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July 2026

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231 articles

July 31
- “I’ve always said that if they wanted me to reform, I would do it. I would even play harmonica or do a walk on”: Steve Hackett is still open to a hypothetical Genesis reunion
- Billie Joe Armstrong’s punk rock riff machine, Orange’s mighty micro-amp, and the $150 acoustic that gives us serious John Mayer vibes – it’s MusicRadar’s monthly guitar gear roundup, the July 2026 edit
- “Try to have one in your hand as much as possible, maybe more than girls. Because if you really look at a shape of a guitar, it's really like a woman, you know what I mean?": Richie Sambora offers some eyebrow-raising advice to aspiring guitarists
- “Mick looked at me and said ‘You know you really do need to stick together, that is your future.’ He was right because it could all have fallen apart at that time”: Nick Rhodes says that Mick Jagger once saved Duran Duran from splitting
- SampleRadar: 473 free sub bass samples
- "I’m hoping the reaction won’t be too intense for people, but I know that it will be because it has been for us": Drummer Matt Cameron confirms that a final Soundgarden album is currently being mixed
- “He slowed the tape down really slowly and played the parts slowly… When it came up to the right speed it sounded amazing”: How Christine McVie’s pop songcraft and Lindsey Buckingham’s production genius created one of Fleetwood Mac's biggest '80s hits
- “He wrote it in a completely different way simply because of his eyesight problem. He can’t read lyrics if they’re on the piano”: Bernie Taupin on Elton John’s new approach to songwriting on his next album, and why they'll never sell their publishing
- “Paul hits this chord and I turn to him and say, ‘That’s it!’ I said, ‘Do that again!’”: How The Beatles made the single that changed everything
July 30
- "For me, he will always be everywhere I see a coin spinning into an open guitar case": Bono, Bob Geldof, Bruce Springsteen, Billie Eilish and Finneas mourn Glen Hansard as tributes continue to pour in
- “Its scale and influence remain extraordinary - a defining British record that continues to unite generations, fill stadiums and soundtrack lives”: As the UK album chart turns 70, the biggest seller of all time has been confirmed
- "They said they had David Bowie on board. They had Go West, Natalie Cole.... and they wanted us to write a song for the soundtrack”: How Roxette repurposed a Christmas song for the Pretty Woman soundtrack and ended up with a US number one
- ReFX’s Rippler promises to “emulate acoustic instruments both real and imagined” with its advanced physical modelling engine
- “Brent texted me when that was all stirred up, and he was like, ‘Dude, I can’t believe people think I punched you in the face!’”: Mastodon's Brann Dailor and Troy Sanders on their complicated relationship with the late Brent Hinds
- Olivia Dean, Paul McCartney and Raye score Mercury Prize 2026 'best album' nominations... but Lily Allen and Harry Styles miss out
- Grammys CEO says new 'Asian Pop' category was “created to celebrate the depth, diversity and extraordinary growth of pop artistry coming out of Asia” after BTS rule themselves out
- "It pioneered the long-form pop album as an art form": The Beatles' Rubber Soul Special Edition contains a newly unearthed demo of a John Lennon song no one has heard before
- “It has this cascading ghost cloud kind of vibe that I’m just so into - it sounds like a machine passing out”: Panda Bear and Sonic Boom tell us about the tech and production of their latest collaborative album
- Flying Lotus to explain his "sketchbook approach" and "where theory helps and where it hurts" in School of Song music-making workshop
July 29
- “The last time I saw him was three weeks before he died. He filled a glass with vodka, knocked it straight back and filled it up again. He said, ‘Oh, did you want one?’ ‘Uh, no thanks, Phil’”: Scott Gorham on the last days of Thin Lizzy legend Phil Lynott
- “He placed my fingers on the fretboard and shouted, ‘Grab the whammy bar…’ With his hands free, Jimi wrapped the towel I’d given him around his waist and dropped his trousers”: When Jimi Hendrix’s tech had to play his guitar after a wardrobe malfunction
- Tributes are paid to Glen Hansard, Irish singer-songwriter and star of Once, who has died at the age of 56
- “It rocks!”: Hear Tony Iommi's new single World Alone as the Black Sabbath icon announces his solo album
- “The V5’s specific set of tools won’t suit everyone, but its commitment to the bit is worth celebrating”: AlphaTheta DJM-V5 review
- "This might just be our most ambitious series yet!”: Harley Benton is making hand-aged relic'd guitars for under 250 bucks
- “The Queen guys were great but their fans just threw things at us – cigarette lighters, shoes, car keys, a loaf of bread, whatever”: How INXS endured a trial by fire to become a stadium rock band in their own right
- “Literally for two years, I had one piano with a GoPro that I mounted on it. I didn't touch one synthesizer. I didn't open any machines”: Daft Punk’s Thomas Bangalter on his reaction to the huge scale and success of Random Access Memories
