If Daniel Blake’s previous single, “Circle Mountain”, made a few discerning music fans take notice, Jakarta is the collection of songs where he is likely to become a talking point in all of the right places.

Mare Wakefield and Nomad have both led adventurous lives, both in their formative days and since meeting each other, and their music is a reflection of their wanderlust and pioneering spirit. Folk, roots, jazz and Americana all swirl about in their songs and so with a new album about to drop, I sat down with them to find out about the lives and their music and what we can expect from the new release, as well as their hopes for the future.

Berlin duo, Siamese Youth, make music which revels in the synthwave sounds of the mid-eighties. Their latest album, Echoes of Tomorrow, written during Lockdown, sees them embracing a broader sonic palette and adding new elements alongside their core sound. The bands new single “So Far From Home” is out now on New Retro Wave and the new album will be released shortly. I sat down with them to find out all about the making of their second album, how they coped with a year of isolation and what they are looking forward to once normality begins to return.

Led by the inimitable vocalist Theresa Jeane and featuring Steven Tobi, *Javier Garza Jr. and Josh Perrone, The Nearly Deads are one of the hottest rock bands to come out of Nashville. Their amalgam of powerful pop vocals and aggressive alternative rock music combined with their love of all things geek mixed in with messages of positivity and empowerment creates a truly unique style. I sat down with TJ and Steven to find out more.

L.A. based singer, musician and actress, London Thor’s latest single is both timely and timeless. It captures so much about current mental health and attitudes in the pandemic afflicted world but it also speaks for those who have always found social situations stressful.

Loud Apartment is a band with a unique sound, one which crosses cultural and generic boundaries as easily as it does those relating to technology and musical era. With a new album, System Breakdown, now out, I sat down with Nevaris A.C. to find out how the band build up their singular sound, how it has remained creative during the pandemic and what the future holds.

When Planets Align is a band which mixes, merges and wilfully hops genres as the desire takes them. Their latest album, The Death of Us certainly explores such eclectic and exotic approaches but it also lyrically looks at tragedy both on a very personal and emotional level, but on a global and catastrophic one two.

We sat down with Juan and Mark to find out about the journey which got them to this latest album, their approach to making music, collaborations and what the future holds for them.

With a resume boasting such bands as The Brilliant Corners, The Experimental Pop Band to his name, Bristolian Davey Woodward has just released a new album with his band The Winter Orphans. We sat down with him to find out what inspirations and processes drive his songwriting and how lockdown has been treating him.

Candy Opera sounded like the perfect band for the post-punk era that they formed in. But whilst bands around them became household names, somehow, the band never got the break many felt that they deserved. A new album The Patron Saint of Heartache, sees a new line up, garnered from band members from across their original, ten-year duration and the opening of a new chapter. We sat down with Paul Malone to discuss, the past, the present and the future of the band.

Stubborn Breathing Heart is an album which feels like a sonic road trip through the heart of American music. We sat down with its creator, Forest Sun to find out about the album and talk about his own journey through music.

With a new and beguiling collection of music out under the title of “Tales of Faith and Lunacy” we spoke to Nero Kane about the inspiration for the unique sonic landscape that his music paints, about the inspiration behind it and about how he has travelled to this point musically.

Having undergone a rebranding of late, we caught up with Nobel Barz, an artist known for pushing the boundaries of hip-hop into more soul and indie, even rock-orientated territories, to see how he has survived a difficult year and what we can expect from his new musical persona.

With two excellent singles already being well-received both critically and commercially, Midnight Canyon unleash their debut eponymous e.p.

With the latest album, “Woke Up In Hollywood”, finally getting a live outing after an unforeseen pandemic-related delay, I sat down with Jim Styring, guitarist with UK Power-Pop outfit It’s Karma It’s Cool to find out how their year has been, get a potted history of the band and find out what the future holds.

With her wonderful reinterpretation of the Steve Winwood classic “Higher Love” just released I sat down with Beth Snapp to find out how it all came about, her UK connection, what it means to come from such a rich musical location and what the future holds for her.

With her latest single and response to the recent tragic events in Lebanon, “Beruit Fire,” now out I sat down with Tatiana DeMaria to find out about her approach to making music, her inspirations, the differences between being a musician in both the UK and the US and the silver linings which she found in the recent lockdown.

With their debut album Crescendo of Silence just hitting the public domain, I sat down with West of House main man Erick Bieger to discuss the band, its influences, the challenges of recording and releasing music under pandemic restrictions and where it all goes next for the Californian quintet.

Tatiana DeMaria is a British musician currently based in New York. Her reworking of one of her older songs into an understated and emotive acoustic number is just more evidence of an artist who is keen to explore, re-invent, change and challenge their own work, and that is a very exciting prospect indeed.

ARIELLA is a really cool duo whose musical pathway has gone hand in hand with their personal relationship. I sat down with Ariella and Nichlaas to find out more about their story, how they dealt with releasing music under the strictures of lockdown and where everything goes from here.

I Like Trains has always made music which explores interesting social and political idea. With their latest album, KOMPROMAT delving into topics such as social media, fake news and how technology and information is manipulated, often for political gain, it seemed the perfect time to find out a bit more about the band, the music and their view of the world as it stands at the moment.

With new single “Brag About” being launched amid all the restrictions of lockdown, I talked to Anastasia Grace and Maxamillion Haunt about the problems that such conditions impose on creativity, what it’s actually like being siblings in a bad and where things go next.

