INTERVIEWS
Ghost’s Tobias Forge Talks Arena Rock, Jack the Ripper, and the Band’s Next Album
Ghost are the rare band that formed in the past 15 years to graduate to arena headliners. In fact, the Swedish metal act is about to embark on its latest massive tour, playing North American arenas with support from Mastodon and Spiritbox. The outing kicks off Friday (August 26th) in San Diego, and runs through a September 23rd show in Green Bay, Wisconsin, with tickets available via Ticketmaster. The new run follows up an early 2022 US tour that saw Ghost co-headlining with Volbeat, and playing their first shows since the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the concert industry. Heavy Consequence caught up with Ghost mastermind Tobias Forge (aka Papa Emeritus IV) to discuss the band’s return to the road, their latest album, IMPERA (released in March of this year), and whether the wheels are alrea...
Life is Beautiful Organizers Take Us Inside 2022’s Global Lineup
When done right, a city festival offers a unique experience that speaks to the heart of its urban surroundings. In the case of Life is Beautiful, much of this exists solely in its location within Las Vegas — rather than add to the glitz and fanfare of the Las Vegas strip, the festival takes place just a few miles north in downtown Vegas, sectioning off the famous Fremont Street and over 18 square blocks of Vegas’ classic, original townsite. “I don’t think any festival in the country takes over 18 square city blocks,” says Allen Scott from Another Planet Entertainment, the company that assists in booking Life is Beautiful each year. He’s joined by Craig Nyman, the head of music and programming for Life is Beautiful Festival, who is similarly proud of the way the festival has transformed alo...
For Love or Money: Bas & Rexx Life Raj on the Creative Battles Today’s Artists Face
Artists are constantly fighting the internal battle between carrying out their creative vision and sacrificing integrity for commercial success. Bas and Rexx Life Raj are a pair of respected rhymers who have dipped their toes into hip-hop’s mainstream, but have been reluctant to fully immerse themselves into that world. Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news Bas struggled with the aforementioned mental battle in February when he tweeted about having an 11-track album authentic to himself and the world he wanted to create with his next body of work — but was grappling with the idea of releasing another more palatable version to the mainstream, one that boasted A-list features and a streaming-friendly 17-song tracklist. “There’s certain algo...
How Making Panorama Helped Hayley Kiyoko Heal
The first time Hayley Kiyoko performed on a two-foot-wide stage, she was playing at a mall in Oregon for five people. It was around 2013 and she was promoting one of her earliest records, A Belle to Remember. The night before Kiyoko speaks with SPIN, however, was notably the first time since then that she had played a gig on a stage that small—and it happened to be her most memorable one yet—the first-ever Pride performance at Vice President Kamala Harris’s residence where rainbow balloons, streamers and lights adorned the home. “It was just a casual pool party at the vice president’s residence,” the singer quips over Zoom, tucking a strand of her light blonde bob behind her ears. Kiyoko has come a long way from that mall gig in Oregon. Since the release of Kiyoko’s 2018 debut album, Expec...
Pussy Riot’s Provocative Pop
Pussy Riot has come with a full agenda to Los Angeles’ El Rey Theater, ready to bounce and rage to a soundtrack of sultry pop hooks and noisy, glitchy electronics. And yet nothing onstage is more essential to the night’s purpose than the confrontational words and graphics flashing on the big screen behind them. “Vasectomy prevents abortion.” “My body does not need advice from a priest.” “Matriarchy Now.” “Slut.” “I hate when you talk, I hate when you look at me/I want to hatefuck you,” leader Nadya Tolokonnikova sings in a taunting, breathless voice on the song “Hatefuck,” a pair of women in knitted Balaclava masks dancing beside her. The song is the most hard-hitting of the seven tracks on Pussy Riot’s debut mixtape, Matriarchy Now, a collection executive produced by the Swedish art-pop d...
Marcus King Rocks Through the Pain on Dan Auerbach-Produced Young Blood
Marcus King is all of 26 years old, but he plays rock’n’roll as if he was genetically engineered in a laboratory from bits of Duane Allman, Jimmy Page, Billy Gibbons and Stevie Ray Vaughan. King’s music feels timeless, especially when he’s laying waste to concert stages with his longtime mates in the Marcus King Band. A different side of King emerges on his solo albums, the newest of which, Young Blood, arrives Friday (Aug. 26) as the first in a new deal with Rick Rubin’s American Records/Republic. The project re-teams King with the Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach, who previously produced King’s 2020 solo album El Dorado. Both that album and Young Blood were recorded at Auerbach’s Easy Eye studio in Nashville. This time around, King is backed only by bassist and longtime Auerbach collaborator Nic...
