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Dub Pistols tour dates 2024

Dub Pistols is currently touring across 1 country and has 14 upcoming concerts.

Their next tour date is at Fox & Firkin in London, after that they'll be at The Golden Lion Todmorden in Todmorden.

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Upcoming concerts (14) See nearest concert

Fox & Firkin

The Golden Lion Todmorden

Kendal Brewery Arts Centre

The Dutchmaster Tower Millenium Pier

West End Centre

Exeter Phoenix Arts Centre

Shiiine On Weekender

The Hare & Hounds Birmingham

Band On The Wall.

The Jazz Cafe

Past concerts

Mucky Weekender

Maui waui festival

Beat-Herder

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Recent tour reviews

Great night seeing a great band. Really got the crowd going and if you love bopping you drum/bass , ska, reggae you’ll love this.

Club 85 is a great venue too, real old school where you meet the entertainers in the loos along with everyone else.

Mucky Weekend

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Absolutely amazing show! Great crowd and the best I've seen the dub pistols perform. They did all the old classics and the new songs were fantastic too. A truly excellent night!

Good Sound Good Light Nice People and also nice prices at merchandising. After the Show the Badk come outside to the Band on the Wall Cafe and talk with the people.

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Dub Pistols

Serena Parsons

Sunday Best/Cyclone

How many bands have the career longevity to release ten albums? They might have been perilously close to falling apart on various occasions in their history, but the Dub Pistols have rolled with the punches and are now gearing up to release their tenth album in early 2025.

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It’s been a long road travelled, full of twists and turns, but with their legion of faithful fans and numerous collaborators and friends the Dubs are in a better place now than they’ve ever been with a new album, their own festival, a documentary, a book and more international tours on the horizon. These renegade Pistoleros are unstoppable.

The Dub Pistols grew out of the big beat explosion of the mid-1990s. Big beat was the anything-goes reaction to formulaic house music, where — thanks to the wonders of sampling technology — literally anything could be thrown into a dance tune. Taking a cue from the Chemical Brothers and Fatboy Slim, main man Barry Ashworth began making block rockin’ beats with pal Jason O’Bryan, and bombastic first offering ‘There’s Gonna Be A Riot’ was signed by Concrete Records, a subsidiary of DeConstruction. A string of missives followed in its wake — ‘Best Get Better’, the explosive ‘Westway EP’, and then a chipper ‘Cyclone’, which dented the UK national charts — and debut album ‘Point Blank’ was released in 1998.

The Dubs were on a roll when big-shot US record exec Jimmy Iovine heard the album. He immediately signed the Dubs to Interscope Geffen and put them on the road. They’d become a fully-fledged band. They played some huge shows with the likes of Blink 182, Korn and Limp Bizkit, and recorded their second album, ‘Six Million Ways To Live’. But just as their second long-player was about to drop, the 9/11 terrorist atrocity happened in New York. Given that various album tracks contained explosive references to geo-political events that had seemingly just played out on the international stage, the project was reluctantly shelved. They had to return to the UK to lick their wounds, and rebuild from the ground up.

The Dubs had remixed the likes of Moby and the Crystal Method by now, and Barry had become a fine party-rockin’ DJ. He started some club nights called The Truth in his native West London with pal Carl Loben, and was asked to mix the latest instalment of the acclaimed ‘Y4K’ series for Distinctive Records — blending a mixture of house and breaks tracks by Layo & Bushwacka, the Chemical Brothers, Adam Freeland, Soul Of Man and more. When he finally got the ‘Six Million Ways’ album back off Geffen, Distinctive signed it and led its release rollout with the ‘Problem Is’ single which featured Terry Hall, former singer of 2-Tone legends The Specials. 

As the noughties unfolded, Terry Hall started doing shows with the Dubs and featuring on new tracks such as ‘Running From The Thoughts’, ‘Peaches’ and their cover of ‘Rapture’ by Blondie. The rapturous reception Terry received when he appeared with the Pistols alongside his other former Specials bandmate Lynval Golding at the Rise anti-racism festival in London in 2008 — performing The Specials’ first single ‘Gangsters’, amongst other tracks — was a major factor in The Specials reforming at Bestival later that year.

Now signed to Sunday Best Recordings, the Dub Pistols had become adept at co-opting people into their collective. For their next album ‘Rum & Coke’ they recruited former Freak Power man Ashley Slater, Lindy Layton from Beats International, DJ/producer Justin Robertson and UK hip-hop pioneer Rodney P. The album was part-recorded in Barbados, where — like their friends Happy Mondays before them — “the wheels fell off the band” while they were out there, according to Barry, due to a riot of hedonism on the island.

Next album ‘Worshipping The Dollar’ was more political in places, tracks with Akala and Red Star Lion demonstrating how the band still had a social conscience, while rowdy rabble-rouser ‘Mucky Weekend’ — a tale of living for a weekend of excess — was given a first airing. Long-term co-producer Jason O’Bryan left for pastures new as the second decade of the 21st century saw them consolidating their position as festival-rocking favourites, due to a lot of hard graft and touring virtually non-stop.

The next two albums, ‘The Return Of The Pistoleros’ and ‘Crazy Diamonds’, reflected their increasingly off-the-chain, exhilarating live shows, with much more jungle/drum & bass incorporated into their dubwise sound and the permanent recruitment of rapper Seanie T into the fold. 

Ambitiously, the Dubs threw their first festival in 2019 — Mucky Weekender in the Sussex countryside. Featuring Leftfield, Stanton Warriors, Don Letts, Manasseh Soundsystem and many more, it caught the tail-end of the summer sun and was raved about by all attendees. The success of the first Mucky set it up nicely to become an annual event. 

Barry has been very open about his addictions and mental health issues over the years, and in 2019 he did his first Wing Walk — strapped to the top of a bi-plane — to raise money for Tonic Music For Mental Health. This has evolved into an annual Flying Circus fundraiser, involving friends from the music world such as Bez from the Happy Mondays, and Barry has now become a patron of the Tonic organisation.

The Dubs had readied their next album, ‘Addict’, just as the Covid pandemic struck in 2020. The solidarity single ‘Stand Together’ — featuring 2-Tone legend Rhoda Dakar (ex-Bodysnatchers/Special AKA) — dropped just as the Black Lives Matter protests were commencing worldwide, while tracks with soundsystem stalwarts the Ragga Twins, newcomer Natty Campbell and more kept their pot on the boil. The album shot into the top three of the UK dance charts and the top ten of the UK indie charts.

As 2021 began and the pandemic saw little sign of waning, the Dub Pistols released their cover of New Order’s seminal ‘Blue Monday’ on the third Monday of January to raise funds for the Tonic Mental Health Trust. A couple of months later they released their ‘Welcome To The Jungle’ mix album on Jungle Cakes, featuring a whopping 50 tracks by various dubwise jungle associates as well as artists like Deekline, Ed Solo, King Yoof and the Beat Assassins remixing some choice Dub Pistols cuts. This release also shot to the upper reaches of the UK dance charts.

Once Covid restrictions were lifted in mid-2021 the Dubs were delighted to get out touring again. They rocked an assortment of festivals and also staged the second iteration of Mucky Weekender, this time on a new site in Winchester, Hampshire. Groove Armada, Leeroy Thornhill (ex-Prodigy), The Freestylers and the Ragga Twins were just a few of the acts to nice up the dance over the long weekend.

The Dubs released ‘Frontline’ in 2023 on their own Cyclone Records, the label named after one of their early singles 25 years previously. ‘Frontline’ — featuring the likes of Horseman, Natty Campbell, Cheshire Cat and the Ragga Twins — reached No.3 in the UK independent album charts, and singles received radio play from the likes of Lauren Laverne, Steve Lamacq, Chris Hawkins, Craig Charles and Don Letts, plus numerous international spins.

They did some remixes from the album with long-term friends The Freestylers, and the partnership proved so fruitful that they have now recorded their next album with The Freestylers. Entitled ‘Enter The Sound’, it’s dropping in early 2025 and will see the Dubs embark on an international tour again, maintaining their position as one of the hardest-working bands in show business. The Dubs have already played Holland, France, Germany, Romania and Bulgaria in 2024, with many more international dates to follow over the next 12 months.

