Watch part one of our video interview with Steve Aoki above

"I don't know, maybe I'm being too hard on myself but I've got to be one of the most criticised DJs out there," Aoki told Gigwise. "At least I feel that way. There are certain things that obviously bring the target to me - things like caking people at my shows, and there's a whole conversation piece about that."

Watch our full interview above, with Aoki discussing taking risks, ignoring the backlash, playing for his fans and progressing forward into the future as an artist. 

Neon Future.1 by Steve Aoki is out now. Check back soon for more of our interview. 

For the latest Steve Aoki live dates and tickets, visit here. 

Watch part one of our video interview with Idlewild above

"There was always the intention, when stopped touring in 2009, of doing something else," frontman Roddy Woomble told Gigwise at the Sanctum Hotel in Soho. "There were three years where the creative relationship of Colin, Rod and I stopped and then it just felt like a natural place to pick it up again." 

Watch part one of our video interview with Idlewild above

Idlewild release their new album Everything Ever Written on 9 February 2015. To celebrate, the band will also be touring to support the record. Full dates and ticket details are below. Tickets are on sale now. For tickets and more information, visit here. 

26th February - Strom - Munich
27th February - Luxor - Cologne
1st March - Lido - Berlin
2nd March - Knust - Hamburg
3rd March - Bitterzoet - Amsterdam
7th March - O2 ABC - Glasgow
8th March - O2 ABC - Glasgow
10th March - The Institute - Birmingham
12th March - The Ritz - Manchester
13th March - Roundhouse - London

Recorded at eight legendary studios in eight different cities, Sonic Highways picks up Dave Grohl's ambition telling the stories behind the music as he did on Sound City, and taking it on the road. In the accompanying documentary currently showing on BBC 4, the band let the cities seep in, as they roll from Austin to Chicago, Los Angeles, Nashville, New Orleans, New York, Seattle, and Washington D.C, writing and recording as they go.

These are cities that were not only instrumental in shaping the Foos and Grohl's old band Nirvana, but places that they've played in countless times. Now, it's time to let those cities sing - with the help of a few famous friends along the way.

- Read our track-by-track review of Sonic Highways here

To celebrate Sonic Highways, we sat down with Foos guitarists Pat Smear and Chris Shiflett  to discuss the journey they went through to create the most ambitious album of their career. 

You've said that when making Sonic Highways, each city influenced you to stretch out and explore new territory.

Chris: "I kinda disagree with your written statement. Did we say that or did our publicist say that?"

That statement comes from Mr Dave Grohl. 

Chris: "Dave said it? Then I agree 100%! I don't know. It's not like we went to Austin and tried to make a blues song or went to Nashville and tried to go country, but it was such a wild, adventurous way to make a record that of course, took on a life of its own. With all of the places that we were in, you couldn't help but let it seep in. It's not like it makes you stylistically differently, and it doesn't make me play my guitar differently, but when I'm in Austin and I've got fuckin' BBQ sauce on my fingers, it changes something. I don't know if you can quite measure it, but it's in there." 

Pat: "I think it's more just the schedule and the deadline and the logistical way we were doing it was different. 'Oh, we've gotta go out of town and do this thing and get it right in one day'. All that kinda stuff." 

Chris: "At first we were like 'Oh my God, this is going to be impossible'. When you're in the band, you're somewhat insulated. Yeah, there were hardships involved in the whole thing, but they were hardships for other people! It's a hardship for our engineer to build a studio out of a room that isn't a studio with one day to do it. We just show up and it's done and it's perfect and everything works great. You can definitely see James Brown, our engineer, having some stressful moments."

Which of the cities in the show had the most profound effect on you?

Chris: "Personally, I would go with New Orleans, Nashville and Austin. Those were the big
three for me."

Pat: "I don't know, it's all one thing for me. I know I fell in love with some of these cities that I wasn't really familiar with before. It wasn't being able to in them long enough to get to know them, rather than the way we normally do it, which is 'come in, see the venue, see the hotel, maybe go for a walk to get some coffee'. Now I know these cities."

Chris: "The experience is really important, I think that's something Dave really stressed. When you're in a city long enough to know where a good cup of coffee is and to know a good couple of restaurants, meet a few people and get the lay of the land, it's amazing. I've been touring for a long time, almost 20 years or so and countless times I've thought 'I have gotta come back here when I'm not on tour'. I've done that everywhere, and you never do it. I've been to London 8 million times but never on vacation. It was great, because it was the best of both worlds. You get to live in these cities for just a short while.

Pat: "I got to rediscover the obvious, which is it's the people that make a city great. Getting to love the people makes you able to love these cities. Chicago where the weather is awful, but the people are amazing so I love it."

To what extent did the cities inspire the songs, or were they largely already written?

Pat: "The lyrics were always inspired by the week that we were there. As far as the songs, we already had the music together for a good dozen or so, and it was really about just trying to match the songs to the city."

Chris: "It's funny. Dave created a project that was especially hard for him. We rehearsed the songs for months leading up to it, so pretty much every city we would go to, we knew what we were playing. I went in and got my parts down, man. Meanwhile, Dave was running all over town everywhere interviewing people. In that sense it's probably the least Dave has ever been in the studio making a record because he was out interviewing Buddy Guy or Roky Erikson, Dolly Parton or whoever. Then he had to write the lyrics, and the lyrics are half the song. He would do that the day before we recorded the vocal and do that every week that we were out, do it was pretty wild."

Pat: "The funny thing that happened was that while we were working on the music, we had no idea what the lyrics would be, so we had to try not to step on the vocals that didn't exist. You'd come up with a cool little guitar part and then be like 'oh, that might step on the melody that doesn't exist'. But I think it ended up simplifying the songs, which is great."

If each city has a different influence and character, have you noticed that your fans have a different personality in each place?

Chris: "As much as you can tell from our crowd, yeah! Totally."

Where would you say your fans are most insane?

Chris: "I'm not trying to be a suck-up here, but without a doubt it's in the UK. Crowds are just different here. It must come out of football culture because the sing-alongs at every gig start before you even get the stage and then well after you've left. Crowds are great everywhere, but the UK is a real specific strain of wild, vocal fan."

Pat: "Which is almost the exact opposite of our hometown, Los Angeles. The toughest crowd in the world. What is that? You're from here guys! Sing along!"

Chris: "They're like 'we've seen it all, so do it better', and LA can do it better. It's a room full of musicians like 'you guys are shit'."

Sonic Highways by Foo Fighters is out now. The accompanying documentary is available to watch on BBC iPlayer.

- Read our track-by-track review of Sonic Highways here

Below: Foo Fighters 15 greatest hits, ranked in order of greatness

This course of action led to a brief existential crisis, a flirtation with going AWOL and now, as Martin chats to Gigwise, a hangover that rivals the end of days. To mark the band's UK tour she chats about admiring Everything Everything, meeting REM and why you should never remake an Eighties' track. 

Gigwise: What’s the best band you’ve seen at a festival this year?
Monica: White Denim - holy smokes they are so good! Through my life I’ve been pulled in every direction in terms of what genre of music I’d listen to. I grew up on soul and Motown, then listened to emo and then started listening to folk, really mellow stuff. I heard White Denim - the song was ‘At Night In Dreams’ - and I just fell in love. Rock'n'roll: this is what it should be. Too often rock'n'roll is just not very thoughtful, just very self satisfactory - you probably shouldn’t put this in print but it’s pretty masturbatory. And then I heard White Denim and I was truly addicted. We got to see them at Electric Picnic. Really good.



