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April 2025

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137 articles

April 20
- “I said, ‘Are we sure we can write a song about death?’”: The story of Mike + The Mechanics' classic No.1 The Living Years
- “Without investment in music education our talent pipeline is at risk of drying up along with the huge opportunities for economic growth it brings”: UK Music draws up five point plan to “turbocharge” music education
April 19
- “How daring to have a long intro before he’s even singing. It’s like psychedelic Mozart”: With The Rose Of Laura Nyro, Elton John and Brandi Carlile are paying tribute to both a 'forgotten' songwriter and the lost art of the long song intro
- “The verse tricks you into thinking that it’s in a certain key and has this ‘simplistic’ musical language, but then it flips”: Charli XCX’s Brat collaborator Jon Shave on how they created Sympathy Is A Knife
- “I parted company with my trusty Fender Strat, previously owned by Lemmy, and part exchanged it for a flute. It just looked nice and shiny!”: How Jethro Tull's Ian Anderson became rock’s leading one-legged flautist
April 18
- “I have that on more records than anything else”: Take a peek inside Vaughn Oliver’s studio
- “Wendy Carlos is able to build precisely the sound that she wants”: Watch synth pioneer Wendy Carlos in the studio, working Moog magic back in 1989
- “No real sense of love coming from the festival toward the people… Just vibes curated for influencer culture”: Reggie Watts just summed up everyone's Coachella experience
- MusicRadar deals of the week: I'm feeling this! Score an impressive £350 off the Fender DeLonge Starcaster, as well as hundreds off Epiphone, Gretsch, Gibson and more
- Ed Sheeran’s plagiarism court case forced him to hand over his old phone as evidence. Now he’s got a new single out of it
- “It didn’t feel like being in the room with a 17-year-old. I’d try something and she’d say, ‘You might want to reconsider that.’ And she’d be right”: Songwriter Eg White on how Adele took some “very boring chords” and turned them into an “explosive” hit
- “I oversaw every element - not just the music and the lyrics and the melodies and the production, but also the merch and the fan clubs and everything”: Mike Portnoy talks about his years away from Dream Theater
- We didn't think we needed a compact 4-octave acoustic piano that can also work as a MIDI keyboard, but the super-cute Keybird L1 might have convinced us otherwise
April 17
- "That's what it takes to make music that's gonna last forever": Olivia Rodrigo and Chappell Roan producer Daniel Nigro on crafting timeless tracks
- “A fully playable electro-mechanical synth voice that tracks the pitch of your playing in real time”: Gamechanger Audio unveils the Motor Pedal – a real synth pedal with a “multi-modal gas pedal”
- “I don’t think they’re New Order. They don’t sound anything like them”: Peter Hook takes aim at his estranged bandmates
- “I’m beyond excited to introduce the next evolution of the MT15”: PRS announces refresh of tube amp lineup with the all-new Archon Classic and a high-gain power-up for the Mark Tremonti lunchbox head
- "You can repurchase if it works for your schedule": Fyre 2, Billy McFarland’s ‘luxury’ festival is postponed indefinitely
- “I actually specifically remember making a deal with myself": Billie Eilish reveals what she had to do in order to become “looser and jazzier” with her vocal delivery
- “These guitars travel around the world and they need to be road ready”: Jackson gives Misha Mansoor’s Juggernaut a new lick of paint, an ebony fingerboard and upgrades to stainless steel frets in signature model refresh
- “I’m surprised and saddened anyone would have an issue with my performance that night”: Zak Starkey explains why he got fired from The Who
- “These tariff actions will have a long-term effect on musicians worldwide”: The CEO of NAMM urges Trump to dump tariffs on components of musical instruments
April 16
- Brace yourself: Bryan Adams didn’t buy his first real six-string in a five and dime
- “Nobody listens to one genre. I literally don’t know anybody who listens to one genre. You can be a fan of so many different artists at once”: Laufey on what Gen Z can teach the rest of us about how to appreciate music
- "We were sampling Steve Winwood in between bong rips on my OP-1": How Bon Iver met Haim backstage at a music festival - and ended up collaborating a decade later
- “Non-stop heavy bass music... Almost inhumane and a form of torture": Psytrance festival is cancelled after a grand total of 11 complaints
- "I didn't know you could change the tempo in Pro Tools, so I just made all my songs at 120bpm": Super-producer Benny Blanco reveals the surprising reason why most of his early hits are the same tempo
- “FORMAL CHARGES OF OVERPLAYING": Zak Starkey has been sacked from The Who
- They’re [heavily rumoured to be] back… Could Daft Punk be reforming for a residency inside Fortnite?
