Table of contents for Issue 74 in Under the Radar

Some of us use quirky digital backdrops on Zoom calls. But Mount Eerie (born Phil Elverum) has no need. When he answered Under the Radar‘s video call for an interview, the art-folk singer/ songwriter stepped outside of his rural house on Orcas Island, Washington State, for a better signal, nonchalantly revealing a breathtaking scene. Trees towered behind him, and blue sky poked through the leaves. He dressed the part too, his red and blue flannel button up looking as woodsy as his tussled grey hair—more in line with returning from the woodpile than fielding questions about Night Palace, his latest in a long line of experimental and singular LPs. His albums famously take even more surprising twists and turns. Night Palace goes from catchy and soothingly strummed ballads such as…

The Linda Lindas make their way to the couch in the middle of my Zoom screen, one by one, like the opening of TV sitcom Friends. Youngest, Mila de la Garza greets me first with a big wave, all smiles. Her older sister, Lucia follows, with a warm and polite “how are you?” Next, their good friend, Bela Salazar, appears and they shuffle to make space for her. Then they all shuffle back the other way as Eloise Wong, cousin of the de la Garza's, joins in. The screen isn't big enough for all four of them. Eloise is perched right on the corner, almost off-camera for most of our interview. But her personality is distinct and big enough that it never feels like she's left out. The quartet are…

Doves’ sixth album, Constellations for the Lonely, the follow-up to 2020's The Universal Want, is a record that's been delivered against all the odds. While the trio—Jimi Goodwin (lead vocals, bass) and brothers Jez (guitar, backing vocals) and Andy Williams (drums, backing vocals)—have continued writing and recording, Goodwin's well-documented struggles with his mental health have seen him withdraw from live performances in recent years. The band's return to live stages in November saw the Williams brothers take the lead while their erstwhile bandmate recovers, and 2025's extensive UK tour in support of the new record will once again only feature Jez and Andy. Speaking with both Jimi Goodwin and Jez Williams separately, the bandmates discussed the new record, touring, mental health, and the struggles of being a musician in the current…

Because Mdou Moctar and his fellow Tuareg people have long been known as nomads that traverse the vast Sahara, it should come as no surprise that the guitarist (who fronts and founded a band also named Mdou Moctar) would cover considerable ground when touring his music. His bassist, Michael “Mikey” Coltun fondly recalls, during an interview with Under the Radar, that when he first joined the band about a decade ago: “It was the four of us in a minivan, touring six weeks at a time with no days off.” For several years they—Moctar on guitar and vocals, Coltun on bass, Ahmoudou Madassane on rhythm guitar, and Souleymane Ibrahim on drums—relentlessly played 200 shows a year. And while the Washington-born, New York-based bassist calls those origins “very DIY,” he points…

In a world filled with so much division and conflict, it's easy to forget about the great work that numerous charities are doing to tend to the wounds of those caught up in the global madness of war. One such charity is War Child UK (and their U.S. fundraising affiliate, Children in Conflict). Under the Radar spoke with Jim Benner, Global Music Lead, from their offices in north London recently. Originally from Philadelphia, Benner has been living in the UK for 36 years, working as a music promoter for the likes of The Mean Fiddler and being involved in the launch of the alternative radio station, XFM. He describes himself as “the music blagger” at War Child. “Basically, I'm the person who asks musicians for favors,” he explains. “Will you…

Horror, the latest album from multidimensional music savant Bartees Strange, is his most confident and exciting work to date. The 12-track project, which is his second with 4AD, feels surprisingly sprawling and unapologetically ambitious. The artist delves into a side of himself the world has yet to see. In a press release for Horror, which was produced with Jack Antonoff and Yves and Lawrence Rothman, Strange insisted that he is “trying to shrink the size of the world” and the dread that it relentlessly instills. With a palpably darker aesthetic, brusque lyrics and mercurial melodies, the songwriter seemingly fulfills this wish. He tells Under the Radar that the stark approach to his latest offering was organic and just the latest chapter in his journey. “I grew up kind of like…

To conclude, we ask Tamara Lindeman, the Toronto-based singer/songwriter who releases music as The Weather Station, some questions about endings and death. Lindeman first gained acclaim as an actress. Her debut big screen role was playing Tilda Swinton's teenage daughter in the 2001 film The Deep End and she once appeared with a young Chris Hemsworth when she played the title character in the 2002 Canadian/Australian fantasy TV show Guinevere Jones. In the past decade, however, Lindeman has switched her focus to music, first performing in the choir section of the Canadian indie rock band Bruce Peninsula, and then branching out on her own with The Weather Station on 2008's East EP and 2009's debut album, The Line. It was with 2017's fourth album, The Weather Station, that the project…

