Stephanie Phillips

In this month’s essay, Stephanie Phillips reflects on the 1998 lo-fi, art pop album Julie Ruin, in which riot grrrl veteran Kathleen Hanna reaffirms her position in feminist art, while creating the building blocks for a dance punk future

Sitting in a dimly lit, gentrified bar in a formally industrial area of Birmingham, ex Bloc Party and Young Legionnaire bassist Gordon Moakes is stressing his innocence during the period we’re now supposed to refer to as indie sleaze. “I took the sleaze out of indie if anything,” Moakes sheepishly claims as his new...

Ahead of the reissue of Horizon Unlimited this week, Steph Phillips talks to Yeye Taiwo of legendary Nigerian Afrobeat group The Lijadu Sisters about revolutionising Nigerian pop music and how she is ready to go back on stage.

You’ve probably heard JACOB COLLIER'S music even if you don’t know his name. The 29-year-old Londoner talks about his musical journey, creating a 100,000-strong choir, and playing footie with Stormzy

The BDi Music founder and managing director on the challenges facing the music publishing industry and why emerging songwriters need to be nurtured.

Takiaya Reed’s ceiling-shaking soundscapes, imbued with anti-colonialist fury, have taken this dynamic musical project from the underground to widespread critical acclaim
Ask Takiaya Reed of the Melbourne-based doom band Divide and Dissolve how she created their megalithic sound and she’ll tell you a story that aligns with her nature as a staunch believer in own her artistic path: it came to her in a dream. “It sticks with me, this sound,” says Reed. “I’m always chasing after it.”
In 2017, dr...

The 1994 documentary Reeling With PJ Harvey is not a household name outside of fan communities but to Stephanie Phillips, the Maria Mochnacz directed film remains a fitting example of an artist’s need to curate their image

As London-based hardcore act High Vis release their second album Blending, M Magazine speaks to the band about how therapy helped unlock a sweeter sound on their new album.
There are plenty of acts that neatly fit the stereotype of the brooding, forever angry at the world hardcore band. Rising stars of the London DIY hardcore scene, High Vis, want nothing more than to move away from that image. The band are veterans of a scene where the outpouring of emotion that hits you in the belly of the ...

After years as a session vocalist, the LA-based singer stunned the jazz world with her raw vocal power on her 2021 debut album. Here, she talks fate, freedom and the shock of success

This article is part of Open Secrets, a collaboration between gal-dem and VICE that explores abusive behaviour in the music industry – and how it has been left unchecked for too long. Read gal-dem’s Open Secrets articles here, and read VICE’s Open Secrets articles here.
When DJ Rebekah read about the allegations of sexual assault surrounding fellow DJs Erick Morillo and Derrick May in 2020, she saw th...

There are a few things you can count on in a British summer: two or three days of sunshine, an afternoon spent burning sausages to a crisp at a mate’s barbecue, and the cultural ubiquity of music festivals.

Life in a touring band brings with it a particular set of hazards. Brendan Yates, lead singer of the Baltimore hardcore band Turnstile, has just experienced the big one: The tour van broke down. “I had a rough morning,” he confesses over the phone, speaking from the recently repaired van as the five-piece band races toward their next show in Phoenix.
Judging by the reaction to their new album, Glow On, this won’t be the last time the band will be faced with battling the vagaries of life on to...