INTERVIEWS
I Guess We’re Done: Kevin Whelan Looks to the Future With Aeon Station
The guy I remember from an album that boasted of being a 30-something “best 17-year old ever” making about $13,000 a year greets me showered and blue-blazered, sporting a white oxford and an equally bright smile. Kevin Whelan calls his Zoom profile picture his “LinkedIn look,” and it betrays an unexpected quirk of a Google search I conducted just prior to my conversation with the Aeon Station frontman: “Kevin Whelan Johnson and Johnson” pops up ahead of “Kevin Whelan Wrens.” Whelan’s official job title is Global Head of R&D Strategic Initiatives and Operations, and he manages about 400 employees. Since 2003, it’s been far more likely that Whelan could give someone a job than a new Wrens song. More disturbing is that the third entry is “Kevin Whelan Obituary.” “Work, rock and then death...
How 2021 Band of the Year CHVRCHES Navigated a COVID-Challenged Galaxy
Our 2021 Annual Report continues with the announcement of CHVRCHES as our Band of the Year. As the year winds down, stay tuned for more awards, lists, and articles about the best music, film, and TV of 2021. You can find it all in one place here. The last couple of years have undoubtedly been chaotic — and while many artists have used these uncertain times to provide a distraction, others, like CHVRCHES, our 2021 Band of the Year, have embraced that chaos to create profound and inspired works. CHVRCHES’ fourth studio album, Screen Violence, features the band working at the highest level since their debut, and with a little bit of cinematic horror and drama added to the mix, they sound like a band renewed. Tracks like “How Not To Drown (featuring Robert Smith),” which landed at No. 8 on our...
Alan Fitzpatrick On Why His First Album In Over a Decade “Feels Like His Debut”
“Putting music out for the club, it feels like I can do that with my eyes closed,” mused Alan Fitzpatrick in an exclusive interview with EDM.com. “I do that so often—it’s natural for me.” Since his appearance in the techno scene more than a decade ago, Fitzpatrick has amassed an impressive canon of music, from smash hit “We Do What We Want” to a remix of Shannon’s 1983 electro-funk record, “Let The Music Play.” Just last year, the Brit released a whopping 24—yes, 24—original tracks, including two EPs with his under-the-radar electronica alias, 3STRANGE. But in 2019 Fitzpatrick decided it was time for him to try something new, stepping outside of his creative comfort zone to embark on his first album since 2010. And Machine Therapy, out now via Anjunadeep, was born. Complet...
Gina Jeanz Breaks Down Each Song On Her Spellbinding Debut Album, “Lucid Theory”
It’s no secret that the current generation of young music producers is about as creative as they come. From the endless libraries of music available online to the fast-paced evolution of music-making technology, their artistries have been catalyzed by unprecedented access to education and inspiration. The result? Experimental aesthetics, enticingly textured soundscapes and respect for— yet rampant disregard of—genre. The debut album from rising Namibian producer Gina Jeanz proves no different. Released independently on December 3rd, Lucid Theory is equal parts old and new, reigniting well-known sonics and drum machines with multidimensional arrangements and whimsical genre blends. Jeanz also plays with euphonious vocalists and live instrumentation, channeling the comp...
Volbeat’s Michael Poulsen on Servant of the Mind, Tour with Ghost, and Metallica’s Black Album
Danish rockers Volbeat are back with their eighth studio album, Servant of the Mind, just released via Republic Records. Musically, the album hearkens back to the band’s earlier, heavier days, with relentless riffing and punching rhythms, while also representing how far they’ve come as a group. “You can definitely hear a band that sounds very young, but at the same time, a band that has a lot of experience with the style we started so many years ago,” frontman Michael Poulsen tells Heavy Consequence. In addition to releasing the new album, Volbeat are prepping for a highly anticipated co-headlining US arena tour with Swedish metal masters Ghost. The outing kicks off January 25th in Reno, Nevada, and runs through a March 3rd show in Anaheim, California. Tickets are available now via Ticketm...
Understanding Jason Boland’s ‘Borderline Cosmic’ Sci-Fi Country Magnum Opus
Like a transmission from a celestial CB radio, Jason Boland’s The Light Saw Me crackles to life with a garble of white noise that slows to a fiddle crawl and simmers there, hovering in the interstitial space between psychedelic country and barroom honky-tonk — and that’s just the first minute. On the record’s freewheeling prelude, “Terrifying Nature,” Boland’s narrator engages with the ageless, persistent question: What if we’re not alone in the universe? A query that sets off the unlikely trajectory of a sci-fi country concept album. As the far-fetched tale begins to unfold, what might seem like a strange juxtaposition to most folks, instead, amounts to a mid-career magnum opus for the Oklahoma songwriter and his band, The Stragglers. The gist: An 1890s cowboy is abducted by aliens and en...
