DIY Festival Guide 2022 by DIY Magazine

YOUR WHOPPING GUIDE TO THE BEST FESTIVALS ON THE PLANET SPECIAL EDITION SUMMER 2022 • DIYMAG.COM

2022

FESTIVAL GUIDE

SPORTS TEAM TAKE ON AMERICA

ALFIE TEMPLEMAN • NOVA TWINS • SIGRID • LIFE • JOE LYCETT

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LET'S GO TEAM DIY’S FESTIVAL SEASON HIT LISTS

FESTIVAL PLAYLIST

Aka the bands and artists we’ll be legging it down to the front row for this summer. SARAH JAMIESON

Managing Editor • My Chemical Romance - alright so they’re not playing loads of festivals, but if I can somehow wangle myself a spot at When We Were Young in Las Vegas… • The Killers - as ever, the true champions of festival season. Can you beat a warm pint of cider and losing your voice to ‘Mr Brightside’? No, no you cannot. • Self Esteem - yes, we’re still riding that ‘Prioritise Pleasure’ high, okay?! Charli XCX - one word: ‘Baby’. • Sam Fender - you just know the singalongs will be glorious.

EMMA SWANN Founding Editor

• The Strokes - ‘The New Abnormal’ was the second best album of 2020 (after ‘Future Nostalgia’, soz Julian

and the boys), and I’m desperate to see it live. • Dua Lipa - see above. Also, I’m a huge fan of pop acts without the fancy trappings of an arena show. • Jack White - I’m itching to see ‘What’s The Trick’ live. And he’ll always be on the list, regardless of year. • Biffy Clyro - I know what you’re thinking, ‘But they only just headlined Reading & Leeds!’ Ah, but this year they’re popping up in smaller slots across mainland Europe and in the States, and so it’s likely to be more raw, rough’n’ready (and sweaty) as opposed to the pyro-assisted stadiumbait we’re used to. • Måneskin - this time last year I’d have slapped you if you’d suggest I said this, but quite probably the only act to have conquered the whole of Europe simultaneously, so their sets will likely go off the same, regardless of

location. Also, fashion.

LISA WRIGHT Features Editor

• BIG MACCA DOUBLE THUMBS - he was in The Beatles! The actual Beatles! • Rina Sawayama - by hook or by crook I will bop to ‘This Hell’ live this summer. • The Strokes - will they continue the 2020 precovid good form? Let’s hope! • Dua Lipa - a genuine miracle to be that perfect and also weirdly likeable. • Yeah Yeah Yeahs when I grow up I want to be Karen O.

LOUISE MASON Art Director

• Yeah Yeah Yeahs - I shall be reunited with my one true love. • Self Esteem - for the 685th time, but extraordinarily for the first time in a castle in Sicily • Pavement - a gift to my inner child.

• Autechre - bring it on. • King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard - hopefully they'll play all their albums, start to end.

ELLY WATSON Digital Editor

• George Ezra - you can’t have a summer festival without yelling 'Shotgun' at least once, it’s the rules. • 100 gecs - I’ve been waiting two years to seriously injure myself in a mosh pit during 'Stupid Horse'. • Doja Cat - the dance moves! The outfits! “That's not cheating if I wasn’t with your ass”! We all know that she was the true Coachella headliner this year (sorry Harry). • Arctic Monkeys - do you really need a reason for this? • Måneskin - come for the matching Gucci catsuits, stay for the glam rock bangers.

Editor's Letter It feels like almost a lifetime has passed since we last dropped a Festival Guide into your lap but, lovely readers, we can’t tell you how excited we are to be back! After a few tentative steps made in the right direction last year, we - much like the rest of the music industry - are positively joyous at the idea of getting back into venues and fields across the world this summer - and we hope you are too. So consider this 2022 Festival Guide as a bit of a bible; a packed-to-the-rafters issue with one main aim: to get you involved in the most exciting festival season yet. What are you waiting for? Grab your tinnies, pack your wet wipes, and follow us! Here comes the sun… Sarah Jamieson, Managing Editor

Founding Editor Emma Swann Managing Editor Sarah Jamieson Features Editor Lisa Wright Digital Editor Elly Watson Art Direction & Design Louise Mason

All material copyright (c). All rights reserved. This publication may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form, in whole or in part, without the express written permission of DIY. Disclaimer: While every effort is made to ensure the information in this magazine is correct, changes can occur which affect the accuracy of copy, for which DIY holds no responsibility. The opinions of the contributors do not necessarily bear a relation to those of DIY or its staff and we disclaim liability for those impressions. Distributed nationally.

Contributors AF Cortes, Ben Tipple, Burak Cingi, Cady Siregar, Ed Miles, Jenn Five, Jonathan Dadds, Leah Lombardi, Patrick Clarke, Pooneh Ghana, Sharon Lopez, Tilly Foulkes. For DIY editorial: info@diymag.com For DIY sales: advertise@diymag.com For DIY stockist enquiries: stockists@diymag.com

CONTENTS 16 10 Joe Lycett

Wolf Alice

22 Sports Team

Nova Twins

Alfie Templeman

38 LIFE

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Sigrid

Mark Bowen,

IDLES

Last time you played Glasto it was a pretty massive, emotional set on the Park stage - what are your memories of that moment? There was an energy in the air just before we went on that ignited when we went on stage; I could barely hold my pick, could hardly look at the others or the audience, lest I spontaneously combust or collapse in a pile of tears. It was the summation of a lot of things that day. We’d barely had time to catch our breath in the two years before it and I think that was the first time it really hit home what had happened for the band and what was going on around us. Glastonbury is a very special event for this band; it’s fulfilling a lifelong dream getting to play it, let alone have tens of thousands of people singing your songs back at you. I hope we showed everything it meant to us that day and ever since. What is it for you that makes Glastonbury such a magical place? I’ve been going to Glastonbury with Dev, Joe and Jon since 2008 and there is no denying there is an energy to that place that you feel nowhere else. Everyone loosens up, becomes more open, expresses themselves more them-ly, appreciates more about the world around them. It sounds like woo woo nonsense and I would have put it down to being primed by all the, ahem, hedonism, but when we went there for the livestream in 2020 it still had all that energy. Aside from that, it’s 200,000-odd people in a field celebrating life with a backdrop of the best bands and music in the world at that point. It is the best place on earth. You've had two albums out now since last time you played. Aside from the obvious change in setlist, how do you feel IDLES have changed as a live entity in that time? So much has changed, I think there’s a depth and a power to the band that’s come from those two albums that really feeds into the live show. All the chaos is still there but there’s a prowess and a renewed vigour and belief that’s making our shows better and better.

WE'RE NOT

We decided a while ago that we wanted to become the best live band in the world and since coming back after lockdown that has (slowly) become a reality. We’re the tightest we’ve ever been and in this band that allows us to be rawer, more chaotic, more present along with that. Our festival shows are always mayhem and we owe it to our audience to take that even further, which we will.

For the first time Glasto-attendee, have you got any insider tips? My advice is don’t make too many hard and fast plans, all the best stuff happens spontaneously and in places you least expect it. Speak to as many people as you come into contact with; everyone seems to be willing to chat and listen at that festival, you learn a lot. Strummerville campfire is my favourite place, especially around 5-6am when it's all died down a bit and there’s just odd stragglers about. You’ll meet some really lovely weirdos.

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! Y H T R O W James Smith,

Yard Act This is Yard Act's first time playing Glastonbury and you're straight into headlining the Leftfield stage - what was the reaction when you got that call? We thought it was really cool they thought we were a good fit for that stage. I'm always up for blurring the lines and joining the dots between all forms of culture, whether that's art or politics or whatever else, so I'm really pleased we're sharing the stage with activists and cultural figures as well as other top musicians.

Have you been as punters before? None of us have ever been. It's a long way from Leeds. I've seen it on telly though - I always get eight beers and a massive bag of crisps and watch it for ages. Who else do you want to catch over the weekend? Kendrick. The rest is for the gods to decide. You're going on at the same time as Paul McCartney - why should people watch Yard Act instead? Because looking at our tour schedule for the rest of the year, we'll be dead before he is.

GLASTONBURY

girl in red This will be your first time playing Glastonbury! What are you most excited about? I hear it’s one of the best festivals in the world so I’m just really excited to have a beer, walk around, see some cool shows and chill out! And obviously play my show! Is the festival as famous in Norway? It’s not really that famous in Norway, I've just heard about it after a few years of being an artist. I hear the catering is trash [we can neither confirm nor deny these rumours… - Ed], but it has the best crowds! You've been touring solidly this year, how do you think your live show has grown during that time? I think we all play better, and we have cooler visuals and a cooler lighting rig. Overall just having a bigger team around me makes the live shows better. Can we expect any new material in your set? If so, can you give us a teaser of what that might entail? Who knows! I have this little idea that I like to show around, but I can’t promise anything...

