Five Favourites: Madi Diaz

Having just released her new album, Fatal Optimist (ANTI_), Nashville-based songwriter Madi Diaz continues to build on her reputation for chronicling heartache with a stripped-back lyrical honesty, endearing vulnerability and beautifully lush musicality. Reflecting on the rage, embarrassment and grief that comes with the ending of a relationship, the album showcases Diaz’s rich, resonant vocals which glisten throughout with a deep, raw emotion and shimmering heartfelt splendour.

We think one of the best ways to get to know an artist is by asking what music inspires them. So, to celebrate the release of Fatal Optimist, we caught up with Madi Diaz to ask about the music that has inspired her the most. Read about her five favourite songs, and make sure you check out the album and watch the new video for album track ‘Why’d You Have To Bring Me Flowers‘ at the end of the article.

I’m going to use this moment to talk about five songs I wish I had written. These are the songs that are currently haunting me. I feel like they touch on the very same thoughts I touched on or ideas I’ve even tried to write out, but haven’t come as close as these songs totally nailing it for me. I bow to these songs. 

Stephen Wilson Jr – ‘Grief Is Only Love’ 
My friend Stephen Wilson Jr has a way of singing these deep profound soul truths in a way that feels like he is a feelings chemist explaining why your chemicals are making you feel the way you do. What the chemistry of your heart is doing to balance itself. ‘Grief Is Only Love’ just resolves a confusion of an indescribable pain in this way that I feel like I can understand myself a little better, and can be a little kinder to myself when I’m hurting over something or someone. It’s such a gift of forgiveness by way of listening to a song. 

Sabrina Carpenter – ‘Lie To Girls’
I’ve gotten close enough to writing this song. I’ve gotten as close as to say something like “you don’t even have to lie to me, I’ll just do it” but my GOD they just said it better. They walk you all the way there. The chorus stands alone so simply and plainly in one single line that it feels like a slap in the face. It’s also a feeling that I have felt so loudly so often that when I heard this song for the first time I almost had to pull my car, because it was so affirming that it shook me. 

SZA – ‘I Hate U’
It’s gotta be so fun to be so mad that you can just write it exactly as directly as you feel it. I hate you. I mean, the woman that she is. SZA’s writing feels like the full force of nature. It’s hard for me to pick one song off of this record that I wish I wrote because just all of SOS is such a deep dive into detail in a way that is just such a gift to the listener. It’s brutal and it’s self aware. It’s apologetic and empathetic as it is ruthless. SZA does this thing where she walks a line of bravado and poise. It’s just as visceral of a story telling as watching a movie is. Down to the hotel room to the brand of cologne but with such original word combinations describing things in ways that is so singular to her in that moment. A true capture of a place and time and feeling and memory. It’s like we are in her inner monologue with her working out a situation and dialogue in real time. 

Julia Michaels – ‘Worst In Me’
Julia Michaels injects cotton candy crack into her songs. She has these phrasings paired with melodies and vocal flippy jumpy acrobatics that are just so emotionally jarring that sometimes I find myself completely holding my breath. I can remember the first time I heard this song. I was driving back to my then partner’s house on the 134 in Los Angeles at night time and I just kept hitting repeat until I pulled into the driveway. And then I sat in the driveway just letting the lyrics wash over and over and over me in waves. Julia is just such a risk taker in her songwriting in a way that makes me feel like anything is possible. This song is again so simple in idea but speaking so directly to a moment where your worst moment and someone else’s worst moment continue a vicious cycle that is so difficult to break. You can feel how endlessly intoxicating the dance is here – the love is big enough to get back on the ride and think it’ll end different. 

Feist – ‘Love Who We Are Meant To’
This song is plain incredible. Coming to terms with love like this is so generous an offering. It feels as naked and romantic as it does severe and cutting and plain. There is an intentional wandering of the mind and a sort of grasping for logic as to why hearts do what they do, why we want what we want, why we have to decide to create and draw lessons from our experiences. Feist has a way of always comforting me in her wisdom and melodies, and I just love getting to understand the workings of the world through her lens.

