Now Hear This: Will Gould On The Best New Post-Punk, Alt.Rock And Rock'N'Roll

There’s nothing like that feeling of discovering a band for the first time. I remember going to The Joiners when I was a kid, which was a local venue in Southampton and I’d be discovering new bands almost every night of the week there. It’s different at the moment, obviously, but discovering new music is still what leads you down that wonderful, magical rabbit hole in the first place.

You’re doomed to repeat yourself in your own work if you only listen to the same things, so hopefully this is a varied collection of bands that might introduce some people to something new…

Walt Disco are a new band who kinda remind me of HMLTD. It’s art-rock in the sense of how it looks like art school kids playing rock music, and it’s also got a bit of a Talking Heads vibe. It’s a throwback to another time done in a modern way and it’s really, really cool. One of our fans sent a video on Twitter, which is how I came across them, and I immediately loved it. A big thing for me is the marriage of aesthetic and sound, and they all look fantastic. The effort that went into this live introducing video was ridiculous – they had a choir and everything. Also, their EP is called Young Hard And Handsome and I’m really jealous that I didn’t think of that!

This is the side-project of James Joseph from Holding Absence. He was sending me songs from it a little while back, but it’s all come to fruition now. It’s a very different route to Holding Absence, and James has so many ideas he’s bursting at the seams with creativity. They were doing all these cool things in lockdown, and that motivation is really inspiring as well. It turns out he has a wonderful voice, and the whole thing is flamboyant and over the top. James looks like he’s in the Manic Street Preachers now, but it sounds very grungy as well.

Cold Years are a band who’ve been around for a while on the underground but they’re just breaking through now. They’re from Aberdeen, and it’s sort of a gruff, punk sound and it’s starting to catch people’s imaginations, you can see it’s really starting to roll. [Producer] Neil Kennedy, who is responsible for so many records of mine and also Boston Manor, Milk Teeth and loads of others, he made their record, so it’s got that nice, warm sound and a production that I’m really familiar with.

This is a band that I find to be very creative and really exciting. They’ve got great riffs, and George their guitarist is a fantastic songwriter. He actually worked in a guitar shop for years, so you get these amazing tones on the record. It has a ferocious and really live sound to it. They’re also making music videos with this ongoing narrative, and that’s something I really admire in an upcoming band, especially as they’ve done it all themselves. They’re another band that did live sessions and other things during lockdown, and you should check out their new EP Seersucker.

Their new record Hope Rituals just came out on Venn Records, which is a stamp of approval because that’s a label that’s put out a lot of really good stuff over the years. It’s kind of a psychedelic, positive pop-punk with massive hooks and really big choruses. There’s a real sing-along vibe and it’s really anthemic. Jak (Hutchcraft, vocals) played it to me when they were finishing it up before lockdown and I absolutely loved it. I’ve known them for a long time so it was really exciting but just as a fan of music it’s great to have something a little bit different like this on the list.

Creeper's album Sex, Death & The Infinite Void and Salem's self-titled EP are out now via Roadrunner.

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