Interviews
In this special feature, Georgia Shackleton tells the story behind “From the Floorboards” — an album marking 125 years since the launch of the Discovery, when her distant cousin, Sir Ernest Shackleton, set sail aboard her with Captain Robert Falcon Scott. Shaped by a violin crafted from the floorboards of Shackleton’s Edinburgh home, she traces the threads between Antarctic exploration, environmental reflection, and more.
In conversation with Harper Mahood, Barry Walker Jr. talks about “Paleo Sol,” his Thrill Jockey debut — a record born from new age lullabies, ancient oxidised soils, and dark forces banging on the door. “I want people to look past the horizon and try to break the material veil that we’re all living in.”
Our latest Off the Shelf guest is Sam Amidon. In this series, we ask an artist to select ten items from their home, photograph and talk about them; a form of storytelling through objects. Sam, along with Finnish violinist Pekka Kuusisto and the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra, will launch their new album Willows at Kings Place on 24th February–an 80-minute concert of remembrance and renewal.
Ahead of her ambitious new album Next Of Kin, acclaimed songwriter Dani Larkin joins us for our latest “Off the Shelf” feature. Moving from the sweeping orchestral landscapes of her music to the intimate corners of her home, Larkin shares ten personal objects—from a vintage film-set lamp to a hand-carved stool—read the stories behind her choices.
Read our in-depth interview with Grammy-winning producer Ian Brennan on his new album, West Virginia Snake Handler Revival “They Shall Take Up Serpents”. This raw, live recording from Appalachia’s last snake-handling church captures a service Brennan calls “the most metal thing” he’s ever seen. Out now on Sublime Frequencies.
John Patrick Elliott of The Little Unsaid reflects on tour life: Fourteen years after my first tour ended ankle-deep in faeces on a pig farm, I’m on the road again. Older, wiser, trading dive bars for Premier Inns. It’s still not profitable, and the world seems rewired to make touring impossible. Yet we struggle on, driven by the vital connection music provides, embracing the vulnerability our new album demands.
Our latest Off the Shelf guest is American singer-songwriter and musician Madi Diaz, who has just released her new album, Fatal Optimist, via Anti-, her most stark and haunting collection to date. In this series, we ask artists to present objects from a shelf or shelves in their homes and discuss them, a form of storytelling through objects.
We chat to Junior Brother, whose songs are known for veering between the intensely personal and the hotly political. On his third album, The End, the Dublin-based songwriter’s ragged and uncompromising delivery reaches new heights of unexpected beauty, strangeness and relevance. Throughout the interview, his answers to our questions were considered and wide-ranging.
Our latest Off the Shelf guests are Dublin duo Varo, featuring Consuelo Nerea Breschi and Lucie Azconaga. In this series, we ask artists to present objects from a shelf or shelves in their homes and discuss them, a form of storytelling through objects. Varo recently released their highly anticipated new album, The World That I Knew, featuring some of the biggest names in Ireland’s contemporary folk and trad scene.
“I feel like I’m looking a little bit more outward now,” confesses Brian Christinzio, aka BC Camplight. And with good reason. He talks to KLOF Mag about “A Sober Conversation”, his fifth album for Bella Union in a decade, his seventh overall, which has been universally acclaimed, praised not just for his songwriting chops and musicianship, but also its subject matter.
KLOF Mag’s Gareth Thompson chats to Pneumatic Tubes, aka Jesse Chandler (Midlake and Mercury Rev), about his new album ‘Runner’s High’, referencing “a feeling you can’t get on drugs.” He shares that when he started running, “It coincided with the birth of my first child, my daughter Nico. It’s strange that my dad began running when my mom was pregnant with me.”