Do you have a moment where music profoundly changed for you?
I only first heard Led Zeppelin eight years ago. And where I was from in Wisconsin most of my friends were growing up listening to classic rock: Led Zeppelin, AC/DC all that stufff. When I heard Led zeppelin’s 'Whole Lotta Love' I was like ‘Holy shit this is SO GOOD’. The voice! The guitar! It’s so melodic! That was a big "doors opening" moment.

In your NPR playlist you included Everything Everything. What do you like about them?
How long have you got? 1. The voice is incredible. 2. Arrangements are incredible. 3. The drums: so cool (and they can play it acoustic which shows how versatile and impressive they are). 4. The lyrics - he’s clearly putting a lot of thought into them which I feel is so rare today. I didn't know something so unique could make me feel so good. It’s incredibly smart, it’s really thoughtful and it’s beautiful. Everything Everything make me so happy.

What musical trend needs to die out?
The thing I find really disheartening is that I see a lot is people pandering to whatever genre is happening at that time. I certainly don’t consider myself an authority on “what is good music” but when I watch something you just know when there’s heart in it. To be more specific I think doing "Eigthies music" is absolutely over. Taking a song that basically already existed and then putting boring lyrics on it? That’s annoying! If you put it in front of a 13 year old today they’ll think 'This is brilliant' -  but that song had already happened! And it already happened better.

I wish there was more enthusiasm for young people to check beyond top 40 radio. And I like pop music, I really do: but there was a time when Joni Mitchell was on top of the charts. Before I was writing songs and in a band I didn’t think that people didn’t write their own songs. It was shocking!

What job would you be doing if you weren’t fronting Phox?
I didn’t really have any aspirations to be quite honest. I did fall into and really loved being a hairdresser. I could interact with people and make them feel good... but not necessarily have to talk. To be able to do that legally is great! I went to beauty school and ended up working at my dream salon in my favourite neighbourhood called Cha Cha. I really liked it and then things became too hectic with the band in terms of scheduling so I had to quit.

When were you last starstruck?
Man, at South by South West I was sitting having dinner with people who already had pretty impressive rock resumes (like Radiohead’s manager). Then Neil Young walks by. We lock eyes for just one second and I think my entire soul shot through the ceiling. It was an incredibly insane feeling. Just thinking about it right now: he has written some of the most beautiufl music that will last forever, and has made me cry on so many occaisons and made me feel at peace on so many occasions.

The other story is the first time I was at South By South West, I didn’t realize you shouldn’t take all the free drinks that you are given as a musician. I kept thinking "This may end so may as well drink them all." There was this delicious whisky - I think it was called Troy & Sons - I drank a lot and I found myself talking to a bunch of random industry people. I got into this conversation with someone who just starts asking me questions and is being pretty funny about Wisconson and cheese curds. This guy starts laughing as I’m basically hamming it up, waxing poetic about the curds and probably telling some off colour jokes. I walk away and my friend said "Do you know who you were talking to?" It was Mike Mills from REM.

What question are you bored of answering?
Probably just the whole band name thing: it’s a lot less romantic than people would make you hope.

Describe your worst ever gig?
Let’s see: our first show we ever played I was so scared. I didn’t sing into the microphone. It was mostly my nerves but after that show I walked away and sighed for a long while. But then there was one we played in front of a larger audience at a street festival. Basically all the wires were crossed: nothing was in the right place. The thing that is crazy is that when you’re playing a show, you don’t understand all the variables that can possibly go wrong. That was what was going through my head: "We’ve in front of a large audience most of whom who hadn’t heard us before and I couldn’t hear myself at all." It was really messy, all of us looking at each other with our arms up like "Well, this is the best we can do." That was really awful.

Have you ever played to a particularly unsuitable crowd?
There’s definitely been weird moments “Here! Play this show to a bunch of radio people while they are eating dinner!” It’s kinda weird but it’s usually more just mildly awkward and super businessy. Then there is being heckled:  some people positively heckle you! It might be a good friend of yours saying your name over and over again as they’re kind of drunk. Or doing a really quite instrumental part of the song where someone yells "MONICA! I LOVE YOUR HAIR!" It just totally derails you and you just think: what the fuck is your problem?

Below: Watch the official video for Kingfisher by Phox.

Phox are currently on tour in the UK. phoxband.com

Famed for their striking image and synapse-melting live shows, Babymetal have found fans in lovers of heavy metal, J-pop and anime, with everyone from Metallica and Slayer to Lady Gaga pledging their allegiance. 

As London prepares for the whirlwind of their return this weekend, we spoke to Su-Metal about their fans, the experience of seeing them on stage, meeting Metallica, what the future may hold and how they're 'governed by the Fox God'.  

You've received an incredible response from new fans around the world. What do you think it is about what you do that has attracted people from so many different cultures?

One thing that Babymetal really pride themselves on is the fact that we strive to be the only one doing this. We are a combination of pop idol meets heavy metal, and you don't see a lot of people doing that. It's usually one or the other. That's what putting us apart and that's what people connect to.

Do you feel as if you've found fans in lovers of Japanese culture as well as metal?

After playing in so many countries, we've had the experience of watching the crowd and seeing how different and diverse they are. Sometimes you see a lot of metal heads, people dressed up in fancy clothes, goth clothes and cosplay. There's a lot of different cultures, from anime fans to Japanese culture fans to music lovers and metal heads. It's definitely a very, very diverse fanbase they we have.

Since learning you were going to be a metal band, what are your favourite heavy metal and hard rock bands that you've discovered?

One of the bands is obviously Metallica. The first real metal band we saw live was Metallica. The first time we met them, they were just really nice old folks, they we went to watch them and they were totally different to the guys we saw on stage. Their aura and stage presence had such a real impact on me. I was like 'this is real metal'.

What has it been like meeting metal icons like Metallica and Slayer?

We were not fans of metal until Babymetal happened. We would be walking around the festival site, watching people and not knowing who they were. It's still a learning process to get to know the metal scene, but everyone has been super nice and super supportive. It's been great experience for us in the scene right now.

Are you aware of British rock bands such as Muse, Arctic Monkeys and Biffy Clyro?

...I am familiar with Iron Maiden and Dragonforce!

You have a very cult and dedicated following. What qualities do you see in Babymetal fans that other following's might not have?

Our fanbase is so diverse, we have the pop idol fans and the metal fans, so what we notice when we look into the crowd is at the same time you have a moshpit going on, and you have people doing this wall of death. Then the pop idol fans who are among this group of people so it's such a chaotic looking crowd of people enjoying the show in their own way. That's probably the biggest difference between our crowd and a regular crowd - you get all of these people in one pot.

Since your album was released in February, have you been writing new material?

Basically Babymetal is governed by the Fox God who dictates what we do and when, so you'll have to ask the Fox God.

Will do. Can we expect to see you playing UK festivals next year?

We definitely want to, and hope to be able to come back to the UK again for festivals, but once again it's up to the Fox God.

If there is one message that Babymetal hope to represent to their fans, what would it be?

The only thing we really want people to know is that we are striving to be something that is different, something that no one has experienced before, we are the only one. We hope that who ever is interested will continue to support us, as we want to try a lot of new things in the future and experiment with whathever will set us apart from everyone else.