Brendan Yates,

Turnstile

It's been a huge year for you since the release of ‘Glow On’ - have you felt the shift within the band? I think I’ve felt a shift in music in general after the last few years. It’s a confusing but exciting time to be making and playing music. We’re lucky to have any part in it. The band / audience communion at your shows has become a really celebrated thing - what do you hope that people get from a Turnstile live show? There’s no saying what someone will take from a show. For some people it’s a night out, for others it’s a much needed outlet to express themselves. Whatever the takeaway is I hope it feels good. After a couple of years out of the ring, what's been the most satisfying thing about getting to return to the stage? Getting to play new music in places we’ve never been, meeting new people and seeing familiar faces that we hadn’t seen in so long. Traditionally, hardcore is considered as a genre that exists in smaller, more kinetic spaces but over the course of your career so far, those spaces have gotten much bigger. How has that challenge been? I think we celebrate things feeling new, and not feeling stagnant or repetitive. Growth is something that I feel is a forward motion, not always an upwards one. I feel the challenge is embracing new experiences and opportunities, and letting that be a part of the growth.

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KIEWIT, HASSELT, BE

ANNA CALVI ∙ THE AVALANCHES DJ SET BATTLES ∙ BILLY NOMATES BLOOD RED SHOES ∙ EEFJE DE VISSER FUTURE ISLANDS ∙ GIRLS AGAINST BOYS KINGS OF CONVENIENCE

EDITORS PIXIES . LIAM GALLAGHER BALTHAZAR ∙ VITALIC

MESKEREM MEES PARQUET COURTS ∙ PORRIDGE RADIO SONS ∙ SQUID ∙ STRAND OF OAKS THURSTON MOORE GROUP WHISPERING SONS ∙ WOLF ALICE

TICKETS & INFO: WWW.HEARHEAR.BE 9

WOLF ALICE’S

CAMPSITE PLAYLIST If there’s one band who can be trusted to bring the party, it’s Wolf Alice. Whether slaying the main stages of every festival going, or drinking the bar dry in North London’s local boozers, they might be global charttopping superstars these days, but that doesn’t mean you’re any less likely to find one of them stumbling through the Healing Fields at 4am with a warm tinny in hand.

Who better, then, to curate the good vibes you’ll need back at camp than rhythm section extraordinaire and resident vibe maestros, Theo Ellis and Joel Amey. They’ve been there; they’ve done it; now all you need to do is buy the Gerry and the Pacemakers T-shirt and press play.

Confidence Man

Does It Make You Feel Good?

Theo: Confidence Man are my dream festival act. They define fun when they play live and this tune just generally gives me big fezzy energy. Not sure I’ve hit the mark with the campfire aspect of this playlist, but we’re deffo partying.

Carly Simon

You're So Vain

Joel: Use this song as a bonding exercise with those camping around you; even people who have never heard the song seem to know the words and love to sing it out loud, so it will bring you all closer together without having to make too much small talk.

Turnstile

Holiday

Joel: Get your adrenaline up and running with everyone’s favourite hardcore band before heading into any main arena and subsequently losing your friends, wallet and phone.

The Weeknd

Gasoline

Theo: This is the ‘Saturday around 5pm, back at your tent to grab 456 ciders’ banger. Honestly this song gets you ready for anything. Lovely stuff.

Fontaines DC

Big

Joel: A massive tune by one of the best festival bands out there.

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Slipknot

Duality

Joel: Someone has passed out in a camp chair around the fire and it’s their round. Use this song to awaken them and demand warm Red Stripe.

Yung Lean Red Bottom Sky

Theo: Stick this on round the campfire in that twilight zone just before reality sets in and you start to feel quite bad.

The Verve / Jay Z

Brush Your Bitter Sweet Shoulders Off

Theo: Play it off a broken speaker via a YouTube converted rip and enjoy.

Jagwar Ma The Throw

Theo: What a tune, deffo one to stick on when you're back at the campsite but the festival is still in full motion in your mind.

Gerry and the Pacemakers You'll Never Walk Alone

Joel: It’s 5am, you should call it a night, but you've just heard that some so-and-so is doing a secret set in the woods. Put this on, rally the troops, and off you stride.

Wolf Alice play Best Kept Secret (10th - 12th June), Kesärauha (10th - 12th June), Tempelhof Sounds (10th - 12th June), Rock For People (15th - 18th June), Glastonbury (22nd - 26th June), Lollapalooza Stockholm (1st - 3rd July), Mad Cool (6th - 10th July), Pohoda (7th - 9th July), TRNSMT (8th - 10th July), Pol’and’Rock (4th - 6th August), Hear! Hear! (14th August), Reading & Leeds (26th - 28th August), Electric Picnic (2nd - 4th September), Firefly (22nd - 25th September), and When We Were Young (22nd - 23rd October).

Billie Eilish Headlining: Glastonbury By the time Billie Eilish landed at Worthy Farm for her 2019 Glastonbury debut, she’d already been upgraded from the tented John Peel stage to the Other Stage; come her Sunday afternoon slot, the enormous crowd in attendance could have easily filled the Pyramid field. Naturally then, for her next trick, our Bills will be hurdling straight up to headline the entire damn thing, becoming the youngest person to ever grace Glasto’s top spot at the tender age of 20. Now that’s what we call overachieving.

Dave Headlining: Reading & Leeds If festivals are meant to represent the musical culture of the time and showcase those pushing scenes and sounds forwards, then Dave should have been a headliner a long while ago. Across his two studio albums, the Streatham rapper has added soft and vulnerable textures to the UK rap scene, finally hitting the arena circuit early this year. His headline slots at Reading & Leeds this August will serve as his coronation as a generational star.

Cometh the time for festival announcements, cometh the same batch of names wheeled out on headliner rotation - or so it’s seemed for a good many years. Muse. Pearl Jam. Kings of Leon. We’re not entirely sure, but by this point we think we might actually be a Followill by default. Until now that is, because hallelujah! Between the extra star-making time afforded by the enforced pandemic break, and Matt Bellamy presumably spending his summer otherwise engaged with building an AI robotic space probe (or something), Festival Season 2K22 is shaping up to have the freshest set of bill-toppers in recent memory. Get excited: it’s going to be a game-changing summer.

Sam Fender Headlining: Finsbury Park, Truck Has an artist gone from plucky newcomer to bonafide voice of a generation more quickly than Sam Fender in the last decade? Over the last six months, he’s gone from theatres to arenas without a flinch and, this summer, he’ll carry on the ascent to headline Finsbury Park alongside a host of other bill-topping slots at festivals across the country. He’ll surely end up as the artist of the summer, and catching any of these sets will guarantee an ‘I was there’ story for you to tell for years to come.

The

NEW GUARD Dua Lipa

Headlining: Primavera Sound, Open’er, Roskilde Circa her 2017 self-titled debut, you couldn’t have imagined Dua Lipa headlining a festival as discerning and quote-unquote ‘cool’ as Primavera. Fast forward to 2022 however, and with the all-conquering ‘Future Nostalgia’ under her belt, Dua has become the great pop unifier: beloved of the mainstream commercial overground and anointed by the muso gatekeepers at once. Let’s hope she comes with the giant inflatable Dua Lobster last seen gracing the stage of her UK tour in tow.

Megan Thee Stallion Headlining: Primavera Sound, Positivus, Parklife, Reading & Leeds You can’t get summer festival ready without the queen of Hot Girl Summer herself (Megan Thee Stallion, of course), and thankfully the chart-topping performer will be bringing all the hits across multiple stages this year. With a banger-packed discography destined to have the whole crowd dancing along, Meg will be wowing with gems from 2020 debut LP ‘Good News’ as well as likely teasing her forthcoming new record which she says is “95%” done. Rallying the Hotties at Parklife, Primavera Sound, and Reading & Leeds, it’s time to start learning the lyrics to ‘Savage’ and priming all your best moves for ‘WAP’ now…

Halsey Headlining: Reading & Leeds After half a decade of following Lorde's lead in edgy alt-pop, Halsey made a left-turn during the pandemic, working with Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross on the fantastic, future-facing pop-rock of ‘If I Can't Have Love, I Want Power’. The new album added conceptual heft and drama to her existing arsenal of pop smashes, and if the forthcoming live show is anything like the new album's lavish, dramatic accompanying film, we're in for a sumptuous treat at Reading & Leeds.

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BURNA BOY

GORILLAZ

NICK CAVE & THE BAD SEEDS

FLORENCE + THE MACHINE

SIGRID – BIKINI KILL KING GIZZARD & THE LIZARD WIZARD FRED AGAIN.. – LITTLE SIMZ – FONTAINES D.C. ALDOUS HARDING – PA SALIEU HOLLY HUMBERSTONE – DJ KOZE ACID ARAB (LIVE) + MANY MORE...

