Indie Rock

Deity, the debut album by Melbourne-based vocalist and songwriter Emma Volard, is a record of tensions: caught in the push-pull between light and shade, joy and sorrow, chaos and order, it’s an album that draws power from the divine messiness of the human experience. Synthesising acid jazz with modern R&B, dub with pop, and future soul with old-fashioned grooves, it’s a statement of profound artistic intent for Emma: a 12-part journey of self-expression and hard-won self-determination that combines the classic and the cutting edge to build something sleek and scintillatingly new. “This album is a revolt against oppressors, particularly those in the music industry — an f-you to anyone who tries to tear us down,” she says. Cathartic, vulnerable, and deeply, defiantly empowered, it’s a definitive document of feminist soul: a call for listeners to “discard the judgement of others, and embrace their bodies, their minds, and their souls.”

Raised between the hustle-and-bustle of inner-city Melbourne and the organic serenity of the coastal town of Philip Island, Emma’s upbringing provided the kind of musical education money can’t buy. Singing and dancing along to pop classics like “Spinning Around” and “I’m Blue” as a toddler snowballed into drum lessons from the age of eight, which turned into vocal training in high school and a voracious appetite for all the classics she could get her hands on, plumbing the depths of her grandma’s record collection to unearth gems by Aretha Franklin, The Beatles, Joe Cocker, and Ella Fitzgerald. Emma’s training continued while studying music at university, where she discovered luminaries like Etta James and Erykah Badu, the latter of whom would become a clear guiding light in her journey towards a place of gleaming fusion jazz music.

This omnivorous upbringing is written between the lines on Deity, which embraces the fullness of Emma’s multihyphenate musical upbringing, touching on breathless polyrhythms and indelible hooks, a clear-eyed political bend and, at the centre of it all, Emma’s sublime, silken vocal. It’s a potent combination that Emma has showcased with her band during live sets at Meadow, Leaps & Bounds, and Brunswick Music Festival, as well as in support slots for celebrated artists like REMI, Emma Donovan, and Horatio Luna.

Deity was led by “Femininity”, a powerful statement of intent that encapsulates Emma’s devoutly feminist politic with the cutting-edge bricolage of her music, which was praised by tastemakers including Double J’s Zan Rowe, Triple J’s Nkechi Anele, and Gilles Peterson. Combining cinematic strings and a motorik guitar groove with Emma’s plush, soulful vocal, it’s a jaw-dropping introduction to a record that touches on loose, acidic techno (“My Desire”), ambient spoken-word (“Searching”) and, in its spectacular, dynamic coda, the kind of darkly-toned avant-garde jazz practised by UK luminaries like Moses Boyd. Above all, though, Deity is a statement record, one that positions creativity as a brazen political act, a mode of self-expression that can’t be silenced or diminished. “Deity is a love letter to myself,” she says, “That reminds me to embrace who I am, to break boundaries, to express myself without fear, to allow myself to grow and to love unconditionally.”

Yard Act are a British rock band from Leeds, West Yorkshire, composed of James Smith (vocals, lyrics), Ryan Needham (bass), Sam Shipstone (guitar) and Jay Russell (drums). Their debut album, The Overload, was released on 21 January 2022 and debuted at No. 2 on the UK Albums Chart. They released their second album, Where's My Utopia?, on 1 March 2024.

History
Prior to forming the band, vocalist James Smith and bassist Ryan Needham had both been members of other Leeds-based bands. Smith was a member of Post War Glamour Girls and Needham played in Menace Beach, two bands that released a split EP together in 2016. After the release of the EP, the pair began discussing forming a band together, a plan that eventually came to fruition in September 2019, when the pair moved into a house together in Meanwood. They soon recruited guitarist Sammy Robinson and drummer George Townend who played together in Treeboy & Arc. During this period, Robinson departed from the group, leading to the recruitment of Sam Shipstone.[4] Prior to the announcement of their debut album, the band had only released a total of four singles independently. These singles were then compiled onto an EP, titled Dark Days, released in 2021.

Their debut album The Overload was released on 21 January 2022. The group was "one to watch" in the BBC's Sound of 2022 shortlist. The group was also named one of Paste's "Best New Artists of 2021". On 1 July 2022, a re-recorded version of "100% Endurance" was released featuring a collaboration with Elton John.

Their second album, Where's My Utopia?, was released on 1 March 2024.

In the ever-evolving landscape of the modern music industry, The Coronas have continued to independently thrive without sacrificing their creative vision along the way. A multi-platinum group who can claim supporting Bruce Springsteen in Hyde Park, playing for President Biden, and a burgeoning global fanbase, The Coronas’ last three albums also went straight to #1 in the Irish Charts, with recent sold out tours in their wake spanning North America and Australia further showcasing the trio’s successful and ever-growing legacy.

Renowned for their magnetic live shows, having also been previously voted as the #1 Live Act of the Year by Hot Press, The Coronas have been headlining their own shows and festivals in Ireland for almost 15 years, with their regular Christmas performances at The Olympia Theatre in Dublin becoming the stuff of legend. And set to return to Australia this November following their acclaimed down under run late last year, The Coronas will arrive armed with their trademark magic as well as their hotly-anticipated album Thoughts & Observations.

Thoughts & Observations captures The Coronas unbridled authenticity and passion, with the album originating not long after 2022’s Time Stopped had released into the world. “We’re so excited to be sharing new music,” says the band. “To be honest we didn’t really take a break after the last one, as soon as the touring and promotion of Time Stopped slowed down, we were already working on Thoughts & Observations”

“Thematically, the album deals with love, loss and growing older,” shares The Coronas. “It’s possibly us fully embracing our man-band status. After seven albums we’re probably a little more cynical now than we were when we started! In saying that there’s still an optimistic feel to this album that The Coronas albums tend to have.”

The members of Wednesday are scattered across town when NME calls them for a Zoom chat. Drummer Alan Miller is at home in Durham, North Carolina, four hours from where the others live in Asheville, his basement still decorated from a recent party. Guitarist and lap steel player Xandy Chelmis is in a bustling café, where he takes breaks from the farm he’s been building, while his playful bandmate Jake Lenderman is hunched in his van in a library car park – “I’ve never been inside,” he quips. And vocalist Karly Hartzman, thoughtful and articulate, is crouched in the “Amish romance” section of a Barnes & Noble bookshop. “I tried to pick a part that isn’t very populated, and I think I found the perfect place,” she says in a hushed tone.

It turns out last-minute home WiFi issues had forced the band into some strange locales, but these background snapshots of North Carolina suburbia are suited to our conversation about Wednesday’s music. On their third album ‘Rat Saw God’, out April 7, Hartzman tells tales of her adolescence and childhood that are full of specific details of small town life, whether amusing or brutally morbid. It’s a coming-of-age story set in the American South, soundtracked by gritty, rip-roaring country-rock.