Queens of the Neighbourhood vol. 2 with Petal

Pennsylvania native, Kylie Lotz formed Petal a few years ago and her first EP Scout soon followed in 2013. Most recently, she released her debut album Shame on Run For Cover Records. Not only is Kylie a musician but also an actress, recently relocating from her home in Scranton to New York City. Her new album […]

Vinnie Caruana

Keeping Busy: Vinnie Caruana on balancing his projects

Seminal pop-punk band from the early 2000s, The Movielife, announced their reunion at the end of 2014, and it seemed perhaps frontman Vinnie Caruana would spend some time focused on that project. But that would be very unlike Vinnie. Between The Movielife and chant-along punk band I Am the Avalanche, he certainly has his hands […]

Queens of the Neighbourhood vol. 1 with Petrol Girls

Happy International Women’s Day! Welcome to Queens of the Neighbourhood, a brand new SYS feature. If there’s one thing that is obviously frustrating about alternative music, a scene that is meant to exude diversity and equality, it is the underrepresentation of women. It doesn’t take much to look through any alternative magazine or even looking at […]

How to be in a band during the worst gig of all time

On a good day playing a
 show anywhere across mainland Europe means you are met warmly by staff
 at the venue, fed well, given plenty of beer to drink, people show up, enjoy the show, they chat afterwards, buy merch, everyone generally
 feels validated at their choices in life. Then you are given somewhere 
decent […]

“That’s not punk because…”

In the music community, especially online, you will hear, “that’s not punk because…” People tend to take things like this, in my opinion, too seriously. Obviously it wouldn’t make sense to categorize DJ Mustard, or other similar artists as punk. But typically these arguments aren’t things based off of the important things, like music or […]

Label Spotlight: Big Scary Monsters

Big Scary Monsters is an East London based independent record label specialising in no genre in particular. It was formed soon after the millennium and in the last decade has put out music by Tall Ships, Caspian, Matt Pryor, DZ Deathrays, Gnarwolves, Pulled Apart By Horses, Kevin Devine, Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly., Woahnows, This […]