INTERVIEWS
Action Star Mark Dacascos on Kicking His Way Back Into Iron Chef
Not many food competition shows can liken themselves to a martial arts movie, but if any of them can, it’s Iron Chef. Having existed in one form or another for the last thirty years, starting in Japan and then spreading around the world, the series pits legendary, well-regarded “Iron Chefs” against scrappy challengers for a sixty-minute endurance test (featuring a heretofore unknown secret ingredient) to create a full-course meal that will blow away the judges and earn them the rank of Iron Chef. What sets Iron Chef apart, though, is the character of The Chairman, a mercurial, authoritative figure who announces the challenges and their secret ingredients with an intense martial arts flourish. He’s impresario and referee alike, neither announcer nor challenger but someone who...
Two Door Cinema Club Return With “Wonderful Life,” Tease Upcoming Album Keep On Smiling: Exclusive
When Two Door Cinema Club returned back in 2019 with False Alarm, there was a delightful tone of being “seriously unserious.” But now, that lighthearted message means something a bit different; after two years of a pandemic and a lengthy period of being stuck at home, playful and positive art helped lessen the weight of our global situation, and as most of us exit lockdown, there’s a definable sense of tension around re-entering the world and starting over. For Two Door Cinema Club, they just want you to keep calm and smile on. Today (June 16th), they’ve announced their forthcoming fifth studio album, set for release on September 2nd of this year. Keep On Smiling as a title implies a couple different things: for one, it’s a steadfast image of positivity and optimism, a plea to keep sp...
Foals on the Ecstatic, Unified Energy of New Album Life Is Yours
Back in November, days before the release of Life Is Yours‘ lead single “Wake Me Up,” Foals frontman Yannis Philippakis assured listeners that this album would be a return to a “sweaty, late-night dance floor.” He wasn’t kidding: Life Is Yours is undoubtedly the most groove-oriented, shimmering Foals album yet, destined for the peak of a wild night and smartly positioned as an antithesis to a long period of lockdown. If you are a Foals fan, the streamlined style of Life Is Yours is a bit of a left turn, albeit one that’s closer to the frenetic dance punk of their debut Antidotes and the introspective glow of Total Life Forever. Though a restless energy populates the dance-centric Life Is Yours, there’s very little agitation in the mix — where previous Foals jams like “I...
The Techno Six: New Documentary Spotlights Detroit’s Dance Music Pioneers
First, there were six. The term “techno” is often evocative of its European emblems, like Germany’s Berghain and Sweden’s Drumcode. So much so that techno music is widely considered to be one of the continent’s exports. But a new documentary seeks to firmly correct this history, tracing techno’s origins back to a cohort of six Black producers from Detroit: “the first cover boys of techno,” said Kristian Hill, a Detroit denizen and the director of God Said Give ‘Em Drum Machines, in an interview with EDM.com. He’s referring to Juan Atkins, Blake Baxter, Santonio Echols, Eddie Fowlkes, Derrick May and Kevin Saunderson, who were collectively featured on the cover of British music magazine Record Mirror in 1988. According to God Said Give ‘Em Drum Machin...
O-T Fagbenle on Why He Doesn’t Care About the Size of His Roles, from The First Lady to The Handmaid’s Tale
O-T Fagbenle has been keeping busy the last 12 months, between the release of Marvel’s Black Widow, the return to production for The Handmaid’s Tale Season 5, and working on his own projects following the 2020 release of the original series Maxxx, which he wrote, directed, and starred in. Not only that, he’s also now in the Emmys this year conversation for two very different roles: The very strategic venture capitalist Cameron in WeCrashed and modern symbol of hope Barack Obama in The First Lady. In the interview below, transcribed and edited for clarity, the actor and writer reveals why his career has included so many supporting roles of late, and what was key to playing arguably one of the most famous men on the planet. He also explains why he didn’t mind getting asked about Black Widow ...
Dave Stewart on His Ambitious New Solo Project, Eurythmics’ Rock Hall Induction
Dave Stewart still vividly recalls the day he found out Eurythmics went to No. 1 in the U.S. with their 1983 single “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This).” He and Annie Lennox were in a hotel room in San Francisco, preparing to play a show, and received a phone call from their record label rep sharing the good news. “[The label] said, ‘Oh, we’ve got something to tell you—you’re number one,’” Stewart tells SPIN, Zooming in from the Queen Mary II somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean on his way to England. “We hung up, and we didn’t know what to do. We looked out the window; everything looked the same. So we both started jumping around on the bed like kids, and going, ‘We’re No. 1!’ And then we were going, ‘Oh, I wonder what that means.’ We soon found out—that night we were playing [a show], and ...