April 15
- “Chinese Democracy was a boring record. But calling it Guns N' Roses was not honest. It was totally a solo record”: GN’R’s ex manager takes aim at Axl Rose
- “Instead of labouring over a perfect recreation, we decided to make an expanded counterpart”: Chase Bliss teams up with Mike Piera for Analog Man collab based on the legendary King Of Tone
- “It’s about delivering the most in-demand mods straight from the factory”: Fender hot-rods itself as the Player II Modified Series rolls out the upgrades – and it got IDLES to demo them
- “For some reason, the post office shipped your guitar to Jim Root of Slipknot”: Sweetwater mailed a metal fan's Jackson guitar to a metal legend
- "No one phoned me. They never contacted me and I thought, 'Well, I'm not going to bother contacting them either'": Ex-Judas Priest drummer Les Binks has died aged 73
- With the same mesh-head playability and powerful new Strata module as its bigger brothers, Alesis Strata Club brings a new compact form to its best-selling range
- “An incredible experience that went beyond just teaching music”: The UK’s biggest free music making weekend is extended to four days
- “This time it’s all about creativity… Go crazy. Do whatever you wanna do with it”: Budding luthiers, assemble! Harley Benton’s DIY Kit Challenge is now open and there are prizes to be won
- "At first the tension was unbelievable. Johnny was really cold, Dee Dee was OK but Joey was a sweetheart": The story of the Ramones' recording of Baby I Love You
- "This is the amp that defined what electric guitar sounds like": Universal Audio releases its UAFX Woodrow '55 pedal as a plugin, putting an "American classic" in your DAW
April 14
- With its latest free update, Ableton has finally turned Note into the app I always wanted it to be
- The man Neil Peart called his "six favourite drummers": Wrecking Crew legend Hal Blaine
- “I called out to Mutt and said, ‘How about this?’... It was a complete fluke": How Def Leppard created a rock anthem - with a little bit of divine intervention
- Baby Audio's Smooth Operator spectral balancing plugin goes pro
- "It was ugly, like watching a divorce between four people. After a while, I had to get out": Beatles engineer Geoff Emerick on the recording of Abbey Road, track-by-track
April 12
- YouTube just added AI tools that makes musicians, library music and video editors redundant
- “Every one of them said yes without hesitation": Hank Marvin and Roger Taylor have just remade a '60s classic for charity
- Do you know where your money goes when you buy a gig ticket? A new report breaks it down
April 11
- “Every note counts and fits perfectly”: Kirk Hammett names his best Metallica solo – and no, it’s not One or Master Of Puppets
- “Its mission is simple: unleash the power of any amplifier or line-level source without compromise”: Two Notes promises a “watershed” in tube amp control with the Torpedo Reload II
- “I’m looking forward to breaking it in on stage”: Mustard will be headlining at Coachella tonight with a very exclusive Native Instruments Maschine MK3, and there’s custom yellow Kontrol S49 MIDI keyboard, too
- “The thing from the agency said, ‘We want a piece of music that is inspiring, universal, blah-blah, da-da-da...' and at the bottom it said 'and it must be 3 & 1/4 seconds long’“: Brian Eno’s Windows 95 start-up sound added to the US Library of Congress
- MusicRadar deals of the week: Enjoy a mind-blowing $600 off a full-fat Gibson Les Paul, £500 off Kirk Hammett's Epiphone Greeny, and so much more
