The band – fronted by Gene Gallagher with Ben Taylor on guitar and Jack Schiavo on bass – came together by chance in the summer of 2023. What began as an encounter quickly grew into a shared mission: to revive the harder edge of rock music.

“It was a genuine passion and drive to bring back rock music again,” Taylor told NME. “Bands have been in the culture lately, but it was indie rock for a long time. Then it plateaued into an almost ‘pop’ band-y culture. We wanted to bring something back.”

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That ethos has driven Villanelle’s rapid rise on the live circuit. Despite not releasing any music to date, the trio capped off 2023 with a sold-out UK headline tour on word-of-mouth alone. Earlier last year, they secured a coveted slot supporting Gene’s father Liam Gallagher on his ‘Definitely Maybe’ 30th anniversary shows.

Now, Villanelle are ready to introduce their sound to the world with ‘Hinge’. Described by the band as a ferocious collision of lo-fi grunge and arena-ready swagger, the track nods to the raw energy of Nirvana while channelling punk rock urgency.

“It’s just all heavy guitars,” Gallagher explained. “That’s my favourite tone of any song: just really chuggy chords and really fucking distorted. All my favourite songs are like that – very punk rock. ‘Hinge’is a proper right-hook of a song.”

The single’s arrival marks a significant milestone for the group, who have so far relied on live shows to build their reputation. With a UK tour announcement set to coincide with the release, Villanelle are poised to translate their live energy into a new chapter defined by original material.

As anticipation builds, ‘Hinge’ will serve as the first glimpse into what Villanelle have been crafting behind the scenes – a band intent on bringing back grit, volume and attitude to the UK rock landscape.

‘Hinge’is released Wednesday, September 10, with details of Villanelle’s forthcoming UK tour also due the same day. The single can be preordered here. Based on the anticipation of the band so far, it seems Villanelle have an exciting musical career ahead and fans should stay tuned for potential future releases.

“Astrolabe“, an energised droning mix of cello, violin, flute, drums and a pulsating vocal performance, is, according to the band, about “lovers across the centuries; from the love letters between Heloise and Abelard in medieval France to Bonnie and Clyde’s romantic partnership in crime in 1930s America“, thereby enjoining different eras with a recurring theme, love, and creating a shared thread that runs through human history and experience.

Listen to “Astrolabe” below:

Consisting of Nina Winder-Lind (vocals, cello, guitar), Kate Mager (bass), Violet Farrer (violin, guitar, vocals) and Ella Russell (drums, flute, vocals), The New Eves formed in Brighton in 2021, combining an undeniably remarkable DIY ethic with incredible musical talent. This initially resulted in jam sessions in which the band cultivated their now unmistakable sound, splicing ritualistic, communal folk wailing with a punky, droning effect brought by beautiful string tones of cello and violin and, quite clearly, a strong love and appreciation of The Velvet Underground.

Their single “Original Sin” brings together this rustic folk sound with flashes of punk and a certain 60s pop-rock aura, creating a wonderfully catchy track that continually captivates, fades and springs back into glorious life. Like “Astrolabe” this song too weaves a thread through human history, connecting Eve to every woman that has lived since Eve, suffering under the same shared struggle under the traditional patriarchy and religion, yet ultimately becoming emancipated, free to enjoy life as they see fit.

On the lyrics the band added, “The band is fighting a biblical battle between shame and pleasure, body and mind, good and evil. The lyrics are poetic and unapologetic. ‘Throw away my fading halo and start dancing’ is the type of line that’s calling to be written on the bedroom wall of teenagers up and down the country. This is the song Eve would have written if she had an electric guitar.”

Watch the music video for “Original Sin” below:

Watch The New Eves perform “Vallät” at Brighton Electric Studios below:

You can catch The New Eves at The Great Escape Festival in Brighton (15-18 May), Wide Awake Festival in Brixton (25 May) and Green Man Festival in Bannau Brycheiniog National Park (15-18 August).

