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Kalush Orchestra team up with The Rasmus on ‘In The Shadows Of Ukraine’

Kalush Orchestra have collaborated with The Rasmus on a new version of the latter’s hit single ‘In The Shadows’.

  • READ MORE: Kalush Orchestra: “It’s amazing that we can perform our music at Glastonbury”

‘In The Shadows Of Ukraine’ marks Kalush Orchestra’s first release since their their Eurovision 2022-winning song ‘Stefania’.

The collaboration sees the outfit combine the sound of the Telenka (a Ukrainian wind instrument), a powerful chorus, and Oleg Psiuk’s fast-paced rap with The Rasmus’ classic rock style.

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Per a press release, The Rasmus’ original 2003 track struck a chord in Ukraine upon its initial release. The band, who represented Finland at this year’s Eurovision, met Kalush Orchestra in Turin, Italy this year where they soon began a creative relationship.

While both acts were in the city for the competition, they joined forces for an impromptu performance in the town square.

“We immediately loved the original sound of Kalush Orchestra – Ukrainian folk, singing, flute, rap,” explained Lauri Ylönen, co-founder and frontman of The Rasmus, in a statement.

“It was inspiring to hear how this song can be reborn like that! And the lyrics are unfortunately even more relevant to what is happening now, in Ukraine and around the world.”

The song contains the line: “They say that I must learn to kill before I can feel safe/ But I’d rather kill myself than turn into their slave.”

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Psiuk said: “Probably all Ukrainians of my age and a little older remember this track by The Rasmus really well. I was 17 years old when I heard it for the first time and had it in on repeat. I could never have imagined that I would not only meet The Rasmus in person, but collaborate on a new version of this iconic song.

“We were glad to reunite with The Rasmus and work together with these cool musicians. We appreciate their music and their support of Ukraine. And they are such sincere and open people.”

He continued: “We decided straight away that we wanted to make a video for the song, so people could not only hear, but also see everything that we want to convey to the world with our new work.”

The black-and-white visuals in question, directed by Leonid Kolosovsky, reference the history of Ukraine and the experience of the country in the modern day. It was created by a mostly Ukrainian creative team.

Kalush Orchestra
Kalush Orchestra. CREDIT: Jens Sage

Recalling the shoot, Ylönen said: “There was a feeling that everyone wanted to make a maximum effort for a common goal.

“Our mission is to let as many people as possible know about this war and the courage of the Ukrainian people. That’s why we decided to shoot a video for this song.”

Over the summer Kalush Orchestra marked Ukrainian Independence Day by sharing a message of hope and making a fresh appeal for donations.

The group raised $900,000 (£739k) by auctioning off their Eurovision trophy after winning the contest in May. An additional $370,000 (£301k) was generated by raffling off the pink bucket hat that frontman Psiuk wore during their victorious performance.

Kalush Orchestra are currently out on a North American headline tour. A portion of the funds raised from tickets will be donated to Ukrainian relief efforts via the charities Gate To Ukraine and Help Heroes Of Ukraine.

Meanwhile, Kalush Orchestra have said they are “pleased” that Liverpool will be hosting the Eurovision Song Contest 2023 on behalf of Ukraine.

Psiuk added: “I would also like to remind everyone that it is our mission to make sure that the next Eurovision Song Contest 2024 will take place in Kyiv.”

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Noel Gallagher grateful that fame didn’t hit him in the same way as Amy Winehouse 

Noel Gallagher has spoken about fame and how he’s grateful it didn’t “hit” him the way it did Amy Winehouse.

  • READ MORE: The timeless influence of Amy Winehouse: “Her legacy is beyond comprehension”

The High Flying Birds musician was speaking on the Pub Talk podcast, when he talked about his experience with success in comparison to Winehouse, who tragically died in 2011 aged 27 from alcohol poisoning.

“Fame can hit people really hard,” Gallagher said. “I always use the story of Amy Winehouse, a lovely girl from North London. All of a sudden she makes that album, she becomes a world superstar, fame hit her like a truck and she didn’t make it.”

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He added: “Sadly she didn’t have the people around her. I’ve been surrounded by the same people for 30 years, who look after me. I don’t have a transient organisation where it’s just a raft of different people every six months. With Amy, Pete Doherty, people like that, if you’re a grown man and you’re successful no one is going to tell you what to do if you’ve got money.”

