Reviews
Album review: Poppy – Negative Spaces
Poppy unleashes her heavy side once again on intrepid yet occasionally erratic sixth album, Negative Spaces
Plus: Sean reveals details of new band Raiders.
Former vocalist of The Blackout, Sean Smith, has launched his own podcast.
Sappenin’ Podcast features Sean and journalist Morgan Richards discussing life in the music industry and beyond.
“From my time in The Blackout, I’ve been lucky enough to amass some fantastic stories about spending time with some of the world’s biggest names in music,” he tells Kerrang!. “Whether that’s stopping Metallica in their tracks while they tried to walk to catering or being in a tiny dressing room with Pharrell Williams in Germany, I’ve been very fortunate to have been near lots of people that a working class boy from Merthyr Tydfil shouldn’t have been allowed to get close to.
“I tweeted that I was looking to start a web-based show or podcast and got a reply from BlindBoy Boatclub, who you might know from Irish, bag-wearing rap force Rubberbandits,” he adds. “He told me I should try podcasting as he thought I had the tools to do it. He put me in touch with his people at Acast and the rest is history! We aim to get guests from all walks of life not just band related stuff.”
Sappenin' Podcast is available from Acast, Apple or Spotify.
Check out the first episode below, where Sean looks back at the end of The Blackout and more.
Sean Smith has also teamed up with his erstwhile bandmate James 'Bob' Davies to form a new band called Raiders.
“I’ve been out of the music game too long,” he explains. “I’ve been to other people’s gig since The Blackout split and I’ve been green with jealous rage at the fact that it wasn’t me on the stage. This feeling finally came to a head and I decided to pull my finger out and start a new band. I got together with James, who’d been writing and had several ideas. We got together with Chris Davies – no relation to Bob – and Ryan Lewis to jam them out. We decided we loved what we had and couldn’t wait to get out and play again.”
The band have one show under their belt and ended in bloodshed.
“That was to test out the three songs we have written and went very well,” says Sean. “I managed to head butt my way through a table in the first song. We cannot wait to get out and play shows. Right now, thats more important to us that recording music.”
Keep an eye on the band through their Twitter or Instagram accounts.