That’s after the fifth edition of their Mucky Weekender festival which features Dutty Moonshine, LTJ Bukem, General Levy, Dreadzone, Bez & Rowetta, Irvine Welsh, Marshall Jefferson, Krafty Kuts and many more. Of course, the Dubs take centre stage on the Saturday night in their traditional slot, joined by a heap of friends who they’ve collaborated with over the years. 

They’re also sneaking out a live reggae album in 2025, and re-releasing their 1998 debut album ‘Point Blank’ on vinyl to cater for the collectors amongst their fans — new and old. With a documentary and a book to follow sooner rather than later, the stage is set for them to carry on uproariously for many more years. Like we said: unstoppable.

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• Mucky Weekend ( 11 )
• Alive ( 9 )
• Cyclone ( 9 )
• Gangsters ( 9 )
• Pistoleros ( 9 )

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Dub Pistols Tickets and Dates

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November 2024

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Big guns return as Australia near full strength

Australia have fielded their strongest side since the World Cup final in today's second ODI at Headingley

Mitchell Starc and Glenn Maxwell will line-up for their first games of Australia's UK tour as Josh Hazlewood also returns for today's second ODI at Headingley.

The trio have overcome illness that saw them sidelined from Thursday's seven-wicket thrashing of England in the series opener.

Harry Brook again won the toss, but this time opted to field on a green-tinged pitch under overcast skies in Leeds after Australia comfortably chased down England's 315 in 44 overs in the first ODI.

Cameron Green and Sean Abbott have been left out, while game-one debutant Ben Dwarshuis misses with a pectoral strain sustained while throwing off-balance from the boundary.

The hosts have made one change with Olly Stone replacing Jofra Archer, who is being carefully managed throughout the series after a lengthy run of injuries.

Australia XI: Travis Head, Matt Short, Mitch Marsh (c), Steve Smith, Marnus Labuschagne, Alex Carey (wk), Glenn Maxwell, Aaron Hardie, Mitchell Starc, Adam Zampa, Josh Hazlewood   England XI: Phil Salt, Ben Duckett, Will Jacks, Harry Brook (c), Jamie Smith (wk), Liam Livingstone, Jacob Bethell, Brydon Carse, Olly Stone, Matthew Potts, Adil Rashid

Barring regular captain Pat Cummins and wicketkeeper Josh Inglis, who is still recovering from quad soreness, the tourists have fielded their strongest one-day line-up since last year's World Cup final triumph over India.

They continue their search for a replacement for retired opener David Warner with Matt Short, who impressed at the top in the two T20 matches last week, getting his shot in Leeds.

Stand-in skipper Mitch Marsh, who opened alongside Travis Head in the first ODI, reverts to his preferred No.3 spot while Steve Smith also shuffles down to second drop.

Starc and Maxwell were both rested for the preceding T20 matches against Scotland and England, while Hazlewood played in the first T20 in Southampton in his return from a minor calf strain before falling ill.

The visitors appear to have turned a corner after a virus swept through the camp late last week, sidelining Marsh for the second T20 in Cardiff as Travis Head pushed through while under the weather to captain in his absence.

Abbott misses out after conceding 50 in five overs at Trent Bridge two days ago, with allrounders Aaron Hardie – preferred over Green – and potentially Marsh to provide pace support to Hazlewood and Starc.

Marsh bowled in the warm-up ahead of the first ODI and again today, indicating he is firming for a return to the bowling crease soon.

Maxwell adds further depth to Australia's spin options, which were responsible for nine English wickets in the first match – a national record in men's ODIs.

Australia are hunting a 14th straight one-day international victory at Headingley, which would be the outright second-longest winning streak in men's ODIs behind Ricky Ponting side from 2003.

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Australia T20 squad: Mitchell Marsh (c), Sean Abbott, Xavier Bartlett, Cooper Connolly, Tim David, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Cameron Green, Aaron Hardie, Josh Hazlewood (England games only), Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Riley Meredith, Matt Short (England games only), Marcus Stoinis, Adam Zampa

September 4: Australia beat Scotland by seven wickets

September 6: Australia beat Scotland by 70 runs

September 7: Australia beat Scotland by six wickets

September 11: Australia beat England by 28 runs

September 13: England beat Australia by three wickets

September 15: Match abandoned

Australia ODI squad: Mitch Marsh (c), Sean Abbott, Alex Carey, Cooper Connolly, Ben Dwarshuis, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Cameron Green, Aaron Hardie, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Marnus Labuschagne, Glenn Maxwell, Matthew Short, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Adam Zampa. Reserve: Mahli Beardman

September 19: Australia beat England by seven wickets

September 21: Second ODI v England, Headingley, Leeds, 8pm AEST

September 24: Third ODI v England, Riverside, Chester-le-Street, 9.30pm AEST

September 27: Fourth ODI v England, Lord's, London, 9.30pm AEST

September 29: Fifth ODI v England, County Ground, Bristol, 8pm AEST

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Living Legends: Thurston Moore On New Album 'Flow Critical Lucidity,' No Wave & His Place In Experimental Music History

"I tend to be a little more thorny, maybe a little more…I don't know, no wave sassy," Thurston Moore tells GRAMMY.com of his history as an indie rock songwriter. "Right now, I just want to stay in one place and continue writing."

Today, Thurston Moore unveiled his latest solo project, Flow Critical Lucidity , an album that encapsulates his signature guitar-driven charm and dives deep into his experimental roots. 

The September 20 release marks another fascinating chapter in the illustrious career of an artist who has woven the tapestry of his music with the threads of New York's vibrant no wave scene since his teenage years in the mid-'70s. 

Moore's journey has been one of constant evolution, intersecting with countless facets of New York's indie arts. From legendary gigs at CBGBs and the Mudd Club to watching William S. Burroughs stalk the neighborhood streets and being drafted into Glenn Branca’s guitar orchestra, his story is deeply embedded in the city's art mythos. Alongside then-partner Kim Gordon , Moore formed the legendary Sonic Youth eventually joined by Lee Ranaldo and Steve Shelley. Through decades, lineup shifts, 15 LPs and countless experimental releases, the band transcended the boundaries of punk and outsider art, drawing influences from figures as diverse as Joni Mitchell and John Cage.

Their 1988 release, Daydream Nation , is likely their best-known, an epic triumph beloved by adventurous fans worldwide that has placed on countless "greatest albums ever" lists and influenced musicians and artists of many different disciplines.

Even when his work had made its way to major labels and international acclaim, Moore has never shied away from the avant-garde — from hours of guitar feedback to audacious records where he and his bandmates hammer nails into piano keys . From "Teen Age Riot" to " Kool Thing ", and " 100% ," he’s co-written some of the most iconic indie rock songs of a generation as part of Sonic Youth and has also released pieces that question the very definition of music. 

Both during and after the dissolution of Sonic Youth, and following his move from New York to London — where he runs the book publishing house Ecstatic Peace Library and the record label Daydream Library Series with his partner, Eva Prinz — Moore's voracious appetite for creating new, exciting art persists. Flow Critical Lucidity exemplifies this relentless pursuit, bridging past influences with futuristic sounds in a sublime stretch of spacey rock. 

Every conversation with Moore reveals an encyclopedic knowledge of experimental art and more inspiring anecdotes than one could dream of — and this one is no different. 

As Moore prepares for the release, GRAMMY.com caught up with him to reflect on his storied career and ever-changing landscape of experimental art, the history of no wave cinema, his evolving assessment of his own vocals, and his decision to say goodbye to New York. 

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.  

The art for your new album is based on a Jamie Nares piece, and I know you mention her in your memoir alongside no wave filmmakers like Vivienne Dick and Scott B and Beth B — a scene that you described as "a community that became only more alluring to me in their smart and erotic subversion." I mean, even just reading that is appealing.