- Babymetal play London's Brixton Academy on Saturday 8 November. For tickets and more information, visit here. 

Below: 7 awesome facts about Babymetal that you need to know

Watch our video interview with Gerard Way above

Despite being one of the biggest biggest American alt-rock exports of his generation, Way's artistic spirit was influenced by that of Britpop. We talked to him about why Arctic Monkeys resonate so strongly, what Blur have in common with MCR, the aspirational fashion of 90s Britain, and why he dedicated his youth to Britpop instead of grunge. 

"It was kind of a mundane existance growing up in New Jersey, and I never really let go of that," Way told Gigwise. "There seemed to be no limits to Britpop. It felt like, say you could have a band like Pulp with these dance or disco elements to them. It had romanticism and glam in bands like Suede, it pure pop in bands like Blur and working class rock like Oasis - it felt like it could be anything.

Watch our full interview above.

Hesitant Alien by Gerard Way is out now. The complete dates for Gerard Way's tour are below. For tickets click here.

Thu November 06 2014 - OXFORD O2 Academy Oxford
Fri November 07 2014 - GLASGOW O2 ABC
Sat November 08 2014 - CARDIFF Cardiff University Students Union
Sun November 09 2014 - CARDIFF Y Plas
Mon November 10 2014 - LONDON KOKO

Tue January 20 2015 - BIRMINGHAM O2 Academy Birmingham
Wed January 21 2015 - SOUTHAMPTON O2 Guildhall
Fri January 23 2015 - LONDON O2 Academy Brixton

Below: Exclusive photos of Gerard Way live at Reading Festival

Having helped turn the likes of The Smiths and Joy Division into icons with his legendary shots, Kevin Cummins met the wide, kohl-lined eyes of the Manics in the early 90s - shooting them again and again over the coming years as they evolved from 'a mess of eyeliner and spraypaint' to stadium-filling people's champions, from leopard print to leather to fragmented uniforms, from a four-piece to a trio. 

Kevin Cummins has now compiled the best photos he took of the band from 1992 to 1995 in a new book and exhibition, Assassinated Beauty. To celebrate the launch at London's Proud Galleries this week, we spoke to Cummins about meeting the band, their visual power, similarities with Joy Division, their legacy and life after Richey

Obviously the sound and attitude of Manic Street Preachers had an immense impact in the early days, but what would you say made the Manics so visually powerful during that era?

Initially, I think they looked like two separate bands, to be honest. Nicky and Richey very much had their own look, and the other two weren't quite sure what they wanted to look like at the time. On stage they were very much a unit with their white jeans and so on. Obviously, it was slightly derivative and a bit like The Clash...but it was for a generation who hadn't seen The Clash. Then they grew in confidence and grew into their look, and they changed their look with every album or every tour. But it wasn't just a stage look - it was what they were. They always played the part and they believed in what they were doing.

Manic Street Preachers in Paris in 1992, exclusive to Gigwise

When they arrived in 1991, they were a million miles from the prevailing baggy and 'Madchester' scene, then as time went on they stuck out like a sore thumb in the Britpop era. Did you get the sense that you were shooting 'a band apart' throughout this era?

Yes, always - and that's what I like about them. I liked the fact that they were very true to themselves and didn't feel as if they had to conform to anything. I think they've stayed true to that, to this day. They're still angry, they're still political and very opinionated. I also like the fact that they believed, even when they started, that they were the best band in the world. If you believe that, then you are.

Obviously, they had a very clear vision of their aesthetic. How was it directing them on photo shoots and did you feel as if you had to 'earn their trust' as it were?

I think I already had that. I was lucky in that I came to meet them as somebody who had photographed one of their favourite bands, so they were quite excited that I wanted to photograph them because they loved Joy Division. That was an icebreaker. I spent a lot of time with them, went on various tours with them and shot them in the photographic studio as well and on location. I actually probably did more studio shots with them than with any other band, because I always felt that the way they looked suited the studio and we could control what we were doing a little bit better. There was a mutual trust there all the time, and we got on well. When we went to Bangkok [in 1994], we did loads and loads of pictures. I remember later Nicky saying "I think Kevin should publish a book of his Bangkok photos, but he only took about 20, the lazy bugger."

I actually took about 20 rolls on that trip, and it looked great. Halfway through that cover shoot where they're stood by the river, I'm focussing on Richey and James in the foreground, because you can't look at all four at once, and I suddenly noticed that Nicky had disappeared and he was being sick in the canal next to us. It was so hot and humid and the water sank. The rest of the shoot he looked decidedly green, and that suited him actually.

Manic Street Preachers in Bangkok, 1994

From their transformation from the 'stadium rock Bon Jovi' look of Gold Against The Soul, to the stark, military dystopian image of The Holy Bible, what did you make of their new look in their uniforms?

I'd photographed them in their long hair and leather jackets and then suddenly there was another fashion change. I shot the two dates in Bangkok on the stage where you get a real sense of excitement because you almost feel like you're part of it. To this day I still feel like they're an incredible powerful live band. I've never gone to a Manics gig and thought 'oh my God, you're boring me'.

Manic Street Preachers on stage in 1994

How would you describe the band's temperament, shooting them in 1995 after Richey had left?

It was very odd for them. If he'd clearly died and been found then everybody could have moved on, however tragic that is, there's always a sense of closure. With a body having never been found, that always makes it difficult. There's always that 1% of you that thinks 'Is he somewhere else?' - still 20 years on. The first time that I photographed them as a three-piece, it was quite difficult. I was so used to shooting them as four, and shooting Nicky and Richey together. It was quite a mellow trip really, and knocked the stuffing out them a bit. They weren't as cocky as they were and their look was more casual - 'Here we are in street clothes'. They didn't have the confidence to go on another step. It was a sort of sideways step, I felt. We did pictures of them in LA, trying to crack America again without really putting their heart into it.

Do you think that sense of uncertainty comes across in the photos?

To me it did. There was always a swagger to them, but the pictures I took of them in LA were much more melancholic.

James Dean Bradfield in 1995

Of the images in the exhibition, which would you say are the most revealing?

I always think that individual portraits are stronger than a band shot. There are some lovely solo shots of Richey, and there's one of him clinging onto the body of a female statue - almost like he needs it for warmth and support. It looks like a shot taken in total isolation, but as I was doing that picture, James and Nicky walked past and Nicky shouted at him "Fucking hell, Edwards - you'd do anything to get on the cover of NME."

One thing the band often say is how they get frustrated with how Richey's story is often painted as a Hollywood legend, when Richey was actually very human and more Blackwood than Beverley Hills. He drove a Vauxhall and was quite self-deprecating. Do you think these photos help tap into that?

No, I think I think I helped to form the idea that he was a star, really. I think I did that with Ian Curtis as well. Not so long ago, I said to Hooky 'I've spent 30 years protecting the Joy Division legacy, and you've written a book about him pissing in ash trays'. I think with Richey, he looks like a star, and I wanted him to be one. There aren't too many pictures of him messing around, they're always sending up the idea of this rock icon - which was the idea behind the one with the Marilyn Monroe stamps. I want to propagate the mythology of rock n' roll - I don't want to show its arse. There's a lovely picture of Richey isolated on the street in Patpong and there's stuff going on all around him. He just stands there and zones out - looking like a mixture of a confused young boy, and a rock star. Ten minutes before that, we were in a pub for two hours watching the Manchester Derby on telly. I didn't want that, I wanted the rock star.

