M Magazine Pride Edition

More in this magazine

• CoverM PRIDE
• Page 236 XICY
• ContentsOnes to watch Identity beyond commodity
• Pink SuitsOnes to watch From thunderous feminist punk to silky neo-soul, get to know some of the best breakthrough LGBTQ+ talent our little island has to offer.
• Page 5
• Ones to watchCoda Vallach At long last, trans non-binary artist Coda Vallach is about to drop their debut EP and we couldn't be more ready for it. Heavily influenced by Caroline Polachek and SOPHIE, Vallach's electro futuristic pop sound bridges the mainstream with the avant-garde to deliver an intimate exploration of trans existential angst. By juxtaposing smooth layered vocals with sizzling melodramatic synths Coda traces the connections between the different facets of their identity as a transfeminine musician of Eastern European descent. Vallach's upcoming project has been awarded the 'Do It Differently' grant (Help Musicians) aimed to empower artists for their innovative work and vision.
• Page 7Seeva London-based artist Seeva released his debut album We Need To Talk in September 2020; a project that explored love, loss and heartbreak from the perspective of a queer British-Asian person. A burgeoning creative talent and growing voice in the London queer scene, the album saw Seeva making an unforgettable entry.
• Identity beyond commodity: Queerness in mainstream musicParris OH discusses mainstream music's dependency on queer culture, what's considered palatable when viewed through a heteronormative lens, and why the industry has a duty to safeguard and support those whose identities are objectified for profit. Exploring identity is nothing new, especially through music. Music is the final art form, an amalgamation of an artist's most vulnerable moments and life influences. Without a doubt, music will always reflect an artist's inner identity. So, when artists step outside of the binary, they do so defiantly.
• Page 9expansive spectrum of gender and sexuality. Queer artists such as MNEK, JGrrey, Tiana Major9 and Olly Alexander have all recently been a part of curating and obtaining a queer audience through a voyage of their own personal experiences as part of the LGBTQ+ community; with realisations of their fluidity when it comes to sexuality, each are just a small example of young queer artists now gaining a diverse, fluid and relatable audience. Even presumed heterosexual artists throughout the history of popular music have explored gender non-conforming presentation and identities. Artists from Prince to David Bowie, Grace Jones, Harry Styles and even Jaden Smith have all been praised for breaking barriers. But when artists who do identify as queer start exploring their identity on a level deeper than presentation, do we see a conversation opening? Or do they pay a price for living in their entire truth? Often, much like Blackness, the only problem with 'mainstreaming' queerness is that it comes along with queer people. When queerness is displayed, celebrated, and lived out loud by the very people who inhabit the culture, it comes with the most resistance. However, when put on like a costume - camped up and queered out to build an audience, gain a fanbase, sell some records or to be approximated as close to 'cool' as possible - it's fully accepted. So, when built for sale and sexualised by the rest of the world, queerness is permitted to thrive. But when displayed on Black, trans or femme bodies, it is often treated with the utmost disrespect, almost as if it's open season for criticism.
• Kele OkerekeStephanie Phillips speaks to Bloc Party frontman, DJ and solo artist Kele Okereke about the noughties indie scene, new Bloc Party music, and his latest album The Waves Pt. 1 Ever since he first emerged in the early noughties as the lead singer of the British alt-rock band Bloc Party, Kele Okereke has been a leading light in the British indie scene. With his open hearted and genre expanding approach to songwriting, Okereke is forever rattling the indie old guard who would prefer to keep the genre monocultural and narrow minded. Two decades on, and a successful move into the DJ arena and theatre later, Okereke is back with his fifth solo album, The Waves Pt 1.
• Page 11try something for the big screen, because it's just so powerful. The right image with the right music, it's the most powerful thing ever. Stephanie: I really loved the cover of Smalltown Boy by Bronski Beat. What made you want to cover that song?
