Stage dives, tattoos, piercings and lung-emptying howls decorate Worlds Apart, the photo-zine documenting the hardcore punk scenes around the world. It is the brainchild of London-based photographer Amber Valence, featuring punks from Bangkok, Thailand, Jakarta, Indonesia, Melaka, Malaysia and Singapore. “The hardcore punk scene is everywhere; people of all ethnicities, genders, identities, all united by a common bond. I hoped to reflect the difference of each city, celebrate their diversity, and to also give an insight to those who may have yet to discover some of the amazing bands and photographers out there” - Valence told The Face.

“Except during the writing process, we noticed that the riffs weren’t amping up into metallic sections—and everyone was okay with it” - Deafheaven vocalist George Clarke says in a Pitchfork interview about their new album 'Infinite Granite' (out August 20). The production on this album, judging by the two songs released by now, is post-punk big-rock sounding (somebody could mistake them for Interpol), whereas vocals are clean, and melodic. "There are all these little things that are personally satisfying about the switch, and that personal satisfaction was the reason we did it in the first place, you know?".

Freelance writer and former music editor of The Guardian, Michael Hann shares an interesting thought about music journalism with Music Journalism Insider: "I’d like to see rather more fun. Rather more acknowledgement that pop music is at heart a fundamentally joyful and ridiculous endeavour. Quite often, I feel like I am being forced to eat my greens by music writing, and denied my dessert. I need to stress I am not saying music writing should serve no social purpose—and evidently generations younger than mine, who rightly are dominating music writing now, want a lot of social purpose to their music writing—just that the balance has swung away from silliness and fun in a way I, speaking only for myself, regret a little".

"Woodstock itself wasn’t the life-changing event. The life-changing event was the Woodstock movie. I wonder if this film had come out and been held up in the same light and importance, would this have made a difference in my life?" - Questlove says to Pitchfork about 'Summer of Soul', his new documentary about the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival. "This film is potent enough now to work its magic in ways that it wasn’t allowed to 50 years ago. Black people and history - it’s a painful thing. That plays a role in why it’s easy to forget things. I’m very happy that people see this now. But it’s a deeper well that we have to dig, and this film might be just the beginning of it". It's in theaters and on Hulu.

An interesting interview by the Music Journalism Insider with Courtney E. Smith, the host, writer, and co-executive producer of Songs in the Key of Death, a new podcast about murder ballads. What is it: "A historiography—it’s a storytelling podcast that examines the true crimes that inspired a murder ballad, the people who wrote the song or popularized it by singing it, and the historic times that both of those things happened in. It hopes to give listeners context around what was happening historically and when one of the most notable versions was performed. It also aims to explore how we’ve talked about these crimes in the past and what new information we have now that we should consider. Many of the songs don’t tell the real story or reflect the victim’s point of view. Giving them a voice and some life is a way to look again at a violent history".

"I’ve always been a very sarcastic person and sarcasm just does not fly in Japan because everything is taken with a kind of surface sincerity. I feel like I’ve really lost my sense of humor by living in Japan (laughter)" - Japan-based producer, DJ, and cultural critic Terre Thaemlitz says in a very interesting Tone Glow interview. She goes on to define her work: "I consider myself a cultural critic, I guess if I had to label it. When I do audio work or video I refer to myself as a producer, not in a capitalist, funding sense of 'produced by', but in the constructivist sense of production over creation. I see what I do as an act of cultural criticism, music criticism, and media criticism while operating from within". Also, end of June Resident Advisor will release their latest film 'Give Up On Hopes And Dreams', a rare insight into the work and world of Thaemlitz.

"At the beginning of this year, Taiwan was suffering from its worst drought in the past 50 years. Despite a history of frequent rainfall and summer typhoons, reservoirs and lakes across the country were drying up. In an effort to inspire the skies and encourage reflection on environmental conservation, ANKR traveled to the largest reservoir in Dapu, Taiwan, at the time completely dry, to film a live performance in the heart of the basin with fellow Taiwanese musician A.P.R.A." - ex-directory introduces and interviews the former, Taiwanese team of film producers, sound artists, and photographers.

"Maybe I do think that we're all headed towards doom, but it's not personal. You can also have fun. The benevolence of the black hole is just like, celebrate when you can and find warmth, comradery, solace, and cope how you must on our journey into the dark. Also, on a personal level, everybody dies" - singer-songwriter Lucy Dacus says in Them interview about here incoming solo album 'Home Video'. She explains - "whenever I get [in that apocalyptic mindset], I'm like, 'Wait, wait, wait, how useful is this?' Some days it feels useful to think about the future of mankind, and then other days I'm like, 'Man, I'm just a girl. I don't need to think about this'. Am I going to spend three hours spiraling about this or could I go outside and live the life that I would hypothetically like to protect?". She also talks about her "internalized homophobia", queerness, being brought up in a Christian family, and her boygenius bandmates Phoebe Bridgers and Julien Baker.