The singer-songwriter also talked about his former band, Oasis and how it kept him focused on his career instead of drugs.

“My fallback was always my work,” he said. “In Oasis I was the sole songwriter so I always had my work. If I didn’t do the work then the band was going to fall apart. The partying side of it and the drugs and all that, I treated that as a bonus. I didn’t get caught up in anything other than it was just a laugh.”

Elsewhere in the podcast, Gallagher said there’s “no point” in an Oasis reunion because the band still sell “as many records now” than they did when they were together.

“If we got back together there would be a circus – and there’s no point. Just leave it as it is. I’m happy. He’s [Liam Gallagher] doing his thing. He’s still selling out Knebworth. It’s like, mate, good luck to you, do you know what I mean?”

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Oasis’ debut album ‘Definitely Maybe‘ became the fastest selling debut album of all time in the UK when it was released in 1994. Its 1995 follow-up ‘(What’s the Story) Morning Glory?‘ was second only to Michael Jackson’s ‘Bad’ in being the fastest selling album in British history. To date, the band have sold more than 70 million albums worldwide.

The band called it quits back in 2009. Earlier this year former Oasis singer and brother to Noel, Liam, said that Oasis “should never have split up,” and that he would “love” the iconic band to get back together.

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You Me At Six tell us about new album ‘Truth Decay’: “No one can do it like us”

You Me At Six have confirmed details of their eighth studio album ‘Truth Decay’ and shared new single ‘Mixed Emotions (I Didn’t Know How To Tell You What I Was Going Through)’. Check it all out below alongside with our interview with frontman Josh Franceschi.

Described by Franceschi as “quintessential you Me At Six with a twist”, ‘Truth Decay’ is due for release on January 27.

“At the start of the process, the whole band sat down and spoke about who we thought You Me At Six were, what others thought of us and who we’d like to be,” he said.

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The record comes previewed by the single ‘Mixed Emotions (I Didn’t Know How To Tell You What I Was Going Through)’ – which the frontman said “represents ‘Truth Decay’ the best,” and started life as a poem Franceschi had written.

“It’s about the five of us in the band and how I wish we could have been better to our younger selves, both collectively and individually,” he said. 

“We’d have been able to get through stuff a lot better if we knew how to communicate our feelings, but up until recently that conversation really wasn’t encouraged. Back in 2009, if you felt so low you didn’t want to get out of your bunk, you were told to just get on with it.”

He added: “The song is about challenging the stigma of mental health in men, but it’s also about being accountable. I hope young men hear it and think about treating their mates a little better by cutting out the toxic masculinity.”

 

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Last year’s ‘SUCKAPUNCH’ saw the band “try a lot of different things and unlocked a few different doors for us,” said Franceschi, adding that “the goal with ‘Truth Decay’ was to create something that was more in line with when we felt like we really knew who we were.”

He continued: “The biggest stadium rock band in the country is Muse. The biggest indie band in the country is Foals. The biggest metalcore band is Architects. All those bands have their flag in the ground and their own identity. I want us to be the emo band.”

The singer also explained how previous single ‘Deep Cuts’ was the first track written for the record, and set the lyrical course for ‘Truth Decay’. “If I’d written another song about a breakup or a boy/girl relationship from my point of view, the whole record would have been very different,” Franceschi said. “But ‘Deep Cuts’ was written about the people I love who aren’t loving or valuing themselves the way I believe they should be loved and valued. It gave me a whole different space to write from.”

He went on: “Because of everything we’ve been through over the past few years, it is an emotionally complex record. It was important for me to be genuine about what I was seeing around me. I was compelled to write about things that felt visceral.”

You Me At Six
You Me At Six – CREDIT: Getty

Feeling “a duty of care to be as vulnerable as possible” and the “need to say it as straight up as you can”,  the singer hoped that “someone showing that willingness to be open and empathetic” would “create beautiful things.”

With the previously released ‘Deep Cuts’ and ‘No Future? Yeah Right’ – featuring Rou Reynolds of Enter Shikari – Franceschi said the reaction to this new era has been “really exciting”.