- “That song has so much voodoo in it. It sounded like it was written under a full moon. It gets straight to the darkest parts of one’s psyche”: Kirk Hammett on the Fleetwood Mac classic that defines heavy music
- Kavinsky, the French artist behind Nightcall, dies aged 50
July 28
- “Traces the evolution of a century of sonic experimentation, underscoring the ideas, technologies and cultural movements that shaped electronic music as we know it today”: Jean-Michel Jarre has written a history of electronic music
- "I cycle through the presets to see what’s what, and…they’re not great": Mooer GE150 Max Li review
- Beatbox your ideas into reality with Vochlea's DubBox, an app that converts your voice into drum loops
- "It’s going to be definitively the most real experience ever of us, Queen, in our glory days. I think people will get lost in it and even forget they're watching a film": A restored and remixed version of Queen's final filmed performance is on the way
- “I don’t have an anti-semitic bone in my body, I never did and I never will have”: Rogers Waters answers his critics as he discusses his new version of Comfortably Numb, which features Palestinian singer Mona Miari
- “It is as though the part of the brain that sends out invitations to participate in life has temporarily misplaced the guest list”: Carly Simon opens up about her battles with Parkinson’s, depression and apathy
- “This pedal records what you play and reshapes it into a shifting blend of tones and timbres”: Introducing Textures, the granular synth pedal from MXR that dreamy ambient tones are made of
- "Stop looking at the screen, start feeling the patch": Mach Devices' MD-7 is an open-source mini-synth with motorized haptic controls that "talk back"
- “Everything you need to crank out massive riffs and searing solos without breaking the bank”: Gretsch puts high-gain sounds on the menu as it adds the $249 CVT to entry-level Streamliner series
- How to start recording pristine picked acoustic guitar in just three simple steps
- "One of the most important legacies in electronic music": inMusic donates vast collection of over 4,400 items to Bob Moog Foundation Archives
- “It was one of those scary, scary moments. But we pulled it off. And you know, ELP always liked a bit of pressure!”: Carl Palmer sets the record straight about Emerson, Lake & Palmer’s landmark 1977 tour
July 27
- “We had long debates about how long we should keep George's bum on screen”: Director Mike Christie tells us how his revelatory new Wham! film exposes a lot more than just a moment of cultural change…
- "It's magical": Dhani Harrison and Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich form new band and announce debut album
- "This is the real deal": $500k Yamaha CS-80 claimed to have belonged to Vangelis goes up for sale on Reverb
- “I always said I was a genius, but nobody listened”: Previously unseen archive of pre-Smiths Morrissey correspondence heads to auction
- “I think every guitar player spends a fair amount of time trying to figure out how the hell he did that”: The eternal power and strange magic of Jimi Hendrix’s debut album – explored by modern blues star Samantha Fish
- "The NES is basically held together with chewing gum and paperclips – it was a brutal experience": Emo band release chiptune remix album that’s only available on a retro video games console
- “I’m really bored of music that sounds like privileged melancholy”: We catch up with Liverpool’s indie legends The Coral
- "I pulled up the sound, played this chord and thought, 'whoa, I’ve never heard a crazy organ sound like that before'”: Rogét Chahayed on how a Kontakt preset based on a '90s Casio toy keyboard made the intro to Travis Scott's Sicko Mode
- "It’s trivialised multitrack recording in the field in a number of ways, most impressively through its diminutive form factor": Tascam FR-AV4 field recorder review
July 26
- “I wrote those songs before she died – with the exception of Sleep’s Dark And Silent Gate. That was written after. I guess that song could be considered cathartic”: Jackson Browne on his classic album The Pretender and its tragic backstory
July 25
- “You wouldn't write it down as an idea – let's have gentle falsetto vocals referencing a Batman film and try to be inspired by UK garage and Prince”: How Hot Chip made an electronic pop classic
- “The only way to keep it in time was to take a piece of tape with the sound on it and measure it with a ruler. You would take the exact length of tape and then splice the next exact length of tape to it”: How Pink Floyd made Money
July 24
- "If the WTF is a sign of things to come, I can’t wait to see what these mad scientists cook up next": Morley x DOD Wah-OcTo-Fuzz review
- “There’s something really powerful in making something very simple. There’s a slightly demented feeling of how far you can push it”: Jim Adkins and Zach Lind on the making of Jimmy Eat World’s Bleed American – the record that changed their lives
- "Put some diapers on next time, y’all": Singer-songwriter Noah Kahan urges fans to take precautions or control themselves amid a growing rise in cases of people relieving themselves at his shows
- One more time: It's MusicRadar's Quiz of the Week #15!