• Page 12HOW FRANK OCEAN'S COMING OUT CHANGED THE LANDSCAPE... by Dotty
• Page 13In 2012 it was not uncommon to hear anything vaguely gay bookended with the caveat 'no homo; A phrase that, for a time, became part of the linguistic canon in pop culture. An unequivocal way to rid sentences of any homosexual double entendre and distance the speaker from sentiments that could be loosely interpreted as even remotely queer-adjacent 'It's crazy how you can go from being Joe Blow / to everybody on your dick - no homo! Said Kanye West to open his feature verse on Jay-Z's 2010 hit Run This Town - Hov's first UK number one single as a lead artist.
• Drag! It's the mostPUNK you can be. Princess Julia serves up some drag history, celebrating how it has always explored the spectrum of gender across music and talks to some of today's scene stars.
• Page 15AMIN
• Le Gateau ChocolatPhoto: Lee Faircloth 'Whatever the rules were, they've now been broken.' a fully-fledged pop sensation with his band Culture Club. Queer clubland stars had officially become pop stars, activists and role models.
• Page 17'In pop music, 'drag' is often used as a creative vehicle.' Fast forward to the present day where being a drag queen has captured the public imagination with renewed fervour. My socials are awash with make-up looks that are other worldly and escapist. Queens and Kings lip-syncing, swishing and ruling. Le Gateau Chocolat takes an operatic stance with a baritone that spans drag, cabaret, musical theatre and art, whilst AFAB drag Holestar has been belting her classics since 2003.
• Lady LloydN.IO that are both inspired and confrontational. No one can deny that Hoyle is integral to the way drag has enlightened us on so many levels over the years. On the underground cabaret scene, Adam All is putting drag kings on the map. He tells me, 'Music is an integral part of my performance as a drag artist, I sing live, I sometimes even perform original pieces. As a drag artist, inviting thought and empathy is central to my work, as a result music is a vital tool in conveying my message.
• DivineProducer, singer-songwriter Viktor Victoria came up in the noughties and is seeing a shift in attitudes. He explains, "When I started making music during the 'electroclash' era, I don't think drag was taken seriously by the mainstream music industry at all. In fact, there was a clear pressure on queer and non-binary artists to avoid it, as it wasn't considered cool. I had some interest from mainstream labels but there was always a sense that being too 'drag' or femme was not going to achieve any success beyond nightclubs. Even if I had tried, I couldn't have played down my femininity, so changing was never an option for me. 'After the '80s where drag or 'gender bending' found success in the mainstream music industry with Divine and Boy George, the '90s and noughties music world felt like it largely turned its back on drag or queerness. Brit-pop and grunge were hyper- masculine, except for a couple of artists who we clung on to, but even then, it felt mostly like vague androgyny and straight men playing with a bit of eyeliner.
• LunatraktorsHarry Harris speaks to Margate folk duo Lunatraktors about their contemporary and confronting lyrics, how their approach to folk music is akin to their queer identities and challenging the 'nostalgic nationalists.' As Louis Armstrong famously said, 'All music is folk music. I ain't never heard a horse sing a song! And yet, over the years a specific idea of what folk music is, what it sounds like, what it should be, has been cultivated. It should be traditional. It should be acoustic. It should be about these people, not those ones. The beauty of Armstrong's quote is not only in the absurdity of its image, but in its understanding that folk music is the broadest of churches, a well from which everything else springs.
• M Magazine 21'We really want to include everyone. We want to make music you can tap your foot to, for people to move with moods.' Photo: Emma Falconer
• Page 22Photo: Lorraine Phillips absorption of the visual arts. There's so much that is not boxed, and not just in one form. Folklore, for me, is lots of different places and lots of different people all finding very similar ways of voicing or sounding or expressing, and you can see that blend across the world. There are moments where you go, 'ah yes, that is very distinctly from there, but there are many moments where you just listen to something that doesn't have a name, or a country, or a flag attached to it, and you go 'ah! I don't know where that sound comes from!' That's the exciting thing, the non-binaryness of that. Clair quickly picks up Carli's train of thought: 'Being a non-binary person is a gender thing but I guess it's also very much a political position!
