however I can’t wait for their next project. After nearly 15 years of music, I think that the band have finally mastered that perfection combination of fun and absolute carnage (especially within their last album Super Champon) and I can’t wait to see where they go from here.

1.Nova Twins

As far as being patriotic goes, I can’t say I’m really your guy at all. However, when it comes to this next group, I can honestly say that I’m proud to say that England’s own Nova Twins holds the number one spot for my top female groups to look out for. These girls are absolutely crushing everything they do with their heavy instrumentals which are channeled through a complete arsenal of pedals to make sounds that I thought previously to be impossible. It all goes hand in hand with guitarist and lead vocalist Amy Love’s hip-hop/punk vocals.

It may sound like an exaggeration when I say that discovering Nova Twins could be compared to that of a life changing experience however I’m willing to go there for this band. After scrolling through the list of endorsers for Marshall amps, I stumbled upon a picture of two girls dressed like guitar hero characters absolutely rocking out on stage. I was intrigued however it wasn’t until the next day that I decided to look them up. It was by chance that I was wearing headphones the day that I discovered their song Antagonist for the first time. I mention this due to the fact that it made the high-pitched wails of Amy Love’s guitar in the opining riff that much more impacting, however nothing prepared me for the absolutely thunderous bass tone that erupted from Georgia South’s bass into my headphones. It felt as If my headphones were erupting, I had never experienced anything like it. For the whole day it was pretty much the only song I listened to. That’s the joy of Antagonist: you can’t just listen to it once. It requires at least two or three listens to get over the sheer cataclysmic event for your ears that is listening to that song.

It requires at least two or three listens to get over the sheer cataclysmic event for your ears that is listening to Antagonist.

Not only are Nova Twins absolutely rattling your ear drums, they’re also making history through their activism. Whether it’s through their “Voices For the Unheard” playlist highlighting alternative P.O.C. artists or their related limited edition record which all proceeds of record sales went directly to The Black Curriculum, Nova Twins are always using the attention they have for the right reasons. However, neither of these acts compare to their open letter to the MOBO awards calling for them to introduce a new Rock/Alternative category to their award shows. Clearly MOBO had listened as the next year we were given the first ever MOBO Best Alternative Music Act category.

Whether its making absolutely monstrous music or paving the way for future artists. It’s clear that these girls are ready to carry the torch for the alternative music scene and pave the way for artists in years to come and that’s why I think these artists deserve the number one spot.

So there you have it. Whether you like the violent and bashful sound of hardcore band Gouge Away, or the soft garage rock sound of L.A. Witch or even the skull-crushing tone of Nova Twins, there’s something for you in this list to prove that, as the old saying goes, the future is clearly female. With these acts taking the reins, we’re here for it.

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‘I still try to put people onto Sonic music today’: in conversation with genre-defying producer AshZone
21
Apr

Following the release of his new lo-fi single me and you, Alex Walden caught up with East London producer and artist AshZone to talk about the story behind his most recent music video, some features you may have missed, and his influences as a producer as well as an artist.

AW: You posted in Instagram about how there’s a sort of storyline behind your latest music video.

AZ: Yeah, there’s a bit of lore behind the whole AshZone thingy.

How does that work then?

It’s more sort of like a personal thing, the storyline. Each song sort of tells a story of me as an artist. If you go all the way back to 2020, with my project called NIGHTINGALE, each song was telling a story. The whole story behind that EP was about finding myself as an artist and exploring myself – kind of like travelling. Although I didn’t actually go anywhere physically, it was about exploring different things and places as an artist so I kind of developed that a bit more in my recent songs.

My last four songs, papaya, get right!, move your body and me and you, all have some sort of connection in terms of my artistry, being obviously my purple self, but I’ve also allowed myself to create this world which is literally based off real life. Everything that happens in real life I draw or animate.

The way that you have your drawings blend in with the real world is dope in my opinion. I love how it shows you can blend your music with the real world.

Thank you. The way I went about it before was I used to draw everything, like literally everything, then I kind of realised from I think papaya onwards, the music video or visualiser or whatever, this blends really well. With papaya I used screenshots from this game called Forza so then I started trying to use more real-life stuff with the next music video get right! and I was like “you know what? I’m going to do a full-length music video,” and thenmove your body came and then with me and you I was like “move your body’s music video is good but I want do better” you know? “I want to do much more interactive stuff”. So, I went out several times and shot different things in Hornchurch, which is my hometown, just shooting different areas and stuff. I had to be careful so I brought the tripod so I could track the camera motion so that my animation would work really well with all that stuff.

When you draw, I notice that there’s often little pop culture references. When you posted the snippet of the character with the overall and rollerblades, I immediately clocked that’s got to be Tab from Jet Set Radio.

Yeah 100%

And I saw you had included a snippet of some Bomb Rush Cyberfunk in there as well. Would you say that those games have influenced the way that you make music as well as draw?

Oh 100%. It’s not even just Jet Set Radio and Bomb Rush Cyberfunk. I think at the end of the day, it always boils down to my love for Sonic the Hedgehog. I’ve always heard people say to me “your music sounds like something I would hear in a sonic game” and I’m like “yeah thanks, this is perfect,” because again, it goes all the way back to when I was 12. Actually, I started making music at like 11-ish and I think Sonic Colors had just come out at around that time and the soundtrack was what had literally pushed me to like… I remember saying to myself at a very very young age “I want my music to sound like that”.

It is a killer soundtrack to be fair.

Literally, Sonic music is so good and that is what gave me the push to look a lot deeper into music, into composition and all that stuff and to this day I still try to put people onto Sonic music as crazy as it sounds like.