Richey, James and Nicky have their very personalities within the band, but to many drummer Sean Moore is somewhat of a closed book. What's it like working with him?

Initially, it was almost like they brought him along because they couldn't get a babysitter. Then he grew into his role and is very confident in himself. Sean was always the one who'd have the latest gadget, game, or be the first person in the world to have an iPod. He's very funny as well and has a great sense of humour. None of them take themselves too seriously. They have that arrogant swagger that you need to be in a band, but they haven't lost that humility. They also haven't lost that sense of why they started in the band and what they wanted from it. They still have a message, it's not a pose - it's what they are. A lot of musicians will talk forever about music and the process of it, but these guys are very well read, love film, love music and have a lot of things that filter into their work. That's why I find them interesting, because they're fully rounded as people as well.

Richey Edwards and Nicky Wire, circa 1992

Assassinated Beauty by Kevin Cummins runs at Proud Camden from 7 November 2014 until 11 January 2015. Their will be a launch night on 7 November, featuring performances from Syd Arthur and Tess Parks. For tickets and more information, visit here. 

A book of the same name, published by Faber & Faber is available in hardback and limited editions and released on 4 December. 

Meanwhile, Manic Street Preachers will be celebrating the 20th anniversary of The Holy Bible by touring it in full this December. The full list of dates is below. Tickets are on sale now. For tickets and more information, visit here. 

Below: 11 exclusive photos of Manic Street Preachers at V Festival

But if we’re not going to allow people to discuss universal experiences in music, the world’s playlists are going to be a lot poorer as a result; you'd have to stop people dancing to 50 Cent on their birthday for starters. Harris makes things seem incredibly effortless, but as the huge number of underwhelming soundalikes now clogging the charts prove, his stadium-sized electronica is harder to replicate than you might think.

Thanks to songs as simple and sophisticated as 'Summer', Harris is now one of British music’s most profitable exports; he topped the DJ rich list (he made £39.6m last year) and achieved the most streamed song of 2014, becoming the first British act to top a billion streams on Spotify.

He currently has achieved daytime radio domination worldwide, has a private jet on call and boasts a production request list as long as the queue to get into his residency at Hakkasan in Las Vegas. Need further convincing? He not only has the talent to headline a massive festival - T In The Park in July - but has the sheer charisma to persuade Will Smith himself to act as his hype man.

Gigwise recently got to experience first hand the power of a Calvin Harris set at the Bacardi Triangle, a one-of-a-kind festival that takes place on a small private island in Puerto Rico. There are so many bat logos that the island begins to resemble Bruce Wayne's summer retreat. There were also some more intriguing touches, including a castaway tied to a homemade float, loudly screaming for ferrygoers to help him find Wilson.

Everything is focused around a massive triangular neon stage positioned near the surf. As darkness falls, crowds of overwhelmed EDM innocents, bikini-clad beach bunnies, bellowing dance bros drinking mint juleps, bartenders tucking into the Hatuey Cuban ale and some very lucky competition winners take their places. Next to the beach a small flotilla of local boats forms, looking to experience the event from just outside the barriers: they create a veritable disco Dunkirk.

Calvin Harris shares the stage tonight with two acts that kick things off in exemplary fashion. Ellie Goulding is captivating: she may only have five key signature dance moves (four more than this writer) but each works a treat. “Do I look like a hot mess right now?” she asks as she throws herself around the stage in a black bikini top and shorts. The rock histrionics with her guitarists are all well and good but nothing tops the moment when all the lights single her out during her drum solo on 'Salt Skin'. This is officially her last show of her Halycon Days tour: it’s proven her as pop act with a true global appeal and we can't wait to see what she does next.

Kendrick Lamar follows: stalking the stage, wearing a cap and jeans and talking about "realising your full motherfucking potential". Instantly he's on point: “Swimming Pools (Drank)” may be the single most appropriate song for an event hosted by a rum company at a luxury resort. His set, unsurprisingly, is heavy on major label debut good kid MAAD City, bar a vigorous run through of his remix of ASAP Rocky’s ‘Fuckin' Problems'. Lamar is hugely charismatic - and what other hip-hop star on the planet could get away with asking the crowd to sing 'Happy Birthday' to his DJ before smushing cake into the subject's afro?

Lamar only suffers a tiny setback due to his small audience's lack of familiarity with his material: expecting a crowd of competition winners to know all the words to 'Backseat Freestyle' turns out to be beyond them. Also his link "....and most importantly nobody’s vibe got killed" is only saved by the massive hip-hop anthem that follows it. By the time that ‘i’ kicks in - all Isley Brothers' Seventies' funk and contemporary Compton swagger - you know that when TDE finally releases Lamar's new LP, it's going to be a blockbuster.

Despite both of his superlative supports, Harris is unquestionably the main event. He is also the only act to fly in only overnight. It feels strangely appropriate that Harris missed the 'Black Magic' Halloween party the night before and as such didn't get to see either Goulding dressed as a native American and Lamar as Black Jesus (or, for that matter, the world’s only bikini clad Snow White, slutty Amelia Earhart and 'sexy' Toothless from How To Train Your Dragon). Harris is, after all, here in Puerto Rico on business: the highly lucrative art of making speakers shake.

After a few necessary press commitment preliminaries - he tells The Sun backstage that he’s not on the new Rihanna album (and tells the Mirror that ‘We Found Love’ is about a ham sandwich) - Harris is ready to go to work.

For a gig with a capcity of under 2000, the production is fit for a festival main stage. Every drop is accompanied by confetti, fireworks, plumes of smoke or all three. The visuals are extraordinary: swirling and interconnecting maelstroms of digital technology. 

The set list is so huge you could see it from space: - Harris productions (Rihanna’s peerless 'We Found Love', Florence’s 'Sweet Nothing') and failsafe proven party starters (the A-Trak version of 'Heads Will Roll', Icona Pop’s ‘I Don’t Care’, Fatboy Slim's 'Eat Sleep Rave Repeat', Kiesza’s 'Hideaway', Route 94’s 'My Love').

Those expecting more tracks from his new record Motion don't quite get their moment. Personally we would have loved to have heard the new Haim collaboration but it wasn't to be. Similarly the predicted Goulding collaboration - they are both on the same private Puerto Rican island after all - didn’t materialise, but no-one seems to mind. Theo Hutchcraft from Hurts was also backstage - he too decides to shun the stage this time round.

By the close of his set, Harris has only uttered about two tweets worth of on stage chat, a mere 280 characters of EDM exultation, but we didn't need to hear anything more. What's clear is that Motion, even battling the seemingly unstoppable Taylor Swift, should look set to crush the competition. There isn't a producer at the moment who has so completely determined what the world dances to right now. Our view from some distant beach? We're just placing bets on which of Motion's remaining 14 tracks will guarantee him his next number one.

This weekend Goulding, along with Kendrick Lamar and Calvin Harris will headline the first Bacardi Triangle event, where an international lineup of talent attempts to recreate the same anarchic party spirit of your average 1920s prohibition throw down.

The event has been crafted partly by the rum brand (“We just like throwing cool parties” says one spokesperson) but also by the events company Broadwick Live, the people behind Snowbombing and Festival No. 6. Everything is focused on threes: three artists, three chartered planes, the three ingredients of a Cuba Libre. Located on the eastern side of Puerto Rico, the hotel itself is stunning, built around three pools (naturally) and blessed with a funicular, Wes Anderson’s public transport of choice. Throughout the huge resort, there are triangles everywhere: the entire event has the vague air of an Illuminati conference but with stronger drinks.

