INTERVIEWS
Only Murders in the Building’s Michael Cyril Creighton on “Hello Darkness” and Why Playing Howard Is “A Gift”
[Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers for Only Murders in the Building, Season 2 Episode 8, “Hello Darkness.”] It’s very, very likely that you’ve seen Michael Cyril Creighton on screen at some point over the past decade: The New York-based actor has popped up in a wide range of projects, from 30 Rock to The Post to High Maintenance to Dexter: New Blood. And right now, he’s one of the standout supporting cast members of Only Murders In the Building, playing cat-loving Arcadian resident Howard, who got an unexpected moment in the spotlight during the newest episode, “Hello Darkness.” Consequence spoke with Creighton for a larger feature about the full breadth of his fascinating career, but his Only Murders journey this season is a fascinating one on its own. “What’s interesting is ...
Daddy Issues
James Morosini’s I Love My Dad, which won both the audience and Grand Jury Award at the 2022 SXSW Film Festival, is a masterclass in cringe comedy. Morosini stars as Franklin, a troubled young man fresh off a suicide attempt. His father, Chuck, played with an incautious tenacity by Patton Oswalt, has been desperately trying to get a hold of him. We are first introduced to Chuck via a series of pathetic voice messages to his son. Chuck is a deadbeat. He might mean well, but the man seems to lack even the most basic skills of parenting. Rule numero uno: show up. Establishing his boundaries, Franklin blocks his father across the social media board. And that’s when the fun (a relative term) begins. Totally misunderstanding an anecdote told to him by a coworker (played by Lil Rel Howery), ...
Westworld Composer on the David Bowie Needle Drop In Season 4, Episode 7: “It Just Played So Perfectly”
[Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers for Westworld, Season 4 Episode 7, “Metanoia.” To read about the music of Episode 6, click here.] The most notable music featured in the penultimate episode of Westworld Season 4 wasn’t created by composer Ramin Djawadi — instead, he was a little in awe of David Bowie’s “The Man Who Sold the World,” which plays over the final minutes. “I didn’t dare to touch it,” he tells Consequence with a laugh. “It’s perfect as is.” Episode 7, “Metanoia,” delivered a new level of chaos to the good people surviving in what we’ve come to understand as a host-controlled dystopia, where the surviving humans are trapped in a system ruled over by Hale (Tessa Thompson). Of course, the balance of power changes dramatically by the end, with Hale incapacitated by a ...
Raves, Resilience and Rapture: How Ray Volpe Overcame His Lowest Moment to Produce a Game-Changing Record
They say success isn’t about luck, connections or even money. It’s the discipline to outwork everyone around you—a tenet which Ray Volpe has long been tethered to. The byproduct is Legend of the Volpetron, his new EP, out now by way of Disciple. The inventive record effectively pours gasoline on the broiling career of Volpe, who was named to EDM.com‘s Class of 2022 earlier this year. It’s a dazzling showcase of his generational production talents, which extend far beyond the confines of his breakout hit, “Laserbeam.” “It sounds cheesy, but it means everything to me! It’s a moment in time that I’ll look back on years from now,” Volpe tells EDM.com of his new EP. “I really wanted to mash everything I loved a...
Meghan Trainor Talks New Album & Her Song ‘Title’ Going Viral on TikTok: ‘Universe Is Talking to Me & I’m Listening’
Ahead of the release of her new album Takin’ It Back, Meghan Trainor sat down with Billboard News host Tetris Kelly to discuss the inspirations behind the project and how it feels to go viral on TikTok with her 2015 track “Title.” The singer explained that her past catalog inspired what’s to come on the new record, set for release in October. “I’m taking it back to my sound that apparently I had, because I started writing and one of my co-writers were like, ‘It’s crazy, these artists are coming in saying I want to do Meghan Trainor sound,’” she said. “I have the doo-wop sound. At the same time, ‘Title’ blew up on TikTok. I was like, ‘Wow, universe is talking to me, and I’m listening.’” Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news Fans wi...
Tacos With the Interrupters
In a blacked-out rehearsal space in North Hollywood, The Interrupters have the absolute necessities as they prepare to head to Europe to tour in support of their fourth album, In the Wild (out on Aug. 5 via Hellcat/Epitaph). A handful of guitars and basses hang in a road case against the wall. A stack of drumsticks is tucked away inside some cardboard remains. Some light snacks rest underneath a folding table. And a few large boxes of vocalist Aimee Interrupter’s favorite types of water dot the remaining space around a central couch. “This one is from Hawaii, but it’s only my second favorite,” she says, handing me a liter of Waiakea Nui that feels like it costs as much as the dozen Arrowheads sitting on the aforementioned snack table combined. “But let’s get you the best water.” Aimee swap...