- "You feel the music through your whole body. It's incredibly physical": Sander de Keere reimagines the church pipe organ as an 'ancient synthesizer'
- “This one tip could change your musical outlook forever”: 10 music theory tricks every producer and songwriter should know
- "Every note delivered as intended": Technics drops limited-edition wireless earbuds in collaboration with the Rolling Stones
- Ever lost a great idea because you forgot to hit record? GhostTape is here to make sure that never happens again
- “If you understand the workings of a single channel then you’ve got the basics of the entire desk”: How to use a mixing console
- “We go back a long way with Martin, and there’s always a sense of adventure whenever we get together": U2 join forces with DJ and producer Martin Garrix for new single, Fireflies
July 23
- “In loving memory of the Prince of Darkness”: Sophie Lloyd pays tribute to Ozzy Osbourne with a blazing shred cover of Black Sabbath’s Paranoid
- “It was a wild situation Bruce threw me into and I think he knew what he was doing. He’s the only actual genius I’ve ever played music with”: Jay Weinberg on the Bruce Springsteen test that left him “deathly afraid” when sitting in with the E Street Band
- “What really sets the Beam Mini apart is that you also get access to a humongous range of amp captures”: Blackstar Beam Mini review
- “My plan, which Andy probably didn't like, was based on when Prince wrote Nothing Compares 2 U and no one knew it was a Prince song until it became this big hit”: Razorlight’s biggest song was originally intended for another artist, says Johnny Borrell
- SampleRadar: 493 free Moog synth samples
- “They weren’t the best band in the world, but they were stars. That’s what you look for in bands. ‘Boy, I wish I was a member of that club’”: Kiss legends Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons remember the New York City rivals who were doomed to failure
- “We were running around the studio with as many things plugged in as possible just doing the worst sounds, trying to find the ugliest things”: How Charli XCX's producers ran a jam session through an AI sampling plugin to make No One Lasts Forever
- “You’re watching a lot of this film through your fingers”: We speak to director Mike Christie about bringing Wham!’s groundbreaking 1985 China trip back to life in a captivating new film
- “I don’t know, but never say never... We have fluctuated between getting on really well and not getting on at all over the years but there’s always been telepathy": Could the Kinks reform onstage? Dave Davies isn't completely ruling it out
July 22
- Harley Benton throws a big ol' T party and you are all invited, as the Fusion-T II series debuts 18 new models featuring high-end specs and a sub-$500 price tag
- "I’ve got George singing the track and Elton singing the track so the dream is to make another track": Could a 'new' George Michael and Elton John duet be heading for release?
- "As Ozzy would say, 'when you want to remember me, just yank up the music really loud, as loud as you can get it, and just head bang'": Sharon Osbourne remembers her husband, a year on from his death
- “You listen to it one time and you know what it is”: The origins and slick musicology of TLC’s most iconic hit – the "girl's anthem" about a no-good man
- Remembering Wayne Charvel, the visionary luthier and Superstrat pioneer who built guitars for Deep Purple, ZZ Top and Eddie Van Halen – and started the hot-rod revolution that changed the world
- Musik Hack launches HyFi, an online mastering platform powered by the “world-class DSP” behind Master Plan
- "I had pulled up at the traffic lights on Hope Street when who should I see - Sir Paul with Ringo on FaceTime": Beatles fans on a Liverpool tour bus get an unexpected bonus as they end up running into Macca while he's on the phone to Ringo
- “They all came back to me and said ‘What – are you crazy? It’s perfect as it is! You don’t want to add words!’”: The story of the peculiar, chorus-free song that drew the attention of Clive Davis and became a worldwide mid-'90s hit
- “It’s the best album ever made! It’s so diverse it transcends any sort of rock boundaries. Even within the first two songs, you’re thrown straight into the unknown”: Why this Queen classic is hailed as the GOAT by The Darkness guitarist Dan Hawkins
- “We’ll be in a room with multi-million-dollar speakers and he'll be sitting on the floor with the worst quality headphones and his laptop doing his thing”: Rogét Chahayed on the genius behind Skrillex's production
July 21
- “These circuits have a history and personality that I wasn’t willing to compromise”: Dirty Boy partners with Warm Audio to make its Neal Schon and John Frusciante-approved boutique pedals for the masses
- “It’s one of the first classic rock ’n’ roll videos. But we were absolutely freezing. It was about 30 below!”: Carl Palmer on ELP’s greatest hit and their glory years as stadium-filling superstars
- “He started to saw through his strings and we all stood up and cheered! It made a fantastic noise… And he just carried on sawing”: Pete Townshend on how Stevie Wonder's producer inspired him to smash guitars
