Features archive

July 2026

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56 articles

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
- “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
- “It was such a cliché. I knew I had to use it”: How a joke comment led Neil Young to create the rock anthem that inspired Pearl Jam and started a beef with Trump
July 23
- “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
- “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
July 22
- “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
- “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
July 21
- “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
- “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 19
- “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
July 17
- “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
- “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!
July 15
- “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
July 14
- 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
- “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
- Who needs Logic or Ableton Live when free browser-based DAWs are becoming this good?
- “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
- “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
- “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
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
- “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
- 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 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
July 8
- “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
- “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
- “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
July 7
- “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
- “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
- “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
- “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
- “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
- “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
- Everybody's got to learn sometime: It's MusicRadar's Quiz of the Week #12!
July 2
- “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
July 1
- “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
- "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
- “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