“Across the board, people have been saying they’ve got their favourite band back and people really get what we’re trying to do, which is sound like classic You Me At Six but better,” he said.

“We did sit on this record, wondering if we’d done the right thing. Our biggest thing has always been not wanting to bore our fanbase. We’ve never been one of those bands that has 15 albums that all sound the same. I’m not saying we’ve reinvented the wheel on any of our records, but we’ve had a fair crack at trying to move ourselves into different spaces, to try and keep things interesting.”

Rou Reynolds of Enter Shikari (left) and Josh Franceschi of You Me At Six pose together backstage at a festival
Enter Shikari’s Rou Reynolds, and You Me At Six’s Josh Franceschi. CREDIT: You Me At Six/ Press

So why now for this return to their emo roots?

“There’s nothing better than healthy competition,” said Franceschi. “There’s a very obvious revival of the scene that has become really poignant and I just saw a lot of other people doing it and thought, they can’t do it like us. They woke up a sleeping giant.”

He continued: “I’ve really enjoyed seeing what other people have done with this emo sound, but there is a reason we were known as the British band that did it. We did it best back then, and I want to prove that we can still do it the best now.”

Franceschi argued that he believes pop punk, emo and alternative music is making a comeback because “people are pissed off”.

“You’ve got a whole generation of kids feeling misrepresented, misunderstood and nothing they’re saying is being taken seriously by those in charge,” he said. “It’s exactly the same shit that was happening when I was younger; the rich making the rich richer and marginalising the voiceless even more. Any music that empowers those young people is going to be important.

“Yungblud has done a brilliant job of rejuvenating that punk spirit, celebrating differences and showing how colourful society should be. Now more than ever, you need that solidarity.”

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However, Franceschi went on to say that ‘Truth Decay’ isn’t a political album. “Just because I’ve lost complete and utter faith in the system, doesn’t mean I’ve lost faith in people,” he insisted. “‘Truth Decay’ is a record which is defiant in its love for people. It’s about self-worth self-love and acceptance, rather than doom, gloom and self-sabotage.”

Having gone into the creation of ‘SUCKAPUNCH’ thinking it would be the final You Me At Six album, Franceschi said that he was now hungry for all that’s still to come.

“Because it was released during the pandemic, ‘SUCKAPUNCH’ became a crutch for people,” he concluded. “On this one though, we’re blazing a glorious trail. This is the band we’re meant to be. It was good to reclaim our sound.

“What happens next is an open-ended question but I’ve spoken about headlining Reading Festival since I first went when I was 17-years-old. There have been moments where it’s felt close, and other moments where that dream has felt really far away. Right now, it feels closer than it has in a long while.”

The ‘Truth Decay’ tracklist is:

1. ‘DEEP CUTS
2. ‘Mixed Emotions (I Didn’t Know How to Tell You What I Was Going Through)’
3. ‘God Bless The 90s Kids’
4. ‘After Love In The After Hours’
5. ‘No Future? Yeah Right’ (feat. Rou Reynolds)
6. ‘heartLESS’
7. ‘Who Needs Revenge When I’ve Got Ellen Rae’
8. ‘Breakdown’
9. ‘Traumatic Iconic’
10. ‘:mydopamine:’
11. ‘A Smile To Make You Weak(er) At The Knees’
12. ‘Ultraviolence’
13. ‘A Love Letter to Those Who Feel Lost’ (feat. Cody Frost)

The band are currently on a sold-out tour of the US, with UK dates coming in 2023. See full dates below and visit here for ticket details.

February 2023

1 – Plymouth Pavilions, Plymouth
3 – Barrowland Ballroom, Glasgow
4 – Barrowland Ballroom, Glasgow
6 – O2 Victoria Warehouse, Manchester
7 – O2 City Hall, Newcastle
9 – Motorpoint Arena, Nottingham
10 – International Arena, Cardiff
11 – Alexandra Palace, London

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New Chvrches and Sons & Daughters side-project Protection share the ravey ‘Still Love You’

Iain Cook of Chvrches and fellow Glaswegian musician and producer Scott Paterson formerly of Sons & Daughters have launched new project, Protection. Check out their debut single ‘Still Love You’ exclusively on NME below, along with our interview with the duo.

