Interviews with Richard Kingsmill

In 2001, PJ Harvey finally made it to Australia, off the back of her award-winning Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea album.The English artist had thrilled music fans all the way through the ‘90s, right from those blistering early singles ‘Dress’ and ‘Sheela-Na-Gig’. Her albums ranged from the austere Rid Of Me through to the gothic textures of To Bring You My Love, with each of them consistently scoring high on end of year album lists.A couple of nights after seeing her live for the first time, Richard Kingsmill spoke to PJ Harvey about her latest album, the dark personal times she went through five years earlier, and how she felt about her relationship with Nick Cave going public.

In December 1994, Nick Cave spoke with Richard Kingsmill about the five songs that changed his life.Cave reflected on the influence artists like John Lee Hooker, The Saints and Bob Dylan had had on him as a writer and performer.He also spoke about the lengthy Lollapalooza tour he and The Bad Seeds embarked on that year after the release of their 8th album Let Love In. He even touched on the next project he was then thinking about - Murder Ballads.

In September 1993, Robert Smith of The Cure spoke to Richard Kingsmill about the five songs that changed his life.They spoke about Jimi Hendrix, Nick Drake, David Bowie, The Sensational Alex Harvey Band and Sex Pistols. They also spoke about the state of play within The Cure following their massive Wish tour of 1992.

With her debut album, the Sydney singer/muso/producer Milan Ring has emerged happy and hopeful after some dark times.Milan Ring is a highly regarded talent on the Sydney music scene as a singer/musician and producer. After years of single and EP releases, as well as working overseas with the likes of SZA, The Social Experiment and BJ The Chicago Kid, she’s only now released her debut album.The title I’m Feeling Hopeful suggests there’s been a less positive backstory to get to this point. Milan opens up to Richard Kingsmill about that, how she’s managed to reach a more peaceful place now, and the influence of everything from Jimi Hendrix to mudras in shaping who she is.

Parcels have always had ambition. But they’ve gone sky high with the vision for their epic second album.With their new album Day/Night, Parcels wanted to reach for the stars. Keen to avoid any second album syndrome, they went bigger, wider and more extreme than they’ve ever gone as a band.Exploring the duality of the band, the darkness and light within the group, they arrived at an epic double album called Day/Night. Self-produced at the La Frette studios in Paris, drummer Anatole ‘Toto’ Serret and Richard Kingsmill go into how the album progressed through an ominous Australian summer, then months of separation during a worldwide pandemic, as well as playing cover versions for weeks on end.

At 24, with eight Grammy’s and a game-changing working relationship with his sister Billie Eilish, FINNEAS now has his own debut album.We know FINNEAS has worked alongside sister Billie Eilish every step of the way. It’s resulted in two huge and game-changing albums, as well as numerous awards for the writer and producer including eight Grammy’s.Outside of the sibling connection, FINNEAS has also been working with the likes of Justin Bieber, Selena Gomez and Demi Lovato. The desire to make and release his own music might appear unnecessary, but it’s remained a key element of his career so far.With the release of Optimist, Richard Kingsmill touches base once again with FINNEAS to talk through the debut album’s creation, some of its key moments, and his aims behind making it.

Sam Fender’s debut album signalled the arrival of a voice readymade to inspire festival singalongs. On his second album, he now shows his considerable skills as a songwriter, tackling both the personal and political with equal measures of insight and heart.Seventeen Going Under is Fender’s follow-up to 2019’s Hypersonic Missiles. From the working classes of northern England, an unsettled childhood from divorced parents, plus an undisclosed health issue, has given the now 27yo plenty to reflect upon.Wanting to avoid writing about the pandemic, he couldn’t ignore though the toll it was taking on family, friends and himself. With his activity completely restricted to protect his own health, his observational song writing muscle that he flexed on his debut was now severely limited. Knowing he needed to draw on deeper personal subject matter for his new songs, he channelled a lot of the personal therapy he’s been undergoing into some powerful material.With some big shows in the UK to launch him back on the scene, Fender speaks here with Richard Kingsmill about the album, his personal growth and the scope of his new songs.