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ROAD

Iceland Airwaves

2nd - 5th November Various venues, Reykjavík MUST-SEE BANDS: Arlo Parks, Amyl & The Sniffers, Crack Cloud, Metronomy MUST-SEE SIGHTS: The Icelandic Punk Museum is situated in a former public toilet; the Icelandic Phallological Museum is not. Get great views from the top of the iconic Hallgrímskirkja, and from within the concert hall, Harpa. And if you fancy a trip slightly further afield, you can always get in on that hot spring action. a:Direct from Birmingham, Bristol, Edinburgh, Glasgow, London Gatwick, London Heathrow, London Luton, London Stansted, Manchester. WHEN:

WHERE:

Osheaga

29th - 31st July Jean-Drapeau, Montreal MUST-SEE BANDS: Arcade Fire, A$AP Rocky, Bleachers, Sam Fender, slowthai MUST-SEE SIGHTS: Before witnessing Arcade Fire in their natural habitat (well, almost), take a walk up Mount Royal itself for stunning city views, try the locals’ unique take on the bagel, and gaze at brutalist housing development Habitat ‘67, just a short walk from the festival site itself. a Direct from London Gatwick, London Heathrow. WHEN:

WHERE: Parc

This Ain’t No Picnic

27th - 28th August at the Rose Bowl, Pasadena, CA MUST-SEE BANDS: LCD Soundsystem, The Strokes, Phoebe Bridgers, Le Tigre, Earl Sweatshirt MUST-SEE SIGHTS: The location is a National Historic Landmark, so your entry itself counts as a tourist activity. But by virtue of being part of Los Angeles County, stop offs in Beverly Hills, Hollywood and even Disneyland are possible. a: Direct from London Heathrow. WHEN:

WHERE: Brookside

Lollapalooza

28th - 31st July Park, Chicago, IL MUST-SEE BANDS: Dua Lipa, Glass Animals, Green Day, 100 gecs, Doja Cat MUST-SEE SIGHTS: Being a large city, there’s the usual selection of museums, shops and restaurants to be found. Plus there’s the UNESCO World Heritage-inscribed, Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Robie House, rides on the Navy Pier, and we’ve heard artist Anish Kapoor really hates it when you call his Cloud Gate sculpture ‘the bean’. So go and see the bean. a: Direct from Edinburgh, London Heathrow. WHEN:

WHERE: Grant

Primavera Sound São Paulo, Buenos Aires & Santiago

5th - 6th November, 12th - 13th November Distrito Anhembi, São Paulo, Parque de Los Niños, Buenos Aires, Parque Bicentenario Cerrillos, Santiago MUST-SEE BANDS: The people behind those well-loved weekends in Barcelona and Porto have spread their wings even further, taking in a trio of South American cities for a series of shows that host the likes of Arctic Monkeys, Björk, Lorde, Phoebe Bridgers, Charli XCX and Jack White. MUST-SEE SIGHTS: São Paulo’s Mercado Municipal is a foodie’s dream, while the Museu do Futebol traces Brazil’s decorated history with the beautiful game. Buenos Aires is home to the largest Japanese garden outside of Japan itself, one of the few surviving original casts of Rodin’s ‘The Thinker’, and iconic bookshop El Ateneo Grand Splendid. Head up Santiago’s San Cristóbal Hill for great views of the Chilean capital, then nose around La Chascona, a curious house built by poet Pablo Neruda for hiding away with his mistress, Matilde Urrutia. a: All direct from London Heathrow. WHEN:

WHERE:

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Mad Cool

6th - 10th July WHERE: Madrid, Spain MUST-SEE BANDS: The Killers, Wolf Alice, Glass Animals, Jack White, St Vincent MUST-SEE SIGHTS: Walk around the Casa de Campo - a public park that’s about five times the size of Central Park in NYC - before getting an art fix at the Reina Sofía museum, home of Picasso’s Guernica alongside works from Dalí, Miró and Juan Gris. Then sip cocktails at one of the city’s many rooftop bars, before hopping to Real Madrid’s Bernabéu stadium, where a tour is a reasonable €9. a: Direct from Birmingham, Edinburgh, Liverpool, London Gatwick, London Heathrow, London Stansted, and Manchester. WHEN:

Sziget WHEN: 10th

- 15th August Island, Budapest MUST-SEE BANDS: Justin Bieber, Dua Lipa, slowthai, Role Model, Tame Impala MUST-SEE SIGHTS: Take a trip up the Castle Hill funicular, dating from 1870, and a dip in one of the city’s many thermal baths. See ruins from the Roman city of Aquincum, and pay your respects at the Shoes on the Danube Bank memorial, honouring Jews murdered by fascist Hungarian militia during the Second World War. And for a curious one, the city’s Memento Park is dedicated to housing statues from the country’s Communist period, including those of Lenin, Marx and Engels. a: Direct from Birmingham, Bournemouth, Bristol, East Midlands, Edinburgh, Leeds/Bradford, Liverpool, London Gatwick, London Heathrow, London Luton, London Stansted, Manchester, Newcastle-upon-Tyne WHERE: Óbuda

Summer Sonic

20th - 21st August ZOZOMarine Stadium & Makuhari Messe Tokyo, Maishima SONIC PARK, Osaka MUST-SEE BANDS The 1975, Måneskin, Rina Sawayama, Megan Thee Stallion MUST-SEE SIGHTS: Where to start?! In Tokyo, marvel at the city’s oldest temple, Sensō-ji, before immersing yourself in the bright lights of Shibuya, meanwhile animation fans must visit the Ghibli Museum. In Osaka, head up the Abeno Harukas - the country’s tallest skyscraper - for views, browse the Kuromon market for street food, and visit the Sumiyoshi Grand Shrine. a: Direct from London Heathrow to Tokyo. WHEN:

WHERE:

Splendour in the Grass WHEN: 22nd

- 24th July Byron Parklands, NSW MUST-SEE BANDS: The Strokes, Tyler, the Creator, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Liam Gallagher, Orville Peck MUST-SEE SIGHTS: Popular beach resort Byron Bay is a short distance: home to surfing (of course), scuba diving (naturally) and even some whale-watching. And if outdoor activities prove too much, it’s a 90-minute drive up the road to Brisbane. a: Prepare for a full day’s travel with at least one stop. WHERE: North

’ N I P P I R T

Now international travel is fully back on the cards, there’s every chance you’re as itching as us to venture a little further than the nearest corner shop this summer. Here’s a selection of destinations where you’re able to spend just as long seeing sights as singing along to the headliners’ hits. 15

Every festival season, a few tracks worm their way out of the woodwork and stake their claim as the season’s indisputable field-conquering bangers. Which ones will rule the roost this year? We asked the nation’s sweetheart - bona fide comedy treasure Joe Lycett - to give his verdict… Interview: Lisa Wright.

HEY MEGAN THEE STALLION - Thot Shit

That’s what everyone says about me - I’m a Thot Shit. I love Megan Thee Stallion just because her whole vibe is so extra. I have the wettest ass pussy going in the business, and I just love how free this song is - no fucks to give, that's what she’s going for. I listen to a playlist before a show called Songs That Make Gay People Scream - ‘All I Want For Christmas’ is on it which is very disconcerting in the middle of summer and ‘Thot Shit’ is definitely going on that playlist.

BILLIE EILISH - Happier Than Ever I remember saying on the last album with the lyrics, if I I was her mother I’d send her to her room and take her tablets off her - no devices until the morning! It was quite full on, but this album feels like she’s grown a lot. She’s very wise for her years, I think.

SAM FENDER - Seventeen Going Under Sam Fender sort of passed me by for some reason and the music isn’t really what I’d seek out, but he’s just such a force for good and a funny, brilliant, very authentic person who just does what he wants to do. More power to him! I’m not a a TikTokker so things pass me by and then they arrive on Instagram six months later, but male mental health is a big, big problem and if he’s an advocate for that, I’m an advocate for him.

JOE! SELF ESTEEM - You Forever

She can do no wrong! I absolutely adore her! The album is insane, live she’s extraordinary; I was very lucky to see her when she did a gig in King’s Heath and it was one of the best things I’ve ever seen. We’ve been friends for about a year; we’re sort of mutual fans I suppose. We nearly did [a project] together but then schedules didn’t align but I’m sure we’ll do something at some stage. Because she’s a genius, I’d be very scared to damage any of that reputation; she doesn’t need anyone else, so it would be a sort of pity thing if anything…

FONTAINES DC - Skinty Fia LOIF AIN’T ALWAYS EMPTY! I like Fontaines DC but I feel like BBC 6 Music could have maybe played three more tracks last summer than just that song. I’m thrilled that there’s a band like this around at the minute though, because I miss those sorts of legitimate rock bands that have a real proper identity and story. It feels like they’re being left to do what they want to do and ‘Skinty Fia’ is testament to that.

PINKPANTHERESS - Pain I wasn’t familiar with her but I love this track. I like stuff that’s electronic and wub-wub-wub, and she’s added a beat to it and given it a real attitude. It’s weirdly nostalgic, this song, and it’s quite reassuring to me that every few years things will come back round that remind me of my childhood; every year I get older, I get better at understanding how I want to live my life and I get happier, so I’m quite happy for the years to go on. Joe Lycett is touring the UK and Ireland with his stand-up show, More More More, How Do You Lycett?

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Keg

Playing: Wide Awake, Deer Shed, Latitude, End of the Road, Green Man, Dot to Dot, Manchester Psych Fest What do you get when you cross the tricksy time signatures of Squid, the wildcard energy of Sports Team, the lyrical lols of IDLES and the dance moves of Future Islands? Why, you get one of guitar music’s most exciting new hopes, Keg of course! Hailing from Brighton and already smashing out the kind of bonkers earworms that’ll win new fans over by the bucketload (check recent single ‘Kids’ for proof), they might be going into their first festival season as a relatively unknown entity but they’re sure to leave it victorious.

Lime Garden

Playing: Live at Leeds: In The Park, Deer Shed, Truck, Green Man, Dot to Dot, Tramlines, Manchester Psych Fest As you can see above, Brighton four-piece Lime Garden are playing a fair few festivals this season, so there’s no reason to avoid making them one of your favourite new bands. Their music has an undeniably danceable quality to it, but it’s often glazed in waves of reverb or gritty guitars, like listening to a disco unfolding from the next room. The perfect mid-point between indie and dance, Lime Garden scratch both itches and are destined to find their crowd across this summer’s festivals. Make sure you get in the door (or tent) early.