  • READ MORE: Chvrches on karaoke bangers, Robert Smith and a decade together

Released via Saint Luck Records/The Orchard tomorrow (Friday October 21), ‘Still Love You’ calls upon elements of the dance music of the past with a very modern and future-facing edge.

“’Still Love You’ just evolved naturally, but retrospectively I feel like it’s got parallels with early techno and house from the ‘80s,” Paterson told NME. “We weren’t referencing it at the time, but I can hear echoes of it now. We weren’t trying to be retro or pastiche, because I feel like it’s a really modern track.”

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Cook agreed, adding: “I also feel like it has a bit of a flavour of Daft Punk. We also put some stuff from old psychedelic records in there in the background.”

The pair first met “many moons ago” in the mid-2000s when they were both in bands, but came together via a mutual friend, many shared tastes in music and film, and love of wasting time playing Street Fighter.

“It wasn’t until last Spring when we were listening to a lot more new music through being holed up during lockdown and all that when Scott said, ‘Do you fancy doing something together?’ and we asked ourselves why he hadn’t done that yet,” said Iain.

“We set ourselves a few fun rules to play around with in terms of how it would be creatively. That just gave us a framework and a little bit of focus. We would each start with a sketch of an idea with only two or three elements at most, and then swap it over with no comments or direction to see where it would go. We just kept that process going, and it was a really fun and democratic way to start the project.”

Paterson added: “We’ve got more in common than we don’t. There’s maybe some stuff on the outskirts that the hardcore prog and black metal that’s not for me. After 16 years of being friends and never making music together, lockdown seemed like a great opportunity for that. We just did it for fun.”

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Chvrches with The Cure’s Robert Smith at the BandLab NME Awards 2022. Credit: Zoe McConnell

Speaking of the rest of the material they have in the bag, Paterson explained how the duo have “30 songs in various stages of completion” that are “all over the place – in a really exciting way”.

“Everything has been really organic and there has been so much variety in the music that we’ve been making because it was just for fun and made in the moment,” he said. “None of the other music we’ve made sounds like ‘Still Love You’. There’s high-tempo breakbeat stuff, there’s ambient stuff, there’s all sorts. It’s almost like you’re making a mixtape of your favourite music for a friend.”

Cook agreed: “There was a composer who once said that we all make music about the music we love. That feels true to me as an artist. Without being derivative, if I’m listening to a lot of stuff that I’ve not heard before then I get inspired to write.

“When you’re starting a new project, it’s very much like feeling out the boundaries of what we can and want to do. Listening back, we found there weren’t many boundaries but a lot of connective tissue between the songs. If you were to ask me what it was, I don’t think I could tell you.”

For now, the pair are focussing on “having fun”, with plans to release some EPs in the next year, and hopefully an album on the horizon as they’re “figuring out” how to translate the project into the live arena.

“We’re just very keen for this to be our true selves and not trying to obfuscate that or hide behind anything,” said Paterson. “We’re making the music that we love and it’s influenced by all that we love. We’re not going to dress up or anything!”

As for the future of Chvrches, Cook explained that the trio have a show in Jakarta before a tour of Australia and Japan as well as support dates in Brazil with Coldplay. Then, they’ll start to work on the follow-up to 2021’s acclaimed ‘Screen Violence‘.

“I’m pretty certain we’ll get round to album five in time, but there hasn’t really been any debate yet about when we’ll start that, but I’m sure it’s coming,” he said.

Meanwhile Paterson, who has also played with the likes of March Of Dimes and The Kills, said that he’d be putting his all into upcoming material from Protection.

“This is my full-time thing at the moment,” he said. “Over the last 10 or 11 years I’ve been working and touring a lot with my friends’ bands on guitars, bass and keys. I’ve also been producing and co-writing a lot, but at the moment that’s all on hold while we’re doing this.”

Chvrches also recently told NME that they’d been thinking about ways to mark 10 years of their debut album ‘The Bones Of What You Believe‘ in 2023.

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Here’s how to get tickets to Taylor Swift’s 2023 UK tour

Taylor Swift is set to announce a UK headline tour in support of her new album ‘Midnights’ – find all the details on how to secure tickets below.

