INTERVIEWS
Michelle de Swarte on the Challenges of Yelling at Infants in HBO’s The Baby
Michelle de Swarte isn’t a mother, and she doesn’t play one on TV either. Instead, in the HBO horror-comedy series The Baby, she plays Natasha, a woman whose happily child-free existence gets complicated when a mysterious infant literally lands in her arms. That’d be enough for anyone to handle, but things get even more complicated when Natasha realizes that the baby might be, well, evil. Certainly people keep dying when he’s around. It’s a whole thing. De Swarte didn’t have much acting experience prior to the series — as she tells Consequence, she booked the job thanks to her work as a stand-up. “I speak about myself, my past experiences, and how it informs the decisions that I make now ultimately,” she says of her typical set. “I speak about therapy, living in the States — as I lived out...
Kevin Morby Captures the Present
Kevin Morby grew up in Overland Park, Kansas, a suburb roughly 20 minutes outside of downtown Kansas City. We’ve both lived here at different points in time, and as we chat in Union Station, a historic landmark in the heart of the city, we instantly make connections over high schools, street intersections, and formative memories. The indie-folk singer-songwriter has used places as a leitmotif throughout his music, and his fascination with them is evident. Many of his records draw direct inspiration from them. His debut album, 2013’s Harlem River, explores his move to New York City; 2016’s Singing Saw tethers itself to Los Angeles, where Morby moved after New York; 2020’s Sundowner pays tribute to Morby’s home in Kansas City and his eventual return to it. There’s something poetic about...
BIBI Reflects on Her Debut Coachella Performance, Teases “Weird, Dark and Twisted” New Era
K-pop soloist BIBI could be described as a free spirit, but that feels a bit too reductive for an artist as ever-evolving as her. BIBI pulls from hip-hop, R&B, and pop sounds as she pleases, and describes her music as her “weird, dark, and twisted” way of expressing herself. Following a highly buzzed-about debut set at Coachella, BIBI sat down with Consequence to reflect on this moment in her career — a moment that only seems to be setting her up for more adventures. BIBI was part of the 88rising Head In the Clouds stage at Coachella. In reflecting on her time at Coachella Valley, two things prominently stand out: the desert dust, and getting to spend time with her fellow 88rising artists. “It was really overwhelming,” she says of her time at the festival, recalling the sheer size...
Tyler Bates and Chelsea Wolfe on Creating the Dark, Funky X Soundtrack
The horror film fandom has been on the edge of its seat for X, director Ti West’s first full-length feature since his 2016 Western In a Valley of Violence. The A24 film is more than a love letter to the greatest horror films of all time — it paves a creative, innovative, and shocking path all of its own. The same can be said of its score, which was created in a collaboration between legendary horror composer Tyler Bates and goth rock queen Chelsea Wolfe, alongside composer/producer Ben Chisholm. X’s accompanying lush score is perfect for the envelope-pushing, star-studded film. Set in 1979, X tells the story of a group of aspiring filmmakers and stars (including Mia Goth, Jenna Ortega, Brittany Snow, and Kid Cudi) who head deep into rural Texas to create the ultimate porn film. Things take...
Andrew Garfield and the Under the Banner of Heaven Cast on Navigating the “Rough Seas” of Mormonism and Murder
When writer Dustin Lance Black first approached adapting the Jon Krakauer book Under the Banner of Heaven, it was as a potential feature film — an idea that the star-studded cast of the new limited series from FX now sees as laughable. In fact, star Daisy Edgar-Jones literally laughs a little when talking to Consequence about it: “It would not be possible. This is such a rich story, there’s so much to unpack, and fitting that into an hour and a half would not happen.” Clocking in at seven episodes, Under the Banner of Heaven is a true crime story of the darkest sort, tracking the investigation into the murder of Brenda Lafferty (Edgar-Jones) and her infant daughter in 1984. Starring Andrew Garfield as lead detective Jeb Pyre, the motivation for these murders, we learn, is tied up in the fa...
Not Your Average Joe
The comedian Joe List is set to premiere his newest special, entitled This Year’s Material, on his popular YouTube channel, continuing a trend of DIY releases, such as Mark Normand’s Out to Lunch, Shane Gillis’s Live in Austin, as well as List’s own excellent 2020 set I Hate Myself. Each of those specials have garnered millions of views, not due to any sort of controversial material that would attract otherwise disinterested lookie-loos, but from hundreds of hours of road-tested material that has captured the attention of those of us only interested in punchlines. It is the opinion of this writer that Joe List is, pound-for-pound, the best working stand-up comic in America. His self-deprecating nature (“I Hate Myself” is both a title and common phrase for List) belies a novelistic detail f...
