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Albums Hozier: Unreal Unearth Unending Read More View more

Hozier: Unreal Unearth Unending By Roman Parry Over the years Hozier has released a plethora of tracks under his belt, his debut single released back in 2013 ‘Take Me to Church’ gained worldwide traction and was only the beginning of his ever-growing popularity and fame. On December 6 of last year, Hozier released his album Unreal Unearth: Unending, a collection of songs from the sessions behind his chart-topping 2023 album Unreal Unearth. The album starts with a TikTok favourite ‘Nobody's Soldier’. Starting with percussion gives the song a punchy start which provides the beginning of the overall vibe for the song. ‘Nobody’s Soldier’ is about witnessing war and violence on a global scale during the digital era, this includes the mental stress of being exposed to the suffering of others and being given a sense of helplessness. This song's catchy bass and drum duo, along with its distorted guitar riffs and harmonies gives this song a sense of collectiveness, intensity, and conflict. Another amazing track from this album is ‘De Selby (Part 2)’. This track is inspired by the fictional philosopher and scientist De Selby who features in Flann O’Brien’s novel The Third Policeman. The bass is the main instrument used in the song which gives it the drive that we come to expect from Hozier's songs. When the drive disappears for the pre-chorus you get more of a mellow sense which perfectly gives room for the drum solo leading into the groovy chorus. Another song from the album which caught my interest was ‘Eat Your Young’. In the song, Hozier describes a dinner being prepared and served. According to him, the track is a morsel of the 9 Circles of Hell, specifically the 3rd being Gluttony. This is based on the first section of Dante Alighieri's poem Divine Comedy. The song starts with unintelligible vocals and a kick drum. When taking in both those things and the context of the song the drums remind me of people banging cutlery on the table. The final song from this album, which became a global sensation, is ‘Too Sweet’. Too Sweet shows a distinction between two people and their different lifestyles and preferences. The first enjoys life at their own pace and takes part in simple pleasures such as whiskey, coffee, and late nights as well as not concerning themselves in trying to conform to social norms. The second is made to be someone who values discipline, health, and structure. They try to prompt the narrator to start living a healthier lifestyle and take care of themself. Similar to ‘Eat Your Young’, the song shows topics of overindulgence which links the two songs to the topic of gluttony. It seems to be a common theme for Hozier to start his songs with a catchy bassline and drum combo, not that I’m complaining, it’s a good way to get a listener hooked on a song before it even kicks in. It seems that Hozier has a knack for creating songs which become popular on a global scale and it’s only a matter of time before he comes up with a new batch of powerful, punctual, promising hits.

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Posts by: Roman Parry Simon is a writer, broadcaster and countercultural investigator. Over the last 15 years he has written for everyone from The Guardian to Loaded magazine, presented television for Rapture TV and hosted radio programs for the likes of Galaxy. He has also found time to earn a Masters Degree in Novel Writing and write three books (a collection of journalism, a guidebook to Ibiza and one on financial planning for young people – the most varied publishing career it’s possible to have) and establish and run a PR company, Pad Communications, looking after a range of leisure and lifestyle clients.He currently splits his time between researching his PhD at Leeds University, looking into various countercultural movements; consulting freelance for PR clients; writing for the likes of Marie Claire in Australia, The Big Issue and the Manchester Evening News, where he reviews concerts, theatre and is their Pub & Bar Editor. He is also broadcaster, appearing regularly on Tony Livesey’s late night 5Live show for the BBC, and also for BBC Radio Manchester Gourmet Night food and drink show. Simon’s main focus has been music and travel. His career has included editing Ministry of Sound’s magazine in Ibiza for two summers and also writing two long-running columns for DJmagazine – ”Around The World in 80 Clubs” (which took him everywhere from Beijing to Brazil, Moscow to Marrakech) and “Dispatches From The Wrong Side”. A collection of the latter was published in the UK and US as the book Discombobulated, including tales as varied as gatecrashing Kylie Minogue’s birthday party, getting deported from Russia, having a gun held to his head by celebrity gangster Dave Courtney and going raving in Ibiza with Judith Chalmers. He has recently written for the likes of Red magazine, Hotline, Clash, Tilllate, Shortlist and the Manchester Evening News. Pad Communications has recently consulted for clients as varied as Manchester nightclubs and New Zealand toy companies.On a personal note, Simon is a Londoner who left the capital at the age of 18 and never looked back. He sees himself as a citizen of the global dancefloor having lived in Sydney, Los Angeles, Ibiza and Amsterdam. However his life is now rather more sedentary. After all his adventures he bumped into and subsequently married his highschool sweetheart from their North London Grammar. They now live in Stockport with their four children and four chickens, trying to live the good life. Simon recently turned 40 and is steadfastly refusing to have a midlife crisis – as in, growing a ponytail and buying a shiny red sports car.OK, maybe he’ll buy the sports car…