"Exactly what I said would happen is happening, I’m being erased. And that is something that this country is good at doing: Erasing black folks and disenfranchised people they feel do not matter" - blues singer Lady A says in the Rolling Stone interview a year after the country band Lady Antebellum effectively took her name. "The folks who made the statement that black lives mattered to them and the reasoning behind changing their name, I don’t want anybody to ever forget that". The two parties are counter-suing each other.

An interesting interview in Kerrang! with a new pop-punk star and Travis Barker (of Blink-182) collaborator KennyHoopla: “I love genres. Genre is very important, because there’s a certain language that only comes with certain genres. There’s so much stuff coming out right now that’s looking to blend genres, but I’m at a point where I want to make something real and not hide behind these undertones of doing something ground-breaking. I miss straightforward rock, pop and rap music... A lot of people think pushing music forward is just about blending a whole bunch of sounds together".

“I think Rick has created something really special. From what I’ve gathered, he’s really serious about communicating an energy and creating a space for people” Ron the Jewels' El-P says to Complex about Rick Rubin's Shangri La studio situated in his home in Malibu, California. “That’s all based on his ethos. That’s all based on his experience of what makes a good record. So everyone there is really focused on making sure everybody is comfortable and there’s a creative energy. It’s an empty palette you can really just fill with new energy" - El-P adds. The versatile producer "would come by, barefoot, cross his legs, close his eyes and just listen and really take it in and really give feedback".

Wickedly funny, as per usual, Noel Gallagher in The New Cue interview talks about the lockdown, his new studio, and a certain "fat c***". He went on to compare touring to being in lockdown: "You do live a bit of a Groundhog Day when you're on tour. It's kind of the same but it's different because you're traveling. You live in the same day but in a different country. This is living the same day in the same fucking house. I think I've seen the same dozen people for a year". Apart from watching the telly, he says he's been wasting his days by - wasting himself: "The biggest thing was the drinking... I'm on the go slow at the moment but there's nothing else to do".

“This is to announce my retirement from touring and from working in the record business. I’ve gotten older and I’m tired” - Sinéad O’Connor wrote in a series of tweets. The Irish singer-songwriter’s upcoming album, 'No Veteran Dies Alone', will be her final release, she said, Deadline reports. TNC, inspired by the announcement, remembers her 1990 interview: "By the time 'Nothing Compares 2 U' happened I was almost in a state of shock. I was zapped mentally. I wasn't eating properly, just drinking coffee and smoking hundreds of cigarettes and getting totally stressed out... man, I just didn't know how to deal with the fame and the American fans and the horseshit British press. 'Shoeless Sinead' and all that bollocks. I was never prepared for what it did to me. I couldn't have been prepared for that kind of success. Let's face it, what other record has really done that? I thought it might do OK? But not this".

"Having lived most of my life under military occupation – and therefore lockdown – music has always given me a place to escape from reality, as well as a safe space to express myself. Whether I’m creating, listening or dancing to it, music has the power to take me somewhere else mentally and I’m forever grateful for that" - Palestinian DJ/producer Sama’ Abdulhadi told The Face about what music means to her. She had also trouble because of it - she was arrested by Palestinian authorities on Dec. 27 and held in a Jericho jail for eight days after coordinating and playing a livestream event for Beatport at a site called Maqam Nabi Musa, the tomb of the prophet Moses.

"Morrissey -  I’m proud to be one of what he calls his seven friends - says being alone is a great privilege. Not only is it a privilege but it is a great privilege of an affluent society because two thirds of the world you cannot be alone because you have to be in a huge team just to survive daily" - The Pretenders' Chrissie Hynde tells to The New Cue looking back on how she wrote the song 'Alone'. However - "let us not in any way diminish the fact that loneliness is an epidemic in our society. I have been alone most of my life. As has Morrissey and I know for a fact that he fucking hates it too. We hate it but it is a privilege. We hate it and we don’t want to be alone but on the other hand we accept it because it affords us a lot of freedoms that otherwise we wouldn’t have”.