• Page 23'It is music and storytelling that invites us to consider everything that has come before, and everything still to come.' strong fourth wall, I think. Whereas if you're watching two people slapping their thighs and singing, you think 'Ah, I've got these instruments too!" Instantly I think you connect to it easier! Our conversation coincides with a gentle easing of lockdown restrictions in the UK, and a tentative move toward the resumption of live music. Test events have been successfully trialled, vaccination numbers continue to soar, festival line-ups are being announced. But across all the arts, there is a clamour for the creative industries that return to be better than the ones that were so abruptly shut down in 2020.
• Page 24Hannah Holland
• Page 25As multi-talented as the many multi-tracks in her studio, DJ, producer, Batty Bass label boss and award-winning soundtrack composer Hannah Holland is often cited as one of dance music's most inspiring women. Her debut album Tectonic, recorded in her hometown of Margate, is certain to charm you; travelling the broad horizons of electronic music, cinematic in ambition but always ready to lead you to the most underground of dancefloor experiences. Tectonic's genius is no surprise for those who know Hannah, for she is one of the LGBTQ+ and alternative club scene's pioneers, DJing at Berlin's Berghain, for The Carry Nation in NYC, at Glastonbury's infamous NYC Downlow or the deliciously deviant Trailer Trash and Adonis parties. Add a career of stunning remixes for artists including Goldfrapp, The Knife, Planningtorock and Metronomy and the admiration so many have for Hannah is as deep as the acid-tinged techno and house bass lines she plays.
• Page 26Kate: Your debut album Tectonic is a titan of a release, diverse and distinct and destined for many to be a classic I'm certain. What was your process, did it live on your head for many years or was it something that came to you more recently - a means to a lockdown end, as it were? Hannah: Thanks! I'd had lots of ideas brewing already, and a couple of the more dancefloor tracks were already written as sketches to jump from. Most of it was made during the lockdown and was a chance to dig deep and use all the knowledge I'd gained during the last few years working on film scores and with the band Black Gold Buffalo. I really wanted to explore emotion, time and space in the record and make something for people to get lost in. I wanted to really push myself as an artist on this album and I feel like I've managed to achieve that. I wrote it at my studio and then did all the recording of the strings at Big Jelly Studios with engineer Al Harle, where we processed all the sounds throughout the album using vintage effects units, to really take it to unusual places. That's when the music took a life of its own. I'm very proud of it. Kate: How did you find making an album? Did you struggle with the process or was it a joyful experience? Hannah: It was a journey of exploration and I absolutely loved doing it. I'm always at my happiest making music but it's taken decades to get to this place!
• Page 27it all comes back to tapping into an instinct and conveying an emotion through music, which is the same process as DJing for me, you become a medium in a way! Kate: Your self-owned record label and infamous party night Batty Bass has enabled you over the years to work alongside some truly iconic artists including Justin Robertson's Deadstock 33s, Josh Caffe, The Carry Nation, Mama, Lauren Flax as well as your own new wave band Black Gold Buffalo. How important is working with others for you as an artist?
• LIAN CompanSafe spaces for LGBTQ+ artists Back in 2016, queer grime artist Karnage Kills was a normal college student who spent his spare time quietly making music at home. After his friends shared one of his videos on YouTube, Karnage was discovered by the promoter Hakeem Kazeem, who runs the night Too Black, Too Queer, and was catapulted onto the London queer scene. 'He booked me for my first gig in Clapham, I think at the Two Brewers, and it literally just took off from there, Karnage, who released his latest single The Set Up last year, explains over the phone. 'I was performing every weekend at different queer venues, just on the underground scene, and it really helped me develop as an artist being around my peers and being around like-minded people.