Huge thanks to Madi Diaz for sharing her Five Favourites! Make sure you give Fatal Optimist a listen as soon as possible, and in the meantime watch the new video for beautiful album track ‘Why’d You Have To Bring Me Flowers’ below:

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FIVE FAVOURITES: Cwfen

Forged by tenacious friendship and a shared passion for creating dense-yet-dynamic sounds, Glasgow-based heavy band Cwfen (pronounced ‘Coven’) have recently shared their debut full length album, Sorrows.

Released via New Heavy Sounds, it’s a record that “builds, burns, collapses and resurrects” – a potent amalgamation of their simultaneously doom-laden, diaphanous noise that the four-piece are preparing to perform live across the UK on their upcoming tour supporting L.A. “doomgaze” trio Faetooth.

We think one of the best ways to get to know a band is by asking what music inspired them to write in the first place. We caught up with Cwfen’s lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist Agnes Alder to ask about her “Five Favourites” – and she picked five tracks by an eclectic range of artists who have inspired her songwriting techniques.

Check out her choices below and scroll down to watch the official video for Cwfen’s single ‘Wolfsbane’ too…

1. PJ Harvey – ‘Rid of Me’
Of course, it starts with Polly Jean. That intro, how it hangs in the air just a beat too long, daring you. Then her voice, understated but razor-sharp, with those strange, confrontational lyrics. They feel like a promise scratched in broken glass. The breathing, the raw vulnerability, the sudden jarring falsetto before the whole thing detonates into that chorus. It’s a glorious, twisted mess that should collapse under its own weight, but instead it coalesces into something furious and powerful. The sheer audacity of a woman writing something this defiantly fucked up was so interesting to me. I didn’t think women got to write songs like this. She was standing there with her guitar, like some sort of wild goddess, telling you how she was about to become your beautiful, unavoidable problem. I wanted to be even a tenth as cool as her. Still do.

2. Melvins – ‘At the Stake’
This song changed my brain and planted the seed for Cwfen. I remember the exact moment, driving home through this long, flat stretch on the way to Fife, the dusk settling in, the sky dark and bruised. Then thunder cracked, lightning whipped across the sky and this song began. It was like someone put on a film. The storm, the landscape, the history of all the women persecuted as witches in this part of the country. It all became this enormous swell of feeling. That moment etched itself into me. Every time I hear those opening chords, I’m back in that storm. It made me realise I wanted to make music that told a story, that grabbed people by the gut and didn’t let go. It’s a simple song, but it hits you right in the middle. That’s the brutal beauty of it.

3. King Woman – ‘Hem’
I haven’t heard a King Woman track that I don’t love, but this is the one I reach for most. It’s the oppressive quiet; that thick, airless atmosphere that settles like a shroud. And the misery of it – and I mean that in the most loving way. Kris Esfandiari’s voice is otherworldly. Ethereal, melancholy, but this powerful anchor in everything that’s swirling around it. The whole thing is a slow, elegant descent into the dark. It’s claustrophobic but it’s not hopeless. There’s a vulnerability there, a kind of quiet reckoning. I imagine it as the sound of confronting your demons in the loneliest hours and finding strange beauty in the pain. It’s the heavy blanket you pull over yourself when nothing else will do. Their songs do this better than anyone’s.

4. Thorr’s Hammer – ‘Norge’
This track made me fall in love with doom. That funeral-dirge quality, giving way to sheer, elemental brutality. I just loved it from the moment I heard it and thought Runhild was just so bloody cool. It made me realise I wanted to learn to scream. I always think listening to it feels like a summoning. Like someone dragging ancient, indifferent spirits out from the stones. It’s monolithic. Unhurried. Unrelenting. It showed me what bleak beauty could sound like and I wanted to bottle some of that for myself.

5. Lingua Ignota – ‘Do You Doubt Me Traitor’
Gosh, how do I try and explain how this one makes me feel. It’s sort of what I imagine listening to an exorcism might be like. That deceptive fragility at the start, the slow build, then the absolute torrent of rage and sound. Raw. Ferocious. Absolutely disintegrating into the unhinged. The way she rolls every word around in her mouth, cradled deliberately or spat out like a curse. I once had it on in the car and had to turn it off because my passenger was having such a visceral reaction to it. That’s how potent it is.

