All content archive
February 2025
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91 articles
- February 10
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- “Wth did we just watch?”: Seal stars as… a seal in bonkers new Mountain Dew ad
- "An enormous amount of fun with a side helping of inspiration": Kiviak Instruments WoFi review
- “I don’t make the rules. We’re trying to do the right thing. It is what it is, I’m the singer. Get off my case”: Liam Gallagher responds to fans who’ve had their Oasis tickets falsely cancelled
- “The ultimate wireless guitar rig built into premium headphones”: Positive Grid cuts the cable with Spark Neo
- “Boy, he’s a weird guy. He’s got one orange sneaker, one red sneaker”: Gene Simmons on Ace Frehley’s memorable audition for Kiss
- “I think singers tend to be a little insecure!”: Iron Maiden leader Steve Harris recalls how he gambled everything by changing the band’s frontman
- “Even global stars must follow local rules - no permit, no performance”: Plug pulled on Ed Sheeran busking in India
- "There's a new free DAW in town": openDAW promises to open the door to music production for beginners, students and beatmakers on a budget
- “Radio stations all said Layne’s voice is wrong”: Alice In Chains and Jane’s Addiction producer Dave Jerden helped to define the sound of alternative rock
- Why did Jon Batiste have a Jupiter-8 plugin controller, a Maschine+ and an Ableton Live controller sitting on his piano when he sang the National Anthem at the Super Bowl? We’re still not sure
- “Random dudes are allowed to criticise my Grammy speech, but they best put their money where their mouth is, otherwise MOVE out of the way”: Chappell Roan stands her ground on need to support developing artists
- “And then, out of nowhere, this crazy boy just started singing this song”: How Elvis Presley spontaneously altered the course of music history
- “The Beatles and Ramones played 30 minute sets, and if I could, I would do the same”: Jack White bemoans fans feeling their ticket ‘entitles’ them to a mammoth setlist
- February 8
- February 7
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- “It dawned on me, ‘Wow! I think that we’re learning how to do this just how Bob learned how to play’”: How Timothée Chalamet went from a complete guitar novice to become Bob Dylan onscreen
- “I thought it was too pop. I rebelled against it”: How Ozzy Osbourne learned to love a song that was written and recorded in one hour and ended up becoming Black Sabbath’s biggest hit
- “I don't really mind if people mishear lyrics or misunderstand what the story is, I think you have to let go of that when you send it out in the world”: Are all interpretations of songs correct? Kate Bush certainly thinks so
- “I loved that he showed up with a $200 guitar… It’s humble”: Timothée Chalamet learned to play guitar for his Oscar-nominated role in Bob Dylan biopic on a beginner Yamaha acoustic
- Full Bucket Music takes on another rare vintage synth with Paralogy, its free plugin emulation of the Crumar Trilogy and Stratus
- “Can you imagine sharing the stage with your 14-year-old self?”: Donny Osmond uses “mind-blowing AI and CGI technology” to duet with… himself
- “Sometimes I can do the big drum fill in the intro to The Trooper. But even then it's a bit flaky, it’s not clean”: Iron Maiden legend Nicko McBrain’s “difficult decision” to retire from touring
- “The first time I heard a Buchla synthesizer, something clicked. It felt like a fantasy”: Maria Teriaeva on the Buchla 200e, olfactory album art and vocoded breakup songs
- “The Netflix documentary will not be released”: Prince’s estate claims a “big win for his legacy” as it confirms that the completed but controversial 9-hour documentary about him won’t be broadcast
- “It’s just about being alive. It’s about the voice carrying much more information than words do”: The power and intensity in Jeff Buckley’s greatest song
- “Any other musical discussion that has taken place has been kind of anti-Brat": Charli XCX producers reveal a possible about-face in the direction of the multi-Grammy winner
- Discover new rhythms, patterns and sound palettes with UVI’s multi-faceted Mosaiq
- “We were making a new hybrid music, we were something different”: How futurepop brought the sound of tomorrow to the dawn of a new century
- February 6
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- "Is this a watershed moment for acoustic-electric guitar?": LR Baggs AEG-1 guitar review review
- “This thing is your one-way ticket to funky town”: Behringer’s long-awaited Mu-Tron III clone arrives and promises a rabbit-hole of retro-funk tones for just $69
- “There was a forty-foot cliff and I’d dived off it into the ocean. Apparently I’d said it was a good day to fly!”: The day that Ozzy Osbourne could have killed himself
- “I love it when people change my songs and make them their own. He flipped the lyrics round to sing ‘I saw the whole of the moon’”: Mike Scott says he enjoyed Prince’s cover of The Waterboys’ biggest hit, but did he really write it about him?