The singer-songwriter will release her tenth studio record tomorrow (October 21), and has been teasing a series of lyrics on billboards across the globe. ‘Midnights’ includes the as-yet-unheard single ‘Anti-Hero’ and a collaboration with Lana Del Rey, ‘Snow On The Beach’.

  • READ MORE: Every Taylor Swift song ranked in order of greatness

Earlier this week, a post on Swift’s official UK website stated that fans who pre-order the imminent album will receive a pre-sale code to access tickets for “yet to be announced Taylor Swift show dates”.

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Those who are signed up to Swift’s mailing list then received an email outlining the terms and conditions. To be in with a chance of bagging tickets, you’re required to pre-order ‘Midnights’ on any format via the singer’s UK store before 5am BST tomorrow – head here to do so.

If you’ve already submitted an order through the online shop, you are automatically eligible to purchase tickets in the pre-sale – details of which have not yet been confirmed. Pre-sale codes will be sent out via email at a later date.

You’ll be able to purchase tickets here when they go on general sale. Check out the announcement post below.

Taylor Swift UK tour pre-sale information
CREDIT: Taylor Swift/ Press

The tour will mark Swift’s first run of concerts in the UK since 2018’s ‘Reputation’ tour. Swift played the Capital FM Jingle Bell Ball 2019, which took place at The O2 in London. However, her scheduled dates in 2020 – including BST Hyde Park and Glastonbury – were cancelled due to the COVID pandemic.

Instead of hitting the road, Swift wrote, recorded and released a pair of surprise “sister” albums in the form of ‘Folklore’ and ‘Evermore’. She then dropped both ‘Fearless (Taylor’s Version)’ and ‘Red (Taylor’s Version)’ in 2021.

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Swift announced ‘Midnights’ at the MTV VMAs 2022 in August, describing the project as “the stories of 13 sleepless nights scattered throughout my life”.

The star has since revealed that her longtime collaborator Jack Antonoff worked on the record, and shared the full tracklist.

Following the release of ‘Midnights’, Swift will appear as a guest on Monday’s episode of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon (October 24) before dropping by The Graham Norton Show next Friday (October 28).

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Ed Sheeran had “already started” writing James Bond theme when he was replaced by Billie Eilish

Ed Sheeran has said he’d already “started writing” the theme song for No Time To Die when he was replaced by Billie Eilish.

Back in 2019, Sheeran’s manager revealed that the star had met James Bond producer Barbara Broccoli two years prior to discuss penning the official track for the most recent film in the hit spy franchise.

  • READ MORE: Ed Sheeran – ‘=’ review: the millennial Lionel Richie indulges his saccharine streak

Danny Boyle, who worked with Sheeran on Richard Curtis’ Yesterday (2019), was lined up to direct the 25th Bond movie at the time (he later quit due to “creative differences”, with Cary Joji Fukunaga taking over the role).

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“Obviously they changed directors but we’re still open to it,” Stuart Camp explained. “But they’re not even having those conversations yet.”

He added: “It’s certainly something [Sheeran would] want to do though, it’s a box that’s still to be ticked, for sure.”

But the No Time To Die theme ended up going to Billie Eilish, who went on to win her first Oscar for the song.

During an appearance on That Peter Crouch Podcast this week, Sheeran explained: “I was within a fucking gnat’s pube of doing one [a Bond theme], but then they changed directors, changed scripts and that was it all done.

“I had started writing it. I’m not gonna pretend it didn’t hurt not doing it.”

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Sheeran went on to say that his Bond dream isn’t over yet, however: “I think eventually as an English singer you’ve got to eventually do a Bond song. If they come back I’ll be like, ‘Yeah yeah, of course’.”

Sheeran had talked about potentially writing a track for a James Bond film during an interview in 2014, but admitted that he may not be the right artist.

“I’d love to do a James Bond song, but can you imagine it?” he said. “I just wasn’t born with the James Bond voice. You never know – I’m not ruling it out. Maybe in 10 years time, when my balls drop…”

He added: “I think the James Bond theme tune should be ballsy. I feel like if I was going to do it, it would sound a bit wet.”

Sheeran recently opened up, meanwhile, about the impact that Queen Elizabeth II‘s Golden Jubilee had on his career.

