Tell us about the new album ‘Don’t Forget Who You Are’ it sounds like it’s a bit of a stomper?
Yeah it’s a stomper, very direct, whatever I’m talking about whether it’s positive or about love or being angry I’ve really let go with the lyrics, there’s no hiding behind mystical meanings or anything like that. It’s the kind of songwriting where you just have to let it all out. I think it’s the most honest thing I’ve ever done. I like being direct like that, although I’m not the kind of person who posts about what they’ve been eating on twitter!

You’re a stylish man, how important is style to Miles Kane?
It’s very important, it goes hand-in-hand with the music. I don’t really think about it, I just love clothes. I like feeling smart and looking sharp! Like when you put something on and it gives you a boost, then you feel great for the rest of the day.

Who are your style icons?
The Beatles, Oasis, French singer Jaques Dutronc, he was a very good looking fella! I did a cover of one of his songs recently, he was kind of like a mod Serge Gainsbourg. I also like Lee Hazelwood with his turtle necks, not so much the moustache, that’s not really me.

You’ve got a big tour coming up with loads of festival dates, what are you most looking forward to?
We just can’t wait to play the new songs, it’s going to be very epic live, very pounding and high energy.

Do you ever feel apprehensive about debuting new material live?
Obviously you get a little bit of nerves about playing new material to the crowd but we feel very passionate about the new songs so we can’t wait to play them.

What first got you into music and made you as passionate as you are?
I think it was my mom playing The Beatles, David Bowie, Motown.. it was kind of always there in the background. Then when I was at school I got into Oasis, I remember watching a live video “There And Then”, it kind of blew my mind. It seemed like another world, a mystical world, how could I get on that stage? Even watching local bands, it seemed impossible for me to do that and it has taken me a while to get there but I’ve worked for it and now it feels solid. I’m glad that I’ve worked for it.

You’re a pretty cool cat, what are your guilty pleasure songs that your fans might not imagine you being into?
I love “Stayin’ Alive” by The Bee Gees and “Young Hearts Run Free” by Candi Staton.

Is there anything a bit darker/more embarrassing that you’d be less likely to admit?
2Unlimited ‘No Limit’, I remember that from when I was a kid.

Are there any current bands that you really rate at the moment?
We toured with Peace who are a great band, really nice lads and I love their record. Love that song ‘California Daze’. I also really like The Unknown Mortal Orchestra, they’ve got a couple of really good tunes I love and The Strypes are a great band.

What about any unsung heroes?
I suppose Lee Hazelwood. I love the stuff he did with Nancy Sinatra. Lana Del Ray did a really great cover of a song they did together ‘Summer Wine’.

You’re a Liverpool FC fan, what did you think of the Suarez incident and the 20 month ban?
He’s a crazy m*therf*cker but people buzz off him for it. He’s always on the edge of his fuse and that’s why people like him.

Maryam Snape 

Catch Miles Kane on tour with support from Findlay

01/06 – Academy 2 – Birmingham
02/06 – Ruby Lounge - Manchester
07/06 – Dingwalls – London
10/06 – Roamneder – Northampton
11/06 – Corn Exchange – Bedford

Having already supported The Vaccines, Mystery Jets and Tame Impala, Peace also took the coveted opening slot on the annual NME Awards tour, performing with the likes of Django Django and Miles Kane. Peace are now set to embark on their biggest headline tour to date to coincide with the release of their much anticipated debut album, In Love, a breezy, psychedelic and eclectic mix of indie tracks, which will no doubt be receiving many plays this summer. After blowing everyone away at SXSW, we caught up with a jetlagged Harry (singer) to discuss the album and the tour, amongst other things.

Hi Harry, how’re you doing?
Yeah I’m good. Just re-adjusting to the English time zone. We’ve been in Texas for South By Southwest.

How was that?
Goooooooooood. Very good, but now I’m a bit laggy, bit groggy. I’ve lost my voice a little bit.

‘In Love’, your debut album is out on 25th March. How was recording that for you? Tell us a little bit about the album.
It was a breeze. Yeah it was a good time recording that. We did the EP in like 9 days maybe, but we had more time with the album so it let us get more obsessive about tiny things and waste more time, like going over things we didn’t use…but it was all a laugh. We had a lot of time to experiment.

Do you feel you’ve experimented a lot on the album?
Yeah, on stuff that’s barely noticeable, but it all matters to us. There’s a lot of sounds which took a lot of time and a lot of sounds in there which are barely noticeable, but hopefully people will pick up on it.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Also, you’ve generated a lot of hype from very early on, The Guardian even hailed you ‘the future of indie music.’ Did you feel a lot of pressure when making the album based on this?
Nah… we were out in the countryside, which was like, a rare change. So we were in the glorious country and we were staying in the studio which was this lovely chapel, so we kind of forgot about everything. We just made what we wanted to. It was very good.  It was a good plan. I don’t know who’s idea that was.