BELIEVE English Teacher Playing: End of the Road, Green Man Class of 2022 stars English Teacher played their first ever gig in mid-2021 as part of DIY’s socially-distanced May Big Bank Holiday Weekender, and it hinted at big things. On top of catchy and lively art-punk, vocalist Lily Fontaine was an instant star, weaving absurdist tales out of pandemic life. They’re a band best experienced when less than 2m apart from your fellow audience members though, and festival season will allow you to get up close and personal in the pit. The band also have debut EP, ‘Polyawkward’, in tow too.

Grove

Playing: Wide Awake, End of the Road

The Umlauts

Playing: Wide Awake, End of the Road, Green Man Hailing from Monaco, Austria and er… Gloucestershire, The Umlauts’ wonky mix of synth-pop, post-punk and ravey blips and beeps is just as varied as the places they call home. Yet though there’s an iciness and motorik energy to last year’s ‘Ü’ EP, on stage the band are a bundle of oddball fun - take, for instance, their January show for DIY’s Hello 2022 night, when covocalists Annabelle Mödlinger and Maria Vittoria Faldini spent a random portion of their set emitting dolphinlike throat sounds. Why not, eh!

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Whether it’s guesting on tracks from Lynks and SCALPING or on their own razor-sharp material, Bristol’s Grove is a rapper with intensity at their core. Their hometown can be felt strongly in the DNA of their sounds, with the trip-hop, dub and sound system culture heard from every open window and dark nightclub across Bristol reflected in Grove’s eclectic but focused sound. Atop of these sonics, they sing of gender identity, sex and desire with wit and ferocity, and the live show is just as compelling. This is a festival season that could make them a star.

Kynsy

Prima Queen

Playing: Long Division, Latitude Transatlantic best friends Kristin McFadden and Louise Macphail are perfectly intertwined on the music they make as Prima Queen. Their indie-rock sometimes draws from the folk-influenced likes of Phoebe Bridgers (new single ‘Invisible Hand’), but also has a danceable edge (2021’s ‘Chew My Cheeks’). With whatever sonic background, the pair present a united front; their two voices together sound like a quiet hurricane.

the

Playing: Live at Leeds: In The Park, Y Not, Neighbourhood Weekender, Tramlines When Dubliner Kynsy first emerged at the end of 2020, her influences seemed firmly rooted in the indie-sphere; ‘Happiness Isn’t A Fixed State’ nodded gleefully to The Strokes, ‘Cold Blue Light’ to an early Wolf Alice brand of widescreen. With every passing release, however, she’s adding more strings to her bow: a sassy synth-pop moment here, a Blondie down the disco bop there. If it’s always a treat to listen to an artist audibly grow in real time, then Kynsy’s already taking us on a stellar journey.

Crawlers

Playing: Reading & Leeds, Truck, Neighbourhood Weekender, TRNSMT You know something special is afoot when a band's debut EP clocks in over 30 million streams, their first headline tour sells out entirely and they ink a deal with a major label all in the space of just a few months. Well, that's exactly what's happened for Liverpool quartet Crawlers. Throw in a coveted support slot at one of My Chemical Romance's huge reunion shows, and you've got yourself a must-see.

HYPE We all love a big snazzy headliner on their all-guns-blazing victory lap, but you don’t get to top the bill without rising through the ranks first. And, nestled among the smaller print on this year’s festival line ups, are a host of new talents, championed by DIY’s Neu pages and gearing up to mark their territory across the UK’s fields and beyond. Get in the know and find your future festie favourites with our handy tip list…

Porij

Playing: Live at Leeds: In The Park, Deer Shed, Green Man A band full of beat-makers, Porij’s four brains come together to concoct a fresh, eclectic take on dance music that makes as much sense on a sun-drenched outdoor afternoon as it does at 2am in a sweaty room. Perfect, then, for the summer, when blissed-out, warm samples and enveloping vocals c/o singer Eggy should prove a perfect bedfellow to that delicious icy pint be it the first or last of the day.

THE BASICS 1. VANGO SAMSON 2 CAMPING CHAIR

Oversized and capable of holding up to 28 stone, this sturdy camping chair will probably outlive us all. Replete with an insulated drinks holder to keep your cold stuff cold and your hot stuff hot, it’s the big daddy of campsite sitting options. RRP: £31.99. Buy it: outdoorworlddirect.com

2. GALAXY SMARTTAG

Nothing ruins an otherwise-glorious weekend like losing all your possessions in the mosh pit / dance tent / portaloo [delete according to preference]. Keep tabs on your valuables with this clever tracker that syncs up to your devices; for bonus clever clogs points, attach it to your tent and feel smug when you’re tucked up cosy as your mates search in vain for their campsite. RRP: £39. Buy it: samsung.com

3. GROOV-E POWER BANK Available in two sizes - the smaller perfect for oneday events; the larger good to go for a weekend - you’ll never be left phoneless and stranded with these power banks. Compatible with most devices, it’s a simple necessity. Groov-e baby. RRP: £14.99 - £24.99. Buy it: currys.co.uk

4. COLEMAN CORTES OCTAGON 8 TENT Grab seven of your bezzies and pool in for this sizable camping homestead; it’s octagon-shaped so you get one corner each! Clever! With a detachable outer layer, you’ll also be grateful for its options: if it’s a heatwave, stick to single thickness, if the rains are falling, pop on its little coat. RRP: £249. Buy it: outdoorworlddirect.com

5. RED WATERPROOF COOL BAG Picture the scene. It’s Day Three of the festival. Everyone is flagging; the sun is beating down; the idea of trekking to the nearest bar is simply too much. And then, from your cool bag, you pull out actual fresh ice, like… a magician? Like… god? Yes, this bag keeps ice solid for up to 72 hours. It’s spenny, but can you put a price on being that much of a legend? RRP: £159.95. Buy it: red-equipment.co.uk

FESTIVAL S L A I T N E S S E oyed all to festival? Destr Forgot ten how pplies in a fit of midt you your camping su not, for we’ve go 2020 rage? Fear your must-haves from our covered - crib t and breeze through handy go-to lis like a pro. festie season

7 8 6

THE FUN BITS 6. NICE BOXED WINE

Available in Malbec, Rosé and Sauvy B options, don’t even bother thinking about traipsing a bottle of vino around when you can indulge in a far more convenient, less shatterable and - let’s not beat around the bush - larger box. The nice people at NICE have nailed the niche. Try saying that three times after you’ve guzzled half its contents. RRP: £21.50 for 2.25 litres. Buy it: nice-drinks. co.uk

7. ELEPHANT GIN COFFEE LIQUEUR Be the fanciest camper on the block with this boozy coffee liqueur - perfect for whipping up an on-thego espresso martini (just add a coffee shot), or just drinking over ice for a delicious pick me up. Warm tinnies, be gone! RRP: £12.50 for 200ml. Buy it: elephant-gin.com

8. PRESTO COFFEE BAGS Don’t waste your precious time and money queueing for an hour for a £4 hangover coffee; get the same restorative joy (and pro taste) with these barista-quality coffee bags. Available in ‘Smooth Italian’, Intense or Decaf versions, they work out at less than 40p a pop - the knowledge of which will give you a bonus perk, too. RRP: £8.99 for 25. Buy it: presto-coffee.com

20 DIYMAG.COM

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LET THEM ENTERTAIN YOU Having unexpectedly conquered the UK with 2020 debut ‘Deep Down Happy’,

SPORTS TEAM are setting their sights on the rest of the world with followup ‘Gulp!’. Kicking off their summer with an impromptu New York run, we join them to let the sweaty good times roll once again… Words: Cady Siregar. Photos: AF Cortes.

“

Guitar music doesn’t work unless you’re together and listening and moshing and forming circle pits.” - Alex Rice 24 DIYMAG.COM

“I HAVE NO IDEA HOW ANYTHING SOUNDS AND I CAN’T HEAR MYSELF

as they gear up to its release and a summer packed with festival appearances far beyond their native isle: they want to be bigger and better in everything they do.

or anything, so I apologise,” Alex Rice pants into the sweaty crowd, halfway through Sports Team’s set at a packed and heaving Bar Niagara in New York City.

Second time around, the band’s humour is intact, but the record’s more amiable moments come intertwined with deeper existential crises and wider, generational anxieties. There are ruminations about death on ‘Getting Better’ (“And every foot you place is just another step into your grave”), and ponderings on mortality in the everyday drudge on ‘The Drop’: “Katie died waiting for the right time to retire.”

“YOU SOUND GREAT!” an audience member yells. “Haven’t been to many shows then, have you?” Alex retorts, before the band launch into their next riotous number.

“It’s dark, but I guess it’s a funny kind of dark,” Rob admits. “But that’s the fun of it,” caveats Al. “It’s super dark, but you have the best night of your life dancing to it. That’s the perfect tonic.”