Peaches Christ and Thomas Dekker on Reviving Their Camp Cult Horror Classic for a New Era
For lovers of horror, camp, and the bloody glee that comes with combining these two things, this month marks a special occasion: the re-release of All About Evil, the first feature-length film directed by Joshua Grannell, a.k.a. horror drag legend Peaches Christ. As Peaches Christ, Grannell has toured the country with the Midnight Mass cult horror road show, and hosts a podcast of the same name celebrating cult film. “Growing up and being a subscriber to Fangoria magazine and being a kid that loved horror movies, I saw cult films as being a very specific kind of movie that fit into a specific set of tropes, and certainly being transgressive was one of them,” he tells Consequence. “But over time, I would say that, probably because of doing the Midnight Mass movie series and also having the ...
Leona Naess Opens Up About Revitalizing Her Career
After a 17-year hiatus from making records, British-born singer-songwriter Leona Naess, recently released her highly anticipated fourth record, Brood X, produced by Max Cooke (Ellie Goulding/Winona Oak). Recorded in several countries including Italy, Switzerland and England, Brood X, despite its international landscape, comprises an intimate, personal and sweetly tuneful collection of synth-infused alternative-indie-pop songs. As per her oeuvre, Naess’s characteristically introspective lyrics take front and center as she contemplates motherhood, romance, and friendship, leaving no relational stone unturned. One of the album’s highlights, the hypnotic “Name Across The Sky,” finds Naess, despite its upbeat tempo, desperately trying to mend a broken relationship with a loved one. “I wish that...
Twenty One Pilots on Playing MTV Unplugged, Their Favorite Episodes and What They’re Doing Differently
MTV Unplugged performances, at least during its 1989-2001 heyday, were among the most watched and influential events in music programming. If you were on Unplugged, you made it. Though its influence has waned as artists have moved away from traditional television as a whole, the show’s legacy remains firmly intact. Now a quarterly event, MTV enlisted Twenty One Pilots as the next artist to perform on MTV Unplugged. The show is unlike any other Unplugged predecessor. Tyler Joseph and Josh Dun don’t “unplug” in the traditional sense, but they stripped down their songs to create completely different versions than what’s made them radio staples in the past half-decade or so. A day before they recorded their set in front of an intimate audience at Exchange in downtown Los Angeles, we ...
The Suffers Confront Racism and Sexism in the Music Industry
Kam Franklin isn’t afraid to say her piece. As the singer for The Suffers, a Houston-based seven-piece soul group, she’s shared the stage with Chaka Khan, toured with My Morning Jacket’s Jim James, and received advice from Mavis Staples. But when she’s spoken up about the inequalities of the music business, it hasn’t gone over well. “It’s really scary to talk about racism and sexism, and gender pay inequality, and payola in journalism,” says Franklin over the phone from a tour stop at BottleRock festival in Northern California. Outside of singing, she serves as the governor of the Recording Academy’s Texas chapter and as a board member of HeadCount, a nonprofit that works with musicians to get people registered to vote. “Now [I’m] an activist,” she says, with a touch of bemusement. “I didn...
Swardy Explores the Complex Intricacies That Make Us Human In Audiovisual Album, “Compact Objects”
Using new technology to explore the world during a time of forced isolation, Swardy delves into the complexities of what makes us unique on his new album, Compact Objects. A passionate traveler finding himself sidelined due to the ongoing pandemic, Swardy dove headfirst into 3D animation to cultivate new opportunities for adventure. With no experience under his belt, he downloaded the popular animation toolset Blender and began a two-year journey that would eventually culminate in Compact Objects. We caught up with Swardy to explore what went into the development of his visceral audiovisual album. Beginning work in March 2020, Swardy set out to create a dreamlike journey for his endearing mascot, Morne Diablotins. Sharing a name with the tallest mountain in Dominica, he found ins...
Meet The Rave Ref, a Peacekeeping Partier Who Guards Moshpits to Keep Ravers Safe
This isn’t your average Little League game. Wendell Dominguez knows that raves can sometimes get dangerous, especially when DJs overtly call for moshpits and “walls of death.” So he decided to start a persona called The Rave Ref, who dons a whistle and referee shirt in his mission to foster safer experiences in moshpits at electronic dance music concerts and festivals. Watching videos of Dominguez is like an EDM version of Where’s Waldo. If you attend virtually any major bass music festival, odds are you’ll see a black-and-white referee shirt loping around the pit like a zebra in the night. And more often than not, his whistle functions as the starting pistol. EDM.com caught up with The Rave Ref to chat about moshpit culture and why he decided to crusade ...
