A short introduction to the new Loud And Quiet podcast, from the dazzling music experts that brought you Midnight Chats

When Porridge Radio announced that their new EP would also be their final release, following 4 albums and a 2020 Mercury Prize nomination, my first thought wasn’t ‘why?’ but ‘I wonder how that must feel?’. Followed shortly by, ‘what was Dana Margolin’s career highlight?’, and ‘should more bands split up at a point when their fans feel like they’ve still got more to give?’

Last week Dana agreed to talk to me about the end of her band, having originally decided that it was too soon to discuss the matter.

Patrick Wolf is making his return to music after a 13-year period that you wouldn’t wish upon anyone. Since his last album in 2012, he’s experienced grief following the loss of his mother to cancer in 2018, battled addiction to alcohol and hard drugs, been declared bankrupt, and was the victim of a hit and run.

When I spoke to him last week for this two-part episode of the podcast, I was struck by how he takes responsibility for all of it. Even being hit by a car.

Thank you to Patrick for being so open during our conversation, which took place in his garden studio in east Kent. We spoke for so long that I’ve chopped it into parts one and two, starting off with how the past 13 years have been, and how he got through it by building a new life for himself near the coastal town of Ramsgate, inspired by an Alan Bennett film.

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Listen on the Substack site or app, or search Loud And Quiet Podcast wherever you get The Rest is Politics.

Boring fact: We originally started this Substack in 2020 solely as a place to host a subscriber-only podcast called Sweet 16, exclusively for readers who’d subscribed to our physical magazine during the pandemic. Each episode features a different artist recalling what the hell they were doing at the age of 16, inspired by a column of hopes, dreams and PTSD we used to run in the magazine. Somewhere along the line 2 episodes dropped off, hosted somewhere else for reasons that are too boring even for this. One was with Stephen Malkmus and the other was with Amy Taylor from Australian garage punk band Amyl & the Sniffers. It’s time these 2 stragglers were united with the rest of the pack, so here’s Amy’s episode, with a bit of extra blabbing from me.

In the second part of my conversation with Patrick Wolf, the London-born musician who I met at his new home on the east Kent coast looked back at his previous major label record deals that took him from a life of DIY creation to a world where he suddenly had £250k to spend on a music video. What did he make of those days, and how does he feel about returning to music as an independent artist in a new world of hyper-self-marketing and content creation?

And then there was the question of new album Crying the Neck, Wolf’s first album in 13 years, and a punchy closer: is he happy with his career so far? Typically, he answered that one with the same candour that ran through our entire time together.

Recording as we walked, Jack Barnett of These New Puritans joined me on this special episode of the podcast that captures the sounds of our shared hometown, Southend-on-Sea, Essex.

It’s hardly a place known for the type of progressive music that Jack and his twin brother George have made since forming the band in 2006, but during our conversation he confirms my suspicions – TNP have such a distinct, heads-down approach to making music, it really doesn’t matter where Jack bases himself to write and produce these albums of classical, industrial, jazz and ballad explorations. Records made in Berlin, London and Greece all have a distinct TNP feeling of bleak beauty. Kind of like Southend itself.

The band’s new album is called Crooked Wing (out 23 May via the Domino label) and has taken another 6 years to make. It features Caroline Polachek, choirs, church organs, field recordings and songs about cranes falling in love.

Upcoming live dates

The new video for ‘A Season In Hell’ starting Alexander Skarsgård

‘Industrial Love Song’ feat. Caroline Polachek

‘Bells’

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“My dream for this album is for someone to hear it and not know who I am as an actor beforehand,” says Finn Wolfhard on this episode of The Loud And Quiet Podcast. As the star of Stranger Things and the new Ghostbusters reboot, it feels like a dream that’s becoming more and more unlikely, but Wolfhard began playing and writing music long before he started acting, learning bass at the age of 7 to emulate his hero Paul McCartney.

Having already released records with his bands Culpurnia and The Aubreys, Wolfhard’s debut solo album, Happy Birthday, will be out in a couple of weeks, which gave me the perfect excuse to speak with him about the music he grew up on, his love of skateboarding, and what happens if his music career takes off.

