Steven Loftin

Proof that age is but a number, Anorak Patch may have caused an initial fuss in part because of just how young they were, but make no mistake – this lot more than make the grade on any metric.
Words: Steven Loftin. Photos: Geoff Lawrence.
Idly kicking a Coke can down the street on their way home isn’t an after school pastime for Effie Lawrence, Eleanor Helliwell, Oscar Ryland and Luca Ryland. No, their extracurricular activity is Anorak Patch.
With a brash wind of hypnotic vocals, darting gui...

Most people don’t start their second album before their first is even properly out, but Bartees Strange isn’t most people.
Words: Steven Loftin. Photo: Luke Piotrowski.
The story of Bartees Strange’s creative adventure is never-ending – at least until he decides as such. “It’s never-ending until I end it one day,” he chuckles. “I’ll be like, ‘That’s all I wanted to say’. But I’ve got a few more things first.”
Initially started in October 2020, just as his excellent debut ‘Live Forever’ was re...

Proof that age is but a number, Anorak Patch may have caused an initial fuss in part because of just how young they were, but make no mistake – this lot more than make the grade on any metric.
Words: Steven Loftin. Photos: Geoff Lawrence.
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Idly kicking a Coke can down the st...

Label: AWAL
Released: 20th May 2022
In a world that’s shouting ever louder, sometimes it’s nice to take a break and find a bit of quiet, particularly in the kind of place that feels like a daydream.
Soaking in a warm bath surrounded by genteel noises that flit between Gameboy and 00s twee, newcomer Han Judge, the brainchild behind fanclubwallet’s twinkling, lo-fi sounds, has finally found a way to get the words off her chest. With a charming embrace that feels familiar, much like the feelings...

Label: Music For Nations
Released: 15th October 2021
From the thick depths of the bubbling fury that’s sitting below us all at the moment, Manchester’s Witch Fever are emerging, ready to properly kick some bins over.
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Label: Nice Swan
Released: 29th April 2022
There’s a decidedly mature sound that Anorak Patch are toting on their debut EP. This normally doesn’t really mean anything other than a band getting a bit boring, but when the average age of this lot is 16, and this is a short, sharp burst of expressional weirdness chockfull of looming overtones, it makes for an enticing offer.
The Colchester-based group are quick to immerse you in their dark world, franticly building scenes of cohabiting locusts an...

After a period of self-evaluation and going back to basics, Memphis May Fire return a band reborn.
If you were to ask any band if there are any regrets or missteps in their career, chances are, most would say no. Not Matty Mullins.
For their seventh album, though, Memphis May Fire are decidedly back on track. For a while, things deviated from the original plan: outside factors muddied the waters, stopping Matty, guitarist Kellen McGregor, drummer Cory Elders and bassist Jake Garland from bein...

Twenty years since the release of ‘Tell All Your Friends’, Taking Back Sunday are looking back on an iconic album.
It doesn't feel like it's been twenty years since Taking Back Sunday paved the way for 00s emo with their debut album, 'Tell All Your Friends'. Along with various other Tri-State area bands - some we don't talk about anymore, and some eventually who transcended any idea of what a small band from a small town could do - they let us know that it's okay to not be okay.
Having a mome...

With the vibrant, oscillating tones of Bassline coursing through his veins, Nottingham-based MC Bru-C is lovin’ it, lovin’ it, lovin' it.
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The new album from Fantastic Negrito is his most personal to date, driven by a love story taken straight from family's history. Steven Loftin learns about the process of making art that respects the past with its creator.
The moment Xavier Amin Dphrepaulezz found himself on the path to uncovering an incredibly powerful story – one flowing through his bloodline – is the day the world stood still for the artist better known as Fantastic Negrito.
Quarantined in an Atlanta motel room while workin...

Girlpool’s Avery Tucker and Harmony Tividad spend some time musing on their latest album, ‘Forgiveness.’
Girlpool are entering a new era in their career. Composed of duo Avery Tucker and Harmony Tividad, the band’s Los Angeles roots and DIY ethos undoubtedly shine through in much of their earlier releases. However, their highly anticipated fourth album, Forgiveness, out today, builds upon this foundation to create a work that fully embodies the personal and sonic growth of both artists. Ahead...

Charlie Simpson talks Steven Loftin through the songs that inspired the DNA of his musical core, the power of harmony, and what it means to be a storyteller.
Since the age of eight music has been pivotal to Charlie Simpson’s life.
With a three-decade career under his belt, one where he’s been a third of the British pop punk teens Busted, fronted post-hardcore band Fightstar, and embarked on his own solo career, it’s these three stages which resonate throughout his Nine Songs choices.
Immediat...

Could two things be more destined to meet than a sunny Easter bank holiday and the first UK show of Dua Lipa’s Future Nostalgia tour?
Amidst the travel chaos and incessant barrage of nefarious notifications on mobiles around the globe, for the crowd of all ages, genders, and intoxication levels – from the young whose lockdown childhood Lipa soundtracked, to the dazzlingly glittered up elders – pouring into Manchester’s AO arena an escape from reality is required – and finally Lipa can step up...

Frank Walton wants to take over the world.
A multi-hyphenate in the making, rap is the catalyst and under the guise of Fly Anakin, he's running on pure, unfiltered creative gasoline. Much like the video games he's played since childhood, for Anakin, life is all about achieving 100%."I’ve been actively chasing the rapper dream since I was in middle school, and I’m 27 now,” he tells me cooly. "At that time I was just intrigued with how people can string words together for so long and not run ou...

Release date: 22 April 2022
Skinty Fia is an apt phrase for 2022. The Irish term meaning “the damnation of the deer”, or to show disappointment, pretty much sums up everything right now. Fortunately, Fontaines DC have loaded such thoughts into a cascading third album that reveals as much as it continues to hide.
In the years that have passed since the Dublin five-piece unleashed their debut Dogrel into the world, a lot has changed. Most for the worst and some for the better – Fontaines seem t...