The island playing host to tomorrow’s gig is leased by the hotel and is a short ferry ride away; mysterious and magnificent, it’s not a surprise that it’s the go-to location for anyone looking to film a swashbuckling epic. As one of the tourist reps awkwardly puts it: “Puerto Ricans are known for two things: rum and music. And beaches.”

So Gigwise find ourselves with the press core at the hotel, sheltering from a little light rain, quizzing Ellie Goulding. There is a storm brewing and the DJ, who has a seemingly endless supply of boomy house, falls silent for the first time in hours. Lamar was also set to take part in the press conference (apparently he was delayed by a flight) as was Tensnake (who was delayed by his inability to function after a 4am DJ set the night before). Thankfully Goulding has enough charisma to make up for any absences.

Wearing big black bovver boots, a black bikini and a expression of mild amusement, Goulding is clearly excited by the prospect of such a unique gig. She is also gracious enough to field any international journalist questions. The key findings? Yes, she will probably have a couple of shots before she goes on stage tomorrow (she prefers her drink on the rocks, pubs to clubs and only tried teetotal-touring when she supported Bruno Mars on the road). She has played islands before, but never such a striking location. She loved recording a version of The Weeknd’s High For This, partly for the surprised reaction she gets. Queried by a men’s lifestyle writer on what it would take to impress her, the response was simply “It would have to be something pretty epic, I’m not easily impressed”. Her costume for tonight’s party? "It’ll either be sexy/slutty depending on my stylist or Mr Blobby. It could go either way." 

Asked about her new album she defers questions saying it’s too early, but does share a few keys details; she hopes to have it ready to tour next summer. She wants Calvin Harris to return the favour by appearing on her album (“He better be!) and teases the fact there could be one male singer songwriter on the album (“Keeping it old school…do a male/female duet”).  The conference concludes by a Brazilian journalist asking about this “whole celebrity feminist thing” which Goulding deftly fields, indicating that she has “strong feelings on the matter” but unsurprisingly can’t do justice to them in a neat soundbite.

The weather lifts momentarily and the press depart. The forecast for tonight’s Halloween event is stormy. And we have to go and try and make a Noel Edmonds costume.

Find out more at bacardi.com

With this year's nominations a gloriously diverse mix, from the jazz stylings of Go Go Penguin to FKA Twigs' forward thinking R&B via Royal Blood's visceral bass-led rhythms, it was outsiders Young Fathers who took the prestigious gong for the stunning Dead, justification for their groundbreaking experimentation and reinvention as a group.

Speaking to artists and influential industry insiders on the red carpet before the ceremony offered the chance for an insight the ever changing state of British music, well, it could have, here's the weirdest things we learnt at this year's Mercury Prize awards.

Nick Mulvey has received some odd gifts from fans

"Someone unexpectedly gave me an enormous bag of homemade pastries once, and another gave me a christmas card in June that just said 'I love you' all over it, that was slightly disturbing."

Young Fathers' worst ever gig proved they wouldn't make very good supply teachers

"It was in a primary school, in front of 3-5 year olds, it was pretty odd. Some were receptive, others started crying"

Bombay Bicycle Club's mums don't care about awards

"I got a lot of calls and texts from my mum today telling me that it didn't matter, and that awards are bullshit, so that's probably the most meaningful conversation I've had"

Go Go Penguin have some seriously dedicated fans

"There's been a guy who keeps turning up to all the free gigs in London dressed as a penguin, and he always dances for the last tune, we like that. He's probably outside to be honest, he's warned us that whenever we're in London he'll be around, so he'll probably be waving through a window or something."

East India Youth should release his own range of tie-pins

"I'm really into tie-pins at the moment, I don't really leave the house without one anymore, so I think they just make the whole look more symmetrical."

Polar Bear's next album could be... interesting

"Seb's experiences in the desert have informed our next record, which is coming out in april"

"That sounds like a euphemism for drug taking doesn't it?"

Royal Blood have the best 'how did you meet' answer ever

"First time I met Ben, it was an intimidating moment for him I know. I was wearing a cape, and trying to lasso a bottle of water with a hoover."

Annie Mac has adopted some inventive stagewear over the years

"Global Gathering main stage 2013, 20 minutes into my set a huge biblical storm happened, the whole sky went black and I lost about two thirds of my crowd. I was wearing a dress which kept blowing up in the wind, so my tour manager had to gaffa tape my dress to my thighs, whilst i'm djing. I'll never forget that."

Alice Levine isn't a fan of festival toilets

"She-wees are a bit creepy aren't they. who sat down in their shed and thought 'yeah this is something we need to invent', it just needs to stop"

 Below: The 2014 Mercury Music Prize In Pictures

While we could bang on about who we think is going to shape the sound of the new year, it's better you just have a listen. For some of the artists it's almost a certainty at this point, for the others, there is a huge amount of promise and originality that will lead them somewhere great, whether it be critical or commercial acclaim. 

Listen to the Gigwise ones to watch in 2015 playlist below

Below: 31 new artists that will own 2015

It certainly contrasts with some of the tougher gigs Tempest has played on her way to getting signed, let alone nominated. “There have been so many really difficult gigs. Some of them have been so dire. One time we played at a festival, there was a storm coming and we were playing this gig the rain was coming through the tent, the tent broke, all the gear was getting flooded. There was a power cut I just had to start rapping a capella to the room. I was shouting to a whole room of people. Actually that was quite good fun! But The gear all got soaked and my band mates were having heart attacks all over the place.”

Things reached their nadir though with one gig which exemplifies every difficult a performance poet might experience. “Once I had to do a poetry gig in this pub it was me and this guy called Polar Bear booked to do this gig. We turned up to the pub and usually there’s a back room to do poetry but there wasn’t: we were just in this pub and the football’s on. There were all these people in the pub trying to watching the football but so we’d been booked: then there were four people who had come to watch us. We’ve got to stand there for the sake of these four people who have played £6 or whatever and try and tell poems. All these guys were going “Get out the way!” It’s been a lot of that.”

As for her own tastes, Tempest also firmly believes in the power of live hip-hop. The best she’s ever seen are a fellow Mercury nominee and label mate. “I could quite confidently said Young Fathers live show: it’s the best live hip-hop show I’ve ever seen. I would really recommend people see them: it’s life changing."

The other comparison is with a true hiphop legend. “I saw Mos Def a few years ago. I seen him obviously when I was kid I went to see him loads and he blew my mind. Seeing him recently, he just seemed so free and he seemed so present. He was really engaging with what he was saying and feeling. It was such a liberating experience to see him, this elder of hiphop, this legend. That was incredible. Young Fathers is a different feeling: It’s really spiritual and its raw and beautiful - they were really intimate with each other and really powerful.  I really enjoy hiphop shows that push the boundaries where you can watch just being incredible at what they do without being tied to convention. They love the art and want to push it forward."

We thought it'd be interesting to hear which records the Gigwise writers want to win and why. Although we're wishing good luck to each of the candidates this evening, these are our selections and stand out releases of the year, betting odds and stats be damned. 

