This was my second time interviewing Magneta Lane (the last time was about a year ago while I was still an intern at AUX) in which they revealed details of an new EP of songs they recorded in Spanish. They also told me details regarding their forthcoming album they are currently working on with some members of Finger Eleven. Read the full piece on Spinner.
To learn more about the band or for the latest updates, visit their official website. You can also follow them on Twitter.
I interviewed Israeli singer-songwriter Yael Naim while she was here in Toronto a little while ago promoting her latest album She Was a Boy. She spoke to me about her beginnings in music and growing up in Israel where she felt a little closed off from the world. Naim also commented on the Macbook Air commercial from a few years ago that essentially kick-started her career. Read the full piece on Spinner.
The National Parks Project is a great hybrid between the music we love and the places we so rarely get to see. For this piece I interviewed several directors, producers and a musician who were all directly involved. For more information about the project, visit the official website.
Much thanks to Kendra Hart for shooting and editing this.
UK band Foals’ latest album, their second, is called Total Life Forever and was released in May of 2010. In this interview members Yannis Philippakis and Edwin Congreave talk about the making of Total Life Forever and how they’ll be heading into the studio after their current tour to start work on a new record.
I did a print piece not long ago about Black Lips detailing how to use a human skull as a reverberation chamber. This video is from the same interview and is equally entertaining. Be sure to check out the band’s upcoming album Arabia Mountain when it comes out on June 7 via Vice.
Thanks to Rick Thompson for shooting and Michelle Lottamoza for editing this piece.
My interview with Tiesto lasted exactly five minutes, although that was the amount of time allocated to myself and the other two publications that were present at the Ricoh Coliseum before his show with Wolfgang Gartner. Despite the short time, interviewing possibly the world’s most famous DJ was certainly a highlight of my time spent in music journalism. Read the full piece on Spinner.
*Shout out to Kat Stewart from Maple Music for setting this interview up and not being too bothered by my pestering emails.
Matthew Houck, aka Phosphorescent, put out his fifth studio album entitled Here’s To Taking It Easy last year, but is still touring in support of it. For our interview we talk about what releasing music is like in the digital age and although he has toyed with the idea of releasing individual songs, he’s still very found of making and listening to LPs.
I interviewed The Go! Team’s Ian Parton and Ninja outside The Opera House hours before their show and they essentially told me that after the current tour the band is breaking up. It was a little sad to hear as they’ve made some great tunes since forming in the late ’90s/early 2000s. Their latest album is called Rolling Blackouts and definitely warrants a few listens.
English singer-songwriter Frank Turner is quite the man to talk to. For our interview I brought up the royal wedding between Prince William and Kate Middleton, at which point he seemed to go off on a tangent about his own political beliefs as well as his thoughts on the media coverage in general. Read the full story on Spinner.
Interviewing Black Lips was pretty cool. They’ve always been one of my favorite bands and with a new record set to come out (Arabia Mountain), I was eager to chat with a couple of the guys. They used an actual human skull as a reverberation chamber in some of their new songs and I wrote a story about how they did it as well as a few other details about the album. Read it on AUX.
Keep your eyes wide 