Elizabeth Aubrey

As statements of intent go, “Hell Song” is fierce and dives, Faustian like, into an immediate exploration of desire at odds with the protagonist’s faith. “That was just super, super, vulnerable sexually,” Collard tells me of the song, a track which explores sexual liberation whilst knotted with guilt. “I just wanted to hit people in the face, straight up, with what I was about...”

Jamie Lou Stenzel greets me enthusiastically in the boardroom of her record label, a lightbulb smile beaming ear-to-ear. At 16-years-old, Au/Ra , as Stenzel is known professionally, is one of the youngest on the label’s roster. We’re surrounded by images of global pop superstars who were signed at a similar age and with her debut single, "Concrete Jungle" receiving over 15 million streams globally, you can’t help but feel Au/Ra’s image will be up alongside the others soon...

When Bazil Meade MBE founded the London Community Gospel Choir (LCGC) with three other people in 1982, he had no idea how popular the choir would become – nor did he expect LCGC would one day be celebrating its 35th anniversary – especially after their original plan was for the choir to do just a single, one-off performance. Fast forward 35-years, and the choir has travelled far. They’ve graced the stage at The Brits, Glastonbury and The Grammy Awards...

Cinema’s fascination with pop music resulted in high-profile Oscar wins for A Star is Born and Bohemian Rhapsody earlier this year – and the fascination certainly shows no signs of slowing. More music biopics are expected – Rocketman is released later this month – and hitting screens today is another: Brady Corbet’s fascinating Vox Lux. A fictional story of popstar 'Celeste', few recent films have presented pop as much as a monster as this. Within weeks of surviving a school shooting, Celeste...

When Clive Anderson presented the very first episode of Whose Line is it Anyway? on Radio 4, he was working as a full-time criminal barrister. Fifteen years into his career, Anderson hung up his barrister’s wig when his television career took off – first, as the gregarious host of Whose Line (an initial six episode stint on Radio 4 turned into a ten year run on Channel 4) and next when he helmed his very own prime-time chat show. For a short time, the two very distinct professional worlds Anderson inhabited crossed paths and, much to his surprise, had more similarities than he first thought...

With a vocal style once described as “the voice of a saint trapped in a glass harp”, Dolores O’Riordan tore through boundaries for women in rock music in the 90s. News of her tragic death in January 2018 left the band with an unenviable quandary: should they go on and complete the final Cranberries album, which O’Riordan had worked on extensively, or leave their legacy well alone?

For many seasoned actors, a major role in a film or television series usually results in intense preparation, with work often spanning many weeks or even months. Yet for teenager Esmé Creed-Miles, preparation for her titular role in Amazon Video’s major new series, Hanna, was minimal: instinct, rather than rehearsal, drove her process.

Brighton rockers Black Honey are a band of dandy dreamers living the DIY dream on a shoestring – but the album they’re working on, with strings and horns and ‘Parisian noir’ inspiration – sees them reaching for the sky. As they play NME’s Girls To The Front, Elizabeth Aubrey meets them to hear how ADHD, Billie Eilish and a hatred of the pop world forged their sound and fuels their work. PICTURES: Chloe Hashemi Izzy Baxter-Phillips is shouting in the basement of London’s Shacklewell Arms, an hou

Actor Jessie Buckley wasn’t a country fan before Wild Rose, the film in which she plays 23-year-old Rose-Lynn, a Glaswegian single mum with a dream of being Nashville’s next big country star...

After 27 years and six No 1 albums, you don’t necessarily expect dance duo The Chemical Brothers to shake things up. Nevertheless, their ninth record sounds like a reconnection with clubland as they dispense with the big-name vocalists and focus on momentous beats and a new-found manic energy. Pummelling tunes like Free Yourself, Got to Keep On, and MAH (Mad as Hell) were road-tested at Alexandra Palace last year and seem primed to become live fixtures. While there are fruitful collaborations w

Seven years after signing to Asylum Records — also home to Ed Sheeran and Charli XCX — Mahalia Burkmar earned a superstar welcome as she took to the stage at a sold-out Shepherd’s Bush Empire show. It was a poignant moment. Still only 20, Leicester-born Mahalia was 13 when she signed a record deal amid a wave of hype and early comparisons to Erykah Badu. Yet in the intervening years, mainstream success has largely eluded her. After two busy years that have seen Mahalia step up to larger venues

It’s been a whirlwind few years for Icelandic artist Sara Pètursdóttir aka Glowie, one of the musicians who performed at NME’s third Girls to the Front event at London’s Shacklewell Arms last night....

As stage entrances go, Donald Glover — aka Childish Gambino — certainly achieved a dramatic one last night at the O2 Arena...

It has has been five years since Jenny Lewis’s last album, The Voyager, earned praise for its soul-baring realism. A tumultuous time for the former Rilo Kiley frontwoman, it dealt with everything from the break-up of her band to struggles with depression; it also explored her fractured relationship with her father — and his subsequent death. Life hasn’t been much kinder to Lewis in the ensuing years; she’s lost her mother to cancer, split with her partner of 12 years and has spoken out in suppo

These New Puritans have made a career out of difference, often pushing the sonic senses of listeners to extremes as they delve into the deconstructed, the abstract and the obscure. “I want music that sharpens you,” TNPs’ Jack Barnett said in a recent interview, adding that music should “amplify your nervous system.” The description couldn’t be more apt for Inside the Rose, their first LP since 2013’s Field of Reeds...

It’s an unseasonably hot February day in London, spring having seemingly sprung weeks ahead of schedule. “Is it always like this?” Tamino Moharam Fouad – better known as Tamino – enquires, as we sit in a quiet café overlooking London’s hazy, sun-drenched skyline...

For years, Angel-Ho has worked in both the music and art industry as a highly regarded DJ, music producer and founder of the NON Worldwide collective – an experimental underground record label, art project and network dedicated to working with artists of the African diaspora...

The opening to Jack Savoretti’s sixth studio album could easily be the soundtrack to an Italian film from the Sixties. Italian influences indeed abound, thanks to his own heritage and the chance to record this album at composer Ennio Morricone’s Rome studio...

Twenty One Pilots’ Tyler Joseph and Josh Dun began the first of three sold-out nights at the Wembley SSE Arena last night with the typical boundless energy and enthusiasm that has afforded them cult status among their devoted young fan base...

Sigrid Raabe, at 22, is a very millennial kind of pop star. Make-up-free, typically dressed in jeans and a T-shirt, the Norwegian singer looks like she should be breezing around the office of a hip tech start-up rather than centre stage everywhere from Glastonbury to the Nobel Peace Prize concert. There’s no diva preening in her songs, which often feature requests to be respected for who she is. “Can I be basic with you?” she requests of a lover on the airy synthpop of Basic. Her roaring breakt