Tonight, the band - Alex, Rob Knaggs (rhythm guitar and vocals), Henry Young (lead guitar), Oli Dewdney (bass), Al Greenwood (drums) and Ben Mack (keyboard and percussion) - are playing the second show of their ‘New York Residency’, sandwiched between sets at the Mercury Lounge in Manhattan’s Lower East Side and Bar Freda in Ridgewood, Queens. It takes about three songs for the East Village crowd to get truly rowdy and warmed up - which is about three songs longer than the band are used to back home in the UK. On home turf, Sports Team have, of course, fully established themselves as one of the most exciting guitar bands, having renewed the genre with their effervescent live presence and wry lyrics. What started out as a “joke band” between six friends who met studying at university has turned into a group who boast a reputation as a refreshing addition to the legacy of British indie. They’ve been to New York before, playing the intimate Baby’s All Right in 2019. But it’s their first time back in the Big Apple since releasing their much-beloved debut album ‘Deep Down Happy’ - and just a few short months before their highly-anticipated second effort, ‘Gulp!’. Luckily, ‘Gulp!’ is exactly the sort of second album to equip the band with the materials necessary for broader terrain. Whereas ‘Deep Down Happy’ was a clever snapshot of British culture and politics, with plenty of sardonic references to suburban England and fishing, overtly-emotional football anthems and the M5, their second possesses themes that are slightly more universal subjects that extend beyond borders. It’s this mentality that they’re adopting

n the lead-up to ‘Deep Down Happy’, Sports Team established themselves as lovable underdogs - the sort of band who’d start a giant WhatsApp group with their fans to foster that all-important sense of community. Having narrowly missed out on a Number One to Lady Gaga, and with a nomination for 2020’s Mercury Prize now under their belts, that camaraderie remains but there’s a necessary extra level of ambition there too. Armed with their second album, Sports Team are more than ready to raise the stakes. “I’d still quite like to beat Lady Gaga with our own Number One album one day,” Al says, gritting her teeth comedically. “One day…” “You know who I’d like to beat to Number One? David Guetta,” Alex declares, to the laughter and agreement of his bandmates. “He’s always on the bloody charts every week! It’s our turn now.” A jam-packed summer full of European headline dates and festival jaunts beckons, including sojourns to Spain’s Mad Cool, Portugal’s Super Bock Super Rock and Norway’s Bergenfest among others. Meanwhile this week of gigs feels sort of like a soft relaunch for the band in the States - a chance to play some small, intimate shows with potentially new fans as a throwback to the group’s nascent, early days. “It’s nice to be in New York, and to see that we have fans here,” Alex nods. It’s been about 19 or so hours since their first Mercury Lounge show and all six band members are huddled around small bar tables, sipping daiquiris. “I guess by playing smaller shows like this, we’re kind of building

“

[The album is] super dark, but you have the best night of your life dancing to it. That’s the perfect tonic.” - Al Greenwood

26 DIYMAG.COM

from the start again. It’s a good feeling,” he continues. “One of our favourite bits of being in a band was always just playing these smaller shows, getting our mates down, not knowing what to expect. This feeling of, ‘How did you convince 20 people to come to this gig?!’”

Alex when he introduces new single ‘R Entertainment’ by declaring that it’s simply average. ‘Gulp!’’s opening track ‘The Game’, meanwhile, is sure to invite a joyous crowd sing-along in the near future: “Oh yeah, that’s the game / Life’s hard, but I can’t complain,” goes its chorus.

Bar Niagara is a classic dive-bar gig spot, just around the corner from Tompkins Square Park and deep within the framework of the historic New York scene from yesteryear. It’s not an obvious venue for a local band - let alone one from the UK - but Rob says that the venue’s history lured them there nonetheless. “Apparently this used to be a really cool spot from back in the day, with bands like Black Flag and Beastie Boys,” he enthuses. “But they haven’t had shows here in a while. We didn’t realise it was basically a bar. Our sound guy is very stressed...”

Sports Team hit the sweet spot of making infectious indie you can play at parties, but with lyrics that act as a means of catharsis, touching upon the cynical nature of modern life and the mundanity of the human condition. Their songs are about being anxious and contemplating the end of the world as we know it; if the apocalypse is coming, they seem to suggest, we might as well have fun. “If you just close your eyes then everything’s alright,” yells Alex during first album crowd-pleaser ‘Here’s The Thing’.

Those themes of frustration make themselves known more than ever in ‘Gulp!’. During the recording of the album, the band packed into a house in Bath for about a month, with the living situation leading The band hadn’t even planned to play the city in the week leading to mixed results. Certain songs on the album, such as ‘Cool It Kid’, up to tonight’s show, but after delayed visa issues caused them are about the suffocating feeling of blurring the lines between the to have to cancel their set at Shaky Knees festival in friends, bandmates and colleagues Atlanta, they shifted their sights and - in that you live with, while others touch somewhat characteristic fashion - booked on being far too online and feeling an impromptu, last-minute series of gigs. oversaturated in our 21st Century “We were just sat there, the day before world. “The first [album] is very we were supposed to play Shaky Knees, English, but this record’s a bit more waiting for the visas in this triple room in universal with human themes,” says a hotel in London. But then we missed Rob. “We were really trying to take the set,” says Rob. “And then as soon If you found yourself in these themes and push them outside as the passports turned up, to cheer London’s Shepherds of the UK.” ourselves up we just went to New York. Bush a few weeks back, We announced the shows right before you might have noticed In preparation, the band had been we hopped on the flight.” a glaring omission on listening to a lot of ‘classic’ second Sports Team’s giant albums, as recommended by their It’s the band’s ethos in a nutshell. Take billboard. Alex explains producer - and a handful of songs an unexpected change in fortune, turn The Case of the Missing are grungier and more raw as a it on its head - GULP! - then try to ‘Gulp!’ Logo… result. “Lots of Pixies and Nirvana. do it again, on their own terms, but We listened to ‘Nevermind’ so bigger, better, and one hundred per So we’re living, we’ve got many times,” Alex notes. There’s cent more mad. this huge glowing stick of ‘Gulp!’ dynamite up a momentary dispute, meanwhile, on the big roundabout in when talk turns to the inspirations here’s Shepherds Bush, back behind album highlight ‘Getting an equal on tour, album out this Better’. sense of summer. Then, about Day nerves and Four of our run, someone excitement who’s walking past it “NOT true!” Rob immediately palpable every day says it's been interjects, when Ben suggests that in the air as tonight’s set stripped from the billboard. they were inspired to write the song time approaches. But from How have they even done after copious amounts of listening to as early as 7pm, the bar this? To contemplate it, Thin Lizzy’s ‘Boys Are Back In Town’. has already started to fill up you’d have to have access “We were listening to ‘So It Goes’ with people antsy to get into to a picker crane with by Nick Lowe, which actually ripped the venue, eager not to miss associated licenses and off ‘Boys Are Back In Town’, and we out on their spot. By 8pm, an HGV. I start feeling ripped THAT off. So, in order, we stole the room is almost full, and immense rage, asking for it from somebody who stole it from when Sports Team’s set finally CCTV from the council, somebody else.” That’s that cleared rolls around, the tiny back room is drawing up shortlists of the up, then. absolutely rammed - so full that people have to stand on people who might be using it as the ultimate feature chairs in order to make room. Alex dons a pair of glasses wall - most likely troubled A large bulk of the songs, meanwhile, for the first few songs that may or may not be a cheeky teens. I’m going Law and were written deep in the quiet nod to a certain Strokes frontman. The six of them barely Order on this one. Turns pandemic winter in a house in fit on the tiny stage, but it’s just the way they like it - cosy, out the company that put Margate, when everything was closed intimate, and completely chaotic. it up just took it down and for lockdown. “We’d start drinking put it in storage for us. Now at about 11am,” recalls Rob. “We Running through songs from their debut as well as a few it’s a curse on the Island had this record [we’d play] with, offerings from their second album, the crowd jokingly boo Records office. Ironically I think it probably did its job better by being gone than it did when it was there people seemed happier to think we might have been robbed than they were thrilled to see us enact a massive outdoor advertising campaign. Spooky eh?

Stop! Thief!

“The first album was very English, but this record’s more universal. We were really trying to take these themes and push them outside of the UK.” Rob Knaggs like, songs that sound like being in a pub. We’d sit there with cans of beer listening to this record, and in the background you could hear people talking in the pub, making weird jokes. You’d listen to the barman saying all sorts of things. It was just like being at a real pub!” “Then we’d record songs about death,” deadpans Oli. “It was a cool time.” “And that was our lives for three months!” Rob concludes. In no rush to release another record in the peak of the pandemic following the bizarre Covid rollout of their debut, Sports Team were left sitting on their latest, affording them time to tweak and rejig elements at their leisure. “We kept going back and being like, ‘Oh, we have another year to put it out, let’s keep messing around with it’. And then it just was non-stop, just tinkering with it. And then being like, ‘Oh, maybe we’ll add a horn section’. Now, it doesn’t feel finished and we’re releasing it,” Rob laughs. “But it

feels really exciting compared to the first one, which really felt more like a collection of tracks that we’d been working on in between touring for six years. This one actually feels like a proper record.”

onight’s show is a success, and the bar is overflowing with Sports Team fans new and old - plus a few members of local favourites Geese and Bodega. If the crowd already seems familiar with the new album cuts, meanwhile, it’s only to be expected. “We were talking to this amazing fan of ours last night who lives out here. She already knew half the songs from people filming them from other shows we’ve played,” laughs Al. “We’ve only played a couple of songs live now, but it’s so bizarre how quickly stuff gets spread from the WhatsApp group.” “She was, like, livestreaming the gig to two of our UK fans last night,” confirms Alex.

