The James McMahon Music Podcast

Welcome to Indie Heaven , the part of the James McMahon Music Podcast where I – that’ll be James McMahon – connect with the bands I adored as a sapling and ask… what happened next ? It’s a spin-off of sorts of my Indie Heaven website – you can find that at www.indieheaven.co.uk – and I’m kicking this irregular series off with a conversation with one James Robert Morrison – that’ll be Jim Bob – for...

It's a different sort of episode this week. No interview. No music. Just some words I needed to say about Dave Harper from Frankie & The Heartstrings , a man I have known/liked/loved/battled/danced/laughed and plotted with for 23 years. And one of the most important figures in the history of my beloved Sunderland music scene. If listening isn't your thing, I wrote some words about Da...

I’m speaking to a bonafide indie rock legend on this episode. Pete Kember, also known as Sonic Boom . But Pete has gone by all sorts of names over the years; EAR (or Experimental Audio Research ) or Spectrum . He’s provided production to the likes of MGMT, Panda Bear and Beach House. He’s worked with Yo La Tengo and Stereolab, and he was – until 1991 – a founding member, and – alongside Jason Pier...

My absolute new/nu favourite metal band right now are a relatively new outfit, from Liverpool, called Death Blooms . Their forthcoming debut album - out 22nd October via Adventure Cat Records and entitled Life Is Pain - is far more fun than that title sounds. Like so many of the best heavy rock bands, there's a great deal of feeling there - a deep well of rage - but this is music to make you...

It's really surprising to me that I've never interviewed Matt Tuck before. Both I, and they, have been doing what they do for years now, and for a large period of that time, Bullet For My Valentine have been synonymous with the enormity of British heavy metal, post the emergence, importance and perminence of Iron Maiden. But do BFMV get the respect their achievements deserve? I'm no...

Catherine Anne Davies - that'll be The Anchoress to her ever growing legion of fans - has made probably my favourite record of 2021 thus far. If the year were to end tomorrow, she, and said record, The Art Of Losing , would almost certainly win something. I don't know what. Some sweets maybe, or a trophy fashioned out of whatever crap I might find in the top drawer of my office desk. It...

Gloo are one of the very best bands around - fizzy, efferent, raw, fun; I'm stoked that brothers Thomas and Mark Harfield agreed to have a chat with me for this podcast. Why did Thomas get so angry upon learning an apple is a fruit? Is it better to be at the top or the bottom of a Totem Pole? And why won't anyone just admit they're actually from Littlehampton ? The James McMahon Mus...

On episode three of The James McMahon Music Podcast , James (very hot, in London) talks to Angus Andrew (very cold, somewhere in a forest in Australia) about Liars excellent tenth album, The Apple Drop . It's a record with much within it to explore - no surprise there, that's what Liars do - but what discoveries about himself did Angus stumble upon in making it? The James McMahon Music P...

On episode two of the James McMahon Music Podcast , James speaks to Awsten Knight from Waterparks , one of the best brains in one of the best of the newer rock bands around. We were supposed to talk about music, but that was always unlikely to happen. Don't sleep on this episode if you're also into ghosts and UFO's. The James McMahon Music Podcast is a Spoook Media production. Spooo...

On episode one of the James McMahon Music Podcast , James speaks to Tim Mcllrath of Rise Against , about his band's ferocious new record primarily - but also, in a sense, what it means to be human, what it means to grow and what it means to be alive. The James McMahon Music Podcast is a Spoook Media production. Spoook is also a promoter , a shop , a Substack - it's many things. Follow us...