SPIN DNA: James Greer
There was a time period, let’s call it 15th century Europe, where a select group of men made their bones in a variety of different occupations. Leonardo da Vinci, just to pull one name out of my hat, was not only a famous painter, but also a sculptor, scientist, philosopher, and mathematician. Apparently there’s some evidence that he was also a pretty good dancer. There were others, too. There are always others. Fast forward 400 years: Not content with just proving relativity, Albert Einstein was also a classically trained violinist. Sort of like how Axl Rose is some hayseed with chops like Chopin. We labeled these individuals Renaissance Men. Or, to use the parlance of our times, Idea Birthing Persons. I first met the writer, musician, and surprisingly nimble dancer himself, James Greer, ...
Lucky (the Monster) Pulls No Punches With ‘Queer Apocalypse Doomgrass’ and Demonic Machines
In what would be the lone bedroom of a small apartment in San Diego, the musician, guitar pedal builder, and anti-establishment artist known primarily as “Lucky (the monster)” has set up a hub of sorts for their multiple musical acts and guitar pedal business. Their small four-toothed mutt, Rocco, makes his way across the small room, wagging his tail between an array of guitars and mounds of electronic parts. It’s part mad scientist’s laboratory, part musical practice space, and part disorganized corporate headquarters for a rapidly growing online business — but that makes sense when you consider what Lucky’s day-to-day actually looks like. A teacher by day, Lucky’s become known as the head of Demonic Machines, solo artist Great Big Thing Crawling All Over Me (a nod to the old punk song “S...
Westworld’s Daniel Wu on Episode 6’s Big Reveals and His Special Bond With Thandiwe Newton
[Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers for Westworld, Season 4 Episode 6, “Fidelity.”] Daniel Wu is no stranger to strange genre tales — the veteran actor has been working constantly over the past few decades on a mix of Hong Kong and American productions, notably starring in the bonkers AMC martial arts drama Into the Badlands for three seasons. Thus, he was more than ready to take on a significant role in Season 4 of Westworld, playing Jay, the leader of a group of human “outliers” who are scrambling for survival in a world now controlled by the robotic “hosts.” As Wu explains to Consequence via Zoom, there was no question of him turning down the job, when Westworld co-creator Lisa Joy asked him about it after the two of them worked together on her directorial debut, the 2021 fi...
Westworld Composer on Giving the Opening Title Music an “Edgy” Cover For Season 4, Episode 6: Exclusive
[Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers for Westworld, Season 4 Episode 6, “Fidelity.” To read about the music of Episode 5, click here.] Unlike past weeks, where Westworld composer Ramin Djawadi has surprised us with covers of Frank Ocean and Nine Inch Nails, Episode 6 of Season 4 contained no such surprises on the musical front. Except, of course, for the fact that he ended up covering… himself. First, though, “Fidelity” did contain some big surprises on a narrative level, though, including the end of the line for freedom fighter Jay (Daniel Wu) — the human version, at least. And we also got to see the full extent of Hale (Tessa Thompson)’s manipulation of Caleb (Aaron Paul), as he not only confronts his new reality as a host, but the fact that he has been copied dozens of times ...
Marcia Gay Harden on Depicting the “Universal Heartbreak” of Netflix’s Uncoupled
Marcia Gay Harden feels like one of the hardest-working actors out there; since winning her Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in Pollack (she was also nominated for Clint Eastwood’s Mystic River) she’s made countless appearances across film and television, often appearing in multiple episode guest-starring roles across shows including The Morning Show, Damages, The Newsroom, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, How to Get Away With Murder, and more. So it’s not a huge surprise to see her appear in Uncoupled, the new Darren Star (Sex and the City) comedy now streaming on Netflix, though it is a pleasure. The series focuses on how Michael (Neil Patrick Harris), a 40-something residential real estate agent in New York, copes with the sudden end of a 17-year relationship; Harden appears as C...
Garbage on 30 Years of Garbage, Touring with Tears For Fears and Alanis Morissette
Garbage are nearing the end of their extensive 2022 tour, which saw them supporting Tears For Fears on their The Tipping Point trek, as well as another leg of dates supporting Alanis Morissette on her Jagged Little Pill 20th anniversary shows. But the ’90s rockers have definitely not run out of steam; if anything, they’re completely in their element. Their show this month at Festival d’été de Québec was a perfect example of what they do best — not only were the tracks from their most recent 2021 album No Gods No Masters represented with passion and poise, their laundry list of hits sprinkled in throughout the set was a great demonstration of their enduring legacy. As lead vocalist Shirley Manson mentions in her recent episode of Consequence‘s The Story Behind The Song podcast, th...