And so, in many ways, it’s Sports Team’s fans themselves who are building the bridge between the familiar territory of the UK and their growing fanbase overseas and beyond. It shouldn’t be hard; having carved out a niche of chaotic, hedonistic good times in their live sets, you imagine the party will naturally follow wherever they go. “It doesn’t feel like a crazy leap into the unknown because we’re sort of building onto something that is already huge in the UK,” Rob notes. The discourse around guitar music and whether or not it’s met its end will always be a cyclical one. But from Wet Leg to IDLES, there’s been a renewed appetite for British guitar bands of late, and it’s all about that feeling of being part of something - a feeling that Sports Team understand more than most.

“People want a community, somewhere,” says Alex. “It’s quite a disparate world. Live music isn’t about the individual, it’s about the collective experience, and guitar music doesn’t work unless you’re together and listening and moshing and forming circle pits.” And though Sports Team might be peppering their bangers with wry asides about our imminent proximity to death, there are few bands that exemplify the joy of that tangible, in-person connection quite so fully as them. Who knows what the future will bring, but for now you could do a lot worse than spend your summer, pint in hand, singing at the top of your lungs to ‘Gulp!’. Life is short - so spend it with Sports Team. ‘Gulp!’ is out 22nd July via Island. DIY

Sports Team play Vestrock (3rd - 5th June), Live at Leeds: In the Park (4th June), Bergenfest (14th - 18th June), PiP (16th - 18th June), Vida (30th June - 2nd July), Mad Cool (6th - 10th July), Super Bock Super Rock (14th - 16th July), Zwarte Cross (14th - 17th July), Truck (21st - 24th July), Tramlines (22nd - 24th July), Kendal Calling (28th - 31st July), Over The Bridge (29th - 31st July), Y Not (29th - 31st July), Valley Fest (4th - 7th August), Haldern Pop (11th - 13th August), Victorious (26th - 28th August), Andalucia Big (8th - 10th September), and Mad Cool Sunset (10th September).

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Carving out a singular space in the rock landscape, Amy Love and Georgia South have resolutely done it their way. Now, with the advent of

Nova Twins’

second album ‘Supernova’, their potential feels limitless.

WORDS: BEN TIPPLE. PHOTOS: FEDERICA BURELLI.

here’s a series of videos on Nova Twins’ Instagram feed of the pair commanding a huge arena crowd. Vocalist Amy Love punches her arm into the air as the gaggle of fans wave a seemingly endless sea of lights. Both band and audience jump in time to a relentless punk drumbeat. It’s an impressive sight for any headline act; that Nova Twins were only playing support, on the road with Doncaster loudmouth Yungblud, makes it spectacular. “It’s great to feel that energy,” Amy says today, huddled next to bassist Georgia South in the back of a van on the way to their next show. “It’s the best feeling to be able to come back and share it with fans again.” Having cut their teeth on the London DIY punk circuit, the highly-anticipated release of 2020 debut ‘Who Are The Girls?’ was quickly met by an abrupt end to touring. Previously overlooked by the industry at large but having made a name for themselves on stage, it threw a potential roadblock their way. Unable to take to the road, however, the album took on a life of its own. “Suddenly there was this virtual online discovery,” Amy notes. “That album carried us through as a band. More people kept discovering it. It was an album that kept on giving.” For Nova Twins, it marked a definite shift in momentum that highlighted the power of their community. But the fact that word of mouth had helped to propel them forwards wasn’t surprising considering the band’s early days. Sitting outside of the conventional, it was the support of other artists that initially helped give the pair a platform, their live show in particular drawing high-profile attention. “We weren’t a buzzy, up-and-coming band. We were just existing,” Amy looks back. “There were so many bands who took us on tour because they WANTED to take us on tour, and not because they had a deal with management or an agent.” Over the past years, Amy and Georgia have joined the likes

30 DIYMAG.COM

of Tom Morello and Prophets Of Rage, Fever 333, Skunk Anansie and Wolf Alice on the road, as well as Black Honey, who gave Nova Twins a shot when they were first starting out. Following a couple of festivals last year, the pair’s return to the road in 2022 came in support of Bring Me The Horizon, including a huge performance at London’s O2 Arena. “It was like being pushed as little ducklings onto the lake,” Georgia recalls. “We’re swimming now.” That show saw Nova Twins join the headliners on stage for a live rendition of the collaborative ‘1x1’, with their closest family and friends sitting a stone’s throw away. “That was a head spin, looking out to a full O2 Arena,” Amy smiles. “It was a magnificent view. I cried when I came off that set. It was amazing.”

laying alongside such a varied list of bands, Nova Twins have seen a notable shift in fans attending their shows. “We both feel like we’re not part of a conventional society,” Amy says. “Anyone who lives outside of those lines is basically at our shows. That’s what we are representing. Of course we want to represent young Black women, but it’s more than that - it’s the marginalised communities. We band together, that’s what it’s about.” This sense of community and togetherness underpins everything about Nova Twins’ career. It’s what leads them to put up signs detailing their values at live shows, and is the catalyst behind their Voices for the Unheard playlist - a way of offering marginalised bands the same platform they received coming through the ranks. “It’s like a relay; we’re going to take that baton and keep moving forward with it, and hopefully keep bringing up other artists who may not get the same opportunities because of how they look, what they believe in, or who they love. We’re just trying to break the mould,” says Amy.

HOLDS D E R R BA d as e t r a t s e w “When ldn’t u o c u o y d a ban pace, s y r e v e n i exist ix of m a e r ’ e w but .” everythinge Amy Lov

Nova Twins harness the power of growing up outside of the norm. Although being mixed race women in the alternative scene often comes with its challenges, it also offers a certain sense of freedom. “We’ve never been one thing,” Amy continues. “We never could be one thing. When we tick checkboxes, it’s always ‘other’. That flows through everything we do. We’ve had the best of all worlds.” It's this that allows the pair to pull from a huge range of musical influences, and the thing that's drawn attention from such a wide-ranging list of artists, forming the foundation for all their creativity. Nova Twins haven’t grown up restricted by social norms or expectations, and that willingness to go against the grain has become second nature. “We’ve always just done it because we’re already the outsiders anyway,” Georgia laughs with a knowing look. New album ‘Supernova’ channels this energy, unafraid to blend styles and tackle issues head on. The rousing ‘Cleopatra’ takes inspiration from the Black Lives Matter movement, while ‘Antagonist’ offers a call to arms written as the country opens back up. It’s as cathartic as it is empowering, but also very

personal to both Amy and Georgia. “We’ve got songs that don’t just address politics,” Amy notes. “We’ve got songs about breakups, killing our boyfriends, and sex. Dig deep and you’ll see we’re just two normal girls making our way through life. There’s such a sense of triumph. There’s power and energy, and moments of vulnerability. We hope that when people listen to it, they get that main character energy.” Georgia reveals that many of the album’s songs were written with festivals in mind, leading into a summer which sees Nova Twins take to Glastonbury, Meltdown, Download, Latitude and more. Their place on such varied line-ups is a natural progression of their journey to date. “It’s something we’ve always wanted,” Amy smiles. “When we started as a band you couldn’t exist in every space, but we’re a mix of everything. As the years have gone on, and the more we’ve kept pushing, we’re able to be in all these different spaces.” It also gives the pair an opportunity to meet the fans who have both discovered and stuck by them

throughout the last few turbulent years. “When we first started as a band, there was predominately white cis males at our shows,” Amy says of a powerful change. “They are always very welcome and have been very respectful in our space, but we noticed there weren’t any women or people of colour at rock shows. At festivals we were the only ones on the bill who looked like us. What’s so amazing now is to see the change and the diversity. Now when you come to a show, you’ll see a mixture of different people enjoying it.” “We’d hate for people to carry on experiencing what we experienced,” Georgia adds, “going to rock shows and being the only one like [them] there. We feel great when people come and have never seen more of themselves at a show before.” And how have Nova Twins achieved it? “The more open you are, the more you get to experience,” Amy concludes. “Always just follow your gut. Don’t let anybody tell you what version of yourself you should be. You need to back yourself.” ‘Supernova’ is out 17th June via Marshall Records. DIY

Nova Twins play Slam Dunk (3rd - 4th June), Meltdown (10th - 19th June), Glastonbury (22nd - 26th June), Provinssi (30th June - 2nd July), 2000Trees (7th - 10th July), Latitude (21st - 24th July), FM4 Frequency (18th - 20th August), Pukkelpop (18th - 21st August), and Andalucia Big (8th - 10th September).

“When we tick checkboxes, r’. it’s always ‘othe h g That flows throu .” o everything we d - Amy Love 32 DIYMAG.COM

E G A N MOO DAY 34 DIYMAG.COM

From a period of inner turmoil and selfquestioning,

ALFIE TEMPLEMAN ’s debut ‘Mellow Moon’ emerges as a document of an inquisitive young mind with a world of sonic options at his fingertips. Words: Tilly Foulkes. Photos: Emma Swann.

