Features archive

April 2026

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68 articles

April 30
- “They had a new love, new devices also made from metal: bicycles. Cycling was the end of Kraftwerk”: Our classic lost interview with Kraftwerk’s Wolfgang Flür gave rare insight into the band's internal conflicts
- “When I started, it was considered a fair conversation whether a woman actually could compose music at all!”: Synth pioneer Jill Fraser on pushing boundaries in the world of electronic music
- “I felt weird sending it to her, it’s almost something that Doja Cat could jump on - but Kim loved it”: Genre-colliding producer Justin Raisen speaks to us about the thrill of working on Kim Gordon's latest record
- “They’re the best synth band in the '80s not to have a hit”: 6 under-appreciated synth-pop acts from the 1980s that deserve your attention
- “One of the few times Axl and I ever went out in public was to see Nirvana in Hollywood. And then people say grunge killed Guns N’ Roses”: Slash on the alternative rock revolution – and the groundbreaking album that blew Axl Rose’s mind
April 29
- "Out of the first 10 Prophets sold, one went to Rick Wakeman, one to David Bowie, and one to Joe Zawinul. It took off from there": The history of Sequential in 10 synths, sequencers and drum machines
- “If you thought the DX7 could get glassy, you haven’t heard anything yet”: 7 weird synthesis types that died on the vine
- “In the next 12 months there are going to be two, possibly three more Moog synths – we’re going to have some instant classics added to our roster”: EXCLUSIVE! Moog President Joe Richardson tells us what's coming next from the iconic synth brand
- "It's remarkable that this powerful synth can be picked up for free": We pit 5 of the best soft synths against each other
- 10 extraordinary synths that are almost certainly out of your price range
April 28
- “That song killed Styx. It was truly awful. I mean, that was about the dumbest idea ever”: The synth-rock anthem that sold a million but derailed a superstar rock band
- “China has a model called technological leapfrogging, where they tend to lag behind in one technological development so they can innovate on the next”: The revolutionary history of Chinese synths
- "After the Grammys, I was stood in McDonald's waiting in line and a guy came up to me and said, ‘You bought me my house’": Jimmy Jam on sampling, AI, and his new EastWest drum machine plugin
- “It's the price of a weekend away in Magaluf, all drinks and breakfasts included”: 5 vintage 1980s synths that cost less than a holiday
April 27
- “It was a hard song to record. It changes time signatures and keys as it goes along. What sounded so simple on the piano quickly got very complicated when translated to a full arrangement”: How A-ha combined classic pop with an experimental mindset
- 5 amazing stock synths that come bundled with your DAW
- "It's possible to end up with exactly the sound you were looking for without once thinking about frequencies, filters and all the rest of it": 5 innovative synth plugins daring to do things differently
- “Our music was so simple: we’d all laugh when Adrian Wright moved just one finger on the synthesizer and it sounded great”: Replicate the sonic magic of the Human League’s defining synth-pop anthem
April 26
- “Kate Bush saw me recording at Townhouse Studios, popped her head in, saw the Fairlight and said ‘What's that?’”: We speak to Yes, Asia and the Buggles' synth legend Geoff Downes
April 25
- “He would often arrive at sessions with two banners, which he placed either side of his kit while recording, reading ‘You done hired the hit-maker’”: From the Purdie shuffle to its extended jazz chords - analysing Steely Dan's Babylon Sisters
- “It's the best thing that's happened to Lee but also the worst. He wrote this perfect song, but it's meant he hasn’t had to do anything because he has a constant source of income”: The torturous - and ironic - story of There She Goes
- “I still think it’s a great lyric. Probably the best I’ve ever written. Those first four lines are the most memorable in my entire catalogue”: The classic ’80s rock anthem and the ’70s hit that inspired it
- “It was a $25,000 guitar. He said, ‘Just pay me back for it later, when you can afford it.’ And I did!”: How Greta Van Fleet's Jake Kiszka met the Beloved – the ’61 Gibson SG Les Paul that became his talisman
April 24
- “I was fearless. I could write a song immediately in front of the audience, the band would join in, and they had no idea what I was doing! You have to be a little crazy to do something like that”: How Neil Diamond flew by the seat of his pants in the ’70s
- “I was working on this song which he liked, and then he died, and it turned into more of a tribute to him”: How Chrissie Hynde channeled grief into The Pretenders’ classic comeback hit
- It's MusicRadar's Quiz of the Week #3!