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Joe Alwyn has a co-writer credit on Taylor Swift’s upcoming album ‘Midnights’

Taylor Swift‘s partner Joe Alwyn has been named as a co-writer of a new track on her upcoming album ‘Midnights’.

Titled ‘Sweet Nothing’, the song is the penultimate track on Swift’s tenth album, which will be released this Friday (October 21).

  • READ MORE: Every Taylor Swift song ranked in order of greatness

Alwyn appears under the pseudonym William Bowery, the name which he was also credited for his contributions to Swift’s 2020 albums ‘Folklore’ and ‘Evermore’.

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As the release date of ‘Midnights’ approaches, Swift has gradually been revealing more information about her highly anticipated new record. So far, she has confirmed that the album’s first single will be ‘Anti Hero’, while IndieWire recently revealed that two of its tracks, ‘Karma’ and ‘Lavender Haze’, were co-written with Zoë Kravitz.

In addition, the album will feature a collaboration with Lana Del Rey called ‘Snow On The Beach’. Last week, Swift explained that the song is about “falling in love with someone at the same time that they’re falling in love with you”.

Taylor Swift performing in a black dress
Taylor Swift performing at the Nashville Songwriter Awards. Credit: Terry Wyatt

It has already been confirmed that 11 of the 13 tracks on ‘Midnights’ were co-written with Jack Antonoff. The only track written by Swift alone is ‘Vigilante Shit’.

Earlier this week, Swift shared more details of the plans for the release week of ‘Midnights’ in the form of an Instagram reel. The calendar featured in the reel revealed that she will be appearing on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon on Monday (October 24) and The Graham Norton Show next Friday (October 28).

A post on Taylor Swift’s official website has also confirmed that the singer will be touring in support of ‘Midnights’.

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Fans who pre-order the album from her official UK store will receive a code enabling them to access the pre-sale “for forthcoming and yet to be announced Taylor Swift show dates”.

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DMA’S announce 2023 UK tour behind new album ‘How Many Dreams?’

Fresh from announcing their fourth album, ‘How Many Dreams?’, DMA’S have shared details of a UK tour booked to go down next April.

  • READ MORE: DMA’S on their new album ‘How Many Dreams?’: “It’s a bloody feel-good record”

The run will kick off in Cambridge on Wednesday April 5, with shows in Exeter and Bournemouth to follow in quick succession. They’ll round that week out with a gig in Aylesbury on Sunday April 9, before rolling on to Wolverhampton, Lincoln, Bradford, Middlesbrough and Dundee over the following week.

From there, the Australian indie rockers will play in Aberdeen, Glasgow and Manchester, before wrapping up the tour in London on Friday April 21. Fans can get early access to tickets by buying the new record on DMA’S official store before 6pm BST next Monday. Tickets go on general sale next Thursday and Friday (October 27-28) at 5pm BST. Find more info on DMA’S UK tour tickets here.

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The upcoming tour will come just a short while after DMA’S play a trio of UK shows in support of recent single ‘I Don’t Need To Hide’ (which will appear on ‘How Many Dreams?’). They’ll take to London’s Roundhouse on Saturday October 29, Manchester Academy on Sunday 30, and the Barrowland Ballroom in Glasgow on Monday 31. Find tickets for those shows here.

‘How Many Dreams?’ will be out on March 31, 2023 via I OH YOU. Speaking to NME about the record, DMA’S’ Johnny Took said: “We were finding our feet with a more modern sound on [2019’s] ‘The Glow’. With ‘How Many Dreams’, we really nailed that down and experiments with a lot of different sounds and different genres. It’s a great blend of the three things we love, which are rock’n’roll tunes, pop singalongs and electronic music.”

In addition to ‘The Glow’, DMA’S’ fourth album follows last year’s surprise EP, ‘I Love You Unconditionally, Sure Am Going To Miss You’.

