Podcast: COVID-19 Drunkcast with Josh Sumner from Fair Do’s [S3 E4]

Enjoy this special extra-shambolic episode of the Shout Louder podcast, to bring light to your locked-down lives.

In an effort to bring some light to your locked-down lives, we’ve recorded an absolute shambling train wreck of a podcast for your entertainment.

Josh plays bass in Fair Do’s, takes excellent live music photographs under the moniker Cold Front Photography, and is an integral part of the Shout Louder operation behind the scenes. He’s also not usually allowed near microphones for reasons that will become immediately obvious.

Full of in jokes and with almost no relevance to music whatsoever, we run the verbal gamut of mental health, technology, hygiene, elephants and shitting in salad bowls.

We hope that this bonus episode will bring some relief from the lockdown, the coughing and daily enforced viewings of Boris Johnson’s droopy mug. Apologies in advance for everything you’re about to hear.

Continue reading “Podcast: COVID-19 Drunkcast with Josh Sumner from Fair Do’s [S3 E4]”

Volunteers: The Unsung Heroes of Manchester Punk Fest

Manchester Punk Festival is a large multi-venue festival taking place in April each year. Remaining fervently DIY, it is staffed by a dedicated volunteers who come back every year. As part of that group, Sarah endeavoured to find out what makes MPF’s volunteer team so special. 

Article by Sarah Williams, originally written for the Manchester Punk Festival 2020 programme. 

The heart of DIY is a willingness to dedicate your time and energy for the love of punk. While MPF is run by a collective, there’s a supportive group of volunteers working behind the scenes at the event: packing and selling merchandise, running the stages, looking after the bands, wrist-banding and making sure that you’re having the best festival possible.

“The volunteers are such a crucial part of this weekend, we wouldn’t be able to do it without them,” says Kaz Hinsley, who helps to head up the volunteer team. “Each and every person that helps in some way really does make the weekend run more smoothly.”

Volunteering at MPF is unlike volunteering at any other event. Everyone pitches in a few hours, with a big grin on their face, proud to be helping the festival run without a hitch. It’s a stark contrast to commercial festivals, where volunteering can mean struggling through a six hour shift on a comedown, covered in glitter and mud, doing the bare minimum to earn yourself a ticket. MPF’s volunteers are all keen to see that the festival operates at the highest standard possible. Continue reading “Volunteers: The Unsung Heroes of Manchester Punk Fest”

Follow Your Dreams’ Manchester Punk Fest Interview

Enjoy this in-depth interview with Manchester hardcore genre-smashers Follow Your Dreams, originally to be included in the Manchester Punk Festival program.

Article by Sarah Williams. Cover photo by Hold My Pint.

Sadly, this year’s Manchester Punk Fest has fallen victim to the COVID-19 catastrophe. Before then, Shout Louder had been working to write this year’s MPF program, including a series of band interviews. Rather than waste everyone’s hard work, we decided to post the interviews for your enjoyment here (plus keep an eye on Ear Nutrition for an excellent interview with Shai Hulud).

To start, I had an excellent chat with Manchester genre-benders Follow Your Dreams. Evolved from old-school ska-core band Rising Strike, with TNSrecords‘ behind-the-scenes legend Kaz Hinsley providing vocals, Follow Your Dreams and one of the greatest up-and-coming bands in the UK punk scene right now. Be sure to check out their new full-length record The Half Life of Teaspoons out on TNSrecords now.

We spoke to guitarist / vocalist / all-round awesome dude, Tom Houseman, ahead of MPF. Continue reading “Follow Your Dreams’ Manchester Punk Fest Interview”

Haest’s Manchester Punk Festival Interview

We talk to doomy-hardcore DIY kings Haest about their tongue-in-cheek approach, originally designed for print in the Manchester Punk Fest program.

Article by Sarah Williams.

Sadly, this year’s Manchester Punk Fest has fallen victim to the COVID-19 catastrophe. Before then, Shout Louder had been working to write this year’s MPF program, including a series of band interviews. Rather than waste everyone’s hard work, we decided to post the interviews for your enjoyment here (plus keep an eye on Ear Nutrition for an excellent interview with Shai Hulud).