“Feel Safe to Be Yourself”: How SOFI TUKKER’s Sophomore Album Speaks to the Power of Positivity
What do Larry Bird, tennis, and persimmons have in common? They’re three of the many motifs that comprise the DNA of SOFI TUKKER‘s long-awaited sophomore album, WET TENNIS, which is out now after appearing in our list of the top 22 electronic albums to come out in 2022. Considering the fact that their debut album, the Grammy-nominated Treehouse, was released in 2018, it’s safe to say that Sophie Hawley-Weld and Tucker Halpern of SOFI TUKKER have evolved both individually and as a pair over the past four years. And WET TENNIS is not only a testament to that growth, but also an intricate statement on liberation and self-empowerment. There are three levels to the album’s title: the “WET” part, the “TENNIS” part, and the full acronym. &...
Christian Lee Hutson Just Wants You to Laugh
You can’t get far in a Christian Lee Hutson song before a pretty scene or gentle start turns sour, jarred by reality. Sometimes, the turn is crude; other times, sardonic. On his second album, Quitters, opener “Strawberry Lemonade” starts, “In a dream drinking strawberry lemonade/Feeding quarters to a pinball game,” then adds evenly, “Getting paid to look the other way.” Quitters, his hushed, pseudo-reverential singing over finger-picked folk starkly contradicts lyrics about betrayal, impropriety, and illness. The album relies upon mutated memory, half-truths, and sly one-liners to carry a cast of characters through an ever-changing California landscape. The songs’ vignettes are blurred and roving, with characters inspired by everything from Hutson’s own life to books and TV. In one, the na...
Composer Ramin Djawadi on Uncharted and Jamming With The National in Westeros
Ramin Djawadi, the Emmy-winning composer behind the scores for Iron Man, Pacific Rim, and Game of Thrones, isn’t sure that he has a signature sound to his works for film, TV, video games, and more. “I don’t know if I can analyze myself and say, oh, I sound like Ramin,” he tells Consequence. “I can definitely think of other composers when I hear their music, but I’m not sure if I can say it about myself. I don’t know. I think it’s up to others to decide if I have that or not.” While he might not be able to hear what makes it distinctive, Djawadi has nonetheless become quite in demand. His latest film, the Tom Holland-starring adaptation of Uncharted, is now available for rental, and on the horizon this year are two massive TV projects: Djawadi will be returning not just to compose the music...
MARO On His Upcoming Album, an “Audio Musical” With Its Own Universe
As an accomplished composer and music entrepreneur, MARO has a knack for storytelling. He has long been championed for the dark, heady sound design found in his potent electronic music productions. Look no further than his riveting songs on the official Cyberpunk 2077 soundtrack, which remain some of the record’s most popular—a statement that speaks volumes considering it also features tracks by Grimes, Run The Jewels and Nina Kraviz, among others. Now, MARO is on the verge of releasing a new album, Rejects, which he affectionally calls an “audio musical” with its own visual universe. He tells us the album has not only a metaphysical backstory, but a formidable list of collaborators, like Wu-Tang Clan’s Ghostface Killah and Raekwon. Ergo, he’s positioning to r...
King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard Keep Getting Bigger, And They’re as Surprised as Anyone
Australian rock band King Gizzard the Lizard Wizard are often dinged for their at times unbelievable level of recorded output — 20 studio albums since 2012, including five in 2017 alone (each in a different musical style), umpteen official and unofficial live releases, a tour documentary soundtrack, rarities collections, one-off singles and wickedly creative music videos. But as the group’s catalog grows, so does its worldwide audience, which is poised to make 2022 the biggest year in Gizzard history. Indeed, the band is achieving any number of new milestones in the weeks ahead, from selling out two Red Rocks shows eight months in advance (a third was just added), to playing their largest New York-area concert to date in October at the 13,000-capacity Forest Hills Tennis Stadium and reachi...
Matt Sorum Looks Back at Drumming for Some of the Biggest Bands in History
Matt Sorum has seen it all. If not all, well, then he’s seen a lot. From his days growing up as a hustler in Long Beach getting entangled in the drug trade, Sorum not only made it out alive but drummed for some of the monsters of rock. No one else can boast a resume that includes stints with The Cult, Guns N’ Roses, Velvet Revolver and a stint with Hollywood Vampires. These days, Sorum is living the good life out in the Southern California desert with his wife and young daughter. But, while there, he found time to write his autobiography, Double Talkin’ Jive: True Rock ‘n’ Roll Stories from the Drummer of Guns N’ Roses, The Cult, and Velvet Revolver . It took him and two writers four years to get it done, which was slowed down by the pandemic. Looking back at a nearly four-decade care...
