• Interview: Paul Smith

    November 16, 2014 - By 

    Maximo Park frontman Paul Smith talks to Shannon Delores O’Neill about his new, forward-thinking collaboration with Peter Brewis (Field Music) for their Frozen by Sight album, released today. Frozen by Sight has been described as a “playful departure from [both Peter’s and your] previous groups”. Do you agree? Peter and I have known each other for over a decade but we never got to formally work with each other; we’d watched each other’s bands, shared the same musical ideas and always just thought, “Will we ever get to do something?” We were then lucky enough to get commissioned work by the Festival…

  • Maximo Park @ Limelight 2

    March 7, 2014 - By 

    Well and truly at the height of their indie-rock powers, Maximo Park are on the last leg of their European tour when they arrive in Belfast – and that very fact is backed up by what’s to be undeniably tight performance from the Newcastle band tonight. Starting, in true ‘album promo’ style, with the opening track off the new album, Give, Get, Take, the band set the bar for a highly energetic and for the most part, fast paced set of hip shuffling dance moves and near keyboard destruction chaos. With remarkably only one track from 2009’s Quicken The Heart on the list,…

  • Interview: Maximo Park

    February 11, 2014 - By 

    In the nine years since the release of their Mercury Prize nominated debut album, A Certain Trigger, Newcastle indie rock band Maximo Park have evolved and expanded upon their boundlessly energetic and impassioned approach to accommodate their collective desire to avoid repeating themselves. With their new album, Too Much Information, embracing a decidedly more electronic approach to an exceptional end result, the Paul Smith-fronted are once more commanding critical clout for their unmistakable brand of zealous and adrenaline-fuelled indie rock. Ahead of their highly-anticipated return to Belfast on March 1, Shannon O’Neill talks to the band’s keyboardist/vocalist Lukas Wooller about the writing of…

  • An A-Z Playlist of Grand Theft Auto

    September 17, 2013 - By 

    With the release of arguably the most anticipated video game of a generation, Grand Theft Auto V, Shannon Delores O’Neill casts a nostalgic ear back at some of the best music from GTA – a series that vividly captures the sounds of the era in which each game is set, from the pop and funk of Vice City to the alt-rock and hip hop of San Andreas. And what better to do that than with an A-Z Spotify playlist kicking off with Alice In Chains and ending with Zapp & Roger (“who?” we hear you cry)? NB: don’t forget to do…

  • Tour Journal: Vanilla Gloom

    July 18, 2013 - By 

    A hotly-tipped “must see” act at the final ever Glasgowbury music festival this weekend, Belfast-based all-female post-punk band Vanilla Gloom have just returned from their first tour across the water – a brief but eventful little stint across Scotland beginning and ending in Glasgow. In the first installment of an occasional tour journal feature, Shannon O’Neill, vocalist and guitarist from the Derry three-piece details the band’s experiences on and off the stage via photos (courtesy of the very talented Ciara McMullan), doodles and day-to-day thoughts from on the road. ___