Yeah. Downtown New York in the late '70s had the initial CBGB and Max's punk scene with Patti [Smith] and Blondie and Talking Heads , Ramones and Television, Richard Hell. There was a concurrent community of younger artists and musicians, and they got tagged with the genre of being no wave. And no wave wasn't something that came out of punk or new wave. It actually coexisted as even more challenging music. Punk really was a rock and roll music, whereas no wave was absolutely not a rock and roll music. It was just using the instrumentation of it, but the players were approaching the instruments without any semblance of traditional tropes. 

That fascinated a lot of people who were already in New York City, downtown, in the art scene coming out of minimalist and conceptual art practices. Some of these artists are filmmakers, and they're very attracted to these bands that are creating a new way of playing music in complete resistance to the standards of expectation with traditionalism. No wave becomes a real pride of definition for them in some of the visual art. Super 8 and 16 millimeter movie cameras were affordable cameras. The film was somewhat affordable from certain film labs downtown. And you could make either silent, or if you're really audacious, sound movies that weren’t expensive. It wasn't any more expensive than making a 7-inch. And so these no wave filmmakers had a space on St. Mark's Place, just a ratty little storefront where they would show these movies. Some were better than others, let's put it that way, but the idea was that they were doing it and it was being done fast and it was using just the local people on the scene as actors. And some of them became serious filmmakers. I mean, Jim Jarmusch came out of that scene. 

Jamie Nares was living in Manhattan and making these interesting films at the time, utilizing some of the no wave musicians as actors and actresses. Her films had a certain character about them because she had a really specific focus on what she wanted to present. It wasn't just having fun and slapdash. Some of the films were really affecting and really interesting. Also, if you look at the back of No New York , the compilation album that Brian Eno recorded of some of the bands on the downtown scene at that point, Jamie was the first guitar player in the Contortions. 

What was it about Nare's work specifically that really burrowed into you and led to this cover?

Well, the work actually on the cover of the record is maybe not that indicative of what people usually know about Jamie Nares today. A lot of her work is really in the realm of painting, fairly large canvases with huge swaths of energy, paint streaking across them. They're very dancey and poetic. 

I went to her retrospective [in Milwaukee], and noticed that some of her earlier sculptures were there, and one of them was that helmet with the tuning forks sticking out of it. I just thought it was so evocative and beautiful, this idea of taking a military implement and recontextualizing it as an article of communication and music. Jamie’s piece is called "Samurai Walkman," and I toyed with calling the album that. But I really liked calling the record Flow Critical Lucidity , taken from a lyric Eva [Prinz] had written. She wrote lyrics to five out of the seven songs on the record. The line reminded me of something that would come out of the pen of Mark E. Smith of the Fall. Even though that's the last thing I think Eva was considering. She writes under the pseudonym Radieux Radio, and always has, since The Best Day record in 2014. It's been really wonderful because it's this other voice that I get to work with. It's a voice that's decidedly not a white male voice. It's a feminist voice. And I really embrace that because I think that really gives the music that much more strength.

What do you appreciate most about Eva's purview as a writer and lyricist?  

There's a certain joy to the intellect of nature that she is able to put into words that I find really endearing and alluring and smart. I tend to be a little more thorny, maybe a little more…I don't know, no wave sassy. I'll add a little bit to what she does and vice versa. It's a really great collaboration. We collaborate mostly on publishing books. She was a senior book editor at Rizzoli, Abrams, and Taschen. So that to me is really enjoyable, publishing books and actually putting some records up by new bands. 

What else do you have on tap?

Well, this record of mine is on our label, Daydream Library [Series]. We put out a new record by Devon Ross, a young singer/songwriter from Los Angeles. She's an actress and a model, and she was in this limited TV series called "Irma Vep" that the filmmaker Olivier Assayas made for HBO with Alicia Vikander. I met her at screenings and she said she had music. People send me music all the time, and I'm usually like, "Yeah, sure." There's not that much I'm that interested in facilitating. I used to put a lot of records out through the '80s and '90s, but when we moved to London, I cooled down on it. And then we saw this band called Big Joanie, which was these three Black English girls who have a really amazing political punk band. We put out their first two records, and now Devon Ross is the latest that we put out.

Eva listened to it first and said, "It's really good." I listened to it and I agreed. We put an EP out, and it's become really buzzy. She has this great band, and it's really just noisy, sonic punk pop music. There's a couple of bands in Miami that we put records out by. There's a shoegaze Caribbean kind of band called the Sea Foam Walls I really like. And there's an all-girl band there called Las Nubes, which means the clouds en español . They sing in Spanish and English, and they're very much part of the Miami punk scene that is primarily bilingual. We put out a record by the drummer of the Ex, the anarcho-punk band from Holland… we put out a CD of her sound healing music. 

We put out whatever we want. We're just an indie label out of our London flat, and we make books whenever we get enough coin to do something. We've done a few memoirs, one by David Toop, an experimental musician here in London. We're doing another one with Maggie Nicols, who since the late '60s has been in the forefront of free improvisation music here in England. We keep ourselves busy, but we try not to stretch ourselves too thin at the same time.

Right now, I just want to stay in one place and continue writing because I really enjoyed writing the memoir. And now I'm heads down, putting the finishing touches on a novel that I hope to get published, if somebody bites. It takes place in the early '80s in downtown New York City, just characters.

I bet that in its own way there’s some memoir to that, too.

A little bit, yeah, a little bit. I certainly realized that I had to place it in an environment that I could be intimate with. 

When you’re back in New York City and walking around, is it recognizable at all to you from 50 years ago?

Especially the deeper in the Lower East Side you go, there are certain walls or corners where you can flash back on the '70s, early '80s. The city was far dirtier then, a little more lawless. And in that respect, you never really felt that safe. But when you're young, it's like you're somewhat invincible anyway. So I don't really miss it at the age I am now. I'd rather be living underneath an olive tree somewhere in northern Italy than having to live on East Broadway or something. But it's also a matter of financial stability. If somebody offered me some fabulous place in Manhattan, or anywhere in New York City, free of charge, I might swoop on it.

But I like living in London. We really love it. There's no guns here really. That's a real plus. I'm just really waiting to see what the elections are going to be in November as far as how safe I feel the USA is because I have such anxiety about that. We're flying in the day before the election just to vote. 

I know you’ve shared that you’re dealing with a heart condition, too. Has that cleared to the point that you can travel?

Another reason why I'll be coming in at the end of the year is because I still have to go under the knife a bit. But it's nothing critical. It's just an ablation thing. People have AFib [atrial fibrillation] and irregular heartbeats and stuff, and sometimes you have to go in there and put a stent in. It's an operation that's done all day every day. Its success rate is 99%. I have more of a chance of falling out the window tonight. It still means that I can't do too much else. So I'm not going to really be doing much touring. But like I said, I prefer actually writing. I want to get into writer mode more so than getting into a van and crisscrossing the planet and playing in beer halls. I've done that a lot. 

I'll play some specific shows as long as they are interesting. I like playing in special places like in churches, and certain festivals are cool. 

Can you talk about building the sound on Flow Critical Lucidity ? There are parts of it that conjure The Stooges ’ "We Will Fall," or something like that.

Yeah, it does have that vibe. I demoed a lot of it on a small digital recorder that I figured out how to use because I'm pretty much a Luddite with this stuff. I allowed the musicians to create parts to what I was doing. I was using digital drum patterns just so I could have a drum pattern, and sometimes I would pick these really weirdo drum patterns. So something like the song "We Get High" has that "We Will Fall" drum rhythm. And my drummer, Jem Daulton, listened to that and he recreated it himself, or at least what that vibe was. We used a studio called Total Refreshment Centre in North London that the Chicago label International Anthem uses as their English studio. It has that kind of new cosmic dub vibe. 

Then there’s Jon Leidecker, who's an electronics musician who's in the band, he's actually processing some of the inputs and outputting them in a specific way and adding some electronic flourishes. He records under the name Wobbly and is a member of Negativland. That, and also the engineer, Margo Broom, was really instrumental in how that record sounded. She had recorded, mixed, and mastered Big Joanie, and I really liked how those records were sounding. She's a genius, and she really made this record sound the way it sounds. Watching her work, she was just so smart and so expedient, and she really knew my history as a musician. Even working with the vocals, I always hate my vocals because I feel like I'm being very challenged by how to stay in key to all this finicky music. I was really impressed how she was treating the vocals and making it work. And she said, "Well, I've been listening to your vocals since I was 10 years old."