- “To be honest, I feel like I am playing a high-end Gibson guitar”: Epiphone and Guitar Center team up for a colourful riff on a cult classic with the limited edition run Les Paul Custom Widow
- “We’re still avoiding him to this day... we would just despise him after a while”: Flaming Lips' Wayne Coyne is not a Billy Corgan fan
April 10
- “KIKI BOY 2025”: Frank Ocean appears to be teasing something... or other
- “This is great. I knew I was getting to them! I’m so happy. It’s such a good feeling”: Spotify bites back at Kate Nash
- I’ve looked through all 372 deals in the Thomann Easter Sale - these are the 5 deals I’d grab right now
- “Beyond its beauty, the cocobolo contributes to the guitar’s overall projection and sustain”: Cort’s stunning new Gold Series acoustic is a love letter to an exotic tone wood
- Guitar Center’s massive Guitar-A-Thon sale has landed, and it includes $600 off a Gibson Les Paul and a host of exclusive models from Epiphone, Taylor, and more
- Has Fyre really gone out?: Billy McFarland’s festival will be limited to just 250 guests and just 12 hours of music
- “Not quite my cup of tea… I feel like I’d hear this on iHeartRadio or something”: Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon takes to the streets of New York to play people his new album… and nobody knows who he is
- “Your full-scale companion. Anytime. Anywhere… the perfect companion to your full-size Martin”: Meet the Junior Series, the new small-bodied, travel-friendly acoustic range from Martin
- Teenage Engineering drops knockout update for its EP-133 K.O. II sampler, bringing much-requested features like resampling, song mode and increased polyphony
- “I love this version better than mine!!”: Sheryl Crow sings Kelly Clarkson’s praises after watching her cover her breakthrough ‘90s hit
- “I’m drawn to melody and drama - AOR and yacht rock”: Tobias Forge says the new Ghost album combines smooth ’80s sounds with Black Sabbath-inspired lyrics
- “They perform incredibly well over many decades, just like I have and of course they're incredibly good-looking, just like me”: Alice Cooper launches his own limited edition reel-to-reel tape recorder
April 9
- “Tonight is for Clem and it’s for friendship. An amazing man and a friend of the lads”: Sex Pistols dedicate Sydney show to Clem Burke
- Learn production, DJing and songwriting from pros like Fraser T Smith, Carl Cox, Skream and Joe Goddard with Whatclass
- Native Instruments’ Kontrol S MK3 MIDI keyboards just added several features that DAWless music producers have been asking for
- “You're by far the best guy that we've tried. I would love to have you in the band”: So why did Trent Reznor turn down Richie Kotzen for Nine Inch Nails?
- Who Wants To Live Forever? The composer still creating music from beyond the grave
- "The demo had my singing on it. When I played it to the band, the look on their faces said, 'We’re in trouble, boys'": Mike Rutherford and producer Chris Neil remember the making of Mike & The Mechanics' All I Need Is A Miracle
- Trump’s tariffs: What’s the real cost to music and how come K-Pop is weathering the storm?
- “He always had like this contemptuous smirk on his face whenever he was dealing with me like he thought I was a chimp or something”: White Lotus creator Mike White responds to the show’s composer’s claim that he’s quitting
- Why Perry Farrell didn’t want Green Day on the Lollapalooza bill: “He was like, ‘They’re a boy band. I don’t want to book a boy band’”
- Is this our first sighting of Ed Sheeran's top-secret new Looper X, as he continues his global busking jaunt?