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Extra viewing:

‘Objection’ video

Finn’s Lip Sync Battle

Facts’ ‘Retro Oceans’ video

Whether a teenager dancing in Michael Flatley’s Lord Of The Dance in Vegas, a member of conceptual mid-00s pop band The Pipettes, or touring schools and clubs as a “Kwik Save Kylie”, Gwenno Saunders has never not wholeheartedly thrown herself into what’s in front of her. For the last 10 years though, she’s found her true voice as an artist popularising often psychedelic music in both the Welsh and Cornish language. Her forthcoming, forth solo album, Utopia, is her first to predominantly feature lyrics in English, and includes lessons learnt in desert and in London’s mid-00s indie scene.

Stuart Stubbs visited Gwenno at her studio in Cardiff this week to discuss her chaotic 20s and to convince her to do Eurovision.

Further links and videos:

My first interview with Gwenno from 2015

‘Dancing On Volcanoes’ video shot in Vegas

‘Pull Shapes’ video, by The Pipettes

It’s the second installment of the Loud And Quiet Roundtable, where, this month, Sam Walton, Gemma Samways and Stuart Stubbs get the measure of 3 big albums released in June: Never Enough by US hardcore band Turnstile, Addison Rae’s shallow pop debut Addison, and Don’t Die Before You’re Dead by British rapper AJ Tracey.

Back under the microscope, too, is Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp A Butterfly. Heralded as a classic in 2015, how does it stand up a decade later?

Listen above or wherever you get your podcasts.

Further reading/viewing:

Stu’s Beyonce review

Stu’s Lana Del Rey review

Addison Rae on Jimmy Fallon

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Karly Hartzman started Wednesday in North Carolina (the only State she’s ever lived and, she says, will ever live it) as a solo project, until her sister made her put a full lineup together to play at her birthday. Things slowly grew, but 2023 was a supercharged year for the band when their forth album, Rat Saw God, became the year’s indie hit for all fans of indie- folk- and Southern-rock.

Next month the band will release the even better Bleeds. A strange album for Hartzman and guitarist Jake ‘MJ’ Lenderman, it was written in the final months of their romantic relationship and recorded post-breakup. They agreed to keep their split from the band until Bleeds was recorded. Following a year of huge solo success in 2024, Lenderman remains a member of Wednesday when they’re in the studio, but will no longer tour with them.

On this episode of the podcast – recorded in London last week – we discuss the split in the background of the band’s new album, how Karly has kicked social media with the help of a s**t phone, death by bears, and how Wednesday’s next album might be a hardcore punk record.

Listen above or via your podcast app of choice.

Further links and videos:

Karly’s weird and wonderful website

Wednesday’s website

Grizzly Man trailer

Back again for another look back at 3 key releases from the past month, Gemma Samways, Sam Walton and Stuart Stubbs discuss new albums from Ethel Cain, Mac DeMarco and Water From Your Eyes, with just enough time to reconsider MGMT’s willfully difficult second album Congratulations, release 15 years ago. Was it as bad as everybody said back then? Has it got better with age? And what’s it like to be a label who has to reject an album?

Further reading/viewing

Dom Haley’s Water From Your Eyes interview

The Guadian’s article on Terence Trent D’Arby

Mac DeMarco on the Midnight Chats podcast

Mac DeMarco in Amsterdam

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As we leave behind the month of September, Gemma Samways, Sam Walton and Stuart Stubbs discuss new albums from Geese, David Byrne and Mark William Lewis. Plus a look back Grimes’ most successful record, but why aren’t we all still talking about Art Angels 10 years later?

Support this podcast via our Substack page, for less than £4 per month!

Once a month Stuart Stubbs, Sam Walton and Gemma Samways get together to discuss the new albums that everyone has been talking about over the last month. In October 2025 that’s been Tame Impala’s first dance record, Dave’s verbose third, and of course Lily Allen’s revenge opera West End Girl.

We always reassess an anniversary record too, and this month ask if Madonna’s Confessions on a Dance Floor still stands up 20 years later. And would people be as outraged by a 47-year-old woman in a leotard in 2025?

