Interview by Parisa Eshrati

"Night is when strange things happen. When shapes shift and blur. When it’s hard to know what’s real and what’s illusion." For Cyprus' Monsieur Doumani, darkness has been a means to explore a whole new dynamic to their music. While staying rooted in traditional Cypriot music, the band takes on a new experimental approach to create a conceptual portrait of the night on their latest release, Pissourin. We caught up vocalist and tzouras player Antonis Antoniou in an email interview to delve deep into the album's themes of darkness, and ultimately, how to find the light.

Interview by Parisa Eshrati

Emerging from the underground Afro-Arab music scene, Bab L’ Bluz are reclaiming the blues of North Africa on their debut album, Nayda! Fronted by an African-Moroccan woman in a traditionally male role, Bab L'Bluz's music nods to the revolutionary attitude of the Moroccan "Nayda" youth movement. The album is rooted in traditions of the Maghreb and ancient Gnawa music, but incorporates modern influences of rock, funk, and psychedelic fusion. In this detailed three-part interview, we spoke with vocalist and multi-instrumentalists Yousra Mansour and Brice Bottin on the evolution of the Nayda movement, the instrumental and spiritual connection to Gnawa music, as well as the various lyrical themes expressed throughout the album.

Interview by Parisa Eshrati

tētēma is the cross continent tour-de-force project featuring composer and songwriter Anthony Pateras and vocalist Mike Patton (Faith No More, Mr. Bungle, etc.), Their recently released second LP, Necroscape, is a synthesis of musique concrète, analogue tape loop recordings, industrial noise, complex time signatures, and heavy experimental grooves. The result is a brilliant avant-garde release brimming with intricacies that create a challenging yet buoyant mood. In this interview, we caught up with Pateras to discuss the five year recording process, techniques used to create tabula rasa soundscapes, and finding optimism through experimentation.

Interview by Parisa Eshrati

​Everything is Terrible! is the video and performance collective that is responsible for some of the internet’s most bizarre and hilarious viral videos. Ahead of their 2019 tour, we asked EIT! about their curation process and had them share their favorite music videos from their vault, ranging from motivational raps to summoning Satanic verses. 

Interview by Parisa Eshrati

As opposed to their more internally-driven records, Xiu Xiu's latest release, Girl with Basket of Fruit, was formed through reactions and explorations of artistic texts and imagery. We spoke with frontman Jamie Stewart on the stimuli that influenced the ritualistic soundscapes and lyricism of the record, the use of supernatural elements to provoke inspiration, and how he pushed his own boundaries to delve deep into the dark realms of spirituality.