As one of the foremost up-and-coming bands on the current UK hardcore circuit, I was keen to speak to Haest. Based in their eponymous town of Hastings, they’re a sludgy, doom-laden co-project from members of Matilda’s Scoundrels, The Barracks, Knife Club and many others. No doubt familiar to Shout Louder’s regular readers (we’ve interviewed them in the past), they’re uniquely enthralling live, they’re also purveyors of excellent DIY music videos. They’ve recently released their first full-length album Anomie on TNSrecords.

We spoke to guitarist Dan Flanagan about all the joys of Manchester Punk Festival, their history and their tongue-in-cheek approach. Continue reading “Haest’s Manchester Punk Festival Interview”

Shout Louder Podcast: Ed Hall from All Silk Recording & Mastering [S3 E3]

Sarah speaks to audio engineer Ed Hall about dedicating his life to music, advice to bands looking to record and all things mastering.

In December 2019, Sarah travelled up to Colne, Lancashire to record a fresh interview for the Shout Louder podcast, with Ed Hall at All Silk Mastering House.

Ed is an incredibly knowledgeable, affable audio engineer, who’s dedicated his life to recording and working in music. Previously known for his bands A War Against Sound and Egos At The Door, he’s now playing with Edgarville but focusing on his business.

Ed has recently expanded his business to include All Silk Recording Studio, a new recording space in Rawtenstall, so that they can offer a full recording, mixing and mastering service. They also do live sessions that are an ideal starter for DIY bands.

Continue reading “Shout Louder Podcast: Ed Hall from All Silk Recording & Mastering [S3 E3]”

Punk Rock Tour Tales #6: Mateusz & Karolina from CF98

We talk touring with Polish skate-punks CF98: including trips to Japan, Punk Rock Holiday and the UK.

Interview by Sarah Williams.

CF98 have made major waves in the European skate-punk scene in the last two years, although they’ve been carving out a name for themselves in their Polish homeland for more than 14 years. Residing in Kraków, they’ve recently had a successful Japanese and UK tours, plus a slot at Punk Rock Holiday. They were due to join us for Manchester Punk Festival this year, so we’re hoping we’ll get another chance to see them soon.

In the meantime we spoke to guitarist Mateusz Poznański with interjections from vocalist Karolina Duszkiewicz about their touring wins and failures. We love CF98 – check them out live as soon as you can!

Of the touring you’ve done, what’s been your favourite so far?

The tour we will always remember is our Japan tour in 2019. That was our first trip so far away from home as a band and also the first band flight together! This was really huge deal for us, I couldn’t believe we would actually fly to another continent to play shows. We loved touring in Poland, UK, Denmark and Ukraine, but making a Japan tour possible was totally different. It’s so cool that we were invited by Waki and the RNR crew. Continue reading “Punk Rock Tour Tales #6: Mateusz & Karolina from CF98”

Japanese Punk Rock Bands You Need To See Live

Musicians who’ve toured Japan recommend the best live punk rock bands they saw over there: this a one-stop list of Japanese punk recommendations you need to check out.

Article by Sarah Williams. Cover photo: Shames taken by Cold Front Photography.

We’ve made a playlist of all the bands featured in this article – listen on Spotify.

For UK bands, touring Japan is the Holy Grail of punk rock. Success in DIY music cannot be quantified by financial gains or commercial exposure, but it can be measured by how far you’ve travelled to share your music with excited fans.

With the assistance of dedicated organisations like RNR Tours, increasingly more UK and European bands are playing Japan. We’ve covered them in Tree’s Fair Do’s tour diary and Tom West’s Japan Tour Survival Guide. Although many tours have been cancelled recently as a result of COVID-19, PMX made it over just before the global travel restrictions.

As more UK and European bands are receiving attention from Japanese crowds, we thought it time to reciprocate and give column space to the Japanese bands making waves over here. No doubt a knock-on effect from Anarchistic Undertones promoter Ian ‘Tree’ Robinson’s trip to Tokyo with Fair Do’s last year, Manchester Punk Festival this year had booked four incredible Japanese gems: SHAMES, Stone Leek, Green Eyed Monster and Gibberish (who have one Japanese member). Although MPF’s fallen foul of the Corona catastrophe, there’s no doubt that the same bands will be invited again for a future event. Beyond these, there is a whole culture of uptempo, angry, exciting bands that many of us are yet to discover.

I asked UK artists who’ve toured Japan to recommend their favourite acts, to give you an trustworthy overview of what Japanese punk rock has to offer. Continue reading “Japanese Punk Rock Bands You Need To See Live”