Further reading/viewing

Pitchfork’s Confessions on a Dance Floor review

Pitchfork’s Deadbeat review

The Sophist on Lily Allen’s West End Girl

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As Wakefield trio The Cribs prepare to release new album Selling A Vibe, twin brothers Gary and Ryan Jarman remember the mid-00s indie scene they never fully belonged to, and explain why Steve Albini remained their hero after they recorded with the legend they’d admired since childhood.

Paying attention to the last song on your album is important, they say, because it could be the last song anyone ever hears from your band. And that was nearly the case a few years ago, when they discovered that they didn’t own their own catalogue, which almost caused them to quit the band.

For more from Loud And Quiet, and to support, visit https://loudandquiet.substack.com/

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In the final roundtable of 2025, Gemma Samways, Sam Walton and Stuart Stubbs take on the new album from goblin indie band Sorry, Detroit rapper Danny Brown’s hyperpop record, Stardust, and Rosalía’s swing for pop opera greatness with LUX. Rounded off with our personal albums of the year.

Further reading/viewing

The Loud And Quiet Albums of the Year list

The Danny Brown Show on YouTube

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2025 has been the 30th year of Biffy Clyro, the Kilmarnock trio who always wanted to be 100 people’s favourite band 1 million people’s 10th favourite band.

On this episode of the Loud And Quiet Podcast, frontman, guitarist and lyricist Simon Neil reflects on the band’s beginnings and what drove them to sign to a major for their fourth album, Puzzle. It was, says Neil, a no-brainer, despite them never wanting to be on a big label, and none of their favourite records coming from that world.

The payoff has been undeniable, as Biffy became the UK’s biggest rock band, covered by an X-Factor winner and scoring four number 1 albums, including this year’s 10th record, Futique. Not band for a group of friends who were signed at T In The Park playing the Unsigned Band Stage, when their kit fell apart and was covered in blood.

Further reading/viewing

Simon on A View From A Bridge

The Loud And Quiet Marmaduke Duke shoot and interview

‘Machines’, the Rock Version

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Yesterday, Metronomy – a band who have been on a break since 2022 and estimate that they won’t be back until late 2027 at the earliest – announced a single surprise live show for 2026, at London’s LIDO festival on 14 June.

The band’s songwriter and producer, who started Metronomy as a solo project in 1999, has been keeping himself busy in the meantime, working with others, including Robyn once again, and Adam Buxton, whose 2024 novelty record, Buckle Up, he produced.

Speaking with Joe at his home earlier this month, he reflects on the band’s recent Greatest Hits album and explains why it doesn’t mark the end of the band; only that he isn’t rushing inspiration to make a meaningful return. He’s found a lot of that in Lily Allen’s most recent album, and would like Tim Rice or Tim Curry to play him in the biopic of his life. Or Mark Ruffalo.

Listen above or wherever you get your podcasts.

Further reading/viewing

Tickets to Lido

Loud And Quiet early Metronomy cover feature (Nights Out era, 2008)

Loud And Quiet cover feature (Love Letters era, 2014)

Elton John, Tantrums and Tiaras

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One of the reasons Flying Lotus hasn’t released an album since 2019’s Flamagra is because he’s spent the last 5 years directing a sci-fi horror movie called Ash, starring Aaron Paul. Today he’s announced a new EP – a maximalist collection of tracks called Big Mama, the first to be released via his own Brainfeeder label, which has been releasing others since 2008.

On this episode of the Loud And Quiet Podcast, FlyLo reflects on what making a feature film takes out of you, and how Big Mama came to be from a desire to not write music but sound.

More music (new and old) is on its way in 2026, including a reissue of FlyLo’s long-out-of-circulation 2006 debut album 1983, which fans have had to find on YouTube until now.

Recorded at the end of 2025, we also get into his new year’s resolutions, which range from profound self improvement to hanging out with a big reptile.

Listen above or wherever you get your podcasts.

Further reading/viewing

Big Mama’s artwork

Ash trailer

Kuso trailer

‘Fire Is Coming’ with David Lynch

One member of the Loud And Quiet team may have let slip during this episode of the Roundtable that they get their new music recommendations from The Graham Norton Show. Join Gemma Samways, Sam Walton and Stuart Stubbs for our monthly album reviews, taking on the 9th record by Gorillaz, Danny L Harle’s Euro trance debut/not debut Cerulean, and the heavy, heavy sound of Manchester industrial electro noise band Mandy, Indiana.

