Doo-wop, reggae, rock and soul: Joan as Police Woman spreads her wingsJoan Wasser is set to release her most musically diverse album yet, and this time . . . it’s still personalFri Mar 07 2014 - 00:00
Rufus Wainwright’s good vibrationsThe singer-songwriter has a galaxy of high-profile fans and a dizzying range of achievements under his belt – but has never troubled the top of the charts. Does that matter to him – and, if not, what does he focus on instead?Sat Mar 01 2014 - 01:00
Tweety Pie – how Birdy went from doing covers to finding the fire withinTeen prodigy Jasmine van den Boegaerde – that’s Birdy to you and I – made her name with a cover of Bon Iver’s Skinny Love, then sealed her reputation with a fine album of original material. We catch up with her before her gig at Vicar St in DublinFri Feb 28 2014 - 00:00
Wild Beasts – “A bit ugly, a little bit crude, a bit awkward”“We’re getting better at flirting with disaster in our songs and getting away with it”. Wild Beasts mix it up for their fourth album, ’Present Tense’Fri Feb 14 2014 - 00:00
Jezebels on the BrinkHayley Mary, singer and lyricist, tells how moving to London and dealing with self-doubt affected the Australian band’s second albumFri Feb 07 2014 - 00:00
Hell’s Bells and disco ballsThe Shins frontman James Mercer on how he and Brian ‘Danger Mouse’ Burton came up with the second Broken Bells album, ‘After the Disco’, and their mutual love of the Bee GeesFri Jan 31 2014 - 00:00
Dee Dee Penny - “I knew that there was no way I could commit what was coming out to record. It was devastating”Dee Dee Penny had almost finished writing her third Dum Dum Girls record when disaster struck and she lost her voice. She tells Lauren Murphy about how she survived the controlled chaos of the studio by going back to the bedroomFri Jan 24 2014 - 00:00
City and Colour: turning down the volume to make a bigger noiseCity and Colour was Dallas Green’s folkie side project while playing in a post-hardcore band. Now it’s the main attraction, and it’s given Green the confidence to stand centre-stageTue Jan 21 2014 - 01:00
The New Mendicants – the indie supergroup that begs to differIndie kingpins Joe Pernice of The Pernice Brothers and Norman Blake of Teenage Fanclub pool their creative resources for a low-budget side project that’s yielding good returnsFri Jan 17 2014 - 00:00
I Break Horses: dancing in the dark, and letting in the lightThe second album by the Swedish duo was inspired by gloom but aims for happiness with a dash of ‘Twin Peaks’Thu Jan 16 2014 - 01:00
Irish country music’s new big wheel keeps on turning onHow does a 23-year-old Scouser become the poster boy of the Irish country music scene? Nathan Carter’s mix of Daniel O’Donnell’s nice-guy demeanour and Tom Jones’s sex appeal has turned the ‘Wagon Wheel’ singer into both a star and a heartthrob – knickers includedFri Jan 10 2014 - 01:00
Sensory healingCan art boost mental health? Lauren Murphy speaks to artists taking part in January’s First Fortnight Festival to find out whether creating a song, a play – or a smiley-face cloud – is catharticFri Dec 27 2013 - 00:00
The Daniel Johnston tape: ‘It’s an album that deserved a larger audience than 99 people’Adrian Crowley and James Yorkston’s lo-fi tribute to the cult singer was never meant to be a chart-topper, but now they want to spread the wordWed Dec 18 2013 - 01:00
Neko Case: “You can blow the whole wad on trying to be famous – which I definitely don’t want”Defiant in the face of despondency, Neko Case has produced a brilliant album from a dark place. The Vermont-based musician tells Lauren Murphy about her music, her menagerie and MileyFri Dec 06 2013 - 00:00
Back in the R.O.I – Fifty years on, the Fab Four are still causing a stir in DublinCelebrating 50 years since The Beatles played their only Irish gigs, the Dublin Beatles Festival takes place this weekend with tribute bands, exhibitions, plays, interviews and moreFri Nov 08 2013 - 00:00