- “When the head of the record company fell asleep during your set, you’re probably not impressing him much. That’s why we didn’t get signed to Roadrunner”: How cult heroes Acid Bath rose from the ashes to open stadium shows for System Of A Down
- “He was a brilliant concert-level classical pianist and also the best rocker you could get, for keyboards. So he was an absolute hero”: Howard Jones on the synth legend who inspired him, and the influence he had on one of his biggest hits
- “The first time I walked in, I cried as I was so overwhelmed”: We speak to The Anchoress about the creation of her new album and harnessing Pete Townshend’s synth collection
- “I went over to the piano and started fooling around with the riff and in 20 minutes this song almost wrote itself. We were all dancing around the studio and loving what we were hearing”: The story of Phil Collins and Philip Bailey’s classic ’80s hit
July 20
- “As a former Culture Secretary and big music fan, he has a deep understanding of what makes the music industry tick. He also knows the challenges”: UK Music CEO sets out five key tests for new Prime Minister Andy Burnham
- Chase Bliss discontinues the Chompi sampler: "At this specific moment we are not working on or planning any new Chompi products"
- “This is like a bad trip": Liam Gallagher, Wayne Rooney and others share their views on the first ever World Cup Halftime Show
- “A true original who lived entirely on her own terms”: L7 announce that bassist Jennifer Finch has died
July 19
- "If I was going away on a trip and could only bring one keyboard, I’d bring that one, because I know where every sound is blindfolded": Grammy-nominated producer Rogét Chahayed on the stage keyboard he can't live without
- “We’re in the middle of a gig at the Palladium in Los Angeles, there’s 4000 people there, and this bloke is walking around on the stage as we’re playing. I’m like, ‘What the hell is going on?’”: How INXS got their big break in the ’80s
July 18
- “My secretary came into the house and said, ‘Wow, you look like you're under a lot of pressure. I bet you that'd be a good idea for a song.’ And I went, ‘Thank you!’”: The accidental genesis of Billy Joel’s quirkiest single
- “I kept it a cappella, and began to sing it this way in my live show. This detail affected everything to come”: The butterfly effect of Tom’s Diner – how Suzanne Vega’s choice affected the way we all listen to music
- Leading record industry bodies unite to introduce labelling program for generative AI in recorded music
July 17
- This free browser-based sampler turns YouTube into an MPC
- “It has grown way beyond what I could have ever imagined when I sat in a little studio in 2013, messing around with these little ‘80s tracks”: We catch up with synthwave figureheads The Midnight who exclusively reveal an eye-catching new collaboration
- “I said, ‘What does it matter? If someone listens to it on their phone, they don’t know it was cut on tape – it doesn’t make any difference’”: Mick Jagger didn’t see the point in using tape on the new Stones album, but producer Andrew Watt had other ideas
- “Hey Spotify, I’m going to go out on a limb and say we don’t want this. Not only is this inaccurate, but reducing a song to an AI-generated meaning right at the source feels like it limits free interpretation”: Lorde slams Spotify's About the Song feature
- SampleRadar: 493 free hardware drum machine samples
- “When Jaco and I first worked together there was nobody I’d rather hang with. There was an appreciation, a joie de vivre, a spontaneity”: How Joni Mitchell combined with Jaco Pastorius to create her sophisticated jazz-infused masterpiece Coyote
- The Battle of Clevermore: It's MusicRadar's Quiz of the Week #14!
- “It's not just about the money – I just wanted my name on there because it was my work and somebody else took the credit”: Rogét Chahayed on signing away his contributions to Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp a Butterfly for "a few thousand bucks"
July 16
- “We're happy we can play a part in helping preserve the physical album experience”: Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon officially returns on cassette – Nick Mason has some thoughts on what’s next for the prog classic
- “What happens when one of the key architects of contemporary pop rethinks the supersaw?”: AG Cook and Native Instruments team up for signature synth plugin Super*Saw
- “I dropped my drumsticks and was like, ‘What the hell is happening? This is not the Little Red Corvette that I know'”: Questlove on the moment he discovered what ended up becoming his favourite Prince song, and the profound impact it had on him
- “The final boss of the lost Dual Op-Amp circuit”: Electro-Harmonix gives the Big Muff Pi 2 the “Deluxe” treatment – adding Wicker switch, noise-gate, footswitchable mids and more
- "It was the first time David committed a self-composed song to wax. At the end of the session, Jimmy said 'Well, it's definitely not going to be a hit.' And he was right": When Jimmy Page and David Bowie collided, pre-fame
- Suno scraped millions of songs from YouTube, Deezer and stock music libraries, according to hacked data
July 15
- "The merest hint of musical beauty – the merest hint!”: NPR just posted its most brutal Tiny Desk Concert ever as Napalm Death bring blast beats and chaos to the office – and unleash their one-second grindcore masterpiece in its entirety
