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.
The Innocence Mission members Karen Peris and Don Peris discuss their new album, life in Pennsylvania, and using their music to connect with people.
“The band’s excellent debut album Ghosts Fade on Skylines instantly enchanted me with its mesmerizing sonic weave of dream gaze and soft drones.”
“Having good ideas or hearing good ideas from the band is motivating, and also getting great feedback from fans helps reinforce what you instinctively want to do.” – Scott McDonald
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.
Instead of stockpiling songs for album number 18, veteran alternative rock act the Choir has released a string of singles – including a pair of covers rooted in the band’s past and present.
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.
Pete Yorn talks about how he found inspiration again, fatherhood, and how music saved him from becoming a tax lawyer.
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.
Reignwolf frontman Jordan Cook discusses his band’s unusual history, how he keeps up his energy for their high-powered shows, and why it’s important to go with the flow.
Black Swan Lane frontman Jack Sobel and contributing guitarist *Dave Fielding (of The Chameleons) discuss their entwined musical careers, BSL’s changing lineup, and the band’s new album, Vita Eterna.
“I feel like it’s much easier to project your truth onto someone or something else rather than looking inside and trying to articulate it using your own voice. Through the imagined lens of someone else, feelings and ideas are a little more malleable and there is a lot more room for play. It certainly frees one up a fair bit!” – Gus Lord
Chris Lee explains why he formed The Chris Lee Band instead of doing another Supagroup album this time, and why he won’t let anyone else’s expectations rule him.
The Findlay sisters share how their parent’s music collection is directly responsible for shaping Stonefield’s heavy, classic rock sound.
Tim Bowness discusses No-Man, his longtime musical partnership with Steven Wilson, as they prepare to release their 7th studio album.
Jack Tatum, mastermind behind dream pop band Wild Nothing, looks back on his evolution from one-man-band to leading one of the most acclaimed groups in the genre.
Juliana Hatfield discusses how making albums devoted to covering Olivia Newton-John and The Police help her revive her creative spark.
“The character in the songs basically needs to put a lot of distance between himself and Glasgow because of things he’s done but, with me I chose to come to the States in search of a bit of adventure.” – Allan McNaughton
Up-and-coming indie pop-punk singer-songwriter Sarah Gargano discusses her EPs, wanderlust, and humanity’s “incessant need to find meaning.”
Elbow frontman Guy Garvey discusses the politics, grief, and inequality that fueled the writing for the band’s new album, Giants of All Sizes.
“The themes of the record aren’t necessarily dark so I think it’s the intensity of some of the decisions on instruments and it’s a more guitar-driven record but, they’re not “safe” guitar sounds. It’s sort of wobbly like an old gramophone or something.” – James Bagshaw
Sloan’s Jay Ferguson discusses the new Navy Blues box set.
Mark Burgess, singer and bassist for The Chameleons and ChameleonsVox, talks about his Fall 2019 American tour with Theatre of Hate and Jay Aston.
“I enjoy reading scientific publications. Magazines like New Scientist, and then when something really interests me I look deeper and find the journal article it cites. We are living in a dystopia. Its amazing! How exciting. Better write another song about it!” – Albert Wolski
“The title of this album and in particular the track reflects a statement on our society between dream and despair, on an available and disposable youth, in the instantaneity and the ephemeral.” – Yann Le Razavet
“My lyrical goals were similar; the songs on Angel are about your classic tropes of love and loss but, specifically loving and losing things that are fictional and that you never had.” – Rachel Birke
“I think that this record is really special to me because I was given total freedom to do whatever I wanted with my guitar playing (for better or for worse!).” – Juan Velasquez
“Psycho has the biggest number of killer bands on a festival bill,” Pepper Keenan of Thursday pre-party headliners Corrosion of Conformity tells the Big Takeover, in our final preview piece leading up to “America’s rock ‘n’ roll bacchanal.”
In the iconic singer’s second-ever interview about his decidedly un-metal project, which debuts Friday at the festival, Anselmo reveals that the last time he was this nervous was when he first played with Pantera 35 years ago.
The psych-rockers have played more Psycho fests than any other band. Frontman Jason Simon reminisces about his days touring with future Psycho creator Evan Hagen and how Dead Meadow are keeping their performances fresh 20 years into their career.
Ahead of the festival’s Thursday start, we check in with Fu Manchu, Candy and Have a Nice Life, whose member Tim Macuga says, “The whole weekend is an embarrassment of riches.”
Two members of the L.A. metal quintet confessed that playing the festival is a dream come true for the young band, that they plan to play all-new songs and they hope to inspire a mosh pit in the pool.
“Art’s supposed to take your breath away for a second and make you feel something you haven’t felt in a long time,” frontwoman Mlny Parsonz says. That’s exactly what she plans to bring to the festival next week.
Tiger, drummer for the German psych/stoner throwback trio, is champing at the bit to visit Vegas for the first time, debut new material at next week’s Psycho festival and play a “destroyer” show there.
The frontman exclusively reveals to the Big Takeover details about the psych-rock band’s new album, recalls a zany Vegas story and shares his feelings about playing the festival for a second time.
Frontman Alex Maas shares about what the psych-rock masters from Austin have in store for their festival set, his penchant for poker and how tough it is as a festival organizer to please everyone who attends.
The crossover-thrash band’s frontman, Riley Gale, shares the most outrageous Vegas stories we’ve heard yet in the lead-up to the massively anticipated festival happening from August 16 to 18.
The Big Takeover has interviewed more than 50 of the roughly 70 bands playing at next month’s Psycho Las Vegas festival. But only one of them (so far) has attested to witnessing concertgoers overtly having full-on sex during one of their concerts. That lucky (?) band is L.A. Witch.
Lead guitarist Justin Anthony Maranga explains why it took so long for the band to play Psycho last year — and how the festival kicked the hard-rock quintet back into gear.
We connect via Skype with longtime 1349 guitarist Idar “Archaon” Burheim, who granted us his first extensive interview about the black-metal band’s new record, single and performance at the upcoming music festival.
We catch up with the grindcore band’s frontman, who is stoked to see his pals in Ilsa and Devil Master — and attempt to follow the Misfits after their headlining gig they’ll play at the festival earlier the same night.
The frontman of the spaghetti Western-obsessed band gifts us with the zaniest Vegas story we’ve published so far, and more outrageous anecdotes ahead of Spindrift’s performance at the festival next month.
The reunited doom band’s drummer reveals what Warhorse have in store for Psycho, why they’re feeling no pressure about their much-anticipated performance, and the bevy of bands he’s amped to see perform in Vegas.
Obsessed frontman Wino previews his band’s first performance at the festival and chats about their “long struggle,” new bassist — and King Solomon enslaving demons to build a castle.
We touch base with Kelly Finnigan to talk about his funk-soul band’s excitement to play at a heavy-rock festival, his plan to “kiss some hands and shake some babies,” and whether the psychedelic-music fan has actually had experience with psychedelics.
We catch up with frontman and guitarist Ben Bloom to ask how on earth an eight-piece funk/soul/R&B/Afrobeat band from Seattle made it onto the bill for this year’s hottest heavy-rock festival in the U.S.
Teddi Tarnoff, frontwoman for the electro-pop indie-rock band, tells us how special it is to be the only hometown act playing at the Vegas gala — and to be making the first major festival appearance of their career.
The jovial legend shares amusing anecdotes about his ex-wife, almost getting hit with flying objects while opening for Guns N’ Roses in late 2017, his upcoming appearances on “Late Night with Seth Meyers” and having “lots of problems that involve repetitive damaging behaviors.”
