Elizabeth Aubrey

Freelance arts and culture journalist/lecturer. My work is regularly found in NME, Evening Standard, The Guardian, Empire, The Quietus, GQ, The Independent, MixMag, Crack and more.

NME •

L’Impératrice on overcoming the patriarchy with funk, fun – and a nod to Billie Eilish

It’s late afternoon in Paris and L’Impératrice’s Flore Benguigui and Charles de Boisseguin join NME on video call from a pretty garden in the 18th arrondissement, close to bohemian Montmartre and Benguigui’s apartment. They’re sat on a bench against light blue skies, bright spring sunshine and they’re surrounded by cherry blossom. “We’re also being very French, drinking white wine,” Benguigui laughs...
NME •

The Weather Station: “I realised people weren’t correcting me because I was wrong, but because of sexism”

It’s a clear, calm day in Toronto, Canada. Tamara Lindeman, aka The Weather Station, is speaking there from her home, a place she’s been largely confined in for several months as the long winter lockdown continues. How is she passing the time? “Just going for lots of long walks,” she smiles over video call, grateful she can appreciate the natural landscape close by...
NME •

Baio – 'Dead Hand Control' review: killer Vampire Weekend side-project

Away from his day job as bassist with Vampire Weekend, Chris Baio is no stranger to side-projects, performing with experimental rock project C.Y.M. and under his electronic pop solo moniker, Baio. In between finishing his main band’s 2019 double album ‘Father of the Bride‘ and the start of last year’s lockdown, Baio wrote and recorded this third solo album. It’s the New Yorker’s most confident and cohesive solo record yet...
NME •

'Arlo Parks: A Popstar in a Pandemic' review: breaking out in lockdown

Last January, Arlo Parks was just beginning a massive year. Top of all the major ‘ones-to-watch’ lists, the south London singer-songwriter quietly amassed a very famous fan base, including Billie Eilish and Phoebe Bridgers. Little did she know that a whole summer of festivals, her US tour supporting Paramore’s Hayley Williams and a slate of headline gigs would soon cease to exist once COVID hit...
EMPIRE •

Cinema Hero - Alexa Raisbeck from BFI Southbank

ALEXA RAISBECK WAS studying film and media at college in London when her career took a surprise turn. Curious about how things operated behind the scenes in her local cinema, she started working as an usher and, after being asked to help track down some film, trained as a projectionist. So began a life-long love of projecting films and now, 17 years later, Raisbeck works as the BFI Southbank’s Technical Supervisor. Here, she gives Empire an insight into the high points of the job, and reveals how it can be both thrilling and pretty nerve-racking, too.
NME •

The Anchoress shares 'The Art Of Losing' video and tells us about her Manics-featuring new album

The follow up to Welsh multi-instrumentalist Catherine Anne Davies’ debut ‘Confessions of a Romance Novelist’ deals with the multiple losses and trauma that she has faced over the last few years – including the loss of her father and several miscarriages. To launch the new video, Davies spoke to NME about the challenge – and joy – of writing an upbeat album about grief...
NME •

Film Cover Story with Finn Cole

Finn Cole is back where he’s happiest: at work, in front of the camera. Catching up with NME over the phone from LA, the rising star is between takes of Animal Kingdom – the popular US gangster drama returning for a fifth season next year. After 10 months stuck in various levels of lockdown, his relief at being able to do what he loves again is palpable. “My ideal place to be is on set, figuring out how to tell stories and entertain. That’s where I’ll usually be if you’re looking for me,” he say
Flaunt Magazine •

Cover Interview: Adria Arjona

When you ask Adria Arjona how she’s coped with lockdown, her answer is unflinchingly honest. “Lockdown? Oh, it fucked me up,” the 28-year-old actor admits candidly. “It’s been so harsh. I’ve never spent this amount of time at home, never.” Since childhood, Arjona has rarely stayed in one place for long. After living a nomadic childhood on account of her father’s job (he is renowned, award-winning singer-songwriter Ricardo Arjona) and traveling frequently from set-to-set as an adult with roles in True Detective, Emerald City, and Pacific Rim: Uprising—to name a mere few...
EMPIRE •

'Writing It Up' - Gareth Evans, Suzanne Heathcote, Lennie James, Mae Martin, Laurie Nunn, Sarah Phelps

In the Understatement of the year, we’d like to say, 2020: Christ, what a year! But, amongst the void-screaming, there have been pockets of joy. And so many of those pockets have been stuffed with the golden minutes and hours that have played across our TV screens. It could even be described, in the very worst of years, as the very best year for television. These shows tore apart genre, structure and narrative. Radical, disruptive storytelling was embraced and sex, finally, was something that we recognised...
EMPIRE •

Lucy Kirkwood, Hayley Squires and Dawn Shadforth on 'Adult Material'

The creators and star of Channel 4’s celebrated porn drama 'Adult Material' on pulling off one of the year’s riskiest shows. Lucy Kirkwood: "It was impossibly hard to get this made: it took nine years to [get a] commission. I was continually surprised by how wary people still were of the subject matter. We were adamant we were making a serious, high-minded drama that’s not about being salacious or provocative for the sake of it, but the topic still has this radioactive glow."
NME •

Interview: Vampire Weekend's Chris Baio on his new studio album

Vampire Weekend’s Chris Baio is back with his third solo album, ‘Dead Hand Control’. A more hopeful look at the world following years of political upheaval, the record was completed between touring Vampire Weekend’s ‘Father Of The Bride’ and this year’s lockdown. After months of sitting on the release thanks to the pandemic, Baio is excited for the world to finally hear what he’s been working on...
NME •

Hannah Georgas on her new single with The National's Matt Berninger

Hannah Georgas has today released a new version of one of her standout album tracks, ‘Pray It Away’. With her album ‘All That Emotion’ produced by The National’s Aaron Dessner, today’s new cut sees her team up with his bandmate Matt Berninger, who adds some lush vocals and a new depth to the song. We caught up with Georgas on the phone from her native Canada to hear more about the collaboration, heartbreak, same sex marriage, Dessner’s Taylor Swift secret, and her plans for the future...
EMPIRE •

Rebecca Ferguson: High Wire Act

BACK IN AUGUST 2014, on her very first day of filming on Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation, Rebecca Ferguson jumped 120 feet off an Austrian rooftop. Not bad for a sufferer of vertigo. And so impressed was Tom Cruise, that later in the shoot he asked her how she felt about joining him in another stunt — her attached to the wing of a biplane, him piloting it. “I said, ‘You must be fucking joking!’” she recalls replying. “‘What? Absolutely not!’”
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