- “I like guitars that don’t just appeal to metal players”: Jackson and Bring Me The Horizon’s Lee Malia team up for the Pro Series LM-87, a shreddable Surfcaster-style electric with a humbucker/P-90 pairing
- e-instruments’ Slower is the laidback software instrument that could put your music on the fast track to success
- “Just so if ever that happens again, I’m like ‘here’s the proof that I wrote it’”: Ed Sheeran reveals that post-copyright cases, he now films every recording session
April 8
- “Almost a lifetime ago, a few Burnage lads got together and created something special. Something that time can’t out date”: Original Oasis drummer Tony McCarroll pens a wistful message out to his old bandmates
- “I need to build a sound of my own that has the power that I want”: Floating Points hates festival sound systems so much that he’s invented his own
- “I had a blast. Thank you”: Original Beatles drummer Pete Best retires, aged 83
- Cre8audio releases two super-affordable, modular-friendly bits of gear in one day: the Boom Chick analogue drum machine and Assembler mixer
- “The humbuckers give it so much power and such a wide variety of tones while the destruct button really sets it apart from just about any other Tele”: Fender unveils the Mike Campbell “Red Dog” Telecaster
- Don’t miss this record-breaking 100-Hour DJ marathon livestream fundraiser featuring 90 artists
- “A pedal that sings with harmonic richness and blooming touch response”: Tone King offers up boutique tube amp tones for your pedalboard with the Imperial Preamp
- “It was the most disgusting thing I could ever imagine. It makes me sick just thinking of it!” The Cars’ guitarist Elliot Easton recalls the worst thing that ever happened to him on stage
- “I really thought I was going to die... and it absolutely was so freeing”: Blink 182’s Mark Hoppus talks surviving cancer and his band’s resurrection
- “From the very start of his social media rise Giacomo has been using other people’s compositions”: Social media guitar influencer Giacomo Turra accused of using other musicians’ arrangements and passing them off as his own
- “We finally buried the hatchet!!!”: 20 years after he accused her of miming and called her “a fairground stripper”, Elton John and Madonna are speaking to each other again
- “I didn’t think people would mind that I didn’t play it, but it became a problem. I got myself into a pickle”: Clairo says it was Charli XCX who convinced her to perform one of her most popular songs again
- "I've analyzed hundreds of players over the years. They're all a part of what I do": Clem Burke's 10 essential drum albums
April 7
- “How long did it take me to get over it? Oh, quite a while”: Brian May on the “supreme injustice” of Roger Taylor’s Queen B-side "making as much money as Bohemian Rhapsody"
- “Clem was not just a drummer; he was the heartbeat of Blondie. He was a source of inspiration both on and off the stage”: Clem Burke, drummer for Blondie, dead at 70
- “We’ve been so very lucky to have had the Ace of Bass in our lives:” Dave Allen, bassist for post-punk legends Gang Of Four, has died
- “I said, ‘Wow, Jeff Beck has really taken it to the next level.’ But then I realised, ‘Wait a minute - this isn’t Jeff Beck!’”: Steve Stevens reveals his two all-time favourite guitar solos
- “I thought it would be funny to sing my own song, but the longer it went, the less people thought it was funny”: How Billy Corgan killed the vibe on a karaoke night
- “Give it up for Neil Finn!”: Dua Lipa sings a Crowded House classic on her Radical Optimism tour - and brings out its writer to perform it with her
- Aphex Twin's MIDI-modded Yamaha GX-1 goes up for sale for almost £100,000
April 5
- “Let them wallow in Walt Disney woke expectations”: John Lydon’s message to the reformed Sex Pistols
- “Entrance Song is a massive 808 sub and a 909 kick. Those two shouldn’t work together - I’m not sure they were even in key”: Eats Everything on his ever-changing approach to production and DJing
- “Turns out they weigh more than I thought... #tornthisway”: Mark Ronson injures himself trying to move a stage monitor
April 4
- “Stealing the work, art and livelihoods of lyricists, songwriters and composers”: Ivors Academy warns Suno AI over its ‘lyrics generator’
- “I was like, ‘Man, I hated your band. You ended my thing’”: Bill Burr told Eddie Vedder that he hated Pearl Jam because they “knocked out” ‘80s hair metal
- “His legacy as one of the world’s greatest guitar players will one day soon be celebrated by many, and that makes us so proud”: On what would have been his 73rd birthday, work begins on a Belfast statue of guitar legend Gary Moore
- SampleRadar: 267 free deep house samples
- “For one reason or another, something I felt was missing" Springsteen to launch 7 new/old albums including 74 unreleased songs
- “That was the first time where I was actually, like, really, really, really humbled”: Bon Iver’s new album features a collaboration with Mk.gee, a musician who “reignited something” in him when he watched him play with Dijon on tour