In 2018, a new Melbourne band arrived featuring ex-members of The Smith Street Band, The Bennies and Apart From This. With the self-deprecating name of LOSER, they hit the ground running with their debut single immediately added to triple j. Signed to Domestic La La, the label of Violent Soho’s James Tidswell, a debut album from LOSER at the start of 2020 signalled a busy year ahead. Those plans soon disappeared, and in lockdown for much of the year, singer Tim Maxwell started to experience severe anxiety. With medication and some family help, the band ended up channelling their frustrations into building their own studio and writing a second album. All The Rage is the result, a consistent rock record that feeds off the riffs of Queens Of The Stone Age, Weezer, Smashing Pumpkins and other seminal ‘90s and early noughties acts. Tim speaks here with Richard Kingsmill about what he went through last year, how he and his brother Will returned to their original family home to build the studio, and how aliens inspired one of the album’s best moments.

The London duo talk about the new mindset and overall positivity behind their 3rd album.If you’re after an album to escape the times, look no further than Jungle’s latest.Born in the pre-COVID bliss of 2019, Loving In Stereo is a strongly positive and upbeat album. One that captured a fresh personal outlook for the London group.The two guys behind Jungle are Josh Lloyd-Watson and Tom McFarland (J & T for short). Friends since the age of nine, they’ve shared a lot of experiences. One of those was when their personal relationships both came to an end around the time of their last album. That shared heartbreak coloured the song writing and sound of For Ever.With new relationships in their lives, combined with a desire to write a more uplifting set of songs, Loving In Stereo is a much more direct album which still captures all their varied crate-digging influences. Richard Kingsmill speaks here to Josh about the change of outlook, some of the key moments off the album, and how it all started as a set of ideas for a hip hop mixtape.

WILLOW is the 20yo daughter of Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith. With her 5th album, she continues to expand her own path in music.In 2010, a nine-year-old dazzled the world with a song called ‘Whip My Hair’. Many saw it as just a novelty, but it was actually the start of a music career that’s now five albums deep.WILLOW is Willow Smith, the now 20yo daughter of Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith. Her latest album is lately I feel EVERYTHING, and it explores her love of punk, rock and emo, hearing her collaborating with the likes of Travis Barker and Avril Lavigne. The album also follows a little in her mother’s footsteps, as Jada once was the fierce frontwoman of the metal band Wicked Wisdom in the early noughties.In her first triple j interview, WILLOW speaks with Richard Kingsmill about race, rock and the road to her 5th album.

Built On Glass was the acclaimed and award-winning debut album for the Melbourne artist Chet Faker.A couple of years after its release, Chet retired. Any new music that followed would be released under the artist’s birth name Nick Murphy. For many, it was a confusing and potentially career damaging decision. But in the years in-between, Murphy came to grips with the two identities, and why the move was so important for him as a musician.From his small studio in New York City where Hotel Surrender - Chet Faker’s comeback album – was made, the man himself speaks with Richard Kingsmill about his ordeal with long COVID last year, the death of his father, and how Chet re-emerged into his life.

Early in 2020, at an APRA song writing workshop in Melbourne, the three members of Telenova met for the first time.Joshua Moriarty and Edward Quinn had been playing for years in their respective groups, Miami Horror and Slum Sociable, and singer Angeline Armstrong had been pursuing work across both video and music. But none of them had ever met each other. On that first day working together, they came up with a song called ‘Tranquilize’. It was clear, even that early on, that they had something special between them.More writing followed, and the ideas kept coming as easily as that first day. Early in 2021, their debut single ‘Bones’ dropped and immediately it resonated for both triple j and Double J listeners. With their first EP now out, and a headline tour to come, Armstrong and Quinn speak here to Richard Kingsmill about their story and how everything has unfolded so quickly for them.