It gave me the same shock as the first time I heard Diamanda Galás doing The Litanies of Satan. It’s more black metal than most black metal and it has directly influenced how I perform. The feral, unchained part of me on stage owes a lot to this, and finding a way to tap into that part of yourself where you lose all control. And those harmonies at the end are divine, like some sort of twisted Greek Chorus. They have this unsettling, sacred-but-desecrated energy. I wanted to try and do something similar, treating the vocal arrangement as choral rather than lead and backing on Sorrows. This track is a masterclass in catharsis. It’s awe-inspiring in the truest sense of the word.

Thanks to Agnes for sharing her favourites with us!

Follow Cwfen on bandcamp, YouTube, Spotify, Instagram & Facebook

Cwfen will be supporting Faetooth on their upcoming UK tour.
Tickets here

13/06 – Glasgow, Hug & Pint
14/06 – Huddersfield, Northern Quarter
17/06 – London, The Black Heart
18/06 – Manchester, Star & Garter
19/06 – Norwich, Arts Centre
20/06 – Ramsgate, Music Hall

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FIVE FAVOURITES: NikNak

The genre-blending sounds of Leeds-based electronic artist, producer, and DJ NikNak are inspired by an eclectic collection of music and media. Her brand new album, Ireti, released via Accidental Records, leans into Afrofuturism, exploring the ways in which humanity and technology intersect, and has narrative crossovers with iconic dystopian films and video games like Blade Runner and Cyberpunk 2077. The record is a distinctive, cell-tingling fusion of jungle beats, jazz nuances, dub, reggae rhythms and cinematic electronics; all of which help to sculpt NikNak’s elusive, yet exciting new sonic universe.

We think one of the best ways to get to know an artist is by asking what music inspired them to create music in the first place. We caught up with NikNak to ask about her “Five Favourites” – five tracks that have inspired her songwriting techniques. The thing is, she made so many great recommendations, that we decided to keep them all – so there’s nearly double the amount of tracks for you to sink your teeth into!

Check out her extensive list of choices below, and scroll down to watch the video for NikNak’s latest AI inspired single ‘Pandora’s Box’ featuring AGAAMA at the end of this post…

 

1. Willow Smith – ‘Big Feelings’
There’s these clips of Willow in the studio recording and piecing together elements of her latest album, Empathogen, with Yussef Dayes in there recording drums with her at one point…then I saw her Tiny Desk Concert and it blew me away; especially seeing a mostly all female line up of musicians vibing together. Her re-work of ‘ Wait A Minute’ is so glorious and uplifting. To think that she’s only 23 too!? To end on ‘Big Feelings’ takes me back to Jamiroquai and Herbie Hancock. Watching this performance made me go buy the album and has inspired me to work with more live musicians in the future. Brilliant stuff.

2. Mia Koden – ‘Hot Take’
This tune reinvigorated my love of 140 in recent years and gets bonus points for referencing the histories and all the wonderful things that make 140/dubstep so special. It’s kinda rare nowadays I think to come across music that makes a point of referencing its origins in authentic ways. What Mia has done here is make a track that is 100% her, but I also feel my ancestors through that baseline and multiple drum switch ups.

3. Jlin – ‘Open Canvas’
It was really hard to pick something from Jlin’s album, Akoma. I saw her live for the first time at Bristol New Music Festival alongside Ryoji Ikeda and was blown away by both performanceS, but seeing Jlin use the MPC live was something else entirely. I fully admire her work and she’s someone I’d love to connect with one day. Her music makes me feel nostalgic and warm – big vibes.

4. Loraine James – ‘Gentle Confrontation’
I’m kind of cheating a bit here, because I’d put the album in this too since it’s the same name, but the intro to Loraine’s newest album is beautiful and really imposing of where her sound has taken her in recent years. Picking a tune from her discography at this point is really hard for me, as I’m a big fan of her ever-evolving work. I just love that there’s a sense of play in her work, which is so important and richly evident.

5. Dennis Brown – ‘Get To Love In Time’
Dennis Brown is my fave reggae artist I think, and this song always takes me back to the exact moment I’d heard he passed away. I think this was the first time I’d really had an artist’s death impact me. If I didn’t get into production, I would have become a bass player simply because of reggae and the beautiful grooves underneath all the other instruments. Dub plays a big part in my music I think, whether I realise it or not. All the delays and reverbs, and the noise that comes from all of that, all play important parts in my music consciously and subconsciously, and I love that. RIP Mr. Brown.