- "I was able to forget that they were not my usual set of in-ears and just enjoy the gig": Beyerdynamic DT 30 IE review
- Now Fender hits Yamaha with a cease-and-desist as it widens legal campaign over Stratocaster copyright
- “If I didn’t have AutoTune, I probably wouldn’t have a career, to be honest. I certainly would have less hits”: Pop producer Ian Kirkpatrick on the importance of AutoTune, and how it enabled him to use a Dua Lipa demo vocal on a finished track
- "This is is 1000% going on every single mix": Baby Audio's SubCulture is a pitch-tracking bass enhancer designed for "massive low-end"
- “Peter and I were in a car and he started humming this melody. ‘What’s that?’ ‘Oh, it’s a song I wrote.’ I mean, Peter never wrote a song in his life! But he sings, ‘Beck, I hear you calling…’”: Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley on the Kiss classic Destroyer
- “If anything, it was tamed down... he wasn't at 100% - that was maybe 60%”: We speak to Future Islands about THAT Letterman performance, the internet's OTT reaction – and their new collection of rarities and B-sides
- “It holds a special place in Gibson history. As one of our earliest limited-edition instruments, it helped establish a lasting legacy within hard rock guitar culture”: Gibson unveils Custom Shop reissue of a Michael Schenker and Kirk Hammett favourite
- Behringer's AKS Mini is a £99 mini-synth inspired by the EMS Synthi AKS, a classic synth used by Pink Floyd and Brian Eno
- “I didn’t even want to put it on the album because I thought it was too mushy. Linda Ronstadt goes, ‘Are you out of your mind? That’s a hit record!’”: Billy Joel on the classic ballad that Paul McCartney wishes he’d written
- Get almost $1k of guitar tuition from our number one online platform for only $99 with this epic Summer Black Friday deal – over 11,000 lessons, plus bonus gifts
- “I remember the three of us thinking that it was an absolute stroke of genius that we'd just come up with the most idiotic idea ever”: Mike D talks about the Beastie Boys’ fallout with Russell Simmons and that hydraulic prop
July 14
- “We made it the way you’d make a demo. No click track, mistakes left in… The song, like your life, is in the mistakes. Its imperfections are unbeatable”: Queens Of The Stone Age drop a brand new single out of nowhere and it features Nikki Lane on vocals
- "We are all devastated by the news and are surrounding her with love”: L7 bassist Jennifer Finch diagnosed with brain cancer
- "I said, 'God, you’ve nicked all my things.' He said, ‘Yeah, I know, man. I know. It's like a homage to you’”: David Bowie admitted that he stole the Stones' sound on one classic song, says Mick Jagger
- “Morrissey sent me one of his famous letters which I’ve framed on the wall. It just read, ‘Dear Bernard, I’m sorry - I can’t’”: Bernard Butler shares with us the events that almost led to a team-up with Morrissey
- Novation tops off its Launchkey MK4 range with 88-key MIDI controller keyboard
- “The speaker is the secret weapon. It just has this size and weight to the sound that you don’t expect. That’s the magic”: Blackstar shrinks Doug Aldrich’s fire-breathing tube head into a compact 5-watt combo for the stage, studio and home
- “Pop is getting posher, and that must change. Talent is everywhere, but opportunity is not”: UK government announces national strategy for music to “widen opportunity” and invest in “creative careers”
- "It's basically finished": The wait is almost over for Nopia’s viral chord synth – we got an exclusive first-look demo and can finally reveal its price
- Jake Bowen goes headless as Periphery guitarist officially swaps Ibanez for Strandberg – but what will his signature model look like and when might we see it?
- “He’s the Quincy Jones of the rap world. Working together was like nothing I've ever experienced – it’s like watching Fantasia!”: Hip-hop hitmaker Rogét Chahayed on learning his craft from Dr Dre
- “I’ve thought this through... I’m giving him the benefit of the doubt here, and assuming he doesn’t really think I’m the antichrist”: Phil Collins thinks he might know why Noel Gallagher called him “the antichrist of music” back in the ‘90s
- Broken strings? Lifeless tone? Terrible playing? It’s not you… It’s your strings: How to restring a guitar fast to play and sound great again
- “This amp is my ride or die. Play fast! Die trying”: A baby blue amp for a Green Day frontman – Marshall launches Billie Joe Armstrong’s “Dookie Mod” signature head
- “It’s a piano chord, but I played it with my arse. I was singing and I just wanted a rest, and the piano lid was open. So I sat and I played that chord”: The Police’s classic breakthrough hit – with the ultimate bum note
July 13
- “We’ll see”: Could a Fleetwood Mac Sphere residency be on the cards? It appears that Lindsey Buckingham isn’t ruling it out
- Have the Stones played their final show? “Maybe I have!” says Mick Jagger. “You never really know, do you?”
- “Hope you will joining us in wishing Simon the speediest of recoveries. And Eden – thanks”: Son of Gallup saves the day for The Cure
- Who needs Logic or Ableton Live when free browser-based DAWs are becoming this good?