Heavy Culture: Alien Weaponry on Māori Ideology, New Album Tangaroa, and Touring with Gojira
Heavy Culture is a monthly column from journalist Liz Ramanand, focusing on artists of different cultural backgrounds in heavy music, as they offer their perspectives on race, society, and more as it intersects with and affects their craft. The latest installment of this column features Lewis and Henry de Jong of Alien Weaponry. New Zealand metal act Alien Weaponry have recently released their latest album, Tangaroa, and they also wrapped up a tour supporting supporting Gojira and Knocked Loose. The band’s music is written and sung in both Māori and English, with themes that center around the ideologies and history of the culture. Heavy Consequence caught up with brothers Lewis de Jong (vocals, guitar) and Henry de Jong (drums) while they were on the road with Gojira. They spoke about tour...
Kenny G and Director Penny Lane on Making a Documentary, Flying in His Seaplane, and Defying the Critics
In her introduction to Listening to Kenny G, the latest in Bill Simmons’ Music Box documentary series for HBO, director Penny Lane sets out her thesis statement thusly: “Kenny G is the best-selling instrumentalist of all time. He is probably the most famous living jazz musician. And I made this film to find out why that makes certain people really angry.” What follows is a fascinating (though decidedly Kenny-sympathetic) portrayal of the legendary saxophonist, who’s long held the title of the highest-selling instrumentalist in the world. But while he’s been a pop culture icon for decades, he’s also been a punchline, with his frizzy hair and his popularizing of “smooth jazz” into the pop-culture consciousness. To resist Kenny is to resist muzak in elevators, or the riff from “Going Home” th...
What So Not On How He’s On the Verge of the “Greatest Work of His Career”
For What So Not, life was but a beautiful chaos before the world shut down in March 2020. For years, the Aussie had been touring his project for months at a time, playing hundreds of shows a year while attempting to write and release music on the road. But then, as countries shut their borders and people began to isolate, the renowned music producer—“High You Are” and “Gemini” fame—found himself quite literally locked down to one singular location. “It was a very big change, but it wasn’t an unwelcome change,” What So Not told EDM.com in an exclusive interview. “I was kind of deep down longing for that time.” He certainly made the most of it. Unlike those of us that baked bread and binge-watched Tiger King, What So Not spent his time on his craft, tinkeri...
Adventure Club On New Album, NFTs and the Future of Melodic Dubstep
Starting as a hardcore pop-punk band before evolving into a powerhouse dubstep production duo, Adventure Club have cemented themselves as bass music legends over the course of the last decade. However, despite touring the world and putting out dozens of singles in that time, they’ve only released one studio album, Red // Blue, back in 2016. But that’s all about to change. After dropping a slew of singles this year, including the euphoric “Broken Love” (with Cammie Robinson) and the uplifting “Anywhere” (with ARMNHMR and HALIENE), Adventure Club are on the verge of releasing a new album called Love // Chaos. Now back on tour and with Love // Chaos complete, Christian Srigley and Leighton James of Adventure Club caught up with EDM....
How It All Started: Fairlane Talks Upbringing and Emergence Into the Electronic Music Scene
Canadian electronic producer Fairlane has been musical for most of his life. At a very young age, his parents had him enrolled in piano classes, where he first got a taste of music and performing. Unfortunately, it was a bitter memory, as Fairlane recalls making a minor mistake during a piano recital when he was 10 years old. “I vowed to never perform music again,” he tells EDM.com. Eventually, Fairlane got over that mishap and went on to play in a band. However, there was one small problem: he did not know how to read sheet music. “I’ve always learned everything by ear,” he explained. “I had the same problem with piano. I would just practice and memorize it and so I froze up when I went to read music because I was unable to read the music.” A...
Hawkeye Head Writer on What Superheroes and Mad Men Have in Common and How Hamilton Inspired That Captain America Musical
Hawkeye head writer Jonathan Igla, it turns out, is uniquely suited to the role of telling the story of the least powerful, but perhaps most relatable Avenger. For one thing, the experienced writer/producer’s credits include the well-regarded series Mad Men, Bridgerton, Pitch, and Sorry for Your Loss. For another, he knows his way around a bow and arrow. And also, as he tells Consequence, “I read everything in the comic book world, I really grew up with Marvel Comics and I love all of the biggest and smallest stuff as a writer.” One of those comics, the 2012 Hawkeye series written by Matt Fraction with art by David Aja, was a very clear inspiration point for the six-episode series which just debuted on Disney+. The latest TV adventure spotlighting a specific MCU player, Hawkeye features Je...