How did you treat singing back in the '80s? Were you just not self-conscious about it? Because you sound comfortable on this.

It was through fits and starts that I had some realization of how to present myself as a vocalist. I never felt like I reached a point where I feel like I am comfortable with it, and I regret not actually focusing on that more seriously as I did with everything else. When it came to getting on the mic, I just thought, well, it's either going to work or it's not. And then I realized, no, there's a lot of discipline. There's a lot of practice that you can put into this. When I see Nick Cave sit down at a piano and start singing, it’s clear this is somebody who's really focused on how to be a singer. I regret that I didn't focus more on that because I think there's such a power there. 

Read more: Nick Cave Returns With The Bad Seeds To Plant Joyful Noise

When you would see punk bands in the late '80s, early '90s, it was like, "Okay, the singers can be good, or they can be not so good, but the collective is what it's all about." But at the same time, a band like Nirvana comes out, and they’re a great band, but they’re not altogether that different from a lot of other bands that they associated with. What's really raising the level is that singer's voice and how that singer is getting on the microphone. Kurt's voice was just something else entirely. Nobody was singing like that. When I first heard him, I was like, "Oh, he's doing a Lemmy from Motörhead thing but in the context of a Pacific Northwest punk thing. That's brilliant." But it was so much more than that because it was soul shredding and it was beautiful. 

So I always thought, in my case, I can be a serviceable singer more than a remarkable singer. There's only a few people who can be remarkable singers. It's like wanting to speak another language. I wish I could speak another language. I wish I could sing with the same astounding resonance as Billie Holiday or Joni Mitchell. But I ignored that. 

I'm very conscious of that when I make a record now. Like, "I'm going to do my best here." But when I listen to live tapes, I'm just like, "Man, nobody's going to get fooled into thinking that I'm Jim Morrison." I used to complain about Steve Albini's vocal mixes. It was all about really slamming drums and guitars and stuff like that. And I love Steve, but I was like, "The vocals kind of suffer because everything else is just blasting." And his response was, "Well, listen, most of these singers I record, very few of them are Paul McCartneys ." And he's right about that. But also it's like, "Well, maybe you should try to make them Paul McCartneys. Let's figure this out. Take some singing lessons." 

Read more: Without Steve Albini, These 5 Albums Would Be Unrecognizable: Pixies, Nirvana, PJ Harvey & More

Back in 1985 or '86, we were doing some gig and this musician came up to me and she goes, "There’s nothing wrong with taking singing lessons. You should try singing and not screaming or shouting." I was really just in shock. I was like, "Wow. I never even thought about that." Early on, I was just yelling into the microphone. Of course, there was a lot of din going on on stage. You had to yell to get heard because the sound systems couldn't deal with the blasting guitar noise. But it made me think, "You're right, that would make it better."

I assumed this would be a long answer so I saved it for the end, but what are you listening to and reading lately that’s turning you on?

I take cues from other young poets that I see in social media sharing what they're reading and then sending away for those books. I love that whole culture of literature. There's a lot of mainstream literature I think is great. I think Colson Whitehead continues to be one of the great writers that we have in the USA, if not the world. Even this trio of genre novels that he's been working on, that second one, Harlem Shuffle, was really, really fun to read and really extremely artful and for me, a great course in how to write fiction, just by reading a book like that.

And listening, I know I just constantly take cues again from different people I entrust with their tastes of buying records on Bandcamp. I generally tend towards buying more experimental music, the whole continuing underground aesthetics that you might hear coming out of the Wolf Eyes world. I still think that's where some great music is happening. I don't really listen to too much straight ahead, compositional rock and roll music. I feel like I've so decoded a lot of that kind of songwriting that I don't find myself listening to it for any sense of wonder. 

Sometimes I'll spend an hour or two just putting things on, playing them at a commanding volume, and I'll just sit there and look at the record cover. Sometimes it leads me into being really intrigued by other people on the record, and I'll go into Discogs and find out all the other work they've done. That's what I really adore about the internet. You can actually do this research while you're processing the work. The internet was always an ideal coming out of the hippie mindset anyway, wasn't it? It's just been corporatized and monetized beyond any recognition of such a thing. But it does exist.

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Nick Cave Returns With The Bad Seeds To Plant Joyful Noise

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds' 18th studio release ‘Wild God’ is a transcendent leap marked by soaring soundscapes and ruminations on the human condition. The GRAMMY nominee discusses the inspiration behind a few of the narrative songs on his new album.

While others nursed hangovers on New Year’s Day, 2023, Nick Cave got to work. 

Picking up his brown bespoke notebook, the songwriter stared at the blank pages. Inspired by the Old Testament parable of Cain’s murder of his brother Abel, a couplet eventually came: "Ushering in the week he knelt down and crushed his brother’s head in with a bone / It’s my great privilege to walk you home." 

These first day of the year ruminations appear in "Frogs," one of the stirring songs on Wild God , which is out now . Despite the brotherly violence depicted in "Frogs," Wild God — the 18th studio album from Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds — is a joyful listen. 

Co-produced with longtime collaborator Warren Ellis , Wild God features 10 soaring new Cave compositions guided by the artist’s distinctive baritone. "It’s pure pleasure," Cave says of the listening experience, adding that making the album with the band he first formed in 1983 and guest bassist Colin Greenwood was "extraordinarily good fun."

On this first release since 2021's Carnage, Cave meditates on the past, present and future. True to form, the songs are complex narratives sprinkled with metaphor and profundity. Wild God is one of the few records Cave has made that he relistened to after all the mixes were complete. And, after each playback, the artist smiled.

Like Neil Young’s relationship with Crazy Horse, Cave has a similar longstanding agreement with the Bad Seeds: When the songs he pens call for these band of musical brothers, they are ready. In session, the band were operating at "full force" and "off their leash," the two-time GRAMMY nominee says. The band recently announced that it will embark on its first North American shows in seven years, beginning in the spring of 2025.

Learn more: The Essential Nick Cave: 10 Songs Highlighting His Dark Brilliance

Born and raised in rural Australia, the 66-year-old has been making music for more than a half-century: From his beginnings as the frontman for the anger-driven post-punk group Birthday Party, to the Bad Seeds and his own solo efforts. While the artist has worn many hats in this storied career, Wild God developed the way all of Cave's music has: slowly, via discipline and hard work.

"There's a lot of work done prior to going into the studio that I do on my own," Cave explains. "I sit there day after day writing lyrics. It’s a difficult, painful and slow process that does not get any easier as you get older."

When Cave begins writing songs for a new record, he treats the process the same as any other job. Once he opens his notebook — and puts pen to paper — the singer/songwriter stays there from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m., whether or not the words flow. The next day, he begins again and repeats the process. "I do that whether I feel like it or not," Cave explains. "I work like pretty much everybody else. I don't walk around the world waiting for ideas to drop down from the heavens …  I've never felt that happen. Songwriting, for me, has always just been hard work."

Cave typically goes into a songwriting session without a plan. "Whenever I sit down to write, I don’t really find out what I feel about things at any given time," he adds. "Having said that, with Wild God the one thing I wanted to do right up front was to get the Bad Seeds back in, just for the basic health of the band, I felt that they'd been kind of put out to pasture for a couple of records: Skeleton Tree and Ghosteen ."

While the songwriting process remains the same, and the Bad Seeds are a constant companion, what has changed the most for Cave — especially in the last decade — is his relationship with his audience. Earlier in his career, Cave cared little what others thought about his art, an attitude derived in part from the angry energy of the Birthday Party. Today, Cave is an empath who embraces music’s universal role as a spiritual, connecting force.