DMA’S’ 2023 UK tour dates are:

APRIL
Wednesday 5 – Cambridge, Corn Exchange
Thursday 6 – Exeter, Great Hall @ Exeter University
Friday 7 – Bournemouth, O2 Academy
Sunday 9 – Aylesbury, Waterside Theatre
Monday 10 – Wolverhampton, KK’s Steel Mill
Wednesday 12 – Lincoln, The Engine Shed
Thursday 13 – Bradford, St. George’s Hall
Saturday 15 – Middlesbrough, Town Hall
Sunday 16 – Dundee, Fat Sams
Monday 17 – Aberdeen, Music Hall
Wednesday 19 – Glasgow, O2 Academy
Thursday 20 – Manchester, O2 Apollo
Friday 21 – London, O2 Academy Brixton

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DMA’S announce new album ‘How Many Dreams?’: “It’s a bloody feel-good record”

DMA’S have announced their fourth album ‘How Many Dreams?’ and shared new single ‘Everybody’s Saying Thursday’s The Weekend’. Check out all the details below alongside a chat with the band and exclusive photos from the album’s studio sessions.

Out March 31, 2023 and now available for pre-order here, ‘How Many Dreams?’ will see DMA’S continue to branch out from the guitar-driven Britpop anthems of their first two records. “We were finding our feet with a more modern sound on [2019’s] ‘The Glow’,” Johnny Took told NME at Reading & Leeds, where they absolutely owned their main stage slot ahead of performances from Bastille and Halsey.

DMA'S How Many Dreams studio sessions
DMA’S at RAK Studios London for ‘How Many Dreams’. Credit Reuben Bastienne-Lewis

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“With ‘How Many Dreams’, we really nailed that down and experiments with a lot of different sounds and different genres. It’s a great blend of the three things we love, which are rock’n’roll tunes, pop singalongs and electronic music.

“Our music will always have that nostalgic edge to it, but [this album] was about being less of a throwback band and more in the future.”

DMAS How Many Dreams studio sessions
Johnny Took of DMA’S at RAK Studios London for ‘How Many Dreams’. Credit Reuben Bastienne-Lewis

Lead single ‘I Don’t Need To Hide’ “sums up the album best. It’s got a bit of everything,” explained vocalist Tommy O’Dell. New single ‘Everybody’s Saying Thursday’s The Weekend’, on the other hand, is more of a curveball. It’s about “letting go of the things that weigh us down and embracing the future with a sense of optimism. Stepping in the ‘right light in the dark times’,” Took said in a statement.

DMAS How Many Dreams studio sessions
DMA’S at RAK Studios London for ‘How Many Dreams’. Credit Reuben Bastienne-Lewis

The “tongue-in-cheek” track was originally inspired by a conversation Took had with a mate who was down the pub on a school night. “It has a real playful vibe”, Took said, but also deals with the time he quit drinking. “It’s about when you’ve had a few too many drinks and say something stupid. Everyone’s been there.”

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Elsewhere on ‘How Many Dreams?’ there’s ‘Fading Like A Picture’ which “opens with this rocking guitar riff” and “harks back to that old DMA’S sound,” according to Took. On the flipside, “there’s a song like ‘De Carle’ which is a full-blown, five-minute electronic song” save a tiny bit of electric bass. “We weren’t trying to split the difference. We really leant into the genre, which is so cool. There are surprises like that across the record.”

“We did what we wanted,” added O’Dell. “We didn’t have any boundaries and that’s what is really exciting about the record. You can’t put it in a box, but it’s still DMA’S.”

DMAS How Many Dreams studio sessions
Tommy O’Dell of DMA’S at RAK Studios London for ‘How Many Dreams’. Credit Reuben Bastienne-Lewis

Taking inspiration from Groove Armada with vocalist O’ Dell pulling influence from old school Motown, ‘How Many Dreams?’ was the longest record DMA’S took to make.

The Aussie trio (rounded out by Matt Mason) spent three weeks in a London studio with superproducers Stuart Price and Rich Costey “working on a lot of band in the room stuff”. The Omicron variant hit, DMA’S returned home to Australia and though most of the album was done, “when we got back to Sydney, we were listening to the desk mixes and it felt like we had a lot more work to do.” With Costey and Price on the other side of the world, though, they got Konstantin Kersting in to help them finish the record.