Swann.

lfie Templeman doesn’t stop. At the age of only 19, he’s already put out four EPs and a mini-album to great acclaim; now, with the advent of just-released debut full-length LP ‘Mellow Moon’, he’s stepping up once more. Today meanwhile, catching up with the pop wunderkind from his bedroom in Bedfordshire, Alfie is midway through another long day of calls as indie’s most diligent new star. “I started at like 10am, and I don’t finish until midnight. And I’ve got The Great Escape tomorrow!” he says with a grin. Luckily, Alfie doesn’t seem tired though. Eager, animated and excitable, he’s looking forward to his summer of festival slots - including the likes of Dot to Dot and Tramlines - mostly because it’s an opportunity to see other artists he’s found himself in a new peer group with. Equal parts musical prodigy and super-fan, his ear for new music is keen - though when it comes to his own performances, he’s a little more reserved. “I should be getting ready [before I go on], putting on a bucket hat,” he laughs, “but I’m just anxious, really. I don’t really think I’m a live artist to be fair. Sometimes I have a hard time standing on stage…” Beginning at the tender age of 15, Alfie hadn’t had much chance to perform live before his current project started to take off, aside from “a few times with an old metal band” he was in years ago. The pandemic further stilted his opportunity to perform, and while he had previously seen his bedroom as a musical haven in which he could experiment with soundscapes and songs, it soon began to become a sort of prison. “Things started off pretty OK. I thought, ‘I’ll be in here a couple of weeks, I can knock out a record’,” he begins. “And then things just got progressively worse and worse, I got more and more anxious. It just sucked to be honest.”

“I wanna make the kind of things that give me goosebumps, that make the hairs stand up on the back of my neck.”

The young singer’s mental health spiralled as the pandemic went on, a prior condition meaning that his ‘vulnerable’ classification kept him even more isolated than most. ‘‘I was just getting trashed because I was so fed up with being in my room,” he continues. “I was drinking a lot, giving up on songs and basically doing nothing. I got really depressed and lost all sense of everything, absolutely everything. I didn’t give a shit about music. Or anything. Everything was just grey.” Alfie remembers it taking him about six months to finally pick up his instruments again. “I started writing slowly, building up songs, finishing bits and pieces,” he explains, and the result is ‘Mellow Moon’: a celestial musing on mental health and the world around us, accompanied by glittering pop and funky basslines.

ying the album together lies the perhaps lesser-expected theme of space exploration and the calming symbol of the moon itself. “There’s so much out there we haven’t seen!” Alfie enthuses. “It’s a bit like our own minds really - there’s so much we can’t come to terms with, can’t figure out. It makes me comfortable. When I’d spend the whole night alone just thinking, it was always there, it just made me feel sane.” Mental health struggles have been an intrinsic part of his life - an aspect of his existence he can’t separate from his music. Though the fact he is almost entirely self-taught is endlessly impressive to most, he finds it can be a slight hindrance. “I don’t really know if what I’m playing is right. Say I have a great piano idea, it’ll take me half an hour to actually show it to someone, because I keep messing it up,” he explains. “I feel like most of my good ideas just sweep over my head a lot of the time. I’m too afraid of playing them!”

E YDREAMS

He’s recently found that physically releasing his emotions helps to clarify a lot of his feelings in a way writing sometimes can’t. “I sit there, trying to figure out how I feel, but if you can’t say it, you can’t really write it either,” he notes. “Crying, though, is one of the best things ever in helping with that. It stops you feeling so numb, and it lifts a weight off your shoulders. I’ve been a lot

“I really love sugary pop music how rich and luscious it is.”

more comfortable letting my emotions out recently, which is good.”

Yet though there’s a tension at the root of ‘Mellow Moon’ that mirrors that of an anxious mind - the lyrics weighed down with some formidable jitters about the singer's role in the world - sonically it’s free and experimental, drawing inspiration from ‘70s funk, Krautrock and bubblegum pop. “It’s probably the most poppy-sounding stuff I’ll ever put out. It’s just a fun thing to do, it’s fun to experiment with, and I really just love sugary pop music. I really like how rich it is and how luscious it is.”

lfie is eloquent and open when discussing personal matters, but it's clear his main focus is always music; he has a sharp observational skill when it comes to understanding different aural elements, which makes him an insightful sonic experimenter. “I like music without a formula,” he explains. “There’s a loose concept to my album, but every song has a different meaning, every song has a different sound. I like anything that doesn’t have a formula but can still fit, like a really good puzzle - that’s what kind of turns me on, listening to an album.” The versatility of his debut certainly showcases a remarkable knowledge of different genres; ‘A Westerner’ has shades of Gil Scott-Heron, ‘Do It’ is a Daft Punk-like track dipped in cheesy ‘80s synthwave, and ‘Folding Mountains’ is a foray into stoner slacker rock. Alfie approaches music with an analytical eye, looking “beyond the melody, and into the things that are actually behind it, evoking it. The things that lift that track and make your ears warm. The bits that make you think, ‘What is that? I wonder what that sound is…’ I’m trying to find those sounds that make me feel different ways and different things.” He’s meticulous in applying this method to his own sound, not resting until every element has slotted into its perfect place. “I spent literally hours getting the drums and bass to match up [on ‘A Western’]. I wanna get it all right. I haven’t actually finished a new song in a while ‘cause I spend a whole day on minutes’ worth of music,” he laughs. “I just put in loads of tiny things, because I don’t want people to hear everything the first time. I want people to go back to it and go ‘Ohhh wait, hang on, I didn’t notice that before!’” ‘Mellow Moon’ has been two years in the making, but Alfie is already considering his next moves. “I wanna make the kind of things that give me goosebumps, that make the hairs stand up on the back of my neck, you know, progressions that catch me out,” he says. “And I wanna write lyrics that mean the world to me, something that’s straight from the heart. I feel like I’m at a point in my life where I just really need to sing about how I feel at the moment.”

Alfie Templeman plays Live at Leeds: In the Park (4th June), Mad Cool (6th - 10th July), TRNSMT (8th - 10th July), Depot In The Castle (9th July), Community (16th July), Latitude (21st - 24th July), Tramlines (22nd - 24th July), Y Not (29th - 31st July), Bingley Weekender (5th - 7th August), Sziget (10th - 15th August), 110 Above (26th - 28th August), The Big Feastival (26th - 28th August) and Victorious (26th - 28th August).

More than capable of consistently creating new and imaginative sounds, with an ability to dig deep within himself and explore the more complicated corners of his mind, Alfie Templeman might have started as an impressive indie teen prodigy, but the future could go whichever way he wants it. “I’m seen as an indie artist,” he says of himself. “But I’m definitely not. That’s gonna change in the next decade. For sure.” ‘Mellow Moon’ is out now via Chess Club. DIY

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THERE’S NO PLACE I LIKE HOME

n March 2020, the four members of LIFE caught the very last two planes out of New York’s JFK airport back to the UK, jumping ship from a US tour that, it was becoming apparent, would be unable to continue due to the unfolding pandemic. When they got back to Hull, says vocalist Mez Sanders-Green, “It put everything into perspective. [You had to prioritise] the things you cherish the most and the people that have given you the support you needed to do what you do.”

Mez and his brother Mick, who pen the majority of LIFE’s lyrics, have always had a straightforward focus when writing. “We write in the moment, day to day,” the singer says. Their 2017 debut ‘Popular Music’, for example, took influence from his and drummer Stewart Baxter’s work in the youth provisions sector. 2019’s follow-up ‘A Picture Of Good Health’ was written entirely on the fly during hectic sessions in London, songs conjured from scratch in the morning and taped in the afternoon.

Celebrating their surroundings and casting their sonic net wider than ever, Hull quartet LIFE are gearing up to take their ‘North East Coastal Town’ out into the wider world. Words: Patrick Clarke. Photo: Luke Hallett.

38 DIYMAG.COM

When it came to ‘North East Coastal Town’, then, it was only natural that the feelings of closeness that emerged under lockdown would begin to work their way into the band’s writing. LIFE’s third displays levels of tenderness the band have never reached before. On ‘Duck Egg Blue’, for instance - a gentle ode to the power of love in the face of exhaustion - Mez recorded his vocals at 2am, cracked and weary. “Maybe I’m not as tuneful, but that lowering of the barriers and lowering my guard lends to what we were trying to say,” he says of the take. Beyond just the people in their immediate circles, ‘North East Coastal Town’ is also a tribute to the wider communities to which they belong, and ultimately, as the title implies, to their home city of Hull. “It’s a love letter to the community around us,” says Mez. “I would say that this is the album where we’ve truly taken ownership of who we are. On this record we’re reflecting and taking stock, and showing our true colours.” Such is the intensity of LIFE’s civic pride, that they followed a strict philosophy: no aspect of the new record should be sourced from any further than forty miles from Hull. Everything was written in their studio on the banks of the River Humber (the evocative post-industrial landscape around it is featured in the video for lead single ‘Friends Without Names’), and recorded just south of the city in a converted chapel. They borrowed guitars from Hull forebears The Beautiful South. “If we’re gonna call an album ‘North East Coastal Town’, harp on about how it’s in our DNA and really pinpoint it as a love letter to our community, then every single thing needed to be from that community,” says Mez. “I think you always have to be sincere. That’s what we’ve always tried to do.” It was an exercise in commitment rather than altering their sound, yet the progression LIFE have made on their latest LP is still obvious. As well as the pounding aggression that defined their first two records, the band’s third

stretches out readily into longform psychedelic grooves and tender ambience. Like the subject matter, this too was a product of lockdown; “The time and space allowed us to experiment,” nods Mez. The sessions in The Chapel, meanwhile, were open and free: a far cry from the intense, fractious and pressurised process last time around. “We’re very proud of ‘A Picture Of Good Health’ and it put us on the map as a band, but we only had ten days to turn it around,” he notes. “We didn’t have time to sit with it, so did we make the best decisions on that record…?” It’s also easy to read the album as a direct counter to those who may have pegged LIFE as part of a post-punk ‘scene’ following their last release - an effort, perhaps, to carve out their own separate identity - but Mez insists that was never a concern. “I’ve never felt the pressure to write specifically for genres,” he says. “We just wanted to write the best record that we could write at that specific point in time.”