 Why Jungle should win by staff writer @alexjpollard

The modern soul-funk collective who were, for about five minutes, banded around as 'the UK's most mysterious act', did themselves a favour when they ditched the anonymous gimmick and allowed their music to take the spotlight. Jungle's self-titled debut is a rich, infectious and buoyant record, with sparse but intelligent lyrics sung in luscious falsetto. Curve-balls like the Wild Western whistlings of 'Smoking Pixels' defy any accusations of sameness, while album closer 'Lemonade Lake' makes you want to dance and cry at the same time.

Why Young Fathers should win by video editor @eddiehenryjames

DEAD by Young Fathers is an album that grabs hold of you and refuses to let go, drawing you in with a dischordant humming that hides subtle moments of beauty. It opens up to the listener more and more as it is listened to, telling a story both through composition and words. Being as multicultural as it is multi-genre, it is also quintessentially British, only adding to its charms. If the Mercury Prize is what it professes to be, then this should win hands down: it pushes things forward in a way audiences won't be aware of until years to come.

Why FKA Twigs should win by editor @iamandymorris

Not content with being the most elaborate Halloween costume on the Mercury list, FKA Twigs has without doubt produced one of the most sonically adventurous albums of the year. From her Dazed & Confused cover onwards, she’s been surprising and delighting in equal measure - and even made Google Glass look good. It would be very easy to dismiss her as a hipster choice, something purely for the Beatport and Pitchfork crowd: but the fact is hearing the bold stuttering rhythms of ‘Two Weeks’ on daytime radio is an absolute joy. Need further convincing? She’s an artist unafraid of speaking her mind - when asked by Gigwise who should be on the Mercury list she picked the long dead Poly Styrene from X-Ray Spex.

Why Anna Calvi should win by Deputy Editor @andrewtrendell

Calvi's debut was not only the finest album of 2011, but more than worthy of Mercury gold. Now, with One Breath, she has upped her game furthermore. She's a Kohl-eyed, red-lipped, guitar demon and destined for icon status - not least for her piercing stage presence, but her flawless texture of sounds that wonder between an intimate whisper and a widescreen Morricone landscape. Everyone else on this last is painted in to one corner of the Zeitgeist or another, and that's great - that's what the Mercurys are for. But what Calvi does is so out of step with everything else, it's in a class of its own and utterly utterly timeless. To be so literally outstanding is worthy of the prize.

Gigwise: Daniel Radcliffe said there was one song you listened to on repeat before an emotional scene in Horns: what was it?
Juno Temple: It’s a remix actually - I think it’s Cousin Cole remix of Bruce Springsteen ‘On Fire’. It’s really beautiful and helped me get into that scene. Am I a huge Springsteen fan? Not hugely. My boyfriend’s a huge Springsteen fan but also, being English, I didn’t find him until much later in my life. You should google it though, it’s really good. There’s a change in beat that sounds actually very sad to me when combined with his lyrics: in that moment, they enhanced this idea of loneliness. It’s got a complete different tempo and sounds nothing like [Springsteen's original]. 

It seems almost sacrilegious to remix Springsteen.
I really love it. But maybe you’ll hate it.

You’re working with Martin Scorsese on a Seventies rock'n'roll drama. Did you have a Rolling Stones chat?
He is a music fanatic: getting to sit in a room with him and just chat about music and movies is one of the coolest 2 1/2 hours I’ve ever had in my entire life. He told me that he has some original EPs from the Rolling Stones from back in the late Sixties that are in such mint condition that the glitter is still all there!

What’s your favourite album of all time?
I think The Idiot by Iggy Pop is one of the best albums ever created. I love that album so much I could listen to it endlessly. I think he had so much energy. He expelled this kind of electricity which is so delicious. Both The Idiot - and Let it Bleed -  do something internally for me. It’s almost like the texture of my body changes, my blood moves at a different pace and you almost forget where you are, as you get lost in this album. They’re both very sexy albums and I love them... a lot.

What do you and your father agree on musically?
My Dad is a huge music man and really opened my eyes to music. I grew up listening to such amazing music but was oblivious to it. When I was a teenager I was like, “I want to listen to weird Eighties pop shit”.  Gary Numan’s ‘Cars’ : I was obsesed with that song! My Dad was just ‘Ugh! Maybe we can just change it up a little?”

Then what happened was Eminem came into my life in a big way and me and my Dad had a big bonding thing over that: my Dad loves Eminem and Tupac. If you get into Nineties hiphop it’s just fucking great. So music is a big part of my life because of my father for sure: I have a lot of memories of musical moments with my Dad.

What’s been your favourite gig of all time?
I went to see Neil Young. He played ‘Harvest Moon’ on Hank Williams guitar and I wept like a baby. I couldn’t breathe. It was like a one man show: he was on a stage, no band members, nothing just with his guitars, his piano and his harmonicas. And he tells you stories. It was one of the most magical experiences: I’ve got chills right now just thinking about it and I’m wearing a warm dress. It was so beautiful.

He’s famously erratic: you never know which Neil Young is going to show up
It was fantastic but someone was a little rude in the audience and he gave them what for. Damn straight! Shut up and listen! Sorry but [if it had been me] I would have spat on them. “Be quiet! Shh! Talking!”

What’s your favourite soundtrack?
Soundtracks are hard: you’d have to give me time to get back to you. The way he uses music in movies, changes every moment in the scene. A marriage between music and movies is the most titillating thing on the planet. Theme songs? I’m a huge fan of Badlands and True Romance: True Romance is actually my ring tone. Who wouldn’t want to run off, fall madly in love and commit bad crimes in the dirty south?

What’s your favourite record shop?
Amoeba is a great music store because you can find anything and everything there. I desperately want to get all the Dandy Warhols albums on vinyl because I’m a huge Dandy’s fan and music just is better on vinyl.

Their Dig! documentary was so fascinating. They say you should never meet your heroes and there are reasons in that: the thing that is important with music separating music from who the bands are too is also very important. Because some people come across as the loveliest people on the planet and some people come across as dicks. You can get it wrong. It should never [influence] your choice of music.

After all, lots of horrible people have made some great records
I couldn’t agree more.

Can you describe when you’ve been star struck meeting a musician?
I was truly blessed to grow up with Joe Strummer around my house a lot. And I think something that I remember being a weird moment for me was when I realised that the Clash was a big deal. I must have been about 12 and it was when I was walking round my local town Taunton and people were wearing Clash hoodies: I was like ‘That’s Joe’s band! How weird! Shit: I should talk to him more about that!”   

Horns is out in cinemas now. Read Gigwise's interview with Daniel Radcliffe here.

With her debut album released in 2015, this sultry songstress has already clocked up millions of hits on Youtube and Soundcloud with her electro-noir, seductive R&B. We're in no doubt that she's going to prove to be one of the  true rising champions of the year ahead. 

But, behind every great artist there's a story - and with every story, a song. That's why asked Charlotte OC to celebrate her upcoming appearance at Pitchfork Paris with the soundtrack to her life. Check it out below, along with a few of her own wise words behind each choice (SPOILER: she has really, really good taste).

Metronomy - 'She Wants'
"I revisited this album this year, it reminds me of moving into my place on my own for the first time, and the start of my new life in London."

Woodkid - 'I Love You'
"When I got introduced to Woodkid, this was the first song I heard and completely lost my mind over his videos and melodies . He uses all my favourite chords and it's kinda my perfect song."

Hozier - 'Run' 
"Another perfect song to me, I love the way he goes up and down the scale in the chorus and the lyrics are lovely."