Felix White took to his Instagram the day after the show on Friday to make the official announcement, saying “I’ve been making a record with my brothers and the brilliant Jamie Morrison for the past few years. It’s taken a second, but we are finally happy with what our new band is ….” Posting some footage from the show in conjunction with the message he went on to say “Yesterday we played the songs for the first time to a room full of friends and family at Omeara. It was a really, really good time. I’d forgotten how much I missed it. Thank you to everyone there. At some point this year there will be the first recorded music and gigs .. we’re really looking forward to sharing it all with you. The band is called @86tvs”

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The Maccabees split back in 2017 having been together for 14 years and released 4 full length albums. They were an essential and influential ingredient to the explosion of indie rock that happened in the UK during the 2000’s and 2010’s and won several awards for their music during their time together, including an Ivor Novello Award for Best Contemporary Song “Pelican” on their third album Given To The Wild.

In a statement at the time of their split, the band said “There have not been fallings out and we are grateful to say that we are not leaving the group as a dividing force“. Since then members of the band have had success enjoying other pursuits in music. Ex-lead singer Orlando Weeks has had great success as a solo artist and novelist, releasing his debut book The Gritterman with an accompanying soundtrack to great critical acclaim. Elsewhere, Felix White has been enjoying cultural success in many different facets, including hosting the popular cricket podcast It’s Always Summer Somewhere, setting up his own record label Yala!, and contributing to the soundtracks of John McEnroe biopic McEnroe and cricket documentary The Edge. Hugo White hasn’t spent much time twiddling his thumbs either, with a recent appearance playing guitar for Jamie T on the John Peel Stage at last months Glastonbury Festival.

86tvs must therefore be quite the project if it’s getting these busy bees to divide their time even more. We’ll be keeping our eyes peeled and ears primed for any updates..

“Free Advice” is a shoegaze disco synth-pop amalgamation, compiling the best work from the bands seven piece team of talented artists and musicians. Taking on a more 80s flare compared to the more punk aesthetics seen in the members other respective bands it provides a fresh sound within the current underground music scene – something you can really dance to. A tune you can both mosh and bop to at the same time, it has really optimistic instrumentation and rhythm courtesy of videogame-esque synths and frantic drum sequences. Speaking on the single, lead singer Emily Garner said Free Advice “conveys the state of feeling invincible in adversity and serves quite clearly as a piece of good advice, which is applicable to anyone. who has gone out of his way to harden your vibe”

Ever important in the digital age of music, the single was accompanied by a music video. Similar to its sonics, the video pictures animations close in aesthetic to retro computer games with bright pastels and pixelated scenery. Watch it here.

Fans truly can’t predict what will come of the album, something not normally seen within modern music so this release comes as a truly unique formation; we’ve heard these musicians before in their own respective circles (think Yard Act’s outspoken post punk ‘Fixer Upper’ and Hookworm’s stormy psychedelic Negative Space.)

Yard Act have built up a cult following from the go with their debut singles being released in 2021 and their huge 63 date 2022 UK tour already underway, which features festivals such as Truck festival as well as 2 dates at the Øyafestivalen festival in Oslo.

As for ‘Hookworms’, they were previously signed to Gringo Records (the label who are now releasing ‘Holodrum’s‘ debut album.)  Three members of Hookworms can now be heard on this new record and album, they are Matthew Ben, Jonathan Nash and Jonathan Wilkinson. ‘Hookworms’ saw their end in 2018 after the frontman received allegations of sexual assault and mental abuse.  

Listen to ‘Free Advice’ here and pre order the debut album here.

He then explained that performances from the band will not be conventional and instead, he’ll rent a place which he’ll use to display his artwork which he created over lockdown and at night, he plans to host and DJ old school raves. He said during the live feed, “I’m gonna do this thing with my friends. Form a band and what I’m gonna do is rent a space, put my art in there. During the day it’ll be a gallery. Then at night I shall be DJing and it will be a musical venue, something the old folks will call a rave.”

He continued by saying, “I’ll be on the espressos. Oh yes I will. Quadruple espresso. Doing it old school. I’m very, very excited about this. I want to do it in Berlin. I also want to do it in Tokyo. I wanna do it in several places. Be fun won’t it? It’s one of them things, it’s a passion project. If some thing hap-pens then great, if not, I’ve just had fun.”