• Karnage KillsDespite best intentions, in a space that primarily serves alcohol and is an outlet for people to let go of their inhibitions, it can be difficult to keep things safe. For John Sizzle, owner of The Glory in east London, creating a welcoming environment means taking a step back and thinking about the diversity of the space. 'It's not easy, especially when you're just trying to fix toilets and make sure that the beer barrels are cold,' Sizzle jokes, adding that the work is worthwhile in the end. 'It just ensures your longevity as well. That's why people are so warm and so generous when they talk about The Glory. What they're actually doing is they're seeing a reflection of themselves.' Creating such a welcoming space has led to LGBTQ+ venues having a deep influence on music culture by giving young up and coming musicians a place to be, whether they're on stage, in the crowd, or behind the bar. 'We've seen a lot of young queer artists who have started at superstore, often as members of our staff, who've then gone on to perform on the world stage either as DJs or as drag performers, says Kroeger. Just off the top of my head, Tayce, who was recently on RuPaul's Drag Race UK, used to work behind the bar, and Bimini also performed at Superstore a fair bit! LGBTQ+ spaces have always had a deep impact on music culture. For Indigo, the most obvious example is Studio 54. [Studio 54 was] the most iconic queer venue and inspired the likes of Cher and Madonna. I've always been inspired by the ballroom scene,' says Indigo. 'Us gays have inspired the music scene.
• Photo: Greg Lin JiajieRina Sawayama and Queer Publicity Jay Singh speaks to Tom Mehrtens, Senior Entertainment Publicist at SATELLITE414, about their experiences in the industry and how they have helped a queer person of colour become one of the biggest names in pop.
• Page 31'There are not enough queer people in executive roles, and across the board, walking into planning meetings with major record labels.' To tell that story, it was really important to put Rina in the room with somebody who would completely understand. [when] working with Rina, or any of my queer artists, I think it does help that I have had - and still am experiencing - my own journey with queerness, in its very many forms.
• McHifiBy: Kate Wildblood Photography: Michael Springett
• Page 33Works well with others is an understatement when describing Hifi Sean. From those indie-lustrous days with The Soup Dragons to his collaborative work with Yoko Ono, Bootsy Collins, Crystal Waters, Dave Ball, Fred Schneider and Alan Vega and his US chart topping single Testify via his legendary DJ sets on the LGBTQ+ club scene, Sean has always kept his trajectory starward. So, when Sean connected with David McAlmont in 2017, we knew the stars were aligning for something very special. David has become one of the UK's most beloved performers, be it beside Butler or inhabiting Bowie with his legendary Hideaway songbook shows. Combine David's astonishing vocals with Sean's sublime studio craft and McHifi's 2020 debut single Bunker to Bunker soon reached the heights of critical commendation. With their new album set to launch early next year, Kate Wildblood caught up with the duo to discuss collaboration, the creative process in lockdown and what inspires their divine work together.
• Page 34Photo: Michael Springett year Bunker To Bunker. It felt like the world had stopped and you could breathe artistically with no outside daily interference from personal schedules, daily chores, and time itself. David: With Sean's singer Rolodex, you can sink without trace. Stand out or dematerialise! You might call the record a Dropbox/WhatsApp record, Sean Dropboxes my arrangements and I WhatsApp him my melodies. Lockdown was more of the same, but also additional focus. Kate: What would you say is the McHifi dynamic?
• Page 35Sean: It has taught me not to overthink an idea and let the creative process flow to steer it in a direction you did not expect. Many times, when writing music with David I have these melodies in my head, but every single time David blows my mind with his vision as he takes it to the stars and back. Kate: David your Wall to Wall: Bowie live concerts have earnt much deserved critical acclaim. How did it come to be and what have you taken from your time spent performing David's work?
• Alicai HarleyGYMSHARK GYMSHARK
• Page 37Zoya Raza-Sheikh speaks to Alicai Harley, an unstoppable dancehall queen, to discuss her newly debuted EP The Red Room Intro (Yard Gyal Inna Britain) and her personal and creative journey across the last year. Alicai Harley is an unmistakable talent. Born in Jamaica and raised in south London, Harley has become adept at meshing her sound with British culture and heritage to create tracks flecked with pop-infused dancehall beats and contagious rhythm. A breakthrough hit, the 2017 single Gold saw the multi-talented artist spotlighted for her witty lyrics and festive production. In a few years, Harley has become a star on the rise and The Red Room Intro (Yard Gyal Inna Britain) has cemented her flourishing profile as a UK dance staple.