We also put Radiohead’s King of Limbs back under the microscope 15 years on from its release – an album recorded at Drew Barrymore’s house.

Listen above or on whichever podcast app you prefer.

Support this podcast with a paid subscription at https://loudandquiet.substack.com/ where you'll receive our written interviews, reviews and essays too.

Gemma Samways, Sam Walton and Stuart Stubbs put 3 new albums under the microscope for the year’s first Roundtable episode of the podcast. Those albums are the third from south London post-punk band Dry Cleaning, and a couple of debuts, from LA big voice Tyler Ballgame and Phoenix underground rap duo By Storm.

The anniversary record we take a second look at is of course Bowie’s parting gift, Blackstar, released 10 years ago, just 2 days before his death. Did we all get so caught up in grief that we loved that album without really listening to it, or does it stand up better than ever?

Listen above or wherever you get your podcasts. Just search The Loud And Quiet Podcast.

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Further reading/viewing

Sam’s Dry Cleaning cover feature from 2022

Before Canadian Inuk throat singer Tanya Tagaq starts any show she announces where the exits are in case anyone isn’t into her often aggressive and improvised performance. She’s completely fine with the walkouts, and we’ve perhaps not had anyone on the show before who’s as comfortable within themself as Tanya is.

Also an author, visual artist, activist for the protection of indigenous rights in Northern Territory Canada and around the world, theatre maker, teacher and, recently, an actor in True Detective and North of North, Tagaq has just released her 7th album, Saputjiji. It’s a record that features her also singing conventionally for the first time.

This episode of the podcast turns into something of a therapy session as Tanya talks of her life spent not caring what strangers think of her. We also get into how Björk ended up featuring on her 2005 debut album, if more acting is in the works, and how all of her life experiences have simply come to her, almost by accident.

Listen above or wherever you get your podcasts.

Further reading/viewing

Tanya’s performance at the 2014 Polaris Prize

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When WU LYF were the band that every label wanted to sign in 2010 they rejected all offers, recorded their debut in a church with the help of their fans, and split up.

15 years later they’ve unexpectedly returned with a second album. Less surprising is how they’ve released A Wave That Will Never Break, sticking to their original ethos of building a community of their own. This time around, what they’re rejecting most of all is streaming platforms, instead building their own via their website WORLDUNITE.ORG, which is the only way to hear the new record, other than buying a copy in a store. The site also features an Instagram-like journal, tickets, a fan chat and merch, all for fans who become members.

Ellery and Tom from the band joined me to discuss why they felt they had no option but to do things this way, and what it was like to be the hottest band in the UK in 2010.

Listen above or wherever you get your podcasts.

Support Loud And Quiet and this podcast by subscribing to our Substack

Further reading/viewing

WU LYF on the Culture Show

Is WU LYF’s return the most perfectly timed in indie history?

WORLDUNITE.ORG

Once a month 3 members of the Loud And Quiet team (Sam Walton, Gemma Samways and Stuart Stubbs) meet up to review 3 albums released over the last 30 days – usually records that had everyone talking. This month, it’s the turn of Harry Styles’ pivot to electro pop, James Blake’s first independent release, and the debut from NYC duo Fcukers.

Revisited is the debut phenomenon from Arctic Monkeys, with the help of a quiz that is FUN. Remember that! It’s a fun thing to listen to and play along with.

This episode is not sponsored by Gary Barlow’s wine company. Sadly.

Further reading/viewing

The New Yorker article on album launches not hanging around

James Blake’s plate-spinning album cover

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Considering the city of Sheffield’s music heritage – from the future pop of The Human League to stadium rock giants Def Leppard, industrial pioneers Cabaret Voltaire, legendary electronic label Warp, Pulp, ABC, Arctic Monkeys, Self Esteem, hundreds more – it’s borderline impressive that it’s never been chronicled in one book. Other music cities (Manchester, Liverpool, New York) have been 100 times over, but the people of the Steel City are a modest bunch.