"If you have financial privilege, you’d better be paying it forward — and if you are a white, straight person who is making money from music, you’d better be donating money to LGBTQ causes and Black Lives Matter and others that help marginalized people, because without marginalized people, music is gonna get really bad, really quick" - Justin Tranter says in a very interesting Variety interview. Tranter is the author behind Justin Bieber’s 'Sorry', Selena Gomez’s 'Lose You to Love Me', Imagine Dragons’ 'Believer' and dozens more. They also founded and run Facet Records and Music Publishing, which launched late in 2018.

"We know all the economics in the touring business are at 85% of ticket sales. So it's a crapshoot, and you cannot buy insurance against it. So many artists are just wishing for this to end, they need to pay themselves and their crews" - music mogul Irving Azoff says in Hits Daily Double interview. He's not really completely optimistic, but he's hopeful: "We're all in the business of gambling. So if I had to handicap it, I feel 75-25 that we're on the road to prosperity. And when it is 100% open, I think we're going to see unprecedented demand. Oh my God, I can't even imagine what it's going to be like at some of these early first sold-out shows—people are going to go nuts".

"I want to supply my people with some theme music so that they can feel self-confident, self-possessed; something to keep their heads up high" - 37-year-old vocalist, songwriter and producer Georgia Anne Muldrow says in the Guardian interview about her latest tape, 'Vweto III'. She made it to weather the “traumatic events experienced as a community online and offline”. It's not just racism that she's fighting against, there's also misogyny, which has given her some resilience - “It’s made me fierce. And what better obstacles than those of chauvinism, misogyny and racism to be a catalyst for becoming fierce?”.

"The aim of artists is to put information out there, and when people are ready, they can come to it - and hopefully further themselves" - Sons of Kemet frontman Shabaka Hutchings says in Downbeat interview about their latest album 'Black to the Future' and sending messages with music. "If you have a surface-level understanding of racism or the legacy that we’re referring to, then if you encounter the music and suspect there is something deeper [with] the rhetoric around the album, and the message behind the album, it gives you clues and hints of ways to explore. For me, that’s the best thing, in that it gives people a way of going forward".

"I'm not naturally competitive but the hardest lesson I learned was that there are a lot of people in the music business who are extremely competitive and will sometimes do things that could be problematic" - Daniel Miller, the founder of Mute Records who published Depeche Mode, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, New Order, Can and many more says in The New Cue interview. One of his fondest memories comes from "when Moby made Animal Rights, a pure punk rock record, and everybody had written off his career and then he came back with 'Play'. When he did his first tour around 'Play', he was playing the Scala, and it was kind of semi full. The album started getting some airplay and, about a month later, he came back to play the Scala after a month on tour. And I've never had more guestlist requests than for that gig. Every celeb was there, wanting to be part of it, lots of other musicians. Nobody was interested three weeks before! The album got a full page zero out of 10 review in the Melody Maker".

"One of the great parts was he did embrace his age at 50. I thought this project was brilliant and masterful because it allowed him to be him. You see a lot of these legends, they come out with something and it’s just not them. They’re trying to be too cool and too down instead of just being themselves. But music is timeless; music doesn’t have an age limit on it. I think you age yourself when you try to not be yourself. And X just went at it. He said, 'Yo, I’m going to just do me, and that’s it'” - producer Swizz Beatz says in a Complex interview about DMX's final album 'Exodus'. It's the rapper's first new album in nine years, started after DMX’s epic Verzuz battle with Snoop Dogg in July 2020, and done in the course of two months. It has the most features the rapper has ever had on a project in his career - Griselda crew is there, Usher, Alicia Keys, Bono, Jay-Z and Nas.

"I’ve spent a lot of my career writing about the 'emo revival' and it often feels like writers who cover this stuff are constantly in defense mode, myself included. I wish it wasn’t such an uphill battle to talk about this type of music compared to the type of indie rock that gets consensus critical acclaim, especially when the music itself isn’t all that different" - Brooklyn Vegan's Andrew Sacher says in the Music Journalism Insider interview about genres being mostly ignored by the mainstream media. "In 2021 so far alone, we’ve seen some big 10th anniversary pieces go up for debut albums by Joyce Manor, Title Fight, and Balance and Composure, and what’s really clear to me, is that people are REALLY reacting positively to these pieces. These are classic albums to a generation of music fans in their early 20s right now, and these albums got basically no press when they came out, outside of punk-specific websites. In 2021, those albums seem a lot more important than a lot of the stuff that had consensus critical acclaim in 2011".