Artist Profiles Strider Profile Musketeers take over Merseyside the only way scousers can: with music Read More View more

Strider Profile Musketeers take over Merseyside the only way scousers can: with music By Roman Parry If you aren’t from around Liverpool or Manchester, you probably have no idea who Strider is. If you do, well good for you for you are the lucky ones. Strider strode into the music scene in early 2024 and took it by storm. They saw what others had to provide and decided to add their own spice into the mix. The annoying part is that both Liverpool and Manchester are cities with plentiful history when it comes to music culture. Even with that in mind, Strider decided to make both cities their playground and started doing what they do best, rock out. Strider is a four-man band focusing on spreading their indie-rock sound across Merseyside. These four horsemen of the rockpocalypse are vocalist Jack Waugh, lead guitarist Ben Edwards, drummer Ethan Elliott, and bassist Archie Jackson. These boys all share something, ambition. They strive to be the best they can possibly be, well that and their shared like of Led Zeppelin. The band started up in a normal way, well for the most part. Waugh and Edwards met each other at a festival, Edwards joining after leaving his band Werd and hearing the demo for their first single. Elliott was next after his nan found a post on Facebook where Strider was looking for a drummer, what a funny way to join a band. Last was Jackson. Jackson joined the band after seeing a post on Instagram about the need for a bassist. After forming Strider proceeded to play their first live show in Late May and released their first single ‘Say Your Prayers’ two weeks later. That certainly seemed a bit quick-paced. Luckily, they gave themselves a bit of downtime before taking part in an event that would really kick-start their career, this event being the Jacaranda Baltic Battle of the Bands. These amazing and talented musicians went on to win the competition and receive an award of £2000 and an opportunity to work with a professional music producer. Winning the Battle of the Bands allowed Strider to work on their second single ‘Dares’ using professional equipment and in a fully decked-out studio. This single then proceeded to be played on BBC Introducing, a radio show where the upcomers get discovered. Not so long after, they played a headline show at the Heebie Jeebies in Liverpool. Now brings us up to 2025. The bands latest single ‘Stay With Me’ released in March of this year was a big hit with their fans. They also announced two shows for mid and late April. The first is on April 19 in Manchester supporting the band Kiwi at 33 Oldham Street, the other being April 26 where they will be playing in the Kazmir Gardens supporting BITE alongside The Finite Experience. Currently, this rambunctious, ragtag band is working on their debut EP which is yet to be publicly named or have a release date announcement.

Debut EP release date leak The long awaited announcement revolving Striders EP By Roman Parry In the interview with bassist Archie Jackson and drummer Ethan Elliott, many questions on various topics were discussed. This interview took place after their live performance in the Cavern Club and the setlist got me thinking, what the hell is going on with this damn EP? All anyone knows is that the EP is currently in development, and we’ve just been given an introduction to some of the songs that will be featured on it, so the real question is, when is it coming out? During the interview with two of the members of Strider, I was able to get an answer, June 7. Huh, what a coincidence, the same date their debut single ‘Say Your Prayers’ came out. Turns out this was intentional. They purposely wanted to release the EP the same day the single came out a year earlier, they wanted it to be a way that they could look back on where they started and celebrate how far their career has come as well as themselves as a band and how they have evolved during their time together as a unit. Unfortunately, I wasn’t provided with the name of the EP, what a bummer. Either way, we fans of Strider are excited for the big announcement when it does finally arrive.