Soko - 'I'll Kill Her' 
"When I first joined MySpace this was one of the first things I found, and I completely fell in love. Her music shaped my early teen years."

Kindness - 'I'll Be Back'
"Beautiful chords, great warmth and simpleness to this track. I can't help but smile when I hear this song."

Massive Attack - 'Unfinished Sympathy'
"This song reminds me of growing up in Blackburn and starting to get into electronic music, with a gospel vocal. It's a very important track."

Mina Tindle - 'Too Loud'
"I found a remix of this girl's music and then looked more into original stuff ad instantly fell in love with her melodies."

Kwabs - 'Perfect Ruin'
"I've had this song on repeat since I got to LA - beautiful chords, really fragile and emotional lyrics."

Phoenix - 'If I Ever Feel Better (DJ Kicks remix)'
Another track that gently introduced me to loving electronic music after growing up on folk and soul. This song reminds me of dancing for hours with my sister in the kitchen

Rui Da Silva - 'Touch Me'
"One of the best 90's dance tracks in my eyes. Big massive vocal and everything behind it is perfectly hypnotic. It’s all about the girl's vocal."

Sampha - 'Beneath The Tree'
Love this track, wicked piano and I'm such a massive fan of his voice."

Basement Jaxx - 'Romeo' 
"I have special memories with this track - being 11 and so happy about everything and dancing in my room to this. It reminds me of being so happy and as soon as i hear it, it has the exact same effect."

Gomez - 'Whippin' Piccadilly'
"This song is basically my childhood in Blackburn and wanting to get stuck into my dads' record collection and learn more and more about proper music. This one was the one that got me straight away."

Charlotte OC's Strange EP is out now. She'll be playing Pitchfork Paris at 5.10pm on Saturday 1 November. 

For more on Charlotte OC, find her on:
Official website
Twitter
Facebook
Soundcloud
Youtube
Instagram

Below: 31 new artists to watch out for in 2015

Ibeyi are twins, but aside from sharing a womb and a band, they have very little in common – something which, they say, contributed to the genre-defying nature of their music. Lisa-Kaindé loves Ray Charles and is bubbly, expressive and, despite proclaiming several times that “my English is so bad!” (it’s not), very loquacious. Naomi prefers Kendrick Lamar, and, unless she feels the need to disagree or clarify, is happy to let her sister do the talking. Both are a delight to interview. 

Gigwise: How was the Rough Trade gig yesterday?

Naomi: Oh it was cool!

Lisa-Kaindé: The venue was so incredible because it was a record store. It was tiny, tiny, tiny! But we had a problem... One of the booths was broke... Broken? Break? Broken! Sorry! My English is so bad.

We first heard about you when you performed at the XL showcase a few months ago.

Lisa-Kaindé: That was our first show ever in London. We were so nervous! The thing was, it was a presentation of what we were doing... it was kind of, "Hello, this is Ibeyi: like us!" It was really weird. And, you know, we are only two, so the pressure is bigger. When you are a group it's different, when you are a two, when something is wrong you can hear it in a second. So we must really concentrate when we play, so it was kind of difficult to not be nervous, but we enjoyed it. The venue was amazing!

Are you getting bored yet of answering questions about being twins?

Lisa-Kaindé: No, because we are not those sisters that say "Oh, it's everything! Marvellous to be playing together!" We are saying the truth: that it's hard, and we are so different, and in life we're arguing every two seconds....

Naomi: I cannot live without her and she can't live without me. But it's hard.

Lisa-Kaindé: On stage is our...

Naomi: ...way to communicate. And maybe it's the only way actually! The only no-screaming way. I think this is our way to be sisters.

Have you been making music together since you were young?

Lisa-Kaindé: Oh no! Only three years ago. This is new. I started composing when I was 14, but it was only for me, like, "I'm bored. I will make a song". It was not "Oh one day I will be a musician", that was not my plan at all. I wanted to be a music teacher. What happened is, it started like, "Oh Lisa make other songs!" and I make other songs and then "We will try to make an EP" and she says, "OK you are not doing an EP without me".

Watch the video for 'River' below

You said in an interview recently though that you have quite different taste in music.

Lisa-Kaindé: In life! In life!

Naomi: We're completely different.

Naomi, we've just noticed your Ibeyi logo tattoo. Do you both have one?

Naomi: No. I got it three months ago.

Lisa-Kaindé: It was her birthday present! It's symmetrical, and it is so us! Because we are twins and we felt like it was so cool.

You sing in English, Yoruban... Do you sing in French?

Naomi: No. It's so difficult to write in French. In English you can say what you want. "I love you" [for example]: what you want to say, you can say it. In French the words have to be right, and it's hard.

Lisa-Kaindé: In English you can be direct, which is what I like. I remember when I listened to Amy Winehouse - like everybody, I love her - and she's like, "You should be stronger than me". Every sentence is direct. In French you have to "Oh la la", I don't know how to explain really, but you cannot be direct, because if you are direct, it sounds like... shit. It sound really bad, so you have to work a lot... And I'm still working on it! One day I hope I'll be able to write a good song in French.

Watch the video for Amy Winehouse 'Stronger Than Me' below

You grew up in Paris, but your cultural background is also Cuban and Yoruban. How important is your culture to your music?

Naomi: It's us. It's important. How? We don't know. We grew up like that, with European culture and with Yoruban culture.

Lisa-Kaindé: We live like that, we see life like that, so it's life with two worlds and two visions mixed. So obviously, our music is two things mixed. Even my name - Lisa-Kaindé - it's mixed too!

Your music is very percussion-based. Was that influenced by your father?

Naomi: Not really. I think I'm doing percussion because of my father but when he passed away we were 11-years-old, so the person who was here to push us and help us was my mother. My father was here but we were on vacation with him, we were not playing with him.

Lisa-Kaindé: When you're 11 you're not thinking, "Oh I have to play", so this came afterwards. This came when we were 14, 15, 16. And in all this period it was our mother. I think the reason is because in a song what we like is the rhythm, the bass. When the bass is hard, you know!

Watch the video for 'Oya' below

You said that for the 'Oya' video, you deliberately didn't feature heavily in it, because you wanted it to be about the music. Do you find that the music industry puts a lot of emphasis on your appearance?

Lisa-Kaindé: Yes of course, nowadays image is really important, but that's great... I mean you can really twist your image, you can really do interesting things and try to invent yourself. This is not something bad! It's something bad when the only thing you have is your image. I mean that's not bad it's just not really interesting, but you can do amazing stuff! I think image is great!

Naomi: But we have to be careful.

Lisa-Kaindé: Of course, as women we have to be careful, and it's an interesting question. You have to think, "What do I want the public to see about me? How do I want the public to look at me? What do I want to give to them as an image?" This is so hard, because you have to imagine how they will react, but you have to give what you think you are, or the way you want to invent yourself.

Is there a lyric you're most proud of?

Lisa-Kaindé: I'm really proud of 'Mama Says.' And I'm really proud of 'Oya'. And I have to... no actually I'm proud of every single lyric. Some I wrote with my family, my mother wrote a lot of lyrics and my uncle, Eric Collins, wrote a lot too with me, so it's like family.

And you write a lot about family too.

Lisa-Kaindé: Family and love. And actually I was really pissed about it at first, because you know when you're writing and the only thing you write about is love, and you're like, "Gosh but I'm an idiot!" "He leeft meeee, what happenedddd, where are youuuuuu" and you're like, "COME ON! Write about something else, please!"

