sat 14/06/2025

New Music Interviews

theartsdesk Q&A: Musician Mark E Smith

Tim Cumming

Since releasing their first record, Bingo Masters Breakout, Mark E Smith (b 1957) has led The Fall through some of rock music’s most extreme and enthralling terrain, cutting a lyrical and musical swathe that few other artists can match. An outsider, self-confessed renegade, and microphone-destroying magus, Smith has seen dozens if not hundreds of musicians pass through the ranks of The Fall over the last 34 years.

Read more...

theartsdesk Q&A: Vocalist Cécile McLorin Salvant

peter Quinn

The vocalist Cécile McLorin Salvant first came to the attention of the jazz scene when she won the prestigious Thelonious Monk International Jazz competition in 2010. In 2013, her Mack Avenue Records debut WomanChild garnered a Grammy nomination. Two years later, she picked up her first Grammy Award when her follow-up release For One To Love won Best Jazz Vocal Album.

Read more...

theartsdesk Q&A: Musician Nick Mulvey

Thomas H Green

Nick Mulvey (b.1984) is a singer-songwriter who draws from a refreshing and unexpected palette of global roots music, modernist classical and electronica.

Read more...

theartsdesk Q&A: Homer Flynn, spokesman for The Residents

Kieron Tyler

An encounter with Homer Flynn is disconcerting as the extent of his involvement in The Residents is unclear. He acknowledges that he speaks for the eyeball-headed quartet whose identities are unknown. As he talks, it's clear he has intimate knowledge of their creative process, their motivations and what they think. He discusses them as “they”. Occasionally the word “we” is used.

Read more...

'English music is lumpy if you don't play it well': interview with folk trio Leveret

Tim Cumming

Leveret (an old name for a young hare) got together in 2014. They comprise former Bellowhead fiddler Sam Sweeney, English concertina player Rob Harbron and accordionist Andy Cutting – three of the very best on the scene.

Read more...

10 Questions for Pianist Søren Bebe

Matthew Wright

Danish pianist Søren Bebe has led a trio for 10 years, building a reputation as one of Europe’s most distinctive jazz ensembles. His warm, spacious and melodic sound is often compared to Esbjorn Svensson and Tord Gustavsen, or the influential sound/genre of German label ECM.

Read more...

Walter Becker, 1950-2017 - 'we play rock and roll, but we swing when we play'

Adam Sweeting

The death of Walter Becker last weekend brings to an end one of the great double acts of rock history.

Read more...

theartsdesk Q&A: Musician Albert Hammond

Russ Coffey

Albert Hammond might not be a household name but he's still, undeniably, one of the world's greatest living songwriters. His songs have sold 360 million copies, ranging from Starship's soft-rock classic "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now" to Julio Iglesias' "To All the Girls I've Loved Before".

Read more...

theartsdesk Q&A: Musician Susanne Sundfør

Kieron Tyler

Nine hours after meeting up in a Shoreditch courtyard to discuss her new album Music for People in Trouble, Norway’s Susanne Sundfør is on stage elsewhere in the district at a theatre called The Courtyard. It’s a sell-out and the room she’s playing is over-full and over-hot. A few days before the album’s release, most of the new songs are unfamiliar to the audience.

Read more...

theartsdesk Q&A: Musician Alison Moyet

Russ Coffey

Alison Moyet is one of Britain's best-loved singer-songwriters. Known for her deep, soulful voice and down-to-earth personality she has managed to combine commercial sensibility with artistic integrity for over 30 years. Today, 16 June, she releases her ninth solo album Other, recorded with long-time collaborator Guy Sigsworth.

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... ...
Tornado review - samurai swordswoman takes Scotland by storm

The opening images of Tornado are striking. A wild-haired young woman in Japanese peasant garb runs for her life through a barren forest...

Hamlet Hail to the Thief, RSC, Stratford review - Radiohead...

The safe transfer of power in post-war Western democracies was once a given. The homely Pickfords Removals van outside Number Ten...

Lollipop review - a family torn apart

On leaving prison, Lollipop’s thirtyish single mum Molly discovers that reclaiming her kids from social care is akin to doing lengths in...

Rachel Jones: Gated Canyons, Dulwich Picture Gallery review...

I first came across Rachel Jones in 2021 at the Hayward Gallery’s painting show Mixing it Up: Painting Today. I was blown away by the...

Album: The Young Gods - Appear Disappear

Swiss electro-rockers, Young Gods have been around for 40 years, but this in no way should suggest that they’ve gone soft in their old age. These...

Jane Austen Wrecked My Life review - persuading us that the...

Do the French do irony? Well, was Astérix a Gaul? Obviously they do, and do it pretty well to judge by many of their movies down the...

The King of Pangea, King's Head Theatre review - grief...

There’s an old theatre joke. “The electric chair is too good for a monster like that. They should send him out of town with a new...

Album: Sam Binga - Sam Binga Presents Club Orthodontics

When I was writing the introduction to my book, Bass, Mids, Tops: An Oral History of Soundsystem Culture, I came up with a phrase, which...

Yoshitomo Nara, Hayward Gallery review - sickeningly cute ki...

It’s been a long time since an exhibition made me feel physically sick. The Hayward Gallery is currently hosting a retrospective of the...