Mark Savage

Last time I interviewed St Vincent, she locked me in a pink box and forced me to listen to ambient music while we talked.  This time round was more conventional - a phone call, late at night, with her in New York and me in my attic trying not to wake the kids up.  You can read the full interview over on the BBC  - but here's a section of the chat that got cut because (a) it as a massive tangent and (b) the article was already way over the agreed word count. Hope you enjoy! 

I was lucky enough to Zoom a Zoom with Jessie Ware and Gemma Arterton last week. Why? Because they've made an incredibly moving video for Jessie's new single, Remember Where You Are.  Here's how it "went down".

I jumped on a Zoom call with Dave Grohl last week, shortly before President Biden's inauguration (at which the Foo Fighters played) for a chat about his new album, US politics and funky drumming.  Pretty much the entire conversation ended up being used, in some form or another, in my BBC News write-up. But for the completists, here's a full transcript of our chat, with all the rambling asides left in. It won't come as a surprise to learn that he comes across as a genuinely nice guy, even by the medium of video chat.

What a year it's been for music. Concerts might have been completely wiped out, but artists have responded with powerful, career-defining, albums and songs.

  Every year, I sit down with a packet of digestives and a massive Excel spreadsheet to work out the definitive  list of the best albums and songs of the last 12 months.

You can't tell unless you squint, but the above image is Keith Richards striding across the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury 2013...

Back at the start of her career, I sat down for a lengthy chat with Lana Del Rey in the coffee room of a posh London hotel.