DMAS How Many Dreams studio sessions
DMA’S and Rich Costey at RAK Studios London for ‘How Many Dreams’. Credit Reuben Bastienne-Lewis

“We ‘Screamadelica’-fied it,” Took quipped, referencing Primal Scream’s iconic album. “We’d find a live drumbeat [we’d recorded in London] but would only use eight bars of it, then we’d put programming underneath it, and some extra synths. We really had the time to be creative on this record, which we’ve never really done before.”

DMAS How Many Dreams studio sessions
Konstantin Kersting and Johnny Took of DMA’S at Forbes Street Studios Sydney for ‘How Many Dreams’. Credit Matt Mason

Working with Costey and Price was “just great”, Took said. “It’s amazing when you jump in a studio with anyone new, especially when they’re of that calibre. They’ve just got so many great stories and so much knowledge. Kersting might be younger but he’s worked on some great records as well. All three of them nailed it.”

DMAS How Many Dreams studio sessions
DMA’S and Stuart Price at RAK Studios London for ‘How Many Dreams’. Credit Reuben Bastienne-Lewis

With DMA’S more confident in the studio, ‘How Many Dreams?’ is a “bloody feel-good record,” according to Took. “We couldn’t be more proud of it.”

“We didn’t want to release something gloomy after [COVID],” added O’Dell. “There are still sentiments that are a bit doom and gloom but it’s definitely a feel-good record with positivity and nostalgia.”

DMAS How Many Dreams studio sessions
Matt Mason of DMA’S at RAK Studios London for ‘How Many Dreams’. Credit Reuben Bastienne-Lewis

Following the release of ‘How Many Dreams?’ and a support slot with Arctic Monkeys at The Domain in Sydney, DMA’S will head out a tour of the UK in April 2023. Still, the band has no worries about the shows getting bigger and bigger.

“I was thinking about the live show for a lot of the songs on ‘How Many Dreams?’,” added Took. “I’ve never written like that before but we played ‘I Don’t Need To Hide’ for the first time the other day and for such a new song, it went down really well. Incorporating those pop and electronic elements into our music means there’s a real dynamic to the set now [so] we can really hold our own on those big stages.”

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Zoë Kravitz confirmed as co-writer on two tracks for Taylor Swift’s ‘Midnights’ album

Zoë Kravitz has co-written two tracks on Taylor Swift’s upcoming album ‘Midnights’.

The singer-songwriter is set to release her 10th studio album this Friday (October 21). It’ll feature the single ‘Anti-Hero’ as well as a collaborative song with Lana Del Rey called ‘Snow On The Beach’.

  • READ MORE: Every Taylor Swift song ranked in order of greatness

As reported by IndieWire, Kravitz has co-written tracks titled ‘Karma’ and ‘Lavender Haze’.

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Last month, Swift confirmed that her longtime collaborator Jack Antonoff had worked on ‘Midnights’. The singer then shared the 13-song tracklist for the album, which follows on from 2020’s ‘Folklore’ and ‘Evermore’.

Of the album’s 13 songs, Swift co-wrote 11 with Antonoff and ‘Vigilante Shit’ is reportedly the only track Swift wrote alone.

Swift recently revealed that an episode of Mad Men inspired the title for the Kravitz co-written ‘Lavender Haze’. The meaning behind the song was decoded in a new video by Swift, who said that she happened upon the phrase while watching the iconic TV show.

“I happened upon the phrase ‘Lavender Haze’ when I was watching Mad Men and I looked it up because I thought it sounded cool,” she said. “And it turns out that it was a common phrase that was used in the ’50s where they would just describe being in love.

“Like, If you were in the ‘Lavender Haze,’ that meant you were in that all-encompassing love glow, and I thought that was really beautiful.”

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In other news, Swift has revealed some more lyrics from ‘Midnights’ on a billboard in London.

At midnight on Monday (October 17), she began a week-long run of lyric reveals in partnership with Spotify. The line “I should not be left to my own devices…” appeared on a huge screen in Times Square, New York City.

Another lyric then popped up in London, reading: “I polish up real nice.”

Meanwhile, a post on Swift’s official website has confirmed that the star is due to announce an upcoming live tour.

Elsewhere, Kravitz is set to make her directorial debut with upcoming thriller Pussy Island, starring Naomi Ackie, Channing Tatum, Simon Rex and Christian Slater. Filming on the project began in June in Mexico.