April 22
- “This track had no right to exist in 1973”: How Kraftwerk invented techno, nearly a decade before the genre was officially established
- “Everyone is using these tools, artists at all levels – but they don't want to talk about it”: How AI is changing electronic music
- 5 things you NEED to know if you’re mixing tracks on headphones
- “I never wanted to be a solo artist. That album was all the songs that were turned down by Fleetwood Mac between 1975 and 1980”: Why Stevie Nicks decided to fly solo in 1981 – and how her pre-Fleetwood Mac songs were reborn with Sheryl Crow
April 21
- “Prince invited us to Paisley Park studios to jam – and he’s playing guitar and piano at the same time! You can’t compete with that”: No Doubt were thrilled to work with Prince – but their first meeting with him was a humbling experience
April 19
- “I said to the band, ‘The good news is that we’ve got a hit, but the bad news is that you’re not on it!'”: The surprising story of the Blow Monkeys’ AIDS crisis-inspired Digging Your Scene, with new insight from its writer
- “Lately I’ve been trying to think, ‘Where could you go with guitar if you decided there were no limitations at all?’” Eric Johnson on the $400,000 rig he hardly played, the Dumble that got away, and his masterplan for setting his playing free
April 18
- "We get so many requests from people wanting to use our tracks but we normally say no. This is only the second time we have given permission”: How Madonna created a dancefloor classic - with a sample that other artists could only dream of using
- “When I was growing up, there was peer pressure on you to conform to be a certain way. And as an English boy at the time, you’re encouraged not to show your emotion”: How the young Robert Smith created one of The Cure’s definitive songs
April 17
- “We’re pirates really, just plundering then moving on”: Re-create the sound of the powerful Where’s Your Head At bassline - which Basement Jaxx nabbed from Numan!
- “A man walked into the party with a big long scarf. He looked at the mirror, whisked his scarf around his neck and tilted his hat slightly to the left. I thought, ‘Wow, he’s really vain’”: The No 1 song that propelled Carly Simon to stardom
- It's MusicRadar's Quiz of the Week #2!
April 15
- “I’d become involved in an anti-drug programme in New York. So in my mind I had to write that song. But oh, it was terrible! It was laughed at”: The crazy song that Neil Diamond wishes he hadn’t written
- “Evidently not content with redefining what was technically possible on the guitar, he also managed to rewrite pretty much the whole of music theory”: How Allan Holdsworth blew Eddie Van Halen’s mind and inspired the next generation of virtuosos
- “I was always uneasy about the fact that it was a bright, perky pop song about a nuclear holocaust, but it was insanely catchy”: How OMD recorded one of the best anti-war songs ever made
April 14
- “I was in the restroom when Isaac called out, ‘Come on, David, get out of there.’ I yelled back, ‘Hey man, hold on, I’m coming!’ Before I even buttoned my pants, it hit me”: How a classic Stax soul anthem was written on the fly
April 13
- “Let It Happen is prog in its purest form. I stand by that one as decidedly progressive”: The inventive music theory of one of Tame Impala’s most dazzling songs
April 12
- “It has a super catchy riff, but it is a song that you have to hear a few times. I don’t think it would’ve been given the time of day without the enormous impact of the video”: How to recreate one of the most infectious synth riffs of all time
- “It’s not really about a blackbird whose wings are broken, you know”: The story of the Beatles' 1968 acoustic gem and its powerful subtext
April 11
- “When the computer came along, the magic was over because we didn’t play together anymore”: How technology ultimately killed Kraftwerk
- “It was the way for me to learn to approach the guitar a different way, because Jeff Beck was not an early influence”: Robben Ford on rearranging John Lennon, iconic collaborations and paying tribute to Jeff Beck and amp guru Alexander Dumble
- “It’s like you are witnessing the fading of your own memories”: How Boards of Canada brewed a serene genre-blurring classic
April 10
- “It was too long, too slow, too boring and it had a viola solo... It was the antithesis of a single”: Midge Ure talks us through the making of Ultravox’s iconic Vienna
- Snail Mail’s Lindsey Jordan on her bad guitar habits: “I have so many!”