- “Each and every unit is perfectly dialled in to the 'sweet spot' that can be so elusive to find in vintage pedals”: Pigtronix’s Gas Giant is a high-gain fuzz pedal with a FET-driven onboard noise gate
- “I didn’t bring a belt”: Watch Jack Black's air-shreddin’, tongue-wagglin’, pants-fallin’ Tonight Show entrance
April 3
- “A classical guitar for the modern era”: Harley Benton unveils the Custom Line Nashville Nylon BK, and its latest nylon-string electro-acoustic hybrid is a super-affordable thinline that's designed to welcome electric players
- “Heritage Cherry Sunburst on the archetypical Gibson workhorse acoustic, Tri Burst on its high-luxury jumbo? They look the part”: Gibson expands finish options on its J-45 Standard and SJ-200 Standard
- “Prince just grabbed ideas out of the air and left you wondering: ‘Where did you get that?”: Chaka Khan says that she’ll be releasing a new album of songs that she recorded with Prince and Larry Graham
- Happy 404 Day: Roland's latest SP-404 MKII update transforms its legendary sampler into a Serato DJ controller
- “Every single song a single, every single a hit, every hit a direct hit in the face of the man”: The Hives big up their new Mike D-co-produced record
- “I don’t think everybody was really aware of how attached people were to the ooh-loo-loo-loos”: White Lotus composer Cristobal Tapia de Veer on the reaction to his season 3 theme and why he won’t be returning for season 4
- "We got forced and twisted for a mainstream audience to turn the guitar down": Ronnie Wood bemoans technology’s impact on music
- “She’s my number one, my greatest living singer - and she’s a huge fan of Charli’s”: Bon Iver on sampling one of his heroes for his Charli XCX remix
- Softube’s latest plugins are a pair of must-have vocal effects – and right now you can grab them as a bargain introductory bundle
- “Once the custom shops came out, everyone was talking about them:” Jackson and Revocation’s David Davidson just dropped the hottest metal guitar of 2025 – the Warrior WR7
- “I may be one of those returning to America who is barred or put in jail to sleep on a cement floor with an aluminium blanket”: Neil Young fears that he may be barred from re-entering the US
April 2
- "It’s a piece of music software history": ReCycle gets recycled as Reason Studios makes the classic sample editor available as a free download
- “The verse tricks you into thinking that it’s in a certain key and has this ‘simplistic’ musical language, but then it flips”: Charli XCX’s Brat collaborator Jon Shave on how they created Sympathy Is A Knife
- “I’ve seen a million faces and I’ve rocked them all!”: Was Bon Jovi’s 1989 acoustic performance really the inspiration for MTV Unplugged?
- Behringer's 2-XM Oberheim Two Voice clone is now available for pre-order
- “We love you guys. Without Kraftwerk we would not find our own robot style, being on stage with the helmets, you know”: How a fake Daft Punk fooled Kraftwerk’s Wolfgang Flür into a collaboration
- “I’m in search of a badass rock guitar player. If you’re young-ish, cute-ish and can play that axe, you’re for me”: Chaka Khan wants a new “powerhouse guitarist”
- Will Smith reveals the advice Jay-Z and Kendrick Lamar gave to him before his music comeback
April 1
- “Instead of pairing a new booster inside this new pedal, think of it as changing lanes inside the pedal”: Mythos and That Pedal Show team up for the Argo Boost Deluxe – an octave fuzz with a switchable boost
- “I didn’t even realise it had synthesizer on it for decades”: This deep dive into The Beatles' Here Comes The Sun reveals 4 Moog Modular parts that we’d never even noticed before
- “We’re looking at the movie going, ‘Urgh! It’s kinda cheesy. I don’t know if this is going to work”: How Chris Hayes wrote Huey Lewis and the News’ Back To The Future hit Power Of Love in his pyjamas
- “I thought it’d be a big deal, but I was a bit taken aback by just how much of a big deal it was”: Noel Gallagher finally speaks about Oasis ticket chaos
- Uli Behringer speaks out on Behringer's pricing strategy: "Our competitors say 'how much could I charge and get away with it?' We take the cost, add a small margin and that's the sale price"
- “Some people were questioning if I knew the genre and did my research, I guess because I’m young”: PinkPantheress says that having her authenticity doubted by dance music purists “was a bit annoying”
- “I have never felt so ashamed to be onstage. If I never see you again, it's too soon!”: When John McLaughlin laid into Jaco Pastorius after an onstage meltdown
- “Over the past three decades, his partnership with Martin has produced some of the most sought-after signature guitars in the company’s history”: Martin recreates Eric Clapton’s MTV Unplugged acoustic for limited edition anniversary run
- “I can assure you there is still plenty left to explore and I think we found a way to do that”: On-screen Fab Four actors and release plan confirmed