Laura Marling readily admits to her own brand of “if the shoe fits” when writing songs. For “Caroline,” from her new album, Patterns In Repeat, the listener must assume that Marling is recalling a specific old friend or nemesis. The song's title refers to both its central character, but also a long forgotten song with lyrics that Marling only remembers as “something, something Caroline.” When prompted about what song Marling is referring to in her own tale she professes not to know. “Names just appear. I've got a lot of female names in my songs. Sometimes they are just beautiful names or have a pentameter that fits,” the singer/ songwriter says. Marling's explanation would seem to cast her growing catalog under a shroud of mystique. And certainly a doubt that…

“This is a terrible metaphor or analogy,” says Lauren Mayberry. “But I feel like there are a lot of things I just put in a little bucket in my mind. It's like, ‘Okay, you can put that in the bucket. It's not ideal, but you can put it in the bucket.’ I think it just got to a point where I was like, ‘I think the bucket is full.’ The coping mechanisms were not working in the way that they used to.” Sitting in her home located on the outskirts of Los Angeles, her small frame enveloped by a bright red cable knit sweater, the longtime frontwoman of accomplished synth-pop trio CHVRCHES is explaining the deliberate emotional and creative compartmentalization she had imposed upon herself to maintain the integrity of…

Even though Michael Kiwanuka has hit songs, critical acclaim, and his native England's esteemed Mercury Prize to his name, the singer/songwriter tells Under the Radar those milestones could have easily not happened. The middle class, largely white London neighborhood of Muswell Hill where his parents settled to raise him—after escaping the infamously vicious Amin regime in their Ugandan homeland—surrounded Kiwanuka with guitar music, especially indie rock, as a teen. He says the hands outstretched to a young African boy on the cover of his new album, Small Changes “signify that, in a way. I could have lived down the hill, from Muswell Hill to Wood Green, and I probably would never have picked up a guitar. It's that fragile.” It was indeed a precarious twist of fate, to be placed…

Thirty-six years since they released Doolittle and 21 years after their Coachella reunion, Pixies are still doing things their way. Following a steady stream of albums over the last decade (2016's Head Carrier, 2019's Beneath the Eyrie, and 2022's Doggerel), they released their latest record, The Night the Zombies Came, in October. It's a collection of thematically unrelated tracks by an amazingly evergreen band. Pixies still sound like Pixies—their bombastic surf-inspired punk songwriting is as left field and witty as ever. They've once again pulled off their signature balancing act of cannonball-velocity ragers offset by butterflylight ditties (a prime example here being the blistering “Ernest Evans” leading into the quiet, self-referential “Kings of the Prairie”). Pixies even have a new bassist, Band of Skulls’ Emma Richardson, who joined just last…

Imagine a society where music is forbidden. A society where listening to music is an offense punishable by imprisonment and lashings. Accessing music is only possible through illegal means. Sharing music is a risk you take with your life. This dystopian-like society is not the stuff of an extreme YA novel, it's what's been happening in Iran for the last 46 years, under the dictatorial rule of the Islamic Republic. It hasn't always been this way in Iran. An ancient civilization going back to the Persian Empire from 550 B.C., Iran was built on the arts. Persian poets Ferdowsi, Rumi, Hafez, and Khayyam have been translated and read in multiple languages for over 1000 years. Traditional Persian instruments tar (lute), santur (dulcimer), chang (harp), and ney (flute) have been played…

My Firsts is our email interview series where we ask musicians to tell us about their first life experiences, be it early childhood ones (first word, first concert, etc.) or their first tastes of being a musician (first band, first tour, etc.). For this My Firsts we talk to Ollie Judge of Squid. The British experimental post-punk five-piece's new album, Cowards, is out now via Warp. Cowards is Squid's third album and the follow-up to 2023's O Monolith and 2001's debut album, Bright Green Field. Squid features Judge, Louis Borlase, Arthur Leadbetter, Laurie Nankivell, and Anton Pearson. Cowards was recorded at Church Studios in Crouch End, London with Mercury Prize winning producer Marta Salogni and Grace Banks. Longtime collaborator Dan Carey, who recorded the band's first two albums, provided additional…

To conclude, we ask Lilly Hiatt some questions about endings and death. The daughter of acclaimed singer/ songwriter John Hiatt, Lily was born in Los Angeles but grew up in Nashville, Tennessee. Growing up in a musical household, she's been playing music since she was 12, and released her debut album, Let Down, in 2012. Her third studio album, 2017's Trinity Lane (her first for New West), was her breakthrough release and was followed by 2020's Walking Proof and 2021's Lately. The Americana singer/songwriter has recently released a new album, Forever, via New West. Her husband, Coley Hinson, produced the album and Paul Q. Kolderie (Radiohead, Pixies, Hole) mixed it. It has been four years since her last album. “I was on the phone with a friend who said she…