While Wild God may be more joyful than previous records, Cave's work is still informed by grief and pain. Life's fragility was revealed to Cave in 2015, when his 15-year-old son Arthur fell off a cliff near his Brighton home. Cave's eldest son, Jethro, passed away in 2022 at just 31 years old. These experiences led to the artist feeling acute grief, which he had never experienced before. "O Wow O Wow (How Wonderful She Is)" is one of the songs on the new record that speaks to another lost love: Anita Lane, an ex-Bad Seed and longtime girlfriend of Cave, who died in 2021.

In September 2018, Cave started a project called The Red Hand Files as a way to process grief, and connect with others in a world marked by too much disconnect. What began as an online experiment — with no moderator, simply the artist allowing anyone that visited the site to ask a question — recently surpassed 100,000 letters. He has read all of these epistles and spends three days of his week on this non-monetary project. Through this correspondence with strangers, Cave shows vulnerability; it has revealed a side of the artist’s personality many did not know. And, through these exchanges — and his non-judgemental, heartfelt replies — the artist has helped many grieve and in the process this noble experiment for him has also been life changing.

While the songs on Wild God brim with hope, wonder and love, these joyful meditations that Cave feels has "the effect of throwing its arms around the listener" were born from Cave’s grief and the newfound connections made with people from around the world, one question at a time, via The Red Hand Files.

Bible Stories, Wild Gods & Frogs

The Bible has been a constant inspiration throughout Cave's career. Parables from the good book are evident in a close-reading of Wild God 's lyrics and song titles, but what is it about the Scriptures that make Cave return to them again and again?

"It's never a return to these stories," he explains, "it’s more that the language of the Bible is in my blood. I've just read it so much, from the time I was a child to the present day, and I find it an extraordinary source of inspiration. The stories are challenging, mysterious, extraordinarily beautiful and also haunting. It's endlessly good for the business of songwriting!"

The phrase "Wild God" was similarly derived from Biblical themes. Depending on one’s religious beliefs, God is often referred to as either vengeful or loving, but rarely "wild." Yet, for Cave, who grew up singing in the church choir, and has always been drawn to Christianity, this phrase felt right.

"For many, religion is not a neutral thing," he explains. "There is a wildness to it. There is a danger of involving yourself in the religious experience. It asks something of you that's challenging and confronting and difficult. And, often, it's not as people imagine the religious experience to be … it's anything but a comfortable place."

"Wild God" summed up those feelings, and is represented by a character who moves through the record. "[It's] this sort of old, restless individual searching through the songs for something and finding an assortment of different ways and scenarios," Cave details. "The record was actually going to be called Joy , which is also one of the song titles, but I thought people might misunderstand the word."

"Frogs" is one of the most allegorical songs on Wild God . When the single was released earlier this year, a fan asked a question about its meaning via The Red Hand Files, to which Cave provided this detailed answer . Probed to expand on this song’s symbolism, Cave offers some more insights into how humans resemble these amphibians.

" 'Frogs,' for me, is a beautiful metaphor for the act of creation," he explains, "for that joyful feeling where we sit in our own selves and occasionally we can leap up. This represents the creative journey; then, we land back on the lily pad and there's something very beautiful about that to me. That’s what I want my life to be … that of a leaping frog. For me, the whole record really is that transcendent leap."

Buffalo Bound

After Wild God was produced and the rough mixes completed, Cave felt something was still missing. "Sonically, the mixes sounded like what you would expect from a Bad Seeds record, but there was something about them that just wasn’t touching me emotionally," he explains. 

So, Cave decided to seek an outsider’s opinion. Enter David Fridmann , a founding member of 1990s alt-rock band Mercury Rev and producer of critically-acclaimed records for the likes of the Flaming Lips , MGMT and Sparklehorse. "He'd done a bunch of records that I really love and I thought what he did sonically with them was really immediate and catchy, so we took the songs to his studio in Upstate New York," Cave recalls.

Fridmann mixed the record without the band in the room, only inviting them back in to listen at the end of the day. His mixing mastery made the record soar. "David took all the nuanced elegance out of the music and turned it into something that was purely emotional, so that when the builds hit, they hit hard, clearly and spaciously," Cave effuses.  

A Note From Leonard Cohen

GRAMMY.com caught up with Nick Cave on a day when he admitted to being "slightly delirious" from a week of press that included an intimate conversation held by the GRAMMY Museum . By the end of our conversation, he's anything but. 

Cave reflects on the power of Leonard Cohen , one of his earliest creative touchstones. The artist was 14 years old when he first heard the Canadian songwriter and it’s a day he has never forgotten. "The sister of my best friend told me, ‘I’ve got this new record you’ve got to hear, come around to my place and give it a listen," Cave recalls. "She put on Songs of Love and Hate. The first song ‘Avalanche’ just blew my mind. The earned wisdom in that voice spoke to me in a way that no other music has ever spoken to me."

Cave met many of his songwriting heroes, like Johnny Cash , before they passed, but Cohen is not one of them. They did have a few mutual friends, however, and in his time of grieving the poet laureate of pessimism reached out.   

"When my son died, out of the blue, Leonard sent me an email that said, ‘I'm with you, brother, LC.’ That simple, beautiful gesture helped me. For that kindness alone I owe him." 

With Wild God — from the opening notes of "Song of the Lake" to the choral closer, "As the Waters Cover the Sea" — Cave, like his mentor Cohen, shares earned wisdom in beautiful words and melodies that transcend time and touch the listener listen after listen.

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The Essential Nick Cave: 10 Songs Highlighting His Dark Brilliance

Ahead of ' Wild God,' Nick Cave's first studio effort since 2021, revisit 10 of of the singer's most essential tracks from his prolific 45-year career.

"There is never a master plan when we make a record," Nick Cave recently said about creating Wild God , his upcoming 18th studio effort with longtime backing band the Bad Seeds. "The records rather reflect back the emotional state of the writers and musicians who played them. Listening to this, I don’t know, it seems we're happy."

Happiness is not an emotional state you'd typically associate with an artist renowned for his ghostly demeanor, baritone vocal delivery which sits somewhere between unholy preacher and gothic overlord, and slightly unnatural obsession with the inherently morbid side of life. He was once characterized as the leader of "the most violent live band in the world."

But Cave's macabre disposition has served him well. Since arriving on the scene with post-punk cult heroes the Birthday Party in the early 1980s, the Australian has gradually developed a cult following willing to hang on his every darkly poetic word. Alongside his day job, he's enjoyed huge critical acclaim as part of side-project Grinderman, as a novelist, and as a Hollywood composer and screenwriter (most notably pulling double duty on 2006 western The Proposition ). 

His work has been covered by artists as eclectic as Snoop Dogg , Arctic Monkeys and Johnny Cash . In fact, Cave is now so ingrained in the establishment that he was on the guest list for King Charles III's coronation.

With Cave's first studio effort since 2021's Warren Ellis collaboration, Carnage , about to hit the shelves, here's a look back at 10 of the most important songs from his prolific — and GRAMMY-nominated — 45-year career.

"Tupelo" ('The Firstborn Is Dead,' 1985)

Although recorded in Berlin by an Australian who'd lived in London for three years, Cave's sophomore The Firstborn Is Dead continued to showcase his fascination with the American South. None more so than on its opening number, a typically morbid, tornado-stricken reimagining of the night Elvis Presley was brought into the world.

Co-written by Barry Adamson of post-punk outfit Magazine, "Tupelo" correlates the apocalyptic weather conditions with the birth of a demonic presence, reimagining the King of Rock and Roll as the King of Darkness. "Well Saturday gives what Sunday steals /And a child is born on his brothers heels/Come Sunday morn the first-born dead," Cave croons, inferring that Elvis' still-born twin Jesse was his first sacrificial lamb. You can't imagine it blaring over the speakers at Graceland, but this is the murder balladeer at his fire and brimstone best.

"The Mercy Seat" ('Tender Pray,' 1988)

Cave has often been dismissive of his band's fifth LP Tender Prey ("I hear bad production and I hear bad performances as well"). And yet it birthed what many consider to be his macabre masterpiece: A seven-minute soliloquy delivered by a death row prisoner who becomes more unhinged the closer he gets to the electric chair. In fact, he repeats its biblical chorus ("And in a way I'm yearning/To be done with all this measuring of proof/Of an eye for an eye/And a tooth for a tooth") a remarkable 14 times before being put out of his delusional, deranged misery. 