“It’s a love letter to the community around us. This is the album where we’ve truly taken ownership of who we are.” Mez SandersGreen

Ultimately, the recording of ‘North East Coastal Town’ was an exercise in identity, and one that has imparted plenty of lessons along the way. LIFE are now resuming the hectic touring schedule that they abandoned back at JFK in March 2020 - including a summer that will take in stops at Long Division, Mad Cool Sunset, Colours of Ostrava and more - and they couldn’t be more thrilled. Now, however, they’re doing so with a newfound self-assurance. “I look at schedules with different eyes,” says Mez. “It often feels like the artist is the last person to be considered, and I have a stronger opinion on not just saying yes to everything. But in the same breath, do I relish playing live? I love it. It fills me with such joy to be onstage with my three best friends, and I can’t wait to crack on with the summer. It’ll be amazing.” ‘North East Coastal Town’ is out 19th August via Liquid Label. DIY

LIFE play Vestrock (3rd - 5th June), Long Division (10th - 11th June), Colours of Ostrava (13th - 16th July), Andalucia Big (8th - 10th September) and Mad Cool Sunset (10th September).

E B VI Sigrid

Returning with second album ‘How To Let Go’, is chomping at the bit to pick up where her debut left off and take her rightful place back on the stage. Words: Elly Watson.

40 DIYMAG.COM

hree years ago, fresh from the release of her debut LP ‘Sucker Punch’, there weren’t many places you could go without hearing one of Sigrid’s bright and vivid pop hits; whether blasting over the speakers at a supermarket or igniting a sing-along throughout the festival circuit, ‘Don’t Kill My Vibe’ kicked off a whirlwind period for the Norwegian singer where she felt ubiquitous. Now, having scored a top five album and a pair of top 20 singles in the UK, Sigrid is older, wiser, and ready to do it all again with her recently released follow-up, ‘How To Let Go’. “Have I changed?” the 25-year-old wonders while sipping a cup of coffee, speaking over Zoom from her flat in Oslo. “It’s hard to tell because I’m in it right now. If you ask me in a year I’ll probably have a better idea of how I’m dealing with it. But I’ve been told that I know a lot more than I did before, just in terms of how many shows I can do in a row, and what tires me out, and what makes me happy.” Penned over the last two years, Sigrid’s latest full-length - despite her fame -

finds the singer navigating the kind of struggles that all twenty-somethings face, specifically learning to let go of “insecurities, doubts and fears”. The acoustic-leaning ‘Grow’ explores what it’s like to be an adult, inspired by the star returning to her small home town in western Norway as the strikingly different person she is now, while ‘Mistake

“I love getting something productive out of feelings. Whenever I’m in a mood, I’ll listen to my own songs all the time.” Like You’ looks at heartbreak as a learning lesson, (“Instead of, ‘Ah, that fucking hurt!’” she laughs). Elsewhere, the thumping ‘Thank Me Later’ provides an opposing side to that heartbreak, with closure coming in its chorus of “I need to let you go, let you go / It’s better for us both”, and its preceding track ‘Risk

Of Getting Hurt’ sees Sigrid reflecting on how it’s still better to take risks than play it safe (“It's just not a thing worth doing, if there's no risk of getting hurt”). “I feel really lucky to have the tools to write about my feelings,” she explains of the songwriting process this time around. “I love getting something productive out of feelings. I want to write reminder songs to myself, and whenever I’m in a mood, I’ll listen to my own songs all the time! Why not?! I wouldn’t write songs that I didn’t love, and I always set out to write songs that I wish I had in my playlist.” Finding herself “digging even deeper lyrically,” ‘How To Let Go’ also sees Sigrid exploring different ventures sonically. Though still a pop album at its heart, the singer’s second leans closer towards the rock and stadium-filling acts that Sigrid loved listening to growing up, with Stevie Nicks and Freddie Mercury cited as major reference points. “It was only a matter of time before I made an album like this,” she says. “It just felt like where my voice wanted to go. I’ve always loved singing straightfrom-the-heart big choruses and big melodies, and the production just naturally leans in that direction now.” ‘How To Let Go’ also offers up perhaps

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the most surprising collaboration of the year in the form of Bring Me The Horizon team-up ‘Bad Life’. Beginning life when Sigrid ran into the band’s Jordan Fish backstage at a festival, the pair and frontman Oli Sykes soon began working on a song that would morph into the suitably anthemic track. “I’ve been a fan of Bring Me for years, and I listen a lot to their music in the tour bus and backstage, especially before I go on stage,” she smiles. “I’ve always been a bit shy but I love listening to really emotional and heavy music. I’ll be sitting on a flight completely silently and there’s screaming in my headphones!” Sigrid hopes that these new sonic explorations and the album itself - “It’s the best one so far, in my humble opinion” - will silence those who might still question her stature as a songwriter. Bounding onto the scene in her iconic white tee and jeans combo, and armed with unashamedly pop big-hitters, she’s often had her legitimacy questioned, with “industry plant” rumours thrown in her direction. “It baffles me that a t-shirt and jeans could make such a big conversation!” she laughs. “It hurt me a bit at one point because you do feel discredited for who you are. That whole outfit thing came from, not because anybody forced me to do it, but because I come from a place that has four seasons in one day and you just have to wear practical clothing. On stage, I felt like everything was pretty chaotic around me and everything was brand new, so for me it was just having one less thing to think about. “But that discussion around authenticity also made me feel like, is it authentic if I wear a dress?” she continues. “I just thought, I’m not gonna let anyone else decide. I hate being told what to do, so now I’m just chilling. I know what makes me happy and what I need.”

‘H

ow To Let Go’, then, finds Sigrid embracing herself more completely than ever as she reflects on growing up. And though she may have had some brief moments of doubt (“I was like, ‘Fuck! Am I in a difficult second record?’”), she’s flipped the script and embraced the difficulty to create an uplifting and celebratory pop album. “I feel a bit more equipped and prepared because it’s the second time, and I’m just trying to enjoy it,” she explains. “I don’t get this time back so I’m gonna fucking enjoy myself!”

“Expect a crazy Norwegian running about on stage, and you don’t understand where she has all the energy from,” she laughs. “Just pure adrenaline! I hope that’s the takeaway. You come to our shows and you hear, hopefully, what you think are catchy songs, and we’re bursting with pride because we haven’t been on tour for so long. And there will be a lot of joy - I feel like we have very joyous concerts and it’s very fun and celebratory. So yeah, come for the party!” ‘How To Let Go’ is out now via Island. DIY

What Sigrid is really looking forward to, though, is the next few months, as she triumphantly makes a return to a busy festival season where she’ll be hitting up the likes of Glastonbury, Mad Cool, TRNSMT and more. “It’s so cheesy, but I know I’m going to be emotional over the next few months,” she says. In fact, the thought of returning to the stage was something constantly on her mind throughout writing ‘How To Let Go’, and its live vision can clearly be seen in the record’s huge, made-for-the-field choruses, ready to be screamed back to her by thousands. “I’m kind of back on my 2019 schedule,” she grins. “I’ve been waiting for this… Touring and playing festivals is such a huge part of me and my identity and who I am. It’s what I love to do. It’s my safe place! I just can’t wait to have my life back.” Promising new visuals and classic upbeat Sigrid energy, she’s eagerly awaiting the time when her band can show off their favourite parts of her new music, pinpointing the guitar solo at the end of ‘It Gets Dark’ and the clubby rock-pop vibes of ‘Burning Bridges’ as the songs she’s most looking forward to performing.

Sigrid plays Best Kept Secret (10th - 12th June), Overoslo (10th - 18th June), Isle of Wight (16th - 19th June), Glastonbury (22nd - 26th June), Roskilde (25th June - 2nd July), Lollapalooza Stockholm (1st - 3rd July), Palmesus (1st - 2nd July), Mad Cool (6th - 10th July), Pohoda (7th - 9th July), TRNSMT (8th - 10th July), Slottsfjell (13th - 14th July), Moldejazz (1x 8th - 23rd July), Standon Calling (21st - 24th July), Tramlines (22nd - 24th July), Sziget (10th - 15th August), Flow (12th - 14th August), Pukkelpop (18th - 21st August), Parken (19th - 20th August) , Pstereo (19th - 20th August) and Raketnatt (26th - 27th August).

“I hate being told what to do, so now I’m just chilling. I know what makes me happy and what I need.”

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