And I tried and it never worked, and I said to my mother, "I'm a mess" and she said, "Gosh but Lisa you're crazy, painters paint about the same thing, but they paint it a hundred million different ways, and that's your job. You can talk about one subject all your life, what you have to do is find different ways to explain it!" And I was like, "That's interesting! Come love! I will write about love!"

Are you nervous about your album release?

Lisa-Kaindé: About a few things, because when you say 'I don't like it' it hurts a little bit of course, because you put all your love in it, obviously you want people to like it. But you know, that's life, it's always like that.... But the more scared I am is that people will people will say, "OK, you are using Yoruba to make money". Those things can really really hurt me, because this is a heritage, this is my father, this is our country, this is really important for us and we believe in it a lot.

When people criticise that kind of thing, it's often artists who appropriate cultures that aren't their own. But it is your own culture.

Lisa-Kaindé: I would never say that this artist is the same level as us but Ray Charles, who I love, when he took church music and put R&B in it, people screamed at him! Because of course, when it's religious, people felt like, 'This is not good!' And it's what we are doing, because we are taking religious songs, Yoruba, and putting it in our music which is spiritual but not religious, but the truth is we are doing this because we love this music. We believe it is our identity.

Ibeyi's self-titled debut album will be released in 2015.

I have learned life is too short to pretend pop music is going to go away one day. And in the last few year’s I’ve had to concede there has been some amazing pop songs: 'Happy' is one of the best songs I’ve ever heard. You cannot hear it without becoming happy instantly. I’ve definitely become a lot less precious I think.

Who do you want to see that you haven’t seen yet?
BB King. He’s 89 now and until recently he was giging as often as he did when he was 18. He’s been touring all the time. I would really like to see him: I’ve just started learning guitar and my teacher is a die hard BB King fan. So I’ve been listening to a lot of him and when I'm in America next if he's playing anywhere near me I'm going to try and get to him.

Finally, you expressed an interest in playing Iggy Pop. Did he contact you?
No, he hasn’t been in contact at all. I doubt he will be! I’m sure he has other designs on who would play him. But I’m just saying... I will go further then he thinks I will.

Horns is out in the UK on 29 October.


 

The video revolves around what saw Darlia own the summer: their incredible live presence. The band do what they do best and play the shit out the huge track, as circus choreography and ballet theatrics fittingly accompany the ecstatic release that comes with the sky-reaching, stadium ready chorus. 

 See the Gigwise premiere of 'Stars Are Aligned' below

'Stars Are Aligned' is released on 27 October. Meanwhile, the band will also be supporting Gerard Way on his upcoming UK tour. Full dates are below. For tickets and more information, visit here.

05 - MANCHESTER Ritz
06 - OXFORD Academy
07 - GLASGOW ABC
09 - CARDIFF Y Plas
10 - LONDON Koko

Check out our interview with the band below.

It was only up until recently that the charts were completely saturated with a plethora of dance-pop hybrids, but some say 2014 marks the return of rock to the public mainstream. Spearheaded by bands such as Drenge, Wolf Alice, Royal Blood, Slaves and, of course, Darlia themselves, there’s no doubt a backlash of sorts is happening.

“It depends on what people want. If people suddenly want ten-pieces who all play saxophones, they’ll just be more of them because that’s what people want. It’s not about what people are doing, it’s about what people want,” says Darlia’s frontman Nathan Day, talking about this supposed rock revival, before the final night of their biggest headline tour to date. And what people seem to want is the filthy guitar riffs, loud dynamics and galvanising sounds that the trio (Nathan, along with bassist Dave Williams and drummer Jack Bentham) have become known for.

The band only started touring in the past year following the release of their first EP ‘Knock Knock’ in October 2013. What followed included an Australian tour alongside New York’s Skaters, a slot supporting The Libertines - which they describe as “more of an honour than an experience” – as well as the climax of filling out Reading & Leed’s Festival Republic tent this summer. Their scuzzy, unashamedly loud sound, added into the fact that with his blonde mop of hair and smudged black eyeliner frontman Nathan Day bears a slight resemblance to Kurt Cobain, has meant the band has received press buzz comparing them to the 90’s most famous grunge band. A compliment? Darlia aren’t so sure.

“I get that. I do. I’ve got blonde hair. I’m in a three piece and I sing. That’s the way it is,” Nathan admits, shrugging. “There’s people who just think we sound like Nirvana and it really, really irritates me because that’s just not what we want…I really respect Kurt Cobain as a musician. But I also respect Noel Gallagher and I respect Pete Doherty and I respect Kate Bush.”

Darlia live at Bright Summer Time. Photo: Gigwise/Ray Hill

Despite a wealth of influences, undoubtedly elements of Nirvana’s sound can be heard on the heavy riffs and raspy vocals of earlier songs such as ‘Queen of Hearts’ and ‘Choke on Bones’, but most recent single ‘Dear Diary’ showed a more pop-influenced direction. “That was on purpose though. It’s not even a good or bad trait to be ‘radio-friendly’, it just happens to be palatable,” Nathan says. And with the likes of Zane Lowe and Fearne Cotton promoting their singles as ‘Hottest Record in the World’ and ‘Track of the Day’ respectively, it’s no surprise they’ve had such a successful year.

Later, on the final night of biggest headline tour to date at London’s Oslo Bar, the crowd are relentless from beginning to end, a group of visibly wasted kids at the front bouncing off the walls and each other, fuelled by sweaty teenage angst. A group of younger attendees are intent on giving security a nightmare by continuously trying to climb onstage. Only when one scrawny, topless teenager achieves this, punches the air triumphantly and dives back into the crowd, does Nathan Day crack a smile. Despite the stony-faced and self-assured exterior, offstage he is – as are the rest of the band – open, humble and easy to talk to.

Before Darlia, Nathan, Dave and Jack worked as cleaners – a job they were fired from.

“Since we got fired from cleaning, which was purely coincidentally the time that the record deal money hit us, literally there has never been a break,” Nathan says. Jack agrees: “for some people a break is a blessing, but us, we don’t like not doing anything. A break would be detrimental.”

Even on days off, they find themselves bored. On one of their last days off, Jack got a spontaneous tattoo. Nathan on the other hand went to Alton Towers to try and rid himself of his fear of heights before his first ever flight to Australia to tour. “I was on Oblivion, going up, and my phone is going mad and my manager is like ‘you’ve got interviews, you’ve got interviews’, and I was literally like ‘I’m on Oblivion!’” And with their schedule becoming even busier and the press taking even more interest, with that comes its own issues.

Darlia at The Great Escape. Photo: Gigwise/Richard Gray

Clash recently reported that Nathan was “banned by his parents [as a child] from even listening to music”, a statement which Darlia’s frontman says “just got out of hand. I always get into a lot of trouble every time that’s announced”. 

“It wasn’t a case of my mum and dad didn’t let me [listen to music],” he says. He explains that you can’t believe everything you read: “[A magazine] said that I live with my Uncle Derek…I don’t know anyone called Derek!”

The next step is the debut album, due out “very early next year”. It’s a release that’s comes with a new set of pressures. “It’s very sentimental. It’s like every single movement on the guitar, every single vocal, no matter what happens, that is the debut forever,” Nathan tells us, a little nervously. If the past year is anything to go by, they shouldn’t be too nervous at all. 

Below: Exclusive photos of Darlia rocking The Great Escape 2014

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