As always, Cave inhabits his deplorable creation with an emotional intensity that's both compelling and deeply unsettling, while Mick Harvey's slithering, unnerving bass — apparently recorded by hitting the strings with a drumstick — only adds to the sense of malevolence. Little wonder, then, that despite Cave's misgivings about its parent album, "The Mercy Seat" has remained a setlist ever-present.

"The Ship Song" ('Good Son,' 1990)

Cave risked alienating his cult fan base in 1990 when he showed a much softer side on Good Son , a record inspired by both his post-rehab clarity and relationship with Brazilian reporter Viviane Carneiro. But "The Ship Song" proved that the gothic crooner could tackle the universal theme of undying devotion without descending into schmaltz. 

The tender piano ballad doesn't exactly provide a happy ending, with a deeply smitten Cave essentially acknowledging the old adage, "if you love someone, set them free." ("Your face has fallen sad now/For you know the time is nigh/When I must remove your wings/And you, you must try to fly"). Cave later expressed doubts about whether his concerted attempt to write a classic love song truly connected. The plethora of cover versions, including an all-star rendition promoting the Sydney Opera House, shows his concerns are unfounded.

"Red Right Hand" ('Let Love In,' 1994)

The Cave song that's arguably penetrated the mainstream more than any other, "Red Right Hand" has been a regular fixture of the Scream franchise, been covered by not just one but two former girlfriends (Anita Lane, PJ Harvey ), and, most notably, served as the theme to everyone's favorite flat-capped period drama "Peaky Blinders."

Inspired by a line from John Milton's Paradise Lost , the centerpiece of eighth LP Let Love In focuses on a cash-grabbing, chameleonic figure ("He's a ghost, he's a god/He's a man, he's a guru") who causes all kinds of bloody havoc in a "reconstructed" version of Cave's Wangaratta hometown. Haunted house organs, brooding basslines, and a doom-laden tolling bell heighten the sense of menace on a track which once again proves few other artists are as effective at chilling to the bone.

"Where The Wild Roses Grow" ('Murder Ballads,' 1995)

The man dubbed the Gothic Lord of Darkness sings a deeply sinister duet inspired by an Appalachian murder ballad with the pop princess who'd shot to fame with a cover of "The Loco-Motion?" On paper, UK Top 20 hit "Where The Wild Roses Grow" sounds like the stuff of fever dreams. Yet somehow, Cave and fellow Antipodean Kylie Minogue (then very much in her transitional pop to indie phase) made for an unlikely dream team. 

Cave wrote the tune especially for Minogue, whom he freely admitted to quietly obsessing over, and was always going to convince on such a grotesque fairytale. Minogue more than holds her own as the tragic heroine whose inherent beauty compels her psychotic date to end their third date in bloodshed ("And the last thing I heard was a muttered word/As he knelt above me with a rock in his fist").

"Into My Arms" ('The Boatman's Call,' 1997)

"Into My Arms" was written while Cave was undergoing rehab, and specifically during one of the church trips patients were allowed each Sunday. Could divine intervention have played a part? After all, the highlight from tenth album The Boatman's Call finds the one-time cathedral choirboy desperately trying to find solace in a God that he doesn't quite believe in. 

No matter how the alternative hymn was derived, though, it remains one of Cave's most affecting spirituals, a brutally honest meditation on the relationship between love and faith reportedly inspired by two former girlfriends, Carneiro and Harvey. "Into My Arms" has been cited by Cave as the song he's proudest of, with his performance at the funeral of close friend Michael Hutchence (he's godfather to the late singer's daughter) later that same year lending it an extra poignancy.

"Get Ready For Love" ('Abbatoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus,' 2004)

Taken from the double album which cleverly separated Cave's split personalities — the abrasive post-punk provocateur and darkly melancholic troubadour — "Get Ready For Love" kicks things off with one almighty bang. Hinting at the ferociousness that would define side project Grinderman's debut three years later, the punkish gospel practically bursts out of the speakers, with Cave audibly relishing another opportunity to play the evangelical feverishly spreading the word. 

"Praise Him till you've forgotten what you're praising Him for/Then praise Him a little more," he barks in a manner which sits somewhere between The Henry Rollins Band and "The Righteous Gemstones." It's his most acerbic take on organized religion in a discography dominated by the subject, and following the disappointingly muted Nocturama , a clear sign that he was still able to thrill and disturb in equal measure.

"Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!" ('Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!' 2008)

The title track from Cave's return-to-form LP premiered on Christmas Day, but its 21st century take on Lazarus's resurrection wasn't interested in spreading any festive cheer. In fact, by reimagining the biblical figure as a bumbling idiot named Larry who immerses himself in a life of sex, drugs, and criminality ("He feasted on their lovely bodies like a lunatic/And wrapped himself up in their soft yellow hair"), "Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!" was more likely to leave conservatives choking on their turkey dinner. 

Combining the rock and roll swagger of Link Wray with the stream-of-consciousness melodies of Talking Heads , the track which originated from a Grinderman demo  could never be accused of taking itself too seriously, though. Indeed, when he utters the final line, "Oh, poor Larry," with a camp shriek, Cave sounds more like a Carry On cast member than a harbinger of doom.

"Jubilee Street" ('Push the Sky Away,' 2016)

Following the departure of founding Bad Seed Mick Harvey, Cave and company appeared to hit the reset button for 2013's Push The Sky Away , a sobering, stripped-back affair inspired by the “significant events, momentary fads, and mystically-tinged absurdities” derived from the world wide web. Its second single "Jubilee Street" certainly leans into the latter. 

Told from the perspective of a man who may well have murdered the prostitute blackmailing him, the song has something of a literary true crime quality.  Meanwhile, the shimmering violins which sound like they're being beamed in from another planet, and the transcendent coda in which the protagonist claims he's both beyond recriminations and now moving to a higher plane ("Curtains are shut, the furniture is gone/I'm transforming, I'm vibrating, I'm glowing") heighten the otherworldly feel. Cave was so entranced by its enigma that he felt compelled to pen a meta song, "Finishing Jubilee Street," about its inception.

"Ghosteen" ('Ghosteen,' 2019)

Following the tragic accidental death of his teenage twin son Arthur three years earlier, Cave's 17th studio effort was understandably consumed by themes of loss, grief, and, as on this beautifully haunting 12-minute meditation, human existence. 

One of several tracks based on metaphysical conversations he shared with his joint-youngest, "Ghosteen" is unlikely to leave a dry eye in the house, with "There is nothing wrong with loving something/You can't hold in your hand" proving that Cave could speak from the heart with a masterful simplicity. There's also a heavenly, dreamlike quality to its production, which drifts from Leonard Cohen -esque chanson to ambient prog in a comforting slow-motion pace befitting of its subject matter. An emotionally devastating but truly spellbinding display of catharsis, the title track adds to the argument that Ghosteen is Cave's latter day opus.

Photo Courtesy of Atlantic Records

"This feels like a new chapter of life," Mark Foster says of creating Foster The People's latest album. Sonically expansive, 'Paradise State of Mind' mines Foster's own experience for a deeply personal and widely grooving record.

Over the seven years between Foster the People 's last album, 2017's Sacred Hearts Club , and their recently released Paradise State of Mind , everything changed for Mark Foster .

He got sober in 2018, and married the following year. In 2021, the band's founding drummer Mark Pontius , left Foster the People during the thick of the pandemic. These profound changes encouraged Foster to look inward. With touring completely off the table at that point, he took the time he never had since he started Foster the People to work on himself.

"I just dove into myself, really unpacking a lot of things emotionally, psychologically. Finding out who Mark is outside of music and getting comfortable with that," Foster tells GRAMMY.com.  