- "It's a major step forward in stem separation technology": Zplane's Peel Stems 2 nearly halves the latency of its real-time stem separation plugin
- “I sat on that song for two decades. I knew that I got something special”: The powerful anthem by Five Finger Death Punch and the dramatic video that shook America
- “As an 8-year-old, I was like, ‘My 5-year-old sister is better than me at guitar? How is this even possible?’ She was like a savant”: Este Haim on how sibling rivalry, parental persuasion, Princess Peach and Tina Weymouth led her to the bass guitar
- "She's a very determined young lady who has pushed herself and keeps going”: Meet the Northern Irish teenager who passed her Grade 8 piano – one handed
- SampleRadar: 207 free '90s jungle samples
- “He’s generous and super funny... he’s a good man”: So which rock frontman with a ‘difficult’ reputation could ex-GNR drummer Frank Ferrer be talking about?
- “Would any other rock band in the world make a track like this?”: The story of the Rolling Stones-sampling anthem that has won over a new generation
July 12
- “People have it played at their wedding, and I’m like, ‘Why?’”: We speak to the duo behind one of the most uplifting songs of the 1990s
July 11
- "Rather than scratching his chin, saying, “I don’t know if this works yet”, he’ll go 'This could be the beginning of something incredible, let’s keep pushing in that direction': David Byrne discusses treating the studio "like a playground" with Brian Eno
- “What makes this album so interesting is the fact that there are guitars that are not totally in tune – but good luck trying to get a take as good as that!”: The creative genius and ‘insane’ methodology in Van Halen’s biggest selling album
- "Everything started from the hand of a human being": Italian DJ and producer Ciauru wins Reply AI Music Contest
July 10
- “I was so shocked and sad when he died. At the time, we were recording in Montserrat with George Martin. That night, I wrote a song about Bon”: Cheap Trick guitarist Rick Nielsen’s heartfelt tribute to legendary AC/DC singer Bon Scott
- “It's extremely easy to use, but only once you’ve got to grips with what is quite an esoteric control interface”: Donner DBM-100 metronome review
- You can now control FL Studio with an agentic AI chatbot from inside the DAW
- "Music was my first desire": Film titan Anthony Hopkins to release album of original compositions
- "Diamond is grown as a crystalline layer before the substrate is removed, leaving a self-supporting diamond dome": Fancy dropping $8,500 on some new cans?
- “He called me and said, ‘There’s a scene in this film which is going to make it a hit all over again.’ I saw it and said, ‘Oh my God!’ When I played that song in England it would go down like a lead zeppelin”: The story of Elton John’s classic sleeper hit
- "Eight and a half years ago, my life changed immeasurably. Music is not part of my life anymore": Huey Lewis reveals the tragic impact of hearing loss
- Korg’s DIY NTS-4 looks like the budget-friendly desktop mixer we always wanted the Volca Mix to be
- Simply the test: It's MusicRadar's Quiz of the Week #13!
July 9
- “I decided to give up the guitar when I heard Eric Clapton, the way people are put off playing tennis when they watch Roger Federer”: Jethro Tull legend Ian Anderson on why he plays the flute – and why Ritchie Blackmore is ‘definitely not mad’
- "I’ve come to the conclusion that it no longer feels right for me to be part of it": Dutch DJ Franky Rizardo withdraws from Pete Tong remix over dispute with John Summit
- "Paul really misses being in a band": Keith Richards comments on relationship with Beatles legend
- AlphaTheta’s new all-in-one DJ rig aims to provide “a natural transition from home DJing to club environments”
- "The game is gone… this is not a Super Bowl": Justin Bieber to join line-up for FIFA's World Cup final halftime show
- "Although Dylan showed me what I wanted to be, Syd Barrett showed me how I could be it. And I actually wound up sounding like John Lennon": cult rocker Robyn Hitchcock opens up about unique career
- “I just had shivers right up my spine. I couldn’t wait to actually get in and record it”: Bonnie Tyler on the classic song for which she will always be remembered
- "You are a rock star, young lady": How a Thai teenager blew away America's Got Talent audience covering a '90s rock classic
- “The wood is only wood until it arrives in a master’s hands”: Eric Church teams up with Epiphone for the Hummingbird Dark – and toasts this sweet collab with a whiskey finished in toasted maple from Gibson offcuts