Features Debut EP release date leak The long awaited announcement revolving Striders EP Read More View more

Tomos Gibson Young Welsh artist gives insight into his career as a musician from a small community By Roman Parry The amount of Welsh artists is slightly surprising once you look into it. It’s more surprising to find that the amount of musicians from North Wales is so small you can barely find any. Even in that small community, there is a new generation of young musicians and we were able to get in contact with one talented artist. We were able to interview Tomos Gibson, an 18-year-old artist with great potential. What do you think your biggest inspirations are? “I guess that could go two ways. So in terms of what inspires me in my personal life, I guess it would be people and relationships mostly. Things that have a great impact on you emotionally, you want to write about those things. But in terms of other music that inspires me, I mean my biggest inspiration is Taylor Swift. She’s always been lyrically and melodically and also in terms of production-wise who she works with. She’s always who I’m sort of referencing in my songs and taking inspiration from but then I’d also go with Lana Del Rey and Joni Mitchell, two great American writers in my opinion. But also sometimes I love just a sort of carefree poor pop song. It’s good to have variation.” Also in terms of your music, how do you generally do your creation process? Like how do you come up with the ideas? Is it the music first? Lyrics? “I always found that question to be interesting because I know some people start with lyrics and start with melody and I try to do both, like to write a poem and add music to it or to write a piano melody and add lyrics to it. It’s weird but my best songs sort of come at once. So I’ll be walking down the street or whatever and a phrase, a lyric and a melody will sort of come into my head. Then I’ll get my phone out and I’ll record it into my voice memos and then I’ll sort of develop it from there. But also sometimes I like to start with a title or a concept. That’s always a good way ‘cause then you’re forcing yourself to write about one specific thing instead of all these ideas, you’re focused on writing about that concept which is a good writers exercise.” Have you ever performed live before? And if so what was it like? “Yeah I mean I guess, performing live it’s… I could say that I’ve been performing live since I was like three years old. You could say that in terms of competing at the local Eisteddfods and competing at school competitions or whatever. But my performing live as an artist would have been… well probably I guess last year. Or a few years ago I opened for the Welsh band Bwncath, they are very prolific now and I also opened for Fleur de Lys last year as well. At that time I found it very nerve-wracking, always made myself sick before but now I love it, it’s fun.” Is there any ongoing projects? Or upcoming music you’d like to share? “For sure, so for my final project at college, I want to do something different which was to write and record a song for another vocalist. So my friend Keila from the first year, who I think is an amazing singer and close friend, I thought it’d be a cool idea to work with her. So I’ve been writing and producing a song for her which I guess is being released soon, I have no idea but I think so. So that’s cool to be able to do it with someone else. That song is called ‘Kissing Strangers’ and it’s… well first of all it’s in English which is the biggest difference from my two other songs. I feel like the two songs I’ve already released, they were very different and this is also very different so I guess that’s the sort of pattern. So that’s one thing I'm working on and the other things I’m working on are sort of my own music again which is this time more strip back and I’d say more personal and again in English. I wanted to do it in English to branch out to a wider audience.”

Strider: Cavern Club - 26/03/25 By Roman Parry The Cavern Club is a popular and notorious music venue in Liverpool. It was known for hosting The Beatles on multiple occasions and is now known for promoting upcoming artists. Tonight, BBC Introducing hosted an event in the Cavern Live Lounge where three bands were given a 45-minute set each to play to their hearts content. The lineup of the night was Dead Distance, Sunda Blue, and Strider. When travelling down the almost endless staircase towards the Cavern Club you could hear the crowd of people chattering and whatever performer was on stage. The main room was bustling with people at tables and in front of the main stage, a few people with drinks in hand. Once passed the crowd, there lay the Cavern Live Lounge behind a set of curtains. The Live Lounge room itself was mainly quiet, the occasional person would linger around and try to find a good seat. Besides that, there were whispers and murmurs among guests. As time went on more people flooded the room and soon the room was full of people. A group of people together due to one common interest: music. Strider was the second band to take the stage, a few minutes after Dead Distance. They had a seven-song set list, half being from their EP which is yet to have a public release date. Each song added some type of element to their repertoire. The set had high energy and high charisma, the drums and bass worked in tandem being heavy driving and punchy. The first piece in their set was their unreleased song ‘Own Way Home’ . From the sound of that song alone, you could tell why the band was gaining such traction. Compared to the other songs, the final song ‘Dragonfly’ had a whole separate tone. It was more stripped back, giving it a sad atmosphere. The guitar and the bass set the tone and the screaming at the very end gives it the emotion. This performance was really one of those “you should’ve been there” moments and if the unreleased songs were that amazing live, it’s to be expected that they will be incredible once they get released alongside the awaited debut EP. Set List Own Way Home Say Your Prayers Dares Kingpin Velvet Skies Stay With Me Dragonfly