Love Blogging

Stevie MacKenzie-Smith, the author of Discoteque Confusion and Alex Fury, the fashion director at SHOWstudio.com talk about the importance of blogging in the fashion industry. If you love fashion or blogging, you should probably watch this:

Isn't this man wonderful?

His name is Gareth Jones. He's produced albums for everyone from Depeche Mode to Nick Cave to Interpol and Mogwai. He's currently working with Emmy the Great (one of my favourite artists) for her new album, which I'm very excited about. Here's a little documentary on him:

Cocknbullkid Interview

After being thrown out of a Marina and the Diamonds sound check; I joined Anita Blay (Cocknbullkid) in her dressing room at Kentish Town’s ‘Forum’. We start off by discussing how she has found touring with Marina and the Diamonds. She tells me that it’s been “really good fun and it’s a bit sad that it’s coming to an end”, however, once the Marina tour is over she’s heading straight out on the road with Kele. She was a “big fan of the first Bloc Party album, particularly the second single ‘Everything you wanted’” and is looking forward to seeing him live as a solo artist.

The topic of conversation then shifts to the new EP, ‘One Eye Closed’, her first EP release since her début EP two years ago. She seems pleased with it and is aiming to release her first album in February, which she will be calling ‘Adulthood’, “not to be confused with the film,” she adds.

I ask her what music she’s been listening to recently. She replies with “I’ve just slowly started listening to music again because I didn’t want to listen to anything whilst I was writing the album so excuse me if this reference is really old but I’m really into Sleigh Bells at the moment.” This sways the conversation to how I’m seeing them support MIA tomorrow and Anita seems to be a big MIA fan as well.

I follow up this question with “do you go to many gigs?” but she tells me that she made a decision that she wouldn’t go to any gigs, listen to any music or read any magazines whilst she was recording the album so the last gig she went to was the Sleigh Bells instore at Rough Trade. “I haven’t been to any gigs in a while but I’m getting back into it now” she informs me. The ‘not listening to music’ concept seem to be more about avoiding finding out what everyone else is doing and what’s ‘cool’ rather that being influenced as Anita tells me that she definitely draws musical inspirations from: Kate Bush, The Beach Boys, Morissey and The Smiths. The fact that she likes The Smiths leans the conversation towards Britpop as a whole and when asked about the Pulp reunion she seems very excited.

We then move onto the inevitable topic of her writing for other artists, which she tells me has always been a side project of hers. “We’ve just finished some songs for a new girl band and we’re just sorting out some other things as well at the moment” she tells me conspicuously, trying not to give too much away. I then ask her whether she plans on focussing more on her own music career now that the album is all set to be released but she says “I’ll still keep writing for other people; I have a few sessions booked as it’s very important to me as I enjoy writing so much and so I try and do it parallel to my own stuff, when I’m not too busy with it.” Writing is clearly a big part of her life and she loves to keep busy with it.

We then move onto the other inevitable question that I felt very obliged to ask of why she got rid of the ‘The’ in her stage name. She tells me it was just because she felt it was a bit of a mouthful, “it’s neater this way.”

On the topic of image, particularly onstage, Anita feels that “it is important to a degree. If you’re claiming to be a pop star then it kind of is but if you’re just sat there playing a guitar and singing and that’s all it is and it’s not a show then you could just turn up in just your jeans and a t shirt.” I ask her if her musical performances are a ‘show’ and she tells me of her designs and ambitions for it to be but she knows that she’s “just got to take baby steps to make this happen but in the meantime I just think that charisma and just a good performance is a good show.”

I close with the question of whether she has a favourite venue that she would like to play at and she tells me of how she would love to play in a church or a cathedral as “it wouldn’t be great for acoustics but there would just be something really grand and beautiful about it and my mum would be so chuffed to see me sing in a church. I sung in churches when I was younger as I was in the choir but never at the front or anything.”

MANDINGO EPISODE 1

Remember I posted the trailers for Mandingo! on here? You know, the odd swingers parties full of black men? Well here's episode 1, it's all very strange and slightly disturbing....






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These people love blogging as much as me:

Fashion bloggers Richard Nicoll and Disneyrollergirl explain to Vice why they are such fans of blogging:






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Lykke Li @ Heaven

So, this Thursday I finally got to witness Lykke Li perform live after always having a burning desire see her. It was an absolute pleasure, apart from the disgusting couple to the side of us that were all over each other like a terrible rash.

After no support act, the audience were pretty hyped to see Lykke Li to say the least. The crowded (but not too crowded) venue, Heaven, was filled with excited fans. At 9 o clock, on came Lykke and her band, head to toe in black, looking rather like a widow in morning. She opened with a one of the new songs that's set to feature on her new album which is soon to come out. It was sounding delicious and Lykke performed it well as she danced and teased the curtains which were being blown around by a wind generator. This dancing and curtain teasing remained part of her 'act' throughout the show and worked nicely as it really suited her dark, yet sexual persona.


Little Bit:




'I'm Good, I'm Gone'





The set was scattered with a handful of songs from the new album and classic songs from her début, 'Youth Novels'. The new songs were sounding like fresh and brilliant pop songs whilst the old songs went down with the audience a dream. Highlights of the set included: 'Little Bit', 'I'm good, I'm Gone', 'Dance, Dance, Dance' and her new song (which is up for free download from her website ), 'Get Some.' She also sung a cracking cover of the Big Pink's 'Velvet', which she completely put her on special twist on and made it sound quite far away from the original.

Inevitably, she performed an encore, during which she played: 'Possibility' and 'Unrequited Love.' This was a beautiful way to terminate her stunning set with the audience singing along in unison, gathering a really friendly, harmonious atmosphere; something which unusual for a London gig. However, despite being on for almost an hour, her set did seem quite short (possibly due to the lack of support act) and she finished without having performed fan favourites 'Tonight' and 'Everybody but me.' But apart from this, my first Lykke Li live experience was pretty pleasurable.