The James McMahon Music Podcast

Yes, it’s a bonus episode, and in parts, the audio on this episode is dogshit – I’m really going to have to ban bands from doing podcast episodes on their mobiles in parks. But I’m publishing this episode anyway because Chappaqua Wrestling are one of my favourite new bands in ages. Their recently released album, Plus Ultra , is, IMAO, a near perfect debut album, full of fizzy indie rock like wot t...

Today I interviewed Peter Hook – he of Joy Division, New Order, Manchester’s legendary acid house era hotspot The Haçienda, and countless other musical projects – for a national newspaper. You can read that in The Observer in the coming weeks. But I also managed to squeeze in some questions about Hooky's current project the Haçienda Classical , in which he, along with DJs Graeme Park and Mike...

Django Django have been one of my favourite bands for years now, and so it was a treat to speak to drummer and producer David Maclean in the run up to the release of the group's fifth studio record, Off Planet . Released in four parts – one , two and three are already out - the full thing arrives on June 16th . The record is a much different beast to anything the group have released prior. Cl...

Remember episode 143, with Dan Searle of Architects ? I actually had this conversation that you’re about to hear the morning of the day I spoke to Dan - it just took me a while to get around to getting the audio on this feed. Listening back when I was editing the episode, I was pleased to remember it was a pretty good one, with two young men who make up a new band I’m really quite excited about; S...

I did this interview with guitar virtuoso and sometime Alice Cooper and Demi Lovato six stringer Nita Strauss , around about a month ago. Her new album, The Call Of The Void , was about to be announced. And then that announcement went back. And then back again. And then back once again. But now, with that record, on powerhouse metal imprint Sumerian Records confirmed to be dropping on July 7th, I’...

Audrey Golden has written one of the first great music books of the year, a new tome, on the always interesting White Rabbit Books, called I Thought I Heard You Speak: Women at Factory Records . Available to buy now, it shines a light into the crevices of the legendary indie label and reveals new stories and new perspectives concerning the women who played significant roles in making the Mancheste...

You know the deal by now; if you see a bonus episode of this podcast, it means it doesn’t quite meet the audio standards that would mean I’d allocate an episode a number. The first ten minutes or so of this conversation, with Elizabeth Stokes, singer in New Zealand indie pop champs The Beths , are especially ropey. And then we turn the camera off. What follows after that is an enjoyable conversati...

Lola Lennox has a very famous mum and a very talented dad, but the reason I’m speaking to her on this episode is because her new EP, Dreamer , contains some of the best pop songs I’ve heard in ages. If it doesn’t break her as a star in her own right, there really is no justice in the world. Which there isn’t, obviously. We are all feral creatures tearing each other to bits on a massive piece of ro...

I’ve spoken to tonnes of my favourite songwriters since this podcast came to life almost two years ago. There was Bob Mould on episode 32 . Jon Spencer on episode 49 . Lee Ranaldo on episode 20 . But there’s really very few songwriters whose music has mattered to me during the course of my life quite like the many songs written by David Gedge , the sole constant in The Wedding Present for almost f...

Well, I don't get to say this very often. This episode of the podcast features the band with the number one album in the UK! That band are The Lottery Winners , that record is called Anxiety Replacement Therapy , and this episode was recorded in the run up to the band receiving such momentous news. It’s hard not to see the Leigh band’s chart coronation as a victory for the underdog, and my co...

So for the last month or so, I’ve been utterly obsessed with the new record by the Irish group Lankum . Their fourth full length, their second under the name Lankum, it’s out now on Rough Trade. And it’s called False Lankum , after the folk ballad of the same name, as sung by the Irish traveller and folk singer John Reilly . If you haven’t heard the record yet, you should know that it’s a strange...

So the most exciting thing happened the other day. The Research , from Wakefield, a band I loved with every atom in my body for the four years they existed in the noughties, announced that they were reforming for a one off show at the last ever Long Division Festival on June 10th! There’s a new song too – fittingly called 'Time To Get Back'. And so it was a no brainer to get the band – t...

I published the video that accompanies this episode of the podcast, wherein I speak to Dan Searle , drummer, and co-founder, in British metalcore titans Architects , on the Spoook YouTube feed, earlier this week. It had an excellent response, and, if you allow me a moment of tooting my own trumpet, not without reason, I don’t think. It’s rare in 2023, to hear a musician – especially one as signifi...