Johnny Chops recent release “Hope Is Contagious Too” felt like the perfect rallying cry as we gradually emerge from the lockdown world and into a slightly altered new reality. I sat down with the man himself…virtually and at a very safe distance…to find out how he had coped with the strictures of lockdown, what the song means to him personally and what the future looks like for him and touring musicians like him.

With a career stretching back into the 80’s it was great to catch up with The Wolfhounds to discuss what has changed along the way, musically and otherwise, what it’s like having someone like Stewart Lee championing your music and the advantages which come with being an under the radar band.

With a new album “Make Things Better” being released, I sat down with Town Meeting to discuss, releasing new material in such unusual times, influences and labels, the journey which got them here and what that journey looks like going forward.

The new album from Kevin Daniel seems to blend a wide range of sounds from the great American songbook. With this album being released at a time when the music industry seems to be on pause, I asked him about his musical influences, what he learned about himself during those months of imposed isolation and where things go from here.

With a brace of singles out to pave the way for the new EP, Sitting Up Straight I caught up with Devon to talk about her music, pop covers and making music in and after lockdown.

With two gloriously sonically opposed singles and a new full length album, The Quiet Earth now in the public domain, I sat down to talk to The Academy of Sun*s *Nick Hudson about new music, where it comes from, where it is going and what it is saying, as well as what he might have learned during lockdown nd perhaps what the future holds.

Broads have a track record of making fascinating and cinematic music, and a recent turn towards an even more minimal approach and a collaboration with Milly Hirst has lead to some of their most striking and understated music to date. I sat down with the East Anglian duo to find out more.

The Orange Kyte have described their music as “A loose cacophony of visceral sonic tomfoolery, fixed together with pop-informed melody, three safety pins, and some scotch tape,” but there is obviously much more to their music than this self-deprecating description admits. So I thought that the only way to get to the heart of the matter was to corner the band and ask them to let me in to their fascinating world.

With _ F I S H B O W L / T E R R E S T R I A L_ about to land in the public marketplace, I sat down with the artist behind Alienbaby Collective, Liu Mottes to find out how this new musical path came about, what are its drives and inspirations and where it all goes next.

With a new album Going Home about to be released, I sat down with Therese Karlsson and Tim Spelman to find out about the band’s unusual beginning, its fascinating development, influences, hidden depths and where they are heading next.

With “Prepared For A Nightmare” about to drop, the time felt right to sit down with Mayflower Madame and discuss the album, what influences their sound, generic labels, touring on both sides of the Atlantic and everything in between.

With his latest album Urban Gothic Blues painting such a vivid picture of the ever changing nature of the modern city, as well as being such a fantastic collection of songs, I spoke to Harry Stafford about the thens, the nows and the where next for him, his band, his music and the city which inspired the music.

With a new album, Kingdom of Sleep, just hitting the shelves we sat down with Jonny Polonsky to discuss inspirations, aspirations, his musical journey to date and where it all goes next.

With two great pop songs under her belt and a third on the way, we caught up with Finnish pop star Johanna Kuvaja to find out what lies behind her music, how she got to where she is today and where everything goes from here.

Not only has Talk in Code always had a way with a great pop tune they have also always been smart enough to move with the times. I remember watching them in their earliest incarnation where they could easily have been found on a bill opening for the likes of Coldplay or Travis, which was exactly right for those times. Talk Like That is exactly right for these times.

With the recent release of his book The King of The Sea, it seemed the perfect time to sit down and talk to Nandan Gautam about the two albums which act as musical tie-ins to the novel, how he managed to gather such a Stella cast of players around him and what the future holds.

Back after a bit of a hiatus, The Judex come roaring back into the public ear with a sonic slice of retro-rock meets b-movie horror anthem.

With a sound described as “the sound of punk being invented in a Chicago blues club in 1957, a gang fight set to 12 bar rhythms” The Judex walk a fine line between past and present. With their unexpected resurrection, new releases and even their own video newscast, a conversation with Will and Jason about the strange world of The Judex seemed long overdue.

With German maestros of doom-laden classic rock meets dark wave Mono Inc. releasing their 11th album, it felt like the perfect time to catch up with frontman Martin Engler to find out about the twenty years of the band, how such music is perceived in the current musical climate and where the band are headed next.

With Medicine back on the musical radar and a new album of covers called Scarred For Life now available, it felt like the perfect time to sit down with original vocalist Annette Zilinskas to find out about then, now and everything in between.

Having been beguiled by the otherworldly blends of dreamy indie sonics and visceral, hard edged rock on latest release Colors Bleed, it seemed the perfect time to sit down with Crooked Ghost mailman Ray Lark to find out a bit more about him and the musical project he currently calls home.

With two albums under his belt already, Paul Furio returns to his nome de la musique for another outing fashioning danceable, political, personal, socially aware and honestly direct music. Each album has told a story, less a concept album and more a series of vague diary entries fashioned into songs, the personal becoming the universal, the intimate becoming the relatable. With a new album just hitting the public consciousness, we sat down to find out all about the past, the present and the future for this musical project.

If there is such a thing as a post-genre artist, then Luis Mojica is the perfect candidate. His music seems to not only hop genres but ignore them altogether preferring to weave his own sounds for many different and desperate strands to create something truly original. I sat down with him to find out all about latest album How to Make a Stranger, the inspirations behind his music and what the future holds.

With the unexpected re-issue of Goodbye Mr. Mackenzie’s debut album to mark it’s thirtieth anniversary and the band reconvening for a run of live shows, it seemed the perfect time to sit down with frontman Martin Metcalfe to find out just how the world has turned for them in the three decades between then and now.