'It's the closest thing to method acting' … Karen O's soundtrack for Where the Wild Things Are. Photograph: Matt Nettheim 'When you're writing a song, it's like you're the director, scriptwriter, cinematographer, everything. You're trying to create ...
Over 40 years, David Bowie has repeatedly reinvented himself, pursuing the idea that all pop is artifice. Graeme Thomson surveys the career of a revered innovator Forty years ago this month, David Bowie made his first ever appearance on Top of the Pops, ...
There's a fascinating clip on YouTube of the group Maroon 5 recording one of their songs, "Makes Me Wonder". Except they're not really recording it and it's not really a song. Instead, a harried engineer is trying to manipulate and assemble a ...
After a decade of devolution, Scottish bands have found their voice It is almost 30 years since Glasgows small but perfectly formed Postcard label offered up the original Sound of Young Scotland. Jaunty, jangly and elegant of fringe, Orange Juice, ...
There's a new Johnny Cash album coming your way (yes, another one – clever, eh?). This time the USP is the BPMs. Overseen by Cash's son John Carter Cash and the ever-pliable Snoop Dogg, the likes of Sonny J, Count De Money and Pete Rock have been let ...
'I always, always dreamed of being an author," says Ryan Adams. "I never dreamed of being in a rock band, but the possibility of publishing a book - man, that was a serious dream of mine." In January, Adams announced via his blog that he was taking a ...
Franz Ferdinand ... one of many bands selling recordings of their own gigs. Photograph: Tim Mosenfelder/Getty Images Franz Ferdinand are the latest in an increasingly long line of bands offering fans the chance to buy a recording of the gig they've ...
Who is the real Tom Waits? Graeme Thomson admires the finest attempt yet to unpick family man from boho myth In 1976, a friend of Tom Waits visited his two-room apartment at the scuzzily hip Tropicana Motel in Los Angeles. Opening the fridge for a beer, ...
Kanye West on the cover of Rolling Stone Madonna performs on stage at Cardiff Millennium Stadium during her World Tour. Photograph: Getty Images/Dave Hogan 1. John Lennon Claimed Fabs were 'bigger than Jesus' (and later told his ...
You often hear writers say that starting is the hardest part. "The tyranny of the blank page" certainly has a dramatic ring to it, but let's be honest: starting is, relatively speaking, the easy bit. In all walks of life, after all, beginnings are ...
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