Michael Cragg , one of the best writers around on all things pop, releases his book, Reach for the Stars: Fame, Fallout and Pop's Final Party , on Thursday, March 30th. A celebration of British pop between 1996 and 2006, it takes in <deep breath> Steps , S Club 7, Blue, 5ive, Mis-Teeq, Hear'Say, Busted, Girls Aloud, McFly, Craig David and Atomic Kitten, among countless others, and...

Author, journalist, and NME legend Lucy O’Brien has written some of the best music books I’ve ever read, principally about women in music. She’s perhaps best known for She Bop , her evolving history of women in rock, pop and soul, but her books on Dusty Springfield, Annie Lennox, Madonna and Skin from Skunk Anansie, are very worthy of your time too. And now there’s a new name to add to her bibliog...

Move over Izzy from Black Honey , this episode with the TikTok famous Crawlers , from Warrington, is the most chaotic episode of the podcast to date. The bassist doesn’t turn up for thirty minutes, and before that we get into a variety of topics ranging from the inexplicable rise and rise of the Kardashians; disassociation; the brilliance and banality of TikTok ; the band’s most recent release, 20...

Sorry for the lack of episodes this last week; I normally try to get a handful of episodes up in the time since we last spoke. But I’ve been busy finishing my book ! And I've been quite ill! The book is reading well, though! I’m so very excited to share it with you! But for now, here’s a bonus episode of the podcast – a bonus episode because the audio is a bit scratchier than I would bring yo...

Tamsin Embleton is an attachment-based psychotherapist and the Director of the Music Industry Therapists and Coaches (MITC). She also worked as a music promoter, tour manager, and artist manager for ten years. Now she’s written a book, entitled Touring and Mental Health: The Music Industry Manual , a comprehensive mental health and touring guide for musicians that aims to help artists, tour manage...

Keep that desk area tidy! Because I’m speaking to Jason Williamson from Sleaford Mods on the podcast today and there is plenty to discuss; we talk about Jason’s burgeoning, and perhaps destructive, obsession with Depop during the 2020 lockdowns; about what America makes of the Nottingham duo; Perry Farrell – who I vow to get on the podcast at some point, mark my words – the dangers of unchecked an...

Exciting news, rock fans! Story of the Year , from St. Louis, Missouri, return tomorrow – that’ll be Friday, March 10th – with their sixth record. Entitled Tear Me to Pieces , it’s rammed front to back, bottom to top, and every way in-between, with solid gold melodic hardcore bangers! And fittingly, on this episode I talk to singer Dan Marsala about PMA, WWE , the group’s changes in line-up since...

John Robb has been one of my music journalism heroes for as long as I can remember, and so I was chuffed to speak to the Blackpool born Renaissance man on this episode of the podcast. John has a new book on the way imminently - that'll be March 17th - entitled The Art of Darkness: A History of Goth , and it’s a thrilling deep dive into both the enduring Goth culture and the social, historical...

As I realised about a third into this episode, where I connect with pop genius Martin Fry of the immortal ABC , you don’t really interview Martin Fry but listen to Martin Fry. And that’s fine. If you wrote Lexicon of Love , the Sheffield band's classic debut album, I’d shut up and listen to you too. I think there’s plenty of insight into that classic record in what follows mind, as well on as...

Alberta Cross , to all extents and purposes solely Petter Ericson Stakee these days, are one of the indie rock scene's great survivors, starting out in 2005 and weathering the multitude of changes in shifts in style and infrastructure that the music industry has spewed forth since. Now seven albums in, their newest, Sinking Ships , lands on March 31st... despite the blunder I made at the end...

Dante Bonutto heads up the UK A&R department of Spinefarm Records, home to favourites of this podcast like Rammstein , Crown Lands , Kid Kapichi , Sleep Token, Anti-Flag , Creeper… I could go on. Basically, if a rock band are doing something interesting right now, they’re probably signed to Spinefarm . But before he ended up in the big seat of the aforementioned, Dante served his time in music...

One of the best things about doing this podcast is when my favourite bands are doing new stuff, I can call them up and go, “tell me about your new stuff!” And make no mistake, The Bouncing Souls are one of my very favourite bands. Returning on March 24th with their new record Ten Stories High – a very different sort of Bouncing Souls record, at least in how the songs were written, and yet still co...