Music Writings by CL

Therapy? - An Abundance Of Therapy? Interview, 2003. Full Interview, Click Here. Therapy?  are back. Again. Time has been kind to the band; it doesn't seem that long ago when they were the darlings of the music press, with their dark hybrid of punk, metal and pop. But times have changed, and Therapy? have changed with the times. Literally. The sound has veered off into rockier territories and members have come and gone. But that hasn’t deterred Therapy?, who are still going strong, and with rock music outselling every other form of music at the moment, they're as relevant as ever. I caught the band at Birmingham Academy, and had a brief chat with vocalist  Andy Cairns  about how their new album is going down live. How's Therapy? doing these days? It’s going really well. We’re all really into it again at the moment. Is this because you have a new drummer? Yeah, Neil Cooper. After Graham left we found out that Neil, who used to be in some bands we ...

Meet The New Folk Implosion - Interview 2003. Full Interview, Click Here. For over ten years now  Lou Barlow  has been releasing music with  Sebadoh  and the  Folk Implosion . It's been a decade which has seen band members come and go, as well as a constantly evolving sound to his music. Now  Lou  is touring the UK with his new band,  The New Folk Implosion , stripping the music down from the drum machine-laden sound of the old Folk Implosion's later material. I caught up with  Lou  in Nottingham and Leeds to talk about The New Folk Implosion, linguistics, self-discipline, and being  Bob Mould . Since John Davis has left the Folk Implosion, you've got together The New Folk Implosion, what are the main differences between the two bands? Well, I didn't want to do a layered, sample driven record, I wanted to totally cut it down and play live again. When John left, was it an amicable departure? Yeah, he'd been driftin...

Alec Empire Interview 2002 - "Ooh I'm crying, my girlfriend left me, it's raining" Full Interview, Click Here ALEC EMPIRE INTERVIEW 7/10/2002 As the founder of DHR, would you encourage other people in bands to start their own record label? I think there are a lot of people doing their own labels already, and most people don’t realise that it is hard work. Seriously, you are working ALL the time.  I don’t know if I would say that every band should do their own record labels, what I see is that is that a lot of people that I know who own labels, don’t find the time anymore to work on their own music.  On the other side I think it’s the best way to keep the control. That is the reason we’ve done it. We knew we couldn’t get our music out there the way we wanted it because labels would’ve forced us to change, or manipulated it in some ways. So by setting up dhr we avoided that, but you have to do it full time otherwise your wasting...

Chilly Gonzales Interview - 'Boxing Balls & Apes', 2002. Full Interview, Click Here. 30 year Jason Beck first tasted fame as the lead vocalist in a Canadian rock band ‘Son’. Disillusioned with the music industry, he eventually split from the band and started recording under the alias Gonzales.  Thus a star was born.  Signed to cool German label Kitty-Yo, he recorded an astonishing debut album ‘Gonzales uber Alles’, followed up with and EP with labelmate Peaches, and a hip hop pop album ‘The Entertainist’ with some members of the Digital Hardcore community.  It seemed Gonzales’ star was rising, but it’s his new album Gonzales III: Presidential Suite that is going to see Jason Beck’s alter ego go huge. When I told my friend I had to see Gonzales, she replied, “Oh I love them”  Is it a case of there being certain aspects that make ‘Gonzales’? Maybe she means Gonzales and his ego, or Gonzales the seventies group who had the hit ‘I ...