I Wanna Jump Like Dee Dee

Vara Sky (aka Amy Swart) is a fabulous electronic music artist living in Los Angeles. She hits that very, very sweet spot of abrasive industrial and aggressive pummelling beats that on one hand feels very austere and almost desolate and on the other, incredibly democratic and communal. I love Amy's story of how she went from being classically trained to finding her people, her safe space in t...

“DJ Food is best described as Food for DJs, simple as that, just flip it around and it begins to mean something entirely different." DJ Food is a project that started back in 1990 when Jonathan More and Matt Black's Coldcut innovation lab started producing collections of breaks, beats, loops and samples which were ideal for mixing, remixing - metaphorical food for DJ's - as well as...

"What we need is a revolution driven by a philosophy of personal activism" Meg Lee Chin is a visionary of the underground, DIY music and culture scene. One of her early bands was Teknofear with Becky Wreck of Lunachicks and then Crunch who were one of the first Western bands to tour Ukraine shortly after the Soviet Union dissolved. Brilliant stories! Meg is probably best known for her wo...

Nemone Metaxas has gained a vast range of skills and knowledge through her education, sport and her career in broadcasting and DJ'ing. As we'll hear, she is using her experience and passions to create a multi-hyphen life in the worlds of music and psychotherapy. She has some fascinating insights into how she has found that these worlds  - which, at first glance appear very different -act...

Gina has been a massive influence on culture and society throughout her life and inspiration for many. She’s done film direction, videography, she’s a painter and she is a co-founder of the hugely seminal post-punk band The Raincoats . What has struck me, both in her music and her painting is that she is her unique self, going where her heart and mind takes her, vandalising existing narratives wit...

Parquet Courts are a band who has experimented and brought individual influences into their sound.  With their latest and 8th studio album, Sympathy for Life, they have pushed the boundaries yet again to create another wonderful record.  Sonically the Parquet Courts totally squared with my music evolution: from the melody and nihilism of Velvets and Ramones, through to post-punk of The Fall and Ra...

I knew from the moment that Bahar said she was up for doing an episode that I'd made the right decision to pluck up the courage to ask her.  It's colourful, full of smiles, full of positivity, full of humanity and just bloody awesome.  She embodies the experimental mindset and I totally dig her attitude to life.  Try new stuff, enjoy trying it, see what happens, enjoy the results. About...

Maria Uzor has opened up a world that fuses the subversion and aftermath of the years that followed punk with the after hours, stripped back, defiant underground, counter-culture vibe of Miami’s Kitchen Club or New York’s Danceteria and flipped it forward to the present day. She is highly creative, open-minded and empathetic and is confronting and understanding her past in order to understand who...

We kick off Season 5 with James Spectrum, founder of Pepe Deluxé.  There hadn’t been an album from Pepe in 10 years but…..things have happened…..they recently released their fifth album called Phantom Cabinet Vol 1 and the story that James tells us about the journey behind this release is extraordinary…. ….as is the rest of my conversation with James, where we also got into some fascinating topics...

What a fabulous way to end a fabulous Season 4 with Ray Ahn, co-founder of one of my favourite bands of all time - The Hard-Ons. In this fantastic episode, when Ray's not humming Ferry 'Cross the Mersey, we're talking about playing Liverpool (I was there!), Dave Grohl, what drew him to punk, what living with freedom means, the importance of truth, friendships, taking risks, gut inst...

Bringing different influences, ideas and ways of working together is one of the most exciting and satisfying way to live your life and grow as a person.  I think this also goes for creating music - take Bowie, Zappa, Nina Simone, Prince, Led Zep, Little Simz, Miles Davis, Hendrix, Tina Turner. We've also seen it with many of my guests here. Kelsey Warren is a proponent of this way of living a...

It’s hard to overstate the influence that Richard Norris has had on the music industry over the past 40 years.  In his youth in St Albans, Richard got involved in the experimental and creative punk rock scene, forming the Innocent Vicars, creating a DIY fanzine called 99%, working as a label manager for Bam Caruso and writing for Strange Things and the NME. Following a, let's say, "educa...

Having been hired to produce a Circle Jerks record that never happened, Dimitri Coats developed a strong bond with Keith Morris (Black Flag, Circle Jerks) and, hey, waddyaknow…... OFF! was born. Formerly a drama student and actor, Dimitri's musical background is in classic hard rock with Burning Brides, so OFF! was something way different for him. He took on lead guitar,  learned the art of d...