Eyedress Shares Origins of ’80s-Inspired “DREAM DEALER” Video: Exclusive
Origins is a recurring new music series giving artists the opportunity to share exclusive insights into their latest release. Today, LA-based bedroom pop artist Eyedress shares the origins of the video for his new track, “DREAM DEALER.” Rising bedroom pop artist Eyedress is gearing up to release his highly-anticipated new album Full Time Lover on Friday (August 26th), and a few weeks ago, he shared a new single, “DREAM DEALER,” from the LP. “DREAM DEALER” features The Neptunes member Chad Hugo, but Eyedress maintains his inimitable hazy style of pop throughout — though his earlier recordings possess an appropriately lo-fi aesthetic, “DREAM DEALER” and Full Time Lover‘s earlier singles feature Eyedress at his most refined and specific. Today (August 22nd), “DREAM DEALER” receives an ’80s in...
House of the Dragon Star Paddy Considine on Why It’s Tough to Be King
[Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers for House of the Dragon, Season 1 Episode 1, “The Heirs of the Dragon.”] Game of Thrones was a show that, as its title indicated, had a lot to do with the battle for power. But the king we meet in the House of the Dragon pilot, King Viserys Targaryen, has a complicated relationship with his place as ruler. “There’s a part of Viserys that wishes Rhaenys would have been named and not him,” star Paddy Considine says. “I don’t think it’s a responsibility, I think he was happy to get it, but then there’s a sense of ‘Oh god, why me?’ I think he’s a guy who’s damned, no matter what, by his duty. As he says to Rhaenyra, ‘[The Iron Throne] is the most dangerous seat in the room.’” House of the Dragon might take place within the very well-establi...
NCT’S JAEHYUN on Sharing “New Sides” of Himself on Solo Debut Single “Forever Only”: Exclusive
“When I was in Milan and had some free time, I got to enjoy drinking coffee at a café and took some walks around at nighttime,” recalls JAEHYUN, one of the members of SM Entertainment’s supergroup NCT. “I got so much inspiration from just being in those moments and in that space.” It’s this introspective energy that comes through on JAEHYUN’s new single, “Forever Only,” his debut solo release. NCT is one of the largest K-pop groups ever, and the largest working today (with a whopping 23 members!), operating on a relatively unique structure in which the group is split into different sub-units, showcasing various members in different combinations. JAEHYUN is a member of Seoul-based unit NCT 127, which features a total of ten members. It’s a lot of moving parts within the already demanding ro...
Isaac Fitzgerald on Being a ‘Dirtbag’
Alexander Chee’s blurb on the back of Isaac Fitzgerald’s recently published bestselling memoir, Dirtbag, Massachusetts, reads: “He’s a ringleader for the circus in the House of Love.” And after reading this book, I think most people would agree that Isaac Fitzgerald is certainly at least that, and then some. Dirtbag, Massachusetts is a memoir-in-essays about how a lost soul with a diamond heart manages to figure out — after a series of jet-fueled, drug-addled escapades — how to put together a life out of all the pieces left in the wreckage of his past. That past spans living in the Catholic Worker’s homeless shelter in Boston, to living and working in the bars of San Francisco at the onset of the AIDS pandemic, to acting in a few porn flicks, and to round things out, Fitzgerald spent time ...
Nostalgix On Her Record Label Dreams, Blistering Shambhala Music Festival Debut and More
It’s been just over a year since Nostalgix moved to Los Angeles, but you wouldn’t know it if you flipped through her accolades. The fast-rising house music producer and rapper embarked on an expansive North American tour. She released a dizzying string of singles and remixes on House Call Records, Night Bass, Thrive and more venerated dance labels. And last month, Nostalgix returned to her home turf of B.C. to scratch another iconic music festival off her bucket list. EDM.com caught up with the Vancouver native following her explosive debut at one of Canada’s most beloved electronic music festivals, Shambhala. Nostalgix performs at Shambhlaha’s Pagoda Stage in 2022. Triangel Productions EDM.com: How does it feel playing your first Shambala coming from Vancouver, kno...
The Bear: How Episode 7’s Stunning 18-Minute Single Take Was Made
Over the past few years, single continuous takes have become a commonplace device in film and TV, an objectively impressive if somewhat overused gimmick that allows storytellers an opportunity to flex their ambitions and maximize the high-wire tension of an emotionally significant scene. “One-ers” can sometimes carry an effect of showboating the longer their runtime, but when executed with near-perfect precision, like in FX’s thrillingly chaotic cooking drama The Bear, the result can be a remarkable thing to watch, to see so many moving parts come together seamlessly. Created by Christopher Storer, The Bear is the perfect show to apply such a technique. The series focuses on the volatile and brilliant chef Carmen “Carmy” Berzatto (Jeremy Allen White) as he struggles to run his brother’s Ch...
