Features archive

April 2025

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41 articles

April 30
- “It's rare to encounter a song from the last 70 years that doesn’t involve it in some way”: Why reverb is one of the most reliable effects in a producer's arsenal
April 29
- “No one noticed that half the playlist was AI-created, and a few even preferred the AI tracks”: Should today’s music-makers and producers fear AI - or embrace its inevitability?
- “I’ve always enjoyed working in an area where I feel out of control. I’m definitely more creative in that situation”: Thomas Dolby tells us about pushing himself in the studio - and inspiring the next generation
- "I can clearly see how quickly things can come together when you have the right tools at your disposal": I tried both face-to-face lessons and Pianote to learn the piano in 8 weeks - here's how I got on
- “They didn’t really know about recording. They didn’t know about overdubbing or about song structure or anything”: Producer John Porter on working with the Smiths on some of their most iconic tracks
- “The whole essence of why the sound was so interesting is because it is going from all to nothing in milliseconds”: The classic hit that defined the sound of the ’80s — and features the most famous drum break in rock
April 28
- “I got to jam with Stevie Wonder. Just me and him, one afternoon. We each had a keyboard and we were just trading riffs and jamming together and it was like, ‘Wow’”: Howard Jones talks vintage gear, his new piano album and that 1985 Grammys synth medley
- “His studio was a temple to analogue, within which he made a point of always wearing a boiler suit”: 6 of the quirkiest producers who pushed recorded music further than ever before
- IK Multimedia’s ARC Studio is a game-changing out-of-the-box acoustic room correction system that’s like an instant upgrade for your monitors - without the hassle of software-based solutions
- “Make sure your DAW's workflow doesn't impede your creativity - make it your customised, happy place to make music”: New to making tracks? Start here
- “It provided a blueprint for the ecosystem we swear by today”: How music production became accessible to all thanks to a handful of innovators
April 26
- AC/DC - ranked! All 17 studio albums, from worst to best
April 25
- "There had to be some sort of telepathy going on because I've never seen spontaneous inspiration happen at that level”: The genius of Eric Clapton's controversial masterpiece, Layla
April 23
- “It’s radical. It’s like magic. I get chills”: How Rick Rubin’s philosophy of chance led System of a Down to the first metal masterpiece of the 21st century
- "I’ll let y’all know how rehab is. I hear it’s super fun": Drunk on stage - our pick of music’s most legendary under-the-influence performances
April 22
- "As digital pianos occupy a lot of horizontal space, contrasting this by maximising the vertical space will help to balance the area stylistically": 8 tips and tricks from a design expert to style a digital piano
- “If you’re writing with likes, engagement and streams firmly in your mind, you’re setting yourself up to fail”: Why you should never view music-making as a job
- “It pretty much half killed us. Whether the band would continue was in the balance”: The Radiohead album that almost broke up the band, turned the music industry on its head - and became their best record
- How we test digital pianos
April 21
- “We were arguing a lot and we were miserable”: How Green Day exceeded expectations with their most ambitious song
- “He jerry-rigged this insane swamp cooler system... The board could have easily overheated and we would have lost everything”: How Blood Incantation created a cosmic death metal masterpiece as the legendary Hansa Studios headed towards meltdown
- “I have an original 909 – every time I try to use it I feel like I’m ruining it”: House hero Riva Starr on his studio essentials and his love of analogue synths
April 20
- “I feel like that song had everything we needed to come back with”: Bring Me The Horizon’s Lee Malia on Shadow Moses, its riff and the secrets behind its tone, and why it was the right anthem at the right time
April 18
- “Sometimes I am two people. Johnny is the nice one. Cash causes all the trouble. They fight”: How Johnny Cash drew on his own experiences to make his greatest songs
- “It was originally called Everybody Wants To Go To War, which I knew didn’t work. When you’re a songwriter who doesn’t like the lyric, the song dies”: How Tears For Fears created an ’80s mega-hit
- “She opened her mouth, and out came that orgasmic sound we know and love”: How a feat of spontaneous creativity resulted in one of Pink Floyd’s most majestic moments
April 17
- “It was the first kind of rock monster that we'd created”: How an explosive 2001 switch-up revealed just how ferocious Muse could get
April 16
- Bon Iver - ranked: from Sable, Fable to For Emma, Forever Ago
- The Curse of Coachella: Bad sound, bad gigs and even worse audiences - Is Coachella now the worst festival in the world?
April 14
- "I said, “What’s that?” and they said, “It’s what Quincy Jones and Bruce Swedien use on all the Michael Jackson records": Steve Levine reminisces on 50 years in the industry and where it’s heading next
April 11
- “I can write anything... Just tell me what you want. You want death metal in C? Okay, here it is. A little country and western? Reggae, blues, whatever”: Yngwie Malmsteen on classical epiphanies, modern art and why he embraces the cliff edge
April 10
- “Don't kill him - he's Beatle Paul!”: The dramatic birth of Paul McCartney’s greatest post-Beatles song
- “Thom was like ‘No, get rid of all of that - you’ve lost what’s good about it!’”: Mark Pritchard tells us how he and Thom Yorke made the sublime Tall Tales
April 9
- “If you've got one follower or 10 million, that doesn't matter. What's really important is the quality of the music”: Dr Dubplate on the "gatekeeper mentality" in club culture
April 8
- “I had to say ‘No, guys I swear we’re a real band’”: South Arcade on how they became the figureheads of a growing Y2K revival
April 7
- “It really has to be heard to be believed”: Why Dreamtonics’ Synthesizer V Studio 2 Pro is the ultimate virtual vocalist
April 4
- "I remember showing up at 10 or 11 in the morning and working on solos and that leading to two or three o’clock in the morning the next day”: How Metallica beat the clock and battled fatigue to create a poignant and pulverising anti-war epic
- Roland’s JC-120 Software Effect puts the pristine tones of the legendary Jazz Chorus amplifier in your DAW
April 3
- “When he got in front of the microphone, he sang his balls off. I’d never seen him happier”: How David Bowie stared down death itself for his final left-turn
- “Analogue is better than digital, Behringer gear is garbage, and your cheap-ass monitors are ruining your mixes”: 10 of the most persistent music tech myths busted
April 1
- “I saw people in the audience holding up these banners: ‘SAMMY SUCKS!' 'WE WANT DAVE!’”: How Sammy Hagar and Van Halen won their war with David Lee Roth