Kira Roessler joined Black Flag in 1984 at what was possibly the most polarising point in the band’s career.  They had just released the game changing My War and were going on an extensive tour to promote the record. The band had moved away from the ferocious assault of Damaged and was venturing into songs that were much more experimental and freeform, yet still retaining the relentless intensity....

Aside from her life as a fabulous multi-instrumentalist - bassist in Big Joanie , guitarist in Charmpit , drummer in the enigmatic Dirty Girl and solo synthesiserist (I just made that word up) - Estella Adeyeri is building communities and networks that are about providing opportunities and voices for the many, not just the few: She is a member of the team behind Decolonise Fest, an incredible musi...

For the last 25 years, Jason Reece has been producing an outstanding stream of expansive, cinematic, experimental records that have kept fans excited, looking forwards and on their toes. His approach to music is that history never repeats itself (although y'know, hardcore side projects are kinda not to be trifled with 🤐) . He plays guitar, sings and hits the drums with ferocious precision. H...

Alton Jenkins is a powerhouse of a drummer. A massively inventive, unique, avant garde, experimental, punk rock, psychedelic, melodic percussionist noisemaker and a lynchpin of that very creative and experimental Austin scene. Having been in Future Death (wow, you really should check them out), he’s now working with the incredible TaSz Muerte of BLXPLTN (who you will remember from Season 1) on a n...

"The greatest cultural beacon this planet has produced” - Irvine Welsh "A modern day Patti Smith" - Johny Brown, Band of Holy Joy Kirsty's work explores the power of the free individual, unconstrained by straitjacket of institutionalised, homogenised culture. She is the chief editor of the great counter culture bastion, Ambit and founded Cold Lips and the Vagrant Lovers . She i...

Is there a better way to kick off Season 4, than with Donald Johnson , the rhythm-and-beats maestro of A Certain Ratio ? This episode has bags of laughs and stories. It's also a compelling masterclass in the power of the experimental mindset and the extraordinary journey that it can take you on in life. Curiosity, adaptability, mental agility, trusting one's own judgement, strong relatio...

To round off Season 3 (yeah, I know!), we've got the fabulous Colleen Green . BREAKING NEWS: Colleen reveals all about what this means: ”Did I ever send your shirt? I think I did. But maybe I didn’t. Sorry 'bout that”. Ah, seriously, Colleen is one of my fave artists. A natural born songwriter with the lo-fi buzz of The Strokes, the glorious three-power chord cool of Ramones and the effo...

AY Young is a producer, singer, songwriter, entertainer, and entrepreneur. He is also the founder of the Battery Tour which is a music tour powered by renewable energy. He has performed over 800 gigs powered by renewable battery power and, through this and other fundraising, has provided clean energy to global communities that do not have reliable access to stable sources of power. He has also bee...

Du Blonde , aka Beth Jeans Houghton, is a massively talented and creative multi-instrumentalist,  singer, videographer, animator, designer, producer, label owner and ultra DIY-er.  Their third and latest album, Homecoming, feels just like that. It feels less introspective, more triumphant and defiant than even the last release, Lung Bread for Daddy, in 2019. Consistently dealing with subjects that...

This is a bit of deviation from what we’ve been doing so far but a) there is a music industry connection and b) change never harmed anyone c) it’s an ace story and d) I’ve got an ace guest  Jenny Valentish started her working life in the music industry starting her own fanzine - cheekily called "Slapper: The Groupie’s Guide to Gropable Bands" and then writing for Dazed and Confused, NME,...

Svetlanas are one of the most dynamic and hard working bands around. Their music takes me back to the glory days of 1980’s hardcore and skatecore - one of my favourite eras.  A live Svetlanas show is unforgettable: it's like being in an incendiary cyclone of buzzing, distorted  guitars, pummelling drums and bass and, of course, the electrifying stage presence of Olga. All of this, plus never...

It's a massive thank you and welcome back to Zia McCabe of the Dandy Warhols ! We talked so much in depth in Part 1 about formative influences, identity, skills and mindset that we couldn't possibly leave all unanswered questions about how this applies to Zia's musical creativity. So here goes: we're gonna go from how Zia became appointed to the position of Secret Agent McCabe...