The easy choice would be to jump right in and ask novelist Nadeem Aslam what his thoughts are on the recent bombings in London. After all, his critically acclaimed novel Maps for Lost Lovers was a lyrical examination of the very immigrant communities in the North of England from which the alleged bombers came. British […]
Northern Irish band Ash formed in Downpatrick in 1992 while its three members were still in secondary school. The band, comprising Tim Wheeler (guitar/vocals), Mark Hamilton (bass) and Rick McMurray (drums), ploughed the usual indie furrows of gigging and releasing demos for a couple of years until their debut album Trailer was released in October […]
The horror, the horror. We fall out into Arezzo’s football stadium, yet to cool from the day’s intense heat. Shell-shocked and lost for words. Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the British Sea Power interview experience. It starts with the introductions, which are perhaps the most comprehensible element of the encounter. Yan, the singer, dressed with […]
Firing questions at anyone for a half an hour about their motivations and identity is bound to produce contradictions, but an interview with Glen Hansard, chief songwriter from Irish band the Frames, throws up more than its fair share. It’s not that he’s confused, or indeed confusing. Rather, the context that he and The Frames […]
“In the words of Archdeacon R.H.Charles in 1931, science may have ‘exposed many superstitions of the dark ages and laid bare the falsity of the religious and secular magic of the past and present, yet in their stead it has introduced legions of new alarms that beset our lives from the cradle to the grave’” […]
The word that keeps coming up, in conversation with Johnny Bramwell, lead singer and songwriter with Mancunians I am Kloot, is drama. Whether it be references to Harold Pinter, or the description of their latest album as “like Richard III as a character”, it’s clear that he, and indeed the band, have specific goals in […]
“If you don’t allow yourself to write characters who do disagreeable things–if you only allow yourself to write about what you would be glad for your readers to imitate in real life–then you’re pretty much constrained to characters who help little old ladies across the street and rescue cats from trees,” points out Lionel Shriver, […]
“Words are the first step we take to turn intentions into reality”, declares American author Chuck Palahniuk. “All our vows, – he explains, – and declarations and signatures: Words. And ceremonies where we speak words (pledges and promises) in front of our peers. Again, that’s how human beings develop their dreams into a physical reality”. […]
From the TMO Archive – the legendary Greg Dulli talks to TMO about the Afghan Whigs, Nina Simone, and Pathos in songwriting.
In recent years, few British authors have managed to straddle the line between critical acclaim and commercial success quite as effectively as Jonathan Coe. Much admired for his earlier novels, such as The Accidental Woman, The House Of Sleep and, in particular the era-defining What A Carve Up!, Coe with 2001's The Rotters Club went […]