- “AI is about as close to reality as you can ever imagine”: Gene Simmons discusses the prospect of a virtual KISS and says the “future of entertainment is here”
- "Have you ever been playing something awesome and thought 'I should have recorded that?' Now, you did!": Jamcorder automatically records everything you play on piano - so you'll never lose a spontaneous jam again
- "Music genres have undergone a noticeable simplification": Study concludes that modern music is not complex enough - and it's all your fault
- "A staggering number of ideas to experiment with" : a new set of chance composing cards could be the 2025 update to Brian Eno's Oblique Strategies
- “Dude, I'm just trying to make the song as best as it can be! You’re so impatient!": Studio footage shows producer Andrew Watt berating Elton John during the recording of his new album Who Believes In Angels?, a collaboration with Brandi Carlile
- “U wanna hear the raw files”: Producer Mike Dean tells streamers to switch off auto levelling on every music platform, and hear the music as it was meant to be heard
- "This makes no sense at all in terms of functional harmony. So why does it sound so good?: A music professor breaks down Doechii's Denial Is a River and Boiled Peanuts
- This Valentines Day, say it with… strings, plectrums and some bargain-priced software bundles?
- “When we heard the album we were speechless!”: How Led Zeppelin's debut blew Peter Frampton away - and inspired countless guitarists
- “The risk is that I never finish a piece - I want to push them further, to see how far they can be deformed without tearing”: How Aphex Twin fought the temptation to continually refine, and how we can learn from his example
- “It was Gary’s idea to bring the Irishness back into Thin Lizzy": Guitar hero Gary Moore made only one album with the band - and it’s a classic
- February 5
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- “Even a complete beginner could get the 18i20 set up and start making multi-mic recordings”: Focusrite Scarlett 18i20 4th Gen review
- “I was like, ‘this cannot happen’. There’s a time and a place and it’s not with Glinda; she doesn’t have that kind of rhythm”: Ariana Grande tells Billie Eilish why she said no to the idea of having “trap drums” in one of her showstopping songs in Wicked
- Strum is a deconstructed, accessible guitar that anybody can play
- Toraiz ChordCat is a chord-focused groovebox that'll help theory-averse beatmakers cook up chord sequences
- “Jimmy Page arrived carrying a Waitrose bag. I thought he’d brought sandwiches with him”: How new Becoming Led Zeppelin documentary nearly never happened
- “An impressive compact stereo recorder that’s light enough to mount with a camera and small enough to stick in your pocket”: Zoom H1 XLR review
- “How do musicians and young bands get paid? I can’t work it out”: Turns out that Gavin Rossdale doesn’t have the answers
- Arturia's limited-edition DrumBrute Impact 1984 gives its analogue drum machine an '80s facelift
- “The greatest heavy metal show ever!”: Ozzy Osbourne reunites Black Sabbath’s original line-up for a final show in Birmingham
- "Reggae is more freeform than the blues. But more important, reggae is for everyone": Bob Marley and the Wailers' Catch a Fire, track-by-track
- "They inhabited the future of their time, but they sound historical to me now": A music professor breaks down the theory behind Kraftwerk's Autobahn
- "I’m not sure that journey is fully understood. And frankly, we probably haven’t done a very good job of explaining it": Spotify just posted their first-ever year of profit
- Beyoncé to tour Cowboy Carter in 2025: Here are all those global venues and dates - and how to get tickets
- February 4
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- “Surely the most versatile version yet, putting different flavours of gourmet crunch on the menu”: DOD 250 Overdrive/Preamp 50th Anniversary review
- “Expect a heavy weather-checked finish, heavy belt buckle wear, light arm wear, and light neckwear”: The Gibson Custom Shop unveils its first Heavy Aged Murphy Lab acoustic guitars
- “We are convinced that we will inspire many Beatles fans all over the world with this beautiful acoustic guitar”: Framus reissues John Lennon’s record-breaking $2.86m “Help!” Hootenanny 12-string
- "I aggravated it so I could drive back to London and go to the match": Bill Wyman once faked toothache to skip the Stones and watch the cup final
- Here are all the winners in the 2024 Drumeo Awards. Did your favourite sticksmith make the cut?