As well as keeping busy with his artwork over lockdown,  Robbie has been songwriting and has created more than 50 songs during the period. The Sun newspaper reported that back in June, “he confirmed he had been writing music with his former bandmate Gary via Zoom.” During lockdown back in May, Robbie re-joined his former Take That bandmates, for a one off virtual charity gig.

He revealed his latest news just weeks after his surprise release of his latest Christmas song, “Can’t Stop Christmas,” which is a light hearted, cheeky song which has references to the measures we’ve all faced over the past 12 months due to the pandemic. Robbie mimics zoom, facetime, hand sanitizer and the two metre social distancing rule in his latest track with a line which is written in The Daily Mail, “‘Santa’s on his sleigh, but now he’s two metres away.”

The song begins, “Oh what a miserable year, but what a time to be alive. Sadly some friends disappeared , It’s never been like this before, It feels like we’re at war. So I wonder who’s gonna decide, if we can do the Auld Lang Syne. I wish that I could do what I like, with this family of mine We’re going out of our minds.” Although the unprecedented 2020 in nearly at an end, it seems that Robbie has used his time over lockdown wisely with new creations and exciting plans for future projects for 2021.

The announcement of Salem comes with the promise of a debut EP coming next month (October 23), and in this regard, we actually have lockdown to be grateful for. Following the intensity of putting out Sex, Death & The Infinite Void, Gould locked himself away with Reynolds and poured out songs. With the intention of stripping back from the conceptual complexity of Creeper’s second album, Gould says that all the songs that we will get to hear next month were written in an hour.

They were never really intended for release, though – it was only when Gould began to get restless with their plans on hold, that this project re-entered his periphery. Gould told NME, “everyone is doing boring shit in bands at the moment, just sat on top of a washing machine with an acoustic guitar doing a live-stream and I hate it.” Automatically rebelling against this way of continuing his career through lockdown, Gould pulled an album out of his sleeve. In essence, Salem is the result of seriously blowing off some steam, and from the opening chord of ‘Destroy Me’, this massive release of energy begins.

Creeper’s second album actually was difficult for Gould, not that this is reflected in what they ultimately created. It is a talented and varied explosion of punk, covering everything from dynamic, guitar-led tracks to the ballad-like ‘All My Friends’, whose fantastic opening line is the album title “sex, death and the infinite void”. It had five singles. Oh, and if this wasn’t enough, it’s a concept album about the seven deadly sins, partially inspired by tv show Twin Peaks.

‘Destroy Me’ is more like all of the talent with less of the concept (even then, its release is accompanied by a high quality music video with a distinct aesthetic). Bittersweet Press are absolutely on the money with their description: “a perfect debut single”.

thank you all for spreading the good word of the @Church_of_Salem today, love you guys!

someone spiked the holy water and now we’re all fuckin’ drinking it xx

— William Gould (@willghould) September 28, 2020

You can’t quite imagine how ‘Destroy Me’ will make you feel until you listen to it; it’s instantly catchy. It sounds urgent and the guitar races through three short minutes (the lyrics, incidentally, are pretty racy). To my mind, ‘Destroy Me’ strikes that excellent balance between novelty and highly-talented-artists-taking-a-new-direction. Actually, it sounds like the few moments that we heard My Chemical Romance really let down their hair in the last two decades. Even though it’s very on brand for me to throw around My Chemical Romance allusions left, right and centre, I noticed this because Gould had previously told NME about the pressure Creeper felt because “everyone was talking about us like we were going to be the next My Chemical Romance.”

And yeah, ‘Destroy Me’ is a bit reminiscent of My Chemical Romance, or AFI, or even any number of early 2000s British guitar bands. Ultimately, though, Will Gould is far, far more than the sum of his musical influences, or the pressure to be like them. On its own, ‘Destroy Me’ is a fantastic spark of uncontainable energy. In comparison to Sex, Death & The Infinite Void, it’s a completely different display of Gould’s talent, equally uncontainable. He says that Salem “runs the opposite way to Creeper.” Gould is in a league of his own; he doesn’t even need to compete with himself.