6. Missy Elliot – ‘Whatcha Gonna Do’
Her discography is nuts, as we all know, but I’d say my favourite song of hers has to be ‘Whatcha Gonna Do’ from the So Addictive album. Whenever she works with Timbaland, magic happens and I think in hindsight, this era of R&B/Hip Hop really gifted us with a version of Afrofuturistic music in mainstream. This was one of the many tunes that helped me to see that we can literally make music be and look like anything we want, and that we don’t have to follow rules. It’s something we don’t really see now in the same way anymore, but Missy is definitely one of the pioneers of this.

7. Boxcutter – ‘Rusty Break’
Before this tune came into my life, I’d been introduced to DJ Shadow’s ‘Endtroducing’ and Cut Chemist’s ‘The Audience Is Listening’, and loved how they’ve been able to adapt, sample and repurpose classic drum breaks into new patterns and loved that. Then came Burial, and around the same I think came Boxcutter’s ‘Rusty Break’ and he took things to a new level. I think I was in my first year of uni at this point… I don’t know, I feel like I was hearing so much music that everything was influencing me in a variety of ways both in and outside of my studies, particular in my undergrad studies but ‘Rusty Break’ is up there for sure!

8. Burial – ‘Archangel’
I remember sitting in college going through a YouTube dark hole at lunchtime or free period, and I found an anime video someone cut to this track… immediately I was hooked and had to listen to everything Burial had put out at that point. Sampling Ray-J’s vocals in such a dark and atmospheric tune was nuts. The textures and gridless drums were nuts. Burial introduced me to another side of music production, another way to break rules and approach it like a sketchbook instead of it being so regimented.

9. Seed. – ‘Afronaut’
I’m a little bit biased as I’m now a member of Seed., but the first time I heard ‘Afronaut’ it made me an instant fan of them and Cassie’s phenomenal writing skills. All of the time signatures, melodic craziness, everything altogether is next level; and all the ways the keys, chords and tempos change and intertwine with each other throughout the track is very inspiring. Plus, XANA’s verses are just cherries on top. More rules broken here. As someone who can’t read music and didn’t learn to classically play an instrument, hearing talented musicians play such transformative music was another big moment for me I think too.

Thanks to NikNak for sharing her favourite tracks with us!

Watch the video for her latest single ‘Pandora’s Box’ below

NikNak’s upcoming UK Tour Dates 2024
(DJ sets unless otherwise noted. * = Ireti live)
May 23, 24, 25, 26, 28 – Leeds Art Gallery – Inner Ireti immersive installation at Leeds Jazz Festival (DJ set and artist talk at 1pm on May 23)
May 25 – Leeds, Headrow House
May 31st – Birmingham, Centrala,
June 6 – Newcastle, Cobalt Studios*
June 29 – Brighton, Fortune Of War
August 30 – Belgium, Meakusma Festival*
Sept 7 – Utrecht, Gaudemaus Festival

Follow NikNak on bandcamp, Soundcloud, Spotify, Youtube, Instagram, X & Facebook

Kate CrudgingtonLeave a comment

FIVE FAVOURITES: NEXT TO NADA

London-based noise makers NEXT TO NADA have been busy cutting their teeth on the city’s live circuit for the past twelve months. Formed of Leah Francesca (L. Francesca) Liddle, Thom (Tom) Oliver (Revitt), Georgie Bogle (Gigi Ruckus) and Jason Davies; together they create grinding, punk-infused anthems that reflect on the pent up frustrations of everyday life.

NEXT TO NADA will be self-releasing their upcoming EP, WHINE // MOTHS, on the 15th March, and they’ll celebrating their new record with gigs at The Finsbury Pub in Manor House on 13th April, and at the Dublin Castle in Camden on 30th May.