April 9
- It's MusicRadar's Quiz of the Week!
- “He struck it big, and we were all green with envy. It was terrible: we fell out for about six months. It was ‘He’s doing much better than I am.’”: When T. Rex opened the floodgates of glam rock with the riff-driven groove of Get It On
- “It’s blasphemy on about ten levels at once”: How Madonna transitioned from pop to the profound with the Vatican-enraging Like a Prayer
April 8
- “Japan was part of the zeitgeist - we were on the BBC, in the tabloid newspapers and part of culture”: We speak to Japan and Porcupine Tree synth polymath Richard Barbieri
- "He started trying to play chords on it and he said ‘Malcolm! Bob! What’s wrong with this instrument? It only plays one note at a time!’": Dissecting the musical magic of Superstition, the song Stevie Wonder just couldn’t let go
April 7
- “I absolutely hate synthesizers. They're really bad - horrible. I can take their existence from a live point of view now, but if they didn't exist, I'd be delighted”: The surprising music theory that underpinned a Talk Talk classic
April 6
- "There's something about it that you just don't get with soft synths": Jasper Tygner on why he loves his Moog Grandmother
- “We're all fragile little creatures. You sit down, lick your wounds and think - is there any point in going through this whole process again?”: We speak to Midge Ure
- “He would blow in and say, ‘I don’t like the horns. Take them out. We’ll do more later. Okay, bye.’ Then he’d return later. ‘Oh I love it! Do more harmonies!’”: The genius of Giorgio Moroder in an ’80s classic
April 5
- “I’m not anybody’s best guitar player. I’m not the fastest, the most knowledgeable, the shreddiest. I’m none of those things. But I play and it sounds like me”: Mark Morton on the chemistry behind Lamb Of God's twin-guitar groove and what he owes ZZ Top
- “We were very secretive about the song title. It was such a great idea and we didn’t want anyone else to know about it. So for a long time we called the song Burger King!”: The story of controversial ’90s pop banger Barbie Girl
- “I knew my folk music would take off, if I put hip-hop beats behind it”: How one song turned the self-confessed “worst rapper in the world” into an alt-rock icon
April 4
- “Rick had a lot of pain in him and it came out in his more cynical songs, while the hurting and questioning in The Logical Song came from me”: How Roger Hodgson and Supertramp fought their way to the top – and how the multi-million-selling band imploded
- “Ken, our producer said ‘Look up there lads, look at the stars’. He literally said ‘Look at the stars’”: The fateful circumstances that led to Coldplay’s biggest ever song
- “Look at AC/DC. Whatever was popular, it didn’t matter. It’s like McDonald’s. ‘We make the Big Mac and we make fries and we don’t care about doing sushi’”: Zakk Wylde on musical identity, jailhouse rocking with Ozzy and the return of Black Label Society
- "They refused it and told me, either change the beat, change the tempo, take the talking out, take the whistling out, or we won't release it”: How Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo had to fight to release their 1983 classic
April 3
- “There was this guy who lived in the dorm, he was a great friend and an awesome artist and he actually made cool music with the computer, and it was like… ‘wait, you can do that?’”: Flying Lotus on early musical adventures, AI and more
- “Anti-religious, anti-nationalistic, anti-conventional, anti-capitalistic. But because it is sugarcoated, it is accepted”: The song John Lennon called “the best I've ever written” – and Yoko Ono’s uncredited contribution