As with all new bands, people have made a lot of comparisons. So you’ve been likened to Wu Lyf, Vampire Weekend and even Radiohead. How do you feel about those comparisons?
I don’t think we sound like any of those, but, you know, they’re all good bands. I think those comparisons were made pretty early on when we were just experimenting and playing live was the only form that we could do it in.

Do those comparisons match up with your influences at all?
Um, not really. Maybe Vampire Weekend were into bands like Talking Heads. I don’t know much of their [Vampire Weekend] stuff but then Radiohead are good to be fair. I guess in the industry today it’s best not to aspire to be like bands past because I think the industry is very different nowadays. There’s lots of classic bands that I look up to.

Tickets are on sale for your tour, are you excited for that after coming off the NME Tour?
Yeah, it’s going to be really good to get out and do a headline tour. Really good. I’m excited and we did that for years before so we’re prepared.

Is being on the stage where you’d rather be? Are you happier live than in the studio?
Um, not necessarily ’cause a studio it’s completely different. We’ve built everything we have from playing live, so it just feels natural to us. So it’s very easy for us to go on a really long tour and not worry about it and just get on with it.

You and your brother Sam (who plays bass) are both in the band. Is there an interesting dynamic there between brothers?
Everything comes naturally to us. We’re on the same level. Its not weird or anything, it’s just quite natural.

So there’s no family squabbling there? No Gallagher-esque nonsense? 

No, no squabbling. Not yet. I mean…it’s early days.

Inspired by that, I thought I’d let my little brother work with me and write a few questions. He’s asking the big questions, such as, what’s the most embarrassing thing to ever happen to you as a group?
As a group? Um…I’m trying to think of the most embarrassing thing…. In Austin Doug (Castle, guitar) smashed a glass table in the Four Seasons Hotel..and that was embarrassing. He now says that it was an accident, but at the time I was very convinced it wasn’t.

You could probably pass it off as rock’n'roll….
Yeah it’s not really that embarrassing. At the time I remember being like ‘Oh no!’ but I’m sure its easier to just be like ‘Yeah, whatever.’

My brother’s also asked me ‘Can anyone do any good impressions?’
(Laughs) I can do one but I’m not going to say because it’s of a band that I actually love and they might see this, so I’m not going to say that, but Dom does a great… I dunno if that’s a bit taboo actually, but he does a great Jimmy Saville impression.

And finally he’s asked ‘Who’s got the weirdest habits?’
Um…either…. I want to say Dom because he seems to have a lot of habits, but I dunno if they’re that weird. But then like Doug maybe…the way that Doug operates, like, everything he does is really confusing. He doesn’t work like a normal human. He doesn’t have many habits but everything he does is unusual. He’s just like an animal. He just doesn’t function in a normal way.

In Love is out now, and tickets are available for the tour dates listed below:

April:
12th – MANCHESTER – Club Academy
13th – YORK – Duchess
14th – NEWCASTLE – Cluny
16th – GLASGOW – The Arches
17th – EDINBURGH – Electric Circus
18th – PRESTON – 53 Degrees
19th – SHEFFIELD – Leadmill
21st – GLOUCESTER – Guildhall
22nd – BRISTOL- Fleece
23rd – PORTSMOUTH – Wedgewood Rooms
24th – BRIGHTON – Concorde2
25th – READING – Sub89
26th – OXFORD – Academy 2
27th – BIRMINGHAM – Academy 2
30th – LONDON – Birthdays

May:
1st – LONDON – Birthdays
2nd – LONDON – Birthdays
3rd – LONDON – Birthdays
4th – LEEDS – Live At Leeds

Words: Dave Heslop

“I’ve been a fan of Mark’s from his early SST Records days and i’ve always wanted to work with him. He has one of the best and most distinctive voices of the last 25 years. now that we live near each other it ended up being really easy working on a song together.” MOBY

The Lonely Night 7” comes backed with a remix from electronic music legend Photek and is being released on Moby’s own label Little Idiot.

You can see a list of the releases for this year’s event over at the Record Store Day website here.

As part of the exhibition photographer Brian Duffy’s striking images will be on display. Between 1972 and 1979, Duffy worked closely with David Bowie, shooting him in five incarnations for Ziggy Stardust, Aladdin Sane, Thin White Duke, Scary Monsters and the Lodger, and helping to create some of the most iconic images in music history.

