Festival Pass - How The Light Gets In Festival

Since the beginning of May Festival Pass has been on Amazing Radio every Saturday afternoon with The Local's Howard Monk and myself debunking the festival scene. How do you get on the bill? Who do you need to know? How do you put on a festival? We spoke to Rob Da Bank about Bestival, Jane Beese about Meltdown, Tom Baker about Field Day and more. For the final show in the series we ran a competition for bands to play at How The Light Gets In at Hay on Wye. We took Seftel and Dear Pariah to the rain soaked festival for pies, beer and a good time had by all. We reflect on what we learned from the series and chat to our winners:

Gabby Young interview and session

It’s always a joy to welcome Gabby Young to the studio, this time without all the Other Animals, but just one – Milly McGregor, who plays violin and sings, and what a duo they make!

I could listen to Gabby Young for hours, her voice is one of the best in the business and stripped down the songs are utterly beguiling. Her new album One Foot In Front Of The Other is out in June and we’re treated to three songs on the show.

However don’t miss her playing a live show if you can, in full flight she is something to behold – you’ll be bopping and smiling like a crazy person.

Broken Twin in session

We had two session tracks from Broken Twin recorded for The Other Woman on Amazing Radio recently. The singer and pianist from Denmark has been casting her spell over critics in 2014 and her show at The Great Escape was a knock out. Prepare to be amazed!

Juanita from Howling Bells interview

Juanita Stein is frontwoman, songwriter and rockin' guitarist for Australian indie darlings Howling Bells. They've made the UK their home for ten years now, with various label homes along the way including Independiente, Cooking Vinyl and Bella Union. New album Heartstrings, their fourth, comes out on Birthday Records on 2 June. We caught up with Juanita about female producers, making London her home and becoming a mother. There's also another track from the extraordinary Mishaped Pearls debut album, plus German rapper/ producer DENA, Iceland's Samaris and of course, Sharon Van Etten. Listen again here.

Latest radio shows listen again

The Other Woman is on Amazing Radio every Sunday evening at 9pm:

There’s been much excitement at Amazing Towers as rockin’ Glaswegian duo Honeyblood released a new single, Killer Bangs is just as good as what’s come before and we’re all over it. 2014 is looking like the year for these two and we’re right behind them!

We’ve got a new single from Moulettes and Fiona Bevan too, plus Little Sparrow delivers some gorgeous country tinged folk. There’s some electronic loveliness from Sweden’s Klara Lewis too, daughter of Graham Lewis of Wire fame and doing extraordinary things with her debut album.

Congratulations to The Other Woman favourites The Tuts who’ve recently released their third EP Time To Move On. We particularly love this picture of them! They’re celebrating by playing fashion label parties in London and doing a session for our mate John Kennedy over on XFM. Perfect.

There’s also music from Kathryn Williams, in which she writes about her lack of love for the daily grind in Monday Morning from her latest album Crown Electric. You’ll also hear something new from Dum Dum Girls (sounding quite Chrissie Hynde like) and we introduce Joana Serrat, a Catalan singer who sounds a little like Laura Veirs.

You can listen again to all the most recent shows here.

Win a chance to play at How The Light Gets In

Attention bands! This summer my show with Howard Monk on Amazing Radio, Festival Pass, is giving you the chance to play live at a wonderful festival on the banks of the river Wye.

Set across 11 days with 500 events How The Light Gets In is a joint philosophy and music festival where 180 speakers and some 300 acts will be performing live across 7 stages. The music line up is already looking very strong with the likes of Mr Scruff, Emmy The Great and Moulettes all set to play and YOU COULD TOO!

Listen again to the latest shows

Sharon Van Etten

The Other Woman has a new home! We’ve moved to 9pm on Sunday evenings, as the new short series Festival Pass is going to be aired on Saturdays at 5. Check it out for your chance to play on a festival bill and to win tickets.

On the last two shows on The Other Woman we’ve had a session track from London’s Sephine Llo, Marissa Nadler‘s beautiful single Was It A Dream, and something ‘banging’ from Germany’s Nina. We delved into the session archive for another track from Charlie Hinchcliff aka Dear Pariah too, as she readies her EP for release.

An old favourite of ours makes an appearance, the wonderful Brooklyn songwriter Sharon Van Etten. She's releasing her second album soon and Taking Chances, the first single, is an excellent taster. I also can’t wait to go and be a groupie at her forthcoming UK tour.

We’ve got new music from Smoke Fairies too, the endlessly prolific duo are rockin’ out on their new album. We’re dipping into some electro-pop with sisters Say Lou Lou and also Australian native George Maple, plus, we introduce you to Manchester’s Rachel Hillary.

Listen again here or join in the fun on Sunday from 9pm.