- "Great to see Larry behind the kit": U2 release single 'Street of Dreams' ahead of first new album in nine years
July 8
- “I’ve actually performed it with him, and I’m afraid to say that during the soundcheck, I broke down”: The story behind The Beach Boys’ timeless masterpiece God Only Knows, a Brian Wilson co-creation that had a profound emotional impact on Paul McCartney
- “One day I was in an elevator with Miles Davis and he said, ‘Hey, do you got a wah wah yet?’ ‘No, I don’t play a wah wah.’ He says, ‘You gotta get a wah wah!’”: Carlos Santana on Miles and McLaughlin, Hendrix and SRV, and his quest for eternal melody
- "He's not a great keyboard player, he doesn't write great songs. His engineering and technical abilities are limited too. In fact, he knows very little about an awful lot": The Edge on Brian Eno and how he influenced his own "limited" guitar style
- "You can just tell when someone lives and breathes music. There’s just a lot of heart in the way that he plays": Courtney Barnett pays tribute to special artistry of Chili Pepper collaborator
- “The most powerful delay pedal ever”: Strymon supercharges its flagship delay with an all-new reverb engine, a five-minute looper and more – meet the TimeLine MX
- “We knew it didn’t need another lyric, so I just went ‘la, la, la…’”: The songwriting theory and modest gear behind Kylie Minogue’s 2001 pop gem
- "Lately I have felt so disconnected from everything. I have felt in pain a lot and I don't know why": Artists and fans shower Yungblud with love after emotional response to "industry plant" accusations
- “I spent hours in the studio on this one song. Pummelled it to death! I probably spent $10,000 trying to get it to work”: Joe Satriani on his biggest waste of money, his most humiliating review, and what he taught Kirk Hammett
- “Seeing my signature model in Shoreline Gold gives it a completely fresh character”: Jim Root’s made-for-metal Telecaster just got more metal as Fender gives it a makeover with a finish from the golden era
- "This is humans versus machines, and today, the humans are rising": The tribute group formed to rival AI band Velvet Sundown
July 7
- "They are the blueprint. Punk rock wouldn't be what it is today without them": Star-studded show to mark 50th anniversary of Ramones' debut album announced
- “He called me in ’87 and said, ‘There’s this band from America called Guns N’ Roses. They’re really good. We should take them on tour with us’”: Billy Duffy recalls the shenanigans and stupidity of The Cult’s tour with Axl & Co as their opening act
- “By fracturing, stretching, and reshaping your signal in unexpected ways, it encourages experimentation and rewards curiosity”: Walrus Audio’s Lüm is a feature-stacked “Texture Machine” for when your tone feels predictable
- “In the ’80s, MTV buttered our bread. But after Kurt Cobain wore his grandfather’s sweater in the video for Smells Like Teen Spirit, there was no place on MTV for bands like us and Mötley Crüe”: The life and death of the thinking person’s hair metal band
- "Diversity is a lie": Morrissey launches bizarre tirade against BBC over new single Notre-Dame
- "Absurd, frivolous and harassing": Taylor Swift wins copyright lawsuit over her song lyrics after long legal battle
- "Transcription Studio promises to turn audio into notated transcriptions, lead sheets and guitar tabs – but does it actually work?": Klang.io Transcription Studio review
- “When he sang the chorus for the first time, I just said, ‘No, you can’t do that – it sounds ridiculous!’”: The classic 2000s hit inspired by Queen and Def Leppard – with not one but two killer guitar solos
- Do you know that there's a right and wrong way to hold a guitar pick? How to best handle your plectrum while playing
- “These are better sine waves. They just are”: We meet the people using test equipment to make music
July 6
- “With a gritty textured edge to its fuzz/distortion, this is a pedal for big riffs and endless sustain”: Electro-Harmonix Big Muff Pi 2 Dual Op-Amp Fuzz review
- “His son actually cleared the sample. I don’t know of him ever approving a sample - it’s quite rare, so I was very honored”: James Blake on sampling Leonard Cohen for Death of Love
- “The percentage of explicit songs on Spotify’s Top 50 chart has fallen from 74% in 2018 to 13% today”: New data reveals that explicit lyrics are in decline - but why?