After a successful career shooting images for Vogue and helping to create a hugely influential documentary style of fashion photography, in 1979 Duffy had a break down, burnt many of his images and never took another photograph.

It wasn’t until almost 30 years later, when his son Chris discovered a number of boxes of his father’s negatives, that Duffy was restored to his rightful place in the pantheon of photographic greats. His work has stood the test of time and the shots that defined an era look as fresh and arresting today as they ever did.

The original Aladdin Sane Dye Transfer print will be on show as part of the V&A’s exhibition. Vintage Seekers will be selling an exclusive limited edition book of Duffy’s photographs that includes two prints – the famous Aladdin Sane cover shot and a second, rare outtake of Bowie in the same pose with his eyes closed for £250.

“It started when Higgy and Austin were both working at Morrison’s,” Cavan, Swim Deep’s bassist, told us, “They just sort of decided that instead of talking about music they’d have a go at making some of their own. Then they met Zach on a night out and they had a go at being a three-piece for a while. Then on another night out they met me and it all just took off from there.”

Named after a song written by Austin and Higgy’s first band, Swim Deep has an entirely organic origin story, rarely heard of in today’s Simon Cowell produced world where nothing is left to chance. Swim Deep are freshly unpretentious and unassuming, qualities that give them a unique charm and sound, “We don’t really draw influence from other bands, I mean obviously we all listen to other artists and stuff, but we’re just doing our own thing really.”

While it might seem daunting trying to break into the industry that is so dominated by the London crowd, the appalling named ‘B-Town’ movement has helped Swim Deep get their names on the musical map.

“I think it has been pretty beneficial coming from Birmingham, just because there are a few of us around at the minute trying to make it, like Peace. We all kind of helped each other I think, and it drew attention to the bands in Birmingham.”

And it looks like Swim Deep are showing no signs of slowing down. Having spent a week in Brussels recording their album with producer Charlie Hugall, the man who lent his magic touch to single ‘Honey’, the band also supported Two Door Cinema Club at the 02 in Birmingham, and have been invited to join indie favourites Spector on their UK tour.

Current singles Honey and King City are already available for download, and next single The Sea was released 11th March. Swim Deep’s lyrics are simple, but also hold a maturity that comes from years of dedication to their craft. The videos also reflect a degree of minimalism; Swim Deep aren’t trying too hard to impress, and the results are insightful and thought-provoking, but also reflective of their youth. The videos play heavily on their roots, and cast Birmingham in a different light. One track that encapsulates what Swim Deep are all about is ‘Orange County’: the B-side to Honey, complete with a DIY video. “Yeah, we were just in this room in a Travelodge on tour. We were bored and we had the photographer there, so we just did it.”

Their sound is upbeat, sunny, and original, a combination rarely heard these days, and their achievements so far reflect just how ready the UK is for something different. 2013 looks set to be a bright year for Swim Deep. “Yeah, recording the album in Brussels was really cool, and I think we’re hoping it’ll be out around May. We just have to wait and see what happens.”

Words: Susannah Dickey

Opening torch song ‘London’ sets the tone in front of a Saturday night audience allocated seats. It may not be party time but there is atmosphere in the intimacy as Wolf represents highlights from his five albums in a fresh way, switching from piano and four-string instruments whilst aided by four band members on violin, cello, accordion and oboe/woodwind respectively.  Although his work has always been critically praised, albeit ignored by the record-buying public, here in its barebones form it is surprising just how effective it, and Wolf as an artisan, is.

The show is in support of recent career overview ‘Sundark and Riverlight’, which presents sixteen of Wolf’s songs as an acoustic retrospective. However, other fans faves are also given a showing in the live spotlight, making the sparse but dedicated crowd an attentive and happy bunch as Wolf and his band effortlessly do each song justice. Highlights abound: Wolf amping up the drama as a frontman to the unhinged gypsy-folk of ‘The Libertine’, delivering romanticism free of irony during the blissful ‘House’ and ‘Together’, and enticing tears with a dedication to a lost friend on ‘The Sun is Often Out’, his voice soaring and aided only by accordion.

It’s easy for gigs like this to be stuffy and, considering the stripped-back element, weirdly pompous. Thankfully though, Wolf is a charming presence; although he can go to intense places in his songs and go all-out with a big vocal, Wolf understands that his music has reached a certain sector of music fans and communicates with them readily and easily between songs. Whether it’s introducing ‘Overture’ as a dedication to his younger bullied self or querying how far audience members have travelled or what’s worth doing in Wolverhampton (he is a Wolf after all), he makes the two-hour set as engrossing for part-time fans as the in-house devotees.