Writer Daniel Dylan Wray has now written that book, spanning from 1960 to the early 2020s. It’s called Groovy, Laidback & Nasty, and is publish this week, on 7 May. I spoke with Dan about his first book, from Peter Stringfellow’s forgotten life promoting Jimi Hendrix to the 150+ artists he spoke with to help tell this story. There’s also some good advice for fellow writers, and some hard truths about how writing a book actually works.

Listen above or wherever you get your podcasts.

Further reading

Order a copy of Groovy, Laidback & Nasty

Tickets to Dan’s book launches in Sheffield, London and Brighton

Dan’s first article on Sheffield, about historic night club Niche

Jive Turkey for The Guardian

David Lynch interview for Loud And Quiet

Just What is an Industry Plant Anyway? for Loud And Quiet

David Byrne interview for Loud And Quiet

Not only do we discuss our customary new albums this month (from Canadian microtonal space aliens Angine de Poitrine, NY electro punk band Lip Critic and new art rock greats Modern Woman) but also the Geese viral mirage, a very horrible football song and what exactly is the Met Gala?

Listen above or wherever you get your podcasts.

Further reading/viewing

Angine de Poitrine KEXP session

Wired’s Geese marketing exposé

North London Forever

Modern Woman Bandcamp

Lip Critic Bandcamp

Angine de Poitrine Bandcamp

Joe Newman – frontman, guitarist and chief songwriter in art rock band alt-J – estimates he’s recognised no more than twice a year; the dream/improbable scenario for a musician operating at his impressive level of success.

Following four alt-J albums, Newman is about to release his excellent debut solo record under the name JJerome87. It’s call The Canyon (coming 27 June) and has a distinctly Californian sound. A big sound, I tell him in this week’s podcast, as abstract as that sounds. What I meant was that it sounds like a million people are playing on it, while Newman’s gift for strange lyrics that mean the world remains. “Baby come away with me / Let’s get lazy eye surgery.”

Join us for a discussion around success, Los Angeles, how to tell you band you’re making a record without them, and a slow motion Hobbit orgy.

Support this podcast and L&Q at loudandquiet.substack.com

Listen above or wherever you get your podcasts

Further reading/viewing

jjerome87.com

Ticket’s for Joe’s album launch show at Bush Hall, London

‘Track and Field’ video

Under the microscopes of our 3 intrepid reviewers this month are new albums by Danish punks Iceage, Pittsburgh noise pop trio Feeble Little Horse and the buzziest rapper in the world right now, Fakemink. Plus, has Drake beaten his career-ending beef simply by flooding the zone with algorithm chum? Who would be on your version of Charli XCX’s new album cover? And how will Sam defend the new Belle & Sebastian World Cup song?

Listen above or wherever you get your podcasts.

Support Loud And Quiet here

Further reading/viewing

Boards of Canada, Inferno review

Aldous Harding, Train on The Island review

YHWH Nailgun album review in our Album Stock Market feature

Anton Corbijn on the podcast

Fast Show’s Indie Club

How Drake Lost the Plot, from The New Yorker

Belle & Sebastian ‘It Only Takes One Lion’ video

21 years ago Simon Taffe mapped out an idea for a new type of independent festival. Less than 12 months later he put on the first ever End of the Road at a cost of £450k. The capacity was 5,000; he sold 1,300 tickets and gave away another 7,000 to competition winners. Crucially, it didn’t rain and, against the odds, he made it work.

End of the Road has since become one of the UK’s most beloved festivals, still independently owned when a vast majority have been bought out by the Live Nations of the world. Previous headliners have included dream bookings Sufjan Stevens, Joanna Newsom, Patti Smith and an endless parade of great and good artists in not only folk, indie and art-rock but, increasingly, electronica, ambient and experimental too.

This year’s festival has Pulp, CMAT, Mac Demarco and the recently revealed secret headliner, Geese.

On this episode of the podcast, I ask Simon about the challenges he’s faced over the last 20 years, who there is left to book, was he insane to give this thing a go in the first place, the favourite sets from festivals past, EOTR as a place for fine dining, and if it would be possible to start a festival like this from scratch today.

Listen above or wherever you get your podcasts.

Support this podcast and read our writing at loudandquiet.stubstack.com

Further reading/viewing

End of the Road website

The story of EOTR on the Music Made Me Do It Podcast