- “It’s a transcendental collision between American prog rock and Thai folk charm, straight from rural Phetchabun”: How Khun Narin pioneered Thai sound system rock using former US military loudspeakers
- “With both Swim and Please, after the initial hour or two of writing, I took a step outside, listened to them and they felt special”: We speak to Tyler Spry about producing and co-writing for K-pop sensations BTS
- “We were on tour with Linkin Park when Chester Bennington got hold of Ivan and told him, ‘Bro, you’re going to rehab right now. You can do it’”: Zoltan Bathory recalls the intervention that saved Five Finger Death Punch and the life of singer Ivan Moody
- “I’m very excited by AI if the person using it is also creative and not just lazy”: We catch up with Swedish house legend John Dahlbäck
- “I know we’re making twice as much money as Metallica, but can you please put ’em on after us, because they’re killing us?”: How a hair metal band’s dream gig turned into a nightmare
- “It’s one of those moments - and it doesn’t happen very often - where the hair stands up on the back of your neck. You just know that this is going to be a huge song”: How Eminem made the ultimate motivational anthem
July 5
- “I’m auditioning for an Irish rock band, so I’m expecting a red-haired white guy. Then this big black guy with a massive afro and an Irish accent says, ‘Hey, I’m Phil!’ I thought, ‘This is gonna be interesting’”: Scott Gorham’s wild ride with Thin Lizzy
July 4
- “Listening to him had an effect on me similar to what I might feel if I were to meet an alien from outer space”: How Eric Clapton’s mission to spread the blues gospel was the making of the first guitar ‘god’
- “You could do a medley of It’s a Sin with The Final Countdown by Europe; in fact, I don’t know why we haven’t done that”: How the Pet Shop Boys took on the church with their most iconic, most “heavy metal” song
- “I can’t stand it – it feels like a cheap psychological trick”: How negative marketing in music production is destroying creativity
July 3
- “A strong update overall that introduces many features to boost your creativity and streamline your workflow”: Steinberg Cubase 15 review
- "For me, the real strength of the Baum Guitars Verve lies in its playability": Baum Guitars Verve review
- “I think it was a very important lyric for Michael. His lyrics were very poignant. He didn’t have to say very much, but you knew exactly what he was talking about”: The classic INXS ballad with deep meaning for Michael Hutchence
- "A compelling and well-rounded entry-level piano that prioritises accessibility and sound quality over features": Kawai CX102 digital piano review
- "John was annoyed because I didn’t say that he had written one line of this song, Taxman… I also didn’t say how I wrote two lines to Come Together or three lines to Eleanor Rigby”: George Harrison and the questions around his Beatles credits
- Everybody's got to learn sometime: It's MusicRadar's Quiz of the Week #12!
- “We’ve got a new drummer, his name is Dave, he’s the best drummer in the world!”: How Dave Grohl delivered the incredible Smells Like Teen Spirit drum track
July 2
- “Acoustic guitars are loud enough to use at home without an amp, so what is the point here?”: Orange Outlowd ES3 Ed Sheeran signature amp review
- “I felt kind of bad about it because I should have paid a fair price”: Kirk Hammett felt so guilty about buying Neal Schon's Les Paul on the cheap that he called him to ask if he wanted it back
- DAWs for DJs, rotary mixers and the world's first standalone motorized controller: 5 of the coolest pieces of gear we saw at Thomann's DJ Days
- AlphaTheta’s CDJ-1500X is a WiFi equipped DJ player that lets your audience vote on track requests
- “The fun had gone. The spirit had gone. That album was a final attempt to see if something could be salvaged. It couldn’t”: Why Roger Hodgson had to quit Supertramp in the ’80s – after writing and singing their biggest hits
- “He's very… Harry Stylish. That's what he is. But that's all that he is. It's very superficial”: Producer Mike Stock explains why he thinks streaming has robbed us of “iconic” stars and great pop songs
July 1
- “An effortlessly usable unit that delivers dynamically playable amp sounds and complementary effects”: Blackstar ID:X Floor Three review
- “I was gonna design a guitar that was for soloing specifically”: More frets equals more shred for Brandon Ellis as he unveils signature Jackson Kelly with 27 stainless steel frets and serious Seymour Duncan firepower
- Logic Pro 12.3 is here – and my favourite stock plugin just got even better
- “Rather than simply writing scary music, I wanted to express loneliness, sadness, anxiety, and the psychological aspects of fear”: We speak to video game horror soundtrack godfather Akira Yamaoka about the legacy of Silent Hill
- “He said, ‘No, no, no. Paul can do that,’ and he did it. He did exactly what was needed in like, 10 minutes”: Mick Jagger says he had to check with Andrew Watt that Paul McCartney's bass playing was "punk" enough for new Rolling Stones song Covered In You
- An EHX take on a cult Albini-approved fuzz-stortion, a single-pickup PRS, the triumphant return of Squier’s Paranormal series and more! It’s MusicRadar’s epic monthly guitar gear round-up, the June '26 edit
- “Radical” angles? Check. Phase switch? Check. Offset body? Check? Guild’s S-300 is nearly 50 years old but it’s back in stunning metallic finishes and is ready for its close-up
- "I avoid Splice as that's what everyone else uses – I prefer to dig on the internet or rip from old sample CDs": Yung Singh on his viral Boiler Room breakout and the Punjabi-influenced sounds behind debut EP Bloom
- “An affordable and flexible Neumann U47 FET-inspired mic”: Warm Audio WA-47jr SE review
- “We kept trying to write one for 20 years, but they’re not very good, to be honest”: A Skyfall of Stars, anyone? Rare Coldplay recordings are being auctioned, including their early attempt at a Bond theme
- "At this price, it is hard to find a more complete portable digital piano": Kawai ES120 digital piano review
- “I’d argue that it was the single most important thing that happened in the history of MTV, because it saved young people’s lives”: The story of Soul Asylum’s classic ’90s hit Runaway Train and its amazingly powerful video
- “I never even got as far as Riverside. But I lost her. She married some other guy. We’re still friends”: How Jimmy Webb's classic song By The Time I Get To Phoenix found the right interpreter