On their new album, Clouds in the Sky They Will Always Be With Me, Porridge Radio's Dana Margolin is constantly at her breaking point. Her voice is frayed, exhausted, and out of her own depth against the unruly emotions boiling from within. The heartbreak permeating these songs is still fresh and in flux, which is exactly what Porridge Radio were going for. “My mindset was just: focus all your energy on these songs—this is the only thing that matters. Get through this. I'd had a breakup not long before we went into the studio, and I was pretty heartbroken. I was just looking forward to being in the studio, surrounded by my bandmates, playing music all day, every day. That was the only thing I could do—focus on this album,…

In his childhood, Geordie Greep wasn't a stranger to loud places. His mom would have late night shifts at the salsa club she worked, and to have kids running around in these environments isn't exactly the best of ideas. “My sister and I would have to be there too, but we'd stay in a back room—kind of hidden away, in some random room,” the frontman of recently defunct avant-punk outfit black midi remembers. “Anyway, we'd be in that back room and could only hear the music coming through the walls. It gave the whole thing this weird, mystical significance—like, ‘What the hell is going on out there?’ We didn't know; we'd just catch glimpses of dancing as people came in and out.” It didn't sound like much fun, and Greep…

The proprietor of Arroyo Records, Daniel Clodfelter stands in front of the only silver wall in his shop wearing a Urinals T-shirt. He clutches a stack of used vinyl to his chest like a shield. It wasn't too long ago that Clodfelter was on the customer side of the counter. A Los Angeles area native, Clodfelter, who is a musician himself, got into the record selling game by putting his personal collection on Instagram. “I was holding on to records I never listened to, once you start going through them, you lose the sentimentality,” he says turning to indicate the cabinet behind him that has four 12x12 cubbies filled with vinyl. “I wanted to whittle down my collection to something this size, where I could grab any record and be…

Australian high-octane ravers Confidence Man are back, ready to ignite dancefloors once more with their third album, 3AM (LA LA LA). This time, they promise an even wilder ride—packed with energy, chaos, and unapologetic fun. Fronted by the magnetic Janet Planet (aka Grace Stephenson) and her equally charismatic partner-in-crime, Sugar Bones (aka Aidan Moore), along with masked instrumental maestros Reggie Goodchild (aka Lewis Stephenson) and Clarence McGuffie (current real identity unknown), the band—initially a casual project—has evolved into a full-throttle party machine. “It all started just for fun,” Bones admits. “We never really intended to form a serious band.” Yet, as they began performing, something clicked. “We were selling out shows early on, and the crowds were going absolutely wild—that's when we realized this could really work.” Both Planet and…

When John Prine became one of the first major casualties of the COVID-19 pandemic in the spring of 2020, a seemingly endless series of tributes poured in from all corners of the music world. Prine was a rare songwriter, the poet laureate of the ordinary and overlooked, someone whose intuitive grasp of comedy and tragedy resulted in a catalog overflowing with one-liners that perfectly captured the absurdity of the human condition. There are other songwriters—Randy Newman, Jarvis Cocker, Father John Misty—who can wield a comedic turn of phrase, but all of them are a bit more sardonic and sharp-elbowed in their critiques than Prine ever was. With his passing it seemed that his sort of songwriting was likely gone with him. And then MJ Lenderman arrived. With three solo records…

As we've done every four or five years for the last two decades, artists were provided posterboard and either paint or sharpies and invited to make their own protest signs, which we then photographed them holding. Mainly the musicians were captured via our photographers in New York City, Virginia, Los Angeles, London, and elsewhere. In some instances, artists submitted their own photos via a friend photographing them or a self-timer. They were encouraged to be as direct and political as possible and most of these photos were taken in 2024, many before the November election.…

T he fact that the United States has a rich history of protest songs could easily be placed in the category of general knowledge. From Pete Seeger to Bob Dylan and before and beyond, examples abound. But to dive deeper, Maine's First Amendment Museum has an excellent online history of U.S.based protest music that starts as early as 1774. “Free Americay!” by Dr. Joseph Warren anyone? A battle ready fife and drum anthem, Warren perished the year after the song's publication at the Battle of Bunker Hill. Picking up guitar and pen to air grievances is obviously well suited to songwriters. Inherently in the mode of communicating messages accompanied with melodies, a protest song at its most basic is an exercise in focusing on the subject of the song. In…

“S that,” says Patrick Jones, poet and political of our time.’ omeone said, ‘It is the moral issue And I do agree with playwright. “Where else on Earth would it be allowed to happen? Really? This sort of blatant disregard of the other.” It's a stark assessment of just how little value has been placed on Palestinian life during 75 years of Israeli occupation. The intense levels of dehumanizing scrutiny and oppression. And the grotesque number of war crimes committed in the name of Israeli defense since the start of the IsraelGaza war on October 7, 2023. Welsh wordsmith Jones has published numerous poetry books including Fuse/Fracture and My Bright Shadow. He has previously released the 1999 spoken word album Commemoration and Amnesia and collaborated with The Membranes’ bassist/singer and punk…