Heads on Sticks Chats

Last Chat of the year and it’s an absolute pleasure to feature Rotherham industrial mage Karl D'Silva! A stalwart of the avant-garde boasting collaborations with Vanishing and GNOD, debut album ‘Love Is A Flame In The Dark’ suffuses his penchant for abrasive, post-punk sonics with soulful, impassioned pop and has dropped one of the best and unique releases of the year! Listen to Love Is A Flame In...

Chat #22 up, and delighted to feature minimal-synth stalwarts Xeno & Oaklander! Formed in the mid-2000s over a shared love of early coldwave electronic music, Sean McBride and Liz Wendelbo have been conjuring essential cuts of glacial and ethereal synthpop and forging a reputation for solely working with analogue machines and recording in single takes. One of the most vital forces in electroni...

Chat 21 featuring none other than Marseille synth pop legend Alain Séghir from Martin Dupont Formed in 1980, the trio cut a distinctly colourful and dramatic take on new wave, each of their original two albums and EP fauvist shocks of passion, romance, and mysterious intrigue, transcending genres and always unexpected. One of the essential excavated gems from the Minimal Wave project, and now tour...

Chat 20 incoming and the first of the year with dystopian acid punk ‘Noel Skumm’ from VR Sex! Unleashing massive hefts of enveloping power-pop soaked in Chrome-like radiation and electro-discolouration, Skumm’s lyrical anxieties surrounding tech’s suffusion with humanity and the queasy subterranean of urban life have only festered more presciently since 2019’s ‘Horseplay’. Back with new album ‘Har...

Nineteenth Chat incoming with Young Marble Giants singer Alison Statton! Carving a distinctly serene and spectral voice fronting the band’s nocturnal minimalism, their classic album with Rough Trade Records, ‘Colossal Youth’ remains a gem from the U.K. post-punk wave. Collaborating on a string of equally brilliant releases with Weekend, Ian Devine and ‘Spike’ Williams, join us and get to know the...

Chat #18 has beamed down to Earth with none other than Ygarr Ygarrist from alien rockers Zolar X! Landing at the cusp of glam and fuelled by Ziggy, Star Trek, and a healthy disdain for double denimed hippie stagnation, Ygarr, their mime-robotic frontman Zory Zenith, and a revolving door of like-minded space cadets conjured dizzyingly thrilling ‘rocket roll’ which straddled the coming punk explosio...

Chat 17 up with none other than post-punk industrial legend Paul Barker! A longtime former member of Ministry during their 80s and 90s heyday, in addition to a plethora of monikers and collaborations with Wax Trax! Records and beyond, join us fresh off his new album ‘The Eternal Present’ for July’s episode of Heads on Sticks Chats as we talk bubble-gum pop, touring with Skinny Puppy, and a little...

Chat #16 incoming with none other than U.K. music TV legend Chris Cowey! Attached to seminal music shows The Tube and The White Room, his tenure as Director and Executive Producer of Top of the Pops 97-03 heralded the iconic show’s ‘last hurrah’ and helped deliver a litany of classic performances from that era of pop. From spinning records at the Sunderland Mecca before even leaving school, to cur...

Fifteenth Chat up with Peckham weirdo punk Tommy Cossack! With a string of EPs behind him drenched in expert DIY garage and sarcastic explorations of cultural inertia, come get acquainted with the self-described "cheeseslice" in preparation for the upcoming Degenerators debut album and join us as we yak Top of the Pops, acoustic renditions of Super Mario, math rock, and earning the epithet "Portsm...

The Chats are back and I’m delighted to kick things off for the year chin wagging with one half of Aussie synthpop duo Syzygy's Rebecca Maher! Both stalwarts of the Melbourne punk scene, join us as we explore their journey from scrappy synthpunk to buoyant electro pop, check it out!   Follow Syzygy on Instagram Listen to latest album Anchor and Adjust Read the Heads on Sticks word on The Pendulum...

Thirteenth and final chat for this year and I'm delighted to have a natter with industrial smut trio Concentration! Responsible for some the most visceral, knotted, and puerile excretions of gutter-jazz, electro-punk, splatter-pop (and a reputation for head spinningly wild live performances), join us fresh from their latest 2LP offering ‘Aren’t You Going To Introduce Me To Your Friend?’ and get ac...

