tue 30/09/2025

New Music Interviews

10 Questions for Musician and Broadcaster Cerys Matthews

Sebastian Scotney

Cerys Matthews is a best-selling author, award winning DJ and multi-million selling musician, singer, reciter... and broadcaster, originally from Wales. Her wide-ranging Sunday morning radio show on BBC 6 Music has a large, loyal and appreciative audience. She also presents the Monday night Blues Show on BBC Radio 2.

Read more...

10 Questions for Singer/Pianist Joe Stilgoe

Sebastian Scotney

Singer/pianist/songwriter/entertainer Joe Stilgoe responded remarkably rapidly to the new circumstances of March 2020.

Read more...

theartsdesk Q&A: Mick Talbot of The Style Council

Thomas H Green

Following the break-up of The Jam in 1982, Mick Talbot (b 1958) was chosen by Paul Weller as his sparring partner in a new band, The Style Council. Talbot, a keyboard player from south London, had flourished amid the late-Seventies Mod revival, initially in the Merton Parkas, with his brother Danny, but also in The Chords, and even appearing on a couple of The Jam’s records.

Read more...

theartsdesk Q&A: Sally Anne Gross and Dr George Musgrave, authors of 'Can Music Make You Sick?'

joe Muggs

Today is World Mental Health Day and of course that means an awful lot of hugs and homilies, thoughts and prayers, deep-breathing exercises and it’s-good-to-talk platitudes from people speaking from positions of immense privilege – ranging from the well-meaning to outright grifters.

Read more...

theartsdesk Q&A: musician Kevin Rowland - 'it was painful to be misunderstood and misinterpreted'

Kieron Tyler

“Whoargh! Steady lads!” Under that headline, NME reported that Kevin Rowland had “announced his return to the music scene with a bizarre national poster campaign depicting him in make-up and women’s clothing whilst hitching up his skirt to show his pants.”

Read more...

theartsdesk Q&A: Record label New Heavy Sounds

Thomas H Green

New Heavy Sounds is one of Britain’s most exciting and undersung labels. Founded in 2011, they have consistently released music that boasts innovation, imagination and a strong female presence. The added sweetener is that this comes attached to sheer guitar-slingin’ power of the kind heavy rockers, from the 1970s to the present, have always relished.

Read more...

Remembering John Prine, one of the great American singer-songwriters

Jasper Rees

John Prine, who has died at the age of 73 from a Covid 19-related illness, was one of the great American folk poets. Having spent his early adulthood pounding the sidewalks as a mailman in Chicago, he never quite shucked that blue-collar aura of the working man's minstrel.

Read more...

10 Questions for Irina Nalis

joe Muggs

Normally we'd put a descriptor - "cellist", "film maker", "techno producer" for example - in the title of this interview, but for Irina Nalis there isn't space. Like, "10 Questions for psychologist, ministerial adviser, festival founder, architectural consultant, digital humanism activist and techno veteran Irina Nalis" wouldn't fit across the page. But that's the multidisciplinary world for you.

Read more...

theartsdesk Q&A: musician Rick McMurray

Lisa-Marie Ferla

With them having famously been just teenagers when they released their debut single in 1994 it seems fitting – and not a little tongue in cheek – that the indie rock trio chose Teenage Wildlife for the title of their 25th anniversary compilation.

Read more...

10 Questions for Techno Musician Carl Craig

joe Muggs

In the eight years since theartsdesk last spoke to Carl Craig, a lot has happened. He moved from his native Detroit for a sojourn in Barcelona (partly for ease of access to his summer DJ residencies in Ibiza), then recently returned.

Read more...

Pages

Subscribe to theartsdesk.com

Thank you for continuing to read our work on theartsdesk.com. For unlimited access to every article in its entirety, including our archive of more than 15,000 pieces, we're asking for £5 per month or £40 per year. We feel it's a very good deal, and hope you do too.

To take a subscription now simply click here.

And if you're looking for that extra gift for a friend or family member, why not treat them to a theartsdesk.com gift subscription?

latest in today

'We are bowled over!' Thank you for your messages... ...
Black Rabbit, Netflix review - grime and punishment in New Y...

They say no good deed goes unpunished, so when New York restaurateur Jake...

Kerry James Marshall: The Histories, Royal Academy review -...

This must be the first time a black artist has been honoured with a retrospective that fills the main galleries of the...

First Person: Manchester Camerata's Head of Artistic Pl...

Over the past decade, Manchester Camerata has gained a reputation for continually innovating and redefining what an orchestra can do. But what...

The Hack, ITV review - plodding anatomy of twin UK scandals

The latest instalment of the ITV drama department’s attempts at trial by television is another anatomy of a scandal, but with little of...

Punch, Apollo Theatre review - powerful play about the stren...

For the first part of Punch it feels as if you’re riding a roller coaster, watching the world speed and loop past as you see it from the...

Cinderella/La Cenerentola, English National Opera review - t...

When you go to the prince’s ball, would you prefer a night of sobriety or excess? Julia Burbach’s new production of Rossini’s Cinderella...

Music Reissues Weekly: The Peanut Butter Conspiracy - The Mo...

“It's a Happening Thing,” January 1967’s debut single from...

Goldscheider, Brother Tree Sound, Kings Place review - music...

Last night’s concert at Kings Place was a programme of...