We think one of the best ways to get to know a band is by asking what music inspired them to write in the first place. We caught up with bassist L. Francesca to ask about their “Five Favourites” – five tracks that have inspired their songwriting techniques. Check out her choices below and scroll down to listen to NEXT TO NADA’S latest single ‘Whine, Lips’ at the end of this post…

1. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – ‘Hiding All Away’
I’ve not been a Catholic for a while, but I’ve got a real thing for songs that make me feel like I’m back in the pews. What actually goes on in Nick Cave’s songs is so straightforwardly rock and roll – angsty, sexy, cocksure – but in execution it sounds like it’s coming straight from Mount Sinai or Golgotha. Gospel choirs and everything! I will never forget hearing that almighty ‘There Is a War Coming’ in the outro for the first time. And yet it’s all rooted in the blues, in the same way The Stooges or Captain Beefheart were, it’s not trying to elevate its genre, just push it to its absolute limits. And for a track that’s so steeped in both high culture and low culture there’s such an intoxicating lack of self-deprecation; there’s no sense that Cave’s worried about coming across as pretentious or preachy. And I find that inspiring, I really do. I’m a melodramatic person, and nobody legitimizes melodrama like Nick Cave.

2. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs – ‘Dull Life’
I think it’s funny that “Pop Punk” is a specific genre, but the term could describe so much. I mean, isn’t that what New Wave is? Just taken as adjectives, nothing embodies “Pop Punk” to me like ‘Dull Life’ does. It’s hook after hook, but it’s dangerous and thrilling and it goes about being both in a really clever, imaginative way. They aren’t pop hooks, exactly; they’re written for riffs, not beats, but they manage to do what pop hooks do. I especially love the second verse, where you’ve got Karen O multitracking melodic singing over distant screams of the same lyrics – I want to do that on one of our songs at some point. NEXT TO NADA initially was way more Britpop influenced and got a lot heavier over time, but we still care about hooks and melodies, it’s just about making those work in the context of a heavy rock band. That’s something the Yeah Yeah Yeahs really understand.

3. Joanna Newsom – ‘Sapokanikan’
As far as I’m concerned, Joanna Newsom is the greatest lyricist of all time. Her imagery, her metaphors, even her rhyme-schemes are always so complicated and must box her into so many corners. But she always manages to write her way out of it, and leads the song on this merry chase through so many meanings and implications; I refuse to believe she was aware of all of them when she started writing. It’s so easy as a songwriter to compromise your structure by ignoring it for a bit in order to make sure you’re saying things right, but I think that that’s a mistake, because you discover so much by rising to your own challenges. I also love how geeky ‘Sapokanikan’ is, it’s full of references to American history and geography, and it’s such a great feeling to hear someone sing about something you’ve only ever read about in dry educational contexts and think… oh shit, that can be a metaphor!

4. Fugazi – ‘Bed For the Scraping’
The main way I write basslines is with a trick I call “lines and then coloring”. I start off with a jump of root note to octave to set the chord, and then “colour it in” with a bit of melody before landing back on the root in the next bar. That came from here. I’ve never wanted my bass to be the lead instrument, but I don’t really see myself as rhythm, either, I’m more like the guitars’ backing vocalist; I’m playing a melodic instrument but I have to step lightly with it, because everything I do sets the harmony. And Joe Lally is so good at working within that restriction. He barely ever follows the guitar in ‘Bed for the Scraping’ but as great as the bass hook is, it’s never just for itself. Plus he’s working with two guitarists, like I have to; he knows he can’t add too much on top, but he knows what space in the middle of things he’s been given, and how to use every inch of it. It’s amazing.

5. Hop Along – ‘Sister Cities’
I play in a real loud rock band but I think I have a very singer-songwriter-ish way of writing songs; it starts with lyrics, not riffs. Hop Along’s whole Painted Shut album is such a great reference point for that sort of thing because it sounds like you took an Elliott Smith record and wired it to some jumper cables. It’s a real gnarly album in a lot of places, and ‘Sister Cities’ is a highlight for riffs and solos, but even then they’re never leading the story, they’re just helping tell it. And the sound is so versatile. It could be a Dinosaur Jr song, but there are also songs on the album that feel like Phoebe Bridgers, and they still all sound like Hop Along. Also – Frances Quinlan has the most amazing voice I’ve ever heard. I can’t really say it’s an influence, cause the first year of me learning to sing was mostly spent accepting that I’ll never sound like they do, but covering this song on my old Squier strat during lockdown is where I started with all this.

Thanks to Leah for sharing her favourites with us!
Listen to ‘Whine, Lips’ by NEXT TO NADA below

Follow NEXT TO NADA on Spotify, bandcamp, Facebook & Instagram

Photo Credit: Elspey Photography

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