Articles

About Me

I am a freelance music and culture writer based in Oxford, UK. You can follow me on social media with the links below.

RIOT •

WARGASM: “We’re like fire meets acetone peroxide” –

“When we were at Bloodstock I think we found the purest demonstration of our demographic. It was a guy with a bald head, a beard, camo shorts, and a Britney shirt.”

Electro-punx Wargasm celebrate the return of live music with a combustible set on the Reading Lock-Up stage and a natter about all things pop stars, primal fun, and ‘Salma Hayek’.

Though their music is a riotous nu-metal-infused beast, a wholesome companionship underpins London-based duo Wargasm. “You earned your stripes while gigg
RIOT •

Reading Festival 2021: The Best of the Friday –

As the sun sets on the first day at Reading Festival 2021, the sweet scent of dark fruits and stale cigarettes in the air, RIOT reflects on the best it had to offer.

Since his Really Very Brilliant album Zeros, Enfield’s greatest export has gone from strength to strength. In fact, Reading Festival’s Main Stage looked almost too small for him as he pranced, drenched in glitter, across its width. I could only be talking about Declan Mckenna, who has earned his stripes as certified indie royalty v
RIOT •

Reading Festival 2021: Ones To Watch –

Though little is certain in this chaotic world, frivolous punters descending on Richfield Avenue for August Bank Holiday weekend, all civility and dignity left on the Great Western, is a fine guarantee. So when an unspecified ‘C’ word saw Reading Festival postponed for the first time in its fifty year history, teens and once-teens the nation over were left frothing at the mouth and solo- skanking to SHY FX in their bedrooms. Luckily for them (and their parents), Britain’s favourite hedonistic su
The Mic •

A Love Letter to a Genre That Didn’t Always Love Me Back

As live music makes a jubilant return, The Mic’s Editor-in-Chief, Olivia Stock, reflects on her experiences growing up in the heavy music scene.

Growing up, heavy music always felt like a male domain. All my mates who enjoyed the same music as me were blokes, and all my favourite bands were the same. I wrote about music on a coy Tumblr blog and attended gigs alone, drenched in eyeliner, desperately trying to stay afloat in a sea of wandering hands and skeptic looks. I accepted that a tiny brune
The Mic •

Silence is deafening: Shame on finding strength in vulnerability

For the cover of The Mic’s 51st print issue, I interviewed the renowned post-punk band Shame:

Despite often being mistaken for a gospel record, Shame’s ‘Songs of Praise’ was an acerbic, pummelling feat in a punk scene crying out for new ringleaders. Nearly 200 gigs, a minor breakdown, and a pandemic later, they’re back with a weirder, wiser second album. In the week preceding its release, Olivia Stock sat down with wiry frontman, Charlie Steen, and lead guitarist Eddie Green, to talk rejecting expectations, punk’s vulnerable new groove, and a vendetta with La Policía.