Hello and welcome to episode 161 of the ACPG Podcast.

This week Ben is zooming with North Shields alumni Schak.

Ben and Schak talk about his life in music, from inline skating to signing to Ministry of Sound and everything, and there's a lot, in between.

Schak has been involved in music for a long time but over the last few years has really developed his sound, released singles, played St James' Park on the semi final, had B&Q raves and so much more.

We hope you enjoy this one. We like to promote local artists wherever possible. Sting, we're coming for you.

See you in a week when we head back down under with Gena Rose Bruce.

Hello and welcome to episode 160 of the ACPG Podcast.

This week Ben is zoom with Charlie and Jake of Chappaqua Wrestling.

They talk about Chappaqua Wrestling's debut album 'Plus Ultra' which is out this Friday (depending on when you read this), touring, getting start and a mutual love for Manchester music. 

For their debut album, Chappaqua Wrestling knew that they wanted to step above the noise of the concrete everyday. To match their songs about political despondency and social change, Jake and Charlie wanted to create surrealist artwork, teetering on the brink of despair and release.

Both Jake and Charlie know a thing or two about leaps of faith. Meeting at school in Brighton, the pair were bandmates before they were true friends, discovering a shared love of 00s indie.

Where many school friendships peter out after results day, the Mac & Woods partnership stood firm. While Charlie went travelling, Jake headed to Manchester for University, joined by his best friend a year later. As the cogs turned on the final year of their degrees, their musical experiments solidified as Chappaqua Wrestling, earning them a slot at the Great Escape festival and some early local buzz. Whilst grateful to be adopted as a Mancunian band, they’re keen to point out that this isn’t the case, not wanting to unfairly ride the coattails of the city’s legendary scene.

We hope you enjoy it and we will see you next week with Schak.

Hello and welcome to episode 159 of the ACPG Podcast.

In this episode Ben is zooming with Tor AKA Billy Nomates.

I (Ben) have been obsessed with Billy Nomates release earlier this year Cacti. And it was great to talk to Tor about this album in some detail.

We also spoke about touring and festivals. Billy Nomates is just about to go on tour and you can catch shows from 17/04 in Cardiff until 29/04 in Bristol. With Nottingham, Manchester, Leeds, Glasgow, Newcastle, Birmingham, London, and Brighton inbetween. So make sure you get tickets before they all go.

Thank you to Tor for talking to us and to Jodie for setting up the interview.

See you in a week for another interview. This time with Chappaqua Wrestling. 

Hello and welcome to episode 158 of the ACPG Podcast.

This week James is back from holiday, and Ben is talking to musician Hamish Hawk. 

Ben caught up in person with Hamish at the Cluny on the first night of his latest UK tour. They spoke about the wonderful of touring, his new album Angel Numbers, influences, and sticking at it. Nothing happens over night kids.

We hope you enjoy this episode. Thank you to Hamish for his time and thank you to James (a different one) for reaching out.

See you next week for Billy Nomates.

Hello and welcome to episode 157 of the ACPG Podcast.

In this episode Ben is zooming with Matt Corby. A solo artist from Australia. We're in the middle of a little run of Austrialian artists. Shame we couldn't record these in person in Australia. But you know, small details.

Matt and Ben talk about his new album, Everything's Fine, playing live and Australian idol.

The album was recorded at his own Rainbow Valley Studios with long time collaborators Alex Hendrickson and Chris Collins, and pop-writing savante Nat Dunn(Charli XCX, Tkay Maidza, Rita Ora). Together they drew out the sounds that make 'Everything's Fine' Matt Corby's most accomplished record yet. A sonically adventurous rumination on all of life’s big stuff, it's a record that pulls together a decade of musical threads and production nous to reveal a body of work that glides even deeper into Corby’s RnB roots, while embracing aspects of vintage funk, hip-hop and playful soft rock motifs.

We hope you enjoy this episode and we promise normal service will resume next week as James is back from holiday.

See you in a week with Hamish Hawk.

Hello and welcome back to ACPG podcast.

Welcome to SEASON FIVE. Five season and 156 episodes we've been doing this.. mad.

This is the first episode in season five and we have a wonderful guest in Jonny Took from the awesome DMA'S.

Ben and Jonny catch up over zoom to discuss DMA'S new album, coming out at the end of March, How Many Dreams?, touring, the DNA of DMA'S (try saying that ten times fast), and having Liam Gallagher in your corner.

It's great to be back and we have a great season coming up. It's going to be weekly and a little shorter. It's like a sprint of episodes. How exciting.

See you in a week.

Hello and welcome to the last episode of season four.

This is just a quick outro and reflection on season four with Ben and James. We look back at season five and look forward to season five. Wow that was very corporate writing there. Apologies.

Thank you to everyone who listened, downloaded, passed the podcast to their friends, guests, management companies, PR companies, and every last tour manager. 

See you later in the year with some hopefully some more amazing guests.

Take care and see you soon.

Hello and Welcome to the final interview of season five.

This week Ben is zooming with solo artist Jackson Mico Milas. Ben and Jackson talk about his new album Blu Terra, writing with Tim Minchin, running and so much more.

Having cut his teeth at New York’s Nylon Studios, Jackson carved out a career with award-winning film and TV scores including a long-standing collaboration with Tim Minchin on the acclaimed Sky Atlantic drama ‘Upright’. ‘Blu Terra’ brings together eleven tender and emotive compositions and finds the British artist hitting his stride. 

On ‘Blu Terra’, Jackson comes of age, and delivers a mature and elegant suite of compositions encompassing acoustic, alt-folk and jazz elements to set up soaring and heartfelt songs. The LP features a cast of great players, including string arrangement on ‘June’ from Elliott Wheeler (Musical Director/Composer on ELVIS), and Tim Lefebvre (David Bowie 'Blackstar'), and Troy Simms (Lee Scratch Perry). The album is released on Apollo, the home to ground-breaking talent such as Aphex Twin, Nadine Shah, Synkro, Biosphere and many more over its 30-year tenure.

Thank you to Jackson for talking to us, and thank you to Terry for setting up the interview.

The end of season wrap is in your feed now.

This week we speak to Tara Divina.

If you visit her website, which you should, you’ll be presented with this call to action - “You deserve to experience the greatest joy and fulfilment life has to offer. Create your work of art. Leave your legacy. Live free of regret.”.

Big statements. And she can help. An ex record label exec and current musician and coach shares a wealth of fantastic insights.

Hello and welcome to episode 152 of the ACPG Podcast.

This week Ben is zooming with Nic and Alex of the awesome TV Priest.

They talk about all things TV priest, on stage, off stage, writing, recording and moving to a different country. Listen out of the classic European sirens.

With just a few singles and one gig in a warehouse, they were signed to Sub Pop mid-campaign in 2020 and released their debut album Uppers in the height of a global pandemic, which reaped praise from critics and fans alike for its ‘dystopian doublespeak’’. For TV Priest, it is a follow-up that feels truly, properly them; free of bravado, unnecessary bluster or any audience pressure to commit solely to their original sound.

Dampened by the inability to share it live, singer Charlie Drinkwater found the success of the album both gratifying and bad for his mental health as it felt kind of divorced from reality. As such, My Other People intentionally maintains a strong sense of earth-rooted emotion, taking full advantage of the opportunity to physically connect. He set about crafting lyrics that allowed him to articulate a deeper sense of personal truth, using music as a vessel to communicate with his bandmates about his depleting mental health, at a time where he would call himself unwell.

Thank you to Alex for setting up the interview and to Nic and Alex for their time.