Music News

The Vaccines' Justin Young thinks Christmas songs are rubbish.
The 27-year-old frontman has slammed festive hits for being of poor quality, saying he thinks people only listen to them because they are so familiar.
He said: "I think if you listen to most old Christmas songs, they're s**t, but we grew up with them so they're ingrained in us."
The 'Teenage Icon' singer went on to say he isn't a fan of any recent seasonal tunes such as Ariana Grande's 'Santa Tell Me' or Leona Lewis' 2013 single 'One More Sleep' either because the artists are so desperate to create the perfect track.
He continued: "When people write a good new one it seems try-hard or overly earnest."
Despite being a scrooge when it comes to Christmas music, the hitmaker recalled a cherished memory from a childhood when he dressed up as Santa Claus and rode a four-legged animal on the big day as a surprise for his parents.
He added to NME magazine: "I remember one Christmas dressing up as Father Christmas and riding a pony - that was a white Christmas. I borrowed it to surprise my parents. I was, like, four. It's difficult to explain."

Jaymi Hensley thinks Christmas is a "load of rubbish".
The Union J singer isn't a fan of the festive holiday because he thinks it is "false" and hates having to make extra effort for things he would usually do every day.
He said: "I hate Christmas, it's a load of rubbish.
"You don't need a certain day for everyone to see each other, it's so false.
"It annoys me that I have to make an effort and wear something nice. Why have I got to put a shirt on?"
Asked what he'd say in a Christmas speech, he added: "Don't do Christmas next year, go on holiday instead, it will be much nicer."
The 'Carry You' singer and his bandmates George Shelley, J.J. Hamblett and Josh Cuthbert are unlikely to be cooking Christmas lunch for their families as they all have limited culinary skills.
Asked who would cook the best Christmas meal, J.J. said: "Definitely not Jaymi, he'd be awful. He's the worst cook ever."
Jaymi added to Top of the Pops magazine: "If it was George, I'd get chilli con carne, if it was JJ I'd get a grilled cheese and ham sandwich cooked in a frying pan and I'd get turkey dinosaurs with Josh."

Michael Stipe doesn't think he would last "five seconds" on 'The Voice'.
The former R.E.M. frontman doesn't think his group - who separated in 2011 after three decades together - would be successful if they were starting out now because his vocals are so unusual.
He said: "If you look at TV shows like The Voice, I wouldn't have lasted five seconds.
"I don't have perfect pitch. My voice is too odd to have been appreciated in that context. I'm not sure we would have made it to our third album."
The 'All the Way to Reno' hitmaker recently worked on the soundtrack for his friend Tom Gilroy's film 'The Cold Lands' and though he found it "terrifying" at first, he enjoyed the process so much, he wants to work on more music for movies.
He told The Sun newspaper: "It was terrifying and I loved i. I write melodies and lyrics and I'm a great arranger but I'd never written a piece of music before. I'd always relied on other great musicians.
"But this felt really good. I like a challenge so I may do it again."

Nick Jonas feels "cooler" now he is a solo artist.
The former Jonas Brothers singer has seen a change in his image since the sibling trio went their separate ways and he thinks working alone gives him the chance to "start over" and be "true" to himself.
He said: "I definitely feel cooler. I think that was a big part of approaching phase two [of my career], being true to who I am.
"This is way more organic and natural to me than anything I've done in the past. I do get to start over in a lot of ways, so I'm trying to embrace that."
Nick is happy fans have been able to hear some songs from his forthcoming self-titled album because he thinks that gives them a better picture of what the record will be like rather than having to rely on just one single.
He told Gay Times magazine: "There are tracks on the record that are darker even than 'Chains' so it's probably somewhere in the middle, in reality, and I think it's a good representation of where it was all gonig without limiting the set up of this record with one track.
"So often that happens when people only hear one song. How're you supposed to go and buy a record if you've only heard one song?
"I feel like you need to be introduced to the whole project and what you're trying to say, so 'Chains' and 'Jealous' being out there now, these other songs coming out, I think you get a good vibe for where it's all heading."

Sir Paul McCartney still uses John Lennon as a "judge" of his songwriting.
The Beatles legend admits he will scrap lyrics if he doesn't think his late bandmate - who was assassinated in 1980 - would have approved of them.
He said: "I imagine myself back into a room with John, and I'll think [about a lyric], 'Ugh, that's no good.' And I'll imagine him saying, 'No, can't do that.' So I'm using him as a sort of judge of what I'm doing."
The 72-year-old musician found himself feeling emotional at his wife Nancy's 55th birthday party in Tokyo last month because the guests were entertained by Queen and Beatles tribute bands and he was overwhelmed by the uniting power of music.
He explained to Billboard: "I had a kind of very emotional moment when we were sitting there - it could have been the alcohol.
"And I'm thinking, 'My God.' The power of British music finally came home to me. All the way across the world, in Japan, these guys were breaking down Queen songs, and the others Beatles songs. They were replicating them amazingly. They got all the orchestra parts on 'I Am the Walrus.' They may not even speak the language that well, but they speak these songs beautifully.
"I should know that we've had that effect, because it's historically true. But it doesn't always come home to you in quite the way it did that night. I was welling up and I was [thinking] 'I can't well up to a Queen tribute band.'"

