Interviews
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.”
In an exclusive interview, Irish musician Brigid Mae Power discusses her unique approach to creating art. She explores her intuitive recording process, which embraces the unpolished and emotionally direct. Power delves into her philosophy of music-making, the importance of authenticity over perfection, the challenges of creating emotionally honest music in the contemporary landscape, and staying grounded when coming up against challenges and barriers.
This Is The Kit’s Kate Stables discusses the “peaks and troughs” of writing her seventh studio album, how collaborations can be liberating, and her excitement for performing a tribute to her idol, Joni Mitchell, plus her upcoming UK live dates, including an appearance at Moseley Folk and Arts Festival.
Our latest Off the Shelf guest is Fletcher Tucker, whose new album, Kin, is out next week on Gnome Life Records. Tucker shares some special objects from his home on the unceded Esselen tribal lands now known as Big Sur, California–From Jaime de Angulo, one of Big Sur’s wildest heart-minds, to wild incense and a trusty ultralight rucksack for wild camping, this one is pretty special.
We catch up with Grace Stewart-Skinner, a clàrsach player from the Scottish highlands based in Glasgow, who recently released her debut album, Auchies Spikkin’ Auchie. The album not only seeks to preserve the fading Avochie dialect for future generations but also celebrates the spirit, humour, and resilience of the community that shaped it. Grace provides a deep insight into the album’s creation and the cultural history of the Avoch community.
We chat to Ruth Clinton and Cormac MacDiarmada of Poor Creature about their debut album, All Smiles Tonight. A deep dive into its making, their influences (from the Cocteau Twins to Ellen Arkbro) and more. The album feels like a new high point in the constantly evolving experimental folk scene centred around Dublin and a thoroughly modern foray into ancient musical territory. But is it folk?
Mark Underwood chats with Bonnie Dobson about her new album with The Hanging Stars ‘Dreams’, and she recalls memories of poverty and living in an emergency housing project in Canada, Pete Seeger Summer Camp, McCarthy-era blacklisting, the Cuban Missile Crisis, touring with The McCalmans and Mike Harding…and even Ken Dodd—and her secret to longevity: singing and satsumas. He also has a quick catch-up with The Hanging Stars’ Richard Olson.
Teeth of Time, Joshua Burnside’s latest album, feels like a mid-career record: a precursor to middle age, to the wonders of parenthood, the mourning of what’s passed, and hopes for what’s to come. Christian Wethered caught up with him and spoke about folk, influence, and the world from which he writes. “I just try to write songs that feel honest to me.”
Best known for his loosely conceptual 1972 psychedelic folk classic Dreaming with Alice, Normandy-based English singer-songwriter and painter Mark Fry is our latest ‘Off the Shelf’ guest – a form of storytelling through objects. His selections capture that painter’s eye detail as he recalls distant memories with beautiful clarity. It’s an excellent read. Mark’s new album, ‘Not on the Radar’, is out now on Second Language.
This year sees the end of an era of sorts for Texan instrumentalist Hayden Pedigo, with the release of I’ll Be Waving As You Drive Away completing his ‘Motor Trilogy’. We met to find out more about the making of this ‘bittersweet’ finale. “…it’s far more maximalist. We utilised heavy strings, mellotrons, synths, and bass; there’s a lot more on this record…the compositions are more intense and bolder…”