BARRY FROM THE FUTUREHEADS

The Futureheads have been ticking all the right boxes since 2000! The Futureheads are all but a national treasure!

It has been an explosive return for The Futureheads after being dropped by their major record label a couple of years ago.

The band's new album ‘The Chaos’, which they independently released through their own Nul label was critically acclaimed.

After a fully sold-out, British tour the band are embarking on an American tour this summer.

I caught up with Barry from the band to talk about what he's eating and good advice...!

> Last Thing You Ate / Was it good?

I ate some fennel and orange salad, some tabuleh, some sweet potato 'slaw.I'm preparing food for my Birthday Party you see. It all tastes lovely.

> Last Pecie of Good Advice Someone Gave You...

'If you bring forth what is inside you, then what you bring forth will save you. If you don't bring forth what is inside you then what you don't bring forth will destroy you'. Heavy stuff.

> Last Time You Went Dancing...

I dance everyday. Usually a slippered shuffle down the stairs. I haven't been clubbing in a very long time. It's a horrible way to meet people. I used to dance ALL night.

> Last Record you Bought.....

I bought the debut album from occult punk rockers 'Killing Joke'. No joke. It is seriously powerful stuff.

Underrated to say least, brilliant stuff. Too bright for most people.

> Last Time You Told A Person You Loved Them....

My wife, everyday, it's the law. She got me a big book and a USB microscope for my birthday. What's not to love.

> Last Person You Texted....

My dear Mother, to thank her for the book on psychology she got me. Thanks Mam.

> Last Gig You Went To....

Frankie and the Hearstrings at independent in Sunderland. It was splendid. An invite only show, special stuff.

> Last Time You Lied..

I have never ever lied. I promise. Cross my heart and hope...............cough cough splutter..... to die.

> Last Time You Were Hungover...

Really Hungover?!? Hmm after a late night tequila binge in New York. BooHoo York more like it..

> Last Time You Checked Twitter....

Just now. I said 'Happy Birthday to Me' and other self congratulating nonsense!

Holy Ghost!

Alex and Nick, are the brains behind Holy Ghost! With their debut EP, ‘Static On The Wire’ out this summer. The band have been described as 'the best electronic dance music New York and beyond has to offer!' Holy Ghost! have been building a reputation over the last couple of years as one of the best remixers out there, with reworkings for MGMT, LCD Soundsystem, Moby and Phoenix.

Q.1

You wouldn't know it but I'm very good at?

NICK: Nothing. Jack of many trades, master of none.

ALEX: im pretty good at basketball and i also can use a movie camera.

Q.2

You wouldn't know it but I'm not so good at?

NICK: Shaving.

ALEX: keeping 1 cellphone for more than a month.

Q.3

My favorite item of clothing is?

NICK: An old Levi's denim jacket I've had since I was a kid. It still has an original "Powell Peralta" patch my mom sewed on it for me and some original DFA pins James gave around the time I first met him when I was 18 or so. It's almost as old as I am and it still fits. Kinda.

ALEX: i dont know if this counts but i LOVE the pair of topsiders i just bought.

Q.4

When i was a child i wanted to be?

NICK: I've wanted to be a musician for as long as I can remember.

ALEX: Elvis or Mick Jagger. i used to cry if my mom called me Alex. I was "Mick" from age 6-8.

Q.5

My real life villain is?

NICK: Alex.

ALEX: what!!!!? you dick.

Q.6

A band / musician / song that changed me?

NICK: James Murphy and Tim Goldsworthy, any record that features the credit "Produced by the DFA" and any song that contains the words "DFA Remix" in the title.

ALEX: agreed. also a movie by the talking heads called "stop making sense" changed everything for me when i was 18.

Q.7

If i wasn't a musician i would be?

NICK: Without any direction whatsoever and most likely, very, very sad.

ALEX: unhappy.

Q.8

My idea of happiness is?

NICK: A DFA party in New York.

ALEX: All my friends.

Q.9

The best place i have been this year?

NICK: Home.

ALEX: on tour with lcd.

Q.10

My guilty pleasure song right now is?

NICK: I honestly can't think of any songs I'm ashamed of liking.

ALEX: yeah, nick's got what they call "good taste." i like shutterbug by big boi. but thats not guilty, its just mainstream, which i have no guild about. dam, now i feel guilty for not answering your question. im jewish though, so guilt is constant.

Holy Ghost will be playing around UK this summer see their myspace for more info!

www.myspace.com/holyghostnyc

Johnny Flynn

Johnny Flynn's new album 'Been Listening' which features guest collaborations with Laura Marling and Anna Calvi, is out now on Transgressive Records. Johnny Flynn has toured all over the world with his band as well as being part of the Shakesperan Theater Company Propeller. He also recently did the whole score for forthcoming movie 'A Bag Of Hammers' starring Rebecca Hall.

