McCookerybook and Rotifer
Ahead of the release of their delightful collaborative EP 'Equal Parts', songwriters Helen McCookerybook and Robert Rotifer discuss the 'completely joyful' experience of recording over two days in August and their desire to use the EP to transcend the divisions between the UK and Europe brought on by Brexit.
McCookerybook and Rotifer
In the second of a two part interview about their new joint EP 'Equal Parts', Helen McCookerybook and Robert Rotifer talk to Ben Howarth about their discovery of each other's music and working with one another.
Apartments
Ben Howarth speaks to Peter Milton Walsh, the frontman with Australian alternative rock band the Apartments about his group's second 'comeback' album 'In and Out of the Light', his approach to songwriting and his plans for touring.
Ben Bedford
Singer-songwriter Ben Bedford has recently revisited three albums of storytelling folk with a new compilation. He tells Ben Howarth about the process of choosing the songs and how his musical influences have shaped a gradual change of direction on more recent albums.
Matt Hill
After releasing several albums as Quiet Loner, Northern English singer=songwriter Matt Hill speaks to Ben Howarth about his latest album, the folk-influenced 'Savage Pilgrims', which is also his debut LP under his own name.
John Howard
Returning with the second volume of a three-part autobiography, John Howard takes Ben Howarth and John Clarkson on a compelling guided tour of the fringes of the late-70s, early 80s music industry, while also navigating an increasingly complex personal life in the shadow of the Aids crisis.
Unthanks
Ben Howarth profiles the Unthanks' extraordinary three CD latest album which combines elements of jazz and modern classical music as well as traditional folk and sets to music the work of several poets.
Ash
Ben Howarth winds back the years to the mid-1990s as he watches Ash play a Greatest Hits set at the Shepherd's Bush Empire in London
Ash
Ben Howarth winds back the years to the mid-1990s as he watches Ash play a Greatest Hits set at the Shepherd's Bush Empire in London
Miscellaneous
Ben Howarth refelcts upon Californian singer-songwriter Sean O'Brien's eighth solo album from last year, which is an enjoyable ride from power-pop to angsty punk.
Pennyblackmusic
Having begun writing for Pennyblack at the same time as he collected his GCSE results, Ben Howarth has now been writing for the site almost as long as it has been around. As we approach our 20th birthday, he selects in 'Ten Songs That Made Me love...' some of the songs that sum up his experience.
Miscellaneous
In the first in his 'Condemned to Rock 'n' Roll' column in a year, Ben Howarth looks at a trio of albums that suggest there is still plenty to listen to for someone feeling out of touch with the modern music scene.
John Howard
Contemplative, experimental and highly rewarding seventeenth album from singer-songwriter, pianist and writer John Howard
Apartments
On his second ‘comeback’ album after 2015’s acclaimed ‘‘No Song, No Spell, No Madrigal’, Peter Milton Walsh offers up a collection of songs that rival any since his band the Apartments’ first releases in 1978