• Page 38Zoya: Did you uncover anything about yourself with making The Red Room? Alicai: I'm indecisive. If you leave me with something for too long, I'm going to think about how it can be greater. It can be a positive, but it can also be a problem. I had the EP mostly finished for so long that coming to the end of it I was thinking it's not good enough. My manager would have to say that each new idea was a new record. I've realised that I'm a perfectionist and I learned the importance of patience when it comes to your artistry. It's down to you, you have the final say, and artists should always have their final say because it's their art. It's not just the music, but the artwork, visuals and all of that.
• Page 39Zoya: You attended Pride before and even performed at LGBTQ+ events. What is your favourite thing about Pride? Alicai: What I enjoy the most about Pride is seeing how happy everybody is. I've been to Pride and anybody that has, you see the joy that comes from it. It's kind of like Carnival and you don't get that in most places. It's not a festival, but there's a certain joy and carefree happiness going on. It's the joy that comes with people being happy and able to express themselves and be who they are. Zoya: What have you got planned next? Alicai: I feel like I've been on a journey in the last couple of months. I got baptised in December. It has really made me want to help people more, especially in regards to mental health. Its become one of my focuses now. I don't know how long it's gonna take me to achieve or prepare, but I know that's my focus. I'm just trying to get myself in the right frame of mind so I can do that. One of these ideas is a charity surrounding therapy because therapy is really expensive. Money shouldn't be the reason our mental health suffers, so that's one thing I want to put into place. I've also got shows coming up and quite a few festivals coming up this year too. In terms of my musical journey, we'll see where that takes us. It's changing a little bit and the truth of what is on my heart is creating that. It's creating resources to help and once I do that I'll start caring about other things.
• Page 40'Queerness has historically been a radicalised identity and often culture - be it music, art or film - has supported the redress of a heteronormative society.' OV
• Page 41How do you do labels? How do you do representation? What counts as queer today?, ponders Sophie Marie Niang. Sophie is part of the Queer World Making Collective along with her friend and composer Ruari Paterson-Achenbach. As one of the four successful applicants of the Open Call, the collaborators are grateful for the opportunity while remaining highly curious about how it all fits into the discourse surrounding queer people and the wider community within the music industry. The Open Call, which offers four grants of £500, is part of a larger programme initiated by Sound and Music that has been housed on the British Music Collection to mark LGBTQ+ History Month. The discovery platform for new music in the UK is closely related to the physical collection, which is housed at the University of Huddersfield's archive centre, Heritage Quay.
• Ruari and SophieSophie and Ruari's collaboration is a fine example of the breadth of approaches the programme has encouraged. Although Ruari is a seasoned composer and performer, Sophie's background is largely academic, and it's a position she is certainly comfortable with. 'This is going to sound very childlike, but I'm not ashamed of that, I don't know how it's going to sound and then I try a new pedal. I try something and it works and it creates something new entirely. I love that. I think collaboration, for me, is really about realising how much we all know. Once we share the basic skills, how much power there is in each person's background and in your musical memories,' she muses.
• Page 43Precious goes on to highlight how tokenism can sometimes tarnish contemporary queer representation: 'We have progressed and I have to give us credit for that. Although I do think that sometimes it can feel like an add-on to look good. That's what a lot of people in the community feel any way! Dig just below the surface of any dialogue around queerness, representation and diversity and the complexities of the conversation leap out.
• Dance Proud1979. The year I can never get away from. The year that produced some of the greatest disco tunes ever, when Donna Summer sang Heaven knows and Sylvester made us feel a Star. The year the mainstream tried to kill the LGBTQ+ disco stars, burnt vinyl and all. As a young queer growing up in the 1970s, disco was my saviour. The glittering queens and butch clones that filled the airwaves were my queeroes hiding in plain sight, my baby dyke self, oblivious to the not-so-subtle signifiers that accompanied disco's magnificent ones. Be it the bravery of Sylvester, the tongue and cheeks of Village People, the blazen brilliance of Boys Town Gang, Gloria Gaynor's survival techniques or the many disco divas destined to accompany every broken heart (oh Esther Philips, Fern Kinney, Suzy Lane, Melba Moore, Linda Clifford, Gladys Knight and Ms Ross I salute you) the queer life was there. From the bathhouses and dark rooms of gay bars, be they the Ice Palace on Fire Island, David Mancuso's The Loft in New York or Bang at London's The Astoria, disco music via R&B, jazz, Motown and that oh so glorious Philly sound had journeyed to the mainstream, soundtracking the liberation of the LGBTQ+, Black and Hispanic community and women's equality. It was the sound of rebellion, of freedom, of us.