Blink-182 won't record their next album in a studio.
The 'All the Small Things' hitmakers are hoping to work on their seventh record in an unconventional setting where they can spend a lot of time together and isolate themselves, similar to when they rented a San Diego house to work on their untitled 2003 LP.
Singer and guitarist Tom DeLonge said: "I'm not totally sure how it's going to work but the goal is to find an area or an environment that's different and not just a normal studio to be together as were architect the songs and inspire each other in ways that we did back in that timeframe.
"I think if we can pull off those few things we'll be in really really good shape.
"We've always done what we liked, and on the Untitled record there was a lot of debate where we thought our fans wouldn't even like it, but I think we succeeded by sticking to what we wanted to do, and it turned out to be the one that the fans like the most."
As well as working on a new record, Tom is also excited for fans to finally be able to see their behind-the-scenes documentary.
Asked if it will ever come out, he told Gigwise: "Yeah. I'm excited about getting that footage out. I just think it's just incomplete, but it's great footage and we will definitely see it come to fruition somehow."

Michael Stipe has been in therapy "for years" to combat his shyness.
The former R.E.M. frontman has always felt insecure alongside his well-read bandmates Peter Buck and Mike Mills and struggled in the early days of his career to cope with doing interviews alongside performing.
He said: "Along with Courtney Love, Peter is one of the most well-spoken and best read people I know.
"Mike comes in as second best read. Even in their early twenties, they were very, very smart. I, on the other hand, had immense, crushing shyness and immense insecurity about my education.
"I've been in therapy for years over my insecurities about lack of articulation. Early on, for me to even finish a sentence was a near impossible task.
"I had hair in front of my face. I was really, really, really shy and did not anticipate that I would actually have to talk about my work and look people in the eye."
The 54-year-old singer had a "big nervous breakdown" in the 1980s and after a torrid 18 months, was able to come out of the experience a "different person".
He said: "By the mid-Eighties, I had my big nervous breakdown which lasted 18 months. But I emerged out of that a different person and I've learned how to articulate my thoughts.
"I've learned how to sit there without sweating and shaking. I grew out of my shyness."
At the height of his crisis of confidence, the group recorded third album 'Fables of Reconstruction' and even now the 'Losing My Religion' singer finds the record hard to listen to because of the memories it evokes.
He told The Sun newspaper: "It's one of my favourites but it's hard for me to revisit because I was in a very dark mental place."

George Harrison and The Bee Gees are to be honoured with The Recording Academy's Lifetime Achievement Awards.
The late Beatles legend - who died in 2001 aged 58 - and the 'Saturday Night Fever' hitmakers, of whom Barry Gibb is the sole surviving member, join French composer Pierre Boulez, blues guitarist Buddy Guy, Tex-Mex accordionist Flaco Jiménez, country duo the Louvin Brothers, and jazz saxophonist and composer Wayne Shorter in receiving Special Merit Awards next year.
Recording Academy President/CEO Neil Portnow said: "This year we pay tribute to exceptional creators who have made prolific contributions to our culture and history.
"It is an honour and a privilege to recognise such a diverse group of talented trailblazers, whose incomparable bodies of work and timeless legacies will continue to be celebrated for generations to come."
The recipients will be honoured at a special event on February 7 2015 in Los Angeles.
The following day, the Grammy Awards - which are also organised by the Recording Academy - take place and the ceremony will also include a segment to make a formal acknowledgement of the Special Merit prizes.

Ed Sheeran wants to record his next album with a band.
The 'Thinking Out Loud' hitmaker has achieved worldwide success as a genuine solo artist, recording and performing with just an acoustic guitar and a range of effects.
Ed - who has sold over a million copies of his second album 'x' in the UK -wants to experiment with his sound on his third LP and is ready to hire backing musicians to give his songs a new sound.
The 23-year-old musician - who is playing three massive sell-out concerts at Wembley Stadium in London next July - said: "In my head I've always seen the third record as where I get a band. The first gig we did on this tour was the Barfly in London, so I've gone from the Barfly to Wembley with a loop pedal. After that there's not much you can do with a loop pedal."
Ed insists he won't just be putting together a standard rock group set-up - guitar, bass and drums - but plans on having several backing musicians just like his idol Justin Timberlake.
He told The Sun newspaper: "I watched Justin at the V Festival this year. You either don't have a band or you have a band like that, you go for it or you don't."
The singer surprised fans this month when he used a small backing group and back-up singers when he performed on 'The X Factor' final.