Foster expresses that his success in music was tied to a deep sense of scarcity and self-doubt. "When you start performing you want to be seen, and you want to be heard. A lot of times that can be tied to the feeling that you're not seen, and you're not heard. So, it creates this hole to connect with people," Foster says. "If you don't figure out how to fill that hole with something else you can be really driven, but it's coming from this place of deep insecurity. And so a lot of the work was trying to heal that part of myself."  

Foster gave himself "a couple inches of breathing room" to create without any concern for what people might think. He likened the process to being a child.  

"A child doesn't have a point of reference for art. They just respond. They think what they think. They do what they do. They're not judging themselves. They're not afraid of judgment from others. They're just playing and the feeling of when that's happening is the best because I'm completely present," Foster says.

In that present state of mind, Foster explored new musical territory for Paradise State of Mind , which arrives Aug. 16. He dove into the disco/funk crossover brought about by artists like Nile Rodgers in the late '70s and early ' 80s, and employed synth stylings similar to that of P-Funk’s Bernie Worrell.

Foster the People has always had a certain amount of funk, an example of which is the choppy guitar of their classic song, "Sit Next To Me." But the results of Foster’s research show up in full force on new songs like "Take Me Back" which includes deep grooves, a very active bassline, and a hard shift into that historic, messy funk after the second verse. "Feed Me" sees Foster provide the kind of squealy, raunchy vocals prime for dealing out euphemisms and metaphors for sex.

Foster produced Paradise State of Mind himself — a first, though he had co-produced music previously. "I didn't want to initially, but there's only a handful of people in the world that I would have trusted to produce this record, and they weren't available or they didn't want to do it," Foster says. "My love for music on this record became deeper because I had to produce it."  

Much of the album was produced in the legendary EastWest studios, where Foster's all-time favorite songwriter, Brian Wilson , made records with the Beach Boys . Many salient disco/ funk influenced moments were written and recorded on the spot in EastWest.  

"Those are my favorite parts of this record because I can hear the electricity in it," Foster says. "That's why I love songwriting in the studio. I was really intentional about trying to capture the spark of the inception of something. I think that we did that a bit throughout this record. There's a few times where I'm like, ‘There it is’."

Foster spoke with GRAMMY.com about capturing that spark when he brings Paradise State of Mind on tour, writing from a child-like perspective, and his internal work in the seven-year interim between albums.  

Is there one song on 'Paradise State of Mind' where the child really came out to play?

There are flourishes of it throughout the record, but as a whole, " Glitchzig " to me was returning to form from a long time ago. I was making music like that leading up to Torches . It's an evolved version of that because I’m a more experienced musician now, but the kid’s all over that song.  

Is that child-like mindset what you’re referring to in the album title: 'Paradise State of Mind'?

To me, the title is one of the themes on the record. One of the biggest battles for me is getting stuck in my head and that leads to isolation. Then it becomes this downward spiral. The more isolated I get, the more anxious I get, or the more fearful I get of the world.  

There's a lot of themes that come out of the spirit trying to break free from the mind. There's tension in that. That's what being human is. We are these spiritual beings, I believe, and I know if I get super internal and I’m operating from a place of scarcity within myself I can get really selfish. I can be full of fear because there are so many things happening in life that we're not in control of.   

But the converse of that is when I can zoom out, see life as a whole, and accept the fact that I'm not in control of most of it. Then I can start to step into peace a little bit. Knowing that I am just part of this thing that is going to move forward with or without me. So, just try to enjoy it.

How did seeing life as a whole in that way fuel the music-making process?

"Paradise State of Mind" was kind of that to me. I wrote that with Paul Epworth in London. He was that big brother that was just like, "Mate. It's okay. You're okay. Art is a space that's meant to be free. You can say anything."  

In terms of social atrophy, not touring at that point for four years, going dark on social media, having no back-and-forth with fans. I had been doing a lot of that deep work of identity and my identity attached to music. So, I hadn't had any of that stuff that I'd gotten confidence from or felt connected through. For me, observing society and culture is such a muse. I'm always thinking of the future, studying trends, and trying to feel or predict where things are going.

Connecting with another artist eased those parts of myself. It opened up that writer's block in a way where it was like, "I'm just gonna be brave, and I'm gonna be honest."

But I didn't want to write a dark record, either. I didn't want to point fingers . I didn't want to be on a soapbox. I didn't want to beat a horse talking about things that everybody else was talking about. So on a lot of this record, I dove within myself. I talked about my experience and that felt honest, but it also felt hopeful. I did that because I needed to feel hopeful.  

You mentioned that you’re looking to the future to inform your songwriting, but this album also explores past musical eras. How did you bring the past and the future together when you were making this album?  

To be frank, the way that I write operates from a childlike flow state which is nonjudgmental and really based in improv. I can have an intention of going in to make a record, but a lot of times I don't know what songs are about until the record’s done.  

A part of me is always looking back at my past life. I think that is the challenge of what it is to be human. And that's something that I'm working on a lot, which is to stay present. I think there are so many parts of me that can beat myself up over the past or reflect upon the past in a nostalgic way. Or I can future trip. Be worried about what's coming. Be anxious about things that I can't control, but all I have is right now.  

So, I try every day to be in the right now, but within that, it's inherently human to reflect. That's how we grow.

Coming back to making music after that break, did you make any discoveries about the meaning of previous Foster the People songs that in turn inspired songs on this new record?  

Not particularly. This feels like a new chapter of life. There was a point over the pandemic where I almost stepped away from the band when Mark Pontius left. He was my first phone call when I started the band. I knew if I wanted to start a band, he was my dream drummer.

The shift of that combined with this state of the world, and then combined with this new chapter of being married, I really had to take deep stock into what I wanted to do next with my life.

When I wanted to make music again with Foster the People I knew it was going to be a heavy lift and it was. But it was okay, because once you're bit by that thing, you know you have to do something. You're compelled to do it. You're almost rejecting yourself if you don't.  

Once I stepped back into it the whole thing felt like a new experience. What does making music feel like to me now? What is the band going to feel like now? Not attaching too much baggage to it. Or too much of the past.  

How do you feel about getting back on the road in this new chapter? Are you going to try and recreate that spark you had in the studio?

I'm really excited to connect with people. That's something I've really missed. To connect with our fans. To connect with audiences. Obviously from the stage, there's that connection, but then the conversations that happen on tour. The personal connection.  

I feel like I need that. I also feel like we can provide that. I want to provide a space where people can come and feel safe to be themselves and connect with each other which probably sounds like some hippie bullsh -t. It's a cliche. But I have to remind myself of that because it's so powerful.  

It's gonna be new. That's the other part to me. I don't want it to be a replication of what the record is. Songs are living, breathing things. They continue to evolve and change over time. That's what we're exploring right now in rehearsals. Let's learn the songs to form as they were written. Then let's figure out where we can break them.  

A lot of the guys that we're playing with now come from a jazz background. They're very comfortable improving. That's going to be a big part of this live show. Stepping out and creating something new that you can only see or hear if you're in the room with us that night.  

The moments when we're off-book have been my favorite moments about rehearsing. It's brought me to tears already. It's the times when we're exploring something, and the whole thing feels like it's about to fall apart. That's the best feeling for me. I'm excited about stepping into that. Stepping into the unknown.

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Photo: Drewby Perez

For Glass Animals, breaking through with their last album during the pandemic was an isolating experience. They brought those feelings to the fore with 'I Love You So F—ing Much,' where the Englishmen embrace a sort of majestic, celestial loneliness.

Remember the atmospheric river of 2024? Glass Animals ' Dave Bayley thought he'd drown in it. He'd holed up in a cheap Airbnb to write his band's latest album, I Love You So F—ing Much — and soon realized why it was so cheap.

"When I got there, I realized why. It was one of those stilt houses, hanging off the edge of a cliff," Bayley tells GRAMMY.com. "There was s— flying down and trees coming out of the ground, flying down the mountain. I was like, I'm dead. This is it. This is the end. "

Late at night, observing the bedlam of the natural world, Bayley didn't feel planted on terra firma at all; he felt as if he was floating in space. Which turned out to be the impetus for the English indie-psych-poppers' latest statement — space being a metaphor for disconnection and unmooring. (The album arrived July 19 via Republic; Bayley remains the sole producer.)