• Page 45gay roots for the rock radio DJs' liking, Disco Sucks knew its language of hatred would be tolerated as the AIDS crisis began to unfold. Declaring disco a 'musical disease, Dahl embedded a sense of shame to the genre just as the world's media and politicians found a new reason to demonise the gay community. The soundtrack of the 'other' wasn't about to become the soundtrack of them. And so, the distance between the music and its queer disco roots grew. Even the industry's attempt to repackage early '80s Hi-NRG disco for the heterosexual audience without the gay element failed in all but one sense. The genre was soon topping the pop charts and playing in every nightclub but with divas such as Evelyn King and Eartha Kitt the straight version of disco turned out to be even camper than Sylvester had ever been.
• Page 46The power of audio: a look at queer representation on the radio
• STADIA SPORTS roxapSherelle M Magazine 47
• Photo: Charlotte RutherfordM alongside Girl In Red, Serpentwithfeet, Romy, L Devine and Arlo Parks. The music we play is almost exclusively by queer musicians or allies, both established and emerging. And I am not the only gay host in the Apple Music radio village. My peers include Ashley 'Dotty' Charles as well as Ellie Prohan, Nicole Albino of Nina Sky and my Proud pal MNEK, who hosts his version of the show over on Apple Music Hits and Hunter Kelly who heads up Proud on Apple Country. More visibility comes courtesy of artist-fronted shows from Elton John, St. Vincent and Young M.A. Apple's Pride month content is similarly comprehensive with exclusive DJ mixes, guest- curated playlists and Pride Talks, a video iteration of my show. I am pretty - ahem - proud to work with a platform for whom representation goes beyond tokenism and which seeks to create meaningful connections and conversations with traditionally underrepresented communities.
• Page 49'More often than not, it's the disruptors and independents that fast track conversations around sex, identity, race, religion and class. But it must not be left to them.' solely for the more recognised names. 'It was important to balance those icons that the 6 Music audience already know and love with newer voices who we thought our listeners would be into, [to] champion the incredible work they have been creating, whether that's from the worlds of fashion, dance and drag to club DJs who give the community a safe space to be themselves." While independent and online broadcasters are proving to be increasingly far-reaching in their coverage of queer content, are we seeing the same across mainstream radio? It's wonderful that two drivetime shows on Radio 1 are fronted by gay male hosts - Nick Grimshaw and Scott Mills - and Adele Roberts is the station's Weekend Breakfast host. There's also guest mixes from Jodie Harsh although, as far as I can see, there's just one 'Pride Month Special', via BBC Introducing which is highlighting 'the best from the LGBTQ+ community from the Introducing Dance world'
• Photo: Sam Le RouxPRIDE IS NOT FOR PROFIT Composer Alex Groves on what Pride means to him and how LGBTQ+ music creators can blaze a trail for themselves.
• Page 51It's Pride Month and for LGBTQ+ people across the country it's a time for protest and celebration, a chance to acknowledge how far we've come and how far we have to go. For me, it feels like we all walk that little bit taller this time of year. There's a little bit of weight that gets taken off our shoulders every time we assert our queerness and stake our claim to the world. I remember my first London Pride - only a few years ago - when I walked through London without the slightest bit of shame. Sitting on the tube and gleefully smiling at my fellow revellers, I realised this is what it felt like to not have to police myself for fear of being singled out. My home city had been transformed right in front of my eyes. LGBTQ+ people were out and proud on the street, living their lives unapologetically and coming together in a shared recognition of what we've all lived through.
• Page 52PRS for MUSIC prsformusic.com/m-magazine