As the gig nears completion, songs usually reserved for encores come thick and fast: celebratory ‘The City’ comes complete with Wolves-based ad libs, while an anthemic double bill of ‘Bermondsey Street’ and ‘The Falcons’ are boosted by the week’s politics, Wolf’s all-encompassing love songs reaching sky-high in the wake of legalisation of gay marriage. Of course, ‘The Magic Position’ is a crowd-pleasing gem as always, and an encore of ‘Wolf Song’ (what else?) is rendered especially special with flourishes of Joni Mitchell’s ‘Circle Game’. All in all? Wow. A Wolf to hunt down and catch next time he’s in town.

Luke McNaney

On one of the coldest nights of winter so far, it was up to The XX to turn up the heat for Wolves Civic patrons despite the band’s reputation for being one of the coolest UK acts of recent years. Since that career-altering night in 2010 when they picked up the coveted Mercury Music Prize, the trio have been on an upward trajectory home and away; their music, a hypnotic synthesis of dreamy indie, skittering beats and effortless soul, has soundtracked all your favourite TV shows, been sampled by Rihanna, headed up festival stages and, in keeping with the band members’ avoidance of the limelight, unassumedly made its mark without ever resorting to cheap gimmickry.

Therefore, their first live show in Wolverhampton certainly piqued the interest of the area’s devoted music fans. Looking like every payday is spent raiding Urban Outfitters (highlighting the band’s appeal to a particular generation), the crowd were joined in their reverence as soon as the first chord was struck and Romy, the ‘girl’ part of the ‘boy, boy, girl’ equation, eased us in with her distinct honeyed vocal on ‘Angels’. Male lead Oliver’s vocal announced itself by intertwining with Romy on ‘Heart Skipped a Beat’, while the undeniable talents of beat-maker and percussionist Jamie became more and more of a coup as the show progressed.

It’s this balance of elements, layering the music while always making space for sparsity, that marks the band out in this post-MTV age of garish excess. The songs from new album ‘Coexist’ complement the debut, choosing to position Romy and Oliver’s heart-skip voices against soundscapes consisting primarily of reverb-heavy guitar lines, shuddering attacks of speaker-threatening bass, and Jamie’s brand of considered beat wizardry. It was the latter that, during the likes of ‘Swept Away’, actually threatened to turn the gig into an XX-branded rave, flashing lights breaking up the act’s exacting monochrome and causing – oh my! – hands in the air amongst the feet-shuffling audience.

It was moments like this that really showcased the band’s strength as a live band, when so many could write them off as music to soundtrack after-dark bedroom comedowns. However, it’s fascinating to watch the tightrope being walked, Jamie moving between synth and decks while either Romy, Oliver or both take centre stage as each song requires. A back-to-back of ‘VCR’ (the hipster’s choice for first dance at wedding, surely?) and ‘Islands’ proved a highlight for a crowd well-versed in the first album, as did an extended play of ‘Infinity’ which winked across the room at Chris Isaak inspiration ‘Wicked Games’ by inserting a couple of lines from that woozy nineties classic; however, the new stuff also held its own and, by the time the band’s centrepiece plexiglass X was eventually unveiled at the gig’s climax (unveiled in an understated way, of course – no gimmicks, remember?), the slow burn of ‘Coexist’s treasures will have doubtless convinced the gathered fans here to come back for more whenever the band themselves return to the Midlands.



Luke McNaney

The boxset includes the original album remastered by Tony Visconti, single B-sides, outtakes and previously unreleased material.

There’s also a DVD featuring interviews and performances, a hardback coffee-table book, sheet music as well as a facsimile of an original Bolan fan club letter, membership card, rosette and concert ticket. The release will be a worldwide numbered limited edition of 2000 copies.

Click here to view the embedded video.

HOW TO ENTER

Like our Facebook page here then tell us: Who produced The Slider?

Send your answer via email to competitions [@] fusedmagazine.com along with your name, address, telephone number and date of birth. Please put the name of the competition in the subject box.

Deadline for entry is the 5th December.

“Black Sabbath is one of the greatest rock ‘n’ roll bands of all time and we are making a pilgrimage to its roots, its sources, some of the holiest sights of heavy metal. I need to see where Sabbath grew up, where they drank, where they recorded and where they passed out.” – Jesse Hughes, 2012

VICE have teamed up with Marshall Headphones for the new season of ‘On The Road’. Presented by Jesse Hughes of Eagles Of Death Metal his pilgrimage to the UK takes him to Birmingham, Black Country and Milton Keynes Mutha’ Fucker to meet the bands, roadies, journalists, groupies, designers and super fans who were all there the first time around.