I caught up with him the other day to talk Gnocchi, chroes and lying!

- Last Thing You Ate....

Gnocchi

- Last Chore You Did.....

A huge pile of tour washing. And watered the flowers.

- Last Person You Called...

Bea- my girlfriend.

- Last Gig You Went To...

Los chinchas.

- Last Play You Saw...

'The White Guard' at the national theatre

- Last Piece of Good Advice Someone Gave You...

Pull yourself towards yourself

- Last Time You Said I Love You to someone...

About an hour ago

- Last Record You Bought....

Ali and Toumani

- Last Film You Watched...

Cocksucker blues on YouTube.

- Last Time You Lied...

Sunday. Sort of. It's complicated.

Peggy From Pains Of Being Pure At Heart

New York band Pains of Being Pure At Heart return this summer with new single 'Say No To Love,' which they describe as a ''perfect summertime single full of fuzz and feelings!"

If you didn't catch theirphenomenaly successful self-titled debut album (number 15 in NME's Top 50 Albums Of 2009, number 19 in Pitchfork's list, number 5 in Rough Trade's albums of the year) you must of been living in a cave! I caught up with the only female in the band, Peggy to talk friendship, teenage love and touring!

Hi Peggy, how's it going?

Good, good. Drinking rose champagne in Amsterdam. It doesn't get much better than that.

You have toured all over the world with your band (The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart), where

has your most memorable gig been?

I would have to say the Manchester gig at the Chorlton Irish Center. If I've ever been "high on life" it would have been at that show. It was a bunch of sweaty kids moshing to "Teenager in Love" and it just felt so surreal, like I was in a parallel universe, where people think wussy songs about love are actually kind of punk. Afterwards, we sold our merch out the back of our van in a big parking lot, and all these kids were hanging around. I just felt really happy to be contributing to such a quintessential teen moment, when your curfew's been half an hour extended and you're just enjoying the finer things in life, like sitting on the hood of a car and pretending to be bored.

You are the only girl in the band, do you enjoy being the only girl or sometimes do the boys

all get a bit much?!

Well, the guys in my band aren't super typical "dudes" so I think we get on pretty good. Honestly, I enjoy their senses of humor and gender differences aren't something that cross my mind that often. If they were like, leering at girls or doing really immature stuff, I don't know if I could deal with that. But thankfully, I think we're on the same level and treat each other with mutual respect. I really don't mind being the only girl at all, but that's not saying I wouldn't enjoy having another girl around to like, go shopping with sometimes.

What's the quality you most admire in a friend?

To me, reliability really means a lot. I'm not going to hound anyone or give ultimatums if someone doesn't want to hang out with me, so once someone exhibits any flakiness, I know to stop putting effort in. I also really value a person that I can appreciate on a jokey, fun, humor level as well as a serious level. I can't be funny and light-hearted all the time. When someone has a similar sense of cynicism, humor, and sarcasm, but I can also talk to them seriously about true life, misery, etc, that's when I know that they're special.

Do you remember the first tv show/movie/band that impacted your style and identity

That's tough to choose just one. I really worshipped Anna Chlumsky in the movie My Girl, and also Clarissa from Clarissa Explains it All. But maybe my first ever style inspiration was Claudia Kishi from the book series, The Babysitters Club. I had a weird complex about being Asian because I grew up in a city where there were literally none. I felt like no boy would ever like me, and that everyone probably thought I was weird-looking and gross. But Claudia was like, a really cool Asian, especially in a time when there weren't any on television or in movies. She was like the female antithesis to Long Duck Dong.

Kip says your new single is ''about a girl telling an emo boy to go grow a pair."!

I think "Say No to Love" has a message about independence, which I can relate to despite being partial to really pathetic love songs most of the time. It's the sort of message I want to send to someone who's in a codependent, or even just super pointless relationship. People are afraid of being alone, but just settling for anyone to complete you is really unhealthy to me. I think it's actually the most romantic thing ever to enjoy being alone until the right thing comes along, almost in a can't-help-myself sort of way.

If you could meet your teenage self, what would you say to her / him?

I'd say, "Man, I've really devolved ever since I left you. It's cool that you like, care about stuff."

- Do you have a guilty pleasure song right now?

I have too many to name, specifically from the '90s. But lately I've really been enjoying "In Too Deep" by Sum 41.

Last Time I......with Eva from Rolo Tomassi

Sheffield band Rolo Tomassi recently celebrated their 5 year anniversary together as a band.