"I think I had a lot of imposter syndrome, and felt very disconnected from reality as well," Bayley says of the Covid era — which unfortunately dovetailed with the breakout success of their last album, Dreamland . But by some strange alchemy, Glass Animals spun that feeling into emotional warmth.

As you absorb songs like "Creatures in Heaven," "A Tear in Space (Airlock)" and "Lost in the Ocean," read on for an interview with Bailey about how this celestial, lonesome, yet oddly swaddling and comforting album came to be.

This interview has been edited for clarity.

How would you describe the four-year gap between Dreamland and I Love You So F—ing Much ?

Like lifetimes, honestly. And at the same time, it sort of feels like yesterday as well.

It's very, very confusing — because we finished Dreamland , and then Covid hit. We were about to release it, and then we postponed, and postponed, and realized the pandemic is not going away. We promised people the album; we needed to release it to, like, survive. So, we released it thinking it would probably tank. And it did something absolutely amazing, unexpected.

Most people, when something like that happens, get to be out and experience it, and see it happening in the real world — playing live shows, and they feel part of it, and it's part of them. Whereas I was trapped in my bedroom in my underpants watching it all happen through social media and email updates.

You needed to make it to survive? Say more about that.

I mean, that was our livelihood. Somehow, this has become a profession — I have to pinch myself when I say that, it's the best thing ever.

But you can't just not release music. You have to keep writing and releasing music to maintain it as a profession. We were four years out from the record before that, at that point.

Odd question: if a music career was inaccessible to you, what would be your professional destiny, as it were?

I was trying to be a doctor before all of this happened. I was four years deep into medical school, actually. Then, a series of strange and terrible things happened in my life that made me like, I want to take a break from med school.

I was using music as a therapy, almost, to get over some of the things that had happened. I was making music to feel better, really, and connected somehow. Someone, somewhere, maybe, put it on SoundCloud.

** What was the thematic seed of I Love You So F—ing Much ? **

I guess that sense of detachment was a big thing — because it not only went for the duration of the pandemic, but even after the pandemic, we were touring. And because there was no insurance for people touring against Covid, we still had to isolate and bubble within ourselves. It was going to extend us another year and a half, just being in this metal tube.

It was like, the biggest shows we ever had — they were amazing. We'd walk on stage, and for an hour and a half, be slammed in the face with emotion and energy. And then we'd walk offstage back to the bus, and we couldn't interact and be part of what was happening afterwards.

It just made us all feel even more surreal — it felt like a dream.

Talk about the sound you wanted to capture.

This one, I wanted to sound a specific way; I knew the equipment to get. I got about six synths and 20 pedals that fit the sound — a couple of guitars and a drum kit that fit the sound — and I just went for it. You could turn anywhere, and the sound would fit into the context of the record.

** If you think of Glass Animals' discography as stops on a journey via train, which stop is I Love You So F—ing Much ? **

We've reached this retro-futuristic stuff, and I think it's definitely a progression from the last album.

I definitely set my own kind of '90s, '80s production — and now there's a bit of a vaporwave thing going on, but it was still pretty analog and nostalgic. It seems to be almost like the train went backwards.

Then, on the songwriting side, I was trying to really make sure the core of the sounds had [integrity]; they could basically be played with guitar and voice alone. I wanted the chords to tell the story of the song as well; we'd kind of done that in the past, but I'd never really focused on it like I did this time.

I wanted the chords to keep evolving through each section of the song — just twist the atmosphere of the song in each section.

Give me a line on I Love You So F—ing Much that you feel sums up what we're talking about.

"Show Pony" is the first song; everyone creates this idea of love, and what love should be, based on what they've seen and experienced growing up. Seeing their family, seeing their friends — you're walking down the street, and you see a couple arguing, and you form these [impressions of] love.

"Show Pony" is kind of the blueprint; it gives context for the rest of it. And then, the line that comes right after it : "What the hell is happening? What is this?" I like that as the real beginning of the record, after the table of contents — the first song.

Where do you think Glass Animals will go from here?

It's a good question, because I don't really think I'm there yet. I have a few ideas — but to be honest with you, I never end up going with any of the first ideas that I have.

Before this iteration of the album, I wrote a whole other space album that just felt really cold and hollow and empty — like a vacuum. It wasn't cool; it didn't have enough emotion, and it didn't feel soulful enough. I just binned it, and sacked off; it's in the trash.

It wasn't until I stumbled on this concept of juxtaposing these kinds of small, intimate moments with the size of space, that I put two and two together — and worked out how I could do a space album without it being f—ing s—.

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• 2 Nick Cave Returns With The Bad Seeds To Plant Joyful Noise
• 3 The Essential Nick Cave: 10 Songs Highlighting His Dark Brilliance
• 4 On Their First Album In 7 Years, Foster The People Explore A New State Of Mind
• 5 Ladies And Gentlemen, Glass Animals Are Floating In Space

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WORSHIPPING THE DOLLAR ON VINYL

Including festival big hitters such as Mucky Weekend, Alive and Bad Card, this outstanding LP is being pressed on stunning blue and white splatter vinyl and it sounds better than ever. With its hard-hitting beats, infectious melodies, and socially conscious lyrics, ‘Worshipping The Dollar’ still acts as a commentary on the current state of our world and the detrimental effects of greed. The album features collaborations with legendary artists such as Rodney P, Red Star Lion, and Lindy Layton, adding an extra layer of depth to an already dynamic sound .

Pre order the album on how it was originally meant to be listened – on glorious vinyl.

CLICK TO PRE ORDER HERE

DUB PITOLS ON POLISH RADIO

Tune in to Polish National radio Czworka this morning from 10am until 12, Dub Pistols Barry Ashworth will be in the mix on Marcin Harpers show dropping some summer rollers

DUB PISTOLS V FREESTYLERS

🎉 Mega News🎉 🎶 Barry Ashworth (Dub Pistols) B2B with The Freestylers 📍 Golden Lion Todmorden 📆 Saturday 5th October 🎟️ https://www.skiddle.com/whats-on/Oldham/Golden-Lion-Todmorden/Barry-Ashworth-Dub-Pistols-B2B-Freestylers–Nicky-General/39321473/ SAVE THE DATE, BOOK THE TICKET, SPREAD THE NEWS, THIS WILL BE INCREDIBLE!!

Join the Mucky Weekender Team

We are looking for fun, enthusiastic volunteers to join our existing team. Whether you’re interested in volunteering because you want to be a part of this very special festival, or you want to come for free in exchange of a few hours work each day to see our amazing line up, we want to hear from you.

We take a refundable deposit as a bond to ensure that volunteers attend and complete their required responsibilities on site. When you are on shift you’ll sign in/out at the start and end of your shift. Once your shifts have been completed the deposit will be refunded back to you shortly after the event.

By paying a deposit of £100 this secures your volunteering place and festival entry.

You will be required to attend a short briefing on site ahead of your shifts. You will be working 3 x 5 hour shifts (one shift each day of the festival) in exchange for a free ticket to attend the festival. Camping/Live-in vehicle spaces and car parking is available and you’ll also be issued a meal token per shift.

If you are happy with the above and available to volunteer at Mucky Weekender to fill various roles, you will need to be available between 5th, 6th and 7th September 2024. Please email your interest to [email protected] and further information will be sent along with the application form.

Summer Rollers 2024 DJ Mix

Next Dub Boat Party announced

…so we are doing as we are told!

19th October sees the Dub Boat Part 2 take to the water, a 12:45 – 17:00 day time event, on board the legendary Dutch Master party boat.

We have an even better array of performers lined up and a few surprises up our sleeves too. So grab your tickets now to avoid disappointment, as spaces are limited and it WILL sell out

See you on board! https://www.skiddle.com/whats-on/London/The-Dutchmaster—Tower-Millenium-Pier/Dub-Pistols-Boat-Party/39260059/

Portsmouth Show Announced

Summer Tour Dates Announced

New ‘Red Eyed Lion’ T-Shirts ON SALE