Anyone with a scant awareness of Bristol’s thriving counter-culture will have seen Max Kelan Pearce's grubby fingerprints all over it, whether they realise it or not. Behind a myriad of aliases and projects across experimental video work, arcane alchemy, circuit-fried electronica, and now unleashing a bruising assault of EBM enclosed in a wire cage, sink your teeth into the twelfth episode of Head...

Coming in from Munich we got punk-synth-disco duo Wildes for Chat #11! Crafting some of the most piquant and unique pop styles in years, with last year’s ‘Rawwr’ EP stuck on repeat at HEADHQ, join us as we explore their avant-pop world and talk rock gods, The Atomic Café, environmental disaster, and goldenes Eis!   Follow Wildes on Instagram and Facebook . Listen to latest single ' Leger in Schwar...

The Chats are back after a little June break and I'm delighted to natter with none other than New Jersey knucklepunk Reckless Randy! Lighting a fire underneath Ocean City’s puritanism with cloddish garage rock struts of boozin’, stealin’, and all manner of debaucherin’, crack open a cold one and discover the origins of the RR name, the brains behind the artwork, and a helluva lotta punk talk! Enjo...

Ninth chat up with experimental synth conjurer and Haord Records stalwart Brian Esser AKA Cabo Boing! Spending the best part of 20 years fomenting some of the strangest and unique slices of alien and gelatinous electronic music behind bizarre costumes, join us as we chew the fat on Fairlights, the merits of demystification, and a passionate reappraisal of Devo's Shout! Check it out!   Listen to ne...

Eighth chat served pipin' hot as we explore the universe of Lule Mental Butter! The brains behind I Know I'm An Alien (whose responsible for the freaky sound interruptions for the podcast!) and a litany of offbeat aliases and side-projects, join us as we explore the method and the madness behind his expert craft of cartoon synth-skronk and surreal examinations of late-stage capitalism! Check it ou...

Chat #7 and the first for 2022 takes us to the heart of Nottingham's queer club scene for a natter with electro-spunk duo Arch Femmesis! Captivating the Midlands with their intoxicating blend of psychosensual performances and seductive synths, join me as we dive in their world and talk religion, the joys of intimidating middle-aged men, and a lengthy gab on Divine! Enjoy!   Follow Arch Femmesis on...

Our sixth Chat takes us to the melancholy epicentre of Bristol's darkwave community with New Haunts! A gothic project that encompasses synthpop, ethereal coldwave and bouts of industrial clangour, join me as I natter to the brains behind the South West gloom conjurer Alice Sheridan about the spectral residue of old worlds, her new side project Strange Futures, and a lengthy discussion on Weston-su...

Is there anything he can't do!? An artist in the truest sense of the word, Làszò Antal's restless creative energy not only sees him craft some of the finest and stirring synthpop in the last decade with acts Sixth June and Diesein, but is also a much celebrated artist and film-maker responsible for all his videos and artwork. Being a long time fan of his work, I'm delighted to bring you the fifth...

Fourth episode of 'Heads on Sticks Chats' features Game Boy punk miscreant Posterboy 2000! Making a nuisance of himself in the streets of Brooklyn crafting a punchy, bit-crushed variant of hardcore genuinely using Nintendo gear, we chat about the New York punk scene, his YouTube animation ventures, and how he acquired his nickname 'Questions'! Check it out!   Follow Posterboy 2000 on Instagram and...

Third Chat features Chicago noise duo Angry Blackmen! Cutting a particularly abrasive mutation of hip hop replete with corrosive social commentary and biting humour that's thrust them firmly to the fore of vital, punk infused rap, we discuss everything from their method and inspirations to superheroes and Al Capone! Check it out!   Follow Angry Blackmen on Facebook , Twitter , and Instagram Listen...

Klypi is a synthpuck enigma wrapped in a queer industrial mystery. One of the many aliases of UGA graduate AC Carter, they're also the brains behind Ad•verse Fest and a key name in the burgeoning Athens art community. Was a pleasure to spend an hour chatting about their method, inspirations, favourite '90s Microsoft Office Assistants, and upcoming single/eye shadow palette! (Warning: we both harp...

It's an absolute honour to host the very first 'Heads on Sticks Chats' nattering with Melbourne synth-punker and all round lo-fi miscreant Billiam! With his tentacles attached to a slew of crackin' bands including Disco Junk, Tor, Aggressive Hugger, Collective Hardcore, Sylvie S, Weird! and numerous more, our boy Billy remains a central figure in the twitchy garage rock scene that's been grabbing...