Lucy O'Toole

In the run-up to her eagerly anticipated Dublin gigs, Kiera Dignam drops into the

“If I was a 99, the excitement would be the ice-cream, and the nervousness would be the flake.”

“I went to five funerals last year,” Paloma Faith tells me, with a stark matter-of-factness. “It was a big year of sadness.

Declan McKenna has, as a patronising great-uncle might say, been ‘at the music’ for almost 10 years now – releasing his breakthrough single, the football-corruption-condemning ‘Brazil’ in 2014, and winning Glastonbury’s Emerging Talent Competition just four months later. That milestone career anniversary is all the more impressive when you remember that the English singer-songwriter only turned 25 two months ago.

From prestigious rising star awards, to a chart-topping debut album, few other acts have captured the attention of the music world as rapidly, or as powerfully, as The Last Dinner Party. Across two conversations, spaced five months apart, the London band discuss origins, friendship, “insane dresses”, supporting Hozier, covering Sinéad O’Connor, and expressing queerness through Catholic imagery.

False Lankum Originally published in Hot Press in March 2023: ’s experimental, unconventional, and sometimes slightly unhinged hands, concepts

Originally published in Hot Press in October 2023:

Still Learning Caity Baser, by her admission, can “sit very calmly in chaos.” It’s a particularly handy skill for one of the most buzzed-about emerging

As a producer, he’s established himself as a defining force in modern pop – building close creative ties with Taylor Swift, Lana Del Rey, Lorde and more across a globe-conquering series of records. Now, as he returns with his band Bleachers’ new album, Jack Antonoff talks collaborating, learning to live “outside the lens of grief” – and his love for Sinéad O’Connor and Shane MacGowan.

Pillow Queens are back with a new LP, the fearlessly frank Name Your Sorrow. The indie-rock four-piece drop by the Hot Press office to discuss wild time...