Bro so do I! There are so many hidden gems in Sonic games.

Literally!

The way they construct a whole world with their music is insane.

Literally, like I feel weird sometimes listening to Sonic music but these guys… these guys know what they’re doing you know?

For real, they’re good at what they do.

Yeah but in terms of art, I got into art through my older brother because he does graphic design and back then he used to design a lot of characters and stuff so that kind of pushed me to do the same thing as well. For me to this day, art is still a hobby but at the same time it’s like… you know it’s one of those things where I was like “I can use this a lot for my music”, and my art takes inspiration from many things from Scott Pilgrim to Jet Set Radio. There’s this artist on Instagram called Cassandra Calin. She played a huge role with my art style and everything, but the music video itself does take inspiration from Jet Set Radio and in the outfit I

designed – well not designed because I already own it in real life – but the outfit is based off of Tab or Corn’s outfit from Jet Set Radio to the roller skates and just putting stickers everywhere in my town centre. I would’ve done graffiti but I realised that it would’ve been a lot harder to animate plus I’m sure it’s illegal. You know I’m for inspiring kids to do the right thing these days.

Wow a true role model if I ever heard one.

Ha-ha, exactly!

Moving from the inspiration in your drawing back to your sound; when I first discovered you it was when you released get right! It brought back this garage sound that I hadn’t heard in a while and then, looking further into your discography, I can see you have so many different sounds. You have garage, house Splatoon remixes and even Vocaloid music. With you having such an extensive range of sounds, do you ever find it difficult producing and releasing different genres of music because the audience might not like it or is it just “I want to make this song. I’m just going to make it”?

I used to have a bit of anxiety a little while ago. This was back when I was working on NIGHTINGALE because I had two distinctive audiences at the time. I had my real life audience which was friends I know, my brothers and all that stuff and then there’s my online audience who are mostly from America and they used to like my EDM and my drum ‘n’ bass and all that stuff whereas my real life audience – they’re more used to my mellow kind of hip hop-ish sound and at the time I was thinking like “what do I make, what do I make?” but nowadays I kind of just want to make whatever I want to make, you know? If I want to make a full on EDM track like something you would hear in Rocket League or a Twitch streamer’s stream or whatever then I would make it. I mean maybe not now because I’m kind of in this era of lo-fi house and dance music and all that stuff but if I feel like it I feel like it. It’s that sort of artistic freedom in a way, if you get what I’m saying.

So then if you were to make a project in the future could we expect multiple genres or just the one?

It depends on how I’d want the project to go. It could be like a full on EDM sound or it could be straight up dance music/dance lo-fi or it could be a mixture of both. I’m definitely not new to that concept as I’ve done it before. In fact I think my very first EP that I put out when I was like… how old was I?… I was like 16, 17. It was like a full-on hip hop EP because it was more aimed at my real life audience. Although I was still heavily influenced by Sonic music, I kind of wanted to go back to my roots and then after going back and forth between genres I realised I just wanted to try loads of different genres at the time so I made a project that was strictly this genre and strictly that genre. So yeah, I would do it again if I felt like it.

To be fair, you’re good at that stuff. I mean with get right!, move your body and me and you, they all sound a little bit different; they aren’t exactly the same genre but the way you produce it kind of creates your own unique musical universe with all these characters. Focusing on the characters in move your body, I’m guessing that it’s you and Lotu5 in the video along with the other characters. Are these characters all based off of real people or are they people that you just draw?

For move your body, every single person in that video is based off of someone I know in real life. It’s essentially their cameo appearance in that video. I drew myself with Lotu5 alongside with friends whereas with me and you, yes there were loads of cameo appearances, but there were also people that I designed myself. I don’t know if they count as video vixens, but I did design and style them myself, some of them. For an example, if you look in the video there’s a girl wearing a red, black, and white Ferrari Jacket. I designed her by myself and it’s kind of based off not people that I know but people that I see in real life, like the different hairstyles and all that stuff – different black hairstyles might I add – and different fashion senses. You know, I had to like actually go outside, which is a crazy concept, but I had to go out and seek and study people’s different senses of fashion and all that stuff and I tried to apply it to these people that I’m creating for this specific music video.

I respect it man. One that caught my eye was the sticker of a man with a pink jacket and his dog in the art style of Bathing Ape’s Baby Milo, is that a real person?

Yeah that’s my friend, his name is Diore and his Instagram is @realeffingdee. He’s a very, very supportive friend. He’s one of my good friends in this scene. I only met him earlier this year but we found out we went to the same school and everything and he’s been so properly supportive with my music and stuff and he’s also just a really great guy so he asked me if he could have a little cameo appearance and I was like “yeah, not only am I going draw but I’m also going to give you your own little Brent [Faiyaz] sticker in different places here and there” and he was like “bro thank you so much!” and I was like “aye man it’s nothing, you’re so supportive of me, this is like me paying my respects back to you”.

Towards the end of the video, you put a little trailer for 365 which is coming soon. As well as that is there anything else we can expect from you in the foreseeable future?

About the 365 thing, I was hoping people would take more notice – I was sprinkling a little bit of 365 here and there throughout the whole music video. What’s so lucky about where I live is that there is a bus route with the number 365, so I thought I’d take advantage of that. But anyways, yes at the end of the video I do tease a little something with an artist called honey. She’s released music with an artist called 10tendo called Money and the song is really good but it’s big as well. Me and her have got a little something together. 365 is… I don’t want to say too much but it’s definitely something we can expect in the future at some point.