They met and formed in school, since then have toured with the bands as diverse as Foals, Biffy Clyro to The Bronx! The band even recorded their latest album, the confident and controlled sounding Cosmology, with uber producer Diplo. Cosmology is out now on Hassle records and the band will be playing festivals all summer in UK and Europe.

The Last Song You Listened To - Emmy the Great - Edward Is Dedward

Last Time You Went Dancing - Friday May 21st at a friends clubnight in Manchester

Last Gig You Went To - Alkaline Trio at the Roundhouse in Camden last night.

Last Time You Checked Twitter or Facebook - about 5 minutes ago

Last Time You Had A Hangover - Saturday May 22nd.

Last Record / CD You Bought - Blue Roses S/T

Last Time You Flirted - the only person I flirt with is my boyfriend!

Last Time You Went To The Cinema - On the Bristol date of the Biffy Clyro tour we (Tomassi's) all went to see Iron Man 2.

Last Song You Downloaded - I have honestly no idea, I haven't downloaded anything in a long time.

Last Person You Called - my grandparents by accident, I forgot to lock my keypad and had my phone in my pocket!

Annie from Au Revoir Simone talks to me about things close to her heart!

Girl group Au Revoir Simone are Erika Forster, Annie Hart & Heather D'Angelo.

They released the critically acclaimed 'Still Night, Still Light' on Moshi Moshi last year.

The band are touring all over Europe this Summer and are even playing with Air this June in Paris, not supporting but actually playing with Air themselves. All 5 musicians will be doing a combination of songs by Au Revoir Simone and Air. This is part of three other shows Air are doing in Paris (the others been with Jarvis Cocker, a full orchestra and the artist Yi Shou).

I met up with the very cool Annie from the band to talk about things close to her heart, music, clothes, shoes and even a fanzine on smart packing!

The band will be releasing a remix album on Moshi Moshi Records entitled 'Night Light' out on July 5th wtih remixes from Aeroplane, Your Twenties, Neon Indian and Deradoorian (Angel Deradoorian from The Dirty Projectors).

I heard you have a new album coming out made up entirely of remixes from your album Still Night, Still Light. How did the idea come about? How did you choose people to do the remixes?

Annie: We did a remix album for The Bird Of Music with lots of remixes and covers done by our friends, so it was natural to do another remix version of Still Night, Still Light. We asked some of our friends again to help out, and a lot came through our UK label, Moshi Moshi. The worst part about listening to the album is that sometimes I wish we had done some of the cool things on our real record that the remixers did!

You have toured all over the world in the last year or so. Where's the best place you've been this year?

Annie: I can't judge places one over the other. There's some that I won't name that I just hate, but we don't really get offers to go those places, anyway, so the best thing I can tell you is that we've been to Mexico City, Seoul, and Singapore for the first time recently, and they were all amazing in different ways. We just spent the last week in Spain and Portugal, which was great as usual, and now we're relaxing in our rented Paris apartment, all of which are amazing and eye-opening in their own ways.

On tour are you all light packers? What's the strangest thing in your closet?

I think I'm the lightest packer of the three. I take it very seriously. But then I somehow end up with one more pair of shoes along than I really need and I get mad at myself. I'm even working on a book about packing light, with diagrams and strict instructions. I'm planning on printing it zine-style, folded with staples. I was very inspired by a trip to a bookstore in Tokyo. My feet were so swollen and I couldn't walk, so I just spent two hours "reading" books in Japanese in the how-to section. If you are a nerd, I wholeheartedly recommend that activity. As for strange things in my closet, I usually travel with salt and pepper for meals made from leftovers from the backstage.

Onstage are you heels or flats girls?

Annie: Either, because I can't decide, and that' how I end up with extra shoes on tour.

Do you remember the first tv show/movie/band that impacted your style and identity?

Annie: Minor Threat, in that it supported my already firm decision to hate labels, status symbols, and "trying" to be anything other than someone who is true to themselves and looks out for the welfare of other people and the earth.

When you're not touring whats your ideal night out / in?

Annie: I recently spent a week at home watching 4 episodes of 30 Rock at a time at home on my couch, knitting and eating ice cream. That's how cool I am.

If you could have anyone in the world, past or present, at your dinner table - who would it be?

Annie: Here's a crazy dinner party:

Bell hooks

Mao Zedong

Mick Jagger

Abraham Lincoln

Paris Hilton

Jaques Cousteau

I wonder who would talk to whom? What on earth would they even talk about?

Are you involved in any charities?

I just donated some art to raise money for the Brooklyn Public Library, ardently support New York City's public radio station, and help out with Transportation Alternatives. I guess I am a very local activist!