"It was really fun to play and to be in a really great Batman movie. And to be a villain! I put a hallucinogenic in Gotham City’s water supply. I had my own trial. I was in mental asylum, I tried to murder and probably rape Katie Holmes, I got clobbered by Batman. What more can you ask!" - James' Tim Booth says in The New Cue interview about his Batman role. There's also a funny anecdote: "One of my funniest moments from that is I'd go into makeup for hours every day where they put scars on me for two hours. On about the sixth day I'm sitting in a makeup chair and Batman's in there in his regalia. Christian Bale stays in character on set the whole time. He's sitting there in his full Batman outfit, doesn’t say anything to me. Then he finishes his makeup and gets up and he goes and stands behind me and in the Batman voice he says, 'Are you Tim?' 'Yeah…' And he goes, 'From the band James?' 'Yeah…' ''Laid' saved my life. I love that fucking album'. He walked out and I'm sitting there going, ‘Holy shit, Batman likes our album!’ It was one of the funniest and loveliest moments because he stayed in character. When he was in casuals he was Bruce Wayne, which I didn't realise. I had great conversations with him. I hung out with him quite a bit on set. I thought, ‘What a nice man.’ And then later I realised that he was hanging out with me as Bruce Wayne, which was really quite a mind fuck". James release their new album 'All The Colours of You' on June 4.

"Marvellously-named guitarist and vocalist Geordie Greep [is] a soft-spoken 21-year-old who talks while barely moving his lips, dresses offstage like Tony Soprano’s accountant (ie, suited-and-booted ​’90s sharp), and can sing like a man possessed by a menagerie of personalities. Like the band, he contains multitudes" - The Face interview with black midi reads. Their new album 'Cavalcade' is out next week - "this is the eight-songs-wide, full-fathom-deep second record from black midi. Yes, it’s still, fantastically, a record to scare the neighbours".

“Access to water is an ongoing problem in Niger, so at the moment I’m travelling around villages and trying to assist that for people" - Touareg guitarist says in the Dazed interview about his latest album, which he wanted to sound "clean but raw". Live concerts, however, are the thing he loves - "I’ve come to understand through the years that the crowd really is my energy source. The audience gives me courage to go places and hit notes I usually can’t. What happens live is unreproducible”. When not building wells, making music, or playing shows, you can hire him to serenade your wedding or rent his car for a small fee, if you like.

"There’s the producer, songwriter, the entrepreneur, the manager, the composer, and I’m the mom. I’m also just a human being trying to figure out how to best be of service in this world" - Linda Perry, the everything she stated above, tells in the Tape Op interview. She also says that when starting to work with a new artist "the only thing I ask for is for them to be open, honest, and prepared to abandon ego and whatever bullshit they carry", and she worked with P!nk, Christina Aguilera, Alicia Keys, Adele, and Dolly Parton.

"I want people to feel what I’m going through, even if they aren’t experiencing the same shit. Like I’m growing up in my music, I’m still learning a lot, still understanding what death really means" - Brooklyn drill rapper says to Pitchfork reporter, who spent a day with the 22-year-old, going from a barber to a studio. BB looks back at Pop Smoke: "He really changed the game... He was always telling me it’s cool making drill for the streets, but once you start seeing the world it makes you want to be bigger than the streets".

Classically trained violinist Ezinma played with Kendrick Lamar, SZA and Mac Miller, as well as with Beyoncé at her historic Coachella set, but her solo career really took off when she filmed herself playing along to Future's 'Mask Off'. The video went viral and landed Ezinma a deal with Decca Records, who recently released her debut EP, 'Classical Bae' - which puts a new spin on Beethoven's 'Fifth Symphony' and Bach's 'G Major Prelude', amongst others. BBC talked to the musician.

"I feel that having a No. 1 record derailed my career, and my tearing the photo put me back on the right track” - Sinead O'Connor writes in her memoir 'Remembering' about tearing up a photo of Pope John Paul II, which essentially killed her career. When she became a pop star - “the media was making me out to be crazy because I wasn’t acting like a pop star was supposed to act. It seems to me that being a pop star is almost like being in a type of prison. You have to be a good girl", she says to the New York Times in an interview.

"When you are working with bands, who have no concept of time, you have to have lots of patience. I usually describe my job as 90% sitting in hotels lobbies waiting for people to turn up and 10% photography" - photographer Kevin Cummins says in The New Cue interview. He talks about his 71-track 4CD compilation 'Caught Beneath The Landslide: The Other Side of Britpop and the ‘90s', accompanying his latest photo-book 'While We Were Getting High: Britpop and the ‘90s'. A bit of advice he would give his teenage self - "be confident. Always listen and learn".