Month: March 2021

Australian Guitar #142

So when I rambled about Australian Guitar #141 on here, I noted that my number one pick for the #142 cover story was a giant long shot, and I’d probably have to syndicate it from international because there’d be no way I could score it locally.

But lo and behold, thanks to the absolute legends at Sony, we managed to pull it off, and Australian Guitar has an exclusive interview with a Foo Fighter for #142. Fuck. Yes.

This issue was an absolute joy to put together. I somehow managed to score almost every interview I pitched, and all the feature options I had from international were pure gold. The deadline rush was even surprisingly un-hectic; we approved the issue for print with like eight hours to spare on send day! That never happens!

#143 is deep in production now and I’m even more stoked about it than I am this issue. We already have our cover locked in (a band that’s been on my bucket list since day one) and a stack of A-plus features ready to go. This year really is shaping up to be a great one for AG.

For the moment, you can read all about what’s in Australian Guitar #142 over on the Guitar World site. Copies are on sale now at newsagents all around Australia, online via Techmags and iSubscribe, and digitally wherever great magazines can be downloaded. 

February ’21 post dump!

Hi, hey, hello!

At the start of the year, I told myself I’d be using this site a lot more frequently, and posting at least once a week. But alas, we’re ankle-deep in March and I have posted literally once – I’m sorry. Please accept the above photo of my adorable baby Bruno as a consolation.

Anyway, here’s everything of mine that got published around the web (see: one piece for BLUNT and the rest on the Guitar World site – I also need to up my freelancing game ASAP, I know) in February. Note: all the GW features are also printed physically in Australian Guitar #141, which is out now wherever great magazines are sold!

BLUNT

Beyond The Beat: Hachiku battles slugs and soil with her ambitious home garden

AUSTRALIAN GUITAR (via GUITAR WORLD)

Yungblud: “Why, by some f***ing miracle, have I gotten this far? Because of my fanbase and my community – they know I’m telling the truth to them, and I ain’t gonna leave them behind”

Luca Brasi’s Tom Busby: “We actually made a conscious effort to put heaps less pressure on ourselves”

Pale Waves’ Heather Baron-Gracie: “This album is a journey through my emotional growth as a person across the past year”

Tash Sultana: “I wrote an album that coincided with the realisations I was having within myself”

You Me At Six’s Max Helyer: “The best way to describe how I write a song is that I look at it as though I’m a painter”

Julien Baker: “Nothing about it is really haphazard – even the stuff that sounds intentionally lo-fi, or minimalist, is actually very calculated”

Architects’ Adam Christianson: “We wanted to start fresh and try some new things”

Amahiru’s Saki: “It was so fun to work with Frédéric Leclercq and we both had a lot of ideas, so we decided to make Amahiru its own project”

Spotlight: Maddy Jane

Spotlight: Kelly Jansch of Totty

Spotlight: Matt Stevens and Paul Musolino of The Gloom In The Corner

Pinegrove – Amperland, NY album review

Billie Joe Armstrong – No Fun Mondays album review

Hachiku – I’ll Probably Be Asleep album review

Joe Bonamassa – Royal Tea album review

To see this one out, here’s a song I am absolutely obsessed with at the moment. It’s the new single by Norwegian alt-pop trailblazer Girl In Red, “Serotonin”, from her debut album if i could make it go quiet – which lands April 30th via AWAL. I’ve been stewing with an advance copy of the record for a couple of weeks now, and I’m still blown away by it all over again on every listen (I’ve probably played it cover-to-cover a solid 100 times by now). It’s my first 10/10 album for 2021. I’m dying to get my hands on the vinyl come April. “Serotonin” is definitely a highlight on the record, too; I hope you like it as much as I do.