- "We’ve heard your frustrations": Native Instruments responds to customer concerns, announcing Maschine 3, Kontakt 8 support and Play Series instruments for Maschine+
- “All the songs are about life on the road and things that were going down within the band”: Recently unearthed footage shows Fleetwood Mac’s Lindsey Buckingham discussing the making of the album that would end up being one of the biggest of all time
- “It meant a great deal to him and remains one of our most beloved of Jack’s treasures”: Cream legend Jack Bruce’s EB-1 violin bass to go on display at the Gibson Garage London
- “We used to play that song faster…”: Slipknot’s Eloy Casagrande reveals the secret lessons he gave his Sepultura replacement
- “I didn’t know what to do. It sounded like an angry wasp”: Brian May recalls the time he played live through Jimi Hendrix’s Marshall – and it didn’t go well
- Behringer releases RD-78, a $199 Roland CR-78 clone that promises to "bring the magic of the '70s and '80s back to life"
- Tool’s Danny Carey just invented an exercise bike with a built-in drum workout
- 10,000 AI-generated tracks are being uploaded to Deezer every day and it's fighting back
- “It had so much weight. So much power”: How Led Zeppelin’s Communication Breakdown set the template for heavy metal and inspired a legendary punk guitarist
- “With Off The Rails, I was stuck – didn’t quite know where to finish it – so I went and saw Killers of the Flower Moon”: Jerry Cantrell reveals how Jeff Beck and Martin Scorsese influenced new solo album I Want Blood
- “That very first meeting we had was quite intense. He just wanted to know how thoroughly we knew the subject”: Becoming Led Zeppelin filmmakers tell of their first meeting with Jimmy Page
- "In the studio, everyone is a sad, tragic animal that has no idea what they’re doing - no matter how successful they are": Mogwai producer John Congleton
- “When I came up with the guitar part, Krist looked at me and said, ‘That is so ridiculous’. I made the band play it for an hour and a half”: It defined the '90s, yet Nirvana’s biggest anthem started out as a self-confessed rip-off
- “I just love the music so much that I just can’t give up”: Meet the conductor still working at 97
- February 3
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- “We’re making new guitars that don’t exist for the sole purpose of writing something”: Polyphia's Tim Henson teases new 8-string meisterworks that could require a whole new guitar to play along
- "Stop trawling the small ads and boot sales": Kays Catalogue classic the JEN SX1000 just got reborn as a plugin and iOS app
- “It gives you that power that sometimes pop, rock and techno songs need”: Charli XCX's Brat mastering engineer Idania Valencia on her go-to plugins and the threat of AI
- Prince's former bandmate reveals her "total surprise" when, without warning, he gave her the nod to play the Purple Rain guitar solo in front of her hometown audience
- Spotify wins major court case, over controversial 'bundling' that lowered artist payments
- Grammys 2025: All the winners and nominees in EVERY category
- “He turned out to be the nicest, funniest guy I'd ever hung out with": Steve Lukather on meeting his hero, George Harrison
- "He was very particular on vocal sound. There was a particular tone that he liked”: One of George Michael’s backing singers on why she was one of the very few female vocalists who was able to record with him
- “We put a lot of effort into making sound design easy and visual. And year after year, we try to emphasise this even more”: The story of Arturia’s Pigments synth, from early challenges to the “huge milestone” of version 6
- Grammys 2025: All of this year's winners and losers
- “We were in between shots, around 2 or 3 in the morning... Just one of those moments that you knew something big was happening”: Actor Mekhi Phifer on being one of the first people to hear Eminem’s Lose Yourself
- “We toured with Mötley Crüe, and I was like, ‘Please tell me I'm not going to end up like that!’”: Iron Maiden singer Bruce Dickinson recalls his wild years in the ’80s
- February 2
- February 1
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- “It's a song with enough twists and quirks to make it stand out from the pop landscape”: A music professor breaks down Chappell Roan’s Good Luck, Babe!
- “Part of a beautiful American tradition”: A music theory expert explains the country roots of Beyoncé’s Texas Hold ‘Em, and why it also owes a debt to the blues
- “Maybe I’ll write out five or six chords, then discipline myself to write something only with those chords involved”: Why David Bowie’s restrictive songwriting strategies provide a lesson for us all